USA > Wisconsin > Green County > History of Green County, Wisconsin > Part 2
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In IS39 a tax of one-half of one per cent. was levied on the valuation of all taxable property. For conve- nience of assessing, the county was divided into three dis- tricts, and it was ordered by the commissioners that first- rate land be valued at three dollars per acre, and second- rate land at two dollars per acre. The territorial reve- nue from Green County in 1839 was $90.58, which was five per cent. of all taxes. The produce of the county in 1839 was as follows:
Wheat, 11,953 bushels.
Indian Corn, 25,610 bushels.
Barley, S5
Oats, 20,245
Buckwheat, 788
Potatoes, 15,603
Wool, 1,045 lbs.
Immediately after the organization of the county there arose a contest for the county seat, which had the effect of preventing immigration while it lasted, and of inducing many who had come to go away. Shortly be- fore the organization of the county, Judge Andrick laid out a town, where he lived, which he called New Mex- ico, but which he neglected to have recorded in the land office at Mineral Point. It was supposed that this town of New Mexico would be the county seat of the
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History of Green County.
prospective county, and Mr. Payne besought Judge Andrick to sell him an interest in it, which the Judge refused to do. Mr. Payne then laid out a town, which was immediately north of New Mexico, and which in- cluded land on both sides of that now occupied by the railroad track. Mr. James Campbell, who was Mr. Payne's surveyor, remembers that while they were sur- veying, Mr. Payne stopped work to make a last effort to purchase a share in New Mexico, and that he re- marked, on his return from his fruitless visit to Judge Andrick, "New Mexico isn't recorded, and if the old fool wo'n't let any one else have half the county seat, he shan't have any part of it himself." The act of the Burlington legislature which made this a county, also located the county seat at New Mexico, referring, of course, to Judge Andrick's town. As soon as this act was passed, Mr. Payne named his town New Mexico, and hastened to the land office at Mineral Point. A few miles behind him rode Judge Andrick, pursuing him with a speed compared to which the most rapid move- ments of the Indians who followed him in IS32 and of the sheriff who sought for him in 1849 were as the crawl- ing of a snail to John Gilpin's ride. Mr. Payne reached Mineral Point before Judge Andrick, and got his New Mexico on record first, which made it the county seat by law. But, moved by a petition which was presented by Mr. Sutherland, the member from Green, the legisla- lature, at its next session, repealed this law, and appoint- ed three commissioners to select a county scat. To in- duce Mr. Sutherland to work for the repeal of the first
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History of Green County.
law, a large number of the voters of Green County had pledged themselves to submit to the decision of the commissioners, whatever it might be. The commission- ers, after looking the county over, selected a place which they called Roscoe, about two and one-half miles north- east of the present village of Monroe. The place was not acceptable to the people. It was then made to ap- pear before the legislature that Mr. Sutherland owned all the timber in the vicinity of Roscoe, and that his in- fluence had led to the selection of that place. The rep- resentation was a mistakenone, as regards both the ownership of the timber and the influence exerted by Mr. Sutherland. But this law was also repealed, and it was decided that the question of the county seat should be decided by a vote of the people. In the meantime, it was undertaken to dig a well in Mr. Payne's town, but, after digging about forty feet, those interested in it became discouraged, and gave up the attempt. The belief then became general that the county scat must be at some place where water could be more easily obtained, and Messrs. Payne, LyBrand, and Russell offered to give the county 120 acres of land near the spring-Mr. Russell stipulating that his share of the gift should be for the benefit of a county seminary. Mr. Andrick had also abandoned the hope of making his town the county seat, and had united with others in claiming that honor for a site which was situated a short distance south of Roscoe. At the election, in May, 1839, the point at issue seems to have been not so much the comparative merits of the two sites under consideration, as the comparative
History of Green County. 25
popularity of the men who had selected them; and the tickets of one party were marked, " For Andrick, Wil- coxon and Sutherland," while those of the other party read, "For Payne, LyBrand and Russell." The vote was a tie, Andrick and Sutherland's site having received just half the 136 votes cast. A second election was held. in June, and though there were cast six votes more than at the other election, the result was a second tie. This. result was inadvertantly brought about by Mr. Ly- Brand. Election day each party knew how many voters it had in town, and knew, too, that Mr. Ly Brand's side had one more man than the other. To make assurance doubly sure, Mr. Ly Brand sent into the country for another voter, paying his messenger $2.50 for the trip. The man, whose name was Elias Luttrell, came, but, much to Mr. Ly Brand's surprise, he voted with the opposition. A third election was held in August. An- drick and Sutherland were now the champions of a site which was almost the geographical centre of the county ; but, as votes were cast for men, rather than for places, it was probable that this election would result, like the others, in a tie; when Mr. Ly Brand, taking advantage of the great popularity of a peculiar kind of hat, braided by Mrs. Rust, offered to give one of them to a young man, named Porter, if he would induce some miners at Sugar River diggings to come to the polls. The offer was accepted, and the votes thus gained loca- ted 'the county seat. Thc selection of a name for the town was left to Dr. Harcourt, one of the county com- missioners, and he selected Monroe.
