USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume I > Part 56
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Clyde is a village of about two hundred people. It is the center of quite a popular summer resort region, as there is good fishing in the lakes to the south and east. Produce and fruit are raised in consider- able quantities in the adjoining country, the soil being especially well adapted to potatoes. Besides two good general stores there are also several prosperous produce dealers and potatoe shippers, and another firm does a considerable business in selling wire fencing and agricultural implements. Further, Clyde has a large grain elevator owned and con- ducted by Mclaughlin Brothers. Banking facilities are afforded either at Holly, eight miles north, or at Milford, seven miles south, both on the Pere Marquette line. The village has a good graded school, and a Methodist church offers regular religious services.
METHODISM IN THE TOWNSHIP
The First Methodist Episcopal church of Highland was organized in 1835, with Elder Goodell as preacher and D. M. Lockwood as class- leader. The original members were Mr. and Mrs. H. Scollard, Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Taggett, Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lockwood, and Mrs. and Mrs. L. Flint. At first it was as part of Milford circuit, but in 1848 was transferred to the circuit of Hartland, and in 1866 it became a part of what is now Highland circuit. O. Sanborn was then presiding elder and H. Wood was the minister in charge. The following officers were elected at that time : Stewards, H. Morgan, G. W. Glins; recording stew- ard, J. Highfield; district stewards, G. Stratton, E. Chase and A. C. Taggett. The trustees elected in 1866 were E. A. Law, G. W. Glins, M. B. Lyon, G. Halls, J. Mills, D. McCroasan and A. C. Taggett, the last named being chosen chairman of the board.
Immediately after the meeting of conference in 1865, the Methodist class became known as the Highland Center Class, that date marking its first connection with the Highland circuit, as previously mentioned. At that time the meetings were held in the schoolhouse of District No. 4.
In 1875 a Christian association was formed in this place (Highland), composed of the members of the different denominations residing around the station and holding services in the schoolhouse on alternate Sun- days. In the year 1881 a church was built under the auspices of the association and was dedicated in February, 1882. This was practically a Union church, services continuing alternately by the different denom- inations as in the schoolhouse. The Christian association services were conducted by an undenominational pastor one Sunday and by the Meth- odist Episcopal pastor of the circuit the following Sunday."
The conference of 1882 sent Rev. G. M. Lyons to this point, and new
475
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
life was infused into the waning congregation. Dissatisfaction was shown as the Methodist Episcopal class prospered, which finally resulted in about twenty-eight members withdrawing and forming a Congrega- tional society, they controlling the church property. The Methodist Episcopal members held services in the church once in two weeks by paying one-third of the expenses, together with interest. On December 4, 1883, a board of trustees of the First Methodist Church of Highland was organized. The present church was dedicated November 4, 1886. The church at Clyde was first organized about 1855, the first meet- ings being held in a brick schoolhouse south of the village, and also in the schoolhouse in Rose township about the same time. In 1857 or 1858, the old Baptist church at White Lake, four miles east of Clyde, was used for a meeting place. In the early seventies a small church was built at Clyde, on Wheeler's lot, where meetings were held. The meet- ings at White Lake were soon after discontinued, part of the congre- gation meeting at Davisburg and the remainder at Clyde with the new church. Those who united with the congregation already located there built the present church, this event taking place in 1885.
At Hickory Ridge, three miles west of Clyde, meetings were held in the stone schoolhouse at an early date. In 1868-9 the present church was built, where meetings are now held.
These three churches, Highland, Clyde and Hickory Ridge, are united in what is known as Highland charge, and are served by one pastor. The following pastors have served the church since its organ- ization : J. M. Holt and A. B. Clough, 1866; G. M. Lyon, 1883; O. Sanborn, 1884; J. A. Rowe, 1886; Henry King, 1887; Rev. Hubbell, 1888-9; Rev. Wood, 1890-91 ; Rev. Samuel Graves, 1892; Rev. O'Dell, 1893; Rev. E. P. Pierce, 1894-5; Rev. A. S. Tedman, 1896-8; O. J. Perrin, 1899; F. W. Ware, 1900 to the spring of 1902, Rev. H. Hindle completing the year ; Rev. L. B. Dupries, 1903-4; Rev. T. B. McGee, 1905 ; Rev. W. J. Coates, 1906; Rev. R. E. Winn, 1907-09; Rev. W. J. Bailey, 1910; Rev. F. E. Mock, 1911 to the present time.
