USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 39
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Mrs. Frances L. Dunham, in an entertaining paper on "Old Houses of De Pere," written for the Green Bay Historical Society, thus describes some of the historic buildings :
"The building known as the old bank, was built in 1836, probably by the same architect who built the Wilcox house and the Jordon and Dunham houses, for they resemble each other. This was built by the Fox River Hydraulic Co., and used by them as a bank; it stood just south of the California House, and was later used as a dwelling. It was moved to its present location on Broadway near Cass street, nearly if not quite fifty years ago and was used as a school for many years, then as an Episcopal church, Mr. Haff preaching there and others, and later the Rev. George Whitney, being the resident pastor here for several years. After services here were discontinued, Mr. Sharpe bought the place, and used it for years as a storeroom for his furniture and finally about two years ago Mr. Fleck bought it and transformed it into a modern dwelling, though it still retains its classic pillars.
"The old stone schoolhouse built in 1857, was another of the very old build- ings ; the interior was destroyed by fire in April, 1896; later the still standing walls were pulled down.
"The first schools appear to have had only one teacher with an unlimited num- ber of pupils. E. F. Parker was one of the early teachers, coming here to teach somewhere near 1864 or 1865, while he completed his law studies. He has told me that he had so many pupils and of such varied ages and grades, that he was obliged to form them into so many classes, that he had to limit the recitation of each class to five minutes in order to get through all in the two sessions each day. He had a novel and peculiar way of enforcing discipline-a wooden ball,
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about three inches in diameter, which he would stiddenly throw at the offending scholar when he was caught talking, and to add to the pain and disgrace he would oblige the scholar to pick up the ball and bring it back to him before all of the scholars so as to be ready to hurl it to the next bad boy.
"One very old house, a tavern called 'The Village House,' was built by W. P. Call; he kept it himself as a tavern, for many years. Ile was a man of a good deal of temper when things went wrong, and they often did for him. In those days small kerosene lamps were used in all the bedrooms and in the morning they would take them from the rooms and place them on the floor at the head of the steep narrow stairs, when they were all taken down together to be refilled. On one occasion, Mr. Call got mad, to put it mildly, and coming out to the upper landing, kicked all the lamps down stairs together. This tavern stood on the spot now occupied by the opera house ; the roof of the piazza extended over the sidewalk and the floor of the piazza was the sidewalk."
De Pere is surrounded by a wonderfully fertile and productive contributary country, and in area, in population, in wealth, in commerce, in industry, and in municipal betterments is pressing forward with steady, substantial success.
In June, 1830, Henry S. Baird, as district enumerator for the county of Brown, made an official schedule intended for the national census of that year, and which is considered intich more accurate that the later one of 1836, which was made merely for purposes of territorial apportionment. The area comprising later the entire tract of land known as Wisconsin territory was in 1830, divided into two counties only, the meridian running north and south, "through the middle of the portage between Fox river and the Quisconsin river," the portion lying east of that meridian being Brown county, with its seat of justice "within six miles of the mouth of Fox river," and that lying to the west, Crawford county with Prairie Du Chien as its seat of justice.
The total population of Brown county at that time was 1, 154, of whom 474 were members of the garrisons of Forts Howard and Winnebago, thus leaving 680 as the number of regular inhabitants. These consisted of 402 males and 274 females, or 676 inhabitants ; a discrepancy of four from the schedule of details.
When the first territorial census was taken in 1836, by Ebenezer Childs, the first sheriff of Brown county after Wisconsin became a territory, the population of Brown county was given at 2,706. No towns are given, the inhabitants of the several settlements and the garrison of Fort Howard being included simply as belonging to Brown county. The "heads of families with number in each family" is given ; the size of some of the "families" being phenomenal. Thus the com- mandant at Fort Howard, Captain Low, was credited with a family of 114, doubt- less his entire military household, with possibly the exception of the other offi- cers stationed there at the time, who were numbered separately. A man like John P. Arndt, who had extensive trading connections, included in his "family" of seventy-four, all his crews of clerks, as well as the inmates of his house and the strangers sojourning there. Daniel Whitney is credited with a "family" of forty-nine, these no doubt including his far-scattered workmen in frontier saw- mills, lumber camps, and at the Helena shot-tower. A steady stream of immi- gration was pouring into Wisconsin by the time the year 1840 had been reached, and many of our cities were founded at that time.
