History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 100

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553

USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 100

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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

of West Bloomfield-perhaps better known as the Campbellite church-was organized in the year 1873, mainly through the efforts and influence of Mrs. Colin Campbell, of Detroit, whose summer residence is at Orchard lake. The number of original members was small, probably not exceeding twelve or fifteen. Their house of worship-the only church edifice in the township of West Bloom- field-is situated on a lot of one acre of ground, donated by Peter Dow, Esq., upon the Commerce road, a short distance west of his residence on the northwest shore of Orchard lake. The site is a beautiful one,-a gentle rise of ground, covered with forest-trees, with Orchard lake shining close behind it, while the waters of Cass lake are seen only a little farther away in its front. The church is a Gothic, frame building, stone-colored, and unusually neat and attractive in appearance. It was erected in the year 1874, at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars, and was dedicated in that year by Rev. Charles Louis Loos.

Twenty years before the church organization was effected, members of this congregation, and some who have now passed away, were accustomed to meet together, first at irregular intervals and afterwards statedly, for religious worship. Of the preachers who ministered to them, the first was the Rev. Mr. Smead- mere, and following him at various times there have been Revs. Isaac Erritt, Gilbert J. Ellis, Mr. Butler, of Detroit, Charles L. Loos, of Bethany college, West Virginia, and others. Their desk is at present supplied by Rev. Wells H. Utley.

THE WEST BLOOMFIELD CEMETERY.

This was formerly called the Pine Lake burial-ground. It is located on the southeast side of the road, between Pine and Black Walnut lakes, near the resi- dence of Douglas Harger, Esq. The first use of this ground as a place of burial was for the interment of Eben Ellenwood, in January, 1831. The tract-three- fourths of an acre-had been donated by Jedediah Durkee for cemetery pur- poses. Soon after, and probably the next, came the burial of Erastus Durkee, brother of Jedediah.

The ground was enlarged in the spring of 1872 by a purchase of an adjoining half-acre, by the township, from Douglas Harger, Esq. The ground is well fenced and cared for, and has, to some extent, been planted with evergreens. Within it lie buried John Ellenwood, Esq., William Durkee, Revs. Laban Smith and John J. Young, and many other of the old and respected inhabitants of West Bloomfield.

SCHOOLS.

There were no school districts laid off nor general system of public education inaugurated in West Bloomfield until after the organization of the township, but schools had been taught among the settlers as early as the year 1828. The first of the houses in which these were taught was a small log building, which stood in the southwesterly angle of the road, near the house of Zachariah L. Seeley, between Pine and Black Walnut lakes. This was, for a comparatively long time, the only one in the township. The next was a log school-house in the Scotch settle-

P. F. GOIST, DEL

"WEST WIND FARM,

PUB. BY L. H. EVERTS & CO.716 FILBERT ST., PHILA.

317

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

ment, near the site of the present one in district No. 2. The third in date of erection was at Black Walnut lake, near Peter Richardson's house; and the fourth was the stone structure known as the Harger school-house, in dis- trict No. 4.

The early schools were crude, and only elementary, after the universal pattern of schools in agricultural communities in those days; and yet there are many instances of thorough educations acquired, of which the foundations were laid in those same log-house schools.

At present there are seven public schools in the township, none graded. The school-house accommodations are sufficient, and in every way creditable. The terms taught are of four months each, summer and winter. The male teachers receive forty dollars per month, and the female teachers three dollars and a half per week, with board at the different houses in the district.

The township superintendent of public schools for the present year (1877) is Francis Orr. Douglas Harger was elected public school inspector, but declined to qualify for the office.

THE MICHIGAN MILITARY ACADEMY.

The plan of a military institute, under the above name, having been perfected, the necessary pecuniary arrangements completed, and a location at Orchard lake, in West Bloomfield, most sensibly determined on by the officers in charge, the 17th of the present month (September, 1877) has been definitely fixed on as the day on which the school is to be opened, with a full corps of academic and mili- tary instructors, and with all the necessary appliances in the way of healthful and well-furnished quarters, and with all the equipments and scientific apparatus re- quisite in a school of the highest grade and character, such as its projectors are determined that this shall be.

