USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 55
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In 1843 the neighborhood was made a precinct of the county. Among the justices of the precinct were William C. Bryant and Louis
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Rood in 1843, Thomas Dudley in 1844, J. B. Penn in 1845, James W. Everett and James Ritchie in 1846. The village was incorporated by act of the legislature approved February 12, 1845. It then contained about 800 inhabitants. Allison's Tavern was then built and was occu- pied by Henry Gilbert as landlord. Another tavern stood on the site of the later American House. Opposite this was Chisholm's "light- house," the scene of many a high revel and much high betting, inter- spersed with an occasional knock-down and drag-out. J. B. Johnson and Alfred Woods were the two merchants of the place. Dr. Arch Sampson was the only physician. There were several lawyers, among them Amasa Cobb, afterward member of Congress for this district, and later still Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nebraska.
In 1846 Fairplay was the theater of a duel which was appointed but did not come off. Two miners of Hazel Green had got into a dis- pute about a mine, located about a mile north of that village, and one of them, Henry Ray, challenged the other, Conrad Burns. The latter accepted the challenge and named rifles as weapons, and spent the time intervening between the challenge and the appointed meeting in target practice. John H. Rountree and Charles McCoy were the sec- onds. Efforts were made to reconcile the parties. Burns was impla- cable and demanded an apology or blood. Ray, having a family to which he was much attached, was induced to yield and offer the re- quired apology, which was accepted and the affair was closed.
In 1856 there were some especially large mineral discoveries by Hugins, Stone, Clise, Patrick Murray, Jacob Hunsaker, and Thomas Pallet. The place revived a little from the decadence which it had suffered during the California gold excitement, but it soon declined again. In 1861 B. Cornelison, later a landlord of Hazel Green, built a stone hotel, the Wisconsin House, and that wasabout the last notable improvement.
A murder occurred in the village September 2, 1873. John James shot Edward Iverson, his mining partner, in a drunken quarrel. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four and a half years in the penitentiary.
THE HARNEY MURDER.
One of the most terrible crimes in the annals of the county was committed at Fairplay September 25,1865. Dr. Harney, an old resi- dent of the place, and a man of good character (except that he was subject to fits of almost insane anger), killed his step-daughter and
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seriously injured his wife. The daughter of Mrs. Harney by a former marriage had married one Joseph Hunsaker, who, at the time of the murder, was in Idaho. Mrs. Hunsaker had lived in the Harney family, but a few months before the murder occupied a house by herself near the Doctor's house. Dr. Harney became offended with his step-daugh- ter and ordered his wife to have no communication with her. Mrs. Harney continued to visit her daughter without her husband's knowl- edge at the time. He probably learned of it, and one day when his wife returned from a visit he knocked her down and beat her with the butt of a revolver. Ellen Harney, the Doctor's daughter, interfered and got her father to desist.
When Mrs. Hunsacker, at her house, heard her mother's screams she ran over to the house and found her mother lying on the floor. She kneeled down beside the injured woman, but hardly had she done so when the Doctor sprang upon her and trampled her, breaking her skull in several places, and then shot her in the head, killing her. Ellen Harney had meanwhile been trying vainly to draw her father away from his deadly work. While the Doctor was trampling Mrs. Hun- saker, his wife got up and ran out into the street, crying for help. Harney followed her and fired two shots at her, then caught her and began to beat her with the revolver, when his son Harrison took away the revolver and brought his mother back to the house. The Doctor passed through the same room where the murdered woman lay, revil- ing her as he did so, went into his office, took a lancet and cut his throat. He did not die, but was arrested and taken to jail. There he tore the bandages from his wound and endeavored to bleed himself to death, but without success. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The murder created the greatest excitement in the little village and the surrounding country. The murderer (who had evidently become to some extent insane by indulgence in fits of anger) had many friends who made repeated efforts to obtain a pardon for him. These were at last successful, but the Doctor was warned not to return to Fairplay and he did not do so.
MURDER OF CHRISTIAN KELLY.
Christian Kelly, living nearly two miles east of Fairplay, was murdered on the night of November 15, 1869. On Tuesday morning, the 16th, his wife got up and went out and found the body of the murdered man lying near the house covered with the snow which had fallen during the night. He had four large gashes in the head and the
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skull was crushed in. He was seen by a neighbor doing the chores that night, and was also seen in bed between nine and ten o'clock. His wife said she felt cold in the night and missed him, but supposed he had gone to sleep in another bed. Mrs. Kelly, John Murray, her son-in-law, and Murray's wife were arrested and tried for the murder, but were acquitted, and the mystery as to who were the murderers and what was the motive of the crime was never solved.
