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

INGIIAM COUNTY NOTES

183

their pace and with a burst of speed we pass Gate No. 5 west of
Fowlerville. We stop at Fowlerville to let off passengers and discharge mail at the road house and then speed away to Howell,
nine miles distant, for we must catch the night stage into Detroit.
We pass through Six Corners and the Four Mile House and pass
teams loaded with wheat going toward Detroit. At Four Mile
House we saw lots of loaded teams that have put up for the
night. We have met teams going west that have been to Detroit
and now are returning home loaded with goods and supplies for
the merchants in the towns we have passed. Down a long hill
we go across a red covered bridge that spans a branch of the
Shiawassee river; up a hill we climb and in the distance we can
see the spire of a church that reflects the rays of the setting sun.
Jack cracks his whip and the team breaks into a gallop and with a
flourish we pull up at the Rupert Hotel in Howell for supper and
to take the night stage into Detroit, with John Blessed as driver.
Safely seated in the night coach we in the darkness dream of how
in the future we can travel in a horseless carriage over a smooth
road and make in comfort the same distance in four hours that it
takes us now twenty-four. Good night.
DR. F. N. TURNER.
HOW PIONEERS OF INGHAM PUT GOOD ROADS IDEA IN
CRUDE EFFECT.
Plank road history out of Lansing, found in old archives by
Mrs. Franc L. Adams, Mason, secretary of the Ingham County
Historical Association, is contributed by her as a fitting supplement to the account of the old road from the pen of Dr. Turner,
printed in these columns.
Mrs. Adams says the advent of the white man into this peninsular territory was the signal for the disappearance of Indian trails
and the opening of roads, such as they were, for the accommodation
of the teams and wagons which the settlers brought in, although
when Lewis Cass was appointed territorial governor in 1813
Michigan was still a dense wilderness. Marked improvement,
however, was seen from that time on, but not until 1826 were any