History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 83

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 83

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

300,000 pounds. Bonham and McDonald struck one that turned out 500,000; and I struck another that turned out 300,000.

Of the early settlement in other parts of the county, I cannot say much. I know, how- ever, that Tom Himer was at Cassville as early as 1824. He and some others went with some horses up to the Selkirk settlement, and on his return down the river, he stopped at Cassville, and remained a short time. He lived in a cabin formerly built by a Frenchman. Himer afterward came to the Hazel Green diggings.

In 1836, when I was up through there, Price was keeping a store in the new settlement, and Mr. Ramsey was working a farm a short distance out. We bought some corn of his raising at that time. A Mr. Forbes was also there keeping a tavern.

In the early part of the settlement of the county, the in-comers were miners almost without exception, but in the years along about 1840, and later, bona fide settlers began to arrive, al- though it was a long time before their work began to show. The change in the aspect of the country between the time I landed from the old pirogue at Hard Scrabble and the county as it stands to-day is almost beyond belief. But all must yield to the law of progress.

BY COL. JOSEPH DICKSON, IN 1855.

My parents were natives of Pennsylvania, and emigrated to and settled in St. Clair County, Ill., in the year 1802, where I was born January 28, 1805. That county was then a frontier region and but sparsely inhabited, except a small district of country on the American Bottom, settled mostly by French people.

In the year 1818, my father and family moved to within nine miles of where Springfield, the present capital of the State, was afterward located, where I assisted my father in building the first white man's log cabin in Sangamon County, where I remained until the spring of 1827, when I emigrated with many other young adventurers to what was then called the Fever River Lead Mines, making the journey from Keokuk, on the Lower Mississippi Rapids, on foot through an entirely uninhabited wilderness, packing my provisions and blankets, in the month of March.

I spent the first summer in mining until the 15th of August, when I commenced improving a farm one and a half miles south of where Platteville is now situated. The next spring I plowed up twenty acres of prairie land, and planted and raised a crop of corn that season, which I think was the first field of corn raised in what is now Grant County. I continued to carry on farming until the spring of 1832, when I exchanged it for mining.

The Black Hawk war commenced in the month of May, when, on the first intelligence of hostilities by the Indians, I joined a mounted company of volunteers raised at Platteville. At the organization, I was selected Orderly Sergeant in John A. Rountree's company ; and in that capacity I served one month, when, in consequence of the absence of the Captain, I was chosen to command the company, and thus served about one month. Then, by the order of Col. Dodge, I took command of a spy company, and continued in that capacity in front of the army during the chases to Rock River, Fort Winnebago and to the Wisconsin Heights; and, at the latter place I, with my spy company, commenced the attack on a band of Indians who were kept in the rear of the retreating Indian army, and chased them to the main body of Indians, when we were fired at several times but without injury, and I returned to the advancing army without loss. or injury to my command.

After the battle of the Wisconsin Heights, and the army was supplied with provisions, we again pursued the Indian trail, and I took the lead with my company and followed to the Bad Ax River, by command of Gen. Atkinson. At the Bad Ax I discovered the evening before the battle, the trail of Black Hawk with a party of about forty Indians, who had left the main trail and gone up the river, which fact I reported to the Commanding General. On the next morning, my company encountered and engaged a company of Indians at a place near to where I had the evening before discovered the trail of Black Hawk and his party. During the battle that ensued, my command killed fourteen Indians, and, after a short time, say an hour's engage- ment, Gen. Dodge with his force, and Gen. Atkinson with his regular army, arrived at the place

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

where I had engaged this party, consisting of about forty Indians ; and, about the time of their arrival, we had killed and dispersed the whole party. The main body of the enemy had gone- down the river, after they had entered on the River bottom. I pursued with my command, passing Gen. Henry's brigade formed on the Mississippi bottom ; I crossed the slough and en- gaged a squad of Indians, who were making preparations to cross the river, after which we were fired upon, and returned the fire of several bands or squads of Indians, before the army arrived. I and several of my men were wounded before the other troops came up.

After the battle was over, I was taken with others on board of a steamer, which came along soon after, to Prairie du Chien, where I was properly cared for and my wounds received suitable attention. Since which I have spent a short period in Illinois, and the balance of the time to the present I have devoted myself to agricultural pursuits on my farm, four miles southwest of Platteville.

BY ORRIS MCCARTNEY.

