USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 21
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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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turner in wood and ivory, Urs was a wagon-maker.
A characteristic trait of Victor Probst is the preservation of the documents above referred to, one of which, his itinerary or passbook, being now 54, the other 46 years old, and still as clean and entire as on the day when they were made out.
JOSEPH BERNI
was, like Victor Probst and his brothers, born in the parish of Biberist in the Canton of Soleure, Switzerland. He learned the trade of a cooper and traveled on it in the manner related in the history of V. Probst. Among the countries he visited on that errand he has often named to me the strip between the Rhine and the Black Forest from Basel northwards to Freiburg (Baden). In that part of the Grand-Duchy the celebrated Markgrafler wine is grown and abundant. Of Berni's adventures and experiences in this country we know nothing until his enlistment in the army at the time of the Mexican war. Of that he often spoke, and accord- ing to his statement he was in the city of Mexico. After the dis- bandment of the army of volunteers he received his honorable dis- charge and probably his land warrant. He came to the Twelve Mile Bluff in 1849, probably from Galena, where he fell into the company of Victor Probst and possibly of John C. Waecker. They were all three unmarried, and Berni, who was always ready for fun, used to speak about the lonesomeness and other trials of their solitary life in a very amusing manner. After a while he settled on the Southwest Quarter of Section 9, Township 20, Range 12, one of the most desirable locations in the county, about half-ways between Alma and Fountain City, and two miles east of Buffalo City by the road. The purchase was made partly in October 1855 and partly in January 1856. The schoolhouse site situated between the Alma and Fountain City and the Probst Valley Roads was sold to School District No. 1 of the Town of Belvidere in the earlier part of 1856, the whole quarter section being on the 21st of October of said year sold to Henry Klein for the sum of $2600. While on his land, on which he probably lived before entering it, Berni was married, and after the sale of the land he returned to his former habitation at Alma. They tell a story on him relating to his residence in the town of Belvidere. Berni had been elected justice of the peace. A neighbor was owing him some money, and in virtue of the power in him vested by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, as he under-
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stood it, he sumnioned the negligent debtor before his own court, passed judgment in his own favor and was only prevented from levying execution by some one, I think it was Jacob Bronnenkant of Fountain City, expostulating with him on the error of his pro- ceedings.
In Alma Berni built himself a shanty on a hill, both of which have since disappeared, but were close to the present railroad de- pot. In the lower part of the ravine north of his shanty he began to manufacture brick, which he probably continued for three years, when, his money being gone, he had to quit the business. After- wards he supported himself and his family by teaming. He died in 1878 and left quite a family, all of whom are now grown up. He was very honest, but also very improvident. In the laying out of Alma and its additions he had no part or interest.
JOHN CONRAD WAECKER.
Of this one of the early pioneers I know more than of most of the others. I did not know him in the old country, although by accident I might have seen him when we were boys. John C. Waecker was born in Unterhallau, Canton of Schaffhausen, Switz- erland. He was left an orphan or otherwise unprotected, and was educated at an institute under the control of some missionary so- ciety at the village of Buch, less then two English miles from the birthplace of the author of this book. The education he received at that place was probably limited to common elementary branches, and not niuch enlarged by his subsequent transfer to another of similar character at Beuggen near Basel. His experience from that place to the Twelve Mile Bluff we do not know, but it appears that he had parted from the missionaries and their labors, and learned to think and live like other mortals. He was some- what eccentric and unreliable. His land he selected in Sec- tions 19 and 30, of Township 21, Range 12, about 4 miles be- low Alma, between the bluffs and the slough and erected upon it a claim shanty, over which in course of time the government surveyors ran a section line. He built his house near the line again, but entirely north of it, In 1853 he married Sabina Keller. This was one of the earliest marriages consummated in Belvidere. Waecker lived on his first farm until 1872, when he bought the property of Henry Neukomm, about one mile nearer to Alma. He remained upon that until 1879, when he renioved to Ada, Norman
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County , Minnesota, where he died in consequence of a kick from a horse in the year 1885. He left two daughters and one son.
