History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 41

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village. Owing to some defects in the charter, which could not readily be amended, the citizens applied for a city charter, which was granted by the legislature of 1885. The first Mayor of the new city was Martin Polin; he was succeeded by Charles Schaettle, jr. The present Mayor is Hon. John W. DeGroff. The different parts of the city were laid out as follows:

Plat of Alma May 1855, recorded in Vol. 4, page 57.

Victor Probst's Addition May 6, 1855, recorded in Vol. 4, page 67.

Probst and Wenger's Addition May 8, 1855, recorded in Vol. 4, page 61. All these parts were laid out by A. W. Miller, who is now a resident of Durand, Pepin Co.

The Lower Addition was laid out July 9, 1855, recorded Vol. 1, page 389. This was surveyed by Mr. Finkelnburg.

Beiner's Alteration and Addition was laid out Feb. 26, 1859, recorded in Vol. 4, page 562. This was surveyed by Robert Strohmann.

Moser and Hatcher's Addition was laid out April 14, 1871, re- corded in Vol. 17, page 147.

Louis Mueller's Addition was laid out April 19, 1877, recorded in Vol. 23, page 556.

Becker's Addition was laid out June 30, 1877, recorded in Vol. 24 Page 7.

All these were laid out or platted by L. Kessinger.

The Upper Subdivision consists of different parcels of land laid out at different times, all situated in Lot 2 of Sec- tion 2 Township 21, Range 13, lying East of Main Street and North of Walnut Street. This plat was recorded for the convenience of describing these parcels by numbers, thus obviating the long descriptions in assessing the same, into which errors would almost unavoidadly have crept at some time or other. See Vol. 34, page 198. Within the corporation, but about two miles north of the actual city is the

Village of North Alma, situated in Section 26 and 27 of Town. ship 22 Range 13. It was laid out April 1, 1870, recorded in Vol. 16 page 417. This village was laid out by L. Kessinger, by order of Francis Palms of Detroit, Mich., who was one of the principal stockholders of the Beef Slough Co. Camp No. 1 and the offices of the Mississippi River Logging Co. are situated upon lots. The

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railroad depot of Beef Slough station, and Beef Slough postoffice are also located within its limits.

The lives of the pioneers of Twelve Mile Bluff, as the place was called in former times are described in the chapter on Pioneers. After their time others began to arrive. One of the most impor- tant families was that of John Marty, consisting of himself and wife and one daughter. The latter was married to W. H. Gates, February 23d, 1856, the second marriage on record. The Martys, John and his brother Nicolas, arrived in 1851. There seems to have been but little activity in any thing until the place was laid out in lots. The business of the early settlers was making shingles and getting out cordwood. About the same time with the Martys Mathias Hammer, now of Lincoln, arrived. They got their mail from Reeds Landing, Minn., and did all their dealings of store goods at Galena, Ill., giving their orders to the steamboat captains, who would bring the goods on the next trip up the river. The goods needed at that time included provisions of all kinds, flour pork, etc. besides articles of clothing and tools for work carried on. The first business opened at Alma was a saloon, kept by a man named Beyer, who had come from Keokuk, and it was lo- cated in a shed adjoining the house or shanty of John Marty. In 1855 the following houses were built: By Gates, J. A. Hunner, John Hemrich, Philipp Kraft, J. R. Hurlbuit and E. E. Heer- man. They were all along Main Street, above Olive Street, except that of J. R. Hurlburt which was on the corner of Second and Orange Streets. Hurlburt and Kraft opened hotels, the former the Alma House, the latter the Wisconsin House. The brewery of John Hemrich was also built the same year. {About a year or perhaps two before that time Rudolf Beiner had arrived and taken lodging in the old shanty built originally b/ V. Probst and J. C. Waecker, and in company with John Marty he laid out the Lower Addition. Most of the above information I have received from Mr. Gates, who was for a long time a prominent citizen of Alma. He was of versatile talents, and undertook a great many things, without, however, achieving any decided success in any particular one. Among other things he kept hotel in both, the Alma House and after that the Sherman House, after the latter had been built. He was elected Register of Deeds in 1857 and Sheriff in 1863. I think he kept the first store in the place in the house on the corner of

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Orange and Main Streets, which is at present occupied by Mathias Ruben as a bakery and fruit store. Mr. Gates was also elected to many local offices, and, I think, was the first chairman of the Town of Alma. He is now a practicing physician at Gary, Deuel Co, Dakota Territory. He was also the first postmaster of this place, the office having been established in 1856. This office, the establishment of which shows, that the place had become of some consideration, has since its establishment been administered by the following gentlemen:

W. H. Gates, 1856-57.

Peter Polin, 1857-63.

