Some Early Buildings of Clayton

 

Clayton Union School built 1867 Hudson Museum photo

Those of us familiar with the Clayton Centennial newspaper may recall the story of a feud between Reuben Bird and his tenant Aaron Abbott during one of the elections of President Abraham Lincoln.  Mr. Bird was thrilled that his candidate won the election and so he draped his entire house in red, white and blue bunting to celebrate!  Mr. Abbott was less than thrilled and pulled down the bunting on his rented half of the house.  Abbott and his family were only staying until their new house was completed but he did not want to put up with any celebration at all!  

And so I was wondering whatever happened to Aaron Abbott and found a published biography on him in the 1880 book History and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, Volume 2, by William A. Whitney.  Aaron was son to Ezra Abbott, an old farmer who settled here from the east and owned land out in the vicinity of Tomer Rd. and Seneca Hwy.  Old Mr. Abbott was also a carpenter and joiner by trade and his son Aaron picked this up and also farmed until 1852 when he traveled to California in engage in mining--returning home after completion of the Panama railroad in 1856.  Back in Dover Aaron farmed with his father, and in 1868 moved into Clayton to engage in the milling business.  The biography says that Abbott was known as the builder of the first brick Clayton school, Baptist church and downtown buildings known at the time as Abbott's Block.  

  

Mrs. Naomi Dowling's 1967 Clayton School Centennial booklet describes the Union School:  "The people were very proud of the new school house built of bricks, which were taken from the brickyard at the south edge of town.  The high belfry was trimmed in white as were the window casings.  A white picket fence was built around the schoolyard with a gate in front, which was kept closed so that the smaller children couldn't stray away."  

The memory of that fence stuck with these people who featured a portion of it on their Hudson Centennial Parade float called "The Old Front Gate." Names jotted on back are Kenyon Wirick, Ray Lyons, Echo Younglove Williams and  Arlene Haas Brown.  

The Old Front Gate 1933 Hudson Centennial Float from Clayton. Hudson Museum photo

We must note that the 1890 date handwritten at the bottom of the Union School photo seems to be incorrect--in the background it appears to look like "67" and a check of the  Directory of Early Michigan Photographers, Edited by Clayton A. Lewis, Copyright 2013 David V. Tinder; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan (Google for online edition) shows this:  Dewey, W. W. & Brother, Photographers of Hudson for the years 1874-1875.  Also note that the girls' dress style of aprons over their skirts is similar to that of the girls in this Medina photo, of 1874-75 by F. D. Foster at https://backtooldmedina.blogspot.com/p/page-11.html   So I can only conclude that the handwritten date 1890 over other erased numbers is probably in error, and that the Clayton photo also dates from 1874-75, not too long after construction of the schoolhouse.  

This school was on the same site where the later 1909 school was built, the one that many of us attended.  The old school was torn down, and while the replacement went up the kids went to school in other places around town, like upstairs in the Perkins 3-story building and other locations.

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Another building attributed to builder Aaron Abbott is the brick Clayton Baptist Church that used to sit directly across State Street from the present Clayton United Methodist Church.  The Baptist Church was at Clayton at an early date as it is on the 1857 Lenawee County Michigan wall atlas as "Bpt Mtng H" shown same location. This only known photo was taken from the fire house tower, so we see a side view here.  The Baker barn and farm house can be seen in the distance to left of the steeple.  This is a cropped copy of a photo from Lenawee Historical Society Museum.

Clayton Baptist Church taken from the Fire House Tower, construction date unknown.  Lenawee Historical Society Museum photo.--UPDATE See post "Early Clayton 1868" where the brick Baptist Church is already up, so construction year is on or before then.

1893 Lenawee County Atlas map of Clayton showing Baptist Church across from the Methodist Church on North State Street

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The last of the buildings to mention that are attributed to builder Aaron Abbott are those in the old Abbott Block, the two northernmost sections of the brick block on the west side of State, directly south of Burger's store.  Construction date unknown but believed to be mid-1870's.  The bank building on the far left  (or south) of this three-building group was constructed by a Mr. Haskins.

Brick block including old Clayton Exchange Bank on the left and the other two brick buildings that made up the old Abbott Block built by Mr.. Bird's tenant,  Aaron Abbott.  At one time the post office was here, right on the corner, before the present post office was built. 
Photo from Hudson Museum.

R to L Abbott Block, Bank and the white Commercial Hotel circa 1900.  Clip from scan of a circa 1900 post card from Hudson Museum.