History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 72

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

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Those miners who entered the southern coasts of the county as mentioned above, in 1822, remained but a short time, and in absence of all account to the contrary, it is safe to infer that they failed to unearth those stores of mineral wealth which a few years later brought a heavy tide of immigration into the new El Dorado. But the way had been opened, and, in 1824, Thomas McKnight, John Ewin and several others made the first mining settlement at Hards- crabble." This name arose from a difficulty experienced in deciding the ownership to a newly discovered lead. The exact date of this ancient game of grab is not given, but apparently was soon after the first discoveries, as in 1826 the name had already become the distinctive appella- tion of this section. In the latter year came a large addition to the new mining camp, and the news of the richness of the diggings began to attract miners and adventurers from all directions, chiefly, however, from Missouri, with a moderate infusion of Kentucky and Illinois blood. It is from 1827 that Grant County must date its first permanent settlement. Although it is true that those coming to the new country in this year did so with no settled intention of remaining, still the richness of the diggings and the numerous evidences of untold wealth, that needed only the pick and shovel to unearth it, so worked upon the intentions of these early pioneers as to change their character from that of mere adventurers to that of permanent settlers. Among those who thus became the pioneer fathers of the future county of Grant were Maj. J. H. Roundtree, Hugh R. Colter, Ebenezer M. Orne, Edgerton Hough, Henry Bushnell, Col. Joseph Dixon, Orris Mc- Cartney, Henry Hodges, Thomas Shanley and A. D. Ramsey. There were many others who came the same year, some of whom, after going back and forth spring and fall for several years, finally settled in the county ; and others, by far the larger majority, who sucked the orange until it began to show signs of dryness, and then turned to new fields. Of the former class were Joseph, Harvey and Frank Bonham, and James Grushong and brother, these two latter, however, making their first entry into the county in 1826.

Of these pioneers, Maj. Roundtree, Hugh R. Colter, Ebenezer Orne and Col. Joseph Dixon settled at Platteville ; Edgerton Hough at Gibralter ; Orris McCartney first stopped at Platteville, and in 1828 settled at Beetown, but in the same year removed to his farm near Cassville. Henry Hodges and Thomas Shanley came to Hardscrabble in 1826, and, a few years later, set- tled a few miles southwest of the present city of Lancaster. Mr. Ramsey also settled near Cassville. The Winnebago troubles stopped for a moment the tide of immigration which had thus early began to flow in the direction of the new land, which, if not flowing with milk and honey, was at least supposed to exist on the surface of an aggregated mineral mountain, where all that was necessary was the removal of a few shovels of dirt, when, "presto!" the laborer was ready to take his seat among the Croesuses of the land. The following year this tide returned to its former

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

channel, and flowed, if not extravagantly, at least steadily, until the Black Hawk war of 1832. Across the wide open prairies they came, fording streams, following dimly shadowed trails, or striking out into the wild wilderness about them ; or loading the puffing, snorting steamer to the guards, the new seekers for the land of promise came hurrying in. Little villages began to arise here and there in the wilderness. First a mere collection of miners' cabins, then a store, again a rude smithy, the inevitable tavern, and then the family home, where, gathered around the hroad hearthstone of the great open fire-place, they enjoyed the privileges and pleasures, and endured the privations of a pioneer life. But broad as was the hearthstone, and large as was the fire-place of which it formed the base, neither was so broad or opened so wide as the gener- ous, hospitable hearts of these early pioneers-men of brain and muscle, clear of head and stout of heart, who thus put behind them the comforts and Inxuries of civilization to wrestle with the primeval wilderness, and tear from its grasp another star which they should add to the constantly increasing constellation that formed the insignia of the young Republic.

THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN.