CASPAR WILD.
He was born at Gossau, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, in the year 1815. He is therefore now 72 years of age. Of his life before he settled in this country. we know but little. He enlisted in the volunteer army for the war with Mexico, and after the disband- ment of that army came to Galena, and soon after to Holmes' Lan- ding, where he arrived on the 7th of November 1848. He found in that place Henry Gokrke, Adam Weber, Andrew Baertsch and Claus Liesch, the two last named being his countrymen. He re- removed from the settlement about three miles to the southeast locating near his present place of residence, the well-known Stone House, at the angle of the river, where it turns for about three miles straight towards Winona. Here he maintained himself and reared his family by dint of hard work. During last spring he made application for and received his pension as a veteran of the Mexican war. He was undoubtedly the first settler in the present town of Buffalo, although he did not enter any land previous to 1854, at which time, and soon after, he entered land in Sections 23, 26, 27, and 35 of Township 19, Range 11.
MADISON WRIGHT.
The foregoing were the most generally known of the pioneers of Buffalo County, being for the most part connected with the two central points of settlement, Holmes' Landing, now Fountain City, and Twelve Mile Bluff, now Alma. Of pioneers located in the up- per part of the county before it attained political existence I remember but one, Madison Wright of Missouri, who located in 1848, as a squatter upon the land that was afterwards owned by Andrew Wright, his brother, who did not, however, reside upon it. The situation of it is in Section 11, Township 22, Range 14, oppo- site Wabasha, a short distance above the ferry landing. The land was entered in 1858. In 1868 when I surveyed the land of Mr. Wright, he was an old gentleman, living in a loghouse in primitive wood-camp style, nor do I think he ever departed from this until his death on the 19th of August, 1879. The place of his residence being somewhat separated from, though situated in the town of Nelson, Madison Wright never meddled much in the politics of his town or the county, being more attached to Wabasha. He
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lived and died a bachelor. It is a remarkable fact that after his death an account for burial expenses, coffin etc., was presented to the county of Buffalo by the firm of Lueger Bros. of Wabasha which account was rejected as a piece of impudence, since it was well known, that, if Madison Wright had really died in poverty, it was because he had spent all of his means at Wabasha, or had been done out of them by boon-companions or others of that place. General Remarks on Pioneers.
The name of pioneer is mostly synonym with first permanent settlers, though occasionly persons who merely make a temporary stay for some purpose in an unsettled country are called by the same name. In the latter sense we might claim the early French as pioneers, though they never intended to be such. Indeed they did little or no pioneer work, and all their attempted settlements or actual trading posts have disappeared from this neighborhood, although traces of them remain in some names, as for instance: Prairie du Chien, La Crosse, Trempe-a-l'-eau, Eau Claire, Pepin, Frontenac, St. Croix, St. Paul and a whole number of others too tedious to mention. The French were adventurers, which is not to be wondered at, as the country itself had passed out of the pos- session of their nation 130 years ago, and they could not hope to build up a French community, colony or state. It was similar with Englishmen or Scotchmen after 1783. Entirely different it was with Americans of every description Yankees, Southerners or from the Middle States. And it is true that Americans after a
while were very efficient pioneers. At first, however, they assimi- lated themselves much with Frenchmen, English and Scotch ad- venturers, and even Thomas A. Holmes, considered as the pioneer of this county, was rather an adventurer, who left after the situa- tion ceased to answer his purpose. The real pioneers of our county those who stayed and opened roads, built bridges, cultivated lands, founded homesteads for themselves and induced others to come and do the same, were Germans or Swiss of German nation- ality. I do not mention this because they were of the same na- tionality with myself, but simply as a matter of fact. Neither do I wish to say they were the pioneers of every town of the county, since some of the towns were settled much later than the county as a whole.
In the above biographies, which are all that could be given at
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so much length, I have endeavored to find the most reliable sour- ces of information, of which gossip or tradition is none, although this also must be consulted. A few of the pioneers are yet alive, and others I had known for many years previous to their death, and so the chances were not entirely unfavorable, although the compilation of the present chapter was slow and tedious work.
