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 41

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 41

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

Catlin was afterward elected county judge of Dane county, an office which he resigned in order to accept a position of President of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company. His appointment to this position necessitated his removal to Milwaukee.

In the discharge of the duties of the import- ant position of President of the primitive rail- road of Wisconsin, Mr. Catlin displayed great energy and skill.

He procured the passage of a law which made the first mortgage bonds of this railroad, to the amount of fifty per cent., a foundation for banking. This feature appreciated the obliga- tions of the company to such an extent that he was enabled to effect a loan of $600,000, which give to the road the first great impulse, and the work of construction was vigorously begun and as vigorously prosecuted. Ile was president of this road for five years, or until 1856, when he declined a re-election. His retirement was made the occasion of a highly complimentary resolution, adopted by the board of directors, thanking him for his eminent services in behalf of the road.

In 1857 the company failed, and Mr. Catlin was once more induced to accept the position of president, and he proceeded to re-organize the association. He continued his official con- nection with that corporation until it was sub- sequently consolidated with the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company.

Mr. Catlin was married on the 19th day of September, 1843, at Rochester, N. Y.,to Clarissa Bristol, daughter of. Charles Bristol, once a prominent wholesale merchant of New York city. The fruit of this marriage was one child, a daughter.

Among the pioneers of Wisconsin, John Cat- lin held a conspicuous place. The various im- portant official positions which, as we have seen, he was called upon to fill, furnish sufficient proof in confirmation of this statement. He was chosen secretary of the Territory; was the first postmaster of Madison; first clerk of the

Supreme Court, and of the Territorial House of Representatives; first district attorney of Dane county; its first county judge; was president of the first railroad company; and a member of the Territorial legislature.

His energetic character and practical ability peculiarly fitted him for the work of aiding in the building up the fabric of a new State. All enterprises that promised to promote the growth and prosperity of Wisconsin found in him a zealous supporter and a determined advocate. In its infancy he became a life member of the State Historical Society, and to the time of his death he was one of its most active and inflexi- ble friends. His efforts and influence contrib- uted in no very slight degree toward the collec- tion of literary treasures which now fill one wing of the capitol, forming a library of which the State is justly proud. Mr. Catlin's friend- ship for the Historical Society was not impulsive or spasmodic, but a continuing regard which lasted throughout his active life. It is perhaps but just in this connection to allude to the liberal bequest which he made of a section of land in the State of Texas, for the benefit of the society.

John Catlin was pre-eminently a self-made man. He owed but little of the success which he achieved to the gifts of fortune, or to extra- ordinary natural endowments. His intellectual parts were more solid than strong; more useful than ornamental. His aim was success, and he sought it in the slow, but sure and solid, path- ways of industry and perseverance.

He knew the race was not always to the the swift, nor the battle to the strong. He saw the prize of victory in the far distance, waiting for all who would labor to achieve it; and he entered upon the pursuit, not with the impulsive flights of genius, but with the steady gait of practical common sense.

It may be said that Mr. Catlin's intellectual character was neither illustrated nor marred by any of the faculties or the faults of genius. He I laid no claim to the natural gifts which are essen-

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tial attributes in the character of the successful advocate; and yet, had he devoted his life ex- clusively to the duties of his chosen profession, he would doubtless have gained distinction at the bar. He was a kind and faithful husband, and indulgent parent and a most exemplary citizen. Ile died Aug. 4,1874, in Elizabeth, N. J. REPRESENTATIVES OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY WHO

REPRESENTED GREEN COUNTY IN THE LEGISLA- TURE.

I .- Iowa County, (including Green).

First Session, First Legislative Assembly : William Boyls, George F. Smith, Daniel M. Park inson, Thomas McKnight, Thomas Shanley, James P. Cox ; 1836.

Second Session, First Legislative Assembly : William Boyls, Thomas MeKnight, Thomas Shanley, James P. Cox, George F. Smith, Daniel M. Parkinson ; 1838-8.

Special Session, First Legislative Assembly : William Boyls, Thomas McKnight, Daniel M. Parkinson, Thomas Shanley, James P. Cox, James Collins* ; 1838.

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

First Session, Second Legislative Assembly: Daniel S. Sutherland ; 1838.

Second Session, Second Legislative Assem- bly : Daniel S. Sutherland ; 1839.

Third Session, Second Legislative Assembly : Daniel S. Sutherland ; 1839-40.

