History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 104

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 104

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The house of worship of the Wing Lake church is located about half a mile north of the village of Franklin, on the west side of the road to Wing lake, and is a plain frame building, but neat and comfortable. It was built on land which formed a part of the original tract of Scriba Blakeslee.

It has already been mentioned that the building committee in charge of all matters pertaining to its erection was Deacon Elijah Bull, solitary and alone. Of him it may be truly said that not only was the church edifice in a very great degree the result of his energy and unstinted liberality, but that he was the founder and father of the church itself. He was its clerk from the time of organization until his death; his first entry upon the record being made June 4, 1831, and his last, June 11, 1870, a period of almost forty years. Eminently was he the church's one main sustaining pillar ; without his active religious zeal it would never have been brought into being, and without his unfailing support in after-years it must have ceased to exist.

BLOOMFIELD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

The first step towards the establishment of regular Presbyterian worship in Bloomfield, of which we have any account, was the holding of a three-days' meeting at the barn of Deacon Elijah S. Fish, early in the year 1834. On the 2d of July, in that year, a meeting for the purpose of organization was held at

WILLIAM LOWES.

MRS. MARGARET LOWES

MRS. DAVID PATCHETT.

DAVID PATCHETT.

327

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Deacon Fish's residence, which was at that time a wooden house (to which a brick front was afterwards added) at the maple-grove which the deacon had planted, on the east side of the Saginaw road, and now the property of J. E. Benedict.

At this meeting, the ministers present were Rev. Mr. McEwen and Rev. George Eastman. After religious exercises the organization of the church was effected, the following being its original members : William Blackington, Anna Blacking- ton, Deacon Elijah S. Fish, and Fanny his wife,-the foregoing being from the Presbyterian church of Pontiac; Dennis H. Quick and Abraham S. Hoagland, from the Presbyterian church of Troy; Thomas Comfort and Newell Comfort, from the Presbyterian church in Southport, Tioga county, New York, and Nathan Davis, from the Presbyterian church in Utica, New York. Of these nine mem- bers, only the venerable Dennis H. Quick is still a resident of the vicinity, and probably the only survivor. Elijah S. Fish and Abraham S. Hoagland were appointed elders and deacons, and Nathan Davis church clerk.

At a session meeting held on the 3d of August, 1834, and presided over by Rev. Eri Prince, the following persons were received into the church by letter : Daniel and Mary Odell, Mary Matthews and Rachel Matthews, Maria V. Quick, Pamelia Quick, Gertrude Ann Quick, and Andrew V. D. Quick. This was the first addition to the church, and doubled its membership.

Deacon Fish was the first delegate from this church to presbytery, sitting in September, 1834, at Pontiac. This was also the first communion season, and it is especially noted "that a number of the Methodist brethren and sisters united in the ordinance."

The church has enjoyed ten pastorates, including the present. They have been those of Rev. Noah Cook, December 26, 1834, to June, 1836; Rev. A. S. Wells, from May 1, 1837, to October, 1840; Rev. Geo. T. Hornell, from November, 1841, to August, 1842; Rev. E. H. Fairchild, from November, 1842, to Novem- ber, 1849 ; Rev. Samuel N. Steele, from August, 1849, to February, 1851; Rev. James McLauren, from September, 1851, to July, 1854; Rev. S. N. Hill, from May 1, 1855, to May 1, 1867 ; Rev. A. E. Hastings, from November, 1867, to November, 1873; Rev. Wm. J. Stoutenburgh, from February, 1874, to Novem- ber 1, 1876, and Rev. Thomas Middlemis, the present pastor, who entered upon his labor at Birmingham on the 18th of February, 1877.

The following elders have served the church at some time since its organiza- tion : Elders Elijah S. Fish and Abraham S. Hoagland, elected in July, 1834; Thomas Comfort, elected in August, 1834, served until 1842, eight years ; Sey- mour Adams, December, 1837, to 1849, twelve years ; Dennis H. Quick, Sep- tember, 1839, to the present time, thirty-eight years ; J. H. Wendell, January to November, 1842, ten months; S. V. R. Trowbridge, May 1, 1843, until the time of his death, which occurred suddenly on March 1, 1849, having served the church nearly sixteen years; Mason I. James, March, 1850, to July, 1859, more than nine years; H. Daniels, 1850 to 1852; William Lowes, 1850 to 1852; Alvin Simonson, April, 1858, to the present time, nineteen years; G. M. Trowbridge, July 1, 1859, to the present, eighteen years; Stephen Cooper, July 1, 1859, to December 4, 1875, sixteen years, and John S. Hunter, Albert Adams, and Stevens since December, 1875.

