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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outlet; little and big they number nearly thirty. One of them, Buckhorn, has no visible outlet.
The land surface of Orion township was originally covered with
timber, principally oak. This was quite heavy along the water courses
and lighter on the more elevated grounds, often terminating in openings.
Quite an area was also covered with pine. Generally speaking, the surface may be said to be broken by hills. A "spur" of Bald mountain projects into sections 35 and 36, in the southeastern part of the township,
and has an elevation of several hundred feet. Mt. Judah is in the southwestern part, about the middle of section 32, and, with the lake, a short
distance to the northeast, derives its name from Judah Church, who is
credited with having made the first land entry in the township, as has
been noted.
Lake Orion, formerly called Canandaigua lake, is the largest in the
township, and contains some seventeen islands from a few rods to about
forty acres in area. Their natural growth was of oak, pine and cedar,
and the beauties which nature lavished upon themhas been taken full advantage of by modern "promoters" of summer homes.
ORION VILLAGE
The original village plat of Orion is comprised of forty acres and
was laid out in 1836 by James Stillson, a traveling auctioneer. As the
lake was then called Canandaigua, he christened the place as "Canandaigua City." Although Stillson's paper town crumpled, the beauties
of the locality were not forgotten; and when Needham Hemingway
platted the east half of the southeast quarter of section 2, in I838, and
John Perry an addition to it, a few of the settlers commenced to be
drawn thither, especially as the surrounding country had quite a sprinkling of farms and the neighborhood trade was considerable. Thomas
Abernathy put up a frame building and opened it as a hotel, and David
Shadbolt established the "Orion House." In 1838 Robert Jarvis and
Paul Rice opened the first general store, the former being then postmaster of "New Canandaigua." In 1854 the name of the postoffice was
changed to Orion. Thus the name was fixed upon the map.
Orion was incorporated as a village in I859, but its charter was repealed by the legislature in I863, as during the previous year nearly the
entire town was swept by fire. Recovering from that blow, the village
was reincorporated in I869. Its charter was amended several times
and it was again reincorporated in I89I.
It is a pretty little village, on the Michigan Central Railroad,, and
depends for its local trade both on its considerable influx of summer
visitors and the productive surrounding country, which yields fair crops
of grain, fruit, potatoes and general farm produce. It has two good
banks, a well organized union and high school, and a firmly established
newspaper, which never fails to "push a good thing along"-meaning
Orion. The Orion Review was founded in I88I and is published by
Neal & Wieland.
The first schoolhouse in the village was a frame building, erected in
1844. In I868 a substantial brick structure was erected at a cost of
$4,000.