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

and is called the Whipple school house. This occurred probably
when I was at the age of five or six years.
There is just one more little incident that occurred in my childhood days which I would like to make mention of. Back in the
early fifties schools were supported by rate bill as was called,
i. e., those sending scholars to school paid the teacher. There
being a division in the district of opinion as regard to the teacher
there were two teachers hired and taught in the same house for
one day only. The scholars whose parents favored the one
teacher took the side that the teacher occupied, but on the second
day there was but one teacher for the entire school. And well do
I recollect back in my early childhood days when the forests were
only partially broken of meeting large processions of Indians as
we were either going or returning from school with their herds of
ponies with bells on them and the squaws with their papooses
strapped upon their backs, some riding the ponies and some walking, and they always had several dogs, but they were always very
civil. Once they camped in front of our house, which was a
natural forest at that time. And now last, but not least, in my
early school days our fathers always found something for a boy
to do upon the farm at the age of seven or eight years. The
teacher would cut a bundle of good tough whips and keep them
on hand as the boys had disputes and would fight and the teacher
would give each boy a whip and tell them to go to it. This was
considerable amusement for the other boys looking on to see who
would become the champion. But, thank fortune, we have
advanced from such crude practice to a more enlightened age.
BENJAMIN PERKINS AVERY, PIONEER OF INGHAM
COUNTY.
Benjamin Perkins Avery, the youngest son of Nathan and Aliff
(Pearson) Avery, was born in Rutland, Vt., Jan. 26, 1799. HiS
father, Nathan Avery, was a Revolutionary soldier, and after a
few years residence in Vermont after the war settled in Palmyra,
N. Y., when Benjamin was about seventeen years old, living in that
vicinity until 1838 when he came with his family to Michigan.