History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 80

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


USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin > Part 80


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530


HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


KILLING OF MILAS K. YOUNG.


One of the most inhuman of the many diabolical crimes that has marked the pages of Grant County history was the murder of the Hon. Milas K. Young, by his son, in May, 1875, near Glen Haven. The causes leading to the commission of the crime dated back some time previous to that date. Albert Young, the murderer, had been engaged in business at Glen Haven, and, through various causes, was unsuccessful. Mr. Young indorsed his notes for some time, but then refused to do so any longer. Albert then resorted to extensive forgeries in order to keep himself above water. These forgeries included the names of friends as well as his father. He also obtained control of the title to the homestead, and was endeavoring to raise $2,500 by a mortgage on the place. In the meantime, he attempted to drive his father off from the farm. In this quarrel the young man had the sympathy of his mother, between whom and her husband there had existed a coolness for years, there being at the time a lawsuit pending between them in regard to the title to the farm. In a collision between father and son, the former was in- jured by an ax in the hands of his offspring, but this wound was claimed by the latter to be ac- cidental, and by many, cognizant of the facts, so accepted. At length, Mr. Young learned of the forgeries and sent word to his attorneys to have the forger arrested. Previous to this he had ex- pressed to some of his neighbors the fear that his life was in danger, but these fears were re- garded as groundless, and Mr. Young continued to remain at the homestead. By some means, Albert Young learned of the danger in which he stood, and Friday, May 14, early in the fore- noon, he came into the yard surrounding the house and sat down on a cart, occupying his time with whittling, evidently waiting for his father to come out. The latter was in his room lying down, with the door locked. After waiting in this manner for some time, the young fiend, it would seem, could no longer control his desire for revenge, and he entered the house and inquired of a servant where his father was, and upon receiving the reply that he was asleep in his room, Albert went to the door and threw himself against it with a view of forcibly entering the room. This he partly succeeded in doing, when the noise awoke his parent, who jumped from the bed and ran out of a door leading from his bedroom on the east side of the house. His pursuer tben turned and hastened to the front door and met Mr. Young as he came around the house, draw- ing a revolver as he did so. He commenced firing and discharged four shots, two of which took effect upon his victim. The latter also drew a revolver and fired once at his unnatural son, the bullet grazing his abdomen and inflicting a painful, but no wise dangerous wound. But deter- mined that his victim should not escape, the young ruffian seized a hatchet and rushed upon the fatally-wounded man and dealt him several crushing blows upon the head, breaking the skull in a ghastly manner.


Several neighbors heard the cries of the wounded man, and hastened at once to the spot, but did not arrive until the murderer had finished his work and started to make his escape. He ran west to a grove standing some sixty yards away, and there stopped to examine his own wound. The hasty examination appeared to produce the impression that he was seriously, if not fatally, wounded, and, reloading his revolver, he placed it to his head and sent his blood-stained soul in- to the presence of its Maker.


Mr. Young was picked up by his neighbors and carried into the house and laid on the bed from which he had fled but a few moments before. He lingered in great pain until the Sunday following, when death came to his relief, and he passed through the doors into the great here- after.


The excitement in the community was intense, the murdered man had been universally re- spected wherever known, and his sudden and horrible death aroused all the indignation lying dormant in the breasts of the citizens of that section. Had it not been for a few of the more conservative among them, there is no doubt but the stern rule of a mob would soon have reduced everything about the scene of the tragedy to ruins ; as it was, the body of the murderer was re- fused burial in the village cemetery, and was quietly interred upon the farm. Of the murdered man, the following testimony was borne by the papers of that date :


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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


" Milas K. Young had a reputation as wide as his adopted State. His form graced our legislative halls during the years from 1862 to 1865. Intelligent, faithful, earnest, his constit- uents felt that their interests and their welfare were wisely understood and well defended by him. Endowed with a laudable ambition and great mental energy, he early became a leader among his fellow-citizens, capable of molding and guiding public opinion. With wide sympathies and views, he felt a deep interest in all public questions, especially those that concerned the profession that he had chosen. To increase the quantity and quality of the productions of the soil .; to provide for his fellow-farmers competing markets for their productions, were the problems he most studied. It was this devotion that gave him such a strong hold on the esteem of the farming class with whose interests his inclinations and tastes were identified."


