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 33

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 33

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At the first session of the Wisconsin Ter- ritorial legislature, at Belmont, on the 9th of De- cember, 1827, the county of Green, detached from the county of Iowa, was established. The county of Iowa, of which we then formed a part, was represented in the Territorial legis- lature in part by William Boyles,* of Monroe; and to him, as the representative of the region of the newly proposed county, was left the se- lection of the name to be given it; and he se- lected the name of Green-indicative of the bright color of the vegetation of this region. Another member of that legislature, with whom I conversed some years since, suggested to our member that Greene would be a more appropri-

ate or more honorable name in memory and honor of the distinguished Gen. Greene, of the revolu- tionary War; but the present name was pre- ferred by Mr. Boyles, and, through courtesy, the name remained as desired by our immediate representative.

The act of the legislature, creating the county of Green, was passed, as already stated, at the first session of the Territorial legislature; and at the next session, held at Burlington, in what has since become Iowa, an act was passed, Jan. 15, 1838, fully organizing the county of Green for judicial purposes, and declaring the new county indebted to the mother county of Iowa for a proportion of the old county indebtedness. Notwithstanding the solemnity and force of legislative law, the people of Green, although often sued in the courts of the State, have re- fused, (whether justly or not, I will not here digress to say,) to pay the whole, or any part, of said indebtedness. And this war with old Iowa is the only war in which we have partici- pated. Our miniature wars, as exhibited in per- sonal broils, have been numerous, but such as are common to all civilized countries.

The first court of record ever held in Green county was the United States district court, Chief-Justice Charles Dunn presiding, in April, 1838. The first clerk was the late George Mc- Fadden, of Dane county, who was shortly after succeeded by M. Bainbridge, Esq. After the first term, the United States courts were for many years presided over by Hon. David Irvin.

Although our growth, at the earliest stages of our existence as an independent county, was not so rapid as some others in the State, and conse- quently our influence not so extensively felt in the Territorial and State governments, yet no county in Wisconsin has been, or is now, set- tled by a more industrious, enterprising and thrifty population. The principle business of nearly her entire population has been, from the first, that of agriculture; and the consequence is, that her wealth is generously divided among all her citizens. Nearly the entire population

* The name of this legislator should be spelled "Boyls"- for so he wrote it. - ED.

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have the means and the will to support them- selves. Pauperism and crime, the sure con- comitants of large commercial communities, have made no inroads within our borders; and taking into consideration the richness of our soil, the abundance of our timber, and the great number of our water-courses, we can certainly expect to rank as one of the best counties in our flourishing State. The county is about twenty-four miles square, having an area of 576 square miles; traversed through its center by the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, from east to west, passing through Monroe, the county seat. The south and west parts of the county are nearly covered with a heavy growth of timber. Walnut, ash, oak, sugar tree and linn exist in great abundance, affording great facilities for building, and the manufacture of all kinds of wooden wares. The population of Monroe, the principal town, is about 2,000, while that of the county, by the census of 1855, was 14,727, which has since largely increased. Decatur, Brodhead, Albany and Dayton are flourishing villages.

III .- BY ALBERT SALISBURY, 1871.

Moved by an interest in the early affairs of this, my native State, I spent a part of my last summer vacation in looking up and "interview- ing" some of the surviving pioneers of this por- tion of Wisconsin .* True, it is rather late to be seeking reminiscences, but "better late than never," especially since the men whom I have dug up, as it were, have thus far been almost wholly overlooked in all the many narratives that concern their times. A special interest attaches to them, moreover, from the fact that they have so long survived the events which made up the chief episodes of their lives.

William Devicse.

William Deviese was born March 16, 1793, near Huntersville, Pocahontas Co., Va., of French and Scotch lineage. In March, 1826, at the age of thirty-three, he left Virginia, with a surveying party, bound for Arkansas; but on *Written in Brodhead .- ED.

reaching the mouth of the Ohio, reports of the sickliness of the country caused him to turn aside into Illinois. At that time Cairo had hardly begun its existence, there being but a few "squatters" on or near its present site. Going on foot to Vandalia, he passed there the winter of 1826-7. There he saw Abraham Lin- coln in the legislature then in session.t In the early spring of 1827, Deviese went by wagon to St. Louis ; thence by steamboat to the Des Moines Rapids; thence on foot to Shullsburg, Wis., stopping over night at Galena. At Vandalia he had made the acquaintance of James Hawthorn, who accompanied him on this journey and was his subsequent business part- ner. They reached Shullsburg March 28, 1827. They found there a Dutch trader named Shull, and four or five cabins occupied by perhaps forty or fifty miners, mostly Irish.

