USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 11
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"I have always taken a moderate interest in politics as a Demo- crat, and attended as a delegate very many county and State Demo- cratic conventions. I was a delegate to the Democratic National con- ventions when Pierce, Buchanan, Seymour and Greeley were nom- nated."
To this cold, bare outline, perhaps it is well to add the glowing and eloquent eulogy spoken by Hon. S. U. Pinney at his grave, upon the request of the local committee:
"This occasion is one of peculiar interest, and marks an era in the history of the State. The first governor of the State of Wisconsin,
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one long and prominently identified with public affairs, has passed away. Standing by his open grave, I think it is not too much to say that at the time of his death he occupied the most interesting position, and was the foremost figure among the public men of the State.
"Coming to the territory of Wisconsin immediately upon its or- ganization, he became at once prominent in public affairs; a member at different times of both branches of the legislature; and so strongly and so favorably had he impressed himself by his public career upon the people, and upon public affairs, that he was chosen the first gov- ernor of Wisconsin upon its admission into the Union. Upon him in a very large and important degree was devolved the onerous duty of or- ganizing the administrative and executive departments of the new government. With what skill and ability, with what rare judgment and discretion he discharged the delicate and responsible duties of his high office, is well known to all familiar with those events, and was attested by the successful and harmonious operation of the newly or- ganized government. Asa governor he was our strong, our tried and trusted chief; he bore aloft with sturdy and faithful hand the standard of the State, and maintained, without tarnish or stain, its honor and and dignity.
"Governor Dewey belonged to the sterling and hardy band of western pioneers, and in Wisconsin, was with the foremost among them. But they are fast passing away from the scenes of their labor and usefulness. It was his privilege, with them, to witness, during the last fifty years, a growth and development in Wisconsin similar to that in adjoining States, the like whereof in all probability, the an- nals of civilization do not afford a parallel. He was conspicuous and particularly prominent in laying wide and deep the foundations of our civil institutions, and in organizing the State upon its change from territorial to State existence. He had very much to do with shaping its early policy and in starting it upon its subsequent happy and pros- perous career.
"The sparsely populated settlements that then existed within our borders soon expanded, coälesced, and developed into a rich, prosper- ous, and powerful State, and its progress in material wealth and gen- eral prosperity has exceeded the most sanguine expectation.
"Under circumstances such as these the deceased lived a long, use- ful, and eventful life, occupying a high position of honor and public trust, and in all of them he acquitted himself most honorably, leaving
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a public record of duty honestly, unostentatiously, and faithfully per- formed. Military heroes and conquerors often achieve an enduring reputation and a wide renown, and at times find their way through slaughter to the throne; but peace has her victories, far more benef- cent and blessed than those of war, and those to whom it is permit- ted to lay, upon a firm and enduring basis, the foundation of states and nations, and to develop civil institutions, to educate the people, guard their rights, and promote their welfare, attain to the highest and most beneficent triumphs accorded to human efforts. And in his day and generation, for more than half a century, in the State of his adop- tion, Governor Dewey bore in this regard, right well, a high and hon- orable part.
"He was a man of vigorous intellect, of marked individuality, with traits of character and a nature calculated to exercise and main- tain a strong influence among men. Gifted with a clever intelligence, sound judgment, and firmness of purpose, he needed no prompting to the performance of the full measure of duty. The sturdy simplicity and rugged integrity of his nature commanded confidence and respect. The common people understood and appreciated him. He was firm and abiding in his friendships, and a man of such positive and decided character that he was always influential among his fellow-citizens and the prominent men of the State. These characteristics rendered the strict performance of official duty comparatively easy, and sus- tained him where others would have hesitated or failed.
"The record of his life and public services is interwoven with the history of the State. There is no need, therefore, of massive monu- ment of granite, or polished shaft of marble, to keep alive in the mem- ory of our people his name, character and public services. His monu- ment, like that of his contemporaries of the early pioneers, is the result of their labors. We have but to look around us and observe them ; and see what they have builded and developed, so wisely and so well; to look around upon the material wealth and prosperity of a great and populous State, upon a happy, intelligent and law-abiding people.
