History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 71

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 71

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In 1852, the County Board appointed a committee to fix upon a site and procure a plan, and build a new jail. For the sum of $400, they purchased, early in 1853, Lot 13, in Block 68, in Madison, as a site for the building. The committee at the same time agreed upon a plan for the house, which the Board authorized the committee to build. On the 3d of May, 1853, they contracted with A. A. Bird, James R. Larkins and Jonathan Larkins, to build the structure, to be completed by December 1, 1853, and to cost $6,950. The building was finished in November thereafter. It is in the same block as the court house. It is 36x56 feet, two stories high; the front part and basement used as the Jailer's residence; the jail proper is divided into fourteen cells, eight below and six above, those in the second story being considerably larger than those in the first. Some improvements were made in 1877, consisting of a jail-yard for vagrant labor, costing about $300. This structure, doubtless, will. before many years have elapsed, be replaced by one more secure, and more in keeping with the ideas of the present day.

POOR HOUSE AND FARM.

The Dane County Poor House is located in the town of Verona, on Section 14. It was opened in 1854 with five inmates, and at that time, consisted of a double log house, with a small frame addition. Soon after, the main building was erected, of brick, which was 40x60, and four stories in height, including basement. A few years later a stone wing was attached, 23x38, and three stories in height, including basement ; also a brick building, 28x32, and three stories high, including basement, so that the present capacity is about ninety. A number of other buildings necessary for the protection of stock, tools, wood, etc., have been supplied, including a frame barn, 38x60 with 22 feet posts, and basement underneath. The Poor Farm, including detached wood-lots, consists of 313 acres; 153 acres of this amount constitute the Poor Farm proper, this lying in a solid body. The Chicago & North-Western Railroad, now being built, crosses the farm within ten rods of the main building.

County Superintendents of the Poor have been elected by the County Board of Supervisors, as follows :

1854, Elijah Isham ; 1854-55, James P. McPherson; 1854-56, William R. Taylor ; 1855-57, George Dow ; 1856-58, J. P. McPherson ; 1857-59, W. R. Taylor; 1858-60, H. M. Warner; 1859-61, P. W. Matts; 1860-62, W. R. Taylor; 1861-63, H. M. Warner ; 1862-64, P. W. Matts ; 1863-65, W. R. Taylor; 1864-66, H. M. Warner; 1865-67, P. W. Matts ; 1866-68, W. R. Taylor; 1867-69, H. M. Warner; 1868-70, W. W. Treadway; 1869-71, W. R. Taylor (resigned, O. W. Thornton elected to fill vacancy); 1870-72, H. M. Warner; 1871-73, T. E. Bird ; 1872-74, O. W. Thornton ; 1873-75, H. M. Warner (deceased, J. McKinzie elected to fill vacancy) ; 1874-76, T. E. Bird; 1875-77, J. E. Mann ; 1876-78, John Mckenzie; 1877-79, S. M. Van Bergen ; 1878-80, L. E. Warner; 1879-81, W. W. Whalan; 1880-82, S. M. Van Bergen.

AGRICULTURE.

He who follows agriculture as a calling, is the pioneer in all new countries, and prepares the way for lawyer, editor, miller, minister, blacksmith, and all others who depend upon anything but farming for a livelihood, and who never fail to come after them when the soil has been made sufficiently productive. There are no better agricultural counties in the State than Dane.

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

With its productive soil and good markets, the county has always furnished a field for profit- able returns to industry, skill and means applied to the labor of tilling the ground. The whole county is more than usually well watered. Where there are no springs, lakes and streams, good water is obtained at a moderate depth. Generally speaking, the soil is most suitable for raising wheat, or was when new, and that has always been the principal product. Corn, oats, barley, rye, flax, hops, tobacco, potatoes and other root crops, fruits and grasses, are also extensively cultivated.

