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 6
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
Later, I will speak of the melting back of these glaciers, but here l want to help the reader to account for the irregular and discordant strat- ification that all have noticed so often in sand and gravel banks in this county. It can largely be accounted for by recalling that the glaciers in receding, and perhaps in advancing, with their burden of ground up rock and debris would leave depressions, pools, hollows and dammed up val- leys, and that the rains, winds and waves, and the streams of water flow- ing in and out of such depressions would assort and stratify the sands. clays and gravels the same as they do now in like situations. Often the rims of these hollows were worn away slowly by the gradual deepening and wearing down of their outlets, or quickly by floods or other causes ; and then the stratification would begin anew under different circum- stances and in a different situation. Is there any wonder then that in a small gravel pit the stratification may be so discordant, tipped and varied that we are puzzled to account for it in detail ?
The soil of Oakland county has been transported very largely from the northeast. This is established both by the detached fossils and minerals, as well as the fossiliferous boulders we find scattered over the county. Pieces of iron ore, copper and other minerals, as well as corals. brachiopods and other fossils, are often found. The corals are some- times called by the finders petrified "wasp nests" or "honeycomb," and are very common in our drift. All the above are still found northerly of us in Canada, in places in solid bed rock.
These glaciers swept over all Michigan and to, and in some places beyond, the Ohio river. The last great ones that crossed this county ended in northern Ohio and Indiana, and left there and in southern Mich- igan a great terminal moraine of earth, rock and debris, which accounts for the hilly country of Hillsdale county in Michigan, and in some of the counties in northern Indiana and Ohio.
Glacier streams or lobes, like other streams, generally follow depres- sions and valleys, although ultimately they may leave a hill where a valley existed before. Geologists are now agreed that a number of great glacial sheets swept down from the north, covering the northern states cast of Minnesota and north of the Ohio river. These glacial sheets succeeded each other at different periods far apart. To distinguish them geologists have differentiated and named those known, as the Kansas, Jowa, Illinois and Wisconsin Glacial Sheets, and have determined that they came in the order in which they are above mentioned. The Wisconsin, the last of those great glacial sheets, passed over Michigan, including this county. This great ice sheet included numerous subordinate glacial lobes, two of which concern this county and largely shaped its present surface condi- tions. Both came from the northeast and in all probability originated in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, in Canada. They traveled over this county in a southwesterly direction.
One of them, known as the Saginaw ice lobe, or glacier, came down Saginaw bay and swept south across our state. Its left bank or moraine, as the geologists call it, passed down the "Thumb" and across Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Lapeer, Genesee and Oakland counties, and farther south to and beyond Hillsdale and western Lenawee. The right or west- ern moraine of the other, the Maumee ice lobe or glacier, which termin-
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
ated in the Maumee valley in Indiana, passed across the southerly part of Oakland county and thence southwesterly into Ohio and Indiana and, in its course commingling in this county with the eastern moraine of the Saginaw glacier, greatly complicated the surface geology of this locality.
The numerous lakes of Oakland county are only a fraction of the number that must have existed at the time of the final melting away and retreating of the last glaciers. Some of these extinct lakes must have been quite large, for otherwise it is hard to account for the existence of such broad, sandy, gravelly plains as Sashabaw Plains and those found in the township of Commerce, and in Orion and other parts of the county. Those level, sandy, gravelly stretches of land, so common here, clearly show that they have been leveled and the soil assorted and laid down in shallow wave-washed lakes and ponds.
But a still greater force leveled and planed down the southeasterly part of this county, including the townships of Troy and Royal Oak and parts of Farmington, Southfield and Bloomfield. That force was the great glacial lakes known as Lake Maumee, Lake Whittlesey and Lake Warren. Those lakes all disappeared many thousands of years ago. Probably no human eye ever saw any of them, but to distinguish them. after generally conceding the evidence of their former existence to be conclusive, geologists have given them the above names.
