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HISTORY OF WATERLOO WISCONSIN
Gc 977.502 W299d 1408251
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01715 9044
Mise Baulake & Seeber Aug. 26 1913-
From, Mama Tell
Pioneer log cabin
HISTORY OF WATERLOO
Published by
MAUNESHA CHAPTER
AUGHTERS OF
¢ THE .
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AMERIC
LUTION
RICAN REVOLU
Daughters of the American Revolution
WATERLOO, WISCONSIN
June, 1915
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1408251
FOREWORD.
A short history of Waterloo was issued by P. H. Bolger in 1897, and after the Home Coming in 1905, a more compre- hensive one was written by Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Sheridan and published in the Waterloo Democrat. We are very largely indebted to those two sources for our material, copying much of the text just as it was written, thereby preserving the facts and incidents which they took so much pains and trouble to get together. We thank them for their work, and to all others, who helped us in any way, we are very grateful. A brief sketch of the history of the town of Waterloo is first given because the town and village were one until 1850.
The pleasures of life are not all of the present and future. Much enjoyment comes from the ability to see, and hear, and know of the days and their events, long gone by. Knowing this, we ask all who are interested in Waterloo and its history, to join us in retrospect for a short time and,
"See the same scenes And view the same sun And run the same course That our fathers have run."
Tutte # 3.00 6-15-67 -9461-B P.C. 3997
The Home Coming in the $02.
Homecoming in the '50's
CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC WATERLOO.
Prior to the coming of the European, nothing is known of the events that transpired on Wisconsin soil. Its groves and prairies were the home of the Indian in the same sense that they were the home of the badger and the deer. Permanancy of settle- ment was not a fixed habit of the red man. Each Indian tribe usually established its village in some locality favorable to the growing of corn and at some considerable distance from its neighbor, especially where hostile relations existed. The sur- rounding district was the tribes hunting grounds. Constant warfare often caused villages to be removed to distant parts. In such an event a forfeiture of hunting grounds followed.
Indian Occupation.
In. 1634 Jean Nicolet visited Wisconsin territory. He was the first white man to ride upon its rivers and to traverse its hills and prairies. The Indians nearest to the present site of Water- loo were located in villages on the Fox river northeast of Port- age. Near the site of the city of Green Bay were the Winne- bagoes; farther to the southwest, near Oshkosh, were the Sacs and Foxes; and still farther to the west, on the Fox, were the Mascoutens and Kickapoos. On the south, the nearest Indians were the Illinois whose village was north of the present site of Peoria. Waterloo is in the great intervening space. It is probable that the dusky huntsman from the prairies of Illinois
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
shared the game of its groves and streams with the sterner tribes of the Fox. No doubt mischievous bands of the fierce Sioux from beyond the Mississippi often lit their camp fires upon its hill tops. Any attempt to ascribe this locality to the soverignty of a particular tribe would be purely conjectural.
Mounds in the Vicinity.
The mounds in the neighborhood of Waterloo village are evidence of the permanency of settlement at some remote period antedating by centuries the coming of the Europeans. Some of them still exist, though greatly diminished in size, and may be seen on the east of the highway leading south from the village and now on lands partly owned by John Neupert, and others may be examined near the west line of the Hugh Stokes' farm. Some have disappeared because of the plow and the elements. No trace remains of the several mounds which once stood on the present site of the Catholic church and the cemetery to its south. Further cultivation will deprive future generations of an acquain- tance with these mute reminders of a vanished race whose customs, religious emotions or other characteristics led to their formation. The mounds were of Indian origin. They may have been burial places of chiefs or may have served some place in the observance of religious rites. The frequency of their occurrence in this immediate vicinity indicates a settlement here- abouts of their builders. The level stretch separating the groups specified was treeless when the settlers of the forties took posses- sion of it. This was good soil for the growing of corn, pump- kins, squash and beans, all of which were grown by the Winne- bagoes. The proximity of the Maunesha offered the advant- ages of a water supply. These argue that this was once the site of an Indian village of considerable numerical strength. In such case the site of this community was covered with wig- wams of the savage and was teeming with Indian life. Troups
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
of resident Indian children may have bathed in the waters of the Maunesha, and lustily cheered with childish glee upon discovering the ripened grape peeping in great bunches from beneath the wealth of vine which grew upon its banks. Fre- quently a squad of bucks returning from the chase may have forded it where now it is spanned with bands of iron for our accommodation. However this may have been, Bradford Hill, the first white settler in the village, discovered no other traces of such occupation and nothing but the mounds justify the hazard of a guess that such was true.