The early settlement of Dane County was made by a robust, thrifty, industrious and frugal class of men and women, in their youth and prime of physical life, full of energy and days' work. They found a rich soil, like themselves, new and young and full of fertility, yielding readily to the will and wishes of the earnest and ambitious toiler who owned and cultivated it, and rewarding his efforts with abundant harvests of all kinds. The land yielded so abundantly and persistently that the opinion prevailed for many years that the grain-producing qualities of the soil were inexhaustible ; hence the straw was burned to get it out of the way, and the manure was permitted to go to waste. Crop after crop of grain was taken from the soil, and nothing returned in exchange therefor to preserve its fertility, until, through course of time, the crops became less and less, and less still, so that now lands which at one time would yield with reason- able certainty thirty to forty bushels of wheat to the acre, cannot be depended upon to yield with like certainty more than ten or fifteen bushels. Meantime, the habits of slothfulness and waste begotten of prosperity, have, in some cases, become a part of the farmers' being, and they seem to have no desire to shake off the wretched and ill-begotten incubus that weighs and keeps them down, and places them at great disadvantage in the general struggle against impend- ing adversity.

The surface of the county is gently rolling, hills and valleys succeeding each other, present- ing much such an appearance as we might suppose the ocean would present, if, after being lashed by a tempest, its waters were instantly congealed, and the surface clothed with verdure. Hills are seldom so abrupt that they may not be cultivated, even upon their summits ; valleys, though well watered, are very rarely marshy. There is not a county in the State containing so large a body of good lands as Dane. It is doubtful whether there is a single section not covered by water, which would not be capable of profitable cultivation. The soil is composed, for the most part, of the black deposit of decayed vegetation (which for countless ages has flourished in wild luxuri- ance and rotted upon the surface), of loam, and, in a few localities, of clay mixed with sand. The deposit of vegetable mold has uniformly several inches of thickness on the tops and sides of hills ; in the valleys it is frequently a number of feet. A soil thus created of impalpable pow- der formed of the elements of organic matter, "the dust of death," we need scarcely remark, is adapted to the highest and most profitable purposes of agriculture-yielding crop after crop in rank abundance, without any artificial manuring.

The general surface of the country is, as previously stated, of a gently undulating character, the exceptions being found in the vicinity of the Wisconsin River, and such of its tributaries as have their rise within the county. In these localities, particularly along the Black Earth Creek, are found the bold, precipitous bluffs and deep ravines peculiar to the valley of the Wisconsin ; with these exceptions, there is but very little ground in the county too rough for cultivation.

Prairie and Timber .- In the northern and western portions of the county there are exten- sive prairies, and, consequently (especially in the northern towns), a scarcity of timber ; but in the eastern and southern portions of the county the burr and white oak openings predomi- nate, and afford an adequate supply of timber, though not of the best quality for building pur- poses. With the exception of some irreclaimable specimens about the sources of the Kosh- konong, in the east part of the county, marshes are not inconveniently numerous or extensive. They are valued for the supplies of hay they furnish, which, when properly cured, is considered nearly or quite as good as English grass.

It is also observable, that the marshes are gradually being recovered from the dominion of the waters, the drier portions becoming susceptible of tillage, and other portions which were for-

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merly too wet for mowing, becoming adapted to that process. This change is being effected, not by the expensive process of draining, but as the natural result of opening the soil of the adjacent land for cultivation, in consequence of which it absorbs a large portion of the water which the hide-bound soil was wont to shed off into marshes and streams. And we may confi- dently expect that this reclaiming effect upon the marshes will continue to be felt until the ara- ble land is all brought under cultivation. The advantage which the farmer will derive from this fortunate circumstance, will be, that much of his marsh land, which was once too wet even for the wild grass, will be recovered for that product, while the drier portions will become pre- pared for the reception of English grass, which, if not materially better in quality, will excel the wild grass in quantity, in the ratio of about three to one upon the same area.

General Character of the Soil .- The soil is generally a sandy loam-the proportions of sand, clay and vegetable mold, of which it is composed, vary in different localities, and with the undulations of the surface ; vegetable mold being most abundant in the prairie and bottom lands, sand in the burr oak, and clay in the white-oak openings. As the soil is penetrated, clay becomes more predominant, until, at the depth of from twelve to eighteen inches, a sub-soil of brown clay is reached. This deposit is from two to five feet in depth, and sufficiently compact to prevent the leaching of the soil. Below it various formations are found in different localities, but the most common, so far as observations have been extended, is a sandy gravel of great com- pactness.

