USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of Wisconsin from prehistoric to present periods : the story of the state interspersed with realistic and romantic events > Part 45
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The enthusiastic followers were now about to practically test the princi- ples of " equitable " distribution, and " guard against our present social evil." A stock company, bearing the impregnable title of the " Wisconsin Phalanx," was organized, with shares of $25.00 each, which were readily sold.
The " Phalanx " located at Ceresco, one of the suburbs of the present city of Ripon. The next year after their arrival, they moved into more spacious quarters, which was a building 400 feet long, consisting of two rows of tenements, with a hall between. They all lived under one roof and ate at the same table, but each family lived in their own apartments. The " Pha- lanx," upon their arrival, purchased a fine tract of land, built shops, and made various improvements, and, in fine, were a thriving, industrious people, under one roof. Labor was voluntary, and each received credit according to his merit, and at the end of the year profits were thus divided. Social meetings were held evenings. Tuesday evening was given to the literary and debating club, Wednesday to singing, and Thursday to dancing. Ambition, the grand- est and and most ennobling quality of mankind, was destined to kill this tender stem of Fourierism, hardly ere it germinated. The close of the Black Hawk war, in 1832, placed the great seal upon the Winnebago and other Indian wars, and opened up for settlement the balance of the Northwest territory. At this time, 1844-51, the whole country was rapidly being settled. Glorious
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
opportunities were alike opened to the middle-aged and experienced, as well as to the young and ambitious. The " Wisconsin Phalanx " stood firm for seven years, then deployed and stacked arms. The members, of one accord, were glad to get back into society, and again drift with fortune's tide.
* * *
The pure air and virgin soil of Wisconsin were once polluted by that social leprosy-Mormonism.
Down at Nauvoo, on the banks of the Mississippi, a large and prosperous settlement of fanatical polygamists had grown up, under the guidance of Joseph Smith, who were known as the " Latter Day Saints." At Burling- ton, a quaint little village in Racine county, lived an erratic and cultiva- ted lawyer, named James J. Strang. He was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 1813, and entered life as a farmer boy. He was endowed with an act- ive and retentive memory, and in early manhood, cultivated a keen desire for notoriety. He taught school, delivered temperance lectures, was a political worker, and edited a country newspaper.
In 1843, he drifted to Wisconsin, bringing with him a reputation for a wonderful " gift of gab," and an overwhelming amount of self-esteem. At this time the Mormon church was meeting with grand success in their new fields, which offered distinction to men of the Smith-Strang type. He visited Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, in January, 1844. In February, he was baptized ; a month later he became a Mormon elder, and was at once received as a valu- able acquisition to the Mormon church. Wisconsin was then assigned to his charge. Joseph and Hiram Smith were shot by a mob on June 27, 1844,* while in prison at Nauvoo. This occurrence gave Strang's abilities a chance to expand.
Strang, although a convert of but a few months' standing, immediately became a candidate for the succession of Joseph Smith. He prepared and dis- played documents purporting to be written by Joseph Smith, before the "mar- tyrdom," authorizing Strang to establish a branch of the Mormon church on
* During the fall and early winter of 1838, about fifteen thousand Mormon saints, headed by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints, left Missouri and took refuge in Illinois, in the vicinity of Commerce, which name was afterwards changed and called Nauvoo. The country at this time was a wilderness, but under the thrifty management of the Mormons, it soon began "to rejoice and blossom" as the rose.
The legislature of Illinois granted a charter to Nauvoo; a body of Mormon militia were organized, under the name of the Nauvoo Legion, with Joseph Smith as its commander; he was also appointed mayor of the city, and thus became supreme in all civil and military affairs. A little later on, the doctrine of "sealing wives" roused the wrath of the neighbor- hood, which resulted in the arrest of the "prophet" and his brother Hiram, who were thrown into prison at Carthage. It now began to be rumored that the governor of the state was in sympathy with them, and was desirons of allowing the two Smiths to escape, whereupon a band of roughs, numbering about two hundred, broke into the jail on June 27, 1844, and shot them to death. Many years after the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young produced a paper, which he said was a copy of a revelation made to Joseph at Nauvoo, commanding him to take as many wives as God should give him. It was not, however, until August 29, 1852, at a publie meeting held at Salt Lake City, that the revelation was formally received.