The Indians of the Forties.
Prior to the settlement of Waterloo, the government at- tempted to remove the Indians to localities west of the Missis- sippi. Famished bands of the Winnebagoes wandered back to Wisconsin, the beloved hunting ground of their fathers. The Indians met by the early residents were mostly the pathetic remnants of this noble tribe. D. Ostrander, in his instructive letter, says: "Our neighbors in those days were seldom per- manent. Most of them consisted of the wild Indians, who were always moving on. They caused us no trouble and we pur- sued our daily avocations without fear of the untutored savage. He was as honest as most of the whites and much safer in his lawless life than a large part of the population of large cities. I cannot recall in our long experience with them a single act of violence or inhumanity." This is a grand tribute to the Indian. The Indian was prone to beg and on his visits he would learn of the family's presence by peeping in at the window. Mothers and children often suffered fright upon suddenly seeing a half dozen blanketed natives gazing in upon them. The rapid ar- rival of immigrants left no hunting grounds for the Winne- bagoes. Years come and go but no red man with blanket and moccasin is seen upon the streets of Waterloo.
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
The First European To Traverse The Town.
Jean Nicolet, upon the occasion of his first visit to Wiscon- sin, may have forded the waters of the Maunesha at or near the present site of the village of Waterloo. This adventurous Frenchman came to Wisconsin in 1634. Acting on the advice of Indians from the lake country, who had visited Montreal, he travelled to the west where he expected to reach the Cathay of Marco Polo, that is, China. His Indian guides led him to conclude that the Winnebagoes were the Mandarins of the Celestial empire. Upon approaching their village, he donned his court attire of scarlet, preparatory to his expected reception at the royal court. He met the uncultured savage instead, who looked with awe upon his gorgeous robes and shuddered with superstitious fear as he discharged his brace of pistols to an- nounce his presence. His visit was brief; he shook hands with the Winnebagoes, smoked the calumet with the Sacs and Foxes, and feasted on turtle and dog with the Mascoutens and Kick- apoos. Upon departing from the village of the latter tribe, he walked overland to the country of the Illinois. He undoubt- edly pursued the shortest route consistent with the geographical features of the land, as his object was to visit the Indians rather than explore the territory. A line drawn from the reputed lo- cality of the Mascoutens and Kickapoos on the Fox to the vil- lage of the Illinois will pass through Jefferson county and very close to, if not across, Waterloo.
There are some considerations that lend plausibility to this claim and there is none available for its refutation. The Kick- apoos occupied territory near the western boundary of Green Lake county. A pedestrian, heading from this district for Rockford and Peoria, before the land was cleared and the streams bridged, would of necessity pursue a course West of the Crawfish until reaching the Rock, south of its confluence with
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
the Crawfish. Nicolet did not discover the Wisconsin river. His route, therefore, lay east of the Portage marshes towards Columbus and within a short distance of the Crawfish, its marshes confining him, however, to the uplands on its West. The lands east of the Crawfish were heavily timbered while those of Waterloo were more prairie-like and admitting of easy travel; hence such open district would naturally be selected as offering the fewer causes for delay. A traveler at present making such trip would pass through this vicinity as it lies in the nearest and best route between those points. It is not im- probable that Nicolet followed this natural line of travel and hence was the first European to visit this vicinity, exactly two centuries before Edwards became the first white settler of the town of Waterloo.
Animals and Plants.
