USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 10
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"Two men were required with the breaking team; one with a long whip and a vocabulary to drive, the other to hold the plow and sup- plement the vocabulary. Various sizes of breaking plows were used, probably the most common cutting about 22 to 24 inches of furrow. Occasionally wider plows were used.
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"We all wore boots in those days, with trousers tucked into the uppers. We never could have got around with such heavy dews, and wear shoes. Even the boot tops were not tall enough sometimes.
"If breaking was done early enough, sometimes a erop of sod corn was attempted. In every third or fourth furrow a gash was cut in the sod with an ax, a few kernels of squaw corn were dropped in and the gash closed by a blow with the side of the ax. No cultivation was given, except cutting the poplar or oak sprouts. The weeds were not plentiful enough to cause trouble. If there was rain enough through the season, we got some corn; if it was dry, we had no trouble to gather the erop.
THE TOOLE FARM
"During the winter of 1864-'65, our family moved to a farm which was purchased from John Barringer, located on section 26, Excelsior. This was in Hubbard's valley, a couple of miles from Hackett's Corners, which afterwards become North Freedom. Baraboo was our postoffice town, until after the railroad was made.
"There are so many things of interest which might be written about . it that it is difficult to decide what to consider first. There were crops and methods, road to market and for intercourse with cach other, social events, and schools. Condensation will be necessary and much must be left out. Earning our living was important in those days, and we had but a limited variety of marketable crops and produce. Wheat was our principal crop, dairying was in embryo, hogs were our principal live stock, and beef cattle, while bringing a low price, yet were more important than those for dairying.
VARIETIES OF WHEAT
"Spring sown varieties of wheat were most commonly grown. A favorite variety was club wheat-a white variety supposed to have some winter wheat qualities. Winter wheat flour was thought to be of better quality than that made from spring wheat. With the change to roller mill plan of making flour, there was a change in the estimates of values, and hard wheat began to be preferred. Before the complete change of preference, amber wheats began to take a lead over the white wheats. Club wheat was a variety without beards, as was also Scotch fife and some others.
THE CHINCH BUG PEST
"The greatest objection to club wheat was the preference of chinch bugs for it. Of course chinch bugs did not starve themselves through
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disdain of second choice. Later, some of the bearded varieties proved to be more robust growers and were generally sown. The Rio Grande was a leader among the bearded wheats. The chinch bugs were a great scourge in those days. Their first choice was for wheat and barley, and next oats. They seldom bred in rye or the meadow grasses. After the small grains had been ruined by them, they marched into nearby corn fields and sometimes injured the meadows.
"They were a small flying insect, about one-fifth of an inch long, with dark bodies and transparent wings, crossing each other on the back, which gave them a slightly checkered appearance. They were winged only in the adult stage. They had a disagreeable smell, which was said to resemble the odor of bed bugs. Whole fields of grain were often completely ruined by having the sap sucked from the plants. The grain would crinkle down and dry so that the fields could be burned over.
"To save the corn, or other fields in which they were advancing, after they had been hatched in and destroyed other grain, we used to plow dust furrows and drag logs along to crush them into the dust. Sometimes straw was spread and burned. When we learned more about them we theorized that there must be no weeds or rubbish for them to win- ter over in, but finally they disappeared. Probably some disease destroyed them. Oats, of course, we grew for our stock, but there was little local demand and none was sent to the general market.
PIONEER IMPLEMENTS
"In the spring the ground which had been broken the year before was thoroughly harrowed and roots and brush burned. Then the grain was sowed broadcast by hand, generally one and one-half bushels of wheat to the acre. Grain drills were not in fashion then, because we could not afford them. Later the broadcast seeders came to general use, because they were cheaper than grain drills, and to some farmers who had been accustomed to scatter grains, it seemed as if the drill put the grains in too far apart.
"After one crop had been raised on the new land, the sod was some- times backset, but generally eross-plowed. This was heavy work, with such a mass of woody roots in the soil. By that time the smaller roots were decayed enough to be broken with the working and did not give much trouble.
