History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 146

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

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Professor in Chicago Medical College, and gave lectures on inorganic and organic chemistry and toxicology. He was married, in March, 1866, to Miss Anna Burt, of Chicago ; they have one child living-Clara May. Their attractive home is on the corner of Carroll and Langdon streets ; family are Episcopalians. His strong Union sentiments and army experience make him a decided Republican. Prof. Davies is a member of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and has been its General Secretary from its organization ; the chosen field of Prof. Davies is science, but his publications show that letters have not been neglected by him while investigating the laws of nature. The reader is referred to article on litera- tore in this volume for notice of his publications and papers. He is an active co-laborer upon the United States Coast Survey ; he has sent to the Superintendent of this organization at Washington, fifty-eight manuscript volumes upon various phases of the survey in different localities in the State of Wisconsin. Through the influence of Prof. Davies, the Board of Regents erected a magnetic obser- vatory upon the university grounds ; the officers of the survey proposed to furnish all the necessary instruments, and assume the care and cost of superintendence, upon the simple condition that the university would provide the building required for conducting the observations prescribed. The interests of science and State pride dictated prompt acceptance of the proposal. The observatory was constructed under personal direction of an officer of the survey. It was completed in 1876, and for two years was under the general supervision of Prof. Davies. His attainments iu mathematics are justly recognized as placing him among leading mathematicians of the United States ; he reads extensively and reasons closely. In the profession of teacher, to have thoughts is, of course, of the first impor- tance; next to this in value is to express them with readiness and perspicuity. The chief char acteristic of Prof. Davies' instruction is, his bringing constantly to bear a large amount of scientific information in a ready, clear and interesting manner ; he is skilled in use of apparatus; advanced pupils in his department recognize the fact that they have a thoroughly competent leader ; he is enthusiastic, accurate and tireless.

MRS. HARRIET H. DEAN, nee Morrison, widow of Nathaniel W. Dean ; is a native of Wis- consin; born Nov. 15, 1829, in Iowa Co., near Dodgeville, then called Porter's Grove ; is a daughter of James Morrison, a veteran pioneer of Wisconsin, whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume. Since 1839, her home has been in Madison. She, with her parents, fled from the Indians in an ox cart to the fort at Blue Mounds, for protection during the Black Hawk war. Her mother was her first teacher, and after- ward Miss Piorce, who taught the first public school in Madison.' Galena was the nearest post office from ber birth-place, and was fifty miles distant, and the mail was brought once a week in saddle-bags. When a child, a Winnebago brave offered the mother ten ponies and 100 buckskins for the little fair-haired one. The homes of all pioneers were hospitality itself, and reminiscences of varied interest pertaining to all classes could be given. She was married to N. W. Dean, September, 1847, and he died February, 1880. His name is included among the distinguished dead of Dane Co. Mrs. Dean is a member of the Congregational Church. She is domestic in her tastes-retiring, and attached to early scenes and friends. At the organi- zation of Wisconsin Territory, which included her birthplace, she was seven years of age, and since that date, through father and husband, she has been closely related to the development and history of Wisconsin.

JOHN S. DEAN, Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin ; born May 17, 1826, in Taunton, Mass .; his father, C. C. Dean, was a merchant of Boston. The subject of this sketch was educated mainly in the public schools of Boston. He was three years clerk in a mercantile house in Boston; then went on an East India voyage " before the mast," serving eighteen months as a common sailor. He then learned the trade of machinist, which business he followed ten years before coming West. He was married, Nov. 21, 1849, to Mary I. Seabury, of Lynchburg, Va., who died in April, 1878, leaving three children-James E., Mary S. and Carrie W. He came West in 1855, and after prospecting for six months, he settled in La Fayette Co., where he engaged four years in mining. While living there, he was Justice of the Peace, and Chairman of the township. He was two years in the lumber trade at Darlington. In the fall of 1861, he located in Madison; was Assistant Clerk of the Assembly, from 1858 to 1861 inclusive, and Chief Clerk from 1862 to 1865 inclusive. Since 1864, he has been identified more or less with insurance interests, and since February, 1869, he has been Secre- tary of the Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin. He was Assistant Secretary of the State from December, 1870, to July, 1874. He married his present wife on the 17th of May, 1880; her maiden name was Annie C. Briggs, formerly of Coeymans, Albany Co., N. Y. He owns his home, No. 121 State street. His office is in the Park Bank Block. He is a capable and popular citizen.

