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OENEALOGY COLLECTION
A HISTORY OF
COLUMBIA COUNTY
WISCONSIN
A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its
People, and Its Principal Interests.
Compiled under the Editorial Supervision of
J. E. JONES,
PORTAGE
Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors
VOLUME I
ILL USTRA TED
PUBLISHERS
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1914
PREFACE
1303716
Every student of history knows that Interior America is the Greater
America, and just as long as the Coming United States was crowded
l)etween the Eastern mountains and the Atlantic Ocean it was bound in
Colonial chains. To the romantic, ambitious spirit of the Frenchman,
whether he be cavalier or priest, is due the planting of the seed which
has bloomed into a nation. He opened the gates to the Mississippi with
all its tributary valleys; and it was the fiery genius of Napoleon which
finally passed into our keeping that vast Louisiana beyond the Mississippi,
which lured us even beyond to the Pacific.
It is by thus getting a perspective that one may weigh the relative
importance of any locality as a necessary feature of the broad, historic
landscape over which the events of the world have marched and which
the student may calmly review as from an eminence ; he is blind, except
with the prophetic eye, as to what lies before him.
Those who know Columbia County, and have studied its relation to
the development of the great heart of the United States, are proud of the
part which Providence assigned to it in the making of the Nation. In
the very center of the greatest of the four waterways, whose easy
portages separated the vast basins of the Great Lakes from the broad
valleys of the Mississippi system, the grand figures of Marquette and
Joliet, the French fur-trader and voyageur, the really noble red man,
the merchandiser of all nations, the soldier, the American statesman and
finally the well-molded citizen of today's Republic — in a word, this
United States in the entire making — has been largely filtered through the
County of Columbia. Although there have been some who would have
had our home county kno\vn as Portage, rather than that other goodly
section of Central Wisconsin, it is better as it is, since we are really
entitled to the name and the fame.
Ever considering Columbia County from this large relationship, we
have taken a deep satisfaction in gathering and presenting the details
of its founding and growth; and although there are other counties in
far more wealthy and populous, there is none whose soil has
iv PREFACE
grown anything more picturesque and vital along the lines of history
than our own Columbia.
It has been no small task to do justice to the subject, and the super-
vising editor would have faltered, if not fallen in the work, had he not
been so warmly and ably assisted by his advisorj' staff, who pi'oved such
fine workers as well as good advisors. Those gentlemen are Professor
W. G. Clough, of Portage; James R. Hastie, of Poynette; "William C.
Leitsch, of Columbus; M. J. Rowlands, of Cambria; James E. Jones, of
Kilbourn; J. M. Bushnell, of Wyocena, and Herbert Palmer, of Lodi.
Although not on our regular advisory board, no citizen of the county has
been more helpful and interested in the work than Chester W. Smith.
county superintendent of schools. Nor must we forget to fully acknowl-
edge the services of Mrs. W. G. Clough, the Portage city librarian, and
]Mrs. J. E. Jones, of Portage. It may be that these are our largest
debtors, but all to whom application for information has been made have
been so willing to assist to the extent of their ability that we simply
"thank you one and all."
There never was a book published in which there were not flaws, and
in preparing the history of a locality in the making of which the author
has been more or less concerned, a special effort has been made to avoid
any personal leaning toward or from individuals, institutions or subjects
in general. All the editors and contributors identified with this work
have honestly endeavoi'ed to write history without bias or animus, and
trust that its readers will give them credit for their good intentions, even
though such readers imagine that they can sometimes ' ' read between the
lines." It is certain that nothing so complete has been published for
thirty-five years; and probably within the next four decades Columbia
County will make enough good, readable history for a whole library.
They who compile this library may do their work better than we, liut
certainly with no more conscience.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
NATURAL FEATURES
Wisconsin's Boldest Feature — Natural Route of Indians and
French Discoverers — Protection of the Portage Necessary to
Settlement — The Wisconsin Riv-eb and the Dells — The "How"
of the Dells — The Bababoo Bluffs — Through the "Grand Eddy"
ON a Raft — The Great Prairie Belt of Limestone — The Water
Courses of Columbia County — Prairies, Marshes and Timber
Land — Building Stone — Dairying and Agriculture 1
CHAPTER II
THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS
Mound Builders Keep to the' Water Courses — Mounds of the Kil-
BOURN Region — First Tidings of Columbia County Indians — The
Winnebagoes and Menominees — Last of the Indian Lands — ^Win-
nebago Villages — De Korra, the Noble Chief — Indian Payment
of 1830 — JIrs. Kedzie Describes the Chiefs — Yellow Thunder,
Last Winnebago War Chief — Personal Recollections of Yellow
Thunder (Mrs. Lydia A. Flanders) — Last Forced March of the
Winnebagoes — The Payment of 1914 17
CHAPTER III
FIRST WHITE VISITORS
Nicolet and Columbia County — Where Was the Mascouten Vil-
lage?— Joliet and Marquette Pass the Portage — Memorial at
THE Place of Crossing — Hennepin at the Portage — LaSalle and
Jonathan Carver — Visits of United States Soldiers — Traders
AND Carriers 33
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
INDIAN WARS AND THE FORT
The Winnebago Uprising — The Pursuit of Red Bird — Voluntary
Surrender op the Chief— The Magnificent Red Bird — Begs Not
TO BE Put in Irons — Red Bird Gives Away His Life — De Korra
AS Red Bird's Hostage — Fort Winnebago and "A Party Named
Astor" — The Coming of Major Twiggs — Ground Broken for
the Fort — Completed — Amusements at the Post — Noted Men
AND Women at the Fort — Lieutenant and Mrs. Van Cleve —
Henry Merrell — Evacuated — Final Dissolution 4:2
CHAPTER V
PIONEER TRADERS AND CARRIERS
Peter Pauquette — Death of the Famous Trader — Shot by Man-
ze-mon-e-ka — Inflamed by Liquor and False Charges — The
Remains of Pauquette Finally Ijocated — The Coming of
Henry Merrell — Fort Winnebago in 18?.4 — Commandants and
Indian Agents — The De Korras and Joseph Crelie — Post
Amusements — Business Trips Under Difficulties — Merrell 's
Account of the Famous 1837 Treat.y — Trips More or Less Excit-
ing— Merrell in Politics — Satterlee Clark's Perilous Journey
— Black Hawk Threatens Fort Winnebago — Clark Sent for
Reinforcements — On Return Overtakes Mounted ]\Iilitia —
Fatal Stampede of Troopers' Horses — "Battle" of the Wis-
consin— End of the Black Hawk War — De La Ronde Makes
the Portage in 1828 — The Noted Indian Family, De-kau-ry
(De Korra) — De La Ronde Becomes a Caledonia Farmer — •
Indian Removal of 1840 — Grignon, or French Claim No. 21 —
L'Ecuyer's Gra-\'e— The Post Cemetery — ^Wisconsinapolis and
Others Like It 58
CHAPTER VI
LAND OWNERS AND REAL SETTLERS
First Sales op Columbia County Lands — The Land Districts — Me-
nominee Indian Lands Surveyed — List of First Land Entries —
Wallace Rowan, First Real Settler — Mrs. Rowan from "In-
CONTENTS vii
dianer" — The Rowan Inn — Judge Doty Objects to the Hours —
Last op the Rowans — The English Colonies op Potters — Arrive
IN the Town op Scott — Other Trades Recognized — Pottersville
— Twigg's Landing — Disbandment op the Society — Inhabitants
OP County (1846) 1,200 — Columbia County on Early Maps. . . .79
CHAPTER VII
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
The Miutary Road — In Columbia County — Territorial and Other
Highways — Preliminary Survey op the Fox and Wisconsin
Rivers — The Old Portage Canal — The Canal in 1851 — -New
Canal Completed by the Government — Boscobel Really
Through — Control op Floods by Levee Systems — Cost and His-
tory OP Great Public Work — First Dyke Gives Way — Lewiston
Levee Rebuilt — Another Levee to Protect Caledonia and
Portage — Floods op the Wisconsin River — La Crosse & Mil-
waukee Railroad — Reaches Points in Columbia County — ■
Development op the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul —
Chicago & Northwestern — Wisconsin Central Commenced at
Portage — Completion of Line (1871) — The M., St. Paul &
S. Ste. Marie 89
CHAPTER VIII
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
Old Portage County— First Casting op Ballots — Columbia Set Opf
FROM Portage County — First Annual Election — James T. Lewis
Insists on Columbia — The County Officers — Sheriffs — Clerks
OF Circuit Court — District Attorneys — County Clerks — County
Treasurers — Registers op Deeds — Coroners — County Surveyors
— Boards of County Commissioners — Chairmen op County Board
op Supervisors — County Seat Fights — Temporary County Build-
ings— First Steps Toward Permanent Courthouse — The Court-
house Completed — County Jail and Sheriff's Residence — Home
for County Insane and Poor — The Circuit Court — Probate and
County Court 103
viii CONTEXTS
CHAPTER IX
MISCELLANEOUS COUNTY MATTERS
Household Population (1846) — Population in 1847 — Figures by
Decades (1850-1910) — Re.u> Estate and Personal Property (1875)
— Agricultural Interests — Conditions Thirty Years Ago — Con-
ditions OF THE Present — A Splendid Dairy County — Creameries
IN Columbia County — Cheese Factories — Li\-e Stock — County
Agricultural Society — Fish Fair and Secretary's Report — Co-
lumbia County Fair Assoclvtion — Curling in Columbia
County 119
CHAPTER X
THE PRESS
First Columbia County Newspaper — Suspension of the River
Times — John A. Brown and the Badger State — "Shanghai"
Chandler and the Independent — Robert B. Wentworth and
the Portage City Record — Enter A. J. Turner — Wisconsin
State Register Founded — Brannan & Turner — The Register
from 1885 to Date — A. J. Turner and Major Lockwood — First
Columbus Newspaper — Wisconsin Mirror Precedes Kilbourn
City — The Columbus Democrat — The Columbus Republican —
First German Newspaper, Der Wecker — Rundshau und
Wecker — Launching of the Portage Democrat — James E.
Jones — Lodi's Ups and Downs — The Enterprise — The Poynette
Press — Pardeeville Times and Badger Blade (Rio) — Kilbourn 's
Newspaper Ventures — Wyocena Advance — Other County News-
papers— Defunct Papers 133
CHAPTER XI
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES
First School Outside the Fort — First School District Formed at
Cambria — Too Few Cubic Feet Per Scholar— School Children in
1913 — Legal Qualification op Te.vchers — Columbia County
Teachers' Association — Columbia County Teachers' Training
School — Private and Parochial Schools of Portage — Columbus
CONTENTS ix
Collegiate Institute — The Kilbourn Institute — Eev. B. G. Riley
AND LoDi — Poynette Presbyterian Academy — Present Status op
Public Schools — Pioneer Trainers of the Soul — Father Maz-
ZUCHELLI AT THE PORTAGE — ThE FiRST OF St. Mary's PaRISH STIR-
RING Methodist Preacher — The ]METnODiSTS of Fall River — Lodi
Methodists Organize — Mr. Townsend on the Lowa'ille Sabbath
School — The Presbyterians at the Portage — Cambria as a
Church Center — Presbyterian Church of Kilbourn — The Nor-
wegian Lutherans Organize — Early Churches in the Town-
ships 149
CHAPTER XII
MILITARY RECORD
Jefferson Davis — Edwin V. Sumner — Other Noted Officers op Fort
Winnebago — The Portage Light Guard — Company G, Second Wis-
consin Volunteer Infantry — First Wisconsin Regiment to Enter
the Service — Record of the Second Wisconsin — Company D,
Fourth Regiment — General Bailey and Major Pierce — General
Bailey and the Red River Dam — Companies A and B, Seventh
Regiment — Company H, Eleventh Regiment — Company D, Nine-
teenth Regiment — Companies C, 6 and H, Twenty-third Regi-
ment— General and Judge J. J. Guppey — Record of the Twenty-
third — Companies A and E, Twenty-ninth Regiment — Company
K, Thirty-second Regiment — Last Infantry Companies — Cavalry
AND Artillery — The Drafts in the County — Guppey Guard op
Portage — Competitive Drills — Captains and Armories — Company
F, Third Regiment, W. N. G. — Company F in Spanish-American
War — The New Armory 167
CHAPTER Xlll
THE CITY OF PORTAGE
First White Woman at the Portage — The Settlement Grows — The
Canal Booms Things — Platting the Town of Fort Winnebago —
The Guppey Plat — Incorporation as a City — Increase of Popula-
tion— The Present City — Chicago & Wisconsin Valley Railroad
— The Fine City Hall — Free Public Library of Portage (Mrs. J.
E. Jones) — The City Water Works — Electric Light and Tower —
X CONTEXTS
Commission Form of Government Adopted— Protection Against
Fire— Wisconsin River Bridges— Final Dissolution of $119,000—
Nomenclature of Portage Streets (A. J. Turner)— Experiments
IN Banking — City Bank of Portage — First National Bank-
Portage Loan and Trust Company— The Eulberg Brewing Com-
pany— Epstein Brothers' BRE^^'ERY — The Portage Hosiery Com-
pany— Ll. Breese 184
CHAPTER XIV
PORTAGE SCHOOLS, CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
High School and Graded System Established — History op the Por-
tage High School — The Study op German — Present School
Buildings — City Superintendent Clough — List of Superintend-
ents AND Clerks — Early Catholic Missionaries — Founding of St.
Mary 's Parish — Pastors of St. Mary 's — School Building Erected
— The First Presbyterian Church op Portage — First Methodist
Church — St. John's Episcopal Church — First Baptist Church —
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran — Other Portage Churches —
The Masons Form Pioneer Lodge — Chapter, Council and Com-
MANDERY 1. 0. 0. F. BODIES ThE PyTHIAN BROTHERS ThE ElKS
Lodge — D. A. R., op Portage — Knights op Columbus and Foresters
— Lodges op Railroad Employees — Portage Liederkranz — The
National Verband — Countri Club of Portage — The Y. ]\I.
C. A 20G
CHAPTER XV
COLUMBUS CITY
First Settler — Wayne B. Dyer Describes the Village — Drake Suc-
ceeds DicKASON — First Lawyer and First Doctor Office Together
— James T. Lewis — Postmaster Whitney and "Old Hyson" — Lud-
iNGTON Plat and Addition — First Hotel, Store and School — Mill
Property Passes to J. S. ]Manning — Columbus Becomes a Village
—Incorporated as a City — City Departments and Activities —
Electric Light and Waterworks— Fire Department — Free
Public Library — The School System — History op the Schools —
Present Graded System Established — William C. Leitsch — Con-
greg.\tional Church op Columbus — German Lutheran Church —
CONTENTS xi
German Methodists — English Methodists — The Catholic Church
— Leading Lodges — First Columbus Banks — First National Bank
— Farmers and Merchants Union Bank — Early Brewers — The
Kurth Company — Columbus Canning Company 227
CHAPTER XVI
KILBOURN CITY
The Village op the Present — Wisconsin River Hydraulic Com-
pany Fathers Kilbourn — Editor Holly Arrives — Village Plat
Recorded — Sales of Lots — Schools op Kilbourn City — P. G.
Stroud and Jonathan Bowman — Village Incorporated — Water
Service and Fire Protection — The Free Public Library — Im-
provement OP Southern Wisconsin Power Company — First
Steamboats at the Dells — Banks at Kilbourn — The Presby-
terian Church — The Methodists — St. Cecelia (Catholic)
Church — Other Religious Bodies 250
CHAPTER XVII
LODI VILLAGE
The Beginnings op Lodi — I. H. Palmer and the Bartholomews —
Rev. Henry Maynard — The Suckers Settlement Becomes
Famous — Settlers op 1846 — First M. D. and D. D. — Other Phy-
sicians— South vs. North, Before the War — I. H. Palmer
Founds Lodi — Progress op Local Schools — Village Charter —
Water Service and Electric Lighting — The Methodist Church —
The Baptist Church — Lodi Lodges — Business Houses — Banks op
Lodi — Herbert Palmer, Son of Lodi's Founder 266
CHAPTER XVIII
VILLAGE OF PARDEEVILLE
Pardeeville Founded — Yates Ashley — John Pardee, Father of
John S., Proprietor — The Old Mill Up to Date — Protection
Against Fire — Pardeeville State Bank — Incorporated as a Vil-
lage—Graded School System— Pardeeville 's Churches — Masons
and Odd Fellows 276
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIX
VILLAGE OP RIO
Origin of the Name Doubtful — Rio Platted by N. B. Dunlap — First
Merchant and Postmaster — Pioneer Business and Professional
Men — Village Incorporated — Schools — Banks — People 's Tele-
phone Company — The Congregational Church — The Baptist
Church — Lutheran and Catholic Churches 281
CHAPTER XX
CAMBRIA
The Langdons Found Cambria — Arrival of First Welsh Colony —
Seeking a Location on Foot — Decide on Welsh Prairie — Fifty-
three Colonists "At Home" — Only Three Left in 1912 — Lang-
don's Mill Becomes Bellville — Bellville Changed to Cambria —
The Schools — Welsh Organize a Musical Union — Dr. Williams,
Patron op Literature — Revival op the Ancient Eisteddfod — Post
office Established — Industries and Banks — Welsh Calvanistic
M. E. Church — The English Presbyterian Church — Evangeli-
.cal Lutheran Zion's Congregation — Morris J. Rowlands .... 286
CHAPTER XXI
POYNETTE
Village of Today — Its Naming, a Mistake — Judge Doty Intended
"Pauquette" — Village Platted — Poynette in 1855 — First
School — Crusty Bachelors Withhold Tax — First Preaching —
The Times that Tried Men and Women — The Jamieson Family —
Poynette as a Flour Center — Rivalry of the "Sides" — The
Grain Trade — Bank of Poynette — School History — The
Churche.s — The Methodists Organize — Rev. John M. Springer,
War Hero — The Presbyterian Church — The Lutherans and
Catholics 299
CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER XXII
AN OLD SETTLER'S MEilOIRS
Hugh Jamieson's Youth in Scotland — Booked for America — The
Route to Columbia County — Arrives at the Site op Poynette —
Prices and Taxes in the '40s — Teaming Over Southern Wiscon-
sin— The Railroads — Commences to Improve Land in 1850 —
Prairie Fires — Breaking Up the Land — Pioneer Plow for Heavy
Work — First Land Entered in the County — Gets Curious about
Miss Thomas — Married by Squire Curtis — The Thomas Family —
Union School and Church — Rowan Was Not First Settler —
Purchases a Hotel — First Village Plat op Poynette — School
District op 1852 — An Important Year — Why the Hotel Paid
Well — Buys ]\Iorb Land — Railroad from Madison to Portage —
A Boom for Poynette — Completes New and Larger Hotel — Rail-
road Work Ceases — Yet Local Improvements Progress — Admitted
to Citizenship — Plats Jamieson's Addition — Rivalry op North
AND South Sides — ^War Times in the County — Securing Volun-
teers for the Union — Railroad Projects (1861-62) — Labor and
Crops in War Times — Chairman of the Board Again — Railroad
Work Resumed — Sugar River Valley Railroad Sold — Improve-
ment OP South Poynette — Fall of Richmond Celebrated —
Decline of War Prices — Local Improvements after the War —
Health Failing — Sixteen Years a Hotel Keeper — Again De-
feated BY Mr. Turner — Formation op the Madison & Portage
Railroad — Town Votes Aid to the Road — The Meeting at ]\Iadi-
soN — "Old Beeswax" and George B. Smith — "Jack of Clubs"
Sustained — General Store for Railroad Men — Transfer op Town
Bonds for Railroad Stock — Bond Question Traced to the End—
"Old Beeswax" Got There — Establishes Grain Business —
Cheese Factory Established — Business Passes to Jamieson
(H. P.) & Gault (W. O— Farm Machinery and Supplies—
Justly Proud op His Homestead— Retrospect in 1883 — His Re-
ligious Creed — Good Family Stock — Mr. Jamieson's Death 306
CHAPTER XXIII
WYOCENA
Pounded by Major Elbert Dickason— Naming op Wyocena — High
Grade op Early Settlers— First Store— Messrs. Dey and Dicka-
son— The Dairy Industries— Picnic Held on Historic Ground —
Sketch of J. M. Bushnell 358
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXIV
FOUNTAIN PRAIRIE (FALL RIVER)
Drainage and Land Surface — Chester Bushnell, First Settler-
Dyer, Bro%vn and Sage Locate— The JVLiGNiFicENT McCafferty —
First Land Entries — School and Church on Section 23 — Town
Government in Running Order — Reminiscences op James C. Carr
(By His Daughter. Mrs. Gertrude C. Fuller) — First Birth and
First Death — Farming Under Difficulties — An Opinionated
Applicant — Public Service of Carr and Adams — Story He Told
ON Brother Sage — Benjamin Sage, the Victim — Village of Fall,
River — A. A. Brayton, First Settler — Postoffice in 1847 — The
Village Schools — Methodist and Baptist Churches — Early Times
in Village and Town 365
CHAPTER XXV
OTSEGO TOWNSHIP (DOYLESTOWN)
Present Village of Doylestown — Wayne B. Dyer Was First Settler
— Village of Otsego — Land Owners of the Present Doylestown
— Town of Otsego Organized — Plat of Doylestown Recorded —
First Improvements — A Boom — Columbus Too Swift — Schools
AND Churches 374
CHAPTER XXVI
ARLINGTON (TOWN AND VILLAGE)
Leader in Agriculture — Clark M. Young, First Townsman — Evolu-
tion op Arlington Township — First Schools — Pioneers of Re-
ligion— The First op the Village — Important 1871 — Brisk,
Pleasant Village of Arlington 377
CHAPTER XXVII
TOWN OF LODI (OKEE)
A Pretty, Hk<vlthful Town — George M. and Marston C. Bartholo-
mew— Rev. Henry Maynard and Wife — A Hunt for "Milwaukee
Woods" — Organization of the Town — Matured Pupil Writes of
First School — Village of Okee — Expected Lake — Historic
Items 380
CONTENTS XV
CHAPTER XXVIII
TOWN OF DE KORRA
Rowan Settles and Opens Hotel — Paper Seats op Justice — Village
OF De Korea — First Grist Mill in South-Central Wisconsin —
Railroad Go-By a Death Blow — The Spelling of De Korra ( ?) —
Railroad Station op Hartman 385
CHAPTER XXIX
TOWN OF COURTLAND (RANDOLPH)
Rich and Beautiful Prairie Land — The Irish Pioneer — "Chestnut,"
Says Pat — Other Arrivals of 1844-45 — Horace Rust— Pioneek
Happenings — Becomes Courtland Township — Randolph (West
Ward) 388
CHAPTER XXX
DEAD AND PAPER TOWNS
Bad Conditions for Big Cities — Champion Townsite Man — Balti-
more City — Wisconsinapolis — Canal to Stir the Portage People
— Easterner Looking for Wisconsinapolis — First Settlers Come
to Town — The Village op Newport — Joseph Bailey and Jonathan
Bowman, Backers — In 1855 Contained 1,500 People — Making All
Safe and Sound — The Slip and Fall — Founders Move to Kilbouen
— Never More Than Port ' ' Hope ' ' — Wisconsin City 392
CHAPTER XXXI
COLUMBUS AND WYOCENA (TOWNS)
The Town of Columbus — First Settlement — Town Organized —
Birdsey a "Live Wire" — Wyocena Township — Good Water-
powers — First Wheat and Corn Raised — Settlers op 1845-46 —
Town Organized— U. S. Regulars Rout Claim Agent — Grist
iliLL below Wyocena 399
xvi CONTEXTS
■ CHAPTER. XXXII
CALEDONIA AND LEEDS
Caledoxia, the Largest Town — Drainage and Surface Fe:VTures —
Farm and Timber Lands — First Farmers op the County^First
Permament Settler — "Daddy" Robinson and John Pate — Scotch-
men Name Town, Caledonia — Daughter op Pauquette Lh-ing in
Town — Town op Leeds — Chief op the Forage Towns — First Land
Claims and Settlers — Leeds Center — Organization op Town —
PosTOFPicES — First Norwegian Church. ... ' 403
CHAPTER XXXIII
JAMES R. HASTIE'S RECOLLECTIONS
"Old Daddy" Robertson's Fair — The Settings — Everything and
Everybody Turned Loose — No Other Like Fair of 1861 — Last Day
OF De Korra Home Guard— Big Billy Wood Gets Even — Live
Stock Exhibits — Can We Beat These 1 — No ]\Iore Daddy 's Fairs —
A Mystery Still — Kentucky City — Its One Building — The Poor
Man's Court — Dixon's First Case — Honor to the Western
Pioneer — Land Speculators Crowd Out Settlers — Village of
De Korra at its Best — In the IIelting Pot 400
CHAPTER XXXIV
MARCELLON AND FORT WINNEBAGO
First Settlers in Marcellon — Others Who Came in 1846 — Several
First Events — Name op ^Marcellon Without Meaning — Town of
Fort Winntebago — Count Agosten Haraszthy — Makes Wisconsin
His Home — Locates in Sauk County — Off for California — Prom-
inent IN the Golden State — Death in Nicaragua — Portrait
Brought to Portage — First Permanent Settlers of Town — How
the Town Came to Be 420
CHAPTER XXXV
SCOTT AND RANDOLPH
Good Fruit and Dairy Country — First Settler in Scott — M. W. Pat-
ton and Others — Famous Blue Tavern — Named After Winfield
Scott -125
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER XXXVI
LOWVILLE AND SPRINGVALE
Jacob Low, First Settler of Lowville — First Marriage, Birth and
Death — First Postofpice and Mail Route — The Hotel — First
Teacher and Preacher — Coming op the Townsend Family — Rem-
iniscences op a. J. Townsend — Town of Springvale — Adapted
TO Cattle Raising — Springy ale's First Settler — High-Priced
Religion — The Welsh Settlers — Organized Under Present
Name 427
CHAPTER XXXVII
WEST POINT AND HAMPDEN
First House-Builder in West Point — Changes in Name — Schools
— Only One Hotel Venture — Town of Hampden — First Settlers
— Town Organized and Named — First School — Introduction of
Fine Stock 433
CHAPTER XXXVIII
NEWPORT AND RANDOLPH
Newport Town and Village Founded — First Settlers — Randolph
Township — Leads in Agriculture — George Knowles, First
Settler — Coming op the Langdon Brothers — Alden and Converse
— The First Welsh to Arrive — First Schools and Teachers —
Squire Patton and His "High Court" — Villages at a Discount
But Politics, Brisk Enough 438
INDEX
A Dairy Herd in Columbia County
(view), 126
A Frencli Fur Trader and Carrier (por-
trait), 3
"A party named Astor," 49
Ackerman, Eoxelana, 319
Adams, John Q., 104, 105, 115. 116, 155,
156, 241, 368, 582
Adams, Louie, 241
Adams, M., 245
Ades, John E., 496
Agriculture, 16; Conditions thirty years
ago, 124; Conditions of the present,
125; a splendid dairy county, 126;
cheese factories, 127; creameries in
Columbia county, 127; fairs, 128-132;
live stock, 128; County Agriculture
Society, 128; first fair and secretary's
report, 128; other fairs, 130; Colum-
bia County Fair Association, 131; in
early times (Jamieson), 314; pioneer
plow for heavy work, 315; Town of
Arlington, 377 ; farm and timber lands,
404; first farmers of the county, 404;
chief of the forage towns, 407
Albee, Hiram, 680
Albee, William C, 680
Albright, John L., 245
Alden, Alvin B., 441
Alexander, J. S., 279
Alverson, C. L., 201
Alverson, Miles T., 575
Amusements at the post, 52
Anacker, William, 603
Anacker, William E., 711
Anderson, John, 251
apJones, John, 290, 294
Archer, W., 218
Arlington Township — Town of Arlingtoir,
377; leader in agriculture, 377; Clark
M. Young, first townsman, 377; evo-
lution of Arlington township, 378;
first schools, 378; pioneers of religion,
378
Arlington State Bank, 379
Arlington Village, 379
Armory, Wabash City, 182, 183
Armstrong, Thomas, 310
Armstrong, William, 194
Arnt, Hamilton, 64
Ashley, E. E., 207
Ashley, Yates, 276
Bachman, I. B., 214
"Badger Blade," 147
"Badger State," 134, 143
Bailey, Joseph, 176, 251, 395, 438
Bailey, C4en. Joseph (portrait), 172
Bain, George B., 764
Baker, E. S., 56, 94
Baker, Edmund S., 636
Baltimore City, 393
Baltuff, Valentine, 141
Banks — Experiments in Banking, 201;
City Bank of Portage, 201; First Na-
tional Bank, 202; Portage Loan and
Trust Company, 202; F'irst Columbus
banks, 246; First National Bank, Co-
lumbus, 246; Farmers and Merchants
Union Bank, Columbus, 246; banks at
Kilbourn, 263; Kilbourn State Bank,
263; Farmers and Merchants State
Bank, Kilbourn, 263; Bank of Cam-
bria, 293; Bank of Portage. 301; Bank
of Poynette, 303
Baptist Church, Rio, 285
Baraboo Bluffs, 9
Baraboo river, 403, 404
Barden, L. W., 113
Barden, Levi W., 118
Barker, Archibald, 185
Barkman, Mrs. P. J., 191, 192
Barney, Robert D., 263, 688
Barrett, J. W., 305
Barteau, S. H., 280
Barth, Laurant, 40
Bartholomew, George M., 633
Bartholomew, G. M., 267, 380, 381, 382
Bartholomew, Josephine, 382
Bartholomew, Marston Clark, 633
Bartholomew, Marston C, 381, 383, 634
Bartholomew, M. C, 26.7
Bartholomew, Robert N., 633
Bartholomew. Roland G., 633
Bassett, Daniel E., 236
Batchelder, S. L., 372
INDEX
144
154
268
Biitli, IX \V.. 142
Batli, Henrv D., 1
Bath. Irving, 144
Bath, Levi, 151
Bath. R. W., 543
Bath, W. E.. 143,
Batty, A. J., 193
Batty, George M..
Bauer, Joseph, 472
Beach, Charles F., 215
Bean, John, 161. 213
Behncke, Rudolph J.. 763
Bell, John, 459
Bell, Robert, 524
Bellack, A. M., 155. 249
Bellkighausen, Herman L.,
Bellinghausen, H. L., 116,
Bellville, 290
Bennett, R. C, 284. 362
Bentlev, Frederick D., 594
Berg, Carl E.. 573
Bergum. Ellick B., 546
Bieree, Daniel, 215
Bill, George, 175
Bingham, Ira W., 218
Binnie, John, 483
Bisbee, Darius, 401
Blachley, Eben. 268
Blachley settlement,
Black Hawk. 42, 70
Black Hawk's Cave, 6
Black Wolf, 24
Blair, Linus, 362
Blue. G., 215
Bock, Henry. 514
Boelte, Fred J.. 545
Boelte, Henry C, 545
Bogue, Alan. 116. 117
Bogue. David, 451
Bohling, John F., 479
Bonliam, John E., 507
Boutwell, Simon, 540
Bowman, Ella, 256
Bowman, Hannah J., 458
Bowman, Jonathan, 254. 395
Bowman, Joseph J., 272
Boylan, Charles, 745
Boyum, Thomas R., 749
Bradshaw, William, 85
Bradley. William P., 408
Brady, George, 212
Brady, James, 213
Brady, John, 212
Braeson, Benjamin, 408
Brannan, Samuel S., 136
Brayton, A. A.. 371, 372
Brayton. Stephen, 340
Breese, Llywelyn, 447
Breesc, Ll", 2oi, 203, 204
Breese, Ll.. Jr., 203
Brewer, V. E., 181, 194
Briesc, William L., 733
451
Briggs, Abbey 0., 207
Brigham, Martha, 156
Britt, Chauncey C, 135
Britt, J. C, 181
Brittain, .John, 155
Brockmann, H., 295
Bronson, A., 157
Bronson, F. E., 226
Bronson, Parks, 359
Brown, Charles L., 113, 743
Brown, Courtland, 301
Brown, F. A., 147
Brown, John, 366
Brown, John A., 134
Brown, John J., 282
Buchanan, D.. 282
Buckley, William, 341
Buglass Family, 620
Buglass, David", Jr., 620
Buglass, Robert G., 620
Building stone, 16
Bullen, David, 379
BuUen, Winslow, 349
Bundy, Delos, 282
Bunsa, George E., 142
Burbach, Mrs. Fred, 191
Burlingame, E. H., 151
Burlingame, Leroy J., 151
Burrington, S. 0., 241
Bush, Harvey, 360
Bushnell, Cliester, 366
Bushnell. H. W., 214
Bushnell, J. M., 148, 363
Butler, Addie, 154
Butler, Charles F., 147
Byrne, John A., 129
Cable, John, 94
Cady, U. T.. 291
Cady, Ulysses T., 760
Caldow, William, 274, 499
Caldow, Elizabeth, 500
Caldwell, Charles P., 578
Caldwell, John, Sr., 274, 662
Caldwell, Robert, 577
Caledonia Township — Caledonia the larg-
est town, 403; drainage and surface
features, 403 ; farm and timber lands,
404; first farmers of the county, 404:
first permanent settler. 405; "Daddy"
Robertson and .John Pate, 405 ; Scotch-
men name town. Caledonia. 405;
daughter of Pauquette living in town,
406
Caledonia F'air of 1861, 410
Cambria — The Langdons found Cam-
bria, 286; arrival of first Welsh col-
ony, 287; seeking a location on foot,
288; decide on Welsh Prairie, 288;
fifty-three colonists "at home." 289;
only three left in 1912, 289; Langdon's
Mifl becomes Bellville. 289; Bellville
INDEX
changed to Cambria, 290; the schools,
290; Welsh organize a Musical Union,
291; Dr. Williams, patron of liter-
ature, 291; revival of the ancient
Eisteddfod, 292; postoffice established,
292; hotels, 292; industries and banks,
293; Welsh Calvanistic M. E. Church,
294; the English Presbyterian Church,
294; Evangelical Lutheran Zion's Con-
gregation, 294; Morris J. Rowlands,
296
"Cambria News," 147
Cambria Roller Mills, 293
Cambria State Bank, 293
Campbell, James, 343
Carnagie & PreScott, 113
Carnegie, George C, 182
Carpenter, George, 184
Carpenter, Henry, 184
Carpenter, Sarah, 184
Carr, James C, 366, 367
Carriers, 40
Carver, G. R., 272
Carver, Jonathan, 39, 87
Case, G. W., 157
Case, George W., 214
Castle Rocks, 9
Chadbourn, Frederick A., 346
Chadbourn, F. A., 249, 561
Chadbourn, R. W., 336, 346, 563
Chamberlain, T. C, 3
Champlain, 87
Chancellor, James, 213
Chandler, John A., 35
Chandler, Joseph, 378
Chandler, Julius C, 135
Chapin, E. E., 94, 341
Cheese Factories, 137, 352
Chestnut, Patrick, 389
Chicago & North Western Railway, 103
Chicago and Wisconsin Valley Street
Railways Company, 188
Chicago & Wisconsin Valley Railroad
Company, 188
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R.,
100
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company,
350
Chilson, Oliver G., 613
Chilson, William 0., 613
Chimney Rock and Romance Cliff, Dells
of the Wisconsin (view), 6
Chipman, William R., 469
Chou-ke-ka, 73
Chrisler, Elvin. 506
Christie, Alexander, 176
Christie, .James, 438
Christopher, M. J., 384, 549
Christopher, Roginald, 549
Christopher, Thomas, 160, 311
Churches — Father Mazzuchelli at the
Portage, 159; the first of St. ilary's
Parish, 160; stirring Methodist
preacher, 160; tlie Methodists of Fall
River, 161; Mr. Townsend on the Low-
ville Sabbath School, 162 ; Lodi Metho-
dists organize, 162; the Presbyterians
at the Portage, 163; Columbus Con-
gregational Church, 163; Cambria as
a church center, 163; Presbyterian
Church of Kilbourn, 164, the Norwe-
gian Lutherans organize, 164; early
churches in the townships, 165; early
Catholic missionaries, 310; founding
of St. Mary's Parish, 211; pastors of
St. Mary's, 212; school building
erected, 212; the Methodists of Port-
age, 313; First Presbyterian Church,
314; St. John's Episcopal Church,
Portage, 316; First Baptist Church,
Portage, 218; St. John's Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Portage, 319; Ger-
man Evangelical Trinity Church, Port-
age, 319; other Portage churches, 319
Circuit Court, 117
Circuit court clerks, 1847-1914, 107
City Bank of Portage, 201
City Hall and Auditorium, Columbus
(view), 337
City Hall, Wabash, 188
City Waterworks, 192
Civil War — The Portage Light Guard,
169; Company G, Second Wisconsin
Volunteer Infantry, 169; First Wis-
'consin Regiment to enter the service,
169; record of the Second Wisconsin,
170; Company D, Fourth Regiment,
171; General Bailey and Major Pierce,
173 ; General Bailey and the Red River
Dam, 173; Companies A and B, Sev-
enth Regiment, 175; Company D,
Tenth Regiment, 175; Company H,
Eleventh Regiment, 176; Company D,
Nineteenth Regiment, 176; Companies
C, G, and H, Twenty-third Regiment,
176; General and Judge J. J. Cuppey,
177; record of the Twenty-third, 177;
Companies A and E, Twenty-ninth
Regiment, 178; Company K, Thirty-
second Regiment, 178; last Infantry
Companies, 179; Cavalry and Artil-
lery, 179; the Drafts in the County,
179; war times in the county (Jamie-
son) 333; securing volunteers for the
Union (.lamieson), 334; labor and
crops in war times, 336; fall of Rich-
mond celebrated (Jamieson), 338; de-
cline of war prices (Jamieson), 339;
local improvements after the war
(Jamieson), 340
Clark, Charlotte O., 53
Clark, Harriet, 155
Clark, John T., 118, 137
Clark, Joel, 217
INDEX
Clark, Nathan, 53
Clark, Satterlee, 54, 62, 69
Clark, Willard, 280
Classical Institute, 155
Cleland, J. I.. 215
Clifford, M. H., 213
Cloous, Joseph, 85
Closs. Robert, 288
Closs, Thomas B., 753
Clough, Daniel, 220
Clough, Ethel Pearl, 210
Clough, Paul W., 210
Clough, Mrs. W. G., 190, 191, 210
Clough, W. G., 192, 208, 209
Cobb, Moses R., 118
Cochrane, Robert, 588
Cochrane, T. H., 226
Coffin, James L., 175
Cole, Jonathan, 185
Coleman, Harriet, 192
Coleman, Thomas, 740
Collins, Alexander L., 118
Collins, A. S., 214
Collins, James, 160, 194, 211
Colonius, Charles A., 635
Colonius, Josephine, 636
Columbia Bank, Lodi, 274
Columbia County Agricultural Society,
128
Columbia County Bank, 201
Columbia County Fair Association, 131
"Columbia County Reporter," 135, 140
Columbia County Teachers' Associa-
tion, 154
Columbia County Teachers' Training
School, 154
Columbia County Training School, Co-
lumbus (view), 154
"Columbia County Wecker," 143
Columbus Canning Company, 248
"Columbus Democrat," 142
Columbus High School, 1895-1910 (view),
239
"Columbus Journal," 141
"Columbus Republican," 142
Columbus Union Fair, 128
Columbus City— First settler at Colum-
bus, 227; Lewis Ludington becomes
owner of the town, 228; Wayne B.
Dyer describes the "Village," 228;
Drake succeeds Dickason, 229; first
lawyer and first doctor office together,
329; James T. Lewis, 229; Postmaster
Whitney and "Old Hyson," 234; Lud-
ington's Plat and Addition, 234; first
hotel, store and school. 235; mill prop-
erty passes to J. S. Manning, 235 ; Co-
lumbus becomes a village, 236; incor-
porated as a city, 236; city depart-
ments and activities, 237; electric light
and waterworks, 238; fire department,
338; free public library, 238; the
school sj'Stem, 239; history of the
school, 240; present graded system es-
tablished, 240; William C. Leitsch,
241; Congregational Church of Colum-
bus, 241; German Lutheran Church.
242; German Methodists, 244; English
Methodists, 244; the Catholic Church,
344; leading lodges, 245; first Colum-
bus banks, 246; First National Bank,
246; Farmers and Merchants Union
Bank, 246; early brewers, 247; the
Kurth Company, 247; Columbus Can-
nmg Company, 248 .
Columbus Township— Natural features,
399; first settlement, 399; town or-
ganized, 400; Birdsey a "live wire"
400
Coming of Major Twiggs, 50
Company F, Third Regiment, W. N. G.,
Gfuppey Guard of Portage, 180; com-
petitive drills, 181; captains and ar-
mories, 181; Company F, in Spanish-
American War, 182
Congregational Church, Rio, 264
Converse, .John, 391, 441, 443
Converse, Lena L., 146
Cook, Erastus, 179, 220
Cook, Kneeland B., 583
Cook, John B., 584
Coon. Thomas B., 263
Copeland. Hamlet, 84, 426
Cornell, William, 162, 429
Corning, C. E., 193
Corning, W. W., 116, 195
Cornwell, Agnes N., 207
Coroners, 1847-1914, 109
Couch, D. W., 214
County Asylum and Poor Home, \^'yo-
cena (view), 116
County buildings, 112-17
County clerks, 1846-1914. 108
County Club of Portage, 225
County commissioners, 1846-49, 110
County insane asylum, 115
County jail, 114
County officers, 106-108
County Organization — O Id Portage
County, 103; firet casting of ballots.
104; Columbia set off from Portage
county, 105; first annual election. 105;
James T. Lewis insists on "Columbia."
106; the county officers. 106; sheriffs,
107; clerks of circuit court, 107: dis-
trict attorneys, 108; county clerks,
108; county treasurers, 108: register
of deeds, 109; coroners, 109; county
surveyors, 109; board of county com-
missioners, 110; chairmen of county
board of supervisoi-s, 110; county seat
fights. 111; the decisive vote (1851),
111; county building, 112; first steps
toward permanent courthouse, 112;
County seat fights. 111
County Superintendents of Schools, 151
County supervisors (chairmen), 1849-
1914, 110
County surveyors, 1847-1914, 109
County treasurers, 1847-1914, 108
Courthouse, 112-14
Courthouse, Shortly after its Erection
(view), 114
Courtland Township — Rich and beauti-
ful prairie land, 388 ; the Irish pioneer,
389; "Chestnut" says Pat, 389; other
arrivals of 1844-43, 389; Horace Rust,
390; pioneer happenings, 390; becomes
Courtland tovi'nship, 391
Courts — Circuit court, 117; Probate and
County court, 118
Cowan, Horatio N., 271
Coward, C. L., 147
Cox, G. J., 210
Cox, G. P., 94
Crawfish river, 14, 365
Creameries, 127
Crelie, Joseph, 66
Crelie, Theresa, 59
Crocker, Mary, 369
Cuff, H. A., 222
Cuff, Harry A., 567
Cummane, J. D., 213
Cummings, Albert, 671
Cummings, David H., 671
Curling (Hastie), 416
Curling and curlers, 131
Curry, T. F., 224
Curtis, Frederic C, 502
Curtis, F. C, 128
Curtis. Guy J., 676
Curtis, Wi"lliam, 317
Cushman, Orlando C, 699
Cushman, S. C, 155. 362
Cushman, Sylvester C, 151, 698
'•Daddy" Robertson. 386
Dahlen, Magdaline, 767
Dairying, 16
Dalles (see Dells)
Dalton, James, 630
D. A. R. of Portage, 223
Davies, Uriah, 668
Davidson, W., 282
Davis, Jefferson, 51. 52, 53, 167
Davis, M. M., 133
Day, Frank, 727
Dean, Chester W., 156
Dean, Clara, 279
De Carrie, 73
Decker, J. R., 142
De Korra, the noble chief, 31, 24, 40,
49, 73
DeKorra Township — Rowan settles and
opens hotel, 385; paper seats of jus-
tice. 386; village of DeKorra. 386;
firet grist mill in South-Central Wis-
consin, 386; railroad go-by, a death
blow, 386; the spelling of DeKorra,
387; railroad station of Hartman,
387
DeKorra Home Guard, 411
DeKorra Village, 386, 413, 415
Delaney, James, Jr., 134
Delaney, John, 133, 230
Delaney, Joseph, 134
De La Ronde, Frederick H., 641
De La Ronde, John T., 59, 68, 74, 405,
641
Dells, The, 4-9; first steamboat at the
Dells, 262
De Neveu, A. V., 117 '
Dering, Charles L., 236
Dering, Guy V., 718
Dering, O. M., 718
Desmond, A. P., 212
Devil's Jug, 6
Dewitt, Oliver E., 264
Dey, Benjamin, 360, 401, 402
Dickason, Elbert, 327, 358, 401
Diehl, John, 193
Dietrickson, I. W. C, 164, 408
Dinsmore, L. J., 345
District attorneys 1847-1914, 108
Dixon, A. C, 771
Dixon, James F., 772
Dixon, Luther S., 118, 414
Dodge, John, 288, 435, 430
Donaghue, William, 119
Dooley, Henry, 85
Dooley, J. H., 363
Dooley, S. H., 380
Dorsch, Christian, 433
Dorsch, David, 433, 434
Doty, James D., 83, 90, 300. 394
Doty, J. D., 333, 385
Doudna, Frank, 279
Dougherty, James F.. 694
Dow, Charles C, 181
Downey, Moses J., 193, 607
Doyle, J., 213
Doyle, L. H.. 148
Doyle, Lemuel H., 375
Doylestown, 374
Drake, Jeremiah. 239
Drake, Peter, 163, 429
Drake, W. W., 156, 236
Drew, Leander. 434
Drew, L. S., 434
Duborg, Fred, 518
Duclos, Albert A., 695
Dunlap, N. B., 282
Dunlop, William, 485
Dunn, Andrew, 185
Dunn, William J., 558
Dunning, A. G., 305
Dunning, Wallace P., 667
Dyer, Wayne B., 328. 366. 374, 436
INDEX
Earll, R. W., 156
Early maps, 87
Eaton & Canfield, 376
Eaton, C. C, 142
Eaton, James 0., 382
Education (See Schools)
Edwards, Evan, 288, 290
Edwards, John, 288
Edwards, W. M., 202
Eggleston. George H., 665
Ehrhart, J. A., 116
Eisteddfod, 292
Elks of Portage, 223
Elliott. John A., 156, 240
Ellis, E., 218
Emmett, Henry, 279
Ensign, Leona, 421
Ensminger, James, 320
Epstein Brothers' Brewery, 203
Epstein, Henry, 203, 559
Erickson, C. A., 474
Ernsperger, S. B., 224
Esmond, Cornwall, 436
Eulberg Brewing Company, 202, 697
Eulberg, Adam, 203, 697
Eulberg, Julius, 223
Eulberg, Julius A., 203
Eulberg, J. J., 203. 698
Eulberg, J. N., 203
Eulberg, Peter. 203
Evans, Rev. D., 256
Evans, James, 214
Evans, John, 441
Everson, Ivor, 508
Everson, Samuel W., 509
s, Andrew E., 468
Fahey, Frank, 762
Fairbanks, E., 437
Fairs, 128-132
Fall River— Description, 370; A. A.
Brayton, first settler. 371; postoffice
in 1847, 371; the village schools, 371;
Methodist and Baptist churches, 372;
early times in village and town, 372
"Family Tree of Columbia County," 33
Farmer, John, 88
Farmers & Merchants Union Bank, Co-
lumbus, 246
Farmers & Merchants State Bank. Kil-
bourn, 263, 688
Farnham, F. F., 234, 236
Farr, G. E., 218
Farr, J. L., 433
Farr's Corners, 433
Farrington. Jesse L., 284, 502
Fawcett, Adam, 218
Ferguson, D. J.. 264
Field, Floyd A.. 693
Finch, H. .J., 218
First Baptist Church, Portage City, 218
First Congregational Church, Columbus,
241
First land entries, 81
Firet land entry (Jamieson), 316
First land sales, 79
First Methodist Church. Portage 213
First National Bank, 202
First National Bank, Columbus, 246
tirst National Bank. Rio, 284
First Norwegian Church edifice, 165
First Presbyterian Church, Portaee 214
First real "Settler," 82
F'i«t white woman at the Portage 184
Fish, E. F., 242
Fisher, Mike, 526
Flanders, Mrs. A. C. 223
Flanders, Lvdia A., 26
Fleet, D. H., 305
Floods, 97-100
F'olsom, Ella M., 661
Folsom, William H., 660
Foot, Lyman, 394
Foote, John, 270
Ford, Gertrude, 682
Ford, Ira H., 681
Foresters of Portage, 224
Forrest, James F., 741
Fort Winnebago (near the Porta"e) in
1834 (view), 50
Fort Winnebago— "A party named As-
tor," 49; the coming of Major Twiggs,
50; ground broken for the fort, Tl ;'
completed, 52; amusements at the
post, 52 ; noted men and women at the
fort, 53 ; Lieutenant and Mrs. Van
Cleve, 53; Henry Merrell, 54; Satter-
lee Clark, 54; evacuated, 54; final
dissolution, 55; Fort Winnebago in
1834, 65; commandants and Indian
Agents. 65; post amusements, 66;
business trips under difficulties. 66;
the Post cemetery, 77; noted officers
of Fort Winnebago, 168
Fort Winnebago Lodge, No. 33, A. F.
& A. M.. Portage. 220
Fort Winnebago Township— Town of
Fort Winnebago, 421; Count Agosten
Haraszthy. 421; first permanent set-
tlor of town, 424; how the town came
to be, 424
Foster, F. C, 707
Fountain Prairie — Drainage and land sur-
face, 365; Chester Bushnell, first set-
tler, 366; Dyer, Brown and Sage lo-
cate, 366; the Magnificent McCaff'erty,
366; first land entries, 366; school
and church on section 23, 367; town
government in running order, 367;
reminiscences of James C. Carr, 367;
first birth and first death, 368; re-
markable friendship, 368; farming
under difficulties, 369; an opinionated
applicant, 369; public service of Carr
and Adams. 369; story he told on
Brother Sage, 369; Fall River, 370-3;
Benjamin Sage, the victim, 370
Four Legs, 25
Fowler, C. H., 244
Fowler, Chester A., 118
Fox, Samuel, 85
Fox, W. D., 94
Fox river, 13, 14
Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement
— Preliminary survey of the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers, 91; changes in man-
agement, 91; the old Portage canal,
93; the canal in 1851, 92; new canal
completed by the government, 93; Bos-
cobel really through, 94; control of
floods by levee systems, 94; cost and
history of great public work, 95; first
dyke gives way, 95; Lewiston levee
rebuilt, 96; another levee to protect
Caledonia and Portage, 96; govern-
ment levee, last of the system, 96;
floods of the Wisconsin river, 97
Franklin House, 104, 185
Freeland Tank Works, 205
Free Public Library, Portage, 189
Fuhrman, J. W., 218
Fuller, Mrs. Gertrude C, 367
Fulton, William, 210, 591
Gabriels, Joseph, 305
Gage, Stephen B., 426
Gales, G. W., 285
Gales, Thomas W., 372
Gallett, C. R., 195
Gamble, James, 182
Gamidge, Charles, 511
Garrison. J., 185
Gates, Cleve D., 574
Gates, Schuyler S., 6
Gault, W. C., 204, 303, 352
Gault, W. C, Jr.. 304, 639
Geissler, J. A., 213
German Evangelical Lutheran Zion's So-
ciety of Columbus, 243
German Evangelical Trinity Church,
Portage, 219
German Exchange Bank, 301
German Lutheran Church. Cglumbus, 243
Gochenour, William E., 611
Godell, Guy F., 183
Godhardt, Louis, 212
Goers, T. 0., 271
Goff. James R., 587
Goodell, B. F., 137
Goodman, Mi's. Maurice, 190
Goodwin, Frank D.. 142
Gorman, C. W.. 685
Goss, F. F., 192
Goss, Fred F., 193, 612
Gowran, E. A., 202
Grady, Daniel H., 646
Graham, Frank R., 230, 222
Graham, John, 116. 194, 195, 320, 631
Grand Eddy, the, 10
"Green Bay Intelligencer," 133
Green Bay & Mississippi Canal Com-
pany, 91
Green, N. S., 344
Green, William L., 305
(JriflUh, S. P., 92
(irignon, Antoine, 74
Grignon, or French, Claim No. 31, 75
Grignon, Lavoin, 50
Grignon, Perrish, 50, 74
Griswold, W. M., 336
Gropius, Robert, 335
Ground broken for Fort Winnebago, 51
Groves, Frank W., 501
Guild, George P., 218
Gulick, A. v., 364
Gunderson, Henry, 654
Gundlaeh, August, 734
Guppey Guard of Portage, 180
Guppey, Joshua J., 118, 177, 180, 181,
186, 210
Guppey plat, the, 186
Guptil, J. A. 128
Haas, Charles, 218
Hackney, C. P., 314
Hadden, Frank, 481
Hadden, William, 481
Haertel, Carl, 609
Haggard, Henry, 703
Halm, William, 475
Haight, Eliza, 149
Hall, F. W., 214
Hall, Frank, 572
Hall, Hugh, 527
Hamilton, Oscar F., 442
Hammond, James, 84, 426
Hampden Township — First settler, 436;
town organized and named, 436; first
school, 437; introdu'ction of fine stock.
437.
Hamre, A. 0., 715
Hancock, Bradford, 178
Hanert. Nicholas, 264, 693
Hanson, Anond, 516
Hanson, Hans A., 516
Haraszthv, Agosten, 421-24
Harkness" Larned B., 393
Harnev, William S., 51, 53, 168
Harpoid, E. V., 361
Harrison, A. G.. 317
Harris, Edward. 393
Kartell, Charles, 303
Hartman, 387
Hartma,n, Joseph, 387
Harvey, L., 162, 272
Haseltine. W. B., 314
Hasey, George E., 581
Hasev, Samuel, 581
Haskell, H. S., 240
Haskell, Harrison S., 201
Haskin, Don W., 629
Haslam, Thomas B., 437
Hastie, Archibald, 414, 418
Hastie, James R., 416
Hastie, James R. (Recollections)
19
Hastie, William, 344
Haw. William, 214
Hawkos, George H., 535
Hazard, Frank C, 467
Heath, J. S., 279
Hecker, Christopher, 729
Heckman, George C, 215
Heindel, R. L., 239
Heitke, Henry F., 721
Helmann, Valentine, 55
Hendrickson, H. S., 284
Henke, C. F., 244
Henkel. A. J., 279
Hennepin, Louis, 39
Henry, F. W., 557
Hensel, William, 194
Herron, E. R., 172
Hettinger, Leonard W., 768
Higgina, Frank, 236
High School, Pardeeville (view), :
Hildebrandt, Frank, 602
Hill, Edgar F., 176
Hillie. Christian H., 744
Hillraan, George, 411
Hinds. Alraon H., 739
Hinkson, Edgar E.. 487
Hodgson, Aaron, 401
Hoefs, Caddie, 154
Hoey, Alexander Seymour, 310
Hoffman, J. J., 208
Hoile, L J., 218
HoUv, Alanson, 141. 146, 251
Holmes, Israel, 137
Holtz, Fred G., 585
Holtz. John, 585
Hopkins, A. G., 759
Hudson, Alonzo J. M., 217
Hughes, J. J., 208
Huglies, Michael. 566
Hiighcs, William. 567
Hulsc. L. J., 154
Hummel, August, 619
Hunter, John, 360. 402
Hunter. Robert, 220
Hutchinson, Riley. 478
Hutchinson, W. L.. 461
Huyck, Achsah, 156
llslcv. Fi
••lUu'-tr.it
301
it of 1830, 21
Indians — The Winnebagoes and Menom-
inees, 20) fii-st tidings of, 20; last of
the Indian lands, 21; Winnebago vil-
lages, 21; De Korra, the noble chief,
21; Indian payment of 1830, 21; Mrs.
Kinzie describes the chiefs, 24; Yellow
Thunder, last Winnebago war chief,
26; last forced march of the Winneba-
goes, 29; the payment of 1914, 31;
Merrell's account of the famous 1837
treaty, 67; the noted Indian family,
De-kau-ry (DeKorra), 73; Indian re-
moval of 1840, 74; Menominee Indian
lands surveyed, 80
Indian Wars — Uprising under Red Bird
and Black Hawk, 42; the Winnebago
uprising, 43; the pursuit of Red Bird,
43; Black Hawk threatens Fort Win-
nebago, 70; Clark sent for reenforce-
ments, 70; on return overtakes
mounted militia, 70; fatal stampede
of troopers' horses, 71; "Battle" of
the Wisconsin, 71; end of the Black
Hawk war, 72
Irish. J. E., 214
Iron Brigade, 170
Irons, Le Roy, 142
Irons, Noah P., 458
Irons, William P., 459
Irvin, David, 68
Irvine. P. C, 678
Irving, Walter, 327
Irwin, George H., 664
Jackson, D. C. 329
Jaeger, E. L., 201
Jaeger, Ernest L.. 560
James, H. D., 142
James. Thomas H., 765
Jamieson, Addison J., 302, 303, 331, 494
Jamieson, Alice Agnes, 351, 353
Jamieson, Amy Veola, 342
Jamieson & Gault, 352
Jamieson, Gault & Company, 353
Jamieson, Hugh (Memoii's), 306-57
Jamieson, Hugh, 113, 300, 302, 303
Jamieson, H. P., 301, 302, 303, 325, 358,
497
Jamieson, John C, 302, 303, 463
Jamieson, Samuel A., 327
Jamieson, William W., 329, 496
Jaws of the Dells. 5
Jenkins, George W., 688
Jenkins, Dr. George W. (portrait). 397
Jenkins. Marv M.. 690
Jewell, Frederick E., 217
Johnson, C. B., 555
Johnson. Hubbard. 300
Johnson, Hubbard E., 320
Johnson, John J., 538
Johnson. Thomas R., 749
Joliet, 34
INDEX
Joliet-Marquette Memorial, 37
Jones, Adula, 435
Jones, A. G., 217
Jones, Edwin C, 146
Jones, D. Evans, 294
Jones, E. E., 116
Jones, DeGarmo, 92
Jones, James E. (Kilbourn), 253, 256,
257
Jones, James Edwin, 144, 146
Jones, J. E., 687
Jones, J. E. (Frontispiece)
Jones, J. E., 132, 188, 189, 223, 417
Jones, Mrs. J. E., 189, 190, 223
Jones, Jolm K., 597
Jones, Jolm A., 580
Jones, John 0., 288
Jones, Margaret, 441
Jones, Stephen, 161
Jones, William, 294
Jones, William W., 701
Jussen, Jacob, 247
Karch, Martha A., 208
Karcher, John K., 217
Kearns, Thomas. 278
Keegan, M. R., 160
Keenan, Gwendolyn, 193
Keenan, Joseph, 212
Keenan, Thomas, 212
Kegan, M. R.. 313
Kellogg, A. C, 192, 210
Kellogg, Alonzo C, 647
Kellogg. Alonzo F., 118
Kellogg, James R., 611
Kellogg, Walter W., 230
Kelm, W. 0., 193
Kelm, William 0., 224, 595
Kennedy, Timothy 0., 411
Kennan, T. L., 94
Kentucky City, 386, 413
Kerman, Henry, 242
Kerr, Joseph, 128
Kershaw, George, 95
Ketehum, A. C, 172
Keyes, S. P., 149
Kiefer, Andrew, 633
Kiefer, Fred, 624
Kilbourn, Byron, 252, 258
Kilbourn, Byron H., 258
Kilbourn City — The village of the pres-
ent, 250; Wisconsin River Hydraulic
Company fathers Kilbourn. 351; Edi-
tor Holly arrives, 251; village plat re-
corded, 351; sales of lots, 353; schools
of Kilbourn City, 253; village incor-
porated, 256; water service and fire
protection, 256; the free public li-
brary, 256; James E. Jones, 257; im-
provement of Southern Wisconsin
Power Company, 257; fifst steamboat
at the Dells, 262 ; Banks at Kilbourn,
263; the Presbyterian Church, 263;
the Methodists, 264; St. Cecelia (Cath-
olic) Church, 264; other religious
bodies, 265
Kilbourn Catholic Church, the, 692
Kilbourn City Seminary, 157
Kilbourn Institute, 157
Kilbourn State Bank, 363
I^ilbourn, Otis A., 435
Kincaid, Orin, 375
Kingsbury, Charles M., 220
Kinzie, John H., 24, 56
Kinzie, Mrs. John H., 24, 159
Kinzie, Mrs., describes the Indian chiefs,
34
Kirst, L. C, 280, 295
Kleimcnhagen, Leonhard, 523
Kleinert, Adolph, 489
Kleinert, William C, 476
Klenert, Anton, 590
Kluckkorn, Charles, 244
Kluender, Julius, 720
Knibbs, John, 314
Knights of Columbus, Portage, 234
Knowles, George, 440, 443
Koch, D. H., 242, 343
Koepke, William, 304
Koester, H. J., 280
Koester, Hugo, 678
Krech, Catharine, 190, 191
Kroncke, W. H., 717
Kurth, Anna, 347
Kurth, C, 347
Kurth Company, Columbus, 247
Kurth, J. H.. 347
Kutzke, Charles J., 638
Kutzke, William, 638
LaCrosse & Milwaukee R. R. Company,
100
Lakes, 14
Land Districts, 80
Langdon, Francis B., 430
-Xangdon, John, 105, 440, 443
Langdon, Samuel, 150, 391, 441
Langdon, Samuel P., 288
Langley, R., 214
Lanzendorf, E. H., 757
Lanzendorf, William, 464
Larson, Lars, 463
Last forced march of the Winnebagoes,
39
Last of the Indian lands, 31
Last relic of Fort Winnebago (view), 55
La Salle, 39
Laughlin, William B., 349
Law, G., 220
Lawrence, William M., 208
Leach, Solomon, 105
L'Ecuyer. Jean B., 40, 73, 74, 76
L'Ecuyer's Grave, 76
Lee, Frank T., 183
INDEX
Leeds Center, 407
Leeds Township — Town of Leeds, 406;
chief of the forage towns, 407; first
land claims and settlers, 407 ; Leeds
Center, 407; organization of town,
408; postotfices, 408; first Norwegian
church, 408
Lefferts, W., 332
Leffingwell. Arthur, 526
Leitsch, Robert C, 142
Leitsch, W. C, 249
Lennon, Patrick, 160, 212, 617
Lennon, Patrick J., 618
Le Roy, Francis. 41, 50
Levee system, 14. 94-100
Lewis, Gunder, 654
Lewis, J. N., 272
Lewis, J. T., 105, 240
Lewis, James T., 69. 118, 156, 239-34,
241, 443
Lewis, T., 379
Lewis. W. L.. 246
Linck, Carl, 570
Lintner. Louis J., 666
Lione, John 0., 767
Lione, Lars. 767
Lione, Ole, 767
Little Elk, 25
Live Stock, 128
Lloyd, Jabez, 288
Lloyd, John J., 151
Lloyd, Walter F., 217
Lodi— The beginning of, 266; I. H.
Palmer and the Bartholomews, 267;
Rev. Henry iljaynard, 267; the Suck-
ers Settlement becomes famous, 268 ;
settlers of 1846. 268; the Blachley
settlement, 268; fii^t M. D. and D. D.,
268; other physicians. 269; South v.
North, before the war, 269; I. H.
Palmer founds Lodi, 269; progress of
local schools, 270; village charter. 271;
water service and electric lighting,
271; the Methodist Church, 271; the
Presbvterian Church. 272; the Bap-
tist Church, 272; Lodi lodges, 273;
business houses, 273; banks of Lodi,
273; Herbert Palmer, son of Lodi's
founder, 274
"Lodi Enterprise." 147
"Lodi Flag," 146
"Lodi .Journal," 147
Lodi L^nion Agricultural Society, 128
"Lodi Weekly Herald," 141, 147
Lodi Township — A pretty healthful
town, 380; George M. and Marston C.
Bartholomews 380; Rev. Henry ilay-
nard and wife, 381; a hunt for "Mil-
waukee Woods," 381; matured pupil
writes of first school, 382
Log Cabin of the Real Settler (view),
82
Log House of Dr. Leander Drew, West
Point (view), 434
Lone Rock, 8
Long, George S., 728
Long, Peter, 727
Long, S. H., 39
Loomis, Gallett &, Breese, 204
Looniis, Annie E., 531
Loomis, Daniel E., 530
Loomis, Frank B., 182
Loomis, Isabella H., 644
Loomis, Nellie A., 239
Loomis, Rodney O., 643
Loomis, Mrs. R. 0., 190
Loomis, Washington, 739
Louis Bluff, Head of the Wisconsin Dells,
Old Indian Signal Station (view), 19
Low, Gideon, 53, 185
Low, .Jacob, 427, 428
Lower Dells, the, 7
Lowth, Matthew, 238
Lowville Township — Jacob Low, first Set-
tler of Lowville, 427; first marriage,
birth and death, 427; first postofBce
and mail route, 427; the hotel, 428;
town named Lowville, 428; first
teacher and preacher, 428; coming of
the Townsend family, 428
Ludington, James, 242
Ludington. Lewis, 228, 234, 399
Luey, Cheney 0., 548
Luey, Oliver Rodney, 547
Luey, W. R., 548
MacKenzie, John, 490
MacKenzie, William K., 615
MacMillan, H. R., 218
Madden, John, 761
Madison & Portage Railroad, 387
Madison & Portage Railroad Company,
342
Magoflin, J. H., 207
Maloney, Thomas, 508
Maltbey, E. B., 746
Mandeville, Charles H., 651
Mandeville, John E., 652
Manning, Joseph S., 156
Manning, J. S., 235, 236
Man-ze-mon-e-ka, 60
Marcellon Township— First settler ii»
Marcellon, 420; others who came in
1846. 420; name of Marcellon without
meaning, 421
Marcv, Randolph B.. 54, 168
Markham, John B., 691
JIarkham, Sidney D., 691
Marlatt, Esther, 662
Marquette, 34, 36, 87, 211
Marquette Voyaging Toward the Jlis-
sissippi (view), 35
Marquette & Swan Lake Canal Com-
pany, 394
INDEX
XXIX
Marsden, Arthur, 674
Marshes, 15
Maseouteiis, 20, 34, 36
Masonic Hall Building, 182
Masons of Portage, 220
Mattice, O. F., 178
Maynard, Henry, 162, 165, 267, 304, 378,
381
Mazzuchelli, Samuel C, 159, 211
McBurnie, Reubin, 522
McCafferty, H. W., 366
McCall, Ervin, 288, 430
McCall, John, 288
McCloud, James, 381
McConachie, John, 426
McConochie, R. N., 132, 202
McConochie, Samuel. 288, 426
McDermott, Peter W., 728
McDonald, Alexander, 405
McDougall, C, 394
McEwen, D. S., 218
McFarland, Andrew, 723
McFarland, John, 653
McFarland, John Irwin, 654
McFarlane, Hugh, 119, 149, 185, 220
McGregor, John, 254
McGregor, John P., 201
M'clntosh, William H., 752
McKay, A. S., 215
McKay, W. J., 214
McKenney, Thomas L., 44
McKenzie, John, 344, 345
McKinney, Humphrey, 408
McMahon, Timothy, 758
McMillan, George, 379, 725
McMillan, G., & Son, 379
McNair, William W., 163, 164, 214
McNair, W. W., 215
McNeal, Nelson, 220
McPherson. Robert, 92
McQueen, A. D., 465
McQueen, J. R., 470
McQueen, Sarah J., 470
McQueeney, M., 222
Meacher, Bvron C, 738
Meacher, William, 222. 736
Melvin, T. C, 242
Mencke, Martin, 305
Meneg, Pierre, 74
Menominees, 20
Menominee Indians, 80
Merrell, B. H., 54
Merrill, Henry, 54, 55, 56, 63, 184. 216
Merrill, Z., 151
Metcalf. David, 376
Methodist Church. Lodi, 271
Mill Dam, Okee, 383 (view)
Military road, 90
Miller, Ernest H., 714
Miller, Jacob, 214
Miller, W. G., 431
Mills, Job, 731
Mills, Mary, 732
Mills, Robert, 240
Mills, S., 350
Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R. Co.. 101
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Ma-
rie R. R. Co., ' 102
Miner, S. E., 360, 362
Mitchell, L. H., 215
Mitchell, Stewart, 263
Mohr, Christian F., 563
Montgomery, A., 163
Moore, Charles, 160, 212
Moore, William E., 541
Moore, W. E., 284
Moran, Domjinick, 747
Moran, E. W., 190
Moran, John, Sr., 677
Moran, John, Jr., 678
Morrissey, John, 213, 601
Mound builders, 17
Muir, Hugh, 414
Mullen, William, 264
Munger, E. D., 258
Munn, Henry B., 210
Murphy, Henry R., 245, 568
Murison, George, 565
Mylrea, Susie, 256
Narrows, the, 6
National "Verband." Portage, 225
Natural features, 1
Neenah creek, 13
Nefif, G. C, 259
Neill, Henry, 151
Neill, John, 659
Nelson, Anna, 154
Nelson, F'rank Lee, 544
Nelson, Hans, 460
Nelson, Thomas C, 386
New Armory, the, 183
New High School, Cambria (view), 290
Newport — Joseph Bailey and Jonathan
Bowman, backers, 395; in 1855 con-
tained 1,500 people, 396; making all
safe and sound, 396; the slip and fall,
396; founders move to Newport, 397
Newport Township — Newport town and
village founded, 438; first settlers,
438
Newspapers, (See the Press)
Nicolet, Jean, 33
Niles, W. A., 156
Noble, G. F., 251
Noller, Fred, 533
Northrup, Theodore, 428
Noted men and women at the fort, 53
O'Brien, Alfred. 534
O'Brien, John, 716
Odd Fellows of Portage, 221
Okee Village, 101, 384
O'Keefe, Daniel, 723
INDEX
O'Keefe, Mrs. J. E.. 190, 191, 192
O'Keefe, James, 245
O'Keefe, J. J., 193
O'Keefe, John E„ 649
"Old Daddy" Robertson's Fair, 409
Old Indian Agency Hoiise, Portage
(view), 56
Old Mill, Nucleus of Pardeeville (view),
277
Old Pauquette Church, Portage (view),
Oleson, James, 332
Olson. Henry D., 464
Olson, James. 536
Olson, Samuel, 280
O'Neil, P. J., 212
Orton, Harlow S., 118
Osborn, G. H., 113
Osborn, Lizzie C, 208
Otsego Township — Present village of
Doylestown, 374; Wayne B. Dyer was
first settler, 374; village of " Otsego,
375; land owners of the present
Doylestown, 375; town of Otsego or-
ganized, 375; plat of Doylestown re-
corded, 375; fir«t improvements, 376;
a boom, 376; Columbus too swift, 376;
schools and churches, 376
Otsego Village, 375
Ott. Frank, 517
Oviatt, Ernest C, 587
Owen, Mary A., 700
Owen, J. A., 700
Palmer, David, 284
Palmer, Herbert, 274
Palmer, Isaac H., 381
Palmer, I. H., 267, 269
Pankow, A. Ph., 295
Paper Towns — Wis'consinapolis and
others like it. 78; paper seats of jus-
tice, 386; village of DeKorra, 386;
first grist mill in South-Central Wis-
consin, 386; railroad go by, a death
blow, 386; bad conditions for big
cities, 392; champion townsite man,
393; Baltimore City, 393; Wisconsin-
apolis, 393; canal to stir the Portage
people, 394; easterner looking for
Wisconsinapolis, 394; first settler
come to town, 395; never more than
Port "Hope," 397; Wisconsin City,
398
Pardee, .lohn. 277
Pardee, John S.. 276. 277
Pardee Encampment No. 38. 280
Pardee Lodge. No. 171, A. F. & A. M..
280
Pardee Lodge, No. 126, I. 0. 0. F., 280
Pardeeville — Founded, 276; John Par-
dee, father of John S.. proprietor, 277;
the old mill up to date, 278; protec-
tion against fire, 278; Pardeeville
State Bank, 278; incorporated as a
village. 278; graded school system,
279; Pardeeville's churches. 279; Ma-
sons and Odd Fellows, 280
Pardee\ille State Bank, 278
"Pardeeville Times," 147
Parry, Isaac. 513
Parry, J. 0., 294
Paske, Herman, 608
Patchin, Herbert E., 670
Patchin, .John. 673
Pate, .John, 405, 414
Paton, .James. 310
Patterson, Eugene C, 217
Patton, M. W., 288, 426, 431
Paulson. Peter A.. 95
Pauquette, Peter, 58, 63. 69. 160, 194,
Pauquette's daughter iMrs. Thomas
Prescott), 406
Pawnee, Blanc, 23. 26
Payment of 1914. 31
Pearson. George P., 674
Pease, Willard A., 763
Pease, W. A., 532
Peck, Harry G.. 769
Penn. W. H., 214
People's Telephone Company. Rio. 284
Perry. G. Stroud. 263
Perry, William H., 514
Pervonsal, Antoine, 194
Peters, Alice. 771
Petere, Charles W., 770
Peterson. Henry, 539
Pettit, F., 212
Pfuehler. August, 722
Phelps, Milo, 495
Phillips. F. N., 672
Phillips. William E., 217
Pick, John T., 245
Pickering, Enoch, 85
Pierce, Guy C, 172
Pierce. Sarah, 379
Pilcher, A. M., 214
Pinnev. Samuel B.. 300, 322
Plannette, R. W., 244
Pleasant Valley Precinct, 382, 435
Plenty, George W., 642
Pomeroy, Mary L., 156
Pond, William" H., 217
Poor home, 116
Population — Inhabitants of county
(1846). 1,200, 87; household popula-
tion (1846), 119; figures by decades
(1850-1910), 120; population (1847),
120; real estate and personal prop-
erty (1875), 122; the figures for 1913,
122; increase of population. Portage,
187
Portage — First white woman at the
Portage, 184; the settlement grows.
INDEX
.185; the canal booms things, 1S5;
pUitting the town of Fort Winnebago,
186; the Guppey plat, 186; incorpora-
tion as a city, 187; increase of pop-
ulation, 187; the present city, 188;
Chicago and Wisconsin Valley Street
Railways Company, 188; the fine city
hall, 188; free public library of Port-
age, 189; the city waterworks, 192;
electric light and power, 192; com-
mission form of government adopted,
192; protection against fire, 193; Wis-
consin River bridges, 194; final dis-
solution of $119,000, 196; nomencla-
ture of Portage streets, 196; experi-
ments in banking, 201; City Bank of
Portage, 201; First National Bank,
202; Portage Loan and Trust Com-
pany, 202; the Eulberg Brewing Com-
pany, 202; Epstein Brothers' Brewery,
203; th'e Portage Hosiery Company,
203; minor industries, 205; societies,
220
Portage, the, 37. 38, 39
Portage canal, 92-94, 185
Portage Book & Engine Company, 205
Portage Bridge Company, 194
Portage City Lodge. No. 61, I. 0. 0. F.,
221
"Portage City Record," 135
Portage City Water Company, 192
"Portage Daily Register," 137
"Portage Democrat," 98, 143
Portage Electric Light & Power Com-
pany, 192
Portage High School (view), 209
Portage Hosiery Company, 203
Portage Light Guard, 169
Portage Llederkranz, 225
Portage Loan & Trust Company, 202
Portage Lodge, No. 35, K. of P., 222
Portage & Superior Railroad Company,
102
Portage Underwear Company, 205
Porter, A. A., 137
Porter, Mary, 192
Port Hope, 397
Portraits — J. E. Jones, frontispiece; a
French Fur Trader and Carrier, 3;
Gen. Joseph Bailey, 172; P. G. Stroud,
254; Jonathan Bowman, 254; Hugh
Jamieson. 306; Dr. George W. Jen-
kins. 397
Poser, Edward M., 726
Poynette — Village of today, 299; its
naming a mistake, 300; Judge Doty
intended "Pauquette," 300; village
platted, 300; Poynette in 1855, 300;
first School, 301; crusty bachelors
withhold tax, 301; first preaching,
301; the times that tried men and
women, 302; the Jamieson family.
302; Poynette aS a flour center, 302;
rivalry of the sides, 303; the grain
trade, 303; Bank of Poynette, 303;
school history, 303; the Methodists
organize, 304; Rev. John M. Springer,
war hero, 304; the Presbyterian
church, 305; the Lutherans and Cath-
olics, 305; first plat (Jamieson), 322;
school district of 1852, 323 ; a boom
for Poynette (Jamieson), 329; plats
Jamieson's Addition (Jamieson), 332;
rivalry of north and south sides
(Jamieson), 332; improvement of
South Poynette (Jamieson), 338
Poynette Cheese Manufacturing Com-
pany, 352
Poynette Lower Mill, 330
Poynette Presbyterian Academy, 158
Poynette Upper Mill, 333
Potter, R. L. D., 94
Potters' Joint Stock Emigration Society,
84-87, 169
Pottersville, 86
Powell, J. B., 222
Power Dam at High Water, Kilbourn
(view), 258
Powers, Ambrose, 347
Prairie belt, 12, 15
Prairie fires, 313
Prentiss, Guy C, 118
Presbyterian Academy, Poynette (view),
158
Presbyterian Church, Kilbourn City, 263
Presbyterian Chui'ch, Lodi (view), 273
Presbyterian Church, Pardeeville, 279
Press — First Columbia County newspa-
per, 133; suspension of the "River
Times," 134; .John A. Brown and the
"Badger State," 134; "Shanghai"
Chandler and the "Independent," 135;
"Columbia County Reporter," 135;
Robert B. Wentworth and the "Port-
age City Record," 135; Enter A. J.
Turner, 136; "Wisconsin State Reg-
ister" founded, 136; Brannan & Tur-
ner, proprietors, 136; the "Register"
from 1885 to date, 137; A. J. Turner
and Major Rockwood, 138 ; "The Fam-
ily Tree of Columbia Countv," 138;
the facts of Mr. Turner's liie, 138;
Maj. S. S. Rockwood, 139; first Co-
lumbus newspaper, i40; "Columbus
.Journal," 141; "Wisconsin Mirror"
precedes Kilbourn City, 141; "The Co-
lumbus Democrat," 141; "Lodi Weekly
Herald," 141; "The Columbus Repub-
lican," 142; first German newspaper,
"Der Wecker," 143; launching of "The
Portage Democrat," 143; Kilbourn's
newspaper ventures, 146; Lodi's Ups
and Downs, 146; "The Enterprise,"
147; "The Poynette Press," 147;
INDEX
other county newspapers, 147; de-
funct papers, 148
Prien, Joseph, 243
Probate and county court, 118
Proctor, Alfred H., 705
Proctor, William H., 704
Public School Building. Kilbourn (view),
253
Pulford, Samuel D., 217
Purdy, Mrs. E. S., 54
Pursuit of Red Bird, 43
Pythians of Portage, 222
Quinn, Clinton, 488
Rahr, L. F., 271
Railroads — LaCrosse & Milwaukee Rail-
road, 100; reaches points in Columbus
county, 100; development of the Chi-
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, 101; Chi-
cago & Northwestern. 101; Wisconsin
Central commenced at Portage, 102;
completion of line (1877). 102; the
M., St. Paul & S. Ste. Marie, 102;
Hugh Jamieson, 312; railroad from
Madison to Portage (Jamieson), 328;
railroad work ceases (Jamieson), 330;
railroad projects, 1861-62 (Jamieson),
335; railroad work resumed (.Jamie-
son), 337; Sugar Valley Railroad sold
(Jamieson), 338; formation of the
Madison & Portage Railroad (Jamie-
son), 342; town aid to the railroad
(Jamieson), 344; the meeting at
Madison (Jamieson), 346; "Old Bees-
wax" and George B. Smith (.Jamie-
son), 346; ".Jack of Clubs" sustained
(Jamieson), 347; general store for
railroad men (.Jamieson), 347; trans-
fer of town bonds for railroad stock
(Jamieson), 348; bond question traced
to the end (.Jamieson), 349; "Old
Beeswax" got tliere (.Jamieson), 350
Randolph township — Leads in agricul-
ture, 440; George Knowles, first set-
tler, 440; coming of the Langdon
Brothers, 440; Ahlen and Converse,
441; the first \\rU< t.i nnivc. 441;
first Schools anil ir:i.!Mi-. Mr. Squire
Patton and his ■lliuli ( m
villages at a ilisiuunt. 44:.'
itics brisk enough, 442
Randolph Center, 442
Randolph (West Ward), 391
Raup, John A.. 202, 648
Ray, O. D., 178
Red Bird, 42-49
Registers of deeds, 1847-1914,
Reuter, A., 242. 243
Reynolds, Alfred R., 732
Rhoads, J. W., 386
Riblett, Christian, 435
Richards, C. L., 305
Richards. K. W., 116, 117, 74
442;
but pol-
Richards, L., 292
Richards, Peter, 751
Richardson, I. B., 214
Richmond, Edgar, 658
Richmond, George I., 659
Richmond, George N., 179
Riedner, William J., 512
Riley, A. G., 270
Rilev, B. Gilbert, 157
Riley, C. B., 272
Ring, Samuel, 384
Rio — Origin of the name doubtful, 281;
Rio platted by N. B. Dunlap, 282;
first merchant and postmaster, 282;
pioneer business and professional men,
282 ; village incorporated, 283 ; schools,
283; banks, 284; People's Telephone
Company, 284; the Congregational
Church, 284; the Baptist Church, 285;
Lutheran and Catholic churches, 285
Rio State Bank, 284
Ritchey, John H., 215
"River Times," 134
Roads, 90
Roberts, Chancy, 685
Roberts, David, 441
Roberts, David D., 288
Roberts, E. 0., 293
Roberts, Foulk, 288
Roberts, Hugh, 95
Roberts, Mark, 685
Roberts, Owen M., 705
Roberts, Thomas H., 441
Robertshaw, George, 85, 675
Robertshaw, William, 675
Robertson, David, 624
Robertson, David H., 273, 709
Robertson, John A., 626
Robertson, Thomas ("Daddy"), 386, 405,
409, 414
Robinson, Isaiah, 246
Robinson, William H., 719
Roblier, H. W., 115, 116
Roche, .James, 212
Rockafellow. Chancy T., 758
Rockstroh, Herman F.. 217
Rockwood, H. S., 140, 182
Rockwood, S. S., 137
Rockwood, Sheppard S., 138, 139
Roehm, William H., 614
Rogers, Jacob, 360 •
Rogers, J. H., 218. 226
Rogers, Mrs. J. H., 192
Rogers, Josiah H., 536
Rose, C. A., 473
Rosenkrans, Cyrus E., 156
Rosenkrans, C. E., 242
Rosenkrans, David W., 151
Ross, Laura D., 240
Rossell, Nathan B., 169
Rowan, Wallace, 82-84, 320
Rowlands, D. M., 298
Rowlands, Morris J., 287
Rowlands, M. J., 293
Rowlands, John R., St., 388
Rowley, Moses, 362
Roys, Edwin B., 531
"Rundschau und Weeker," 14:
Rupnow, Max, 531
Russell, A. H., 181
Russell, E. F., 347
Rust, Horace, 390
Ryan, Edward, 498
Ryan, William, 411
Sage, Benjamin, 366, 370
St. Cecilia Church, Kilbouni, 264
St. Jerome's Catholic Church, Columbus,
244
St. John's Episcopal Church, Portage,
216
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Chui'eh,
Portage, 319
St. Mary's Catholic Church, 678
St. Mary's Parish, 160
Sampson, Samuel, 702
Sanborn, Frank L., 589
Sanderson, Thomas, 529
Sanderson, Thomas, 661
Sanderson, William, 520
Sargent, Isaac C, 340
Sawyer, John, 84, 436
Sawyer, L. J., 237, 238
Scene in Flooded District, south from
Kilbourn (view), 99
Scha-chip-ka-ka, 73
Schemrael, H. F., 393
Schenck, I. V. W., 215
Schlee, Charles, 769
Schloemilch, A., 210
Sehmeling, A. F., 579
Schmidt, Father, 285
Schmidt, Frank R., 639
Schnell, J., 235
Scholfield, Mrs. R., 256
Schools — First school outside the fort,
149; first school district formed at
Cambria, 150; too few cubic feet per
scholar, 150; town of Winnebago,
Portage district, 150; county Super-
intendents of schools, 151; school chil-
dren in 1913, 151; legal qualifications
of teachers, 153; Columbia County
Teachers' Association, 154; private
and parochial schools of Portage, 155;
Columbus Collegiate Institute. 156;
the Kilbourn Institute, 157; Rev. B.
C. Riley at Lodi, 157; Poynette Pres-
byterian Academy, 158; present status
of public schools, 158; first meeting
of Portage board of education, 206;
high school and graded system estab-
lished, 207; history of the Portage
High School, 307; the study of Ger-
man, 308; present school buildings,
308 ; City Superintendent Clough, 209 ;
list of superintendents and clerks, 310
Schubring, E. J. B., 359
Sch
ultz,
(ieorge E., 756
Sell
ultz,
William R., 75;
Sell
ultze
. Karl R., 637
Sell
ulzi',
Kmiiia, 154
Sch
iilzc',
Fred W., 94
Srh
iilzc.
1'. W.. 201
Sell
ulzr.
iTr.iinaiid, 636
SVi 1
.iiiiii' M., 363
151,
284
Seott, William, 384
Scott, W. J., 202
Scott Townshi]] — Good fruit and dairy
country, 435; first settler in Scott,
434; M. W. Patton and others, 436;
bridge
Blue tavern, 436; named
after Winfield Scott, 436
Seaman, J. B., 216
Seats of justice, 386
Second old Wisconsin Ri-
(view), 195
Seibecker, Robert G., 118
Seville, Edward E., 765
Shannon, Arthur B., 719
Shattuck, N. K., 210
Shaw, Robert W., 452
Sheriffs, 1847-1914, 107
Sheriif's residence, 114
Shirk, J. E., 147
Signal Peak, 8
Sill, H. J., 340, 344
Sillsbee, E. P., 156
Simons, Freedom, 368, 369
Simons, George H., 657
Simons, J. Frank, 658
Simons, Roswell D., 657
Simons, W. G., 368
Sloan, Hugh, 310
Smith, B. B., 350
Smith, Charles H., 645
Smith, Chester W., 151, 155, 173, 224
Smith, Clark, 161, 550
Smith, Eli E., 505
Smith, George B., 346
Smith, George, 256
Smith, Harriet T., 364
Smith, Isaac, 85, 213
Smith, .lerome, 245
Smith, Leonard S., 95
Smith, T. C, 399
Smith, Walter E., 504
Snider, Charles W., 471
Snider, Harry D., 470
Snith, Isaac, 160
Societies of Portage— The Masons form
pioneer lodge, 330; chapter, council
and commandery, 321; I. 0. 0. F.
bodies, 331; the Pythian Brothers,
333; Portage lodge. Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, 233; D. A.
R. of Portage, 323; Knights of Co-
lumbus and Foresters, 334; lodges of
railroad employes, 225; Portage Lie-
derkranz, 325; the National Verband,
XXXIV
225: Countrv Club of Portage, 225;
Y. M. C. A..' 22G
Southern Wisconsin Power Company,
Kilbourn, 257
Spear, Chauncey, 360
Spencer, William C, 156
Spilde, L. H., 461
Sponheim, Ingle E., 767
Sprecher, R. A., 201
Springer, John M., 214, 304
Springvale Township — Description, 430
adapted to cattle raising, 430; con
tented, though without a village, 430
Springvale's first settler, 430; high
priced religion, 431; the Welsh set
tiers, 431; organized under present
name, 432
Stahl, Samuel, 713
Stanley, Henrv C, 683
Stanley, Thomas, 683
Stansbury, D., 214
Stare, F. A., 249
Starr, Damon C, 375
Starr, Eason, 375
Startin, Allen, 453
State Bank of Lodi, 273
Staudenmayer, Charles. 600
Staudenmayer, Edward R., 601
Staudenmayer, George, 599
Staudenmayer, John G., 598
Staudenmayer, John L., 600
Steamboat at Devil's Elbow, Wisconsin
Dells (view), 262
Stearns, Alonzo B., 438
Stedman, Reuben, 276
Steele, William. 168
Steere, E. A., 256
Steinbach, George, 569
Stevens. E. Ray, 118
Stevens, George C, 553
Stevens, Julia, 428
Stevenson, Andrew, 492
Stevenson, John, 492
Stevenson, Thomas, 494
Stevenson, William, 648
Stewart, Alva, 94, 118
Stone, W. H., 218
Storey, R., 218
Story, H. A., 210
Stotzer, Rudolph G., 640
Stotzer, Samuel, 639
Stratton, Richard, 103
Streeter, J. F., 147
Streets of Portage, 190
Strong, M. M., 320
Strong. Jloses M.. 82
Stroud. P. G., 254
Stroud, W. S., 202, 210
Suckers Settlement, 268
Sugar River Valley Company, 343
Sugar River Valley Railroad, 342
Summerfield, George. 85
Sumner, Edwin V., 74, 168
Sund. Charles, 294
Sundby, G. A., 285
Susan, Charles, 217
Susan, Charles T., 210
Sutton, John J., 772
Sweeney, John, 160, 212
Swenson, Magnus, 259
Sylvester, William, 155
Talk English, 24
Taylor, Alvin C, 622
Taylor, George W., 682
Taylor, J. B., 118
Taylor, Melvin W., 694
Taylor, Nathaniel A., 682
Teachers' Training School, 154
Tempelmann, Frederick. 708
Tempelmann, William. 708
Tennison, Alban C, 263
Territorial road, 90
Thiede. Charles F., 556
Thomas Family, 318
Thomas, Charles H., 521
Thomas, John, 300
Thomas, Lucy, 318
Thomas, S. B., 800
Thomas, Samuel B., 316
Thomas, S. M., 155
Thomas, S. Jliles W., 714
Thompsori, Harry, 217
Thompson, H. M., 156
Thompson, Hugh M., 216
Thompson, Nels, 651
Thompson, Ole H., 735
Thompson, Thornton, 752
Thomson. W. J., 223
Thorn, Garrit T.. 240
Thwaites, Reuben G.. 34
Tillotson, J. R., 549
Timber areas. 15
Tomlinson, Mark, 483
Tomlinson, Robert, 482
Topliff. Alfred. 436
Topp. John, 734
Topp. Minnie. 735
Torbert, S. S.. 440
Towers, James S., 604
Townsend,. A. J., 162, 428
Townsend,. Jacob. 486
Townsend, Joseph, 486
Traders, 40 ' ,
Traders and Carriers — Peter Pauquette,
58-63, 69; death of the famous trader,
59: sliot bv Man-?.e-mon-p-k:\, 61; in-
iUinir,! l,v' liuiinr aTi.l f;il>r ilKirges,
62;
lo-
catr.l. i;:.'; tin' , -01111111; ><\ Wrury Mer-
rcll, iV.'.: I',, 11 WiiiiM-l.ai;,, in ls:;l, 65;
■CM.MiiiuiMlaiil-. aiM linliaii a;;.'iits. fi5;
the l),'K..iia- aii.l ,l,,sr|ili Civli,.. 65;
post ailllivruullts, C.t;; lill-illrss trips
under dillicultics, 60: Merrell's ac-
count of the famous 1837 treaty. 67;
INDEX
Xxxv
trips more or less exciting, 68; Mer-
rell in politics, 68; Satterlee Clark's
perilous journey. 69; Black Hawk
threatens Fort Winnebago, 70; Clark
sent for reenforcements, 70; on return
overtakes mounted militia, 70; fatal
stampede of trooper's horses, 71;
"Battle" of the Wisconsin, 71; end of
the Black Hawk war, 73 ; De La Ronde
makes the Portage in 1828, 72; the
noted Indian family, De-kau-ry (De
Korra), 73; Perrish Grignon. 74; John
B. Lecuyer, 74; De La Ronde becomes
a Caledonia farmer, 74; Indian re-
moval of 1840, 74; L'Ecuyer's grave,
76; the Post cemetery, 77
Train, H. V., 214
Trapp, Casper, 515
Trapp, John, 554
Trapp, Louis, 515
Trapp, Mary, 554
Trapp, Otto, 554
Trapp, Peter, 554
Tfeadwell. Clarence L., 696'
Trimm, E.. 214
True, E. C, 151
Tucker, L. J., 132
Turner. A. J., 31. 33, 34, 51. 56. 76, 94,
113. 135, 137, 181, 191, 282, 337. 342,
387
Turner, Frederick J., 38, 139
Twigg, Thomas. 86
Twiggs, David E., 50, 168
Twigg's Landing, 86
Twitehell. K. E., 666
Udev. Mvron «., 510
Uffe'nbeck, William. 219
Underdahl, Ellivk O.. 543
Underdahl, G. O., 542
Underdahl. Ole, 543
Union Bank of Columbus, 246
Upper Dells. 5
Utley, .Joseph. 277
Vandercodk, D., 201
Van Cleve, Horatio P.. 53
Van Cleve, Lieutenant and MrS., 53
Van Ness, JessB, 128
Van Ness, Sarah B.. 435
Van Zandt. Benjamin, 215
Vaughan, Samuel K., 176
V-aughan, S. K., 221
Veeder, Richard F., 217
Views— Chimney Rock and Romance
Cliff, Dells of the Wisconsin, 6;
Witche's Gulch, Wisconsin Dells, 7;
Louis Bluff, He'ad of Wisconsin Dells,
Old Indian Signal Station, 19; Mar-
quette Voyaging toward the Missis-
sippi, 35; "Fort Winnebago (neaT the
Portage) in 1834, 50; Last Relic of
Fort Winnebago, 55; Old Indian
Agency House, Portage, 56; Log Cabin
of the Real Settler, 82; Wisconsin
River Lock, Portage, 93 ; Scene in
Flooded District, South from Kil-
bourn, 99; Courthouse, Shortly after
its Erection, ll4; County Asy-
lum and Poor Home, Wyocena, 116;
a Dairy Herd in Coluuibia County,
126; Columbia County Training
School, Columbus, 154; Presbyterian
Academy, Poynette. 158; Wisconsin
Street Front of City Hall, Portage,
189; Second Old Wisconsin River
Bridge, 195 ; Portage High School, 209 ;
Old Pauquette Church. Portage, 211;
City Hall and Auditorium, Columbus,
237; Columbus High School, 1895-1910,
339; Public School Building, Kilbourn,
353; Power Dam at High Water, Kil-
bourn, 258; Steamboat at Devil's El-
bow, Wisconsin Dells, 262; Presbyte-
rian Church, Lodi, 273; Old Mill, Nuc-
leus of Pardeeville, 277; High School,
Pardeeville, 279; Village Hall, Rio,
383; New High School, Cambria, 390;
Old Cambria Hotel (remodeled), 393;
Wyocena Public School, 3G1; Mill
Dam, Okee, 383; Log House of Dr.
Leander Drew, West Point, 434; Wis-
consin River Along the Newport
Shores, 439 '
Village Hall, Rio (view), 283
Vliet, Garret. 396
Vliet, J. B., 251
Voertman, August, Sr., 610
Voertman, Emma, 611
Voss, Fred, 519
Voth, Ferdinand, 578
Waggoner, J. H., 137
Walking Turtle, 24
Wall, George, 116
Walsworth, Silas, 118, 184. 185, 194
Ward, Mrs., 212
Warren. Nathan, 193
Washburn, W. B.,,193
Water courses, 13
Watson, Phineas, 340
"Wau-Bun," 27, 56, 159
Waubun Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution, 37
Wauona Lodge, No. 132. I. 0. 0. F.,
Portage. 321
Webb & Bronson. 113
Webb. B. M., 428
"Wecker, Der," 143
"Weekly Events," 146
Weir, Andrew J.. 617
Weir. William, 55, 616
We-Kaw, 43
Wellen, Coonrod, 380
Wells, Jabes, 417
Wells, J. H.. 132, 323. 593
Wells, Thomas J., 621
Wells, T. S., 384
XXXVl
INDEX
Welsh Calvanistic ilethodist Church,
Cambria, 294
Welsh Colonists, 2S6 /
Welsh Prairie, 2S9. 292
Wentworth & Company, 303, 350
Wentworth, Robert B.. 135. 137
Wentworth, R. B., 201, 204
Wentworth, Mrs. R. B., I'Jl. 192
Wcstcott, Ida A., 364
Westerfield, John. 244
Western Land Company, 267
Westphal, Henry, 529
West Point Township — West Point quite
rural, 433; first house builder in West
Point. 434; changes in name. 435;
schools, 435 ; only one hotel venture,
435
Wheeler, John E., 247. 551
Wheeler, J. Russell, 247
Wheeler, John R., 246
Wheeler, J. R., 249
Whirry. William T.. 442
Whistler, William. 43
White Crow, 25
White. Daniel, 92, 115, 116
White, Harvev. 362
Whitelaw, William Reed, 656
Whitman, A.. 218
Whitney, A. H., 249
Whitney, Alonzo H., 552
Whitney, C. J., 207
Whitney, Clark, 185
Whitney, H. A., 234, 235
Whitney, Henry A., 552
Whitney, Jonathan, 397, 424
Wilderman, J. H.. 218
Wilkins, Samuel. 341
Williams, Arthur. 596
Williams, Benjamin, 440
Williams, David E., 606
Williams, E. B., 288
Williams, Edward, 432
Williams, Griffith J., 605
Williams. J. L., 291
Williams, Robert, 282
Williams, Thomas, 606
Williams, William R., 288
Wilson, James. 414
Wilson, James W.. 655
Wilson, John. 301. 655
Wilson, .John J., 455
Wilson. Robert, 310. 455
Winchell, A. B.. 402
Winn, Lorenzo A.. 571
Winnebago City. 386
Winnebagoes, 20
Winnebago uprising, 43
Winnebago villages, 21
Wisall, Elsena, 210
Wisconsinapolis, 78, 393
Wisconsin Central R. R.. 102
Wisconsin City, 398
"Wisconsin Mirror." 141, 146, 251
Wisconsin river, 4, 5, 13, 97
Wisconsin River Along the Newport
Shores (view), 439
Wisconsin river bridges, 194
Wisconsin River Hydraulic Company,
Wisconsin River Lock. Portage (view),
93
"Wisconsin State Register," 136
Wisconsin State Register Company, 137
Wisconsin Street Front of City Hall,
Portage (view), 189
Witche's Gulch, 7
Witehe's Gulch, Wisconsin Dells (view), 7
Womer, Capt. J. D., 181
Wood. A. L., 279
Wood, Big Billy, 412
Wood, E. H., 113
Wood, Xathan. 285
Wood, Samuel F.. 669
Woodward. James, 730
Wotring, Fred R., 215
Wrede, Henry C, 576
Wyocena — Founded by Major Elbert
Dickason, 358; naming of Wyocena,
358; high grade of early settlers, 359;
first store, 360; pioneer schools and
churches, 360; Messrs. Dey and Dicka-
son, 360; dairy industries, 361; Wyo-
cena State Bank, 362; the Baptists,
362; the Congregational Church, 362;
social and literary, 362; picnic held
on historic ground, 363
"Wyocena Advance," 148
Wyocena Cheese Factory, 361
Wyocena Public School" (view). 361
Wyocena State Bank, 362
Wj'ocena Township— Railroads. 400; old
water powers, 401; first wheat and
corn raised, 401; settlers of 1845-46;
401; town organized, 401; U. S. Regu-
lars rout claim agent, 402; grist mill
below Wyocena, 402
Wycofif, Samuel, 215
Yellow Thunder, last Winnebago war
chief, 26
Yellow Thunder, 26-30, 31. 68
Y. M. C. A., Portage. 226
Yockev. Mary, 270, 382
York, G. E., 192
York, Irving W., 627
York, Robert E., 628
Y'ork, R. E.. 192, 201
Young, Clark M., 377, 378, 480
Y'oung, Usual, 378
Yule, John T., 181
Zastrow, Ferdinand. 710
Zastrow, Herman E., 710
Zienert, Alois, 564
Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Cambria, 294
HISTORY OF
COLUMBIA COUNTY
CHAPTER I
NATURAL FEATURES
Wisconsin's Boldest Feature — Natural Route op Indians and
French Discoverers — Protection op the Portage Necessary to
Settlement — The Wisconsin Ri\'er and the Dells — The "How"
OP the Dells — The Baraboo Bluffs — Through the "Grand Eddy"
on a Raft — The Great Prairie Belt op Limestone — The Water
Courses op Columbia County — Prairies, Marshes and Timber
Land — Building Stone — Dairying and Agriculture.
Columbia County occupies the central area of one of the most
remarkable physical features of the State of Wisconsin, and its entire
history has been moulded in an especially striking manner by geo-
graphical position and geological status. Trace the course of history
to its fountain head and it will be found that it has been largely deter-
mined by such foreordained conditions, but in the case of Columbia
County the results may be so plainly traced from the grand and natural
premises that the book lies open in all the charm of rugged simplicity.
The surface features of Wisconsin as a state are neither boldly moun-
tainous nor monotonously level, which is the chief reason why those
who have lived any length of time within its borders love the land, irre-
spective of what they get out of it in a material way. It has all the
charm of a varied personality, seldom ponderous or obtrusive.
Wisconsin's Boldest Feature
But Wisconsin has one feature which is strikingly bold, as well as
flooded with beauty ; that is the deep gash which passes diagonally from
Green Bay, the headwaters of Lake Michigan, to the upper waters of the
1
2 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Mississippi at Prairie dii Chien, iii the soutliwestern part of the state.
Nature left two miles of slightly elevated limestone as a welt between
the equal sections of the deep scar formed by the valleys of the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers, and on either side lies Columbia County.
Our former great state geologist, Prof. T. C. Chainbei-lain, has
thus described Wisconsin in a state of nature, with this sole pronounced
grove in its surface, of which Columbia County is the very center of all
its picturesque charms: "The surface features of Wisconsin are simple
and symmetrical in character and present a configuration intermediate
between the mountainous on the one hand and a monotonous level on
the other. The highest summits in the state rise a little more than
1,200 feet above its lowest surfaces. A few exceptional peaks rise from
400 to 600 feet above their bases, but abrupt elevations of more than
200 or 300 feet are not common. Viewed as a whole, the state may be
regarded as occupying a swell of land lying between three notable
depressions — Lake Michigan on the east about 578 feet above the mean
tide of the ocean, Lake Superior on the north about 600 feet above the
sea, and the valley of the Mississippi river whose elevation at the Illi-
nois state line is slightly below that of Lake Michigan. From these
depressions the surface slopes upward to the summit altitudes of the
state. But the rate of ascent is unequal. From Lake Michigan the sur-
face rises by a long gentle acclivity westward and northward. A sim-
ilar slope ascends from the Mississippi valley to meet this, and their
juncture forms a north and south arch extending nearly the entire length
of the state. From Lake Superior the surface ascends rapidly to the
watershed, which it reaches within thirty miles of the lake
"Under the waters of Lake Michigan the surface of the land passes
below the sea level before the limits of the state are reached. Under
Lake Michigan the land surface descends to even greater depths, but
probably not within the boundaries of the state. The regularity of
the southward slopes is interrupted in a very interesting way by a
remarkable diagonal valley occupied by Green Bay and the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers. This is a great grove traversing the state obliquely,
and cutting down the central elevation half its height. A line passing
across the surface from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi at any other
point would arch upward from about 400 to 1,000 feet, according to
the location, while along the trough of this valley" it would reach an
elevation barely exceeding 200 feet. On -the northwest side of this
trough the surface rises somewhat gradually, giving at most points
much amplitude to the valley, but on the opposite side the slope ascends
rapidly to a well marked watershed that stretches across the state parallel
to the valley."
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
A French Fur Trader and Carrier
4 • HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Natural Route op Indians and French Discoverers
This deep grove, interrupted by only a narrow portage separating
the water system of the great lakes from that of the great river, was the
natural highway for the restless primitive peoples of the land, while
Lake Winnebago, and the valleys of the main streams and their tribu-
taries, became the gathering places of such powerful tribes as the Foxes
and Winnebagoes, hemmed into Soutliem Wisconsin by the Chippewas
toward the northeast and the Sioux toward the southwest.
It was also but natural that the earliest of the French voyageurs
should have selected this beautiful route, which to all outward appear-
ances would lead to the magnificent waters which were known to lie
somewhere in the West, rather than expect to discover anything of
importance by way of the swamps and little reedy stream at the lower
end of Lake Michigan.
Protection of the Portage Necessary to Settlement
So it was also that when the interior of Wisconsin commenced to be
settled by white men, the Government realized that the keynote to their
safety was a military oversight of the "portage;" hence the building
of Fort Winnebago, in which the Indians saw their doom and protested
accordingly. With Fort Howard (Green Bay) at the northeastern ter-
minus of the route. Fort Winnebago at the portage and Fort Crawford
(Prairie du Chien) at the southwestern end, the great interior water-
way of Wisconsin was comparatively safe. The cutting of the separating
belt by the canal, and the control of the turbulent waters of the Wis-
consin by means of the ' ' levee system, ' ' were more modern works of con-
venience and protection which Nature, in that part of the world, forced
the American to accomplish.
So we repeat that the history of Columbia County is peculiarly a
child of geographical and natural conditions.
The Wisconsin River and the Dells
It is in Northwestern Columbia County, with Kilbourn City as its
central point, that the Wisconsin River which has been flowing south-
ward from the north boundary of the state is deflected eastward by a
quartz range and then hemmed in by another coming from the opposite
direction. From one-third of a mile in width, the noble stream is sud-
denly contracted to one of not more than two hundred feet, and at one
point it is not above fifty feet across. Thus forced, it cuts its way
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 5
through seven miles of sandstone, whose walls rise from the clear, shad-
owy waters to a height of from fifteen to eighty feet.
There is probably no equal stretch of water in the world which exhib-
its such fantastic and beautiful forms of water erosion, and the hundreds
of little glens or gulches which run inland from the river are lined with
caves, fern beds and carved sandstone. In most places the walls are so
abrupt that it is impossible to land from a rowboat or pleasure steamer.
The Dells (or Dalles) are naturally divided into Upper and Lower,
the City of Kilbourn being at the head of the Lower Dells. Down the
river from Kilbourn the channel of the Wisconsin is gradually modified
until the stream again flows wide and shallow in an unconfined stream.
The depth of the gorge is from fifty to one hundred feet.
There is not one visitor to the Dells in a thousand, and probably not
ten in a hundred of the old-timers in Columbia county, who can tell
exactly where they begin and where they end. A nameless pioneer,
who is noted for his precision and pride of "getting things straight,"
comes to the rescue in the following words: "Section 28, in Township
14 north, of Range 6 east, lies both in Adams and Juneau counties, north
of Sauk. The Wisconsin River, which is here the boundary between
them, enters the north line of that section, and just at this point begins
the Dells — the 'upper jaws' as they are familiarly called. The stream
flows in nearly a south course through the middle of section 28 until it
crosses into section 33. It continues through the last-named section,
passing through the 'lower jaws,' and just at the point in the middle
of the river where it crosses its southern line are the corners of Colum-
bia, Adams, Jiuieau and Sauk counties. It flows on across the north
line of Section 4, Township 13 north, of Range 6 east, with a course
bearing to the eastward, crossing into section 3, but soon turning back
into section 4. Here a dam crosses the river.
"Above this point is known as the Upper Dells. From this dam is
seen Columbia County and Kilbourn City, town of Newport, on the
right; Sauk County, town of Delton, on the left; the river forming the
boundary between the two counties. Below the dam are the Lower
Dells. At the point where the river loses its characteristics of a gorge,
it is called the Foot of the Dells. Throughout the whole length of the
narrow passage from the Upper Jaws to the Foot of the Dells fanciful
names have been given to the most striking objects and places."
The Jaws of the Dells are guarded by two immense rocks. High and
Romance. Chimney Rock tells its own story. The Dell House, rambling
and wild looking, was one of the first frame houses built on the river
above Portage, and was used as a tourists' hotel for many years. It
stood across the river from the ehurchlike rock known as Chapel George.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Many of the grottoes aud caves, into which boats bore the tourist over
winding streams between fantastically carved sandstone, have been
obliterated by the construction of the great modern dam at Kilbourn
City and the consequent rising of the water level in the Upper Dells.
"Where the river banks suddenly approach within fifty feet of each
other is called the Narrows, aud in the earlier years this was considered
the most dangerous point in the Dells during high water. The first
bridge ever built across the Wisconsin was thrown across the Narrows
by Schuyler S. Gates in 1850.
The Devil's Elbow is at the entrance to the Narrows where the river
square turn.
Chimney K<i(k and Romance Cliff, Dells of the Wisconsin
To the left is Black Hawk's Cave, the legend being that the old chief
made this his hiding place in the days of the Black Hawk War.
Near by is Notch Rock, a square huge bowlder, against which numer-
ous lumber rafts have been shattered and lives lost.
Canyons and glens, the Devil's Jug, the Devil's Arm Chair, Steam-
boat Rock, and a hundred other evidences of the genius of water as a
sculptor are on every hand in this region of the Upper Dells. Steam-
boat Rock challenges especial attention. It is an island standing in a
curious circular cove, and from some points of view resembles a large
steamer, 250 feet long by 100 wide and fifty feet high, except that its
perpendicular sides are rugged and covered with pine, oak and thick
shrubbery.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Stand Rock, one of the most striking attractions of the region, is
over sixty feet in height, rising out of a beautiful glen and capped by a
smooth sandstone slab about twenty feet square.
Witche's Gulch, at the head of the Upper Dells, extends inland for
three-quarters of a mile. Although the rocks tower on either side to a
height of perhaps a hundred feet, one can almost touch the walls with
outstretched arms. It is dark, gloomy and weird, with its phantom
Witche's Gulch, Wisconsin Dells
chambers, fairy grottoes, waterfalls, winding passages and damp ferns
The river in its course through the Lower Dells is broader and pre-
sents a greater diversity of bluff and bottom, but the side shows are less
numerous and wonderful than those enjoyed in the Upper Dells. In
some places great shelves, with stalwart young pines growing upon
their very edges, overhang the dark waters; elsewhere, perpendicular
8 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
walls loom up like vast fortifications, and further on the fortress is sup-
plemented by bastions, projecting towers and covered archways.
After leaving Kilbourn City, going down the river, the first attrac-
tion is Taylor's Glen, which winds around and under the town, and the
rocky cliff which marks the exit of one of its tunnels is known as Echo
Point. If you have a sweet voice, it is well to be there, throw it out
freely and listen for its uncanny repetition.
Farther down the river are all kinds of caves and rocks. Signal
Peak stands as a reminder of the times when the Foxes and Winnebagoes
built their warning fires upon it, and around the bend are the Sugar
Bowl and Ink Stand. The former is complete, but the Ink Stand is split
down the side and will admit a small canoe.
Lone Rock, with its Cave of Dark Waters, is majestic and lonesome
in appearance, but withal wierdly beautiful. Then there are the Ovens,
Hawk's Bill, Cobble Stone Cove, Coldwater Spring, and other seeming
freaks of nature which are perfectly natural.
The "How" of the Dells
Many visitors will see and admire these wonderful sculptures with-
out stopping to consider how they were produced. As noted by some
Illinois professors, who have made a science of observing, "One of the
features which deserves especial mention is the peculiar crenate (notched)
form of the walls at the banks of the river. This is perhaps best seen
in that part of the Dalles known as the Navy Yard. The sandstone
is affected by a series of vertical cracks or joints. From weathering
the rock along these joints becomes softened, and the running water
wears the softened rocks at the joint planes more readily than other
parts of its bank and so develops a reentrant at these points. Rain
water descending to the river finds and follows the joint planes and
thus widens the cracks. As a result of stream and rain and weathering,
deep angles are produced, and the projections between are rounded off.
"When this process of weathering at the joints is carried sufficiently
far, columns of rocks become isolated and stand out on the river bluffs
as Chimneys. At a still later stage of development, decay of the rock
along the joint planes may leave a large mass of rock completely iso-
lated. Steamboat Rock and Sugar Bowl are examples of islands thus
formed. ' '
The walls of standstone weather in a peculiar manner at some points
in the Lower Dells. The little ridges stand out because they are harder
and resist weathering better than the other parts. This is due, in part
at least, to the presence of iron in the more resistent portions, cementing
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 9
them more firmly. In the process of segregation cementing materials
are often distributed unequally.
The effect of differences in hardness on erosion is also shown on a
larger scale and in other ways. Perhaps the most striking illustration
is Stand Rock, which probably is as well known as any feature of the
Dells region.
Minor valleys tributary to the Wisconsin, such as Witche's Gulch
and Cold Water Canyon deserve mention, both because of their beauty
and because they illustrate a type of erosion at an early stage of valley
development. In character they are comparable to the larger gorge to
which they are tributary. In the downward cutting which far exceeds
the side wear in these tributary canyons, the water has excavated large
bowl or jug-like forms. They are developed just below the falls, where
the water carrying debris, eddies, and the jug or pot-holes are the result.
The Devil's Jug and many other similar hollows are thus explained.
In the vicinity of Camp Douglas and over a large area to the west
are still other striking topographical forms, which owe their origin to
different conditions though they are fashioned by the same forces. Here
there are many towers or castle rocks, which rise to heights varying
from 75 to 190 feet above the surrounding plain. They are remnants
of beds which were once continuous over the low lands above which the
hills now rise. The rock of which they are composed is Potsdam sand-
stone. The effect of the vertical joints and of horizontal layers of
unequal hardness is especially noticeable in the formations of this
locality. Rains, winds, frosts and roots are still working to compass
the destruction of these picturesque hills, and the sloping walls of sand
bordering the "castles" are reminders of the fate which awaits them.
These liills are the more conspicuous and instructive since the plain
out of which they rise is so flat. Geological experts have pronounced it
"one of the best examples of a base-level plain to be found on the
continent. ' '
The crests of these hills reach an elevation of between one thousand
and one thousand one hundred feet. The Friendship mounds north of
Kilbourn City, the castellated hills a few miles northwest of the same
place, and Petenwell Peak on the banks of the Wisconsin are further
examples of the same class of hills.
The Baraboo Bluffs
But Columbia County is not a hilly region, and besides these inter-
esting castellated mounds in the extreme northwest, its other marked
manifestations of an uprising are chiefly what are known as the Bara-
10 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
boo Bluffs. These are two bold east and west ridges — the southern
much the bolder and most continuous — extending through Sauk and
Western Columbia County for twenty miles and lying within the great
band of the Wisconsin River below Portage. Their cores and summits,
in some places their entire slopes, are composed of tilted beds of quartz,
while their flanks mainly consist of horizontal beds of sandstone. The
Baraboo Bluffs mark the valley of the river by that name, a large water-
power stream which comes in from Sauk County and flows eastward
through the Town of Caledonia to join the Wisconsin in Columbia
County.
Through the "Grand Eddy" on a Raft
Before leaving this most picturesque region of the Wisconsin River
we cannot forbear to present this description of the Dells written by a
traveler in 1858, when they were a part of the Wild West: "Some-
where about two miles (as they measure them here, and that is with a
'woolen string') above Kilbourn City, through a rough and unsettled
opening country, is the Dells. I availed myself of a 'lift' on one of
the stages that left Kilbourn City in good season in the morning to visit
for the first time that truly wonderful place on the largest river in the
state. As I neared the stream and came in sight, I was struck with the
wild, rough but sublime scenery. The morning was anything but pleas-
ant. A regular Scotch mist hovered about the trees, little spirts of rain
fed a chilly wind, the country around was dull, not a bird to be seen ;
the trees were leafless, not even a bud or flower in sight ; the drab col-
ored bark of the white oaks, with their scraggy tops; the dead-looking
black or pin oaks, all destitute of foliage, their tops curtained with the
gossamer haze of the mist that was borne along on the wind, that chilled
the face and somewhat dimmed the eye — all looking drearj-; solitude
seemed to be reigning. The only relief to the scene before actually
reaching the river were the fine handsome tops of the pines that like
cones of bright green, here and there, reared their heads tapering off
to sharp points in many places, high above the oaks; appearing like so
many green spots in the waste.
"Turning from the course I was 'steering,' for I had missed my way,
I found the road which lead to the Dells' bridge; that is stretched from
rock to rock over the Dells, where the water is now eighty feet deep.
On the bridge is a fine view, both up and down, of a dirty, spiteful and
wicked looking river (speaking nautically). Here a river hundreds of
miles in length that has leaped cataracts and rushed almost unchecked
over rapids, spread at will over plains and piled up in its playfulness
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 11
acres of sandbars, suddenly finds itself contracted; high walls of rough
rocks, built up layer upon layer until they attain at some places from
fifty to a hundred feet in height, have prescribed its limits. As if mad-
dened beyond control, in the height of its anger apparently, it dashes
into the jaws of the rocky monster that appears to swallow it.
