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 40

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 40

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"Ordered, That the following lots be selected, to-wit : lot No 1, facing on the public square, and lots Nos. 80, 88, 89, 97, 74, being lots not facing on the public square ; and that a deed be executed to the said Jacob Ly Brand for said lots on the part of said Green county; and tendered to the said Jacob Ly Brand by the sheriff, and return thereof made and filed in the office of the clerk of this board."

Mr. Ly Brand would not receive the deed tendered by the commissioners, and the sheriff made his return in accordance with the facts. Ilere the matter rested until the 8th day of October, when the public sale of the Monroe lots was to take place, when the matter was ar- ranged, Mr. Ly Brand having before that date made a selection of the lots and the commis- sioners thereupon deeding the same to him, as appears from the following record of their pro- ceedings :

" October 8, 1840. " WHEREAS, A deed was executed to Jacob Ly Brand, by this board, for six building lots in the town of Monroe, and presented to him by the sheriff of Green county, in pursuance of an order by this board, at the July session 1840; and,

" WHEREAS, The said Jacob Ly Brand refused to accept said deed, and chose other six lots in said town, to-wit : lots numbers one (1), twenty- three (23), twenty-four (24), and twenty-five

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

(25), being lots on the land donated to Green county by Jacob Ly Brand ; also lot number three (3) on the land donated to said county by Wil- liam C. Russell ; also lot number seven (7), on the land donated by the said Jacob Ly Brand, and facing on the public square in said town.

" Ordered, That a deed of conveyance be exe- cuted to the said Jacob Ly Brand by this board, on the part of Green county, for the aforesaid described lots and tendered to the said Jacob

Ly Brand, by the sheriff, who is requested to make return thereof forthwith to this board.

The sheriff returned into court the following return, to-wit : 'I hereby certify that I this 8th day of October, 1840, presented a deed from Green county to Jacob Ly Brand for certain lots in the town of Monroe, and the said Jacob Ly Brand accepted the same.'

" [Signed] J. W. DENISTON, " Sheriff."

Emanuel, Diven

HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

273

CHAPTER XI.

TERRITORIAL, STATE AND CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION.

The settlers who located in what is now Green county before the year 1836 were, of course, citizens of Michigan Territory, and were represented in its legislative council at Detroit as residents-first of Crawford county and after- wards of Iowa county. As the first occupants of the soil of the present Green county came here in 1827, it follows that they were repre- sented in Congress from that date to 1836 by CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATES FROM MICHIGAN TER-

RITORY.

XXth Congress, Austin E. Wing, 1827-29. XXIst Congress, John Biddle, 1829-31.

XXIId Congress, Austin E. Wing, 1831-33. XXIIId Congress, Lucius Lyon, 1833-35. XXIVth Congress, George W. Jones, #1835-37.

As the greater part of Green county formed a portion of Iowa county from the erection of Wisconsin Territory in 1836 until 1838 (so far as its representation in the Territorial legisla- fure was concerned), we must look to the mem- bers of the latter county for those who repre- sented Green county for these years-that is to say, until the first session of the second legisla- tive assembly, which convened in Madison, Nov. 26, 1838.

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL OF WISCONSIN TERRI- TORY WHO REPRESENTED GREEN COUNTY. I .- Iowa County (including Green).

First Session, First Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham, John B. Terry, James R. Vineyard; 1836.

* Was a delegate until Michigan became a State, with his residence in Wisconsin, which was then a portion of the Ter- ritory of Michigan. His biography is given hereafter, in this chapter.

Second Session, First Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham, John B. Terry, James R. Vineyard; 1837-38.

Special Session, First Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham, John B. Terry, James R. Vineyard; 1838.

II .- Dane, Dodge, Green and Jefferson Counties.

First Session, Second Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham; 1838.

Second Session, Second Legislative Assembly : Ebenezer Brigham; 1839.

Third Session, Second Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham; 1839-40.

Fourth (extra) Session, Second Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham; 1840.

First Session, Third Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham; 1840-41.

III -- Dane, Dodge, Green, Jefferson and Sunk Counties.

Second Session, Third Legislative Assembly: Ebenezer Brigham; 1841-42.

First Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly: Lucins I. Barber; 1842-43.

Second Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly: Lucius I. Barber; 1843-44.