" I was born in Harford, Washington Co., N. Y., May 9, 1794 ; started West in 1817 ; got as far as Bristol, Ontario County, and went to New Connecticut in 1818 ; then bought a farm at $400, raised a crop, land title bad, lost my money and land ; then went to Delaware, Dela- ware Co., Ohio, got the ague, and left in 1819; drove a two-horse team for a man to Illinois- 600 miles ; stopped at Milton, Madison County, January 8, 1820 ; was in Illinois drifting about several years ; was twice elected Sheriff of Schuyler County, Ill., and served about three years ; then resigned and came to the lead mines ; fell in with Maj. Rountree, and we came together in 1827 ; was married to Eliza Barber, near Jacksonville, November 12, 1826 ; in 1828, settled at Beetown, bought part of the Bee Lead for $500, from which Beetown took its name. This lead was found by Cyrus Alexander, Tom Crocker, Jim Meredith and Curtis Cadwell, while out looking for bees. Finding a large, hollow, upturned maple tree, they looked under the roots, and saw a chunk of mineral which weighed 425 pounds. About the same time, Tom Cegar and Ben Stout found another lead on Bushnell's land. The Indian troubles began soon after. In June, 1828, sold out, and removed in August to farm near Cassville, where I have stayed ever since, except during the Indian difficulties ; traded lead for a six horse team, hauled 100,000 mineral to Cassville; Judge Lawyer built the first furnace, and Tom'G. Hawley built the first house in Cassville. Arthur L. Johnson came in 1828, and built a log furnace, and put up a store in Beetown, but the mineral soon gave out, and the miners went to Mineral Point and Dodgeville. Moved temporarily to Belmont in 1829, stayed four months ; hauled rails to fence seventy-five acres ; returned to Cassville farm in fall, having raised a crop of corn. Hodges and Shanley built a log warehouse at Cassville in the year 1828. Christmas of 1830, my house was burned and all with it; the first ball at Cassville same time.

" The Indian alarms began in 1831, and in 1832 came the Black Hawk war. We all went into fort at Cassville ; sent my family to Illinois July 4, 1832, to be safe from Indians. The Indian war then lasted four months.

" In 1828, Tom Cegar, Nahem Dudley and Ben Stout settled at Lancaster. William Mor- rison settled on the Morrison place that year, and H. C. Bushnell settled on what is now the Gulick place ; Hodges and Shanley built on the prairie near Lancaster in 1831.

" Guy Hackett had a furnace near the double log cabin at Mnscalonge, in 1828 ; he broke, and returned to Illinois and died. De Tantabar settled at Paris in 1826 or 1827. [1828-ED.] St. John found mineral and the den of snakes, which gave to Potosi its first name of Snake Hollow, in 1831." [Other authorities place this discovery in 1833 .- ED.]

BY W. DAVIDSON.

In the spring of 1828, I arrived at Galena, situated on what was then called Fevre River- the Indian name of which was then said to be Ope-a Le-pee. At that time, Galena was sub- merged by the river, and presented rather a dull prospect; but I thought of an old adage, "keep a stiff lip and a light toe nail, and you may come out yet ;" and so I have-at the middle of the horn. I then became acquainted with a few men in Galena, who afterward

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

proved to be friends indeed. After looking around a few days and making many inquiries, Yankee-like, I commenced digging at Scrabble-since called Hazel Green. I started a prospect hole, expecting to find a mineral lode in a few days ; but I found out that success was not so much in hard labor as in good luck; and being a stranger, if I discovered a lode, the country was then staked off in what was called mineral lots, agreeable to the mining regulations. I would either have to fight my way through fifty claimants or be swindled out of my prospect.

After a few months labor in that way, and finding nothing, I started to view what was then called Sugar Creek Diggings. T. D. Potts had then made what was considered a valuable discovery ; but I thought differently, and so it turned out. The first night on our journey we reached Col. W. S. Hamilton's diggings. He had made a valuable discovery ; it is now Wiota -so named by the Colonel himself. We then started for the Blue Mounds and spent the night with Col. E. Brigham ; he had made what was then considered, as it has since proved to be, a valuable discovery. He treated us very kindly and told us " our hats were chalked. " We then went to what was called the Cole, Downing & Dudley Diggings, then supposed to be proven for four million pounds of mineral, but they did not turn off more than half that amount. Mineral was then low in price. We then went to John Messersmith's diggings ; his prospect was fine. We got there the best dinner I had met with in the country. At that time, owing to the low price of mineral, and living some distance from market, and having a large family to provide for, Mr. Messersmith was only able to secure a comfortable support for his family. Times have since changed, the old man and his boys persevered, and have been well repaid for their enterprise. We next went on to the Dodgeville diggings, and there found a town, as it was then called, with five or six cabins, and in three of them "rot-gut " whisky and poor tobacco were sold ; since then quite a village has grown into existence there.

