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 XXXIII

ADDISON AND BRANDON TOWNSHIPS
LAKES OF ADDISON TOWNSHIP-LAKEVILLE'S EARLY PROMISE-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND DISTRICT SCHOOLS-VILLAGE OF LEONARD
-BRANDON TOWNSHIP-ITS PIONEER SETTLERS-VILLAGE OF OAKWOOD-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION-VILLAGE OF ORTONVILLE.
Addison is the extreme northeastern township of Oakland county,
and was originally covered with a dense growth of timber, chiefly pine.
Most of this has been long since removed, and little is left, either, of the
fine groves of oak which abounded in the earlier days.
LAKES OF ADDISON TOWNSHIP
But the lakes and rich loamy soil are still in evidence, and the Addison township of today is a land of beauty and fertility, many of its central sections having partaken of the changes already noted, from farm
lands to improved residence properties. The natural drainage of the
township is good, and there is a depression several miles wide extending through it from north to south containing a beautiful chain of little
lakes. Lakeville lake is the largest. It is some seven hundred acres in
area, and covers a large portion of sections 22 and 27, just southeast of
the center of the township. The outlet of Lakeville lake is Stony creek,
which takes a southerly course for a short distance, then flows east along
the south line of sections 26 and 25 into Macomb county. There is also
a series of smaller lakes in the nothern part of the township.
LAKEVILLE'S EARLY PROMISE
All the early indications pointed to the locality around the southern
shores of Lakeville lake, at the Stony creek outlet, as the. site of the
trading and industrial center of the township. The first purchases of
land were made in that vicinity, during 1826-27, by Henry Connor, and
in 1830 Sherman Hopkins, an enterprising New Yorker, located a mill
site on section 27. His log house and sawmill were the first structures
raised on the site of the village of Lakeville. In the year of Mr. Hopkins' arrival also came Addison Chamberlain, a New York emigrant
with his family, and within a short time he had bought Mr. Hopkins' interests and commenced vigorously to improve the property. He built
a residence on one of the beautiful hills bordering the lake on the east.
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