Third Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly: John Catlin; 1845.

Fourth Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly : John Catlin; 1846.

IV .- Dune, Green and Sauk Counties.

First Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly : Alexander L. Collins; 1847.

Special Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly: Alexander L. Collins; 1847.

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

Second Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly: Alexander L. Collins; 1848.

BIOGRAPHIICAL. James R. Vineyard.

James R. Vineyard was born in Kentucky in 1804, from whence he moved at an early date to the Lead Region of Wisconsin, and adopted the occupation of a miner. His after public career was in many respects unhappy, even if brilliant and useful. In 1838 he was elected a member of the Territorial council, in which he served until 1842. Most unfortunately, on the 11th of February of that year, in an altercation with Charles C. P. Arndt, of Brown county, which occurred in the hall of the House, he shot and killed his opponent. The melancholy event created wide-spread sensation and horror in most portions of the west, but on trial he was acquitted by a jury. In 1846 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention from Platteville, Grant county. Not reaching the capital until some days after the session had commenced, he was not appointed upon any of the standing committees, and took no important part in any of the proceedings. In 1849 he was elected a member of the assembly, but the event that clouded his life was a bar to special prominence. In 1850 he moved to California, and was elected to its State Senate for several terms, and also acted as Indian agent for several years. He died about 1872.

Mr. Vineyard possessed great energy and force of character, was distinguished for his abilities, and ever enjoyed great personal popu- larity at his home. An act done in a moment of passion not only horrified the people of the Territory, but was ever after a source of keen- est remorse to himself. Under different and more favorable eireumstances, he might have become one of the most prominent men in Wis- consin. ITis good qualities as a friend and citi- zen were generally and widely appreciated; but nothing could efface the memory of his great offense. It still lingers in the minds of all pioneer settlers,

Ebenezer Brigham.

Ebenezer Brigham was born at Shrewsbury, Worcester Co,, Mass., April 28, 1789. In 1818 he came to Olean Point, in the State of New York. The Allegheny river was then the only channel known through western New York, and that was only navigated by canoes, rafts, or skiffs. He came through in a canoe, and at Pittsburg took a flat boat down the Ohio river. The villages on the river were all small. During the journey down he saw but one steamboat. On arriving at Shawneetown he landed and walked through to St. Louis. There was nothing at that place but a small French settlement, not more than three or four brick houses in the town. In 1822 he followed up the Mississippi, on horseback, to Galena, where he found James Johnson, a brother of Richard M. Johnson, who was just opening the mines. Galena then con- sisted of one log cabin completed, and another under way, which he assisted in finishing. He subsequently returned to Springfield, Ill. In 1827 he started for Wisconsin with an ox team, seeking the Lead Region again. At that time there was a large emigration to the southwest- ern part of the Territory, as lead ore was abundant and the price remunerative. He re- mained awhile with a small party on what is now the Block House branch of the Platte river, about four miles south of the present vil- lage of Platteville, in Grant county, for the pur- pose of prospecting for mineral. From this point the party retreated in haste to Galena, owing to the commencement of hostilities by the Winnebago Indians. . In the spring of 1828 he removed to Blue Monnds, Dane county, where, at some abandoned diggings on section 7, he soon discovered a valuable body of min- eral, as lead ore was then and still is called by the miners in the Lead Regions. The lode dis- covered by him had previously been worked by the Indians and white men. The only source of food supply was from Galena. On his ar- rival he erected a cabin, the first house in what is now Dane county, built by a permanent American settler. Its location was on the south-

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

west quarter of the southwest quarter of section 5, as afterward (in 1833) surveyed by the United States surveyors. It was east of south of the East Blue Mound, and distant from it nearly half a mile. Soon after he had raised his cabin, he took a trip, with two companions, to Fort Winnebago, to ascertain whether food could not be more easily obtained at that point. The route taken was north of Lake Mendota, on the line of the military road afterward laid out. He obtained a supply of salt pork, hard bread, powder and some other things of a set- tler, not loading heavily, and on the return struck south, striking the old trail that formerly ran between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota, fol- lowing it up the hill where the State House in Madison now stands, where he encamped over night. Intercourse with the Indians had made known to him the distance of the lake region before he started. From the enchanting view of the spot, he predicted that a village would be built there, probably be the future capital of the Territory. The isolated condition of Mr. Brigham, where he settled, will be appar- ent from the statement of a few facts: The nearest settler was at what is now Dodgeville. Mineral point, and other mining places where villages have since grown up, had not been dis- covered. On the southeast the nearest house was on the Des Plaines river, twelve miles west of Chicago. On the east Solomon Juneau was his nearest neighbor, at the mouth of the Mil- waukee river, and on the northeast Green Bay was the nearest settlement.

