South of Troy and east of Southfield lies Royal Oak, which is a corner township of Oakland, and has for its eastern and southern boundaries the counties of Macomb and Wayne. There are no lakes within its limits, and its only stream, a very inconsiderable one, is Red Run, which has its source in the western and northwestern portions of the township, and flows easterly into Macomb county, where it joins its waters with the of Clinton river.

The surface of the township is uniformly level. The soil must be classed as low the average of that of Oakland County in natural fertility and adaptation to the requirements of agriculture, but Royal Oak is not without good farms; there are many of these, though their productiveness is more due to intelligent husbandry and the hard labor which has been expended on them than to any advantages received from the hand of nature.

Originally this was a heavily timbered country, and there are still within the township extensive tracts on which the old forest trees still remain undisturbed. More than sixty years ago, when the government surveyors first penetrated the wilderness which embraced all this region, their judgment of it was very far from being a favorable one, and they did not hesitate to announce their opinion, based upon what they had seen here, and in the still more forbidding country which lay farther to the east and south, that the lands were irredeemable, and must remain forever unfit for culture or white occupation, and that their obvious destiny must be to remain in the possession of wild beast and the aborigines.

There were those, however, who believed that this judgment was a false, or at least a hasty one; and chief among those who were skeptical as to the absolute worthlessness of Michigan lands was Governor Lewis Cass, who not only doubted but resolved to test its truth, and disprove or prove it by the evidence of his own senses; and to that end he set out from Detroit, accompanied by Hon. Austin E. Wing and two or three other friends, on a tour of observation and discovery. Throughout the first stage of their northwestern journey, after leaving the town, the aspect was by no means reassuring, and as their horses sunk knee deep in the sloughs, or wallowed through the marshy places, along that trail whose horrors and miseries afterwards became so well known to the pioneers, it really seemed as if the dismal tales of the surveyors would be more than verified. But at last, after having floundered over a distance which seemed a hundred miles, but which in reality was not more than one-eighth part of it, they emerged upon higher ground, and into a more open and desirable country ; and here, as both men and beasts were completely exhausted, they sought and soon found an eligible spot, where a halt was called, and the party dismounted and prepared for rest and refreshment.

The spot which they had chosen was a smooth, open space under the spreading branches of an oak tree of larger size than its neighbors, and which the surveyors had made still more noticeable by marking its trunk with a large letter H. The feeling of relaxation was delightful to the amateur explorers after the severe toil of the day's travel, and the conversation which ensued was entertaining and brilliant. It could not be otherwise, for it was led by Lewis Cass. As the governor lay upon the ground and looked up into the matted foliage of the tree top, he thought of that royal oak in Scotland, among whose sheltering branches Prince Charles, the Pretender, hid his sacred person from pursuing enemies after the bloody battle of Culloden, and it seemed to him that it must have been just such a tree as this; so they christened it the Royal Oak, and it was from that fanciful thought that the name was given to both tree and township. The old oak stood near the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of section 16, a few rods northwest of the junction of the Crooks, the Niles, and the Paint creek roads, the spot being on the farm now owned by Mr. H. Reynolds.

From the Royal Oak the governor and his companions continued towards the west and north. In the course of their trip, which was of about a week's duration, they named Wing lake, in Bloomfield, in honor of those two members of the party ; and when they came to the largest of the lakes of Oakland County, they called it Cass lake ; while just beyond it, (now) in Waterford township, they named a beautiful lake for Elizabeth, the governor's wife. And, better than all, they carried back with them the knowledge and proof that Michigan was not the worthless desert which it had been represented, but, instead, a beautiful and fertile land, awaiting only the touch of the settler's axe and plow, and ready to yield an abundant increase to reward his toil

The first entries of land in the township were of tracts in section 33, made by L. Luther and D. McKinstry, July 6, 1820. The earliest settlements were also made on the same section, though not by the same persons. The first white man who located his cabin in the township, now Royal Oak, was a Mr. White, a shoemaker, who, as early as the spring of 1822, had already established his rude home near the centre of the southeast quarter of the above, named section. How much prior to that time he had come in is not known with certainty, but it is very probable that it was during the previous year that he arrived and settled there.

