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

INGIHAMI TOWNShIIP AND ITS HISTORY

419

He married Feb. 4, 1821, Elizabeth (Betsey) Brewer, whom tradition gives as a descendent of Anneke Jans.
The journey to Michigan was made by canal boat from Palmyra
to Buffalo, and from there to Detroit by steamboat. Elias Avery
writes of those early times: "The first I remember of my father he
was working land on shares and two years before coming to Michigan got enough together to get that far west and buy eighty acres
of land and get home again. In the fall of 1838 we moved to
Ingham county. We stopped in what is now called Meadsville.
"Old Esquire Caleb Carr lived there and kept the post office,
and if one of our friends happened to write to us we could have
the letter by paying twenty-five cents for it, which was the price
of carrying a letter in those days.
"We secured a log school house with an old fashioned stick
chimney and Dutch fireplace that smoked badly. This was
about three miles from my father's land. He had just about
enough money to get here with, and a large family on his hands
in the woods, but father, Nathan and Christopher found wheat
to thrash with flails for every eighth bushel and they pounded out
black ash splints and mother and the younger children made baskets and carried them to what neighbors we could find and sold
them for venison or anything we could eat, and we had such
appetites we only knew when we had enough when there was no
more on the table. Yet, by diligence we got our living and in
the spring rolled up a log house, covered it with shacks and used
split basswood planks for a floor, for lumber could not yet be
procured. For a chamber floor elm bark was peeled and spread
down so the children could be stowed away overhead. I think
about an acre of ground was cleared and planted. We stayed a
year and traded places with Eaton, getting only fifty-nine acres,
but of better quality and more improvements."
After moving to the Eaton place the family had more room as
another log house was added to the one already standing giving
double the accommodations they had been having.
The deer used to come out of the woods in winter and feed on
the young wheat. "One night," Henry Avery said, "father went
out, and resting his rifle on the corner of the house shot one of
the pretty creatures." Other game was quite plentiful. He remembered of two black bears being killed at one time.