USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 23
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A return trip was made to Milwaukee for supplies, and it is said that the summer and fall were mostly given over to the hunting of deer, prairie chicken, and pigeon. The serious affairs of life occupied enoughi of their time to arrange for the building of a log house, where they resided when, in the autumn, Adolph and Edmond Rendtorff joined them in accordance with their pre-arrangement. In his written recollections, Edmond Rendtorff says that when he and his brother Adolph arrived at Prairie du Sac they were met by Haraszthy and Halasz and 'some Ger- mans they had working for them.' What the nature of this employment was, does not appear, although it is possible they had already started upon some of the many projects of development that they afterward undertook -all before the condition of the country justified them.
FOUNDING SAUK CITY
"Later in the fall Haraszthy made a trip to Milwaukee, and while there made the acquaintance of an Englishnan named Robert Bryant- a man of social worth and some financial resources. This chance acquaint- ance marked the beginning of an epoch for the little settlement on Wisconsin River. Mr. Bryant was induced, by Haraszthy's eloquence, to visit the proposed town-site, where now stands the village of Sauk City. A partnership was arranged between Bryant and Haraszthy, probably covering a wide range of enterprise, although the building of a town was the principal undertaking of their joint effort. Bryant bought of Berry Haney, the reformed stage-driver, who was the first upon the land, his claim, paying $1,000 for it. Although there were few public records at that time, where conveyances might be legally preserved (the land office for this section was not yet opened), it seems that this transfer covered the present town-site of Sank City and extended back some dis- tance from the river. If Bryant became a member of the pioneer colony for any considerable time, it does not appear from any of the earliest recorded instruments bearing his name. He conveyed first as Robert Bryant, of Sauk County, Territory of Wisconsin, and the year following as a 'citizen of Milwaukie.' Bryant bought Haney's claim apparently late in the fall of 1840, presumably on the joint account of Haraszthy and Bryant; but when the land came upon the market in October, 1843, it was entered by Charles Haraszthy, father of Agoston.
"How the year of 1841 was passed is not recorded, unless we accept the statement made by Mr. Halasz at the old settlers' meeting, as cover- ing the life they led at this time. 'Why we stayed on the Wisconsin River we knew not. We were not used to that kind of scenery, nor to the mode of getting a living. But. we stayed.' They may have had the Haney laim surveyed during that summer, as has been stated, although the plat was not recorded until the year 1845. It is more probable that the allure- nents of hunting and fishing drew their attention, for their commercial
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and industrial enterprises were then scarcely begun. It is probable that some food crops were grown on the open prairie, an easy task at any time, although it is not to be presumed that more was raised than was needed for use by man and beast in that immediate community, as there was no market. The Rev. T. M. Fullerton, a frontier itinerant preacher, read from his journal, before the Sauk County Old Settlers' Association, the following: 'June 23, 1841-There is here a Hungarian Count-so he calls himself-who claims to have large quantities of money, and is expending it liberally in improvements. There is also an Englishman here (Bryant, of course) who elaims to have been a Lord in the old country. He is in partnership with the Count. They both look like savages, wearing a long beard above as well as below the mouth. And they are the great men of the place, and others adopt their customs, and make themselves as ridiculous as possible.' At the time of this reading (1872), Mr. Fullerton wore a beard, and confessed to the 'havoc 30 years will make in one's opinions of taste.' As a young preacher, ardent and zealous, he foreswore whiskers and evidently all who cultivated such facial appendages; but his meagre description of the personal charac- teristics of Agoston Haraszthy has value, because it is almost the only one extant for that period of his life.
RETURN TO EUROPE FOR FAMILY
"In the spring of 1842 Count Haraszthy returned to Europe and the following summer brought out his wife, Eleanora de Dodinsky; their three sons, Gaza, Attila F., and Arpad; his father and mother. The mother soon died, and the father afterward married the mother, or mother-in-law, of the late William H. Clark, Sauk City's pioneer attorney. In the selection of names for his sons, Haraszthy had particular regard to the past glory of Hungary. Gaza, the eldest, was named for the fourth ducal sovereign (usually spelled Geyza), who came into power in the year 972; Attila F., for the hero, more or less mythical, under whose strong hand the Huns crossed the river Don, established themselves in Pannonia and threw off the authority of Rome; Arpad the conqueror, was the first of the ducal dynasty that began in 889, the son of Almos, who led the Magyar hordes over the Carpathians and subjugated Hun- gary and Transylvania; Bela, the youngest son, born at Sauk City, was named for the sixth king, or tenth sovereign, of the Arpad dynasty, who ascended the throne in the year 1061.
