USA > Michigan > Ingham County > Lansing > Past and present of the city of Lansing and Ingham county, Michigan > Part 3
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SILAS BEEBE.
In "The Michigan Pioneer Collection" I find extracts from a diary kept by Silas Bee-
be, who finally settled in Stockbridge. Of his trip from Utica, N. Y., to Ingham county, I think that part relating to this county may be interesting to many. He was leaving Washtenaw county, where he speaks of see- ing men plowing with six yokes of oxen. Under date of February 24, 1838, he writes :
"Left after breakfast for Ingham county. WVe soon struck into timbered lands and saw less of swamps and marshes. Roads were less traveled, but we found our way to the center called "Jefferson City." The first blow towards this place was struck last Septem- ber. It now has some ten or fifteen acres cut down ready to clear, five or six log houses, peopled, a school house and school. We went on foot about a mile and found two huts, a little clearing and a family going in." (This was probably what became the Strick- land Settlement.) "We had designed to have continued our journey to Dewitt, Clin- ton county, but were obliged to forego the journey for want of roads." He writes : "Jefferson will undoubtedly be a place of some importance." He further adds : "Three and a half miles south of this is a rival place of equal claim, called Mason. A saw mill (frozen up), a few houses and surrounding forests is all it can boast of." Jefferson City is the place to which the writer was brought by his parents, who settled there in 1843.
EPHRIAM MEECH.
Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Meech settled on section 18, in Leroy, in January, 1837. The snow at this time was eighteen inches deep, and, for a distance of eight miles through the wilderness, the travelers were obliged to cut and break their way. The cold was intense and in crossing a creek the ice broke, and the stockings of Mrs. Meech were com- pletely frozen to her feet. The first greet- ing she received the morning after her ar- rival was from two Indians, who asked for
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
whiskey. The only other inhabitants were wild beasts. Bears were frequent visitors and made great havoc among the swine. One was shot, just after he had carried away a fine hog, and it yielded five gallons of bear's oil. Wolves were constant disturbers of the peace, and would frequently surround the house and begin their dismal howling as evening approached, which they steadily maintained until morning dawned. Mrs. Meech would spread a blanket on the boards which served as a floor for the loft of their dwelling, and would lie down for the night, in constant fear lest the marauders should break through the window.
She welcomed with great joy the presence of the next settler, for she had not seen the face of a white woman for eight months. Mr. Meech raised the first crop of corn raised in the township. He used frequently to carry grain to the mill for the neighbors, which would require a week to go and re- turn, the time having been much lengthened by the bad roads and swollen streams which had to be forded.
Many instances of wolf-trapping and bear hunting might be mentioned in which Mr. Meech took an active part, the bounty on the former offered by the State having mater- ially aided the settlers in their early strug- gles. Mr. Meech died on the land he en- tered, in 1876.
JACOB F. COOLEY.
The time is almost, if not quite, past for obtaining reminiscences of the first settlers and, thinking they should be preserved, we feel justified in taking the following from Durant's History of Ingham and Eaton Counties :
"Jacob Frederick Cooley was born in Ger- many, February 23, 1807. He came of a good family, but with true German thrift and forethought learned the trade of a tailor
in his native country. He lived in one of the German capitals, possibly Stuttgart, until he came to America. He settled in the State of New York. His wife was Lucy Barnes, who was born in Hartford, Conn., April I, 1804. At the time of her marriage, her par- ents were living in Oneida county. She was a woman of the real live Yankee stock, and well fitted for pioneer life, as subsequent events proved.
The young couple moved to Leslie, Ing- ham county, Michigan, arriving there on the 6th of May, 1836. They erected a temporary shanty in the wilderness, six miles from any settlers, but being soon after attacked with sickness, which almost every settler was sub- ject to, they became homesick. Wild beasts and snakes troubled them, and one day, leav- ing their two children in their cabin, they went out to examine their land and got lost in the woods; but their faithful dog found them, and they followed him home. The dog was afterwards killed by wolves.