Shortly after locating at the Mounds, Mr. Brigham, in company with William S. Hamil- ton, Mr. Gratiot and some others, visited Green Bay, in order to settle on certain boundaries between the whites and the Indians. The line was fixed upon and the Indians blazed the trees along this line, notifying the whites not to pass it-a prohibition not at all effectual, as any one would readily conclude.

For several years after his coming, the sav- ages were plentiful around the Four Lakes; a

large Indian village stood near the mouth of Token creek; another stood on the ridge be- tween Lake Waubesa and Lake Monona and their wigwams were seen at different points along the streams.

Soon after his settlement he was honored with the appointment of magistrate from Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory of Michigan, of which Territory Wisconsin was then a part. He held this commission for four years, and all the duty he performed during that time was to marry one couple. He often related an anec- dote of being called upon to go some thirty miles to marry a couple, but, on arriving within a short distance of the place, word had been left there that the fair lady had changed her mind, and he must not come any farther. Mr. .Brigham, however, went on and introduced an- other friend, who succeeded in making a con- tract, and the next spring he was called upon to ratify it; this was the only official act of a four year's term of justice of the peace.

The principal object of his location at the Blue Mounds, as before stated, was mining for lead. Ilis first diggings were on the section line between sections 7 and 18, but his furnace was immediately west of his house. The loca- tion of his diggings was a mile and a quarter from his house, in a southwesterly direction. The military road ran east and west, between the house and his mine.

Brigham, however, cultivated the soil in a small way, having his fields near his house. One of the "leads" on his land was "proved" before his death to the depth of over seventy feet, when the workmen were prevented by water, from going deeper.

Upward of 4,000,000 pounds were taken from this mine with no other machinery than the common windlass, rope and tub. His lead was hauled to Green Bay, Chicago and Galena. On his first trip to Chicago, there was not a house or wagon-track between that place and Blue Mounds. Ile was fifteen days in reaching his destination fording with his oxen and load of

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

lead the Rock and Fox rivers, and the smaller streams on the route. On this expedition, he was accompanied by a favorite dog, for which he was offered in Chicago, a village lot, which was situated where now is the most valuable property in that city. In those days, the whole site of the town could have been purchased for a few hundred dollars.

Brigham,at the organization of the Territorial government, was elected a member of the council, and was re-elected, serving nine terms, from 1836 to 1841. When the State govern- ment was organized, in 1848, he was elected a member of the assembly. He died at the residence of his niece, Mrs. H. G. Bliss, at Madison, Sept. 14, 1861, aged seventy-two years. He was never married.

It must not be supposed that Brigham was the first white man-the first American at the Mounds; but, although this was not the fact, yet he was the first permanent settler. Before him, as already explained, the diggings had been worked. William Deveise went there in the spring, just before Brigham's arrival, where he found two men named Moore, who were trading a little, in whisky at least, and one John Duncan, a very large and powerful man. But on the 12th day of August, Deveise moved to Sugar River Diggings, leaving James Haw- thorn to continue the work there. So it seems certain that Brigham, upon his arrival, found miners at work at the Mounds, but none of them made a permanent stay.

John B. Skinner had had at one time a fur- nace there. However, it is certainly known that, at the date of the survey of the lands at the Mounds, which was in 1833, there was left but one resident in the vicinity, and that one was Ebenezer Brigham.

It may be mentioned in this connection, that Brigham, at an early day, kept many articles for sale to the miners and pioneer farmers. The prices current in those times were different from now. An examination of an old day- book shows that, on the 28th day of June, 1828,

he sold to Samuel Carman, one barrel of flour, charging for the same $8, and four pounds of sugar at twenty cents a pound.

