Perhaps most of us under- estimate the importance attaching to the inception and early growth of the township. Each anniversary of our national birthday is heralded with all the "pomp and circumstance of war," and greeted by the enthusiasm of a vast population; yet the Union is made up of states, the states of counties, the strong abutment of which is the township. Besides the primary value of the town as the unit in our political system there are other reasons why we should honor its birth, and place that period of time on the list of our gala days. The early history of every community is inseparably connected with the trials and struggles of its founders. Here it may be they have fought the battle of life in the first ardor of youth with the trained courage of man or womanhood, or the gravity of old age. There are many who know no other land as their birthplace; its current history has been their household talk ; its ways and by-ways their frequented haunts; its green spring time and glorious autumn their familiar sights, and its six miles square of field and woodland the dearest spot on earth. Let us then for an hour leave our politics, our fields, the daily round of work, and give that time to the early and fast fading history of our township.
I do not propose to give that history in full or carry it down to the present time in all its minutia. Such a paper would require weeks to write and a day to read. But I will sketch as rapidly as I can its early history, and give some anecdotes and events which serve to illustrate the condition and spirit of the times. That community is fortunate indeed which after the lapse of fifty years retains among its first settlers enough with memory intact, who, by their concurring testimony, can establish beyond dispute the facts of its history.
The first settlement of Novi can thus be established and clearly verified. On its southeastern border are two men, Thomas Pinkerton andWilliam Yerkes, who came into the town in the early spring of 1825. At this time there was no clearing, house, or white settler within its present limits. They then entered the land on which they now reside; returned east and moved from the shores of Seneca lake, in the state of New York, upon this land the next spring, and have lived on the same farms without interruption until the present time. They had, therefore, a good standpoint from which to witness its early growth and later progress. They are men of undoubted truth, of more than average observation, both of good, and one at least, Thomas Pinkerton, of superlative memory recalling the events of his past life, both in matter and date, with the accuracy of the written record. With these two men came fourteen individuals, making sixteen in all, eleven of whom are alive at the present time, and from some of these I have gained valuable information.
Without further preliminaries we will come at once to the first entries of land made in this town :
September 3d, 1824, John Gould, N. E. 1/4, section 36.
September 20th, 1824, Pitts Taft, on sections 33 and 34; Joseph Eddy, on section 34; Erastus Ingersoll, on section 24; Benjamin Bentley, on sections 23 and 25.
September 26th, 1824, Benjamin Bentley, on section 25.
October 7th, 1824, Timothy Farles, on section 25; N. 0. Prentiss, on sections 15 and 22; Cornelius Davis, on section 15; Robert McKinney, on section 23.
1825 Entries:
March 12th, John Powers, section 26; John Hiles, section 26.
March 18th, Samuel Mansfield, section 35.
April 22d, Millard Wadsworth, section 23
April 30th, Wm. Yerkes, sections 35 and 36; Thomas Pinkerton, section 25.
May 10th, Samuel Hungerford, section 27; Erastus Ingersoll, section 24.
May 16th, Philo Hungerford, section 34.
June 1st, Reuben Fitzgerald, 34 and 36.
June 7th, Samuel Hungerford, section 34; James Wilkinson, section 34.
June 13th, Richmond Simmons, section 15; Ephraim Hicks, section 14.
June 22d, Ebenezer Stewart, section 33; Nathan Powers, E. 1/2 S. E. 1/4, section 32;
Wm. Tenney, section 3.
October 8th. Thomas Watts, sections 26 and 27.
1826 ENTRIES.
June 29th, Joseph Yerkes, section 25.
September 1st, John Spinning, W. 1/2 S. W. ¼ section 35.
September 5th, John Spinning, section 12.
September 25th, Joshua Philips, section 14.
October 31st, Benjamin A. Hance, section 2.
November 16th, Charles C. Reynolds, section 12.
1827 ENTRIES
March 22d, David A. Simmons, E. 1/2 N. E. 1/4, section 23 ; Mary McComber, E, 1/2 N. W. 1/4, section 24.
May 24th, James Vanduvne, section 26.
June 6th, Wm. B. Garfield, section 25.
June 23d, Gamaliel Simmons, section 27.
June 25th, Samuel White, section 28.
June 26th, Ira Crawford, section 1.
September 18th, William Rice, W. 1/2 S. E. 1/4, section 32.
