USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Wisconsin : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 42
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The first land entered in the town was by John Dodge, the first. settler in the Town of Scott, which bounds Springvale on the north. On April 29, 1845, he entered the west half of the southeast quarter of Section I, and Lot 1 in Section 2, his entries in Scott, earlier in the year, being in Section 34, just over the line. Mr. Dodge's home was in the Town of Scott.
SPRINGVALE'S FIRST SETTLER
The first settler in Springvale was Ervin McCall. Late in April, 1845, he entered the town in search of a home, and went no farther, but
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returned to the sub-landoffice at Fox Lake and filed his claim on an eighty-acre tract. He then returned to his home in La Porte, by way of Watertown and Milwaukee, and early in September started for his Wisconsin home with his family, brother, wagon, two yoke of oxen, half a barrel of pork and a limited supply of other provisions and household goods. While fording Fox River in Illinois, the wagon was overturned and Mrs. McCall's arm broken. The broken arm was temporarily ad- justed and the party came on to Rock County, Wisconsin, where his brother-in-law, M. W. Patton, resided. There Mr. MeCall left his family and, with his brother, pushed on with the family outfit for the Springvale claim in the northeastern part of the town. The first night after their arrival was spent at the log house of Sam Langdon on the present site of Cambria, and the next day they commenced haying on the marsh near by, in order to get in a winter's supply for their stock. They built a log house on the claim a short distance west, and then Ervin returned to Rock County for his family.
Mr. Patton and his family came to Columbia County with the MeCalls, but located in the Town of Scott, where he became prominent. They all arrived at the hospitable house of Mr. Langdon on the night of the 15th of November, and the next day the MeCall family moved into their new cabin which awaited them.
HIGH-PRICED RELIGION
During the first winter of Mr. McCall's residence there, after mak- ing the necessary purchases of provisions to last until spring he in- ventoried his wordly goods and found that his cash assets amounted to two twenty-five cent pieces. A little later two Methodist circuit riders- the elder being Rev. W. G. Miller, afterward eminent and always popu- lar-penetrated to the northeastern part of the county and stopped at the Langdon house. There Mr. Miller delivered a sermon, to which the MeCalls were eager listeners; so much so, that the head of the family donated one of his two twenty-five cent pieces to the cause, or rather to assist in defraying the traveling expenses of the good missionaries. That night also they were entertained at the cabin of the McCalls, where other religious services were held, the first in the town.
THE WELSH SETTLERS
Besides the McCall family, the first settlers of the town were Robert Closs, Hugh Edwards, John Edwards, Evan Edwards, Robert Lloyd,
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John R. Rowlands, Sr., Robert Rowlands, William Lloyd, John O. Jones, John Meredith, John Williams, Samuel Owens, Owen Samuel, Richard Owens, Alfred Cowley, John Morgan, David D. Roberts and John Leatherman, most of whom were members of the colony who came from North Wales in the fall of 1845 and settled Welsh Prairie and at the present site of Cambria, known for several years as Langdon Mills. In fact, six of the nine leaders of the colony who had been sent out into Sonthern Wisconsin to locate lands, while the other forty members waited for their report at Milwaukee and Racine, were in the foregoing list of the early settlers of Springvale. It was but natural that these leading pioneers should take a prominent part in the early public affairs of the town, which is specially applicable to John O. Jones and John R. Rowlands, Sr.
It is this large Welsh element in the town which brings to those now residing in the town its noticeable industry and contentment, its cheer- ful earnestness and prosperity.
ORGANIZED UNDER PRESENT NAME
In 1849 the town was organized under its present name, and the house of Edward Williams was designated by the board of county commissioners as the place for holding the first election.
In the same year the Calvanistie Methodists erected the first church in town on the southeast quarter of Section 12.
Although Springvale has no centers of population, the rural deliv- ery places the people within easy touch of each other, while Cambria to the northeast, Pardeeville to the northwest, and Rio to the southwest brings them within easy distance of banks and transportation facilities.
