USA > Wisconsin > Fond du Lac County > Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 18
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Mrs. O. F. Lewis was born on Prince Edward's Island in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, December 20, 1833, and came to Rosendale in 1854.
James Fisher was born in Cheddar, Sommersetshire, England, May 22, 1828, and settled in the town of Forest in 1852.
Willett Johnston was born in Amenia, Dutchess county, New York, in 1830, and came to the town of Empire in 1849.
Mrs. Levi Tompkins was born in Shelby. Orleans county, New York, in 1838, and came to Fond du Lac in 1846.
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Thomas Burns was born in Oakfield in 1847.
Mrs. Mary E. Sampson was born in the town of Byron, July 5, 1845.
Gilbert Groesbeck was born in Albany county, New York, May 13, 1835, and came to Fond du Lac in 1857. He enlisted in the Tenth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers and served till the close of the war.
C. M. Hubbard was born in Genesee county, New York, in 1844, and came to the town of Oakfield in 1845.
J. M. Simmons was born in Berlin, Renssalaer county, New York, in 1839. He came to Oak Center, Fond du Lac county, in 1846.
Henry Youmans was born in Bengal, Forest county, New York, June 21, 1824, and came to Fond du Lac county in 1846.
H. A. Ripley was born in Sand Lake, Renssalaer county, New York, March 10, 1842, and came to the town of Oakfield in 1844.
George H. Ferris was born in St. George, Vermont, in 1834, and came to Fond du Lac in 1848.
Mrs. McIntosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842, and came to Fond du Lac in 1860.
William Ray was born in County Downs, Ireland, in 1842, and located in the town of Empire in . 1848.
Mrs. Lucinda P. McChain was born in Mesopotamia, Columbia county, Ohio, in 1827, and came to Fond du Lac in 1850.
Mrs. Almira Carroll was born in the town of Alto, November 15, 1848.
Mrs. M. E. Tiffany was born in Delaware, Franklin county, New York, May 8, 1842, and came to the town of Taycheedah in 1847.
Mrs. John Balson was born in Loren, Ohio, August 30, 1846, and came to the town of Byron in 1842.
General E. S. Bragg was born in Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, Feb- ruary 20, 1827, and came to Fond du Lac in 1856.
Sam Hounsell was born in Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England, August 9, 1837 and located in the town of Friendship in 1862.
John H. Simmons was born in Glens Falls, Warren county, New York, August 14, 1844, and came to the town of Byron in 1845.
S. H. Monroe (deceased), was born in Jericho, Chittenden county, Vermont, in 1843, and came to the town of Lamartine in 1847. He enlisted in the Second . Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers and served till the close of the war.
Mrs. Carrie M. Pike was born in Haverhill, Grafton county, New Hampshire, May 24. 1835, and came to Fond du Lac in 1843.
A. H. Kaye was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1837, and came to Wisconsin in 1843.
Mrs. D. H. Thompson was born in the town of Byron in 1848.
D. H. Thompson was born in Colerain, Franklin county, Massachusetts, in 1844, and came to Fond du Lac county in 1847.
Arthur Olmstead was born in Middlebury, Vernon county, Vermont, Feb- ruary 17, 1845, and came to Fond du Lac in 1847.
Franklin Swett was born in Lagrange, Walworth county, Wisconsin, March 25, 1842, and settled in the town of Empire in 1846.
S. M. Ingalls was born in Essex county, New York, in 1834, and came to Ripon. Fond du Lac county, in 1856.
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Ed. S. Evans was born in Shropshire, England, in 1836, and came to the town of Byron in 1845.
Mrs. S. Hounsell was born in London, England, November 11, 1845, and came to the town of Friendship in 1862.
John Liston was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1840, and came to Fond du Lac in 1848.
Israel Beaudreau was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1834, and came to Fond du Lac in 1850.
William Zimmerman was born in Starbine, Germany, in 1839, and settled in Taycheedah in 1854.
