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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78, one 77, one 76, and three are younger. Two live in Texas,
two in California, and nine in Michigan. I am the only one still
tenting on the old camp ground.
Of those who located and settled here in a very early day all
were of a class that came to stay and stayed to build a home in the
wilderness, and built it, to compel the forest to give way to cultured
field, and compelled it, and here they lived their remaining days.
Of the 32 pioneers that came very early, 30 lie in the North
Aurelius Cemetery, while one died in New York and one in Ohio.
The first marriage in the neighborhood was performed by Rev.
Thomas Wakelin; the contracting parties Thomas Presley and
Martha Smith, Sept. 10, 1846. The second was on the following
Christmas eve., when occurred the marriage of Thomas and Mary
Ann Wright.
DISTRICT NO. 6 (FRACTIONAL), IN TOWNSHIPS OF
AURELIUS, ONONDAGA, IN INGHAM COUNTY AND
HAMLIN AND EATON RAPIDS, EATON COUNTY.
By MRS. ALFRED PARKER, Aurelius.
This fractional district is known as the Plains District. The
first record I found of actual settlement was in 1835, made by Col.
Robert Montgomery and wife and their five sons, Col. John,
Johnson, Robert, Wm. and Alexander.
They obtained their land from the government, and settled on
the Onondaga Township corner, and later obtaining more land for
the boys upon which they settled. Hence the name Montgomery
Plains.
To John M., who built the stone house on the Hamlin Township
corner, was born three sons, Robert, Scott and Albert, also one
daughter, Alvira Montgomery Miller. The sons were all farmers.
To Johnson was born a large family of children: Lieut. Dudley,
who after the Civil War went to Kansas; Amanda Huntington;
Helen Baldwin, now living in Minnesota; Charles, who was accidentally killed in early childhood; Jack, a farmer; Ezra, who was
killed while serving in the Civil War; Caroline Shaw, Celestia
Miller, and Judge Morris Robert, who died at his home in Eaton