The next comer was Henry Stephens, who settled in the spring of 1822, on the northeast quarter of section 33, upon land now owned by W. D. Tobin. He afterwards became well known as a resident of Royal Oak township, and is now living, at the age of eighty-four, in Oakfield, Genesee county. New York.

In the same year and month, March, 1822, came Thomas Flinn, and settled on the base-line just south of Mr. White. He was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, but had removed thence to Onondaga county, New York, where he married Joanna Culver, and afterwards lived a short time in Canada. On his arrival in Michigan he purchased lands on both sides of the base-line, in Oakland and Wayne counties, but first settled and built his cabin on the north side, in Royal Oak. He afterwards moved across the line a very short distance, and built a house on his land in Wayne, and after that he never lived in Royal Oak. He, however, in 1837, removed his residence to the village of Birmingham, in Bloomfield, where he lived until his death, January 20, 1842. Later, in the year 1822, Mr. Woodford entered, and built a log house upon the northeast quarter of section 17, and Alexander Campbell (whose wife was a sister of Captain Diodate Hubbard) settled on land in the northwest quarter of section 8, now the property of Asher B. Parker, Esq. He first erected the usual log house, but soon after built to it a frame addition, larger than the original dwelling. This was the first framed building in the township, and was for a time kept as a tavern. Neither Campbell nor Woodford lived for any great length of time on the lands where they first settled, the former afterwards removing his residence to the city of Detroit.

Erastus Ferguson, Sr., from Oneida county, New York, also came in 1822, and made a settlement on the southeast quarter of section 9. He was the first man who drove a team of horses through to Saginaw, being employed for that purpose by Dr. Little, who accompanied him, and they were compelled to cut their way as they proceeded.

In the fall of the year 1822 Henry O. Bronson came, and settled his family at the junction of the Paint creek road with the Niles road and Ball's line, or the Crooks road; this being about three-fourths of a mile north of the present village of Royal Oak, and just to the east of the cemetery. Here he erected a small log house, put in such supplies as in those days were considered indispensable, and opened a public house, the first in Royal Oak township, for the accommodation of land hunters or immigrants, who by this time had begun to make their appearance in considerable numbers. Bronson had not come to Royal Oak immediately on his arrival in Michigan. He had come up by way of Mount Clemens and the Clinton river, and had made his first halt in the vicinity of Auburn. His little log tavern, unpretentious as it was, became well known as a landmark and as a place of shelter and refreshment to those who, in the few years succeeding 1822, were compelled to travel over the exceedingly bad road which lay between the Royal Oak and the city of Detroit. His house was, however, closed as a tavern before the year 1828.

In 1823, Sherman Baldwin settled on lands in the northwest corner of section 6, now owned by Mr. Cooper, and Josiah Goddard built a log house on the east side of the Crooks road, on the north line of the northeast quarter of section 16, but this he not long afterwards abandoned; and when settlers became sufficiently numerous to require it, it was used as a school house, and occasionally as a place for holding religious meetings.

In the latter part of the month of October, 1823, Diodate Hubbard arrived in Royal Oak, bringing with him his second wife (although he was then but twenty-three years of age), with whom he settled in a log house on the northeast quarter of section 6, land now owned by James McBride. Afterwards he became as well known as any resident of Royal Oak township, or perhaps of Oakland County, being for many years engaged as a teamster between Detroit and Pontiac, Birmingham, and other points more or less remote; and, indeed, on comparing the narratives of the early immigrants, it would seem as if half the settlers who arrived in the county during the first fifteen years had their families and movable property transported from Detroit to their point of settlement by the wagons of Diodate Hubbard.

