USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > Madison > A history of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin : including the Four Lake country : to July, 1874, with an appendix of notes on Dane County and its towns > Part 10
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tical in an emergency than the German cook, soon mixed another cement of salt, ashes and vinegar, which answered the purpose well, and the weary travelers were soon quite comfort- able in their room.
"Not long after this, our Teutonic friend, having earned enough money to make a payment on his lot in Milwaukee, disposed of his kit of tools, left for his home in Milwaukee, and we worked our own way as usual. Our customers and pa- trons were not at all fastidious. They were satisfied with clean beds, good board and genteel treatment, and this we al- ways provided to the fullest extent of our ability. There was by this time a large amount of travel through Madison, and some sixty or seventy men at work on the capitol. We boarded a large number of them, and our house was often crowded, so that floor room could not always be had at 'two pence per square foot,' and the difference between the bare puncheons and shakedown was, 'you pays your money and takes your choice.'
" We found it necessary to make many improvements to get along. The first of importance was sinking a well on the premises. When the shaft was excavated there could be no . one found to build the wall, and I was obliged to do it myself. I used cobble stone, and made a good job it. Having met with success as a well-maker, I turned oven builder, and built an out-door bake oven of clay mixed with straw, which required the same kind of labor and material that caused the children of Israel to rebel against their taskmasters. The oven was a suc- cess also, and answered us and our neighbors until FRANK SHAW came from Mineral Point and started a bake shop across the street. SHAW was a genial Frenchman and full of fun. The building he occupied was about eighteen feet square, two stories high. The upper story was used as a lodging room, and the lower story as a bakery and grocery. We kept a temper- ance house, and THAN's grocery profited largely by it, as both bread and whisky could be had there on reasonable terms. "THAN " unabbreviated, means NATHANIEL T. PARKINSON, who was afterwards elected sheriff of the county, and held the
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sheriff's office in this bake-shop grocery. There was as yet no prison in the county, and when the sheriff made arrests or brought in prisoners, they were at once presented at the bar, treated, and placed in the care of SHAW as jailor, with orders to feed and treat them well; they were then put upon their parole, with orders to report themselves at the bar at least three times a day. It is but just to say that these prisoners rarely forfeited their parole, the kind and liberal treatment they re- ceived at the hands of the sheriff as well as their custodian SHAW, endeared them to these officers; and there was no grumbling or cutting down, or disputing sheriff's accounts in those primeval days.
"COVALLE and PELKIE furnished us with daily supplies of fish from the lakes until we were sufficiently skilled in fishing to procure our own supplies. Shooting pickerel in the Catfish river soon came to be one of the grand sports of the time. When the fish 'run up' they are shot in shoal water in large quantities, which is done by simply discharging your loaded piece at the fish; neither ball nor buckshot will penetrate the water over an inch or so, but the fish are stunned by the re- port and concussion of the water, and, in a twinkling, are on their backs and easily captured. Spearing fish was the next best sport, and many nights have I spent at the outlet of Fourth Lake when the channel was narrow, and a single log which was used for a footbridge spanned the stream, in spearing fish of almost every kind. The water was very clear, and with a good brush fire on both sides of the stream, sufficient light was furnished to see all the fish as they swam by. From the foot bridge you could spear all you wanted. It was not an unusual thing for ED. GEORGE and myself to return with our boat loaded to the water's edge with fish of many different kinds as the reward of one night's labor. Fishing with a spoon hook was also a favorite sport, and, when winter came, we fished with scoop nets through holes cut in the ice. In those days we always fished for fish - never for fun.
"On the south side of Third Lake there is a small estuary or inlet from a spring. In approaching that inlet, one time, I
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espied a red fox near the water, on the lookout for game; being curious to know what he was after, I kept some distance where I could watch him unobserved. Suddenly he sprung into the water and hauled out a large pickerel, longer than himself, and commenced tearing it to pieces. On my approach, he disap- peared with a part of the fish in his mouth, which he had torn from his prey, leaving the back bone plainly exposed half its length, and the fish still alive, although high and dry out of water. That fox must have been hungry, for I had not gone far from the place, when I saw him stealthily retracing his steps to finish his meal.
