USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume I > Part 46
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the story of the settlement of Bloomfield, as far as one family is con- cerned.
The incidents are commonplace enough, and owe whatever interest we may attach to them to the fact that they are part and parcel of the past of Oakland county.
"Elijah S. Fish was born at Athol, Massachusetts, February 22, 1791. Before his remembrance, his parents moved to western New York, and his father built the first home where the city of Rochester now stands. Left motherless when seven years old, he was taken to Vermont and brought up in the family of Gen. Samuel Fletcher, whose wife was his aunt. When of age, or soon after, he returned to the west again, and in 1815 married Fannie Spencer. Their first home was at Black Rock. Here they saw Lake Erie's first steamboat built and launched.
"The thought of going to Michigan may have been suggested by the weekly trips of the 'Walk-in-the-Water' to Detroit; at any rate, the project of going somewhere into a new country began to be discussed in the family as a possibility lying in the future, and ere long my mother said if we go at all, let us go soon. So October of 1819, just four years after their marriage, found them ready for the enterprise. They had expected to take the steamer but were delayed the last hour by the arrival of a near friend; not liking to wait a week, they embarked the next day on a schooner. They might as well have waited, for they were two weeks on Lake Erie, and reached Detroit only an hour or so be- fore the steamer arrived on her second trip.
"As soon as practical my father, leaving his family in Detroit, set out on foot for a prospecting tour. The oak openings, of which he had heard, was his objective point. Reaching Royal Oak, he wondered if that could be the place and felt quite inclined to go back and try his fortunes in Ohio, but still he kept on, and near sundown came upon the rise of ground where Birmingham now stands, and knew at once he had found the object of his search, and felt amply repaid for his lonely tramp of eighteen miles. The whole country had been kept free from underbrush by the fires of the Indians, and the level rays of the set- ting sun lit up the scene, making a picture of wondrous beauty, which never faded from his memory. A day or two of looking about con- firmed his first impressions. During this time he probably made the acquaintance of the three families then living at Birmingham, Messrs. Hunter, Hamilton and Willets, and of Doctor Swan, who lived on the plains already mentioned.
"Returning to Detroit, he soon moved his family into a house stand- ing now where Mr. James McBride now lives and still known as the Dide Hubbard farm. They did not get a very early start when they left Detroit, and were obliged to camp out one night; some Indians came to the camp and begged for whiskey. The man who brought them out had a keg of the stuff, but he prudently used it as a seat, and would neither give nor sell them any.
"This home into which they moved seemed to have afforded a tem- porary shelter for a good many of the settlers. While there, Judge
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Bagley and family, and William Morris stayed over night with them, on their way to their new home.
"The next thing to do was to decide where to locate a home. Section 23, town 2 north, range 10 east, soon took his fancy, and wishing his wife to see it, he borrowed an old horse-at least I presume it was old. It certainly should have been trustworthy, for he mounted his entire family on its back. To tell the story in his own words: 'I put your mother in the saddle, and one child behind her and the other in front, then I took hold of the bridle and we started.' At this point my mother invariably interrupted him with 'Why no, pa, you didn't lead the horse. I knew enough to hold the reins.' But whichever was right, the small cavalcade of three horsemen and one horse made the short journey safely, and after looking around as long as they cared to, sat down by a spring of clear, pure water, which was one of the attractions of the place, and as they ate their lunch in the hazy sunshine of that Indian summer day, and looked out on the peaceful landscape, they said to one another, 'This is good enough; here we will make our home.'
"As soon as possible the land was entered at the land office, and early in January, 1820, a small house was ready for its inmates. It was not a pretentious affair ; my father used to say he measured the few articles of furniture they possessed, and built his house to fit them. I do not know its dimensions, but will venture to say it afforded them a comfortable shelter. What if the walls were composed of unhewn logs, and the floor of the same, split and hewn as smoothly as might be, the roof of stakes, and the window sash whittled out with a jack-knife. A few shelves were fashioned with a hand-saw, axe, adze, and were in existence since my remembrance, not very bad shelves either. The great stone fireplace may not have been beautiful in itself, but then it left half its ugliness outside, and when filled with a cheerful blaze that shone out upon a spotless floor, and lit up the farthest corners of the little room, it must have been a pleasant sight. I can imagine an econ- omy that at times made its light suffice for a quiet converse or plain knitting.
