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 101
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Colonel Stannard also settled on section 4, a little north of Mr. Hadsell. His entry was dated July 3, 1820, and was the first one made under the " ten-shilling act." The first business of the probate court of Oakland was transacted while in session at his house, in 1822, the probate judge being Dr. William Thompson.
Deacon Elijah S. Fish settled on the northeast quarter of section 23, on the farm now owned by Mr. Benedict. The maple-grove which was set out by the deacon may still be seen there, green and thrifty. He was a stanch Presby- terian, and it was at his barn and house that the first meetings of that denomina- tion were held, and the first organization effected.
Lemuel Castle was as stanch a Baptist. He settled on the northeast quarter of section 14, land which he had located the previous fall. Daniel Ball settled on the town-line, in the southwest quarter of section 36. Asa Castle, the father of Lemuel, settled in the southeast quarter of section 24. He was a member of
the first grand jury impaneled in the county, July 17, 1820. Other of the first settlers of Bloomfield who served on that panel were Ezra Baldwin, Deacon E. S. Fish, Elijah Willets, Elisha Hunter, John Hamilton, and Dr. Ziba Swan.
Captain Laban Jenks, a native of Massachusetts, but then from Tioga county, New York, came to Bloomfield in the fall of 1821, and purchased in the north- east quarter of section 34. On his first arrival, on November 10, he sheltered his family for a time in the house of Daniel Ball, while he was making his own log dwelling ready for their occupancy, which, however, he accomplished in ten days from the time of their arrival. His house was the first which was built in the township, west of the Rouge. His family in the new home were nine in number : himself, wife, three sons-Morris, Laban Jr., and William-and four daughters,-Laura, Diadama, Sophia, and Prudence. The other members of his family, whom he left behind in New York, were the sons Smith, Orrin, and Seth, and daughters Lucy, wife of Joseph Park, Patience, widow of Nathan Park, and Polly, wife of Leman Case, who all, except Seth, came to Bloomfield soon after. Captain Jenks was a man of excellent qualities, and enjoyed the respect of his fellow-townsmen. He held the office of justice of the peace, by governor's ap- pointment, at the time of his death, which occurred about 1829. Of his sons, all are living except Orrin and Seth; the latter of whom died in Bloomfield, July 25, 1877, while visiting his brother William. Of the daughters, four have passed away.
Oliver Torrey came in at the same time with Laban Jenks. He was from Ontario county, New York, and had taken passage on the old steamer " Walk-in- the-Water" for Detroit, when she stranded near Buffalo. Thereupon he determined to proceed towards Michigan on foot through Canada. In this journey he fell in with the Jenks family, who had also taken that route, and with them he traveled until they arrived in Bloomfield, and indeed remained a boarder in their house until he married the daughter Laura, and settled on his own farm on the west line of section 26, now owned by William Jenks and Augustus Torrey. He died in May, 1838, respected and lamented by all who knew him.
Joseph Fairbanks and Dr. Henry Bradley came also in the year 1821. Fair- banks was a widower, and settled on the northwest quarter of section 24, which he had entered in 1819, this being the same tract now owned by Noah Anthony. It was afterwards called Fairbanks' Corners. Dr. Bradley located himself near the same point, but afterwards removed to Royal Oak.
Hervey Parke, from Camden, Oneida county, New York, came to Bloomfield about the first of June, 1822. He made the passage on the steamer " Superior ;" he was brought out from Detroit by John Hamilton, and arrived greatly dis- gusted with the mud and the general discomfort of the passage. He stopped with John W. Hunter, who, wishing to visit New York State, left his house and children in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Parke, and, on his return from the trip, offered Parke the use of a building which he had built for a blacksmith-shop, but which he thought might be turned into a comfortable dwelling. The offer was accepted, and Parke soon made the building habitable. Their furniture was of the rudest, but answered their purpose. He says, " I had eight dollars and fifty cents in cash, and was in my thirty-third year. At the time of my arrival at. Hunter's the settlement contained four log houses, occupied by E. Willets, J. W. Hunter, Elisha Hunter, and John Hamilton." He remained at Hunter's for a time, and afterwards removed to the southeast quarter of section 23, though he probably did not purchase there. He taught school near Swan's in the succeed- ing winter, but in the spring obtained a contract for government surveying. He was the third surveyor appointed from Michigan Territory, Ball and Mullet being respectively the first and second. It was not long before he removed to Pontiac.
