History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 150

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1168

USA > Wisconsin > Green County > History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 150

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

with us, that we should erect for him, on his land in this county, a cabin house, as he intended to move out here as soon as he could dispose of his property there. By this time three other young men of the neighborhood, to-wit: Daniel Goodwin, William Hurlbut and Joseph Reed, concluded to accompany us, (all of us just enter- ing upon our majority). So about the middle of February the elder Mr. Chadwick went to Bridgeport, a thriving town on the Mononga- hela river, sixty miles, by water, above Pitts- burg, to make arrangements with the officers of the steamer, Empire, then building at that place, for our transportation to St. Louis, (her point of destination). The officers enjoined Mr. Chadwick to have us on hand on the 23d of that month, as the boat would positively sail on that day. So on the 22d of February, 1837, in company with James Chadwick, Daniel Good- win, William Hurlbut and Joseph Reed, I left my native home in Pennsylvania, arriving at Bridgeport that night. Upon our arrival we found that the boat was not completed, which detained us at that point several days. But we at last got off, and arrived at Pittsburg, where the steamer was to take on her furniture. But on arriving at that place, the boat's furniture was not ready, (the furniture was made at that place). After waiting a number of days, for the boat to start, we became restless under delays and de- manded of the officers a return of our passage money, but after repeated promises of starting "to-morrow," and after as many failures to get off, the officers finally made arrangements with the steamer, Loyal Hannah, and we were trans- ferred to that steamer. The next day after our transfer to the latter steamer, we got started. The boat ran down to Wheeling, Va., stop- ping there a number of days awaiting the arrival of the western members of Con- gress, (who, in those days, traveled from Washington to their western homes, by stage, to Wheeling, from thence by river steamers to points on said river, nearest their residences). But on the 10th of March, we got started from

that place, having on board the great Daniel Webster, (who, that year, made his great west- ern tour), and a number of other western nota- bles, including the notorious G. W. Jones, del- legate from this, then Territory, who acted as second for H. A. Wise, of Virginia, in the duel between Wise and Billey, which resulted in the killing of Billey. The boat having to stop at all principal places to give the great Daniel an opportunity to address the people on the politi- cal topics of the day, but more especially the great principles of the whig party. At St. Louis, we took passage on the steamer, Astoria, for Galena, but when arriving at the mouth of Small Pox creek, the river at the head of the island was gorged with ice, so that the boat could not proceed, and not knowing when the gorge would break, we left the boat and pro- ceeded on foot to Galena, at which place we arrived about noon the day after leaving the boat. At Galena we parted company with Good- win, Hurlbut and Reed, they going to Mineral Point and Chadwick and myself, going (coming) to this (Green) county, leaving Galena about 2 P. M., stopping over the first night out at White Oak springs. The next morning Chadwick was quite unwell, attributing his sickness to the rancid butter that he had eaten for supper, which ont-ranked any officer that was in the northwest at that time. We concluded not to take breakfast at that place. Thinking that a morning's walk of a few miles would improve Chadwick's appetite, we started, intending to take breakfast at Gratiot, which they told us was on our route, about five miles ahead, but not knowing, at that time, that two log cabins and a stable covered with straw, constituted a western village, we passed through it without stopping, wending our way across almost a trackless prai- rie without seeing a habitation, until we came to Wolf creek, a small tributary of the West Pecatonica, where we had to stop over night, as our next stopping would be ten miles ahead. At this place, we found two cabins and a dimin- utive grist mill. One of the cabins was occu-

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pied by the miller and his family, which con- sisted of a man by the name of Curtis and him- self. The other was occupied by a man and his family, by the name of Hastings, who kept en- tertainment and bad whisky. After supper I went over to the mill (which was located on the opposite side of the stream from the tavern) to take a look at its working machinery, which I found to be of the most primitive order. In conversation with the miller, he told me he had bargained his mill to a man from the east whom he expected to take possession next June, and in case he sold, he intended to erect, in company with a man by the name of Gillet, a more pre- tentious one on Richland creek, a stream that heads in Green county, near Monroe, this mill site being at a point on said creek where Or- rangeville, in Stephenson Co., Ill., is now located. At the mill was a customer from Rock Grove, having a grist to grind, who who said he was going to return home next day if the mill could get his grist ground out by morning, and we could accompany him as he had to go the same route, an invitation which we gladly accepted. At this place an incident occurred which for a short time affrighted us badly. On my return to the tavern from the mill I found an acquisition of some three or four to our company, who were drinking and playing cards, and I made up my mind that the place was a tough one. Chadwick being tired and unwell, had retired early. Among the guests was a man by the name of Armstrong, who re- sided near Wiota. Though somewhat set up, he was not taking part in their card playing. With him I soon got into conversation. He had come into the country prior to the Black Hawk War; had taken quite an active part in the war; was very communicative and inquisitive. In reply to his questions I told him where we were from; where we were going to; what our pro- fessions were; and that we had come to the country to build mills and houses, but, I con- tinned, from the appearance of the country and the quality of the timber, (which up to this

