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 70
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Also among those who came into the township in that year were Michael Maney, who settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 10, and afterwards came to a painful death from injuries inflicted by an ungovernable bull in his own barn- yard; Rufus Beach, who had first settled in Troy, and now exchanged his lands in that township with George Morse for the farm of the latter in the northwest quarter of section 9; and Henry Lewless, who settled on the lands first occupied by Alex- ander Campbell, and established upon them the first potashery within the town- ship. Afterwards he sold the tract to Asher B. Parker. It should be mentioned that Rufus Beach, mentioned above, became a convert to Mormonism, and left Oakland County for the purpose of joining the community of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.
In this year came Orson Starr, and purchased lands in the northeast quarter of section 9, and in the northwest quarter of 10, but built his dwelling and shop on the west side of the section line, in the corner of 9. He started there in the manufacture of cow-bells, and in that line he distanced all competitors. It is even said that no one in the United States has ever been as famed as he in the production of that useful article. His bells were sent to every part of the western States, and even in California and Oregon were as well known as in Michigan ; and from their sale he realized a very handsome amount during the years he was engaged in it. He died in the year 1873.
It was in this or the following year that David Carlisle settled in the southwest quarter of section 11, now the Lynch estate; and in 1828 that Jehial Smith came from Troy township and settled on the town-line, and on the east side of the Paint creek road, in the northeast quarter of section 3. Frank Reynolds also came in 1828, and settled in the northeast corner of section 16, where he started the first wagon-shop in the township He died in December, 1876.
Among those who came in or about the year 1830 may be mentioned John Benjamin, who settled on the southwest quarter of section 8, and was the first maker of grain-cradles in the township; Samuel Addis, who purchased the lands of Noah and Moses Peck ; Joel Chapman, who settled on the east line of section 22, a mile east of the village of Royal Oak, and was skillful in the manufacture and repair of cider-mills; Abraham Rouse, from Lyons, Wayne county, New York, who settled on the northwest quarter of section 11, now owned by T. Thurby ; Nicholas and David Pullen, brothers, from Sodus, in Wayne county, New York, who both married daughters of Abraham Rouse, and settled on the northwest quarter of section 12, where now is the school-house of district No. 4; and a Mr. Ewers, who settled diagonally opposite the Pullens, in the southeast corner of section 2,-land which was afterwards sold to Caleb A. Wilbur, and is now the property of Alexander Solts, Esq.
Also among those of about that date were Luther Schofield, who settled in the northwest quarter of section 10; - Fox, who purchased in the northwest quarter of section 3, where W. Bell now is; Cornelius Valentine, in the northwest quarter of section 17; Franklin Saunders, in the northeast quarter of the same section ; Mr. Parker, the father of Asher B. Parker, Esq., who purchased the Campbell tract of Henry Lewless ; Hiram Elwood, Sr., who purchased the same lands, in the northeast quarter of section 17, which Woodford had entered a few years before ; Stephen Bennett, who settled on the southwest quarter of section 2, on land now owned by R. McBride; and Lyman Blackman, who came in the spring of 1831, and purchased and settled on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 18.
This list, although not complete, embraces the very earliest immigrants, as well as a great part of those who settled in Royal Oak township in the later years up to the time mentioned. From about 1830 the number of arrivals increased so rapidly, and changes of location and the re-sale of lands became so frequent, as to make it impossible to trace them far beyond that point.
EARLY ROADS.
When the first settlers came to Royal Oak the roads were very few and in- frequent. The only one which gave communication in the direction of Detroit entered the township from the south, a little west of its centre line, passing by the log houses of Flinn, Stephens, and White, and thence northwardly by a crooked and irregular course to the oak-tree marked H, from which place the track forked in both directions ; on the right towards Paint creek or Rochester, and on the other hand towards Auburn and Pontiac.
These, however, could hardly be called roads at all : merely tracks cut through the most convenient places, without regard to shortness of route or to any other consideration except the avoidance of obstacles ; but poor as they were, there were no others than these in Royal Oak when the first cabins were built there.
Some six or seven years later the Detroit and Saginaw turnpike was com- menced, and in 1828-29 was in process of construction through the township. When completed it was an almost immeasurable improvement on the old route of travel, and afterwards stage-lines were established and passed through Royal Oak
MRS. DAVID WILLIAMS.
DAVID WILLIAMS.
PUB. BY L.H. EVERTS & CO. 716 FILBERT ST., PHILA.
