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

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PIIONEER HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

THE OLD DETROIT, HOWELL AND LANSING PLANK
ROAD.
My earliest recollections of this road dates back to the year
1862 or 1863, when I was a small boy and traveled it in visiting an
uncle with my parents. This uncle was a farmer and lived on a
fine farm one mile east and two miles south of Okemos. It had
been built eight or ten years previous to this time and was until
1871 the only direct route to Detroit from Lansing. The railroad
route at that time was from Lansing to Owosso, then from Owosso
over the Milwaukee R. R. to Detroit, the Metropolis of Michigan.
The traveling public in going to Detroit over this route had to
travel by stage. The stage went to Howell during the day and
from Howell to Detroit it was a night trip. In reality a twentyfour hour trip, if the roads were good, by stage to Detroit instead
of a three or four hour trip by automobile now. Let us go back
fifty-two years and make this trip, or part of it, to Howell at
least, and try to describe some of the things and places we see on
our journey.
On a bright sunny day in September, 1864, after a good oldfashioned five o'clock breakfast, we report for the journey at the
old Butterfield Hotel at North Lansing. This hotel was on the
north side of Franklin street on the ground now occupied by the
Rikerd Lumber Company. It was a two-story wooden building
painted yellow with a porch along its entire front. The barn
where the stage and horses were kept was just east of it.
The peculiar thing that struck my boyish fancy was that of the
arrangement of these two buildings-the hotel stood broadsides
to the street while the barn stood end to street. Just west of the
hotel was a grocery kept by a German, Walters, and west of this
was another grocery kept by another German named Englehart.
Walters' grocery always had a fascination for the kids who attended the First Ward School, for besides the candies and marbles,
he made in a small way fireworks. The stage coach is before the
hotel ready to start. It is a type of what we see now in the Wild
West shows, i. e., heavy wheels, body hung on leather braces,
deep boot and drivers seat in front and trunk rack behind. Inside