THE BOOK ON COMMERCE By Glenn Ruggles “When people know and preserve their history they know and preserve their pride.” _ s=== Harrison Salisbury aes Bok. Bd $2 Bok ey t a I BS “E.R Glipatirt CEELELPPEREELEDL | oman ACKNOWLEDGE: MENTS The bit of history you are about to read was culled from many sources. We relied heavily on such documents as Durant’s Oakland County history of 1877, Seeley’s 1912 History of Oakland County, Don Donigan’s history of Commerce Township in the 1970 Oakland County Book of History, and several private collections including those of Pauline Skarritt, the Commerce Methodist Church, and the pleasant recollections of E.L. Kennedy. We are indebted to Marie Lutz, Pauline Skarritt, and Bob Long for their good memories in helping us to piece to- gether Commerce of old, To both Pauline, Bob, the Rev. John Park, June Byers, Gerald Sundberg, Pear! Parshall Terzia and Ruth Tuttle, our thanks for saving those old photos and sharing them with us. A special thanks to Barbara Barker for her many hours of research on the Commerce Roller Mill. Determining the facts about the ruins of a building that burned to the ground forty years ago is a difficult task. Barbara’s many trips to pour over county records was invaluable. Our gratitude to Donna Rickabaugh and the Walled Lake City Library for recognizing a good idea when they see it, and offering to finance this publication. Finally, our thanks to the government of Commerce Township for having the wisdom to purchase the property where the ruins of the old roller mill lay. Perhaps we wouldn't have written this book if they hadn’t. Glenn Ruggles T2N, R8E, Michigan ' 1984 PREFACE The purpose of a local history is varied. Often it is done for sentimental reasons, to commemorate an event, ora particular historic point in time. But there is a greater value. Traditional histories concentrate on national or inter- national events that quite often lose or confuse the average individual. Most events are too distant or abstract to hold our interest or to offer any real meaning. If events are personalized, when an individual can relate them to personal experiences, they become much more signif- icant. Thus the value of local history. Noted historian Ray Allen Billington put it this way: “Local history is not a microscope that narrows our vision, but a telescope that allows a clearer view of man’s place in the universe of time.” Following is an example of local history. It is not complete, but more a collection of sketches and views of early Commerce. It was written to help commemorate the Commerce Roller Mill as a historic site, and to complement the marker that identifies the ruins of the mill. ©Copyight: Glenn Ruggles, 1984 THE ERIE CANAL REALLY? A popular myth in the midwest was the thought that all the early settlers got here by way of the Erie Canal. Completed in 1825 and connecting Albany with Buffalo, the Erie Canal created a continuous waterway from the Atlantic to Chicago. But many pioneers came before, and many came from other regions. In Commerce Township, while many did come from New York and probably made use of the Erie Canal, others like Ephraim Burch came from Canada, and Jesse Tuttle and Abraham Taylor left Pennsylvania to make Michigan their home. Regardless of the route, the first purchase of land in Oakland County was in Avon township. It was 1817 and the new landowner was James Graham. In that second decade of the 19th century, it could take 30 days from the New England area to Michigan. The quickest route was by way of stage to Buffalo, then a schooner to Detroit. While there were improvements like the Erie Canal, travel and com- munication remained, at best, an arduous undertaking. As late as 1841, it took 12 days to get news from Washington to Pontiac. This recalls William Henry Harrison who caught pneumonia at his inauguration in that year, and died one month later. It’s most likely that he was dead and buried and the United States had a new president before the citizens of Michigan knew it had happened. While many of the newcomers had failed in the East, many were professionals in their chosen field: doctors, lawyers, and skilled craftsmen like the millers who searched out the streams and rivers of Michigan to create a source of power for new industries. While the government offered inducements such as a congressional act setting aside 2 million acres of land in Michigan for veterans of the War of 1812, growth was slow. In 1820, Oakland County’s population was a mere 330 and Commerce Township had yet to be settled. 