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

43

BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN H. PARKE
"On their return home he offered me the use of the shop, as he called
it, an unfinished log house, built but not used for blacksmithing purposes, which he said I would be quite welcome to occupy. Doors, windows and floors were soon put in, and we moved into our first home
in the west. There, in 1823, my only son, John H. Parke, was born.
Our furniture consisted of a table made by myself from a rough board,
and chairs which my brother-in-law, Harry Brownson, who came soon
after myself, built with his ax out of rough timber.
"These articles, with our beds and bedding, several trunks and a
small stock of clothing, comprised all my worldly possessions. I will
not neglect to add that $8.50 in cash remained, and I was at this time in
my thirty-third year. Of course the strictest economy was necessary,
but my hopes were bright. I was in perfect health and all the preliminaries for the future work in surveying public lands entered into the
previous year.
"It being time I was on the move for family supplies, when, with the
asistance of a friend, I raised a sum sufficient, added to the above, and
set out on foot for Detroit, encountering mud, water, flies and mosquitoes.
"Cattle drovers from Ohio were the chief dependence of the pioneers,
but finding none at the time, I bought a fine looking new milch cow
from a Frenchman, which proved to be so ungovernable as to require
two men to hold and milk her, until I made a pen so constructed that
she could neither turn, go ahead, or back out, and the milking could be
performed by a single person. After this I made another purchase of
a cow at the administrator's sale of the estate of Webster, in the fall of
1824.
"Whether Mr. Webster died in 1822, or 1823, I am unable to say.
He came as passenger in the steamer 'Superior' in May, 1822, with the
mill-irons on board, when it was said that Burtt & Allen, millwrights,
were set at work and the sawmill was put in running order at Auburn,
called Smith's mill. After the death of Mr. Webster the real estate
passed into the hands of the father of Captain Isaac Smith.
"At the time of my arrival at Hunter's the settlement (now Birmingham) contained four log dwellings, occupied by Elijah Willetts, John
W. Hunter, Elisha Hunter, his father, and John Hamilton.
"In the fall of 1822 my brother, Dr. Ezra S. Parke, having recently
completed his medical studies, arrived with his wife and one child, an
infant daughter, who afterward became the wife of M. W. Kelsey. He
was an earnest, zealous Christian, member of the Methodist Episcopal
church, and soon after his arrival commenced holding occasional religious
services in his own house on Sunday afternoon. On these occasions the
singing was principally performed by his wife, who was remarkable for
her rich, sweet voice, as well as many other lovely Christian graces.
The early settlers and other friends can never forget this excellent woman;
her cheerfulness of temper in all circumstances. Her kindness and
sympathy in sickness and affliction were unsurpassed. She literally
went about doing good. These meetings were the first held in the
neighborhood, with the exception of a sermon I heard in 1821, in Wil