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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PIrONEER HISTORY OF INGIIAM COUNTY

situated long years before passing out. Now, trusting this may be
of interest to some of you at least, I shall be repaid for my effort.
A. C. CLARK.
Lansing, Mich., April 13th, 1919.
Having thought perhaps a little sketch of the biography of my
past life from my earliest recollections up to the present time might
be of interest to the most of you, I will endeavor to narrate some of
the incidents that I think will be of the most interest.
I was born upon section 6 of the township of Ingham county on
February 23rd, 1843, and my people moved from there onto section 3 of the northeast quarter in the fore part of April of the same
year, I being then about one and a half months old. I remained in
this home continuously until I reached the age of twenty-one. This
was practically a new county. There were bear, deer and fox
as wild game, and I can remember the early settlers having to
cover their hog pens with small logs to prevent the bear from carrying away their hogs, and of the hunters of the then wild forests
belling and putting their hound dogs on their runways and the
hunters standing still in hiding to shoot them as they came along.
I can also well remember the inconvenience we were put to before
matches were made. The pioneers were accustomed to building
up their fire in the old Dutchback fireplaces and oftentimes
the fire would not keep until morning and I have often had to go
to the nearest neighbor with a shovel to get some coals if they were
more fortunate than we were. Some people depended upon steel
flint and punk in case of an emergency and sun glasses were used
by some, but of course they were only successful when the sun
shone brightly.
I can remember when hand sickles were used for reaping grain,
but they were replaced by more modern tools before I reached the
age of manhood. There were no machines for reaping grain or
hay until I was about twenty years of age. One of my earliest
recollections of the pioneer days was that of a man by the name of
Hammond who was a shoemaker by trade who used to make all of
our shoes and boots, and as my father was a blacksmith they ex