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 57
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CHAPTER XXXVIII TROY AND OAKLAND
THE TROWBRIDGE FAMILY OF TROY TOWNSHIP- JOHNSON NILES AND TROY-BIG BEAVER AND CLAWSON-UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF TROY-OAKLAND TOWNSHIP IN GENERAL-GOODISON'S.
Troy is in the second tier of southern townships, with Macomb county to the east, and is therefore one of the old sections of Oakland county. It is gently undulating, both its surface and soil being remarkably uniform. As the Rouge river, which drains several sections in the north- western part of the township, is the only stream worthy of the name, and its current is slow and weak, the region has produced no industries of note; but it is a productive agricultural portion of the county, and favorable to the raising of live stock.
THE TROWBRIDGE FAMILY OF TROY TOWNSHIP
Originally attached to Bloomfield township, when that civil division embraced the south two-fifths of the county, Troy township became in- dependent in 1827; its territory then embraced the present area of Royal Oak township, which was set off in 1836. At the first election held with- in the bounds of Troy. on the 28th of May, 1827, Stephen V. R. Trow- bridge, an able New Yorker who had settled on section 18, in the fall of 1821, was elected the first supervisor of Troy township. With John- son Niles (of whom more hereafter ), he was the most prominent of the pioneers for the succeeding quarter of a century. lle was a strong, able. hospitable man, and served his state in public life as well as his township. He was a member of the third legislative council, whose two sessions covered the period from May 5. 1828, to November 5, 1820. Mr. Trowbridge died in 1859, and his children have honored the family name by reaching high station in professional and business pursuits. One of them, Rowland E., was a member of congress from Michigan, in the Thirty-seventh and the Thirty-ninth congresses, from 1861-62 and 1865-66, respectively.
JOHNSON NILES AND TROY
The first land entries in Troy township were made in 1819 for tracts in sections 18 and 19, in its western part. From 1820 to 1822 a large number of purchases were made both in the northern and northwestern
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sections. Among the first to settle permanently was Johnson Niles, who came from Otsego county, New York, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres on the northeast of section 9, in the spring of 1821. He then returned to New York for his wife, two sons and daughter, and, being a carpenter, found himself fully occupied that same year in the erection of several buildings for George Postal of Avon. In 1822 he bttilt a log house on his own land, moved his family thither and in the fall seeded several acres to wheat, from the crop of which he made the first flour manufactured of the native-grown grain. Mr. Niles also had the thrift to supply himself with trinkets, which he bartered with the Indians for furs and products of the chase; later, he purchased a fair stock of goods at Detroit and by 1830 had quite a complete general store. Ile also opened a tavern, and was appointed postmaster in 1833, this giving the new settlement weekly mails from Detroit. Although Guy Phelps and others owned portions of the subsequent site, Mr. Niles was the real early promoter, and in 1838 platted sixteen blocks on the cor- ners of sections 4, 9 and 10, which he called Ilastings in honor of E. P. Hastings, then president of the Michigan Bank. Until well into the forties, Hastings, or Troy, promised to become a progressive center of trade. It had several good hotels, and as it was on one of the most im- portant routes of travel from Detroit to the northern part of the ter- ritory, or state, the village continued to grow as long as the old-time thoroughfares and stage routes existed
The Troy Corners of today is little more than a postoffice in the midst of a good farming country, on the Detroit United Railway. It is nine miles east of Pontiac and seven miles northeast of Birmingham, the latter being the nearest banking point.
BIG BEAVER AND CLAWSON
Big Beaver postoffice lies a mile east of the electric line and, like Troy Corners, is chiefly interesting from a consideration of "what might have been." The so-called village is at the intersection of the cross- roads separating sections 22 and 23 and 26 and 27. and the place derives its name from a large dam built by a colony of beavers across a little brook near by; but both beavers and brook have long ago disappeared. Ira Smith erected the first house at this point on section 27. in 1825, and three years later opened the first tavern in that building In 1834 Smith discontinued his inn and Benjamin Wooster opened a blacksmith shop at the Corners; after which there was a "slump"' in building oper- ations and new enterprises for over twenty years. In 1857 Mr. Smith again appears as proprietor of a fair general store kept in a frame build- ing. Edmund Gillett opened a hotel about the same time, a brick school- house was created, and "things looked up" awhile; but promises were faulty and, although twenty years from then Big Beaver was a settle- ment of about one hundred people, it has not grown since and may have retrograded. The postoffice still has a good country around it, but has no transportation facilities to encourage trade to center at that point. It is six miles north of Royal Oak and about the same distance north-
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east of Birmingham, either of which places afford banking accommoda- tions.
The third postoffice and settlement in Troy township is Clawson, near the southern line, four and a half miles southeast of Birmingham, at which its merchants bank, and itself located on the line of the Detroit United Railway. At Clawson, or near it, are saw, grist and cider mills, and it has a fair trade with the neighboring farmers and fruit growers.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF TROY
The United Presbyterian church of Troy was organized in 1850 in the Troy schoolhouse, and Rev. Brownlee was the first pastor. Not until 1855 was a church built. After Rev. Brownlee's term of service as pastor, the following ministers served the church in that capacity : Rev. Smealie. Rev. Robertson, Rev. Patterson, Rev. L. P. Gibson, Rev. John Sherard. Rev. A. II. Orr. Rev. M. B. Maxwell, Rev. J. W. Lood, Rev. R. J. Pinkerton, and Rev. Wilson Reid, the present pastor.
