Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

404

PIONEER HISTORY OF INGHIAM COUNTY

night quite a complete wardrobe for a young lady about the size
of my usual school companion, was still drying on the fence.
"A year later a careful examination of the new settlement revealed eight children of legal school age, and the Dansville district was formed. The first school meeting was held in Hale
Granger's wagon shop, or what is now the McKnight lot, and the
voters of the new district decided to start a school at once. True
they had no house, nothing but a district and eight children; but
pioneers were not held back by trifles.
"They did not wait for tax levies or contractors. They did
not look for an architect with plans and specifications; but they
invited every man to come to a bee and bring his axe. Two days
of this combined labor and the temple of education was complete.
District No. 8 was fully equipped to give instructions to its pupils
and take rank with the other seven districts of the township. The
seating capacity of the new edifice was ample, yet it can safely be
said that the children's clothing would have lasted longer if the
slabs of which the benches were made had been denuded of some
of their surplus shakes and slivers. But in due time the boys'
jack knives got in their work to advantage and the pupils could
move about as uneasily as pupils usually do, with safety to body
and limb and without unusual destruction of clothing.
"Among the first teachers employed to take charge of this
model school house was a young lady of the district, whose people,
just from western New York, had given her the advantages of
eastern schools where discipline was somewhat in advance of the
western idea. It was not strange therefore that she should find
fault with some of the charcoal sketches with which I and my
equally artistic seatmate, undertook to adorn the rough hewn
logs of our temple, and when we persisted in our efforts to decorate
the walls, she set us to shading each other's faces with the same
coal pencils with which we had sought to beautify the room. I
remember very well that the other pupils and the teacher seemed
to enjoy the situation more than we did. This lady is still a
prominent lady of your village and I presume never sees me without thinking of the ridiculous figure cut by her two pupils while
undergoing this punishment.
"The same wagon shop before spoken of also served as a hall of
justice for those primitive people, the jury sitting in line on the