On the 17th day of July, of the same year, Duncan & Proctor were sold a half bushel of salt, for which they were charged $1.25. Labor was cheap in those days. Thomas Jones was credited on the 28th day of June, of the same year, with four days work at seventy-seven cents a day. On the 6th of February, 1830, Wallace Rowan is charged for one pair of moccasins, fifty cents; for one pint of whisky, twenty-five cents; for one bushel of corn, fifty cents.

Mr. Brigham, on the 23d of October, 1830, agreed with W. J. Medcalf, to winter eight head of beef cattle, from the 1st of December, until the 1st of April, 1831, for $48, and also to de- liver 100 bushels of corn at the portage, (Fort Winnebago) for $70. Indeed, from the start, it is evident that "Brigham's Place" was one of business; for, during the year 1828, he had ac- counts with John Murphy, Thomas Jones, Down- ing Lot, Samuel Carman, John White, Mr. Kel- logg, Kirkpatrick & Brigham, Mr. Wentworth, James Cloyd, Duncan & Proctor, Noah M. King, Mr. Dinwiddy, Terwan & Elington, Fish & Kellogg, Mr. Rader, Alexander Wilson, Soward Blackmore, Thomas H. Price, Andrew Orr, William Fulton, George Spangle, Elijah Slater, Slater & Brigham and Mr. Fish. It will be seen therefore, that, although Mr. Brigham had lo- cated at the extreme eastern diggings of the Lead Region, he did not lack for laborers, or for customers. It was not long after his location at the East Blue Mound, before the road from Prairie du Chien to Fort Winnebago, (this fort being erected in the fall of 1828, the very year of Brigham's arrival) was laid out, and already along the old Indian trail, between these points, was considerable travel. . Then followed the road from Milwaukee to the Mississippi by his place, so that by the time emigration began to set in pretty briskly in this region, the Blue Mounds presented the air of a lively place. In 1836, Mr. Brigham was appointed postmaster,

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the first person receiving that appointment within the present limits of the county.

The following anecdote, related by Ebenezer Childs, illustrates the "cuteness" of Mr. Brig- ham. I left Carrollton, Ill., about the middle of May, [1827], passed through Jacksonville, where there were a few houses; the next place was Springfield, which had a population of about 200. Thence I went to Sangamon, where I met Ebenezer Brigham, from Worcester Co., Mass. He was the first live Yankee that I had seen from my native county, since I had left there, in 1816, and I was the first he had seen from that county. I had a yoke of blind oxen, that gave my men a great deal of trouble to drive. As Brigham had a tread-mill, I thought my blind oxen would do as well for that purpose as though they could see, so I proposed to the gentleman from Worcester county to exchange my oxen for a horse. He said that, as we were both from Worcester county, he would try and accomodate me. I told him my oxen were a little blind, but I thought they could do him good service. After it became a little dark, I took him to see my oxen. He liked them very well. He then took me to see his horse. It was by this time quite dark. I did not examine him much, but he ap- peared to be a fine-looking animal. We had ex- changed honorably, as we were both from the same native region; in a word, we felt and acted like brothers. But the next morning, when I joined the drove, I found that my new horse was as blind as a bat, and I do believe he had not seen for ten years; and he appeared older than the ancient hills around us. But it was all right, as friend Brigham and I were both from Worcester county. We have many a time, since, laughed heartily over our early trade.

From "a Geneological Register of the decend- ants of several Ancient Puritans by the name of Grout, Goulding and Brigham," published in Boston, in 1859, is found the following concern- ing the first settler of Dane county.

He [Ebenezer Brigham] is the proprietor of a large tract of land, rich in agricultural and min-

eral resources, and one of the original proprie- tors of the city of Madison, the capitol of Wis- consin, now hardly twenty years old, yet con- taining in 1859, a population of 12,000 souls. Mr. Brigham depends not on his wealth, nor on this humble record to preserve his history. He is extensively and advantageously known, and, when the whole of his character shall come to be written, the reader must feel that a good name is emphatically better than riches, and constitutes the value of a posthumous memory." Mr. Brigham is buried in the beautiful ceme- tery of Forest Hill, near the city of Madison, where a fine monument is erected to his mem- ory.

