History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 42

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 42

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One crowning characteristic of the doctor's career is, that he never turned a deaf ear to the appeal of the poor or the supplication of the needy. In his charity he has oftentimes furnished bread, as well as medicine, gratuitously. There are but two physicians in the county whose arrivals antedate his,-Dr. Reynolds, of Bir- mingham, and Dr. Burdick, of Oxford. From a sickness which came upon him in the winter of 1875-76, which was the result of exposure to cold, occasioned by his zealous devotion to his professional duties, he is now nearly deprived of eye- sight, owing to which he is now, at the age of fifty-nine, in comparative seclusion. He practices now only in extreme cases, and then only in consultation with the younger members of his profession. Having by industry and frugality acquired a sufficient competence to complete life's journey unattended by want, he now, in his days of darkness, spends his time as pleasantly as possible surrounded by his family, friends, and neighbors, and buoyed up by the knowledge that his affliction was occasioned by a faithful and heroic discharge of duty, and a lively expectation of a blissful eternity beyond the grave.

In religion the doctor is a Baptist, being an earnest and faithful member of the Baptist church of Walled Lake. The doctor's whole career offers a fine illustra- tion of Tennyson's couplet,-

" Brave deeds are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood."

FARMINGTON TOWNSHIP.

FARMINGTON is one of the southern tier of townships in Oakland County, and is joined on its north, west, and east, respectively, by West Bloomfield, Novi, and Southfield. In its northwestern part the land is in a few places inclining to be swampy, but the remainder of the township has a fine rolling surface and a most productive soil, which gives to Farmington a rank with the best of the town- ships in the county.

It is watered by several small streams, all following in a southeasterly direction, and all eventually joining their waters with those of the Rouge river. The prin- cipal of these takes its rise near the northwest corner of the township, and flowing obliquely through it, past the village of Farmington, turns the wheels of the differ- ent saw- and grist-mills of the town, and then passes out through the southwest quarter of section 36.

Signs of very old Indian occupation are found in various parts of the township; perhaps the most noticeable of these was a place of ancient graves upon the farm of J. B. Francis, in the southwest quarter of section 19, near the Novi town line. At this place seven skeletons were found in a single grave, while over another was growing a tree of nearly two feet in diameter.

Probably, however, there were no large established Indian villages here. The township was originally covered with dense forests, which were highly prized by them as hunting-grounds ; and through here, too, passed their long path, known as the Shiawassee trail, over which they came and went on their predatory or hunting expeditions ; but the margins of the limpid lakes that lay farther north and west. and gave them fish in unlimited supply, these were the places where they preferred to plant their lodges, rather than in the comparatively unwatered region of which we write.

FIRST SETTLERS-FIRST BIRTH AND DEATH.

About the 1st of February, 1824, a party of pioneers, consisting of Arthur Power (a Quaker), his sons John and Jared Power, with David Smith and Daniel Rush, men working in Arthur's employ, all of Ontario county, New York, set out from Mr. Power's home in Farmington, five miles west of Canandaigua, in that county, with the purpose of making a settlement in Michigan, on lands which he had entered the year before, in surveyed township 1 north of range 9 east, in the county of Oakland.

Their conveyance was a sleigh, drawn by a pair of good horses, and they headed their team westward with light hearts and no lack of courage. Crossing the Niagara river, they laid their course through Upper Canada, and, meeting with no adventures more exciting than such as arise from extremely bad roads and worse lodgings and fare, with the occasional howl of wolf or scream of pan- ther, to break the monotony of the route, they arrived at Windsor, opposite Detroit, on the 15th of February.

After the usual delay in Detroit for the purchase of supplies and the transac- tion of other necessary business, they traveled by the Saginaw road to Royal Oak, and thence to Hamilton's (now Birmingham), from whence they proceeded by the settlements of Jenks, Sly, Durkee, and Baker to their place of, destination, which they reached late in the afternoon, when the sun was within an hour of his setting. Not much time was lost in preliminaries ; they saw the foe be- fore them,-the great forest-trees, which the pioneer universally recognizes as his enemy,-and they moved to the assault unhesitatingly. Two of the party seized their axes, and, selecting one of the largest trees, attacked it on both sides at once. The old woods rung and echoed to the strange music of the axes, whose strokes fell with rapid and regular beat until, before the sun had set, the old giant, which had stood there unharmed for a century, trembled, swayed, and fell crash- ing to the ground. This was the first tree felled in preparation for white settle- ment in the township of Farmington ; the day was the 8th of March, 1824, and those pioneer choppers were John Power, who four years later was laid to his rest in the old cemetery, and David Smith, who, at the age of eighty years, is still living, a mile and a half from the spot where his axe first tried the quality of Michigan timber more than half a century ago.

