USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume I > Part 36
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Battery H had quite a contingent from Oakland county, both of offi- cers and gunners. Marcus D. Elliott was promoted through two grades to the captaincy on January 8, 1864; William Garner became first lieuten- ant May 29, 1865, and William King, second lieutenant June 10, 1865. . This battery rendezvoused in Monroe in connection with the Fifteenth In- fantry and left that place March 13, 1862 under command of Captain Samuel DeGobyer, to report to General Halleck at St. Louis. Thence it was ordered to New Madrid, Missouri, and afterward served in Ken- tucky, west Tennessee and northern Mississippi, taking an active part in the Mississippi campaign which preceded the siege of Vicksburg, during which Captain DeGobyer received a wound from which he died August 8th following. The operations of Battery H were conducted entirely in Mississippi and Georgia, its last engagement being at Lovejoy's Station, in the latter state, September 1, 1864.
ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND U. S. COLORED TROOPS
Forty citizens of Oakland county joined the only colored regiment raised in Michigan during the war. It was known as the 102d United States Colored Troops, was raised by Colonel Henry Barus of Detroit, and organized by Lieutenant Colonel W. T. Bennett. In March, 1864, it took the field in command of Col. H. L. Chipman, then a captain in the regular army who had procured a leave of absence for that purpose. The colored troops first faced the Confederates at Baldwin, Florida, in Au- gust, 1864, and decisively repulsed the attacking force of cavalrymen. The men there proved that they were gallant and stanch fighters, and fully sustained that reputation in the Carolinas and other states in which they were engaged in their progress northward. The regiment was mus- tered out of the service with honor on the 30th of September, 1865.
MILITARY MATTERS OF LATE
Pontiac is proud of her armory, as she should be. It came after years of effort and waiting, and is largely the result of the consistent work of D. L. Kimball, Alderman Henry Pauli and Charles A. Fisher. An independent company was organized soon after the Spanish-Amer- ican war, in which Captain Kimball commanded a company (Thirty- fifth Michigan Infantry). It originally occupied quarters in the Brad- ley block on East Pike street and the third floor of the Howland build- ing on West Pike. Along in 1907 a keen agitation was started for the erection of a separate armory, the original plan being for the state to appropriate $10,000 and the city to raise $8,000. The final decision was $15,000 for the state and $6,000 for the city, and the bonds which were issued for $21,000 were sold chiefly through the exertions of Alder-
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man Pauli, in April, 1910. The armory was opened to Company E, Third Infantry (as the command was then known), December 22, 191I.
On June 23, 1905, the original company was mustered into the reg- ular service as a part of the First Battery, Michigan National Guard. In June, 1906, it was transferred from the artillery to the infantry, by action of the military board of the state, and was incorporated into the First Infantry, with William Marjison as captain, C. L. Allen as first lieutenant and H. H. Ross, second lieutenant. Late in 1906 Mr. Allen resigned, Mr. Ross was promoted to the first lieutenantcy and Fred Thorpe to the second lieutenantcy. In December, 1906, Captain Marji- son resigned and on the 13th of the month, David L. Kimball received his commission as captain of Company E, Third Infantry. He is one of the best disciplinarians in the state and one of the most popular cit- izens of Pontiac. In 1909 .First Lieutenant Ross resigned and Second Lieutenant Thorpe was promoted to the vacancy. Max Hodgdon was made second lieutenant. Company E has forty members in good standing.
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CHAPTER XX
VILLAGE OF PONTIAC
COLONEL MACK'S COMPANY-FIRST PONTIAC SETTLERS-WORKS OF MACK, CONANT AND SIBLEY-COLONEL'S MACK, FATHER AND SON- SETTLERS OF 1822-1836-COUNTY SEAT AND COURTHOUSE-TOWN- SHIP ORGANIZATION-THE VILLAGE OF AUBURN (AMY)-PONTIAC VILLAGE INCORPORATED-EARLY TRUSTEE MEETINGS-REAL ESTATE ITEM-THE MILL POND NUISANCE-THE FIRE OF 1840-EARLY BRIDGES-COMMON COUNCIL, THE GOVERNING BODY-THE VILLAGE FIRE DEPARTMENT-GAS WORKS INAUGURATED-HEADS OF THE VILLAGE GOVERNMENT.
