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

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which embraced the northwest quarter of the present village plat of
Rochester. He paid $2 an acre for it, only the first quarter of the purchase money being made at the time of location. In the summer of I8I9
Mr. Hersey sold his claim on the southwest quarter of section IO (the
tract not included in the present Rochester plat) to Benjamin Woodworth, a hotel keeper of Detroit, and William Russell, who had but
recently located and built himself a log house. Mr. Woodworth never
resided in Rochester, although he invested considerable money in its
enterprises.
In the summer of I8I9 Messrs. Hersey. Russell, Woodworth and
Alexander Graham combined their skill and capital to build a sawmill
in section Io, on the banks of Paint creek. This was the first of Rochester's industries. The first sawing was done in October of that year,
and subsequently a single run of stone was added for gristing purposes.
The stones were thirty inches in diameter, were taken out near Stony
creek, and dressed by one of the Messinger family. The old Hersey
mill, as it was long called, stood near the site of the Eureka mills, erected
in I868 by Doctors Jesse and Jeremiah Wilson.
MEMORIES OF TIHE OLD HERSEY MILL
Fifty-five years after the building of the Hersey mill, Christian Z.
Horton, one of the first settlers of the township, tells the story of the
good uses to which his fellows put the big boulders of Stony creek and
vicinity, in the following:
"Over fifty years have passed away since the first sawmill in Oakland county was built by Mr. John Hersey, in the town of Avon, on
Paint creek, a few rods west of the mill of the Wilson Brothers. It
stood on a line parallel with Walnut street, perhaps a little west. In
this mill was placed a run of stone, manufactured by one Mr. Wood, a
blacksmith by trade, out of our common boulders, which abound in
this section. By the use of these stones Mr. Hersey ground the grain
raised by the farmers in this vicinity, and what flour was made was
bolted by a hand-bolt, also in the mill. No other mill was nearer than a
few miles this side of Mt. Clemens, on the north branch of the Clinton,
some twenty miles distant, owned by Mr. Tremble (pronounced Trombley), which was built some time in I818 or I820, or thereabouts. One
of the persons who assisted in working Mr. Tremble's mill, lived in
this village in 1842, named Joshua Sly.
"I will here relate an incident which was currently reported amongst
the early settlers of this part of Michigan in regard to this mill, before
there was any other mills in the territory, except windmills and a mill
in Detroit worked by oxen. The incident was this: John and William
Graham had occasion to take a large grist of wheat to be ground and
bags sufficient for the bran, and on the way they agreed to a course of
action in order to ascertain the means by which such large grists should
shrink so much by grinding, and especially a good sample of wheat,
which enigma had for a long time been circulating through the country unsolved. They drove to the mill, the grist was received but could
not be ground till late in the night. William had taken a good supply
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