History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 59

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 59

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¿As for it raining through the roof into hie face, it's all gas. I guarantee that not ono drop of moisture touched it, unless he was troubled with the glanders, for I etood in the doorway watching flights of pigeone until late in the evening, and no clouds were to be seen .- R. P.

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men that will have no good examples before their eyes, may abandon even the intention to be respectable.

Having now fully made up my mind that I was in an Indian country as wild and unsettled as any I had yet visited, I hastened to the shore of the lake to espy what truly turned out to be the nakedness of the land, not a vestige of any human being or habitation to be discerned. Rambling, however, along the lake shore, picking up unios and anadontas, I came upon a wig- wam, inhabited by a squaw of the Winnebago tribe, and learned from her that her mate was a French Canadian, and was fishing from a canoe a little lower down. Thither I hied, and, having found him, engaged him, with the assistance of his squaw, to procure us a mess of sun- fish. This being accomplished, I sent them to Mrs. Peck, and, following my messenger to Madison City, requested her to prepare them for our breakfast. No time was lost in doing this, and we made a very hearty meal without putting her to the trouble of preparing us any coffee. Sallying out again, I walked across a tongue of land which separated this [Lake Monona] from he Fourth Lake, and soon reached its shore, whence I had a view of an extremely beautiful sheet of water.

Advancing along, I found more signs of humanity. Two men were cutting some poles down ; the one a Canadian, the other a somewhat desperado-looking young American, with cropped hair. Near to the lake, I observed other poles laid aslant upon a fallen tree, forming a sort of shed, and, looking beneath, beheld a youthful Winnebago squaw lying down on a filthy blanket, thoroughly drenched with the rain of the preceding night. She was pursy and immensely fat, but had some good features. Near to her was a bower of similar character, containing an elderly squaw, with only one eye, as hideously wrinkled and frowsy as she could well be. Whilst I was standing near to these creatures, the men came up, and I soon saw that the young American was the cavaliero of the fat squaw, and that the couch where she was lying was their bower of bliss. This fellow, having a canoe, agreed, for a dollar, to take me out upon the lake, and down a channel [the Yahara] that connects the Fourth [Lake Mendota] with the Third Lake [Lake Monona], and thence to Madison City. Accordingly, getting into a badly constructed log canoe with his fat beauty, we paddled off.

After visiting various parts of the lake, and being more than once nearly upset from the awkward management of this youth, at whom the squaw laughed heartily, we entered the chan- nel which connects the two lakes. It was about three miles and a half long and about forty feet in breadth, and we found the current so very strong at the entrance that we shot down it with great rapidity, the shores on each side being, for the greatest part of the distance, a swamp very little raised above the level of the stream. At length we came to a piece of ground where a part of the band of Winnebagoes had their wigwams. Three horrible-looking, frowsy she-savages were eviscerating fish, which they were curing by fire on some stakes. ' Their matted, coarse black locks stood out at right angles, like the strands of a mop when it is twirled ; scarcely any- thing was to be discerned in their lineaments that was human, and more loathsome and disgust- ing objects I never beheld. Everything about the wigwams was in keeping with their revolting and odious persons ; ordure and dead fish in the last stage of corruption made a perfect pesti- lence around, amidst which they moved in the most contented and philosophic manner. Alecto, Megæra and Tisiphone, the far-famed furies, must have been beanties compared to these hags. I just stayed long enough to purchase from them a fine alligator gar (Esox osseus) for the sake of its skeleton, and then came away. Just as we were starting, one of these she-devils, wanting to visit the one-eyed squaw we had left behind, strode into our canoe, and a pretty inside pas- senger we had of her. The canoe itself was a wretched, tottering affair, imperfectly hollowed out of a small log, and wabbled about in such a doubtful manner that we had been several times near upsetting in crossing the lake. In this "dug-out "-for that is the expressive name they go by-I had taken my seat on the bottom near the prow, with my face toward the stern, hold- ing the sides with my hands ; thus situated, this she-monster, clapping herself immediately in front of me, and seizing a paddle, of which she seemed a perfect mistress, most vigorously began to ply it. At first I was amused by her motions, but, alas ! my satisfaction was of short dura-

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tion, for, warming with the exercise, every time she raised her brawny fins to propel the canoe, she at each stroke almost bobbed a particular part of her person into contact with my nose, when such lots of unknown odors came from her that I soon became wretchedly sick at my stomach, and was delighted when we arrived at dear little Mrs. Peck's paradise.