Of others, such as came a few years later, perhaps invited or attracted by pioneers or their friends, I propose to say a few words in the separate historical sketch of every town, and names of all the early settlers who reported, or of whom I had the necessary information by other means, will be found in the list, at the end of this history.
Of arrivals during the year 1850 I could obtain no connected intelligence. In 1851 the town of Belvidere, then, of course in- cluding the City of Buffalo, seems to have been the most favor- ed region for settlement. As the banks of the river began to fill up with population, the newcomers began to penetrate farther into the interior, and after the organization of the county towns began to form rapidly, all of which will be found in the chapter on "Or- ganization." The annexed table will give a summary of the forma- tion of towns, which to a certain extent and especially in earlier times is indicative of the progress of settlement:
1854.
The whole county was included in the town of Buffalo.
1855.
The town of Belvidere was organized Febr. 5. 1856.
The towns of Alma and Waumandee were set off March 3d, organized at next town meeting.
1857.
The following towns were set off:
Bear Creek, (cont. T. 23 and 24, R. 13 and 14,) March 10.
Naples, (cont. T. 23 and 24, R. 10 and 11,) March 10.
Glencoe, (Cold Springs,) June 8.
Cross, July 20.
Gilmanton, (Elk Creek, cont. T. 23, R. 10, 11 and E. 212,) July 20.
Nelson, South part of Bear Creek, July 20.
Bear Creek changed to Bloomington July 20.
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Milton, (changed to Eagle Mills 1858,) July 20.
1861.
Madena, November 12.
1867. Canton, May 8. Montana, July 8. 1870.
Dover, November 18.
1871.
Lincoln, at the Annual Meeting of the County Board.
Alterations of towns or boundary lines after that date had no connection with settlements.
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POLITICAL HISTORY.
Whether there was any political organization connected with++ the supposed civilization of the Mound Builders, and what that organization was or seems to have been, .can not now be told.with any certainty ... As we have no authentical monument of their .. presence within this county, it does not appear necessary to mention them in this connection. The discovery of America, accomplished , as it was under the Spanish flag seems to have, according to cus -.. tom and tradition, made all of it a part of the Kingdom of Spain,. at least nominally. : But if the country at that time had been lost. to the Spaniards, and discovered by some other nation, it would ... have been very difficult for the former to prove property, or even, possession, for they could hardly have given any description of it, by which it could be known and recognized. We find, therefore; other maritime powers follow, not in the wake of the Spanish ships, but their example and discover parts of a new world, to the whole of which Spain might have laid claim by right of priority. . . But as early as five years after the first landing of Columbus in the West Indies, Cabot discovered, under the English flag, the coast of North. .. America. Cortereal under Portuguese flag discovered and ex- plored another considerable part of the eastern coast of the same. continent. .. He was followed by the Verrazanis under the French . flag as early as 1523, though the French seem to claim that their fishermen visited the banks of Newfoundland as early as 1504. In the mean time the Spaniards, being in possession of the West India Islands began to explore the neighboring continent. The. first seems to have been Grijalva 1510, but more important was the. discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon in 1512, for on this Spain founded its subsequent claim to the whole continent. His own attempt and that of Narvaez to take possession of and hold in subjection that country, as well as the attempt of Ayllou to subdue Chicora (South Carolina), though abortive still proved the claim,
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This was strengthened by the expedition of Hermando de Soto in 1538, the principal result of which was the discovery of the Mis- sissippi River in 1541, and the subsequent navigation of his sur- viving followers to the mouth of this river. After the failure of his expedition we find that for twenty four years nothing of conse- quence was attempted in Florida or or any of its dependencies, but 1565 San Augustin was founded by Melendez.
But in the mean time the French had sent over Cartier in 1534. He sailed up the St. Lawrence, spent the winter in Canada and discovered and named Montreal island.
