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

WIHEATFIELD TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

805

was an hereditary curse to these men, but we will draw the curtain of Christian charity over their deaths.
A short distance from the White Dog school house lived G.
Stewart, the florist and botanist. For many years his flowers
were admired at the fairs and other places where he exhibited them.
In my conversations with him I always found him ready to explain
the wonderful structures and various shades of color in plant life.
He had that scholarly way and gentle courtesy that was interesting to a student in botany. In a talk with him he told me
that Asa Gray, the noted botanist of Harvard University, had
engaged him to make a study and collection of the oaks that
grew in Michigan. He found and classified twenty-seven different species.
Prof. Beal, the botanist of M. A. C., recognized his researches
and engaged him to do botanical work in the fields and forests of
Michigan. His neighbors were mostly uneducated, hard-fisted
farmers that did not recognize the beauties of flowers, ornamental
shrubs and fine lawns, so his efforts to educate them met with disappointment and financial loss. In religious belief he was a
Spiritualist, and this aroused a dislike among his fanatical orthodox neighbors, and he was ostracized. Like John Muir, the California naturalist, he had only his flowers to talk to and commune
with. After his wife's death an adopted daughter was the only
one left to cheer his lonely fireside. With his knowledge he could
discern or see, as a transcendentalist, the creative spirit in every
swelling bud and opening flower. Among his equals he would
have been honored and respected, but in this rural community
he was scoffed at and called queer. Meeting with financial reverses he sold his farm, moved into Leroy Township, where he
died. Besides his flowers and botanical studies, he was a worker
in woods, a cabinet maker. He was old-fashioned, but an expert
workman. When he knew death was not far off he made his own
coffin and was buried in it. It was fashioned from black walnut,
for in his opinion no other wood should hold his mouldering body.
From his great labors in plant life I think he was worthy, and had
earned this his last overcoat.
The Spauldings, who lived in the south section of the township,
I never became acquainted with, but while teaching in the Westgate district I met the Kent boys, Simeon, Seth and Duane.