Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 17 Number 11
Section 33 is located on Waterford Township’s southern border with West Bloomfield Township. The northeastern corner touches the shores of Elizabeth Lake and the Clinton River meanders from the northwestern corner diagonally across the section to the southeastern corner. Cooley Lake Road angles northward to it’s intersection with Cass Elizabeth Road, near Elizabeth Lake. The section is mostly residential with small businesses along Cooley Lake and Cass Elizabeth Roads.
Much of Section 33 is owned by only three families. The Hoxie family, Charles England, and Almeron Whitehead are the largest land owners. A small 20 acre plot in the northwestern corner of the section is owned by David Leland who was reported on in Section 28. Amassa Chapman has an 80 acre farm, located on the south shore of Elizabeth Lake, at the intersection of Cooley Lake and Cass Elizabeth Roads. Amassa was included in the report on his son, Joseph W. Chapman, Section 20.
Almeron Weller Whitehead
Mary Ann Mais
The census taker who recorded the Waterford Township 1870 census was Almeron Whitehead. The very first family to start off the 1870 Waterford Township census was the family of Almeron Whitehead. Where else would a census taker start but with his own family! The household consisted of Almeron Whitehead, age 60, born in New York; Ann, age 59, born in New York; Anna, age 23, Charles, age 21, and Almeron Jr., age 18, all born in Michigan. The property of Almeron Whitehead makes up most of the eastern side of Section 33, plus part of Section 34. This includes much of the south shore of Elizabeth Lake and part of Gerundegut Bay, an extension of Cass Lake.
Almeron Weller Whitehead was born 20 September 1808, in Newburg, Orange County, New York. (1) Online research for the parents of Almeron led to two different family trees. All agree that his father was Ward Whitehead, they disagree about Almeron’s mother. Some say she was Elizabeth Weller. Others claim Elizabeth Tice. In Almeron’s obituary it says his step-father was Richard Hunt. (1) Richard Hunt married Mrs. Elizabeth Whitehead, 14 September 1822, in Greenwich, New York. (3) The church records of the Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Orange County, New York, has the marriage of Elizabeth Tice to Ward Whitehead, 4 January 1798. (4) No online records were found to show a marriage of Ward Whitehead to Elizabeth Weller.
On 25 December 1833, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Bronx, New York, Almeron Whitehead married Mary Ann Mais. (1)(2) The Whitehead family moved to Waterford Township sometime before April 1838. Almeron is purchasing his Section 33 land in a deed dated 28 April 1838. He is recorded as ”Almeron Whitehead of West Chester in the County of West Chester and State of New York”. Almeron died 15 October 1883 at the Birmingham, Michigan home of his daughter, Isabel Bigelow. (1) He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan. (1)(6)
Mary Ann Mais was born about 1811 in New York City.(10) Her Find A Grave entry has an exact birth date of 16 October 1810, in New York City.(6) No online source could be found to back up the date. Mary Ann was the daughter of Rev. Charles Mais and Mary Philips of New York, New York. (8)(9) She would move to Michigan with her husband and spend the rest of her days in Waterford Township. Mary Ann died 24 September 1873 in Waterford Township and she is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan. (6)(8)
The 1850 and 1860 censuses report a Mary Mais is residing in the household of Almeron Whitehead. (11)(12) This is Mary Ann’s mother, Mary (Philips) Mais. Mary Philips married Charles Mais, jun., 14 August 1807, in New York City. (9) The unconfirmed story is that Charles Mais was born on the island of Jamaica, the son of Charles Mais and Ann Ivey, and later became a Baptist minister. (13) Charles Mais died about September 1832, New York City, of cholera, while taking care of others ill with the disease. (14) His wife, Mary, died 5 July 1862, in Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan at the home of her daughter, Mary Ann Whitehead. (15)
Sources
- Obituary, Almeron Whitehead Sr., Pontiac Gazette, Pontiac, Michigan, Friday,
26 October 1883, page 8, Digital Michigan Newspapers, Clarke Historical Library,
Central Michigan University,
www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/Pages/Michigan-Digital-Newspapers-Portal.aspx - New York, Episcopal Diocese of New York Church Records, 1767-1910, Bronx, St. Peter’s
1866-1887, Marriages, page 130, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Marriage Announcement, The Evening Post, New York, New York, Tuesday,
17 September 1822, page 2, GenealogyBank, www.genealogybank.com - Records of the Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Thompson Ridge, New York, page 124,
Image 125, #0017979, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - Oakland County, Michigan, Deed Records, Volumes 14-15, 1837-1838; Volume 15,
pages 4480449, Image 563, #0975566, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- 1870 Census, page 587, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan
- Oakland County, Michigan, Record of Deaths, Volumes 1-2, 1867-1902; Volume 1,
1867-1886, page 79, Image 129, #0973983, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - Marriage Announcement, The New York Spy, New York, New York, Tuesday,
18 August 1807, page 3, GenealogyBank, www.genealogybank.com - Biographical Record, Oakland County, Michigan, Biographical Publishing Company,
Chicago, IL, 1903, pages 46-48. Hathitrust Digital Library, www.hathitrust.org - 1850 Census, page 115, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan
- 1860 Census, pages 836-837, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan
- Bethel Baptist Churchyard and Burial Vaults, Manhattan, New York City, New York,
Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com - Obituary, The Spectator, New York, New York, Thursday, 20 September 1832, page 2,
GenealogyBank, www.genealogybank.com - Obituary, The New York Times, New York, New York, Thursday, 17 July 1862, page 5,
Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com