"Taking a good look at the stream- from the top of the bridge, I
crossed, and proceeding for some distance up its side I soon came in
view of some rafts preparing to enter what to many a poor fellow has
been the Valley of Death. A request that I might have a passage was
readily granted, and in a few minutes by some maneuvering the raft
was started, and on we went gliding gracefully down the stream. The
current appeared to me to get swifter and swifter, until the whole raft
of cribs of lumber pinned together seemed to tremble and twist and be
determined to go to pieces just because I was on it. I have heard of
a lake somewhere up here called Devil 's Lake ; the same name should be
given to this part of the Wisconsin River, in my opinion.
"We are fairly afloat on the fierce, rolling, rushing tide, speeding
down toward the turn above the bridge, where projecting into the stream
is the dangerous rock, on the starboard hand of the river, called Notch
Rock. Having sheered too much, or given too wide a berth to the eddy
or some whirl on the opposite side of the stream, we s\\Ting too far and
came too near the Notch, passing, it seemed to me, within four feet of the
savage-looking point of the rock. On we went, the men plying their
sweeps or oars with a vigor that appeared to denote a danger at hand.
Looking up at the sides of the Dells when close to the bridge I beheld
a scene of which I have never seen the equal.
"In some places the points of the massive masonry of rocks seemed
ready to fall on the raft and crush it to atoms. Their upper points or
promontories that hung over and far above the stream seemed held in
their places only by the strong roots of some towering pines, whose
points or apex seemed lost in the clouds, and the roots of which had
grappled with the monstrous stone or wall, running mto every crevice,
rift or fissure, as though the two had united their strength to resist the
efforts of some hurricane that had sought to dislodge them. Upon the
outward limbs of some of these Norway pines here and there was seen
a bird greatly resembling the kingfisher, calmly looking down upon the
swift water that here, in its narrowest limits, was maddened and infuri-
ated, writhing, twisting, whirling, seething and foaming, like some huge
monster that was in an agony of pain as it forced itself through the
craggy passage.
"Little birds were seen hopping about the crevices of the rocks, pick-
ing up insects from the moss; and pretty little shrubs could be seen
12 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
snugly stowed away 'under the lee,' or in the crooks of the stony
safe from rain or wind, as though the.y had
" 'Chosen the hnmlile valley, and had rather
Grow a safe shrub below, than dare the winds
And be a cedar.'
"Just as we passed the bridge, a hole or concave place appeared in
sight close ahead of the raft, looking as if some leviathan had suddenly
sucked down a hollow in the water; this place of hollow water seemed
twenty feet across, and into this eddy the two forward cribs of the raft
appeared to sink and to disappear, the water rushing upon the lumber
and the whole raft feeling as if it was about to turn over with a twirl
and go to the bottom of the vortex. I fancied I read in the faces of two
of those belonging to the raft a sign of more than common danger; and
a rushing backward and forward with the sweeps as the men put forth
all their strength and activity induced me to commence the process of
taking off an overcoat. This elicited a laugh from two of the 'red shirts;'
however it was apparent to me that unless the raft speedily righted it
would soon be 'every man for himself and God for us all.' This was
the Grand Eddy. I call it the ]Maelstrom on a small scale, but large
enough.
"I have no doubt that men accustomed to running the Dells get
blunted to the danger, but I fully believe that to the unfortunate who
gets overboard in the Wisconsin near the Dells, death is certain. I have
passed many years of my life at sea, been tempest-tossed in some of the
worst gales that ever swept any ocean. I have seen the crested waves of
Cape Horn kiss the top-sail yard-arms of more than one good ship.
I was off Nantucket shores in that memorable equinoctial gale that some
eighteen years since hurled dozens of vessels upon the Atlantic coast,
in which two pilots boats foundered off New York and hundreds of sail-
ors went to their ocean sepulcher. I have laughed at the Atlantic,
when the good old liner 'Caledonia' reeled to and fro like a drunken
man, and cries came up out of the deep; but never have I felt as I did
when that raft dipped its forward end into the Grand Eddy below Dells
bridge, when I believed danger was really near."
The Gre.\t Prairie Belt op Limestone
The most important land feature of the county is the high limestone
prairie belt which separates the systems of the Rock and Wisconsin riv-
ers. It crosses Green Lake County in a southwesterly direction, enters
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 13
Columbia County ou the north Hue of Scott aud Raudoljjh townships,
traverses the county in a line gradually veering to the west and, enter-
ing Dane County, turns due west. The western and northern face of
this divide forms the eastern and southern side of the Wisconsin Valley
continuously from the mouth of the river to the most eastern point of
its great bend in Columbia County, and a spur of it is thrust out between
the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to separate their waters. Further north
the main ridge continues its northeasterly trend, leaving the Wisconsin
entirely and becoming the eastern boundary of the upper Fox River as
far as Lake Winnebago.
The Water Courses op Columbia County
The western and central sections of Columbia County depend upon
the Wisconsin River and its tributaries for drainage. The main stream
enters the gorge already mentioned as the Dells not far above the south-
ern boundary line of Juneau and Adams counties. This wonderful pass-
age of seven miles has already been described. At its foot between the
counties of Sauk and Columbia, the river enters upon the most remark-
able bend in its whole length of 450 miles through the entire State of
Wisconsin. Through the Dells its general course is southward, but it
is now turned almost due east by a hard, sharp cjuartzite range, like
a flint arrow head, which stands for the union of the Baraboo bluffs
pushing themselves in from Sauk County. Rising some four hundred
feet above the river bottom it effectually turns the Wisconsin from its
southerly course through the narrow Dells. The river then widens and
naturally flows between low sand banks for seventeen miles to Portage.
Above Portage, where the Wisconsin forms the southern boundary
line of the Town of Lewiston, the ground immediately north is lower
than the water in the river; the heads of Neenah Creek, a tributary of
the Fox, rising a short distance from its banks. In times of high water
the Wisconsin naturally overflowed into these streams, and the two river
systems — those of the Fox and Wisconsin — mingled their waters in the
earlier times, and often flooded Portage and the adjacent country to
the north, devastating property and destroying life.
At Portage the Fox, after flowing south of west for twenty miles
approaches the Wisconsin, coming from the opposite direction. Where
the two streams are nearest their natural channels are less than two miles
apart. Before the days of the canal they were separated by a low sandy
plain resting on the limestone belt described before. In a state of nature
the water in the Fox was five feet below that of the Wisconsin at ordi-
nary stages, and in times of high water the greater part of the inter-
14 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
vening low ground was overflowed by the latter. To this fact was
chiefly due the disastrous spring rises in the Fox.
These natural conditions made necessary the construction of the
canal and the levees, hereafter to be described.
After doubling the eastern end of the Baraboo blufi's, the Wisconsin
turns again to the west, being forced in this direction by the high belt
of limestone which separates it from the Rock River system. Soon after
striking the limestone region the Wisconsin Valley in Columbia County
assumes an altogether new character, which it retains to its mouth. It
has now a nearly level and generally treeless bottom from three to six
miles in width, bounded on both sides by bold bluft's of sandstone capped
with limestone and rising to a height of two or three hundred feet.
The Fox River, which drains the northern sections of Columbii
County, rises in the northeastern Town of Scott and the ad.joining sec-
tions of Green Lake County, on the west edge of the limestone belt previ-
ously noted. Flowing southwest and west, nearly parallel to the Duck
Creek branch of the Wisconsin, expanding into several little lakes in its
course (Swan Lake, among others), it approaches the latter stream at
Portage, where it turns abruptly northward on its way toward Lake
Winnebago and Green Bay. It has already been said that in the spring,
before the building of the levees, this portion of the Fox received a
large amount of water from the Wisconsin, much of which reached it
through a branch known as the Big Slough, or Neenah Creek, which,
heading within a mile of the Wisconsin, in the Town of Lewiston, reaches
the Fox just south of the north line of Columbia County near Fort Hope,
Fort Winnebago Towaiship.
The Rock River system, which drains the eastern portions of Colum-
bia County, is represented by the Crawfish River.
There are several pretty little lakes in the county, which abound in
fish and are favorites with summer tourists, like Silver Lake, at Portage,
which is also an old-time haunt of the curlers ; Swan Lake, a link in the
Fox River, lying in Wyocena and Pacific townships ; Lakes Loomis, Corn-
ing and Whiting, Town of Lewiston; Mud Lake, Town of Lowville, the
head of Rocky Run, and Crystal Lake, in the Town of West Point. To
tell the truth, however, though we would not be without such little gems
of water, they are more ornamental than useful, and up to date have
had small effect upon the destiny or progress of Columbia County.
Prairies, Marshes and Timber Land
In further expansion of the physical features of Columbia County,
upon which so mueli of history depends, it may be said that its surface
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 15
is roughly divided into prairies, marshes and timber land, although all
these have been materially changed, and are even now in process of
transformation, by the modifying influences of civilization and devasta-
tion. The prairies are not coextensive with those of the pioneer times,
because in places trees have been planted and natural second growths
have matured. In general, Columbia County presents the flat prairies,
chiefly seen along the Wisconsin River bottoms, and the more ordinary
rolling or broken lands. In some cases as in the Town of West Point, the
prairie area includes both lowland and bold outlying bluffs, reaching
300 feet in height.
The limestone prairie belt in Columbia County occupies large por-
tions of the towns of West Point, Lodi, Arlington, Leeds, Hampden and
Lowville, continuing northeast though somewhat broken, through the
towns of Otsego, Courtland and Randolph, and finally passing into
Green Lake County. This extensive prairie area is mostly on high land,
occupying the summit of the watershed between the Wisconsin and Rock
rivers, to which reference has been made. It is nearly always under-
laid by the lower magnesia limestone, whose irregular upper surface con-
tributes much to the rolling character of the prairie.
In the earlier times several of the most marked prairie regions had
their special designations, like Empire Prairie in the south central tiers
of townships. Fountain Prairie in the southeast, and Welsh and Portage
prairies in the northeast.
With regard to the timber areas, the whole of the county outside the
prairie regions was covered with a prevailing growth of oaks, inter-
spersed with other forest trees. Along the Wisconsin and Baraboo
rivers were belts of heavy timber, composed of oak, basswood, elm, hick-
ory, butternut and soft maple. There were a few growths of heavy oaks
in the more northern and eastern parts of the county, as in the towns
of Lewiston, Fort Winnebago, Marcellon, Wyocena and Lowville, and
further south in De Korra and Lodi. But there are now few continuous
belts of heavy timber in the county; on the other hand there are many
homesteads which are protected and beautified by groves and stretches of
timber which, in their natural state, were on the bare prairie.
The marshes of Columbia County are usually small and the area of
swamp, or waste lands, has greatly decreased within recent years. Both
scientific drainage by the farmers, and the work of the state and national
governments in diverting the flood waters into safe channels, have cut
down the percentage to very small proportions. Prior to these improve-
ments the marshes along Duck Creek and the Upper Fox River, east of
Portage, stretched along as a dreary waste several miles in extent.
16 . HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Building Stone
Although Columbia County is rich in deposits of sandstone and lime-
stone, and numerous outcroppiugs are visible iu various parts of its
area, these valuable building stones have not been utilized to any great
extent. Small quarries are scattered throughout the county, such as
those of limestone in Randolph, Courtland and Columbus townships, in
the east, and Lowville in the central area, and sandstone workings in the
Town of Fort Winnebago ; also near Lodi and other sections in the Wis-
consin valley region. There are valuable deposits of granite and iron in
the Town of Caledonia, but they have not yet been developed
commercially.
Dairying and Agriculture
It is not in the quarrying of building stone that the soil of Columbia
County has yielded its riches to the people wlio have settled within its
borders. But few counties in Southern Wisconsin have better natural
advantages for the development of all dairy industries than Columbia.
The territory is abundantly watered, grasses and all forage plants are
abundantly grown, and the varied nature of the laud furnishes much
natural protection to live stock, even if the farmer fails to provide it.
The result is that no industry is growing more rapidly, and fully sev-
enty per cent of the milch cows owned by the agriculturists of the county
are employed to maintain the supply of its creameries and cheese fac-
tories. Another good result is that Columbia County butter and cheese
is hard to beat, although Wisconsin is preeminent as a dairy state.
The soil of Columbia county is rich in those elements required by corn
and oats, by potatoes and vegetables, which are therefore its leading
crops. It may be argued that because oats are so readily raised horses
should be the main species of livestock ; or it may be inferred that because
well-to-do citizens will have good horses, they have set about to raise good
oats and plenty of them. Which ever horn of the dilemma you take, it
is certain that both oats and horses are large sources of wealth to
Columbia County.
The details of these general statements are brought out in the chap-
ter devoted to picturing the county as it is today. The story begun in
the foregoing pages aims to tell what Nature had done for this section
of the state, before either red man or white man came to improve upon
its ways.
CHAPTER II
THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS
Mound Builders Keep to the Water Courses — Mounds op the Kil-
BOURN Region — First Tidings of Columbia County Indians — The
Winnebagoes and Menominees — Last op the Indian Lands — ^Win-
nebago Villages — De Korra, the Noble Chiep — Indian Payment
OP 1830 — ]\Ies. Kedzie Describes the Chiefs — Yellow Thunder,
Last Winnebago War Chief — Personal Recollections of Yellow
Thunder (JIrs. Lydia A. Flanders) — Last Forced March op the
Winnebagoes — The Payment op 1914.
Most of the relics left by prehistoric man, the predecessor of the
Indian, indicate that his habitations and his migrations were largely
fixed and guided by the availability of the region for sustenance and
facility of transportation provided by the water courses of the land.
The old forts, and shrines, and hearths of the Mound Builders stretch
through the great valleys of the Northwest, usually not far from the
present-day streams. Both prehistoric man and historic Indian appear
to have had in mind, in the selecting of their habitations and territorial
domain, attractiveness of village sites and lands, riches of streams and
forests, and facilities of migration, whether undertaken in movements
of offence or defence.
Mound Builders Keep to the Water Courses
In Columbia County, as in other localities where the original inhabi-
tants have left evidences of their life and works, prehistoric relics and
structures are sometimes found stranded on inland hillsides, but almost
uniformly near a valley formation or a pronounced depression. Not only
is it certain that there has been a notable decrease in the volume of all
existing bodies of water, but inland valleys and sinks and ancient shore
lines, are evidences that many have entirely disappeared; but. as stated,
Vol. r —2
17
18 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the works of the ilouiul Builders are never far away from such evidences
of old-time streams or lakes.
In some of the mounds examined in Columbia County are found
near the surface relies of Indian origin, such as flint arrowheads, beads
and pottery, while further below, and always near the base line, come the
stone implements and the remnants of human bones that crumble into
dust as soon as brought to the surface ; striking evidences of primitive,
if not prehistoric occupancy. There is still another class of remains
and relics, like those discovered some years ago near Wyoeena where
the branches of Duck Creek come together. In an oak grove, about a
mile from the old ^Military road running from Green Bay via Portage
to Prairie du Chieu, is a well defined chain of earth works and depres-
sions. The latter are pronounced rifle pits, and local antiquarians have
dug from them not only Indian arrow heads, rusty bayonets of the
American flint-lock musket, and pewter buttons stamped with the U. S.
of the "regulars," but skulls and bones — all indicating a battle-field
contested by the reds and whites at that point. Now in midstream, oppo-
site the earth works and rifle pits, is a little rise of land which once
formed a portion of the site of an Indian village.
ilOUNDS OP THE KiLBOURN REGION
The most pronounced evidences of prehistoric habitation have been
found in the romantic region of the Dells, especially in and near Kil-
bourn City. One of the largest of the mounds was destroyed, years ago,
in the construction of a village street. It was lizardlike in shape, with
its head pointing toward the west, and originally the figure must have
been 200 feet long.
Very often one of these image or animal mounds will be surrounded
by several which are conical in shape. A few miles fi'om Kilboum may
be found one of the most curious groups to be seen in that section of the
state. It occupies a plat of ground about 300 feet long and 80 feet wide.
Near the southeast corner of the plat is the figure of a deer, the head
being toward the west. Immediately to the north is a representation of a
lizard, some 300 feet in length, around its head being eight or ten conical
mounds, some of them twelve feet in height.
About four miles south of Kilbourn, on the east bank of the Wisconsin
River, is another interesting group. The mounds, in fact, are found in
a number of other localities within a few miles of Kilbourn City.
That the mounds were built at a remote period is evident. On many
of them trees more than two hundred years old are found growing, and
how many more have attained their maturity, died and fallen into decay.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
20 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
it is impossible to tell. Another proof of the great antiquity of the
mounds is the depth of the alluvial soil which covers them.
First Tiding.s of Columbia County Indians
It is believed that the first historic evidences of human life within
the present limits of Columbia County were the recorded tidings brought
to Champlain of the tribe of Indians who hunted, fished and warred in
a region many leagues beyond Lake Huron. They were called Mashkou-
tenec ; later, Mascoutens. The Hurons translated the word as Fire
Nation, and such French authorities as Marquette adopted their interpre-
tation ; others, like the scholarly Dablon and Charlevoix claimed the word
was derived from Muskoutenec, a prairie, and should be translated "Men
of the prairie, " or " prairie people. ' ' But whether that tribe, of whom
Champlain heard, should be called the Fire Nation or ]Men of the Prairie,
it is certain that its members were long known as the Mascoutens; that
they had numerous villages in what is now Green Lake County and that
their hunting grounds, at least, stretched along the Fox River well into
the present bounds of Columbia County.
The Winnebagoes and Menominees
The nearest tribe to the Mascoutens down the Fox River was that of
the AVinnebagoes, whose homes were at the mouth of that stream and
around Lake Winnebago. To the south, extending well up Rock River,
were the Illinois, who were afterward driven beyond the Mississippi.
The Foxes then crowded the IMascoutens southward to the shores of
Lake ^Michigan, and after occupying territory which included the Colum-
bia County of today for a time, migi-ated toward the southwest.
Then came the Winnebagoes from the Green Bay and Lake Winne-
bago regions, their territory gradually extending up the Fox River,
across the portage and down the Wisconsin. They seemed to be both a
strong and patient tribe and founded several villages within the county
which flourished for a number of years. Although several treaties of
peace were made with the Winnebagoes, who had succeeded to the great
Chippewa Territory of Northern Wisconsin and the lands of the Foxes
in the central and southern parts of the state, the general Government
did not finally obtain a cession of the Winnebago lands in Columbia
County until 1833 and 1837. The treaty of the former year ceded all
except the area now included in the Town of Caledonia, and that section
of the county became Government property in the latter year.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 21
Last op the Indian Lands
The Indian lands of Columbia County now included the tract between
the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, including the extreme northv/est embraced
by the towns of Newport and Lewiston, that portion of Fort Winnebago
west of the Fox, the village of Kilbourn City and a part of the City of
Portage. This section of Northwestern Columbia County was included
in the Menominee lands until January 23, 1849, although the Indians
of that tribe had never settled upon them. The treaty of that date ceded
all these lands to the general Government ; but they remained in actual
possession of them until 1851.
Winnebago Villages
The Winnebagoes were the only red men who became actual residents
of Columbia County. The largest of their villages, which was two miles
south of the portage, consisted of more than one hundred lodges, and
was occupied by their principal chief, De Korra, from whom the town is
named. The village was afterward moved to land known as the Caffrey
place. Town of Caledonia, at the foot of a bluff between the Wisconsin
and Baraboo rivers. The school house of District No. 5 subsequently
occupied a part of the site. Soon after the completion of Fort Winne-
bago in 1830, the Winnebago villages commenced to disintegrate, and
there were few remains of them when the title to their lands was
extinguished in 1837.
De Korra, the Noble Chief
It is said that De Korra, perhaps the best known of the early chiefs
in Columbia County, was the grandson of Sebrevoir de Carrie, an officer
in the French army who was mortally wounded at Quebec in 1760, and
who had previously been a fur trader among the Winnebago Indians.
His name, at least, has been derived from that source. lie was a favor-
ite with white settlers and a picturesque figure at the annual gathering
of his tribe, when the Government paid the Indians their annuities at
Fort Winnebago.
Indian Payment op 1830
A payment made to the Winnebagoes in 1830 is thus described by
an eye-witness: "There were two divisions of the Winnebago Indians,
one of which was paid by the agent at the portage, the other at Prairie
22 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COl'XTY
dii Chien. The first, lietween 4,000 and 5,000 in number, received ac-
cording to treaty stipulations, $15,000 annually, besides a considerable
amount of presents and certain rations of bread and pork, to be issued
in times of emergency throughout the year. The principal villages of
this division of the tribe wei'e at Lake Winnebago, Green and Fox lakes,
the Barribault (now Baral)oo), Mud Lake (Dodge County), the Four
Lakes, Kosh-ko-noug (White Crow's village) and Turtle Creek (now
Beloit). Messengers were dispatched at or before the arrival of the
annuity money to all the villages, to notify the heads of families or
lodges to assemble at the portage.
"When arrived the masters of families, under their different chiefs,
gave in their names and the number in their lodges, to be registered.
As, in paying, a sum of money is apportioned to each individual, it is
an object to the head of a lodge to make the number registered as great
as possible. Each one brings his little bundle of sticks and presents it
to the agent to register. Sometimes a dialogue like the following oc-
curs: 'How many have you in your lodge?'
"The Indian carefully and with great ceremony counts a bundle
of sticks — 'Fifteen.'
" 'How many men?'
" 'Two.'
"The agent lays aside two sticks.
" 'How many women?'
" 'Three.'
"Three more sticks are separated.
" 'Eight.'
"Eight sticks are added to the heap.
" 'What is the meaning of those two sticks that remain?'
"The culprit, whose arithmetic had not served him to cany out
this deception, disappears amid the shouts and jeers of his companions,
who are always well pleased at the detection of any roguery in which
they have had no share.
"The young ofBcers generally assisted in counting out and deliver-
ing the money at these payments and it was no unusual thing, as the
last band came up, for the chiefs to take a quantity of silver out of the
box and request their father to pay his friends for their trouble, seem-
ing really disturbed at his refusal. In this, as in almost every instance,
we see the native courtesy and politeness which are never lost sight of
among them. If a party comes to their father to beg for provisions
and food is offered them, however hungry they may be. each waits
patiently until one of the company makes an equal distrilratiou of the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 23
whole, and theu taking his share eats it quietly, with the greatest
moderation. I never saw this riile violated, save in one instance.
"Our friend. Pawnee Blanc, 'the old dandy,' once came with a
party of Indians requesting permission to dance for as in the open
space before the door. It was a warm, dusty afternoon, and as our
friends grew heated and fatigued with their violent and long-continued
exei'cise, a pitcher of raspberry negus was prepared .Tnd sent out to
them. Pawnee received the pitcher and tumbler, and poariug the latter
about half full gave it to the first in the circle, theu filled the same for
the next and so on, until it occurred to him to look into the pitcher.
What he saw there, determined his course of action; so, setting the
tumbler on the ground he raised the pitcher to his lips and gave a
hearty pull, after which he went on, giving less and less, until he was
called to have the pitcher replenished. All present agreed it was the
first instance they had ever witnessed of an Indian appearing afraid
of getting less of a thing than his share.
"During the payment a good many kegs of whiskey find their way
into the lodges of the Indians, notwithstanding the watchfulness of both
officers and agent. Where there is a demand there will always be a
supply, let the legal prohibitions be what they may. The last day of
the payment is invariably one of general carousing.
"When the men begin their frolic, the women carefully gather all
the guns, knives, tomahawks and weapons of every description and secrete
them, that as little mischief as possible may be done in the absence of
all restraint and reason. I am sorry to record that our little friend,
Pawnee Blane, was greatly addicted to the pleasures of the bottle.
"Among the presents for the chiefs brought from the east was a
trunk of blue cloth coats trimmed with broad gold lace, and a box of
round, black hats, ornamented in a similar manner. All who are familiar
with Indians of whatever tribe will have observed that their first step
toward civilization, whether a man or a woman, is mounting a man's
hat decorated with tinsel, ribbons and feathers. Pawnee was among
the happy number remembered in the distribution, so donning at once
his new costume and tying a few additional bunches of gay-colored rib-
bons to a long spear that was always his baton of ceremony, he came at
once, followed by an admiring train chiefly of women, to pay me a
visit of state.
"The solemn gravity of his countenance as he motioned away those
who would approach too near and finger his newly received finery;
the dignity with which he strutted along, edging this way and that to
avoid any possible contact from homely, everyday wardrobes, augured
24 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
well for a coutinuation of propriety and self-respect and a due con-
sideration of the good opinion of all around.
"But, alas for Pawnee! Late in the day, we saw hira assisted to-
ward his lodge by two stout young Indians, who had pulled him out of
a ditch, his fine coat covered with mud, his hat battered, his spear shorn
of its gay streamers, and poor PawTiee himself weeping and uttering
all the doleful lamentations of a tipsy Indian."
JIrs. Kinzie Describes the Chiefs
John H. Kinzie, son of the John Kinzie who is generally called the
"father of Chicago," came to Port Winnebago as the Indian agent in
1831, accompanied by his charming and talented young wife. She
was the author of "Wau-Bun," that interesting and valuable book
dealing with life and events at such frontier posts as Fort Dearborn
and Fort Winnebago. We shall have occasion to draw upon her remin-
iscences later, our present indelrtedness to her being on the score of her
picjuant description of the best known of the Winnebago chiefs, in these
words: "After breakfast I received a visit from the principal chiefs,
who had put on their best of apparel and paint, to receive their new
mother.
"There was Naw-Kaw or Kar-ray-raau-nee, the Walking Turtle, then
the principal chief of the nation, a stalwart Indian with a broad, pleas-
ant countenance, the great peculiarity of which was an immense under
lip hanging nearly to his chin.
"There was old De-Kau-ray (De Korra), the most noble, dignified
and venerable of his own, or indeed of any tribe. His fine, Roman
countenance, rendered still more striking by his bald head, with one
tuft of long, silvery hair, neatly tied and falling to his slioulders; his
perfectly neat and appropriate dress, almost without ornament, and his
courteous demeanor never laid aside under any circumstances, all com-
bined to give him the highest place in the consideration of all who
knew him.
"There was Black Wolf, whose lowering, surly face was well de-
scribed by his name. The fierce expression of his countenance was
greatly heightened by the masses of heavy black hair hanging around
it, quite contrary to the usual fashion among the Winnebagoes. They,
for the most part, remove a portion of the hair, the remainder of which
is drawn to the back of the head, clubbed and ornamented with beads,
ribbons, cock feathers, or, if they are so entitled, an eagle's feather for
every scalp taken from an enemy.
"There was Talk English, a remarkably handsome young Indian,
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 25
who received his name in the following manner: He was one of the
party of sixteen Winnebagoes who had, by invitation, accompanied their
agent and Major Forsyth (or the Chippewa, as he was called) on a
visit to the president at Washington, the year previous. On the journey
the question naturally addi'essed to them by people not familiar with
the western Indians was 'Do .you talk English?' The young fellow,
being very observant, came to his father. 'What do they mean by this?
Everybody says to me. "Talk English?" ' The agent interpreted the
words to him. 'Ah, very well!' The next place they arrived at was
Lockport, New York. Jumping off the canal boat upon the lock, he
ran np to the first man he met and thrusting forward his face called
out 'Talk Eengeesh?' 'Yes,' said the man. 'Do you talk English?'
'Ya-as. ' From that time forward he always bore the name of Talk Eng-
lish and was registered on the payrolls by that title, of which he was
not a little proud.
"Hoo-wau-nee-kah, the Little Elk, was another of the distinguished
meu of the tribe. He had likewise been at Washington. Henry Clay,
when he visited them, after looking carefully at the countenances and
bearing of all the membei's of the deputation, had indicated him as
possessing the greatest talent; and he was greatly pleased when in-
formed that he was the principal orator of the nation and decidedly
superior in abilities to any other individual of the tribe.
"Then there was Kau-ray-kaw-saw-kaw, the White Crow, a Roek
River Indian, who afterward distinguished himself as a friend of the
whites during the Sauk war. He was called by the French, Le Borgne,
from having lost an eye ; and the black silk handkerchief which he wore
drooping over the left side of his face to disguise the blemish, taken
with his native costume, gave him a very singular appearance.
"There was a nephew of the defunct Four Legs, to whom, with jus-
tice, was given by both whites and Indians, the appellation of the Dandy.
When out of mourning, his dress was of the most studied and fanciful
character. A shirt (when he condescended to wear any) of the brightest
colors, ornamented with innumerable rows of silver brooches set thickly
together; never less than two pairs of silver arm bands; leggings and
moccasins of the most elaborate embroidery, in ribbons and porcupine
quills; everything that he could devise in the shape of an ornamfent,
hanging to his club of hair behind; a feather fan in one hand, and in
the other a mirror in which he contemplated himself every few minutes.
These with the variety and brilliancy of the colors upon his face, the
suitable choice and application of which occupied no small portion of
the hours allotted to his toilet, made up the equipment of young Four
Legs.
26 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
"This devotion to dress and appearance seemed not altogetlier out
of place in a youthful dandy; but we had likewise an old one of the
same stamp. Pawnee Blanc, or the White Pawnee, surpassed his younger
competitor, if possible, in attention to his personal attractions. Upon
the present occasion he appeared in all his finery, and went through the
customary salutations with an air of solemn dignity, and then walked,
as did the other, into the parlor (for I had received them in the hall),
where they all seated themselves on the floor.
' ' Fortunately the room was not bare of furniture, but ' Alas ! ' thought
I, 'for my pretty cai'pet if this is to be the way they pay their I'espects
to me ! ' I watched the falling of their ashes from their long pipes, and
the other inconveniences of the use of tobacco, or kin-ni-kin-nic, with
absolute dismay."
Yellow Thunder, L.\st Winnebago War Chief
Some years after Jlrs. Kinzie wrote these descriptions of the best
known Winnebago leaders of the very early times, Yellow Thunder
(Mi-ja-jin-a-ka) commenced to come into notice, and for years was the
Good Indian of Columbia County. Those who knew him in his younger
years admired his poise and unfailing kindness to white and red, and
as the j^ears went by, and his character never changed, he became an
object of general pride and love. Yellow Thunder, who died in 1874,
was the last war chief of the Winnebagoes and, as such, aside from the
steadfastness and nobility of his character, has a high place among the
historical figures of Wisconsin.
Among those who knew this noble red man longest and best was the
late Mrs. Lydia A. Flanders, of Portage, who contributes the following :
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF YELLOW THUNDER
By Mrs. Lydia A. Flanders
The red i-aces are passing away before the silent but irresistible
spread of civilization. The tenure of Indian sovereignty is as pre-
carious as the habitation of the deer, his co-tenant of the forest. Their
gradual displacement is as inevitable as the progress of events. A por-
tion of the Indian family is destined to a citizenship with ourselves:
but this can only be accomplished by the adoption of agricultural pur-
suits and the diffusion of knowledge among them. At no distant day
the war shout of the Red man will fall away into eternal silence upon
the shores of the distant Pacific. Industry will then have taken up
her abode in the seclusion of the forest. The church will rise upon the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 27
ruins of the Council House: the railway will then pursue the distant
trail: the plough-shares turn the sod of the hunting ground, and the
continuous hum of industry will rise from ocean to ocean when the
destiny of the Indian is thus fulfilled. The words of the Great Seneca
orator (Honauous or "Farmer's Brother") will rise up in perpetual
membrance, "Who then, lives to mourn us? None. What works our
extermination? Nothing." — Third Annual Report of the Regents of
N. Y. University, Historical and Antiquarian Collection.
It is a matter of rejoicing among humane and fair-minded people
that the sentiment "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," is no
longer accepted, and less frequently heard.
History records the first lessons taught our savage brothers. These
were lessons of deceit, dishonesty, and intemperance. They were apt
scholars, and after half a century of personal observation of the rela-
tions between the white man and the Indian, we are fain to lean, in
charity, to the side of the latter. Adding to their savage natures these
grosser elements of civilization, can we expect the product to be one
with nice or even moderate distinctions ? Our attitude toward them now
should be governed by this knowledge and their helplessness. Herbert
Spencer's oft quoted line "The survival of the fittest," if applied to the
Indian, is a compliment to the white man which is capable of exceptions,
and the sentiment is modified when treating of individuals. "Noble
red man," so often ironically quoted, is certainly not a flight of roman-
tic fancy, but a knowable and veritable ia<tt.
More than fifty years ago, when a child of nine years, I wandered
one October day, a short distance from my home, then a settler's cabin.
Glancing along the trail, I saw an Indian approaching. Terrorized and
unable to move, I stared, but did not utter a sound. He approached
nearer and held out his hand and in the most pleasant of voices said,
"How? How?" I still felt unconvinced of my safety, even if the face
before me was not at all formidable, and the expression one of extreme
good nature, and murmuring something that I suppose was meant as a
farewell, he passed on. That was my introduction to Chief Yellow
Thunder, and the beginning of a friendship which lasted many years,
in fact, to the time of his death.
On a stream of water flowing through my father's farm and near
the point made memorable by Mrs. Kinzie in that most delightful book
"Wau-Bun," is an old-time camping ground of the Indians. On the
outside curve of this stream, on a slight elevation thickly covered with
trees, is where, on their journeys to and from Madison, where they went
for their annuity, they camped sometimes for days and often for weeks,
28 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
hunting, fishing, and some of the tribes begging, in which last mentioned
pastime, however, our Chief did not in the slightest degree participate.
Combined with the dignity of his bearing was an air of self-respect,
which enveloped him as a mantle. He was tall and well proportioned,
with a hand that was shapely and slender and a voice deep and clear,
devoid of the gutterals or sharpness which is characteristic of the voices
of many of these people.
He was not in the least affected by his visit to AVashington, which
was made about the year 1838. Such was not the ease however, with
his wife, who was greatly set up by her traveled experience. Apparently
with him it was a natural event, of which he talked freely : with her it
was greatness achieved: with him a part of the expected: with her one
more feather in her head-band, and ever after she demanded the greatest
deference from her people, as well as the title "I\Iadam Washington."
Whenever any of the tribe partook too freely of fire-water the old
chief ordered them tied and a guard set, but when this disgrace came
to his own dwelling, in the person of his wife, he took himself off, no
one knew whence or whither, until ([uiet and order were again restored
to his household.
I never saw him in paint or feathers. A small braid of hair near
the crown, into which a small black ribbon was woven, was all his head
ornament. Otherwise he wore his hair as did the white man, parted on
the left side and brushed to the right. His garments were veiy similar
to the white man's in fashion though not in texture, except that his
blanket was always a part of his apparel. He was a firm believer in
noble lineage, and rupudiated any and all the so-called "Chiefs," who
found their way to back doors, or in fact to any doors, to beg, and in
an apologetic manner told my father that his wife was a tribes-woman,
meaning not his equal, though always appearing kind and courteous to
her. Incidentally she was the hewer of wood and the drawer of water,
as well as the doer of all other menial tasks. His affair was to furnish
the game, hers to see that it was prepared, either for cooking or, if
peltries, stretched and drying.
Few there are living today who can tell of good deeds and courtesies
extended to them by this son of the wilderness, but many there were
who could during our long acquaintance with him. Many times he
cheered and sheltered lost and belated settlers, and when wishing to
return the value of some favor it was sent by the hand of his wife, who.
I grieve to say, often tried to bargain his generosity by the gain of some-
thing for herself. Once he engaged a settler to carry himself, wife, and
belongings to their home near Delton. The conveyance was a wagon
into whicli their outfit was piled, and among these she, of Wa.shington
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 29
fame, calmly seated herself. Not so the Chief. He sat beside the driver
erect and dignified and appeared not to see how unprincesslike was the
position she had assumed.
Always on approaching my father's house he gave some signal, per-
haps a few light taps on the porch or door and never did he enter with-
out permission and a word of welcome, something he was sure of from
all its inmates.
His instincts were gentle and had fortune placed him among the
' ' fittest ' ' he would readily have been recorded as one of nature 's noble-
men, a title, knowing him as I did, I cheerfully accord him.
As years came on apace, his visits to the old camping ground be-
came more rare and finally ceased altogether, followed in February,
1874, by the tidings of his death, sincerely mourned by many of the
early settlers as well as by his own people. I am glad to chronicle the
fact that a portrait of Yellow Thunder, done in oil, by the distinguished
artist, S. D. Coates, hangs in the gallery of the Wisconsin Historical
Society, with many others, whose names are prominently connected
with the history of Wisconsin.
Not very different from the white man's idea of Heaven is the
thought of the place, in the mind of "poor Lo" of his state of future
bliss, and truly he "sees his God in clouds and hears him in the wind,
and thinks, when taken to that blessed land his faithful dog shall bear
him company."
By the report submitted to the House of Representatives, Septem-
ber 17, 1850, it appears that about 900 of the Winuebagoes were forced
from the Fort Winnebago region soon after the signing of the 1837
treaty, while about 300 remained in the swamps, inaccessible to the two
regiments of United States troops looking for them. In 1846 a new
treaty was effected by which the Winnebagoes were to be moved about
500 miles north of their allotted lands in Iowa. Some 1,300 did so in
the summer of 1848, 400 lingering in Wisconsin and Iowa. In Febru-
ary, 1850, quite a band of them located between the Bad Axe and Black
rivers and became threatening and insolent; but they yielded to better
councils. Other removals followed.
Last Forced March of the Winnebagoes
When, in 1837, the Winnebagoes disposed of all their lands east of
the Mississippi to the United States, they stipulated that within eight
months they would move west of the great river. As many of them
delayed their departure under various pretenses, several forcible re-
movals were effected by the Government working through the United
30 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
States^ of America. The last of these enforced departures occurred two
days fiefore the Christmas of 1873. Early in the morning of that day
Captain S. A. Hunt and ex-Sheriff Pool crossed the old Wisconsin
River bridge at Portage, heading a detachment of United States troops.
The little expedition was bound for the Baraboo River, where, near
the Crawford bridge, a considerable number of "Winnebagoes had gath-
ered for a feast and an annual meeting.
Almost every lodge for forty miles around had its delegate. The
Winnebagoes (Bagoes, as they were called) had pooled their wigwams,
their feathers, their paint, their wampum, and were having a hilarious
time when their pow-wow was interrupted by the appearance of the
uninvited boys in blue. Of course the greatest consternation prevailed,
for the Indians knew at once that they must follow the bulk of their
tribe to the reservation in Nebraska. A parley followed, and as the
Bagoes refused to be persuaded by mildness, they were surrounded by
Captain Hunt's men and made prisoners to the number of nearly a
hundred.
With as little delay as possible the captives were arranged in march-
ing order and just before noon, with their families and all their festive
paraphernalia, sullenlj^ wound over the hill near the Catholic Church,
escorted by the United States troops. They were marched to the depot,
safely lodged in the cars, and a full supply of rations dealt out to them.
After thej' had been housed, Captain Hunt set about to inform him-
self whether any of his captives had become real estate owners, or had
done anything else to show that they had abandoned their tribal rela-
tions and were entitled to remain as citizens. Inquiry was made for
Yellow Thunder, Good Village, War Club, Snake Swallow, MeWima
and Pretty Man, but it was found that only two of them were among
the captives and they were allowed to depart. John Little John and
High Snake were taken with the more common Winnebagoes. Although
not legally entitled to remain, as their characters were quite warmly
upheld by a number of respectable citizens, they were informed that
they could return to Columbia county later, if they so desired. The
ponies and all the other "traps" belonging to the Indians were then
collected and loaded into the baggage cars, and at 6 o'clock the train
was under way for Sparta, IMonroe County, which was to be the point
of rendezvous for all the Winnebagoes gathered in by Captain Hunt,
who was the official government agent for the removal of members of
the tribe who still remained in Southern Wisconsin.
Sunday and Monday were busy days and nights for ex-Sheriff Pool,
his specialty being the collection of the scjuaws and families of the
Winnebago braves who had not accompanied their lords to the Baraboo
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 31
celebration. A writer of that time and event puts the matter thus:
"As an Indian dance is very like a white man's frolic in some of its
characteristics, it was not a matter of sui*prise to learn that a number of
braves were alone at this dance, while the squaws were doing the menial
work of housekeeping at home and attending to the papooses. Now
Big Jim was just one of that kind, and several others might be named,
but out of respect for their families we will not put their names in
print. The circumstances, however, made it necessary for Captain Hunt
to dispatch Mr. Pool and other messengers for their families, which
were at Briggsville (Marquette County, just above the Columbia line)
and other places. By Monday evening Mr. Pool had two or three dozen
of them congregated here, and on Tuesday evening they were forwarded
to Sparta." It would thus appear that the Christmas festivities of the
Winnebagoes were rather rudely disturbed in 1873. As we have seen,
their beloved and venerable chief, Yellow Thunder, remained in Colum-
bia County and died in the year following the last forcible removal of
his people.
As remarked by the late A. J. Turner, who has made such valuable
contributions to the history of Columbia County, "this region con-
tinues to be the abode of straggling bands of them, from whose camps
the descendants of De Korra, Yellow Thunder and Mi-ja-jin-a-ka
(Dixon) annually depart for the blueberry plains and cranberry marshes
to replenish their finances, to trap rats on the Neenah in season and
indulge in fire water out of season, but give no evidence of 'passing
away. ' Lo is with us to stay. ' '
The Payment of 1914
About the only chance now to see the remnant of the once powerful
Winnebago tribe resident in Columbia County is to be in Portage at
the time of an annuity payment. Fort Winnebago is no more and the
old Indian agency house is a farm building, but the hundred or so red
men, women and papooses hang around the banks of the city for twenty-
four or forty-eight hours after receiving their annuities. Probably the
last chance at the public crib there occurred at their payment of March,
1914.
Pending the permanent settlement with the Indians of the United
States an arbitrary allotment of $16,000 was granted to the Winne-
bagoes of the district including Columbia County. As there are 1,285
Indians altogether included in the allotment, $12.45 was paid to each
individual.
They came early in the morning, from all points of the compass.
32 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
and the main street of Portage was soon a little panorama of present-
day Indians. Groups of gray-haired Winuebagoes dressed like farmers;
middle-aged women with red and blue shawls wrapped around them,
sometimes bundling up a big faced stolid papoose; and stocky, bow-
legged, black haired young men and bright girls with glistening braids
down their backs, dressed neatly and becomingly, hung around chilly
corners, apparently doing next to nothing with solid satisfaction. Occa-
sionally a couple of young sports would pass along the street, with up-
to-date shoes, clothes, stick pins and all, and glance superciliously at
the loungers, as they picked up their heels with the sprightliness of their
young white brothers bound on countless pressing errands of pleasure
and profit. "Boward evening and far into the next day, the Bagoes were
still gloating over the attractions of Portage, as if very loth to turn
their steps toward their eountiy homes; but they finally commenced to
break ranks. The squaws came out of bakeries loaded with bread and
cakes and looked up and down the street — evidently for the heads of
families. By twos and threes the women and men straggled away to-
ward the outskirts ; sometimes a family intact, but more often paired off
and segregated according to sex — men with men and women with
women. It may be that this will be the last gathering of the Columbia
County Winuebagoes. If it is, we wish them good luck, for, ou the
whole, they have been a credit to their race, and their leaders have
furnished our white citizens with not a few examples of gentleness,
courtesy and sustained strength of character which might well be emu-
lated by all, irrespective of color or human family.
CHAPTER III
FIRST WHITE VISITORS
NiCOLET AND COLUMBIA COUNTY "WhERE WaS THE MaSCOUTEN VIL-
LAGE?— JoLiET AND Marquette Pass the Portage — Memorlil at
THE Place of Crossing — Hennepin at the Portage — LaSalle and
Jonathan Carver — Visits op United States Soldiers — Traders
AND Carriers.
Was Jean Nieolet, the great French explorer, the first white visitor
to Cohimbia County, in 1643 ? Page upon page has been written on this
question, most of tlie controversy raging around a sentence in the
"Jesuit Relations" of 1640, which reads: "The Sieur Nieolet, who has
penetrated the furthest into these so remote countries, assured me that
if he had sailed three days further upon a large river which issues from
this lake he would have reached the sea." The main point of the dis-
pute hovers over the word ' ' sea ; " as to whether it means the large body
of water we now know as the Wisconsin, or the Father of Waters, the
Nicolet and Columbia County
The weight of doubt is against the probability that Nicolet reached
the Mississippi, but those who believe that he reached the portage be-
tween the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in Columbia County, reason along
the lines of that good authority and earnest man, the late A. J. Turner.
In his "Family Tree of Columbia County" he says: "It is morally
certain that he (Nicolet) did not depart from the Mascouten village,
wherever located, to make an overland trip to some point on the
Mississippi, when a much easier trip by water was at hand, which would
have taken him through Columbia County. But even if he did make
an overland journey, the trail from the Mascouten village would have
taken him through Columbia County, for a well-defined Indian
trail on the west bank of the Fox River to the Four Lakes region has
34 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
been knowu to exist for more than a century, and it has not been wholly
obliterated to this day (written in 1904), I am assured by those who
knew it well half a century^ ago."
Where Was the Mascouten Yill.vge?
Yolumes have been written over the location of the Mascouten vil-
lage visited by Father Dablon in 1670, and the one at which Father
AUouez established a mission in May, 1672. It is reasonably certain
that the mission was fovmded in the large village mentioned in the
"Relations" of 1670-1, and placed on a map published in that volume
as three leagues from the portage. In June of the following year (1673)
Joliet and Marquette visited the Allouez mission en route to the Wis-
consin and the Mississippi. Various historians have placed the village
all the way from northern Winnebago County to northern Columbia
County, one of the latest investigators being firm in his conviction
that it was near Governor's Bend, town of Fort Winnebago, on the
west bank of the Fox River, on Section 16 — three French leagues from
the portage, as Marquette had written.
At least, a discovery of September, 1903, seems to point to the fact
that this locality had been visited by traders or Jesuits. At the time
mentioned, James Kirwin, of Portage, while digging along the banks
of the river, uncovered a sun dial similar to the one found near Green
Bay in the previous year and which Secretary Reuben G. Thwaites, of
the Wisconsin State Historical Society, says "may have belonged to
some fur trader or missionary."
"So it seems to me," says Turner, "the most reasonable theory that
the Maseoutens village first visited by Dablon in 1670 was but one of
the smaller outlying ones, and that the main village where Allouez
established a mission two years later, which was visited by Marquette
in 1673, was where he located it, three leagues from the portage.
"If we may conclude then that such was the fact, we find there
every condition referred to by Marquette. He says: 'As we ap-
proached the Mashkoutons, the Fire Nation, I had the curiosity to drink
the mineral waters of the river which is not far from the town. ' Turn-
ing aside from his ascent of the Fox he would, by running up the Nee-
nah creek a little more than half a mile come to a famous spring on
section 8 near Corning Station. Continuing his narrative Marquette
wrote: 'I also took time to examine an herb, the virtue of which an
Indian who po.ssessed the secret had, with many ceremonies, made
known to Father Alloues. Its root is useful against the bite of serpents,
the Almighty having been pleased to give this remedy against a poison
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
1303716
1
r
J.^
fi
~w^^^
m
Ki.&^-^
%
^ k.f'
s^:.
4- ^
^^^.:^ k&i-»,^
L^
^ -*-' '> W
m
JIarquette Voyaging Toward the Mississippi
36 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
very common in this country. * * » i put some into my canoe to
examine it at leisure whUe we went on our way toward Maskoutons
where we arrived on the 7th of June. Here we are then at Maskoutons. '
"The most famous spring in the Fox River vaUey, of which I have
any knowledge — for I assume that the 'mineral waters of the river' of
which Marquette speaks, are those of a spring or a rivulet discharged
from a spring — is that above alluded to, near Corning Station. As it
flows across the morass a few rods to discharge into the Neenah the
medical herb, Gilliana Trifoliata, or Indian Snake Root, Marquette re-
fers to as an antedote for the snake bite, will be found in abundance.
' ' It would seem that every traveler, who crossed the portage in early
times, did so with an awe of the serpent, for I have never read one of
their accounts in which the numerous serpens a sonnettes they saw
were not abundantly referred to, although I believe none of them ever
recorded any unhappy experiences with them beyond their disagreeable
presence. At all events Marquette provided himself with the herb, as
most fishermen do with something when they go into dangerous places
inhabited bj- the tenants of the pool. So, fortified with herbs, ^Marquette
returned to his canoe and proceeded on his way to the village 'not far
away.' Reaching it he exclaims 'Here we are then, at Maskoutons.'
There is no mention made of having to walk 'a short league' to reach
it, as Dablon had, so one would conclude that it was situated on the
immediate banks of the river.
' ' The fact is not to be overlooked that the village may have been on
the Neenah instead of the Fox, for many of the earliest maps show the
Neenah as a portion of the Fox, and the latter river from the .junction
of the two streams was considered as an affluent of the Fox, instead of
a portion of it."
JoLiET AND Marquette Pass the Portage
The arrival of Joliet, Marquette and his party at the village of the
Ma.scoutens was on the 7th of June, 1673, and their departure on the
]Oth. Joliet represented the intendant of Canada and the king; Mar-
quette, the Jesuits and the church. To the follower of St. Ignatius fell
the task of recording secretary for the expedition. "We knew," vtTote
Father Marquette, "that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens, a
river entering into the Mississippi; we knew, too, that the point of the
compass we were to hold to reach it was west-southwest, but the way is
so cut up by marshes and little lakes that it is easy to go astray, espe-
cially as the river leading to it is so covered with wild oats that you
can hardly discover the channel. Hence we had good need of our two
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 37
Miami guides, who led us safely to a portage of 2,700 paces
and helped us to transport our canoes to enter this river, after
which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country in the
hands of Providence.
"We now leave the waters which flow to Quebec, a distance of from
four or five hundred leagues, to follow those which will henceforth
lead us into strange lands. Before embarking we all began together a
new devotion to the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, which we practiced
every day, addressing her particular prayers, to put under her protec-
tion both our persons and the success of our voyage. Then, after having
encouraged one another we got into our canoes. The river on which
we embarked is called Meskousing; it is very broad, with a sandy bot-
tom forming many shallows which render navigation very difficult. It
is full of vine-clad islets. On the banks appear fertile lands, diversified
with wood, prairie and hill. Here you find oaks, walnut, whitewood,
and another kind of tree with branches armed with thorns. We saw no
small game or fish, but deer and moose in considerable numbers."
Several days after leaving the village of the Mascoutens, Joliet and
Martjuette, with their Indian guides, crossed the portage between the
Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and about June 14. 1673, launched their
canoes on the broad bosom of the Wisconsin, and started on their his-
toric voyage which resulted in New France and the vast expansion of
interior America.
Memorial at the Place of Crossing
Waubun Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, which has
achieved so much historically, commemorated the event May 9, 1902,
by planting trees at either end of the portage, or Wauona. But neither
the Marquette Tree nor the Joliet Tree seemed to thrive, and three
years later the chapter presented the city of Portage with a fitting me-
morial of red granite, rockfaced except on one side where this inscrip-
tion appears: "This tablet marks the place near which Jacques Mar-
quette and Louis Joliet entered the Wisconsin river, June 14, 1673.
Erected by Waubun Chapter, D. A. R., 1905f ' The monument stands at
the intersection of Bronson and Wisconsin streets, in the southern part
of the city of Portage.
The memorial to Marquette and Joliet was unveiled on the 19th of
October, the anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis, always ob-
served by the Daughters of the American Revolution with significant
exercises of some kind. Rain interfered with out-of-door exercises,
but the court room was filled with local and state celebrities, and from
38 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the addresses of a number of eloquent speakers we select the following
striking words uttered by Dr. Frederick J. Turner, then of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin ; ' ' not only did religion enter the Mississippi valley
with the advent of Marquette but in the presence of Joliet at Portage
the power of France, the greatest nation of the time under Louis
XIV, the great monarch, passed into the Mississippi valley. Already in
1671 at Sault Ste. ilarie, France had laid claim to rights over the river
system of which the Indians had made report, but which as yet had
not been explored. But now in the person of these daring wanderers
France justified her claims to one of the greatest and richest regions
of the globe — a domain for which in later years England, Spain and
the United States contended by diplomacy and by arms, until another
Frenchman, the antithesis of Marquette, the great Napoleon, gave the
Louisiana territory to the United States
"Joliet was the' leader of the expedition, the bearer of the 'sword of
the flesh,' but Marquette, gentle, courageous, enduring, the bearer of
the 'sword of the spirit,' was its hero. With the energy of the man of
action he had the ideals of the poet, the devotion of the saint. He per-
sonified the highest type of the discoverer, the man who carries' into
the darkness of the wilderness, into the utter night of savagery, the light
of spiritual civilization. Loyalty to duty, courage, aspiration for the
highest things, were ilarquette 's. Over two hundred years have passed
since the frail priest trod this portage path. Six generations of men
have passed here since then. But in all these years no man at Portage
has struck a higher note of devotion and loftier ideals than the first
man who trod the ground where now we stand.
"Wisconsin has fittingly honored his memory by placing his statue
in the national capital. He was one of the choice spirits driven by a
divine discontent with the narrow confines of things about him, to
widen the horizon, to push back the unknown, to add new realms for
the human spirit. And while he followed the gleam into empires
hitherto unknown, he left U7idone no humble service to the lowliest of
the savages to whom he ministered. Burning as was his ambition to
find new lands, his consecration to the daily duty was no less ardent.
"When we mark this spot we honor a man as well as an event. We
testify our veneration for those whose lives spell service to their fellow
Henvepin at the Port.vge
Not many years elapsed after the visit of Joliet, Marquette and
their companions to the portage, before the narrow neck of land be-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 39
tween the Fox and Wisconsin rivers was again crossed by civilized man.
In 1680 Louis Hennepin, a Recollet friar, and his party, as a detail
from La Salle's expedition to the Illinois, reached the portage. He
was on his way from the upper Mississippi to the Great Lakes, passing
up the Wisconsin and down the Pox River, on his way to Green Bay,
and speaks of it thus: "After we had rowed about seventy leagues
upon the river Ouisconsin, we came to the place where we were forced
to carry our canoe for half a league. We lay at this place all night and
left marks of our having been there by the crosses which we cut in the
bark of the trees. Next day, having carried our canoe and the rest of
our little equipage over this piece of land, we entered upon a river which
makes almost as many meanders as that of the Illinois at its rise."
La S.UjLE and Jonathan Carver
La Salle and his party made the portage in 1683, on his way to
the Mississippi, and in 1766, Jonathan Carver, a noted English traveler,
passed it from the East on his way to St. Anthony Palls, on the far
upper Mississippi. After describing the Fox River, Winnebago Lake,
and all the Indian tribes along his course, he says: "The carrying
place between the Pox and Ouisconsin rivers is in breadth not more
than a mile and three-quarters, though in some maps it is so delineated
as to appear to be ten miles. Near one-half of the way between the
rivers is a morass overgrown with a kind of long grass; the rest of it,
a plain with some few oak and pine trees growing thereon. I observed
here a great number of rattle snakes. I observed that the main body
of the Pox River came from the southwest, that of the Ouisconsin from
the northeast; and also that some of the small branches of the two
rivers, in descending into them, doubled within a few feet of each
other, a little to the south of the carrying place. That two such rivers
should take their rise so near each other and, after running such differ-
ent courses, empty themselves into the sea at a distance so amazing is
an instance scarcely to be met in the extensive continent of North
America."
Visits of United States Soldiers
Major S. H. Long paid the portage a visit both in 1817 and 1823,
being the head of a Government expedition of exploration and discovery.
In 1819 the Fifth Regiment of United States Infantry made the portage
on its way from Port Howard to Port Crawford, and its commander,
Capt. Henry Whiting, says in one of his reports: "The portage
40 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers is about 2,500 yards; the road
runs over a marshy prairie. There is a Frenchman (Francis Le Roy)
residing on the rising ground between the rivers. He keeps the proper
transportation for boats and baggage. The limestone bluffs and high-
lands begin on the Wisconsin about eight miles below the portage."
In 1826 a flotilla of thirty-five boats carrying the Third United
States Infantry from Green Bay to St. Louis, passed the portage, and
in the following year General Cass came that way during his voyage
of investigation to ascertain the feeling among the Winnebagoes toward
the United States Government.
Traders and Carriers
Enterprising and well-knowTi fur traders from Green Bay were
also familiar with the portage and with the Fox and Wisconsin rivers
in Columbia County. But long before, even prior to the opening of
the nineteenth century, a number of French Canadians and half-breeds,
with a few of fairly pure Italian blood, located at or near the portage
to assist in the land transportation between the two rivers, to supply
provisions to travelers or to trade with anybody who came along. Some
of them lived in the vicinity for years; others were mere adventurers
and rovers.
The first to appear on the ground M^ere Laurant Barth and family,
French Canadians who had passed the winter of 1792-3 on the St.
Croix River of Northern Wisconsin. On his return to Canada, in the
spring of 1793, Barth stopped at the portage and obtained permission
from the Indians to transport goods at the carrjang place. On
his arrival he built a cabin there, the first to be erected by a white man
in Columbia County. Its location was on the low land between the
Fox and Wisconsin, probably within the present limits of Portage
southeast of the canal. In the following year to avoid the high-water
floods he removed to higher ground and continued the transportation
business in a small way for a number of years.
Soon after the arrival of Barth, came the famous old Indian chief,
De Korra, who founded a village for his Winnebago followers about
eight miles above the portage on the east side of the Fox River, in what
is now Section 10, town of Fort Winnebago. Its side afterwards be-
came known as Waggoner's Bluff.
In 1798 came John Lecuyer, a brother-in-law of De Korra, who
improved upon Barth 's declining enterprise. The pioneer transporter
of boats and goods had used but a single horse and cart ; but, after ob-
taining authority from the Winnebagoes, Lecuyer bought several teams
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 41
and wagons. About 1803 the latter bought, as he supposed, all of Earth's
rights in the business, but afterward found that they covered only the
west end of the portage. After some trouble with Earth's sons who
held the east end to the route, Leeuyer died in 1810, and his widow
continued the business until the War of 1812. Her son-in-law, Francis
Le Roy, of Green Bay, then assumed the enterprise, and about the same
time the elder Earth died, he having removed to Prairie du Chien.
As we have seen, Le Roy was still at the portage in 1819, and there
he continued in business for several years longer. When the Fifth
U. S. Infantry called upon his transportation outfit in that year, he
was charging $10 for taking a boat from one river to another, and
fifty cents per one hundred pounds of goods.
During the years of which we have been writing the portage was
a point of consequence as a trading post. Earth kept no goods for sale
to the Indians after he had disposed of the remnant of stock which he
brought from the St. Croix, but Lecuj'er always kept a considerable
variety.
But although it had been evident for many years that sometime
there was to be a growing and stable settlement at the portage, it was
not until the building of Fort Winnebago and the assurance of safe
residence in the locality that real settlers — men of stable character and
of constructive value to the community — commenced to look upon
Columbia County as a fit abiding place for white people and their
families.
CHAPTER IV
INDIAN WARS AND THE FORT
The "Winnebago Uprising — The Pursuit of Red Bird — Voluntary
Surrender op the Chief — The Magnificent Red Bird — Begs Not
TO BE Put in Irons — Red Bird Gives Away His Life — De Korea
AS Red Bird's Hostage — Fort Winnebago and "A Party Named
Astor" — The Coming op Major Twiggs — Ground Broken for
THE Fort — Completed — Amusements at the Post— Noted Men
AND Women at the Fort — Lieutenant and Mrs. Van Cleve —
Henry Merrell — Evacuated — Final Dissolution.
The Winnebago and Black Hawk wars were of much importance to
Columbia County, albeit neither murders nor military engagements
occurred within its boundaries. Each covered but a few months of
time, but the Winnebago uprising under Red Bird called forcible atten-
tion to the exposed condition of settlers and travelers in Southern Wis-
consin along the Fox and Wisconsin valleys and hastened the con-
struction of the fort at the portage, while the hostilities of the Sacs
under Black Hawk raged all around Winnebago and so threatened
the security of Southern Wisconsin that the national government felt
obliged to crush all Indian pretensions forever. The final result of
Black Hawk's defeat was apparent within a few years by the session of
all the lands east of the Mississippi held by the really dangerous tribes.
Within a few months after Black Hawk was crushed at the battle of
the Bad Axe, in August, 1832, the General Government commenced its
surveys of Wisconsin lands in earnest.
The lands lying east and south of the Wisconsin River were sur-
veyed in 1832, 1833 and 1834, and were placed in two land districts —
the offices were at Green Bay and Mineral Point, Columbia County fall-
ing within the Green Bay District. Public sales of the surveyed lands
were held in 1835, the first land entries for this section of the state being
made in the following year.
42
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 43
The Winnebago Uprising
As stated, the result of the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars to
Columbia County was to make it habitable to pioneers of settled and
industrious habits. Yet there are certain phases of both uprisings
which are of intense interest. In the case of the Winnebago uprising
of June-August, 1827, the most dramatic episode, the surrender of Red
Bird to Maj. William Whistler, who commanded the Government
troops at the portage, belongs to the history of Columbia County. The
conflicts between the Chippewas and Winnebagoes in the early part of
the year, and the murder of the Gagniers, father and child, in June,
by Red Bird, We-Kaw and another Indian, occurred in the Mississippi
Valley, the latter near Prairie du Chien. The attack, a little later, led
by Red Bird and his drunken band upon the boats returning from Fort
Snelling, whither they had taken goods and provisions for the gar-
rison, occi:rred at the mouth of the Bad Axe River in Vernon County,
not far from Black Hawk's defeat five years afterward.
Great was the alarm at Prairie du Chien when the bullet-riddled
boats arrived, two dead and several badly wounded being stowed away
out of sight and protected from the desecration of the savages. An
express was immediately sent to Galena and another to Fort Snelling,
while messengers were dispatched to General Atkinson at Jefferson
Barracks (St. Louis) and to Major Whistler, at Fort Howard. The
people near Prairie du Chien left their houses and farms and crowded
panic-stricken into the dilapidated fort.
The Pursuit of Red Bird
After committing the murders and the attack upon the transports.
Red Bird and the other Indians implicated fled up the Wisconsin
River, and a mounted force composed of volunteers from Galena and
troops which had been dispatched from Fort Snelling scoured both
sides of that stream to the portage. But they caught no sight of Red
Bird or his party.
Several weeks later General Atkinson got into communication with
Major Whistler, who was ordered to proceed up the Fox to the portage
with all the troops at his disposal. He arrived on the 1st of Sept.,
1827, and General Atkinson arrived soon after. Major Whistler had
not been long at the portage before an Indian came to his tent and
informed him that at about three o'clock of the next day "they will
come in." In reply to the question, "Who will come in?" he said
"Red Bird and We-Kaw." After making this answer, he retired by
44 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the way he came. At 3 o'clock the same day another Indian came,
took position in nearly the same place and, in reply to questions, gave
the same solemn promise. At sundown a third came, confirming what
the two had said, adding that he had, to secure that object, given to the
families of the murderers nearly all his property,
A company of Oneida and Stockbridge Indians accompanied Major
Whistler's troops, and were encamped on the bluff opposite the portage
where Fort Winnebago was subseriuently built to await the arrival of
General Atkinson. In the meantime the Winnebagoes to the number
of several hundred, were encamped on the ridge where Cook street
now runs, west of the Catholic Church. The Winnebagoes had heard
of the General's approach before it was known to Major Whistler.
Voluntary Surrender op the Chief
On the day following the visit of the three mysterious Indians to
Major Whistler, a great stir was noticed in the Winnebago camp, and
by the aid of a field glass the troops discovered a party of about thirty
warriors on an eminence in the distance. The remainder of the story is
told by Col. Thomas L. McKenney, who was present with Major Whists
ler's command at the surrender of Red Bird: "At about noon of
the day following, there was seen descending a mound on the portage
(Ketchum's Point) a body of Indians — some were mounted and some
were on foot. By the aid of a glass we could discern the direction to be
toward our position, and that three flags were borne by them — two, one
in front and one in the rear, were American, and one in the center was
white. They bore no arms. * * * In the course of half an hour
they had approached within a short distance of the crossing of the
Fox River, when on a sudden we heard a singing. Those who were
familiar with the air said: 'It is a death song!' Wlien still nearer,
some present who knew him said : ' It is Red Bird singing his death
song I' The moment a halt was made on the margin of the river, pre-
paratory to crossing, two scalp yells were heard. The Menominees
and other Indians who had accompanied vis, were lying carelessly
about upon the ground regardless of what was going on, but when the
scalp yells were uttered they sprang as one man to their feet, seized
their rifles and were ready for battle. They were at no loss to know
that the yells were 'scalp yells' but they had not heard with sufficient
accuracy to decide whether they indicated scalps to be taken or given,
but doubtless inferred the first.
"Barges were sent across to receive, and an escort of military to
accompany them within our lines. The white flag which had been seen
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 45
in the distance was borne by Red Bird. * * * And now the advance
of Indians had reached half up the ascent of the bluff, on which was
our encampment, and order being called, Car-a-mau-nee spoke, saying:
'They are here — like braves they have come in — treat them as braves —
do not put them in irons.' * * * The military had been previously
drawn out in line. The Menominee and Oneida Indians were in groups
iipon their haunches on our left flank. On the right was the band of
music, a little in advance of the line. In front of the center, at about
ten paces distant, were the murderers. On their right and left were
those who had accompanied them, forming a semi-circle; the magnifi-
cent Red Bird, and the miserable We-Kau, a little in advance of the
center.
The Magnificent Red Bird
"All eyes were fixed upon Red Bird; and well they might be, for
of all the Indians I ever saw he was, without exception, the most perfect
in form, in face and gesture. In height he was about six feet, straight,
but without restraint. His proportions were those of the most exact
symmetry, and these embraced the entire man, from his head to his
feet. His very fingers were models of beauty. I never beheld a face
that was so full of all the ennobling and at the same time the most
winning expression. It were impossible to combine with such a face
the thought that he who wore it could be a murderer. It appeared to
be a compound of grace and dignity, of firmness and decision, all temp-
pered with mildness and mercy. During my attempted analysis of this
face I could not but ask myself, 'Can this man be a murderer? Is he
the same who shot, scalped and cut the throat of Gagnier?' His head,
too — sure, no head was ever so well formed. There was no ornament-
ing of the hair, after the Indian fashion; no clubbing it up in blocks
and rollers of lead on bands of silver; no loose or straggling parts, but
it was cut after the best fashion of the most civilized. His face was
painted, one side red, the other intermixed with green and white.
Around his necTj he wore a collar of blue wampum, beautifully mixed
with white, which was sewn on to a piece of cloth, the width of the
wampum being about two inches, whilst the claws of the panther or
wildcat, distant from each other about a quarter of an inch, with their
points inward, formed the rim of the collar. Around his neck were
hanging strands of wampum of various lengths, the circles enlarging
as they descended. He was clothed in a Yankton dress — new and
beautiful. The material was of dressed elk or deer skin, almost a pure
white. It consisted of a jacket, the sleeves being cut to fit his finely
46 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
formed arm, and so as to leave outside of the seam that ran from the
shoulder, back of the arm and along over the elbow, about six inches
of the material, one-half of which was cut into fringe; the same kind
of fringe ornamenting the collar of the jacket, its sides, bosom and
termination, which was not circular, but cut into points, and which also
ran down the seams of the leggins, these being made of the same
material. Blue beads were employed to vary and enrich the fringe of
the leggins. On his feet he wore moccasins.
"A piece of scarlet cloth about a quarter of a yard deep, and double
that width, a slit being cut in its middle, so as to admit the passing
through of his head, rested, one-half on his breast and beneath the
necklace of wampum and claws, and the other on his back. On one
shoulder and near his breast, was a beautifully ornamented feather,
nearly white; and about opposite, on the other shoulder, was anoth^
feather, nearly black, near which were two pieces of thin shaven wood
in the form of a compass, a little open, each about six inches long,
richly -wTapped around with porcupine's quills, dyed yellow, red and
blue. On the tip of one shoulder was a tuft of horse hair, dyed red, and
a little curled, mixed up with ornaments. Across the breast, in a
diagonal position, and bound tight to it, was his war pipe, at least
three feet long, brightly ornamented with dyed horse hair, the feathers
and bills of birds. In one of his hands he held the white tlag, and in
the other the calumet, or pipe of peace.
"There he stood — not a muscle moved, nor was the expression of his
face changed a particle. He appeared to be conscious that, according
to Indian law, and measuring the deed he had committed by the injus-
tice and wrongs and cruelties of the white man, he had done no wrong.
The light which had .shown in upon his bosom from the law, which
demanded an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, so harmonized
with his conscience as to secure its repose.
"As to death, he had been taught to despise it, confiding in that
Heaven, that Spirit-land, where the game is always plenty, the forests
always green, the waters always transparent, tranquil and pure, and
where no evil thing is permitted to enter. He was therefore prepared
to receive the blow that should consign his body to the ground and
send his spirit to that blissful region to mingle with his fathers who had
gone before him. He and We-Kau were told to sit down. His motions,
as he seated himself, were no less graceful and captivating than when
he stood or walked. At this moment the band struck up Pleyel's hymn.
Everything was still. It was, indeed, a moment of intense interest to
all. The Red Bird turned his eyes toward the band ; the notes operated
upon his feelings in such a way as to produce in his countenance a
HISTOKY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 47
corresponding pensiveness. The music having ceased, he took up his
pouch (which I forgot to say was a handsomely ornamented otter skin,
that hung on his left side,) and taking from it some kinnickinnic and
tobacco, cut the latter in the palm of his hand, after the Indian fashion,
then rubbing the two together filled the bowl of his calumet, struck fire
into a bit of punk with his flint and steel, and lighted it and smoked.
All the motions employed in this ceremony were no less harmonious
and appropriate than had characterized his other movements. He sat
after the Turkish fashion with his legs crossed.
"If you think there was anything of affectation in all this, you are
mistaken. There was just the manner, and appearance, and look, you
would expect to see in a nobly built man of the highest order of intelli-
gence, and who had been taught all the graces of motion, and then
escorted by his armies to a throne, where the diadem was to be placed
upon his head. * * * All sat except the speakers. The substance
of what they said was:
Begs Not to be Put in Irons
"We were required to bring in the murderers. They had no power
over any, except two — the third had gone away, and these had volun-
tarily agreed to come in and give themselves up. As their friends,
they had come with them. They hoped their white brothers would
agree to accept the horses of which there were perhaps twenty, the
meaning of which was, to take them in commutation for the lives of
their two friends. They asked kind treatment for their friends, and
earnestly besought that they might not be put in irons, and concluded
by asking for a little tobacco and something to eat. They were
answered, and told, in substance, that they had done well thus to come
in. By having done so, they had turned away our guns, and saved
their people. They were admonished against placing themselves in a
like situation in the future ; and advised, when they were aggrieved,
not to resort to violence, but to go to their agent, who would inform
their Great Father of their complaints, and he would redress their
grievance that their friends shoiild be treated kindly, and tried
by the same laws by which their Great Father's white children were
tried; that for the present, Red Bird and We-Kau should not be put
in irons; that they should all have something to eat and tobacco to
smoke. We advised them to warn their people against killing ours;
and endeavored also to impress them with a proper notion of their own
weakness, and the extent of our power, etc.
48 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Red Bird Gives Away His Life
"Having heard this, the Red Bird stood up, the commanding ofiSeer,
Maj. Whistler, a few paces in front of the center of the line, facing
him. After a moment's pause, and a quick survey of the troops, and
with a composed observation of his people, he said, looking at Maj.
Wliistler :
" 'I am ready.' Then advancing a step or two, he paused, saying:
'I do not wish to be put in irons. Let me be free. I have given away
my life — it is gone : ' stooping and taking some dust between his finger
and thumb, and blowing it away, 'like that.' eyeing the dust as it fell
and vanished from his sight: then adding: 'I would not take it back.
It is gone.'
"Having thus spoken, he threw his hands behind him, to indicate
that he was leaving all things behind him, and marched briskly up to
Ma.j. Whistler, breast to bi'east. A platoon was wheeled backwards
from the center of the line, when Maj. Whistler stepping aside, the
Red Bird and We Kau marched through the line, in charge of a file
of men, to a tent that had been provided for them in the rear. " '
Colonel Childs, in his "Recollections of Wisconsin," thus describes
Red Bird as he saw him on the same occasion : "He was dressed in fine
style, having on a suit made of neatly-dried buffalo skins perfectly
white, and as soft as a kid glove; and on each shoulder, to supply the
place of an epaulette, was fastened a preserved red bird. Hence the
name of this noted chief. Red Bird."
The next spring after Red Bird's surrender, the noble looking chief,
his miserablei looking accomplice, We-Kau, and another Winnebago
prisoner were tried at Prairie du Chien by Judge J. D. Doty, who went
from Green Bay by way of the portage. They were convicted and sen-
tenced to be hung, December 26, 1828. but Red Bird died soon after-
ward in prison, and a deputation of the tribe went to Washington to
solicit pardon for the others. It is believed by many that the proud
chief committed suicide. His companions of more common clay sur-
vived and were pardoned by President Adams on the implied condition
that the tribe would cede the lead lands of Southwestern Wisconsin
then in possession of the miners. To this the Winnebagoes agreed.
]Mme. Gagnier was compensated for the loss of her husband and
the mutilation of her infant. At the treaty held at Prairie du Chien
in 1829, provision was made for two sections of land to her and her two
children, and the Government also agreed to pay her the sum of $50
per annum for fifteen years, to be deducted from the annuity of the
Winnebago Indians.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUiVTY 49
De Korea as Red Bird's Hostage
In connecting the Winnebago uprising and, Red Bird with the his-
tory of Columbia County, the following story told of our old friend,
De Korra, must not be omitted: It is said that soon after the attack
upon the boats the militia of Prairie du Chien seized him as a hostage
for the surrender of Red Bird. De Korra was informed that unless
the latter should be placed in the hands of the Government within a
specified time he would have to die in his place. A young Winnebago
was sent to inform the tribe of the state of affairs, and several days
elapsed without bringing any tidings of the whereabouts of the mur-
derers. The day for the supposed vicarious execution was near at
hand, when De Korra asked permission of Colonel Snelling to bathe in
the river, as was his custom to improve his uncertain health. The
commanding officer told him he might have that liberty and any other
reasonable privilege, if he would promise on the honor of a chief that
he would not leave town. De Korra thereupon gave his hand to the
colonel, thanking him for his friendly act, and then solemnly raising
his arms aloft promised to remain, adding that if he had a hundred
lives he would sooner lose them all than break his word. He was then
set at liberty. Many advised him to escape, but he steadfastly refused,
complacently remaining at Prairie du Chien until the day before that
named for his execution. Still nothing was heard promising the appre-
hension of the murderers. On what he had every reason to believe was
the day of his doom. General Atkinson arrived with his troops from
Jefferson Barracks, the order for the execution was countermanded
and De Korra was permitted to return to his home above the portage.
Fort Winnebago and "A Party Named Astor"
It is probable that John Jacob Aster had considerable to do with
the building of Fort Winnebago. As before stated, a number of French
Canadians had been engaged in trading and transportation at the
portage for twenty years prior to the War of 1812. After hostilities
with Great Britain had ceased the American Fur Company commenced
to extend its operations, under the vigorous push of Mr. Astor, into
the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin. A trading post had been estab-
lished at the portage for a number of years previous to the Winne-
bago uprising, and Pierre Paucjuette, the energetic young man from
St. Louis, who had already become widely known in the primitive
activities of the region, was selected by Mr. Astor as the representa-
tive of the American Fur Company at that point. About the time that
50
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
ground was broken for the fort, in 1828, a visitor at the portage wrote
to an Eastern correspondent that "a party named Astor had influenced
the Government to establish a military post here to protect his trading
post from the Indians."'
The Coming of JIajor Twiggs
Although Astor was then the richest man in America, it is not
believed that his interests cut an overpowering figure in the selection
of this locality as a military post. It was long recognized that the
portage was one of the most important keys to the control of the
Fort Winnebago (Near the Portage) in 1834
Winnebagoes, and steps were taken accordingly. Under orders from
the war department, Maj. David E. Twiggs started from Fort Howard
with three companies and arrived at the portage September 7, 1828.
The site selected for the fort was occupied by Francis LeRoy, the
trader and carrier, and was on the east side of the Fox River immedi-
ately opposite the portage. At the east end of the portage were a log
house and barn, occupied by Pauquette. The other buildings com-
prised the Indian agency fti which resided John H. Kinzie and his
wife, and two huts occupied by half-breeds.
At the west end of the portage were the three houses in which lived
Perish Grignon and his wife (sister of De Korra), Lavoin Grignon, the
son, and Leeuyer, the trader. These were the habitations at and near
the portage when Major Twiggs and his three companies of soldiers
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 51
founded old Fort Winnebago. Among his first lieutenants was one
Jefferson Davis, and among his captains William S. Harney, after-
ward so famous as an Indian fighter in Florida.
Ground Broken for the Fort
The soldiers came amply provided with provisions and prepared for
winter. Major Twiggs, in the capacity of "boss carpenter," erected
temporary barracks of tamarack logs, obtained principally from Pine
Island in the Wisconsin, about six miles west of the portage. Active
operations for the erection of the fort were soon in progress. To Lieu-
tenant Davis and his party was assigned the task of going up the Yel-
low River, a tributary of the Wisconsin, some fifty miles distant, and
getting out the pine logs. These were rafted down in the spring,
hauled across the portage with teams and wrought into proper form
with whipsaw, broadax and adz. Another party was detailed to get
out the needed stone from Stone Quarry Hill, the most abundant source
of supply from which Portage City builders have ever drawn. The
brick necessary for the chimneys were burned just opposite the "nar-
rows." and near the present Wisconsin River bridge. The locality is
still known as Armstrong's brick yard. Lime was burned near Pau-
quette farm on the Bellefountain.
Says Turner in his story of "Old Fort Winnebago:" "An enor-
mous well was sunk in the very center of the scjuare, around which the
usual fort buildings were constructed, and it has continued from its
never-failing fountain to contribute to the comfort of the thirsty pil-
grim until the present day; but a modern windmill now does the duty
that was formerly so tedious and irksome. So all hands were busy.
Officers, who in after years became distinguished in the war with
Mexico, the Florida and other Indian wars, and the great conflict
involving the perpetuity of our Union, planned and wrought with the
common soldier in bringing into form the fort and the necessary accom-
panying buildings. Stable, hospitals, bakeries, blacksmith shops, com-
missary buildings, ice cellars (which were filled from Swan Lake),
sutlers' stores, magazines, laundries, bathhouses, etc., rapidly sprang
into existence. Gardens were also cleared, and old soldiers have
recorded the fact that they could not be excelled in the matter of the
quantity and quality of the vegetables produced.
"In the regular course of military movements, some of the com-
panies first doing duty here were transferred to different posts, and
their places were taken by others : and so it happened that many whose
names were enrolled on the scroll of fame in after years, were initiated
52 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
into the science of war at Fort Winnebago. Perhaps the most promi-
nent of them all was Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, the subaltern of Capt.
William S. Harney. To his honor, be it said, his sei*viees at Fort Win-
nebago were highly creditable. I have heard it remarked by those who
knew him here, that he had no liking for the amusements to which offi-
cers, as well as private soldiers, resort to relieve the tedium of camp
life; but that he w-as ever engaged, when not in active service, in some
commendable occupation. His services in the lumber camps on the
Yellow River, and his successful mission in bringing down fleets of
lumber through the Dells of the Wisconsin, attest to his faithfulness as
a soldier."
Completed
The fort was completed in the spring of 1830. The principal build-
ings stood on the side of a square, and the only structures in the nature
of fortifications were two heavj-, compact block houses, perforated for
musketry and situated at the northeast and southwest corners of the
quadrangle. At the .same angle was the magazine, a low arched struc-
ture of heavy stone. A little south, and across the military road lead-
ing to Fort Howard, were the hospital and the quarters of the medical
statif; and still further south were the carpenters' shops in which Jeff
Davis is said to have exhibited much skill in the manufacture of quaint
furniture. Westward, on the slope toward the river, was the com-
missary building, near which were the stables of the sutler and the
slaughter houses. Forty rods east were the blacksmiths' shops, and
on the north and south sides of the fort lay the truck gardens; on the
east, the parade gi'ounds.
The fort proper was inclosed by a solid picket or stockade. There
were two entrances, each guarded by thick double gates. The main
buildings were neat one-and-a-half-story edifices, painted white, with
sharply sloping roofs and uniform dormer windows.
Amusements at the Post
After the fort was completed, there was much leisure for amuse-
ment and both officers and privates saw that time should not hang
heavily. Billiards, cards, dancing and amateur theatricals varied the
nights, while horse racing and athletic sports absorbed the days. At
one period the mail arrived every two weeks from Chicago, via Mineral
Point. The stage which brought it hove in sight upon a height three
miles from the fort, and it was a favorite pastime to lay wagers on the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 53
moment of its first appearance, as well as the precise moment it would
reach the postoiHce (the sutler's storehouse) ; also as to whether or not
the betters would be honored by the receipt of letters. Game was
abundant in its season, and many days were devoted to the hunt.
Sleigh-riding parties were also popular.
Social calls were not confined to intercourse between the few ladies
of Fort Wiimebago. It was nothing unusual for a lady and her escort
to make a "party call" upon some acquaintance at Fort Crawford,
down the Wisconsin River, 118 miles, or down the Fox to Fort Howard,
175 miles away.
Noted Men and Women at the Fort
Previous to the evacuation of Fort Winnebago in 1845, Colonel Cut-
ler, Major Green, Colonel Mcintosh, Captains Low and Jewett and
Lieutenant Mumford were in command; but they were not the char-
acters of greatest interest to the people of Columbia County. For
instance, there were Capt. Gideon Low and Lieut. Horatio P. Van
Cleve, who came from Fort Howard in the early '30s. Both Lieutenant
Davis and Captain Low served in the Black Hawk War, the latter being
ordered to Port Atkinson. After the danger was over he returned to
Fort Winnebago, where he remained until 1840. He then resigned and
took charge of the Franklin House, which he had built two years before,
and until his death at the agency ten years later was known as the most
popular landlord of the portage. Captain Low was buried in the
fort cemetery but his remains were finally removed to the Silver
Lake grounds.
Jacob Low, his only son, was a New York merchant and sea-faring
man in his earlier years, but in 1843 joined the captain at Fort Win-
nebago. There he became an Indian trader and a few years afterward
moved to his farm in that section of the county which now bears his
name, Lowville Township. Afterward he blossomed into a successful
jDolitician and office holder, and died at his home in Lowville during
1875.
Lieutenant and Mrs. Van Cleve
Lieutenant Van Cleve married Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark, daugh-
ter of Maj. Nathan Clark, at Fort Winnebago in 1836. As his wife
had been born at Fort Crawford in 1819 she was the first girl of pure
white parentage born within the present limits of Wisconsin. Her
54 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
father, the major, died at Fort Winnebago and was buried in the old
military cemetery, but his body was subsequently moved to Cincinnati.
Lieutenant Van Cleve went to the front early in the Civil war
as colonel of the Second Minnesota. At the Battle of Stone River he
was severely wounded, but recovered and served with distinction until
the close of the rebellion, leaving the Union service as a major general.
Mrs. Van Cleve passed the later years of her long life at ilinueapolis,
where she died April 1. 1907.
HeNEY ilERRELL
When Henry ;\Ierrell, also a New York merchant, came to Fort
Winnebago as a sutler in 1834, he first met Captain Low and Lieuten-
ant Van Cleve, and retained their acquaintanceship and friendship for
many j'ears. He afterward became agent for the American Fur Com-
pany, and was honored with many public positions, seiwing as the first
senator from the district when the state was organized. He died in
Jlay, 1876, leaving a large estate. His daughter, Mrs. E. S. Purdy, is
still living in Portage : also a son, B. H. Merrell, at Superior, Wis.
Satterlee Clark
Satterlee Clark, so widely known throughout Southern Wisconsin,
was appointed a sutler by President Jackson in 1830, but being a minor
he could not assume its duties directly. So he passed it over to Oliver
Newberry, of Detroit, and became his clerk. Clark was afterward mar-
ried at the old Indian agency house to a daughter of Mr. Jones, the
regular sutler of Fort Winnebago, amassing wealth by his business abil-
ity and gaining broad popularity by his engaging personality. He
was for many years a senator from Dodge County.
Lieut. Randolph B. March was on duty at Fort Winnebago in
1837-40; captain in 1846 and in active service during the Mexican war.
During the Civil war he was chief of staff under his son-in-law, 6e».
George B. McClellan, and in 1861-2 attained the rank of inspector
general and brevet brigadier general. In her girlhood, Mrs. McClellan
resided at the fort where her father was stationed.
Evacuated
Orders for the evacuation of Fort Winnebago were issued by the
War Department in 1845, the troops being sent to Jefferson Barracks,
St. Louis, and, in turn, had been ordered to the Gulf pending hostil-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 55
ities with Mexico. When the evacuation took place the fort was placed
iu charge of Ordnance Sergeant Van Camp, who looked after it until
his death in 1847. William Weir, an old soldier of the fort, then had
charge of it until 1853, when it was sold at auction under orders from
Jefferson Davis, as secretary of war.
Last Relic op Fort Win?
Final Dissolution
In March, 1856, a fire destroyed, or seriously damaged, most of
the buildings which were then occupied by private families. The reser-
vation of nearly 4,000 acres became the property of J, B. Martin and
others, of Milwaukee, and subsequently of W. H. Wells, of Pond du
Lac, and P. H. Marsten, of Buffalo. In 1869 and 1873, Valentine Hel-
maun of Portage bought the eighty acres on the left of the old military
road, which contained all the remaining buildings. Afterward Mr.
Helmann sold the stone to the Government, its engineers using it in
constructing breakwaters along the Wisconsin River, and the brick
taken from the massive fireplaces and chimneys of the crumbling struc-
tures went into his farm residence. The old commissary building,
which was the headquarters of Henry Merrell and other famous sut-
lers, was moved and long did service as a barn on the same farm. The
last of it was torn down only two years ago. The old well collapsed
about twenty-five years ago, and nearly all the buildings which
56
HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
remained after Mr. Helmaim's wholesale ravages were sold piece-meal
to different parties in Portage and the Town of Winnebago. The
only old-time structure of the "portage" — and that was no part of the
fort — is the Indian Agency Building occupied by John H. Kinzie and
his wife, the lively, pretty and bright author of "Wau-Bun."
Old Indian Agency House, Portage
It is now the farm residence of E. S. Baker, the well known lawyer
and citizen of Portage City. He has transformed it into a pleasant and
comfortable home, but it is still the historic agency building. Its
dimensions are 30x36 feet on the ground, two stories high with attic.
The kitchen is 20x24 feet, one and a half stories. The framework is
massive, the studding, rafters, joists, sleepers and sills being twice
the size of similar material used in buildings of the present. The
house was originally surrounded by a circular row of maples and elms,
most of which have disappeared.
"The fixtures and furniture left at the fort when it was evacuated,"
says Turner, "were disposed of at auction or carried away at will,
and many a family in the vicinage can boast of some old fort relic. The
famous 'Davises' (pieces of furniture made in the fort carpenter shop
by Jefferson Davis) could have been found in the inventories of the
household effects of some families, and they may be in existence some-
where yet. An okl sideboard that was in service at the agency, pre-
sumably Mrs. Kinzie 's, is one of the treasures in the late James Col-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 57
lins' household, aud a bureau and sideboard, which constituted a part
of the furniture in one of the officers' quarters is in possession of Mrs.
0. P. Williams, as also the old carved wooden eagle that was perched
over the main entrance. The eagle is now in the D. A. R. department
of the Portage Public Library."
CHAPTER V
PIONEER TRADERS AND CARRIERS
Peter Pauquette — Death of the Famous Trader — Shot by Man-
ZE-MON-E-KA — INFLAMED BY LiQUOR AND FaLSE ChaRGES — -ThE
Remains of Pauquette Finally Ijocated — The Coming of
Henry Merrell — Fort "Winnebago in 1834 — Commandants and
Indian Agents — The De Korras and Joseph Crelie — Post
Amusements — Business Trips Under Difficulties — Merrell 's
Account of the Famous 1837 Treaty — Trips More or Less Excit-
ing— Merrell in Politics — Satterlee Clark's Perilous Journey
— Black Hawk Threatens Fort Winnebago — Cl-^rk Sent for
Reinforcements — On Return Overtakes Mounted Militia —
Fatal Stampede of Troopers' Horses — "Battle" of the Wis-
consin— End op the Black Hawk War — De La Ronde Makes
the Portage est 1828 — The Noted Indian Family, De-kau-ry
(De Korra) — De La Ronde Becojies a Caledonia Farmer —
Indian Removal of 1840 — Grignon, or French Claim No. 21 —
L'Ecuyer's Gr-ave — The Post Cemetery — Wisconsinapolis and
Others Like It.
The traders and carriers at the portage and those connected with
the garrison of Fort Winnebago were rather unsettled characters, and
cannot therefore be considered as the founders of the stable commu-
nities which gradually evolved into what is now known, collectively, as
Columbia County. Incidentally, some of the most prominent of these
advance couriers have been introduced, and further details of their
lives and characteristics are due them before we pass on to stable land
owners and the civil and political organization of the county.
Peter Pauqu^ette
Peter Pauquette undoubtedly was one of the most noted and widely
known of all the early men claimed by the region of the portage, and
58
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 59
his tragic death, at the very commencement of the era of secure homes
and substantial development, makes his life especially significant. He
was the son of a French father and a Winnebago mother, born at St.
Louis in 171)6 and married there in 1818 to Theresa Crelie, daughter
of a Canadian half-breed, "Old Crelie," and a nameless mother, a
half-breed Sac. Pauquette was therefore quite a mixture of red and
white blood, which, coupled with his fearlessness, wonderful strength
and absolute honesty, gave him popularity and standing with trader,
Indian and Government. At the date of his marriage in Prairie du
Chien, when twenty-two years of age, he was in the employ of the
American Fur Company, and later became one of the best known inter-
preters in Wisconsin. He acted in that capacity at the treaties with
the Winnebagoes at Prairie du Chien in 1825, Green Bay in 1828, anu
Rock Island in 1832. In the year last mentioned he was active in rais-
ing a party of Winnebagoes to unite with the Americans against
Black Hawk. After the war he was engaged permanently as a trader
at the portage, representing the American Fur Company as its agent.
Previous to that time, although his headquarters had been at the port-
age for several years, he had been much occupied in different parts
of the state as an interpreter, and upon several occasions his duties
had called him to Washington.
A son and a daughter were born to Pauquette while he lived at
the portage and both resided in the vicinity for many years, respected
and popular. The daughter Theresa, who was twice married, was at
last accounts living in Caledonia, having passed her eightieth birth-
day. She retained pleasant memories of the visits to her father's place
made bj' Lieutenant Davis and Captain Low.
Death op the Famous Trader
It was while acting as interpreter for Governor Dodge in his nego-
tiations with the Winnebagoes for a further cession of their lands that
the events occurred which led to his assassination by an enraged
Indian, who claimed that Pauquette had acted treacherously. Pau-
quette was shot to death by the Winnebago, son of Whirling Thunder,
a prominent chief, on the night of October 17, 1836, near the little
Catholic Church in the present city of Portage. At the time of his
death he was living across the i-iver on the Judge Barden farm.
Various accounts have been written of Pauquette 's death, the most
authentic being those by John de La Ronde, the widely known French
Canadian fur trader who afterward settled in Caledonia, and Satter-
lee Clark, the Fort Winnebago sutler. From the former we quote:
60 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
'•Oil the 17tli of October, 1836, Governor Dodge eame to Portage to
hold a council with the Indians. Peter Pauquette acted as interpreter.
The result of the council was advising the Winnebagoes to sell their
lands east of the Mississippi. The Indians could not agree, and the
matter was postponed until the next year. A treaty for the sale of the
land was abandoned, they preferring an annuity. Peter Pauquette
demanded for them twenty-one boxes of money — $21,000 — declaring
that that was the amount due him from the Indians for goods and pro-
visions advanced to them.
" Man-ze-mon-e-ka, a son of one of the chiefs of the Rock river
band, residing a mile or two above the present locality of Watertown,
named Wau-kon-ge-we-ka or Whirling Thunder (One-who-walks-on-
the-iron), objected on the ground that he belonged to the Rock river
band and had received no provisions or goods from Pauquette, desir-
ing that the money should be divided between the several bands; then
those who were indebted to Pauquette might pay him if they chose.
As for himself, or his band, they had their own debts to pay to the
traders at Rock river. The result was that the council dissolved with-
out coming to a decision.
"Pauquette crossed the "Wisconsin, going to a saloon where Carpen-
ter's house now stands, and there indulged in drink. Man-ze-mon-e-ka,
who had spoken so frankly in the council, also happened there, when
Pauquette whipped liim. I came there at the time and, with the help
of others, rescued the Indian from Pauquette. The chief retired to the
other end of the portage, near where the house of Henry Merrell once
stood on the Fox river. Pauciuette followed him there and whipped
him again. Satterlee Clark and I took the Indian away from him
again, who was by this time badly bruised. He went home, which was
near where Armstrong's brickyard now is, -and Pauquette went to the
old post of the American Fur Company near the grist mill. While on
his way home, between one and two o'clock in the morning, he stopped
at my place. I was then living at the house which used to belong to
Francis Leroy. I did all that I could to persuade him to stay with me
that night, seeing that he was under the influence of liquor, but he
would go on; his brother-in-law, Touissant St. Huge, and William
Powell from Green Lake, were with him. There were some Indians
drinking at the house of Paul Grignon — the same house now used for
a stalile by 0. P. Williams. Among these Indians were Black Wolf
and his son. Rascal De-kau-ry. the Elk, Big Thunder and others.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 61
Shot by Man-ze-mon-e-ka
"When Pauquette arrived there, he whipped Black Wolf, and Ras-
cal De-kau-ry ran away north from wheie they were, right in the direc-
tion of the lodge of Man-ze-mou-e-ka whom Pauquette had beaten the
preceding day. On arriving at the chief's cabin, he informed him that
Pauquette was coming to whip him again. Man-ze-mon-e-ka emerged
from his lodge and told Pauquette very pointedly not to come any
further; that he had whipped him twice the day before without a
cause and if he advanced another step he was a dead man. Pauquette,
putting his hand to his breast, said 'Fire, if you are brave,' when
Mau-ze-mon-e-ka shot and Pauquette fell.
"William Powell was close to Pauquette at the time, and as soon
as I heard the report of the gun I ran for the spot as fast as I could.
It was close to where I was living. I met Powell running toward the
fort, and asked him what was the matter; but he was going so fast
that he did not hear me. I went where Pauquette was, took his hand
which was warm, and told him if he knew me to press my hand. But
he was dead. The ball had passed through his heart.
"Old Crelie, father-in-law to Pauquette, wanted to carry him home,
Ijut I would not allow him to touch him until the jury came. William
Powell arrived there with Lieutenant Hooe, Sergeant Pollinger, ten
private soldiers, Satterlee Clark and, I believe, Henry Merrell. Lieu-
tenant Hooe refused to go into the lodge to take the Indian ; the chief.
White French, went and brought him out. when they took him across
in a scow, the body of Pauquette also being taken over.
' ' They asked Man-ze-mon-e-ka if he shot Pauquette, which he frankly
acknowledged. I really believe he thought he was going to be killed on
the spot, as he sang his death song. He was taken to the garrison, kept
in strict confinement and afterward conveyed to Green Bay, where he
was tried by regular authority and finally acquitted, it being deter-
mined on a second trial that he had killed Pauquette in self-defense."
Both De La Ronde and Clark assert that Pauquette was not addicted
to drink, and the latter says: "His death can safely be attributed to
intoxication, though it was the first time I ever knew or heard of his
being in that condition." But from their accounts, as well as the narra-
tive of Henry ]Merrell, he lost his usual good temper over the criticisms
made by the traders as to the part he had taken at the council, especially
taking umbrage at the charges of misconduct made by the Griguons.
Henry Merrell put the matter thus: "The governor proposed to
make a treaty with them (the Winnebagoes) and buy their country
between the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. After they had counseled
62 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
for some days they refused to sell. It was generally supposed that they
would act as Pauquette advised them. Therefore the story was raised
that Pauquette had advised them not to sell, and that he had not in-
terpreted truly: which came to the ears of Pauquette, and he said it
was untrue. He told me the chiefs asked his advice, but he told them
that he would not advise them, for he did not know anything about the
country the government wanted them to go to ; and therefore they must
make up their own minds about it.
"The traders and half-breeds, all the way from Prairie du Chien to
Green Bay, were assembled here, and it was supposed that many of
them, if not most of them, wanted the Indians to form a treaty, so they
could get money by it. As it was thought that Pauquette had as much
influence with the nation as a king, he was courted as well as feared by
all; therefore every man of them wanted to court his favor, and would
treat him and urge him to drink. The consequence was that after get-
ting through interpreting and settling up with Governor Dodge, which
was the latter part of the third day, he drank too much — the first time
I ever saw him under the influence of liquor. * * *"
Inflamed by Liquor and False Charges
Thus primed with liquor, his naturally peaceful nature stirred both
by this unwonted stimulant and the charges made against his honor,
the giant Pauquette raged like an aroused lion. He sought out the
Grignons, the chief instigators of the charges against him, and one of
them l)arely escaped from the infuriated man. The same day he com-
menced his abuse of the Indian chiefs, and the next met his death at
the hands of ]Man-ze-mon-e-ka.
The RE^L\I^-s of Pauquette Finally Located
"There has been some doubt," says Satterlee Clark, writing many
years ago, "as to where Mr. Pauquette was buried, and I will state what
I know of his burial. In the first instance, while he did not claim to
belong to any religious denomination, his wife being a Catholic he built
a small church near the center of what is now Portage City. At his
death I assisted to bury his remains under the floor of this church.
Subsequently the church was burned, and still later, while I was living
at Green Lake, I received a summons to come up and point out the
grave, some of his friends being desirous to remove his body, I came
up and found the locality without any difficulty, but never heard whether
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 63
he was removed, or. if so, where. At that time Portage City had been
surveyed and his grave was in the middle of a street."
The sequel to Mr. Clark's story was revealed nearly seventy years
after Pauquette's death. On August 19, 1904, workmen were engaged
iii excavating the cellar of the new Baptist parsonage, Conant and
Adams streets, when they scattered a pile of decayed wood, a crumbling
skeleton of unusually large proportions, some metal handles and a metal
plate, the last named bearing the plain inscription "Peter Pauquette,
died 10 Octbr. 1836, aged 41 years."
The relics of the famous trader and interpreter were uncovered
about twenty-five feet from Adams Street and twice that distance from
the rear of the Baptist Church, which then stood on the old Catholic
property. The little log church which Pauquette had erected a few
years before his death was destroyed by fire about 1840. His grave
was then surrounded by quite an elaborate palisade, which stood until
it became necessary to remove his remains to the spot where they were
found in 1904. For some unexplained reason this location appears to
have been lost, although a tree was planted in 1903 marking the spot
(near the Adam Eulberg residence) where Pauquette was killed by
Man-ze-mon-e-ka.
When Pauquette's remains were brought to light, as recorded, his
aged daughter, Theresa, was immediately notified and she promptly
journeyed from her Caledonia home to Portage city to transfer them
to sacred ground. The next day, August 20, 1904, they were once more
consigned to mother earth in the Catholic cemetery of St. Mary's. This
daughter is still living at the old home in Caledonia.
On a window casement of the Baptist parsonage is also affixed a
tablet bearing this inscription : ' ' Pierre Pauquette, 1795-1836 ; removed
to Catholic cemetery, 1904; placed by the Golden Gossip Club." The
tablet marks the spot where for many years reposed the remains of the
famous pioneer; as near as may be, it marks the head of Pauquette's
casket.
The Coming op Henry Mekrell
Henry Merrell, one of Pauquette's most intimate friends, upon the
advice of some army officers who had visited the portage, came to Port
Winnebago to engage in business as a sutler. This was in 1834. Pass-
ing over the details of the progress of his goods and himself from his
home in Sacket's Harbor to the "jumping off place" at the portage,
in the wild and woolly West, he finally arrived at Green Bay (via
Detroit) on June 7th and contracted with Alexander and Samuel Irwin
€4 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COLTNTY
to transport his goods to Fort Winnebago in Durham boats. In order
to do so it was necessary for them to assemble a large number of Indians
at the rapids; then reloading and poling them up to the Grand Chute
where Appleton is now situated. There they had to unload and carry
the goods up a hill and down the other side above the chute, which was
a perpendicular fall of three or four feet. The Indians would wade in,
as many as could stand around the boat, and lift it over, while others
had a long eordelle, with a turn around a tree above, taking up the
slack and pulling as much as they could. Wlien the boats were over,
they were reloaded and then pushed ahead and poled from there to
Fort Winnebago. Excepting in low water they would have to make
half loads over the Winnebago rapids at Xeenah and, with a fair wind,
would sail through Lake Winnebago.
"This was the manner of transportation on Fox River at that time,
taking from fifteen to eighteen days to reach Fort Winnebago."
ilr. Merrell engaged Hamilton Arnt as a guide and the two rode
overland, following Indian trails up the Fox valley toward their desti-
nation. He says : ' ' We passed over some fine prairies. In many places
they looked like cultivated fields. We would see an orchard in the dis-
tance, and before I knew it I was frequently looking for the house, not
realizing that there was none from fifteen to twenty miles of us. We
arrived at ]Mr. Pauquette's farm at Belle Fountaine on the 27th, and
got a fine dinner of fried venison, and from here to Fort Winnebago
there was a good carriage road of twelve miles. At the fort I met
Lieutenant Lacej', quartermaster and commissary, who received me cor-
dially and said he had a bed at my disposal, as his wife was absent. He
accompanied me in calling upon the commanding officer. Colonel (Enos)
Cutler and his lady, with whom I was acquainted. The Colonel said
the store should be ready by the time my goods got there. I also met
Lieuts. Van Cleve, Johnston, Collinsworth, Ruggles, Hooe and Read,
together with Surgeon ^McDougall. Captains Low. Clark and Plympton
were absent at this time. Dr. L. Foot arrived in the fall. Out of
thirty-six days the Colonel told me they had had rain, more or less,
thirty-one days.
"I found Burley Follett. Daniel Bushnell and Satterlee Clark, Jr.,
in charge of the sutler's store, as agents of Oliver Newberry, of Detroit,
for whom they were carrying on the business. Captain (Robert A.)
McCabe, postmaster and Indian agent, was living in the agency house
across the river; a fine, jolly man, I found him.
"My goods arrived on the 1st of July, six weeks from New York.
How was that for speed? July 2nd Captain Low arrived at Duck
Creek, four miles from the fort, with his wife and two daughters in a
HISTORY OF COLUilBLV COUNTY 65
carriage, and sent up word for men to help them across. So the Colonel
sent twenty men to help them across Duck Creek marsh, and they ar-
rived safe at the fort.
Fort Winnebago in 1834
"This fort is situated on a beautiful plateau forty or fifty feet
above the Fox River, on the east side of it and of the portage, the river
forming an ox-bow around it on three sides. The grounds about the
buildings embraced ten or fifteen acres, with a substantial board fence.
The fort buildings were inclosed with an ornamental picket fence in a
cii-cular form, with walks graded and kept in perfect form, with the
rest of the grounds, and altogether it was a delightful place. The
portage is low ground one and a half miles across to the Wisconsin
River, over which they haul boats. Peter, or Pierre Pauquette, a half-
breed Indian trader, kept fifteen or twenty yoke of oxen to haul boats
across from one river to the other, and finally had large wheels mounted
on which to convey the boats. As the American Fur Company sent all
its furs from Prairie du Chien this way to Mackinaw, there were many
boats that crossed the portage.
COMM.VND.\NTS AND INDIAN AGENTS
"At this time there were no white American inhabitants outside
the fort except the Indian agent, Captain McCabe, who had a shock of
palsy and left in August, when I was appointed postmaster in his stead,
which office I held for twelve years. After he left, the commanding
officer at the fort was ordered to perform the duties of Indian agent,
and after that there was no other agent at this point, except for a few
months, when Thomas A. B. Boyd was stationed here as sub-agent.
Colonel Cutler commanded until May, 1835, when he was ordered to
New York and Maj. Nathan Clark succeeded him, who died at this post.
Ma.i. John Green took the command in October, 1835, ]\Iaj. W. V. Cobbs
succeeding him in 1838, he being disabled with palsy. Captain Low
was the chief officer for a short time, when Colonel (James S.) Mcintosh
succeeded him in 1840. The garrison was finally reduced to one com-
pany, with Lieut. F. S. IMumford in command.
The De Korras and Joseph Crelie
"When I arrived at the fort the old chief, De Korra, had his village
on the west side of the Wisconsin River about eight miles below the
66 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
portage. His hair was as white as wool, and he must have been very
old. He had several brothers, but, from his looks, I should judge that
he was the oldest of the family. He died soon afterward. His mother
was pointed out to me some years afterward, when I was told she must
be over one hundred and forty-three years old, for she recollected the
massacre of the Indians at Butte des Morts, she being there at the time,
which was 140 years previous. But this, I think, must be a mistake,
as I am informed that it was not so long since that massacre. At the
time I saw her she was able to walk six or eight miles to and from the
portage. She lived several years after, and came to her death by the
burning of her wigwam.
"Joseph Crelie, the father of Madam Pauquette, lived to a great
age. He carried the mail on horseback to and from Green Bay, and
seemed to ride a horse as well as a young man when he was thought to
be one hundred years old. He died a few years ago (written in the
Ecventies), when it was said that he was one hundred and thirty-odd
years old.
Post Amusements
"During the winter it was rather a lonely life, to be confined to tlie
garrison, with no city or village within 100 miles and not even a farm-
hoiise to visit. But we managed to enjoy ourselves pretty well, there
being ladies enough to form one cotillon, and we often met at one of
the oificer's quarters and danced, there being good musicians among
the soldiers. One winter the soldiers got up a theater, the officers con-
tributing toward scenery and dresses. There being a great variety of
characters among the soldiers, they got up quite a respectable company
which afforded us much amusement. Then we would sometimes make
up a party and go a-visiting, but to do so we had to go over 100 miles
to Green Bay, Prairie du Chien or Chicago. One visit we made to Chi-
cago is verj' well told by General Marcy in Harper's Monthly (Septem-
ber, 1869), when we were all taken up on the road for stealing a buffalo
robe, for the purpose of filching money out of us, as they thought we
would sooner pay than be detained at a log cabin over night.
Business Trips Under Difficulties
"About the 1st of March, 1835, I got ready to start for New York
on horseback, but the only sure way to go was via Galena and thence
to Chicago, as there were no roads through the country in any other
direction, and if I attempted to cross the country to ]\Iilwaukee or
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 67
Chicago, there were no bridges or ferries for crossing the streams.
Captain Harris, from Galena, came up to the fort on business, and I
gladly embraced the opportunity of accompanying him on his return."
Mr. Merrell made several trips to New York overland to Chicago
or Milwaukee, in this round-about way, in order to re-stock his goods,
and we regret that the book-space at our disposal does not allow us to
draw more liberally upon his interesting reminiscences based upon his
wide journeyings.
Merrell 's Account op the F.vmous 1837 Treaty
Mr. Merrell 's account of the famous treaty of 1837 by which the
Winnebagoes ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi River is close
to the text — Columbia County — and is well worthy of quotation. He
says: "Governor Dodge, being in Portage in 1837, invited the Winne-
bagoes to send a delegation to visit their Great Father at Washington.
Suspicious of a purpose to obtain their lands, they asked 'What for—
to make a treaty?' The Governor evaded the point, suggesting that
they could get acquainted with their Great Father and obtain presents,
and after much persuasion it was agreed to send a delegation — Yellow
Thunder and two other chiefs, the others being young men, generally
sons of chiefs. Satterlee Clark accompanied them as one of the con-
ductors.
"As soon as they reached Washington they were beset to hold a
treaty and cede their lands to the Government. They finally decided,
saying they had no authority for any such purpose; that the most of
their chiefs were at home, who alone could enter into such a negotiation.
Every influence was brought to bear upon them, and they began to get
uneasy lest winter should set in and prevent their returning home. They
were without means to defray their expenses back, and those managing
Indian matters at Washington availed themselves of the necessities of
the delegation, keeping them there and urging them to enter into a
treaty.
"At length they yielded not their judgments, but to the pressure
brought to bear upon them and, while reluctantly signing the treaty,
yet all the while stoutly protesting against having any show of authority
to do so. The treaty, as they were informed, permitted them to remain
in the peaceful occupancy of the ceded lands eight years, when, in
fact, it was only that number of months; and as each went forward to
attach his name, or rather mark, to the treaty, he would repeat what
he understood as to the time they were to remain, 'eight years.' And
68 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
tluis the poor red iiieu were deceived and outwitted by those who ought
to have beau their wards and protectors.
"One of the young men, son of a prominent chief, dared not, on
his return home, visit his father for a long time. The whole nation felt
that they had been outraged, and forced to leave their native homes.
Yellow Thunder declared he would never go — that he would leave his
l)ones in Wisconsin; but he was invited, with young Black ^Yolf, into
Fort Winnebago, on pretence of holding a council, when the gates were
treacherously closed upon them, and they and many others were con-
veyed by the United States troops beyond the Mississippi. But Yellow
Thunder got back sooner than the soldiers who forced him away. Then
he induced John T. De La Ronde to accompany him to the land office
at Mineral Point and enter forty acres of land in his behalf on the west
side of the Wisconsin about eight miles above Portage. At the land
office inquiry was made if Indians would be permitted to enter land.
'Yes,' was the reply, 'Government has given no orders to the contraiT. '
So Yellow Thunder, the head war chief of his people, secured a home-
stead on which he settled, declaring that he was going to be a white
man." And there the sturdy chief quietly passed the remainder of
his long life until 1S74. He lived to see the last forced march of any
considerable band of his people to their lands beyond the Mississippi.
Trips More or Less Exciting
In 1839 Mr. Merrell's duties as postmaster at the agency house were
varied by an exciting trip down the Wisconsin and Mississippi in
charge of a lumber fleet. A less blood-curdling and laborious task fell
to him, the next year — the taking of the census of a large district under
the United States marshal. After considerable travel in the Chippewa
region of northern Wisconsin he found an incompleted mill with a few
employees, near what is now Wausau, whom he duly recorded, when
his enumeration ceased. But the shooting down the Wisconsin, over
rapids and tlirough gorges, before he again reached the portage was
compensation for any disappointment which he might have felt as to
paucity of population in his territory.
]Merrell in Politics
"Judge David Irvin. " continues Mr. Merrell, "was to hold court
at the portage, I think, in 1841 or 1842. He sent me an appointment
as clerk of the court, and as there was no time to lose, requested me to
go to Columbus and have a .iury list made out and placed in the hands
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 69
of the sheriff. I did so, and the judge held the first court in this county
(then Portage) at the Franklin House, kept by Captain Low — after
which I resigned.
"In 1848 I was elected state senator in the Second District, which
embraced all that part of the state north of Dane County to Lake
Superior, and including Sauk, Marquette, Green Lake and Portage
counties, since divided into eight or ten districts. I was elected as the
whig candidate over the Hon. James T. Lewis, the democratic nominee.
In the senate there were but three whigs. I served during this, the first
session under the Constitution, which met at Madison on the 5th day
of June, 1848, and during the next session, which met on the 10th day
of January, 1849. During these two sessions there was an immense
deal of work done in organizing the state, revising the statutes, etc."
Satterlee Clark's Perilous Journey
Satterlee Clark and Peter Pauquette acted as scouts during the
Winnebago war, and the former played perhaps the most important
part in securing the troops from General Atkinson, the chief oiScer in
command, which perhaps averted a massacre of the thirty men remain-
ing in Fort Winnebago, with several women and children. Mr. Clark's
account of his adventures is simple and graphic : "In 1831, in viola-
tion of a treaty stipulation, the Sauk and Fox Indians, under Black
Hawk and the Prophet, crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. Black Hawk
was a Fox Indian and the Prophet was a Winnebago, who, with a small
band, became discontented and left the Winnebagoes, joining the Sauk
and Fox tribes among whom they had intermarried. General Atkinson
was ordered to remove them. They offered to go back and remain for
60,000 bushels of corn, and as corn was only five cents a bushel he gave
it to them and they retired.
"The following summer, thinking to get 60,000 bushels of corn quite
easily, they again crossed the river and again General Atkinson was
ordered to remove them. Instead of buying corn of them, he ordered
all of the available troops into the field, and the President ordered out
the Illinois militia under the command of General Henry and General
Alexander, all under the command of General Atkinson. The Indians
started up Fox River pursued by the troops, committing occasional
depredations as they went along. After they got into Wisconsin the
troops lost track of them, and General Atkinson continued up Rock
River to where the village of Fort Atkinson stands, where he established
his headcjuarters and built a temporary fort.
70 HISTORY OF COLl'MBIA COUNTY
Black Hawk Threatens Fort \Vinxebago
"In the meantime Black Hawk, learning from the Winnebagoes,
who also promised to assist him, that only thirty men remained at Fort
Winnebago, determined to burn it and massacre its inmates. They
accordingly came and encamped on the Fox River about four miles
above Swan Lake and about eight miles from the fort. Every possible
means that could be devised was adopted to protect the fort and save
the lives of the inhabitants, most of whom were women and children;
but after all had been done that was possible the commanding officer
concluded that without reenforcements we would be lost, and determined
to send to General Atkinson for troops. I was selected for that duty
for several reasons; among which was my thorough acquaintance with
the country, and another was the probability that the Winnegaboes
would not harm me.
Clark Sent for Reenforcements
"Every day some Winnebago would come to me and advise me to
go at night and stay in his wigwam, where, he said, I would be safe.
At 9 o'clock at night I left the fort with many a 'God speed you,'
armed with a small Ruggles rifle, my dispatches, a tomahawk and a
bowie-knife. I crossed the Fox River at a shallow point just above
where the public stables used to stand, and keeping the Indian trail
that led from there to White Crow's village on Lake Kosh-ko-nong on
my right, I traveled rapidly all night, walking up hill and running
down hill and on a level. I struck the trail several times during the
night, but left it immediately, as I feared that some Indians might be
encamped upon it whose dogs would discover me before I would dis-
cover them. I arrived safely at the fort (Atkinson) at half past 11
o'clock in the forenoon, and delivered my dispatches to General Atkin-
son, who sent 3,000 men at once to relieve Fort Winnebago.
On Return Overtakes jMounted Militia
"T slept till 4 o'clock in the afternoon and then started on my
return, following the trail of the mounted militia for twelve miles,
when I passed them and reached the head of a stream that used to be
called Rowan's Creek, about twelve miles from the fort, shortly before
daylight; and fearing to go furtlicr till night, I crawled into some brush
and went to sleep.
"As soon as it was dark, T left my hiding p]ace and returned to
HISTORY OF COLUxMBIA COUNTY 71
the fort as near as possible by the route I left it, arriving between 10
and 11 o'clock P. M. I reported that the troops were on the way and
would arrive next evening. We kept close watch all that night and at
4 o'clock P. M. next day the troops arrived. It may surprise some of
my readers that I should travel so rapidly, and the mounted troops
should be so long on the road. But you must recollect the marshes
were very wet at that time, that the whole country was a wilderness,
and that when I jumped into a stream and waded through or walked
across the marsh the troops had to build bridges and causeways.
' ' The war would have been ended in two days if the militia had been
in condition to follow the Indians; but the horses needed food and rest,
rations had to be issued to the men, many of them had not a change of
underclothing, and it was absolutely necessary to wait at least one day
at the fort.
Fatal Stampede op Troopers' Horses
"The second night the horses took fright (probably at some Winne-
bago Indians), and there was a- regular stampede. Several hundred
started with a noise like thunder, running so close together that when
one was so unfortunate as to face a tree he was either killed or so badly
injured as to be unable to proceed, and was run over by the whole
drove. Between the bank of the Wisconsin and the point of land be-
tween there and the fort, thirty-seven horses were found dead. They
took the trail they came on and ran to the prairie, a distance of about
sixteen miles. Over sixty horses were killed, and it was late next day
before those recovered were brought back. This, of course, occasioned
another delay, and it was not till the fifth day that they left the fort
in pursuit of the Indians.
"Battle" op the Wisconsin
"The enemy, in the meantime, went to the Four Lakes, where, as I
learned later, they were advised to cross the Wisconsin and the Missis-
sippi as soon as possible. A few reliable Winnebagoes, under Peter
Pauquette and myself, were secured for scouts. We had no ditificulty
in following their trail and gained upon them rapidly, overtaking them
on the bank of the Wisconsin about twenty-five miles below, where the
battle of the Wisconsin was fought.
"That battle made many heroes, and so it should. About one hun-
dred and twenty-five half-starved Indians defended the pass against
nearly three thousand whites, while the remainder of the Indians, in
72 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
plain sight, were crossing the Wisconsin with the women and children,
and as soon as these were safe the Indians broke and ran. Then came
the struggle for scalps. Every man who could run started down the
hill at top speed, my Indian scouts and myself far ahead of the militia,
and I was about thirty feet ahead of all. Just as I commenced raising
the hill on the other side of the valley, Pauquette passed me on horse-
back, and as he went by I caught his horse by the tail and held on till
we reached the top of the hill, where we found four dead Indians.
