USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 55
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
There were no church buildings at first, but services were held in private houses and hotels, and King's Hall. People used to go to church . in those days. The ministers were equal to those of today, and the Presbyterian minister, Mr. Mitchell, quite superior to most. He and his bride began their housekeeping in the barn that Mr. Bennett pulled down not long ago. It stood beyond the brick house that is on the road to Delton. He did not approve of donation parties; so there was never but one for him, when he made it very plain that he was not pleased. He was a very arbitrary man, and as long as he preached here-which was in Kilbourn as well as in Newport-the congregation, according to his command, stood during prayers and sat while they sang. There was a Baptist minister not quite equal to the place he held, and there were always funny things happening. One Methodist minister used to spread a handkerchief on the floor before he kneeled to pray, and as he wore white trousers and the floors were often dirty, he was not to be blamed for it. The choirs sang for all the different denominations, as the different ministers would not fill their special pulpits every Sun- day, but had to preach in other places. The music was as good as now. There were many excellent singers there then, and serenades were a pleasant way of showing regard for friends.
At the first bit of sleighing, everything that could be forced into use was made to do service for a sleighing, and I do not remember whether
Digitizedby Google
OLD NEWPORT HOTEL Built by William Steele about 1859. Torn down in 1908
Dignzed by Google
533
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
it was a crockery crate or a dry goods box that I had my first ride in, accompanied by a fine young man of the mercantile persuasion. There ยท used to be general sleighrides, often out to the Halfway house on Web- ster's Prairie. Then in the summer-picnics to the Dells, and some- times dancing on the bridge. I remember a large party of young people were asked out in the country to eat honey and hot biscuits; after getting ready to go home the gentlemen were asked to pay for the supper. I will not say where it was, as the descendants still live in this region. There was more real enjoyment socially then than now; because every one was, so to speak, on an equality and no one trying to outdo others in any direction.
Fancy a time when the fashion of your clothes did not cause you any extra thought or trouble! Not that any were indifferent to the way they were made, but provided the material was good and the style becoming, a dress could be worn till it was worn out; in fact, I do not recall any decided article of dress that you could say was fashionable but little fancy silk aprons; and following that, a change in sleeves came about, and from that time on the bondage has grown heavier year by year, until women are now in a slavery that affects soul and body and no emanci- pator in sight!
One of the early diversions was a celebration when the railroad was finished through Newport Town and a station built on this side of the river near Lynch's. One enthusiastic woman made a cake station in imitation of the one just built and where the celebration was held; but cake and station have long been gone`and forgotten.
Pleasant teas, which were suppers, were common, and the good things to eat were as choice as now, but not served in courses. When you sat down to the table you knew what you were to have and so knew what you could safely leave out, if you didn't like it. The society of fifty years ago was not so different from these days as one might think. The seminary at Newport opened and conducted by a graduate of the Mary Lyon Seminary, and with a corps of most excellent teachers, shows what was thought necessary for the people there. Scholars came from away -among whom was sweet Mary McClay, who was brought and entered there by her aunt, Julia Dent, of the Grant family of Dents.
You may ask what became of that seminary! The principal was Mrs. Cooley, whose husband, the Reverend Cooley, was pastor of the Congregational Church in Newport. The church was not pleased with the Reverend Cooley, and he was notified of the fact. His feelings were so deeply injured that he split up the pulpit so no one else could use it. It was a striking piece of furniture, entirely covered with red plush, and was a dead loss for use, but a good thing to get rid of. As the husband was out of a place, the school had to be closed. The large square building near Kerfoot's was built for the seminary, but after- wards used for the common school and finally moved away. The Con-
Dignized by Google
534
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
gregational Church uses one of the large upper rooms for church services, and the bell on the building belonged to the church and was bought by private subscription, and it now hangs in the Methodist Church in Kil- bourn.
