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

INGIIAM TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

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couple. Many were the notable gatherings where he played, but
the one which he remembers best is the great ball at Squire Linderman's tavern in Mason, two blocks north of where the court house
now stands. The big ball room was crowded, and as for refreshments, "Everything's all right," said the doorkeeper, "There's a
bottle in the bed room and a hog in the house. Soon there was
not room for the dancers on the ball room floor, and an overflow
meeting was started in the dining room of the other tavern, just
south of the present court house square. Another fiddler was secured who could play country dances, and each couple, after
dancing a cotillion in the big ball room, threaded their way up
Main street in the dark, dodging the stumps and hollows, and
sought the other tavern, where they stepped through the movements of the country dance until the arrival of more couples notified them that there was room on the floor at Squire Linderman's.
The sun was shining in at the windows when the dance ended,
and the dancers, many of whom had come 20 miles or more
through the forest on horseback or in ox-carts, went home. Members of Mr. Swan's family played the organ, dulcimer, 'cello and
other instruments, and with this orchestra he held dances at his
home, besides playing all over the country for many years, but
with the introduction of modern two-steps and waltzes he quit in
disgust. He calls them "baby dances," and remains constant in
his preference for the graceful figures and merry tunes of his
younger days.
Mr. Swan tells interesting tales of hunting in the early days.
While he was taking the honey from a bee tree he had cut in the
forest back of his house one day a big buck came bounding past,
and his dog caught the creature by the ear and dragged it down.
It pushed the dog along on the ground, however, and Mr. Swan
ran up with the ax to kill it before it should press the dog up
against a tree or stump and impale him on its antlers. The dog
lost its hold just as the man swung the ax, and the deer's great
horns swept up by his face. As he struck at its head the dog
dragged the deer down again, and the ax was buried so deeply in
the creature's body behind the fore leg that the man could hardly
pull it out. A second blow cut off one of the struggling animal's
hind legs, and then Mr. Swan, forcing his knee between the deer's
other limb and its body, so that it could not draw up and strike