George Taylor, a carpenter, and without doubt the first of his trade in the township, came in the spring of 1822, but made no purchase of land. He stopped at the Hunter settlement, and worked on the frame house which John W. Hunter erected in that year. This was the first frame house built in Bloomfield, and is the same which is now occupied by Ira Toms. The first frame barn in the town- ship had been built in the preceding year, by Ezra Baldwin. The second frame- barn was built by John Hamilton, and is now standing and owned by Orrin Pop- pleton, Esq.
In the same year came Smith Jenks, Orrin Jenks, Apollos Dewey, Ezra Rood, Joseph Park, and Leman Casc. Rood settled on the northeast quarter of section 9 ; Smith Jenks and Leman Case, on the northeast quarter of section 34; Orrin Jenks, on the northwest quarter of the same section ; Dewey, on the northwest quarter of section 14; and Park, on the northwest quarter of section 35.
Dr. Ezra S. Parke came in the fall of 1822, and made purchase upon the. southwest quarter of section 24, now land of Eri Benedict. He was a steadfast Methodist, and the first meetings of that denomination in Bloomfield were held at his house. He was the first postmaster of Bloomfield, being appointed in 1824 or 1825, and retained the office for about twelve years, until its removal to Bir- mingham became necessary to the convenience of the public. Dr. Parke stood
* Amasa Bagley and Daniel Bronson were associate justices of the first county court of Oak- land, which assembled at Pontiac, July 17, 1820.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
high in public estimation, and was many times elected to office. . He filled the office of township clerk for many years continuously, and as late as 1844.
Scriba Blakeslee came in 1823. He was from Oneida county, New York, and settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 31, a tract which he sold about 1832 or 1833 to Edward Matthews. A son of his, George Blakeslee, is now a resident of Birmingham.
Jacob Baker came in the same year, and settled directly north of Blakeslee, in the northeast quarter of the same section. There he opened a public-house, with the sign of the " keg and cup," which became quite extensively known as a stopping-place for immigrants and land-hunters, and at which township-meetings were very frequently held during the time when the three towns of Bloomfield, West Bloomfield, and Southfield voted as one. Philo Beers, nicknamed " Spatty," kept the tavern after Baker's removal to Indiana.
Deacon Orestes Taylor came in 1823, and purchased in the northwest quarter of section 11, and Captain Isaac L. Smith settled in the same year, in the north- east corner of section 24, now the farm of M. Spear. It is said that his was the first barn in Oakland County which was " raised" without the use of alcoholic liquor. Captain Smith's end was a sad one, for he died in the insane asylum at Kalamazoo, in October, 1876.
Also in 1823 came Wilkes Durkee, Thomas Johnson, Jacob Sly, Joseph Almy, and Ellery Almy. The two last named settled in the northeast quarter of section 24. Jacob Sly came in November, and purchased the northwest quarter of sec- tion 32, where he built a log house, and afterwards opened it as a tavern. Durkee arrived in June, and settled in the southwest quarter of section 34, where George W. Durkee now occupies. He also opened his house as a tavern, though not until about five years afterwards. He died of apoplexy in 1844, at the age of seventy- eight years. At the time of Mr. Durkee's coming, his son, Stephen, who after- wards settled and died in Bloomfield, was a youth of eighteen years of age, and remained behind in New York ; and William P. Durkee, now living in the town- ship, was but a mere lad.
Joseph Gilbert purchased and settled in the northwest quarter of section 28, on the southwesterly side of Gilbert lake, in 1824. He kept good working cattle, and professed extraordinary skill in the manufacture of ox-sleds. He lies in the burial-ground in the farm which he once owned.
Deacon Elijah Bull arrived in 1824, purchased the southeast quarter of section 29, and settled on the southeastern shore of Wing lake,-his tract cornering on that of Joseph Gilbert. Deacon Bull was a firm Presbyterian, and the main supporter of that form of worship in the western portion of the township. Few stood higher in the estimation of those who knew him than did Elijah Bull. His farm was one of the best in the township, and has recently been sold for fifteen thousand dollars.
Half a mile west of Deacon Bull settled Daniel Grinnell, on the southwest side of Wing lake, in the southeast quarter of section 30, now the farm of Mr. -Keeney. Mr. Grinnell was from Middleburg, New York. His son, Henry Grinnell, who has passed many years of his life on the Pacific coast, lives about a mile and a quarter west and south of the farm on which his father settled.
David Johnson arrived in that year, and purchased in the northeast quarter of section. 33, and Lewis Hedges settled in October in the northwest corner of the township, on section 6.
