Garden City, Wayne County, Michigan



Garden City began its official existence on June 1, 1927, when the sparsely inhabited subdivisions, and some farm land, were incorporated into a Village, with a population of about 900. However, the account of its people and events goes back to the 1800's, and since events in this town have always been intimately connected with Detroit, it is necessary to consider Detroit's history along with Garden City.

General Anthony Wayne, who arrived late in 1796, was much impressed with Detroit, which at that time, only had a population of some 500 inhabitants. He was astonished with the ships and vessels that sailed the Detroit River, in an area he considered still wilderness.

There were only four streets running east and west, in Detroit the largest being St. Anne's (now Jefferson Avenue), with a width of twenty feet. Stockades surrounded the town and beyound them, lay the long and narrow ribbon farms of the French inhabitants. Beyound the farms lay the forest and the swamps, traveled only by trappers and Native Americans, some of whom, certainly wandered through what is now Garden City, but since they left no written records, there is only speculation on their experiences.

There are sketchy records of the Native American's of southeastern Michigan, their lives dominated by the great forest, the streams and lakes. The Huron, Ottawa, Sauks, and Potawatomi were among the numerous tribes that at one time or another made home of what is now Wayne County. The Potawatomis, or a remnant of them were known to inhabit the banks of the Middle Rouge River when the first white men arrived here. They had a large settlement at Detroit, as far back as 1707, when the French wrote about them in their coorespondances. To view details of the Detroit Area Native American's, please click here.

General Wayne came to establish order in the Territory. Congress, recognizing the necessity of establishing settlements in the wilderness, passed the Harrison Act four years later, in 1800. Under the provisions of this Act, anyone could buy up to a half a section, 320 acres, for $2.00 an acre, on a time payment plan. In 1820, this was changed to $1.25 per acre cash, and no deferred payments.

In spite of the low price, few people came during the first twenty years. Southeastern Michigan had the reputation of being unhealthy and worthless for farming, and further, there was an almost total lack of highways. The road leading south from Detroit to Toldo and points east was described as a mere bridle path, by a writer of the time. Not more than two people per square mile lived in the area flanking Lake Erie.

Even after the close of the War of 1812, when 2 million acres of United States land were set aside for veterans who could, perhaps, be induced to come, the U.S. surveyor general, Edward Tiffin, reported, Taking the country altogether, together with information concerning the balance, it is so bad there would not be one acre in a hundred, if there should be one in a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultivation. Along those same lines, Major Daniel Baker, who had been forced to abandon a fort at Saginaw, becasue of the prevalence of malaria among his troops, reported, Only Indians, muskrats, and bullfrogs can live in Michigan.

In spite of these condemning and condescending remarks, certain events were soon to bring a great change and infect Easterners with Michigan fever. The only cure for those succumbing to the sickness was for them to pack their bags and baggage and visit that wonderland which, lay beyond.

Local farmers were the first to prove the rich soil could produce remarkable crops. In 1821, a pumpkin six foot eight inches in circumference was grown. Watermelons of forty pounds were common. Indian corn, growing so luxuriantly that the first eaar was eight foot from the ground, as well as a pear 7 and half inches round, weighing 30 ounces. These items, and many others, began to be the talk back East.

In addition, there was the invention of the steam boat and the opening of the Erie Canal. Walk-in-the-Water, was recorded as carrying 29 passengers in 1818 from Buffalo to Detroit. Buy by 1825, when the canal was opned, business had improved so much that the Niles Register reported 300 passengers every week, chiefly to Ohio and Michigan.

Garden City's Pioneers

One of these vessels, carried the first family to own land in what is now Garden City. These were the Swifts, form Palmyra, New York, who were destine to write history in Nankin Township with many land deeds, and many adventures.

The Swifts came originally from England, and settled in Connecticut. William Swift was registered in 1634 in that state. After the Revoluntionary War, General John Swift, moved to western New York and founded a village known as Swift's Town. Soon after, at the suggestion of a relative who had been reading ancient history, the village was renamed Palmyra, after a biblical city said to have been founded by Solomon.

