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 XXXIV

INDEPENDENCE AND COMMERCE
SASHABxA\ W PLAINS, INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP-WATER COURSESSETTLERS AT CLARKSTON AND THE "PLAINS"-THE PRIMITIVE
SCHOOLHOUSES-CLARKSTON UP TO DATE-COMMERCE LAKES AND
STREAMS-FIRST SETTLERS AT COMMERCE AND WALLED LAKECOMMERCE OF TODAY-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND FIRST POSTOFFICES-WIXOM AND SWITZERLAND.
Independence is the center of the second tier of northern townships
in Oakland county, and was named at its organization, in I837, upon
the suggestion of Joseph Van Syckle, who came from the New Jersey
town of Independence, four years previously, and located in section 27,
or in the northwestern portion of the famous Sashabaw plains. Although Alpheus Williams, of Waterford township, made the first entry
of land within the present limits of Independence, in 1823, the first purchase settled by the original owner was that of John W. Beardslee,
whose entry was of 1826 and who settled on section 35, near Sashabaw
creek, in the summer of 1831.
SASHABAW PLAINS, INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP
The surface of Independence township is somewhat (liversified, being generally hilly in the northwest and center and comparatively level
in the south. The Sashabaw plains, on which many of the first settlers
located, extend north and south nearly three miles and east and west
about two miles and a half, in sections 26, 27, 34 and 35. A local historian says that the "name was derived from an Indian chief of that
name. There is a small stream of water flowing through the eastern
part of the plains which also bears his name. We know but little of
this chief's history. One day while hunting in the pinery where Mahopac
now stands he had an encounter with a monster black bear, was in close
quarters, and had to depend upon his knife, which failed him. The bear
hugged him to death and he went to the happy hunting ground by the
bear route."
There are several well-defined local elevations, Pine Knob, on the
northwest quarter of section 23, about a hundred feet in height, being
the most considerable. There are also hills on sections 17, 20, 29 and 32.
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