Early in 1827, mineral in large quantities had been discovered at Beetown. The tradition of its discovery being that the discoverers, while hunting for wild bees, found at the foot of an uprooted maple tree, a large deposit of mineral. This discovery was made by James Meredith, Thomas Crocker, Curtis Caldwell and Cyrus Alexander. Among the miners attracted by the new discoveries to this section, was Mr. Thomas, who was accompanied by his wife, thus making Mrs. Thomas the first white woman in the present confines of Grant County. The "Winne- bago scare " came on soon after their arrival, and all pulled up stakes and started for Galena. Mr. Thomas afterward moved into La Fayette County and settled about two miles south of White Oak Springs, where he resided for many years. In the fall of this same year, Mr. Henry C. Bushnell located at Muscalonge, bringing with him his bride of a few months. They resided here until the following year, when, after the birth of their daughter, Dorethy J. Bushnell, they moved to a point just northwest of Lancaster, now known as " Bushnell Hollow." Thus Mrs. Bushnell was the second white woman in the county, and the first to actually settle within its limits, while her daughter, Dorethy, has the honor of being the first white child born in the county. When the Black Hawk war broke out, the Bushnells took refuge first in Fort Craw- ford, at Prairie du Chien, and afterward in the block-house at Cassville. Soon after the close of the outbreak, they returned. They returned to Lancaster where they remained some years, finally removing to Muscalonge, where they remained until called upon to prepare for the long journey upon which all, sooner or later, must start. Miss Bushnell was married to Mr. Charles Whipple, and, at last accounts, resided in California.

After the defeat of Black Hawk and his band in 1832 had settled forever the question of supremacy in this section, immigration again set in fierce and strong, as the spring torrent obstructed, for the time being, by an unexpected barrier, by its chafings and surgings tears aside the obstacle and rushes onward with a victorious roar. New diggings were being opened up, which, with the ranges already discovered, placed the county for the time being at the flood- tide of prosperity. Mining was then the principal, and indeed, almost the only employment. The man with a "prospect" was, for the time being, the coming man, too often, alas! to degen- erate by future developments into the disappointed adventurer.

EARLY MINING EXPERIENCES.

The following description of early mining, taken from a historic tale entitled "Struck a Lead," and published by James M. Goodhne, in the Grant County Herald at an early date, will give the younger generation, not "to the manor born," something of an idea of the country as it then appeared and the modes of procedure employed by the embryo millionaires to "make a strike:"

"The 'lead district' is embraced in the original Northwest Territory, ceded to Congress by the State of Virginia. Upon the extinguishment of the Indian title, the fee simple of course

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

vested in Congress. The upper lead district as it was generally called, extended about seventy miles north and south on both sides of the Mississippi River, and about sixty miles east and west, embracing portions of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Perhaps the most prominent feature in the face of the country is the ' Mounds.' They are quite numerous; among the most promi- nent of which are the Blue Mounds, the Sinsinawa and Platte Mounds. Some of these mounds are one or two hundred feet high, and appear to be nothing more or less than hills dis- solved by time, and by the gradual disintegration of the rocks of which they were composed- rugged mountains razed into smooth green mounds. Standing upon one of these the traveler sees the mining region spread out before him like a map. The greater part of the land is prairie; though there is abundance of forest and barrens. The prairie is mostly undulating ; but the forests and barrens are strongly marked with ridges and ravines. No country in the world is more abundantly watered. Every ravine has its rivulet. The most successful mining operations have been in the barrens, where the land is broken into irregular lobes or swells, ranging in altitude from ten feet to one hundred. In 'prospecting,' the miner generally com- mences by digging a hole as large as a well, on the north and south side of these hills, in some small ravine leading up the side. If, in sinking the shaft he finds scattering mineral-' float' as it is termed-he infers that it descended from an east-and-west crevice above. It is then termed a prospect, and the miner is encouraged to sink another hole a few feet further up the ravine. If in the next shaft he finds the mineral still 'stronger,' that is, larger, more abundant, and of a character indicating the near approach to the crevice from which it 'floated,' he throws into a pile all the pieces of mineral he has found and calls it a 'show'-a good show or a bad show as the fact may be. The speculator, upon examination of a show, often buys the discoverer's show or prospect of a ' lead.' The mere prospect of finding a large body of mineral is fre- quently sold for hundreds of dollars. The miner now proceeds to prove his 'prospect;' that is, to extend a range of prospect holes up the hill to the crevice. If he should pass over the crevice, in prospecting, he will find no mineral in the holes he may sink; because mineral never floats up hill. He then commences 'drifting,' that is, digging horizontally from the bottom of the last hole in which he 'struck ' mineral, toward the bottom of the next hole above, and in his progress he strikes the crevice, which may, after all the labor in finding it, be a barren crevice, containing but little mineral ; on the other hand, the lead may be worth many thousands of dollars ; since the labor of raising the mineral when discovered is comparatively little, and the ore is worth when raised, from $10 to $25 per thousand pounds. [In some years of late it has gone much beyond this figure .- ED.] 'Crevices,' of course, vary in depth and width. Some of these are openings thirty or forty feet wide, between perpendicular wall rocks. The ore is generally found mixed with ochre and flint-but is sometimes found in solid masses.