In 1804 a part of the Troy congregation organized another body in the town of Birmingham. both congregations continuing under the one pastorate. . A beautiful house of worship has been erected and a flourish- ing congregation exists today in Birmingham. The pastors of the Birm- ingham church thus far have been Rev. A. H. Orr, Rev. M. B. Maxwell, Rev. J. W. Lood; Rev. R. J. Pinkerton and Rev. Reid, now in charge.
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP IN GENERAL
The original civil divisions of Oakland county, made in 1820, through the proclamation of Governor Cass, allotted the upper three fifths to Oakland township. In 1827, soon after settlements had actually commenced, it was organized as a separate political body, although its limits then embraced what are now the six northeastern townships with the exception of Pontiac. In 1828 Orion was annexed to Pontiac; in 1835 Avon was set off as a separate town: and in 1837 Addison and Oxford were organized, leaving Oakland township as at present.
The township is well drained in the west and southwest by its prin- cipal stream, Paint creek, a tributary of the Clinton river into which it flows finally toward the south. Stony creek, to the east flows through the more central sections, and connects a few unimportant lakes. Both of these streams have good currents, and have afforded power for a number of sawmills and gristmills. Altogether the township is re- markably well drained and offers many advantages to the raiser of live stock.
Most of the first land entries, in 1819-1825, and the first settlements, which commenced in 1826, were made in the southern sections of the township -- 33, 35. 29, 30, and 31, about in the order named. Asa Baker, Benedict Baldwin, Needham Hemingway, Josiah Dewey, Jere- miah Hunt. Joel Potter. Samuel Tower and James Coleman, nearly all from Chili. Monroe county, New York, are credited with being among the first to actually locate, build houses and plant themselves as perma- nent citizens.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
GOODISON'S
When Mr. Hemingway came into the country, in 1826, he put up quite a substantial house, instead of the customary log cabin. This he used until the summer of 1827. when he erected the first frame house in the township. In 1835 he built a dam across Paint creek, on section 28, and dug a race three-fourths of a mile to the east line of the same section, where he constructed a two-story frame building for a gristmill. A few years after it passed out of his hands. Among its later owners was William Goodison, who enlarged it and made other im- provements.
That gentleman's energy and public spirit were so evident that the settlement around the mills became known as Goodison's, and in 1872, when the Detroit & Bay City railroad was built through the township it was made first a flag station, and afterward a regular stopping place. In 1874 a postoffice was established. About all that is left of Goodi- son's, as the Michigan Central station is still called, is a general store, a flouring mill, a little Methodist church and a few scattering houses centered in a productive agricultural district.
CHAPTER XXXIX
SOUTHFIELD, GROVELAND AND WHITE LAKE
SOUTHFIELD TOWNSHIP'S FIRST SETTLERS-FRANKLIN AND SOUTH- FIELD-GROVELAND TOWNSHIP-GROVELAND AND AUSTIN-ALMOST A RAILROAD -- WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP-OXBOW AND WHITE LAKE.
Southfield is in the southeastern part of the county, in the southern tier of townships west of Royal Oak, and was originally attached to Bloomfield for civil and judicial purposes. On the 12th of July, 1830, the legislature set it off as a separate township under the name of Os- sewa; but this name was so distasteful to the majority of citizens that only a week passed before it was changed to Southfield. The township is watered by the forks of the Rouge-East and West, and Lee's creek -which with the main stream, drain virtually its western sections, and Dry Run, which rises in the northeastern part of the town and takes a generally southwesterly course, leaving at section 33, about the middle of the south base line.
SOUTHFIELD TOWNSILIP'S FIRST SETTLERS
A few entries of land in the present township were made in 1821, but John Daniels, who settled in the southwestern portion of section 4, was its first permanent resident and householder. His family returned with him from the east in the following spring. Also came Martin and William Lee, who located on section 18; Edmund Cook on section 7, and George White, near the lees on section 18. Mr. Daniels worked, prospered and was long respected and honored, filling many public offices in the locality previous to his death in 1875. Dullucena Stough- ton, Eli Curtis, Elisha Hunter, Moses Rodgers, Elijah Bullock and others succeeded this first colony within the following two years.
FRANKLIN AND SOUTHFIELD
Mr. Bullock, with his sons purchased two hundred and forty acres which included a large part of the present village, or postoffice, of Franklin. Mr. Stoughton owned the balance of the original site. One of the most noted residents of Franklin was Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, who ยท came in 1828, was the first physician in the township, the first village postmaster (postoffice established in 1828), and a physician of high standing. In the summer of 1829 Mr. Stoughton built a brick house, Vol. I-32
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which was not only the first of its kind in the township but is said to be the pioneer of the county. The first store was opened by William Houston, a New Yorker, in 1830; several hotels appeared within the succeeding few years ; Peter Van Every, Sr., settled at Franklin in 1837, thence conducting several mills and a distillery over the line in Bloom- field township; Worthington & Pratt erected a grist mill in the village, and in 1851 Colonel Van Every established a steam flouring mill at that point. But when, one after another. all the railroads passed it by. Franklin ceased to even hope for better things, and is now little more than a postoffice for the farmers of the neighborhood.