The village of Pontiac was not incorporated by regular legislative act until March 20, 1837, but it had an existence as a growing settle- ment from the time of the formation of the Pontiac Company, by Stephen Mack, of Detroit, on November 5, 1818. Colonel Mack, who obtained his title as the head of one of the Vermont regiments to which he rose before coming from his native state to Detroit, was a prosperous hotel keeper and merchant before he became a citizen of the Michigan metrop- olis, in 1810. In that year he located in Detroit with Thomas Emerson, one of his business acquaintances of Vermont, and they were engaged in trade at that point when Hull surrendered to the British. That event deranged their plans, but after the war was over Colonel Mack again engaged in trade at Detroit under the firm name of Mack & Conant. The partnership continued until the Pontiac Company was formed and the Colonel proceeded, as its agent, to lead a small colony to the site selected for the new town.
COLONEL MACK'S COMPANY
The company, which was formed, as stated, on the 5th of November, 1818, at the city of Detroit, comprised William Woodbridge, Stephen Mack, Solomon Sibley, John L. Whiting, Austin E. Wing, David C. Mckinstry, Benjamin Stead, Henry I. Hunt, Abraham Edwards, Archi- bald Darragh, Alexander Macomb (General Macomb, of the U. S. army) and Andrew G. Whitney, of that place, and William Thompson, Daniel LeRoy and James Fulton, of the county of Macomb (of which Oakland county was then a part). As shown by the records of the land office, the Pontiac Company, by its agent, Stephen Mack, purchased
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on the day following its formation, the eighteen hundred acres compris- ing section 29, the northeast quarter of section 32, and the northeast, northwest and southwest quarters of section 28, township 3 north, range IO east. Between that date and the 19th of February, 1819, the original town plat of Pontiac was laid out on the southeast quarter of section 29, by Maj. John Anderson. According to Capt. Hervey Parke's rec- ollections, all the corners were marked with posts made of four-inch scantling sawed at the mill completed in the spring of 1819 by Mack, Conant & Sibley.
FIRST PONTIAC SETTLERS
The first settlers on the spot now occupied by the city of Pontiac were undoubtedly Col. Stephen Mack, Maj. Joseph Todd, William Les- ter and Orisen Allen, who, with a body of workmen, located on the southeast quarter of section 29, in November or December, 1818. In 1819 Calvin Hotchkiss and Jeremiah Allen entered lands in the vicinity ; that year also witnessed the coming of Harvey Williams and Elisha Gardner, the first blacksmiths of the place who worked in the old shop built by Colonel Mack. Among those who came in 1820 and 1821 were Charles Howard, Oliver Parker, Capt. Hervey Parke, Judah Church, Abner Davis, Eastman Colby, Alexander Galloway, Rufus Clark, Enoch Hotchkiss, James Harrington, G. W. Butson, John Edson, Joshua S. Terry, Joseph Harris, Stephen Reeves and Capt. Joseph Bancroft.
WORKS OF MACK, CONANT & SIBLEY
The firm of Mack, Conant & Sibley (Judge Solomon Sibley was a silent partner) made the first improvements in Pontiac. They obtained from the Pontiac Company the title to the water power, in considera- tion for which they agreed to pay a bonus of $1,000 toward the erection of county buildings, in case the county seat should be located at Pontiac. The company itself also donated certain lots as an inducement for such location, and reserved various sites for schools, churches and a cemetery.
