History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history, Part 6

Author: Castello N. Holford
Publication date: 1900
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 813

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 6

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GRANT COUNTY IN THE FORTIES.

of wood about a foot in diameter. It was said that ten-pins were in- vented in England when it was made illegal to play nine-pins. In 1844 there were in the county ten tavern licenses and eleven " grocery" licenses for the retail of liquor. Five of these were in Potosi and four in Platteville.

Some time in the forties the prevalence of liquor-drinking roused a sentiment against it, and an organization called "Sons of Temper- ance" became very flourishing in the county. In the published lists of the officers of its "divisions" we find the names of very many of the prominent men of the county. About the same time an order called "1001" flourished. It seemed to be, in its ritual and forms, a sort of burlesque on Freemasonry, and its object diverson, to a great extent by horse-play.

In 1844 the miners of this county heard that cents (the big old red ones) had reached Milwaukee and the next year Galena, but they would have none of such base currency.

The census of 1846 showed a very great increase in the popula- tion from 1840. The county contained 7,189 males and 4,845 females -total 12,034; the females gaining on the males, but still greatly in the minority.

THE LAST " WINNEBAGO FUSS."

Though the Winnebagoes continued to leave their western reser- vation and wander through the county, particularly along the Wis- consin River, even to quite recent times, there has been no apprehen- sion of serious trouble with them since the "fuss" of February, 1846, at Muscoda. At that date and place a quarrel arose between a band of Winnebagoes and the settlers, when one of the Indians wounded a white by shooting. The whites "turned loose" and killed three In- dians. The affair created great alarm and caused the mustering of many volunteers; but the Indians withdrew with their dead without further fighting.

LAND TROUBLES.

In 1847 there was a culmination of the land troubles which had been growing many years. Much of the land which had been pre- empted by the settlers and paid for at the rate of $1.25 an acre was withdrawn by the Commissioner of the Land Office, on the ground that it was mineral land and ought to have been reserved as such, and he proposed to offer it for sale again. This decision was pub- Jished in 1846. These lands occupied by the settlers were worth much

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

more than $1.25 an acre and the principal value had been given to them by the settlers themselves by their labor and improvements, ex- . posed to all the hardships and privations incident to settling in a new country, among the dangerous Indians. The settlers had cleared away the forests, broken up the prairies, constructed roads, opened mines and built school-houses, and thus much increased the value of the lands. Some of the settlers had purchased their lands in good faith from the original preemptors or buyers. For the government to take away these lands from the purchasers and offer them for sale to be snapped up by speculators was the height of injustice. The legisla- ture of Wisconsin Territory petitioned Congress, setting forth the facts as to these lands, and urging that the proper place to have al- leged fraudulent entries of lands tried was in the courts, and not in the Land Office, and asked Congress to provide for withholding from sale all lands in the Mineral Point District sold before that time, and for the issuing of patents for all lands purchased at that land office. except such entries as had been, or might be made after that time, de- clared by proper tribunals to be fraudulent entries.

But despite all petitions and remonstrances the Government per- sisted in its determination to sell the lands. Then the miners began to act. Indignation meetings were held in all the mining neighbor- hoods. One of them, reported in the Herald of that time, held at British Hollow December 19, 1846, was an example of many. The meeting passed a series of resolutions declaring that they were willing to pay $2.50 an acre for their claims and homes, but would resist by force any attempt to make them pay more; that they would all be at Mineral Point on the first day of the land sales and remain there until all the reserved lands west of Platte River had been offered for sale; that a committee of five be appointed by the meeting to hear the evi- dence in the case of all conflicting claims and render final decision in the matter, their jurisdiction to extend over Town 3, Range 3, and the whole of Section 12 in Town 2, Range 3; that the owners of claims in each section should appoint one or more of their number to receive the certificate of each forty-acre lot as it was bid off at the land sale and redeed it to the rightful owners; that claimants should employ the County Surveyor to survey their claims and give certificates to the rightful owners, and make a plat of the whole survey for the set- tlers on the reserved lands; that no committeeman should investigate the right of any claim in which he was interested; that a committee

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GRANT COUNTY IN THE FORTIES.

be appointed to correspond with other committees in Grant and Iowa Counties and cooperate with them.