Post-Office .- The post-office of Fairplay was established in 1841 with Franklin Z. Hicks as postmaster. He was followed by Alfred Wood, J. B. Johnson, Matthew Van Vleck, B. Cornelison, Arch Samp- son, Mrs. Allison, and H. R. Smith.
Schools .- A school-house was built in 1843 and James Johnson was employed as teacher, and taught for several years. In 1851 a new school-house 20X30 was built at a cost of $600. It had, when the place was flourishing, two departments, but now has only one, con- ducted by Henry R. Smith.
Churches .- A church was built by popular subscriptions in 1843. It was occupied simultaneously or successively by the Presbyterians, Methodist Episcopals, and Primitive Methodists." The place has at present no organized church society.
Jamestown Lodge, No. 43, I. O. O. F .- The original lodge was organized in February, 1850, with Dr. Mills, Samuel Virden, Henry Van Vleck, James Saddler, and H. H. Howe as charter members and officers. It first met in Howe's Hall in Jamestown. During the war the charter was surrendered. In October, 1869, a new charter was issued and the lodge prospered so much that in 1878 it erected, in Fairplay, a lodge-room 28X40 at a cost of $650. With the death and emigration of the old settlers and their descendants, the lodge went down, and the hall is used as a residence.
The village of Fairplay has lost its old-time importance and nearly all of its old settlers. Of its former institutions only the post-office, school, one hotel, and two saloons remain. It has not even a store.
SINIPEE.
This village was started about 1835. It was located on Section 6 of the present town of Jamestown. It became quite an important river port, but was soon superseded by Potosi and Dubuque, and in the winter of 1842-43 the buildings were all moved down the river on the ice to Dubuque-all except one, a stone building which could not
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be thus moved, and Sinipee ceased to exist. It contained a post-office for some years. Money was also printed here.
KIELER.
This is a small hamlet on the corner of Sections 3 and 10, town of Jamestown. Its principal institutions are the post-office and the Catholic church, the latter 45X85, built in 1869 at a cost of $6,000.
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CHAPTER IX.
CASSVILLE.
Early History and Growth-Town Officers-Village Officers- Newspapers-Churches-Societies-Schools-Biographical.
EARLY HISTORY AND GROWTH.
Captain Shaw landed at this place in 1816, as mentioned on page 9. Thomas Hymer, afterward of Potosi, on his return from a trip to the Selkirk settlement stopped at this place in 1824, occupying an old cabin, probably built by a French trader. Levi Gilbert came to the place in 1827 and has stated that Judge Sawyer put up a furnace there that year, and was to give a free Fourth of July dinner, but hearing of the Indian troubles, he left July 3. The same year Orris McCartney and Alexander D. Ramsey came and settled a few miles from the village, where they opened farms. The next spring McCart- ney went to Beetown and spent a few months there and then returned to his farm. A. K. Barber and Woodward Barber also came in 1827. Thomas G. Hawley is credited with building the first house in the new village. Henry Hodges and Thomas Shanley came in 1828, but did not stay long. They are said to have built a log warehouse.
Nothing further can be learned of the young settlement until 1831, when Glendower M. Price, a young man of considerable means, came there from Philadelphia with his newly married wife and opened a store in a log building on the river bank, on the site of Grimm's ware- house. When the Black Hawk War broke out Price, with his young wife, held his position, improvised a fort out of a large log house, raised a company of scouts from the refugee miners and commanded them, and after the war was always called Major. Sometimes in his absence his wife commanded the refugees and friendly Indians at the fort, being called Captain Price.
In 1834 Benjamin F. Forbes, afterward postmaster at Lancaster, came to Cassville. His wife was a sister of Major Price's wife.
About the time of Major Price's coming Daniel Barber, Henry Lander, Isaac Lander, Richard Ray, and William W. Wyman came.
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Isaac Lander preempted land at the mouth of the hollow, Ray took up the southwest quarter of Section 20, and Price Section 29. The land, however, did not come into market until 1834.
