An Account of Oakland County / edited by Lillian Drake Avery.

30

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

the westerly side of the river, now known as Clinton River, and then
known as the Huron of St. Clair. This building was soon occupied
by Major Joseph Todd and family, William Lessiter and Orison
Allen. This cabin was probably built in November, 1818. So the
fall of 1818 must be treated as the beginning of the now prosperous
city of Pontiac. The next building completed was a blacksmith shop
belonging to the firm of Mack, Conant and Sibley, which stood not
far from the saw mill and the flouring mill afterwards erected on
that mill site. A trip hammer was added to the shop in 1823, but
historians say was never much used. The flouring mill, afterwards
known as the Mathews mill, and later converted into a knitting
factory, was built by that firm on that same site and completed in
1819 or 1820, and was the first flouring mill erected in Pontiac and
possibly in the county of Oakland, although it is sometimes claimed
that the Hersey mill in the township of Oakland was erected prior
to this one. This mill was a large and important one for those days,
and probably contained three run of stone, two burr stones and one
made from a common boulder taken from this locality. The Mack
flouring mill was completed in 1819 or 1820.
On the completion of this mill a great local celebration was enjoyed
in Pontiac, and the Pontiac Company and citizens of Pontiac gathered
for the purpose of a great, free, and easy hilarious time; and the
flowing bowl was freely passed and no limit required of the amount
of distilled spirits to be consumed.
It is worth while to note the contrast in the use of intoxicating
liquors between early Pontiac (pioneer Pontiac) and our present city.
In those early days the roads were so impassable between Pontiac
and Detroit, that it cost as much to ship grain to Detroit as it does
now to ship it to New York City. Grain was, therefore, very cheap
in price, and was freely distilled and comparatively large quantities
of whiskey made in Oakland county. Many distilleries were erected
here, one being erected by Colonel Mack, and whiskey was about as
cheap as kerosene oil is now, and it was drunk very freely.
Mr. Conant left the above mentioned firm, in 1820, and Mack
continued to run the firm business for the other partners, himself
and Sibley, until his death in 1826. Conant seems to have had nothing to do with the distillery. It was erected by Colonel Mack about
1823, and was run in connection with the flouring mill. Colonel Mack
also erected and put in operation a small woolen mill about that
time, containing machinery for carding, spinning and weaving,
which mill did quite an extensive business.
Colonel Mack also built a grist mill at the village of Rochester in
1824. He also ran a general store in the city of Pontiac where the
people in the locality, including the Orchard Lake Indians, and the
Indians traveling through this place, as well as the pioneers of this
locality, did their local trading.
The roads being impassable direct from Detroit the earliest
pioneers of this locality came by way of the Huron of the St. Clair
(the Clinton river) and as I have said, at that time this county was
a part of the large county of Macomb.