History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 98

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 98

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The only stream of even moderate size in the township (with the exception of the short channel which connects Cass and Pickerel lakes) is a creek, of which the western branch takes its rise in Woodpecker and Morris lakes, and the eastern one flows out from Black Walnut lake, the two uniting on section 26, there forming the main stream, which leaves the township at its southeastern corner. This stream turns several mill-wheels in its course through the townships of Farmington, Bloom- field, and Southfield, and in former years furnished propelling power for a saw- and a grist-mill in West Bloomfield, but they have long since disappeared, and now the little creek flows unobstructed from its sources to the line of Farmington. The surface of the township is uneven, particularly in the lake region, where it is fre- quently broken into abrupt hills, though these do not rise to any great height. In the southern part it is simply rolling, and this portion was originally much more heavily timbered than was the case among the lakes in the northern part.

312

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Before the coming of the pale-face these forests and lakes were an Indian para- dise. a place which they loved more than other hunting grounds and waters. Par- ticularly was Orchard lake, with its beautiful island, a great central point where chiefs and tribal deputations met in council. Tradition says that it was upon this island that a meeting took place between the chief Walk-in-the-Water and the mightier Pontiac, upon which occasion the latter first unfolded the plan and details of his vast and almost successful conspiracy. And there are legends, too, of tenderer meetings there, between the young warrior and the Indian maiden, which, whether they be true or false, lend an additional charm to a spot already made charming by the hand of nature.

Orchard island, or, as it has more recently been named, Apple island, was an Indian reservation, one of the two which were laid off within the township ; the other being at the south end of Orchard lake, the present farm of R. W. Cum- mings. Upon these they planted corn, beans, potatoes, and other vegetables, until the time when the lands were sold by government. They also had apple- orchards on the reservations, particularly upon the island. These were, of course, cultivated after the careless and slovenly Indian manner, nothwithstanding which they produced a considerable quantity of fruit; and they were nurseries from which, to some extent, the white settlers took trees with which to start orchards for themselves.

On the island there was a populous Indian burial-ground, and there was one still more extensive at a spot on the southeast side of Cass lake, now comprised in the estate of Dr. Ward. Various kinds of Indian utensils have been exhumed from these cemeteries, and not only in these, but in many other localities of the vicinity, there have been brought to light from beneath the surface copper arrow- heads and parts of other weapons, frequently of the same metal. All these facts seem to furnish conclusive evidence of a long-continued and numerous Indian occupation.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

The earliest entries of lands in the township, now West Bloomfield, but then included with Bloomfield, under Governor Woodbridge's proclamation of June 28. 1820, were made in the year 1823 ; the first being that of James Herrington, of Cayuga county, New York, of the entire southeast section, May 15, 1823. Immediately after, John Huff, from Gaines' Corners, Orleans county, New York, entered the northeast quarter of section 13; upon which, however, he had erected his cabin and commenced clearing in the fall of 1821, he being the first actual settler within the bounds of the township, and his premises being the same now occupied by W. Worthington. The northwest corner of his tract bounded upon Pine lake, and at this point, upon the shore of the lake, in the year 1824, he built a very large house of hewed logs, upon which he expended much more than the usual amount of labor and care in its construction. He may have expected to spend years of comfort and of plenty within its walls, but if such was his thought, it was never realized, for he died in the autumn of the next year, 1825, while engaged in the enterprise of building a tavern-house in the new and rapidly- growing town of Pontiac. After Mr. Huff's death, the building was completed by his widow and her brother, Mark Luce, but she soon after abandoned all idea of remaining in the western country, and returned to the State of New York. The property at Pine lake was sold to Charles Kelly, who, however, never occu- pied it, and, about three years later, it passed into the possession of William Durkee.

Another of the entries of 1823 was that of Benjamin Irish, on the southeast and southwest quarters of section 23, half a mile west of Black Walnut lake, now the lands of William Harris. Upon these he settled in the same year, with his family, consisting of his wife, six sons, and three daughters; the sons being Joseph Merwin Irish, who afterwards married Sarah, daughter of Abel Bigelow ; Thomas Irish, who married a daughter of John Ellenwood; Rial (or Royal) Irish married a sister of William Jenks; Benjamin Irish, Jr., then a youth of nineteen years of age; Newland Irish, now living in the State of New York ; and Raphael Irish, the last two named being but lads at the time the family came to West Bloomfield. The daughters were Sally, Anna, and Lavina. Mr. Irish died in October, 1825, and Mrs. Irish and one of her daughters also died within three or four years from the time of their settlement.