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History of Green County.
In August, 1839, the land given for a county seat was deeded to the county, Mr. Ly Brand reserving the privilege of selecting, from his forty acres, six town lots for himself. In May, 1840, Mr. Ly Brand was desired, by the commissioners, to make choice of his six lots. It appears from the following entry in their journal, dated June Ist, 1840, that he failed to do so: " Whereas no specified time is designated for the selection of said lots, and sufficient time having been given to the said Jacob Ly Brand to make such selection as by him provided in said deed; and whereas he has hitherto neglected, and, by so neglecting, refused, and by so doing, waived his right to make such choice; and whereas provision is made in the above named deed that Green County, be- fore offering any portion of the town of Monroe for sale, shall make a deed to said Jacob Ly Brand of six building lots, in said town, as provided in said deed; now, be it ordered that the following lots be selected-" A deed of the six lots chosen for him was accordingly offered to Mr. LyBrand. He declined to accept it, and selected other lots, which the commissioners, being, in their turn, willing to delay matters, neglected for some time to deed to him. But they had advertised in the Wisconsin Enquirer, a paper published at Madison, a public sale of lots in the town of Monroe, to be held the Sth of October, 1840. The sale was to begin at ten o'clock. Early in the morning of that day, therefore, Mr. Ly Brand was given a deed of the lots he had chosen.
Mr. I. A. Lapham, in a little history of Wisconsin,
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History of Green County.
published in 1844, says there were in Green County, in 1840, 247 horses, 1,459 neat cattle, 608 sheep, 3,605 swine, 2 stores, I grist mill, and 3 saw mills. A tax of one per cent was levied on the valuation of all property in 1840, the valuation being the same as in 1839. In 1844 the county taxes were as follows:
County charges, including only the expenses of the courts and fees of officers for performing the duties required by law, -
Contingent expenses,
Support of schools and erection of school houses, - 2 1/2
3 mills on a dollar. I 12
Roads and bridges,
I mill
Support of poor, -
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66
IS40 saw inaugurated a system of economy for county commissioners, which was adhered to until '49, and which. is illustrated by this passage from the journal: "This day (October 7th, 1840) -- appeared, and filed his account against Green County for the sum of thirty- six dollars, and moved the court here for an allowance of the same. And after the matter -being considered, and fully understood by the court, it is ordered that he have an order made in his favor for the sum of eighteen dollars." This system being understood, bills were usually made out with reference to being allowed only in part.
In i842, Green County had two election precincts, called Monroe and Sugar River. Others were set apart in the following year. In November, IS4S, there were eight election precincts, namely : Monroc, Greenville, Jefferson, Exeter, Mill Creek, Calimine, Decatur, and Albany.
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History of Green County.
It took some time to find out what officers were need- ed to do the business of the county. In 1838, and again in '39, an assessor and a constable were elected. In 1840, the number of assessors was increased to three, and in '41 the number of constables was increased to two. A collector and three fence viewers were elected in 1840, and six road supervisors were elected in '41. In 1843, justices of the peace were elected in each precinct. In 1844, each precinct elected justices, fence viewers, and a constable.
