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

hominy, as at present, we had the genuine article "home-spun,"
and it was our principle in those days to patronize home industries.
Time passed on and brought new neighbors and improvements,
and a school was organized in a log shanty on the grounds where
the Rolfe school house in Vevay now stands, and was taught by
Miss Eliza Butler in the summer of 1838. The first school house
built in the present town of Aurelius was situated on the south
line of section 25, where school was taught by Miss Lois Ann
Murdoff in 1839.
Our friends at a distance, who kept up a correspondence with
us, were necessarily very dear to us, for two reasons, first, we were
glad to hear from them, and second, every letter we received cost
us a quarter of a dollar, and a trip of from five to eight miles to
get it.
Our houses were plain, yet quite comfortable as far as warmth
was concerned, being usually warmed by a fireplace that occupied
about one-third of the space in one end of the room, with lug
poles and trammels on which to hang the kettles for cooking purposes; potatoes were roasted in the ashes, and Johnny cake baked
before the fire. We had no carpets on our floors, and our partitions were generally curtains or sheets hung up. But amid all this
we enjoyed the days as they passed.
Our neighbors, though few and scattering, were friendly and
it was not an infrequent occurrence to take the ox team and drive
from two to eight miles to visit a neighbor, and at that visit style
was not discussed or thought of, but they conversed upon the
topics of the day, like this, "Mrs. B., how are you getting along
with your flax spinning?" or, "Mrs. M., how much wool are you
working up this year, and how soon will your girls have their new
woolen dresses done?" The topics discussed by the men would
be such as, "How do cattle get along on browse?" and, "Have
you got mink skins and ashes enough saved to get your tax
money? "
I have worn out garments of flax that were raised, dressed,
spun, woven, made up, and I well nigh said, worn out, without
going off the farm, but I think perhaps they did sometimes leave
the farm while I was wearing them.
The business of making and saving ashes was in those days quite
a source of profit to the pioneer, as it served to clear the land of