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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PIONE;ER IIS;TORY OF INGIIHAM COUNTY

stamp, with a quill pen, to mark the lines between the three columns on each page of the book.
The paper upon which the words were stamped is a thick, pulpy
substance much different from the modern finished product, with
peculiar creases in the paper which indicated some obsolete method
of preparation. The book is enclosed in a massive binding of
some sort of leather, which is probably morocco, although the age
of the book makes this uncertain. Reading the words in the book,
and noticing the queer stilted spelling and use of words, one can
see the change which is taking place gradually in the method of
expressing and spelling the English language. Words such as
preface, mathematics and rhetoric are spelled "preaface," "mathematicks" and "rhitoric."
The historical interest which the book holds started when Colonel John Ely, a landed Englishman, ancestor of Charles J.
Decker, 820 North Pennsylvania avenue, owner of the book,
crossed the Atlantic prior to the Revolutionary War, bringing
the volume with him. During the Revolutionary struggle Ely
became a colonel in the American army under Washington, and
his lands were confiscated by the English government. Ely died
penniless excepting for this book, and a few other heirlooms.
The volume has since been handed down from generation to generation until it reached its present owner.
Mr. Decker, whose hobby is collecting rare volumes, has many
other unique books, among them an ancient Hebrew Bible with
the preface starting in the back of the book, and with the pages
reading forward. Another is a book on medicine entitled "Practise of Physics," written at a time when medicine was commonly
called physics.-State Journal, 1916.
SOME TOWN SAID OF OLD LANSING.
Saw Mills, Grist Mills, Tanneries, Stage Coach Lines and All
Listed.
A copy of the Michigan State Gazetteer for 1862, which was recently presented to the Ingham County Historical and Pioneer
Society by John C. Squiers, of Mason, contains much of interest