History

Taylor-Van Hoosen-Jones Family History

In 1823, 31-year old Elisha Taylor led his 60 family members on a journey from New York State to the Territory of Michigan. Purchasing 120 acres of land at $1.25 an acre, the family founded a log cabin community, which they named Stoney Creek Village.
By the mid 1800's, Stoney Creek Village was one of the largest communities in Oakland County, boasting three mills, a tavern, distillery, Baptist church, post office, and blacksmith.
The routing of the railroad through Rochester in 1876 resulted in the preservation of this 19th century village. Today, many of the original homes and buildings stand as reminders of the Taylor legacy.
The present-day Rochester Hills Museum's Van Hoosen Farmhouse was built in 1840 by the Taylor's and housed five generations of the Taylor-Van Hoosen families. In 1854, Sarah Taylor married her childhood sweetheart Joshua Van Hoosen upon his return from gold prospecting in California. The success of his prospecting venture enabled him to purchase this home and the Taylor farm. In this home, Joshua and Sarah raised their two daughters, Alice and Bertha.
A progressive individual, Joshua Van Hoosen favored higher education for women and men alike. His daughters were among the first women to graduate from the University of Michigan in the late 1800's.
Before her marriage to Joseph Jones, Alice utilized her education by teaching Greek and Latin. Bertha, however, shocked her family by pursuing a medical career. During her 61-year career, she traveled to universities and hospitals around the world lecturing and demonstrating the medical techniques she developed and perfected. Her list of accomplishments includes the development of the anesthesia Scopolamine Morphine, for use during childbirth, the buttonhole appendectomy, the founding of the American Medical Women's Association, and the use of sterile conditions during surgery.
Sarah Van Hoosen Jones was born to Alice Van Hoosen and her husband Joseph Comstock Jones in 1892, and she was the final family member to reside in the farmhouse. Her love of the land and of her ancestral heritage led her to a successful career in agriculture and dairy management. In 1916 she earned a Master's Degree in Animal Husbandry, followed in 1921 by a Doctorate in Animal Genetics from the University of Wisconsin. Under her direction, the Van Hoosen Farm supplied the majority of milk consumed in Detroit in the 1930's and 1940's and was the first farm in southeastern Michigan to produce certified milk. Sarah's accomplishments in farming earned her national recognition in 1932 when she was named a Master Farmer, one of two women in the United States to hold this title. She was the first woman in the United States to be named a Premier Breeder of Holstein cattle, which she accomplished for nine years, seven in succession.

It was the Van Hoosen women, Alice and Bertha, Sarah Taylor, and Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, who transformed their tiny ancestral home into a spacious, rambling house.