Wisconsin was made a territory July 4, 1836, taking in all the present States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and part of the Dakotas. Months before the bill passed and was approved by the President persons in the East pitched upon Cassville as an eligible and central location for the capital of the new territory, and laid out a city here, buying the claims of Price and Ray, except three lots reserved by Price. The new town company was composed of Garrett V. Den- niston, a lawyer of Albany, New York, and Lucius Lyon, who had been Surveyor-General of Michigan Territory. There may have been others in the company, but no other names appear as grantors on the records of deeds to the lots sold by the company. The company im- mediately began the erection of a mammoth brick hotel, five stories high, which was to shelter the legislators and State officials to-be. Daniel Banfill, afterward a Lancaster landlord and contractor for the shoddy court-house of 1837, appears to have been the contractor. It cost'$45,000. But before the great building was completed, or nearly completed, the great fight for the location of the capital was over and Cassville had lost, and the "big brick " long stood with lonely halls and yacant rooms, a monument to blighted hopes and failing ventures.
In the debate in the first territorial legislature of Wisconsin on the location of the capital Col. Wm. S. Hamilton said :
"Cassville stands on the east bank of the Mississippi, surrounded by very pretty scenery. The eye can rest on the soft and soothing, the grand and sublime. There will be found everything necessary for the promotion of man's comfort and the exercise of his energies. In a word, nature has done all in her power to make it one of the most de- lightful spots in the far West."
Nelson Dewey came in 1836 as clerk for the town company. Writ- ing in 1887, he thus describes early buildings and builders of Cassville : "Daniels, Denniston & Co built in 1836 the two houses in which G. Prior and F. M. Cronin now live. Clovis A. Lagrave and Charles L. Lagrave built in 1836 the present frame building adjoining Geiger's brick store, and Charles Bensill in 1836 built the now old building on the alley on Block 11. G. M. Price in 1836 built the building now owned by Holloway Stephens on Lot 11, Block 3. It was originally
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built on Lot 10, Block 11, and Ezra and John Gleason kept store in it in 1837 and 1838. The latter died in Prairie du Chien. The former was living in Chicago when I last heard of him. Charles L. Lagrave now lives in Minneapolis and Clovis A. Lagrave lives in California."
A correspondent of the New York Commerical Advertiser, under date of June 20, 1836, gave this glowing description of Cassville :
"This town is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi River five hundred miles above St. Louis, forty-five by land above Galena, and about the same distance below the mouth of the Wisconsin River. The site is upon a beautiful prairie, twelve or fifteen feet above high water-mark at the shore, and extending back five hundred yards, as- cending in this distance eight feet to a precipitous bluff two hundred feet high. The prairie is about four miles long, slightly broken by ravines above and below the town plat; but the plat itself is of so uniform a surface as not to require the cost of a dollar to grade either a building lot or a street. The plat is four hundred yards wide, by eleven hundred and ninety long, or nearly one-fourth of a mile by two- thirds of a mile. In this bluff, about fifty feet above the surface of the plain below, are two bold springs, which discharge water enough to supply a population of ten thousand
"The present population is not numerous, but immigrants and set- tlers are daily arriving. The carpenter's wages were about five dol- lars a day ; but the physician, there being but one in the village, does not make more than his board.
"The few roving Indians who still linger on the east bank of the river supply the inhabitants with venison from the forests and fish from the river.
"The inhabitants are fashionable, liberal, and attentive to stran- gers. They are chiefly from Philadelphia and western New York. There is no church, though religious service is held occasionally in a private house by a visiting Methodist, and Presbyterian.
"Such is a brief notice of Cassville, as it is. But I look upon it as the germ of a great city. Its commerical position is unquestionably the best in the territory, on the east side of the Mississippi. It must become the emporium for all the trade above the latitude of 42° 30' (the Illinois line), and extending on either side one hundred miles into the interior. Steamboats are constantly arriving at this point from St. Louis and other towns on the river. During our visit of five days, the arrivals of steamboats were daily, as no regular line had yet been
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established. One of the first acts of the territorial legislature will be to grant a charter for a railroad from Milwaukee, on Lake Michigan, to Cassville, passing through a highly fertile region, the line of which, in ten or twenty years, will resemble the thoroughfares of New Eng- land. The greater portion of this land can now be purchased at the government price-$1.25 per acre. Following upon this improvement, a canal will be constructed from the waters of Green Bay along the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi, the trade of which will descend to Cassville as its nearest market. Opposite Cassville, lying along Tur- key River, is one of the most fertile regions of the West. This river is navigable for keel-boats forty miles; and tho' the land is not yet sur- veyed, and, consequently, not in market, yet such are its attractions to the immigrant, that this whole distance of forty miles is already 'taken up' by settlers-and this is less than four years after its pur- chase from the Indians. Indeed, I see no reason why Cassville shall not become the emporium of as great an inland trade as Boston, Al- bany, Buffalo or Detroit, in whose latitude it is situated."
