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 6
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Mr. WILLIAM WOOLCOCK, now of Jefferson, Wisconsin, was one who came to Madison to work on the capitol in the second arrival. He has furnished some notes of his coming to Wis- consin, and his journey here, from which the following extracts are taken:
" I left Adelaide, Canada West, in May, 1836, to visit the western territories, and came by the way of Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago. At Chicago I found one brick building, the Lake
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House, and thence proceeded to Milwaukee, where I arrived July 3, which contained one framed house, built in 1835 by SOLOMON JUNEAU. After spending a short time here I made an arrangement to visit Madison to work at my trade on the capitol building.
" About the last of July or first of August, 1837, we started for Madison from Milwaukee, to cut the stone for the State House, viz .: WM. SEAVIER and brother, JESSE BOLDEN and G. EGGLESTON, with our carpet bags and some tools on our shoul- ders, and commenced our journey in the morning on foot. Before we came to Prairieville we saw a large rattlesnake across our path, about six feet long, which we killed. At Prairieville we found one log house and an Indian camping ground. About five miles further we found a man by the name of PRATT, who had a claim of 160 acres, and who had put up a log house, and here we staid over night. The next day dined with a family by the name of BROWN, who had also a claim of a quarter sec- tion. Within seven or eight miles of the rapids of Rock river, near Watertown, we found three brothers by the name of SETCHELL, making claims, with whom we staid over night. They had a little shanty built and covered with bass wood bark, and as there was not room for all of us, Mr. SEAVIER and myself got some long pieces of bark that was coiled up in the sun, pulling the bark open and got into it; it curled tight around us, and so we got clear of the musquitoes that night. The next morning we started for Watertown, where we found Mr. GOODHUE preparing to buid a dam and a sawmill. Here we took breakfast and started for Lake Mills, at which place we found a family by the name of ATWOOD, who had also made a claim on some land, and built a log house. Here we stopped one day to rest and to prepare for the forty mile trip ' to Madison, as there was no settler this side of that place. We proceeded onward on the Indian's and BIRD's trail, and came to Sun Prairie where we got a lunch and some water and started on. At ten o'clock at night we came to the camping ground of BIRD and his company at Madison, tired, dry and hungry. There was about fifty (?) men and a family to cook for
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them. They expected us and were glad to see us, but they had eaten all the provisions they brought with them from Mil- waukee, and Mr. BIRD had gone to Galena with the teams after pork and flour and other supplies. We slept at the building known as the bedroom, about eighteen feet square and two stories high and the sleeping births were all around the sides, two or three, one above the other, and the bedsteads were made out of small oak trees and covered with marsh hay. I thought it a great treat after walking forty miles, and the musquitoes so thick that the men made a fire on the floor to smoke them out. Work was immediately commenced, and carried on during the summer and fall, at which time the walls were built six feet above the ground and the water table put in place. I cut the corner stone and JESSE BOLDEN laid it. There was a gathering on the event. A good many persons put in their deposits under it. It was laid on the southeast corner of the building, July 4, 1838. The foundation was completed in November and a small celebration was held, when the work was stopped. The money to pay the hands had to be brought from Green Bay, and Mr. PECK was sent there to bring it. The men usually were paid monthly. He started on foot through the woods alone to Green Bay. In less than two weeks he came back with the paper money. He had to swim the rivers. The money was wet and we had to wait for it to dry before we could get our pay. About the last of November we started on foot for Milwaukee. In May, 1838, JESSE BOLDEN and myself went to Madison to finish the work, and the con- tract to put up the buiding was in the hands of JAMES MOR- RISON and A. A. BIRD, Superintendent. Mr. BOLDEN could not agree with Mr. MORRISON, and returned to Milwaukee. I worked all summer at $70 per month - cut the stone arches over the front doors and attended the building generally. The rest of the stone cutters worked by the foot. In November the walls were up, the roof on and the assembly and senate cham- bers plastered but not sufficiently dry for the sessions of he legislature, which were held for a while in the American Hotel building."
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Of the party that came with Mr. BIRD, we shall speak more particularly hereafter.
