USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 9
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in this section as an extensive breeder of fine eattle. R. A. Morley and John M. True were close competitors, and the three carried away the bulk of the ribbons bestowed at the cattle shows of the County Agri- cultural Society. Mr. True was one of the most prominent men in the county, as will hereafter appear, and was long secretary of the Stock Breeders' Association. Both Major Williams and Mr. True resided in Baraboo for many years.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DAIRY INTERESTS
As a result of the persistent efforts of such men as these, Sauk County finally took its stand as one of the best and steadiest dairy producers in Central Wisconsin. The Beckwiths and Aaron Southard, of the town of Bear Creek, as manufacturers of cheese; J. A. Morley and Archibald Barker, Town of Baraboo, as butter makers; John Tordoff, of La Valle; Amos Johnson and H. Bradbury, of Greenfield, and Peter S. Young and Henry Hill, of Sumpter, with other fabricators of dairy products, projected the fair name of the county even into the metropoli- tan circles of the East. In 1879 Mr. Morley took the sweep-stakes prize for the best butter at the National Dairymen's fair held in New York during 1879, and Sauk County butter and cheese have repeatedly cap- tured high prizes and premiums at state and inter-state exhibitions.
STOCK BREEDERS' ASSOCIATIONS
In June, 1874, several of the men most prominent in the work of the County Agricultural Society, and especially in the improvement of the dairy breeds, organized the Stock Breeders' Association of Sauk County, with a capital of $4,200. It was a joint company having for its objects "the procuring and keeping of imported and thoroughbred horses and mares for breeding purposes." The original members of the association, who met in the court house on the 13th of that month, were Charles H. Williams, H. H. Potter, John M. True, John B. Crawford, R. J. Wood, J. W. Wood, J. H. Vrooman, William Fessler, Melatiah Willis, P. W. Carpenter, H. J. Farnum, Charles Teel, G. C. Astle, A. J. Sears, R. Johnson, Charles Payne, S. McGilvra, S. W. Emery, Ryland Stone, R. E. Stone, J. R. Hall, N. W. Morley, James Hill, William Christie, H. H. Howlett, R. A. Morley, Levi Cahoon, Amos John- son and O. H. Cook. On the 13th of February, 1875, a formal organiza- tion was effected by the election of the following officers: H. H. Potter, president; R. J. Wood, treasurer; John M. True, secretary. Mr. True remained in the position named for the six years covering the life of the association. R. H. Strong succeeded Mr. Potter as president in 1878; R. J. Wood held the office in 1879, and J. B. Crawford in 1880. J. J. Gattiker was treasurer in 1876-78, and E. Walbridge in 1878-80.
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In the latter year the purpose and work of the association had been so fully accomplished in the general improvement of horses throughout the county that the association sold its livestock and dissolved.
At the present time there are four organizations for the improve- ment of Sauk County cattle. The four organizations with the prin- cipal officers in each are as follows:
Sauk County Shorthorn Breeders' Association-George Carpenter, president ; Frank Morley, secretary and treasurer.
Sauk County Holstein Breeders' Association-Lyman E. Stone, pres- ident ; Ora Kirkpatrick, secretary and treasurer.
Sauk County Guernsey Breeders' Association-C. W. Wichern, pres- ident; Clifford Capener, secretary; Pierce Martiny, treasurer.
Sauk County Jersey Breeders' Association-E. A. McGilvra, presi- dent; Dr. L. W. Bible, secretary and treasurer.
Thus has the author followed the logical line of historic development relating to those primal forces and agencies and those basic interests and industries without which Sauk County would never have been born and substantially matured.
