USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 37
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Thomas McDonald came up from Potosi and took Brown to work on the halves, he doing half the work.
The next discovery was made by Shanley and Hodges and was about fifty thousand. This proved to be only the float from the main body that was discovered and worked by John Dobbs, of British Hol- low. The next discovery was made by George Cox, Harrison Adams, and Frank and William Clark, and was known as the Blackleg Lead. The next was Cox and James Groshong; next the Scott Range; next the Water Range, struck and worked by Major Garner and his son; next the Sheet Lead, struck by Sam Johnson and Harry Jones, mostly worked out by them and sold to Captain Craig for three thousand dollars. The ore lay in the form of a horizontal sheet, about a foot thick, from twenty to thirty feet wide. The yield of this lead was es- timated at three million. . Besides these ranges, there were many small bunches. The mineral from Pigeon was all hauled to Potosi, but Thomas Taylor, a smelter at Osceola, afterward moved up to Pigeon.
LANCASTER LAID OUT.
As elsewhere stated, the county seat was located in the spring of 1837 at Lancaster, a village which had been laid out on the southeast quarter of Section 3, Town 4, Range 3, March 1, 1837, the plat recorded in May. The county seat was not located without competition. Ed- mund Harelson and Major Rountree had entered land and platted a town just north of what is now the line between the towns of Lan- caster and Potosi, near the Rock School-house of later times. An- other site was platted a mile or so east of the present city on land owned by Thomas Elliott. The two principal towns in the county, Platteville and Cassville, were not formidable competitors, not only on account of their unfavorable geographical position, but because the leading man in each, Rountree and Price, both were interested in other competing sites. The only building on the site of Lancaster when it was laid out was the cabin of Aaron Boyce. This pioneer soon after- ward left for Texas, where, it is said, he was killed by Indians. His name is perpetuated in Boice Prairie. Mr. Price proposed to call the new town Ridgeway, but there was already a town of that name in Iowa County, and one of his friends, Charles Wooster, persuaded him to call it after the friend's old home, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Very soon after the county seat was located work was begun on the court-house. A log building was put up and occupied as a store by Ira W. Brunson with a small stock of goods. A log building, with
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a subsequent frame addition, was put up by Major Price a few rods northwest of the Big Spring and a stock of goods was put in, under the charge of George Cox and John S. Fletcher. A man named Rich- ards started a boarding-house or "tavern" in the Boyce cabin, but the boarders "kicked " vigorously at the fare, formed a club, and engaged a cook of their own, a Frenchman named James Jetty-at least, that is what the Americans called him, but his name was probably some- thing unpronounceable by the American frontiersmen. He is said to have been a good cook, but, as one of the boarders expressed it, would "weep into the soup-kettle." Whether this was because he was afflicted with weak eyes, or only because the chimney smoked, cannot now be told. The club-room was a log cabin on the site of the Wright House. The boarders were relieved by the arrival of Robert Reed and his wife, who took the cabin vacated by Richards and opened a board- ing-house. Mrs. Reed was a good cook, and "Captain " Reed was a jolly, sociable Englishman, who was called "Old Human Nature." He was appointed Sheriff that same year, 1837; he afterward removed to Iowa.
Among the new-comers to the village that year were J. Allen Bar- ber, Stephen Mahood, and Richard Raines and his wife. Raines was a carpenter and worked on most of the frame buildings that were put up in the village until 1840, when he was killed by falling from a house. His widow afterward married a Mr. Berks and they lived in a log house a little east of the site of the Wright House. Other comers.to the village this year were John C. Harris, George Moore, Peyton Mc- Millan, and James Ivey, a carpenter. Those who bought land in the vicinity were Joseph H. D. Street (then Sheriff of the county). George Hardy, Stillman Harvey, Martin V. Burris, Henry Toland, Paul God- dard, Charles Wooster, Hugh R. Colter, and Abner Dyer. Some of these remained only a little while.
In the fall of 1837 the first term of court was held in Lancaster in a frame building near the corner on which Baxter & Draper's store is.