The minutes of a few of the first meetings were kept by Nathan Davis, and afterwards by Thomas Comfort, until November, 1842. He was succeeded by Seymour Adams, from November, 1842, to August, 1849; by Rev. Mr. Steele, from 1849 to 1851; Rev. Mr. McLauren, then by S. V. R. Trowbridge, then for a short time by Rev. S. N. Hill and G. M. Trowbridge, extending to April, 1860. From this time, Mr. Hill kept the records for seven years, and was suc- ceeded by Stephen Cooper for eight years and more. The present clerk is John L. Hunter.

The society (body corporate) organization was effected December 17, 1835, at Davis' hotel, in Birmingham, which was designated as their regular place of wor- ship. At its organization, the title of the society was, " The Presbyterian Society of Bloomfield," and Isaac S. Smith, Dennis H. Quick, Daniel Odell, Elijah S. Fish, Abraham S. Hoagland, and Thomas Comfort were elected trustees. The proceed- ings were acknowledged before Jonathan Chase, Esq., J. P. The society's records are entirely lacking for twelve years succeeding the organization. The name of the society was, on the 20th of February, 1850, changed to that of " The Pres- byterian Society of Birmingham."

After Davis' hotel the next place of worship was the old wooden school-house which stood on the lot now owned by Andrew Wallace, on the northwest corner of Mill and Chester streets. The old building is now used as a barn. The last record of a meeting in this old school-house was that of May 1, 1843, an occa- sion on which a large accession was made to the numbers of the church,-sixteen by profession, and eight by letter.

Their next place of meeting was the Methodist church, which was for a time rented for afternoon services at one hundred dollars per year.

The first church edifice of the Presbyterians was built and dedicated in the summer of 1844, the second year of the pastorate of Rev. E. H. Fairchild. The dedicatory sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Bates, of Pontiac; the prayer by Rev. Mr. Ingersoll. This old meeting-house stood on the site now occupied by their present church building on Troy street, and was occupied there until the spring of 1860, when, on the first of March, it was sold at auction, for removal, to Henry J. Blumberg, for the sum of one hundred and fifty-six dollars. It was, by the purchaser, removed to the lot adjoining Hugh Irving's store, to the north- ward, on Saginaw street, and there used for the holding of political meetings. From that spot it was afterwards removed to the corner of Saginaw and Troy streets, where it is still in use as a market-house.

The present church building was erected in the summer of 1860, during the pastorate of Rev. S. N. Hill. It was dedicated, free of debt, on the fifth of December in that year, the sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. William Hogarth, of Detroit, with dedicatory prayer by the pastor. There were also present the Revs. Thomas Wright and T. Foster, and, from the Methodists, the Rev. Mr. Hedges.

The entire cost of the church (including the furnishing, which was provided by the ladies) was two thousand five hundred dollars. The building committee under whose direction the work was done were Rev. S. N. Hill, A. D. Simonson, and G. M. Trowbridge. The edifice still retains its original size and proportions, though the question of its enlargement has been earnestly agitated and discussed of late.

A Sabbath-school was organized in connection with the church as early as 1837. Following are the names of those who have acted as superintendents : J. H. Wendell, Rev. E. H. Fairchild, S. V. R. Trowbridge, Charles Brownell, Hugh Irving, Mr. Johnson, and G. M. Trowbridge, who has held the position for the last fifteen years. The number of pupils in attendance in 1866 and 1867 was sixty, which has been nearly doubled at the present time.

THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF BIRMINGHAM.

The history of the Baptist cause in Bloomfield extends over a period of nearly forty-five years. About the beginning of the year 1833, a church of the denom- ination was organized in the little settlement which is now Birmingham village, and, by act of ecclesiastical council, May 25, 1833, was recognized as ".The Regular Baptist Church of Bloomfield."

It seems to have been lacking, however, in the necessary elements of perma- nency. It had no place of worship; the members were poor, and perhaps some- times inharmonious in their ideas ; removals and other causes weakened them so much that it became difficult for them to maintain themselves as a church, and about the year 1840 the organization was dissolved. The Rev. J. M. Martin was their last, and perhaps their only pastor.

For thirty years after this there was no Baptist organization in Birmingham, and as one by one the remaining members of the old church were scattered by death or removal, the very memory of its existence had almost faded away.

