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 18
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The firm of SHIELDS & SNEEDEN, in 1848, built a brick store on Main street, facing the public square. This building was subsequently occupied by WM. C. WELLS, J. P. MANN, DON- ALDSON & TREDWAY, in 1850, and was by the latter firm occu- pied until the fall of 1864. In the spring of 1865, it was sold to Mckay & Bro's, for $15,500; the lot being 33 feet front.
D. B. SNEEDEN built a two story residence on Carroll street corner of Dayton, which was sold afterwards to Dr. A. J. WARD, and is now owned by F. J. LAMB.
The corporation officers elected in 1849 were A. L. COLLINS, President; J. R. BRIGHAM, Secretary; A. VIALL, Treasurer, S. MILLS, G. M. OAKLEY, J. T. CLARK, N. S. EMMONS, J. D. RUG- GLES, D. H. WRIGHT, Trustees; A. OGDEN, Assessor; THos. REYNOLDS, Marshal.
The tax of May 30, shows the assessed value of real estate, $62,674; personal property, $25,000; total, $87,674. Tax, $434.37.
The corporation and school tax was $4,964.41. The mer- chants who were assessed on the stock of goods were TIBBITS & GORDON, SEYMOUR & VARNEY and LEWIS & WRIGHT, each as- sessed at $4,500. The others were J. C. FAIRCHILD, W. C. WELLS, T. REYNOLDS, S. F. HONN, H. G. BLISS, SMITH & TRED- WAY, A. BOYLES and DEAN & Co.
In the spring of this year, Mr. FARWELL commenced making permanent improvements at the outlet of Lake Mendota, and a dam was built across the outlet, and the water in the lake raised about two feet. The Yahara or Catfish stream which connects the lake, being very circuitous, and its channel obstructed by logs and brush wood, a straight canal was cut from one lake to the other. Lake Monona has since been lowered one foot by re- moving obstructions, rendering the water power of much value. Lake Mendota forms a reservoir of water so extensive that the longest drought ever known in the country would not affect it materially.
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During the summer, a long building was erected at the out- let with a saw mill on one end, and two runs of stone on the other for grist work. TIBBITS & GORDON's brewery was erected the same season just below the mill. The Court House was com- menced on lot 2, block 68, on Main street, corner of Fairchild street, and the walls completed the next summer, and it is probably the best county building (except that of Milwaukee), in the State.
On the 30th of January, 1849, the State Historical Society was organized at Madison. A meeting of the citizens of Madi- son and from other parts of the state met, the evening previous, at the American Hotel, at which time it was resolved to call a general meeting at the Senate Chamber on the 30th. At this meeting, Prof. ELEAZAR ROOT was called to the chair, and Gen. WM. R. SMITH chosen Secretary. A constitution was formed and adopted, and signed by all those present, after which the Society proceeded to the election of officers. NELSON DEWEY, the Governor of the State, was chosen President; I. A. LAP- HAM, Corresponding Secretary, and Rev. CHARLES LORD, Re- cording Secretary. One Vice President was also chosen for each of the twenty-five counties then organized. The Society held annual meetings, at which able historic discourses were de- livered by Gen. WM. R. SMITH, Hon. MORGAN L. MARTIN and Dr. N. L. WOOD, but during the first five years of its existence it accomplished next to nothing in the way of historical col- lections or a library, so little, that in 1854, the library contained only fifty volumes, and all but three of these were state laws, journals and documents, and were deposited in a small book- case three by four feet. The Society was subsequently re-or- ganized, and under the energetic and untiring efforts of Hon. LYMAN C. DRAPER, its corresponding Secretary, became very successful. Its subsequent history will be noticed hereafter.
At a special meeting of the Board of Regents. of the State University, November 21, 1849, the several chairs of instruc- tion were established and defined, action was taken with a view to securing a cabinet of Natural Science and a Normal Depart- ment instituted, in which instruction was required to be given
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to teachers' classes during five months in the year. At the time designated by the board at a previous meeting, Prof. J. W. STERLING opened the Preparatory School in the building owned by the Madison Academy, opposite the Presbyterian church on Wisconsin avenue.
JOHN NELSON, R. T. DAVIS and ANDRUS VIALL were elected Supervisors at the election in April, 1849; R. L. REAM, Town Clerk; D. H. WRIGHT, Superintendent of Schools; NEWTON EMMONS, Assessor; M. G. VAN BERGEN, Treasurer; WM. WELCH, A. OGDEN and D. H. WRIGHT, Justices of the Peace. Some business changes in the town are noticed this year. P. H. VAN BERGEN and WM. WELCH carried on the Madison Hotel. TIB- BITS & GORDON purchased the stock of D. BAXTER, and SEY- MOUR & VARNEY were engaged in business.