THE OLD COUNT
"From the time of his arrival the elder Haraszthy became intensely popular. We are told that all who knew him in his frontier home regarded him with esteem and veneration. He was generally known as the 'Old
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General,' although he was sometimes spoken of as the 'Old Count.' His studies had led him into natural science, and soon after arriving in Wisconsin he opened an apothecary shop, and was aecounted a good chemist. This drug store he continued to conduet until late in the year 1848, when, with his son Agoston and their families, he set out for Madi- son to prepare for the overland trip to California. Many tales are yet current of the parental devotion of the gentle father to the enthusiastic son. 'Mein son, Agoston,' was the most agreeable subject for the father's conversation ; the adventures, the commercial enterprises, the hunting excursion of the younger Haraszthy, were topies that ealled forth hearty praise from the elder. When the son was at home, the father haunted his presence and followed him about from place to place. He seemed to worship in the son what he lacked in his own individuality-the spirit of daring. In his reference to the Haraszthys before the Sauk County Old Settlers' Association, the late William H. Clark said: 'Who that ever knew can forget the "Old General," the father of the count! Father and only son and child, in the structure of their minds, in their habits, tastes and dispositions, they were the very antipodes of cach other, as unlike as ever could be. Nevertheless their attachment for each other was unbounded. Naught but death could separate them; where went the son, there accompanied or followed the father. In sunshine and storm, through good and evil report alike, he cherished "mein son Agoston," as he called him.'
"With the arrival of his family, Haraszthy began a series of indus- trial and commercial activities that lasted to the end of 1848, when he suddenly pulled up stakes and moved on westward. Unfortunately, the records of those early days are incomplete, and those who participated in or observed the erratic maneuvres of the firm of Haraszthy and Bryant have died. Hence, in an enumeration of their various enterprises, no effort at chronological order will be attempted, save as the surviving records cover all or a part of such endeavor.
STEAMBOAT VENTURES
"Frequent mention in the reminiscenses of those days is made of Haraszthy's ventures in steam-boating. William H. Clark mentions that Agoston Haraszthy was engaged in steain-boating on the Wisconsin River and even on the lower Mississippi. This appears to be the only statement by a contemporary, of such extensive operations. Other such references base themselves on this of Clark's. But the written recollections of Edmond Rendtorff recount the adventures of the packet 'Rock River,' in which Haraszthy and Bryant owned a share. Rendtorff was for a time clerk, and recounts three round trips between Galena and Fort Snelling (St. Paul), and one trip from Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) to Fort Winnebago (Portage) and return. The craft was frozen in at its
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dock when they got back to Prairie du Chien, and, except for some thrill- ing experienees he had in attempting her release, no further mention is made of the 'Rock River.' The firm of Haraszthy and Bryant had a way of abandoning any enterprise of which it tired, with an abruptness really heroie ; and it is probable that this precarious venture-for steamboating was then a dangerous and uncertain business-was dropped after one season's experience.