We then journeyed to what is called Mineral Point, which there went by the name of Little Shake Rag. After looking round the various diggings, I returned to Scrabble and moved. my provisions, tools and furniture, consisting of blankets, spider, frying-pan, etc., into the neighborhood of Little Shake Rag; I found that neighborhood staked off; and after spending three weeks or a month, and not getting permission to dig where I wished, I pulled up stakes and moved off. My next mining was in the neighborhood of the old Buck lead, near Galena, but meeting with the same luck as formerly, I moved into the vicinity of the Finney patch, which was discovered in the fall of 1828 by men of the name of Clark, who sold to Finney four-fifths and to one Williams the other fifth. Finney afterward swindled the men out of some $250 he was to have paid them in July, 1830. I struck a vein of mineral that yielded 97,000 pounds, and paid one-third for ground rent. This was the custom when you dug on a lot where mineral had been raised and sold. Part of that mineral I sold at $7, and the next spring I sold the last 50,000 at $12 per 1,000. The next fall we struck a vein that turned off 600,000 of mineral that brought $18 per 1,000; and in the spring of 1839 I struck another vein, south of the second, that turned out 405,000. The range altogether pro- duced over two millions of mineral. The old Finney patch turned off 2,000,000 more, and good diggings there still.

In May, 1832, I bought a horse and rigging, and rode as a volunteer, serving in Dodge's squadron during the Black Hawk war. During that campaign I saw more of human nature than I had before in several years. We had many difficulties to encounter, of which a majority of the present population can form but a faint conception. But to return to my occupation. I have done what no other man has done in these mines. I have worked on one mineral lot for seventeen years and worked in the ground all that time; blasting occasionally, winter and summer, and never used an air pipe. I have been well paid for my labor; having toiled late and early-no eight hours have answered me for a day's work. After the sales of the reserved land I moved to my present residence to watch my timber and dig mineral in the winter. Unless some unforseen occurrence should take place, I expect to end my days in Wis- consin.

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

BY SAMUEL DRUEN.

I came to Grant county on the 20th of April, 1832, passing my first night on Wisconsin soil at Sinsinawa Mound, where some two or three cabins had been erected. The next morning I learned that a party of U. S. Surveyors had made rich discoveries of lead ore at Potosi, and started thither at once, having neither track nor path to follow or guide me. I crossed Big Platte River at its confluence with Little Platte, a place known as Paris, composed of a smelting establishment and a small store, owned by a Mr. DeTantabar.

Proceeding on my way, I came to a place where a dozen men or so busily engaged in build- ing a cabin-the first white man's structure ever erected on the site of Potosi, and the property of Messrs. Ham and DeTantabar, the former of whom, I believe resides at Dubuque at the present time. A number of us pitched our tent and went to work. Potosi grew, and its popu- lation, mostly miners, rapidly increased. By the first of June there were upward of a hun- dred persons in the place-the square, I might almost say, of the original number I found there on the 21st of April preceding.

All went on prosperously until one night about 11 o'clock, when a man rode wildly into camp bearing the news of Stillman's defeat by the Indians at Rock River. We were all badly scared, turned tail and fled, some toward Galena, some toward Jamestown, and some toward Platte. Only two men had the courage to stand their ground and risk their scalps. The next day we recovered from our fright, assembled in considerable force, and held a sort of council of war. Some were for building a fort right there in the diggings, others thought it would be rather a good thing to go to Galena. Hearing that a company was organizing at Cassville, three others and myself set out for that town at once. Where British Hollow now stands we found a cabin occupied by Terrence Cail, his wife, and three children, and at Hurricane the shanty of Messrs. Hodges and Shanley stood open to receive us. Then on we went, across the hills and far away fording Grant River and entering Beetown, then comprising only about three cabins, all told and inhabited principally by an elderly gentleman named Arthur. Had the place and its surroundings looked a little more flowery, we should have set it down as the spot where Mr. Tennyson's Arthur went to heal him of his grevious wound :

" The island valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard-lawns, And bowery hollows crowned with summer's sea."

