USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 53
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UPPER NARROWS LOGICAL VILLAGE SITE
In 1851, having made a personal examination of the country as possible railroad territory, Colonel Ableman concluded that when a line was put through its gateway to the Northwest that locality must be the Upper Narrows of the Baraboo River, and that there was the logical site for a village. He proved to be in the right. First, he built a log shanty on his elaim, locating it on an elevation near the site of the present railroad station. There his family and half a dozen workmen in his employ resided for seven weeks. At the end of that period there
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had been erected a sizeable frame residence, which stood as the third house on the Baraboo-Reedsburg Road. Gen. A. W. Starks soon after- ward built a house a mile west, and in 1853 Maj. Charles II. Williams erected a residence a few rods east of the Colonel's. About the same time Peter Mattheys built the first house on the west side of the river within the limits of the present village. In 1867 Colonel Ableman built a sawmill on Narrows Creek a few rods above its junction with the Baraboo, and in 1861 he enlarged it and added gristmill machinery. He carried on the mills until 1875, when they passed to other hands. A steam stave factory was doing quite a large business at that time.
The cabin built by Colonel Ableman to shelter his family and the workmen engaged in erecting his frame residence was converted into the first schoolhouse of the locality. A district school was not organized until 1856-57. The German Baptists organized about 1860, but the German Lutherans had no church society until 1872. Both erected meeting houses in the village and the English Methodists organized and built a church about two miles west.
CALLED VILLAGE OF EXCELSIOR
In December, 1857, the Town of Excelsior was formed from the towns of Freedom and Dellona, and the settlement at the Upper Narrows retained the name of the town until the Colonel's great ambition was realized in the building of the Chicago & North Western Railway to and through his village. In the fall or winter of 1871 a postoffice was estab- lished at the new station and very appropriately took the Colonel's family name.
ABLEMAN AS A QUARRY CENTER
With the clearing of the timber from the surrounding country, and other changed conditions patent to all, the life of the village has come to depend upon another branch of industries than those founded on lumber or cereals. As the manufactures of wood have deteriorated, the opera- tions of the sandstone and quartzite quarries at and near Ableman have increased in importance. The stone was used at first mainly in the construction of railway roadbeds, but with the growth of the Good Roads movement and its prosecution. systematically and officially, by the county government, thousands of tons are now worked into the construction of highways, street pavements and other public enterprises. The Village of Ableman is the active and direct center of this extensive business which has extended far beyond the limits of the county. At least half a dozen large quarries are now in active operation in the neighborhood. The leading operators of the quartzite quarries are W. G. LaRue (Duluth), the White Rock Quarry Company (L. J. Pier-
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son), the Wisconsin Granite Company, and the Sauk County Quarry . Company. William Gall and William Gall, Jr., have sandstone quarries.
PRESENT VILLAGE AS A WHOLE
Ableman, with its nearly 500 people, is now largely dependent upon the surrounding quarries for its support, and the general appearance of the neat little village indicates that such support is substantial. The continuous growth of these industries made necessary the establishment of the Farmers State Bank in 1912; that, and the fact that the village is the trading center of a large and prosperous farming country. The bank named was incorporated on April 16, 1912, and opened for busi- ness in October. On that day it occupied a substantial and convenient building erected for the purpose, with W. J. Hummell as president, Henry Behnke vice president, and Frank B. Moss, cashier. There has been no change except in the vice presideney, the present incumbent of that office being W. C. Holly. The capital of the Farmers State Bank is $18,000; surplus, $2,000; average deposits, $210,000.
