USA > Wisconsin > Green County > History of Green County, Wisconsin > Part 13
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But good health, good drainage, and good water are the rule in Green County, and since others of the towns are supplied with lead, fine limestone, and peat (the town of Washington, for example, has a bed of lime- stone exactly like the so-called marble of which the normal school building at Platteville is built), all these
IS*
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History of Green County.
good things count for nothing, and, because it has the poorest soil in the county, Jordan is unhesitatingly con- demned as a very poor town. It would seem, though, from the learned Dr. David Dale Owens' Geological Report of the mineral region of Wisconsin that Jordan has nothing to be ashamed of in the way of soil. A measure of the value of a soil is the average quantity of organic matter, in other words the plant food, it con- tains. The average quantity of organic matter in one hundred specimens of the soil of Massachusetts analyzed by Prof. Hitchcock, was 7.68 per cent. In specimens from New York it was 6.64 per cent. In Dr. Owen's report, published in 1839, is given the following analysis of soil from "township two, range six east, Green County, Wisconsin :"
Water, 3. per cent. Salts, soluble in water, 3.
Salts, soluble in dilute muriatic acid, 0.5
Silicious matter, S2.
Organic matter, - - 11.5
It will not be claimed that all the soil in Jordan is as good as that which Dr. Owen analyzed, but where some of it is so much better than the average soil in New York and Massachusetts, it does not seem prob- able that the township as a whole is much inferior to the average land in those states. That it is much bet- ter land than is generally supposed might be inferred from the fact that a large proportion of its inhabitants are foreigners who went there, not only without a knowledge of the language, customs, and climate of the country, but without money enough to pay for the land
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History of Green County.
they settled on, and that they are now, almost without exception, possessed of good homes and large farms. Good crops of all kinds are raised in Jordan. It must be admitted that in a great part of the town the land does not grow more valuable from year to year, but in these cases the farmers have done nothing to raise the value of their farms. Some farmers who use no fertil- izers raise crop after crop on a field until it is exhausted, and then, without seeding it down, they call it pasture. Were Jordan so poor a town as to render such a course impossible, her reputation would be much better. But better methods are coming into use, and it is not too late to rectify mistakes. Jordan land will bear a great deal of abuse. One of the best farms there, a farm which would be called good in any town or state, was bought by its present owner as a worn out farm, and, by only a reasonable amount of care, brought by him to its present excellence.
The earliest settlers in northern and middle Jordan were Robert Brazel, John Trotter and Joshua Chilton, all from Illinois. The former came in '37, the latter two in '39. Wm. Brazel came in '40. John and Geo. Yazel, Nathaniel Matthews, James and Absalom Kelly, who all came to the county in 1839-'40, were in the southern part of the town before the end of '41. John Pinney and - Jacobs were in western Jordan be- fore 1840, and there were two or three men in Lafayette County so near the boundary line that they have been counted as Green County settlers. James Mills was al- ready on his farm just west of "lattice bridge," and
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History of Green County.
Hunter was a few miles farther north. The place now called Wiota was then called " the cape," in whim- sical allusion to the fact that one of the first families that settled there came from a cape on the Atlantic coast. The Wiota of that day was at the junction of the forks of the Pecatonica, just west of the north-west corner of Cadiz. Steamboats from some point on Rock river ascended the Pecatonica as far as the junc- tion in 1845, and it was supposed there would be a city there. The settlers of 1843 were Henry Hard and Curtis Cary, of Ohio; John and Geo. Chilton, of Vir- ginia; John and Wesley Church, of Illinois; and Shafer. Next, in 1844, came Mr. John Soper, of Ver- mont. Lars Larson (sometimes called, in accordance with the Norwegian custom which allows individuals to affix to their names the name of their native place, Lars Larson Bothan), came in 1844. It is thought he was the first Norwegian to settle in the county. He was followed the next year by Axel Iverson (Stortottle), and almost every year since then Norwegian immigrants have come to Lafayette and western Green. Some of the eastern towns, particularly Albany, have also a large number of Norwegians among their farmers. Since 1845, too, a great many Irish immigrants have made their homes in Jordan. In 1843 or '44 Dr. John Church, already mentioned as a preacher, built a saw mill in Jordan. In '47, John Bachman built the first grist mill in the town, and in '48 Benjamin Cross and Lemuel and Miner Taylor built the second saw mill.