William Hall entered land in Section 28 in 1836, but soon sold it to John Bantram. Thomas Nagle (afterward of Patch Grove) came this year. Simon I. Daniels was a prominent comer in 1836. It is thought that he was one of the proprietors of the town site. He was a lawyer from Michigan. He bought a press and type from St. Louis (the first to be brought into the county) to print a paper at Cassville. The issue of the paper was delayed; Daniels went to Patch Grove on business, was taken sick and died at the house of Moses Hicklin, March 11, 1837; the business prospects of Cassville vanished, and Cassville, instead of being the first place in the county to havea news- paper, did not get one until more than forty years after Platteville had one. The press and type were stored in the basement of the big brick, and years afterward the wondering boys found some of the type scat- tered in the sand of the river bank.
Among the new comers in 1837 to the village or vicinity were Thomas A. Adkins, David and William Richards, Leander Judd, Geo. H. Morris, John T. Tower, Wm. H. Cash, Ezra Hall, Richard Hamer, William Whiteside, Ferah B. Farnsworth, Clovis A. and Charles L. Lagrave, John Ryan, Robert Campbell, George H. Cox, Allen Breed.
In February, 1837, a post-office was established at Cassville with Richard Ray postmaster.
In 1838 came Luther Basford (now living in Lancaster), Daniel
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Richards, William Sauser, Thomas J. Page, John B. Lesperance, Chas. E. Bensell, James Blunt, Arthur Worth (afterward a county official), Benedict Monahan, and Bernard McNamee. N. H. Suttle opened a store there that year.
January 19, 1838, an academy was incorporated at Cassville with the following trustees: Garrett V. Denniston, T. M. Street. G. M. Price, Joseph H. D. Street, D. R. Burt, Thomas Shanley, Thomas P. Burnett, Orris McCartney, Daniel Richards, J. E. Dodge, James Boice, H. R. Colter, Dr. Hill and A. S. Sheldon.
In 1839 the comers were Justus M. Dickinson, William Pollock, Jon- athan S. Sprague, and John J. Kirk- land, and probably others; but many who had come in previous years went away.
The village was very much in the decline in 1840, but in 1843 it seemed to be reviving. A correspondent in the Herald that year said: "It has revived this year and is now speedily and steadily filling up, already num- bering a population of 125. Thetown comprises twenty-five good dwelling houses, and several stores and offices." GOV. NELSON DEWEY. Among the merchants of the place that year were Roghe & Shrader, Lamar & Downing, and Samuel Morris.
Among those who came in the forties and became well-known there and elsewhere were William Prior, Samuel Scott, William Pol- lock, and Robert Lumpkin.
By 1847 the place seems to have declined very much. A. county officer visiting it that year recorded that the place consisted of "a few log houses around the big hotel and the commission store of Lagrave. There are only twenty-five or thirty families in the place." He also said that there were only three houses in sight from the road between Beetown and Cassville.
One cause of the languid existence of Cassville was the unsettled condition of the titles to lands in the village. This continued until 1856, when ex-Governor Dewey purchased the "Brunson interest" and cleared the titles. He devoted himself with energy and consider-
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able success to building up the town. Cassville had now become a port of export for the great wheat crops of Blake's Prairie and was a busy place. The number of teams loaded with wheat sometimes to be seen in the village was astonishing. There were fifty houses built in the village in 1856. That year Irish & Co. built a steam saw-mill. The principal merchants, shippers, and commission men then were Raffauf & Geiger and Lagrave & Co. In 1859 the important firm of E. Brinckmann & Co. was formed. In 1856 the place contained three stores, three hotels, three saloons, two tailor shops, three black- smith shops, one hardware store, one cabinet-shop, one wagon-shop, several carpenter shops, two cooper shops, two shoe-shops, and a population of 421 against 149 a year and a half before. In 1858 the population was more than 800.
Among the prominent "institutions" of Cassville in early days was the ferry across the Mississippi, an important factor in the traffic of the place. In 1836 it was conducted by William Walker. Braton Bushee and C. L. Lagrave conducted it from 1843 to 1846, when their license was revoked and William Pollock carried it on to 1850, when Bushee & Lagrave were again licensed and conducted the ferry until 1852, when Orris McCartney received a license. It was afterward run a long time by Herman Grimm.
For the last few years one of the largest business establishments of Cassville has been the canning and pickle factory of P. Hohenadel, Jr. Its products have already established a high reputation all over the United States.
The building of the Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad in 1885 gave the business of the place a material advance, and it has since been fairly prosperous. The population of the village was in 1870, 551; in 1880, 610; in 1895, 931.