"At an early day Haraszthy operated a ferry boat across the Wis- consin at Sauk City. The first record of it is in a deed of conveyance from Robert Bryant, dated October 14, 1844, granting to Augustus Haraszthy the right to land ferry boats at any point on the river without ineurring liability to him (Bryant), and in which the grantor bound himself not transfer to any other person a like privilege. Haraszthy sought in this document to make his ferry franchise exclusive and per- petual. This conveyanee is the first recorded in Sauk County bearing the name of Haraszthy. The ferry was operated many years. John C. Hawley, of Mazomanie, Dane County, worked on the boat, beginning June, 1847, and writes under date of January, 1906, that the boat, at the time of his service, was under a fourteen years' lease to Robert Richards. The boy Hawley knew Haraszthy and has recorded a lively pieture of his personal appearance and characteristies, as will appear later in this sketch. This boat was pushed with poles, no other power being used, and it was Hawley's duty to steer it. Foot passengers were carried over in a skiff. Soon after horse-power was instituted. The tales of Haraszthy's prowess as a hunter, his courtly manners, his distinguished and aristo- cratie bearing, his picturesque dress, fill the hills and valleys of Sauk County. But these are growing more vague and dim with the rushing years. Sometime early in the partnership career of Haraszthy and Bryant, there was platted, where is now the village of Sauk City, a town-site which was named Haraszthy. The plat was filed for record with the register of deeds for Sauk County on April 26, 1845, and was drawn into volume one. This survey was made by Charles O. Baxter, at what time is not shown, and the plat made by the surveyor was cer- tified by William H. Canfield, then county surveyor. This town-site comprised fifty blocks, twenty-six of which were sub-divided into lots. The survey still stands, except that some of the remaining twenty-four blocks have sinee been eut into lots, although the name has been twice changed-first to Westfield, then to Sauk City. The title to the lands covered by the survey and plat was in Charles Haraszthy, Robert Bryant, and Stephen Bates. It would seem that this plat was acknowledged and in a fashion dedicated, after Bryant had ceased to be a citizen of Sauk County, for his name appears to the instrument 'by C. Haraszthy, agent.' Bates, too, evidently was a non-resident owner, for he signed 'by A. Haraszthy, agent.' Mr. Canfield recollects that Baxter was engaged in 1841 to lay out the town-site, but the probability is that nothing was
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done until a subsequent date. The acknowledgment and intended dedi- cation were about contemporaneous with the recording, 1845.
"No sooner was the plat on record than a lively sale and transfer was begun. Lots singly and in bunches were transferred by Agoston Haraszthy, although it is not easy to discover from whom he acquired his right, since the recorded title was not in him; but this matter of legal ownership did not seem to daunt the adventurer. No less than fourteen transfers are noted in volume one of Sauk County records, covering thirty separate lots and one entire block. Ground was set aside for a school house; and lots 1 and 2, in block 31, were deeded to the Right Reverend John Martin Henni, Bishop of Milwaukee, on which was soon built a Catholic church. This ground is still used for the purpose, and is the seat of the oldest Catholic church and parochial school in Sauk County. Many houses were built and a season of prosperity was ushered in. The German population inereased, but it would seem that Edmond Rendtorff, with his brother Adolph, were the nucleus, and through them the earliest permanent residents of Teutonic blood were attracted to the town of Haraszthy. Many kinfolk of the Rendtorffs came and remained as citizens.
AS A FARMER
"With all his diverse enterprises Haraszthy found time to dip exten- sively into farming. The beautiful prairies to the north and west of his namesake village-fertile, easily broken, and marvelously productive- would have beckoned a less impulsive man. It does not appear that he held title to any considerable acreage; but as only a small portion of Sauk Prairie was then occupied by settlers or claimed by purchasers, he probably helped himself to such parts of the desirable land as he could use. At one time he had a contract to supply corn to Fort Winnebago. One erop that went to the fort was grown west of Sauk City, and as Haraszthy had given too much time to hunting, the harvesting was delayed until late in the fall. Then came a rush. The corn was pulled, thrown into wagon boxes, and the hands rode to the river, husking as they went. At the river it was thrown into a flat-boat and transported to the portage. This incident was related to me by one who witnessed it, as an illustration of the energy and resourcefulness of Agoston Haraszthy.
"Charles Naffz told of Haraszthy's operations in growing swine. He claimed a large piece of marsh land across the river from the village, from which he cut hay for his stock. On this he kept his hogs, and as the weather grew cold with the approach of winter, the porkers burrowed under the haystacks for protection. One day Haraszthy asked Mr. Naffz. to go with him to help catch and slaughter a pig. They crossed the river to the marsh, and as they approached the pigs took to shelter. Haraszthy, with a mighty shout, dove into a hole in a haystack and backed ont, pull- Vol. 1-14
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ing a young swine by the hind legs. They dispatched him with a hunting knife, and then Haraszthy said to Mr. Naffz: 'Now, Charley, for your pig!' And with a shout he dove into another hole in the haystack and pulled forth another hog. Mr. Naffz related that when they got back to the village with their game, they singed it, as there was then no other provision for scalding and dressing.