"In the midst of such surroundings, after a long, busy, and useful life, at this most beautiful season of the year, when the land is blessed and covered with an abundant harvest, and filled with quiet freshness and beauty, what more appropriate occasion for the termination of such a career ! Governor Nelson Dewey, full of years and earthly hon- ors, possessed with the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens,
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and mourned throughout the State, has gone to his grave. There peaceful be his rest."
But the autobiography and the eulogy combined fail to give an adequate knowledge of this peculiar and checkered life, so brilliant in its early manhood and so sad and obscure at and for many years be- fore its close.
Governor Dewey first came to public notice in Grant County, as its first register of deeds in 1837. In 1838 his courage and firmness in the notorious "Jim Crow" case, as justice of the peace, brought him favorably to the notice of the people of the county. Entering thelower house of the territorial legislature in 1838, his ability was sufficiently recognized that he was elected Speaker in 1840. In 1842 he was a member of the upper house-the Council-and was chosen as its pre- siding officer. This was a fortunate position for him, as he was no orator and would not have been prominent upon the floor, but in the chair his executive ability and his firmness and impartiality made him conspicuous.
After this term in the Council he held no offices for a few years. His autobiography is in error in stating that he was district attorney "one year, or a part of a year in the forties." The records show that it was in 1838.
While Wisconsin was a territory the parties were not organized and party lines were not usually drawn in elections, but in 1847, when Wisconsin was about to be admitted as a State, the parties were organized. Mr. Dewey threw himself into the work of organiz- ing the Democratic party in the embryo State with energy, and his organizing capacity was so well recognized and his executive ability as Speaker of the lower house and President of the Council so well re- membered, that he was made Democratic candidate for the first Gov- ernor of the State, and as the State had a decided Democratic major- ity, he was elected. In 1849 he was reelected for a second term. Thus before he was thirty-five years old he reached the zenith of his career and attained the highest place in his adopted State. From this high point his political fortunes suddenly declined. His party soon afterward went into a minority in the State, and from its sympathy, real or supposed, with the Rebel wing of the party, became odious to a large majority of the people of the State and Grant County in partic- ular. While his party was at this low ebb, he was given the profitless honor and thankless and hopeless task of being its candidate for sev-
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eral offices; but when the reaction of 1873 came, giving a brief lease of power to the Democratic party in the State and in Grant County, the old war-horse of the party was treated with scant honor, and even neglect ; and when a Democratic nominee in Grant County was sup- posed to stand some chance of election, younger men came forward to grasp the honor of a nomination, and Dewey, a "wheel-horse" indeed, pulled at the load while others drove. Therefore the statement in Judge Pinney's eulogy : "At the time of his death he * * * was the foremost figure among the public men of the State," though good as eulogy, is bad as history.
Governor Dewey was never popular in his own county. His abil- ity was recognized and admired, and his integrity relied on; but he was no orator and he had none of that personal magnetism which makes friends of the most casual acquaintances, and which is so ne- cessary to a continuously successful political career. On the contrary, his reserve toward casual acquaintances was marked. He was not the man to carry his home district against a political majority. When he was elected for Governor in 1848, he not only failed to carry Grant County, but ran considerably behind the other Democratic candidates in the county, and it was the same in the gubernatorial election of 1849. In 1853 he received a majority of three votes over Orsamus Cole for State Senator, but the parties were then in a transition state and were so split up that it is impossible to compare Dewer's vote with that of other Democratic candidates.