These Howchungerahs, or Winnebagoes, well deserve the name of "Puants," which the first French adventurers gave them. Establishing themselves where fish is plentiful, they never change the site of their wigwams, at the entrances to which they throw down the entrails and offal of their fish. They have thus become notorious amongst the other Indians for the filthy exist- ence they lead. I learned from our hostess that the young Adonis, in whose canoe I had been, had deserted from the American garrison of Fort Winnebago, had been apprehended, flogged, his head shaved, and then drummed out of the fort to choose his own mode of life. He had wan- dered about until he fell in with this band of Indians, and, rejected by his own race, had found refuge and a mistress amongst the savages.

As soon as we had taken a good reconnoisance of the country around, and packed up the unios and other fresh-water shells I had collected, we bade adieu to the little inhabitant of Mad- ison City and turned our faces to the prairie again. It had been part of my plan to strike across the country to a branch of Rock River, being desirous of examining the remains of an ancient city which I had heard a great deal about, and to which the name of Aztalan had been given. This had been described as of large dimensions, having archways and casements made with brick and mortar, as if a city had, in ancient times, existed here, built of cal-y-canto, like those which Cortez found when he advanced into Mexico. But, having spoken with various Indians well acquainted with the country, who declared they had never seen or heard of anything of the kind, or, indeed, anything but some mounds near the supposed locality, and, considering the small success I had had in my researches after modern cities, I gave up my intention of looking up this ancient one. It would have taken us at least two days to reach the mounds, and, being without a guide in a region where there was neither road nor inhabitants betwixt the lakes and them, we inclined more willingly to the supposition that it was quite as likely that the whole affair was a poetical speculation got up to establish a modern Thebes upon the ruins of the older one, for the purpose of selling the lots ; an ingenious device, of which we soon had a curious and instructive instance .*

* From " A Canoe Voyage up the Mionay Sotor." By G. W. Fatherstonhaugh. Vol. 2, pp. 84-104.

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CHAPTER V.

UNITED STATES ROAD FROM MILWAUKEE THROUGH DANE COUNTY-PIONEER LIFE-DANE COUNTY ON EARLY MAPS-ORGANIZATION-A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COUNTY-RECORD OF THE COUNTY BOARD FOR 1839-COUNTY BOARD FROM 1840 TO . 1880-PRESENT BOUNDARIES OF THE COUNTY-CENSUS IN 1842-THE FIRST SERMON IN DANE COUNTY-A DARK DEED.

UNITED STATES ROAD FROM MILWAUKEE THROUGH DANE COUNTY.

Under an appropriation made by Congress, a road from Milwaukee by way of Madison to a point on the Mississippi River opposite Dubuque, was commenced in 1838. Capt. T. J. Cram reports, September 1, 1829, concerning this road, as follows :

" This road was located during the last autumn and winter as far as to Madison, a distance of seventy-nine miles. The road has been cut and cleared as far as located, where the timber needed it, and log causeways and bridges constructed, so that wagons with very light loads may now reach Madison on this route. The whole appropriation, amounting to $10,000, has been expended between Milwaukee and Madison, and to complete the road between these two towns in a manner to meet the wants of the inhabitants along the line and of Milwaukee and Madison, an additional appropriation of $5,000 would be required. This sum, although inadequate to the construction of a durable road, would nevertheless leave it in such a condition that the inhab- itants settled along on the line of the road might keep it in repair between Milwaukee and Rock River. Between that river and Madison there are few, if any, settlers, and the ground is wet and unfavorable for a road, and the land is not so well adapted to farming purposes as to induce the belief that it will be settled for some years to come. Between Madison and the Mississippi, nature has done so much toward providing for a good road that an expenditure of about $10,000 in bridging the streams, ditching and grading, would be sufficient, making an additional sum of $15,000 necessary to be appropriated to complete the construction of the road through from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River."

