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History of Green County.
*John W. Deniston was appointed sheriff' April, 1838. Joseph Woodle was appointed April, 1841.
+In April, 1838, James Churchman was appointed district attorney, pro tem. At the August session of the court Wm. A. Banks acted as district attorney. John Catlin, David Brigham, M. Goodrich, and J. P. Shields subsequently served in that ca- pacity, but were not appointed for any long period of time. By an act of the legislature of 1843 the office of district attorney was abolished, and the commissioners of each county were authorized to employ some attorney within their county to perform the duties previously performed by the district attorney. Several times, in 1845 and '46, John W. Stewart was employed as county attorney. In January, 1846, and again in '47 the commissioners engaged J. A. Bingham at a salary of $100 a year. After the office became elective the salary rose to $300, falling again to $250. In November, 1856 the supervisors appointed a commit- tee to consider the question of salary. The report contained this passage: "The duties of this officer have been greatly in- creased within the last eighteen months or two years, by the increase of population and consequent increase of crime; by the opening of railroad communications and other facilities of travel, but more, perhaps, by the agitation of the temperance cause as a political question than by anything else-a source of legal contention, which, prior to the commencement of the term of office of the present incumbent had no existence." The committee recommended that the salary be made $400. The report was adopted, but a week later the passage relating to the malign influence of the temperance question was expunged by vote o of the supervisors. The following are the salaries of the various county officers at the present time: County judge, $950; county clerk, $1,000; treasurer, $900; district attorney, $550; superintendent of schools, $800.
57
1862 IS63 1864 IS65 1866 IS67 IS68 IS69 1870 IS71 1872 IS73 IS74 1775 1876 1877
Chas. S. Foster ..
Wm. H. Allen. .
P. J. Clawson. . .
OTHER COUNTY OFFICERS-CONTINUED.
58
When elected
CLERK OF COURT.
COUNTY CLERK.
SURVEYOR.
CORONER.
Amos Harris. Amos Harris ..
A. Van Saut.
Noah Phelps ..
Wm. Woodle.
Wm. Rittenhouse. .
J. A. Bingham. F. F. West ..
John Blunt.
Wm. Rittenhouse.
Thomas Stewart .
James Hagerty
E. T. Gardner
Thomas Stewart. .
E. T. Gardner
Thomas Stewart.
S. P. Condec
J. V. Richardson. Samuel Spangler.
Jacob Linzee
Noah Phelps.
L Richards ..
John R. Walling.
H. B. Poyer.
Noah Phelps.
HI. B. Poyer.
Samuel Spangler
Asa Richardson ..
Noah Phelps ..
H. B. Poyer.
Hiram Brown.
Rowley Morris ..
. J. V. Richardson
B. F. Hancock
Ransom Drake ..
Chas. F. Thompson ..
Edmund Bartlett.
A. W. Potter
D. H. Morgan.
J. H. Warren.
Thomas Lindley
A. W. Potter.
D. H. Morgan .
Ira S. Dexter.
W. W. Wright
Mathias Marty .
D. H. Morgan. .
Harris Pool.
History of Green County.
John Blunt. .
Joseph Kelly . Joseph Kelly .
IS3S 1839 1810 1 8.1 1 1842 1843 1844 1845 IS46 IS47 TS48 1849 1850 1851 1852 IS53 IS54 1855 1856 1857 I858 1859 1860 1861
Wm. Rittenhouse ..
1 862 1 863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1 868 1869 1870 1871 1872 IS73 1874 1875 1876 1877
W. W. Wright.
Mathias Marty .
J. T. Dodge .
Robert McLaren.
W. W. Wright.
J. Jacob Tschudy
Albert L. Cleveland.
Isaac Williams.
W. W. Wright ..
J. Jacob Tschudy
Albert L. Cleveland
Isaac Williams
W. W. Wright.
J. Jacob Tschudy
Albert L. Cleveland.
John Hattery.
W. W. Wright.
J. Jacob Tschudy
Albert L. Cleveland.
John Hattery
P. J. Clawson
L. Seltzer
Albert L. Cleveland. .
