A continuation of progress within the village and township area in the 1840s . . .
I donated as a site six acres of land where the mill now stands and boarded the hands gratuitously, and the people of the township scored and hewed the timber for the frame gratis. The man getting sick of the mill business, owing to a disappointment in marriage, sold the same to me and I completed it.
The first grist mill was built by Messrs. Fish & Palmerton, in the years 1855 and 1856, I donating the land for the same.
In the spring of 1849, Mr. O.B. Williams and myself went on the line of the Detroit and Grand River road and solicited subscription for opening said road from Fowlerville west. The improvements made by the small appropriations of lands nearly 10 years before, and the road being but little traveled, it had in many places grown up to brush and became impassable.
We got in dry goods and subscriptions some $600. There were extra town meetings called along the line of the road in the towns of Leroy, Wheatfield, Phelps and Meridian, and there was raised in each town from $200 to $250. The bridges were built over the two cedars and the streams west of the Meridian line. Mr. Williams commenced at the Meridian line with three hands and two pair of oxen and I commenced at Fowlerville with the same amount of help. We cleared the brush and bailed the wet and mirey places. We worked between two and three weeks and met near Williamston.
More to come tomorrow on the roads.
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