USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 18
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as an educator and Presbyterian minister both East and West, and es- pecially in connection with missionary work in Wisconsin. His career will be further traced in succeeding pages.
POYNETTE 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 the male students, and the girls and young women, besides the academic branches, were taught practical
PRESBYTERIAN ACADEMY, POYNETTE
matters of a domestic nature. For many years this 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 STATUS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
In 1859 the schools of Portage were graded and the high school became a part of the new system, all under a city superintendent.
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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 OF 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 MAZZUCHELLI 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 was 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 Pauquette, 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 squaws, 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 Pauquette; 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.
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After leaving his mission at the portage and Fort Winnebago, Father Mazzuchelli established the Saint Clara Academy at Sinsinawa Mound, Grant County, one of the most noted institutions of the kind in Wisconsin.
THE FIRST OF ST. MARY'S PARISH
It was years after the building of Pauquette's church before the Catholies were substantially organized. Until permanent white set- tlers 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, npon 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 Panqnette, 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 Catholies were founding St. Mary's Parish. Early in the sum- mer of 1847 a colony of unemployed English potters from Staffordshire 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 religions services therein, but on account of the
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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
Vol. 1-11
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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 schoolhouse 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, M. C. Bartholo- mew, Mary Bartholomew, Christiana Bartholomew, Rev. Henry Maynard, Catherine Maynard and Harriet E. Maynard. Services were held every two weeks in the log cabins of the Bartholomews and Mr. Maynard until the schoolhouse 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 schoolhouse 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; bence 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
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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 fine 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 County, 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, Mrs. 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
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church was the Methodist, organized in 1850, a majority of whose pas- tors have been Welshmen. The Welsh Calvanistic 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 Mr. McNair and the two visited the new field. Soon afterward, Rev. H. M. Robertson, representing the Presbytery, 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 first 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 by Rev. I. W. C. Dietrickson 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
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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 spring of 1849, the Calvanistie 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
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Norwegians who organized an Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1852, as already 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 by Mr. Prens 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 Calvanistie 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 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, G 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 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.
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EDWIN V. SUMNER
Summer 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 Rey 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. Subsequently 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 Yorktown; 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 survived the war.
Maj. 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. Marcy, who was on duty at Fort Winnebago in 1837-40, saw active service in both the Mexican and Civil wars. Ile was the father-in-law of George B. MeClellan, afterward commander of the Union army, and under the latter he served as chief-of-staff, attaining the rank of brevet brigadier-general.
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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 first post. He was severely wounded at Molino 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.
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