John Catlin

was born Oct. 13, 1803, at Orwell, Vt. His genealogy has been successfully traced back through six generations to Thomas Catlin, who resided at Hartford, Con., more than two and a quarter centuries ago. His father was John B. Catlin, and his mother's maiden name Rosa Ormsbee, daughter of John Ormsbee, of Shore- ham, Vt. John Catlin came of excellent Ameri- can stock, as both his paternal and maternal grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers, and conspicuous for their patriotic zeal in the war which resulted in the consummation of Ameri- can independence.

In his paternal grandfather's family there were seven brothers, all of whom shouldered the Revolutionary musket and joined the ranks of the patriotic army. They were all of them fine specimens of stalwart manhood, standing full six feet high, heavy, muscular and well propor- tioned. His mother's father held a lieutenant's commission in the Continental army, and con- tinued in the service until the close of the war, when he received an honorable discharge, to- gether with the sum of $1,400, the amount of his pay. The currency of the country was somewhat inflated at that time, as on his return to his home in Massachusetts, Lient. Ormsbee paid $60 of his money for a single bushel of corn.

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

John Catlin's father was engaged in the mer- cantile business until 1812. At the beginning of the war which broke out that year, he aban- doned his mercantile vocation and took up his residence in the town of Bridport, Addison Co., Vt. Having purchased a farm border- ing on Lake Champlain, he became a tiller of of the soil. The subject of our sketch was then about nine years of age; and in that place and vicinity he began and ended the scholastic train- ing which was to prepare him for the business of life. Ilis educational advantages were quite limited, being only such as the common distriet school afforded, with the exception of one year which he spent in Newton Academy, located at Shoreham. At the age of eighteen he quit school and resorted to the vocation of teaching as a temporary means of livelihood. He fol- lowed this occupation for nine successive win- ters, devoting his summers to self-culture and to the study of law in the office of Augustus C. Hand, of Elizabethtown, N. Y. In 1833 he was admitted to the bar at the age of thirty.

In 1836 he joined the comparatively small band of early pioneers who were following the "course of empire" westward. At that time em- igrating as far west as Wisconsin was no holiday excursion as now. The pioneer of 1836 had no palace car furnished with luxurious accommoda- tions, in which he could repose at his ease, reading the latest paper or magazine, or sleep away the swift hours, rolling him over the iron track at the rate of 400 miles a day. The emi- grant of forty years ago was compelled to travel by the slow stage coach, dragging its weary way over muddy roads, at the rate of thirty to fifty miles a day, or by the tedious canal-boat with its scanty accommodations, or the ill-provided lake steamer, laboring against opposing waves to make six miles an hour, and, even when the wished-for destination was reached, the traveler found himself encompassed with difficulties, dangers and privations.

Mr. Catlin first settled at Mineral Point, where he formed co-partnership with Moses M.

Strong in the business of his chosen profession. He, however, remained there but two years; for, the capital of the Territory having been located at Madison, and he having received the ap- pointment of postmaster at that place, in the spring of 1838, he removed there with a view of making it his permanent residence. He held the position of postmaster until the election of Gen. Harrison as President, when he was removed to make way for a political antagonist; but, npon the accession of John Tyler to the Presi- deney, he was re-instated and continued to hold the office until 1844, when he was elected a member of the Territorial council representing the counties of Dane, Dodge, Green, Jefferson and Sauk, and the two offices being incompat- ible under the law, he resigned his postoffice ap- pointment.

In the fall of 1836, Mr Catlin was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court. He was also chosen clerk of the Territorial House of Representa- tive in 1838, and was re-elected to that position for eight successive years. He was the first district attorney of Dane county, and on the removal of George C. Floyd from the office of secretary of the Territory, in 1846, he was ap- pointed his successor, and continued to hold that position until Wisconsin was admitted into the Union, in 1848. A bill was introduced into Congress by Morgan L. Martin, the delegate of Wisconsin, to organize a Territorial govern- ment for Minnesota, including the district left out on the admission of Wisconsin as a State. The citizens of what is now Minnesota, were very anxious to obtain a Territorial govern- ment; and two public meetings were held-one at St. Paul, and the other at Stillwater-advis- ing and soliciting Mr. Catlin, who was secretary of Wisconsin, to issue a proclamation, as the acting governor, for the election of a delegate. After some consideration Mr. Catlin repaired to Stillwater, and issued the proclamation. H. H. Sibley was elected; and he did much toward hastening the passage of a bill for organizing a Territorial government for Minnesota. Mr.

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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 40

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