But while Governor Dewey's political fortunes declined, his finan- cial affairs prospered and he became wealthy. In 1863 he went to Cassville to live for the second time, and used his ample means to re- vive the waning fortune of that once ambitious little town. A few miles above the village between the towering bluffs and the broad river he built a mansion that would have attracted attention even in a city, but in that lonely locality was little less than a marvel. He doubtless had the intention of making this a pleasant home for his old age and a heritage for his posterity. But these pleasant anticipa- tions were doomed to disappointment. He had, while a rising young politician and lawyer, married the beautiful and accomplished daugh- ter of Judge Charles Dunn, a lady well fitted to be the wife of the highest official in the State, but apparently not one that relished the lonely life of a farmer's wife under the shadows of the Missis- sippi bluffs. The Governor says: "My family have lived in Mad-
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ison a part of the time," and except for this one vague allusion, one would not know from the autobiography that he ever had a wife. He lived for a time a lonely life in the grand but isolated house, while his wife was in Madison or in Europe, and then even that home was taken from him, being destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt by him.
In the last years of his life fortune seemed to persecute him finan- cially as well as in politics and domestic affairs, and at last he died a lonely and disappointed man-lonely, although he had some warm and devoted friends.
He died in Cassville, July 21, 1889, and was buried at Lancaster July 23. The funeral was attended by Governor Hoard, ex-Governor Taylor, Dr. Lyman C. Draper, General David Atwood, and other prominent men from Madison. The only relatives or members of his family who attended the funeral were his daughter, Mrs. Kate Cole, of St Louis, and his brother, W. P. Dewey, of Yankton, S. D.
Although Governor Dewey was a lawyer, and from the time he came to Lancaster in 1838 till he became Governor he was a member of the firm of Dewey & Barber, the most prominent law firm in the county, he practiced little if any after he was Governor. He had an extensive business, and as in his latter years he traveled over the county in his one-horse buggy, he was a familiar figure in his long black frock coat and old-fashioned collar and tie, surmounted with a heavy mass of iron-gray hair.
JOSEPH C. COVER.
Joseph C. Cover was born at Smithville, Fayette Co., Pa., Febru- ary 1, 1819. He is said to have inherited from his mother a strong love for books, his father being a lover of active out-door life and ad- venture, especially hunting. He came to Lancaster, Grant County, in April, 1846. For a time he obtained employment assisting the county officers in their work and in teaching school. Though his writings bear internal evidence that his facilities for obtaining a regu- lar school education were not good, yet his omnivorous reading had stored his naturally good memory with a great and varied fund of information. He was especially interested in politics, and being ready with the pen, it is very natural that he should seek to become an editor. Therefore he purchased the Grant County Herald in 1851. He had long been an ardent advocate of anti-slavery doctrines, was a member of the Liberty party and voted for the Abolition candidate for President, James G. Birney in 1844. His well-known anti-slavery
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sentiments at first caused a serious decline in the subscription list of his paper, but gradually, as anti-slavery sentiment grew in the county, his paper became popular and prosperous. He also took great inter- est in agriculture and horticulture, and wrote much about them, not only in his paper, but in private letters. This served to increase his popularity among the farmers, who by 1860 had become the large majority of the citizens of the county, and the Herald became a " fire- side companion " in most of the households of the county.
The war came on and the cause Mr. Cover had so long cham- pioned became the cause of the great Union party of the country and he was recognized as its principal champion in the county, and stood high in the councils of his party in the State, and within the county he was almost a political dictator. But a change came. A new man appeared in the county and aspired to party leadership. He was young, audacious, energetic, and a brilliant orator, and far more than all the rest, he brought into play political tactics learned in the hard- fought political battles of New York, and quite unknown in Old Grant. He was a political Napoleon pitted against old-style competitors. When this adventurer reached out his hand to wrest the leadership in the county from the old war-chieftains, Mr. Cover protested forcibly and threateningly, but when the deed was done, he, whose courage was thought to be equal to anything, and who had never quailed be- fore any man, seemed to decline the contest, and his pre-nomination thunders died away like those of a receding storm. He obtained a consulship to the Azores and left the county. His health was much broken and no doubt he hoped the mild climate of those semi-tropical islands, and a withdrawal from the harassing duties of an editor and publisher, would restore his waning health and vigor. But added to this was probably a strong unspoken reason. He foresaw moreclear- ly than others the coming mastery by Hazelton of the party machinery in the county, and the man who had till then been in the habit of speaking with high authority on all political matters could ill brook such a master as the young New York lawyer.