The present membership of the charge is seventy-five, as follows: Highland, thirty; Clyde, seventeen, and Hickory Ridge, twenty-eight.
CHAPTER XXXVII
ROSE AND WEST BLOOMFIELD
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ROSE TOWNSHIP-ROSE CENTER, OR ROSE-WEST BLOOMFIELD AS A LAKE TOWNSHIP-EARLIEST PIONEERS-SALE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS-FIRST POSTOFFICE-ORCHARD LAKE POST- OFFICE-THE POLISH SEMINARY.
What is now known as Rose township was originally included in the township of Oakland, and was created by act of the legislature of March II, 1837. In that act the first township meeting was ordered to be held at the house of David Gage, which was accordingly done on the following 3d of April. John A. Wendell was chosen supervisor and Henry Phelps township clerk.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ROSE TOWNSHIP
The southern and southeastern portions of the township contain beau- tiful plains, the one in the southeast being an extension of White lake plain. These were originally covered with a scattered growth of oak, interspersed with roses. The water area of the township covers about nine hundred acres and includes some forty-five lakes and ponds. Long lake is the principal sheet of water; it is mostly in section 30, in the southwest. The drainage of the greater part of the township is through the various branches of the Shiawassee river, which, however, in this part of the county are insignificant creeks.
The township is strictly agricultural, with a soil prolific of grain and fruit. It has but one postoffice-that at Rose Center, or Rose, in the center of section 22, which is also just southeast of the center of the township.
The first entry of land in Rose township was made by I. N. Voorheis and Daniel Hammond on June 8, 1835, and included a mill site on sec- tion II. But no mill was built and neither claimants to the site ever appeared. The first improvements were made by John C. Garner, who afterward lived in the locality for many years; but before Mr. Garner settled Daniel Danielson located (1835), eighty acres on section 35, in the extreme southeast, and built upon his land the first house in the town- ship. His tract was then covered with timber and his log house stood on
476
477
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
the west side of the Indian trail, which subsequently became the White Lake road. Mr. Danielson afterward moved to Holly, where he died.
ROSE CENTER, OR ROSE
In the year 1835 Benjamin Hicks, of Livingston county, New York, brought his family from that locality to section 35. and soon afterward his son, Benjamin C., returned to New York for his own wife and family. Various members of both families became well kown in after years throughout that part of the township. In 1836 several settlers located further to the northeast: also on section 22 at and near what is now Rose postoffice. Of the latter were John A. Wendell and David Gage, both of whom became prominent men in the township. Mr. Gage
ON THE SHIAWASSEE RIVER
opened a "hotel" in his rude shanty, which was located on the White Lake road leading to Shiawassee. With foresight, when he first located he broke up a small patch of ground to potatoes, never before grown in the township. He afterwards purchased the Buckhorn tavern, on the mail route from Pontiac to Shiawassee. Subsequent to the organization of Rose township, Mr. Gage had built a better tavern than he could keep in his first rude log shanty, and it was here that the first township meet- ing was held in 1837.
As early as 1838 a postoffice was established to accommodate the scattered settlers in the vicinity of the lake by that name. It was at first called Buckhorn, but was changed to Rose soon after the township was organized. The village plat of Rose Center is a station of the Pere Marquette railroad, and embraces perhaps a hundred residents. It has a few stores and a small sawmill and feed mill. Its banking is trans- acted at Holly, four miles north.
478
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
WEST BLOOMFIELD AS A LAKE TOWNSHIP
West Bloomfield is, beyond compare, the most magnificent lake town- ship in Oakland county, about one-fifth of its entire area being covered by beautiful bodies of fresh, sparkling water-Orchard, Cass, Pine, Walnut, Green, Union, Pleasant and Middle and Upper Straits. The largest of these, Cass, discharges its waters through Pickerel and Timber lakes and the Clinton river into Lake St. Clair to the east; the eastern lakes discharge through small branches into the Rouge river; those lying west of Orchard lake, into the headwaters of the Huron river. The only stream of even moderate size within the limits of the township, with the exception of the short channel that connects Cass and Pickerel lakes, is a creek which rises in some small lakes southeast of Orchard and Up-
ON THE SHORES OF PINE LAKE
per Straits, unites its two branches in section 26 and leaves the township as one stream at its southeastern corner. The result of this marked absence of water courses has been that West Bloomfield has virtually never had an established mill, as it has no water power; but the beauty and value of its lakes have been ample compensations for the denial of these natural advantages, as the reader has learned ere he has reached this point in the narrative, if he has considered the statements in the chapter devoted to the development of the summer resorts and residence properties of Oakland county.