BEGINNING OF THINGS
On Thursday evening, January 14, 1847, Eli Hooker, then of the Fond du Lac Journal, delivered a temperance lecture at the schoolhouse.
In the winter of 1847-48, the people of the village convened twice for dona- tion purposes. The first time Rev. H. R. Colman received about $150, and the second time Rev. L. C. Spofford received $123.21-amounts fully equal to those resulting from donations at the present time.
In May, 1848, the first circus and menagerie-Raymond & Company's-vis- ited Fond du Lac village. Everybody went and it was the talk of the villagers for weeks afterwards.
The ground where S. B. & J. Amory first built their gunshop, and where Amory Hall now stands, cost $10 per foot.
Main street, beginning at Forest street, bears to the east several degrees, which makes "jogs" in the streets, extending either way, perpendicularly from it. The main street of the Fond du Lac Company's plat was thus diverted by Dr. Mason C. Darling, who turned it eastward from the east branch river in order to pre- serve the "water-lots." He had an idea the stream would be made navigable at some future day and lots next to it (for wharves and warehouses), would be valuable. His idea was never realized, and Macy street afterward cut through the land intended for "water-lots."
In 1845 the citizens of the village of Fond du Lac congregated to discuss the action of the county commissioners, who had purchased for the sheriff a pair of brass and steel shackles, at a cost of $2.50. The heavy taxpayers characterized the transaction as an "outrageous extravagance," while those slip-shod-and-go- easy citizens who occasionally fell into the custody of the sheriff vehemently pro- tested that it was the height of indignity to put shackles on a man in a free country.
The famous Taycheedah democratic convention was held the day on which . Edward Beeson published his paper, the Fond du Lac Journal. He was anxious to lay the proceedings before his patrons but could not do so and "catch the mail." He therefore wrote out an elaborate account of the proceedings of the convention and inserted it, the papers being all delivered before the convention had fairly met. In order to have everything jibe, he started for Taycheedah with the bogus proceedings in his pocket and actually had the same persons appointed for chairman, secretary and committee as were named in his article, and so manipulated the convention as to make the nominations tally exactly with
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those announced several hours before in the Journal. For nearly thirty years it was not settled whether Mr. Beeson was a wizard or had a vision.
On Monday, August 23, 1847, Dr. Cator's house was entered by robbers and $142 in cash taken. This was a heavy robbery for those days, and was a serious loss to Dr. Cator.
The first real steamboat excursion was in July, 1847, which went around Lake Winnebago on the steamer Manchester.
Upon one occasion, in the early '50s, J. C. ("Curt") Lewis and Nathaniel Waterbury desired to enter some pine lands above Shawano, one hundred miles from Fond du Lac. Mr. Waterbury started on horseback, taking a good animal from the livery stable, and Mr. Lewis started on foot. The friends of each laid wagers on which would reach the destination first. Those who bet on Mr. Lewis won, for he reached the place, located his lands and met Mr. Water- bury on a jaded horse several miles south of Shawano. On these wonderful journeys Mr. Lewis rested himself by running when he got tired of walking, and by walking when he was tired of running.
The first celery ever brought to Fond du Lac to be sold was grown by James Smith, an English gardener-now a resident of Empire-and driven about the streets and to the different groceries. For some time no one was found who knew what it was, and, after smelling of the neatly tied bunches, the people would turn up their noses, wag their heads and pass on by the other side. Finally, Dr. T. S. Wright, seeing Mr. Smith's wagon, seized a bunch of the celery and began to devour it, much to the astonishment of those who had been entirely satisfied with the smell of "the truck." Finally, James Ewen, who kept the Lewis House, purchased the entire lot, and thereafter Mr. Smith found a market for his "de- cayed pie plant," as some of the citizens called the celery.
