USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 39
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CANAL TO STIR THE PORTAGE PEOPLE
Soon afterward another scheme was launched to boom Wisconsin- 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 Duane Doty, Lieutenant Hovey, 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 Wisconsinapolis.
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
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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 NEWPORT
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
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bridge the river at that point and others (including Messrs. Bailey and Bowman) 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, construet wharves and do many other things which looked very grand on paper.
IN 1855 CONTAINED 1,500 PEOPLE
By entry and private purchase Messrs. 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 Kilbourn 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 FALL
In some way the railroad company induced the promoters of New- port to relinquish the Kilbourn-Vliet bonds, and then centered all the enterprises which had heen 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 down 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
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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. Bow- 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 MORE THAN PORT "HOPE"
.
Port Hope, for many years a postoffice in the southwest quarter of Section 3, Town of Fort Winnebago, was platted as a town 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 IIope on his farm land expressed his state of mind in regard to the location of a
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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 OF 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 OF 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 country 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.
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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 "LIVE 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 becoming 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 TOWNSHIP
The Town of Wyoeena 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.
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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-powers, 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 Dickason 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 OF 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 Chauncey 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 Dickason. 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.
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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 hy 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 purpose. 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 Mr. Lewis, of Co- lumbus, a visit, and Mrs. Diefendorf, of Lowville, 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 regulars. I sent a letter back by the same man who brought it to me-to the Reverend Claim Club Company-that I was not willing to capitulate on any of their terms; that 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-DRAINAGE AND SURFACE FEATURES- FARM AND TIMBER LANDS-FIRST FARMERS OF THE COUNTY-FIRST PERMAMENT SETTLER-"DADDY " ROBINSON AND JOHN PATE-SCOTCH- MEN NAME TOWN, CALEDONIA-DAUGHTER OF PAUQUETTE LIVING IN TOWN-TOWN OF LEEDS-CHIEF OF THE FORAGE TOWNS-FIRST LAND CLAIMS AND SETTLERS-LEEDS CENTER-ORGANIZATION OF 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 schoolhonse 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 railroad 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
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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 bluff's 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 outlying 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 directly opposite to them on the southern shore, the similar blnffs of De Korra, 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 obstrneting 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 erop 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 np in Caledonia. Peter Panquette 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 grain 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
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"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.
FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER
The first 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 Jnne, 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.
SCOTCHMEN 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-
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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 OF 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 Prescott, 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.
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