The first road laid out in the town was the White
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History of Green County.
Oak Springs and Exeter, territorial road, recorded as being on the line between Adams and Jordan. It fol- lowed the ridge, some parts of which are on the line, while others are half a mile . south of it. The first school was taught in the early summer of 1841, by Miss Emma Green, in a cabin owned by Mr. Joshua Chilton. The first school house was built in 1844, by Wm. and Robert Brazel, Joshua Chilton, and Mrs. John Trotter. It was on the Wm. Brazel place, since known as the John Scott place. The first public school taught in it was taught by James Tennyson in the win-
ter of '44-45. The first frame school house was built in '48 in " the Blaine" district, near the south-east cor- ner of the town. The only post office in Jordan is that at Jordan Centre, where there are a number of dwellings and a school house, and where a church is building.
There are four cheese factories in Jordan, owned respectively by Miner Taylor, Jacob Figlan, F. Haffner, and a company.
LARGEST FARMERS IN JORDAN IN 1876.
Names. No. of Acres.
Names.
No. of Acres.
Wm. Ableman,
280
Andrew Fryslie, 348
F. Anderson,
200
Richard Gibbons, - 200
Wm. Ault, 178
L. O. Grove, - - 160
F. Babbler, - 220
Andrew S. Hanson, 200
John Beach,
344
D. E. Benson,
160
Frantz Haffner, -
266
Chas. Beyerhoffer
220
Geo. Hartwig, -
253
Joseph Blum, 255
Iver Iverson,
240
Owen Burns,
160
Daniel Kesler, 160
B. Ellis, 200
Lars Larson,
220
Thore Erikson,
I80
James Lewis, 268
Ole Evenson,
179
John MaGrath, 251 -
Peter Fenne, - 220 -
Richard MaGrath, 238
John D. Fritsch, - 220
A. Meythaler, - - 197
Mary Jane Hanson, - 305
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History of Green County.
Names.
No. of Acres.
Names.
No. of Acres.
Horace Sawin,
175
Kund Torson,
2.40
Thore Severson,
- 218
Trotter estate, -
193
Squires & Cook, -
I60
Jacob Voegley,
293
A. Schultz,
190
A. Wiggins,
182
C. Stephens,
180
Miles Wilson,
220
*L. Taylor.
473
*A. P. Wells,
- 220
*Miner Taylor,
417
O. F. Wells,
200
Bottel Tolefson, -
248
MILLS.
Samuel Blackford, Saw and Grist Mills. H. Rust, Saw Mill.
The first town meetings were held at the Ostrander school house.
OFFICERS FROM IS49 TO '77 INCLUSIVE.
CHAIRMEN.
WARREN OSGOOD. WM. BIGGS.
THOS. WHITE, 3 years.
WM. MUNSON.
J. K. BLOOM. N. T. HANSON.
LEVI SPAULDING.
IVER IVERSON, 4 years.
WVM. MUNSON, 3 years.
GEO. R. KING.
JAMES Y. CLEVELAND, 2 years. IVER IVERSON.
TAYLOR WICKERSHAM, 2 years. [SAMUEL BLACKFORD, 2 yr's.
H. G. CLEVELAND, 2 years.
IVER IVERSON.
IVER IVERSON.
J. B. BLACKFORD.
CLERKS.
T. N. ELLIS, 2 years.
M. SATTERLEE.
ISAAC TREMBLEY.
H. G. CLEVELAND.
JAS. M. COOK.
JACOB DEETZ, 3 years.
H. G. CLEVELAND, 3 years.
JAS. M. COOK.
H. G. CLEVELAND, 2 years.
WM. H. ALLEN. TAYLOR WICKERSHAM.
WM. BIGGS.
M. DEVAREAUX. D. H. MORGAN.
NELSON RUST.
N. T. HANSON, 2 years. JACOB DEETZ, 6 years.
*Largest stock growers.