" When all the mineral is raised that can be found in sinking a shaft, the miner commences drifting east and west in the crevice for more mineral. For this purpose, it is sometimes nec- essary to brace the aperature with timbers to prevent caving. Sometimes a lead is worked out by means of a level; that is, a tunnel being dug in the bottom of the crevice through the hill, and in this tunnel is constructed a cheap railroad for carrying out the contents of the crevice. The principal crevices run east and west; those running north and south contain smaller quan- tities, generally in thin horizontal sheets, and are cut out by east-and-west leads (or, as geolo- gists term them 'lodes'). Sometimes after drifting a few rods, the crevice 'closes up,' but frequently by sinking another hole still further east or west on the same crevice, another 'open- ing' is found, and the mineral comes in good again. Leads vary greatly in extent. Some are wide and deep, while others are narrow and shallow. Some 'run' well, while others ' give out' in a few rods. Occasionally a crevice is found widening into a ' chamber' containing an immense body of mineral. It is not, however, every crevice that contains mineral-the sanguine miner sometimes comes to the bottom of a barren crevice, confident all the time that he is about to strike mineral ; and when, after all his labor, he finds the crevice closed up at the bottom with solid rock, he leans perhaps on the handle of his pick, the very image of despair, and then ascends into the light of day by means of a windlass. In some places the diggers have run the

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

mineral into the water. Of course these water leads cannot be worked unless by draining and pumping. Mining here is yet in its infancy, requiring but little capital. The diggings are generally superficial. Some miners and geologists believe, however, that much larger bodies of lead and also of copper ore, lie buried deep in these mines than have yet been discovered. For mining deep, much capital and large and expensive machinery is requisite. The population of the mines is rather fluctuating, drifting from one part of the mines to another and settling per- manently nowhere. This state of things is of course unfavorable to the steady growth and per- manent prosperity of the towns and villages in the mines. All the lands in the 'lead district' which were known by Government to be mineral lands, and some which were not supposed to be mineral lands, but which were covered with forests to supply the wants of miners and smelters, have been reserved from sale 'for mining and smelting purposes.' Many tracts of land not reserved have been entered, that is, purchased at the land office. Before entering a tract of land, a purchaser was sometimes required to make oath that he knew of no mineral having been discovered upon it. If the miner discovers a valuable lead upon Congress land, and the discovery is known to no other person, the inducement to perjury by taking the oath required at the land office, and purchasing the soil in fee simple at $1.25 per acre is great. Per- haps some frauds upon the Government have been thus committed. No patents for these lands have yet been issued ; if such frauds have been committed, they may become the subject of legal investigation. Mineral lands thus purchased, are of course, leased by the proprietors upon such terms as they please to establish. A great part of the lands reserved from sale have, by a kind of prescription, become also the property of claimants in the following manner: They were at first farmed out to miners in small lots by an agent of Government. The miner was allowed to stake out his lot which he was then authorized by a 'permit' from the agent to occupy, upon the condition of his mining upon the lot five days in every week, etc. Few, if any, of the miners complied with the condition of their permits ; but the miners were indulgent toward one another, and each respected the claims of the rest ; so that, although the lots were forfeited, no complaint was made to the agent. Permits soon began to be transferred by sale, like leases ; and every purchaser of a mineral lot held it by a title deemed even better than that by which the first claimant held ; because a valuable consideration had been paid. The revenue for the mines was collected from the smelter, who purchased his ore of the miner. Each smelter received a license from the Government, and was required to pay over to the agent one-tenth part of all the lead manufactured. Thus the revenue was paid indirectly by the miner.