Deviese began mining about three-quarters of a mile east of Shullsburg, selling his ore to smelters. After spending a year here, he went, in the spring of 1828, 10 Blue Mounds, leaving Hawthorn to continue the work at Shullsburg. At the Mounds he found two men named Moore, who were trading a little, in whisky at least, and one John Duncan, afterwards well known throughout the region, and whom he thinks to have been the largest and most powerful man he ever saw.

Col. Ebenezer Brigham came to the Mounds soon after Deviese, and Jenkins and McCraney built a smelting furnace in the same year. It was while he was at Blue Mounds that the tragedy was enacted at Boner & McNutt's trad- ing post, near what was afterwards Exeter village .* Ile had known Boner and McNutt at Shullsburg. They had been led to establish themselves near Sugar river by the same infor- mation which also led Deviese to go thither at a later day for mining purposes. A man named Burks, in attempting to cross the Territory, had

+This must be a mistake, as Mr. Lincoln, aceording to Barrett's Life of him, did not remove from Indiana to Ili- nois till 1830 .- ED.

*The killing of Roner by MeNutt, as described in Chapter XII, of this history ; see, also, Chapter III. - ED.

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become lost, and had chanced upon the Indian diggings while making his way towards Shulls- burg, on horseback. Deviese, in his account of the Exeter affair, agrees substantially with that given by J. W. Stewart, in Vol. III, Wis- consin Historical Collections, except that he says that Van Sickle was not a Frenchman but a Dutchman-an excellent interpreter, but a great liar. *

In July, 1828, Deviese went down to this old trading post to prospect the old Indian diggings already mentioned, and afterwards known as Sugar River or Exeter Diggings. Being suc- cessful in "prospecting," he returned to the Mounds, and on August 12, of the same sum- mer, he started to establish himself permanently on Sugar river, leaving Hawthorn to continue work at Blue Mounds, as he had before done at Shullsburg. In the autumn, William Wallace and wife, and Josiah R. Blackmore, went down as employes. Blackmore stayed two years. He is the man from whom Mr. Stewart chiefly de- rived his reminiscences of early days in Green county, and is said to be still living at Warren, IlI.

In the spring of 1829, Deviese built a smelting furnace near the old stand of Boner & Mc- Nutt, one and a half miles west of Exeter. Other diggers had come down during the win- ter, and his smelting business became quite lively in the summer of 1829. That summer he broke and planted a turnip patch. In the fall he went to Fulton and Peoria counties, Illi- nois, and brought up a drove of hogs. The fol- lowing summer, 1830, he broke sixteen acres, and put in corn, pumpkins, turnips and oats.

The lead smelted meantime was hauled to Galena, by oxen, sometimes as high as eight yoke being attached to a single wagon. It com- manded, generally, about eighty dollars a ton, but in the spring of 1829, it was very low, owing to the tariff excitement that accompanied the election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency.

In 1830, many miners were leaving, panic struck. He thinks it was in that year, instead

of 1828, as stated by Mr. Stewart, that John B. Skinner and Thomas Neal commenced at Skin- ner's Diggings, a few miles north of Monroe .* Skinner had previously owned a furnace at Blue Mounds. Andrew Clarno was living with Skinner in 1830, and began on a farm in the town that bears his name, in 1831,t as Deviese thinks.

Deviese had all along done something at trad- ing, besides his mining operations ; bnt in 1831, John Dougherty set up a trading stand on the present site of Exeter. This was a dull year, . but Deviese kept on smelting with four em- ployes, and put in a crop in 1832. * *

[After the Black Hawk War was over, in which conflict Deviese took an active part,]* he went back to [what is now the town of] Exeter and began to re-build in the latter days of Au- gust or first of September [1832]. IIe found his oxen, ent hay, and re-established himself as best he could. He kept on smelting till the next year, when he sold his furnace to Dough- erty and went to mining exclusively, continuing at this until 1850. By 1835, he had become worth a considerable figure, but suffered severe- ly from the crash of 1837. It was estimated that during the time he was in the lead busi- ness, he made and spent (or lost) about $40,000. In 1835, Kemp & Collins bought out Dough- erty. [What was then the village of] Exeter saw its palmiest days in 1839, 1840, and 1841 and was platted in 1843. In those days, a great deal of money was handled there, which is now, perhaps, the most forlorn hamlet in the State.

