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

INGHIAM COUNTY NOTES

213

wounded. All that winter he endured the horrors of a Crimean
military hospital, the only bright spot being the fact that Florence
Nightingale, the "Angel of the Crimea," was one who helped
minister to his needs. One of the soldiers composed a poem in
her honor, and the boys surprised her one day when she entered
the hospital by singing this song, which they had found music to
fit. After the fall of Sebastopol the 400 survivors of his regiment
set sail for England, landing at Gibraltar in 1856. Asiatic cholera
attacked the troops and many of them died. Upon his return to
England Mr. Wilson did recruiting service at Hull, England, then
went to Port of Good Hope, Africa, on garrison duty. He was
invalided home from there and put on garrison duty at Femoy,
Ireland. In 1859 he obtained a furlough and as soon as he reached
England he took ship for America, without a chance to bring with
him the various medals he had received while in service. He
landed in New York on New Years Day, 1860, without a penny in
his pocket, but by hard work and thrift he acquired a modest
fortune before his death, which occurred in Mason in 1912.
He came of a military family, his grandfather having fought
with Wellington at Waterloo, and received fourteen medals in
recognition of his services. Mr. Wilson had an older and a
younger brother in the English army for twenty-one years and
who helped crush the great Sepoy rebellion.
BLACK HAWK WAR, 1831.
Jonathan Freeland, participated in the Black Hawk War, and
is buried at the Felt Plains Cemetry, Bunkerhill. He was born
at Kingsclear, Maine, 1806. Died in Bunkerhill, 1880. His two
sons, Henry C. and John, served in the Civil War, and his grandson,
Dr. O. H. Freeland, of Mason, was assistant surgeon in the 31st
Michigan Infantry in the Spanish-American War.
J. J. Tuttle, of Leslie.
Gustavus Adolphus Smith, of Stockbridge.
John Mullett, of Meridian, best known as a surveyor in Michigan
and Wisconsin, during the War of 1812 was an officer in the
"Buffalo Home Guards," and was present at the battle of Black
Rock. His work as surveyor in 1822 involved him in the little
fracas between the Indians and whites which gave Battle Creek,
Michigan, its name. He was in Wisconsin surveying when the