CHAPTER XXXVII
WEST POINT AND HAMPDEN
FIRST HOUSE-BUILDER IN WEST POINT-CHANGES IN NAME-SCHOOLS -ONLY ONE HOTEL VENTURE-TOWN OF HAMPDEN-FIRST SETTLERS -TOWN ORGANIZED AND NAMED-FIRST SCHOOL-INTRODUCTION OF FINE STOCK.
West Point is the southwesternmost town in Columbia County, across the Wisconsin River being Sauk County and Dane County, over the southern line. It is broken and generally highlands, the country along the Wisconsin, being composed of limestone bluffs rang- ing from 500 to 600 feet in height. They extend several miles inland, one of the boldest being located on Section 13. The prairie region is mainly in the center of the town. Live stock, especially sheep and swine, thrive in West Point better than in any other town of the county, and they are the mainstays of the population which is entirely rural.
WEST POINT QUITE RURAL
West Point never had a village, although a magnificent paper city was once located on the Wisconsin River bluffs, and a railroad has not, up to date, really penetrated its territory, although the North Western has cut off a little northern corner. It has had two postoffices- one in the central part of the town, established in 1857 and called West Point, and another established during 1876 in the south (Section 34) and named Farr's Corners after J. L. Farr, an old settler of that locality.
Actual settlement within the town limits was not made until a decade had passed since the platting of Wisconsin City (paper), in 1836, and there is some doubt as to whom shall be given the credit of making the first habitation upon the soil of West Point. In the earlier times it was generally given to Christian and David Dorsch, whose arrival is said to have been in 1845. Whether either of them built a house at that Vol. 1-28
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time is not known, but David Dorsch appears among the first town supervisors who went into office in 1850.
FIRST HOUSE-BUILDER IN WEST POINT
The other claimant for first house-builder is Dr. Leander Drew, through his son, L. S. Drew, of Lodi, who inspired the following in the Lodi Enterprise of July 8, 1904: "The picture (published in said newspaper) is a reproduction of the first house built in what is
LOG HOUSE OF DR. LEANDER DREW, WEST POINT
now the town of West Point. It was erected in the fall of 1844 by Dr. Leander Drew, father of our fellow townsman, L. S. Drew. The History of Columbia County credits the erection of the first dwelling house in that town to David Dorsch, but that is only one of the numerons mistakes to be found in the so-called history. Doctor Drew came to Wisconsin from Vermont in the spring of 1843, and located on land on Sauk Prairie, where he began the cultivation of wormwood, which industry he and his father before him had followed successfully in the East. The soil on the prairie did not suit the Doctor for his purpose,
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and in the spring of 1844 he located the Drew homestead in West Point, where the present wormwood business of L. S. Drew was established. The same fall he built the log house shown herewith. The house passed through the ownership of only two men before becoming the property of Samuel Montross, who last month caused it to be torn down to make room for a modern residence.'
The business mentioned is the manufacture of the oil of wormwood, in which Doctor Drew was engaged, with the practice of his profession, for twelve or thirteen years after locating near Crystal Lake. He lived in the log house alone for two years; then returned to Vermont for his family, and in 1850 erected a new and a better house nearer the lake. There he died October 30, 1857.
CHANGES IN NAME
With the organization of the county, in 1846, West Point was made a part of the Pleasant Valley Precinct. In 1849 it was attached to Lodi, but on the 8th of January, 1850, the board of supervisors set off the town under its present name. "West Point," says Turner, "was undoubtedly selected because of its geographical location in the county, being the extreme western portion of the southern part of the county. The name Portland had first been asked for, in petitioning for the organization of the town, which was changed to Bloomfield by the committee of the board, in recommending its organization, but in the formal order creating it, it appeared as West Point, a highly appropriate name, but somewhat marred by an inadvertent omission of about 100 acres in Range 6 in the extreme west part of the town, which was left outside of town organization altogether."