It may be presumed that the period which separated Nico- let's walk through the shaded groves of Waterloo, and the building of Edward's humble abode amidst its silent surround- ings, was very much of a repetition of the many centuries that preceeded it. Decade after decade the Indian hunter had wandered at will over its trackless fields, drunk refreshing drafts from its numberless springs of pure, sparkling water, bathed in the waters of its beautiful streams, and pitched his tent of skins under the spreading branches of its sturdy oaks. But the Indian was not alone in the enjoyment of a district rich in nature's blessings. There were other tennants of the groves; the meadows, too, were teeming with life. Deer by the score grazed on the hill sides, cautious alike of the crafty huntsman's arrow and the deadly spring of the famished wolf. The fox with his cunning avoided the sluggish badger as he made for some unsuspecting mother quail, or prairie hen, with her brood of young. Occasionally the shaggy monarch of a buffalo herd
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would try conclusions with the troublous bear. The muskrat and the mink played upon the dam of the beaver; the rabbit and the squirrel claimed every grove as their home. The birds, too, were numerous. The duck and the goose literally swarmed upon the lakes, rivers, and flooded marshes. Every bird known to us was a contemporary of the savage. Harmon Chase in his letter states : "I have counted as many as eighty-three deer in a herd. All the way to count ducks was by the acre."
There was practically no change in the natural products of the soil. The limited cultivation for the growth of corn by the Indians did not lessen the product of nature. The groves and the forest offered an abundance of nuts and fruits. The wild crab and the plumb wafted their perfume on the May breezes and in September their ripened fruits gave luxury to the Indian feast. Wild grapes and cherries, black and red rasp- berries, were everywhere in profusion. Early Spring covered the meadows with richest blossoms and June brought with it countless acres of delicious strawberries. These were nature's gifts to her untutored children.
All these were here when the Hills, the Chases, the Vander- pools, the Ostranders, and their contemporaries began to turn the sod and harvest the hay. The vandalism of modern culti- vation has swept away the many sources of pleasure which the Indian indulged without effort. . A few hickory trees, a strug- gling plumb or cherry tree may now and then be seen, but the great wealth of nature's gifts is gone with the Indian and the · early pioneer.
Mrs. W. D. Stiles
W. D. Stiles
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT OF TOWN AND VILLAGE.
The patriotism and foresight of George Rogers Clark and his sturdy associates from Kentucky determined that people from the Original Colonies should become the pioneers of south- ern Wisconsin. The great majority of those who found their way to this vicinity were from New York, Vermont and Mas- sachusetts contributed a minority. Their journey to Wisconsin must have been tiresome, even to those inured to travel in the covered wagon. Their route lay across trackless stretches of prairie, over timbered hills, and required the fording of streams and the skirting of swamps. Mrs. J. W. Smith who was nine years old when her father, Reuben Streeter, in 1841, left Antwerp, Jefferson County, N. Y., says: "It took us five weeks to come to Waterloo." On their way to Wisconsin Territory, the immigrants passed over the beautiful prairie re- gions of Illinois. Much of this was not taken at the time. However it failed to attract the earliest immigrants. It was treeless; besides, its vast level expanse presented a monotony of prospect that was to them an unfavorable contrast to the scenic beauty of the diversified landscape of their eastern home; hence they pressed on to the Eldorado offered by the rolling lands of Wisconsin, covered with forest and groves, bordering on rich meadows and open vales.
Franklin Giles, who arrived on the banks of the Maunesha at an early date, telling of his journey thither in his over-land Pull-
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man, said that, when passing the present site of Chicago, a set- tler there begged him to squat upon an adjoining quarter sec- tion of a prairie now comprising part of the great city of Chi- cago. Mr. Giles refused because of his desire to find the rich oak openings of which he had heard, in Wisconsin.
The present township of Waterloo was a promising district for permanent occupation; its uplands were covered with a fine growth of young timber alternating with well watered stretches of meadow. Much of it was known as "oak-open- ing" a sort of prairie district, growing trees separated by a con- siderable space.
The first name given to the level land extending south from the village was "Grove Prairie." Harmon Chase, who as a boy, assisted in turning the sod of the virgin soil in 1843, writes fro mhis present home in Bangor, Wisconsin, that his father's family located at Jefferson in 1838, when he was six years old, and shortly thereafter removed to a section of "Grove Prairie," now a part of the town and village of Waterloo. In his com- munication, dated September 17, 1905, he speaks in flattering phrase of the country : "Nature had done her best to give us good soil with a lovely face-groves with rich, smooth prairie land adjoining-suggesting the name of Grove Prairie by which it was known when our family made a portion of it our home." James W. Ostrander, writing from his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, under date of October 12, 1905, says: "The country about Waterloo was prairie with small groves of oak, poplar and cherry timber, and oak openings, which had the ap- pearence of an old orchard and which could be plowed in the fall and the timber cut into rails in the winter."