This firm built a dam on Clinton river below Pike street and spent the winter and spring of 1818-19 in the erection of their sawmill; but the first house which rose on the present site of Pontiac was a small log cabin built for the workmen who were engaged on these enterprises. It stood where the Commercial Hotel was afterward built, and in March, 1819, after the sawmill was completed, it was occupied by Maj. Joseph Todd and family, William Lester and Orisen Allen. After this cabin, the next building completed was the blacksmith shop which stood near the mill. In 1819-20, the flour mill was finished-the first in the county. It contained one or two burr stones, and one run of common stone made from native boulders; but its completion was a great event, and quite a number of the Pontiac Company from Detroit, as well as others, celebrated the opening of the mill for business. Among those who attended were William Woodbridge, Solomon Sibley, John L. Whiting, Austin E. Wing, David C. Mckinstry, Henry I. Hunt, Andrew C. Whit- ney, William Thompson, Judge Whipple, Daniel LeRoy and Colonel
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Mack; and, as was the custom of the times, they freely circulated the flowing bowl.
COLONELS MACK, FATHER AND SON
In 1820 Mr. Conant retired from the firm of Mack, Conant & Sibley, and the two remaining partners continued the business until the Colonel's death in 1826. About 1823 Colonel Mack built a distillery, which was run in connection with the flour mill and in 1824 also erected and operated a small woolen mill. The latter contained one set of machinery, for carding, spinning and weaving, and in its day did quite a business.
In the meantime Almon Mack, the son of the Colonel, had come to Pontiac (1822), had taken charge of the mill business and become his father's active manager. A daughter of the Colonel also came on to keep house for her father. These, with an adopted daughter, occupied what was known as the company's building, which was used both as a dwelling and an office. Miss Lovina Mack, the daughter mentioned, died September 2, 1823, and this is believed to have been the first death of an adult white woman in Oakland county. The father died in Novem- ber, 1826, and was buried near his daughter on land which he owned on the east side of the river south of Pike street. The bodies were after- ward disinterred and buried in Oak Hill cemetery.
Colonel Mack raised a family of twelve children. Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was a cousin of the Macks, and visited Oakland county several times previous to his removal to Illinois. Almira, one of the Colonel's nine daughters, joined the Mormons at an early day and fol- lowed their fortunes to Utah. About 1846 Mrs. Colonel Mack joined this daughter at Salt Lake and remained with her until her death ten years later.
Almon Mack, the third son of the Colonel, became quite prominent in business and military matters. In his earlier years he had received a military training at the Vermont Military College, Norwich, and even- tually became a colonel in the Michigan state militia; so that both father and son were legitimate "colonels."
SETTLERS OF 1822-1836
The same year of Almon Mack's arrival also saw the coming of S. L. Millis, Joseph Morris, Asa Murray and Capt. Joseph Bancroft.
Among others who became settlers of Pontiac and vicinity prior to 1837, the year of its incorporation, may be mentioned the following :
1823-John Southard, Ira Goodrich, Chester Webster and Joseph Harris.
1824-E. B. Comstock, Francis J. Smith, Merritt Ferry, Henry W. Thomas, Deacon Jacob N. Voorheis, John Powell and Hon. Thomas J. Drake.
1825-D. C. Buckland, S. T. Murray and H. W. McDonald.
1826-Laban Smith and Ira Stowell, Sr.
1827-Origen D. Richardson.
1828-Luke Phillips.
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1830-W. C. Palmer, Nelson Reynolds, Joseph R. Bowman, Joseph Hunt and Eli Welch.
1831-Hugh Kelly, James Henry, George Hopkinson, G. W. Gray and Levi Dewey.
1832-Alonzo Barbour and James Loop.
1833-George Reeves, Charles Torrey and Harrison Voorheis.
1834-David Cummings, E. E. Sherwood and Joseph Voorheis.
1835-W. B. Frederick, D. C. Dean and Ithamar Smith.
1836-Deacon A. P. Frost, W. H. McConnell, H. C. Linabury and John Springer.