Pauquette took one scalp, I took one, and the Indian scouts took the
other two.
"The Indians lost four killed all told and the whites, one. This
ended the battle of the Wisconsin about which so much has been written.
End of the Black Hawk War
"The Indians traveled as fast as possible to the Mississippi, near
the mouth of the Bad Axe River. I went home. Shortly after Capt.
Alexander Johnston was ordered to take command of the regular troops,
endeavor to intercept the Indians and prevent their crossing the ^lissis-
sippi. A steamboat was sent up the ilississippi from Fort Crawford,
commanded by Jefferson Davis. He drove the Indians back, and they
were all killed or taken prisoners except Black Hawk and the Prophet,
with their families, who crossed the river before the steamboat arrived.
"Gen. Winfield Scott offered a reward of $2,000 for the capture of
Black Hawk and the Prophet, which was earned by a Winnebago called
Little Thunder. All were then taken to Rock Island, where General
Scott had established his headquarters. From there the leaders were
taken to all the large cities of the country, to show them how impossible
it was for them to wage successful war against the whites.
"That ended the Black Hawk war."
De La Ronde Make,s the Portage in 1828
John T. De La Ronde, an educated Frenchman and in his youth and
early manhood agent for the Northwest Fur Company, as well as for
its successor, the Hudson Bay Company, crossed over to the American
side of the line when he was about twenty-six years of age, became
acquainted with some of the men connected with the American Fur
Company at Mackinaw and, in quest of adventure, finally made the
portage May 29, 1828. At the time he reached that place in his little
bark canoe, he found the log house and barn occupied by Pauquette
and family as the trading post of the Astor concern, but its agent was
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 73
Washington on treaty business, acting as interpreter for the
Winnebagoes. The post was erected almost opposite to where the mill
was subseciuently built on the Fox River. Then there were the agency
house and two log cabins occupied by half breeds, and on the east side
of the river, where the fort was afterward built, the Le Roy house.
The Noted Indian Family, De-kau-ry (De Korba)
At the western end of the portage a warehouse was built, and three
houses in which resided the Grignons — Perrish and Lavoin, father and
son — and J. B. Leeuyer, the noted trader and half breed. As to the
famous family De Korra, or De-kau-ry, De La Ronde gives the follow-
ing information: "De-kau-ry, or Scha-chip-ka-ka, was principal chief
of the Winnebagoes, often called by his countrymen Ko-no-koh De-
kau-ry, meaning the eldest De-kau-ry. Scha-chip-ka-ka was the son of
Chou-ke-ka, called by the whites Spoon De-kau-ry, and was the son of
Sabrevoir De Carrie, corrupted into De-kau-ry, an officer of the French
army in 1699 under De Broisbriant. He resigned his commission in
1729, became an Indian trader among the Winnebagoes and subse-
quently took for wife the head chief's sister named Wa-ho-po-e-kau, or
the Glory of the Morning. After living with her seven or eight years
he left her and their two sons, whom she refused to let him take away,
but permitted him to take their daughter. De Carrie reentered the
army and was mortally wounded at Quebec, April 28, 1760, dying of
his wounds at the Montreal hospital. His eldest son, Chou-ke-ka (the
Spoon, or Ladle), was made a chief and was cjuite aged when he died
at the portage about 1816. At his request he was buried in a sitting
posture on the surface of the ground, with a small log structure over
the body surrounded by a fence. I saw his burial place in 1828, when
the red cedar posts of which the fence was made were yet undecayed.
His widow died two miles above Portage in 1868, at a very advanced
age. The old chief's sister, who had been taken to Montreal and edu-
cated there, was married to Laurent Filly, a Quebec merchant, whose
son of the same name was long a clerk for Augustin Grignon.
"Chou-ke-ka was succeeded by his sou, Scha-chip-ka-ka, who had
six brothers and five sisters. One of the brothers was called Ruch-ka-
Siha-ka, or White Pigeon, called by the whites Black De-kau-ry ; another,
Chou-me-ne-ka-ka, or Raisin De-kau-ry; another, Ko-ke-mau-ne-ka, or
He-who-walks-between-two-stars, or the Star Walker; another, Yound
De-kau-ry, called by the whites, on account of his tricky character,
Rascal De-kau-ry; another, Wau-kon-ga-ko, or the Thunder Hearer,
and the sixth, Ongs-ka-ka, or White Wolf, who died young. Of the
74 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
sisters, three married Indian husbands; one married a trapper named
Dennis De Riviere, and afterward Perrish Grignon; the other married
John B. Leeuyer, the father of Madame Le Roy."
De La Ronde Becomes a Caledonia Farmer
While making tlie portage his headquarters De La Ronde took trips
to Prairie du Chien and Green Bay, as well as far into the Lake Superior
region. In the winter of 1832 he was engaged by the American Fur
Company as a clerk, and subsequently participated in the Winnebago
war, being accompanied by Peter Pauquette, White Crow, who com-
manded a small body of Winnebagoes, and others. When the country
became more secure De La Ronde established several trading posts, but
tired of this roving life and in the summer of 1838 opened a farm in
what is now Caledonia Township, the third in that section of the county.
Indian Removal of 1840
"In 1840," saj's De La Ronde, "the troops came to Portage to
remove the Winnebago. Indians, a part of the Eighth Regiment of In-
fantry under command of Colonel Worth, and a part of the Fifth
Regiment under General Brooke, with General Atkinson as commander-
in-chief. There were three interpreters employed by the Government —
Antoine Grignon, Pierre Meneg and myself. Meneg was sent after
Yellow Thunder and Black Wolf's son, inviting them to Portage to
get provisions; but instead of that as soon as they arrived they were
put into the guardhouse with ball and chain, which hurt the feelings
of the Indians very much, as they had done no harm to the Govern-
ment. The general had understood that they were going to revolt,
refusing to emigrate according to treaty stipulations; but as soon as
Governor Dodge came here they were released. They all promised
faithfully to be at Portage, ready for removal in three days, and they
were all there the second day.
"There were two large boats in which to take down such of the
Indians as had no canoes. Antoine Grignon and Pierre Meneg went
down with the boats. I was kept here by the order of General Atkin-
son at the suggestion (jf General Brady, to assist the dragoons com-
manded by Capt. (Edwin V.) Sumner and Lieutenants ilcCrate and
Steele. We went down to Rock River to look for Mas-i-ma-ni-ka-ka ;
from there we went to jMadison and thence to Fox River. We picked
up 250 Indians, men, women and children, and took them down to
Prairie du Chien. Before we got there, at the head of Kickapoo River
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 75
we came to three Indian wigwams. The captain directed me to order
the Indians to break up their camp and come along with him. Two old
women, sisters of Black Wolf, and another one came up, throwing them-
selves on their knees, crying and beseeching Captain Sumner to kill
them; that they were old, and would rather die and be buried with their
fathers, mothers and children, than be taken away, and that they were
ready to receive their death-blows. The captain directed me to go with
them and watch them, and we found them on their knees, kissing the
ground and crj^ing very loud, where their relatives were buried. This
touched the captain's feelings and he exclaimed 'Good God! What
harm could those poor Indians do among the rocks?' "
It might interest the reader to know that the Captain Sumner,
whose good heart did him such credit, not only served with credit as a
commander of dragoons in the Black Hawk war and elsewhere, but
distinguished himself for his bravery and ability as a cavalry officer
in the Mexican war and in many Indian campaigns in the Southwest.
At one time he was military governor of New Mexico, and during the
Civil war, after being three or four times wounded and reaching the
rank of major general, through personal bravery and military genius,
became so shattered in body that l^,went to his Syracuse home to die.
His death occurred in March, 1863. He is especially identified with
the history of Columbia County, in tliat^lie was stationed at Fort Winne-
bago for several years, and was aljy^ys, considered one of the brightest
and most popular of its officers.
Grignon, or French Cl.wm No. 21
Two months before the Indian uprising under Black Hawk a tract
of land was conveyed by the general government to Augustin Grignon,
son of the Green Bay founder of the family, whose home was at Kau-
kauna, near the present Appleton. He was born in 1780 and became
famous in the development of the Fox River valley, building its first
sawmill and becoming interested in numerous townsites from Green
Bay to the portage. He had served in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant
in the American army, and was a captain in the Black Hawk war.
The land of Mr. Grignon was patented to him by President Andrew-
Jackson April 26, 1832, and consisted of about 648 acres of the terri-
tory embraced by what are now the First ward of the city of Portage
and portions of the Second, Third and Fourth wards — in other words,
Winnebago Indian lands. The balance of Portage was still Indian
territory until 1849, the year of the session of the Menominee lands.
The land was generally known as the Grignon Tract, or French Claim
76 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Xo. 21, and to real estate men of the present as Webb & Bronson's plat
of the town of Winnebago. The main road of the portage bounded the
tract on the south, and the Indian agency building was near its northern
boundary, west of Fox River. On the opposite shore was Fort Winne-
bago in all the pride of its two years.
The angle in the tract, at its most northerly point, is near the junc-
tion of Conant and Adams streets, and was mentioned in the deed as
"the corner of the pickets which surround the grave of the late John
Ecuyer." The tract probably could have been conveyed to John B.
L'Eeuyer, but he had conveyed his rights virtually to ]Mr. Grignon,
who had occupied for a time the lands in question, as well as a number
of his relatives. The northern line of the Grignon tract included not
only L 'Ecuyer 's grave, but the old Indian burying ground, upon which
Pauquette was about to erect the first church between Lake Michigan
and the Jlississippi River. The deed issued from the general land office
at Detroit and was clear of any complications, save "any right or claim
which the said heirs of John Eeuj-er, deceased, may have in and to the
L 'Ecuyer 's Grave
Not long before his death. A. J. Turner wrote thus of the grave of
Jean B. L'Eeuyer, one of the most noted landmarks on the famous
Grignon Tract: "There are persons still residing in Portage who re-
member the picketed grave of L'Eeuyer very well, which stood just in
front of the window of the house on Lot 1. Block 185, now occupied by
Mr. Eschwig, owned, I believe, by Bluford Turner. The writer of this
article also remembers the grave well, which was marked by a small
American flag over it, which had evidently been kept flying by some
relative or friend of Mr. L'Eeuyer.
" L'Eeuyer 's grave, which was thus made the most conspicuous
landmark in what is now the city of Portage, was not, as some have
supposed, obliterated by the grading of Conant Street several years
ago, which operation required the removal of the remains of those who
had been buried in the Indian burying ground at that point, but the
bones of the famous pioneer remain where his kindred had placed him
some ninety years ago. I am able to say this from the fact that some
Government officers engaged in definitely fixing the boundaries of French
Claim No. 21, no longer ago than last summer, run the lines of the
claim, and when the point was reached at which L 'Ecuyer 's grave was
supposed to be located, a small excavation was made by one of the work-
men, and scarcely two feet from the surface L 'Ecuyer 's bones were
HISTORY OF COLUIMBIA COUNTY 77
found in a good state of preservation. The excavation was immediately
filled up and the bones of the famous pioneer were left without further
disturbance. A small flower bed about a couple of feet in front of the
window soon appeared over the .spot.
"Probably the good woman who utilized the loosened earth for the
purpose of a flower bed was wholly unconscious of the fact that, as she
planted her chrysanthemums in the prepared earth, she was marking
the grave of one who was probably the first bona fide citizen of our
city, and who had a hundred years before been an active business man
at the portage, transporting from the Wisconsin to the Fox, by his
primitive methods, the furs gathered as far away as the sources of the
Missouri to a market at Quebec.
"It is to be regretted that we do not know more of John B. L'Ecuj'er,
who was one of, if not the very first person to make Portage his definite
abiding place. We do know where his bones lie as a conspicuous land-
mark. It would be fitting if some permanent tablet should be placed
to ever mark the spot."
The Post Cemetery
And speaking of landmarks, the Soldiers' Cemetery belonging to
the fort must not be forgotten. It is one of the landmarks which the
Government, assisted by Wau-Bun Chapter, D. A. R., of Portage, keep
in respectable repair. The grave guarded with special solicitude is
that of Cooper Pixley, a soldier of the Revolution who died March 12,
1855. It is believed that he has not to exceed half a dozen comrades
in Wisconsin soil. In the Fort Cemetery are known to repose the re-
mains of soldiers who have had their honorable part in the War of
1812, and in the Seminole, Black Hawk, Mexican, Civil and Spanish-
American wars. But most of the graves of those who fought in the
earlier conflicts have been obliterated by a fire which swept over the
ground many years ago. Besides the stone marking the burial place of
Cooper Pixley, there is another of special interest, albeit no warrior
lies beneath it ; only the infant child of Lyman Foot, one time surgeon
of Fort Winnebago. Both are annually decorated by the ladies of the
chapter, one with pride, the other with tenderness.
Major Clark and Captain Low were both buried in the Soldiers'
Cemetery, but their remains were finally removed to the family grounds
elsewhere. Robert Irwin, Jr., the Indian agent, died at Fort Winne-
bago in July, 1833, but his body was taken to Fort Howard for burial.
78 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
WiSCOXSINAPOLIS AXD OTHERS LiKE It
To the right of the cemetery is a plat of ground surveyed and once
laid out as the City of Wisconsinapolis. It was on the north side of
Swan Lake in the town of Pacific and extended north to Stone Quarry
Hill — that is, the plat covered this territory. Although the plat was
filed by Doctor and Surgeon Foot, of Fort Winnebago, in January, 1837,
Wisconsinapolis had received one vote during the previous year by some
member of the territorial council when the question of the location of
the capital was up before that body. But Wisconsinapolis was never
anything more than a paper town, like Winnebago City on the south
side of Swan Lake, Ida, just east of the first named, Wisconsin City
and Baltimore City — all platted by Larned B. Harkness, who hoped that
the territorial capital might be fixed at one of them. He was in the
townsite business up to his neck, but none of his ventures seemed to
evolve into anything substantial.
CHAPTER VI
LAND OWNERS AND REAL SETTLERS
First Sales op Columbia County Lands — The Land Districts — Me-
nominee Indian Lands Surveyed — List of First Land Entries —
Wallace Rowan, First Real Settler — Mrs. Rowan from "In-
dianer" — The Rowan Inn — Judge Doty Objects to the Hours —
Last of the Rowans — The English Colonies of Potters — Arrive
IN THE Town op Scott — Other Trades Recognized — Pottersville
— Twigg's Landing — Disbandment of the Society — Inhabitants
of County (1846) 1,200 — Columbia County on Early Maps.
By the end of 1833 a large amount of the public land of Wisconsin
south and east of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers had been surveyed, and
were placed in the Green Bay and Wisconsin districts, the ofSce for
the latter being at Mineral Point. The lands in Columbia County which
fell in the Green Bay District included the towns of Randolph, Court-
land, Fountain Prairie, Columbus (with the site of the city of Colum-
bus), Hampden, Otsego, Springvale, Scott, Marcellon, Wyocena, Low-
ville, Leeds, Arlington ; all of De Korra lying in Range 9 east, Pacific ;
so much of Portage as lies southeast of the Grignon Claim, and all of
Fort Winnebago lying east of the Fox River. The whole of the present
towns of Lodi and West Point, and so much of De Korra as lies south-
east of the Wisconsin River in Range 8, were in the Wisconsin Land
District. The towns of Lewiston, Newport and Caledonia, so much of
Fort Winnebago as lies west of the Fox River, the Grignon Claim and
all of Portage lying northwest of it and south of the Wisconsin, were
not included in either district, being unsurveyed lands belonging to
the jMenominees.
First Sales of Columbia County Lands
Public sales of the suiweyed lands were held in 1835, at Green Bay
and Mineral Point, the four sections constituting the military reserva-
79
80 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
tiou in Columbia County (near the center of which was Fort Winne-
bago) being held out of the market by the General Government. Ex-
cept these reserved sections and the unsurveyed ilenominee lands, all
of Columbia County was immediately opened to private entry at $1.25
per acre. But no entries were made in that year. In June of the fol-
lowing year the Milwaiikee Land District was erected out of the southern
part of the Green Bay District. In the new division was embraced the
territory included in the present southern townsliips of Arlington,
Leeds, Hampden and Columbus.
The Land Districts
It was provided in the act of Congress creating the Green Bay and
Wisconsin land districts that they should embrace the country north
of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers where the Indian title to the same had
become extinguished. On the 1st day of November, 1837, the Winne-
bago Indians ceded to the General Government all their lands east of
the ^Mississippi River. By this treaty the United States came into
possession of lands north of the Wisconsin, of which that portion lying
in the great bend of that river (now Caledonia) was a part; so this
territory, with much other, was ordered surveyed, being completed in
1845. The Green Bay and Wisconsin land districts were then extended
north, so that all of what is now the town of Caledonia lying in Range
8 east, and so much of Portage south of the Wisconsin as lies in that
range, fell into the Wisconsin Land District.
Menominee Indian Lands Surveyed
In October, 1848, the Menominee Indians ceded all their lands in
Wisconsin to the United States, but, as stated, the latter did not come
into possession of them until the spring of 1851. That part lying in
Columbia County, which has already been described, was at once sur-
veyed, and the two land districts again extended north, so that all of
what is now the town of Caledonia lying in Range 9 east fell into the
Green Bay District and all in Ranges 6, 7 and 8 east, into the Wisconsin
District. This accounts for all but the Grignon Tract, which gradually
descended from the original owners, who received their patent from the
General Government, and was platted and subdivided, from time to
time, by those who came into possession of it, as will be explained in
detail as the story of the founding of Portage city progresses.
The lands north of the Wisconsin River and west of the Fox were
survej'ed in 1851 and came into the market in the following year.
HISTORY OF COLU:\rBIA COUNTY 81
List of First Land Entries
These facts are given as an introduction to the following table,
showing the first land entries made in Columbia County, the record
being presented alphabetically by towns, cities and villages:
Arlington; Wallis Rowan; S. E. 14 N. E. 1/4 S. 3, T. 10, R. 9; entered June 6, 1836.
Caledonia; Joseph Ward; S. E. % S. E. i/l S. 19, T. 12, R. 8; entered December
18, 1846.
Caledonia; A. J. Hewitt; N. V> N. E. % S. 30, T. 1'2, E. 8; entered December
18, 1846.
Courtland; Peter Goulden ; E. % S. E. 14 S. 10, T. 12, R. 12; entered June 5, 1844.
Columbus. City; Lewis Ludington ; S. E. % S. 12, T. 12, B. 12; entered February
18, 1839.
Columbus, City; Lewis Ludington; N. E. V-i S. 13, T. 12, E. 12; entered February
18, 1839.
Columbus, City; John Hustis; S. W. % S. 12. T. 12, R. 12; entered February
18, 1839.
Columbus, City; John Hustis; X. W. % S. 13, T. 12, R. 12; entered February
18, 1839.
Columbus, Town; Lewis Ludington; E. % S. 24, T. 12, R. 12, entered February
18, 1839.
Dekorra; Wallis Rowan; N". E. % S. E. % S. 34, T. 11, R. 9; entered June 6. 1836.
Fort Winnebago; Robert McPherson; E. % S. E. % S. 26, T. 13, R. 9; entered
August 11, 1836.
Fort Winnebago; Robert McPherson; S. E. V-t S. 27, T. 13, R. 9; entered
August 11, 1836.
Fountain Prairie; James C. Carr; W. Va N. W. V-l S. 34, T. 11, R. 12; entered July
19, 1843.
Hampden; Alfred Toplifif; S. W. % N. E. % S. 11, T. 10, R. 11; entered June
28, 1844.
Leeds; John Dalziel; N. W. % N. W. % S. 26, T. 10, R. 10; entered October 3, 1844.
Lewiston; E. F. Lewis; N. W. % S. 21, T. 13, E. 8; entered October 28, 1852.
Lodi; Ebenezer Hale; N. W. Vi S. 21, T. 10. R. 8; entered June 21, 1836.
Lowville; Catherine Low; E. V- N- E. % S. 32, T. 11, R. 10; entered May 10, 1845.
Marcellon; Hiram McDonald; N. W. % S. W. % S. 29, T. 13, R. 10; entered
February 15, 1836.
Newport; Michael Lafifan; S. W. % S. 12, T. 13, B. 6; entered October 11, 1852.
Otsego; Samuel Emery; S. E. % N. E. Vt S. 10, T. 11, R. 11; entered December
27, 1843.
Pacific; David Butterfield; lot 3 S. 1, T. 12, R. 9; entered January 30, 1836.
Portage; Augustin Grignon; entered April 26. 1833.
Randolph; Mary Perry; W. Vo N. W. Vi S. 12, T. 13, R. 12; entered February 8, 1844.
Scott; John Dodge; E. y, S. E. % S. 34, T. 13, R. 11; entered February 8, 1844.
Springvale; John Dodge; W. Va S. E. V-t S. 1, T. 12, R. 11; entered April 29, 1845.
West Point; S. Taylor, et al.; lot No. 5 S. 2, T. 10, R. 7; entered March 9, 1836.
Wyocena; Joseph W. Turner; lots 5, 11, 12 S. 5, T. 12, R. 10; June 17, 1836.
Wyocena; Joseph W. Turner; lot 5 S. 6, T. 12, R. 10; entered June 17, 1836.
Lodi, Village; Ebenezer Hale; N. W. % S. 21, T. 10, R. 8; entered July 21, 1836.
Cambria; James Waunkie; N. E. % N. E. Vi S. 6, T. 10, R. 12; entered April 2, 1845.
Randolph, Village ; Allen Brunson ; E. V2 S. E. % S. 10, T. 10, E. 12 ; entered April
29, 1846.
Eio; .Jeremiah Folsom, Jr.; N. E. Vl N. E- Vi S. 10, T. 10, R. 11; entered August
28, 1847.
Fall River; John Brown; N. E. Vi N. E. V4 S. 34, T. 11, R. 12; entered October
Kilbourn Citv; C. F. Legate; N. V2 ^- E. Vi S. 12, T. 13, R. 6; entered December
7, 1852. "
Pardeeville; W. W. Haskin; S. V, N. W. Vi S. 10, T. 12, E. 10; entered January
8, 1848.
82 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Povnette: James Duane Doty; E. 14 S. W. H S. 34, T. 11, R. 9; entered February
8, 1S37.
Poynette; James Duane Dotv; W. i/. S. E. 14 S. 34, T. 11, B. 9; entered February
8, 1837.
Poynette; Alex. S. Hooe; X. E. U S. 34, T. 11, E. 9; entered February 8, 1837.
Wallace Eowan, First Real "Settler"
The first settler in what is now Columbia County was Wallace
Rowan, a typical Hoosier, kind-hearted, honest and just enough eccen-
tric to be interesting. He moved from Dane County with his wife and
large family of children, having entered his forty acres at the Green
Bay land office. He located on the military road and opened a tavern
Log Cabin op the Real Settler
a little south of what afterward became known as Dole's Mill, adjoin-
ing the village of Poj'nette. "I was at his house," says Moses M. Sti'ong,
"on the 19th of February, 1837, and there was no appearance of his
having just arrived there." He was living in a log house, built by
himself on his own land, and he was there to stay. There was no other
settler, as the term should be used, within the present limits of Colum-
bia County.
Rowan's house was a double-log affair, built botli for tradiii'j; witli
the Indians and for accommodating travelers. He was a man of medium
height, rather thin and dark ; was sociable and talkative, and took
great pains to make all who stopped with him as comfortable as pos-
sible. Adjoining his tavern he cultivated a tract of land to corn, pota-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 83
toes, oats and vegetables ; tluis providing refreshment for man and
beast.
Mrs. Rowan, from "Indianer"
Mrs. Rowan appears to have been an energetic, if somewhat un-
polished woman ; but she was a good housekeeper, and that was what
the situation and the weary travelers called for. She was a stalwart
champion of Indiana, as those found who sometimes twitted her on the
name of her native state, so suggestive of savagery to the rough jokers.
One of the most persistent repeatedly asked her to what tribe she be-
longed, and got his answer: "Gol dern it, I don't belong to no tribe:
I'm from Indianer!"
The Rowan Inn
]Mr. and Mrs. Rowan had two attractive daughters, who also assisted
to make the inn popular. One picture of Rowan's Hotel is thus drawn
by an old settler: "I arrived there in 1837 at 11 o'clock P. M. on
horseback. The hostler, a Frenchman, was yet up, making fires to keep
comfortable those who were sleeping on the floor. After taking care of
my horse, I went into the house. There was a good fire, and the floor
was covered with sleeping men. I asked the French hostler for some-
thing to eat; so he went out into the kitchen and brought me a whole
duck and two potatoes. He said that was all he could find cooked.
After eating I felt like lying down. He pointed to a place between two
men. I took my blanket and crowded myself into it.
Judge Doty Objects to the Hours
"Next morning the teamsters got up to feed their teams, and in
taking out their corn they scattered some inside and outside the house.
James Duane Doty (afterward governor) was lying next to the door in
his robes. I was next to him in my blanket. A lean, long, old sow found
the corn that the teamsters had scattered outside the door. This encour-
aged her to follow up the corn that was scattered inside. Finding some
among Doty's robes, she put her nose under hira and rolled him over,
when he exclaimed 'Landlord! Landlord! you must postpone my break-
fast for some time, as I am not yet rested.'
"Then I heard some curious noise outside which kept me awake;
so I got up and found that the noise was created by a grist mill erected
in front of the door for grinding corn into meal. A pestle hung to the
84 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
end of a spring pole; a mortar was made by burning out a hollow in
the top of a stump. We all of us had the first mess made out of this
mill, and you could compare it to nothing but the fine siftings of stone-
coal, such as you find in a l)lacksmith's shop. But we had good coffee
and plenty of honey. We all made a hearty breakfast and were thank-
ful for it,"
Last of the Rowans
Besides his tavern in De Korra, Rowan kept a trading house at
Portage in 1838. Two years lat«r, with a man named Wood, he made
a claim on Baraboo River, building a sawmill at the upper end of Bara-
boo village. They supplied the lumber used in building some of the
first houses in that place and made a business also of rafting lumber
down the Wisconsin River. In 1842 Rowan left Columbia County and
took his family with him to Baraboo. He soon after died, and neither
his eldest daughter Ducky, the beauty of the family, nor the homely
but helpful wife, long survived him.
The English Colonies of Potters
The most important "lump" addition to the pioneer settlers of
Columbia County occurred in 1847, when fifty unemployed potters of
Staffordshire, England, located in the town of Scott. The emigrants
were under the control of the Potters' Joint Stock Emigration Society
and Savings Fund, an English organization designed to encourage the
purchase of lands in the western states of this country for homesteads
and permanent settlement. Its fund was raised from weekly contribu-
tions of each member, the amount depending on the number of shares
held. Each share was fixed at one pound sterling.
It was proposed, with the moneys thus realized, that a certain num-
ber of families, chosen by ballot, should be sent to the society's land.
Each family was entitled to twenty acres of land, and the migrating
expenses of any colony were defrayed by the general fund. It was
also permitted any member wdio had paid one pound for his share, the
privilege of emigrating at his own expense; thereupon he was allowed
the choice of twenty acres of land, agreeing to cultivate it and erect a
dwelling on it. Anyone elected by ballot who did not choose to go
could designate a substitute. Women were permitted to become mem-
bers of the society, but could not hold office.
In 1846, when a sufficient emigrating fund had been raised, Hamlet
Copeland, John Sawyer and James Hammond were sent out by the
society to collect information and locate lands for the use of such union
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 85
potters as desired to go to the United States. They brought with them
a fine set of fancy pottery as a present to the general land commissioner
at Washington. When they arrived in that city the commissioner was
absent, but his brother, who was a clerk in the department, received
them — also the pottery, in the name of his chief — and advised them to
seek homestead lands in Wisconsin. Coming to the state they carefully
looked over the field, and selected 1,640 acres in a body, lying in the
town of Scott. This they surveyed into twenty-acre tracts, on each of
which was to be erected a dwelling house; all according to the regula-
tions of the society.
In Easter week of 1847 a colony of fifty-two started for the Western
lands. Among them were representatives of the eight branches of the
potters' union — Isaac Smith, Henry Dooley, Enoch Pickering, George
Summerfield, Joseph Cloous, Samuel Fox, George Robertshaw and Wil-
liam Bradshaw. The colonists left the potteries of Stafl'ordshire ac-
companied by a band of music and several thousand people, who came
to bid them farewell and God-speed. Taking ship at Liverpool, they
sailed for New York, landing at Castle Garden after a five-weeks'
voyage. By way of Erie canal they journeyed to Buffalo, N. Y., and
thence to Milwaukee by lake. Here the party was met by James Ham-
mond, who was to be their conductor to the selected lands.
Arrive in the Town op Scott
Arriving in Scott, they found but four houses erected, and all in
an unfinished condition. The men therefore went to work and built
houses for themselves, in the meantime living as best they could. At
that time provisions were hard to obtain, with or without money. For
days and sometimes weeks, bread was not to be obtained; potatoes, too,
were scarce, butter unknown, and the outlook was dreary indeed.
Discouraging reports were sent back to friends in England, which
had the effect of discouraging further emigration and crippling the
work of the society, ilany who had taken an active interest in the
work withdrew their aid, so much so that sufficient funds could not be
raised to even supply the wants of those who had been sent out. At
this juncture the society was reorganized, and instead of limiting its
membership to the potters, all trades were admitted.
Other Trades Recognized
A circular issued by the general agent of the society in May, 1848,
contains this: "At the commencement of the Potters' Joint Stock
86 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
Emigration Society, and up to the present time, its operations were con-
fined to potters alone. It is now the pleasure of the founder to announce
that these operations are thrown open to the service of other trades,
and that the success of the potters in their land movement for trade's
protection is of the most cheering character. Apart from strikes, they
have succeeded in raising the price of their labor upward of twenty
percent, and throughout a long and unparalleled stagnation of trade,
they have conserved the. improved price thus secured. This great suc-
cess is wholly a consequence of their land operations. Instead of re-
sorting to ruinous strikes, they have put the ax to the root of all Trades'
evil — sui-plus labor. In ninety-nine eases out of every 100, these just
demands have been complied with ; and when refused and men dis-
charged from their employ, these objects of per.seeution were at once
removed to self-supporting twenty-acre farms, rejoicing in their release
from the oppressors' yoke."
POTTERSVILLE
On the first purchase of land by the society in the town of Scott
were settled, in the first year, 134 persons. The settlement was called
Pottersville. The new rules adopted by the society secured to each
individual not only twenty acres of land, but a two j^ears' credit for
twelve months' provisions on the store of the colony, five acres of his
tract broken, sown and fenced, a log dwelling, and passage money of
himself, wife, and children under eighteen years of age.
Twigg's L.vnding
In 1849 Thomas Twigg was sent out with full power to purchase
50,000 acres of land,, and as agent for the society he bought extensive
tracts in the towns of Fort Winnebago, Columbia County, and Mound-
ville, Marquette County. On Section 4, in the northern part of Fort
Winnebago Township on the banks of the Fox River, he opened a
society store and a blacksmith shop, calling the little settlement Twigg 's
Landing. The means of transportation across the river was given the
rather high-sounding name of Emancipation Ferry.
DiSBANDMENT OP THE SOCIETY
But the English colonists were not yet fully emancipated from their
troubles. The stewards in charge of the store contracted debts which
they could not meet. Suits were brought against the society, judgment
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 87
olitained and a levy made upon the more improved lauds in the town
of Seott. Friends of the parties then living on the land bought it in
and permitted the occupants to remain thereon. News of this state of
affairs reached England, and confidence was destroyed in the manage-
ment of the society, which soon disbanded. A few of the emigrants
returned to the mother country, but the greater part remained, some
of whom entered other lands in Columbia and adjoining counties and
became substantial citizens.
Inhabitants of County (1846), 1,200
With the spread of the land surveys and the establishment of land
tenures on a solid basis, immigrants came to Columbia County for the
purpose of making permanent homes within its borders; so that by
1846, when it assumed a civic body, there were over 1,200 persons under
the protection of the county government. But before commencing the
story of the political creation of the county, there are several topics
which seem best to be considered as logically belonging to the earlier,
or pioneer era: First, the importance of the portage, as indicated by
various French, English and American maps covering more than two
centuries; and secondly, the natural and artificial means of transpor-
tation for which Columbia County has become marked in the develop-
ment of interior Wisconsin.
Columbia County on Early Maps
As early as 1632 Champlain, then at Quebec, drew a map of the valley
of the St. Lawrence and of the region of the upper lakes — the first
attempt to cover that territory. His delineations of the country to the
westward and the northwestward of Lake Huron were wholly from
Indian reports. Upon this map Fox River is placed to the north of
Lake Superior and the Wisconsin is rudely given as leading into a
northern sea. There is a narrow space between the two rivers, and
possibly it had been described to him by the savages.
But tlie first map of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and the portage
made with any accuracy was by Father jMarquette, and we have seen
how it was made from actual observation. The portage is distinctly
traced and the general course of the two rivers given.
Other maps were published down to 1768, when a very credita])le
one in consideration of the circumstances under which it was made,
appeared in the "Travels" of J. Carver, the English voyager already
alluded to. This map locates the "carrying place," and depicts Swan
88 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Lake and traces with much precision the course of Bai-aboo River along
which Carver passed on his way toward the far Northwest. On the
south side of Lake Puekaway is located the "Winnebago Upper Town
and on Sauk Prairie, down the Wisconsin, the "Saukies Chief Town."
At the time Carter drew his map the portage was substantially the
boundary line between the hunting grounds of the Winuebagoes upon
the Fox River and the Sacs on the "Wisconsin. But in the course of a
few j'ears the former had crowded the Sacs far down the "Wisconsin
River.
In 1S30 John Farmer, of Detroit, published a "^lap of the Terri-
tories of Michigan and Ouiseonsin. " Fort Winnebago appears as if
situated between the Fox and Wisconsin, while Roi's (Le Roy's) house
occupies the site where the fort was, in fact, located — that is, on the
east side of the Fox. Pauquette's place is designated farther down
the last mentioned stream, but on the west side. The Baraboo River is
noted as Bonibau's Creek, while Duck Creek appears by its proper name,
but iu French — Riviere aux Canards. Neenah Creek is put down as
The Fork of the Fox. Winnebago villages are represented down the
Fox and the Wisconsin and upou the Baraboo, but none so near the
Portage of the Ouiseonsin as to bring them within the present bounds
of Columbia County.
In Farmer's revised map of 1836 Fort Winnebago appears in its
correct location, and but one road — the Military — is represented as
leading from it.
The first "^lap of Wiskonsin Territory, Compiled from Public Sur-
veys" published in the late '30s, contains a representation of so much
of the present Columbia County as lies east of the Fox and Wisconsin
rivers, the northwest section being still held by the Menominees. Fort
Winnebago is correctly located on the east side of the Fox River, the
Grignon Tract occupying the space between the two rivers. The pro-
posed canal riins from the outlet of Swan Lake to the point on Duck
Creek where the stream is crossed by the main road leading south from
Fort Winnebago. This road continues on to Pauquette, afterward
called PojTiette, then in a southwesterly direction toward the Blue
Mounds. Duck Creek appears as Wauonah River, Rock Run as Taynah
River and Spring Creek as Ockee River. Pauquette is a small village.
A larger one is Ida, on the north side of Swan Lake and a still larger
one De Korra, on the Wisconsin. A road leads out of De Korra due
east into Dodge County, to what is now Horicon, a branch
a more northerlv direction toward Fond du Lac.
CHAPTER VII
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
The Military Road — In Columbia County — Territorial and Other
Highways — Preliminary Survey op the Fox and Wisconsin
Rivers — The Old Portage Canal — The Canal in 1851 — New
Canal Completed by the Government — Boscobel Really
Through — Control of Floods by Levee Systems — Cost and His-
tory OP Great Public Work — First Dyke Gives Way — Lewiston
Levee IIebuilt — Another Levee to Protect Caledonia and
Portage — Floods of the Wisconsin River — La Crosse & Mil-
wAutrEE Railroad — Reaches Points in Columbia County —
Development op the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul —
Chicago & North Western — Wisconsin Central Commenced at
Portage — Completion of Line (1871) — The M., St. Paul &
S. Ste. Marie.
As the Pox and Wisconsin valleys formed the natural highway
connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi, their protection by
the General Government meant everything for the development of
Central and Southern Wisconsin. Hence the construction of Fort
Howard at the eastern terminus, Fort Crawford at the western, and
Fort Winnebago, midway at the portage. For about half of the year
furs and provisions could be transported by water, but the Government
troops passing from post to post, or engaged in movements against
the Indians, had to do the best they could, forcing their way through
uncharted forests, wading through swamps, throwing rough bridges
over swollen streams, and, when they were on the march or called into
active service, being obliged to endure great hardships.
The experiences of the Black Hawk war, and the probability that
there might be further trouble mth the Indians before the country
could be considered fairly safe for purposes of settlement, induced
the Government to build a crude military road along the historic Indian
trails up the Fox and down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi.
89
90 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The ^Military Road
Therefore early in 1835, Lewis Cass, then secretary of war, sent
out orders to open, lay out and bridge a road from Fort Howard to
Fort Crawford, via Fond du Lae and Fort Winnebago. The soldiers at
Fort Crawford were to build and bridge this Military Road to Fort
Winnebago; those stationed at Fort Winnebago from their post to the
Fond du Lac River, bridging that stream, and those at Fort Howard
to open the road from their post to Fond du Lac. The garrisons at the
three posts were under the general command of Brigadier Gen. George
M. Brooke, and comprised the Fifth Regiment of the Regular Army.
The active survey and building of the road were entrusted to Lieuten-
ant Centre and James Duane Doty. The latter was then forty-five
years old, and years before, as secretary to Lewis Cass and judge
under appointment of President Monroe, had traveled through the
territory and became especially familiar with the Fox and Wisconsin
valleys. Both were splendid men to put through the Military Road.
In Columbia County
As for Columliia County, the road entered it from the south on
Section 31, Township 10, Range 9 east (Town of Arlington), ran in a
northeasterly direction to what is now Poynette, and thence almost
due north to Fort Winnebago. From that post it ran through the
southern sections of the present towns of Fort Winnebago, Mareellon,
Scott and Randolph, to Fox Lake, Dodge County, and thence to Wau-
pun. Fond du Lac and Fort Howard.
It was, as stated, a crude affair, but a great improvement over no
highway whatever. The road was built by cutting through timber
land, clearing a track about two rods wide, and setting mile stakes. On
the prairies the latter were set and small mounds of earth thrown
up. Where stone could be found, it was used; otherwise the earth was
thro^^Ti up. On the marshes and other low places corduroy roads were
made by crossing timbers and covering them with brush and eartli.
Territorial and Other Highways
In 1837 a Territorial Road was opened from Fort Winnebago, run-
ning east through the town by that name into Mareellon, thence in a
northeasterly direction into Marquette Count}', intersecting the Mili-
tary Road at Fond du Lac. This highway has often been mistaken for
HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY 91
the Military Road, from the fact that during certain seasons of tli"
■ year it was traveled more than the other.
About the same time two roads were opened from the village of
De Korra — one taking an easterly course and intersecting the Military
Road "near Fox Lake ; the other running east, through Horicon, Dodge
County, and thence to Lake Michigan, at a point then called Sauk
Harbor (now Saukville, Ozaukee County). This road was surveyed
by the General Government.
Another road was opened from Swan Lake, taking a southeasteiiy
direction into Jefferson County. Fi'om Pauquette (Poyiiette) a road
was opened south to the City of the Four Lakes, and another, to Madi-
son. These comprised all the roads laid out in the county previous to
1838.
Preliminary Survey of the Fox and AVisconsin Rivers
In the following year (1839) a preliminary survey of the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers was made by Government engineers, with the idea of
finally perfecting a great navigable waterway across the state. Even
ten years before, the subject of the improvement had been agitated,
one of its chief features being the construction of a canal at the portage.
To tell the truth, in a few words, the building of the canal at Portage
City and the construction of a score of locks along the Fox River
comprise the sum total of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement,
about which tons of literature have been created. And it has taken
over sixty years to accomplish this. The scheme is a good one, but it
has been terribly bungled.
Changes in Management
Active work was not begun on the Upper Fox until after the admis-
sion of Wisconsin as a state in 1848. In 1853 the governor advised
that as the enterprise was in a hopeless state financially it be incor-
porated as the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Improvement Company. His
suggestion was followed and in 1854 Congress added to the land grants
which had already been voted by the state to aid the work. In 1856
the company was obliged to reconstruct a portion of the work already
done, but capital was scarce and a little later Eastern capitalists bought
the enterprise and reorganized it as the Green Bay & Mississippi Canal
Company. In 1866, after 680,000 acres of land and $2,000,000 had
gone into the "improvements," the work was turned over to the Fed-
eral Goveniment, and whatever has really been accomplished has been
92 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
by United States engineers. To all outward appearances the great
waterway scheme has been abandoned, although it may be resuscitated,
and of late years the Federal Government has confined its work to the
Lower Fox.
The Old Portage Canal
The harrowing experience of the two-mile canal at Portage is typ-
ical of the general history of the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement. As
early as 1837 a company was chartered as the Portage Canal Com-
pany. The incorporators, owners of the village plat, were Sheldon
Thompson, of Buffalo; DeGarmo Jones, of Detroit; Robert McPherson,
Daniel Whitney, S. P. Griffith and others. Digging for the canal com-
menced in 1838 at a point on the Fox River now crossed by the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. Its course may be described as on the
line of Bronson Avenue about two rods north, entering the Wisconsin
River near Mac Street. After $10,000 had been spent by the company
work was abandoned. Then the scheme slumbered for eight years,
when Congress granted the State of Wisconsin alternate sections of
land for three miles on each side of the Fox River to aid in the build-
ing of locks and the canal. The state accepted the grant and on the
1st of June, 1849, work was again commenced under the common-
wealth. But the contractors and the State Board of Public Works
quarreled, the workmen did not get their wages for weeks and some-
times months at a time, and after a couple of years of vexatious com-
plications the canal was again abandoned.
The Canal in 1851
A resident of Portage thus describes the state of affairs in March,
1851: "The banks of the canal at this place are cnnnbliug before
the thaw, in many places, and falling into the stream. The planking is
in great part afloat. By prompt attention the work done on the canal
may be saved to the state. As it is now it presents a melancholy spec-
tacle of premature decay. The unpaid laborers, lately employed on the
work, whose destitution and wrongs have aroused the indignation and
.sympathies of our citizens, will hardly assist in its repair unless they
are secured in their pay, nor will they suffer strangers to be duped and
wronged as they themselves have been."
Repairs were subsequently made, the water let in, and on May 24.
1851, a boat attempted to pass the canal. The "attempt" is thus chron-
icled by a local paper: "The beautiful steamer, 'John ]\Iitchell,' nearly
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
93
accomplished the feat of passing through the canal at this place on
Saturday last. She came up as far as Main street. As the 'John Mit-
chell' came up the canal, the 'Enterprise' came up the Wisconsin river
to the head of the canal. The blustering rivalry between these inhab-
itants of different waters (the throat of each giving its best puff and
whistle alternately) was quite exhilarating, and called out a large con-
course of citizens to gaze upon the scene presented and make predic-
tions for the future. After a short time boats and citizens withdrew,
amid strains of music, and the noise and confusion were over."
The water was drawai off and the work of strengthening the banks
and bottom, to prevent the (juicksand from pouring in and filling up
\Vis('()x>iK River Lock, Portage
the bed, was proceeded with. But evidently somebody had sadly blun-
dered, for on August 31st the water was let in, and on the following
morning the bottom planking was floating about on the surface. Dur-
ing the next month the high waters of Wisconsin River cut a channel
through the southern bank of the canal, some fifty yards wide and ten
feet deep, and a warehouse, several dwellings, a quantity of lumber and
most of the canal planking were washed into the Fox River.
New Canal Completed by the Government
Virtually no further work was done on the canal for more than
twenty years, or until the Government engineers under Colonel Hous-
94 HISTORY OF COLr:\IBIA COrXTY
ton, commeneed operations in the fall of 1S74. It was virtually a new
undertaking. The contractors were Couro, Starke & Company, of
]\lilwaukee, who commenced work at the lower end of the old canal
channel, using a steam excavator, wheelbarrows and small construction
cars. By June, 1876, the canal had been completed — two and a half
miles long, seventy-five feet wide and seven feet from the top of the
revetment to the bed. There was sis feet of water.
On the 30th of June, 1876, the United States steamer Boscobel
passed through the canal — the first boat to do so.
As completed, the Portage City lock connects it with the Wisconsin
River, having a lift of nine feet, and the Fort Winnebago lock, with
a lift of six feet connects it with the Fox River. Between gates, the
locks are thirty-five feet wide and 160 long.
Boscobel Really Through
As a little item of interest, it may be mentioned that when the con-
tractors turned the canal over to the Government on July 30, 1876,
the party selected to make the trip of inspection comprised Hon. Alva
Stewart, Hon. R. L. D. Potter, and Messrs. G. J. Cox, E. E. Chapin,
A. J. Turner, T. L. Kennan, W. D. Fox, Fred W. Schulze, E. S Baker
and John Cable. The trial trip on the Boscobel, which concluded with-
out a hitch, was the natural occasion for the. unloading of considerable
history. "One who was there" remarked: "As the steamer coursed
its way dowTi to the Fox, trains passed by on the several divisions of
the railroad. For some distance the theme of conversation was the
change wrought in the line of trade and commerce by the introduction
of steam power, and we all wondered how Louis Joliet regarded it, if
his spirit was floating about in this vicinity, where 203 years before,
on the 17th of June, he had hauled his batteau across this same port-
age on his voyage of discover.y, where steamboats and railroads now
hold sway."
CoxTROL OF Floods by Levee Systems
But the problems growing out of the natural relations which exist
between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were not confined to joining
their waters by an artificial channel; a greater one and a more press-
ing problem was how to regulate them so that property and life would
be conserved. With the Wisconsin level eight feet above that of the
Fox at all average stages, and twenty feet, at flood tide, evidently
something had to be done to protect the low lands adjacent to the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 95
Wisconsin and the entire Upper Fox Valley for a distance of 100 miles.
Hence the Levee System, the most important section of which is the
twenty miles constructed in Portage, the Town of Lewiston northwest
of it, and in Caledonia and Pacific, to the south and southeast. In the
earlier years, commencing with 1882, the system, which extended along
the Baraboo River into Sauk County, was controlled by the General
Government, but since 1901 the work has been supervised by the State
Levee Commission, of which Leonard S*. Smith is chief engineer.
Cost and History of Great Public Work
From first to last fully $150,000 have been expended on the levee
system by the General Government, the state, the towns named, the
City of Portage — about .$50,000 by the last named. It is by far the
most important public work prosecuted in Columbia County.
On December 31, 1900, a memorial was presented to Congress,
signed by J. E. Jones, mayor of Portage; Peter A. Paulson, chairman
of Lewiston; Hugh Roberts, chairman of Caledonia, and George Ker-
shaw, chairman of Pacific, asking that the levee system in Columbia
County be inspected, strengthened and enlarged. From this memo-
rial is condensed a history of the great public work, so essential to the
safety of the settlers of the Upper Fox Valley, the City of Portage and
adjacent country.
The territory bordering on the Wisconsin River in Columbia
County for a distance of about ten miles above the City of Portage and
six miles below, is for the greater part so low that in seasons of unusual
floods the adjacent lands were formerly submerged, the waters over-
flowing the right bank of the river expanding across the prairie to the
Baraboo River, and those over the left bank finding an outlet across
the low lands above Portage into the Big Slough, or Neenah Creek,
and thence to the Fox River. The lowest point where the Wisconsin
River first left its banks was about six miles above Portage on its left
bank, where the Big Slough at its course was separated from the river
by a short distance.
First Dyke Gives Way
As the country in the valleys of the Neenah and Fox rivers became
occupied and highways and railroads were constructed, the necessity
for shutting off the discharge of the Wisconsin River into those streams
became fully apparent, and in 1861 a small dyke was constructed
across the most exposed points, from money arising from the sale of
96 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
reclaimed Government lands in the Town of Lewiston. This dyke
answered its purpose very well, except in emergencies, but during the
high waters of 1880 — it was swept away at several points. The valleys
of the Neenah and Fox were converted into a lake 100 miles in length
and several miles in width, inflicting vast damage to owners of prop-
erty and interrupting the running of trains on the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul and the Wisconsin Central lines for from a week to ten days.
Lewiston Lev'ee Rebuilt
Property owners in the devastated district at first charged the dams
at the outlet of Lake Winnebago with being the source of the floods;
but the state saw the matter in its true light, and in 1882 to guard
against a recurrence of the disaster appropriated from its swamp land
fund $6,000 to construct a suitable levee at the exposed places on the
north side of the river above Portage, in the Town of Lewiston. Upon
a survey being made the amount advanced to the General Government
was found to be inadequate, and Congress in the same year, to prevent
further damage to its locks and other improvements along the Fox
River, appropriated another $6,000 to aid in the construction of the
Lewiston Levee. But the President vetoed the bill which embraced this
item, and the measure finally passed cut down the appropriation to
$3,000. But the Town of Lewiston and the County of Columbia applied
what resources they could, although the Lewiston Levee is still consid-
ered the weakest section in the entii'e system.
Another Levee to Protect Caledoni.v and Portage
The construction of the levee in Lewiston resulted in throwing tlie
waters of the Wisconsin that had formerly escaped to the north into
the Fox River, over the lowlands south of the river and so into the
valley of the Baraboo, through which they found their way back into
the Wisconsin River some five miles south of Portage. This result
necessitated the building of a levee by the Town of Caledonia and the
City of Portage, some ten miles in length on the right bank of the
river. This was constructed in 1883, but with repeated strengthening
was found to be quite inadequate to withstand floods of any severity.
Government Levee, Last of the System
In 1886 Congress passed an act providing for the construction of a
levee on the east bank of the Wisconsin River, in the City of Portage
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 97
and Town of Pacific. At the time of the unusual rise of 1900 the Gov-
ernment engineer requested the mayor to act as his agent, and all
possible efforts were made by the city authorities to preserve the levee
intact. But the river rose to such an unprecedented height that
crevasses occurred in it and much damage followed. During the sum-
mer the breaks were repaired by the Government and strengthened in
some degree, but in a manner quite insufficient to withstand a second
flood later in the season. The upper, or Wisconsin River lock, narrowly
escaped destruction by the terrible floods of 1900. The Fox River lock
was badly shattered.
Since 1901 the state has assumed charge of the levee system and has
appropriated some $60,000, most of the late work being designed to
reconstruct the Government levee which protects the eastern part of
the City of Portage, the Government canal and the four lines of rail-
road radiating therefrom. The last appropriation was made in 1912
and considerable work was accomplished along these lines in 1913.
Floods op the "Wisconsin River
That the people of Poi-tage and of the Fox and "Wisconsin valleys
had cause for constant alarm before the levee system of Columbia
County was as effective as it is now, will be evident even to those who
have not lived in the threatened, and often ravaged territory, by a
brief review of the seasons when the "Wisconsin River has gone on a
rampage and uproariously left its banks. The last occasion for general
alarm was on October 11, 1911, on the afternoon of that day the United
States gauge at Portage recording 12.9 feet, which was within a foot
of the "Wisconsin River lock and three-tenths of an inch higher than
the water mark of the 1905 flood. But the levees held, and a news-
paper prediction of what might happen was not especially appalling
to even timid people : "If the rise continues it is likely the water will
go over the levees on the Caledonia side first, and thus relieve the situa-
tion on the city side. The water is now within a foot of the top of the
"Wisconsin River lock. A break at the lock would let a big head of
water down the canal and do immense damage, but that is regarded as
almost impossible. The river certainly would go over the levees in
■many places and lower the flood before it could reach the top of the
lock.""
The first flood of the "Wisconsin at Portage was in 1838. There
were two feet and a half of water on the flat between the Wisconsin
and Fox rivers in the main current between those streams. It is said
that a loaded boat from Galena drawing two feet of water crossed from
98 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the Wisconsin River to Fort Winnebago. The flat between Portage
and Baraboo was a sea. The water was eight feet above the low water
mark.
The second very high water occurred in 1845 and hieked one inch
of reaching the mark of 1838. It occurred in July and lasted five days.
The third flood occurred in 1866, and was an inch lower than that of
1845. There was also very high water in 1850 and 1852.
In 1880 came the record-breaker up to that time. The Portage
Democrat of June 18th, that year, tells why: "Portage is as nearly
isolated from the outside world as a walled city with the gates closed.
Turn your eyes in whatever direction and they rest upon a waste of
water. We can imagine something of the sensation Noah experienced
when he navigated his craft into the harbor on Mt. Ararat. Never
before in the history of floods has so much property been destroyed
in the vicinity of Portage. The bottom lands l)etween the Wisconsin
and Baraboo rivers are inundated. The levee in Lewiston gave way
Tuesday night, June 15th, and the back water of the Wisconsin now
finds an outlet through Big Slough, down Neenah Creek and into the
Fox River. The plank road is covered inches deep and the marshes
between that highway and Swan Lake would serve a better purpose as
fish ponds than for cattle grazing. Trains are suspended on all roads
except the old line, and that track is not more than two inches above
the water. Unless the floods soon subside, Portage wiW lie compelled
to adopt the Venetian mode of travel. ' '
During the week of June 14, 1880, the main line of the Milwaukee
Road was flooded between Portage and Kilboumi on Lewiston Marsh,
where the river broke through the levee, and the Democrat of the 18th
says: "A section of the track on Lake George marsh is flooded and
men are at work night and day barricading against the waves. The
Madison and Portage branch between the main line switch and Wood's
crossing is submerged, and travel on that railroad has been obstructed
several days. The Wisconsin Central is in its worse condition. Not a
train has run above Stevens Point since Wednesday. Three or four
miles beyond Stevens Point the track is built along the bank of the
Wisconsin, and there an engineer lost his life on Tuesday. His family
were sick at the Point and the unfortunate man was drowned trying to
reach them."
In October, 1881, the water reached a height within an inch of the
flood of 1880. The levee at Lewiston again broke on the 4th, and from
that time until the 29th no trains were running on the Milwaukee &
Portage Branch of the Milwaukee Road. The entrance to Portage
HISTORY OF COLU:\IBIA COUNTY 99
from Caledonia, Fort Winnebago and the plank road was completely
obstructed for several weeks.
By the evening of April 23, 1900, the river registered 11.6 at Port-
age, overflowing the top of the shorter gauge then in use at the Wiscon-
sin River lock. That afternoon, at 4 o'clock, one hundred feet of
the First Ward Levee near the old toll gate broke out, flooding the
adjacent fiats. The strong current setting across the marshes toward
the Fox submerged the Madison branch and cut a 300-ft. gap in the
main line of the Milwaukee Railroad. Fort Winnebago Lock was partly
washed oiit and had to be rebuilt.. Nearly the whole First Ward was
Scene in Flooded District, South from Kilbourn
under water. The flood was held at Wisconsin River Lock only by
erecting embankments of bags filled with sand.
In the fall of 1900 came another flood, on the 9th of October a new
and longer gauge showing 12.5 feet in the Wisconsin at Portage.
Trains were again forced to quit on the Portage and Madison line.
Levees on the south bank broke, and travel between the city and Cale-
donia was suspended.
At 6 P. M., June 11, 1905, the Wisconsin rose majestically to a height
of 12.6 feet, which remained the record until the flood of 1911. By
this time the system especially protective of Portage had been so
extended and strengthened that all the levees held except the one near
the Barden Place, which let several feet of water onto the Caledonia
100 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
low lands. As usual the Madison & Portage Railroad tracks got a
bath from the Duck Creek backwater and several trains were held up.
As stated, although the flood of 1911 was of unprecedented height,
the levee system proved its worth. Outside of Portage the most uneasi-
ness was felt at Kilbouni City, where the waters reached a terrific
volume and battered at the gi-eat power dam which is the source of the
electrical supply of Milwaukee, Portage, Watertown and Kilbourn
itself.
The floods of 1905 and 1911 have fully proven the splendid protect-
ive value of the levee system to the people and the institutions of the
Fox and Wisconsin valleys, not only fixed in Columbia County, but
for miles beyond its borders.
La Crosse & ^Milwaukee Railroad
Having passed in review the chief features of the Columbia County
waterways, natural and artificial, her modern and most important
means of communication remain to be described — her iron ways. A
glance at her map is all that is required to know that the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad is her all-important agency for trans-
portation and communication. The father of the system, which covers
all except one northern township of the county and its southwestern
corner, was the La Crosse & ililwaukee Railroad Company. It was
incorporated in 1852, among its organizing commissioners being Hugh
McFarlane, one of the proprietors of the village site of Portage. In
the following year the Milwaukee & Fond du Lac and the Milwaukee,
Fond du Lac & Green Bay railroads were consolidated, and the con-
stniction of a line commenced from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac. In
1854 the Milwaukee, Fond du Lac & Green Bay and the La Crosse &
Milwaukee were consolidated under the latter name, proceeding ^vith
the construction of the road already commenced, but turning the line
toward La Crosse.
Reaches Points in Columbia County
The road was completed to Fox Lake on November 1, 1855, to Port-
age, March 14, 1857. and to Kilbourn City, in August of the same year.
This is the branch which enters Columbia County, via Randolph and
Cambria, taking in Pardeeville, and then passing along the northern
shores of Swan Lake, to Portage and Lewiston, and thence to Kilbourn
City. The entire line was opened to La Crosse in October, 1858.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 101
Development of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
In 1863 the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company was formed
by New York and Milwaukee capitalists, the corporation having pur-
chased the western division of the La Crosse & Milwaukee line running
between Portage and La Crosse. Their articles of agreement also
stipulated that they might purchase the Milwaukee & Western (Water-
town) Road, from Milwaukee to Columbus. These and other minor
lines were absorbed by the vigorous Milwaukee & St. Paul, which, in
order to own a through line from Milwaukee to La Crosse, constructed
twenty-eight miles of track from Columbus to Portage. That section
in Columbia County was opened to travel in September, 1864, its sta-
tions beyond Columbus being Fall River, Doylestown, Rio and
Wyocena. '
In 1872 the ]\Iilwaukee & St. Paul Company purchased the Chicago
& St. Paul Railroad running from St. Paul to Winona and Crescent,
opposite La Crosse, and in the same year the line was completed
between Chicago and Milwaukee. Then, in February, 1874, by an act
of the Wisconsin Legislature, the name of the company became the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company.
In 1856-7 the La Crosse & Milwaukee Company partly graded a
track for a railroad between Madison and Portage, but with the col-
lapse of that company the work was abandoned. In 1869 a new com-
pany was formed which procured the right-of-way and grade of the
old concern. Principally through the efforts of James Campbell and
R. B. Sanderson the road was completed. On January 8, 1871, a large
delegation of Portage citizens took the first passenger train to Madi-
son over the new line. It was for a time operated by the St. Paul
Company under a lease, and in 1878 that company bought the road out-
right, which now forms the southern division of its system in Columbia
county. Poynette and Arlington are its principal stations.
Chicago & North Western
The Chicago & North Western Railway passes through the south-
western corner of Columbia County for about seven miles. It was
originally a section of the Madison Extension, and still earlier the
Baraboo Air Line. It reached Lodi in 1871. Okee is the only other
station in the county.
102 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Wisconsin Central Commenced at Portage
As early as 1864 Congress granted to the State of Wisconsin vari-
ous public lands to aid in the construction of a railroad from Southern
Wisconsin to Lake Superior, Portage City being named as a possible
terminus. After considerable wrangling over the land grant, Portage
was actually named, and the Portage & Superior Company came into
existence. The board was organized at Portage, June 5, 1866, and the first
stake of the road was set in that city, June 15, 1869, after a consolidation
of the Winnebago & Superior and the Portage & Superior. In 1871
the name of the company was changed to the Wisconsin Central.
Completion of Line (1877)
In 1870 the Portage, Stevens Point & Superior Railroad Company
was incorporated, with W. W. Corning, S. A. Pease, A. J. Turner,
Robert Cochrane, G. L. Park, J. 0. Raymond, Seth Reeves, George A.
Neeves and Joseph Wood as directors, for the purpose of building a
road on a direct line from Portage to Stevens Point, to connect with the
land-grant road. On the 3d of December, of the same year, the com-
pany was consolidated with the Portage, Winnebago & Superior Com-
pany, and its route was adopted as the line of the land-grant road. The
legislature of 1876 gave its consent to the change of route, which was
ratified by Act of Congress in the same year. In June of the follow-
ing year the Wisconsin Central Railroad completed its entire line of
330 miles through the state, much of the way through unbroken forest.
The M.. St. Palt. & S. Ste. Marie
The stretch of the road which runs north from Portage through the
Town of Winnebago is now included in the Minneapolis, St. Paul and
Sault Ste. ]\Iarie Railroad Company, which absorbed the Wisconsin
Central System in 1905.
CHAPTER VIII
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
Old Portage County — First Casting op Ballots — Columbia Set Off
PROM Portage County — First Annual Election — James T. Lewis
Insists on Columbia — The County Officers — Sheriffs — Clerks
op Circuit Court — District Attorneys — County Clerks — County
Treasurers — Registers of Deeds — Coroners — County Surveyors
— Boards of County Commissioners — Chairmen of County Board
OF Supervisors — County Seat Fights — Temporary County Build-
ings— First Steps Toward Permanent Courthouse — The Court-
house Completed — County Jail and Sheriff's Residence — Home
FOR County Insane and Poor — The Circuit Court — Probate and
County Court.
It is not necessary to go further back into the political history of
Columbia County than 1836 ; that is the logical year, in fact. Rowan,
its first permanent settler, established his homestead in 1836, and on
the 7th of December of that year the Territorial Legislature set off
Portage County from Brown and Crawford. A portion of the present
Town of Caledonia remained in old Crawford County, a small slice of
Sauk County with "Sauk Prairie" as its nucleus was included in the
newly created County of Portage, which also included the western tier
of towns in the present Dodge. Otherwise its territory corresponded
with the Columbia County of today.
Old Portage County
In 1838 Portage County was set off into the Town of Lowe, and the
election polls were established at the Indian agency house. But the
polls were never opened, for about a week later the boundaries of
the county were rearranged and the county seat established at Kentucky
City. That town had been platted the year before upon the present
site of De Korra, and thus, for a brief period, snatched the county seat
103
104 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
from Winnebago City, on the south side of Swan Lake, where it was
established when Portage County was created in 1836. Both were
among the paper cities which spring up in everj' new country to com-
pete for the honor of being the "shire town." Kentucky City has some
claims for historical recognition, for it was really the predecessor of
the existent Village of De Korra.
In 1841 the Ten-itorial Legislature so enlarged the boundaries of
Portage County as to include in its territory the present counties of
Columbia, Adams, Juneau, AYood; the eastern portions of Taylor, Price
and Iron, and the western portions of Marquette, Portage, IMarathon,
Lincoln and Langlade. The election precincts of the enlarged county
were established at the Franklin House, Portage; Stephen's Mills, at
the Big Bull Falls.
Election precinct.s for the enlarged county were established, but the
few settlers neglected to vote, and in 1842 the sheriff of Dane County
(to which Portage had been attached for political and judicial purposes)
called an election for choosing the officers of Portage County. The time
set was the fourth Monday in March.
First C.vsting op Ballots
In April, 1S42, the voters selected Plover (now a postoffiee a few
miles from Stevens Point, Portage County) as the county seat, its com-
petitor being Fort, "Winnebago. At the first meeting of the county com-
missioners held at Captain Low's "Franklin House," on the 20th of the
month, three election precincts were established in the territory compris-
ing Columbia County — Columbus, voting place at Stroud and Dickin-
son's mills: De Korra, the house of LaFayette Hill, and the Winnebago
portage, Captain Low's hotel.
Hon. John Q. Adams made the election returns to the county seat at
Plover. About fifty votes were polled in this precinct and one hundred
and twenty-five in the county. The day after the election ilr. Adams
started with the returns. He went as far as Dickason's (Wyoeena)
\dth the i\Iajor, the latter on foot and Mr. Adams mounted on a pony.
This was ]\Ir. Adams's first experience in the "ride and tie" mode of
traveling. One rode a couple of miles or more, tied his horse to a blazed
tree and walked along the trail until he was overtaken and passed, and
afterward came up with the horse tied and waiting for him. This was
not a sociable way of journeying, and often the party overtaken would
trot along beside his mounted friend to get a few minutes' chat. One
day on the trail satisfied Mr. Adams that it was hardly worth while for
him to take a trip of 100 miles to carry the returns of fifty votes.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 105
and handed his papers over to Charles Temple, who was going with the
returns of the Winnebago Precinct — a proceeding which would hardly
be tolerated in these days, when such strict safeguards are thrown around
the ballot box to protect it from tamperers.
Columbia Set Off from Portage County
On February 3, 1846, the Territorial Legislature set off Columbia
County from Portage, and provided for its civil and judicial organiza-
tion on May 1st following. Its bounds were the same as the present,
except the northwestern portion between the Fox and Wisconsin riv-
ers, which was still included in the Indian lands of the Menominees.
At the election in April, Solomon Leach, John Q. Adams and John
Langdon were elected county commissioners, and on July 16, 1846,
Messrs. Leach and Adams met at the house of Major Elbert Dickason
at Wyocena and organized the board. Mr. Leach was elected chairman
and James C. Carr, clerk. The only business transacted was the forma-
tion of eight precincts for the fall election, "without any particular
authority, ' ' as the chairman afterward declared.
The election precincts are here enumerated, as the "judges of elec-
tion" include most of the leading citizens of the county in 1846. For
the LeRoy Precinct the election was to be held at the house of Oliver
Langdon, with Nathan Griffith, James Buoy and Irwin McCall as judges
of election ; Columbus Precinct, at the house of A. P. Birdsey, Asa
Proctor, J. T. Lewis (afterward Wisconsin's War governor), and Jere-
miah Drake, judges of election; Dyersburgh Precinct, at the house of
Landy Sowards, who, with Jonathan E. Haight and Henry Pellet, were
named as judges; Lowville Precinct, at the house of Jacob Low, with
William Young, Henry Herring and Stephen Brayton, judges of elec-
tion; De Korra Precinct, at the house of LaFayette Hill — Joshua W.
Rhodes, John Springer and Thomas Swearingen, judges of election;
Pleasant Valley Precinct, election at the house of Marston Bartholomew
— election judges, Mr. Bartholomew, Aaron Chalfant and J. Maynard;
Winnebago Portage Precinct, at the house of Gideon Low, with Henry
Merrell, Richard F. Veeder and Daniel D. Robertson as judges ; and the
Wyocena Precinct, at the house of Elbert Dickason — Charles Spear,
Darius Bisbee and Harvey Bush, election judges.
First Annual Election
On the first ^londay of September (7th), 1846, the first annual elec-
tion was held for legislative, county and precinct offices. Whig and
106 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
democratic tickets were in the field, and the result of the election was
"honors even," as witness: Territorial Council, Mason C. Darling
(democrat) ; House of Representatives, Hugh McFarlane (democrat)
and Elisha Morrow (democrat) ; members of the Constitutional Conven-
tion, Jeremiah Drake (whig) and LaFayette Hill (whig) ; probate judge,
Silas Walsworth (whig), who refused to qualify, and James T. Le\vis
(whig) was appointed in his place; sheriff, Thomas C. Smith (demo-
crat) ; clerk of board of county commissioners. Nelson Swartout (whig),
who resigned in favor of Wayne B. Dyer (whig) ; treasurer, James C.
Carr (whig) ; collector, John Swarthout (democrat) ; register of deeds,
Elbert Dickason (democrat) ; surveyor, Albert Toplifif (whig) ; coroner,
Daniel E. Bassett (whig) ; county commissioners, R. F. Yeeder (whig),
Nathan Griffin (whig) and John D. JlcCall (whig).
This election was believed to be void, as it was held under the action
of the board of commissioners chosen in April. There was some doubt
about the legality of their election, but everybody, including the mem-
bers themselves, were quite positive that they had no authority to divide
the county into election precincts. So in February, 1847, the Legisla-
ture legalized the election of the previous September. Consequently
Columbia County was fully and firmly organized.
The title of the Menoroinee Indians having been extinguished, a legis-
lative act was passed in 1849 taking in their former territory between
the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, thus giving the county its present form
and area.
James T. Lewis Insists on "Columbia"
To James T. Lewis is generally accorded the credit of fixing the
name of Columbia on the county. But it had a narrow escape from
"York." ^Ir. Lewis, of Columbus, presented a strong petition for
"Columbia;" but Wayne B. Dyer, at Otsego, and some of the settlers
at Portage, forwarded a somewhat larger petition for ' ' York. ' ' The bill,
thus christening the county, was about to pass, when Mr. Lewis, with
characteristic pertinacity, induced the members to vote for an amend-
ment striking out "York" in favor of "Columbia."
The County Officers
The territory thus named and legally organized has been well gov-
erned, judicially and civilly, with the following as its principal officials :
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
107
Sheriffs
1847-48— T. Clark Smith
1849-50— Jacob Low
1851-52— Alexander McDonald
1853-54— Perry Lee
1855-56— S. C. Higbie*
1857-58— Edward F. Lewis
1859-60— Benjamin Williams
1861-62— William W. Drake
1863-64— Nathan Hazen
1865-66— P. Pool
1867-68— S. K. Vaughan
1869-70— 0. H. Sorrenson
1871-72— P. Pool
1873-74— William W. Drake
1875-76— J. 0. Prescott
1877-78— A. H. Russell
1879-80— Jonas Conklin
1881-82— J. H. Jurgerson
1883-84— D. G. Williams
1885-86— J. W. Leffingwell
1887-88— R. C. Falconer
1889-90— J. R. Nashold
1891-92— P. C. Irvine
1893-94— William H. Parry
1895-96— Hugh Hall
1897-98— Ole M. Bendixen
1899-00— Lewis Leith
1901-02— J. C. MacKenzie
1903-04— E. P. Ashley
1905-07— Don C. French
1908-09— H. H. Hawkos
1910-1 1_J. W. Dalton
1911-12— Ferdinand Voth
1913 — Wm. K. McKenzie
Clerks of Circuit Court
1847-48— Henry Merrell (clerk of
District Court)
1848-50— Josiah Arnold
1851-53 — James Delaney, Jr. |[
1854 —A. W. Delaney
1855-56— S. K. Vaughan t
1857-58— S. K. Vaughan
1859-60— A. Morehouse
1861-62— A. J. Turner
1863-65— H. M. Haskell t
1866 —J. Chancellor (to fill va-
cancy)
1867-71— C. A. Dibble 1 1
1872-78— S. M. Smith
1879-82— S. S. Lockhart
1882-86— J. H. Wells
1887-88— L. E. Greenleaf
1889-90— Peter Williams
1891-92— Frank il. Shaughiiessy
1893-96— A. S. Crouch
1897-00— Evan 0. Jones
1901-06— Clifford H. Crothers
1907-08— Louis B. Morse
1909-10— A. H. Proctor
1911 —David D. Owen
* Election contested and office awarded to George Robinson.
11 Drowned May 31, 1853, and A. W. Delaney appointed to fill vacancy.
t Certificate given to A. W. Delaney, but office given to S. K. Vaughan on a
contest.
t Resigned and James Chancellor appointed to fill vacancy
II Resigned and S. JI. Smith appointed to fill vacancy December 6, 1871.
108
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
District Attorneys
18-47-i8— James T. Lewis
1849-50— D. J. :\I. Loop
1851-52 — Amasa 6. Cook
1853-56— Luther S. Dixon
1857-60— Levi AY. Barden
lS61-64^Israel Holmes
1865-66— Gerry W. Hazelton
1867-68- John T. Clark
1869-74— Emmons Taylor
1875-80— J. H. Rogers
1881-84— H. H. Curtis
1885-86— Thomas Armstrong, Jr.
1887-88— J. S. Maxwell
1889-94— W. S. Stroud
1895-98— W. G. Coles*
1899-06— H. E. Andrews
1907-08 — Heni-j' A. Gunderson
1909-10— Royal F. Clark
1911 —David Bogue
County Clerks f
— James C. Carr
— Wayne B. Dyer (ap-
pointed in place of
Nelson Swarthout)
— James C. Carr
— James B. Eaton
1851-54— Alvin B. Alden
1855-58- Thomas B. Haslam
1859-62— Julius Austin
1863-68— Harvev H. Rust
1846
1847
1848
1849
1869-74— Ogden A. Southmayd
1875-80— L. S. Rolleston
1881-86— Wm. B. Smith
1887-90— Chas. C. Dow
1891-92— Frank B. Ernsperger
1893-96— Richard Pritchard
1897-00— D. R. Marshall
1901-06— Rohert J. Hughes
1907-08— Wm. 0. Cordy
1909 — E. E. Price
County Treasurers
1847 —James C. Carr
1848-49— AA^ilHam J. Ensign*
1850-51— Stephen Brayton
1852-54— Harrison S. Haskell
1855 —Horace Rust t
1857-60— George Ege
1861-66— LI. Breese
1867-68— Lewis Low
1869-72— ililes T. Alverson
1873-76— Oliver H. Sorrenson
1877-80— Henry Neef
1881-88— C. A. Colonius
1889-92— J. A. Johnson
1893-96— James R. Hastie
* Died and W. S. Stroud appointed to fill
t Title of this office was first "Clerk of the Board of Count}- Commissioners;"
to "Clerk of the Board of Supervisors" in 1848 and to "County Clerk"
* Stephen Brayton was elected in 1849, but Mr. Ensign claimed to hold over.
He filed his resignation December 10, 1850, and the board appointed Isaiah Robinson
to fill the vacancy. The contest was decided in favor of Mr. Brayton.
t Office contested and awarded to M. M. Ege.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
County Treasurers
1897-00— Byron Kinnear
1901-06— Thomas V. Dunn
1907-08— Julius F. Kluender
■continued
1909-12— John Luck
1913 —William J. Dunn
Registers of Deeds
1847 —Elbert Dickason
1849 —A. A. Brayton
1849-50— F. F. Farnham
1851-52— Josiah Arnold
1853-56— William Owen
1857-58— D. F. Newcomb
1859-62— James Chancellor '
1863-66— Abner H. Smead
1867-74— Thomas Yule
1875-76— Joseph Scha-ifer
1877-80— George Yule
1881-84— Z. J. D. Swift
1885-86- H. H. Tongen, Jr. f
1887-90— John W. Brown
1890-94— John H. Dooley
1895-98— Arthur A. Porter
1899-02— Ole Johnson
1902-0S~C. H. Smith
1909-10— L. E. Nashold
1911 — G. W. Morrison
Coroners
1847-50— Daniel E. Bassett
1851-54 — Isaac Smith
1855-56— Erastus Cook
1857-58— H. S. Haskell
1859-62— Geo. W. Marsh
1863-64— Marcus Barden
1865-66— Carl Schneider
1867-68—0. H. Sorrenson
1869-70— Charles Earley
1871-76— Z. J. D. Swift
1877-78— William Suoad
1879-80- Z. J. D. Swift
1881-84— Geo. W. Marsh
1885-88— B. M. Allen
1889-90— N. J. Currier
1891-92— John Collins, Jr.
1893-01— B. M. Allen
1901-09— Wm. G. Bunker
1910-12— Frank Heidt
1913 —Charles E. McSorley
County Surveyors
1847-48— A. Topliff
1849-50— N. P. Foster
1851-52— A. Topliff
1853-54 — John Thomas
1855-56 — George M. Bartholomew
1857-60— A. Topliff
1861-62 — Rensler Cronk t
1863-66— A. Topliff
* Office declared vacant in November, 1862, by reason of ilr. Chancellor's
absence from state and A. H. Smead appointed to fill vacancy.
t Mr. Tongen died in February, 1886, and Z. J. D. Swift appointed to fill
vacancy.
t Killed in battle and Alfred Topliff appointed July 26, 1862, to fill vacancy.
110
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
County Surveyors — continued
1867-68— Jonathan Whitney
1869-70— E. Corning
1870 — H. Meritou t
1871-72— F. A. Bvowa
1873-74— G. ]M. Bartholomew
1875-76— Henry Meriton
1877-78— G. M. Bartholomew
1879-80— Henry Meriton
1881-82— E. Corning
1883-90— C. E. Corning
1891-92— E. Corning
1893-08— Charles E. Coming
1909-10— Frank S. Clai-k
1911 —Charles E. Corning
Board op County Commissioners
While the county was under the territorial form of government its
affairs were administered by a board of county commissioners. The
boards were constituted as follows :
1846 — Solomon Leach, John Q. Adams, John Langdon *
1847— R. F. Veeder, Nathan Griffin, J. D. McCall
1848 — John Q. Adams, J. J. Guppey, G. M. Bartholomew
1849 — James C. Carr, LaFayette Hill, John 0. Jones
Chairmen op County Board of Supervisors
-W. W. Drake, JIarcus Bar-
den, Geo. M. Bartholomew
-AV. W. Drake, Marcus Bar-
den, Edward F. Lewis
-Marcus Barden, W. W.
Drake, Edward F. Lewis
-Edward F. Lewis, Marcus
Barden, W. W. Drake
-W. W. Drake, G. M. Barth-
olomew, John Meredith
-Geo. M. Bartholomew, John
Jleredith, Ira H. Ford
-A. J. Turner ^j
-W. :\I. Griswold
76— A. J. Turner
79— J. R. Decker
t In place of E. Corning resigned.
* Mr. Langdon failed to qualify.
J The board of supervisors was constituted from 1862 to 1870 of three members
1849— Alfred A. Brayton
1865-
1850 — Jeremiah Drake
1851-52— Joseph Kerr
1866-
1853 — Jesse Van Ness
1854— F. C. Curtis
1867-
1855— M. W. Patton
1856— F. C. Curtis
1868-
1857— Peter Van Ness
1858-59— J. C. Carr
1869-
1860-61— W. N. Baker
$1862— Levi W. Barden,
Charles
1870-
L. Brown, Marcus Barden
1863— Levi W. Barden,
Marcus
1870-
Barden, Charles L.
Brown
1871-
1864— W. W. Drake, Marcus Bar-
1872-
den, Geo. M. Bartholomew
1877-
U From June of that year.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 111
Chairmen op County Board of Supervisors — continued
1880-81— M. T. Alverson 1898-99— II. J. Fisk
1882-83— Addison Eaton 1900-02— John Scott
1884-85— J. R. Decker 1903-01— W. C. Leitsch
1886 — Le«ter Woodard 1905-06— B. L. Tifft
1887-89— J. H. Rogers 1907-08— W. R. Chipman
1890 —James B. Taylor 1909-10— J. T. Henton
1891-92— R. N. McCouochie 1911-12— R. E. York
1893-95— Mic Adams 1913 — G. S. Lashier
1896-97— Salmon Brown
County Seat Fights
Like every county recorded in history, Columbia had its exciting and
indecisive county seat fights. At the April election of 1846, following
its birth in February, the voters endeavored to select a county seat, but
as six rivals were in the field none had a ma.jority. Columbus received
97 votes, Wiimebago Portage 49, and Duck Creek (Wyocena) 47, vidth
the others trailing in this way: De Korra, 33; Dyer's (Otsego) 10, and
Van Duer (Bendure's) 3. As there was no choice and Wyocena was
the most convenient point of assemblage for the majority of the voters
in the county, an act was passed at the 1847 session of the Legislature
declaring the county seat temporarily located there, and providing for
a vote on the question at each annual election until some place should
receive a majority.
The Decisive Vote (1851)
Then, in 1848, an act was passed providing that the county seat of
justice should be at Columbus for a term of five years. So that Wyocena
and Columbus were temporary county seats until April, 1851, when the
permanent location was decided by popular vote in favor of Port M'^inne-
bago. The legislative act under which the election was held provided
that if the latter should not receive a majority of the votes east the
county seat should be permanently established at Wyocena. This move
was therefore considered as settling the fight between the chief rivals
forever; and from present appearances it is 'not likely that the popular
decision then made will be reversed.
The vote "for" or "against" Port Winnebago was as follows:
112 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Yes. No.
Portage Prairie 20 43
Springvale 1 82
Wyocena 1 182
De Korra 90 22
Otsego 2 79
Fountain Prairie 95
Columbus 119 50
Hampden 36 35
Kossuth 47 37
West Point 32 7
Lodi 41 6
Fort Winnebago 441 9
Port Hope 32 7
aiareellon 92 3
Scott 17 57
Randolph 69 32
Lo^wille 11 57
1,096 796
Temporary County Buildings
After it had been definitely decided that Portage was to be the per-
manent seat of justice, a deed was made to the county by Webb &
Bronson, owners of the village site, conveying Block 180 (now occupied
by the county jail and sheriff's residence) for a courthouse and any
other buildings which might be necessary in the transaction of ofScial
business and judicial procedures. But some years were to elapse before
the county was to have its own official home.
The county records were moved from Columbus to Portiige in 1851,
and until 1856 the officials occupied the upper part of Lemuel Berry's
store on the east side of the canal. It stood on the northeast corner of
Cook and Pleasant streets and was afterward bought by the city to house
its fire apparatus. From the Berry store the county officers moved
their records to Vandercook's building, where all remained until the
completion of the present courthouse in the fall of 1865.
First Steps Toward Permanent Courthouse
In 1861 the Board of Super\'isors officially brought up the court-
house matter b.y appointing a committee to report upon the general
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 113
subject of county buildings. The members consisted of Hugh Jamieson,
G. H. Osborn and E. H. Wood, who made their report in November,
showing that the county was paying a rental of $1,400 per annum for
its official accommodations and recommending that a sum not to exceed
$12,000 be expended in permanent buildings. The report was laid on
the table, and the subject rested for two years.
In 1863, after the county board had been reduced to three members,
the subject was resuscitated. At the historic meeting in which it came
up, never to be again buried, two supervisors were present — L. W. Bar-
den and Charles L. Brown — and the deputy clerk of the board, A. J.
Turner, who tells the story of the birth of the present courthouse : ' ' The
business of the board having been about completed, the writer of this,
who was acting as deputy clerk of the board, motioned Judge Barden
aside and suggested to him that the question of county buildings ought
to be presented to the board. He laughingly replied that he didn't think
it would be of any use to do so, but it might be well enough to agitate it.
Returning to the board, I drew the following resolution, which Mr. Bar-
den submitted:
" 'Resolved, That the sum of eight thousand dollars be levied and
raised in the same manner that other county taxes are raised, for the
purpose of building a courthouse, and that the same be paid over to the
county treasurer, and held by him, subject to the order of the Board of
Supervisors, for the purpose aforesaid.'
"The question was put on its adoption and Supervisor Brown voted
aye: Supervisor Barden remained silent and the chairman declared the
resolution adopted, and it was so minuted in the journal.
' ' The next day, December 9th, the last act of the board before adjourn-
ing, was the adoption of the following resolution, which was presented
by Supervisor Brown :
" 'Resolved, That L. AV. Barden, chairman of the Board of Super-
visors, be and is hereby instructed to procure plans and specifications
for a courthouse, and receive proposals for a site for the same, which
shall be submitted to the board at its next meeting.'
"Such were the initial steps taken for the erection of the courthouse
which Columbia County possesses, accomplished by a single vote."
The Courthouse Completed
The initiatory steps toward building were taken soon afterward, and
in February, 1864, a contract was let to Carnagie & Prescott for building
a courthouse to cost $17,830. The site was presented by the citizens
of Portage. Work was commenced in the spring of that year and the
114
HISTOKY OF COLTOIBIA COUNTY
building was completed in the fall of 1865, at the contract price. With
the sidewalks, iron fence (since removed), grading, trees and other
improvements, the county expended about $26,000 on the courthouse
property: At the time of its erection the Columbia County Courthouse
was considered a fine building for the purpose and, with steam heating,
modern lighting and sanitary arrangements, as well as thorough interior
reconstruction, it is still convenient but not fully adequate to the require-
ments of the county. After Bro\vB County, to which Columbia was
attached so long, it was, in 1865, the only courthouse of any pretensions
in the state. Surmounted by a well-proportioned dome and a large
(colossal, it was then called) statue of Justice, this two-story building
of cream colored brick was a commendable pride to the county seat.
Courthouse. Shortly After Its Erection
In 1895 a small fireproof building was erected on the courthouse
square for the protection of the invaluable papers and records in care
of the register of deeds.
County Jail and Sheriff's Residence
The county jail and sheriff's residence are about- half a mile from the
courthouse, standing on the block donated by Webb & Bronson for
county purposes. A jail was first erected in 1851 by H. McNeil. It
was a two-stor>' stone building with cells in the upper part and the
sheriff's dwelling in the lower. The building was destroyed by fire in
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 115
1864, and in the following year Camagie & Prescott, the courthouse con-
tractors, completed a substantial stone jail, its "parade grounds" sur-
rounded by a high brick wall, and a sheriff's residence fronting it,
consisting of a well-arranged two-story brick structure. But even these
quarters were outgrown, and in 1887 a new jail and sheriff's residence
were erected at a cost of over seventeen thousand dollars. Both the
buildings and surrounding grounds have been well maintained.
Home for County Insane and Poor
1
The County Insane Asylum and Poor Home at Wyocena are housed
in a substantial two-story brick structure, with wings, and a large sepa-
rate wooden building. The buildings set well back from the street in the
center of an 8-acre tract. A short distance north of the village is a
40-acre farm, so that the able-bodied inmates of the home are furnished
healthful employment as well as contribute to the maintenance of the
institution.
Prior to 1858 the care of the poor of Columbia Coiiuty was vested
in the to\ras, whose officers provided homes for all the unfortunates
within their jurisdiction, the maintenance of the poverty-stricken being
paid out of a town fund set aside for that purpose.
On November 3d of the year mentioned the County Board of Super-
visors voted to abolish the town system, and measures were taken to
establish a county institiition. Daniel White. John Q. Adams and
H. W. Roblier were appointed superintendents of the poor, and $1,500
was appropriated to aid them in their duties. The old Exchange Hotel,
with one acre of land, was purchased, and on December 30, 1858, it was
opened for the care of the county poor and insane. Brick additions
were made in 1867 and 1878. In 1872 there were twenty-six inmates
of the home, of whom eleven were insane, and the cost of caring for
them was over four thousand dollars, including the $400 salary of Hugh
Hill, the overseer, and $200 paid other help. The number of inmates
in 1879 was ninety-eight, of whom sixteen were insane.
Insane Asylum Erected
The proportion of insane patients had gradually increased so that
by the early '80s it was evident that some special provision must be
made for them. In 1882, therefore, the east wing of the present insane
asylum was completed. This i? now the male ward, but for ten years
served as sleeping apartments for both men and women. In 1892 the
116 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
administration building and the west «-ing were completed, and the
entire structure is solid and attractive.
On the 3rd of November, 1858, the County Board of Supervisors
voted to abolish the town system of caring for its poor. At the same
session Daniel White, John Quincy Adams and H. "W. Roblier were ap-
pointed superintendents. The Old Exchange Hotel, together with one
acre of land in the village of Wyocena, was pm-chased and the home for
Columbia county's poor was established. In 1878 a two-story brick
structure was erected and used for quarters for the insane. In 1885 the
present fine County Insane Asylum was erected and additional buildings
have been erected and many valuable improvements made. The first
CnrXTV AsVLU-M AND PoOR IIO-ME. WyOCEXA
superintendents were Daniel AVhite. H. W. Roblier, John Quincy Adams.
Mr. White was succeeded by Geo. Wall of Portage, he by W. W. Corn-
ing and he by John Graham, he by H. L. Bellinghansen. Mr. Roblier
was succeeded by Alan Bogue of Arlington, Mr. Adams was succeeded
by E. E. Jones, he by J. A. Ehrhart and he by E. W. Richards. So that
the present board is Alan Bogue, E. W. Richards and H. L. Belling-
hansen.
The Board which was long in existence and to whom the county is
greatly indebted in the care and management of its poor and insane
was John Quincy Adams of Columbus, who served forty-five years;
John Graham of Portage, who served thirty-one years, and Alan Bogue of
Poynette, who is serving his 30th year. Under their management the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 117
institution became one of the first in the state, and upon their recom-
mendation many broad acres were added to the original one acre farm.
The overseers and matrons who have been in charge of the institution
are Mr. and Mrs. S. M. Muggleton, Mr. and Mrs. B. Miller, Mr. and
Mrs. S. C. Cushman.
The 124 inmates of the asylum and the 86 who are in the home
are faithfully cared for by the superintendent, S. C. Cushman and his
wife, the matron, with efficient and adequate help. The trustees are
Alan Bogue, president of the board; E. W. Richards, vice president,
and H. L. Bellinghausen, secretary. The attending physician is
Dr. A. V. de Neveu. There is about three thousand dollars in the treas-
ury, the farm having largely contributed to the good financial condition
of the institution. The live stock includes fifty Holsteins and over
ninety swine, wdth a fair assortment of chickens. Good crops of corn,^
oats, hay and cloverseed are raised, as well as all kinds of vegetables, and
quite a neat sum is realized by the sale of eggs and dressed beef, pork,,
chickens and ducks, although the local consumption is considerable.
The state is generous in contributing to the maintenance of the asy-
lum. The Legislature has lately increased its weekly allowance per
inmate from $1.50 to .$1.75 for those resident in the county, and from
$3.00 to $3.50 for foreign patients. The increase of late years in the
weekly cost per capita is more attributable to the better treatment of
the insane than to the rise in the cost of living; in 1903 this weekly cost
for the Columbia County asylum was $1.35, and in 1912, $2.46.
The Circuit Court
Under the territorial form of government, from 1836 to 1848, Colum-
bia County was at various periods in the First, Second and Third Judicial
districts. But it made little difference, practically, whether it fell in
one judicial jurisdiction or another until well along in the '40s, when
the population of the county was about 2,000 and the three hujidred or
more mature males felt that they were entitled to a local "sitting."
It was after the organization of Columbia County that the first ses-
sion of court was held within its limits. It was then in the Second
Judicial District and sittings began August 30, 1847, with David Irvin
on the bench. The court was held at Fort Winnebago, in a store attached
to the Franklin House kept by Captain Low. The names of the first
grand jury empaneled were Morell Stroud, Jerome B. Fargo, LaFayette
Hill, Edward J. Smith, John Converse, Benjamin F. Stanton, Isaac B.
Hancock, Jonathan E. Haight, Perry Griffith, Chauncey Spear, Samuel
118 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Gibson, Joseph Edwards, Albert Pease, Horace Dodge, Enos Grant,
F. K. Haskins, Job W. Perry, W. B. Dyer and William W. Drake.
On the first day of the session Owen Powderly was naturalized. The
first case on the docket was Lorenzo Bevans vs. Andrew Dunn, in
assumpsit, which was continued, and the next was of a similar nature
(Youngs Allen vs. Miami York), in which the plaintiff recovered, by
default of the defendant, $64.73.
When Wisconsin became a state in 1848 it was divided into five judi-
cial circuits, Columbia County being included in the Third. In 1855 it
was attached to the Ninth, where it remained until 1906, since which it
has been in the Eighteenth. The first terra of the Circuit Court for
Columbia County commenced May 21, 1849, Chief Justice Stow presid-
ing. The first case tried was John Converse vs. Martin Hoffman, in
error from a justice's court; judgment afiirmed. The grand jury was
as follows: John Hasey, Thomas D. Wallace, Cornwall Esmond, Isaac
Requa, William G. Simons, Benjamin A. Hagamen, Sylvanus Langdon,
Dearborn Taylor, Linus Blair, ilartin Porter. Hugh ilcFarlane, John
Q. Adams, Lucius Warner, Thomas Swarthout, Asear F. Hamilton,
Benjamin Sage, Cyrus Smith, Joseph Farrington, Edward J. Smith and
Israel Sales.
Among the best known judges who presided over the old Ninth Cir-
cuit were Alexander L. Collins, Luther S. Dixon, Harlow S. Orton, Alva
Stewart, Robert G. Seibecker and E. Ray Stevens. Chester A. Fowler
was elected the first judge of the Eighteenth Circuit and still occupies
the bench.
Probate and County Court
Until January 1, 1850, the court having jurisdiction over the settle-
ment of estates of deceased persons and of the appointment of guardians
to minors, spendthrifts, idiots and insane persons, was called the Pro-
bate Court. After that date it was called the County Court.
The probate and county judges who have served Columbia are as
foUows :
1847 —Silas Walsworth * 1865-80— Joshua J. Guppey
1847-48— James T. Lewis 1881-92— Levi W. Barden
1849 —Moses R. Cobbt 1893-98— J. B. Taylor t
1850-56— Joshua J. Guppey 1898-1910— W. S. Stroud
1857-60— Guy C. Prentiss 1910 — Alonzo F. Kellogg
1861-64— John T. Clark (Now six-year term)
* Refused to qualify and James T. Lewis appointed.
t Resigned and Joshua J. Guppey appointed September 29, 1849, to fill vacancy.
} Died September 2.5, 1898, and W. S. Stroud appointed to fill vacancy.
CHAPTER IX
MISCELLANEOUS COUNTY MATTERS
Household Population (1846) — Population in 1847 — Figures by
Decades (1850-1910) — Real Estate and Personal Property (1875)
— Agricultural Interests — Conditions Thirty Years Ago — Con-
ditions OF THE Present — A Splendid Dairy County — Creameries
IN Columbia County — Cheese Factories — Live Stock — County
Agricultural Society — Fish Fair and Secretary's Report — Co-
lumbia County Fair Association — Curling in Columbia County
There are some miseellaueous matters, chiefly statistical, which can-
not be well grouped, but which are necessary to be presented in order
to get a general view of the county before proceeding to develop classi-
fied topics and the histories of the to\\ais, cities and villages.
Household Population (1846)
The first census in the county was taken in June, 1846, by Hugh Mc-
Farlane, assisted by William Donaghue. The names of the householders
only were taken, with the number of inmates of each household. The
county was diveded between the two so that McFarlane took as his terri-
tory what are now the towns of Fountain Prairie, Otsego, Lowville,
De Korra, Lodi, Arlington, Leeds, Hampden and Columbus, with the
city of Columbus ; also the south half of Caledonia and one tier of sections
off the east side of West Point. In this area he found 1,269 persons —
705 white males and 564 white females, the largest households being
those headed by S. Brayton (12), Henry Botnian (12), Nels Olson (12),
Christopher Hughes (12), James Wilson (11), Nehemiah Alten (10),
James MeCloud (10), Benjamin Sage (9), S. W. Herring (9), WiUiam
Randall (9), Thomas Robertson (9), Jacob Dickenson (9), and W. B.
Dyer, Calvin Martin, Jacob Low, Tossen Parr, Tess Pearson, Sjur
119
120 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
Sturken, George Bradley, Elisha Town and Asa Proctor, each with a
family circle of (8).
Donaghue's territory included what are now the towns of Courtland,
Springvale, Wyocena, Pacific, the north half of Caledonia and all of
Lewistou except three tiers of sections off its west side, Fort Winuehago
and the City of Portage, and Marcellon, Scott and Randolph. In this
division were 700 persons — 438 white males, 261 white females and 1
male negro. The largest households were those of Hugh ^IcParlane (30) ,
H. Carpenter (24), William Jones (13), Job W. Perry (13), Benjamin
Dodge (11), Ephraim Blood (11), Nathan Griffin (9), John Hagadore
(8). Elbert Diekason (9j, Samuel MeConochie (10), Aaron Powell (10),
Gideon Low (9), M. W. Patton (8), Powell Stein (8), John Converse
(8), and Richard F. Veeder (8).
The total population of the county in June, 1846, was therefore 1,969
— 1,143 white males and 825 white females, one gentleman of black color,
and several hundred Winnebagoes.
Population in 1847
The census of the county was taken the second time in June, 1847.
James T. Lewis was the chief enumerator and had five assistants. The
increase in population was quite surprising. a.ssuming that the enumera-
tions of both years were substantially correct. The count was taken by
precincts and resulted as follows:
White Wliite Colored
Precinct — Males. Females. Males. Total.
Columbus 514 435 949
De Korra 104 97 201
Wyocena 253 222 475
LeRoy 515 464 1 980
Dyersburg 238 228 466
Winnebago Portage 102 61 1 164
Pleasant Valley 110 93 203
Lowville 190 163 353
Total 2,026 1.763 2 3,791
Figures by Decades (1850-1910)
There was a gradual increase of population aip to the period of the
Civil war, and for more than thirty years thereafter it remained almost
HISTOKY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 121
stationary. It was 9,565 in 1850; 24,441 in 1860; 28,802 in 1870; 28,065
in 1880, and 28,810 in 1890.
The numerations made by the United States census takers for the
years ending the last three decades indicate the following:
Divisions — 1910
Arlington, town 816
Caledonia, town 1,087
Cambria, village '. 657
Columbus, city 2,523
Ward 1 1,020
Ward 2 712
Ward 3 791
Columbus, town 760
Courtland, town 886
De Korra, town 842
Doylestown, village 259
Fall River, village 360
Fort Winnebago, town 626
Fountain Prairie, town 990
Hampden, to^\ai 800
Kilbourn City, village 1,170
Leeds, to\vn 1.055
Lewiston, town 799
Lodi, town 716
Lodi, village 1,044
Lowville, town 758
Marcellon, town 853
Newport, town 534
Otsego, town 866
Pacific, town 281
Pardeeville, village 987
Portage, city 5,440
Ward 1 " 580
Ward 2 1,068
Ward 3 848
Ward 4 1,357
Ward 5 1,587
Poynette, village 656
Randolph, town 1,087
Randolph, village (west ward) 248
1900
1890
794
828
1,188
1,336-
561
524
2,349
1,977
744
800
820
81&
908
869
665
646
1,409
1,315
887
816
1,134
961
1,214
1,171
901
936
750
639'
1,068
736
784
733
882
845
585
487
1,226
1,127
289
255
788
5,459
5,143
633
517
951
880
190
79-
122 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Total for Randolph, village, iu Co-
lumbia and Dodge Counties 937 738 405
Rio, village 704 479 339
Scott, town 796 811 824
Springvale, tovra 735 751 703
West Point, town 663 743 701
Wyocena, to^ra 706 1,158 1,303
"Wyoeena, village 425
Totals 31,129 31,121 28,350
Real Estate and Personal Property (1875)
There has been a steady increase in the value of real estate and per-
sonal property held by the citizens of Columbia County. In 1875, after
they had had a decade to recover from the demoralizing effects of the
Ci\'il war the county board assessed both classes of property as follows:
Arlington $ 527,607 Mareellon $208,376
Caledonia 314,989 Newport 239,687
Columbus (tofl-n) 508,640 Otsego 396,696
Columbus (city) 758,974 Pacific 54,872
Courtland 499,226 Portage 886,555
De Korra 264,695 Randolph 472,565
Fort Winnebago 169,300 Scott 289,457
Fountain Prairie 414,934 Springvale 323,072
Hampden 508,699 West Point 332,247
Leeds 495,774 Wyocena 250,434
Lewiston 139,039 W. W. Vil. Randolph . . . 24,380
Lodi 435.641
Lowville 350,325 Total $8,866,184
The Figures for 1913
In 1913, when the figures were compiled by the as.sessor of incomes
of Columbia County, this total had increased to nearly $14,000,000. To
understand the table, arranged alphabetically, first according to towns,
and secondly according to cities and villages, it is necessary to quote the
following explanatory words from the assessor's report:
"The figures on both real and personal property are based upon sale
value ; meaning not a forced sale, but rather such sales as are made in the
ordinary course of business transactions. The real estate valuations are
HISTORY OP .COLUMBIA COUNTY 123
based entirely upon figures made by the Wisconsin Tax Commission from
sales of real estate in this county.
"The valuation in each town is computed each year by comparing the
assessed value of lands sold during that year with its sale value. Only
such sales are used as represent the true value of the real estate, all sales
in which a trade is involved, in which personal property is included,
forced sales, and sales between relatives, are eliminated.
' ' The ratio between the assessed value and sales value is then applied
to the 'total real estate assessment for that year and the result is the
'annual true value.'
"The average of the last five 'annual true values' is the figures here
used. It is believed that this method is nearer correct and nearer fair
as between districts than any other method.
"Any variations which may arise from abnormally high or low sales
in any year are largely eradicated by the five year average and I have not
felt that I could vary or change these figures in any way without substi-
tuting my own ideas for the facts. The personal property valuations
were made by actual inspection of the personal property of a number of
taxpayers in each assessment district; by then comparing what I con-
sidered to be the true value of this personal property with its assessed
value and then raising or lowering the assessed value of all propert}^ of
the district by the same ratio as the true value of the inspected property
bore to its assessed value."
Total Real Total Real and
Estate Personal Property
Districts. Assessment. True Value. Assessment. True Value.
Arlington $ 2,035,135 $ 2,021,420 $ 2,296,065 .$ 2,300,675
Caledonia l,-408,360 1,875,320 1,602,021 2,126,416
Columbus 1,773,400 2,094,200 1,973,616 2,301,215
Courtland 1,224,775 1,703,260 1,395,852 1,909,860
De Korra 1,115,191 1,251,220 1,236,898 1,398,823
Fort Winnebago 483,375 771,322 549,547 866,823
Fountain Prairie 1,288,520 1,774,900 1,468,173 1,979,178
Hampden 1,659,480 2,026,680 1,889,624 2,259,984
Leeds 2,071,401 2,191,760 2,281,358 ,2,423,651
Lewiston 496,030 886,188 608,600 1,029,878
Lodi, town 915,311 1,173,080 1,025,388 1,300,995
LowviUe 1,396,665 1,544,340 1,541,673 1,703,200
Marcellon 809,090 977,398 927,481 1,105,653
Newport 495,025 587,078 592,115 689,664
124 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Total Keal Total Real and
Assessment Estate Personal Property
Districts. Assessment. True Value. Assessment. True Value.
Otsego $1,326,412 $1,357,600 $1,469,007 $1,511,373
Pacific 282,300 350,956 324,294 401,810
Randolph, town 1,413,698 1,996,560 1,660,268 2,250,976
Scott 943.615 1,102,740 1,084,974 1,259,708
Springvale 1,055,640 1,331,020 1,211,780 1,489,978
West Point 874,900 1,269,840 1,047,381 1,469,514
Wyoeena 720,960 932,683 829,437 1,055,612
Cambria, village 331,460 405,188 418,030 509,097
Columbus, city 2,040,685 2,342,480 2,649,405 3,011,820
Doylestown 214,010 218,850 264,658 268,621
Fall River 198,420 244,558 271,776 327,351
Kilbourn 728,000 959,500 1,516,420 1,937,926
Lodi 736,925 861,592 918,219 1,074,879
Pardeeville 440.823 589,004 540,087 716,763
Portage, city 3,140,674 3,166,540 4,169,149 4,387,431
Poynette, village 391,100 445,852 478,065 532,244
Randolph, westward. .. 192,150 227,472 241,820 281,553
Rio, village 470,735 547,220 630,550 706,110
Wyoeena, village ..... 98,392 124,559 142,453 170,493
Total for cities and
and villages $ 8,983,374 $10,132,815 $12,240,632 $13,924,288
Total for towns.... 23,789,283 29,219,565 27,015,552 32.834,986
Total of county. ... 32.772,657 39,352,380 39,256,184 46,759,274
Agricultural Interests
The settlers of Columbia County have alwaj^s been largely engaged
in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, and of late j-ears their dairy in-
dustries have assumed the greater importance. This fact is fully realized
when figures of more than thirty years ago are compared with those of
1914, which have just (April) become accessible. In 1879, for instance,
there were over sixty-nine thousand acres of wheat grown in the county,
fairly well distributed between the towns, and in 1914 less than two thou-
sand. Even in the former year the yield of wheat was deteriorating, the
new Northwest beyond the Mississippi rising rapidly into prominence as
the coming granary.
Conditions Thirty Years Ago
As stated by an observer of thirty years ago: "The early settlement
of Columbia County was made by a robust, thrifty, industrious and
frugal class of men and women, in tlieir youth and physical prime of
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 125
life, full of energy and days' work. They found a rich soil, like them-
selves, new and young and full of fertility, yielding readily to the wiU
and wishes of the earnest and ambitious toiler who owned and cultivated
it, and rewarding his efforts with abundant harvests. The land yielded
so abundantly and persistently that the opinion prevailed for many years
that the grain-producing qualities of the soil were inexhaustible ; hence
the straw was burned to get it out of the way and the manure was per-
mitted to go to waste. Crop after crop was taken from the soil, and
nothing returned in exchange therefor to preserve its fertility until the
crops became less and less; so that now lands which at one time would
yield with reasonable certainty 30 to 40 bushels of wheat to the acre
cannot be depended upon to yield 10 or 15."
Conditions of the Present
"With the increase in agricultural population, com and oats have both
increased in acreage and yield, but not in the proportion they would
have done had not so large a portion of the rural settlers devoted them-
selves to the dairy industries. Rye, potatoes and beans are also plentiful
crops in Columbia County. As thirty years ago, the banner corn towns
are Arlington, Caledonia, Leeds, Randolph, West Point, Scott, Lowville
and Hampden, or, generally speaking, the southwestern and northeastern
portions of the county. The same may be said of the oats area, although
Courtland and Fountain Prairie are productive districts and therefore
extend the eastern belt of that crop a little further to the south. Leeds,
Arlington, Randolph, Courtland and Hampden are good barley sections,
and De Korra and Marcellon run to rye. Potatoes are readily raised in
Newport and Lewistou townships, or the northwestern part of the
county, and Lowville is the largest of the bean towns.
Over thirty-seven thousand acres of the county are grass lands, against
nearly thirty-six thousand in 1879, the Township of Leeds being head
and shoulders above other sections in the production of that crop. One
is not surprised, of course, to see a shrinkage in the area of growing tim-
ber during this period of thirty-four years. In 1879 over fifty-eight
thousand acres were standing in Columbia County; in 1913, or 1914,
40,553. The largest areas of timber are now in Caledonia (7,215 acres),
De Korra (4.312) and Marcellon (3,310).
Some years ago quite an excitement was abroad in the county over
the prospects of tobacco as a profitable crop, but the fever has abated.
Not quite twelve hundred acres are now devoted to the cultivation of
the weed, of which Hampden has 301, Otsego 193, Lowville 188, Arling-
ton 161 and Lodi 145 ; and these lead all the others.
126 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The actual production of farm products during the year 1913 was:
Corn 1,808,293 bushels, oats 1,612,007 bushels, potatoes 678,44-5 bushels,
barley 407,615 bushels, rye 189,725 bushels, tobacco 1,881,450 pounds and
hay 35,943 tons.
Columbia County, in the earlier times, was considered quite an
apple-bearing country, but most of the old orchards have been aban-
doned and other parts of the country are so much better adapted to
the raising of that fruit that it is seldom that new trees are set out.
The result is that there are now only about thirty-six thousand growing
apple trees in the county, as compared with 61,000 in 1879.
A Splendid Dairy County
A ditferent story is told when a comparison is made between the
milch cows of the earlier period and the present. In 1879 Columbia
A Dairy Herd in Columbia County
County had 11.727 animals of inferior grade, valued at $171,695, while
the creameries were all home affairs and cheese factories were virtually
unkno^\Ti. Now there are 21,473 milch cows, many of them as fine as
any in the country, valued at $805,549. Of this number 4,179 supply the
16 cheese factories wnth the raw product and 15,300 contribute to the
creameries. There is no class of industries in Columbia County which
exceeds in importance those connected with the establishments men-
tioned, and we are therefore pleased to present to the readers of this
history the latest obtainable details regarding them.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
Creameries in Columbia County
127
Towns, Etc.
No
Value >
ro. Patioi
IS No cow.
Pounds.
Pounds,
Butter
Money
Received
Columbus, twn.
$2,500
100
'900"
' 462,000
100,000
$33,000.00
Ft. Winnebago
3,400
97
800
1,418,712
73,032
20,215.18
Fount 'n Prairie
3,500
126
1,290
1,710,982
174,394
51,722.26
Lowville ......
2,000
225
900
482,720
160,923
45,058.44
Mareellon ....
3,000
80.
400
60,000
17,601.24
West Point . . .
950
80
800
78,641
22,530.20
Cambria * . . . .
3,000
100
600
180,000
50,400.00
Doylestown * ..
4,150
318
2,500 1,021,245
255,001
72,400.28
Kilbourn City *
3,800
125
750
120,000
32,000.00
Lodi*
4,000
200
2,000
318,844
96,732.50
Poynette *
1,300
145
1,000
108,121
29,105.00
Wyocena * ....
2,500
156
1,100
306,469
106,614
33,450.70
Columbus City,
2d W
3,000
115
1,000
106,000
28,600.00
Portage City,
2d W
1,500
210
1,260
530,000
201,688
59,912.52
Total
.15 $38,600 2,077 15,300 5,932^28 2,043,258 $590,728.32
Cheese Factories
No. No. Pounds, Pounds, Money
Towns, Etc. No. Value Patrons Cows Milk Clieese ^ Received
Arlington 1 $ 1,000 15 250 400,000* 40,000$ 4,800.00.
Caledonia 1 1,500 27 315 1,638,056 169,500 22,088.58
Columbus, town. 1 2,500 20 200 594,299 55,778 8,599.28
Courtland 3 5,000 45 700 2,715,502 275,694 37,851.34
Fountain Prairie 2 1,900 51 500 1,351,496 133,942 19,720.00
Randolph t .... 3 3,600 82 955 4,288,117 441,700 65,685.00
Seott 4 4,400 98 875 3,497,890 352,755 53,357.97
Fall River, village 1 350 32 384 4,000,000 40,000 8,000.00
Total 16 $20,250 .370 4,179 14,885,360 1,509,369 $220,102.17
* Village.
t Randolph leads the towns as a cheese producer, her brick cheese being widely
and favorably known. As is seen by the table Scott is her closest competitor.
Courtland is next, making northeastern Columbia her banner cheese section.
128 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
LwE Stock
The live stock of Coliiiubia Count}' is by no means confined to mileli
cows, as the last report of the assessor proves. The value of all other
cattle is given at $310,967, making a total of $1,116,516 for that class. Its
14,787 horses are valued at $1,464,271 ; 18,859 swine at $227,188. and
13,035 sheep and lambs at $48,685.
County Agricultural Society
For over sixty years the farmers have been organizing and sup-
porting agricultural societies, designed both as social factors and to
stimulate and protect their interests. Various local and sectional socie-
ties and fairs, such as the Union Fair at Columbus and the Lodi Union
Agricultural Society, grew out of the pai-ent body, known as the Co-
lumbia County Agricultural Society. A suggestion which led to the
organization of the county society was made by Jesse Van Ness, of
West Point, at a meeting of the board of supervisors held at Portage in
November, 1851. His suggestion was received so favorably by his fellow
members that soon after a preliminarj' meeting of farmers and leading
citizens was held at school house No. 7, in the Town of Fort Winnebago.
Van Ness became president pro tem, and Joseph Kerr of Randolph,
F. C. Curtis of Lowville and J. A. Guptil of Scott were appointed a
committee on constitution. On the 19th of the month the meeting re-
assembled, adopted a constitution which was simplicity itself, and about
fifty leading farmers throughout the county paid 25 cents each for
becoming members of the society.
The ofScers elected* were : President. J. Van Ness, West Point; first
vice president, Joseph Kerr, Randolph ; second vice president, Thomas C.
Smith, Columbus; treasurer, F. C. Curtis, Lowville; recording secretarj',
John A. Byrne, Otsego; corresponding secretary, Henry Converse,
Wyoeeua.
First Fair and Secretary's Report
The first fair of the Columbia County Agricultural Society was held
on the commons at Wyocena. The receipts were $15.75 and the dis-
bursements $11.80, but everybody had a good time, and the society went
forward with a hopeful face. At least one may so infer from the first
report of Secretary Byrne, which he issued as follows:
Otsego, December 6, 1852.
Dear Sir : — The first annual fair and cattle show of Columbia County
Agricultural Society was held in the village of Wyocena, in November
HISTORY OF COLUJIBIA COUNTY 129
last; but this being our first attempt, it was, as was to be expected,
somewhat meagre ; however, as a starting point and a beginning, it was
one of which we may justly feel proud. Like our parent, the state
society, we commenced without funds or patronage. Our ])irth was
slowly and humble ; our future — who shall say ?
At the session of the Board of Supervisors in November, 1851, a few
of our practical farmers, while chatting sociably on this topic, proposed
having a primary meeting, for the purpose of getting an expres-
sion of public sentiment. It was done. A proposition to organize a
county society was received with favor. Committees were appointed to
draft a constitution and by-laws, and to nominate officers. An adjourn-
ment then took place, and on reassembling, a constitution was agreed
upon, officers appointed, and an address delivered by Hon. Joseph Kerr,
of Randolph, and under such auspices we came into existence ; the vital
spark was infused into our materiality, and now it needs but little to
fan it to the vigor of manhood.
The notice of our fair had been issued only a few days prior to the
time of holding it, consequently the attendance was thin, and yet large
enough to show that, with proper organization and a due share of
exertion on the part of each member and officer, Columbia will yet take
a proud position among her sister counties in this State, in the cause
of agriculture. To obtain that point, but one course is necessary. The
society has now taken root; let it extend its branches into each town-
ship, school district and road district; let its members, and all friends
of agricultural knowledge, take an interest in its welfare, and it must
succeed.
The officers elected for the ensuing year are as follows : President,
Joseph Kerr, Randolph; vice presidents, Daniel S. Bushnell, Wyocena,
and George M. Bartholomew, Lodi; secretary, Henry Converse, Wyo-
cena ; treasurer, Frederick C. Curtis, Lowville ; executive committee,
R. C. Rockwood, Wyocena; J. Q. Adams, Fall River; John Converse,
East Randolph; Jesse Van Ness, West Point; Henry Merrell, Portage
City.
I remain, dear sir,
truly yours,
John A. Byrne,
Secretary Columbia County Agricultural Society.
This report was printed in the Wyocena Advance a few months ago,
and drew forth an addendum from A. J. Townsend, the Lowville and
Wyocena pioneer. "After reading the report of the first county fair
in last week's advance," he says, "this thought came to me: How
130 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
many are alive that took part in that fair sixty-one years ago this fall?
"There was a fine exhibition of grains, vegetables and stock. Jacob
Townsend and sons of Lowville had a herd of fine Devon cattle, on which
they took all the first premiums. There were a few fine horses exhibited.
■"Some amusing incidents during the fair: Two men from ]\IarcelIon
came with a large rangy horse and stumped everybody for a race for
ten dollars. No takers until the Lowville boys raised the money and ran
John Low's pony against the Marcellon horse. The pony won by ten
rods, and the men took their departure amid the shouts of the large crowd
of spectators, minus the ten.
'•Then John Gilbert of Lowville asked his father, Jonathan Gilbert,
for a dollar. The old man said, 'No, but I will put up a dollar for the
winner of a foot race with ten starters, and I will be one of them.' The
race was made up and the old man started and ran a few rods and
said: 'Oh, pshaw! I won't run.' John won the race and got the
dollar. ' '
Other Fairs
The show and cattle fair of 1853 was also held at Wyocena. At
that exhibition there were nineteen entries under the class of horses;
twelve under cattle ; one, poultry, and two, farm implements — one of
which was a plow and the other a vertical gate. The receipts were $20,
disbursements $18.81.
The fair held at Columbus September 20, 1854, was an improvement
over the Wyocena shows. The scene of the exhibition and the rural
festivities was at the forks of the road on the western declivity of
what became known as Lewis & Cook's hill. The "^Mountain House," a
little hotel kept by A. P. Birdsej' between the two roads, was the hall
of fine arts, and in it were displayed a few fruits and specimens of fine
needlework. There wei'e ninety-nine entries. The receipts for members'
fees amounted to $32. Of this $18 was disbursed in premiums, together
with thirty-one volumes of the State Agricultural Society and sundry
diplomas.
Since then fairs have been held at the following places: Portage,
1855; Wyocena, 1856 and 1857; Portage, 1858 and 1859; Cambria, I860;
Portage, 1861 and 1862; Lodi, 1863; Columbus, 1864; Portage, 1865
and 1866; Columbus, 1867; Portage, 1868; Columbus, 1869; Portage,
1870; Columbus, 1871; Portage, 1872; Columbus, 1873, and at Portage
since 1874. In that year the City of Portage purchased forty acres of
land in the First Ward, made a park of it and gave the Columbia County
Agricultural Society, or its successors, an indefinite lease of the grounds.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 131
Each year up to 1901 at this place an annual fair was held under the
auspices of the society.
Columbia County Fair Association
In 1901 the old society had become weakened by adverse conditions,
and the Columbia County Fair Association, a stock company, was organ-
ized. This organization, with sufficient finances back of it, proceeded to
breathe new life into the annual exhibits of the county. New buildings
were erected, new methods pursued, and the fair, as the result of the
efforts of the stockholders of the association, is one of the biggest and
best in the state. The first ofScers of the new association were : J. H.