As we approach the Wisconsin River, the sandy quality of the soil becomes more predomi- nant. In the eastern part of the county, and extending a little west of the center, granite bowl- ders of almost every variety abound ; but in the western portions these mysterious strangers dis- appear.

Limestone, more or less mixed with sand and flint, is very abundant in every part of the county, and the soil, of course, is well supplied with lime. In the vicinity of Madison, and in some other localities, sandstone of excellent quality for building purposes is found.

From the foregoing description of the soil, it will readily be inferred that it produces, in greater or less perfection, all the varieties of grains, grasses, esculent roots and fruits commonly found in the temperate latitudes.

The coarser grains, adapted to the rearing and fattening of cattle and hogs, uniformly suc- ceed well. The yellow dent Indian corn succeeds better in Dane and some of the adjoining counties than in most localities in the same latitude, and is generally cultivated in preference to other varieties. The quantity of black sand mixed with the soil, in the prairies and openings, has the effect to bring forward and mature this crop with great avidity when the warm season arrives. The soil yields large crops of rye, barley and oats, with rare instances of failure. Flax flourishes well.

The usual variety of esculent roots is produced in the county in great abundance and with but little expensc, the soil being peculiarly adapted to their growth.

Woman's Life in the Country .*- There is no denying the fact that life in the country to many women is but a ceaseless routine of endless work, care and disappointments, and, as they look into the future, nothing but work, work, work, seems to beckon them on. Is it any wonder that, after struggling on for years against fate, many of them become morbid, fretful and unrea- sonable, so much so that love is withdrawn from them ; soon health and home are gone forever, and many of them become subjects for the insane asylum, for statistics are showing that a much larger proportion of farmers' wives are becoming insane than of any other class. This is a dark picture, and one I would gladly turn from could I do so.

It is next to impossible for a man who is out in the open fields, in sunshine and storms, among stock and growing crops, to understand what the needs of his wife are, the routine of whose life must of necessity be monotonous and warping. It has been said of her that it is noth- ing outside of her that kills, but what is within. She needs more love, sunshine, sympathy, society and books-something for mind as well as body.

*By Mrs. H. M. Lewis, of Madison, Wi-

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

Every intelligent and kind-hearted farmer ought to understand this more fully and insist upon his wife's taking respite from care for a certain time each day, if she will not do it, for herself; for he, as well as she, will reap the reward. The body must be recreated after severe toil, and the mind must be wholly freed from care for a time until reaction takes place. Each person must select the kind of recreation most suited to his or her wants.

Every farmer's table should be supplied with the most palatable and digestible food ; good health and common sense teach this, but there is no necessity for a woman's being a slave to pies and cakes. Many women feel that they would be of little value to their households were they to omit making and baking a ton of cake and a thousand pies a year. Let us be sensible and adopt the English and German custom of simple living, and discard, if necessary (which it probably is not), both pies and cakes for freedom and smiling faces. Living to gratify only the animal wants is a very low form of existence. Let us not sell the soul to the body, but have higher aims and aspi- rations, for God has implanted them in our hearts.

" Then sing the song that gladdens- Leave out the sad refrain, Raise up the drooping spirit, And thou 'Il not have lived in vain.

" O glorious life ! to feel the thrill, To live, to work and sing 1 O golden hours ! drift slowly hy ; Life is a priceless thing. "

One of the most encouraging signs of the times is that women, as well as men, are becom- ing deeply interested in self-culture. Thousands of women are taking the Chautauqua or Bos- ton course of study and graduating at home. Clubs or societies for the study of art, history, botany, natural history and household science, are being established in every city and village; and why should the people of the country be behind ? Cannot every country town organize and sustain a society or club of men and women students, who will come together weekly, semi- weekly or monthly, on Saturday nights, after the week's work is done, to study from the book of nature, as it is opened and revealed to them day after day ? Nowhere can natural science and natural history be so successfully studied as in the open fields, deep waters and quiet woods of the country. A year's careful study, at times not missed from the daily avocations of life, would give a " paradise of intellectual enjoyment " unknown before.

