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

LANSING To\NSHIIP' AND CITY, WITH hISTORYoI t 4

497

branch office here. This fixed his residence and he never changed
it. Ie arrived here on Christmas day after having walked a
large part of the way from Jackson on account of the miserable
condition of the stage road.
As most residents of Lansing know, the town consisted then of a
cluster of buildings at the foot of Main street, and another around
the dam at North Lansing. Mr. Jenison spent his first three
weeks in Lansing at the National Hotel on Main street. The
town was so crowded that during that time there was not an
available bed in the city for Mr. Jenison to sleep in. A wooden
building was being built on the present site of the Baird and
Hudson block. Quarters were secured there for Macey & Driggs,
and after getting their business into shape he resigned his position
with them and went into the Auditor General's Department,
where he held a clerkship for twelve years.
After these long years, during which writing of some sort had
been Mr. Jenison's means of support, he abandoned the pen and
went into the mercantile business with the late S. S. Coryell.
This business continued until 1868 when he began his long connection with the State Republican. John A. Kerr & Company
were then State printers and proprietors of the State Republican
and Mr. Jenison was bookkeeper in their office and of the other
proprietors of the paper until 1886. The succeeding four years of
Mr. Jenison's life were variously employed, but in 1890 Robert
Smith secured the State printing contract and recalled Mr. Jenison to his old position as bookkeeper in tIhe State printing office
Mr. Jenison was married in Lansing, January 20, 1851, to Ielen
M. Butler. They lhad two sons, Frank 11. and Orien A. Jenison.
There are men who, through a life of fidelity to principle and
scrupulous exactness of dealing, even in the heart of things, gain a
reputation for honesty so that no one hesitated to trust them.
Mr. Jenison was one of these. He was nore than this. He was
a kind-hearted, genial, loving man, who sometimes concealed under an off-hand brusqueness of manner, a gentle heart. Children knew him and loved him. A generation of them years ago
learned to call him "Uncle Jen," and growing to manhood and
womanhood have continued to call him so until the whole city
has learned to use the name.
No sketch of Mr. Jenison's life would be complete without