History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 101

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1304

USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Wisconsin > Part 101

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Mr. Peck having moved to Blue Mounds in 1836, his attention was early called to the de- sirability of investing in some lots in the (to be) city of Madison. He made some purchases there, and determined to become a settler in " the town." So in March, 1837, he began work upon the site, by getting together some materials for a house. What followed is best told in the words of Mrs. Peck :

"We came direct from Genessce County, N. Y., by way of Buffalo, Detroit, Michigan City and Chicago, to the Blue Mounds, at which place we arrived July, 1836, our goods having been shipped by the way of Green Bay and Portage; and as a fort was then kept at each of those points, and the Blue Mounds being situated on the military road between those places and Mineral Point and Galena, there was considerable travel. A post office was established

* From Durrie's " History of Madison," pp. 35, 36.

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at Ebenezer Brigham's, at the Blue Mounds. We took his house, with everything apper- taining thereto, his large, excellent garden, a number of cows, etc., and boarded himself and his farming and mining hands during autumn and winter ; also entertained travelers ; and as the Legislature convened at Belmont that season, and J. D. Doty being the principal proprietor of land at the Four Lakes, a good part of the members were bought with slices therefrom to locate the seat of government of Wisconsin at Madison ; and on the return of the northern members we purchased lots at that place, and immediately sont hands and teams to erect three large rooms or buildings, and, in fact, they were erected before I ever saw the place.

" The men employed to erect this first house were two Frenchmen, one named Joe Pelkie, the name of the other is forgotten. They were with a party of Winnebagoes who had spent that winter at the largest of the Blue Mounds, and Abraham Wood superintended the work. Wood then lived at Strawberry or Squaw Point-since better known as Winnequah. on the eastern side of Third Lake. He had a squaw wife, a daughter of the Winnebago Chief De Kaury. Wood subsequently removed to Baraboo, and erected a saw-mill there. During the erection of these cabins, which was in March, Mr. Peck made two excursions with teams to Madison, to carry out supplies and give directions about the work. There was then snow on the ground, and the lakes were frozen, so that Mr. Peck crossed on the ice to Strawberry Point, to stay over night at Wood's. Pelkie remained in and around Madison for some time. At one time, Berry Haney, a noted character, shot Pelkie in a dispute about a land claim, and when last heard from Pel- kie was still carrying the ball in his back. The other Frenchman, the companion of Pelkie in building our cabins, had a squaw wife whose brother was stabbed and killed on the beach of Third Lake.

" In March, Mr. Doty and lady (their residence being at Green Bay) put up over night with us. They found a decent, clean table, a thing seldom seen in those days. I informed Mrs. Doty that we were going to settle in Madison. She said if I would be the first housekeeper there I should have a present and my choice of the best lot in the place. It was also confirmed by her husband, but, by-the-bye, I never got it, and on the 15th of April, 1837, we arrived there, and as we were well aware what our business would be when settled, we provided ourselves accord- ingly, and purchased at Mineral Point over $100 worth of groceries, as I have the bills now to show. Among the items were one barrel of pork, two of flour, one of crackers, one of sugar, half-barrel dried fruit, one box of tea, and as good a sack of coffee as was ever brought into the State ; besides a half-barrel of pickles, put up by myself, also a tub of butter, and jars of plums and cranberries collected from Blue Mounds thickets. All these were carried to Madison when we moved, besides a good load of potatoes. I also made six more bed-ticks, to be filled with grass or hay as occasion required, as we fetched but four feather beds with us.

" We started from Brigham's place, at the Blue Mounds, on Thursday, the 13th of April, after dinner, with our teams, I riding an Indian pony. We traveled abont seven miles, where some person had made a claim, and had laid about five rounds of logs toward a cabin. We camped therein that night, with a tent over us. The next day, the 14th, we pushed on. A more pleasant day I never wish to see ; but I had a severe headache before night. We pitched our tent on a little rise of ground, within three miles of Madison, spread down our beds, and rested comfortably till near 3 o'clock on Saturday morning, when we were awakened by a tremendous windstorm and howling of wolves, and found snow five or six inches deep, which continued to fall until after we arrived in Madison.