Wills, president; J. E. Jones, secretary, and R. N. McConochie, treas-
urer. The present officers of the association are : C. Hecker, president ;
F. A. Rzyme, secretary, and A. J. Jamieson, treasurer.
Other fairs existing in the county at present, and which give annual
exhibits, are the Lodi Union Fair, at Lodi, and the Inter-County Fair,
held at Kilbourn City.
Curling in Columbia County
Columbia County is the home of more curlers and more curling clubs
than any other similar locality in the United States. The Scottish
settlers in the county brought the spirit of the "roarin' game" with
them from the old country, and as early as 1855 a club was organized
in the town of Caledonia. Instead of the handsome stone now used,
the pioneers used wooden blocks, many of the old blocks being in exist-
ence today and held as relics by the various existing clubs. About 1870
these wooden blocks were succeeded by iron, and for a dozen years the
iron block was in use. About 1880 John Graham, the pioneer druggist
of Portage, had two pairs of granite stones imported from Leith, Scot-
land.
The curlers of the early days built their rinks of ice on the ponds,
rivers and lakes. Silver Lake, in Portage County, being the popular re-
sort for county and state bonspiels. Thither the curlers annually from
Columbia County, Milwaukee, Chicago and other points used to assemble
in large numbers and enjoy immensely the famous outdoor sport in the
invigorating atmosphere. The colder the weather, the keener the sport.
At one county bonspiel held on the pond in the village of Poynette over
one hundred curlers played all day in the open, while the thermometer
registered over 30° below zero. So exciting was the sport that no one
noticed the frosty atmosphere.
132 IIISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
In later years the sport lias become entirely an indoor sport, all of
the clubs playing in rink houses erected for that purpose.
While the game was originally confined almost wholly to the Scotch
nationality, it is now the winter sport in Columbia County of all nation-
alities. Clubs are located at Portage, Pardeeville, Cambria, Columbus,
Arlington, Poynette, Port Hope, Silicaville, De Korra and Wyocena.
Portage has the most jjretentious and commodious rink building in the
state, and there annually the curlers of Wisconsin meet during the first
week in February and play continuously night and day for an entire
week, in what is known as the "state bonspiel," for prizes that are
competed for annually.
The game is participated in by men of all ages. The boy of fifteen
competes with the veteran of three score and ten. No betting is allowed
— and the game is indeed and in fact, a gentleman's sport.
There is no aristocracy on the ice. The banker and the hod carrier,
the clergyman and the dispenser of stimulants are on an equal footing
and forget all difl'ereuces in station when engaged in the famous winter
sport, and rinks that have won renown in state, interstate and local
bonspiels are the famous Crusaders, skipped by J. H. Wells ; the Invin-
cibles, skipped by J. E. Jones; the Ironsides, skipped by R. N. Mc-
Conochie; the Pardeevillians, skipped by L. J. Tucker; the famous
Reedal rink of De Korra, Hal. Rockwood's Portage Terriei-s, Ed. Se-
ville's Lodians, Bob Robinson's Scotch Laddies of Arlington, and the
Wild Westerners, skipped by Charlie Delany of Poynette, and in recent
years the sons of the older curlers are taking the laurels from their
fathers and the newcomers are threatening to be more expert than their
predecessors.
CHAPTER X
THE PRESS
First Columbia County Newspaper — Suspension of the River
Times — John A. Brown and the Badger State — "Shanghai"
Chandler and the Independent — Robert B. Wentworth and
the Portage City Record — Enter A. J. Turner — ^Wisconsin
State Register Founded — Brannan & Turner — The Register
FROM 1885 to Date — A. J. Turner and Major Lockwood — First
Columbus Newspaper — ^^Visconsin Mirror Precedes Kilbourn
City — The Columbus Democrat — The Columbus Republican — •
First German Newspaper, Der Wecker — Rundshau und
Wecker — Launching of the Portage Democrat — James E.
Jones — Lodi's Ups and Downs — The Enterprise — The Poynette
Press — Pardeeville Times and Badger Blade (Rio) — Kilbourn 's
Newspaper Ventures — Wyocena Advance — Other County News-
papers— Defunct Papers.
The press of Columbia County was born in 1850, the year after the
last of the Indian lands were thrown open to white settlers. John
Delaney was its father— an energetic, honest, brilliant Irishman, who
had set his first type sixteen years before in the office of the Green Bay
Intelligencer, the first newspaper published in Wisconsin. Mr. Delaney
afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar, and therefore came
to Portage well grounded in two professions. His brother James came
with him ; also a few cases of type and a battered printing press.
First Columbia County Newspaper
On the 4th of July, 1850, the Delaney brothers issued their Fox
and Wisconsin River Times from a wooden shanty which stood on the
northwest side of the canal. It was a six-column folio, democratic, and
high and hopeful of spirit. Passing over its general literary features,
its optimism breathes in Delaney 's editorial which speaks so positively
133
13-i HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
of the feasibility of the Fox and Wisconsin improvement — a direct inland
water communication between New York and New Orleans, via Portage —
placed beyond question, with the means at hand for its completion. He
declares that the short canal to connect the rivers A\ill be finished that
summer, and states that the Wisconsin is traversed regularly by steamers
throughout its entire route, and that the navigaljle portions of the Fox
have also their steamers plying regularly between the cities and towns.
In a supplementary greeting to the public. Editor Delaney apologizes
for not describing the town and adjacent localities. He is willing, how-
ever, to receive advertising patronage. His establishment cost him
$1,000, and current expenses were heavy, but he hopes that he has not
commenced prematurel.y and that he will be reimbursed and do a good
business, the newspaper having become necessary to civilization. He
is not quite sure of his subscription list, and for the purpose of ascer-
taining who his patrons really are will postpone the next issue for three
or four weeks. The next paper was not published, in fact, until
August 5th.
The one prediction, which has come to pass, was made by Brother
Delaney in his salutatory: "We this day publish the first number of
the Fox and Wisconsin River Times. If it is not a curiosity now, it will
be hereafter, as the first paper published in the City of Fort Winne-
bago. ' '
Suspension of the River Times
James Delaney, Jr., brilliant and popular, like his brother, was
dro\vned in the Wisconsin River, May 31, 1853. At the time he was city
clerk of Portage and but twenty-seven years of age. In the August
following John A. Brown became associated with Joseph Delaney,
brother of John and James, in the publication of the paper. The office
was removed to the second story of Moore & Gorman's building, opposite
the Pettibone Block, where the paper continued to be jjublished under
the new management until its suspension as the River Times September
17, 1853.
John A. Brown and the Badger State
On the following 1st of October ]\Ir. Brown rechristened the journal,
of which he was sole editor and proprietor, giving it the name Badger
State, under which he had published a paper at Janesville. As ex-
plained in his announcement: "Under the new arrangement we have
taken a new name for the paper; not because we have any objection
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUiNTY 135
to that of the River Times; but we have a decided partiality for our
old name of Badger State. It was endeared to us in earlier times —
during the old constitution fight, when we joined to raise the chorus:
" 'We are a band of brothers
In the new Badger State.' "
On the 14th of April, 1855, Chauncey C. Britt became an equal
partner with Mr. Brown. The Badger State had already been enlarged,
and it was again expanded the year after the copartnership was formed.
The paper continued to be vigorously democratic. On the 15th of
Aug-ust, 1856, the Badger State office was moved to the new Badger
Block, and the editors invited their friends to ' ' call and make themselves
comfortable in the prettiest printing office in the state." Early in the
following year Mr. Britt became sole publisher, and within 1857 and
1858 there were a number of changes in management, indicating some-
thing unsubstantial in the operations of the Badger State. The 4th of
December, of the latter year, saw Mr. Brown again at the helm, but his
death on the 10th of February, 1859, really killed the paper. His widow
and J. M. Doty, one of the former editoi's, attempted to save it, but it
finally suspended December 10th following Mr. Bro\\Ti's decease.
"SHANGHAr' Chandler and the Independent
In the meantime the republican party had been bom, and The
Independent had been espousing its cause at Portage since 1855. On
February 3rd, of that year, John A. and Julius C. Chandler issued its
first number. A year thereafter, the latter assumed sole proprietorship,
but on the 14th of April, 1857, Mr. Chandler— " Shanghai " Chandler,
the humorist and eccentric genius of early local journalism — abandoned
the Independent, bought the outfit of the defimct democratic infant, the
Columbia County Reporter, and established a paper at Friendship,
Adams County. He died at Baraboo in the late '70s.
Robert B. Wentworth and the Portage City Record
Robert B. Wentworth founded the Portage City Record upon the
good will and subscription list of the Independent. The first number
of the Record was issued April 29, 1857, and on its editorial page
appear the names of M. M. Davis and A. J. Turner. Mr. Davis' editorial
contributions had attracted some attention from the readers of the Inde-
pendent, but Mr. Turner was virtually unknown as an editor. He had
had a short experience as city editor of the Madison State Journal;
136 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
otherwise he had been setting type in various offices, ineluding the defunct
Independent.
Mr. Wentworth, the proprietor of the Record, was an experienced
journalist, in-so-far as the general management of a newspaper was
concerned. He had formerly been associated with Charles Billinghui-st
in the establishment of the first newspaper in Dodge County, the
Gazette, published at Juneau. He was also a practical printer.
Enter A. J. Turner
On the 11th of November ^Ir. Davis severed his connection with the
Record as editorial writer, his duties being assumed by Mr. Turner.
Shortly afterward the latter went to Friendship to assist "Shanghai"
Chandler. But ilr. Turner was destined for Portage, to which he re-
turned in March, 1859, and resumed his former relations with the
Record. Ere this, the paper had become one of the most prosperous
journals in the county. In fact, it seemed to have too much official
business, and the republican leaders decided that a division of the spoils
was no moi-e than fair. In this predicament of party affairs, on the 17th
of April, 1861, i\Ir. Wentworth sold the Record to A. J. Turner.
Wisconsin State Register Founded
About a month previous — March 16, 1861 — Samuel S. Brannan
issued the first number of the Wisconsin State Register at Portage, the
material used in its publication having been used by the Badger State.
jMr. Brannan "s experience in journalism had commenced as a "devil" in
the shanty of the River Times. In his salutatory the editor said:
"Having long been convinced of the necessity for a representative organ
in this city, one which will fully and fairly reflect the views of the re-
publican party, and having received such assurances as will justify the
enterprise, we have concluded to commence the publication of the Wis-
consin State Register. To enable us more fully to complete our arrange-
ments for the publication of the paper, no sheet will be issued for the
next week or two from this office. We shall, early in April, enlarge and
otherwise improve our paper."
Brannan & Turner, Proprietors
On the 27th of April, .soon after the suspension of the Record, the
Register appeared enlarged from a seven to an eight-column folio;
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 137
Braunan & Turner, proprietors ; Israel Holmes and A. J. Turner, editors,
and S. S. Brannan, local editor. The change is announced in the fol-
lo-\\ing card signed by Mr. Turner: "In the last Portage City Record
announcement was made of the fact that the office had been sold to the
undersigned. This week I have the further announcement to make that
I have united my interest in the office with those of S. S. Brannan of
the State Register, and that henceforth both papers will be published
unitedly under the name of the Wisconsin State Register, by Brannan,
Turner & Company, and will be conducted by I. Holmes and A. J.
Turner as principal editors and S. S. Brannan as local editor. No
further number of the Record will be issued, except a small edition to
close up some legal advertisements. Advertisers in the Record, residing
out of the city, will have their contracts completed in the State Register.
All accounts of the Record will be adjusted by R. B. Wentworth. All
subscribers who overpaid for the Record will be furnished with the
State Register to the close of their subscriptions."
]Mr. Holmes, the leading editorial \\Titer, was a lawyer by profession
and a very able man. In April, 186-i, he disposed of his interest iu the
Register to Messrs. Brannan and Turner and retired from journalism.
Under their able management, both business and editorial, the Register
flourished. In February, 1878, the paper was sold to Judge John T.
Clark and B. F. Goodell. The former was editor and the latter in
charge of the mechanical departments.
The Register from 1885 to Date
On February, 16, 1885, Judge John T. Clark sold his one-half in-
terest to Major S. S. Rockwood and the firm became Rockwood and
Goodell. Major Rockwood was one of the most scholarly and able
writers connected with the press of the state. He remained editor of
the paper until 1887, when he retired to accept a position in the state
land office. The Portage Daily Register was started during his editor-
ship. During the Iqte '80s the Register Printing Company was estab-
lished and met with business reverses. Mr. Goodell retired from the
management, taking the job department to Superior, Wis. Maurice
Goodman became editor of the paper in 1891. In 1892 J. H. Waggoner
bought the paper and became its editor. In 1894 Mr. Goodman bought
the paper back from Waggoner and continued its publication until
1908, when it was sold to the Wisconsin State Register Company, of
which company A. A. Porter is the principal stockholder.
138 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
A. J. Turner and Major Rockwood
At this point we pause to pay a tribute to two Columbia County
editors who attained merited prominence in state and national affairs —
Andrew Jackson Turner and Sheppard S. Rockwood.
When A. J. Turner disposed of the "Wisconsin State Register he
retired from active journalism, although he was prominent in local,
state and national affairs almost to the time of his death, June 10, 1905.
The deceased was a firm republican all his mature life, but he was
broader and deeper than partisanship of any kind, and as a conse-
quence no man was moi"e widely beloved or admired in Columbia County
than ' ' Jack ' ' Turner. Small but compact of stature, his tireless activities,
covering a variety of subjects, seemed one of the miracles of nature ; but
running through them all was a steadfast affection for the people and
localities which cemented him to Portage and Columbia County as his
home. The last years of his life were especially devoted to an exhaustive
investigation of every fact having a bearing upon the remarkable history
of the county which so closely centered in the portage between the
Wisconsin and Fox. His last and most valuable contribution to this
class of literature was the little book entitled "The Family Tree of
Columbia County," to whose condensed wealth of material the editor of
this volume acknowledges his indebtedness.
The last fragment of manuscript which is known to have left his
hand was a little note addressed to a member of Wau-Bun Chapter,
D. A. R., whose labors in behalf of historic memorials and investigations
had always met his heartiest co-operation.
The Facts op Mr. Turner's Life
A. J. Turner was born in the town of Schuyler Falls, N. Y., Sep-
tember 24, 1832. He lived there on a farm until 1853, when he moved to
Grand Rapids to take a case in the office of the Grand River Eagle.
Returning to his native town in 1855, he "set up" the first number of
the Plattsburg Sentinel, teaching school for a short time and again
settling in Grand Rapids early in the same year. In September, 1855,
he came to Portage, and the second day after his arrival was employed
as a compositor in the Independent office. He worked there until the
spring of 1856, when he went to l\Iadison, and for a year was employed
on the State Journal both as a printer and city editor.
As stated, in the spring of 1857 Mr. Turner returned to Portage and
became one of the editors of the Record. During the following twenty
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 139
years his newspaper experiences have been traced in the sketches of
that journal and the Wisconsin State Register.
During the period named Mr. Turner served one term as clerk of the
Circuit Court, commencing in January, 1861, and, as compiler of the
Legislative Manual of Wisconsin in 1870-74, created the Blue Book,
which has no superior of its kind in the United States. He served in
the assembly in 1862, 1863, 1865 and 1868, and for several years there-
after was officially connected with the Portage & Superior Railroad and
the Portage, Stevens Point & Superior Railroad, which were absorbed
hy the Wisconsin Central System, and the Portage, Friendship & Grand
Rapids Line, subsequently consolidated with the Madison & Portage.
Mr. Turner was chief clerk of the Wisconsin State Senate in 1876-
78, resigning that position to accept the office of state railroad commis-
sioner, to which he had been appointed by Governor William E. Smith.
He also held that office after his retirement from the State Register.
In 1881 he was elected mayor of Portage and twice reelected, and
served repeatedly as supervisor of his ward and in other local positions.
He was a delegate to the republican national conventions of 1868, 1880,
1888 and 1892, and in the last named year was the acknowledged leader
in the legislation which resulted in the rearrangement of the state into
congressional and legislative districts. It was his work more than the
efforts of any other one man which led to the overthrowing of the two
xmeonstitutional reapportionments of 1891-92. Mr. Turner acted as
supervisor of the United States census for the Third Wisconsin District
in 1880, and for the First District in 1900 ; in 1897, by appointment of
Judge Siebecker, he became chairman of the jury commission for Colum-
bia County, and it may be that, even with this, some office has escaped
us which was held by that marvel of industry and practical ability,
A. J. Turner.
Mr. Turner's married and domestic life was ideal. His wife was
Mary 0. Hanford, to whom he was married at Friendship, Adams County,
May 29, 1860. They had three children — Frederick J. Turner, suc-
cessively of the University of Wisconsin and Yale ; William F. Turner, a
business man of Portage ; and Ellen B., now Mrs. E. W. Demoe, of Oak-
land, California.
Ma.j. S. S. Rockwood
Maj. Sheppard S. Rockwood was a scholarly gentleman and a fine
type of the American citizen. He was only in the journalistic field of
Columbia County for a couple of years, but he was in it long enough to
endear himself to the people of the entire county.
140 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Born in Frankfort, N. Y., December 21, 1838, he came West with
his parents in his second year. The family settled in Walworth County,
Wis., during 1841, and a few years later located in Harmony Township,
Rock County. He graduated from Milton (Wis.) College, married Flora
A. Hawley, qi that place, in 1859, later was a member of the faculty of
the college, and when the Civil war broke out in 1861 was a junior at
the University of Wisconsin.
Major Roekwood wa.s commissioned second lieutenant of Company B,
Thirteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, at the formation of the regi-
ment, and shortly after the fall of Vicksburg became captain and com-
missary of the army corps. In 1865 he served in Texas as commissary
on General Custer's staff, and on October 6th of that year was mustered
out with the rank of brevet major, United States Volunteers.
From 1865 to 1868 Major Roekwood engaged in business as a Chicago
produce commission merchant, but his training and tastes were all toward
the scholarly and for two years and a half after his Chicago experience
he was identified with the mathematical department of Milton College.
While thus engaged he received the degree of Master of Arts from the
University of Wisconsin, being then called to the Whitewater Normal
School, where for nine years he was professor of mathematics.
In 1881 Major Roekwood served under Superintendent Whitford as
assistant to the state superintendent of schools, his editorial experience
covering the years 1883-87* During that period he was editor and pro-
prietor of the Elkhorn Independent, editor and part owner of the Janes-
ville Daily Recorder and editor and part owner of the Wisconsin State
Register. Soon after severing his connection with the State Register, in
1887, he assumed his duties as clerk of the Wisconsin State Land Office,
which office he held 1887-89 ; was chief clerk of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture from 1889-92 ; assistant chief of the United States
Weather Bureau, 1892-93, and secretary of the board of regents of the
State Normal Schools of AVisconsin, 1895-1905.
Major Roekwood 's death at Portage on July 12, 1905, removed from
the county and the state a foremost citizen, a gentleman of true ability
and worth. He left two sons — H. S. Roekwood, for twenty years the
able local editor of the Portage Democrat, and George S. Roekwood, of
Yuma, Arizona.
First Columbus Newspaper
The press obtained a weak foothold in Columbus about 1853, in the
shape of the Columbia Reporter, founded and edited by Carr Hunting-
ton, who moved his young child to Portage in 1857. It survived that
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 141
transplanting but a few months, when it was sold out under sheriff's
execution and the material lugged off to Friendship by "Shanghai"
Chandler.
The Columbus Journal lasted from January, 1855, to November,
1864. It was au offspring of the republican party and was conducted
most of the time by either Daniel or Marcus A. Mallo. Its founder,
Daniel Mallo, who was one of the oldest publishers in the Northwest,
was in charge of it at the time of his death, October 30, 1864, and the
Journal survived his demise but a short time.
Wisconsin Mirror Precedes Kilbourn City
The first building erected on the site of the present Kilbourn City
was a little cottage for Alanson Holly, of Warsaw, N. Y., who had come
West in the fall of 1855 seeking a location in that part of the country's
wilds, and an even smaller building for the printing and publishing of
the Wisconsin Mirror; for Mr. Holly was a newspaper man, and had so
much faith in the country and his venture that he had brought his family
with him to live in the new village which had just been platted by the
Wisconsin River Hydraulic Company. On December 22, 1855, the news-
paper building was inclosed, and while the plasterers were at work the
"hands" in the office unboxed the type and set up the press. It was
so cold that the compositors had to bathe their fingers in warm water
every few minutes to make them limber.
As the paper was being made ready for the press, on New Year's of
1856, a number of friends gathered in the office and proposed to sell the
first copy at auction. The result of the suggestion exceeded Editor
Holly's fondest hopes, for the first copy brought $65. The second and
third papers struck from the press were bid in at $10 and $5, respectively ;
whereupon the bidding ceased. For many months mails were received
once, twice or three times a week at the village of Newport, two miles
distant, and thither the editor was obliged to go for his exchanges and
other mail matter. The Hollys (Alanson and H. A.) published the
Mirror for a number of years, the proprietors who subsequently came
into possession being T. 0. Thompson, D. L. and E. B. Davis, Frank 0.
Wesner and W. M. Cole. In October, 1876, while Mr. Cole was conduct-
ing it, the office was burned; and no attempt was made to revive the
Mirror.
The Columbus Democrat
In the winter of 1864-65 Valentine Baltuff brought to Columbus the
outfit of his Lodi Weekly Herald, which had suspended during the
142 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
previous November at the age of twenty months, and experimented with
the Transcript until August, 1868.
The remains of the Transcript w-ere gathered by Hem-y D. Bath, who
on September 10, 1868, brought out the Columbus Democrat. In his
announcement to the public, Mr. Bath says: "It is already known by-
many that the Columbus Transcript, which was formerly issued from
this office, has changed hands, and today, for the first time, w-e believe, in
ten years, the colors of the Democratic party are hoisted by a newspaper
in Columbia county." Henry D. Bath, who was a most vigorous and
talented writer, managed the paper successfully for ten years, when his
editorial career was terminated by death. He was succeeded successively
by H. D. James and D. W. Bath, C. C. Eaton, George E. Bunsa, and
Frank D. Goodwin (its present editor).
But it did not stand to reason that the republican party, which was
in a majority throughout the county, should be without a representative
newspaper. Its leaders did not propose' that the republican Transcript
should give birth to the democratic Democrat and leave their rivals with-
out a competitor.
The Columbus Republican
The party leaders therefore called upon J. R. Decker, then publishing
the Waupuii Times, to come to Columbus and establish an organ for
republicani.sm and the general interests of the county. They offered him .
such liberal inducements that he sold out his paper, went to Chicago,
where he bought an entire new printing office, including a job press,
the latter something novel in Columbus. Mr. Decker first established
his plant on the second floor of Shaffer's Block, in the room that for
many years Squire Famham afterward occupied as his justice's office.
The room was soon found to be too small, and after various removals
was located on Ludington Street.
The first issue of the Republican was on October 7, 1868, less than a
month after the appearance of the Democrat. It was a seven-column
folio and, with new type and press, presented a handsome appearance.
Mr. Decker was also a strong writer and an experienced editor, and was
ably seconded by good local talent. Among other talented w-riters he
was assisted by Le Roy Irons, whose brilliant career was only condensed
by death. Mr. Decker continued to guide the Republican to wide influ-
ence and financial prosperity for a period of forty years, his job office
obtaining a fine reputation, as well as his newspaper. Upon the death
of ^Ir. Decker, in 1908, Robert C. Leitsch, a native of Columbus and a
thoroughly educated business man, became proprietor of the Republican.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 143
First German Newspaper, Der Wecker
By the early '70s the German element had become so strong in Colum-
bia County that it demanded and obtained a newspaper. On September
1, 1874, the Columbia County Wecker was first issued by Gustavus A.
Selbach, an experienced journalist who had already founded newspapers
at Appleton (Volksfreund) and at Mansfield, Ohio (Courier). For a
dozen years Der Wecker upheld its name and continued to "wake up"
the Germans of Columbia County, as well as not a few English-speaking
people. The paper was democratic in polities.
Rundschau und Wecker
In 1886 a competitor appeared in Rundschau, but as the years
it became evident that the field was not large enough for two well-sus-
tained German newspapers, and in 1905 they were wisely consolidated.
Frank Heidt, who had been identified with Rundschau since its estab-
lishment, continued to be the moving spirit of the new publication until
April 1, 1912, when J. Schnell assumed control. Rundschau und
Wecker is the only German newspaper in Central Wisconsin, is inde-
pendent in tone, and well voices the interests of the countrymen who
support it.
Launching op the Portage Democrat
Since the suspension of the Badger State in 1859 the City of Portage
had been without a democratic newspaper published in English, and to
those who believed in the principles of that party the situation became
more and more intolerable. So, in JMarch, 1877, at the solicitation of
their democratic friends in that city, Henry D. Bath, editor of the
Columbus Democrat, and his brother, W. E. Bath, established the Portage
Democrat, a seven-column folio: Said the editors in their salutatory:
"For the first time in almost twenty years a Democratic newspaper in
the English language is issued in this city. We are here for the estab-
lishment of a legitimate business and to meet a need which has long and
repeatedly been represented to us as existing in this community. We
are not here to encroach upon the province of any other journal, but to
do work in an open field. The Register is an old and ably conducted
newspaper which has done very much to advance the material interests
of Portage. Its editors are our personal friends and we hope they will
remain so, however divergent the line of our political operations may be.
Ui HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The Advance is not at all in our way, and the Weaker is our ally. We
propose, in the interests of Reform-Democracy and not in subserviency
to any ring or clique of it, to make as good a newspaper as we can. To
this end we invoke the cooperation of every member of the party, and
will devote our utmost endeavors to render it the most efficient aid within
our power. But the political work of a local journal is, after all, but a
small part of the labor which it has to do. It should be ever busy in
furthering the business interests and social welfare of the community
where it is published. It is a record of the life of the people in its
vicinity; the chronicler of their joys and sorrows, their successes and
reverses, and its general purpose is to do good to those within the circle
of its influence and to be of value to them in the accomplishment of
worthy objects. Such are the aims of the Portage Democrat."
Early in 1878 the health of W. E. Bath, who had been in charge of
the Democrat since its launching, failed, and Irving Bath, formerly a
clerk in the state land office, went to Portage to conduct the paper. He
afterwards became sole owner and remained at its head until the sum-
mer of 1881, when he, like his brother, became a victim of consumption.
Mr. Bath prevailed upon a young country school teacher of demo-
cratic persuasion, who had never seen the inside of a printing office, to
take charge of the editorial work, while he went away seeking health.
This pedagogue was J. E. Jones. After six weeks of absence ilr. Bath
returned, his health unimproved, and he began to banter the young
school teacher to turn editor and buy the newspaper. ]Mr. Jones was at
first quite skeptical as to the solidity of his talents in that line, but he
liked the business, as he confessed very recently, and the more he thought
it over the warmer he became. So at length he bolted from the office
out into the suburbs and secured funds to swang the purchase, and he
has blessed his self-confidence ever since ; for the Democrat is a credit to
him, to Portage and the state.
This was November 1, 1881, and Mr. Jones has controlled the destinies
of the paper ever since, a period of thirty-three years. The Democrat
has always been aggressively democratic and has wielded a far-reaching
influence in the community through which it circulates. In 1886 the
Daily Democrat was established and has been published continuously
since.
James Edwin Jones
By H. G. Cutler
Mr. Jones, whose name appears as the editor of this work, suggested
to the writer that it would be out of place to incorporate in this history
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 145
anything relating to himself, but we thought diffei-ently, and the informa-
tion obtained was received from other sources.
J. E. Jones' prominence both as a journalist and as a public man
dates from his purchase of the Portage Democrat in 1881, of which paper
he has been editor and proprietor continuously for a period of thirty-
three years; and he is still in his prime, active and robust. Under his
guidance tlje growth, influence and prosperity of the paper has been
continuous. He is one of the old school thoroughbred democrats, posi-
tive in his belief and fearless in the promulgating of the principles he
believes to be correct.
In 1885 Mr. Jones was appointed postmaster of Portage under Cleve-
land's first term, and held the office until 1889. He served as a member
of the democratic state central committee for a dozen years, and was
chairman of the democratic county committee for sixteen years.
In matters affecting Portage City he has always been a leader in both
political and business affairs. He served his city as alderman and for
six consecutive terms as its mayor.
During his administrations the city was improved as never before.
The fine city hall was built and completed; modern waterworks secured
by the city ; the paved area of the municipality greatly extended ; taxes
equalized between city and county, and the levee system greatly extended
to protect the city. Mr. Jones secured the $20,000 from the state by
incessant work, and got the state to assume control of the system. Thus
has been constructed a perfect levee system, to protect not only the city
but a great portion of the state from the overflows of the Wisconsin
River.
Jlr. Jones was a delegate or alternate delegate to the Democratic
National Conventions of 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896 and 1900, and has been a
delegate to every Democratic State Convention in Wisconsin since 1882.
In 1891 he was appointed by Governor Peck a member of the State Board
of Control of Charitable and Penal Institutions, was elected president of
that body and served until 1895. In 1898 and in 1908 he was the demo-
cratic candidate for Congress in his district, but the district being heavily
republican, he was each time defeated with his party.
Mr. Jones has held various other local and state offices by appoint-
ment, or election, but has during the last few years become interested in
other enterprises and has dropped the political game. He is at this time
devoting his entire energies to the building of a system of interurban
railroads through Central Wisconsin, and it seems probable that he will
be successful. He is president and general manager of the enterprise.
Mr. Jones was born on a farm in the to^\^l of Packwaukee, Mar-
quette County, Wisconsin, November 16, 1854. The family soon after
146 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
moved to ^Mintello, and while he was still a lad settled on a farm in the
town of Fort Winnebago, Columbia County. There he attended district
schools and assisted his father on the farm until his majority. Later
he entered the State Normal School at Oshkosh, and for six years, both
before and after graduation, was a teacher in the public schools.
On January 25, 1882, Mr. Jones married Miss Lena L. Converse, of
Portage, and they have three children — Edwin C, a graduate of the
state university and now associated with his father in the publication
of the Democrat; Carol (]Mrs. Harlan B. Rogers), and ilarjorie, at Rock-
ford College.
Mrs. Jones is foremost in all movements which are of an uplifting
nature, was especially influential in establishing the public library and
is active in all the patriotic and literary work of the women's organiza-
tions of the community.
KiLBOURX 's Newspaper Ventures
The first settler in Kilbourn was an editor ; the first thing to locate
in the unbroken forest was a newspaper. In December, 1855, Alanson
Holly built a board shanty and issued the first number of the "Wisconsin
:Mirror. This was published several years and discontinued for a short
time, to be continued later by a son of the original editor. It again sus-
pended in 1878, and for several years Kilbourn had several successive
papers, the Dells Reporter and the Guard having short runs each.
In 1880 William Woodruff established the Kilbourn Gazette, selling
out in 1883 to Adams Brothers.
In 1884 F. 0. Wisner and James E. Jones revived the Wisconsin
Mirror, and in April, 1885, they bought the other paper, forming the
Mirror-Gazette. In 1888 James E. Jones bought Wisner's interest and
continued the publication until 1902, when he sold out to E. J. Wheeler.
In the year previous R. L. Booher established the Dells Reporter, giving
Kilbourn two papers.
At the same time Mr. Jones began the publication of Illustrated
Events, a monthly magazine of historical and literary character. This
he changed to a weekly newspaper after six months, or, precisely, in May,
1905. Thus Kilbourn had three papers for some time, until April, 1906,
when J. E. Jones bought the Reporter list and business. He then asso-
ciated with B. E. Tollaksen, in August, 1911, they bought the Mirror-
Gazette, and have since held the field with the Weekly Events alone.
LtiDi's Ups and Downs
Lodi has had its decided ups and downs as a newspaper field. Its
first essay was the Lodi Flag, a quarterly issued in July and November,
HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 147
1856, and May, 1857, by J. 0. & A. Eaton. It was a small quarto at
that — only three columns. The Lodi Weekly Herald endured from Feb-
ruary 25, 1863, until November 9, 1864 ; the Lodi Journal from October,
1870, to April, 1873, and the Lodi Valley News followed a year afterward,
and continued for thirty years as an independent republican paper, until
the failing health of its venerable editor, Uncle Peter Richards, caused
its discontinuance.
The Enterprise
The Lodi Enterjjrise. now in the field, was founded by E. B. Yule
and G. I. Richmond, February 16, 1894. Mr. Richmond retired in 1897
and Mr. Yvile continued to conduct the paper alone until September 8,
1902, when C. L. Coward, the present editor and proprietor, took it over.
The Enterprise is independent both in politics and in general.
The Poynette Press
The first newspaper to invade Poynette was the Reporter, whose first
number was issued by F. A. Bro%vn, a Columbia County pioneer and
editor of twenty-six years' standing. His venture lasted for about a
year from June 3, 1875. Mr. Brown was afterward connected with the
Monroe County Democrat, Sparta. The locality endured the absence of
a local .journal until 1887, when J. E. Shirk of Cambria founded the
Poynette Press. In 1910 he was succeeded by Charles F. Butler, present
editor and proprietor.
Other County Newspapers
The Pardeeville Times was established in December, 1888, by C. H.
Williams, and since July, 1905, has been conducted by Henry Thompson.
The Badger Blade, of Rio, was published for some years by Frank D.
Goodwin, now of the Columbus Democrat. Since January 1, 1913, its
editors and proi^rietors have been W. W. and Leslie Collins, who conduct
it under the name of Collins Brothers.
The Cambria News, founded by J. E. Shirk and published many years,
with J. F. Streeter as editor and proprietor, is a worthy exponent of that
locality.
148 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The infant in age of Columbia County newspapers is the "Wyocena
Advance, the first number of which was issued by L. H. Doyle, on July 1,
1910. On account of illness he was soon obliged to sell the paper to his
son, L. Hobart Doyle, but in the following ]\Iarch J. 'SI. Bushnell, who
had spent much time and money in founding and su.staining the enter-
prise, assumed control.
Defunct P.vpers
L. H. Doyle, the founder of the Village of Doylestown, a man of fine
character, great energy and perseverance, developed in the late '80s a
mania for establishing newspapers in different localities where it seemed
impossible for them to live. Among those that he established that sur-
vive him are the Badger Blade, of Rio, and the Wyocena Advance, at
Wyocena. Others which he established that were short-lived was the
Portage Advertiser, the Rio Reporter, the New Era at Fall River and a
law publication at Doylestown.
Besides the advertising papers that have come and gone in the last
thirty years in Portage are the Advance, published by E. W. Stevens,
and the Herald, by Jay R. Hinckley.
Hon. Lester Woodard. of Pardeeville, also established a newspaper
in that village which flourished for a time, but it eventually died for lack
of patronage.
A few other newspaper ventures have come to life in Columbia County,
but that life was too short to become a matter of histori".
CHAPTER XI
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES
First School Outside the Fort — First School District Formed at
CAMBRLi — Too Few Cubic Feet Per Scholar — School Children in
1913 — Legal Qualification of TejVchers — Columbia County
Teachers' Association — Columbia County Teachers' Training
School — Private and Parochial Schools of Portage — Columbus
Collegiate Institute — The Kilbourn Institute — Rev. B. G. Riley
AND LODI POYNETTB PRESBYTERIAN AcADEMY PRESENT STATUS OF
Public Schools — Pioneer Trainers of the Soul — Father ]\Lvz-
ZUCHELLI at the PoRTAGE TlIE FiRST OF St. MaRY's PaRISH STIR-
RING Methodist Preacher — The Methodists of Fall River — Lodi
Methodists Organize — Mr. Townsend on the Lowville Sabbath
School — The Presbyterians at the Portage — Cambria as a
Church Center — Presby-terian Church of Kilbourn — The Nor-
wegian Lutherans Organize — Early Churches in the Townships.
The school system of Columbia County owes its birth to ilajor Green,
commandant of old Fort Winnebago. He had a number of children in
his family, and in 1835 engaged Miss Eliza Haight as their governess.
As the major was thoughtful and generous, he allowed the children of
other officers to take advantage of her services, and a dozen children were
soon grouped around her. Thus was formed the first school in Columbia
County.
In the spring of 1840, Rev. 8. P. Keyes became both chaplain and
schoolmaster at the post, and taught about twenty children, some of them
over twelve .years of age.
First School Outside the Fort
The first school in Portage and the county to provide instruction to
the children of actual settlers was established in 1843. Hugh McFarlane
partitioned otf a small room in his blacksmith shop for the purpose and
149
150 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
his wife taught it. At first instruction was giveu only ou Sundays. It
is said the first books were purchased from a fund raised by Wisconsin
River raftsmen, whose children formed a majority of the scholars. From
this modest beginning a private school, with a hired teacher, grew into
existence.
First School District Formed at C.viibria
The year after the first school for settlers was opened at Portage the
Brothers Langdon founded what is now the Village of Cambria, and it
was largely due to the Welshmen who soon commenced to settle in the
village that a school district was organized in 1847.
In that year a schoolhouse was built on land donated by Samuel
Langdon, one of the proprietors of the town site. It was 20 by 24 feet,
built of oak lumber from his saw^nill, and the first winter term of school
was taught by Miss Betsy Griffin in 1848-49. Then followed in succes-
sion S. S. Torbet, iliss Butterfield, Miss Carhart, Mr. Knight and William
Hollinshead. Teachers then received $1.50 per week, with "board
around, ' ' and for the winter term $20 to $25 per month.
Too Few Cubic Feet Per Scholar
In 1858 the 20 l)y 24 schoolhouse was accommodating (?) seventy-
five pupils. The school authorities therefore decided to hire a larger
room in a building owned bj^ Evan Morris. In 1861 a new schoolhouse
was erected by Hugh Roberts at a cost of $1,600. Number of scholars
at that time, 313. The school w^as now graded, the first teachers under
the new system being Harvey Rust, S. A. Van IMiddlew'orth and Nellie
Roberts, who received a yearly salary of $50, $32 and $24, respectively.
In 1868 the schoolhouse was moved to a more favorable location on Tower
Street and an addition was built for the primary department.
Town of Winnebago Portage District
The next school district after that of Cambria included the Town of
Winnebago Portage. The town was organized and formed into a school
district January 9, 1849. There is no record of a public school in the
town during 1849 ; but in that year a portion of the town occupied by
those who resided near the "old fort" was set off as School District
No. 2, all other parts being No. 1. It is not necessary to give the limits
of No. 2, as in January, 1850, it became Joint District No. 1, when the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 151
name of Winnebago Portage was changed to Fort "Winnebago, and Town
13, Range 9, was taken from that town and organized as Port Hope.
The year 1849 marked both the organization of the Winnebago Port-
age School District and the first report issued by the town superintend-
ents covering the county. It appears from their figures that the average
wages then paid male teachers amounted to $11.75 per month; female,
$5.39.
Superintendents of Schools
In 1850 School Superintendent D. Vandercook formed four new dis-
tricts in tl»e Town of Fort Winnebago.
County Superintendents of Schools
The supervision of the schools of the county was in the hands of town
superintendents until the close of 1861, when the comity superintendents
came in. (In 1862 the constitution was amended by making the terms
of all county officers elected in even number .years, two yeai*s. )
A list of the superintendents is as follows :
1862-67— David AV. Rosenkrans 1882-88— Z. ilerrill
1868-69— Levi Bath 1889-96— E. C. True
1870-71— John J. Lloyd 1897-02— E. H. Burlingame| ■
1872-75— Leroy J. Burlingamet 1903-09— Sylvester C. Cushman
1876-79— Kennedy Scott 1909 —Chester W. Smith
1880-81— Henry Neill
School Children in 1913
The latest figures prepared by Chester W. Smith, present county
superintendent of schools, shows the following as the census of school chil-
dren in Columbia County in 1913 :
In the first column the figures show the number of children included
in the town ; that is, in all the districts and parts of joint districts
wholly within the town. In column two, the figures show the number
t Office declared vacant August 22, 1874, and Kennedy Scott appointed to fill
i-acancy.
{ Resigned August IC, 1902, and L. J. Tucker appointed to fill vacancy.
152 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
of school children included in all the districts of the town of which the
schoolhouse is in the town.
Arlington 258 232
Caledonia 364 364
Cambria Village 156 200
Columbus 245 254
Courtlaud 274 255
De Korra 297 285
Doylestown Village 86 105
Fail River 115 201
Fort Winnebago 195 228
Fountain Prairie 339 258
Hampden 241 245
Kilbourn Village 306 345
Leeds 346 304
Lewiston 286 286
Lodi 204 121
Lodi Village 256 344
Lowville 221 265
Marcellon 295 252
Newport 202 163
Otsego 260 216
Pacific 79 59
Pardeeville 283 315
Poynette 152 183
Randolpli 398 393
Randolph Village, W. W 73 73
Rio Village 200 232
Scott 280 266
Springvale 279 277
West Point 232 231
Wyocena 241 173
Wyocena Village 83 121
Totals 7,246 7,246
Legal Qualifications of Teachers
A school board can not legally contract with, nor pay a person for
teaching a school, unless such person is a legally qualified teacher of the
county.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 153
A qualified teacher is one who has either state certificate, unexpired,
or an unexpired county certificate for the county in which the school to
be taught is situated.
A teacher's certificate whose time limit has expired cannot be legally
renewed. All renewals should be reiiuested during the life of the cer-
tificate.
To get a third grade certificate for the first time, one must have at
least six weeks' professional training, and pass examination in reading,
writing, spelling, orthoepy, arithmetic, grammar, school management,
manual, agriculture, geography. United States history, including history
of Wisconsin, constitutions, physiology, rural economics.
A standing of at least 60 per cent is required in Columbia County to
pass in arithmetic, grammar and geography, and not more than one
other standing below 55 per cent is allowed for a year's certificate.
To get a second grade certificate one must have taught at least eight
mouths and pass examination upon American literature, physical geogra-
phy, English composition and library work, in addition to the third grade
branches. A second grade is good for three years. Sixty per cent is
required.
To get a first grade certificate one must have taught at least eight
months and pass examination in physics, English history, English litera-
ture, algebra, and theory and art of teaching, in addition to the second
grade branches. It is good for five years and 70 per cent is required.
A third grade certificate may be renewed by taking six weeks' pro-
fessional training, during the life of the certificate, or by passing exam-
ination in all but five of the third grade branches, providing the five
branches to be renewed are up to 70 per cent. A third is also renewed
without examination by passing examination in at least two second grade
bi-anches. If the other second grade branches are earned at the next
examination a second grade certificate is issued for three years from the
last examination.
A second grade certificate is renewed by taking six weeks of profes-
sional training during the life of the certificate, or by rewriting upon all
))ut five branches, provided such are up to 75 per cent.
A first grade certificate is renewed by being a high school graduate
and getting the signature of the county superintendent certifying to five
years' successive teaching; or by taking six weeks' professional training;
or by rewriting upon all but five of the branches, provided such stand-
ings are up to 80 per cent. A first grade certificate may be renewed
indefinitely after ten years of successful teaching under such certificate.
154 HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY
Columbia County Teachers' Association
The Columbia Comity Teachers' Association was organized in Octo-
ber, 1912. The first officers were : Principal L. J. Hulse of Fall River,
president; Miss Addie Butler of Wyoceua. vice president; Miss Caddie
Hoefs of Leeds, secretary, and Miss Anna Nelson of Rio, treasurer. The
members of the executive committee were Superiutendent R. L. Heindel
of Columbus, Miss Elga M. Shearer of Columbus and County Superin-
tendent Chester W. Smith.
The county was divided into five sections, each one presided over by
a chairman and secretary who arranged programs for the section meet-
CoLUMBiA County Training School, Columbus
ings. The constitution provides for one general meeting and two section
meetings for each section during the year.
The second year of the association has been very encouraging to
the teachers and educational leaders of the county. All sections are
working with complete programs and the meetings have been very largely
attended. The present officers of the association are : President, George
M. Batty of Rio ; vice president, Addie Butler of Wyocena ; secretary,
Emma Schulze of Portage. The members of the executive committee
are George M. Batty, Emma Schulze, A. J. Henkel. Elga 'SI. Shearer and
Chester W. Smith.
The Columbia County Teachers' Training School
The question of taking advantage of the state law for a Teachers'
Training School had been considered by the County Board of Super-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 155
visors previous to 1908, but in that year a resolution was carried estab-
lishing a training school for the county in the City of Columbus. The
City of Columbus had offered temporary quarters for the school in the
basement of the IMethodist Church, but two years afterward the pres-
ent fine building was erected. The first training school board elected
were : H. E. Andrews, of Portage and A. M. Bellack of Columbus, and
they are still serving, the count}' superintendent of schools being
ex-oflficio secretary of the board.
The above board elected Principal S. M. Thomas principal of the
school and Miss Harriet Clark, assistant. Mr. Thomas is still principal
with the following assistants: Miss Elga M. Shearer, Miss Anna D.
Halberg and Miss Ella Heiliger.
This training school has exerted a marked educational uplift upon
the schools of the county. In 1909 County Superintendent S. C. Cush-
man resigned and Principal Chester W. Smith of the Kilbouru schools
was appointed in his place. At the present writing the following pub-
lications have been prepared by the faculty of the training school and
Superintendent Smith : A quarterly magazine called The Columbian,
and the pamphlets Farm Accounts, Essentials in Education, and Some
Rules in English Composition.
The school has graduated ninety teachers and there are now teach-
ing in the county sixty-two of those graduates.
Private and Pakociiial Schools of Portage
For fifteen or twenty years after the permanent settlement of
Columbia County the more intelligent class of its citizens supported a
number of private schools — academies, collegiate institutes, etc. — the
communities being too sparse and poor to sustain public institutions
of a high grade. As a whole, these institutions were classed as "select
schools.
The first school of a strictly private character established in Por-
tage was that founded in the winter of 1851-52 by William Sylvester,
John Q. Adams, Lemuel Berry, Rev. Bradlay Phillips, C. J. Pettibone,
and Rev. W. W. McNair. The principal was Rev. John Brittain, A. M.,
assisted by Miss Abbey 0. Briggs and Miss Margarret B. Burt. In it
were taught, besides all the English branches, Greek, Latin and French,
and music, drawing and painting. As the district schools were improved,
public interest in the Classical Institute waned, and it completely
faded away when the public schools of the city were graded and a high
school established in 1859.
Cotemporaneous with the Classical Institute was the select school
156 HISTORY OF COLU.AIBIA COUNTY
of Miss Butts, which at one time had eighty pupils, but the maiden lady
principal became Jlrs. Cornwell, a Mr. ilills took over the institution
and, within a few years, it also was supplanted by the public system of
education.
There were also the parish school of St. John's Episcopal Church,
established in November, 1855, and the female seminary founded two
years later. Rev. H. M. Thompson presided over the former, with Miss
A. 0. Briggs, ^lary ]\Iorehouse and Miss McFai'lane as assistants. ]\Irs.
E. D. Emery, ;\Ir.s. E. W. Tenney and Miss Briggs were connected with
the latter.
The various Catholic and Lutheran churches at Portage established
parochial schools at an early day, several of w-hieh are still in existence.
The oldest is that identified with St. ^Mary's Parish, in charge of the
Sisters of St. Dominick, which was founded about 1866.
Columbus Collegi.vte Institute
Although Columbus had a number of private schools in its early
days, the Collegiate Institute was the most ambitious attempt to found
a school of higher learning outside the public system of education. In
March, 1855, the Columbus Collegiate Institute was incorporated by
James T. Lewis. J. Q. Adams, R. W. Earll, E. P. Silsbee. Chester W.
Dean, Joseph S. Manning, William C. Spencer, W. ^V. Drake, W. A.
Niles, John A. Elliott and Cyrus E. Rosenkrans. The ob.jects of the
Institute were to provide for "the education, the mental and moral
discipline, and instruction in literature, the sciences and arts, of youth
of both sexes." The act of incorporation also provided that "no
political or religious opinion shall be required as a qualification of
membership, and no student shall be required to attend worship with
any particular denomination." On the tenth of April, 1855, the board
of trustees met at the Congregational Church and elected Rev. Mr.
Rosenkrans president of the institute. Soon afterward Block 15 in
West Columbus was purchased, a small building erected thereon, and
in the fall the school was opened, with Misses IMartha Brigham (after-
ward Mrs. ^Villiam Ilazelton) and Mary L. Pomeroy (subsequently
Mrs. Polly) as teachers. Upon the completion of a Union School by
the city in 1858 and the failure to get sufficient subscriptions to con-
tinue the private enterprise, the Columbus Collegiate Institute suspended
and its teachers found employment in the reorganized public schools.
The year before the founding of the Collegiate Institute, Rev. jMr.
Rosenkrans had failed in his attempt to found a seminary in Colum-
bus. In 1859 a private school was taught by Miss Achsah Huyck,
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 157
afterward the wife of Rev. Mr. Phillips, and similar attempts were
made later, but had less and less chances of succeeding, with the steady
improvement in the facilities oifered by the public schools for which
the citizens were taxed.
The Kilbourn Institute
Kilbourn City also made two bold and partially successful attempts
to found institutions of higher education under private auspices. In
1857, through the liberality of A. Bronson, of Prairie du Chien, an
academy was opened at Point Bluffs, some fourteen miles north of
Kilbourn City. It was called the Kilbourn Institute, and it was con-
tinued with varying success until 1865.
In 1863 a charter was secured from the Legislature incorporating
the Kilbourn City Seminary, and when the academy at Point Bluffs
was discontinued the incorporators of the seminary proposed that the
school should be moved to that place and operated under its charter.
The proposition was accepted, the building at the Bluffs was moved to
Kilbourn City, and the Kilbourn Institute opened to the public with
Rev. G. W. Case as principal. By the fall of 1867 140 pupils were
enrolled. But about 1 o'clock, Sunday, January 30, 1868, while dedica-
tory services were being held in the new Methodist Church, word was
brought that the institute was afire. As the building was some dis-
tance away and the fire apparatus of the village crude, by the time
assistance arrived the flames had swept away the property of the insti-
tute and dealt it a death blow.
Rev. B. G. Riley at Lodi
Previous to the formation of the Union School at Lodi, in 186-1,
Professor B. G. Riley had been teaching a select high school in the
village, but after that year all his hopes to compete with the public
system were dashed to fragments. The citizens of Lodi had been thor-
oughly aroused by the report of the state superintendent of education,
who had compared the schools of their village most unfavorably with
those of Kilbourn City, Wyocena, Pardeeville, Cambria, Poynette and
Fall River — in fact, placing them at the foot of the class among all
the communities of any account in Columbia County. Their awaken-
ing brought their schools well to the fore, where they have remained,
but it killed all such enterprises as the Riley private high school. The
Riley mentioned was the Rev. B. Gilbert Riley, so noted
158 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
as an ediK-ator and Presbyterian minister both East and West, and es-
pecially in connection with missionary work in Wisconsin. His career
will lie further traced in succeeding pages.
PoYXETTE Presbyterian Academy
As late as 1883 an academic venture was made by the Presbyterian
Church at Poynette. In that year the Poynette Presbyterian Academy
was founded for the education of indigent young men and women
who were members of the church. There were two farms connected
with the academy cultivated by tlic male students, and the girls and
young women, besides the academic liranches, were taught practical
Presbyterian Academy, Poynette
matters of a domestic nature. For many years tliis institution was
quite prosperous, but the improvement in free high schools, and the
introduction to their courses of such branches as manual training and
domestic science, had an undermining effect upon the Poynette Acad-
emy, which finally dissolved in June, 1911. The property including
a large two-story building and attractive grounds, has been transformed
into a hotel enterprise.
Present Htati-s of Public Schools
In LS")!) the schools of Portage were graded and the high school
became a part of the new system, all under a city superintendent.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUxNTY 159
Columbus became a city in 1874, and its act of incorporation provided
for a graded system independent of the jurisdiction of the county
superintendent. In the following year its citizens voted for a free high
school under the general state law.
The schools of Columbia County are in excellent condition, those
which are under city superintendents, as well as those under the juris-
diction of the county superintendents, being particularly described in
the histories of the localities in which they are situated.
Pioneer Trainers op the Soul
As everywhere in the world, the training of the soul preceded the
training of the mind in Columbia County. Catholicism was the pioneer
agent of religious instruction there, as throughout the other regions
of the Great Lakes and the Fox and Wisconsin valleys.
Father JIazzuchelli at the Portage
The first Christian missionary to visit Fort Winnebago was Father
Samuele Carlo Mazzuchelli, a Dominican. In September, 1832, he
came on a visit to the Winnebagoes living near the portage, "the first
missionary since the days of Allouez, Dablon and Marquette, 150 years
before, to central Wisconsin. On this visit he held service on the
prairie near the village of De Kaury's south of the Wisconsin River.
A bower Avas erected for the purpose which was decorated with vines,
wild flowers and ferns by the Indian maidens, and was largely attended
by members of the tribe. He was unable to make himself understood
until he fell in with Pierre Paucjuette, the famous Indian trader at
the portage, who rendered much assistance in preaching and confes-
sions.
"The influence of the missionary's visit to the Winnebagoes is
noted by Mrs. Kinzie in her 'Wau-Bun.' She had offered a glass to
one of the scjuaws, which was declined with a finger pointing at the
crucifix hanging at her neck. 'It gave me a lesson,' she says, 'of more
power than twenty sermons. Never before had I seen a glass refused
from a religious motive.' "
Under Father Mazzuchelli 's ministrations there were many converts
to the faith, among others the wife of Pierre Pauciuette; and, prompted
by the missionary's teaching, as well as by his wife's request, the little
log church was erected by the giant fur trader which will stand through
all history as the first religious edifice in Central Wisconsin.
160 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
After leaving his mission at the portage and Fort Winnebago,
Father Mazzuehelli established the Saint Clara Academy at Siusioawa
Mound, Grant County, one of the most noted institutions of the kind
in "Wisconsin.
The First of St. M.\ry's Parish
It was years after the building of Pauquette's church before the
Catholics were substantially organized. Until permanent white set-
tles commenced to make their home at the portage and near the fort,
those who held to the faith were a varying and shifting band of Indians
and half breeds: but in the late '40s such stalwart white Catholics
as Thomas Christopher, Patrick Lennon, Charles Moore, M. R. Keegan,
James Collins and John Sweeney came to stay. Several missionaries
preached and said mass for about two years before the erection of the
little frame church, early in 1851, upon the lot which lies at the corner
of Conant and Adams streets. Upon the site stood a small forest of
crosses, marking the graves of a score or more of "good Indians" who,
having been converted by the early missionaries, had died in the faith
and been buried in sacred ground. Among them rested the remains of
Peter Pauquette, whose violent death near that locality in 1836, with
the subsequent neglect and final honoring of his place of interment,
has already been described.
All of this narrative leads to the founding of St. Mary's Parish, a full
history of which is given in the account of the Portage churches.
Stirring Methodist Preacher
The Methodists were coming into notice about the time that the
white Catholics were founding St. Mary's Parish. Early in tlie sum-
mer of 1847 a colony of unemployed English potters from Stalfordshire
located in the town of Scott, under the control of a British organiza-
tion called the Potters' Joint Stock Emigration Society. Two years
later land was purchased, and a store and ferry established, as well as
improvements made, at a place on the north bank of the Fox River, in
Section 4, town of Fort Winnebago. The colonists, who numbered about
150 persons, were substantial and honorable, although their enterprise
as a community experiment resulted disastrously.
Methodism had a strong following among these English emigrants
and one of their leaders, Isaac Smith, applied at Fort Winnebago soon
after land had been purchased in the northern part of the town, asking
permission to hold religious services therein, I)ut on account of the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 161
shades of belief among the officers he received little encouragement
from the commandant. Thereupon the use of the dining-room of the
Franklin House was tendered by Captain Low, and Mr. Smith fre-
quently preached therein to large and interested congregations.
It is said that the very first sermon preached by Mr. Smith created a
sensation. It was delivered some time in the fall of 1849. Before the
hour arrived for the sermon the preacher had learned of the varying
beliefs prevalent in the neighborhood, and it being his first visit he deter-
mined to preach so that none would be hurt. A fair-sized congregation
assembled and the services began. In the course of his remarks, which
were of a mild, general nature, Mr. Smith stated that all denominations
were working for one end, and that it did not matter what label anyone
wore if his conduct was all right. Heaven was the object of all — for
which all had embarked. Notwithstanding different roads had been
taken, it would not matter when they reached the heavenly region by
which route they had come.
In illustration of this thought he said that the general course from
England by which Wisconsin was reached was to take a steamer from
Liverpool, come to New York and thence take boat for this state. Now
he came from England to New Orleans, thence by the Mississippi River
to Wisconsin, and to Columbia County overland from the West. But
he was here all the same, and he supposed he was all right ; and it was
just as satisfactory as though he had come by way of New York.
While this thought was very consoling and satisfactory to some, one
old Hardshell Baptist jumped to his feet, started from the room, and,
slamming the door behind him, shouted, "A man that will preach such
stuff as that ought to be locked up ! " It is said that the sermon was
discussed from every angle by the settlers of the neighborhood for years
afterward.
In the spring of 1851 a regular Methodist society was organized at
Portage by Rev. Mr. Mackintosh, who remained until the meeting of the
conference of that year when he received a call to other parts. Local
preachers afterward kept the organization together until the fall of 1852,
when Rev. John Bean took charge as its first regular pastor.
The Methodists of Fall River
In the meantime the villages and towns outside Portage and Colum-
bus had been busy in the religious field. Among the first societies to
organize was that of the Methodists of Fall River. In 1844 Rev. Stephen
Jones founded the pioneer church of that village and locality, the organ-
ization being effected in the loghouse of Clark Smith. Its members were
162 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
largely of the Smith family — Rev. E. J., Martha, Clark and Sarah — and
Mr. and Mrs. Aaron E. Houghton. E. J. Smith was appointed leader.
A log sehoolhouse was erected soon afterward, and the meetings trans-
ferred to it. As the population of the village increased, the society was
moved thither, and in 1855 a church edifice was erected.
LoDi ]Methodists Organize
The Town of Lodi joined the ranks of the church people in the fall of
1845, when Rev. L. Harvey, a Methodist circuit rider, who covered the
territory for thirty miles west of Madison, founded a class composed of
members living near the present site of the village. It consisted of
G. M. Bartholomew (leader), Catherine Bartholomew, il. C. Bartholo-
mew, Mary Bartholomew, Christiana Bartholomew, Rev. Henry jMaynard,
Catherine Maynard and Harriet E. Maynard. Services were held every
two weeks in the log cabins of the Bartholomews and Mr. jMaynard until
the sehoolhouse was built on Section 27 in the spring of 1846, which then
became the regular place of worship. Says the Rev. H. Maynard in a
local paper in 1879: "These meetings were generally attended with
the Divine presence, spiritual and profitable, with some revivals and
additions to the church. As others came and settled in the valley, they
joined us in the little log sehoolhouse with one heart and one mind.
Mrs. J. N. Lewis says the first time she attended service in this valley
she rode on an ox-sled, with a family, to that little log house. There was
an unusual proportion of the settlers that were church-going people;
hence the influence of Christianity prevailed over opposing influences."
Mr. Townsend on the Lowville Sabbath School
The Town of Lowville took an early stand for Christianity, and it is
still among the foremost sections of the county in this regard. For-
tunately we still have with us A. J. Townsend, now of Wyocena, who,
as one of the real pioneers of Lowville, tells the story of the birth of
religion in his old home and its endurance to the present time: "The
people were wide-awake, most abstemious, and of a decidedly Christian
character, and their first Sabbath school was organized in early May,
1849. All worked in harmony and the settlers came from ten to fifteen
miles around to attend it. About this time a Baptist missionary by the
name of William Cornell came and labored with the people, and on
pleasant Sundays we would have as many as 35 in Sabbath school and 100
at the church services. Peter Drake, who lived in a pole shack about
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 163
12x16 feet, tendered his house to the good people for their Christian serv-
ices, and in the fall of 1849 Elder Cornell organized a Baptist church.
"That Sabbath school, if not the first in the county, was one of the
very first, and, with the exception of one year when the men were in
the Union army, has been in continuous operation. It is still doing Sne
work; the grandchildren of those who organized it are the workers now."
The Presbyterians at the Portage
In 1849 the Presbyterians obtained a foothold at the portage. It
was in June of that year that Rev. William Wynkoop McNair was com-
missioned by that denomination as the Wisconsin evangelist, and in the
following month commenced preaching in the garrison schoolroom.
According to the records he "devoted one-third of his time the first year
to the portage, preaching occasionally toward the close of his missionary
year in the new village then just springing up near the Wisconsin River,
afterward called Portage City. The remainder of his time was devoted
to Wyocena and De Korra." At the meeting of the Presbytery of Wis-
consin held at Cambridge, Dane Coimty, in June, 1850, a committee was
appointed to organize a church at Fort Winnebago, ' ' if the way be clear. ' '
In the meantime, a colony composed of members of the Presbyterian
Church of Fremont, Ohio, had settled near the fort. Thus the way
became clear, and in July, 1850, the First Presbyterian Church of Fort
Winnebago was organized, with Rev. W. W. McNair president and
pastor.
Columbus Congregational Church
On January 26th of that year the Congregationalists of Columbus
organized a society, with Rev. A. Montgomery as pastor and James Camp-
bell, Mrs. Julia Campbell, Richard Stratton, 'Sirs. Polly Stratton, Emily
Stratton, Mrs. Asenath Stratton, Mrs. Helen S. Rosenkrans, Ellen Hager-
man, Maria Hagerman and Mrs. Hayden as members. The church
became a member of the Madison District convention within a week from
the date of its organization, and R. Stratton was sent as its first dele-
gate. In 1852 the Presbyterian form of government was adopted.
(Details of the split into separate bodies and the histories of both the
Congregational and Presbyterian churches to be given hereafter.)
Cambria as a Church Center
Cambria has always been a leading center of religious, literary
and musical activities, on account of its large Welsh element. Its first
164 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
church was the Methodist, organized in 1850, a majority of whose pas-
tors have been Welshmen. The Welsh Calvanistie Methodist and the
Welsh Congregational churches were founded in 1853 and 1856, re-
spectively.
Presbyterian Church of Kilbourn
It appears that the first organization of Christians to take root in
Kilbourn City was founded by the Presbyterians. The church at that
place was based upon the failure of a similar movement undertaken at
the village of Newport, which in the early '50s promised to grow. To
double back on the narrative — in the summer of 1855, a petition was
drawn up by nineteen persons of Newport and Delton asking Rev.
William W. McNair, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort
Winnebago (Portage City), to organize a church at those points. At
the time, Rev. Stewart Mitchell was stopping with Mi-. McNair and
the two visited the new field. Soon aftenvard. Rev. H. ]\I. Robertson,
representing the Presbyterj-, organized the church, as requested, with
Mr. Stewart as its first pastor.
But Newport had already commenced to decline, and great difficulty
was experienced in obtaining even a room for divine services. Private
houses, stores, dining rooms, taverns — any shelter was welcomed. By
the most persistent efforts funds were collected sufficient to erect a small
church building, dedicated August 23, 1857. But the society lost con-
tinually by removals from Newport and the adjoining country until it
became apparent that nothing could be done in the way of maintain-
ing the church at that point.
On Sunday, June 29, 1856, Rev. Mr. Mitchell preached his first
sermon at Kilbourn City, and was holding regular services there when
it was finally decided to abandon the Newport enterprise. The fii-st
communion at the latter place was held in April, 1858, and Mr. Mitchell
went there to reside in the fall. From that time the church commenced
to grow slowly into a stable institution.
The Norwegian Lutherans Organize
The first Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Colum-
bia County was organized l)y Rev. I. W. C. Dietriekson on March 27,
1847, and was known as Spring Prairie Congregation. It consisted of
settlers residing in the towns of Leeds, Hampden, Otsego, Lowville,
and later Arlington and De Korra. The first Norwegian services were
held at the house of Sjur Reque. On the 15th of October, 1849, the
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 165
original church was divided into three congregations — Spring Prairie
and Bonnet Prairie, Columbia County, and Norway Grove, Dane County.
Later, they were consolidated into one parish, Lodi Congregation, em-
bracing the towns of Lodi, Arlington and De Korra, having been con-
solidated with it. Reverend Dietrickson had charge of these congrega-
tions until 1850.
The first Norwegian Church edifice was a small log house in the Town
of Otsego, built in the summer of 1853. In June of that year the corner-
stone of the church in the Town of Leeds was also laid. In 1866 the
Bonnet Prairie Congregation erected a meeting house of stone, and the
Lodi Church erected a brick edifice in 1871. At that time there were
280 families in the various congregations connected with the parish.
Early Churches in the Townships
A number of churches in the different towns were founded in the
pioneer decade from 1845 to 1854 which are worthy of comment.
Rev. Henry Maynard, of Lodi, preached the first sermon in the Town
of Arlington — a good Methodist one — at the house of Clark M. Young in
the summer of 1845. For several years he visited the town from time
to time, but no class appears to have been formed. In 1854 Rev. T. Lewis,
also of Lodi, preached Presbyterian doctrine at the house of A. P. Smith.
Shortly afterward a congregation was formed in Arlington, but no church
building erected.
In the spring of 1847 Elder Wood, of Wyocena, a Baptist minister,
preached the first sermon in the Town of Otsego, at the home of Stephen
James on Section 23. Two years afterward Reverend Hanson, a Meth-
odist clergyman, organized a class in the schoolhouse in Section 23.
In the sjDring of 1849, the Calvanistic Methodists erected the first
church building in the Town of Springvale, on Section 12.
In the same year the Protestant Methodists organized the pioneer
religious church of the Town of Marcellon at the postoffice by that name.
The congregation disbanded in a short time, however, the greater portion
of the members uniting with the Methodist Episcopal Church at Par-
deeville.
The first sermon preached in the Town of Newport was at the house of
A. B, Stearns July 5, 1852, the occasion being the death of L. W. Stearns.
The first sermon preached in the English language, where people assem-
bled for religious purposes, was at the house of E. A. Toles, Jr., in March,
1853, and was delivered by Elder Anderson, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.
The first religious services in the Town of Newport were held by the
166 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Norwegians who organized an Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1852, as
alread.y stated. In April, 1857, a lot was selected on the northwest
quarter of Section 20, and soon after completed and opened for worship.
The entire work was accomplished by volunteer labor. Rev. H. A. Preus
was the first pastor and served the congregation for fifteen years.
The Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Town of Lewis-
ton was organized l)y ilr. Preus in 1851, and a small house of worship
was erected in 1873 on the northeast quarter of Section 20. The German
Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1853 by the Germans living
in the west part of the town. In the same year the Methodists organized
in the schoolhouse of District No. 2. In 1858 the German Methodist
Episcopal Church was founded, and a house of worship erected on Sec-
tion 26 in 1860.
The Welsh are strong in the Town of Randolph, and for some time
before 1854 the Welsh Calvanistic Methodist Society had held religious
meetings in the old Lake Emily Schoolhouse and in private houses. In
the summer of that year they built a church edifice on land donated by
F. R. Roberts on Section 12, that town, and it was dedicated on the first
Sabbath of December, 1854. The name of the church was declared to be
"Engedi," a Hebrew name signifying "a fountain of pleasant waters."
The cemetery adjoining the church was called Machpelah, after the cave
purchased by Father Abraham. Rev. John Daniels was the first and only
pastor. The church building was enlarged in 1870.
Randolph Center had a number of churches in the early times, like
the First Wesleyan Methodist, organized in 1858, and the Methodist
Episcopal at a still earlier date. The German Catholic Church on Sec-
tion 7 was built in 1861.
The above is presented as a fair picture of the efforts of the various
denominations to establish themselves throughout Columbia County, and
their continued activities and good works are detailed in the more elab-
orate histories of the localities which follow.
CHAPTER XII
MILITARY RECORD
Jefferson Davis — Edwin V. Sumner— Other Noted Officers of Port
Winnebago — The Portage Light Guard — Company G, Second Wis-
consin Volunteer Infantry — First Wisconsin Regiment to Enter
the Service — Record of the Second Wisconsin — Company D,
Fourth Regiment — General Bailey and Major Pierce — General
Bailey and the Red River Dam — Companies A and B, Seventh
Regiment — ^Company H, Eleventh Regiment — Company D, Nine-
teenth Regiment — Companies C, G and H, Twenty-third Regi-
ment— General and Judge J. J. Guppey — Record of the Twenty-
third — Companies A and E, Twenty-xinth Regiment — Company
K, Thirty-second Regiment — Last Infantry Companies — Cavalry
AND Artillery — The Drafts in the County — Guppey Guard of
Portage — Competitive Drills — Captains and Armories — Company
F, Third Regiment, W. N. G.— Company F in Spanish-American
War — The New Armory.
The History of Fort Winnebago and the careers of many officers of
the post who attained fame both in the Mexican and Civil wars, give the
military affairs of Columbia County a national importance.
Jefferson Davis
The part taken by the garrison and its commanders in the Black
Hawk war has been described, Lieut. Jefferson Davis first coming into
notice as an active officer in the field. In the pursuit of Black Hawk,
Edwin V. Sumner also served as a lieutenant of dragoons. Both were
young officers at Fort Winnebago.
Davis, as the world knows, was one of the most distinguished figures
in the Mexican war and at the head of the Confederacy in the Civil war.
167
168 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Edwin V. Sumner
Sumner was a Massachusetts man. In 1819, at the age of twenty-
three he joined the United States army as second lieutenant; became
first lieutenant in 1823 and as such served in the Black Hawk war; was
promoted to a captaincy of dragoons in 1833 and to major in 1846. In
April, 1847, he led the famous cavalry charge at Cerro Gordo, in which
he was wounded. For his bravery at that engagement he was brevetted
lieutenant-colonel. He distinguished himself in all the other battles of
the Mexican war in which he participated. At Molino del Key he com-
manded the entire cavalry force of the United States army, holding five
thousand Mexican lancers in check, for which he was brevetted colonel.
Subse(iuently he was made lieutenant-colonel of dragoons and military
governor of New ^Mexico, and in 1857 led a successful expedition against
the Cheyennes, whom he defeated at Solomon 's Fork of the Kansas River.
Joining the Union army in the Civil war, by May, 1862, he had reached
the rank of brevet major-general. He commanded the left wing at the
siege of Yorktowu; was in all the battles of the Peninsula and twice
wounded ; was again wounded at Antietam, and at Fredericksburg, in
December, 1862, commanded the right grand division of the army. He
died at Syracuse, N. Y., March 21, 1863.
Other Noted Officers of Fort Winnebago
A younger comrade of General Sumner's at Fort Winnebago was
Lieut. William Steele, of New York, who also honored himself in the
Mexican war and on frontier duty against the Indians. He joined the
Confederacy, and surv'ived the war.
j\Iaj. David E. Twiggs, the first commandant and builder of the fort,
distinguished himself at Monterey, in the Mexican war, but was dis-
missed from the Federal service in February, 1861, for surrendering
United States stores in Texas before that state had seceded from the
Union. For a time he was a Confederate general.
One of Twiggs' lieutenants was William S. Harney, who afterwards
so distinguished himself in campaigns against hostile Indians in Florida,
and was finally brevetted a brigadier-general for long and faithful
services.
Lieut. Randolph B. Jlarcy, who was on duty at Fort Winnebago in
1837-40, saw active service in both the Mexican and Civil wars. He was
the father-in-law of George B. McClellan, afterward commander of the
Union army, and under the latter he served as ehief-of-staff, attaining
the rank of brevet brigadier-general.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 169
Lieut. Nathan B. Rossell joined the Fifth Infantry at Fort Winne-
bago in 1839. He was one of the youngest of the officers, and that was his
fii-st post. He was severely wounded at Moliuo del Rey, being brevetted
for his distinguished services there and presented with a gold sword by
his native state of New Jersey. When the Civil war broke out he was
in command at Fort Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was killed in action
at Gaines Mill, while leading the Third Infantry.
Many others might be mentioned whose military careers virtually
commenced at old Fort Winnebago. Its evacuation in 1845 was made
necessai-y by the call of troops to the Mexican frontier. While hostili-
ties were in progress, permanent settlers had not come into the county
in such numbers as to call for any levy upon them. The home military
record of Columbia County therefore commences with the outbreak of
the War of the Rebellion.
The Portage Light Guard
Several years before it broke, it became evident to thoughtful citizens
that the Civil war was bound to come, and in the late '50s military
organizations were springing up throughout the North. The Poi'tage
Light Guard, the first of its kind in Columbia County, was organized
in 1859, but did not enter actively into militaiy discipline and drill until
early in 1861. By the time a re-organization had been effected, hostilities
had commenced, and the President's call issued for seventy-five thou-
sand volunteers.
Company G, Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Light Guard promptly offered its services, and was assigned to
the Second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, as Company G. It was
mustered into the Union service at Camp Randall on June 11, 1861, with
the following officers : Capt. John Mansfield, First Lieut. A. S. Hill, Sec-
ond Lieut. S. K. Vaughan, Sergeants W. S. M. Abbott, G. W. Marsh,
Charles D. Ettinger and John G. Kent. There were eight corporals, two
musicians and eighty privates; twenty-five more enlisted at Fort Tilling-
hast, Va., in the following October, and still later (from the fall of 1861
to the winter of 1864) nineteen more joined the ranks of Company G.
First Wisconsin Regiment to Enter the Service
The various companies of the Second Wisconsin were organized at
Camp Randall early in Jlay, 1861, and on the 16th of the month, with
170 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the other conimauds, Company G re-enlisted for three years, ' ' or during
the war." As stated, it was mustered into the service June 11, the Sec-
ond Wisconsin Regiment being the first organization to be thus received
into the United States service from that state. On the 20th of the same
month the regiment left for Washington, and was the first body of three-
years' men to appear at the national capital.
Record of the Second AVisconsin
As a part of that command, Companj^ G participated in the move-
ment on Manassas, where during a terrific assault on one of the enemy's
batteries the regiment sustained a heavy loss. In March of the next
year, after it had become consolidated with the famous Iron Brigade
under Gen. Rufus King, the Second was in the advance in the con-
tinued operations against Manassas. On the 28th of August, the brigade
was assigned a position in the advance line, and proceeded slowly on the
left of the army to Groveton, via Gainesville. While moving by the
flank in the march toward Centerville, the Second Regiment was attacked
by a battery posted on a wooded eminence to the left. It promptly ad-
vanced and soon encountered the infantry. While awaiting the rest of
the brigade, the regiment checked for nearly twenty minutes the onset
of Stonewall Jackson's entire division, under a murderous fire of mus-
ketry. When the brigade arrived, the battle was continued until 9
o'clock in the evening, \vhen the enemy was repulsed, and the entire army
passed on the road to Centerville.
The Second took a prominent part at the storming of Turner's Pass,
South Mountain, and at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. It
was in the advance at Gettysburg, where it suffered a loss of thirty per
cent of the rank and file. Its total loss at that date amounted to 652 killed,
wounded and missing.
In December, 1863, forty members of the Second re-enlisted and on
January 28, 1864, arrived at Madison, received their furloughs and dis-
persed to their homes. During their absence, the remainder of the
Second, with the non-veterans of the brigade, participated in a recon-
naissance to the Rapidan River. About the 1st of March, the veterans
returned to the front, and their regiment was soon after assigned to the
First Brigade, Fourth Division, Fifth Army Corps.
The Iron Brigade then participated in the battles of the Wilderness
and Spottsylvania Court House. After the latter engagement the Sec-
ond Regiment, having been reduced to less than one hundred men present
for duty and having lost both field officers, was detailed as provost guard
to the Fourth Division, Fifth Army Corps, thus severing its connection
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUxNTY 171
with the Iron Brigade. In that capacity the remnant of the Second ar-
rived at Bottom's Bridge, on the Chickahominy, on June 11, where they
remained until the expiration of their term of service. Those absent on
detached duty were recalled, and on June 11 the little band of battle-
scarred veterans took its departure for home, arriving at Madison on
the 18th.
Those who had joined the regiment at various times after its original
organization were formed into an independent battalion of two compa-
nies under Capt. D. B. Dailey and assigned to provost duty. They par-
ticipated in the battle before Petersburg, and in November were trans-
ferred as Companies G and H to the Sixth Wisconsin, with which they
were mustered out.
Company G suffered its severest loss at Gainesville (Second Bull
Run). It went into the engagement with 54 men, and lost in killed and
wounded 43, 13 being killed outright.
Company D, Fourth Regiment
Company D, Fourth Regiment, was recruited at Kilbourn City, and
went into camp at Racine June 6, 1861, with the following commissioned
officers : Joseph Bailey, captain ; Walter S. Payn, first lieutenant ; Edwin
R. Herren, second lieutenant. On the 15th of July they left for Balti-
more, remained in Maryland acquiring discipline and drill until Novem-
ber, and after various unimportant movements joined the Army of the
Gulf at Ship Island, Miss., on March 12, 1862. The hardships of the
voyage engendered much disease, and many of the soldiers found a
grave in the sands of the Gulf of Mexico. The company was present
at the bombardment and capture of the forts in the Southwest Pass by
Porter and Farragut, and in May embarked in captured transports on
an expedition which extended to Vicksburg. It participated in the
famous thirty-days' siege of that stronghold of the Confederacy, as well
as in all the operations centering in and around Baton Rouge. The
Fourth Regiment led the advance in driving the enemy within his works
at Port Hudson, where it suffered fearful losses, as well in the assaults
against the Confederate forces within. In July the regiment returned
to Baton Rouge and in the following month was completely equipped as
cavalry. Subsequently, until May, 1866, the Fourth did excellent serv-
ice against guerilla bands of Confederates and marauding Indians, its
operations extending to Texas and the international boundary.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
General Bailey and Major Pierce
But Company D achieved its greatest fame because of the splendid
services rendered to the Union cause in the Southwest by Joseph Bailey,
who went out as its captain and in May, lS64r, had reached the rank of
brigadier-general by promotion.
The company, during its existence, had as captain besides General
Bailey, E. R. Herron, Guy C. Pierce and A. C. Ketchum. "Major Pierce
was one of General Bailey's most trusted staff officers. Being clear of
brain, brave and quick to perceive, he possessed an iron nerve and was
many times detailed for perilous duty. He was four times wounded.
Chosen as the recipient of a congressional medal of honor for brave and
meritorious conduct at the siege of Mobile, Major Pierce has also numer-
ous letters and relics, and has recorded many historical incidents which
future generations will value as without price."
General Bailey and the Red River Dam
The foregoing was written by Chester W. Smith, county superin-
tendent of schools, to whom we are also indebted for the following
graphic sketch of "General Joseph Bailey and the Red River Dam:"
Gen. Joseph Bailey
"Many citizens of Wisconsin have heard of the Red River Dam, but
not all of them know that its originator and builder was a Wisconsin
soldier and received his practical education in the lumber camps of
northern Wisconsin. Fewer yet realize that this man of rugged courage,
adaptable knowledge, and unlimited energy saved to the Union cause an
entire fleet of giui boats and thereby cut short by two years the greatest
civil war of history.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 173
"When Beauregard's rebel guns woke the North to united action
against secession, Mr. Joseph Bailey wag a respected citizen of Kilbourn
City, Columbia County, Wisconsin. He entered the service on May 18th,
1861, as captain of Company D, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers. He was a
man of commanding stature, great natural ability as a leader and man-
ager of men. In July, 1863, he was made Lieutenant Colonel of his
regiment, and in the spring of 1864 he was serving under General Frank-
lin's staff in Louisiana, as chief engineer.
"In April of this year Rear Admiral Porter's fleet of gun boats had
passed up the Red River as far as Alexandria, some 200 miles above
Baton Rouge. These gun boats were intended to work in connection with
the land forces of the Union army to complete the subjugation of the
South in southern territory.
"But the campaign was not proving a success and .just as the army
was preparing to retreat, the water in the Red river suddenly fell, leaving
the whole Union fleet stranded above the rapids near Alexandria.
"With a hostile people all about them, the enemy's army watching
for an opportunity for attack, supplies cut off and provisions short. Ad-
miral Porter saw only the utter loss of his fleet and certain necessity of
being compelled to destroy the whole scjuadron to prevent their falling
into the hands of the enemy. Expert civil engineers of the army were
consulted with no relief. They declared that it would take a year to
construct a dam across the river to float the boats. Looking at the prob-
lem from the standpoint of their book-knowledge and lack of experience,
no doubt they were right.
"But the man of practical knowledge, the man for the hour, was there
in the person of Lieut. Col. Joseph Bailey. He was there with confidence
in himself and in his plan, and he had the nerve to offer his idea to the
Admiral. But the great naval officer scouted the idea as wild and im-
possible. All of his best engineers, educated at West Point, ridiculed
the plan, so that nothing was done for twenty days.
"But the man of experience and courage, the man who had made
whole fleets of logs float down shallow streams in Northern Wisconsin
knew what he was talking about. He persisted and finally Admiral
Porter agreed to ask permission of General Banks of the army to allow
Colonel Bailey to try the experiment. Banks gave his consent only as a
last resort.
"Now the plan that Colonel Bailey proposed was not new as to the
fact that a dam in a river will raise the water above it. . The value of
Bailey's knowledge was that it offered a way to build that dam, and
free those big, helpless boats, in ten days, instead of a year's time :
"Once the project was decided upon, gloom changed to exultation.
174 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
General Banks gave orders to supply Colonel Bailey with every possible
need he might require. He asked and obtained 3.000 men, 300 teams and
wagons, all the axes and tools that could be found, iron bolts and bricks
from the numerous sugar mills along the river, stones from newly made
quarries, planks from old or new buildings. There were two or three
regiments of J\laine men, who were sent into the near-by woods to cut
down trees, which were brought to the river with all their branches on.
' ' The rapids over which the water must be raised to allow the boats
to pass, were about a mile in length, and the river was about 600 to 800
feet wide where the dam was to be constructed. To build a dam reaching
all the way across the river was impossible, nor was this a part of
Bailey's plan. He began by building wing, or bracket, dams about 300
feet long, reaching from each bank of the river, thus leaving a middle
chute about 66 feet wide for the boats to go through.
"The dams were constructed by floating on barges the logs, trees,
stone, old iron from the mills, and whatever could be used to stop the cur-
rent and back the water up the channel. At the end of these mngs four
of the largest coal barges, 170 feet long, were loaded with stone and sunk.
Log cribs were made, floated to the desired place, filled with stone and
sunk, after which long iron bolts were driven through them into the
hard bed of the river. This was necessary as the current at this point
had a velocity of ten miles an hour.
■ ' The men worked almost day and night and at the end of the eighth
day the water was high enough to start the boats. Eveiw one marveled,
and the tired men grew strong with hope and coming victory. But the
next morning the tremendous force of the increased volume of water
swung one of the big barges from its anchorage and again the water fell
to its former stage.
' ' Shouts changed as suddenly to doubts and disappointed hopes. Men
who had opposed the idea now came forward with their 'I-told-you-so's'
and the civil engineers demanded that the effort be abandoned before it
was too late to burn the boats and escape being captured by the enemy.
"Then was shown the mighty significance of having a Man present
who knew himself and his job. Men recognize a leader. For the past
eight days these men had been working, many of them, up to their waists
in water and in the hot sun. They now saw their labors tossed aside as
of no avail.
"But Colonel Bailey and his corps of assistants never showed a mo-
ment's hesitating doubt. Orders were immediately issued to begin the
construction of other wing dams and those men redoubled their efforts
for they had faith in the man who had faith in himself.
"In three davs the water rose to a sufficient lieight to allow everv boat
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 175
of the fleet safe passage over the rapids and down the river to freedom.
The Southern army was as astonished as it was disappointed, while the
glad acclaims of those who held dear the Union cause, were heard for
many days.
"Colonel Bailey was the hero of the hour and received promotion to
the position of brigadier general. Rear Admiral Porter and his staff had
ordered made a beautiful sword with sheath and hilt of gold, and also a
solid silver punch bowl, standing two feet high, which were presented to
General Bailey. These magnificent gifts were made by the Tiffany Com-
pany of New York and were beautifully engraved with appropriate
inscriptions. They are now in the Wisconsin State Historical Museum at
Madison.
"After being honorably mustered out in 1865, Cxen. Bailey returned
to Kilbourn City, his home. In 1866 he moved to Vernon County, Mo.,
and the same year he was elected sheriff of the county. The next year
he was shot by assassins whom he had antagonized in doing his duty by
enforcing the law.
"The name of Gen. Joseph Bailey should live in the annals of his
country along with the many other brave soldiers who gave their all in
defence of home and liberty. ' '
Companies A and B, Seventh Regiment
Companies A and B, Seventh Regiment, were from Columbia County,
the former from Lodi and the latter from Portage, known as the Colum-
bia County Cadets. Company A was commanded by Capt. George Bill,
with Hollon Richardson as first, and Richard Lindsey as second lieuten-
ant; Company B, by Capt. James H. Huntington, with John Walton as
fii'st, and S. L. Baehelder as second lieutenant. The Seventh Regiment
rendezvoused at Camp Randall in August, 1861, and in October joined
General King's command known as the Iron Brigade. The principal
losses to A and B occurred at the two Bull Runs, South Mountain, the
Wilderness, Gettysburg and Fredericksburg.
Company D, Tenth Regiment
Company D, Tenth Wisconsin Infantry, was formed in August, 1861,
and was known as the Fremont Rifles. James L. Coffin was captain,
Thomas L. Kennan first lieutenant, and George W. Marsh second lieu-
tenant. In October, 1861, the Tenth was mustered into service at Camp
Hutton, Milwaukee, and served in Kentucky, Tennessee and in Sher-
176 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
man's movement toward Atlanta. It was at Champliu Hills, Chicka-
mauga, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain and Peach Tree Creek.
Company H, Eleventh Regiment
Company H, Eleventh Regiment, was organized in September, 1861,
and accepted at Camp Randall for service October 18th, with Alexander
Christie as captain, Eli H. Mix as first lieutenant and Isaac J. Wright
as second lieutenant. It saw active service in Arkansas, Louisiana,
Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The Second Brigade to which it was
attached took part in the battle of Champion Hills, in the siege of Vicks-
burg and the Red River expedition, and the Eleventh was finally mus-
tered out of the service at Mobile, September 4, 1865. The regiment
suffered a death loss of 348; 262 of whom died of disease. Captain
Christie resigned in January, 1864, and was succeeded bv Lieut. James
O'Neal.
Company D, Nineteenth Regiment
Company D, Nineteenth Regiment, was recruited in December, 1861,
with Samuel K. Vaughan as captain, "William H. Spain as first lieutenant,
and Edward O. Emerson as second lieutenant. The conunand was mus-
tered into service April 30, 1862, and left for the Potomac on the 2d of
June. The boys were engaged for the first time at Newberg, N. C, on
the 1st of February, 1864. In June they accompanied the advance of
Grant's army in its assault upon Petersburg. After enjoying a veteran
furlough, in October they proceeded to the trenches before Richmond.
The regiment participated in the battle of Fair Oaks, and in April of the
following year was a part of the Union army which marched into Rich-
mond and planted the regimental colors on the city hall. On the 9th of
August, 1865, the regiment was mustered out of the service in the capital
of the Confederacy.
Companies C, G and H, Twenty-third Regiment
Companies C, G and H, Twenty-third Regiment, were all organized
in Columbia County. C was raised in Portage, with Edgar F. Hill as
captain; G was from Columbus, James E. Hazelton captain, and H from
Lodi, with E. Howard Irwin captain. J. J. Guppey, promoted from the
Tenth, was colonel of the Twenty-third during its entire service. He
was wounded and taken prisoner at Carrion Crow Bayou, La., Novem-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 177
ber 3, 1863, and exchanged in December, 1864. Captain Hill, of Com-
pany C, became lieutenant-colonel of the regiment in August, 1863
General and Judge J. J. Guppey
Joshua J. Guppey, of Portage, colonel of the Twenty-third for nearly
three years, was one of the most distinguished citizens of Columbia
County. He was a native of New Hampshire, and while a student at
Dartmouth College was captain of its military company, showing even
in his early youth one of the strong tendencies of his life. Admitted to
the bar of the Granite State in 1846, when twenty-six years of age, he
located at Columbus, Columbia County, in the same year. In the follow-
ing year he was appointed colonel of the county militia, and held the
office of .judge of probate and county judge from the fall of 1849 to
January 1, 1858 ; was superintendent of the public schools of Portage
city from 1858 to 1861, and on September 13th of the last named year
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry. He was in active service as such until July 25, 1862, when he
was promoted to colonel of the Twenty-third, and held that position with
high honor to the end of the war. He was wounded and taken prisoner
at the engagement at Carrion Crow Bayou, La., and in March, 1865, was
brevetted brigadier-general "for gallant and meritorious services during
the war. ' '
In April, 1865, while absent in the service General Guppey was re-
elected county judge for four years from January 1, 1866, and held that
office by successive elections until 1882. In 1866 he was again elected
superintendent of city schools, serving thus until 1873. Whether in mili-
tary or civil activities, Judge Guppey acquited himself as a man of
unusual ability and conscientiousness.
Record of the Twenty-third
The Twenty-third Regiment early joined the army destined for the
reduction of Vicksburg, its first engagement of any note occurring at Port
Hindman on the Arkansas River, which surrendered largely as the re-
sult of the fierce assault delivered by the Thirty-third. The regiment re-
ceived many congratulations for its conduct from the division and brigade
commanders. The Yazoo swamps laid many of the soldiers low, but the
health of the men improving, active operations were resumed. They
fought on the battlefield at Port Gibson, Miss., and were the first to enter
the village. The Twenty-third won fame at the battles of Champion Hills
and Black River Bridge, at the latter engagement capturing the Sixtieth
178 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Tennessee with its colors. It was at the front in the general assault on
Vieksburg, at the close of the siege the regiment numbering but 150 men
ready for duty. Later, at Carrion Crow Bayou, the regiment was at-
tacked by a greatly supei-ior force of the enemy, but, with reinforcements,
regained the ground at first lost, although at great sacrifice. The regi-
ment then engaged in the Red River expedition, the battle of Sabine
Cross Roads and the investment of Mobile, being mustered out of the
service July 4, 1865.
Companies A .\nd E. Twenty-ninth Regiment
Companies A and E. Twenty-ninth regiment, were composed almost
entirely of citizens from Columbia County. Bradford Hancock, who
became colonel of the regiment in April. 1865, was the first captain of
Company A. and was succeeded by 0. F. Mattice and 0. D. Ray. the
latter being promoted from the ranks.
Company E was recruited along the border between Columbia and
Dodge counties, and its captains were Hezekiah Dunham, Darius J. Wells
and Joshua A. Stark.
The Twenty-ninth was mustered into service at Camp Randall Sep-
tember 27, 1862. and its fine record is identified with the operations of
the Army of the Southwest. Its first battle was at Port Gibson and,
although the command was made up of raw recruits, the brigade com-
mander commended its conduct highly, and at the battle of Champion
Hills, fought soon afterward, it is credited with having made one of the
most brilliant charges of the entire war, capturing over three hundred
prisoners, a stand of colors and a brass battery. The regiment con-
tinued its good record at the siege of Vieksburg, the siege of Jackson, the
battle of Sabine Cross Roads, the work connected with the construction
of the famous Red River Dam under the superintendency of Colonel
Bailey, and the concluding battle before ilobile.
Company K, Thirty-second Regiment
Company K, Thirty-second Regiment, was recruited in August, 1862,
and mustered into the service at Camp Bragg, Oshkosh, September 25th
following, with John E. Grant as captain. In November the regiment
joined General Sherman's command at Memphis. Tenn., and accompa-
nied his army later in its famous march to the sea, and from Savannah
north through the Carolinas to Richmond. It reached the Confederate
capital May 9, 1865, on the 24th of that month it took part in the grand
review at Washington, and was mustered out on the 12th of June.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUiNTY 179
Last Infantry Companies
A portion of Company E, Forty-second Regiment, was raised in Co-
lumbia County during the fall of 1864, and Company D, Forty-sixth
Regiment, in which there were a few Columbia County boys, was recruited
in the first two months of 1865.
Cavalry and Artillery
Company E, Second Wisconsin Cavalry, was known as the Columbia
County Cavalry. It was recruited in the fall of 1861, was accepted for
service at various dates between December, 1861, and March, 1862, and
its captain was George N. Richmond. The regiment left Camp Wash-
burn, Milwaukee, March 2-1, 1862, and its operations were mostly around
Memphis and Vicksburg.
Company F, First Heavy Artillery, organized at Portage in Septem-
ber, 1864, with Erastus Cook as captain. The company left Camp Ran-
dall on the 3d of October, 1864, and was assigned to duty in the defenses
of Washington. It remained at that point until June 26, 1865, when it
was mustered out of service. It was the only company of troops going
from Columbia County which returned without loss of life.
The Drafts in the County
In proportion to population the number of citizens in Columbia
County who volunteered to serve the Union cause on the field of battle
was as large as any county in the state. But despite appeals from the
local newspapers to avert such a course, which was considered by some
as a reflection upon patriotism, and the strenuous efforts of the recruit-
ing agents, the "draft" came to Columbia County as it did to other sec-
tions of the North. In June, 1863, Provost Marshal S. J. M. Putnam of
Janesville, under orders, appointed the following enrolling officers to
register the names of those liable to military duty in Columbia County :
Perry G. Stroud, Newport; E. F. Lewis, Lewiston; J. B. Wood, Fort
Winnebago; Hiram Albee, Marcellon ; David H. Langdon, Scott; John M.
Bay, Randolph; Jeremiah Williams, Courtland; John H. Rowlands,
Springvale ; Henry Converse, Wyocena ; Wells M. Butler, Portage and
Pacific ; J. C. Mohr, Caledonia ; Jacob Cosad, De Korra ; Jesse F. Hand,
Lowville; E. W. McNett, Otsego; E. T. Kerney, Fountain Prairie; G. W.
Campbell, Columbus; William K. Custer, Hampden; Ammond Chris-
tophers, Leeds; A. G. Dunning, Arlington; Thomas Yule, Lodi; Cyrus
Hill, West Point.
180 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
Toward the latter part of July, the enrolling oflScers having completed
their work, it was found that the number of persons in Columbia county
liable to military duty was 2,045 of the first class and 1,609 of the sec-
ond. Under the president's call for 300,000 men in 1863, the quota to
be filled in the county was about two hundred and seventy. The total
number of volunteers up to August 20th of that year was 1,602, or 260
in excess of the quotas under the volunteer calls of 1861-62. As announced
by the provost marshal who superintended the enumeration of Columbia
County, the number to be drafted in its several towns was 353. The
excess of 260 under the 1861-62 calls being deducted, there remained but
ninety-three to be supplied under the call of January, 1863.
And so the balancing of debits (quotas due) and credits (volunteers)
went on for twenty months or more before the draft actually was ' ' pulled
off." In July, 1864, the president issued another call for 500,000 men,
and after much figuring among those interested in the prospective draw-
iug it was discovered that Columbia county's quota to be furnished was
806. The 21st of September was an interesting day to those whose names
went into the box at Janesville. The quota of Portage was eighty-six,
and prominent among those who drew prizes were E. C. Maine,
D. G. Muir, H. 0. Lewis, V. Helmann, William Armstrong, J. P. Mc-
Gregor, P. H. Ellsworth, W. W. Corning, L. Breese, John T. Clark,
James Collins, Carl Haertel, A. J. Turner, Alva Stewart and Israel
Holmes. Most of those mentioned belonged to the Draft Insurance Club,
and were entitled to draw $380 each from a citizens' fund to pay sub-
stitutes. Supplementary' drafts soon followed in a few of the towns.
Another call for 300,000 vohinteera having been made on the 19th
of December, 1864, it was ascertained that Columbia County's quota
would amount to 423 men. The quota of Portage by wards was fifty-
one. There was some lively volunteering about this time, under the
patriotic influence of nearly five hundred dollars bounty, $200 wages for
a year, with board and clothes and very little prospect for a fight.
A draft took place in the towns of Marcellon and Lewistou on the
27th of Pebruary, 1865, but by the time the drawing was announced
nearly every man in those towTis liable to be drafted had enlisted.
GuppEY Guard op Portage
The name of General and Judge J. J. Guppey was given to the
famous militia of Portage which, since 1883, has been known as Company
F, Third Regiment, Wisconsin National Guard. Prior to that time the
Guppey Guard had acquired a state-wide reputation as a finely drilled
organization.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 181
On the 6th of July, 1877, a meeting was held at the court house
in Portage for the purpose of organizing a military company. A petition
was then and there signed by sixty-five young men of legal military age
and presented to General Guppey, requesting him to appoint someone
to organize a company as provided for under the laws of the state.
A. J. Turner was selected for the undertaking, and at the first meeting
of the company A. H. Russell, who had served several years in the Civil
war, was elected captain, Homer S. Goss first lieutenant, and George S.
Race, second lieutenant. Soon afterward the company received from
the state sixty Springfield rifles, with belts and cartridge boxes, and at
once commenced regular drills. The citizens of Portage subscribed money
for the uniforms of gray, known as West Point cadet cloth, with gold
lace and dark facings.
Competitive Drills
The first competitive drill took place at Reedsburg, Wis., July 4,
1879, the rivals of the Guppeys being the Mauston Light Guard, then
one of the best companies in the state. Honors were so evenly divided
that the $100 prize was split between the two organizations. At the
September competition of the same year, held at Portage, the local com-
pany was second to the ilauston Light Guard, but in October it took
first prize.
In January, 1880, the Guppey Guard participated in the inaugural
ceremonies at Madison, and had the satisfaction of reading the following
in a city paper: "The Guppey Guard, of Portage, Capt. J. D. Womer,
'went in on its muscle,' and showed the crowd something grand. Cheer
after cheer went up as the company went through with some of its fancy
and most difficult movements. The other companies indulged in the
usual parade movements only. Portage City is assured that her company
'took the palm' in the drill business in our city, and the captain of
this company may well be proud of his men. ' '
The first executive officers of the Guppey Guard were as follows r
J. J. Guppey, president; A. J. Turner, vice president; John T. Yule^
secretary ; H. S. Goss, treasurer.
Captains and Armories
Charles C. Dow followed Captain Womer in command of the com-
pany, and after him came J. C. Britt. Just before the latter 's commission
arrived the guard was called to Eau Claire to quell the strikers in the
sawmills in that city. Capt. V. E. Brewer followed Captain Britt and
182 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
held the command until the fall of 1888. During the incumbency of the
former, the Guppey Guard joined with the Masons in erecting the armory
and Masonic Hall building on DeWitt Street. It was completed in 1883.
During the later '90s the ilasons acquired the title to the entire property,
renting the lower floor to the postal authorities when the new armory
of Company F was completed and thrown open in the upper story of
the present city hall. This was in 1901.
Company F, Third Regiment, W. N. G.
After being assigned to various commands in the Wisconsin National
Guard, the Portage company became at the organization of the regiment
in 1883, Company F, First Battalion, Third Infantry, as it is today.
George C. Carnegie, formerly first lieutenant, succeeded Captain
Brewer in 1888, and commanded the company until his promotion to
the head of the Third Battalion of his regiment in 1895. Major Carnegie
died two years later, while holding a temporary position as officer in the
guard of the Nashville exposition.
H. S. Rockwood, who had been promoted to the captaincy of Company
F upon Captain Carnegie's promotion, resigned in the summer of 1897,
being succeeded by Frank T. Lee. Captain Lee held the office until
January, 1899, when the Third Regiment was mustered out of the United
States service, after the Spanish- American war.
Company F in Spanish-Americ.\n War
As a unit of the Third, Company F volunteered for service in the
war. It left Portage on April 28, 1898, and as part of the command,
embarked at Charleston, S. C, for Porto Rico. Both the Second and the
Third regiments participated in the capture of Ponce, three months after
leaving home, taking an active part in the taking of Coamo. The troops
fought in various skirmishes up to the signing of the protocol of peace
in August. Several members of Company F were wounded, and Corporal
Frank B. Loomis and Private James Gamble subsequently died in a
Coamo hospital. At the muster-out at Portage, in January, Frank ^T.
Lee was captain, William 0. Kelra, first lieutenant, and H. S. Rockwood,
second lieutenant. In addition, there were eighteen officers, two
musicians, an artificer and a wagoner, and seventy-three privates; three
members of the company had been honorably discharged, and there had
been two deaths of typhoid fever, as noted.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 183
The New Akmory
Since the Spanish-American war Company F has been well supported
and its ranks maintained at the legal standard — sixty-five in times of
peace. Its armory in the new city hall building is commodious and
strictly metropolitan, with equipment to match. Guy F. Godell is captain,
Samuel B. Ernsperger, first lieutenant, and Frank B. Ernsperger, second
lieutenant.
The armory drill hall occupies a space of 72x73 feet on the Wisconsin
street side of the second and third floors, and is reached by two wide
maple stairways from the first floor. Like all the other floors in the
building, the floor is of matched maple. The wainscoting and other
woodwork throughout are of southern pine in natural finish. A wide
balcony runs around the hall on three sides, and on a level with the
hall floor at the Clark Street side are reception, dressing and smoking
rooms. Above these, and level with the gallery, are the officers ' quarters.
Columbia county is proud of Company F which, like other units of
the Wisconsin National Guard, has always upheld the fine traditions of
United States soldiers, whether members of the regular army or the
volunteer service.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CITY OP PORTAGE
First White Woman at the Portage — The Settlement Grows — The
Canal Booms Things — Platting the Town of Fort Winnebago —
The Guppey Plat — Incorporation as a City — Increase op Popula-
tion— The Present City — Chicago & Wisconsin Valley Railroad
— The Fine City Hall — Free Public Library of Portage (Mrs. J.
E. Jones) — The City Water Works — Electric Light and Tower —
Commission Form of Government Adopted — Protection Against
Fire — Wisconsin River Bridges — Final Dissolution of $119,000 —
Nomenclature of Portage Streets (A. J. Turner) — Experiments
IN Banking — City Bank of Portage— First Nation.\l Bank —
Portage Loan and Trust Company — The Eulberg Brewing Com-
pany— Epstein Brothers' Brewery — The Portage Hosiery Com-
pany— Ll. Breese.
When you weed out the inhabitants of old Fort Winnebago, and
the traders, and the carriers, and the interpreters at the portage, who
by no sti-etch of prose license could be classed as "permanent," the first
real householder of the settlement which developed into Portage was
Henry Carpenter. Long after, when he had become a resident of
Waushara County, Wisconsin, he wrote : "I landed in Portage in July,
1837 — my wife and I, and a man and his wife by the name of Hart.
Henry Merrell was keeping a sutler's store when I came, in a building
close by the fort. He afterward built and moved to the west side of
Fox River.
First White Woman at the Portage
' ' The first white woman who came to the portage and permanently
settled there was Sarah Carpenter, my wife; the first white child born
at the portage was George Carpenter, my son.* Silas Walsworth kept a
*Mr. Carpenter is now, and has been for years, a resident of Milwaukee.
184
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 185
small grocery on the Wisconsin River near the place where I built ray
hotel. Gideon Low (an army officer, then living at the fort) was building
the Franklin House when I came, and afterward moved into it."
Neither Carpenter nor Low came to Portage to settle there, although
they finally became residents. The same may be said of Henry Merrell,
who built a store on the west side of Fox River opposite the fort (and
therefore within the present city limits) about the time that Carpenter
erected the original United States Hotel. Silas Walsworth, whom Car-
penter found living at the portage in July, 1837, was a new arrival. He
afterward married the widow of Pierre Pauquette, and in 1846, at the
organization of Columbia County, was chosen county judge, although he
failed to qualify. He was a typical trader — here one day, and there,
the next.
The Settlement Grows
Andrew Dunn, Hugh McFarlane, Clark Whitney, J. Garrison, Archi-
bald Barker, Jonathan Cole and others came in 1838 — the first three to
stay, as the future was to develop. In 1839-40 immigration set in with
some strength, and within the next fifteen years the ' ' entrepot of Central
Wisconsin" really stood up to the name by which its people were wont
to call it.
Before the arrival of Mr. Carpenter the Portage Canal had been
chartered, and in 1838 digging actually commenced at a point on the
Fox River now intersected by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line.
Its course was along Bronson Avenue, about two rods north, entering
the Wisconsin River near Mac Street. After about ten thousand dollars
had been spent on that route work ceased.
The Canal Booms Things
But enough had been done to start a boom in the lowlands. "When
it was finally decided that there should be a canal, before the survey
had been made, great excitement prevailed among the people owning and
occupying the little cluster of houses along Wisconsin Street. It was
generally believed that the two rivers would be connected through Bron-
son Avenue, inasmuch as the two streams approached nearest together
at this point, and a demand for property along the avenue was necessarily
soon manifest. But, as experience has long since taught, there is no
telling where canals and railroads are going until they get there; the
Portage Canal was no exception to the rule. Bronson Avenue property
owners were seriously disappointed when the fiat went forth that the
186 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
canal, with a perplexing elbow in it, should be located some distance
northwest of the original survey. This announcement created confusion,
and real estate values were sadly affected. Immigrants were pouring in,
but very few of them chose to locate upon ' the flat ; ' they pref eiTed high
ground.
"And then it was that the first settlements were made along the
brow of the semi-circular hill, then so clearly discernable, in what are
now the Second and Third Wards. The population of this new settle-
ment was composed almost entirel.v of former residents of Fremont, Ohio.
A very brisk rivalry- soon sprang up between the old residents of Lower
town and the new comers of Upper town; and when the latter became
influential enough to secure the removal of the postoffice to the north
side of the canal, the name Gougeville was immediatel.v substituted for
Upper town by the chagrined denizens of the Flat. The energj^ and
industry of all classes, however, soon united in the common cause of
progi'ess. The two settlements became one, and local differences of a
character to retard development were thereafter seldom indulged in. ' '
Platting the Town of Fort Winnebago
In the meantime progress had been made in the platting of a large
portion of the present site of Portage. The canal company had come
into possession of the old Grignon claim, had turned it over to its
former owners, Sheldon Thompson, of Buffalo, and DeGamo Jones, of
Detroit, who, in turn, shuffled off the tract upon Benjamin L. Webb and
Alvin Bronson, in September, 1842.
In November, 1849, a plat of the town of Fort Winnebago, covering
the Grignon claim, was made by Webb & Brouson, with John ^luUet as
surveyor. The boundary lines of that plat may be easily traced upon
any of the modern maps of the city of Portage. The northwestern
boundary-, designated as "the line of public lands," as distinguishing
them from the possessions of the ^Menominee Indians, begins at a point
on the Fox River opposite old Fort Winnebago, and runs southwesterly
to the corner of Adams and Conant streets ; thence almost directly south
across the canal to the Wisconsin River, thence southeasterly along the
bank of the river to a point half a block east of Ontario Street, thence
northwesterly on a direct line to the Fox River, and down that stream to
the place of beginning.
The Guppey Plat
In June, 1852, J. J. Guppey, as county judge, entered various lands
in Section 5, in trust for settlers ; it was surveyed in the following month
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 187
and has siuce been known as the Guppey Plat. The United States Land
Office recognized the validity of the entry of lands only on even sections,
as Congress had given to the state the odd sections as public lands.
Richard F. Veeder acquired interests in both Sections 5 and 8, and further
complicated the wrangle between the state and settlers who had bought
land in these parts of the town. It is impossible to go into the legal
details regarding the troubles of property owners, especially Mr. Veeder,
but suffice it to say that after nearly a decade of state legislation and
legal procedure such titles were made secure. Numerous additions have
since been made, the first after Portage became a city being that of
Dunn, Haskell & Tenney. In 1856 Ketchum's second addition was laid
out.
Incorporation as a City
On the 10th of March, 1854, Governor Barstow approved the legis-
lative act to incorporate the city of Portage, which was to go into effect
on the first Tuesday in April. Its territory was described as "all that
portion of the west fractional half of Section 4 which lies south and
west of the Fox River ; Sections 5 and 6 ; all that portion of Sections 7
and 8 which lies north of the Wisconsin River; the west fractional half
of Section 9, and claim No. 21, known as the claim of A. Grignon, in
Township 12, north. Range 9 east." The three wards of the city were
thus defined; First — all that part lying south and east of the canal;
Second — lying north of the canal and east of DeWitt Street and the
road leading from the same to the north line of Town 12 ; Third — lying
north of the canal and west of DeWitt Street. An amendment to the
original charter passed March 30th created the Fourth Ward, and on
the first Tuesday in April, the following officers were elected through
the casting of 366 votes: William Sylvester, mayor; John Lodge, clerk;
D. Vandercook, treasurer ; Henry Carpenter, assessor ; Alexander Christie,
marshal, and W. S. M. Abbott, school superintendent.
In 1868 the boundaries of the city were extended, the Fifth Ward
was created, and the limits of the boundaries changed ; and these processes
have gone on, from time to time.
Increase of Population
In 1850 the population of Portage City, as officially ascertained, was
2,062, it was still the great route between the East, the lakes and the
Mississippi valley. During the summer and fall of that year it was
188 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
estimated that ten thousand persons with their teams and stock, crossed
the Wisconsin River in the neighborhood of the portage.
By 1856 the population had increased to 4,364. Three years later
the assessed value of its real and personal property had reached $588,169.
Its appearance and recorded prosperity well fitted it to assume the honors
and responsibilities of a municipality.
The Present City
The present Portage of 6,000 people extends over two miles along
the eastern side of the Wisconsin River, its northeastern districts extend-
ing to the Fox. The business district lies along the lower lands ou both
sides of the canal, its substantial and attractive residences, churches and
schools covering the higher and more broken area of the old "Upper
town, " and far beyond to the west.
The streets are well paved and lighted, electricity for both illumination
and power being supplied by Southern Wisconsin Power Company, whose
plant is located at Kilbourn City. Both police and fire protection are
adequate. The city is imder the commission form of government.
Chicago and Wisconsin Valley Street Railways Company and
Chicago and Wisconsin Valley Railroad Company
Portage has a street ear system which is a part of the contemplated
interurban system for Central Wisconsin. The Chicago & Wisconsin
Valley Railroad Company was organized in September, 1909, and the
object of the organization is to build an interurban electric railway
from Janesville to Merrill, from Madison to Fond du Lac, from Madison
to Prairie du Lac, all in Wisconsin. Work on these lines is now in
progress, with headquarters of the company at Portage and Madison.
The officers of the company are J. P. Huntoon, Chicago, president ; J. E.
Jones, Portage, vice president and general manager; Thos. W. Potts,
Chicago, secretary; A. S. Wehrheim, treasurer.
The Fine City Hall
Portage takes a great and commendable pride in its fine city hall,
completed in the early part of 1902. It is a three story structure, with
a body of red brick and trimmings of darker sandstone. There are
entrances on two streets, that on Wisconsin being the chief, the municipal
offices, the business men's room and historic portrait gallery, and Free
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
189
Public Library occupying the first floor and the armory of Company F,
the second and third stories.
The city hall was completed under the administration of Mayor J. E.
Jones, the building committee consisting of himself, J. C. Britt (then
captain of Company F), J. L. Hardie, F. E. Burbach, M. J. Downey
(now mayor), and Guy F. Goodell. The first meeting in the new council
chamber was held February 11, 1902, and at the first session in the fol-
lowing month the building committee submitted its final report turning
the municipal home over to the city. The total cost of the building had
been $18,917.53, which is borne equally by the city and Company F.
As the city spent, in addition, nearly three thousand dollars in fixtures
^"f^^-
Wisconsin Street Front of City Hall, Port
and furniture, it paid some $11, 616 for its accommodations. Company F
meets its share of the cost of erection in ten annual payments, assigning
to the city its receipts from the State of Wisconsin. Thus both parties
to the transaction are happy.
Free Public Library of Portage
By Mrs. J. E. Jones-
The story of the organization and growth of the free circulating
library of Portage, from its inception to its pre.seut important place in
the educational and material worth of the city, is one which reflects
great credit upon the women of Portage whose optimism, energy and
190 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
zeal gave to the community the lienefits of this most admirable insti-
tution.
On the 29th of May, 1900, a eommunieation from Mrs. Catharine
Krech (since deceased) was read before the Do Nothing Society (a lit-
erary club) in which she ui-ged the ladies to take some step toward
establishing a free circulating library in the city, as it had been the oft-
expressed wish of her deceased daughter, Miss Catharine, that some
such move be made and that her library be bestowed upon such an
institution when assured. As Mrs. and Miss Krech had both been mem-
bers of the Do Nothings, the request seemed like a personal appeal to
each individual member of the society, and with Miss Catharine's
small but admirably selected library as a forcible incentive, it was
unanimously decided to act. It being the last meeting of the year, a
committee was appointed to formulate some feasible plan of procedure,
to report at the first meeting in the fall, and the society adjourned for
the summer.
At the first meeting of the next society year, October 2; 1900, it
was decided to call a public meeting at the city hall on October 27th, for
the purpose of organizing a free public library association, to which all
the ladies of the citj^ were invited and all of the women's clubs were
asked to send representatives. The day arrived, the ladies assembled,
an organization was perfected and the following officers were chosen:
President, Mrs. J. E. Jones; first vice president, Mrs. J. E. O'Keefe;
second vice president, Mrs. R. 0. Loomis; secretary, Mrs. Maurice Good-
man; treasurer, Mrs. AY. G. Clough ; directors, Jlesdames P. J. Bark-
man, E. G. Boynton, F. Burbach, Jas. Collins, C. L. Dering, F. T.
Gorton. C. G. Jaeger, J. E. McDonald, A. J. Turner and R. B. Went-
wortli and Misses Margaret Hanley and Emma Voertmann.
Though the project seemed to be well launched, the ladies were now
confronted with the problem of suitable rooms for their piirpose, a
problem which was more serious than the casual reader might imagine,
as although they had a treasurer they had no treasury and no positive
assurance of ever having one. But nothing dismayed, the ladies pro-
ceeded to map out a plan of work for collecting a library, determined
to do their present duty and willing to let tomorrow take care of itself,
secure in the firm belief that the way would be prepared for them, as
such united effort in so noble a cause must perforce be crowned with
.success. And how soon were their hopes and supreme faith to be re-
warded ! for before the close of the meeting a message was received from
Mr. E. W. Moran offering two pleasant rooms above his store for the
use of a library gratis for so long a time as they should be needed. This
offer was accepted with thanks and the ladies took up their work with
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 191
a will. Everything necessary for the furnishing of the rooms was
quickly offered and before the adjournment of their first meeting pleas-
ant library rooms were assured, containing all the requirements of an
up-to-date library excepting, alas, the books.
Provided with rooms, now began the real work of accumulating the
books. The members of the association did not feel that their interest
and responsibility ended with the naming of the officers but remained
faithful and zealous participants in every project undertaken for the
good of the cause. The first money — about five hundred and sixty dol-
lars— was raised by a canvass among the women of the city, for this was
a woman 's enterprise and only the women were asked to give. Offerings
of books were also solicited and freely given, and on the 21st of January,
1901, the library was opened to the public. And surely it is a record to
be proud of! In less than three months from the organization of the
association the ladies had filled up a neat little library for the use of the
public with nothing to build upon but the promise of Miss Krech 's books
"when the library shall be an assured success." And it was not until
several months later that these were turned over to the association.
The library has steadily grown by the purchase of new books (the
money being raised in various ways by the women) and by valuable
gifts of single volumes and collections, until it numbered about two
thousand volumes, when at the first annual meeting of the association,
on October 26, 1901, it was formally offered to the city and accepted ;
and on December 1, 1901, the board of directors appointed by Mayor
J. B. Jones assumed control, the association disbanding.
The mayor's appointees were Mrs. W. G. Clough, Mrs. P. J. Bark-
man, Mrs. J. E. O'Keefe, Mrs. Fred Burbach, Mrs. R. B. Wentworth
and Hon. A. J. Turner, all of whom had been active in the work of the
association. The city superintendent of schools. Dr. A. C. Kellogg, be-
came an ex officio member of the board. Mrs. Clough was appointed
librarian and the vacancy on the board, caused by her resignation, was
filled by the appointment of Mr. J. E. Wells.
On January 10, 1902, the library was moved to its present location
in the new City Hall Armory Building, where it has continued to in-
crease in size and usefulness till at the present time it comprises 10,000
volumes and is accounted Portage's most valuable asset.
By the will of the late Mrs. Catharine Krech, the library was made
her beneficiary in the amount of $5,000, the income from which shall
be available each .year for the purchase of new books.
Previous to the removal of the library to its present location the
duties of librarian had been performed by different members of the
board of directors, but since that time Mrs. Clough has occupied the
192 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
position — for which she is admirably qualified — with great credit to
herself and to the complete satisfaction of the patrons of the library.
Miss Gwendolyn Kennan is the assistant librarian, ha\'ing succeeded
Miss Mary Porter who resigned the position about two years ago, after
a faithful service covering a period of eight years.
