From this time on the entries of marks are less frequent, as probably the fences were beginning to hold the stock and make the ear-mark record of less utility.

Charles G. Curtis, Asahel Curtis, Asahel Robinson, O. Parker, Lewis Colby, Jesse Whitcomb, George R. Sprague and William Barnhart had entered their respective marks before 1850, and on January 21, 1851, the firm of Hazelton & McFarlan recorded their mark for logs, it being the letter "H.M.T.B." this was the only mark for logs entered.

The first entry of strays was in the month of December, 1839, and is as follows: "Came into the enclosure of the subscriber one yearling heifer on or about the fourth of December, 1839. Said heifer is red, with one white star in her forehead and the end of her tail white; also said heifer is very small in size. Flint Dec. 17, 1839." Another similar finding of estray is entered in December of same year by John P. Kellogg, and thereafter from time to time strays were so reported to those who took them up.

In the middle fifties the stock evidently had become more numerous and many entries are made of strays in 1855 and 1856. Later on they were less proportionally and the last is entered on November 21, 1896.

The record of libraries is a valuable index to the literary tastes of the earliest settlers of the county. From it we have taken some interesting data in "Res Literaria." After the formation of the Ladies' Library Association in 1851, the activity of the school district libraries was not so pronounced. It was, however, kept up for many years more and the high standing of the books bought was maintained to the last. Many of the older people of the county can remember of school libraries and the educational work they did among the hungry minds of he patrons. The entries of the old book come down to 1859, among the last entries being a list of books bought in 1858.

The record of school inspectors opens with the records of a meeting of the board of school inspectors held at the town clerk's office, April 11, 1837, at which Ephraim walker was elected chairman. Orrin Stafford, town clerk, signed the minutes of the meeting. At this meeting the inspectors divided the town into ten school districts, number one of which covered the territory of the present city south of the river and number two, that north of the river. the growth of the region rendered it necessary to create three more districts during the year. For the year ending with September, 1838, the report from district number one shows the attendance of pupils bet wen five and seventeen years of age to have been thirty-nine in all; over seventeen, twenty-one; making the total number of scholars, sixty. The term of school was nine months. Most of the districts made no report. The amount of money raised in the first school district was ninety dollars for a school building and four hundred ninety-nine dollars for current school expenses. School district number five had school for six months, and raised seventy dollars for school purposes. School in the sixth district was kept seven months, and one hundred and ninety dollars was raised for expenses. After paying therefrom one hundred dollars for a school house. No other district made a report of any school supported in the districts.

It appears that Lyman Stow, E. S. Walker and J. L. Gage were inspectors of schools for Flint township, and Josiah Alger, W. D. Morton and Dudley Brainerd, of Mundy township, in 1839. In 1839 districts numbers one, three, four and five reported schools, and an attendance in all of the four reporting, one hundred forty-seven pupils. The text books were Kirkham's Grammar, Blake's Philosophy, Webster's spelling book, Hale's United State History, Cobb's Reader, as standards; while in some, the report shows a number of text-books, including Peter parley's Geography, Olney's Grammar, Emerson's Arithmetic, Smith's Arithmetic, Botham's Arithmetic, Adams' Arithmetic, all in the same school.

In 1840 the inspectors of the county, E. Drake and L. Stow, reported district number one as having the same number of pupils as in 1838, namely, sixty; district number two, however, reported thrifty-three, making the number within the territory of the present city of Flint, ninety-three. District number four had twenty-nine pupils; district number five had twenty-five; number six had forty-two, and number eight, thirty-six.

The record shows the reports of 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, and so on, down to the organization of the city, and then continues until the year 1869. This old volume contains a mass of information as to the early schools of the county, and as such is invaluable.