C. A. Boehme, 1863-69.

Mathias Fetzer, 1869-72.

Julius Ginzkey, 1872-76.

L. P. Hunner, 1876-1885. M. W. MacDonnell, 1885 to present time.

About the time of the establishment of the postoffice there was some population present. Of the arrivals of 1854 we may name Abraham Schmoker, Nic. Gilomen, Anton Ulrich, Gottlieb Iberg, Gottlieb Kurz and others. Hon. Jonn A. Tester arrived Aug. 9th, 1856, and commenced mercantile business in company with Peter Polin, who did not, however, arrive until 1857. This firm did in spite of the small beginnings, soon command the con- fidence of the settlers far andnear, and did very great service in the development of the country. The late Lyman J. Claflin, one of the very first settlers of Gilmanton in a conversation which I had with him nearly twenty years ago, called them the fathers of the upper part of the county, without whom the settlement would have languished and have been crippled for many years. The sudden death of Mr. Polin in Nov. 1870 led to a dissolution of the firm in 1873, Mr. Tester establishing a new business in his present place in Nov. 1874. Speaking of the development of the place, we find, that after the first period of pioneer times, and a gradual increase of the population in the village as well as in the surround- ing country, the place grew rapidly, and soon did much more business, especially in the grain line, than would be supposed from its apparent size. It was especially the integrity, diligence and perseverance of the above named firm in the disposition of farm products, to which Mr. Claflin alluded in his remarks above

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Wenger and Joseph Richard were the first to attempt farming. Wenger moved to his farm in a canoe up Beef River. Richard took his stove to pieces, and carried it with all his household goods on his back to his location. There were at that time no practicable roads. New arrivals, who settled outside of our limits will be mentioned in the Town of Alma. It was about this time that the name of Twelve Mile Bluff was exchanged for that of Alma. The story of Mr. Gates finding this name in an Atlas is absurd. He told me many years ago, that about the time when the plan for laying out a village plat was maturing, the news of the battle on the Alma in the Krimean war arrived in this part of the country, and the name took his fancy and was proposed and adopted, for its shortness and easy spelling, I suppose. I defy any one to find that name in any common school atlas even at the present time, except in Wisconsin, to say nothing about times more than thirty years ago. Even in Mitchell's School Atlas of 1858, which gives a very accurate map of Wisconsin the name is not mentioned .- As in many other places the wheat business be- gan to assume its gigantic proportion early in the sixties, and the credit of its thorough organization in this place belongs to Fred Rabbas and his brother Henry, who had made their preparatory experiences at Milwaukee and Two Rivers in the eastern part of this state. Of course, they were not alone, but for a time they prevailed. Neither of them acquired a fortune out of it, but that does not concern any one else. The year 1861 brought the war. Among those who enlisted in Company H, of the sixth Wisconsin. were many Alma boys, or rather men, among them both members of the firm of Tester and Polin, but seeing that one at least must stay at home; the lot fell on Mr. Polin to do so. Mr. Tester went to the field. A fair start had been made, and the village as well as the town advanced rapidly. The separation and consequent incorporation has already been mentioned. The further progress of the place does not offer any salient points. We must, however, except the organization and subsequent operations of the Beef Slough Co. and its eventual successors. But this is sufficiently re- lated in the chapter on Transportation of which the history of Beef Slough Co. etc. is a subdivision. That the event contributed very much to the development of the village, then just incorpor- ated, no one will deny, but that at present the management of

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affairs tends to a diminution rather than an increase of the benefits the city might receive from the presence of so many persons at work etc., is also manifest. In 1858 or perhaps '57 the first schoolhouse was built, which very soon proved to be too small. In 1868 a new one of brick was erected, a model of inconvenience in its arrangements, which were, as necessity soon demanded, gradually improved. For nineteen years this schoolhouse had been used when in 1887 a new one was erected, of which I spoke in the chapter on Education.