As the Maumee glacier began to melt back from its southerly end in the Maumee valley the lands southwest of the terminus, in Indiana, being higher than the land under the glacier, a lake was formed at the foot of the retreating glacier, which is known as Lake Maumee, the outlet of which was at first at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the drainage from the lake passed thence into the Wabash and Ohio rivers. When the glacier had melted back as far north as Imlay City, in Lapeer county, another outlet was formed at that place through which the waters of Lake Maumee passed across, near North branch, into the Cass river, thence across Gen- esce, Shiawassee and Clinton counties into the Grand river, and thence by way of the present site of Chicago to the Mississippi river. Lake Maumee is supposed to have kept both outlets for a time and until the Imlay outlet had lowered so as to carry off all its flood waters, when the outlet at Fort Wayne ceased. The glaciers continued to melt back far- ther until a still lower outlet was formed across the "Thumb" in Huron county at Ubly, to Cass river, known as the Ubly Outlet ; and as this out- let deepened the lake quickly lowered and shrank on its southerly and westerly sides and continued to extend northerly with the retreating glacier. Lake Maumee, after the close of the Fort Wayne and Imlay outlets and while its outlet was across the "Thumb" at Ubly, has been given the name of Lake Whittlesey.
The glaciers continued to retreat farther north until finally a still lower outlet for Lake Whittlesey was formed around the end of the "Thumb" or across the north part of it and by way of the Saginaw valley and along Maple river, in Shiawassee and Clinton counties, to the Grand river at Pewamo, a short distance cast of lonia. That last stage of Lake Maumee, the one when its outlet was at the last mentioned place, has been given the name, Lake Warren. This lake continued to exist until
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
the glaciers had melted back far enough to allow an outlet down the St. Lawrence valley, when the lake retreated from Michigan.
Lake Maumee washed the easterly side of the high lands in Oakland county caused by the westerly moraine of the Maumee ice lobe, or glacier, and left its raised beaches as a record of its shore line through this county. The leveling and planing down of the parts of Oakland county easterly of that shore line and the assorting of the surface soil in those parts into sands, gravels and clays was all done by the great glacial Lake Maumee during the various stages of its height above ex- plained.
The surface of Detroit river at the foot of Woodward avenue is five hundred and seventy-five feet above the ocean. Lake Maumee when its outlet was at Fort Wayne only, was two hundred and eighteen feet higher than Detroit river at the foot of Woodward avenue. And when it had two outlets at the same time, one at Fort Wayne and one at Imlay City, it had fallen ten feet. When its outlet was at Ubly, and it was known as Lake Whittlesey, it had fallen forty feet more. And when it had be- come Lake Warren and had its outlet across or across the northerly part of the "Thumb" it had fallen eighty-five feet more, and was then only eighty-three feet higher than Detroit river at the above mentioned place. The above figures as to the height of these shore lines are taken from the report of W. H. Sherzer on the geology of Monroe county, published in Volume VII of the Geological Survey of Michigan, page 143, and it will appear later in this sketch that the first shore line of Lake Maumee in some parts of Oakland county has materially risen since it was origin- ally formed.
Leverett, in Monograph 41 of the United States Geological Survey, page 721, described the shores of Lake Maumee where they pass across this county in the following language: "The beach enters Oakland county near the southwest corner of Farmington township and takes a somewhat direct course across that township, passing through the north- western part of Farmington village and leaving the township in the north- eastern part of Section 12. It usually forms a definite gravel ridge three to six feet high, and thirty to fifty yards or more in width. It lies along the inner border of a sharply morainic tract. To the east of it there is a rapid descent to the Belmore Beach but the surface is remarkably smooth." The Belmore Beach is the highest shore line of Lake Whitt- lesey.
Leverett continues : "Immediately northeast of the point where the beach leaves Farmington township there was a bay-like extension up to and beyond the village of Franklin, and in this the beach is not clearly defined. East of Franklin the shore follows the inner border of the moraine, and is usually in the form of a cut bank, as far east as the meridian of Birmingham. The second beach ( the one when the lake had the two outlets), runs parallel with it, scarcely one-half mile distant and presents usually a gravel ridge.
"Near Birmingham there is considerable complexity caused by a till ridge and moraine hills which appear along the borders of East Rouge river. The till ridge at Birmingham is barely high enough to catch the second beach on its crest. Northeastward along the till ridge, however,
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
it soon rises to the level of the upper beach. The lowering of the lake to the level of the second beach seems to have followed closely the with- drawal of the ice from this till ridge and the opening of the Imlay out- let. Indeed, it is probable that the opening of this outlet is the main cause for the lowering of the lake.
"The second beach from Birmingham northward to the Imlay out- let is usually a gravelly ridge. It is exceptionally strong at Romeo and in the vicinity of Almont. It lies along the inner face of the till ridge, just noted, from near Birmingham to Romeo."