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The imaginary lines that identify the township and all its sections, rid property owners of much guesswork and confusion. All property divided and sold within the township is measured from these lines. Since they are imaginary, they can’t be moved. | T2N, R8E is the result of the Grayson Land Ordinance of 1785 which authorized a survey of all lands in the North- west territory, containing the future states of Wisconsin, ~ Ohio Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. It wasn’t until 1815 that the lower peninsula of Michigan was surveyed. To conduct an orderly survey, a vertical line known as the Principal Meridian was established. Running through the center of the state crossing the Ohio line about 50 miles west of Toledo, the line terminates on the north at the eastern end of Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron. Bisecting the Principal Meridian is a horizontal Base Line running along the north side of the counties of Wayne, Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Van Buren. The ranges (vertical rows of townships) are numbered east and west from the Principal Meridian and the town- ships are numbered north and south from the Base Line. Commerce Township is the second township north of the Base Line (township two north or T2N) and it is in the 8th range east of the Principal Meridian (range eight east or R8E). ®U0MLCLCDE ZO + Scflooo-2e & LSor>TV4SoGBe QAS=z0 -. SEE G iN D7Ce w oO ~ Om — rn7OGODOOGQR L£s o- = == Fe ot SoPPERB ~X OF Sloe. OM € oOo Ow OMS90F>900 BG O~Cog®goer LS COT OSG So UL le CH HD T®ELD OF 2 Eo eee sess US 8 ——— > x = he Q ® 2 >ERESS oa 5° og c —a~ 7 & BUSXHVeEg Wan x? F = oO o = O”~O0UTUH a oO 2 2s glfn8 BS ‘ EGaltoo*ss =n E © £305 Wo ¢£ ~DFPoannOs Ce or Cece CM 60 “oD 8 Oo0=ZszMV0 Oc _ Cases oS Fh sf c= eK soos ASF a fSeHogzers Fc OS -f cnt ege ~ M=O=ADVNE w ® SfEeO2 Cosgos = Cc — @® @ £S52000Lf 55 S2E “SE cose2°R8 0 ®@ 530” = ~~ _ —_ = ~~ ©€20,0809CL 99S £E%®g BO S$ 2f£o0n SaSBEDOL HE OZSG Sx OOS < a SB? NonL SEQ 6 THE COMMERCE ROAD One of the greatest drawbacks to settlement in Oakland County was the lack of good roads. The Indian trail from Detroit to Saginaw was the closest facsimile of a road leading into the Oakland County region. It was impassable most of the year, and even during the driest seasons, it was practical only on foot. About 1817 or 1818, a military road, starting from Detroit and following the Saginaw Trail was begun, and became a major thoroughfare when developed by order of Lewis Cass, Governor of the Michigan Territory. By the time it reached a few miles north of Flint in 1834, it measured 100 feet its entire course and was graded to a width of eighty feet. But Abram Walrod, Commerce Township’s first white settler, found nothing but primitive Indian trails when he settled on the shores of the Huron River in 1825. The first road through Commerce Township was laid out in 1833 or 1834. It was a territorial road known sometimes as the Romeo and Ann Arbor Road, but identified by most local residents as the Pontiac and Walled Lake Road. It ran from Pontiac along the north side of Pine Lake, the east side of Orchard Lake, and the north side of Walled Lake and on to Ann Arbor. Today, it is known as Pontiac Trail. But the road that seemed to tie the Township together and spanned it from east to west was Commerce Road. Stretching from Orchard Lake on the East to Milford and beyond on the West, it provided the residents of Commerce with the rail and marketing resources of Milford, and the political and educational resources of Pontiac. But it did not create for Commerce the economic activity indicated in the Township’s name. After Walrod settled in 1825, Walter Hewitt settled on the north shore of Walled Lake. Following was Bela Armstrong and Cornelius Austin. Reuben Wright and Jonas Higley settled in what is now Commerce Village. The 1830s saw Farr, Andrews, Henry Paddock, Richard Burt, who operated the first post office in his tavern, and Fanny Tuttle became the first schoolteacher in 1833. Others followed, and with them came the work ethic and values that made America famous. Nevertheless, Commerce remained a quiet place; a pleasant farm area with a sleepy little village on the road to Milford or Pontiac. The village and the farming area of Commerce Township remained silent as the 20th century roared in with the auto- mobile, airplane, and Teddy Roosevelt. It was little affected by national and international events, and it re- mained a sleepy farm community, making its contri- butions in a quiet and unassuming manner. EE ESS OE ee Ee EARLY