USA > Wisconsin > Jefferson County > Lake Mills > A reminiscent history of the village and town of Lake Mills, Jefferson County : embraced in a period of ten years, from 1837 to 1847, and while Wisconsin was a territory > Part 5
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I well remember the family of Gen. Henry Dodge, stopping at our house at different times, including the sons, Augustus, Heury and the daughter, Virginia, a beautiful girl fresh in her teens. It was a great event to me to listen to the recital of
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early times as all were gathered of an evening around a blazing fire of oak, which stretched nearly across one end of the log house, although oftentimes my room was considered better than my company, and I was sent up the ladder to bed.
There was also a stage route, and there was a relay of horses at our place. Gen. Simeon Mills, of Madison, had one of the first contracts for carrying mail between Madison and Mil- waukee, and extra horses for his ronte were cared for in our log stable. Leaving Madison in the morning the stage stopped at our house and changed horses and got dinner, and, in return- ing from Milwaukee, the distance was so calculated as to do the same thing again. For several years after our settlement at Lake Mills, my father declined to receive a cent for the enter- tainment of travelers, but after awhile he got tired of this, and we used to charge twenty-five cents for dinner.
I remember one, a foot traveler, came to our log house and applied to my father for entertainment over night. It was granted. He had supper, lodging and breakfast, and when he came to leave he asked my father what his bill was, and my father answered, "Not anything." Ile said he was much obliged. During the evening he had related the circumstance of finding a small package on the road containing about a half a pound of shot. and I was hoping that there would be some turn in the tide of affairs that would give me the shot, and when my father gave him his keep over night I thought he might have given me the few shot, which, perhaps, were worth five cents, but he failed to do so, and the last I saw of this gen- erous traveler was as he disappeared through the oak openings on his tramp to Madison.
At this early time a custom prevailed which has long since been abolished. It was when the shoemaker came to the house with his kit of tools in the fall of the year, and stayed as one of the family until he had made up boots and shoes for all of those in need of them. My father thought this the most eco- nomical way of supplying his family with these needed articles. Benjamin Baldwin, of Aztalan, afterwards quite a prominent settler, was the shoemaker who sat upon his bench and ham- mered his last in our log house. My father furnished the stock. and Baldwin worked by the day.
The name of Roswell Pickett was very familiar to the old set-
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tlers. He was a capitalist and came west as one of the earliest to enter government lands, and if he found a settler who did not have money enough to purchase his quarter section of land, which required $200, Mr. Pickett would make the entry in his own name, and give the settler back a contract that on receipt of $400 in four years he would convey the land to the settler. Very many availed themselves of this arrangement as it was the best that could be done, thereby saving their land for them, and giving them four years time to do it in. The records of the land office at Milwaukee and the register's office in this county will show that Mr. Pickett purchased more land than any other person in this section of the territory.
: In the spring of '38, not being possessed of a breaking plow, we spaded up quite a patch of ground and planted a garden, which was a great help to us. A little later in the season my father procured oxen and a plow from some neighbors, and broke up some of the rich sod towards the low ground and planted potatoes. Of course we did not get a very large crop from the first planting in the new ground, still they turned out reasonably well. In the fall as my brother Oliver, Abel and myself were digging these potatoes, we saw a flock of seven wild geese fly over the lake and settle down into a pond of water about half way to the Tyler place. Abe said if we boys would work right lively, he would take the rifle and go through the oak openings, and see if he could not shoot a goose. We readily acquiesced and he started out. In a little while we heard the report of the gun, and saw five geese flying back to the lake. We could not realize that he had killed two geese at one shot with the rifle, but such was the fact. Soon he called to us from the oaks, and we went to the pond and fished out the geese.
In the early history of the mills the pond was full to the top of the dam, and created quite a large overflow of water extend- ing over the marshes north and south of the dam: These marshes were full of ducks and geese, and fish in their season. affording fine spearing for fish from a boat, and fine shooting of dueks and geese. The muskrat was also there in force, and I devoted a good deal of my time to him, as a muskrat skin was worth six pence, which to me in those days was a good deal of money. I caught them in traps and speared them through their
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houses during the icy time, and shot them from the shore in the early evening when they were on the swim. In those days times were hard and money scarce, and every boy was expected to do something for himself. I was a trapper of wolves and foxes, and was quite successful. A fox skin brought a dollar and a wolf's half that money.