COUNTY SEAT AND COURT HOUSE
The proclamation of Governor Cass, issued January 12, 1819, an- nouncing the bounds of Oakland county, also provided for the appoint- ment of John L. Leib, Charles Larned, Philip LaCuer, John Whipple and Thomas Rowland, as commissioners to report upon the most eligible site for the seat of justice. The town platted by the Pontiac Company was duly selected as the county seat, March 28, 1820, and about 1824 the log building which was to combine the qualifications of court house and jail was begun. The distinction between the two lay in the quality of raw material used in their construction; the upper part, or framed portion, was the court room, and the first story, built solidly of logs, was the jail. Major Oliver Williams, of Waterford, had the contract for getting out the timber, and the plank of which the cells were made and which were six inches thick was sawed at Mack's mill. The saw which did the work was run by Colonel Mack's son, Almon. This first county building stood near the present court house. The court room was not finished until 1830. In February, 1835, the structure was condemned by the grand jury, and the agitation for a convenient court house, or at least for one fairly adequate to the needs of the county, resulted, after more than twenty-one years, in the erection of the 1856-7 structure.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION
It was during the year 1827 that the original township of Oakland was divided into five townships, of which Pontiac was one. When first formed it included all of congressional townships Nos. 3, 4 and 5 north, ranges 7, 8 and 9, and township 3, range 10 east, and also had attached to it for township purposes a portion of the present county at Lapeer, and all of the counties of Shiawassee and Saginaw. On the 29th of May, 1828, the present township of Orion was detached from Oakland town- ship and attached to Pontiac. Subsequently, the counties of Lapeer, Shia- wassee and Saginaw were organized, and the following townships were formed from the original township of Pontiac, in the years named : Waterford, 1834; Orion, Highland and Groveland, 1835; Springfield, Independence and White Lake, 1836; Brandon and Rose, 1837; Holly, 1838.
The first meeting for the township of Pontiac was held at the old court house on Monday, May 28, 1827; present-Sidney Dole, Charles C. Hascall, Gideon O. Whittemore, Henry O. Bronson and David Stan-
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nard, justices of the peace. The meeting was organized by the choice of Joseph Morrison, Jr., as moderator. The town was divided into eleven road districts. At this meeting the polls were also declared open for the election of supervisor. Jacob N. Voorheis, Elisha Beach and Oliver Williams presented their names for the office, and Mr. Voorheis, receiving 74 out of the II0 votes cast, was declared elected. Thus the township machinery was put in operation at Pontiac.
THE VILLAGE OF AUBURN (AMY)
The only settlement in Pontiac township outside of the county seat was the village of Auburn (now Amy), in the extreme southeast corner. Its first settler was a man by the name of Elijah Thornton, a Canadian, who settled on the south side of Clinton river in the early part of 1821. He located as a "squatter" a little above the present station of Amy, on the Grand Trunk line. Aaron Webster, of Cayuga county, New York, was the first property owner and permanent settler of Auburn, coming from Troy township. Webster went .to the nearest sawmill, that at Pontiac, for the purpose of getting lumber with which to build his cabin, but when he interviewed Colonel Mack he decided that the price asked (ten dollars per thousand) was too high, and concluded that he himself would build a sawmill and cut his own lumber. He had noticed the water power at the expansion of the river just northwest of where Auburn afterward was platted. Squatter Thornton had planted himself on a portion of the land which he required and Mr. Webster offered him one hundred dollars for his claim; this was promptly accepted and Thornton departed for a point near Romeo, Macomb county. Webster then disposed of his property in Troy township and, with the proceeds, entered 320 acres of government land, including the tract upon which Thornton had squatted and that controlling the water power. He at once built a dam and a mill race, erected a sawmill, and was preparing to build a gristmill, when he was taken down with typhoid fever and died in August, 1823.
After Webster's death, the entire property was purchased by Eben- ezer Smith, and his son, with others, erected the gristmill which had been projected by the deceased. Elizur Goodrich, an old friend of Web- ster's who had bought some of his Troy township property, afterward located at Auburn, purchased the sawmill and operated it for a time.