At the Wisconsin legislative session of 1840, Iloel S. Wright was authorized
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to erect a toll bridge across Fox river at the mouth of Plum creek. Hoel S. Wright, the founder of Wrightstown, and instigator of many improvements in the Fox river valley at an early day, was an energetic, progressive Vermonter who came west in 1833. IIe chose as a place of settlement the picturesque locality on the banks of Fox river, twelve miles above Green Bay, where the village of Wrightstown, known as East and West Wrightstown, is situated. It was a lonely spot eighty years ago, when Wright, with his wife and family took up his residence there; the nearest white neighbor was five miles away, but the river at this point was a favorite Indian camping ground,-the Indian name " Waupekun," and Plum creek, a stream worthy of mention in Stam- baugh's report of 1830 as of consequence, rising "at the foot of the mountain." The mountain to which Stambaugh alludes many times in his official statement is the lime stone ledge, which extends the length of Brown county, and the source of many of the county streams.
Wright's indomitable courage and perseverance won the day, and a com- fortable home. A little village grew within a few years around the spot called by its founder Bridgeport, and persisted in by him until after the town of Wrightstown was set off and named by the county board in honor of that burg's first and most prominent early settler. Later the name was given to the village, now one of the most thriving of the river towns.
It was Hoel S. Wright, who in 1836, established a ferry at this point for the convenience of travelers on the military road which had been cut through from Fort Howard to Fort Winnebago, and "Wright's Ferry" was a well-known crossing for many years. The enterprising New Englander also built in 1844, a water mill on Plum creek, which ranks among the earliest milling ventures of the county, and in 1847 added a hotel to his other business ventures at this point, the "American House," a hostelry, familiar to the early time traveler by stage or boat, as a most comfortable resting place. Rumor has it that at that epoch cats were at a premium among the early settlers, and that Hoel S. Wright purchased his first forty acres of land from the sale of felines. The govern- ment price of land at that time was $1.25 per acre, so that cats at $2.00 apiece proved a profitable investment.
The business followed by the majority of settlers along the river during the decade following 1830, was hunting, trapping and trading with the Indians, with a very little gardening thrown in, and Wright, with the rest, established a trading post. He was also for years the member from Wrightstown on the county board of supervisors, served in the state legislature, and was actively interested in the inauguration and prosecution of internal improvements.
On January 14, 1851, the following resolution was adopted by the board of supervisors: "Resolved, That a new town be set off from the town of Kau- kaulin, embracing town 21, range 19, and town 21, range 20, and that part of town 22, range 19, lying on the east side of Fox river. Said town so set off to be called Wrightstown; and that the first election of town officers be held at the house of Hoel S. Wright, in Bridgeport, on the first Tuesday in April ensuing."
The minutes of the adjourned regular meeting of the board of trustees of the borough of Green Bay and which was held after the great fire of November, 1853, has on record this item :
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"It has been stated to the board by Hoel S. Wright, that the commissioners of the Green Bay & Taycheedah Plank Road Co. have appointed a commission to call upon this board for a subscription to the capital stock of said company, which committee will probably call within a few days, and would have been present tonight, but for the storm and rain." The minutes further state that the board of trustees of the borough of Green Bay voted the sum of $20,000 to the capital stock of the Green Bay & Taycheedah Plank Road Co., payable in the bonds of the borough at seven per cent per annum under the act authorizing said borough of Green Bay to subscribe to the stock of plank and railroads.
The projected Green Bay and Taycheedah plank road was to run from Fond du Lac to Green Bay, and was the first, as far as can be found, of that style of road-making in Brown county. It was, when constructed, a much commended route of travel, a detriment to its success, however, being the fact that the incorporators belonging to Fond du Lac, Green Bay, De Pere, and Wrights- town, insisted that the work should begin simultaneously at each end and work towards the middle. Years passed before this central morass was bridged. A settler of 1858, in Wrightstown, says: "I remember my first impression was that the village was a large black mud hole, like the one we had been traveling through all day. The roads were crooked, and narrow, and of an infinite depth."