PIONEER LIFE.

Records of the olden time are interesting, and they are not without their lessons of instruc- tion. By the light of the past we follow in the footprints of the adventurous and enterprising pioneer. We see him, as it were, amid the labors and struggles necessary to convert the wil- derness into a fruitful field. We sit by his cabin fire, partaking of his homely and cheer- fully granted fare, and listen to the accounts which he is pleased to give us of frontier life, and of the dangers, trials, hardships and sufferings of himself and others in their efforts to make for themselves homes in . regions remote from civilization, and unexplored hitherto, save by wandering Indians and wild beasts. Through these ancient records we make our way along to the present. From small beginnings we come to the mighty achievements of industry, the complex results of daring enterprise, subduing and creative energy, and untiring perse- verance.

Following on in the path of progress and improvement, we see once waste places rejoicing under the kindly care of the husbandman ; beautiful farms, with all the fixtures and appur- tenances necessary to make the tillers of the soil and their families contented and happy, are spread out before us ; villages and cities have arisen as if by magic, and hundreds, thou- sands and tens of thousands of human souls are congregated within their precincts ; the marts of trade and traffic, and the workshop of the artisan are thronged; common schools, academies and colleges have sprung up; young and ardent minds-children of the rich and poor --:

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may press forward together in the acquisition of science ; churches are built, and a Christian ministry is sustained for the inculcation of religious sentiments and the promotion of piety, virtue and moral goodness; the press is established, whence floods of light and glory may emanate for the instruction and benefit of all ; railroads are built to bring the products of every clime and the people from afar to our doors ; and the telegraph, " upon the lightning's wing," carries messages far and near. Let the records of the olden time be preserved ; in after years, our children, and our children's children, will look over them with pleasure and profit.

The first important business of the pioneer settler, upon his arrival in Dane County, was to build a house. Until this was done, he had to camp on the ground or live in his wagon- perhaps the only shelter he had known for weeks. So the prospect for a house, which was also to be a home, was one that gave courage to the rough toil, and added a zest to the heavy labors. The style of a home entered very little into his thoughts-it was shelter he wanted, and protec- tion from stress of weather and wearing exposures. The poor settler had neither the money nor the mechanical appliances for building himself a house. He was content, in most instances, to have a mere cabin or hut. Some of the most primitive constructions of this kind were half- faced, or, as they were sometimes called, "cat-faced," sheds or " wike-ups," the Indian term for house or tent. It is true, a " claim " cabin was a little more in the shape of a human habi- tation,.made, as it was, of round logs, light enough for two or three men to lay up, about four- teen feet square-perhaps a little larger or smaller-roofed with bark or clapboards, and floored with puncheons (logs split once in two, and the flat side laid up), or with earth. For a fire-place, a wall of stones and earth-frequently the latter only, when stone was not convenient -was made, in the best practicable shape for the purpose, in an opening in one end of the building, extending outward, and planked on the outside by bolts of wood notched together to stay it. Frequently, a fire-place of this kind was made so capacious as to occupy nearly the whole width of the house. In cold weather, when a great deal of fuel was needed to keep the atmosphere above freezing point-for this wide-mouth fire-place was a huge ventilator-large logs were piled into this yawning space. To protect the crumbling back-wall against the effects of fire, two back-logs were placed against it, one upon the other. Sometimes these were so large that they could not be got in in any other way than to hitch a horse to them. The animal was driven in at the door, when the log was unfastened before the fire-place. It was afterward put in proper position. The horse would be driven out at another door.

For a chimney, any contrivance that would convey the smoke out of the building would do. Some were made of sods, plastered upon the inside with clay ; others, the more common per- haps, were of the kind we occasionally see in use now, clay and sticks, or " cat in clay," as they were sometimes called. Imagine, of a winter's night, when the storm was having its own wild way over this almost uninhabited land, and when the wind was roaring like a cataract of cold over the broad wilderness, and the settler had to do his best to keep warm, what a royal fire this double back-log and well-filled fire-place would hold ! It was a cozy place to smoke, provided the settler had any tobacco ; or for the wife to sit knitting before, provided she had any needles and yarn. At any rate, it gave something of cheer to the conversation, which very likely was upon the home and friends they had left behind when they started out on this bold venture of seeking fortunes in a new land.

