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 93

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 93

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HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY.

coal by the principal of the high school at Mil- ton. There coming a rain soon after, filled his well with water to within three or four feet of the top, and there ended the fame of that well.

"Mr. Holmes, west of Mr. Philips, dug a well a little way from his present house, and at, or near the bottom, some twenty-five to twenty- eight feet, he found some splinters of wood, grass roots, and the appearance of that place being once the surface of the ground.

" Julius Hulburt, (I think, if not him, some one near by), in digging a well, found, as told me, about thirty feet below the surface, a root of some tree, laying in a nearly horizon- tal position about the size of a man's wrist. I had a piece of it for some time. (There were several black walnut pièces.) Another report . was of a person digging a well somewhere near Footville, when some twenty-five or more feet down, he came across a stick of wood laying across the well a little one side of the middle of the well, and about eight to ten inches in diameter, partly decayed. When at a later day I was living at Attica, there was on my land there a limestone quarry, and in breaking through pieces of sound rock, we once in a while found pieces of good galena or lead ore of different sizes-one piece I saw about as large as a hen's egg and somewhat of that form; the stone was broke so as to leave about one half of the ore in each part of the stone. How and when did it get there ? Echo an- swers, how did it get there ? The petrifactions of the Mollusk tribe are too common about there for me to say anything about, but will barely mention that at a time Thomas Fenton's hired man, while plowing west of his house, plowed up the image of a duck carved out of hard flint like stone, and gracefully formed as any live duck and neatly polished. Mr. Fen- ton's brother from Ohio took it back with him with a promise of return, and if he returned it, I was to have it. I never got it. Perhaps Dr. Person's widow knows about it, or possibly has

it .* I at one time found in the road going toward Madison, a little north of Mr. McLaughlin's, a piece of native copper, weighing between one quarter and one half a pound, and have it yet. Another piece was found, before that, not far from Francis Stockburn's, weighing about eight pounds, and afterward sold to a tin-peddler for some forty to fifty cents.

"We will now change the matter. The first wedding in Albany was of Mr. Holmes before spoken of, and celebrated at Mr. Eldred's, the second one between Benjamin Broughton and Hannah Valentine at my house, in 1846, in both of which the writer acted the part of the grand mogul. The third one, I think, was be- tween Daniel Baxter and Jeanette Nichols. Of other and further weddings, this deponent saith not. If anything more is required to be known about the Baxter wedding, call on Adi Whitcomb.

"Following events reveals an instance of meanness that has scarcely a parallel, in which your honor was made an unwilling actor. I allude to that cnss who entered a part or the whole of claims improved by their owners. He, like some others I know of, pretended to all vir- tue, but practiced all sin- - so far as he knew, by first staying on your free generosity for a few days, and then snake like, turned around and entered a portion of your claim, if I recollect aright, also a part of D. Smiley's, Erastus Hulburt's, all of Price Hill's, claim forty acres, and I think some of Samuel Bagley's, but after one year, he sent a stool-pigeon from Rockford to come and sell you the land.

"After consulting together, the persons who had their claims taken, or a part thereof, went to Monroe to try and make some arrangements by which they could recover their land again, and your humble servant was also one of the party. When at Monroe we found that the stool pigeon had a valid power of attorney to convey the land in question. His first price we could not think of paying, and after arguments *It is now in the Cleveland Ohio'Museum.

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and statements pro and con, getting him to lower the price several times, till it was thought best to comply with his reduced offer. We then began to cast about for the money, and suc- ceeded in making a raise. But some of the people of Monroe who sympathized with us, thought it would only be right to pay him some of the "queer," and as we had a right to con- sider that the people of Monroe knew better than what we did in the county as to what was the just rule of morals between him and us, and they actually furnished us some $8 to $10 worth of the "queer," by count, which he packed off, and I never heard any one say bnt that is morally right to thus take the advice of the citizens of Monroe in the matter. God bless them."

