History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 72

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 72

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" 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 cach 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 inanufactured 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 tlie 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.

"It was forty years ago," says Judge J. T. Mills, in an address delivered a few years ago, " that I stood at the foot of the lower rapids. They came to me, or I to them. No difference, we got together. I occupied the same site then that the city of Quincy does now. You might have carried the embryo burg in a wheelbarrow, if you could find one. There was a block-house on the bank, and here, some mining adventurers and myself waited for steam navigation. The voyage forty years ago required a large reserve of patience. Often we put our ears down to the water as if the steamer was expected underneath the surface, for 'suckers' were more numerous than any other passengers in those days. I well remember one day, while repeating this acoustic experiment, I heard a thumping like a heart-beat in the water, and soon, to my inexpressible sat- isfaction, I saw a smoke ' way down de ribber.' . Puff, puff, the discharge of a blunderbuss, the ringing of a bell-no steam-whistle then-and the stout; strong-built steamer ' Warrior,' Capt. Throckmorton, landed on the shore. The mining adventurers rushed aboard and threatened to take possession of the vessel. 'On to Dubuque ; ' ' Forward to Snake;' ' Hurrah for Hard- scrabble ;' were watchwords yelled as vociferously as 'On to Richmond !' years later, by the New York Tribune. But what was the appearance of the Great West in 1834, as seen from the Father and yet child of many waters ? Illinois above Rock River, with slight exceptions, was

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

wholly vacant. The State of Iowa had not even been christened. The owl hooted from the forests that covered its bottoms or crowned its beadlands.

' The wolf's long howl from Onalaska's shore Was heard above the troubled water's roar.'

" If Thomas Campbell could make poetry out of this long howl, his muse would have been rampant had he tried this voyage. These devil-eyed, white-teethed denizens of the forest. amused us with their nightly serenade whether we hissed or applauded.

" And still the wide prairies on either hand seemed opening to receive the immense and teeming population destined to supplant nature's husbandry by that of civilized man. The very soil, the streams and the woods which skirted them, seemed conscious, setting up of nights and watching by day for the ' coming events that cast their shadows before.' The bear, the elk and the deer, heard all too frequently the crack of the backwoodsman's rifle. He was trespassing on the domain of the Winnebago, Sac and Sioux. The Great Spirit had packed up his airy wig- wam, converted it into a balloon and sailed westward, beckoning his children to follow ; hard-fisted miners, men of 'mighty bone and bold enterprise,' had built their tenements of sod, palisades and mud at different places. Galena, Neptune-like, had reared her awful head above the mud in which she floundered, and was visible to a considerable distance. Patches of corn and potatoes showed that a race of men were pressing into this region, who could work the surface of mother earth as well as, gopher-like, burrow in her bowels. These were the scattering drops, the earn- est of that human flood that has swollen into millions, rolling westward on foot, on horses, on wheels, till the locomotive and thundering train behind commands the highway to California : has changed the frontage of the continent, has completed the American section of the thorough - fare that encircles the globe, and changed the direction of commerce. All this since 1834."

ong howl " was heard only too often by the early inhabitant, as the loss of many a fine porker or fat ewe bore testimony. Dogs were secured, kept and fed, to protect their master's property from these depredations, but in the majority of cases the owner awoke when too late, to find that he "had been hugging a fond delusion to his breast," as his much- vaunted guardian of the flock was found "gayly gamboling " with the foe he was expected to destroy. A good wolf-dog forty years ago was almost literally worth his weight in gold. Wolves when caught were often partially disabled, and then turned over to the dogs by the settlers, in order to accustom the latter to the sight of their foe, and many were the disappointed looks that crossed weather-beaten countenances as it was found that "Tige " or " Watch " would, instead of boldly attacking, drop their caudal appendage and incontinently quit the field. One of these wolf-fights which has become historical, is given below by an active participant in the scene :

GRAHAM'S WOLF-FIGHT.

" I don't remember the year. [It was 1838 .- ED.] We didn't take any account of time when we ranged at will over these fenceless prairies. We didn't cut the year into weeks and Sundays, but took it as it came. It was about the first court; Harvey Pepper was Sheriff; Judge Dunn was on the bench; I was Foreman of the jury ; old yellow-black Paul was plaintiff; and Col. Jones, who went to Congress, and perched himself on top of Sinsinawa Mound-he was the defendant. Jones owned Paul down in Kentucky, and when Paul got on the mound he quarreled with his master and became obstreperous, and Jones drove him off. Ile then went through the country fiddling at what they called 'stag dances.' Females then were scarce and very dear and hard to get, so the boys would dance alone on the sod floor, and Paul would ' fiddle ' for his whisky, and when he ran too far out of knees and 'elbows he would go back to Jones and saw wood, and Jones would supply him with old clothes. After some years, Paul concluded, as courts and lawyers had made their appearance, he would sue his old master for wages, and have a final settlement in this free country. We heard the evidence. The yel- low darkey hadn't a bit of proof in support of his claim, but eleven of the jurors went in steep for the plaintiff, contending if Paul recovered wages it would make him a free man. I asserted

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

he was free any way-wages or no wages-that we were sworn to go according to law. Some of the jurors said, 'D-n the law ; when it comes in one door, justice runs out the other.' Pep- per, the Sheriff, locked us up, and, to make the purgatory complete, said he was sworn to allow us no meat or drink except water.

