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 52

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 52

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

thereto cost of nails and incidentals. They are also taught to read writing of all kinds and de- scriptions, both good and bad. Of this state- ment the writer of this has had ample proof by personal observation.

At the close of eight years of supervision by Mr. Morgan, Thomas C. Richmond took the work in hand. He was young in years, but ripe in scholarship and experience, and as full of energy and push as it is possible for any man to be. Before the close of the first year he held an institute of eight weeks' duration, with an average attendance of nearly 100. This was followed by others of from six to eight weeks to the close of his four years of supervision.

Those who attended were required to pay tui- tion sufficient to defray expenses. The best teaching talent procurable was obtained to assist the superintendent in his work. All branches that are required in a first grade certificate were taught, and many teachers worked toward ob- taining a certificate of the highest grade. Books of various kinds, relating to the subjects that were taught in the institute, were fur- nished the teachers at wholesale price, and hun- dreds of them were sold.

After Mr. Richmond left the work of super- intending the schools, he taught one year as principal of the Brodhead schools; since which he has completed a double course in the study of law-one course in the Madison Law School and one in the law school of Boston-and is about entering the practice of his profession in the city of Madison. At the close of Mr. Richmond's second term, Mr. Morgan again took the supervision of the schools, and, it is believed, the work of holding the standard of the schools and qualification of teachers have kept even pace with those of other parts of the State.

Although the city of Monroe is nominally under county supervision, yet it is really under the supervision of the principal of the city schools. For the sake of making the schools of the county as near a unit as possible, the city

charter did not ask a separate superintendent, nor a division of interest. This manifest in- terest on the part of the city fathers in making the educational work general and not sectional, for all the county and not a small part of it, is telling for good in various ways. The Monroe high school furnishes at least one-sixth of the teaching force now employed, and when teach- ers' meetings are called, all meet on common ground and work together as one great family. The Monroe High School furnishes, probably, more students for the State University than any school of its size in the State, and as to their preparation for entering college a word may be said. The county superintendent has it from one of the university professors that Monroe sends some of their very best and best prepared students. In fact, the Monroe examinations are considered so thorough that papers with stand- ing marked by Prof. Twining is considered evi- dence enough of the applicant's attainments. For years Monroe has been represented at the State University.

Monroe, Brodhead and Juda are organized on the free high school plan, and thereby receive State aid. The coming year (1885) Albany will be added to the list. The Juda school, under C. F. Cronk, graduated the first class under the grading system for country schools.

This was prior to its being a free high school. Number of school buildings in the county, 131.

Number of teachers required to teach the schools, including Brodhead, 158.

All other villages being under county super- vision, (Brodhead when incorporated, prefer- ring to control her own schools).

The highest number of children of school age ever returned was in 1870, which was 8,988. The lowest number in 1882, 8,133.

It is now known that of the number of chil- dren between the ages of seven and fifteen, more than ninety-five per cent. are in regular at- tendance. Above and below these numbers the attendance is very irregular. Among the for- cign population very few children attend school

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

after "confirmation." Having passed an exam- ination in the "catechism" the education is sup- posed to be completed.

Of the 131 school buildings, ninety-seven are reported as in good repair, and eighty-five are reported as having out-houses in good condition.

The superintendent finds, in his visits, that a majority of the schools are lacking in school apparatus. Particulary is this the case as to reading charts, numeral frames, State maps, etc. No one thing would so forward the work of pri- mary teaching of reading,as a good set of read- ing charts in every school room in the county. They save the time of the teacher, in furnishing lessons already prepared with the best sugges- tions for the proper way of using them. From them children are so taught that they read at once on taking hold of their books, having learned nearly everything from the chart that they find in the first reader. And they make better readers too. Of this the superintendent speaks from actual observation.

What is needed to make the supervision more effective?