NEWPORT TRANSFERRED TO KILBOURN
The removal of Newport to Kilbourn took almost all of the desirable people, and was so complete that the lives of the two towns cannot be separated. To the circle when moved was added the charming family of Mr. Holly-intelligent, cultivated and social, they were always ready to move in anything desirable, and the picnics they were always stirring np are still a pleasant memory to me, at least. Newport and Kilbourn were surely favored in the quality of most of the early settlers.
The breaking out of the Civil war, and its long continuance, changed the tenor of many lives so that the ordinary things of life took on new shapes, and there was a new atmosphere from that time on. But the streets and houses of Newport are as plain to my inward vision as those of Kilbourn today, and the ghosts of vanished days and people are all about me when I wish to call them forth.
STORY OF NEWPORT By W. S. Marshall
In the latter part of the year 1832, Jolin Metcalf, who in later years owned the upper, or Lyons, sawmill on the Baraboo River, and Daniel Whitney, the first white owner of the site of the present City of Port- age, obtained the right to cut lumber and make shingles on the land be- longing to the Menominie Indians: These lands were located on both banks of the upper Wisconsin river. Late in the fall of that year they started for the upper river. They took with them a two man power sawmill. It was a whip or pit saw. It was to be operated as follows: A pit some seven feet deep was dug and across this pit the log which was to be cut into boards or planks was laid. One man being stationed in the pit and the other on the log, the saw was drawn alternately up and down and by this means the log was sawed into boards or planks of the thickness desired by the operators.
These men, during the winter of 1832-33 thus manufactured lumber and in the spring of 1833 they built from it the first lumber raft on the npper river. With this raft they made the pioneer run down the river, through the Dells, and to the site of the present City of Portage.
Thus was begun a lumber traffic on the Wisconsin River which in the eighteen or twenty years following grew to a great volume, a traffic which in the years from 1849 to 1856 required the construction of from 2.000 to 3,000 rafts annually and gave employment to 4,000 or 5,000 - rivermen during the spring and summer rafting season.
Diguicod by Google
533
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
It was with a view to securing a portion of the supply trade of this army of river men that a village and a store were established at the point where Dell Creek joins the Wisconsin River, on the northern boundary of Sauk County.
For a distance of eight miles or more above the mouth of Dell Creek the river runs between high rock walls which narrow for a portion of the way to a width of less than seventy-five feet. Through this gorge, when the water was high enough to permit the running of rafts, the river boiled and whirled in a swift, angry current. This gorge forms what is called the Dells of the Wisconsin River and was the most dangerous and difficult stretch of water for the raftsmen to encounter in all the long trip from the mills to the market.
THE OLD-TIME LUMBER RAFTS
The Wisconsin River raft of those days was constructed of two strings, of ten or twelve cribs each, of boards or planks. Each erib was built up of tiers of boards alternately packed at right angles to each other, so that the crib, when complete formed a square packed some eighteen or twenty inches in depth and the dimensions of the square were those of the length of the boards forming the crib. That is, sixteen foot boards formed a crib sixteen feet square, etc. Ten or twelve of these cribs, coupled together tandem, formed a string, and two strings coupled side by side formed a raft. These rafts were fitted with long, broad bladed oars, attached to long timber stems, an oar at each end of each string. A raft crew consisted of from two to four men. Several rafts formed a fleet.
Ordinarily, in good stage of water on the open river, two men were crew enough to handle the raft, but in running through the Dells in high stage of water the rafts were separated into single strings and the oars manned by double crews. Sometimes, in a fair stage of the river, the rafts were not separated into strings, but the crews of two or more rafts were employed to man the oars. "So, in passing this stretch of the river, the raft or the string was run to a point below the Dells and then tied up and the men doubled, or walked back to the head, and ran the remaining part through.