The gentlemen in charge explain that their technical methods of teaching are those which are in use in the famous schools of Prussia, and that these are to be combined and blended with the most thorough military discipline, and that in this particular it will be the only school of the kind in America.

It is to be an especial feature of the system that students will be so educated as to fit them for the practical duties of life, as engineers, as skilled artisans, or as teachers in the branches which they pursue. The engineering department is to constitute in reality a school of mines, which, considering the immense mining interests of the State of Michigan, makes it a most important and necessary adjunct to the educational system of the State.

The military department has been placed under the supervision of experienced officers of the regular army, and it is intended that in this the course of instruction shall be as minute and as perfect as at any of the first military schools of Europe.

The academy is purely and strictly non-sectarian, the list of its trustees including leading men in all denominations.

The founders have erected a high standard, and if their intentions and expecta- tions are realized (as there is no reason to doubt they will be) the institution will be one of which the township, the county, and the State may well be proud. Their selection of a location has been eminently judicious. Neither in Michigan nor in the United States could a more beautiful or appropriate one have been chosen.

The thanks of the publishers are due to the following-named gentlemen for valuable assistance afforded in the compilation of the history of West Bloomfield : John M. Ellenwood, Esq., Major Rogers, Peter Dow, Esq., and Hugh Cuthbert- son, of West Bloomfield ; W. L. Coonley, Esq., of Farmington; Peter Van Every, of Southfield ; J. Durkee, Esq., of Pontiac; and Hon. Alanson Partridge, Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, and Mr. Benjamin A. Thorn, of Birmingham village.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

GEORGE GERMAN.

Among the many fine farm-homes of Oakland County, we call particular atten- tion to the beautiful residence, out-buildings, and farm of George German, situated on the town-line between West Bloomfield and Farmington, and about three and

one-half miles south of Orchard lake. Mr. German is a native of Devonshire, England, where he was born on the 9th day of September, 1814. At the age of twenty-one he left old England and crossed the Atlantic in quest of a home for himself and father's family. He went first to Prince Edward's Isle, but not liking it there, wrote his father to meet him in New York city. His father and family accordingly came over in the spring of 1837. After a consultation, they decided to go to Michigan. They came on to Detroit, where they remained a short time until they could make a selection for a home. They finally selected and purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, partly cleared, at eighteen dollars per acre, to which they have since added adjoining lands, so that the farm now consists of two hundred and sixty acres.

The family, which consisted of the parents, three sons, and four daughters, all lived and worked together on the homestead for a number of years, and as the children grew to manhood they married and settled on farms near the old home. At the age of twenty-nine George was united in marriage with Miss Henrietta Pins, a native of Belgium, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. They have a family of five children,-two sons and three daughters. Both sons and one daugh- ter are married, and the two sons are living on the home farm, and in connection with their father are busily engaged in raising stock and grain of all kinds, and are noted for being among the most tidy, enterprising, and successful farmers of Oakland County. The two unmarried daughters are living at home with the parents. Mr. George German's father and mother lived to advanced ages, the father dying in 1863, at the age of eighty-six years, and the mother in 1866, at the age of seventy-eight years. George German is to-day a hale and active man, hospitable and sociable in disposition, universally respected by his acquaintances and honored and loved by his friends and relatives; he has been all his life a farmer, of which he is a model; has held various offices of trust in his town, such as supervisor, etc. ; is Republican in politics, and in religious faith Episcopal.

We present to our readers elsewhere in these pages a fine view of his beautiful farm residence and home, and herewith this brief tribute to the character and worth of one of the old pioneers of Oakland County. W. H. B.

THERON MURRAY.

The father of Theron Murray, an English farmer, in the year 1792 immigrated to the United States, and settled in Massachusetts, and afterwards removed to Victor, Ontario county, New York, where Theron was born, in 1811. He was one of nine children,-four sons and five daughters.

He attended the common school of that day, worked on a farm and at various kinds of labor until twenty years of age, when he started west. He came on to the Territory of Michigan, and located at first in the present town of Farmington. Four years afterwards he sold out and located in West Bloomfield, on the lands ever since owned and occupied by him as a home.

