Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 15 Number 3
The center of Waterford Township is the intersection of Highland Road (M-59) and Crescent Lake Road. Section 21 is the southwest corner of this intersection. The business corridor, along Highland Road, is the northern boundary of the section. South of that lies the residential part of Section 21, with Elizabeth Lake Road marking the southern boundary of the section. Running through the center of the section is Pontiac Lake Road, which is where the 1872 plat map shows most of the residences were located. The Clinton River runs diagonally across the township on its way to Pontiac.
Matching residents’ names on the 1872 plat map to names in the 1870 census was a little difficult in Section 21. Sometimes, as in the case of J. Utley, the name appears on the plat map, but cannot be found in the 1870
census, or in any census. J. Utley is still unknown. Also unknown is the F. Sutton, found in the southeast corner of the section, with 49 acres along Elizabeth Lake Road and the intersection of Crescent Lake Road. No F. Sutton was found in the 1870 census or agricultural census.
Morgan R. Wormer
Henrietta Emerson
The Wormer family is found in the 1870 census, on page 593, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan. Head of the family is Morgan Wormer, age 42, born in New York; his wife Henrietta, age 41, born in New York, daughter Ida, age 15, born in New York; and son Edwin, age 4, born in Michigan. Residing with the family are Henrietta’s parents, (2) Henry Emerson, age 66, born in Vermont and Marietta Emerson, age 65, born in New York. The eighty acre farm of M.R. Wormer was located in the southwestern corner of Section 21, with Pontiac Lake Road on the north side, Elizabeth Lake Road on the south, and Airport Road on the west.
Morgan R. Wormer, or possibly Van Wormer, was born about 1827, in New York. (1) His parents are unknown. Morgan married, 11 June 1851, Henrietta Emerson. (2) He died 24 October 1889 in Walker County, Georgia. (2) Henrietta Emerson was the daughter of Henry Emerson and Marietta Webster, born 30 January 1829, Rodman, Jefferson County, New York (2) and died in 1904. (3)
The Wormer’s lived a nomadic life and are found in Waterford Township only in the 1870 census. In the 1860
census, Morgan and Henrietta Wormer are residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (1) Morgan’s occupation is given as “steward on steam boat”. Ancestry’s IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918, records Morgan R. Wormer, 1866, living in Holly, Michigan. This time Morgan’s occupation is “Keeper of Eating House, Retail Liquor Dealer”. (4) Does this mean he was a saloon keeper?! In the 1880 census, Morgan and Henrietta Wormer are residents of Walker County, Georgia, just a little south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. (5) The widow Henrietta Wormer is found in a 1894 Chattanooga City Directory (6) and in 1898 she is in a Seattle, Washington City Directory. (7) The 1900 census finds Henrietta Wormer living in Los Angeles, California. (8)
Henrietta (Emerson) Wormer and her father, Henry, are descendants of Thomas Emerson, an early settler of Ipswich, Massachusetts. (2) Joseph Emerson, son of Thomas, and Henrietta’s ancestor, married Elizabeth Bulkeley. Elizabeth Bulkeley was the daughter of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, first minister of Concord, Massachusetts, and a Gateway Ancestor with family ties to kings of England. (9)
Sources:
- 1860 Census, page 30, 4th Ward, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
- The Ipswich Emersons, A.D. 1636-1900, Benjamin Kendall Emerson, David Clapp
& Son, Boston, 1900, page 377, Internet Archive, www.archive.org - Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Book, Volume 104, 1913,
page 147, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918, Michigan, Division No. 2, District 5,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - 1880, page 310C, 1257th Dry Valley District, Walker County Georgia
- Chattanooga, Tennessee City Directory, 1894, page 584, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - Seattle, Washington City Directory, 1898, page 1053, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com
- 1900 Census, page 86B, Precinct 23, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles County,
California - Plantagenet Ancestry, Douglas Richardson, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc,
Baltimore, Maryland, 2004, page 165