Thus far Deviese-almost in his own words, and without addition or embellishment; but, of the years that follow, he does not wish to speak. Some particulars were added concerning the

* See Mr. Stewart's statement next preceding this one of Mr. Salisbury, where he says : "About the same time !that is, in 1828], und some say the year before, 1827. John [B.] Skinner and [Thomas] Neal came to Skinner's creek. about five m les northwest of Monroe." The idea Mr. Stewart de- sires to convey is, that "some say" they came in 1827. But Mr. Deviese is undoubtedly correct ns their not working in what was afterward the "Skinner Diggings" until 1830 .- En. + This, we have already seen (Chap. IV), was in the year 1832 .- ED.

*See chapter V, of this history. - En.

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state of society among the early miners, the method of making claims, etc .; but, to our in- terrogatories touching later years, he quietly re- plied,-"that is all that is worth telling." Though in his seventy-ninth year, he seems to have clear and definite recollections of the in- teresting times now nearly half a century gone by, but has little or none of the boastful garru- lity so often observed in men of his age and ex- perience.

Since the Black Hawk War, he has but once been outside of [what are now] Green and Dane counties. A dozen years ago or more, he spent part of one summer in following up some indi- cations of lead that he had seen while sconting in the Bad Ax country [now Vernon county] in 1832. For the past eighteen years he has been a member of the household of Hollis Crocker, residing three miles west of Belleville, Dane county, whose wife, by the way, the mother of ten children, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Gratiot's Grove. Deviese has al- ways lived a bachelor. As he says,-at the time he onght to have been marrying, he was going out of the marrying world into the wil- derness.

"His most noticeable infirmity is a partial deafness. Though not vigorons, he is still able to walk to church every Sunday morning, a distance of over a mile. It may interest the few who may have known him in the days of his reverses, to learn that for the last sixteen years he has entirely abstained from strong drink, and lived an exemplary member of the Methodist church.

"Major Deviese has not been without some scanty and imperfect notice in the historical records of Wisconsin; but his name is always incorrectly given .* "

James Hawthorn.

"Unele Jimmy Hawthorn" was born Oct. 22, 1797, in Orange Co., N. Y., and lived in that region up to the age of nineteen. When New

York city was threatened in the War of 1812, though but a boy of sixteen, he was among the volunteers stationed at Brooklyn. Among his recollections of that time is that of seeing launched one of the earliest steamers on the North river.

"A young man had no chance there," and so with a view to make his own opportunities, he went on foot to Pittsburg in 1817, carrying his total effects in a knapsack. From Pittsburg a flat-boat conveyed him to the mouth of the Sci- oto; thence he went by land to an uncle then living near Old Chillicothe. After working at Chillicothe a year, he went on a flat-boat to New Orleans, and thence took passage for New York in a brig, for it was before the day of ocean steamers. He paid $25 for his passage, boarding himself.

After spending three years in his native county, he again elambered over the mountains to Pittsburg, and thence went on to Hamilton, Ohio. May 9, 1822, he started down the Big Miami on a flat-boat, loaded with flour, for New Orleans. He received $40 as wages for the trip. By this time there were several steam- boats on the Mississippi, and on one of these he returned from New Orleans, at a fare of $12; the passage to Louisville occupying twenty two days.

From Hamilton he next went to Edwards- ville, Ill., where he worked at "carpentering" about two years. He then went to Vandalia, where he worked for another two years. Dur- ing the winter of 1826-7, he fell in with Wil- liam Deviese; and in March, 1827, they left Vandalia for the mining country. Going by wagon to St. Louis, they there took passage for Galena on a steamboat; but, on account of low water, were unable to get over the rapids near what was then known as Fort Edwards. The captain of the boat refunded half the passage money, and a party of about twenty went for- ward on foot. From Rock Island they got their provisions carried by teams that were go- ing up. On Apple river they made a scanty

*Mr. Deviese is still (1884) alive-a resident of Dane Co., Wis. - ED.

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breakfast of their last "grub," not knowing at that time anything about their distance from new supplies, but they reached Galena that af- ternoon.

Hawthorn and Deviese began mining near Shullsburg, where Hawthorn remained till Oc- tober, 1828, when he followed Deviese to Blue Mounds. There he found Col. Brigham, Jen- kins* and Thomas MeCraney, and, he thinks, Esau Johnson also. He remained at the Mounds about two years, mining there while Deviese was on Sugar river. [Here follows an account of the trial and acquittal of MeNutt for the kill- ing of Boner, as given in Chapter XII of this book.]

