USA > Wisconsin > Richland County > History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin > Part 60
USA > Wisconsin > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Richland counties, Wisconsin > Part 60
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Our stock is that which is most common to the country. We have no animals of special note, unless it is pony breed of horses; and not many of them. Our early French settlers came to the country by water, and in bark canoes or Mackinaw boats, and could not bring with them the real Canadian or Norman horse. In- deed I do not remember of seeing one of that breed in this country. If there is one or more, they must have come by land from some States bordering on lower Canada. The original stock of horses here probably came from the south and west, and were from the stock introdued by the Spanish into Mexico, Santa Fe, etc., and from thence spread among the Indians. Carver mentions an expedition of the Winnebagoes towards Santa Fe, and the capture of eighty horses at one time, which they brought home with them. The French settlers here may have obtained horses from their brethren at Kaskaskia, or in Missouri. But in either case they were originally obtained, most probably, from the Indians to the south and west of them.
The present breed of horses or ponies are not generally of an extraordinary character. Only a few very great travelers have been found among them. I have, however, seen one of but moderate size, which is said to have traveled before a light train on the ice, from Mount Trempeleau to this place, 120 miles, between sunrise and sundown, in February, and that without any visible injury. But whether any of such bottom can be now obtained, I am
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
unable to state. Our stock of horses has great- ly improved of late from immigration.
The horned cattle in this country originally came from the States of Illinois and Missouri, and were not of the first quality. Some few of good quality were obtained from the droves brought up, but generally they were of the ordinary character. Immigration has lately brought some of good quality among us, but I know of none of the imported breeds of the day, though, no doubt, we have some of mixed bloods, which are quite valuable.
Sheep have done remarkably well, so far as they have been tried; they are very hardy, and produce good and heavy fleeces. To show their hardiness and the adaptation of the climate to their growth, I will give the following fact : In 1837 a drove of sheep was brought to this place for slaughter. One of them, a wether, strayed from the flock and took up its abode in the hills east of this prairie, and within three fourths of a mile of my house, and strange to tell, but nevertheless true, he escaped notice of men, dogs and wolves, through two winters, and was discovered and killed in the spring of 1839, in good eating order. His hoofs were so worn by traveling over the rocks, that they were but square stubbs. We know that he must have strayed from the said flock, because there had been at that time no other such drove on the prairie, from which he could have strayed. At this time there are a few small flocks of sheep which do exceedingly well, and show, most con -. clusively, that our hilly and healthy country is well adapted to raising them on a large scale. I have never heard of any disease among them.
As for hogs, we have some Berkshires, but they have become so mixed and crossed with other kinds, that but few of them can be dis- tinguished. Poultry of all kinds do well.
The adaptation of the country to grazing, as compared with tillage, is a question I am not as well prepared to decide as are those of more experience. A few facts, however, may serve to show the grazing qualities of the country.
The French here who usually own large droves of horses, seldom, and some of them never, feed them in winter, except such as they use; and, in the spring they are in tolerable order: In our low bottoms and ravines where the wild grasses grow high and rank, they are some- times beaten down by the fall jains and snow; in which case the snow usually covers a large quantity of green substance which the horses reach by pawing away the snow, it snow there is. If the grass is not beaten down by the snow, but stands up and reaches above it then they eat off the tops. And what is remarkable in this country, this dry grass, reaching above the snow, is eaten with avidity by the horses; and from the fact that they keep in good order on it, it must have considerable nutrition in it, even in that dead and dry condition.
There are, however, other means of grazing in the country. On some of the islands and river bottoms, there are not only thiekets of underbrush on which the animals browse, but rushes abound in many places, on which horses and cattle will even thrive through the winter. These rush beds are not very numerous; they abound most in thickly timbered regions where the wild grass is thin, or does not grow at all In the winter of 1842-3, when the hay failed at the falls of the Chippewa, the cattle not wanted for immediate use were driven to, and watched in the rush bottoms.
In the same winter a party of us voyaging with horses through Lake Superior and back, our hay and oats having failed, we were oblig- ed to resort to the rushes on which our horses subsisted three days before we reached the set- tlement.