Vol. 1-5
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THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME
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CHAPTER IV
FARM AND INDUSTRIAL LIFE
CHARLES HIRSCHINGER'S STORY OF TIMBER-LAND AGRICULTURE-WIL- LIAM TOOLE, OF PANSY HEIGHTS-THE TOOLES REACH EXCELSIOR TOWNSHIP-PIONEER FENCING-LIVE STOCK AS BEASTS OF PREY- HARD TO GET GOOD FLOUR-MIRROR LAKE, AN OLD MILL POND-THE BOUNDS OF CIVILIZATION-DANGER OF RUNNING FIRES-CLEARING AWAY THE BRUSH-THE OAK OPENINGS-TREES AND SOILS-SHRUBS -BREAKING THE SOIL-THE TOOLE FARM-VARIETIES OF WHEAT -- THE CHINCH BUG PEST-PIONEER IMPLEMENTS SOWING BY HAND- FIRST MACHINE MOWING-STACKING THE GRAIN-CHANGE IN THRESHI- ING MACHINES-HORSES AS POWER-MORE ABOUT REAPERS AND MOW- ERS-THE HARVESTER APPEARS-IMPROVED HAYING MACHINES- EARLY VARIETIES OF CORN-EARLY INDUSTRIES (BY MRS. L. H. PALMER)-WILD HONEY AND GINSENG-EARLY SAW MILLS-FIRST WOOLEN MILL-FURNITURE FACTORY-DIVISION OF BARABOO WATER POWER-FIRST BRIDGE ACROSS THE BARABOO-TANNERY ERECTED- LARGE FLOUR MILL AND BARREL FACTORY-SAW MILL AND WAGON WORKS-PRAIRIE DU SAC MILLS-REEDSBURG INDUSTRIES-BRICK YARDS AND LIME KILNS-LARGEST KILN IN THE COUNTY-SHORT SEASON OF COPPER MINING-IRON INDUSTRIES AT IRONTON-DEATHI OF FOUNDERS OF IRONTON-HAULING GRAIN FROM BARABOO TO MIL- WAUKEE (BY H. H. FLYNT)-MILWAUKEE NEAREST GOOD WHEAT MARKET-FARMERS AT LAST IN THE SWIM-HAUL OF FOUR MILES IN- STEAD OF A HUNDRED-MORLEY, THE MAGICIAN-FROM WHEAT GROW- ING TO DAIRYING-HOP DAYS IN SAUK COUNTY (BY JOHN M. TRUE) --- HOP INDUSTRY IN DETAIL (BY JOHN ROONEY)-WONDERFUL. HOP PICKING MACHINE (BY HUGH KELLEY)
In the pioneer days of Sank County nearly every man of any real importance had more or less to do with matters which lay close to the soil. Most of them were general farmers, some of them specialized in fruit culture or stock breeding, and most of them were as familiar with nature's laws and profitable workings as many of today who are making such frantic efforts to reach that healthful plane of life along which their forefathers traveled from boyhood so naturally and so serenely. "Back to the soil," forced upon the country and the county by necessity. has
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become a blessed inclination. It therefore is plainly evident that the stories which have been told of leading citizens of Sauk County, as to their agricultural experiences of the long-past, will not only revive pleasant memories in the minds of the older settlers, but will interest, as never before, those of the younger generations who are harking back with such enthusiasm and good results.
CHARLES HIRSCHINGER'S STORY OF TIMBER-LAND AGRICULTURE
The story of the development of agriculture and farming operations in Sauk County has been often told by those who have been a part of it for sixty years or more. Among others, Charles Hirschinger, who, with his parents, was a pioneer of the Baraboo Valley, has told the tale. Coming to Sauk County when only ten years of age, in 1847, the family located on Section 8, about two miles southwest of Baraboo, and the boy was later employed by the Canfields, father and son, in the grafting of fruit trees and the care of their pioneer orchard and nursery. The Canfields gradually went out of business and Mr. Hirschinger estab- lished himself as the leading horticulturist in the county. He served as president of the County Agricultural Society. He also got into town politics and both the towns of Freedom and Baraboo, as well as the Board of County Supervisors, kept him in harness for a quarter of a century. He therefore speaks, as one having authority, in this wise :
"Farming fifty years ago in the timber land on the south side of the Baraboo river was not like farming on the prairie. There you could take the breaking plow, turn the sod over, tickle the ground a little and raise large crops. Not so in the timber lands. There we had first to elear the land of everything but the stumps and roots in the ground. After this was done, we could go at it with a plow made for that purpose. To break the ground this plow had a colter with a long point so fixed as to run under the roots to raise them up and the eolter would cut them off to the thickness of two inches. In breaking ground in this way, those roots, if you did not watch close, would slap you on the foot and that would not feel well. After we had the ground plowed we would drag it over and pick up the roots to pile them around the stumps later to be burned. After we got through breaking and dragging this new land, we would have nearly one-third still unbroken on account of roots and stumps. For the purpose of enltivating the land around the stumps, we had iron hoes made at the blacksmith shop that were well adapted and made especially to peel off the sod. Around the stumps then we had a narrow hoe to dig holes to plant potatoes, and sometimes we would plant our corn without breaking the ground first. In this case we would take our iron hoe, peel off the top sod where we wanted to plant corn, then take an ax and strike it in the ground sharp end, then we would put the corn in the opening left by the ax
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and chop down each side of the corn. That covered it and we were then ready to commence hoeing out the sod in the spaces between. This was not an easy task, but then it was fifty years ago and the old pioneers were as anxious to live then as now. It was root-hog-or-die and as we did want to live we rooted amongst the stumps and roots, and some of those old timber pioneers are still alive. In order to keep the wolf from the door we would go out and dig ginseng roots and sell them for a few cents a pound. Every chance we got we would take the ax and clear more land. There was not much rest fifty years ago.
