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

REPORTS OF PIONEER HISTORICAL MEETINGS

49

mittee, a set of questions and suggestions calculated to aid them
in procuring the desired information respecting the various towns.
It was suggested that the stories and speeches be restricted to
ten minutes, and one remarked that those who knew enough
interesting things to take him over ten minutes to tell should be
allowed the time, which led Amaziah Winchell, of Ingham, to say
"the men that know the least usually talk the longest."
Thales Huntoon, of Leslie, led off, stating that he came into the
county in 1840, and had lived in the town of Leslie most of the
time since. He had many pleasant, as well as unpleasant, recollections of the early days of his life here. He was only a boy
when he came, and claimed to be not much more than a boy yet.
IIe related one incident of his early life. Being detained quite
late one evening while visiting a lady of his acquaintance, he found
it necessary to go home in the dark, part of the way through the
woods with no house nearer than a mile and a half. As he entered the woods he heard a loud noise that caused his hair to raise
on end. Ile picked up a club, accelerated his speed somewhat,
losing a boot heel in his haste, glad to reach his home with no worse
mishap. The next day a huge bear was killed near where he
heard the noise. The greatest trouble of all was, he said, that he
did not get the girl he risked his life for.
Elijah Woodworth, of Leslie, said he was forcibly struck with
the idea of contrast on this occasion. Ile contrasted the present
with the time when he located land in this county in 1835, and
settled on it the next year. lIe supposed he was the first man to
build a house in the county. As he traveled the length and
breadth of the county in choosing a location he did not see a single
white man. He spoke of the many advantages of the present as
compared with those of earlier days; the schools, churches, cars,
beautiful farms and good houses, where then was only the wild
forest. He thought the present generation was happy, "physcally, but not more so mentally, than we were. We dreamed
that some such time was to come, but the realization has greatly
surpassed our expectations. Our farms for which we paid $1.25
per acre are now worth as many hundred dollars per acre."
Wm. A. Dryer said he would tell a "sort of scare story," in
contrast to Mr. Woodworth's remarks. In 1838 he used to go to
Caleb Carr's, some distance from home, to get the mail. On the