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

851

and until midnight the second night. He sold his wheat for fifty
cents a bushel and paid twenty-five cents a yard for nine yards
of calico for mother a dress.
There were nine of us children and we never went to bed hungry
or cold, and my good Irish mother comes in right here for a lot of
praise, but I have lain in bed in the daytime to have my pants
washed and mended, the patch covering nearly the whole front of
one leg and of lighter color than the original cloth. I can say
truthfully I never had a pair of pants since that I have been as
proud of as I was of those.
The first coat I ever had, except what my mother made, was
when I was about eleven years of age, and I earned the money by
driving two pairs of oxen for a man to plow and received twentyfive cents per day and boarded myself. The coat was tweed
cloth and cost me $3. After paying for the coat I had a five franc
silver piece left, about ninety-four cents in American money,
and I gave that for a cotton roll turban cap.
When I was a lad my grandmother, on mother's side, came to
Michigan and stayed with us about three months. She was a
typical Irish grandmother, wore a lace cap, and had the map of
Ireland plainly stamped on her face and a brogue so strong that
when she spoke it would nearly start the peeling on a "pratie,"
but I could plainly see where my mother got her goodness.
This is the life that came to me up to my seventeenth year,
1854. Since then my life has been variable, yet I have always
tried to have a purpose other than frivolity. Some phases were
illuminated to a dazzling brilliancy and others darkened almost
beyond human endurance, but I have never allowed the dark side
to control. Experience and observation have taught me that
when we see people passing, with perhaps a handshake and a
smile for those they meet, we little know the trouble they are
carrying or its causes."
An article written by Mr. Heald in 1916 throws still further
light on what life meant in Ingham county in early days.
"I was married in Dansville, Ingham county, in 1864 (a poor
blacksmith) and settled to housekeeping. I paid $9 for 100
pounds of flour, $1.50 for a gallon of kerosene oil, $2 for a pound of
Japan tea, 30 cents a pound for coffee and sugar, 44 cents a yard
for 40 yards of unbleached cotton, 50 cents a yard for hemp car