History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 17

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Mr. Jones, and would so far contradict his assertion that no settlements were known above Rockford, Ill. It must be re- membered, that during the Black Hawk War (1832) the Rock River Valley had been considerably marched over by the volunteers, and that they had been encamped on the Catfish Creek, which enters Rock River about ten miles above Janesville.

By the Government.

See letter of Mrs. Atwood,

Mr. Kennedy died at St. Paul.

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If I have written anything to help you along with your history I shall be thankful, and excuse a 79 year correspondent.

Truly yours

MILO JONES.

P. S .- I think you may safely say T. A. Holmes was the Pio- neer of the Rock River Valley in this state.

Notwithstanding this P. S. I was strongly inclined to doubt Mr. Thomas A. Holmes' residence at or near Janesville, unti assured by the letter of his sister.

The doubt was reasonable enough, first on account of the let- ter of Mr. McGregor, and second on account of a map of Milwau- kee supposing to represent the situation of that place in 1836, in which there is put down the house of Thomas Holmes on what must have been Lot 1, of Section 29 of Township 7 North, Range 22 East. The house was situated on the eastside of East Water Street and but little south of Wisconsin Street.

On the same day that Mr. Milo Jones wrote the above letter, the following letter was written by Mr. McGregor:

MILWAUKEE, Wis., Feb. 26th, 1887. L. KESSINGER, EsQ., Alma, Wisconsin.

Dear Sir :- In reply to your favor of 25th inst., I have to say that Thomas A. Holmes settled in Milwaukee in 1835 and built a frame dwelling on what is now East Water Street about No. 382; and this is said to have been the first frame dwelling erected in what is now the city of Milwaukee. See Buck's Pioneer History of Milwaukee, Vol. 1. page 24. He is thought to have left here in 1839. His present location, (if still alive), is not known.

Very truly yours JOHN P. MCGREGOR,

Prest. Mil. Co. Pioneer Association.

This letter does not require any special remarks. It confirms in part the remarks made on the letter of Mr. Milo Jones, but seems to contradict the following letter of Mrs. Atwood. As Presi- dent McGregor is, however, not positive as to the removal of Mr. Holmes from Milwaukee, the different statements may easily be reconciled,

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never owned anything on the westside (right bank) of Rock River; his claim was on the east side (left bank) of the river. My father's family lived in Rockport: three years, and then moved on: his farm, one mile from Rock- port. I am the youngest of the family and have remained here ever since. If this is of any ac- count, you are entirely welcome. Please remember that I do not answer to the name of Kate.

Respectfully,

CATHERINE A. ATWOOD, or MRS. VOLNEY ATWOOD.

Having now marshaled up all the obtainable evidence in the matter I shall try to give a connected sketch of the life of Mr. Thomas A. Holmes. It is stated, probably on his own assertion, which we have no reason to doubt, that he was born in Pennsyl- vania in March 1804. Whether Thomas was the oldest of the five sons of the family we can not tell, but we know that he was eight years older than his brother William, who was born in Marion, Ohio, in July 1812. This fact indicates that the family had moved West into.the northwestern part of Ohio. Whether they moved any further during the next twenty-three years we can not tell, but at the end of that time we find four of the members of the family at Milwaukee, and the next year down at Rockport and St. George, all of which is now included within the city of Janesville, in the county of Rock, in this state. From the letter of Mr. Milo Jones it appears, that the land on Rock River claimed by Thomas A. Holmes and his brothers was not yet surveyed by the government and could therefore not be purchased. The land in that vicinity was offered for sale to private purchasers in 1839, at which time, according to the statement of Mrs. Atwood, her father's family moved on their farm about one mile from Rockport. At the same time Mr. Janes laid out his claim on the left bank of Rock River, which he had about three years before purchased of John Holmes, and called his new city by the name of Janesville.