" Well, now, here we are at Madison, on the 15th, sitting in a wagon under a tree, with a bed-quilt thrown over my own and my little boy's head, in a tremendous storm of snow and sleet, twenty-five miles from any inhabitants on one side (Blue Mounds), and nearly one hundred on the other (Milwaukee). What is to be done ? Go into the buildings with no floors laid, and nothing but great sleepers laid across to walk on ? No; I must have the buildings plastered with lime, and floors laid first-only one saw-mill in the Territory, and that away up in the Wisconsin pinery and not completed, and of course no lumber; but there lies a pile of puncheons -just build me a pen under this tree, and move in my stove, and we will crawl in there. Sure enough we soon had it completed and a fire built.

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

"Some two weeks from this time, or about the 1st of May, on a pleasant day, there were about fifteen men arrived from Milwaukee to look a road through and see Madison. Among the number were A. A. Bird, the two Pixleys, merchants ; W. M. Dennis and Col. Morton, of the land office-but I cannot enumerate names. Well, we had a spacious dining-room-under the broad canopy of heaven-where I spread tables for them. A portion of the party, the hired men, set out on their return the next day. We immediately sent a team to the other side of Fourth Lake, where there had been some hay put up by a party of half-breed French and Indians, and got a load of it, with which we filled our bed-ticks; we then laid down puncheons in one end of one of the buildings, spread down our beds, built a fire of chips (hewn from the logs) at the other end between the sleepers, tacked three or four sheets for bed curtains around the walls, and there they rested ; and they stayed with us three or four days, enjoying themselves hunting and fishing around the lakes, and looking at the country, and then left for Mineral Point, or perhaps Galena ; and in eight or ten days Bird returned, accompanied by J. D. Doty, Ebenezer Brigham and others.

" Doty observed, ' Why do you not move into your house ?' 'Why, my dear sir,' I replied, ' I must have it plastered with lime first.' Said he, 'We do not know as there is a lime quarry within a hundred miles of you, and you need not expect to live in this pen until there is one found and burned. No, no; you must move in. We will help daub up the kitchen part on the outside with mud, and when the lime is found you can finish the inside to suit you.' So at it they went (only think, Governors, Esquires and Mayors in prospective, daubing cabins!) and by night we were all comfortably situated in the kitchen. And this is the room in which, a week subsequently, the Scotch-born and English-bred Featherstonhaugh was entertained.

" The size of this room was twenty-four feet long and eighteen or twenty wide-the same length of the dining-room, and situated immediately back of it-wherein they used to dance cotillions, three sets at the same time. The other two buildings were joined on the northeast and southeast corners of the kitchen, leaving a passage, where afterward was erected a frame dining-room, in which many a weary traveler and hungry wight was fed."

So the first settlers in Madison were Eben and Roseline Peck, and they had with them a son- Victor. Their house, the first one inhabited in " the town," was located on Lot 6, Block 107, south side of Butler street. In June, 1838, the Pecks having vacated the house, it was occu- pied by Robert L. Ream, and there his daughter, Vinnie, the artist, was born. The building was demolished in 1857.

Mrs. Peck, going to Baraboo with her husband in the fall of 1840, was the first white woman to cross the Baraboo Bluffs and make her home in the valley north of them. They set- tled on their claim previously made on that part of the river known as the Lower Ox-Bow, since platted and called Manchester. Here they lived for seven years, when they were dispossessed of their claim. They then moved to Mrs. Peck's present home, having laid claim to a part of the region now known as Peck's Prairie, and commenced the improvement of a farm. Mr. Peck soon after started for Oregon and California, and, while on the way out, was killed by Indians. Mrs. Peck was left with two children to battle for a livelihood, and her subsequent experience was sore enough. Various attempts were made to take her home from her under the pre-emp- tion laws, and, to save it, she was obliged to borrow money at a ruinous rate of interest. In early days, before the coming of a physician, Mrs. Peck treated the sick with much success. She remembers setting the broken leg of a neighbor's child, who lived five miles away, she being compelled to ride behind her husband along an Indian trail after dark to reach the house; and when she arrived there was not a candle in the house, the father of the child being compelled to walk half a mile to a neighbor's, who had some lard, from which a " grease dip" was made. The operation was successfully performed, and the child rapidly recovered. Mrs. Peck says there were no deaths in the Baraboo Valley till after doctors came. Mrs. Peck's children are both alive. The eldest, Victor, was born April 25, 1833, and now resides in Milwaukee; the other, Wisconsiana Victoria, is the wife of Nelson Wheeler, of Chippewa Falls. Victoria was born in Madison, September 14, 1837-the first white child born therc.

