USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 4
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CHARACTER OF THE PIONEERS.
Before Grant County had a legal existence or a name its territory contained many of the men whose names afterwards became as house- hold words in the county. It is remarkable what a large proportion of those old pioneers became men of mark and substance. However lacking in culture and education, they became leaders among men- grand old patriarchs ere they passed away. It is remarkable but not at all strange that these pioneers became leaders of men. In that day it required unusual energy and nerve to urge a man from his Eastern, Southern, or European home to the lead mines of Wisconsin, and still greater nerve and fortitude to keep him there. There were diverse dangers to be braved and heavy hardships to be endured. To illus- trate, let us quote from the reminiscences of these pioneers one or two of the many narratives which they used to relate at the Old Settlers' Club. Ira Brunson said :
"I returned to Wisconsin in the winter. Left Columbus, Ohio, in January [1837]. * * * I crossed Rock River at Rockford, Ill., on the ice; staid over night at the Twelve-Mile-Grove. The only house was a cabin, with neither chink nor daub. In the morning I started north, intending to reach Freeport and stay overnight. I came to a house when the sun was about an hour high and inquired the way to Mineral Point. I was told to go to the mill and stop over night, which was about three miles distant. On reaching the mill, I found it to be a saw-mill, but could find no house. I wandered about in search of a house until it commenced getting dark. I could see a dark- looking place. Thinking it was a grove (houses were then built in or near groves), I started for it, but on reaching the place I found neither house nor road, and concluded I would be obliged to stay out all
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THE LEAD MINING ERA IN GRANT COUNTY.
night, and started off in a northern direction, the wind being in the northeast. I kept the right cheek against the wind, so that I would keep the same course. I traveled until I reached a large creek which was open, and as I did not know anything about its depth, I did not dare to push my horse into it, and concluded to stay there all night. I turned out my horse, that he might feed upon the grass above the snow, which was about a foot and a half deep. I then made a path about a rod long between two trees and walked to and fro. Not hav- ing anything to make a fire, I had to keep moving. After walking some time, I began to get tired, and lay down, resting my head upon my saddle. For fear of falling asleep I took a chew of tobacco. but soon fell asleep. I dreamed I was drinking beer, and swallowed my tobacco, which awoke me. I felt sure if it had not been for the tobac- co, I never should have awakened. I again took the path and walked to and fro, watching to see the sun rise, so as to point my compass. At daylight there was a gang of wolves about me. Taking my bear- ings, I found I was on the edge of the prairie and timber land, about six miles west of the Pecatonica. I then mounted my horse and started east. I found the road after going about three miles, and this led me north. I arrived about eleven o'clock at a grist-mill and house, where I got my dinner and went on to Mineral Point."
Daniel R. Burt, while exploring Platte and Grant Rivers for a lo- cation for a mill, in December, 1835, underwent many hardships, some of which he described thus :
"Not being satisfied with the Platte, we concluded to examine Grant, and commenced our examination at the point where now stands the warehouse on Grant Slough, following it up to the first fall or rapid, now Burton, where I subsequently built my mill. We spent two hours searching for section lines without success, and darkness began to settle down upon us, and as we had last eaten at breakfast, though we had killed a fine turkey, we concluded we must try to find our way back to where we had left our horse, having been out travel- ing over a portion of the country we had never seen before, and with- out a trace of civilized man to guide us. Ashley declared he had no idea of the course we must take and that I must be the pilot. I ac- cepted the position and we began our journey over a country broken by deep ravines and covered with timber. We had not traveled half a mile before darkness and brush compelled a halt. Breaking up some fine brush to lay my head upon, the snow four inches deep, and not
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.
having had anything to eat since morning, I lay down to rest for the night, leaving Ashley on guard, with a double-barreled rifle and a small fire we had made, with instructions to wake me at midnight to relieve him. It commenced snowing about this time and was quite dark. The wolves having scented our turkey, approached rather un- pleasantly near with their hideous howlings, awkened Ashley's inter- est, if not his admiration, to such a degree that he declined to be re- lieved at midnight. Tying a hankerchief over my face, with a heavy overcoat, I slept through very comfortably. the snow having fallen about four inches through the night and covering me to that depth. I was not in the least disturbed in my sleep, having a large cudgel at my side, a pistol in my pocket, and Ashley on guard with a rifle. The wolves parted company with us in the morning. At daylight we commenced our journey to the point where we had lett the horse, dis- tant about ten miles, as subsequent examination showed.