Fourth (extra) Session, Second Legislative Assembly : Daniel S. Sutherland : 1840.

First Session, Third Legislative Assembly : Lueins I. Barber and James Sutherland ; 1840-1. III .- Dane, Dodge. Green, Jefferson and Sauk Counties.

Second Session, Third Legislative Assembly: Lucius I. Barber and James Sutherland ; 1841-2.

First Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly : Isaac H. Palmer, Lyman Crossman and Robert Masters; 1842-3.

Second Session, Fourth Legislative Assem- bly : Robert Masters, Lyman Crossman and Isaac H. Palmer ; 1843-4.

Third Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly: Charles S. Bristol, Noah Phelps and George II. Slaughter; 1845.

Fourth Session, Fourth Legislative Assembly: Mark R. Clapp, William M. Dennis and Noah Phelps; 1846.

IV .- Dane, Green and Sauk Counties.

First Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly : Charles Lurn, William A. Wheeler and John W. Stewart; 1847.

Special Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly: E. T. Gardner, Alexander Botkin and John W. Stewart; 1847.

Second Session, Fifth Legislative Assembly: E. T. Gardner, John W. Stewart and Alexan- der Botkins; 1848.

BIOGRAPHICAL. Daniel S. Sutherland.

D. S. Sutherland is a son of Arich and Re- becca (Stanley) Sutherland, natives of Vermont. They are now dead and buried in Edgar Co., Ill., where they removed in 1822. He (D. S. Sutherland), was born in Onondago Co., N. Y., June 13, 1802. In 1835 he first came to Green county, on a prospecting tonr, and being delighted with the country, resolved to make it his permanent abode, and the follow- ing year took up his residence on section 25, of the town of Monroe. IIe had all the hardships and disadvantages of pioneer life, to contend with. At that time there was not a house be- tween his place and Monroe, and on the east, Janesville was the nearest place of human abode. Their nearest market was at Galena, III., and the nearest mill at a place in Lafayette county called Wolf Creek. He came here from Edgar county, with six yoke of oxen and two wagons, being on the road from April 30, to May 21. He erected a log cabin, 16x20 feet, with a puncheon floor, in which they lived during the summer and fall, then moved into a new cabin one and a half stories high, the shingles for which they hewed out. The first season he broke ten acres and sowed it to oats, in June. The family lived in the

*In place of George F. Smith, resigned.

HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

second cabin ten years, when their present house, the first frame house in Monroe, was erected. Mr. Sutherland owned at one time, 560 acres; 240 acres on section 25, and 160 acres on section 36, in the town of Mon- roe, and eighty acres on section 30, and eighty acres on section 31, in the town of Sylvester. He has sold, and given land to his sons, until he now owns 147 acres. He was, from the first, until he was disqualified for business, always a useful citizen, taking an active interest in every enterprise for the public good. IIe was the first chairman of both town and county boards ; has also been chairman of the county board several terms since. He served two years in the State legislature, and was influential in having this county set off from Iowa county, draw- ing up the petition for that purpose. Mr. Sutherland was married March 27, 1826, to Louisa Nobles, a native of Connecticut, but at the time of her marriage, a resident of Edgar Co., Ill. They had seven children-Emery G., living in Monroe; Fanny E., wife of John Stearns, of Monroe ; Mary A., deceased ; Isa- bella, widow of David Hodge ; Daniel W., who was drowned in Sugar river, June 6, 1874, in endeavoring to rescue one of his compan- ions, on a fishing excursion ; Richard B., living in Kansas and a soldier during the late war ; and Germane, deceased.

James Sutherland,

an old settler of Green county, was born at Rutland, Vt. in 1795. He went to Salina, N. Y. with his parents, after which he removed to Genesee county when it was a wilderness. It being at the time of the War of 1812, when eighteen years of age he joined the American army and participated in a skirmish at Buffalo.

He was married in Genesee county to Lois Sutherland. She died in 1833. By this union there were seven children, five sons and two daughters-Andrew J., Martin C., John T., Solomon, Catherine, Esther J. and James.

He again married. His second wife was Esther Sutherland. She was born in Rutland,

Vt. in 1806. Mr. Sutherland, in his younger days worked at farming, and received a com- mon school education -the greater part at home before the fire place. He moved to Dariau on the "Holland Purchase," where he engaged in the harness trade for a short time. About this time he was elected magistrate, which office he held about ten years. He took an active part in politics and was one of the electors that placed Gen. Jackson in the Presidential chair. In politics he was a staunch democrat and an admirer of Thomas Benton, after whom he named one of his sons. He was also identified with the military history of the State; having held the positions of captain, major and col- onel; he went by the latter name until his death.