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FOURIERISM AND MORMONISM IN WISCONSIN.
White river, near his home in Burlington. The specified district for establish- ing the church covered territory in both Racine and Walworth counties.
The "twelve apostles" of the Church of Nauvoo declared Strang an im- postor and his documents forgeries, and drove him from the Illinois paradise. He then returned to Wisconsin, and established himself on the White river, at a point which he named Voree, from which holy spot he issued a pronuncia- mento, in which he declared Joseph Smith had appointed him as his successor, as president of the church. "He claimed that he had visions, wherein the angel of the Lord advised him that Nauvoo had been 'cut off,' and that Voree was now the City of Promise."* Early in April, 1845, adherents began to ar- rive at the City of Promise. In January he started a diminutive four· paged paper, called the Voree Herald, wherein he published his visions, and called on the saints to rally around his standard, while the Brighamites at Nauvoo were called unrefined names. Strang soon gathered around him at Voree a large number of ardent followers, besides conducting missions among the "Primitive Mormons" in Ohio, New York, and the eastern and central states. Strang, like his predecessor, Joseph Smith, pretended to discover the word of God in hidden records. Joseph unearthed a book of Mormon, in the Ontar- ian hills-Strang dug up curious blazen plates at Voree, which an angel en- abled him to translate, and thus through the Herald, these wonderful records, phrased in the style of Holy Writ, were published to the world.
According to the Voree Herald, of September, 1846, President Strang's Sunday gatherings at Voree consisted of from one to two thousand people, of which he was the grand dictator. Voree finally became so prosperous that in May, 1847, Strang established a branch " Stake of Zion " on Beaver Island, in the Archipelago, near the mouth of Lake Michigan. He was met with great opposition from the resident fishermen, who looked upon the Mormon invasion with great disfavor ; but the new branch grew in the face of all obstacles, and in two or three years' time, there were about two thousand devotees gathered on Beaver Island.
They built neat houses, made good roads and docks, built a saw-mill and a large tabernacle. Prior to 1850, the island city was dubbed Saint James, and the colony organized as a " Kingdom," having a " Royal Press," foreign ambassadors, together with all the paraphernalia which goes to make up an infant empire.
Polygamy was now for the first time established, and under the newly-es- tablished doctrines, King James (Strang), was allowed five wives. The Royal Press issued a daily paper called the Northern Islander, which was the official court organ. The women wore bloomer costumes, and were rude, coarse,
* The Story of Wisconsin, 125.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
sensual creatures, while the men were rough and illiterate. The gentile fisher- men hated King Strang with all the bitterness which their independent and untamed natures possessed, and were continually at warfare with the people of Island City. For many years prior to 1851, Strang's success had exceeded his own anticipations, but now, for the first time, dark and threatening clouds be- gan to overcast the Beaver Island magnate. At the instigation of some of the saints, King Strang was arrested and taken to Detroit, on board of a United States war-steamer, to answer to the charge of treason, robbing the mails, squatting on government land, and various other grave charges, but was finally acquitted. On the 16th day of June, 1855, a conspiracy among his subjects resulted in his assassination on that day. Strang did not die at once. He was cared for until death claimed him by his first and lawful wife, who had declined to live with him during his polygamous career. Strang died on the 9th of June, 1855, and now occupies an unmarked grave at Spring Prairie .*
After Strang's death, his island kingdom was razed to the ground by the fishermen with torch and ax, while the saints were banished. To-day, there are few visible signs that a Mormon empire once flourished on Beaver Island.
* The Story of Wisconsin, 229.
CHAPTER LXI.
LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
The Lady Elgin Run Down by the Schooner Augusta .- Sinking of the Lady Elgin .- Three Hundred Lives Lost .- Exciting Scenes and Miraculous Escapes.
ONE of the saddest events that ever occurred on any of the lakes which form the great chain, was the sinking of the Lady Elgin, on Lake Michigan, in the early morn, on Saturday, September 8, 1860, off the shores of Waukegan.