WASHINGTON.
About the time the capitol at Madison was begun in 1837, Josiah Pierce of New York landed at Milwaukee, where he was almost immediately engaged to go to Madison and board the workmen. His was the second family in Madison. In the following November, he re- moved to a cabin which he had built during the sum- mer in what is now the town of Washington, Green County. The cabin, whose dimensions were sixteen by eighteen feet, was on the line of nearly all the travel from the eastern part of the state to Galena, and there was hardly ever a night that some one did not stop there. Sometimes the guest was Gov. Dodge attended by his colored servant, who rode at a respectful distance behind the Governor, and carried his excellency's pistol.
This was the time of the "wild cat" currency. Ap- parently everybody could issue money and as much as he chose, and those who did not issue it had no trouble in getting it, though it was often not worth the getting. Mr. Albert H. Pierce, then seventeen years of age, could casily earn $30 a month at farm labor, but it took $ 50 dollars to buy him an ordinary coat. A man who
212
History of Green County.
was hauling flour from Galena to the garrison at Fort Winnebago once broke down near Mr. Pierce's, and finding he could not go on with the whole load, kindly sold Mr. Pierce two barrels at thirteen dollars a barrel.
Mr. Noah Phelps, who helped survey Green County before the Black Hawk war, returning at the conclusion of his work to his home in New York state, wished to bring his family to Wisconsin in 1837. He was nearly ready to start in May, when the banks suspended specie payment. As all his money was in bank notes, and as government land could be bought only with coin, he was obliged to wait. When specie payment was re- sumed the next May he was still ready to come, and in June, '38, he made the second home in the town of Washington. By 1842-'43, when the next settlers came to Washington, there were so many people in the county that residence in it was no longer presumptive proof of acquaintance with all its inhabitants. The settlers in the different parts of Washington seem to have had very little to do with each other, and it is now impossi- ble for any of them to give a chronological list of the first comers. Samuel Holloway, of Illinois, went to Washington in '45, before which time - Wise, - Vance, Franklin Pierce, J. S. Fessenden, Elias Wright, of Ohio, and Kirkpatrick, of Pennsylvania, had made their claims. Elijah Roby, of Ohio, went in '46, and C. J. Simmons went in '47. Among the next set- tlers were Samuel O. Allison, of Illinois; Hiram Bain, of New York; James Richards, of Indiana; John Perine, Barney Becker, Wm. Tucker, James Crouch,
History of Green County. 213
- Webster, Jas. Parks, - Sires, James Lang, Sol- omon Willis, John Frost, -- - Hendrickson, and James Hilton. In '46 and a few suceeding years, a great many Swiss went to Washington from the colony at New Glarus, and at the close of the Mexican war the soldiers' land warrants gave a new impetus to the settlement of the town.
Washington is watered by Skinner creek and by several branches of Sugar river. It is more abun- dantly supplied with timber than New Glarus, to which town it is similar in having a good soil, a broken surface, and a Swiss population largely engaged in the rearing of stock and the manufacture of cheese. It is unlike New Glarus in having once thrown the whole county into a commotion. The exciting cause was an ignorant boy who went to Madison and told that his employer in Washington had murdered a man. The story was the more shocking from being told of one who was as little likely as any man in the town to be suspected of crime, and until the boy had confessed that the whole story was false and had been sent to the re- form school there was little else thought of in the county. This was the second time that the grave of a living man was sought for in Green County, where evi- dence of murder will probably be necessary hereafter to make men take up the cry of murderer.
Washington is mainly distinguished for her cheese. Since a part of this book has been in type it has been stated on the authority of the manufacturers that 1,000,000 pounds of American, 775,000 pounds of Lim-
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History of Green County.
burger, and 225,000 pounds of Swiss cheese were made in Green County in 1876, and sold at an average price of twelve cents per pound for Swiss cheese, and ten cents per pound for other kinds. No estimate has been made as to how much of this valuable product Wash- ington might claim, but no other town except New Glarus has made so much. Following is a list of
Washington's factories in '76. Several new ones have
been started the present year :
CHEESE FACTORIES.