RESIDENCE OF DAVID WILLIAMS, ROYAL OAK TP, OAKLAND CO., MICH.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
on their route between Detroit and Pontiac and the more remote points. After the completion of the railroad as far as Royal Oak, in 1838, the stage-lines con- nected with it there, and after its terminus was advanced northward to Pontiac, they still continued to run from the Royal Oak station, over the Paint creek road, to Rochester, and thence to Romeo, until the building of the Detroit and Bay City railroad.
The roads upon the section-lines had some of them been laid out before the separate organization of the township, but it was not until after that time that most of them were surveyed, laid out, and cut through, thus greatly improving the facilities of local travel.
OTHER EARLY PUBLIC-HOUSES.
It has already been mentioned that the first house opened in Royal Oak for the accommodation of wayfaring immigrants, land-seekers, and other travelers of the early days was the log tavern of Henry O. Bronson, about half a mile north of the centre of the township, and that this was soon followed by that of Lockwood (afterwards Talbot), at a point on the western edge of the present village. This last named, having first supplanted that of Bronson, and having then enjoyed a season of comparative prosperity so long as the travel continued to pass by its doors, was itself, in turn, ruined by the opening of the Saginaw or Detroit and Pontiac road, which carried the travel away from it, over a new route, and which caused other hostelries to spring up along its line.
The first public-house opened in Royal Oak, on that road, was by Mrs. Mary Ann Chappell, an old or perhaps a middle-aged woman, who, on account of her conspicuous lack of personal beauty, was universally known by the ironical appellation of " Mother Handsome." It is said that in her earlier years she had been an army follower, and it is certain she was as rough and boisterous in speech as she was plain in person. She had first opened a kind of tavern a little more than five miles out of Detroit, on the military road, then had moved farther up in Wayne county, and afterwards made still another move, locating herself in Royal Oak, in a small log house on the west side of the Pontiac road, a little below the present hotel of Mr. Lewless, and in this she did a very good business, as she had done at her first establishment, near Detroit, during the first years of the immigration to Michigan. It was not long after she came to her new location before another tavern was opened very near hers, on the same road, by V. M. Rose. Perhaps she disliked the near proximity of a competing establishment, for, after a time, she again removed, this time going towards Detroit, a distance of about half a mile, where she built a frame house, also on the west side of the road, at a point on the present farm of McReynolds.
After she left her upper stand, Mr. Henry Stephens erected, almost on the spot which she had moved from, a frame building, which he opened to the public, and which was known for many years as the " Red tavern." But not- withstanding the competition, Mother Handsome held her own in trade. Rough and ill-favored as she was, she was undeniably popular as a landlady. Immigrants and land-lookers who were strangers in the country inquired for the house of Mother Handsome, at which they had beforehand been advised to stop, while those who were acquainted on the road very often passed by the other houses to put up at hers, where, they said, the liquor was better and the food was better ; and these, in connection with the kind and careful attention which she was always ready to bestow on hungry, cold, drenched, and exhausted travelers, gave great popularity and fame to Mother Handsome as an innkeeper. But this was her last tavern-stand. Years accumulated on her head, and routes of travel and methods of tavern-traffic became changed, so that we are told that the last years of Mrs. Chappell were passed in poverty, if not in actual want.
After Mr. Stephens the Red tavern passed through different hands, and was kept by Mr. Cressy, being destroyed by fire during his proprietorship. There are still two hotels open on the turnpike within a few rods of the spot where Mother Handsome first located her stand in Royal Oak township,-the lower one being kept by V. M. Rose, her first competitor here, and the other by James Lewless, brother of Henry Lewless, who first settled in the township on the farm now owned by Asher B. Parker, Esq.
SEPARATE TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
The two townships numbered 1 and 2 north, in range 11 east (now Royal Oak and Troy), were, on the 12th of April, 1827, set off together, erected into a township, and designated as Troy. This organization continued for five years, at the end of which time town 1 of that range was detached from Troy and separately erected as the township of Royal Oak.
The earliest book of township records (commencing with the first organization and township-meeting, and running until and including the year 1856) having been lost or destroyed, we can give geither an account of the proceedings at the first meeting nor a complete list of township officers prior to 1857. It has been
ascertained, however, that the first supervisor was David Chase, and that among his successors to the office were Dennis H. Quick, in 1837 and 1838; Nathaniel Ormsby, 1842 and 1844; John Davis, in 1843; Otis Judson, in 1845; Moses Johnson, 1846 to 1853 inclusive; Jonathan Chase, 1854; Alonzo Haight, 1855 ; and F. G. C. Jasper, 1856.
