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 INGHAM COUNTY

was from Bill Steele's mill to the Lombard Hotel. South one block
on Putnam street was a long two-storied building that faced the
east. It stood flush with the street, had no ground surrounding
it except a small plat in the rear. It was painted brown, looked
like a factory, and a visitor glancing at it would say it was a furniture or chair shop, but instead it was a temple of learning, the
Williamston public school. In those days it was also used for a
church. Williamston had no church building in 1866. I remember a Unitarian minister, Rev. Olds, residing in Lansing, held
services there once or twice a month. His wife was a sister of
Charles Lewis-M. Quad, of the Detroit Free Press. My father
and mother were acquainted with Rev. Olds, and they used to
visit us in their journeys to and from Lansing. He had a small
congregation, but his pastoral work was too hard, his health
failed and he stopped preaching in Williamston.
On the south side of Grand River street was a large two-story
wooden building with an imposing cornice, the Waldo Brothers'
store, while on the north side of the street was the store of Mr.
Horton. Mr. Horton was a retired farmer and started in the
mercantile business with his son-in-law, Charles Beardsley, who
succeeded him in after years. In Waldo's store I remember a
good-looking young man, a relative of the proprietor, named
Shuble Olmstead.
On the bank of the mill pond north and west of the Lombard
House stood the grist mill-it is there now-where the farmers
had their flour and feed ground. My first impressions of the
streets of the village were that the buildings were stuck in the mud
on the flats of the river. The streets were always muddy in wet
weather and dusty in a dry time. This condition of the streets
and buildings was not changed until they built additions on the
higher ground east and west, north and south. I think from what
I can remember of the original village, for convenience to hotels
and mills it was built in a hollow, on a mud flat on the low south
bank of the river. On the east, west and southwest during ordinary times, in the fall and winter, the flats were covered with
water. When the railroad was built in 1871, the volume of traffic
and travel changed from the old plank road to the higher ground
south near the station, and business commenced to get away from
the mud and dust.