EARLIEST PIONEERS
The territory of the present West Bloomfield township was early settled. James Herrington, of Cayuga county, New York, made the first entry of land in 1823. John Huff, of Orleans county, also in the Em-
479
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
pire state, had commenced a clearing two years before on the northeast quarter of section 13, a part of the tract bordering on the southeast shore of Pine Lake. In 1824 he entered his land in a regular way, thus abandoning his "squatter" claim, and in the same year built a large house of hewn logs on the shore of the lake; but whatever plans he had, came to naught in his death during the autumn of 1825, and the remain- ing members of his family, after a time, returned to their New York homes.
In 1823 Benjamin Irish settled on section 23, half a mile west of Walnut lake; in 1824 Peter Richardson located on the southwest side of the lake; Morgan L. Hunter took lands in section 5, northeast of Scotch lake; in June, 1825, Rev. Laban Smith, the widely known and beloved circuit preacher chose the south shore of Pine lake for his home; Edward Ellerly, an Englishman of means desirous of bringing a colony of his countrymen to the locality, built a massive log house east of Wal- nut lake, on the town line separating Bloomfield, in which he had also purchased large tracts of land, and when finished it looked so imposing that he called it "Ellerly Castle-this in 1825, Mr. Ellerly's departure being in 1835, with his dreams unrealized; John Ellenwood, who also in 1825, settled a couple of miles to the north in section 12, on the eastern shore of Pine lake; James Dow, among the numerous newcomers of 1830, who was the first settler in the so-called Scotch neighborhood on the isthmus between Orchard and Cass lakes ; and others of a later date located near the lakes, such as Hugh Cuthbertson, also a Scotchman who located, in 1831, on the west shore of Orchard lake in section 9 and 10.
SALE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS
The Indian reservations, comprising 107 acres at the south end of Orchard lake and Orchard island of 38 acres, in the middle of the lake, were sold at auction by the government in September, 1827, and were purchased at eleven shillings per acre by George Galloway, of Palmyra, New York, an uncle of Captain Joshua Terry, who afterward kept the public house between Orchard and Cass lakes.
FIRST POSTOFFICE
The first postoffice was established in West Bloomfield, during 1831, and was called Pine Lake, on the eastern shore of that body of water, John Ellenwood, who served from that year until his death in 1856, being the first and only incumbent of the office.
ORCHARD LAKE POSTOFFICE
Orchard Lake, on the eastern shore of the body of water by that name, is now the only postoffice in the township. It was formerly the site of the Michigan Military Academy and at this point was afterward located the Polish Catholic Seminary, its successor in the sense that the buildings erected by the Academy were bought and utilized by the Seminary. The history of the former will be found in the chapter de-
480
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
FRONT OF ACADEMIC BUILDING
PORTIONS OF DORMTIORY AND POWER HOUSE "CASTLE"
481
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
voted to Pontiac's educational institutions, while the sketch of the Polish Seminary follows.
THE POLISH SEMINARY
The Polish Catholic Seminary at Orchard Lake is one of the most flourishing institutions of the kind in the country. It was formerly located at Detroit, but in May, 1909, the church purchased the property of the old Michigan Military Academy. When the grounds were bought for that institution the Castle (a large brick residence then considered one of the most pretentious structures in the county), was on the prop- erty thus acquired. This is now used by the Seminary as a chapel, for the entertainment of guests and as club and billiard rooms for the students.
Soon after the purchase of the property the Military Academy erected the brick and wood barracks now used by the Seminary as dormitories, the Academic building being put up in 1889. Later appeared the gym- nasium and power house. In the latter are a small natatorium with plunge and shower baths, and massage and dressing rooms. The admin- istration building, a large brick structure, contains the official quarters of the seminary, hospital, barber shop, storerooms for supplies, linen, etc., and accommodations for the teachers and the smallest boys. The professors of the faculty have a separate residence. Besides the general dining room accommodating two hundred and forty in two divisions, there are three private dining rooms, and in the same building are the bakery, cold storage rooms and the kitchen-the last supplied with all such modern conveniences as automatic dish washers and meat cutters. The upper rooms of this building are given over to the servants' quart- ers, while for the better class of employees, such as the engineer, house- keeper and nurses, two frame cottages are provided. Within the present year (1912), the seminary management completed what was intended to be a riding academy, but on account of the rapid growth of the school it has been diverted from its original purposes and has been re- modeled into dormitories. Besides the buildings mentioned, those form- ing the seminary property comprise a general store, a frame house (rented), and several barns and outbuildings. The one hundred acres of grounds also include a good baseball diamond and several tennis courts.