1828 ENTRIES.
June 2d, Randall Chapman, section 28. June 5th, Abraham Vandyne, section 35.
June 16th, Lyman W. Andrus, section 21 ; Samuel Hungerford, section 11.
July 25th, Samuel B. Mufford, section 13.
September 19th, David Guile, section 23
October 21st, Charles Thornton, section 27.
1829 ENTRIES.
March 23d, Lucy Hungerford, section 23.
June 16th, Lyman W. Andrus, section 21 ;Samuel Hungerford, section 11.
July 25th, Samuel B. Mufford, section 13.
September 19th, David Guile, section 23
October 21st, Charles Thornton, section 27.
In 1830 there were 23 entries.
A majority of these entries were made by persons from three counties in New York, namely Seneca, Ontario and Wayne.
Number of entries: 1824, 10; 1825, 18; 1826, 6; 1827, 8; 1828, 5; 1829, 10; 1830, 23.
The first white settler in Novi was Erastus Ingersoll, who in 1825 moved from Ontario County, New York, upon the E. J of S. W. J of section 24, on what has been known since as the Bishop place. The next was John Gould, who came in the same spring upon the N. E. 1/4 of section 36. Pitts Taft and Joseph Eddy followed the same season, making four settlers in 1825.
In the spring of 1826 Wm. Yerkes and Thomas Pinkerton came, one on section 35 and 36, the other on section 25. In the fall of that year Samuel Hungerford came on section 27; Daniel Bentley on section 25; James Wilkinson on section 24, and Benjamin Hungerford on section 33.
In 1827, John Hiles on section 26 ; Sarah Thornton on section 27 ; Benjamin Hance on section 2 ; Mary McComber on section 24 ; Thomas Mulford on section 13; Myra Garfield on section 24.
Among those who came here in 1828 were Smith Parks, Isaac Vanduyne, Philip Shaw, Randall Chapman, Lyman Andrews, John Renwick, Col. Spencer, Cornelius Austin, James Mallory, Deacon Vaughn, John Mitchell, Stanton Hazzard, etc.
The first assessment made in this town was in 1826, Wm. Morris and S. V. R. Trowbridge were the assessors. Thomas Pinkerton had 240 acres of land and paid three dollars tax and one and one-half days' road work.
In the winter of 1827 the legislative council organized the township of Farmington; and Novi, Lyon, Milford and Commerce were attached to it for township purposes. Novi was called West Farmington, and Lyon was called Farmington, jr. The first justice of the peace in this town was Wm. Yerkes, appointed by the governor of the territory, Gen. Cass, in 1827.
The first township meeting held under the organization just alluded to, was at Robert Wixom's, on the first Monday in April, 1827; three assessors were elected at that time, Samuel Mead, Philip Marlatt and '>Wm. Yerkes. The election was held in Farmington four years, once at Robert Wixom's, once at Philbrick's, and twice at Soloman Walker's.
In the fall of 1830 the inhabitants assembled to choose a name for the town, and petition the legislative council for a separate organization. The name of Novi had been suggested by Mrs. Dr. J. C. Emery, and was presented to the meeting by her husband. Other names were offered, among which were Republic and Benlake. A ballot was taken and the present name chosen. Most of the settlers were tired of a long name, such as Farmington, it was a bother to write it. They wanted a short name, and any one who has had much town business to do will readily assent to the wisdom of their choice.
The name was sent on to the council, together with the petition for organization. The request of the inhabitants was granted and the town organized and named.
When the matter was before the council, one James Kingsley, of Ann Arbor, growled terribly about the name, remarking that if he had not forgotten his Latin, it meant, " Was known, unknown, or forgotten."
The first town meeting held in Novi was at the house of Cyrenius Simmons, where George Dennis now T lives. Samuel Hungerford was elected supervisor and Lyman Andrew’s clerk ; Stanton Hazzard, Asa Smith, and Samuel Hungerford, justices of the peace. The first training (they used to train in those days), was when Novi was attached to Farmington, and was held at Robert Wixom's. Thomas Pinkerton warned out the men, John Gould, Wm. Yerkes, Erastus Ingersoll, M. Vanamburg, Henry Harrington, C. Austin, Benjamin Hance, were all. Think what an army to defend the town!
