USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 54
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
its achievements, forming one of the brightest brilliants in the diadem of our national Union; and the pioneers of Oakland have contributed their full share to the consummation of these grand results.
"But where are those heroic men and women who toiled and sacrificed along the shaded valley of poverty and privation during the early years of our Territorial and State history, cheered on by the bright star of hope which gave them promise of a brighter day in the future? Only a few of them are here today to mingle with us in these hallowed asso- ciations. 'They have rested from their labors, and their works have followed them,' but they have left behind them a few noble compeers, and a numerous and worthy posterity to guard, protect and perpetuate those great principles of civil government and religious freedom, which have ever been the pride of our people, and the honor of our state."
VILLAGE OF FARMINGTON
The village of Farmington embraces within its corporate limits one square mile of territory-the west half of section 27 and the east half of section 28; its business center is one and a quarter miles south of the geographical center of the township. It was incorporated in the winter of 1866-67, its first charter election being held May 6, 1867, and P. Dean Warner being chosen president of the village board. In 1876 a two-story brick building was erected for a town hall ; and it is still a credit and an ornament to the place. Prior to its completion the town- ship meetings had been held at various public houses. Robert Wixom's tavern especially popular, as it stood at the very center of the township.
The present village of nearly six hundred people is the center of a large trade with the surrounding country, and is especially prominent as the nucleus of one of the most extensive dairy interests in the west- those controlled by Fred M. Warner. It also has a large depot devoted to the sale of agricultural implements, and an extensive house dealing in lumber, coal and cement conducted by Amos Otis.
As stated, Farmington has never been a town of industries. It has some old and fairly prosperous roller mills conducted by Louis Gildermeister, and a canning factory, established in 1911, which is conducted by a cooperative company of farmers and business men. Its local bank is old and solid. Of the enterprises at Farmington none are more important to the well-being of the community than the car barns of the Detroit United Railway which give employment to from seventy- five to one hundred men.
Farmington is a pretty place, located on high ground and therefore on a healthful site. It has a modern Union school ; a good water supply drawn from two reservoirs (one for fire and one for domestic pur- poses ), costing some $15.000 ; an Edison light plant ; a sewerage system completed in 1906; a creditable newspaper, the Farmington Enterprise. founded in 1886 and now owned and conducted by C. E. Ramsey. The village is readily accessible, being on the line of the Detroit United Railway.
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THESTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
FARMINGTON SCHOOLS
The first school in the township was taught by Nathan Power at Quakertown ( Farmington), in the year 1820. Its sessions were held in a small log building that stood on the bank of a creek, at a point about opposite where in later years was built the home of Deacon Adams, well remembered in this vicinity. As late as 1830 this was the only school taught in the town and during the winter of 1828-29 it was still in charge of its original teacher.
Thaddeus Andrews, late of Farmington Centre, and who was one of Mr. Power's pupils, was wont to relate how one morning "the master" met him with a rather troubled and thoughtful expression of countenance. "Thaddeus", said he. "I lost one of my oxen last night ;
UNION SCHOOL, FARMINGTON
how does thee suppose I will manage to get another in his place?" But as Thaddeus could not suggest any feasible plan to meet this un- expected necessity, the teacher explained to him that he had decided to catch wolves enough so that the bounty upon their scalps would supply the necessary means. The state bounty was then eight dollars and the county offered an additional five dollars, and before the open- ing of spring the proceeds of the sale of wolves ears had reached an amount sufficient for the purchase of another ox, while the duties of the trapper-teacher had not been disturbed or neglected in any wise. The female teacher who first wielded the rod of command during the summer term was Polly Ann Mead, afterwards Mrs. Ladd. The terms were short, and this school, like all the others, was supported by sub- scription, the public school system not going into effect until some years later. The general law ordering the laying off and numbering of school districts in townships was passed in 1833.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
In 1877, ten years after the incorporation of Farmington as a village, the schools of the township were ten in number, and in excellent condi- tion. The houses were good .- several among them being noticeably so. In District No. 5 (Farmington Village) there were two depart- ments, a higher and a lower, respectively in charge of a male and fe- male teacher. The terms aggregated forty weeks per year. The annual salary of the male teacher in the village district was one thousand dol- lars, as compared with the woman teacher's salary of four hundred dol- lars. The other districts employed male teachers in the winter seasons only, the summer terms being taught exclusively by females, the re- muneration of the former ranging from thirty-five to fifty dollars per monthi while that of the latter was from two dollars and fifty cents to three dollars and fifty cents per week.