COMMERCE Commerce village was reminiscent of most small towns with its mill, and tavern, and hotel and the usual assort- ment of memorable characters. William Foster, sexton and janitor of the Methodist Episcopal Church is one who is remembered fondly as he paraded up and down the aisles of the church ‘‘apparently just to see whether or not proper decorum was being strictly observed.” It was in the Cen- tennial year of 1876 that he established a delicatessen where he would dispense “a motley collection of hot dog sandwiches and other delicacies of uncertain Origin, including ripe hard-boiled. eggs and, as was rumored occasionally, a liberal supply of lubrication of the pre- Volstead variety.” This delicatessen was in the front part of Foster’s carpenter shop, on the south side of Huron Street just across from the Hotel Kittle. Abel Smitherman was a prominent farmer who enter- tained young boys with tales of his pioneer days; digging ditches, clearing away stumps, and breaking young colts. He was prominent in more ways than one. While only about five feet seven, he weighed in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. E.L. Kennedy remembers: him: “sporting a flaming circle of whiskers. . .which, at. times;. gave him the appearance of a partial eclipse.” Aside from: being, a good farmer,. Smitherman: was. a great. baseball fan: and: he never missed a local game. As Kennedy recalls: “At one time he agreed to officiate as umpire in a scrub game between two local nines, and which later developed some close decisions, much to his embarrassment, but to the intense delight of the spectators who had gathered from far and near. It was on this occasion that one of the players, “Skip” King, wishing to tie the score, made a ter- rific slide into the home plate, Carrying the umpire with him, and the reverberations of that clash are stil being felt through that neighborhood after a lapse of nearly half a century.” The Commerce Nine. It seems that those most memorable characters in one village resemble those in another. Wilson Stroud, an old Commerce Village resident, seemed strangely familiar to those visitors from somewhere else. During the 1870s he lived on a small piece of land just a half mile east of the village near the cemetery. He was “sort of a jack-farmer, thresher, inventor, horse-doctor, hotel proprietor, and all- round-dispenser-of-anything-and--everything--that-was-in- anyway-mysterious-or-past-finding-out-through- “the-Inter- vention-of-natural-agencies.”’ He was an ingenious person who at one ‘time invented an apple-picker, a potato-sprayer, a potato-digger, and a side-hill plow,” all of which are in time to be operated by means of springs, pulleys, or something akin to perpetual motion.” | It’s difficult to reminisce about the early days without pausing to dwell on the values that gave shape and sub- stance to a simpler and less complicated time, or at least, what appeared to be a simpler and less complicated time. Some are able to commentate in a clearer and understand- able fashion than others. They have kept in touch and their sense of perspective is evident as they look back. It was this way with old Commerce resident, E.L. Kennedy, as he recalled, in 1921, his childhood of fifty years before. ‘“! would be willing to turn back the clock’, thought Kennedy, “! would turn it back to the very time --- fifty years ago, when we all use to sing right in this same village, ‘‘Tell me pretty maiden, are there any more at home like you?” Back when even the theatre linked up girlhood with home life. Back to the day, prior to the adoption of the Nine- teenth Amendment, when women were virtuous because it was right, and when men told the truth for the same reason; when a young man could be a genuine sport with a fairly good horse and buggy and a silk handerchief. Back to the time when wages were not very high, but a half shekel in silver would buy more than a dollar would buy today; when everybody knew the Lord’s Prayer and could 1 repeat the Twenty-Third Psalm without looking in the book. Back to the time when twelve year old boys and girls knew less than their parents did; when women raised more babies and less h--I and lived and died without hearing of such things as the modern trial-marriages. | would turn back the clock to the time when real statesmen, unhamp- ered by the influences of the Wayne B. Wheelers and allied kleagles conducted the country’s political affairs, and when preachers were content to tell the Sweetest story that ever graced the scrolls of song or poetry, ‘The birth, life, death, and resurrection