ORLEANS, Neb., March 2, 1884

"Well, here it goes again. Being somewhat crowded as to time, I forgot some things, as some folks will do, and first I will say that I have a stone pipe supposed to be an Indian relic, found near Sugar river by Mr. Fenton, on the north part of the town of Albany; color of stone, red and hard; bowl of pipe about one inch long, and stem of same length-no com- parison to a large sized meerschaum pipe of the present day. I also have a stone about three inches long, of an oval form, with ends cut off. It has a hole through it near one end, and is counter-sunk on both sides, and about one-fourth of an inch in thickness, or a little over; the ends cut off square and beveled on both sides; stone hard, of a light brown color. And I have seen two other ones here, of a like description and similar rock, one a little larger than mine, and one a little smaller. Have never seen any other rock of a similar kind. I also have two round and flat pieces of flint rock, of a dark color, except some lighter cloudy parts, one stone about six and a half inches in diame- ter, the other about five inches in diameter, and say one and a fourth inches thick at the center, and then becoming thinner to near or quite the side. It appears to have its shape or form by

scaling off pieces from the sides, leaving them somewhat irregular, breaking as all or most all flints do. They were found by Benjamin Swan- cutt near where he lived, and he gave them to me. What their use, I cannot conceive. Per- haps others can tell.

"The year I first moved into Green county (1842), Mrs. Robert Taylor, living in the very west part of Rock county, on the road from Decatur to Janesville, almost weekly for some time would take a pail of butter on her arm, with cool grass on top of the pail, and carry it on foot to Exeter, and sell it and return home, making a journey of sixteen miles, more or less, each way. My wife would frequently have tea about the time Mrs. Taylor got back, and they took tea together. If such acts of Mrs. Taylor do not fulfill the old adage of "l'ime, patience and perseverance overcome all things,' I no not know where to find such.

"There was another incident I desire to say something about. In early times there was a mail route from Janesville to Mineral Point by way of Monroe. The mail carrier's name was Mr. Downs. But at a certain time, say in 1840 or 1841, in coming from Mineral Point to Janes- ville, coming to the Sugar river east of Decatur, he found the stream so much swollen as to pre- vent his crossing, and he turned back to John Moore's, about one and a half or two miles, where he put up for the night; and he found there Charles Stevens, who kept the only hotel in Janesville, and who had been to Galena for some groceries. In the morning they started for Janesville, but found Sugar bank, or over bank, full of water, with anchor ice and other pieces of ice running quite freely. But they attempted to cross, and the mail carrier depos- ited his mail bag on Mr. Stevens' load, and hitched his horse to the hind end of the wagon, pulling off his pants and boots to keep the mail company. They undertook to cross, but the current and shape of the ford prevented their making the outcome aright, the team being drifted down stream some, but the mail carrier

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got across by jumping ashore when the wagon was near the bank, but with difficulty. Mr. Stevens got back to the ford, and barely man- aged to get out of the river on its west side, and the mail carrier on the east side, with no house between there and Janesville, for which he started in his stocking feet and a pair of drawers on-ground frozen and a cool wind. He finally, before the day was gone, came to Janesville; but on the west side of the river there was no house, and the ice running so much in Rock river, with the height of the water. prevented their crossing to get him, but told him to go down to Judge Holmes', about one-half or three-fourths of a mile down the river, which he did, introducing to two young daughters of the judge's family, sans boots and pants. Here he staid several days, their guest, with frost bitten limbs."

ORLEANS, NEB., March 24, 1884.

"Yours of a late date received yesterday, and in answer I begin by saying that I thought, and still think there are others in your vicinity who are better able, both by talent and a better knowledge of the early part of the residence of R. Folsom than I have, but at your request will say something. I think that when I first knew anything about him he was living or staying about Mr. Thompson's, Justus Sutherland's and others in that neighborhood ; though he built (if I have been informed aright) a sort of a shanty near, or at the spring on the road to Monroe, not far beyond Mr. Sutherland's, in a south westerly direction, where he would lay in wait for deer that came there to drink. Don't know if he absolutely killed any, though he made some fair reports of badly wounding some. Probably others can correct this as to facts, and if so, get them to do it by all means. Now I wish to refer you to John Broughton and Stephen Eldred for correction of facts, dates and names. Mr. Broughton and Mr. El- dred were threshing in the winter of 1842-3, at Capt. Hulburt's, south or southwest of the afore- spoken spring about half or three-quarters of

