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

242

PIONEER HISTORY OF INGIIAM COUNTY

having lived all that time on the farm which Mr. Speer helped
clear and improve; thus being among the very earliest of the remaining pioneers of Ingham county, as well as having, possibly
exceeded all others in the duration of their married life.
Mr. Speer was born October 3, 1827, in Seneca county, N. Y.,
and at the age of ten came with his parents to the far West, as
Michigan was then known. Instead of driving through Canada,
the family came by the luxurious route via Erie canal to Buffalo,
thence to Detroit by steamboat, where they obtained teams and
wagons and proceeded to their first stopping place in the new
land in Washtenaw county. Here they lived ten years, and in
1847 the family again left their home and came over the "short
hills," over the portages and through the "oak openings" to the
heavy timber land where Mr. Speer now lives.
On January 20, 1850, Mr. Speer married Miss Sylvia Aseltine,
who was born in Canada, at the foot of Lake Champlain, Sept.
11, 1831, and came with her parents to Michigan in 1837, driving
the entire distance, and settling in Washtenaw county the same
year in which her husband came. Her family came to Ingham
county in 1842, all the inhabitants in common suffering the usual
privations and hardships of pioneer life.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Speer in 1850 a home was
built. This was a log house of one room which served as kitchen,
parlor, dining room and sleeping apartment. A stone fireplace,
with a hearth of flat stone, and a chimney constructed of sticks
laid up cob-house fashion and plastered with mud inside and out,
served as a range and heater. The roof of the house was made of
"shakes," riven out of bolts of straight-grained timber by means of
mallet and froe, driven by pioneer muscle power, and placed in
such a manner as to answer every purpose of protection from
storm. In this home they lived while subduing and making of
the wild land, a fertile farm, and here they raised their family
and literally grew up with the country.
The oldest son relates an incident of his early boyhood that was
not only of much importance to him at the time, but indicates one
of the social customs as well. His parents had bought their
first cook stove, which was an event of interest to the community,
and the boy had acquired a pair of new red-topped, copper-toed
boots-an affair of far greater magnitude to him. The rats had