This great disaster, which draped two cities in mourning-Milwaukee and Chicago-and caused great grief and sorrow for lost friends and relatives in various parts of America and Europe, was occasioned by the col- liding of the schooner Augusta with the steamer Lady Elgin on that fatal Saturday morning.
FRED. SNYDER.
Among the many important pas- sengers on board at the time of the disaster were Mr. F. A. Lumsden, of New Orleans, a North Carolinaian by birth. He was at this time editor of the Picayune, one of the most prom- inent of Southern papers. Mr. Lums- den, his wife, and fourteen-year-old son perished. Another gentleman of note was Herbert Ingram, Esq., M. P., well known, both in England and America, as the proprietor of the London Illustrated News. He and his son, who was with him, were among the lost.
The Lady Elgin was built in Buffalo in 1851, and was named after the wife of the Governor-General of British America-Lord Elgin. She was a side- wheel steamer, of about three hundred feet in length, and ten hundred and twenty-seven tons burden. She was a fast and favorite boat on the lakes in those days, and was used three or four times each year for excursion purposes.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
She was originally employed in the Canada traffic of the lakes, and carried the mails along the northern shores, while the Grand Trunk Railway was yet incomplete.
About 1855, she was purchased by Hibbard, Spencer & Co., of Chicago, to whom she belonged at the time of the calamity. Captain Wilson was her brave commander, a gentleman of ten years' experience in navigation of the Upper Lakes. He was a fine, brave, off-hand and vigilant man, and extremely popular among travelers on Lakes Michigan and Superior. Captain Wilson and his family were at this time residing in Chicago.
It was on Friday evening, at about 11:30 o'clock, when the steamer Lady Elgin left Chicago on her return trip with between five hundred and six hundred passengers on board, about four hundred of them being Milwaukee excursionists. Among the excursionists were many members of the Union Guards and the Black and Green Jaegers. A Milwaukee band, which had accompanied the excursionists from Milwaukee, played jolly airs, while the young people danced merrily, never dreaming of the terrible fate that so shortly awaited them.
When the steamer started, the wind was from the south, but about mid- night it veered around to the north and shortly blew a gale, accompanied by rain. The festivities in the cabin were kept up until about 2 o'clock Saturday morning. About this time the steamer received a terrible blow about midship, she trembled along her whole length, then fell over on one side. A terrible panic instantly followed. When the steamer righted herself, all was in dark- ness, the lamps having been shattered. Those who instantly rushed upon deck could just discern a large schooner nearly out of sight in the darkness and fog. No pen can more vividly describe the terrible events and scenes of horror than the personal narratives of the survivors, some of which we append.
Fred Snyder, the popular proprietor of Marble Hall, in Milwaukee, and the president of the Survivors' Club, was, for many years prior to the disaster, a seafaring man. Throughout the whole trying ordeal he was perfectly cool and collected, consequently, his personal statement, which we append, is vastly interesting.
FRED SNYDER ON THE RAFT. ( From the Milwaukee Sentinel. )
"We left Chicago September 7th, about 11:30 P. M., with about five hundred passengers. Everybody was in the best of spirits. There was music and dancing in the cabin, and all the passengers were enjoying themselves. The boat was crowded and there were not staterooms enough. Fred Rice had given me a stateroom and when I got tired and wanted to lie down I went to it, but found that it was occupied by some of the excursionists. I woke them up and told them that they were in my room. They asked me to let them sleep until midnight, and I said all right. I saw Mr. Davis, chief mate of the
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LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
steamer, and said to him in a joking way, ' Do you let me get picked out of my berth by one of those tooth-picks?' meaning a vessel's jib-boom. He laughingly said, 'We are on deck and will take care of the tooth-picks.' Lit- tle did we think that the jest would prove true before dawn.
"As I got out on deck I saw Mr. Quail, who came from Chicago with me. His berth had been taken by a friend. I spoke to Mr. Rice again and he said that we could sleep in the wheelman's berth. I went in, but Mr. Quail went to his own room. As I lay in the berth I heard the officers rushing about overhead. I had been asleep, and, though the collision woke me up, I did not hear it. But from the noise I thought something was wrong, and so I got up and put on my shoes. I tried to get out of the room, but could not find the door. I then woke the wheelman up to ask him where the door was. He told me go to sleep again as everything was all right. I said that I thought there was something the matter. I then went out and on the deck and met Mr. Quail. He had no hat on and his hair was standing on end. I asked him what the trouble was, and he said that we were all lost. I said, 'I guess not, you are frightened, we are all right.'
