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 OF1 INGHAM COUNTY

REMINISCENCES OF ALVIN ROLFE, WRITTEN IN 1873.
I was living in Lansing at the time the first stake was driven for
the State Capitol in that city. I moved to Lansing in the fall of
1844. It took us two days to move from Vevay to Lansing.
We got there at sundown and found an old log house that had been
used for a stable, which we had to clean out before we could find
shelter for the night. My father-in-law, Noah Page, took the
job of finishing the mill dam and putting up a saw mill at lower
town. My wife and Louisa, the wife of Chancy Page, did the
cooking for forty or fifty hands. They did the cooking in a fivepail kettle and a tin baker, before a fire in the fireplace.
In the winter of 1846-47 the Capitol was located at Lansing,
and it caused much excitement. People came from a great distance in sleighs to see the Capitol and all they could see was a
solitary log house that we were living in.
When the news came that the Capital had been located at,ansing, the people in Delhi and the south part of Lansing Township cut a large log some forty or fifty feet long, and with a great
many yoke of oxen drew it to the mill. When they got in sight
of where we lived they got up on the log and gave three cheers,
swung their hats and cried, "The Capitol has come." They
gave us the log and told us to saw it up for the Capitol, and my
impression is that some of it went into the old State building.
The first accident that happened after the Capital was located
was fatal. The commissioners wanted someone to ferry them
over the river to survey for the Capitol. One of Mr. Seymour's
hands undertook the job and went over the dam and was drowned.
The first frame house built in the city of Lansing I helped to
build. It was a boarding house Father Page put up.