The present board of directors are: Dr. A. C. Kellogg, president;
Mrs. J. E. O'Keefe. vice president: Mrs. R. B. Wentworth, secretary;
Mrs. P. J. Barkman, Mrs. J. H. Rogers, Miss Harriet Coleman and City
Superintendent of Schools W. G. Clough, ex officio member; City Com-
mis.sioner F. F. Goss is also an ex officio member of the board.
The City Waterworks
In October, 1901, a board of water commissioners was created com-
prising the mayor, one alderman and three citizens, the last named to
be elected by the common council. The purpose of this move was to
take over the waterworks plant then owned by the Portage City Water
Company, which had been originally built in 1887. The municipal
plant now consists of two sets of Worthington pumps, which furnish
consumers with over half a million gallons of water daily through
seventeen miles of mains. The source of supply are three wells located
a mile west of the center of the city. The water is filtered through two
of the wells, pumped into a third, and thence distributed. Including
power house and equipment mains and fire hydrants, the works are
valued at about .$100,000.
Electric Light, and Power
The electric light and power furnished the citizens and the indus-
tries of the municipality are supplied by a private concern — the Portage
Electric Light and Power Company, of which G. E. York is president,
and R. E. York, secretary' and general manager. A sub-station of the
Southern Wisconsin Power Company, whose great plant is at Kilbourn
City, was erected at Portage in the fall of 1909. Through the former
which is housed in a large brick building near the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railroad tracks, is distributed 1,000 horse-power, about half
of which is converted into electric lighting.
Commission Form of Government Adopted
For the past tw-o years the city has been under the commission form
of government, and there is still a division of sentiment as to whether
it is an improvement on the old system ; but this is no place to advance
opinions. Pure history is a narrative. Therefore, to continue the story
of Portage.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 193
The commission form in all Wisconsin cities is adopted under the
provisions of Chapter XL, Section 925, Revised' Statutes of 1911.
Under it any city of the second, third and fourth classes may adopt the
city commission plan upon the petition of electors representing twenty-
five per cent of the votes cast for mayoralty candidates at the last pre-
ceding municipal election. Any law in force, the prevailing territorial
limits of the city and vested property rights are not to be changed with
the form of government. The ma.yor's term is fixed at six years, and
two and four-year terms are provided for the other two commis-
sioners, at the inauguration of the commission form of government. No
commissioner is eligible who holds a license for the sale of liquor. Fur-
ther, the enabling act creates the general departments of public finance
and accounts, public health, safety and sanitation, streets and jDublic
improvements, parks, recreation grounds and public property, and pub-
lic charities and corrections, and authorizes the common council to elect
a city clerk, corporation counsel, comptroller, treasurer, superintendent
of streets and assessor. The commission form may be abandoned by
popular vote at any time after it has been in force six years.
On the 16th of April, 1912, occurred the first meeting of the com-
missioners, viz: Moses J. Downey, mayor, head of the department of
streets and public improvements; H. L. Bellinghausen, two-years' term,
department of public health, safetj^ and sanitation ; Fred P. Goss, former
city clerk, four-j^ears' term, department of public finance and account.
At this session the rules of the former common council were declared
to be those of the new, and under the general state law nothing in the
city had been changed — neither legal nor property rights were inter-
fered with ; so the Portage government glided almost imperceptibly from
the old to the new.
In May, W. B. Washburn, the present incumbent, was elected clerk.
Besides the officials already named, J. J. O'Keefe, is treasurer; John
Diehl, assessor; W. 0. Kelm, corporation counsel; Dr. A. J. Batty, phy-
sician; C. E. Corning, engineer; and Nathan Warren, superintendent
of streets. The new government is operated at an expense of over
$92,000. The assessed valuation of the city in December, 1913, was
over $4,000,000.
Protection Against Fire
The burning of the old United States Hotel in 1851 gave the people
of Portage their first forcible warning that the city should no longer
be without fire protection. Other warnings came within the next decade,
but the city did not organize a "department" until the 6th of June,
194 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
1863. A few men and boys with buckets comprised about all the pro-
tection against fire for the first year, but in the spring of 1864, the citi-
zens, under the vigorous push of Chief James Collins and Treasurer
John Graham, purchased a hand engine — a second-hand one which had
been used in Milwaukee. Oregon Company No. 1 was then organized,
with John Curry as foreman. This company proved itself of substan-
tial use and did not disband until the late '70s.
The first hook and ladder company was organized in November, 1871,
with William Hensel as foreman. Mr. Hensel continued in that posi-
tion for many years. In 1874, the city purchased a Champion Fire
Extinguisher for $2,200, Excelsior Engine Company No. 2, having pre-
viously been organized to man it, with Alexander Thompson as fore-
man. The company flourished until the Silsby steamer, a first-class
engine in those days, was bought. It cost $5,500. What was known as
Silsby Steamer Company No. 3 was organized in October, 1877, the
first officers being: V. E. Brewer, foreman; D. M. Neill, first assistant
and treasurer ; William Edwards, second assistant ; John Lewis, secretary.
The present department consists of about thirty volunteers, with a
chief, assistant, engineer of the Silsby steamer and two teamsters, the
five men last mentioned being paid for their services. The city has over
100 fire hydrants and therefore feels that property owners are well
protected.
The house now occupied by the department was formerly the city
hall erectetl in 1886, and was remodeled and turned over to tlie fire
laddies when the home of the municipality and the militia was com-
pleted in 1902.
Wisconsin River Bridges
The ferries and bridges over the Wisconsin River at the portage
have always been important features in the growth of the village, city
and neighboring country. Peter Pauquette, the two husbands of his
widow — Antoine Pervonsal and Silas Walsworth — and William Arm-
strong, all operated and owned the ferry. In March, 1851, the Portage
Bridge Company was incorporated for the purpose of bridging the
stream, Init was obliged to relinquish its charter, as work was not com-
menced within two years of birth. In 1855, another company was
formed, which likewise failed to accomplish anything tangilile. In
November, 1856, the bridge question was placed in the hands of the
authorities of the City of Portage and the Town of Caledonia, and in
October, 1857, it was completed by a Philadelphia firm. Hall & Leet.
Shortly before it was finished the old Wisconsin River Bridge was thus
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
195
described: "It is a massive piece of work. The large oak piles which
compose the outwork of the piers are driven through the sand and stand
fast in a solid clay foundation. The inner spaces are filled with rock,
2,000 cubic yards of which have been used for the purpose. This
insures a foundation against which floods and rafts may beat with
impunity. Over 200,000 feet of lumber will be used in the framework.
The whole length of the bridge will be 650 feet, with a draw of 130 feet. ' '
The entire cost of the structure was $41,000.
Great excitement prevailed over the selection of a bridge commis-
sioner, and in May, 1S60, C. R. Gallett was chosen on the sixty-ninth
Second Old AVisconsin River Bridge
ballot for the position by the city council, John Graham, the pioneer
druggist, being mayor at the time. Mr. Gallett was succeeded by Charles
Schenck, George Wall, John Bean and Patrick Sheehan. By this time
the expenses had exceeded the receipts of tolls by .$20,000, and the bridge
bonds were at a scandalous discount. Finally, in February, 1868, the
city sold the bridge under the hammer to W. W. Corning for .$2,000.
But the sale was revoked by the common council, and in the spring
made a contract with Chapin & Wells, of Chicago, to remove the old
structure for -$1,000, place a Howe truss bridge upon the same piers for
$18,000, and allow the city the market value for any old material which
might be used. The new bridge was completed in August, 1868.
196 IIJSTOKY OF COLUilBIA COLWTY
Final Dissolution of $119,000
The entire cost of maintaining both the old and the second bridges,
from the commencement of work in March, 1857, to ilareh, 1871, was
$119,000.
In October, 1869, the bridge was boarded up and covered, and at
various times during the succeeding thirty-five years sections of it were
unroofed by high winds, or carried away liy floods. In its thirty-sixth
year it met its final dissolution.
On the night of the 8th of August, 1905, a terrific wind storm swept
down the Wisconsin Valley from the west, and the bridge was blown
completely off its piers and the wreckage carried down stream for about
300 yards. This was the end of the longest and strongest wagon bridge
in the state, and in the following year it was replaced by the fine steel
structure, which really seems to be able to successfully resist the fiercest
onslaught of wind or flood.
NOJIENCLATI-RE OF PORTAGE STREETS
The streets of Portage are especially suggestive of local history, and
he who walks them may be reminded of many interesting facts if he
keep in mind the information furnished liy the late A. J. Turner, as
follows :
"When names for streets were first considered the U. S. troops
were at the fort and the army officers were much in evidence in
suggesting names for them which will explain why the names of so
many who had been prominent as army officers appear as names of
streets.
"The streets to which were given the names Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren and Pierce were so named, of
course, in honor of presidents of the United States bearing those names.
"Wisconsin Street was so named because of its proximity to the
Wisconsin River, and Fox Street was for a similar reason given its name
because of its adjacency to the Fox River.
Mac, Dunn and Armstrong streets had those names applied to them
in honor of Hugh McFarlane, Andrew Dunn and William Armstrong,
the proprietors of McFarlane, Dunn and Armstrong addition to the City
of Portage. Dunn Street received its name in honor of Andrew Dunn,
second mayor of Portage and one of the proprietors of Dunn, Haskell
& Tenney's Addition to Portage.
"Cass Street received its name in honor of Gen. Lewis Cass, the dis-
tinguished soldier and statesman, who had been at one time governor
HISTOEY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 197
of Wisconsin when it was a part of Micliigan territory, and had crossed
the portage before the fort was built.
"Hamilton Street was so christened in honor of Alexander Hamilton,
famed as a soldier and statesman.
"DeWitt Street was named for W. K. DeWitt, an attorney of the
city; the name was never entirely acceptable to older residents of the
city, and there was some effort to change it in subsequent years, but it
was thought best to leave it, as the name had become well settled in the
public mind and little care was given to the why's and wherefore's of
the name.
"Clark Street — who this street was named for is involved in some
luicertainty, but probably it was in honor of Maj. Nathan Clark, who
had died at Fort Winnebago, while in command of the post, and whose
daughter, Charlotte Ouisconsin, had married Lieutenant, afterward. Gen.
H. P. VanCleve. Some have thought the street was named for Clark
Whitney, one of the early settlers of the town, who was engineer in
charge of the construction of the canal, and who built one of the first
frame houses in Portage, if not the very first, a little distance from the
Emder House. j\Ir. Whitney owned the tract of land bordering on the
canal through which the street ran.
"Lock Street was so named because its terminus was near the Wis-
consin river lock.
' ' Canal Street was so named, of course, in consequence of its adjacency
to the canal.
"Cook Street was given its name in honor of one of the Cook families
who resided in the eastern part of the town. There were two of them
Lawrence and James, brothers, and Erastus, Hiram and Moses, also
brothers and to each one of these has been ascribed the honor of having
the street named for him.
[Since the above appeared in the Daily Register, Mrs. G. W. Morrison,
who has resided in the city since early girlhood and who is an authority
on early times, informs us that it was always the understanding that the
street was named for Capt. Erastus Cook, who resided at the corner of
Cook and Hamilton streets, and such is probably the fact.]
"Main Street was given its name because it was at the time near the
business center of the city.
"Conant Street was so named, presumably, in honor of the famous
Roger Conant, but this is not definitely known.
"Pleasant Street received its name purely on sentimental grounds, as
it was pleasantly laid.
"Carroll Street had that name applied to it in honor of Charles
198 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Carroll of Carrollton, famed as a statesman and one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence.
■ ' Howard Street was named for Gen. Benjamin Howai'd of the U. S.
army: but whether it was for Benjamin or Benj. C. Howard, also of the
U. S. army and eminent as a statesman I am unable to say.
'"Prospect Avenue was originally a part of Howard Street, but not
being connected for its entire length, that portion of it lying west of
Wisconsin Street, and leading on to Prospect Hill was given by an ordi-
nance, the distinctive and most appropriate name of 'Prospect Avenue.'
"Franklin Street received its name of course, in honor, of Benj.
Franklin, the distinguished philosopher and statesman.
'"'Marion Street was named in honor of the South Carolina 'Swamp
Fox,' Gen. Francis j\Iarion, the soldier who distinguished himself so
highly in the south during the Re\ olutionai-y war.
"Emmet Street had its name in honor of Robt. Emmet the mar-
tyred Irish patriot and orator.
"Burns Street was given its name as a mark of the high esteem in
which 'Bobby Burns' was held by a large Scotch element which had
flocked to the vicinity.
"Bronson Avenue was so christened in honor of Hon. Alvin Bronson,
one of the proprietors of Webb & Bronson 's plat.
"Center Avenue received that name because it marked very closely
the center of the 'portage' between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers.
"Mullett Street had its name bestowed upon it in honor of the civil
engineer and surveyor John ilullett, who did much of the Government
survey of the state.
"Dodge Street was given its name in honor of (_!eii. Henry Dodge,
distinguished as a soldier and statesman, and who was one of Wisconsin 's
territorial governors, and first U. S. senator.
' ' Pauquette Street was so named in honor of Pierre Pauquette, famous
as an Indian scout and trader, and who had been in the emploj' of John
Jacob x\stor at his trading post in this city.
"Brady Street was christened in honor of the one legged hero, Gen.
Hugh Brady, who gained high honoi-s during the War of 1812.
"Brooke Street was so called in memory of Gen. Geo. Jlercer
Brooke, famous as a gallant soldier in the war with ilexico, and a detach-
ment of whose regiment, the Fifth Infantry, was stationed at Fort Win-
nebago, although I think Gen. Brooke himself was not on duty here.
"Superior,- IMichigan. Huron, Erie, and Ontario, the great lakes,
were deemed as appropriate names for streets.
"Water Street was given that name because of its closi' proximit.y
to the Wisconsin River: nuieh of it now being in the river.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 199
"Thompson, Jones, Griffith and McPhersou streets were respectively
named for Sheldon Thompson, DeGamo Jones, Robert MePherson and
G. P. Griffith, who were part owners of the Grignon tract which, later on,
became the Webb and Bronson plat.
' ' Whitney Street was so called in honor of Daniel Whitney who had
two trading posts here, one at either end of the 'portage,' before Fort
Winnebago was erected, and who did the first lumbering on the Wiscon-
sin river.
"Morgan Street had its name in honor of Gen. Daniel Morgan, illus-
trious as a soldier during the Revolutionary War.
"Warren Street had that distinction applied to it in honor of the
gallant soldier. Gen. Jos. Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill at the begin-
ning of the Revolutionary War.
"Wolfe Street was given its name in honor of the renowned British
general of that name.
"Dorr Street was named in honor of Thomas W. Dorr, famous as a
leader of what is known as the 'Dorr Rebellion,' in which an attempt
was made in a revolutionary manner, to give the people of Rhode Island
a constitution in place of a colonial charter under which the state govern-
ment was being administered.
"Williams Street, on Webb and Bronson 's, was given its name by
Mr. Webb, one of the makers of Webb and Bronson 's plat, in honor of
his friends and townsman of Detroit, Gen. Alpheus Starkey Williams,
who had gained honorable distinction in the Mexican war.
"The names of several streets of the city having been duplicated in
making addition to the city, the city council (November 5, 1883, April
2, 1884, July 2, 1901), changed some of them, so that one named for a
street should appear. By these ordinances —
"The street originally platted as Lake Street in Prospect Hill addi-
tion, was changed by the council, Nov. 5, 1883, to Park Street, but it
continues to appear on some recent maps as Lake Street. It was con-
templated at one time to establish a park on Prospect Hill and this sug-
gested 'Park' as the name of a street running to it. 'Lake' had no
significance.
"Williams Street, on Prospect Hill, became Sanborn Street, in honor
of Mayor Sanborn, and Williams Street in the Northern Addition, be-
came Reid Street (in honor of Wm. Reid) ; Monroe Street in Ketehum's
addition, became Barden Street, in honor of Judge Barden, and names
were given to certain roads in unplatted portions of the city which need
no statement of the reasons for the names assigned to them as Caledonia,
Baraboo and Fairfield other than the fact that the roads led to those
towns.
200 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
"Collins Street, on the Northern boundary of the city, was named in
honor of our townsman, James Collins.
' ' Collipp Avenue was so named, by ordinance of the city, in compli-
ment of Conrad Collipp, a prominent German resident' of the city and
who w-as one of the first, if not the tirst, German to establish a home in
the city. Mr. Collipp had dedicated a street running to his residence
from the bridge across the narrows of Silver Lake with the condition
that it should be known as ' Collipp Avenue,' a fact which was not known
when the ordinance was passed declaring it to be a part of Silver Lake
Street, and the street running north of the Lake from Collipp 's residence
to the 'Old Pinery Road' was named 'Collipp Avenue.' The error should
be corrected and the names 'Silver Lake Street' and 'Collipp Avenue'
should be transposed.
"Silver Lake Street was so named because of its proximity to Silver
Lake.
"LaMoure Street was given its name for Cooper LaMoure, an early
resident of the city who had a hotel on the ' Old Pinery Road, ' which was
a popular hostelry in its day.
"Hffirtel Street had its name bestowed upon it in honor of Carl
Hsrtel, one of Portage's early residents and most progressive citizens,
and who erected the block bearing his name.
"Hettinger Street was named in honor of John Hettinger who was
first to establish a brewery in the city.
"Schneider Street was given its name in honor of Carl Schneider,
who dedicated to the city the land for the street.
"Slifer Street received its name in honor of Samuel Slifer, a worthy
German who early became a resident of the city north of Silver Lake.
"Averbeck Street was given its name in compliment of Hon. Maxi-
millian Averbeck, prominent in early public affairs, who lived on the hill
north of the railroad track.
"Wells Street was given that name when, by ordinance, a new street
was laid leading from the Wells place on Silver Lake to Pierce Street.
"Wood Street was named for Portage's famous merchant, Nathan
H. Wood. The road leads from Caledonia Street to 'St. Lukes,' which
was owned by Mr. Wood and which he regarded as of a great value.
"Schulze Street was so named, by ordinance, in compliment to Ben-
jamin Schulze, who owned the farm bearing his name north of the rail-
road track in the Second ward.
"Volk Street, which was for a time regarded as an extension of Cass
Street north of the railroad track, was, by ordinance, given its name in
honor of a well known German of that name living near the banks of
Silver Lake.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 201
"Carletou Street was so named iu houoi- of Carletou G. McCulloch,
proprietor of McCulloch 's addition to Portage, a prominent druggist of
the city.
' ' The ' Old Pinery Road, ' so called was the road leading to the pineries
in the north part of the state rimning via the Lewis', Quincy, etc., to
Conant's Rapids and other lumbering points on the Wisconsin river.
"The 'New Pinery Road' was laid out at a later date, starting from
Adams Street and running via the Menominee House, Briggsville, Grand
Marsh, etc., to the same general points that the ' Old Pinery Road' led to.
' ' The writer of this has no knowledge why the names Coit, DenniHg,
Kimberly and Piatt, all on Webb and Bronson's were applied to them,
but were doubtless best bestowed in compliment to personal friends of
the makers of the plat; neither can I say anything about the reason
for giving the names Charles, Hermann, James, and Town to streets."
Experiments in Banking
Two banks failed in Portage before one came to stay — the City Bank
of Portage. The Columbia County Bank was started by Marshall & Ilsley,
of Milwaukee, in 1853, the local manager being Harrison S. Haskell. It
was incorporated in 1854, and in the following year Fred S. Ilsley, of
the Cream City contingent, joined the Portage institution as teller. Dur-
ing 1855 Mr. Haskell also sold his interest and retired from business.
Other changes occurred, and in 1860, Marshall & Ilsley withdrew entirely
from the concern. In 1865, John P. McGregor, who had purchased Mr.
Haskell's interest, became the sole owner of the bank, who therefore bore
the full burden of its failure when it suspended in the panic of 1873.
The Bank of Portage, organized in 1857 with D. Vandercook as presi-
dent, was also a victim of the panic, LI. Breese being one of the receivers
who wound up its afifairs.
Among the financial institutions of Portage which prospered for a
time, but failed in the panic of 1893, was the German Exchange Bank —
F. W. Schulze, president ; and R. A. Sprecher, cashier.
City Bank of Portage
The City Bank of Portage was incorporated April 16, 1874, and com-
menced business May 4th, with the following officers : LI. Breese, presi-
dent; E. L. Jaeger, vice president; R. B. Wentworth, cashier. After
several years, Mr. Wentworth was succeeded by his son, W. S., as cashier
of the bank, Mr. Breese remaining at its head until long after. The
present officers of the bank are : C. L. Alverson, president ; R. E. York,
202 HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY
vice president ; John A. Raup, cashier. At the close of business Decem-
ber 31, 1913, its deposits amounted to $485,670; surplus and undivided
profits, $17,943; capital stock. $50,000.
First National Bank
The First National Bank was established in 1890, with a capital stock
of $75,000. At the close of business March 4, 1914, its books indicated
a surplus fund of $25,000, and deposits of $835,000, with total resources
of $1,059,000. The First National is the depository for the United States
Government, at Portage; for the State of Wisconsin, the County of
Columbia, and the City of Portage. Its officers are: E. A. GowTan,
president ; W. S. Stroud, vice president ; A. R. Barker, second vice presi-
dent ; W. M. Edwards, cashier ; W. H. Roehm, P. J. Parkman and W. S.
Stroud, directors.
Portage Loan and Trust Company
The Portage Loan and Trust Company was incorporated in 1905, its
name indicating the general nature of its transactions. Loans are all
made on real estate, principally in the country within a radius of fifty
miles from .Portage. The company also acts as administrator, executor
and guardian, the deposit of its capital stock with the state treasurer
being a pledge for the faithful performance of any trust which may be
undertaken. Mortgages are also bought and sold, and time deposits con-
stitute another branch of its business. The capital stock of the concern
is $50,000; surplus, $2,300; deposits, $432,638. R. N. MeConochie is
president of the company and W. J. Scott, secretary and treasurer.
The Eulberg Brewing Coiipany
The largest of the industries located at Portage are represented by
the Eulberg Brewing Company and the Portage Hosiery Company. The
brewing plant comprises a large three-story brick building, fronting along
the entire block between Cook and Conant Streets (or about three hun-
dred feet) , with a frontage on Cook Street of over one hundred feet. The
cellar (or basement) is all used for beer storage, carrying a large stock,
with brew house outfit on first and second floors, having a capacity and
output of fifty barrels at each brew. The ice machine which is a 20-ton
machine, furnishes ample refrigeration for the entire plant and is located
in machine room, adjoining boilers, using a York ice machine from the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 203
York Manufacturing Company, of York, Pa., and all of their cooling is
done by the indirect or brine system (using ammonia and brine).
The brew house is located on first and second floors, the latter being
also used for storing malt, hops and all other brewing supplies, having
a large capacity and all of their supplies in barley and hops are pur-
chased in car lots, using both domestic and imported hops, the latter being
imported from Bohemia (Austria), while domestic hops are largely
brought from Oregon and barlej' from points in Wisconsin. The annual
capacity of this brewery is 15,000 barrels. The bottling works in a
separate building are well equipped with special machinery, operated by
electric motor and have a capacity of about five -thousand barrels a year.
Their special brand of bottled beer is known as Crown Select. The
Eulberg brewery supplies the bulk of the local trade, while their product,
toth in bottled and bulk goods, reaches distant parts of the United States
and even goes abroad.
The business M'as first established in its infancy about sixty years ago
by Charles Kartell, who carried it on until his death in 1876, when it was
changed to the Charles Kartell Brewing Company, continuing as such
until July, 1884, when they were succeeded by the Eulberg Brothers,
composed of Adam and Peter Eulberg, who carried on the business until
the spring of 1895, when Adam Eulberg became sole owner, continuing
until his death in 1901. The business was then continued by the Adam
Eulberg estate until the spring of 1907, when the present company was
incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000. The officers are J. J. Eul-
berg, president and general manager; Julius A. Eulberg, secretary, J.
N. Eulberg, treasurer; all of whom have had nearly a lifelong experi-
ence in connection with the business.
Epstein Brothers' Brewery
There is also a small l)rewery at the corner of Jefferson and Canal
streets, established in 1875, by Henry Epstein, and owned and operated
since the death of the founder in 1901, by his sons under the name of
Epstein Brothers. The capacity of the brewery is about 5,000 barrels
yearly and of the bottling works, 1,000 barrels.
The Portage Hosiery Company
The Portage Hosiery Company, under the management of LI. Breese,
the widely known pioneer and public character, and his son, LI. Breese,
Jr., is an industry of wide fame and growing character. Its extensive
plant is located on MuUett Street north of Wisconsin, and comprises an
204 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
office building 100x45, a mill 148x-4;5, and two large warehouses, oue of
cement.
The office building is two and one-half stories with office on second
floor, while the balance of second floor and the entire lower floor are used
for stock and finishing rooms.
The first floor of mill building contains the machinery for making
yarns. On the second floor are the knitting machines, operating 185
machines and giving employment to a force of 185 hands, all experienced
help. This is the only hosiery plant in Columbia County and one of the
best equipped in Central Wisconsin, the works throughout being equipped
with all conveniences, including electric lights.
The productions comprise a full line of men's woolen hosiery and mit-
tens, having a capacity of 500 dozen per day, which are supplied to the
general trade throughout all northern states, from the Atlantic to the
Paeifle.
The business is of long standing, having been established in May, 1880,
as a private co-partnership. It was owned and conducted by Loomis,
Gallett & Breese, merchants, and E. B. Went worth, gi-ain dealer, all of
Portage.
On January 28, 1893, the business was incorporated with the follow-
ing officers : President, R. B. Wentworth ; vice president, W. C. Gault ;
secretary and treasurer, LI. Breese. ilr. Wentworth retired from active
participation in the business soon after its incorporation, but retains stock
in the company. The present officers are : LI. Breese, president, treas-
urer and general manager; W. C. Gault, vice president; LI. Breese, secre-
tary : W. C. Gault, Jr., superintendent.
Ll. Breese
LI. Breese, W'ho has but just entered his eighty-second year, still has
a controlling hand upon this important industry. For more than half
a century he has been before the people of his home city and his state,
both in business and public capacities, and something more than an
informal review of his life is due him and the history of Columbia County.
Born May 13, 1833, at Abermyuaek, parish of :Malwyd, Merioneth-
shire, Wales, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in May,
1846. Settling on the home farm in the town of Randolph, his education
was drawn from the district schools and the experience he received as a
cultivator of the soil. His health was far from good, and in the fall of
1858 he accepted the position of deputy sheriff of Columbia County, hop-
ing thereby to get into more active work and extend his knowledge of
men and of business. Previously he had held several town offices ; there-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 205
fore haci had a taste of ofificial life. In November, 1860, he was further
advanced along this road by being elected eoiuity treasurer on the repub-
lican ticket.
After holding the county treasurership for three consecutive terms
of two years each, in January, 1867, Mr. Breese became a partner in the
drygoods firm of N. H. Wood & Company. Besides Mr. Wood, his asso-
ciates were R. 0. Loomis and C. R, C4allett. In 1869 Mr. Wood withdrew,
and the firm name became Loomis, Gallett & Breese.
Mr. Breese was elected secretary of state in November, 1869. The
office then carried with it the ex officio honor of commissioner of insur-
ance, and in May, 1870, he represented the latter official at the National
Insurance Convention held in New York City. For several meetings of
that body thereafter, he was elected either vice president or president
of the convention.
At the expiration of his second term as secretary of state, Mr.
Breese returned to Portage and resumed his connection with the mer-
cantile world, besides being president of the City Bank of Portage, presi-
dent of the Portage Iron Works, and president of the board of education.
Not long after he became identified with the Portage Hosiery Company.
Mr. Breese was married June 9, 1853, to Miss Mary E. Evans, of
Milwaukee, by whom he had three boys and three girls, one of the latter
dying in infancy. For years he has been one of the most prominent mem-
bers of the First Presbyterian Church, as well as a leader in all the rites,
activities and benevolences of jMasonry.
Minor Industries
There are a number of other manufactories worthy of note, aside from
these mentioned, such as the Portage Underwear Company, the Freeland
Tank Works and the Portage Boat and Engine Company.
CHAPTER XIV
PORTAGE SCHOOLS, CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
High School and Graded System Established — History op the Por-
tage High School — The Study op German — Present School
Buildings — City Superintendent Clough — List op Superintend-
ents AND Clerks — Early Catholic Missionaries — Founding op St.
:Mary"s Parish— Pastors op St. Mary 's— School Building Erected
— The First Presbyterian Church op Portage — First Methodist
Church — St. John's Episcopal Church — First Baptist Church —
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran — Other Portage Churches —
The Masons Form Pioneer Lodge — Chapter, Council and Com-
mandery — I. O. 0. F. Bodies — The Pythian Brothers — The Elks
Lodge — D. A. R., op Portage — Knights of Columbus and Foresters
— Lodges of Railroad Employees — Portage Liederkranz — The
National Verband — Country Club of Portage — The Y. 'SI. C. A.
The history of the present system of schools of Portage had its I)irth
on the 2d of May, 1859, when the tii'st meeting of the municipal Board
of Education was held at the ofiSce of J. J. Guppey, the city superintend-
ent. The commissioners were Volney Foster, First Ward; Baron S.
Doty, Second Ward ; Alvin B. Alden, Third Ward, and Henry B. Munn,
Fourth Ward. Mr. Doty was elected president of the board and Mr.
Guppey acted as ex officio secretary.
From the date of the city's incorporation in 1854, until that time.
Portage had been under the district system — No. 1, comprising the First
Ward ; No. 2, the Second ; No. 3, the Third. Fourth and Fifth wards.
At the first meeting of the Board of Education mentioned, May 12,
1859, was designated as the time, and the Common Council room as the
place, for holding an examination for teachers of the intermediate and
primary schools of the city. The board met and examined a number of
applicants, the result being the appointment of G. F. Richardson, Charles.
R. Gallett and ]Miss Luthera Waldo as teachers of the intermediate schools
and Miss Kate Rowland, Miss Fannie E. Waldo, Miss Hannah P. Best
and Miss Helvetia L. Reese, teachers of primary schools.
206
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 207
High School and Graded System Established
The board then organized the schools into a regular graded system.
The First Ward of the city, except the portion lying north of Center
Avenue, was made a district, with one primary and one intermediate
school ; the territory north of Center Avenue and all of the Second Ward
comprised another primary and intermediate district, and the Third and
the Fourth wards another. In August (1859), a High School was
established.
Superintendent Guppey's first report under the new system showed
that there were 1,076 children of school age residing in the City of Por-
tage, 511 being males and 565 females, divided as follows: First Ward,
293 ; Second Ward, 274 ; Third Ward, 145 ; Fourth Ward, 364.
In October, 1861, Superintendent Guppey resigned his office to enter
the Union army, where he made such an enduring record, and Henry B.
Munn, the commissioner from the Fourtli Ward was appointed to fill
the vacancy.
History of the Portage High School
In the meantime the High School had rapidly advanced in member-
ship and efficiency under Professor Magoffin, with Abbey 0. Briggs as
assistant. At first it was accommodated in the S.ylvester store, and no
more than eighty pupils could be admitted, under the rules of the school
board — eighteen from the First Ward, sixteen from the Second, fifteen
from the Third and thirty-one from the Fourth. If any ward failed to
furnish its quota, other wards or districts outside of the city might take
advantage of the vacancies. Before the close of the first year, over one
hundred pupils had been admitted, although the attendance had not been
more than eighty at any one time. In 1863 the average attendance was
eighty-two and in 1864, seventy-eight. In the latter year a grammar
grade was established and installed in the high school under the princi-
palship of Mrs. Agnes N. Cornwell.
The first high school building was completed in 1864, and by the end
of the school year the average attendance had risen to 109.
In September, 1865, Professor ^Magoffin resigned as principal, and for
about a year Miss Briggs, his former assistant, held the position. C. J.
Whitney was appointed in August, 1866, Miss Briggs resuming her old
place as assistant. Mr. Whitney resigned in the spring of 1867, Miss
Briggs again stepped into the breach for a time, and E. E. Ashley was
then appointed principal. In August, 1868, Mrs. Cornwell resigned the
208 HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY
prineipalship of tlu' grammar school, and was succeeded by iliss Lizzie
C. Osborn.
The Study of German
The large influx of Germans into Portage City late in the '80s made
it advisable to introduce the study of their native tongue into the public
school system. In 1869 a German class was organized in the high school
under Rev. J. J. Hoffman, who heai-d recitations one hour daily in the old
Lutheran schoolroom. In 1870 two German classes were formed from
pupils of the high school, and scholars from the intermediate grades met
on the lower floor of the Dean store on Clark Street under the tutorship
of Miss Amelia Schneider.
In 1873 J. J. Hughes was elected principal of the high school to suc-
ceed Mr. Ashley, and in 1875, William M. Lawrence and W. G. Clough
became respectively principal and assistant. ]\Ir. Clough was promoted
to the head of the school in 1877. There he has remained^ and in 1904,
under the new state law, became also cit.v superintendent of schools. For
the good of its public system of education, Portage could not have a better
dual official. Prof. Clough 's high school assistant is Miss Martha A.
Karch, a graduate of the class of 1878, who has held her present position
since 1889. She commenced her school duties soon after her graduation,
making her the oldest teacher in length of continuous service on the
city staff.
The total enrollment in the city schools of Portage when Professor
Clough became principal of the high school in 1877 was 924. It is now
1,015 — 215 in the high school and 800 in the lower grades.
Present School Buildings
The present High School building was completed in 1895 at a cost of
about sixty-five thousand dollars, and is a fine three-story structure of
brick and stone, massive and modern. It centers in two blocks of city
property bounded by DeWitt, Mac, Franklin and Burns streets. As it
is located in the Third Ward of the city, the High School building accom-
modates a full set of grades for that section.
The First Ward schoolhouse on Wisconsin Street is a $3,000 build-
ing, the pupils being under the prineipalship of ]\Iiss Eimna Schultz.
It stands upon the site of the old "Lee House," purchased by the city
in 1867.
At fhe close of the year 1874, both the Second and Fourth Ward
schoolhouses were completed. The Second Ward building, a four-room
HISTORY OF COLUJIBIA COUNTY 209
brick structure, cost the city some five thousand dollars, but is now valued
at $7,000. It is on Monroe Street, the principal of the school being
Miss Margaret Dempsey.
The Fourth Ward school, the same size, is on Prospect Avenue, and
is valued at $10,000; principal, Miss Kittie Williams.
The Fifth Ward has a small two-room schoolhoiise which accommo-
dates several primary
City Superintendent Clough
Professor W. G. Clough, head of the school system of Portage and
one of the advisory editors of this work, is a native of the place, and is
^^^^KS%% Jh
■ ■■• .j^c^ffiW J fpft USEIBSItr'* ^''''
— . — .._____^,
Portage High School
still living ou a part of the tract which his father took up as govern-
ment land in 1848. He is a son of William R. and Mary A. (Goeway)
Clough, his parents settUng at Delavan, Wis., in 1846, and coming to
Portage City two years thereafter. Mr. Clough was educated in the
city schools, graduating from the High School in 1870. He taught three
years in the country schools and in the grammar department of the old
high school, after which he entered the University of Wisconsin and con-
tinued therein from 1872 to 1875, graduating with the degree of A. B.
He returned to Portage in 1875, when he became assistant to the High
School principal, William M. Lawrence, whom he succeeded two years
later. He served in that capacity until 1904, when the state law was
passed requiring the city superintendent of schools to be a Normal school
210 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
or college graduate. Previously the latter o£8ee had been held by men
of other professions, or engaged in business, who also served as clerks
of the school board ; since that year the head of the high school has been
superintendent of the entire city system of schools. In 1910 he was
elected president of the Southern Wisconsin Teachers' Association, a
deserved compliment both to his ability and popularity.
On January 3, 1882, Professor Clough married Miss Elsena Wiswall,
of Prairie du Sac, Wis. Mrs. Clough taught for several years before
her marriage, and since becoming a resident of Portage has become
widely known in literary, educational and social circles. As public
librarian for a dozen years her forceful, yet unobtrusive influence has
been extended for the general good.
Mr. and I\Irs. Clough are the pai'ents of a son and a daughter. The
former, Dr. Paul W. Clough, is a graduate both of the University of
Wisconsin (1903) and of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School
(1907). He has taken a post-graduate medical course in Germany and
for a number of years past has been identified with the Johns Hopkins
Hospital, during the latter period with his connection as resident physi-
cian. The daughter, Ethel Pearl Clough, graduated from the Wisconsin
University in 1907, and is now the wife of Benjamin S. Reynolds, of
Milwaukee.
List of Superintendents and Clerks
The following have held the combined offices of superintendent of
schools and clerk of the board of education : J. J. Guppey, 1859-61 ;
Henry B. Muun, 1861-66; J. J. Guppey, 1866-73; G. J. Cox, 1873-75;
N. K. Shattuck, 1875-77 ; A. C. Kellogg, 1877-81 ; A. Schloemileh, 1881-
83; A. C. Kellogg, 1883-85; Thomas Armstrong, Jr., 1885-86; W. S.
Stroud, 1886-88; Charles T. Susan, 1888-89; A. C. Kellogg, 1889-94;
William Fulton, 1894-96 ; A. C. Kellogg, 1897-1904. Dr. A. C. Kellogg
was secretary of the board, under the new law, from 1904 to 1907, when
he resigned to accept the city attorneyship. H. A. Story, who had been
president of the board from 1904 to 1907, resigned that position to
become its secretary and succeed Dr. Kellogg; and he still holds the
office.
E.\RLY Catholic jMissionaries
Christianity was planted at Portage by the Catholic missionaries,
the first priest of undoubted authenticity to preach at this point being
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
211
Father Marquette. No authentic records of later missionary work at
the portage are found until about 1825. At intervals until 1831 Cath-
olic priests gathered the Indians there to preach their faith.
As noted, at the suggestion of the young Dominican priest, Rev.
Samuel C. Mazzuchelli, Pierre Pauquette erected what is considered
the first church in Central Wisconsin during the year 1833. Later, while
on his way to St. Louis, Father Mazzuchelli discovered a Catholic colony
near Dubuque, Iowa. While laboring in that vicinity he purchased
Sinsinawa ilound, on the opposite side of the Mississippi, in Wisconsin,
Old Pauquette Church, Portage
and after energetic work established a college and academy there. The
institution has developed into great fame as St. Clara's Academy, under
the supervision of the Sisters of St. Dominie. Father Mazzuchelli died
at Benton, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, in 1864.
Founding op St. Mary's Parish
For several years after the burning of the little log church erected
by Pauquette, services were held occasionally in the homes of the first
white settlers. Among these were James Collins, Thomas Christopher,
212 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
John Sweeney, Mrs. Ward, M. R. Kegan, Patrick Leunou and Charles
Moore. Father Smith attended to their spiritual needs for a short time,
and was succeeded by Father Hobbs, who held services in a house near
Fort Winnebago. In 1850 Rev. Louis Godhardt administered to their
needs in a building located in what is now the First Ward of the city.
Pastors op St. M.\ry's
In 1851 the Catholics erected a small edifice called St. Mary's Church.
It was located near the old "Pauquette Church" site, and ai-ound its
memory are gathered many interesting episodes in the life of St. Mary's
Parish. Rev. James Roche succeeded Father Godhardt in 1852, and in
1857 came Rev. J. Doyle. The latter effected the purchase of the present
site of St. Mary's Church, and after some remodeling the building,
which had been used by the Baptists, was dedicated as St. ]\Iary's of
the Immaculate Conception. Father Doyle also purchased the land
north of the city as a burial place, since known as St. Mary's Cemetery.
Rev. P. J. 0 'Xeil and Rev. F. Pettit succeeded Father Doyle, the latter
Iniilding the parsonage which was moved, in 1899, to a site near the
Lutheran School in the Fifth Ward. After two and a half years. Father
Pettit was followed by Rev. Thomas Keenan, who for thirteen .years not
only ministered to the Catholics of Portage, but also of Lodi, Dane, Kil
bourn and other places.
School Buildtng Erected
During Father Keenan "s pastorate St. Mary's school building was
erected, but he died in the fall of 1880 before it was opened to the chil-
dren he loved. The deceased was succeeded by his brother, Rev. Joseph
Keenan, now the well-know^l pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Fond du
Lac, who remained with St. ]\Iary's for about eight months. His suc-
cessor. Rev. John Brady, died in the service of that church, and his
work was taken up l)y a friend and classmate at the University of
Louvain, Belgium, Rev. J. A. Geissler. Rev. George Brady, his suc-
cessor and brother of his predecessor, remained as pastor of St. Mary's
Church for thirteen years. Although sufifering almost continuously with
pulmonary trouble, Father Brady's administration of affairs was ener-
getic and stimulating. In 1883 the church building was enlarged and
beautified at a cost of !{!8,000. which improvements were made necessary
by the gi-owth of the parish. To lighten Father Brady's labors. Rev.
A. P. Desmond was appointed as an assistant pastor in July. 1896; but,
PIISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 213
despite all human care, the former died February 23, 1897, his remains
being interred in the cemetery of his native parish. Freedom, Wis.
R€v. J. D. Cummane also was called away in the midst of his labors
for St. Mary's Parish, on July 30, 1899, being succeeded by Rev. M. H.
Clifford, who came from St. Joseph's Church, Berlin, Wis. Under his
pastorate, covering five years, the church was renovated without and
within, and a commodious and modern building was erected as the
priest's residence. In November, 1904, Father Clifford resigned to
take charge of St. Peter's Church, Oshkosh.
Until May, 1905, Portage belonged to the Green Bay Diocese, but
at that time a new division of territory was made by which Columbia
County was included in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
At the resignation of Father Clifford, Father James Brady was
appointed pastor of St. Mary's. In July, 1905, he was transferred to
St. John's Cathedral, Milwaukee, where he died in the following year.
In July, 1905, Rev. John Morrissey, the present pastor, took charge
of the parish. During his pastorate St. Francis Xavier Congregation
(German Catholic) was dissolved, joining St. Mary's Church, to which
body it deeded its property. The rapid growth of the church made
it necessary to send Father Morrissey an assistant, and in 1908 Father
Knoernsehild was appointed to that post. Other evidences of the pros-
perous condition of the parish have been the redecoration of the church,
the lifting of the debt from St. Francis Xavier, and an addition to the
parochial school.
The average attendance at St. Mary's school is about two hundred.
The children are taught by the Sisters of St. Dominic. The school has
been established since 1866 and conducted in its present location since
1880. The sisters are comfortably housed in St. Dominic's Convent,
standing on the property of the church, which is a credit both to the
parish and the city.
The ilETHODisTs OF Portage
In the spring of 1851, a society of Methodists was organized in Portage
by the Rev. Mr. Mackintosh. He remained but a short time, and such
local preachers as James Chancellor and Isaac Smith — the latter an
exhorter from the colony of English potters who had settled in the north-
ern part of the county — kept the organization together, pending the
organization of a regular church. Rev. William Wells, a sturdy pioneer
minister, often filled the pulpit of this society.
In the fall of 1852, Rev. John Bean was sent to Portage by the pre-
siding elder, as the result of an urgent call, and thus became the first
214 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
re^Iar pastor. Rev. D. Stausbury succeeded him, and during his
pastorate, about 1856, the society erected a small wooden building as a
house of worship.
Among those who have served the society as pastors, succeeding ilr.
Stansbury, were : Rev. C. P. Hackney, H. V. Train, W. B. Haseltine,
R. Langley. John JM. Springer, I. B. Bachman, Jacob ililler. I. B. Rich-
ardson, William Haw, James Evans, George AV. Case, John Knibbs,
F. ^\. Hall, A. S. Collins, \X. J. McKay. J. E. Irish. W. R. Irish. A. M.
Pilcher, H. W. Bushnell, E. Trimm and W. II. Penn (the present in-
cumbent).
The beautiful church, corner of DeWitt and Pleasant, opposite the
courthouse square, is largely the result of the labors of the Ladies' Aid
Society, who for several years energetically collected funds for its erec-
tion. The church was built under the pastorate of Rev. H. AV. Bushnell.
On October 3, 1897, Rev. D. W. Couch, of Ne\y York City, made an
appeal for subscriptions to the new church, which, with resources on
hand, gave the enterprise a backing of $6,000. The board of directors
then took matters well in hand, and in the following year the corner-
stone of the present structure was laid, being completed at a cost of
$11,000. The edifice has two spires, the major one, ninety feet high,
being on the corner of DeWitt and Pleasant streets.
The First Methodist has cause for pride as a stinuilant of patriot-
ism, as illustrated by the records of some of its pastors in Civil war
times. Rev. John 'SI. Springer enlisted as a private and died in the
Union service. Rev. R. Langley was an army chaplain, and Revs. W. J.
McKay and A. M. Pilcher have creditable army records.
The present membership of the First Methodist is nearly two hun-
dred and twenty, with a Sunday School which has 245 scholars. The
church is old, but strong, active and growing.
FuiST Presbyteri.vn Ciiuech
After some years of missionary work in this place the First Presby-
terian Church of the town of Fort Winneliago was organized by Rev.
William Wynkoop McXair. July 14, 1S.")(), and incorporated as such,
July 29, 1850. Not until July 21. 1892. was the name changed to the
First Presbyterian Church of Portage.
On organizing, a frame building was erected on ground opposite the
county jail, which served as a house of worship until Februaiy, 1856,
and the former building was sold to the Baptists who moved it to near
the southeast corner of Adams and Conant streets; the Presbyterians
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 215
having moved to the brick edifice ou the north corner of Cook and Adams
streets, erected an edifice at a cost of $13,000.
This was a most substantial building, and will be a prominent land-
mark for many years to come. It has been twice gutted by fire, but
it stands today apparently as good as ever.
The first fire occurred May 19, 1892, doing damage to such an extent
that it was deemed advisable to build in a more westerly location. Por-
tage having gi'own in that direction, and the present place of worship
was erected in 1893, and dedicated October 15th. In this church and
the manse on adjoining property east, the Presbyterians own one of
the pretty and substantial church properties of the state, worth over
forty thousand dollars.
Following the resignation of the Rev. W. W. McNair, the following
were incumbents of the pulpit : Rev. George C. Heckman, 1856-60 ;
Rev. Benjamin Van Zandt, 1860-62; Rev. Fred R. Wotring, 1863-66;
Rev. Charles F. Beach, 1867-69; Rev. John H. Ritchey, 1869-74: Rev.
Samuel Wycoif, 1874-77 ; Rev. L. H. Mitchell, 1878-81 ; Rev. Daniel
Bierce, 1881-83 ; Rev. I. V. W. Schenck, 1883-86 ; Rev. John H. Ritchey
(second term), 1886-1902, (died) ; Rev. W. G. Blue, 1902-07; Rev. J. f.
Cleland, 1907-12; Rev. A. S. ftfcKay, 1913, present incumbent. The
foregoing were all men of more than ordinary ability, but the twenty-
one years of John H. Ritchey, ended by death, show his great worth and
popularity.
In the following those marked * were elders and t trustees: Con-
nected with Rev. W. W. MeNair in the organization were, George Wall *t ;
Chauncy J. Pettibone * ; H. R. Pettibone; John apJones and John A.
Johnson, clerk. Mention in those early records and later, and the order
given are the following: Charles Helms; Dr. D. C. Holteustein; C. J.
McCullock t ; Decatur Vandercook ; Lemuel Berry f ; L. S. Dixon ; W.
Owen; E. 0. Emerson; John E. Peabody; Rev. J. B. Plum.stead; Donald
Ferguson * John L. Clark * ; E. S. Doty; S. E. Dana ; George H. Osboru;
M. C. Prescott; Alva Stewart; E. P. Hill; LI. Breese *'t ; R.
B. Wentworth f ; E. L. Jaeger t ; D. G. Muir t ; A. D. Hem-
men way * ; R. Pool; Thomas Yule* ; M. Jennings* ; W. S. Scher-
merhorn*; W. G. Bebb ; W. L. Parry*; R. Campbell; R. 0.
Loomist; G. J. Cox; J. J. Edwards; S. Shaw; R. L. Williams; N. K.
Shattuck *t ; James Paterson f ; C. R. Austin; William Fulton *t ; J.
H. Rogers t ; John Williamson t ; L. L. Kennan ; D. A. Goodyear t ; G. J.
Owen ; George Yule ; William L. Breese ; Alex Sheret ; D. Buglass, Sr. ;
Paul Schumann!; M. L. Alverson; F. A. Lanzer * ; W. C. Barden * ;
Dr. F. T. Gorton *t ; F. L. Sanborn *t ; E. R. Rice * ; H. E. Andrews *t ;
R. L. Cochran * ; C. F. Mohr t ; R, JMcConochie t ; D. Bogue.*
216 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The present ehuroh officers with terms expiring as follows are : Ses-
sion, pastor; A. D. McKay, moderator; William Fulton, 1915, clerk;
LI. Breese (life) ; H. E. Andrews, 1916; F. L. Sanbora, 1917; F. T. Gor-
ton, 1917; D. Bogue, 1917, elders. Board of trustees: Chairman, F. L.
Sanborn, 1915 ; Wm. Fulton, clerk, 1916 ; LI. Breese, 1915 ; F. T. Gorton,
1915: E. L. Jaeger, 1916; M. L. Alverson. 1916; J. H. Rogers, 1917; C
F. Mohr, 1917; R. X. MeConochie, 1917. The deacons are: E. L.
Jaeger, A. Janda and A. 0. Thayer. Treasurer of general fund, D. T.
Lurvey ; treasurer of benevolences, F. L. Sanborn.
The church has the following small endowments for special purposes :
The Lydia H. Wentworth [Memorial Fund, The Mrs. A. Weir Fund,
and The Mrs. Maria J. Baker Fund ; and its affairs are in good condi-
tions and without debt of any kind.
The period of the Civil war was detrimental to the progress of the
Presbj-terian Chiirch, as it was more or less to that of ever.y other relig-
ious body in Portage. It was .just recovering when Mr. Ritchey assumed
his first pastorate, under which the church increased materially in mem-
bership. When he resumed the charge in 1886, it had a membership
of about one hundred and thirty, and under his long and faithful second
ineumbeuc.v it reached its highest state of prosperity.
The old church burned ^lay 29, 1892, and the new structure was
completed and dedicated October 15, 1893. Present membership about
two hundred and twenty-five.
The First Presbyterian Church is the oldest Protestant organization
in Portage, and its long life has been fruitful of great uplifting power
in the eonununity.
St. John's Episcopal Church
St. John's Episcopal Church of Portage was organized June 8, 1853,
at a meeting held in Verandah Hall. The well-known pioneer, Heniy
Merrell, was chosen chairman, and J. B. Seaman secretary of the meet-
ing, after which Mr. Merrell was elected senior warden and Alvah Hand
junior warden of the parish, with C. D. Hottenstein, John Delaney, J. B.
Seaman, M. H. Pettibone and A. C. Ketchum as vestrymen. After the
election of Doctor Hottenstein and 'Sir. Seaman as treasurer and secre-
tary, respectivel.v, an invitation was extended to Rev. E. A. Goodenough,
a missionary, to take spiritual charge of the small flock of Episcopalians,
which invitation was accepted. Such, in brief, were the proceedings of
the first meeting of St. John's Episcopal Parish.
ilissionaries continued the services at Verandah Hall until August 7,
1854, when Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson accepted a call as the first
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 217
settled rector. The building of the first church was started June 4, 1855,
when the late Richard F. Veeder, then a vestryman, donated its site.
The edifice was completed the same year, and consecrated by the Rt.
Rev. Jackson Kemper, D. D., on August 31, 1856. Mr. Thompson was
ordained at the same time and continued the rectorship until November,
1858, subsequently becoming widely known as rector of Grace Episcopal
Church, New York.
Rev. Eugene C. Patterson, who succeeded Mr. Thompson, served the
parish until 1860, and was followed in 1861 by Rev. Alonzo J. M. Hud-
son. The rectorship was assumed by Rev. Walter F. Lloyd in 1867,
and by Rev. Samuel D. Pulford in 1869. In 1871, during his incum-
bency, the present rectory was built. After seven years of service, in
1876 Mr. Pulford was succeeded by Rev. John K. Karcher, who, after a
brief rectorship, was followed by Rev. Joel Clark, the latter retiring
in 1879.
Rev. Hany Thompson and Rev. Charles Susan served the church
from March, 1879, to April, 1880; Rev. John Wilkenson from the
latter date until November, of the same year, and Rev. H. C. Whitte-
more for the succeeding three years, followed by Rev. Charles T. Susan,
who held the charge until December, 1893, when he was appointed arch-
deacon of the diocese.
Rev. Frederick E. Jewell accepted the rectorship in February, 1894,
closing his work here May 1, 1900; and his was a noted service. It was
during his pastorate, on Sunday, October 17, 1897, that the old church
was destroyed which the congregation had occupied for forty-one years.
The present edifice was first used September 4, 1898, and was dedicated
by Bishop I. L. Nicholson March 9, 1899. During Mr. Jewell's rector-
ship the first vested choir of St. John's was organized.
Rev. A. G. Harrison assumed charge of the parish in February,
1901 ; was succeeded in February, 1905, by Rev. A. G. Jones, and a year
later by Rev. Herman F. Rockstroh. During Mr. Rockstroh's rector-
ship the parish took on new life, and his sudden death, December 1,
1907, was a great loss to the church and the community. His outward
memorial in St. John's Parish is Rockstroh Hall, a structure erected in
1913 between the church building and the rectory, in which is conducted
the general work of the parish.
Rev. William E. Phillips became rector of St. John's in July, 1908,
and continued in charge of the parish until July, 1912. In December
of that year Rev. William H. Pond, the present incumbent, was called
to the service.
At the present time, St. John's Episcopal Church has 265 communi-
cants, and is growing as a stable religious body of Christians.
218 ' HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
First B.vptist Chcrch
The First Baptist Church of Portage City was organized a few
months after St. John's Episcopal. On August 30, 1853, the following
met at Spieer's schoolhouse, Fort Winnebago, to perfect an organiza-
tion: A. L. Round. I. Fuller. M. Fuller, Samautha P. Kineaid, Eunice
Fuller, Malissa Fuller, C. Wright, Julia Wright, A. Spicer, Caroline
Spicer, R. Spicer, Christina Spicer, Tacy Spicer, Mary C. Trout, T. R.
Jones, Amanda Jones, Phoebe and Lucy Fuller, Lecta M. Cully and
Thomas 0. Hear. After the society was organized services were con-
ducted at the schoolhouse, in Verandah Hall on DeWitt Street, and at
the residences of members.
The first regular pastor, Elder J. H. Rogers, commenced his labors
July 19, 1855, and during his pastorate (in 1857) the society purchased
the Presbyterian edifice on Cook Street opposite the county jail, and
moved it to the .southeast corner of Conaut and Adams streets. Soon
afterward it was sold to the Catholics, who removed it to an adjoining
lot, whereon they had built a frame church. The purchased structure
was afterward used by St. Mary's Parish as a parochial schoolhouse.
The Baptists then took immediate measures for the construction of
a brick church on Cook Street, near Mac. The basement of the new
building, in which the society assembled for worship, was dedicated
Octolier 30, 1859, but sold the following year to the Catholics in exchange
for their property on Conant Street. Upon this was a frame school-
house, which the Baptists transformed into their church home.
Following Mr. Rogers, who resigned in December, 1859, came, within
the following decade. Revs. I. J. Hoile. A. Whitman, E. Ellis, J. H.
Wilderman, W. Archer, D. S. McEwen, R. Storey, George P. Guild. J. W.
Fuhrmau, Charles Haas, H. J. Finch, Adam Fawcett, G. E. Farr, W. H.
Stone, H. R. ilacMillan and Ira W. Bingham.
The building on Conant Street, which had been used as a church
for thirty-seven years, being too small for the increased membership
of 1896 (over three hundred), was sold in that year, and the structure
now occupied by the congregation was purchased of the Presbyterians
and remodeled. It was dedicated as a Baptist church May 3, 1896.
Eight months from that time the interior of the edifice was destroyed
by fire, but rebuilding at once commenced and the church was reopened
on June 13, 1897.
It was during the pastorate of Dr. W. H. Stone that the First Baptist
celebrated the golden anniversary of its founding in 1853. The services
were largely attended, and the occasion brought forth much deserved
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 219
felicitation over its long record of progress among the religious com-
munities of Portage.
At present the First Baptist Church has an active membership of
190, of whom 120 are residents of the city.
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran
The strong German element in Portage asserted itself at an early
day in the organization of a number of churches, of which the St. John 's
Evangelical Lutheran is the most influential of the present day. This
society was organized in 1854, through the efforts of Christian Braetz,
George Jurgens and other fellow-countrymen, and Rev. Mr. Beckel was
its first pastor. Services were held in the Fourth Ward schoolhouse
until 1874.
In the meantime the membership had largely incred,sed and the
financial resoui-ces of the church so increased as to warrant the erection
of a permanent house of worship. The result was the completion of the
briek structure at the corner of Carroll and Mac, in the year mentioned ;
and it is still occupied by St. John's, under the pastoral charge of Rev.
William Uffenbeck. Mr. Uffenbeek was called to the pastorate in 1904.
Within his charge are 712 communicants, of whom 181 are voting mem-
bers. The Sunday school of St. John's numbers about one hundred and
twenty. Connected with the church is also a large parochial school
about half a mile west. So that altogether St. John's Evangelical Luth-
eran Church is perhaps the strongest religious body in Portage, and one
of the most prominent in Southern Wisconsin.
The small frame building in which St. John's congregation had
worshipped prior to the erection of the brick church was sold to the
Free Methodists in 1874, and for some years they maintained services
at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Pleasant, whither they had
moved it.
German Evangelical Trinity Church
The German Evangelical Trinity Church was organized in Portage
in 1863, by the Rev. Louis Von Ragir. This church is located at the
intersection of Wisconsin Street and Prospect Avenue. Mr. Von Ragir
was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Hauf, and he by the Rev. Mr. Gotleib.
It was under Mr. Gotleib 's ministry, that the church was erected.
Rev. A. Klein succeeded Mr. Gotleib. Succeeding him were : Revs. D.
Ankele, J. Frankenstein and C. A. Hauck. The Rev. Edward Resmann
is the present pastor and has served the people of that church for more
220 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
than a quarter of a century — under his pastorate the church has been
greatly improved and the men^bership greatly increased.
Other Portage Churches
The German Catholics founded a church in 1877. and erected a brick
edifice on Mac Street, but they have been absorbed by St. Mary's Parish,
as will be evident from a reading of its history.
The il.vsoxs Form Pioneer Lodge
The Masons were the first of the secret and benevolent orders to
establish themselves in Portage. Their pioneer was Fort Winnebago
Lodge No. 33, A. F. & A. M., organized in 1850, the dispensation being
granted June 26th by William R. Smith, grand master of the state, and
the charter granted on December 13th. The original meeting was held
in the house afterward occupied by John Graham as a residence. It
then stood on Cook Street, opposite the present site of the First Pres-
byterian Church. It is said that the old anteroom door, with the little
wicket in the center through which the belated members of the mystic
order were wont to whisper mysterious words in order that they might
join the "rest of the boys," was afterward used as a cellar door by
Brother Graham.
The charter members of the lodge were Hugh JMcFarlane, Erastus
Cook, Charles M. Kingsbury, Walter W. Kellogg, G. Law, Nelson McNeal,
Robert Hunter and Daniel Clough. John Delaney, the law^'er-editor,
was the first initiate, joining the lodge October 17, 1850.
The lodge at first met in Vandercook"s Block, but since 1883 all the
Masonic bodies of Portage have held their meetings in their own hall,
the lower story of which has been occupied — first by the armory of
Company F, and of late years by the postoffi.ce. The present member-
ship of the lodge is 175.
The present officers of the blue lodge are as follows: Frank R.
Graham, master; E. Andrews, senior warden; D. T. Lurvy, junior war-
den ; John Graham, treasurer ; Harry Slinger, secretary. John Graham's
first official position in Fort Winnebago Lodge dates from 1858, when he
was elected junior warden, and he has held the position of treasurer con-
tinuously since 1867. LI. Breese was secretary in 1861, and is among
the oldest of the living Masons in Columbia County. M. T. Alverson,
who was secretary in 1868, and Edmund S. Baker, secretary in 1871, are
also among the Masonic veterans.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUiNTY 221
Chapter, Council and Commandeey
Fort Winnebago Chapter No. 14, R. A. M., was granted a dispen-
sation by R. D. Pulford, grand high priest of Wisconsin, February 22,
1856. To be strictly accurate, from the date of dispensation to February
5, 1862, the name of the chapter was Portage, its present name having
been assumed in the latter year. The chapter met for the first time
March 11, 1856, and the officers were installed February 28, 1857. The
first three who received the R. A. degree were A. B. Alden, G. W. Stout
and J. Arnold. Mr. Alden was grand master of the Masons of Wisconsin
in 1861-63.
The present officers of the chapter, which has a membership of 175,
are: James A. Older, high priest; J. H. Rogers, king; M. T. Alverson,
scribe ; E. S. Baker, secretary ; Alois Zienert, treasurer. John Graham
was first identified with the chapter officially in 1857, when he held the
position of secretary, and Mr. Alverson, whose official connection with
the chapter commenced in 1870, is still on the staff.
The Council of Royal and Select Masters, which has a membership
of forty-five, has the following officers: M. T. Alverson, illustrious
master; R. A. Smith, deputy master; J. S. Williams, principal con-
ductor of work; E. S. Baker, recorder and treasurer.
Fort Winnebago Commandery No. 4, Knights Templar, received its
dispensation from H. L. Palmer, grand commander of the state, on
January 2, 1862. The commandery met, for the first time, on April 17,
1861, with E. P. Hill as eminent commander. The present officers of
the commandery, which numbers 123 members, are : R. B. York, com-
mander; J. H. Rogers, generalissimo; W. M. Edwards, captain general;
G. W. Case, prelate ; R. S. Woodman, senior warden ; Henry C. Brodie,
junior warden; E. S. Baker, recorder; Alois Zienert, treasurer.
I. 0. 0. F. Bodies
The first Odd Fellows of Portage were largely Germans. This was so
evident to the members of their pioneer organization. Portage City
Lodge No. 61, which was established Januarj^ 2, 1854, that the English-
speaking element gradually withdrew. In January, 1862, the lodge be-
came an English-speaking organization.
The present Wauona Lodge, No. 132, was instituted on the 8th of
October, 1867, its first officers being: S. K. Vaughan, noble grand;
M. Waterhouse, vice grand ; M. T. Alverson, recording secretary ; B. J.
Pixley, treasurer; James Munroe, permanent secretary. Those now in
222 HISTORY OF COLU.MBIA COUNTY
office: H. A. Cuff, noble grand; John Gay, vice grand; Ray Watson,
recording secretary ; Joseph H. Bryan, financial secretary ; R. C. Anacker,
treasurer; F. L. Sanborn, James Baird and Charles Guenther, trustees.
The lodge has over sixty members, and a flourishing auxiliary — Pansy
Rebekah Lodge No. 106, organized in 1893.
The Pythian Brothers
Pythianism in Portage was born in 1882, when J. B. Powell, of
Milwaukee, an enthusiast oi' the order, canvassed the local field and,
although he found it rather crowded with lodges of the older orders,
marshaled twenty-two men to support the cause, and Portage Lodge No.
35, K. of P., was the result. It was instituted January 16, 1883, and
its first officers were: William Meacher, Jr., P. C; H. S. Goss, C. C;
J. E. Jones, V. C. ; Wiliam Edwards, P. C. ; A. Colonius, M. of E. : R. A.
Spreeher, M. of F. ; W. C. Mantor, K. of R. and S. ; E. S. Purdy, M. of A. ;
P. J. Barkman, I. G. ; E. H. Hughes, 0. G. ; representatives to the grand
lodge, William Meacher, Jr., and J. E. Jones. But evidently the time
was not ripe for the planting and growth of No. 35, which ceased to
meet in 1886, and at the grand lodge convention of ilarch 13, 1888, its
charter was suspended.
In September, 1892, ten years after the first attempt to establish a
Pythian lodge in Portage, Mr. Powell again appeared with his old-time
vim. At this time he had behind him an order which had steadily gained
in popularity, as well as a larger city. Securing the names of forty
citizens (some of them connected with No. 35), Mr. Powell obtained a
working team of his Pythian brothers from Milwaukee, and IMcQueeney
Lodge No. 104 was organized in the ^Masonic lodge room, on the 10th of
September, 1892, although the charter was not granted until May 30th
of the succeeding year.
Following are the first officers installed : M. McQueeney, P. C. ; J. B.
Taylor, P. ; J. M. Russell, M. of E. ; James :\I. Lawson, :\I. of A. ; E. H.
Warner, I. G. ; M. T. Alverson, C. C. ; W. C. Jens, V. C. ; A. J. Niemeyer,
M. of F.; E. A. Pollard, K. of R. & S. ; Robert G. Buglass, 0. G.
Altogether there were forty-one charter members.
The lodge has now about one hundred and forty members, with the
following officers: 1913, Frank R. Graham, C. C. ; 1914, E. J. Klug,
C. C; Charles H. Hall, V. C. ; Otto E. Isberner, P.; A. D. Johnson,
M. of W. ; S. H. Peck, M. of E. ; Anton Lohr, M. of F. ; W. R. Jamieson,
C. of R. S. ; P. P. Huebner. M. at A. ; E. A. Rebholz. I. G. ; Wm. Nie-
meyer, 0. 6. Present number of members, 152.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 223
Portage Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
Portage Lodge of Elks was organized March 26, 1901, with thirty
members. It has been one of the most progressive lodges in the city,
having initiated 252 members; its present membership is 153.
The tirst officers of this organization were: J. H. Wells, Exalted
Ruler; J. E. Jones, Leading Knight; H. L. Bellinghausen, Loyal Knight;
E. H. Burlingame, Lecturing Knight; Charles G. Jaeger, Secretary;
Frank P. Dnnker, Treasurer; D. Buglass, Tyler; J. C. Butt, Esquire;
C. P. Jaegei-, Chaplain; E. P. Ashley, Inner Guard; Trustees, A. C.
Taylor, H. J. Puffer, J. C. McKenzie.
The lodge maintains clulj rooms adjoining its hall and is first in
charities and social functions in the city organizations. The present
officers of the lodge are: Julius Eulberg, Exalted Ruler; Dr. W. J.
Thomson, Leading Knight; E. B. Lillie, Loyal Knight; Wm. Papke,
Lecturing Knight; E. A. Weinke, Secretary; Otto Paulus, Treasurer;
J. W. Dalton, Tyler; T. F. Curry, Esquire; W. 0. Kelm, Chaplain;
C. W. Baker, Inner Guard ; Trustees, J. C. Leiseh, Carl Luedtke, A.
Zienert.
D. A. R. op Portage
By 31 rs. J. E. Jones
Wau-Bun Chapter No. 439 is the name by which is known the Portage
Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Wau-Bun is an Indian
word signifying "Dawn," which seemed an especially fitting name for
an organization whose aim it is to keep alive the memories of the dawn
of American Independence and the names of the brave men and women
who achieved it.
This chapter was organized in 1898, its charter having been granted
on December 14th of that year. To Mrs. A. C. Flanders, who became
a member of the National Society January 3, 1897, is largely due the
credit for its existence. Early in 1898 Mesdames E. H. Van Ostrand,
W. M. Edwards, S. A. Holden and C. W. Latimer also became members
of the national organization, and, reinforced by this able corps of assist-
ants, the necessary twelve were soon secured and the local chapter organi-
zation completed in December, 1898. The twelve charter members were :
Mesdames A. C. Flanders, E. H. Van Ostrand, W. M. Edwards, S. A.
Holden, Clark Latimer, C. M. Bodine, James Gowran, R. 0. Spear, M. T.
Alverson, S. H. Low, and Misses Minnie Decker and Fannie Waldo.
The first officers were: Regent, Mrs. Flanders; vice regent, Mrs.
224 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Van Ostrand; registrar, Mrs. Edwards; recording secretary, Mrs.
Holden; treasurer, Mrs. Latimer; historian, Mrs. Bodine; con-esponding
secretary, Mrs. Alverson.
The principal work of the chapter has consisted in the marking of
historic points in and about Portage, the most pretentious effort being
the placing of a granite monument, with appropriate ceremonies, to
mark the place where Father JMarquette and Joliet launched their boats
in the Wisconsui River after crossing the Portage on their historic trip
in 1673.
To stimulate an interest in the study of history, both national and
local, prizes have been given to the pupils of the schools for proficiency
in United States history and for essays on local history.
The custodianship of historic Old Fort Winnebago Cemetery has
been committed to Wau-Bun Chapter by the National Government, and
the ladies hope to make the spot a beautiful and worthy memorial to the
pioneers and soldiers who lie buried here, among whom is a Revolution-
ary soldier. Cooper Pixle.y, whose memory the "daughters" delight to
honor on each recurring Memorial Da.y.
The present membership of the chapter is sixty-five, about half the
number being non-resident members.
The present officers are : Regent, ]\Irs. Chester W. Smith ; vice
regent, Mrs. E. S. Purdy ; recording seei-etary, ilrs. S. A. Holden ; corre-
sponding secretary, jMrs. H. J. Puffer; treasurer, Mrs. T. J. Hettinger;
registrar, Mrs. Clark Latimer; historian, Mrs. D. A. Hillyer; chaplain,
Mi-s. M. T. Alver.son; custodian. Mrs. J. E. Jones.
Knights of Columbus and Foresters
The Knights of Columbus, and Foresters, have strong organizations
in Portage. The former. Portage Council No. 1637, was organized May
12, 1912, and has a membership of 112. William O. Kelm is G. K. ;
Herbert J. Slowey, D. G. K.; John J. O'Keefe, C; Henry W. Williams,
W. ; Joseph Buckley, F. S. ; Frank C. Kenney, R. ; Louis Yanko, 0. G. ;
Thomas Devine, I. G. ; Joseph Gabriels, lecturer ; Arthur R. Tobin, advo-
cate. Although the name of T. F. Curry does not appear officially,
he is accorded full credit as being one of the founders of the K. of C.
in Portage.
S. B. Ernsperger is C. R. of the Foresters; James Mcilahon, P. C. R. ;
F. G. Klenert, V. C. R. ; L. F. Yanko, R. S. ; Joseph J. Rubin. F. S. ;
Joseph Dalton, T. ; W. 0. Kelm, speaker.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 225
Lodges of Railroad Employes
Railroad employes have several well organized lodges or unions,
the engineers, firemen and trainmen being all represented. Perhaps
the strongest of these bodies is Portage Lodge No. 767, B. of L. E. & F.,
which was organized by Dr. W. B. Corey, general medical examiner,
in March, 1909. Of this, P. J. Mulcahy is president; H. J. Am, vice
president; E. W. Smith, F. S. ; D. T. G. Mulcahy, R. S. ; Frank Is-
berner, T.
Portage Liederkranz
Notice is due several organizations which are neither secret nor
benevolent. The oldest of these is the Portage Liederkranz, primarily
a German music society, which has projected several enterprises of
another nature. The society was organized December 31, 1856, with
Robert Gropius, president; Charles Diedrich, secretary; Charles Moll,
treasurer; John B. Bassi, conductor. In 1864 the Liederkranz purchased
two lots on Conant Street, moved thereon a building, employed a German
teacher and opened a select school. This enterprise not proving success-
ful, in 1872 the building was sold to the city for an engine house.
Thereafter the society confined its activities quite closely to social and
musical matters, its annual balls being for many years marked events
in German circles. Its regular membership is now about thirty-five,
with the following officers; J. Sehnell, president; L. Rotter, vice
president; John Diehl, treasurer; Rudolph Schroeder, secretary.
•The National Verband
In 1913 the German-Americans of Portage organized a local society
of the National "Verband," whose objects are both patriotic and in
furtherance of the interests of that element which wields so much good
and sturdy influence in the community. Though so young, it has already
reached a membership of more than one hundred. Alois Zienert is
president ; John Diehl, vice president ; Ludwig Baerwolf , treasurer ; and
J. Sehnell, secretary.
Country Club op Portage
The Country Club of Portage, which has about sixty members, was
organized in 1906, and has forty acres of land on the north shores of
226 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Swan Lake. The property includes a hotel, five neat cottages, a com-
mon dining-room and kitchen, and provision for fishing, bathing, golf,
tennis, baseball, and everything providing for out-of-door amusement
and invigoration. The presidents of the club have been T. H. Cochrane,
F. E. Bronsou and J. H. Rogers.
The Y. M. C. A.
The Y. M. C. A. has an organization in Portage which is doing a
good work. It opened a large room in the center of the business district,
in 1909, and supplies the public with reading matter, games and facilities
for exercising and bathing.
CHAPTER XV
COLUMBUS CITY
First Settler — Wayne B. Dyer Describes the Village — Drake Suc-
ceeds DicKASON — First Lawyer and First Doctor Office Together
— James T. Lewis — Postmaster Whitney and "Old Hyson" — Lud-
iNGTON Plat and Addition — First Hotel, Store and School — Mill
Property Passes to J. S. JIanning — Columbus Becomes a Village
— Incorporated as a City — City Departments and Activities —
Electric Light and Waterworks — Fire Department — Free
Public Library — The School System — History op the Schools —
Present Graded System Established — William C. Leitsch — Con-
gregational Church op Columbus — German Lutheran Church —
German Methodists — English Methodists — The Catholic Church
— Leading Lodges — First Columbus Banks — First National Bank
— F.armers and Merchants Union Bank — Early Brewers — The
Kurth Company — Columbus Canning Company.
Columbus, the second city in size, importance and influence in Colum-
bia County, is located in the extreme southeastern corner of its territory.
To visitors it presents a clean, brisk, substantial appearance, mth its well-
paved streets, its attractive city hall. County Training School and other
modern buildings, and its handsome residences surrounded by spacious
grounds. The residents of Columbus have spirit and perseverance, believe
in their city and are "boomers" in the good sense. The general result,
it will be admitted by both strangers and townsmen, is to give the
impression that Columbus is more populous than it really is. It is
unusually metropolitan for its size.
First Settler at Columbus
The first settler to locate within the present municipal limits of
Columbus was Elbert Dickason. In 1839, he came as the owner of a
considerable tract of land on the west side of the Crawfish River, which
227
228 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
he had purchased from Lewis Ludington, one of that great family of
lumbermen whose tracks are found in so many sections of Wisconsin and
Michigan.
Lewis Ludington Becomes Owner of the Town
Erecting a log cabin on his land not far from the present site of the
St. Paul Railroad depot, Major Dickason commenced to dam the Crawfish
and build a sawmill. He evidently came to stay, for he brought with him
a herd of cattle, a number of horses and a few wagons, with men to assist
him in his work. But his first winter at the site of Columbus was so
severe that most of his live stock died, his stock of food reached starva-
tion dimensions, most of his help left him and he was solidly "down on
his luck. ' ' This seemed to be the beginning of misfortunes which attended
him during the succeeding four years. He finished the sawmill, and got
it in operation, but he was unable to meet his payments on the land which
he had purchased on time from Mr. Ludington and, like man}- another
pioneer worker, passed over the fruits of his labors to a "watchful
waiter." It is said that the major received $200 in cash from Mr. Lud-
ington for all his rights in the property upon which he had spent nearly
ten thousand dollars, and then departed for his new location at Duck
Creek, now Wyoeena.
Wayne B. Dyer Describes the "Village"
Wajnie B. Dyer, afterward of Durand, Pepin County. Wisconsin,
came to Wisconsin from the East in the month of August, 1843. When
he passed over the present site of Columbus, the log cabin of Major
Dickason on the Crawfish and that of Hiram Allen, not far from the
mill, constituted the entire Village of Columbus. Mr. Dyer relates an
incident in the experience of Dickason which illustrates the trials he
bore so patiently. Once the major got out of hay and was compelled to
drive his cattle to a point near Beaver Dam, and chop down elm and
basswood trees for them to browse upon. This operation was called
"grubbing it," and what is now known as Beaver Dam was than called
Grubbville.
In that same spring of 1843, the deer lay dead upon the Crawfish —
starved to death, because the deep snow shut them away from their usual
browsing grounds. Dyer was a great hunter and trapper in those days
and killed many a deer in the vicinity of Columbus. Indeed, for years
after his arrival he could start out almost any day and return with one.
His lodge was seldom without venison. After Columbus had grown to
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 229
be quite a village, he saw several deer run across its main street. He
trapped many otter also, in the early days along the Crawfish.
Mr. Dyer relates that Major Diekason passed through Otsego on his
way to locate at Duck Creek, the next day after the former settled in his
new home at Columbus, and he took a primitive dinner with him.
Drake Succeeds Dickason
Jeremiah Drake, as the agent of Mr. Ludington, succeeded Dickason
in the management of the property on the Crawfish, and built the first
frame house in the place. From 1841 to 1845, the arrival of strangers
was of almost daily occurrence, and many of them came to remain.
Among the prominent settlers of that period were : 1841, Jacob Dickason,
brother of the major, who settled near the latter 's cabin; 1842, Noah
Dickason, James Shackley, S. W. St. John and Mr. Baldwin ; 1843, H. W.
McCafferty, H. A. Whitney, Jeremiah and W. Drake, who located just
outside the village limits ; 1844, Jacob Smith and the Stroud family ; 1845,
James T. Lewis, J. C. Axtell, D. E. Bassett, J. E. Arnold, Warren Loomis,
W. C. Spencer, Jesse Rowell, E. Thayer and W. M. Clark.
First Lawyer and First Doctor Office Together
Of the foregoing, Mr. Lewis was the first attorney and Dr. Axtell, the
first physician. These pioneer professional men got busy at once, as was
the custom, and, to economize, occupied the same office for some time.
There was another good reason why they should thus be associated ; they
were friends, and both young men of unusual talents.
James T. Lewis
In view of the unusual prominence attained in after years by the
former, the continuous stream of the narrative takes a turn at this point
to eddy around the personality of Wisconsin's War Governor.
After Mr. Lewis came into national prominence, the old Columbus
settlers enjoyed describing the young lawyer as he appeared in July,
1845, upon his arrival from his eastern home. He had left Orleans
County, N. Y., a short time before, to find a home in the West. Arrived
at Buffalo, he and Dr. Axtell made the trip around the lakes to Detroit
together, and there parted. Shortly after, Lewis landed at Kenosha,
and purchased a "mount" for thirty dollars — a scrawny Indian pony
who was used to traveling in the Wisconsin of those days. On this steed.
230 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
able if not always willing, he skirted the shores of Lake Michigan toward
Green Bay.
At that date Oshkosh had made a slight start, and Neenah and
Appleton were in embryo. Fond du Lac was a small village, Milwaukee
an infant city, and Green Bay still not far advanced beyond the grade
of a trading post. Green Bay did not appeal to the horseman, and he
turned his steed southward. At Fond du Lac, Lewis was told that he
would find another village about a dozen miles away, which proved to
be the Waupun of the present. Having ridden about the distance men-
tioned he inquired at a log house by the wayside how much farther it
was to the village, and was told that he was in the very midst of it.
As this did not seem to promise well for the practice of the law, the
young man pushed on to the real little village of Beaver Dam. There
he heard of a road which led to another settlement to the southwest.
Along it he made his way to the present City of Columbus. He found
four houses on the very site and a few more in its immediate vicinity.
It was upon the termination of this journey on the travel-worn
pony, with the muddy and the torn evidences of the trail and the bush
all over and about him, that the few who had preceded him obtained
their first impressions of the future governor, which, in after years,
the}' pictured \\ith such a mixture of gusto and pride.
Bj' a welcome coincidence, Dr. Axtell arrived the same day as Lewis,
his route having been by way of Detroit and Chicago, and thence, across
country, to Colmnbus. The doctor, according to tradition, was both a
handsome and a brainy man, and shared the admiration of the pioneer
villagers with his friend Lewis.
For nearly sixty years thereafter Columbus was the home of James
T. Lewis, and year after year his strong and fine character threw out its
roots into the hearts and minds of the people, his influence spreading
far beyond the bounds of Columbia County. At his death, on August 4,
1904, no man in Wisconsin had a stronger hold upon the affections and
confidence of its people than the old War Governor. A few months
before his death his friend and fellow-worker in Wisconsin affairs,
A. J. Turner, paid him this tribute :
"In the quiet of his old 'colonial' home, picturesque in its environs,
and hallowed by many sacred memories, Wisconsin's venerable War
Governor still lives, nearing his eighty-fifth year, enjoying the repose
earned by a long and honorable life, tenderly cared for by loved and
loving children, amid troops of friends, serenely but bravely awaiting
'the inevitable hour.'
"James Taylor Lewis, the subject of this sketch, a native of Claren-
don, Orleans County, New York, was born October 30, 1819. From
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 231
the union of Shubael Lewis and Eleanor Robertson, seven children were
bom, and of these James was the third child and third son. His
paternal grandfather, Samuel Lewis, was a native of New England and
lived for a time at Brimfield, Mass. This branch of the family is of
English lineage, with probably a slight admixture of Welsh. From the
maternal side he received a strong infusion of Scotch blood — a blood
prepotent to a high degree in its assimilation with others with which it
commingles.
"There is, however, little authentic history touching the first migra-
tion of the family from the Old World. At all events the record is so
hidden in the far past that for present purposes the Lewis family may
rightly be considered as:
" 'Native here,
And to the manner bom.'
"The Lewises about whom we are immediately concerned, were first
known in the New York village already mentioned. The family must
have been fairly well-to-do, for we learn that James had completed the
English and classic courses at Clarkson College and Clinton Seminary,
New York, and was prepared for admission to the bar before he had
attained his twenty-sixth year.
"As early as the year 1845, anticipating by iiian.y years the wisdom
and importance of Horace Greeley's advice to young men about going
west, he removed to Wisconsin and opened a law ofiice in Columbus,
where for nearly sixty years he has since resided. The following year
he returned to his old home and was married to Miss Orlina M. Sturges,
the beautiful and cultured daughter of a prominent merchant and es-
teemed citizen of Clarendon. From this marriage four children were
born, Henry S., the eldest, who died in infancy ; Selden J., so named
for his father's early friend and benefactor, the eminent Judge Selden,
and sometime governor of New York; Charles R., named for the late
Hon. Charles D. Robinson of Green Bay, an esteemed friend of the
family in pioneer days in Wisconsin, and Mrs. Anna L. Dudley, the
accomplished wife of Mr. Frank Dudley, long a highly trusted official of
the Chicago, jMilwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company in Chicago. The
elder son, Selden, is a prominent lawyer and much respected citizen of
Vermillion, South Dakota; Charles R., the younger son, has for many
years held important and responsible official positions with the St. Paul
Railway in Minneapolis.
"Declining tempting inducements to open a law office in a neigh-
boring town near his old home in New York, young Lewis, with his bride.
232 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
removed in July, 1846, to Columbus, as already stated, where he has
since resided. This singularly happy union was severed, however, by the
death of Mrs. Lewis, in the year 1903, who died profoundly mourned
by all who had known her in life, and their name was legion.
' ' Upon his arrival in the territory, Mr. Lewis, at once, began the prac-
tice of law in the inferior and nisi prius courts and was early admitted
to the bar of the supreme court. While Wisconsin was still a territory,
he was chosen probate or county judge, and a few years later was elected
district attorney for Columbia County. Our young attorney's law prac-
tice was early interrupted by calls to the public service, and the allure-
ments and fascinations offered by business inducements in a new country.
In 1848 he was chosen a member of the second constitutional conven-
tion and is probably the last living signer of that organic act. He was
less than thirty years of age when he sat as a member of this convention.
In 1852 he was elected a member of the lower house of the State Legis-
lature and the following year was chosen a state senator. As a legisla-
tor he took an active and prominent part, having a place on many im-
portant committees. It was during the session of 1853 that the senate
sat as a court of impeachment upon the trial of Levi Hubbell, .judge of
the second judicial circuit. The trial attracted univei-sal interest because
of the prominence of the defendant and the eminence of the attorneys
engaged on either side. Judge Hubbell was acquitted after a prolonged
trial, Senator Lewis voting for acquittal.
"In 1854 Senator Lewis was elected lieutenant governor and as such
it became incumbent upon him to preside over the senate, of which he
had so recently been a member. As presiding officer of the body he
was specially distinguished for fairness, impartiality and uniform cour-
tesy. His term as lieutenant governor ended, he resumed his private
business at Columbus, which he continued uninterrupted till the outbreak
of the Civil War. Hitherto he had been a consistent and steadfast dem-
ocrat of the Silas Wright school, but at the opening of hostilities, he
soon became restive under party restraints and early repudiated what
he conceived to be a lack of frankness and unquestioned loyalty on the
part of the dominant leaders of the democratic party. Indignantly de-
claring that 'he who is not a faithful friend of the government of his
eoimtry, in this trying hour, is no friend of mine,' he at once threw
the weight of Ms name and influence in support of the war, holding
that partisanship should abate in such a fearful emergency. It was the
course of thousands !
"In the autumn of 1861 he was nominated and elected secretary of
state, on the so-called Union Republican ticket, and at the following
election, 1863, was chosen governor by the .same party, with the largest
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 233
majority ever given in the state to that time, and for many years there-
after.
"Since his retirement from the executive office, January, 1866, Gov-
ernor Lewis had devoted his attention to private business, the education
of his children, the up-building of his home city and the promotion of
educational and church enterprises. He has also traveled extensively
abroad and throughovit the United States. A few years ago he made
a tour of the world, visiting all parts of the Orient and Europe. Since
quitting the governorship he has never sought, but has often declined,
public office, but, meanwhile, he has maintained a keen interest in public
affairs, abating nothing within reason that would promote the success
of the Republican party to which organization he has persistently ad-
liered since the great war between the states.
"His life-span has covered the most wonderful period in the annals of
the world and is almost co-extensive with that of the Republic itself.
Governor Lewis was born in the same year with Victoria, and during
the first term of President Monroe. At liis birth, Washington had been
in his grave scarcely twenty years. He has lived under the rule of
twenty-two presidents and enjoyed a personal acquaintance with most of
them. He was seven years old when Adams and Jefferson died. In his
youth he knew many of the heroes of the Revolution and must have
known some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence as the
youth of today know him or as they know the surviving leaders of the
Civil war. He was helping on the Constitution of Wisconsin when the
younger Adams fell stricken upon the floor of the old House of Repre-
sentatives, and was thirty-three when Clay and Webster died. Far
within his lifetime Wisconsin has grown from a -nalderness to an empire
of more than two and a half million souls. In the work of her upbuilding.
Governor Lewis contributed much ; few more, and fewer still, who have
more fully earned the repose he is now enjoying as he serenely contem-
plates the past and hopefully faces the future.
"Governor Lewis, in his best days, laid no claim to great oratorical
gifts, but, as Jeremy Taylor once said of another, he had always "the
endearment of prudent and temperate speech," and as Lamartine said
of Mirabeau, "his genius was the infallibility of good sense." However,
the governor possessed the power of strong and fluent speech and of
succinct and cogent statement far beyond the average of men in public
life.
" It is the hope of his friends that he may yet live on for several years
with no further impairment of his powers. "Whether this hope is to be
realized or not, all rejoice that he is passing to the close, spared the fate
of so many public men of going to the grave full of grief and disap-
234 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
pointment. Such was the fate of Seward and of Greeley; more cer-
tainly was it true of Blaine, the greatest partisan leader since Andrew
Jackson, and yet he died, if not without a party, full of resentment
towards that he had so long led. During his last days, it is said of
Sumner that he passed to his seat in the Senate as to a solitude. While
dying, an open book was found upon his table with this passage marked
by his own hand :
' ' ' Would I were dead ! if God 's good will were so :
For what is in this world, but care and woe.'
"The li-st of statesmen dying heartbroken and disappointed, could be
extended almost indefinitely, but the subject of the foregoing sketch has
no place on it. His life has been one full of hope and not of despair.
Whether his remaining days be few or many, his name will long abide
a cherished memory with the people he served so well. ' '
Postmaster Whitney and ' ' Old Hyson ' '
H. A. Whitney, who was a co-worker with Major Dickason in building
the dam and sawmiU, also opened the first tavern and store in Columbus.
Late in 1845 a postoffice was established at Columbus with a weekly mail,
and there was an animated contest as to whom should be appointed post-
master. The friends of Mr. "\Yliitney rallied to his support, and Colonel
Drake, who had succeeded Major Dickason as the developer of the Lud-
ington interests, was his strongest competitor. Whitney received the
appointment. Shortly afterward he went to the pineries on business,
and in his absence the duties of the office were performed by Sylvester
Corbin, familiarly known in after years as "Old Hyson."
Corbin carried the mail about the place in his hat, except when out
with his gun hunting prairie chickens. On such occasions he would leave
the contents of the postoffice with Governor Lewis. The first postoffice
was kept in a low, flat-roofed building which stood nearly opposite the
site of the structui-e long afterward erected and known as Shaefer's
brick block. F. F. Farnliara, who came to Columbus about this time,
thus describes it : " The apartment was partitioned by the aid of blank-
ets, and in the room lay 'Old Hyson' prone upon a bed shivering with
ague. In one corner stood a barrel of whiskey, and in another was a
7x9 glass box, the contents of which constituted the postoffice, which
the inquirer after mail rummaged at his leisure."
Ludington's Plat and Addition
Ludington's Plat was the first official evidence of the existence of
Columbus, and it was recorded by Lewis Ludington in the Brown County
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 235
archives at Green Bay, on the 11th of November, 1844. His first addi-
tion of October, 1850, was recorded in Columbia County, which had
been organized three years before.
The original plat of the village presented a fine picture on paper.
Passing through the eastern limits, the Crawfish marked its winding
covirse. Leading away to the southwest from the river's oak- fringed
banks to the borders of clustering groves in the distance were broad
avenues, with other wide streets crossing them at right angles. Near
the river's edge was an entire block marked "public square," and not
far away a "park," " schoolhouse, " "church" and "hotel" — all dona-
tions from the proprietor of the village.
First Hotel, Store and School
H. A. Whitney was the lueky possessor of the portion of the plat
indicated as "hotel," comer of James and Ludington streets, and in
the summer of 1844 he secured absolute title to it by building a tavern
upon it. It was a one-and-a-half story frame, and most of the lumber
which went into it was hauled from Aztalan. In the lower part
Mr. Whitney kept a small stock of goods, his store.
The school of the Ludington Plat did not materialize until 1846,
when it was erected on Ludington Street, and the Congregationalists
built the church in 1850 upon the land at the corner of Mill Street and
Broadway, which Mr. Ludington had deeded to them.
Mill Property Passes to J. S. Manning
In the meantime the old mill property had passed out of the hands
of Colonel Drake, the Ludington agent. Soon after getting his little
sawmill in operation Major Dickason had put in a run of stone, and thus
became the only miller for miles around. Wlien the Drake-Ludingtou
management came into control in 1843, the grinding of grain was made
the leading feature of the plant and another run of stone added. Peo-
ple came from Madison, Stevens Point and other remote settlements to
the Columbus mill, and so extensive was the custom that some of the
grists would have to wait two weeks before their "turn" would be
reached. When J. S. Manning purchased the plant in August, 1849,
it was one of the busiest mills in Central Wisconsin. Mr. Manning put
in new machinery and otherwise improved it, and in after years the
water power, as well as the grinding facilities, was kept up to the re-
quirements of the trade.
236 HISTORY OF C0LU:MBIA COUNTY
Columbus Becomes a Village
Columbus continued to grow in every particular, and by the early
'60s it became apparent that the place was read.y for a local government
separate from the township organization. The villagers had participated
in town ati'airs, and the townsmen had turned about and mixed with
village matters. But the Columbus people who had become a consoli-
dated majority commenced to chafe to the point of becoming sore, and
found their remedy in May, 1864, by adopting the village form of
government.
Columbus was incorporated as a village under legislative act, ap-
proved March 30, 1864, and it was provided that its officers should be a
president, four trustees, one marshal and one treasurer, to be elected
annually on the first Tuesday in May. The election was held accord-
ingly, with the following result: R. W. Chadbourn, president; F. P.
Farnham, Silas Axtell, John Ilasey and Thomas Smith, trustees: Mile
J. Ingalls, treasurer ; B. F. Hart, marshal.
Incorporated as a City
From the organization of Columbus as a village until its incorporation
as a city in 1874, R. W. Chadbourn, W. W. Drake, F. P. Farnham, Daniel
E. Bassett, W. M. Griswold, J. S. Manning and Frank Higgins served as
presidents of the board of trustees, and during the entire decade Charles
L. Dering acted as clerk.
Toward the last of January, 1874, President Prank Huggins and
Trustee E. E. Chapin, of the village board, repaired to Madison with a
petition of the villagers to the State Legislature asking to he incorporated
as a city. The memorial, with a bill, was introduced to the Senate on
February 3rd, and, after proper preliminaiy action, was printed. The
latter was taken back to Columbus for correction and amendment.
After being somewhat changed, notwithstanding opposition from the
town Board of Supervisors, the incorporating act passed both houses of
the Legislature, receiving the governor's signature February 26, 1874.
The corporation area was divided into three wards and municipal
elections fixed for the first Tuesday of April. Provision was made for
the following officers : I\Iayor, treasurer, assessor and police justice, for
the city at large; one alderman and one supervisor for each ward, as
well as a justice of the peace and a constable. An amendment to the
charter repealed the clause providing for a general police justice, and
the duties formerly devolving upon that official were divided among the
ward justices.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 237
The first officers, elected in April, were as follows: L. J. Sawyer,
mayor; H. Rowell, police justice; H. D. James, treasurer; John C.
Hoppin, assessor. C. L. Bering was chosen by the Common Council as
city clerk and 0. M. Bering, marshal.
The incorporation of the City of Columbus was an event which
called for renewed enterprise, and its growth into a stirring, pro-
i . J
City Hall and Auditorium, Columbus
gressive municipality is told in the details of its present life and of the
institutions founded and developed by its citizens.
City Bepartments and Activities
The municipal activities of Columbus are now centered in its hand-
some city hall, completed in 1892. It accommodates the various city
officei-s and houses the fire apparatus, and its upper floors are mainly
occupied by an attractive auditorium which will seat nearly one thousand
people.
238 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Electric Light and Waterworks
The electric light and waterworks plant is at the foot of Water
Street, along the right of way of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railway Company. Columbus was one of the first cities in Central Wis-
consin to adopt the system of electric white lights for its business streets.
The cluster of lights ou either side of James and Ludington streets give
its down-town district a cheerful and business-like appearance. The
supply of water is furnished from three artesian wells, and the power
house at the dam sends it through the mains with sufficient force to
furnish, with the apparatus at the city hall, adequate fire protection.
Both the light plant and the waterworks are o\\aied by the municipality
and are more that .self-sustaining, with very reasonable charges for water
and light.
The year 1877 was a season of great activity in the public affairs of
Columbus. It had been a city since 1874, and several projects which
had been under way culminated in that year. The old Methodist Church
building, which had been moved to Broadway and converted into a
public hall, was transformed into an opera house in 1877 ; which was
the predecessor of the auditorium in the city hall building.
Fire Department
Among other important clauses in the city charter was one providing
for the establishment of a fire department. Accordingly, on December
26, 1877, the City Council entered into a contract with the Babcock
Manufacturing Company of Chicago for two extinguishers and a hook
and ladder truck. A department had already been organized with
L. J. Sawyer as chief, and the Germania Fire Company, Hook and
Ladder Company No. 1 and Columbia Fire Company had been formed —
all within the year 1877.
Free Public Library
On the 20th of January, 1877, a meeting of prominent citizens was
held at the opera house for the purpose of organizing a library associ-
ation. This was but preliminary to the gathering of a week after, at
which Matthew Lowth, a settler of 1851 and a leading citizen of public
affairs, was chosen president; E. S. Griswold, vice president; C. L.
Dering, secretary, and L. R. Rockwell, treasurer. At the same meeting
ex-Governor Lewis donated fifty-four volumes; E. S. Griswold tendered
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
239
the use of two rooms in his brick block (which was accepted) and Miss
Mattie Walsh was appointed librarian.
This was the origin of the Free Public Library, which was founded
in 1901. Largely through the influence of the Woman's Club, Andrew
J. Carnegie was induced to donate $10,000 for the founding of a library
under his well-known conditions, and a site for a building was pur-
chased opposite the city hall. It was a beautiful little structure which
was thrown open to the public in November, 1912. The regular annual
appropriation voted by the City Council for its support is $1,500. ilost
of the standard magazines, several Wisconsin newspapers, and a good
Columbus High School, 1895-1910
selection of 5,800 books are provided for patrons. The library is in
charge of Miss Nellie A. Loomis, who has had the position since 1908.
The School System
The 545 pupils connected with the public system of education pro-
vided by the City of Columbus are accommodated in one of the most
substantial and attractive buildings for the purpose in Columbia County.
The building, which is of cream brick, is located in a city block, the
entire property being valued at $90,000. Professor R. L. Heindel, head
of the city system, has under him 145 pupils in the high school and 400
in the grammar department. Included in the scope of the curriculum
are Latin and German, music and drawing, domestic science, and manual
and vocational training.
240 HISTORY OF COLUJMBIA COUNTY
The Union School building consists of two parts — the old High
School, completed in 1895 and now housing the kindergarten and two
grammar grades, and the 1910 structure, in which are the present High
School pupils and those of six grammar grades. It is a far cry from the
little frame schoolhouse erected on Ludington Street in 1846 to the
massive Union liuilding of 1895-1910; but, in its day, the former was
just as important to the progress of the primitive town as the latter
is to the development of the larger and more finished commimity.
History of the School
In November, 1849, a meeting was held at that tiny schoolhouse
which resulted in the formation of the first district, which embraced the
present city. Robert Mills was elected director; J. T. Lewis, treasurer,
and H. S. Haskell, clerk. From a report made by the district clerk to
the town superintendent, in the following year (1850) it appears that the
average attendance of scholars in the district was sixty-four.
It is interesting to know that such as the following taught in that
schoolhouse on Ludington Street, during the '50s : Garrit T. Thorn,
afterward a senator from Jefferson County; John A. Elliot, once state
auditor of Iowa, and Laura D. Ross, who afterward practiced medicine
in Milwaukee, married Dr. E. B. Wolcott, one of the leading anny
surgeons in the Civil war, and herself became a widely known advocate
for the rights and real progress of her sex, as well as an able surgeon
and medical practitioner.
The old Union School building was completed in 1858, after an
unusually exciting contest between the progressives and conservatives
covering a period of nearly three years.
Present Graded System Established
The gi'aded system of the city schools was introduced in the fall of
1874, following the incorporation of Columbus as a municipality. The
act of incorporation of February separated the system from the juris-
diction of the county superintendent, and in July following the common
council elected a board of education, which promulgated the graded
system. On the 5th of March, 1875, after the system had been intro-
duced, the State Legislature enacted a general law authorizing the
establishment of free high schools, and on August 9th following, the
voters of Columbus adopted its provisions. The board of education
experienced some difficulty in attempting the organization of the new
system, but finally succeeded in January, 1876. The first to graduate
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 241
from the city free high school was Miss Louie Adams, in June, 1877.
The first board of education elected under the graded system was
as follows : John Quiney Adams, president ; James T. Lewis and E. E.
Chapin ; S. 0. Burrington, superintendent.
William C. Leitsch
One of the most prominent citizens of Columbus, and who stands
peculiarly as a representative of the municipality itself, is William C.
Leitsch, an advisory editor of this work. He was born at Columbus, May
31, 1867, of German parents. After attending the public schools and
the Watertowi College, he was employed for some years by a Chicago
clothing house. In 1893 he took up the study of law and in 1896 was
graduated from the University of Wisconsin with the class of that year.
He immediately located in Columbus and has practiced there ever since.
Mr. Leitsch has helcf the following public offices: Mayor, 1898-1901;
chairman of the Columbia County Board; president of the Columbus
School Board; president of the Water and Light Board; chairman of
the Columbia Comity Republican Committee. He has also been president
of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. The magnitude of the can-
ning industries are known to all, and in that industrial field Mr. Leitsch
is one of the most prominent men in the country. He is one of the
organizers of the Columbus Canning Company, which commenced busi-
ness in 1900 and is now operating the largest pea plant in the world.
Mr. Leitsch has been president of the company since its organization
and is now its general manager; also president of the Wisconsin Pea
Canners' Association and president of the National Canuers' Associ-
ation which has its main office in Washington, D. C. He is a director of
the First National Bank of Columbus, and altogether a citizen of
breadth of mind, activities and attainments. Mr. Leitsch was married
to Adelaide Brown Stoppenbaeh at Jefferson, Wisconsin, in June, 1900.
They have no children.
Congregational Church of Columbus
The Congregationalists of Columbus were the first to organize into
a society, coming together January 26, 1850, under Rev. A. Montgomery
as chairman of the council, and J. Q. Adams as clerk. Letters from
different churches were presented by James Campbell, Mrs. Julia Camp-
bell, Richard Stratton, Mrs. Polly Stratton, Emily Stratton, Mrs.
Asenath Stratton, Mrs. Helen S. Rosenkrans, Ellen Hagerman, Maria
Hagerman and Mrs. Hayden, the foregoing constituting the First Con-
242 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
gregational Church of Columbus. Soon afterward it became a member
of the Madisou district, but in August, 1852, it was voted to change the
relations of the church from that district to the Fox River Presbytery.
In the following November the Presbyterian form of government was
formally adopted, and three elders of the faith were chosen. Thus
matters progi-essed until a majority of the members withdrew and organ-
ized a separate Presbyterian society in 1866.
In the meantime the original Congregational Church had erected a
house of worship (in the early '90s) on the corner of Mill Street and
Broadway, on the lot donated by James Ludington, and under the
pastorate of Rev. C. E. Rosenkraus its temporal and spiritual affairs
flourished. He remained with the society until 1858, and was followed
by Rev. T. C. Melvin.
When the Presbyterians organized into a separate society they made
pi'eparations to build, and in the fall of 1867 their church edifice was
completed on Broadway. It was opened under the pastorate of Rev. E.
F. Fish.
In 1874 the two societies reunited, the Congregationalists sold their
church and, under the name of the Olivet Church Society, services
were proposed to be resumed in the former Presbyterian edifice on
Broadway, but there was a misunderstanding as to the control of the
property, and the Presbyterians retained it.
Olivet Society (the Congregationalists) immediately proceeded to
build another church, at the corner of Spring and Prairie streets, which
was completed early in 1877. The present society is in a flourishing
condition, with Rev. Henry Kerman as pastor, having a membership
of 150.
German Lutheran Church
The German Lutheran Church of Columbus, which has been under
the pastorate of Rev. D. H. Koch for thirty years, is the strongest re-
ligious body in the county and one of the most influential in Central
Wisconsin. It is a noteworthy representation of German perseverance,
thrift and conscientiousness, as applied to the spiritual things of life.
In 1855 a number of German families settled in and near Columbus,
the most influential of whom were from the Grand Duchy of Mecklen-
burg. They were all Lutherans and soon got together to form a society
for worship. Shortly afterward a Rev. Sans, of Watertown, came
among them as a temporary preacher, followed in the same year by
Pastor Oswald, their first regular clergyman. Rev. A. Renter followed,
and the new arrivals from Germany so increased the congregation that
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 243
the necessity for a church edifice became apparent. J. T. Lewis do-
nated a lot in West Columbus for a site, and on May 3, 1858, while
Rev. Renter was still pastor, articles of agreement were signed by which
was formed the German Evangelical Lutheran Zion's Society of Colum-
bus and vicinity. An incorporation was then effected with A. Renter as
pastor, Joseph Prien as president of the board of trustees, and Christian
Mueller, secretary.
The building of a church was commenced on the donated site, but
a majority of the congregation deemed another location more desirable ;
so that the lot given by Mr. Lewis was sold, and Lot 1, Block 13, Birds-
ey's Addition (donated by the owner of that ti-act) was accepted. The
church erected thereon was completed in 1859. In 1866 a purchase was
made of another lot in Birdsey's Addition upon which stood a residence,
that building being used as the first parsonage. Two years later the
first church edifice was moved to the site of the present massive house of
worship, and all the real estate held by the society at the other location
was sold. A large addition to the church building was completed in
1869, and still the builder could not keep pace with the increase of mem-
bership and demand for religious accommodations.
In December, 1877, the congregation voted for the erection of a new
chvirch, and its cornerstone was laid June 2, 1878, on the Sunday called
Exaudi. On the third of the following November the building was dedi-
cated in the presence of a large assemblage from Beaver Dam, Lowell,
Waterloo and Portage. As completed, the church was an edifice of
cream brick, trimmed with red brick, 70x40 feet, with a belfry 125 feet
high. Several additions and renovations have since been made, greatly
increasing its seating capacity, as well as keeping it attractive and
modern.
The 1,600-pound bell in this church has a history. In 1873 the
metal from which it is made was presented to the society by the Emperor
of Germany. On the 4th of July, 1876 (the Centennial anniversary),
there arrived at New York from Berlin one six-pound brass cannon and
four other pieces of ordnance, consigned to the Lutheran congregation
of Columbus. They were of French make captured during the German
conquest of Alsace-Lorraine. They reached Columbus in February,
1877, and in April, 1878, were reshipped to Baltimore, where they
were recast into a bell, bearing the following inscription: "I call the
living ones ; I mourn the dead ones ; I break the lightning. ' '
In 1884, six years after the dedication of the original church,
Rev. D. H. Koch assumed the great charge which he still can-ies. He
has worked early and late, and has seen his society grow from 239 to
437 families. Those under his pastorate number 1,800 souls and 1,268
244 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
actual coTnmuiiicants, and attend the services of the church from points
fifteen miles distant.
Connected with the society is a large parochial school, founded in
1858, which has its own building separate from the grounds occupied
by the church and the parsonage. It has also a strong Maennerchor,
which has been in existence since that year, a flourishing women's
society, Bible class, and other auxiliaries which add to its influence and
keep its spirit active and strong.
German Methodists
The German Metliodists of Columbus have been organized into a
local church since 1855. Rev. Charles Kluckkorn and Rev. John Wester-
field, missionaries, had preached for three years previously, and it was
during the ministrations of the latter that the Columbus German Meth-
odists were separated from their Baraboo brethren for church purposes.
The first trustees of the new society were Louis Kenzel, John Miller,
J. Battels, J. Fuhrman and Frederick Topp. In 1866 the society erected
its first church, but the rapid growth of membei-ship made it necessary
to build a larger edifice in 1874. The German Methodists continue to
prosper as churchmen and women. Rev. C. F. Henke, who has supplied
their spiritual needs for four years, is in charge of a church which has
a membership of 275.
English Methodists
The first meetings of Methodists in the vicinity of Columbus, and
perhaps in Columbia County, were held in 1845 at what is now Fountain
Prairie, which was included in a circuit comprising Waterloo, Aztalan
and Watertown. Various circuit preachers came to Watertown before
a little society was organized by the Rev. N. S. Green. Along in the
late '50s the Columbus Society was separated from the other points in
the circuit, and in 1859 a church edifice was dedicated by Rev. H. C.
Tilton. The church still occupied by the society was dedicated October
26, 1873, by Rev. C. H. Fowler. Rev. R. W. Plannette is the pastor
now in charge. Membership of the English Methodist Church is about
fifty-five.
The Catholic Church
St. Jerome's Catholic Church had its origin in the ministrations of
Rev. Martin Kundig, who came to the supporters of that faith in
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 245
Columbus as early as 1856. Previous to that time the Catholics of the
place had attended St. Columbkill's Church in the Town of Elba, Dodge
County. Early in the spring of that year work was commenced upon
the foundation of a church ediiice on a lot donated by A. P. Birdsey, and
in June of that year the cornerstone was laid. For want of funds work
was suspended for about eight years, and a permanent house of worship
was not completed until 1866. The first resident pastor was Rev. James
O'Keefe, who succeeded to the charge in 1868. Rev. E. McGuirk (who
had served the church as a missionary), Rev. E. Gray, Rev. Henry
Roche and others labored for the parish and the faith with good results.
In 1879, under the last named, a much needed addition to the building
was made. The present edifice was erected in 1893, Rev. Henry R.
Murphy, still in charge of St. Jerome's, assuming his duties in July of
that year, The membership is 126, and his long and faithful service has
been amply rewarded.
Leading Lodges
Columbus has a number of flourishing lodges and societies, the oldest
of which is Columbus Lodge No. 75, A. F. & A. M., organized June 12,
1856. Its first officers were: M. Adams, W. M. ; N. Sawyer, S. W.;
E. Churchill, J. W. ; J. A. Erhart, treasurer; B. E. Johnson, secretary.
Those serving at present are as follows : John T. Pick, W. M. ; Fred A.
Stare, S. W. ; Oscar Wiener, J. W. ; G. N. Shepard, treasurer; Julius
Henricksen, secretary.
The Modern Woodmen of America were organized September 29,
1887, with twenty members and the following officers: L. J. Dinsmore,
V. C; E. Churchill, W. A.; J. R. Decker, banker; C. E. Eaton, clerk;.
F. 0. Goodspeed, escort; Charles Prime, watchman; Charles Petero,
sentry. The first death in the camp was that of Jerome Smith, the
victim of a runaway accident April 18, 1894. Present officers: John
Pick, V. C. ; Fred Hurd, W. A. ; Edward Pietzner, banker; H. C. Lange,
clerk; S. M. Barraclough, escort; C. M. Christiensen, watchman; A. H.
Sydow, sentry. The membership of the camp is 200.
Alpha Lodge No. 110, K. of P., was organized January 17, 1893. It
has a membership of seventy-four, with the following officers : John L.
Albright, C. C. ; Rodney Shepard, V. C. ; Martin Weidemann, prelate ;
Moses Jones, M. of W. ; F. A. Chadbourn, M. of E. ; William Amrein,
M. at A. ; H. V. Eiehberg, M. of F. ; H. F. Eichberg, K. of R. & S. ;
E. C. Arndt, grand representative; F. A. Chadbourn, deputy G. C.
246 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
First Columbus Banks
Isaiah Robinson carried on the first money exchange in Columbus,
and in 1853 R. W. Chadbourn not only engaged in the banking business,
but added real estate and insurance transactions to it. Mr. Chadbourn
finally cut off all but banking, and in 1855 obtained a regular charter.
W. L. Lewis established himself as a banker in December, 1856.
With Mr. Lewis were interested C. C. and James Barnes. About 1859
the bank became the property of Willard Scott and Vosburg Sprague,
under whose management it ceased to exist in 1861.
First National Bank
On the 7th of September, of that year, Mr. Chadbourn moved his
private bank into the building vacated by Messrs. Scott & Sprague, and
in 1863 it was organized under the national banking law as the First
National Bank of Columbus, with a paid-up capital of $50,000. It was
No. 178, consequently one of the first institutions of the kind to be
organized in the country. Its first officers as a national bank, were:
R. W. Chadbourn, president; S. AY. Chadbourn, cashier, and besides
these, as directors, WiUiam M. Griswold, George Griswold and F. F.
Farnham.
The present officers of the First National Bank are Fi-ederick A.
Chadbourn, son of its founder, president; E. H. Walker, vice president;
J. R. Goff, cashier ; in addition to the foregoing, W. C. Leitsch and W. E.
Griswold, directors. The institution has a paid-in capital of $75,000;
surplus fund, $25,000; undivided profits, $10,078; circulation. $18,755;
deposits, $546,949. To these figures, representing its condition March 4,
1914, may be added the item of "cash on hand," $31,950.
Farmers and Merchants Union Bank
The Union Bank of Columbus was organized by John RusseU
Wheeler in 1861 as a private banking institution, and incorporated as
a state bank in 1862. It was capitalized at $100,000 for the purpose
of is.suing currency. The original stockholders were : John R. Wheeler,
Samuel Marshall, Charles F. Ilsley and J. Alder Ellis. First officers
were: John R. Wheeler, president, and A. 6. Cook, cashier. It was
reconverted into a private bank about 1864, John Russell Wlieeler be-
coming the owner. He sold to Lester R. Rockwell, who continued the
bank until his death in 1884, when he was succeeded by his son, R. S.
Rockwell, and the name changed to Farmers & Merchants Union Bank.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 247
He was succeeded by John E. Wheeler and J. RusseU Wheeler, his son,
in 1896. The bank continued as a private bank until 1903, when under
the state banking laws it was incorporated as a state iustitutiou with a
capital stock of $25,000. The officers at this time became John E.
Wheeler, president; G. W. Shepard, vice president, and J. Russell
Wheeler, cashier. Officers have continued the same until the present.
The bank has passed through every panic within its life without its in-
tegrity ever having been questioned.
Eaklt Brewers
Columbus has an array of lumber yards, warehouses and general
stores, machinery agencies, and fine retail stores which would do credit
to a much larger city. Of her industries, the chief, by far, are the
plants of the Columbus Canning Company and the Kurth Company,
brewers and maltsters. The Kurths were pioneer brewers, but not the
first. Jacob Jussen preceded them by more than ten years, building a
tiny brew house on the west bank of the Crawfish in 1848. In the fol-
lowing year Louis Brauchle purchased it, and added to it, but neither
this establishment nor the brewery founded by Stephen Fleck in 1869
(known as the Farmers Brewery) was able to compete with the Kurth
plant in the southwestern part of the village.
The Kurth Company
In 1859 Henry Kurth came to Columbus with his family and a
brewer's boiler of four barrels' capacity. Six years later, in 1865, he
was able to erect what was then a large brick brewery at a cost of
nearly $4,000, and a year later put in a large boiler and made other im-
provements. The original little brewery is now in the center of the
Kurth plant on Ludiugton Street which covers nearly a city block.
The founder of the business is dead, and in 1904 his sons and grand-
children incorporated the Kurth Company with a capital stock of $400,-
000 and the following officers: J. H. Kurth, president; C. Kurth, vice
president and treasurer; Anna Kurth, secretary. Besides the plant at
Columbus, in charge of John H. Kurth, the company operates a malt
house in Milwaukee. The latter, which is managed by C. Kurth, was
founded in 1911 and now has a capacity of 2,000,000 bushels.
The premises on Ludington Street have a frontage of nearly three
hundred feet, extending nearly the same distance back. The plant com-
prises several large brick buildings — from three to six stories each — and
all connected.
248 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The maiu building is devoted to the brewing business, containing
all the bi-e\ving equipment, and their brewing kettle has a daily capacity
of 100 barrels, being the largest in Columbia County. The ammonia ice
plant in eouueetion has a capacity of seventy-five tons, using the direct
expansion cooling system.
The entire plant is operated by steam and electricity, as this com-
pany has its own dynamo for producing both electric lights and power
throughout the works.
The malt house in the adjoining building has a capacity of 800,000
bushels, which, with the malt house at Milwaukee, gives the company
a malting capacity of 3,000,000 bushels, being one of the largest con-
cerns of the kind in the entire country. Their supplies in the line of
barley are purchased in quite large quantities from farmers throughout
the surrounding country in Columbia, Dodge and Dane counties; also
bought in carlots from Western points in Minnesota, Iowa, North and
South Dakota, being one of the largest purchasers of barley in Wisconsin.
They also buy hops in large quantities from the Western states — prin-
cipally Oregon and Washington — and all consumed iu the brewing
business
Their bottling works in connection with brewery have a large
capacity, as about 35 per cent of their product is bottled. Their special
brands are known as "Banner Export" and "Columbia," the former
having been on the market for many years, and both of these brands
have a first-class reputation. Their draught beer is put up in one brand of
lager and is in excellent demand by saloons and dealers through the
country.
Columbus Canning Company
Although the Columbus Canning Company was only established in
1900, when it was also incorporated, it has the largest plant of the kind in
the United States, and has increased its capital from $30,000 to $300,000,
and founded a branch at Juneau, Dodge County.
The plant is centrally located near the southeastern limits of Co-
lumbus, close to the boundary line between Dodge and Columbia
counties, the premises covering aji area equal to five or six city blocks,
with a frontage of several hundred feet.
The plant comprises nine buildings, including main factory building
80x138 (devoted entirely to the canning business) ; also warehouse, 122x
63 ; viner shed, 80x120 ; silo 45 feet in diameter ; garage building, 24x60 ;
barn, 46x72; Badger warehouse (across river), 60x150; boiler house,
42x58 ; and old warehouse, 36x72.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 249
The factory is completely equipped with modern machinery and
appliances, operated by steam power and electricity, using three engines
with a capacity of 85, 150, 30 horse-power, respectively ; also five boilers,
two of which are 150 horse-power each and three of 60 horse-power
each (or a total of 480 horse-power), while the electric power is obtained
from the city plant, using from 8 to 10 motors, aggregating from 50 to
60 horse-power. The works throughout are also lighted by electricity,
using from 300 to 400 electric lights, this being one of the best lighted
plants in the country. The works are provided throughout with a
ij umber of the latest improvements, being recognized as the model plant
of its kind in the state and one of the best in the United States.
A force of from 400 to 500 hands are employed in the busy season,
which lasts from four to six weeks, from the latter part of June to the
early part of August.
