History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 148

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 148

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"To collect these materials, he has traveled more than sixty thousand miles since 1840, visiting aged pioneers and Indian fighters, the men who cleared the woods and laid the foundations of the State. Living on a meager salary, and much of the time with no income whatever, he has traveled thousands of miles on foot. He has made several journeys, going on a single jaunt 800 miles on foot, carrying his knapsack. This involved great hardship and self-denial, and not a little danger. His feet became sore at one time, compelling him to make his way on hands and knees to a settlement. He came near losing his life on several occasions, swimming swollen streams, capsizing in stages, and caught in the snagging of steamboats, but he hazarded everything to clear up an obscure event in the life of one of his border heroes.

" His enthusiasm and keen scent have yielded to no impediment. The walls of his library are hung with trophies and relics of his extended search, and on the shelves are packed two hundred and fifty manuscript volumes of crude history, nearly all original. Concerning the life and conquests of Gen. G. R. Clark, 'the Washington of the West,' he possesses twenty-five manuscript volumes; ten relating to Boone and his ancestors, including Boone's letters, his field notes of surveying and his private memoran- dum and account-books. Another of Draper's heroes is Gen. Simon Kenton, a noted border fighter, and companion of Clark and Boone, who was captured by the Indians, and several times escaped the stake and faggot, and who was once tied on a wild colt, Mazeppa-like, and left to his fate in the pathless woods. Of Brady, the Wetzels, Brant and Tecumseh, he has collected many volumes, and he has about a dozen volumes of manuscripts concerning Sumter, the Revolutionary hero of South Carolina, matter new and exhaustive.

"One other odd fact is, that Mr. Draper has published almost nothing. Unlike Plutarch, to whom I have compared him, he is naturally a gleaner rather than a compiler. He gathers facts and hoards them like a miser-not because he is secretive or fails to comprehend that they ought to be used, but because he takes more pleasure in collecting than in cditing. He more keenly enjoys going forth afoot and searching every corner of the West for an old scrap of letter or to find a lost link in the chain of some minor narrative than to acquire either fame or money in publication. The love of accuracy and com- pleteness is a passion with him.

" Dr. Draper is a small, wiry man, and, while his head and beard are silvery, his eye preserves the brightness, and his step the elasticity of youth. He has marvelous energy and persistence that never tire. Whatever may result as to working up his collections, he will enrich the future with his pos- sessions, and when he passes away, he will leave behind him the merited fame of having done more than all other men put together toward restoring the lost history of the West."

" Seeing him now," says F. A. Moore, "it is hard to comprehend the secret force and energy that have inspired him through all these long and patient years." "Our wonder was," observes the well- known biographer, Joseph Sabin, " that a man of his slight physique could have accomplished a tithe of his work."

Such is the brief sketch of the man of whose collections Jared Sparks thirty-five years ago expressed his amazement-since that time, they have been more than doubled ; and whom the late Col. John Mc- Donald, himself a pioneer, and author of " Border Sketches," denominated "The Western Plutarch." " I look forward," writes Bancroft, the historian, " with eager and impatient curiosity for the appearance of your lives of Boone, of Clark and of James Robertson, and so many others. Time is short, I wish to read them before I go hence. Pray do not delay, the country expects of you this service."

We have quoted freely what others say of Mr. Draper, in order to show the eminent position he holds among the great scholars of our country, who make American history their specialty, and hence are able to speak with authority on the value of his labors. We have given mere glimpses of the vast amount of praise that has been bestowed upon him ; but, we trust, we have given enough to illustrate both the char- acter aud value of his labors, the caliber of the man, and the fair fame that belongs to his name through-

981

MADISON.