Names of Manufacturers.
Kinds of Cheese.
Names of Manufacturers. Kinds of Cheese.
D. & H. Freitag, Swiss & Limb.
J. Zimmerman, Swiss.
G. Witwer,
Swiss.
John Gange, American.
Jacob Karlen,
Limburger.
John Boss, Limburger.
N. Gerber,
Limburger.
M. L. Barney, American.
G. Behler, Limburger.
E. W. Cheesbro, American.
R. Karlen,
Swiss.
Miller, Frautschy & Co., Lim-
C. Theiler, Limburger. burger.
M. Zumbrunnen, Swiss and Limburger.
LARGEST FARMERS IN WASHINGTON IN IS76.
Names. No. of Acres.
Names.
No. of Acres.
James Barney - - 265
John Gempler, 160
Anton Baumgartner, 260
Geo. Gill, - 240
John Baumgartner, - 160
Andrew Harper, 360
Caspar Becker, Sen., 401
Fridolin Hefty, - 203
Caspar Becker, Jun., - I71
Thos. Hefty,
401
David Benkert 165 Gustavus Hilton, 177
J. G. Biddlingmeier, -
200
Benedict Isely, 160
Adam Bloomer. -
387
Christopher Isely, - 240
John Bloomer, -
ISO Rudolph Karlen, - 302
Fridolin Blum,
263
Richard Keegan, 384
Jacob Buergy, -
172
Thos. Leman, 200
L. Burtis,
310
Wm. Leman, - 180
E W. Cheesbro,
200
Wm. Maguire, 280
John Dick, -
16S
Melchoir Marty, - 257
Fridolin Elmer,
200
Benedict Miller, 260
J. S. Fessenden
160
James Murphy, . 160
Wm. Fleury, -
320
Patrick Purcell, 400
Jacob Frautschy,
200
E. Roby, 160 -
John Frautschy,
160
Melchoir Schlittler, ISc
Dietrich Freitag,
253
Christopher Schuler, - 167
John Gange, -
280
Michael Shay, 16c
215
History of Green County.
Names. No. of Acres. Names.
C. J. Simmons, 560
M. Wittenwyler, -
No. of Acres. 160
John Teehan, 160
Gottlieb Wittwer, - 323
Christ. Theiler, -
200
Jacob Zimmerman, 198
Jeremiah Thurlow,
166
Bernhard Zweifel, 164
Dietland Tomm, 200
Fridolin Zweifel, - 210
Joseph Voegly, 302
Fridolin Zwickey, -
163
Peter Wagner,
211 Gottlieb Zumbrunnen, 192
Jacob Weissmiller, 280
Jacob Zumbrunnen, - 298
Christ. Wessenberg, - 240
Martin Zumbrunnen, 620
LARGEST STOCK GROWERS.
E. W. Cheesbro. C. J. Simmons.
M. J. & O. Zumbrunnen.
The first town meeting in Washington was held at the house of James Lang.
OFFICERS FROM IS49 TO IS77 INCLUSIVE.
CHAIRMEN.
ELIJAH ROBY,
ALBERT H. PIERCE.
ELIJAH ROBY,
ALBERT H. PIERCE.
L. SELTZER.
ELIJAH ROBY, 4 years.
ALBERT H. PIERCE.
BENEDICT MILLER.
S. T. CLAYTON.
SAMUEL SHOOK, (resigned, Adam Bloomer, appointed). FRIDOLIN BLUM, 3 years.
CLERKS.
WM. TUCKER, four years. M. J. HANCOCK, two years, re- signed, Addison Macomber appointed.
ARGALUS LOVELAND, two years. L. SELTZER, two years, re- J. M. WHITE.
L. SELTZER, three years.
F. BLOOM, Jr., four years, re- signed, M. L. Barney, ap- pointed.
JACOB HEFTY, four years, re- signed, J. Frautschy ap- pointed. JACOB FRAUTSCHY, two yrs.
signed, S. T. Clayton ap- pointed. BENEDICT MILLER, five years.
SAMUEL SHOOK.