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY

MADISON ON ITS WAY TO GLORY.

On the 10th of June, 1837, A. A. Bird, the acting Commissioner for constructing the capitol, accompanied by a party of thirty-six workmen, again arrived in Madison.

Josiah Pierce, one of Bird's men, was born in New Salem, Hampshire Co., Mass., May 21, 1783, and was devoted to agricultural pursuits ; in 1827, moved with his family from his native State to Butternuts, Otsego Co., N. Y .; and in the spring of 1837, be migrated with his wife and seven children to Wisconsin. He was engaged by Bird to remove from Milwaukee to Mad- ison, to board some of his workmen on the capitol. Mr. Pierce's family also came with Bird's party.

Mr. Pierce's was the second family that settled in Madison ; but his purpose was only to make it a temporary residence, intending to find a good locality elsewhere and open up a farm. In November of that year, he removed two miles south of the present village of Monticello, Green Co., and made a location ; his nearest neighbors resided in Exeter, seven miles distant. He was an invalid when he settled there; but his health improved, and he was able to attend to business for several years. He died December 25, 1843, aged nearly sixty-one years. His widow, Ruth Pierce, survived till June 8, 1867, when she died at the age of seventy-nine.

Mrs. Peck's remembrance of the second arrival of Bird in Madison-this time with his party of thirty-six workmen, as previously mentioned-is of interest :

"Our next large arrival at Madison was A. A. Bird again, with some thirty or forty men, hired in Milwaukee, to commence operations on the public buildings ; he also brought with him a family by the name of Pierce, with two or three grown-up daughters, for the purpose of cook- ing for his workmen. Bird immediately commenced to put up a log boarding house, and in a week's time had it completed and Pierce moved in. His next work was putting up and inclos- ing a frame dining-room for us."

Of the thirty-six workmen brought to Madison by Bird, the names of the following are remembered :

William Simonds, Jefferson Holmes, Mr. Holloway, Darwin Clark, David Hyer, Thomas Jackson, David Williams, E. Hewitt, Giles Briggs, Henry Gage, J. W. Corning, D. Mumford, James Tinline, Gilbert and Delos Bundy, Richard Rockwood, Mr. Nelson, George W. Eastman, H. W. Thornton, Horace and William Laurence, William Ferrill, Jefferson Kinney, Chauncey Leland, Hiram Sleeper, Mr. Toby, Joseph Brewer, Mr. Pratt and Charles H. Bird. Isaac H. Palmer also came with the company, but he was not in Bird's employ.

Of the party who came June 10, the following, it is known, remained in Madison for a longer or shorter period-becoming residents of the place :

A. A. Bird, Darwin Clark (still a citizen of Madison), Thomas Jackson, Isaac H. Palmer, Mr. Nelson, Jefferson Holmes, Chauncey Leland, David Hyer and Charles H. Bird.

Thus writes one of the thirty-six, after the lapse of forty years, to his surviving comrades :

" I address you who are left of that then young and daring company, which braved the hardships and difficulties of a pioneer journey to Madison, then occupied, with but one excep- tion, by wild, untutored savages ; the smoke of whose wigwams could be seen from the heights, as we approached, ascending from the beautiful shores of the lakes.

" What a soul-animating sight, as memory bridges the chasm made by nearly half a cen- tury, and we stand again upon the eminence overlooking the site of the future city ! O ! the joy and exultation of that hour was fit reward for the hardships we had endured in constructing roads, traversing deluged marshes, drenched almost nightly with rain, fording rivers, etc. There reposed before us the object of all our toils-a beautiful elevation upon which the capitol was to be built, surrounded by nature's most enchanting adornments, the lakes of liquid silver, which completely encircled in their embrace that beautiful grove, furnished with a natural growth of the choicest trees of the West, under the shade of which one could afterward, at almost any time, see groups of Indians, of all ages, enjoying themselves hugely in watching us in our various pursuits.

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

"Our enthusiasm vented itself in shaking of hands, waving of handkerchiefs, and throwing of caps as high as vigorous hands could hurl them. We had almost reached our desired haven -our Western home ; and the choicest of fish and game, together with the varied products of the soil, which abundantly furnished our primitive tables, proved that the greatest value of the scene lay not in its beauty.'