At the age of twenty-one he was married to Miss Rebecca E. Welfare, of the town of Commerce. Has all his life pursued the occupation of a farmer, never engaging in the strifes and turmoils of speculation, and in the dealings of a long life has never sued a man at law or been sued. A Universalist in religious faith, Republican in politics, an honorable man and a gentleman always and everywhere, he is universally esteemed and respected by all. He has two children, both sons, who are married, and reside on farms of their own, adjoining and on either side of the old gentleman. Ozro L., the eldest, has three children, and Albert has two.

The old gentleman and the two sons are extensively engaged in fruit-growing, principally apples, which they have by intelligent management made very profit- able. We present in the pages of this work a fine view of the residences of the Murrays, and portraits of the old gentleman and his wife, and this brief sketch as a tribute of respect to one of the old pioneers of Oakland County.

W. H. B.

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.

THIS township, one of the oldest in Oakland County, lies next west of Troy, and south of Pontiac, having Southfield and West Bloomfield respectively for its southern and western boundaries.

Its surface is rolling, sufficiently so to be correctly termed hilly in some parts, particularly in the western and northwestern portions. To the mind of one with whom the idea of fertility is inseparable from that of dark mellow soil in prairie or river-bottom, these portions of the township would not at first view be regarded as being by nature well adapted to the requirements of the husbandman, for, par- ticularly in the parts where the surface is most uneven, the lightness of the soil seems not infrequently to degenerate into unmistakable gravel. That the first comers took this view of the case is evidenced by the fact that the lands lying in the hilly section remained unpurchased until a comparatively late day ; and there are those now living in Bloomfield who recollect hearing these spoken of as being very unlikely to be ever brought under cultivation, or, indeed, to be ever entered at all. How mistaken was this idea will be very apparent to one who now passes over these lands in the early summer and sees knolls and slopes covered with abundant harvests ; for it is a fact that though once so lightly esteemed, they are now excelled in their grain-producing capabilities by very few lands even in the State of Michigan.

Bloomfield is watered by a number of beautiful lakes, and by the Rouge river, of which the eastern branch takes its rise beyond the boundaries of the township, in Troy and Avon, and the western one has its sources in the lakes of the north- west and west; and these, uniting their waters a short distance west of the village of Birmingham, form the stream which thence flows in a southwesterly course through section 35, and crosses the town-line into Southfield. The lakes of Bloomfield are Wing, Island, Cranberry, Square, Long, Grove, Turtle, Orange, and Gilbert ; in the last-named five of which the west branch of the Rouge takes its rise. All of these lakes lie west of the centre line of the township, and all are within its northwestern quarter except Wing and Gilbert.

The original forest of Bloomfield was not as dense, nor was the timber as heavy, as in some of the other townships, as Southfield and Farmington, but had much the character of " openings," especially in the more uneven parts towards the west and north.

Here, as everywhere in the vicinity of fish-producing lakes, was a favorite resort of Indians; it was their home and hunting-ground before the white man came, and for years after their expulsion, when they made their semi-annual journeyings to Detroit to receive their government annuities, they made their camps on the shores of the lakes, or in the wooded bottoms along the margin of the Rouge. There are traditions, too, that this was once the theatre of great Indian battles between the tribes. In particular was it related by an old centenarian French voyageur, named Michaud, whom Mr. Edwin Baldwin and other old residents of the township remember well, that on one occasion, long before the coming of the government surveyors, as he passed through these woods on a fur-trading expedi- tion, he came to a fresh battle-field, on which still laid unburied fifteen hundred dead Indians, by actual count, and that this bloody spot was none other than that level ground which has since been known as " Swan's plains," a short distance north of Birmingham village. But probably that portion of Michaud's narrative which relates to the number of the slain seen by him should be received with some grains of allowance.

FIRST ENTRIES AND SETTLERS.

The first land entry in the township was of the northwest quarter of section 36, on the 28th of January, 1819, by Colonel Benjamin H. Pierce, an army officer, and a brother of Franklin Pierce, afterwards president of the United States. Colonel Pierce visited his land more than once, but never settled upon it.

The honor of having made the first settlement in Bloomfield is given to John W. Hunter, although several others, including John Hamilton and Elijah Willets, came in the same year, and very nearly at the same time.