MRS. ALEXANDER'S RECOLLECTIONS OF THE COLONEL
Historically speaking, Colonel Ableman is the largest and most in- teresting character who has ever been identified with the village itself, and one of the strongest men whose works and influences have been woven into the fabric of the entire county. The facts in this connection have been told. It is left for one who felt the genial and inspiring warmth of his personality to draw a clear and rather domestic pieture of the Colonel. Mrs. Eva Slye Alexander, who was a member of his household and afterward a resident of Baraboo, writes as follows :
"In the early history of Sauk County, there were a number of prominent men, and among them were three who lived in or near what is now Ableman and were friends and associates for many years, Colonel Ableman, General Starks, and Major Williams. Colonel Ableman owned a large tract of land there and started the village which he called Ex- celsior, the New York State motto. General Starks lived to the west- ward upon a farm on Narrows Creek, and Major Williams on a farm to the east. Colonel Ableman was born, grew to manhood, and married, and two children were born to him in New York State. In 1847 he moved to Milwaukec, in 1851 to Baraboo, and in the spring of the next year to his home nine miles west of Baraboo, where he started his vil- lage of Excelsior. Colonel Ableman was a man of herculean build, weighing from 312 pounds to 325. No spindle legged furniture would do for him in a Chippendale drawing room. Total wreck would have followed any attempt of his to be seated. During the administration of Franklin Pierce, Colonel Ableman was appointed United States Marshal Vol .. J-33
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for Wisconsin and when in Washington to receive his appointment, was . introduced to President Pierce, who, after surveying him for a moment, said: 'Well, Colonel, you are Ableman by name, a nobleman by nature, altogether you are a colossal man. Let us shake.'
"My first recollections of Colonel Ableman are when as quite a young girl I went to his home in Excelsior with my father, who was called to see the first Mrs. Ableman, a terrible sufferer for many years from rheumatism. For twelve years or more she was totally unable to move except one little finger a trifle. She bore her affliction with heroic fortitude, and was devotedly attended to with the most loving care by both husband and daughter, until death ended her suffering.
"I never forgot that home in the woods nor the impression it made upon me, and when in later years I went to Excelsior to teach school, 1 was received into the Colonel's family and treated like a daughter by both the Colonel and his second wife. That impression was deepened and it has always seemed to me an ideal home.
"Everybody who came to the Colonel's was made to feel the human kindness which filled their hearts and overflowed toward all their guests, who were many ; so many, that Edward Gilmore, the Colonel's stepson, onee suggested that they had better hand out a sign and call it 'The Hotel De Mary Ann' (Mary Aun was Mrs. Ableman's name).
"The Colonel's doors were always open to everybody ; even Joe Eagle, a big Indian, who used to camp in that vicinity sometimes in those days. The Colonel loved a joke, and if he could get one on me when I was there, he would chuckle over it with great glee.
"Colonel Ableman was very anxions to have the railroad build through the Baraboo valley and his village, and it was very largely due to his efforts and influence that it came through where it did. When the road was built through Excelsior the station was named Ableman in compliment to the Colonel. The postoffice was for a time called Rock Springs, but not for long. Village, postoffice and station are now Able- man, and will be as long as there is a village, which will be always, jndg- ing by the way it has grown in the last few years.
"I think that it was one of the first, if not the first, meeting called to discuss the railroad proposition, when only three men responded to the call: Colonel Ableman, General Starks and Major Williams. Gen- eral Starks reported it as a large, enthusiastic and respectable meeting.
"The next time Colonel Ableman met the general he called him to account for his apparent lack of veracity. 'Why,' replied the General, 'it was. . You were large, I'm sure the Major was enthusiastic, and I hope that I am respectable.' Those three are gone now ; Major Williams left us only last year, the General died before the Colonel. Colonel Ableman died July 16, 1880. Mrs. Ableman lived a number of years after his death and died in California. Sometime during the '80s the Charter House was burned and also the old Ableman house, which was
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occupied at the time by the Colonel's stepson, Edward Gilmore. So the old friends pass away and leave us only results and memories. I never go to Ableman, and look at the vacant place where the old home stood, without memories of the happy days I spent there, and the goodness of those two people gathering thickly about me, and I pass on saddened that their place is empty here; glad that I had the privilege of knowing them.
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CHAPTER XX
MERRIMACK AND LOGANVILLE
MATT'S FERRY AND THE FERRY ROAD-NORTH WESTERN REACHES MER- RIMACK-VILLAGE OF TODAY-RECOLLECTIONS OF MATT'S FERRY- TOWN OF WESTFIELD AND LOGANVILLE.