But about the commencement of the present decade the Baptists in Birming- ham and vicinity having received some accessions by removals thither from other places, and believing themselves sufficiently strong to re-establish and support their denominational worship, they met and resolved that, " Whereas, in the prov- idence of God, several brethren and sisters of different Baptist churches having located in and near the town of Birmingham, and whereas there being no regular Baptist church within six or seven miles of said town, we feel it our duty and esteem it a great privilege to be associated together in the faith and fellowship of the gospel ; therefore, we mutually agree to band ourselves together in an organ- ization which shall adopt the articles of faith and covenant commonly received among regular Baptist churches, and which shall be known as 'The Regular Baptist Church of Birmingham.'"

The church organization was effected on the 28th of June, 1870, and the per- sons subscribing to the articles of faith and the covenant were Joseph Donaldson, Joseph Phillips, Joshua Fay, Benjamin Leach, Samuel Holman, Albert Put- nam, Esther Holman, Polly Fay, E. A. Valentine, and Eliza Anscomb.

On the 9th of September, 1870, Joseph Phillips and Ezra Mathewson were elected deacons, and Albert Putnam was elected clerk.

The ecclesiastical council of recognition met in the Presbyterian church of Bir- mingham on the 13th of September, 1870, when the church was recognized, and the list of membership read, as follows: By baptism, two; by experience, four ; by letter, eleven ; total membership, seventeen. The church when recognized had no house of worship, and no pastor; they held their prayer, covenant, and busi- ness meetings from house to house, and Rev. William Remington, pastor of the Baptist church at Pontiac, led the church, preached, and administered the ordinances.

The subject of the erection of a house of worship was at once agitated, and, at

328

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

a meeting held at the house of Albert Putnam, on the 3d of October in the same year, a building committee was elected, consisting of Ezra Matthewson and Albert Putnam.

On the 9th of November following, the church elected as a board of trustees, Joseph Donaldson, Samuel Holman, Albert Putnam, and George Blakeslee. At about the same time they rented as a place of worship a building known as " the old academy," situated at the southwest corner of Mill and Pierce streets, the present site of the post-office building. In this they held their meetings for about one year, when the building was destroyed by fire.

In the winter of 1870-71 the church purchased two lots on Saginaw street, and made preparations for the erection of a house of worship during the succeed- ing summer ; but this building enterprise was not accomplished, the failure being due to disagreement among the members upon the question of location.

It was also during the same winter that a protracted meeting of six weeks' continuance was held by Rev. W. R. Northrup, and resulted in a considerable number of conversions, but most of the converts united with the Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

After this the Rev. Mr. Northrup continued to supply the church for some four or five months, and after his departure the Birmingham church united with the Baptist church of Royal Oak in the support of a pastor who should give his services to each alternately. Under this arrangement the Rev. Silas Finn com- menced to labor for these churches about November, 1871, and continued for about a year. His meetings were held at first in the old academy building, until its destruction by fire, then in the Methodist meeting-house, until some difficulty arose which rendered it advisable that they should discontinue its use as a place of worship; after which, on several occasions, Mr. Finn held services in the open air. After the conclusion of Mr. Finn's ministry with them, they had neither pastor nor preaching for about a year and a half, though during this time they regularly kept up the covenant- and prayer-meetings at private dwellings.

At a church- and society-meeting held January 14, 1873, it was again resolved to build a meeting-house in the following summer, and to this end E. Matthewson and B. Daniels were constituted a building committee. Under their superinten- dency the resolution to build was carried into effect, and the present house of worship was erected and completed during the summer of 1873. Its location is at the head of Bates street, in Willets' addition to Birmingham. The total cost of the edifice was seventeen hundred dollars, and it was dedicated, free of debt, on Sunday, September 28, 1873, the Rev. John Matthews, of Detroit, preach- ing the dedication sermon.

In March, 1874, the church called the Rev. D. Gostellow to the pastorate. He labored with them, in connection with the Baptist church of Troy, for one year and nine months, and then resigned. In the spring of 1876, the church secured the services of Rev. J. E. Bitting, as supply for one year. He com- menced his labors on Sunday, May 21, 1876, supplying also the church at Troy.

At a meeting of the church, held April 4, 1877, it was voted to invite Mr. Bitting to continue another year with them, provided the necessary amount of salary could be raised. In this, however, they were not successful, and, much to their regret, Mr. Bitting closed his labors with them on May 20, 1877, to assume the pastorate of the church at Novi ..