Pierce Patrick, a citizen afterwards most extensively known throughout the county, arrived at Hamilton's in October of that year. In his account of his first impressions of the country, he says, " When morning broke, I looked out, and I would have given all I was worth to have been back at Lyons" (the town in New York from whence he had come). He remained during the winter, and in the spring entered the west half of the southwest quarter of section 22 (now farm of Mrs. Shane), but did not settle on it until the spring of 1828, having returned to New York and married in the mean time. He was elected county clerk in 1838, and removed to Pontiac, where he remained until his death, which occurred May 8, 1875. His birthplace was Scipio, Cayuga county, New York. His brother, Franklin Patrick, who was a later settler, is still a resident of Bloomfield.
John Utter came with his family as early as 1824, and possibly in the preceding year. They settled on the Saginaw road, in the south part of section 14, a little east of William Morris, and a short distance northwest of Deacon Fish. Mrs. Utter and her daughter came to their death in a most terrible manner, the story of which is found recounted in an old Detroit newspaper, printed in April, 1825. It is from the pen of a correspondent, who wrote to that journal as follows :
" Bloomfield, Oakland County, Michigan, April 6, 1825 .- On the evening of last Monday a man by the name of Imri Fish, in a state of derangement of mind, killed with an axe the wife and daughter of John Utter, who resides about five miles from Pontiac. Mrs. Utter's age was forty-four years, and the daughter was thirteen years old."
The insane murderer was a brother of Deacon Fish. He was incarcerated in the jail at Pontiac immediately after the tragedy, and remained there in confine- ment until his death, which occurred about 1830.
Daniel Ferguson settled in the same year, on the northwest quarter of sec- tion 26. He had the reputation of a skillful hunter, and claimed that in his day he had killed fully a thousand deer ; also that, at a single shot and with a single . ball, he had made eight holes in a deer's hide. We are unable to give his explanation of the manner in which so unusual a feat was performed. He re- moved from Bloomfield to Genesee county afterwards.
James Stoughton came in the year 1825, and made settlement-which, how- ever, did not prove to be a permanent one-on John W. Hunter's land, at Piety Hill. It was not long until he removed thence to West Bloomfield, and he was also, at different times, a resident of Southfield and Farmington. He died in Van Buren county in 1874, at the age of seventy-nine years.
Others who came in the year 1825 were Freeman Waugh, from New York State, who settled in the southwest quarter of section 2, on a farm which is now owned by Rufus Hunter ; Lewis Greeves, who purchased on the Troy line, south- east quarter of section 1; John Chamberlain, who settled in the southeast quar- ter of section 4, now the Kimble farm; John Dimond, on the southeast quarter of section 15, a part or all of which he purchased from William Morris; and Josiah Barkley, who came from the State of New York in October of that year, and purchased on the southwest quarter of section 32, upon the town-line, just east of the village of Franklin, where he is yet living in extreme old age. He has two daughters, Mrs. B. A. Thorne and Mrs. Frank Drake, now living in Birmingham. .
Lewis Smith settled on an eighty-acre tract in the extreme southwestern corner of the township in 1826, and Hiram H. Hunter about the same time, on the west side of Wing lake, in the northwest quarter of section 30, and Barney Jones purchased in section 28, on the southern side of Gilbert lake, next ad- joining Joseph Gilbert on the east. John Nugent, a millwright, who married Mary, daughter of Ezra Baldwin, settled on section 23. John W. Turner, a maker of spinning-wheels, splint-bottomed chairs, and other useful articles, came in the same year, but his location cannot be precisely given. Mr. Culver settled near Fairbanks' Corners, and soon afterwards commenced the manufacture of fanning-mills. Samuel Satterlee purchased in the northeast quarter of section 13, and just north of him, in the southeast quarter of section 12, Marmaduke Lawson and Richard Hotham purchased a small tract in the spring of 1827. They were Englishmen, from Yorkshire. Lawson had three children and Hotham five, but they all lived together in a small log house on land now owned by Thomas Beach. They had selected an eighty-acre tract adjoining, but before they could raise the requisite funds to enter it it had been purchased by Hartford Cargil, from New York.
Thomas Barkley came in 1827, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 30, west of Wing Lake. Thomas Comfort came about the same time, and pur- chased in the southeast quarter of section 27, now the lands of Mrs. Hood. He removed to Wisconsin, where he died recently.
