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 53

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 53

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In 1869 he moved to Chicago, and has here become one of its most substantial and influen- tial citizens. Against his inclinations and wishes he was taken up by some enthusiastic friends and elected alderman of the fourth ward, and served with distinction as an active member of the "reform city council" during the term of Mayor Health. He was the originator among other important measures of the aboli- tion and re-organization of the board of public works and the health department of the city, and of the initial steps for building the City Hall. In 1878 he was elected county commis- sioner of Cook county, from the city district, by a majority of 7,796. He was chairman of the county board in 1879-80. Concerning the long public career of Mr. Stewart one fact can be recorded which can scarcely be claimed for the record of any other man of equal promi- nence and whose public services have been so long and varied: Of the thousands of votes which he has recorded as a member of various legislative and other deliberative bodies never has there the slightest ground for fault or criti cism been found when time has been given to weigh the results of his votes and the reasons

which determined the way in which they were cast. So careful, deliberate, conscientious and discreet has he always been in discharging the public duties, and serving the public interests committed to his hands.

Mr. Stewart was a whig of the Henry Clay school before the organization of the republican party, of which he has been a member ever since. Of both these parties he has several times been a member of the State central com- mittee in Wisconsin.

Mr. Stewart has also been a sagacious and successful business man. Ile is a man of broad, hearty and most generous nature. Conscientious and resolute, of the strongest integrity, with enlarged practical ideas of life, he is a genial, affable gentleman of unostentatious habits and life who delights greatly in his family and home, besides being a man of broad, enlight- ened views and large public spirit.

Edwin E. Bryant,

of Madison, was born in the town of Milton, Vt., Jan. 10, 1835; received an academic educa- tion and was two years at the New Hampton Institute, supporting himself by teaching or working on a farm; left Vermont in 1856 and went to Buffalo, N. Ys, as reporter on the Buf- falo Courier; came to Wisconsin in 1857; fin- ished a course of reading law in Janesville, and went to Monroe, where he commenced practice in 1858. During the campaign of 1860 he was partner and one of the editors of the Monroe Sentinel. In May, 1861, he entered the military service as a private; was Ist lieutenant and adju- tant of the 3d regiment, Wisconsin Infantry; served in Virginia, participating in the battles of Bolivar Heights, Va., Oet. 16, 1861; Win- chester, May 1862; Cedar Mountain, Ang. 9, 1862; and the several engagements of Pope's campaign in Virginia; Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862; Hooker's battle of Chancellorsville, May 2 and 3, 1863; Beverly Ford, Va., June 5, 1863; Gettys- burg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863; Falling Water, July 14, 1863; was in brigade sent from the field to suppress the draft riots; went west with

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

Hooker's corps in October, 1863, and joined the Army of the Cumberland; served there till July 1, 1864; was then appointed commissioner of enrollment of the third district of Wisconsin July 1, 1864; served as such till February, 1865; then returned to the field as lieutenant- colonel of the 50th regiment, Wisconsin Vol- unteers; was in western Missouri in pursuit of guerillas when hostilities closed; was then de- tailed as judge advocate of a military commis- sion at headquarters, department of Missouri, to try the boat burners employed by the confed- erate government to fire the shipping on the Mississippi river; completing this duty he re- signed his commission and returned to Monroe and resumed the practice of law in April, 1866; was president of the board of directors of public schools in Monroe from 1866 to 1868; removed to Madison in 1868; was private secretary to Gov. Lucius Fairchild from 1868 till the close of his term in 1872; was chairman of the board of supervisors of the town of Madison in 1871; was adjutant-general of Wisconsin in 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1876, 1877, 1878 to 1882; was member of the legislature in 1878 and chairman of the assembly committee on the Revision of the Statutes, in which capacity he assisted in the work of incorporating the laws of 1878 into the revision, and bringing out the statutes. He was in partnership with Col. William F. Vilas in the practice of law from 1872 till 1882; as- sisted in the revision and annotation of eighteen volumes of the Supreme Court reports, pre- pared the thirty-seventh volume for publication, and, with J. C. Spooner, published a compilation of town laws in 1869. In 1884 he brought out a Treatise on the Civil and Criminal Jurisdic- tion of Justices of the Peace in the State of Wisconsin, being a work in the nature of Cow- en's treatise on the same subject. In 1883 he purchased an interest in the Madison Democrat, prompted thereto by desire to devote himself to literature. journalism and the writing of books on legal topics.