A Sabbath-school was commenced at the time of the organization of the church in 1870. It was under the superintendeney of Dr. James A. Post, who has con- tinued in charge of it until the present time. The average of pupils is about seventy-five.

PLACES OF INTERMENT.

There are several burial-grounds in Bloomfield, but none of them are incor- porated cemeteries, and none are exclusively under township control. :

THE BIRMINGHAM CEMETERY,

as it is called, is a ground of two acres, adjoining the corporation of Birmingham on its northern boundary, and near its northwest corner. It was part of the original tract entered and settled on by Dr. Ziba Swan; and it was he who, before 1825, donated a spot to be used as a burial-place; this being half an acre in ex- tent, and embraced within the present cemetery inclosure.

The first interments within this old ground were those of Mrs. John Utter and her daughter, the manner of whose death has already been narrated. The be- reaved husband and father died soon after, and was buried by the side of his wife and child.

In due time the donor of the ground, and very many of the oldest as well as of the younger inhabitants of Bloomfield were laid away there; and, as the small space grew populous with graves, and it became apparent that more area of land was required for present as well as prospective use, some fifteen of the citizens of the vicinity joined together (though not as a legally-constituted association or company) and, by subscription, purchased an additional acre and a half, which

they inclosed with the old half-acre and formed the present cemetery ground. It has been decorated and beautified to some extent, and is well kept. The inter- ments within it have become very numerous.

THE VAUGHN CEMETERY,

which lies a little west of Bloomfield Centre, is the enlargement of an old grave- yard upon the land of Jacob Vaughn (now owned by Potter Knight), in which the first burials were those of members of Mr. Vaughn's family.

After a time other interments were made there, and about 1860 the ground was enlarged in the same manner as was the Swan burial-ground at Birmingham, by citizens of the vicinity purchasing additional land from Richard Vaughn, the successor of Jacob.

There are now a large number of graves in the inclosure, including some of ancient date.

THE GILBERT LAKE BURIAL-GROUND.

This ground is situated on the southwestern side of Gilbert lake, on the farm of E. R. Adams, which was formerly owned by Joseph Gilbert, the first inter- ment in it having been that of his wife, Mrs. Nancy Gilbert, many years ago. From being a cluster of family graves it came to be used as a place of interment by the inhabitants of the vicinity, until in this, as in the other old grave-yards of Bloomfield, the number of silent occupants has become very large.

THE GREER GRAVE-YARD

is a small inclosure located about a mile and a half north and west of the one last mentioned, and in the farm formerly owned by James Greer, who died February 7, 1857, at the age of seventy-two years, and now lies buried here; and beside him his wife Jane, who died in 1868, at the age of eighty-three years. Here, also, lie Thomas Gillespie and his wife Nancy, who died April 11, 1872, at the great age of ninety-two years and three months.

This ground is of comparatively recent date, and contains only eleven graves in all. Its location is in a wild and secluded spot among the forest-trees on the south line of the Greer farm.

OTHER BURIAL-PLACES.

There is a small grave-yard on the farm of Andrew Porter, on the Square lake road, a mile and a half west from the Saginaw turnpike; and in two or three other places in the township there are similar inclosures containing a few graves; one of these being upon the Kimble farm, east of the Pontiac road, and about three- fourths of a mile south of the town-line, the same on which John Chamberlain settled in 1825.

For facts furnished and courteous assistance rendered in the preparation of the history of Bloomfield township the thanks of the publishers are due to the following gentlemen : Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, Messrs. Edwin Baldwin, Rufus Hunter, J. F. Durkee, Ammos Davis, Benjamin A. Thorne, J. A. Bigelow, - Corson, G. M. Trowbridge, J. S. Stockwell, George Blakeslee, the Hon. Alanson Partridge, Mason I. James, Esq., Orrin Poppleton, Esq., Josiah Alger, Esq., and John Bodine, Esq., of Birmingham ; Asa B. Hadsell and William P. Durkee, of the township; Deacon Melvin Drake of Southfield, and John Ellenwood, of West Bloomfield.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

JOHN JONES.