The spot where they commenced their clearing is now included in the farm of Charles Chamberlin ; not where his dwelling stands, but a short distance farther east, by the bank of a small run. Mr. Power had purchased this one hundred and sixty acres for his son Nathan. He had also purchased, or promised to pur-

chase, a quarter section for each of his other sons,-John, Ira, Samuel, Abraham L., and William,-and a tract of eighty acres for each of his daughters. He had, however, promised his eldest daughter, Mary,* who was the female head of his household (he being then a widower), that he would purchase for her an addi- tional eighty, in consideration of her remaining at home to superintend the dairy and other feminine departments ; and to Nathan, who had also consented to remain and conduct the operations of the farm during his absence, he had promised that his first clearing and improvements in Michigan should be made on his (Nathan's) tract, the northeast quarter of section 22. In pursuance of this promise the clearing was commenced there, and the work was pushed so energetically that a good log house was finished, and nine acres of wheat and six acres of corn were put in, that season.

Other immigrants came very soon after the advent of the Power company. Seven weeks after their arrival came George W. Collins, who brought with him his wife, the first white woman who entered the township. Mrs. Collins remained at Mr. Power's clearing for several weeks, and attended to the cooking and other affairs of the house, while her husband was making a start upon his own land, and preparing a log house for their occupancy. They settled in the southwest cor- ner of section 28, upon land now the property of B. B. Mosher. Mr. Joshua Simmons distinctly recollects an excellent breakfast (his first meal in Farmington) which he ate at their house in October, 1826, when on his way to settle on his land in Livonia. During the year 1824 there also arrived Solomon Walker, who settled in the northeast corner of section 30; Samuel Mansfield, on the northwest quarter of section 27, on the stream near where Shackleton's mill now is ; George Tibbets, on the town line, in section 13; Orrin Garfield,-now living in Holly,- Sanford M. Utley and his sons, George and Peleg S. Utley, who came in July, and settled on the southwest quarter of section 12; and Robert Wixom, Sr., who came from Hector, Seneca county, New York, and settled on the southwest corner of section 15, the central point of the township. He had four daughters and five sons,-Ahijah, Benjamin P., Isaac, Robert, and Civilian,-three of whom were already grown to man's estate ; Benjamin P. Wixom settled a mile northeast from his father, on the northwest quarter of the same section.

It was scarcely more than half a year after the first settlers came before death sounded his dread summons in their midst. His first victim was Mrs. Sanford M. Utley, who died in two months after her arrival, from the effects of a fall from their wagon, just as they first came in sight of the spot which was to be their home. It was a singular circumstance that the day on which her remains were committed to the earth was also the birthday of John Collins, the first white child born in the township. Both he and his mother, Mrs. George Collins, are now residents of Farmington village.

QUAKERTOWN.

As soon as Arthur Power had reared the log buildings and completed such work as was the most immediately necessary upon the land of his son Nathan, he proceeded with his force to clear a site and erect a large log house on the high ground on the northeasterly side of the creek, opposite the present village, and this house he made his residence for a time. About two years after, however, he built another large, long log house on his land in the northeast quarter of section 28, the location being now within the village, where stands the orchard of his son, William Power.

Dr. Ezekiel Webb, who had been a neighbor and friend of Mr. Power in Ontario county, New York, and who was also a member of the society of Friends, was one of the immigrants of 1824. He arrived late in the season, and built a large double log house in the northeast quarter of section 28, the spot being pre- cisely where now stands the house of Mrs. Cynthia Collins, in Farmington Centre.

Dr. Webb was the first and only resident physician in the township, and his establishment there, in addition to the building of the large house by Mr. Power, and his (Power's) contemplated erection of a mill upon the stream, seemed to confer on that point and its vicinity an importance beyond that possessed by any other neighborhood in the township, and to mark it as the possible site of a future village. Thus it became a place of comparative note, and was known

166

* Now Mrs. Stewart, and living at Hannibal, Missouri.