Special attention is given to canning peas, corn and pumpkins,
making a specialty of peas, the company being the largest canners of
peas in the state and one of the largest in the United States. Altogether
3,200 acres of peas are grown for canning and seeding purposes. The
works have a capacity of 250,000 cans per day or from 5,000,000 to
7,000,000 cans during the .season ; also turn out canned corn and pumpkin
in considerable quantities.
The business is entirely wholesale, the company shipping to all parts
of the United States and supplying the jobbing trade direct in the
largest cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia,
St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Boston, and other cities south and
west.
The officers are: W. C. Leitsch, president and general manager;
A. H. Whitney, vice president; A. M. Bellaek, secretary; F. A. Chad-
bourn, treasurer; J. R. Wheeler, auditor, and F. A. Stare, superintend-
ent. These gentlemen, with others, comprise the board of directors, all
residents of Columbus, and are also interested in other enterprises.
The business since its inception has been growing rapidly, so much
so that the company has been obliged to build a branch factory at
Juneau (Dodge County) to assist in taking care of the increased busi-
ness. At that plant a force of 140 hands are employed, and the combined
annual output of the two plants is about 270,000 cases of twenty-four
cans each.
CHAPTER XVI
KILBOURN CITY
The Village of the Present — Wisconsin River Hydraulic Com-
pany Fathers Kilboubn — Editor Holly Arrives — Village Plat
Recorded — Sales op Lots — Schools of Kilbourn City — P. G.
Steoud and Jonathan Bowman — Village Incorporated — Water
Service and Fire Protection — The Free Public Library — Im-
provement OF Southern Wisconsin Power Company- — First
Steamboats at the Dells — Banks at Kilbourn — The Presby-
terian Church — The Methodists — St. Cecelia (Catholic)
Church — Other Religious Bodies.
Kilbourn City, or properly, the village of Kilbourn City, is widely
famed as the center of one of the most popular regions with summer
tourists in the countn,', and the site of a greater water-power. At the
height of the summer season, when thousands of visitors are peering into
every little ravine and gloating over countless fantastic carvings in the
sandstones of the Dells, more than a score of hotels are overflowing and
thriving at Kilbourn City; when the season is over, all but half a
dozen, or less, are on the retired list. In summer, the village and
surrounding country are throbbing with life; in the winter, the entire
region is a picture of demureness, and would seem almost lifeless were
it not for the great dam and power house, from which are issuing such
currents of vitality to Portage, Watertown, Milwaukee, and other points
between and around.
The Village op the Present
Kilbourn is a pretty village, the center of a prosperous country, as
its elevators and warehouses for the handling and storage of grain, seed
and potatoes demonstrate ; also, its implement depots and lumber yards.
Two substantial banks handle its trade. It ha.s a good system of water
works, is well lighted and its fire protection is ample. As to higher
250
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 251
matters, Kilbourn City has a fine new grade school (completed in 1911),
a Carnegie library, not yet (1914) fairly open to the public, and several
well-attended churches. Now, as to details.
Wisconsin River Hydraulic Company Fathers Kilbourn
Kilbourn as a village is the child of the Wisconsin River Hydraulic
Company, which in 1855 purchased a piece of land a mile in length and
half a mile in width lying along the broken east banks of the Wisconsin
River, in the extreme northwest corner of the county. At this point the
tableland rises about eighty feet above the stream, and when the pur-
chasers of the land laid out the village the ground was generally covered
with clumps of oaks, the river and some of the ravines being fringed
with yellow pines. The village plat, made in June, 1856, was intei'sected
by two main streets, noted as 100 feet wide, crossing at right angles half
a mile from the river, all the other streets being eighty feet wide and
running parallel to the main thoroughfares.
Editor Holly Arrives
Mr. Holly, proprietor and editor of the Wisconsin Mirror, was the
first settler to arrive, coming on the 20th of November, 1855, six months
before the village was platted. About the time Mr. Holly finished his
dwelling and printing office, the Hydraulic Company commenced the
building of a dam 425 feet in length, with a fall of eight feet. The
lumbermen bitterly opposed its construction, as they had so much
trouble in running their rafts over it. Finally, in 1859, a large party of
them gathered at Kilbourn and tore it down.
Soon after Mr. Holly located at the unnamed village he was joined
by J. B. Vliet, John Anderson, G. F. Noble, Joseph Bailey (the Civil
War hero) and others. A considerable force of men were engaged in
clearing away the trees in the course of the projected streets, and others
were building houses and working upon the dam. One of the rules of the
hydraulic company was that those who purchased lots were to build upon
them within a reasonable time, which provision accounted for much of
the bustle of the town.
Village Plat Recorded
The plat of the village was placed on record June 10, 1856, under the
name Kilbourn City, and a week later the Mirror approved of the chris-
tening in these words: "Under ordinary circumstances we should be
252 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
opposed to the naming of a town after a person, but we think the cir-
cumstances in this place are such as to make it eminently proper. Hon.
Byron Kilboum of Jlilwaukee, for public enterprise which tells on the
prosperity of the state, undoubtedly stands first. This makes it proper
that an important central towii should be named after him. He is one
of the early settlers of the state, having come to the metropolis in its
infancy and having been instrumental, beyond any other individual, in
its growth and prosperity. He is the body and soul of the La Crosse
Railroad. On that more than any other enterprise he has staked his
reputation as a business man to make it the great trunk line of the
state. The present prosperity of the road shows that his success is
almost certain, tender these circumstances it seems highly fitting that
some place on the line of the road should bear his name. Our place is
nearly central on the road, at the point where it crosses the largest river
in the state, and we expect it to be the largest inland tov\'n in the state.
Then what place could be named after the head man of the road with
greater propriety than this ? In the name itself there can be no objection.
It has but two syllables and is euphonious ; consequently is easily spoken
and agreeable to the ear. These reasons, we think, are abundantly suf-
ficient for naming our place as we have. And as the place is honored by
the name, it is expected that the name will be honored by the place."
Sales op Lots
The first public sale of lots commenced August 18, 1856, and was
attended by persons from Milwaukee, Madison, Portage and other points
in the state, with a few from Illinois, Ohio and New York. The stock
of the hydraulic company was taken in payment at par. The sales,
which continued four days, amounted to $76,2.35, the lots ranging in
value from .$50 to $1,450.
A second sale, stretching over three days of the succeeding October,
brought $34,447. Anything fathered by Byron Kilbourn was always
boomed by ^Milwaukee. The leading auctioneer of the Cream City, Caleb
Wall, who had conducted the last sale, was particularly loud and warm
for Kilbourn City, declaring: "]\Iany who are now rolling in wealth in
Milwaukee and other large cities of our state owe it to the rise of prop-
erty ; and the chances in Kilbourn City are as great as in any city that
has been started in the last ten years. I have no doubt in my mind,
taking the central position of Kilbourn City, that the seat of government
of our .state will be located there. A more lieaiitiful site for a city is not
to be found."
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 253
Schools of Kilbourn City
In 1856 occurred an event which was even of more import than the
sale of lots and the boom from Milwaukee — the completion of the first
schoolhouse in the town. Kilbourn City was then school district No. 6,
and in May, when the new building was completed, it had an attendance
of fourteen. In 1861 Dell Prairie was united with the district, which,
with the normal increase of school children, made a larger building
necessary. For that purpose block 78 (Thomas B. Coons') was pur-
chased in 1867, and in the summer of 1870, after village government had
Public School Building, Kilbourn
been adopted, a fine three-story building of cream colored brick was
completed. When first occupied, the present graded system was adopted.
With the continued growth of Kilbourn City its school facilities have
been since increased by the completion of a large red brick building, two
stories and basement, for the use of the grammar grades. It was occu-
pied in the fall of 1911, the Union schoolhouse of 1869-70 having since
been devoted to the high school scholars. There are 335 pupils enrolled
in the public schools of Kilbourn City, of whom seventy-five are accred-
ited to the high school and forty-four to the seventh and eighth grades,
accommodated in the Union Building.
P. G. Stroud and Jonathan Bowman
"Among the men who were in Kilbourn at an early time, and after-
ward became noted in public life," says J. E. Jones, the well-known
254
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
editor and citizen of that place, "was P. G. Stroud, who moved up
from Newport in 1857. The next year he began the study of law, in
which he later obtained great prominence. He wa-s a man of strong con-
victions, sound judgment, and a genial nature that won popularity.
From the day he began to help make Kilbourn history to the day of his
death, 1887, Mr. Stroud was a strong and leading personality. He es-
tablished Stroud's Bank, now the Kilbourn State Bank. It would not
have been possible to have written this 'Story of the Wisconsin River'
without Jonathan Bowman, and no history of Kilbourn that omits his
name would be complete. In every public transaction of old Newport
from its first inception to its final obliteration he was a principal. His
influence also appeared in the earliest relations of Kilbourn and was
apparent in all affairs until his death in 1895. Mr. Bowman did not
Stroud
Jonathan Bowman
become an actual resident of Kilbourn until 1862, and in 1868, bought
the Kilbourn bank from John ]\IcGregor, which had been established
the year before. His strong personality won the loyal, unswerving
friendship of his associates, and the honor of leadership in business and
political affairs. In later years the leadership of all public matters in
Kilbourn was about equally accorded to Jonathan Bowman and P. G.
Stroud, and though they were frequently in bitter opposition and strenu-
ous rivalry in a public manner, there was never imputed to either of
them one single act of reprehensible nature. Their manhood and sense
of honor was never .sacrificed to an unfair advantage. Today those two
men around whose lives centre so much of the history of Kilbourn, sleep
in near proximity in the village cemetery. Those lives, so earnest, per-
sistent and efficient in events that made Kilbourn, in which each sought
to do the right as he saw it, closed in the full vigor of usefulness, sud-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 255
denly and near together. Today posterity regards the memory of both
with impartial honor and equally generous praise.
"During about fifteen years from 1860 Kilbourn seemed likely to
realize the expectations of its promoters. Merchants drew trade from
far beyond Baraboo and Reedsburg, until the North Western Road
came along in 1872 — and north beyond Mauston and Necedah. The
river in those days was almost continually covered with raftsmeu and
lumber fleets, and they tied up long enough to keep Kilbourn lively.
There were then several big stores, the Hansens, the Hydraulic com-
pany store, later owned by the Dixons: Wood had a big store where the
bowling alley now is, which was later Kuney & Bergstresser. Besides
these there were a number of smaller establishments in all lines, and all
did a rushing business. Old settlers now refer to those times in extrava-
gant terms, and seem to think present conditions discouraging. That,
however, is susceptible of another view. There are today perhaps more
than three times the number of stores, and all doing a good business.
While the country trade does not extend as far, the country is more
thickly settled, and people trade more now than in those times. It is
quite likely that people made more stir, did more trading while at it, but
there are now more people, trading every day instead of monthly, and
more goods are sold. It is a mistake quite conunonly made in most mat-
ters of comparison — people overlook relative conditions. It frequently
happens in the progress of the human race that it is a detriment to begin
life with lofty expectations — not, however, that men should be without
ambition. A young man should have a high mark and strive to reach it.
But the danger lies in going forward with eyes in the clouds, overlook-
ing and disdaining the lesser things along the way. That seems to have
been the case with Newport and Kilbourn. From the first everything
tended to magnificent opportunities and great achievement. The peo-
ple have always had their hopes fixed on the 'magnificent water power,'
a big factory town and an unrestricted trade. Ordinary success counts
for nothing in comparison, and small opportunities have been neglected.
The result is that Kilbourn is not all it might have been, because the
inhabitants 'despised the day of little things,' and it is also very much
greater than its people think because it is not up to the mark of their
great expectations. As a matter of fact the village has prospered and,
aside from its summer resort relations, is commercially ahead of the
average market town. It has not only kept up with its neighbors but
has in some instances set the pace for others."
256 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Village Incorporated
Kilbourn was under town governmeut until 1868, but on February
29th of that year the governor approved a legislative act incorporating
it as a village. The first election as provided by the charter was held
May 10, 1869, and resulted as follows : George Smith, president ; G. J.
Hansen, John Tanner, Henry H. Drinker, George H. Daniels, John N.
Schmitz and A. Chamberlain, trustees; H. H. Hurlbut, police justice;
J. Jackson Brown, clerk; Geoi-ge Ribenaek, treasurer; George A. Boyd,
marshal.
All of the public departments are sufficient for their requirements.
It has its own waterworks and electric light plant, the electric current
being generated at the light and power house of the Southern Wisconsin
Power Company at Kilbourn.
Water Service and Fire Protection
In the early '70s the residents of the new village commenced to call
for better water supply and fire protection. Finally a well 1,300 feet
deep was bored, but no water was reached. After various other experi-
ments, in the fall of 1889 the main pipe of the present system was laid
from a pumping station in the ravine, at the old steamer landing above
the railroad bridge. This pipe at first followed Broadway to the old
tanks near the D. E. Loomis residence. Since 1909 the present water-
works have been completed, embracing power house, wells and reser-
voir. The entire light and water plant of the village is now valued at
$50,000. In 1913 the consumption of water amounted to 22,000,000
gallons.
When pipe was laid in other streets than Broadway, the need of a
fire department became api^arent. So in September, 1891, a volunteer
fire company was organized with F. R. Snider as foreman. The volunteer
organization, which has done good work, now comprises thirty men, and
is supplied with hook and ladder, fire extinguisher and 1,500 feet of
hose. There is a direct water pressure through the mains and h.ydrants
which is sufficient to throw a stream over any building in the village.
The Free Public Library
The predecessor of the Carnegie Library, which (1914) is about to
be open to the public, was the Kilbourn Literary and Library Associa-
tion, organized in 1886. The incorporators were E. A. Steere, Rev. D.
Evans, J. E. Jones, Miss Susie ^Mylrea, Miss Ella Bowman and Jlrs. R.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 257
Scliofield. Of those directors J. E. Jones is the only one now residing in
Kilbourn, and he has been identified with a library board ever since
the founding of the old association. In 1897 the library became a village
institution and a free public library. Through a donation of Andrew
Carnegie, a large, artistic library building was erected in 1913 at a
cost of $7,000. There are about eight thousand volumes on the shelves.
James E. Jones
As noted, James E. Jones, the present editor of Events, is one of the
oldest and best known citizens of Kilbourn. He has been in editorial
work continuously for thirty-eight .years, thirty years of that time with-
out a break in this place.
Mr. Jones was born in Virginia in 1847 and during the first years
of the Civil war lived with his parents in Georgia. In 1864 he came
North and enlisted for the Indian service in the West, serving on the
plains. Just after the war he served with General Custer in Kansas,
through that fierce, bloody war that covered the plains of Kansas with
the graves of soldiers and settlers. He also served in the United States
Topographical Corps in Arizona, New Mexico, and other territories,
then practically unsettled. He later came to Chicago where he was for
some time employed as a newspaper reporter, coming to Kilbourn in
1884, where he has since been in the newspaper business. Mr. Jones has
always been prominently identified with everything inclined toward the
upbuilding of the town and surrounding country.
Improvement of Southern Wisconsin Power Company
The great improvement under the control of the Southern Wisconsin
Power Company at Kilbourn is the direct outcome of the old dam built
by the Wisconsin River Hydraulic Company in the late '50s. The
founder of the first water power and of Kilbourn was ruined by the
destruction of the first dam by the infuriated lumbermen in 1859, and
as the company had boi'rowed heavily from Byron Kilbourn, of Mil-
waukee, president of the LaCrosse & Milwaukee Railroad, and the chief
Wisconsin promoter of his day, all of its property at the river and iu
the village passed into Mr. Kilbourn 's hands.
No attempt was made to repair the dam until 1866, when the Kil-
bourn Manufacturing Company was incorporated for the purpose of
utilizing the water power and developing manufactories on the eastern
shore and Mr. Kilbourn made over to that corporation all his rights in
that section of the improvement which he had obtained from the old
Hydraulic Company. This corporation was largely financed by Mr. Kil-
bourn, although his name did not appear in the list of incorporators.
258 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
It was authorized to raise the dam a sufficient height to complete the
water power, not exceeding three feet above the low water mark of the
river, which was considered safe for the passage of the lumber rafts.
During the summer of that j-ear the dam was raised about two feet,
but this did not prevent the lumber interests from attempting tO stop
the work tlirough the courts. Before the contention was settled. Byron
Kilbouru died, and Byron H. Kilbouru, son of the deceased, obtained
his father's interest in the new dam, as well as his real estate in Kilbourn
City. The younger Kilbourn and others completed a large mill on the
east side of the river in 1872, and the Kilbourn Manufacturing Com-
pany reconstructed the dam so as to meet the continued objections of
the lumbermen, liut the spring freshet of 1872 gon.oed out the river
PuwER Daji at High Water, Kilbourn
banks below, and there was more ti-oul)le for the courts. In 187-1: the
United States Court assessed damages Isoth on the Kilbourn Manufactur-
ing Company and the mill company. The latter was let out of the diffi-
culty by going up in flames during the fall after the spring verdict.
The lumbermen had already purchased the west side of the dam of
Mr. Kilbourn, and in June, 1876, they obtained possession of the other
half.
The present mill was erected by E. D. Munger in 1883 and conducted
by him about thirteen years. The dam went out in 1889 and the mill was
idle until Wilmot put in a new one in the winter of 1893-94. In 1896
the center pier of this structure was swept down the river. The "im-
provement" remained in status quo until 1905, when the water-power
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 259
was sold to the Southern Wisconsin Power Company. Preparations
were at once made for a modern plant commensurate with the splendid
natural advantages offered at Kilbourn. Work on the present improve-
ment was finally begun in 1907 and the entire plant— dam, power house
and all — was "opened for business" in August, 1909.
The general management of the controlling company consists of
Jlagnus Swenson, Madison, president and general manager ; E. J. B.
Schubring, secretary ; G. C. Neft', Kilbourn City, superintendent.
An authoritative description of the hydro-electric development at
Kilbouru, which is one of the great public works within the limits of
Cokuubia County, was prepared by the Engineering Record, a publi-
cation of national repute. From its description, published the month
after the work was completed, the following is condensed :
"The Southern Wisconsin Power Company has placed in operation
recently a 600-kw hydro-electric development on the Wisconsin River,
near Kilbourn, Wis. About 84,000 kw-hours per day will be delivered
from this development over a 70-mile transmission line extending to
a connection with the system of the Milwaukee Electric Railway &
Light Company at Watertown, Wis. The latter company will transmit
the current aboiit 50 miles to its distribution center 'in Milwaukee, thus
making the total transmission distance at high voltage over 120 miles. The
new plant will be operated in parallel with the existing steam stations of
the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company. Considerable power
also will be sold locally and along the transmission line. It is proposed
to increase the capacity of the plant later, since additional power can be
obtained at the site during many entire years, and for most of the time
every year.
"The character of the Wisconsin River is such that this stream is one
of the most favorable in the Middle West for power development. The
drainage basin above the site at Kilbourn covers approximately 7,800
square miles that contain numerous lakes and large tracts of sandy
country, while most of it is wooded.. A steady run-off with a compara-
tively limited variation between the minimum and the flood flows is con-
sequently produced. The ordinary minimum flow is between 4000 and
5000 cu. ft. per second, and flood discharges of 40,000 to 45,000 cu. ft.
per second may be expected most years, with an exceptional volume of
upwards of 80,000 cu. ft. per second at long intervals. The minimum
and maximum conditions are usually of comparatively short duration,
however, and the average flow is well maintained.
"The development is at a 90-deg. bend in the river, where a series
of rapids formerly existed. A dam has been built across the channel,
which was about 350 ft. wide at the site, to develop a head of 17 ft. The
260 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
power house, with its head-raoe aud penstocks is iu an excavation made
in solid rock on the left-hand, or east bank of the stream, entirely outside
of the channel. With the head, volume of water aud pondage available,
the present generating ec|uipment can be operated throughout the year
on a 10-hour or 14-hour basis, and during most of the year the flow is
such that much more power can be developed. Hence, the installation
of the proposed additional units is quite desirable, since the existing dam
is sufficient to provide for them, and the expense involved iu extending
the headworks would be relatively small. At the same time these units
would be of advantage as reserve. Furthermore, not only can all of the
equipment of an enlarged plant be operated much of the year, but the
existing steam plants iu Jlilwaukee also are available for auxiliary power
during periods of low flow.
"At the site the stream flows through a continuous formation of
Potsdam sandstone, the bed and both banks being of this material. The
original depth of the river at the site of the dam ranged from 25 to 35
ft., and its width was 350 ft., witli both banks rising straight up to a
height of 50 to 70 ft. from the edge of the water. These conditions, com-
bined with the large volume of flood discharge, required the full width
of the channel to be utilized at a spillway. The power house therefore
had to be placed in the excavation in one bank, where it is protected
from flood. This location of the power house at the angle of the bend of
the stream also secured considerable advantage in head by separating
the tail-races from the discharge over the spillway. At the same time
it permitted the construction of the power house and head-works to be
handled in the dry back of the cofferdam without reference to the flow
of the river.
' ' The dam across the river is a concrete structure on a rock-fill timber-
crib base. It has a total length of 400 ft., extending from a wide abut-
ment wall adjoining the head works of the power house to an abutment
built into the rock face of the opposite bank, and rises to a maximum
height of 55 ft. above the bed of the stream. The timber-crib construc-
tion was adopted for the base because the conditions presented by the
depth of the stream, the sandstone bedrock, the volume of water con-
fined between the narrow banks and a velocity 3 to 4 ft. a second in
the channel rendered it impracticable to build any ordinary type of
cofferdam to unwater even part of the site. This crib work, which is
154 ft. wide parallel to the channel, was constructed iu place. The con-
crete dam, 48.5 ft. wide at the bottom, stands on the upstream end of the
crib ; the balance of the width of the latter provides an apron that receives
the water discharged over the spillway.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 261
"111 order to provide means of handling the tlow of the river, the
crib was built in two approximately equal parts, the first extending from
the west bank to about midstream, and the second closing the gap. The
midstream side of the first one of the two parts in which the timber base
was built and the downstream end of the base are of the same construc-
tion as the portion on which the concrete supei'structure stands. The
space enclosed in each part by the cribs around the three sides and the
bank on the fourth side is filled with sand up to 10 ft. below the ordi-
nary level of the water below the dam, which placed it at least 8 ft.
below the minimum stage.
'"The concrete superstructure of the dam is built as a spillway, with
its crest 6 ft. below the level at which the headwater in the pond above it
will be maintained. Concrete piers placed 25 ft. 10 in. apart in the
clear rise from this spillway to a height of 24 ft. above the latter, thus
providing 12 large openings, with a total clear width of 300 ft., through
which is passed all of the flow not utilized in the power house. Each of
these openings contains a large vertical steel gate designed specially as
a crest of adjustable height, by means of which the water above the
dam will be held at the stage desired. The lowering of the gates also
will permit flood flows to he passed without raising the level of the pond
beyond certain limits.
"The penstocks and the power house of the development occupy to-
gether an area 143.25 ft. wide by 191.5 ft. long at the downstream end
of the head-race, and are in an excavation that is a continuation of the
one made for the latter.
"The penstocks are 78 ft. long and extend 21 ft. inside the power
house. They are covered 8 ft. above the ordinary level of water in the
head-race with a tight reinforced concrete roof. The portion of the sub-
structure of the power house not included in the penstocks also has tight
reinforced concrete walls built to this height. The superstructure of the
building is of pressed brick trimmed in stone and covered with a roof of
red Ludowici tile carried by steel trusses. Skylights of glass tile placed
in the roof provide, together with ample windows, good interior lighting.
"On the downstream side of the interior of the building is a gen-
erator room, 34 ft. wide, that extends the full length of the building,
with a clear height of 44 ft. under the roof trusses. The flat roof of the
penstocks forms the floor of the balance of the building at the rear, with
a clear height of 24 ft. between it and the roof trusses. On this floor
are placed the transformers, switching connections, switchboards and
various auxiliary apparatus of the plant.
"The waterwheels are of a modified McCormick type turbine, built
and installed by the Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Company, of Cleveland,
262
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Ohio. Each main generator is driven by six 57-iu. turbines arranged
in pairs on a single horizontal shaft. ' '
First Ste.vmboat at the Dells
Although the romantic beauties of the Dells were known and enjoyed
in the '30s, it was not until forty years afterward that any special
Steamboat at Devil s Elbow, Wisconsin Dells
effort was made to accommodate sight-seers, who desired to view the
wonders of which they had heard but were too timid to row the river.
As early as 1835 the steamboat Frontier, Captain D. S. Harris, made
a trip up the Wisconsin River as high as the Dells, but did not attempt
to pass through. For some years afterward steamboats made occa-
sional trips as high as that point.
In 1850 the Enterprise, Captain Gilbert, reached the Dells, tied up
in the eddy overnight, and the next morning continued on through them
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 263
and as high up the river as Point Bass. The boat afterward made two
or three trips to the same point.
But until the coming of the Modocawando, in 1873, boating through
the Dells was always considered in the light of a rather fearful adven-
ture, owing to the swiftness of the current in high water and the numer-
ous sandbars, above and below the Dells, in low water. In the year
mentioned Captain A. Wood brought that steamer down the river from
Quincy, Wis., with the design of making regular trips through the
Upper Dells. Captain Wood and Captain Walton McNeel made trips
for several seasons, both through the Upper and Lower Dells, and a little
later Captain Bell, with the even better known Dell Queen, made regular
voyages through the Upper Dells for many years.
For years past the accommodations for the use of craft of every kind
have been ample, with the result that every nook and cranny of the
famous region has become an open book, but none the less charming to
the visitor whether he be a newcomer or an old-timer.
Banks .vt Kilbourn
The crowds of summer visitors, or the local merchants and substantial
farmers and dairymen of the surrounding country, have good banking
accommodations in the Kilbourn State and the Farmers and Merchants.
The former was organized as a private institution in 1884, with Perry G.
Stroud, a leading lawyer of the county, as president, and Thomas B.
Coon as cashier. Its capital was $10,000. In 1902 it was organized as the
Kilbourn State Bank. Its capital is now $20,000, its surplus and undi-
vided profits $24,278, and its deposits $491,069, with W. S. Stroud, of
Portage, son of the founder, president; L. N. Coapman, cashier.
The Farmers and Merchants State Bank was organized in Febru-
ary, 1910. It has a capital of $20,000 and deposits of $200,000, with
Robert D. Barney as president and Alban C. Tennison, cashier.
The Presbyterian Church
Less than three weeks after Kilbourn City was named. Rev. Stewart
Mitchell, of the declining Village of Newport, preached the first sermon
delivered at that point. The date was June 29, 1856. Mr. Mitchell was
the Presbyterian pastor at Newport, and felt that the newly platted
village, with its promising water-power, its newspaper and other evi-
dences of progress, would be a better field for his struggling society than
his home town, where property was depreciating and the residents were
26-1 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
dissatisfied, if not discouraged. lu the fall of 1S58 he came to reside, the
first cominiinion of the Kilboiirn Society having been held in April. In
1861 the church had so groMTi that the need of a permanent house of
worship was earnestly discussed, and during the early part of 1862 the
building at Newport was taken down and the materials brought to Kil-
bourn for erection in the sunmier.
But the people were in the midst of civil war horrors and per-
plexities, times were uncertain, and funds for the building of the pro-
posed church were difficult to obtain. While the enterprise thus hung in
the balance, it was lifted by Mrs. Harriet T. Smith, of Milwaukee, and
Editor Holly, of the Mirror, the former of whom donated funds and the
latter a building site.
In August, 1863, the church building was dedicated during a meeting
of the Winnebago Presbytery, at which time Mr. Mitchell resigned the
pastorate on account of the ill health of his wife. The edifice now
occupied was built under the pastorate of Rev. A. V. Gulick, in 1891.
The church now has a membership of sixty and is in charge of Rev.
Oliver E. Dewitt.
The Methodists
The Methodist Episcopal Chiueh was organized in 1857 by Rev.
William Mullen, among its organizing members being Silas ]\Ierrill and
wife, John Kneen and Harriet Peabody. Mr. ilerrill was first class
leader. After worshiping for a time in the old schoolhouse, the little
society purchased a small dwelling house, which was fitted up for
religious purposes. Next, the old schoolhouse again ; then an old store,
when a regular church building was commenced. While that was under
way, the Methodists used the hall of the Kilbourn Institute, but on
Sabbath, January 31, 1868, dedicated their new church. The present
membership of the society is 122 and it is in charge of Rev. D. J.
Ferguson.
St. Cecelia (Catholic) Church
The Catholics organized as St. Cecelia Church in the late '50s, their
first building being erected in 1859. It was a little frame structure,
which was afterwards enlarged, and the parsonage was built in 1871.
These met the requirements of the parishioners until 1903, when the
present edifice and parsonage — substantial red brick buildings — were
erected. Rev. Nicholas Hanert took charge in 1907, and 100 families
are under his jurisdiction.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 265
Other Religious Bodies
The German Lutherans dedicated a church in 1876 ; the Episcopalians
bought the old schoolhouse in 1875 and reconstructed for church purposes
in 1896 ; in 1872 the Congregationalists built a church, which the German
Methodists bought in 1880.
CHAPTER XVII
LODI VILLAGE
The Beginnings of Lodi — I. H. Palmer and the Bartholomews —
Rev. Henry Maynard — The Suckers Settlement Becomes
Famous — Settlers op 1846 — First M. D. and D. D. — Other Phy-
sicians— South vs. North, Before the War — I. H. Palmer
Pounds Lodi — Progress of Local Schools — Village Charter —
Water Service and Electric Lighting — The Methodist Church —
The Baptist Church — Lodi Lodges — Business Houses — Banks of
Lodi — Herbert Palmer, Son of Lodi's Founder
Lodi is one of the prettiest villages in the county, advantageously
situated on Spring Creek, a tributaiy of the Wisconsin River. Although
its site and the surrounding country are broken and picturesque, the
territory tributary to it is productive and prosperous. The consequence
is that Lodi is both a good residence town and the center of a solid trade.
It is the largest center of population on the Chicago & North Westerta
Railwaj- in the county and has adequate transportation and banking
facilities for handling both local and tributary trade.
The Beginnings of Lodi
The early history of Lodi and the surrounding country is thus told by
a pioneer of the place: "After the lapse of more than half a century
from the first settlement of Lodi, a new generation has sprung up, and
new faces are thronging our streets.
"To these, perhaps, a few reminiscences connected with the first set-
tlement of this place may prove interesting. Today there is but a rem-
nant left of those who first staked their all on what is now the town of
Lodi. Soon these, too, will vacate their places.
"The land in this vicinity was surveyed by the United States Gov-
ernment in 1833 and prior to 1835. The first entries from Government
266
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 267
were made by what is known as the Western Land Company, organized
in Washington in 1836, for speculative purposes. Among the members
of this company were John P. Hale, W. H. Seward and Daniel Webster —
hence the name of Webster bluff.
"The land located for this company was done through agents and
mostly from Government surveys, and was N. E. y^ of Section 33, known
as the Dwinnell farm; N. W. 1/4 of Section 34, known as the Joe
Riddle farm; the N. W. 14 oi Section 27, known as the old Dunlap and
Freye farm; the whole of Section 21, being the Chalfaut and Narracong
farms, the S. E. 14 of Section 20, the Frank Groves farm, and a few
other forty acres in this town and some lauds in West Point.
"The question may be asked why the high prairie land of the
Dwinnell farm and some others were selected and the more desirable
water powers along the creek were left vacant. The answer is, the
creek was erroneously located on the Government plats, on Dunlap 's hill.
Then came the financial crash of 1837, the like of which our country has
not experienced — no, not to this day.
I. II. Palmer and the Bartholomews
"The first to spy out the natural advantages of this section were I. H.
Palmer, a noted Nimrod of that period, who made frequent incursions
into this region in pursuit of choice locations, venison and bear pelts,
but principally the latter ; and M. C. and G. M. Bartholomew, sons of
General Bartholomew of McClain County, Illinois, who represented the
district in Congress in about 1824, and who distinguished himself in the
Black Hawk War.
"These sons being bred to a pioneer life and fond of adventures,
sought out this village for the purpose of making themselves a home, and
securing a competence by the sweat of their brows, which failed to
materialize (the competence), by selling calico, coffee, and codfish in
Illinois. They, too, made strong claims to superiority in marksmanship
and often tried titles with Judge Palmer. Wlio bore off the belt in these
contests legend fails to record.
Rev. Henry Maynakd
"In the spring and summer of 1845 the Messrs. Bartholomew were
joined by Rev. Henry Maynard, who although not an expert with a rifle
was noted for pouring hot shot into sinners — indeed, he made the atmos-
phere quite sulphuric at times. He was accompanied by his family, his
wife being the first white woman in Lodi. The fall of this year the
268 PlISTORY OF COLU.AIBIA COUNTY
families of the ilessrs. Bartholomew arrived. The same fall W. G.
Simons, from Sauk prairie, located up the creek and shortly after was
joined by his brother-in-law, Joshua Abbot. Freedom Simons came to
Dane and afterward to Lodi.
The Suckers Settlement Becomes Famous
"In the spring of 1846 the fame of the 'Suckers settlement in Spring
Creek valley' having spread abroad, emigrants from Illinois and other
parts poured in.
"Simultaneously in the month of May came Joseph Brown, Jacob
Hurley and their families; Messrs. Bowman and family, including her
stalwart son Adam ; and John Foote. About this time came the Strouds,
four brothers, all bachelors except Morrill, whose wife died soon after
and whose grave was decorated by the soldiers for years as being that
of Thomas Bunker, Jr. Other arrivals from Illinois were John Chance,
Horace Andrews, Johnson Sowards and John Newberry. James Mc-
Cloud located a claim and built a shanty this year where the brick house
now stands.
Settlers of 1846
"In the fall of this year G. T. Simons, a youth of eighteen, came
from New York. Nature had given him a good physical organization.
He could split more rails in a day, and run twenty miles quicker than
any other man in Wisconsin. His brother Joseph came earlier, with
W. G. Simons. James M. Steel came about this time, and was fol-
lowed by his brothers, Edward and John, in 1850. This year (1846)
Mr. Thomas with a family of unmarried sons and daughters located near
Chrystal Lake, and other emigrants came from Canada and the eastern
states — Ira Policy, H. J\I. Ayer, Dr. Drew, Alonzo Waterburj-, Harlow
Kelsey, John Newman, and Mr. Baldwin.
The Blachley Settlement
"It was this year that the nucleus of what was known as the Blachley
settlement started in Dane county and afterward spread into Lodi.
FIR.ST :M. D. and D. D.
"Dr. Eben Blachley was the first regularly ordained D. D. and M. D.
combined in one, to administer Calvinism and calomel — the fumes of
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 269
brimstoue and blue mass all worked out of the system by a small dose
of spiritual consolation and a big dose of castor oil, followed bj' a
Dovers powder to keep down internal disorders.
"But most of us survived, Herbert Eaton, two years old, a sou of
J. 0. Eaton, a fiue, delicate little boy, unable to withstand such potations,
was laid away in the old cemetery at the corner of Section 27.
Other Physicians
"After a year or so other M. D.'s attempted to establish a practice.
Dr. Cathcai-t, after failing to find a remunerative market for his pills
and powders, sought to earn his living by the sweat of his brow. He
took the job of building a hotel for Freedom Simons on the corner
where Briggs house now stands, in payment for an already accumulated
board bill, and, finding the place too miserably healthy to succeed in his
profession, he packed his pills and lancet and sought other localities. In
the course of time he was followed by other M. D.'s at intervals — Ingals,
Warren, Lake, Heath, and G. H. Irwin, all reasonably successful in
alleviating the ills to which humanity is heir, the latter bequeathing to
his posterity a place he so eminently filled.
South vs. North, Before the War
"The first settlers here were of Southern extraction, originally from
Kentucky and Virginia; hence their trend of thought, their principles
and ideas took their cue from the South, while those from the northern
and eastern states were of Puritan extraction, with different views and
habits. Having eeked a scanty subsistence on the rugged hills of New
England, they fell into habits of most rigid economy, condescending to
little things in business transactions which gave them the name of
being ' tight, ' ' close ' and ' picayunish. ' All through the South and West,
before the War, the term ' Yankee ' was the most opprobious epithet that
could be applied to a person. ' '
I. H. P.vLMER Founds Lodi
In February, March and April, 1846, Mr. Palmer entered at the land
office in Mineral Point various portions of Section 27 in the present
Township of Lodi, on the western banks of Spring Creek. He found
that the majority of the choice lands owned by the Government had
been taken up by speculators. They had passed these by, and he kuew
they were choice because he had thoroughly canvassed the southwestern
270 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
portion of Columbia County in the summer of 1845, having found a fine
water power at this point.
In April, 1846, Mr. Palmer arrived upon the ground and prepared to
get out timber for a sawmiU and a log house for his family. The sawmill
was in operation by fall, his family having "got settled" in the previous
June; consequently Mr. Palmer was the first actual settler within the
present village limits and founder of its first industry. In 1847 he also
petitioned for a postofifice and a ferry at the scene of his operations, both
of which were granted. Mr. Palmer's commission for postmaster was
signed April 17, 1848, and on the 25th of the succeeding month he
recorded the first plat of the Village of Lodi. The founder of Lodi would
have been accounted a hustler even today.
In the fall of 1848 Mr. Palmer completed a store building which was
soon occupied by Thomas & Pinney, young men who had been engaged
in general merchandise at Hanchetville, Dane County.
Progress of Local Schools
In the summer of 1846 a log house was erected on Section 27, in
which ]Miss Mary Yockey taught the first school within the limits of the
present village. This house served until 1851, when a frame building was
erected on the same section, the district being No. 1.
After various rearrangements of districts, as population increased,
School Districts 1, 2, 6, 7 and a part of 3 were consolidated into a
Union district, with the object of establishing a school of high grade
which might accommodate all. A special school meeting was held Octo-
ber 8, 1864, when the board was authorized to move one or more of the
sehoolhouses to the point as would l)est subserve the interests of the
consolidated districts.
Previous to this time Professor A. G. Riley had been teaching a
select high school in the village, and had awakened considerable interest
in higher education. As the professor had expressed his ^rillingness to
abandon his private school in case the districts united for the purpose
mentioned, he did so when the change was made and was appointed first
principal of the Union School, which was opened November 14, 1864.
In November, 1869, a $10,000 union schoolhouse was completed with
a seating capacity of 340. This was burned in the spring of 1878 and
another thrown open to the scholars of the district in the following De-
cember. In 1873 the first superintendent of village schools was elected,
John Foote, and since that time they have been organized under the
graded system.
The 1878 building was also burned in 1886. In due time it was
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 271
replaced by the substantial brick structure occupyiug the same site,
now used for grades and designated the Grade Building. As time
passed the need for increased room became so apparent and urgent that
the erection of a high school building was voted by the district, and the
same was erected in 1898 on the beautiful and picturesque site, com-
prising about three acres of land, donated for that purpose by the
Palmer sisters, near the head of Main Street.
To carry out Lodi's present system of public instruction, the school
board, consisting of Director Dr. T. 0. Goeres, Clerk C. H. Mandeville
and Treasurer A. R. Reynolds, employs one supervising principal and
eleven assistants. Five (including L. F. Rahr, the principal) are as-
signed to the high school and six to the grades. The present school year
of 1913-14 has seen the largest enrolment in the history of the Lodi
High School — 134; in the grade school it is 207.
Village Charter
In 1872 Lodi obtained a village charter covering the area embraced
by Section 27, and on June 20th of that year held its first election. It
resulted in the choice of Horatio N! Cowan for president of the village
board of trustees; E. Andrews, Alexander Woods, James McCloud, H. C.
Bradley, William Dunlap and Leonard F. Wanner, trustees; Carlos
Bacon, clerk ; J. M. Pruyn, treasurer ; H. M. Ayer, police justice.
Water Service and Electric Lighting .
The village owns its own waterworks plant. The water is stored in a
reservoir fourteen feet in depth by forty feet in diameter, situated on a
hillside overlooking the town. The water is of the purest and best, being
obtained from two wells located at the foot of the blutif, one fourteen
feet deep, the other an artesian well 253 feet in depth. The plant has a
pumping capacity of 500 gallons per minute.
Lodi has also a good electric lighting system, the plant being owned
and operated by the municipality. One hundred and twenty-five meters
are now in use.
Both plants are operated by the same power, two boilers, one of
fifty horsepower and one of 100 horsepower being employed for the
purpose.
The Methodist Church
Lodi has always been a quiet, God-fearing community and supports
several strong churches, chief of which are the Presbyterian and Meth-
272 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
odist. The ilethodists formed the first class for religious instruetiou, in
the fall of 1845. This was before the village was platted hy ilr. Palmer.
G. il. Bartholomew. Catherine Bartholomew, M. C. Bartholomew, Mary
Bartholomew, Christiana Bartholomew, Henry I\Iayuard, Catherine
Maynard and Harriet E. ilayuard — in other words, the Bartholomews
and the Maynards — got together, with the first-named Bartholomew as
class leader, and formed an organization under Rev. L. Harvey. Sei-v-
iees were held in the log cabins of the Bartholomews and the Maynards
until the spring of 1846, when the log schoolhouse was built in Section
27, on the future village plat. As the population of the village in-
creased and the log schoolhouse became too small, a house was obtained
which accommodated the growing soeietj- for some j'ears, and in 1857 a
large stone church building was dedicated. The present society is in
charge of Rev. G. R. Carver.
The Baptist Church
The Baptists have a society in charge of Rev. Joseph J. Bowman,
son of the first settled pastor of the local church. The first meeting to
consider organization was held at the house of H. M. Ayer in April, 1852,
and in the following month articles were signed by Peter Van Ness,
Cyrus Hill, William G. Simons, H. il. Ayer, Freedom Simons, William
Waite, Matthias Warner, Ira Polly, Emma Van Ness, Caroline L. Sim-
ons, Almira Simons, Lucy Warner, Caroline Wait, Catherine Polly,
James Cross, Laura Durkee and Betsy Hill. In January, 1853, the
church invited Elder Joseph Bownnan to become its pastor. This rela-
tion was continued until December 28. 1861. A church building was
completed in 1867.
Lodi also sustains a Norwegian Lutheran Church and a small Uni-
versalist society, the latter being organized in 1872.
The Presbyterian Church
The Presbyterians organized in June, 1852, the ten persons siguins
the articles of covenant being James O. Eaton and wife, A. P. Smith and
wife, Robert Mann and wife, Mrs. Patridge, Mrs. Strangeway, Mrs. J.
N. Lewis and Miss Eliza Steele. The first Presbyterian sermon had
been preached in the preceding fall by Rev. J. N. Lewis, a missionary
of the church, who became the settled pastor of the local society. In
August, 1857, Rev. G. B. Riley, the widely known missionary and edu-
cator, commenced his labors as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church
of Lodi, and during his six years of fine service a house of wor.ship was
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
273
erected and the society placed on a substantial basis for future develop-
ment. The church very early adopted the plan of a rotary eldership.
Presbyterian Church, Lodi
The present building was erected in 1911, and the membership of the
society is 200; Rev. Frank Zimmerman, in charge.
Lodi Lodges
The villagers have a good Masonic lodge (Lodi Valley No. 99), which
was organized in 1857, and has now a membership of fifty-eight; also,
an Eastern Star auxiliary, with fifteen or twenty members; and bodies
representing the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen.
Business Houses
Lodi has a number of substantial general stores and other business
Its largest establishment is conducted by the Lodi Grain Com-
pany, which was established in 1909. The company conducts an elevator
with a capacity of 12,000 bushels and a feed mill, and has large deal-
ings in grain, flour and coal.
Banks op Lodi
The State Bank of Lodi was organized November 26. 1897, with a
capital of $25,000. The first officers were : David H. Robertson, presi-
274 HISTORY OF COLU.AIBIA COUNTY
dent; William Folsom, vice president; E. F. Vanderpoel, cashier.
William Caldow became president upon the death of Mr. Robertson, and
at his decease was succeeded by A. E. Reynolds. W. A. Caldow suc-
ceeded Mr. Vanderpoel as cashier in January-, 1909, and has so con-
tinued to the present. F. W. Groves is the present vice president.
The Columbia Bank, at Lodi, was organized November 14, 1906, with
the following directors: John Caldwell, Sr., John L. Caldwell, James
M. Caldwell, Robert Caldwell, Hugh S. Caldwell, Marion Caldwell and
Wm. E. Lamont. The first officers were: John Caldwell, Sr., presi-
dent; John L, Caldwell, vice president; H. S. Caldwell, cashier, and
Marion Caldwell, assistant cashier. The officers have continued un-
changed to the present. The capital stock of $20,000 is also the same.
Two additional stockholders, Isaac S. Caldwell, of Chicago, and William
W. Caldwell, of Ashland, Ore., who were stockholders when the bank was
organized, have since moved away and have resigned from the director-
ate. On November 4, 1907, the stockholders filed with the state com-
missioner of banking a declaration in writing, signed by each of them,
acknowledging, consenting and agreeing to hold themselves individu-
ally responsible for all the debts, demands and liabilities of said bank,
under the laws enacted in 1903. The bank has enjo3'ed the confidence
of the public and is recognized as one of the most substantial and solid
financial institutions of Columbia County. August 9, 1913, bank state-
ment showed deposits aggregating aliout $328,464.
Herbert Palmer. Sox of Lom's Founder
Isaac H. and Ann Palmer, of Colonial New York stock, came to
Madison soon after the capital of the state was located at that place,
reaching Wisconsin in June, 1837. The family lived for a few years in
and near Madison: while there ^Mr. Palmer was elected the first county
judge of Dane County. They came to Lodi in the spring of 1846, and
Judge Palmer, as he was always familiarly known, founded the village
and laid out the first plat. The life of the family has been intimately
connected with the progress of the community ever since.
Judge and Mrs. Palmer were the parents of ten children, of whom the
subject of this sketch is the youngest. He was born in the beautiful
Lodi Valley, on December 29, 1857.
He graduated from the Lodi High School, and afterward attended
Beloit College; afterward taught very successfully for several years in
the schools of Columbia and Dane counties. He read law, was admitted
to the bar in 1894, and has since practiced his profession at Lodi. He
has always been keenly interested in educational affairs, and was for a
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 275
mimber of years and until recently director of the Lodi High School
Board.
For many years he has been prominent in the affairs of the Presby-
terian Church ; is an elder and clerk of the session ; was one of the prime
movers in the building of the fine church which the society erected in
1911. He was married in 1894 to Miss Nellie Pierce of Poynette. She
died in 1899.
Mr. Palmer has two children, Alice, born in 1895, and Herbert, born
in 1899. The family home is on the lands bought by Judge Palmer from
the Government nearly seventy years ago.
It is quite appropriate that Mr. Palmer should be one of the advisory
editors of this history.
CHAPTER XVIII
VILLAGE OF PARDEEVILLE
Pardeeville Founded — Yates Ashley — John Pardee, Father op
John S., Proprietor — The Old Mill Up to Date — Protection
Against Fire — Pardeeville State Bank — Incorporated as a Vil-
lage— (iRADED School System — Pardeeville 's Churches — Masons
and Odd Fellows
Joliii S. Pardee was one of those enterprising merchants of Mil-
waukee, who early extended his operations into the growing and promis-
ini; fields of southern Wisconsin lying in the valleys of the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers. In the fall of 1848 he sent out as one of his agents,
Reuben Stedman, who built a store near the southern shores of the mill
pond, or water power, which was the birthplace of the Village of Par-
deeville.
Pardeville Founded
In April, 1849, a young New Yorker, who was both a surveyor and
a merchant and who had been several years in business at ilihvaukee,
succeeded Mr. Stedman at the new store and water-power site in the
Fox Valley. The new-comer was Yates Ashley, who not only sold
Mr. Pardee 's goods, but kept his books, got out timber for the projected
saw and grist mills, and put everything in operation before the year
closed. John S. Pardee's money was behind him, but Yates Ashley
really founded the town. In July, 1850, Mr. Ashley's employer platted
a portion of the land to which he gave his name, and Willis S. Haskin
went and did likewise. In 1855 Doctor Lake made an addition to the
original plat of some forty acres to the south.
Yates Ashley
In the meantime Mr. Ashley started out to make some money. First
he went to Watertown, wliere he clerked a year; then spent two years
in the engineer's corps of the old LaCrosse & ]\Iilwaukee Railroad, and
276
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
277
in the spring of 1855 purchased a quarter interest in the flouring and
grist mill at Pardeeville. In the following October he married Virginia
M. Pardee, daughter of John and sister of John S. — the latter being his
appreciative employer of a few years previous. He was afterward post-
master and many years mail agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railroad Company at Pardeeville. Mr. Ashley represented his
district in the assembly for several terms during war times, was long
identified with the management of the State Hospital for the Insane,
and retained an interest in the general store and the flouring mill which
he conducted until the time of his death in 1901. One of his sons, Lewis
P. Ashley, who was born at Pardeeville, has long been proprietor of the
leading hardware store in the village, and is one of the solid citizens of
the place.
John Pardee, Father of John S., Proprietor
Soon after platting a portion of his land, in 1850, John S. Pardee
transferred his interest in tlie village to Joseph Utley, Avho, about the
Old MiLii, Nucleus op Pardeeville
year 1853, turned the property over to John Pardee, father of the orig-
inal proprietor. The grist mill, which had been commenced in 1849,
was completed by John Pardee late in 1856. In the spring of the pre-
vious year, he had sold a quarter interest in the mill property to Yates
Ashley, who in the fall of that year had settled at Pardeeville with his
young bride and commenced his long and honorable career. This
278 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
co-partnership continued until the death of John Pardee June 26. 1873,
and at the decease of Mr. Ashley, in 1901, Dr. Joseph Chandler pur-
chased the old mill property around which Pardeeville was built.
The Old iliLL Up to Date
Doctor Chandler has since improved the plant so that the mill has an
output of seventy-five barrels of flour daily, liesides making a good
showing in the feed line.
Some 300 feet north of the flouring mill may still be seen a ditch
which marks the race of the old sawmill which antedated the pioneer
gi-ist plant.
Protection Against Fire
The electric light and power plant, erected in 1901, stands near the
flour mill. For fire protection there is a chemical engine and a volunteer
fire department, and the special use of the pump at the power house is
to force water through the mains in case of conflagration.
On the 1st of April, 1906, the flames got too far a start of the home
appliances, and the engine from Portage arrived too late to be of any
assistance. The west side of the main street was swept awaj% ten
business houses completely destroyed and a damage was suffered amount-
ing to between $50,000 and $60,000. This was Pardeeville 's worst fire,
and precautions have been taken against a repetition of such a calamity.
Pardeeville State Bank
The Pardeeville State Bank was organized in 1901 with the following
officers: Thomas Kearns, president; D. T. Lynch, vice president;
J. H. Dooley, cashier. Its statement at the close of March 4, 1914, shows
these items: Capital stock paid in, $15,000; surplus and undivided
profits, $10,758 ; deposits, $202,545.
Incorporated as a Village
Pardeeville was incorporated as a village in November, 1899, and is
a well-situated station on the northern division of the Chicago, Mil-
waukee & St. Paul Railroad. It has a score of business establishments,
including the flouring mill, already mentioned, a grain elevator, a
creamery and a good bank, potato warehouses and a large lumber yard.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
279
The village is well supplied with churches and societies for the benefit
of the local population, and Park Lake adjoining the town offers visitors
facilities for fishing and boating.
Graded School System
Pardeeville was originallj' in School District No. 3, and under control
of the town authorities. A schoolhouse was erected in the district as
early as 1847 ; the second was an improvement on the first, and the
third, erected within the present village in 1868, is the two-story brick
still in use. A graded system is in force, with a good High School
.. P
founded in 1903. The average attendance at the latter is about seventy ;
in the eight grades below, two hundred. Since the establishment of the
High School its principals have been Frank Doudna, Clara Dean, Mr.
Ray, Henry Emraett and A. J. Henkel. The members of the school board
are as follows : J. S. Alexander, clerk ; J. S. Heath, treasurer ; Dr. A. L.
Wood, director.
Pardeeville 's Churches
The Presbyterian Church of Pardeeville was organized in 1857 with
these members : Alanson Hughson, Phila M. Hughson, Lebbuus H. Gil-
bert, William J. Ensign, Leona Ensign and Sarah Burchecker. Rev.
280 HISTORY OF COLU:\IBIA COUNTY
S. H. Barteau was the first pastor, and a house of worship was dedi-
cated in March, 1864. The present pastor is Rev. Coonrod Wellen, and
the membership of the church about seventy-five.
The Methodists organized early and erected their first church home
in 1861. John "W. Falconer and Samuel Cannon were the most active
in its construction. The edifice now occupied was completed in 1910.
The pastor in charge, Rev. Samuel Olson, commenced his pastorate in
1911, and ministers to about one hundred and forty members.
The German Lutherans and the Catholics have also societies at Par-
deeville. The German Lutheran Church, which has a membership of
sixty, is supplied by Rev. L. C. Kirst of Cambria. Rev. H. J. Koester
ministers to the fifty families constituting the Catholic organization.
M.\soxs AND Odd Fellows
The Masons were the first to form a lodge in Pardeeville. On Sep-
tember 12, 1867, a dispensation was granted Pardee Lodge No. 171,
A. F. & A. M., and an organization was effected by the election of
Samuel B. Rhodes, W. M. -, Charles J. Pardee, S. W. ; David H. Lang-
don, J. W. A charter was granted to the organization June 10, 1868.
The present membership of the lodge is sixty, with the following officers :
S. H. Dooley, W. M. ; A. J. Henkel, S. W. ; William Robinson, J. W. ;
A. V. Davis, S. D. ; A. L. Parmlee, J. D. : :M. W. Roberts, .secretary;
Clift'ord Spicer, treasurer.
Pardee Lodge No. 126, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted December 5, 1873,
with Charles J. Pardee, N. G. ; David Narracong, V. G. ; F. A. Matthew-
son, secretary; John Hartman, treasurer. The lodge has now a mem-
bership of nearly one hundred, and owns and occupies a fine .$8,000
hall, which was appropriately dedicated in December, 1913, and com-
pleted in the following summer. Present officers : Willard Clark, N. G. ;
Ralph Parish, V. G. ; A. L. Wood, R. S. ; C. E. Spicer, F. S.; R. E.
Garner, treasurer.
Pardee Encampment No. 38 was instituted January 30, 1914. It
has fifteen members and the following officers: A. L. Wood, C. P.;
R. E. Garner. H. P.; F. W. Edwards. S. W. ; William Reuhl, J. W. ;
W. P. Dav, scribe; P. IL :\Ifrrill, treasurer.
CHAPTER XIX
VILLAGE OF RIO
Origin op the Name Doubtful — Rio Platted by N. B. Dunlap — First
Merchant and Postmaster — Pioneer Business and PfiOFESsioisfiVL
Men — Village Incorporated — Schools — Banks — People 's Tele-
phone Company — The Congregational Church — The Baptist
Church — Lutheran and Catholic Churches.
A visitor to Rio at once concludes that it is one of the neatest villages
in the county. Its streets are wide and clean, its stores bright and its
residences, for a place of its size, are unusually attractive. It has a
fine new school, a pretty village hall, in which are housed the fire
apparatus and the public ofiicials, two good banks, and is the head-
quarters of the People's Telephone Company, the largest organization
of the kind in this part of the state. Rio has a growing retail business.
It lias a large lumber company, which deals in coal and building mate-
rial, and operates a grain elevator and a bean warehouse.
Origin op the Name Doubtful
Rio is the center of cjuite a prolific bean country; and, in this con-
nection, steps forth a local wag. A crowd was discussing the origin
of the village name, which no two have yet agreed upon. "No trouble
to explain it," says Mr. Wag. "Dunlap, the papa of the town, was a
great traveler, and when he laid it out he had just returned from Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, one of the great coffee centers. His village was the
center of a big beau land. A fool can see how the town happened to be
named Rio."
Then spoke the wise man : "I don 't know much, but a little history,
local and general. I happen to know that there wasn't much doing in
the coffee line in the '60s, when Dad Dunlap came here ; also that half
an acre of beans had not been raised in Columbia County when Dunlap
281
282 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
came here. Also that Dunlap didu't name it at all. It was named
before it was born. Try again. ' '
Even A. J. Turner gives up "Rio," tlius: "This village was named
after the postoffice which had previously been established there. The
name appears to have been selected without rhyme or reason, as fat as
can be discerned."
Rio Platted by N. B. Dunlap
Rio was laid out by N. B. Dunlap in 1864, and he o\\Tied the larger
part of the land now included in the site. In 1852 a postoffice had
been established in the northeast corner of Lowville by the name of
Rio — but why Rio, nobody ever knew. When Mr. Duulap engaged the
county surveyor, A. Topliff, in the month of November, 1864, to lay
out a village on his land just over the line in the town of Otsego, the
postoffice, half a mile west, had become so well known that the founder
adopted its name. He also reasoned that the postoffice would move to
his village, which happened within a few months.
First Merchant and Postmaster
At the time of the platting, Delos Bundy was running a small coun-
try store and acting as postmaster. In the spring of 1865 he moved
his store and office into the village, and for a number of years com-
bined business with his public duties.
Pioneer Business and Professional Men
In the winter of 1864-5 Robert Williams and Kennedy Scott estab-
lished the first lumber yard in Rio. Dr. Vincent was the first physician
and John J. Bro^^Ti the pioneer lawyer.
In July, 1865, D. Buchanan commenced the erection of a grain
elevator, having a capacity of 10,000 bushels, and by the latter part of
September it was in use. About the same time another elevator was
built, and was owned 1)y Samuel D. Curtis when destroyed by fire in
November, 1872.
Rio's first drug store was opened by Messrs. Warren and Delos
Bundy, in the spring of 1866, and in the succeeding fall W. Davidson
put in the first hardware store.
But in the late '60s and the early '70s so many lines of business
appeared that the novelty of "openings" was discounted.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 283
Village Incoeporated
The Village of Rio was incorporated in 1886, and in 1904 its officials
and departments moved into a handsome brick structure specially erected
for them.
Schools
A fine union schoolhouse, built of red brick, was erected in 1912.
Village Hall, Rio
For many years the children of the village were accommodated in the
Lowville schoolhouse. This arrangement continued as long as Rio was
in the joint school district, composed of a portion of the towns of Low-
ville and Otsego, and before it was incorporated as a village. George
Batty is now principal of schools, the system comprising a well-organized
high school and the usual grammar grades.
284 HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY
Banks
The Rio State Bank was orgauized in 1900, with a capital stock
of $20,000 and the following officers : W. E. Moore, president ; H. A.
Hanson, vice president; Andrew Amondsoii, cashier. C. D. Gates is
now president and H. S. Hendrickson, cashier. The capital stock has
remained unchanged; deposits are now $265,000.
The First National Bank of Rio was organized in 1907, with W. E.
Moore as president ; C. E. Berg, vice president ; and Andrew Amondson,
cashier. With the exception of the vice presidency, which is now held
by M. J. Christopher, the present officers are the same as those at the
date of organization. The capital stock of the bank is $25,000 and
deposits $180,000.
People's Telephoxe Company
The People's Telephone Company was orgauized February 4, 1901,
with Jesse L. Farrington, of Rio, president; B. E. Marsh, Low\'ille,
secretary and treasurer. Mr. Farrington is still president ; A. R. Slinger,
Portage, vice president; Thomas apOwens, Cambria, secretary and
treasurer. The People's has more than 1,200 telephones in operation,
its territory embracing Rio, Fall River, Cambria, Randolph and Fox
Lake.
The Congregational Church
The Congregationalists organized a society at the house of David
Palmer, two miles east of the village, on December 14, 1864. Those
who held the meeting were : 0. C. Howe, Juliet Howe, William Scott,
Jane Scott, David Palmer, Mehitable Palmer and Catherine McKenna.
For several years they worshipped in the schoolhouse. William Scott
was chosen deacon of the original organization, and held the office until
his death, September 22, 1877.
The new village made such progress within two years after it was
platted that the members of the church concluded to center their activi-
ties therein, and on June 9, 1866, the Congregational Society of Rio
was organized by electing Daniel Buchanan, William Scott, J. P. Scott,
David Palmer and 0. C. Howe, trustees. The present church building
was dedicated October 16, 1868, and the parsonage completed in 1891.
In October, 1877, Kennedy Scott succeeded his father as deacon, and,
with his wife and daughter, is active in the church work. The Con-
gregational Church is under the pastorate of Rev. R. C. Bennett, who
also has charge of the society at Wyoeena.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The Baptist Church
The Baptist Church of Rio was organized June 29, 1867, by D.
Buehauau, Mrs. Buchanan, H. Blemis, M. E. Mosher, L. H. Palmer and
wife, J. A. Eliot, Mrs. William Gaskell, N. A. Palmer and wife, Mrs.
Herring and Miss Buchanan. The organization was effected by Rev.
Nathan Wood, of Wyocena, who continued as pastor of the church for
many years. The first meetings of the church were held in the school-
house ; later in various halls and the Congregational Church. In 1873 a
building was purchased and fitted for religious purposes. The pastor
now in charge of the society is Rev. G. W. Gales.
Lutheran and Catholic Churches
There are also a flourishing Lutheran Church, whose pastor is Rev.
G. A. Sundby, and a Catholic Church in charge of Rev. Fr. Schmidt
They are both large and growing and have a strong influence for good.
The building occupied by the St. Joseph's Catholic Church was erected
in 1902.
The Reverend Sundby has charge of the Lutheran congregations both
of Rio and Bonnet Prairie. The latter, in the Town of Otsego, was organ-
ized in 1847 ; that of Rio in 1903. The Rio congregation worships in a
large, convenient and modern structure ; combined membership of the
two societies, 500.
CHAPTER XX
CAMBRIA
The Langdons Found Cambria — Arrival op First Welsh Colony —
Seeking a Location on Foot — Decide on Welsh Prairie — Fifty-
three Colonists "At Home" — Only Three Left in 1912 — Lang-
don 's Mill Becomes Bellville — Bellville Changed to Cambria —
The Schools — Welsh Organize a Musical Union — Dr. Williams,
Patron of Literature — Revival of the Ancient Eisteddfod — Post
office Established — Industries and Banks — Welsh Calvanistic
M. E. Church — The English Presbyterian Church — Evangeli-
cal Lutheran Zion's Congregation— Morris J. Rowlands.
The Village of Cambria lies mostly in the northvi^est corner of the
Tovpn of Courtland, throwing out a fragment of its northern area into
Southwestern Randolph. Since 1845 it has been the center of those
stanch, clean, moral, intellectual, industrious, musical and warm-hearted
Welshmen who settled in the northeastern part of Columbia County
and gave the people of that section a reputation for high-mindedness and
wholesoulfulness out of all proportion to their numbers. Central Wis-
consin has always been proud of its Welsh Prairie and the strong, fine-
grained people who have made their homes on it.
The Langdons Found Cambria
Preceding the first Welsh colonists by about a year were the brothers
Langdon. In 1844 they settled on the site of the present Village of
Cambria, one of them building a sawmill on a branch of Duck Creek,
the other opening a small stock of merchandise. They surveyed and
platted four blocks, and called the village Florence. But the mill loomed
considerably for those days, and the little settlement around it was
popularly called Langdon 's Mill.
286
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 287
Arrival of First Welsh Colony
The settlement had just begun when tlie half a hundred Welshmen,
with their wives and children, came upon the scene fresh from the
Highlands of North Wales. The story of their coming is well told by
a son of one of the colonists, Morris J. Rowlands, one of the advisory
editors of this history. Cambria had an enthusiastic "Home Coming,"
June 3-5, 1912, and Mr. Rowlands' story was published for the benefit
and pleasure of the visitors, most of whom are of Welsh stock.
"First of all," he wrote, "permit me to state here that, besides
liaving listened to the substance of what I have here to say narrated
from the lips of my father, who was a member of the exploring party
hereinafter named, I am principally indebted for the facts and dates
appearing in this article to reminiscences written in Welsh by my late
brother, John R. Rowlands, Jr., who was at that time an active young
man in his twentieth year, endowed with a peculiar trend of mind,
quick to comprehend and store up occurrences coming under his obser-
vation. He was considered by those who knew him to be one of the
safest authorities on the passing events of the pioneer period of Columbia
County.
"Early in the summer of 1845 several families from North Wales
met accidentally at Liverpool, England, seeking passage as immigrants
to the United States of America. On the 17th day of July they sailed
from Liverpool harbor on board a sailing vessel named the Republic,
and after a voyage of six weeks and two days arrived safely in New
York City on the 30th of August, 1845.
"Many and divers were the incidents that happened during this
long, wearisome voyage, but space will not permit us to dwell on minor
matters in this article.
"After arriving, in New York, a number of families whose male
members were quarrymen in the old country, went to the slate quarries
of New York and Vermont, but the majority of them turned their faces
'Westward,' a word taken as their motto before leaving their native
land.
"The next portion of the journey from New York to Albany was
made on a steamboat. From Buffalo they took passage over the lakes
on board of a steamboat named Wisconsin, the name possibly being the
means of drawing them to that particular boat ; for that state was their
'promised land.' After a stormy voyage on the lakes they arrived at
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the 16th day of September, where a portion of
them landed, and on the 17th at Racine, where the remainder left the
boat.
288 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Seeking a Location on Foot
"On the 24th of September, having previously agreed upon them,
Robert Closs, David D. Roberts, John R. Rowlands, Sr., Evan Edwards
and Jabez Lloj'd left their families at the places mentioned, and were
joined by E. B. AVilliams, William R. Williams, John 0. Jones and
John Edwards (single men). The party then started on foot in search
of a suitable place on which to locate, traveling westward over the east-
ern part of the state, and passing through the village of Fox Lake,
where a branch land oflfiee was located, the main Government Land
Ofifiee being then located at Green Bay. They entered into Columbia,
then called Portage County, about four miles north of the present site
of the village of Randolph, arriving foot-sore and weary on Saturday
evening, September 27th, at the shanty of Foulk Roberts on Section 12,
Township 13, Range 12, then being a part of LeRoy Precinct.
"After resting themselves over Sunday at Mr. Roberts' they con-
tinued their westward course until they came to a point on the Fox
River near the center of Section 16, Township 13, Range 11. There
they discontinued for the first time their westward course and turned
south, passing over Portage Prairie. On this path they met Samuel
McConoehie, M. W. Patten, John and Erviu McCall and John Dodge,
who were also newcomers preparing to erect cabins on their claims. Mr.
Dodge, having nearly completed his cabin, prevailed upon them to stop
with him for dinner, which was cooked and prepared by Mr. Dodge
personally and, of course, free of charge, which was characteristic of
those days.
"After dinner they kept on their southerly course, crossing the
north branch of Duck Creek about two miles west of where the village
of Cambria is now located. It is interesting to note that the site of
the village was entered on by Samuel P. Langdon, and conveyed to him
on the lith day of June, 1845; and it is also claimed and conceded
that Mrs. Jabez Lloyd, wife of one of the investigating party of that
name, late of Mankato, Minnesota, was the first white woman to step on
Cambria soil.
Decide on Welsh Prairie
"After crossing Duck Creek the party entered South Prairie, to
which they took quite a fancy, and after traveling over the land, examin-
ing the quality of the soil, locating the timber land and investigating the
source of water supply, late in the afternoon they walked up to the
highest point, which was about half a mile southwest of Zion's Church
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 289
in Springvale, and there sat down on the green grass deliberating over
the situation and comparing notes on the different localities through
which they had passed during the week. Viewing the beautiful land-
scape before them and stretching in splendor for miles in every direction
under the variable-colored rays of the setting sun, they deliberately
decided to make that locality their place of future abode, hoping that
they were thus forming a nucleus around which their countrjnueu in
the future would gather to form a Welsh colony.
Fifty-three Colonists "At Home"
"After deciding on the location, they prepared to return, calling
first at the Fox Lake land office to enter their claims. Then, returning
to their families at Milwaukee and Racine, they immediately prepared
to move onto their farms, coming over in covered emigrant wagons —
'prairie schooners' — and by the middle of October they were all on their
places, housed in what people nowadays would call 'miserable shanties,'
but to them, after their wearisome journey, they were 'comfortable
homes. ' Facing the winter of 1845-46, the settlement contained in round
numbers, including children, fifty-three persons, composed of nine fam-
ilies and seven single men.
Only Three Left in 1912
"A word on the origin of the name, Welsh Prairie, may be interest-
ing. Before leaving the spot which the exploring pai'ty decided as their
location, and in full view of the scenery before them, one of the party
suggested that the beautiful prairie lying before them should thereafter
be called Welsh Prairie ; and to this, all agreed. Hence the name, dear
to the memory of and quite a drawing card in bringing together many
of the hosts of Home Comers that visited Cambria on the 3d, 4th and
5th of July, 1912, from New York to California and from Canada to
Texas ; and now, after a lapse of sixty-seven years, out of the party of
fifty-three persons mentioned, only three of us are left to represent the
early settlers of '45 at the glorious Cambria reunion of 1912."
Langdon's Mill Becomes Bellville
In 1848 the Langdons, founders of the settlement from which sprung
the village, raised a frame for a gristmill, but they had exhausted their
means in their sawmill and store, and were unable to purchase the
290
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
necessary machinery to operate it. In the spriug of 1849 a Mr. Bell
appeared and advanced money for that purpose, taking a mortgage upon
the Langdon property as security. In consequence of nonpayment of
the debt, the property passed into his hands, and the new owner sur-
veyed and platted quite a large addition to the original site. In order
to perpetuate his name he called the village Bellville.
Mr. Bell continued to operate the mill until 1851, when he disposed
of all his holdings — not only in the mill but in the village site — to John
apJones and Evan Edwards. As Jones and Edwards were not prac-
tical millers, they employed Gabriel Williams to superintend the plant,
1111] i !j;i
New High School, Cambri.v
and under the latter 's long management the mill became one of the
best known industries of the kind in the county.
Bellville Changed to Cambria
But the new proprietors of the village, as well as the Welshmen who
had settled there, were not pleased with the name Bellville, and by them
it was changed to Cambria. But little gi-owth was attained until the
completion of the railroad through the place in 1857 ; and it has never
had a rapid development.
The Schools
As stated, although Cambria has shown no noteworthy expansion, it
has always set a high standard of morality and culture. The school
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 291
district, of which it was the center, was organized in 1847 — one of the
first in the county — and a house was built the same year on land given
by Samuel Langdon. It was built of oak lumber from Langdon's mill
and, although sadly overcrowded in the later years of its use, served
the pui-poses for which it was built until near the time when the frame
schoolhouse was built in 1861. When the village was incorporated, in
1866, the scholars were graded, and two years afterward the building
was moved to a better location on Tower Street, where an addition was
made for the primary grades. Since then other improvements have
been made, a good high school organized, and the entire local system of
education maintained at the modern standard. U. T. Cady is the
present principal.
Welsh Organize a Musical Union
The Welsh colonists brought with them the thirst for knowledge and
the determination to furnish their children with means of education;
also, their strong racial love of music. The hardy Highlanders of Wales
— the out-of-door people, who love to exercise their splendid lungs and
clear voices — found an early occasion to organize on the Welsh Prairie.
Music was cultivated from the very day in 1845 that the Welsh
settlers opened their crude, but homelike cabins, but not until 1848 did
the different settlements organize into a musical union. It was then
decided that the colonists in Columbia County should join in a grove
about eight miles north of Cambria to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Music was furnished by a large and weU-trained choir, and E. B.
Williams delivered the principal address, a philosophical discourse on
music. Other speeches were made, some of them befitting the natural
patriotism of the day.
"It is worthy of mention," says an old settler, "that this manner
of celebrating the Fourth of July became popular and much good came
of it. Every year brought some new celebrity to the platform and
more cultivation to the choir. This musical union continued to gain
ground steadily for about fifteen years, when religious revivalists claimed
the privilege to hold a prayer-meeting on the same day. The prayer-
meeting was held but once, but that was enough to break up the musical
union. Were it not for that fact, it is probable that the Fourth would
have continued to be celebrated to this day in the same manner as of old.
Dr. Williams, Patron op Literature
' ' Still nothing was done to encourage and cultivate the literary tastes
of the people until Dr. J. LI. Williams returned from Pennsylvania and
292 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
settled in Cambria in the year 1853. He was the founder, first teacher
and patron of literature among the Welsh in this part of Columbia
County. He organized literary societies in every schoolhouse, held reg-
ular weekly or bi-weekly meetings, which were well attended, especially
by the young people. Different subjects were given for competitions
in prose and verse, lectures and speeches were delivered and music in
its various forms was taught and encouraged.
• Revb'al of the Ancient Eisteddfod
' ' In the month of April, 1856, the first grand Eisteddfod ( revival of
the ancient Druidical festival) was held in the old church or chapel
called Zion, on Welsh Prairie. This was well attended by musicians,
poets, lecturers and other literary characters from all parts of the state,
and was a decided success. Not only was that particular congress of
bards and literati a success, but, by drawing out talents not previously
known to the public, it proved that there was material enough among
the Welsh population for holding such meetings in the future."
The Welsh in Columbia County have held an Eisteddfod at home,
or have joined ^vith others to hold one in some other part of the state
almost every year since 1856. The center of its musical and choral
features has always been Cambria, and this, more than ever, since the
building of its fine Music Hall in 1900.
PosTOFFicE Established
In the fall of 1852, the year after the village site had passed to
Messrs. Jones & Evans, a small store was opened by L. Richards. At
that time there was no postoffiee at ''Bellville," and Mr. Richards, as
well as the few other settlers, resented the inconvenience — not to call
it an indignity — of being obliged to go three miles for the mail. The
storekeeper asked the Government for a postofSee on the ground. The
country being thinly settled and there being two postofEices within three
miles, the department felt unwilling to create another one unless one
of the two should be suspended and the mail contractor willing to change
his route. But in the spring of 1854 the necessary arrangements were
made for an office at Cambria.
Hotels
In 1856 the first hotel was built in Cambria by Griffith & Evans.
It was burned in 1872.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
293
The Cambria Hotel was soon afterward built and opened to the
public.
Industries and Banks
The Cambria Eoller ]\lills were built in 1871, and constitute the
village's leading industry. It has a creamery, a canning factory, a
solid business street, and two good banks; evidences that the village
is the substantial center of a productive country and a substantial
people.
The oldest of the financial institutions of the village, the Bank of
Cambria, was organized in 1881 by Edward Harris, of Mineral Point.
Old Cambria Hotel (Remodeled)
M. J. Rowlands, his brother-in-law, was his partner in the grain and
lumber business. Mr. Rowlands bought the widow's interest in the
bank. Mr. Harris died in 1894, and from that year until 1903 it was
conducted by M. J. Rowlands & Son. In the latter year it was organ-
ized as a state institution, without change of proprietorship, and a con-
venient building erected for the transaction of its business. The Bank
of Cambria has a capital of $10,000, with deposits of $180,000.
The Cambria State Bank was organized September 30, 1909, has
a capital of $15,000, with surplus of $5,000, and is a substantial institu-
tion. Present officers : H. F. Schemmel, president; John Slinger, vice
president; and E. 0. Roberts, cashier.
294 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
"Welsh Calvanistic M. E. Church
The "Welsh Calvanistic Methodist Church was organized in 1853
by Rev. "William Jones with twenty-five members. Rev. John ap Jones,
a local preacher, ministered to the congregation from its organization
until June, 1857. The first services were held in the village schoolhouse,
continuing therein until the erection of the first house of worship in
1857. The church continued to wax strong in spirit and increase in
membership, and in 1890 the large structure now occupied was com-
pleted. Rev. J. 0. Parry is the present pastor.
The English Presbyterl\n Church
The English Presbyterians organized into a society in 1859, and a
church building was erected in 1860-61. The first elder was John Pea-
body, and the constituent members were ]\Irs. Peabody, Miss Peabody,
John "\''an Middleworth and wife, Sarah "^an Middleworth, Mrs. John D.
Jones and Robert Currie. Rev. Andrew Hardy was the first pastor of
the church. The membership of the English Presbyterian Church of
Cambria is nearly two hundred : Rev. D. Evans Jones, pastor in charge,
is a newcomer to the village. The society worships in a modern church
edifice, and is growing in every sense of the word.
Evangelical Lutheran Zion's Congregation
The beginning of Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church dates back to
the year 1887. In that year through the efforts of Julius Berger, Herman
Rausch, Adolph Berger and others the Rev. Charles Sund, a Lutheran
pastor residing at Markesan, was secured, some forty members in and
near the "Village of Cambria pledging themselves to support the minister
financially. As this little band of Christians did not feel strong enough
to build a church immediately, they rented the Presbyterian Church as
a place of worship. The Reverend Sund re-enforced by the Reverend
Lanzer of "Waupun, as often as the latter could disengage himself from
his regular duty, served the Cambria Lutherans for a period of two
years. In the year 1889, the neighboring "Village of Randolph had a
pastor in the person of the Rev. E. Schubarth, and thus he was engaged
by the Cambria people, services now being held with more regularity.
The Reverend Schubarth continued preaching at Cambria until 1891,
when the Rev. F. Koch became his successor. As the congregation at
Cambria had up to this time not really been organized, it was now duly
organized as Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, with Ad.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 295
Berger, Herman Rauseh, and Christhof Krienke as trustees. During
the Reverend Koch's pastorate services were also held at Pardeeville,
with the result that a congregation was soon called into life at that place.
The services were at first held in a school building a few miles out of
Pardeeville, commonly called the ' ' slab schoolhouse, ' ' until several years
later a church was erected in the village.
In the year 1894, the Presbyterians at Cambria decided to build a
new church and offered their church property for sale. The Lutheran
congregation availed itself of this opportunity by purchasing this prop-
erty at a reasonable price. As this church was rather large for the con-
gregation a partition was built at one end, the portion cut off by the
partition forming a schoolroom. This space has ever since served as
a schoolroom, the different pastors making it their duty to teach the
children of the congregation and give religious instructions to the cate-
chumens in preparation for their confirmation.
When the Reverend Koch discontinued his work at Randolph in the
year 1898 in order to resume it at a different place, the congregations of
Cambria and Pardeeville felt strong enough to retain a pastor of their
own, and thus the Reverend Biedenweg became the first resident pastor of
Cambria. The Reverend Biedenweg began preaching at Doylestown also,
and a congregation was formed there. He served the congregations
for a year only, being forced by ill health to retire from service. The
Rev. H. Brockmann became his successor, being installed at Cambria
in 1899.
Up to this time the congregation had been renting a house for their
pastor, but during the Reverend Brockmann 's pastorate a house was pur-
chased by the congregation which has served as a parsonage ever since.
When the Rev. H. Brockmann in 1902 accepted a call to Beaver Dam,
the congregation secured the Rev. Beno Gladosch who, however,
remained barely a year, going to Pox Point to become the assistant of
his father-in-law, the Reverend Reuschel. The successor of the Reverend
Gladosch was the Rev. A. Ph. Pankow, who remained at Cambria for
seven years. During his stay here the parsonage was enlarged. As the
congregation at Doylestown, together with a congregation at Fountain
Prairie, was by this time supporting a minister of its own, the Reverend
Pankow was able to center his work on the congregations at Cambria and
Pardeeville. In 1910 the Reverend Pankow accepted a call to Cam-
bridge, Wisconsin. The congregations at Cambria and Pardeeville were
now without a pastor for about a year the Revs. Haase of Randolph and
0. Koch of Columbus filling the vacancy as best they could.
In May, 1911, the Rev. L. C. Kirst took charge of the congregations
at Cambria and Pardeeville, coming to Cambria from Tomahawk, Wiscon-
296 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
sin. During the last years the congregations have had a steady growth,
owing to the large number of German Lutherans settling in this vicinity.
Zion's congregation at Cambria has recently renovated the church and
remodeled the parsonage, while St. John's at Pardeeville is at present
writing, building a spacious schoolhouse. Ziou's congregation has at
present forty-nine voting members and 173 communicating members,
while St. John's at Pardeeville counts fifty-si.\ voting members and
161 communicating members. About a year ago English work was
taken up in both congregations with English preaching services ouce a
month. With these services so well attended, and seeing that the Eng-
lish work had become a necessity, the eougi-egation at Cambria decided
to have one German service omitted every month in favor of an Eng-
lish service. Both congregations have recently joined the Evangelical
Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin and other states, a church body forming
part of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North
America, which has a membership of over a million souls.
JIoREis J. Rowlands
The interesting article entitled "Advent of the First Settlers of Welsh
Prairie and Cambria, "' was prepared and contributed by ilorris J.
Rowlands. As a representative of that fine Welsh element that has been
so conspicuous in the development of Columbia County, and as one of
the most influential citizens and bankers of Cambria and vicinity, it is
appropriate that some specific mention of his family and himself should
be contained in this work.
His parents were John R. and Jane (Closs) Rowlands, both natives
of Carnarvon Shire, Wales. In the summer of 1845, they emigrated to
America with a family of seven children, whose names were John R., Jr.,
Robert J., Humphrey J., Owen J., Miss Ellen, Dorothy Jane and M. J.
Rowlands. As they were among the first settlers in the Town of Spring-
vale, then called Leroy Precinct, while Wisconsin was still under ter-
ritorial government, the important incidents of their coming are related
in the article above referred td. A patent still on record, given by
President James K. Polk to John R. Rowlands, shows that the father
on his arrival bought the south half of Section 10 and the north half
of Section 15 in Town 12 north, Range 11 east, and at once began farm-
ing. In his native country he had followed the occupation of quarry-
man, and therefore was at a distinct disadvantage in adapting himself
to the untried calling of a farmer, and his own inexperience was the
greater handicap because he could find no experienced farmer in that
sparsely settled region to consult with. However, his industry, his
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 297
progressive trend of mind, and his enthusiasm enabled him to make a
fair success, and he contrived to prosper. At the same time he was very-
active in the organization of the new settlement, and it is noteworthy
that his name appeared at the head of the list of those who took out
their naturalization papers in Columbia County in the fall of 1845.
He also lent a willing hand to the newcomers who followed him to this
pioneer district, John R. Rowlands was one of the fine factors in
organizing the first church society in his precinct, and in building the
first church in the northeastern part of Columbia County, known as
"Sion" church. He served as its deacon for many years. A man of
great industry, leading a quiet, sober life, he continued that character
up to his old age, and passed away at Cambria, January 19, 1883, in
his eighty-fourth year. His kind and faithful wife had preceded him
to the grave thirteen years, on September 21, 1869.
Morris J. Rowlands, who was a small boy when the family emi-
grated to this country, was born in Wales, July 4, 1840. With the
example of his father, and his older brothers before him, he took up
farming as his first vocation, and a few years after reaching manhood
established a home of his own by his marriage on December 21, 1866,
to iliss Catherine Owens. She was born in Wales, April 25, 1842, the
youngest daugliter of David and Jane Owens. The Owens family emi-
grated to America in 1847, there being ten children, six sons and four
daughters. David Owens, who had engaged in the sheep industry in
his native land, had accumulated more wealth than the average emi-
grant of that time, and on his arrival in the Town of Springvale took
up about six hundred and eighty aicres of land, in Sections 14, 2.3 and
36. By his own management, with the help of his sons and such as
he was able to hire, he developed a splendid farm, and became one of
the most substantial men of the county. At the age of sixty-four David
Owens died, leaving behind him a record not only of individual pros-
perity, but of long continued service as a friend to the poor and needy.
His good wife followed him. in "March, 1875. Between the influential
families of the Rowlands and the Owens subsist many intimate ties not
only of marriage but of community and religious co-operation. Previous
to the marriage of Morris J. Rowlands and Catherine Owens there had
been two other marriages contracted between members of the two fam-
ilies. The first, celebrated in April, 1853, was between John R. Row-
lands, Jr. and Owen Owens. The second took place in January, 1864,
between David D. Owens and Miss Dorothy Jane Rowlands.
After twenty years of married life on the farm, Mr. Rowland's son
David M., having entered commercial college at Milwaukee, the father
and mother moved to the Town of Cambria, where he engaged in a part-
nership with his brother-in-law, Edward Harris, in the grain and lumber
298 HISTORY OF COLOIBIA COUNTY
Mr. Harris, who was the proprietor and organizer of the
Bank of Cambria, died six years later, and Mr. Rowlands then bought
the interests of his sister, Jlrs. Harris, iu the bank, and took an active
part iu the management of that institution, which was established more
than thirty years ago. His son, David M. Rowlands, had been cashier
of the bank while it was in the possession of his uncle, and the father
and sou have since continued this management, M. J. Rowlands as presi-
dent, and D. M. Rowlands as cashier. The bank was organized under
the state law in 1903. Its record deserves some comment. During the
panic of 1907, when most of the banking institutions of the state had
to avail themselves of the protection of sixty days" notice to depositors,
the Bank of Cambria did hot iu a single instance refuse payment of a
draft, deposit or any other commercial paper presented over its counter.
Among the varied possessions acquired and retained by Mr. Row-
lands is the old homestead on which his father first settled on coming
to this country, and its ownership he regards as something sacred and
intends to keep it under the management of the family for at least a
few generations to come, thus carrying out what had been a cherished
wish of his pioneer father.
Mr. M. J. Rowlands has actively identified himself with the affairs
of his locality, occupied the offiee of town clerk of Spring\'ale and clerk
of the Town of Courtland, altogether about fifteen years, was a member
of the county board ten years and was president of the Village of Cam-
bria, when it was reorganized under state charter. In his love for and
interest in music Mr. Rowlands manifests a talent somewhat peculiar
to his people. When he was eighteen years old he was elected leader
of the church choir, and with others was incidental in organizing the
Welsh Musical Union of Wisconsin, of which he served as secretary for
many years and also as one of its conductors. His choir was successful
in winning several of the prizes awarded at the Welsh Eisteddfod. From
childhood he has been a member of the W. C. M. Church, and affiliates
with the Masonic, Order.
Of the three sons born to Mr. Rowlands, two died in infancy. D. M.
Rowlands, the oldest of the children, has for some years been in part-
nership with his father in all his enterprises, and at the present time
bears the heaviest part of the responsibility, acting as vice president
and cashier of the bank, superintending the farm, and giviug much of
his attention to the breeding and raising of thorough-bred live stock,
of which he has a line of fine Red Poll cattle and Hampshire hogs.
D. M. Rowlands was married July 6, 1898, to Miss Emma Davies,
daughter of Edwin and Jane Davies of Cambria. To this union have
been born two sons: Morris J. Rowlands. Jr., born July 21, 1899; and
Edwin Myrwin Rowlands, bom April 1, 1901.
CHAPTER XXI
POYNETTE
Village of Today — Its Naming, a Mistake — Judge Doty Intended
"Pauqubtte" — Village Platted — Poynette in 1855 — First
School — Crusty Bachelors Withhold Tax — First Preaching —
The Times that Tried Men and Women — The Jamieson Family —
POYNETTE as A FlOUR CenTER RIVALRY OF THE "SiDEs" ThE
Grain Trade — Bank of Poynette — School History — The
Churches — The Methodists Organize — Rev. John M. Springer,
Wab Hero — The Presbyterian Church — The Lutherans and
Catholics.
The little Village of Poynette in the southwestern part of Columbia
County is a station on the Southern Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Pavil Railroad. Its location is also on Rowan's Creek, a water-
power stream tributary to the Wisconsin River.
Village of Today
It is the banking and trading center of a prosperous agi'ieultural
field, and you therefore find there such establishments as a creamery, feed
mill and sorghum factor.v, grain elevator and salting station for cucum-
ber pickles. Poynette has also several produce houses, a lumber yard
and a flourishing bank, and is the headquarters of quite a telephone
system, which is of great convenience to the villagers and to the farmers
for miles around. The village has a good gi-aded school and an adequate
system of waterworks. It has a number of churches representative of
both faiths and nationalities; so that altogether the community has no
need to look elsewhere to satisfy its material, educational or spiritual
needs.
299
300 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Its Naming, a Mistake
The naming of the Village of Poynette was rather an unfortunate mis-
take. As Rowan's Creek perpetuated the name of the county's first
permanent settler, it was the intention of the pioneers that Pauquette,
the widely known fur trader and interpreter at the portage, should be
remembered in the christening of this village on Rowan's Creek; but
fate decreed that it should receive a meaningless name.
Judge Doty Intended ' ' Pauquette ' '
James Duane Doty, who was to become governor of the territory in
1841, entered 120 acres of land in the Southeast Quarter of Section 34,
Township 11, Range 9, on the 8th of February, 1837, and caused it to
be laid out as the Village of Pauquette. In the earlier years the intelli-
gent and faithful trader was a warm friend of the able and enterprising
governor. But the following year after the village was platted Mr. Doty
was elected to Congress, and his long after career of public service tended
to divert his mind from such minor affairs as the village-to-be on Rowan 's
Creek. The plat was therefore vacated.
About the year 1850, application was made by Mr. Doty to the post-
office department for the establishment of a postoffice at that point, to
be called Pauquette. Through a clerical error it was called Poynette.
No effort was ever made to correct the name, and when the village was
again platted it was called Poynette, after the postoffice.
Village Platted
In 18.51 Sanuiel B, Piiiney made the first plat of the village, which
comprised the Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section
34. Shortly thereafter he transferred it to John Thomas.
Poynette in 1855
One of the residents of Poynette No. 2, writing about 1880, thus pic-
tures the village as it was a few years after Mr. Pinney had passed it
over to Mr. Thomas. ' ' There were about a dozen inhabitants in the vil-
lage of Poynette twenty-five years ago and four dwelling houses, includ-
ing the public house kept by Hugh Jamieson," he saj^s. "S. B. Thomas
who kept the postoffice (John Thomas was the postmaster), Hubbard
Johnson and Hugh Jamieson — the latter just married and occupying one
apartment of a double log house, while the other served as a schoolroom.
It was Poynette 's first school.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 301
First School
"The inhabitants contemplated building a schoolhouse, and in order
to draw the public money they had to have a school ; so they taxed the
inhabitants to raise money to pay a teacher, for whose services they paid
six dollars per month. For something to eat the teacher walked home
with her scholars, sometimes two or three miles out in the country; for
Poynette was a village (why not?) with hotel, postoffice, and black-
smith shop. I used to hear people say that Poynette would be as large
as Portage City some day.
Crusty Bachelors Withhold T.vx
"The school numbered twenty-four scholars, but twelve or fifteen
was the usual attendance. An old bachelor refused to pay his tax for
the reason he had no children to send to school. Another (not an old
bachelor) withheld a portion of his tax, claiming that a certain young
man who was paying his addresses to the teacher owed him. He was
holding on to see how matters progressed ; if they married he was going
to turn it in, and if not he v.'ould pay the teacher some time. Of the
scholars only two are now residents of Poynette — Courtland Brown and
John Wilson. Of the rest, some have died, some are in Iowa, some in
Minnesota, some in Missouri and one in New York — now a Methodist
minister.
"I remember a snow storm the 11th of June. As I was on my way
to school, I saw a man in the field near the roadside planting corn, with
overcoat and mittens on. The same was Hugh Jamieson. When I arrived
at the schoolhouse the scholars were there ; and as most of them were bare-
footed and there was no fire in the schoolroom, they had to go home and
wait for fair weather. The house was built by Wallace Rowan and, since
vacated, has served for the purposes of a drygoods store, postoffice, school-
house and meeting house.
First Preaching
"A Mr. Cornell, a Baptist minister, used to come to Poynette. He
usually sent an appointment to preach on the Sabbath. Of the dozen
inhabitants, no two held the same faith or belonged to the same order.
Mrs. Johnson was the only Methodist.
" H. P. Jamieson was the first white child bom in the village of Poy-
nette. Mr. Thomas was postmaster, and the mail matter was kept in
an old tool chest in one corner of the kitchen.
302 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
The Times that Tried IVIen and Women
"It is a difficult matter for the youth of the present day to under-
stand that at the time of which I write, the fleet-footed deer and the wily
prairie wolf might occasionally be seen where the iron horse now plunges
along, heavily laden with the products of a country which then scarcely
furnished more than the inhabitants required for immediate use; for
scarcely a foot of land on the prairie south of our now prosperous and
flourishing village was under cultivation, except a very few pieces adjoin-
ing the timber. If, however, they had a few bushels of grain to spare
which they wished to convert into cash, they hauled it to Milwaukee, a
distance of more than a hundred miles. This journey was usually per-
formed with oxen, taking from eight to twelve and sometimes fifteen
days, to make the round trip. In those days men had many disagreeable
duties to perform emd, knowing this, they nerved themselves to the task
and went at it with a will and determination to succeed."
The Jamieson Family
There is no family which has been so prominent since the founding
of Poynette to the present time as that of the Jamiesons — (Hugh and his
sons, Hugh P., Addison J., and John C. The father was the prince of
hotel keepers, being, at times, proprietor of the old Rowan Hotel, the
Poynette House (which he erected himself in 1856), and the American
House. The sons mentioned, who were all born in the village, own and
manage its bank and its leading house dealing in grain, lumber, build-
ing materials, farm machinery, etc. ; in fact, they represent the largest
financial and business interests of the place. In this connection, we are
pleased to state that following this chapter is a very interesting and
strictly authentic story from the pen of Hugh Jamieson, which not only
deals with Poynette and vicinity, but with a more extended territory
in Southern Wisconsin, over which he traveled in the daj's of his young
and vigorous manhood. This fine old pioneer took vigorous exception
to the assertion, generally accepted as history, that Wallace Rowan
was the county's first permanent settler; and the reader is referred to
his paper for the grounds of his claim.
Poynette as a Flour Center
For a number of years Poynette was quite a flour center, the Lower
Mills being erected in 1858 and the Upper Mill in 1860. The Lower Mills
especially had a large local trade and were well patronized by the farm-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 303
ing community. But tlie coming of the railroad in 1870, although it
stimulated business in many ways, had the effect of bringing better
brands of flour to the village than could be supplied by the local plants.
The Madison & Portage Railroad was completed to Poynette in October,
1870; this is now the Southern Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul.
Rivalry of the "Sides"
Until that time the growth of the village was quite slow ; its popula-
tion had not reached more than one hundred and fifty inhabitants, and
its business was all upon the south side of Rowan's Creek, with the
exception of Jamieson's Hotel.
The Grain Trade
On the completion of the railroad R. B. Wentworth & Company, of
Portage, built a small warehouse and for two seasons purchased grain
at Poynette. In the summer of 1871, Hugh Jamieson erected what was
then a large elevator, with a storage capacity of 12,000 bushels and com-
menced the business of buying and shipping. He continued the busi-
ness for seven years, withdrawing in 1878 in favor of his son, H. P. Jamie-
son and W. C. Gault. Thus was founded the business now conducted
on a much enlarged scale, by the Jamieson Brothers' Company, which
was incorporated in 1909 and is an outgrowth of the firm Jamieson
Brothers, formed in 1890.
Bank op Poynette
The Bank of Poynette was established in 1894, as a private institution
by the Jamieson Brothers — H. P., A. J. and J. C. In 1903, under the
general law, it was incorporated as a state bank, and in 1908 its capital
stock was increased from $6,000 to .$10,000. Its capital remains the
same ; undivided profits about five thousands dollars, and deposits,
$194,000.
School History
In 1852, a school district was formed comprising Sections 34 and 35,
TowTi of De Korra, and Sections 2 and 3, and North Quarter of 10 and
11, Arlington, which was c.alled Joint District No. 4 of the towns of
De Korra and Arlington. A one-story frame schoolhouse was built half
304 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
a miles south of the VUlage of Poynette, which was used until 1867,
when it became too small for the needs of the community. A room was
rented in the village for the higher department, the primary alone occu-
pying the schoolroom. In the fall of 1867, a large two-story schoolhouse
was erected and occupied by the high school and the grammar grades
jointly. William Koepke is now principal of the well organized Union
School of Poynette.
The Churches
The ilethodists, Presbyterians, German Lutherans and Catholics have
societies at Poynette. The M. E. Church is the oldest and the strongest.
The Methodist-s Org.ustize
Before the platting of the second village in 1851, the few Methodists
at and near the present site of Poynette had listened to Rev. Henry May-
nard, at the house of A. Johnson. This was about 1846, soon after Lodi
and Poj-nette had been set off from the Madison Circuit. Mr. Maynard
afterward preached regularly at the house of Clark M. Young, a short
distance from the village. In 1853, Poynette was separated from Lodi;
for some years thereafter religious services were conducted in the school-
house. The membership increased so rapidly that by 1860, it had reached
180. most of the attendance, of course, being drawn from territory ou1>
side the village, and about 1862, a neat and commodious house of worship
was erected.
Rev. John M. Springer, "War Hero
From the fall of 1862 until the summer of 1863, the pulpit of the
Methodist Church was filled by Rev. John M. Springer. He was drafted
for military service, and appointed chaplain of his regiment. While fill-
ing that position at the battle of Resaea. the captain and first and second
lieutenants of his company fell, when he seized a musket and led on the
charge. He was soon mortally wounded and carried from the field, say-
ing in his last moments to Charles Early, a comrade, "I have lived what
I preached in our northern home, and die in the favor of God." No
pastor of that church is more revered than Rev. John M. Springer.
About 1875, the church building was moved from the present site of
the Catholic Church to the location it now occupies, and greatly improved.
Among its later pastors who have been especially prominent in the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 305
upbuilding of the church was Eev. J. W. Barrett, who occupied the
pulpit for five years. The Methodist Episcopal Church has now a mem-
bership of over one hundred and ninety, with Rev. D. H. Fleet as pastor.
The Presbyterian Church
On April 24, 1867, a committee appointed by the Presbytery of Colum-
bus, consisting of Revs. Warren Mays and James A. Lowrie and Elder
John B. Dwinnell, visited Poynette in company with Rev. B. G. Riley,
district secretary of Home Missions, and Rev. A. G. Dunning, for the pur-
pose of organizing a ichurch. An organization was effected by Augustus
P. Smith, Caroline A. Smith, Augustus 0. Dole, Sarah E. Dole, Harvey
J. Sill, Miranda M. Sill, Adaline Youmans, John Watson, Elizabeth Wat-
son, John Forsythe, Margaret Forsythe, Mrs. Jeannet Campbell and Mrs.
Agnes Campbell. In January, 1874, a church edifice was completed.
The longest service in the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of Poy-
nette was that of Rev. William L. Green, D. D., who was in charge from
1882 to 1898. It was during the second year of his pastorate that the
Poynette Presbyterian Academy was established. The present member-
ship of the church, in charge of Rev. C. L. Richards, is about ninety.
The Lutheeans and Catholics
Rev. Martin Mencke is the pastor of the German Lutheran Church,
and the Catholics are served by Rev. Joseph Gabriels, assistant to Rev.
John Morrissey, of St. Mary's Parish, Portage.
CHAPTER XXII
AN OLD SETTLER'S ME.MOIRS
Hugh Jamieson's Youth in Scotland — Booked for America — The
Route to Columbia County — Arrives at the Site of Poynette —
Prices and Taxes in the "iOs — Teaming Over Southern Wiscon-
sin— The Railroads — Commences to Improve Land in 1850 —
Pr.\ibie Fires — Breaking Up the Land — Pioneer Plow for Heavy
Work — First Land Entered in the County — Gets Curious about
Miss Thomas — Married by Squire Curtis — The Thomas Family —
Union School and Church — Rowan Was Not First Settler —
Purchases a Hotel — First Village Plat op Poynette — School
District of 1852 — An Important Year — Why the Hotel Paid
Well — Buys ]\Iore Land — Railroad from Madison to Portage —
A Boom for Poynette — Completes New and Larger Hotel — Rail-
road Work Cease? — Yet Local Improvements Progress — Admitted
to Citizenship — Plats Jamieson's Addition — Rivalry of North
AND South Sides — War Times in the County — Securing Volun-
teers for the Union — Railroad Projects (1861-62) — Labor and
Crops in War Times — Chairman of the Board Again — Railroad
Work Resumed — Sugar River Valley Railroad Sold — Improve-
ment OF South Poynette — Fall of Richmond Celebrated —
Decline of War Prices — Local Improvements after the War —
Health Failing — Sixteen Years a Hotel Keeper — Again De-
feated by Mr. Turner — Formation of the Madison & Portage
Railroad — Town Votes Aid to the Road — The Meeting at ilAoi-
SON — "Old Beeswax" and George B. Smith — "Jack of Clltbs"
Sustained — Gener.al Store for Railroad Men — Transfer of Town
Bonds for Railroad Stock — Bond Question Traced to the End —
"Old Beeswax" Got There — Establishes Grain Business —
Cheese Factory Established — Business Passes to Jamieson
(H. p.) & Gault (W. O— Farm Machinery and Supplies—
Justly Proud of His Homestead — Retrospect in 1883 — His Re-
ligious Creed — Good Family Stock — Mr. Jamieson's Death.
Hugh Jamieson bought land in the town of De Korra in 1849, and
from 1851 was a permanent resident of Poynette and vicinity. Besides
306
^ 1^
•^Y^^^*4^»^-^-^>-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 307
being a pioneer, he was a man of more than ordinary prominence in
connection with the life and ai¥airs of his locality. Among his impor-
tant services to Columbia County was the writing, during his leisure
hours in a period of semi-invalidism in 1881-82, of a manuscript of
about three hundred and fifty pages, relating the story of his own life
in Scotland and Wisconsin, and many incidental facts and events con-
nected with contemporary affaii'S of the counties in which he lived.
In style he reminds one of Robert Louis Stevenson, and interspersed
in his simple relation of the events which revolved about his career are
many philosophical episodes, which give his memoirs a charm and in-
struction above those of any which it has been the fortune of the
present editor to read. The entire manuscript is of course too long
for publication here, but that portion dealing with his life in Columbia
County is probably the best available account of the times, especially aU
that concerns the founding and early history of Poynette. The follow-
ing is therefore an abstract of those memoirs condensed and edited ap-
propriately for publication as a chapter of this history of Columbia
County.
Hugh Jamieson's Youth in Scotland
Hugh Jamieson was bom at Underbill, Parish of Loudon, Ayrshire,
Scotland, May 15, 1829. His father Hugh soon moved to a manufac-
turing village named Newmilns, where he died when Hugh, Jr. was two
years old. The mother, Janet Pindlay, a daughter of John, was left
with four children, John and Hugh, and Janet and Agnes, all of whom
became residents of Wisconsin, and were living at the time the memoirs
were written in the early '80s — John in Rock County, and the rest in
Columbia County. Three other children died in infancy.
In the picturesque valley of the Irvine where NewmiLns lay, beneath
the lofty Loudon hill, in a land celebrated by Robert Burns, Hugh
Jamieson grew from infancy through boyhood. When about five years
old he was first sent to school, with his "A B C board" suspended by a
string around his neck. In school he soon learned the use of the "taws"
as the leather strap, ending in lashes, and employed for punishment,
was called. There were few holidays. The dominie's presents of
whiskey, rum, or brandy, among other gifts to the scholars, were a
feature of that school experience which will strike Americans as the
strangest contrast between the Scotch education of that time and our
stricter American morality. Three years later he went to another school,
where he made good progress and began the study of Latin at the age
of ten. Mr. Jamieson claims that the methods and results of instrue-
308 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
tions were not so far behind those of modem days as some people sup-
pose. In that second school he attended four years, except for a few
months of service as "the drawboy" in a weaving shop or "loomstead, "
conducted by Robert Wilson, who married the older Jamieson daughter.
At the age of twelve, Hugh got restless and wanted to earn his
own support. His mother finally yielded, and he was bound for three
years' apprenticeship at the weaver trade with his brother-in-law. He
had his disappointments over his frequent failures at expertness of
the regular artisan, and would gladly have annulled the contract, but
in time was in a fair way to become a tolerable good weaver. His work
hours were from six or seven in the morning, until eight or nine in the
evening, with little time for meals. During that experience he learned
much from association with and as an auditor to the weavers in their
discussions of politics and other current questions. Though able to earn
good wages by the end of his apprenticeship, he detested the trade and
gladly accepted employment under a former captain of the British
army, a very ugly tempered man, whose service by no means proved
congenial. At the end of his first term he found an excuse for declin-
ing re-employment, saying he hoped to go to America with his brother
John, who had recently returned from that country. When he sug-
gested to his employer the possibility of leaving Scotland for America,
the latter exclaimed with an oath ! "Go to America ! Do you know what
the Americans are? They are nothing but a lot of cutthroats and
thieves, that ran away from this country and other countries in Europe
to escape hanging or other punishments that would have been inflicted
upon them if they had not left." Despite this opinion, Hugh Jamieson
held to his determination to leave his first place of employment, but
instead of going to America, he attended the Kilmarnock Fair, where
employers and employees met and arranged terms of service for the
following six months. Hugh engaged with a farmer near Kilmarnock,
at wages of four pounds sterling and board and washing. He was then
between fifteen and sixteen years of age. His work was chiefly the
delivering of milk to a route of customers, and he states that the training
in system and order acquired during that time proved very valuable in
his later business career. His service was continued two terms, and
he then engaged for six months at a less home-like place, also as a milk
seller. Toward the close of the last term he spent a few days in Glas-
gow, and secured work in a spirit shop at six shillings a week. A change
was soon made to another similar shop, where he stayed some eight
months. The employment was not congenial and during that period he
witnessed many hard scenes and saw much of the coarser side of life.
Mr. Jamieson then opened a spirit shop of his own, his brother taking
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 309
a half interest. At the end of four or five months, his shop was fairly
prospering, and as it required only one person to manage it, Hugh then
took employment with a victualing and provision store. That was in
the fall of 1847. The following winter was one of great scarcity, and
was marked by many troubles and riots in Glasgow.
Booked for America
Early in the next spring, John Jamieson once more turned his atten-
tion toward the United States, and secured passage on a boat sailing from
Glasgow, April 15th. This caused Hugh Jamieson to resume the liquor
business as proprietor and manager. A few days later an opportunity to
sell was presented and accepted, and while he was negotiating for an-
other location, an evening was spent in company with some people pre-
paring to go abroad on the same vessel as his brother. One of the ladies
inquired, why he too did not accompany his brother. His reply was
that he had given the subject no thought, but the succeeding night his.
mind was so filled with the matter that he had little sleep. In the morn-
ing he decided that if a passage could be secured he would go with his
brother. A visit to the company's office resulted in his being booked,
and thus one of those momentous problems in an individual career was
solved and all his subsequent life given an entirely new direction.
The Route to Columbia County
He had not yet reached his nineteenth birthday. Youthful emo-
tions are strong, if not persistent, and it was with a heavy heart he re-
visited the home of his boyhood and took farewell of old friends and
associations. Especially trying was his separation from his mother and
sisters, who came to Glasgow to see him off. Then the good ship "ilar-
garet" of Greenock bore him away towards the new western world. A
stormy voyage of thirty-one days brought the ship to New York.
Friends and relatives of the Jamieson brothers had already found homes
in the then very young state of Wisconsin. That western frontier
country was also their destination. A steamboat took them up the Hud-
son river to Albany, where they entered upon their journey by boat
through the Erie canal to Buffalo. At Buffalo they embarked on the
' ' Queen City, ' ' then making her first regular trip up the lakes, four days
later arriving in Milwaukee. Two farmers who had brought wheat to
the city carried the travelers toward Whitewater, in which vicinity
their uncle then lived. Two days then brought them to Whitewater.
In a short time Hugh Jamieson hired out to a farmer in the neighbor-
hood. It was a lonesome contrast between the busy city of Glasgow and
310 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the lonely cornfield in which he began his Wisconsin career. His work
for Mr. Sloeum lasted three months, chiefly in the heavy harvest sea-
sou, when cradles and scythes were the only implements, and his wages
for that time was thirty-four dollars. However, owing to the scarcity
of ready money, and the difficulty for transportation of product, these
wages were dela.yed a long time, and in various parts of his early nar-
rative I\Ir. Jamieson proved the difficulties which beset all the early
settlers in Wisconsin who had little or no money themselves, and were
only at long intervals to get a meagre supply by taking their products
over the rough roads to the lake ports. The next winter, buj-ing some
oxen, he got out logs for a sawmill.
During the spring of 1849 Mr. Jamieson 's two sisters and their hus-
bands arrived at Whitewater. Mr. Jamieson and his brother-in-law,
Robert Wilson, then started north to hunt some land for the latter.
James Paton, whom they had known in Scotland, was then living in
the town of De Korra in Columbia County, and him they determined
to visit.
Arrives at Site op Poynette
This brings the narrative flithin the scope of Columbia county, and
hence forward direct quotations wherever practicable will continue the
storj^ of this pioneer. "Our .iourney was made on foot, and some time
in the fore part of July we i-eached Mr. Raton's on the second day about
noon, having traveled sixty miles in a day and a half. Here we found
Mr. Hugh Sloan, who with Mr. Paton showed us what land they knew
of that was for sale in their vicinity. The northeast quarter of section
thirty-four, to\raship eleven, range nine, where a part of the village
of Poynette now stands, was at that time unoccupied. It belonged,
however, to the heirs of Alexander Seymour Hoey. " After a consid-
erable delay thev effected the purchase of this one hundred and sixty
acres at a price of three hundred and twenty dollars, being two dollars
■ an acre, and then returned to Whitewater, where Hugh Jamieson com-
pleted his harvesting. By the sale of his grain, after it was taken to
Milwaukee, he had about one hundred and sixty dollars in capital,
enough to buy a ffood team of horses at that time. To buy horses he
and a companion went across country to Chicago and took a boat to
New Buffalo, and thence to Laporte, in Indiana. There he secured a
team for one hundred and fifty dollars. His intention was to engage
in teaming, hauling grain to lake ports, returning with merchandise
for the local merchants, and also giving transportation service to immi-
grants and their families moving into Wisconsin. In the course of the
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 311
winter of 1849-50 Mr. Jamieson made several trips to Portage, where
he loaded with lumber, then cheap, and hauled it back to the neighbor-
hood of Whitewater.
Prices and Taxes in the '40s
"Pork was also cheap in those days. I have bought it as low as $2.50
per hundred pounds in the carcass, sometimes I found wheat to haul
from Dekorra or near there. The price paid for hauling wheat from
Dekorra to Milwaukee at that time was from thirty to thirty-five cents
per bushel, and when wheat brought eighty to eightj'-five cents per
bushel in Milwaukee, so that it netted the farmers and merchants who
sent it fifty cents per bushel, they were generally well satisfied. This
price, however, 'was seldom attained unless the wheat was a very choice
article. I have hauled wheat from the vicinity of Whitewater to Mil-
waukee, and sold it for forty-eight cents per bushel about that time,
but it was not a number one article, and after paying twenty cents for
hauling, the farmer had but little left. Still such prices were not at all
uncommon in those days. At this time taxes were very light, however,
which was some help to the farmer. The first tax I paid in Columbia
County was for the year 1848. This year's taxes should have been paid
by the party from whom I purchased the land, as I made the purchase
in 1849, but it had not been paid by them, and I found when I came to
pay my taxes for the year following that the taxes on my eighty acres
■which was the east half of the northeast quarter of section thirty-four,
township eleven, range nine, was two dollars and thirty cents for the
year 1848, and two dollai*s and seventy-four cents for the year
following. ' '
Teaming over Southern Wisconsin
The experiences of Mr. Jamieson while teaming over all this south-
ern Wisconsin country were marked by many interesting incidents, but
only brief quotations can be made. The following throws some light
on the early conditions of society along the well traveled highways and
especially concerning the discussions and social habits which marked the
old-time houses of entertainment. "The bar-room of a country hotel
in those days was rather an interesting place, and on most public thor-
oughfares and roads leading to the principal market was in the even-
ings generally crowded with men from nearly all parts of both Europe
and America, and many a good joke was played upon the innocent and
unsuspecting stranger if he happened to venture any remark whereby
it could be inferred that he thought he knew a little more than those
312 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
around him. The eastern man, as he was termed, was very apt to fall
into this error, for in his opinion, the habits, manners and customs of
the western people were borrowed from the East, which to a certain
extent were perfectly correct, and while the western man was perhaps
M'illiug to admit this, he could not admit that those who had iirst left
the eastern states and came West were in any way inferior to those
who remained behind him, or followed him a few years after. In the
bar-rooms everything^ was discussed, politics, religion and agriculture
being the leading topics ; no question whatever of any importance could
arise, however, but what was thoroughly ventilated and keenly criti-
cised. I have heard some very able arguments made in those bar-
rooms, and although perhaps in some instances, they were not of a very
refined character, in general there was something to be learned and
many good points were made during their continuance."
The Railroads
That was an era when considerable railroad building was being done
in "Wisconsin and throughout the United States, but many more roads
were built on paper than on the ground. Mr. Jamieson's narrative
throws much light on the attitude of the people towards railroads, but
the following brief quotation is all that can be taken from the half
dozen pages or more which he devoted to the subject. "In the early
days of railroading in Wisconsin, a great many people were Cjuite con-
fident that i-ailroads would prove a great drawback to the eoimtry. It
was claimed that the market for coarse grains would be totally destroyed,
and that after they were completed both man and beast would be left
without anything to do. And to see the enormous amount of traffic
in marketing grain, which was then all done by horses and oxen (the
latter being very extensivel.y used in hauling lead from the lead mines
in the southwestern part of the state to Milwaukee), it did seem as
though their fears were likely to be realized. Notwithstanding those
sayings and the fears of many, railroads continued to be built, and who
at that time dreamt of the magnitude these railroads were destined in
a few short years to assume, and which undoubtedly far exceeded the
most sanguine expectations of their most earnest advocates At a time
when the carrying trade of the country was all done by horses and
oxen, it would seem as though accidents resulting in loss of life should
be almost entirely unknown ; such, however, was not the case. ]\Iany
a very serious accident occurred and quite a number resulted fatallj'. "
Commences to Improve Land in 1850
Mr. Jamieson's regular work as a teamster continued until the
winter of 1850-51. T^p to that time he had done nothing of any conse-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 313
quence for the improvement of his land in Columbia County. "I now
determined to make some improvements and prepare a home, so it might
be ready in case I should come to require one. I accordingly disposed
of this team and purchased a younger one, and a yoke of oxen, and with
axe, beetle, and wedges proceeded cutting timber and splitting rails
for fencing purposes, with as much energy or vim as the veritable old
Abe himself or any other rail-splitter probably ever possessed. It was
hard work, however, and I soon found that out, but there was no help
for it. The work must be done or the land would remain as it had done
for centuries, perhaps, very beautiful indeed, but yielding nothing
toward the payment of taxes or affording support for its owner. . . .
During the latter part of the winter, I succeeded in preparing quite
a number of rails and had them hauled onto the ground ready for mak-
ing fence when I should require it. In the spring I had some ten acres
prepared for breaking up, and in the latter part of May and first of
June, I got about six acres broke or ploughed, and planted some of it
to sod corn. This was in the spring and summer of 1851.
Pkairie Fires
"Early in the spring of this year I witnessed some of the largest
prairie fires I had ever seen. The greater portion of the prairie, south
of where I lived Cand which, if I remember right, was at that time
•known as the town of Kossuth) was burned over and as there was no
stock kept on this prairie at this time and the land being very rich, the
grass grew very rank and heavy, and when dry in the spring, it required
but the touch of a lighted match, or in some instances the burning ashes
from a smoker's pipe to ignite it. Sometimes fires were set purposely,
that the young fresh gTass might spring up earlier than it would if
the old dry grass was left to cover the gi'ound and prevent it from
thawing out as the old grass would do if not burned off. When these
fires were set purposely, it was generally done by some of the few people
who at that time lived along the margin of the prairie or in the timber
near it, so that what few cattle they did have might find green feed
as early in the spring as possible. And in many cases fires were set
where people intended breaking up the land, for the purpose of getting
rid of the grass, which if not burned was quite a serious impediment
to the plough. And in fact, scarcely any land at that time on that
prairie could be broken up without first burning it over. When I first
traveled over that prairie, there was some where about ten miles without
the sign of a human habitation. Soon, however, a house was built by
Mr. L. S. Pratt, about a mile out on the prairie, when the distance was
314 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
then only between eight and nine miles from his house to the next house
south of him on the same road, and it was several years after before
any one ventured to erect a habitation between. It was a tiresome,
dreary journey, when performed on foot, to travel over this prairie in
those days. Not even a drop of water was to be found except at a
small pond, called the goose pond, near the center or about half the dis-
tance across, and as this water was surface or seep water, it was unfit
to use only by cattle or horses. A fire on this prairie, however, at that
time was one of the most magnifieent sights I ever witnessed. I remem-
ber crossing it one time after nightfall when a terrible fire was burning
on both sides of the road. The fire seemed to have been .set by some one
or more persons and was perhaj^s ujawards of a mile in length. It
had been carried east and west, while the road ran north and south.