The Polish Seminary is attended by more than four hundred students. Its official name is SS. Cyrillus and Methodius Seminary, and its faculty includes the following: Very Rev. Witold Buhaczkowski, father rector ; Rev. Leo. S. Jarecki (logic, metaphysics, psychology) ; Rev. Jos. Ciar- rocchi, D. D., Ph.D., U. J. D. (ethics, sacramentary, jus) ; Rev. Stanis- laus Bortnowski, D. D., Ph.D. (Scripture) ; Rev. Albert Cipolini, D. D., Ph.D. (dogmatic and moral theology) ; Rev. C. Wyszynski (history homiletics) ; Rev. W. Zadala (liturgy) ; Rev. A. Janczak (Christian doctrine) ; Dr. J. Machnikowski (Hebrew). Professors in College de- partment : Ignace Machnikowski, Andrew Piwowarski, Anthony Fijat- howski, Thomas Palmer, Frank Walker, Joseph Walber and Anthony Lobasa.
CHAPTER XXXVII NOVI AND WATERFORD TOWNSHIPS
THE NAME "NOVI"-THE COLONY OF 1825-26-NOVI CORNERS, OR NOVI -WATERFORD TOWNSHIP AND ITS LAKES-COMING OF THE WIL- LIAMS' FAMILIES-WATERFORD VILLAGE FOUNDED-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-WATERFORD OF TODAY-DRAYTON PLAINS-OLD CLIN- TONVILLE.
Novi is in the lower tier of townships, the second from the west, and is by no means "unknown," as its Latin name implies. When Farming- ton township was established by legislative act of April 12, 1827, its territory was included therein, with the present towns of Commerce, Mil- ford, and Lyon, but in the autumn of 1830 the voters of what is now Novi held a meeting for the purpose of detaching themselves from the jurisdiction of Farmington.
THE NAME "NOVI"
When the matter of a name came up for discussion, it was evident that a short, simple one was most in favor; and when Dr. J. C. Emery, at the suggestion of his wife, proposed "Novi," the idea so took that the name was forwarded to the legislature. Notwithstanding some op- position from a scholarly and somewhat sarcastic member of that body, who called attention to the English translation-"unknown," "not known," "forgotten," etc .- the name was adopted by the state authorities, and in the fall of 1832 the township of Novi was detached from Far- mington. Its territory then included the townships of Commerce, Mil- ford and Lyon, which were separately organized in 1834, thus cutting down Novi to its present area.
In 1827, when what are now Novi, Lyon, Milford and Commerce townships were attached to Farmington township for civil and judicial purposes, Novi was called West Farmington and Lyon, Farmington, Jr.
THE COLONY OF 1825-26
The first to settle in what is the present township of Novi came in 1825, Erastus Ingersoll being the pioneer of them all. On the twentieth of September, 1824, he entered the southeast quarter of section 24 at the Detroit land office, and April 26th of the following year reached his
482
483
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
claim, in company with his wife and nine children. John Gould had made an entry nearly three weeks before that of "Deacon" Ingersoll, but did not settle on his land (in section 36), until a month after the Ingersoll family had established themselves.
Erastus Ingersoll, with the assistance of his oldest son, E. S. Inger- soll, had soon completed the first house in what is now Novi township; some neighbors in Farmington town, six or seven miles away, also rendered what aid was possible to put together the rough log shelter for the Ingersoll family. Its members, John Gould, Joseph Eddy (of Wayne county, New York), and Pitts Tafft, constituted the Novi colony of 1825, although during the year William Yerkes and Thomas Pinker- ton, two young cousins from Seneca county, New York, appeared in the locality searching promising pieces of land. They evidently found what they wanted-Yerkes, in section 36 and Pinkerton, in section 25- for in the following March they appeared to work their purchases, chop- ping timber for a clearing and fencing the choicest tracts. Mr. Yerkes had already a family of several children, who followed him to their new home, and formed a part of the colony of sixteen who came into this western wilderness under the leadership of the young pioneers from Seneca county. The Yerkes family became perhaps as well known as any in the township.