that John Holmes did not con- sult his sister in making sales and purchases. -

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We find, also, that in the same year Thomas A. Holmes attempted togo up the Mississippi to the mouth of the St. Croix River, but was detained at the mouth of Waumandee Creek by the ice. Several circumstances then indicate, that he must have sold out his claim, or property at St. George or St. George Rapids, now within the limits of the city of Janesville. He could not have undertaken to make the voyage without considerable means, nor could he have begun his settlement and trading-post at the place of his detention without such means. The party consisted of thirteen persons. We know that Holmes had a family and that his wife was a sister of Robert Kennedy, who probably also had a family. How many, if any, children there were in each family we do not know, but we find from an interview with Mr. John Adam Weber, that in 1840 Holmes' first wife left him, and that he afterwards married a girl of Wabasha's band of Sioux Indians. Weber positively asserts that he never knew Mr. Holmes' first wife, and that she had left the trading post at Holmes' Landing, or as it was then called by the Indians Wah-ma-dee, some time before he, (Weber) arrived there. It is very probable that her brother, Robert Kennedy left before her. All the parties whom I had a chance to consult with in regard to the particulars of the life of Thomas Holmes, himself in- cluded, were persistently silent on this one point, and so, after nearly half a century since the event took place, it may be well to imitate their example. Concerning the rival trading establishment of Major Hatch at the Wah-ma-dee, commonly called Holmes' Lan- ding, Mr. Weber knows nothing, and, as Mr. Holmes' own state- ment does not express more than an intention on the part of the Major, it must be left to conjecture what there was of it, and how long it continued.

The fact that Holmes married an Indian woman being estab- lished. a curiosity as to who she was must be excusable. Not putting too much faith in individual remembrances, I consulted the " History of Winona County " published in 1883, written by a number of gentlemen, all, or most of them, at the time of the pub- Jication residents of Winona either of the city, or the county. It is unfortunate that the different articles of that book were not as- signed by name to each of the different authors. The one who wrote the chapter on earliest settlement, or perhaps the pre-histor- cal times, must have been as confused in his recollections as in

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his English style. Wabasha and his residence on the Winona Prairie, the gradual withdrawal to Minnesota City or Rollingstone Valley, and finally to the site of the present city of Wabasha, one can deduce from that chapter as well as the operations of La Bath and his subordinates and the doings of the last but one of the chiefs of the name of Wabasha. Something is also related. of Thomas Holmes and of Major Hatch, some trivial occurrences, which must have happened in the life of every trader. The Reeds, Charles and James, two Kentuckians, who contrasted themselves with the mercurial Frenchmen and Canucks of French and other extractions by the absence of bluster, and a cool contempt of dan- ger, are also mentioned. We-no-na, called the oldest sister of Wa- basha, in reality his first cousin, was married to James Reed, the same who is mentioned in the chapter on Indians as having been unable to learn the O-chunk-o-rah or Winnebago language. Of this James Reed it is related, that once he remarked that it must have been a very poor dog, for which Prairie du Chien had been 'named, and in retaliation for this sage remark, the principal tra- der at the Prairie, probobly Lockwood or Dickinson addressed the letters which he sent to Reed by steamboats as follows; "Mr. James Reed at the Rattlesnake Bluff," when that gentleman kept his trading post at what is now Trempealeau village. His wife had a daughter, but whether of him or some former husband, I could not find out. This daughter's name was Witch-e-ain, whose beauty and virtue are described in glowing colors. It is unnecessary to repeat it here, especially as it is impossible to learn from the story whether or not the girl was really married to Thomas Holmes, al- though.this is more than probable, and I am inclined to consider it as certain. In a treaty of 1837 the Sioux had surrendered their land east of the Mississippi to the United States, but continued to reside on the adjoining west side, while they still roamed over the land ceded, though it was considered by the Chippewas and Win- nebagoes as neutral ground, into which they all ventured occsion- ally. Numerous batttles were the result. It would have been highly impolitic for a trader at this post tomarry into either of the two other nations.

