"I LEFT Herkimer county, N. Y., in company with Allen Bennett, Sen., in March 1833. Mr. Bennett came as far as Buffalo, went aboard a steamboat, but suddenly changed his mind and returned. I came on to Detroit and there met an acquaintance, who traveled with me west. We took the stage and reached Ann Arbor the first day, Jackson the second, and Marshall the third day. We then took our knapsacks, traveling westward to Gull prairie. At Battle Creek there was but one house. We reached Gull Prairie the fourth day, and started thence to Grand Rapids, in company with a pioneer who was moving thither with his family, and who carried our luggage. We stopped the first day long enough before night to build a bough house of brush, having brush without leaves for our bed and covering.

     "On the morning of the second day our pioneer, whose team was a yoke of oxen and a single horse, found his horse missing. I started out with him to search for the horse, but not finding him, went on to Grand Rapids, and from thence to Ionia. On our way to Ionia we came across our friend who had lost the horse, who had himself been lost, and had wandered in the woods seven days.

     "During our travels we camped in the woods or open prairie wherever night overtook us. My valise was my pillow, and a camlet cloak my covering, and in the absence of water, we washed our hands in the dew on the grass. During our travels looking for land on which to make a home, we were often for long distances without water, and one time dug with our hands a hollow place on the border of the marsh, which filled with water, and muddy as it was, it tasted sweet. We used an egg-shell for a goblet. We traveled through Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee and Oakland counties to Detroit, occupying on our trip through the State over four weeks. I located some Government land near Lyons, Ionia county, and returned to Herkimer county, N. Y.

     "In the spring of 1837 I started with my family and effects for Michigan, to make a permanent settlement. I drove a team through Canada and reached Jackson April 12, having been four weeks on the journey. We remained in Jackson a few weeks, and then went on to my farm in Rives, about ten miles north of the city. For the next ten years we went through all the hardships and privations of a pioneer life. We then moved to the city and resided four years, again upon the farm a few years, and for the last 15years in the city."

     "In the retrospect I have found a great source of enjoyment, whether as a pioneer or otherwise, in an active, busy life."