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The school status of Farmington today, as against that of the town in 1877, speaks well for the general advancement of the place. Today the school system of, Farmington embraces a primary, intermediate, grammar and high school department, all of them being maintained in accordance with the most advanced ideas in educational methods. The primary department numbers fifty pupils; intermediate, forty; gram- mar. thirty-six and high school, forty-seven, making a total attendance of one hundred and seventy-three pupils, with a corps of five teachers in charge. It is interesting to note that the high school attendance is almost as large as the primary enrollment .- a pleasing circumstance in view of the general tendency to discontinue school with the grammar grades, so noticeable in certain districts. In 1894 a modern school build- ing was erected, complete in all its details, and in every way calculated to meet the requirements of an up-to-date community.
THE CHURCHES
There is a very strong German element at and around Farmington, the farmers. dairymen and even tradesmen being composed largely of that nationality ; and none could be better, or conduce more to the solid growth of the village and the township. One of the results is seen in the flourishing condition of the Lutheran churches. Although the Method- ists, Presbyterians and Baptists formed early organizations, in 1826 and 1827, and have been, at times, strong and growing, they have not shown the development within late years which has been evinced by such an or- ganization as the Salems Evangelical church. This was organized in 1875 by Rev. Baschet, with about twenty-five members. In 1882 Rev. A. Schmidt took charge of the congregation, and during his ministry it became affiliated with the German Evangelical synod of North America. The church has today a membership of 178, with Rev. A. C. Stange in charge of the parish.
The Farmington Methodist church, whose first regular class was formed in 1829 and whose first home was erected in 1840, is in charge of Rev. G. E. Gullen. The Baptist church, which effected a regular organ- ization as early as 1826 and whose original building was completed in 1835, was for years one of the largest societies of the locality : the last regular pastor of the church was Rev. W. R. Warner. in 1886. since
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
which year the pulpit has been supplied on Sunday afternoons by clergy- men chiefly from Detroit and Pontiac. By 1853 the Universalists of the village had also gained sufficient strength to warrant the building of a church ; but they have had no society for years.
THE MASONIC LODGE
Farmington has still a flourishing Masonic Lodge ( No. 151), which was chartered January 13, 1865, with Oliver B. Smith as master, B. Weiderick, senior warden and H. H. Jackson, junior warden. The first place of meeting was the hall in the stone building of Worthy Mas- ter Smith, which was destroyed by fire, with all the records of the lodge, in October, 1872. Meetings were then held for a time in the wooden building of Norman Lee, and afterward in the hall in Warner's block. There the lodge continued to have its home until the new Masonic hall was dedicated in the upper story of the town hall, on the 27th of De- cember, 1876. Since 1872 the masters of the lodge have been James Baldwin, R. W. Crawford, O. L. Murray, H. A. Green, A. A. Murray, William Harlan, Aaron Avery. T. J. Davis. J. E. Wilcox, Wallace Grace, C. J. Sprague, John H. Thayer, A. J. Crosby, B. C. Northrop, F. J. Lee, Isaac Bond, E. A. Drake, J. L. Hogle and A. F. Allyn.
CLARENCEVILLE AND NORTH FARMINGTON
A small cluster of buildings on the electric line, in the extreme south- east part of the township, a mile and a half from Farmington, is what remains of one of the old settlements of the region. In 1836 Stephen Jennings built a tavern at that point for the accommodation of travelers over the old Detroit and Howell plankroad. Ile also opened a general store, and this "sixteen mile station out of Detroit" became quite a fa- vorite stopping place. But Clarenceville, as it was called, collapsed with the discontinuance of the old-time stage lines.
In 1850 a postoffice was established a mile south of the north line of the township to accommodate the people of that section. Its location was then at Wolcott's Corners, and Chauncey D. Wolcott was post- master. At his death, about 1865, the office was moved up to the town line, in the northeast quarter of section 4. John H. Button, the last resident postmaster of North Farmington, lived in that locality from 1831 to 1872, when he moved to Genesee county, Michigan, where he died four years later.