The workmen on their arrival, immediately proceeded to erect temporary houses and cabins for their own use, the most of which were put up near the foot of King street, near the Third Lake. The buildings were not of the highest order of archi- tecture, since little or no lumber could be procured except such as was cut with a whip-saw. They have all been re- moved, except one which was taken to another location. The excavation for the foundation walls of the capitol was soon made, and the workmen proceeded at once to get out stone and timber. It was intended, says Judge J. G. KNAPP, " to have the building erected on the corners of the four sections, or the exact centre of the public square, but as the post of the section cor- ners was found standing on the west edge of the level of the square, or where the ground begins to descend to the west, the ground for the foundation was so staked off that the corner should be under the west door, and not in the centre of the building. Moreover, the west wall was not placed on the sec- tion lines; consequently both these causes operated to throw the walls away from a coincidence with all the steeets of the village." This divergence became more apparent in the new and enlarged capitol than in the old; since its location it has been governed by the same lines.
The work had so far advanced that preparations were made to lay the corner stone with appropriate ceremonies on the en- suing July 4. Mrs. PECK made large preparation for the occas- ion, and on that day, according to her account, between two and three hundred persons were assembled .* Among them were Gov. DOTY, M. L. MARTIN, A. NICHOLS, BENJ. SALTER, Dr. ILS- LEY and JOHN MESSERSMITH. The corner stone - in the " north- east corner," of course - was laid, says Mr. HYER, by Col. A. A. BIRD, acting commissioner, on the 4th of July, 1837, and the ceremony formed on that day the principal part of the " nation-
* Mr. Mills and Mr. Catlin think Mrs. Peck is in error as to the number present - that there could not have been as large a gathering as she has represented.
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al clebration "- the participants in the proceedings being Col. BIRD, the men in his employ, Mr. E. PECK and family, and "LITTLE DANDY," an Indian chief, and his band - the " na- tives " forming by far the larger party. The celebration was quite a "spirited " affair, and lasted several days, until the " spirits" gave out.
Mrs. PECK's narrative has an interesting account of the cele- bration and the preparation made for it:
" Our next large arrival at Madison was A. A. BIRD again, with some thirty or forty men, hired in Milwaukee, to com- mence operations on the public buildings; he also brought with him a family by the name of PIERCE, * with two or three grown up daughters, for the purpose of cooking for his workmen. They immediately put up a log boarding-house, and in a week's time they had it completed and moved in. Their next work was putting up and enclosing a frame dining-room for us, in the above mentioned passage way, the same height and in range of two of the other buildings, so as to make convenient lodg-
* Josiah Pierce, the early settler here mentioned, was born in New Salem, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, May 21, 1783, and was devoted to agricultural pursuits; in 1827 moved with his family from his na- tive state to Butternuts, Otsego county, N. Y .; and in the spring of 1837, he migrated with his wife and seven children to Wisconsin. He was engaged by Col. Bird to remove from Milwaukee to Madison, to board some of his workmen on the capitol; and Mr. Pierce and family came with Col. Bird's party of thirty-six workmen, and ar- rived at Madison, June 10, 1837, after a ten days' journey, with four teams, loaded with provisions, tools, and such other articles as would be most needed, and had to cut out roads, build long " corduroy " over swamps, and ford creeks and rivers. Mr. Pierce's cabin was located at or very near the present residence of William Pyncheon, on the south side of Butler street, a little east of Peck's primitive residence; the latter was on lot 6, in block 107, on the south side of Butler street.
Mr. Pierce's was the second family that settled in Madison; but his was only designed for a temporary residence, intending to find a good locality, and settle on a new farm. In November of that year, he re- moved two miles south of the present village of Monticello, Green county, and made a good location; his nearest neighbors resided in Exeter, seven miles distant. He was an invalid when he settled there; but his health
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ing rooms above. Then comes Judge DOTY again, and says, "Madam, prepare yourself for company on the Fourth, as a large number from Milwaukee, Mineral Point, Fort Winneba- go and Galena have concluded to meet here for the purpose of viewing the place and celebrating the day." "Why, what shall I do?" said I, "here is my husband and brother, both blind with inflammation in their eyes, so that I have to feed them, and no lumber either to lay the upper or dining-room floor." "Just constitute me your agent," he replied, " and I will contract for whatever you want; and there is a crib of lumber just run down the Wisconsin river and lying at Helena, from WHITNEY's Mill," the first and then the only saw-mill in the Territory. He went and contracted for the lumber at six- ty-nine dollars a thousand, (I have still some articles of furni- ture manufactured from that first lumber, and I prize them as others would relics from Mount Vernon or the Charter Oak); he also contracted for a load of crockery and table fixtures, pro- visions, wines, liquors, pickles, preserves, more bed-ticking, bed- ding, and finally everything that I sent for at Mineral Point, and ordered teams to convey them to Madison.
