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

]11EPORTS OF PIONEEII HISTORICAL MEETINGS

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the early days when this fair county was a wilderness are already
few. Many interesting and important particulars of those times
will be lost if not gathered soon.
Now is the time to correct the records and make them complete
so that they may be of use hereafter. This county will not see
the like again of this generation that is now passing away. There
is no place now within the limits of the United States so wild
and inaccessible as Ingham county was fifty years ago. The
pioneers have penetrated every forest, their white covered wagons have been seen on every prairie; they have encamped at the
foot of every mountain, on the banks of every river and the
shores of every lake.
There are those here today, probably, who can remember when
the first white settlement was made in this county, and who
heard the wolves howl by night (as I myself did wlen a child).
Many here who can remember when there were no roads except
such as wound about anmong the trees avoiding swamps and
impassable places.
The times when letter postage was 25 cents, and it cost something to write a letter, or rather to receive one, for the sender
seldom paid the postage, and the poor settler often gave his last
quarter to get a letter from the office, while sometimes it lay
there for days or weeks before he could raise the money.
Those were stern times, and strenuous privations were endured
with a heroism and cheerful patience almost incomprehensible
to the present generation-the plainest food, homespun clothing,
no horses, no carriages, no luxurious carpets and furniture, no fine
houses, few books and fewer papers, poor schools, no churches,
only occasional services by an itinerant preacher.
But the pioneers enjoyed their life in the wilderness; and I
doubt if they have been happier in the recent years than in those
they spent struggling for a livelihood among the privations and
hardships of that early day.
There was the charm of novelty about it all. They were young
and full of strength and courage. Everything was fresh and new,
and the sense of triumph, when a difficulty was overcome, was a
keen pleasure, such as will not come at all under easier circumstances. And yet it makes one's heart ache to think what sacrifices they made, how they faced sickness, and hardships, and pri