Rufus R. Robinson came in 1823, and settled on section 1, on lands now owned by Henry W. Lord. He died in September, 1825, being one of the three first settlers-Huff and Irish being the other two-whose deaths occurred within two months of each other. After the death of Mr. Robinson, his widow and the family, consisting of four sons,-Asahel, William, Marshall, and Lewis,-and four daughters,-Harriet, Louisa, Mary, and Betsey,-returned to Pembroke, New York, near Buffalo ; the place whence they had emigrated less than three years before.

. In 1823, William Aunett entered the southeast quarter of section 22, and settled upon it in the fall of the same year. With him came a youth named George

Covill, who was a good hunter, and kept the family well supplied with venison. Mrs. Aunett died about 1829. - During the remainder of his life Mr. Aunett lived upon the farm where he settled, and which is now the property of his daughter, Mrs. Hartwell Green.

Peter Richardson came in 1824, and settled on the southwest side of Black Walnut lake, in the northwest quarter of section 25, where is now the farm of Mrs. Haskins. His brother James also came in and settled near him. Peter was a bachelor, and for a time kept his hall there in regulation style, but soon after married Pamelia Haynes, a sister of Mrs. Josiah Barkley.

Harry Bronson settled in 1824, on the town-line, in the northeast quarter of section 36, this being a part of the " Herrington tract." His house stood on the site now occupied by the new brick residence of Henry Grinnell. Mr. Bronson is now living in Stratford, Connecticut, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

Morgan L. Hunt and Benjamin Leonard also entered lands in 1824, but the exact date of their settlement cannot be given. It is certain, however, that it was years later than the date of entry, when Mr. Hunt came with his family to settle on his tracts in the northeast and northwest quarters of section 5. Mr. Hunt died November 10, 1876, at the age of seventy years. His wife was Miss Hunter, daughter of John W. Hunter, the first settler at Birmingham.

In May, 1825, Samuel Eastman came from Orleans county, New York, bring- ing with him a wife and one son, Horace, then but a child, and settled on the west side of Black Walnut lake, upon lands now owned by Mr. Stodgell. At about the same time Linus Parker came in with his sons, Chauncey, Linus, and David. The elder Linus settled on the northeast quarter of section 34, now the farm of J. J. Deconinck, and Chauncey took land in the northwest quarter of 35, adjoining his father. He afterwards sold to Mr. Armstrong.

In the following month, June, 1825, there arrived in West Bloomfield one who afterwards became probably as well known as any man in the county of Oakland, -Rev. Laban Smith, a circuit-preacher of the Ohio conference, who in the suc- ceeding quarter of a century officiated at meetings for worship in school-houses, churches, dwellings, barns, shops, and in the open air, as well as at funerals and weddings, times almost without number, and who has left behind him a religious impress upon the sentiment of the community which will not soon be obliterated. He settled in the northwest quarter of section 13, the present farm of Alva A. Smith, on the south side of Pine lake.

Stephen Smith was a brother of the Reverend Laban, and came in at the same time. He also settled on the southern shore of Pine lake, on lands now owned by M. McCallum. With these brothers came also their mother, a most kind- hearted old lady, who was well skilled as a botanical doctress, and was always ready and willing to give her assistance in cases of sickness, which were by no means few nor infrequent in the four or five years which succeeded the time of their settlement in West Bloomfield.

The pecuniary resources of the brothers Smith were not great, nor was the min- isterial vocation of Laban productive of much revenue to him, but both he and his brother are said to have been excellent trappers, and the lake was at that time teeming with muskrat, and of these they caught sometimes as many as a dozen in a single night. Each pelt readily brought four shillings, a sum greater than could at that time be realized for two bushels of the best wheat; and by this means they procured the few necessities which could not be obtained by barter, but which required cash,-a commodity which neither their husbandry nor Uncle Laban's preaching would then furnish.

Abel Bigelow settled in the year 1825, on the Herrington tract, in the extreme southeastern corner of the township. He came from Manlius, New York, and was accompanied by three sons,-Jotham R., Levi, and T. Allen Bigelow,- which last named is still living on the same farm. A great portion of Mr. Bige- low's farm proved to be underlaid with clay of excellent quality for brick-making, and he was the first person in the township who engaged in their manufacture. The business is still prosecuted by T. A. Bigelow at his water-power, which, how- ever, is just across the township-line, in Farmington.