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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


CHAPTER V.


UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS-EARLY HIGHWAYS AND FERRIES-RAILROADS IN GRANT COUNTY -TELEGRAPH LINE-CENSUS OF GRANT COUNTY-AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.


UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS.


A great amount of the public land in Wisconsin had been surveyed by the latter part of 1833, and this fact being reported by the Surveyor General, two land districts were created by an act of Congress approved June 26, 1834. These districts embraced all the land north of the State of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in what was then the Territory of Michigan. This area was divided in twain by a north-and-south line at right angles from the base line to the Wisconsin River, between Ranges 8 and 9, east of the Fourth Principal Meridian. All east of that line was called the Green Bay Land District; all west, the Wisconsin Land District. The land office of the West- ern District was established at Mineral Point, and of the Eastern District at Green Bay. 'Grant County, then forming the western portion of Iowa County, was included in the Mineral Point District.


In October, 1834, the first public sale of lands in the present confines of Grant County, was held at Mineral Point, and a second sale took place at the same point in November, 1835. Within the Western or Mineral Point District, lay the great lead region, whose wealth had, for several years, been attracting miners by the hundred from every section. In accordance with the policy outlined by the Government, those lands known to contain. mineral were reserved from sale. By an act of Congress of June 15, 1836, the Milwaukee Land District was created out of the southern portion of the Green Bay District. The land office for the new district was located at Milwaukee, where, in the spring of 1839, the first public sale of lands in this district was held. These lands had been surveyed after the lands which had been offered for sale at Mineral Point and Green Bay.


By a provision in the act of Congress creating the Green Bay and Wisconsin Land Dis- tricts, these districts were to embrace the country north of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, when- ever the Indian title to the same should become extinguished. By a treaty made with the Win- nebago Indians November 1, 1837, all lands belonging to that tribe east of the Mississippi River were ceded to the United States. This cession put the General Government in possession of land north of the Wisconsin, and the limits of the land districts were extended to the new ter- ritory which was ordered to be surveyed, the survey being finished in 1845. All of this terri- tory, with the exception of the reserved mineral lands was open to entry at $1.25 per acre. This reservation of the mineral lands from entry was afterward a large-sized bone of contention between miners and the Government, and terminated in these lands being offered for sale in 1847; a history of these troubles will be found in another portion of the work. In 1842, tbe land office was removed to Muscoda, where it remained a number of months, when it was again returned to Mineral Point. The little log "seven-by-nine" structure which served as Uncle Sam's domicile, while exchanging land for cash at Muscoda, was still standing up to a recent date.


EARLY HIGHWAYS AND FERRIES.


Means of communicating with different parts of the country are early recognized by dwell- ers in any section as something indispensable. The savage denizen of the forests, as yet unini- tiated into the mysteries of wheeled vehicles, depending mainly upon the means of locomotion furnished him by nature, or at the best, employing for long stages of travel that much- abused, much-enduring beast the "Indian pony," needed but a narrow pathway known in


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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


early parlance as a "trail." These arteries linking the different villages one to another, fur- nishing alike means for the solitary traveler, the hunting party, or the hideous, bedaubed warriors intent upon plunder and scalps, to attain their different ends, and was deemed quite sufficient by the first inhabitants of the soil. These trails were only wide enough for one person, making " Indian file" always the order of march, a phrase that was long remembered by settlers and their de- scendants. To the early white men, but little removed from his Indian companions in point of civilization, the Indian trail furnished ample means for pursuing his desire for pelts and pelf, and he gave but little heed to any improvement in this direction. Hence, when the early pio . neers, those men of brawn and muscle, whose strong arms and stout hearts were to make a path- way that should serve as an entering-wedge for the advancing civilization made their appearance. They found slow travel along winding trails, or, slower but much more pleasant, drifting down the sparkling streams, the only mode of reaching the point which was to be their future home.


