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

LEROY TOWNSHTIP AND ITS HISTORY

527

the house, finally so near that they made the glass rattle in the
window. (We had one six-light window in our house.) I got up
and made a good fire, as I had heard that wolves were afraid of the
light from a fire. I then took some quilts and spread them out on
some boards that served as a chamber floor, only a few feet above
our heads. We had a girl eight years old that we had adopted.
I helped her get up on the boards, which were about four feet in
width, and then climbed up myself. I was afraid the wolves
would break through the window from which two panes of glass
were gone. The brutes kept up a constant howling until near
morning, then it grew fainter as they went farther away. I was
glad to see daylight again. The horrors of that night I shall never
forget while I live.
The next year settlers began to come in. I hailed them with
joy, for I had not seen a woman in eight months, except the one
that came in with us, and I had had no communication with the
outside world in that time. After a few families had come and
settled here the Methodist preachers found their way into the
wilderness and preached the gospel to us. They were sent by
the Board of Home Missions, I suppose, as they claimed no pay
for preaching.
Mr. Meach raised the first crop of grain raised by a white man
in Leroy. It was very favorable to us that we were healthy, as
there were no doctors to be found nearer than Dexter. Mr.
Meach used to carry grain to mill for the other dwellers in our vicinity, as many of them had no teams. The roads were so bad,
and as the streams had to be forded it took nearly a week to make
the journey to mill and back. I could tell of much suffering among
the pioneers, but what would it avail? Some were forced to live
on bread with a little maple sugar.
We came to this place before the township had a name or was
organized. When they held the first township meeting it was
held in Ingham. The inhabitants of four townships met, the few
there were of them. The next year they held their meeting in
Leroy, at our house. The first time Mr. Meach was in Mason
there were three log houses and one frame house partly enclosed.
Also a saw mill owned by Danforth and Co. Those were all of
the buildings of which Mason could boast in 1838. There were
none at Dansville at that time.