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First Settlers - First Birth and Death

About the 1st of February, 1824, a party of pioneers, consisting of Arthur Power (a Quaker), his sons John and Jared Power, with David Smith and Daniel Rush, men working in Arthur's employ, all of Ontario county, New York, set out from Mr. Power's home in Farmington, five miles west of Canandaigua, in that county, with the purpose of making a settlement in Michigan, on lands which he had entered the year before, in surveyed township 1 north of range 9 east, in the county of Oakland.

Their conveyance was a sleigh, drawn by a pair of good horses, and they headed their team westward with light hearts and no lack of courage. Crossing the Niagara river, they laid their course through Upper Canada, and, meeting with no adventures more exciting than such as arise from extremely bad roads and worse lodgings and fare, with the occasional howl of wolf or scream of panther, to break the monotony of the route, they arrived at Windsor, opposite Detroit, on the 15th of February.

After the usual delay in Detroit for the purchase of supplies and the transaction of other necessary business, they traveled by the Saginaw road to Royal Oak, and thence to Hamilton's (now Birmingham), from whence they proceeded by the settlements of Jenks, Sly, Durkee, and Baker to their place of destination, the which they reached late in the afternoon, when the sun was within an hour of his setting. Not much time was lost in preliminaries; they saw the foe before them, - the great forest-trees, which the pioneer universally recognises as his enemy, - and they moved to the assult unhesitatingly. Two of the party seized their axes, and, selecting one of the largest trees, attacked it on both sides at once. The old woods rung and echoed to the strange music of the axes, whose strokes fell with rapid and regular beat until, before the sun had set, the old giant, which had stood there unharmed for a century, trembled, swayed, and fell crashing to the ground. This was the first tree felled in preparation for white settlement in the township of Farmington; the day was the 8th of March, 1824, and those pioneer choppers were John Power, who four years later was laid to his rest in the old cemetery, and David Smith, who, at the age of eighty years, is still living, a mile and half from the spot where his axe first tried the quality of Michigan timber more than half a century ago.

The spot where they commenced their clearing is now included in the farm of Charles Chamberlin; not where his dwelling stands, but a short distance father east, by the bank of a small run. Mr. Power had purchased this one hundred and sixty acres for his son Nathan. He had also purchased, or promised to purchase, a quarter section for each of his other sons, - John, Ira, Samuel, Abraham L., and William, - and a tract of eighty acres for each of his daughters. He had, however, promised his eldest daughter, Mary (now Mrs. Stewart, and living at Hannibal, Missouri), who was the female head of his household (he being then a widower), that he would purchase for her an additional eighty, in consideration of her remaining at home to superintend the diary and other feminine departments; and to Nathan, who had also consented to remain and conduct the operations of the farm during his absence, he had promised that his first clearing and improvements in Michigan should be made on his (Nathan's) tract, the northeast quarter of section 22. In pursuance of this promise the clearing was commenced there, and the work was pushed so energetically that a good log house was finished, and nine acres of wheat and six acres of corn were put in, that season.

Other immigrants came very soon after the advent of the Power company. Seven weeks after their arrival came George W. Collins, who brought with him his wife, the first white woman who entered the township. Mrs. Collins remained at Mr. Power's clearing for several weeks, and attended to the cooking and other affairs of the house, while her husband was making a start upon his own land, and preparing a log house for their occupancy. They settled in the southwest corner of section 28, upon land now the property of B. B. Mosher. Mr. Joshua Simmons distinctly recollects an excellent breakfast (his first meal in Farmington) which he ate at their house in October, 1826, when on his way to settle on his land in Livonia. During the year 1824, there also arrived Solomon Walker, who settled in the northeast corner of section 30; Samuel Mansfield, on the northwest quarter of section 27, on the stream near where Shackleton's mill now is; George Tibbets, on the town line, in section 13; Orrin Garfield, - now living in Holly, - Sanford M. Utley and his sons, George and Peleg S. Utley, who came in July, and settled on the southwest quarter of section 12; and Robert Wixom, Sr., who came from Hector, Seneca county, New York, and settled on the southwest corner of section 15, the central point of the township. He had four daughters and five sons, - Ahijah, Benjamin P., Isaac, Robert, and Civilian, - three of whom were already grown to man's estate; Benjamin P. Wixom settled a mile northeast from his father, on the northwest quarter of the same section.

It was scarcely more than half a year after the first settlers came before death sounded his dread summons in their midst. His first victim was Mrs. Sanford M. Utley, who died in two months after her arrival, from the effects of a fall from their wagon, just as they first came in sight of the spot which was to be their home. It was a singular circumstance that the day on which her remains were committed to the earth was also the birthday of John Collins, the first white child born in the twonship. Both he and his mother, Mrs. George Collins, are now residents of Farmington village.