The 360-acre farm ran along both the north and south sides of what is now known as Miller Road, northeast of the Village of Lake Orion. It encompassed the east end of Long Lake and all of Bunny Run Lake.
The farm was acquired by Christian and Margaret Ann (Miller) Shick in the early 1860s and possibly before that time. They had migrated from Pennsylvania through Ohio to Michigan. They had eight children and their son, Jacob Shick, would eventually become the owner of the farm.
Jacob was born May 19, 1865, and attended the town-corner school between Orion and Oxford. At an early age, he apprenticed himself to a neighbor, Henery Tunison, learning the carpentry trade and later joining a local contractor, George Tunison, who specialized in setting frames for barns and houses in this area. In 1892, he married Alice Tunison, a sister of George, and they established a home near the present stone gates on the Shick Farm. Soon afterward, Jacob acquired the farm from his father’s estate and began farming. In 1906, a son, George Jacob, was born, but his mother died of complications from childbirth.
In 1907, Jacob married Florence May McCormick of Orion. A second son, Robert Dean, was born in 1910 and a daughter, Lorena Elaine, in 1912. For some reason, the second Mrs. Shick insisted that the spelling of the family name be changed to Schick, and it has been spelled that way since.
In 1920, Jacob retired from farming. He sold 126 acres of his farm in 1924 to the Lake Homes Realty Co. of Detroit. This development company constructed a large bathhouse at the beach on Long Lake , as well as a clubhouse on a bluff overlooking the lake. They built a nine-hole golf course on the property at what is now Forest Lake and Miller Roads.
Many lots were sold for summer cottages. Most of these were not on the lake, but had access through the beach club. The development became known as the Bunny Run Country Club. The derivation of this name remains a mystery. The current subdivision on this property is still known as Bunny Run subdivision. My mother, Esther Belles Ingram, used to ask my grandparents, whose property abutted the Shick farm, ‘Where did the bunny run??
In 1920, Jacob and Florence Schick purchased the Tunison house in Lake Orion at 242 N. Anderson. This large brick and stone house had been built by George Tunison in 1900. Jacob died in 1949, and his son George and wife Beulah and their children lived in this house through most of the 1990s. The house has been beautifully restored to a single family home today.
George and Beulah lived their entire lives in Lake Orion. Son Dean married a local girl, Ardyce Schaar, and was a professor of biology at several universities throughout the U.S. Daughter Lorena married Paul Brett, and eventually returned to Lake Orion.
The Brett family was helpful in researching the Shick family.
Here again, the Shick farm represents the progression of Orion Township from agriculture to summer resort to suburb.

This farm was located west of M-24 along Casemer Road (the street name is locally misspelled). At its largest, the farm totaled 270 acres in the 1850s and rand north along Buckhorn Lake to the shore of Lake Orion.
The bay behind Park Island at that time was known as Casamer Bay.
Isaac Casamer came to the Michigan Territory in 1835, buying nearly 200 acres in what was to become Orion Township. He then returned to Sussex County, New Jersey, where his wife and children were living.
In 1837, Isaac brought his wife Prudence S. (Buchner) Casamer and their three children, Catherine, Samuel and Mark, to the property he had purchased in Orion.
The parents and children worked to clear the land and plant crops. They build a log cabin from timber on the property, about a mile west of M-24 on the north side of Casamer Road.
Isaac was a stone mason and Prudence a dress maker and they continued to practice these trades in Orion. They also developed a small gristmill on their property.
A large, substantial farmhouse was erected by the Casamers in 1845 on the approximate site of the original log house. The first floor consisted of a parlor, living room, bedroom and a large kitchen across the rear of the house. Upstairs were three additional bedrooms.
Many of the Casamers were born, married and died in this house. The house still stands west of Lapeer Road (M-24) at 560 Casemer Road.
Together, Prudence and Isaac Casamer had a total of nine children. In addition to the three that came with the family from New Jersey were Emily (1836), Frederick (1839), Silas (1842), Theodore (1844), George (1846) and Hannah (1848).
Samuel, Silas, George, Theodore and Frederick all served in the Civil War. Samuel was a Lieutenant in the 30th Wisconsin Infantry. Silas and George were with the Michigan 22nd Infantry as Corporals. Frederick and Theodore both served as Corporals with the 10th Michigan Infantry.
America-native Indians were allowed to stay and live on the Casamer’s land for many years. Isaac employed several Indians and accepted the American Indians as partners in farming and hunting the land.
The Casamer family was known for treating the Indians after the onset of many European diseases, such as Small Pox.
These Indians were from the tribe ‘the Makopacs,? which meant ‘Pine Forest.? This was most fitting due to the many white pine trees in the Lake Orion area. There were also many Chippewa and Potawotami Native Americans living in the same area.
After the death of Isaac Casamer in 1867, Prudence and some of her sons continued to run the farm. Prudence lived into her 90s and dies in 1900 in the family farmhouse on Casemer Road.
Most of the original Casamer family is buried at the Evergreen Cemetary in Lake Orion.
Frederick and Theodore Casamer continued to farm after their mother’s death. They started to sell some of the property in the 1920s and 30s.
The Page family bought part of the farm and lived there in the 1930s and 40s. The Pages were related to the Casamers and Dorothy Page Carpenter lived in Orion Township until her death this July.
The last of the Casamer line bought houses in Lake Orion after selling the farm property. They resided in Lake Orion until the 1970s.
Much of the Casamer family history came from Douglas M. Casamer, the last original bloodline of this historical Orion farm and pioneer family.