In early 1825, news of Michigan reached Palmyra, and Marcus Swift, son of the general, was possessed to see for himself and take along a companion. Marcus Swift, now 32 years old, was the head of a large family. The journey to Michigan had been described by Melvin Osband a nephew of Swift

In the spring of 1825, Marcus Swift and Luther Reeves started from their homes to the wilds of Michigan with the design of securing for their own use so much of any desirable portion of said wilds that would make for them satisfactory homes. They traveled by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, when they took passage in a steam boat for Detroit.

They landed in Detroit about the first of May and proceeded westward as they followed the river Rouge to its confulence with its three principal branches near the present village of Dearborn. Taking the west branch, still going westward, they penetrated the forest with the aid of an Indian trail, into the present township of Nankin.

Thinking this about as near to paradise as any locality they were likely to find, they each located 160 acres of land and retraced their steps to Detroit, where, on the 10th of May, they bought their land of the government... They then returned to their homes, intending to come back with their families in the autumn.

During Augus, Revves sold his Michigan land to my father, William Osband, who was Mrs. Swift's brother. The necessary preparations having beenmade, the two families shipped aboard a boat on the Erie canal which passed by Palmyra, on Saturday, October 1, 1825.

The family going west nowadays knows little of the sesations experienced then by the emigrant as he started on his journey to Michigan. Michigan was not only thought to be, but actually was, beyond the bounds of civilization. It was the Indian's hunting ground, but except for weak or fragmentary tribes, it never consituted their domicile. It lay midway between the Sioux on the west and the Iroquois on the east. There were the tryants and scourges of the continent. No trible making any pretense of power or rivalry would be tolerated by either for a single year.

Beyond a narrow strip ten miles wide, bordering the lakes and rivers forming its eastern boundary, civilization did not exist. Under these circumstances, what wonder that the parting scene resembled friends standing over the open grave of their loved ones.

The last farwell said, the Swift and Osband families, numbering 12 people in all, boarded a barge-like canal boat and headed for Buffalo, its northern terminus. Compared to those emigrants crossing the mountains by wagons and over primitive roads, the canal travelers had an easy if slow journey. The two mules or horses that pulled the boat, at the end of a 200 foot rope, seldom went over 2 miles an hour. But since there were frequent relays and the boat went both day and night, as much as 50 miles or more could be covered in a day.

Canal travel was by no means in the grand and formal style. The large, below-deck cabin was divided by a curtain, one side being for men and the other forming a women's dormitory. Passengers prepared their own meals, usually on deck. It was also possible, at the fequent stoppingplaces, to obtain vegetables from farmers who came to the stops with their wares especially for that purpose.

The canal boats held twenty or thirty people, plus all their worldly possessions, which would include farm tools and kitchen untensils. And so, with the vessel deeply laden and the pace slow, the passengers had little to do but strike up acquaintances and watch the passing scenery or hope for some small excitement at the next little town ahead.

At Buffalo, the Swifts and the Osbands boarded the steamer Pioneer, a vessel of 100 tons, under the command of Captain Miles, and headed westward across Lake Erie. Early one unforgettable Saturday morning, just a week after their leaving Palmyra, the great laddle wheels of the little Pioneer were churning up the waters of the Detroit River. Slowly she pushed by Grosse Isle, as the gray dawn was breaking.

Some of the passengers were still asleep, but no doubt, many were on deck, standing by the rail and waiting to catch their first glimpse of Detroit. The dawn turned into light and Indian wigwams could be seen on both banks. Then, just as the Pioneer came pu to the town, the sun arose, striking the church spires with its first rays, as with many a shout from ship and shore, the vessel was pulled against the dock.

The excitement of those aboard was almost matched by those ashore. We have no description of what happened when our families landed, but a woman who had come the same way just a year before the Swifts and Osbands, wrote as follows

'The steamer announced her approach to the city by firing a cannon, which seemed to have called out the whole town. French women, wearing large, coarse straw hats and carrying heavy baskets of fruit were pressing their way through a crowd of men and boys carts drawn by diminutive ponies were back up to the very edge of the whaft, their owners jabbering in French and broken English at the top of their voices. A little in the background, the only coach was waiting to carry passengers to the only hotel in the city. The captain on board was giving orderss concerning the loading, passengers were bstling around collecting baggage, porers were disputing in French and English, making the scene a very familiar representation of ancient Babel.'