ont the country, and which is destined to last through all time. We feel deeply interested in the publica- tion of his long-promised works. Just as mythology forms the background of the history of the nations of the Old World, so the American people find the dawn of their existence in the New World radiant and glowing with the strange figures of the pioneers, whose lives will, in times to come, be commemorated in songs as weird and thrilling as those we read in the Iliad and Odyssey, in the Aneid, the Niblung story, and the Eddas. Our pioneer history will be to those who come after us, what the achievements of Aga- memnon and Menelaus, of Odysseus, of Aneas, Sigurd and Gunnar and Helen and Brynhild were, and still are, to the Greeks, the Romans and the Teutons ; but the heroic age of America will be more realistic, and for this our posterity will be largely indebted to such men as Lyman C. Draper. In his collections there is food for many generations of Homers and Virgils, of skalds and bards and minnesingers. Our posterity will delight in the thrilling stories of Boone, of Clark, of Brady, of Sumter, and of other far- traveled heroes, who penetrated into the wild forests of Indiandom, and laid the foundations of the United States. Tanta molis erat Americanam condere gentem !- and no easy task has it been for our friend Draper to gather up all the scattered records of the toils and sufferings of our Western fathers ; but an immortal fame is his just reward.

Mr. Draper reminds the writer of this sketch most forcibly of the Icelander Arne Magnusson, who was born in 1663 and died in 1730. He gained for himself a celebrated name-less by his writing, for, though he was remarkably familiar with the history and literature of his country, he found but little time for composing books, than by the most astonishing zeal with which he collected manuscript chronicles, let- ters and other documents illustrative of the history of the North. As a most untiring collector of Ice- isodic manuscripts, he was facile princeps He was sent by the Danish Government from Copenhagen as a member of a commission to Iceland, whose duty it was to settle the registry of the land of that island. During his ten years' sojourn there, he employed himself in seeking old documents with an indefatigable energy, to which we have never known a parallel, excepting in the case of Mr. Draper. He did for old Norse literature what Archbishop Parker did for Anglo-Saxon literature, and which Mr. Draper has done for American border historical literature. Arne Magnusson was armed with a royal letter, commanding the Icelanders to deliver to him all they possessed in the shape of written documents. He did not wait, however, for the people to bring him their treasures, in obedience to the royal mandate ; but, during those ten long years, he traveled from house to house, hunting up manuscripts stored away in huge oak chests, the receptacles of the wardrobe, and everything accounted valuable by the peasantry. He peered care- fully over the doors of the guest-chambers and in out-of-the-way nooks, in case a scrap of paper might peradventure lurk there. The harvest that he brought back to Copenhagen was simply extraordinary.

He also went to Norway, where he, in the same manner, visited countless houses, penetrating as far as to Norland, bringing back many precious manuscripts. His collection, unique in its kind, has never been surpassed in quantity or in value. Unfortunately, the larger portion of it was consumed by the dis- astrous fire which visited Copenhagen in 1728. What was saved, with what he was afterward able to add to it, he left, by will, to the University of Copenhagen, together with a sum of money, to defray the expense of their publication. The result of this beneficence has been a goodly array of quarto volumes given to the world, containing all the chief early Icelandic works, each volume bearing on its title-page the representation of the illustrious founder of these historic and literary treasures. The so-called Arne Magnusson Collection is the most important of its kind ever made by a single individual; and when we consider that two-thirds was destroyed by fire, we can form some idea of what that loss must have been. To any one who knows how difficult it is to travel in Iceland, the parallel here drawn between Magnusson and Mr. Draper can not fail to be interesting. While Col. McDonald and Mr. Croffut have denominated Lyman C. Draper the Plutarch of the West, I am inclined to style him the Arne Magnusson of Amer- ica ; and I only wish he may, in time, make a similar disposition of his large collection of manuscripts, covering, as they do, the whole sweep of the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi Valleys, with much of the border Revolutionary history of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.

I have known Mr. Draper intimately. for many years, and have learned to admire his many excellent qualities. With vigor, fidelity and marked success, he has devoted his life to the study of American history and the interests of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. In public and in private life, he has always been found genial, straightforward, clearheaded, and, above all, unostentatious. In the field of Anglo- American settlement, Revolutionary and border wars and pioneer history generally, he has but few, if any, peers in the country.

It is also proper to state that, in the preparation of this sketch, the materials have been gathered partly from a notice of him found in Tuttle's "Illustrated History of Wisconsin," published in 1875,

982

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

partly from a sketch of him in the New York Graphic, published October 16, 1875, partly from pam- phlets, magazines and other printed sources, and partly from notes furnished me by Mr. Draper himself. All dates and facts can, therefore, be vouched for as thoroughly reliable. It is a matter to be regretted that, in a sketch so limited, many interesting points in the life of this energetic and scholarly man must either receive but a passing notice or, what is still worse, be altogether omitted. We trust, however, that the few facts which we are able to give, may serve to stimulate young men to imitate so noble an exam- ple. Mr. Draper has, by his success, demonstrated to all aspiring young men what human genius, enter- prise, industry and faithful devotion can accomplish.

