Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 14 Number 4
Section 20 of Waterford Township is mostly residential. The northern edge of the section is on Highland Road, aka M-59, and is now commercial property. The western side of the section is on Hospital Road, to the east is Airport Road. The southern boundary is Elizabeth Lake Road. Pontiac Lake Road takes the traveler through the middle of the section going east and west. Waterford Center Cemetery, where many of Section 20’s residents are resting, is located on Pontiac Lake Road just a little to the west of the road’s intersection with Airport Road.
At this same intersection, the 1872 plat map of Waterford Township shows School No. 4. The school property is still on the northwest corner of Pontiac Lake and Airport Roads. The building is from the 20th century and no longer a school. It is now owned by a church. In the northeast corner of Section 20, the 1872 plat map shows eighty acres owned by D.W. Plumb. The plat map does not have the little black square that marks the residential area of the property, so possibly there was no family living on this property. D.W. Plumb is a mystery. He might be connected to the Carlos B. Plumb who owned property in Sections 16 and 17. But, so far, D.W. Plumb remains unknown.
Benedict Ketchum Carpenter
Sarah Ann Rodenbaugh
The 1872 plat map of Waterford Township shows a B.K. Carpenter, owner of 160 acres of land in the southwest corner of Section 20. The land is bordered on the west by Hospital Road and on the south by Elizabeth Lake Road. The 1870 census reports, on page 594, that B.K. Carpenter is age 60, and from New Jersey; wife Sarah, age 45, is also from New Jersey. There are children, William B, age 20; John D, age 17; Carrie, age 11, and Charles, age 7, all born in Michigan. Residing with the family is Ellen Beebe, age 13, domestic servant. Cemetery records revealed that B.K. Carpenter was Benedict Ketchum Carpenter. (1)
Benedict K. Carpenter was born 17 April 1810, in New York, the son of Daniel Powell and Anna (Ketchum) Carpenter (1)(2)(3) He acquired his land in Waterford Township, Section 20, by a land patent dated 10 April 1837. (4) On the patent certificate he is Benedict K. Carpenter of Monroe County, New York. Benedict acquired a second parcel of land in November of 1837. (5) This time the land was located in Oakland Township, which is where his father, Daniel P. Carpenter resided in the 1850 census. (6) B.K. Carpenter married Sarah A. Rodenbough, 23 December 1847, in Oakland County. (7) Sarah was the daughter of John Rodenbough and his first wife, Hannah Swayze, born 24 October 1825, in New Jersey. (8) Benedict died 16 January 1889, in Waterford Township. (1)(3) Sarah died 30 January 1909, in Pontiac, Michigan. (8) Both are buried in the Waterford Center Cemetery, Waterford Township. (1)
Daniel Powell Carpenter, father of Benedict, appears in the 1840 census, page 160, Orion Township, Oakland County. His wife was Anna/Annie Ketchum, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Rathbun) Ketchum. (10) Benjamin Ketchum was a Revolutionary War veteran, serving from New York. (9) Daniel P. and Anna Carpenter are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Lake Orion, Michigan. The picture of their joint headstone shows that it is a new replacement, not the original. The new headstone just has the years, Daniel P. Carpenter, 1781-1852 and Anna Carpenter, 1786-1848. (10)
In the Oakland County history, Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan, 1891, page 468, the biography of William E. Carpenter, son of Benedict and Sarah, says that his mother’s maiden name was Sarah A. Rodenbo. (11) On Sarah’s death certificate it says her father was John Rowenbough. (8) John
Rodenbough was born 11 February 1790, in New Jersey. (12)(13) He married first, Hannah Swayze, 10 February 1816, in Sussex County, New Jersey. (14) John Rodenbough acquired land in Oakland Township, Oakland County on 20 April 1838. (15) He married as his second wife, Catharine (Swayze) Simpson, 27 March 1842, Oakland County, Michigan. (7) Catharine was a sister of John’s first wife, Hannah. John Rodenbough died 3 November 1861 and Catharine died 24 June 1877, both in Oakland County. (12) They are buried in the Paint Creek Cemetery, Lake Orion, Michigan. (12)
Sources
- Waterford Center Cemetery, Waterford, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- 1870 Census, page 594, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Oakland County, Michigan, Death Records, page 11, Michigan, Death Records,
1867-1950, Registers, 1867-1897, 29: Kent-Washtenaw, 1887-1890,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Land Patent #14843, Benedict K. Carpenter; Bureau of Land Management, General
Land Office Records, www.glorecords.blm.gov - Land Patent #27306, Benedict K. Carpenter; Bureau of Land Management, General
Land Office Records, www.glorecords.blm.gov - 1850 Census, page 138, Oakland Township, Oakland County, Michigan,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Michigan, County Marriages, 1822-1940, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com
- Death Certificate, Sarah A. Carpenter; Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950,
Certificates, 1921-1941, indexed as Mrs. Sarrah A. Carpenter, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - Benjamin Ketchum, Ancestor #A065218, GRS Ancestor Search, Daughters of the
American Revolution, www.dar.org - Evergreen Cemetery, Lake Orion, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- Portrait and Biographical Record of Oakland County, Michigan, Chapman Bros.,
Chicago, 1891, Hathitrust Digital Library, www.hathitrust.org - Paint Creek Cemetery, Lake Orion, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- 1850 Census, page 151, Oakland Township, Oakland County, Michigan, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com
- Land Patent #16170, John Rodenbough, Bureau of L