Mr. Cooley was a stranger to everything connected to woodcraft or farm labor, and the prospect of making a comfortable home in the new country seemed anything but pleasing. Becoming at length sick and dis- gusted, he returned with his family to New York in 1837. But there was something en- ticing in the West after all, and in November of the same year, leaving his family, he re- turned to Michigan. At Jacksonburg he made the acquaintance of Jerry and William Ford, or at least one of them. These men had, in April. 1836, laid out a village on sec- tion 21, in Lansing township, which they named "Biddle City." Learning that Mr. Cooley was looking for a place to settle, and also that he was a tailor and his wife a weav- er, the Fords persuaded him that at or near their town was the place to settle; that it was sure to be a great city, and that the trades of himself and wife would soon make
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them comfortable, if not absolutely rich. To this enticing story Mr. Cooley lent a willing ear, and came down to view the country. The nearest government land to "Biddle City," which he could find was on section 30, in the southwest part of the township, lying on Grand river, and about two miles southwest of the new city. It proved to be an excellent piece of land, and the section now includes some of the best farms in the township.
One of the Fords came along with Cooley, but only remained a short time, and then de- parted and left him alone in the wilderness. Mr. Cooley knew absolutely nothing of the labor necessary to hew out a home in the woods. He had never handled an axe in his life, and in cutting down a tree he hacked on all sides of it, and when he thought it about ready to fall, ran out of its reach. He did not know how to plant his vegetables after he had managed to prepare a small plat of ground, but planted potatoes, corn, beans and cabbage promiscuously in the same hill.
In building his first cabin he managed it by felling a tree, letting the butt rest upon a stump and then covering the trunk with brush and sods. He did not know where the lines of his land were, and employed a Mr. Scott, in Clinton county, to point them out for him, paying him, according to his son's account, fifty dollars for his services. A second time he lost his lines, and had to pay Mr. Scott once more to establish them for him. His land was the southwest fractional quarter of section 30, township 4 north, range 2 west. He purchased deer-skins from the Indians and made himself a full border suit, including a coon-skin cap. His son, J. F. Cooley, Jr., remembers this suit as a great curiosity. Soon after completing his shanty. he followed the river to Jacksonburg, where he purchased supplies for winter, and then, procuring lumber, built a boat to transport
them down to his future home. This was in December, 1837.
On his way down the river, not being a skilled boatman, he came to grief in the swift water, opposite where now stands the Village of Diamondale, where night overtook him. His craft struck a bowlder, and either broke up or stove a hole, so that his provisions got into the stream and his flour and salt were nearly spoiled. He, however, waded around among the ice and slippery stones and saved a portion. Having no means of making a fire, he ran up and down the bank of the river to keep him from freezing. At length the barking of a dog attracted his attention, and following the sound he came to a wig- wam, where he found an Indian and his squaw, who took him in, rubbed his half frozen limbs, and made him as comfortable as circumstances permitted. For food they set before him the best they had, boiled or roasted hedgehog and muskrat. On the fol- lowing morning, he paid the Indian two dol- lars to carry him down to his shanty. The Indian soon after abandoned his camping place, and built his wigwam near Mr. Cooley's.
The inexperienced settler now began to clear a spot of ground and build a better cabin of logs, and here remained until the spring of 1838, when he wrote his wife to join him with the remainder of the family. Mrs. Cooley, accordingly bade good-bye to her parents, and, taking her two boys, Jacob F., Jr., and Lansing J., came to Detroit, where she arrived in safety, though it was in the midst of the Canadian "Patriot war." At Detroit she hired a teamster to take her to Jackson, but the Sheriff followed him for some misdemeanor, and he fled to the woods, leaving Mrs. Cooley with the team, which she drove to Jackson, where it was taken from her. Nothing daunted by the terrors of the road, she started with her boys on
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
foot for Eaton Rapids. After walking sev- eral miles she met a man who told her if she would take a certain trail which he pointed out, she would save considerable distance ; but the path was so obscure that after a little time she lost it in the woods. Placing her children on a log, she bade them stay right there until she returned, and then pro- ceeded to find her way out. At length she heard a cock crow, and the sound guided her to a settler's cabin occupied by one Blakeslee, who went with her to find her children, which they succeeded in doing after a long search. Mr. Blakeslee then took his team and carried Mrs. Cooley and her children to Eaton Rapids, where she stopped with a Mr. Spicer, who procured an Indian to notify her husband of her arrival. He soon appeared, and building a boat took his family down the river. Night overtook them, and they were obliged to encamp on the bank until morn- ing, when they proceeded on their way, and before noon on the 15th day of June, 1838, reached the site of their future home.