On the same day of the arrival of Bird's party-June 10, came Simeon Mills, who is still a resident of Madison. The next day he engaged Isaac Towers to build him a log building, 16x18 feet, for a store, and went to Galena to purchase goods. Towers was a resident of Min- eral Point.

Doty, of course, was, during the first months of the settlement of Madison, a frequent visitor. His arrival in June is thus mentioned by Mrs. Peck :

" Then comes Doty, again, and says, ' Madam, prepare yourself for company on the Fourth [of July], as a number from Milwaukee, Mineral Point, Fort Winnebago and Galena have con- cluded to meet here for the purpose of viewing the place and celebrating the day.'. ' Why, what shall I do?' said I, 'here is my husband and brother, both blind with inflammation in their eyes so that I have to feed them, and no lumber either to lay the upper or dining-room floor.' ' Just constitute me your agent,' he replied, ' and I will contract for whatever you want; and there is a crib of lumber just run down the Wisconsin River, and lying at Helena, from Whitney's Mill,' the first, and then the only, saw-mill in the Territory. He went and contracted for the lumber at $69 a thousand (I have still some articles of furniture manufactured from that first lumber, and I prize them as others would relics from Mount Vernon or the Charter Oak); he also contracted for a load of crockery and table fixtures, provisions, wines, liquors, pickles, preserves, more bed-ticking, bedding, and finally everything that I sent for at Mineral Point, ' and ordered teams to convey them to Madison.

"On the 2d day of July there was a drove of cattle from Illinois driven through Madison to Green Bay, out of which we purchased beeves and veal. On the same day, my husband was led out blind and put into the stage, with his eyes carefully excluded from the light, and sent to Fort Winnebago, for the purpose of having his eyes operated upon by the surgeon of the gar- rison, where he would try to get a quiet, dark room, away from confusion-pshaw, talk about the time that tried men's souls, just as if a woman had none-but the recruits had just arrived there from Green Bay, and there was more-confusion there than at home, so next day he returned. On the morning of the third our " gim-cracks " had all arrived except the lumber, and that made its appearance about 7 o'clock in the evening. That night our chamber floors were laid, except over the dining-room. We had previously purchased 300 pounds of feathers of Mr. Rasdall, an Indian trader, so our pillows were all ready, and our beds were all spread by daylight on the morning of the Fourth, and by 1 o'clock our dining-room floor was laid, our dining- table built and dinner set, and between that hour and sundown quite a large party bolted something besides pork. In the evening there was a basket of champagne carried into the dining- room, and there their toasts were delivered, songs sung, dinner bell jingled between times, and good feeling, friendship and hilarity prevailed generally ; and next morning they shot my two little pet crows."

On the 6th of September John Stoner and family arrived-the third family in order of settlement. Mr. Stoner erected a house of logs near Lake Mendota, on Block 262. The fourth family was that of the Widow Bird-the mother of A. A. Bird and brothers.

Besides those already mentioned who came to Madison in 1837, and became residents, for a longer or shorter time, there are remembered John Catlin, Prosper B. Bird, William D. Bird, Zenas H. Bird, William A. Wheeler, Mr. Nelson, Jairus Potter and Horace Potter.

FIRST MEETING OF THE LEGISLATURE IN MADISON.

The Legislature of the Territory met for the first time in Madison in November, 1838. The capitol was not yet in a suitable condition to receive the Legislature, so that the members of the Council met in a little room on the left side of the hall of the American Hotel, and the House

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

of Representatives in the basement dining-room, in which permanent organizations took place. In the basement room Gov. Dodge delivered his first message at the new seat of government. A resolution was adopted appointing a joint committee to examine the public buildings and report their condition, together with the probable accommodation to be afforded the Legislature. The committee reported the next day that they had the assurance of the Commissioner, A. A. Bird, that the Representatives' Hall and Council Chamber would be in readiness on the succeeding day for the Legislative Assembly. They also reported that the keepers of the three public houses would be fully prepared, during the week, to accommodate the members, to wit : at the Madison House, two rooms that will accommodate six persons ; at the Madison Hotel, two rooms that will accommodate four persons each ; and at the American Hotel, eight rooms sufficient to accommodate twenty-six persons ; and, further, that not more than fifty persons can be accom- modated with sufficient rooms for the transaction of business. A few days later, two rooms on the south side of the capitol were pronounced in readiness for the reception of the wise men of the Legislature, representing 18,130 inhabitants, the population of the then Territory of Wis- consin. The counties of Green, Dane, Jefferson and Dodge were represented in the Council by Ebenezer Brigham, of Blue Mounds.

