USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume I > Part 55
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TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION
On the 3d of April, 1837, Brandon was separated from Pontiac township, to which it had been attached for ten years, and became a civil and political body. The first town meeting was held on that date, at the house of John B. Seymour, and Oliver Draper was elected moder- ator and Enos Gage clerk. George B. Thurston was voted into office as supervisor and Schuyler D. Johnson as the first regular township clerk.
VILLAGE OF ORTONVILLE
Prior to the forties nearly all the settlers of Brandon township located on the eastern and southern sections; the western districts developed slowly, and before 1848, aside from an occasional farm house, there were no buildings at what is now Ortonville. In that year Amos Orton built a dam across Kearsley creek, near the south line of section 7, and erected a sawmill to work up the timber growing on sections 7 and 8.
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This mill was operated with more or less continunity until 1865, when Messrs. Algor & Elliott replaced it by a larger and more modern plant, which was kept busy for many years. In 1852 Mr. Orton built a small feed mill near his sawmill, and in 1856 erected a substantial flour mill. The original property afterward passed into the ownership of M. H. Fill- more. Early Ortonville had the usual array of blacksmith shops, stores and hotels. Its postoffice was established in 1855, and Mr. Orton was, of course, postmaster.
In 1864 a frame schoolhouse was erected in the village, which was used until the district purchased the Seminary building. This private school had been conducted since the winter of 1867 by Professor Parker, and along in the early seventies the property was taken over by Dis- trict No. 10 and a graded school formed. At that time the building was deemed quite imposing, with its dome and pillared entrance.
In 1866 Ortonville was platted by Hiram Ball, L. P. Miller, W. H. Parker, Charles Herrington, George Wiggins, James Quill, William Algor and N. K. Elliott. Its principal site is on section 7, with a few blocks on section 18. In 1902 it was incorporated as a village by the county board of supervisors.
The village of Ortonville is a place of nearly four hundred people, on the Flint division of the Detroit United Railway. It has several good general stores, a flour and sawmill, and enjoys a fair trade with the country around. Its banking is mostly done at Holly, ten miles to the west, and its shipments through that place and Thomas, nine miles east. The village enjoys the advantages of a graded Union school and of re- ligious societies organized by the Methodists, Baptists and German Lutherans.
CHAPTER XXXIV
INDEPENDENCE AND COMMERCE
SASHABAW PLAINS, INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP-WATER COURSES- SETTLERS AT CLARKSTON AND THE "PLAINS"-THE PRIMITIVE SCHOOLHOUSES-CLARKSTON UP TO DATE-COMMERCE LAKES AND STREAMS-FIRST SETTLERS AT COMMERCE AND WALLED LAKE- COMMERCE OF TODAY-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND FIRST POST- OFFICES-WIXOM AND SWITZERLAND.
Independence is the center of the second tier of northern townships in Oakland county, and was named at its organization, in 1837, upon the suggestion of Joseph Van Syckle, who came from the New Jersey town of Independence, four years previously, and located in section 27, or in the northwestern portion of the famous Sashabaw plains. Al- though Alpheus Williams, of Waterford township, made the first entry of land within the present limits of Independence, in 1823, the first pur- chase settled by the original owner was that of John W. Beardslee, whose entry was of 1826 and who settled on section 35, near Sashabaw creek, in the summer of 1831.
SASHABAW PLAINS, INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP
The surface of Independence township is somewhat diversified, be- ing generally hilly in the northwest and center and comparatively level in the south. The Sashabaw plains, on which many of the first settlers located, extend north and south nearly three miles and east and west about two miles and a half, in sections 26, 27, 34 and 35. A local his- torian says that the "name was derived from an Indian chief of that name. There is a small stream of water flowing through the eastern part of the plains which also bears his name. We know but little of this chief's history. One day while hunting in the pinery where Mahopac now stands he had an encounter with a monster black bear, was in close quarters, and had to depend upon his knife, which failed him. The bear hugged him to death and he went to the happy hunting ground by the bear route."
There are several well-defined local elevations, Pine Knob, on the northwest quarter of section 23, about a hundred feet in height, being the most considerable. There are also hills on sections 17, 20, 29 and 32.