After many years of experience in school vis- itation, and looking at superintendents' visits with as little prejudice as possible, the writer, most firmly believes that the principal advan- tage derived from the 200, or thereabouts, visits made yearly, is a knowledge of the capacity of each individual teacher with little power to make a change for the better. The faults and short-comings can only form texts for discus- sion at teachers' meetings, and institutes. No teacher can be changed from a poor, inefficient one, to a good one, with ability to manage in one or half dozen visits. Could every town be made into one school district with some man of intelligence at the head of a town school board to co-operate with the superintendent in making visits, and reporting condition of schools, and planning, with the superintendent, meetings for discussions, suggestions and illustrations of methods, a more beneficial supervision could be obtained. That this may be accomplished in

the near future, together with the establishing of a central high school in every township of our county, is a state of things greatly to be desired.

We cannot close without saying that at all meetings of teachers, the sanitary condition of our school buildings and grounds has received attention commensurate with its importance.

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS:

NAMES. WHEN ELECTED.

William C. Green. 1861

William C. Green. 1863

Edwin E. Woodman* 1865

D. H. Morgan 1867

D H. Morgan 1869

D. II. Morgan 1871

D Il. Morgan. 1873

Thomas C. Richards. 1875

Thomas C. Richards. . . 1877

D. II. Morgan

1879

D. H. Morgan. 1881

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Daniel HI. Morgan.

Daniel II. Morgan, superintendent of schools of Green county, was born in Brecksville, Cny- ahoga Co., Ohio, June 27, 1822. Ilis father, Isaac M. Morgan, was born in Duchess Co., N. Y., May 29, 1777. His father (grand-father of Daniel HI.,) was a physician and graduated at Yale College in 1762. He (Isaac M.,) studied with his father and attended an academy in Connecticut, where he studied the languages. He began the practice of medicine at Pawlings- town, Duchess county, and from there went to Bloomfield, Ontario county, where he practiced until 1818. He then removed to Brecksville, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, where he practiced his profession for thirty years. He died there in August, 1849. He was married in Duchess county in 1800, to Sarah Harris, a native of Berkshire Co., Mass. They were the parents of nine children. The subject of this sketch, Daniel H. Morgan, was the youngest of the family and is the only one now living. He grew to manhood in his native town and there

* Mr. Woodman being absent at the time of his election and subsequently. Mr. Green continued in office during that term.

Al Swinning

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

received his early education in the district school. He afterwards attended five terms in the Brooklyn Academy in Cuyahoga county and at Richfield Academy in Summit county. At the age of nineteen years he engaged in teach- ing school in his native town. He continued teaching there until 1852, when he came to Green Co., Wis., and taught two terms at Mon- roe. He then went to Jordan and purchased an interest in a saw-mill, also an interest in ninety acres of land. He followed agricultural pursuits and worked in the saw-mill there, then sold out and engaged in farming one year, in the town of Sylvester. In the spring of 1858, he bought land on section 36, of Mount Pleas- ant. There were thirteen acres broken, and a

log cabin upon the place at the time of his purchase. He now has the land improved and fenced and other improvements consisting of good, substantial buildings, fruit, shade and ornamental trees. He was married, March 23, 1845, to Cordelia L. Walling, a native of the town of Charlotte, Chittenden Co., Vt., born Sept. 14, 1824. They have six children-Jennie M., Charles, Charlene, Hettie, Richard and Saxton. He was first elected to his present office in 1867, and served eight consecutive years. He was again elected in 1879, since which he has served continuously. He has also served eight years as county surveyor, and one term as register of deeds, in this county.

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BAR -- PAST AND PRESENT.

The history of the bar of any county deals with men who, as a rule, rank high in intelli- gence, and who have been, and are among the most potent forces in shaping its intellectual and social standard. Green county is not an exception to this rule. During the last forty- five years there have been a number of attor- neys who have lived within its limits and prac- ticed law in its courts, who have earned envi- able places in the annals of the county.

THE BAR OF THE PAST.

The following are the names of those who have previously practiced law in Green county, but who are now dead, have moved away, or have retired from the profession :

John A. Bingham, E. T. Gardner, E. E. Bry- ant, Hiram Brown, Hiram Stevens, D. B. Priest, L. Rote, John W. Stewart, Edward Bartlett, Andrew J. Brundage, William C. Fillebrown, G. E. Dexter, A. W. Potter, Moses O'Brien, E. A. West, A. A. Kendrick, M. Kelly, Jr., Thom- as H. Eaton, S. P. Condee, James Bintliff, Joseph Peters, A. Hayward, T. N. Matchin, E. M. Bartlett, R. D. Evans, Charles Goetz, Mor- gan O'Brien, I. F. Mack, D. O. Finch, Geo. W. Cate, I. F. Mack, Jr., John McVean, Ed. T. Gardner, T. HI. F. Passmore, E. M. Clark, E. W. Blakeley, J. A. Patton, W. W. Shephard, W. W. Wright, A. HI. Loucks.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES .* E. T. Gardner.