"During the summer of 1838, we had some very violent thunder storms in Madison. An Englishman named WARREN, employed in building the capitol, was killed by lightning near our house. Another serious accident of that summer was the falling from a scaffold on the capitol, of a man named GALLARD, who broke his leg. These men were boarding with us, and de- pendent upon us for nursing and attention as well as burial. Another boarder, named SIMONS, was prostrated a long time with typhoid fever. In those times the duties of surgeons, physicians, nurses and undertakers, were only a few of the ex- tra duties which devolved upon the proprietors of public houses.
"JONATHAN BUTTERFIELD, of Topsham, Vermont, and his partner PINNEO, who carried on a shingle factory toward the Sugar Bush, were the kind of pioneers it necessarily takes to build up a new country. They were good workmen, and use- ful in their way, and when on a bender, they were the liveliest as well as the noisiest boys in the country. Near our house stood a large oak tree, the one under which Mr. PECK's family had camped when they first landed in Madison. This was a beautiful tree, valued for its shade as well as for its beauty and from association. BUTTERFIELD knew how we prized it, and when strapped, and his credit gone, his last resort was an on- slaught on this old tree with an axe, and the only condition on which he would stop from damaging it, was to give him an order on NELSON's or THAN's grocery. In this manner, to save the tree, we were repeatedly obliged to compromise with
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him; then PINNEO came in for his share of the spoils. Some of the old settlers of Madison will remember the time when PINNEO, on a spree, without hat, shoes, coat or vest, captured an old white horse which had been turned out on the common to recruit, mounted the animal bare-backed, minus bridle or hal- ter, in his right hand holding extended the jawbone of some defunct quadruped (either horse or ox), and proclaimed himself Sampson in quest of the Philistines, as he dashed through the most prominent streets of the town, creating a decided sensa- tion. There were then no police or constable to interfere with any kind of sport or amusement one chose to indulge in.
" Another odd character of those days was BAPTISTE, the half breed Frenchman, living with some Indians in the adjoin- ing woods, who had a natural propensity to possess himself of valuable articles, such as axes, handsaws, hammers, hatchets, shovels, etc., almost any articles for which we had daily use. He often came to know if we had lost anything, and if we had, would at once commence negotiations for the missing article. His terms were from one half to two-thirds of its value. When the contract was concluded to his satisfaction, he would imme- diately go to camp and return with it, stating that some bad In- dian had stolen it. My wheelbarrow was valuable as well as very useful. It was made by a Milwaukee cabinet maker and cost me twelve or fifteen dollars. One day it disappeared. BAP- TISTE had taken the precaution to ascertain its value before proposing terms for its surrender. We failed to agree on the price to be paid for its restoration, and I never saw my wheel- barrow again.
" Impelled by purely philanthropic principles, we once un- dertook to civilize, Christianize and domesticate a wild Winne- bago Indian squaw, who answered to the euphonious name of Lenape. This young squaw was about thirteen years old when brought to us in the usual filthy Indian costume. After the ablution process had been performed, and the vermin extri- cated from her head, she was dressed in citizen's attire and really made an attractive figure. She was expected to assist in some domestic duties, and at first evinced quite a desire to
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learn, but the charm lasted but a few days, when she suddenly dis- appeared, and when next seen had donned her native costume, and returned to her wild, roving indolent habits.
"The Indians were very loth to leave their old fishing and hunting grounds in the vicinity of the lakes, and for several. years hovered around in camps in the neighborhood of Madi- son, and it frequently happened after obtaining liquor, that, they became very noisy and troublesome, particularly in their dexterous mode of thieving, which was almost equivalent to' professional slight of hand performances.
