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

6

PIONEER HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

mittees to proceed with the work, but no tangible progress was
made until within the last two years, when the secretary became
so intensely interested in the work that she labored day and night,
and almost encompassed sea and land, to see the fruition of her
desire for a county historical publication.
Since 1872 the records show that it was several times voted that
the society should raise money to have a county history published, but nothing came of all this, and not until the legislature
passed a law providing that boards of supervisors throughout the
State could appropriate funds for county historical societies to
use for this very purpose, and a committee from the Ingham
County Pioneer and Historical Society went before the Ingham
county board of supervisors and were unanimously given the sum
of $200.00, did the way open for the publication of the desired
history.
The secretary of the society has worked faithfully during the
past year in trying to arouse the people of Ingham county to an
interest in this work. Each month she has sent questions regarding the early history of the county to the various newspapers published within its boundaries, with the request that replies be sent
to her, and with these questions she gave some items of history
as an incentive to the readers to send this material to her. The
results have been very gratifying, and much data gathered in
that way, though the residents of some townships have entered
into the work more readily than others, consequently have a fuller
history.
There may be some discrepancy in dates, and this could scarcely
be avoided when the pioneers themselves were often obliged to
give them approximately, but accuracy has been striven for
throughout the compilation of data.
This is a simple history, told as far as possible in the words of
the pioneers themselves, and it should be doubly interesting because of that fact.
If there are mistakes they can be corrected in the next volume,
and it would be a strange thing if mistakes were not found, for as
one pioneer said, "I never wrote these things down, so can only
draw on my memory for them, and how can I be sure after all
these years which is fact and which tradition."
Dear Public, this volume is submitted to you with the hope