History of Oakland County, Michigan.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

233

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
In the autumn of 1830 a meeting of the inhabitants was held to take the initiatory steps towards the separation of the town fiom Farmington. In the discussion upon the matter of a name for the new town several different ones were
proposed, but those of more than five or six letters seemed to find very little
favor; some of the speakers remarking that they had quite enough of long names,
which were bothersome" and difficult to write, like Farmington. In this dilemma Dr. J. C. Emery, at the suggestion of his wife, proposed the name of Novw,
which, being sufficiently brief and easily written, and yet by no means commonplace or homely, found favor with the townspeople, and was agreed to with very
little opposition. It did not, however, pass the legislative council without objection and very disparaging comment, particularly from Mr. James Kingsley, of Ann
Arbor, who regarded it as a very unfit and inappropriate name, which he said meant
" not known," " unknown," or l' forgotten," if he rightly recollected his Latin,-as
he felt pretty sure he did. Nevertheless it was finally adopted, and in the fall of
1832 towns 1 and 2, north of ranges 7 and 8 east, were detached from Farmington,
and erected into the township of Novi, embracing not only the present township of
the name but also those of Lyon, Milford, and Commerce. The township proper then
contained between ninety and one hundred voters. The house of Cyrenius Simmons was appointed as the place of the first township-meeting, which was accordingly held there on the 1st day of April, in the year 1833, upon which occasion,
as we find upon the record, " the house was called to order by William Yerkes,
Esq., viva voce. Moses Bartow was appointed moderator, and Lyman W. Andrus
clerk of the board. The board then proceeded to putting in overseers of highways. The following were nominated, seconded, and carried: Amerdon Aldrich,
John Blain, John SMead, Israel Whipple, Benj. Hungerford, William Thompson,
Dwight Hox, Silas Wilson, Henry Eddy, Peter Plowman, Merritt Randolph,
Joseph Chambers, Joseph Eddy, Abraham Vanduyne, Henry Courter, Joab Giles,
Edward Butterfield, Orange Van Amburgh, Brayton Flint, Horace W. Vaughn,
Calvin Smith, Herman Pettibone, Sir Henry Herrington, Ransom W. Holly,
William Tinney, Louis Norton, Abel Peck, Daniel Morgan, Daniel Luke, Henry
Ruggles, Jeremiah Curtis, Henry Tuttle, Eliphalet Hungerford. The board
then attended to receiving of votes for the following officers, who were separately
chosen and appointed by a majority, viz.: for supervisor, Samuel Hungerford was
duly appointed; for clerk, Lyman W. Andrus was duly appointed. Benjamin
Hungerford, Eleazer Rugles, Asaph C. Smith, and Abel Peck were duly appointed assessors; Louis Vradenburgh, Joseph Blackwood, Russell Alvord, commissioners of highways; Samuel Hungerford, Asaph C. Smith, and Ransom W.
Holly, school commissioners; Philip Burritt was elected constable and collector;
Saveril Aldrich, director of the poor; Philip Shaw, treasurer; James Wilkinson,
Bela Chase, Eleazer Ruggles, and Ephraim Birch, fence-viewers.
After Colonel Hungerford, who was elected the first supervisor of Novi, the
incumbents of that office have been as follows:
William Yerkes, in the years 1834, 1836, 1840-41-42, 1848, and 1849; Samuel
White, in 1835, 1839, 1843, and 1844; Jacob B. Covert, 1837 and 1838;
Samuel Rodgers, 1845, 1847, and 1855; John Bassett, in 1850 and 1854;
Gideon Scott, 1851, 1852, 1853, and 1856; Jefferson C. Plumb, in 1857 and
1858; John C. Emery in 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1'865, and 1866;
Benjamin P. Smith, 1867, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874; Austin N. Kimmis, in
1868; Samuel S. Coonley, 1869 and 1870; George E. Smith, 1875 and 1876;
and George Yerkes, 1877.
The office of township clerk has been filled by the following gentlemen: Lyman W. Andrus, 1833 and 1835; James Wilkinson, in 1834, 1836, 1837, 1838,
and 1852; Asaph C. Smith, in- 1839; William Hullinger, in 1840; Jacob B. Covert,
in 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846,1848, and 1849; William W. Rodgers,
in 1847; Jefferson C. Plumb, in 1850; M. Augustus White, in 1851 and 1853;
Benjamin P. Smith in 1854, 1855, 1856, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864,