An anniversary of the organization of the Dane County Bible Society was held May 29, and officers elected, viz: JOHN Y. SMITH President; J. T. CLARK, Vice President; BENJ. HOLT, Secretary, and H. G. BLISS, Treasurer and Depositor.
On the 7th of June, a temperance celebration was held, and an address delivered by Rev. A. C. BARRY.
The annual town meeting was held on the 3d of April, 1849, and it was voted $400 be raised for the support of schools, and $1,500 for general purposes. At a special town meeting held on May 19, this amount was changed to three mills on the dollar valuation. At the meeting in April, JOHN NELSON was elected Chairman of Board of Supervisors, ANDRUS VIALL and R. T. DAVIS, Supervisors; R. L. REAM, Clerk; NELSON EMMONS, AS- sessor; M. G. VAN BERGEN, Treasurer; D. H. WRIGHT, Super - intendent of Schools; and A. OGDEN, D. H. WRIGHT and WM. WELCH, Justices of the Peace; A. MAIN, A. RASDALL and H. CARMAN, Constables. At the special meeting, G. P. DELAPLAINE, was elected Assessor, who failing to qualify, R. L. REAM, was chosen to fill the vacancy. The resources of the town for the year ending April 2, 1850, were $3,343.41, and the expenditures $2,831.65; balance on hand, $511.76.
JOHN NELSON, in 1849, built the addition to the present resi- dence of Hon. ANDREW PROUDFIT, on Washington avenue.
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CHAPTER VI.
HYER'S REMINISCENCES OF COVALLE, PINNEO, UBELDEEN, TOM JACKSON, JUDGES FRAZER AND IRVIN -KNAPP'S NOTICE OF IRVIN - A LEAF OF WESTERN HISTORY - UNIVERSITY PROPERTY AND IMPROVEMENTS - ELECTIONS, 1850-3 - Gov. FARWELL'S IMPROVEMENTS - SCHOOLS, 1850-3-NEWSPAPERS -MADISON MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY - FOURTH OF JULY - PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ORGANIZATION AND HISTORY - CAPITOL HOUSE -PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS, 1852-4- BAP- TIST CHURCH ERECTED - R. CATHOLIC CHURCH - MADISON INSTITUTE - OPENING OF RAILROAD TO MILWAUKEE - BRUEN'S BLOCK -LAKE SIDE WATER CURE - STATISTICS.
The articles that follow were written by the late Hon. GEO. HYER and published in the Madison Union some years since. They are republished, as they furnish an interesting series of sketches of frontier men who were at Madison in early days:
" Old COVALLE, the fisherman, hunter, trapper, etc., was the only white man found on the present site of Madison when it was first visited by Col. A. A. BIRD, in the spring of 1837. COVALLE was a Canadian of French extraction, and a fair type of the early voyageurs and adventurers who penetrated the wilds of the northwest in search of furs, and whose natural affinities made them at home among the wild men of the forest. Born and bred among the half-civilized border-men, he pressed back into the wilderness as the tide of civilization rolled on its western course, occupying the ground so reluctantly relin- quished by the red men and their ready associates, the trappers and traders, whose occupation followed in the train of the receding red men; and with the fading forests dis- appeared entirely from the regions which but a few years before were known to the world only as the hunting grounds from which came the rich furs so universally admired in civilized life. COVALLE was the descendant of a Hudson Bay trapper, and followed the movements of his family, and for
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many years thereafter was in the employ of a fur company as a trapper, spending years in the wilds north of the St. Mary's river, returning to the trading establishments only at stated seasons to bring in his furs and obtain supplies. Nothing pleased him more than the opportunity of recounting his adventures and 'hair breadth escapes' among the men of the wilderness in which he had spent so much of his early life. Tired of this wild life, he left the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, and commenced operations for himself, trapping along the streams emptying into Green Bay, falling back as civilization advanced - giving up his cabin to villages, and his trapping resorts to lumbermen. Following up the Fox river, he kept in advance of the settlements, gathering in the little game that lingered along the line, until he was forced to abandon the vicinity of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and find hunting grounds away from the business routes of white men. Taking his Indian woman, and his small family of half-breed children, with his ever present companion 'ALEX., the fisher boy,' he came across the country to the chain of lakes, then in the undisturbed possession of the Indians, and built a cabin on the ground now occupied by Mr. RODERMUND as a brewery, at the outlet of Lake Mendota. Here he was found by the men who came to lay the foundation of the capital of a new state, and here he remained until tired of his surroundings, and long- ing for the quiet of the wilderness, he, with his little family, left to join his old associates who had been transferred to the wilds west of the Mississippi. COVALLE, though illiterate, was a companionable, good natured man, and interesting in the long stories he used to tell of the happy life he led in the country before it was taken possession of by the white man. He tried hard to accustom himself to the usages of civilized life, but it was unnatural to him, and the attempt only made more apparent the force of early habits. Learning that white men married, he brought his Indian woman before a justice of the peace that his own marriage might be solemnized in the presence of his children, a proceeding which was important to them only as it conformed to the customs of white men. He
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would send to Dr. LULL, the village physician, to treat com- plaints that would be thought nothing of in his former solitary life, simply because white men employed the DR., and many a joke came back to the settlement, of COVALLE's efforts to bring his half-breed family under allopathic treat- ment, and ludicrous enough were the attempts of the family to adapt some article of clothing, the gift of white people, to their native costume of buckskin and blanket. " The first families' of Madison will, no doubt, remember the curiosity with which Madam COVALLE and her children looked in upon them through the windows of their houses, refusing to enter the dwellings, and with what interest they would gather at the doors to witness the proceedings of the meetings on Sunday; but these things are now past, and we must dismiss the subject, conscious of having said but little that will do more than bring back the almost forgotten name of COVALLE."