CHAPTER XXXIII
ADDISON AND BRANDON TOWNSHIPS
LAKES OF ADDISON TOWNSHIP-LAKEVILLE'S EARLY PROMISE-TOWN- SHIP ORGANIZATION AND DISTRICT SCHOOLS-VILLAGE OF LEONARD -BRANDON TOWNSHIP-ITS PIONEER SETTLERS-VILLAGE OF OAK- WOOD-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION-VILLAGE OF ORTONVILLE.
Addison is the extreme northeastern township of Oakland county, and was originally covered with a dense growth of timber, chiefly pine. Most of this has been long since removed, and little is left, either, of the fine groves of oak which abounded in the earlier days.
LAKES OF ADDISON TOWNSHIP
But the lakes and rich loamy soil are still in evidence, and the Addi- son township of today is a land of beauty and fertility, many of its cen- tral sections having partaken of the changes already noted, from farm lands to improved residence properties. The natural drainage of the township is good, and there is a depression several miles wide extend- ing through it from north to south containing a beautiful chain of little lakes. Lakeville lake is the largest. It is some seven hundred acres in area, and covers a large portion of sections 22 and 27, just southeast of the center of the township. The outlet of Lakeville lake is Stony creek. which takes a southerly course for a short distance, then flows east along the south line of sections 26 and 25 into Macomb county. There is also a series of smaller lakes in the nothern part of the township.
LAKEVILLE'S EARLY PROMISE
All the early indications pointed to the locality around the southern shores of Lakeville lake, at the Stony creek outlet, as the site of the trading and industrial center of the township. The first purchases of land were made in that vicinity, during 1826-27, by Henry Connor, and in 1830 Sherman Hopkins, an enterprising New Yorker, located a mill site on section 27. His log house and sawmill were the first structures raised on the site of the village of Lakeville. In the year of Mr. Hop- kins' arrival also came Addison Chamberlain, a New York emigrant with his family, and within a short time he had bought Mr. Hopkins' in- terests and commenced vigorously to improve the property. He built a residence on one of the beautiful hills bordering the lake on the east.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
Ile ran the sawmill "for all it was worth," in 1838 built a gristmill about thirty rods south of it, and operated both until they were destroyed by fire. The Chamberlain flouring mill, which was burned in 1846, was a blessing to the housewives of the township, its product being considered A No. i in every detail.
About 1838 a postoffice was established at Lakeville, with George Larzelier as postmaster. At first, the mail route was from Royal Oak to Dryden, in Lapeer county; mode of transportation, a small pony. Soon afterward a stage was introduced, and routes were established from Lakeville to Bald Eagle Lake and Beebe, now Lenox.
After the destruction of the Chamberlain mill, in 1846, Charles W. Chapel secured the mill site and in 1847 erected a three-story and base- ment mill which long continued the fine record of its predecessor. Mr. Chapel also opened the first complete general store of Lakeville, in 1851. From that time until the building of the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern, several miles to the west, Lakeville enjoyed a large trade : but that event cut off its business, and was the making of the village of Leonard. The village of Lakeville is now little more than a memory. It has a perma- nent population of less than a hundred, although during the summer season this may be somewhat larger. It has a good school and a Meth- odist society, while its business and industries embrace several stores, a small grist mill and a number of boat liveries for the accommodation of summer visitors. Lakeville transacts its trade through the Oxford bank. and its shipments also go to that point, six miles west. Connec- tion between the two is maintained by means of a daily stage line, which also carries the mails.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND DISTRICT SCHOOLS
The civil organization of Addison township was effected in April, 1837, when its territory was detached from Oakland township. It re- ceived its name in compliment to Addison Chamberlain, its foremost citizen, and the first town meeting was held at his house. Lyman Bough- ton was then and there elected supervisor and William T. Snow clerk. In the fall of 1838 the town was divided into eight school districts. and the same year the first district house for educational purposes in the southwestern part of the town was erected on section 27. about eighty rods west of Lakeville. But the reader must not understand that dur- ing the six or seven years that children had been a factor in the town- ship life they had been allowed to run wild as to their mental training ; far from it. As early as 1835 a shanty had been put up on section 23. cast of Lakeville lake, and Mariette Tedman had therein gathered about a dozen children to see what she could do with their minds. In the northeastern part of the town Sarah Gilbert, in 1836, had taught a little class in Nicholas Ferguson's barn, and other like attempts were made in dwelling houses until 1838, when a small frame schoolhouse was built on section 12. This was also in the northeastern part of the township. and, with the schoolhouse put up near Lakeville. marked the real com- mencement of the district system of education.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
VILLAGE OF LEONARD
Leonard, now the chief center of population in Addison township. was incorporated as a village in 1889, and is a station on the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern Railroad, to whose building it owes its existence. Its original site was settled in 1880, and several saw and planing mills have been operated to advantage while the timber supply of the north- ern part of the township was still large. That industry is still repre- sented in a small way. As the surrounding country is productive of grain and fruit, a grain elevator and a fruit evaporator are also among its establishments. For the past twenty years Leonard has had a pop- ulation of about three hundred, but its merchants do their banking at Oxford, about seven miles to the southwest. The village has two churches-the Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Protestant-and its educational advantages are equal to those of other intelligent com- munities of its size.
