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

IIEPORTS OF IPIONEER HISTORICAL MIEETINGS

101

the scars on his forehead, which he said the white man had made.
I must say I did not like the looks of any of the crowd.
Our next night was at Mr. Daniel Dutcher's in what is now
White Oak township. He had just moved there. From there
in a distance of 13 miles there were but two houses, one Mr.
Howard's and the other James Rosecrance's. The last was near
father's farm. There we stayed the third night, and went to our
place the next morning. In going my uncle David Meech got
hurt. He was thrown off the wagon and one wheel passed over
his shoulder. He was badly hurt and fainted. My father got
out his jack knife and bled him, and got him to the house. This
consisted of a log body with a long shape roof, no door, no window,
no floor, no chimney. The nearest doctor was at Pinckney, a distance of 35 miles, as we traveled at that time. There were but
two families in the township, Mr. Rosecrance's and my father's.
Mr. Orrin Dana and Mr. Edmond Allchin came in December,
1837, both on the same day. Our settlement was long and not
wide. No school for some time; meetings once a month or more
in summer, but rare in winter.
Mr. Ephraim Meech was called the father of our settlement.
Not that he was the first, for others were there as soon as he, but
he was ever looking after the wants of the settlement. Now came
on the settlers, and among them the Williams brothers, who began
throwing obstructions in the river in the way of a dam.
The settlement needed a saw mill and a grist mill, and soon we
had both-not a circular saw mill, nor a roller process grist mill,
but a pioneer mill, up today and down tomorrow. Soon after
this Perry Henderson, from Syracuse, N. Y., moved onto section
21, Leroy, and began teaching singing school. Then Elder
Kinne and his son were preaching every Sunday in the log school
houses of that section.
Now, as life is not made up of all roses, neither is it all thorns.
But of the many hardships I shall not attempt to write. You will
readily see it was no boy's play. It needed men made of the very
best steel, and with a will like the men and women that landed on
Plymouth Rock. Men that were not to be scared out by the
wolves. I have seen wolves a great many times in broad daylight
near our house and at night near our sheep yard. Grand river