"I had 450 maple trees tapped and that was the banner year for maple sugar and molasses. We had one steady run of three days and three nights. I had to keep the fires going to boil the sap three days and three nights; all the sleep I got in that time was what I could get at night sitting on the wood pile in front of the fire. Once while I slept five deer came and stood around me. When I awoke they saw me, snorted and made such a racket that I was scared. I felt my heart jump as though it wanted to go away, but it has not failed me yet.
"In the winter fifty years ago I cut cord wood and James Flanders, a local preacher, drew it to Baraboo and sold it. He paid me fifty cents a cord for the labor and the wood. Two cords a day was my stint. Young man, how would you like to do as much for so little money ? It was work all the time; and fifty years ago we cut all our hay with the scythe and the grain with the cradle, and we who lived in the timber went to help out the prairie farmers through harvest. That year I swung the cradle over five weeks north of the Baraboo river in the Archie Christie neighborhood. Crops were heavy and wild buckwheat plenty, so it was about the hardest work I ever did, but I staid till the job was finished.
"I got two dollars a day, but at six o'clock in the morning we were in the field at work and had to cradle till sundown. Then we were asked to shock the grain after that. Sometimes we did it and sometimes not. Our friends on Sauk Prairie were not so hard on their men, but fifty years ago one man had to rake and bind all a man cut with the cradle to get full pay. At that time cradles and binders were experts. Those living in the timber also were handy with the ax and scythe. Some- times we found time to go fishing and hunting. At that time there was plenty of game, fish and bee trees to be found. If a rattlesnake showed up he was a dead snake. There were so many snakes of the rattler kind, we had to keep an eye out for them. I must say that I hated the rattle- snake, but not so much as the kind we called 'snake in the grass.'
"Fifty years ago I was married to my present wife and were I to tell you all of the hardships you would hardly expect us to be here now. Shorts meal made good pancakes and coffee made of barley, rye and car- rots was good at that time. Still we were happy and satisfied with our lot."
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WILLIAM TOOLE, OF PANSY HEIGHTS
Of a somewhat later generation than Mr. Hirschinger is William Toole, known for forty years in several states as the expert cultivator of pansies. In his earlier years he was a general farmer in Freedom Township and is a thorough and practical agrieulturist. But his youth- ful love for pansies strengthened with his mellowing years, and in the late '70s he commenced to raise the rich, charming and variegated flower from seeds, and finally to produce the seeds for the market. Asters were also extensively cultivated. The business so expanded that Mr. Toole transferred it from the Town of Excelsior, near North Freedom, to a large tract of high ground about two miles southwest of Baraboo; and the famous Pansy Heights was the result. It is not too much to say that there is scarcely a real lover of the pansy in the United States who has not a feeling of affection for William Toole. Although he has his specialty-his hobby, if you please-he is also widely read and deeply informed, especially on historic subjects. This trend of his mind is illustrated in the name which he has bestowed on one of the varieties which has originated at Pansy Heights, Chief Yellow Thunder.
THE TOOLES REACH EXCELSIOR TOWNSHIP
With this introduction of a widely known character in nature's field, as illustrated in Sauk County, the following paper originally prepared by Mr. Toole for the "Sauk County Farmer" is presented in the pages of this history :
"Finally we started (from western Massachusetts) for Sauk County and reached Kilbourn on March 10 (1859). There was difficulty in locating Excelsior, for the town had been organized but a few years, and few people knew that there was such a place. Fortunately, we had learned that the Reedsburg stage passed somewhere near where we wished to go, and we found that the stage driver was acquainted with the people with whom we were to stop.
"The scenery on the route was novel to me. The considerable stretches of scattered oak trees, with but little brush among them, I was told constituted what were known as 'oak openings.' I was told that south of the Baraboo river the land was richer and covered with heavy timber in great variety, but that the farms were small there, because of the heavy work in clearing. Before noon we reached the place of our immediate destination-the home of Mr. and Mrs. Livsey, grand- parents of our present register of deeds, Carl M. DuBois.
