Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

REPORTS OF PIONEER HISTORICAL MEETINGS

97

Officers elected: J. R. Price, Lansing, President; Geo. W. Bristol, Mason, Secretary; J. T. Campbell, Mason, Treasurer. Meeting to be held in Mason.
Only one change in the list of vice presidents elected, and that
was M. J. Pollok for Wheatfield in place of Alonzo Doane.
In the hour for reminiscences John R. Price led with his usual
enthusiasm and valuable deductions.
Judge A. E. Cowles was called to the platform and said he was a
pioneer without a speech, but proceeded to make a good one.
Half a century ago he was brought by his parents to this county,
coming from Ohio. He and his mother and several others made
one load in a single buggy, jolting over the "macadamized road"
of the Black Swamp and fording the Maumeee river. The
household goods were in a wagon hauled by oxen. They located
at Jefferson, three and one-half miles north of Mason. It was
intended and thought at that time that Jefferson would be the
county seat. Cowles, Sr., erected a saw mill, and the speaker
early learned to drive oxen in the highest style of the art. He described the first Fourth of July celebration he ever attended, and
amused the audience by describing the procession which was as
much as eight or ten rods long, and told the prominent part he had
in it. He first attended school in a log school house on the bank of
Mud Creek at Jefferson. There were lots of Indians, who sold
berries, maple sugar and baskets, and he was well acquainted with
Chief Okemos and his sons Johnny and Jimmy. Deer and wolves
were plenty. The family moved to Lansing in 1848, where the
father helped cut off the timber from the old Capitol grounds.
Judge Cowles revived old memories by naming many of the old
settlers of Mason and vicinity who have passed on to their reward.
John J. Tuttle, the prince of pioneers, with a humor peculiarly
his own, kept the audience in a convulsion of laughter relating his
experiences. I-Ie said he was not a speaker, everything was too
mixed up, but he was bound to try and do as well as the old lady
who spoke in church and apologized for herself by saying that her
mind wandered and all the Scripture she could think of at the
moment was that familiar passage, "Goosey, goosey. gander,
where shall I wander?"
He said lie had been in the woods of this county for 55 years.
He early got him a wife in New York, and she was an excellent