"Nearly all of the harrows were of one pattern, shaped like a letter A with a center piece extending forward from the eross piece. All were of wood, with teeth of three-quarter-inch iron, set without any slant. The average number of teeth was about seventeen to the harrow or drag. A few harrows were made with two side arms. This pattern gave room for more teeth, thus being more effective. Some of this pattern were hinged lengthwise in the eenter.
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SPINNING WHEELS FOR WOOL AND FLAX
PIONEER FRYING PAN.
BED WARMING PAN AND TIN LANTERN.
1
S
FOOT WARMER.
(Courtesy of S. ['. Orth.)
OLD. TIME HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS.
PIONEER NECESSITIES
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"Later was introduced a square harrow, drawn from one corner. This pattern would bound over tough ground and was soon discarded for a double square, connected with hinges. Next was the present style of two or more sections, each drawing independent from a drawbar. This pattern came into use in the early '70s, and about the same time was introduced the slanting teeth, and the practice of harrowing or dragging corn when it was coming up. The diameter of the teeth was also reduced to five-eighths-inch size. About the same time, or soon after- ward, the iron frame harrow was put on the market.
"To tell of the development of farm implements during the twenty- five years following the Civil war would be a long and interesting story. We can only occasionally touch on some of them at various stages of this account.
"We practiced fall-plowing of course, and the old-fashioned harrow was a poor implement to prepare such ground for broadcast sowing. Some had drags made with hooked teeth to stir up the ground in advance of sowing. The broadcast seeders, when they came into use, were liked, because they could be used to stir tongh soil, where the drill would not be effective.
SOWING BY HAND
"On spring-plowed fields it was heavy traveling, for the man who carried grain and sowed by hand. Of course it was heavy work, even traveling over fall-plowed ground, with the grain hung over the shoul- ders, and the steady swing of the right arm throwing the grain as the right foot advanced and dipping the hand into the bag for another'east of grain as the left foot advanced.
"We sowed in straight lines, advancing toward stakes set at each end and the middle of the field. . The stakes were moved sideways six paces. With this plan the throw in one direction was across what had been sown the previous casting. If the grain was not well spread, the growth would show in stripes lengthwise of the sowing. A side wind would also cause striped sowing. I used to overcome this difficulty by always swinging the arm in one direction to the side with the wind. using the right arm going one way, and the left arm the other.
FIRST MACHINE MOWING
"For the first few years our grain was all ent with the eradle, and the grass with the old-fashioned scythe. If there was a reaper or mower anywhere in Excelsior or joining towns previous to '65 or '66, I did not know of it. Our first machine mowing was done by a neighbor who had purchased a Manny reaper. Removing the platform, and putting in a smooth sickle, changed the reaper to a mower. Plenty of good
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standing grass was left where the machine cut across the depressions. But I must get back to the grain fields.
"We had neighbors who had knowledge of farming in England, where they still used a sickle, and we congratulated ourselves that Yankee ingenuity had given us the eradle. In standing grain a good workman could cut three acres of grain in a day, but he would scarcely average that amount. One would hear of unbelievable quantities of grain cut by some men, especially with oats, which were easier to cut than wheat. The grain was laid very neatly in the swath by some men, and very roughly by others, then it was raked in bundles and bound by hand. A smart binder could keep up with a good eradler, sometimes.
STACKING THE GRAIN
"On new land special care was exercised by the binders to prevent hard roots of brush being bound up, because such caused trouble in the threshing machine. Each man learned to do his own stacking, but I found that in Illinois, at least in Pike county, the work was done by professional stackers.
"We had an experience at an early day in changing work with one who threshed from the field. We left our stacking to help a neighbor, receiving a promise that work would be given back right away. A rain following, hindered our stacking; the promised help was not given. We established a rule for ourselves to never leave our grain in the field to do another man's threshing, and we have always stacked our grain.
"The summer of 1859 was very dry, with frost every month. Crops were light and there was no meadow on the farm. This was the ease on many other farms. We got a chance to eut slough grass on shares, which gave us some hay which seemed good to us, but the stock in the winter seemed to have as good an opinion of good oat straw for a steady diet.