a mile-threshing with flails for a share of the grain; the floor they used they must describe if anything different from the threshing floor so famous near where King Solomon built his temple at Jerusalem. According to my memory from Mr. Broughton's statement, Reuben was stopping there and hunting, and to get the family up so as to get breakfast, so that he could go out hunting by daylight, he would get up by 3 or 4 o'clock, and go towards the hen- house, and there begin to crow lustily, and the roosters in the henhouse would set up a general crowing, but could not beat Reuben. That worked like a charm for a few days, giving him time to hunt and the threshers more time to thresh their grain in. But the crowing dodge did not last but a few days.

"One day Reuben went out with his dog and gun in regal style, and after no long time he shot at a deer, and at night reported the deer badly wounded, and at any rate Reuben and his dog followed the deer that day, there being some crust on the snow, and the chase came so near that the threshing party could see it. Reuben would cut corners off so as to be in advance of the dog sometimes, and then the deer, by some turning, would give the dog a fair chance again. He and the dog barking nearly alike might have sometimes deceived the deer. At night he came in and made a good report that the deer had bled profusely, and was weak and could hardly ever get up again. Reuben, next morn- ing remembering the adage that the early bird was the one who got the worm, was after his deer in good season, and the chase continued as the day before, till 2 or 3 p. M., when the deer ex- hausted, Reuben came up and killed it with a club, but on close examination no break of the skin could be found except on one of the fore legs below the knee which might or might not have been made by the ball. These are the statements of the case as related to me by Mr. Broughton, not long after the event.

"It is said that every person has a penchant for something, and if properly cultivated will make

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the owner famous in that particular. I think Reuben's must have been hunting, and the climax was reached by killing wolves. At least he 'beat all of my first wife's relations in that way.' William Webb can tell you something about his penchant for wolves. I am sorry that I could not give a better and more extended de- tail of his career as a wolf hunter.

"I will here make some further statement rela- tive to the year when the snow was deep and fodder became scarce. I was clean out, say by the 20th of February, or before, with sixty-three head of cattle old and young. James Campbell told me he had some straw under the snow where he threshed in the fall previous, and that I might have that and welcome, and could take my cattle there to eat it, and he would take no pay for it although offered. I accordingly drove my cattle there; but the next day about noon he told me they could not stay there longer than that night at any rate. I then went to John Dawson's and got a chance to dig out the straw at his threshing floor for my cattle to which place I drove my cattle ; and here let me say that there was one of the best Christian families I ever met with. Him, his wife and Ed. Fleck. When that straw was gone I got hold of a little money and went down to Mr. Bowen's, some six or eight miles south west of Monroe, and bought some corn for my cattle, at twenty-five cents per bushel, but the snow was so deep and the roads drifted so full as to make them higher than the snow on either side, and I could not get my cattle to work, as they would crowd each other off the track. After upset- ting some two or three times, I hired a man by the name of Starr and gave nim a sow to draw me up about three loads of twenty bushels each load of ears. With that and cutting burr-oak trees for the cattle to browse upon, I carried my stock then on hand, through, and in May began to kill some and take the meat to Exeter; sell what I could there, and then on to Madison, where I usually arrived on or before sunrise; sell what meat I could for from two to four cents

per pound, and then start for home, usually get- ting near Belleville to stay over night, and next day home. Chose rather to do that way than to have a visit from the sheriff. This I done, driving cattle for the team, till the first of July when I sold my team in Madison, and left off carrying meat to Madison.

"Exeter at that time, and for a time after was our postoffice address and our place for holding elections including the now town of Albany as a part of Exeter precinct."

ORLEANS, Neb., March 24, 1884.

"I think of one more fact that may have some interest for the history of Green county. It is this. Perhaps you will remember an oak tree of large size standing close by the spring, on the south side of it, into which a swarm of my bees went (into a limb). The tree was so near the house that if blown over in the right direction

would strike the dwelling pretty hard, and I cut it down, say in 1838, for safety and bees and honey. When near the cen- ter, say when the tree might be ten, or possi- bly twelve inches in diameter, I found old ax marks and a part of an upper chip, in the tree, after counting the consecutive rings from there outward, I found them to be 184, showing the mark to have been made 184 years previous."