J. W. Partridge was badly injured in the famous Belleville railway disaster of November 1, 1859. He boarded at the Lewis House, which stood on the corner of Main and Sheboygan streets, where the Patty House now stands, and had a room in the third story. The polls for that ward were held in the same building, on the ground floor, and directly under Mr. Partridge's bedroom win- dow. He had a strong desire to vote, but could not leave his bed. He asked the inspectors to allow a friend to deposit a ballot for him but they refused, as they did of course, to carry the ballot box to his room. But T. F. Strong, Jr., mastered the situation. He moved Mr. Partridge's bed to the window, got a string of sufficient length to reach the ground. Mr. Partridge attached a ballot to the string and leaned out of the window so that the chairman of the ward could know and identify him, and the ballot was lowered and received.
The first Fourth of July celebration ever held in Fond du Lac was in 1848, when speeches were made by S. Judd, of Fox Lake, and S. W. Beall, G. D. Ruggles, Alexander W. Stow and E. W. Drury. The Sunday school scholars had a picnic and the day was generally observed.
While searching for his oxen, Charles Bigford was drowned in Fond du Lac river, on the 18th of October, 1848.
In October, 1847, Finley & Morrow established a stage line between Fond du Lac and Oshkosh, and, in the following November, a weekly stage and mail line was established between Fond du Lac and Watertown.
On the 22d of October, 1847, considerable excitement was caused by the
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lecture of a fugitive slave, named Lewis Washington, on the condition of negroes in the south. He was the first negro to appear in public in Fond du Lac.
In 1844, George McWilliams sold three hundred bushels of potatoes, which he had raised the year before on the west side of the river and kept through the winter in "heaps," covered with prairie grass and earth, for three shillings per bushel. Settlers came from twenty miles in either direction to secure them. He also fattened a ton of pork, which was the first exported from the settlement or fattened, except for family use.
After cars began to run to Fond du Lac in 1859, on what is now the Chicago & Northwestern railway, the "devil" on one of the city papers, who had been left in charge of the office during the editor's absence, lost his position and pay by writing and publishing with all due gravity the following descriptive paragraph : "The cars are quite long, and capable of holding sixty passengers with doors at each end."
John A. Eastman built the first law office in Fond du Lac. It stood on Main street, about half way between First and Second streets.
On the 27th of January, 1849, a public meeting was held at the court house to organize for protection against horse thieves and burglars, their depredations hav- ing become unbearable.
A fellow came from Racine to Fond du Lac in the latter part of 1848 to take one of the Fountain City belles to wife, and, the next week, the following para- graph in the paper set the society gossipers in a flurry ..
"A FINE WEDDING GIFT .- Giving the bride the prairie itch while vow- ing at the altar to love, cherish and protect. The idea is not original with us. We deal only in facts."
In the days before artesian wells were known in Fond du Lac, and even as late as 1846-47, the settlers were compelled to go for fresh water to a spring situ- ated three-quarters of a mile west of Main street, where B. F. Moore's stone quarry now is.
There were few gardens belonging to the first settlers of Fond du Lac which were inclosed by fences, and the potatoes and "sass" raised therein by the thrifty, but needy, inhabitants were very frequently stolen by the Indians, who were nu- merous. They were bold about their depredations of this sort, solemnly entering the gardens in broad daylight, and often, despite all protests and threats appropri- ating whatever they desired.
Edward Beeson, afterward editor of the Wisconsin Farmer, gave to Fond du Lac the name of "Fountain City," by referring to it in his paper as "the city of fountains," finally reducing the expression to "Fountain City."
In August, 1848, a tri-weekly mail was established between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee.
In September, 1849, two persons, a woman and her child, died in Fond du Lac with the cholera. For a few days there was great consternation lest the dis- ease should spread, but it did not.
The city of Fond du Lac was lighted by gas the first time on the evening of Thursday, September 18, 1862.
The common council ordered at its second meeting, in September, 1862, that a committee, composed of its members, go to Chicago as a guard of honor for the body of Edward S. Bragg, who had been reported killed in battle. The commit-
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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
tee went, as directed, but found instead of General Bragg's body that of E. A. Brown. Mr. Brown was buried in the grave dug for the body of Mr. Bragg.