of that greatest and best of all men that ever lived and dwelt among us.” Of course, others might argue that one can’t go back, and, quite often, what we want to go back to never existed in the first place. Memory plays tricks, and the reliability of fifty years passing is questionable. a The Kennedy family. E.L. is on the left. 12 -_THE NO GOODERS Regardless of why they came west to Michigan, the urge to do so was evident. It affected not only settlers along the East coast, but those immigrants from various nations as they reached ports along the Atlantic shore. While most were motivated by hard work, there were those who didn’t meet the test. Why else is our language saturated with names like bamboozler, film-flammer, hornswoggler, trickster, and wimpler? Throughout history and in most towns and villages there have been no-good persons. Scamp, rapscallion, rogue, snoozer, and _ Vagabond were a few memorable tags. A person running from trouble, or the law, was known as a runagate, skedaddler, or just plain runaway. A mean, worthless scoundrel, commonly known as a wretch or jerk often had the names of animals attached to him. He was a buzzard, dog, rat, skunk, snake, varmint, or worm. If these didn’t seem to fit, he could be labeled a bugger, crumb, rotter, scab, scum, or snot. A group of no- good persons could be called raff, riff-raff or trash. So not all the early settlers were guided by a noble set of values and a lasting work ethic. Though we think most were. But, then why else do we have hooligans, ruffians, bulldozers, plug-uglies, and yaps? While most of these unpleasant names were given to men, women perhaps had more unpleasant categories. A silly girl was a goose. An unkept one was a frump, trollop, or walldrag. A woman of easy virtue was a floozie, chippy, gillyflower, or jezebel, or worse. But while our language has been enriched by those who didn’t fit in, or whose deficiencies made them outcasts, most of the early settlers had outstanding qualities: a dis- regard for comfort, tenacity of purpose, honesty and courage. Whether they were rich or poor, man or woman, weak or Strong, in general, they were a magnificent group of people. 13 a The Commerce Lake House THE COMMERCE LAKE HOUSE It wasn’t the only building in town, but it was the one that conjures up memories of good times more than most. It was the gathering place in days gone by for all fun-loving folks in the surrounding County. Located in Commerce village on the road between Milford and Pontiac, the Commerce Lake House would attract many from both those towns. As far back as the Civil. War, the music of Tom Tremper and the Dewey brothers, Charley and Orville, would fill the old village hotel. There is no longer anyone who can recall the excitement of New Year’s Eve, 1875. But the following by an unknown ° author, recalls that evening at the Commerce Lake House: SONG OF THE FIDDLE That violin that’s laid away Back on the shelf for many a day Could it but talk it would not fail To tell a most entrancing tale Of that sweet past when it had sung For measured steps of old and young. The ‘fiddler’, he who wove the rhyme Upon it strings, has served his time On earth, and now enjoys the rest Of those who gave to life their best. So that old Fiddle’s left behind, 15 $e oe Bo Be Be Be 2 Be A silent token to remind Us of the joy there used to be _ Inrural, plain festivity. The “ballroom” with its formal ways Was quite unknown in those old days. A generous barn served just as well To hold their dance, where with sweet smell Of new-crop hay in the air would teem, While glimmering from every beam Were lanterns swinging on the hook And candles placed in every nook: Fat pumpkins lying half asleep Smiled over on a cheery heap Of bright red apples twingling in From where they filled a bursting bin The rough board floor then echoed back Each heel well placed with vig’rous crack. Such laughter of the boys and girls As ‘round they danced in dizzy whirls: Such shouts of everflowing glee All mingled in the revelry: With good cheer ringing loud anote Of happiness from ev'ry throat While far above the noisy din Rang out the fiddler’s violin. That violin: Why, it could tell Of one gay night the big snow fell: And people came from nase and cavern To have a dance at this old Tavern. T'was on New Year’s Night, in seventy-five, But few, | know, are now alive, 16 Looking west on Commerce Road. Who when, and there, in every call, Took to the floor and forsook the “wall;”’ They came in ev’ry different way From horseback to a three-seat sleigh, And laughed and danced the whole night through