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

WILLIAMSTON TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

847

wheel under, which had a crank attached, so when the two kettles
over the fire got hot you turned the crank and that brought the
cold griddle over the fire, and by changing occasionally one could
cook in all three kettles. It had no oven, but the housewife used
the outdoor brick oven, or a tin reflector that set before the fireplace for baking. The next cook stove was the elevated oven.
We located one mile north of where the village of Munith now
stands. The country at that time was a comparative wilderness.
Droves of deer, wild turkeys, pigeons, partridge, quail, wild geese,
ducks and prairie chickens.
The fur bearing animals were otter, mink, muskrat and fox.
A few bears and wolves. There was an old beaver dam on the
creek, but the beavers were gone. There were thousands of
skunks, but their fur was not used at that time. There were
wild cats and lynx, an animal of the cat species but much larger,
and the most ferocious found in this section.
Also porcupine, a harmless animal when not molested, and
thousands of squirrels of all kinds.
Cyril Adams lived 80 rods east of us in a log house, and the
next nearest neighbor was four miles distant, but during the
next three years Solomon Dewey, Mr. Preston and Joseph McCloy
settled on that line. The roads were not on the lines, but, such
as they were, they followed the Indian trails where they had
forded streams and crossed swamps. About a mile northeast
lived Patrick and Michael Ryan and their families in log shanties.
The one Patrick lived in was roofed with bark.
One-half mile south was Richard and Benoni Pixley. One in
log and the other in a rough board house. Both families had children. One mile west lived L. P. Brown, with two children,
Mary and Pat. Mary, nearly as old as myself, called on me a
few weeks ago. One mile north was Slocum Sayles, with his wife
and seven or eight children, in a shanty just high enough on the
low side to clear a man's head when he was standing erect, and
this was roofed with troughs. Sometimes they would be made of
basswood logs about ten inches in diameter, which were split in
the center, hollowed out and laid close together with the hollow
side up, and an equal number laid over them with rounding side
up and edges in the hollows beneath, then poles laid across and
pinned at the ends to hold them in place.