FRANKLIN PIERCE, 3 years. L. SELTZER, 2 years.
FRANKLIN PIERCE,
S. T. CLAYTON.
ELIJAH ROBY.
ARGALUS LOVELAND.
A. H. PIERCE,
L. SELTZER, 2 years.
DECATUR.
The history of Decatur begins with the history of Centreville, " a paper city " laid out in 1836 on the west bank of Sugar river, within half a mile of the place where the village of Decatur arose some years later. Upon the plat of Centreville, which was exhibited in Milwaukee, Detroit, and the eastern cities, were repre- sented steamboats, churches, warehouses, and blocks of stores. Thus portrayed, the place was the cause of many a yearning for a western home, and a brisk sale of high priced business lots and four acre out lots be- gan. Careful, prosperous farmers and tradesmen, wealthy speculators, and penny-saving laborers all em- braced the opportunity to make a good investment, and purchased real estate in what the agents called the grow- ing, bustling city of Centreville. One by one the pur- chasers learned that they were the victims of a fraud, that their land' was no better than might have been bought at the government price. And so undesirable did it seem, when the unsettled state of the country was made known, that although their titles were unquestion- ably good, yet, so far as can be ascertained, not one of
History of Green County. 217
the purchasers of Centreville lots ever claimed a foot of the much lauded city, or ever settled within the limits of Decatur township. The place had indeed been sur- veyed and divided, as the plat showed, but the red stakes marking these divisions were the only marks of their presence which white men had ever left in the so-called city. Possibly too, though its social advantages were hardly of the kind to attract immigrants from the cast, the city was as populous as its owners had claimed, for it was an Indian hunting ground. Here were found the marks of Indian labor which endured longest in Green County. The remains of an Indian council house and blacksmith shop could be seen here until 1847, when they were destroyed by a prairie fire. In one place in this vicinity, the first settlers found an acre or two of holes dug in the sand, which it is supposed the Indians had used as store houses for their corn; and Mr. Wm. Jones found, on attempting to cultivate one of their old corn fields, that they had entirely exhausted the soil. Aside from the arrow heads which are occasionally turned up by the plow, few relics of the Indian are ever found in Green County. Mr. Jonas Shook remembers seeing an Indian burying ground north of Dayton in 1837, and in '41 Messrs. John B. Perry and brother, Thos. Gillett, and others opened some mounds on "lost prairie," a little east of the village of Exeter, and found bones that it seemed to them must have belonged to a race of giants. The mounds were in two rows, one row on each side of the opening or prairie, with twenty- five mounds in one row and twenty-six in the other.
19*
218
History of Green County.
For many years after the advent of the whites, a rem- nant of the Winnebagoes visited their old Centreville hunting ground each winter, spending the summer at the mouth of the river. In their long snow shoes they hunt- ed over the ground very rapidly, and usually remained but a few weeks; but sometimes, as in the winter of 1842-'3, the cold weather kept them till spring. They numbered but a few families, and most of their children were half breeds. Being partially civilized, they some- times made their pilgrimages in wagons, but their mode of life was essentially Indian. Their lodges, covered with storm proof mats, which the squaws had woven, were some of them thirty feet long. In the middle of the larger ones was a fire, round which the inmates lay and warmed themselves. Two Frenchmen lived with the Indians, one of whom, named Lavelle, told Mr. E. T. Fleek in 1841, that game was much more abundant in the vicinity of Sugar river then than it was when he first saw the country in 1826. He ascribed the change to the decrease in the Indian population.
The first settlers in Decatur township settled on Jor- dan prairie, near the Little Jordan creek. The first claim was that of John Moore of Ohio, made in 1839 on section twenty. In the following year he was joined by his son- in-law, Thos. Chambers, by John J. Dawson, and by Samuel Rowe. The first person born in the township was Caroline Chambers, born in 1840. In IS41 Robert Mattox and E. T. Fleek settled on section seventeen. In the winter of 1841-'2, a post office was established, which the postmaster, Mr. Moore, named Decatur, in
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History of Green County.
honor of Commodore Decatur. The office gave the name to the election precinct, and still later to the vil- lage and the township.