BRANDON TOWNSHIP
Brandon occupies the center of the northern tier of towns and although it has a number of lakes they are small and unimportant. Bald Eagle lake, in sections 19 and 30, in the southwestern part is the largest, its name being derived from the fact that it was once a favorite resort for eagles of this species. Cranberry lake, northeast of the central part of the township, has had on its shores some very productive marshes devoted to the raising of that fruit. The only stream of any size is Kearsley creek, which rises about half a mile southwest of Cranberry lake, takes a generally westwardly course to section 18, thence northi through the village of Ortonville, and out of the township into Grove- land, over the line of section 6.
ITS PIONEER SETTLERS
Brandon township is not among the sections of the county which was early settled. Its first land entries, in section 25, in the southeastern portion, were not made until 1831, and no actual settlements were made until 1835. In the spring of that year John G. Perry, a native of New Jersey who had lived for some time in Oakland township, moved upon the land which he had purchased two years before in section 35, east of Seymour lake, and, after making a clearing on the plains, built a log house and brought his family to it. In the fall of the same year George P. Thurston, of Rochester, New York, located on sections 28 and 29. fur- ther to the west. After building a log house on his claim he returned to Pontiac, where he had left his family, and a few weeks later reap- peared upon the site of his dwelling with his wife, child and two friends (with their families), who had intended to settle in the neighborhood, only to find his house in ruins and its contents rifled. As there were a great many Indians in the township at that time, especially around Bald Eagle Lake, the outrage was laid to the redskins. But the Thurs- ton party went on to Perry's, four miles east, where they were heartily
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
welcomed and where they remained until the men could throw together a log cabin on the Thurston land for their shelter. Eight inmates occupied the twelve-foot square house that winter, before the snow melted another log cabin was erected for Vine Kingsley (a member of the party ). on land which he had purchased in section 33, and early in the spring work was commenced for a frame dwelling which was soon after occupied by the Thurston family.
In 1836 quite a number of settlers arrived in the southern part of the township, sections 28, 33 and 34 being especially favored. John B. Seymour, a New Yorker, took up land on the south shore of the lake which has since borne his name.
VILLAGE OF OAKWOOD
It was that year also (1836), which witnessed the coming of the first settlers on the site of the village of Oakwood. In the summer Alexander G. Huff, from Monroe county, New York, settled on his land in section 12, built a log house with two windows, and planted himself and family on what became the principal part of the village plat. The settlement extended over into Oxford township, the Campbell brothers locating on the eastern side of the line about the time that Huff appeared on the western, or Brandon side. As the former erected a number of houses within the succeeding few years, the settlement took the name of Camp- bell's Corners. Small industries afterward sprung up, and in 1854 a steam sawmill was put in operation in Brandon township, this also being Mr. Huff's enterprise. Unsuccessful attempts were made to start a sawmill and a gristmill, and later a fairly prosperous foundry was estab- lished for the manufacture of plows, castings and general farm machin- ery ; but not even the prospects ever seemed to be real bright for Oak- land. All that is left of it is a straggling settlement, and what little shipping it requires is done through Thomas, a station on the Michigan Central, three miles northeast. Oxford, six miles southeast, is its near- est banking center.
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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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
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. II. 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 V 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.
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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."
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