Such was the topographical setting of the cottages of Water- loo's earliest settlers. It was an inviting landscape which has continued to the present, although time has largely shorn it of its delightful groves and converted its flower-covered meadows into profitable pastures and productive hay fields.
2
April 14-1842
Bradford Hill's arrival in Waterloo
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
When the first white settler erected his modest mansion of logs upon lands now in the town of Waterloo, he was a citizen of the Territory of Michigan. Joseph Edwards and his com- panion, a Mr. Williams, in 1834, made their way to section twelve of the township of Waterloo. Mr. Edwards chose a homestead here, while Mr. Williams took to the woods on the east bank of the Crawfish river, now a part of the town of Mil- ford. Mr. Edwards, therefore, became the first settler of the town. The land he selected in still the home of his son, Guer- don Edwards.
A little later the Stony Brook neighborhood received its first settlers in the families of Daniel Folsom and John Twining. Mr. Folsom was for many years a prominent character in Waterloo. Mr. Twining was a Quaker, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a striking and typical character of those early days. He took an active part in the starting and development of town and school affairs. He was a strong abolitionist. When the slave question became an issue he refused to celebrate the Fourth of July as long as men were in bondage in our country. The Crosby and Wood families soon followed. About 1843 J. C. Leonardson bought government land in this neighborhood. He took an active part in political affairs and served in the State Legislature. In these early days Andrew Betts, who later moved to the Village, and was active in sup- port of issues for public welfare, passed through the town and settled just across the town line in Medina.
The period from '40 to '45 witnessed the occupation of prac- tically the whole town by people from the eastern states; a few foreign immigrants came sufficiently early to buy government land. The names of the first upon the ground include none of the subjects of European nations. Among others of the earli- est comers were Asa Faville, Henry Faville, Ed. Crump, W. D. Stiles, Dan Storey, Masina Cone, John Perkins, Peleg
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HISTORY OF WATERLOO
Burdick, Dean Chase, Josiah Drew, Phillip Brush, J. H. Os- trander, Abraham Vanderpool, Moses Kenyon and A. E. Hayes.
In 1844 the first of the European immigrants came in the persons of M. Ferge and A. Langlotz, who purchased farms east of the marsh then known as the "Blue Joint," and George Berry and John Berry from Saxony, who took up lands on Section 9, later known as the Sheridan farm. Their appear- ance marked the beginning of the end of the ownership of the town of Waterloo by the sons and daughters of the American Revolution. About the same time, Bernard and Thomas Heil located on The Island on Section 17, and in 1847, John Sheridan located on Section 9. The buying out process, was thus begun and has continued until few bearing the names of the original settlers now remain. A few from southern Ger- many became residents of the east Island in the 40s. Among these were Phillip Daum in 1846, Gottlieb and Charles Menz® in 1848; a little later, in 1852, Conrad Setz with his sons, Joseph and Higen, arrived from Wurtemburg, Germany, and bought out C. H. John, and were soon followed by Tobias and John Kurz and Felix Lutz.
The effort to fix the distinction of the first settlement in the village met with some difficulty. The honor is claimed by the families of Bradford L. Hill and Reuben Streeter. Several of the survivors of the earlier settlers were requested to give their recollections on this disputed question. The responses confirm the general impression that has always prevailed here to the effect that Mr. Hill was the first settler of the village. The following letters give much interesting information bearing on this question :
Pioneer home of John Sheridan
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Mr. Hill's Letter.
"Bradford L. Hill, the first settler of Waterloo, Wisconsin, was born in Middlebury, Addison county, Vermont, July 8th, 1805. And with his parents moved to Pavillion Center, Gen- eesee county, New York, in 1812.