In November, 1838, he arrived in Green county. He made this trip by way of Buffalo and to Toledo; from there by wagon to Chicago, on to Belvidere, Ill. After remaining near Monroe about four years, he moved on section 15, northeast quarter, town of Sylvester, where he lived until his death.

After coming to the county he took an active part in politics. He was elected and served as representative in the Territorial legislature in the sessions of 1840-41 and 1841-42. He took an interest in educational affairs and and was anxious that his children should be edu- cated. Ile had two children by his last mar- riage --- Francis C. and Thomas B. Ile died in 1843. His second wife died in November, 1860. This family is of Scotch extraction and they trace their ancestors back to sometime in 1600, to the Duke of Sutherland, when three brothers by that name crossed the ocean and settled on the Atlantic coast.

Alexander Botkin.

Alexander Botkin was born in Kentucky in 1801. At an early age he removed to Ohio and thence to Alton, Ill., in 1832. He was a justice of the peace at the time of the Lovejoy riots, and took an active part in preserving law and order. He came to Madison, Wis., in 1841, as assistant secretary of the Territory, and was,

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for awhile a law partner of Alexander P. Field. He was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives in 1847-8, representing, along with E. T. Gardner and John W. Stewart the counties, as we have seen, of Dane, Green and Sank, during the special session of the fifth leg- islative assembly, in October, 1847, and the second session of the same assembly, in Feb- ruary and March, 1848. Mr. Botkin was a State senator in 1849-50 and a member of the assembly in 1852. He was a candidate for the first constitutional convention (which convened in 1846), but was defeated by John Y. Smith. He was voted for by the Whigs in 1849 for United States senator, against Isaac P. Walker, the successful candidate. He died suddenly at Sun Prairie, in Dane county, March 5, 1857, aged fifty-six years.

MEMBERS WHO REPRESENTED GREEN COUNTY IN TIIE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.

The first constitutional convention assembled at Madison on the 5th day of October, 1846, and adjourned on the 16th day of December, 1846, having framed a constitution, which was submitted to a vote of the people on the first Tuesday in April, 1847, and the same was re- jected. The members of this convention from Green county were: Davis Bowen, Noah Phelps, William C. Green and Hiram Brown.

The second convention assembled at Madison on the 15th day of December, 1847, and ad- journed on the Ist of February, 1848, having framed a constitution, which was submitted to a vote of the people on the second Monday in March following, and the same was adopted. Green county's representatives in this (the see- ond) constitutional convention were: James Biggs and William MeDowell.

BIOGRAPHICAL. Noah Phelps.

Noah Phelps is a descendant of Obadiah Phelps and Lucy, his wife, who was a daughter of Nathan Pelton, of East Windsor, Hartford, Co., Conn. Ile was born in the town of Turin, Lewis Co., N. Y., May 21, 1808, and after re-

ceiving a common school education, became by profession a surveyor, in which occupation he was employed in surveying government lands in the present counties of Dane, Green and Rock, in the then Territory of Michigan, in the years 1833 and 1834. Jan. 5, 1835, he married Adelia Antoinette Hoyt, and in 1838 settled permanently in this county. In 1841 he was elected county surveyor; in 1842 collector of taxes, and re-elected in 1843. In 1844 he was elected a member of the Territorial house of representatives, and re-elected in 1845, the dis- trict then embracing Dane, Dodge, Jefferson, Sauk and Green counties.

In 1846 he was elected to the constitutional convention from this county, and served in that body on the committee on banks and banking, and took a somewhat active part in the general proceedings. In 1848 and 1850 he was elected and re-elected clerk of the circuit court, and has since held many local offices of usefulness and importance. He is a gentleman of great natural abilities, genial as the sunshine, affable, courteous and greatly esteemed by all who know him. He is a man of sterling worth, striet integrity, and large and varied educa- tional attainments.