"The following good story is told of CAL-I-MA-NEE, an old Winnebago head chief, who was invited to Washington to ar- range some matters between his tribe and the Great Father. CAL-I-MA-NEE was accompanied by a second chief named SNAKE. During their absence from Wisconsin they had learned to talk some English, and had paid some attention to the rules of eti -- quette. When they returned they were furnished with new blankets, plenty of trinkets and money to pay their way home, also an order from the War Department on the commanding of- ficer at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, for two horses to carry them. They left Chicago in grand style, the old man considerably in- flated with vanity and importance at the attention paid him, and we hear no more of them until they arrive at Blue Mounds, which place they reached about 'noon. CAL-I-MA-NEE knew BRIGHAM, for he was known by everybody in the country, The chief thought he had found a good opportunity to display the politeness as well as shrewdness he had learned from his pale- face brothers on his recent tour to the National Capitol. Riding up to the house he accosted the old hero thus : "How! How! BRIGHAM." Then dismounting he presented his man SNAKE, saying, " BRIGHAM, Mr. SNAKE; " "Mr. SNAKE, BRIGHAM." Pointing to the house, he said, " BRIGHAM, dinner; " then to the stable, "BRIGHAM, horse, corn." "Big man, me." Mr. BRIGHAM kept a bachelor's ranche and did his own cooking, but to expedite matters for his most important guests, he called in one of his workmen to aid in preparing dinner. From the manner in which they devoured the victuals it was consid-
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ered doubtful whether they had broken fast between Chicago and Blue Mounds, a distance of over two hundred miles. After dinner, CAL-I-MA-NEE called out, "BRIGHAM, horse." The horses were brought, the Indians mounted, saying, " BRIGHAM, good bye," and rode off at full speed. Mr. BRIGHAM, finding himself badly sold, remarked to the bystanders that he thought they might have paid him something after putting him to so much trouble, especially as the chief had made a display of a quantity of silver coin furnished him by the Government to pay his expenses.
" For many years the Winnebagoes had made the head of the Fourth Lake their winter camping grounds, from which lo- cality they sallied out in small parties for the purpose of fishing and hunting. Their camps were distributed around on the streams in the vicinity. Sugar river was one of their favorite places of resort for game.
" Mr. BRIGHAM relates the following singular incident which took place some years before Madison was located. He - Mr. BRIGHAM - happened to be at the camp at the time, which was situated on Sugar river crossing, near Grand Springs. An aged Indian became reduced by sickness and disease. He had the consumption and was failing rapidly. The medicine man of the camp had exhausted his best skill on the patient in vain. The chiefs of the tribes were summoned in consultation. The spirits were invoked, and an incantation held with them, accompanied by singing and dancing, and, when concluded, the decision arrived at was, that the sick man must be removed to the headquarters at Four Lakes. The snow was about a foot deep at the time. Hunters were sent out to kill a buck, which they did, and brought into camp next day. The animal was carefully skinned by the squaws, and the invalid securely sewed up in the green buckskin and tied to the tail of a stout pony. In this manner he was dragged to the Four Lakes camp a dis- tance of about twenty miles. As the narrator did not accom- pany this novel expedition, he was unable to say whether the . subject so tenderly cared for was killed or cured.
" After a few years the Indians were all removed from the vi-
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cinity of Madison, by orders from the government, to their res- ervation west of the Mississippi, much to the relief of the citi- zens, for close contact with them soon removed every spark of the romance and poetry with which they had in our imagina- tions been surrounded from the reading of COOPER's novels, and other like literature.
" As yet there was little farming done or produce raised in Dane, and I was obliged to make sundry wagon trips to Green county, to procure butter, beef, pork, potatoes and other kinds of vegetables to keep our house going. There were then no bridges on the road to Monroe, and there was difficulty in crossing the streams. To be 'stuck' with a loaded wagon was a daily occurrence in almost every stream on the road. When 'stuck,' it generally became necessary to carry your load out on your back, or with your hands by piecemeal, deposit it on the further bank, then, with your horses hitched to the end of the wagon tongue, where they would most likely get dry footing, you must wade into the water waist deep with a sapling to pry out the wheels: by this means, with considerable language more expressive than elegant, directed especially at your horses, you reach dry ground and then re-load; but when your stock consisted of potatoes and turnips in bulk, and you had nothing but a wooden bucket at your service with which to transfer your load, you can imagine the amount of philosophy it re- quired to do this good naturedly, and more especially in a wet or rainy day, and the probabilities very strong that you would have to repeat the process at the next stream.