Edward Ellerby, an Englishman of considerable means, had come into the township in the year of the first entries, and had purchased from government thir- teen eighty-acre tracts, partly in this and partly in the township of Bloomfield. He had at first come to this country from England in the company of Robert I. Owen, of Glasgow, the father of the well-known Robert Dale Owen, and having absorbed some of his (Owen's) peculiar ideas upon the subject of colonization, he had purchased these tracts with the purpose of settling them by colonists from his native country, and with this intent he had returned thither soon after making his entries to prepare for the consummation of his scheme. In the early part of 1825 he returned to Michigan, having with him the first detachment, the pioneer corps of companies yet to come. Those whom he brought were a Mr. Rake, Mi- chael Skinner, a cabinet-maker, and a cask of brandy. Having now his forces on the ground, one of the first things to be done was to complete a very large log

P. F.Goist. del

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF DAVID WARD'S RESIDENCE, LOCATED BETWEEN ORCHARD & CASS LAKES, WEST BLOOMFIELD, OAKLAND SOUNTY, MICHIGAN.

J. Steinegger. lith.

PUB. BY L.H. EVERTS & Co. 716 FILBERT ST. PHILA.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

house, for which preparations had been made at the time of his previous visit. This was to be his manorial residence ; and as he had funds at command he had no trouble in pushing the structure to an early completion. It stood on the site now occupied by the neat little frame house of George Richardson, just east of Black Walnut lake, on the town-line, in the southeast corner of section 24. When finished, it was so satisfactory to him, and so imposing in appearance, that he named it " Ellerby Castle." Connected with the main building there was a wing of large size, and in this wing Michael Skinner had his residence and work- shop ; one of the first jobs which he performed in the line of his trade being the manufacture of a coffin for the wife of his fellow-colonist, poor Mrs. Rake, who died in the wilderness, away from home and friends, in the October succeeding her arrival.

Ellerby never achieved success in his scheme of colonization, although he after- wards made several trips to England for the purpose; and he did not take his final departure from West Bloomfield until about 1835. Even then he had not abandoned the idea of the promotion of emigration from England to the United States, and it is said that he afterwards arrived in this country with a colony of considerable size, bound for New Harmony, Indiana (where Mr. R. I. Owen was similarly engaged), but that he never arrived with them at their destination, as they all deserted his leadership during the passage through the State of Ohio.

John Ellenwood came to Michigan with his family from Ridgeway, Orleans county, New York, in 1825, and arrived in Pontiac on the 23d of September. They were moved up from Detroit by the horse-teams of Diodate Hubbard and John Hamilton (who, indeed, seem to have " moved" nearly every other family who came into this and the adjoining townships in those years), and, with but a short halt in Pontiac, they proceeded without delay to their place of destination and settlement in the southeast quarter of section 12, on the eastern shore of Pine lake, to and beyond which point a kind of road had already been cut through, running to the westward of the present road, and close along the edge of the lake. The land of Mr. Ellenwood laid immediately north of and adjoining the farm of the first settler, John Huff, who, at this time, was engaged at work in Pontiac ; and, as there was plenty of room in the large log house already mentioned as having been built by him upon the lake-shore, the Ellenwood family moved into it as their home until a house could be reared upon their own farm.

The family of John Ellenwood consisted of his wife, two sons, Eben and John M., and two daughters, Jane and Ismena. Calvin Ellenwood, another son, had a family of his own, but came with his father, and remained with him on the farm at Pine lake for two years after their arrival. Eben also married in about two years, and settled just north of his father, upon what is now the Coates farm. The old log house into which he moved with his bride may still be seen on the west side of the road, and near the bank of the lake, windowless, dilapidated, and desolate. John M. Ellenwood, the youngest son, was then but a lad of eleven years, and he is still living on the same place where they settled fifty-two years ago. The daughter, Ismena, afterwards married Thomas Irish. Another daughter was the wife of Nathan Herrick, who came in soon after, and he, too, moved into the Huff house for a temporary home, as did also Timothy Kennedy's family, all at the same time that it was occupied by the families of John and Calvin Ellen- wood. Nathan Herrick took land upon Pine lake, just south and west of that of his father-in-law, it being the east half of the northwest quarter of section 13.

