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

The first cemetery in the township was the North Cemetery,
which was laid out in 1842, and cost the township fifteen dollars.
The first town meeting was held in a log school house at Delhi
Center, April 4, 1842. It organized by appointing David Wait,
chairman; Roswell Everett, Caleb Thompson, D. H. Stanton
and Henry H. North inspectors. The whole number of votes
cast was twenty-two. The following is the list of officers elected:
Supervisor-Henry H. North.
Clerk-Caleb Thompson.
Treasurer-Roswell Everett.
Henry H. North brought into the township with him the first
hog that was here. He made a log pen and covered it with logs
to keep out the wild animals. One spring day while he was
making sugar in the woods my grandmother, hearing the hog
making an outcry, ran out just in time to see a bear push off the
top logs and try to lift the hog out of the pen. She ran where
they were and tried to scare the bear away, but he had no mind to
lose his pork dinner. At this opportune moment two of my
grandfather's brothers arrived on the scene, and succeeded in
driving the bear away with clubs, and without the hog. The
porker's back had to be sewed up where the bear's claws had ripped
it open, but in a short time she was none the worse for the adventure, and lived to tell the story to her children.
I have heard my father tell stories of the Indian Chief Okemos.
He often stopped at grandfather's and would open the door and
walk in without knocking. Grandfather reproved him, saying
that white folks knocked before entering anyone's house. The
next time Okemos stopped he pounded vigorously on the door,
then opened it at once and entered with a satisfied expression, exclaiming, "Me heap white man now, me knock." Once a year,
sometimes twice, he and his band would pass grandfather's home
and camp on the flats north of there. The string of ponies was
often more than three quarters of a mile long. When the first
one was opposite the house the last one had not yet passed the
North school house.
One day a squaw stopped at grandfather's and wanted to trade
baskets for food. Seymour North, then a little fellow of three or
four, had crawled way back under the elevated oven of the old
fashioned stove, but the sharp eyes of the Indian woman saw