The village of Auburn was laid out in September, 1826, its pro- prietors being Ebenezer Smith, I. L. Smith, Elizur Goodrich, Aaron Smith and Sylvester Smith, the Smiths having become interested in the sawmill. Ebenezer Smith died soon after the village was laid out by Captain Hervey Parke. The gristmill then became the property of Aaron Smith, son of the deceased. Two additions were made to the village of Auburn in 1836, by which time it had become quite a place, with card- ing and cloth dressing works, a trip hammer shop, tannery, and a flour- ishing academy. A good flouring and custom mill was erected at a later day; but the earlier promise of the village has not been realized by the events of subsequent years.
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PONTIAC VILLAGE INCORPORATED
The village of Pontiac was incorporated by legislative act approved by the governor March 20, 1837. Its original limits were one and a half miles square, including all of section 29, the north half of section 32, the west half of section 28 and the northwest quarter of section 33, comprising an area of 1,400 acres. The first regular election for vil- lage officers was held at the court house on the first day of May, 1837, and the result is told on the first page of the first book of village and city records, still in a good state of preservation in the possession of the city clerk of Pontiac. The words are as follows: "At a meeting of the qualified electors of the village of Pontiac held at the courthouse in said village on the first day of May, A. D., 1837, pursuant to public notice, to elect seven trustees of said village, Origen D. Richardson and Amasa Bagley were elected (viva voce) judges of said election.
"Origen D. Richardson was sworn by J. P. LeRoy, Esq., and Amasa Bagley and James A. Weeks were sworn by O. D. Richardson, in con- formity to law. After the ballotting and canvassing were finished, it appeared that Schuyler Hodges received 105 votes; Randolph Manning 103 votes ; George W. Williams, 103; Gideon O. Whittemore, 106; Ori- sen Allen, 103; Benjamin Davis, 100; Daniel LeRoy, 105; David Pad- dock, 57; William Draper, 54; Seth Beach, 156; Alonzo Barber, 54; John P. LeRoy, 58; Elkanah B. Comstock, 57; Abel H. Peck, 57; and scattering, 4.
"Origen D. Richardson then declared to the meeing that Schuyler Hodges, Randolph Manning, George W. Williams, Gideon O. Whitte- more, Orisen Allen, Benjamin Davis and Daniel LeRoy were elected trustees for the village of Pontiac for the current year.
"The meeting was then adjourned.
"We hereby certify that the foregoing is a true account of the pro- ceedings of the meeting for the purposes aforesaid.
"O. D. RICHARDSON "AMASA . BAGLEY, Judges of Election. "JAMES A. WEEKS. Clerk.
"I hereby certify that I have this day notified the within Schuyler Hodges, Randolph Manning, George W. Williams, Gideon O. Whitte- more, Orisen Allen, Benjamin Davis and Daniel LeRoy that they were elected trustees for the village of Pontiac for the current year.
"JAMES A. WEEKS, Clerk of within named election.
"Recorded May 8th, A. D., 1837. JAMES A. WEEKS, Clerk."
Thus with due formality and solemnity, was the nucleus of Pon- tiac village created. On the 8th of May six of the trustees elected met at the courthouse-Messrs. Hodges, Manning, Whittemore, LeRoy, Wil- liams and Davis-were sworn into office and elected Daniel LeRoy presi- dent. James A. Weeks was chosen clerk.
EARLY TRUSTEE MEETINGS
At a meeting held a week thereafter the by-laws creating the village offices and defining their duties, drafted by Messrs. Manning, Whitte- Vol. I-19
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more and Davis, were adopted. It was further resolved that all by- laws be published in the Democratic Balance and Pontiac Advertiser for three successive weeks; Francis Darrow was elected treasurer ; Theron W. Barber, marshal; and Origen D. Richardson, Olmsted Cham- berlin and Asahel Fuller, assessors; and the president of the board ap- pointed standing committees, consisting of two members each, on the following: Streets and highways, accounts, taxation, nuisances, and stoves,, chimneys and fires.