SCHOOLS
In the fall of 1848 Miss Adula Jones taught a select school at the house of Otis A. Kilbourn in the south part of the town, it being the first. A school district was organized in 1850, the school being taught by Miss Sarah B. Van Ness.
ONLY ONE HOTEL VENTURE
In 1852 Christian Riblett opened a "Publiek Inn" (so read his sign) in Section 13, northeastern part of the town. It did not long survive, and the bold venture was not again attempted by anyone.
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TOWN OF HAMPDEN
The Town of Hampden lies mostly on the eastern slope of the ridge which divides the headwaters of the Rock River from the branches of the Wisconsin, and the land within its bounds rises quite rapidly from east to west. In the western and central portions is a rolling prairie connecting by a narrow strip with that of Fountain Prairie and Columbus. In the southeast is high ground continuous with that in Southwest Columbus. The town is watered by the Crawfish River, a tributary of the Rock.
Hampden is well watered, without being swampy, and is favored as a raiser of live stock. It is one of the best sections of Columbia County for sheep and swine, and is in the Wisconsin "tobacco belt" which has been gradually fading away. The county assessor reports that over three hundred acres are still devoted to the weed in Hampden Township, which leads, at that.
FIRST SETTLERS
The first settler in that part of Columbia County was Alfred Topliff, who served the county as its first surveyor and for several terms prior to 1866. He located in Hampden May 1, 1844, and a month after- ward came Lewis and Landy Sowards, with their families. Fort Winne- bago, De Korra, and some eight or ten families in Columbus and Fountain Prairie, then constituted nearly the entire population of the county.
The first settlers of Hampden had to go to Aztalan postoffice, a distance of thirty miles, for their letters and papers, and most of their provisions were procured at Milwaukee, seventy miles away. The road then traveled to the Cream City was by way of Aztalan and thence through the dense forests of the Rock River region for some twenty miles to their destination. It required five or six days to make the journey to Milwaukee and return.
TOWN ORGANIZED AND NAMED
Before the organization of the county into towns, in 1846, Hampden was in the Third Election Precinct; this was known as Dyersburg Precinct, in honor of Wayne B. Dyer, the first settler of Otsego and the first clerk of the board of county commissioners. In 1849 the Town of Hampden was organized, and the house of Cornwall Esmond,
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on the northwest quarter of Section 15, was designated as the place for holding the first election.
There is some difference of opinion as to the origin of the name. It is known that several of the most substantial of the early settlers were Englishmen. The fame of the great English patriot, John Hamp- den, was naturally dear to them, and especially to Thomas B. Haslam, town clerk for a number of the earlier years of the local government and otherwise identified with the general progress of this section of the county.
FIRST SCHOOL
Mr. Topliff taught the first school in the town on Section 11, in 1847. A postoffice was established near the center of the town in the same year.
Among the best-known farmers who came prior to 1856 may be men- tioned Clarendon Roys, Henry R. Clark, Clark Hazard, Eli Sowards, Daniel Sowards, C. C. Tillotson, T. S. Roys, James Montgomery, E. Fairbanks, James H. Sutton, John Derr, Peter Hanson, O. J. Oleson and E. Knudson.
INTRODUCTION OF FINE STOCK
About the year 1868 Mr. Fairbanks began to give special attention to the improvement of cattle and sheep. His herds of Durham cattle and merino sheep were exhibited at county, district and state fairs for years afterward and won fame and all kinds of ribbons. Several fine horses were imported from France in 1875 by a town association, and later considerable attention was given to the improvement and raising of swine.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
NEWPORT AND RANDOLPH
NEWPORT TOWN AND VILLAGE FOUNDED-FIRST SETTLERS-RANDOLPH TOWNSHIP-LEADS IN AGRICULTURE-GEORGE KNOWLES, FIRST SETTLER-COMING OF THE LANGDON BROTHERS-ALDEN AND CONVERSE -THE FIRST WELSH TO ARRIVE-FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS- SQUIRE PATTON AND HIS "HIGH COURT"-VILLAGES AT A DISCOUNT -BUT POLITICS, BRISK ENOUGH.