In 1840, school districts were organized. There were ten, and they were set off in the following order: Ros- coe, Richland, Monroe, New Mexico, Union, York, Green, Mill Creek, Fairfield and Pennsylvania.
At this time the county commissioners were also school commissioners, but in 1841, and each year there- after, until '49, three school commissioners were elected. The first school commissioners were Elias Jones, Wm. C. Green, and E. T. Gardner. In 1845, there were seven- teen school districts which had had school three months the preceding year. In 1847, twenty-five districts, in which there were 1,323 school children, had school three months; and seventeen districts, in which there were 514 children, had no school.
The number of petitions and orders for roads re- corded in the commissioners' journal during the first years of the county's existence makes one wonder that the commissioners ever had time to attend to anything besides roads, and the wonder grows when one reads petitions in which the wished for road is described by its
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History of Green County.
proximity to John Chryst's stack yard, the slough near- Wm. Rittenhouse's stable, and other similar landmarks .. In 1842 the first bridge in the county was built across. Sugar river, on the road from Janesville to Monroe. In. IS43 a bridge over the Pecatonica, and a second bridge- over Sugar river, on the road from Madison to the Illi -- nois state line, by way of New Mexico, were built, and in '44 Sugar river was spanned by a bridge on the road from Monroe to Beloit. Of these four bridges, Joseph Woodle built the first, Ezra Durgin and Jacob Linzee- the second, John B. Sawyer the third, and Jacob Linzee: the fourth.
In 1841-2, nearly every masculine heart in the county. was fired with a desire to get wolf scalps, and many pages of the commissioners' journal for that time are filled with the names of successful hunters. The con- duct of some who engaged in this onslaught upon the wolves was marked by all of a crusader's strange ex- travagance. A few of them suffered from a hallucina- tion that led its victim greatly to exaggerate the num- ber of wolves laid low by his valorous hand. Such unfortunates exhibited, in their wildest moments, scalps which indicated that in this country the wolf and the. fox, and even the wolf and the woodchuck, lay down together; and the worthy commissioners were often much troubled by their mad clamor for reward.
1843 was the year first fixed upon by the Millerites, or Second Adventists, for the end of the world. Ten years had now elapsed since Wm. Miller began preach -. ing, and as early as 1840 the number of his disciples was
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History of Green County.
thought to have reached fifty thousand. Many who did not profess his faith awaited with fear and tremb- ling the opening of the fateful year. The winter of 1842-43 was one of almost unparalleled severity. Early in November, the snow fell to a great depth. With the exception of a few days in January, the ground was covered until April, and the idea that the world was to be destroyed by cold gained many adherents in Green County. The roads, that year, are thus described by Mr. S. F. Chipman, in Guernsey's History of Rock County : "Road-tracks across the prairie would catch the drifting snow until they attained to an elevation of two to four feet, which very much endangered the safety of meeting teams; for, in turning out, the horse that stepped from the path would often sink and plunge so deep that the mate would fall on to or over him, and both be floundering for dear life in the deep snow, with more or less icy crusts to cut and maim them." Mr. Chipman tells of meeting, one cold morning, a sleigh in which were four men who had missed their way while going from Monroe to Janesville. They had wandered over the prairie two days and nights, without food for them- selves or horses, and had just decided to kill and eat one of their horses, when Mr. Chipman found them and di- rected them to a house two miles distant. Corn was everywhere so scarce that winter that men came to Green County from a hundred miles away to buy, and many cattle died of starvation. After a time, only three men in the county had corn to sell. They sold for twenty-five cents a bushel; but one of them, a very
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History of Green County.
sanctimonious man, said, "let us charge fifty cents." "No, said one of the others," lengthening his sentence with strong Anglo Saxon expletives, " that may do for you, but, as for me, I have a soul to save, and shall charge only twenty-five cents." Speculators wanted to buy all this farmer's corn, but, as the grateful customers of Mr. Thomas Bowen still remember, he refused to sell to any one more than one load at a time.