This was only one of many similar corporations to which the different towns in Brown county subscribed at this time in order to facilitate road transpor- tation. In addition there was the Green Bay, De Pere and Kaukauna plank road and others were projected toward Suamico and New Franken. Short pieces of plank road, and more often corduroy, were put in between the many mills that were by the year 1855, springing up all through the county. The rapid growth of the lumber industry called for passable highways whereby shingles and lumber could be carted to the river ports, and the mills were called upon to furnish the heavy rough plank used in this popular style of pioneer road- making.
Toll gates were established at intervals along the Green Bay and Taycheedah plank road, and after the opening of these toll gates, the financial condition of the company seemed less stringent, a report of 1854 showing that twelve per cent dividend had been paid that year to stockholders on their invested capital.
The last of these old toll houses, the one which originally stood on lot 8, block 68, and flush with the road in Green Bay city, was burned in 1905, on block 69, where it then stood.
Although the waterpower at Wrightstown is not as heavy as at other points along Fox river, yet it has always, since the first steam mill was built by F. N. Wright & Company in 1855, been a manufacturing town. Flouring mills, saw mills and stave factories followed in rapid succession, and the town of Wrights- town is today one of the most prosperous and wealthy in Brown county.
The first settlers are given as H. S. Wright, F. N. Wright, Dr. David Ward, and others. Garner kept the toll gate about half a mile below what was then called in 1858 the village. In 1857 C. G. Mueller, later a prominent man in the town, took up his residence there, and many of the Wrightstown manufacturing and mercantile industries are due to his capital and enterprise. Others of an earlier day were the Kellogg Brothers, who built in 1871 the first flouring mill in the town, and ground for the farmers about 32,000 bushels of grain per year ; Arthur
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Kellogg, an enterprising business man, and among the farmers, Nicolas Smith, N. Leavitt. Jacob Ilein. N. G. Grant and Charles Finnegan.
The villages of Greenleaf. Ledgeville, and East Wrightstown are all in the town of Wrightstown, the center of a magnificent farming district and cheese factories and creameries abound. Here, as throughout the whole of Brown county, are to be found enormous barns with silos attached, and the level stretches of country are given to the generous cultivation of the land and the raising of herds of cattle for dairying purposes. The ride from the village of Wrightstown across to Greenleaf is full of beauty, the latter hamlet nestling almost under the shadow of the great stone ledge which rises here to lofty heights. The Greenleaf Stone Company is located here. From Greenleaf to Green Bay runs a straight and even road, much used by motorists and pleasure seekers, who enjoy its level stretches and the diversified landscape.
The town of l'ittsfield was organized in 1852, and included until the year 1858 all of Suamico also. On February 15. 1853. the following townships were represented on the county board: John P. Arndt, Green Bay, chairman ; Hoel S. Wright, Wrightstown; J. Gilman, De Pere; Thomas Bennett, Fort Howard: J. Baldwin, Pittsfield; William Field, De Pere, clerk. (Journal of proceedings of the board of supervisors. )
When set off in 1852, Pittsfield was one of the most heavily wooded portions of Brown county. Dense forests of pine and hemlock stretched unbroken through- out its entire area, watered by the Suamico river and numerous smaller streams. Sawmills were built all along these creeks, and the district became a center for the lumber industry. George R. Cooke. N. C. Foster, Sylvanus Wright and Oscar Gray all operated mills in Pittsfield, and at one time as many as ten mills were sawing for all they were worth in the settlement which gained the name of Mill Center, and screeched their challenge to the world at dawn and noonday. The list of early settlers is incomplete, but among the prosperous farmers men- tioned as belonging to Pittsfield in 1876, were Luther Wilson, James Potter, A. T. Buckman, F. Streckenback, T. Delaney, T. Doran, F. Gothe, and S. Wight, who was a lumberman as well. Those having interests in Pittsfield some years later were E. Boyden, Nicolas Caspar. John W. Delaney, F. Frelise. H. E. Mowers, and William Streckenbach.
The great fires of 1871 destroyed much of the timber in the town of Pitts- field, and from that time on the number of mills began sensibly to diminish, although those of A. L. Sanborn. L. W. Dunham and Oscar Gray remained. In still later years, Mathas Miller operated a mill at the Center. The inhabitants. as in other parts of Brown county, turned their attention to farming, to truck gardening and dairying, and Pittsfield today shows small evidence of the great milling period in its history. Only an occasional deserted mill of primitive make recalls that busy, prosperous time in the lumber epoch.