Within a few days after landing, the group was packed into the large row boats. The one contained Marcus Swift, his wife, Anna, and three boys and a girl ranging from age 12 to age 4. The other boat held William Osband, age 29, his wife, Martha and their two sons, ages 5 and 1 and a half, along with a girl, Amy Burgess, age 12, who was described as a member of the family and probably an adopted orphan, and a young man, Luman Fowler, who had promised to work for one year for Osband.

Four miles downstream, the boats turned into the mouth of the Rouge a desolate, swampy area, the home of the muskrat and otters, plus innumberable wild ducks and geese which rose protestingly as the prow cut through the water. And, no doubt, as they went along, the children wide-eyed at the wonders of wild life, the must have seen deer and bear between the huge trees that crowded the banks, and heard the wild turkeys and quail further back in the forest.

A few miles up the Rouge , where Rotunda Drive now crosses, they came to a clearing known as the Thomas Settlement. Here the party scrambled up the banks with their goods and were met by Alanson Thomas, who had a wagon pulled by three Indian poines, all ready. The narrow, so-called road they now traveled was really an old Indian trail which, like most Indian trails, followed the river bank. Eventually, it merged into what is now Ann Arbor Trail. Late that evening the wagon pulled up at the house of Benjamin Williams, which was on the south bank of the Middle Rouge and not far east of what is now Inkster Road.

Just who the Williams couple were, will never know. Their name appears momentarily as the tosts of twelve extra peope. who they squeezed into their dwelling while Swift and Osband were building their own cabins a couple of miles to the west. Osband, who had bought 160 acres north of Warren Road near Venoy Road, seems to have had some money, since he employed a hired hand and had his house finished by the beginning of January.

For Swift, it was another story. He had bought all that land below, bounded by Maplewood, Henry Ruff, Merriman and a line running north of Warren. It was covered by dense hardwood forest of maple, ash, elm, oak and other trees, many of which were well over a hundred feet high and between three and five feet thick at the base. Frequently, these larger trees went straight up for 80 feet before the first branches began. Both men, like most Easterners, had selected home sites overlooking the river, not so much for scenic value but because further back on the level ground, stagnant pools of water lay for weeks during the rainy weather, the sun unable to penetrate the canopy of forest branches.

The record states, Without money, team or human aid, except for that of his two small sons, age 8 and 12, Swift built a cabin in the clearing. The record might also had added a word for Anna, who, like many other Eastern woman, left a good house and comfort for a new home in an undtried wilderness. Many failed to survive the hardships.

Marcus Swift was in many ways a remarkable man. He was 6 foot 3 inches tall. Within two years of his arrival, he was elected supervisor of Bucklin Township, which included Nankin, Dearborn, Livonia and Redford. He was elected supervisor of Nankin five more times. He also held other township posts from time to time, including the position of Justice of Peace, to which office he was appointed by Governor Cass, in 1831.

He served as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and, as a curcuit rider, he covered 125 miles every four weeks on horseback. For this he was paid $120 a year, much of this salary being in kind, since cash was a scarcity in the territory. Many members contributed only between 50 cents and $3.00 a year. One winter Anna exclaimed, 'Marcus, we shall starve to death here.'

On another occasion, Swift walked all the way to Detroit to explain to a creditor that he was unable to pay a debt of $13.00. But before knocking at the man's door, Swift dropped into the post office. There he found a letter from a friend enclosing a bank order for $15.00. This, he always felt, was an act of divine intervention.

Swift was strongly anti-slavery, a position which made him the object of mob anger. His nephew later wrote, They can not now concieve of the boiling, bubbling, seething madness aroused in society by Swift's outspoken arguments against oppression and slavery. Once, when the Swifts had been away, they returned to their cabin and found it burned to the ground. They suspected it was incendiary but never had proof.

Toward the end of his life, Swift said, The great principal for which I have labored and fought, amid reverses and persecutions are now the fuling sentiments of the people. I have lived in a gloreous age, and my eyes have seen the powers of darkness give way before the coming of the reigh of liberty.

After he died, in 1865, at the age of 72, a commentator wrote Perhaps no man in his life time in Eastern Michigan left a stronger imprint for good. His intellectual and moral forces were gigantic in strenght. He was one of the great heroes of that day.

