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

684

PIONEER HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY

20, dated June 26, 1834. He had been visiting the previous year
at Jacksonburg, now the city of Jackson. He was young and unmarried, and was accompanied by six other young men who settled in various parts of Michigan, none of them in Onondaga.
Mr. Cranston settled on his land the same year, 1834, his
arrival in the township being but seven days later than that of
Mr. Booth. His descendents now living are E. A. Cranson, who
lives on the parcel of land settled by his father, and T. Murray
Cranson, now living at Gaylord, Mich.
By an act of the Legislature, approved March 6, 1836, T 1,
N R, 2 W, then a part of Aurelius, was set off and organized into a
township and was named Onondaga by one of a committee for
that purpose, Orrin Phelps, who thought it one of the good old
Indian names that are written on our waters and rooted in our
soil. The first township meeting was directed to be held at the
home of Barney Johnson, the first Monday in April, 1838, and
Amos E. Steel was elected supervisor by a majority of seventeen
votes. Josephus Tuttle, township clerk, and Peter Cranson,
assessor. It was voted that the next annual township meeting
be held at the house of Peter Cranson, and at that meeting he was
elected township treasurer for the year 1839.
About the year 1840 Thomas K. Baldwin came to Onondaga.
He was born in 1783 and was one of twelve children of Benj. and
Ruth Baldwin. He was married to Dorcas Green 1806, in Vermont, and to them were born eleven children. He built the first
frame house in the township, it being modeled somewhat after
the Colonial style, with a fireplace and a large brick oven. The
pine siding and shingles were hauled by him from Flint in the
winter of 1845. Mr. Baldwin died at Onondaga in August, 1873,
in his ninetieth year, having spent a long and useful life made
possible by his indomitable will and energy.
Many well known families descended from this man, six generations now living in Onondaga.
Thomas K. Baldwin, a son of Thomas K. Baldwin, came to
Onondaga in December, 1837, and bought a farm of 100 acres.
At that time the land office was located at Ionia, and he walked
all the way there and back to get the deed of this land. His
nearest post office was Jackson and the nearest flouring mill Ann
Arbor.