NATIVE AMERICANS

From "History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan" - 1880

Canada Settlement
In the southeast corner of the township of Oneida is what is known as the
"Canada Settlement," from the fact that the first arrivals in the neigborhood were
from Canada. The history of its settlement is thus given by Hon. Robert
Nixon, in an article published in the Charlotte Republican in October, 1869:

"James A. Nichols, James Nixon, Samuel Nixon, and myself left London, Canada
West, in October, 1836, and examined the country between Lake Huron and Black River in this State; but finding so much of it occupied by extensive hemlock
swamps, and becoming disgusted with the whole region, we took a lasting leave,
bound by steam from Fort Gratiot to the city of Detroit. Hearing, on our arrival
there, of the great beauty of the Grand River Valley, we started on foot for Ionia,
on what was called the Grand River pike. For twelve miles out of the city the mud
was deep enough to make two miles' travel a day's journey for a team. The road from Howell to De Witt, Clinton Co., was quite passable. Taking breakfast at De Witt before daylight, we started upon the Dexter trail for Ionia, thirty-two miles distant. Six of us started on this long pull and traveled until nearly night, not having been able to obtain any food through the whole day. Some of the party becoming exhausted, Nichols and myself went ahead in search of food. After a seeming long time we came upon a shanty, and finding the lady of the mansion at home we applied for relief, but her ladyship, not being of the Florence Nightingale school, denied us wholly. After a long expostulation against her inhumanity, we obtained some bread and returned to our famishing companions. On meeting them we proceeded to the shanty, and finding our feminine friend a little more complacent, all fared sumptuously upon our feast of bread. At Ionia we formed the cquaintance of Mr. Stephen B. Groger, the first settler of Eagle, Clinton Co., who kindly assisted us in locating lands in town 4, of range 4, in the county of Eaton, the present township of Oneida. Finding our lands all right as to soil, situation, and timber, we returned home to Canada in November.

About the last days of February, 1837, we again arrived at Oneida. We were six in number, all quite young men, besides some boys. Mr. J. H. Nichols, the oldest of the company, was twenty-nine; James Nixon, twenty-six; Martin Nichols,
twenty-three; Jason Nichols, twenty-one; Robert Nixon, nineteen; Samuel Nixon,
sixteen; all farmers by occupation, although, being Yankee born, we could turn our hands to anything needed,-at least so we thought. In a physical point of view all
were decidedly 'iron-sided ' and without the fear of field or forest before our eyes.
The snow was a solid mass three feet in depth, and remained so until after the
20th day of March. James H. Nichols and James Nixon moved in with ox-teams. In the month of April following we were all taken by surprise by the arrival of a new settler at our shanty, in the person of Mr. John Stanley, accompanied by his wife and three children. Mrs. Stanley was the first white woman in Canada Settlement.

"In the month of June thereafter, Mr. T. Walker Nichols reached us with a very
numerous family, all from Canada. With them came the wives of J. H. Nichols and
James Nixon. So numerous an acquisition put us in mind of what the Scripture
says, ' About this time men began to multiply upon the earth,' and, as we thought
with us, women too. Mr. T. W. Nichols was from Canada West. Mr. Stanley was a Vermonter. Some very old people-Mr. Johnson Jones and wife and Cornelius Jones-came in the summer of 1837, but did not stay long.

In May of this year John Stanley sowed two bushels of spring wheat. From this
sowing he harvested sixty-two bushels of good wheat. This was the first crop
raised in Canada Settlement. We learned by this experiment that things would
grow in Michigan. All that was necessary was to clear away the huge trees and
tickle the soil a little with the hoe and harrow. This most of us felt abundantly able
to do, though some felt differently and sighed for the. 'flesh-pots' of royal old Canada, Some time during the spring of the same year Mr. CoMnelius P. Swarts came, and shortly after his wife arrived, all from Canada West. They were young people, some twenty-six years of age, and settled on section 26. In the fall of 1838, Abijah Hutchins came with a family of nine persons, all from Canada, of course. He located on section 27. And thus Canada Settlement grew in numbers. It is pleasant to reflect upon those times of prosperity and encouragement,-an age of kindness and sympathy one with another.

