History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 19

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 19

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difficulties, the convention, in forming a State constitution, in 1835, included therein a clause providing, " that section shall be granted to the State."

The ordinance admitting Michigan into the Union in January, 1837, declared " that section No. 16, in every township of the public lands (and where such section has been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands, equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be), shall be granted to the State for the use of schools." The original and present constitutions required that these lands should "remain a perpetual fund for that object."

This provision greatly simplified the work of managing the school lands and the accruing fund. One great advantage of this plan has been that all sections of the State shared equally and at once in the benefits of this general fund. The loss in consequence of poor sections was shared by the whole State.

The amount of lands donated to the school-fund approximated one million acres. In addition, the fund derives a large income from the sale of swamp lands. The amount of those lands remaining unsold on the 30th of September, 1875, was four hundred and forty-seven thousand three hundred and nineteen acres. The accumulated fund (exclusive of swamp-land fund), at the same date, was $2,837,743.85. Add to this from swamp lands $150,000, and the fund amounted to near $3,000,000. The ultimate available fund is prospectively estimated at five million dollars.

UNIVERSITY LANDS.

The act of Congress of 1804, for the disposal of public lands in the northwest, reserved three townships "for the use of seminaries of learning," and one of these townships was for that part of the Territory now constituting the State of Michigan. Three sections were granted by Congress, in 1817, to the " College of Detroit." The proceeds of this last grant were afterwards added to the "uni- versity fund."

The university was established by an act of the legislature in 1837, which provided for the establishment of branches at several points in the State, one of which was Pontiac; and we find, by reference to files of the Pontiac Courier, that it was opened on the 15th day of September, 1837, with Professor George P. Williams as principal.

The magnificent plan of Judge Woodward for a grand central university, with outlying branches, was quite thoroughly tested, but after a few years it was found that the funds were insufficient for the central school at Ann Arbor, and the last appropriation by the legislature for the branches was made in 1846. Under a more practicable plan, the university has become one of the foremost institutions in the land.

THE PRIMARY SCHOOL-LAW

was enacted by the first State legislature, in 1837. It provided for the division of the State into districts containing a sufficient number of inhabitants to support a school with one teacher. The schools were composed of pupils of all grades. As the population increased the districts were subdivided. This system was modeled upon that of Prussia. The primary schools constituted the founda- tion and superstructure of the system, and the university its crowning dome.

GRADED SCHOOLS.

The system of branch universities having been abandoned, a new one was de- vised. In the cities and villages they were united under the name of " union schools," divided into departments called primary, intermediate, grammar, and high schools. This, in its modern perfection, is called the graded system.

The curriculum of the high school is the same as that adopted by the best academies, and a diploma from these admits the scholar to the university.

For the first ten or twelve years after the organization of the school system very little attention was paid to the character of the buildings. They were gen- erally of the cheaper kind, inconvenient, ill ventilated, and utterly inadequate to the necessities of the times.

At this day Michigan stands in the foremost rank, both as regards the perfec- tion of her school system and the prominence, cost, and beauty of her buildings.

All large towns and cities have splendid accommodations for their schools, and edifices costing from twenty thousand to upwards of one hundred thousand dollars are not uncommon.

STATISTICAL.

According to the report of the superintendent of public instruction for 1875, Oakland County contained 220 school districts, with 224 buildings, of which 15 were of stone, 26 of brick, 182 frame, and 1 log. The total value of buildings and school property was $316,572, and their seating capacity 14,731. The total number of school-children between the ages of 5 and 20 years was 12,467, of whom 10,773 attended school during the year. The average number of months' school was 7.7. Number of graded schools in the county, 12. Number of teachers, 472 ; males 136, females 336. Total wages for the year, males $29,-

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

470.81 ; females, $33,910.44. Grand total, $63,381.25. Average wages per month, males, $47.53 ; females, $22.79. Total school resources of the county, $108,722.93.

In the value of buildings and lots Oakland is eighth in rank among the counties of the State, being surpassed by Berrien, Calhoun, Kent, Lenawee, Saginaw, Washtenaw, and Wayne. In the number of its accommodations it is fourth ; in number of scholars it is seventh; and in amount of wages paid, fifth. Total indebtedness of the various districts in the county, $55,121.65.