The first white child born in this town was Mary Gould, Jan. 2, 1826; the first death, Mrs. Polly Gould ; the first marriage, Benjamin Welch and Susan Bough ton ; the first store, John Brown, at Novi Corners ; the first saw-mill, David Guile, on the outlet of Walled lake, one-half mile south and one-fourth mile east of Novi Corners ; first blacksmith shop, David Guile, on the west side of the F. & P. M. R. R., where it crosses the south line of section 23 ; the first cooper shop, Joseph Eddy, on section 34, by the old cider mill on Benajah Aldrich's place; first frame house was built by Saville Aldrich on section 34 ; first frame barn, Wm. Yerkes, on section 35 ; first church, the Baptist at Novi Corners. The first school house was built on section 33, on the Pitts Taft place, base line. The first school was kept by Hiram Wilmarth, in the winter of 1827-28. This school house and school are described by a brother historian some- what as follows: The floor and seats were made of slabs split from bass- wood logs ; the seats were elevated by means of iron-wood poles called legs, driven into two-inch auger holes bored through the slabs, and were thus easily made to accommodate scholars of every age and size. The writing desks were made by boring holes in the logs at the side of the building and driving in pins, on which were fastened rough boards.
Mr. Wilmarth was an" excellent teacher; he taught three months, and twenty-six days to the month ; holding school from sunrise till sundown without intermission, boarded himself and furnished firewood to warm the house, for the sum of seventy-five cents per scholar during the term. There was another school house erected a little later, further down the base line, just where that splendid row of maples comes up to Clark Griswold's barn. This house was built on contract by Bela Chase; was well done, the floor made of hewn logs with a trap door in the centre, all seated and ready to run for the sum of thirty-five dollars. Under this trap door, mentioned above, was an excavation, the dirt being thrown back against the logs on either side. By whose order this infernal pit was made I do not know, but I do know that it was the cause of much anxiety to me in my very early days. Just down the bank from where the school house stood was a low, wet piece of land, the haunt of countless Massasaugers, and it was industriously circulated by the scholars and teacher, too, that they made a stopping place under the floor of the house. Well, this pit was used as a place of punishment for the scholars. You will say that is a snake story. So it is, but it is true nevertheless. When but three years old I have looked on things there which I can never forget; dark pictures that will hang on memory's walls until those walls are ruined by death. I have seen boys, and girls even, resist their introduction to that second Hades, with all the determination that convulsive terror could inspire, and when forced at last beneath the trap door by far superior strength, they would sink away with a wail of utter despair. Right glad am I that this relic of a barbarous inquisitorial age has passed away; that in the increasing light of the nineteenth cen- tury it, has faded into a thing of the past, never more -to becloud life's young clay, or blot with infamy the chronicles of modern times.
The first physician was J. C. Emery, from Seneca county, state of New York, who arrived here in 1830.
The first postoffice was established at the house of John Gould, in 1828. After Mr. Gould removed from the town Dr. J. C. Emery was appointed in his place and held the office until it was discontinued.
The first hotel was kept by R. Sherman, one mile west and north of Novi corners, by the old Gardner stand. The first sermon was preached at the house of John Gould, (section thirty-six), by a Methodist circuit rider, whose name is unknown to me. The first wagon shop, Ruleph Sebring, on section thirty- six, northeast corner. Shoe shop, Zachariah Eddy, section thirty-five/ Furnace, G. W. Pinney, West Novi. Distillery, Pitts Taft, section thirty-four, base line.
The first plank road in town was built by Erastus Ingersoll. It was located on the town line east of section twenty-four on a low, wet piece of road ; was constructed of hewn timbers, each piece about fifty feet long, placed lengthwise of the roadway. The space between .the timbers was filled with cross-pieces for the team to travel on. On each side of the squared timbers were rolled huge logs to keep the wagon wheels- from running off the track. It worked nicely when it was new; those who drove over it thought the teamster's millennial had come; but by and by the timbers shrunk away from each other, leaving crevices into which the wheels would run, and then a pull sideways would break the wheel or throw the team on the logs outside the road. It became quite dangerous at last, and was entirely removed.
The second plank road was laid through the town about 1850. It was constructed on what used to be the United States military road, laid out from Detroit to Grand Haven. The third plank road was from Novi to Commerce, was remarkable chiefly for the loss it occasioned the stock- holders and for giving the lawyers the case of Pettibone vs. the Novi and Commerce Flankroad Company, and to jurisprudence the celebrated decision affirming the divisibility of contracts.
The first and only railway was laid in 1871.