At Cassville we found Capt. Price building a fort and organizing a company of soldiers. Upon telling him what we came for, he desired to know whether we would or could do any fight- ing. We said " Take off your coat and let's have a round." He said he guessed he'd take us anyhow. So we were mustered in at once and forthwith put on duty. Our company were known as Rangers, and were employed in "ranging" the country between Grant River and the Wisconsin, a tract which we traversed a great many times and whereon we killed eight or ten Indians and made twelve or fifteen prisoners.

When the strife was over and the smoke of peace rose from all that region, which was in September, of the same year, we returned to Potosi and resumed our picks and gads and shovels as though we had not been off making history at all, but had only gone a-fishing or had been fooling around for our health, as it were.

Late in the fall of 1832, reports reached us of rich and remarkable mineral discoveries at Dubuque. I was lured thither, of course, but the weather being bitter cold, and houses rather scarce, I made my way back to Potosi with as little delay as possible. In February of the next year, the Government sent soldiers to Dubuque to keep miners from working on the mineral lands there until after the ratification of a certain treaty with the Indians. This was done about that time, and work in the mines went on as usual.

At the time of which I write, farming was hardly thought of in Grant County, though the attention of many was beginning to turn toward the pursuit. Several persons were breaking

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

ground for farms at Boice Prairie, preparing to get their means of sustenance at the surface of the earth instead of delving for it wearily toward the center. Corn and potatoes were about the only crops raised, though it was seriously feared that the latter could never be brought to matu- rity in a climate like this. The cultivation of wheat and oats came afterward, and proved en- couragingly successful. Oats then cost $1 a bushel, corn 75 cents. Pork and flour were shipped to us from below somewhere, the latter cost us $18 per barrel and the former $28. The first steamboat in spring was always eagerly looked for, our provisions usually running rather short before the close of those long and dreary winters. Game, however, was abundant at that time, and fortunately for us we could generally depend in part upon that source for a supply of excellent meat.

Some time in the fall of 1833, I went to Platteville, where I found only about two or three rude structures called houses. Maj. Rountree and family were there, James R. Vineyard and family, and a Mr. Phelps. There may have been others, but if so I am unable to recall them now.

It was in 1834, I think, that Mr. Aaron Boice built the first house ever erected on the present site of Lancaster. (This was built by Nahem Dudley .- ED.) This stood near the Big Spring, and hard by the spot where now the woolen mill stands.

The first store ever started in Potosi was opened there by Messrs. Wheeler & Price in the fall of 1832. Five years later, in 1837, James R. Vineyard and one or two others engaged in mercantile pursuits at British Hollow. About this time Mr. DeTantabar had a store and smelting works at Paris, a point on Platte River, frequently visited by the largest Mississippi River steamboats. In 1841, Mr. DeTantabar became involved, and failed in business. This so discouraged him that he willfully sought his own salvation by means of a rope. And from that fatal day an evil genius seemed to brood over Paris, exerting a mysterious and uncanny influence which has brought about desolation and decay, and has obliterated almost every trace of what was once a flourishing village.

In 1837, the famous " Long Range " was discovered at Potosi, and flush were the times in those diggings then. There was incessant wrangling in regard to the ownership of this range, making black eyes and broken heads matters of common occurrence. A notorious char- acter known as Jim Crow was then in his prime-the best man, in fact, on the ranch, who could " lam any galoot " in the diggings. Three men were hired to shoot Jim at sight. The assas- sins went to their victim's stopping-place with the fatal weapon concealed under a cloak. They accomplished their work, were arrested and sent to Prairie du Chien for safe keeping. Some time after they were released on bail and returned to Potosi, where they devoted themselves with great assiduity to drinking, gaming and the kindred vices, proving a greater terror to the com- munity than Jim Crow had ever been. They kept right on in their wicked course until ordered to leave the country by the people of Potosi, Boice Prairie and British Hollow. They departed and after they were out of the way, Mr. Harper, a merchant at Potosi, was arrested, tried, and proved guilty, his own clerk convicting him, of loading the pistol with which Jim Crow had been murdered. He was given two days to settle his affairs and leave the country, which he did, glad to get away so easily. The same day, we sent two other men across the river with orders never to return, and Potosi breathed freely for a time.