In May, 1867, Charles Susan sold in Fond du Lac one hundred and fifty bushels of wheat for $500 to John Marshall. On the same day, C. B. Bartlett paid $105 to John H. Martin for a fat cow. Those were war prices.
The first schoolhouse in the city of Fond du Lac was built in 1843, on Main street, between Second and Third streets.
Patrick Kelly and family were the first of the Irish race to settle in Fond du Lac county, in Byron in 1839.
The first territorial district court for Fond du Lac county was held at the schoolhouse in Fond du Lac, June 5, 1844.
The first Catholic services at Fond du Lac were held by Rev. F. X. Bonduel in 1847.
Vol. I-10
GEN. EDWARD S. BRAGG
CHAPTER VIII WAR AND WARRIORS
FOND DU LAC IN THE CIVIL WAR-NAMES OF ORGANIZATIONS AND MEMBERS-GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC-THE FOND DU LAC GUARDS-HIBERNIAN GUARDS-COM- PANY E IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
PATRIOTIC FOND DU LAC
The part taken by Fond du Lac county in the Civil war gave her a most honorable place in the archives of the state and nation. The people of the community were loyally and heartily for the maintenance of the Union and were ready and willing to assist the president in putting down rebellion and kill- ing the viper of secession. The traitorous assault upon the flag at Fort Sum- ter was heard with the intensest indignation and horror by the great body of the citizenry of Fond du Lac county and when the astounding news was fully realized that Fort Sumter had surrendered all was excitement and the eager- ness for details was beyond description. Business stopped on every side. The merchant, banker, lawyer, farmer and artisan jostled one another to learn every detail of the great crisis that had come upon the nation. Meetings, in halls and upon street corners, were addressed by citizens of influence and the local journalists printed regular and extra editions of their papers, which teemed with intelligence relative to the situation, crowding out the more prosaic items of general interest. The presses were kept busy and editor, compositor and pressmen were taxed to the limit of physical endurance.
The news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon and had surrendered, reached Fond du Lac, Ripon and Waupun, Saturday evening, April 13, 1861. but was not generally disseminated until Sunday. Everything was dropped and people rushed to the centers of population and information for the latest news. Newspapers were in demand and commanded almost any price, one man pay- ing a dollar for the Chicago Tribune. Impromptu meetings to sustain the gov- ernment were held everywhere, the first of which any record was left being held Sunday evening, April 14th in the city of Fond du Lac. On Thursday evening the largest meeting ever held in this city was addressed at Amory Hall by Edward S. Bragg, J. M. Gillet, S. E. Lefferts and Mason C. Darling. The intensity of the excitement, patriotism and enthusiasm manifested cannot be described. Resolutions upholding the government and couched in the strongest possible language were adopted. About $4,000 was raised to care for the families of the soldiers and pledges were offered on every hand to furnish wood, meat, flour and provisions to soldiers' wives and children. Men of-
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fered houses free of rent ; physicians offered medical attendance free of charge, and the city council voted at a special meeting, although it had no right to do so, $5,000 to aid soldiers' families. Patriotism and generosity ran riot. War meet- ings were appointed in almost every schoolhouse in the county, and speakers were in great demand. The demand, however, was supplied as men who had never made a speech before, and have not since, proved to be fountains of pa- triotic eloquence. The Reporter of Fond du Lac, in its issue of April 27, 1861. thus briefly, but graphically describes the excitement of the hour :
"We should perhaps make an apology that the Reporter is lacking this week in the usual amount of matter. The events of the week have occupied our whole attention. Our workmen are worn down with night work in getting out extras of telegraphic reports, which we print morning and evening. Nor can we publish all the war news for want of room and for want of typesetters to get up the type. Two of our workmen have enlisted. .