Davis Bowen

was the seventh and youngest son of his parents, Samuel and Sarah (Davies) Bowen. He was born on the 25th of May, 1795, in Fayette Co., Penn. His father was one of the early settlers of that locality, then supposed to be a part of Virginia; but which on running "Mason and Dixon's line," fell to Pennsylvania. He emi- grated from Delaware, his native State, in 1770. He claimed to be of Welsh descent, and was widely known as "Capt. Bowen." He took an active and conspicious part in the long and bloody Indian wars in the valley of the Monon- ghahela river. He never seemed to care about accumulating a large fortune, yet he left a good and comfortable house for his family who sur- vived him. Like most of the frontier settlers he was noted for his hospitality; and it was

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

said-"No one ever left his door hungry." He was highly respected, and lived and died on the old Bowen farm, lying in the locality known as "The Forks of Cheat." After the death of their father, John and Davis, the two younger sons, owned and occupied the old homestead until the fall of 1836, when they sold out, and in the spring of 1837, started west. Davis settled in Wisconsin where he soon became a leading man in his locality, and helped organize the State of his choice. He was an old-time demo- crat, and was a firm believer in Thomas Jeffer- son and Gen. Jackson. He was a member of the Baptist church, believed in immersion, true repentance, cleanly and good works. He was respected by all who knew him. He was elected to fill the following offices: Member of the convention in 1846; county commissioner, collector, and justice of the peace. At the age of twenty-six years he was married to Rachel Lane Brown, of Kingwood, W.Va. This union was blessed with several children, but only two survive their parents-James E. and Anna M., wife of Reuben Fleek, of Brodhead. Mr. Bowen died May 6, 1867; his wife died Sept. 7, 1877, aged eighty-seven years. They are resting side by side in the cemetery at Juda. Mr. Bowen came to Green county in April, 1837, and on the 2d of May, entered 160 acres of land on section 27, in what is now the town of Sylvester. He erected a cabin and had ten acres of land broke up that smnmer. In the fall he returned to West Virginia for his family, they having re- mained there with relatives until he found a home for them. He remained in West Virginia until in March, 1838, when be started for his western home, arriving there on the 22d of April. He settled on the farm he had opened up the year before, and lived there until his death. Davis Bowen was chairman of the first town meeting, which organized and elected officers for the town. J. I. Bowen and E. T. Fleek, of Decatur are nephews of Davis Bowen, and are old settlers and respected citizens of the county.

Hiram Brown.

IIiram Brown was born in Connecticut in 1803, and by profession is a farmer. He was elected from Exeter, this county, to the first constitutional convention, in 1846, and served in that body on the committee on revision and adjustment of the articles of the constitution adopted by the convention. He was noted among his associates for sterling qualities of manhood, careful attention, and an intelligent appreciation of the work in hand. In the chap- ter on Pioneer Reminiscences has already been given what may be termed an autobiography of of Mr. Brown. He is now (1884) a resident of Orleans, Neb., and is over eighty years of age. William Mc Dowell.

William McDowell, a prominent citizen of this county, was born in Newton, Virginia, March 27, 1805. His father was a native of Ireland, who emigrated to America soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, land- ing at Charleston, S. C., where he had a brother in the mercantile business. Shortly after his ar- rival, under the impression to do so was a duty, he engaged in preaching the Gospel as an itinerant minister of the M. E. Church, which vocation he followed for a period of seven years, during which time he became acquainted with Rachel McClintick, a member of the Methodist Church, and the acquaintance growing into affection, they were married in the year 1793, at her father's home in Carlisle, Penn., the place of her birth. Soon after their marriage they left for Savannah, Ga., and engaged in the mercantile business; remaining there about three years. From Savannah, they removed to Petersburg, Va., where he was postmaster and did business as a merchant. The next move was to Newtown, Virginia, where merchan- dising and farming occupied his time and attention until his removal in 1807 to Chil- licothe, Ross Co., Ohio, where he continued business as a merchant; but, personally dislik- ing a mercantile life, he left the store in the hands of his eldest son and brother-in-law,