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WATER COURSES
The natural slope of the country is south and west, with fine natural drainage afforded by the Clinton river and its tributaries. The series of small lakes, extending from the northeast corner of section 3 to the middle of section 20, and thence south to the township line, has the main branch of the Clinton river as its outlet-that stream flowing through Clarkston in its course southward. Sashabaw creek rises on section 25 and flows west and south to the eastern part of section 35, whence it leaves the township. The most important lakes, Deer and Green's, are in the southwest part of the township, and, in connection with Clinton river, produced the water power which laid the foundation for the Holcomb and Clark improvements and the establishment of Clarkston.
SETTLERS AT CLARKSTON AND ON THE "PLAINS"
The first white settlers were little more than squatters, mostly on section 20, the site of the Clarkston of today. Linus Jacox, one of the number, built a cedar-pole shanty on the southwest quarter of that sec- tion, planted a few potatoes among the trees, and then sold his claim to Butler Holcomb for fifty dollars. James Cronk, another temporary set- tler, also sold out to Mr. Holcomb. In 1831 Marvin Greenwood and Roswell Holcomb moved into the cabin built by Mr. Jacox and com- menced making improvements for Butler Holcomb, the purchaser of the property.
In the same year John W. Beardslee and wife came from Elmira, New York, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 35, in the Sashabaw plains. As stated by an old resident of the plains: "Mrs. B. was truly a helpmate, for she built the first haystack in .the town, her husband pitching the hay to her. It is also a fact that her son, Town- send, was the first white child born in Independence. Townsend raised and was captain of Company D, Twenty-second Michigan Infantry in the War of the Rebellion. He died from disease in the hospital at Nash- ville, Tennessee." Townsend Beardslee located on section 26, where he built a log house eighteen feet square, in the early part of the winter of 1832. Other members of the family settled on the "plains," and formed the nucleus of a colony of considerable proportions which was increased within the following four years by the arrival of these: William Stevens, northwest quarter of section 25, in 1831 ; Peter Voorheis, Joseph Abbott, Peter Gulich, Leander Taylor, Archibald Ayres and Gamalial Truesdell, on sections 36, 25, 26 and 27, in 1832; Richard B. Bray on sections 20 and 27, in 1833 and 1834, Cornelius Voorheis buying the various tracts of land originally taken up by Mr. Bray; Joseph Tindall on section 29, in 1834, selling out to John Maybee; the Stewart brothers, Elisha and Charles, on section 36, in the same year; John C. H. Woodhull on sec- tion 35 and Rev. Oliver Earl on section 36, in the year 1835. Mr. Earl was the pioneer minister in this section, having resided in Pontiac for a year prior to his coming to Independence ; in that village he had taught one of the first schools. Mr. Earl was a circuit preacher of the Method- ist church, and his territory covered a large area. Naturally he was a Vol. 1-30
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very busy man; for while his boys were young he cultivated his farm, besides riding his circuit, preaching funeral sermons and solemnizing marriages. He raised a family of eight children. In early days he helped stake out the cemetery near the present church and preached the first funeral sermon over the remains of Aaron Beardslee.
THE PRIMITIVE SCHOOLHOUSES
The first schoolhouse in the township was a small board shanty built on section 26, in the spring of 1834. Herein, the following summer Eliza Holden taught the younger members of the Beardslee, Riker and neighboring families who had located on the "plains." A log structure soon superseded the shanty, on the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of the same section, near Marcus Riker's place and Bildad Phil- lips taught the little class gathered there. About 1837 the third school- house was built on section 29, a small frame known as the "pinery schoolhouse." "In the old schoolhouse," as described by one who was there, "the writing desks were on the outside of the room against the wall, with seats made of slabs, flat side up, to face the desks. The pupil had to sit down on the bench and swing himself half around. Be- sides the day school, Sunday school, divine service, singing school and all public gatherings were held in this log house (referring to the sec- ond on the 'plains') for many years."
CLARKSTON UP TO DATE
Returning to the original site of Clarkston, it is noted that in the summer of 1832 Butler Holcomb brought his family from Herkimer county, New York, and made his home on section 20. His property also included portions of section 21 to the east. In 1838 he sold all his in- terests, which had been much developed, to Jeremiah and Wilson W. Clark, two brothers from Onondaga county, New York, who had located six years before on section 7, about a mile to the northwest.