Soon after wheat-sowing, in May of the first year, Mr. John Stanley had the
misfortune to lose his oxen. They strayed as far as Washtenaw County, and were
not recovered until the October following. Mr. Stanley seemed to be a child of
accidents; he had a peculiar knack of getting lost in the woods; always thought
home was right the other way. We have several times had to follow this good
neighbor night and day. At one time he drove all his cattle across Grand River,
where the city of Lansing now stands, seemingly without any apprehension of his
mistake. He, nevertheless, beat us who were in search of him, arriving home long
before us, by way of the great bend north of Delta Mills, so we hadn't much to say that time.

The first white man's shanty erected in Canada Settlement was put up on the last
day of February, 1837. Six of us had just half a day's time to cut and draw the logs (they were drawn by hand), split the covering, displace the snow, and cook our supper before we could go to rest. However, all this was done, and the shanty stood all gracefully up before we took our respective places on the wet lap of
mother Earth, which we did in commendable obedience to the law of necessity,
having each the whole of a friendly blanket both under and over our weary bodies. Our dreams might have been of hay, straw, or feathers, but we were destined to
wake in the morning without having realized either. Our sleep was none of the
worst; but, oh! the getting up in the morning, with other garments than our linen
well saturated with liquefied snow, and the weather as cold as 'Greenland's icy mountains,' was not a little trying to pioneer grit. But being all young and hardy, we passed this trying ordeal safe and sound from any lasting damage to either body or soul. This was not the only hard raising we had to accomplish for ourselves and
others.

Among other distant cases, we traveled, in the fall of 1838, nine miles
through the woods to the township of Roxand, for the purpose of assisting Mr.
Lemuel Cole in the raising of his first log cabin; and again, the same season, six
miles to the new township of Delta, to aid our respected friend, Mr. Genet Brown, on his second log edifice. Eight or ten men in those days could do almost
anything,-sweep away our own timber, build our own shelters, then go off to distant places and help others. It is to be feared that little of the kind, neighborly spirit which then existed would be found in the heart of the present grasping generation; but circumstances, perhaps, may alter cases.

The road running north and south through Canada Settlement was among the first
established in the township. On this road James Nixon and T. Walker Nichols built the first bridge over the Thornapple River at their own expense. The first wheat
bread made in Oneida was wet up and baked by Martin Nichols, on the occasion of raising the first shanty. At that time Martin was pronounced a very good cook,
especially in the bread line, but what his reputation has since been I am not able to
say. The first lawsuit was tried at the school-house in Canada Settlement, and, like the majority of such cases, proved to be a bad affair; the school-house taking fire
was burned up with all its contents on the night following. The first framed house
and barn were erected by S. W. Nichols, in the year 1840. Peter M. Kent and
Nehemiah Clark were the boss carpenters of both house and barn.

In the month of June, 1839, the population of the township was increased by the
arrival at the Canadian Settlement of Freeman W. Nichols and a family of eleven
persons, with Samuel Nixon, then a lad, and a hired man named John Brown, all from London, Canada West. The trip was made with four wagons and a drove of cattle and swine, which Mr. Nichols' son, George W. Nichols, was deputed to drive. The journey was attended with the usual adventures, and they finally rested in a log cabin eighteen feet square, which had been built for them by Mr. Nichols' brother. The building had no floor and was rather small for the accommodation of twelve persons. Mr. Nichols' sons, Jason and George, made a trip to mill in the fall after their arrival, getting twenty-five bushels of wheat at Capt. Scott's, where now is the village of DeWitt, and going with it to Wacousta to get it ground in the small mill at that place. This mill contained a single "run" of stone, without bolt or screen. Four days after leaving home they started on their return, and met with numerous adventures on the way, the streams being high nd facilities for crossing them not numerous, but finally reached home in safety.