DRAPER, BOND & CO., proprietors of meat market, Madison ; Mr. Henry A. Draper, of this firm, was born in St. Albans, Franklin Co., Vt., Feb. 10, 1836, and is the son of Nathan and Mary Draper; he came to Madison in December, 1857, and was on a farm two miles west of Madison for twenty-two years; in the spring of 1880, he opened the business in which he is now engaged. Jan. 1, 1867, he married Miss Phoebe Bond, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1826; they have one child, Charles, who was born Oct. 23, 1868. Mrs. Draper is a Seventh-Day Baptist ; Mr. Draper is a Mason and an Odd Fellow. Mr. E. F. Bond is the son of Jonathan and Mary Bond, and was born in Fayette Co., Penn., Feb. 22, 1829 ; came with his parents to Milton, Wis., in 1847, and lived in different parts of that State until 1858, when he went to Iowa, and, in 1860, went to Colorado on a mining enterprise; in 1863, he went to Montana, where he remained until 1879, engaged in mining operations ; in December, 1879, he returned to Madison, and, in May, 1880, entered his present business. Feb. 14, 1874, he was married to Miss Mattie Dowd, who was born Aug. 1, 1847.

CHARLES L. DUDLEY, attorney and counselor at law, firm of Dudley & Siebecker; born in Madison, July 10. 1857; in 1877, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Ancient Classical Department, and is also a graduate from the Law Department of the same institution ; office in Tenney's new block, corner of Main and Pinckney streets.

WILLIAM DUDLEY (deceased); was born Oct. 15, 1816, in Douglass, Mass .; he lived some time in Worcester, Mass., and afterward in Providence, R. I .; his mother died when he was 4 years of age, and from the age of 12 he cared for himself in the battle of life ; he obtained a practical' educa- tion, and taught school several terms in Connecticut; he gradually developed a taste and ability for mer- cantile pursuits ; he was clerk some years in a dry-goods store in Providence, R. I .; in 1844, he estab- lished himself in business at Union, Rock Co., Wis., where for seven years he was a leading merchant. He was married July 22, 1851, to Miss Elizabeth H. Morse, of Providence, R. I., and they located in Madison in January, 1852; for two years he was State Librarian, and Private Secretary to Gov. Farwell ; in 1854, he engaged in general merchandising, under the firm name of Dudley & Powers ; afterward, a few years, he was sole proprietor ; J. H. D. Baker was some time a partner, and finally, at his death, his business associate was Z. Zehnter; the family still retain their interest in the firm of Dudley & Zehnter, and the business is carried on as formerly. He held several local offices, and was interested in various business enterprises of the city besides his mercantile interest. Himself and family have long been identi- fied with the Congregational Church. They have had five children ; the son, Charles L., is an attorney in Madison ; the four daughters all died in childhood. In 1861, he built the spacious stone residence which is now Mrs. Dudley's home, on the corner of State and Francis streets. His death occurred July 2, 1879; for three years he had been a partial invalid, and was finally prostrated by a complication of diseases result- ing from general debility and overwork. From 1854 to his death in 1879, he had been actively identified with the business interests of Madison ; he was thoroughly attentive, both to the details and the general management of his business ; his unobtrusive manners and sterling qualities of head and heart, won many friends, and insured his substantial success. The family are among the pioneers and leading citizens of Madison.