A peculiar feature of this upper Maumee beach is the fact that as it extends north it rises. At Birmingham. Leverett says, it is nineteen feet higher than at Ypsilanti, and that it is eleven feet higher at Rochester than at Birmingham. That may be due to the gradual tilting of the sur-
VIEW ON NEELY'S FLATS NEAR ROCHESTER
face of this state. The very eminent United States Geologist. Gilbert. claims to have determined that the north part of the state is now very slowly rising and the southern part as slowly settling.
Leverett says that at Birmingham the second Maumee beach is twenty-nine feet lower than the upper one. He also traces the shore of Lake Whittlesey ( the Belmore Beach ), through this county as follows: "From two miles northeast of Romeo it swings southward and leads through Washington township to Clinton river. just below Rochester. The village of Rochester stands upon a delta which was formed in con- nection with this beach. The beach continues in a course west of south for about twelve miles from Rochester, passing one and one-half miles southeast of Birmingham. It there curves abruptly westward, forming an interesting series of hooks, in its curving portion, and crosses to the west side of East Rouge river, about two miles southwest of Birming-
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
ham. From this point its course is southwestward through Farmington to Plymouth where it crosses West Rouge river."
While I have not personally traced this beach I think the chances are very great that the well marked low, gravelly ridge crossing the south end of the Beekman farm south of Birmingham is the Belmore Beach. At Rochester one can easily imagine the Paint creek and Clinton river emptying into Lake Whittlesey at substantially the same place and to- gether forming the delta plain on which that beautiful village stands.
I have no accurate information as to the altitude of the highest shore of Lake Warren, but it was about fifty feet lower than the shore of Lake Whittlesey and entered Oakland county from the northeast about straight east of Troy Corners and passed southwesterly through the vicinity of Big Beaver and Royal Oak village until it reached a point near the south line of Royal Oak township where it turned abruptly west and kept that main direction until it approached to or near the Belmore Beach, at which place it passed southwesterly with it into Wayne county. Wide, low. sandy ridges are stated by the geologists to be characteristic of this beach for much of its length, and probably for a part, at least, of the portion thereof in this county.
Beneath the drift in this county is the bed-rock extending, as far as geologists know, to the melted interior of the earth. In all probability all of Oakland county had risen above the ocean before the close of the Carboniferous age, and no rocks more recent than the Carboniferous appear beneath the drift here. The first rock underlying the drift in the southeast corner of the county and under the township of Royal Oak and parts of Southfield and Troy is of the Devonian age, while under all the remainder of the county the first rock is of the next later age, the Carboniferous. The coal basin of the state, which covers the central part of the lower peninsula, only touches the extreme northwest corner of Oakland county if at all, and no coal is likely to be found in the county. It is quite possible that oil may exist in the Trenton rock, but to reach that stratum wells would have to be bored several thousand feet deep. Salt-bearing strata probably underlie all of the county at con- siderable depths below the first bed-rock, as well as strata impregnated with sulphur and other minerals. Where the sloping shores of Lake Maumee dip and trend away from the westerly Maumee glacial moraine crossing the southeast part of the county, porous strata overlaid by im- pervious strata having been occasionally so deposited and formed by the waters of Lake Maumee as to make artesian wells possible. They are found in Avon, Troy, Bloomfield, Southfield and Farmington townships. Artesian wells are also found in the vicinity of Ortonville and in some other parts of the county, and natural springs are quite common.
Most of the county lies on the easterly slope of the easterly moraine of the Saginaw glacier, but a small part of the county is drained westerly. The relative elevation of different parts of the county is a matter of some interest. As stated above, Detroit river at the foot of Woodward avenue is 575 feet above the level of the ocean. Lake Huron is five feet higher and Lake Erie is two feet lower than the surface of Detroit river at that point. Passing from the river at the foot of Woodward avenue north- westerly along the Detroit and Pontiac electric railway the elevations Vol. 1-2
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
increase as follows: The elevation has increased at Highland Park and at the south line of Oakland county about 65 feet, and at Royal Oak about 19 feet more, Royal Oak village being about 84 feet above Detroit river. The south part of Birmingham is 191 feet and the northern part about 209 feet above Detroit river. At the Cranbrook road, Bloomfield Hills, the height above Detroit river is 290 feet. At Kimble's Corners the height is 363 feet, and at the United State bench mark on the north- east corner of the courthouse, Pontiac, the height above Detroit river is 369 feet.