Until the Hoarse-voiced roosters crew For day, before the last tired load Had turned their horses down the road. The music of the jingling bells Sounded away to Barkham’s dells; Ringing to the rythmic beat Of mettled horses’ flying feet. It did not take them long to fill The wagon she; they came until The fence was gone, and by and by There scarcely was a place to tie, 17 While in around the bar-room stove Smiled brightly every frost-nipped nose. That now took on a reddened hue From the glow the ‘tamarack’ threw. All the ‘fine young bloods”’ were there With their best girls, each one deem’d fair. With Johnny McFarland two Milford girls Came radiant in lace and curls, But long before the night was through Charlie McDowell stole one of the two, While sly “Tip” Smith, just in fun, The other beauty nearly won. The Abrims girl came with one-Stout, But Tillie Porter was just about The prettiest there, unless it be The girl that came with Frank McGee. Bill Ormsbee let all know that he was there, By putting on acity air, While Allie Taylor left every room Areek with some strong new perfume. Sammy Stephens came there alone But had a girl to see safe home, Though Smithy Fields did drive away Without a partner in his sleigh. The fiddlers took their places soon With scrape and screech to get in tune. _ While the floor commenced to fill With couples for the first quadrille; And when these fiddlers of renown Began to play they beat it down Till you could hardly hear them call; “Swing your partners,” “balance all,” Grand right and left,’’ ‘‘all hands around,”’ A saint could scarce resist that sound. 18 Just the song of those few strings . Had seemed to put new life in things And how those tireless fiddlers played “The Wild Hose”’ and ‘The Little Maid,”’ “Old Gray Eagle,” sharp and clear, “Seven Mile” and “‘Forked Deer’’; And how Tom Tremper made things hum: He got his elbow joint undone On ‘Monkey Musk” and ‘‘Devil’s Dream,”’ Til that house shook from beam to beam; Thus the merry-making grew; Thus the hours so swiftly flew; While each heart was feasting there Unmindful of tomorrow’s care, Owed all the pleasure it drank in Just to a fiddler’s violin; The Violin is laid away; Back on the shelf, and | dare say, If it could talk it would not fail To tella most enchanting tale Of that lost past that still must be Sweetest of all in memory For all the pleasure that has been Due to the fiddler’s violin. \ Yi Yo Milton Parshall and Bill Fall on the porch of the Mill. Sam Kilpatrick with the team. THE COMMERCE ROLLER MILL Every town and village had a mill. A mil! for cutting lum- ber grinding flour, processing woolen goods, or for any- thing that could be milled. Every stream in Michigan offered an opportunity. Divert the stream, builda dam, create a mill pond, dig the mill race, create the power, and the wheels would turn. It was an ingenious process, and the millers of Michigan were brilliant. They could foresee great Oppor- tunities that others would pass by. And, without the mill, it’s doubtful that the farmer would have been as success- ful as he was. The local mill was similar to the local bank. ‘Often working on a percentage basis, the miller not only __ processed the farmer’s grain, he created a market for the Surplus product, whether it was raw corn, feed grain, or whole-wheat flour. | The miller was often the first settler in the area. Oakland County’s first mill was built in Pontiac by Colonel Stephen Mack in 1819. The second one was built on Paint Creek in the present city of Rochester during the same year. Both were sawmills. As the population moved west, so did the mills. It was 1832 when Elizur Ruggles built his mill in Milford. In 1837, three years after the formation of Com- merce Township, the Commerce Roller Mill was construc- ted in Commerce village on the shores of the Huron River. Joseph and Asa Farr, along with Amasa Andrews, were the builders of the grist mill. While its ruins today are com- memorated as a historic site, during its ninety years of 22 commercial activity, it served the farmers and communi- ties of Oakland County. Over the years the mill had many owners. After Andrews and Farr, there was Seymour, Crossman, and Hoover, and a variety of others. By the 1890s, one of Michigan’s most famous milling families had purchased the mill and, today, many old-timers still recall Milton Parshall as the village miller. The mill in Commerce was of the ‘‘undershot” type. Out- side the mill, the water was usually harnessed by some kind of wheel. If the water was carried to the top of the Mill wheel, it was called an ‘overshot’, if