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

REPORTS OF PIONEER HISTORICAL MEETINGS 19 Jackson. Some would like to know how we got along without lumber to build with. For floors we cut nice basswood and split them into plank, 'spotted' them in the under side and laid them down as even as we could, then adzed them off, which made quite passable flooring. For roof we peeled bark. For gable ends we split shakes. "The first lumber we had we got in Jackson, to make a coffin for a sister of mine. She died April 7, 1837. I think she was the the first person who died in the town. The first marriage was Jasper Wolcott and Harriet Sergeant. She is now the wife of Edwin Hubbard. The first birth in the township was Nelson Wolcott, son of Jasper Wolcott. "The first saw mill built in the county was by E. B. Danforth. A man by the name of Lacy took the job in the summer of 1836. The first grist mill was started by Mr. Danforth, who got a pair of mill stones-about twenty inches in diameter-set them in the corner of his saw mill and propelled them by the bull-wheel of the mill. Many a bag of corn have I carried on my back from my place to Mason, without any road, to get it ground. The first road we had from my place to Mason was cut in 1837. "When Deacon Barnes moved to Aurelius, those were times that tried men's souls. It was just after Gen. Jackson vetoed the United States Bank, and removed the United States deposits, which caused a panic and made hard times. Good money was not to be found. All the money we had was 'wild-cat' and was not worth the paper it was printed on. There are some who remember those times. It was all the money we could get in 1836-37. "Our neighborhood extended 30 or 40 miles. We often went great distances to raisings. The hardest raising I ever went to was four miles north of Mason. It was a saw mill of Mr. Lewis, father of Nicholas Lewis, our townsman. The place was then called Jefferson. We got the mill up about dark, and got home at two o'clock in the morning. "Folks of this day know nothing of hard times. If they had to pay 10 bushels of wheat for one axe, $25 for a barrel of flour, $40 for a barrel of pork, $2 for oats, 22 cents a pound for fresh pork, and 50 cents for butter, and other things in proportion, with money

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Title
Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.
Author
Adams, Franc L., Mrs. comp.
Canvas
Page 19
Publication
Lansing, Mich.,: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford company,
1923-
Subject terms
Ingham County (Mich.) -- History.

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"Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society." In the digital collection Michigan County Histories and Atlases. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/bad0933.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 1, 2025.
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