DANIEL STEELE DURRIE was born at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 2, 1819. He is a son of Horace Durrie, a native of Hartford, Conn., and a grandson of John Durrie, of Stony Stratford, Bucking- ham County, England, who came to America in 1781; his mother was Johannah Steele, daughter of Daniel Steele, a bookseller and stationer of Albany, to which place his father removed about 1817; from both parents he is descended from John Steele, the first Secretary of the Colony of Connecticut, and William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony. Mr. Durrie was educated at the Albany Academy, and at a select school at South Hadley, Mass., after which he entered the store of his uncle and learned the bookselling business, and succeeded him in the same, in 1844 ; in 1848 he lost his property in the great fire which occurred that year, at Albany, and in 1850 he removed to Madison, Wis., at which place he has remained to the present time : he was engaged in the same occupation from 1854 to 1857, when he with-

983

MADISON.

drew from mercantile business, and in 1858 he accepted a position in the office of Hon. L. C. Draper, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which he held for two years; he was elected a member of the State. Historical Society in 1854; was elected a member of the Executive Committee in 1855, and Librarian in 1856, which office he has retained to this date, entering on the twenty-fifth year of his re-election to that office January, 1880 ; the society at that time was in its infancy, with a library of only a few volumes ; he was associated with Lyman C. Draper, LL. D., the Corresponding Secretary, to both of whom the society is indebted largely for its present prosperity ; this institution now ranks among the first in the United States in number of volumes and the value of its collections. Mr. Durrie published his first work, "A Genealogical History of John and George Steele, Settlers of Hartford, Cono., 1635-36, and their De- scendants," in 1859, and an enlarged edition of 161 pages in 1862; in 1864 he published " A Genealogical History of the Holt Family in the United States, more particularly the Descendants of Nicholas Holt, of Andover, Mass., 1634, and of William Holt, of New Haven, Conn., 1644;" in 1868 he published his " Bibliographia Genealogica Americana ; an Alphabetical Index to Pedigrees and Genealogies Contained in State, County and Town Histories, Printed Genealogies and Kindred Works," a volume of 300 pages ; this work was subsequently revised and enlarged, and published in 1878, and has proved a most useful book to all atudents; in 1869 he prepared and published in the " Historical Magazine" a " Bibliography of the State of Wisconsin." giving the title and reference to all publications that have been issued on the State, a volume of great service to all persons interested in Wisconsin and her history and resources, and pro- poses to issue an enlarged edition of the same at an early day ; in 1872 he prepared two historical papers an " The Early Outposts of Wisconsin," "Green Bay, for Two Hundred Years, 1639 to 1839," and " Annals of Prairie du Chien," which appeared in pamphlet form, and also an article on Capt. Jonathan Carver, an early traveler in Wisconsin, in Volume VI of the collections of the Historical Society ; in 1874, he published a " History of Madison and the Four Lake Country of Wisconsin, with notices of Dane County and its Towns," a volume of 420 pages; in 1861 and 1862 he collected materials for the publica- tion of a Gazetteer of the State of Wisconsin ; the work was completed, but, owing to the civil war, the publi- cation was suspended, and it has never been published; in the year 1875, he assisted C. R. Tuttle in the preparation of his histories of Wisconsin and Iowa; in 1876 he prepared an historical address for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the Presbyterian Church at Madison, which was published that year in pamphlet form ; of this church, Mr. Durrie and his wife were members at its organization, sod atill retain their connection with it ; and in the same year he was associated with W. B. Davis in writing a history of Missouri, which was published at St. Louis ; in 1877, he prepared a paper on the " Public Domain of Wisconsin" for Snyder & Van Vechten's " Historical Atlas of Wisconsin." Mr. Durrie is a member of the Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Buffalo, Chicago, and Western Reserve Historical Societies ; of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, and Genealogical and Biographical Society of New York ; the Pilgrim Society, and the Philadelphia Numismatio and Antiquarian Society. He married at Albany, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1844, Anna, daughter of David and Elizabeth (Hempstead) Holt, and has a family of six children, all of whom are now living.

PHILO DUNNING. The subject of this sketch was born March 23, A. D. 1819, in Web- ater, Monroe Co., N. Y. He was the son of Gerard Dunning, a substantial farmer of Monroe County. His mother's name previous to her marriage was Polly Hicks. Philo's early advantages of scholastic dis- cipline were only such as the common schools afforded to farmer boys of the period, generally consisting of a short term in the winter, the balance of his time being occupied in performing the laborious tasks of the farm. The first use he made of his independence on attaining his majority, was to shake off all the associations of home, and take up his line of march for the West, toward which even then the " course of empire " began to point the way.