"None but the 'oldest inhabitant' of Madison will remem- ber PINNEO, and little was known of him even by them. He was a vagabond naturally, and a long life of dissipation had confirmed him in all his vagabond notions and habits. PINNEO came to Madison among the first, and commenced work as a shingle maker, or 'shingle weaver,' as he styled himself. He built a hut in the woods, near the outlet of Lake Mendota, and when sober, used to retire to it and weave shingles, for which the new settlement offered a ready market. He was a queer looking object; a tall, round shouldered, large nosed, grey eyed chap, never wearing any clothing, in pleasant or foul weather, save a pair of coarse breeches and a red shirt. He claimed to be a Yankee, but had coasted so long up and down western rivers, and had imbibed so much poor whisky, that he had in appear- ance and manner nothing to indicate a 'down east ' origin. His cabin was a mere shelter - open in front, and furnished with no article of comfort or convenience save one or two common cooking utensils, and the tools most necessary to his business in shingle making. Though orderly and quiet enough when sober, he was the opposite to it when drunk; and when PINNEO took it into his head to be agreeable, no place or com-
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pany was free from intrusion. He was not a very agreeable caller - his long, gaunt form, bare head and feet, and disgust- ingly dirty appearance were anything but agreeable, still they had to be endured, as the possessor of these qualities was none other than Mr. PINNEO, who had a laugh and a joke for every one, and who was ever ready to do the bidding of those choos- ing to command his services. When sober, which was only when every artifice and cunning had failed to provide the means of getting drunk, he would retire to his cabin, work steadily and quietly until a customer came for shingles, for which terms of payment were positive - cash down. When once in possession of money, there was no more work in PIN- NEO, who would, by a more direct route reach town in time to get glorious long before the purchaser made his appearance with the shingles. After he had endured a week's drunk, his red face and bare breast shone in the sun with a peculiar bril- liancy, and he was a sight as seen in the morning after a night's lodging under a tree, or under some outhouse shelter, as he shook himself and started for his morning potation at the nearest drinking house. He had not worn shoes for years, and in his drunken frolics he had acquired the habit of kicking out grubs and roots with his bare toes. This he was often induced to do for a drink, and many was the grub kicked out of King street by PINNEO, long before NICHOLSON pavement or the of- fice of Street Commissioner was thought of. His feet looked, in shape and color, like mud turtles, and his toes resembled so many little turtle heads half drawn in, so bruised and battered were they by hard usage. PINNEO, when drunk, would occa- sionally have serious thoughts, and sometimes expressed seri- ous doubts as to the propriety of his course of life. His boon companion was one BUTTERFIELD, of whom we will say more by and by. When the first minister visited Madison, and called the good people together on Sunday, PINNEO was among the first present. He listened attentively to the opening ser- vices, and when the minister began to speak of a better life than men were leading in the new country, PINNEO very de- liberately rose from his seat and electrified the small audience
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by saying, 'That's so, Mr. PHILO, that's so. BUTTERFIELD'S got to be saved; and you just hold on till I bring him in.' Upon which he stalked out of the room; but, failing to find his chum, neglected himself to return.
