History of Oakland County, Michigan.

277

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

away from home on one occasion helping Harrison Voorheis, butcher, and stayed
quite late in the evening. He finally started home, but had gone barely twenty
rods from the house when three huge wolves spied him. and thinking, no doubt,
he would make a savory meal for their hungry maws, at once concluded to attack
him; but he, having no relish for such proceedings, concluded that "discretion
was the better part of valor," and beat a hasty retreat towards home, two miles
away. In his own language, he " gathered a club and made lively time through the
woods!/' Probably Tarn O'Shanter, in the wildest part of his wild ride, did not
feel half the sensation of fear which beset Mr. Watson on this occasion, and the
daring leap of Brady, or the breakneck pace of " Old Put," undoubtedly would
be obliged to stand back before the terrific stride of Watson as he at last bolted
into his own door-yard and thundered through the door into the house, safe at
last. He possessed a huge bull-dog, which he had brought from New York with
him, and the brute sallied forth in his might, and the wolves soon made
themselves exceedingly scarce in that locality. They did not propose, however,
to allow their desire for gore to go unsatiated, and as their human prey had
escaped them, they revenged themselves upon a number of sheep belonging to Mr.
Watson's neighbors. The next morning Thomas Lapham, then living in White
Lake township, went out and killed them. Wolf-scalps were at that time worth
eighteen dollars apiece, and Lapham made a very good forenoon's work of it.
He afterwards moved into Springfield township, where he died.
Horatio Foster, Sr., settled in the county in 1837, having come from near
Utica, Oneida county, New York. He was accompanied by his wife and two
sons, and located in Independence township, near what is now Clarkston Station.
He died at the age of sixty-four, and his wife at her death was sixty-eight. Of
the children there were originally five,-four sons and one daughter,-and all are
now living except the oldest son, Horatio. The daughter, Mary Ann Foster, is
now the widow of Joseph Harris. She did not locate in Oakland County until
some years after the rest of the family had settled.
Horatio Foster, Jr., emigrated to Detroit in 1835, and worked at the harness
business for some time, finally removing to Clarkston. Another son, Samuel,
settled in 1836, but did not purchase land until 1842, when he bought on section
25, in Springfield township, and lived upon it until 1864, when he removed to
his present location on section 4. He was but sixteen years of age when he
came to Michigan. His brother, Frederick Foster, is living also in Springfield
township, on section 25.
Michigan has her share of the hardy sons of the " Granite State" within her
borders, and among them is Milton Sargent, a veteran from the rocky dells of the
State which in years gone by kept her inhabitants busy attending to certain
troubles with Vermont. The lay of the " Green Mountain boy" of old bore in
its burden the important query,
" Swarms Hampshire in arms on our border again?"
And they were ever ready to meet the invader with the decree, "thus far shalt
thou come and no farther," -and back it up by decisive action if necessary.
Happily, those days of feud are over, and glorious '" New England," with its ribs
of rock, stands as a prominent and steadfast part of the " Union of States."
From New Hampshire, then, came Mr. Sargent,-town of Wentworth, Grafton county,-and in 1833 located in what is now Avon township, Oakland
County, Michigan.. He arrived in Detroit on the 1st day of July, and at Rochester the next day. He says le was a "regular old bach." He possessed
seventy-eight dollars in cash, and with it purchased forty acres on section 18, in
Avon township, it being the last piece of government land on the section. He
afterwards purchased additional land in that township, and finally removed to
Springfield, arriving there April 3, 1838. He located on the northwest quarter
of section 15, now owned by Brainard J. Phillips, having traded his land in

Avon for it to a man named Taylor. The latter had built a log cabin on the
place and split some rails, but made no further improvements. Mr. Sargent was
seventy-nine years old February 11, 1877, and is now living on the old place,
with Mr. Phillips.
His oldest brother, John Sargent, enlisted from Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
in the war of 1812, and served a portion of his time in Fort Gratiot. His time
was out in 1817, and he soon after came with Alexander, William, and Benjamin
Graham, and settled in Avon township, where he lived two miles west of
Rochester. Milton Sargent had not seen his brother for twenty-one years, and
the meeting in 1833 was undoubtedly a joyful one.
The first settler on the farm now owned by Moses Garter was Melvin Dorr,
who became the first supervisor of Springfield township, and otherwise a very
popular man. The same farm was afterwards occupied by Asahel Fuller., Mr.
Dorr's remains rest beneath the shade of the orchard on the place.
Mr. Garter came in July, 1854, from Orleans county, New York, where his
father settled in 1812, and where Mr. G. lived for forty years. He purchased his