The following interesting reminiscence of one of the pioneer settlers of Green county was written by H. B. Jobes, a well known citizen of this town:

"The history of Green county would be in- complete without mention of Reuben Fulsom, one of the early pioneers of the county, famil- iarly known and recognized by the first settlers as 'Old Reuben' the hunter, who came from the State of New York, and settled in Green county about the year 1842. There was noth- ing remarkable nor preposessing in the make-up of this strange individual that should single him out as more noted than his fellow man, but his eccentricities and peculiar mode of living gave him notoriety, and his success in his chosen pursuit, soon made him famous as a daring and

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sagacious hunter. But little is known of his early history. His ancestry are reputed as highly respectable-a brother having attained celebrity in the practice of medicine. Though not strictly confined to the chase, having per- formed odd jobs of work from time to time, living here and there, principally, however, in the neighborhood of Albany. Still it. was natural for him to hunt, and his happiest mno- ments would seem to be when he was on the trail with dog and gun. Disappointed hopes and blighted love it has been thought led him to lead the life of a partial recluse and to become an habitue of the woods and caves, gaining a livelihood in the traffic of furs and scalps of wild beasts. Kind and hospitable people gave him shelter and a home when the inclemency of the weather rendered it impracticable for him to follow his chosen pursuit, but when everything was favorable he was off on the trail, and the scalps of captured denizens of the forest would do honor to the wigwams of many a brave.

"From Mrs. F. Lewis we learn that he was a hunter at five years of age. His education was limited. One day while at school, he saw from the window, a fox, making tracks across an ad- joining field. Without excuse or leave of ab- scence he rushed from the room with a whoop, and after the fox with his favorite dog, and succeeded in capturing the fox. This completed his education and he was free to pursue the, to him, more pleasant calling. Reuben was three times married. The marriage ceremony was performed the fourth time but the process was afterwards found to be illegal and the con- tracting parties agreeing to disagree took differ- ent paths in life; Reuben seeking a home in the west. In an early day when the country was sparsely populated, game was more abundant than at the present time; wild deer made this section their favorite haunt, until the rapacity 'of over greedy huntsmen thinned them out and drove the remainder further north. Wolves were quite numerous in those days, and were a source

of great annoyance to settlers, especially stock raisers whose flocks became decimated by oft repeated raids. As a means of ridding the country of a miserable pest, bounties were offered for the scalps of these animals. This stimulated our hunter to carry on a war of ex- termination by which to realize on that class of booty. He was measurably successful in thin- ning out a portion of these destructive animals, probably to a greater extent than most men of his time.

"He seemed to live and move in a world of wolves, became wolfish in nature, looked and talked like a wolf. He could outwalk any ordinary man, taking great strides as though some phantom form was dogging his footsteps. A story is told of Reuben in connection with early reminiscences of the county. If not an adept, our old friend was not slow at the game of poker. On one occasion he was invited to take a hand with one of our prominent bankers, who was suspicioned by him of tricking with the cards. As the game progressed, without a word of warning, he jumped to his feet and with a well directed blow tumbled banker, mer- chant and table and all in promiscuous con- fusion on the floor.

"Tradition has it that Reuben was partial to young wolves,as the scalps secured by him were mostly of that class, from which we infer that he had a keen eye to the future in the exigency of supply and demand. This may account in part for the lingering traces of a subdued but by no means extinct species. Be this as it may, how- ever, it can truly be said of Old Reuben, the hunter, he was a harmless, inoffensive man whose sum of usefulness would over-balance all the harm he ever did.

"On the left bank of Little Sugar river to the northwest of the village of Albany may be found the cave, which has become historical as 'Reuben's Cave'-a hollow cavern in the mas- sive rocks where slept the hero of our tale many a lone night through, while round him prowled the wolves. Time whitened his locks as. the

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years went by, and the once elastic step, en- feebled, bore him to that home which charity had kindly provided for the unfortunate of earth. Years have passed since the veteran hunter passed from earthly scenes, but the in- cidents of his life and early exploits are still fresh in the memory of the old settlers of Green county."