Trustee Allen did not appear to be sworn into office until May 27th, when, at the meeting held in Mr. Bagley's house, President LeRoy re- signed and Gideon O. Whittemore was elected head of the village board. As one means of guaranteeing a quorum, the trustees present at the courthouse meeting of June 5th resolved to fine each member one dol- lar "who shall not attend any regular meeting without a reasonable excuse." July 17th was a red-letter day, in that the village board passed an ordinance "relative to fire buckets and to guard against fire."
The receipts and expenditures for the first current year of the cor- poration were as follows: Receipts, $863.77 ; expenditures, $697.47; bal- ance in treasury, $166.30.
The trustees elected May 7, 1838, were Charles W. Harbach, Willard M. McConnell, M. LaMont Bagg, Seth Beach, Elkanah B. Comstock, Abel H. Peck and Suel Wesson. The highest number of votes (139) was received by Mr. McConnell. In the following week Mr. Wesson was elected president and Mr. Weeks, clerk; G. O. Whittemore, treas- urer; Julius Dean, marshal; Samuel Sherwood, Horatio N. Howard and James A. Weeks, assessors. At the meeting of May 22d, Mr. Weeks reported that "a suitable fire engine for this village will cost from $500 to $750; that the rivet hose will cost 85 cents per foot, the 'sewed' hose $I per foot, and that the terms on which they are purchased by the city of Detroit are one-half down, the balance in six months."
At the meeting of the trustees held May 7, 1839, the report of the treasurer indicated a balance on hand as follows: Non-resident tax un- paid, $10.89 ; two certificates of canal bills, $39; cash; ( Pontiac and Oak- land county ) $5; and current funds $3.66. Total balance in village treas- ury, $58.55. It cost $1,091.20 to "run the village" in 1838; leaving the board in debt for 1838, $36.56. But on May 7, 1839, taking everything into consideration, the village clerk figured a "balance in favor of corpora- tion" of $119.95.
REAL ESTATE ITEM
An interesting real estate item taken from the record of the board meeting of May 28, 1839, is that the trustees agreed upon the following prices at which village lots should be offered for sale: Nos. 1, 2 and 3, $175, each ; Nos. 4 and 5, $125 each; No. 6, $140; No. 7, $145; Nos. 8 and 9, $175 each ; No. 10, $150; No. 12, $135. But it appears from the July report that there were no bidders even at those prices.
In the fall of 1839 the Public Nuisance committee commenced to stir up the community, the board of trustees declaring among other things that Asher Buckland's "nine or ten pin alley" and "the tolling of the bell in cases of death and at funerals" were placed in the list of public
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nuisances-the latter, "inasmuch as it disturbs the public peace and is considered by the physicians as injurious to those who may be sick," also the dam and millpond across the Clinton river and the residence of Sewell Wisson.
THE MILL POND NUISANCE
The two mill ponds long remained public nuisances and objects of contention, legal and otherwise, between the village and the city and owners of abutting properties. As late as 1840 the channel of Clinton river was badly obstructed with brush and dead timber, and in Septem- ber of that year we find the council ordering the same removed, from "H. N. Howard's dam to the Yellow mill," the job to be let to the low- est bidder. The work seems, however, to have hung fire, for in June, 1841, petitions were circulated and presented to the council praying that Clinton river and Pontiac creek might be cleared of rubbish, and the marshal was instructed to remove carcasses from the river at fifty cents each. A' low water mark was established on the mill dams below which the mill owners were not permitted to draw water under penalty.
It is impossible and would answer no good purpose to go into details concerning the litigation extending over a period of some sixty years by which the Corporation, or the People, endeavored to abate an evil which often threatened the public health. A compromise was finally effected by which the city agreed to erect banks around the offending mill pond and narrow the channel of the river. This work was not fully completed until about 1902, but now the old-time pond, with its free- flowing outlet, the Clinton river, is a thing both of beauty and sanitation.
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