PIONEER " CHARACTERS."

"None but the 'oldest inhabitants' of Madison will remember Pinneo, and little was known of him even by them. He was a vagabond naturally, and a long life of dissipation had con- firmed him in all his vagabond notions and habits. Pinneo came to Madison among the first, and commenced work as a shingle-maker, or 'shingle-weaver,' as he styled himself. He built a hut in the woods, near the outlet of Lake Mendota, and, when sober, used to retire to it and weave shingles, for which the new settlement offered a ready market. He was a queer-looking object; a tall, round-shouldered, large-nosed, gray-eyed chap, never wearing any clothing in pleasant or foul weather save a pair of coarse breeches and a red shirt. He claimed to be a Yankee, but had coasted so long up and down Western rivers, and had imbibed so much poor whisky, that he had in appearance and manner nothing to indicate a 'Down-East ' origin. His cabin was a mere shelter-open in front, and furnished with no article of comfort or convenience save one or two common cooking utensils, and the tools most necessary to his business in shingle- making. Though orderly and quiet enough when sober, he was the opposite when drunk ; and when Pinneo took it into his head to be agreeable, no place or company was free from intru- sion. He was not a very agreeable caller-his long, gaunt form, bare head and feet, and dis- gustingly dirty appearance were anything but agreeable, still they had to be endured, as the possessor of these qualities was none other than Mr. Pinneo, who had a laugh and a joke for every one, and who was ever ready to do the bidding of those choosing to command his services. When sober, which was only when every artifice and cunning had failed to provide the means of getting drunk, he would retire to his cabin, work steadily and quietly until a customer came for shingles, for which terms of payment were positive-cash down.

"When once in possession of money, there was no more work in Pinneo, who would, by a more direct route, reach town in time to get glorious long before the purchaser made his appear- ance with the shingles. After he had endured a week's drunk, his red face and bare breast shone in the sun with a peculiar brilliancy, and he was a sight as seen in the morning after a night's lodging under a tree, or under some outhouse shelter, as he shook himself and started for his morning potation at the nearest drinking house. He had not worn shoes for years, and in his drunken frolics he had acquired the habit of kicking out grubs and roots with his bare toes. This he was often induced to do for a drink, and many was the grub kicked out of King street by Pinneo long before Nicholson pavement or the office of Street Commissioner was thought of. His feet looked, in shape and color, like mud turtles, and his toes resembled so many little turtle heads half drawn in, so bruised and battered were they by hard usage. Pinneo, when drunk, would occasionally have serious thoughts and sometimes expressed serious doubts as to the pro- priety of his course of life. His boon companion was one Butterfield. When the first minister

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

visited Madison, and called the good people together on Sunday, Pinneo was among the first present. He listened attentively to the opening services, and when the minister began to speak of a better life than men were leading in the new country, Pinneo very deliberately rose from his seat and electrified the small audience by saying, 'That's so, Mr. Philo ; that's so. Butter- field's got to be saved, and you just hold on till I bring him in.' Upon which he stalked out of the room, but, failing to find his chum, neglected himself to return.

"Pinneo had but little to commend him, even to a passing notice; still he was a type of many vagabond frontiermen, who, whatever their origin, accomplished nothing useful in life. They generally lived and died wretchedly, as did this Pinneo, who lost his life in a miner's cabin, his clothes taking fire while he was on one of his drunken frolics."*

. "When Pinneo was in want of a drink, he was accustomed to go to 'Squire' Seymour, who kept store for the Deans, and run his credit. On one occasion, having reached the utmost limit of his financial standing with the 'Squire,' he endeavored by persuasive argument to have him give him one drink more. The 'Squire,' however, was inexorable ; so Pinneo returned to his shingle establishment, where he found Adam Smith, from whom he borrowed an empty pistol, and, with a bottle in his pocket, started for Dean's store. On entering, he held the pistol in one hand and the bottle in the other, and demanded that the 'Squire' should fill his bottle. The fierce attitude of the belligerent brought the 'Squire' to terms, and, after filling the bottle, Pinneo coolly showed him the pistol was unloaded."t

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History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 101

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1304

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899; Western Historical Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1304