NOVI CORNERS, OR NOVI
The only postoffice in the township (Novi), was formerly known as Novi Corners; and it was most appropriately named, for the settlement not only stood at the intersection of the old Walled Lake and the Detroit and Howell roads, but at the corners of sections 14, 15, 22 and 23. The first inhabitant at the Corners was John Elmore, who came before 1830 and located on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 14. Im- mediately after, Apollos Cudworth and Benjamin Brown arrived in the locality, occupying respectively the corners of sections 23 and 15. Upon his corner Brown opened a general store, as well as one of the first two business enterprises ( Blanchard's tavern being the other), which formed the nucleus of the village of Novi Corners. Asaph C. Smith soon opened another store, and when the postoffice was established not long thereafter he was appointed postmaster.
A town hall was erected at Novi Corners in 1876 to serve as an ap- propriate place of meeting for the township officials and for public gatherings. By this time the settlement had become quite a village, with a steam sawmill, tile works, several good general stores, two hotels, and two or three churches. But neither its industries nor the little saw- mills built, at an earlier day. on the outlet from the southwest end of Walled lake, ever amounted to anything.
Then, as now, Novi really depended for its sustenance as a settlement upon the good farming country around it. At the present time its population is put down at about three hundred, and its business is rep- resented by several stores devoted to the sale of general goods and deal- ings in produce and grain. Two small sawmills are in the immediate vicinity, and a little cheese is manufactured. But altogether the trade Vol. I-31
484
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
and business of Novi do not warrant the establishment of a local bank, such facilities being provided by Northville, four miles south in Wayne county. Baptist and Methodist societies meet the religious needs of the community.
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP AND ITS LAKES
Waterford is the central township of Oakland county and derives its name from the fact that so large a portion of its surface is covered by water. The principal stream is the Clinton river, which takes a tortuous course nearly through the central sections of the township, and receives the surplus waters of most of the thirty lakes within its borders. The largest of the lakes is Elizabeth, in the southern part, some four hundred acres in area lying in sections 27, 28, 33 and 34. Its shores are bold and clean and partly covered with timber, and furnish beautiful building sites for summer homes. As elsewhere stated, the lake was named by Governor Cass, its discoverer, in honor of his wife. Among the other fine bodies of water in the township are Williams, Wadkins, Scott's and Silver ; and it was on the shore of the last named that the settlement of the township was inaugurated by Major Oliver Williams in 1819.
Elizabeth lake, when discovered by Governor Cass and his party, contained white fish in small numbers, and in the late seventies all of the larger lakes of the township were stocked by the state. More re- cently many of the lakes have been stocked with bass from the hatchery . at Drayton Plains, which is in the very center of the lake region, between Loon and Wadkins lakes.
COMING OF THE WILLIAMS' FAMILIES
What is now Waterford township was originally a part of Oakland (afterward of Pontiac), and in 1834 was organized as a separate civil and political body. Major Oliver Williams, a minor officer in the War of 1812 who had been captured by the British at Mackinaw and paroled, and who settled in Detroit with his Massachusetts family after the war, and there engaged in mercantile ventures, made a journey into Oak- land county in the fall of 1818. Accompanying him were his wife and married sister, Calvin Baker and Jacob Eilett, all on horseback and under the guidance of a Frenchman. The two women are believed to have been the first white women who had ever voluntarily visited the region now known as Oakland county. The party found the country very beautiful from Royal Oak to the present limits of Waterford town- ship and literally alive with all kinds of game-beast, bird and fish. As the women expected to live in this country with their children, their husbands, in justice, accorded them the privilege of looking over the ground themselves; and they enthuiastically approved of it all. The party finally reached Silver lake, and after the present Waterford line had been crossed, Major Williams selected lands in section 13, search- ing out the surveyors' lines and marking the corners. This charming locality which he selected as his future home is where the sheets of water now known as Loon, Silver and Upper Silver lakes come together. After
-
485
HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
an absence of three or four days the party returned to Detroit, carrying many specimens of the shrubs and flowers of the region, and early in the year 1819, Major Williams formally entered the land he had selected.
On the 6th of March, 1819, at noon, Major Williams and his family, consisting of his wife and eight children, arrived at the town of Pontiac, which then comprised a little log house sheltering three families and a few workmen. They took dinner on boards laid across some barrels, but everybody was in hearty spirits and appetites were at a premium. The Williams family then went on, arriving at the site of their future home on Silver lake at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.