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.

CHAPTER XII

CIVIL AFFAIRS OF THE COUNTY
FIRST OFFICIAL ACT-COUNTY SEAT FIXED-ORIGINAL Two TOWNSHIPS-PRESENT BOUNDARIES ESTABLISHED-OAKLAND COUNTY
UNDER THE TERRITORY-TERRITORIAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-LEGISLATION AFFECTING TOWN AND COUNTY-TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT
ESTABLISHED-FIRST SUPERVISORS' MEETING-SOME EARLY ASSESSMENTS-CIRCLE OF TOWNSHIPS COMPLETED-ROSTER OF COUNTY
OFFICIALS-ASSESSMENTS AND TAXES-POPULATION FOR NINETY
YEARS-INCORPORATED CITIES AND VILLAGES-THE COUNTY COURT
HOUSES-COST OF COUNTY BUILDING-PRESENT COURT HOUSE-THE
OAKLAND COUNTY HOME —COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE POOR.
Although Lewis Cass, governor of the territory of Michigan, proclaimed the boundaries of the new county of Oakland on the I2th of
January, I819, that section of southern Michigan cannot be said to have
attained a real civil and political existence until its organization into
townships and the inauguration of its board of supervisors, in 1827. The
judiciary came into being before the civil machinery, and for that reason
its development precedes the latter in the narrative which traces the
historic growth of Oakland county. Up to that year the Indian treaties,
territorial official acts and judicial proceedings are really applicable to
unorganized communities so far as the control of civil authorities is concerned, and are chiefly of interest from the standpoint of the historian
and the scholar. Hon. T. J. Drake has so well condensed these preliminary matters that we have mainly relied upon him for the statements which
follow.
On the 2d day of December, 1795, General Anthony Wayne, on behalf
of the United States, formed a treaty with the sachems, warriors and
chiefs of the Wyandotte, Delaware, Shawanee, Ottawa, Chippeway, Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel-River, Weas, Kickapoo, Prinkashaw and
Kaskaskia tribes of Indians. By that treaty, generally known as the
"treaty of Greenville," the United States had conceded to them the post
at Detroit, and a strip of land included between the river Rosine (now
known as the Raisin) on the south and lake St. Clair on the north, and a
line, the general course of which was to be six miles from the west end
of Lake Erie and the Detroit river.
On the I7th of- November, I807, Gen. William Hull, then governor of
the territory of Michigan, on the part of the United States held a treaty
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