"One of the last of Haraszthy's farming schemes was that of sheep raising. He had at one time nearly 2,000 head of these animals, and engaged to tend them a young Swiss, Edward Guesser. By accident the shepherd set fire to the prairie grass, killing many sheep and causing a mighty fire. He ran away and hid in the bluffs until the next day. Guesser afterward became a leading lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. When Haraszthy prepared to leave Wisconsin in the winter of 1848, he sold the remnant of his flock of sheep, about 500, to Charles Naffz and his brother-in-law, Charles Duerr, then but recently arrived from Germany. These gentlemen leased 320 acres of land, also claimed by Haraszthy, on which to herd and feed their flock.
COUNTY SEAT FIGHT
"During the year 1844 Sauk County was cut off from Dane and organized. Haraszthy, the village, was 'boomed' for the county seat, and the citizens offered the Haraszthy and Bryant store building, esti- mated to be worth $3,000, for a court house. But Prairie du Sae tem- porarily won the location. The next year it was proposed to move the seat of government, and Baraboo became a competitor. Citizens of Haraszthy, chagrined that their near neighbor had beaten them in the first contest, turned their support to Baraboo. Many meetings were held in the various settlements in the county ; Haraszthy was one of the most zealous advocates of the change, and appeared at all the publie demon- strations urging the elaims of the new town for the honor. Finally a committee was appointed to investigate the wilderness in the west and eentral portions of the county, to see if it possessed resources that would support a reasonably dense population, for the people of Prairie du Sac were industriously circulating the report that the unsettled part of the new bailiwick was a rocky waste, and that Baraboo could not become a centre of population. Agoston Haraszthy and Edmond Rendtorff, from Haraszthy; Levi Moore, Abraham Wood, Thomas Remington, and Wil- liam H. Canfield, from Baraboo, as such committee set off to explore the unknown regions of Sauk County. They were away on this expedition several days, and suffered greatly from hunger because of the uncertainty of their rifles. Two days and a half they had only one partridge, the vietim of Haraszthy's gun. But their report settled the controversy and Baraboo became the county seat. Soon after this, Haraszthy opened a store in the new capital, as already related.
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PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
"The fireside tales concerning Haraszthy, that are rapidly approach- ing the delightful stage of uncertainty that makes folklore, deal almost entirely with him as a hunter and with his picturesque characteristics. One who saw him but onee, and then on a hunting expedition, describes him as wearing a green silk hunting shirt with a wide silken sash of flaming red. Thus accoutred, he walked or rode through brush and bramble, disdainful of the wear and tear of his expensive dress. Others who knew him say this is a true and characteristic incident, and not at all unusual. Edmond Rendtorff has left an extended account of an eight days' hunting trip in which he accompanied Haraszthy, particularly notable for their being lost in forest, bemired in marshes, empty of stomach, and flood-bound by swollen streams. He closes: ‘Our German settlers glared and stared at us. I believe they could not make out whether we came direct out of hell, or from the moon. In fact, we looked worse than any European beggars, Winnebagoes, or chimney sweeps.' He says they were torn and dirty, having been in the woods through several heavy rain storms without any sort of shelter.
"John C. Hawley describes the personal appearance of our adventurer as that of a man about six feet in height, very dark, with black hair and eyes. According to Hawley he invariably wore a 'stovepipe' hat and carried a cane. Hon. Edwin C. Perkins of Prairie du Sac, who as a boy saw Haraszthy many times, and attended the public schools in the sum- mers of 1847 and 1848 with Gaza and Attila F. Haraszthy, says that the first time he saw the Hungarian his boyish memory was impressed with the fierce black mustache that adorned his upper lip. The late Satterlee Clark records: 'He was a nobleman in every sense, and he and his wife were among the most refined people I ever knew; and both were exceed- ingly good looking. I saw them both frequently, both at home and at Madison.' The veteran historian of Sauk County, William II. Canfield, tells a characteristic incident illustrative of the mercurial temperament of the fiery Hun. It seems that Mr. Canfield was in Sank City (then the village of Haraszthy), and Haraszthy took him to the stable to show his horse stock. Haraszthy kept a saddle mare, a fine beast of which he was fond, and on the night before this visit a work horse had gotten loose and kicked the mare, leaving a vicious wound. Every time Haraszthy came near the offender he hit him a eut with his walking stick, saying: 'You damned Cod, you no gentleman ; to kick a lady !' This he repeated several times, administering physical rebuke with his cane with each remark. Charles Naffz tells of a patriotie celebration held in Agoston Haraszthy's house in the fall of 1848, in sympathy with the revolutionary movement in Hungary led by Louis Kossuth. Speeches were made in English by several present, but Haraszthy became so impassioned and enthusiastic that he lost control of his adopted tongue and had to talk
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in his native Hungarian. Toasts were drunk, a spread furnished, and a real jollification, of the hearty, frontier variety, was had.