The earliest plan we had for catching fish was in the con- struction of a dam across the stream with the water flowing over into a large rack made of bass wood bark. The pickerel and suckers ran out of the lake in the night time, the flow of the water carrying them over the dam and into the rack, the water dropping through and leaving the fish high and dry. All we had to do in the morning was to go down and pick them up in baskets full.
At that time it was no uncommon thing to see many kinds of game such as wolves, deer and foxes within range of vision from our log house. While hunting at one time my brother Abe captured a young fawn. It was brought home, and very soon became very tame and thoroughly domesticated, and he stayed with us until he became a large animal of his kind, with wide spreading horns. We kept upon his neck a red band to distinguish him from his kind, but one day poor Dick started away, (and he had become a great rambler), down towards the Crawfish, just beyond the farm now known as Earl's, and some one took advantage of his confidence and shot him. We felt very indignant, but this would not bring Dick back to us.
Ile was very mischievous and at times quite ngly. It was al- most impossible to keep him out of the house, as the latch string to open the door from the outside was within reach of his month. and he would get a good hold of the string, raise the bar, and walk into the house and help himself to anything he could find. In the summer time, if the window was raised. he would jump through on to the floor, if there were no other means of ingress within his reach. I remember one time I was husking corn in the field, and sitting down by a shock. Dick was my companion, and seemed to be enjoying himself in his own way, and minding his own business. All at once he ap- proached and made a springing jump on top of me, and one of his forelegs found its way down my back inside of my shirt from my neck, tearing open the collar, and leaving a stripe
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upon my back, which the boys said looked very much like a zebra's.
In '44 Lake Mills received quite an accession in the person of Col. Thos. J. Carmichael, an educated and accomplished Scotch- man, who selected a location at the head of the lake, and stocked it quite largely with sheep, intending to make a sheep farm of the place, and to test the question whether sheep rais- ing and wool growing would prove to be profitable. He was very liberal and enterprising in everything tending to the growth and prosperity of the village. He contributed to the purchase of the band instruments, and one of its first tunes was played in his honor, but his career suddenly came to an end, as he was most unfortunately killed in an accident in the winter of '48.
In one of the earliest years of our settlement here on one sunny afternoon in the month of May, 1840, we noticed a stal- wart stranger emerging from the oak openings, coming towards the house upon the marsh road. His coming had been an- nounced by the barking of the watch dog. He seemd to be feel- ing his way along very carefully, and gazing forward with ap- parent interest which denoted him to be unfamiliar with the neighborhood. He finally reached our log house and asked for accommodation, and wanted to know what prospect there was for finding work. He made his home with us for a while, and then secured land north of the village upon which he made his home. Being a bachelor, he was anxious to find a wife, and his efforts in that direction were warmly seconded by the numerous friends and acquaintances he had made. In Oakland he sought his fate, and there secured his bride in 1843. On his return with her after the wedding, passing by the mill in his winter rig with its jingling bells, he was cheered by us all to the echo. The name of the person I here describe is Alansan Farmer. He was the first one of our young bachelors to wed, and at that time they were quite numerons. He is still a living representa- tive of the early pioneers.
I cannot forbear calling attention to a prominent character, who was well known. revered and loved by the early settlers. I refer to Aunt Zilpah Brown, wife of the proprietor of Brown's mills, which was so long in construction upon this stream, away down towards Milford. She was a good mother in Israel, and
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she was the nurse, comforter and friend to all of her sex who were sick. If the truth should be told, she was the first to take in arms many of the early born of Lake Mills and vicinity.
. The first child born in Lake Mills was a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. George Farmer in '39, and though living miles away Aunt Zilpah was present at its birth. After rounding out many years, and with a crown of glory resting upon her, Aunt Zilpah, the beloved of all the old settlers and their families, was gathered to her rest.
In 1847-48 the telegraph line was constructed between Mil- waukee and Madison by the way of Whitewater, Janesville, Fort Atkinson, Jefferson and Lake Mills. It touched all these places with a view to receiving aid from the settlers in its build- ing. It was thought that the telegraph would add very much to the importance of our village, and with that in view not a little aid was furnished, but after all it did not add much to our prestige.
