In September of 1836 Ralph and John Fowler had traveled to Handy Township-- then part of Howell Township-- to look over their purchased lands and decide whether or not to permanently settle here.

Despite some unfavorable first impressions, the brothers decided to do so and returned to their home in New York state to commence with the relocation. The narration-- delivered by Ralph Fowler in an address before the Livingston Pioneer Association in 1878--commences at that point in time.

“Upon arriving at our home it was settled that Martin W. Randall and myself, with our families, should start upon a journey to Michigan in the fall. All arrangements were completed as rapidly as possible and early in the morning of Oct. 17, 1836 we bid adieu to our families in Geneseo, and with two covered wagons-- two yoke of oxen hitched to one and a span of horses to the other-- began our return trip to the Peninsular State.

We traveled through Canada, and had a good time. On the 9th of November we arrived in Handy-- then Howell Township. Our house, which Mr. (Amos) Adams had hired built for us, was only partially completed. A roof covered but one side, and there was no floor. Harvey Metcalf had got settled in his house, and we stayed with him two or three days.

We moved into our house with only half of the floor laid, Except the door, the house was built without using a board. Oaken shakes and shingles constituted the roof, gables, and upper floor, the lower floor was made from basswood logs, split through the centre, spotted on the ends so as to rest firmly on the sleepers, and, being hewed smooth on top, made a good finish. A mud-and-stick chimney, the fireplace embellished with wooden crane and trammels, completed the first appointments of the cabin.

“Our goods had been shipped from Geneseo to Detroit and we expected to find them in the latter city on our arrival, but, to our great disappointment, they had not yet arrived. After the completion of our cabin, Martin Randall, with his horse-team, the first ever owned in the township, returned to Detroit expecting to find the goods surely at that time, but still they were not there.

“Here we were, in the woods, sixty miles from where anything could be obtained-- Mr. Randall, wife and one child, and myself, wife and two children, with no cooking utensils, or anything to sleep upon, except a quilt or two which we had brought along in our wagons. I think Mr. Randall had part of a bed. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and this, with kind neighbors, overcame a great many difficulties. We borrowed a few plates, knives, and forks from Mrs. Handy and Mrs. Metcalf-- the lady representatives of the only families then in the township and from the Indians a baking kettle. In a shanty in the west part of Howell, where some men had been chopping, we found a three-pail kettle which we also took, and with a tin bake-oven, which we had bought in Detroit, our kitchen utensils were complete.

“Now for sleeping accommodations, we found by way of Mr. Adams that a young man by the name of Flavius J.B. Crane-- the proprietor and original owner of part of the village plat of Howell-- had a piece of factory cloth. We bought it, made a bed tick of the same, also some sheets, and filled the tick with marsh hay. A bedstead was made of ironwood poles and bark, and by the help of quilts, before mentioned, and a good fire, we managed to pass the winter very comfortably.

“Mr. Randall, after a few weeks, built a shanty of the east half of the southwest quarter of section 11, on lands owned by John Fowler. Thus situated, with but four families in the township, viz Messrs. Handy, Metcalf, Randall, and myself was passed a very pleasant winter.

“On the 1st of May, 1837, John Fowler and family, Ruel Randall and wife, and John A. Tanner, then a boy 17 years of age and in the employ of John Fowler, arrived in the township. They came from Geneseo, with ox teams, through Canada. The first Sunday morning after their arrival, my brother and myself strolled through the woods and came to a cleared spot or an opening of about an acre, where we sat down under a large oak and talked of our mother, who had been a Methodist all her days. ‘Right here,’ my brother says, ‘if we live long enough, we will have a Methodist church.’ When the village plat was surveyed, the stump of the same tree still remained there. Remembering the conversation of my brother and myself, I marked the lots for a Methodist church and in about 20 years the church was built upon that site.”