On the corner of Alicia and Bishop roads in Saginaw County was the town of Alicia. It was the largest town in the Praire Farms which at one time was the largest farm in Michigan. The Town was named after William Lewis Claus’s oldest daughter. Mr. Claus was the chairman of the board of Pittsburgh Plate Glass who owned the Prairie Farm, and the town was where most of the hired workers and their foremen lived. A generator and water plant provided electricity and water to the town that included 80 yellow framed cottages, a general store, a boarding house, dance hall, and several large barns and other buildings for machinery and wagons. A large grain elevator and mint distillery were situated on a spur track connecting the farm with the railroad six miles away. The population would grow to about 350 workers in the summer, and then about 75 in the winter. The post office opened in 1904 and closed in 1947.
When I made a trip out to where the town was, I found some modern houses and this old barn, I am not sure if it was used during the time that Prairie Farms operated, but it was the main feature in the area and I had to get a pic of it.
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