Elijah Temple Gardner was born April 22, 1811, at Kittery, Maine. His parents, Silas E. Gardner and Huldah Temple Gardner, removed

soon after to Portsmonth, N. H. In 1816 they started for what was then known as the "Far West." They spent the winter of 1816-17 in the Holland Purchase, State of New York, and in the early spring of 1817 removed to Olean Point on the Alleghany river, built a flat boat, and set it afloat, with the whole family, and all their earthly possess- ions on board, proceeded down the river into the Ohio, and thence to Lawrenceburg, where the father died, leaving the family in very des- titute circumstances. The scenery along the Alleghany and Ohio rivers, then a vast wilder- ness made a deep impression on the mind of the boy who so many years after was to work out in another wilderness a destiny for himself.

After the father's death, Huldah managed to get her worldly treasures back to Cincinnati where she was assisted by the Masonic fratern ity, of which her husband was a member. Af- ter remaining in Cincinnati till the summer of 1818 the family removed to Madison Co., Ill. Here young Elijah attended a frontier school seven or eight months.

The rest of his schooling, till his arm grew strong enough to hew down obstacles to pros- perity, was in the great school of adversity, where not one course was left out and where the reviews and examinations were more frequent than the many of to-day are likely to experi- ence. Always fond of books, what time was spared from the drudgery of life was given to reading and meditation by the ambitious and energetic spirit which made a man of the boy. At the age of sixteen friends desired to send him to

*The following named gentlemen bave biographienl sketches to be found elsewhere in this history: John A. Bingham, Brooks Dunwiddie, Iliram Brown.

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

college and educate him for the ministry in the M. E. Church, but being the sole dependence of his mother, his older brother having left home- he preferred to do battle with his muscle and unbridled will. His motto was: "A smooth sea never makes a skillful mariner, and a conra- geous soldier never shuns the battle." It was several years after he came to Illinois that the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were navigated by steamboats, the transportation of freight being by means of "keel boats" and it took them five months in those old times, to make a trip from New Orleans to St. Louis.

In the spring of 1827, having managed to get a team of ponies, young Gardner rented eighteen acres of land, planted it in corn and cultivated it, and during the interim between planting and harvesting he would work out, doing such jobs as he was able, bringing home his earnings which were twenty-five to fifty centsa day. St. Louis was then a small town, but had its attractions. Thither went the young man to get work. He was unsuccessful, and, by chance, while stroll- ing along the levee, saw a boat billed for Galena. Ile hired out to the captain to work his passage way and gave general satisfaction. He always aimed to do his duty. On the route, and when two days below Galena, he was taken sick with fever, and was left at Galena, a stranger and with but seventy-five cents of mon- ey, the captain refusing to pay him the small wages agreed upon. He had some relatives, a half brother and a cousin, somewhere in the mining regions about Galena, whom he had the luck to find the same night that he landed.

By following an Indian trail that led to the mines, he arrived at his relative's cabin at mid- night, so weak that he was obliged to lay down several times on his route to gain a little rest. This was at the close of the Winnebago War. The soldiers had come into Galena under Gen. At- kinson, and as the steamer landed, the soldiers were being discharged. The fever had its run and was followed by the shaking ague, which lasted nearly a year. The next year young

Gardner and his cousin came to the " Platteville Diggings," built a cabin about a mile north of where the beautiful village of Platteville now stands. In this cabin they spent the winter of 1827-28. Being often alone at nights, Gardner spent his time reading by an impro- vised lamp of lard, a rag and a button. His library was limited to a few books, among them the Bible and a history of the United States, a Webster's spelling book, which the young adven- turer came to know most thoroughly.

