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 year 1840 and settled upon the northwest quarter of section 6,
but did not remain there long as in April of the same year they
moved to section 1, northeast quarter, and there in those early
pioneer days of seventy-nine years ago in a then almost unbroken
forest they commenced again anew to hew out the place that was to
be and afterwards was the home where a family of nine children were
reared. And so by extreme industry and the most strict economy
they were able to fell the forest and hew out what is today one of
the finest farms of Ingham county. But they have passed out.
The people of those early days had so many inconveniences, you
may quite safely say they had none but inconveniences as compared with the present day. At that time there were no stoves.
Can you ladies of this generation conceive how you could cook for
a large family without a stove. I think I hear the answer "no."
I will call your attention to some of the hardships of a pioneer
life. The nearest market at that time was Ann Arbor, a distance of 45 miles through the forest by blazed trail, and over roads
many of them through the low marshy ground which today we
would think impossible to travel over.
The roads were so bad it required two yoke of oxen to endure the
fatigue and it took five days to make the round trip. Our mothers
would clean the wool and card by hand and spin the rolls into
yarn and weave and knit it into stockings and socks and weave
into cloth all garments for the family, and this was done by the
light of a tallow candle. But at this time girls did not wear pinhead heels and toothpick-toed shoes, nor did they wear peeka-boo dresses, but time has changed since 1840. In those pioneer
days many of our mothers corded and spun the rolls and wove or
had them woven into cloth and made the dresses that the girls
wore, and this without the aid of a dressmaker, and in the summer
time if the girls perchance were fortunate enough to have a pink
calico dress and sunbonnet to match they looked just as sweet to
the boys as do the girls of 1919. And for shoes, all the girls
went to the shoemaker and the measure of the foot was taken and
the shoe made to fit the foot, not the foot made to fit the shoe.
But here we will let the girls rest and I will return to some of the
pioneer inconveniences of the pioneer life of my parents. An
incident that may be of interest to the present generation of a
pioneer life of what we would now call poverty. I well remember