place we found to consist only of the veriest scrub burr and white oak varieties) we had a good show of starving in that line. He replied that he expected that we would have to rough it for a few years at least. As the conversation began to lag, I retired to bed, but not to sleep, for I must confess that if I ever had the blues it was at this time; but in time tired nature succumbed and I fell into a sound sleep, to be awakened by Chadwick punching me in the ribs with his elbow and whispering my atten- tion to the fact that a person was removing the clabboards from the roof near where our bed stood. In a few moments I was completely awake. I silently raised myself on one elbow to watch the movements of the man, who, by this time, had got through into our room; and, after standing awhile and looking around, ap- parently in an amazed condition, he started a few steps in the direction of our bed, stopped, looked around, finally turned and walked to the other end of the room and threw himself down on some old clothes that lay in the corner of the room. By this time I was in a profuse sweat, having nothing in our possession with which to ward off an attack if the man had in- tended one, but I soon came to the conclusion that the man meant us no harm, as in a few minutes he was in a sound sleep and snoring loud enough to wake the seven sleepers. In the morning we told the landlord of the circum- stance. He immediately went up stairs, waked the man up and brought him down. The man proved to be one of the parties of the night be- fore, who, having filled up with bad whisky, had started for his shanty some three or four miles away; had got bewildered, and had wandered around the greater part of the night; had finally in his wanderings got back to the tavern, where (he said) he had thumped on the door to wake up the landlord, and not succeed- ing, concluded to gain an entrance in the man- ner above described. In the morning we started in company with our guide, traveling some fif- teen miles or more to Brewster ferry, on the

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

Pecatonica river, where was kept a small boat for the purpose of crossing. Here we found a small improvement on the south side of the river, while the dwelling stood on the north side. Here in crossing we had to (after draw- ing the wagon as near the water as possible) separate the oxen from the wagon, ferry the oxen over, then return for the wagon, which we had to run on the boat by hand; after crossing the wagon, hitching on the oxen and pulling the wagon up the river bank. On reaching the high prairie, east of where Oneco now stands, we separated from our guide, he pointing out to us the direction we should take to reach New Mexico, a place laid out the summer before by Jacob Andrick, intending it for the county seat of Green county, (as there was a movement on foot at that time to have a new county laid out), and containing at that time one house. At this house we inquired for a man. by the name of William Woodle, (that being our point of des- tination), a son of the elder Thomas Woodle, who some years previous had moved to Illinois, but in 1836 had moved to this county, and had settled three miles east of where Monroe now stands. Mrs. Andriek could not tell us where he resided; had heard the name; thought he lived east of there; telling us to go about a mile northeast where we would find a store and they could inform us where he lived. After travel- ing the distance and direction indicated by Mrs. Andrick, we came to a log house in which was kept by a man by the name of Smith a small grocery store with a sprinkling of dry goods. Smith at the time of our arrival was shaking lustly with the ague, the first case of ague I had ever seen .. At this place we learned that it was three miles to Woodle's, and being tired and hungry, having eaten nothing since early morn, we concluded to stop over night, which we did at Joseph Paine's, who, at that time, resided near the store, and kept entertainment, arriving at this place on the evening of March 30, 1837. After supper we walked over to the store, where we found several persons discussing the county

