Stoney Creek Chapter

Welcome to Rochester and Stoney Creek Village...

In the early 19th century, Avon Township was what is now present day Rochester & Rochester Hills.  This was the first settlement in Oakland County, Michigan at the convergence of Stony Creek, Paint Creek and the Clinton River.  In 1817 Revolutionary War veteran, James Graham, and his family were the first settlers to this area.  By 1820 there were 129 people in the Township.  Many of these early settlers came from Upstate New York, New England and Southern Canada by way of the Erie Canal and worked their way north from Detroit.  Lemuel Taylor and his family became Stoney Creek’s first settlers in 1823. 

In just a year the village boasted a sawmill, gristmill, distillery and blacksmith shop, followed by a hotel and a woolen mill.  Stoney Creek Village is listed on the National Register of Historical Places and is home to many of Oakland County’s oldest and most well-preserved buildings.  These include the Stoney Creek School House, where local 3rd graders experience “old time school days,” the Millerd House, built in 1827 and the site of local Masonic Lodge meetings until 1844, the Mount Avon Cemetery, and original buildings on the Van Hoosen Farm, present-day home to the Rochester Hills Museum.

To learn more about Stoney Creek Village and the communities of Rochester, Rochester Hills and Avon Township, please visit the Rochester/Avon Historical Society and the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm.

Photo of the Millerd House courtesy of the Rochester/Avon Historical Society.  Photo of the Sign of the Black & White Cow courtesy of the Rochester Hills Public Library's Greater Rochester History Online.