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

ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

685

Many times during his first winter on this farm he walked to
Jackson to get the expected letter from his wife, whom he left in
New York state while he made ready a home for her. There
were no bridges across Grand river then, so he had to find a shallow place and ford it. His road was the red man's path.
He lived to see the river come out of the dense black forests and
flow through beautiful sunlit fields, crossed here and there by iron
bridges and dotted with mills and factories. He saw the city of
Lansing grow from a single log cabin to the thriving, prosperous
city of today. Fever and ague came to his home, the rattlesnake
hissed at his heels, the red man looked into his window while
his squaw came and demanded the pan of biscuit and venison
ready for dinner, but regardless of these difficulties, this good man
did not falter. Not so with his wife-toil, care and constant fear
of her surroundings told on her, and she died on March 14, 1854,
leaving five children in the home.
Thomas K. Baldwin died in April, 1895. The chief characteristics of this man were his great physical endurance and his great
love for home, friends and country. Such men as this have built
what we now enjoy. His youngest son, Martin C. Baldwin, still
owns the farm on which his father settled. Mosley A. Baldwin,
another son of Thos. K. Baldwin, came to this township in 1837
and settled on the land now owned by his son, Henry Baldwin,
who was the third child born in the township. Mosley Baldwin
was supervisor of the town from 1849 to 1850, and treasurer in
1840.
Henry Allen, who lived south of the Cranson place, settled
there in 1834, and his youngest son, William, born in June, 1834,
was the first white child born in the township.
Benjamin Rossman, from Cayuga county, N. Y., came to Michigan in 1834, and located at Jackson. In April, 1836, he came to
Onondaga and settled on the farm still owned by one of his sons,
Wallace Rossman.
Geo. French settled in the same neighborhood in 1837, his son
still living on the homestead, and Carl Sherman still owns some of
the land on which his grandfather, Lowing Sherman, settled in
1837.
Warren B. Buckland was supervisor in 1852 and kept the first