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.

44

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

lett's barroom, by a Methodist minister who came up the Rouge and
whose name I do not remember.
"I could get but little employment during the summer. Occasionally
I assisted emigrants in land-looking and surveying, but endeavored to
wait patiently for the fulfillment of the promise which had been given
me. Early in the winter I received the place of teacher in the school
on Swan's Plains, where I continued until February, when a letter from
Mr. Mullett, of Detroit, proposed our visiting Chillicothe together that
we might soon procure the promised contract.
"I resigned my place in the school to my brother, Dr. Parke, and
soon arranged with Mr. M. for our journey. Our outfit consisted of
a French pony, a jumper rudely constructed with a crockery crate for
a box (this half filled with straw) and a couple of blankets, not forgetting a saddle; and we were soon gliding down on the ice of the Detroit
river to Sandusky. Here we left the jumper, saddled the pony, and
proceeded on our journey-one riding and the other walking. After
going a certain distance, the horseman would dismount, hitch the pony
to a sapling, and proceed, taking his turn in walking, while his companion after a time would pass him on horseback, and in the proper
place, he, too, would dismount and hitch, and the journey was concluded
on this ride-and-tie principle.
"Our interview with the general was most satisfactory. The oath
of office was administered and each received a contract. Mr. M. and
myself were the first appointed from this territory, except Mr. Ball,
who filled one contract of ten townships in I82I. In a year or two
William Brockfield, of Detroit, received a contract. Others were furnished work soon after."
HOMESTEAD AT LAST
From this time on, Captain Parke's duties as surveyor took him into
various sections of Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, his professional
labors covering some sixteen years. His home, however, was in the
township of Pontiac. "In the autumn of 1823," he says in his second
narrative, "I purchased of Shubael Conant, the southeast quarter of
section 33 in the township of Pontiac, at a little less than three dollars
per acre. The following year I added thirty-one acres on the north
and adjoining the same at five dollars per acre. The year previous,
however, I purchased of the same sixteen and a half acres to secure
building ground, as the line of road from Detroit had cut off my former
building ground and first purchase, the price being ten dollars, with the
privilege of one, or as many acres as I chose.
"In May, 1824, I was ready to take possession, when Judge LeRoy,
who owned and occupied the house in which Joseph J. Todd has since
resided about forty years, kindly offered me a room for the use of
my family while my own house was building. This required the labor of
three men besides myself for two weeks. The roof was covered with
boards, battened with slabs, and as the house logs were cut in unequal
lengths, when raised to their proper place they formed steps convenient
for mounting the roof at the alarm of fire. The interior was quite com