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

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PIONEER HISTORY OF INGIIAM COUNTY

the north side, and there bought 160 acres of land from a Mr.
Wilcox. From this he platted an addition to the village, then
bought another tract nearby, which contained 80 acres. In the
meantime his friend Stevenson had bought 320 acres north of the
village of Dexter on the shore of North Lake, and began the erection of a house. In the spring of 1832, as soon as navigation
opened, the two men moved their families from New York city to
their new homes in Washtenaw county. They came all the way
by water to Detroit, by way of the Hudson river, the Erie canal
and other waterways to Buffalo, then by steamboat to Detroit,
where they took the stage to Ann Arbor. On the 160 acres
purchased by Mr. Traver was a small creek which traversed his
land from north to south. The land was covered with heavy
timber, and the call for lumber being great the owner built a
small saw mill in 1834, and in 1841, when the first University
buildings were erected, he furnished all the lumber. This was
what is now the north wing of University Hall. Mr. Traver
does not remember the number of the section on which the home
was situated, but says the south end of the land his father owned
is now covered with a large garden and greenhouse, near the
island. Mr. Traver says: "I was the oldest boy living in our
family (there were four children born to the Travers' after they
came to Michigan), so I was the drudge. If there was anything
wanted, why George was the boy called for, so I was always kept
busy. My father farmed it for twenty years, but never did a
day's work with a team; he never wanted anything to do with a
team; depended on hired help for that. So as soon as I got old
enough to hold the lines I had to learn to drive, and as soon as I
got big enough to walk behind a drag and guide a team I was put
into that work, so I never could go to school except for a short
time in the winter, and when I was seventeen I had to give up
school for good. You know the old saying, 'All work and no play
makes Jack a dull boy,' and that was so in my case. My father
organized the first school taught in the lower town in Ann Arbor,
just north of the railroad track. He took some slabs from his
saw mill and made some rough benches and fitted up a room upstairs in the old farm house, where they had school for a year or
two. Then an old neighbor from the east who had just learned
the carpenter trade came to Ann Arbor and Mr. Traver had him