" Many valuable leads were discovered upon lands which had been entered at the land office. The proprietors of such lots were of course under no obligations to pay rents to the Govern- ment. They required the smelter to pay them the full value for their mineral. But the smelter was bound to pay over one-tenth part of the lead manufactured by him as revenue to the Gov- ernment, whether manufactured from ore raised upon 'reserved' lands or 'entered' lands. The smelter could not ascertain whether the mineral brought to him was raised on Government land or not. If he had been allowed to attempt a discrimination, it would have been unavailing ; since nothing could be easier than for a miner upon Government land to sell his ore to a neigh- bor who owned a mineral lot in fee simple, and who would sell the ore as his own, without any deductions for rent. The revenues for rent naturally soon became nearly nominal. The smelters were environed with difficulties. In the year 1836. the whole system went down, every smelter refusing to pay rent. The agency ceased, and Government was fairly 'elbowed out' of the mining district. The possession of such reserved mineral grounds as had been claimed by miners under the old regulations by virtue of permits, was left undisturbed. The proprietors, as they consider themselves, lease these lands to miners upon such terms as they deem most profitable ; some taking one-fourth, others one-fifth of the mineral raised. A great number of mineral lots are in many instances the property of the same landlord, some successful speculator in lead, perhaps, who has bought up, at a bargain, the claims of many poorer men. Whether these tenures were exactly honest in their origin or republican in their tendency, will not here be made a subject of inquiry. No doubt the most profitable disposition Congress could make

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

of their mineral lands would be to sell them in small lots to the highest bidders. [This was after- ward done, as will be seen in another portion of this work .- ED. ] By such sale a large sum of money would accrue to the treasury, as great, perhaps, in the aggregate, as the lands are intrin- sically worth ; and more profit would thus be derived from them than could be derived from the best system of renting and leasing that could be devised.

" The business of smelting is quite distinct from that of mining. The smelter must have some capital to do business. He constructs a furnace, usually in a ravine near the diggings, and over some small stream of water, which is used as well for washing the mineral as for turn- ing the water-wheel that works the furnace bellows. The process of smelting is simple enough. The mineral is broken fine and thrown into a large slanting hearth filled with charcoal and wood. When, by action of the bellows, the heat becomes sufficiently intense, the lead begins to trickle down the hearth in bright streams, which unite and flow through one mouth into a reservoir, which is also heated. From this reservoir the melted lead is removed with a ladle and poured into molds made of cast-iron. When thus molded into 'pigs,' weighing about seventy pounds each, the lead is ready for the market. The per centum yield by good mineral is about 70 or 80. The ore contains a small quantity of silver ; though perhaps too little to warrant the cost of extracting it ; the residuum is called ' slag.'"

Up to the close of the Black Hawk war, but little attention had been paid to the surface soil of the country, all endeavours being directed to obtaining wealth from below. The general feeling previous to that time is fittingly expressed in a few remarks made by Mr. A. D. Ramsay at a meeting of the Old Settlers Club, held at Lancaster, in 1876. Speaking of this feeling, he said : " I came here in 1827; then not a furrow had been broken in Grant County soil. Like others, I came to find a fortune in the mines, and, like many others, I found mining unprofitable. We then hardly knew what to do with ourselves; we thought we were too far north and that the country was too cold for farming, but we tried it and were successful."

