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

483

claim, in company with his wife and nine children. John Gould had
made an entry nearly three weeks before that of "Deacon" Ingersoll,
but did not settle on his land (in section 36), until a month after the
Ingersoll family had established themselves.
Erastus Ingersoll, with the assistance of his oldest son, E. S. Ingersoll, had soon completed the first house in what is now Novi township;
some neighbors in Farmington town, six or seven miles away, also
rendered what aid was possible to put together the rough log shelter
for the Ingersoll family. Its members, John Gould, Joseph Eddy (of
Wayne county, New York), and Pitts Tafft, constituted the Novi colony
of I825, although during the year William Yerkes and Thomas Pinkerton, two young cousins from Seneca county, New York, appeared in
the locality searching promising pieces of land. They evidently found
what they wanted-Yerkes, in section 36 and Pinkerton, in section 25 ---
for in the following March they appeared to work their purchases, chopping timber for a clearing and fencing the choicest tracts. Mr. Yerkes
had already a family of several children, who followed him to their new
home, and formed a part of the colony of sixteen who came into this
western wilderness under the leadership of the young pioneers from
Seneca county. The Yerkes family became perhaps as well known as
any in the township.
NovI CORNERS, OR Novi
The only postoffice in the township (Novi), was formerly known as
Novi Corners; and it was most appropriately named, for the settlement
not only stood at the intersection of the old Walled Lake and the Detroit
and I-owell roads, but at the corners of sections 14, 15, 22 and 23. The
first inhabitant at the Corners was John Elmore, who came before 1830
and located on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 14. Immediately after, Apollos Cudworth and Benjamin Brown arrived in the
locality, occupying respectively the corners of sections 23 and 15. Upon
his corner Brown opened a general store, as well as one of the first two
business enterprises (Blanchard's tavern being the other), which formed
the nucleus of the village of Novi Corners. Asaph C. Smith soon
opened another store, and when the postoffice was established not long
thereafter he was appointed postmaster.
A town hall was erected at Novi Corners in 1876 to serve as an appropriate place of meeting for the township officials and for public
gatherings. By this time the settlement had become quite a village,
with a steam sawmill, tile works, several good general stores, two hotels,
and two or three churches. But neither its industries nor the little sawmills built, at an earlier day. on the outlet from the southwest end of
Walled lake, ever amounted to anything.
Then, as now, Novi really depended for its sustenance as a settlement
upon the good farming country around it. At the present time its
population is put down at about three hundred, and its business is represented by several stores devoted to the sale of general goods and dealings in produce and grain. Two small sawmills are in the immediate
vicinity, and a little cheese is manufactured. But altogether the trade
Vol. 1-31