As in all other portions of the country so it was in Grant County, trails crossing and recross- ing led in every direction, but of genuine highways, broad and passable, there were none. What were put down on the early survey as roads were, with one or two exceptions, only an enlarged edition of these trails. A road was early inaugurated from Galena to Mineral Point and Dodge- ville, that passed up through the present townships of Hazel Green and Smelser, leaving the latter township in the northeast quarter of Section 12. This road running almost wholly through a prairie country, was passable for teams from the beginning of settlement, but can hardly be classed as a properly laid out road. Other trails, or so-called roads, were, as has been stated, numerous. Upon the earliest surveys of the county, these connecting links are laid down as ex- tending between Galena and Prairie du Chien, Cassville and Prairie du Chien and between Cass- ville and Galena, this latter road following the ridge for a portion of its length down through the southern portion of the present township of Lancaster. Another road properly so called led from the Western Paris, then an embroyo city, and, as after circumstances proved, destined to remain such, to Galena, and another from this place to Potosi. Besides these a " mail trail " connected Prairie du Chien, Cassville and Gibralter with Galena.


Upon the transfer of this Western Territory to the United States, the chain of posts at Green Bay, "the Portage" and Prairie du Chien was established. For a time the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers were depended upon to furnish means of communication between the posts, but the long winters and inconvenience attending this absolute dependence upon this water-way, led the Government to decide upon the construction of a road between these places, and thus it comes that the first regularly built highway in Grant County was the military road constructed at Government expense.


Early in 1835, Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, issued orders to open, lay out, and prop- erly construct a road between Fort Howard and Fort Crawford, by the way of Fond du Lac and Fort Winnebago. These being the " piping times of peace," the Government in a truly economical vein determined to use the muscle and intelligence encased in United States uniforms in its con - struction. Accordingly the soldiers at Fort Crawford were ordered to construct that portion of the road lying between Prairie du Chien and the " Portage." Those stationed at Fort Winne- bago were to build the portion extending from the "Portage " to Fond du Lac, while the re- mainder of the distance from the latter place to Green Bay was put into the hands of the mili- tary stationed at Fort Howard for construction. The soldiers stationed at these three posts were under the command of Brig. Gen. George Mercer Broke, and composed the Fifth Regiment of the standing army. The road was laid out by Lieut. Centre and James Duane Doty. Mr. Doty's assistance was secured, as he was much better acquainted with the route over which the road was to pass, than any other man in the Territory.


The road itself was an extremely crude affair. Through timbered country a track about two rods wide was cut and mile-stakes set up. On the prairie, mile-stakes were also set up and small mounds erected. Over marshy places, a " corduroy road " of logs, overlaid with dirt was built, and any one whose way has led them at any time of life over one of these abominations, can easily conjecture the torture and speed to be gotten out of this illusory phantom misnamed a road.


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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


It was, however, a shade better than no road at all, and in a fashion answered its purpose for some years. It passed through Grant County along what is now known as "Military Ridge." From the Blue Mounds it followed the old Indian trail to the northwest of Lake Mendota, and thence via Fort Winnebago, Waupan and Fond du Lac to its eastern terminus, Fort Howard. For many years it was quite a well-traveled road, owing to the scarcity of other lines of travel, but as the country filled up and other roads better and more direct between different points were constructed, this highway fell into disuse.