Previous to the coming of Chester Mattson in 1847, who started Matt's Ferry at what is now the Village of Merrimack, only one enter- prise had been established which had any lasting effeet on the progress of the locality. That was the gristmill built by H. Searl on section 4, about two miles to the west on what is now known as Searl's Creek. The mill and little dam were swept away by a freshet within two months from the time the improvements were made, and it was about two years thereafter before David King purchased Mr. Searl's water rights and erected another mill. After running a few years that was burned, and then Mr. King tried his hand again by building a sawmill and a distil- lery in the same locality.
MATT'S FERRY AND THE FERRY ROAD
But the most promising prospects eentered at the crossing of the Wisconsin River further east. During the winter after his arrival at the locality in 1847 Mr. Mattson seeured a charter from the Legislature authorizing him to construct a state road and operate a ferry. He laid out the road, got his ferry in operation, and was soon busy transporting teams and passengers over the Wisconsin at this convenient crossing. He started a tavern and in 1849, when he seeured the establishment of a postoffice at Matt's Ferry on Matt's Ferry Road, the few houses were called Colomar, after the Postmaster General of the United States, from whom Mr. Mattson had obtained his commission. In the same year James Flanders entered a large tract of land in the neighborhood for his brother, W. P. Flanders, who soon came on, and not only came into pos- session of that traet, but bought Mattson's interest in the town and ferry. Mr. Flanders also built and opened a store and a hotel and was for quite a long period the leading eitizen of the village.
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NORTH WESTERN REACHES MERRIMACK
For several years after the North Western reached Merrimack, which had been christened after the town, the village promised to become a considerable shipping point for livestock, grain and produce. The first railroad bridge was built in 1871, and the iron structure which replaced it was completed in 1877. A bridge nearly 2,000 feet long-that also gave Merrimack some standing !
VILLAGE OF . TODAY
But although the early promise of Merrimack as a leading commer- cial center, even of Sauk County, has not been realized, it is a pretty little village of about four hundred people, with a bank, a mill and several stores, and quite a prosperous ferry. The latter institution no longer transports livestock, teams and slow-going foot passengers, but rather half a dozen autos at a time. Its owner no longer depends mainly on the current of the Wisconsin River to propel his craft across, but operates it by means of kerosene engines. Merrimack is in the route of the Lincoln Highway which runs up the Baraboo Valley, and in its busy season the ferry transports as many as two or three hundred auto- mobiles daily. Since the Wisconsin River improvements, also, and the forming of the artificial lake at this point. numerous sportsmen and tourists have been drawn thither, many tracts of land have been bought at and near Merrimack for summer residences, and on this score even there has been quite a revival of business and hope among the residents of the locality.
Merrimack has a Methodist Church and a good village school of sev- cral grades. Among the societies which have local organizations are the Modern Woodmen, Mystic Workers, Beavers and Royal Neighbors. Its Community Club and Red Cross branch are doing their parts in encour- aging a civie spirit and making a relief contribution to the swelling inter- national fund. No corner of any county in the United States is exempt from the operations of that vast benevolence.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MATT'S FERRY
As the residents of Merrimack are still almost as proud of their mod- ern ferry as they were in the best days of the old concern, the following paper contributed by John D. Jones, a resident of Chicago when it was written in 1913, is of special interest. He writes as follows:
"My text will be found in the Sauk County History, published in 1880 by the Chicago Historical Company. Speaking of early settlers, it says of Chester Mattson: 'He came in 1847 and during the ensuing winter succeeded in getting a charter for state road and ferry. Soon
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after this the road was regularly laid out and very soon we find a stage making regular trips over it, and Mattson engaged in transporting teams and passengers over the river. The road was known as Matt's Ferry road. Mattson started the second building in the place for a tavern but did not finish it. Soon after (1849) W. P. Flanders came on, and within a short time purchased Mattson's interest in the tavern and ferry for $700. About 1853 or 1854 Mr. Flanders finished building the hotel which had been started by Mattson.'