The night was calm and still, and the fire burned each way from where
it seemed to have been set. When I reached it, it had burned so that
the two lines of fire and smoke were from ten to fifteen rods apart,
and on a straight and continuous line for a considerable distance. Such
fires however, were quite dangerous, and sometimes very injurious,
both to those by whom they were set and others who happened to live
near them, when they happened to get beyond their control, which fre-
quently occurred. Sometimes if the wind began to blow a little, these
fires would bound over the ground at a furious rate, and would sweep
everything that stood in their way, houses, stacks of hay and grain,
and even live stock were often consumed by them. The only safe
way to save property was to plow a few furrows some distance apart
around it, and burn the diy grass between. If this could be done
before the fire reached the property it could most generally be saved.
In all new countries, however, a vast amount of fencing and other prop-
erty is destroyed by such fires, and it seems impossible to prevent it.
Breaking up the Land
"The manner of breaking up the laud, or ploughing it for the first
time, was to me both unexpected and interesting. I had seen a great
deal of ploughing done in Scotland, where it is done in the most
scientific manner, but to tell a Scotch plowman that in breaking up the
land for the first time a furrow some four to six inches deep and from
sixteen to twenty-four inches in width is turned, according to the size
of the plow, he would be very apt to say that it could not be done ; and
if told that in turning such furrows brushwood, and young trees, whose
roots were in some instances four to five inches in thickness, were cut
by the plow as clean as if it had been done with an ax, and rolled over
with the furrow, he would be inclined to regard the person who made
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 315
such a statement as insane, and would not hesitate, perhaps, in telling
him so. Such, however, is nevertheless the case. I have often seen land
broken up where the brush was so heavy and thick that it was with
considerable difficulty that the oxen could be got through it, and the
cutting of such roots was of quite frequent occurrence. Horses could
not have performed this work where the brush was so thick, and were
never used in doing it. From four to six yoke, or pair of oxen was
the team usually used. Horses were used on the prairies for breaking
up land when there was no timber or brush in the way.
Pioneer Plow for Heavy Work
The plow used for such heavy work was of very singular construc-
tion. The beam being a hewn log of wood, from eight to twelve feet long,
some six inches in thickness and from five inches to a foot in width, being
widest where the greatest amount of strength was required. The handles
were also of wood, resembling other plow handles, but proportionately
strong with the beam. The landside was iron, which was sometimes cov-
ered with a thin steel plate and was from half an inch to an inch in thick-
ness, and from four to five feet long. The shear, or lay, was of steel
and about a fourth of an inch thick, and from six to nine inches wide,
and from three to four feet long. The mould board was also of steel,
of about a fourth to three-eighth inches thick, and from eight to ten
or twelve inches wide, and always some longer than the shear or land-
side, and rolled sufficiently to turn the furrow. Scotchmen in coming
to this country frec(uently brought plows with them, but at that time
we had a breed of swine or hog steer that far surpassed their most
recently invented plows for breaking up the land among the brush.
They soon found this out, and the plow which they had brought with
them at so much cost, and which they regarded as a perfect beauty,
and a model of ingenuity and art combined, was thrown aside as utterly
worthless and i-egarded only as a relic of the past. At this time it was
not at all uncommon to see a few deer scampering along near where the
plow was running and wily prairie wolves and sly fox would also at
times make their appearance.
"The farmer met with but very poor encouragement, however, in
those days, as it was almost impossible to dispose of any farm produce
except at lake ports, and even there prices were very low. In the
settlement of a new country, many a difficulty has to be overcome, and
obstacles surmounted, and it requires a brave heart and considerable
determination at times to successfully battle with the troubles and trials
that come in the way. A pair of oxen and a plow or two must be had
316 HISTORY OF COLU:\IBIA COUNTY
before anything can be done on a new place, and as grain is not gen-
erally verj' plenty and the fodder being made from the course wild
grasses that grow on the marshes and prairies, which undoubtedly fill
them up, but does not impart much strength to them so that when warm
weather approaches and the crops have to be put in they are not gener-
ally in very good condition to perform the labor required of them. And
I have often seen it necessary, before a very small spring's work was
done, to assist the poor brutes at times to get up. The grain, however,
as a rule had to be got in whether the oxen lived through it or not.
But few of them seemed to die, and when the spring's work was over
and the cattle allowed to riui at large, it was almost amazing to see
how soon they would become fat and sleek, and in their appearance so
much changed that a person could scarcely believe them to be the same
animals that they had seen a couple of months before. ' '
First L.iND Entered in the County
During the summer of 1851 Mr. Jamieson boarded with an old
widow named I\Irs. Ensminger, who kept a hotel near what was
known as the "Old Rowan Stand." This hotel subsequently becomes
an important feature in the career of Mr. Jamieson. "About the
time, or soon after, I purchased my land in 1849, an elderly gentleman
by the name of Samuel B. Thomas purchased the forty acres adjoining
me on the south (October 9, 1849), and in the fall of the same year came
there to live. The land bought by Mr. Thomas at this time was the
same land Mr. Wallace Rowan entered at the Green Bay Land Office on
the sixth day of June, in the .year 1836, and is described as the northeast
quarter of the southeast quarter of section thirty-four, township eleven
north, of range nine east, in what is known as the town of Dekorra,
and was the first land entered in Columbia County. It was at that time,
however. Brown County, in Michigan territory, afterwards Brown
County, Wisconsin territory, subsequently Portage County, Wisconsin
territory, then Columbia County, Wisconsin territory, finally Columbia
County, state of Wisconsin. The house which ilr. Thomas occupied
when he came there to live was a double log house that had been built by
Mr. Rowan, and which was used by him as a trading point with the
Indians, and as a hotel for the accommodation of travelers. Mr. Thomas
occupied this house nearly a year while engaged in the construction of a
more commodious frame building, which he moved into in 1850.
Gets Curious about Miss Thomas
During the first year I saw but little of Mr. Thomas. I was told by
the neighbors, however, that he had a marriageable daughter, and those
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 317
who knew her seemed to speak well of her. At first I gave but little
heed to what was told me in regard to her, but my desire to see her
gained strengtli as the neighbors would talk to me about her, and tell me
how she stood in their estimation. I was seldom there, however, my busi-
ness calling me away a good share of the time. And Lucy, for this was
her name, was also absent most of the time, being engaged in teaching
school, some two or three miles distant, and although we had seen and
heard of each other quite considerable perhaps, no formal acquaintance
occurred until the winter of 1850-51. After that time, however, we
were often together, and enjoyed each other's company, and as I was
then engaged in opening up my farm, I was seldom away from home,
and although she was teaching the same school she had taught the
summer before, the distance between us was not so great but that we
often saw each other, and as I was always on good terms with the old
landlady, Mrs. Ensminger, with whom I boarded, and had the liberty
at any time of using her old pet mare and buggy, I occasionally carried
Lucy to her school on Monday morning. As time wore on the attach-
ment between us seemed to strengthen, and the state of each other's
feeling began to be pretty well understood, although no word had been
uttered by either, by which any inference could be made as to just
how we stood in each other's esteem. Interest and affection, however,
continued to twine a cord' betweea us that was gradually strengthen-
ing and drawing us nearer to each other, until at last a declaration of
loye was made, coupled by an offer of marriage which was accepted.
In due time the day which was to unite us was agreed upon, and was
the ninth day of November in the year of our Lord, 1851. Upon that
Sabbath morning, I hitched the old lady's mare onto the buggy, and
with a young man of my acquaintance, started for the residence of
Mr. William Curtis, some five miles distant, who was then a justice
of the peace in the town of Lowville. My object in going there at that
time was to ascertain if he was at home, and to inform him of my inten-
tions to be at his house the same evening with a young lady to be united
in the holy bonds of wedlock.
Married by Squire Curtis
Mr. Curtis gave me to understand that he would be on hand, and
when I made my appearance at his residence in the evening, accom-
panied by her to whom I was about to be united, the squire was ready
to receive us. There were a few young people there, who I presume
had been given to understand in some way what was about to happen.
After an hour or so spent in a sort of neighborly visit and friendly
318 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
chat, I suggested to the Squire the object of our coming there, and
of which he was aware, to which he quietly responded. Yes, he knew
what we were there for, and directing us to stand up and join hands,
proceeded in a somewhat solemn manner to perform the marriage cere-
mony, which was not very lengthy, although perhaps just as effective
as though it had taken an hour to pronounce it. In a short time we left
the Squire's and returned home, and continued on in the same even
tenor of our ways, as though nothing of a very serious nature had
occurred.
IMarriages in those days were quite a different thing to what they
have become since then. Men did not marry silver spoons, tea sets and
napkin rings. At that time they, as a rule, married women, and worked
for such things afterwards, if they got them at all. Nor did the an-
noimcement of their marriage fill a column or two of the local county
paper. Times were different then. Money was less plenty, and interest
in each other's welfare with but little money to spend in visiting and
jaunting around, kept people closer together.
The Thomas F.\mily
"Lucy Thomas, to whom I was married on November 9, 1851, was
born at the village of Cambridge, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania,
her parents havina: removed there from Hinsdale, Massachusetts, a
few years before her birth. Samuel B. Thomas, her father, was born
in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, on the tenth of June. 1797. Her
grandfather, whose name was also Samuel B. Thomas was born in Wor-
cester county, Massachusetts. Her great-grandfather on her father's
side was from England ; his wife, however, whose maiden name was
Bartlett, and who was my wife's great-grandmother, was born in Berk-
shire county, Massachusetts. My wife's mother, whose maiden name
was Samantha Jackson, was also born in Berkshire County, Massachu-
setts. Her grandfather, on her mother's side was by name Joshua Jack-
son. He was a Baptist minister. Her grandmother's maiden name was
Abigail Whiting. She was bom in Hartford, Connecticut, and was
twice married. The name of her first husband was Dixon and he was
a colonel in the Revolutionary army. After his death she married
Mr. Jackson, and by her second marriage had only one child, my wife's
mother.
"For a short time after our marriage we lived with the old people,
my wife's parents. We only stayed there, however, until we could get
things ready to go to housekeeping. The stove had to be got, and that
had to come from Milwaukee. My brother-in-law, John Thomas, was
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 319
going there with a load of wheat, and was to bring the stove back with
him. It was in the month of December, on Christmas day, however,
before we got fairly ready to start out for ourselves, and as the old
people had moved into their new house some time before, the old log house
that had sheltered so many before us, and which has before been referred
to as having been built by Mr. Rowan, was ready to receive us. Although,
at the time of our taking possession the south half of it was occupied
by a iMr. Hubbard, a blacksmith, who moved out of it in the spring.
Union School and Church
It was then used for the purpose of keeping school, and teaching
the young ideas how to shoot. The teacher who presided over these
somewhat unruly gatherings, was a Miss Roxelana Ackerman, a small,
trim, slim, little creature . . . Roxa, as we called her, taught a
good school however, and gave very general satisfaction. There were
no churches near us in those days, and the school house was generally
used for aJl public meetings and the gatherings of every description.
And as the south half of this old log cabin was being used for school
purposes at this time, what religious meetings we did have were as a
matter of course also held there. Some times a Baptist minister by the
name of Cornell would come and preach to us, and sometimes when he
was expected he would fail to put in an appearance. On such occa-
sions when the elder failed to meet with us, my father-in-law, Mr.
Thomas, would read a sermon, or a chapter or two from the Bible,
some one present perhaps would offer up a prayer, and some hymns
were generally sung, after which the few who had gathered there for
holy purposes would disperse and return to their homes.
"At that time, even although the country was quite new, I could
not help but think of the changes a few short years had made in the
use this old log building had been put to. But a short time before
these meetings were being held there, the old people who had built
the house and whose home it was might have been seen quietly sitting
and smoking their clay pipes by the door on a Sunday afternoon while
the indolent redman would occasionally pass out and in to procure a
little fire-water, beads, or calico, and whose squaw and papooses might
be seen lying in groups around the trees and bushes that surrounded
the old house, talking and tittering as guileless and happy perhaps,
as those who had .iust left it. And there is no doubt but that the white
children of Mr. and Mrs. Rowan were often joined in their sports and
plays by the children of their dusky brothers.
320 HISTORY OP COLmiBIA COUNTY
Rowan Not First Settler
"In the history of Columbia County, published in the year 1880 by
the Western Historical Company, on page 371, a statement is made
for which the Hon. M. !M. Strong is responsible that Wallace Rowan was
the first settler in the county of Columbia. I beor leave to differ with
Mr. Strong, however, in this matter, as there is no doubt but that a
man by the name of Hastings lived in the county sometime prior to the
breaking out of the Black Hawk war. And there is no doubt but that he
came there to live and engage in the same business as that afterwards
followed by 'Mr. Rowan, viz.. trading and trafficking with the Indians.
He had selected for this purpose nearly the same piece of ground that
Mv. Rowan afterwards located upon. He erected a house some two
hundred yards north of the spot Rowan subsequently built on. He
moved his familv there and had children born in the house he built,
and where he must have lived for some time. And but for the war
which broke out during his stay there, known as the Black Hawk war,
there is no knowing how long he might have remained. The stream
on whose banks he had built was known by his name for a long
time after he left it. As late as December 28, 1846, a deed made by
James Ensminger and wife to Hubbard E. Johnson was recorded
wherein a reservation is made of that part of the forty acres therein
deeded, lying north of the Hastings creek. Just how long he had lived
there before the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, I am unable to
state, but that he came there to live, and that he had a permanent home
there as much so as any of the earliest settlers usually have in new
countries, there is no doubt. Neither do I know just what kind of a
man he was. I have been given to understand, however, by those who
did know him that he was apt to take advantage of the Indians at times,
as many other traders used to do in those early days. And it is said by
Eome that it was as much in consequence of some unjust treatment
which they received at his hands that he was compelled to leave his
home as the condition of affairs which then existed between the Indians
and the whites. Perhaps both circumstances had something to do with
his abrupt departure. Any unjust treatment that they might have
received at his hands, however, could have been arranged, as had
undoubtedly been done before, had it not been for the recent rising and
warlike preparations that had for some time been going on amongst
the followers of the noted chief and warrior, Black Hawk. No doubt
but that his log building was ciuite a substantial structure and large
enough to accommodate the wants of quite a numerous family. As hos-
tilities were about to commence in the vicinity of Fort Winnebago,
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 321
the family of ilr. Hastings was uotified by a friendly squaw that their
long-er stay there was eonpled with danger and that they had better
quietly depart. And some time during the night after this friendly
warning had been given, they quietly stole away, and before sunrise of
the following morning had reached the fort before alluded to and
secured protection. The events which followed proved that the warning
had been gi\'^n none too soon. For the same night upon which they left
their home, it was laid in ashes, and I myself have seen some of the
coal and pieces of charred logs, that lay there partially covered up,
many years after the burning. I have frequently seen one of the mem-
bers of this family, that was born in this house. Some of them also
for many years lived at Wyota in this state, and I am almost certain
that some members of the family still live there. From what infor-
mation I have been able to secure, I am quite confident that Mr. Hastings
must have reached this place and built there as early as the year 1830, if
not before. Those early settlers could not have been attracted to this spot
by the superior quality of the soil, for within a few hundred rods from
where they built, the land is far superior in quality, and much better
calculated for farming purposes. Their buildings, however, were
located, one on the north bank, that of Hastings, and that of Rowan's
on the south bank of as fine a spring brook, with as pure, clear water
as I ever saw, and the brook near where the building stood was crossed
by the old ililitary road leading from Fort Crawford on the Mississippi
to Fort Howard on Green Bay, so that there is no doubt but that these
selections were made principally with a view to trading with the Indians.
Purchases a Hotel
"We lived in this old log cabin during the winter of 1851 and 1852,
and until the month of August of the latter year. During this time
I succeeded in extending my improvements and increasing my pros-
pects of living in the future. I also purchased the hotel property of
Mrs. Ensminger, for which I agreed to pay her the sum of one thousand
dollars, but did not pay her one dollar down on making the purchase.
I gave her, however, a mortgage for the full amount on the real prop-
erty I bought from her, and on the land I owned besides. This property
consisted of five and three-fourth acres of land lying on the north
side of the creek formerly called the Hastings creek, and was the piece
before referred to as having been reserved by Mr. and Mrs. Ensminger
in deeding the balance of the forty acres to Mr. H. E. Johnson, and
was a part of the same forty acres that was entered by Wallis Rowan on
the sixth day of June, 1836. There was also the house, barn and other
322 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
improvements besides nearly all of the furniture, some little stock, hay,
etc. The buildings were supposed to be on this land, but before making
the purchase, I had discovered that they stood upon the land I already
owned, having been placed there by mistake in not knowing just where
the lines ran when they were built. There was no advantage taken
of Mrs. Ensminger, however, on this account, for she was in time paid
every dollar with full interest, that was agreed upon.
"A thousand dollars was quite a large debt for a man of my means
to contract in those days, and many of my intimate friends, regarded
the venture as very unsafe on my part. In fact, quite a number
expressed the opinion that it would be likely to ruin me; that I would
not only lose the hotel property, but the land also that I owned before
buying it. I had boarded there, however, some eight months, and saw
while there what business had been done and felt satisfied that in mak-
ing the venture, I ran no risk and was likely to profit bj- it in the end.
Besides this I had to have some buildings on my farm, and those stood
just where I wanted them. And as a country iotel had been ray prin-
cipal home for upwards of two years while I was engaged in teaming,
I had formed a tolerable fair idea as to how they should be run, and
what the wants of the traveling public were, and my wife and myself
were both young and healthy, and able and willing to work, which as a
rule insures success.
"In the year 1851 some rather important events occurred, with
which I was either immediately or in some way afterwards connected.
During that year I split my first rail to make the first fence on the first
land I had ever been possessed of. I plowed the first furrow and
planted the first seed on my own land. I wooed and won the girl I loved,
and to whom I was married, as before mentioned, and in the same year
our first housekeeping was begun.
First Village Plat of Poynette
"The first village plat of Poynette was made this year by Samuel
B. Pinney, who had bought the land from my father-in-law, Samuel
Thomas a short time before, and who had also kept store in the old
log house sometime prior to making the purchase. The land purchased
by him and platted was a part of the northeast quarter of the south-
east quarter of section thirty-four township eleven north, range nine
east. Shortly after platting, however, he transferred it to my brother-
in-law, John Thomas, who at that time was active as postmaster in the
place. We had no postal route established to here then, and our office
was only a side office and our mail being left at the Lowville postoffice
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 323
some five miles distant, was gone after twice a week. This duty was
performed by some one of Mr. Thomas' family for several years, and
was a great convenience to those living near the place at that time.
We succeeded however, in getting a postal route established about this
time to run this way from Madison to Portage, and old Mr. Thomas
McCleery, who for several years ran the stage through here, supplied
our office three times each way weekly, which was a great improvement
and much appreciated by the few who then lived around here.
"A village had been before laid out on lands adjoining the land at
this time platted by Mr. Pinney, by Mr. J. D. Doty, who entered one
hundred and twenty acres of land on the southeast quarter of section
thirty-four, township eleven north, range nine east, on the eighth day of
February, 1837. And the plat of the village laid by him was recorded
on the fifteenth day of March, in the same year. The name he gave
to the village was Pauquette. This plat was subsequently vacated. A
short time before Pinney 's plat was made, application had been made
by petition to the postoffice department through Mr. Doty, who was
then in Congress to have a postal route established from the city of
Madison to the city of Portage, running through this place, and also
to have our postoffice established as a regular postoffice on this route.
The petitioners stated in their petition that they desired the name given
to the office to be Pauquette, the same as that given by him to the village
he had laid out. By some clerical error, however, the name given the
office was Poynette and no effort was ever made to change it. And
when Pinney had his plat made, the name given to the village was the
same as that given to the postoffice.
"At this time there was around here only the old Rowan log house,
the frame house iust built by Mr. Thomas and another also just built^
by Mr. H. E. Johnson, besides the hotel and outbuildings connected with
it, and it was several years after this before any others were built.
School District of 1852
"In 1852, a school district was formed from territory in the towns
of Arlington and De Korra, and included the territory upon which
Poynette was platted. The district was called Joint School District
No. 4 of Arlington and De Korra, and in this district in the same year,
a new school house was built some eighty rods south of where the vil-
lage now stands. It was a frame structure eighteen feet wide and
twenty-eight feet long, and one story Jiigh. Although small it was
regarded as quite a house in those days, and for many years it served
the purpose that country school houses were generally calculated to
324 HISTORY OF COLrMlJlA t'OL'XTY
serve, ilaoy an able sermon was preached within its walls. And
political discussions were of no unfrequent occurrence there. Debat-
ing clubs held their meetings here also, and it was used for town
meetings and .election purposes, and for nearly all meetings of a jjublic
character. Neither was it at all uncoiiimon for the weary traveler to
treat himself to a night's shelter under its roof. In fact, the country
school house in the early settlement of a new country is one of the
most useful institutions imaginable.
"Up to this time I had given no heed to politics, and although I
had often heard some very hot discussions in the bar-rooms and other
public places, I had paid but little attention to the arguments advanced,
and cared but little which party succeeded in the fight for power. At the
approaching election, however, there was to be a president elected, and
I was urged by men of lioth parties to declare my intentions of becom-
ing a citizen, that 1 might be ([ualified to vote, and henceforth share
the blessings guaranteed by the governmeut to all American citizens.
As I had no other intention than to remain in the United States, I
concluded that it might be well enough to take up with their advice.
And on the twenty-tifth day of August, 1852, I presented myself at the
clerk of the courts' office, in Fort Winnebago for the purpose before
stated." (Here follows a copy of his declaration of intention to become
a citizen of the United States, the first step toward naturalization.)
Ax Ijii'Outant Ye.vr
"I also determined to pay some little attention to politics in the
future, so that I might, as I supposed, he enabled to vote and act
understandingly. And as the approaching presidential election called
out some very able and efficient speakers, I had a fair oppoi'tunity of
deciding upon the candidates then in the field. Columbia County also
had some leading lights in those days who thoroughly understood
the entire fabric or system of the American government and were
able to tell just what would save and what would ruin the country.
As I had heard both sides of the political question, thoroughlj^ discussed
aud had become favorably impressed with the sayings of some of our
leaders in Columbia County, I concluded to cast my first or maiden
vote at the coming election for Franklin Pierce, for President of the
United States, who proved to be the successful candidate.
"On the 27th day of August of this year, I took possession of the
hotel property before alluded 1,0 and before six months had passed, we
became satisfied that b.y continuing in the same course we would not
onlv soon be able to pav off our indel)tedness I)ut would probably be
HISTORY OP COLUIMBIA COUNTY 325
able to either extend our possessions, or lay up something for a rainy-
day. On the first day of September of this year (1852), and soon after
taking possession of the hotel, our first child was born, and being a boy
I of course felt as a father is apt to feel over his first born, and as I had
determined to cast m.y first vote for Franklin Pierce for President, I also
concluded that my child bear his name. I had too much reverence and
respect for my father's memory, however, not to recognize the almost
universal practice or custom in Scotland of naming the oldest child, if a
boy, for his grandfather on his father's side, and if a girl, for her grand-
mother on her mother 's side ; and consequently gave him my father 's
name also. He was therefore named Hugh Pierce. This year, as will
be seen, was also a very important one in my history, and besides the
events named I might also say that the purchase of the hotel property
was the means of giving me my first start in the accumulation of what
little property I have since become possessed."
The narrative of Hugh Jamieson in the manuscript is divided into
two pai'ts. The first comprises one hundred and eighty-three pages, his
life through his boyhood in Scotland and through the early events
just described in Wisconsin. Its writing had occupied his leisure inter-
vals throughout one entire winter, and the second volume, as it might
be called, was proliably written in the next winter. The title of part
two is "Days of mv Manhood," and begins with the autumn of 1852,
when Hugh Jamieson was the head of a family and the proprietor of
the inn in what is now the village of Poynette.
^Y^Y THE Hotel Paid Well
"XTp to this time but little produce had been raised north of the
city of Portage, and the bulk of provisions and merchandise used by
people living in the pineries was carried by wagon from the southern
part of Wisconsin and northern part of Illinois, a great deal of which
came from Galena in the last named state. And many of the heaviest
firms in Grand Rapids, Stevens Point, Wausau, and other prominent
lumbering points in the pineries of Wisconsin, had their sup'plies brought
from the places before named, in those days. The cost of transportation
must have been considerable, as the distance the goods were carried would
run from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty miles, and
the roads at that time were not very good. In the winter season
immense quantities of corn, grain, meal, etc., was carried into the
pineries by farmers, who generally loaded back with lumber, shingles,
and such goods as they required at home, and which they could secure
in exchange for the produce they had carried into the woods. Quite a
326 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
number of live stock was driven to the pineries at that time, consisting
principally of hogs and cattle. In fact, the pinery market, as it was
generally termed then, was the best market which the farmers of southern
Wisconsin and northern Illinois had. And although considerable of
the carrying was also done in the summer season, the bulk of it was
done during the winter, when sleighing' was good on the roads, hard
frozen. The lumber then manufactured in the pineries was run down
the Wisconsin River during the summer season, into the Mississippi,
and generally sold at points along the j\Iississippi River, or run to St.
Louis and then sold. The men engaged in the performance of this labor
in those days, had either to make their way back on foot or by stage,
except in some instances when a number would club together and hire
a private conveyance. At this time also there was a considerable immi-
gration to the north and northwestern part of the state, and from the
trades and traffic before mentioned, and because of the continuous travel
back and forth, hotels were much needed and generally well patronized,
especially at convenient and well appointed stopping places. And al-
though there was much that might be regarded as rather agreeable con-
nected with keeping hotels in those days, it also had its drawbacks. The
country hotelkeeper came in contact with men of all grades and pro-
fessions, and from nearly every country on the habitable globe. And
although this afforded him an opportunity of studying human nature,
it also brought him in contact at times with men of a rather disagi-ee-
able and somewhat (|uerulous disposition. In most cases also the build-
ings were too small to accommodate the wants of the traveling public.
The increase in travel had been so rapid and in some places unex-
pected, that buildings had not kept pace with the demand and wants
of the people, and it was no uncommon occurrence to lodge from six
to ten on the barroom floor and sometimes double that number or more
among the hay in the loft of the barn. This condition of affaii's was
well understood, however, and in general quite cheerfully accepted by
those who were last to arrive. The condition of affairs, however, had
greatly improved in my days of hotel keeping to what they had been
some eight or ten years before, at which time it was no uncommon
occurrence for a member of Congress, perhaps, to occupy one corner
of the floor, while a governor of the state snored in another with two
or three raftsmen and other travelers lying between. And although I
never witnessed .iust such a scene as this in my own house, I have known
them to be mixed up in as promiscuous a manner in beds in the same
room, and I doubt not but that some may still be alive who can remem-
ber enjoying as good a night's rest on the floor of a country bar-room
in some of the western states as they ever did on the beds furnished them
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 327
at Willard Hotel in Washington, or the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New
York. Preachers of the Gospel also in those days were quite frequent
callers at the country hotels.
"During the year 1853, business was good and my crops also were
heavy, and by the end of this year, I was not only prepared to make a
good round payment on the property I had bought," but he also bought
other land and began thereafter using his credit quite extensively for
the purchase and trading in lauds in Columbia County. "The winter
of 1853 and 1854 was a very cold winter, or rather, we had some very
cold snaps, as they were termed. The cold weather did not check busi-
ness, however, that winter, as the roads might almost have been said to
have been continuously lined with teams, hauling supplies to and lum-
ber from the pineries. During the early part of the year, 1854, for-
tune seemed to smile upon us, business was good, and money flowed in
freely. On the first day of April of the same year, our second child
was born, another boy, which we named Samuel Andrew. We little
dreamed, however, what was in store for us, for before the end of the
year we met with the saddest bereavement we had ever been called
upon to meet, in the death of this same little child which occurred on
the fourteenth day of December, when he was only eight months and
fourteen days old."
Buys More Land
January 4, 1855, Mr. Jamieson bought from AValter Irving near
Mukwonego, two hundred acres in section twenty-seven of township
eleven, range nine, paying fifteen hundred dollars, one thousand dol-
lars in cash. This land joined the land he had previously bought from
the executors of the Hoey estate. "I had also been able to make a sec-
ond payment on my hotel property, and was satisfied that I could easily
meet all demands as fast as they came due, as I had increased my live
stock considerably, and already had enough, which if sold, would bring
an amount sufficient to pay all my indebtedness. I did not relax ray
efforts, however, to accumulate, but on the contrary, it seemed that I
was more determined than ever to secure enough, not only to pay off my
indebtedness, but to improve my land as well. Business was good, the
railroad had reached Madison, and immense quantities of goods were
being carried from there to Portage and other points north, and the
hotels on the road were nearly all doing a large business, I was very
favorably situated to get a good share of it, being just one day's drive,
or about twenty-six miles from Madison, and about half that distance
from Portage. ]Many made it a point to drive from Lladison to my
328 HISTORY OF fOLU.AIBIA COUNTY
place one day and the next day to go to Portage and return again that
night. The goods and merchandise at this time were carried from Madi-
son to Portage and the points north, until the railroads reached that
place, then carried direct from ^lilwaukee, and by a route that did not
lead by the hotel kept by me. Consequently when the railroad reached
iladison, this vast amount of business was just so much added to that
we had heretofore done, and a man keeping hotel under such circum-
stances at that time on this road, must have been extravagant indeed or
wanting in some other point if he failed to make money. . . . 'Sly
business, however, had not only greatly increased, but was also paying
me well. The only difficulty I had to contend with was in the want of
room. My buildings were altogether too small, and I was quite fre-
quently compelled to send ti-avelers on to other stopping places, while
many took up with fare that was neither agreeable to them or pleasant
to me, such as sleeping on the floor or in the barn loft, tying their horses
by a straw stack or in an old log shed, etc. and as this condition of
affairs seemed likel.y to continue, I began to think of increasing my
means of accommodation by adding to the buildings I already had, or
by erecting new ones that would be large enough to accommodate the
wants of the traveling public. About this time, however, a circum-
stance occurred that materially interfered with my calculations, and
for some time put an end to my carrying out the contemplated im-
provements."
Railroad from :\Iadisox to Portage
In ]\Iareh, 1S55, while working day and night to accommodate
crowds of travellers, Mr. Jamieson was stricken with an inflammation
of the eyes, which kept him in a darkened room five or six weeks.
"Although they did not get well, and prevented me from going on with
the contemplated improvements, our prospects for a railroad between
]\Iadison antl Portage had also become somewhat flattering, and if this
road should be built, I knew I would have to change the location of
my buildings. During the autumn of this year I determined to make
some preparation toward building, and selecting a site which I thought
would be suitable in case the contemplated railroad from iladison to
Portage was built, proceeded to get some stone hauled onto the ground
with a \aew to getting a good start the following spring.
"During the pa.st two seasons, I had considerably increased the
improvements on my farm by breaking up and fencing, so that I had
upwards of fifty acres under the plow in the fall of 1855, all of which
was well fenced. Our third child, another boy, was also born on the
HISTORY OF C0LU;MBIA COUNTY 329
seveuteeiith day of October of this same year, and whom we named
William Wallace. My crops too were good and brought a good price,
and aside from my eyes, which were not gaining much, everything was
going well with us."
The building of his house progressed slowly, and in the meantime
the two children were stricken with smallpox, but recovered and the
condition of his eyes continued to impi-ove a little. Finally he deter-
mined to go abroad and consult a specialist in Glasgow, setting out with
liis family in October, 1856. However interesting his descriptions of
the scenes and events connected with his return to the land he had left
some nine years before, they must be omitted from this chapter. He
arrived in Wisconsin from Scotland in ]May, 18.57, and the journal will
again be quoted for pertinent material concerning the advancement
of Poynette and the county.
A Boom for Poynette
On his return to Wisconsin, "A large force was at work on the rail-
road that was to run through our place from Madison to Portage. Mr.
D. C. Jackson, the contractor, had built a store and opened up with a
tine stock of goods. Mr. Cave, who some year or two before had moved
into the place, had- built one the summer before which was filled and
run by a ilr. Dunning, who had for a short time been engaged in the
business some two or three miles south on the prairie. Mr. A. P. Smith
wanted to purchase my hotel property upon which to erect a grist mill,
and in fact everything seemed booming, and amidst all this boom and
prosperity I would often hear men talk of the corruption of the mem-
bers of the legislature.
Completes New and Larger Hotel
"The railroad, however, was just what we needed, and as it appeared
that we were in a fair way to get it, I did not propose to grumble at
the means that had been used by the railroad company to secure the
land granted for the purpose of aiding in its construction. As busi-
ness of all description was good, and times lively, my friends advised
me to complete my new hotel building as soon as possible. And as this
could be done much quicker by erecting a frame building than to wait'
and build with stone, I finally concluded to pvit a two-story substantial
frame structure on to the stone basement I had built the preceding
summer. ... I moved into it on the tenth day of Februaiy, 1858.
Some time previous to this I had sold my old hotel property to Mr.
Augustus P. Smith for one thousand dollars, being the same amount I
330 HISTORY OF COLUIMBIA COUNTY
had paid for it, and od my leaving it he took possession and immediate!}-
commenced the construction of what has since been known as the 'Poyn-
ette Lower Mill.' This name was given it in consequence of another
mill being erected some two years after by a Mr. Fish from Canada,
a little farther up the stream, which has since its erection been known
as the Poynette Upper Mill.
Railroad Work Ceases
"The year 1857, notwithstanding the auspicious opening of business
in the spring, did not prove as favorable a year for business as the
three yeare preceding it. The winter had been rather a severe one,
and the spring was cold and backward. "When we reached home, about
the tenth of May, the fields were still red and the growing crops barely
through the ground, nor was the harvest as abundant as some we had
previously been blessed with. Prices too for all kinds of grain were
lower than the.y had been and it was quite evident that the reaction in
the times had set in. We were as little affected by this reaction, how-
ever, as any locality, perhaps, in the state. The work was progressing
on the railroads, and considerable money was being paid out for help
which circulated quite freely among the people in our midst. Towards
winter, however, the work on the railroads ceased, and was never again
resumed by the ]Milwaukee and LaCrosse Company, although nearly
three-fourths of the entire line was graded by this company that season.
In fact, it is doubtful if they ever reallj' intended to complete the road.
Their object was to get the land grant, and as that could only be done
by building twenty continuous miles of the road, starting at Madison,
they perhaps thought that by making a show of complying with the
law, the governor would yield to their wishes and grant the requisite
certificates, enabling them to become possessed of the land. The cer-
tificates were wisel.v withheld, however, and although the road had not
been built the laud granted for that purpose was still at the disposal
of the state.
Yet Local Improvements Progress
"The spring of 1858 opened up with less boom and bustle, but the
improvements in our village which I have before mentioned, kept steadily
on. The work on the grist mill was being pushed with all the charac-
teristic energy and vim of the proprietor (]\Ir. Smith), and the store
of D. C. Jackson was turning over a considerable quantity of goods
under the superintendence of Mr. Rice, who had charge of Mr. Jack-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 331
son's interest in the place at that time. I had moved into my new
hotel building, and was doing a fair business. On the twenty-eight
day of February of this year (1858), our fourth child, also a boy, whom
we named Addison Jackson, was born. The reaction which had set in
in the previous year still continued and business became more and more
depressed, until the complaint- of hard times became quite general.
Mr. Smith had crowded his mill to completion and just got it fairly
started when the dam went out. This was a severe blow to Mr. Smith
as he had exhausted all his means in erecting his mill, and it was with
difficulty he could procure the necessary labor to rebuild the dam. He
was not a man to get discouraged over small matters, however, and he
went to work with a will and determination to repair the damage, and
finally succeeded.
"The railroad from Milwaukee to LaCrosse had reached Portage
the previous year, and hotel business on the roads from Madison to
Portage was seriously injured on that account. All the goods and mer-
chandise of every description that had before been carried over these
roads from Madison by teams was now carried to Portage and even
beyond that point to Kilbourn City, and other northern points, which
the railroad had reached. There was still, however, considerable travel,
and hotels located at convenient points continued to do a fair business,
although times were considerably depressed and very far from being
what the.y had been in the Crimean war times, and our prospects which
but a year before had been so bright and flourishing were much dark-
ened. The impetus our village had received from the commencement
of work on the railroad had also been cheeked, and a general prostra-
tion seemed to prevail in all departments and branches of business. We
kept plodding along, however, and although we did not make money
as fast as we had done when times were good, we were -still making a
little and put what we did make to as good a use as we possibly could.
Admitted to Citizenship
"In the summer of 1859, I built a large and convenient barn, with
a good stone basement, which I fitted up as a stable for horses, using
the upper part for hay and grain. On the fourth day of October of
this year, I made application to the Circuit Court of Columbia County
to be admitted a citizen of the United States. (Here follows a copy of
the document completing his naturalization.) It will be seen by the
above dates that although I was admitted as a citizen of the United
States in 1859, and my admission was duly recorded in the clerk of the
court's office at that time, the above document did not issue from said
332 HISTORY OF COLr.MBIA COUNTY
clerk's office until the year 1869, for the simple reason that I had uot
called for it.
Plats Jajiiesox's Addition
■"I also platted a piece of land on the southeast quarter of the north-
east quarter of section thirty-four, township eleven, range nine, which
was named Jamieson's Addition to the village of Poynette ; and com-
menced selling lots for building purposes on the same. The first lot I
sold was to Mr. W. Lefferts, who erected on it a small dwelling house
where he lived for several years. It was afterwards owned and occu-
pied by ^Ir. A. I'adley, subsequently by 'Sir. W. Turner and latterly
by Dr. L. A. Squire. The price I received for the lot was twenty-five
dollars. The next lot I sold was to James Oleson, who also built on it,
and after various changes and passing through a number of hands, is
now owned by Cliarles Delaney and kept as a hotel which is called the
American House. This lot I sold for thirty dollars. The next lot I dis-
posed of by making a present of it to Ira S. Allen, on condition that
he would build and occupy said building as a dry goods and grocery
store, which he did for some time. In fact, I disposed of all my lots on
Main Street, between my hotel property and the Mill Pond, for sums
ranging from twenty to thirty-tive dollars, except one that I kept for
some time, thinking perhaps that some person might want it for a place
for the transaction of some kind of business, and which I sold some
time after the sales before mentioned to Robert Robertson for one hun-
dred dollars, and is the lot that is now occupied by Mr. Edmister as a,
hardware store. The lots sold to Lefferts, Oleson and Allen were all
built on before, or by the end of the year 1860, and all the other lots
on the west side of the same street, except that afterwards sold to i\Ir.
Robertson, were Iniilt on within a year or two after that date.
Rivalry of North axd Soi'tii Sides
"Quite a few buildings had also been erected on the south side of
the stream during the years 1S58 and 1859. iMr. John Campbell, who
came from Scotland with me, had built a blacksmith shop and was
doing a good business. He, like most others of that time, thought the
south side of the stream would keep ahead in building, and it certainly
looked so just then. I offered ilr. Campbell the lot for nothing, which
I afterward sold to ]\Ir. Lefferts, and I also told him if he would build
on it, he might go into my woods and take what timber he wanted
toward the construction of any building he might see fit to erect. But
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 333
Mr. Campbell was perfectly satisfied in his own mind that the business
part of the village at least would be on the south side, and there he
determined to build. The south side of the stream did take the lead,
and for a number of years kept it, but giving away lots, selling others
cheap, and holding- out other inducements, the north side kept moving
slowly along, and although it did not for a number of years keep pace
with the south side, quite a few buildings had been built there since
the year 1856, the time when building might be said to have com-
menced, up to 1860, during which year the mill before mentioned as
the Poynette Upper Mill was built, and several dwelling houses were
also erected, principally, however, on the south side. Messrs. Brayton
and Tomlinson, a short time before had purchased the northwest quar-
ter of section thirty-five, township eleven, range nine, and had a con-
siderable part of it platted, although the plat was not recorded for some
years after the platting was done. Brayton & Tomlinson 's addition be-
ing on the north side of the stream, and they also being anxious to sell
lots and get people in to build, besides being reasonably liberal in their
prices, we began to make quite a showing, although still behind the
south side in point of inimbers. On the eleventh day of December of
this year, also our fifth child and first daughter was born. We named
her Samantha Janet, for both of her grandmothers, Samantha, being
the name of her grandmother on her mother's side, and Janet on the
side of her father.
War Times in the County
"This year, 1860, is also memorable throughout the entire United
States as that in which one of the most exciting presidential campaigns
was conducted that ever occurred in its history. The people of Poy-
nette were seemingly as deeply interested in the result as those in large
cities, and took as lively an interest in getting up meetings and procur-
ing speakers as though their political existence almost depended upon
having their side properly presented. And when a meeting was held
by one party, the other party had to get up one to match, or if possible
to beat it. When the election was over and the result determined, the
excitement seemed to die down for a time.
"It was only for a short time, however. For in the spring of 1861,
when Fort Sumter was fired upon, the most terrible excitement pre-
vailed that I had ever witnessed. It is impossible to describe the con-
dition of public feeling on that occasion. For some considerable time
it was positively unsafe for a man to suggest an idea, or offer an opinion,
if it differed in any way, or suggested a different course from that
334 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
being pursued by the authorities at "Washington. Blind submissioa
seemed to be the rule, and this was almost impossible by those who
had foreseen the probable result of a change in the administration as
it most certainly was expected by the great majority of the people of
the Northern states, that the change meant a direct blow at the institu-
tion of slavery, which at that time existed in the South. And although
slavery had but few advocates in the Northern states, there was quite
a difference of opinion as to the proper means to be used in getting rid
of it. Quite a large and respectable party did not think it best to
extend in blood and treasure the amount that would be necessary to
abolish the institution by force, and would have preferred a different
method, and the war of opinions and words was waged as bittei'ly and
fiercely- by those who remained at home as that waged by those at the
front, actually engaged in lawful combat. It was a fearful time, and
jealousies, animosities, and feelings of distrust and hatred grew out of
this condition of affairs, that will probably take centuries to erase. And
during the war, and ever since, life and property has been much more
unsafe than it was before, and our social conditions suffered a shock,
which it is doubtful if at the end of the present century will be entirely
eradicated.
"In the midst of all this darkness and gloom, however, we occa-
sionally met with spots of sunshine and humor. These humorous and
amusing incidents occurred at a time when scenes and incidents of a
very different and painful character were of almost daily occurrence.
Around the postofifice in our little village the coming of the mails was
watched with much interest by all classes of the community, and much
eagerness and interest in the distribution of the mails was manifested
by those who had friends and relatives in the army. It is impossible
to describe the anxiety, and hopeful j'et dreaded expression of the
countenance of those who happened to receive a letter, upon opening it,
and the scenes at times witnessed here, and not only here, but through-
out the entire length and breadth of the United States, were painful in
the extreme, and in many instances might almost be said to be heart-
rending.
Securing Volunteers for the Union
"At the spring election of this year (1861), I was chosen chairman
of the board of supervisors of the town in which I lived, viz., De Korra.
This was the first time I had been called upon to serve the people in
what might be termed a political capacity, and as this office was the
highest gift that could be conferred by the inhabitants of a town upon
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 335
one of their number, and as the chairman of the board of supervisors
on each town in the county, at that time, as now, constituted the county
board of supervisors, I felt highly honored, and determined to merit
their esteem, if it were in my power to do so. There was many a clis-
agreeable duty to perform, however, in connection with this office at that
time, and among the most disagreeable of my duties, was securing volun-
teers to fill the quota of the town. During the continuance of the war,
I had this duty to perform some three different times, and although in
each instance I was successful, the disappointments, promises made by
men and no sooner made than broken, and the low, mean actions of com-
mission men, who would promise you men when they had not a man to
furnish, and when they had, would keep you hanging around in suspense
to see if they could find some town that would offer a little more than they
had agreed to furnish them to you for ; and the continuous feeling of —
now you have them, and now you don't — made it one of the most disagree-
able and perplexing duties I was ever called upon to perform. In addi-
tion to the men furnished in this manner by the towii, which was not far
from tifty, some two or three different drafts were made and several
of our citizens were drafted. Very few of the drafted men, however,
went into the amy. Most of them furnished substitutes, which were
generally obtained for from two hundred to four hundred dollars.
Railroad Pro.jects 1861-62
"For some considerable time prior to the meeting of the legislature
of 1861, it had become well understood that the Milwaukee & LaCrosse
Railway Company had abandoned the intention (if they ever indeed
had an}') of building the road from ]\Iadison to Portage. And the leg-
islature of that year annuled and repealed so much of the land grant
act of 1856 as related to the building of the road from Madison and
from Columbus to Portage, and the rights and privileges that were
conferred on the LaCrosse Company were given to the Sugar River Val-
ley Railroad Company. And that portion of the land grant applicable
to the lines mentioned was also conferred upon the last named com-
pany. Under this legislation quite a considerable work was done, and
right of way secured between Madison and Portage, but jealousies and
a supposed difference of interest sprang up between those living on that
portion of the Sugar Valley Railroad, lying between Madison and the
state line south, and those living in Madison, and north of said city.
And the work was again suspended, and our hopes for the time being
consequently blasted. During the year 1862 some considerable survey
336 HISTORY OF COLOMBIA COUNTY
and other work was done, but not much toward eonipleting the grading
of the road.
Labor and Crops in War Tijies
"The fearful exeitenient caused by the war, and the growing
demand for all kinds of farm produce furnished an abundance of
labor for both the brain and muscle of the people of the United States.
Labor of all kinds was in good demand, and commanded high wages.
Crops in the western states were also good and times generally might
be regarded as lively. Up to this time there had been but little farm
machinery introduced in this section of the country, and with the excep-
tion of a few headers and a very few reapers, that were used on the
prairies, the harvest was mostly done with the cradle and rake, in the
hands of men hired principally for that purpose. A great many of
these men came from the timber regions and new parts of the country
where little or no harvesting had to be done. It would seem as though
this method of harvesting the crops must necessarily be both tedious
and expensive,, compared with the manner in which harvesting is done
nowadays. But while it may have been more tedious, I am inclined
to think that the expense was no greater than now. By reference to
my books, I see that in 1862. I paid for cutting, binxling and stacking,
fifty-three acres of wheat and oats, the sum of seventy dollars, an aver-
age of about one dollar and thirty-two cents per acre, and in the follow-
ing year of 1863 I paid for cutting, binding and stacking, one hundred
and four acres, the sum of one hundred and forty-two dollars, an aver-
age of a trifle over one dollar and forty-six cents per acre, and as our
land was comparatively new in those daj's, crops were generally heavier
than they are now; and I doubt if with all the modern improvements
grain can be harvested nowadaj^s for any less money than it was then.
The principal objection to the old system is that men could not now
be found to do the work in the time it is rec|uired to be done.
Chairman of the Board Again
"In the spring of 1862, I was reelected to the office of chairman of
the board of supervisors of De Korra, and in the autumn of the same
year, I was nominated for candidate of the State Legislature, by the
democratic party. The party, however, was so hopelessly in the minor-
ity at that time in the district in which I lived that an election w/s
impossible. The vote I received, however, was a very flattering one
and highly gratifying in point of numtiers as it was considerably
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 337
ill excess of a regular party vote. Mv. A. J. Turner, who at that
time- was editor of the Wisconsin State Register was my opponent
and as the people of our district were a very intelligent people, and
knew and could keep a good thing when they had it, they made up their
minds to let him go and represent their interests at Madison and keep
me at home, and I am satisfied they never had any occasion to regret
their choice, as Mr. Turner made a very able and efficient legislator and
understood the wants and interests of our district perhaps as well as
any man that lived in it.
"During the winter of 1862 and 1863, I was chosen by the stock
holders of the Sugar River Valley Railroad Company at their annual
meeting as a member of the board of directors of such company. What
little was done, however, during the year 1863, except to meet and dis-
cuss propositions made to and received from other railroad corpora-
tions. In the spring of 1863 I was again elected chairman of the board
of supervisors and had that duty again to perform. During this year
also times were good, money very plenty, and but for the dark spots
made by the cruel war which was then raging and which was to be seen
in nearly every community all over the land, the people of these United
States might have been regarded as prosperous and happy. On the
seventeenth day of July of this same year, our sixth child and fifth son
was born. We named him John C, John being the name of his mother's
oiil.v brother, and also of my only brother.
Railroad Work Resujied
"In the spring of 1864, work was again resumed on our railroad,
and some grading done under the superintendence of Mr. Peck. The
object in starting the work was that it might possibly have some effect
in helping to sell the company's bonds which had been prepared, and
an effort was to be made to place them on the market. The effort to
negotiate the bonds failed, however, and the work was again stopped.
With this failure to sell the company's bonds, all hopes of ever getting
a railroad through our little village seemed to be at an end. During
this year also a suit had been instituted against the company by Jlr.
j\Iills for a small amount, which he claimed the company owed him, and
a judgment was rendered in his favor against the company. Mr. James
Campbell of Green County, who had been the prime mover in the enter-
prise, and who had done more to fonvard it than any other man, and
had been president of the board of directors for a number of years,
also had a claim against the company, and as he had good reason to
believe that efforts had been made and would be continued to be made
hj parties in Madison who were unfriendly to the road to place it beyond
338 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
his control and prevent its completion, he also commenced an action
in the courts, and took judgment against the company.
Sugar Valley Railroad Sold
"Some time after this the road was advertised and sold, ]Mr. Mills
selling that portion of it lying between the north lines of Dane County,
and the city of Madison, and Mr. Campbell selling that portion of it
lying between Portage city in Columbia County, and the south line
of said county. Mr. Campbell also bought in that part of it sold by
Mills, and by this means secured control and became the owner of
the entire property of tlie company between ;\Iadison and Portage.
And although all of his efforts to sell the company's bonds had
failed, and he had removed all tools and everything that liad been
used in doing what work had been done, he still claimed that he would
in time complete our road, but no effort was again made until the year
1870. In the year 1866, however, the company was released from build-
ing that part of the road lying between Columbus and Portage. Jlr.
Campbell was a man of considerable energy and determination, and when
he undertook to do anything he was very likely to succeed, and some
things were done by him that were even regarded by many of the wise-
acres at the capital as being impossible.
Improvement of South Poynette
' ' For the past two years our village had not improved very much. A
Methodist church had been built and some few small dwelling houses
put up, but the fear of not getting a railroad soon prevented some from
locating in the village that would have done so, had our railroad pros-
pects been brighter, and others that had lived in the village for some
time were deterred by the same cause from extending their improve-
ments. The prairie south of the village, however, had changed greatly
in this time. For in crossing it in the autumn of the years 1863 and 1864,
where a few years before a house could not be seen, now the.y were
visible in every direction and stacks of grain could be seen and counted
up into the hundreds. The settlement of this prairie did much towards
the improvement of our village, which in turn was a great convenience
to the farmers who had settled on it.
Fall op Richmond Celebrated
"In the spring of 1865, I was again elected to the office of chairman
of our town board, and was continued in said office for the four sue-
HISTORY OP COLUjMBIA COUNTY 339
ceediug years until the spring of 1869. On the evening after our election
had been held in 1865, news was received of the downfall of Richmond,
and one of the most exciting evenings was spent by our townspeople that
I ever witnessed. There seemed to be a unanimous desire to bury the
hatchet, and let all past political difference of opinion cease. Anvils (for
we had no cannon) were brought out and considerable powder burnt.
Beer was also lavishly produced and freely drunk. Old men became
orators and made pacific and patriotic speeches, while younger men
charged the anvils and touched them off, which with their yells filled the
air with noise that has not since then been heard in our village. It was
even hinted that one of our oldest and most partiotic citizens was found
early the following morning addressing a wooded hill, which he sup-
posed to be a regiment of returned, scarred and war-worn veterans. On
the fourth day of October this year (1865), our seventh child, a boy,
was born. We named him Samuel for his grandfather, and our second
boy, the little Samuel who was dead.
Decline of War Prices
"For several years past the farmers had been selling their products
for very high prices. And although gold and silver had become an arti-
cle of merchandise and traffic, and at one time had reached the enormous
price of two dollars and eighty cents per dollar, or in other words taking
two hundred and eighty cents of the money we had in circulation to
buy one hvindred cents in gold, and might almost have been said to have
ceased to exist, so far as the farming community was concerned, still
the paper money answered every purpose and circulated very freely and
the farms were bought and sold and paper money paid for them just
as gold and silver had been before it ceased to circulate. The war was
ended and the soldiers returned to their homes, some of them bringing
considerable money with them, and although times were good and money
plenty, the general impression was that a reaction would sooner or later
set in, and in the opinion of many the time was not very far distant. The
reaction, however, was not so sudden or injurious as many had antici-
pated. The vast amount of paper money that had been put into circu-
lation and the return of the soldiers with their pockets generally pretty
well filled kept money plenty, and times though changed were not what
might be termed hard. Prices, however, of farm produce, as well as all
classes and grades of manufactured goods began to decline. Wheat,
which at one time during the war brought as high as three dollars a
bushel fell to less than a dollar within less than three years after the
war closed, and all other grains suffered a marked decline. Wool also.
340 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
whicli at one time, sold for one dollar a pound, fell to from forty to
fifty cents during the same time. Of course such a decline in prices,
coupled with the ravages of the chiutz-bugs in our crops, and which had
but a short time before made their appearance, made farmers somewhat
discouraged, and the people in our village and countiy adjacent felt the
effect of the decline in prices and the destruction of our crops as much
perhaps as other agricultural communities were likely to do. Still we
had passed through harder times than we were then experiencing and
did not feel at all alarmed, or did we hesitate to improve or increase our
property whenever a favorable opportunity occurred.
Local liiPRovEjiExxs after the "War
''But few buildings were erected in the village during the two or three
years succeeding the close of the war. We had commenced agitating the
building of a more commodious school house, but the difference of opinion
in the choice of a site made the discussion both bitter and acrimonious
and kept back the building for some time. It was finally built, how-
ever, in 1867, and occupied that same year.
"On the fourth day of December of this year (1865), we formed a
cemetery association under the general law of the state and a board of
trustees was elected, consisting of Phineas "Watson, Isaac C. Sargent,
H. J. Sill, Stephen Brayton, and myself, "^^e purchased from Messrs.
Brayton & Tomliuson seven acres of land at fifty dollars an acre and
had it surveyed and platted for burial purposes. A child of Rev.
Rufus Fancher was the first buried therein."
During the winter of 1865-66 Mr. Jamieson was first severely afflicted
with the rheumatism, a disease which caused him much ti-ouble nearly
every successive year, and nearly every winter had to be spent in the
South or at least away from business affairs.
"It had been decided at the annual school meeting held the past
autumn (1866) to proceed with the building of our school house. Quite
a respectable minority favored building it on the old site about half a
mile south of the village, while the ma.jority voted to have it built in the
village. The contest over the site was fast and keen, and the corres-
pondence in regard to it, with the state superintendent, was bitter,
somewhat personal, and must have been amusing in some respects to that
official." The decision to locate the school in the village was finally
taken to the courts and an injunction procured forbidding the district
(Officers from signing a contract for the building. Two of the three
directors, including Mr. Jamieson, attached their signatures in spite of
the injunction. "The contract having been signed, Mr. Green furnished
HISTORY OF COLUJIBIA COUNTY 341
his bond for the erection of the building, in accordance with the con-
tract, and the building went on and was finally finished and occupied and
paid for by the district without further opposition. It is a large and
commodious two-story building, capable of seating about one hundred
and seventy to one hundred and eighty scholars. And R. 11. Bashford,
of iladison was the first principal in our new school house."
Health Failing
Mr. Jamieson's health was seriously impaired in 1867 by rheumatism,
and on the advice of a specialist he spent the following winter in the
South at Hot Springs. "I had made up my mind that as no perma-
nent cure could be expected for some considerable time at least, that
if an opportunity occurred, I would dispose of my hotel property, and
if possible shape my business so as to take matters a little easier. Such
an opportunity occurred sooner than I had expected. I had been home
but a short time when an offer was made me by Messrs. Tomlinson and
Hudson, which I accepted, and in the month of May, 1868, I transferred
the hotel and some sixty acres of land to the above named parties, upon
the pajaiient of five thousand dollars. At the same time I purchased of
them the home they had formerly occupied for eight hundred dollars.
I built an addition to the house and lived in it for several years.
Sixteen Years a Hotelkeeper
"I had kept hotel from August, 18.52, until May, 1868, a period of
nearly sixteen years, with the exception of one year, when Samuel AYil-
kins kept it and I visited Scotland. During this entire time, notwith-
standing the general impression that prevailed in regard to the character
of the first settlers of a new country, and also of those who usually work
in the pineries and the general traveling public on the frontier, I never
saw but one man knocked down in or about my house, during the time I
was engaged in that business, and the little afi'ray which caused him to be
knocked down was a slight misunderstanding that arose between two
young men who lived near the place, and not between travelers, who
as a rule, I found to be sociable, intelligent and well-behaved. There are
of course, always enough disagreeable people in any country to make
matters at times unpleasant. Having thrown off the burdens and responsi-
bilities connected with hotel keeping, for some time, I felt as though
ray occupation was almost entirely gone, but I turned my attention more
closely to my farm and in time this feeling wore off, and I have never
had any desire to engage in that business.
342 HISTORY OF COLU.MBIA COUNTY
Again Defeated by IMk. Tukner
"In the autumu of this year (1868), I was again placed in nomina-
tion by the Democratic party, the political organization to which I
belonged, as a candidate for the state legislature. Mr. Turner was again
the opposing candidate and although the result of the vote showed that
quite a number of those who had opposed me in politics had voted for
me, the Republican majority was still too great to be overcome, and Mr.
Turner was again elected. During the year 1869, my time was princi-
pally occupied in attending to my farm, and by reference to my books
I find that I was amply rewarded for my labors. My old land, upon
which wheat was so good, yielded on an average of fifteen bushels per
acre, and upon my new land, the yield was a trifle over twenty-eight and
a half bushels per acre. Oats, corn and other crops were also good.
The difference in the yield between the old and new ground is worthy
of note. The old land was equally as good as the new, but some ten or
a dozen crops of different kinds had been taken from it, while this was
the first crop only from the new land. The comparison showed plainly
that the elements for the production of wheat had been gradually
absorbed, and unless something could be done to restore to the soil, the
necessary elements that produced that cereal its cultivation would soon
become a thing of the past.
"On the 5th day of September, 1868, our eighth child, and second
girl was born. We named her Amy Veola, for her mother's step-
mother, whose name is Amy, and her aunt Veola.
Formation of the Madison & Portage Railroad
"During the latter part of this year I was again visited by Mr. James
Campbell, who informed me that he intended to secure the passage of
an act the coming winter incorporating the now owners of that part of
Sugar River Valley Railroad, lying between Madison and Portage (which
meant himself principally), as the Madison & Portage Railroad Company,
and to secure a transfer if possible of all the rights, grants, etc., that
had been conferred upon the Sugar River Valley Railroad Company by
its charter and amendments thereto, so far as related to that portion
of the land, and that he intended to organize by electing a board of
directors and proceed to build the road, at the same time asking me to
take a place in the board of directors and render them what assistance
I could. At the time of his visit I did not give him any decided answer,
but told him that I would consider the matter and vn-ite him at Fort
Howard, where he intended to remain a part of the winter. After prop-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 343
erly considering the matter I made up my mind tliat the condition of
my health was such that I could not do justice to the active duties of a
director, and so wrote Mr. Campbell. He replied by saying that he did
not think the duties would be so laborious, but that I would be able to
perform them, and rather insisted on my taking the position. He again
wrote me from Madison, during the winter after he had secured the
needed legislation, saying that a meeting would be held in that city for
the purpose of organization and the election of a board of directors on a
stated day, and urging nie to be present on that occasion, and hoping
that I had reconsidered my determination not to go into the board, and
if possible to meet him at Madison the day before the election that we
might consult each other about the matter. I had fully determined not
to go into the board however, and so wrote him at Madison to that effect
promising at the same time to render him all the assistance that was
within my power to secure the completion of the road. The organiza-
tion was effected, and Mr. Campbell as a matter of course was chosen
president of the board.
"In the month of March, 1870, he again visited Poynette, and after
some time spent in consultation, concerning his views as to the best
course to pursue, to secure the final completion of the road, we decided
to call as many of the citizens together as we could reach readily, and
present such matters for their consideration in regard to the enterprise
as was deemed necessary. This preliminary meeting was held at the
school house in the village, and quite a large number attended it. Mr.
Campbell explained to those present that to complete the grading and
tieing of the road, it would require, on a close estimate, about one hun-
dred thousand dollars: that he proposed to put into the work about
fifteen thousand dollars, and that other assistance might possibly be got
to bring the amount up to some twenty-five thousand dollars, which would
leave a deficiency of seventy-five thousand dollars to be raised in some
other way. To consult with those who were interested in the completion
of the work, and to make such suggestions as he thought would aid in
bringing this about, was the object of his visit. It was also stated that
under a former organization, efforts had been made to secure subscrip-
tions to the capital stock of the company, and that such efforts had
almost proved a failure, as but very little had been subscribed except at
Poynette, and that amounted to some four or five thousand dollars only.
It was of no use to again resort to this method to raise the required
amount and the only possible way it could be raised was to have it done
by the cities and towns along the line in their corporate capacity.
"Prom my experience with the Sugar River Valley Company, I was
well satisfied that these statements were correct, and that if we got a
344 HISTORY OF COLU.MBIA COUNTY
railroad at all, we would probably have to get it in this way. I also
kuew something aliout Jlr. Campbell's financial standing and knew that
he was nnal>le to complete the road without aid from some source. The
simple question then was should we favor extending tlie aid in the
manner suggested, or will we give up all thoughts of ever having the
railroad ?
Towx Votes Aid to the Railroad
"After a full and fair discussion of the matter, and various sugges-
tions having been made, it was finally decided to present a petition to
the board of supervisors of the town, praj'ing them to give notice to the
qualified electors of the town that at the next annual town meeting to be
held on the 5th day of April a proposition should be submitted for
ratification or rejection to the effect that the town in its corporate ca-
pacity subscribe to the capital stock of the jMadison & Portage Railroad
Company, in the sum of .1<S,000, and H. J. Sill and myself w^ere appointed
by the meeting a committee to prepare a resolution embodying the above
proposition in accordance with a state law that had been enacted some
few years before, whereby towns, cities, incorporated villages, etc., on the
line of a projected railroad were empowered to extend aid to railroad
corporations by taking stock in the manner above referred to. The reso-
lution was carefully prepared and submitted to the people at an
^adjourned meeting, when it was unanimously adopted. The supervisors
were next called upon and a notice prepared in which was embodied
the resolution above referred to. In the notice it was set forth that all
who were in favor of the resolution should vote, for the railroad, and
those opposed to it should vote against it. This notice was dated tho
24th day of ilarch. 1870, and was signed by John McKenzie, who liad
been elected chairman of the board of supervisors at the annual meeting
in lS(il), and by William Buckley, another member of the board, and
AVilliam Ilastie, clerk. ilcKenzie and Buckley were both opposed to
the road, and signed the notices simply because tlie law required them
to do so.
"After the notices were posted, every argument was used by the
friends of the enterprise to present their views, and give their reasons
why the road should be built, and the advantages the town would derive
from the road when once completed. The opposition on the other hand,
did all in their power to influence the vote against the proposition. ^Ir.
]\IcKenzie was placed at the head of the ticket for chairman, by the party
opposing the resolution, and I was placed at the head of the ticket for
the same office by those favoring the resolution. The contest was ani-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 345
mated and keen, and at no time in the history of our town had so much
interest been manifested nor the excitement consequent upon an election
run so high. The field was thoroughly canvassed and nearly every voter
was out. It was a day of earnest work and intense excitement, although
the excitement was of the character that neither any great amount of
noise or confusion prevailed, but a firm determination seemed settled
upon every voter's countenance as he walked up to the polls and depos-
ited his ballot. During the day, the vote was known to be close, and
as dusk approached, the friends of the measure felt some uneasiness as
to its faith. All interests, however, were centered in the result as to
whether the resolution to take stock in the railroad had been carried
or defeated ; other interests which usually arise at an election were buried
beneath this, and few eared about the result of the ticket further than
that if the resolution was carried those who favored it hoped the officers
nominated by them would also be elected, and those 'who .opposed it
hoped if it was defeated, the olHeers nominated by them would be elected.
The sun was fast sinking towards the western horizon, five o'clock, the
time fixed by law, for the closing of the polls, was near at hand. Each
party had its lieutenants out watching to see if any voter was still
back or could be found or approaching the polling place and if so to'
hurry him forward. The clock struck the hour of five, and with its
closing stroke, the polls were declared closed. The excitement was now
intense. It appeared from the poll list that two hundred and eighty-
nine votes had been cast. The crowd was so great around the table
where the votes were being counted, that it became almost impossible for
the officers to perform their duties, and when at last the result was finally
reached, it proved that two hundred and eighty-four votes in all were
cast on the railroad question ; and that one hundred and forty-six were
for the railroad, and one hundred and thirty-eight against the railroad,
making a ma.jority of eight in favor of the resolution.
"The majority for the board favoring the railroad w^as much greater.
The total niunber of votes cast for chairman was two hundred and
eighty-nine, of which number John McKenzie received one hundred and
seventeen and I received one hundred and seventy-two. Majority in
favor of the railroad board was fifty-nine. The vote was conclusive, and
had it been so accepted by those opposed to the railroad it would have
been much better both for themselves and those who favored it. But the
result of the election had scarcely been declared before murmurs of dis-
satisfaction and threats of hostile action were to be heard among the
vanquished. An effort had been made by the officers of the road to get
the question of extending aid in this manner presented to the people of
all the towns and cities on the line of the road at their spring elections,
346 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
but the effort had been delayed too long to have the proper notice given,
as the law required ten daj's notice to be given before a vote could be
taken. And it was some time after our vote had been taken, before a
vote was reached in the other places interested.
The Meeting at JIadison
"During the interim a meeting of the business men and leading
citizens and property owners along the line was called to meet at the
rooms of the business board in the city of Madison to consult as to the
propriety of extending the asked for aid, and if deemed advisable to
extend the same; to ascertain as near as possible the amount each city
and town should be called upon to give, taking into consideration the
ability and needs of the place interested in the road. At this meeting
there was quite a large attendance. The mayor and a number of the
most wealthy and influential citizens of Portage, a great many from the
different towns and villages along the line, and a very large and influ-
ential representation of the citizens of Madison were present. Among
the latter were some who were either bitterly opposed to the enterprise
and had determined if possible to defeat its completion, or perhaps, as
they themselves stated, had no confidence in Mr. Campbell's ability to
secure the iron and rolling stock, if the towns and cities on the line should
raise enough to prepare it for the same.
"Old Beeswax" and George B. Smith
"The Hon. George B. Smith was one of the men who seemed to look
upon Mr. Campbell with a peculiar contempt. He boldly asserted that
no firm, company or man possessed of common sense would ever take the
bonds of Campbell's Companj-, as he termed it, and furnish the necessary
funds to iron and equip the road. But he stated, in some remarks that
he made at the meeting that he would give Mr. Campbell credit for one
thing, he had certainly gotten up a liig furore all along tlie line and had
secured a good attendance to this meeting, and he thought perhaps that
was all it would amount to. At the same time, looking around the room,
he asked 'What is there about Campbell anyway to cause so many to
flock together at his bidding?' and not noticing Mr. Campbell who sat
back of some of those present he called out in a somewhat stentorian
voice — 'Where is old Beeswa.x, anyhow?' Mr. Campbell, however, re-
mained perfectly composed and paid no attention to the remarks of Mr.
Smith. He had come there with an object in view, and no remarks that
Smith or any one else could make were allowed to prevent him from
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 347
aeL'oiiiplishing his object, if it were at all possible to do so. A short time
after Mr. Smith had ceased talking, I spoke with him privately and
endeavored to persuade him that he was doing some of his best friends
and the line of the road, great injustice and that if he persisted in his
opposition it might possibly result in doing them a positive injury.
Whereupon he replied that it was no use to talk, that 'Jack of Clubs'
would never build our road and he knew it, and whenever anything
feasible was presented he would not hesitate to give it his support.
"Jack op Clubs" Sustained
"A committee was finally appointed, however, to confer with Mr.
Campbell and the other officers of the road in regard to their ability
tt> complete the same, in case the asked for aid was voted, and another
committee was appointed to determine what amount would be proper
for each town and city to furnish, taking into consideration the ad-
vantages to be gained and the benefits to be derived by the difl:erent
corporations by the building of the road. After the reports of this
committee were received, the meeting decided to recommend to the
people of the cities and towns of the line that the aid asked for
should be voted, and that the amount be the same as that agreed upon
at this meeting. There was considerable enthusiasm on the part of those
favoring the road, as a result of this meeting, and before the meeting
had closed, Mr. Smith even declared that he also would go it blind, as
he termed it, and favor the voting of the tax. In due time the question
of voting the tax as recommended by the people at the meeting above
referred to was submitted to the people of the towns and cities on the
line of the road, and nearly all of them voted the required amount. Mr.
Campbell and the other members of the board of directors having met
with this encouragement immediately set their forces to work to finish
the grading and tieing of the road.
General Store for Railroad Men
"About this time Dr. E. F. Russell and Ambrose Powers, old resi-
dents of our village, who had got tired waiting for the road and had
gone West with a view to going into business in some of the territories,
returned and proposed with me to go into the mercantile business in our
own village. Their proposition was considered, and by me accepted,
and in a short time we opened up with a fair stock of goods, for the size
of the place, under the firm name of Russell, Jamieson & Powers, in the
building some time before built, and for a while occupied by Ira S. Allen.
us IIISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
At the time the railroad company started their work, their credit was
rather low, and laborers were rather dubious about working for them,
fearing they might not get their pay. As soon as we had fairly opened up,
however, I visited Mr. Clinton, who had charge of the men, and in their
presence informed him that the company's orders would be received at
par for goods at our store in Poynette. This had the desired effect. As
many of the laborers had large families to support, it required nearly
all of their earnings to supply their wants, and as we kept a general
assortment of dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, we could supply
them with nearly all they recjuired, and while the road was being built,
we did quite a flourishing business, and it did much towards establisliing
the company's credit, which they at that time so much needed. Although
I had taken no position in the board, I continued to serve the company
as well and faithfully perhaps, as I could have done had I been a mem-
ber of that body. I secured for the company and settled with the owners
for a considerable part of the right of way to the town of Arlington, and
for some also in the town of De Korra.
"For some time after the work had been started, people along the
line generally expected that it would be continued for a short time, when
it would again be stopped as it had been so many times before. As the
summer wore on, however, and the company kept increasing their force,
and crowding the work, they began to think that after waiting so long
they were at last likely to get a railroad. Not until autumn, however,
when the ties and iron began to arrive and be put down were they per-
fectl.y satisfied that the road would actually lie completed.
Transfer of Town Bonds for Railroad Stock
"A resolution that had been passed at our town meeting provided
that as soon as the road should be built and equipped from either ter-
minus of said railroad to the village of Po.vnette, in the town of De Korra,
that the supervisors of such town of De Korra should deliver the full
amount of bonds voted to the treasurer or authorized agent of the com-
pany, and subscribe to the capital stock of said railroad company to the
amount of bonds delivered, and receive therefor a full paid certificate of
stock in favor of said town. In order to carry out the instructions of the
people as embodied in this resolution and as the road was fast approach-
ing the village, I had the bonds with interest coupons attached prepared
in Chicago, and forwarded to me at Poynette. As soon as they were
received, I called a meeting of the board of supervisors, and suggested
that a resolution be passed authorizing the execution and delivery of the
bonds. After some discussion in regard to the matter, a resolution
HISTORY OF COLU-AIBIA COUNTY 349
was prepared and unanimously adopted, in accordance with the sug-
gestion stated above. The bonds and coupons were then signed by the
chairman, and coxmtersigned by the clerk, and delivered to the town
treasurer. An order was then presented by Mr. Winslow BuUen, the
authorized agent of the railroad company, calling for the delivery of the
bonds to him as said company's agent. Whereupon the town treasurer,
Mr. William B. Laughlin, by order of the board of supervisors, deliv-
ered the bonds to Mr. Bulleu, and received the receipt of the treasurer
of the railroad company for the same. The company just at that timo,
however, were not prepared to receive subscriptions to the capital stock,
nor give a certificate for the amount of stock to be taken by the town as
required by the resolutions passed at the annual town meeting. And
the road, although nearly completed to our place, was not opened for
business. The supervisors therefore concluded that the bonds had better
be left in their possession until the road was completed and everything
secured beyond the possibility of a failure. To this Mr. BuUen readily
consented, as he saw it was but just that the town should retain possession
of the bonds until they receive their stock.
Bond Question Traced to the End
"On the second day of November the books of the comiDany were
presented to the supervisors of the town, who subscribed in the name of
the town to the capital stock of the company for the sum of eight thou-
sand dollars, and upon delivering the bonds of the town for that amount
received a certificate of full paid stock for the same. I will here anticipate
a few years and dispose of this bond question without again referring
to the same. When, in February, 1871, the first installment became
due, the funds had not been raised to meet the same, as those who had
opposed voting the tax procured an injunction enjoining the collector
from collecting the same, and when the coupon fell due, the company
commenced suit in the United States District court, and obtained judg-
ment against the town for the amount due. Even after this decision
was rendered, which virtually settled the legality of the bond and should
have convinced all interested that further opposition was not only
foolish, but likely to result in serious injury to the tax payers of the
town, they continued their opposition and compelled the company to
go into court and take judgment on the bonds also and the result was
that the town paid in all something over twelve thousand dollars in
place of the eight thousand dollars that was voted, and the last payment
was not made until the winter of 1875-76.
350 HISTORY OF COLl'-MBIA COFXTY
"Old Beeswax" Got There
"After the road was opened for business from Portage to Pojniette,
in the autumn of 1870, Messrs. Wentworth & Company, or Wentworth,
McGregor & Company, built a small rough board grain warehouse and
opened a grain market at this point. This company also ran some lumber
down from Portage, and sold it to the farmers and others in and around
the place. Soon after the road was opened as far as Poynette, and as
winter was close at hand, I started with my family for Central IMis-
souri. At the time I left home in November, the railroad had not
reached Madison, Imt while in Missouri, during the winter, I had a letter
from my friends in AVisconsiu, informing me of the completion of the
road to that place, and also of the arrival of the first train over our
road to the capital city. The same letter also informed me that Mr. G.
B. Smith, S. IMills, and others who had doubted Mr. Campbell's ability
to complete the work, had been duly notified before the arrival of the
train to be on their guard, for 'Old Beeswax was coming.'
"The building of this road from Madison to Portage shows very
clearly what energy and perseverance, coupled with an iron will and the
determination to succeed will accomplish.
"It was not ilr. Campbell's intention, however, that Madison should
long remain the southern terminus, nor Portage the northern terminus
of this road, and in 1871 the Madison & Portage Company was author-
ized by the legislature to extend its road across. the Illinois State line
and north from Portage City to Lake Superior, and the same year it
was consolidated with the Rockford Central Railroad Company of Illi-
nois, and its name was changed to the Chicago & Superior Railroad Com-
pany, retaining, however, its own organization. Mr. Atkins of New
York, the party furnishing the funds, becoming involved in other enter-
prises refused to take any more of the company's bonds and the work
was again stopped and the road from Madison to Portage leased to the
Chicago, ililwaukee & St. Paul Company. Although Mr. Campbell is
without doubt fully entitled to the full credit of completing this line of
road, he has frequently told me that but for the aid and encouragement
received from the citizens of Poynette, he very much doubted if he ever
could have accomplished the work.
"During this same year (1870), I also had one of those painful
duties to perform which is apt to fall to the lot of man during his earthly
pilgrimage. My mother died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs.
Janet Wilson in the town of Arlington on the fourteenth day of April. ' '
Establishes Grain Business
Much dissatisfaction existing among the farmers as to the conduct of
the local grain market at Poynette, Mr. Jamieson in 1871 sold his interest
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY ' 351
in the store, erected an elevator and began taking in grain in September,
and dealing in lumber. In the face of much competition and considerable
prejudice in favor of older markets in the course of several years, he
became well established in this new line.
"On the eighteenth day of November of this year (1871), our ninth
child, a little girl, was born. We named her Alice Agnes, for her aunts,
Alice on her mother's side, and her Aunt Agnes on the side of her
father. I also moved from the village on to my farm this same season.
And on the twenty-third day of December of this year also I was elected
Master of the Poynette Lodge of Free Masons. The Lodge had been
organized in 1868, and I became a member and was raised to the degree
of a master Mason that same year. My relations with this lodge have
been of the most agreeable nature, and I shall ever remember vdth
pleasure the enjoyable evenings I spent within its walls. During the
year 1872, my entire time and attention were given to the business in
which I had but recently engaged, ily grain and lumber business
had considerably increased since I first commenced. My shipments
of grain from the time I opened in September, 1871, to the thirty-first
day of December of that same year did not average to exceed fifteen
hundred bushels per month. In 1872 the average was nearly two thou-
sand five hundred bushels per month, while in the year 1873, the average
was upwards of six thousand bushels per month, or some seventy-three
thousand bushels for the entire season. And upwards of one-third of
that amount was taken into the elevator, in a little over one month after
threshing had commenced in the fall. Nearly half of the wheat taken
in up to this time graded No. 1, and scarcely any graded below
No. 2. My lumber, business had also considerably increased. In
1871 I sold only somewhere about one hundred thousand feet. In 1872
I sold some two hundred and fifty thousand feet, while this year (1873),
I sold three hundred and twenty-five thousand. I handled considerable
live stock, and some dressed hogs this season, and quite a quantity of
wool. During the year 1874 my grain business increased some, but
not a great deal. My lumber business, however, was much greater.
I also handled a much greater number of live stock, but not so
much wool, and I shipped a considerable quantity of coarse grain and
ground feed to different points in the pineries. This year we built what
is known as the Presbyterian church in our village, for which the princi-
ple part of the material was bought at my lumber yard."
The winter months of all these years Mr. Jamieson spent in the south
for the benefit of his health, usually leaving the management of his
increasing business to his older sons. "At the town election held in
April of this year (1875), I was again chosen chairman of the town
352 HISTORY OF COLU.MBIA COUNTY
board of supervisors, which somewhat increased my responsibilities.
My farming interests had also considerably increased, my stock of neat
cattle amounting at times to some sixty head, besides horses, sheep, swine
and poultry, all of which I usually kept quite a number.
Cheese F.vctory Est.\.blished
"On the third day of February, 1876. articles of incorporation were
filed in the ofSce of the secretary of state by E. F. Russell, W. C. Gault,
William Forrest, John Collins, and myself, under the name of the
Poj-nette Cheese Manufacturing Company, and of this company, I was
elected president, James Mack, secretary, and E. F. Russell, treasurer.
The capital stock of the association was placed at two thousand five hun-
dred dollars. During the spring a large two-story building was
erected. II. J. Xoyes was engaged to superintend the factory the
first season, E. O. Madison, the second, and C. J. Harris has had charge
of it since. It did not prove a very profitable investment, and the stock
kept changing hands until in 1879, I found myself in possession of the
entire amount." It should be noted that during the existence of tliis
factory, Mr. Jamieson shipped abroad several consignments of cheese
to Glasgow, Scotland, and thus some of the products of the new country
where he had settled in his early manhood found their way to his native
vicinity.
"During the same year. 1876. the brick stores of E. F. Russell and
L. A. Squire, were built, which buildings added greatly to the appearance
of our village. While in process of construction one of those fearful
tornadoes which of late years had occasionally visited some of the western
states passed over the place injuring these buildings slightly, demolish-
ing several entirely and seriously injuring otliers.
Business P.\sses to Jamiesox (H. P.) & C4ArLT (^\. C.)
"Jly son, H. P. Jamieson. who had been helping me in my grain
and lumber business for the past few years, having gained quite a knowl-
edge of the business, now desired to engage in something of this kind
on his own account, and as my health was very poor, I proposed to him
to secure some good steady man as a partner, and I would turn this part
of my business over to them. A partnership was formed between him
and William C. Gault, and on the twelfth day of August of this same
year, 1878, I turned over to the firm of Jamieson & Gault my entire stock
of lumber, etc., and rented them my grain elevator and lumber yard.
Having thrown off the responsibilities and cares of this part of my
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 358
business to a great extent, I felt as though mj- time was not employed
as it should be, and as I had some time before determined that if I was
ever able to erect a good, comfortable, substantial home, and if the
proper time ever arrived where I could give it my personal attention,
I should build such a house and surround it with such conveniences as
might afford me some comfort and consolation for the many years of
hard and incessant toil I had passed through, and which would afford
a comfortable and convenient home for myself and her who was perhaps
as deserving of it as I was. Thinking this time had now arrived, in the
latter part of the month of September, I procured the assistance of Mr.
E. B. Thomas and stepped into the corner of my oat field, which had this
same year yielded me seventy-five bushels an acre, and there staked off
the spot and commenced excavating for the basement of the house in
which I now live, and where with God's will the remainder of my days
will probably be spent. The building, however, was not fully completed,
so I could move into it, until October of the following year."
Farm Machinery and Supplies
On February 9, 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson suffered the severe
bereavement in the death of their youngest child, Alice. The many
details concerning family affairs and business which fill most of the
later pages in the manuscript must necessarily be omitted. In 1880,
having contemplated for some time engaging in business of farm machin-
ery and supplies, he opened up in the spring of that year with a very
fair stock of farm machinery, wagons, barb-wire, etc. His object in tak-
ing up this business was to work up some kind of an enterprise for his
son Addison, who had now reached an age when all men wanted to be
doing something for themselves. ' ' In the month of January, of this same
year (1881), I opened a correspondence with Marshall & Ilsley of Mil-
waukee for the purpose of furnishing exchange to the business men of
the place to men who might want such accommodations and have ever
since continued furnishing any who might want the same. During this
year, however, my attention and time were principally occupied with
my farm, and working up the machinery business. I also had the cheese
factory run, but with little profit. When spring opened, I again
increased my stock of farm machinei-y, and had by this time got a very
fair business established. I accordingly, on the twelfth day of
August of this same year, 1881, turned all of this stock over to my son
Addison, and at the same time he united his business with the business
of Jamieson & Gault, and merging both into one they commenced doing
under the firm name of Jamieson, Gault & Company, which
354 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
firm contiimed business at the time of my writing. I also ran the
cheese factory this season but with no better success, and I now began
to think of abandoning it entirely and converting the building into some-
thing more useful, or at least more profitable, as there seemed to be no
disposition on the part of the farming community in this section to
give anuch heed to the daiiying interests."
Ju.STLY Proud of His Hojieste.vd
The cardinal virtues of the late Hugh Jamiesou may be said to have
been love of land, of peace and industry, and his happy later years were
largely disposed in supervising the estate, which he had accumulated
thi'ough business and farming. An evidence of this appears in some
of the later pages of his writings, in which he refers to his purchase, in
1874, of forty acres which had been acquired from the government in
1836 by ^Yallace Rowan. That land, as he stated, possessed "some fea-
tures of interests, that none of my other farms did to me, because besides
containing the first forty acres entered in Columbia County, and the spot
where the first house was built in the same county, it was here on this
farm that I first saw the girl that was to become my wife, on it I wooed
and won her, and on it too our honeymoon was spent, and our first
housekeeping done. A stream of the purest spring water runs through it,
and some of its scenes are quite interesting. During this summer, I
would drive over this farm to see my cattle nearly every day, and who
is there that could look down into a deep glen, where the grasses are
rich and luxuriant and a clear, bubbling brook running s\viftly along
and see a herd of cattle greedily devouring the succulent grasses,
without feeling a just pride at being the owner of such surroundings,
and a feeling of satisfaction in knowing that the same had been acquired
by the efforts of his own hands and brain?"
Retrospect in 1883
The final pages of these memoirs were written at the close of January,
1883, and he summarizes the progress of his vicinity during the years
of his residence, in the following words : " It is now nearly thirty- four
years since I first set foot in Columbia County. At that time ther(^ were
not far from thirty families w-ithin a radius of three miles from where
the village of Poynette now stands, most of whom had settled there within
the two years previous to my coming. Of the heads of those families,
a very few, I think not to exceed six, are now living within those limits.
A few have removed to other states, but by far the greater number of
HISTORY OF COLUilBIA COUNTY 355
them are dead. For many years after my coming I used to cut my hay
where the Lower Mill Pond now is, and my pasture fence stood where
is now the center of Main Street, and which is the principal street in the
village. Within the limits above named there are now not less than
from two hundred to two hundred and fifty families, the village alone
containing between four and five hundred of population. It also has a
' graded school of three departments, two churches, two parsonages, two
grist mills, two hotels, two meat markets, one lumber yard, two farm
implement and machinery shops, a grain and stock market, two black-
smith shops, two wagon shops, three boot and shoe shops, two drug stores,
three hardware stores, two harness shops, six dry goods and gi'ocery
stores, some of whose sales alone amount to nearly forty thousand dollars
a year, two paint shops, two saloons, two tailor shops, two millinery
shops, four dressmaking shops, two barber shops, one cheese factory,
several carpenter and joiner shops, one furniture store, and one livery
stable. There is also a Masonic Lodge, a Good Templars Lodge, and
with the reciuisite number of doctors, ministers and all the necessary
paraphernalia to make a first-class, thrifty business city. It also has a
country around it to warrant its much greater increase both in popula-
tion and business."
His Religious Creed
While several members of his family in Wisconsin were active
workers in the Presbyterian church, Mr. Jamieson says of his own
religious experience — "I have never sought for admission to become a
member of any religious body, for the reason that I do not believe that
with my hasty and impulsive temper, which I confess I have never been
able to entirely subdue, I could honestly and conscientiously comply
with the vows or obligations a member has to take in uniting with such
organizations. And I believe I will be more acceptable to the Master
not to take those vows, than to take them and afterwards violate them.
Besides I regard every man as a Christian that labors for the public
weal, and the advancement and elevation of his race, for if Christianity
means anything, it certainly means this. I believe, however, in church
organization, and think that all who can honestly live up to the vows
taken on uniting with the church ought not to hesitate in becoming a
member of whatever church is best suited to their minds.
"My efforts in Columbia County, notwithstanding my poor health.
have been reasonably successful, so far as the accumvilation of property
is concerned, as my tax receipts will show. My first tax paid in the
county for the year 1848, as before stated, was two dollars and thirty
356 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
cents on eighty acres of land, inclusive of highway taxes ; and the receipt
■which I hold for taxes paid on eleven hundred and six acres which I
now own, inclusive of highway taxes and personal property for the year
1882 amounts to over five hundred dolars. Some people may think I
have not used the means placed in my hands just as they would have
done. In this, however, I have been governed wholly by my own judge-
ment, and hold myself responsible only to the power that placed it in
my keeping. What little property I have acquired has been made from
strictly legitimate business transactions, and not through any gambling
or speculative operations."
Good Family Stock
Modern science takes much account of the influence that a family
stock has on the social health and wellbeing of any given community.
It is known that one family, given to dissipation and vagabondage,
will cause thousands of dollars of expense to a county and will extend
its weakening and corrupting influence to many others in the neighbor-
hood. In the light of these facts, the concluding sentences of Hugh
Jamieson's memoirs may very properly be quoted. During the years
both himself and other members of his immediate family had lived in
Wisconsin, besides contributing to the general support of government
and schools and institutions, he was able to state that not one ' ' has ever
caused the state or county in which we live to be at one dollar of expense
in prosecuting or defending an action, either of a civil or criminal nature,
nor for any other purpose whatsoever, except as sharers of the general
expense in governing the whole, our full proportion of which has always
been cheerfully and willingly paid. I might as well state here also that
while our ancestors are known to have lived in the same parish (viz.
that of Loudon in Ayrshire (Scotland), for upwards of three hundred
and fifty years, several of whom are known to have fought, bled and
died for the civil and religious freedom of their country, (as the battle
of Both well Bridge and other battlefields will fully attest), I think the
court records of the county in which they live might be searched in vain
for any evidence of a criminal or even civil action of any consequence
in which any of them were ever engaged, except in defense of their
civil or religious rights. And I am satisfied that the records of no poor
house ever contained one of their names, for all of which I sincerely
thank God, and only hope that those who come after us may not defile
the records ; and that the country of our adoption may never have cause
to regret the transplanting made in Wisconsin in the years 1848 and
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 357
1849 from that small manufacturing town on the banks of Irvine in
Ayrshire, Scotland. ' '
Mr. Jamieson's Death
The writer of these memoirs lived fully fifteen years after he had
penned the last words of the manuscript and died at his home in Poy-
nette, January 20, 1898.
CHAPTER XXIII
^\^^OCEXA
Founded by JIajor Elbert Dickason — Naming of AVyocena — High
Grade op Early Settlers — First Store — Messrs. Dey and Dicka-
son— The Dairy Industries — Picnic Held on Historic Ground —
Sketch of J. M. Bushnell.
A few miles northwest of the center of Columbia County is Wyocena;
famed more than sixty years ago as the headquarters of the county gov-
ernment, but now rather quiet and subdued, although neat and bright.
The village has long been the seat of the County Insane Asylum and
Poor Home : a full history of which will be found in the chapter on
"County Organization." It is the center of a rich dairy district, and
has a modern creamery, several business places, a substantial bank and
a flour mill (located outside the village limits). Wyoeena was incor-
porated as a village in 1909.
Founded by Ma.jor Elbert Dickason
Sometime in the fall of 1843. after his ruinous experience as the
founder of Columbus. Maj. Elbert Dickason opened a farm on what is
now Duck Creek, in the northern part of Section 21, present Town of
Wyoeena. He was poverty-stricken, but still brave and hopeful. He
converted a portion of his log house into a "hotel," and in 1846. when
the county was organized, platted a village upon his farm. When he
arrived upon the ground he named the stream Duck Creek, and the post-
office established at that point in 1845 was given that name also.
Naming of Wyocena
What occurred soon afterward, in order to christen it more euphoni-
ously, and more befitting its ambition as an aspirant for the county seat,
is told by J. M. Bushnell, of the Wyocena Advance, who is a native of
358
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 359
the village and also a representative of one of the pioneer families of
the town :
"This, one of the first settlements in Columbia County," lie says,
"was known as Duck Creek until the summer of 1846, when it was a
prominent candidate for the seat of government of the county. The
ambitious early settlers of Duck Creek decided that in order to succeed
in this direction they needed a different name for the settlement.
' ' Many and various were the names presented by the ones who usually
congregated at the public house of Major Dickason dailj'. During this
discussion the major had a dream which resulted in a name for the set-
tlement. The follawing morning he related it to the assembled settlers
as follows: He said he had been on a journey the night before to a
county metropolis, where all was business and hustle and the name of
the city was Wyocena. This so enthused his guests that they at once
decided to call it by that name and so the name has remained, but the
early orthography has changed several times.
"It was probablj' during the following year, 1847, that one Parks
Bronson, a pioneer pedagogue in this section gave to it its present spelling.
"The name is not Indian. No one of our Indian students has been
able to find anything in any of the Indian tongues that will admit of
such a construction.
"Then again the major would have nothing Indian in his. He had
occasion the first year of his residence to dislike them. His first crop
of wheat proved to be too good a food for their ponies to have any left
for his own necessities. It is said that while an Indian was well treated
at the log tavern, his scalp was in need of insurance if he met the major
in the woods.
"The early name for the stream on which Wyocena is located was
Wauona River, and this beautiful name had to give way to the major's
dislike of Indian names and be christened Duck Creek, much to the dis-
like of many.
"AVyocena had the proud distinction of having been the county seat
in 1847 and 1848, and again in 1850. The usual scramble for county
seat honors was rampant in those pioneer daj^s, and in 1851 it was perma-
nently located at Portage — though the early settlers made the claim that
it was done by the floating vote of laborers on the. then building, canal.
High Grade of E.vrly Settlers
"Perhaps no town was ever settled with a more intelligent, sturdy and
industrious people than was Wyocena. They endured many hardships
and saw much of privation, though few ever knew real want, for the land
360 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
was very productive and easilj' tilled so that the necessaries were at hand
if the luxuries were missing. Mills and markets w^ere far away at the
start, and the teamster was obliged to carry tools on his trips to repair
an axletree or a wagon tongue when broken.
"Many of them started out for market with a load of grain and
returned in debt. These were some of the many hardships endured by
the early settlers.
"The fabulous crops easily grown induced many to come here and
settle and probably no town in Wisconsin had more of its first settlers
make permanent homes than did Wyocena. "
First Store
Jacob Rogers opened the first store iu AVyocena. during 1847. and,
as was customary, his was a forerunner of one of our modern "depart-
ment stores." The settlers did not have to go elsewhere for anything
on earth they required — fortunately for them.
Pioneer Schools and Churches
Also in 1847, when Wyocena was the temporary countj^ seat, the
citizens erected a small frame building for school purposes. It was used
eight years, when the district erected a larger two-story frame school-
house, 32x40 feet, and the scholars were divided into two departments,
the primary pupils occupying the lower room and those more advanced,
the upper.
Two years before the completion of this building. Elder S. E. ]\Iiner,
of the Congregational Church, erected a building for a select school, in
which the higher branches should be taught — a preparatory institution
for those designed for a collegiate education. The venture was not suc-
cessful, and in 1847, the building was disposed of to the ]\Iethodists and
Baptists for church purposes.
In the meantime (1845), Wyocena had been honored with a postofSce,
with Harvey Bush as first postmaster.
]\Iessr.«. Dey -vnd Dickason
The first grist mill was erected by John Hunter and Chauncey Spear
in 1853, Ben.iamin Dey purchasing an interest in the fall of the year. Af-
ter being operated two years under the firm name Hunter & Dey, the lat-
ter became sole proprietor. The mill was burned in the fall of 1855. but
Mr. Dey immediately rebuilt and operated it until the Civil war. At
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
361
the opening of hostilities he went to Missouri as a wagoniiiaster, and was
in the cavalry service during the last two years of the war. At its con-
clusion he returned to Wyocena, and engaged in farming or milling dur-
ing the remainder of his life. Mr. Dey first settled in the locality in 1844,
and was a co-temporary of Major Diekason, who died in 1848.
The major was a hearty, honest man. somewhat abrupt and occa-
sionally domineering, but generally respected and popular, despite the
fact that he was by no means what a citizen of the world would call suc-
cessful. But he "tried hard:" so rest to his fruitless striving!
The Dairy iNDrsTRiES
Among the industries which obtained a later foothold in Wyocena,
Wyocena Public School
was the manufacture of cheese. The Wyocena Cheese Factory was estab-
lished in the village in 1875, and three years afterward Chauncey Spear
founded a factory one mile east.
At the commencement of the industry, not only at Wyocena, but
throughout the county, the manufacture of cheese made little progi'ess
on account of the short and irregular supply of milk, but with the
growth of dairy farming that drawback was overcome; and the cream-
eries sprung up and flourished even more vigorously than the cheese
factories.
Wyocena is now represented by a neat busy creamery, conducted by
E. V. Harpold, and although it is but a few years old it is turning
out 100,000 pounds of butter annually.
362 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
AYyocexa State Baxk
The Wyoceiia State Bank was organized in 1910. It has a capital
of $12,000. and deposits amounting to $40,000. Present officers : S. C.
Cushman, president ; AY. J. Steele, vice president ; J. H. Dooley, cashier.
The Baptists
The Baptists and Congregationalists have societies in Wyocena. The
former held the first religious services in town at which there was preach-
ing. This was in the summer of 1846. when Elder Wood, a Baptist min-
ister conducted services, preaching occasionally at Wyocena for a year
thereafter. In 1852. Elder Moses Rowley organized a congregation, and
in the following year Elder Wood returned and remained as a regular
pastor for four years ; assumed the pastorate, for the third time, in 1860,
and thus continued for over twenty years. At present the Baptist Church
is without a settled pastor. It has a membership of about sixty.
The Congregational Church
The Congregationalists are under the pastoral care of Rev. R. C. Ben-
nett, who also has charge of the church at Rio. The origin of the society
at Wyocena dates from 1850. In that year an Old School Presbyterian
Church was organized by Rev. William W. J\IcNair of Portage, who
preached for a short time. At first services were held in the old school-
house. The original church consisted of nine members. On March 11,
1853. a meeting of the First Presbyterian Church of Wyocena was called
at the house of Rev. S. E. I\Iiner. who was invited to act as moderator.
Parks Bronson was elected temporary clerk, and letters of dismissal were
granted to the following eight members of the First Presbyterian : Linus
Blair. Harvey White, Parks Bronson. George Gregg. Nancy Blair, ilrs.
H. White, and Mr. and Mrs. John Ferrier.
Steps were at once taken to organize a Congregational Church, such
being the unanimous recommendation of those present. Thus originated
the First Congregational Church of Wyocena. Eighteen members organ-
ized under the articles of faith and covenant of the General Convention
of Wisconsin, and elected Linus Blair and Harvey White as deacons. A
formal organization was effected April 9. 1853. and church building was
dedicated in March, 1855.
Social and Literary
Wyocena has a number of societies of a social and literary nature
which tend to make life worth living. Perhaps the most active of these
HISTORY OP COLUaiBIA COUNTY 363
is the camp of the Royal Neighbors of America. The Woodmen of
America have also a good lodge and the Study Club, organized and sup-
ported by the women, is the means of many pleasant and profitable gather-
ings. Through the latter organization the village has collected a well-
selected traveling library, which is the undoubted nucleus of a larger
and more permanent institution.
Picnic Held on Historic Ground
In connection with the social activities of Wyoceua, mention is clue
of the very successful picnic at that village, given by the Royal Neigh-
bors and Modern Woodmen of the county, on June 14-15, 1905. J. M.
Bushnell was elected president of the Picnic Association. Some seven
thousand visitors were present, and the Royal Neighbors won the prize
drill. The procession was a great success, as was the picnic proper in
the beautiful oak grove at the Point, east of the village where the branches
of Duck Creek come together. Not only the natural charms of the spot
and the surroundings, but the remains of the old military breast-works
in the grove, the site of the Indian village opposite (now almost covered
by the waters of the stream), and the knowledge that almost within hail-
ing distance of the .iolly and secure picnickers once ran the old ililitary
Road, along which Uncle Sam's boys, Indians and the traders measured
many a weary mile in the wilderness of Central Wisconsin — all these
charms of Nature and historic associations combined to make the big
gathering at Wyocena an occasion long to be remembered.
Sketch of J. M. Bushnell
J. Monroe Bushnell was born in Wyocena, -July 14, 1851, on a farm
adjoining the village, the son of D. S. and Sarah A. (Brown) Bushnell,
who came to Wyocena from Jefferson County, New York in 1848. D. S.
Bushnell was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, April 5, 1803, and died at
Wyocena September 8, 1887 ; Sarah A. Brown, born at Sprague Corners.
New York, March 12, 1823, died at Wyocena, April 12, 1894.
]Mr. Bushnell, of this sketch, was educated in the public schools and
also attended at the Oshkosh Normal. He taught schools in Wisconsin
and Iowa for several years; was a traveling salesman for a number of
years; has held numerous local offices, and was the presidential elector
from the Second District of Wisconsin in 1904. He has followed other
pursuits, but for some time now has edited the Wyocena Advance.
On June 12, 1874, ilr. Bushnell, married Jennie M. Scott of Spring-
vale, who was born February 17, 1854, and died June 5, 1880.
36i HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
On February 28, 1884, he was united in marriage to Ida A. West-
cott of River Falls, Wis., who is a graduate of the Normal School at that
that place. She taught school for several years : was a teacher in the acad-
emy at River Falls for a time and principal of the Baldwin graded schools
for two years. Mrs. Bushnell has always taken much interest in educa-
tional work; was clerk of the local schools for fourteen years and has
been secretary and one of the directors of the County Traveling Library
Board since its inception nine years ago.
Mr. and J\lrs. Bushnell trace their ancestry back to the first settle-
ments of the New World ; her aneesters coming over in the ship William
and Francis in 1632, and his on the ship Planter in 1635.
CHAPTER XXIV
FOUNTAIN PRAIRIE (FALL RIVER)
Drainage and Land Surface — Chester Bushnell, First Settler-
Dyer, Brown and Sage Locate — The Magnificent McCafferty —
First Land Entries — School and Church on Section 23 — Town
Government in Running Order — Reminiscences of James C. Carr
(By His Daughter, Mrs. Gertrude C. Fuller) — First Birth and
First Death — Farming Under Difficulties — An Opinionated
Applicant — Public Service of Carr and Adams — Story He Told
on Brother Sage — Benjamin Sage, the Victim — Village of Fall
River — A. A. Brayton, First Settler — Postoffice in 1847 — The
Village Schools — Methodist and Baptist Churches — EabijY Times
in Village and Town.
The town of Fountain Prairie lies in the southeastern part of the
county, in the first eastern tier of townships, Dodge County being to the
east. It received its name from the fact that there was a spring or
stream of living water on every section of land save three.
Drainage and Land Surface
The north branch of the Crawfish River enters the town on Section
18, passes through into 17, 8, 9, 10, and 16, where it unites with the main
stream ; the south branch enters on Section 30, runs through 31, 29, 20,
and 21, and on 16 joins the main stream, which courses through Sections
15, 14, 13, 23, 26, 27, 34 and 35, and pa.sses out from Section 36.
Fountain Prairie lies directly south of the town of Courtland. but is
considerably lower than the latter, the dividing ridge veering to the
westward. Prairie occurs in the southwestern sections only. Narrow
marshy belts are seen in the northern and middle portions. The largest
part of the town lies at an altitude of 300 to 350 feet, the extremes being
from 250 feet along the Crawfish in the southeastern part to 400 feet
365
366 IIISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
iu the uorthwestern. The streams run in shallow, but well defined
valleys.
Chester Bushnell, First Settler
The first actual settler of the town was Cliester Bushnell, who arrived
in the spring of ISiS and erected a board shanty on Section 33, in the
extreme southern part of the town.
Dyer, Brown and Sage Locate
In September of that year Wayne B. Dyer located, and built the first
log house, while about the same time John Brown and Benjamin Sage
selected land in the south of the town. Mr. Brown built a log house on
his land in Section 34 and ilr. Sage returned to Vermont for his family.
In Jul.y of the succeeding year IMr. Sage brought his household with him
and established a homestead in the same section iu which IMr. Brown
resided.
Mr. Sage became settled none too soon, as on the 2d of the following
month his wife presented him with a daughter, whom they named Martha
— the first child to be born in the Town of Fountain Prairie.
The Magnificent jMcC.vfferty
Belonging to this year of the first pioneer (1843), is the name of
H. W. MeCafferty. "McCaiferty's claim was on Section 21 and adjoin-
ing sections. IMac had an eye to a ranch of magnificent proportions. He
plowed a few acres and sowed it to winter wheat in the fall of 1843 ; a
very fair crop was harvested, although somewhat injured by the deer
feeding upon it. The California gold fever breaking out soon after this,
MeCafferty was swept along with it. When he returned, part of his
claim had been taken up by others and the remainder had been despoiled
of its timber; .so he abandoned it. Yet his name adheres to the place,
as the high ridge of land running through Sections 21 and 15 is known
as MeCafferty 's Ridge."
First Land Entries
The first entry of land in the town was made by James C. Carr, on
July 15, 1843. He settled upon his land in June, 1844, and the railway
station at Fall River now occupies a portion of it. Carr was a New
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 367
Yorker, held several local offices, but moved to Colorado in 1863. The
first death in the town, that of his wife, occurred in August, 1845.
Wayne B. Dyer, the next to enter land, made claims on Sections 34
and 26, in August and October, 1843, but soon afterward sold them and
located in the present Town of Otsego, where he was the first settler and
the first house-builder.
School and Church on Section 23
Quite a settlement was effected in the southeast corner of the town
as early as 1845, and in the fall of that year a schoolhouse was built on
Section 23.
The building was also used for religious purposes, irrespective of
creed. There Rev. Stephen Jones, N. S. Green, E. J. Smith and other
pioneer ministers preached the Word as they saw it. School was held
in that little house, summer and winter, until the organization of the
town into school districts in 1849, when a better structure was provided
for the youth; but the religious elders occupied the church for several
years thereafter.
Town Government in Running Order
In January, 1849, a township under the name of Fountain Prairie
was set off by the Board of County Commissioners from the voting pre-
cinct created three years before. The store of A. A. Brayton was desig-
nated as the place for holding the first election. There were sixty-two
names on the poll list, and Mr. Brayton was elected chairman of the
town board; John Q. Adams, superintendent of schools, and Nelson S.
Green, treasurer. Thus the township government was put in running
order. In the earlier years the most prominent members of the board
were Messrs, Alfred A. Brayton, John Q. Adams, James C. Cai-r, Henry
C. Brace, H. C. Field, William H. Proctor and M. C. Hobart.
Reminiscences of James C. Carr
By His Daughter, 3Irs. Gertrude C. Fuller
James C. Carr, who made the first entry of land within the limits of
the present Town of Fountain Prairie, was among the most widely known
pioneers of that section and throughout the county. His daughter, now
Mrs. Gertrude C. Fuller, of IMerrimack, Sauk County, contributes
the following interesting paper concerning her father and several of his
368 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
friends who assisted him in making old Columbia County habitable and
pleasant :
"James Cary Carr was born at Laurens, Otsego County, N. Y., Febru-
ary 21, 1817, where he grew to manhood; working on the farm during
the summer, attending the village school during the winters until he
became able to teach. When he had secured enough means to pay his
way through the academy at Cazeuovia, N. Y., he gave up farming.
Later he entered a medical college, but soon gave that up and decided
to take his chances in the fast developing West.
' ' Coming to Wisconsin in 1842, he selected a farm on Fountain Prai-
rie, one mile west of the present village of Fall River, Columbia County.
On a little knoll near a spring he put up a small shanty, and also planted
a few apple seeds that he had brought West in his pocket. This was
his first home and the first orchard started on the prairie.
First Birth and First De.\th
"The following year Mr. Carr returned to New York, where he was
married to ilary Ann Self, whom he brought to his new home in a cov-
ered wagon, with oxen for a team. They then built a frame house, the
first one in the vicinity and were soon joined by John (Scotch) Brown
and John Quincy Adams, who being unmarried, boarded with them.
Here March 29, 1845, was born the first white child on Fountain Prairie
(now Hattie C, Shepard, of Winona, ilinn,). In the following August,
Mrs. Carr died, the first death on the prairie, leaving ]\Ir. Carr with a
five-months' old babe to care for. He hired Mrs. Uncle Tommy Swarth-
oiit, who had settled first south of him, to care for the little one and told
his friends they must look for a home elsewhere, as he must now batch
it. But both begged him to let them share with him till they were mar-
ried themselves, which he did. and afterward, being a justice of tlie peace,
he performed the ceremony that united John Brown and Caroline Hughes
in holy matrimonj'.
Remarkable Friendship
"The friendship between these three pioneers was so firmly cemented
during these hours of trial, that death alone severed it. These three
men were born inside of one year, and Mr. Carr, who died in Linden,
Idaho, December 2, 1894, aged seventy-seven years, ten months and eleven
days, preceded ]\Ir. Adams just three months and fifteen days, the latter
dying March 17, 1895.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 369
Farming Under Difficulties
"Mr. Can- was remarried to Mary Crocker of Binghampton, New
York, the summer of 1846, and continued to reside on the farm. He
walked from his home to Green Bay, the nearest land office at that time,
to secure his deed, paying $1.25 per acre for 160 acres. At that time
there were only three houses in Columbus. He brought besides the
apple seeds in his pockets, five slips of Balm of Gilead trees in his trunk.
These grew and from the buds was made a sajve which was extensively
used by the neighbors for healing wounds as cuts, scratches, etc., and
many were the slips taken from these trees, to various parts of the prai-
rie. Milwaukee was their nearest market, and Mr. Carr often told of
taking a load of grain there with an ox team, and it would not bring
enough to buy a barrel of salt.
An Opinionated Applicant
"Before the days of county superintendent of schools, the school
board of which Mr. Carr was chairman had to examine the applicants,
grant certificates, etc., and I remember many amusing incidents. One
young lady insisted that in giving the vowel sounds, c preceding o had
the soft sound, and that the abbreviation Co. should be pronounced as
So, and No. for number was pronounced No. Elinor Carr, a sister, was
one of the first school teachers.
Public Service of Carr and Adams
"Mr. Carr was the first justice of peace in Fall River, and held that
office consecutively until he resigned when he sold his farm and removed
to- Columbia in 1863. He was also instrumental in organizing Columbia
County, and was the first county clerk. He and Mr. Adams, with one
horse and ox, laid out the county road. One would ride a while, then
the other. They also located the county seat at Portage. It was through
the instrumentality of Mr. Carr that Mr. Adams secured the position
of county superintendent of schools, also that of trustee of the Insane
Asylum, a position he held for thirty-six (36) consecutive years.
Story He Told on Brother Sage
"One of the many amusing anecdotes Mr. Carr always enjoyed relat-
ing was in connection with Captain Sage, a neighbor. Mr. Sage was
rather a devout person, and seldom did any work on Sunday. When he
370 HISTOEY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
digging the cellar for his new house he was quite anxious to rush it
along. One Sunday morning, ^Mr. Carr, as was often his custom, was
walking around his fences, when near Mr. Sage's place (their lands
joined), he heard a noise and carefully stepping near he saw the Cap-
tain digging busily. He stepped behind a tree and in a sepulchral voice
said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy!' Captain Sage
stopped, listened, looked around and seeing no one, got out of the cellar,
carefully wiped his shovel, went to his house and laliored no more that
day.
"Much more might be written of those early days, but other more
gifted pens can more fully do justice to those brave and hardy Pioneers
who have done so much to make our noble state what it is today."
Benj.\min Sage, the Victim
Benjamin Sage was among the first half dozen to settle within the
present limits of Fountain Prairie and, although not especially promi-
nent in the public affairs of the town, was always considered one of its
best citizens. At his death in August, 1871, the Columbus Democrat
says: "Benjamin Sage died at his residence in Fountain Prairie on
Tuesday last of apoplexy. He was sixty-seven years old and was among
the pioneer settlers of Columbia County. Twenty-eight years ago this
autumn he came to this countj- and selected his farm and futui-e home.
There was only one family living in the present to^vnship of Fountain
Prairie. It was necessary at that time to go to Green Bay to purchase,
as the land ofiice was then situated there. This journey he made on
foot. The intervening country was then inhabited by Indians only.
Roads and hotels at that period were, of course, not among the con-
veniences found by travelers. John Brown had selected an eighty ad-
joining the prospective farm of the Captain. With a single exception,
these claims were the first two made in the township. These two pioneers
made the journey to Green Bay together. The friendship formed during
that trip was as lasting as life. Either could have adopted as his own
the words of David lamenting for Jonathan: 'Very pleasant hast thou
been unto me ; thy love to me was wonderful, passing that of a woman. '
He has resided at the same location ever since. He was a good citizen,
order-loving, public spirited and a democrat of the old school."
Village op Fai,l River
Fall River, the only village in' the Town of Fountain Prairie,
is located on Crawfish River, a tributary of the Rock, and has the advan-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 371
tage of a good water power. It was incorporated as a village in 1903,
and is a leading station on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.
The largest industries of the village are the Fall River Canning Com-
pany and the Fall River Mills, the former being one of the largest plants
of the kind in the country. The chief products of the mill, which is a
three-story building on the north branch of the river near the east end
of the village, are buckwheat and graham flour and coarse feed. Wheat
flour is handled at wholesale.
Fall River has also a creamery, a bank and a house which does a
good .business in lumber and building materials, as well as several stores.
Its school is graded and efficient, and the Methodists and Baptists have
societies to meet the religious needs of the community.
A. A. Brayton, First Settler
Fall River was founded before the Town of Fountain Prairie, in
which it is situated. A. A. Brayton is credited with its fatherhood.
In 1837 he moved with his father's family to "Wisconsin, and in the
following year settled at Aztalan, where he kept a small variety store.
In 1846 Mr. Brayton purchased the southwest quarter of Section 26,
Township 11, Range 12, in what is now the Town of Fountain Prairie.
He drew up a plan of the village, proceeded to erect a sawmill and
opened a store. The sawmill he continued to operate for six years, and
in 1850 erected a large gristmill. Not long after Mr. Brayton disposed
of his interest in the latter — which was the origin of the Fall River
Mills, before mentioned.
POSTOFFICE IN 1847
One of the first things attended to by Mr. Brayton was to petition
the Government to establish a postoffice at this point, which was done
early in 1847. The founder of the village had no competitor for the
postmastership.
The Village Schools
In 1850 a schoolhouse was built in the village, the district being
designated as No. 1. By 1856 the house was found to be too small to
accommodate the number of pupils in the district, so another was added
in that year. Other improvements in both accommodations and edu-
cational system have since been made, so that the Union School of the
present Fall River meets with every reasonable requirement.
372 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
To the original plat of FaU River, made by Mr. Brayton in 1846,
Eli Grout made a small addition. On the completion of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in 1864, S. L. Batchelder made a second
addition in the viciuity of the depot. Previous to 1880 many streets
and blocks of land had been vacated, reducing materially the original plat.
Methodist and Baptist Churches
The Methodists and Baptists have societies at Fall River. The former
organized as early as 1844, the locality at that time being connected
with the old Aztalan circuit. It was almost entirely an organization
of Smiths — Clark (at whose log house the meeting was held), Martha,
Sarah and Rev. E. J. Smith — and Mrs. Aaron E. Houghton. A log
schoolhouse was erected soon after, and the meetings transferred to it.
As the population of the village increased, the society was moved thither.
In 1855 a church edifice was erected for the use of the Methodists, and
in 1875 was rebuilt and enlarged.
In 1847 a Baptist society was formed at FaU River, and in March,
1867, became legally organized as "The First Regular Baptist Church
and Society. ' ' A church edifice was erected in 1869. The present society
is in charge of Rev. Thomas W. Gales, who also serves the Baptists of
Rio and Otsego.
Early Times in Village and Town
In reviewing the old times of the village and the town, an early
settler says: "In 1845 A. A. Braj-ton entered the land for the mill-
site and the village of Fall River, where he built a sawmill in 1846
which furnished all the sawed lumber that was used in the construction
of hundreds of log houses in this region. White oak boards were con-
sidered good finishing lumber in 1846. Brayton opened the first store
in to^^Ti in the fall of 1846, using a slab shanty for his store. This year
(1846) was known to the early settlers as the sickly season. Fever and
ague and chills were verj' prevalent. In many neighborhoods there
were not well ones enough to care for the sick, and some left the country
because of its unhealthfulness.
"The town lying in the forks of the Crawfish, wliieh is skirted with
timber, was a favorite hunting and fishing ground for the Indian. Then
it was right in his pathway from the Rock River to the Portage between
the Fox and "Wisconsin, and deep trails were worn across the prairie
where for many a long year the savage had led his squaw and his
pony. For several years after the first settlement the Indian was wont
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 373
to visit these old hunting aud fishing grounds; but he was not the
Indian of song aud story — only a miserable, thieving, begging, cowardly
specimen of humanity. Deer and the prairie hen were the principal
game that the early settler found, and they were very abundant. I\Iany
a family subsisted almost entirely for weeks together upon food obtained
by hunting and fishing. ' '
CHAPTER XXV
OTSEGO TOWNSHIP (DOYLESTOWN)
Present Village op Doylestown — Wayne B. Dy^er Was First Settler
— Village op Otsego — Land Owners op the Present Doylestown
— Town of Otsego Organized — Plat of Doylestown Recorded —
First Improvements — A Boom — Columbus Too Swift — Schools
and Chueches.
Doylestown is an incorporated village in Otsego Township, south-
eastern part of the county, and is a station on the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railroad. It is in the prairie region and the center of a
good agricultural and dairy district.
Present Village of Doylestown
As potatoes are so readily raised in the country roundabout, Doyles-
town has three warehouses to accommodate growers and shippers. It
has the second largest creamery in the county, its plant being only
exceeded in output by the Lodi creamery. The Doylestown concern
turns out over 250,000 pounds of butter yearly. The village has a
number of general retail stores, and is in the line of advancement among
the villages of the count}'.
A good graded school and Lutheran and Catholic churches supply
the educational and religious needs of the community, while the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Catholic Order of Foresters add to the
sociability of the place.
Wayne B. Dyer Was First Settler
Wayne B. Dyer, who was the second settler in what is now the Town
of Fountain Prairie, remained in that section of the county only eight
374
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 375
or nine months, and in May, 1844, came to the present Town of OtsegO;
He located on Section 22 and erected a log house in. which to live and
entertain the weary traveler ; since, of settlers, he was the first.
Village of Otsego
Being on the direct route between Milwaukee and Stevens Point,
Mr. Dyer prevailed upon quite a number to settle around his hostelry,
so that by December, 1847, the postoflice of Otsego was established,
named after the New York village. Other hotels than that conducted
by Mr. Dyer were built and patronized, and the village attained a fair
degree of prosperity until 1864, when the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railroad was completed to Doylestown, two miles north.
Land Owners of the Present Doylestown
In 1848 Orin Kincaid entered a tract of land about ten miles west
of Columbus, not far from the present station and Village of Doyles-
town. This was the first entry in the vicinity, and Daniel James was
the first who settled adjacent to the site of the village. In 1849-50,
Damon C. Starr and Eason Starr purchased laud on which was after-
ward platted the Village of Doylestown.
