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

447

stagnant water that the people along the banks suffered year after year
with various complaints which could be directly traceable to the nuisance.
Finally it became unbearable and in 1856 the farmers of the vicinity took
matters into their own hands and, in 1856, while Major Hughes was
absent on a business trip, they leveled the dam to the mudsills. That
heroic measure ended the trouble, as far as the health of the community
was concerned, although it dragged its way through the courts for several years thereafter.
Luman Fuller erected the first gristmill in I836, and in the summer
of 1839 the Armstrongs built their flouring mill on the old Ruggles property west of the river, which they had purchased with the original sawmill. The Pettibone mills were put up by W. B. Hebbard in I846. Mr.
Hebbard and George Davis completed a woolen mill in 1850, this establishment turning out quite a line of "Kentucky jeans" at one time. In
I865 Joseph Vowles established his cultivator works for the purpose
of manufacturing his own patent, P. F. & D. W. Wells having been
engaged in that line many years before in a small factory opposite the
Pettibone gristmills. The Wells Cultivator Company was the successor
of the original enterprise, and the Milford Milling Company of the old
gristmills established by the Armstrongs and W. B. Hebbard.
The most prosperous period in the history of Milford was during
the years I850-1856. In the latter year the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad was completed and, in a large measure, drew away the trade of
the village to other points. From that time, also, it commenced to decline as an industrial center. It was not until I871 that the Flint & Pere
Marquette Railroad was built to the village, after which there was a
period of revival, but nothing of a permanent nature. For about twenty
years previous to 19oo the village virtually held its own at a population of some I,IOO; since then it has declined, if anything, the census
of 19IO giving it a population of 973.
THE PRESENT VILLAGE
The present village of Milford is a station on the Pere Marquette
Railroad, with a productive grain, produce and fruit country around it,
as is evidenced by its grain elevator, and general stores which deal largely
in beans, potatoes and apples, and the several houses devoted to agricultural implements. It has a substantial private bank; a graded union
school founded in 1869; electric light and water works; a library conducted by a ladies' association, and churches and societies for all. Religious bodies of the village and vicinity have been organized by the
Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and Presbyterians. Of the societies, the
Masons are in the majority.
MILFORD CHURCHES
The pioneer religious organization was a Methodist class formed in
1836, with Truman Fox as leader and Washington Jackson as preacher.
About that time a second class was formed called the "English class,"
from the fact that the preacher and all the members were emigrants from