There is some confirmation of Mr. Weber's assertion in Mr. Holmes' removal from the Wah-ma-dee trading post up the river right into the heart of the Dakota country. The "History of W

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not imagine, unless it was his indomitable restlessness, which led him away from so many places, that are now much larger than any new place in Alabama will be in a century from date. One should, in looking over the map of Milwaukee in 1836, think, that it must have been wild enough to look at, just then; how it now is we need not add. Janesville with its 10,000 inhabitants, its splen- did situation for all kinds of manufacturing establishments, is also a place one might regret to have left. There are St. Paul and Min- neapolis, which offered the very best of chances when Mr. Holmes left Wisconsin. Shakopee, also, I have been told, is a very agree- able place, though it will probably never be a very large one. I have to mention the fact that Mr. Holmes stopped at Fountain City, once at least, since he had left it, when it was called Holmes' Landing. Mr. Weber, who could not have been mistaken in the man, states that he saw and recognized him there at that time. The life of Thomas A. Holmes was certainly eventful enough. to make it interesting, but to us it is much more so on account of his prolonged residence at the mouth of the Waumandee Creek, thus giving the first start to Fountain City. There can not be many more years for the old pion er, and I know every one of my read- ers will concur in the wish, that he may pass them in peace and prosperity, and find an easy transition to eternal repose.

JOHN ADAM WEBER.

The next in point of time of our pioneers was John Adam Weber, a native of Waldmichelbach in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, now a part of the Empire of Germany. As he was born in 1821 he must have been quite young, when he emi- grated, since he came to Holmes' Landing with his brother Frank Weber in the fall of 1840, about a year after Mr. Holmes had ar- rived there. The two brothers Weber chopped and banked as much wood on the islands as they possibly could, perhaps with the assistance of a yoke or two of oxen. In the summer, Mr. Weber says, we had nothing to do but to watch for steamboats, for the purpose of getting money, or the value of it in provisions and other necessaries, for our wood. I imagine that at that time this watching must have been a very tedious job, to say nothing of the peculiar annoyances connected with it, since steamboats upon this part of the river were indeed " few and far between." Calculating the season at 32 weeks, the steamboats at 40 trips up and as thany

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down, there was, on an average little more than one boat a week, but as their passage was quite irregular, constant watching was required. Provisions and other things were bought at Galena, which at that time, and for more than twenty years later, was the grand depot, first for the squatters, and then for the settlers of this region. Mr. Weber and his brother made their annual visits to that place, from which they had originally come to Holmes' Land- ing. In 1845 they met there Henry Goehrke, and persuaded him to come up with them to their residence, and in pursuance of this visit they seem to have, in company with Goehrke, bought out Mr. Holmes and afterwards have carried on his establishment on their own account. Mr. Weber says, that he afterwards resided for some time at Galena but this can not have been for a long period, since we find him to have bought Lot No. 6 of Section 8 of Township 19, Range 11, the land on which the principal part of Fountain City is laid out, on the 11th day of July, 1849, on the same day that Christi n Wengert bought the adjoining Lot No. 1 of Section 17 of the same township and range. This was the first land purchased of the government within the limits of Buffalo County, the purchase being made at the land-office at Mineral Point, about three weeks after the land had come into market. After that time Mr. Weber must have been living about 20 years in Fountain City (six years of it in Holmes' Landing), as he says he was 15 years on his farm in the Eagle Valley (Creek Thal,) and three years in Winona. Of the 20 years he was 9 years and four months janitor of the public schools at Fountain City. In point of the length of residence in this county there will be few or none to excel him at present. The brother of Mr. Weber, who had come with him to Holmes Landing afterwards went to California where he died. Another brother, Peter Weber, much younger, went to the war in Company H of the sixth Wisconsin Infantry, and died at Frederick, Maryland, of wounds received in the battle of Antietam.

Adam Weber was a justice of the peace in the Town of Eagle Mills 1859.