A meeting was held at Platteville, January 30, 1847, and a board of arbitrators consisting of Thomas Cruson, George I. Coates, Wm. Bull, A. C. Inman, Thomas Hugill, D. Hurlbert, John Newman, Wm. Davidson, Thomas J. Coates, Fred Hollman, and Henry Snowden was appointed. The board was not to grant more than a quarter section of land to any claimant, except land the claimant had already entered in Towns 2, 3, and 4 of Ranges 1 and 2; then he was to be allowed said claims.

The day before the first day of the land sale, which was May 1, 1847, there was a rousing meeting at Platteville in which the settlers all agreed to be present at the sale and see that every one had an op- portunity to bid in his own land at the minimum price, and they did so. Speculators took warning by this formidable determination of the settlers, and none of them tried to bid off a settler's home or a miner's claim. Thus the trouble ended forever.

WEATHER EXTREMES.

The winter of 1843 was a very hard one on the old settlers. But for the farmers the year 1847 was worse, as there was frost every month in the year, doing great damage to corn and tender vegetables. As a compensation, the winter of 1847-48 was very mild.

THE MEXICAN WAR AND OTHER EVENTS.

In 1846 the Mexican War began and lasted through the next year. Though the people of Grant County were much interested, there was by no means the excitement that reigned in the South, and com- paratively few men from the county enlisted. Notice of these will be found in the division of Military History.

In 1848 Wisconsin became a State. Although there were excited discussions, particularly on the matters of the boundary and the con- stitution (which will be explained in the Political History of this work), the admission made little difference at the time with the mate- rial affairs of the county.

In 1849 the discovery of gold in California was announced, and a few of the adventurous spirits from the lead mines of Grant County started in quest of the more precious metal, but the great exodus did not begin till the next spring.

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

A census taken in 1848 showed 7,870 males and 6,161 females; total, 14,031, an increase of two thousand in two years. In 1849 the assessed valuation of real estate in the several towns in the county was as follows: Jamestown, $36,282; Fennimore, $44,858; Platte- ville, $173,015; Smelser, $79,268; Paris, $51,856; Highland, $41,776; Cassville, $10,385; Potosi, $175,046; Hazel Green, $156,411; Patch Grove, $92,384; Harrison, $59,986; Waterloo, $32,356; Beetown. $54,293; Lima, $59,983; Wingville, $108,731; Lancaster, $147,129;

The extent and location of these towns may be seen on the map of the county for 1849, in Chapter I, Part II.

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CHAPTER VI.

GRANT COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES AND LATER.

The Gold Fever-The Cholera-Great Agricultural Development- The Great War-Oil Excitement-Emigration from the County -Weather Extremes-Centennial Year.

THE GOLD FEVER.

The reports of wonderful discoveries of gold in California contin- ued to come in during the winter of 1849-50, and in the spring of 1850 began the enormous exodus of the miners from Grant County to the golden land which, continuing two or three years, seriously de- pleted the population of the county and deranged its business. Al- though many men left their families at home, intending to return soon, others took their families and sold their lands and houses in this county. So much real estate being thrown on the market at once greatly depreciated its value. Building ceased, for in every village were vacant houses left by absent gold-seekers. The Herald of Febru- ary 5, 1852, says editorially : "By May next Grant County will have disgorged more than a fourth of her adult population, and California, like the whale that swallowed Jonah, will have swallowed this entire animal export. We have lost none by migration to other parts; all have gone to golden California. They were the bone and sinew of the country, and we parted with them as reluctantly as King Pharaoh did with the children of Israel. In 1849 the California fever com- menced and the end is in the misty future. We dare not venture an opinion as to when the disease will abate. Grant County has invested $1,000,000 in the gold mines." Referring to the depreciation of real estate, a curious bull occurs in the editorial. It says: "We set down the average depreciation [of land values] at one hundred per cent. In many cases two hundred per cent. would be a closer estimate. Village property has slid lower than farm property." As a depreciation of one hundred per cent. would bring the price down to nothing, it is hard to tell what the editor of the Herald meant by a depreciation of of two hundred per cent.