"He was married to Catherine Cummings in 1831. His third child was born January 13, 1837. The following sum- mer he went with a team to the lead mines in the vicinity of Ga- lena, Illinois, where he sold his team and returned home on foot that fall. The next spring he started for the mines with his family by team. On arriving at Michigan City he was detained on account of the non-arrival of his household goods, which had been shipped by water; navigation having closed, he was com- pelled to wait till spring. His stay was prolonged on account of sickness until the summer of 1841, when he embarked his family (then consisting of wife and four children, all suffering with fever and ague which they had endured for two and one- half years) in a prairie schooner, two yoke of steers and a cow (all he had left of $1,200.00) ; his main object was to get away from the ague.
"We stopped on Bark river in the town of Hebron, Wis., and followed logging in the Bark river woods that winter. In March, 1842, he took his team and some lumber and went in search of a home, which resulted in his locating on the present site of Waterloo. He had with him a Mr. Brayton who as- sisted him in erecting the body of a log house before returning for his family.
Bradford Hill.
"On the 14th day of April he arrived with his family and established their settlement. The river, being too high to ford, the goods were unloaded on the west bank near the site of the
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middle bridge and the wagon was run into the stream, the tongue placed on a large rock and with the lumber, previously hauled for the house, a foot bridge was constructed, over which the goods and family were transferred to the other bank and the unfinished domicile was occupied by the family on April 14, 1852, as before stated.
"I am the only survivor of the family who lived at that date. I was past five years old at the time and remember the circum- stances as to the crossing of the river distinctly, and the only per- son with us or in any way connected with crossing the river was the Mr. Brayton before mentioned. The house of Mr. Pickett on the north bank of Rock Lake was the nearest habitation.
"Others followed that spring among whom were the Ken- yons, Carters, Streeters, Brushes, Ostranders, Vanderpools and Thompsons.
"The honor of being the first settlers has always been con- ceded to our family and was never disputed by anyone to my knowledge."
JEROME D. HILL.
P. S. The claim of Rebecca Streeter Smith, which I hear has been made at this late day, is an error, no settlement having been made in 1841 nearer than Lake Mills, and the statement that the Streeters ferried us across the river in a wagon box is a "Fairy Tale" and utterly impracticable."
J. D. H.
D. Ostrander, who was seven years of age in 1842, writes: "Bradford Hill was, I think, the first settler of Waterloo. Cer- tainly he went there before the Streeter family made their ap- pearance. "Harmon Chase in his communication says: "I will say I stayed over night, ate supper and breakfast at Hill's log house before Streeter had his house raised. I failed to see Streeter's house when father and I went to Hill's. I shall al- ways hold that Hill was the first settler." Franklin Giles told
Mrs. Bradford Hill
Bradford Hill
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the writer nearly twenty years ago that Bradford Hill was the first settler and his statement at the time was corroborated by Cyrus Perry, who said that he drove from Galena to Columbus early in the spring of 1842, and that Pickett's residence near the site of the Newville church and Bradford Hill's house were the only houses between Lake Mills and Columbus. Both Mr. Chase and Mr. Perry had seen this vicinity after Hill's house was built and prior to the coming of Streeter.
The claim is made for Mr. Streeter by his daughter, Mrs. J. W. Smith of Marshall, Wisconsin. In her communication she states : "My father, Rueben Streeter, moved his family from New York state when I (Rebecca Streeter) was about nine years old. It took us five weeks to come. We were ac- companied on our journey as far as Illinois by four families of Phelps, Kenyon and Dewey. We made our first stop at Lake Mills in the fall of 1841, shortly afterward moving to Water- loo. At that time there was but one house between Waterloo and Columbus owned by Mr. Pickett. Father took up a farm of 1,60 acres, ten acres of which is now owned by Dudley Humph- rey and a part of the present village of Waterloo. There was a little stream of running water on that portion of father's farm. It was a nice little stream for many years and that is what took father's eye in choosing that farm. Our house occupied the same site as that of Dudley Humphrey. We settled at Waterloo in the fall and a little later James Thompson settled a little north of us and the next spring Bradford Hill and family moved to Waterloo. We had to use a wagon-box as a sort of a ferry to get them and their goods across."
Such is the nature of the informtion received on this disputed point. Mrs. Smith is not supported by those of that early period who have given expression to their recollections. It is a difficult matter to carry such events in the memory for so long a period; the memory is treacherous and is often faulty. The
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