" On the second day of July there was a drove of cattle from Illinois driven through Madison to Green Bay, out of which we purchased beeves and veal. On the same day, my husband was led out blind and put into the stage, with his eyes carefully ex- cluded from the light, and sent to Fort Winnebago, for the pur- pose of having his eyes operated upon by the surgeon of the garrison, and endeavor to get a quiet, dark room, away from confusion - pshaw, talk about the time that tried men's souls,
improved, and he was able to attend to business for several years. He finally died of consumption, December 25, 1843, aged nearly sixty-one years. He had no enemies, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. His widow, Ruth Pierce, a native of Granby, Connecticut, survived till June 8, 1867, when she passed away, at the good old age of seventy- nine years. She lived to see her family all settled in life, prosperous and respected, and she never regretted her early migration to the Western wilderness. Her son, Hon. Albert H. Pierce, has twice represented the Monticello district in the Legislature, in 1859 and 1868.
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just as if a woman had none - but the recruits had just arrived there from Green Bay, and more confusion than at home, so next day he returned. On the morning of the third our " gim- cracks " had all arrived except the lumber, and that made its ap- pearance about seven o'clock in the evening. That night our chamber floors were laid, except over the dining room. We had previously purchased three hundred pounds of feathers of Mr. RASDALL, an Indian trader, so our pillows were all ready and our beds were all spread by daylight on the morning of the Fourth, and by one o'clock our dining-room floor was laid, our dining-table built and dinner set, and between that hour and sundown some two or three hundred persons bolted something besides pork. In the evening there was a basket of champagne carried into the dining-room, and there their toasts were deliv- ered, songs sung, dinner bell jingled between times, and good feeling, friendship and hilarity prevailed generally; and next morning they shot my two little pet crows."
Mr. BIRD, in his examination before the Territorial Legisla- tive Committee, February 15, 1839, states that at the first meet- ing of the capitol commissioners, they adopted a plan of the building estimated to cost from $40,000 to $45,000. They did not advertise for proposals for the erection of said building, agreeably to the provisions of the act by which they were ap- pointed, because they were of the opinion that it could be built much cheaper than any one would be willing to contract to do it - they therefore, in the exercise of their discretionary pow- ers, concluded to commence and continue the work until they were able to ascertain how it could be done with the least ex- pense and best advantage to the Territory. The construction of the work was continued by him until the month of Septent- ber following, when notices for proposals were issued for the first time, and a number of bids were presented. Noue of them were accepted, and the work was continued as heretofore until April 25, 1838.
On the 20th of February, 1838, the commissioners advertised that they would receive proposals for the erection of the public buildings. The following is a copy of the same:
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"To commence on top of the water-table - to be built of stone of the following dimensions: one hundred and four feet long, and fifty-four feet wide; the walls to be thirty feet high above water-table, first story thirteen feet between joints, second story sixteen feet between joints, floor timbers one foot deep, a pro- jection on both sides of said edifice of four inches thirty feet long, which is the length of piazza, same all cut stone to the top of said wall; the remainder of said walls to be cut on all the corners of the edifice, and the corners of the doors and windows and caps, and sills of the same. First story walls two feet six inches thick, second story walls two feet thick; to be two front doors going into the centre of edifice, to be forty-six windows, 20 lights 11 by 16 inch glass each window; roof to be square with a balustrade rail all round, said roof with a dome in centre, twenty-six feet in diameter lighted with glass on top, re- mainder of dome covered with tin above its base.
" Roof covered with pine shingles three eighths of an inch thick; a lightning rod put on immediately after roof is fin- ished; two chimney pieces carried up in the walls, with two fire places in each chimney with cut stone jams, two flues carried up in walls with tops equal to the chimney tops with necessary pipe tubes; to be four tin conductors with suitable heads and neces- sary gutters made of tin or sheet lead to convey the water into conductors.