"My personal knowledge of Matt's Ferry begins in the fall of 1856. At that time the hotel was doing a thriving business, as delays in cross- ing the river on the small ferry boat made it necessary to stop there for meals and often lodging. My father, H. M. Jones, had a livery business in Madison and frequently passed over the road from Madison to Bara- boo with passengers. Stopping often at this hotel he was impressed with the opportunity to make money in its ownership.
"We found also that Mr. Flanders came from the same section of New Hampshire that he did, and this helped him into the purchase of what he afterwards found to be a gold brick of the rankest kind. The purchase price was in the neighborhood of $3,000, an amount of money which, if invested rightly on the prairie he crossed to get to Matt's Ferry, would have made him independently rich.
"The fact that the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad was ex- tending its line from Portage to La Crosse (which was finished in 1858) was the reason Mr. Flanders wanted to sell out. This escaped my . father's observation. This extension completed, all through travel by way of Matt's Ferry ceased and both the hotel and ferry became un- profitable to their owners, although continued by one and another for many years afterward.
"The state road spoken of in my text with a few minor changes can be traced from Madison to Baraboo by the line of the telegraph, at first known as the Bankers' and Merchants', but later bought out by the Western Union Company, which accomplishes the object of its construc- tion. Leaving the village of Matt's Ferry the road used to run in an almost northerly direction through the lot occupied by the old tavern (now the property of Mrs. Behrens) up east of the present schoolhouse, through lands once owned by H. Behrens, A. Halbman and L. Premo, coming into a road running east and west along the foot of the Baraboo bluffs near the Thomas Degan place.
"This old road can probably be traced yet by the difference in the growth of grain sown on it and by its side. This road had been changed shortly before we came to Matt's Ferry. as it is at present, but the old road was also used and one of my earliest memories is that a butcher, Mr. Pratt, of Baraboo, driving over in a eutter, stopping at the tavern and telling of having seen two deer a little distance back. My father took a shotgun loaded with buckshot, went back a few rods, found the
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deers' trail and soon came upon them, shooting both some few rods from where Charles Pigg now lives.
"The name of the village, Matt's Ferry, was changed by Mrs. J. G. Train to Merrimack (spell it with a k, please) after Merrimack County, New Hampshire, in 1855, but the old name clung for a long time and probably old guide boards are still in existence pointing to Matt's Ferry as one of the peculiarities of the Wisconsin river.
"The Wisconsin river has several peculiarities, a few of which I will mention. It is a river of great volume and swift flowing, subject to large freshets from melting snow and heavy rains. If confined to steep banks, as many rivers are, great damage would follow from these periods of extra volume and we hardly ever, with the exception of the Dalles, find high banks on both sides of the stream. Opposite a high bank of clay or sandstone, we generally find a stretch of low bottom land, of more or less width before coming to high ground, and this affords room for the waters of the freshet to spread out and avert damage that otherwise must occur. Another peculiarity is the changeable current or channel, where today you find a good, decp channel, a year from now one may find shallows or even dry land. Sand is constantly being washed down -in larger quantities, of course, during a freshet, and whenever an obstruction is offered to the current, you will find the sand settling and finally forming a permanent bar if the obstruction remains. This fact led to expenditure of quite an amount of money by the government in so-called river improvements, building wing dams of brush and stone out into the river, to form bars of sand, and in this way narrow and deepen the channel so as to make navigation possible.
"It looks to me at this distance to have been a very foolish waste of money, although at the time I was enjoying a little extra patronage in consequence of the employment given customers, and I thought it a very wise undertaking. These deposits of sand are left above the water when the river falls to normal volume, and soon the seeds of willows, cotton woods, maples, birch, elms and other soft wooded trees take root and in a short time we have a forest of young trees, and the bar becomes an island or a stretch of bottom land.
"Our old friend, Fred Lang, had extensive nurseries on these bars, bunching them in bundles, loading cars and shipping them out for sale to the early settlers of South Dakota. I do not think any of them could have lived long, as they require much water and do not find it in sufficient quantity on upland.