They had no team or domestic animals of any kind, and Mrs. Cooley assisted her hus- band to clear a small piece of land, which they sowed with wheat, and planted a few vegetables. They kept a record of time by marking it every day on a board or log with charcoal. Their first "Independence Day." July 4, 1838, was celebrated on a flat rock near the river, where Mrs. Cooley sang songs, to the delight of the Indians, while her boys played with their dusky friends un- der the trees along the river banks.
About the middle of July the entire fam- ily were taken sick, and were nearly helpless for several days. A family named Skinner had settled up the river in the Township of Windsor, Eaton county, and Mr. Cooley got an Indian to go and notify them of their troubles. Mr. Skinner came and took them to their house, where they remained for sev-
eral weeks, and this experience exhausted all the ready money they possessed. Recover- ing from their sickness, they returned to their home in the fall and found their crops all safe, their old Indian friend having taken care of them during their absence. They ex- changed the products of their land with the Indians for fish and venison and thus opened the famous "dicker" trade of the early days.
In the following winter the family were all again taken sick and lost the day of the month, but a traveller happened along in January set them right again. At length all their provisions were consumed and they were forced to live on the charity of their early Indian friend, who managed to pro- cure sufficient food to keep them from starv- ing. At one time Mr. Cooley was so low that they all expected he would die, and he finally told his wife to lay his body in a bark trough, cover it with dirt, and take her children out of the woods. But at length he recovered.
In the spring of 1839. Mr. Cooley went to Jackson and worked at his trade, leaving his wife alone with her children. For fourteen months she never saw a white woman. Wild beasts were plenty and exceedingly trouble- some. At one time a gang of wolves fol- lowed Mr. Cooley, as he was bringing home some meat for his family. for a long dis- tance, but he finally reached home in safety. At another time, when out blackberrying, he was chased by a bear and escaped with the loss of his hat. Occasionally the family would suffer the fire to go out, and then some one would have to travel perhaps ten miles to procure a supply. Some of the In- dians were at times insolent, but they were generally friendly. Their insolence never availed them anything. for Mr. Cooley was resolute and defended his rights.
After they began to raise corn hie rigged a novel contrivance, though a common one
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PAST AND PRESENT
in those days, to pound it. It consisted of a mortar made by burning a hollow in a stump, and rigging a spring-pole, to which was attached a wooden pestle; and this an- swered a very good purpose.
On the 6th day of January, 1840, Mrs. Cooley gave birth to a son, who is said to have been the first male child born in the township. He was named Nathan L. Cooley. A friendly squaw performed the of- fices of physician and midwife, and was the only woman present.
In the fall of 1838 they heard of neighbors down the river and to the southeast of them. These were Coe G. Jones, on section 5, and Joseph E. North, Jr., on section 32. The Norths made them a visit. The Fourth of July, 1839, was celebrated at the house of Joseph E. North, Jr. His father had re- cently moved into the settlement, and the three families celebrated together.
Their first threshing was done on the ground, and the first wheat-grist was taken to Eaton Rapids by Mr. Cooley, who was gone three days. The children could hardly wait for the first loaf of bread to bake, but when ready for the table they divided it with the dusky Indian children, who enjoyed it as well as they. The earliest mills near them were at Eaton Rapids and Ingersolls, now Delta. When they patronized the mill at In- gersoll's, they took the grist down the river in a log canoe or "dugout," and then went across the country, through the woods, and hauled the canoe and ground grist back along the narrow path, through mud and water with ox-team. The canoe was not a first class land carriage, but they managed to haul it by fastening a log chain around its nose, though it required great skill and constant attention to prevent the curious ve- hicle from overturning in the rough path- way. Sometimes in the winter when they wanted to cross the river with their oxen,
and the ice was not strong enough to bear them, Mr. Cooley would cut a channel across and swim them over.