The first mowing machine in town was invented and used by Erastus Ingersoll. It consisted of a section of a hollow button wood log, about thirty inches long, placed in a vertical position on wheels, or rollers. The motive power was in the inside of the hollow section, and consisted of several cog-wheels, one or two bands, and some other fixtures that are now forgotten. The cutting knives were short pieces of scythes, fastened close to the lower edge of the hollow log. The team was hitched to a tongue made of a long crooked limb, in order to place them on the mown grass, and the machine behind that. When the team started the motion of the rollers forced the gearing into action; this gave a rotary motion to the hollow section, and the knives went around with a buzz, cutting everything before them. Mr. Ingersoll carried a model of this to Washington in 1827 and got a patent on it. He came home and called his neighbors together for a trial of the new machine. The mower was placed on the "Ingersoll swamp" and started. It cut. First-rate for three or four rods, when the keen edge of the knives disappeared, and not having any shoulder or guards to work against they refused to do duty. The genius of the deacon was equal to the emergency, (in prospective at least). He proposed to attach a grind-stone in a way that would make the knives sharpen themselves as they revolved. A platform for grain was to be added, a threshing machine following would deliver the grain ready cleaned into bags, which one man would tie up and tumble off, and the work was done. He had a recommend already made out, which his neighbors signed after cutting down a good deal. He then went east among his old friends in the state of New York, and came back loaded with the spoils of victory.
There is an addendum to this piece of history, which it will not do to pass over. Mr. Ingersoll had a very fine young peach orchard, and in one corner of the field was an old basswood stump. A man going that way one afternoon set fire to this stump with his sun-glass, (to light his pipe, I suppose). That night some envious vandal cut down one-half of the orchard. The next morning the deacon, seeing the catastrophe, became exceedingly alarmed lest all his buildings should be destroyed. The story soon got round that Ingersoll's mowing machine had got loose in the night, cut down his peach orchard, set fire to a stump in the corner of the field and disappeared in the darkness.
I have ransacked the encyclopedia, have searched diligently through the one hundred years of American Progress, and it is my candid opinion that Erastus Ingersoll, of town one north, of range eight east was the inventor of the first mowing machine ever used in America.
There were mighty hunters in those days. The necessities of their situation, the scantiness of their larder, and above all the innate love of woodcraft which drew many of the settlers to their new homes, made them skillful in the hunter's art. And game was plenty; the bear and wolf were frequently found, while all along the outlet of Walled lake was a paradise for deer, and from thence they ranged over all the adjacent country. But my young friends must not think they were as easy to kill as a woodchuck. Then, as now, they were sharp-eyed, quick-eared and light-footed. They generally saw you before you saw them. A whistle would draw your attention to a white spot of tail, instantly disappearing in the brushwood. A successful hunter must move stealthily must have a true rifle, and the will and power to use it with instant and deadly effect."
There were some who could not always do this. I have in my mind a story which I have often heard, and I will tell it to you as it was told to me, being careful that it lose nothing at my hands. One of the settlers, a rather slender young hunter since rounded out into a portly, good-looking old gentleman had a boarding place about a mile from his farm. It was all woods between the two places; through this woods a path was marked, over which our hero traveled every day with rifle in hand. Once he was to escort a young lady friend by this path to some place on the other side the woods. He had his rifle as usual, and before starting made some dire threats about what he would do if he saw a deer, giving orders to the effect, that if they heard his gun they might pre- pare for hanging up some venison. When about half way through the woods, sure enough a large buck walked square into the path ahead of him and stopped. Our hunter was very anxious to kill that deer; you know how it is yourself, young man. If you are trying hop, skip, or a square stand and jump, and Kate or Sally are looking on, you are greatly elated if you can land just about one foot over your opponent, and correspondingly depressed if you fall that much short. Well, our young Nimrod raised his rifle and pulled the trigger. Off went the gun and away went the deer; they always run, even when shot through the heart. But the hunter did not stop to look for any marks of wounded game. Close to where the deer stood was a maple sapling, which all at once turned its topmost branch silently, but quickly over, until it hung down by its side, displaying about ten feet, above the animal's back the unmistakable marks of a gunshot wound.
You can guess the rest; how the maiden's laugh that rang music through the wood, sent discord into his soul ; how he cursed the telltale bough that hung above his head; as with empty rifle he strode down that woodland path; and how in his reflections that night on the misadventure of the day, he came to the conclusion that the most uncertain of all things in this world was the way of a bullet in the air.