ABANDON HARASZTHY VILLAGE
"Christmas day, 1848, Agoston Haraszthy, his wife, their six children, Gaza, Attila F., Arpad, Bela, Johanna, and Ida, with the father, Charles Haraszthy and wife, bade farewell forever to the village of Haraszthy. Charles Naffz and Charles Duerr, with two sleighs, drove them to Madison where they made preparations for the overland trip to California. They started with the opening of spring and were a considerable caravan, including Thomas W. Sutherland, sometime United States district attor- ney for the Territory of Wisconsin."
LAST OF THE HARASZTHYS
Count Haraszthy lived in California nearly twenty years, and became prominent in the Golden State. He was the first sheriff of San Diego County, was elected to the General Assembly, was appointed assayer of the San Francisco mint, after his resignation of that office built metal- lurgical and smelting works, and during the last years of his life became one of the foremost viticulturists of California. Bancroft, in fact, speaks of him as the "father of viticulture in California." He was a pioneer in what is known as the dry culture of grapes; was the first to employ Chinese labor on the farms of the state; made an official investigation of the vineyards of Europe and imported numerous varieties of the grape to California, and a few years before his mysterious death organized the Buena Vista Viticultural Society and conveyed to it his vineyards near Sonoma, then the largest in California. About 1868 he went to Nicaragua, where he originated varions schemes of development, and in the following year disappeared forever. It is thought that he was drowned in crossing a swollen stream during one of his numerous journeys of exploration and investigation.
The father died on shipboard between Nicaragua and San Francisco about the time of the death of his son, and was buried at sea. The Count's wife (nee Eleanor de Dodiusky), a noble woman of Polish descent, survived her husband's death but a few months. Charles Halasz, the cousin and companion of Agoston Haraszthy, lived a highly respected citizen of Sank City for many years. He was a lumber merchant. For several terms he was a justice of the peace, was the first president of the. Old Settlers' Association and died during the '70s.
THE PECKS COME TO MADISON
The government surveyors who run the township lines and the bonn- daries of the subdivisions in the region of the Wisconsin River had the
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best of opportunities to learn the truth about the potential value of its lands. Among the pioneer surveyors of this elass were Eben and Stephen Peck, young New Yorkers and sons of Vermont parents. Several years before making his surveying trip, Eben had elerked in a drygoods store at Middletown, Vermont, and married one of the village girls, Miss Rosaline Willard. His surveying trip in Wisconsin had so aroused in him a love for the new frontier country that as soon as possible after completing that work he returned to his wife and infant son, who were living on the old New York homestead, and made arrangements to seek a home in Southern Wisconsin. They finally started on their long journey in a carriage; in July, 1836, reached Blue Mounds, where Mr. and Mrs. Peck kept tavern through the winter, and in the spring moved on toward the site of Madison.
The Peck family arrived at the state capital, then in process of the making, on the fifteenth of April, 1837, in the midst of a snow stormn. The winter previous Mr. Peck had hired some Frenchmen to build a log house for him, but they had only erected the walls and put on the roof and there were wide cracks between the logs. So the family went into winter quarters with no roof over them but a eloth teut. But as the Peeks constituted the first white family to arrive at Madison, the men upon the ground-Governor, Supreme Judges, lawyers and others inter- ested in the new government-had a lively time the next day after the snow storm, "taking hold and working with a will to chink up and mud on the outside the cracks of their log-cabin to make the family com- fortable."
FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN MADISON
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