"PINNEO had but little to commend him, even to a passing notice; still he was a type of many vagabond frontier men, who, whatever their origin, accomplished nothing useful in life. They generally lived and died wretchedly, as did this PINNEO, who lost his life in a miner's cabin, his clothes taking fire while he was on one of his drunken frolics."
" The other day," says Mr. HYER, "we were shown through the sale-room of Messrs. BIRD & LEDWITH's establishment, and looked upon the rows of beautiful carriages, elegantly lined and so richly ornamented, all bespeaking a wide departure from the olden but joyous time when we went a-riding along the by-ways and over the unbroken grounds that led us where- ever we chose to go, before the streets of Madison were walled with brick, in old UBELDEEN's one-horse cart - the first pleas- ure carriage brought to the capital city. That was long before BIRD & LEDWITH thought of building carriages - long before DORN or KENTZLER thought of providing the splendid 'turn- outs' that come from their stables, and roll so elegantly along the NICHOLSON pavement - but not long enough to beget forget- fulness in the memory of those who, with merry laugh and in youthful glee, used to go jolting along in the one-horse 'gig,' as we called the old Frenchman's cart. Wonder if our then young boy and girl companions have forgotten the time when we used to go a berrying, and when it was only necessary to "say the word ' to ensure a cartload of as merry romps as ever perplexed the hearts of boys for a berrying expedition, or a frolic among the groves that bordered our beautiful lakes. That was a funny old cart, and would not answer for now-a- days; but we were not so refined and particular then. There were no eyes to please but our own, and 'who cared?' UBEL- DEEN, the envied proprietor of the 'gig,' was a Frenchman, and this vehicle came with him from the Canadas. It was of the olden style, such as may be seen in the French towns - a
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two-wheeled, cart-shaped affair - having a light box, was with- out springs, and open behind for the entrée and exit of passen- gers. It was drawn by a coarse-limbed Normandy horse, rigged in a heavy block harness - the whole establishment be- ing in proportion and appearance, not beautiful but substantial, symmetrical and pleasing only in its unity. When in order for a ride, it was the pride of its owner, who would bring the 'gig ' around, back it up to the door, and announce its readi- ness for the young ladies, who, taking seats on robes placed on the bottom of the vehicle, the driver sitting on the front board, when away it would go, jolting and thumping, with its lively, joyous, frolicsome load. It was fun to see the old . cart rattle and thump over the stones, or across the pole bridge that afforded the only crossing to the Catfish, or over logs and through brush, as the party jogged on, more in pursuit of fun than berries.
" There were the Miss S-s', the Miss M-s', and Miss D-and, that was all; girls were not so plenty in Madison then as now. Can it be that those romping, bright-eyed girls that were then so full of fun, so ready to join in such excursions, and so ingenious in expedients, turning inconveniences into pleasant- ries, ready to make the best of everything - careless of what the world might say or think, are now quieted into mature ma- trons, perhaps sober thoughtful grand dames, putting away their happy, mirthful, tell-tale faces, that they may assume reserve and dignity, not felt, but more becoming their changed fortune and social conditions? We cannot look upon our pleasant companions of "early times " without regretting, that with years should come so marked a change from the days when the wild prairies and forests were not more free, than the light- hearted people who enjoyed in common lot the comforts and pleasures, the cares and privations incident to a new country ; for, though the elegant carriage may roll noiselessly along busy streets, and people may pride themselves upon the show and parade of a splendid " turn-out," we doubt whether there is the same real enjoyment that was found by the young folks who so long ago went a-riding in old UBELDEEN's one-horse gig. Heigh-ho, well that was almost thirty years ago.
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" The earliest inhabitant will also remember TOM JACKSON. He was of Scottish origin, a man of intelligence, but peculiar in his manner, amounting to eccentricity. "JACK," as he was commonly called, was a ship sawyer by trade, and came to Mad- ison to assist in ripping out with a whip-saw much of the lum- ber used in the building of the old Capitol. Standing in the saw-pit, the old fellow would labor hard and patiently during the long hours of the day, looking forward to the pleasures of the mug and pipe at night. He was a man of " infinite mirth," good natured but awfully profane in the expression of his views, seldom, if ever uttering a sentence without mixing in a fearful number of hard words. In person, he was a short, thick-set, ruddy looking fellow, grey eyes, and his head, with a very nar- row belt of yellow hair about its base, shiningly bald. JACK seldom wore any thing in the shape of a head covering, and when he did, it was but the sorry remains of a plaid cap that he brought from Edenboro' town with him; so accustomed had he been to going without one, that on returning from his work, he would frequently tuck his cap under his arm, and march off bare-headed; but on being told he was not wearing it, he would place his hand on his bald head, swear good naturedly at his carelssness, and trudge back to the saw-pit for the lost cap, never dreaming that he had it under his arm. We remember seeing JACK very much confused at a fire. The house where he was boarding, a small log house, standing opposite the present Meredith House, caught fire in the night, causing no little con- fusion among the boarders. JACK was soon on his feet, as crazy as a bed-bug - could find nothing, and relieved himself by many a hard oath, directed at persons and things about him. In his search for his pants, he caught hold of a sailor-jacket be- longing to one of his room mates, and imagining the garment to be his breeches, thrust his feet through the sleeves, and finding them too short for his legs, uttered a fearful judgment upon the man who had cut off the legs of his pantaloons! Many an anecdote will be remembered of old JACK, by those who long ago listened to his story and song. Tom has been dead many years, and the hope is a fervent one that he has gone to a better place than he often wished his own soul.
