Ann civil township is the extreme northwestern township in Cottonwood county; it is six miles square, comprising congressional township 108, range 38 west. It is bounded on the north by Redwood county, on the east by Highwater township, this county, on the south by Westbrook township and on the west by Murray county.

By the unrelenting toil of the settlers who first made settlement here, groves of elm, maple, cottonwood and other varieties of forest and shade trees were early planted out, and now they wave in all their growing beauty, affording a beautiful cooling shade in mid-summer and in winter are appreciated by both man and beast for the wind-break they afford. These groves, here an there over the township, give it a look resembling a forest land, when in fact not a native tree was found growing by the first comers, but all have been planted as seed, seedlings or cuttings shipped in from abroad. Many of these trees now measure sixteen inches in diameter and tower up thirty and forty feet.

This township, as well as most all of the northern tier of townships, is settled largely by foreigners, who have made a fine agricultural section out of what in the seventies was but a prairie wilderness. The various census enumerations for this township show the following: In 1895 it had a population of 402; in 1900 there was 500 and according to the United States census returns in 1910, there was a population of 433.

Ann township was organized by the board of county commissioners at one of their regular meetings during the year 1876, as it does not appear of record in January, 1876, but does appear in the list of townships January 1, 1877.