The Clark brothers at once commenced the building of a more sub- stantial dam and of a gristmill and made other improvements; other members of the Clark family built and conducted stores, and the settle- ment was called Clarkston even before it was platted. This was ac- complished by the Clark brothers on section 20, in 1842. It was then given its present name, and in 1854 and 1858 additions were made to the original plat by M. G. Cobb and John Derrick. The village was in- corporated by the county board of supervisors in 1884, and reincor- porated in 1889.
Clarkston village is the only important center of population or trade in the township. For the past twenty years, or more, its population has been under four hundred. A portion of its site adjoins the southeastern end of Deer Lake. The village is ten miles northwest of Pontiac. Its only industry is represented by the Clarkston Roller Mills, whose daily capacity is forty barrels of flour and ten tons of feed and which are operated by Holcomb Brothers, descendants of the Butler Holcomb, the original founder of the settlement and the plant. Clarkston has a good
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union school, a library, a state bank, and two churches-Baptist and Methodist- and the usual complement of general stores and tradesmen. It is a pretty place and has all the requisites for a comfortable, if modest, residence.
COMMERCE LAKES AND STREAMS
Commerce, in the southwestern part of Oakland county, is one of those townships included in the "lake country," for which that section of the state has become famous. The largest of these picturesque bodies of water are Long, in the northeastern part; Lower Straits, in the eastern; and Commerce, which extends from a point just south of the village to near the center of the township. Walled lake, with the settle- ment by that name on its northern shore, is about one third in Com- merce; the remainder, in Novi township to the south. The Huron river and its branch, Hayes creek, flows in from the northeast, and takes a generally southwesterly course out of the township, binding the north- ern lakes together on its way and forming the water power which gave the village of Commerce its start.
FIRST SETTLERS AT COMMERCE AND WALLED LAKE
The first settler of the township was Abram Walrod, who came from the state of New York in May, 1825, and located on section IO, on the present site of the village of Commerce. He built a log house there, and after living in it for two or three years moved to the western part of the state.
The month after Walrod's arrival, Walter B. Hewitt came and lo- cated in section 34, on the north shores of Walled lake, thus becoming the original settler of the little village by that name. He built the old- time log house, but tired of the monotony and, after a few years, moved to Ypsilanti. Bela Armstrong, who joined him as a neighbor in May, 1836, died in the following year. They were both New Yorkers. In 1829, Cornelius Austin, a New Jersey man, a soldier of the War of 1812, settled near the Novi township line, but after a year changed his resi- dence to the north side of Walled Lake, where he lived for over half a century. The first store at Walled lake was kept by the Indian traders, Prentice and King; but J. J .. Moore is credited with being the first reg- ular merchant, who established himself in 1833. Jesse Tuttle laid out the original plat in 1836.
The first permanent settler on the site of the village of Commerce was Reuben Wright, formerly of Orleans county, New York, who, in the fall of 1832, took up one-eighth of section 10, and remained a resi- dent of the place for half a century. But Jonas Higley, who came in 1835, acquired possession of most of the village site, his property being purchased by Messers. Amasa Andrews and Joseph G. Farr, by whom it was laid out into lots in 1836. That year also marked the erection of the first frame house by Henry Paddock, who was Commerce's first merchant. The first postoffice was kept by Richard Burt, in his tavern which he built in 1834; also the pioneer hostelry.
The first grist mill on the village site was erected by Crossman, Sey- mour & Hoover in 1838, and the second by Henry and Jerome Paddock
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in 1843. The latter was burned after running a few months, and the new mill erected by the same parties was converted into a woolen fac- tory. It is said that the woolen mill was subsequently run by three or four Methodist ministers, who did not prove to be good business man- agers, and the machinery was finally removed and the plant converted into a cider factory.
COMMERCE AND WALLED LAKE OF TODAY
Commerce village of the present is pleasantly situated on both sides of the Huron river, about half a mile north of Commerce lake. It con- tains in the neighborhood of two hundred people, and its nearest ship- ping point is Walled Lake, on the Grand Trunk line, two miles and a half to the south, while its few merchants bank at Milford, seven miles west. The Presbyterians and Methodists of the place and vicinity have societies.
Walled Lake is, if anything, somewhat larger. It has several general stores which carry a good line of goods and supports two churches, the Methodist and the Baptist.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND FIRST POSTOFFICES
By an act of the territorial legislature, approved March 7, 1834, the congressional township of Commerce was detached from Novi, and on the 7th of the following month a meeting was held at the house of Henry Tuttle. Harvey Dodge was elected supervisor and Hiram Bar- ritt township clerk.
