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

VEVAY TOWNSHIPI AND ITS HISTORY

793

set, but we were able to move into the new house in November,
1864.
Labor was high, and so was produce. Wheat $3 per bushel
and sugar 50 cents per pound, and everything else in proportion.
But, as Samantha Allen would say, "We are digressing," and
will go back to the time of our arrival. As we reached Mason
and knew it was to be our home town, we looked around and
found a rather small village. One of the finest houses in town was
the Dr. Phelps house, which has lately been torn down to make
room, I understand, for a finer, more modern building. The
principal stores were kept by Messrs. Coatsworth and Wheeler.
As we left town on our way to our home, one-half mile west, we
crossed one of the worst causeways or stretch of corduroy road I
ever saw. Logs were laid through the swamp, which was grown
up to the track on either side with trees and brush, with just a
thin layer of dirt over the logs. You could see the water between
the logs, and it was so rough we all got out and walked. I think
it was that summer or fall that the men made a bee and drew
gravel on the road. I hardly think that in those days it would
have been safe to run an automobile. Lumber wagons were the
principal vehicles, with an occasional democrat buggy; only the
wealthy could afford carriages, and many of the farmers had ox
teams.
The railroad entered Mason from Jackson in the fall of 1865,
and was continued through to Lansing the next year. Jackson
had always been our trading or market place, farmers having to
draw their wheat and wool there.
The old stage coach was another feature of those early days,
and plied regularly between Jackson and Mason. There was
great rejoicing in town and country when we had the privileges
brought by the railroad, and today with our state roads, electric
cars and automobiles the past seems but a dream, and we wonder
if the next fifty years will show as many improvements as there
have been seen in the past half century.
The military spirit in the Jewett family did not die out in the
older generations, for we find besides the five who served in Washington's army and a small boy who carried messages from one
camp to another, were five who served in the Civil War and eight
in the World War, while in the collateral lines were one Revolu