"A muslin curtain, dainty white, I imagine, shaded the one little window. The bed, even but partially hidden by valence and curtain, was made a thing of beauty. Early every morning the straw was thor- oughly stirred and made to assume a uniform height, and the feather bed and pillows were thumped and stirred and shaken, till each in- dividual feather made an effort to stand up as light and airy as might be; then coaxed, and smoothed and patted with many a backward step to view the effect. At the last the shapely feather bank was ready for sheets and blankets and comforter, and over all was carefully spread the pretty blue and white counterpane, with a border of knitted fringe, and it was not an ill thing to get a glimpse of between the parted cur- tains. But one thing I must not forget to mention. The door of this house was a red board, brought from Detroit. True, it was hung with wooden hinges, and opened with a wooden latch which was raised by means of a buckskin string, but the door itself was not wholly of home manufacture.
"Soon after the family moved in, it was found the shake roof was
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not steep enough to shed rain well, and must be changed; as this could not be done in one day, my mother went to Judge Bagley's where Mrs. Rowland Trowbridge now lives, to spend the night. She returned to her home at the expiration of three weeks, bearing in her arms Bloom- field's first white daughter. This year of 1820 my mother always spoke of as the very happiest of many happy years. So many times have I heard that time described that I can see it all now, almost as if I had been there.
"In the spring the sweet brier seed which she brought with her came up and its delicate green, giving promise of fragrance and beauty in the future, was watched with living interest, for it was a bit of the old home transplanted here. Every stroke of the axe, every crashing, falling tree, was cheering prophecy of corn and wheat crops. The two little boys played about the door, the fair babe smiled and crooned in its cradle, and the mother, with heart full to overflowing with hope and happiness, went about her household cares. There were hard places no doubt, days of discouragement, and nights of weariness. What life anywhere is free from them? Felling trees all day and tending log heaps far into the night could not have been easy work. One day's work of man and team must be paid for with four days of hard labor, and yet these days were always referred to by both of my parents as very happy ones, and the impression left on my mind by the story so often told, was not of a time of great hardship, but of keen enjoyment, and I believe, when at the close of day they bowed their heads at their humble hearth stone, and my father returned unfeigned thanks for the goodness and mercy that had followed them thus far, they both truly felt that their lives had fallen unto them in pleasant places; yea, that theirs was a goodly heritage.
"My father, with characteristic forethought, brought with him a year's supply of provisions, so there was no fear of actual hunger, though probably their fare was of the plainest, relieved a little per- haps by maple sugar and syrup in the spring and wild berries in the summer. The canister of tea costing $1.75 or $2 per pound was never taken down except in cases of company or sickness, save Sunday morn- ings, though I doubt it was ever empty.
"That little happy family are all gone. The dear daughter stayed with them eight bright summers, and when she went every heart in that little community seemed to throb with sympathy with them. My mother never forgot this expression, and used to say 'We never know how good people are until we are in trouble.'
"In course of time an addition was built to the first home, fields were cleared, orchards set, and somewhere between 1830-55, the maple grove planted, and in 1836 the brick house built, the ruins of which are still inhabited. And during all these years they found time for social inter- course, for Christian labor in church and Sunday-school. Feeling keenly his own lack of education, my father was deeply interested that his children should not labor under the same disadvantage, though I think no one can really be called uneducated who reads as understandingly and thinks as clearly as he did. It is scarcely necessary to speak of his record as a temperance or anti-slavery worker. He never cast but one
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vote for a successful presidential candidate; that was Abraham Lin- coln, and he died February 22, 1861, just a few days before the inau- guration.
"Of those personal traits which endeared him to those who knew him best, perhaps I am not the one to speak; I suppose he had his faults, though they are hidden from my sight by a mountain of love. I will mention just one thing. Mrs. Captain Duncan, a Scotch lady, once said to me 'Your father is the most perfect gentleman I have met in America.' It was not outward polish to which she referred, but to that innate unselfishness, combined with common sense, which makes any man, as my father truly was, a gentleman.
"As I have been preparing this paper, many little incidents of the past have been brought to mind. Of Mrs. Trowbridge, surrounded by her little flock, and, as her busy needle flew in and out, repeating poems learned in happy girlhood and affording pleasure in her still happier wife and motherhood.
"Of Mrs. Goodsell, Lydia Smith then, and not more than ten or twelve years old, riding through the storm. She had come with her parents to visit some relatives near Pontiac who were sick, and finding the case more serious than they expected, they concluded to stay all night; but at home the sheep were out exposed to wolves-besides, a storm was coming up. So Lydia mounted on a horse. 'Now,' said her aunt, 'as soon as you get into the woods, put your foot over like a boy, and ride as fast as you can.' I think it was a brave thing for a girl to do, and no danger but every sheep in the flock was safely housed before she rested.
