USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 35
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THE MEETING AT MADISON
"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 Company, 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 big furore all along the 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 Beeswax, 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
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accomplishing 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 OF 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 to 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 different 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.
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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 eould supply them with nearly all they required, and while the road was being built, we did quite a flourishing business, and it did much towards establishing 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 seenred 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- feetly satisfied that the road would actually be 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 Poynette, in the town of De Korra, that the supervisors of sneh 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 conpons attached prepared in Chicago, and forwarded to me at Poynette. As soon as they were received, I ealled 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
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was prepared and unanimously adopted, in accordance with the sug- gestion stated above. The bonds and coupons were then signed by the chairman, and countersigned by the clerk, and delivered to the town treasurer. An order was then presented by Mr. Winslow Bullen, 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. Bullen, and received the receipt of the treasurer of the railroad company for the same. The company just at that time, 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. Bullen 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 company 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.
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"OLD BEESWAX" GOT THERE
"After the road was opened for business from Portage to Poynette, 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 Mis- souri. At the time 1 left home in November, the railroad had not reached Madison, but while in Missouri, during the winter, I had a letter from my friends in Wisconsin, 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. Mills, 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 Mr. 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 honds and the work was again stopped and the road from Madison to Portage leased to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company. Although Mr. Campbell is without doubt fully entitled to the full eredit 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
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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 with 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. My 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
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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 FACTORY ESTABLISHED
"On the third day of February, 1876, articles of incorporation were filed in the office of the secretary of state by E. F. Russell, W. C. Gault, William Forrest, John Collins, and myself, under the name of the Poynette 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. H. J. Noyes 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 this 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 others.
BUSINESS PASSES TO JAMIESON (H. P.) & GAULT (W. C.)
"My 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
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business to a great extent, I felt as though my 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 mouth 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 machinery, 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 business under the firm name of Jamieson, Gault & Company, which Vol. 1-23
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firm continued 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 much heed to the dairying interests."
JUSTLY PROUD OF HIS HOMESTEAD
The cardinal virtues of the late Hugh Jamieson 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 through 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 Wallace 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 aeres 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 swiftly 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 there were not far from thirty families within 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
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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 grocery 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 requisite 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."
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