EARLY SCHOOLS.

Probably the first school taught within the limits of Oakland County was opened in a little square room in the loft of Major Williams' sheep-pen or house, in the fall of 1821. The room was about fifteen feet square, and had three small slide windows, a stove, and some rough seats and writing-desks. A young man by the name of Brett, from Ohio, who had ventured out into the wilderness, was the first teacher, and the " first term" showed a roll of seven scholars. The committee and directors consisted of Major Williams and Dr. William Thompson, the last named having been the first physician in the county. These two heads of fami- lies furnished all the scholars. The young man taught six months, and left for his home in Ohio before the sickly season came on, highly pleased with his expe- rience.

In 1822, Jacob Stevens joined the Williams settlement with his family, con- sisting of a wife, two sons, and three daughters, two of the latter being teachers. This addition of scholars made it necessary to enlarge the school facilities of the neighborhood, and accordingly a new log school building was soon erected, and one of the Stevens girls opened the second term with twelve scholars.

Mr. Stevens' eldest son was a fine singer, and Major Williams' eldest son also understood music, and a singing-school was organized in a room of the major's dwelling. The class consisted of four ladies and three gentlemen, and after a little practice they became quite proficient, and made the log cabin and sur- rounding forest ring with hymns " and psalms" two evenings in the week. They also diverted themselves with spelling, rehearsing in grammar, and playing various games, then common among the settlers, such as chess, whist, and draughts.

The original school opened in Major Williams' outbuilding probably had its counterpart in almost every neighborhood in the county, sooner or later. The studies were confined to the common English branches,-reading, spelling, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic.

ACADEMIES.

Two academies were incorporated in Oakland County while under Territorial rule, the first at Auburn village, under an act approved March 2, 1831. The " trustees of Auburn academy" were seven in number, and as follows : Benjamin Phelps, S. V. R. Trowbridge, Elizur Goodrich, Ezra S. Park, Reuben Woodford, Seth Beach, and George Hornell .*

The second was incorporated by an act approved April 23, 1833, and called the " Pontiac Academy." The original trustees were Samuel Sherwood, Hervey Parke, Olmstead Chamberlin, Amasa Andrews, and Wm. Thompson.}

With the advent of public schools these academies, and the various private and select schools, gradually disappeared, and the new system has grown with the growth of the country, and improved from year to year as necessity demanded or wisdom suggested, until it is to-day, perhaps, all things considered, the most com- plete and perfect in all its departments of any in the Union.

There is no excuse for ignorance in Michigan, for it costs no more to school the youth of the State than to abstain from it; in fact, the ultimate expense to the Commonwealth is much less, for it is apparent to the dullest intellect that the great bulk of the pauperism and crime of the age is directly traceable to a neglect of carly education.

Notices of academies and schools will be found in connection with the histories of Pontiac and the various villages and townships. The lack of a county super- intendent of schools is a serious drawback in the way of obtaining the necessary information for compiling a satisfactory article upon his subject.

RELIGIOUS.

Man is a religious being. Instinctively he looks with reverence and awe upon the countless manifestations of Almighty power that compass him on every hand. He beholds the starry heavens with their wonderful and mysterious worlds, spin- ning upon their innumerable centres, obedient to an occult but all-controlling will. He gazes with mingled feelings of wonder and admiration upon the over- whelming majesty of a universe he can neither measure nor comprehend. With-

# See " Territorial Laws," vol. iii. p. 879. + Ibid., p. 1205.

out going beyond the diminutive sphere whereon he dwells, and fondly imagining it to be of vast importance in the economy of that indestructible Cosmos whose hid- den springs of action and whose destiny he fathoms not, he has abundant mate- rial whereon to build theories and construct conjectures. Vast mountain chains ridge the earth like the furrow of the husbandman ; immense and boundless seas encompass all the lands ; mighty rivers and undulating plains, lakes, hills, and vales, give beauty and variety to the broad, spreading earth ; and the unnumbered forms of animal life, both upon the land and in the depths of the sea, fill his mind with constantly accumulating evidence that somewhere in the depths of im- mensity-far in the grand centre of this " mighty maze, though not without a plan"-dwells OMNIPOTENCE.