"About the first of August, 1836, it became necessary to communi- cate with the mines at Snake Hollow. now Potosi, and Samuel Ashley and myself left for that purpose, traveling the divide between Grant and the Mississippi, reaching Grant where the ferry is now kept. The water was too deep to ford and about twelve rods wide; but it must be crossed. Weimprovised a rude raft from a drift-pile, tying the logs together with grape-vines, and fastening another vine to the head for a tow-rope. Ashley seated himself on the raft with the gun, ammuni- tion, and my clothes, I swam in and towed the raft, swimming with the grape-vine between my teeth, and in a few minutes landed Ashley safe and dry."
Many of the pioneers, men who have since filled high and honored places and lived in comfortable, even luxurious, homes, walked hun- dreds of miles to reach the lead mines, arriving without a dollar in their pockets, having the energy to undertake so formidable a journey through the wilderness, the courage to dare its dangers and the forti- tude to endure all those and subsequent hardships until success was reached. The pioneer fathers of Grant County were uncommon men. The common men of their day lived and died in their old-settled home- lands.
GRANT COUNTY FORMED.
As stated in the first chapter, this region was made a part of Crawford County in 1818. It remained so until 1829, when the part of Crawford south of the Wisconsin River was made Iowa County,
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with thecounty seat at Mineral Point. Remember, it was Iowa Coun- ty, Michigan Territory. In 1836 Wisconsin Territory was formed, of which more will be said in the Political Division of this work. The legislature of the new territory, at its first session, in December, 1836, created Grant County as it now exists.
The winter before this, 1835-36, had been the severest one known to the region. The ground remained hard frozen all the month of April, and on the 20th of that month a loaded team crossed the Miss- issippi on the ice.
The first school known to have been taught in the county was at Platteville, in 1834, by Samuel Huntington. The school-house was a log building about eighteen by twenty feet. Dr. A. R. T. Locey suc- ceeded Huntington in 1836, teaching in a new and better building.
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CHAPTER III.
GRANT COUNTY DESCRIBED.
Geography and Topography-Soil-Timber and Water.
At last having come to a point in our history where there is a Grant County to be described, let us describe it.
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY.
It is bounded on the south by the line between the States of Wis- consin and Illinois, on the east by the Fourth Principal Meridian, on the north and northeast by the Wisconsin River, and on the west and southwest by the Mississippi River. It forms an irregular triangle, the Fourth Principal Meridian its base and the Wisconsin and Missis- sippi its sides. Its greatest length is forty-eight miles from north to south and its greatest width thirty-seven miles from east to west. It contains 1152 square miles, or 737,280 acres. Next to Dane it is the largest of the old-settled counties. The principal streams within its borders are Grant, Platte, Blue, and Green Rivers. The principal tributaries of Grant are Little Grant, Blake's Fork, and Rattlesnake. The Little Platte is the principal tributary of the Platte.
The land of the county is a high plateau, deeply cut into by the valleys of the rivers and creeks, and the bottoms of those rivers. The numerous and very deep valleys (considering that it is not a moutain- ous region) form a striking feature of the topography of the county. We have these deep valleys, in contrast to the country not far east, west, or south, because the county is in what is called the Driftless Area, and the valleys, the work of countless thousands of years of eroding rains, have never been filled by the vast plows of the glaciers, as will be described in the Geological History in this work. The great watershed between the Wisconsin River and the streams to the south running into the Mississippi, and the divides between Grant and Platte Rivers and their several tributaries are what is left of the pla- teau just mentioned. These ridges form one system, of which the great watershed mentioned, called the Military Ridge, is the backbone and the lesser ridges the ribs.
These highlands are mostly occupied by prairies. The Military
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GRANT COUNTY DESCRIBED.
