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.

484

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

and business of Novi do not warrant the establishment of a local bank,
such facilities being provided by Northville, four miles south in Wayne
county. Baptist and Methodist societies meet the religious needs of the
community.
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP AND ITS LAKES
Waterford is the central township of Oakland county and derives
its name from the fact that so large a portion of its surface is covered
by water. The principal stream is the Clinton river, which takes a
tortuous course nearly through the central sections of the township, and
receives the surplus waters of most of the thirty lakes within its borders.
The largest of the lakes is Elizabeth, in the southern part, some four
hundred acres in area lying in sections 27, 28, 33 and 34. Its shores are
bold and clean and partly covered with timber, and furnish beautiful
building sites for summer homes. As elsewhere stated, the lake was
named by Governor Cass, its discoverer, in honor of his wife. Among
the other fine bodies of water in the township are Williams, Wadkins,
Scott's and Silver; and it was on the shore of the last named that the
settlement of the township was inaugurated by Major Oliver Williams
in I8I9.
Elizabeth lake, when discovered by Governor Cass and his party,
contained white fish in small numbers, and in the late seventies all of
the larger lakes of the township were stocked by the state. More recently many of the lakes have been stocked with bass from the hatchery
at Drayton Plains, which is in the very center of the lake region, between
Loon and Wadkins lakes.
COMING OF THE WILLIAMS' FAMILIES
What is now Waterford township was originally a part of Oakland
(afterward of Pontiac), and in 1834 was organized as a separate civil
and political body. Major Oliver Williams, a minor officer in the War
of 1812 who had been captured by the British at Mackinaw and paroled,
and who settled in Detroit with his Massachusetts family after the
war, and there engaged in mercantile ventures, made a journey into Oakland county in the fall of I818. Accompanying him were his wife and
married sister, Calvin Baker and Jacob Eilett, all on horseback and
under the guidance of a Frenchman. The two women are believed to
have been the first white women who had ever voluntarily visited the
region now known as Oakland county. The party found the country
very beautiful from Royal Oak to the present limits of Waterford township and literally alive with all kinds of game-beast, bird and fish. As
the women expected to live in this country with their children, their
husbands, in justice, accorded them the privilege of looking over the
ground themselves; and they enthuiastically approved of it all. The
party finally reached Silver lake, and after the present Waterford line
had been crossed, Major Williams selected lands in section 13, searching out the surveyors' lines and marking the corners. This charming
locality which he selected as his future home is where the sheets of water
now known as Loon, Silver and Upper Silver lakes come together. After