The rush of emigration when the spring of 1852 opened and grass for the oxen of the emigrants' trains sprung up was as great as the

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

Herald predicted. Every ferry along the Mississippi, from Dunleith to Prairie du Chien, was blocked by the crowd of emigrants, and many of them, eager to be on their way to the gold fields, had to wait near- ly a week for an opportunity to cross the great river. The lead mines probably sent a larger proportion than any other region, as the miners were ever the devotees of Fortune and most easily lured by the prospect of mineral wealth. It is true that after 1850, many came back from the gold mines with empty pockets and shattered health, but occasionally one came back with "a pocket full of rocks," and this one example of success outweighed all the failures, and thousands were ready to brave the terrible hardships of a six months' journey across the plains, mountains, and deserts, or a voyage "around the Horn," or across the fever-stricken Isthmus of Panama.

The census of 1850, taken in June, showed a population of 16,169, an increase of more than two thousand in two years, despite the em- igration to California, showing a large immigration from the East.

THE CHOLERA.

In the fall of 1850 that dreadful scourge, the cholera, made its first appearance in the county. Beetown was the theater of its first out- break and its most dreadful ravages. A more particular account will be found in the history of Beetown in this volume. The towns of Fennimore and Wingville were also severely afflicted, and there were some deaths in the southern part of the county. In other towns the people held their breaths with awe and dread until the awful shadow of death withdrew as winter advanced. The scourge re- turned in 1851, but was not so severe, and in 1852 there was another outbreak in Millville which caused many deaths. As late as 1854 some deaths in Patch Grove and other places were attributed to the cholera and the epidemic in Lancaster occurred that year.

GREAT AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

With the close of 1852 the adverse tide against Grant County ebbed away. The cholera abated and the emigration of the gold- seekers became so small as to be imperceptible and many of them be- gan to return, a few with a goodly capital to prosecute business ener- getically.

At this time began the subjection of the hitherto almost vacant prairies to the plow. Several causes coincided in this sudden develop- ment. Charles Augustus Murray, the great English land monopolist,

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GRANT COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES AND LATER.

was dead and his timber lands in Grant County were sold by his ex- ecutors. The farmers who opened prairie farms bought lots of ten acres or so in the timber, in some cases ten or fifteen miles distant, from which they hauled their fuel and fence posts. The northern pineries had had a sudden development and lumber for fencing the prairie farms could be obtained at a much reduced price at the land- ings along the Mississippi. The great influx of California gold sud- denly entering the currency of the country caused a marked advance in the price of grain. This was further enhanced by the Crimean War, beginning in 1854, which shut off from Western Europe the vast grain fields of Russia. For a few years the erstwhile solitary prairies re- sounded with the cracks of the long whips of the drivers of the great ox-teams with their enormous breaking-plows, turning up the smooth, green, flower-decked sod. Then another change came over the scene. Wheat was king. Over the rolling prairies, miles on miles, was one vast ocean of waving wheat, its billows green in June and early July, but shining golden in the sun as harvest came on. During harvest the clatter of the reaper was heard on every hand. From every village and mining settlement the men turned out as harvest hands, and even came up from Illinois (where the harvests had been finished), like the "sucker miners" of old. After harvest those prairies, which a little before had resembled the ocean with its green or golden billows, now resembled a country from which a forest of great, yellow-trunked trees had been cleared, the shocks of wheat looking like so many tree- stumps.

In the latter part of the fifties corn became comparatively higher than wheat and, as the yield of wheat declined after a few years of cropping, and the price of pork and beef went up, another change came over the face of Grant County. Its prairies were no longer a sea of wheat, but checkered with fields of corn and clover. This change is thus described in the Centennial Poem quoted from at the beginning of Chapter II :

"Decades pass on ; the century's close* Beholds another scene : Gone are the wild grass and the flowers ; The prairie still is green, But with a wealth of diverse grain And not the wild-grass sod, And scores of fleecy flocks now graze Where the lone wild deer trod.

"The century from 1776.