For doors and windows, the most simple contrivances that would serve the purposes were brought into requisition. The door was not always immediately provided with a shutter, and a blanket often did duty in guarding the entrance. But, as soon as convenient, some boards were split and put together, hung upon wooden hinges, and held shut by a wooden pin inserted in an auger-hole. As a substitute for window-glass, greased paper, pasted over sticks crossed in the shape of sash was sometimes used. This admitted the light and excluded the air, but, of course, lacked transparency.

In regard to the furniture of such a cabin, it varied in proportion to the ingenuity of the occupants, unless it was where settlers brought with them their old household supply, which,

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owing to the distance most of them had come, was very seldom. It was easy enough to impro. vise tables and chairs ; the former could be made of split logs-and there were instances where the door would be taken from its hinges and used at meals, after which it would be rehung-and the latter was designed after the three-legged stool pattern, or benches served their purposes. A bedstead was a very important item in the domestic comfort of the family, and this was the fashion of improvising them : A forked stick was driven into the ground diagonally from the corner of the room, and at proper distance, upon which poles reaching from each were laid. The wall ends of the pole either rested in the openings between the logs, or were driven into auger-holes. Barks or boards were used as a substitute for cords. Upon this the tidy house-wife spread her straw tick, and, if she had a home-made feather-bed, she piled it up into a luxurious mound, and covered it with her whitest drapery. Some sheets hung behind it for tapestry added to the coziness of the resting-place.

The house thus far along, it was left to the deft devices of the wife to complete its comforts, and the father of the family was free to superintend out-of-door affairs. If it was in season, his first important duty was to prepare some ground for planting, and to plant what he could.

The first year's farming consisted mainly of a "truck patch," planted in corn, potatoes, turnips and other vegetables. Generally, the first year's crop fell far short of supplying even tbe most rigid economy of food. Many of the settlers brought with them small stores of such things as seemed indispensable to frugal living, such as flour, bacon, coffee and tea. But these supplies were not inexhaustible, and once used were not easily replaced. A long winter must come and go before another crop could be raised. If game was plentiful it helped to eke out their limited supplies.

But even when corn was plentiful, the preparation of it was the next difficulty in the way. The mills for grinding it were usually at such long distances that every other device was resorted to for reducing it to meal. Some grated it upon an implement made by punching small holes through a piece of tin or sheet-iron, and fastening it upon a board in concave shape, with the rough side out. Upon this the ear was rubbed to produce the meal. But the grating could not be done when the corn became so dry as to shell off when rubbed. Some used a coffee-mill for grinding it ; and a very common substitute for bread was hominy-a palatable and wholesome diet-made by boiling corn in a weak lye till the hull or bran peeled off, after which it was well washed to cleanse it of the lye. It was then boiled again to soften it, when it was ready for use, as occasion required, by frying and seasoning it to the taste. Another mode of preparing hominy was by pestling. A mortar was made by burning a bowl-shaped cavity in the end of an upright block of wood. After thoroughly cleaning it of the charcoal, the corn would be put in, hot water turned upon it, when it was subjected to a severe pestling by a club of sufficient length and thickness, in the large end of which was inserted an iron wedge, banded to keep it there. The hot water would soften the corn and loosen the hull, while the pestle would crush it.

When breadstuffs were needed, they had to be obtained from long distances. Owing to the lack of proper means for thrashing and cleaning wheat, it was more or less mixed with foreign substances, such as smut, dirt and oats. And as the time may come when the settler's methods of thrashing and cleaning may be forgotten, it may be well to preserve a brief account of them here. The plan was to clean off a space of ground of sufficient size, and, if the earth was dry, to dampen it, and beat it to render it somewhat compact. Then the sheaves were unbound and spread in a circle, so that the heads would be uppermost, leaving room in the center for the person whose business it was to turn and stir the straw in the process of thrashing. Then as many horses or oxen were brought as could conveniently swing around the circle, and these were kept moving until the wheat was well trodden out. After several "floorings " or layers were thrashed, the straw was carefully raked off and the wheat shoveled into a heap to be cleaned. This cleaning was sometimes done by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the grain was dropped before it ; but this trouble was frequently obviated when the stong winds of autumn were all that was needed to blow out the chaff from the grain. This mode of preparing the grain for flouring was so imperfect that it is not to be wondered at that a considerable amount of black soil got

Andrew Pronapch

MADISON.

