Meridian Township was primarily settled by German families including the Grettenbergers, Unruhs, Brays, and Proctors, who came to an area of forests and wetlands where trees had to be cut down before seed could be planted, and because early planting was so important, many pioneers planted crops around stumps instead of waiting to remove them. In the early 1840’s, Johann G. Grettenberger and his family emigrated from Germany to Washtenaw County, Michigan, and after learning that school land was for sale in the Okemos area for $15.00 an acre, Johann and his son Jacob walked from Ann Arbor to Okemos and negotiated the purchase of 80 acres that became the first part of the Grettenberger farm at the top of the Marsh Road hill above the present Meijer store complex. A cabin built there allowed the rest of the family to join Johann and Jacob in Okemos. In the 1850s/60s, Johann Georg Grettenberger built the two-story section of the Grettenberger farmhouse for Jacob, and as the farm prospered, Jacob added a single-story section for his growing family. Farmers used various outbuildings for work, including barns, corn cribs, ice houses, grain silos, and lean-to sheds, while the most important was the outhouse, also called the privy or latrine, used to deposit wastes safely underground; at night, residents instead used chamber pots kept under their beds, which children emptied each morning. A windmill pumped water from the ground and later produced electricity for the house and barns, and the corn crib on the north side of the barn was used as a granary to store and dry corn. The Unruh barn, originally along Marsh Road north of Tihart Road, was built in classic post-beam style with hay and feed on the upper level and work animals on the lower level.