1865, 1866, 1869, 1870, 1876, and 1877; Amos A. Kaple, 1857, 1858, 1873,
and 1874; Jesse S. Boyden, 1867; Ahijah Wixom, 1868; Isaac W. Lamb, in
1871; Norman H. Gage, 1872; and Richard M. Johnson in 1875.
The first justices of the peace were elected in 1836, at a special meeting held
for the purpose, on the 22d of August. They were Jacob B. Covert, Samuel
Hungerford, Stanton Hazzard, and Asaph Smith. Of these only Colonel Hungerford was afterwards elected to the office, viz., in 1842 for the full term, and
same year to fill vacancy. The names of justices since elected for the full term
are as follows: Avery Thomas, 1837; Philip Burritt, 1838; Carlos Harmon,
1839 and 1843; Stephen L. Gage, 1840 and 1844; William W. Rodgers,
1841; James Wilkinson, 1845, 1849; Daniel E. Matthews, 1846; Orange
K. Van Amburgh, 1847, 1851, and 1855; John Bassett, 1848; James B. Palmer, 1850, 1854, 1859, and 1863; John J. Perkins, 1853; Brayton Flint,
1852, 1856, 1860, 1864, 1868, and 1872; John W. Morse, 1857; Robert
Yerkes, 1858 and 1862; Moses G. Porter, 1861, 1865, and 1869; Aldrich
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Knapp, 1866; Francis B. Owen, 1867; Samuel Rodgers, 1870; Thomas E.
Bogert, 1871; Mark H. Furman, 1873; George Yerkes, 1874; Marvin Bogert,
1875; Andrew J. Crosby, Jr., 1876; Ansley W. Arms, 1877. The justices
elected at various times to fill vacancies have been Stephen L. Gage, 1837 and
1844; John Bassett, 1845; James B. Palmer, 1847; Elias S. Woodman, 1856;
Daniel Smoke, 1858; Dexter White, 1866 and 1868; John C. Emery, 1867;
George Yerkes, 1871; Marvin Bogert, 1873; Andrew J. Crosby, 1875; and
Cyrus E. Russell, 1877.
CONTRACTION OF BOUNDARIES.
It was but a short time that Novi held her extended territory, embracing as it
did five townships, for on the 7th of March, 1834, town 1 north, of range 7
east, was detached by act of the legislative council, and named Lyon, and towns
2 north, of ranges 7 and 8 east, were detached and called Commerce, and Novi
then assumed her present boundaries.
ROADS.
At the time of the organization of the township, the only regularly laid out
road in it was that running south from Walled lake, through the entire width of
Novi, to Northville; but most of the sectional line roads were laid out in the year
1834, in pursuance of the general declaration to that effect. The main road
arteries of the township are the Northville road, above mentioned, and the
Grand river military road, or, more properly, the Detroit and Howell plank-road.
FIRST FRAME AND BRICK HOUSES-RAISINGS-DISTILLERY.
The first frame house in Novi was built by Saveril Aldrich. The exact date is
not known, but it was about the year 1833. This, however, although the first
dwelling-house of that construction, was not the first building erected with mortise and tendon, as several frame barns had been built before that time. There
is some clashing of accounts as to the first " raising" which was conducted on
temperance principles in the town, that honor being by different authorities
awarded to different individuals, but it seems quite probable that to William
Yerkes, Esq., belongs the credit of first rearing a frame in Novi without the aid
of ardent spirits.
Bat if there is a doubt as to the occasion of the first banishment of whisky,
there seems to be none as to its first production.- The first distillery was put in
operation on the farm of Pitts Taft, near the spot where the first seeds of education were sown by Hiram Wilmarth. It is but just, however, to say that in those
days it was considered as right and legitimate to manufacture corn or rye into
whisky as to produce flour or meal from the same grain.
As to brick dwellings, there were none in Novi for nearly a quarter of a century after that time; the first having been built by Owen F. Whipple, a few rods
west of Novi Corners, in the fall of 1856. The second was erected by Richmond
Simmons, and these are believed to be the only ones of the kind in the township
at the present time.
PUBLIC-HOUSES.
The first tavern in Novi was opened by Samuel Blanchard, about 1835, in a
very small frame house, attached to a log building, which stood upon a lot now
embraced in the premises of Mr. A. Whipple, on the Walled lake road, some
thirty or forty rods north of the point where it is intersected by the Detroit and
Howell plank-road, at Novi Corners.
The next public-house was that which was opened by Ruel Sherman in 1835,
in a lot building which stood on the southwest quarter of section 15, in the southeastern angle formed by the intersection of the gravel-road (then known as the
Grand river military road) with the central longitudinal section road of the township,-the same premises now occupied by Mr. Goodell. Sherman's house acquired
rather more of trade and importance than was usual in those times for country
inns situated at a distance from villages or populous points. It stood on the

great thoroughfare from Detroit to the Grand river country, and received a share
of the patronage of travelers over that route; and, besides this, being located only
three-eighths of a mile from the geographical centre of the township, it was chosen
as a proper and convenient place for the holding of the township-meetings. The
first of these which was held there was the annual meeting for the year 1836, in
the spring following the opening of the house, and it continued to be the regular
place of holding town-elections for many years. They were occasionally held there
as late as the year 1862, at which time Gerard Sessions was its landlord. Sherman left it at the commencement of the year 1843, and afterwards engaged in a
saw-mill business in Northville.
Opposite the Sherman tavern, in the northeastern angle of the roads, a frame
house of good size was erected, and opened as a tavern by Isaac Carr about ten
years later, though this was not as early as the opening of Holliday's house at
Novi Corners, which we mention elsewhere. Carr's, being a larger and more pretentious house than Sherman's, took precedence of the latter to some extent as