Edmund Bartlett.

Few men have had a more varied and adven- turous experience than the subject of this sketch, and the necessarily condensed and incom- plete record of the leading events of his life read more like fiction than a chapter from real life. Aside from the thrilling character of its personal narrative, the sketch possesses peculiar interest and value, as furnishing, incidentally, an authentic history of the rapid rise, the reck- less and depraved character of the class of men and women who throng to the frontier settle- ments of the west. The moralist and historian may herein find much material on which to em- ploy their respective vocations.

Edmund Bartlett was born in Northampton, Mass., Oct. 4, 1822, and is the son of Edmund Morris and Laura (Randall) Bartlett, the for- mer a native of the same town, the latter of Worthington, Berkshire Co., Mass. His father was born July 25, 1795, was a soldier of the War of 1812, entering as a private and passing through the intermediate grades to the rank of first ser- geant. He subsequently took much interest in military matters, became an enthusiastic student of military tactics, and was afterward colonel of a regiment of Massachusetts Light Infantry, at the head of which ' he escorted Gen. LaFay- ette into Northampton in the last visit of the distinguished nobleman to the United States, (1824). He was a very active, consistent and useful member of the Congregational Church from boyhood till his death, and was recognized by all classes as a leader in every good work. He was a diligent reader of history, and, with a tenacious memory, acquired an extensive knowl- edge of its general details. He was also a man of remarkable industry and enterprise, and gen- erous and noble in all his impulses. In 1832 he removed with his family to Ohio, and set- tled in the township of Brecksville, Cuyahoga county, some twelve miles south of Cleveland- at that time a wilderness-and known as the "Western Reserve;" but Col. Bartlett was a strong and resolnte man, and with his ax he

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soon subdued the forest, and made his farm of 180 acres one of the best and most highly culti- vated in that section of the country, with an orchard of over 1,000 of the choicest varieties of apple trees, besides smaller fruits in abundance. He was for several years president of the coun- ty agricultural society, and was well known throughout the region for his valuable efforts to advance the agricultural and horticultural interests of his neighborhood. Ilis intimate friends and associates included such men as Hon. Louis P. Harvey, late governor of Wis- consin; Prof. E. H. Nevin; Hon. E. S. Hamlin; Hon. John C. Vaughan, editor of the "Cleve- land Leader;" Prof. Jared P. Kirtland, Cleve- land Medical College, celebrated as a lecturer on agricultural chemistry and as a scientist; and others. In politics he was raised a whig, but on the dissolution of that organization affili- ated with the free-soilers; and later became iden- tified with the republican party.

On the 6th day of December, 1821, he mar- ried Laura Randall, a lady of superior educa- tion and many accomplishments, who was born July 2, 1795. Before her marriage she moved in the society of which William Cullen Bryant was a member, and was well acquainted with that distinguished poet, many of whose youthful sayings and doings she well remembers, and can at this period (December 1876) relate in the most intelligent and interesting manner. The fruit of this marriage was two children-Ed- mund, the subject of this sketch, and Lucy B., wife of W. W. Wright, Esq., of Monroe, Wis. Col. E. M. Bartlett and wife followed their children to Wisconsin, where the former died at Monroe, April 24, 1868; the latter, at the age of over eighty-one years, is in good health and in full posession of all her mental faculties.

Mr. Bartlett claims lineal descent from Adam Bartlett, a Norman gentleman and an officer in the army of William the Conqueror, who ac- companied that monarch to England, fought under him at Hastings, and was subsequently

granted a large tract of land (entailed estate) in Stopham, Sussex county, England, which re- mains in the possession of his descendants to this day, having passed to them in the regular order of primogeniture; the present head of the family being Col. Walter Bartlett, a member of the British parliament. Robert Bartlett, a younger scion of that family, sailed from Eng- land in the ship Ann, in the year 1623, and landed at Plymouth, Mass., in July of that year.

