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 XX

VILLAGE OF PONTIAC
COLONEL MACK'S COMPANY-FIRST PONTIAC SETTLERS-WORKS OF
MACK, CONANT AND SIBLEY-COLONEL'S MACK, FATHER AND SONSETTLERS OF 1822-I836-COUNTY SEAT AND COURTHOUSE-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION —THE VILLAGE OF AUBURN (AMY) —PONTIAC
VILLAGE INCORPORATED-EARLY TRUSTEE MEETINGS-REAL ESTATE
ITEM-THE MILL POND NUISANCE —THE FIRE OF I840-EARLY
BRIDGES-COMMON COUNCIL, THE GOVERNING BODY-THE VILLAGE
FIRE DEPARTMENT-GAS WORKS INAUGURATED-HEADS OF THE
VILLAGE GOVERNMENT.
The village of Pontiac was not incorporated by regular legislative
act until March 20, 1837, but it had an existence as a growing settlement from the time of the formation of the Pontiac Company, by Stephen
Mack, of Detroit, on November 5, 1818. Colonel Mack, who obtained
his title as the head of one of the Vermont regiments to which he rose
before coming from his native state to Detroit, was a prosperous hotel
keeper and merchant before he became a citizen of the Michigan metropolis, in I8IO. In that year he located in Detroit with Thomas Emerson,
one of his business acquaintances of Vermont, and they were engaged
in trade at that point when Hull surrendered to the British. That event
deranged their plans, but after the war was over Colonel Mack again
engaged in trade at Detroit under the firm name of Mack & Conant.
The partnership continued until the Pontiac Company was formed and
the Colonel proceeded, as its agent, to lead a small colony to the site
selected for the new town.
COLONEL MACK'S COMPANY
The company, which was formed, as stated, on the 5th of November,
1818, at the city of Detroit, comprised William Woodbridge, Stephen
Mack, Solomon Sibley, John L. Whiting, Austin E. Wing, David C.
McKinstry, Benjamin Stead, Henry I. Hunt, Abraham Edwards, Archibald Darragh, Alexander Macomb (General Macomb, of the U. S.
army) and Andrew G. Whitney, of that place, and William Thompson,
Daniel LeRoy and James Fulton, of the county of Macomb (of which
Oakland county was then a part). As shown by the records of the
land office, the Pontiac Company, by its agent, Stephen Mack, purchased
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