In those days, the society about the mining regions was " rough and ready," and but little calculated to inspire the culture or intellectual improvement. There were a few among the miners, however, who inclined to the higher level, and a "debating society " was formed, young Gardner being one of the leaders, and he gained quite a reputation as a disputant. He often said that he graduated by the side of a mineral hole. In the fall of 1828, he returned home, across the country ; traveled 250 miles and more, " withont seeing a human habitation." He says he enjoyed this journey "through God's great wilderness, with the songs of birds in the groves, the prairies decorated with the wild flowers. It seemed to me, when I had been wandering alone through those primitive groves, as though I was attended by pure and beautiful 'invisibles,' and I felt an exhilaration that neither my tongue or pen can describe." On his return home he found his little property gone, and so began again. He built his second cabin, moved in, and then began the problem of life from a new hypothesis. In a country where everybody did his own work, had little to employ labor with, and with very modest wants, it was more diffi- cult to solve the problem thrust upon him, than any that Euclid ever propounded. In 1829, the Gardners removed to St. Clair Co., Ill. In the fall of 1831, having been mar- ried in the meanwhile to the estimable woman who bore him faithful company in all his jour- ney through life, he found himself in debt $500, and that too, after working early and late

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at the hardest kind of work-at ox teaming. After disposing of his ox team, he traded a two- year-old colt he owned for some carpenter's tools, and went to Alton, III., to "help build up the town." So well did he succeed that his em- ployer at the end of six weeks settled up with him and allowed him $1 a day; the matter of wages being left entirely with the boss. This was good wages in those days. Settling up his little bills, Mr. Gardner returned home on a visit to his wife and mother. Ile followed the carpenter and joiner trade till 1834, when he had the satisfaction of wiping out the last of the $500, and the interest, 12 per cent. In 1835, he had succeeded so well that he removed his family to Alton, erected a shop and engaged in house building on his own responsibility.

Here he soon established a reputation for promptness, honesty and thoroughness, and his business increased so rapidly that he had to turn away some jobs. Ilis profits often ran up to $200 a month. In 1839, he had the misfor- tune to be sick and unable to work for nearly a year, and came near dying. Twice he visited Wisconsin to improve his health, and was greatly benefitted by his second journey, but on returning home the malady came back. He de- termined to move to Wisconsin in the spring of 1840, and setting out, arrived in Green county on the 10th day of June. Monroe then existed only in name. He built a cabin and saw-mill on the Skinner, eight miles west of the spot where this city now stands, which was then a virgin wilderness. Not a dwelling in sight, and the path of the Indian only served as an indication of the presence of humanity.

This venture required so much hard labor and vigilance that it had to be given up; and shortly after, Mr. Gardner, upon the advice of John A. Bingham, of New Mexico, who proved a friend indeed, engaged in the study and practice of law. Ile succeeded well; and fairly earned the reputation which he enjoyed for so many years, as a conscientious, careful and honest attorney, who regarded his client's interest as his own,

always provided, he could measure his case by the square rule of justice and truth. He has been known to abandon suit and client, when he became convinced that he had been deceived as to the facts in the case. But he never aban doned a case wherein he thought he was right.

Ile was admitted to the bar in 1843, and prac- ticed law until his death, a period of over thirty- five years, in Green county,-having tried many important suits in the State and United States courts. He was appointed justice of the peace, in 1843, by Gov. Dodge, when Wisconsin was a Territory. HIe held public office in various capacities, to his own credit and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. He carried the principles of integrity and industry, aided by experience and good judgment, into public life, and was regarded by all who knew him, as an honest, upright man. He was county clerk for four years, before the township system of col- lecting taxes was adopted. He was district at- torney for six years. He was a member of the last Territorial legislature, and represented the eighth senatorial district in the first State Sen- ate, for two years. He refused a re-nomination and has always preferred to keep out of office when he could do so, without shirking his duty as a citizen. In politics, he was always a dem- ocrat, until James Buchanan was nominated for President; after which, until his death, he had been an enthusiastic republican. During the war he was appointed draft commissioner for this district and discharged his duty faithfully.