Not all the pioneers faced such adversity. Many made out well enough, but, generally speaking, it was a hard life. Young Osband summed it up well The pioneers had strength but no property. They left property but their strength has vanished.

While much of Swift's land lay withn the boundaries of the present city, the house was just north of Warren Avenue and east of Merriman. Warren was an Indian trail following the high ground on the south bank of the Middle Rouge, and Merriman a line on the map. The house was thus on high, dry ground, looking down on the river and the flats below which a century later were to be made into a golf course.



From the limited evidence, it is difficult to say for certain just who built the first house within the city's boundaries. John Williams, in 1826, bought 80 acres of land now occupied by the Henry Ruff School and houses of that vicinity. However, from early maps it seems highly probably that, like Swift, he actual house lay north of Warren. Williams was a native of England and was killed by a yoke of oxen he was breaking in shortly after acquiring his land.

Of the three people who bought land in 1831, Thomas Dickerson, a native of New Jersey, who had also lived in Palmyra, was the first to acquire government land, by several months. On June 2, 1831, he bought 160 acres now bounded by Warren and Maplewood, Merriman and Hubbard. Dickerson's house was siad to stand, about 40 rods west of the wast line of the farm on the north bank of the brook, which would place it within 500 feet of the southwest corner of James and Merriman.

Dickerson was the first blacksmith of the community. He built a log house smithy near his house and from his shop could be heard the clink of his hammer, as he did sundry jobs for his neighbors for a number of years, as a nearby boy once wrote of him. The smithy was not too far from the school.

Tom Dickerson's house, like the sparks from the flaming forge, has long since vanished as have practically all those early dwellings of pioneer times.



One of the few that remains, and almost certainly the oldest, is that of Lawson and Sally Van Akin, which was built in 1832 or 1833. It stands at the southeast corner of Venoy and Warren, and has been restored by its present owners.

General Lawson Alexander Van Akin, stands next to Swift as one of the more colorful of the early pioneers. Van Akin was born in 1809, in the village of Phelps, New York, which is not far from Palmyra. His ancestors were from Holland. His father, John Van Akin, had served in the Revoluntionary War and the War of 1812. He held the rank of Captain under General Van Stanssleaer.

Like Swift, Van Akin first made a trip of exploration into southeastern Michigan and the next year, 1831, at the age of 22 years, Van Akin boarded the steamer Superior, with his wife, Sally and their infant son, and sailed off for Detroit. Except for a violent storm, which forced them to seek shelter at Point Albino on the Canadian coast, the journey was uneventful.

Upon arriving in Detroit, they put up at the Yankee Boarding House, which stood at the corner of Bates and Larned, and then spent some time looking at the sights. One of the most joyous was the old marketplace which ran across Woodward Avenue , just below Jefferson. Ever curious of something new, Van Akin, attended services in the old French Catholic church, the famous, St Anne's, which he found interesting and colorful.

A day or two later, he hired a yoke of oxen, piled his belongings into a wagon he had bought back East, and with this small family set off down the Ann Arbor trial, which followed the banks of the Detroit River. The small town was soon left behind, as the wagon rumbled over the road, and they were passing French farmhouses, one story high, often whitewashed, and with steep roofs, out of which dormer windows peeked. In summer, lilac and rose bushes half hid the homes of the inhabitants which faced the river.

The road passed close in front of the houses and on the other side, the gardens ran down to the river where single-plank boards set on ples served as piers for each family owning a canoe or small boat. Following the old French plan, each farm had a section of river frontage, but reached back a mile or more.

This was the first week of November. The Van Akin family hurried on quickly and soon went passed a familiar landmark at the edge of Springwells, the old revolving windmill, of Dutch type. A couple of miles beyound the mill the river road ran into an Indian trail which ran along the east bank of the Rouge River, and up this the Van Akins proceeded going north.

The family soon came to the Ten Eyck Inn on the Chicago Turnpike (now Michigan Avenue). They stopped for a meal and while they were seated, four man arrived and ordered a meal which included fresh meat.

Conrad Ten Eyck, who had been a classmate of Martin Van Buren, was at this time Tresurer of the County. It so happened that the Inn was without any fresh meat.