As may be supposed, the pecuniary circumstances of Mr. Ellenwood were not of the best on his arrival in Michigan. It was not convenient for him to pur- chase a cow, so in the fall he bargained with one of the Bloomfield settlers to take one of his cows and keep her through the winter, which he could easily do, as the " blue-joint" grass grew in great abundance all along the lake. In the same season he harvested a field of fifteen acres of wheat upon shares, and by this means procured breadstuff for his family, while John, the youngest son, who had already become an expert deer-slayer, had no trouble in keeping them well sup- plied with venison, having sometimes as many as six carcasses hung up in reserve at one time. The next spring he bargained with Ezra Rood and Asa B. Hadsell, of Bloomfield, to break and prepare four acres of ground for an orchard, Rood hav- ing a horse-team and Hadsell a yoke of oxen. This he set out with trees, many of which he procured from the Indian reservation at Orchard island, and he also sowed the ground among them with wheat.

Pomeroy Stiles came in the spring of 1826, and entered on the northeastern section of the township, but did not settle upon it for three years, during which time he boarded in the family of Mr. Ellenwood, with whom, during the first season, he joined purses for the purpose of procuring a yoke of oxen, which with their united funds they succeeded in purchasing of Harvey Seeley, the price being forty dollars. To feed them they bought two stacks of wheat of Thomas J. Drake (afterwards Judge Drake), administrator of the estate of Rufus R. Robin- son, who had died the previous autumn, and this wheat they had ground into feed at the Pontiac mill, less than four miles distant. Wheat in this section and

at that time was so plenty, and the means of transportation so limited, that it absolutely could not be sold, no matter how fine the quality, and it was therefore used as food for cattle. The muskrat-skins which an expert trapper like Uncle Laban or Stephen Smith could take from the lake in a season would then be of far more commercial value than the wheat crop of the best farm in the township.

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS.

Among those who came in the year 1827 was Ebenezer F. Smith, who settled in the northeast corner of section 33. Mr. - Colby also came in that year, and purchased the east half of the northeast quarter of section 26, which he afterwards sold to Andrew Simpson. Daniel Powell settled about the same time at Black Walnut lake, and John Powell (not a brother of Daniel) on the Her- rington tract.

The Indian reservations were sold at auction by the government in September, 1827, and were purchased, at the price of eleven shillings per acre, by George Galloway, of Palmyra, New York, an uncle of Captain Joshua Terry, who after- wards kept the public-house between Orchard and Cass lakes. These reservations were one hundred and seven acres at the southern end of Orchard lake,-now the farm of R. W. Cummings,-and Orchard island, in Orchard lake, about thirty- eight acres,-now the property of Colin Campbell, of Detroit.

One of the earliest settlers in the western portion of the township was Eldad Smith, from Camden, Oneida county, New York, who, on arriving in Michigan, had stopped for a time in Bloomfield, but came into West Bloomfield soon after 1828, and settled in the southwest quarter of section 30, on lands at present owned by T. C. Severance. Henry Dodge came in about the same time, and set- tled in the northeast quarter of section 30, and Henry Allen, a cabinet-maker, from Seneca county, New York, purchased and settled on the southeast quarter of section 32. Mr. - Simpson and his sons, Robert, Andrew, and James, came in the year 1829, and bought from Colby, as mentioned above; the tract being the same now owned by Robert Kyle. Nelson Rosevelt was another who came near the same time, and he located his log dwelling on the north line of section 27, in its northeast quarter.