seat question-some congratulating Mr. Paine and some Mr. Andrick, on having the county seat. I learned from their conversation that, in 'addition to Mr. Andrick's town, which he named New Mexico, Mr. Paine had laid out a town, which he called Richland City, as a com- petitor to Mr. Andrick's, neither of them hav- ing their plats recorded, as required by law. At the first session of the first legislative assem- bly, which convened at Belmont, in December, 1836, in the bill defining the boundaries of the new county was a section declaring that New Mexico should be the county seat. Mr. Paine, finding that his point could not succeed, pro- posed to Mr. Andrick to purchase a half-interest in his (Andriek) site, but Mr. Andrick was ob- durate, and refused to sell, so Mr. Paine slipped off to Mineral Point and had his town recorded New Mexico. Now, in those days the mail ar- rived at this point when the mail carrier came; provided, he did not let it wash away when crossing the streams of water on his route, and the carrier would arrive once a week when the water in the streams would let him; hence,. at this particular time they had not had a mail for over a month, hence they had not heard any- thing definite about the county seat question since the passage of the bill. The next morn- ing on our way to Woodle's we met young Thomas Woodle, a brother of William, who was at that time making his home with Wil- liam. He said he was going to the store on an errand and proposed to us to accompany him, which we did. At the store there were several persons, and among them a big strapping Indian, who proposed to run a foot race with Woodle for the treats. Woodle accept- ed, the distance they were to run stepped off, the judges chosen, and the racers started. The judges decided that Woodle was the winner, but Mr. Indian refused to treat, claiming that he understood it that the one coming out ahead was to buy the whisky. Arriving at Woodle's we concluded to rest over Sunday, visiting with the Woodle's. The next Monday after our

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

arrival, in company with the two Woodles and Joseph Smith, (a former brother-in-law of the Woodle's,) we started to look up the Chadwick land, which was five miles east of Woodle's. After finding it (which we did by means of the section and quarter stakes which the prairie fires had not yet destroyed,) and selecting a location for a cabin, we returned to the store to procure an outfit for housekeeping, which (with us) consisted of two coffee pots, two tin pans or platters, a frying pan, two tin cups, one empty oyster can, two Indian blankets, (as they were named,) one pound of coffee, a few pounds of flour, and ten pounds of bacon, (the two latter articles we procured from Daniel S. Sutherland as they was not to be had at the store.) We returned to the land and commenced operations by first putting up a small shanty to live in while building a more pretentious one. The shanty we built out of logs, by splitting them; and for the want of better material we roofed it with brush. Having got the shanty comple- ted the second day, we moved into it and began cutting logs for the cabin. The second night after moving into our shanty there came up a snow storm, snow falling to the depth of six inches. Our roofing not being close enough to turn the snow, in the morning we found our- selves under a covering of three or four inches of snow; the weather turning quite cold and having about enough logs cut for a cabin we concluded to abandon the shanty for the present and go back to Mr. Paine's and try and find some way of getting our traps from Galena, as we needed some of the tools, as at that time we did not know how to build cabins withont tools. Upon our arrival at Mr. Paine's (or I should rather say at the store) we found a Mr. Palmer or Parmer, who said that himself and another man (I think Mr. Lutteral) was going to start in a few days to Galena with a load of lead mineral, and was to bring back a part of a load of groceries for Mr. Smith, the merchant. Chadwick proposed to him to bring out our traps, which he consented to do, provided

Chadwick would accompany them, saying he did not know what them d-n steamboat men had done with them tools, and was not going to spend time hunting them up; and as there was no other alternative Chadwick consented to go. In the mean time I agreed with Mr. Paine to work on his tavern house which he was about erecting on his town site to be used as tavern and court house, until Chadwick returned. But as Mr. Sutherland was to boss the job and lay out the work, and as Mr. Sutherland could not commence work until the following week, I had a few days of leisure which I improved by tak- ing a stroll down Richland creek to look up any mill sites that I might find, and especially the one mentioned by Mr. Curtis in my conver- sation with him at Wolf creek. On my return to Paine's, the next Monday morning, I found Mr. Sutherland on hand, and I commenced work on Paine's tavern and court house, the first frame building I believe erected in Green county. In a few days after I commenced work on this building a man by the name of Burrett came to where we were working, and after a short conversation with Sutherland inquired of him if he knew of any millwrights in his(this)neigh- borhood, saying that himself and a Mr. Gray of Mineral Point had entered into partnership to build a saw mill on Whiteside branch, a small tributary of east Pecatonica stating that a Mr. Armstrong(my communicative friend at Wolf creek) had informed him that a couple of mill- wrights a few days previous had passed Wolf creek on their way to New Mexico. Mr. Suth- erland pointing to me replied, "I presume that man is the one you are looking for." I accom- panied Burrett home, took a level of his mill- site, and agreed with him to build his mill the coming summer. Burrett agreeing to let ns know when he got ready to begin, as he had to build a cabin at the site to accommodate the hands employed, as his residence was at least : mile distant, and the hands would have to bach it. On my return to Paine's Iagain went to work on his house. On the return of Chadwick