VILLAGE OF ALBANY.

This is the third village in importance in Green county. It is located on section 28, of the town of Albany, on the banks of Sugar river. A branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, extending from Brodhead connects Albany with the main line of railway, and affords excellent shipping facilities. The Sugar river at this point furnishes a valuable water power, which is now fully utilized and improved. About the village lies some of the most valuable farming and stock raising lands in Wisconsin. The farmers, as well as the in- habitants of the village, are well to do, as a rule, and this is a guarantee of permanent, ever increasing trade.

THE BEGINNING.

The locality which is now known as the vil- lage of Albany was first called "Campbell's Ford," the land having been entered by James Campbell and Thomas Stewart. The excellent water power at this point they agreed to do- nate to any one who would erect a saw and grist mill, and it was this proposition which first at- tracted Dr. Samuel F. Nichols and Capt. Eras- tus O. Pond to this place. Of these two gentle- men, Dr. Nichols was the first to move his family. He came in March, 1846, and erected a double log house on what is now block 13, and thus became the first settler. Capt. Pond arrived with his family the following June, and lived in the log cabin with Dr. Nichols until he could build a frame house. With a yoke of oxen, S. A. Poud, a son of E. O., then sixteen years of age, hauled the lumber for their new house from Amos Sylvester's mill, being obliged frequently to first cut the logs, then take them

to the mill to be transformed into lumber. But notwithstanding the attendant disadvantages, in about three weeks the building, which was 16x24 feet in size, was completed and the fam- ily moved into the same. This house was also lo- cated on what is now block 13. In one corner of the building Mr. Pond opened Albany's first store, having brought the limited stock of goods all the way from Newark, N. Y.

Erastus O. Pond, one of the founders of the village of Albany, was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., Aug. 4, 1799. When a young man he was a sailor on the lakes, and finally became master of a ship. He was married Aug. 6, 1826, to Margaret L. Bartle, who was born in Chenango Co., N. Y. They settled in Wayne county, where he purchased a woolen mill and operated that twelve years. He then moved to Newark, in the same county, and engaged in the manu- facture of carding machines, remaining there until 1846. In that year he came to Wisconsin. He stopped a few weeks in Rock county, then came to Green county and settled on the present site of the village of Albany, of which he was one of the founders. He was the first post- master and merchant, and was prominently identified with the interests of the town and village until the time of his death, Oct. 19, 1854. Mrs. Pond died Feb. 19, 1881. They were the parents of three children-Maria, now the wife of C. S. Tibbetts; Chloe, wife of R. H. Hewitt, of St. Louis, and Samuel A., now of Janesville.

Another family named Hills, came with the Pond party, but after shaking with the ague for a few months they returned to the place from whence they came.

There was no further additions to the settle- ment in 1846; but in 1847 several families ar- rived, and it was not long until Albany had taken a position of importance among the vil- lages in this region.

VILLAGE PLAT.

In 1847 Dr. Samuel F. Nichols and E. O. Pond, assisted by J. V. Richardson, a surveyor,

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made the necessary survey and laid out twenty blocks into village lots. The population in- creased rapidly and it soon became necessary to make additions to the plat, which has been done from time to time. Of the several addi- tions there were annexed by Pond and Nichols, one by J. H. Warren and one by the Railroad Company.

The village was governed by the same laws and under the same authority as the town of Albany, until 1883, when the territory which comprises section 28 was incorporated as a vil- lage, and the first village election held on the 17th of October, 1883, resulted in the election' of the following named officers: L. H. War- ren, president; William Green, W. W. Hill, E. Van Patten, W. H. Knapp, D. Osborn and F. J. Carle, trustees ; J. B. Perry, clerk ; T. G. Mitchell, treasurer; H. B. Jobes, supervisor; C. S. Tibbitts, marshal ; Warren Howard, police justice; Gabriel Jackson, justice of the peace.

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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 93

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