THOMAS DEAN & SON, contractors and builders, and proprietors of sash, door and blind factory. The senior member of the firm was horn 1826, in England ; learned his trade before coming to this country, in 1850. He lived about six years in Milwaukee, before settling in Madison ; has never

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lived in any State but Wisconsin. He was married, in 1846, to Miss Elizabeth Brocklehurst, of England ; they have six children, four of whom reside in Dane Co. His partner, and oldest son, Joseph, is a man of fine mechanical and executive ability, and is manager of the factory. He was married, in 1872, to Miss Mary Donavan, of Madison ; they have four children. Their factory is on Main street; both partners own homes on Clymer street. They are now building the court house at Jefferson, Jefferson Co., Wis. They have built several fine residences in Madison, and elsewhere in the county. Mr. Dean has been Alderman of the Fourth Ward three terms. Joseph enlisted in Co. F, of the 5th W. V. I., at the age of 15 years, and served till the close of the war. Their business is steadily increasing ; they are industrious and useful citizens.

A. F. DETLOFF, of the firm of Billings & Detloff, general blacksmithing; born 1832 in Germany. He learned his trade in the old country ; came to the United States in 1850, and settled in Niagara Co., N. Y .; located in Madison in 1854. He was married, in 1858, to Miss Charlotte Myers, who died in 1859. His residence is on Wilson street. In 1862, he married Johanna, sister of his first wife, and she died in 1868. On the 13th of April, 1861-next day after Sumter was fired on-he enlisted in Co. K, 1st W. V. I., three months' regiment. He re-enlisted, in 1862, in the 2d W. V. I., and served till the close of the war. He married his present wife, Mrs. Sasse, in 1873. He has five children; is Past Grand of the Mozart Lodge, No. 143, Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Madison. In the town- ship of Barry, he was Town Treasurer and Justice of the Peace. He is an industrious and useful citizen.

HIRAM G. DODGE, grain buyer, dealer in coal, wood, lime, etc. ; he was born in Claremont, N. H., on the 17th of June, 1815; spent his early life in Essex Co., N. Y .; in 1836, he removed to the western portion of New York, which act was the beginning of his following the " Star of Empire." In 1837 he located in New Portage, in the Western Reserve, Ohio, and then lived in that State fourteen years, most of the time at Western Star; was engaged in mercantile business. He was married on the 4th of March, 1840, to Miss Annette E. Newell, daughter of Paulus A. Newell, a prominent merchant of New Portage, Ohio ; in the fall of 1850, he pitched his tent in Madison, and this city has been his abiding- place to present date; he sold general merchandise in Madison until 1861 ; he has been in the grain busi- ness fifteen years ; he owns 300 acres of land in the Township of Westport, Dane Co., Wis. ; owns a pleasant brick residence corner Butler and Mifflin streets; they have had twelve children, of whom five died in childhood ; the seven living all reside in Madison ; four are married; four of his children work for him, and another lives with him ; though 55 years of age, he is still vigorons and capable, and gives personal supervision to his extended business affairs. He was Postmaster during most of his residence in Ohio, but has never accepted any office in Wisconsin. Family affiliate with the M. E. Church; he is a man of positive convictions, energetic yet conservative ; a respected pioneer and useful citizen.

HIRAM E. DODGE, book-keeper ; was born Nov. 26, 1850, in Madison ; his parents coming to Madison a short time prior to his birth ; he was educated in the public school, and also studied one year at the State University. Was married, in 1872, to Miss Florence E. Palmer, of Dane Co .; they have one daughter-Florence A. ; have buried one son. He is an assistant in the warehouse of his father ; he is Junior Deacon in Hiram Lodge, No. 50, of A., F. & A. M. ; is a genial, popular and emphatically a Madison man.

PERRY DOOLITTLE, proprietor of Fess House; is a native of Broome Co., N. Y .; Mrs. Doolittle is a native of Saxony ; she came to Blue Mounds, in the fall of 1847, as Miss Rassbach. She married, in 1853, George E. Fess, a native of England ; he built the Fess House ; for three years kept a restaurant and store, and in 1856, built the original Fess House on the site of their present hotel ; they paid $25 per month rent for the ground five years ; afterward paid $3,000 for same lot, and $1,400 for lot adjoining. Mr. Fess died Dec. 5, 1875, having carried on the hotel business for nineteen years, leaving five children, four boys and one girl, all living at home; the oldest, George E., being clerk of the hotel ; Mr. Fess was an honorable and industrious citizen. Mr. D. came to Wisconsin in the fall of 1855, and has since made this State his home; he had been previously married, and had buried his wife and five children. Was married to Mrs. Fess on the 28th of March, 1878, and is now manager of the hotel. They are now, in 1880, making additional improvements to the hotel, costing $4,000, and giving thirty- four rooms for guests ; hotel is corner King and Clymer streets ; their house is usually full of transient guests ; have excellent stabling accommodations for sixty horses. Mrs. Doolittle has been landlady and chief cook in this hotel for nearly a quarter of a century.