"I shall always remember one particular occasion on which I was returning from one of these periodical trips. After much persuasion, I had induced my good sister, Mrs. McFADDEN, of Grand Springs, to fill a patent pail with choice fresh butter, which I carefully stowed away in the back part of my well- loaded wagon. Any one living in Madison at that time may possibly realize the value of a bucket of nice dairy butter. The owner would be envied by all his neighbors for being the fortunate possessor of such a prize. I drove along happy at the thought of being able to cater to my guests to the envy
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and jealousy of others, and enjoying in anticipation the wel- come I would receive on reaching home with it. But, before long, I experienced the sad truth of the old rhyme,
'"Twixt cup and lip there's many a slip.'
There were many boulders and deep ruts in the road, the wagon jolted and the bucket of butter rolled out, I driving carelessly on, unconscious of my loss. I had traveled some four or five miles before I missed my treasure. As soon as I made the dis- covery I unharnessed one of my horses, mounted him bare- backed, and went back at a cantering speed, and reached the ill-fated spot where I had met the sad misfortune, just in time to scare off a pack of wolves that had not only devoured the entire contents of the bucket, but had actually eaten the greater part of the bucket itself, it had become so impregnated with the golden butter.
"We were very much troubled for help during the first year of our sojourn in Madison. To spend four or five days in tra- versing Rock and Green counties in search of a cook or cham- bermaid, and return without one, and be compelled to turn in and assist in doing your own cooking, and make your own bed, required the cultivation of much patience and fortitude, which bordered on genuine heroism.
"To provide for the winter I had a large quantity of hay cut on the marsh east of the capitol, between the lakes. The grass was best at the lower end of the marsh, but the surface was so underlaid with quicksand, although it would support a man it would not an animal. After the hay was made we found we could not approach it either with horse or ox teams. We overcame the difficulty by placing crates or racks on two long poles fastened together in style of a stretcher or hand- barrow, and fastened clapboards to the bottoms of the boots of the carriers, who could then carry out large loads, and thus we saved our crop.
" During the summer of 1838, a two-horse stage line was put in operation from Mineral Point to Madison, owned by Col. AB. NICHOLS. The distance was about fifty miles, and the only
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post offices on the route were Dodgeville, Ridgeway and Blue Mounds; the latter point was made the midway or half-way house, where passengers and horses were fed on the way. The line was afterwards extended to Fort Winnebago, and ROWAN's made a stopping place on the route. At Madison we enter- tained all the stage passengers and most of the drivers. With the latter we always kept on good terms, and were often under obligations to them for kind favors in bringing our supplies of groceries and other things from the 'Pint,' or 'Shake-rag,' as they called it.
" TOM HANEY drove in the first stage from the Point. He kep this head quarters at the ' Worser,' in which the stage pro- prietor was interested. Tom was a good friend of ours, a hail fellow, exceedingly obliging and accommodating. He had and deserved many friends. In extending the stage line to Fort Winnebago, a span of extra horses were required at Madison, . and it was arranged that TOM HANEY should bring them through one at a time. Accordingly one extra horse was duly entered on the way bill with orders for the proprietors of the stage house in Madison to take charge of the animal, and look out for another by the next stage. To set out as usual with his stage load of passengers from Mineral Point, and the extra horse lashed to the hind axle-tree with a stout windlass or well rope. All went well and smoothly - Dodgeville, Ridgeway and the Mounds were all left in the distance, Nine Mile Prairie was passed and the woods entered. Some distance this side of the Prairie there is quite a descent from a high rolling plateau down into the valley, which is nearly on a level with the Lakes. The slope is not steep but gradual. The rains had washed the ruts so that it became necessary to make another track on the hill side. These tracks diverged in the valley at the base of the hill in the shape of a letter V, and about half way up the hill formed a junction similar to the V reversed or the letter A without the bar. In the junction, or the apex of A, stood an oak tree. Usually there is nothing significant in an oak tree, especially when the surrounding forest is com- posed of oak trees. They may stand on either side of the road
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or beween the two roads, they are simply forest trees placed where they are by Providence, subservient to the use of man, but this one placed at the forks of this road had its mission to perform, as we will soon see. Persons accustomed to traveling in stage coaches know that when a the driver approach a city, a station or even a postoffice, they resort to fast driving. TOM HANEY was not behind his fellow Jehus in that line. Now, having reached the brow of the hill, instead of putting on the brakes and driving down slowly, as careful drivers should have done, he started his team with a yell and crack of his whip and came rattling down at full speed, the stage taking the road on one side of the tree and the extra horse the road on the other. The rope brought the horse with such sudden force against. the tree as to break his neck. The extra horse was not. receipted for, nor was the other sent by the next stage. When HANEY reached Madison his feelings were something akin to those of your humble servant when he found the wolves had devoured his butter rolls.