First and last, a considerable sum of money was laid out on this " connecting link," as will be seen by the following report made by Capt. T. J. Cram to Congress, September 1, 1839. In this report the Captain says :


1


" Commencing at Prairie du Chien and running east as far as to the Blue Mounds, this road is laid on the ridge dividing the waters flowing toward the north from those flowing toward the south. At the Blue Mounds, this dividing ridge deflects toward the northeast, and continues on this course to within about four miles of Fort Winnebago, where it is lost in a summit level denominated ' the Portage.' This remarkable summit is one among a few others of similar char- acter in our country, possessing the property of dividing the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from those flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The part of the road from Fort Crawford to 'the Portage,' a distance of about one hundred and fifteen miles, will need the sum of $5,700 to be expended, chiefly in the repairs and construction of small bridges and the opening of ditches, which are not only necessary to the immediate use of the road, but also to the preservation of the road itself. The construction of a safe and permanent road across ' the portage,' for about four miles, will require the sum of $5,995. Owing to the periodical overflowing of this summit level, the road across it is rendered utterly impassable, and continues so for several days at a time, amounting to some weeks during each year. At such time, the United States mail and travelers to Fort Winnebago are obliged to be taken around on a circuitous route of about fifteen miles, crossing a lake on the way, in order to reach the desired point, and it is not unfrequently the case that the unwary traveler is led into the middle of ' the portage ' before he becomes fully apprised of his danger, when, all of a sudden, his horses are mired in the midst of a flood of water, from which he finds it impossible to extri- cate his team, and might perish in sight of the fort but for the assistance of the soldiers, who come off in canoes to his rescue. A thorough and critical examination has been made, with a view of constructing a road around the portage. It is found, however, that the cost of such con- struction, besides an increase of distance and the inconvenience of a ferry, would quite equal the cost of making the present road good and safe at all times.


" The sum required to complete the construction of the part of the road between Fort Win- nebago and the south end of Lake Winnebago, a distance of about sixty miles, is $6,320. The land in the vicinity of this portion of the road is of good quality, and similar in most respects to that described elsewhere in this report. From the south end of Lake Winnebago to within about six miles of Fort Howard, at Green Bay, the road is exceedingly bad, and the cost of transportation over it is a heavy tax upon the settlers, and tends greatly to retard the settlement of the whole tract of country between Green Bay and the Wisconsin River."


In conclusion, the Captain adds :


"The cost of constructing the road from Fond du Lac to Green Bay, about fifty-six miles, would be $17,292, to be expended in bridging, ditching, and filling the wet places with durable mate- rials, all of which exist in abundance on the road. Thus, the whole sum required to complete the construction of the military road from Fort Crawford, by Fort Winnebago to Fort Howard, the extent of about two hundred and thirty-five miles, amounts to $35,267. This sum, with strict economy in adopting the most simple kind of construction, would not more than cover the cost of completing this road, which, in a military point of view, is of unquestionable impor- tance, connecting, as as it does, a chain of military posts, which the safety of the people of Wis- consin and the north part of Illinois will require to be maintained for some years to come." ยท


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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


At the second session of the Territorial Legislature, the necessity for more convenient thor- oughfares of travel, is shown by numerous acts locating roads in different portions of the State. But one road, however, was provided for in Grant County, the Council and House of Repre- sentatives enacting, " That Jonathan Craig, William Davidson and Stewart McKee are hereby appointed Commissioners to locate and establish a Territorial road from Osceola, in the county of Grant, to Belmont, in the county of Iowa, by way of Platteville. The Commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Platteville, on or before the first Monday of August next, and proceed to the discharge of the duties assigned them by this act, according to the provisions of the act regulating the mode of laying ont Territorial roads, passed at the last session of the Legis- lative Assembly.


" SECTION 2. The County Commissioners of the counties of Grant and Iowa, shall audit and pay the expenses in their respective proportion to the amount of the road laid out by each. The Commissioners shall receive each $3 per day for the time necessarily employed in the dis- charge of the duties assigned them by this act.'


This was the first Territorial road laid out in Grant County. Previous to this, however, Daniel Burt, an early settler, who had located in the present township of Waterloo, on the Grant River, and erected a mill, had opened several roads, one eleven miles in length, to Cass- ville, one eight miles to Potosi, another to Beetown, eight miles in length, and still another to Hurricane Corners, six miles away.


