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 INGIIAM COUNTY

also the mother of Mrs. Wm. Gardner, who with her husband was
drowned in Grand river some years ago.
I believe Henry Phillips was the first male child born in the
township.
Henry D. North wrote for the annual meeting of the Ingham
County Pioneer Association, held in Mason, May 25, 1873, the
following:
The township of Delhi was first settled in January, 1838, by
Frederick R. Luther and wife of Lenawee county, Mich. William
Wood, Joseph Wilson, Philander Morton and Mr. Norris came the
same year.
In 1839 my father, Joseph E. North, settled in what is now
Lansing Township, from his former home Lansing, Tompkins
county, N. Y. My mother died in August, 1854, aged 64 years.
I first came to Ingham county to look for a location in the fall of
1837, and moved my family here in the spring of 1839.
The first death was that of the wife of William Wood, who died
in the summer of 1839. Our oldest child was the first white child
born in the township.
Elder Bennett, of the M. E. church, was our first minister.
The first couple married here was Russell P. Everett and Eliza A.,
daughter of Joseph E. North. Delhi was inserted in the petition
to the Legislature for organization in 1841 by Roswell Everett.
Matthew King came from Scotland in 1839, and bought 160
acres of land from the government at one shilling an acre, onehalf mile east of Delhi Center. He lived in a cave in the hogs
back the first winter, then built a log house and married Flora
Hudson. Seven children came from this union, Sarah, Jane,
Maryann, William, Catherine, John, Marcia and Mattie, five of
them still living in 1919. Later Mr. King took some gravel and
lime and built one of the first gravel or grout houses, which still
stands on the hogsback. One day the family looked out of the
house and saw a hog coming toward them; some wild animal had
eaten a meal out of one ham, and the hog was hastening into the
vicinity of human beings.
Such was life in those early days!
Written for the mid-year meeting at Holt, Dec. 4, 1919.