People living in the country should make friends with nature. Then there can be no such thing as isolation, for nature is a companion and teacher that speaks a thousand tongues to her admirers as she constantly unfolds her mysteries that are so old-yet ever new. Wordsworth says :

"Nature never did betray The heart that loved her ; 'tis her privilege Through all the years of this our life to lead From joy to joy ; for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness, and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith that all that we behold Is full of blessings."

A host of large-brained men have said that they considered it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country. Some writer has said that "if there is a room in every farmer's house where the work of the family is done, there should be a room in every farmer's house where the family should live, where beauty should appeal to the eye, where genuine comfort of appointments should invite to repose, where books should be gath- ered, where neatness and propriety of dress should be observed, and where labor may be for-

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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.

gotten. The life here should be labor's exceeding great reward. A family living like this, and there are families that live thus, ennoble and beautify all their surroundings. There will be trees at their door, and flowers in their garden, and pleasant and architectural ideas in their dwellings. Human life will stand in the foreground of such a home-human life, crowned with its dignities and graces, while animal life will be removed among the shadows, and the gross material utilities, tastefully disguised, will be made to retire into an unoffending and harmonious perspective."

However mean and humble life in the country may be, meet it and live it, and love it, and study ways and means to make the children love it. Teach them to interest themselves in everything about them. Train their eyes to see and their ears to hear, and listen occasionally with them in the twilight of the morning to the first bird's call, far, far away, to the answering voices nearer, until hill and dale echo and re-echo with earth's sweetest melody. And, as you listen in this enchanted hour, view with them the sun as it silently rises in the east, paint- ing a picture of wonderful beauty where before all was darkness and desolation.

" Can Imagination boast, Amid its gay creation, hues like this ?"

Everything in nature is awakened by this new force. The nodding flowers shake off the pearly dew and stand erect. Soon are heard the lowing of the cattle, the neighing of the horse, the crowing of the cock, the barking of dogs, the tinkle of the sheep bell, the milk-maid's merry song, the plow-boy's honest laugh, and the earnest voices of the workers, all mingling together in one grand symphony. No earnest, healthy nature can participate in such a scene as this without sending up a prayer of thankfulness to God, the giver and maker.

Cling to the farm, take root and grow there, teach the young people to beautify, adore and adorn it, and to make the home the one sweet spot on earth whose price is above rubies. Take the old German motto for your own : " While I live I ascend " and life will be a success ; and as you advance into the dim autumn of life, time will so mellow and sweeten you, that before you pass to the great beyond, heaven will appear almost in view.

DANE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The first Dane County Agricultural Society was fully organized on the 13th of September, 1851. The articles of association required an annual meeting of the society to be held at Madison (unless otherwise ordered) on the first Wednesday in October of each year, at which time and place a cattle show and fair were to be held. Special meetings could be called at any time on two weeks' notice.

The following is a list of officers of the society for the year 1851 : President, Thomas T. Whittlesey ; Vice-Presidents, N. J. Tompkins, William H. Fox, Jonathan Larkin, Philo Dunning, Charles Wilson and George Anderson ; Treasurer, Jehu H. Lewis ; Secretary, Robert L. Ream ; Standing Committee on Premiums, Joseph A. Payne, James R. Larkin and Philo Dunning.

The officers elect for the year 1852 were as follows: President, William H. Fox, Vice- Presidents, Reuben Winston, W. M. Colliday, Adin Burdick, Walter Waddle, William Douglas, Philo Dunning, ; Treasurer, Jehu H. Lewis ; Secretary, Robert L. Ream ; Standing Committee on Premiums, Simeon Mills, William H. Clark and Abel Dunning. A fair was held in Madi- son, in the fall of 1851, near the Yahara, on Block 212, but was not very extensive, or largely attended. No other fair was attempted to be held until after the re-organization of the society, in 1856.

Pursuant to previous notice, the citizens of the county met on the 5th of April, 1856, and adopted a constitution, and organized a new county agricultural society, by an election of the following board of officers for the ensuing year : President, P. W. Matts, of Grand Spring ; Vice- Presidents, William A. White,, T. T. Whittlesey and N. P. Spaulding ; Corresponding Secre- tary, D. J. Powers ; Recording Secretary, H. F. Bond; Treasurer, Dr. W. H. Fox ..