the water hit the wheel dead-center at the level of the wheel’s axis, it was known as a “breastshot”, and if the water was carried beneath the mill, it was known as the “undershot”’ kind. This was the Commerce Roller Mill. From 1918 until its closing in 1926, the mill was operated by Isaac Lutz and his son, George. But selling flour wasn’t what it used to be. More modern flouring processes and mass production techniques were winning the market away from the village miller. Naturally, many thought that anything made in a bigger mill was better, and maybe it was. But sometimes, it wasn’t any better at all. And, the loss of farmland in west Oakland County tended to further diminish the value of the Roller Mill in Commerce. As World War | ended and the Roaring Twenties captured the nation’s attention, the Mill limped into its final stage, providing whole wheat and white flour, and even shucking farmers’ corn. And, although its customers were as varied and distant as the Orchard Lake Seminary and the Clinton Valley Hospital in Pontiac, its difficulty in competing in a modern and mechanized society would 23 soon force its closing. Isaac’s failing health and George’s desire to explore new careers gave the Mill its final shove. In 1926, after 90 years of serving the village and western Oakland County, the mill closed. For 13 years the mill lay in a state of ruin and disrepair until it fell victim to fire in the early morning of September 6, 1939. The Pontiac Daily Press reported that the old Structure, ‘‘a landmark of the village for more than 100 years’’, had caught fire at 1:30 a.m. Another view of the Roller Mill. 24 ‘‘Located at the eastern edge of the village, on the right side of the Pontiac-Commerce Road, the three-story frame building had not been used for ten years. It was owned by the Leroy Pelletier estate and valued at between $10,000.00 and $15,000.00. Nothing could be done to save the structure as the fire spread rapidly through the old dry timbers. Walled Lake fire department was called and closed the highway as a precaution in case the walls fell outward. Sparks were scattered over a part of the village but because of the recent heavy rains, started no fires. The nearest buildings were about 250 feet away. The first mill was built in 1837, and replaced by the structure which burned this morning in 1843.”’ Throughout the 1940s and ’50s the site of the mill and its ruins reverted to a more natural state. Overgrown with shrubbery and trees, the area developed into an unofficial nature trail that local residents enjoyed. Perhaps many wondered why there was such a huge dried-up ditch with large chunks of cement and steel jutting out of it. But it offered an unusual view of the Huron River as the shores of the river became overgrown and took on a wild appear- ance. | In 1980, Commerce Township purchased the mill prop- erty from the Boron Oil Company and is preserving it as a passive recreational park for Township residents. In 1983, the Michigan Youth Corps built two log bridges across the river to provide better access through the park. On April 5, 1984, the Michigan Historical Commission designated the site as historic and, on September 22, 1984, with the erection of a two-posted historic marker, the State of Michigan formally dedicated the ruins of the Commerce Roller-Mill. 25 The marker reads: THE COMMERCE ROLLER MILL The Commerce Roller Mill, built in 1837 by Amasa Andrews and Joseph and Asa Farr, harnessed the water power of the Huron River. It served the farm communities of western Oakland County for ninety years, closing in 1927. The mill’s owners included Milton Parshall (circa 1900) and Isaac Lutz (circa 1920). With its undershot water wheel, the Commerce mill was the center of commercial activity in the township throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The mill processed flour and ground feed for farmers’ livestock. It was destroyed by fire in 1939. Only the excavations for the mill race, the mill flume and the stone foundations of the mill build- ings remain. The site was developed as an interpretive historic area in 1984. Michigan History Division, Department of State Registered Local Site No. 1155. Property of the State of Michigan 1984 ee Looking back at the more than forty years since the Commerce Roller Mill burned to the ground, only the most wishful thinking can conjure up thoughts of it being rebuilt. But there is a comfort in knowing that the ruins of the mill are preserved as a historic site; and a further comfort in knowing that through this preservation the lives and actions of early