Another trial which excited much interest, was that of two men for the killing of Clopton. Clopton and Van Meter were traders near Dodgeville, and had become involved in a dis- pute with one Wells and another man, over a mineral claim. Matters had gone so far that Clopton and Van Meter were approaching the claim with the avowed purpose of driving off the other claimants, when they were fired upon by them. One ball passed through Van Meter's leg and hit Clopton, as did also the other ball. Wells and his comrade escaped, but a reward of $2,000 having been offered for their apprehen- sion, they went into St. Louis, and got a lawyer named Bates, to deliver them up and take the reward as a fee for defending their case. Bates was the best lawyer in St. Louis, and, Hawthorn thinks, the same who was in later years Lin- coln's Attorney-General." They were acquit- ted.

At length Hawthorn and Deviese dissolved partnership, and Hawthorn went back to Shulls- burg, where he prospected through the summer of 1830. He then went into partnership with

John Armstrong, near Gratiot's Grove, where they worked a wet mine. They "ran up a water level," and cleared $3,000 in eighteen months. The mineral after smelting, was sent to Galena. A tax of one tenth was paid by the smelters to the government.

In the summer of 1832, he "sauntered about," staying for awhile at Funk's Block-house, as he had an excellent rifle, whose services the in- mates of the Block-house were anxious to retain. In the autumn of that year, Hawthorn went to St. Louis, there bought a horse, and rode all the way to the Hudson river, a two months' trip, passing through Vandalia, Indianapolis and Chillicothe. He paid $65 for his horse, and sold it in Orange Co., N. Y., for $100.

The next spring, 1833,he came by way of Buf- falo to Detroit. The stage then ran westward from Detroit only to St. Joseph, from which lat- ter place he got conveyance by wagon to Chicago and Ottawa. From Ottawa he went by steam- boat to St. Louis, and thence to Dubuque, where the excitement over the new lead discoveries was then at its height. Dubuque then consisted of a few miners' shanties. Anticipations proved delusive. But little lead was found; cholera made its appearance, and as we may infer, a stampede ensued. In October, 1833, Hawthorn returned to Green county, and located the farm where he still lives, two miles south of what is now Monroe.

He relates that in the ensuing winter, as he was one day coming in from making rails in the woods, he saw his cabin door standing open the wrong way. Some Indian guns were standing outside, which he might have got possession of, had he retained proper presence of mind. He first stood in the door with his ax drawn, but then sprang for his own rifle which was hang- ing inside. He did not see an Indian pass him, but when he got back to the door, the nearest .one was standing some distance away, with gun raised ready to shoot. The others were out of sight. Thirty or forty dollars in silver were in his saddlebags, but the attention of the Red-

*Probably Thomas Jenkins, who participated in the battle of Pecatonica, June 15, 1832, and was severely wounded there.

*Hon. Edward Bates, who was born in Goochland Co., Va., Sept. 4, 1793, and died at St. Louis, March 25, 1869, wns at the period referred to, one of the most eminent jurists in the west. He settled in St. Louis in 1814, and subsequently filled many important positions, including that of Attorney-General of the United States .-- ED.

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Skins had been so closely given to his stock of cold victuals that they had made no other plunder.

Joe Paine, who afterwards killed a man and left the country, William Wallace and J. R. Blackmore, both formerly employes of Deviese at Exeter, and Andrew Clarno, were in the same vicinity before him. All had but twenty aeres broke when Hawthorn came. Clarno broke his first land in 1830 or 1831. Hawthorn thinks with Deviese, that it was in 1830 that Skinner and Neal opened the diggings north of Monroe. After Hawthorn came Hiram Rust, Capt. Ross and others.

The first marriage in the settlement was that of Blackmore to Wallace's daughter, in the fall of 1834. Hawthorn was mar- ried next, in 1836; and after him, Cameron. The first white child born in Green county was Charles R. Deniston, in 1834.

"Uncle Jimmy" is still living on the farm that he opened in 1833, and, though not married till the age of thirty-nine, has raised thirteen children, some of whom are already pioneering in the far west. IIe is still a hale, jolly man- well-to-do in the world, and likely to remain therein for years to come .*

French. Luke.