He subsequently married Mary Warren, daughter of Richard Warren, and from that union our subjeet is descended. John Bartlett a member of the Sussex family, received dis- tingnishing honors from the "Black Prince," for his capture of the castle of Fontenoy in France at the head of the Sussex troops. Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was from the same ancestry, as was also Richard Bartlett of Newbury- port, Mass., a representative in the colonial legislature, 1679-80-81-84. The grandfather of our subject was Preserve Bartlett, also a native of Northampton, Mass. who married Mary Parsons, from whose family sprung Theophilus Parsons, L. L. D., the author of "Parsons on Contracts," and other valuable standard law books.

Until ten years of age Edmund Bartlett en- joyed all the educational advantages of his native England village, was a good reader and declaimer, and had made considerable proficien cy in Murray's grammar and other studies; but for several years after his removal to the wilds of the then "Far West," he had very few edu- cational advantages. The schools of that day in the "backwoods" were generally presided over by incompetent teachers, while their terms were limited to three months in the winter. During one of those terms the "master" each day detailed a squad of the boys to practice the manly art of "self-defense," wrestling and other physical exercises, which, rude and barba- rous though they may seem to the present gener- ation, were not without beneficial results to the

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muscular system. The other exercises con- sisted of reading, spelling and declamation. The schools, however, improved with the coun- try, and subsequently teachers were generally more competent; but the only academic advan- tages our subject enjoyed were about six months attendance at an institution presided over by the Rev. Samuel Bissell, at Twinsburg, in Sum- mit Co., Ohio. But he was a diligent stu- dent and delighted in literary pursuits, and studied at home, aided by his parents, especially his mother. At the age of sixteen he procured elementary works in the Greek and Latin lan- guages, which he studied with great avidity under the direction of the Rev. Newton Bar- rett, a learned Congregational minister of his town. He studied in the field and in the forest; wherever he went, or in whatever labor engaged, a book was his constant companion. At the age of eighteen he commenced teaching school, and for twelve consecutive years taught not less than three months each year and became one of the most thorough and accomplished scholars of his day, whose talents would have shed luster upon any profession or avocation upon which they might have been concentrated. On May 23, 1844, he married Catharine A. Righter, and turned his attention to farming, an occupa- tion at which he continued for ten years. In the spring of 1854 he removed his family to Monroe, Wis., expecting to continue farm- ing, but being governed by circumstances, he clerked for a time in the office of the register of deeds, and in the year following became deputy clerk of the circuit court, and in the fall of 1856 was elected to the position of clerk of the circuit court, which office he filled till the end of 1858. Ile next served two years as cashier of the Monroe Banking Company, and in 1861 was appointed postmaster of Monroe by Abraham Lincoln, his commission, which was signed by Montgomery Blair, bearing date April 15 of that year.

Having devoted his spare time to professional reading while clerk of the circuit court, he was,

on March 6, 1860, admitted to the bar of the State, and subsequently licensed to practice in the United States courts. In January, 1861, Gov. A. W. Randall, in anticipation of the threatened rebellion, commenced organizing the militia of the State, and presented to Mr. Bart- lett a colonel's commission; and in the latter part of that year, and during nearly all of 1862, he canvassed the counties of southern Wiscon- sin, making patriotic speeches, and under a re- cruiting commission enlisting men in the ser- vice, until the work of obtaining recruits be- came difficult, and men expressed a strong re- pugnance to being asked to enter the ser- vice by those who were themselves staying at home. Col. Bartlett then pledged himself to enlist as a private soldier, and at once wrote the following patriotic and self-sacrificing let- ter to the postmaster-general:

SIR :- I have long chafed under the restraints of home and official responsibilities, and desired to be among the number of those who are plucking honors from the points of rebel bayo- nets. I can endure it no longer. I therefore respectfully tender to you my resignation of the office of postmaster at Monroe, and recommend the appointment of D. W. Ball as my successor.