CHANGE IN THRESHING MACHINES
"The fall was a time when there was a change made in threshing machines. Some had straw carriers and some had not. The kind which was passing out of fashion delivered straw and chaff on the ground together. Oat chaff had been considered a choice feed by some farmers, and it was put into rail pens to be fed out separately. They did not take kindly to the arrangement of the chaff being mixed with the straw. The advantage of having chaff and straw all elevated was so great that the machine without a carrier soon became obsolete.
"The bands were always eut with a knife and all feeding was done by hand, so the feeder was in danger of being hit with grubs-wooden ones-which had been bound in the bundles, and of having his hands cut, through his own recklessness and the carelessness of the bandeutter.
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HORSES AS POWER
"The threshing machines were run by horse power, varying from eight to twelve horses on the power. The horse powers were hung under the trucks and let down to the ground when in use, being held down with chains and stakes; later the horse powers were kept on the trucks of a different pattern.
"During wet weather the tramping of horses that were hauling the 'sweeps' to make the power, mixed the mud in the circular traek until the horses could hardly go round. With the eight-horse power the farm furnished one team; with the larger powers the farms fur- nished more teams. To the farm team this unusual work was very severe, especially with a hard driver. We were required to furnish a supply of grease for the horse powers, and if no power grease was to be had we were obliged to furnish good lard.
"The first traction which furnished power on our place, about 1879 was guided on the road by horses. Many farmers held off threshing until after the fall rains, because the wheat and oat straw were their main dependenee for stock feed in winter.
MORE ABOUT REAPERS AND MOWERS
"Perhaps a little more should be said about the reapers and mowers. The first reapers in the neighborhood were of the style to have the bundles raked off by hand. With one kind, the bundle man stood or sat with his back to the driver and reached sideways with a fork designed for the purpose, and seraped the grain from the platform.
"Another style had the bundle man stand on the rear edge of the platform, and facing the grain. He shoved the grain sideways to drop behind the driver. Many unsatisfactory self-raking plans were invented.
"In the meantime, the dropper was invented and very generally used for a few years. The grain was caught on wooden fingers, or slats, behind the cutter bar, and when the driver thought enough grain had accumulated on the receiving slats he released a foot trip, letting the rear ends down and the grain slipped to the ground. The team and machine could not do any more cutting, after one round was made, until what was down was bound and thrown aside.
"Finally, the Johnson rake was invented and adopted by all the machines, thus displacing the dropper. This style of rake dispensed with the reel and instead had revolving arms with wooden teeth, which did the work of the reel in pressing the grain toward the cutters and an arm 'was dropped at the will of the driver to swing off the bundle of grain.
Vol. 1-6
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THE HARVESTER APPEARS
"During that time, another class of machine, called the harvester, came into fashion and was much used farther west and some in these parts. The Marsh harvester was the forerunner of the class and they were directly in advance of the twine binders. The harvester elevated the grain to a stand, where two men, riding on the machine, bound the bundles.
"Our first machine was a combined reaper and mower. This had two drive wheels and was adjustable for grass cutting, and did as good mowing as any. The machine was bought in 1868, and cost $217. The first binders cost about $300. Farm machinery was expensive in those days, and high priees were part of the contentions of the Grangers, who did some good work in regulating costs of implements.
"The first grain binder was the Walter A. Wood machine, and used wire, instead of twine. Wire binding material was dangerous in the straw stack, for stock feeding, and a nuisance in the barnyard or meadow. This binding material was abandoned, as soon as twine came into use.
IMPROVED HAYING MACHINES
"By the time mowing machines came into general use, we were raising lots of hay, both timothy and elover. For a number of years the hay rakes were made of wood. A headpiece of maple, about six feet long, was filled with a lot of fingers or teeth, which passed through the head and were pointed at each end. This head was held with a frame work, to which the horse was attached.
"The rake was pulled to slide along over the ground, and when a sufficient amount of hay had been gathered against the frame the operator walking behind gave the rear of the frame an upward lift, eausing the fingers to catch in the ground and revolve the head, passing the whole machine over the hay and bringing the other points forward. On rough ground, or in tangled grass, the wooden fingers were often broken.