The quality of our prairie hay is said to be better than the same article further south. Those who have lived in the southern parts of Illinois and Missouri say that they can winter cattle easier in this region than in the former places. They think the grass here makes more substantial hay, probably from not being so much drenched in the summer by rains.
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
But a principal reason why cattle can be easier wintered is the character of our winters. We are not one day in mud and wet snow, nor being drenched with rain, and the next day frozen with icicles. Cattle, under such sudden and repeated changes, cannot do as well as with us, where but few changes oceur, probably not more than one or two, and sometimes not one through the whole winter. Dry snow, and dry cold weather, even if somewhat severe, when it comes on gradually and is uniform, does not ef- fect man or beast as does the contrary kind of weather. If it requires much labor to provide a winter's stock of povender, we have good health and physical strength to perform it, and we are satisfied to work if we have health, rather than get along without it, and shake half the year with the ague and fever. If our cattle cost us more to raise and keep, they bring a better price when raised than do those that come up them- selves in sickly regions.
As between grazing and tillage, I think there is but little to choose if either is to be pursued by itself. But both together is certainly prefera- ble; because the straw and stalks from tillage go far in wintering cattle, which would be a loss if we had no cattle to eat them.
Of dairies we cannot say a great deal, having but few; but we could say much in favor of their establishment. What few dairies we have are on a small scale, but have been and are very profitable, and would, no doubt, be more so on a larger seale. I have already. stated the facility we have for raising and win- tering cattle; these, of course, are necessary to a dairy, and so far it is an encouragement. The next, and indeed the great question is, as to the market for the products of the dairy and of this, let facts answer. The most of the chce-e consumed in our mines, our pineries and on this entire frontier, is made on the Western Reserve in Ohio, and transported 2,000 miles by the rivers; and having changed hands several times, each of which must have some profit to pay for freight, storage, commission, etc., the
price realized by the producer cannot equal more than half the cost to the consumer. Hav- ing lived myself on that reserve, and having some knowledge, by experience, of the cost of clearing land, and getting it into grass, the crops obtained, etc., I am certain that cattle can be raised and kept in this region for one-half the expense necessary to be incurred for the same purpose in that country; and, of course, if the products of the dairy here equal the pro- ducts there, per head of cattle, and the producer here realizes no more than the producer does there, the business must be much more profita- ble here than there; but if the producer here realizes double what the producer does there, and that too at one-half the expense for raising and keeping cattle, then the business is propor- tionately more profitable. The only difference and the only drawback in this country to this business is the difference in the wages of hired help. But the difference in costs and prices in favor of this country will more than balance the difference in wages.
The extent of our horticultural experiments are but limited. That the country is adapted to the growth of fruits is evident from the fact that the wild fruits indigenous to this climate are very abundant; such as crab apple, plums of some dozen or twenty varieties, grapes, cherries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and several other varieties.
The French who first settled Detroit planted apple trees, pear trees and various other kinds of fruits, and, judging from the fact, I expected to find such trees in abundance in this region. But in this I was disappointed; finding of their planting but a few apple trees, and these of an indifferent quality.
About the year 1830 Gen. Street, the Indian agent, brought a lot of apple trees from Ken- tueky to this place, and set them out on a lot at the north end of this prairie. They have had but little care and are natural fruit, yet they have grown well and are very fruitful when not injured by the frost. In 1838 I pro-
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
cured fifty grafted fruit trees from Kentucky, the nearest place from which I could then pro- eure them. But the distance of transportation and change of climate must have affected them. Furthermore, the warmth of the steamboat cansed them to bud in the moss in which they were done up, so that but four or five of them lived. I have since tried seedlings of this coun- try's growth, and though I have had bad Inek, the mice and careless ploughman injuring the trees, yet there are some fine and very promis- ing orchards in the country. What is wanted is a nursery in the country, so that the trees will become acclimated, and there can be no doubt but that apples, pears and plums will do as well as in any country as far north as this.