In May, 1848, Wisconsin became a state, and Green County passed under the supervisor system of govern- ment. Since the organization of the state government, as before, most of the officers of the county have been well qualified for their positions, and, with one excep- tion, they appear to have conscientiously performed the duties devolving upon them. The exception is Horace B. Poyer, county clerk from the year 1849 to 1855, and forger of county orders. Probably no man in the county was ever more generally popular, more implic- itly trusted, than Mr. Poyer at the time he was engaged in his forgeries. An investigating committee appointed by the supervisors reported December 27th, 1855, as follows: "The matter is involved in much obscurity, owing to the destruction and mutilation of records and papers. We are therefore unable to make so full and perfect a report as we could desire. We have, however, detected frauds committed from the year 1848 to 1854, in- clusive. The aggregate amount of which the county has been defrauded (so far as we are able to state from our imperfect means of ascertaining), including orders altered, orders wholly fraudulent, and the same raised
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History of Green County.
for weights and measures, and exclusive of $895.17 of orders, for the issuing of which no bills or resolutions can be found, is $2,541.28; from which deduct $696.So, the amount canceled by Poyer, and there remains a bal- ance now due the county of $1,844.48." The value of the orders which the report refers to as canceled, was saved for the county by the fact that a year before the forgeries were generally known, A. Ludlow and Asa Richardson became convinced that a large number of orders which they had bought were fraudulent. Their efforts to ascertain the truth were discovered by Mr. Poyer, who engaged two attorneys, to whom he made a confession, expressing at the same time a great desire to repair the wrong he had done. All the fraudulent orders which had been discovered were immediately canceled, and Mr. Poyer expressed great pleasure in his own reformation. He won the confidence and the deep- est sympathy of all who knew his secret. They be- lieved he had been the victim of circumstances which could never mislead him again. After some time, how- ·ever, it was discovered that the confession was less full than it had been represented to be. Other forgeries, even forged certificates of wolf scalps, were discovered, and, after paying his attorneys with a forged land war- rant, Mr. Poyer fled to a distant state, where, under an assumed name, he is said to be leading an honorable life.
The next event of importance was the building of the railway. The Milwaukee and Mississippi Compa- ny purposed building roads from Milwaukee to Madison, Prairie du Chien, and Dubuque. The Dubuque branch
History of Green County. 33
was to pass through Janesville, but that city, having at that time a more realizing sense of its value to the road than of the road's value to it, received the project so coldly that the company said Janesville should not have a road. The Madison road was built through Milton instead of Janesville, and all idea of the Dubuque branch. was abandoned. Green County began then to look for some other way of getting a road, and Janesville had been sufficiently humbled to be willing to help her. Early in 1852, gentlemen living in Albany sent a peti- tion to the legislature, asking to be incorporated as the Southern Wisconsin Railroad Company, with authority to build a road from Milton, by way of Janesville, through the counties of Green, La Fayette, and Grant, to some point on the Mississippi. While all the inhab- itants of Green County were agreed in the desire for a road, they differed widely in the choice of a location for it. Those in the northern half of the county wanted it to go by Albany; and, with the exception of one or two old settlers, who had never been satisfied with the loca- tion of the county seat, and who hoped that a railroad north of Monroe would re-open the old county seat question, those in the southern half were quite as unan- imous in the desire to have it pass through Monroe. News of the Albany petition reached Monroe. As soon as possible, one or two citizens, believing that if you would have a thing done to suit yourself you must do it yourself, went to Madison, and, there being no inter- ested person there from Albany to prevent, changed the Albany bill by inserting in the place of the names of
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History of Green County.
the men who originated it, the names of men living in and around Monroe. Thus changed, the bill passed, and there was no longer any doubt that if there was a road it must go through Monroe. The road was sur- veyed, and some stock was taken by the farmers. In the fall of 1853, grading began at Monroe; but the com- pany lacked means to carry on the work, and early in 54 gave up its charter to the Milwaukee and Mississippi Company, so that the projected road was thenceforth known as the Southern Wisconsin Branch of the Mil- waukee and Mississippi Railroad. Many men in Green County now subscribed liberally, but, there being still a lack of money, farm mortgages, payable in ten years, were resorted to. In mortgaging their farms, some of the farmers were influenced wholly by a desire to get the railroad here, but most of them were also moved by a spirit of speculation. Stock in the railroad company was given them for their mortgages, and the general opinion of its value was such that farmers made their mortgages as large as the company would allow them to be. The company promised to pay the interest on all the mortgages, and promised that no mortgages on land west of Brodhead should be sold until the road reached Brodhead, and none from west of Monroe until the road reached Monroe. In October, 1854, stock to the amount of $485,900 had been taken. The greater part of it was in Green County, but the mortgages given in the vicinity of Shullsburg amounted to $128,000. By February, 1856, work on the road had begun. The mortgages were taken to New England, where they
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History of Green County.
