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

INGHIAM TOWNSIIP AND ITS HISTORY

407

troit at noon. The old Commodore Perry eventually came in
and they sailed to Buffalo. The trip took two days and nights and
they arrived just before the great storm broke, in which nearly
every vessel on the lake went down. During this storm a colored
sailor swam nine miles to shore with his captain on his back,
and they were the only survivors from the men on their boat.
At Buffalo the Swan boys took an Erie canal packet. After
going a ways some of the crew tapped one of the kegs of brandy in
the cargo. First they knocked a hoop loose, then bored a hole in
the stave under it, and after drawing out a kettle full of brandy
plugged the hole and drove the hoop back. The driver left his
team on the tow-path and came abroad to get his share, and while
running forward to throw potatoes at his horses and keel) them
moving he stumbled and fell overboard. A deck hand ran to the
rail with a pike pole. "Oh, Mike!" he called, " aId can ye shwim?"
"Sure," sputtered Mike, "an' I dunno yit." Mike was hauled
abroad, dripping, shivering and half strangled. "Let me git to
thot brandy," he begged, as he hovered over the cook's fire, "I
want the inside to be as wet as the outside."
Eleven years passed before Mr. Swan came to Michigan to stay.
In that time he made another short visit here and also sailed one
season off the Atlantic coast mackerel fishing. On March 4,
1852, he was married to Miss Ann Francisco at Knowlesville,
Orleans county, N. Y. He still preserves the marriage certificate,
written out on a small sheet of fancy note paper and reading as
follows:
Orleans County, New York, Town of Ridgeway, ss.
I do certify that on the 4th day of March, 1852, at the home of D
James, in said town, James Swan and Ann Francisco were with
their mutual consent lawfully joined together in matrimony, which
was duly solemnized by me in the presence of Edward Bellows
and Abigal Bellows, and I do further certify that I ascertained that
they were of lawful age to contract the same.
Sands. Cole, J. P.
The witnesses did not sign the certificate. Mrs. Abigail Bellows, the bride's sister, is now living in Lansing as Mrs. Anson
Loomis.
The harbor was full of ice when Mr. and Mrs. Swan left Buffalo
one night early in May of that year on a boat which they after