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

AURELIUS TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

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ket, and the exchange made. Such is a small part of the history
of those who blazed the way for the settlement of District No. 2,
Aurelius.
To the list that have carried on, when the first named pioneers
must of need lay their work down, may be added those of Davis,
Scutt, Bateman, Craft and Fanson, who have done for their day
and times much to make District No. 2 a commendable and progressive part of our great commonwealth.
DISTRICT NO. 3, WILCOX SCHOOL.
By Miss SARAH JENNINGS.
One warm summer day as the sun was sinking below the horizon I chanced to be passing the Wilcox school house. The door
standing ajar, I decided to enter and sat down in one of the old
seats to see how it would seem. As I sat there my mind began to
recall the happenings of by-gone days. The day was sultry, and
very unintentionally I fell asleep. I awoke with a start finding
the room dark, save for the light of the moon which cast its silvery
beams across the floor, and the night wind gently blowing in at
the door through which I had entered. A voice very soft and low
and with the tremor of age, seeming to proceed from the front
walls of the room said, "I am the voice of the school and I have
much of importance that I have long waited an opportunity to
relate. Many years I have resided here and I claim first place as
historian, for throughout the years have I not had daily representatives from nearly every home in this little community,
and how better could one know the life of the homes than through
the children?
"My story dates back a to a time 85 years ago, in 1836, before
this school existed here, to a time when the spot on which I now
stand, and all around, was part of a vast wilderness. Far away to
the east, on the shores of Lake Ontario in Orleans county, N. Y.,
two young men, Demetrius Olmstead and Elijah Wilcox, were
seeing visions and dreaming dreams of a land far away to the west,
a land of opportunity where they might make a home. With the
hope and buoyancy of youth, Demetrius and his young wife