Ridge is occupied by Long or Fennimore Prairie, stretching from the eastern border of the county to within a few miles of the Mississippi. Here it sends off an offshoot to the south, called Blake's Prairie, occu- pying the divide between the Mississippi and Blake's Fork and Rattle- snake. In the middle it has another offshoot on the divide between Grant and Platte Rivers, extending south to within a few miles of the Mississippi, called Boice Prairie. On the eastern edge of the county another prairie extends south about to the village of Hazel Green on the divides between the Platte and Pecatonica, and the Little Platte and Fever River.
The highest land in the county, of any extent, is the Military Ridge. This is at Montfort, on the eastern edge of the county, 1,195 feet above the sea ; at Fennimore 1,170 feet; at Mount Ida 1,170 feet. Beyond this it descends considerably to Mount Hope and from there runs level to Patch Grove, the ridge near both places having an ele- vation of 1,108 feet. The top of Sinsinawa Mound is 1,264 feet above the sea. The river shore at the northeast corner of the county has an elevation of 695 feet ; at the mouth of the Wisconsin, 605 feet; at Glen Haven 600 feet; at the southwestern corner of the county 580 feet, the lowest land in the county. Other elevations are: Lancaster (C. H.), 1,082; Platteville (P. O.), 837; Bloomington (Canal St.), 907; Ellen- boro, 691; Wyalusing, 613; Cassville (P. O), 610; Beetown, 764; Po- tosi, 784; Liberty Ridge (old P. O.), 1,146; Jamestown (P. O.), 914; Fairplay (P. O.), 780; St. Rose, 996; Washburn, 843; Castle Rock; 849. This is from recent observations giving the level of Lake Michi- gan as 580 feet instead of 578, as Professor Chamberlain calculated it.
A remarkable feature of the topography south of the Military Ridge is that watersheds between the several streams are, in most places, very close to the west side of the streams and at a considerable distance from the east side. This is noticeable along Rattlesnake, Hackett, Blake's Fork, Little Grant, and Platte. In consequence, the eastern slopes of the divides are short and steep and the western sides long and gentle, while the tributaries of these streams from the west are few and short and from the east comparatively long and numerous. The northeastern slope of the Military Ridge is much shorter than the southern, so that its streams, Blue River, Green River, Sander's Creek, etc., are much inferior in length to the streams of the southern slope, and their valleys cut abruptly down through the rocky strata, mak- ing many picturesque glens and rude, steep hills, and a very broken
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.
region in general. As there is not so much soluble limestone here as on the southern slope, the water is not so hard, and trout are found in the streams, this fish being entirely absent from the streams south of the Ridge. The Blue River is the principal stream north of the Ridge. It consists of two main branches, the longer one rising in Iowa County near Montfort, and the other, called Fennimore Branch, rising near Fennimore village. The twostreams unite near the southwestern corner of the township of Muscoda. The Green River has also two branches, called Big Green and Little Green. The stream empties into the Wisconsin a short distance below the village of Woodman.
SOIL.
The soil varies greatly in different localities. Along the high steep bluffs bordering on or near the Wisconsin and Mississippi the soil is thin and stony. In many places along the Grant and Platte and some places along their larger tributaries, the bluffs are also high and stony. The hillsides of the smaller tributaries and the ridges have a soil varying from a yellow clay to a dark gray clayey loam, washing easily. The prairies occupying the great 'divides are very peculiar. The soil in most places is very deep, black, and fertile-a fine vegetable loam. They are veritable garden spots. Some parts of Fennimore Prairie are, however, somewhat sandy. Why the prairies have this peculiar deep black soil, with some sand along the slopes near the Military Ridge, in sharp contrast with the soil of the lesser divides and the bluffs and hillsides of the rivers and creeks, will be explained (or, at least, the editor's theory of it will be given) in the Geolog- ical History further along in this work. Much of the bottom of the Wisconsin River is very sandy, because that river has brought down the sand from the great sandstone formation above, and the skirting bluffs and the rough hills and narrow valleys behind them being little cultivated, little loam has been washed in to mingle with or cover the sand. The bottoms of the Mississippi are somewhat sandy, but much less so than those of the Wisconsin.
TIMBER AND WATER.
At the present day most of Grant County, except the prairies just mentioned and the parts which have been cultivated or recently cleared off, is covered with timber, or at least shrubbery. In an early day it was not so. Then there was very little timber away from the large streams, with the exception of a few areas such as "Hurricane,"
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GRANT COUNTY DESCRIBED.
