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

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PIONEER HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

Hewes was an early arrival in the locality possibly coming before
Capt. Cowles.
Silas Beebe, who settled in Stockbridge in June, 1838, made a
trip through Ingham county in February of that year, and in his
diary of the journey thus speaks of Jefferson:
"We stayed over night in Stockbridge Township, left after
breakfast for Ingham Center; we soon struck into timbered lands
and saw less of swamps and marshes. Roads were less traveled
but, guided by marked trees, we found our way to the Center,
called Jefferson City. The first blow toward this place was
struck last September. It has now some ten or fifteen acres cut
down ready to clear, five or six log houses peopled, a school house
and school. We went on foot about a mile and found two huts, a
little clearing and a family going in, but here was the end of a
beaten road, and the end of all road except an Indian trail.
"We had designed to continue our journey to DeWitt in Clinton county, only fourteen miles from this place, but were obliged
to forego the journey for want of a road. At Jefferson, which will
undoubtedly be a place of some importance some day, being the
center of the county and nearly of the State, we had great offers
made us if we would locate there, but things looked too new and
prospects of gain too far to suit our views. So we gave it the go-by
for the present. On the 25th of February we left for home,
taking, from necessity, the route by which we came in, there being
no other way out of the city. Three and one-half miles south of
this is a place of about equal claims, called Mason. A saw mill
(frozen up), a few houses and surrounding forest are all it can
boast of."
At the time of Mr. Beebe's visit, therefore, it seems that Jefferson City was a place of greater pretensions than Mason. It has
been hinted by some that had the former place been in the hands of
more energetic persons its future would have been vastly different from that which is known.
Mason, the rival place, was at once pushed to the front and
maintained its supremacy over all other villages in the county
except Lansing, which was backed by the State.
By an act approved March 13, 1838, the four townships comprising the northeast quarter of the county of Ingham were set off
and organized into a separate townships by the name of Alaiedon,