Daniel and John Hunter, sons of Elisha Hunter, then of Auburn, New York, came to Michigan in March, 1818, traveling by sleigh, and taking the route through Canada. Elisha Hunter came with his family in the July following, via Buffalo, where they embarked on the small schooner " Neptune," with about thirty other passengers, mostly land-hunters, and made the passage in twenty-one days to Detroit, where John W. and Daniel were awaiting their arrival. They remained in the city until the spring of 1819, when they came to Bloomfield, where John W. Hunter had already entered the northeast quarter of section 36.

A log house-the first in the township of Bloomfield-was erected, but by a mistake of Mr. Hunter it was located on the Willets tract instead of on his own land, as he had supposed. The spot where that first house was built is a point in the village of Birmingham between Mr. Hugh Irving's store and the residence of Mr. Cromwell, and a little farther back from the main street. The spot was chosen because it was an opening, from which the ground sloped somewhat ab- ruptly towards the northwest, conditions favorable for a good prospect and good air. William Hall, a son-in-law of Elisha Hunter, occupied this house, and John W. Hunter built another-a log house, of course-a short distance southeast of the first, and very near the spot where the store of Mr. A. Davis now stands.

In this house he soon after, if not immediately, opened a tavern, the first in the township, though that which was soon after opened by John Hamilton is fre- quently spoken of as having been the first. He (Hamilton) came at very nearly the same time as the Hunters, and settled upon the land which he had already entered, the southeast quarter of section 25. His tavern, which was also his residence, a small building, which is said by some to have contained only one room, stood directly in the rear of the house now owned by Mr. Poppleton, and occupied by Mr. Brayman.

Opposite this, near the house which Hunter had erected, and nearly on the spot now occupied by the house of Mr. Cromwell, Elijah Willets-who came, as has been said, at about the same time-built his tavern dwelling, his entry being on the southwest quarter of section 25. Thus there were three public-houses standing but a few rods apart, and erected about the same time by the three men who may properly be considered the three first settlers in the township. Neither William Hall nor Elisha Hunter made any entry of land in Bloomfield, but remained for a time, and then purchased and settled in Southfield, where the latter died October 10, 1851, at the age of eighty-five years. His wife, the mother of Daniel, John W., and Rufus Hunter, died in Bloomfield, March 30, 1870, aged ninety-eight.

Mr. Rufus Hunter, of Birmingham, now seventy-three years of age, but at that time a lad of fifteen, recollects that soon after their arrival his brother, John W. Hunter, with John Hamilton and himself, walked to Graham's at Paint creek, and brought back to their settlement each a bushel of red potatoes on his shoulder, for seed, and these they planted in that same spring of 1819; this being the first seed planted by white men in Bloomfield. They also planted a small quantity of corn, and, having an eye to the future, even from the time of their first arrival, they put apple-seeds in the earth, the first step towards the raising of fruit-trees. Both Hunter and Hamilton had brought swine, as it is probable that Willets had also ; and soon after J. W. Hunter procured a cow and a yoke of oxen; the first oxen owned in the township. Before these came the settlers had succeeded in borrow- ing Graham's oxen, and had driven them all the way from Paint creek, to break small patches of ground for their first meagre crops.

And this was the way the first settlement of Bloomfield was made, on the spot where now is the village of Birmingham. It must not, however, be supposed that there was any immediate accession of population at that point. It became well known to immigrants and land-seekers, on account of the Hamilton and Willets taverns (Hunter's was not long kept as a public-house), but for years after the arrival of the first settlers they remained the only inhabitants of the immediate vicinity.

The place was then generally designated as "Hamilton's,"-sometimes at " Hunter's" or " Willets',"-not having at that time even received the name of " Piety Hill," by which it became universally known in later times, though it is difficult to explain why that name was ever first applied.

All of those original settlers lived to see the spot of their selection invested with village dignity. Elijah Willets died in Birmingham, of paralysis, many years later. John W. Hunter is living with a granddaughter in the township of Commerce. Major Hamilton remained for nearly a quarter of a century on the place of his first settlement, and died only recently in Genesee county. Daniel Hunter resides in Detroit, with a daughter (Mrs. Farren) ; and his brother Rufus, the youngest of the family, now seventy-three years of age, is still living in Bir- mingham, near the spot to which, as a boy, he came with his father fifty-eight years ago.

