History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of their prominent men and pioneers.

296

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Cordelia Collins, Margaret Johnson, April 10, 1848.
Frances Hill, June 15, 1848.
Layton Swarthout, John Brunson, Dec. 5, 1848.
Elisha Cook, Dec. 6, 1849.
Lounsberry Swarthout, Dec. 17, 1849.
George W. States, Nov. 4, 1850.
Miss Achsah Blood, April 12, 1851.
Miss Armina Pitts, April 23, 1851.
Lewis Bennett, Nov. 5, 1853.
Ann M. Aldrich, April 14, 1855.
Margaret I. Johnson, Dec. 20, 1855.
Caroline Phelps, Jan. 15, 1856.
Clarissa Brewer, May 24, 1856.
Miss C. Carnahan, May 23, 1857.
Miles Burt, Nov. 7, 1857.
The official school report for 1879 presents the following
details:

Dist. Director. Enumeration. Average
Attendance.
1. M. Burt................ 183o 180
2. George Sherman..... 36 28
3.t J. D. Sanderdon...... 29 28
5. F. Lee............... 38 31
6. George Dean.......... 55 53
7. W. T. Riddale........ 22 21
8. C. Crutts.............. 48 35
9. L. J. Kemp............ 12 23

Value of
Property.
$1000
50
200
400
300
50
50
700

Teachers'
Wages.
$891
93.50
169
144
156
84
99
98

THE VILLAGE OF LAINGSBURG.
Laingsburg, a station on the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad, is a prosperous village of about eight hundred
people. Its manufacturing interests are limited, but as the
centre of trade for a considerable tract of rich farming
country it carries on much profitable mercantile business,
and rests its prospective improvement upon a very substantial and prosperous present.
The village was founded in 1836, by Dr. Peter Laing,
but was not platted until 1860, after which the construction
ot' the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad gave the
town a decided impetus, and led to its rapid development.
Dr. Peter Laing, formerly of Saratoga Co., N. Y., located
land upon the present site of Laingsburg in the summer of
1836, and September 24th of that year came to the place
for a permanent location, in company with his son William,
his son-in-law, Mason Phelps, and the wife of the latter.
About thirty rods west of where the Cooper House now
stands they put up as a temporary habitation a brush
shanty, in which they lodged, and outside of which, at a
log-heap fire, they did their cooking. As quickly as the
work could be accomplished Mason Phelps built a log
cabin, and Peter Laing (assisted by Mason Phelps and
Barnet Putham) a log structure which he intended for a
tavern, both buildings being just west of the Cooper House
lot. The great Indian trail between Pontiac and Grand
Rapids passed that way, and, as travel over the route was
at that time very brisk, Dr. Laing wisely judged that a
tavern at that point would be not only a public convenience,
but a profit to its landlord. In that conclusion subsequent
events proved Dr. Laing to have been correct. The volume
of travel increased materially with the opening of the Grand
River road over the route of the trail, and for years Dr.

Laing's tavern was a famous landmark and a place of
popular resort.
During the fall of 1836 the rush of land-lookers to
Michigan was like a swarm of locusts, and the Grand River
road was alive with wayfarers. Laing's tavern was insufficient to accommodate the travelers who sought its shelter,
but about it in the open air around log-heap fires there was
always room, and there scores of people slept every night.
A story now extant tells of a well-dressed traveler, who
came to the tavern one night and requested lodgings. Dr.
Laing took him out to a log-heap fire, and pointing to the
sleepers about it said, " My friend, our house is running
over with people; there you see at that fire plenty of extra
lodgers; lie down and make yourself comfortable for the
night." The traveler looked unhappy, but determined to
make the best of it; he pulled off his boots, turned his feet
towards the fire, and was directly snoring in concert with
about fifty others. In the morning when the traveler woke
he failed to find his boots. "Landlord," cried he, "somebody has robbed me of my boots, and I look to you to replace or return them." "You d-d fool," returned Dr.
Laing, "don't you know better than to leave your boots
outdoors all night in a country like this? The wolves ate
your boots, and if you don't get away from here pretty
quick they'll eat you, too." The unfortunate traveler
could scarcely credit the story, but when he presently discovered mutilated remnants of his once handsome boots he
shudderingly believed it, and made, indeed, all haste to get
out of a country where stopping at a tavern meant a bed
near a log-heap, and midnight visitations by wolves.
Laing's tavern was the chief stopping-place on the Grand
River road, in Sciota, when that road was the principal
thoroughfare. It was, moreover, the town post-office location, and when a line of stages was put on the road, Laing's
was made a stage-house. The mail was carried over the
route at first on horseback, later, as the road got better, by
buggy, and still later by the stages.
About 1840, James M. Blood opened a temperance tavern on the Grand River road, about four miles east of
Laingsburg, and at the same time Oliver B. Westcott established a similar place of entertainment " on the hill," in
what is now Laingsburg village, June 3, 1844. The town
board granted to Peter Laing a license to keep tavern and
retail ardent spirits on section 21, and charged him therefor six dollars and twenty-five cents. On the same day
James M. Blood and 0. B. Westcott were granted licenses
to keep taverns for sixty-two and a half cents each. June
1,1848, J. W. Putnam applied for a license " to keep public-house, with the privilege to sell spirituous liquors." The
town board granted the license upon the payment of six
dollars, " exclusive of fees," with the remark that "a publichouse with the above-named privilege would promote the
public good." Except at brief intervals, during which
Cyrus Miller and others kept the place, Dr. Laing continued to be the landlord of Laing's tavern until his death
in 1865, after which it was kept no more as a public-house,

but was not demolished until recently.
The settlement at Laingsburg moved onward at an exceedingly slow pace. Mason Phelps changed his residence

* Laingsburg.

t Fractional.