Early in the spring of 1838 Harvey Pepper and his wife moved into the village from Pigeon, and in the fall put up an addition to the frame house just mentioned and opened a "tavern." It was the Del- monico of Lancaster for some time. Dr. Hill, a son-in-law of Captain Reed, moved in from Beetown and built a small frame house on the Wright House corner. Nelson Dewey came from Cassville in the fall of 1837 as the first Register of Deeds. In the spring of 1838 the
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"Blockhouse" was erected on the corner where the Meyer-Showalter bank now is. The upper story was occupied as a law-office by Dewey & Barber until Dewey's election as Governor. Among the new-comers that year were T. M. Barber (afterward a prominent business man, and still a resident of Lancaster, the last remaining of the old land- marks), J. T. Mills, Wm. D. Day, Joseph Morrill, Nehemiah Bonham, and Darius Bainbridge. Bonham, Bainbridge and Morrill afterward settled in the Hurricane. "Thode" Barber relates that when he left his home in Vermont, his folks thought he would go no farther than Burlington, Vermont, but the next they heard of him he was in the lead mines of Potosi. He walked five hundred miles of the way "afoot and alone."
That year a two-story frame was built on the southwest corner of Maple and Monroe Streets, opposite the present Lancaster House. A two-story log house was built on Cherry Street, nearly opposite the rear of the City Hall. In this building was held the trial of the mur- derers of Jim Crow that year (see history of Potosi, Chapter V, also p. 102). The case created great excitement and the village was filled with people who came in to witness the trial. The building was guarded by an armed posse under the command of Ira W. Brunson.
In 1839 John P. (or "Dick") Tower came in and put up a building on the corner of Maple and Monroe Streets, the site of the Callis resi- dence, and leased it to one Scott as a tavern. Ellison McGee put up a log house on Maple Street near Washington Street. Among the new- comers who took up land in the neighborhood were Charles Bland- ford, Section 8, Durrett and Douglas Oliver, Section 4, and William Y. Decker, Section 25, North Lancaster.
In the lack of other exciting incidents in that year, it is related that the worthy ex-Sheriff and ex-landlord, "Captain" Reed, was struck by lightning, but was too tough for the bolt. He was sitting at the breakfast table holding out his cup for coffee, when the bolt passed through the room. Both cup and coffee-pot were knocked from the holders' hands and carried out through the open door into the garden. The undismayed Captain got up, went out and got the cof- fee-pot, and poured himself a cup of coffee.
A post-office was established at Lancaster in 1838, with George H. Cox as postmaster. The next year John S. Fletcher was appointed. An early number of the Herald relates that he carried the mail around in his hat, which would have been inconvenient if he had moved about
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much, but he was not much on the move; that he neglected to make out his returns to the Department and received several reprimands, until he finally bundled up all the papers in the office and sent them to the Postmaster-General, with a request to that official to "make out the bill himself."
In 1841 Daniel Banfill built a two-story frame house on the Wright House corner, which he occupied as a hotel. This hotel was long a famous one in the county. In later times Banfill went to Potosi and opened another "Banfill House," which long retained the name. Mar- tin Teal with his family (which included two or three young ladies) came in 1840. The same year John Day, father of Hon. R. M. Day and step-father of Johnson McKenzie, settled about three miles west of town. He died in 1842. Henry Callis, father of Gen. J. B. Callis, came in 1840. Marshall Key came in 1841 and afterward removed to Wyalusing. David Gillespie in 1841 settled in Town 5 (since North Lancaster). In 1841 John Stewart, a new-comer, was appointed post- master, retaining the office for a little more than a year, when he went to Monroe County and was succeeded by James M. Otis, who had opened a store in the building on the southwest corner of Monroe and Maple Streets.
In 1842 Harvey Pepper died. He was one of the first settlers of Lancaster and one of its most popular men. J. T. Mills, writing of him in the Herald a year or two later, said : "He was a man obliging, active and talkative, but one who took the world easy, who, in the hurly-burly of life, hardly knew, when he was called on to hang a man, whether he was acting in the capacity of sheriff or landlord, and when he called a witness into court, to the third repetition of the name would add: 'Come in to your dinner,' instead of, 'Come into court,'" He left a wife and several children. In 1845 Mrs. Pepper married L. O. Shrader. She resided in Lancaster until her death March 10, 1887.
Upon Mr. Pepper's death, Mr. Scott, the landlord of the house on the corner of Monroe and Maple Streets, took charge of Mr. Pepper's hotel, and Benjamin Forbes, who had lately come from Cassville, took the house vacated by Mr. Scott. In a short time the Pepper building was sold to James Otis, who converted it into a store and opened the most extensive stock of goods yet brought to Lancaster.