He had come to Detroit in the year 1810, with his parents, who were originally from Connecticut, but later from the State of New York. They settled at Grosse Point in 1811, and the following year his father died, leaving a widow and eight children. Soon after the Indians drove the family away from their meagre possessions at Grosse Point, and they were huddled into Detroit in a state of great destitution, but feeling themselves fortunate, as indeed they were, in having escaped with their lives. Afterwards, upon the retaking of the city by the Americans, young Hubbard entered the army, at the age of thirteen years, and served for three months as a substitute, on the unexpired term of a drafted man from Ohio. He was married in Detroit in 1818, and kept a tavern in that city for a time. His wife died in November, 1821. In the following year he married Charlotte Keyes, from Bloomfield, New York, and in 1823 settled in Royal Oak, as we have seen. He had been employed by Mack, Conant, and Sibley, at the time of their erection of the Pontiac mill, to transport their machinery and supplies from Detroit ; the only feasible route for a team between those two points at that time being by way of Mount Clemens and up the Clinton river. At the time of his removal to Oakland, in 1823, he knew every inhabitant of the county, extensive as its territory then was. Mr, Hubbard served for a time as sergeant-at-arms of the Michigan legislature, in Detroit, and also received the appointment of sergeant-at-arms of the senate, in Lansing, in 1851

He occupied his farm in the northwest section of the township from the time of his settlement until 1870. a period of forty-seven years. He then sold, and removed to Birmingham, but has now (1877) returned to Royal Oak, and is living on the west side of the Paint creek road, a few rods south of the town-line of Troy, and, although seventy-seven years of age, seems hale and hearty enough to warrant the expectation of some years more of life and comfort upon his new possession.

James Lockwood came in the spring of 1824, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 21, where now are the premises of Dr. H. K. Lathrop, just west of the railroad track at Royal Oak village. This land he had entered in the year 1821, and now he built upon it a large double house of hewed logs, and opened it as a tavern ; for at that time the main route of travel southward from Bronson's ran past this place instead of following the section-line as at present. His house soon became well known as a stopping place, but he not long after rented it to Talbot, and being himself a tinsmith by trade, he removed to Detroit and worked there in that business.

Benjamin and Abraham Noyes, brothers, came also within a few weeks of the same time that Lockwood arrived. They had purchased in the southwest quarter of section 9, where Mr. Proctor now owns; and, both being unmarried, they erected a log house and commenced housekeeping in bachelor style. Afterwards they left Royal Oak, and removed to Detroit, where they married.

At the same time, too, came Joseph Chase, David Williams, Cromwell Goodwin, George Morse, Jarvis Phelps, Moses and Noah Peck (brothers), Socrates Hopkins, and Wakeman Bradley. The last named settled on a part of the northeast quarter of section 9, and still lives there, at an advanced age. The Peck brothers (unmarried) settled on land in the northwest quarter of section 4. It was only a few years later that they sold to Samuel Addis, who removed there with his family. Moses Peck moved to Bloomfield township, where he opened a public house at Bloomfield Centre. He also filled a number of township offices, among them being that of treasurer, to which he was elected in 1844. His brother Noah met a dreadful fate, being scalded to death in a distillery at Troy.

Cromwell Goodwin, the first bricklayer in the township, settled on the southwest quarter of section 4, but built his house on the west side of the section line, in the extreme southeast corner of section 5, on land now owned by Deacon White. He brought with him a yoke of oxen and an ox-wagon, nearly, if not quite, the first ox-team and equipment in Royal Oak. Soon after his arrival a "bee" was made to cut a road from his place northward to Josiah Alger's, who had been an acquaintance of Mr. Goodwin in Ontario county, New York, and who came to Michigan about the same time, settling a little farther north in the edge of Troy.

Mr. Goodwin had a large family. One of his daughters married Jarvis Phelps ; another, Harriet, died not long after their arrival ; this being the first death of a white person which occurred in the township.

Socrates Hopkins located and settled on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 5. David Williams, then just married, settled on land which he had entered in 1821, in the southwest quarter of section 3. He afterwards had five sons: Sherman, who lives where his father settled; John R., who is a master mechanic on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad ; George, now residing in Royal Oak, but has in the past been in government employ on the Indian frontier; David, Jr., and Addison, the last named not now living.

George Morse, a single man, erected his cabin on land which he had entered in 1821 in the northwest quarter of section 9, now owned by J. McKibbin. About two years later he exchanged lands with Rufus Beach, of Troy, and removed into that township.

Joseph Chase came from East Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, arriving late in the season, and settled in the northwest corner of section 9, opposite where is now the United Presbyterian church. That locality afterwards became known as "Chase's Corners." Mr. Chase was widely known among the residents of this and adjoining townships as "Uncle Joe Chase." He was afflicted with a very troublesome impediment in his speech. With Mr. Chase came a young son, Nathan, unmarried. He died only a few years after

Jarvis Phelps, a carpenter, and the first of that trade in the township, settled on land (now of Hamilton) in the southeast quarter of section 5. He was a bachelor when he came, but afterwards married a daughter of Cromwell Goodwin.