With the foregoing are included the names of nearly all the very earliest settlers in Bloomfield, and a large proportion of those of the immigrants of the first six years. It is of course impracticable to produce anything like a complete record of those who came and went, settled and removed, after the settlements and changes had become more numerous and frequent. We add, however, to those. already mentioned the names of a few, who should be included in the list of early pioneers, but whose date and location we are in many cases unable to give: Andrew Miller, James McHenry,-settled on northwest side of Gilbert lake; James Bailey came about 1826 ; Robert J. Beattie, southeast quarter of section 27 ; Luther Hunt, Jas. Greer, northeast quarter of section 20 ; Wm. Cummings, south- west quarter of section 19; Saml. Bassett, Joshua Pattee, southwest quarter of sec- tion 27 ; Luther Phillips, And. Porter, northeast quarter of section 8; Hugh Gor- don, who first lived with S. V. R. Trowbridge, in Troy, then settled on the north side of Wing lake; Saml. and Geo. Pearsall, northwest quarter of section 16; Eph. Moak, on the Dimond place ; Geo. Williams, northeast quarter of section 8 ; Calvin Webster, northeast quarter of section 12, now Blair farm ; Dennis Kelley, southeast quarter of section 14 ; Mr. Blackington, northeast quarter of section 23; Nathaniel Case, southwest quarter of section 27 ; William Warren, at the Hunter settlement ; Job Smith, John Williams, Avery Swan, Ralph Chittenden, southeast quarter of 24; Captain Chesley Blake, southeast quarter of section 10, now owned by Crofoot (Captain Blake died of cholera in 1852) ; Jacob Vaughn, northeast quarter of sec- tion 15, a little west of Bloomfield Centre; and Thos. McGraw, whose lands were. in section 9, adjoining those of Ezra Rood. It is related of Mr. McGraw that he . was a member of the legislature at the time that the question of the removal of the State capital was being discussed, and that, being also a member of the House committee which had the matter under consideration, he made a minority report,
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PONTIAC
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RESIDENCE OF A. G. DEWEY, BLOOMFIELD TP, OAKLAND CO, MICH.
J. B. CARTWRIGHT.
MRS. MARY J. CARTWRIGHT.
H.ROGERS. DEL.
RESIDENCE OF J. B. CARTWRIGHT , BIRMINGHAM, BLOOMFIELD TR. OAKLAND CO, MICH.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
recommending Bloomfield Centre as an eligible place for the seat of government ; and that, upon his being, perhaps a little contemptuously, requested to describe the location of the place which he had recommended, replied unhesitatingly that it was " three-fourths of a mile north of Morris' mill."
After 1826, the number of immigrants, and of those seeking locations for set- tlement in the then new land of the west, increased steadily, and with great rapidity. One of the oldest settlers in Bloomfield describes how they came, some with their families and household goods (the latter generally meagre in quantity and small in value), pushing on towards the lands which they had already se- lected and purchased, others with no impediments but the knapsack and perhaps the axe, energetically prospecting the country in search of choice tracts upon which to enter and establish their homes; each stopping wherever a cabin or a clearing could be seen, asking eager questions as to the character of the country farther on, and the prospect of finding eligible lands still unoccupied. To all of these was given a kind reception and full replies to all their inquiries, for each settler saw in the new comer's case one akin to his own; but after a time their numbers became so great that, although all possible information was still cheer- fully furnished, the settlers no longer stopped their work upon the advent of each new comer, for had they done so their chopping and clearing must have ceased entirely, so thickly and so incessantly did they come.
There were travelers towards the east too, as well as in the opposite direction ; those who having already found such locations as they desired were hastening back to the land-office to secure the prize, thence to return to their eastern homes, make the necessary arrangements, and in a few months to reappear in Michigan with their wives, children, and movables. Probably there were some of the returning ones too, whose extravagant expectations had not all been realized, or who, on this their first absence from the old eastern hearthstone, had become as homesick as Mr. Pierce Patrick represented himself to have been when he first saw Oak- land County on the morning succeeding his muddy trip over the Ball line road from Detroit to Piety Hill. These would return to their homes in New York or New England with the firm determination never to leave them ; soon, however, to regret that they had beat so hasty a retreat, then by degrees to feel a return of the ambition which first enticed them to Michigan; a feeling which perhaps would increase in violence, until, at the end of a year or two, they found them- selves again on the westward journey, to learn with bitter regret upon their arrival that their chances of securing a satisfactory location had grown materially less during the time which they had lost in homesickness and in the process of re- covery from it, and in many cases to purchase lands at an advanced price from uneasy, roving settlers, who had already begun to imagine themselves crowded, and who were only too ready to sell at a gain and " go west."