In 1843 T. M. Barber and James Ward opened a second store. The settlement was still small and the two stores had a rather hard time, as they could not hope to draw trade from the south, west, and east,
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where the more extensive stores of Potosi, Beetown, and Platteville tempted customers.
Early in the spring of 1843 the Herald was started in the old Boyce cabin, and served to advertise Lancaster to the world.
This year James Otis was removed as postmaster and Benjamin F. Forbes appointed in his place. Otis had made a most efficient post- master and the people of the town were almost unanimously in favor of retaining him; but he was not in sympathy with the Tyler admin- istration, and he paid the penalty with his official scalp. The wishes of the people cut no figure. The matter created considerable excite- ment in Lancaster.
Besides a newspaper, Lancaster acquired that year a tri-weekly stage line from Galena by way of Platteville, by H. Messmore.
Among the new-comers in 1843 were L. O. Shrader (who soon be- came Clerk of the Court), Jesse Miles (a Baptist preacher), and An- thony Crosby, who started a tailor shop opposite the east front of the court-house, where he remained until a few years before his death, in February, 1895. James Treloar came that yearand settled on a farm about two miles southwest of the village, where he remained until his death, September 10, 1892, aged 72 years.
In December Barber & Ward moved their stock of goods into a new frame building east of the court-house, about where the Ziegler hardware store now stands.
In 1844 several men afterward prominent came in. James M. Goodhue, afterward well known as an editor, came as Distict Attor- ney, and also began the practice of law. William N. Reed came and settled on a farm in the edge of the village on the Beetown road. He was a man of superior intelligence and afterward became somewhat prominent. He was appointed in 1863 by the Governor to select the 240.000 acres of land donated to the Agricultural College of Wiscon- sin. He died in Washington, D. C., December 21, 1887. Hugh A. Moore, long afterward a prominent citizen, came this year and resided on his farm near the city till his death in 1896. James N. Borah set- tled on his farm in Town 5, Range 3, (afterward North Lancaster) this year and remained there till his death, January 18, 1891. Samuel Walker settled on his farm on Boice Prairie south of the village and lived there until his death in December, 1888. William Walker settled on his farm five miles south of the village this year and resided there until his death, January 20, 1895; and Benjamin E. Quincy settled on
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a farm in Section 29 this year. Dr. M. Wainwright came in May and opened a drug store on the southwest corner of Monroe and Maple Streets. A stage line making weekly trips from Cassville to Platte- ville by way of Lancaster was put on.
Early in 1845 Dr. Cowles located in the village with his office at the Banfill House. George H. Cox put up the building known for many years afterward as the Mansion House. In November William Hodge opened a tailor shop in the rear of Otis's store. In August Barber & Ward moved into their new store near the corner of Maple and Monroe Streets. Among the new-comers this year were John J. Barber, brother of J. Allen, who continued to be a resident of the place until his death in 1898, at the age of 91; Jesse Miles, F. P. Liscum, and William Alcorn, a carpenter. Thomas Weir settled on Grant River, in what is now North Lancaster.
THE FIRST FIRE.
The first fire in the new and thriving village occurred in December, 1845. Benjamin Forbes was keeping the hotel on the site of the Cal- lis residence. The house caught fire and was totally destroyed. The fire spread so rapidly that many of the boarders had to jump from the upper windows upon beds placed for the purpose. It was supposed that the fire originated from sparks escaping from a defective flue into the attic, where several bundles of brooms were stored, and into these it is supposed the sparks fell. Little except clothing was saved from the house. After the fire Mr. Forbes removed to Iowa, but afterward kept a hotel in Cassville.