Erastus Burt, another carpenter, came in 1825, and settled on section 8, near Alexander Campbell. Jonathan Chase came in April of that year, and took up his residence with his father, Joseph Chase, where he remained until 1827 ; then went back ta the east, and did not return to Royal Oak until 1833, since which he has been for a great part of the time a resident of the township, and has always enjoyed the confidence of his fellow townsmen, being often elected to such offices m they had in their gift, among which was that of justice of the peace, which he held continuously for a number of years. He was also a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1835. Now, in his extreme old age, he is living on a little farm which he has purchased, upon the north side of the town line of Troy.

David Chase, brother of Jonathan, came later in the same year, and located himself at Chase's Comers, where he owned a mercantile business in 1826, and in which he continued until 1854.

James G. Johnson, John F. Keyes, Dennis H. Quick, and Abraham S. Hoagland also came in 1825. Johnson settled on the northeast quarter of section 4, upon a little dry creek, a tributary of Red run ; and here, seven years later, he built the only water mill ever put in operation in the township. He lived a quiet life upon the same farm forty-seven years, and died there in April, 1872

John F. Keyes settled in the northwest quarter of section 9. At the commencement of the Detroit and Pontiae railroad he was engaged in its construction, and he continued in its employ in one or another capacity during the remainder of his life, and died, it may be said, with its harness on.

Dennis H. Quick and Abraham S. Hoagland were brothers-in-law, Hoagland having married Quick's sister. These two men came to Michigan together. Quick settled on the southwest quarter of section 5, being at the time a bachelor, but marrying here afterwards. He is still living on the same farm, and at a good old age. He is a native of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, and both he and Hoagland were devout Presbyterians, though it is said that the latter afterwards changed his tenets. He was a blacksmith, the first of his trade in Royal Oak township. He purchased and settled on the eighty acres adjoining Quick's on the west, and also in the southwest quarter of section 5, it being now the property of N. S. Schuyler.

William Worth and Daniel Burrows came in the year 1826, the former settling on the northeast quarter of section 10, now the farm of T. Gibbs, but after some years removing to Troy, where he is still living. Burrows had made a halt of considerable duration in Troy, before coming to Royal Oak. He settled on the northwest quarter of section 15, just north of the (then) well-known inn of Henry O. Bronson, upon land now comprised in the Durham farm. His tract covered the entire area of the present cemetery, and it was he who donated the first section of that ground, which was used as a place of sepulture. Mr. Burrows was by trade a chair maker, and, although he never did much in that line in Royal Oak, there are those yet living of the settlers who recollect that the ponderous chairs belonging to their wedding outfit were the workmanship of his cunning hand.

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 barnyard ; 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 Alexander Campbell, and established upon them the first potashery within the township. 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 resale of lands became so frequent, as to make it impossible to trace them far beyond that point.

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 commenced, 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 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 connected 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.

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 Y. 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 notwithstanding 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.

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 neither 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, 1812 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 Parshall, 1841; W. M. Corey, 1842; Charles Mooney, 1843; George M. Cooper, 1844 ; D. A. Dennison, 1845 ; Asher B. Parker, 1846 and 1850 ; Moses Johnson, 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 Bainbridge (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 0. 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.

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 extension, 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 blockhouse. The hotel was completed and opened by him in the spring of 1837, as a tavern and boardinghouse 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 th.e first of its landlords was a Mr. Balch. It has not been constantly kept m 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 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 stagecoach 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 existence of which had never been dreamed of when "Uncle Joe" first received his appointment.

The store at the comers was a frame building, built by Jarvis Phelps, carpenter, 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 continued 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 appoited 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 potasliery. 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. 31. 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.

The first and only water mill in Royal Oak township was a saw-mill erected in the year 18n2, 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 hanl to underetand 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. Notwithstanding 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, incomprehensible 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 connection with this mill.

The first mill built in the township with the intention of using steam as a profiling 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 continued 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 baseline, 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.