He was always an anti-slavery man. He hated tyranny in any form and this made him generous to a fault, even to those who opposed him honestly and fairly. He had charity; he gave freely and made his gifts all the more generous by giving quickly to those who came to him in distress. Many a young man, just starting out in life, engaging in business, will remember his kind words of advice, and ex- pressions of good wishes and hopes for their success. His hand and heart were in every good enterprise that needed or called for his

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assistance, and his deeds bore testimony to his sincerity. His life was filled with interesting incidents and pleasant reminiscences and so thoroughly identified was he with the growth and progress of Green county, and the State, that its history is in part his own epitaph. Many have come and gone from among this community, and children have grown up to manhood's estate, knowing him and respecting him for his many noble qualities, so many to- day mourn with his bereaved family, and loss of one of the noblest of mankind.

Mr. Gardner died near Monroe, on the 3d day of February, 1879. Ilis funeral took place from the residence in Monroe, on the 5th day of February, 1879, at 2 o'clock P. M., and was attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends. Rev. D. R. Howe, in an appropriate and impressive manner, led the services. The Masonic fraternity took charge of the funeral.

John W. Stewart.

It is sometimes a valuable service to the com- munity and the public at large to call attention to strong, able and practical men of the more retiring kind whose example, services, and pos- sibly leadership, it would be much better to have in demand than that of the more forward kind. A man of this retiring kind, strong, able and practical, is Hon. John W. Stewart, for- merly of Monroe, now of Chicago. Few men in Chicago are better known among its active citizenship and leading spirits. A man of ster- ling character, thoroughly acquainted with the ways of men, the public wants, governmental methods and machinery, active, resolute and progressive, men say of him: here is a man who would make a capital head official for almost any important department of public af- fairs-national, State or municipal. All the while such men quietly attending to their own business well out of official range. It is, how- ever, as has just been intimated, well worth while for the public to turn its attention to them ; even if in so doing, attention is entirely withdrawn from other directions. Something

about a man like John W. Stewart is in order and interesting.

The son of Rev. John Stewart, a Methodist minister, who was for fifty years a member of the Ohio conference. Mr. Stewart was born at Vincennes, Ind., in 1822. He is of Scotch blood, pure enough to be a Scotchman, although three generations of his family preceding him were born in this country. On account of the itineracy of his father his early childhood was spent in various places; but what was thus lost was compensated for by quickened powers of perception and observation. At the age of twelve he earnestly solicited the privilege of learning the art of printing. Entering the office of the Times at Troy, Ohio, he remained there for two years, gaining a large amount of practi- cal knowledge, and laying the foundation for his subsequent useful life. After leaving the printing and newspaper office he entered the preparatory department of the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, and subsequently entered Augusta College, Kentucky, where he was a student for three years. In the winter of 1840-1 be obtained permission of his parents to come into the great undeveloped northwest. Arriving at Prairie du Chien by steamer, by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the spring of 1841, he immediately found new friends at Lan- caster, in Grant Co., Wis., and entered the office of Messrs. Barber & Dewey for the purpose of studying law. Shortly afterwards he was ap- pointed deputy clerk of the United States dis- trict court. Soon after this he was appointed postmaster · of Lancaster, which office he held for one year, when he located at Monroe, Green Co., Wis. Here he was admitted to the bar and entered on the practice of law. He also com- menced in this place in May, 1851, the publica- tion of a weekly newspaper, the Monroe Senti- nel, which he disposed of before the close of the first volume. The paper is still one of the leading papers of the State. But Mr. Stewart had formed a distaste for close office work; he had become interested in land speculations

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going on in the new region. In 1846, at the age of twenty-four, he was elected in the large and, for that time, old district composed of Dane, Green and Sauk counties, to the Territorial leg- islature, and elected again to the succeeding and last Territorial legislature as a whig, when the district was largely democratic. In 1860 he was elected to the Senate of the State and was an influential and active participator in the initial war legislation. About this time he was also elected on joint ballot of the legislature a re- gent of the State university for a term of six years. In 1862 he was commissioned by Presi- dent Lincoln, commissioner of allotment for the State of Wisconsin, and in the performance of his official duties visited the greater part of the Wisconsin regiments scattered throughout the east, west and south. He lived in Wiscon- sin in all twenty-nine years.

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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 52

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