George Groom killed William Vivian with an ax in a quarrel June, 1881. He was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary.
Mrs. Frank Liscum drowned herself in the river on the evening of March 15, 1889, in a fit of insanity.
The sawmill of Kleinpell Brothers was burned May 5, 1897. Loss $6,000.
The town of Cassville was one of the original sixteen towns organized in 1849. It contains all of Town 3, Range 5, and Town 3, Range 6, lying on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi. Up to 1859
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it included the present town of Glen Haven, which should be con- sidered in observing the population at different periods. The popu- lation was in 1855, 854; in 1860, 860; in 1865, 1,092; in 1870, 1,318; 1875, 1,386; in 1880, 1,301 ; in 1885, 1,299; in 1890, 1,455; in 1895, 1,560.
Iu territorial times the precinct had the following justices: Eph Dunbar, Orris McCartney, Daniel Richards, 1843; C. Hood, Clovis Lagrave, Ezra H. Gleason, 1844: Robert Whiteside, Wm. Pollock, T. Wilkinson, 1846; C. A. Lagrave, 1847-48.
From 1849 to the present there have been the following
TOWN OFFICERS.
1849-Supervisors, Orris McCartney, M. K. Young, John Dodge; clerk, G. M. Price; treasurer, C. A. Lagrave; assessor, A. D. Ramsay ; supt. of schools, William Pollock ; justices, C. L. Lagrave, I. C. Lan- der; constables, Wm. Winney, Samuel Winsor, Samuel Becket, J. M. Castner.
1850-Supervisors, Luther Basford, C. L. Lagrave, John Dodge; clerk, G. M. Price; treasurer, James M. Scott; assessor, S. Higgins; supt. of schools, John Dodge; justices, G. M. Price, H. H. Ray; con- stables, Charles Wamsley, William Winney, Jas. Scott.
1851-Supervisors, C. A. Lagrave, L. S. Reynolds, T. C. Scott; clerk, A. A. Bennett; treasurer, James M. Scott; assessor, Orris Mc- Cartney ; supt of schools. M. K. Young; justices, C. A. Lagrave, H. Catlin, E. Kidd; constables, Charles Wamsley, Samuel Winsor, Wm. J. Winney.
1852-Supervisors, Thomas C. Scott, L. S. Reynolds, Thomas Rogers; clerk, A. A. Bennett; treasurer, L. Basford; assessor, Orris McCartney ; supt. of schools, M. K. Young; justices, Wm. Curtis, H. B. Goodman; constables, Chas. Wamsley, W. J. Winney, Wm. Frazier.
1853-Supervisors, John D. Harp, M. M. Scott, Thomas Rogers; clerk, treasurer, assessor, and supt. of schools, same as in 1852; jus- tices, C. L. Lagrave, L. S. Reynolds, A. A. Bennett; constables, J. H. Crawford, W. J. Winney, Charles Wamsley.
1854-Supervisors, J. D. Harp, M. M. Scott, D. Tarter ; clerk, treas- urer, and assessor same as in 1852; supt. of schools, Douglas Oliver; justices, J. D. Harp, Orris McCartney ; constables, Charles Wamsley, Wm. J. Winney.
1855-Supervisors, J. D. Harp, D. Tarter, W. J. Winney; clerk, Wm. Curtis; treasurer, N. Goodenough; assessor, M. M. Scott; supt.
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of schools, A. A. Bennett; justices, C. L. Lagrave, A. A. Bennett; con- stables, Mat Metcalf, W. J. Winney, J. Browning.
1856-Supervisors, John D. Harp, W. J. Winney, Henry Burgess ; clerk, Wm. Curtis; treasurer, N. Goodenough; assessor, Orris McCart- ney ; supt. of schools, M. K. Young ; justices, J. D. Harp, Orris McCart- ney, J. H. C. Sneclode; constables, Mat. Metcalf, T. C. Sovereign.
1857-Supervisors, Wm. P. Dewey, Henry Burgess, Mat, Metcalf; clerk, R. Thomas; treasurer, Wm. Curtis; assessor, John Coombs; supt. of schools, M. K. Young; justices, W. P. Dewey, A. A. Bennett, Henry Burgess; constables, M. Metcalf, H. W. Palmer, Wm. Clement.
1858-Supervisors, Wm. P. Dewey, Henry Burgess, E. A. Kidd: clerk, L. S. Mason; treasurer, Wm. Curtis; assessor, John D. Harp; supt. of schools, L. S. Mason; justices, J. D. Harp, Henry Burgess; constables, W. A. Brenner, M. Metcalf, Wm. Clement.
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