The difficulty. of procuring seed for crops constituted one form of hardship for the early settlers of a new township They were often compelled to travel many miles on foot for this purpose and bear their purchases home on their shoulders.

Mr. Chandler was, however, more fortunate in supplying himself with seed for his first crop of potatoes. He found a plat that had been planted with potatoes the preceding year by Mr. Murray, who had left the crop in the ground through the winter, which, covered by the deep snow, had not been frozen. From this plat he dug eight bushels of the tubers that were in good condition for seed.

From seed thus obtained many crops were raised in this and subsequent years by Mr. Chandler and his neighbors. This discovery was more to the Chandlers than the acquisition of a thousand gold dollars to a Vanderbilt of the present time.

Arnold Murray, who had made a beginning on lot eight, range nine, in 1802 and had sold his interest in the lot to John Chandler in 1805, made another beginning on lot eleven, range nine, in 1805, where he lived for several years. This lot afterwards passed into the hands of a Mr. Besse and has since been known as the Besse place, although it has passed through the hands of several different owners since.