. Just below the mouth of Dell Creek, the river makes a bend forming a great cove or bay, some hundreds of acres in extent, on the south side of the river, stretching from the ercek to Sugar Bowl Rock. This bay was the first available place of any size, below the Dells, where the rafts or half rafts could be tied up to remain while the crews returned to the head of the Dells for the remaining strings, and here was the grand re- assembling point for them after passing the Dells. It was no uneom- mon thing to see that bay completely covered with tied-up rafts. This favorable location caused the mouth of Dell Creek to become a division,
Dighed by Google
536
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
a re-victualing and resting place for the raftsmen before they started on the long run toward the mouth of the river and the Mississippi. The settlement itself was at first called Dell Creek.
About the year 1841 John Mead, Samuel Bentley and J. B. MeNeal located near the mouth of the creek, opening up fields or clearings some three-quarters of a mile south, on the uplands. Two years later a Mr. Jenson took up a claim and cleared and broke up a field one-quarter of a mile south of Mead's field. In 1848 Joseph Sanders settled and began farming one-quarter of a mile west of Mead's. The old Mead, Jenson and Sanders fields are now included in the fields of the farm owned by Judge Marshall.
About this time Frank Darrow established a general store at Dell Creek.
TRADING POINT AT DELL CREEK
The principal outlet which the early settlers had for their surplus produce was the raftsmen's trade at Dell Creek. In the spring and summer they here found a ready market for flour, butter, chickens, eggs and vegetables. In the fall and winter the pinery trade took their spare feed, grain, flour, pork, beef, and the yokes of oxen which some of them fitted up for this trade. Dell Creek was the outfitting point for the upper river lumber camps.
It will be seen, from the above explanation, that the mouth of Dell Creek was, from its location, the logical point for a great trading town to grow up, under the conditions as they existed at this early date.
In the fall of 1849 a flouring mill was completed and put in oper- ation at the point on Dell Creek where Delton is now located, two miles above the mouth of the creek. The settlers began to come and to locate and open up farms in great numbers, for now there was a ready means of preparing their grain for market and the market at Dell Creek was fast growing in importance.
In the spring of 1850 the small settlement at the mouth of the creek was surprised one day by the advent of a small steamboat which came up the river from the Mississippi, ladened with goods and to purchase produce from below. Here was a demonstration that the Wisconsin River was a navigable stream and, as the boat could not go through the Dells, Dell Creek was the head of navigation. This meant much at that time. The Government had begun the improvement of the Fox River. A canal was to cut the narrow portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, only eighteen miles below. Then the trade of the great lakes was to come here by water, as well as trade from the Mississippi and the Gulf. Here was the location for a great inland port. It began to attract the attention of capitalists and in 1852 Newport was founded.
Digiized by Google
. .
537
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
NEWPORT CHRISTENED
The village was laid out and christened Newport by Edward Norris and John Marshall. It included finally all the east side of the creek to the hills and the west side up to a point some 100 yards west of where the Kerfoot house now stands and thence south to where stands the old brick house at the top of the hill, near the Kilbourn and Delton road. Calculations were made for a large city. It was not to remain a village long.
The same year Marshall and Norris built a dam across Dell Creek and erected a sawmill, about forty rods above the mouth of the creek. They began cutting lumber for the settlers and for building up the town.
The writer first saw the place in 1854. At this time it was growing very fast. William Steele had built a hotel on the east side of the creek. It was occupied by Charles Burhans. One Clark was building a much larger hotel on the west side of the flat, near where the Kerfoot house stands, but nearer the river. John Marshall was operating some five or six stores. Doctor Jenkins had moved from Delton to Newport and opened a drug store. There were, of course, several saloons. Hoffman was building what was, in those days, a mammoth brewery, and you may be sure that when the rafting season was on, the place was a lively one, both day and night.
About this time and during the next year it seemed to be fully set- tled that the new railroad which was being built west from Milwaukee was to cross the river here. There had been three surveys made and those on the inside had reliable information that the one byway of New- port was reported as the best. Everything pointed to its sure location here. The river was to be bridged and the depot built right in the heart of the city. The boom was on in earnest. There was a great rush to get in on the ground floor.