Some months after his arrival at Fayal, the location of his con- sulate, he seemed to improve in health; but he then declined. In June, 1872, he sailed in the bark Fredonia for Boston. He bore the first part of the voyage very well. but he suddenly sank, and on the fourth of July his soul took flight from that little vessel in the broad waste of the Atlantic.
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JOEL ALLEN BARBER.
Mr. Barber, the son of Joel and Aseneth Melvin Barber, was born at Georgia, Franklin County, Vermont, January 17, 1809. His great- grandfather was from England and settled at Canton, Conn. His mother was of Welsh descent and her father was a captain in the Revolutionary army, serving through the war. Mr. Barber worked on a farm till his eighteenth year when he entered the academy of his native town to prepare for college. He entered the University of Ver- mont in the summer of 1829, and left at the end of two years and a half. He read law with Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, of Burlington, Vt., and was admitted to the bar in Prince George's County, Md., in 1834, after teaching school there two years. He then returned to Vermont and practiced in Fairfield until 1837. In September of that year hecame to Lancaster, Wisconsin, which had a few months before commenced its existence as a village and as the county seat. Here he practiced law the rest of his life. He speculated in land to some extent. He soon ac- quired a high standing as a criminal lawyer, and was honored with official trust. He was the first County Clerk of Grant County and held that office again in 1842; he was District Attorney for three terms; several years on the County Board and for five years its chairman; member of the Wisconsin Assembly for three terms; State Senator, one term; and a member of the Forty-second and Forty- third Congresses. As a legislator it is noted that he made few speeches, but was a great worker on committees.
Mr. Barber was a Whig as long as that party lived. His strong "Free-soil" tendencies naturally led him to join the Republican party, as soon as it began to rise in the place of the dying Whig party.
Mr. Barber died at his residence in Lancaster June 28, 1881, of peritonitis, after a short illness. His funeral took place June 28, and was largely attended. The pall-bearers were Judge M. M. Cothren, ex-Congressman Henry S. Magoon, Messrs. Wm. E. Carter and A. W. Bell, of Platteville, John G. Clark of Lancaster, and C. K. Dean, of Boscobel. Manifestations of wide-spread and general sorrow and tributes of esteem and admiration of the deceased appeared, not only in the local press, but in the periodicals of the State generally. A meeting of the Grant County Bar was held in Lancaster during the October term of the Circuit Court, 1881, and appropriate ceremonies in honor of its distinguished departed member were held.
The Hon. C. K. Dean, in an obituary notice of the deceased attor- ney and statesman, pays him this just tribute:
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"J. Allen Barber, at the time of his death, and many years before, had few equals in those qualities deemed essential in the institution of the highest manhood, or in the estate of the good and useful citizen. There may be truthfully added to the record already given [a sketch of his life from the U. S. Biographical Dictionary], that although fre- quently honored with high political station, he had an intense dislike of all office-begging, and scrupulously avoided contaminating himself by this popular, and it is to be regretted, popular vice; that he was a friend and supporter of all rational public enterprises; a free giver in charity, and as a creditor to worthy but unfortunate debtors, a marvel of indulgence.
"It may also be added that he possessed a rare attainment in an- cient and modern lore, and kept pace with all the developments of scientific research. He was a man who held his family endeared to him by the ties of affection, constancy, kindness, and liberality. We are able readily to understand how, by virtue of his correct personal hab- its, his professional honesty and ability, his love of liberty and regard for public justice, and his impatient hatred of every grade of mean- ness and corruption, he early won and lastingly held the esteem of all good citizens having knowledge of his virtues.