THERON O. MURRAY.

MRS. REBECCA E. MURRAY.

RESIDENCE of THERON O. MURRAY, WEST BLOOMFIELD.

P. F.GOIST, DEL.

RESIDENCE of O. L. MURRAY, WEST BLOOMFIELD MICH.

FARMERS, FRUIT & SEED GROWERS, WEST BLOOMFIELD, OAKLAND CO., MICHIGAN. NORTH FARMINGTON P.O.

RESIDENCE OF A. A. MURRAY, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MICH.

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

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

among the settlers for several miles around as " Quakertown;" the designation being given on account of the religious tenets of several of the neighboring resi- dents, but more particularly with reference to Mr. Power and Dr. Webb.

SOME OF THE SETTLERS OF 1825.

The number of settlers was very largely increased during the year 1825. Among those who arrived that season were Howland Mason, a Quaker, who settled opposite to Solomon Walker, on the southeast corner of section 19; Solo- mon Woodford and his wife, who for a time took charge of the household affairs of Arthur Power; George Thayer and Rufus Thayer, Jr., brothers, who settled on the northeast quarter of section 31; George Brownell, who came early in the year, and built his cabin just west of Buckhorn Corners; Timothy Tolman, a carpenter, also at the corners, on the farm now owned by J. M. Tolman ; Nathaniel Tolman, Timothy's cousin, who, in the next year (1826), was married to Mary Lewis. (This wedding was the first which took place in Farmington. It was solemnized before 'Squire Amos Mead, at the place where Charles Parkerson now lives ; and the couple commenced their married life in a house in the northeast corner of section 24, where John Boyle's house now stands.) Warren Lee, a son-in-law of Solomon Walker, settled on the northwest quarter of section 28, now the premises of Mrs. Mason ; Ephraim Hildreth Utley (not a relative of the Utleys at Buckhorn Corners), Timothy Allen, Calvin Ray, and - Drown, coopers, who came in with Deacon Erastus Ingersoll, of Novi; Amos Mead, south- west quarter of section 21, where R. H. Hatten's place now is ; Horace Hopkins, Samuel Mead, who settled on southwest quarter of section 20, and brought, in his employ, a young man named Myra Gage, from Seneca county, New York ; Luther Green and Leland Green, on sections 29 and 32; William B. Cogsdill, Abraham Aldrich, and his sons Royal and Jesse; Hezekiah B. Smith, who settled a mile north of the base-line; Charles Grant and David Grant, brothers of Mrs. George Brownell, near Buckhorn Corners, and Philip Marlatt, a mile and a half west of that point; Seymour Newton, on the northwest corner of section 33; David Maden and Willard Wadsworth, both bachelors, the former of whom established his hall on the east side of the town, one mile north of the base-line, and the latter in the south part of section 20, on land now owned by Deacon J. M. Adams.

Seth A. L. Warner came in that year, and settled in the northwest quarter of section 15; John Crawford on section 6; Esek Brown, a blacksmith, settled a mile south of Farmington Centre. Orange Culver came in from Wayne county, New York, and arrived in the township on the 8th of May, 1825, and, with his wife, occupied a part of the log house of Benjamin P. Wixom until a cabin could be make ready upon his own land. Into this cabin they moved before a floor had been laid or the gables closed, and in this condition they occupied it for many months, and in that house he says they received many a visit from Indians, whom he always found friendly and well-behaved. In company with him came his brother George, who, in the previous year, had entered the southwest quarter of section 10, and it was upon that quarter that the brothers made their settle- ment. Mr. Culver afterwards removed to other lands which he purchased on the northwest quarter of section 3, North Farmington. George now lives near Bath, Clinton county, Michigan. The Rev. Eri Prince and Edward Steel came in 1825, as also Constantine Wood, who arrived in the month of November, from Perrinton, Monroe county, New York. He died in less than a year after his arrival in Michigan.

David Smith, who, with John Power, had felled the first tree in the township, having now completed his year's service with Mr. Power,-for which he received one hundred and thirty-six dollars,-purchased and settled upon the east half of the northeast quarter of section 23, being enabled to do so by pecuniary assistance generously afforded him by his former employer. Daniel Rush, the other man whom Mr. Power employed in New York to come with him to Michigan, had been seized with violent homesickness immediately on his arrival, and, after en- during the pangs of the terrible malady for nearly three weeks, and seeing no prospect of alleviation, had started on foot for Detroit, intending to return thence to his eastern home, which probably he reached in safety.