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

Where once the coyotes dug their holes The farm-girl milks the kine, And turkeys through the barnyard strut Amid fat beeves and swine. The corn's deep files and long, straight ranks Toss all their lances green ; The farmer's son, like knight of old, In triumph rides between. In gorgeous, scythe-armed chariots rode The warrior-kings of old

And left in battle swaths of men Where'er their chariots rolled. And so the farmer-king now rides Adown the meadows green, The clover's red-capped legions fall Before his sickle keen."

The high price of grain continued, with a few fluctuations, for many years, and the development of the region was rapid, only tem- porarily checked by the money panic of 1857. The injection of a large amount of California gold into the currency had also raised the price of mineral, and the mining business revived.

In 1855 the population of the county was 23,170; in 1860 it was 31,189, of which 16,569 were males and 14,620 were females, show- ing that the comparative scarcity of women which characterized the early history of the county was fast disappearing. The colored popu- lation was 35.

In 1855 the seventeen-year locusts visited the county in enormous numbers. Their noise in places was almost deafening. They killed many trees by stinging them. There have been some subsequent visi- tations of these insects, but none to compare with the swarms in 1855. It was said that the letter "W" on their wings portended war; but they were too late for the Crimean War and a good deal too early for the War of the Rebellion.

The winter of 1856-7 was one which for length and severity sur- passed anything of which the "oldest inhabitant" could boast. It snowed "early and often." On election day the ground was deeply covered with snow. This was soon covered by a deep sleet which made the roads impassible and utterly blocked the new railroad which the county had just acquired. Several deep snows, with violent drift- ing winds, occurred during the winter, followed by sleets, crusting over the deep drifts. The deer all through the county were well nigh

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GRANT COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES AND LATER.

exterminated, being hunted with dogs, which could run over the crust while the deer broke through. Those which were not hunted to death perished of starvation. Quails froze and starved in flocks, and the prairie chickens were noticeably scarcer after that terrible winter. The editor remembers that one terribly cold day of that winter he caught eighteen quails in one trapful and severely froze his fingers in getting them out.

THE GREAT WAR.

In the early part of 1861, Grant County, like all the North, was in a blaze of excitement over the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. For a time it seemed as if all business would be paralyzed, and the whole energies and thoughts of the people be turned to war. But gradually affairs settled down, and the great demand for all sorts of products stimulated business. The only obstacle to the great increase in business was the lack of laborers, as, during the four years of war time, nearly one-eighth of the whole population, and these the very pick and flower of manhood, were drawn off for a greater or less time into the camps. To add to the drain of able-bodied men caused by the departure of the soldiers, news of rich gold discoveries in Idaho caused considerable emigration, particularly of those who feared the draft. It was estimated that two hundred men went from the county to Idaho in the spring of 1864. For particulars of the county history during this war see the Division of Military History.

At the special session of the County Board in July, 1861, the County Treasurer reported that the county funds in his hands were principally in Wisconsin currency, and that the town school treas- urers had refused to receive this money from him, and that he had been informed that the said currency could be converted into specie at a sacrefice of ten per cent. The Board, upon this report, adopted a resolution to have the paper currency converted into specie on the best terms the Treasurer could get, the loss to be apportioned among the several towns.

The winter of 1863-4 was a very severe one in Grant County and all over the country. In the South the soldiers suffered severely with cold. January 1, 1864, was long known as the "cold New Year." The ice at Dubuque was so thick that a railroad track was laid on it from Dunleith to Dubuque, there being then no railroad bridge there.

OIL EXCITEMENT.

In the summer of 1865 there was considerable excitement in differ-

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

ent parts of the county over alleged discoveries of petroleum oil, par- ticularly at Annaton. Companies for leasing ground and operating oil wells were formed, with the names of many prominent men in the county as directors. J. W. Vanorman, of McGregor, was the leading spirit. At Tafton (Bloomington) Prof. Parsons was very active in trying to organize an oil company. He was a very able, earnest, and zealous educator, but he did not know much about oil. All the so- called oil was simply a film formed of a hydro-carbon resembling marsh gas in composition, generated by the decay of swarms of minute animalcula in the mud of marshy places, colored a rusty red by the minute particles of sulphuret of iron it brought up from the mud and held in its tenuousembrace. It was as good a hydro-carbon as petrol- eum, what there was of it; but, being generated only by the minute beings living and dying in the mud, the quantity was very small.

