The Country Store Records of
Thomas R. Lathers
Perrinsville Country Store
Sometime in 1832, the brothers, Abraham and Isaac Perrin, formerly of Monroe County, New York, bought land in Sections 2 and 3 of Nankin Township. (now a portion of Garden City, Michigan) They built a dam and sawmill on the Middle Rouge, one block east of current day Merriman Road. A cabinet shop, wagon works, a blacksmiths, a store, post office, and sundry houses followed. This became the beginning of a small community they called, Perrinsville.

Two years later, in 1834, John and William Lathers of County Cavan, Ireland, settled near the corner of Ford Road and Inkster Road, both then only small paths in a dense forest. The Lathers brothers, along with other County Cavan people, established an Irish Settlement, "East Nankin."
John Lathers married Lillian A. Stuart and had eleven children; four were still living in the area in 1937:
Thomas R. Lathers and his wife, Ellen O'Brien,
Robert J. Lathers and his wife, Julia Everett,
Anna Lathers and her husband, Lucius Straight,
and William Lathers and his wife, Eliza Harper.

Between the years 1866 and 1870, son, Thomas R. Lathers, kept a country store in "Perrinsville". Entered into his account books are about 180 names many directly related to pioneer farm families of Nankin and Livonia.

\ a copy of this account book (dates 1866 - 1870) is held at the Detroit Public Library-Burton Historical Collection, Michigan Pioneer Collection Vol 14, and Garden City Historical Society Museum.