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from Galena, (having been gone at least ten days,) we resumed work on the cabin. On the afternoon of the following Saturday we went to Paine's (which we usually did every Satur- day to stay over Sunday except when we staid at the cabin and took a stroll over the prairie and through the timber adjacent thereto) where we found a young man from Ohio by the name of John Crawford, a cousin of Chadwick, who had heard of our coming through Chadwick's folks, and had come out to take a look at the promised land. Crawford agreed to stay and work with us during the summer, going with us the following Monday to work on the cabin. A few days after Crawford's initiation to our manner of life and mode of living, occurred one of those laughable incidents which materially assists in driving away that lonesomeness which I believe is the common inheritance of all or nearly all early pioneers of western life, who having left the advantages, pleasure and busy scenes of civilized life, and having settled in those western wilds, miles, miles from any human habitation, save that of the wild Indians, to hew out for himself and family a home. The incident was this. On one of our frequent visits to New Mexico we visited the cabin of Hiram Rust and Jarvis Rattan, located near where Monroe now is. We saw them turning their pancakes which they were cooking in their frying pan. After the pancake was sufficient- ly baked on the first side they would take hold of the handle of the pan, would give it a few vigorous rotary motions sufficient to loosen and give the pancake a certain rotary impetus, would suddenly change the motion of the pan to a vertical one by which means they would flop the pancake bottom side up to complete its cooking. After seeing them do it,, we would for the purpose of amusement after the days work was done, practice this slight of hand per- formance. Chadwick in a short time became quite an adept at it. After Crawford's arrival, Chadwick would often perform it for the pur- pose of showing Crawford (as he said) what

could be done. One morning while Chadwick was baking pancakes for breakfast, Crawford who was near-sighted got on the opposite side of the fire, squatted down on his haunches for the purpose (as he said) of seeing how Chad- wick did it. Chadwick mistaking the degree of baking given the pancake, when he under- took to flop it over, the pancake instead of com- ing over doubled up and falling upon the rim of the pan, bounded into Crawford's face, but happily for him the pancake was not very hot, so that he was but little burnt; but it made Crawford terrible mad and he was for whipping Chadwick thinking that Chadwick had done it intentionally, but upon Chadwick's solemn protestation of innocence and myself keeping in between them for a few minutes, Crawford's good nature (and he had a good share of it) re- turning the thing passed off pleasantly, but it gave us a full half hour's good laughing. The cabin completed we gathered up our traps tak- ing them to Woodle's. Next day went to Paine's where we worked on Paine's house two or three days, when Mr. Burrett came after us to com- mence work on his mill. Arriving at the cabin we found four hands employed in its completion, whom Burrett had engaged to work on the dam and mill pit. Here we had to bach it and al- though we, us millwrights, were exempt from any cooking, as Burrett in his contract had to fur- nish the cook, but often did I think of and en- dorse the sentiment of the miner when lying in his bunk and looking at his partner getting their breakfast, exclaimed: "Joe, there has an idea struck me." "The devil," replied Joe. "I would rather believe that lightning would strike you, but since you have been blest with a stroke pray tell us what it is." "Well," replied Jim, "while I have been lying here and looking at you trying to fork that meat out of the fire where you spilled it, by upsetting the frying pan in which it was cooking, while you was try- ing to get them potatoes out of the ashes where you put them to roast, what a great invention woman was." After we had been at work on