"The estate to be managed (by the head of the family) proved to be 80 acres, lying four and one-half miles cast of Reedsburg, on what was considered the regular Reedsburg and Baraboo road. The house was across the road north, and a little west from where the Excelsior
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chapel now stands. The house was one and one-half story, two rooms, one lower and one upper. Rough siding, without sheathing, covered the outside, and the inside finish was lath covered with one thickness of newspapers. It was cool in summer and very cold in winter.
PIONEER FENCING
"There was a small amount of land cleared and fenced. It was for us to improve the place. Fencing and firewood must be provided, and the first work was felling and working-up trees. Occasionally a
A FENCE IN THE DISCARD
tree could be had from among the black oaks which might be split into rails, but very seldom. Our fencing was mostly procured from the timberlands south of the Baraboo river. Basswood could be had more cheaply than oak, and was used considerably as a makeshift, but oak was preferred, for its lasting qualities.
LIVE STOCK AS BEASTS OF PREY
"The standard fencing was the zig-zag, worm, or Virginia fenee, stake and ridered. but often fences were made of brush and poles.
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These poor fences brought on many neighborhood quarrels and sometimes lawsuits. People soon found out that they were not required by law to fence in. their crops and were only compelled to maintain division, or line fences, but there was so much open country and so little inelosed pasture land that people could not afford to let the range pasture go to waste. We tolerated each other's fenees as best we could, until sometime in the '70s, when people began to take away their road fenees and in a few years it eeased to be the fashion to turn eattle and hogs loose to prey on neighbors. In the villages of Reedsburg and Baraboo the nuisance of stock running at large seemed unbearable. A farmer in town dared not leave a load of grain or vegetables a moment un- guarded, lest some predaeeous animal should tear the saeks and eat or destroy whatever they could.
"A cheap feneing to use around hog pens, yards, and rough build- ings, was slabs from the saw mill at the mouth of Copper creek. This mill, run by water power, was owned and operated by Isaac Morley, who was afterward our first eounty superintendent of sehools. While the country was but sparsely settled, new comers were of special interest, because they were expected to have money, and surely must buy until they themselves became produeers. It was easy to become acquainted in those days, and the new comer naturally studied the local geography of the country roundabout.
HARD TO GET GOOD FLOUR
"Flour was needed, and our neighbors were ready with a supply. It was cheaper than it had been in the east, and the first we got was so mueh poorer that it never could have become a commercial artiele. We afterward learned that it had been made from musty wheat. The wheat would not bring a fair price in the market, perhaps could not have been sold at all, so the farmer had it made into flour and disposed of it that way.
"Later, when we had raised grain of our own, we learned lots about grist mills, and the faults and virtues of millers. The average farmer in those days gave the millers about as many compliments as are now bestowed on commission men. Millers took their pay in tolls, or shares from the grain they ground, and were accused of taking excessive tolls.
"Eaeh mill, away off, was supposed to make better flour than other mills, and we sometimes went a long way, hoping for better results. One fault of the system was that a grist of good wheat might pass into the stones, following some one's smutty, or perhaps sprouted, wheat or rye, and thus become contaminated with what had gone before. All grind- ing in those days was done with the old-fashioned stones. The roller
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process had not been adopted, and they had scarcely commenced the use of the metal mills for feed grinding. Our nearest grist mill was at Reedsburg, four and a half miles away. The next most convenient one was at Delton, about eight miles. This mill was where the Sar- ringtons now do business.
MIRROR LAKE, AN OLD MILL POND
"In the early sixties, La Barr & Bowman built a flour and grist mill further up Dell creek, and thus gave us the Dell creek mill pond, which is now called Mirror Lake. At Baraboo was the Bassett large flour and grist mill. I don't know when grinding began at the Man- . chester mill. It would be an interesting bit of history for someone to write about all the changing industries of milling, yarn manufacture, and woolen mill, which flourished during various times in the little corner where the Baraboo waterworks now is.
THE BOUNDS OF CIVILIZATION
. "To us the country beyond Reedsburg was wild, too far from rail- roads to seem of much account. Our own nearest railway station was at Kilbourn, only twelve miles away. Immigrants were passing through to Bad-Ax country and to the country beyond the Mississippi. Iowa and Minnesota seemed to bound civilization. Government lands were secured by pre-emption at $1.25 per acre, and lands which had been long on the market could be had for less. Splendid lands in Missouri, imme- diately after the close of the war, were bought from the government at 121/2 cents per acre. Along in those days was passed the homestead act and we sang, 'Come Along, Come Along, Don't be Alarmed, for Uncle Sam is Rich Enough to Give Us All a Farm.' The homestead act gave a grand outlet for the energies of those who had returned from the Civil war.