Along the west side of the Town of Newport are the walls of the Lower Dells of the Wisconsin. The ground rises rapidly toward the north and west, so that the northern sections attain elevations con- siderably over four hundred feet. Its soil, like that of Lewiston, is usually sandy, and the two constitute the best potato districts of the county. Fine potatoes and beautiful scenery! How the prosaic and the poetic do hold hands in this world of ours!
NEWPORT TOWN AND VILLAGE FOUNDED
The Village of Newport, immediately south of Kilbourn City, was in embryo when a new town was proposed by the county board to be taken from the Town of Port Hope (Fort Winnebago), in 1852. At the time the Wisconsin River was quite high, and occasionally boats would run up and effect a landing on the site of the village proposed by Joseph Bailey and Jonathan Bowman on Section 15. The old settlers roundabout were asked to select a name for both the new village and the town-about-to-be, and decided upon Newport. So, on the 15th of November, 1852, the Town of Newport was organized, and in April of the following year the first election was held at the house of James Christie. As was to be expected, he was chosen chairman of the town board; Joseph Bailey, town clerk.
FIRST SETTLERS
The first settler in the town was Alonzo B. Stearns, who located on Section 17, a short distance northeast of the present railroad station
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WISCONSIN RIVER ALONG THE NEWPORT SHORES
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
of Cheney, in March 1849. Mr. Stearns erected a small log cabin, and commenced to clear the land for a farm. Soon afterward, came Marvin Mason, E. A. Toles, and E. A. Toles, Jr.
The town did not fill up very rapidly with settlers, and it was not until the winter of 1853-54 that a schoolhouse was built. Its location was Section 7, in the center of the town, and the teacher was Miss Frances M. Howard.
RANDOLPH TOWNSHIP
Randolph, the northeast township of Columbia County, embraces a portion of the divide between the head streams of the Wisconsin and the Rock Rivers. The surface is generally level and about one-half the area of the township is prairie land. The wooded portions occur espe- cially in the northern half, there being a few marshy tracts along the streams of the Rock River toward the northeast and east. In the south- west quarter the headwaters of Duck Creek make a deep ravine, whose bottom has an altitude of only 240 feet, about one hundred feet below the general level of the town.
LEADS IN AGRICULTURE
Randolph is a good grazing town, and is one of the leading districts of the country for the growing of oats. It is next to Caledonia in the raising of horses, and is third among the towns in the cultivation of barley.
GEORGE KNOWLES, FIRST SETTLER
The first settler in the town was George Knowles, a New Yorker, who selected his land in Section 13 during the fall of 1843, and entered it in February, 1844. ITis shanty, the first in town, was made of whitewood boards brought from Fond du Lac. He broke up some land in May of that year, which he claimed to be the first in Randolph, planted and raised the first crop, and resided on this pioneer homestead uutil 1860, when he moved to Milwaukee.
COMING OF THE LANGDON BROTHERS
S. S. Torbert came from Illinois in March, 1844, in company with John Langdon and Benjamin Williams. Mr. Torbert raised the first log
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house, on Section 15, and Mr. Williams being a single man, lived with him. Langdon put up his log house shortly after on Section 29, and finished it before that of Torbert. In the following year Samuel Langdon joined his brother, and the two founded Cambria as Langdon's Mill. As we have seen, the property of the brothers passed to a Mr. Bell. John, who was financially ruined, moved to Bad Axe, now Vernon County, where he died in 1852.
Mr. Williams afterward became sheriff of the county, but finally moved to the fruit region of Michigan.
ALDEN AND CONVERSE
Alvin B. Alden and John Converse, who were related by marriage, were also settlers of 1844, both coming from Connecticut. Mr. Alden was clerk of the Board of Supervisors for several years before he moved to Portage. John Converse, his father-in-law, is best known as the founder of the Village of Randolph, and he also became a resident of Portage.