"The Methodist hymns, too, borne on the midnight air, at the sound of which people turned in the comfortable beds, and said to themselves, 'Oh, that is Doctor Parke. I wonder who is sick'; for the good doctor went at all times of day or night, as cheerfully where he knew he should get no pay, as to his richest patients.
"Ah, it was true, good stuff of which these early settlers were made; . none better anywhere.
"Of the immediate neighbors, some, as the families at Birmingham, Doctor Swan and his son-in-law, Esquire Dole, Mr. Baldwin, and proba- bly some others, were here before my father came; others came a few years later. Those nearest were Doctor Parke, Mr. Blackington, Mr. Rice, Judge Bagley, a man of keen, shrewd sense, who humorously ac- counted for his title by the fact that 'judge timber' was scarce in those times. Mrs. Bagley is still held in loving remembrance by numerous descendants. Mr. William Morris, full of energy, did a thriving busi- ness in his gristmill, store, ashery and distillery. George Mor- ris lived at Bloomfield Center; Mr. John Diamond, his father-in-law, a little west of there; as did also the Vaughn family. Moses Peck must have been here before 1825, I think. He found a wife in Judge Bag- ley's family, as also did Silas Harris.
"Several of the neighboring families, after sojourning here some years, went west and made themselves pleasant homes in Shiawassee county and other places.
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* "Mrs. Rice died in California, within the past year or two, and Mrs. Comfort, at the age of ninety, has also recently died."
VILLAGE OF BIRMINGHAM
The original plat of Birmingham was surveyed and dated August 25, 1836, being located on the northwest quarter of section 36, Roswell T. Merrill, proprietor. Four additions were made to it prior to its incorporation as a village, by the board of supervisors in January, 1864. That body resolved that a certain tract of country situated in the town- ship of Bloomfield "be, and the same hereby is constituted a village corporate, under the name of the village of Birmingham," the bound- aries of the said village corporate being described as follows: "Com- mencing at the quarter-stake in the east section-line of section 25, town 2, north of range 10 east; running south along the section-line to the quarter-line of section 36; thence west along said quarter-line to the west side of said section 25; thence east along said quarter-line to the place of beginning,"-thus including the north half of section 36 and the south half of section 25 in the corporate limits.
It was ordered that the first village election be held at the house of James Grinley in said village, on the first Tuesday of March, 1864, for the purpose of electing village officers, and John Bodine, James Hunt and John Fitzpatrick were chosen inspectors for the said election.
The election was held on Tuesday, March 1, 1864, and resulted in the election of the following board of trustees: J. C. K. Crooks, George L. Lee, Robert J. Mitchell, S. N. Hill, Hugh Irving, John Bodine and C. W. Jenks. J. C. K. Crooks was elected president of the board, and S. N. Hill village clerk.
At a meeting of the trustees, held May 9, 1864, Alanson Partridge was appointed marshal of the village and John Bodine, treasurer.
A loan of three hundred dollars was obtained in April and another of like amount in May, for making the village improvements usual in similar cases, and these were duly made during the succeeding summer.
In. 1864 and 1865 the subject of the establishment of a village fire department was brought up, but was not really organized until 1890.
REINCORPORATED
On April 16, 1885, a bill passed the state legislature to reincorporate the village of Birmingham. The first election under the new charter was held March 8, 1886. Officers elected and appointed were as fol- lows: President of board of trustees, Frank Hagerman; clerk, George H. Mitchell; treasurer, Frank Blakeslee; assessor, Luther Stanley ; street commissioner, George Blakeslee; marshal, Samuel C. Mills.
VILLAGE PRESIDENTS AND CLERKS
Including 1877 the village presidents and clerks have been as follows : 1877-Frank Hagerman, president; George E. Daines, clerk. 1878-Frank Hagerman, president; John F. Alger, clerk.
* Written in 1888.
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WOODWARD AVENUE, BIRMINGHAM
HIGH SCHOOL, BIRMINGHAM
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1879-Frank Hagerman, president; George E. Daines, clerk.
1880-Frank Ford, president; George E. Daines, clerk.
1881-Frank Ford, president; George E. Daines, clerk.
1882-Luther Stanley, president; Almeron Whitehead, clerk. 1883-Ira Slade, president; James R. Carson, clerk.
