Melvin Drake, son of Larned Drake, of Easton, Massachusetts, was born in that town on the 20th of December, 1805, and at the age of six years removed with his parents to Orange county, Vermont. There he remained until 1821, when, at sixteen years of age, he obtained employment in Shoreham, Addison county, in the same State. At this place he worked steadily until 1830, when, on the 19th of September, he was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Pratt, of Shoreham, and, having already decided to emigrate to the west, the young couple at once packed their movables, and taking first the Northern canal, at Whitehall, and afterwards the Erie canal, for Bufiklo, took passage at the latter port for Detroit, by steamer "Niagara," arriving at their destination on the 11th of October, 1830. Leaving his wife in Detroit, Mr. Drake preceded to Washtenaw county, and there made selection of an eighty-acre tract of land, but on returning to the land office at Detroit, he found that this had already been entered, but was told by an acquaintance that there was plenty of fine land in Oakland County, which he would have no difficulty in securing, and upon this assurance he came to Southfield and made selection of eighty acres, which he had means to pay for from the earnings of his nine years' labor in Vermont. He at once commenced the erection of a house, which he had ready for occupancy in four weeks, himself and wife in the mean time stopping in the log house of a neighbor, whose own family numbered twelve persons.

His purchase was a heavily timbered tract in section 2. Upon this he remained until 1833, when he exchanged it with Isaac Heth for forty acres of opening in section 6, to which he at once removed, and upon which he now resides. He soon found plenty of eligible land for sale adjoining and near his new purchase, and of these he bought, until at one time he was the owner of about four hundred acres, lying nearly in a body.

On the organization of the Congregational (now First Presbyterian) church of Southfield, Mr. and Mrs. Drake united with it, by letter, from the Congregational church at Shoreham, Vermont, of which they were both members before their emio ration. Mr. Drake was elected deacon at the organization, and remained the only deacon of that church for seventeen years.

On account of the distance at which they resided from the Southfield house of worship they withdrew from that church about the year 1852, and united with the Wing Lake Presbyterian church in Bloomfield, in which Deacon Drake was elected an elder, and has continued to hold that office until the present time. The children born to Deacon and Mrs. Drake have been : Francis W., born June 17, 1831, and died October 5, 1872 ; Almira S., born March 20, 1833, married January 1, 1852, to John B. Sly, of Bloomfield ; and Mary P., born February 5, 1836, married April 4, 1860, to Isaac N. Covert, and died February 22, 1874.

Mrs. Drake was the daughter of Charles M. Pratt, of Williston, Vermont, and was born June 12, 1809. She had two brothers, now both dead, and has three sisters, one living in Illinois, one in Stockbridge, Ingham county, Michigan, and a third, Mrs. Bust, in Southfield. Her father also removed to Michigan in 1834, purchased forty acres of land in Southfield, but after a time removed to the township of Addison, thence to Shiawassee county, then returned to Franklin about 1870, and died in 1871, at the age of ninety-five years and two months. The father of Mr. Drake also followed his son to the west in 1835, located on section 10, in Southfield, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1863, his age being seventy-nine years.

He is no longer extensively engaged in agriculture, having reduced his acreage by sales and invested in government securities, and there is no reason why he and his partner, with their ample means and clear consciences, should not find quiet and solid comfort in the evening of their days.