" To be a piazza on each front of said edifice twelve feet pro- jection, thirty feet long, placed on stone butments settled five feet below the surface of the ground and raised on a level with the basement story, which is five feet above the surface; floor of piazza to be of oak, two inches thick, matched; to be steps the whole length of piazza and railing on the ends with heavy ban- nisters; piazza roof to break in with the roof and cornice of main building; the cornice to be executed in the Grecian Doric order; piazza roof to be supported on four columns to each pi- azza suitable size, same order of cornice.
"First floor to have a hall twenty-four feet through cen- tre of edifice, and one room on each side of hall, partitions to be ten inches thick, to be two doors in each partition;
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to be a flight of stairs on each side of hall to ascend to sec- ond story, floor to be laid with oak one and a half inches thick, lined and matched; hall to be plastered three coat work with cornice overhead. Second floor, to be laid with oak one and a half inches thick, matched, to be divided as follows: to be a hall through centre twenty-four feet wide, to be left open twenty-four feet square in centre for the reception of the stairs and the light from the top of dome to lower floor, dome to be finished open overhead through to light in top, with proper cornice and plastering; on one side of main hall to be a hall seven feet wide the whole width of said edifice; one room for council chamber thirty feet square with gallery on one side seven feet wide circular supported on two columns with seats elevated, and stairs to ascend into gallery, under gallery to be a railing on line with columns or breastworks; to be one room thirty by twenty feet on the other side of hall; to be hall twen- ty-eight feet long, ten feet wide, and a representative chamber forty by thirty-eight feet, finished same as council chamber; the plastering on this floor to be three coat work, the rooms to be all corniced; the council and representative chambers to be fin- ished with an elipsis spring in the corner over head so as to form a pannel of the level part of ceiling; to be twelve inside doors, all of which are to be made of pine two inches thick in modern style, the two outside doors to be double, three inches thick, fin- ished with egg and dart moulding, and suitable fastenings and hangings as directed by the acting commissioner; all the doors to be cased with pilasters; all the windows to be cased with pil- asters, with pannel jams and backs, to the floor; to be counter check sash, hung with weights, glass of best quality; all the wood work except shingles and floor to be painted outside and in, three coats as directed by the acting commissioner. * * Said edifice to be completed according to said plan and specifi- cation, in every particular, by the 20th of September, 1839. The outside of said edifice and the rooms on the first floor to be completed by the 15th day of October next.
" J. D. DOTY, JOHN F. O'NEIL, A. A. BIRD, Commissioners. "February 20, 1838."
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In reply to the proposals for said work, bids were received ranging from $24,450 to $125,000, and the contract was award- ed to JAS. MORRISON for $26,200, April 17, 1838. By an act of Congress, approved June 18, 1838, the further sum of $20,000 was appropriated for finishing the work.
At the session of the Legislature, in 1839, a joint convention of the two houses was held on March 8, and N. C. PRENTISS, JAS. L. THAYER and L. H. COTTON were duly chosen Commis- sioners of Public Buildings to succeed those in office. The work on the capitol was continued by Mr. MORRISON, until April, 1841, at which time the work was unfinished. Mr. PRENTISS, as Building Commissioner, for and on the part of the Territory of Wisconsin, entered into a written contract with DANIEL BAXTER, by the terms of which he was required to finish the work as specified in said contract, for the sum of $7,000, to be completed on or before December 1, 1845. It is not necessary to give further details of the history of the erec- tion of the capitol building. Much contention arose between the first Board of Commissioners and their successors, as well as the contractors Messrs. MORRISON and BAXTER and the Ter- ritorial Legislatures. Mr. BAXTER died a few years since, leav- ing an unsettled claim against the State for alleged damages.