1884-Ira Slade, president; George E. Daines, clerk.
1885-Ira Slade, president, George E. Daines, clerk. 1886-Ira Slade, president; George E. Daines, clerk. 1887-Luther Stanley, president; George H. Mitchell, clerk.
1888-Luther Stanley, president; George H. Mitchell, clerk.
1889-Ira Slade, president; Edward R. Smith, clerk.
1890-Ira Slade, president; Eugene Brooks, clerk.
1891-Lyman B. Peabody, president; George H. Mitchell, clerk. 1892-John Bodine, president; Albert W. Campbell, clerk.
1893-Lyman B. Peabody, president; Albert W. Campbell, clerk. 1894-Lyman B. Peabody, president; Frank W. Blair,* clerk.
1895-Almeron Whitehead, president; Frank W. Blair, clerk. 1896-Almeron Whitehead, president; Edward R. Smith, clerk. 1897-Almeron Whitehead, president; Albert W. Campbell, clerk. 1898-Frank Hagerman, president; Albert W. Campbell, clerk. 1899-Frank Hagerman, president; Thomas H. Cobb, clerk. 1900-Mason N. Leonard, president; Thomas H. Cobb, clerk. 1901-Julius F. Rundel, president; Thomas H. Cobb, clerk.
1902-Julius F. Rundel, president; Albert W. Campbell, clerk. 1903-Julius F. Rundel, president ; Charles E. Toms, clerk. 1904-Julius F. Rundel, president ; Charles E. Toms, clerk.
1905-Daniel M. Johnston, president; George H. Satterlee, clerk.
1906-Daniel M. Johnston, president; George H. Satterlee, clerk. 1907-Edward R. Smith ** and John W. Perry, president; George H. Satterlee, clerk.
1908-George E. Daines, president; Guy L. Watkins, clerk.
1909-George E. Daines, president; Ray Keyser, clerk.
1910-George E. Daines, president ; Ray Keyser, clerk.
1911-George E. Daines, president ; George L. Kemp, clerk.
1912-George E. Daines, president; George L. Kemp, clerk.
PUBLIC WORKS
The supply of water for Birmingham is taken from eleven wells, the pumping plant being on Maple avenue on the banks of Rouge river. The value of the plant is about $15,000. The first well was bored Feb- ruary 12, 1890, the funds being supplied by the Wayne County Savings Bank with village bonds as security. Prior to 1906 four or five wells had been sunk and the supply for fire and other purposes which re- quired pressure was pumped from a large tank. In that year six new wells were bored and connected directly with the pumps, the cistern being abandoned. Five were added in 1912.
* Now President Union Trust Company, Detroit.
** Mr. Smith did not qualify and the board of trustees appointed Mr. Perry, who served out the term.
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Plans are afoot to establish a sanitary sewer system, village bonds for that purpose in the amount of $22,000 having been voted in March, IQII. A $25,000 schoolhouse is also in contemplation. These public enterprises certainly stamp Birmingham as an up-to-date community.
The present fire apparatus consists of one auto engine and one com- bined chemical and hose auto, purchased in December, 1911, for $15,500; an aerial hook and ladder truck, two hose reels, one combined chemical and hose wagon and one steamer (Foster No. 2) ; and the department includes a chief, one lieutenant, twelve full pay firemen and five call men. A well built red brick structure houses the apparatus and accommo- dates the force. The original building was erected in 1867, but it has been almost entirely reconstructed of recent years.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
In 1869 the citizens of Troy, Bloomfield, Royal Oak and Southfield erected a memorial monument in honor of the soldiers from these town- ships who had died in the Union service during the Civil war. It was placed in the center of Birmingham village at the intersection of Sagi- naw, Troy and Mill streets, the open space which formed its site being inclosed by a handsome iron fence. There it stood, an ornament and striking memorial to local patriotism until 1897 when it was removed to Birmingham cemetery.
The shaft of the monument is of veined marble about twenty feet high, and upon its faces are inscribed the names of the soldiers from the four townships who gave their lives for the Union.
Troy is represented by the following: "D. Remington, K; James Mc- Ilvain, K; Hugh McIlvain, D; Samuel Truesdale, D; E. R. Smith, D; Charles Sand, K; Hugh O'Hara, D; William Jennings, D; John Leon- ard, D; James Shanahan, D; Thomas Taft, D; Edward Nichols, D; Fred Genrick, D; J. E. James, D; Richard Wheeler, D; G. H. James, D; William Tharratt, D; John Tharratt, K; Peter Crombie, D; George Blovolt, D; George Kinney, D; Lyman A. Platt, D; Henry Burnett, K."