He reached Madison, Wis., in 1840. For about two years he worked at whatever his hands could find to do, which afforded the means of subsistence, and the hope of laying up " something for a wet day." His labors were directed to a single purpose, the consummation of a cherished aim, and that was the pur- chase of a home for himself and the future bride, who in the distant East awaited his return to claim her willing hand. In order to accomplish his hope, he practiced the most rigid economy, often denying him- self the pleasure of corresponding with his Eastern friends, because each letter in those days cost 25 cents postage io hard money. In 1842, he had already realized a sum sufficient to enter 120 acres of land, upon which he worked, keeping bachelor's hall, and boarding himself, until 1844, when he returned to his uative place for the purpose of claiming his promised bride. He was married, at Webster, N. Y., on Sept. 27, 1844, to Miss Sophia Goodenow, and with his wife soon returned to Wisconsin. In 1845, he exchanged bis farm for a gaw-mill near Madison. This exchange proved to be a profitable one for him,

984

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

and laid the foundation of that handsome competency which has placed him among the "solid business men " of Madison.

It was the lucky "tide of his affairs," taken at the flood, and led him on to fortune. While opera- ting his saw-mill, and with money saved from its profits, he purchased a tract of land near the village (now city) of Madison. Upon this land he built himself a neat and comfortable house, in which he resided for twenty years, and would have still resided there but for the implacable locomotive, which insisted upon sweeping with its defiant scream in front of his very door.

In 1855, Mr. Dunning went into business in the city of Madison, in the grocery and druggist line, and such is still his occupation, being the senior member of the well-known firm of Dunning & Sumner. In 1853-54, he was Treasurer of Dane County, and in the fall of 1873 he was elected to represent the Madison District in the Assembly by a very flattering majority. He made a very efficient and popular member of the Legislature. His pleasing social manners, generous qualities, and always cheerful mien, made him a great favorite with his associates in the Assembly. But two children have been born unto bim, a son and a daughter, the latter only surviving. She is happily married to Mr. Edwin Sumner, his partner in business. Although not a member of any church, Mr. Dunning is a liberal patron of the Congregational society. In politics, he has always been an ardent, but at the same time a liberal, Demo- crat. In conclusion, it is proper and just to add, that, in his business pursuits, Mr. Dunning has always maintained an unsullied character for probity and honor. He is enterprising, but at the same time careful and prudent, and as a consequence, amid all the revolutions and panics that have swept thousands into the financial vortex of bankruptcy, his credit and the credit of his firm have never rested under even a momentary cloud.

In all the other relations of life, as a husband, father, friend and citizen, his character is stained by no blemish, darkened by no reproach, while a naturally cheerful heart exerts a constant influence upon his social manners, making him an always pleasant and agreeable companion.

W. J. ELLSWORTH, grocer, of the firm of Ellsworth Bros., Madison, Wis .; is the son of Jason and Mary Ellsworth, and was born in East Windsor, Hartford Co., Conn., April 17, 1829 ; he removed to Madison, Wis., in 1856, and for about a year was book-keeper and clerk in a lumber-yard ; he then went into buying wheat and into the lumber trade for himself; in April, 1863, he formed a partner- ship with his brother, Mr. F. Ellsworth, and began his present business; in 1871, he built the block known as the Ellsworth Block. In 1872, he was married to Mrs. Eliza Eddy. Mr. Ellsworth was for three years engaged in the lumber trade in Buffalo, N. Y.

THEODORE W. EVANS, M. D., was born near Easton, Monroe Co., Penn., Jan. 23, 1844; son of Abraham and Rebecca Evans, who came to Dunkirk, Dane Co., Wis., in May, 1852 ; both living where they first located ; they emigrated from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin with a team. Theodore was educated at Albion Academy, where he spent four years ; entered Michigan University in the winter of 1868-69 ; read medicine with Dr. Henry Palmer, of Janesville, about five years; graduated from Detroit Medical College in June, 1871; after graduating, he located at Monroe, Green Co., Wis .; was there three months; then removed to Stoughton, where he was engaged in practice until November. 1878; since then in Madison ; is the City Physician, and has held the position since July, 1879. The Doctor was married in the city of Madison, June 4, 1872, to Louisa J. Alden; she was born in Janesville. Dr. Evans is a member of the A., F. & A. M., and I. O. O. F. Temple of Honor; member of the State and County Medical Associations, etc.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 148

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