A good many years ago the raccoons were quite thick, commencing early to destroy the corn in the fields along the base line. Northville was then a straggling little place, and some of its clerks and others who had not much to do, expressed a great deal of sympathy for the farmers, and offered to come over and kill the varmints. Of course this was kind in them; they were invited to do so. They came with the moonlight nights, and their dogs and guns made a terrible racket along the corn fields. Sometimes, but not often, they would fall a tree in true coon- hunter style. I was young then and thought that when I got older it would be fun for me to hunt coon; but was sure if they kept on till the end of autumn there would not be as many raccoons left in Oakland county as came out of Noah's ark. However, it soon turned out that their dogs were trained to bark at nothing, their guns were fired at the same animal, and the farmers' melon patches told the rest of the melancholy tale.
An incident has been related to me, illustrating how old practices are sometimes broken up in a hurry. When the first frame barn in this town was ready to go up, the owner on going round to ask the hands to assist, gave each one notice that no whisky would be used at the raising. It was a large barn with heavy timbers, and the opinion was confidently expressed that it could not be raised without the “flowing bowl." The day came, and when everything was ready the word was given to raise the first bent. The men who believed it could not be done without liquor were determined to make a test case of it, So they drew off in a body and refused to touch the timber. The temperance men seized the bent, raised it to its place and fastened it there amid the most deafening cheers; whereupon the other side rushed in with good humor, and the barn was raised in a hurry.
It had always been held by good men before this that you could not raise a barn or a baby without whisky, but from that time on they raised a great many of both without that article.
Those who have been much on the frontier readily agree that no place furnishes so many differing types of character as a new settlement; and any who have read Cooper's novels and made themselves familiar with that character which, under the various names of Leather Stocking, Hawkeye and Trapper, runs through several of his works, would no doubt have found his parallel in our own town, one who resided here in an early day. I had often heard his name spoken, coupled with remarks which led me to believe that he was an eccentric man, and since commencing this sketch have inquired more particularly and have learned the following:
Joseph Eddy emigrated originally from far up the Hudson River and settled near Auburn, N. Y. He lived here until pride, as ho termed it, began to dot the country with “frame housen.” He then moved to Alleghany county, same state. Here he resided until there were too many openings in the woodlands, too much talk about "frame housen," and too much pride. He packed up again, and at the end of a tedious journey reached Wayne county, N. Y., where he settled near Sodus bay. Here he remained some time, but by and by emigration poured in; the scenes around his early home were re-enacted, "frame housen" began to appear and pride to show itself in other and, to him, offensive ways. Then, with a troubled heart at the long journey before him, but not a regret for the home which advancing civilization had rendered so distasteful, he repacked his household goods, gathered his large family around him and started on his long journey to the far west. In the first year of the settlement in this town he entered the land and built a log hut near the old cider-mill, on the Benajah Aldrich place. He lived here until about the time that Saville Aldrich built the first frame house in the town, when he gathered his effects and made for the Looking-glass river, in this state. He would doubtless have flown once more before the advancing wave of emigration, but old age was upon him. He became blind, and soon after died. Queer man, you will say, thus to rob himself and family of home after home for the sake of solitude and immunity from what to him were the discomforts of civilization. But who will cast a stone at him? He loved rude nature in all her untamed beauty, and he wooed her with a lover's ardor, constancy and devotion the advance courier of emigration, the unconscious herald of "empire's westward way."
Beside his true but lowly record the fashion, folly and crime of high life to-day, as exemplified by Ralston Winslow and Mrs. Belknap, sink into insignificance and fade into worse than nothing. The saddest duty of the historian is to place on record the names of those who were once real factors in the population and progress of the town, but who have passed forever from its scenes of activity and life.