"Conservative farmers did not like to change to the spring toothed rakes, because they gathered more dirt and rubbish than did the old revolving rake. Our first spring toothed wheel rake cost more than $50. Money at 10 per cent interest was hard to get. The bankers and farmers were not so chummy in those days, as they are today.
EARLY VARIETIES OF CORN
"Next to wheat, our most important crop, in the early sixties, was Indian eorn. In feeding value. it was the basis of our developing live
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stock industry, but to us corn in the general market had but little value and there was almost no demand for it. This we learned to our disap- pointment during the winter following the growing season of 1859. That summer the season was dry, with frost every month and a killing one on the night of August 29th.
"Our neighbors generally grew 'Yankee corn'-that was the then prevalent name for the flint varieties. This class, on the average, was earlier than the dent varieties, and there was a general notion that the climate would change all varieties to flint, or Yankee class, in time. When winter came there was more money needed than was to be had from the wheat grown, so it seemed as if corn would be the next available eash-producer.
"In the East, all corn was shelled which was offered in the market, so we spent a number of evenings by the flicker of the stove light and the dim luster of a lard-burning lamp, shelling corn, until we had about twenty bushels ready for market. The usual plan of shelling corn was to push off the grains with a piece of cob. This was tiresome work on the smooth grains of not very dry corn.
"Later we learned to use the spade as a eorn sheller. The spade was placed back-up over the edge of a washtub, with the tip of the handle resting on the floor. The operator seated on the spade scraped the grain off against the edge of it. When the eorn was ready for market, father took it with the ox team to Reedsburg. No one wanted shelled eorn. They said it would not keep that way, but at one store they would give store pay for a little on the ear. at eighteen cents per bushel."
EARLY INDUSTRIES
By Mrs. L. H. Palmer
"There was something very alluring to the first exploring homeseeker, as he followed the old Indian trails across the lovely prairies, over the beautiful bluffs, along the numerous streams with their prospects of un- limited waterpower, and through the gorges that were lined with splendid groves of fine timber that could be converted into lumber with comparatively little trouble and expense. The most of those 'who came . and saw' stayed to conquer the many difficulties incident to pioneer life, nor were they disappointed.
"Sauk county has fulfilled the best hopes of her early settlers, as with varied soils, altitudes, splendid waterpower, fine timber and good climate she has bountifully repaid the efforts of those who settled within her borders.
"Agriculture, dairying, and fruit growing have been leading indus- tries from the time of the first settlement. Grains and fruit of all
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kinds that are adapted to a north temperate elimate ean be produced in great abundance. Good beef and mutton are produced on our hill- side pastures, and the butter and cheese have taken first prizes when placed in competition with the dairy products of other states. N. W. Morley won first prize at the National Dairymen's Fair in New York in 1879, also the sweepstakes and a first prize offered by the Higgins Salt Company.
"Sauk eounty was the banner hop growing section of the state and almost of the whole Northwest in the ' '60's.' There was probably more money made and lost by those engaged in the business than has ever been handled from any other product of the soil.
WILD HONEY AND GINSENG
"There are two products I wish to mention, because they are a little out of the ordinary business. These are wild honey and ginseng. The woods abounded in both and many a family were enabled to supply themselves with many home comforts from the money obtained from gathering and selling these wild produets of the woods. Mr. Jassop of Ironton earned the money to pay the government price of forty aeres of land by gathering wild honey and peddling it around in the adjoining towns. A widow woman gathered wild ginseng root enough, and sold for a dollar a pound, to pay off a mortgage on her home.
EARLY SAWMILLS
"Necessity is the mother of invention, also the lever that starts the wheels of progress moving, and as the first and greatest needs of our pioneers were lumber and flour, they grasped the opportunity offered by the Baraboo river and began to erect mills for sawing lumber and making flour.
"Abe Wood, the first white man to build a cabin in Baraboo, was also the first to build a dam across the river .. He and his partner, John Rowin, ereeted a sawmill in 1840. Matson and Van Slyke commenced one about the same time. Draper helped Mr. Wood and became a partner, for a short time, selling his interest in 1842 to Levi Moore, Moses Nulph, and Henry Perry. In 1844 a flood washed out a part of the dam and destroyed the mill.
