Commerce Township Area Historical Society

Talk starts in 10 mims.

Stopped by the Walled Lake Cemetery to set the sign for the cemetery talks and saw these two. Hope to see you later today.

Got pictures of all the garden beds at the Wixom Wire house's Garden Party. Thank you to the Garden Angels.

Happening this Thursday, July 25th. 1p and 7pm. Looks like rain is no longer in the forecast. The 187 year old. Walled Lake Cemetery is a beautiful place to hear Walled Lake and Commerce Township History.

Today! Wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Hope to see you there.

We hope to see you there! The museum and flowers are fabulous this year!

A week to go until our highly-anticipated and FREE Summer Ice Cream Social! It has been going for 55 years — don’t miss it and spread the word 🎉

Mark your calendars.

YES, you heard it right, we just signed Audrey Ray come see her live at silo fest on September 21st.

The Milford Times recorded the Equine Influenza locally in November 1872. Here are a few the items they recorded.

As if history, coloring pages and calendars weren't enough, CORN. Today at the Walled Lake Market Place. 8am to 2pm

We are here 8am to 2pm. Stop by

Families! Stop by the Walled Lake Market Place on Wednesday at 11am for Storytime with Miss Ann. Did you know that it's also Kid's Day?! It's going to be a fun time and we'll have a fun take-home craft too!

So much fun. We will have history coloring pages for the kids! Stop by the Commerce Township Area Historical Society table.

🌟 Join us this Wednesday, July 17th, 2024, from 11 AM to 2 PM for the biggest market of the year! 🌟

Bring your family and friends for a day of fun, food, and community spirit. See you there! 👋

Something very weird was going on with the horses in the fall of 1872. In her diary, Martha Durkee Blakeslee noted on November 10, “There is a terrible time among the horses. It is called the horse epidemic. Every horse has it. It is a cough and their nose is so bad it discharges very bad. The horse has to be kept warm and given warm feed and their throat rubbed. (it is the throat). About 100 years ago there was such time then as now."
The illness that Martha wrote about we now know as Equine Influenza and 1872 was a particularly large outbreak of it, affecting over 72% of the horses in North America but also found throughout Central America and the Caribbean that year. Horses were the primary way that goods and services were delivered throughout the United States and in consequence, goods sat undeliverable on docks, doctors couldn’t reach their patients, and some cities experienced devastating fires because the horse-drawn fire wagons were out of service. A visitor to Washington DC around the same time as Martha’s diary entry counted only two horse drawn vehicles in the entire city! In December of that year, Mexico sent aid to the U.S in the form of live horses.
Today, germ theory helps us understand diseases like the flu and how it spreads, but that theory wasn’t widely held at the time and the “cures” that were promoted varied widely. Many blamed ”bad air” from Greenland for the disease outbreak and a widely promoted “cure” was to burn a match under the affected animal’s nostrils to induce violent sneezing. Another was to rub spirit of turpentine on the jaws and necks of the affected horses, nevermind the resultant blisters.
Luckily for the horses and the population that depended on them, the mortality rate was between 1 and 2% and most of the animals recovered within a few weeks if they were allowed to rest.

The photo below, found in our collection, shows two unidentified men with two gray horses.

Stop by the Commerce Township Area Historical Society table at the Walled Lake Market Place on Wednesday, July 17th, 8am to 2pm. We will be selling these great calendars for 2025. $15.00 each.

Please volunteer if you are able.

📢 Hospitality House urgently needs volunteers, especially on Mondays. 📢

Hospitality House relies on volunteers to manage the front desk, assist in the office, support the warehouse, and shop with our clients. If you know anyone interested in volunteering or needing community service hours, please refer them to us! This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in the community, be part of a team, and make a difference.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050F4FA5A72EA75-volunteer #/

Very cool! If you haven't seen them yet gather the kids, the neighbor's kids and go to their next open house.

These are fossilized remains of two vertebrae and a tooth from an American Mastodon, c. 10,000 BCE – uncovered near the intersection of Chipman and Tecumseh Roads in southern Waterford Township. Did you know that the Mastodon has been Michigan's state fossil since 2002?

These items are on long-term loan from Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society. You can see them at the Orchard Lake Museum during our Open Houses!

Always enjoy when history is both human and amusing. Milford Times, 10 October 1903

If you were wondering what was going on with the barn at Byers Park. Thank you Dean Schantz and Mike Elick for preserving a piece of the Commerce Township area's history. The Community appreciates all your efforts.

From the Oxford Leader Wednesday, May 2, 1979. The beginnings of ATMs at Community National Bank.

Come check out our all day festival.!! Food trucks vendors and live local music during the day ticketed concert under the stars headlined by The Jessie Campbell band at night. Tickets at the link $15 in advance $20 cash at the door

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/silofest-tickets-928221765287?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete

Coe family reunion coming up. Trying to reach as many descendants as possible.

Thank you to everyone who attended the cemetery talks yesterday. We will be holding our next cemetery talks on July 25th 1pm and 7pm. Hope to see you then.

Thank you to the folks who attended the 1pm talk. It's going to be a beautiful night to hear history.

This Thursday the 27th. Going to be 74 degrees. Great day to come and hear some Walled Lake and Commerce Township Area History.

The team and the Greenhouse and some of their associates have generously bought gifts for children in need throughout Oakland and other counties in Michigan. If you have time to donate to help wrap they would appreciate your time. Wrapping taking place at Stone Crest 207 Liberty in Wonderful Walled Lake.

Did you know that the museum has an app with all of our self-guided cemetery walking tours on it? Search for the Birmingham Museum in your app store to download it for free!

The festive fun continues today at our History Center! Tour the historic Governor Moses Wisner Mansion in Pontiac, decorated for the Christmas season + much more!