DANGER OF RUNNING FIRES
"In our land-clearing experiences we soon learned the danger of running fires. The brush must be burned, and. the fires sometimes got beyond our control, rushing with the wind through the dead herbage, leaves and brush growth. Then the fences suffered, if the neighbors could not check the fire in time to save them. It was easier to grub the land after the smaller brush and grass had been burned away, but it made dirty work of the land-clearing.
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CLEARING AWAY THE BRUSH
"The brush on these oak openings land was pretty plentiful and was generally grubbed out-that is, eut out by the roots, and the rubbish burned, before turning the sod with the breaking plow. Sometimes the brush was cut off, and the big plows, drawn by five or six yoke of oxen, turned over sod and roots together. The labor of taking out these roots afterwards was so great that most people preferred to grub the land in advance of the breaking plow. The brush had evidently been burned over many times, for there were dead stubs in many stages of decay among the growing bushes, and the roots were capped with broad callous growth, called 'stools.' From these stools the brush grew.
THE OAK OPENINGS
"The conditions existing through the country which we called oak openings were a puzzle to me, and probably to many others. Most of the country north of Baraboo river was embraced in the term oak openings. The trees, which were almost exclusively oak in the several varieties of black, red, white and burr oak, with an occasional hickory or aspen poplar, and very rarely a black cherry, were irregularly scattered apart and seldom near enough together to be called a grove.
TREES AND SOILS
"On the north slopes of bluffs, the trees were more plentiful, almost constituting timberlands. In some places there were stretches of country, where there were no trees or brush, being prairie-like in character as far as growth was concerned. Black oaks might be looked for in the light soils, and where sandstone was near the surface. White oak growth was supposed to indicate a good quality of soil; burr oak seemed to prefer a deep soil, but not always rich. The red oaks seemed more par- tial to good soil than were the black oaks.
"In eentral Excelsior, and on the light soils bordering Dell creek valley in the town of New Buffalo-now Dellona-were considerable growths of gray, or jack pine. There were many fine trees of the spe- eies in the town of Excelsior. If they could be had of that size now, they would be sawed for lumber, but the best were appropriated for fencing by the early settlers. It might be thought by present day observers that the elms must have been included in the native timber of the oak openings, but the elms have all come in within the past seventy years. Of course there were plenty of white chns in the timber lands and near the river.
"In the timber lands, south of the river, the clearings were small, and the shelter afforded made it seem as if the winters were milder
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there, when we came to get fencing material, saw logs, and later hop poles. There was a considerable amount of white and Norway pine to be found in various places in the timber lands. In the winter of '63-'64 we bought both varieties from the Narrows creek bluffs, and had them sawed at Colonel Ableman's mill. At the present day, the remains of pine trees which had been cut down for shingle-making may be seen in Pine Creek hollow, in the south part of Baraboo town.
SHRUBS
"On most of the land which we then thought worth clearing, there was a growth of oak brush, with dwarf willows, poplar, hazel and a few other kinds of shrubs. The varieties of shrubs varied according to the kind of soil. Hazel, blackberry and a few others were not found on poor soil, while Jersey tea and catgut root were found on two different classes of poor soil.
"It was said that the reason why the oak brush in the openings had not grown into trees was because the Indians had made a prac- tice of burning over the country to make good pasturing for the deer, . and to promote a renewed growth of the blueberry and huckleberry bushes. After the farmmaking had stopped all running fires, there was a change in the aspect of the oak openings country.
"Wherever cultivated land and cutover pastures have not prevented the growth, the young timber has flourished, until now there is prob- ably more firewood to be had in that section than existed forty years ago. I never could understand how the scattered trees of the early days got their start.
BREAKING THE SOIL
"We liked to get breaking done in June, or early July, that the vegetable matter turned under might be well decayed for the coming erop, which was generally spring wheat. There was a wonderful vari- ety of grasses and other herbage, which furnished feed for the oxen in those days, when breaking was done. We were up by 4 o'clock in the morning, to let the oxen feed and to watch that they could not stray away, because if they stole their liberty it was sometimes hard to find them in the extensive open range. A long nooning was given and a chance to pasture again in the evening. Generally there was grain for the oxen, but often not.
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