Our streets, that is those two, which especially deserve the name, were, of course, laid out for the convenience of those who lived here at the time, and as they did not need much, and never expected the expansion of business of future times, the situation of these streets was not remarkable for a very judicious selection. In many places Main Street was overflowed at every annual freshet and it took in the course of time many thousands of dol- lars to raise it above highwater mark. Even the infringement of the railroad upon a considerable part of Main Street in the Lower Addition would have been entirely avoided, if that street had been laid on the hillside instead of close to, or rather into the river. Such things are more easily avoided, than they are remedied.

The population of Alma is German as to nationality or descent, there being less than one-fourth of American or other ele- ments intermixed, though more, perhaps, at the present than at any previous time.

In going, however, along the streets and hearing the young folks talk, you would doubt that assertion. And what an English one hears, especially what grammar !- In relating incidents of early settlement everybody seems to think of commercial estab- lishments first and last. But mechanics are a class as useful and respectable as any other. I can not give a very extensive list of such among the early settlers. John A. Tritsch and his brother were probably the first blacksmiths, William Mueller was the first tinsmith and hardware dealer. John Marty was a tailor, but I doubt whether his services were much required at first. Beiner was a cooper, but little of that trade was in demand. The first shoemaker was John Hornung, probably the best employed mechanic in the place. Other mechanics were probably present, but they did not find very constant work. Fritz Rall now of the

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town of Nelson was the first carpenter of any renown. John Spany built the old brewery for John Heinrich, a log concern, and when done he remembered, so the story goes, that he had forgotten to put in windows. Andrew Hemrich was the first and for a long time the only butcher, who had at first about as much trouble to find cattle for butchering as he had to find people to sell meat to.

The article on the City of Alma has grown long, but, as I have pointed out before, much more than related here may be found in other chapters concerning this place. I may close with the re- mark that we now have all arrangements of civilized life usually found in places of the size and situation of our own. There are dissatisfied people everywhere, hence here also, and improvements might be suggested, and may in course of time be effected. The historian is not a prophet, and the light he attempts to throw on the future is only the reflection of the past, and he is not expected to apply too much of that upon things in existence. So much of this article as relates to the combined history of City and Town of Alma will not be repeated in the history of the town.

TOWN OF ALMA.

The town of Alma comprises at the present time the following territory:

Township 21. Sections 6, 5, and west half of 4 in Range 12, and Section 1 in Range 13.

Township 22. All of Range 12, with the exception of Sect. 25 and 36, and a small part of Section 24.

Sections 5 and 6, the N. ₺ of 7, and the N. W. } of 8, in Range 11.

Also Sec. 36 and all of Sect. 25 situated south of Beef River in Bange 13.

The parts in Range 11 formerly belonged to the Town of Wau- mandee, and were added to Alma on account of their position, which demanded an outlet through adjoining parts of Alma. But with the exception of these, the Town of Alma ran from the East line of T. 22, R. 12 to the Mississippi and included all of T. 21, R. 13, at first and much more than now even at the time of the in- corporation of the village in 1868. The surface of the town is very much interrupted and consists of the Beef River Bottoms and the side valleys of Hutchinson Creek down to Mill Creek on the left bank, and the lower part of Trout Creek and all of Pine Creek

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first birth and the first death we can not now determine to a cer- tainty. I am inclined to think that a man by the name of Marolf, who died by his own hand, was the first person, who died in the Town of Alma. He lived on John Alleman's place and died in 1857. In regard to Agricultural statistics the reader is referred to the chapter in which I treated of the Agriculture of the whole county. The population of Alma belongs almost exclusively to the German nationality either by immigration or descent. The main artery of travel and transportation is the Beef River Valley Road, and on this there are at present two taverns situated, one at the entrance to Trout Creek Valley, kept by Andrew Joos, and the other about two miles Northeast of it, the Halfway House kept by Michael Menli. I take the opportunity here to say that it is en- tirely superfluous to discuss in these short histories the points that must occur in every town alike, such as roads, schools, agri- culture, manufactures, churches, population and such things, since the same have been sufficiently treated of in their appropriate chapters. This rule will be applied to the history of any town.