. I will mention the fact that in '39 a steamboat was built and launched at Aztalan under the manipulation of Nelson P. Hawks. It was claimed then that AAztalan would be the head of navigation upon the Rock river and its branches, and great advantages to the place was thought would follow the enter- prise. The launching of the boat was a great event and called forth a large concourse of settlers, all watching with eager anxi- ety the moment when the boat should start for the placid sur- face of the Crawfish. When all was ready Sam. C. Rice, a me- chanie who had previously worked for my father, struck the blow which unloosened the fastenings, and the boat slid gently and gracefully into the water amid the lond huzzas of the strong-voiced men and women present. With great difficulty the boat was floated down the Crawfish into the Rock and into the Mississippi, but its passage demonstrated the fact that the Rock and its tributaries were better adapted to be dammed for mill purposes than to be kept for the use of steamboat naviga- tion. The boat was christened the N. P. Hawks, and nover re- turned to its original moorings at Aztalan. . Its name after- wards was changed to the Enterprise, and after a short and pre- various existence, it succumbed to the elements.
After the saw mill was finished and put in running order, it was kept at work night and day with relays of hands. It was
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not long before I had learned its control, and minus the heavy lifting I could manufacture lumber in good style. Commenc- ing first to manage the mill when the men were at meals, many thousand feet of lumber were turned out of the mill under my manipulation. On completion of the grist mill (and I will re- mark here that in those days a mill was called a grist mill be- cause it was a place where the farmers brought their grist to be ground, and such a business as manufacturing flour largely for other markets was then unknown) I was transferred to the occupation of miller for a short time. Very soon after the com- pletion of the grist mill negotiations for the sale of the whole property were entered into by my father with Miles Millard, and a bargain was soon consummated. All the members of the family, except my father, opposed the sale. We wanted to let well enough alone. We understood the business then in hand, but my father, who was a restless man, fond of change and who always had his own way, argued that it would be so much bet- ter for us all to retire to the land which he would reserve, now constituting the Phillips' place, and start a splendid farm. . We did so and in the spring off '43 we left the log house and the mills, the scene of so much labor and anxiety to us all, and moved on to the land out of which we were to make a farm. My father built a small house for temporary use, and imme- diately commenced the construction of the main house and barn, and in the fall of that year we moved into the new house. That summer in the little house across the road from the main residence, my sister Emily was born, and later in the season my grandfather. Abel Keyes, a man of seventy years and over, was stricken with chills and fever, and yielded up his life.
In the early spring following, quite extensive preparations were being made for a double wedding, which was to be cele- brated on May 1st, 1844, and which occurred at that time. My brother. Abel, and Miss Mary Cutler, and my sister, Katharine, and George Hyer, of Madison, were the contracting parties. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. O. P. Clinton, Congre- gational clergyman and missionary. On that 1st day of May, over fifty years ago, which was ushered in with a clear sky and a bright and shining sun, a large company of friends and neigh- bors assembled to witness the ceremony, which took place at. twelve o'clock noon. For several days previous thereto, the
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best cooks in the neighborhood were engaged in the preparation of the mammoth loaves of wedding cake and the supplies for the wedding dinner. This double wedding at that period was con- sidered a great event, and was generally attended. The event was signalized by a party arriving from Madison, consisting of Philo Dunning, Darwin Clark, Seth Van Bergen and others, ac- companied with ladies. They came in one of Frink & Walker's four-horse stage coaches, and it was thought that they came in grand style. The trip was made by the way of Sun Prairie and Hanchetville, the road through Deerfield being the poorer one, and besides having in its line too much corduroy over the marshes. After the ceremony, the wedding dinner, and a look about the village, a ball was held in the evening at the Lake Mills house, which lasted until the light of the next morning shone upon the earth, after which the Madison party started for home. A half a century has moved the world since that wed- ding morn when the Madison stage coach, with its joyous party, swept around the head of the lake, down the hill on Madison street, and turned the corner with a sweeping curve to Bartlett's tavern, where upon its broad piazza its passengers were un- loaded. The villagers were there in goodly numbers to welcome its arrival. From out of the stage coach stepped Philo (Dun- ning), and Darwin (Clark), and Seth (Van Bergen), the three youngest of the Madison boys, and they were noble specimens of young manhood, inspired with health, and hope, and happi- ness, and with that energy and courage which characterized the early pioneers, enabling them to turn aside, as occasion pre- sented, from the sober realities of pioneer life to enjoy the fun and frolie of the wedding days of their friends and associates thirty miles away.