Far back in the dim ages of antiquity, when his attempts at picturing the thoughts that thronged his dark, unlettered mind were but strange and fantastic creations, we find the primal man giving precedence to his religious, or, if you please, his superstitious nature, and bowing in adoration before the rude personi- fications of that power to which he knelt in humble submission, and to which he applied in his hour of trouble, and offered sacrifices and chanted strange music in his hour of prosperity.

In all ages man has erected his costliest temples, and dedicated them to the worship of the Eternal principle, under various creeds and forms of belief, giving it a name and attributes in accordance with the measure of his intelligence.

It matters little what particular system of religious belief he may live under, the grand central idea of all religions is adoration of the inconceivable, the in- comprehensible, the OMNIPOTENT.

The Christian church, in its multiform phases, is dominant in the United States, and whether it embodies absolute truth, or dilutes and adulterates with the super- stitions of the far-off ages, is not a matter for the consideration of the historian. He should be a truthful chronicler of events, and

" Naught extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."

As in every other portion of the American Union, the church and the Sabbath- school came with the foremost pioneers of Oakland County, from the hills and valleys of New England, from the banks of the Hudson and the Genesee, and from the'plains and mountain-slopes of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Congregational and Baptist elements are largely from New York and New England. The genuine Presbyterian traces his origin back through the domain of Penn to -

" Scotia's renowned, romantic land."

The Episcopalians, not numerous in this part of the country, are largely' com- : posed of English people, while the Methodist denomination, which is the most numerous of any in the county, is composed, like the contents of the net seen in the wonderful vision of him who denied his Master, of a great variety of people, claiming no particular lineage.

The Roman Catholics are numerically weaker than the others, being made up principally of the French and Irish portions of the population.

FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS.

Probably the earliest congregation or society organized in the county was the Baptist, which dates back to 1822 in Pontiac. The Presbyterians appear in 1824, and the Congregationalists in 1827, the two former at Pontiac, the latter at Rochester. Methodist circuit-riders visited in this region at an early date, and their first society was formed about 1826. The Episcopalians first organized about 1829, in Troy township. The Catholics came at a later date, but the data for fixing their earliest appearance are not at hand. The Universalists had an organization in Rochester as early as 1838.

The denomination known as Free Methodists is of recent formation in Oak- land County, their first preaching having been on the fair-grounds in Pontiac, in the autumn of 1873, by Edward Mathews, an Englishman. They now have two small gatherings in the county, one at Auburn, and another at South Lyon. A small settlement of Mormons at one time existed in Highland township, and there were scattered individuals in other sections.

STATISTICAL.

According to the latest census returns (1870), there were in Oakland County 74 religious organizations and 63 church edifices.

Of the organizations 14 were Baptist, 6 Congregationalists, 6 Episcopalians, 26 Methodists, 15 Presbyterian, and 4 Catholics, with sittings as follows : Baptist, 3790 ; Congregational, 2250 ; Episcopal, 900; Methodist, 5800 ; Presbyterian, 4700; Catholic, 1350.}

# For details see history of the various townships, cities, and villages.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

In these statistics the subdivisions of the Methodists and Presbyterians are not given.

In 1870 the total number of sittings in the county was 18,790, and the total value of church property $249,100. The increase since the census was taken has been, perhaps, about five per cent., which would give, at the present time, an aggregate as follows : Organizations, 78; edifices, 66 ; sittings, 20,000; and a total value of church property of $261,550.

The most costly church buildings in the county are those of the Congrega- tional, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations in the city of Pon- tiac. The church buildings generally throughout the county are neat, tasty, and convenient.

Most of the congregations have Sabbath-schools connected with them, and generally they are in a very satisfactory condition.

A particular history of nearly every religious society and organization will be found in connection with the history of the respective townships and villages. These histories have been mostly prepared by pastors and prominent members from authentic records, and can, therefore, be relied upon as very accurate and complete. Some of the other organizations are treated in extenso.

The religious historical matter has been as thoroughly worked up and com- piled as possible. No pains have been spared to make this department all that could be desired; and if there should seem to be anything lacking, it is in conse- quence of a failure to obtain the necessary information, after thorough opportu- nity had been given.

