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 XXXVIII

TROY AND OAKLAND
THIE TROWBRIDGE FAMILY OF TROY TOWNSHIP-JOHNSON NILES AND
TROY-BIG BEAVER AND CLAWrSON-UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF TROY-OAKLAND TOWNSHIP IN GENERAL-GOODISON'S.
Troy is in the second tier of southern townships, with Macomb county
to the east, and is therefore one of the old sections of Oakland county.
It is gently undulating, both its surface and soil being remarkably
uniform. As the Rouge river, which drains several sections in the northwestern part of the township, is the only stream worthy of the name,
and its current is slow and weak, the region has produced no industries
of note; but it is a productive agricultural portion of the county. and
favorable to the raising of live stock.
THiE TROW\VlRID(I;.i F\AMTILY, 01 F RO TOWNSlI[IP
Originally attached to IBloomfield township. when that civil division
embraced the south two-fifths of the county, Troy township became independent in 1827; its territory then embraced the present area of Royal
Oak township, which was set off in I836. At the first election held within the l)ounds of Trov. on the 28th of May, 1 827, Stel)hen V.. Trowbridge, an able New Yorker who had settled on section T8, in the fall
of 1821, was elected the first supervisor of Troy township. With Johnson Niles (of whom more hereafter), he was the most prominent of
the pioneers for the succeeding quarter of a century. He was a strong,
able, hospitable man, and served his state in public life as well as his
township. He was a member of the third legislative council, whose two
sessions covered the period from May 5, 1828, to November 5, I829.
Mr. Trowbridge died in 1859, and his children have honored the family
name by reaching high station in professional and business pursuits.
One of them, Rowland E., was a member of congress from Michigan,
in the Thirty-seventh and the Thirty-ninth congresses, from I861-62
and I865-66, respectively.
JOHNSON NILES AND) TROY
The first land entries in Troy township were made in I819 for tracts
in sections 18 and I9, in its western part. From 1820 to 1822 a large
number of purchases were made both in the northern and northwestern
487