It is believed that most of the township's early settlers entered from Birmingham and Royal Oak. A recently discovered map from 1822 shows some of these settlers included families named Daniels, Thomas, Stoughtan, Boudens, McGaughtery, Sabins and Memlis.
Early records indicate some of the first settlers came from Fort Utica and Fort Dayton (today known as Utica and Herkimer) in the Mohawk Valley region of central New York State, as well as Newburg, New York and Rutland County, Vermont. Mostly of Irish, English, and German descent, they traveled west to Michigan by way of the Erie Canal.
John Daniels is generally acknowledged as the first settler of Southfield Township. He reportedly turned east in 1823 and brought back with him Martin and William Lee, Edmund Cook and George White. The Lees settled in Section 18, and the Cooks in the southwest quarter of Section 7 and the Whites in Section 18 near the Lees. In 1824, Rufus Hunter, the youngest son of Eliza Hunter, remembers planting three-fourths of an acre of Ohio corn.
The first child born in Southfield was the son of George White, in the fall of 1825. The first marriage was that of Benjamin Fuller, Jr. to Marietta Crawford, daughter of Abraham Crawford, in December of 1828. Not long after came the marriage of Milton Crawford, brother of the first bride, to Eliza Parker. Two other very early marriages were Thaddeus Griswold to Harriet Fuller, daughter of Benjamin Fuller Sr.; and Myrex Fuller to Miss Ives.
David Stewart, a covenanter from White Lake, Orange County, New York, came to Southfield in 1831 at the age of 65 and settled on land opposite the Caleb Jackson property a few miles southwest of Birmingham. He was the great-grandfather of Mary E. Thompson, who in 1960 sold the City 166 acres of property for the Southfield Civic Center complex. Southfield's first public library was named in his honor.
In the early years of Oakland County, the two southern townships were considered one and referred to as Bloomfield Township. On July 12, 1830, Township 1N Range 10E was designated as Ossewa Township; seventeen days later, a group of citizens petitioned the state and changed the name to Southfield. It is believed the citizens chose this name because of the township's location in the 'south fields' of Bloomfield.
Early records show the first township government was formed in the home of Benjamin Fuller. H.S. Babcock was selected as the first township supervisor. Other first officers included A.H. Green, township clerk; Benjamin Fuller, Jr. and David Brownand James Hall, assessors; Mason James, William Lee and Morris Jenks, commissioners of highways; Ebenezer Raynale, director of the poor; Thaddeus Griswold, constable and collector; George Sage, constable; and Abraham Crawford, pound master.
A town hall was built at The Burgh in the Civil Center Drive / Berg Road area in 1873. Before its construction, township meetings were held in private houses and at John Thomas' tavern, then at the ballroom of Cornelius Lawrence's hotel. After the hotel closed, meetings were held at Murphy's wagon shop and several locations. In 1933, the Southfield Post Office was established and a mail route to Birmingham opened.