Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 15 Number 10
Today Section 28 is mostly residential with a handful of small businesses along the northern boundary on Elizabeth Lake Road. Most of the eastern portion of the section is occupied by part of Crescent Lake and the western end of Elizabeth Lake. There are many homes on the shores of both lakes. The Clinton River meanders along the western side of Section 28 on its way to Pontiac. On the 1872 plat map of Section 28 there were only five land owners and one, H.W. Lord, was an absentee owner. Henry W. Lord was a resident of West Bloomfield Township. He also owned land in Section 19 and was reported in that section’s biographies.
Josiah C. Gaylord
Matilda A. Seeley
The 1870 census, page 590, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan lists Josiah C. Gaylord, age 52, born in New York; wife Matilda, age 53, born in New York; Ella, age 22, Carrie, age 17, both born in Michigan; and Amos Gaylord, age 82, born in Connecticut. On the 1872 plat map of Waterford Township, the property of J.C. Gaylord is found in the southern part of Section 28, where Cooley Lake Road runs along the shores of
Elizabeth Lake.
Josiah C. Gaylord was the son of Amos and Sarah (Chapman) Gaylord, (1) born 20 July 1817, in Yates County, New York, and died 20 March 1897, in Pontiac, Michigan. (1)(2) He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan. (2) Josiah married Matilda Seeley,(3) but no marriage date has been found, and it is very probable that the marriage took place in New York. J.C. and Matilda Gaylord are found in the 1850 census on page 117, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan. (4) Their oldest child, Sarah, is four years old and born in Michigan, so the Gaylord’s had arrived in Michigan about 1846. (4)
The Amos Gaylord who is reported with Josiah in the 1870 census is his father.(1) Amos is reported in the 1860 census, with William P. Gaylord, page 495, Town of Torrey, Yates County, New York. He is not with William P. Gaylord in the 1865 New York State Census, so Amos may have moved to Waterford Township between 1860-1865. Amos Gaylord was born 11 August 1787, in Hartford County, Connecticut, the son of John Gaylord and Charlotte Hitchcock. (5) Amos married Sarah Chapman, born 24 June 1795 and died in 1859, Yates County, New York. (6) After his death on 8 November 1872, in Waterford Township, Amos Gaylord’s remains were shipped to Yates County, New York, where he is buried with his wife in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Torrey, New York. (6)(7)(8) Amos’ father, John Gaylord, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, serving from Connecticut. (5) The Gaylord family can be traced back to William Gaylord who settled first in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1630 and then moved to Windsor, Connecticut in 1638. (9)(10)
Matilda A. Seeley was born 17 February 1817, in Ovid, Seneca County, New York. (2)(11) She died 7 May
1893, in Pontiac, Michigan and is buried with her husband in Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac. (2)(3) Matilda was the daughter of William Pease Seeley and Sarah Harger (11) William P. Seeley was a son of John Seeley and Eleanor Pease of Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York and Ovid, Seneca County, New York. (12)(13) John Seeley served during the Revolutionary War from New York. (13)
Sources
- Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950; Registers, 1867-1897, Kent-Wexford,
1891-1898, Oakland County, page 23, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- Oakland County, Michigan, Record of Deaths, Volumes 1-2, 1867-1902,
FHL #0973983; Volume 2, 1887-1897, page 128, FamilySearch,
www.familysearch.org - 1850 Census, page 117, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan
- Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files;
John and Charlotte Gaylord, W17005, Fold3, www.fold3.com - Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Torrey, Yates County, New York, Find A Grave,
www.findagrave.com - Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950; Registers, 1867-1897, Washtenaw –
Schoolcraft, 1870-1873, Oakland County, page 4, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Wednesday, 13 November 1872, page 3, Digital
Michigan Newspapers, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University,
www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/Pages/Michigan-Digital-Newspaper-Portal.aspx - The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633,
Volume II, G-O, Robert Charles Anderson, New England Historic Genealogical
Society, Boston, MA, 1995, page 739, AmericanAncestors,
www.americanancestors.org - New Haven CT: Families of Ancient New Haven, Volume 3, Donald Lines Jacobus,
1923-1932, pages 636-637, AmericanAncestors, www.americanancestors.org - Seeley Genealogical Society Newsletter, May 2008, “How I Research Queries for the
Seeley Genealogical Society”, by Linda Crocker, pages 4,5, and 8,
www.seeley-society.net - John Seeley Will, Seneca, New York,
http://files.usgwarchives.net/ny/Seneca/wills/va/seeley-john.txt - The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, GRS,
John Seeley, Ancestor #A101537, www.dar.org