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 remuneration of a superior teacher for the winter term. Many are the tales, both ludicrous arid 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. District 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.

Situated on. the main street of the village, was built in the year 1870 by B. M. Knowles, contractor, and accepted by the town on the 10th of September of that year. The price paid to the contractor was sixteen hundred and sixty-four dollars. It is a creditable building.

The Church was organized under the charge of Elder Stephen Goodman, of Troy, in January, 1839, the original members being Henry Stephens and wife, William Betts and wife, Dr. L. C. Rose and wife, Chester Morgan and wife, and Amelia Nichols. For some time before the organization, these and a few other devout ones had been accustomed to meet in the school houses, and sometimes at dwellings, and there to hold religious worship under the preachings of Elders Groodraan, Buttolph, Keys, and such other preachers as from time to time chanced to come among them.

Among them. Mr. Goodman continued to labor with them for several years. After him came Rev. Avery Dennison and Rev. Samuel Jones, of Grand Blanc (who was with them about 1844). Then Mr. Goodman returned, and his was followed by the second pastorate of Mr. Dennison.

Other preachers who came later were Revs. Isaiah Fay, James Ward (now of Detroit), O. E. Clark, the third pastorates of Eiders Goodman and Dennison, Henry Pearsall (of Avon), Church, from Fentonville, Chenowith, Mendell, and the present pastor, Rev. Silas Finn, who came to the service of the church in 1871.

The first church edifice was commenced immediately after the organization, upon lots donated by Sherman Stephens, at the corner of Third and Main streets, in Royal Oak village. It was built by Henry Stephens, as contractor, and he also contributed most liberally towards the cost of the building, of which the total was about seven hundred dollars. It was dedicated in August, 1839. Thirty-six years later, a new and larger church building having been decided on, the old one of 1839 was sold to the German Lutherans, and the new edifice, the present Baptist house of worship, was erected on the west side of the main street, at the north end of the village. For a time after the sale of the old church the congregation, by an arrangement with the purchasers, continued to use it as their place of meeting, until their own building was roofed in, and they were able to occupy its basement for that purpose.

The church was dedicated in August, 1876. It is a handsome building, standing on the ground in the form of a Greek cross, seventy feet in extent either way. In its erection, the Rev. Silas Finn, the pastor, individually bore a very heavy partfully, one half, of the financial burden, which was by no means insignificant, the whole cost being about four thousand dollars.

In connection with the church is a Sabbath school, which was organized many years ago, during the pastorate of Mr. Pearsall, and of which he was also the first superintendent. Its existence, however, was very irregular for several years, being always suspended during the inclement season, and sometimes permitted to be closed even during the summer. It is now continued regularly through the year, and the average attendance is nearly or quite fifty. The present superintendent is J. M. Finn.

The first organization of the Methodists in Royal Oak took place a short time before that of the Baptists, in the year 1838. Their first meetings were held in the school house that stood on land now owned by Mrs. Fay, near the south end of the village. The congregation was quite numerous, and among the first preachers who served them was Rev. J. M. Arnold. Their house of worship, the same in which their meetings are still held, was commenced in 1842, on lots donated by Sherman Stevens, and completed in the spring of 1843, at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. The present pastor is Rev. George W. Owen.

About the time of the Methodist organization, a Sabbath school, the first in the township of Royal Oak, was commenced under the auspices of both Methodists and of Congregationalists, though it was prior to the organization of the latter denomination. Chiefly instrumental in the commencement of this early Sabbath school were David Cowen, a Methodist, and Levi Tootill, Congregationalist. Mr. Cowen was made superintendent, and Mr. Tootill was his assistant. The school was organized in the school-house where the Methodists worshiped, and its sessions were continued there during the summer season until the completion of the Methodist church, in 1843. The attendance was quite large. Soon after the organization of the Congregationalist church this union Sabbath school was divided, and two schools were formed from it, Congregationalist and Methodist. The first superintendent of the last named was Edward Ferguson. At the present time that responsible post is held by Harvey S. Hitchcock. The school is continued through the year, and the average attendance is about eighty.