As for peaches our hopes and prospects are not so flattering. In 1846 I had twenty peach trees, which, in March, showed buds for as many bushels of fruit; but a severe frost in April killed them down to the very roots. A neighbor of mine had beat me, in that he had thirty or forty bushels of the fruit the season before, and had hopes of 100 at the time, but his shared the fate of mine, or nearly so. A few spronted and made a great effort to live. We could raise peaches here if we could pre- vent the sap from starting before the late severe frosts in the spring. I do not agree with the theory that hard freezing before the sap has started kills these trees. For forty years I have watched these trees in the west, and I have never been satisfied that either the fruit or the tree has been injured by the frost before the sap starts in the spring. But invariably if the sap has started, and is followed by a black frost, that is, something harder than a mere white frost, the fruit, if not the tree, is killed.
Various remedies have been tried and recom- mended for this evil-a northern declivity, cov- ering the roots with straw when the ground is frozen, etc. But the best, as I think, is en- grafting the peach upon the wild plum. The plum, we know, seldom fails of bearing fruit on
account of frost, because it is late in putting forth its sap; and if the peach top is dependent on the plum root for sap it cannot get it, nor start its buds, until the plum root, according to the law of its nature, gives it. And as that period is so late, the frost usually does not in- jure the plum, neither can it injure the peach. Another advantage of this mode of grafting is, that the worm has sometimes killed the peach by goring its roots ; but that ocenr- renee, as far as I know, never happened to the plum.
The raising of peaches in this climate is a desideratum of which most persons despair. It is laid to the elimate ; but in this I think they are mistaken. Lower Canada, Vermont, New York, northern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and I think Michigan, once were favored with abundance of this delicious fruit. In 1812, when I first emi- grated to northern Ohio, those farms which had been long enough cleared to have peaches on them abounded in this fruit, and the trees and fruit continued to grow and do well until abont the year 1830, when the late spring frosts began to kill, not merely the fruit, but the trees them- selves. And what is singular, the frost took those in the valleys in one year, and those on the hills in another ; and so on from one loca- tion to another ; until, in 1836, when I left that country, there were but a few peaches left, and from the newspapers I learn that since then this same cause has worked farther and farther south, until fears are entertained of the loss of this fruit as far as Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Now, from all this, the evil appears to be in the changes of the seasons and not in the cli- mate. The climate in the same place must be the same. But seasons have changed and re- changed since the settlement of America, and favorable seasons may yet come round to us again in this matter.
CRAWFORD COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The Crawford County Agricultural Society was organized Sept. 30, 1871, with a capital of $250. The following is a list of officers since
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
its organization to and including 1884: Presi- dent, North Miller; secretary, C. D. Lompart; treasurer, Dennis Bell.
List of officers for the year 1872: President, John M. Gay; secretary, C. D. Lompart; treas- urer, Richard Wollin.
List of officers for the year 1873: President, North Miller; secretary, C. D. Lompart; treas- urer, Richard Wollin.
List of officers for the year 1874: President, North Miller; secretary, C. D. Lompart; treas- urer, Richard Wollin.
List of officers for the year 1875: President, L. A. Bonney; secretary, Fergus Mills; treas- urer, Richard Wollin.
List of officers for the year 1876: President, Gilbert Stuart; secretary, Fergus Mills; treas- urer, James Smith.
List of officers for the year 1877: President, Gilbert Stuart; secretary, Fergus Mills; treas- urer, D. W. Briggs.
List of officers for the year 1878: President, North Miller; secretary, Fergus Mills; treas- urer, Richard Wollin.
List of officers for the year 1879: President, Edward Garvey; secretary, J. K. Longdon, treasurer, D. W. Briggs.
List of officers for the year 1880: President, Edward Garvey; secretary, A. B. Withee; treas- urer, D. W. Briggs.
List of officers for the year 1881: President, Edward Garvey; secretary, George Dean; treas- urer, James Smith.
List of officers for the year 1882. President, Robert Morris; secretary, A. B. Withee; treas- nrer, James Smith.
List of officers for the year 1883: President, James Smethurst; secretary, A. B. Withee, treasurer, James Smith.