OTHER EARLY IMMIGRANTS.

Rufus Thayer, Sr., came to Farmington in the fall of 1826. He was the father of Rufus and George Thayer, who came the previous year, and settled in the southwestern section of the township. He, the elder Rufus, brought with him his wife and five daughters ; a very desirable accession, for women were yet very scarce in Farmington. John Brownell, brother of George, came that year, and settled near Buckhorn Corners ; and Elisha Doty located on section 2. Hiram Wilmarth arrived in October, 1826. He was a surveyor and school-teacher by profession. After his arrival he kept house for a time in the bachelor's hall of Willard Wadsworth. Nathan S. Philbrick, Harman Steel, Benjamin Andrews, Jonathan Lewis, Clark Cogsdill, Willard Porter, Elihu Cooley, and John Thayer, a surveyor, from Richmond, New York, all came during the season of 1826.

Chauncey D. Wolcott, a Baptist preacher, came in 1827, and settled on the southwest quarter of section 3. Samuel Gage, from Seneca county, New York, arrived May, 1827, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 7. Thomas Johns, same year, on northeast quarter of 18. John Brownell, Sr., father of George and John, settled in the east part of the town near his sons, and Horatio Lee two miles south of them.

The following, whose dates of arrival cannot be given, were among the earlier settlers in Farmington : Ross Phillips, son-in-law of Samuel Mansfield, and John Phillips, his brother, both of whom worked in Mansfield's 'employ, Ebenezer Stewart, who married a daughter of Arthur Power, Thomas Ingersoll, cousin of Deacon Erastus Ingersoll, Darius Lawson,-now living at Grand Ledge,-David Wilcox, John Wilcox, John Walcott, father of Chauncey D. Walcott, Theron Murray, from Ontario county, New York, Samuel T. Bryant, William Daily, James B. Mellady,-died 1876, aged eighty-two; Salmon Stilson settled on north- west quarter section 6; Champlin Green, who settled for a time in Troy before coming to Farmington ; Chauncey W. Green, who settled in Avon in 1825, and afterwards moved to Farmington ; Alanson Brooks, from Saratoga, New York ; David Coomer, who settled on the northwest quarter of section 2, with a family of nine children, and who, it seems, was in rather better worldly circumstances than many of the immigrants; William Serviss, northwest quarter section 5; Warren Servis; - Barnum, on section 22, in whose family the dreaded cholera first made its appearance in the township, in 1832; Nathan Smith, Ste- phen Jennings, Darius Cowles, Frederick Monroe, Joseph Horton, Jacob Wood ; these and others swelled the number of settlers, so that the first township assess- ment-roll bore the names of seventy-nine resident tax-payers.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A POST-OFFICE.

The first postal facilities were obtained for the people of the town in the fall of 1825, through the efforts of Dr. Webb, who was himself appointed post- master, and the office was kept in his large log house at Quakertown. The service was infrequent, the mail-matter coming up once a week from Detroit, and being delivered by the doctor himself, when it was in any way convenient for him to do so, on his professional tours. Two shillings was the price which the pioneers paid for each letter at that time, and it was from this source that the medical postmaster realized his only compensation, excepting the privilege of franking his own letters. Such a mail service would at the present day be considered as little, if any, better than none, but at that time the people regarded it as a very great favor and accommodation, and were most grateful for its establishment among them.

THE FIRST SCHOOL.

The first school in the township was taught by Nathan Power, at Quakertown, in the year 1826. Its sessions were held in a small log building that stood near the bank of the creek, at a point about opposite where is now the house of Dea- con Adams. As late as 1830 this was the only school taught in the town; and during the winter of 1828-29 it was still under the charge of its first teacher.