"The war feeling is so intense and absorbing that much of the business of our city has been stopped; men are collected in crowds on the streets and be- fore the recruiting office of Colonel Lefferts. Mechanics have left their shops, clerks their desks, printers their cases, laborers their usual employments, and all are prepared to take up arms in defense of the flag of their country."
Captain John McGinnis offered the services of the Hibernian Guards of Fond du Lac, five days after Governor Randall's proclamation was posted, and they were accepted. This was the first offer of a company from Fond du Lac county. It was not the first company to leave for camp, as it was composed of only thirty men who were willing to fight, and some recruiting was necessary to secure the necessary seventy-eight.
The first man to enlist in Fond du Lac county was Colwert K. Pier, and the second was Christian Klock. This was on Monday forenoon, April 15, and they signed the roll in S. E. Lefferts' office at 494 Main street.
Party lines were nearly obliterated, old feuds were forgotten and a new era in good fellowship and patriotism inaugurated. Old enemies, both political and social, met at recruiting gatherings and made speeches together. Patriotism and a desire to do something for their country were not confined to the men. The ladies were busy preparing little things for the soldiers to take with them ; making flags, committing patriotic songs, making rosettes of red, white and blue, and lending their influence by being present at all war meetings. When the first company left Fond du Lac, each member was presented by the ladies with an elegant silk rosette and a Testament, and the company with a large and costly flag. These were presented at Amory Hall on Tuesday evening, April 31, at which time the company assembled to take the army oath. W. C. . Kellogg administered the oath, and so enthusiastic were the spectators that one and all arose and took the solemn obligation also. Rev. George B. East- man made a prayer and E. S. Bragg the following speech :
"Citizen Soldiers: In obedience to your patriotic impulses to defend the flag hallowed by the blood of patriots, the maintenance of which was be- queathed to you as a legacy of a glorious ancestry, you are about to bid adieu to friends and kindred, to put off the garb of peace and assume the 'slow measured tread of grim visaged war.' In days of old, the knights did his devoir under the colors of his 'ladye-love.' The remembrance of the sweet.
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sad parting cheered him when gloom was stealing o'er his spirit, and rendered doubly dear the achievements of his arm. In later days-in the times which tried men's souls-the women of America cheered the soul of the patriot; the mother gave her husband and son as willing offerings, and the maiden wiped the death-damp from the brow of her lover without a murmur. The race of noble women is not yet extinct. They are as ready now as then, at their coun- try's call, to make the sacrifice.
"Captain McCall, through me the women of Fond du Lac bid you and your soldiers God-speed in your holy purpose. By my hand they entrust you with these colors as a parting token. Maintain them in the front of the battle. Let them never be sullied by an ignoble act on the field, or in the camp. Protect them, if need be, with your blood, remembering always that they possess the talismanic power of a woman's blessing."
Captain J. V. McCall responded :
"On behalf of the Badgers, I tender to the ladies of Fond du Lac our heart- jest thanks for this beautiful flag, assuring them that each and all of us, rank and file, will do our utmost to protect it from dishonor. And whether on the field or in camp, on duty or off, the remembrance of the fair givers will ever be cherished."
Two days after this, May 2, 1861, the company took its departure amid a strange commingling of cheers, sobs and tears. The train left Thursday morn- ing over the Chicago & Northwestern railway from Fond du Lac, and the city was literally jammed with people from all parts of the county, to whom the idea of war and the sight of soldiers were novel and inspiriting.
Before their departure, a splendid dinner was served by the proprietor of the Lewis House, B. S. Patty, while the bands discoursed music, and patriotic speeches were made outside the hotel. This company (I), called the "Badger Boys," was assigned to the First Wisconsin Regiment, was the first body of Fond du Lac men to start for the war, and consisted of the following officers and privates :
Captain, James V. McCall; first lieutenant, Thomas H. Green ; ensign, Henry Decker; first sergeant, Lyman M. Ward; second sergeant, William S. Burrows; third sergeant, Walter T. Coneys; fourth sergeant, Ed. F. Ferris; . first corporal, Ed. T. Midgely ; second corporal, Milton Ewen; third corporal, Timothy F. Strong, Jr .; fourth corporal, Henry Taylor.