" I then went through the cabin on the lower deck and the water was washing over the floor. I then went to the door of the bar-room. There was one man in the room and he was calling for more drinks. He was a large, portly man, a German. From the condition of the boat I saw that she was sinking. I went up through the cabin in somewhat of a hurry, and went to the hurricane deck to get ready to swim. I went out to the smoke-stacks where they kept the life-planks, as they were called. They were planks about fifteen inches wide and four feet long, with ropes, so that you could tie your- self to them. While I was up there I saw how the wreck had occurred. The schooner Augusta, in the height of the squall, had struck the steamer on the port side, forward of the port paddle-wheel. She ran her jib-bocm through her pantry, while the pans and plates and all of the table outfit were on the schooner's deck. All on board were silent, their faces white with fright.
" Well, I took my life-planks and tied them together. Then I grasped the whistle rope that connects with the pilot house. I pulled the rope, and it seems to me as if I never had heard such a mournful whistle as was given. I then cut the rope and took what I wanted to lash my planks together. Then I pulled the rope again, and the whistle was still more mournful and much less powerful than it was at first. It was the last time that the steamer's whistle ever sounded. I then sat down aft of the pilot house, on the hurricane deck, waiting for the steamer to sink. Captain Wilson was standing at his post on the pilot house giving orders to the man at the wheel and shouting to the passengers to break off the stateroom doors and hand them on the upper deck, so that they could be used to save life. He ordered the yawl to be lowered
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
and mattresses to be put in her to stop up the hole made by the collision, but it was of no use. The chief mate had charge of the yawl, but could not get near enough to the steamer on account of her listing to port.
"Suddenly the captain cried out for everyone to run aft or the boat would plunge into the lake head first. Everybody ran aft and then the steamer sank stern first. The smoke-stacks tumbled across each other, and Captain Wilson fell off the pilot house near me. I did not stir from the spot where I had commenced lashing my planks. There were heart-rending shrieks and then there was a death-like silence. The steamer had sunk.
" The upper deck broke away from the steamer. Where I sat I was out of the water. Ilooked around me and all was dark. As I sat there in the dark- ness, wondering how things would turn out, I heard someone calling me in a muffled voice. I answered, and asked what was wanted. They answered back and I said we were lucky fellows. The voice replied that there was no luck in having the steamer go down. I said that that was bad, but that we were lucky to be on the deck which kept us a foot and a half out of the water, and that we were in the course of steamboats going up and down the lakes, and as soon as daybreak came some passing vessel would pick us up. By that time my eyes had become accustomed to the darkness. I could see who my companions were. The man I was talking to was one of the Union Guards, with a lady by his side kneeling and praying. I interrupted him and asked him why he did not take off his knapsack and belt, and throw them away so that he could swim. He did so. I then sat still waiting for daylight. Light at last came, and with it what a sight. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but human heads, for there was a black fog hanging about two feet from the water, and all one could see was the heads sticking out above the fog. Captain Wilson was standing near me inquiring about a friend from New Orleans, but could get no answer. I have forgotten what the friend's name was.
" On the hurricane deck near us was a woman with her child, about six months old. The child was crying from the cold and wet, as though its heart would break. The part they were on broke off and the captain reached for the child but could not get it. Then I took hold of him so as to steady him and he took the little one from its mother's arms just before she sank into the water. He carried the child to another part of the wreck, walking on a mass of floating timber, cabin furniture and broken parts of the deck.