When at length, they had become the pos- sessors of an ox-team, a cow, a pig, and a few sheep they congratulated themselves upon their improved circumstances ; but their joy was short lived, for a great black bear carried off the pig and the lean, hungry wolves made short work with the sheep.
The hardships and privations of the early settlers of Michigan, save only in one re- spect, that of Indian wars and difficulties, were certainly as formidable and discourag- ing as were ever encountered by the people of any state in the Union. The country was largely made up of dense and heavy forests, interpersed with swamps, marshes and lakes ; the earliest roads were more horrible than can be conceived of by the present genera- tion, and then there was the almost intermin- able labor of cutting down the timber and clearing it away before anything could be grown for the support of man or beast. In the midst of their labors the deadly malaria fell upon them, and they froze and burned alternately for months and years with the ague and fever. When the first scanty crops were raised, and there was a small surplus. it took weeks to carry it to an uncertain mar- ket and the cost of transportation ate up all the proceeds. Wild beasts, dangerous reptiles, and persecuting insects were plenty as snow flakes in a January storm, and it was literally a struggle between life and death with the chances in favor of the latter alternative.
In many instances the earliest comers lived for several years without store or school or church accommodations, and the wonder is that men and women did not degenerate into fierce barbarians and abandon all hope of civilization amid the depressing circum- stances which hemmed them in on every side. Nothing but an indomitable will, and a most
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LA.
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
sanguine looking forward to a better day in the future, an undying faith in the power of human intellect over the forces of nature, ever kept hope alive in the hearts of the pio- neers of Michigan, and enabled them to work out the mighty problem of reclaiming a most forbidding wilderness and building up a free and prosperous commonwealth. There were a few comparatively sunny places among the "oak-openings" and beautiful miniature prairies of the southern and western portions of the peninsula, but they were only except- ions. By far the greater portion of the State has been won from a state of nature only through almost unparalleled hardships and the most unflinching perseverance.
Within a year or two, Mr. Cooley built a second and improved log house. The first one stood near the northwest corner of his quarter section, and a considerable distance from the river near a copious spring, which latter item no doubt had considerable weight in determining the selection of his land. The first dwelling was built by the labor of him- self and wife, and was a rude affair. The only windows were small holes left in the logs, covered with greased paper. The roof was constructed of troughs, the first course laid with the convex side down, and the second enverted and lapping over the edges of the others. This plan, provided the troughs were sound, made a very comforta- ble covering, impervious to water so long as the material did not warp or crack.
The second house stood about fifteen rods west of the first, nearer the river. When it was all ready to be put up, it took all the able bodied men in five townships to raise it. It had a roof made of heavy stakes, pin- ned upon the transverse timbers with three- quarter-inch ash pins. The improved build- ing boasted of a better chimney and sash windows, which latter Mr. Cooley whittled out with a pocket knife.
Mr. Cooley was probably the first settler in Lansing township, having arrived, as we have seen, in the autumn 'of 1837. There is some uncertainty regarding the arrival of the first family, but the probabilities point to Mr. Cooley's family, who reached their destination on the 15th day of June, 1838. The deed of his land was dated in 1837, and signed by Martin Van Buren.
Mr. Cooley died on his farm, June 9. 1865, at the age of fifty-eight years, two months, and sixteen days, at a period when he should have been in the prime of his phys- ical powers. No doubt the hardships of a pioneer life had much to do with his com- paratively early demise. He left a wife and five children-three sons and two daughters, to each of whom he gave a farm, and saw them settled around him. Mrs. Cooley died February 21, 1870.
REMINISCENCES
BY
A. E. COWLES.
I cannot add anything to what has already been said of the hardships of the pioneer settlers, for when my parents brought me to Ingham county, they located in what was then considered, a well settled part of the country ; but there are some little things not usually mentioned in sketches of pioneer life, that may be interesting to some, that I think I will jot down.
My father. Joseph P. Cowles, and my mother came with myself and baby sister, now Mrs. Carrie C. Bayley, living in St. Paul; Minn., to this county in October. 1843, from Chardon. Ohio-my parents and we children, with horse and buggy and the household furniture and a covered wagon, drawn by two yokes of oxen, driven by my two uncles, F. M. Cowles and H. P.