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LYMAN C. DRAPER,* oldest son of Luke and Harriet (Hoisington) Draper, and of the fifth generation from James Draper, who settled at Roxbury, Mass., about 1650, was born at the mouth of Eighteen Mile Creek, on the shore of Lake Erie, in the town of Hamburg, Erie Co., N. Y., Sept. 4, 1815. His paternal grandfather, Jonathan Draper, served in the Revolutionary war in the main army under Washington, while his maternal grandfather, Job Hoisington, lost his life iu the defense of Buffalo against the British, Dec. 30, 1813 ; and, during that war, his father was twice taken prisoner by the British on the Niagara frontier. His parents removing to Springfield, Erie Co., Penn., when he was 3 years old, he was first sent to school there ; and then settled in the incipient village of Lockport, N. Y ., on the line of the Erie Canal, in the spring of 1821, where he, for the ensuing eight or ten years, attended the best schools of that day; worked a year or two on his father's farm, repairing the shoes of the family ; in their season, picking and selling blackberries at 6 cents a quart ; and, one summer, carried brick, in the erection of buildings, at 12} cents a day. He subsequently, engaged for a while in clerking in mercantile establishments. Libraries in that region of Western New York, were then unknown, but occasionally a book could be borrowed. Soon after its issue, in 1831, he succeeded in getting the loan of Campbell's " Annals of Tryon County, or Border Warfare of New York," and of Rogers' "Journals of the French War," and " Life of Gen. Stark," and succeeded in purchasing Thatcher's " Indian Biog- raphy" and " Indian Traits," works replete with thrilling incidents of Indian and Tory warfare ; and reading them with avidity, they awakened in his mind a love for narratives of border adventure that largely gave direction to his subsequent tastes and pursuits. While at Lockport, he saw La Fayette on his visit to this country, in 1825 ; De Witt Clinton, Gov. Cass, and other notable characters. Even at that early day, such Seneca chiefs as Major Henry ()'Bail, Tommy Jimmey, and others whom he met, made a strong im- pression on his youthful mind. His first school composition was on the services and character of the good La Fayette, and his first article for the press was on Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last of the immor- tal signers, whose death had recently occurred, written in February, 1833, and published in the Rochester Gem, a literary paper, of April 6 of that year. To this and other papers and magazines he afterwards frequently contributed. In the autumn of 1833, he went to Mobile, Ala., at the invitation of Peter A. Remsen, & cotton factor there, who had married his cousin ; and in May, 1834, he left that city, passing through New Orleans, and up the Mississippi, while there were yet many cases of cholera, and went to Granville College, Ohio, remaining there over two years. His parents having removed from Lockport to Toledo, Ohio, he visited them at the latter place during vacation, in the summer of 1835, and took part with the Buckeyes in a little skirmish with the Wolverines, pleasantly called at that day " the battle of Mud Creek," in the environs of Toledo, one of the episodes of the Ohio and Michigan boundary diffi- culty of that period. On the 6th and 7th of September in that year, a body of over eleven hundred men from Michigan, under command of Gen. Brown and Gov. Mason, entered Toledo to prevent the first court from organizing under Ohio authority ; the organization, however, was quietly effected, and the troops had all retired by the 9th of the month. While in Toledo, the Michigan men boasted jocularly of having on the route there, drafted numerous potato tops, the bottoms patriotically volunteering ; and, during their sojourn there they made several valiant raids on potato patches and chicken-coops, and on Col. Stickney's orchard, burning his rail fences and attacking his ice-house. A few days after, one bright morning, about daybresk, on the 15th of September, a party of mounted Wolverines, reported in a Detroit paper to have been sixteen in number, stealthily entered Toledo and captured at their residences Dr. N. Goodsell, Judge Wilson, Capt. Jones and Mr. Davis, charged with the high crime of having accepted civil office under Ohio; or, as the Michigau people, termed it, "exercising foreign jurisdiction ; " the unwilling captives were thrust into a covered wagon, and rapidly driven toward Monroe, crossing the low bottom of Mud Creek over a corduroy road, where La Grange street now is.