The first township clerk was Socrates Hopkins, but between his and the election of 1857 no other name can be given of incumbents of that office, except that of Jonathan Chase, who filled it from 1835 to 1840, inclusive.
The following were among the justices of the peace during the period above referred to : Jonathan Chase (appointed), 1835 ; Daniel Burrows, Jehial Smith, and Nicholas Pullen (all by appointment); J. B. Simonson, elected 1837; Jonathan Chase, elected 1839, 1849, 1855; William Betts, 1840; John Par- shall, 1841 ; W. M. Corey, 1842; Charles Mooney, 1843; George M. Cooper, 1844; D. A. Dennison, 1845; Asher B. Parker, 1846 and 1850; Moses John- son, 1847; Fleming Drake, 1848, 1852, 1856; Silas Everest, 1849; Norman Castle, 1853; S. S. Matthews, 1854; N. S. Schuyler, 1856 ; L. S. Roberts, 1856.
During the time covered by the existing record the township officers have been as below :
Supervisors, Lucius S. Roberts, elected in 1857; Frederick G. C. Jasper, in 1858 and 1859; Edmond R. Post, continuously from 1860 to 1866, inclusive ; Stephen Cooper, 1867 and 1868; H. A. Reynolds, 1869; Horace H. Osterhout, 1870; and Alexander Solts, from 1871 to 1877, inclusive.
The township clerks during the same period have been : James B. Johnson, elected in 1857, 1859-61; Carlos, Glazier, in 1858 and 1865; Reuben Russell, in 1862; Manton H. Hammond, in 1863 and 1864; Levi Tootill, in 1866-68; John G. Hutchins, in 1869-71 ; James W. Roley, in 1872; Newell H. Roberts, in 1873; Joseph B. Grow, in 1874, '75, and '76; and Charles M. Fay, in 1877.
The justices elected in the same time have been: Martin H. Hammond, in 1857; Reuben Russell, in 1858, 1864, and 1875; Orson Starr (to vacancy), in 1858; Nelson S. Schuyler, in 1859 ; Levi Tootill, in 1863, and to vacancies in 1859 and 1868; Frederick G. C. Jasper, in 1860; Lucius S. Roberts (to vacancy), in 1860; Stephen Cooper, in 1861 and 1865 ; Andrew McPherson, in 1862 ; Corydon E. Fay (to vacancy), in 1862; Dennis H. Quick (to vacancy), in 1864; Henry A. Reynolds, to vacancy in 1865, and to full term in 1868; Asher B. Parker, in 1866; Alexander Solts, in 1867; John R. Wells (to vacancy), in 1867; James B. Johnson, in 1869 ; Thomas Reading (vacancy), in 1869 ; John Robinson, in 1870; Ralzemond A. Parker, in 1871; John Bain- bridge (to vacancy), 1871; Arthur C. Porter (to vacancy), in 1871; Harvey S. Hitchcock, in 1872 and 1876; Dewitt C. Wilbur (to vacancy), in 1872; Julius O. Schuyler (to vacancy), in 1872; David L. Campbell (to vacancy), in 1873; Edmond Ferguson (to vacancy), in 1873; Matthew McBride, in 1874; Henry B. Peck (to vacancy), in 1875; Volney H. Lee (to vacancy), 1875; Joseph B. Grow, 1877.
ROYAL OAK VILLAGE.
This little village and railway station is the only one within the township. The original village plat was laid out in the year 1836, by Sherman Stevens, who had purchased the land of Joseph Parshall; the plat covering about eighty acres in the northeast quarter of section 21 and forty acres of the northwest quarter of 22. No addition had been made to the original plat until 1875, when one was surveyed and laid out by J. A. Phelps, covering about forty-four acres, adjoining the Stevens plat, on the north. Colloquially, this is called the northern exten- sion, but it is to be recorded as " J. A. Phelps' addition to the village of Royal Oak."
The village plat was laid out by Stevens, in anticipation of the completion of the Detroit and Pontiac railroad (now Detroit and Milwaukee), and at the time when the plat was surveyed nearly, if not quite, the only buildings which stood there were the old block-house which had been kept by Lockwood, and also by Talbot, as a tavern, and the frame barn which belonged to it. They stood a few rods west of the railroad freight-house, near the present dwelling of Dr. H. K. Lathrop.