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

James McClintick, and removed to a farm (eleven miles distant) with the other members of the family. The winter of 1812 he spent at Philadelphia, Penn., in studying medicine and attending the lectures of Benjamin Rush, and Physic, both of whom were eminent in the blood-letting practice of those days. Return- ing home, he engaged in the physicians calling and in a short time had considerable business and was quite successful; but desirous of edu- cating his children and the facilities of doing so wanting in the country, induced him to leave the farm and return to Chillicothe in 1815, where he remained with but little interruption, until he passed away from earth in November, 1841, at the mature age of eighty years; surviv- ing his wife about eleven years, she being sixty years old at the time of her decease. The bodies of both were buried in one of the ceme- teries of Chillicothe, leaving behind them a family of six adult children and many friends to cherish their memory, and follow their good examples. The subject of this sketch attended the schools as were then tanght and acquired a rudimentary knowledge of the branches, both of the English and Latin languages; but it can- not be said that he was not a "breeching scholar, in the schools;" and now laments lost opportu- nities and negligence in his studies when young. In the eighteenth year of his age he was sent to Portsmouth, Ohio, where his eldest brother lived and was in the mercantile business, to prosecute the study of medicine, for which pur- pose, he became a student of N. W. Andrews, a popular physician of Portsmouth; but as often happens, "man may propose, but, God disposes" and again "There's a divinity that" shapes our ends; rough hew them as we will;" so, in this case, the services of our subject were frequently required by his brother in the store; thus so interfering with his medical studies, that, after a lapse of a few months, they were given up and exchanged to the duties of a counter-hopper and shipper of merchandise. Becoming a partner of his brother, he

expected to make that the business of his future life, but here again he had reck- oned without his host; for, meeting with a maiden fair, who resided in the country near Portsmouth, and being susceptible to the charms of a lovely female, the old, old story was whis- pered in her ear and found a ready welcome there, which, consummated in a marriage, Jan. 5, 1830, changing her maiden name, Ann E. Clingman, to that of A. E. McDowell. This act of his, although no fault could be laid to the girl of his choice, who was of a good family and of an unblemished character, gave offense and found opposition in a quarter which would make the business relation existing between the broth- ers very unpleasant. The partnership was, therefore, immediately dissolved. This new turn of the wheel of fortune so sudden and un- expected, brought him to face the question, "what now?" Having muscle and brains he rolled up his sleeves and went to work on a farm and earned the bread for himself and wife, by ". the sweat of his brow; and although the resolve involved much hard labor, it was carried into successful practice by the subject of this article, who in the spring of 1830, engaged in the call- ing of a tiller of the soil, on a farm owned by his father, eleven miles distant from Chillicothe after residing on which for three years, it was sold, and its occupant with his little family of wife and one child, removed to Portsmouth, where he went into the lumber trade, which was given np a few months later for what appeared a more lucrative business, the manufacture of soap and candles, at Chillicothe, which was con- menced in 1833, under the firm name of Me- Dowell & Aston. The last named gentleman losing his wife, by death shortly after, the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, leaving to Mr. McDowell the burden of meeting and canceling the debts against the firm; which by pluck and energy of self and wife, was fully accomplished, and the term "mud-sill and greasy- mechanic" invented and facetiously, or other- wise, applied, by southern politicians to the free

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laborers of the northern States, could now be regarded as appropriate, when applied to him, for he had been both, a farmer, soap and candle maker. Here again new trials arose and cast dark shadows on the green and bright spots, which at length had began to appear scattered here and there on the pathway of our friend's life-journey, as if to try his virtue and let pa- tience perform her perfect work. His father, who had reached the age of seventy-three years, had become a victim to the seductive influence of morphine, which, at first, was taken in small doses to alleviate suffering from pain of body. These doses had so increased in size and fre- quency as to cause a state of the mind equal to, if not worse at times, than delirium tremens; such being the case, the soap factory was dis- posed of, and for six or seven years, thereafter, the time was mostly devoted to the care of an invalid parent, which ended only when that father ceased to live on earth. In May, 1842, ·with his wife and four children, he undertook the arduous task of reaching his present location with a two-horse team and wagon. He had only traveled about fifteen miles from the starting point, when he came to a bridge which spanned a brook; near the edge of this bridge there was a hog-wallow, into which, the off-wheel of the wagon plunged, throwing the horse on that side over the embankment; there he lay on his side, feet and legs upwards, back and head downwards, unable to rise or extricate himself. Fortunately the horse on the near side of the wagon kept on his feet and was quiet until both of the animals were detached from the wagon. Had it been otherwise, probably the whole family would have been instantly killed or terribly wounded. Soon after this frightful occurrence a gentleman with whom our adventurer was acquainted, and who lived not far off, came riding up and a trade of horses was made, also a part of the load was left, which enabled our emigrants to resume their hazardous journey, which was vet to be attended with many obstacles ere they reached its end-obstacles of such a painful

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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 41

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