Hon. M. M. STRONG, in his address, says: "The history of the early measures taken to secure the erection of a building in which to hold the sessions of the Territorial Legislature, is a history of peculation with the appropriations made for that purpose, as disgraceful to those concerned in it, as it was destructive of the manifest intentions of Congress. These appropriations amounted to $40,000. The Commissioners elected in 1836, Messrs. DOTY, O'NEILL and BIRD, received. this large sum of money, and according to the report of the joint committee, made to the Legislative Assembly on the 3d of January. 1840, they had expended less than half that sum upon the public buildings. They entered into a secret partner- ship with the contractor in merchandize and other outside speculations, and, in the language of the report, 'had done little more than erect a shell of a capitol, which is scarcely
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capable of sustaining its own weight, and which, unless it is speedily secured by extensive repairs, must become a heap of ruins.' All steps were taken which could be to recover by law from the first Board of Commissioners and from the con- tractor, the funds which they had misapplied, and, after several years of litigation, the suits were settled by authority of a sub- sequent Legislature."
To the first building erected by EBEN PECK, reference has heretofore been made, and Mrs. PECK has given an account of its internal arrangements. The buildings were of logs, and put up on block 107, and was for about a year the only public house in Madison. After Mr. PECK vacated it, he was succeeded by ROBERT L. REAM in the spring of 1838, and the building was known as the Madison House. In it Miss VINNIE REAM, the artist, was born. The building was demolished in 1857. It had a notable history the twenty years of its existence.
The American Hotel was erected by JAS. MORRISON and A. A. BIRD, on the corner of Pinckney street and Washington avenue, and was built in 1838. Mr. LEVI P. DRAKE, late City Surveyor, was a workman on it. It was kept by FAKE & COT- TON, 1838-41, by JAMES MORRISON, with numerous successive landlords. The avenue wing of the building was originally a store located on King street, and moved thence. The Pinck- ney street, or northwest wing was added about 1851. The building was destroyed by fire September 5, 1868. The ground upon which it was located was for a number of years in litiga- tion. It was sold a few years since, and the beautiful building known as the Park Savings Bank erected. Few buildings in Madison were as well known as the "Old American."
The following private history of the " Madison Hotel," an- other of the early public houses, has been handed us:
" In the winter and spring of 1838, the " Madison Hotel " was built, and kept the first year by CHARLES H. BIRD, now of Sun Prairie. The original building was a small, unpretending structure, to which additions were continually made until it covered considerable ground. On the first of June, 1838, the first session of the Territorial Supreme Court met and organ-
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GEN. SIMEON MILLS.
COL. A. A. BIRD.
JONES, Photo.
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ized in the House, Hon. CHAS. DUNN of La Fayette county, Chief Justice. In December of the same year, the Territorial Legislature convened, and the now venerable Gov. DODGE and the leading members of that body took rooms at the Madison Hotel. CHAS. H. BIRD was succeeded by W. W. WYMAN, late of Nebraska Territory, and after him A. A. BIRD, the proprietor, took the hotel and kept it about four years. During this period of time, powerful efforts were made, at each session of the Legislature, to remove the capital from Madison, and it was at this hotel the friends of Madison made their head- quarters, BIRD standing the expense of looking after the waver- ing members, and chief in concocting schemes to defeat the removal. Any friend of Madison from abroad, could obtain from BIRD board, champagne, and his last cent or unlimited credit, and his only hope of remuneration was to exhaust the resources of the enemy and ruin his credit.
" BIRD was succeeded by JESSE A. CLARK, now deceased, who purchased the property, and after keeping the house a short time, leased it to a Mr. QUIVEY, who built an addition; and again, after him, his lessor, CLARK, kept the house until the 31st of December, 1845, when he sold to CHESTER BUSHNELL, late of Minnesota, and WM. WELCH, of this city. BUSHNELL sold to J. D. WELCH, who, with his brother, kept the house some time, when W. WELCH leased his interest to H. W. YAGER, now deceased. Soon after P. H. VAN BERGEN pur- chased J. D. WELCH's interest, and with the other WELCH kept the house until 1848, when it was leased for one year to CHAS. WEED, now deceased, and he was succeeded by WM. VAN BERGEN, also now deceased, the brother of P. H. VAN BER- GEN. VAN BERGEN kept the house until 1849, when P. H. again took the property, and finally, in 1853, in October, pur- chased the half interest of W. WELCH and became sole pro- prietor. He soon after sold to B. F. PERRY, and since that time it has been occupied by numerous tenants. A gentleman by the name of SLATER changed the name of the hotel to that of his own; and then, again, it was occupied by a gentleman of the name of OSBORN, who gave his own cognomen to the 6
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