"Extravagancies such as this, with many other unforseen mishaps and direlections of drivers, created the necessity of placing agents upon the route. The first agent, or superin- tendent rather, of this two horse enterprise, was JONATHAN TAYLOR, accompanied by a tall, lean, lank Kentuckian, whom he introduced as MICAJAH THACHER, a new driver. We found THACHER a most obliging fellow, well posted in horse flesh, as drivers generally are. Mr. TAYLOR hailed from Wabash, Indi- ana, a noble specimen of a Hoosier, remarkably good looking and generous to a fault. Although somewhat deficient in education he was possessed of good hard sense, and a remark- able knowledge of men and the world. He was very shrewd at a trade and soon evinced fine business qualities, which, with his kind heart and frank, open countenance, made him very popular. He quartered with us and an attachment for our family soon sprung up, and he remained with us nearly ten years. After the stage line passed from Uncle AB's hands, Mr. TAYLOR commenced the world with a two horse team pur- chased on credit. He hauled goods from Chicago and Mil-
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waukee to Madison, and in the winter season brought sled loads of Mackinaw trout from Green Bay, carried them to the Point and Galena, returning with articles needed at Madison, Fort Winnebago, Fond du Lac and Green Bay. I have not time to follow his career, sufficient to say he prospered, and now lives on Fifth Avenue in New York city and counts his wealth by hundreds of thousands.
" Being desirous of adding something useful to the Capital city in the way of domestic animals, I brought some fine" shoats from Green county -the first brought to Madison. They thrived well and increased rapidly in numbers. When autumn came and acorns were plenty, I turned them out to forage for themselves. The drove wandered down to the lake shores, and when I thought them in a sufficiently good con- ition to kill, I undertook to drive them home, but to my utter astonishment I found them perfectly wild; they would neither be led, driven or coralled. So hunting parties were made up and my beautiful porkers were hunted down with dogs, shot and captured as wild game, and once more we had to depend on Green county for supplies for the winter. Col. DANIEL BAXTER furnished us a great deal of acceptable produce that winter.
" The next season I procured some pigs of a more domestic breed, and kept them penned close to my house near to the old cabins, but in spite of neighbors' dogs and all the care I could bestow on them, they were carried off by the prairie" wolves.
" The wolves continued to annoy the people of Madison very greatly until we petitioned the county authorities to pass an order fixing a bounty on their scalps. The Board of Com- missioners finally yielded to this request and established a. bounty. A wolf hunter soon turned up in the person of WIL- LIAM LAWRENCE. He undertook to catch them with steel traps, but as 'their name was legion,' he found that process entirely too slow and resorted to poison. By a skillful dis -- tribution of strychnine, he succeeded in soon bringing in a large number of scalps and leaving a large number of their
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carcasses on the town site, and in this manner a quietus was placed upon their further depredations and annoyances.
"In the fall of 1838, the first session of the Territorial Legis- lature was held at Madison, and with it came crowds of people. The public houses were literally crammed - shake downs were looked upon as a luxury, and lucky was the guest considered whose good fortune it was to rest his weary limbs on a straw or hay mattress. We hired some feather beds from Mr. NUTE of Jefferson county and paid ten dollars in advance for the use of each during the session.
" Among our boarders that winter I remember the names of the following members of the Legislature: Col. JAMES MAX- WELL and O. BEARDSLEY of Walworth county, MORGAN L. MARTIN and ALEX. J. IRWIN of Brown county. Then there were BEN. C. EASTMAN, JOSEPH G. KNAPP, PETER B. GRIGNON, THEODORE GREEN of Green Bay, who officiated as clerks, re- porters, etc., of the Legislature. Mr. KNAPP says these were the 'aristocracy of Wisconsin.' We thought so too and treated them as such.
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