"Platte Timber," etc. Notwithstanding the great amount of clearing that has been done in the last ten years, it is a low estimate to say that there are five times as many trees in the county now as there were fifty years ago. In early days an Englishman called Lord Mur- ray (his name was Charles Augustus) bought most of the timbered land in the county not reserved as mineral land or preempted by the old mining settlers, and would sell neither the land nor the wood. The settlers on the prairies who needed wood simply took it from the Murray lands. Murray's agents looked into the matter. In one neighborhood, not twenty miles from the county seat, where the set- tlers were mostly of the Methodist persuasion, they were holding, one fine evening, a class-meeting or a love-feast, or something of the sort, when a constable, armed with a large lot of warrants, swooped down and arrested pretty much all the male portion of the meeting for taking wood from the Murray lands.
Of late years a theory has been industriously taught that the clearing off of timber causes the streams to dry up, and that planting trees will cause an increase of the water supply. The history of Grant County falsifies this theory. Fifty years ago this was one of the best watered regions on earth. Springs of ample volume bubbled up at the head of every ravine and in hundreds of places along every stream, and trickled from many a stony hillside. To-day the large majority of these springs are dry and the rising generation knows nothing of them unless by tradition.
Take one locality with which the editor has long been well ac- quainted as an example-the head of the west fork of Hackett Creek. In 1852 the creek began as a little rill near the head of the valley and only a few rods below the house in which George Harger lived. Beginning with Benjamin Hudson and going up, the settlers were Wm. Holford, David Cook, Zentz, David Ketner, John Clegg, Simon Woodhouse, Samuel Woodhouse, and Mark Hadley. At each of these houses and at several places between were springs, most of them with a large flow. There was no timber on the east side of the hollow. On the west side there was a little grove extending a few rods above Benjamin Hudson's. The rain falling on the head of the valley and the ridge above and feeding all these springs above Hud- son's was not kept from running off rapidly over the surface by trees, for there were no trees to hold it in the soil. But now most of these springs are dry and last October (1899) the editor noted that there
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.
was no running water until a few rods above Hudson's, fully a mile below the head of the stream in 1852.
Thus it will be seen that the water supply of the county has de- creased, while (probably not because) the timber has increased many fold. Men ask, "If this goes on for the next fifty years as for the last fifty, what will become of this country? It will become a desert." There is probably little cause for alarm. A maximum has probably been reached. Fifty years ago their was a similar alarm in New York. Western New York has a limestone formation much like that of Grant County. Half a century ago the poet Bryant put into the mouth of an Indian chief, viewing the land from which his tribe had been ex- pelled, these lines :
"But I behold a fearful sign To which the white man's eyes are blind. * * * * * The springs are silent in the sun ; The streams along the blackened shore With lessened currents run. The land our tribes were crushed to get May be a barren desert yet."
But the maximum had been reached. Fifty years more have passed and there has been no further great drying up in New York.
As with Grant County, so it has been with the prairies of Illinois and Iowa. Every one who crossed Iowa in the early fifties will re- member that a great part of its surface was almost a swamp with not a tree in sight. Now this same land is dry and firm and there are many trees.
One thing may partly (and only partly) account for the failure of the springs: the filling up of the old sink-holes. Over most of Grant County is a limestone formation with many fissures. The rain water, charged with vegetable acids from the soil, penetrated many of these fissures and, dissolving the lime, ate out subterranean galleries and holes. The torrents of rain-water, entering these sink-holes, filled the galleries, fissures, and little caves in.the limestone and furnished reser- voirs to feed the springs. In 1852 there were half a dozen of these holes in and about the village of Tafton; now there are none. One of them fed two large springs coming out near the mill-race on the south edge of the village. The sink-hole long ago disappeared and these springs have not one-fifth of their old time flow.
The once sparse timber of much of this region formed the once-
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GRANT COUNTY DESCRIBED.
famed "oak-openings." In our present woodlands can be seen (if they have not been cut down) here and there great white oak trees. Sixty years ago they were the only trees in their localities. None of the smaller trees then existed.