About this time a party of the citizens obtained a charter for a dam to harness the waters of the Wisconsin River and began advertising the superior advantages of the place as a manufacturing point. Capital- ists were attracted, some of them coming from Milwaukee to look the situation over. And in their estimation here was indeed the ideal place for the upbuilding of a great city, accessible as it would be by rail to the markets of the east and west, provided by nature with a water route to the south, and, when the Government improvement of the Fox River should be complete, with available water communication with the great lakes. Competition in rates between the water and rail outlets would assure reasonable freight rates for material in and product out. Where could a more enticing prospect be found for a profitable investment of capital ?
WISCONSIN HYDRAULIC COMPANY ENTERS
As a result of this investigation, these capitalists made a proposal to the owners of the town site and to the parties holding the charter for
Digreed by Google
538
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
the dam, which was favorably considered. The Milwaukee capitalists, in connection with some eastern people, organized a company, the Wis- consin Hydraulic Company, and a contract was entered into between this company and Edward Norris and John Marshall, whereby the Newport parties agreed to deed to the Hydraulie Company a one-half interest in all unsold lots in the Marshall and Norris plats of the city; for no one demeaned it by calling it a village now. The company of citizens also agreed to turn over to the Hydraulic Company the charter which had been obtained for the damming of the river. Meanwhile an East Newport village had been surveyed on the Columbia County side of the river, and the owner of this village plat also entered into a con- tract with the Hydraulie Company agreeing to give them one-half of the unsold lots in that village. In consideration of these concessions the company agreed to put in the water power improvements and install the power ready for manufacturing plants.
Now there was considerable property which the company would have to acquire and which, belonging to other parties, was not included in this contract. As this property was vital to their project, the Hydraulic Company would be obliged to purchase it before they could begin the work. The site for the dam selected by them was outside the city plats, just above on the river. The plan was to put the dam across the river at the point selected, then take the water through a canal just above the dam aeross into Dell Creek pond; then to use the water from a race leading from this pond to down the bank of the river below the mouth of Dell Creek and so discharge it, after passing through the wheels, into the river again.
To carry out this plan the company must acquire the Dell Creek power and flowage rights. They must also acquire the land on both sides of the river where the dam was to abut the banks and also the right of way for the head race, across from the river to the Dell Creek Valley. To prevent parties from putting a prohibitive price on the needed prop- erties it was agreed the deal should remain a secret until such time as the company was ready to begin work and, to insure this, the bond which had been given and the contraets which had been made were not to be put on record for a time, and all parties were to suppress infor- mation regarding the trade.
The Dell Creek mill and power had changed hands several times before this for a consideration of $2.000 or less. It was no longer owned by Norris and Marshall. The land where the dam was to abut on either side was not expected to cost more than $10 or $12 an aere, as it was not tillable. The same was true of most of the ground required for the head race and where the lower or discharge race was to go. But notwithstand- ing the agreement, it was said that the news of the trade became public property almost at once. It was thought that the Columbia County village owners put their contract on record in Portage almost immediately
Dla zed by Google
539
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
and visions of great gains haunted the minds of the owners of property which must be acquired by the company.
When the representative of the Hydraulic Company came on to negotiate for the needed property he found that the people with whom he must deal for the same were out for the wealth in sight. A company of twelve of the citizens had, since the news of the projected improve- ment became public, made up a pool by putting in $175 each and had purchased the Dell Creek power for the sum of $2,000. They now wanted $2,000 or more for each share, or over $24,000 in all. Ten acres of land which included the point on the south side of the river, where the dam was to be located and where the head race was to leave the river, had just been purchased by Ephraim Kingsbury for $10 per acre. He would not sell for less than $1,000 per acre. Lots on the east bank of the creek which were comparatively valueless before, but which were now needed for carrying out the projected plans, were held at $1,000 or more each. The town was on the greatest sort of a boom. People were moving in, investing and building. Local owners were marking up the lots over night and so accumulating easy wealth. The town now had 1,200 to 1,500 residents and prospects of thousands to come. The obstacles proved too much for the Hydraulic Company. Their rep- resentative went away without purchasing any property. A change came over the apparent plans of the railway company. It was said that they were encountering like difficulties in obtaining needed property.