HENRY GOEHRKE

was born on the 4th day of October, 1809, at Abtenrode in the Electorate of Hessen, Germany. According to dates furnished by Mrs. Bodenstab, formerly Mre. Goehrke, he came to this country

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in: 1845, about which time he must have come to Galena, where he made the acquaintance of Adam Weber and was by; him per- suaded to come up to Holmes' Landing, where they bought out Mr. Holmes and began to trade with the Indians on their own account. In 1847 Goehrke was married. He continued in the same busi- ness until 1854 when he sold out to Henry Teckenburg. In the same year he built the sawmill on Waumandee Creek about two miles above Fountain City at the so-called Milldam. At first Frederick Binder was associated with him, and afterwards Ferdi- nan Fetter and Ferdinand Mehrmann. The latter being a prac- tical machinist, they erected the Eagle Mill, of which the sawmill was only a dependence of little importance. Goehrke, although called a butcher, never engaged in the butchering business at Fountain City. He died at that place on the 5th day of Septem- ber 1863 .. He had the reputation of liberality and fairness in his dealings and as a patron of every enterprise which seemed likely to benefit the place. Mrs. Goehrke, though not the first white woman to settle, was the first one to remain for ever after her ar- rival in this county. From the history of Winona County it ap- pears that Thomas A. Holmes among other things kept a sort of tavern, and Mr. Goehrke after he had succeeded to . Mr. Holmes' business, continued that practice, this being the only place of the kind -between Wabasha and La Crosse.

The next arrivals known of having landed at Holmes', as it was called for short, were sturdy sons of the Alps, both from the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland. They were:

1st. Andrew Baertsch who with his family arrived at Holmes' Landing in October 1847.

2d. Nicholas Liesch with his wife and family early in 1848.

In 1848 in the month of November, Caspar Wild, a soldier of the Mexican war, came up and found the last named, his country- men, though not from the same canton, already present.

Christian Wenger, also a Swiss, of the Canton of Bern, must have arrived at the place about the same time, since he purchased part of the townsite in July of the following year.

At about the same time there were at Twelve Mile Bluff, now Alma, the following persons; all of them from Switzerland:

1. Victor Probst, from Biberist in the Canton of Soleure; a carpenter or. joiner by trade,

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the river towards the head of what is known as Pomme-de-Terre Slough where he laid out the Village of Buffalo, and in company with one Sharp the City of Belvidere, both of which have since been vacated. It was at this place he was living in 1859 when I became acquainted with him. His business was still selling wood to steamboats. When in 1862 the twenty-fifth regiment of Wis- consin Infantry was formed, Liesch enlisted in the same and served in Company K. He died in 1863 of dysentery, while the regi- ment was stationed near Helena, Ark., in the neighborhood of which place he is buried with a great number of his comrades and old neighbors.

CHRISTIAN WENGER

was born in 1815 at Wattenwyl in t Canton of Berne, Switzerland. He must have emigrated when quite young, and being of an ad- venturous turn of mind, he roved into Texas and the western ter- ritories, where he chased the Buffalo. Afterwards he stayed in Highland, Ill., where he was in the service of the Kopfle Bros., Joseph and Solomon. Besides doing his work, he indulged very often in the excitement of chasing the deer, which were at that period quite numerous in that neighborhood. Exactly at what time Wenger left Highland, and began his expedition up the Mississippi, we can not now tell. But he followed his countrymen Baertsch and Liesch from Galena to Holmes' Landing. He did not enlist in the Mexican war, which is somewhat to be wondered at, as he has always been proud of his excellent marksmanship. Up to Holmes' Landing he must have come in 1848, since in July of the following year he bought the land designated as Lot No. 1 of Sec. 17, T. 19, R. 11, the same on which the residence of Hon. A. Finkelnburg and a number of other buildings now stand. In 1854 he was married to Ursula Miller, daughter of John Mueller (Engel- hans) of Belvidere and soon after he removed to Alma, which place he helped to found, being one of the proprietors of Probst and Wenger's Addition, consisting of Blocks 23, 24 and 25. On Block 24 there are now Boehme's and Tritch's stores, on Block 24 the Sherman House and other brick buildings. On Block 25 is the Court House, the old school house etc. Soon after the founding of Alma Wenger moved upon his farm in Section 28, Township 22, Range 12, in which section he owned 360 acres, besides quite a number of forties in adjoining sections. Here he carried on farm-

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ing, occasionally indulging in his old passion of hunting. He is living there yet, but is now sick, and feeble with old age. Chris- tian Wenger, In common with most passionate hunters, is gifted with a lively imagination, especially in regard to his favorite sport. He is honest and straight-forward, Peace ble and obliging, and much respected by his neighbors. His large family of children are now all grown up and some of them have children of their own. VICTOR PROBST.