THE FIRST WELSH TO ARRIVE
The first Welsh people in this section of the state settled a few rods east of the Randolph town line in Dodge County. The first to make their homes in Randolph were Rev. Thomas H. Roberts, David Roberts and John Evans. They settled on Section 4 and Section 15. It was at John Evans' house in Section 15 that Mr. Roberts preached the first sermon in town, in the winter of 1844-45, organizing at the same time the Welsh Church of Blaen-y-cae. The glowing letter which the minister wrote to his friends in Wales brought the large colony to the northeastern prairies of the county during the fall of 1845.
FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS
The first school of the town was kept at the log dwelling of John Converse in 1845. The first house built in town expressly for a school was made of logs, and was erected on Section 11 (Government land) by voluntary contribution of labor and material. Miss Margaret Jones, of Springvale, taught therein during the summer of 1846. In December of that year the forty acres of Government land were exchanged for another forty. A dispute then arose as to the ownership of the school- house, and one night it was torn down and carried away. So ended the first schoolhouse in the Town of Randolph.
Vul. 1-29
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
SQUIRE PATTON AND HIS "HIGH COURT"
The first election held either in the town or that section of the county was at the house of John Langdon in 1846. At that time M. W. Patton was elected justice of the peace for the territory now covered by the townships of Courtland, Springvale, Scott and Randolph. The Lang- don house stood for many years afterward on the farm of Thomas Sanderson.
For a number of years Squire Patton tried his cases, tied blooming couples and transacted other legal business at the general store erected in 1846, a few miles above what is now Cambria, on the old Fort Winne- bago road and just east of the town line which separates Randolph from Scott. The squire considered his home in the Town of Scott and his headquarters in Randolph so convenient for the transaction of business in his judicial district that it was known throughout the county as the "High Court of Centerville."
VILLAGES AT A DISCOUNT
For a number of years that location was fondly viewed as the site of a future village, but it never advanced beyond the grade of a settlement of two or three buildings-usually a store in Randolph and a tavern across the road in Scott.
What is known as Randolph Center was really platted as a village, but it and the High Court of Centerville are in much the same class.
BUT POLITICS BRISK ENOUGH
The creation of the Town of Randolph was attended by feverish times, as is evident by the account given by William T. Whirry, one of the oldest of the old-timers: "The first name given to the town was Luzerne, but a dispute arising as to its orthography, some contending that the third letter should be c, and some s and others z, another meet- ing was called and its present name adopted. At a meeting of the county commissioners, held at Columbus January 9, 1849, it was de- cided that Township 13, north of Range 12, east of the Fourth Principal Meridian, should constitute the Town of Randolph. A strong effort had been made by a portion of the people of Scott to get the east half of the present Town of Scott attached to Randolph, but we preferred to go it alone, believing that a town six miles square was large enough.
"The County Commissioners designated the house of Oscar F. Ham-
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ilton, on Section 23, as the place for holding the first town meeting. The first town caucus was held at the house of Willard Perry, on Section 22. A Union ticket was proposed, but failed, and party tickets were nomi- nated-whig and democratic. The first town meeting was held as stated, on the 3d day of April, 1849, and at the election of moderator of that meeting the first party battle was fought, resulting in a democratic vic- tory, John Converse having been elected moderator and George Knowles, clerk. That election was considered a test vote, and the whigs tried to change the result and the democrats to retain what they had gained. We had lively times and party feeling ran high ; but the democratic ticket was elected, as the whigs alleged, by illegal voting and because the democrats had the best horses. A few Englishmen who were working here, but whose families resided in the town of Scott, were arrested for illegal voting, and had a trial at the High Court of Centerville. They were defended by ex-Governor James T. Lewis, but nothing came of it except hard feelings and a great deal of party animosity, for several years, in town elections."
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