Rather than admit that his establishment was lacking in a basic commodity, Ten Eyck, stepped over to the kitchen door and called out to his wife, Is there any of that old wolf stew in the pot?

On hearing this, the four man spoke a few moments, and left at once.

The Van Akin's finished their meals, and climbed back on their wagon, with their oxen, and plodded down the narrow road. Eventually, they reachen Ann Arbor Trail, turned west and later that evening reached their land. Van Akin had purchased 160 acres on the south side of Warren bisected by what is now Venoy, but was then, only a foot path.

He erected a shanty, and occupied it for about a year, until he got fourteen acres cleared. He then proceeded to build a permanent residence.



Though the first settlers came from the East, mostly New York or other New England areas, there was another group, from County Cavan in the north of Ireland, who began arriving in 1834, built homes up and down both sides of Inkster Road, then only a path through the woods. The area was named East Nankin, or the Irish Settlement. Robert Lathers was born here in 1854, however it was his father, John Lathers who immigrated to the United States. John Lathers was born in 1809 near Coote Hill , County Cavan, Ireland. His decendants had a 99 year lease of a 35 acres farm, written on whole sheepskin, and signed by Lord Bellmont. John Lather's childhood was spent in farming and weaving until the age of 20, when he started for America.

In 1830, he spent four weeks sailing across the Atlantic and landed in New York with a nickel in his pocket. He got employment as a helper to a machinest in New Jersey, for 50 cents a day.

After four years of saving, he and his brother, William Lathers, and their brother-in-law, Andrew Montgomery, who had married their sister Jane, set off for Detroit.

John Lathers was said to have walked a considerable distance in several counties within southeast Michigan, before settling in Nankin, where he purchased 200 acers at the southwest corner of what is now Ford Road and Inkster Road. William Lathers and Montgomery built a log cabin at the southwest corner of Ford Road and Harrison.

Soon after their cabin was built, Montgomery returned to Ireland and retrieved several members of the family, including his father and mother. Among other families which came soon after from County Cavan, were the Stringers, Wallaces, Stewarts, and the Peoples.

Travel and Transporation



Many of the original Indian trails in time, became the first roads, such as Michigan Avenue from Dearborn to Ypsilanti, was the old Sauk trail.

Desiring a more direct route from Detroit to Illinois, the Federal government began a survey in 1825, of a road route, later to become all of Michigan Avenue. The survey was not completed until 1835. Prior to this, a commonly used road by travelers to and from Detroit, was Ann Arbor Trail. This road followed the Detroit River and then went up by the bank of the Rouge RIver finlly turning west along the Middle Rouge.

Around 1831, the Territorial government advertised on a handbill circular for a mail carrier. The route was to leave Detroit every Thursday at 5 in the morning and reach Ann Arbor, by 6pm that night. On the way, the coach was to stop at Springwells, Bucklin, Nankin, Plymouth, Borodino and Dixboro. This was a total distance of 42 miles.

This was in part, the same route taken by the Van Akin family when they arrived in Nankin.

A man, by the name of George Johnson, who built a tavern on the Old Sauk Trial, in what is now Wayne Township, arrived in Nankin in 1824. About a year later, Johnson sold the savern to a Stephen Simmons, who had come from Van Burean Township. Simmons was a short time later convicted in Detroit for murdering his wife, during a drunken rage. The Simmons case was a major item of interest throughout Wayne County. However, before this affair, Johnson bought 80 acres of land a half mile west of Inkster Road and bisected by Ann Arbor Trail. Here, on the north side of the road , facing south, Johnson built a new tavern, since a great number of people were headed out of Detroit for the far west lands of Illinois and other states beyond. Most of these travelers had come from the East and landed in Detroit because the trip by ship from Buffalo was far easier than the land journey through the Ohio wilderness, where a wagon could be hopelessly stuck in any one of a number of ruts.

To provide a more firm road bed, logs of assorted sizes were placed down with a little dirt spread across the top. These were the corduroy roads. Since many of the wagons lacked springs, it is not difficult to imagine the type of ride these people enjoyed on their travels. The condition of the roads beyond the corduroy, though less wracking, were far from ideal, especially during any rainy season.