The following elevations in feet of various other villages in the county may be of interest, viz: Big Beaver, 90; Troy Corners, 175; Amy, 208; Rochester, 185 to 225; Goodison, 282; Orion, 419; Eames, 437 ; Oxford, 486; Thomas Station, 518; Leonard. 435: Andersonville, 472; Drayton Plains, 385; Waterford, 418; Clarkston, 425; Davisburgh, 383; Ilolly, 362; Southfield, 103; Franklin, 212; Orchard Lake, 372; Farmington, about 175; Novi, 337; Walled Lake, 368; Commerce, 367; Wixom. 358; South Lyon, 365; New Hudson, 356; Milford, 371 ; Highland, 435 ; Clyde, 455; Rose Centre, 405 ; and White Lake, 466. Thomas Station, 518 feet, is therefore the highest village in the county.
The heights in feet of the following hills above Detroit river are: Bald Mountain, in Pontiac township, 618; hills in south part of Spring- field township, 585; Mt. Judah, Orion township, 575; Waterford hill, 574; Heaven hill, White Lake township, 525; hills west of Mace Day Lake, 525. I have no data for the height of the hills in the northern tier of townships of the county but some of them must be nearly if not quite as high as Bald mountain.
Cass lake is 356 feet above Detroit river, and very many lakes in the county are over four hundred feet above that river. All are filled with pure water. While, because of its glacial origin, a large part of Oakland county is rolling and somewhat hilly, very few of the hills are too steep to be profitably farmed, and the whole county lies at such an elevation that there is very little of it that cannot be successfully drained. As would naturally be inferred from its geological history, the soil of the county is so constituted that it is eminently fitted for agriculture.
CHAPTER III INDIAN AND PRIMITIVE RECORD
ORCHARD LAKE AND THE GREAT CHIEF PONTIAC-THE LEGEND OF ME- NAII-SA-GOR-ING-PRIMITIVE TILLAGE AND INDUSTRIES-CONTACT WITHI KNOWN TRIBES-SCARS OF BATTLE-C. Z. HORTON'S CONTRI- BUTIONS-INDIAN CAMPING GROUND AND CEMETERY-QUEER CUS- TOMS-THE PASSING OF WE-SE-GAH.
The legitimate history of Oakland county, so far as it relates to the settlement and civilization of the whites, commences with the abandon- ment of the siege of Detroit by the great Indian chief, Pontiac, in 1764. With this portentous danger removed, the interior of southern Mich- igan became a field of investigation to adventurers and those seeking homes; so that in 1815 the surveyor general of the state commenced to run his lines south from Detroit toward the Ohio boundary.
ORCHARD LAKE AND THE GREAT CHIEF, PONTIAC
Orchard lake, southwest of Pontiac, was one of the homes of the chief after whom the city was named, and from that region he is said to have drawn not a small portion of his supplies, such as fish and water fowl, which enabled him to make such an alarming display of his strength and resourcefulness before the English stronghold.
Pontiac had not been slow in transferring his allegiance from his old- time friends, the French, and the new British rulers of the country. In September, 1760, four days after the surrender of Montreal, Major Robert Rogers received orders from his superiors to take possession of Detroit, Michilimackinac and other western posts which fell to the Brit- ish as the result of the war. On his way to Detroit he reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, the present site of Cleveland, and there encamped with his command of two hundred rangers who had come hither from Montreal in fifteen whale-boats.
Soon after the arrival of the rangers a party of Indian chiefs and warriors entered the camp. They proclaimed themselves an embassy from Pontiac, ruler of all that country, and directed, in his name, that the English should advance no further until they could have an interview with the great chief who was already close at hand. In truth, before the day closed, Pontiac himself appeared; and it is here for the first time that this remarkable character becomes a part of American history. He
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
is said to have greeted Major Rogers with the haughty demand "What is your business in this country ; and how dare you enter it without my permission ?"
Rogers informed him that the French were defeated. that Canada had surrendered, and that he was on his way to take possession of Detroit and restore general peace to white men and Indians alike. Pontiac listened with attention, but only replied that he "should stand in the path until morning." Having inquired if the strangers were in need of any- thing which his country afforded, he withdrew with his chiefs at night- fall to his own encampment, while the English stood well on their guard until morning.
