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

Detroit, through the'local power house, at the same rates as prevail in
the former place.
Although the village has a fair local and country trade, it is, primarily, a residence community, several citizens of Pontiac making it
their home. The largest business establishments are the lumber and
coal yards conducted by J. M. Lawson and the Mellen-Wright Lumber
Company, the latter also conducting a large store which makes a speciality of hardware and painters' and builders' supplies.
ROYAL OAK SCHOOLS
The first school in the village was taught in the old log house built
by Josiah Goddard on the west side of the old Crooks road in section
I6, and soon thereafter abandoned, after which it was used for a school
UNION SCHOOL, ROYAL OAK
and as a meeting place for all religious denominations lacking a better
house. The next school was a frame building, but a few rods from the
site of the old one, in district No. I. Later one was built at Chase's
Corners, and others followed in other parts of the township.
At that time schoolhouses were built and schools taught in them
under the simple old plan, no different in Royal Oak than in other
parts of the country-that is, the universal method of raising the house
by a cooperation of labor on the part of the male inhabitants of the village, and afterwards a subscription per capita of pupils to raise the fifteen dollars per month required as the remuneration of a superior
teacher for the winter term. Many are the tales, both ludicrous and
pathetic, told by scattering pioneer settlers, still surviving, concerning
their experiences on the slab or puncheon seats of those rude temples
of learning, but all look back with a feeling akin to regret to the days
and scenes they can never see again.