Six years later De la Roque and Cartier tried with but little success to plant colonies of French on the St. Lawrence. Further attempts are not on record until 1598, but no success attended the different enterprises of the French, whether supported by the crown or the Huguenotts, until Samuel Champlain came to Canada in 1603, though the first colony of the French was not made by him nor on the St. Lawrence but by De Mouts, first at St, Croix Island at the mouth of St. Croix River, afterwards at Port Royal, now Annapolis, the spot being selected by Poutrincourt, who served under him.
In 1608 Champlain came in the employ of an association of private persons, incorporated by the government, and began to occupy and improve the present site of Quebec.
We find therefore, that Spain had made the first permanent settlement on what was properly considered the North American Continent. The English, whose marine was even then rivalling the marines of France and Spain, had not been entirely idle. After the discoveries of Cabot an attempt was made to find the Northwest Passage by Martin Frobisher, 1576, in which he dis- covered on the coast of Labrador what was supposed to be gold, which occasioned another expedition 1577, and still another with the intention of planting a colony for the purpose of working the supposed gold mines. In the mean time Sir Francis Drake had explored the Western coast of the continent up to Lat. 43º North in 1579.
In 1579 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a stepbrother of Sir Walter Raleigh, made the first, and 1583 they both sent out a second ex- pedition with the intention of colonization. This expedition took possession of Newfoundland for the Queen of England, and on its
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return Sir Humphrey Gilbert was shipwrecked. The next attempt was made, after the exploration of the coast of Carolina and Al- bemarle and Pamlico Sounds in 1584 by Ralph Lane under the authority of Raleigh, to plant a colony at Roanoke Island, but in 1586 the colonists, being in danger of extermination by the Na- tives returned with Sir Francis Drake to England. The renewal of the attempt in the following year ended in the destruction of the colonists. During the next twenty years no serious attempt at colonization had been made, though the voyages of Gosnold 1603 and Pring 1603 and 1606 were undertaken during that period, re- sulting in a direct seaway to the North American coast, the dis- covery of Massachusetts Bay and a considerable part of the neigh- boring coast. Weymouth in 1605 discovered and entered the Penobscot River, Though the claims and discoveries of the three most important maritime nations overlapped each other accident- ally, it began to appear that the Spaniards would demand the South, the French would insist upon the possession of the North, and the English would stake off their claims and posts of occupa- tion between them. The following period of general settlement verified or justified previous expectations. Though the Spanish settlement dates as early as 1565, and the French had one in 1605, when the English had as yet none, the number and development of their settlements soon exceeded those of other nations both in extent, and prosperity.
Our purpose cannot be to enter into particulars of the history of the English colonies, but we may remark, that from that of Jamestown, Virginia, 1607 to which that at Plymouth followed 1620, that of Boston and other places in Massachusetts soon after, until, in 1664 the settlement of the Dutch having been surren- dered to them, to the settlement of Georgia by Oglethorpe in 1732, the English occupied in numerous strong settlements all the land along the Atlantic from the river St. Johns between Florida and Georgia as the southern and the river of the same name, between Maine and New Brunswick, a distance to which that occupied at that time by either the French or the Spanish is hardly worth comparing. All the English settlements were chartered by the government and in most, if not all, of the original charters were the utmost western limits of the colonies extended to the Pacific ocean, The claim of the Spanish government was limited by the
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same ocean and unlimited towards the north. In a similar man- ner the French considered that, de jure, the possession of the St. Lawrence River and its basin and dependencies extended the same distance. " The territory now forming the State of Wisconsin was involved in all of these conflicting claims. Its western half be- longs undeniably to the valley or basin of the Mississippi, to which Spain laid claim by virtue of the discovery of that river in the authorized expedition of De' Soto and the possession of the adjacent countries of Texas and Florida: The same part of coun- try lies entirely between the latitudes of 42° 30' and about 47º, or the latitude of the present states, at that time colonies, of Massa- chusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and hence within the charter limits of them or some one or the other. Finally, its eastern and northern part belonged to the basin of the Great Lakes, the unquestionable dependencies of the St. Lawrence System of drainage, to which the French had' established their claim by discovery, exploration, settlement and military posses- sion. This was the position of affairs at the time of the earliest settlements on the Atlantic coast.