His resignation was accepted and the appoint- ment made as recommended, and on Feb. 17, 1863, he enlisted as a private soldier in com- pany B, 31st Wisconsin Volunteers, and on March 1, 1863, marched with his regiment into Dixie's land. Ile served faithfully and well to the close of the war, and was honorably mus- tered out of the service in May, 1865, never having been home during the entire period. He was appointed and served for several months as captain of company L, 3d United States Heavy Artillery. After his return from the war he was employed as book-keeper for a large commission house in Chicago, which posi- tion he held but a short time, when he was in- duced "to take the stump" in behalf of Gen. Ed. W. Salomon, republican candidate for the office of clerk of Cook county, and addressed

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

the people on the political issues of the day in every ward and preeinet of the city of Chicago. Gen. Salomon was elected, and our subject be- came his chief clerk. About the same time, however, he received overtures from the quar- termaster and commanding officer of the troops stationed at Julesburg, in Colorado, to accept the position of chief clerk of the quartermaster's department of that post, and being fond of ad- venture, and desirous of seeing the country, he accepted the flattering offer, and in November, 1865, removed to Fort Sedgwick, a military post just established on the south bank of the Platte, and adjacent to the "ranch" of Jules Bernard, in Colorado, and named Julesburg. The original town consisted of only three or four sod houses, used as telegraph offices and stables of the Overland Stage Company. IIe entered at once upon his duties in the quarter- master's department, where he continued for about a year and a half; and during that time he traveled more tha 2,000 miles on horseback, his only companion being a scout in the employ of the government-through a country swarm- ing with hostile Indians, visiting nearly every military post between Idaho and the Missouri river, and collecting material for reports re- quired by the government. These journeys were full of wild adventures and hair-breadth escapes from the Indians. He traveled nearly all the summer of 1866 with his single compan- ion, stopping occasionally at ranches or mili- tary posts over night, but generally camping out. It had been customary to accompany such expeditions by a military escort of twenty- five men, but his experienced scout considered that they would be safer alone, dispensed with the escort. In July, 1867, when the Union Pacific Railroad had arrived within four miles of Fort Sedgwick, Mr. Bartlett left the quarter- master's department for the purpose of embark- ing in trade in the new and notorious city of Julesburg-where in the preceding April he had killed the timid antelope, and where no signs of human habitation appeared-now a city

of over 1,200 houses, with a population of 6,000 inhabitants. It was the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad, and there all goods in transit for the Pacific States and Territories, military posts and mining towns west of that place, must be unloaded from the train and transported to destination by mule and ox teams. The busi- ness transacted was immense. Hundreds of portable buildings were brought from Omaha; many were of adobe, many of sod, and scores of people carried on an extensive and profitable business under canvas tents. There were no family residences, as few men would dare to take a family to such a place. There were many high-minded, honorable men engaged in legitimate business, but the city was crowded with saloons, gambling houses and bagnios, and pickpockets, thieves, murderers and despera- does of the worst kind flocked there from every part of America. The original ranch of Jules Bernard was known to be in Colorado, but near the line separating that Territory from the State of Nebraska, but it was not at this time known to any one in which Territory the pres ent Julesburg was located. It was at first a city without a government, laws or officers to protect those engaged in business, and it was found absolutely necessary to adopt some measures of safety and protection. The busi- ness men of the town therefore held a meeting and adopted ordinances for the government of the city, and resolutions pledging themselves to such taxation as should be necessary to sustain an efficient city government. They elected a mayor and a council of five members, a clerk and treasurer. A vigilance committee of 150 members was also organized. The mayor was empowered to appoint such number of police- men as he might deem necessary, and draw ad libitum upon the treasurer for their payment, amenable only to the people for an abuse of his power and punishable by removal. He was also declared ex-officio judge of the police court. The first mayor was a gentleman named Cook, but he soon retired from the office, and Mr.

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

Bartlett, who had become conspicuous among the "vigilants," was appointed his successor. An arrangement was effected with the com- manding officer at Fort Sedgwick by which, in the event of resistance to the constituted au- thorities, the aid of troops could be procured. But the military authorities, while sustaining the city government in the protection of busi- ness and in maintaining order, would permit the exercise of no civil function by that organi- zation; hence there were no means of enforcing contracts or collecting debts if parties con- cerned refused to pay.