List of officers for the year 1884: President, James Smethurst; secretary, A. B. Withee; treasurer, James Smith.
The grounds of the society are located on the southwest quarter of section 10, adjoining the village plat of Seneca on the east; the area, nine
and three-fourths acres. The grounds were purchased of Samuel P. Langdon by the society in 1872, and in the fall of that year a fair was held thereon, but the first fair of the society was held in the village of Seneca, in the fall of 1871, on grounds near Kane's hotel. The amount of property belonging to the society at this time (1884) is valued at about $600. Fairs are held in the fall, in September or October, the twelfth annual one being holden on the 25th, 26th and 27th of September, 1883.
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE 1. The name of the society shall be "The Crawford County Agricultural Society." Its objeet shall be to promote the Agricultural, Horticultural Mechanical and Household Arts.
ARTICLE II. The society shall consist of such citizens of this and other States as may signify their intention to become members, and on subscribing not less than $1, and annually thereafter $1.
ARTICLE IN. The officers of this society shall consist of a president, vice president, sec- retary and treasurer, who shall constitute the executive committee. Also a general committee shall be appointed, consisting of one member from each town in the county.
ARTICLE IV. It shall be the duty of the sec- retary to keep the minutes and have charge of books of the society. Also to carry on the cor- respondence with other societies, with individ- uals, and with the executive committee in further- ance of the objects of the society. The treas- urer shall keep the funds of the society, and dis- burse the same on the order of the president or vice president, countersigned by the secretary, and shall make a report of the receipts and ex- penditures at the annual meeting. The execu- tive committee shall have charge of all the property transmitted to or belonging to this society, and shall have charge of all communi- cations designed for publication and so far as they may deem expedient shall arrange and publish the same, The general committee are
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
charged with the interest of the society in the towns where they respectively reside.
ARTICLE V, There shall be an annual meet- ing of this society on the fair grounds at 2 o'clock P. M., on the second day of the fair, for the purpose of electing the officers of the so- ciety, who shall assume the offices to which they were elected on the first day of January follow- ing. The general committee shall be appointed by the executive committee. The executive committee shall have power to fill any vacan- cies that may occur in the offices of the society. Special meetings may be called by the execu- tive committee after giving proper notice of not less than ten days, stating the day, hour and place of said meeting. Seven members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
ARTICLE VI. The society shall hold its an- nual fair at such time and place as it shall des- ignate.
ARTICLE VII. This constitution may be amended or altered by a yote of two thirds of the members present at any annual meeting.
AMENDMENTS.
ARTICLE I. The fair grounds shall be loca- ted within five miles of the geographical center of Crawford county.
ARTICLE 1]. The annual meeting of the so- ciety shall be held at Seneca on the last Satur- day of November of each year, at 1 o'clock r. M.
ARTICLE III. There shall be a vice president elected from each town in the county; and one from the city of Prairie du Chien, who shall constitute a general committee.
ARTICLE IV. There shall be an officer elected annually, styled general superintendent, whose duty it shall be to oversee the division superin- tendents and see that each department has a superintendent.
RULES AND REGULATIONS.
RULE 1. All competitors living within ten miles of the fair grounds, must enter their names upon the secretary's book, and have the article or animal on the ground by 5 o'clock P. M. on the
first day of the fair. All articles and animals must remain on the ground until 4 o'clock P. M. of the last day of the fair, unless removed by permission of the president.
RULE 2. The judges will be on the ground promptly at 10 o'clock A. M. on the second day of the fair and answer to their names and pro- ceed to the discharge of their duties. Three will constitute a quorum. The superintendents will fill vacancies in their respective divisions. Judges are required to report in writing, and notice in detail all entries in their respective classes, stating the merit of each. The object of this society is improvement in its various branches, and this will not be attained if men- tion is made only of the most worthy articles. It is hoped that judges will keep this in mind. Judges may withhold premiums when, in their estimation, articles are not worthy. Judges will hand their reports, properly signed, to their re- spective superintendents at as early an hour as possible after the decisions have been rendered. A majority must sign. Superintendents will see that the judges pass no article unnoticed in their divisions.