Royal Oak by "Frank Bickford, D; S. Young, D; Jay S. Simonson, D; Joseph Jasper, K; J. W. Blackman, K; James Murray, D; Benja- min Young, D; Charles Young, D; Peter Sevelle, D; C. Fay, K; Ches- ter Ferrend, K; James Carroll, K."
Southfield is represented by "John Newman, D; J. C. Dexton, K; George Van Every, D; Harris Rolf, K; James Darling, D; John Mor- ris, K; Edward Wood, K; J. M. Brown, D; John Shanklin, D; G. H. Kinney, D; John Sherman, D."
Bloomfield is represented by "James Grinley, D; Oscar F. Drake, K; Orville A. Drake, D; J. Kelley, D; Malcolm Carter, K; Peter Lowes, D; Alpheus Madden, D; Andrew Simpson, D; B. F. Leach, D; John Hollinshead, D; William Potter, D; William Hollinshead, K; James Davie, D; Omer Fall, K; Henry Lewless, D; John Leach, D; G. L. Bassett, D; A. J. Stone, D; George Briggs, K; John French, D; Trux- ton Talbot, D; James Briggs, K; Frank Brown, D; Isaac C. Morgan, K; Byron McGraw, D; James Greer, D; T. J. Barnum, D; Robert Lowes, D; William Irving, K."
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And on the plinth is cut this inscription: "Erected by the citizens of the above towns, 1869."
BIRMINGHAM CHURCHES
Birmingham is a church-going and a moral community, and has been such since the early twenties when the Methodists commenced to hold services at Willets' log tavern and at the house of Dr. Ezra S. Parke. A few members of that denomination effected an organization in 1827, and their first meetings were held in Brother Willets' frame barn and other similar buildings in the neighborhood. The first regular church was built in 1839-40, at the corner of Bates and Merrill streets and was afterward used as the hall of the Ladies' Library Association. The second edifice was completed in 1873 at a cost of $20,000. Rev. G. H. Whitney is the present (October, 1912) pastor of the church.
Dr. William Jamieson is pastor of a flourishing Presbyterian church, which had its origin in the three days' meeting held at the barn of Deacon Elijah S. Fish, early in the year 1834. On the 2d of July of that year an organization was effected. Rev. Eri Prince was the first pastor, and Deacon Fish was the first delegate from the church to the Presbytery which sat at Pontiac in September, 1834. The first edifice of worship built by the Presbyterians of Birmingham was dedicated in the summer of 1844, the second year of the pastorate of Rev. E. H. Fairchild. A second church was completed in 1860. The present house of worship, a beautiful structure, is of comparatively recent and most modern construction. Both church and Sunday-school (originally or- ganized in 1837) are substantially progressing under the pastorate of Doctor Jamieson.
The first Baptist church organization in Birmingham was effected in 1833, the present city being then but a small settlement. The society then brought into existence was of short life, and in 1840 was dissolved, for thirty years thereafter there being no organized representation of the Baptist faith in the village. In about 1870 there began to be a revival of interest in a church, several Baptist families having located in Bir- mingham, and they considered themselves sufficiently reinforced to per- mit of another society, and on the 28th of June, 1870, the church or- ganization was effected.
The little society .was anxious to build itself a church home, and in that year purchased two lots on Saginaw street and made preparation for the erection of a building in the following summer. Owing to a disagreement as to the location, however, their plans to build came to naught and it was not until January, 1873, that plans were again agi- tated for building. On September 23d of that year it was dedicated and is still occupied.
The present membership is one hundred and twenty, as compared with a membership of thirty-eight when the church was organized in 1873. Its last pastor, Rev. C. A. Salyer, served from June, 1908 to June, 1912.
The Episcopalians are organized into a growing church, under the pastorate of Rev. F. F. Kraft and the Seventh-Day Adventists have a
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society. For some years the United Presbyterians also maintained a church organization.
SECRET AND FRATERNAL SOCIETIES
The village has a number of well established societies in its midst, the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights and Ladies of Maccabees and Florence Crittenden W. C. T. U. Such organizations as the Ladies' Literary Society, the Library Association and the Ceme- tery Association, are sketched in the chapter devoted to women's in- fluence in Oakland county ; and right here is a good place to repeat that Birmingham as a village is a fine illustration of the standard fixed by a community wherein their activities are, if anything, dominant.
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