But the alarm was immediately given, and the military company, some twenty citizens, under the leadership of Capt. C. G. Shaw, promptly rallied and hastened in pursuit ; young Draper ran along with the company, and one of the men, much debilitated by ague and fever, lagging behind, handed his rifle and sccouterments to Mr. Draper, saying the gun was loaded with two balls. Starting from the little hotel just east of Dr. Fassett's, Shaw's party endeavored to cut across through the bushes and unoccupied ground, hoping to head off the Michigan Sheriff's posse, and recover the prisoners before they should reach the point where La Grange street now crosses the old canal ; but, though they ran at a pretty fast trot, they failed in this. Reaching the southern edge of the marsh or bottom skirting Mud Creek, some little distance west of La Grange street, the Toledo company descried the retreating Michigan mounted party, with their wagon-prison, just emerging from the corduroy road and rising the opposite bank, the intervening distance a pretty long shot. The Sheriff, or some other leader of the Michigan party, wheeled his horse as he reached

*This sketch was prepared by Prof. Rasmus B. Anderson, of the State University of Wisconsin.

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the top of the ascent, and yelled back some sort of bravado, wanting to know, forsooth, if the Michigan authorities had not a legal right to apprehend whom they pleased. His speech was received with derision, and, about simultaneously, the respective parties exchanged several shots, Draper firing off his rifle with the rest, but purposely over-shooting, not caring, by any possibility, to do any harm, especially in an affair of this kind ; bullets whistled, twigs and splinters fell from the scattering trees, among the Ohio men. One young Toledo printer, Morrison H. Burns, was in desperate earnest, loading and firing two or three times, taking deliberate aim across a large oak stump. It was afterward reported that Mr. Wood, the Michigan Sheriff, was shot through the arm, and a horse of his party wounded ; at all events, some villainous gun- powder was burned and a big time was had, and the Ohio heroes returned to the village with flying colors and no little eclat, while the redoubtable Michiganders scampered off at their best speed. From this little experience, Mr. Draper drew the conclusion that in battles and skirmishes generally, there are so many cir- cumstances to attract the attention, that few ever give themselves any thought of personal danger. It will, no doubt, surprise not a few of Mr. Draper's many friends to learn from this little reminiscence of forty- five years ago that he, in common with his fellow-riflemen, was branded a " rebel "-so, at least, the Mich- igan Sentinel proclaimed it at the time. " After the Sheriff and a part of the posse had left," said the Sentinel, " a band of armed rebels, comprising the scum of Toledo, stationed themselves on an elevated piece of ground a short distance this side of the lower town, and commenced a brisk fire of ' riflery ' upon five or six of our men as they were returning homeward. The balls whistled in every direction about their heads," and then adds, " The fire was returned." Elias Fassett, Esq., who was a youth at the time of this occurrence, and, with other lads, followed the Toledo party at a respectful distance in the rear, and has resided in Tolodo ever since, states that Mr. Draper is believed to be the only survivor of Capt. Shaw's company. Capt. Shaw himself was one of the earliest adventurers for California when the gold mines were discovered, but sickened and died somewhere on the plains without reaching that land of promise. As matters began to assume a serious aspect, as the newspapers at the time expressed it, the General Govern- ment settled the difficulty by conceding to Ohio her territorial claim, and granting to Michigan, as an equivalent therefor, a much larger territory on the southern border of Lake Superior, comprising what is now divided into nine counties, rich in mineral resources. Thus ended the " Toledo war," a source of no little trouble while it lasted, as well as of many a gibe and joke. But by this unnatural assignment of territory west of Lake Michigan to the new State of Michigan, the subsequent State of Wisconsin was deprived of a large and valuable region which would otherwise have been included within her boundaries.

In the autumn of 1836, Mr. Draper left Granville for Hudson River Seminary, located near Stock- port, Columbia Co., N. Y., remaining there a year, when he went to reside in the family of his patron and friend, Mr. Remsen, near Alexander, Genesee Co., in the Western part of that State, privately pursuing his studies and an extensive course of reading.