I was born in Whitestown, near Utica, in the State of New York, May 6, 1803, and removed from Jefferson county, New York, in the spring of 1821, and settled in what is now Troy ; entered and settled northwest quarter of section 19, containing forty acres of land. Our family consisted of father and mother, and my brother Joseph and sister Margaret, and myself. When we first landed in Detroit we had only eighty dollars, to pay for our land and buy provisions for one year, and to buy us a team ; so you see it stood us in hand to study economy. We had to pay one dollar per hundred to have our goods hauled out from Detroit to our land, which was considered at that time a reasonable price, as it took four days to go over the road with an ox-team.' I say road; there was no road; we were guided by marked trees. Well, we built us a log shanty, and covered it with bark ; and felt thankful that we had a home, and if we could have been sure of enough to eat we would have felt happy. We could get along without roads,-willing to be guided by marked trees,-willing to do without these conveniences, if we were sure of corn-bread enough to keep starve-to-death away. Well, we cleared a spot

JOHN JONES.

MRS. JOHN JONES.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN JONES , BIRMINGHAM, BLOOMFIELD TP, OAKLAND CO., MICH.

OF MIG

MRS. HORATIO SCOTT.

HORATIO SCOTT.

DETROIT AND

UNITED

STATES

NO. 30.

BAGGAG

MAIL

RESIDENCE of HORATIO SCOTT, BLOOMFIELD TP, OAKLAND CO, MICH .

329

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

and planted some corn that spring. We then took a job of chopping and clear- ing, and earned enough to buy us a yoke of four-year-old steers, but they did not prove to be the right kind of a team. They were very hard to break, and they would turn the yoke the wrong side up too often, and we could not afford to buy whip-lashes, so we sold them the first chance we had, and bought another pair, which proved to be better,-but found that we had not money enough to pay for them into ten dollars, which sum at that time was almost impossible to raise, but, to overcome that difficulty, I left my old father at home, shouldered my axe, and made up my mind that, come what would, those steers must be paid for. I hired out chopping for Nelson Madding, an Oakland County pioneer; worked about a month for ten dollars, got the money, and paid for oxen, and felt rich. About this time our supply of corn-bread began to give out, and we could not get corn- · meal or flour if we had the money to pay for it; so to avoid going hungry we picked and husked our corn in the month of August, and dried it on the top of our shanty, and took it to Auburn to mill, got it ground, and thus kept up a sup- ply of bread. I have often heard of times that tried men's souls, but I look back to those old pioneer days and think that then was the time that tried men's stomachs.

After we had been on our forty acres a year or two we concluded that it was not sufficient for a farm, so we thought the first chance we had for selling we would do so. We soon had a chance, and acted accordingly ; sold, and settled, in the spring of 1823, on the northwest quarter of section 21,-eighty in Troy,-and before we could get to our land we had to cut brush and make a road for our ox- team to go through. This eighty acres we entered at the land-office in Detroit at the government price, one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

When we first settled on our new purchase we found that we were yet in the midst of a wilderness. The nearest neighbor, and only one for miles round, was Riley Crooks, another pioneer. He lived in a log shanty in the northwest quarter of section 20. He was killed by the falling of a tree, April 27, 1830. The next early pioneers that came in and settled, near a year or two after, were William Poppleton, John Sprague, William Stanley, Hiram Smith (or Uncle Hi, as he was called), all of whom have passed away to their long homes. In the spring or summer of 1823 we built us a log house, and covered it with stakes, split our flooring out of logs, and, by the way, I will add, we did not stop to plane or match it. We now felt we had a home once more, and what we called a comfortable one at that time; although we had no door, the first summer only a blanket hung up as a substitute for one, and at that time we were in the midst of a howling and unbroken wilderness, and expected to make an honest living by hard work, with only the helve of that noble article, the axe, which we could not well do without. We could have made improvements faster on our land had we had the money to buy our provisions with, but I had to chop for other settlers, and take jobs to earn food to live on for a few days, then chop and clear on our own land while it lasted, and when about gone, go out and work for more. Perhaps some of the young men of the present day would like to know what wages were paid at that time for labor. I will just say that a good chopper could earn from thirty to fifty cents per day, and he must be a man that could swing an axe from morning till night, in the months of April, May, June, and, I might add, all summer, and he must not be particular about his bill of fare; at that time, if he got plenty of pork and corn-bread, and occasionally a few potatoes, he was a lucky man, as for me, I have chopped for days and weeks on pudding and milk alone. These things, I doubt not, will seem strange at the present day, but nevertheless it is true. I mention these things to let the young people of the present day know what we, the old pioneers of Oakland County, passed through to turn a vast wilderness into a rich and beautiful and productive country, which will be the pride of rising generations.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 104

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