To Decatur belongs the honor of having the first bridge in the county. It was built in 1842, a little north- east of the site of the village of Decatur, at the place where the river was crossed by the Indian trail from Sand Prairie to the northern part of the county, and by the territorial road from Janesville to Galena. The next settler, Win. Jones, came in 1842. Soon after his arrival he built on Sugar river, section fifteen, the first saw mill in the township. The first grist mill was built by Edson and Brown, but was not begun until IS49. In 1842-'3-'4, Donald Johnson, David Bigelow, Wm. Frazee, Thos. Stewart, - Axtell, and probably some others, settled in the town. Many more came in 1845 than had come before, and the work of breaking prairie was carried on with such energy that the decaying vegetation on the overturned sod produced malarial fever. In some neighborhoods almost every person was sick, and some died who might have recovered under proper care. Men sometimes went both to Monroe and to Exeter for a physician, and were unable to get one in either place. To their failure was ascribed, in a few instances, the re- covery of the sick. One man who, as a physician, was never heard of in Decatur after the summer and fall of 1846, made between two and three thousand dollars by his practice along the Sugar river at that time. Mr. David Bigelow was the first victim of the fever, and the first person to die in the township.
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History of Green County.
The reputation of Decatur has not always been good. At a very early day the township was infested with counterfeiters and thieves. The counterfeiting was probably confined to making bogus silver half-dollars and dimes, but those engaged in it also bought and put in circulation counterfeit bills. Were the inhabitants of Decatur as imaginative, as garrulous, and as idle as the Spaniards, their reminiscences of the counterfeiters would be a fund of entertainment for their children equal to that furnished little Spaniards by legends of the buried and enchanted treasures of the Moors. How fortunate that time and inclination forbid! It would be troublesome to have boys running away to the woods to look for remains of fine horses left there to starve because those who put them there never dared to go back and feed them. Nobody would like to have neigh- bors' children slipping into his cellar, to see if the walls had been blackened by the fumes of chemicals; and still worse would it be if gamins were always waiting on the corners to ask the dimensions of the box of sand which somebody's respected ancestor might be fabled to have bought, foolishly believing it held a thousand dollars of the "queer." While the counterfeiting was in progress, Decatur had within her borders a floating population that no more belonged to her than to the rest of the county, and some of those engaged in it lived in other towns. But the centre of it all, so far as Green County was concerned, was Decatur township. Decatur men who went abroad in those days say that it always took them twice as long as other travelers to pay their
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History of Green County.
bills, for, although large sums might be taken from other parts of Green County without hesitation, the smallest bill was never taken from Decatur until " the detector " and the microscope had been consulted. The end justified the hope of good citizens that the corrup- tion would work itself clear. Soon after 1850, the vis- its of the transient class ceased, and the unlawful prac- tices were ended. A few years later Monroe became the headquarters of another gang of countefeiters. Their business was suddenly brought to an end by the gov- ernment, since which Green County has been free from the stigma which the conduct of such men attached to her.
The village of Decatur, to which reference has once or twice been made, was laid out in the spring of 1848, by Mr. Wm. Jones. He had, himself, built the first dwelling there, and he now built the first hotel. A few years later, Mr. I. F. Mack bought the greater part of the village, and, as the Decatur plat had never been recorded, he platted eighty acres and had it recorded as Floraville, the name being a compliment to his mother-in-law, and, it is thought, the only compliment of the kind which history records. But Mr. Jones insisted that the village should either continue to be called Decatur, or should be named for his mother-in-law; and in IS52 an act of the legislature restored the old name.
The refusal of Decatur to give $7,000 for a railway was her own death sentence. When the road reached Brodhead in 1857, Decatur had five stores, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a shoe shop, and
222
History of Green County.
about four hundred inhabitants. All the business and all the best houses immediately went over to Brodhead. The next year, the bridge, where the first bridge in the county was built, was taken down, and moved farther south to shorten the road to the all-swallowing town. The mills followed, and Decatur was literally a de- serted village. There are now fifteen houses standing - there, but several of them are unoccupied, and " the sounds of population fail."
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