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mixed with it, and unavoidably got into the bread. This, with an addition of smut, often rendered it so dark that it had less the appearance of bread than of mud ; yet upon such diet the people were compelled to subsist for want of a better.

Not the least among the pioneers' tribulations, during the first few years of the settlement, was the going to mill. The slow mode of travel by ox teams was made still slower by the almost total absence of roads and bridges, while such a thing as a ferry was hardly even dreamed of. The distance to be traversed was often as far as sixty or ninety miles. In dry weather, common sloughs and creeks offered little impediment to the teamsters ; but during floods and the break- ing-up of winter, they proved exceedingly troublesome and dangerous. To get stuck in a slough, and thus be delayed for many hours, was no uncommon occurrence, and that, too, when time was an item of grave import to the comfort and sometimes even to the lives of the settlers' fami- lies. Often a swollen stream would blockade the way, seeming to threaten destruction to whom- ever would attempt to ford it.

With regard to roads, there was nothing of the kind worthy of the name. Indian trails were common, but they were unfit to travel on with vehicles. They were mere paths about two feet wide-all that was required to accommodate the single-file manner of Indian traveling.

When the early settlers were compelled to make these long and difficult trips to mill, if the country was prairie over which they passed, they found it comparatively easy to do in summer . when grass was plentiful. By traveling until night, and then camping out to feed the teams, they got along without much difficulty. But in winter such a journey was attended with no little danger. The utmost economy of time was, of course, necessary. When the goal was reached, after a week or more of toilsome travel, with many exposures and risks, and the poor man was impatient to immediately return with the desired staff of life, he was often shocked and disheartened with the information that his turn would come in a week. Then he must look about for some means to pay his expenses, and he was lucky who could find employment by the day or job. Then, when his turn came, he had to be on hand to bolt his own flour, as in those days the bolting machine was not an attached part of the other mill machinery. This done, the anxious soul was ready to endure the trials of a return trip, his heart more or less concerned about the affairs at home.

Those milling trips often occupied several weeks, and were attended with an expense, in one way or another, that rendered the cost of the breadstuffs extremely high. If made in the winter, when more or less grain-feed was required for the team, the load would be found to be so considerably reduced on reaching home, that the cost of what was left, adding other expenses, would make their grain reach the high cash figure of from $3 to $5 per bushel. And these trips could not always be made at the most favorable season for traveling. In spring and summer, so much time could hardly be spared from other essential labor; yet, for a large family, it was almost impossible to avoid making three or four trips during the year.

Among other things calculated to annoy and distress the pioneer, was the prevalence of wild beasts of prey, the most numerous and troublesome of which was the wolf. While it was true, in a figurative sense, that it required the utmost care and exertion to "keep the wolf from the door," it was almost as true in a literal sense. There were two species of these animals-the large black timber wolf, and the smaller gray wolf that usually inhabited the prairie. At first, it was next to impossible for a settler to keep small stock of any kind that would serve as a prey to these ravenous beasts. Sheep were not deemed safe property until years after, when their enemies were supposed to be nearly exterminated. Large numbers of wolves were destroyed during the early years of settlement. When they were hungry, which was not uncommon, par- ticularly during the winter, they were too indiscreet for their own safety, and would often approach within easy shot of the settlers' dwellings. At certain seasons their wild, plaintive yelp or bark could be heard in all directions at all hours of the night, creating intense excitement among the dogs, whose howling would add to the dismal melody. It has been found by experi- ment that but one of the canine species-the hound-has both the fleetness and courage to cope with his savage cousin, the wolf. Attempts were often made to capture him with the common

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History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 59

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