"One, to have seen him in his most noble carriage, had but to hear him in conversation among friends; or pleading at the bar; or. more conspicuously still, addressing a popular assembly on matters touching the rights of any oppressed person, however humble, or of masses of people, or touching the maintenance of the honor and integ- rity of the Union. Then the ordinarily hidden impulses of his nature would become strikingly manifest in his earnestness of speech and gesticulation, set off by the glow of his highly intellectual features."
But as this is a historical sketch, and not merely a eulogy, it may be added that, notwithstanding Mr. Barber's many and high virtues that commanded respect and trust, and his great talents and attain- ments that compelled admiration, he was not a very popular man. For one thing, he was too radical and too far in advance of the ma- jority, and did not cover this with any arts of cajolery or efforts to please. Of the nine members from Grant County to the first conven- tion to form a State Constitution, he received the lowest vote, being far surpassed by such men as James Gilmore and Franklin Z. Hicks ; and the constitution he helped to form was very unpopular, especially in Grant County, and was rejected by the people, being too radical and
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in advance of the times, the people wanting no "experiments" in government. Mr. Barber was willing to try experiments where they reasonably promised good. His wit was sharp and caustic, and in an active career as attorney too many had felt the sting of his sarcasm. He was beaten as a candidate for District Attorney, in 1848 (although his party was in the majority ) by W. R. Biddlecome, a man far his in- ferior in ability. But this, in view of Mr. Barber's eminent fitness for the office, and his high character, shows only that vote-getting is a poor measure of worth. Nor is success in getting and keeping control of a party machine any better measure, for Mr. Barber, an old citizen, a staunch and leading Republican, of spotless character, could hardly hold his own in the county councils of his party with a newcome ad- venturer whose character was sharply questioned.
JOSEPH TROTTER MILLS.
Judge Mills was born in Paris, Bourbon County, Ky., in 1811. His uncle, Benjamin Mills, was a judge and a man of great literary at- tainments, and he became Joseph's tutor as soon as the boy was old enough to study. When a small boy his father and mother went to Bond County, Ill., leaving him with his uncle, where he obtained an excellent education. He joined his parents in Illinois before he came of age and after remaining at home a short time, went to college at Jacksonville, not far from his home. Edward Beecher, brother of Henry Ward Beecher, was at that time president of the college. Rich- ard Yates the famous war governor and brilliant Senator of Illinois was his classmate.
While attending college he caught the miners' fever from stories of the wealth gained in the lead mines of northern Illinois. So he set out for the mines and spent a summer digging-a summer of severe and ill- paid toil. This was probably in 1832, as he said that he saw Black Hawk a prisoner that fall. Returning to college, he remained there until he received, through the recommendation of the president of the college, an offer to become a tutor in the family of Col. Zachary Tav- lor, commander of the post at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, and thither young Mills went. This must have been in 1834, as he stated in an address before the Old Settlers' Association of Prairie du Chien that he came up the river on a steamboat in that year (see p. 45).
While in the family of Col. Taylor he had the opportunity to see considerable of Jefferson Davis, afterward the famous Secession leader, then a lieutenant in the command of Col. Taylor and a suitor of Tay-
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lor's daughter Knox, whom he afterward married, in spite of parental opposition.
In a few years young Mills left Prairie du Chien and came to Lancas- ter. Just what year is not known. The records show that he bought eighty acres of land in Section 26, North Lancaster, in 1838. Louis Reynolds related at an Old Settlers' meeting that he was once riding along and overtook a young man on foot who said his name was Joseph Mills, and that he was going from Prairie du Chien to Platte- ville to attend a theological convention, and he (Reynolds) allowed the young man to ride as far as they went together.
Among his pupils while he taught at or near Prairie du Chien were the daughters of Elihu Warner, father of the later well-known Jared Warner. Mr. Mills soon married the eldest, Evalina. Within a year he took his wife down to Bond County to see his parents. There she died in giving birth to a child, the child also dying. In 1842 he mar- ried Rebecca. the youngest daughter of Elihu Warner.
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