Commerce Township will be commem- orated through the years. D , 5 Ta “ a @ er ek eh beta ee Ay i) as | CS, ° ie: . . ‘4 ie m 0 ~ i ) q 0 ) (5 : SR s Boke CS Ar 7 ” [oes aan Pata els Bae RTOS a . ee eee vege Ne. Gs GH |). Re ROK Oh Pc. SON tet Rll | LHD, OY SEPA) BBS: . ae em SEL TT oa . pa! ary ae. Q ‘ aa : 4 Prt) an Ran arse i a) | Reet eae Pip | Beet he xd +1 & ef ore yp . CARE TL RC FEO Gj Te. a im) f Ca eee J nar os Alo. © Pear PEI FO ( ES pet ene f I he soe i “ys ’ .. SATE TH Fry ase ran ay 9 A 4 p aT CL k Pade raa tay PURSES LAC OF Ch as) ef ‘ 2 Foe OA et CES ASE Cs Pe Se i : — AGLI R TIED " 4 TTA re ~ ‘ OR GL re a ) ie a : Cosco ee eetere een Mill Site 27 THE NEW CASINO PAVILION WALLED LAKE, MICH Dancing Every Night Except Monday Hear the BOATING _ Famous f _ BATHING - f ri \ . BROADWAY " LUNCHES COLLEGIANS | and ORCHESTRA 3 REFRESHMENTS L. For Reservations Phone Walled Lake 56 | Louis P.. Tolettene, Proprietor 28 Walled Lake’s main street in the 1920s. | WALEED LAKE Scale eo Rads tothe ents ltt XVI 4 OF} Madusul “aSly veel “" $ W ; i Id Map ee S65 Mil ee 30 Union Elementary School (circa 1920) In front of the Commerce School about 1910. From left to right (rear): Earl Knapp, Christina McCallum, Gladys Knapp. Front: Lee Knapp, Leon Knapp, Willis Fields, Lucille Malcom (Fields), Pauline McCallum (Skarritt), Verna Smith. now known as the Commerce Annex. The Commerce School 33 . ~ SS Cn SS Z] S Uy a ae as Le ey 2 i A A i k ee The 19th century Leggett Estate, known as the Field Home today. 34 The Presbyterian Church about 1910. Rev. Harry Garrett standing. The Masonic Hall. Note Commerce School in the background. 36 Interior of Frank McCormick’s Grocery Store and Restaurant about 1926. Bessie McCormick on the left, and Pauline McCallum Skarritt on the right. THE TOWNSHIP TODAY As an efficient and stable method of land division, the Grayson Land Ordinance of 1785 and the resulting T2N, R8E designation for Commerce Township was a brilliant idea; difficult to improve upon. But, generally Speaking, a township is a political and geographical unit that is dif- ficult to identify. Its boundaries are seldom known by its residents, and its land is often victim to the development of new and more powerful cities. In Commerce Township, the confusion is increased by multiple school systems, postal zip codes, and public services such as police and fire protection. The cities of Walled Lake and Wixom have separated from the original township of 36 square miles leaving Commerce Township with 28.3 square miles anda population of 24,000. : The village of Wolverine Lake is legally a part of Com- merce Township although it supports a village govern- ment. Its residents also remain township residents, paying township taxes, voting in township elections, and receiving township services. A government within a government, and very confusing to most observers. 38 In the northeast corner of the township, an unincorp- orated village of Union Lake is taking on the appearance of a full scale city. The result of four townships that had created a 19th century marketplace, the village is carved out of Commerce, White Lake, Waterford, and West Bloomfield Townships. Its boundaries are fuzzy and largely unknown by most residents. Most are unaware that they are bisecting four townships as they drive through the village. This condition further confuses the boundaries of Commerce. As the boundaries and the history of Commerce begin to fade, it could be argued that such a change is inevitable. If there is an indelible mark to look for, perhaps it could be found in the ethics and values that the early settlers left us. Perhaps that is enough. 39 | Edgewater Beach Park New Bath House ATHING REFRESHMENTS OATING AND LUNCHES GAS | OIL TIRES - Bachelor Brothers, Proprs EAST LAKE ORIVE WALLED R.1i4 MILE ROAD LAKE a 40 Published through the courtesy of the Walled Lake City Library ALTON SALE The subscriber will offer for sale on the Henry Tichals’ Farm, two miles west of the Village of Commerce, on. Friday, Pebruary 25th, 1001, at 12 oslo i the following described™ property: — 1 Pair work Horses 1 New pair Bob Sleigh, 1 Gelding four years old 1 Cutter 1 Mare three “= « 1 Top pheaton Buggy 1 New double Harness 1 Platform Wagon 1 Double Harness almost new 1 Single top Buggy 1 Single Harness i 23 Sheep ~“YGale Plow 1 Grass Hopper = See tr 1 Combined Johnston Reaper and Mower TERMS OF SALE—All sums of $5 and under cash, al over $5 uine months credit with approved endorsed notes at- 8 per cent, a CHARLES HENDERSON. as ae eee ee ee ie yeas Me oe e Ce i Se ges ee rk ey ge ee ra