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 O OAKLAND COUNTY

405

Lemuel Taylor, a Baptist exhorter in broken health, with his five sons,
purchased a tract of two hundred acres. The land, which was divided
by the father among his sons, included a mill privilege, and in 1824
Nathaniel MIillerd, a son-in-law, joined the Taylors in the improvement
of the property. They built a sawmill and a gristmill of the usual
crude construction and furnishings, but as the elder Taylor died in
August, I827, he did not live to see the projects of himself and family
greatly prosper.
Lemuel Taylor was a chairmaker and a wheelwright by trade, and
very soon after coming to Stony Creek built a shop where he made
these articles, thus combining practical with religious affairs.
In 1824 Elisha Taylor, one of the sons, opened a blacksmith shop,
and Mr. Millerd (afterward Judge) exposed a small general stock of
goods for sale at his log residence. Soon after, a more pretentious
store was established by Elkanah Comstock, who had erected a small
building for the special purpose.
A postoffice was established at Stony Creek the year following the
coming of the Taylors and Mr. Millerd was appointed postmaster. The
latter continued to reside there until his death, and was locally honored
in every way.
In the spring of 1824 the Herseys, Rochester promoters, moved to
the vicinity of Stony Creek, John Hersey and Burton Allen building a
dam and sawmill some distance up that stream. This was shortly after
the Taylor-Millerd mill was erected. Mr. Hersey died in March, 1856,
his son, James A., afterward becoming a resident of Oakland township.
Stony Creek was laid out as a village in October, I830, by Nathaniel
Millerd, and Elisha and Joshua Taylor, sons of Lemuel. Mr. Millerd
made an addition in 1842, and in 1847 completed a gristmill. In 1867
the plant was remodeled by Johnson Matteson into a woolen mill which
was active for some years. But Stony Creek did not fulfill its early
promise, or the expectations of its founders.
ROCHIESTER PLATTED (1826)
The founding of Rochester has already been narrated. In 1826
Governor Cass, Austin E. Wing and Charles Lamed, of Detroit, laid
out the original plat of the village. Nine small houses then formed the
settlement. Previous to that year few settlers had arrived; besides
those already mentioned, John Shippy, the Jacksons and a Mr. Hill,
on the Clinton river. In I823-24 the flouring mill was built on the Clinton by Perrin & Mack and David Dort was the resident miller.
Seneca Newberry, Rochester's first merchant, came to the village
in 1827, being a cousin of the widely known Oliver Newberry of Detroit. He continued to do business in the village for many years, and
died therein May 13, I877, at the age of seventy-five.
William Burbank came to Rochester in I828 and, with his family,
was one of the original members of the Congregational church.
In September, 1830, Almon Mack, son of Colonel Stephen Mack,
founder of 'Pontiac, settled in Rochester, and opened the second store
in the village. He went to the legislature afterward and was esteemed