TOWN OF BELVIDERE.

The Town of Belvidere was set off by resolutions of the County Board of Supervisors first on the 5th day of February, 1855 and organized at the next townmeeting. It consisted then of Townships 20 and 21, Range 12. The following year it was re- modeled. Some sections were taken to Waumandee and some to Alma, the southern part to Milton and in later times other parts were taken to form the town of Lincoln. It now consists of the following territory:

Township 21: Sections E 2 4, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 of Range 12, some few of them fractional. Sections 23, 24 and 25, all of them fractional, of Range 13.

Township 20: Sections W$ 2, 3, 4 and 5 except 40 acres, also the E } of SE { and SE } of NE { and the two surplus frac- tions on the correction line in Sec. 6, E } and E } of W } of Sec. 8, 9, 10, 11, N} 14, 15, 16, and N ± of NE } and SE } of NE & of Sec. 17, of Range 12. ·

Section 1, entirely fractional and but little of it in Range 13.

The second correction line of the Wisconsin survey runs be tween townships 20 and 21, in which there are two different sets

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of section and quarter section corners, which are however depend- ent one on the other. The surface of the town is level in the west- ern part, especially in township 20, and the parts adjoining of township 21, but the whole northern, central and eastern part is hilly, although on the top of the bluffs the land is gently rolling. With the exception of some sandy patches on the level land, most of the town contains good farming land, but is not so well pro- vided with water as the town of Alma. The first settlements in the town were made in the level part, and two of the first settlers were of the pioneers of Alma, John C. Waecker and Joseph Berni, whose biographies are to be found in the chapter on Pioneers. The next settler of some importance was John Peter Stein, who came from Wabasha April 17th, 1851. At that time there was no dwelling house between Fountain City and Alma to speak of, although Stein took up the claim of one Guetle, who had built the little log hut which went by the name of the old blacksmith shop in after times and served Stein and his family as a dwelling house for some years. Stein claims to have raised the first crop of wheat, also the first barley and the first potatoes in the town. The seed for wheat he procured from Galena, Ill., the harley, about a gallon, of Mr. Buisson of Wabasha, and his potatoes were dug by the Indian squaws, who carried to their tepees every evening the wages of the day in potatoes, the bucks standing by and grunting their approval. A resident of Buffalo City assured me that Indians as late as 1857-58 used to land their canoes at that place and strike a bee-line for Stein's house. Stein being a black- smith made himself useful to the aborigines, who were of the Sioux nationality, by tinkering their guns, and other hunting tackle and lived in good harmony with them. He acquired some considerable property, which in course of time was lost, much of it by a law suit, into which he found himself involved on account of having been security for Valentine Brehl, when that gentleman kept store in the village or city of Belvidere, which was within the town, and not very far from his residence. An attempt to build a mill on his premises also proved ruinous. But whatever his fort- unes, he and his family were always kind and hospitable to every one, and sometimes to whole crowds especially at election times. He had built a new house and for some time kept also a tavern and saloon, which was the place of meeting for the whole neigh-

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borhood on Sundays. He and his wife are still alive and as cheerful as ever, though now considerably advanced in years. Stein was for many years a Justice of the Peace in the town.