While residing in Mobile, he made a beginning of collecting unpublished facts and traditions con- nected with border history and biography-securing, in this instance, events and incidents pertaining to the daring Creek chief Weatherford-a habit which for nearly fifty years he has practiced with most re- markable success. And while at Granville, he became interested in the border works of Doddridge, With- ers, McClung, Flint, and, afterward, of Hall; and, finding them oftentimes at variance with each other, he conceived the idea, in 1838, of a work on the Western pioneers, hoping by assiduous study. to be able to rectify many of these defects and errors. This led to a correspondence with such men as Hon. Hugh L. White and Col. William Martin, of Tennesee; Hon. Joseph R. Underwood, Col. Richard M. Johnson, Col. Charles S. Todd, Maj. Bland W. Ballard and Dr. John Croghan, of Kentucky; Ex-Gov. David Campbell, of Southwest Virginia ; Dr. Daniel Drake, Dr. S. P. Hildreth and Col. John McDonald, of Ohio ; Hon. William C. Preston, of South Carolina, and many others, which resulted in a large accumu- lation of historic materials, and multiplied references to other persons, many of them aged pioneers, scat- tered throughout the West and Southwest; so that repcated journeys became necessary to visit and inter- view these venerable survivors of the early settlement and Indian wars of the Western country.

Since 1840, these journeys have aggregated more than 60,000 miles, by public conveyances, on horse- back, and on foot, with knapsack and note-books, interviewing the companions and descendants of Dan- more, Andrew Lewis, Clark, Boone, Kenton, Shelby, Sevier, the Campbells, Cleveland, Sumter, Pickens, Robertson, Crawford, Brady, the Wetzels, Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief, and the famous Joseph Brant, of the Mohawks, securing many original diaries and manuscripts, making a unique and unequaled collection of original historic materials, filling well-nigh 250 manuscript volumes, and covering the whole sweep of the Anglo-American settlement, and border warfare of the West, from the first fight in the Virginia Valley, in 1742, to the death of Tecumseh at the Thames, in 1813, and the defeat of Weatherford and the Creeks, the following year.

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In 1840, Mr. Draper went to Pontotoc, in Northern Mississippi, where he edited a weekly paper for awhile; then, in connection with Charles H. Larrabee, a fellow-student at Granville, and since, a Judge and member of Congress from Wisconsin, he tried rough farming life, in a rude, floorless and windowless cabin, for one season, living on sweet potatoes, corn-meal cakes, bacon and coffee ; fifteen miles from a post ofice, and was there chosen a Justice of the Peace. In 1842, he went to Buffalo, serving as clerk in the Canal Superintendent's office for a year ; then returned to Pontotoc for a season, journeying among the pioneers, and, finally, in 1844, again.becoming a member of Mr. Remsen's family, then residing near Bal- timore, and, subsequently, in and near Philadelphia, maintaining the while an extensive historical corre- spondence, making frequent journeys in the Western and Southwestern States, and gathering a unique library of books, pamphlets, magazines and newspaper files, illustrative of border history ; and, for the special purpose for which it is designed, it is confessedly the most valuable collection ever brought together.

Mr. Remsen, his patron and friend of many years, dying in the spring of 1852, Mr. Draper, with Mr. Remsen's family, whose widow he subsequently married, removed to Madison, Wis., in the fall of that year, where he has since continued to reside. In January, 1853, he was chosen one of the Executive Committee of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and, the year follow-" ing, its Corresponding Secretary and editor of its publications ; and has, during all these suc- ceeding years, devoted much of his time to the interests of the Society, aiding largely in gather- ing the 90,000 volumes and documents in its library, and editing its pamphlet issues and its eight volumes of historical collections. " It is," says Hon. T. W. Field, in his " Indian Biography," " one of the noblest collections ever made by any Historical Society. It is a vast mass of original material, written mostly by border warriors, pioneers, voyageurs and others, who saw the events of which they wrote. By far the largest portion relates to the aborigines, who once occupied the territory. It is to the intelligence and zeal of the learned antiquary, Lyman C. Draper, that the public are indebted for this model of historical collections."

" The value of your Society's collections," observes the scholarly Dr. J. G. Shea, " under their capa- ble editorship, can only be appreciated by those who, like myself, have to use them in elucidating early history. That test shows their real importance and worth, which may not appear to any ordinary reader. They are valuable contributions to history, and form an imposing array." In reviewing these volumes, the New England Historic-Genealogical Register, for July, 1880, remarks: "These eight volumes contain a rich collection of articles and information relating to the history, genealogy and antiquities of the State of Wisconsin, together with biographies of her distinguished citizens who have deceased ; and their pub- lication reflects abundant credit upon the Secretary of the Society through all these years, Mr. Lyman C. Drsper."

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History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 146

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