This whole district is now given over to agriculture and as a practical lumber- man of those bygone days now says, "One good crop is more profitable today than all the wealth taken from the forest." The farmer of today considers beauty as well as utility in building his home, and the wide veranda, well kept front yard, filled with flowers and blooming shrubs, is as much considered and as carefully cultivated as the more lucrative part of the farm. In riding through the town of Pittsfield in the springtime the thick hedges of lilac bushes that
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form dividing lines between flower and vegetable garden or orchard on almost every farm add immensely to the beauty of the country.
On the extreme northwest corner of the town of Pittsfield, so that it lies within the three counties of Brown, Shawano and Oconto, is Pulaski, which was settled by Polish colonists twenty-five years ago, and is a flourishing village of 486 population.
The congregation of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was organ- ized on April 27, 1887. On the same date was founded by Polish fathers of the Franciscan order a monastery for Polish members of the order. Later, Father Anthony Wisniewski, O. S. F., was transferred to Green Bay, and was made the first Superior of the large Franciscan monastery at that place. Pittsfield shows an increase in population of 3.69 in the census of 1910, and a total of 1,410.
On the 10th of July, 1856, notice was published in the Green Bay Advocate that a new town had been set off from the towns of Green Bay and De Pere to be called the town of Belleview. On November 20th of that same year it was voted in the county board that the portion of Brown county extending on the east bank of Fox river "from the point where the south line of the city of Green Bay strikes said river shall be constituted into a town to be called Manitou ; the election of officers to be held on the first Tuesday of April, 1857." It was at first the pleasure of the county board that this choice bit of level farming land should be named after the beautiful winding stream that divided the town in two, called successively the Manitou, Devil, and within the last fifty years East river. Belleview was finally the name agreed upon by Harry E. Eastman and Judge David Agry, who had the matter in charge, and suited well the charming stretch of country lying between the two rivers and beyond. The settlement of the town was commenced about the year 1850, by an industrious and thrifty class of Germans.
The whole town of Bellevue is under excellent cultivation, the soil is fertile, especially in the valley portion ; the eastern part is hilly, but all is adapted to farm- ing purposes. When first set off, Bellevue included also what is now the town of Allouez, from which it was separated in 1873. The territory now composing it comprises that portion of the original town lying east of East river, in all but little more than eight thousand acres of land. A part of this land was known as the "lost section," as for some cause unknown it was never brought into market like other government lands. It was, however, settled upon by Germans and Hollanders from 1851 until 1855, who remained upon it under the preemption law until May, 1865, when it was conveyed to them by an act of congress, at $1.25 per acre.
In 1873 that portion of Bellevue, the spelling now in use, lying between Devil river and Fox river, was set off as the town of Allouez, the name being given in recognition of the famous Jesuit missionary, Claude Allouez, who first brought civilization to these shores. The country embraced in the town of Allouez was the point of settlement for the first Americans who sought homes west of Lake Michigan, and was, when in 1856 set off as part of Bellevue, well settled and marked by comfortable farms. Many residents of Green Bay, former dwellers in Shantytown, continued to hold land outside the city limits and raised their own supplies for family use.
Allouez remained the last stronghold of the French Canadian families descend-
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ants of the first settlers, until comparatively recent years. The Ducharmes. Solomons, Porliers, the Briquelets and Dousmans all owned homes in this delightful spot. At Shantytown, "Chandidan," as they pronounced it, was the home of Col. Joseph Ducharme.
Col. Joseph Ducharme and family lived in a genuine French home on the site of the north building of the Hochgreve brewery. The dwelling was large with a spacious porch in front, the roof coming low down, making deep caves. The house contained a large chimney, and the French windows which opened like doors were filled in with very small glass. At the rear of the house a large pine tree spread its long branches and the roots were as large as a small tree. Colonel Ducharme had been in the French army and had still in his possession some of his military clothes in which he would dress on special occasions. "So proud, so proud was Colonel Ducharme" that when he stepped forth dressed in his uniform the habitants would whisper to one another with sly winks and nudges, "He thinks no doubt to open St. Peter's gate with that grande aire and the words, 'I am Colonel Ducharme.'"