FIRST WOOLEN MILL
"Mr. Wood bought out his partner and rebuilt the mill the following summer. J. Clement did the work and soon after purchased Mr. Wood's interest and run the mill in partnership with Mr. Moore for two years. The mill not being successful it lay idle until 1859 when M. J. Drown
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and J. H. Stewart of Beaver Dam took hold of the property. Stewart soon withdrew, and in 1860, there having been a company formed, a factory for the maunfacturing of woolen goods was erected.
FURNITURE FACTORY
"The Baraboo Manufacturing Company was organized in 1866-7 by a number of prominent business men, and a factory was erected a little north of the woolen mill. They made bedsteads, tables and chairs mostly and did an extensive business. They also attempted to manu- facture threshing machines, but the machines not proving a brilliant success, that project was abandoned.
DIVISION OF BARABOO WATER POWER
"There was some controversy among the different claimants of the Baraboo water power, but in 1847 James Maxwell purchased a portion of the lower water power and began the ereetion of a sawmill. In 1840 Maxwell sold a half interest to J. P. Flanders and James MeVieker of Milwaukee and they agreed to build a $10,000 mill, which was finished in the winter of 1848-9. In 1850 the property was divided, Flanders and MeVieker keeping the sawmill surplus water power and land, Maxwell keeping the flour mill with two hundred inches of water to run the mill, also two acres of land. Brier, who owned a small interest, kept the carding mill with water to run it.
"Charles Cook purchased Mr. Flanders' portion in 1856 and erected a sawmill on the ruins of the old one that had burned down. He also built a tannery and purchased of Mr. Brier some machinery for the manufacture of woolen goods. He became badly involved in 1857 and the property went back to Mr. Flanders.
"John Dean leased the property from Flanders, installed a larger plant and did a thriving business for several years, assisted by his brothers, Wm. and James. He then purchased the Maxwell flour mill and water power and moved his woolen mill onto it. The property changed hands several times, and finally lay idle for several years.
"The middle water power was claimed by George W. Brown in 1844. He built a dam and sawmill that began operations December 1st. The following year he ereeted a better saw mill and the next season he built a grist mill on the north side of the river. This was the largest mill on the river at that time.
FIRST BRIDGE ACROSS THE BARABOO
Delando Pratt purchased a part of the water power in 1846 and erected shops in which he placed a turning lathe, a shingle machine,
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chair factory and lath saw. This season the first bridge was built across the river, in the same place now occupied by the present Ash street bridge.
TANNERY ERECTED
"Philarmon Pratt purchased half of the water power and the saw mill in 1847. The mill being burned, he erected a larger one and in 1848 Donald Schermerhorn put up a tannery. In 1849 the Seaburn Brothers purchased the Pratt property, putting in more cabinet machin- ery, selling out in 1856 to J. N. and H. T. Savage, who added new fea- tures and conducted a much larger business. H. T. Savage sold his interest to L. Wild. The stock was increased and they did a fine busi- ness until December 1, when the stock and lumber, also Pratt's hub and spoke factory, was destroyed by fire.
LARGE FLOUR MILL AND BARREL FACTORY .
"P. S. Bassett and J. P. Sanford in 1853 purchased of the Brown estate their interest in the waterpower and erected a fine large flour mill, with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per year. Sanford soon withdrew and for many years Mr. Bassett did a large local and commercial busi- ness assisted by his son, William. Wheat was largely grown those times, and Mr. Bassett purchased large quantities, converted it into flour and drew it overland with oxen to Kilbourn, the nearest shipping point at that time.
"Mr. Bassett added a barrel factory to his mill business and not only supplied all of the surrounding mills with barrels, but shipped a great many to Minnesota and other parts of the northwest.
"Mr. Bassett, while conducting his business in Baraboo, formed a partnership with William Eikey of Greenfield and a saw mill was erceted six miles east of Baraboo. They did quite a business in lumber and wagon stuff which was taken across the bluffs to Helena where it was loaded on flat boats and floated down to market. Mr. Alex Prentice purchased the mill,' turned it into a flour mill and sold it to his son, Andrew, who in after years sold it to Charles Falkenstern, the present owner.
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