The first business enterprises inaugurated in the village were the building of a saw-mill by the railroad company, in 1836, and in the same year the erection of a hotel by Daniel Hunter; it being the same now occupied by Charles M. Fay. While engaged in its construction, Mr. Hunter lived with his family in the old Lockwood-Talbot block-house. The hotel was completed and opened by him in the spring of 1837, as a tavern and boarding-house for men employed at the mill, and on the railroad construction. Mr. Hunter remained in this house for two years.
The next hotel at the village was built in 1839, by James B. Simonson. It was called the Railroad Exchange, and the first of its landlords was a Mr. Balch. It has not been constantly kept as a public-house, but has at times been used as a grocery and as a saloon, and again as a private dwelling, which last named is
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
its present condition. During the time when this was the railway terminus, and in the succeeding years, when the stages for Rochester and points beyond made their connection here, these Royal Oak village hotels drove a prosperous business, but such is not the case now. Those palmy days of the railway-terminus and stage-coach connection have passed away, and will never return to Royal Oak.
The village cannot boast the establishment of the first mercantile business of the township. nor the first post-office of Royal Oak. Both these were first located at Chase's Corners, in the year 1826, the first postmaster being Joseph Chase. who held the position for twelve years, when the opening of the railroad made it necessary that the office should be located at the new village, the exist- ence of which had never been dreamed of when " Uncle Joe" first received his appointment.
The store at the corners was a frame building, built by Jarvis Phelps, carpen- ter. for David Chase, in the year 1826. It stood on the west side of the Crooks road. near where is now the brick dwelling-house of Mr. Almon Starr. In this Mr. Chase opened with a good stock of merchandise for those days, and in it the post-office was also kept. he being deputy-postmaster under his father. He con- tinued in trade at this place until the year 1854, when he removed to Detroit.
On the removal of the post-office to the village, in 1838, Moses Johnson was appointed postmaster to succeed Mr. Chase. Since Mr. Johnson the following gentlemen have been postmasters at Royal Oak, and their succession has been nearly in the order here given : Dr. L. C. Rose, Chester Stoddard, Dr. A. E. Brewster, Dr. Fleming Drake, J. B. Johnson, Deacon M. H. Hammond, Edward Ferguson. J. G. Hutchins, John Felker, and the present incumbent of the office, J. R. Wells, Esq.
The first to establish in merchandising in the village was the firm of Simonson & Fish, the latter being also the agent of the railroad company, and the senior being John B. Simonson, who had previously opened a store on the Pontiac road, half a mile or more south of the village, near where is now Lewless' tavern ; this being the second store opened in the township. On removing to the village, in the spring of 1838, and entering into partnership with Fish, as above mentioned, they opened at the railroad depot with a very extensive stock of goods, the largest and every way the best, it is said, which has ever been brought into the township of Royal Oak. In the same season, soon after their opening, the railroad was opened from Detroit, and ran (by horse-power only for a considerable time) as far as Royal Oak village, which thereupon became at once a place of comparative importance.
The next store opened was by Gage M. Cooper and Henry Gardner, who also carried on a potashery. After them, the next merchant who established in the village was - Ferrend, who opened a small store in his dwelling-house. Other early traders there were E. M. Cook and Otes Judson.
The village of Royal Oak, at present, contains the railroad company's buildings, a steam saw-mill, three blacksmith-shops, one hotel, three general stores, one millinery-store, two drug-stores, two physicians, four churches, the town-hall, and the handsome school-house of district No. 6. There is also a very small newspaper, published by the Rev. Geo. W. Owen. It is named the Royal Oak Experiment, and has only been in the tide of experiment since the autumn of 1876.
MILLS AND OTHER INDUSTRIES.
The first and only water-mill in Royal Oak township was a saw-mill erected in the year 1832, by James G. Johnson, on his farm in the southeast quarter of section 4, and about half a mile south of the Troy line. The stream on which it was built is the north fork of Red Run, which, in consequence of improvements made on it, was often called the " Lawson ditch." Looking at the stream now, it is hard to understand how it could ever have propelled a mill, for not only is its bed baked dry and hard even in times of ordinary dry weather, but there seems to be scarcely any fall in it at that point or in that vicinity. Notwith- standing which, it is stated as a fact that in its best days the mill did actually cut two thousand feet of lumber in twelve hours, and this may have been true, incom- prehensible as it seems. Six years after its erection, it was sold to Michael Christian and Joshua Fay for six hundred dollars, with the right to flow from September 10 to May 20. From this time until 1847 it was in the hands of several owners, and in the last-named year, being then in the possession of Peter Brewster, it was by him fitted up with an auxiliary steam-power, soon after which it met the usual fate of similar establishments, viz., destruction by fire. There was at one time a small manufactory of rakes and grain-cradles carried on in con- nection with this mill.
