JAN. 8 ISSUE ANSWERS: This map is part of a larger map drawn of Michigan in 1853 by John Farmer. Ray Township is in the center of the selected image. The North Branch of the Clinton River runs diagonally from the northwest corner of Ray Township, Section 5, to the center southern portion or Ray Township, Section 3. East Pond Creek runs west to east through Bruce Township joins the North Branch of the Clinton River west of the intersection of Romeo Plank and 32 Mile roads. If you hike or bike along the Macomb Orchard Trail between M-53 and Romeo Plank Road, you cross these two streams. The short bridge is over East Pond Creek) and the long bridge is over the North Branch of the Clinton River. In 1824 Benjamin N. Freeman, brother of Romeo’s Cynthia Bailey, purchased land at the southwest half of Section 5 in Ray Township. His cabin is reputed to be the first home in Ray Township. Freeman must have built the mill that was located at this site. It was probably a grist mill for grinding wheat or corn although it could have been a saw mill. Farmers needed a local grist mill. After the mill was built, his sister, Cynthia Bailey, First Lady of Romeo, would not have to send her husband to Pontiac to get their flour processed now. Freeman sold this mill to Neil Gray, Jr. on Sept. 7, 1845 for $4,000.