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present property from Benjamin Cochran, to whom Mr. Fuller had sold. Mr.
Garter brought his wife and one son with him from New York. His father was
a musician, and was called out with the militia in 1812, but saw no hard service.
Moses Garter also trained under the militia law in the State of New York, where
he commanded a company. Ie is a native of Herkimer county, New York, as
was also his father.
Edward Parkinson, from Niagara county, New York, settled in 1838, with his
wife and eight children, on section 35, in Springfield, where he now resides. He
located government land. He is a native of England, and emigrated to the
United States in 1830. After his arrival in Springfield he built a small log
shanty, which stood nearly on the spot occupied by his present frame house.
Seven of his children are now living. The only neighbors Mr. Parkinson had
were two families living on the west and one on the east, all of them some distance
away. He says it was such hard work to secure provisions, that if a family
" could get a woodchuck or a johnny-cake" they thought themselves extremely
fortunate.
Horace Green settled in Springfield in 1832, having come from South Livonia,
Livingston county, New York, where his parents moved from Seneca county in
1815. They were originally from Middleburg, Schoharie county, and settled in
Scipio, Cayuga county, in 1811. His father, Levi Green, was a native of Rhode
Island, and a soldier in the Revolutionary army, afterwards drawing a pension for
his services. Horace Green was killed by the fall of a tree, in February, 1833.
His brother, Zephaniah R. Green, settled in West Bloomfield township. A son
of the latter, Addis E. Green, mentions having been present at the raising of
Griswold Bishop's barn in Springfield, in 1833(?), where he saw a huge Indian
shoulder two of the largest rafters-made of tamarack logs-at once, and thinks
the savage could have out-jumped any man there if he had been sober.
I. K. Grow, a native of Homer, New York, settled in Springfield in 1835, with
his parents; J. H. Landon, from Salisbury, Connecticut, settled in 1836; William
Jones, native of Middlebury, New York, settled in 1836.
Of the original settlers of Springfield, many have removed to other localities,
and a considerable number of them have been summoned away from earth. The
work they began has been unremittingly continued by those who have come after
them, and the township to-day rests under the influences of prosperity, where but
a comparatively short time ago all was a wilderness.
SCHOOLS.
In 1834 a frame barn was built by Arza C. Crosby, on section 13, having a
granary in one end. The first school in the township was taught in this building
by Sarah Pratt, and was attended by the children of Mr. Crosby, John J. Merrell,
Robert Perry, and others. The next year (1835) a frame school-house was built.
The first term in it was taught by Miss Sophia Paddock, who was a sister of Mrs.
Merrell and Mrs. Crosby. She afterwards married Ira Dayton, of Grand Blanc,
Genesee county. The old barn on Mr. Crosby's place is still standing. The
school-house stood a short distance east of Mr. Crosby's dwelling, near where
Edward Perry now lives. The frame of it was removed to section 12 and a
new cover put on, and the building is now in use in district No. 1. The frame
school-house at Springfield post-office-now district No. 6-was built some time
afterwards.
A firame school-house was built at the Anderson settlement (district No. 5) as
early as 1838, and stood on the ground now occupied by the new frame schoolhouse. Among the first teachers were Lucy and Lois McQuigg, the latter now
the wife of Henry Elliott, of Pontiac, and the former the widow of George Peek,
of Springfield township. Miss Clarissa Anderson, now the wife of P. A. Tuttle,
of Highland township, was perhaps the first teacher in this school. She taught
before the McQuigg girls, and was very early, if not the first.

A log school-house, the first in the neighborhood, was built on the corner of
Robert Pepper's farm, section 19, about 1843-44. This was the first school
building in the western part of the township, and the first teacher was a young
lady named Corinthia Elliott. The first term was a summer school, and the children who attended were all small. A young lady named Hadley also taught here
early. The building was occasionally used for religious purposes.
About 1839-40 a school-house was built of logs on section 9, in district No. 2.
A summer school was first taught. Eli H. Day, now of Davisburgh, was one of
the first teachers, and many of the older class of citizens now in the village and
neighborhood attended under him. The present house is a frame building, standing
on the southeast corner of section 5.
THE FIRST MARRIAGE LICENSES
were issued by Jonah Gross, township clerk, and were as follows: December 20,
1837, to Ira Dayton, of Grand Blanc, Genesee county, and Miss Sophia Paddock,
of Springfield; January 15, 1838, to Thomas Lapham, of White Lake, and Miss