Town of Otsego Organized
At a meeting of the county commissioners held in January, 1849,
all of Township 11, Range 11, was organized into a town to which
was given the name of Otsego, as many of the early settlers came from
that section of the Empire State. Orin Kincaid was the first chairman
of the town board and held the position for a number of successive
years.
Plat op Doylestown Recorded
For about ten years there was much rivalry between the Village of
Otsego and the little settlement further north, promoted by Mr. Kin-
caid, the Starrs and others. The coming of the railroad in 1864 left
no doubt as to which was to survive. In March of the following year
Lemuel H. Doyle purchased of Damon C. Starr 120 acres in the south-
eastern quarter of Section 11 and of Eason Starr 115 acres in the
northeastern quarter of Section 14, with the express purpose of locating
376 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
a village thereon. On the 26th of August, 1865, Alfred Topliff, county
surveyor, completed and recorded the plat of the Village of Doylestown,
in which is perpetuated the name of its founder.
FiKST Improvements
David Metcalf, a former resident of Columbus, erected a store in
the summer of 1865, being the first in the village. He conducted it for
about four months, or until it was burned. From that time until 1868
no improvements were made in the place, and in January of that year
only four families resided in Doylestown.
A Boom
Mr. Doyle, who had stood by his child, determined that it should
have a start, and made a public offer to give a lot free to anyone who
would build thereon. His offer was so acceptable that during the year
about thirty houses were erected. Eaton & Canfield built during the
Doylestown boom a $2,500 elevator, with a storage capacity of 15,000
bushels. Mr. Eaton died shortly afterward, and the elevator was burned
in July, 1876.
Columbus Too S^nhft
Besides the hard luck which seemed to follow Doylestown, the village
was too near Columbus, which had been incorporated before Mr. Dojde 's
child had been platted. Columbus had already a fine start in the race
and Doylestown, although it made a game fight for a time, eventually
fell far behind.
Schools and Churches
The first schoolhouse built near where the village was laid out was
completed in 1859. In 1869 a larger and better house was erected. The
first teacher in the new schoolhouse was iliss Emma L. Holmes. Doyles-
tow^l is now in Joint School District No. 6.
In the year when the village was platted (1865) the Catholics organ-
ized a society, which is still in existence. The Methodists also had an
early organization, and the Protestant Episcopals established a church
in 1877; but, as stated, the Lutheran Church, of a much later date,
is the only religious body to share the local field with the Catholics.
CHAPTER XXVI
ARLINGTON (TOWN AND VILLAGE)
Leader in Agriculture — Clark M. Young, First Townsman — Evolu-
tion OF Arlington Township — First Schools — Pioneers of Re-
ligion— The First of the Village — Important 1871 — Brisk,
Pleasant Village of Arlington.
Arlin^on, which is in the southern tier of townships, is at the top
of the watershed and has an average altitude of 500 feet. In the north-
ern row of sections the high ground breaks down abruptly 200 feet
toward the headwaters' of Rowan's Creek. With this exception, its land
is generally a rolling prairie of fertile soil and rich grasses.
Leader in Agriculture
The Town of Arlington is therefore finely adapted to both agriculture
and live stock; and this is no haphazard statement, since the county
assessor himself gives the figures to prove that it is first, among the
towns of the county, in the acreage devoted to corn and oats, and
second and third, to barley and grasses. Arlington has also made a
specialty of the raising of swine and is second only to West Point in
that industry. Altogether there is no better agricultural town in
Columbia County than Arlington. Its only village was named after it.
Clark M. Young, First Townsman
The Town of Arlington was settled more than thirty years before
the village, its first permanent resident being Clark M. Young, who
located on Section 1 (in the extreme northeast of the township) in the
spring of 1838. For six years he had the field to himself. J. Pratt
came in 1844, and from that year until 1850 the leading settlers were
N. Van Winter, Nathan Hazen, William A. Mcintosh, Fred Starr, Hugh
McFarlane, Jeremy Bradley, Mark Meadowcraft, John Franklin, Usual
377
378 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Youngs, George Bradley, A. P. Smith, Isaac N. Brown, H. N. Joy,
Thomas Rassou, Samuel D. Drake, Ambrose Powers and Henry Hill.
Evolution of Arlington Township
Upon the organization of the county in 1846, the east half of Town-
ship 10, Range 9, was included in the Lowville Precinct, and the west
half with other adjoining territory became the Pleasant Valley Precinct.
In 1849 the east half of this township, together with Township 10,
Range 10, and the south half of Township 11, Range 10, was organized
into a town to be known as Lowville ; the west half, with Township 10,
Range 8, and fractional part of Township 10, Range 7, was at the same
time organized under the name of Lodi. In 1850 the east half, with
Township 10, Range 10, was organized as Kossuth; the west half being
unchanged.
In 1855 all of this township, except Sections 6, 7, 18, 19, 30 and 31,
was organized into the Town of Arlington. For many years the effort
was made to have these sections restored to the town. The courts were
appealed to, but could give no redress. The Legislature was then asked
to pass a special act for this purpose. Although this was refused, the
state body authorized the county board of supervisors to adjust the
matter. With this authoritj-, the board passed a resolution permitting
the change, provided the town would assume the proportionate amount
of the Town of Lodi to the west, which would be collected from the
owners of the sections named. This was accordingly done, and the Town
of Arlington assumed its present bounds.
First Schools
Usual Youngs, mentioned as among the early settlers, taught the first
school in the town in the summer of 1847. During the succeeding spring
a log schoolhouse was built on Section 1, and in the fall of that year
(1848) Miss Sarah Richardson taught the first term of school therein.
The first school in the central part of the town was on Section 22,
and was taught by IMiss Caroline A. Foster in 1854.
Pioneers of Religion
Rev. Henry Maynard, the Methodist itinerant, preached the first
sermon in the Town of Arlington in the summer of 1845. Clark M.
Young, the pioneer, threw open his log house for the purpose. No church
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 379
was formed until 1854, when Rev. T. Lewis, a Presbyterian minister of
Lodi, preached at the house of A. P. Smith.
The First op the Village
The population of the town increased slowly; in fact, it I'eceived no
stimulus until 1870, when the Madison & Portage Railroad was built
through its eastern sections. At that time a station was located on
Section 13, to provide the farmers with facilities for the shipment of
grain and stock ; that was the commencement of the Village of Arlington.
Important 1871
In 1871 Mrs. Sarah Pierce and David Bullen platted the village
upon the section named, the former owning the land on the north
side of the main street and the latter the land upon the south side.
During the summer of that year Winslow Bullen built the first house
within the village limits, George McMillan opening a store in the lower
story and the upper floor being occupied as a dwelling. About the same
time the railway station was completed; the village was considered a
fixed fact.
In this, important 1871, John McMillan also erected Arlington's first
hotel and continued to conduct it for a score or more of years.
Charles and George Ginther did not open the first blacksmith shop
until 1875, the former erecting the first building used exclusively as a
dwelling house. George married Miss Nellie Shanks in December of
the following year, and they were the first couple to become thus noted.
Brisk, Pleasant Village of Arlington
The Village of Arlington is the banking and trading center of a
productive agricultural section; has a grain elevater, a farm imple-
ment depot, a lumber yard and a number of substantial business houses.
The oldest of its business establishments is the prosperous house of
G. McMillan & Son. Its founder and senior proprietor is the George
McMillan noted in the sketch of the village as its first merchant. He
was also its second postmaster, and he and his son, Gabriel McMillan,
have held down that office for nearly forty years. The firm of G. Mc-
Millan & Son was formed in 1898, and deal in general merchandise,
lumber, cement and coal.
G. McMillan, Sr., is also president of the Arlington State Bank,
which was opened in 1910 and carries average deposits of $100,000.
The village has a good public school and a Lutheran Evangelical
Church, and is altogether a brisk, pleasant rural community.
CHAPTER XXVII
TOWN OF LODI (OKEE)
A Pretty, Healthful Town — George M. and Makston C. Bartholo-
mew— Rev. Henry Maynard and Wipe — A Hunt for "Milwaukee
Woods" — Organization of the Town — Matured Pupil Writes of
First School — Village of Okee — Expected Lake — Historic Items.
The Town of Lodi in the southwestern part of the county has a
rather broken and picturesque surface, with only small tracts of marshy
land along Spring Creek. It is skirted south and east by the edges of the
high limestone country, which send out ragged projecting points. This
is noticeable on the approaches to the Village of Lodi from the east,
which really border on the impressive. North and west of this lime-
stone edge the general surface is from 200 to 300 feet lower; but the
lowlands include a number of tablelands, which reach the altitude of 500
or 600 feet attained by the limestone country to the south and east.
Considerable areas of prairie occur in Southern and Eastern Lodi. The
principal stream is Spring Creek, which heads in Dane County, over
the southern line, traverses the town from southeast to northwest with a
fall of sixty feet, and empties into the Wisconsin River at the extreme
northwest comer of West Point.
A Pretty, Healthful Town
From this general description, the reader will infer that Lodi is a
pretty, healthful town in which to reside. If it were not, its first settlers
would not have been the Bartholomews. Why? Listen, as they say in
the old-fashioned fairy stories ; though this is but a plain, unvarnished
tale.
George M. and Marston C. Bartholomew
"In the spring of 1844," says an authorized account of their coming,
"G. M. Bartholomew, then a citizen of Illinois, being advised by his
380
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 381
physician to seek a better climate than that state afforded, visited Lodi
Valley and determined that either here or in Portage Prairie he would
in the future reside. Returning to Illinois, his description of Lodi Valley
so charmed his brother, Marston C. Bartholomew, that the latter also
determined to emigrate ; therefore, in the early spring of 1845 he bade
farewell to his family and sought out the 'land of promise.' He arrived
here in March, located a claim and erected, with the aid of a friendly
Indian, his cabin upon the east half of the southwest quarter of Section
22. George M., the brother, came back in April, 1845, and selected the
southeast quart^er of Section 22.
Rev. Henry Maynaed and Wipe
' ' In May of the same year Rev. Henry Maynard settled upon Section
21. Mr. Maynard brought his family with him, his wife being the first
white woman in the valley. In September the two Bartholomews brought
out their families, and in December following James MeCloud came and
settled upon Section 27. These four were all the settlers in this town
during that year."
These first settlers of the Town of Lodi established their homes just
northwest of the present village, which was founded by Isaac H. Palmer
on Section 27 in 1846.
A Hunt for "Milwaukee Woods"
"When the first settlers came, in 1845, they found about two hundred
Indians encamped on the creek near where the village of Lodi was after-
ward located. These were mostly Winnebagoes; a few were Brother-
towns. During that season they were peaceable and friendly, and in the
fall they all disappeared. In 1847 they came back to the number of
about eighty, with their chief, and encamped on the creek below where
the Bartholomews had settled. They soon began to show their natural
propensities, and the property of the settlers occasionally disappeared.
G. M. Bartholomew returned to his home, after an absence of a few
days, and found the Indians had stolen a part of his hogs. He went to
the chief and complained. The chief denied, but the complainant in-
sisted and resolutely told Mr. Chief that he could have till the next
morning when the sun was 'so high' (telling him how high, by pointing)
to be off. The chief promised to be off at once and to go to the ' Milwaukee
woods. '
"Thereupon Bartholomew roused the settlers to the number of about
twenty-five and the next morning, when the sun was 'so high,' they
382 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
appeared at the spot with horse and giin, but the Indians had left.
Fearing they might again encamp near enough to continue their depre-
dations, our cavalry followed their trail, and found them just striking
their tents on Rowan's Creek in the town of De Korra. As the settlers
approached the camping ground, they were discovered by two Indian
hunters, apparently going out to bring in some game, who, seeing the
fearful array and fearing more to follow, turned their ponies and
rapidly returned. The pursuers halted and Bartholomew went forward
to the camping ground and inquired if that were the 'Milwaukee woods.'
The chief answered 'No;' whereupon he was informed he could have
just five minutes in which to make his departure. At the expiration of
the time named, the redskins were on the move. The pursuers followed
at a respectful distance as far as Poynette, or where the village was
subsequently located, and then returned to their homes. The Indians
never reappeared to make further trouble."
The Bartholomews had other honors come to them during the firet
years of their residence in the town. For instance, Josephine Bartholo-
mew came to her parents, G. il. and Catherine, on April 30, 1846 ; and
she was the first white person bom in Lodi.
Organization of the Town
Pleasant Valley Precinct was organized in 1846, upon the creation
of the county. It embraced the same territory as was included in the
Town of Lodi, which was organized in January, 1849. On April 3d of
that year the first election for town officers was held at the log school-
house, about a quarter of a mile northeast of the Village of Lodi.
The voters were caljed to order by Isaac H. Palmer, upon whose
motion George M. Bartholomew was chosen moderator and James 0.
Eaton, clerk. Marston C. Bartholomew was chosen chairman of the
Board of Supervisors. There were thirty-seven votes cast for the three
supervisors and the other town officers. The hotel of Freedom Simons,
in the Village of Lodi, was chosen as the place for holding the next annual
meeting, and $100 was voted to be raised by taxation to defray the
expenses of the town for the coming year.
Matured Pupil Writes of First School
A little log schoolhouse was built in 1846 on Section 27, the pupils
being in care of Miss Mary Yockey. More than a quarter of a century
afterward, "Sirs. S. J. Andrews (one of the .scholars) thus speaks of this
first school in the town, thus: "That primitive institution of learning,
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
383
which contained no desk but a board fastened at a convenient height for
the purpose against the wall, or rather logs; seats of the plainest kind
with no backs, and a floor through the crevices of which snakes and mice
often emerged to our delight, was situated upon the rise of ground then
shaded by lofty wide-spreading oaks, near where Mrs. Bower's house
now stands. And the boiling, bubbling springs at the foot of the hill;
the leafy coverts so admirably arranged for miniature housekeeping,
and other considerations, drew the round-eyed, wriggling pupils full
many a time, from the sight of the not-too-vigilant schoolmistress, under
cover of the weak subterfuge of 'studying in the shade.'
Mill Dam, Okee
"I think I see them now, gay gamboliers in verdant summer bowers,
their rippling laughs and gleeful shouts sounding strangely far-off and
echolike adown the corridors of time. Play on blind-folded children,
types of innocency and thoughtlessness, for just before you on life's
joume}' are tears and open gi-aves, thorns that will tear your tender
feet, and icy windstorms that may blast or cover with perpetual snow
the fragile buds of promise in the gardens of your hearts. Or if your
steps grow laggard from weariness, go in to your indulgent teacher and
con your right-soon forgotten tasks. There are lessons for you in the
future of distrust and indifference, which contact with a world without
a heart must teach. They will be bitter ofttimes, and you cannot forget
them though you would."
384 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Village of Okee
Okee, a station on the Chicago & North Western Railway a few
miles northwest of Lodi, is located on Spring Creek, a tributary of the
Wisconsin River about two miles from the parent stream. Its industries
consist of a fair-sized flour and feed mill and a small distillery. It has
a good general store, a district school and a Presbyterian Church. Serv-
ices are held in the schoolhouse, as in the olden times. The banking
facilities required by the farmers of the locality and the establishments
of the village are obtained through Lodi.
Expected Lake
Okee is banking on the completion of the dam across the Wisconsin
between a point opposite its site and Prairie du Sac, on the other side
of the river in Sauk County. The back-water will form a body adjoining
the station which is to be called Lake Okee, and the people of the locality
expect the creation of a pretty summer resort, with all the implied trade
and new life.
Historic Items
Okee is one of the oldest settlements in the county. Samuel Ring
located at the water power in 1847 and built the first sawmill. It passed
through a number of hands, and in 1858 T. S. Wells erected a more
modem plant on the east side of the creek. He put in a planing mill
and circular saws, and devoted the old mill to the grinding of feed. In
1869 Mr. Wells sold the mill power to John Brownrigg, who erected the
present gristmill in 1875.
Seth Bailey settled in Okee in 1854, becoming joint owner in the saw-
mill with Dr. Miller Blachley, and platted the village in 1858.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TOWN OF DE KOREA
Rowan Settles and Opens Hotel — Paper Skats of Justice — Village
OP De Korea — First Grist Mill in South-Central Wisconsin —
Railroad Go-By a Death Blow — The Spelling op De Korra ( ?) —
Railroad Station op Hartman.
A little cluster of buildings on the eastern banks of the Wisconsin
River in the northwestern part of De Korra Township is the relic of
Kentucky City, once the seat of justice of Portage County (before any
courts were sitting within what is now Columbia County), and the
predecessor of the Village of De Korra which was once quite flourishing — ■
as villages went in those days.
Rowan Settles and Opens Hotel
Both the village and town of De Korra are very important, however,
in connection with the history of Columbia County. It was the northeast
quarter of the southeast ciuarter of Section 34, in this township, that
Wallace Rowan, generally accepted as the first settler of the county,
entered as his homestead, on the 6th of June, 1836. He built thereon a
union dwelling house and hotel, and, although lodgers were somewhat
crowded and had neither private baths nor telephone service, Mr. and
Mrs. Rowan made them all feel at home and gave them plenty to eat,
which treatment they craved far more than the luxuries. Rowan 's Hotel
was on the 'outskirts of the present Village of Poynette, which was laid
out by J. D. Doty in 1837.
Judge Doty also entered a part of Section 5, as well as Sections 7
and 8, adjoining the Wisconsin River in the northwestern part of the
present town, about three weeks after Mr. Rowan had entered his land
in the southeast. The able and enterprising judge was behind Kentucky
City, Sections 5 and 6, in 1837.
Vol 1—2 5
385
386 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Paper Seats of Justice
Portage County was organized in December, 1836, and the seat of
justice was established at Winnebago City, which had been platted two
months before on the south shore of Swan Lake, about opposite the
present grounds of the Country Club. On the 12th of January, 1838,
the county seat was moved to Kentucky City, where it remained until
1844, when it was transferred to Plover, in the present County of Portage.
As Portage County up to 1844 had remained attached to Dane County
for judicial purposes, neither Winnebago City nor Kentucky City actu-
alh' became "seats of justice."
Village of De Korra
In the fall of 1842, Thompson & Trimble, Ohio men, became owners
of the greater part of Sections 5, 6, 7 and 8, including the site of the
paper village of Kentucky City. They sent out J. W. Rhoads and
Thomas C. Nelson, as their agents, to build a mill, lay out a village and
establish a store at that locality.
The Village of De Korra was thus laid out, the plat being recorded
January 7, 1843. Its site, that of Kentucky City, was considered ideal,
on account of the fine landing at that point.
First Grist Hill in South-Central Wisconsin
The mill, a short distance outside the village limits, was completed
that year, and was the pioneer industry of the kind in South-Central
Wisconsin. In 1844 there was no grist mill at Madison, Baraboo, Portage,
Wyocena or Columbus, and during the first years of its operation grists
were brought from distances as far as thirty or forty miles north of
Portage. The first grist, which was of corn, was ground for Thomas
Robinson, of Caledonia, known for so many years as "Daddy" Robinson.
Although it is possible to trace the history of this famous mill property,
it is beyond our purpose, and those who still remember it and cling to
its past, may find all the details in the old histories and musty files
of newspapers.
Railroad Go-By, a Death Blow
For years the Village of De Korra was not only the center of a large
milling trade, but an important distributing point for lumber, and a
large area of country extending as far south as Madison was supplied
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 387
thence. Quite a village sprung up around the landing, but the building
of the Madison & Portage Railroad, several miles to the east in the
early '70s, gave it the quietus.
The Spelling op De Korra (?)
As to the spelling of the name, there have been innumerable disputes,
and A. J. Turner has this to say: "This town was named after the
famous "Winnebago Chief of that name. The spelling of the name of it,
as here given, is as it was finally adopted by the Board of County Com-
missioners of Columbia County, although it was first spelled with one ' r. '
It usually appears in the Wisconsin Historical Collections as 'DeKauray.'
Perhaps the spelling is a matter of taste as the old chief never spelled
his own name at all. It sometimes appears as 'Decorra,' 'Dekorrah,'
'Decorah,' 'DaKouray,' 'Dekora,' 'Decorri,' and if there is any other
way in which it can be spelled it has probably been spelled that way,
too. 'Dekorra,' however, was himself named 'DeCarrie' after Sebrevoir
De Carrie, an officer in the French army who was mortally wounded at
Quebec in 1760, and who had previously been a fur trader among the
Winnebago Indians. The old chief was a reputed grandson of De Carrie,
but that may admit of some question, for the Dekorras that still abide
with us do not give much evidence of ancestors of high degree, although
the old chief was worthy of the high esteem in which he was held by the
whites. So it would seem that the 'Dekorra' of today, traced back to its
origin, is 'De Carrie.' "
As our old friend remarks, "If there is any other way in which it
can be spelled, it has probably Been spelled that way, too;" for the
reader of this history may remember that the author has adopted the
spelling of De Korra. There is only one consensus of opinion, and that
is that the name is a French derivation, and we therefore believe that
the distinctive "De" should be retained, as it is in several of the county
maps of today.
Railroad Station op Hartman
Hartman, a station on the southern division of the Chicago, Milwau-
kee & St. ,Paul Railroad in the Town of De Korra north of Poynette, was
named after Joseph Hartman, a blacksmith by trade, but a farmer by
occupation during the ■ later years of his life. In 1849 he came to
Columbia County from Carroll County, Indiana, and settled on a farm
in the southwest quarter of Section 10. Mr. Hartman was a justice of
the peace for over thirty years and long postmaster at the station which
was given his name when the Madison & Portage Railroad came through
in 1871.
CHAPTER XXIX
TOWN OF COURTLAXD (RANDOLPH)
Rich and Beautiful Praikie Land — The Irish Pioneer — "Chestnut,"
Says Pat — Other Arrivals op 1844-45 — Horace Rust — Pioneer
H-VPPENiNG.s — Becomes Courtland Township — ILvndolph (West
Ward).
The Town of Courtland, in the northeastern part of the county and
in the eastern tier of townships adjoining Dodge County, is one of the
most prosperous parts of Columbia. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad passes through its northern sections. Located on that line are
Cambria, a small portion of which extends into Randolph Township, and
the Village of Randolph, whose West Ward onl.y is in the Town of
Courtland.
Rich and Beautiful Prairie Land
Courtland is one of the fertile and beautiful prairie towns in the
northeastern part of Columbia. Its largest tract of that nature is a
continuation of the prairie region of Randolph, occupying the north-
eastern portion of Courtland, then narrowing and extending in a south-
westerly direction nearly across the towTi, and finally widening again
toward the western line. Most of the town lies on the divide between
the headwaters of the Rock and Wisconsin systems — the IMiddle branch
of Duck Creek, a tributary of the latter heading in Courtland Township.
Notwithstanding this physical fact, the surface is generally quite level
with an altitude of about 350 feet. The divide is very gradual and the
streams which drain the town are quite small. Everything about the
region is peaceful and harmonious, and if the evidences were not visible,
the visitor would instinctively say "Here is a fine dairy country." Such
is truly the case.
Although the first settler of the town was an Irishman, the majority
of its pioneers were Welshmen, and there is probably no village in the
388
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 389
United States which stands so distinctively for that nationality, and
which is so widely known in that connection as Cambria.
The Irish Pioneer
Patrick Chestnut, an Irish emigrant, came first, and after making
his home in Pennsylvania migrated still westward into Wisconsin. On
July 29, 1844, he located his claim upon Section 3, in the north of the
present town. As an Irishman enjoys telling stories on his best friends,
so do his friends reciprocate the compliment. So we shall tell the yarn
with some grains of allowance which has to do with Chestnut.
"Chestnut," Says Pat
It is said that when Patrick came to this country he was so ignorant
of backivoods life that he had never seen a tree felled. But one day he
desired to cut down a tree ; so he shouldered his ax and dashed into the
high timber, trusting to his mother wit to be extricated alive. With
confidence he attacked a forest monster, cutting completely around it at
an equal distance, being faithfully assisted by his son. When well into
the heart of the tree, he stepped back, took off his cap and scratched his
head to consider the matter carefully. He did not dare to push the
tree over, for fear of accident. It was already trembling and he did not
dare to cut any further, as he did not know which way it would fall,
seeing that he had given it an equal chance on all sides. So cautioning
his .son to leave the tree alone, he went several miles to a neighbor, who
did the remainder of the cutting on one side and let the weight of the
tree do the rest.
It may be Chestnut told the story on liimself, but his Wisconsin
friends always insisted that his Pennsylvania neighbors made it so warm
for him by repeating the tale, in sea.son and out, that he was forced to
migrate. But when he arrived in Section 3, Town of Courtland, he was
a seasoned pioneer, and soon erected a comfortable house on his claim.
There he spent the remainder of his life, engaged in farming. From all
accounts he was an industrious, old-style gentleman, and his demise
(November, 1878), even in his ninetieth year, was much regretted by
his neighbors who were all his friends.
Other Arrivals of 1844-45
In the fall of 1844 J. Jess became Mr. Chestnut's associate, and
in the summer of 1845 William Bump, James Buoy, Nathaniel Wilkins,
390 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Jonathan Moulton, Horace Rust and William Toby located. A short
time afterward came a large colony of Welshmen and their families;
and from that time on, for a number of years, the land was rapidly
taken up by actual settlers.
Horace Rust
Of the settlers mentioned as among the arrivals of 1845, Horace Rust
became as well known as any. He was a Vermont man and a canal con-
tractor, and was forty-seven years old when he located in Courtland. He
had been living for the preceding two years with Doctor Mills, of Wal-
worth County, Wisconsin, who was then a territorial senator.
In 1845, with his two sons, Henry and Mills, and a yoke of oxen,
he entered Courtland, and built a log house into which he moved with
his family in the following year. He used to relate that after finishing
his house he and his sons started on their return to Walworth. At that
time the old road to Columbus and Watertown made an extensive detour
to the west and went to Otsego to avoid impassable swamps. The pil-
grims took an early breakfast that morning, and the ox-line did not
bring them to Otsego until late in the afternoon. Mr. Rust always spoke
of his substantial dinner that day at W. B. Dyer's log tavern in Otsego
as the best meal he ever ate in his life. ^
At an early day, Mr. Rust and Squire Topliff (long a resident of
Columbu.s), were engaged for some time in surveying, and they laid out
the road between Columbus and Cambria. The former was appointed
postmaster of the so-called Portage Prairie postoffiee, situated on the old
military road, with a weekly mail. Later the postoffiee was moved to
Centerville, three miles north of the present Cambria, in the Town of
Randolph, and placed in charge of Squire M. W. Patton, the absorbent
character of that region. When the town was organized in 1849, he was
elected one of its supervisoi"s ; also served as county treasurer and twice
as postmaster of Cambria. Mr. Rust died in April, 1879 — a hearty, good,
useful man.
Pioneer Happenings
In the fall of 1846, was born the first white child in the Town of
Courtland — Marshall, son of Nathan and Harriet Swain.
William Bump and Sarah Griffith contracted the first marriage in the
summer of 1847.
The first school was taught by William S. Chestnut, in the spring of
1847. Ilis dozen scholars met in an upper room of Jonathan Moulton 's
dwelling.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 391
Becomes Courtland Township
In 1846, when the county was organized, the present Town of Court-
land was Leroy Precinct ; when the towns were created in 1849, the pre-
cinct became Portage Prairie, and the house of Horace Rust was selected
by the Board of County Commissioners as the place for holding the first
election for town officers. On November 19, 1852, the name of the town
was changed to Courtland.
Randolph (West Ward)
The West Wai-d of the little Village of Randolph is situated in Colum-
bia County, the remainder, containing the bulk of its population of 1,000,
being in Dodge County. To be a little more accurate, about one-fifth of
its people are with us. The first plat of the village was made December
2, 1857, principally on the farm of Abiel Stark, together with five acres
held jointly by him and John Converse. In April, of that year, Mr. Con-
verse had erected the first building on the present site of the village, using
it as a dwelling.
The village was first given the name of Converseville. It was after-
ward changed to Westford, after the Dodge County Township in which
its eastern territory is situated. For the first thirteen years after it was
platted the village was attached to the Town of Westford, but in the
winter of 1869-70 the Legislature passed an act incorporating it under the
name of Randolph, designating the portion in Section 1, Town of Court-
land, Columbia County, as the West Ward. The first charter election
was held March 8, 1870.
CHAPTER XXX
DEAD AND PAPER TOWNS
Bad Conditions for Big Cities — Cpiampion Townsite Man — Balti-
more City — "Wisconsinapolis — Canal to Stir the Portage People
— Easterner Looking for Wisconsinapolis — First Settlers Come
TO Town — The Village of Newport — Joseph Bailey and Jonathan
Bowman, Backers — In 1855 Contained 1,500 People — Making All
S-VFE AND Sound — The Slip and Fall — Founders Move to Kilbourn
— Never More Than Port "Hope" — Wisconsin City.
In every growing American community more enterprises miscarry
than are born into stable life. Men's ambitions far outrun their means.
They have seen wonders performed by others based on nothing more
substantial than wind and tissue paper — so why should not the Fickle
Goddess float their way .'
The bolder of these seekers after fortune do not rest with trials to
plant private enterprises, but would be builders of cities. Columbia
County has had its full share of these adventurers, as we have inti-
mated heretofore and as we shall attempt to finally prove in this chap-
ter. We shall open the story with a presentation of the most noted scenes
of their birtli — the Town of Pacific, and the shores of Swan Lake as a
whole.
Bad Conditions for Big Cities
The Town of Pacific is west of the center of Columbia County, hugging
the great bend of the Wisconsin River and lying east and southeast of
the City of Portage. The Fox River, which enters the town from the
northeast through Swan Lake, flows west and northwest to Portage. The
main .stream of Duck Creek, a tributary of the Wisconsin, waters the
central sections.
Pacific is decidedly a town of lowlands, and originally about half
its territory was marsh land, and in times of floods from the Wisconsin,
3ri2
HISTORY OF COLUIMBIA COUNTY 393
before the constriictiou of the levees, was largely under water. Sueh con-
ditions have retarded its settlement and progress.
Despite these drawbacks, which would seem obvious, no town in the
county has been the scene of so many grand schemes which never prog-
ressed farther than paper, and most of them were proposed before a
single settler had found a foothold on its soggy soil.
Champion Townsite iI.\N
The beautiful shores of Swan Lake furnished the most popular sites
for these paper towns, each of which hoped to become the territorial
capital. It might better be said that Mr. Larned B. Harkness, the cham-
pion townsite man, hoped that lightning would strike somewhere among
liis cluster of cities in what are now the towns of Pacific and "Wyocena.
Ida was one of his creations, just within the present Town of Wyocena,
on the north shore of the lake near its eastern end, while on the oppo-
site side was his Winnebago City. The latter was one of the earliest of
the paper cities to be recorded, the Brown County records showing
tliat its plat was filed October 24, 1836.
Baltimore City
About this time Mr. Harkness also platted Baltimore City on Sec-
tion 33, in the Town of Pacific near where Duck Creek empties into
the Wisconsin River. Mr. Turner notices this third of the Harkness
cities as follows: "The city never become densely occupied, McE wen's
little tavern, erected principally for the entertainment of the rivermen
who tied up their rafts occasionally at the mouth of Duck Creek, having
been the only building, I think, in the city, and that disappeared long
ago. But the 'lone grave' that the wayfarer saw for many years, on the
south side of the creek, near the roadway, to the east, surrounded by a
palisade, still remains (although I think the pickets have disappeared)
and John Hamilton is the sole tenant of Baltimore City. Hamilton was
a Scotchman who entertained himself with his bag-pipe and gave eternal
rest to the neighbors and found his own, away from home and kindred,
under the little mound on the banks of Duck Creek. At the time of
his death he had a small brickyard in the village of Kentucky City (De
Korra) which was not far away."
WiSCONSINAPOLIS
Wisconsinapolis was the name of even a more ambitious townsite on
the north shore of Swan Lake, near its western end and located on Sec-
394 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
tion 1, Town of Pacific, and Section 36, Town of Fort Winnebago. It
was executed by C. McDougall and Dr. Lyman Foot, the army surgeon
of Fort Winnebago, and filed January 3, 1837. Wiseonsinapolis joined
the military reservation on the west, and gave it the advantage of a
sort of official air in the competition for the seat of the territorial gov-
ernment. A public square was laid out near the middle of the plat
824x912 feet, and another a little to the east of the ponds adjacent to
Stone Quarry Hill, Section 36. These little lakes were designated "good
water. ' ' There does not appear to have been any conveyances of lots in
this town plat, nor does it seem to have been ever formalh- vacated. "The
journals of the Territorial Legislature, however, do show that when the
location of the territorial capital was under consideration in the legis-
lative Council in 1836, Wiseonsinapolis received on one ballot six of the
thirteen votes. This was probably more complimentary than in earnest,
for Wisconsin City, in the Town of West Point, received a like vote, as
did Portage ; and a dozen other points were complimented in like manner
on subsequent ballots, Madison being finally selected."
Canal to Stir the Portage People
Soon afterward another scheme was launched to boom Wiseonsin-
apolis, Winnebago City, Baltimore City, et al. The scheme was the
building of a canal from Swan Lake to Lake George, and thence down
Duck Creek to the Wisconsin. This was calculated to get on the nerves
of those who supported the Portage Canal. In 1838 the Territorial Legis-
lature passed an act incorporating the Marquette & Swan Lake Canal
Company. James Duaue Doty, Lieutenant Ilovey, of Fort Winnebago,
and others, were the incorporators, and it is believed that the fine hand
of Mr. Harkness was also concerned. But the schemers made no more
progress in connecting the cities of Swan Lake with Baltimore City, near
the mouth of Duck Creek, than to build a little tavern at the west end
of the lake and run a ferry across its neck to the site of Wiseonsinapolis.
Easterner Looking for Wisconsinapolis
Henry Merrell relates that upon one occasion an eastern gentleman,
who had heard inspiring tales of these cities around Swan Lake, came
into his store at Fort Winnebago and inquired at what hour steamboats
left for Wisconsinapolis. He was told that at the time boats were very
irregular, but he could direct him to the place. The man then inquired
which was the best hotel. Mr. Merrell declined to answer that question,
as he did not wish to injure his popularity as a business man by showing
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 395
partiality in the case. A few hours afterward, when he returned from
the city, where no building larger than an Indian wigwam had ever been
erected and where twenty-five white men had probably never set foot, he
drove rapidly by, neither looking to the right nor the left.
First Settlers Come to Town
The first settlers did not commence to arrive in the Town of Pacific
until these paper towns had been dead and forgotten a decade. The
pioneer of them all was Henry Jennings, who came in 1849. He was fol-
lowed by Stephen Calverly, H. Holden, John W. Lawrence and Benjamin
Dow, in 1850 ; N. H. Wood, 1851 ; William Bates, J. W. Porter, Moses
Bump, Daniel Marston and Jonathan Pegg, 1854, and Amasa Porter,
Joshua Calkins, J. L. Porter and Griffin Smith, 1856.
The town was set off from Portage City in 1854, and N. H. Wood,
who had the honor of naming it, was elected the first chairman of the
board.
With the protection of Pacific from the flood waters of the Wisconsin,
and the drainage and reclamation of its lowlands, there is no reason why
the town should not develop agriculturally and prosper substantially.
The Village of NE^\TORT
Although not a paper city, the Village of Newport, originally located
two miles south of Kilbourn City, has been dead for more than half a
century ; but its life, lasting from 1850 to 1860, was based almost entirely
on "expectations;" first, that the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad
would cross the Wisconsin River there, and secondly, that the Wisconsin
River Hydraulic Company would build a dam and create a water-power
there, with resultant trade and industrial life.
Joseph Bailey and Jonathan Bowman, Backers
The prime backers of Newport were Joseph Bailey and Jonathan
Bowman. Mr. Bailey (not then General) made the first claim on land
afterward platted as Newport, in 1850, and in the following year was
joined by Mr. Bowman (not then Honorable). The latter was a lawyer,
and they were both bright, vigorous young men. The attorney had a
little more money than his companion, and the two pooled their issues
and proceeded to promote a village. Others settled near the water-
power and thought well of the village scheme, and when the Legislature
of 1852-53 passed acts authorizing the Milwaukee Railroad people to
396 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
bridge the river at that point and others (including Messrs. Bailey and
Bo^auan) to construct a dam across the Wisconsin from Section 15,
the outlook seemed bright indeed. The developers of the water-power
were also authorized to erect mills, construct wharves and do many
other things which looked verj- grand on paper.
In 1855 Contained 1,500 People
By entry and private purchase IMessrs. Bailey and Bowman had
obtained 400 acres of land extending for a mile and a half along the
east banks of the river and overlapping the present Village of Kilbourn
City. They surveyed most of this tract and called it Newport. Then
the owners of the land on the west side of the Wisconsin in Sauk County
laid out a village which they called Dell Creek. Lots in Newport were
no sooner placed on the market than they brought exorbitant prices,
and the summer of 1854 witnessed the erection of a number of dwellings
and business houses. By 1855 the village contained 1,500 inhabitants,
with thirteen large stores, other business houses and three hotels.
Making All Safe and Sound
Bailey & Bowman, as well as the incorporators of the water-power
scheme, to make all secure, obtained bonds from Garret Vliet, of Mil-
waukee, Byron Kilbourn 's representative, that the railroad should cross
at Newport, the consideration for which, on the part of the proprietors
of Newport, was a one-half interest in their 400 acres to be transferred
to said Killwurn as president of the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad.
Then Messrs. Bailey, Bowman and Vliet proceeded to survey the balance
of the 400-acre site.
The Slip and Pall
In some way the railroad company induced the promoters of New-
port to relinciuish the Kilbourn- Vliet bonds, and then centered all the
enterprises which had been promised to Newport at Kilbourn City. To
make a long story of hopeless struggles short, the supporters of Newport
lost every point they contended for, and in the later '50s they gave up
the fight. Some of the buildings of the place were moved to Kilbourn
City bodily ; others were torn dovm and the material taken away for erec-
tion elsewhere. Merchants who had been doing a business of from $20,000
to $100,000 a year could not sell enough goods to pay expenses, and one by
one they boxed up their effects and sent them to other parts, until, in
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 397
the summer of 1860, but one firm remained. In October following
Freeman Longley quietly followed the example of his fellow merchants,
and the Village of Newport was dead.
Founders Move to Newport
Mr. Bowman was one of the last to leave, and did not change his
residence to Kilbourn until 1862. Both he and Mr. Bailey afterward
shared in the respect and admiration of the village which lived. General
Bailey had already won recognition in the Union Army, and Mr. Bo\¥-
man had commenced his long service for his people in the State Legisla-
Dr. George W. Jenkins
One of the founders of Newport
ture and as a republican of national standing. Locally, Jonathan Bow-
man accomplished as much for Kilbourn City as any man who ever
lived within its limits.
Never AIore Than Port "Hope"
Port Hope, for many years a postofSce in the southwest quarter of
Section 3, Town of Fort Winnebago, was platted as a towai site by
Jonathan Whitney. Mr. Whitney was a young man from Vermont, who
came to Wisconsin in 1844, and, after living in Milwaukee as a grain
dealer and in Green Lake County as a farmer, became a settler of that
part of Columbia County in May, 1848. He selected a homestead in the
southwest quarter of Section 3, and the platting of Port Hope on his
farm land expressed his state of mind in regard to the location of a
398 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
landing or port in that locality by the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Im-
provement Company. Mr. Whitney obtained the establishment of a
postoffice there by that name. This he kept for thirty years or more,
his more arduous duties being performed in connection with his pro-
fession as a private and county surveyor and in his capacity as super-
visor, justice of the peace, etc. But Mr. Whitney never realized his
dream of a landing at Port Hope, although the English colony of potters
commenced to run a ferry across the Fox in the section adjoining his
property to the west.
Wisconsin City
Attention was first called to what is now the Town of West Point by
the platting of Wisconsin City, on various parts of Sections 8, 9 and 17.
It burst upon the public in 1836, and was designed to be a competitor
for the territorial capital. Its site was upon a beautiful plateau, and the
natural situation was befitting any actual grandeur, but it never material-
ized into so much as a hamlet with a blacksmith shop. Yet in one of the
reports of the Wisconsin State Historical Society in 1872 occurs the
following: "Among the maps preserved by our Historical Society is
an engraved plat of Wisconsin City, without specific date, but made in
1836, 19x28 inches in size, and certified by John Mullett, United States
Deputy Surveyor. It shows that this paper city was located on the
south side of the Wisconsin River, on Sections 8, 9 and 17, Township 10,
Range 7, situated in a bend of the river on a beautiful eminence com-
manding a splendid view of the stream, with two long public landings
fronting the river; a beautiful square for territorial use of two blocks;
Franklin, La Fayette and Washington squares, each four blocks — each
block 260 feet square; three market places, three blocks in length and
200 feet wide ; streets from 60 to 100 feet wide. Isaac H. Palmer, of
Lodi, confirms this description, adding that he visited the place in 1837
with a view of purchasing the city. It was then, he says, in all its
glory-, with the stakes all standing, or enough to show the public
grounds. ' ' Prosaic farms now occupy the former site of Wisconsin City,
and there are no remains of its former glories — not even the stakes to
outline the public grounds.
CHAPTER XXXI
COLUMBUS AND WYOCENA (TOWNS)
The Town of Columbus — First Settlement — Town Organized —
BiRDSEY A "Live Wire" — Wyocena Township — Good Water-
powers — First Wheat and Corn Raised — Settlers op 1845-46 — •
Town Organized — U. S. Regulars Rout Claim Agent — Grist
Mill below Wyocena.
In the towns of Columbia County which have developed important
centers of population there are always numerous matters of interest and
which have a distinct bearing upon sectional history. That such facts
may not be omitted we present the following chapter, which is an
addendum to the histories of the City of Columbus and the villages of
Pardeeville and Wyocena.
The Town op Columbus
The Town of Columbus is mostly low and level, lying farther down
the Rock River slope than Fountain Prairie. It is well drained by
Crawfish River and Robbins Creek, tributaries of the Rock River. A
small prairie extends into the northwestern sections of the town, and
marsh belts occur along the streams in the northern half of the town,
where the general altitude is from 250 to 280 feet. The southern and
southwestern parts of the county lie higher, reaching from 300 to 400
feet. Altogether it is a very fair grazing eounti-y and supports a con-
siderable number of horses and sheep.
First Settlement
The first settlement of the town was at what is now the City of
Columbus, and was promoted by the agents of Lewis Ludington in
1839-45. In the summer of 1843, the cabin of T. C. Smith was the
only house northwest of what was then the incipient Village of Columbus
until Fort Winnebago was reached.
399
400 HISTORY OF COLUxAIBIA COUNTY
Town Organized
On the 16th of July, 1846, the Board of County Commissioners or-
ganized a voting precinct called Columbus. Its territory afterward
included the towns of Columbus and Fountain Prairie, but on January 9,
1849, the board organized the town as now constituted, designating the
house of A. P. Birdsey as the place for holding the first election.
BiRDSEY A "Li\^ Wire"
Mr. Birdsey was what, in this day, we would call a "live wire." He
was a Connecticut Yankee. He was twice married, and the father of
two children before he was twenty-one; before he was twenty-seven he
had cleared a New York farm with his own hands and run a hotel for
some time. In the spring of 1840 he came West and settled at what is
now Waukesha, Wisconsin ; soon afterward, moved a little farther west
into Jefferson County, and within four years was the owner of eight
"forties" near the village by that name and a big yellow tavern within.
Mr. Birdsey sold his property and moved to the Town of Columbus
in the spring of 1844, first speculating and making money in cattle and
then l)eeomiug a resident of the village and one of its foremost men.
He bought farms, hotels and stores, laid out additions, and always sold
out at a profit whatever he touched. In 1865 he moved to a farm near
McGregor, Iowa, where he died August 6, 1869. His remains were
brought to Columbus, where they were buried with Masonic honors.
There was probably no citizen more widely known in village and
town than A. P. Birdsey. As stated by a friend: "His life was a varied
one. Impetuous and erratic in his nature, he was full of generous im-
pulses, and the history of his life would include a record of many good
and not a few noble actions."
Wyocena ToW'NSHIP
The Town of Wyocena has little to say for itself in the way of agri-
culture, although its soil grows some potatoes, rye and wheat. On the
other hand, there is no section in the county whose transportation facili-
ties are better. In 1857 the northern division of the present Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad was completed through its northern
sections, with Pardeeville as the town station, and afterward the La
Crosse division of the same road was built through the southeastern,
central and western sections, with the Village of Wyocena as the station
within the township.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 401
Good "Water-Powers
The town is well drained by the north and middle branches of Duck
Creek, a tributary of the "Wisconsin, and the Fox River, with two of its
lake expansions, attends to the northern parts. The result is a number
of good water-powera, which have had a large bearing on the develop-
ment of both "Wyocena and Pardeeville, as well as on the general progress
of the town.
First "Wheat and Corn Raised
Major Elbert Diekason made the first permanent settlement within
the town in the spring of 1843, and built his house and hotel and raised
wheat on the present site of "Wyocena "Village, which he named and
founded. There also he died on the 9th of August, 1848.
Benjamin Dey moved thither in January, 1844, spending the winter
with the major, and the summer following made the first entry of land
on Section 10, between "Wyocena and Pardeeville. There Mr. Dey
raised the first corn in town.
Settlers op 1845-46
In 1845 Aaron Hodgson settled on Lot 4, Section 3, and was the first
to locate in the northern part of the town.
In 1846 many others became permanent settlers in the town, such
as Charles and Channcey Spear, Darius Bisbee, S. H. Salisbury, Hervey
Bush, Dr. Richard C. Rockwood, Philip Hipner and "Willis "W. Haskin.
Mr. Bush built the first frame house on the southwest quarter of Section
22, just south of the "Village of "Wyocena, which was afterward moved
over the section line into 27.
Town Organized
"When the county was organized in 1846 what is now the Town of
"Wyocena was united with Marcellon and Springvale as "Wyocena Pre-
cinct, and in that year the first election was held at the house of Major
Diekason. "Wyocena was organized as a town April 3, 1849, and the
first election was held at the house of Doctor Rockwood. Darius Bisbee
was chosen the first chairman of the Board of Supervisors, and Daniel
S. Bushnell, the second.
402 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
U. S. Regulars Rout Claim Agent
Benjamin Dey, who made the first settlement in the town outside the
Village of Wyocena, related the following incident as an illustration of
the difficulties encountered by the first comers before they could feel
really settled upon their lands: "After traveling around Wisconsin for
some time, I did not see any place that suited me any better than where
the old log house stands on Section 10. I inquired of the Major if it
was claimed by anyone, and he told me it was claimed by Charles
Temple, son-in-law of Captain Low. So I went to Portage with the
intention of buying it of him. He asked me if I wanted it for the
purpose of selling it, or to settle on and improve it. I told him I wanted
to settle on it. He said I was welcome to the claim for that pui-pose.
After I had built my house and moved into it, I received a letter from
the Claim Society stating I was on C. Dinon's claim and I could accept
of three offers : — I could stay on the claim peaceably by paying $100, or I
could give it up to them, or I must leave the country, as they would
drive me out.
"I took the letter and went to the fort, as Portage was then called,
to see my friend, H. Merrell. He sent for Captain Jewett and Lieutenant
Mumford and showed them the letter, which stated the time when they
were coming to pay me a visit; that they had paid ]\Ir. Lewis, of Co-
lumbus, a visit, and Mrs. Diefendorf, of Lo\wille, a visit. Captain
Jewett and Lieutenant Mumford said they had six good wagons and
teams, and they would be on the ground in one hour's notice with six
wagon-loads of regulai-s. I sent a letter back by the same man who
brought it to me — to the Reverend Claim Club Company — tliat I was not
willing to capitulate on any of their terms ; tliat the only proposal I had
to make to them was an open-field fight on said prairie, by their giving
me two hours' notice, and the victors to hold the spoils; but I was never
troubled with that party after that."
Grist Mill below Wyocena
In the summer of 1851 John Hunter and A. B. Winchell commenced
building a grist mill on Duck Creek, half a mile below the Village of
Wyocena. The mill was completed and commenced operations the next
winter. It was burned in November, 1852, and rebuilt by Benjamin Dey
in 1853.
Both the early and late history of the Town of Wyocena is so inter-
woven with that of the villages of Wyocena and Pardeeville that the
reader is referred to the sketches of those places, in order to form a
complete picture of this portion of the county.
CHAPTER XXXII
CALEDONIA AND LEEDS
Caledonia, the Largest Town — Dilvinage and Surface Features —
Farm and Timber Lands — First Farmers op the County — First
Permament Settler — "Daddy" Robinson and John Pate — Scotch-
men Name Town, Caledonia — Daughter op Pauquette Living in
Town — Town op Leeds — Chiep op the Forage Towns — First Land
Claims and Settlers — Leeds Center — Organization op Town —
Postoffices — First Norwegian Church.
With Caledonia and Leeds the author commences the presentation
of what may be termed the rural townships of Columbia County, in the
sense that they contain no villages. Some of them have no local post-
offices or lines of railroad within their bounds. But none are without
the radius of the rural deliveries, or far from the lines of transporta-
tion and the village banks; and, better still, the little schoolhouse and
church is never well out of sight of the most isolated agriculturist. Our
times are such that none can be shut away from his fellows unless he
so wills it; and many of these so called rural communities are far more
comfortable and happy than the dwellers in the villages and cities.
Caledonia, the Largest Town
Caledonia is the largest town in the county, and has never departed
from its rural nature. There is neither a postoffice nor a raih'oad
within its limits. It has eight little schools, half as many churches and
about the same number of cemeteries as churches. Yet it is interesting
to examine either physically or historically. Its territory consists of
fifty-four full and fourteen fractional sections of land lying within the
great bend or elbow of the Wisconsin River.
Drainage and Surface Features
The Baraboo River flows through its northern sections from the west
into the Wisconsin, the larger streams with their tributaries watering
403
404 1I18T01JY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the land with altogether too much profusion until the levees took a hand
in regulating them. The lands of the town are generally undulating,
with numerous bluffs and high hills, which are found in different parts
of the town, particularly along the Wisconsin River.
On the Baraboo River are numerous marshes or meadow lands, and
some prairie in the northern part. Generally the land is much lower
than the quartzite ranges, or Baraboo Bluffs, which extend into the town
from Sauk County, converge in the northeast and turn the waters of
the Wisconsin southward. Its average altitude is from 200 to 300 feet,
while the outl.yiug bluffs in such sections as 9, 10, 15, 16 and 21 reach
altitudes of from 450 to 540 feet. Some of these rise abruptly from the
north bank of the Wisconsin, and have directlj' opposite to them on the
southern shore, the similar bluffs of De Koi-ra, causing for a short dis-
tance an unusually narrow bottom.
Farm and Timber Lands
This combination of lowlands and valleys, rivers of large volume
and obstructing bluffs and ranges has not only retarded the growth of
Caledonia, but been a constant menace to Portage in seasons of high
water. Since the building of levees in Caledonia, Lewiston and the City
of Portage, much heretofore useless land has been reclaimed so that
the town now stands next to Leeds as a grass country. About 3,000
acres in the town are cultivated to forage, or grasses, half the area thus
devoted by Leeds, and it is second only to Randolph, in the north-
eastern part of the county, as a raiser of milch cows. More than 1,800
crop its young grassy lands. Caledonia has by far the most standing tim-
ber of any other section in the county. Over 7,000 acres still remain cov-
ered with forest growths, while De Korra, across the Wisconsin, its
nearest competitor in this regard, has but 4,300 acres. Originally Cale-
donia was a fine orchard country and apples were raised in considerable
quantities. It now leads as a fruit town, having at last accounts over
7,000 bearing trees.
First Farmers of the County
The first farms in the county were opened up in Caledonia. Peter
Pauquette cultivated the pioneer of its kind as an object lesson
in behalf of the Government to the Winnebago Indians, and taught
them how to raise gi'ain and vegetables.
The first American farming done in the town was by Gideon Low, on
the place that used to be called Black Earth : but as the captain had to
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 405
"tend his hotel" he hired a half-breed to cultivate the farm, so that
neither Pauquette nor Low can have the honor of being the first settled
farmer to coax the soil of Caledonia.
The third farm established in the Town of Caledonia was by John T.
De La Ronde, the educated Frenchman, who married into the De Korra
family after he reached the portage as a clerk of the American Fur
Company, and became a strange combination of Winnebago Indian,
scholar, trader and farmer. De La Ronde broke ground in 1838. The
later years of his life were spent in quiet and contentment on his Cale-
donia farm, where he died in March, 1879.
PiEST Permanent Settler
The fir.st permanent settlement made in the town was by Alexander
McDonald, who built a claim shanty on the northwest quarter of Section
2, Township 11, Range 8, in June, 1840. Madam Pauquette was then
living on the west bank of the river, four years after the tragic death
of her husband, trading with the Indians; also a half-breed named
Leambro, who was farming some old Indian lands on the bluff in Section
27, south of the Baraboo, and also trading with the Winnebagoes.
"Daddy" Robertson and John Pate
In June, 1841, Thomas ("Daddy") Robertson took up a claim north
of the Baraboo River. He boarded at LaFayette Hill's, in what was
then Kentucky City, the forerunner of the Village of De Korra, but
soon became a fixture with which the town could not dispense ; for
"Daddy" Robertson was a Scotchman by birth and a dry wit and a
warm-hearted man by nature, who was salt and sun wherever he wan-
dered— in the town, or over into the City of Portage, or to any other
point in the county.
In 1842 John Pate, another Scotchman, settled on Section 36, nearly
opposite the site of Kentucky City, and the scenes of preparation for the
birth of De Korra Village. Others came anon, several of them being sol-
diers from Fort Winnebago who had tired of garrison life, and, like
Captain Low, hungered for a stable home.
Both Daddy Robertson and Mr. Pate were popular among the set-
tlers of the town and served in many offices in connection with its gov-
ernment.
Scotchjien Name Town, Caledonia
Mr. Robertson died on his Caledonia farm November 7, 1872, and Mr.
Pate at his homestead in Caledonia, December 19, 1879. Both left de-
406 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
scendants to bless their good names. They and other hearty Scotch-
men were insistent that the town should be named Caledonia, when, in
1852, it was organized from De Korra; and thus it became known. Mr.
Pate was the first chairman of the new town board.
Daughter op Pauquette Living in Town
There is still living on Section 28, Town of Caledonia, the grand-
daughter of Joseph Crelie and the daughter of Peter Pauquette. As
the widow of Mitchell J. Brisbois, a French fur trader, she married
Thomas Preseott, a Canadian farmer, who came to that part of Caledonia
from Marathon County, Wisconsin, in 1862. Their union occurred
November 25, 1866, and on February 1, 1867, her Grandfather Crelie
died at the Caledonia homestead, supposedly in his 141st year, having
lived in the Pauquette family for sixty years.
Mrs. Preseott says her father seemed to have a presentiment that he
was not going to die a natural death, and told his family that in case
he should be killed he wished to have H. L. Dansman appointed as the
guardian of his children. This was done in accordance with his wishes.
Soon after her father's death in 1836 she was taken by the Yellow
River Mission School, in Iowa, where she remained some time. Then
she worked for a family named I\IcDowell in Iowa about two years,
not knowing that she had any property, and supposing herself to be an
object of charity while at the school. She was found in this situation
by Henry Rice, of Minnesota, who knew her family and reported the
facts to the school management. She was then sent to school for three
years in St. Louis, when she returned to Wisconsin and has lived within
its bounds ever since. She says that at the time of his death her father
was the owner of thirteen sections of land, and that the heirs have
received little benefit from the property. Mrs. Preseott has always
been a devout Catholic and, as stated elsewhere, one of the most joy-
ous acts of her life was performed only a few years ago, when the
remains of her beloved father were rescued from an unmarked grave
and she finally restored them to the consecrated grounds of her church.
■ Town op Leeds
Like Caledonia, the To\ra of Leeds is almost entirely agricultural.
No effort has ever been made to locate a village within its limits,
although at an early day Leeds, North Leeds, Leeds Center and Keyser
were established as postoffices, but, with the later coming of the rural
delivery, its facilities of intercommunication have been sufficient.
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 407
Chief op the Forage Towns
The town is located virtually ou the top of the watershed between the
"Wisconsin and Rock rivers, has a surface of rolling prairie and a general
altitude of from -150 to 570 feet. Its soil is so well and equally watered
that all grasses are abundantly grown. The laud is neither dry, nor
drowned out by flood waters. Consequently Leeds is chief of the forage
towns, devoting more than 6,000 acres, or over one fourth of its area,
to the hay crop. It has also a larger area given up to barley than any
other town in the county.
First Land Claims and Settlers
The first entry of land in the Town of Leeds was made October 3,
1844, by John Dalziel, and consisted of the northwest quarter of the
southwest quarter and the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of
Section 26.
Prior to this time LaFayette Hill made claim on Section 14. He
erected a log house, which, in his absence during the winter of 1843-4
was burned by the Indians. The claim was made over to others, and Mr.
Hill moved into what is now the To^\^l of De Korra. Others came and
went in 1844, those of more permanent character being Thomas Dalziel,
William T. Bradley, Charles B. Thompson and Henry Waterhouse.
The first school in the town was held on the corner of the northwest
quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 14 in 1848. In 1850 a log
schoolhouse was erected which burned down the first winter, and the
following year a stone house was erected, which served District No. 1
until June, 1878, when a good frame house was erected.
Leeds Center
This schoolhouse, which still stands, at the postoffice of Leeds Center,
was established in 1856, chiefly through the efforts of Dr. R. A.
Squires who became its first postmaster. Leeds Center was then on the
stage lines from Beaver Dam to Lodi and from Madison to Portage, and
the little settlement which sprang up in 1856-57 with the schoolhouse,
the postoffice, the tavern, the blacksmith shop and two general stores as
outward evidences of progress — these institutions and a number of
dwelling houses in friendly touch came as near being a village as any
center of population in Leeds Township. But most of those evidences
have since disappeared.
408 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Organization of Town
The Town of Leeds was organized in 1850, but did not attain its
present area until 1855. In the latter year it set off to Arlington the
east half of the township by that name, making each a full township.
Prom its first organization the town meetings have been held at Leeds
Center.
t
POSTOFFICES
In 1854 Leeds postoffice was established in the southwestern part of
the town, with William P. Bradley as postmaster; North Leeds in 1858,
Humphrey McKinney postmaster ; and Keyser in 1876, Benjamin Brae-
son postmaster. The southeastern part of the town, in which the post-
office last named is situated, was largely settled by Germans and Nor-
wegians, who have always been considered industrious and valued set-
tlers.
First Norwegian Church
As already stated, on the 27th of March, 1847, the first Norwegian
Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Columbia County was organized
by Rev. I. W. C. Dietrickson in that part of the Town of Leeds as
Spring Prairie Congregation, and the first services were held at the
house of Sjur Reque. The original society consisted of settlers residing
in the towns of Leeds, Hampden, Otsego and Lowville, the membership
afterward including Norwegian Lutherans in the more western towns of
Arlington and De Korra, Columbia County, and in several townships over
the southern line in Dane County. They were finally organized into
three congregations — Spring and Bonnet Prairies, this county, and Nor-
way Grove, Dane County. The large church in the Town of Leeds was
erected in the extreme southeast near the Dane County line.
CHAPTER XXXIII
JAMES R. HASTIE'S RECOLLECTIONS
"Old Daddy" Robertson's Pair — The Settings — Everything and
Everybody Turned Loose — No Other Like Fair of 1861— Last Day
OP De Korra Home Guard — Big Biij.y Wood Gets Even — Live
Stock Exhibits — Can We Beat These ? — No More Daddy 's Fairs —
A Mystery Still — Kentucky City — Its One Building — The Poor
Man's Court — Dixon's First Case — Honor to the Western
Pioneer — Land Speculators Crowd Out Settlers — Village op
De Korra at its Best — In the IMelting Pot.
James R. Ilastie, now in liis eighty-second year, is one of the pioneers
of the Town of De Korra and Columbia County. He has been a resident
of that part for fifty-eight years. In his early manhood he taught school,
has been chairman' of the town board for several terms, treasurer of the
county, and otherwise prominent in public affairs. Mr. Hastie is there-
fore well qualified to write of early affairs connected with the old Vil-
lage of De Korra, near whose site he has so long resided, as well as the
mellow old times of the early '60s in the town of Caledonia, just across
the river. He is one of the associate editors of this history, and, among
other events which some of the old settlers will recall with a warm
stirring of the blood, writes of the "Caledonia Fair at Thomas Robert-
son's, familiarly known as Old Daddy, the biggest and best farmer in
the town, if not in the County of Columbia."
"Old Daddy" Robertson's Fair
The event occurred in September, 1861, such annual gatherings being
always held in that month. This fair at Daddy's, however, Mr. Hastie
holds to be the gi-eatest of its kind ever pulled off, Mr. Robertson being
the most wonderful host of his day. The writer says : Caledonia is a
fluffy, hilly town of many excellent farms, and very much the home of
the Indian, with still some remnants of hira left. At one time it had an
409
410 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Indian farm, where the Red ilau was given lessons in agriculture by
Captain Low of Fort Winnebago, but the Scotchmen had a covetous eye
for it, and came hither by instalments until it was a veritable Scotland ;
and they brought with them their manners and customs, their festivals
and their fairs, and, of course, their toddies and toasts.
The Settings
"The Caledonia Fair was an annual September affair; sometimes at
the Indian Farm, oftentimes at Alexander McDonalds (first settler of
the town) opposite Portage, or at John Pierson's, the old raftsman, whose
home was further down on the bank of the AViseonsin River ; where plenty
of whisky of some sort could be had. There were no restrictions as to
how much was wanted, or drunk upon the spot; youth was no bar,
neither was old age. Temporary dining halls were thrown uf), in which
a hundred could sit down at tables glistening with frosted cakes.
"A farm field was the Fair Grounds, and it took acres to hold the
visitors. A genuine Scotch rivalry existed among the biggest farmers—
those having the most stacks — for the fair was lai'gely held in the open
fields, among the stacks of grain or hay and in the farm buildings.
"The fair was inaugurated before any revenue tax was put upon
intoxicants, and very small licenses were charged for their sale; hence
there were plenty of lunch and drinking stands in evidence ; and often
before the day ended the evidence was convincing. The second year of
the Civil war, with its revenue laws and widespread excitement over
bloody battles and sieges, was the last during which the Caledonia Fair
was held.
Everything and Everybody Turned Loose
"Few of this day have an idea of the magnitude of the round-up of
all classes at these fairs, prior to that year — how they flocked to them
for miles around : and this one of September, 1861, was the greatest of
them all. It was like the Babel of the Bible— a gathering of all the
tongues, vogues and brogues. The fair at Daddy Robinson's capped the
climax.
No Other Like Pair of 1861
"The Caledonia Fair of 1861 was held among acres of grain and hay
stacks, and everything was turned loose to the gathering public. They
were given the freedom of the entire premises. Refreshments were sold,
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 411
liquid and solid ; drinking and smoking without restraint, among stacks
of grain, in barns and granaries. The gathering began soon after sun-
rise, and the host remained until the 'shades of night were falling fast.'
Then the lads and lassies sought the Alpine Heights of Jim Allen's
House, to have it out in dance and prance. Everything was filled — yard
filled, house filled, dancers filled, prancers filled. The hilarity went on,
from start to finish, without diminish, through a dark and dismal night
till broad daylight before it took its flight. Never again, while trees
grow and water runs, will there ever be such a gathering in the locality
of where the Town Hall of Caledonia now stands.
' ' Will there ever be brought together again such a Wild-Wester, such
an aggregation, such fiddlers and dancers? Didu't they four it down
and didn't they hoe it down? — the Bills and the Bobs, the Jacks and
the Daves, the Toms and the Tims, the Als and the Ikes. And there
were maidens and matrons to match. All under the one thatch, from
cellar to garret — it all belonged to the dance.
Last Day of De Korra Home Guard
"Only one Jap. Sage ever existed; and he fiddled there. He was also
the drummer for the De Korra Home Guard. That was their last day on
earth as an organization. They performed their last evolution at the
Daddy Fair. They were organized by Captain William Ryan shortly
after the bombardment of Port Sumter. The Captain had been a Brit-
ish soldier and the Sumter affair stirred his fighting blood. So he called
together the Home Guard and drilled them in marching and evolutions ;
taking some of the awkwardness out of the boys. Their regular uni-
forms were red flannel ; shirt trimmed with black velvet, with brass but-
tons (eagles on them) ; black pants, with red stripe down the legs; gray
caps. Perhaps fifty wore uniforms, and as many more drilled without.
They were a handsome and sturdy body of men, but did not enter the
service as an organization. A majority of them went to the war — as
infantrymen, cavalrymen, artillerymen, sharpshooters and in the naval
service. Most of them were volunteers; only a few drafted. Some were
in the Iron Brigade.
"The first man killed at Pittsburg Landing was one of the Home
Guard — George Ilillman, of the Eighteenth Regiment Wisconsin Volun-
teers. Captain William Ryan served in the Iron Brigade ; was wounded
several times and lived for years afterward at Baraboo. Timothy 0.
Kennedy, first lieutenant, was a member of the Light Artillery service
and died before the conclusion of the war. Pew remain at this date
who were membei-s of the company at the Caledonia Pair in Septem-
ber, 1861.
412 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
"The Home Guard was the main attraction of the day at that famous
event, although there was a company of volunteers present under Cap-
tain Christy, of the Eleventh Regiment. For some reason the Home
Guard, whose members were a superior looking body of men, did not
fraternize with the volunteers. Many times they had hot words and
nearly came to blows. It was a big day for John Barleycorn to shovi?
his prowess.
Big Billy Wood Gets Even
"One can hardly picture Big Billy Wood, infuriated at a stand-
keeper who sold fruits and candies and gave him change for a 50-cent
piece, instead of for the .$10-gold piece paid over by the customer. Billy
had come to the fair with some hundred dollars of shining eagles, and
this dishonest stand-keeper thought to bunko him, but was somewhat
astonished when Billy raised one of his barrels of apples over his head
and smashed it to the ground as if it had been a bag of peanuts. The
apples came out of both ends of the barrel and rolled under the feet
of the bystanders, while Billy, to make havoc more complete, snatched
out of the earth one post of the awning as he went by, brought down
the tent in a heap and threw the stake out among the crowd. He never
looked back for his change, but his stalwart six-foot-six. carrying 240
pounds of Scotch bone and sinew, had had its fling, and felt satisfied.
Live Stock Exhibits
"The exhibits of cattle and horses were indeed a credit. Teams of
horses were often finely matched and well broken. The same was true
of the ox-teams, and there were many in use with proficient drivers.
Much teaming for long distances before the railroads were built had
given men experience in managing teams; if any comparison with the
present is made, it is safe to say that teamsters were more skilful fifty
years ago than today.
C.VN We Be.vt These?
' ' The fertile, virgin soil produced the best of products. One is forced
to exclaim. What wheat— spring and winter — oats, corn and rye, barley
and buckwheat ! So we had beer for the brewing and pancakes for the
frying. Such pumpkin fields, yellow with them. Garden stuff galore,
and then some more! And turnips and cabbage, beans and peas — ^all
grew in astonishing quantity and quality. Such melons — musk and
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 413
water ! Wild plums and crabapples, and garden fruits of all kinds, grew
in perfection. The Fair was always well supplied with all of these.
Then there were plenty of dairy products. Both butter and cheese, skil-
fully made, were among the exhibits. All these things told of a laud of
plenty, showing the reward of the husbandman.
No iloRE Daddy's F.virs
"Yea, Yea! It is safe to say of fairs of the present day, with their
balloon ascensions and flying machines, big race tracks, baseball and
football attractions — that we have farmers' fairs no longer; no more
Daddy's fairs among the stacks of grain and hay.
A Mystery Still
"And as 1 look back at that occasion — why Old Daddy's beautiful
stacks and the entire premises were not burned on that breezy, boosy
day, with hundreds of pipes and cigars burning among them, is yet one
of the mysteries which I have never been able to fathom."
Kentucky City — Its One Building
Mr. Hastie has the following to say regarding Kentucky City, which
once waited on Fortune in what is now the northwestern part of the town
of De Korra: "Kentucky City was about seven miles south and a
little west, on the east bank of the Wisconsin River. Among the other
attractions of its paper plat was a block of ground known as The Green
— a Kentucky term for a plot of public ground and brought to Columbia
County by some of the native sons of the old Southern state. The
Lafayette Hill tavern, a two-story wooden building, was the first and
only structure erected while the place bore the name of Kentucky City.
It was built in 1837.
The Old Ferry and Schoolhouse
"Chicago was large, Milwaukee wasn't much, when people from lioth
cities moved thither, after Kentucky City became De Korra village. For
more than thirty years there was much traffic which crossed the river on
the ferry which ran between De Korra and what is now the town of
Caledonia. The writer first saw this ferry and crossed the Wisconsin
on it fifty-eight years ago.
"The first schoolhouse built in the vieinitv was across the river from
■114 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Kentucky City. It was a typical log hut, with the bark and knots left.
Thomas (Daddy) Robertson, John Pate and perhaps James Wilson had
settled in Caledonia. There were large families, and Scotch ones, and
Scotch dominies were employed."
The Poor ;Man's Court
Mr. Hastie thus sketches a Squire of his locality, when Archibald
Hastie, his father, his mother, a brother and sister, arrived in De Korra
village, overland from Madison, Wisconsin, and originally from Caledonia
County, Vermont — "the only Caledonia County to be found on the
map of the world;" the date, March 28, 1856: "Our pioneer parents
could improvise. They could cross rivers without bridges; they could
enact laws without capitals ; they could hold courts without courthouses,
and they could execute a bold bandit without a gallows. Eternal
vigilance was the price of their liberty.
"No better constitution will ever be written than our forefathers
penned for the foundation of social order. They saw the wants of
humanity. Plaving been poor themselves, they did not forget the poor
man, protecting him against the strong by making justice cheap ; pro-
viding for him a cheap court by constitutional law.
Dixon's First Case
"Justice of the Peace Hugh Muir, a pioneer Scotchman of the
town of De Korra (in what is now the town of Caledonia), was such a
poor man's court. His court room was his log cabin, with the usual big
fireplace. Luther S. Dixon (then a young lawyer, afterward chief jus-
tice of the State Supreme Court) had his first case before this tribu-
nal. It was a jury trial and the real dilemna came when the jiiry had
to be confined for deliberation. The only place available outside the
dignified court room was a dug-out used for a root-house. Into this
the jury were thrust to be separated from the bystanders and the Court."
Honor to the Western Pioneer
Here are some good words and pictures of the Western brand of
pioneer, as illustrated by the old settlers at and around the village
of De Korra : "We bow in reverence to the Pilgrim Fathers and kiss the
rock on which they landed. Their hardships and privations were many,
but those of the Western Pioneer were also numerous. Our brave
fathers and mothers are entitled to a share of our grateful remem-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUxNTY 415
brance ; our children should be able to find an account of their acts
and deeds.
Land Speculators Crowd Out Settlers
"Here they were, one hundred miles from Milwaukee, their nearest
lake port. But they couldn't depend for existence even on that, for they
had little money with which to buy and they must first get something
to exchange. What were their resources? Lumber was the chief, and
that was rafted down the river. Land had to be paid for, even from the
GfOvernment.
"Many a man traveled on foot up into the Wisconsin pineries to
earn a sum with which to buy a piece of land, and when he had his money
would run on foot to some Government landoffice, a hundred miles away.
Often more than one had an eye out for the same land. Speculators,
with no notion of becoming residents would invest in lands and hold
them against settlement for years, to the gi'eat annoyance of the home-
makers who had to take the leavings. Columbia County passed through
this ordeal.
Village op De Korra at Its Best
"The Kentucky Syndicate owned nearly all the near land to De
Korra village ; hence, it stood in the woods for years. The most exten-
sive farming was across the Wisconsin River in the town of Caledonia,
the people coming to De Korra to the mill, blacksmith shops, stores
and lumber yards. At one time there were, in the village, three taverns
with barrooms, and a number of stores and shoe shops; but the most
important business was the rafting of lumber. Most everyone was more
or less engaged in it — rafting, handling, buying and selling — often taking
it to St. Louis.
"Rafts would tie up to some trees on shore. Often there would
be delays for hours on accoi;nt of wind, the pilots not being able to
see the channels for the waves. When tied up they would take on sup-
plies of eggs, meat and flour; also, getting the jugs filled with whiskey
In the ^Ielting Pot
Again : ' ' The population of De Korra was a make-up of people from
quite a number of states — Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
Indiana. There was little difference in the composition on either side
416 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
of the Wisconsin River, only, of course, Caledonia was mostly Scotch.
There were also some French, now and again a Yankee, and quite a
sprinkling of French Canadians. The Germans came later and they took
firm root in the soil; so that now Caledonia may be called German-
American. The Scotch got the soil at $1.25 per acre, the Germans now
hold it at $100 or mora per acre."
Mr. Hastie then proceeds to show how the strength of Columbia
County, as of the nation, lies in the composite type which is evolving
from this mingling of all races and nationalities. But lack of space
forbids further drafts upon his fertile mind.
James R. Hastie on Curling
The following from the pen of James R. Hastie, of De Korra, throws
some mellow light upon the origin and progress of curling in Columbia
County: "Darwin may be correct in his Survival of the Fittest, but
the theory doesn't seem to apply to De Korra village. It didn't sur-
vive, but it ought to. It didn't quite die. Its soul languished, and
still remains in a trance. But it retains one hope, although that is
in cold storage. It is the cradle for extracting excitement and joyous
laughter out of ice.
"Long live the Roaring Game of Curling, cradled here by the brawny
Scots, who upon a certain moonlight night, with their wives' flatirons hied
themselves to the ice at the mouth of Rocky Run ! After playing awhile
with the Flats, they conceived the idea of making wooden blocks, after
the image of the curling stones of Auld Scotland. The experiment was
made perhaps the next day; for Scotchmen are pushing fellows when a
curling Bonspiel lures them on. Those who must be given a place in
hi.story as the originators and first promoters of the game in Columbia
County were David McCulloch, Ninian Thompson, Joseph "Wood,
Peter Taylor, and others of the village of De Korra, whom they induced
to come into the game ; and nearly all the Scotchmen within a radius of
ten miles made wooden curling blocks and did get into it. Caledonia
brought all its clans forward — the McDonalds, McLeishes, Marshalls,
McMillans, Whitelaws, Bairds, Flemings, Greys, Stewarts, Niels, Ire-
lands, Muirs, Murrays, Harveys, Stevensons, Pates, Blacks, Prentices,
Riehmonds, Douglasses, Blacklocks, Piersons. Lindseys, Ramseys, Hamil-
tons, Broddies, Niccols, Gibbons, McLeans, Johnsons, Thomas Robertson
(Old Daddy) and others.
"Many of these were heads of old-fashioned families of from eight
to a baker's dozen, which made this part of Columbia County a miniature
Scotland. De Korra had some, and Arlington and Lodi quite a eon-
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUiNTY 417
tingeut ; combined, they could match Caledonia with ten or twelve rinks
of four curlers each, equipped with a pair of wooden blocks and broom —
the latter usually borrowed from the kitchen. Bonspiels and Bums Fes-
tivals kept Scottish sociability alive for many years.
"Curling from Caledonia and De Korra may be said to have passed
through a wooden period ; thence into an Iron Age, and now has reached
its grandeur in polished granite in the hands of polished gentlemen.
Scotland made good contributions to the settlement of Columbia County
in her countrymen, her curling and her kirk ; if she hasn 't many converts
to her kind of Christianity in founding Scottish kirks; she certainly has
not come shoi't in spreading her gospel of curling. Her crusaders car-
ried their brooms into many metropoles, playing for costly trophies.
The medal presented by Alexander Mitchell, president of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad to the National Curling Club of America
was once won by Skip J. E. Jones, editor of the Portage Democrat.
Portage has now one of the finest rink buildings in the county, if not
in the state — electric lighted, and all. Jabes Wells Crusaders of
Portage have more and greater victories to their credit than the fol-
lowers of Peter the Hermit. Jabe, like Grant in his generalship, stands
in a class by himself.
"In the later times the players have not all been Scotchmen. We
find the Germans take to curling like ducks to water; but whatever the
times and whoever the players, the generalship, the strategy, the tactics
of curling remain the same. The ganae typifies warfare — a smashing of
heads, not scattering of brains. Blood never reddens the ice."
Sketch of J.\mes R. H.\stie
Mr. Hastie is still living on the farm in Section 18, Town 11 north.
Range 9 east upon which his parents and their children located on April
18, 1856. His grandfather, William Hastie, served as a British Vol-
unteer Home Guard during the Napoleonic wai-s, when there was appre-
hension that the Little Corsican might invade Great Britain. Grand-
father Hastie 's branch of the family was Scandinavian-Scotch. The
maternal ancestry is English.
Archibald Hastie, the father of James R., was born in Scotland
October 13, 1817, and on his fifteenth birthday landed in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, in company with his parents, his sister and her husband, William
Guthrie, going thence to Caledonia County, Vermont. There his mother
died fifteen years later. William Hastie, Mr. Hastie 's grandfather, sur-
vived his wife more than twenty years, dying in De Korra during
October, 1868.
418 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
On March 25, 1841, Archibald Hastie married Elizabeth Jane Gil-
fillan, daughter of William Gilfillan and (Mrs.) Ruth Blanchard Cham-
berlain. That generation were the first of the GilfiUans to be trans-
planted from Scotland to America, and Mr. Hastie 's grandmother (Gil-
fillan) was of French-Huguenot extraction ^^^th English mixture. Mr.
Hastie 's mother was a faithful, conscientious and religious woman,
thereby following in the footsteps of her own parents. She survived
the husband and father more than ten years, and they both were laid
to rest in the cemetery at De Korra.
James R. Hastie was bom in Caledonia County, Vermont, on June 8,
1843, and was the second son in the family ; his brother William was his
elder by one year, and his sister Ruth was a year and ten months younger.
The paternal gi-audfather and grandmother were also in the family cir-
cle. With the other members of the family, young Hastie reached
Columbia County on the 28th of March, 1856. He was then nearing his
thirteenth birthday, his education having been confined largely to driv-
ing oxen over the Vermont hills and helping the loggers in the mountain
streams. At that time Poynette was just a postmark, and John Thomas
postmaster. He kept the letters that came in any old place, performing
his official duties for pleasure, not profit.
After looking around for a short time Archibald Hastie bought a
farm on Section 18, Town 11 north. Range 9 east, moving his household
to it April 18, 1856, and dying on this family homestead January 2,
1893.
Amid such homely, healthful surroundings James R. Hastie reached
manhood. He was educated both in Sunday school and district school,
and continued his ox-managing and plowing career, changed somewhat
to meet the new conditions of a pioneer civilization sprouting in a prairie
country. As already stated, he has seen the county grow from next to
nothing to one of the most prosperous in South-Central Wisconsin ; and
of that growth he has taken his good part.
Mr. Hastie has had his little fling at office-holding, having handled
the cash-box of the county at one time. From his own words, he is no
longer ambitious in that direction. For instance, he says : ' ' The inquisi-
tive public perhaps might desire to know how ex-officials in general
feel in retirement. Teddy would say 'Bully! And I don't take any in
mine only a teaspoonful in a little warm water and milk; for I'm tem-
perate in all things.' I'll smile through my fingers and say 'Me too.'
"Keeping anything is certainly an ordeal to pass through. Keeping
money is a difficult matter. Keeping secrets, especially political ones,
fries all the fat out of a fellow. Keeping books — you find j'X)u are
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 419
short or long on cash. You find somebody has yours, or you have his.
Either way, puts you temporarily out of confidence in yourself."
Mr. Hastie's family representative of the generation following his
own, is his daughter, Grace R., who (to quote his words) "if she is
favored witli the family longevity, may be associated with the next
edition of a Columbia County History. In fact, ladies may be compiling
one of their own. It is impossible to foretell the future."
CHAPTER XXXIV
MARCELLON AND FORT WINNEBAGO
First Settlers ix Marcellox — Others Who Came in 1846 — Several
First Events — Name of Marcellon Without Meaning — Town of
Fort Winnebago — Count Agosten Harasztht — IIakes Wisconsin
His Home — Locates in Sauk County — Off for California — Prom-
inent IN the Golden State — Death in Nicaragua — Portrait
Brought to Portage — First Permanent Settlers of Town — How
THE Town Came to Be.
The To^Ti of ^larcellon is in the northern part of Columbia County,
east and north of the Fox River Valley. The river crosses its extreme
southeast corner, and two small branches of Spring Creek (formerly
French Ci-eek), a tributary of the Fox, traverse the western and central
sections and provide them with good drainage.
Marcellon lies on high ground, has a rolling surface, is almost vnth-
out marsh or prairie, and still has considerable timber — over thirty-three
hundred acres yet standing — and is one of the townships which the
railroads have failed to notice.
First Settler in Marcellon
The first settler in the to^\^l was Francis B. Langdon, who, in No-
vember, 1845, located on Section 24, in the eastei-n part of the present
Marcellon. Messrs. Case and Powell came soon after. The first winter
passed by Mr. Langdon in that location was spent in a small log house
in which there was no window and only one door. To obtain flour and
meal for his family he had to go to Beaver Dam, Columbus or Waupun.
It required several days to make the journey, and when he arrived at
his destination there was no certainty of obtaining a supply.
Others Who Came in 1846
In March, 1846, P. Peckham located as the town's fourth settler, and
during the year was joined by E. Herod, William J. Ensign and Gilmau
420
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 421
H. Hoyt. Within the succeeding three years came Samuel Seavy, John
Seavy, Thomas D. "Wallace, William H. Cahoon, George Brinkerhoff,
William Bonny, Lawrence Van Dusen and Hiram Albee.
Se\'Eral First Events
In June, 1846, Elder Wedge, a Baptist minister, preached at the
house of Mr. Powell on Section 1, and his were the first religious services
in the town. Leona Ensign taught the pioneer school in 1847 on
Section 36.
Speaking comparatively, events came thick and fast in 1849. In
that year the town was organized, a postoffiee was established on Section
36, and the first church (Methodist Episcopal) was formed at the new
postoiBce of Marcellon.
Name of ]Marceli.on Without Meaning
As to Marcellon — what does it mean? Absolutely nothing. Like
Poynette, it was born of a clerical blunder. William C. Albee, eldest of
those born to Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Albee, among the most prominent of
Marcellon 's settlers, thus explains its creation: "At a gathering of the
early settlers of the town, then a part of Wyocena Precinct, they decided
to ask for a postoffiee for their convenience, and the petition that was
sent forward asked that the postoffiee be named 'Massillon' in honor of
the great French pulpit orator, but the postoffiee department suggested
that some other name be selected as there was already a very important
office of that name in Ohio. The organization of a town by the name of
Massillon was then being agitated which was soon accomplished, but
the scribe who handled the pen wrote Marrsellon instead, and it ap-
peared on the plat as Marrsellon, but was afterward changed to IMar-
cellon, which signifies nothing in its present form. ' '
Town op Fort Winnebago
The first permanent settlement within the present limits of the Town
of Fort Winnebago was made in 1848. The uneasy few at the Fox River
side of the portage and those who squatted near the old fort cannot be
included under the phrase ''permanent settlement."
Count Agosten Haraszthy
In this class and in the period of the early '40s belongs one of the
most noted characters who ever trod Wisconsin soil ; and, though Count
422 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Agosten Haraszthy resided but a few years in Sauk County, and had a
temporary dwelling on an island in the Fox River in the Town of Fort
Winnebago, from which he supplied the garrison with wood, both the
state and the town are proud of this small proprietorship in his wonder-
ful and useful activities. The count was a Hungarian refugee of an
ancient and honorable family ; wealthy, educated in the law, and honored
by high office, civil and military, at the hands of the emperor. But he
threw himself with natural impetuosity into the Liberal movement di-
rected against Austria, and his large estates were confiscated, while he
fled the country to the United States. After widely traveling, he wrote
and publi-shed a book setting forth the resources of the country to induce
the immigration of his countrymen.
Makes Wisconsin His Home
Soon after, in 1840 and 1841, he made the State of Wisconsin his
home, purchased large tracts of land for colonization purposes, founded
a settlement on the western side of the Wisconsin River, which was the
forerunner of Sauk City, built bridges, constructed roads and established
ferries and steamboat lines, his boats not only plying along the Wiscon-
sin, but down the Mississippi to St. Louis. But before he was able to
prosecute such large enterprises he returned to Hungary, under the pro-
tection of the United States Government, and surrendered a mass of
valuable state papers in exchange for a fragment of his personal prop-
erty. Out of the wreck he rescued $150,000 in gold and rare plate and
paintings, which he brought to the United States in the summer of 1842,
together with his family and retinue of attendants numbering twenty
persons.
Locates in Sauk County
Count Haraszthy bought 4,000 acres of land on the shores of one of
the lakes near Madison, staked out his property as the Colony of Good
Hope, but through an irregularity in the transfer papers was displaced
by a land grabber. He then burned every building he had erected, broke
up camp, and located on his purchase of 6,000 acres in Sauk County
three miles below the old settlement, kno^\^^ as Prairie du Sauk. He
called his new colony by his own name, and had it incorporated, and it
soon grew to be a flourishing village. He started a horse ferry across
the river, made excellent roads, established flouring mills, sawmills and
stores, and subsequently ran a steamboat down the Wisconsin River as
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 423
far as St. Louis. It was during the early period of his founding of
' ' Sauk City ' ' that he secured a Government contract for supplying Port
Winnebago with wood, and spent some time within the limits of the
present town in carrying it out.
Off FOR California
The count also engaged extensively ^in agriculture, planting the first
hops in the state at Sauk City, and encouraging others to do likewise.
He was also at that time head of the Emigrant Association of Wisconsin,
which brought over large colonies of English, German and Swiss emi-
grants. His own settlement had attained such a start by 1846 that he
succeeded in having it named as the county seat, building a courthouse
at his own expense. But yearly recurring prairie fires destroyed his
crops and many of his buildings, the commercial crisis of 1847 crippled
him, and the Hungarian revolution of 1848 drew heavily on his dwindling
private fortune. The consequence was that in 1849, with fifty associates,
he started overland for California.
Prominent in the Golden State
In the Golden State his fortune looked up. He became very promi-
nent in the affairs of the commonwealth, and during his twenty years'
residence there, mostly at Sonoma, scientifically founded those vast in-
terests centering in viniculture and viticulture in which California has
no rival in the United States, if in the world.
Death in Nicaragua
Having conveyed his vineyards covering 400 acres to a society which
he had organized, he went to Nicaragua in 1868, and became interested
in sugar culture, the distillation of spirits for export, the inanufaeture
of textile fibers and the carrying trade between San Francisco and
Nicaraguan ports. He is supposed to have been drowned on the sugar
plantation of 100,000 acyes in which he held a controlling interest, known
as the Hacienda San Antonio, near the port of Corinto, Nicaragua, on the
6th of July, 1870.
Portrait Brought to Portage
A portrait of the count is one of the most prized objects in the por-
trait gallery at the City Hall of Portage. After many years of effort
424 HISTOKY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
to secure it. the paintiug was obtained in San Francisco during the
spring of 1903.
First Permanent Settler op Town
Jonathan Whitney is considered the first permanent settler in the
Town of Fort Winnebago. In May, 1848, he selected as his home the
southwest quarter of Section 3, and founded "Port Hope;" which com-
menced and ended in hope. In the following year the English potters
colonized in the northeast.
How THE Town Came to Be
In January, 1849, was organized the Town of Winnebago Portage,
which did not then include the present township west of Fox River,
which was included in the Menominee Indian lands. The latter had not
been surveyed when the name was changed to Port Hope, in 1850, but
were in the following year.
Fort Winnebago, west of Fox River, was surveyed into sections and
quarter sections in July, 1851. There were then one house on Section
4, two on Section 5, one on Section 7, two on Section 8, one on Section 9,
one on Section 16, one on Section 17, one on Section 18, two on Section
19, two on Section 20, one on Section 21, two on Section 29, two on
Section 30, one on Section 31, and one on Section 33 — in all, twenty-one
houses.
At a meeting of the board of supervisors held November 18, 1853,
the town was named Fort Winnebago, and in 1858 had assumed its pres-
ent form and area, when portions of its southwestern sections were
taken from it to let in the northernmost part of the City of Portage.
CHAPTER XXXV
SCOTT AND RANDOLPH
Good Fruit and Dairy Country — First Settler in Scott — M. W. Pat-
ton AND Others — Famous Blue Tavern — Named After Winfield
Scott.
Scott is in the northern tier of townships, between Marcellon and
Randolph, and is unvexed by cities, viUages, settlements or other
bunches of people.
The southeastern jDart of the town is prairie land, an extension of the
large prairie area of Randolph. Ad.jacent to the head streams of the
Fox River in the eastern and northeastern sections is considerable
swampy land.' The western and northern parts were formerly quite
heavily timbered, with oak openings, but most of these wooded tracts
have disappeared.
CtOOd Fruit and Dairy Country
The northwestern portions of the town present a rather light sandy
soil, which readily raises fruit, in the production of which Scott devotes
nearly four thousand acres of land, ranking next to Caledonia in this
regard. The southern portions of the town abound in a heavy black
loam.
Well watered as it is, with an abundance of rich grasses, the Town
of Scott is especially adapted to the raising of a fine grade of milch
cows. As a dairy country. Northeastern Columbia County far sur-
passes its other portions, with the exception of Caledonia, and Scott
Township presents all the best features of that region.
First Settler in Scott
Tile first settler in the town appears to have been John Dodge, who
came from New Hampshire in the fall of 1844 and took up a claim
425
426 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
in the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 34, near the Spring-
vale line. He then went home, but in the latter part of the same winter
started for his Western claim. Reaching Chicago, he purchased a span
of horses, and drove to Watertowu, where he bought a load of corn and
oats which he brought through to his location in Scott. He then sent
his brother to Green Bay on horseback to enter the quarter section
which became his homestead. The entry was made February 11, 1845 —
the first in the town.
I\I. W. Patton \nd Others
In the fall of 1845 M. W. Patton, afterward known as the "High
Court of Centerville," made his appearance at ilr. Dodge's, tired and
hungry from land-hunting. The squire called for dinner, to which
Mr. Dodge responded heartily to the extent of a squirrel which he had
just shot. In after years Mr. Patton always said that that meal beat
anything he ever sat down to.
Famous Blue Tavern
In May, 1846, John Sawyer, Hamlet Copeland and James Hammond,
agents of the English Potters' Emigration Society, bought land in the
Town of Scott, and in 1846 Samuel and John ^McConaehie erected the
Blue Tavern, on the regular stage road which ran between Milwaukee
and Portage. It was a roomy frame structure and. as their business
grew, it was no unusual sight to see thirty or forty teams pass the house
daily, carrying grain to Milwaukee and freighting goods back. Stephen
B. Gage succeeded the originators of the enterprise, and was mainly
responsible for its good business. He charged travelers a shilling a meal,
with a drink of whisky thrown in — as was the custom in those days.
Mr. Gage stuck to his tavern until 1857, when the building of the
La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad killed his trade.
Named After Winfield Scott
The Town of Scott was organized for civil and political purposes in
November. 1849, and was named after General Winfield Scott who was
making his Mexican war record during the first years of its settlement.
CHAPTER XXXVI
LOWVILLE AND SPRINGVALE
Jacob Low, First Settler of Lowville — First Marriage, Birth and
Death — First Postoffice and Mail Route — The Hotel — First
Teacher and Preacher — Coming op the Townsend Family — Rem-
iniscences OF A. J. Townsend — Town of Springvale — Adapted
to Cattle Raising — Springvale 's First Settler — High-Priced
Religion — The Welsh Settlers — Organized Under Present Name.
Lo\wille, one of the southern agricultural townships of Columbia
County, is the origin of Rocky Run, a Wisconsin River tributary which
has its source in ]\Iucl Lake; this, the largest body of water in the
town, is in the very center of Lowville.
Jacob Low, First Settler op Lowville
The first settler was Jacob Low, son of Capt. Gideon Low, who was
a sutler at Fort Winnebago and afterward proprietor of the famous
Franklin House at the Portage. The son came in 1843, and during that
and the following year Jacob Stone, Edward Clark and Jonathan Gil-
bert also located on their claims; in 1845, Silas W. Herring, Henry
Herring, John Barmore, Orin Rogers, S. J. Scott and Jefferson Waters;
in 1846, S. P. Webb, Claudius Evarts, Justice Warden and Joseph Snell.
First Marriage, Birth and Death
The first marriage in the town was that of Thomas M. Richards
with Julia A. Webb, on July 15, 1847 ; the first white child born, Emma,
daughter of Claudius and Betsy Evarts, in May, 1847 ; the first death,
that of Joseph Snell, July 30, 1848. .
First Postoffice and Mail Route
The first settlements were made in the southwestern part of town,
and in 1846 a postoffice was established on Section 32, with Mr. Low as
427
428 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
postmaster. The first mail route by which this ofSce was supplied was
from Madison to Portage. Prior to the completion of the northern
division of the Chicago, J\Iilwaukee & St. Paul Railroad this route was
quite extensively patronized by traveling men.
The Hotel
Mr. Low converted his house into a hotel in 1846, and conducted the
tavern until 1853, Stephen Brayton succeeding him both as postmaster
and hotelkeeper in that year. In 1856, with the approach of the rail-
road, the stage line was discontinued and travel thus cut off.
Town Xamed Lowville
With the organization of the county, in 1846, was created the Toi^n
of Lowville. As there was no dispute as to whom was the most prom-
inent citizen witliin the proposed subdivision of the county, it was named
after Jacob Low.
First Teacher and Preacher
The year 1848 brought two important events into the town history —
the teaching of its first schools, one by Julia Stevens near Mr. Low's
house on Section 32, and the other by B. M. "Webb, on Section 5 ; and
the preaching of the first sermon, by Elder William Cornell, at the
house of Theodore Northrup on Section 8. In September, 1849, the
elder organized a Baptist Church, and for more than twenty years the
society met at the schoolhouse on Section 5.
Coming op the Townsend Family
Among the newcomers of 1848 was the father of A. J. Townsend,
the latter having resided in Wyocena for fifty-six years. He came to
Lowville, with other members of the family, from Jefferson County,
New York. The journey was by team to Buffalo, thence by boat to She-
boygan, Wisconsin, and thence by team again to Columbia County. The
father took up 240 acres of Government land, and farmed it for ten years,
when, in 1858, the family came to Wyocena. The son (A. J. Town-
send) insists that no settler should be called a pioneer whose land title
does not run direct from the Goveimment ; and, by that rule, the Town-
send family is surely in the list of Columbia County pioneers.
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 429
Reminiscences op A. J. Townsend
Mr. Townsend, the younger, is still alert mentally and physically
despite his eighty-odd years, and his reminiscences are always welcome
additions to local history, as witness the following from his pen in 1914 :
"Jacob Low, a son of Gideon Low, Captain of Fort Winnebago, was
the first settler in Lowville. He built a tavern on the old Madison and
Portage stage road, one mile from the south line and one and three-
fourths miles from the west line of the town. The town was named
Lowville in honor of his good early work. When he settled there, there
was not a house between Portage and his tavern. It was the stage
house for Fink and Walker's line from Portage to Madison. Mr. Low
was the first postmaster.
"Until 1849 there were but fifteen families in the town.
"Just east of Mr. Low's tavern there was an Indian village with
thirty-seven wigwams and quite a number of Indians still there. The
village was located near a number of large springs that have since
entirely disappeared. They were the headwatei-s of Rowan Creek.
This is in accord with the prediction of an old Indian living in the vil-
lage at that time, who said: 'Great Spirit angry with smoky man and
dry the water all up.'
"Nearly all the houses of the settlers were built of logs and poles,
mere shacks, and small at that, and all public meetings were held in
some one's shack.
"The people were wide awake and nearly all abstemious, with a
decided Christian character.
"The Iirst Sabbath school was organized early in May, 1848, and
Peter Drake, living in a pole shack 12x16 feet tendered the use of it to
the people for all Christian services. People came from miles around,
often ten or fifteen miles, and pleasant Sundays the attendance was as
many as 100 at the service and 35 at the Sabbath school. This school is
still in existence and has been continuously since it started with the
exception of one year when the male portion of the settlers were in the
South defending their country. There may have been other Sunday
schools started before this one, but where is there one in the county that
has existed sixty-six years with one short vacation. The State Associa-
tion gives this school the credit of being the Banner Sunday School of
the state.
"In the fall of 1848 William Cornell organized a Baptist church in
connection with the Sunday school.
"Two public school houses were built in 1850, one in the north part
and the other in the south part of the town.
4a0 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
"There are only four people living who took part in this first church
and Sunday school to-day."
Town op Springvale
The Town of Springvale lies on the Wisconsin River side of the
watershed. Three branches of Duck Creek traverse it from east to west,
running in flat, marshy, sharply defined valleys, which extend into Ran-
dolph and Courtland townships to the east. In the western sections
of the two towns last named are the sources of Duck Creek.
The valleys in Springvale have an altitude of from 230 to 260 feet,
and are separated by tongues of higher land. The broadest marsh and
valley are those which lie along the north or main branch ; on the west
line of the town they are nearly four miles in width. Prairie on higher
ground occurs in the northeastern part of the town, chiefly in Sections
11, 12, 13, 15 and 4, connecting with the prairie in the northwestern part
of Courtland.
Adapted to Cattle Raising
This diversity of surface, well watered and of good soil, adapts the
town to the raising of live stock, especially of cattle, and not a few of
the farmers have fine herds of milch cows. It is also one of the best
potato districts of the county.
Contented, Though Without a Village
Springvale has never enjoyed the luxury of a village, although a
postofiSce was established on Section 28 more than sixty years ago, but
finally discontinued. In 1857 the northern division of the Chicago, Mil-
waukee & St. Paul line was built through the northern sections of the
town, but there has never been a station between Cambria on the east
and Pardeeville on the west. Notwithstanding which, the people of
Springvale live well and seem contented, if not happy.
The first land entered in the town was by John Dodge, the first,
settler in the Town of Scott, which bounds Springvale on the north.
On April 29, 1845, he entered the west half of the southeast quarter
of Section I, and Lot 1 in Section 2, his entries in Scott, earlier in the
year, being in Section 34, just over the line. Mr. Dodge's home was in
the Town of Scott.
Springvale 's First Settler
The first settler in Springvale was Ervin McCall. Late in April,
1845, he entered the town in search of a home, and went no farther, but
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 431
returned to the sub-laudoffice at Fox Lake and filed his claim on an
eighty-acre tract. He then returned to his home in La Porte, by way
of Watertown and Milwaukee, and early in September started for his
Wisconsin home with his family, brother, wagon, two yoke of oxen, half
a barrel of pork and a limited supply of other provisions and household
goods. While fording Pox River in Illinois, the wagon was overturned
and Mrs. McCall's arm broken. The broken arm was temporarily ad-
justed and the party came on to Rock County, Wisconsin, where his
brother-in-law, M. W. Patton, resided. There Mr. McCall left his family
and, with his brother, pushed on with the family outfit for the Springvale
claim in the northeastern part of the town. The first night after their
arrival was spent at the log house of Sam Langdou on the present site of
Cambria, and the next day they commenced haying on the marsh near
by, in order to get in a winter's supply for their stock. They built a
log house on the claim a short distance west, and then Ervin returned
to Rock County for his family.
Mr. Patton and his family came to Columbia County with the
McCalls, but located in the Town of Scott, where he became prominent.
They all arrived at the hospitable house of ilr. Langdon on the night
of the 15th of November, and the next day the McCall family moved into
their new cabin which awaited them.
PIigh-Priced Religion
During the first winter of Mr. McCall's residence there, after mak-
ing the necessary purchases of provisions to last until spring he in-
ventoried his wordly goods and found that his cash assets amounted to
two twenty-five cent pieces. A little later two Methodist circuit riders—
the elder being Rev. W. G. Miller, afterward eminent and always popu-
lar— penetrated to the northeastern part of the county and stopped at
the Langdon house. There Mr. Miller delivered a sermon, to which the
McCalls were eager listeners; so much so, that the head of the family
donated one of his two twenty-five cent pieces to the cause, or rather to
assist in defraying the traveling expenses of the good missionaries. That
night also they were entertained at the cabin of the McCalls, where
other religious services were held, the first in the town.
The Welsh Settlers
Besides the McCall family, the first settlers of the town were Robert
Closs, Hugh Edwards, John Edwards, Evan Edwards, Robert Lloyd,
432 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
John R. Rowlands, Sr., Robert Rowlands, William Lloj'd, John 0. Jones,
John Meredith, John Williams, Samuel Owens, Owen Samuel, Richard
Owens, Alfred Cowley, John Morgan, David D. Roberts and John
Leatherman. most of whom wei-e members of the colony who came from
North Wales in the fall of 1845 and settled Welsh Prairie and at the
present site of Cambria, known for several years as Langdon Mills.
In fact, six of the nine leaders of the colony who had been sent out into
Southern Wisconsin to locate lands, while the other forty members
waited for their report at Milwaukee and Racine, were in the foregoing
list of the earlj' settlers of Springvale. It was but natural that these
leading pioneers should take a prominent part in the early public affairs
of the town, which is specially applicable to John 0. Jones and John
R. Rowlands, Sr.
It is this large Welsh element in the town which brings to those now
residing in the town its noticeable industry and contentment, its cheer-
ful earnestness and prosperity.
Organized Under Present Name
In 18-49 the town was organized under its present name, and the
house of Edward Williams was designated by the board of county
commissioners as the place for holding the first election.
In the same year the Calvanistic Methodists erected the first church
in town on the southeast quarter of Section 12.
Although Spring\'ale has no centers of population, the rural deliv-
ery places the people within easy touch of each other, while Cambria
to the noi-theast, Pardeeville to the northwest, and Rio to the southwest
brings them within easy distance of banks and transportation facilities.
CHAPTER XXXVII
WEST POINT AND HAMPDEN
First House-Buildee in West Point — Changes in Name — Schools
— Only One Hotel Venture — Town of Hampden — First Settlers
— Town Organized and Named — First School — Introduction op
Fine Stock.
West Point is tlie soutliwestemmost town in Columbia County,
across the Wisconsin River being Sauk County and Dane County,
over the southern line. It is broken and generally highlands, the
country along the Wisconsin, being composed of limestone bluffs rang-
ing from 500 to 600 feet in height. They extend several miles inland,
one of the boldest being located on Section 13. The prairie region is
mainly in the center of the town. Live stock, especially sheep and swine,
thrive in West Point better than in any other town of the county, and
they are the mainstays of the population which is entirely rural.
West Point Quite Rural
West Point never had a village, although a magnificent paper
city was once located on the Wisconsin River bluffs, and a railroad
has not, up to date, really penetrated its territory, although the North
Western has cut off a little northern corner. It has had two postoffices —
one in the central part of the town, established in 1857 and called
West Point, and another established during 1876 in the south (Section
34) and named Farr's Corners after J. L. Farr, an old settler of that
locality.
Actual settlement within the town limits was not made until a
decade had passed since the platting of Wisconsin City (paper), in 1836,
and there is some doubt as to whom shall be given the credit of making
the first habitation upon the soil of West Point. In the earlier times it
was generally given to Christian and David Dorsch, whose arrival is
said to have been in 1845. Whether either of them built a house at that
''nl. 1—28
433
434
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
time is not known, but David Dorscli appears among the first town
supervisors who went into office in 1850.
First House-Builder in West Point
The other claimant for first house-builder is Dr. Leander Drew,
through his son, L. S. Drew, of Lodi, who inspired the following in
the Lodi Enterprise of July 8, 1904: "The picture (published in
said newspaper) is a reproduction of the first house built in what is
■m
^^
- '* " -^
^pi
l)n. Leander Drew, West Poini
now the town of West Point. It was erected in the fall of 1844 by
Dr. Leander Drew, father of our fellow townsman, L. S. Drew. The
History of Columbia County credits the erection of the first dwelling
house in that town to David Dorsch, but that is only one of the numerous
mistakes to be found in the so-called history. Doctor Drew came to
Wisconsin from Vermont in the spring of 1843, and located on land
on Sauk Prairie, where he began the cultivation of wormwood, which
industry he and his father before him had followed successfully in the
East. The soil on the prairie did not suit the Doctor for his purpose,
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 435
and in the spring of 1844 he located the Drew homestead in West Point,
where the present wormwood business of L. S. Drew was established.
The same fall he built the log house shown herewith. The house passed
through the ownership of only two men before becoming the property
of Samuel Montross, who last month caused it to be toru down to make
room for a modern residence.'
The business mentioned is the manufacture of the oil of wormwood,
in which Doctor Drew was engaged, with the practice of his profession,
for twelve or thirteen years after locating near Crystal Lake. He
lived in the log house alone for two years; then returned to Vermont
for his family, and in 1850 erected a new and a better house nearer the
lake. There he died October 30, 1857.
Changes in Name
With the organization of the county, in 1846, West Point was made
a part of the Pleasant Valley Precinct. In 1849 it was attached to
Lodi, but on the 8th of January, 1850, the jioard of supervisors set off
the town under its present name. "West Point," says Turner, "was
undoubtedl.y selected because of its geographical location in the county,
being the extreme western portion of the southern part of the county.
The name Portland had first been asked for, in petitioning for the
organization of the town, which was changed to Bloomfield by the
committee of the board, in recommending its organization, but in tlie
formal order creating it, it appeared as West Point, a highly appropriate
name, but somewhat marred by an inadvertent omission of about 100
acres in Range 6 in the extreme west part of the town, which was left
outside of town organization altogether. ' '
Schools
In the fall of 1848 Miss Adula Jones taught a select school at the
house of Otis A. Kilbourn in the south part of the town, it being the
first. A school district was organized in 1850, the school being taught
by Miss Sarah B. Van Ness.
Only One Hotel Venture
In 1852 Christian Riblett opened a "Publick Inn" (so read his
sign) in Section 13, northeastern part of the town. It did not long
survive, and the bold venture was not again attempted by anyone.
436 HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY
Town of Hampden
The Town of Hampden lies mostly on the eastern slope of the
ridge which divides the headwaters of the Rock River from the
branches of the Wisconsin, and the land within its bounds rises quite
rapidly from east to west. In the western and central portions is a
rolling prairie connecting by a narrow strip with that of Fountain
Prairie and Columbus. In the southeast is high ground continuous
with that in Southwest Columbus. The town is watered by the Cra\vfish
River, a tributary of the Rock.
Hampden is well watered, without being swampy, and is favored
as a raiser of live stock. It is one of the best sections of Columbia
County for sheep and swine, and is in the Wisconsin "tobacco belt"
which has been gradually fading away. The county assessor reports
that over three hundred acres are still devoted to the weed in Hampden
Township, which leads, at that.
First Settlers
The first settler in that part of Columbia County was Alfred Topliff,
who served the county as its first surveyor and for several terms
prior to 1866. He located in Hampden May 1, 1844, and a month after-
ward came Lewis and Landy Sowards, with their families. Fort Winne-
bago, De Korra, and some eight or ten families in Columbus and
Fountain Prairie, then constituted nearly the entire population of
the county.
The first settlers of Hampden had to go to Aztalan postofifice, a
distance of thirty miles, for their letters and papers, and most of
their provisions were procured at Milwaukee, seventy miles away. The
road then traveled to the Cream City was by way of Aztalan and
thence through the dense forests of the Rock River region for som©
twenty miles to their destination. It required five or six days to make
the journey to Milwaukee and return.
Town Organized and Named
Before the organization of the county into towns, in 1846, Hampden
was in the Third Election Precinct; this was known as Dyersburg
Precinct, in honor of Wayne B. Dyer, the first settler of Otsego
and the first clerk of the board of county commissioners. In 1849
the Town of Hampden was organized, and the house of Cornwall Esmond,
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 437
on the northwest quarter of Section 15, was designated as the place for
holding the first election.
There is some difference of opinion as to the origin of the name.
It is known that several of the most substantial of the early settlers
were Englishmen. The fame of the great English patriot, John Hamp-
den, was naturally dear to them, and especially to Thomas B. Haslam,
town clerk for a number of the earlier years of the local government
and otherwise identified with the general progress of this section of
the county.
First School
jMr. Topliff taught the first school in the town on Section 11, in 1847.
A postoffice was established near the center of the town in the same year.
Among the best-known farmers who came prior to 1856 may be men-
tioned Clarendon Roys, Henry R. Clark, Clark Hazard, Eli Sowards,
Daniel Sowards, C. C. Tillotson, T. S. Roys, James Montgomery, E.
Fairbanks, James H. Sutton, John Derr, Peter Hanson, 0. J. Oleson and
E. Knudson.
Introduction op Fine Stock
About the year 1868 Mr. Fairbanks began to give special attention
to the improvement of cattle and sheep. His herds of Durham cattle
and merino sheep were exhibited at county, district and state fairs
for years afterward and won fame and all kinds of ribbons. Several
fine horses were imported from France in 1875 by a town association,
and later considerable attention was given to the improvement and
raising of swine.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
NEWPORT AND RANDOLPH
Newport Town and Village Founded — First Settlers — Randolph
Township — Leads in Agriculture — George Knowles, First
Settler — Ccjjiing of the Langdon Brothers — Alden and Converse
— The First Welsh to Arrive — First Schools and Teachers —
Squire Patton and His "High Court" — Villages at a Discount
— But Politics, Brisk Enough.
Along the west side of the Town of Newport are the walls of the
Lower Dells of the Wisconsin. The ground rises rapidly toward the
north and west, so that the northern sections attain elevations con-
siderably over four hundred feet. Its soil, like that of Lewiston, is
usually sandy, and the two constitute the best potato districts of the
county. Fine potatoes and beautiful scenery ! How the prosaic and the
poetic do hold hands in this world of ours !
Newport Town and Village Founded
The Village of Newport, immediately south of Kilbourn City, was
in embryo when a new town was proposed by the county boarJi to be
taken from the Town of Port Hope (Fort Winnebago), in 1852. At the
time the Wisconsin River was quite high, and occasionally boats would
run up and effect a landing on the site of the village proposed by
Joseph Bailey and Jonathan Bowman on Section 15. The old settlers
roundabout were asked to select a name for both the new village and
the town-about-to-be, and decided upon Newport. So, on the 15th of
November, 1852, the Town of Newport was organized, and in April of the
following year the first election was held at the house of James Christie.
As was to be expected, he was cliosen chairman of the town board;
Joseph Bailey, town clerk.
First Settlers
The first settler in the town was Alonzo B. Steams, who located
on Section 17, a short distance northeast of the present railroad station
438
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
439
440 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
of Cheney, in March 1849. Mr. Stearns erected a small log cabin,
and commenced to clear the land for a farm. Soon afterward, came
Marvin Mason, E. A. Toles, and E. A. Toles, Jr.
The town did not fill up very rapidly with settlers, and it was not
until the winter of 1853-5i that a schoolhouse was built. Its location
was Section 7, in the center of the town, and the teacher was Miss
Frances M. Howard.
Randolph Township
Randolph, the northeast township of Columbia County, embraces a
portion of the divide between the head streams of the Wisconsin and the
Rock Rivers. The surface is generally level and about one-half the
area of the township is prairie land. The wooded portions occur espe-
cially in the northern half, there being a few marshy tracts along the
streams of the Rock River toward the northeast and east. In the south-
west quarter the headwaters of Duck Creek make a deep ravine, whose
bottom has an altitude of only 240 feet, about one hundred feet below
the general level of the towTi.
Leads in Agriculture
Randolph is a good grazing town, and is one of the leading districts
of the country for the growing of oats. It is next to Caledonia in the
raising of horses, and is third among the towns in the cultivation of
barley.
George Knowles, First Settler
The first settler in the town was George Knowles, a New Yorker, who
selected his land in Section 13 during the fall of 1843, and entered it in
February, 1844. His shanty, the first in town, was made of whitewood
boards brought from Fond du Lac. He broke up some land in May of
that year, which he claimed to be the first in Randolph, planted and
raised the first crop, and resided on this pioneer homestead until 1860,
when he moved to Milwaukee.
Coming of the Langdon Brothers
S. S. Torbert came from Illinois in March, 1844, in company with
John Langdon and Benjamin "Williams. Mr. Torbert raised the first log
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 441
house, ou Section 15, and Mr. Williams being a single man, lived with
him. Langdon put up his log house shortly after on Section 29, and
-finished it before that of Torbert. In the following year Samuel
Langdon joined his brother, and the two founded Cambria as Langdon 's
Mill. As we have seen, the property of the brothers passed to a Mr. Bell.
John, who was financially ruined, moved to Bad Axe, now Vernon
County, where he died in 1852.
Mr. Williams afterward became sheriff of the county, but finally
moved to the fruit region of Michigan.
Alden and Converse
Alvin B. Alden and John Converse, who were related by marriage,
were also settlers of 1844, both coming from Connecticut. Mr. Alden
was clerk of the Board of Supervisors for several years before he moved
to Portage. John Converse, his father-in-law, is best known as the
founder of the Village of Randolph, and he also became a resident of
Portage.
The First Welsh to Arrive
The first Welsh people in this section of the state settled a few rods
east of the Randolph town line in Dodge County. The first to make their
homes in Randolph were Rev. Thomas H. Roberts, David Roberts and
John Evans. They settled on Section 4 and Section 15. It was at John
Evans' house in Section 15 that Mr. Roberts preached the first sermon in
town, in the winter of 1844-45, organizing at the same time the Welsh
Church of Blaen-y-cae. The glowing letter which the minister wrote to
his friends in Wales brought the large colony to the northeastern prairies
of the county during the fall of 1845.
First Schools and Teachers
The fii-st school of the town was kept at the log dwelling of John
Converse in 1845. The first house built in town expressly for a school
was made of logs, and was erected on Section 11 (Government land) by
voluntary contribution of labor and material. Miss Jlargaret Jones, of
Springvale, taught therein during the summer of 1846. In December
of that year the forty acres of Government land were exchanged for
another forty. A dispute then arose as to the ownership of the school-
house, and one night it was torn down and carried away. So ended the
first schoolhouse in the Town of Randolph.
442 HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Squire Patton and His "High Court"
The first election held either in the town or that section of the county
was at the house of John Langdon in 1846. At that time M. W. Patton
was elected justice of the peace for the territory now covered by the
townships of Courtland, Springvale, Scott and Randolph. The Lang-
don house stood for many years afterward on the farm of Thomas
Sanderson.
For a number of years Squire Patton tried his eases, tied blooming
couples and transacted other legal business at the general store erected
in 1846, a few miles above what is now Cambria, on the old Fort Winne-
bago road and just east of the town line which separates Randolph from
Scott. The squire considered his home in the Town of Scott and his
headquarters in Randolph so convenient for the transaction of business
in his judicial district that it was known throughout the county as the
"High Court of Centerville. "
Villages at a Discount
For a number of years that location Avas fondly viewed as the site of
a future village, but it never advanced beyond the grade of a settlement
of two or three buildings — usually a store in Randolph and a tavern
across the road in Scott.
What is known as Randolph Center was really platted as a village,
but it and the High Court of Centerville are in much the same class.
But Politics Brisk Enough
The creation of the Town of Randolph was attended by feverish
times, as is evident by the account given by William T. Whirry, one of
the oldest of the old-timers: "The first name given to the town was
Luzerne, but a dispute arising as to its orthography, some contending
that>the third letter should be c, and some s and others z, another meet-
ing was called and its present name adopted. At a meeting of the
county commissioners, held at Columbus January 9, 1849, it was de-
cided that Township 13, north of Range 12, east of the Fourth Principal
Meridian, should constitute the Town of Randolph. A strong efi'ort
had been made by a portion of the people of Scott to get the east half
of the present Town of Scott attached to Randolph, but we preferred to
go it alone, believing that a town six miles sciuare was large enough.
"The County Commissioners designated the house of Oscar F. Ham-
HISTORY OP COLUMBIA COUNTY 443
ilton, on Section 23, as the place for holding the first town meeting. The
first town caucus was held at the house of Willard Perry, on Section 22.
A Union ticket was proposed, but failed, and party tickets were nomi-
nated— whig and democratic. The first town meeting was held as stated,
on the 3d day of April, 1849, and at the election of moderator of tliat
meeting the first party battle was fought, resulting in a democratic vic-
tory, John Converse having been elected moderator and George Knowles,
clerk. That election was considered a test vote, and the whigs tried to
change the result and the democrats to retain what they had gained. We
had lively times and party feeling ran high ; but the democratic ticket was
elected, as the whigs alleged, by illegal voting and because the democrats
had the best horses. A few Englishmen who were working here, but
whose families resided in the town of Scott, were arrested for illegal
voting, and had a trial at the High Court of Centerville. They were
defended by ex-Governor James T. Lewis, but nothing came of it except
hard feelings and a great deal of party animosity, for several years, in
to^\^^ elections."
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