" Imprisoned in this ten-by-nine cell, we quarreled long and loud. I stood out for the defend- ant against the eleven who were determined that Paul should be paid for our 'shin-dig' music, and that Jones was the man to do it. He got appropriations from Congress. I told my eleven brethren I was used to starving, and would die at my post rather than violate the law. They talked of fighting but I was ready there.

"We should have hung there until this time, probably, but for a couple of huge, gray, tim- ber wolves, that old ' Wolf-catcher Graham,' had brought into the town plat, securely caged in his wagon. Everybody then attended court, and everybody brought his dogs. The old wolf- catcher set up a loud cry, saying he would let out a wolf against all the dogs in creation, if the people who desired the sport would pay him $20 each for his wolves, and allow him the scalps. The money was raised quicker than you could count it. We would have almost paid the national debt to see a wolf-fight. The first wolf-and he was an old settler, I tell you-was let loose in the yard, right under our window. We ran to it, and climbed on each other's shoulders. Such snapping, barking, growling and bristling you never heard or saw. Dogs and wolf were piled up almost to the upper story, in a living, biting, snapping, rolling, tumbling and boiling mass. Some of the dogs were thrown hors du combat, but others took their place. The revolv- ing mass turned round the corner where we couldn't see them, and then my eleven associates cried : 'For heaven's sake, Free, do agree, so we can get out of this cursed hole and see the fun.'

" 'Boys,' said I, ' I have been raised with wolves. I won't budge an inch for any arguments dogs and wolves can furnish.'

" ' Well, Free, just say that Jones shall pay $1, and we will come down to that.'

"' Never a cent.'

" We heard the uproarious laughter and shouts of the outside world. It was too much for the boys. The friends of poor yellow Paul yielded, and cried out : "We agree; write out the verdict, Free.'

" I wrote out the verdict for the defendant; but lo! we were in a worse condition than ever. The Judge, Sheriff and all hands had gone to the entertainment. No time was to be lost. A chair was picked up-a window smashed-and, as Judge Dunn heard the glass come jingling to the ground, he screamed 'Pepper ! Pepper ! let those men out, they will tear down the court. house !

" These words sounded like the trump of jubilee. We handed our verdict to the Sheriff, and rushed down stairs like a flock of frightened sheep when the dogs are after them.

" But the scene of the fight had changed. In the dog and wolf revolution, the latter actually entered the sacred halls of Pepper's tavern, where all our fair female population were gathered and gossiping. Such a scattering, screaming, fright, running-up stairs and jumping on beds was never seen or heard of. But the poor wolf, as if he understood the tenderness of the female heart, galloped up stairs too ; on the bed he jumped with tongue protruding, and, with beseeching looks, prayed for mercy. But up rushed the dogs dripping with blood ; now mad with fury and blessed with victory, they scaled the parapet A universal and deafening hubbub ensued. Men rushed in with clubs, seizing a dog or two by the tail, and tossing them out of the window, and, sometimes punching the wolf, that by this time had learned that the generous dimensions of female apparel offered him the safest retreat. But, notwithstanding the poor wolf's surrender and meek behavior after he entered the forbidden halls, he was slain without mercy. There is not a living man, or woman, or animal, that witnessed that scene but if they ' are still alive remember it to this day. I am satisfied that jury never would have agreed in that case had it not been for Graham's wolf."

The hound was found to be the only breed of canine that could with certainty be depended on to pursue this terror of the forest to the death. He flew the black flag, neither giving nor

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

asking quarter, and was proportionately prized. Aside from the gray and black timber wolves, and the prairie wolf, which was more stealthy and less dangerous than his larger brother, wild- cats and foxes were also extremely troublesome at times. Bears were met occasionally, and were seen in the northern portion of the county late in the fifties. At a very early period, both buffalo and elk roamed at will through the country, but this was anterior by many years to the date of the white man, although the horns of the elk were occasionally found by the early settlers. Deer, however, continued to be abundant until the severe winter of 1856, which did much to deplete their ranks. Wolves and wild-cats continue to be found, as many of our readers are aware, in the northern portion of the county, up to the present time.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 72

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?] Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: [Chicago : Western Historical Co.?]
Number of Pages: 1050