The other settlers who came to Bloomfield in the year 1819 were Amasa Bag- ley and family, Wm. Morris, Ezra Baldwin and family, Dr. Ziba Swan and family, and Sidney Dole.

318

MRS.WM. P. DURKEE.

WM. P. DURKEE

RESIDENCE of WM. P. DURKEE, BLOOMFIELD TP., OAKLAND CO, MICH.

STEPHEN DURKEE.

NANCY DURKEE.

LATE RES. OF STEPHEN DURKEE , DECEASED, PRESENT RES. OF PHILIP DURKEE, HIS SON. BLOOMFIELD TP, OAKLAND CO MICH

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

319

Judge* Bagley came from Norfolk county, Massachusetts, and settled in this township, on the north west quarter of section 14, the locality now known as Bloom- field Centre. For years after his settlement, however, it was known simply as " Bagley's,"-this having reference both to the locality and to the tavern, which he opened in his large log house.

. William Morris came to Bloomfield with Bagley, though he had then been in Michigan for some time prior to his settlement here. He purchased on the quar- ter lying south of Bagley's, that is, the southwest quarter of section 14, and on this, in the fall of 1819, he sowed the first wheat sown in the township of Bloom- field. He also built the first grist-mill in the town (in 1828), and was the first to fill the office of sheriff of Oakland County. His wife was a daughter of Amasa Bagley, and another daughter became the wife of Moses Peck.

Ezra Baldwin came from the city of Vergennes, Vermont, to Detroit in the fall of 1817, and removed to Bloomfield in the fall of 1819, settling on the south- east quarter of section 13, now owned by Mr. Snow. With Mr. Baldwin came his sons Jairus H., Ezra P., Edward, and William, and his daughter, Mary L., who afterwards married John Nugent. The son Jairus was already married, but settled and lived with his father. The third son, Edwin, did not come with the family, but remained in Detroit during the winter. He came up in the following spring, and also lived with his father; though he afterwards purchased an adjoin- ing tract of land, the east half of the southwest quarter of section 13. He is now living quietly in the village of Birmingham at a very advanced age. In the year 1826, when Edwin and Edward were employed with government surveying- parties, the former with Sibley's and the latter with that of John Mullett, Edward and a man named Taylor had a desperate hand-to-hand fight with Indians, which circumstance, occurring as it did in the immediate vicinity of the present city of Battle Creek, gave to the creek and the settlement the name which they bear.

Dr. Ziba Swan, originally from Connecticut, but then from Albany, New York, came in the early summer, and settled on the north half of section 25, adjoining the present corporation boundary of Birmingham. His family consisted of his wife, three sons, and a daughter. The sons were Ziba Swan, Jr., afterwards Judge Swan, Elias, and Norris Swan, all adults at that time; and the daughter was the wife of Sidney Dole, who came with the Swan family, and also settled on section 25. He was the first clerk of the county of Oakland, and the first register of probate, and he represented the county in the second legislative council of the Territory. He also filled the office of clerk of the board of county commission- ers, and was one of the earliest justices of the peace in the county. He tried the first case which was brought before any justice in Oakland, viz., that of Thomas Knapp vs. Ezra Baldwin ; summons issued June 15, 1820, and judgment rendered on the 21st of the following August. He died July 20, 1828, aged forty-one years. Two of his sons are wealthy and respected business men in Chicago.

Dr. Swan lived more than a quarter of a century on the place where he settled. He was a member of the first board of commissioners appointed by the governor of the Territory, and at various times filled other positions, which were indicative of the respect and esteem in which he was held. He died February 28, 1847, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. His wife, Elizabeth, died June 22, 1853, aged eighty-five years. None of their children survive except Norris Swan, who is residing in California, at about eighty years of age, and unmarried.

In 1820 came Colonel David Stannard, Asa B. Hadsell, Major Joseph Todd and his sons Joseph and Samuel Todd, Elijah S. Fish, Daniel Ball, Asa Castle and his son Lemuel Castle. The Todds settled on the northeast quarter of sec- tion 4, now the farm of A. A. Walton, and Mr. Hadsell on the southeast quarter of the same section, where he is still living, in the eighty-second year of his age, but possessed of as much mental vigor as he could have had when he came there, fifty-seven years ago, and far richer in pocket than he was then.

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History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 100

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co. Number of Pages: 553

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553