Mr. Bartlett at once entered upon the duties of his office,increasing force to twenty-five, agreeing to pay each man $125 per month, and otherwise improved the apparatus of government. caused a log jail to be erected, and kept a well armed guard around it day and night. Rioting and murder were of daily occurrence, and he was compelled to hold court seven days of the week. The punishment of all but capital of- fenses was by fine and imprisonment, but in case of murder the culprit was ordered to be imprisoned till the United States marshal at Denver or Omaha could be notified; the vigil- ants, however, generally disposed of him the first night, so that the marshal was in a great measure relieved. By fines the mayor collected money enough to defray nearly all the expenses of the city government, so that resort to taxa- tion was seldom necessary. A single case will suffice as an illustration of the character of those brought before him for trial, and his man- ner of administering justice. His court room was a rough board building 20x50 feet. Be- hind a rough table sat the judge upon a rough bench. Around his waist was a belt, hanging from which were two heavy Colt's revolvers. Two desperadoes, named Jack Hayes and "Shorty," arrived in the city from Cheyenne, and soon made their presence known by rioting among the saloons and gambling houses, de- stroying property, discharging their revolvers, threatening life, and assaulting and maltreating

several persons, and 'swearing they would kill any man who attempted to arrest them. The two roughs were soon brought before the mayor, however, in charge of half a dozen stout police- men. They had a large number of friends and sympathizers in the city, over fifty of whom were in the court room, each heavily armed with knives and revolvers; threats were freely made that the prisoners should never pay a fine nor go to jail. The vigilants were also present in considerable force, and well armed. The judge summoned a jury of business men, per- mitted the defendants to be heard by counsel, examined a large number of witnesses, and gave them a fair trial. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, whereupon the judge arose, with a cocked revolver in each hand, and proceeded to render the judgment of the court, which was that each pay a fine of $250, and be imprisoned until the fine and costs were made. Revolvers were drawn all over the room, but the judge coolly added: "I have heard your threats and understand your intentions, and if you are dis- posed to resist the execution of the sentence, the best time for you to commence is now, and the best place is here; and I give you notice that there is room enough in the sand-hills for every man of you. Police, remove these pris- oners to the jail." Over 200 revolvers were in the hands of those present, but not a shot was fired, and the prisoners were removed to jail. In less than two hours they had paid their fines and were at large again. In a short time they returned to Cheyenne, and were soon after hung by the vigilants for murder.

. The mayor did not often find it necessary to telegraph to the fort for troops. On one occa- sion a detachment of cavalry dashed into the city and reported to him for orders half an hour from the time be dispatched for them. At an- otlier time a company of infantry in army wagons drawn by mules reported within an hour.

In November, 1867, Mr. Bartlett, having re- ceived intelligence of the dangerous illness of

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his father, hastily returned to Monroe, and in the following spring opened a law office, and continued in the successful practice of his pro- fession until the autumn of 1869, when he re- ceived a flattering offer to edit a republican newspaper at Thibodeaux, the capital of La- fourche parish, in the State of Louisiana, which he accepted, repaired to the place and entered upon his labors. A republican press association was organized at New Orleans while he was editing the Lafourche Republican-the first or- ganization of the kind in Louisiana-of which he was made secretary. In April, 1870, he re- signed the editorial chair to accept a situation in the New Orleans custom house, but during the summer, his health failing, he resigned his position, returned to Monroe, and after a season of sickness resumed the practice of his profes- sion. In 1874 he was again elected clerk of the circuit court of Green county, and re-elected in 1876, and now holds that office.

In January, 1857, he received the first de- grees in Masonry, by dispensation, and soon af- ter took all the chapter degrees. He has several times been elected master of Smith Lodge, No 31, F. & A. M., located at Monroe. He is also an Odd Fellow; received the degrees of the subordinate lodge in 1855, and has passed all the chairs in Monroe Lodge, No. 72. He also received the encampment degrees in Odd Fellowship. He is not a member of any Church organization, but holds to the orthodox faith, and is generous in his contributions to religious and benevolent objects. In personal appearance Mr. Bartlett is what may be called a fine look- ing man-fair complexion,sanguine countenance, with brown hair and hazel eyes, five feet nine inches in height, good breadth of shoulders, measuring forty-two inches around the chest, and weighing 185 pounds. Reared as he was, in the backwoods, he excelled in all athletic sports; he was swift of foot, and found but few equals at wrestling and all the various muscular efforts to which youth is addicted. He is a su- perb horseman, and most fearless and daring

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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 53

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