The society held its first annual fair at Madison, the 2d and 3d of October. It was most creditably attended, considering the newness of the enterprise ; and the number of animals and

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variety of articles on exhibition both surprised and pleased every one in attendance. The whole affair showed conclusively that there were abundant elements in Dane County for a good agricult- ural society ; and that nothing was wanting to secure high success but proper effort on the part of those interested, to wit, the farmers.

The gross receipts of the fair were about $650, and the net receipts, after paying all expenses and premiums, were nearly $250, which sum, added to the State appropriation of $100 to county societies, left $350 or thereabout in the treasury at the close of the year, which was put at interest for further use.

The first annual meeting of the society was held at Madison on the 17th of December, 1856, and the following board of officers was elected for the ensuing year : President, P. W. Matts; Vice-Presidents, D. S. Curtis, G. H. Slaughter and J. E. Carpenter ; Secretary, H. F. Bond; Treasurer, D. J. Powers ; Executive Committee, Adin Burdick, S. L. Sheldon, J. H. B. Matts.

The official board of this society for the year 1857, was as follows : President, P. W. Matts ; Vice Presidents, D. S. Curtiss, G. H. Slaughter and J. E. Carpenter,; Secretary, H. F. Bond (succeeded by J. W. Hoyt); 'Treasurer, D. J. Powers ; Executive Committee, Adin Bur- dick, S. L. Sheldon and J. H. B. Matts.

At the opening of the year, the officers embarked with zeal and energy in the prosecution of their duties. They got up a revised edition of their constitution and by-laws, together with a circular propounding many important questions for the consideration and answers of the farmers of the county. These documents, in connection with a very ample and complete pre- mium-list, offering some $800 in premiums, were early and widely circulated throughout the county.

The fair was appointed to come off at Madison, on the 22d, 23d, and 24th days of Septem- ber, and was duly held at that time, upon the same grounds as the year before.

The grounds, located on Wisconsin avenue, in Madison, were well inclosed with a high and substantial close-board fence, and fitted up inside in a snug and ample manner, having a board shed 150 feet long and thirty wide, neatly but cheaply built, under which to display the more substantial articles of production and manufacture; and, capacious as was the room, it was well and creditably filled with everything in the line that usually enriches and adorns such exhi- bitions, each excelling in his own particular field of exhibition.

The amount of premiums awarded and paid was about $500. The annual election of officers for 1858 was held, according to the provisions of the constitution, on the 2d day of Decem- ber, and the following board of officers were elected for the following year : President, W. R. Taylor; Vice Presidents, L. B. Vilas, Madison ; J. Greening, Mazomanie ; J. W. Hoyt, Madi- son ; Executive Committee, W. Coleman, Oregon ; E. D. Montrose, York; S. W. Field, Fitchburg; Secretary, E. W. Skinner, Madison; Treasurer, J. H. B. Matts, Verona.

The society held no fair in 1858, on account of the holding of the State fair at Madison. The annual meeting of the society was held on the 8th of December, and the officers were unani- mously re-elected for 1858. William R. Taylor, Cottage Grove, President; L. B. Vilas, Mad- ison ; J. Greening, Mazomanie, and J. W. Hoyt, Madison, Vice Presidents; E. W. Skinner, Madison, Secretary ; J. H. B. Matts, Verona, Treasurer ; William Coleman, Oregon; E. D. Montrose, York, and S. W. Fields, Fitchburg, additional members of the Executive Committee.

This society held its annual fair for 1859, at Madison, on the 20th, 21st and 22d days of September, at the present State fair grounds.

The weather was quite favorable, and the attendance large. The address was delivered by H. H. Giles, and was an appropriate and able production.

Receipts and expenditures-Total of receipts, $717.17; total of expenditures, $662.01; balance in treasury, $45.16.

At the annual mecting in December, the following persons were elected : Officers for 1860-W. R. Taylor, President ; H. Turvill, J. V. Robbins, More Spears, Vice Presidents; Harrison Reed, Secretary ; W. W. Tredway, Treasurer; C. Chipman, J. H. B. Matts, E. D. Montrose, Executive Committee. There was no county fair held in 1860, because of the holding

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History of Dane County, Wisconsin, Part 71

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