French Lake is, in the fullest acceptation of the term, an original character. He is one of. nature's greatest successes in the line of oddi- ties. No connected narrative could be obtained from him, he was so fearful of getting into print.

He is a Virginian by birth, having begun life in that part of the Old Dominion which was devastated by the Potomac army. He is still a Virginian; has visited his native region since the war; is as bitter over its ruin as any lover of the "Lost Cause" can possibly be; and "docs not wish to be identified with Wisconsin at all," though a resident since May, 1828. .

Woe betide the writer hereof, should this sketch ever come to the eyes of "old Lake." When I was first introduced to him on the street, a dozen men had gathered in the corner store to see what manner of reception I would meet. As I proceeded to make my wishes known, I was somewhat apprehensive, after all that I had been told, of his ample cowhide boots; but all went well until the idea of publi- cation began to develop, when, with an em- phatic and profane explosion, he bolted for the other side of the street. Nothing daunted, however, I gave pursuit, and the final result was a promise that if I could find my way out to his place some day he would talk over old times.

He lives in "Spring Grove Woods," about eight miles southwest of Brodhead, and four or five miles southeast of Juda. Like all the old Virginian and Pennsylvanian settlers of this region, he had selected the close vicinity of a spring as the necessary place to build; and so I found him living close by the site of his original cabin, which is still standing, though built thirty-five years ago, and surrounded on all sides by heavy timber, with his nearest plow land nearly half a mile away. He owns, if I remember rightly, over 1,200 acres of land, all valuable timber or plow land. He raises large numbers of horses, sometimes keeping them strangers to the harness till eight or ten years old, refusing all offers, even though extravagant; while, on the other hand, a man that strikes his fancy may very likely get a team at half the real value. In all other traffic he is no less ec- centric.

I obtained from him an account of the battle of the Pecatonica, which he had received from a young fellow called "Pony Fletcher," who was a participant; but after all that has been said about that little fight, it is hardly worth while to add yet another version. * *

Lake left Blue Mounds in the autumn of 1833. After the opening of the land office at Green Bay, he, with a few others, went thither to enter

*Ile is now (1884) living with Thomas Millman, his son-in law, in the town of Clarno, in good health, but with mind weakened by age .-- ED.

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land. They went to Fort Winnebago, and fol- lowed down the Fox river, walking the whole distance except the last day's journey, for which they hired passage in a canoe.

On his return, he, with another man, took a contract to furnish the troops at Fort Winnebago with hay, and spent the autumn in hay making upon the Portage marshes. They made well at it, earning from $3 to $4 each per day-no small sum in those days.

Ile settled at his present abode in May, 1836, living for many years a bachelor; but is now a widower, with growing sons and daughters. And, with all his peculiarities, the State has many citizens whom it could better spare than French Lake .*

V .- BY EDWARD D. BEOUCHARD, 1876.+

I presume an old pioneer, who has resided in Wisconsin for fifty-seven years, will not appeal in vain to the State Historical Society for space to set aright his own services, and to vindicate the truth of history.

I was born in Montreal, Canada, Oct. 4, 1804, and left there in the spring of 1816, for the Selkirk colony on Red river; went there in the canoes of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and paid $45 for my passage. While there, I was employed by the fur company to go on business through the Cariboo mountains to the Pacific coast. After many hardships and adventures, I returned to the Selkirk settlement; and, in the fall of 1819, went to Prairie du Chien.

Dr. Moses Meeker, in his narrative, in the sixth volume of collections of the State Histor- ical Society, has stated that Col. James John-

*Mr. Lake is still (1884) living at his old home.

+In a sketch of several Green county pioneers, which was printed some years ago, reflection was made on the character of Mr. Beouchard, charging him with having burned the buildings, goods and tools of Wmn. Dev.ese and John Dough- erty nt Sugar River Diggings-this, apparently, in revenge, on account of some disagreement with Dougherty. It was added that Mr. Beouchard was a boastful, revengeful, worth- less fellow. Also, several of the facts related in Dr. Beou- chard's narrative given in Smith's History of Wisconsin, were disputed and contradh ted; and Mr. Beonchard was fur- ther spoken of disrespectfuliy. The sketch spoken of was that written by Albert Salisbury to be found in this chapter; but the reflections upon Mr. Beouchard we have in this con- nection thought best to omit. Mr. Salisbury made them on the authority and dictation of Mr. Deviese and French Lake. What these several allegations were will sufficiently appear in Mr. Beouchard's denial .- ED.

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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 33

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