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.

CHAPTER XXXII

LYON AND FARMINGTON TOWNSHIPS
FIRST SETTLERS OF LYON TOWNSHIP-NEW HUDSON AND KENSINGTONVILLAGE OF SOUTH LYON-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-SOUTH LYON
INDUSTRIES-THE POWER COLONY FOUNDS QUAKERTOWN (FARMINGTON)-OTHER PIONEERS OF THE TOWNSHIP —DOCTOR WEBB ADDS
DISTINCTION-FIRST MILLS-RECOLLECTIONS OF P. DEAN WARNER
-VILLAGE OF FARMINGTON-SCHOOLS-THE CHURCHES —THE MASONIC LODGE-CLARENCEVILLE AND NORTH FARMINGTON.
The township of Lyon was detached from Novi and organized civilly
in 1834, its first meeting for that purpose being held at the house of
Eleazur E. Calkins on the 7th of April. Thomas Sellman was then and
there elected supervisor and Levi Wilson clerk, with a full complement
of assessors, commissioners of highways, directors of the poor, commissions of schools and constables. This initial meeting was held on section
21, near its southwest corner on the farm which has long been owned
by various members of the Blackwood family. The township was
named in honor of Lucius Lyon, at the time of its organization a member of the legislature. It narowly escaped the label of "Fruitland."
FIRST SETTLERS OF LYON TOWNSHIP
Lyon township commenced to receive straggling settlers about four
years before it became a civil body, the first to occupy the fertile lands
choosing the southeastern sections. Bela Chase located on the base line
of the township, in I830, and soon moved to section 27 where he spent
the remainder of his life on the farm he then opened up. This is now
known as the Samuel Carpenter farm.
In the same year the Deake farm, section 35, was opened by Robert
Purdy, of Seneca county, New York; John Thayer, also a New Yorker,
settled on the northwest quarter of section 36 (the Moore tract); Eliphalet Sprague, from Seneca county, took up the north half of section
36, a portion of which is still held by his descendants; Thomas Jones
made his home at the northwest corner of section 23, farther to the
north; and George Fawcett chose the northwest quarter of section 24,
to the east. Messrs. Sprague and Fawcett were arrivals of 1831, that
year bringing quite a colony of immigrants.
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