This organization was effected on the 13th of August, 1842, by Rev. Ebenezer McDowell, in the Baptist church in Royal Oak village. The original members numbered only five, namely : Peter Merritt and wife, Levi Tootill and wife, and George Scongel. Immediately after, however, there were several additions to it from the Presbyterian church at Birmingham, among these being Ezra Blackman, Lyman Blackman, and Joseph Quick.

Rev. Mr. McDowell labored with the church for about a year and a half, and then came Rev. Charles Fairchild, who remained more than three years, then Rev. Mr. Steele, who remained one year, and during whose ministry occurred the most notable revival in the history of this congregation, a revival which brought large accessions to the numbers of the church. After Mr. Steele came Rev. Ezekiel Lucas, who remained two years ; Rev. S. N. Hill, three or four years ; Rev. O. C. Thompson, of Detroit, one year ; Rev. James Nail, of Detroit, six years ; Rev. Mr. Thompson again, one year ; Rev. Charles S. Pettigew, one year ; Rev. Mr. Marvin, from Clyde, Ohio, about two years ; Rev. Samuel Porter, from Illinois, two years ; and after him the present pastor, Rev. O. C. Thompson, who came in May, 1874, and is now in the third term of his labor with this church.

The places in which this congregation have worshiped have been, first the Baptist church in which they organized, in 1842, and where they met until the following spring, when they removed to the Methodist church, then just made ready for occupancy, and in which they held their meetings until the completion of their own church building. Their occupation of the Methodist house was in pursuance of an arrangement made with that society, by which the Congregationalists, in consideration of the right to use the church as a place of meeting, agreed to purchase and pay for their pews within it as if members of the Methodist congregation.

The church building of the Congregationalists, the house in which they now meet for worship, was built during the pastorate of Rev. James Nall. The lots upon which it was erected were donated by Mrs. Dr. Drake, of Flint, and were located on the west side of the main street of the village.

The Presbyterian meeting house at Troy Corners being then vacated and for sale, Dr. H. K. Lathrop and Levi Tootill, Esq., were constituted a committee to negotiate with Mr. Johnson Niles, of that township, for its purchase, with view to remove it to Royal Oak. They were successful in their mission, purchased the building at a price of three hundred dollars, removed it piece by piece to the church lots in the village, upon which it was re-erected; even the old slips and pulpit being used, although the latter was partially remodeled. There was no addition to the size of the building, nor any change in its outward form. It was dedicated August 28, 1867, Rev. Dr. Ballard, of Detroit, officiating. Its cost was a little more than eighteen hundred dollars in money, besides a large amount of donated labor. The present membership is fifty-nine.

At the division of the Union Sabbath school, as before mentioned, the first superintendent of the new school commenced by the Congregationalists was James Bowen Johnson, and under his charge it became very flourishing. The average attendance is now over eighty. The present superintendent is Ira Burhans.

This church was organized nearly thirty years ago as the "United Presbyterian Congregation of Troy"; their organization being effected, and their first meetings held, in the Marvin school house, in that township.

In the year 1853 it was decided to remove their place of worship to the township of Royal Oak, as being a more convenient point for a majority of the members, and a site was selected on the northeast corner of section 8, where a lot containing a third of an acre was donated for the purpose by David Chase.

Upon this lot an edifice, their present house of worship, was built in the year named, and was dedicated in the spring of 1854. The cost of the building was about two thousand dollars, and William Bailey, Sr., was the carpenter and builder who had charge of its construction. It was found necessary that the lot should be enlarged, and for that purpose an additional half acre was purchased from Mr. Chase, making an area of five-sixths of an acre in the entire lot

The first pastor of the congregation in Royal Oak was Rev. James M. Smeallie, who remained until March 4, 1860, and was succeeded by Rev. William Robertson, in March, 1861. He remained until April 21, 1868, and in the succeeding October the Rev. Richard M. Patterson was installed. He resigned November 30, 1870. All these pastors were most excellent men, and greatly respected and beloved. Their present pastor, Rev. J. P. Gibson, was ordained and installed April 22, 1874. The membership is about eighty.

Connected with the church is a Sabbath school, under the superintendence of Mr. Jonathan Todd ; attendance about seventy-five.

