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

385

And on the plinth is cut this inscription: "Erected by the citizens
of the above towns, 1869."
BIRMINGHAM CIHURCIIES
Birmingham is a church-going and a moral community, and has been
such since the early twenties when the Methodists commenced to hold
services at Willets' log tavern and at the house of Dr. Ezra S. Parke.
A few members of that denomination effected an organization in 1827,
and their first meetings were held in Brother Willets' frame barn and
other similar buildings in the neighborhood. The first regular church
was built in 1839-40, at the corner of Bates and Merrill streets and was
afterward used as the hall of the Ladies' Library Association. The
second edifice was completed in 1873 at a cost of $20,000. Rev. G. H.
Whitney is the present (October, 1912) pastor of the church.
Dr. William Jamieson is pastor of a flourishing Presbyterian church,
which had its origin in the three days' meeting held at the barn of
Deacon Elijah S. Fish, early in the year I834. On the 2d of July of
that year an organization was effected. Rev. Eri Prince was the first
pastor, and Deacon Fish was the first delegate from the church to the
Presbytery which sat at Pontiac in September, I834. The first edifice
of worship built by the Presbyterians of Birmingham was dedicated in
the summer of 1844, the second year of the pastorate of Rev. E. H.
Fairchild. A second church was completed in I86o. The present house
of worship, a beautiful structure, is of comparatively recent and most
modern construction. Both church and Sunday-school (originally organized in 1837) are substantially progressing under the pastorate of
Doctor Jamieson.
The first Baptist church organization in Birmingham was effected
in I833, the present city being then but a small settlement. The society
then brought into existence was of short life, and in 1840 was dissolved,
for thirty years thereafter there being no organized representation of the
Baptist faith in the village. In about 1870 there began to be a revival
of interest in a church, several Baptist families having located in Birmingham, and they considered themselves sufficiently reinforced to permit of another society, and on the 28th of June, i870, the church organization was effected.
The little society.was anxious to build itself a church home, and in
that year purchased two lots on Saginaw street and made preparation
for the erection of a building in the following summer. Owing to a
disagreement as to the location, however, their plans to build came to
naught and it was not until January, 1873, that plans were again agitated for building. On September 23d of that year it was dedicated
and is still occupied.
The present membership is one hundred and twenty, as compared
with a membership of thirty-eight when the church was organized in
I873. Its last pastor, Rev. C. A. Salyer, served from June, I908 to
June, 1912.
The Episcopalians are organized into a growing church, under the
pastorate of Rev. F. F. Kraft and the Seventh-Day Adventists have a