In the fall of the year 1829, William Durkee came from Vermont, and settled on one hundred and sixty acres of land purchased of Charles Kelly, this being the Hoff tract at Pine lake, on which the first house was built in the township. Erastus Durkee, a son of William, also came at the same time, and settled at the west end of Long lake, in the northeast quarter of section 12. Jedediah Durkee, another son of William, came in 1830, and settled on the southwest quarter of section 13,-the Douglas Harger farm. Mr. Durkee is now a resident of Pontiac. In his " Reminiscences from an Old Pioneer," recounted to the Society of Oak- land County Pioneers, he says : " I built a log house, and to aid those who had no dwelling, I took about twenty new-comers in the one new house. To pay ex- penses I used to go four or five miles a day to work, and had one dollar per day with oxen, and fifty cents for self. I wanted then, as ever since, to keep out of debt. I was often without meat, but occasionally killed a deer or a bear. I have seen as many as three wolves cross on the ice of Pine lake at one time. After three years I built a good frame barn. To get one thousand feet of lumber I worked a week with oxen to pay for the same. . . . For a quarter of a pound of tea I worked about one day. . . . Then my wife used to be left alone for a week at a time with three small children. Wolves were so numerous that I had to build high inclosures to save my sheep from their ravages. After they had killed forty sheep near our place, a hundred men turned out in pursuit of them. I used to go three or four miles and split rails at four shillings per hundred, and went often a number of miles to help at a raising. . . . Esquire Ellenwood lost, by fire, his house and all its contents, and I took him and his family of twelve persons into my house, making twenty-four inmates. They lived with us about two months, till he could build."

From about the year 1830 the immigration became much more rapid. The following were among those who came in near that time: Wm. A. McAlpine set- tled on the northwest quarter of section 36; Robert Carhart, on the northeast quarter of same section ; Henry Keyser, on the north side of Pine lake (lands at present owned by O. C. Morris); - Case, also on north side of Pine lake, now called Lakeland place, and owned by G. W. Howard; John Case, in the southwest quarter of section 26; Thomas Beatty, from Orange county, New York, on the southeast quarter of section 25; David Kyle, northeast quarter of section 26; Morgan L. Wisner, northwest quarter of section 36; Wm. Harris, a machinist, in the southeast and southwest quarters of 23; Halsey Whitehead settled near David Kyle; - Dickinson, in the southwest quarter of section 27, now Hos- ner's place ; Laban Jenks purchased the lands of Rial Irish ; - Bachelor set- tled in southeast quarter of section 28; James Stoughton, on the Herrington tract, and near him Bentley Sabin, southeast quarter of section 36; Joseph Grif- fin, northwest quarter of section 26; John Williams, in the southeast quarter of

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

section 34; John Robinson, a brother-in-law of Wisner, settled on the town-line in section 35; Nathaniel I. Daniels, in the southwest quarter of section 34; Mr. Wells, step-father of Nelson Rosevelt, settled in the northwest quarter of section 26; Mr. Armstrong, father of Theodore C. Armstrong, in the northwest quarter of section 35, on land bought of Chauncey Parker, who then purchased upon the town-line in section 35, now the farm of G. W. Benjamin. Also about the same time - Loomis and -- Schutz, brothers-in-law, from New Jersey, settled on the southeast quarter of section 13, now the Strong farm ; John Coe, in the northeast quarter of section 31; Theron Murray, in the southwest quarter of section 32; Sidney Hinman, in the northwest quarter of section 27, now farm of D. Root; and Henry Ewing, Joseph Miller, John Runyan, Mr. Green (father of Hartwell Green), Roswell Ingram, Sidney S. Campbell, Isaac Hil- lard, Haran Haskins, John Austin, James Goodenough all came into the town- ship not far from the year 1830.

James Dow, the first settler in the "Scotch neighborhood," as it was called, came from Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1830, and purchased lands on the isthmus be- tween Orchard and Cass lakes, in sections 9 and 10,-two hundred and seventy acres. He brought three sons, George, William, and Peter, and one daughter, Elizabeth. On their arrival, the family occupied Erastus Durkee's house, at Long lake, until one could be built and made ready on their own land. It was finished so that they moved into it on the day before Christmas.

The elder Dow was by trade a carpenter, but had carried on the business of agriculture in a small way in Scotland, having held a lease of land upon the estate of Sir Walter Scott, at Loch-awe. He never gathered a harvest from American soil, for his death occurred only a few months after his settlement,-July, 1831. George, the eldest son, died December 23, 1876, aged seventy-three years ; Wil- liam died January 2, 1862; and Peter, the youngest, is still living in plenty on the farm which his father located forty-seven years ago. He has several times been elected to offices in the township, and was also elected to the State senate in 1862. Elizabeth Dow married Dr. Robert Burns, who is said to have been a cousin of the poet of the same name. He came from Scotland with Mr. Dow, and settled on the north side of Pine lake, in the northwest quarter of section 12, now the Howard place, one of the best locations upon the lake-shore. A Mr. Case had built his habitation on the place, and although it is said he was only a squatter upon the land, yet Burns purchased his interest, whatever it may have been.

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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 98

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