This township was organized under authority of the Legislative Council, given in an act approved March 7, 1834. The following is a copy of the act granting the prayer of the residents of Lodi, for permission to organize their municipality:Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan. That all that part comprised in surveyed township 3 south, in range 5 east. Be a township by the name of Lodi; and the first township meeting to be held at the now dwelling-house of Orrin Howe, is said township.An organized community existed there as early as 1831, as in April of that year an election was held, resulting in the choice of Orrin Howe and Smith Lapham for the office of Justice of the Peace, and Jonathan Hatch, Town Clerk. Orrin Howe was first Postmaster.

A.M. Gilbert, one of the early settlers, who came in 1826, died two years later, leaving a wife and 10 children to mourn his loss. To add misfortune to misfortune, the eldest son, Orrin, went out hunting, became lost in the thickets of the forest, and when his body was found, it was discovered that his death had resulted from cold and hunger. The poor boy had eaten the fingers of both hands in his battle for existence. Another son died in defense of the Union, and though such a death was glorious, yet to the widowed mother, it was a calamity for which earth had no solace. David Mount, another of the early settlers, deemed it proper to hang himself, and carried out his intention in 1838.