About the same time with Stein there came a number of set- tlers, among them Daniel Schilling, Sebastian Neukomm, Henry Neukomm and Melchior Schwy, all of them from the Canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and their number was increased in 1852 and '53 by J. J. Mueller, Caspar Regli, Bollinger, John Muel- ler, and probably John Rahm, also another family by the name of Rahm. It is remarked that at the building of the house of John Rahm there were eleven men assembled, who came all of them from Unter-Hallau in the above named canton. Mr. Bol- linger was the first death in the town. The first couple married who resided in the town were John C. Waecker to Sabina Keller, the knot was tied by Marvin Pierce, who had been elected county judge in September 1853. He also married Mrs. Bollinger to Henry Keller, but I find no record of the e marriages. Possibly there were no arrangements for it at the time. About that time there was a man by the name of Marolf living on the Southeast quarter of Section 25 T. 21 R. 12 which was included at the first organization in the town of Belvidere. He lost his claim, it is said by an intrigue of Marvin Pierce. This, Mr. Stein thinks, was the first settlement beyond the bluffs. It was bought by Robert Keith and of him by Edward Jaeger, who now lives upon it. This Marolf is the same mentioned in the town of Alma. In his career of Justice of the Peace, Stein solemnized the first four marriages on record. About the year 1855 John Linse arrived, and we find him a Justice of the Peace in 1856. John Linse was a native of the Province of Saxony of Prussia. He was quite a politician and a man of general enterprise, and made his settle. ment on the northern tier of forties of Sect. 16 T. 20 R. 12 near the junction of the lower Buffalo City Road with the Fountain City and Alma Road. After having sold out in Spring 1865 he built a house about 12 miles farther south on the same road and died in the winter of 1866-67. He kept tavern and saloon as long as he lived in his old place, and will be remembered by a great many of the remaining old settlers. The first chairman of the town was J. P. Schuug, jr., who owned the farm on which the railroad station Cochrane is now located. In 1859 the City of

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numbering of the northern half of the section as lots, there being 10 of them in perfect sections, as for instance in Section 5, adjoin- ing the city.

Town 20, Range 12: Sec. 5, Lot 3, a full forty, laid out in five acre lots.

Sec. 6, Lot 6, also laid out in five acre lots and forming with the above Subdivision B. Lots 4 and 5 are laid out in 80 acre lots. W } of SE { and lots 8 and 9 and some of the smaller lots along the slough are laid out in lots and blocks as far as they consist of dry land.

Sec. 7. E } of NE { and fractional lots 1 and 2 are laid out in lots and blocks.

The remainder of Sec. 6 and 7 consists of islands.

Sec. 8, the W } of the W 2.

Sec. 17, fractional along the slough, entire on the east side. Three forties belong to the town of Belvidere.

Town 20, Range 13. Some islands between Pomme de Terre Slough and the Mississippi River.

The large island between the Buffalo City Channel and Pomme de Terre Slough on the one, and the Mississippi River on the other side, has never been officially surveyed and the greater part of it would fall into Range 13. It is not in the corporation. A survey by Robert Strohmann has never been accepted by the government.

The land is entirely level, some of it cultivated as farmland, and some of it overflowed at high water, partly woods, partly meadows.

The plats of the city are recorded as follows:

Plat of Buffalo City Vol. 1, p. 276, May 12, 1856.

1st Addition, Vol 1, p. 521, April 27, 1857.

2nd Addition, Vol. 4, p. 355, June 1858.

Outlots Subd. A, " B. do.

do.

The city was incorporated by Chapter 197, Private and Local Laws of 1859. The charter was amended by Chapter 178 General Laws of 1861. The official name is City of Buffalo.

The history of the city begins with the Colonization Society of Cincinnati, Ohio. This society was founded by a number of o ring men and others in said city, with the intention of procur-

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ing homes to themselves in the Far West, and attempted in 1854 a settlement in Kansas, which, however, was abandoned on ac_ count of the troubles of the times in that territory. After this it was concluded to go to a more northern state, and, as appears from records, land had been purchased and part of the plat laid out in 1856. A proposition had been made to buy land close to Alma, but it was never ratified. Frederick Pfeffer and J. P. Moessinger acted as commissioners of the society, the latter being a surveyor, The colonization society had in 1854 as many as 178, and later at the division of the lots 228 members. There is a peculiarity in the lots of Buffalo Cit., that they are all laid out at right angles and conformable to the cardinal points of the compass, which oc- casioned along the slough on Front Street a number of inconven. ient little corners, that. could not very well be utilized. Mr. Pfef. fer, who has been for many years the President of the Society and is now since 1858 a resident of the city, explained this curiosity by saying, that there were too many surveyors in the society, who abhorred any deviation from government survey lines. The plat, I believe was begun by J. P. Moessinger and finished by Rob. Strohmann, who came up from Cincinnati for that purpose and remained in this county until he enlisted in the 34th Reg. of Infantry.

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History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 41

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