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.

30

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

The same autumn and winter, settlements were commenced at Birmingham, Royal Oak, and other places above the Detroit and Saginaw
trail, and in March, I819, Major Oliver Williams and his brother-in-law
Alpheus Williams, settled in Waterford township. Captain Archibald
Phillips also settled in Waterford very early. Among the first to enter
land in Troy were Messrs Castle, Hunter, Hamilton and Fairbanks, in
February, I819.
"UNCLE BEN" WOODWORTH
In town 4, north of range I east, now called Oakland, the first purchase was made by Benjamin Woodworth and William Russell, on the
i6th of March, I8I9. They entered a part of section 33. The history
of father Russell, as he was familiarly called, is truth itself, candid and
unassuming. He was an example of sociality and benevolence, upright
and just in all his ways. Benjamin Woodworth, "Uncle Ben," as he was
known by all who ever stopped at the "Steamboat Hotel" in Detroit, had
a heart full of kindness and a hand ever ready to help the distressed. He
was the constant friend of Oakland county, and he never forgot or forsook her early inhabitants. In 1824, James Coleman and James Hazard
purchased; in 1825, Benedict Baldwin, Horace Lathrop, James D. Galloway, J. B. Galloway, J. Dewey, Samuel Hilton, Ezra Newman, David
Hammond and Needham Hemmingway, became purchasers and were
among the early settlers.
FIRST SURVEYS
Most of the earliest explorers of Oakland county came in by way of
Mount Clemens and the Clinton river, the year I8I9 being one of the
busiest of the very early period. The pioneers followed close on the heels
of the government surveyors. Among the latter who saw the country
in the pioneer times of which we write were Colonel Joseph Wampler
and Captain Henry Parke, and to the latter the author is indebted for an
interesting picture which will be presented later.
Virtually, the dates of land entries fix the dates of settlement, as most
of those who entered land did so for the purpose of founding homes and
not to hold it for "speculation." Mr. O. Poppleton has made the most
complete synopsis of those who located the first lands in the different
townships, and his list is often published without giving him due credit.
It was first given in his address before the Oakland County Pioneer Society February 20, I889.
From the date of Pontiac's abandoning the siege of Detroit, in 1764,
to the time of ordering the survey of the county by the surveyor general,
in I815, I find in my researches but little authoritative historical interest,"
he says. "But in my investigations of the early surveys in the state and
county I find it replete with interest. From the old records I learn that
the first surveys in the territory of which we find any public record were
made by Aaron Greely of 'Private Land Claims' on St. Clair, Detroit and
Rouge rivers in the winter of 1809 and from July to November, I8Io.
The first surveys upon the meridian line were made by Benjamin
Hough in the fall of 1815, from the north line of town 3 west, in Jack