Privates : Kelsey M. Adams, Levi Annis, George Beaver, David Bidwell, H. E. Barrette, David Babcock, Joseph Buschar, John N. Curtis, Edward B. Crofoot, Volney Chapman, S. Colman, Jr., William E. Chase, C. T. Carpen- ter, Henry W. Durand, E. P. Downer, Matthew Emerson, John Farrel, John V. Frost, Kingham Flint, Martin V. Fargo, William A. Fargo, William M. Gard- ner, F. Grasslee, John Grignon, R. Gilbraith, George R. Gates, H. W. Hub- bell, W. S. Horton, Isadore Heibert, Charles S. Henry, Lewis Hart, John S. Hagan, Christian Klock, C. L. Kimball, William Knothardt, Joseph King, Mer- ion Lake, Andrew Lundry, Harrison Matthews, Norton W. Mack, Theodore. Magneusan, Charles H. Morgan, John Oliver, Charles Palmer, Albert W. Paine, James G. Potter, Colwert K. Pier, M. W. Peters, Josiah Prosser, William A. Place, Richard Peacock, John Reichardt, George P. Robinson, Francis G. Rice. R. G. Stevens, Samuel Sherwood, Roswell M. Sawyer, Leonard Shaw, George
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T. Wilkins, Parley E. Wilson, George E. Wood, John Wiley, M. D. Wilson, Robert Whittleton, H. Walters, Delos A. Ward, Byron A. Wheeler and Charles Williams.
Innumerable copies of the Star Spangled Banner, and miniature flags, on which were printed various patriotic mottoes, and extracts from the speeches of men, were scattered about the country, and the work of recruiting went on at an astonishing rate, the time of enlistment at first being for only ninety days. Flags floated everywhere. Bulletins naming the prominent men who had enlisted and scraps containing the seditious utterances of southern men and officers were freely circulated to increase, if possible, the enthusiasm for enlisting, and at the war meetings men who could not enlist would "bid" for volunteers. That is, A would call out, "I will give $50 for the next volunteer ;" B would say, "I'll give $100 and so on until another volunteer was secured, the meetings continuing until late at night. A description of the wild excitement and intense enthusiasm of one war meeting would apply to all of them, and they were held everywhere in the county.
The following card, printed on imitation bank paper, was suddenly and un- accountably found in liberal circulation, furnishing the salaries of soldiers in different positions : colonel, $218 per month ; lieutenant colonel, $194 ; ma- jor, $175; captain, $118; first lieutenant, $108.50; second lieutenant, $103.50; brevet second lieutenant, $103.50; first, or orderly sergeant, $29; other ser- geants, $27 ; corporals, $22 ; privates, $20, and musicians, $21 per month.
These figures, though not correct, mixed well with the enthusiasm of the hour and recruiting went on more rapidly than ever, until it was announced in one of the local papers of May 25, 1861, that "Fond du Lac county had fur- nished a greater number of volunteers than any other county in the state. not even excepting Milwaukee. We have now nine full companies and three more nearly full, more than enough for one full regiment. Of these, six companies have enlisted for three years, or during the war. Should the exigencies of the war require it, we are confident the number could be doubled in this county. Our volunteers compare favorably with any in the state. They are a fine, able- bodied set of men, who entered into this business because they felt it their duty to do so, leaving their fields and workshops and occupations to be supplied by others. It is an indisputable fact that Captain McCall's company stands at the head of First Regiment for good order, sobriety and military bearing. They have earned a reputation in their short period of camp life, of which they may well feel proud. Should their example be followed by the remaining com- panies, Fond du Lac will have the proud distinction of having better men in the field, as well as more of them, than any county in the state."
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