sold readily. The company also obtained money at three different times by mortgages on the road; but much of the money obtained in these ways was used on the Prairie du Chien road, and work on the Southern Wis- consin was not prosecuted with the vigor the mortgage- ors had hoped for. The road to Prairie du Chien was finished in April, 1857, but the company had not then the money to push forward the other road. In August, before the track was laid to Brodhead, the road was sold on the third mortgage; stock went down to ten per cent., and the iron for the road between Brodhead and Monroe was held in New York for the duty, which, with the storage, amounted to $20,000. The Bank of Monroe advanced the money to pay the duty, being partially repaid by farmers who gave their notes at the time for various amounts, and work was resumed. The track was laid to Brodhead in September, to Juda in November, and to Monroe the last of December. It was really Green County, not the railroad company, that brought the road from Janesville, and a great num- ber of citizens are entitled to a share of the credit of it; but, much as it cost in money, the greatest cost of the road was in the anxiety and long suspense it brought the mortgageors.
The company assumed an appearance of great fair- ness towards the mortgageors. Sometimes a director was chosen from among them, and, as was especially the case in the election of Judge Dunwiddie, this was conducive to the interests of both the company and the mortgageors; but the appearance was frequently
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History of Green County.
deceptive. On one occasion, all the stockholders and their wives were given a free ride to Milwaukee, to attend a railroad meeting. They were all urged to go, but, after their arrival at the meeting, some pretext was raised by which almost every one of them was prevented from voting. The agreement of the company in regard to using the mortgages from the country west of Mon- roe was so far kept that, before the sale of the road in August, 1857, all those given west of Green County were released. The desire for the road was so great in La Fayette County that Mr. E. D. Clinton, the general agent of the road, and the man who, more than any one else, was the cause of its extension from Janesville, found more difficulty in releasing the mortgages than he had found in obtaining them. Two men refused to comply with the condition of a release, which was to pay the re- corder's fee, and in these cases Mr. Clinton paid the costs himself. The mortgages given in the western part of the county were all sold before the road reached Monroe, and the promise in regard to paying the interest on the mortgages was not fulfilled. After the comple- tion of the road, the stock was raised by a fictitious divi- dend and by some other devices to ninety per cent. The holders of the mortgages were by this time glad to sell them, and the company bought them and settled with the mortgageors by buying their stock at ninety per cent. A few of the farmers had previously effected a settlement with the purchasers of their mortgages, and paid more; but ten cents on a dollar was all that any of them were obliged to pay, and a few of them never paid anything.
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History of Green County.
The only other railroad in Green County is the Mad- ison branch of the Northwestern railroad, built in 1864. It passes through the village of Brooklyn, in the north- eastern part of the county. Other roads are hoped for, as is more fully explained in the sketches of Cadiz and Albany.
When the war broke out, Green County responded nobly to the call made upon her. Her first company, Company "C," of the third regiment, was enlisted in April and May, 1861; it was one of the three companies of the third regiment which, with two companies of the Massachusetts fourth, fought at Bolivar against more than three times their number, and captured a heavy field piece, which was brought from the field by the Wisconsin companies under command of Lt. O'Brien, of Green County. Not less brave and efficient were the soldiers sent forth at a later day. But the very number of their heroic services makes it impossible to tell them, for every company furnished numberless instances of gal- lant conduct, of patient endurance, and unselfish devo- tion, and so far as any one who was not himself among their number can write it, the record of the marches and battles of Green County's soldiers has already been written in the Military History of Wisconsin and the annual reports of the Adjutant General of the state. [See appendix.]
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