NEWPORT GIVEN THE "GO BY"
At all events, it soon became noised abroad that a resurvey of the routes had been made and that it had resulted in the recommendation of the route crossing the river where Kilbourn is now located as being the most practical and available. The railroad grade work which, in 1855, had reached the Wisconsin River bank at Lone Rock, just below Newport, was being continued on up the river, indicating that Newport was to be given the "go by."
The above is the version of the Hydraulic Company's change of base, as the writer has it, and but recently, from as near first hands as one could hope to get it after so long a time. My informant is the son of the original Milwaukee promoter of the Hydralic Company. This son was the representative sent on to acquire the needed properties for the improvement and was the accredited engineer of the Hydraulic Com- pany.
There was another version given in after years by some of the old Newport citizens and it is as follows: "The hopes of the people who had made investments here were blasted by an over abundance of confidenee in the integrity of Byron Kilbourn. All were anxiously and confidently awaiting the event of the iron horse, having received the
Diguiced by Google
540
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
positive assurance from the railroad manager that the La Crosse & Milwaukee would cross the river at this point. Hotels, stores, schools, churches and dwellings were reared and occupied. Village lots were selling at from two hundred to three hundred dollars each, and every- body was happy. The citizens had got a charter for a dam and were about to harness the old Wisconse to turbine wheels, but they were induced to make over the charter to the Wisconsin Hydraulic Company, composed chiefly of railroad directors, who immediately obtained an amendment permitting them to remove the site to Kilbourn. This was the beginning of the end. Newport went into a decline from which it never recovered."
This latter version is given in Butterfield's "History of Sauk County," and practically embodies the belief of many of the old inhabi- tants of the village who were innocent sufferers.
The most of the people living in the country outside the town believed at the time it was the greed of some of the inhabitants of the town, who were there not alone for their health but for "all there was in it," which was the principal cause of the collapse, and the inside history, as it was recently given to the writer, seems to agree perfectly with the circumstances as they appeared to outsiders at the time. His informant stated to him that, with the exception of his (the informant's) father, none of the railroad men were connected with the power scheme, though all were friendly to it. This being the case, it might have had an influence in bringing about a change in the plans. Most people understood that the power location had been abandoned long before it was known that the railroad was going by.
It was a matter which was much discussed in the home of the writer at the time. His father had recently come from an eastern city where he had been engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods. Among other projects, it was proposed to erect a cotton mill in Newport. Hence he was taking an active interest in the matter and had discussed the plans quite freely with the parties who represented the power company. It was his understanding of the matter at the time that, to use his way of expressing it, "some of Newport people had overreached in their greed for gain and had killed the goose which might have laid the golden eggs."
Whatever caused the change of plan, there was no doubt but that Newport had received its death blow. The clank of the hammer, as it fell on the spikes, across the river, where the rails were being laid pass- ing Newport could be plainly heard in the stricken village in the early hours of the morning and, to the ears of those disappointed people, must have been about as cheering as the clods falling on the coffin at a burial. When, in February, 1856, the first house started from Newport, bound for the site of Kilbourn, it was anything but a gala day in the old town. The writer drove two yokes of the many yokes of oxen which assisted in
Di zed by Google
-
541
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
that exodus. The building moved was the hotel from East Newport. It was the first frame house to mark the new-born City of Kilbourn. It flourished there for many years as the Tanner House and is still stand- ing, merged in the Finch House of today. It has long since lost its identity and lives only in the memory of a few of the old pioneers.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.