Throughout the mid and late 19th Century, most of the land in the township was used agriculturally with many of the square-mile sections divided up into parcels of 40 to 160 acres. In 1880, over 95% of the householders residing there were occupied as farmers or farm laborers. Merchants and manufacturers could be found in the unincorporated settlements of Whiteford Center and Ottawa Lake, the latter being home to a large stave mill in which residents were employed during the 1870s and 1880s.