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.

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'HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

acquainted in the county, in his later years becoming quite a prominent
politician.
In the spring of 1824 James Lockwood occupied the land adjoining
the village of Royal Oak (as now known) which he had entered in
1821, and built upon it a large double house of hewn logs which he
opened as a hotel. Within a few weeks of Mr. Lockwood's arrival the
Noyes brothers, Benjamin and Abraham, located on the southwest
quarter of section 9. They were bachelors. Others soon became residents of the township. Cromwell Goodwin, the first bricklayer, settled
on the southwest quarter of section 4, in the northern part of the township; his daughter Harriet died soon after, hers being the first death.
David Williams, who settled on section 3, became the father of five sons,
several of whom made records of some interest, George developing into
quite an Indian fighter on the frontier. Joseph Chase (Uncle Joe
Chase) arrived late in 1824 from New York, settling on the northwest
corner of section 9; that locality became known, at a later day, as
Chase's Corners. Sections 5 and 8, in the northwestern part of the
township, had the honor of receiving, as settlers of 1825, the first carpenters-Jarvis Phelps and Erastus Burt.
James G. Johnson, John K. Keyes, Dennis H. Quick and Abraham
S. Hoagland came in 1825, the first named settling on section 4, and
in 1832 building on a little creek of Red run the only water mill ever
put in operation in the township.
Among the settlers of 1826 were William Worth and Daniel Burrows on sections IO and 15, the latter's tract covering the area of the
cemetery. Orson Starr, who purchased lands, in that year, on sections
9 and IO, came to have a national reputation as a manufacturer of cow
bells; their tinkle and fame even penetrated to the Pacific coast. And
the list of these earliest of the pioneers of Royal Oak township may
as well be closed with Orson Starr as with some less interesting character.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED
The two townships numbered I and 2 north, range II east (Royal
Oak and Troy) were on the i2th of April, 1827, set off together, erected
into a township and designated as Troy. This organization continued
for five years, at the end of which time town I of that range was detached from Troy and separately erected as the township of Royal
Oak. The first supervisor was David Chase and the first clerk, Socrates
Hopkins.
ROYAL OAK VILLAGE
The original plat of Royal Oak village was laid out in the year 1836
by Sherman Stevens, who had purchased the land of Joseph Parshall,
the plat covering about eighty acres in the northeast quarter of section 21
and forty acres of the northwest quarter of section 22. No addition
was made to the original plat until 1875 when one was surveyed and
laid out by J. A. Phelps, covering about forty-four acres and adjoining
the Stevens plat on the north. Colloquially, this was called the north