THE PRESS

of Michigan has been ably represented in Oakland County since the earliest days of its history. The fourth newspaper published in the Territory had a beginning here, and was known as

THE OAKLAND CHRONICLE,

the initial number of which was issued Monday morning, May 31, A.D. 1830, by Thomas Simpson, editor and publisher. The terms of publication were three dollars per year, in advance, or three dollars and fifty cents, if paid at the end of year. It was, as the prospectus said, Jeffersonian in politics, in which faith the editor had been nurtured. and therefore supported the Jacksonian administration heartily and without reserve. Howbeit, its editorials were not fiercely partisan, but somewhat mildly drawn ; probably the cause for this amiable disposition was the absence of a counter-irritant-a Whig paper-in the Territory. We make the following extracts from the files, which we have had the pleasure of perusing, through the courtesy of M. Beekman, Esq., of Pontiac, at which place the paper was published.

The initial number contained the account of the passage of the bill by Congress reducing the price of the public lands. The report of the chairman of the House committee on post-roads and mails (Johnson, of Kentucky) on the Sunday mails, petitions for the suspension of which had been presented to Congress, was given at length, wherein the majority recommended the rejection of the prayer of the petitioners. The next number contained the minority report of McCreery, to sus- pend the mails. The first number also contained a lengthy report of the celebra- tion at Washington of Jefferson's birthday,-May 13,-the account of which had just been received direct. Governor Cass' message (speech, the editor called it) to the fourth legislative council also was reported, which convened in Detroit, May 11. Besides these, this number contained well-selected miscellany, a bank- note table, and a salutatory, altogether making a heavy issue.

The second number contained the notice of the appointment of Amos Mead as postmaster at Farmington, vice Dr. E. Webb, resigned. During the month of June the Oakland Temperance Society was advertised to meet at the school-house near Judge Amasa Bagley's, July 5. August 27, the state of health of Pontiac was reported as follows : " fever, three cases; ague, four cases; all able to walk about, and not a death in the village that season," up to that date. A spicy cor- respondence was carried on for some weeks in the columns of the paper between Sheriff Hervey Parke and certain of his fellow-citizens, under various noms de plume, relative to his farming out his official duties at a reduced rate of fees. He denied the soft impeachment in toto.

The first week in October, 1830, the Indians assembled at Saginaw to receive their annuities from the United States for their lands sold, and while waiting for the disbursement, one Pa-ba-mash, in a fight, let daylight through the vitals of a fellow-brave, whereupon Esquire Stanard issued a warrant for the turbulent war- rior, who sent word to the court, if he had any " heap big" constable he wanted ate up, to send him on to Saginaw, and he, the aforesaid Chippewa, would ac- commodate him. Esquire Stanard found a constable who did not fear the red man on his native heath, more especially as the aforesaid red man had alienated the aforesaid heath ; and therefore Pa-ba-mash was brought before the court in

Pontiac, and, upon examination, turned over to Sheriff Parke to await the result of the wounds on the injured man. Pa-ba-mash was subsequently released, more on the ground that if the victim died it would be one Indian less to guard against than for any other reason.

November 5, 1830, the editor, in commenting on the news from France, in- dulged in bright fancies of future good close at hand, which have not yet been realized. He says, "The time is not far distant when the nations of earth will elect their own public servants," and then quotes the Declaration of Independence, and immediately proceeds to take the anti-administration papers in the Union to task for their baseness. The census of Oakland County was taken that year by Amos Mead, who reported 2708 white males, 2183 white females, 18 free colored persons, and one claimed as a slave. Total, 4910.

The fall of 1830 was a very mild one, and November 26 the editor noted "pumpkins in blossom, and young pumpkins growing six inches in diameter, sallad, cabbage, radishes, and beens half grown,-second crop,-and strawberries ripe and green." December 17, John Huggins had tired of huggin' his wife Jemima, and advertised his intention to apply to the next legislative council for a divorce. The Christmas announcement was a reduction of the subscription price of the Chronicle to two dollars, in advance, and two dollars and fifty cents at end of year; and four bushels of wheat would be taken as an equivalent for the ad- vance price. February 25, 1831, David Paddock announced himself as a candi- date for the legislative council, and modestly asked the " freemen" of Oakland County if they deemed him worthy of their suffrages to say so by giving him a majority of their votes. David Hammond carried thirty-two barrels of flour from Pontiac to Detroit on a sleigh, on the last day of February, and sold the same for one hundred and fifty-four dollars. The last number of the Chronicle was issued April 22, 1831 ; the paper was purchased by General John R. Williams and Major Joseph Campan, and taken to Detroit, where it reappeared as the Democratic Free Press, the beginning of the present publication in that city of that name.