"To operate a ferry such as Mattson installed, it is necessary to have a strong current and a constant channel all the way across. Anyone on terms of intimate acquaintance with the Wisconsin river knows few places have their requisites. The one ideal spot is the one Mattson selected. This is now occupied by the Chicago & North Western Rail- road bridge.
P. 258 Marquette Joliet 1673
P 3110 Ferry Cat. (photo)
Jenny - Location -
Why Ferry route changed
harvesting of Saplings
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1st spot kam'.
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"The ferry has been operated above and below this port, but in none so successfully. We have on the Merrimack side a high bank of elay some sixty feet above the river bed. On the opposite side is a small area of bottom land separated from the main land by Spring ereek leading into the river a few rods further down.
"Over this creek was a log bridge at its mouth, and the ferry was only from the Merrimack shore to the bottoms, and then by bridge to the West Point side. After a while this bridge was washed away and another ferry was used across the ereek nearer the landing of the river ferry. In high water this bottom land would be inundated and teams would have to ford to the bridge, unless too deep, in which case the ferry boat would be detached from the overhead cable and poled to and from the bridge. The modus operandi of the river ferry was very simple. Use of the current was to propel the boat across. A strong cable was suspended in the air squarely across the current from shore to shore. To this cable the boat was attached by lines, starting on wind- lasses at each upper corner of the boat, and attached at the other end to larger pulleys in wooden hoods, running on the overhead cable.
"The operator, after pushing the boat off the shore, would wind up the line on the end of the boat in the direction he wanted to go, until the boat would stand diagonal with the current. Perhaps he might have to give one or two encouraging shoves with a pole to start the ball roll- ing and this would start the pulley to rolling on the eable as far as it could, the current would swing the boat over to a right-angle position and the momentum of the boat would carry it farther. This would cause the pulley to make another run and so on like the pendulum of a clock until the crossing was made. Often such headway would be made that the operator would have to slacken the speed by lowering the end of the boat wound up to nearly right angles with the large cable.
"As the current 'did the work' like the 'Gold Dust Twins,' it must be constantly on the job. Hence the necessity for having the right place to operate a ferry. The boat used was a flat bottomed scow, some forty feet long and sixteen feet wide, having wooden aprons or platforms that could be let down to enable a team to drive onto the boat. Two double teams was about the limit of its capacity. Passengers on foot either rode over when teams were crossing or were carried over in skiffs. In busiest times it required two men to operate this ferry, but in dull times one man was captain and crew. The cable across the river at first was a three-inch manilla, heavily tarred to protect it from wear and weather. It was attached on the Merrimack shore to a large upright windlass, suf- ficient extra length being left on the windlass to permit of its lowering into the water, deep enough to allow the passage over it of any steam- boat. The windlass was fastened to two strong horizontal bars firmly bolted to two large white oak stumps. The other end of the cable across the river ran over an upright timber some forty feet high, braced by a
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tripod of timbers and from there down to a large rock. It was no easy job to raise and lower this cable and it took several strong men to do it. Steamboats generally came in close to the Merrimack shore where they could pass under the cable. This old manilla cable would sag in dry weather, becoming taut in wet weather and sometimes would get so low as to catch onto the sleeping houses of the rafts. One day it stripped one off entirely and so enraged the raftsman that he swore he would cut it down his next trip. He kept his promise by attempting to do so, but only cut it badly enough to cause it to break some time afterward.
"In its place Mr. Flanders, at quite an expense, put up a wire cable woven same as the cables in the suspension bridges. It had not been long in place when a boat passing down the river called for a lowering of the cable, but, as usual, was told to come inshore and pass under, which, in attempting to do, lost a portion of its smokestack. The next day, when returning up the river, they called again for a lowering of the cable. Mr. Flanders again told them to come in shore and pass under. They refused and called again for the cable to be lowered or they would pull it down. Mr. Flanders laughed at this threat, telling them the cable was wire and would hold their boat suspended in air, if necessary, before breaking. Their answer was to steam up and throw a heavy manilla cable over it and then requested again that the cable be lowered. Mr. Flanders again refused and starting down stream at full speed they broke the cable as easily as if it had been a pipe stem.
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