.
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" During the territorial existence of Wisconsin, it was divid- ed into three judicial circuits, presided over by appointees from the states. Some of these appointees were broken-down pol- iticians, or men who failing to gain prominence in their pro- fession, where better known, were willing to be exiled to the new territories, where " dispensing the law " was distinguished by no very marked display of ability, integrity or legal information, and were generally less noted for their legal ability than for their knowledge and appreciation of " old rye." A tolerably cor- rect idea of some of the western judges at that time, may be formed from an extra-judicial remark of Judge F., while on the bench at Milwaukee. The Judge had imbibed freely of his fav- orite rye, and though barely able to retain his seat, he, in his drunken humor, insisted on hearing and determining cases, whether he understood them or not. Making adecision which Col. C., an attorney in the pending case, did not approve of, he called the attention of the " Court " to a certain provision oflaw in the statutes of Michigan, then governing the courts of Wis- consin. The boozy Judge, in a rather undignified manner, re- marked, "To - with the courts of Michigan - I am the law and the prophets." Such was the law and the prophets in those days.
" But we are getting out of our circuit. The district of which Madison was the centre, was presided over by Judge IRVIN, a worthy gentlemen, but peculiar in many respects. He was a fair judge of law, but a better judge of horses and dogs - if he could trace law principles back to Blackstone, he could more readily, and with greater certainty and satisfaction, trace every " thorough-bred " back to some famous stock of Virginia, and he knew the degree of every blooded dog he met with. He was a confirmed " old bach," made his own bed, sewed on his own buttons, and knew every thing in the line of domestic duties, from the boiling of an egg, to the whitening of his high-crowned straw hat, which in course of time, became quite noted through- out his district. He was a good talker, but an indifferent list- ener - he disliked being talked to, but nothing suited him better than to gossip of himself, his horse and his dog, and indeed it
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was difficult to tell from his conversation which of the three he thought most of. Few of the early settlers have forgot- ten "PEDRO" the long-legged, slender-bodied sorrel horse, rode by the Judge. He was in the Judge's eye, an ex- traordinary animal, and possessed all the points distinguish- ing the long line of thorough-bred ancestry, through which PEDRO's lineage could be traced by his master. No suitor thought of getting a hearing in court, until he had first given the judge a hearing as to the ancestry and peculiar qualities of his favorite animal, and so well known had this become, that upon " his Honor's " ascending the bench one morning. he found PEDRO's bridle suspended over the chair, sig- nificantly described. NOAH P -- , a well-known joker of that day, used to say that the bench was full only when composed of WHITON's boots, PEDRO's bridle and the dog YORK and Judge I .; but that was speaking lightly of " the court." The dog YORK, if not of the court, was its constant attendant, and woe to the suitor, witness or juryman that showed the dog disrespect. In those days, court room floors were covered with saw-dust in- stead of matting, and occasionally some evil-disposed attendant would cover YORK with saw-dust, in which condition he would ascend the platform to his master, who would store up wrath until he had an opportunity of gratifying it, in imposing a fine or showing his contempt for the wight who dusted YORK. On one occasion, YORK was the direct cause of an adjournment of court. TOM H., of "the Point," and BERRY H., of Madison, had arranged for a horse race, which being an unusual occur- rence in these parts, the bar, the jury and others in attendance were extremely desirous of adjourning court to witness the sport, but the Judge persistently refused on account of the horses not being " thorough-breds," and not having an honorable lineage that he knew of; but the fun was not to be lost simply to gratify the whim of "the court," and an expedient was re- sorted to, to force an adjournment. While Judge I. was at dinner, the dog YORK was enticed into the "National," and put in charge of the landlord, with an injunction not to set the dog free, until a crowd about the door of the Capitol indicated
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