THE OAKLAND PATRIOT

was published in Pontiac from the latter part of December, 1834, until some time in March, 1836, by Egbert J. Van Buren. It was Democratic in politics, and made things lively in the Whig camp which had been pitched in the Territory. Van Buren went to Centreville, St. Joseph county, and published the Peninsular for a year or more, and then to White Pigeon, where he published the Gazette, a Whig paper.

THE OAKLAND WHIG

first appeared January 28, 1835, under the auspices of Arthur G. Sparhawk, a young man of energy and ability, who conducted the same as an aggressive par- tisan organ, and from that time forward Oakland County has never lacked a plurality of newspapers. The first number of the Whig, the entire files of which are also in Mr. Beekman's possession, contained the message of Acting Governor Stevens, a ringing editorial on politics, in which love for anybody but neutrals was expressed. Notices of Whig meetings all over the county were published, and the editor was in ecstacies at the prospect of a grand tidal wave of whiggery. The first tax sale (1835), for the taxes of 1832, was advertised in May, and so on throughout the summer, the same to come off in September. The first adver- tisement occupied nearly two columns, but before the sale came off the payments on the delinquent tracts had shrunken its proportions to less than a column.

The " Morus multicaulis" fever struck Oakland that summer, and cocoons, and worms, and silk, and principally mulberry-trees, were advertised and dilated on largely in the various issues of the year. The issue of June 24 stated Chicago " had three years previously (1832) but fifty-four inhabitants, and then it had four thousand,-thirty merchants, and five churches." Which last statement was wide of the mark, as there were not four thousand persons in Chicago in 1837. On the 2d of September the editor apologized for the dearth of editorial matter, and excused the omission by saying that the ague had been a persistent com- panion of his, and any one who knew the proclivities of that companion would understand the force of the apology. On the 1st of February, 1836, the name of the paper was changed to

THE PONTIAC COURIER,

the politics and editorial management remaining unchanged. On the 23d of February the Oakland County Free Discussion and Anti-Slavery Society was organized at Pontiac, Deacon Elijah J. Fish in the chair, John P. Le Roy sec- retary. A constitution was adopted, and Dr. Wm. Thompson elected president ; Deacon Fish, vice-president ; J. P. Le Roy, secretary ; Francis Darrow, treas- urer; and Geo. W. Wisner, corresponding secretary. The discussion of the southern boundary between Ohio and Michigan waxed hot in the two juris- dictions, and the Courier opposed any surrender of the territory in dispute vigor- ously, and in writing of the Congressional demands says, "Right is not contended

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

for, but expediency. It is expedient that a part of our soil be given to Ohio, and it is expedient that we be forced to take in lieu thereof a portion of territory the farthest bound of which is one thousand miles from our seat of government." The last page of the issue of October 24, 1836, was headed-

"STATE RIGHTS NOMINATIONS! " DON'T GIVE UP THE LAND !

" The sons of Michigan will never be slaves While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves !"

And then followed the Whig nominations for State officers. On the opening of the third volume, January 30, 1837, the subscription price of the Courier was increased, and the editor informed his patrons that the paper would be enlarged just as soon as he could get a larger sheet to print it on. Professor Cowles, of Oberlin, lectured in Pontiac against slavery during the early part of 1837, and N. S. Gantt, the editor of the Balance, and some others, as was testified by Charles Draper, John Goodrich, C. Roosevelt, and several others of the leading citizens of the village, created a disturbance, and tried to prevent the professor from finishing his course; but the determined action of George W. Wisner, A. G. Sparhawk, and a few others, backed up by a majority of the audience, caused Gantt's efforts to be without other effect than to cement and strengthen the feel- ing in the community that free speech should be tolerated there. July 24, 1837, A. G. Sparhawk surrendered the editorial columns of the Courier to a committee of citizens preparatory to a sale outright of the office, and, on September 4, S. Fletcher & Co. assumed the proprietorship of the paper.

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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 19

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