The advance of the timber on the primitive prairies was by throw- ing out an advance guard, so to speak, of hazel thickets, which seemed to act as a protection from fire to the young oaks, poplars, etc., that grew up among the brush. These thickets of mingled hazel bushes and young trees were called "rough," a term introduced by the Mis- sourians.
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CHAPTER IV.
GRANT COUNTY DURING THE THIRTIES.
The County Seat-Roads and Ferries-The Execution of Oliver- Post-Offices in 1838-Paper Towns-Early Immigration as J. T. Mills Saw It.
THE COUNTY SEAT.
When the legislature of Wisconsin, December 8, 1836, created the new county of Grant, it designated a committee consisting of Henry W. Hodges, James Gilmore, E. E. Brock, Orris McCartney, and Frank C. Kirkpatrick, to fix the seat of justice of the new county. They were to be sworn to a faithful discharge of their trust and were di- rected to reduce their determination to writing, sign it and deliver it to the Clerk of Iowa County, who should record it and deliver it to the Clerk of Grant County. If from any cause the commissioners should be prevented from fulfilling their duty, or if they could not agree upon a determination, then the seat of justice should be tem- porarily established at Cassville. The court, of which there were to be two terms in each year, was to be held at Cassville until the neces- sary public buildings should be provided at the seat of justice.
The commissioners did not choose any of the then existing towns or villages as the seat of justice, but a town which, at the time of the choice, existed only on paper. Glendower M. Price, of Cassville, had laid out a new town, March 1, 1837, on the southeast quarter of Sec- tion 3, Town 4, Range 3, which he called Lancaster. He agreed to pay the county $1,000 and donate certain lots of land in considera- tion of the location of the seat of justice at Lancaster. Cassville was a new and ambitious town; Platteville was by far the largest town in the county, but their claims balanced each other, and Lancaster was near the center of the county while one of its rivals was at one side and the other near one corner of the county. So Price's offer was ac- cepted and on May 15, 1837, he made out a deed, for a nominal con- sideration, granting to the county of Grant all of Block 10; Lots 1 to 8 inclusive in Block 25; Lots 3 to 8 inclusive in Block 26; Lots 7 and 8 in Block 23; Lots 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, in Block 9; Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in
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GRANT COUNTY DURING THE THIRTIES.
Block 8; Lots 1, 2, and 3 in Block 7; Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Block 6; Lots 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in Block 5; Lot 3 in Block 4; Lot 3 in Block 13; Lot 5 in Block 20, and Lot 3 in Block 28.
An account of the organization of the executive and judicial branches of the county government will be found in the Civil and Po- litical History, in this volume.
The first legislature of Wisconsin Territory directed that a census of the territory be taken, and this census, taken in 1837, showed Grant County to have a population of 2,763, mostly in the southern part of the county.
ROADS AND FERRIES.
The region west of the Fourth Principal Meridian, now having a government of its own, proceeded to get some roads, bridges and fer- ries. This region appears to have been neglected by the officials of Iowa County. Previous to 1837 some enterprising citizens had done considerable toward making roads by their own labors or at their own private expense. Daniel Burt, from his mill in the present town of Waterloo, had opened a road eleven miles long to Cassville, another to Potosi and another to Beetown. His experience in getting across Grant River is narrated on a preceding page. He has related another incident showing the difficulty of travel in those days. Soon after lo- cating at his mill-site he ran out of provisions and had to go to Paris for some. From his home to Paris it was only sixteen miles, but there was no direct road that could be traveled with a wagon. He had first to go to Orris McCartney's; thence to Beetown; thence to Lancaster; and thence to Paris, or nearly forty-five miles. He made this trip in one day and got back as far as a cabin at the mouth of Snake Hollow, where he staid overnight. In the morning he determined to take a straight cut where wagon had never been before. He got a man to drive for him while he went ahead and selected a route, getting be- tween the trees whenever possible and cutting them away when he could not get the wagon between them. They reached Boice Creek with little difficulty, but here trouble began. The Mississippi was at flood and had backed up the water of the creek, till it covered the bottom to the width of a mile. For a considerable distance the water was over a man's head in depth. The wagon-box was new and tight. Leaving the wagon on what had been the high bank of the creek but was then covered with water two or three feet, Mr. Burt unhitched the horses, and swam them across to where they could get a footing
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