These first inns or taverns were by no means of too much comfort either. A guest room was divided, at times, only by some hanging blankets, with the men sleeping on one side and the women on the other. Strangers sharing a bed was not unknown.

Travel in theose early days meant not only hardships but the hazards due to meeting schemers of all kinds as well as asorted robbers.

The Michigan Central Railroad had been completed only as far as Ypsilanti in 1838, a year before John Lathers had set for the rest of his family from Ireland.

The rails, strips of flat iron, about 1 inch thick and 2 and half inches wide, were spiked through the middle to strong timbers running lengthwise. These metal strips had a tendency to come loose at the ends and curve up, often peircing the floor of the coaches, much to the horror of many passengers.

The first locomotives were about 20 horsepower, with enormous stack belching smoke towers and flying sparks.

One of the Wallace family related that many years ago, when he father was a student at Moulin Rouge(now the Village of Inkster), it was known to the boys and girls in the rural school near the tracks, that the first train would pass by sometime that day. They were instructed by their teacher that all should remain calm at the approach of the trains and continue with their work.

These locomotives were wood burning and supplying them with fuel was for years a main income for farmers in the area. Piles of wood cut into four foot lenghts, and stacked ten feet heigh, frequently ran a quarter of a mile along the station sides.

Robert Inkster, and Henry McMullan both ran mills that supplied wood to the railroad. Inkster's mill was located in Moulin Rouge and McMullan had a mill near the junction of Telegraph and Ecorse. McMullan arrived daily with a load of wood, and on one occasion, they unloaded and stacked the wood, then stepped back to tally up the figures, when suddenly the whole pile turned over, narrowly missing them both. Inkster, maintained that the Lord made them move out of the way in time.



The Typical Log Cabin Home



The typical log cabin home of those days was 18 by 24 feet on the ground, and rudely constructed. The walls were made of logs from foundation, to peak. The were mostly built without the use of sawed timber, and without nails. The roof was made of oak shakes held in their place by poles. Most had a brick fireplace, made of stick and mud chimneys, and the door was trimmed with an iron hing and wooden handle.

The cracks between the logs were stopped by traingular pieces of wood fitted and fastened in, and then they were all plastered outside and inside with clay mud. This, if done properly, was effective in preventing any circulation of air through the walls.

Usually one window of 7 by 9 inch glass, in each one of the sides were cut out. The doors, castings, were usually stained red. The fireplace and hearth were located in the middle, and an iron crane hung to the hearth jamb suspended from which would be the pot hooks on which kettles were hung. The ground story contained only one room this room was used for kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and parlor.

A ladder would stand leading to a chamber, and many times contained the dishes and other culinary appartus, together in a chest holding other provisions. In other corners were beds and a trap door that would lead to a cellar. They also used this area many times for their looms, ax helves, gun-rods..ect.

Climbing the ladder further to the loft chamber, you would find many items stowed away. The roof was constructed such that there was very little head room. Beds were usually kept in this area as well for the children in the family.

Around the era of the Civil War, the log cabin was becoming replaced with other style homes, some of larger area, and more convience.


Early Garden City area Churches

Methodist No church building existed within the limits of where Garden City borders are today, until 1928, when the Presbyterian church was constructed. For nearly a hundred years prior to this date, the pioneers attnded churches lying just beyond the city's perimeters.

The Rev. Marcus Swift, an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church organized the first know religious society of Nankin Township in 1828. The Schwarzburg school house, near Wayne Road and Ann Arbor Trial was used between 1830 and 1833. The group then used the Perrinsville school, located on Swift's property. The building was only 16 by 18 feet in size, but did fit a small band. It was the general custom at evening meetings for everyone to bring a candle and for at last one person to brings a lighted brand, since matches were hardly known. It was a simple service and the conditons somewhat primitive. But for a brief hour the members of the congregation were held together by a bond, their plaintive singing the only sound the in the forest clearing except the howling of the wolves in the darkness.

Few people had money. Yearly cash contributions varied between 50 cents and 3 dollars. The clergy man was often paid in such useable items that an individual could spare. While church attenders dressed their best for Sunday, their best was often shaby, and it was not uncommon for men to appear with no shoes.