Pontiac then returned to the camp with his attendant chiefs and made his reply to Rogers' speech of the previous day. He was willing, he said, to live at peace with the English, and suffer them to remain in his country as long as they treated him with deference. The Indian chief and provincial officers then smoked the calumet together.
Up to this time, Pontiac had been the fast ally of the French, but, ignorant as he was of what was passing in the great world of the whites. his remarkable instinct told him that the English were in the decided as- cendant ; that it was the best policy to cultivate their friendship ; and he hoped to secure them as allies in furthering his ambitions against tribes of his own race. In the latter expectation he was so bitterly disappointed that he became a fierce and stern foe long to be remembered.
When Pontiac found that he could not use the English, he set about to exterminate them. In 1863 culminated his plans and conspiracies of several years' standing. Under his leadership, the Delawares, a portion of the Six Nations, the Wyandots, the Shawnees, the Ottawas this own people ), and the other western Indian nations, had agreed to fall simul- taneously upon all the frontiers from Lake Superior to the Susquehanna. Pontiac's eastern coworker in the famous conspiracy was the celebrated Seneca chief, Kyasuta or Guyasuta, whose home was on the Allegheny river. but history has given the palm of greatness to the western leader.
The details and outcome of the conspiracy are known of all; how Pontiac and his Warriors attempted to enter the Detroit fort and mas- sacre all therein : how this plan not only failed, but expected relief from the French as well, and how, in chagrin, he raised the siege, upon the approach of Braddock's army in August, 1764, and withdrew to the head- waters of the Maumee, where he still endeavored to stir up the red race against the whites. In 1766, at the great Indian council near Otsego, New York, he signed a perpetual treaty of peace with the English, and remained at Maumee until 1769, when he removed to Illinois. Soon afterward he visited St. Louis to call upon his former friend, St. Ange, the commandant of that post. He was dressed in the full uniform of a French officer, which the Marquis Montcalm had presented to him as a special mark of respect toward the close of the French war. Every- where he was received and entertained as a great man.
Pontiac remained at St. Louis for several days, when, hearing that a great number of Indians were assembled at Cahokia on the opposite side of the river, said he would cross over and see what was going on. St. Ange tried to dissuade him, but he replied that he was a match for
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY
the English, and, with a few of his followers, crossed to the Illinois shore. Entering the village, he was soon known and invited to a grand feast where liquor was freely circulated. The chief, with all his dignity and natural strength of character, could not resist the native passion for strong drink. After the feast was over and he was well under the in- fluence of liquor, he strolled down the street into the adjacent woods, where he was heard to sing the weird medicine songs of his race, which proved for him to be his requiem. A Kaskaskia Indian followed close behind, and his dead body was soon after found in a thicket. It is be- lieved that the savage had been hired to tomahawk the great chief by an English trader named Williamson, the wage for the dastardly act having been the promise of a barrel of rum.
A terrible vengeance followed this great crime. The Indians of the northwest united and almost exterminated the Illinois tribes, the rem- nants of whom never afterward cut any figure in history.
Whether Pontiac ever made the Orchard lake region his actual place of abode is questionable, but he undoubtedly often passed through the charming region, and that his name is attached to the metropolis of the county is an added reason why his career and personality should be pre- sented at some length.
THE LEGEND OF ME-NAII-SA-GOR-NING
One of the most noted of the Indian legends attaching to this region has to do with Orchard lake, or more strictly speaking with the beautiful Me-nah-sa-gor-ning (Apple island), which lies in its center. Many years ago, Samuel M. Leggett, one of the county's old settlers, told the story of this legend in verse, but at such length that it cannot be here repro- duced. His introduction, however, furnishes matter which is both in- teresting and available. "In the state of Michigan." it says, "in one county alone-that of Oakland-is a chain of beautiful lakes, some hun- dreds in number, many of them miles in length and width. Around these wind the roadways, over beaches of white pebbles and shaded by the 'forests primeval.' Two rivers, the Huron and the Clinton, run through these lakes, and, in their tortuous forms, wind, and turn, and twist, till after a course of hundreds of miles, they at last rest in Lakes Erie and St. Clair. These rivers are in the summer dotted with the water-lily, as they flow on through the 'openings,' and on their banks are huge old oaks under which, in the days that are gone, stood many a wigwam.
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