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Cowles. I remember the long journey very well, especially crossing the Black swamp in the sea of mud, the fording of the Mau- mee river at Toledo, the arrival at Mason and the final arrival at our destination at the "City of Jefferson," in Alaiedon, spoken of by Mr. Silas Beebe in that part of his diary, hereinbefore copied. The city was located on section 29, at the junction of Mud creek and the old road that ran from Mason, north to Delhi and later to Lansing.
My father had purchased from George Howe, my mother's brother, one hundred sixty acres of land, mostly in the city plat, with a log house upon it ; and the water priv- ileges on twenty-five acres more, together with a sawmill run by the water in Mud creek. No one crossing the creek at that point would ever imagine that it could have furnished power to run an upright saw through whitewood logs four and five feet in diameter ; but it did for many months at a time, for five years that I remember; and I have seen large fish, pickerel, suckers and mullet speared in its waters.
It has been stated in histories of the coun- ty, that there were thirteen log houses in the city, but there were not-besides the log school house there were only four. Those must have been counted that were from one to two miles away, in the Childs, Pierce, Strickland and Main neighborhoods. The log house that we moved into was better than most log houses, for the logs were hewn flat on the outside and inside, and there was a wide covered porch in front of it. It, like all others, had a big fire place at the base of a "stick chimney," that was built of stone for five or six feet up from the bottom and from that to the top, of sticks split from hardwood timber about an inch thick and three inches wide, laid flat in mortar and plastered thickly on the inside with the same. The fire was very cheerful, made with a "back log," one
to two feet in diameter and smaller wood piled on large andirons. All of the cooking was done there upon the coals and by hang- ing kettles upon iron hooks, hooked over an iron crane, hung so as to swing over the fire ; imagine a woman cooking three meals a day in this way, cooking her face almost as brown as she did the meat. Potatoes were baked by covering them with hot ashes and live coals over the ashes; and no potatoes baked in any other way ever tasted quite so good. The baking of bread, pies and cakes was done in a tin oven, set before the fire; it was of bright tin, about two and a half feet long and a foot wide, or deep, something in the shape of an old fashioned shaker bonnet, if one can imagine, two and one-half feet wide. It was set with the open front before the fire and the heat reflected from the bright tin sides and flaring top, baked better bread, pies and cakes than can come from a stone oven.
Mother made our candle-tallow dips-in this way: two straight poles, about ten feet long, were placed, about a foot apart, with their ends upon chairs ; wicks were cut twice as long as the candle was to be, folded over little sticks about fourteen inches long, twist- ed and waxed, so that they would not un- twist, six upon each stick and twenty sticks making ten dozen of the wicks, which were to become ten dozen candles. These sticks were placed with their ends resting on the poles and the wicks hanging down between the poles. The sticks were taken one at a time, the wicks immersed in a kettle of melt- ed tallow and placed back upon the poles, until all had been "dipped ;" by that time the tallow on the first six wicks had cooled, and commencing again and again at that end, the process was continued until the candles were of the required size ; mother also had the candle molds in which she could make a dozen candles, at a time, that were of more
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
perfect shape, by putting the wicks upon the sticks in the molds and filling with melted tallow. There were no matches and if the fire went out, coals for rekindling it had to be brought from a neighbors-they, who had no near neighbors, made fire by striking steel upon a flint so that the spark would catch in a piece of punk held near. But seldom the fire was allowed to go out; it was banked at night, to keep it. Our lanterns were round in form and made of tin, perforated full of holes, through which the light came.
Our meat was principally, salt beef and salt pork. By mutual consent, no two neigh- bors would butcher at the same time and when one did, pieces of fresh meat were dis- tributed among the neighbors ; and how good it was. Children do not know how good it is when it can be had only two or three times a year.
The best beds were laid on bed cords (small ropes) strung crosswise through holes in the sides, and head and front rails and tightened by a bed wrench.
Wool was carded into small rolls by the women with two hand cards and these rolls spun into yarn on the spinning wheel and the yarn was woven into cloth, also by the women, home-spun-for clothing for men, women and children. The music of the spin- ning wheel, for hours at a time, day in and day out, will nevermore be heard in the land.
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