The first postoffice in the township was established about 1832, at Walled lake, the route being from that point to Farmington. Deacon William Tenny carried the mail on horseback. About the same time a postoffice was established at Commerce village, Richard Burt being post- master. The story runs that Mr. Burt carried the Commerce mail in his pocket, while Deacon Tenny, requiring larger accommodations, used his hat for the purpose.
WIXOM
Among the early settlers of what now constitutes the village of Wixom were Lewis Norton, who owned and settled on what is now its south part, in 1830; Alonzo Sibley, who occupied most of the north- eastern part, his property being originally purchased in 1831; and Ahijah Wixom, the northern portion of it, in 1832. The village was platted by Willard C. Wixom, son of Ahijah, in September, 1871.
Wixom is situated at the junction of the Grand Trunk and Pere Marquette railways, in the soutwestern part of the township on the line which separates it from Novi. The village has two or three general stores, and the nature of the surrounding country is partially told by the fact that several produce dealers are established in the place, as well as a cider mill. There is also a small lumber yard. Wixon has a Union school and the Free Will Baptists have long had a church organization. The business of the place is transacted through the Milford bank, seven miles distant.
CHAPTER XXXV
SPRINGFIELD AND HIGHLAND
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED-SPRINGFIELD AND ANDERSON SET- TLEMENTS-DAVISBURG-HIGHLAND'S PHYSICAL FEATURES-FIRST SETTLERS-HIGHLAND POSTOFFICE AND STATION-VILLAGE OF CLYDE -METHODISM IN THE TOWNSHIP.
Springfield is in the second tier of townships in the northwestern part of Oakland county, and derives its name from the fact that its ter- ritory abounds in fine springs, which were well known and patronized by the Indians and early traders. The most noted of these were Little Springs, on the old Detroit and Saginaw trail, in section 13.
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED
The name is said to have been originally bestowed upon the town- ship by Jeremiah Clark, of Independence township, John J. Merrell and Arza C. Crosby. The legislative authorities proposed to organize it as Painsville township; but the residents refused to have it so, and it was finally organized, on April 3. 1837, at the house of David Stanard, under its appropriate name. Mr. Stanard was chosen moderator and John J. Merrell clerk, the election resulting in the choice of Melvin Dorr for supervisor and Jonah Gross for permanent township clerk.
SPRINGFIELD AND ANDERSON SETTLEMENTS
Seven years before. the first land entry had been made by Daniel LeRoy on section 13. His purchase, which was concluded on the 19th of June. 1830, included the famed Little Springs, and soon afterward Asahel Fuller occupied the land for him. Mr. Fuller later owned much of the original purchase, built a hotel, and was the father of a daughter, Ann, the first white child born in the township. The Fuller hotel was the commencement of the little settlement at Springfield.
Jonah Gross was the next permanent settler. He was a Massachus- etts man and, with his wife, daughter and three sons, made his home on section 10 during the month of September. 1832. Mr. Gross was no stranger to the country, having visited it and made his selection of a homestead in the previous spring. He died in 1858. About the time of Mr. Gross' settlement, Giles Bishop located on section 24, southeast
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of the future Springfield plat, and it was probably in the following year that John Husted and family located on the northern part of section 27. The old Husted settlement grew up around them; but in 1836 Isaac Anderson and his family came from Attica, New York, and occupied the lands which he had purchased on sections 22 and 27. Various mem- bers of the family became so in evidence that the neighborhood was soon known as the Anderson settlement, and the name was therefore attached to the postoffice.
DAVISBURG
Davisburg, northwest of the center of the township, is the only settlement which can be called a village. Cornelius Davis, of Ulster county, New York, accompanied by his wife, five sons and two daugh- ters, in the fall of 1836 occupied their homestead on section 20, now the eastern part of the present site of the plat which has borne the family name since the establishment of the postoffice in 1854. The village lots were laid out by John C., Cornelius and James H. Davis (father and two sons), in 1857, and Michael G. Hickey, G. M. Lyon and others after- ward made additions to the original plat. The completion of the Detroit & Milwaukee railway to that point gave Davisburg its start as a per- manent village; and it was John C. Davis who was mostly back of it. He it was who opened the first store and erected the grist mill. The Hickeys also accomplished much, William Hickey establishing a foundry in 1865 for the manufacture of agricultural implements. About the same time Charles Weatherson erected a combination plant for the saw- ing of lumber and the (separate) grinding of plaster and feed.