EMIGRATION FROM THE COUNTY.

Shortly after the close of the war a great emigration from the county, principally of young, single men, began. The returning sold- iers, grown impatient of the old life and adventurous in spirit, looked with longing to the promising new lands opening in western Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, and even far-off Oregon and Washington. But the census of 1865 showed a population of 33,168, a small increase in five years, despite the ravages of war and the drain of emigration. In 1870 the population of Grant County was 37,975, the increase in five years being probably due to excess of births over deaths. In 1875 the population of the county reached high-water mark, being 39,086, but even then some towns had decreased in population. In the latter part of the seventies the terribly hard times, caused by the contrac- tion of the currency with a view to the resumption of specie pay- ments, forced many of the farmers to sell their heavily mortgaged farms and go to the cheaper lands of the new West. This time the emigration was of whole families instead of single young men. The result was shown in the census of 1880, the county having a pop- ulation of 37,852, exhibiting the unwonted spectacle of a loss in five years, notwithstanding there was undoubtedly a large excess of births over deaths.

In agricultural products and live stock the county showed a gen- eral increase from 1870 to 1880. In 1870 there were in the county 13,112 horses, 15,312 cows, 1,017, work oxen, 24,936 sheep, 51,254 swine, and there were produced that year 274,137 pounds of wool,

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GRANT COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES AND LATER.

1,095,482 pounds of butter, and 61,303 pounds of cheese. In 1880 there were in the county 15,953 horses, 16,96 cows, 82 work oxen, 25,910 sheep, 100,243 swine, and there were produced that year 169,- 750 pounds of wool, 1,188,952 pounds of butter, and 57,610 pounds of cheese. But in manufactures there was a steady decrease from 1870 to 1890; in the former year the total value of the manufactures was $1,122,900 and in 1890 only $693,612. The manufactures of the county, necessarily on a small scale, have not been able to compete with the great manufacturing "trusts."

In 1890 the population of the county was 36,651, showing still a further decrease in ten years. In 1895 the population was 38,372, 19,348 males and 19,024 females, the former great excess of males having disappeared. There was some increase of population, but not nearly as much as the excess of births over deaths should have made, showing that emigration was still active. The county for the last twenty-five years has been a breeding-ground for colonizing the far Western States. Why this is so, and why Grant County, in an early day the leading county in the State, with one-sixth of all the members of the lower house of the legislature, now has only one-fiftieth of the members, is explained on geological principles in the Geological His- tor in this work.

In 1895 there were in the county 25,114 horses and mules, 24,- 540 sheep, 151,661 swine, and 77,321 cattle. Since that date agri- culture, stock-raising and dairying have been very flourishing in the county, and the towns and villages have been filling up with farmers, past their working days, and retiring with enough to live upon com- fortably the rest of their days, leaving their sons upon the farms.

WEATHER EXTREMES.

The winter of 1873-4 was remarkably mild. On New Year's Day there was a breeze from the north as mild and balmy as if it were April. The winter of 1880-81 was notably severe. The summer of 1885 was so cool that the corn crop was very poor and the winter of that year was very severe, the temperature ranging from 25 to 30 de- grees below zero for eight successive days at one time. The winter of 1889-90 was notably mild until March, when it set in severely cold. The winter of 1898-9 was notably severe.

THE CENTENNIAL YEAR.

The year 1876, which was a notable epoch-marking year in the history of the United States, was notable for more than one event in

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

the history of Grant County. In March occurred the terrible and death-dealing cyclone at Hazel Green, particulars of which will be found in the history of that town. On the night of the 29th of August oc- curred the most wide-spread flood in the history of the county. The down-pour upon all the land was tremendous. Every river and creek in the county was a raging flood from bluff to bluff. Hardly a bridge in the county was left. Thecostly iron bridges across Grant and Platte, though placed high above ordinary high water, were carried away by the floating haystacks piled against them by the swift waters.

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History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history, Part 6

Author: Castello N. Holford Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Number of Pages: 813

Author: Castello N. Holford
Publication date: 1900
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 813