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

LEROY TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

617

makes me the first white child born in Leroy Township. Here I
have always lived by chance or choice ever since. I have always
lived in the same school district. The first two years of my life I
had no playmates outside of the family but Indian boys. My
father had a family of eight children but at the present writing,
December 26, 1906, I am the only one living. I have no cousins,
uncles or aunts living. I am the only survivor of the Dana family
who were pioneers.
The townships of Leroy, Wheatfield, Locke and Williamston
were all together in 1838 and known as Phelpstown. In 1839
Leroy and Wheatfield were one township called Brutus and had
an election. Henry Lee was elected supervisor. In 1840 this
township was divided and the two parts were called Leroy and
Wheatfield. They elected township officers as follows:
LEROY TOWNSHIP TICKET, 1840.
Whole number of votes cast in election, eleven.
Supervisor-Levi Rowley.
Clerk-Orren Dana.
Treasurer-Isaac Coleman.
Justice of the Peace-Orren Dana.
Assessors-Ephraim Meech, Daniel Wilcox.
Commissioners of Highways-Daniel Tobias, Daniel Wilcox.
School Inspectors-Henry Lee, Levi Rowley.
Director of Poor-Orren Dana.
Twenty-five dollars was raised for the support of the school for
one year.
My first remembrance was that wolves, bears and deer were very
common. There were no roads, only trails cut wide enough for a
sled or wagon. These roads followed no surveyed lines but went
from one settler's clearing to another's. When any traveling was
done people went on foot rather than be jostled in an ox wagon
or bounced around in a sled. In hitching up an ox team they had
to find the oxen in the woods, so it was a half day before they
could get ready to start.
One day my two brothers went across the woods to Mr. Rowley's about a mile away. In making the trip they ran across a she
bear and two cubs. The mother bear was ugly and started