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the mill a short time we received word that the elder Mr. Chadwick had moved to the country and was settled in the cabin and requested us to pay them a visit, so on the following Saturday we started on foot a distance of twenty miles to visit them; the day being one of those cool, drizzling, rainy days in May, which frequently occurs in this country. When getting within a mile or a mile and a half of the Chadwick cabin we came to a cabin in which a man by the name of Joseph Woodle and his family was living, who had come from Pennsylvania, and who had built his cabin since we had left. We stopped to have a hand-shake, and it being near evening they insisted that we should take sup- per with them, which we did, as we had had nothing to eat since morning. By the time supper was over the sun was down. We started to find Chadwick's, but instead of going around the timber (both of the cabins being in the edge of the timber, the one occupied by Woodle on the north edge and the one by Chadwick on the south) as we had been in the habit of doing, we concluded that we could save time and dis- tance by going through it, but in doing so we missed the cabin, and when we came to the prairie we became bewildered and did not know which way to go, as by that time it had got very dark, but like all lost persons each had his course marked out, and each one knew his course was right, so in turn each would lead awhile until we became satisfied that each one was lost, and coming to a precipice (over which Chadwick fell) we concluded to call a halt and put up for the night, but as our clothes were thoroughly wet and the night cold, and having no means of making a fire we could not stop traveling. So selecting a large white oak tree (we did not know at that time that it was white oak) on the top of the bluff we walked around it all night, and I thought it the longest night ever made. Before leaving it I took my knife and made a peculiar mark in the bark so that if I should see it again I would know it. When daylight came we concluded to travel

west as we were satisfied that we were east of Richland timber, and if we could strike that timber we could find some settler, but as it was still very cloudy and as we were lost we could not tell which way west lay, but determined to strike out and try to find a section stake which would decide the course for us to take. After traveling a short distance in a southeast course we came to the section stake at the southeast corner of section 16, in what is now the town of Spring Grove. We then started west through the timber and on coming out on the prairie at the southwest corner of Spring Grove timber we came across John Kline, who had a few days previous moved to the country from Laporte Co., Ind., and who at the time was encamped in his wagons on section 29; his father having the fall previous entered land on that section. Kline at that time was going across to Richland timber to try to find an old neighbor of his by the name of Harcourt, who the previous year had moved to the country and settled some- where near Richland creek. We told him how we were lost and had lain out all night, and in- quired if he could direct us to a resident by the name of Chadwick who had just moved into the country. He said that he could, as his wife's uncle, a man by the name of Riley, had been out and had entered land at a grove a few miles north of us and that his (Riley's) land joined that of lands owned by that name (Chad- wick). We went with Kline to the divide be- tween the waters of Spring and Richland creeks where he pointed out to us the timber grove where his uncle Riley had made his entry. Kline finding out that we were millwrights said that his father and himself intended to build a saw mill the coming fall, and that his father in- tended to bring a millwright from Indiana, but if we would do the work he would induce his father to leave the millwright at his home. We arrived at the cabin that afternoon, and found Mr. Chadwick's folks much excited, as Woodle, the man we had taken supper with the night before, had come to Chadwick's that fore-

HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

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noon to visit with us, and inquiring for us was told that we were at work on Burrett's mill, when he related the circumstances of our leav- ing his residence the night previous about sun- down. Mrs. Chadwick insisted that her hus- band and Woodle should immediately start out to look us up as she believed that we had either perished or were scalped by the Indians, as a number of them had passed in sight of the cabin the previous day; the latter she insisted being the more reasonable conclusion, Mr. Chadwick and Woodle, taking their guns with them, went to the highlands southwest of the cabin and saw us ascending on our way to the cabin from the south, all parties arriving at the cabin nearly at the same time. We completed the Burrett & Gray saw mill the latter part of September, as the work was materially delayed for the want of the irons, as they had ordered them from St. Louis and from some unexplained cause they did not arrive for two months after being ordered. After the completion of the saw mill, we commenced work on the Kline saw mill, the first mill erected in the town of Spring Grove. After getting out the timber for the mill, cold weather setting in, we sus- pended work on the mill and went to Galena for the purpose of getting work in some of the shops, but failing in this we hired to a contrac- tor to assist in getting out timber for some buildings to be erected in that place the next spring. We went upon an island in the Missis- sippi river, a few miles below that place to obtain the timber. After we had got out a quantity of timber, the sheriff, at the instance of the county commissioners, came to the island and attached it, the commissioners claiming that the timber belonged to the county, under an act of Congress giving to the different counties all the unsold overflowed lands lying within the 'county. Again being without employment, we concluded to take a stroll through Iowa, finally turning up in Burlington, where the second ses- sion of the first legislative assembly was in ses- sion (Wisconsin and Iowa being at that time

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History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 150

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1168