There were several improvements in 1846. A. S. Berryhill opened a harness and saddler shop in a building adjoining the store-room of James Otis. Thomas Scott also started a saddler shop. Dr. John D. Wood came in and began practice; also Dr. John Dewey, brother of Nelson Dewey, but the latter left the next year in September for St. Paul, where he died in 1891; also Rev. S. W. Eaton, for forty years Congregational minister in Lancaster; also D. H. Budd, who after- ward did a large business in the manufacture of wagons and agricult- ural implements, but was at first more prominent as leader of the Presbyterian church choir; also Dr. Rickey, who formed a partnership with Dr. Wood; also James Spencer, who, at the age of fifty, enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin during the war and died July 11, 1888; and George R. Stuntz, who was assistant to the County Surveyor. John Boright opened a blacksmith and wagon-shop just south of the Mills
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residence. James M. Ward was appointed postmaster in the place of Benjamin F. Forbes. N. H. Suttle opened the Grant County House this year. John M. Otis also started a hotel or boarding-house in June. Mr. McClanathan also kept a boarding-house. Dwight Parker, afterward a prominent business man of Fennimore and Boscobel, and Arunah A. Parker, afterward County Clerk, came about this year, al- though perhaps Dwight was here in 1845. John Alcorn, a carpenter, also came this year.
In 1847 Andrew Barnett came in and for several years kept a ho- tel called the Telegraph House, afterward the Lancaster House. A writer of the time described him as "a fine old man of forty-five with ten children." A German named Buchholder also kept a hotel called the Wisconsin House. In March of this year N. W. Kendall, from Platteville, and Dwight T. Parker bought the store of Barber & Ward and continued business at the old stand. T. M. Barber was ap- pointed postmaster in place of Ward, who returned to the East. Enos P. Wood, who had come in as County Clerk, and sometimes preached in the lack of regular ministers, left the county this year and A. A. Parker was appointed in his place. On June 19 an incident occurred showing the unsettled condition of the country surrounding Lancas- ter, the country being a mingling of prairie, small oak groves, and hazel thickets. Miss Maria Colter, daughter of Judge Colter, got lost while out picking strawberries, and a large part of the people of the village turned out in an excited and extend- ed search for her.
The Fourth (or rather, the fifth, as the fourth came on Sunday) of July was celebrated in good style in Lan- caster this year. The oration was by Daniel Banfill and speeches were also made by Dr. John D. Wood and My- ron Wood.
One of the few shooting affrays we hear of in Lancaster occurred July 1, this year. Enos S. Baker, ex-Sher- iff of the county (about whose ap- JUDGE JOSEPH T. MILLS. pointment the quarrel arose in which Vineyard shot Arndt in the legislature of the Territory), had got into a lawsuit and J. T. Mills
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was the opposing attorney. The caustic tongue of the little lawyer left some sore spots on the burly ex-Sheriff, who thought they could be salved only by cowhiding Mills. The latter had not the stalwart frame for which the Kentuckians are famous, but he had the fiery spirit. He sprang into Dr. Rickey's office and snatched up a double- barreled shotgun, went into the street, and finding Baker, told him to defend himself. Baker drew a pistol and raised it; but Mills put a load of shot into Baker's pistol-hand. The latter then dodged into the parlor of the hotel, where there were several ladies, and the affray ended. On the 6th of October Mills was tried for assault with intent to kill and acquitted.
J. W. Seaton thus describes his first impressions of Lancaster, in the latter half of the forties: "The cottages white and brown nestled among the native trees, with the bright autumn foliage, and flowers blooming in the front yards was a pleasure and a surprise to one who had just come from a mining village paved with rough stones and stained with ocher, and gave the place an unlooked-for charm and at- traction that was most agreeable. In the center of this charming picture were four public buildings : the Banfill House, Mansion House, court-house, and jail. The first was the most popular of the four."
The year 1848 was apparently a prosperous one for Lancaster. The Herald of May 20, 1848, says : " Lancaster contains more capital than almost any other village of its size. Every habitable roof covers one or more families. Our chief want is tenements for families who wish to move into town. If buildings could be had, our population would be doubled in a few months. Many buildings are in process of construction, but not half as many as are now required. All our house-builders are employed and more are wanted."
The population of the village was 933-496 males and 437 females. This was in strong contrast to the mining towns, where the males very largely preponderated in numbers; also, while the population of the mining towns was largely Missourians, Kentuckians, "Suckers," and Cornishmen, the population of Lancaster was mostly from the Eastern States and largely from Vermont.