BY HAWKINS TAYLOR.

Hearing of the discoveries made at Snake Hollow in 1832, I, with others, started for that point; we stayed one night at Gilmore, a few miles from Sinsinawa Mound. The next day all got to the mines and went into camp, and I found everybody my friend, and there never was a happier set than we miners were. We had little shanties made of logs, generally split and cov- ered with the bark, and we had bunks two stories high. Our bed and covering was a thick Mexican blanket, but what good, sound sleep did we have ! Not a trouble on our minds ; not one of us who was not confident of striking a lead very soon. Each had a tin cup, and we had a common coffee pot; our meat was mess pork and we made our own bread. The fare, without

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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.

variations, was coffee, bread and meat. In one hut there were four of us, which was the rule generally. These huts were scattered for a mile along this branch. All told, there were about sixty miners in the camp, and of the whole lot there was but a single quarrelsome man, by the name of Malony, an Irishman, and his spite was against Free Williams, but Free didn't scare. In the midst of our happiness, news came to us about 6 o'clock one evening, that the Indians had defeated Stillman on Rock River, and were then making their way toward the Mississippi, and would, most likely, pass down the Platte and rob the stores of DeTantibar at his town, and Loring Wheeler, at Gibraltar, and also take in our camp. Cox, then Sheriff of the county (Iowa), had sent a messenger from Mineral Point to give us the warning. Within ten minutes of the time the news came to our camp, more than forty miners were at Maj. Anderson's camp. The Major had been an old Indian fighter, and with one accord, we went to him to be our com- mander and adviser. There were some fifteen or twenty Irish in the camp that had come from Galena in skiff's and a pirogue; they had brought their provisions and tools this way, and when the aların was given they naturally went for the vessels, that were in a branch of the river about a mile from camp. Malony, the bully, got behind, and the last of the party had got out into the stream before he got to the river, but he jumped in and was barely saved from drowning. Free Williams joined Stephenson's company of dragoons and made a brave soldier. By morn- ing our party had dwindled down to thirteen ; we then went to the Platte, to DeTantibar's, and a man by the name of Cornwall, a Virginian, and I went down to Wheeler's (now, if alive, living in De Witt) ; Wheeler "had a horse and joined the dragoons." Finding that the Indians were in no hurry to come our way, we went back to the diggings. I have no record of the names, and forty-odd years is a long time to recollect, but we had with us then Maj. Anderson, a man by the name of Hillis, Ham and his nephew Thieskill, Tennesseeans; a man by the name of Cook from Mississippi; Cornwall and Nehemiah Dudley from Vermont. Nehemiah was the ugliest man I think I ever saw, but, notwithstanding the antipathy that was then universal in the Mississippi Valley against Yankees, we all liked Dudley. I have never heard of him since I left the Mississippi, but I have often thought of him. These are all I can recollect, but I think there were eleven or thirteen of us. We built a block-house of large hewn logs, and kept a supply of provisions on hand in case of an attack by the Indians. We mined through the day and slept in our block-house at night. The block-house was on the high ground north of the ranche, and I understood some years ago that there was a Catholic Church near by, and that the old shanty that I had lived in was standing near the church. In 1828, the miners had crossed over the river, and back of Dubuque; had been very successful in finding lead, so much so that they built a smelting furnace on the island; but the Indians complained to the Govern- ment and troops were sent who drove off the miners, and an officer and a few men were sta- tioned across the river on the Illinois side, under the bluff, to keep the miners from trespassing on the Indians. These troops were withdrawn when the Indian war commenced, and as there were several fine leads that had been opened in 1828, we concluded to make a raid on them while the Indians were absent, and to that end Ham, Cook, Dudley, as I recollect, made one party, and Cornwall and myself another, and we went down the river in skiff's, taking our pro- visions and tools. We all stopped with the old man Jordon, who had the ferry across the river. At that time, his ferry facilities were a flat-boat that would take one wagon and team of two horses, and half a dozen Indian canoes. Jordon's house or tavern was a double-log house with a passage in the middle, and a supply of outhouses, and was on the side bank a few hundred yards from the river. The scenes of my after career were laid wholly in Iowa.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, preceded by a history of Wisconsin, Part 83

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