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Michigan Select Michigan Counties
The next morning, putting the two span of horses before the covered wagon, and getting an early start, the long day in June was spent in toiling through the woods to our destination, but ten miles from our resting place of the previous night, and the sun was just sinking in the west when we climbed the hill on the north line of section ten.
So crooked was the road in places, at one of the sudden turns the near wheel horse was drawn by the leaders over a sapling large enough
for a hand-spike, and the poor beast was almost lifted from the ground by its upward spring.
One of the early settlers in this township yet lives to tell of a night
in the woods: Mrs. John W. Harris, in looking for her cows late one
afternoon lost her way, and hardly had night settled down upon her
when she heard the howl of the "gaunt and hungry wolf," which was
answered by another and another-nearer, and yet nearer they came,
until she was obliged to climb a tree for safety, and all night long they
kept up their frightful, unearthly, hideous howling; enough to curdle
one's blood when heard at a distance, and yet they were even just beneath
.her feet. Wolves to the right of her, and wolves to the left of her, and
wolves beneath her chill hiding place, made the long, weary hours of
' that night anxious ones to her; while fighting among themselves they
Thirsted for her blood. She passed the night securely, though terribly
frightened, and when morning dawned, her cowardly enemies slunk
away to hide in the dark recesses of the forest, far from the abodes of
men, and she came down from her perch and soon heard the welcome
horns and shouts of her friends who turned out to look for her. She
i was in a sorry plight, and her morning toilette was far from suitable to
the present day, as indeed the echoes of the previous night were widely
different from the music of a modern serenade.
There yet lives also in this township one of her hardy pioneers, who Was, even when he located there, a veteran, scarred in the war of 1812. Mr. Alexander Odren, (or Odrian, as sometimes written). Uncle Alec, as he is familiarly styled, was at Maiden and saw the treachery and horrid butchery by the Indians at that place, and also, was engaged in the nava! conflict on lake Erie, where brave Perry so nobly commanded.
Michigan Counties
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