Thaddeus Andrews, now of Farmington Centre, and who was one of Mr. Power's pupils, recollects that one morning " the master" met him with rather a thoughtful and troubled expression of countenance. "Thaddeus," said he, "I lost one of my oxen last night; how does thee suppose I will manage to get an- other in his place ?" But as Thaddeus could not suggest any feasible plan to meet this unexpected necessity, the teacher explained to him that he had decided to catch wolves enough, so that the bounty upon their scalps would supply the necessary means. The State bounty was then eight dollars, and the county offered an additional five dollars ; and before the opening of spring the proceeds of the sales of wolves' ears had reached an amount sufficient for the purchase of the ox, and meanwhile the teacher's school duties had not been neglected in any particular. The female teacher who first wielded the rod of command during the summer term was Miss Polly Ann Mead, afterwards Mrs. Ladd. The terms were short, and of course this school, like all others at that time, were supported by subscription ; the public school system not going into effect until some years later. The general law ordering the laying off and numbering of school districts in townships was passed in 1833.

INITIAL ENTERPRISES AND EVENTS.

The first of the mechanical trades commenced in the town was that of shoe- making, by Mr. Green, already mentioned as having worked and died near Amos Mead's.

Blacksmithing was first started by Esek Brown, who, soon after his arrival in 1825, opened his trade in a log shop, about a mile south of Quakertown.

The carpenter-shop is supposed to have been that of Timothy Tolman, at Buckhorn Corners ; although young Myra Gage, who came in with Deacon Samuel Mead in the spring of 1825, was not only a carpenter and millwright by trade,

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

but was also both shoemaker and blacksmith by practice, and worked at all four of his callings in Farmington. He might, perhaps, dispute the seniority not only of Tolman as the first carpenter, but also of Mr. Green and Esek Brown in their respective crafts. He, however, had no shop or regular place of business, but contented himself with performing such jobs in either of the trades as might present themselves.

The first coopers in Farmington were Calvin Ray and - Drown, who arrived in 1825, and worked together for a time in a small building not far from Amos Mead's.

The first mill in the township was the saw-mill built by Arthur Power, at Quakertown. From the time of his first arrival he had entertained the project of the erection of such a one upon the stream at that point ; and so, after having completed his large log house on the northerly side of the creek, and attended to such other work as was indispensable upon the clearing, he commenced the cutting of timber and other preparations for its erection. The dam was thrown across the stream nearly opposite where the Baptist church now stands, and from this dam the water was carried by a canal, constructed on the west side of the stream, to the mill, which stood some little distance below. Much of the work on this canal was performed by Gilbert Bagnell, who came from New York to work for Mr. Power. Dam and mill were completed and ready for operation before the last days of the year 1826. The millwright was Wm. A. Burt, now of Saginaw. The establishment probably never did a very large business ; the stream at its best was not copious, and in the dry season there was great scarcity of water, and this trouble was greatly aggravated by the imperfect construction of the dam, which never could be made reasonably tight by all the repairs which were expended on it from time to time. The mill, however, answered its purpose tolerably well, and being then the only one in the township, its importance was estimated accordingly.

The first grist-mill was built in the year 1827. It was located on the west branch of the creek, in the southeast quarter of section 17, and about two and a half miles north and west of Quakertown. The proprietors were Edward Steel and Harman Steel. An interest in it was also owned by Howland Mason, who him- self performed most of the mill-work ; he being a competent millwright, who had worked at Auburn and elsewhere, under that skillful mechanic and machinist, Aaron Smith, who was then pretty widely known hereabouts as " Fifty-crooks." It is said that the bed-stone and runner were manufactured from bowlders found somewhere in the vicinity. The mill was completed, ready for work, in the fall of the above-named year, and the first grist was ground for Orange Culver, who brought the grain and carried away the flour upon his shoulder, a distance of a mile and a half each way.

This was not only the first grist-mill in Farmington, but in all the southwest- ern part of the county, and it was long known, and somewhat famed, as the "Steel mill." A few years after its erection it was sold to Joseph Coon and his son-in-law, Frederick Neidheimer, who were excellent millers, and fully sustained its reputation. Afterwards it passed through the hands of several other owners, among whom was John T. Little, who, designing to sell flour in Detroit, so as to do a more extended business than was afforded by the local custom, named the mill and his brand of flour the " Pernambuco." Little had followed the seas in earlier life, and in this calling had visited Pernambuco, in Brazil, and doubt- less it was this fact which had suggested the name to him. His successors, how- ever, dropped the name, and it has long been known as the " Hardenberg mill." Its first half-century of service is now almost completed.

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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 42

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