THE EARLY ROADS.
When John W. Hunter, John Hamilton, and Elijah Willets first came to Bloomfield to make their selection of lands for entry, they were obliged to travel hither by way of Mount Clemens and the Clinton river, as this route was at that time the only practicable one from Detroit, though it was about that time that the " Ball line" road was cut through so as to be in a manner passable, but not offi- cially laid out and established until December 15, 1819. Rufus Hunter, then a lad of between fourteen and fifteen years of age, was one of the party, consisting of seven men and two boys, who first cut the line through, being absent from Detroit just one week in the work.
After the Ball line was cut through, however, it was hardly worthy the name of road at all. It pursued no direct route, but crooked and meandered in what- ever direction the nature of the ground seemed most favorable. Its route in Bloomfield lay to the eastward of the present turnpike road, entering the town- ship on the northeast part of section 25.
Such as it was, it soon became much traveled, as all the westward-bound emi- grants for this section of country came over it, and those already established traveled that way in their necessary journeys to and from Detroit; and it thus continued to be the great thoroughfare until the laying out of the Saginaw road several years later, when the Ball line ceased to be used except for local travel, and the new line became the through route, though, except in the matter of straightness, it was hardly an improvement on the Ball line. From the accounts of those who recollect passing over it in its early years, it would seem to have been one of the worst roads that was ever traveled.
On the 20th of April, 1833, a road was ordered to be laid out, " running from a point on the Saginaw road, at or within one mile of the dwelling-house of John Hamilton, in the township of Bloomfield (as the commissioners hereafter appointed may designate), on the most eligible route through the village of Auburn, or until it intersects a territorial road leading from Rochester to the county-seat of Lapeer county ;" and Samuel Martin, Philip Bigler, and Daniel Bronson were appointed commissioners, with authority to lay out and establish the same.
And on the 16th of the same month, it was enacted by the legislative council " that there shall be a Territorial road laid out and established, commencing near the dwelling of John W. Hunter, on the Saginaw road, in the township of Bloom- field ; thence westwardly, and as nearly on the line of sections as may be practica- ble, to the Territorial road leading from Pontiac to Monroe, and from thence, in the most direct and practicable route, to the county-seat of the county of Shia- wassee ;" and John W. Hunter, Ziba Swan, Jr., and John Ellenwood were ap- pointed commissioners to lay out and establish it.
One of the earliest roads was one which was ordered to be laid out, to run " from Elijah Willets' sign-post in Bloomfield by the most direct and eligible route to the Rouge river, near the house of Moses Rodgers," which was in the southwestern part of the township of Southfield. William Morris and S. V .. R. Trowbridge were the commissioners appointed to lay out and establish this road.
From about 1833 dates the commencement of the laying out of the local town- ship roads, on section lines; these were gradually cut through and made prac- ticable, and have been improved from year to year up to their present excellent condition.
ERECTION OF THE TOWNSHIP.
By a proclamation of the Territorial governor, dated June 28, 1820, towns 1 and 2 north, in ranges 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 east (this embracing the two southern tiers of towns in the county of Oakland), were designated as Bloomfield, and con- tinued to be so known until April 12, 1827, when, by act of legislative council, approved on that day, towns 1 and 2 north, of range 10 (Southfield and Bloom- field), and 2 north, of range 9 (West Bloomfield), were detached, and the three together erected into the township of Bloomfield.
The first township-meeting was held at the house of John Hamilton, May 25, 1827. The board of inspectors consisted of Samuel Satterlee, Laban Jenks, and Elijah S. Fish. The moderator of the meeting was Elijah S. Fish, and the clerk for the day, Ogden Clarke.
The following were elected to township offices for the year succeeding : Lemuel Castle, supervisor ; Ezra S. Parke, clerk; John Todd, Joseph Park, and Abra- ham Crawford, assessors; John Ellenwood, John W. Hunter, and William Lee, commissioners of highways ; Wilkes Durkee and Apollo Dewey, Jr., poor-masters ; Oliver Torrey, collector ; and Erastus Burt and Oliver Torrey, constables. Before adjournment, it was " resolved that the sum of fifty dollars be raised for the sup- port of the poor," and the sum of five dollars was fixed as the bounty to be paid for each wolf killed within the limits of the township. Fifteen road overseers, nine fence-viewers, and three pound-masters were also elected, and the next meeting was appointed to be held at the house of Wilkes Durkee.
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