History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

75

age, in Captain Shoemaker's company, Pennsylvania troops. He was in
no pitched battles, but participated in several skirmishes with the Indians. He served until September, 1783.
Mr. Horton emigrated from Northampton county, Pennsylvania,
to Canada in I809, where he settled first at Port Colborne. In 1820 he
moved to Yarmouth, Elgin County, Ontario, and in March, 1825, arrived
at Detroit, and came to Avon township, settling about two miles south
of the village of Rochester. He seems to have lived with his son-inlaw, Cornelius Decker, who located on section 21. His son, Benjamin
Horton, took up land on section 22. There were about twenty people
who came from Canada at this time, the heads of the families being all
related to George Horton. Mrs. Elsie Horton, wife of George Horton,
was buried in the Rochester cemetery, in February, 1827. He died in
1835, the exact date being unknown, but his last pension was paid March
4, I835.
STEPHEN MACK
The blazing of the trail into Oakland county did much for the settlement of Michigan, as it proved that the interior of the territory was
not the morass that the interested fur traders had reported it to be,
unfit for cultivation, but was as fine farming land as could be desired.
A company of Detroit and Macomb county men, called the Pontiac
Company, with Colonel Stephen Mack as their agent, purchased 1,280
acres of land for the purpose of establishing a town on the tract. The
company was formed in November, I818, and the first building erected
on the site of Pontiac was a log cabin put up by their workmen who
came out to build the dam and sawmill. It stood on the corner of
Saginaw and Water streets, near where the old Clinton House is now
located.
Colonel Mack was long the most prominent business man in
Pontiac. He was born in Lyme, Connecticut, I764, and emigrated with
his father, Solomon Mack, before the revolution to Gilsum, New Hampshire. The war found both father and son rendering service with the
patriots.
Stephen Mack's name appears on a receipt dated Montague, March
24, 1781, for bounty paid said Mack by the town of Montague, to serve
in Continental Army for the term of three years; also, descriptive list
of men raised in Hampshire to serve in the Continental Army, as returned by Noah Goodwin, superintendent; age, i6 years; stature, 5 feet
4 inches; complexion, light; occupation, farmer; engaged for town of
Montague, April 2, 1781, term of three years; also, private in Captain
John Trotter's Company, Colonel Rufus Putnam's sixth regiment;
muster roll for April, 1781; dated, West Point. (Massachusetts Soldiers
and Sailors of the Revolution, Vol. Io, page Io9.)
Colonel Mack married, 1788, Temperance Bond of Gilsum, and they
settled in Tunbridge, Vermont, where he engaged in the mercantile
business. He also built a tavern at the "branch" which became famous
in after years as the "White House." It was the first painted building
in the place. He took a great interest in military matters and eventually