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

LANSIN(G TOWNSIIII' AND CITY, 'WVITI HISTORY

601

his arrangements upset and there was no place for us. We were a
new family, however, that had just come into the woods and so
were the center of everybody's interest, and it was not long before
one family offered to take us in. So we were provided for temporarily. It was not long after that that father found an abandoned log house into which we could move, and so we fortified
ourselves there for the winter, which was almost upon us.
"The farm my folks had selected was about two and a half
miles southwest of Okemos. There was sort of a trail that led
out to it. I was early set to cutting brush and I well remember
cutting the brush in one particular place because my father said
that was where our house was to stand.
"We had not been so long in our new home when, with a party
of others, we went on horseback through the woods to Lansing.
I think we must have followed a trail that is substantially where
the road is now, but we came out at the settlement about the
dam at North Lansing. On the way to this settlement we passed
one cleared farm, but I do not remember whose it was. It gave
evidence of having been cleared for some years.
"I do not recall whether the Bush & Thomas store, which for
a time stood at East Main and River streets, was there when I
first knew Lansing, but I remember it distinctly at that location
in after years.
"TALKED WITH CHIEF OKEMOS.
"Yes," said Mr. Calahan, "I often saw and talked with Okemos.
The village of his people was right at the spot we now call Okemos.
Okemos was a man of character, Indian fashion. He was generally liked and, I feel, respected according to the lights of those
crude days. My remembrance of him was that he was neither
large nor small, but, as we say, well-built. The last time I remember of seeing him he was seated at the roadside. My friend
and I spoke with him. He was asked how old he was; as always,
he answered 'Heventy-poi.' He meant he was seventy-four, but
that did not signify, for so long as I knew of him he was always
'heventy-poi.' He never said differently. I remember vividly
the terrible scars he carried. They were received in the battle of
Sandusky, in the War of 1812."
It is related that the son of "Old Okemos," who, like his father,