What was once known as the village of Southfield, or Southfield Centre, which was located on both sides of the road running from the quarter-post on the east line of section 20 to the Rouge river. is now
SCENE ON THE ROUGE RIVER
not even a postoffice. In 1829 Archibald II. Green made the first settle- ment in the northern part of the old village, and in 1833 the number of families who had located there and in the vicinity warranted the estab- lishment of the postoffice of Southfield, with John Thomas as post- master. He also ran the tavern and near it several stores were soon started. In 1837 Sabin's gristmill was built on the Rouge a few rods west of the village, and was one of the first causes which brought busi- ness to Southfield. The following year a flour mill was erected in the village ; but neither these industries, nor any other causes, were sufficient to start the Thomas settlement, or Southfield, on an up-grade.
GROVELAND TOWNSHIP
Groveland township was organized. in 1835, from a part of Pontiac. and until 1838 included also the present township of Holly. The first
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land entries within its limits were made by William Roberts, Masten W. Richards, John Underhill and E. W. Fairchild-Mr. Roberts in 1829 and Mr. Richards in 1830. The two last named actually settled on the old Saginaw trail, near the site of what afterward (1836), was laid out as the Hadley Cemetery, in sections 18 and 19.
The first town meeting was held at the house of Calvin Herrick, April 6, 1835, and Nathan Herrick was elected supervisor.
GROVELAND AND AUSTIN
In the early years Groveland township had two villages on the Detroit and Saginaw turnpike which flourished for a time. About 1836 Philip McOmber built a large log house on that new and important highway, opened a hotel and travelers for a long distance came to speak of Grove- land Cottage, as the inn was called, in glowing terms. In 1837, or there- abouts, when a postoffice was established at that point it took the name of Groveland, although the old-timers insisted on calling the place Grove- land Cottage. Its location was about a mile south of Stewart lake.
Still further south, near the township line, a hotel was built on the Saginaw road, at which the stage teams were changed and travelers refreshed themselves. This point was also deenied of sufficient import- ance to warrant the establishment of a postoffice about 1846. It was brought about mainly through the efforts of David Austin Wright, an old settler of the region, and the postoffice was therefore named Austin. For several years before, it was Austin Corners, and was popularly designated as such, long afterward. Since the establishment of the rural delivery system the postoffice has been discontinued.
ALMOST A RAILROAD
The people of Austin, Groveland and the township in general had a temporary revival of hope in the late seventies over the possibilities of the Michigan Midland Railway. Although the line was surveyed through their territory in 1868-69 that is as far as the project went ; but the Detroit & Bay City was put through, a few miles to the southwest, which was a decided push backward instead of forward. It was a blow from which the township never quite recovered.
WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP
White lake is in the middle tier of townships, the second from the western line, and derives its name from the beautiful body of water which it divides with Highland township to the west; its area in White Lake township is about two hundred and fifty acres. Altogether, some thir- teen hundred acres are covered by the various sheets of water elsewhere within its limits, such as Cranberry, Oxbow, Long, Cedar Island, Round and Cooley. The greater part of the township is drained by the Huron river and its tributaries. These streams are small, and the only place where the water power has ever been really utilized is at the point where the Huron river issues from the southern shore of Oxbow lake.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
OXBOW AND WHITE LAKE
In July, 1833, Erastus Hopkins, of Steuben county, New York, bought two hundred and forty acres of land in that locality, and in October of the following year moved his family thither. After he had built his log house, he had less than a dollar in cash with which to com- mence the fight in the wilderness. That winter he killed several deer and caught some fish, having already cleared some land for the spring plowing. His wife died in less than four years, but Mr. Hopkins, who married twice afterward, survived until 1876.
The land thus purchased included a mill site on the Huron river, where it emerged from Oxbow lake, and about 1836 Mr. Hopkins sold five acres to a Dr. May, who built a dam and built a little sawmill, with which he cut timber for a hotel and a store. A more substantial dam was afterward built by Mr. Hopkins. About the time that the first mill was erected, the White Lake postoffice was established and Frederick Hopkins, cousin of Erastus, appointed postmaster. In 1840 the post- office was moved to White Lake settlement, on the northeastern shore of the lake by that name, in section 6.
The settlement mentioned on White Lake, in the western part of the township, originated in August, 1833, when Jesse Seeley and Cornelius G. Wyckoff erected their log cabins on section 6. In the following year John Rhodes opened a tavern and not long afterward, when the stage line commenced its operations on the old White Lake road two public houses were doing a good business at the settlement. The postoffice, established in 1840, was first called Plainville, but afterward changed to White Lake. But the rural delivery system has even absorbed that relic of its former activities.
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