It was thus found by experiment that the surface teemed with wealth as well as the bowels- of the earth, and a new class of settlers began to pour in, under whose hands the country, if it did not indeed "blossom as a rose," began to redeem its injured character as an agricultural district. Of the privations of these early pioneers, those of the present generation can know but little. Miners' cabins had at first been erected of logs, stone, and even sods ; the latter sub- stance answering as well as other material for the length of time that the restless occupant would care to make it his home. But the new settler, he who was to wring his living from the cold, unyielding soil, and whip it in a fair fight before it would resign itself to that unquestion- ing, unresisting obedience so necessary to productive farm lands, must have something more stable; hence, the first thing erected was a substantial log-house, made from logs of such size as two or three men could roll up with ease. The ends were rudely dove-tailed together, and the gaping cracks were made wind and weather tight by a liberal application of mud. Openings for doors and windows were then cut out; the latter, when the owner was especially fortunate, consisting of a four-lighted sash of the smallest known panes of glass, and, when this was not obtainable, oiled paper was made to serve instead. On one side, and occupying a goodly portion of its entire length, was the generous fire-place, with its wide, cavernous chimney, built of sticks. laid " cob-house " fashion and plastered with a liberal coating of mud, which was soon reduced to the flintiness of fire-brick, as up through the capacious throat poured the roaring flames, while the great fore-stick and back-log threw out their generous, all-pervading heat below. Here around the hearth the family would gather in the winter evenings, the good man indulging in a quiet smoke, provided he was fortunate enough to have laid in an ample supply of the weed, while the good wife busied herself in plying the busy needles from whose glittering points rolled in warm folds foot covering for all ; while the little ones romped and played around the brightly dancing blaze. The early settler of Grant County was probably better placed as regards the mere necessaries of life than the vast majority of the present race of pioneers. Game was abundant in the forest, deer being, in the expressive language of one of these early comers, as " thick as hogs," while the "stinging fly," as the poet Longfellow calls the industrious honey-

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

maker, deposited his stores in generous abundance in the hollow trees throughout the woods, so that among the preparations for the winter's stock was always to be found a barrel of honey, or perhaps two; while the remembrance of the luscious venison steaks with which ye first settler was wont to forget the finer luxuries of an effete civilization, will still cause a longing to arise in the heart of the remaining members of the fraternity that cannot be filled with any of the present delicacies, however toothsome.

The necessity of having timber at hand with which to erect his future home, and also to provide the "fore-sticks " and "back-logs " for use on the long winter evenings, led the new settler to choose the timber rather than the prairie, where, in addition, the springs that dotted the country were also found to hide their bubbling fountain heads among the ferns and brakes of the shaded woodland, the inducement was increased tenfold. This finally progressed, so far as to become the rule, until the prairie, so generous and bountiful in its crops, was long left un- occupied, even so late as 1853 there being a great deal of prairie land unoccupied throughout the county. This state of things gradually changed until now the prairie land is valued ac- cording to its worth.

FIRST MILLS.

In 1829, Mr. Hough had erected a saw-mill on the Platte to which he soon after added the paraphernalia of a " grist " mill, where the early settlers could get their grain reduced to flour, if not indeed of the very whitest, at least a good, palatable article. A second mill was erected, by Abram Miller, on Pigeon Creek, a few miles from Lancaster, in 1835. For millstones the builders went to the Iowa side of the river and obtained what is generally known as "lost rock." These they dressed down for buhrs, and managed to grind wheat and corn " after a fashion." It is needless almost to say that the fashion would hardly prove an acceptable one in this present age of patent flour and meal thrice whitened. The result of passing grain through these fron- tier mills was a dark, coarse meal, made darker in all probability by a generous quantity of dirt, which might have adhered to the grain during the rude methods of threshing then obtaining. By 1836, Mr. Daniel Burt had a grist-mill in operation in the present township of Waterloo, which produced a very fair article of flour. The mill was commenced in 1835. The mining camps, however, still in a great measure depended for their supplies upon flour which was brought up from below via the Mississippi; but as the country became settled up, mills improved, and grain abundant, this dependence upon foreign supplies was reduced to the minimum. Yet it was many years before this wished-for time arrived. For the present, the county is still hovering between frontier barbarism and civilization, with the question an open one as to which side of the balance it would ultimately incline. This wild, primeval wilderness, had, however, a wonderful fascination for the mere passer-by, as well as for the dweller therein.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 72

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044