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

ALAIEDON TOWNSlIP1 AND ITS IISTORY

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had the papers all ready for the prisoner's release, and he was out
of jail and home ahead of them.
Signed, PIONEER BOY.
Mrs. Betsey Webber, one of the Munroe sisters, well known to
all older residents of Ingham county, tells the following pioneer
story which cannot fail to be of interest to Alaiedon residents.
At the time of this incident she lived with her parents in Clinton
county, near what is now Wacousta. She says:
"One cold day in November, 1838, our people had an urgent
appeal for them to send one of their girls to an uncle's in Ingham
county, about four miles beyond Mason, which made the distance
thirty-five miles through the forest. The matter was talked over,
and it was decided that Betsey should go-must necessarily go on
horseback, as there was no other way. My brother being fourteen years old and myself sixteen, he would have to go to bring
back the horse which I should ride.
"We started and went as far as Grand River City, now Delta,
fed our horses and were ready to start again. Now it was nineteen
miles before coming to another house, and the road so bad we had
to walk our horses nearly all the way, and intensely cold weather.
Passed through where Lansing now stands-it was a howling wilderness. When we came to Okemos we were in hopes to find some
Indians so that we could go into their wigwams and get warm, but
not so; they had all gone farther north into the woods. The river
was to be forded, the sun was nearly down, and then we had seven
miles of Indian trail before coming to another house. We were
thinly clad and very cold. The river was frozen from each bank,
three or four feet. My brother got a large stick and broke the
ice, so we got down into the water very well, but when we came
to the ice on the other side the horses had to rear and plunge and
break the ice themselves, and if I had not been an expert horseback rider should have been thrown into the river (Red Cedar
river), but we came through all right. Now we struck the trail
to go to the next stopping place.
"It being dark and the ground heavily covered with leaves we
lost the trail, and how to find it we didn't know, but we stopped
and considered what was best to do. I said to brother, "I will
stand still and hold the horses, and you take a circle round and see