RULE 3. The secretary will furnish each en- try with a card numbered to correspond with the number on entry book, which must be at- tached to the article, and judges making their report will be governed by number instead of name of exhibitor.
RULE 4. No exhibitor, or his agent, will sit as a judge in the class in which he exhibits. Any article or animal competing for more than one premium must pay additional entry fee, nor will any article or animal be allowed to compete for more than one premium, except as part of a collection.
RULE 5. Judges' report must be made to the superintendent of the department. No premi- ums will be paid except on reports duly signed by the proper superintendents and judges, and the proper officers are authorized and instructed not to pay premiums until they are satisfied that all the rules and regulations have been com-
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
plied with; it is therefore necessary that judges report as required.
RULE 6. Competition is only open to manu- facturers of Crawford county, except for farm machinery and arts.
RULE 7. Canned fruit, etc., except wine must have been put up the present season.
RULE 8. The same animal after arriving at maturity, and having taken first premiums for two consecutive seasons in the same class, shall not be allowed to compete for a regular pre- mium afterwards.
RULE 9. Farm products must have been raised the present season by the exhibitor to en- title to preminm. Forage will be furnished to animals on exhibition free of charge. Stock cows must show offspring to entitle to premium. Brood mares must show a sucking colt. All animals entered as full bloods, must show pedi- grees full blood, to compete with full bloods, grades with grades, natives with natives. Ani- mals entering for trial, time to be test, distance and time of test to be arranged by the superin- tendents and judges. Butter, cheese, bread, cake, etc., must be tested by the judges. Su- perintendents will see that no others molest any article in their respective classes, except by
permission of exhibitor. Teams will be allowed on the grounds if properly secured.
RULE 10. When articles are entered which are not on the premium list, the judges may award such articles premiums if, in their judg- ment, such articles are worthy of it; which pre- mium shall not exceed the regular premium in their respective classes.
RULE 11. Entry fee twenty per cent. of pre- minm. Price of membership tickets $1, and entitles the purchaser to a vote at all meetings of the society, and admits a gentleman and lady, or a man and his wife, or all of their un- married children under twenty-one years of age, during the entire fair, and is not transferable. Children under fifteen years of age and not be- longing to families holding tickets will be charged fifteen cents per day. Persons holding single day tickets will not be granted a pass, except from 11 o'clock A. M. to 2 o'clock P. M.
Any person not included in the above regula- tions, will be charged twenty five cents per day As faras is practicable the premiums will be paid at the close of the fair.
RULE 12. All teams of horses, herds of cat- tle, sheep or swine, or collection of canned fruit or any other article must be owned by the per- son who enters it.
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.
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CHAPTER XX.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Among the numerous physicians who have practiced medicine in Crawford county, some have attained positions of eminence in the pro- fession.
The first person to practice the healing art in this county was, strange to say, a woman, whose name was Mary Ann Menard, familiarly known as "Aunt Mary Ann."
Of this "person of consequence," James H. Lockwood, in 1855, wrote as follows:
"Among the other inhabitants of notoriety at that time [1816], was a Mrs. Menard, of mixed African and white blood. She came from som( one of the French villages below, and was then married to Charles Menard, a Canadian of French extraction. She had been married twice previously, first to a man by the name of Du Chouquette, by whom she had two sons, one of whom was in the employ of Mr. Astor in that unfortunate expedition of his sent in 1810 by sea and across the continent to the month of the Columbia river, now Oregon territory. Her next husband was named Gagnier, by whom she had three sons and three daughters. After Gagnier's death, she married Charles Menard, by whom she had three sons and two daughters. She was generally called by the inhabitants aunt Mary Ann, and was a person of conse- quence among them, being midwife, and the only person pretending to a knowledge of the healing art. Until a fort was erected at Prairie du ( hien, and a surgeon arrived there with the troops, aunt Mary Ann was sent for by the sick, and attended them as regularly as a physi- cian, and charged fees therefor, giving them, as
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