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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ern extension, but was recorded as J. A. Phelps' addition to the village
of Royal Oak.
The village plat was laid out by Stevens, in anticipatioif of the completion of the Detroit & Pacific Railroad (afterward the Detroit & Milwaukee) and at the time when the plat was surveyed, virtually the only
buildings which stood there were the old blockhouse which had been
kept by Lockwood, and also by Talbot as a tavern, and the frame barn
belonging thereto.
BUSINESS HOUSES
The first business enterprises inaugurated in the village were the
building of a sawmill by the railroad company, in 1836, and the erection
of a hotel by Daniel Hunter in the same year. While engaged in its
construction Mr. Hunter lived with his family in the old LockwoodTalbot blockhouse. The hotel was completed and opened by him in the
spring of 1837 as a tavern and boarding house for the men employed at
the mill and on the railroad construction. Mr. Hunter remained in this
house for two years. The next hotel at the village was built in I839
by James B. Simonson. It was called the Railroad Exchange, and the
first of its landlords was a Mr. Balch. During the time when this was
the railway terminus, and in the succeeding years when the stages for
Rochester and points beyond made their connection there, these Royal
Oak village hotels drove a prosperous business, but such is not the case
in these later years. The palmy days of the railway-terminus and stage
coach connection have passed away and will never return to Royal Oak.
The village cannot boast the establishment of the first mercantile
business of the township, nor the first postoffice at Royal Oak. Both
these were first located at Chase's Corners, in the year I826, the first
postmaster being Joseph Chase, who held the position for twelve years,
when the opening of the railroad made it necessary that the office should
be located at the new village, the existence of which had never even
been dreamed of when Uncle Joe Chase received his appointment.
The first to become established in the merchandise business in the
village was the firm of Simonson & Fish, the latter being the agent of
the railroad company, and the senior member of the firm being John
B. Simonson, who had previously opened a store on the Pontiac road,
about half a mile south of the village, this being the second store in the
township. On removing to the village in the spring of I838, and entering into partnership with Fish, they opened up for business at the railroad depot with a very extensive stock of goods, which for many years
after took place as the largest and best stock ever brought into the village. In the same season, shortly after they opened for business, the
railroad was extended from Detroit, and ran by horse power for some
time as far as Royal Oak village, that place thereupon becoming at once
of considerable importance.
In I877 the village of Royal Oak contained the buildings of the
railroad company, a steam sawmill, three blacksmith shops, one hotel,
three general stores, one millinery store, two drug stores, two physicians,
four churches, the town hall and the handsome schoolhouse of district
No. 6. There was also a newspaper, a very small one, published by