GEORGE C. COLLINS. A century witnesses the passing of all but few of the families who at its beginning composed the population of any community, and it is for this reason that the living representatives of the real pioneer families in any locality are numerically so small. In this brief sketch will be found a few facts concerning the members of a family in Farmington township that deserves a conspicuous place on the roll of Oakland county pioneers.

George W. and Cynthia ( Newton ) Collins, the former a native of New York state and the latter of Connecticut, and both of English descent, were married in New York, and about the year 1822 journeyed westward and found habitation and settlement in what is now Farmington township. They entered a large tract of wild land, developing a home from the wilderness. Their first neighbors were nearly all In dians, and the only market for their products was at Detroit . They lived to see civilized customs and industry transform the wilderness, and spent their remaining years in this vicinity. They were the parents of the following children who grew to maturity: John W., Huldah, Mary Elizabeth, Thurza and George C.

John W. Collins, now a venerable resident of Farmington village, has the unique distinction of having been the first white child born in Farmington township. Born in 1824, twelve years before Michigan became a state, and before the progress of settlement had spread more than fifty miles in a radius from Detroit , he is at this writing eighty eight years of age, and in the span of a single life links an almost for gotten past with the modern age of electricity and twentieth century improvement.

George C. Collins, a younger brother of this octogenarian, and himelf one of the oldest living natives of Farmington township, was born April 26, 1834, on the same lot where he still resides. All the members of the family were reared and trained in farm life, and farming has been the lifelong occupation of George C. His estate adjoins the village of Farmington on the south, and he still looks after it, though he has long since retired from the active labors. His brother John was for many years one of the leading merchants in Farmington, but he, too, is retired. John also served several times as treasurer of this township.

Both brothers were allied with the Republican party at its very be ginning, and the father and John were Whig voters before the new party came into existence. In 1860 George C. was married to Miss Elizabeth Conroy. She passed away in 1900, after forty years of wedded companionship. Their only son and child, Gale G., is now a resident of Mt. Clemens, and is the father of one son, Stanley, a boy of ten years. Amid the scenes with which he has been associated since infancy, though changed and modernized by the march of many years, Mr. Collins will await the final summons. His has been an honest and upright career, and he looks to the future without fear.