The first mill built in the township with the intention of using steam as a pro- pelling power was erected in the summer and fall of 1836, by the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company, the machinery being constructed and put in under the supervision of Horace Heth, of Syracuse, New York, machinist and mill- wright. The site of this mill was within the present bounds of Royal Oak
village, on lots now owned by James Mckibben. It was started in January, 1837, its work being the sawing of five by seven inch timber, to be laid on the railroad-bed, as stringers on which to spike the strap-iron which formed the first track of this road, a construction known in England as a tramway.
The mill was operated by the railroad company for a period of four or five years, and was at the end of that time sold to a Mr. Stetson, of Detroit, who con- tinued it as a saw-mill, but also added a chair- and furniture-factory. Its end was in conflagration, about the year 1845.
The present steam saw-mill at Royal Oak village, which may be said to be the successor of the railroad company's mill, was built in the fall of 1868, and put in operation in the winter or spring of 1869, by J. B. Baugh, of Detroit, who afterwards sold it to J. M. Jones, of Detroit. It is now (1877) run under the proprietorship or superintendency of C. N. Marshall.
In the winter of 1875-76 there was added to the machinery of this mill a pair of stones for the grinding of feed for animals; this being the only mill for the grinding of grain which was ever put in operation in the township of Royal Oak.
Granger's steam saw-mill is located about a quarter of a mile north of the base- line, on the Detroit and Pontiac turnpike. . The first mill on this site was built by the present proprietor, Adolphus Granger, between 1860 and 1865, and was destroyed by fire in the early part of 1876. It was rebuilt by Mr. Granger, and commenced operation in the spring of 1877. This is an excellent circular mill, and seems destined to do a good business.
There is a manufactory of drain-tile and pressed bricks, owned and carried on by Almon Starr, on his farm, a few rods south of the United Presbyterian church, in school district No. 2, the point formerly known as Chase's Corners. Mr. Starr, who is the son of Orson Starr, the bell-maker, commenced these tile-works in the year 1868, and has found it an ever-increasing and a profitable business.
SCHOOLS.
The first school in the township was taught in the log house which Josiah Goddard had built on the west side of the Crooks road, in the northeast quarter of section 16, and a short time later abandoned, after which it was used as a school-house and as a place of meeting by religious worshipers of whatever denomination.
The next was a frame school-house, only a few rods from the site of the present one, in district No. 1. Then there was one built at Chase's Corners, and others followed in other parts of the township not very much later.
At that time school-houses were built and schools taught in them under the simple old plan, which was just the same in Royal Oak as everywhere else in the new country,-the universal method of a day of meeting of the male inhabitants to rear the house by a co-operation of labor, and afterwards a subscription, per capita of pupils, to raise the fifteen dollars per month which was required as the re- muneration of a superior teacher for the winter term. Many are the tales, both ludicrous and pathetic, told by the old settlers concerning their experiences on the slab or puncheon seats of those rude temples of learning, but all look back with a feeling of tender regret to the school-days and scenes which they can never see again.
There are now in the township eight good and comfortable frame school-houses and nine schools,-there being in district No. 6, which embraces the village of Royal Oak, two schools, a primary and a grammar school,-all necessitating a total annual expenditure of two thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. The custom of employing male teachers for the winter term is not universal in this township, and now in the large district which embraces the village the principal teacher, both winter and summer, is a female, though this has not been the case until the recent necessity for retrenchment of expenses enforced the innovation on the venerable rule of male teachers for the winter term. Before this, as high as seven hundred dollars per annum has been paid to the male principal in this district, and four hundred dollars to the female assistant; but the aggregate of both salaries has now been reduced to about nine hundred dollars. In the other districts of the township the salaries are about thirty-five dollars per month for the winter, whether to male or female teachers, and in summer about three dollars and fifty cents per week, with board. No. 6 is by far the largest of the districts, having an average attendance of about one hundred pupils, and in this district is the best of the school buildings, located on the main street of the village. Dis- trict No. 9 has also an exceptionally good school building, which has been built in place of one that was destroyed by fire in 1873. The site of the present house in that district was donated by Andrew C. Porter, and the ground has been very tastefully embellished by the setting out of shade-trees around its margin.
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