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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inion school, a library, a state bank, and two churches-Baptist and
Methodist- and the usual complement of general stores and tradesmen.
It is a pretty place and has all the requisites for a comfortable, if modest,
residence.
COMMERCE LAKES AND STREAMS
Commerce, in the southwestern part of Oakland county, is one of
those townships included in the "lake country," for which that section
of the state has become famous. The largest of these picturesque bodies
of water are Long, in the northeastern part; Lower Straits, in the
eastern; and Commerce, which extends from a point just south of the
village to near the center of the township. Walled lake, with the settlement by that name on its northern shore, is about one third in Commerce; the remainder, in Novi township to the south. The Huron river
and its branch, Hayes creek, flows in from the northeast, and takes a
generally southwesterly course out of the township, binding the northern lakes together on its way and forming the water power which gave
the village of Commerce its start.
FIRST SETTLERS AT COMMERCE AND WALLED LAKE
The first settler of the township was Abram Walrod, who came
from the state of New York in May, 1825, and located on section Io, on
the present site of the village of Commerce. He built a log house there,
and after living in it for two or three years moved to the western part of
the state.
The month after Walrod's arrival, Walter B. Hewitt came and located in section 34, on the north shores of Walled lake, thus becoming
the original settler of the little village by that name. He built the oldtime log house, but tired of the monotony and, after a few years, moved
to Ypsilanti. Bela Armstrong, who joined him as a neighbor in MIay,
1836, died in the following year. They were both New Yorkers. In
1829, Cornelius Austin, a New Jersey man, a soldier of the War of I812,
settled near the Novi township line, but after a year changed his residence to the north side of Walled Lake, where he lived for over half a
century. The first store at Walled lake was kept by the Indian traders,
Prentice and King; but J. J..Moore is credited with being the first regular merchant, who established himself in I833. Jesse Tuttle laid out
the original plat in 1836.
The first permanent settler on the site of the village of Commerce
was Reuben Wright, formerly of Orleans county, New York, who, in
the fall of 1832, took up one-eighth of section Io, and remained a resident of the place for half a century. But Jonas Higley, who came in
1835, acquired possession of most of the village site, his property being
purchased by Messers. Amasa Andrews and Joseph G. Farr, by whom
it was laid out into lots in 1836. That year also marked the erection of
the first frame house by Henry Paddock, who was Commerce's first
merchant. The first postoffice was kept by Richard Burt, in his tavern
which he built in I834; also the pioneer hostelry.
The first grist mill on the village site was erected by Crossman, Seymour & Hoover in 1838, and the second by Henry and Jerome Paddock