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

742

PIONE'ER IIISTORY OF tNGI11AMI COUNTY

guess she will feel better when summer comes and she can get out
in the bushes. Yours Jane."
Then is added a few lines from Levi Chapin "To Our Folks."
"I have just come from meeting. A short time after I returned
Morris came from the woods where he had been browsing his
cattle, dragging after him a fine buck which he had just killed.
"Tomorrow we are going to town meeting and hunting deer
which are plenty here in the woods as well as turkeys, coons, and
lots of other game. Levi."
As a farther insight into the " Wildness" of this vicinity 80 years
ago I will read an extract from a paper prepared and read by my
sister, Rev. Augusta J. Chapin (the Augusta mentioned in my
mother's letter) at Mason June 9, 1885, before the Ingham County
Pioneer Society, giving an incident of their arrival "in the land of
the woods." She says: "I looked upon those times as a little
child, and in trying to recall them I find that the details of everyday life and of common things are lost to me, but certain pictures
remain as vividly before my minds eye as though the actual scene
was before me, among them is that of one of the pioneers-Cyrus
Austin. He was a stalwart backwoodsman in his day and if he
were not a mighty hunter it is such that my imagination has
always portrayed him. It was in the late afternoon of the last
day but one in that remembered December, 1842. We had left
the old home in New York and had been traveling for weeks toward a new home that we were to make in this wilderness. We
had been directed to the then famous 'Rolfe Settlement,' where
the long pilgrimage was to end. We were tired and hungry. We
had surely come far enough to have reached the settlement, and
there was as yet no sign of human habitation near, only unbroken
forest before, behind, and on every side of us. The snow was deep
and only half trodden road wound in and out among the great
trees of the primeval wilderness. We had not seen a human being
except those of our own party for hours. Those who were driving
the teams began to think we had lost our way when, suddenly,
just where the road made a sharp turn to avoid a huge sycamore
that stood in the way, there appeared a man who had already
stepped out upon the snow to wait for us to pass. TIe looked as
though he were himself a part of the wild scene. An ample
cap of raccoon skin almost hid his face, and he wore a great tunic