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

Philema, and Elijah and his wife Alvira, gathered together the
articles most necessary for home keeping, and bidding their relatives and friends farewell, each with ox-team and covered wagon
started out on their long journey.
"After crossing Lake Ontario they slowly made their way
through Canada to Detroit river, which they crossed on a ferry
boat. From there they wended their way through the dense
Michigan forests by means of a blazed trail, until they reached
what is now Onondaga. From there they had to cut their own
road through, coming to a halt, after many long weeks of travel,
at a spot near where the school house now stands. Mr. Olmstead
took from the government the land now owned by Daniel DeCamp,
and just a little south of George Smith's home built a little log
cabin. Mr. Wilcox took up the land that was afterward for many
years owned by John Slaughter, building his log house near the
Elkins home.
"At about this time came Geo. Wilcox from the old home in
Orleans county, and settled on what was later the Floyd Rorabeck
farm.
"It was very new, as I have before stated. Indians roamed
through the forests, and often frequented their cabins, and through
the quiet of the night could be heard the howling of wolves, or
the breaking of branches as the deer sprang through the thickets
pressed by their wild enemies. This lonely life and the call of
the homeland led Demetrius back over the same trail by which
he had come back to the old home in York State. Demetrius
traded his south 80 to one of his neighbors, Chas. Jennings, a
young man, who with his wife Evelin and his two sons Dar and
Marion, followed the same trail Mr. Olmstead had taken to the
West, and at last reached the land they had purchased. They
erected a log house near where Daniel DeCamp's house now stands.
Again the call of the wild and the desire to grasp the opportunity
offered by the new country led Demetrius to come back to the
cabin and land he had left.
"In 1839 came Timothy Strong. Up from the East he traveled
with his wife Sarah, then a girl of eighteen years, and settled on
the farm now owned by his son Dave. At the same time with
Timothy came his brother David, and settled across from Geo.
Smith's home. The solitude of the vast forest is now broken.