Perhaps no better illustration of the difficulties and inconveniences which beset the path of the early pioneers, in attempting to get from one point to another, can be given than the follow- ing : Soon after Mr. Burt's settlement at his new home the supply of food ran short, and, fail- ing to receive any from St. Louis as he had expected, started for Paris, on the Platte, the nearest point at which provisions could be purchased. To reach that place with a team, it was necessary to take a circuitous route, first to McCartney's, eight miles, then to Beetown, thence to Lancas- ter, and from there on to Potosi and Paris. His starting-point had been only eight miles from Potosi, but there was no road between the two points, and Mr. Burt was therefore obliged to per- form a roundabout journey of forty-four miles to reach his destination, which, but for lack of a short stretch of road, would have been only a short trip of twelve miles. He arrived at his destination, and returned as far as a cabin situated on the present site of Potosi, where he stopped overnight. In the morning, a start was made for home, through the timber, over a route that had never before been traveled by man or beast. Mr. Burt was accompanied by a man to drive, while he himself selected the ronte and cut away the trees. They reached Boice Creek, about half way, by 10 o'clock, and with but little difficulty. At that point they met with a formidable obstruction. The Mississippi was high, and the water covered the bottoms of the creek a quarter of a mile to the depth of eighteen inches; and in the channel of the creek, some forty to forty-five feet wide, the water was ten feet deep. The wagon was a new one and the box was reasonably tight. After caulking up some of the open places with leaves, the wagon was placed on the verge of the perpendicular bank with the provisions aboard to be forced by the driver into the channel when all was ready. Mr. Burt then swam the horses over the creek and placed them in readiness with whiffletrees and chain attached; he then cut a grape vine and fastened one end of it to the pole of the wagon, and took the other end in his teeth. Having swam the length of the vine, he ordered his companion to force the wagon into the creek, which he did, and this odd craft, floating with its load in fine shape, was towed by Mr. Burt across the stream until it reached the opposite side, when the horses were hitched on and all brought safely over the bottom. The bluff was then ascended without difficulty, and they arrived opposite their home about 1 o'clock. Here another obstruction was met. For some distance either way the bluff was steep and rocky. A point where timber had been rolled down was selected, the inclination being about thirty degrees from perpendicular. All the wheels were chained, and a tree, fifteen inches in diameter and with a wide expansive top, was felled, and chained to the hind axle-tree. Thus fixed, the descent was made in fine shape, and the cargo was safely landed.


536


HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.


After the organization of the county, among the first acts of the County Commissioners was the meeting of this demand for inter-county communication. At a meeting of this body, held May 4, 1838, M. De Tandebaratz-better known as Detantabar-presented a petition for the laying- out of a road between Platteville and Paris, on the Platte River, notice having previously been published and no objections raised. Ralph Carver, James Gilmore and James H. Dixon were appointed Commissioners to locate a road in accordance with the request of the petitioner, upon the latter's depositing the sum of $25, as required by law.


At the same meeting, the same person presented a second petition, signed by himself and others, asking for a road from Lancaster to Galena, Ill., via Paris, said road to run to State line. James Bonham, Jonathan Craig and Enos P. Wood, were appointed as a commission to lay out the wished-for road, as soon as the petitioners should deposit $30.


Still another petition was presented by Asa E. Hough, for a road from Cassville "by the best and most practicable route via La Fayette, on toward Galena, to the State line of Illinois." Elias Dean, Orris McCartney and Benjamin Kilbourn were appointed Commissioners to lay out this road, the applicants being first required to deposit the sum of $36.


The list ends with a petition presented by Daniel R. Burt, the settler whose adventures are chronicled above, praying for the location of a road from Cassville, via Burt's Mills, "to the most eligible point in the Snake Diggings by the most practicable and best route." The peti- tioner's cry was granted upon the deposit of $15, and a commission, consisting of Isaac Dodge, F. A. Sprague and E. P. Wood, was appointed to locate the wished-for road. With the opening of the country, as the years wore on, new thoroughfares were opened, until now every district and farmhouse has its connection with the main arteries, and the difficulties, not to say dangers, surrounding travel in the early days of settlement, are only remembered, as are other tales of pioneer experiences, in a traditional and fragmentary way.




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