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 IIISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

The school house where I first attended school was built of logs,
and was about 18 x 24 feet in size with the stove set in the middle
of the room.
The desks were built around the sides and end of the room. We
had to sit facing the walls when writing, which was the only time
we used the desks. While studying and reciting we sat facing the
center of the room on benches split out of trees which had sticks
placed in holes bored in them to support them.
Logs were drawn up by the side of the school house, and the
young men from fourteen to twenty years of age cut the wood to
warm the room. These young men, many of them visited their
traps before coming to school. These were generally of the kind
called "dead-falls." One young man reported on two different
occasions having found two mink in his traps. The fur was
bringing $10 at that time, which was just the price of a pair of
French calf boots.
Matches were scarce and we were often sent to the neighbors for
live coals with which to start the fire.
The readers used in the schools at that time contained the best
expressions on patriotism of any time in the history of the country.
The contents were also of a religious nature. The leather covered Sander's fifth reader, which I still possess, devoted one-third
of its contents to religious quotations founded on the Bible. The
Scriptures were brought to the pupils through the text books.
On examining the readers of the same grade used in our schools
now we found only two selections that made mention of God or
religion.
The qualifications of teachers in those early days was determined by three school commissioners who conducted the examinations orally. At that early date, 1856, each school possessed a
library of good books. Many of them discussed religious subjects
and contained biographies of good men.
When I was quite a lad the Indian chief, Okemos, and his tribe
was much talked of. I saw him once. The squaws came several
times to our house, peddling baskets. The old Chief often visited Lansing, but could never be persuaded to have his picture
taken, saying if they took his face he would die, until on one
ocaasion Joseph North, father of the North's that early settled in
Delhi, and my grandfather, Dennison Hewett Hilliard, met him