Around 1830, a Sabbath school was begun. It catered to children of other denominations also. Among its first superintendents was William White whose wife, Emily owned 80 acres at what is now the northwest corner of Ford and Henry Ruff Roads. Among the other members owning farm land here were Josiah Bakers, at the southeast corner of Ford and Middlebelt Roads, and the Thomas Dickerson family, at the southwest corner of Warren and Merriman Roads.

In 1846, a church building was begun north of the Rouge River and east of Merriman, in the heart of Perrinsville for those members of Methodist faith, that were in agreence with slavery issues. It was called Wesneyan Church. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, and slavery no longer existed, the members rejoined the Methodist Espiscopal Church. A new church was built in 1895, and for many years was supplied by a minister whose circuit included other churches in Wayne and Washtenaw Counties. The condition continued until 1935, when the church building was moved in the City limits of Garden City.

Baptist Records of Baptist activity in pioneer days are very brief, thought they go back to 1839, when a church was organized in a building erected on Ann Arbor Trial, and a half mile east of the Newburg Cemetery. It laid between the little settlements of Plymouth and Perrysville

Shortly before this, beginning in 1934, the five young Straight brothers, Enos, Daniel, Matthais, Charles and Zacharais began arriving. After their father died, back in Essex County, New York, they managed to make their way to this area. Enos and Daniel bought 80 acres from Luman Fowler at the northwest corner of Ford and Merriman Roads. These two brothers became leading members of the Baptisit Church and Enos served as superintendent of the Sabbath school.

The Rev. Thomas Gorton was the first minister. It was from this church that Anna Swift was buried in the early spring of 1842. The Rev. Gorton died in 1845 and the little group being without a leader, disorganized five years later, leaving an empty building.

Presbyterian Just when the Presbyterian Church of East Nankin was organized, is uncertain. The minutes go back to 1840 and show the Rev. Joshua Clayton as pastor and Joseph and William Stringer as elders. The building was located at the northeast corner of Ford and Inkster Roads, and while actually in Dearborn Township was still the center of the Irish Settlement, which ran along both sides of Inkster Road.

For some reason, a Second Presbyerian Church was orgainized in 1841, at the Cooper School house, on Ann Arbor Trial and Middlebelt Road, with the same pastor and with John Lathers and Lawson Van Akin as elders. R.J. Lathers was baptized here in 1854. The two churches seem to have combined soon after using the East Nankin building.

John Stringer is said to have recieved 12 cents for the lot which the East Nankin church was built. Ten dollars was poid for the shankes or shingles for the roof. There was only one aisle. There were three short benches on each side of the pulpit. For Communion Services, a homemade table was set up in the aisle and all the communicants sat around it. Metal tokens were given out previous to the service and possission of a token entitled one to a seat at the table.

No musical instruments were used in the early decades. Singing was led by a changer who sang out the first line of the Psalm which was the repeated by the congreagation.

Both during the pioneer and farm period, the church and its activities served as the central point of social interest. Two services were held, one in the morning and another after dinner.

In 1894, when the membership stood at around 100, a new church building was erected. In its day it was a beautiful edition with a steeple and two side doors on the east side which were used only for funerals and once a year dramatic entrance for Santa Claus at Christmas week. Children's Day, held on the first Sunday of June, was another great event, when the sanctuary was decorated with hundreds of wildflowers gathered in the woods by the farm children, who then conducted a program of singing and recitation.

Roman Catholic No known records of the establishment of any Catholic mission, in the early 1800's exists as far as Nankin Township. Whatever pioneers were of the faith probably went to Dearborn where a society was established in 1836. According to local historian Silas Farmer, the first mass being celebrated by Rev Father O. Kavanah, was at the house of Mrs. Ryan, in that year. The first church building was erected in 1843, and was several times moved and at various times remodelled and improved. This was the beginning of Sacred Heart.

William Daly, a native of Killarney, Ireland, came to Michigan in 1837 and was active in building the church. Jim Daly and John Daly were his sons, and have roads named for them.

St Mary's of Wayne was the first Catholic church in the area of Nankin. There were about forty families some of which came from Garden City, attending services there in 1864. Not until after the Village of Garden City came into being did a local church arise.

This incorporation began June 1, 1927.



Contributed by Linda Ball