Davisburg has now a population of perhaps two hundred people and is a station on the Grand Trunk line and is located on the Shiawassee river. Its feed mill and elevator, of 10,000 bushels' capacity, is owned and operated by Stiles Brothers, and it has a number of stores which have a fair neighborhood trade. Its banking is done at Holly. The Union school is under Miss Sara E. Maltby. The Methodists ( Episcopal and Protestant ), have two societies, and the Masons are well represented by members of both sexes. The local Order of the Eastern Star was founded in June, 1912.
The first school in Davisburg was established in 1856 or 1857, the first term of school being taught by Emma Mosey. In 1858 a small frame school house was built, and it is yet in use. In more recent years,-about 1890-another room was added to the original structure. sufficiently large to double its seating capacity. The school grounds were purchased from John Davis, being a part of his farm. A few of the principals who have had charge of the Davisburg schools since organ- ization are here given: John Donovan of Bay City, one time represen- tative; Marion Short, of Amy, Michigan; Mary Ogden, of California ; Elmer E. Hymers, of Pontiac; Anna Winn, Alma, Michigan; Sara E. Maltby, of Davisburg, present principal, as before noted.
HIGHLAND'S PHYSICAL FEATURES
Highland is the middle western township of the county, and was thus named at its organization in March, 1835, because its surface was then
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supposed to be the highest land in the settled part of Michigan. Within the limits of the township, the water courses run both north and south. Pettibone creek heads in section 10 and runs south, and a branch of Buckhorn creek rises in section 3 and courses north, the sources of these streams being only about a mile apart. There are twenty-two small bodies of water in the township, by courtesy designated as lakes, the largest of which are Duck, Pettibone, Alderman, Highland, Wood- ruff and Kellogg.
FIRST SETTLERS
The first purchase of lands in what now constitutes Highland town- ship was made by Naham Curtis on the 6th of September, 1832, in the east half of the southeast quarter of 36, or in the extreme southeast corner of the township. He and his brother, Jeremiah, sold their property soon afterward and left for Illinois with a colony of Mormons.
Among those who came in 1833, Jonathan F. Stratton, an Erie county (Penn.) man, was most prominent. He settled on the south half of the northwest quarter of section 27, and was elected the first justice of the peace of the township two years later. Michael Beach arrived from Troy township, the next year (1834), and bought land just west of the present village of Highland in sections 21 and 28.
HIGHLAND POSTOFFICE AND STATION
Probably as early as 1835 Zenas Phelps, George Lee and others set- tled on sections 19, 20, 29 and 30, in the southwestern part of the town- ship, where a postoffice was established ten years later, with George Showerman as postmaster. This is now known as West Highland, or Highland postoffice.
Other settlers located at various points in the township previous to the platting of Spring Mills, in 1846, by Jonas G. Potter and Major F. Lockwood, on the southeast quarter of section 22. In the summer of that year the proprietors erected a sawmill. In 1857 a postoffice was established here. Enos Leek was appointed postmaster and held the office until January 1, 1874, when the name was changed and the office moved to Highland Station.
On the completion of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad, in 1871, Highland village was platted by German St. John and Almon Ruggles on portions of sections 22 and 27. As stated, the postoffice was moved from Spring Mills in 1874. Although for some years afterward it looked as though quite a village might spring up at this point, the promise was not fulfilled. The postoffice is now at West Highland, about two miles from the Station.
VILLAGE OF CLYDE
In the late thirties Morris Wheeler purchased some eight hundred acres of land for Phineas Davis, a speculator, in sections 1, 2, 10 and II, which included the present site of Clyde, the only considerable set- tlement in Highland township. John Wendell put up the first house
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and a few stores were opened before the Flint & Pere Marquette line was built through the township in 1871. In June, 1875, the original village plat was laid out by Julian Bishop, county surveyor, for Lyman Johnson, the plot occupying thirteen acres of the east half of the north- west quarter of section 10; additions have since been made, so that the site is now virtually the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of the same section.
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