His four sons were all musicians and for many years the dancers of Green Bay and vicinity footed it lightly and frequently to the strains of Ducharme's orchestra.
In 1875, Rufus B. Kellogg, a man of wealth and interested in the growth of the county, purchased a large portion of Allouez for a stock farm, in order to improve the breed of horses used in Brown county, Percheron stock being brought over from Normandy at great expense. This well kept model farm com- prising many hundred acres was, following the death of the owner, divided up into lots and is rapidly being bought up for resident sites and small farms.
The Cadle farm and site of the first Episcopal mission building and school is also situated in the town of Allouez. The Roman Catholic cemetery and site of the first village church built under the supervision of Fathers Badin and Mazzuchelli in 1830, and the village site of old Menomineeville, the first county seat established by law west of Lake Michigan, are in Allonez.
The brewery of Hochgreve Brothers on the river shore succeeds the brewery of Hochgreve & Rahr, built in Shantytown in 1858, and at that time the third to be erected in this vicinity. The first as far as known was built on the bay shore by Philip Hannon, not long after the influx of Belgian colonists to Bay Settlement. The building stood just south of the old stone dock in the town of Scott, and of the beer made there Xavier Martin writes: "Philip Hannon, one of the first settlers, built a brewery at which he made a peculiar kind of beer ; when a Belgian had drunk sixty or seventy glasses of that beverage, he would begin to feel good, and then he would sing a certain song, beginning, 'Nous avons planté des Canadas avec Marie Doudouye.' The music of this is not very stir- ring nor the words very patriotic, somewhat resembling the dying song of a Chippewa Indian ; but when sung, it always indicated that the kegs were empty and the feast nearly over."
Holland was set off from the town of Wrightstown in 1853, the first election for town officers being held at the house of John Evres, in April of the folowing year. Its settlement, however, antedated this event some five years.
In 1848 three ships, the "Mary Magdalena," the "Liberia," and the "Amer- ica," left Rotterdam with a colony of Holland immigrants destined for Wisconsin.
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Father Van den Broeck, who had labored in Green Bay and Little Chute from his coming to the west in 1834, returned to Holland in 1847, for the purpose of inducing his countrymen to settle in Wisconsin. Among these first Dutch colon- ists was John H. M. Wigman, who became within a few years a prominent professional man in Brown county and the leader in many movements for reform among his own countrymen. A portion of the colonists remained in Cleveland, but the bulk arrived in Green Bay early in June, 1848. Of these a few took up their residence in that town; all who came in the "Mary Mag- dalena" settled with Father Van den Broeck on the site of Iometa's Indian village at the Little Chute, while the remainder of the colonists, those who sailed in the "Liberia" and "America." settled for the most part in "Franciscus Bosch," now Holland. They were a sturdy lot, hard workers, devout, practical Catholics. who by dint of hard labor and temperate habits were soon able to better their condition in life.
Among these first settlers in Franciscus Bosch were Henry Gerritts, Albert Van den Berg, John Verboort, John Tielemans, Henry Van de Hey, Martin Verkuilen, H. Verkampen and Henry Hoevener. Father Gotherd, a priest of the order of St. Francis, who had accompanied Father Van den Broek as a colaborer with him in this mission field, took this Holland colony under his special charge and bestowed upon it the quaint name of "Franciscus Bosch," which it bore for many years among the older residents.
The priest could not attend to Hollandtown on each Sunday, but the sturdy pioneers nevertheless came through the thickness of the woods, rain or shine. and gathered in their log church for Sunday devotions. At first mass was celebrated in the open air, and also under a tree which supported a kind of semblance of a residence. Soon, however, a small log hut was erected, which served part for church and part for pastoral residence. The colonists were later able to purchase from their scant means forty acres of land, which they at once deeded to the Rt. Reverend Bishop Henni, of Milwaukee, for church pur- poses. A part of this land was parceled off into lots and sold as the popu- lation of the parish increased and homes were wanted near the church. The pro- ceeds of this sale of land helped the parishioners to secure funds sufficient to build a frame church, to which was given the name of St. Francis Seraph, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the Order of St. Francis, to which Father Gotherd belonged.
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