From an extract of the register of baptism of the parochial church of Bieberist, Canton of Soleure, Switzerland, I find that the subject of this sketch, Urs Victor Probst was born on the 14th day of February 1815, in the place named. An itinerary and passport issued in German and French, still in excellent preservation, as is, also, the above cited certificate of birth, shows that Probst entered upon the life of an itinerant journeyman cabinet maker on the 9th day of May 1833. Most Americans and the younger genera- tion of Germans have no conception of this itinerary episode of a craftsman or mechanic and as this occasion is one which seems to require the appropriate explanation, I will give it. A mechanic of any kind had to serve an apprenticeship of three years, and after having been duly absolved of this obligation, he became a companion journey-man. If he aspired to the title and the priv- ileges of a master, among which the right to establish himself on his own account in his trade or business was the most important, he had to travel for at least three years on his trade, working wherever he found employment, as long as it suited him, or his Services were wanted.

To keep a control over this peregrination an itinerary was handed to the traveling mechanic, which he was obliged to carry with him when traveling, to show to policemen and gensdarmes at their request, and to deposit with the local chief of police, wher- ever he wished to stay or work, or in any considerable place through which he passed. He was allowed to choose his own route, but it being once entered of record in his passbook, he was not allowed to change it, except for good and sufficient reasons, or in case of having worked in an intermediate place on his route. These were the general ideas of the system, the cause of this journeying being originally to compel those mechanics who would not of their own impulse try to improve their acquirements by

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working among and learning from strangers, to do so. Guilds and their privileges having been almost. everywhere abolished, this traveling is no longer compulsory. But to return to Victor Probst, we find that after traveling a little over a year he returned home, and in 1814, March 15th, passed through Basel on his way to Havre, where he embarked on the 23d of the same month. Of his adventures in America before he settled down at the Twelve Mile Bluffs we know nothing, and I am inclined to think that they were not much to his taste, for it is otherwise scarcely compre- hensible, how a man in his best years, a skilful mechanic, and of a clear and liberal mind, could have been content to live in a place so lonesome as the. one 'named above must have been at that time. At exactly what time he settled' here is uncertain, but it is certain that his countryman Joseph Berni could not have ar- rived before 1848 as he was in the Mexican war. In 1853 Victor Probst entered Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Sect. 2 Tshp. 21 R'ge 13 in the month of October, 14 days after the land had come into mar- ket, about the same time when Christian Wenger entered Lot 1, of Sect. 11, Tshp. 21, Rge. 13. These purchases were evidently made with a view to laying out a townplat, which was done in 1855, when he and W. H. Gates laid out the plat of Alma. Afterward Victor Probst's Addition and Probst and Wenger's Addition were added. In the same year Victor was joined by his brother Franz Martin Probst and his family. In the course of time Victor Probst accumulated considerable real estate including the West Half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 1 of Tshp. 21, Rge. 13 and many pieces of valuable woodland in the islands about Beef Slough, in the sections west of it, near its confluence with the Mississippi. Mr. Probst was by no means indolent, nor a spend- thrift, but being a bachelor, and not specially attached to any- body, he grew in time negligent and indifferent of his money and other possessions, and did not leave much of wordly goods, though he never was in real want or indigence. He died on the 2d day of April 1882.

There is one nephew, Ottmar, the son of Martin Probst liv- ing in this place, and there are in this county the children of his other brother, Urs, who died as a soldier of the 25th Regiment of Wis. Inf. at Madison of sickness.

All three brothers were excellent mechanics. ' Martin

was a

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History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 17

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
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