SOUTHFIELD, GROVELAND AND WHITE LAKE

Southfield Township's FIrst Settlers Franklin And SouthField—Groveland Township

Groveland And Austin—Almost A Railroad—White Lake Township—Oxbow And White Lake.

Southfield is in the southeastern part of the county, in the southern tier of townships west of Royal Oak, and was originally attached to Bloomfield for civil and judicial purposes. On the 12th of July, 1830, the legislature set it off as a separate township under the name of Ossewa; but this name was so distasteful to the majority of citizens that only a week passed before it was changed to Southfield. The township is watered by the forks of the Rouge—East and West, and Lee's creek —which with the main stream, drain virtually its western sections, and Dry Run, which rises in the northeastern part of the town and takes a generally southwesterly course, leaving at section 33, about the middle of the south base line.

Southfield Township's First Settlers

A few entries of land in the present township were made in 1821, but John Daniels, who settled in the southwestern portion of section 4, was its first permanent resident and householder. His family returned with him from the east in the following spring. Also came Martin and William Lee, who located on section 18; Edmund Cook on section 7, and George White, near the lees on section 18. Mr. Daniels worked, prospered and was long respected and honored, filling many public offices in the locality previous to his death in 1875. Dullucena Stoughton, Eli Curtis, Elisha Hunter, Moses Rodgers, Elijah Bullock and others succeeded this first colony within the following two years.

Franklin And Southfield

Mr. Bullock, with his sons purchased two hundred and forty acres which included a large part of the present village, or post office, of Franklin. Mr. Stoughton owned the balance of the original site. One of the most noted residents of Franklin was Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, who came in 1828, was the first physician in the township, the first village postmaster (post office established in 1828), and a physician of high standing. In the summer of 1829 Mr. Stoughton built a brick house, which was not only the first of its kind in the township but is said to be the pioneer of the county. The first store was opened by William Houston, a New Yorker, in 1830; several hotels appeared within the succeeding few years; Peter Van Every, Sr., settled at Franklin in 1837, thence conducting several mills and a distillery over the line in Bloomfield township; Worthington & Pratt erected a grist mill in the village, and in 1851 Colonel Van Every established a steam flouring mill at that point. But when, one after another, all the railroads passed it by, Franklin ceased to even hope for better things, and is now little more than a post office for the farmers of the neighborhood.

What was once known as the village of Southfield, or Southfield Centre, which was located on both sides of the road running from the quarter-post on the east line of section 20 to the Rouge river, is now not even a post office. In 1829 Archibald H. Green made the first settlement in the northern part of the old village, and in 1833 the number of families who had located there and in the vicinity warranted the establishment of the post office of Southfield, with John Thomas as postmaster. He also ran the tavern and near it several stores were soon started. In 1837 Sabin's gristmill was built on the Rouge a few rods west of the village, and was one of the first causes which brought business to Southfield. The following year a flour mill was erected in the village; but neither these industries, nor any other causes, were sufficient to start the Thomas settlement, or Southfield, on an up-grade.

Groveland And Austin

In the early years Groveland township had two villages on the Detroit and Saginaw turnpike which flourished for a time. About 1836 Philip McOmber built a large log house on that new and important highway, opened a hotel and travelers for a long distance came to speak of Groveland Cottage, as the inn was called, in glowing terms. In 1837, or thereabouts, when a post office was established at that point it took the name of Groveland, although the old-timers insisted on calling the place Groveland Cottage. Its location was about a mile south of Stewart lake.

Still further south, near the township line, a hotel was built on the Saginaw road, at which the stage teams were changed and travelers refreshed themselves. This point was also deemed of sufficient importance to warrant the establishment of a post office about 1846. It was brought about mainly through the efforts of David Austin Wright, an old settler of the region, and the post office was therefore named Austin. For several years before, it was Austin Corners, and was popularly designated as such, long afterward. Since the establishment of the rural delivery system the post office has been discontinued.

Almost A Railroad

The people of Austin, Groveland and the township in general had a temporary revival of hope in the late seventies over the possibilities of the Michigan Midland Railway. Although the line was surveyed through their territory in 1868-69 that is as far as the project went; but the Detroit & Bay City was put through, a few miles to the southwest, which was a decided push backward instead of forward. It was a blow from which the township never quite recovered.

White Lake Township

In July, 1833, Erastus Hopkins, of Steuben county, New York, bought two hundred and forty acres of land in that locality, and in October of the following year moved his family thither. After he had built his log house, he had less than a dollar in cash with which to commence the fight in the wilderness. That winter he killed several deer and caught some fish, having already cleared some land for the spring plowing. His wife died in less than four years, but Mr. Hopkins, who married twice afterward, survived until 1876.

The land thus purchased included a mill site on the Huron river, where it emerged from Oxbow lake, and about 1836 Mr. Hopkins sold five acres to a Dr. May, who built a dam and built a little sawmill, with which he cut timber for a hotel and a store. A more substantial dam was afterward built by Mr. Hopkins. About the time that the first mill was erected, the White Lake post office was established and Frederick Hopkins, cousin of Erastus, appointed postmaster. In 1840 the post office was moved to White Lake settlement, on the northeastern shore of the lake by that name, in section 6.