Arlington Township is centrally located in Van Buren County and is bordered by Columbia, Waverly, Lawrence and Bangor Townships. It is an area of sandy and clay soil with fruit, grain, vegetables and mint crops abounding. Some reforestation, particularly Christmas trees, has occurred. The township has a portion of the City of Bangor in its boundaries which is known as Monroe’s Addition. (Bangor, City of, is covered in Bangor Township history). Apart from that, there are no substantial towns or villages in the township. Several small lakes are present; Scott Lake is the only sizable lake, and it affords some recreational activities.The Paw Paw and Black Rivers flow through parts of the township.
Arlington Township was established in 1842. There were ten rural schools in the township in 1910. Today, all of the rural school districts have been annexed to the town school districts. The children are transported by buses. The Van Buren Association for Retarded Children was formed in 1955 by a group of Van Buren County residents. The Association’s first program was a six weeks summer school held in the Arlington Center rural school. The success of the program was expanded to a yearly program. A 40′ x 60′ building was erected in 1960 and a 40′ x 30′ addition was added in 1972. The training program was taken over by the Intermediate School District in 1965 and the operation of the Center in 1972.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 35.0 square miles (91 km2), of which, 34.5 square miles (89 km2) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2) of it (1.34%) is water.
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 2,075 people, 736 households, and 565 families residing in the township. The population density was 60.1 per square mile (23.2/km²). There were 943 housing units at an average density of 27.3 per square mile (10.6/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 89.98% White, 3.71% African American, 0.53% Native American, 4.14% from other races, and 1.64% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.23% of the population.
There were 736 households out of which 36.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.4% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.2% were non-families. 17.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.11.
In the township the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 103.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.8 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $36,847, and the median income for a family was $38,300. Males had a median income of $31,528 versus $22,303 for females. The per capita income for the township was $16,349. About 7.8% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.9% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over.
“American FactFinder”. United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.