Montrose Charter Township is located in the northwest corner of Genesee County, bisected nearly down the middle by the Flint River.

This name was derived from the Pewonigowink Indian Reservation, of the Saginaw Chippewa, that extended into the northwest part of the Township.

On January 15, 1848, the name was officially changed to Montrose Township, by an act of the Michigan Legislature.

[1] The first white settlers in the township were the family members of Seymour Washington Ensign, a miller by trade, from Stafford, Genesee County, New York.

During that year he and his family resided upon the Brent farm, in Flushing, while erecting a small frame house on their 40-acre purchase.

Today, the approximate location of the Ensign homestead is the northeast corner of McKinley and Wilson roads.

The Ensign family was followed later that same year by settlers George Wilcox, from Canada and Richard Travis, from Oxford, Oakland County, MI.

The assessment roll of shows that the only tax-paying residents in this township in 1844 were Ensign, Wilcox and Travis.