Beginning at its southeast corner going west, and then east up and down the section lines, I have compiled the following mortuary list:
Mrs. Dr. John C. Emery, Bela Chase and wife, Edson Chase, Peter Chase, Abel Case and wife, Zachariah Eddy and wife, Mrs. Cromwell Clark, Dexter Mitchell and wife. Saville Aldrich and wife, Benajah Aldrich and wife, Pitts Taft and' wife, Wm. Taft, Hiram Wilmarth, Ansel Thomas, Asa Sha, Nathan Noyes and wife, Bethuel Howard and wife, Bishop Ovenshire and wife, John Blain and wife, Mr. Chapel. James Brown and wife, Mr. Gensman, Lewis Vradenburg, Mr. Patton, Aaron Vradenburg and wife, Willis Pardee, James Smith, Avery Lee, Wm. Wilson and wife, James Clark, John Ball and wife, Daniel Lee, Mrs. Jonathan Neal, James Wixom, James Palmer, Abel Eddy, Joseph Chambers, Daniel E. Mathews, Samuel White and wife, Samuel Jones, George Rogers and wife, William Rogers, Lyman Andrews and wife, Mr. Caple, Samuel Hungerford and wife, Cornelius McCrum, Joseph Eddy and wife, Mrs. Sarah Hornton, Jonah Knapp and wife, Henry Knapp and wife, Mrs. James Vanduyne, Mrs. Veltinan, Mrs. John C. Emery, Isaac Vanduyne, Abigail Nelson, Thomas Watts, Watson Cronkite, Gabriel Cronkite and wife, James Rogers, Samuel Rogers and wife, Mrs. Deborah and Emma Pinkerton, Catherine Lowell, Thomas Craven and wife, Erastus Ingersoll and wife, Myra Garfield and wife, Clark Hazzard and wife, Stanton Hazzard, Henry Courter and wife, Mr. Vanamburg and wife, R, Sherman and wife, David Guile and wife, Deacon George Dennis and wife, Randall Chapman and wife, Mr. Philip Shaw and wife, Mr. Butterfield and wife, Mr. P. Sanford and wife, Mr. Whittaker and wife, John Parks and wife, John Crane and wife, Mrs. Daniel Gould, Mrs. Samuel Blackwood, Mr. Mitchell and wife, Smith Parks and wife, L. Bennett and wife, Mrs. Lewis Britton, Elijah Care and wife, Mrs. Deacon Vaughn, Mr. Shirtliff and wife, Mrs. Perkins, Joseph Vaughn and wife, Mrs. Whipple, Levi Bishop, his two wives, and father and two children, John S. Garry, Mr. Bloss, Mrs. Catharine Covert, Dr. Woodman and wife, Stephen L. Gage, James Wilkinson and wife, Mr. Graves and wife, Mr. Munn and wife, Nathaniel Clark, Mr. Richardson, Shubual Hammond, Lorin Flint and wife, Brayton Flint, Warner Smith. Asa Smith and wife, John El- more, Jesse Hazen and wife, Edward Hazen and wife, James Maladay and wife, Mr. Pettibnoe and wife, Lyman Pettibone, Col. Spencer and wife, Mrs. Cornelius Austin, henry Harrington and wife, Benjamin A. Hance, Apollos Cudworth and wife, Erastus Graves and wife, James Sanford, Mr. Colvin and wife, Ransom Reed, Mr. Needham and wife, Mr. Payne and wife, Daniel Johnson and two wives, Ransom W. Holly and wife, Mr. Farnsworth and wife, Deacon Lucas Wright. Lyman Hathorn, the father and mother of Benjamin Brown, Benjamin Bently, Mr. Norton, killed by lightning; Mr. Law and wife, and Erastus Phelps.
It is not always safe to eulogize the living, especially when your remarks are personal. You arouse so many slumbering enmities, so much latent jealous} 7 and criticism, that it is often better to leave their praises for the hereafter. But let the faults of the dead be buried with their bodies, and let us remember only their virtues. All over this town, inside the inclosure of farms, you may see mounds of stone, brick and rubbish, splintered by fire. These mounds are sometimes upon rising ground: often by the banks of some stream, and almost always where two ways meet. How often you come across them when cultivating the soil; your team shies around them, your plowshare shows them to be quite deep in the earth. If you take the time and trouble to remove them you will find ashes, bits of coal and crockery, and other witnesses that here was once a living hearthstone. That solid walls of maple, beach or oak once rose around them, with garret and roof above them. Here were love and hate, joy and sorrow, struggle that brought victory. It may be indolence which came near defeat. Here prattled the infant, heedless of the future, and here tottered old age with thoughts bent on the past. 8ome of these homes went to ruin when their occupants “moved out of the old house into the new," many when they were taken to their last resting place. Of the long list which we have read, how many once lived where these memorial stones guard the ashes of the past? They lie in yonder churchyard, in the outlying cemeteries of the town, and elsewhere throughout the land. It is as true of them as it was of those over whom Gray wrote his immortal elegy:
For them no more the blazing fire shall burn, Or busy housewife ply the evening care; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knee the envied kiss to share. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has spoke; How jocund did they drive their team a-field; How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor. Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
The pioneer of fifty years ago, in a locality such as Novi then was felt entirely beyond the reach of outside aid. He must bear alone his poverty, his misfortune, and severest trials.