" The wind increased and by eight o'clock was blowing a gale from the northeast, while the sea was getting very heavy, and the raft commenced breaking up. Lake Michigan for miles around was dotted with small rafts and floating objects with human beings on them. I was on one side of the raft, which was quite large, and as near as I could judge there must have been
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LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
twenty persons on it with me. I was knocked off by a big sea, and so were three or four more. I had my plank with me and as I swam back to the raft two or three of them hung on to me. The only way I could get back onto the raft was by taking hold of a coat-tail that was hanging over the edge and float- ing on the water. I grasped that and pulled myself and the people that were hanging to me back upon the raft. When I took hold of the coat the owner of it commenced to sing out, ' What are you doing ? Let go of that coat- let go of that coat.' I looked at him. He was lying on the deck holding on with both hands. I said to him : ' Don't be in a hurry; you are all right. A yoke of oxen could not pull you off.' He was one of the cooks of the steamer.
" While I was standing on the hurricane deck a piece of the steamer's arch came floating along. A big sea lifted the arch and when it came down it hit a man, who was near me, on the head. I watched him as he sank, but he did not come up again. Another time there came another piece of a broken arch with a boy hanging on to it. A big sea knocked another man off the raft and he took hold of the arch. His head was on one side and his feet were sticking out on the other, and the arch commenced rolling. I shouted to him to put his arms around the timber. I had no more than said this when he did so and he and the boy floated away in good shape.
" By this time the wreck commenced breaking up, the planks separating, and, as I called it, each person was captain of his own craft. When the raft broke up there was another person on the piece of wreck with me. We both worked like heroes. We had two pieces of board, and with them we kept the floating timber and rubbish away from us. But when we got into the breakers we capsized, and I was under the raft. I had to get out from underneath it or get drowned, and the only way I could do it was to put my foot against the raft and give it a shove. I did this and came to the surface. I looked around for my partner but he was gone and I never saw him again.
" There was an elderly lady floating on a part of the wreck near where I was. I should judge she was about fifty feet from me. She was kneeling and holding on for dear life, but when she got into the breakers she was washed off and drowned. There was a colored man close to her and by his looks and his actions he must have been sea-sick. I spoke to him and told him that if he did not keep his head out of the water, he would be drowned. The first breaker washed him off and that was the last I saw of him.
" When I was on the wreck I looked off towards the south, and I saw a man and woman on the pilot house. In a moment the woman was washed off and the man jumped after her. Suddenly a big sea came and washed the man back to the pilot house. He grasped the edge and succeeded in getting safely back on it and bringing the woman with him. They both landed safely on the
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beach, and when I mentioned the circumstances I found it was John Eviston and his wife. He deserved great credit, for when he jumped into the water to rescue his wife he seemed to be going to certain death. On a part of the wreck there was a young lady and four men, and within ten feet of them there was another piece of wreck with two men on it. All of a sudden the young lady fell off, and one of the men cried out, 'Save her, she is my daughter.' But before they could do anything, the girl turned her face toward her father, and, giving him one farewell look, sank. The men on the raft were saved.
" In the morning, when daylight had appeared, I saw a good many people on the part of the wreck north of me. I sang out and asked if Mr. Quail was there and the answer came, ' Is that you, Snyder?' I said it was, and asked him how he was feeling. He said, 'All right, but a Roman punch would not go bad this morning.' I said that a gin cocktail would suit me better. That was the last we spoke, for before long he went to his long home, where there is no manufacturing of Roman punches.
" When we got to the breakers, I got my planks under my left arm, with my right hand holding them so that I could steer them with the sea, and I never steered a straighter course in my seafaring life. When I neared shore I thought that I could touch bottom and made to the beach. I had no more than touched bottom and commenced to walk than a big breaker washed me up on the beach. Before I could get up, the undertow washed me out again and I thought I was gone, for the force of the waves took all of the breath out of me. In a minute another breaker washed me up high and dry. I have had some experience in breakers, so the last time I was washed up I dug my feet and hands into the sand and looked back to the water. I should judge it was twenty or thirty feet away from me when I got up and looked at the breakers and heavy sea. Mr. Shea and some other persons were on the beach where I was washed up. They took hold of me, and I said that I was all right, only that the lashings of the planks had bruised the flesh of my arm and pained me very much. I asked Mr. Shea if he had a knife. He took one from his pocket and tried to cut the rope, but could not do it. Then I took the knife and putting it sideways under the lashings and turned the edge up and cut the rope.
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