This church edifice stands in school district No. 6, in the northeast corner of section 15, on a quarter of an acre of ground donated for the purpose by Edmund Loughman. It was erected in the year 1868, under the direction of Rev. George Mivels, then the priest in charge. He was soon after succeeded by Rev. Louis Hendricks, the present pastor, who resides in Warren township, Macomb county, and also has charge of the church at that place. Services in the Royal Oak church are held once a month. The membership at the time of the erection of the church was about twenty-five, which has increased to about forty at the present time, the greater portion being Germans and French.

The Church Royal Oak was organized as recently as the year 1874, under charge of Rev. Mr. Speckhard, who still continues as their pastor. Their place of worship is the church edifice purchased by them from the Baptists in 1875, as mentioned above. The congregation is quite large, and is increasing in numbers.

An orphan asylum was established here by Lutherans in 1874, the same year of the organization of their church in Royal Oak. The asylum grounds were purchased of Mark Hall, and comprised about twenty acres, formerly the property of Moses Johnson. Upon this tract were ordinary farm buildings, which were repaired, added to, and remodeled for the requirements of the institution. Although the asylum was not established for the exclusive benefit of those orphans who were also deaf mutes, yet its inmates were nearly all of that unfortunate class. It was commenced under the patronage of German Lutherans of Detroit, and during its entire existence in Royal Oak was under the charge and superintendency of Rev. Mr. Speckhard, the Lutheran pastor. The institution remained in operation in this township for about two years, but has now recently been re-moved to Norris, Wayne county. Its projectors were from the first divided in opinion as to the advisability of its establishment in Royal Oak, and when the offer of a free gift of ample grounds and of a further generous donation in money was made on condition of the transfer of the asylum to Norris, it was favorably entertained, and the removal made, as mentioned above.

The first place of burial in Royal Oak was a spot now embraced in the farm of Mr. Russell, near the southeast corner of section 16; this being considered by the people at that time to be a most eligible place, partly on account of the nature of the ground, but more particularly because of its location within a few rods of the territorial centre of the township, and upon its main road. But this road, for a distance of nearly two miles, was soon after discontinued, which led to the abandonment of this and the commencement of another burial ground, in the northern portion of the present cemetery enclosure.

The first interment at the old spot was that of a daughter of Cromwell Goodwin, in 1825, and a few others followed, there may have been four or five in all, but probably not so many, and they were afterwards removed to the Burrows ground.

The location of this ground is about one mile north of Royal Oak village, and it occupied, together with the Catholic cemetery, the whole of that long and narrow triangle which is formed by the Paint creek and Niles roads, on the east and west, and the section line road between 10 and 15, on the north.

At the north end of this, and embraced within its present bounds, was the spot mentioned above, which was donated by David Burrows as a place for graves, not far from 1826, during which year the first burial was made there, that of a baby daughter of David Chase. The second interment within the ground was that of Mrs. Van Antwerp, whose family lived in the southwest quarter of section 11.

During the succeeding thirty years it was occupied and used by the public as a grave-yard, without much rule, restriction, or feeling of other than general proprietorship, until about the year 1857, when it was taken under control of the township board of health as a township cemetery, and an addition was made to its area by a purchase of two acres from William Dunham. A further purchase of about six acres was made in the spring of 1874, which seemed to give a far greater area than the township required for purposes of sepulture, but which was somewhat reduced by the sale made by the town to the Catholic society of Royal Oak of a portion, to be partitioned and separately enclosed as an exclusively sectarian ground.

Comprises two acres of ground, purchased by the Catholic congregation from the township of Royal Oak ; this being the southern point of the triangle already mentioned. This they have enclosed in an appropriate manner and consecrated as their place of burial. There are as yet but three graves within this ground, those of Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Rush, and of Edmund Loughman, who donated the land for their church, and was one of its most substantial pillars in Royal Oak. He died in 1875, and lies beneath a beautiful monument erected by his friends, who mourn him.

The thanks of the publishers are due to Alexander Solts, Esq., Jonathan Chase, Esq., J. R. Wells, Esq., Dr. H. K. Lathrop, Captain Diodate Hubbard, and Charles M, Fay, of Royal Oak, and Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, Hon. Alanson Partridge, and Josiah Alger, Esq., of Birmingham, for valuable information and data in reference to the township of Royal Oak.