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

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PIONEER HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

Center. We were gone two days and the practical knowledge of
surveying and finding section corners was a great help to me. He
was an expert in that work. My second experience was in staking
out the new Okemos cemetery, Marshall, his brother, who was
a great joker, had the laugh on me for I was an undergraduate in
medicine at that time.
Marshall was a character, who all his friends will remember
with pleasant memories. Certain traits stood out and stamped
him above the ordinary man. His memory was so strongly developed that he could in ordinary conversation tell you where he
was, what he was doing, what the weather if he was asked after
the lapse of ten or fifteen years. He was the historical Encyclopedia of the neighborhood. Another trait was his artistic temperament. He was a natural artist and carried his good taste into
his everyday work. His furrows were always straight, his headlands square, his cord wood was cut and piled true to the mark.
He was an adept at house painting and sign writing, and did
credible work in oil on canvas, in shape of landscapes and portraits. The third trait was his humor. The minstrel stage lost
an artist when he turned it down. Some of his criticism regarding
architecture were extremely original. I remember a neighbor had
built a porch with a high railing around it which he described as
"Bull high and hog tight."
Associated with J. H. Mullett's family was his brother-in-law,
Hon. J. H. Forster. Mr. Forster was a mining engineer and
came from Houghton, near Lake Superior, in the early seventies.
His coming was a great benefit to the social life around the post
office. Building his house and St. Katherine's Chapel, with the
work he did in the Okemos Grange, gave the Red Bridge neighborhood a higher moral and intellectual standing. The dead
monotony of rural life was broken up and a higher form of religious
life replaced the primitive pioneer form.
My brothers and I can never forget his kind, neighborly interest in us and our family. IHe was an ideal reformer and the
quiet, kindly way he used brought lasting results. I can speak
personally for myself, a bashful country boy, whose only delight
was a book after a hard day's work in the fields. How he found
this out and loaned me books from his library, books of history
and travel, and by so doing directed my reading into and an in