SAMUEL PRESTON

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

Samuel Preston
The second settler in Oneida was Samuel Preston, who had come to Michigan
from Cayuga Co., N. Y., in the spring of 1835, and located nine miles west of
Adrian, Lenawee Co. In the fall of 1836 he paid Stephen Perkins twelve dollars
for locating 160 acres of land for him in the Grand River Valley, and early in
January, 1837, visited his purchase, finding Mr. Russell ahead of him in the
matter of settlement. The claims of the two men were about two miles apart. On
this trip Mr. Preston stopped over-night with Robert Wheaton, in Chester
township, and the next day Mr. Wheaton accompanied him to his land, which was covered with a thick growth of "gigantic trees," as Mr. Preston expressed it. At that time but nine families had settled on the route between Mr. Wheaton's and Jackson, a distance of forty-five miles.

Mr. Preston returned to Lenawee County the day after he had "viewed his land,"
and on the 2d day of February set out with his family and two ox-teams, with the
household effects, for their future home in Oneida. Three days later they arrived at Asa Fuller's, near Mr. Wheaton's, and after making arrangements to remain there for a time Mr. Preston, aided by the two gentlemen above named, began the task of cutting a road to his place. Of this work Mr. Preston wrote as follows in 1869:

"Night coming on we clustered ourselves into a cave dug in the snow, after
giving our team a supper of tree-tops. Here, in the depths of a snow-bank,
surrounded by almost interminable forest, we cooked, ate, and finally retired to
our beds. It is easier to speak of the occupation of such a position as was ours
than to endure it. Cut loose from any earthly home, deeply involved in the dreary, wintry forest, dependent upon the capriciousness and uncertainty of circumstances, reflections must and did arise of no very pleasant nature. And now, in these after-years of a better state, it is difficult to realize how this, as well as the many succeeding trials of life in a new country, were so well endured. About ten o'clock of the second day from Mr. Fuller's we reached the site we were in quest of, and, after clearing away the deep snow, some logs, and underbrush, commenced the work of building a log cabin.

To myself this was an entirely new experience; but with the more experienced
aid of my kind new neighbor I succeeded in putting up a fourteen-by-eighteen
habitation, which proved to be the second white man's abode in the wilderness
of Oneida. After this feat, of course, we had the honor of its first occupation
over-night. Some time during this eventful night it commenced snowing, and before two o'clock the following day we had an addition of another foot of snow. Judging it to be a matter of prudence to seek some safer asylum, and depositing our implements in the newly-made cabin, we commenced our retreat. Mr. Fuller's home was full seven miles distant, and it was still snowing. When within about two miles of his place the snow rose so high over our floundering sled that we were compelled to abandon it altogether, and trust to our weary legs for the remainder of the way, arriving about nightfall at the house of my kind friend, Mr. Fuller.

As soon as the snow had settled, which took several days, by the help of my good Chester neighbors I completed my cabin, excepting those very essential parts, floors, doors, windows, and chimney. In this unfinished condition we all went into it-self, wife, and a brace of little ones-on the 4th day of March, 1837. This event, though infinitely less notable, we deemed of far greater importance to us than that parallel event then transpiring beneath the dome of the national Capitol. About one year after our first settlement Mrs. Preston attended a funeral at Canada Settlement, walking and carrying a young child in her arms, a distance of three or more miles. On her return home the next day she missed her way, taking a deer trail, supposing it to be the right path. Being myself out the next day at about three o'clock P.M., for the purpose of driving in my cattle, they took a sudden fright at some unusual object when about two miles from home, and looking for the cause I discovered my wandering wife, still bearing her babe in her arms. Which party was the most frightened-myself or the cattle-it would be difficult to say."

* Mr. Preston was an early postmaster in the township at the old post-office of Oneida, and held the position a number of years.