"We find that the first permanent occupation of the St!' Law- rence valley by the French happened one year after the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. From and after that time they secured and extended their power, at first under perpetual oppo- sition of the Indians, of which the Iroquois; (Mingoes or five Na- tions) were the most" formidable." The' company of Frenchmen, of whom Champlain was the representative and principal agent, soon surrendered their charter to the King and a royal government was instituted. The governors extended the dominion of France gradually and we find that as early as 1665 there was a post at Mackinaw and soon after there was one at Green Bay in this state. In the year' 1680 the discoveries of Marquette, Joliet, La Salle and Hennepin extended the knowledge, if not the actual possessions, of the French to the Mississippi and its eastern tributaries. La Salle went down the river to its mouth, and although he finally returned to Green Bay, Mackinaw and Quebec, he occasioned the first voyage from France' to the Mississippi: Though this expedi- tion was a failure; and disastrous to himself, it must nevertheless be considered as 'a l'egal acknowledgment of his action in claiming the Mississippi' country for the crown of France and naming it
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Louisiana. The latter was soon after settled by Bienville at Biloxi and afterwards at New Orleans, and other places and the claim of France to Louisiana, which at that time included the whole basin of the Mississippi, remained thereafter undisputed according to the law of nations. As far as Wisconsin' was concerned the claim appears thus to have become a double one. We shall find more of the above named men and their achievements under the head of early explorations.
: The attempt of the French government to connect New France, as Canada was then called, with Louisiana by a continu- "ous chain of fortified posts led to the French and Indian war, the old French war of revolutionary times. The special events of this war, although otherwise very interesting, can not expect any place in this narrative. The final result of the war, however was most important for the country now within the limits of Wisconsin. This result was nothing less than a total surrender of New France including Canada, and the country around the Lakes as well as all the eastern part of the Mississippi Valley with the exception of a small tract near the mouth of the river, to England. At that time, that is in 1763, the French posts or settlements in Wisconsin were
limited to two, at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, though other temporary posts had probably existed and been abandoncd. The English took possession of Green Bay in 1769. Whether they took formal possession of Prairie du Chien is not of record. The war of the Revolution, which terminated with the peace of Paris on the 30th of November, 1783, secured not only the independence of the United States, but also the surrender to them by England of all the claims, rights and titles the latter had to any lands, or territories in the Mississippi Valley. The United States did not, however, assume actual possession of posts established there until 1796, after the ratification of Jay's treaty. By the ordinance of 1787, which may be considered the Magna Charta of this western country, the several colonies relinquished the claims, which they had to this part of the newly acquired territory in favor of the United States or the general government. This important doeu- ment not only provided fundamental laws for the land north of * the Ohio River but provided also for a division of the same into five States, "Wisconsin to be the fifth, but it must not be' imagined "that that name was used."" "This particular provision of the great
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ordinance will turn up at the time of organizing the state of Michigan, and, as a consequence thereof the separate territory of Wisconsin. As it was, the country north of, and bordering on the Ohio was organized into the Northwest Territory embracing the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, besides that part of Minnesota situated on the east side of the Mississippi River, to which the limits of the territory unquestion- ably extended.
The first governor of this vast, but very imperfectly known territory, was Gen. Arthur St. Clair, appointed 1787 and the first delegate to Congress from the same was Gen Wm. H. Harrison (old Tippecanoe) and afterward President of the United States.
Gen. Harrison was appointed 1798 secretary and ex-officio lieu- tenant governor of the territory, in place of Winthrop Sargeant, and held that position until 1802, when, Ohio having-been admitted as a state, and the remainder of the Northwest territory having been organized as the Territory of Indiana, he was appointed the first governor of the latter. In 1805 Indiana Territory was divided and the Territory of Michigan formed, which embraced also Wis- consin, designated at that time as the part west of Lake Michigan.
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