The emigrant of yesterday or to-day rides to his prairie home on an easy car; his provisions are transported in the same way. If misfortune overtakes him the world is at his back; if drouth sear his corn, or grass- hoppers light in his wheat field, his wail comes down the wires and an instant response is made.
Not so with our first settlers. When Thomas Pinkerton and Wm. Yerkes came here they walked 500 miles with their axes and knapsacks on their shoulders. When their families and friends came they were ten days on Lake Erie and four weeks on the whole journey. Some of them were taken sick on the way, and anxious days and sleepless nights filled up the measure of time, and theirs was not an isolated case. Scores of our pioneers repeated their struggles went through their sufferings perhaps in varied form, but still the same.
After the hardships of the journey had been endured they found themselves in an unbroken wilderness. The sun in its daily round scarcely shown upon its surface, save where Walled Lake glanced and glittered in its light. Home and its comforts they had yet to create. They were sick and no physician; wanted bread, and flouring mill twenty miles away. In strength, in weakness, in health, in disease,, through storm and sunshine, they must struggle on in the stern battle.
Why, you say, what could induce them to do this? I answer: they were men and women of limited means; they wanted a home for them- selves and families after them, and hope hung her bow of promise, her glittering pennon in the far west of their lives. Between them and fruition all these trials must be endured all these adverse circumstances met and conquered. And right nobly have they fulfilled their mission.
On some it may be the sun went down before they reached the goal, but a great majority have come out of the conflict more than Roman fathers, better than Spartan mothers. And have hope's promises been illusive? Could you take a birdseye view of our town to-day, you would see each section line running north, south, east or west thrown into a hard and, in most cases, well worked roadway on which pass and repass the travel of the town ; you would see a broad graveled road like the Appian way of old Rome leading from the commercial metropolis to the political capital of our state; you would see a well-constructed railway traversing its extent from southeastern to northwestern corner, over which rolls the car of commerce, carrying the products of the soil, the manufactory or the mine, with tireless energy and incredible speed. By its side stretches the electric wire that wonder of the nineteenth century over which the untamed but obedient lightning flies at the bidding of man; you will see parks of woodland, none too large, all over town. On every side are smiling farms, with green meadows, and orchards bending beneath their autumn bounty ; all around are horses, cattle, and sheep in countless numbers; barns filled with garnered grain, stacks of hay and forage lifting their peaks skyward, and corn fields in rank after rank away to the horizon. Here are churches and there are school houses filled with apt and eager scholars; cottage homes, where the arts and refinements of civilization are known and appreciated, where industrious, enterprising men and noble, true-hearted women bear life's burdens and share its joys together. Is it an illusion? Look again: You may see the citizens of the town gathered .to commemorate the deeds of their pioneers; they glance proudly back and joyfully forward. And why should they not? They stand shoulder to shoulder with twenty-five townships forming a county of surpassing beauty, over which statistics have written in respect to agricultural production, the sixth county in the Union, and, if you equalize the acres, but the fourth.
They are citizens of a state whose resources and development have made it a marvel in this marvelous era, and whose benign government enfolds them in the arms of its love; while overall, embracing all, protecting all, floats the banner of a great and free republic.
The township of Novi lies on the north side of the base line, about twenty miles west and north from Detroit. It is in the south tier of townships, in Oakland county, within one of its western border, and is known as town 1 north, of range 8 east. It is (or was) heavily timbered with white and red oak, basswood, white and black ash, sugar maple, beach, hickory, and black walnut. The surface is slightly undulating, rising in several places into moderate hill; the soil is mostly clay loam, but there are localities where a sand loam predominates. Walled lake lies on its northern boundary, partly in Novi and partly in Commerce. The outlet of this lake runs in a southerly course through the township, and forms one of the main branches of the river Rouge. There are eleven school houses and two churches, one store, two blacksmith shops, one tile factory, two shoe shops, and one hotel, two post-offices, one saw- mill, two cider mills, and one wagon shop.
The principal agricultural productions are wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, wool, apples, hay, and stock of all kinds.