I can see them now as I saw them then, and their joyous voices seem to be yet ringing in my ears. I see them today but they are old boys now, and, although time's busy fingers have made their impress upon them, still their hearts are young, and when talking of this wedding of the long ago, those days seem to come back and with smiles and hearty laughter they are boys again.
And now one word of the boys, then known as Philo, Darwin and Seth. God has been good to them, in that long span of life. Few of the old pioneers have been so highly favored. Their
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retrospect of early and later days cannot fail to afford them peace and contentment. A talk with them would recall many incidents of that occasion, which I have not time here to repeat. They would tell you how the stage coach became stuck in the mud; how it had to be pryed out with rails, and how the young ladies were carried to a place of safety while this work was go- ing on. While there may be quite a difference in the conduct of a wedding occurring fifty years ago, and a similar event at the present time, still I imagine that all, old and young, en- joyed such an event then, with greater satisfaction, than those occurring now are enjoyed.
Having become domiciled upon the farm, we started out for its improvement. Land was broken for cultivation, and in the winter tamaraek poles were procured from across the lake to fence it. Very soon after my father became tired of farming, and he left the farm in charge of myself and mother, and brother Oliver, while he and my brother Abel went to the Kosh- konong, in Dane county, and indulged in their favorite work of mills and village building, settling at a point on the Kosh- konong afterwards named Cambridge, where they built mills and started the village. Tiring of that venture after several years of experience in it, my father turned his thoughts back to Lake Mills, and proposed to sell the farm and move to the Fox river country. A long and earnest protest by my mother and myself was entered against selling the homestead. It had become very dear to us; we had farmed it quite extensively; we had it in a good state of cultivation for those days; it was well stocked; the orchard was just coming into bearing fruit, and my mother had been quite successful in butter and cheese mak- ing. and although the work was hard still we were all happy and contented. It was then the ambition of my life to become a farmer. I had no wish or thought of anything different, and as my father had always promised that the farm should eventu- ally be mine. It was gratified in contemplation of such ownership, but it had to go; and in '49 it was sold to the Philips' brothers. Possession was given to the family and we moved to Menasha The sale of the farm destroyed all my hopes and aspirations for a farmer's life, and in 550 I turned my footsteps toward Madison, where I have resided ever since.
A roll call of the first settlers of Lake Mills would awaken
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but few responses. Not one of the old original pioneers, who brought their families to this place, is left, and few of their de- scendants are to be found within the borders of this township. Most of the latter, moved by that spirit which animated their sires, have continued the westward march, and now are scat- tered throughout the newer states of the union. The ravages of time have removed all of the heads of families I have men- tioned, and the grim reaper has also been busy with the chil- dren. How many are there in this large audience who were children living here during the six years between '37 and 43. You know but little of those who were here before you. A half century has obliterated nearly all knowledge of them. The sur- viving children of the first settlers are now men of three score years and more, and of this narrow class no one other than my- self, with memory illumined, could draw aside the curtain and present the picture as given you, with the earliest views of scenes and incidents occurring here long before most of you were born.
A few words about the Keyes family, the first settlers here, and I have done. In 1836 my father, Joseph Keyes, as I have stated, made claim to the beautiful land surrounding you. He was the first white man to assert ownership of the lake and land about you in opposition to the Indian. Abel Keyes, his father, my gradfather, and my oldest brother. Simon S., came from Vermont soon after, and were among the earliest settlers. The two latter are now sleeping in yonder cemetery. The sur- viving children of Joseph and Olive Keyes, my parents, are AAbel, Oliver, myself and sister, Emily, now Mrs. H. D. Fisher. My father was a man of great conrage and tremendous energy. The obstacles in his pathway were overcome with a force in- vincible. He belonged to that class of pioneers who were strong and hopeful in their noble manhood, the founders of a great state, the landmarks of its mighty progress: the impress of their works shall last forever.
In paying a heartfelt tribute to the memory of my mother. I will include the wives of all the old settlers. With an abid- ing faith, with a conrage that never faltered, inspired by the fortitude of a true Christian, they were fit to be ordained of God as the life companions of the old pioneers. In sickness and
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in health, in sunshine and in storm, fulfilling every obligation, they stood forth among the noblest of their sex.
Joseph and Olive Keyes, the founders of Lake Mills, have years since passed to their reward. They are laid to rest near Lake Winnebago within sound of the rushing waters of Fox river, and, as the water flows on, it will sing a requiem to their memory as long as time shall last.
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