T. M. Barber this year finished a new brick store building (long afterward occupied by Ivey & Webb) and opened the "Ready-pay Store." Dr. Wood opened a drug storesopposite the north side of the courthouse, while-Dr. Ritkey, his former partnery moved his stock of goods into a building by the side of Kendall & Parker's store. Dwight
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Parker was postmaster. In July P. Darcey announced in the Herald that he had started a shoe shop. Dr. H. H. Lewis began practice in the village this year. William Roberts settled on his farm a mile or so east of the village, where he lived a great many years until his death. William Macauley took charge of the Grant County House. John M. Coombs opened a gun-shop on Cherry Street south of the hotel just mentioned. Charles Blandford started a blacksmith shop opposite the Telegraph House. The telegraph line was opened for bus- iness this year with Joe Barnett as operator. A history of the line will be found on page 74.
A small emigration to the California gold-fields began in 1849 and increased in 1850. The cholera and the small-pox came into the county in 1850, but those dreaded plagues spared Lancaster that year.
Charles Ashley opened a wagon-shop and Mrs. Rynerson a millin- ery store in 1850. Myron Tuttle took charge of the Wisconsin House; the firm of Kendall & Parker was dissolved and Parker moved his stock into the store building of J. M. Otis, who went out; Reuben Thomas (afterward of Cassville) took charge of the Grant County House.
Thomas Langridge came in this year and settled near the village.
In August, 1850, during a heavy thunder storm, the unfinished Baptist church was struck by lightning and considerably damaged, and the house of Dr. Roberts, on the corner of Cherry and Adams Streets, was struck, damaging the building slightly, but not injuring any of the inmates.
On Christmas day of this year there was a bear-baiting in the vil- lage-a common sport in early days, but one which was discontinued soon after this year, an account of a lack of bears. The bear was chained to a post and dogs set upon him. The sport was not very prolonged, as the dogs did not hold out long enough. When a dog got a cuff from the clumsy-looking but really dextrous paw of the bear, he wanted no more of the sport, if he lived to want anything. A great deal of rum and whisky was drunk, but not much drunken- ness and little quarreling resulted. The sport of wolf-baiting lasted a good deal longer, as wolves remained, and are still far from extinct in the rougher parts of the county. As late as 1852 wolves frequently serenaded the dwellings in the edge of the village and were seen in the daytime coming to drink at the little creek running along the eastern edge of the village.
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In 1851 the Methodist and Congregational churches were built and the Baptist church, which had stood some years unfinished, com- pleted. John Alcorn became a partner with T. M. Barber in his store early in the year, and when spring opened Mr. Barber went to Califor- nia, as did J. B. Callis, Willis Huston, Robert Allensworth, and others. F. P. Liscum & Co. opened a general merchandise store in thesummer in the building formerly occupied by Kendall & Parker. In October Myron W. Wood took charge of the Wisconsin House.
The lack of transportation facilities handicapped the merchants and other business men in their competition with the flourishing min- ing towns of Potosi, Beetown, and Platteville, the first of which had river transportation. The people of Lancaster were at this time very enthusiastic about a railroad, first from Milwaukee, on the route now occupied by the C. &. N. W. road, and afterward about a rail- road from Potosi to Dodgeville.
In 1852 the California fever reached its highest point. Charles Ashley advertised teams to take passengers through to California for $125, but most of the gold-seekers went in covered wagons of their own. A train of such emigrant wagons left Lancaster April 13, 1851, a large crowd being collected to bid them good-bye and many friends accompanying them to the Mississippi ferry. This emigration is de- scribed more at length on page 55. It did not affect Lancaster nearly as much as it did the mining towns, which before that had flourished more than the county seat, but which now, all except Platteville, fell behind Lancaster. Immigration from the East turned toward Lan- caster. The Herald of May 19, 1852, said: "In the last week or two we notice a good many strange faces about Lancaster. A shoemaker, blacksmith, and wagon-maker have just set up in business. Boss car- penters are equal to the demand-in their own opinion-but a tew more ought to come in for the sake of competition." Agriculture was not yet much developed. It was noted that more than two thousand barrels of flour were imported at the port of Potosi alone this year. Cuyler K. Thomas opened a hardware store in the village this year. Henry Austin came in and settled on his farm near the village, where he still resides. John Hooper settled in the village.
In 1853 G. Maiben started a store in the building long afterward occupied by John P. Lewis. A new law firm, Barber & Lowry, occu- pied the upper story of the "Blockhouse" on the corner of Madison and Maple Streets. Mr. Benner, who had bought out T. M. Barber,
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