John Hattery .
Edmund Bartlett. .
L. Seltzer
A C. Stuntz.
L. Frankenburger.
Edmund Bartlett.
L. Seltzer
A. C. Stuntz.
John Wood ..
History of Green County.
59
60
History of Green County.
REPRESENTATIVES OF GREEN COUNTY IN THE LEGISLATURE OF WISCONSIN.
TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
COUNTIES.
MEMBERS OF COUNCIL.
REPRESENTA- TIVES.
Iowa
Ebenezer Brigham. John B. Terry .. . . . Jas. R. Vineyard. .
Wm. Boyles .. .. Geo. F. Smith. . . D. M. Parkinson. Thos. McKnight.
Ist legislative assembly, IS36, '37 and '38.
Thos. Stanley . James P. Cox
Dane, Dodge, Green and Jefferson . .
4 Eb. Brigham . Ebenezer Brigham.
Dan'l S. Suth- erland. .
2d legislative assembly, 1838, 39 and '40. 3d legislative
Dane, Dodge, Green, Jeff- erson, Sauk
Lucius J. Barber . .
Lucius J. Barber. James Sutherland assembly, IS40, Isaac H. Palmer. L. Crossman .... Robert Masters. . 41 and '42. 4th legislative assembly, Ist & 2d sessions, '42, 43
John Catlin
Chas. S. Bristol .. Noah Phelps ... . Geo. H. Slaughter Mark R. Clapp. . Wm. M. Dennis. Noah Phelps .. ..
4th session, '46.
Dane, Green and Sauk ..
Alex. L. Collins .. .
Alex. L. Collins .. .
Chas. Lum. ... Wm. A. Wheeler John W. Stewart. E. T. Gardner ... Alex. Botkin .... John W. Stewart.
5th legislative assembly, Ist session, 1847. Special session April 1847, and 2d session, '48.
3d session, '45.
John Catlin
The first convention to form a state constitution con- vened October 5, 1846, and adjourned December 16, 1846. The members from Green County were Davis Bowen, Noah Phelps, Wm. C. Green and Hiram Brown. The members of the second convention, which was in in session from December 15, 1847, to February I, 1848, were James Biggs and Wm. McDowell.
History of Green County. 6 1
STATE GOVERNMENT.
YEAR.
SENATORS.
No. of Senatori- al district
ASSEMBLYMEN.
1848
E. T. Gardner.
S
Henry Adams.
1849
E. T. Gardner
S
John C. Crawford.
1850
Alexander Botkin.
S
William C. Green.
I851
Wm. Rittenhouse.
S
Julius Hurlbut.
1852
T. S. Bowen
S
Truman J. Safford.
I853
T. S. Bowen
24
Thomas Fenton.
1854
F. H. West
24
Abner Mitchell.
1855 IS56
Geo. E. Dexter
24
Martin Flood.
I857
Geo. E. Dexter
24
Martin Flood.
1858
John H. Warren
24
James E. Vinton.
1859
John H. Warren.
24
Albert H. Pierce.
1860
John W. Stewart.
24
Walter S. Wescott.
1861
John W. Stewart
24
James Campbell.
1862
E. A. West.
24
Harvey T. Moore.
1863
E. A. West.
24
Walter S. Wescott.
Ezra Westcott.
1864
W. S. Wescott.
24
Frederick B. Rolf.
1865
W. S. Wescott
24
David Dunwiddie.
1866
Henry Adams. 24
Daniel Smiley.
IS67
Henry Adams
24
Lucius W. Wright.
1868
Henry Adams
24
Albert H. Pierce.
Jacob Mason.
1869
Henry Adams
24
J. F. Wescott.
Thomas A. Jackson.
IS70
J. C. Hall
24
Thomas A. Jackson. Orrin Bacon.
IS71
J. C. Hall. 24
IS72 I873
Orrin Bacon 12
IS74
Harvey T. Moore 12
C. R. Deniston.
I875
Harvey T. Moore
I2
C. R. Deniston.
1876
J. B. Treat .. 12
John Luchsinger.
IS77
J. B. Treat. 12
Franklin Mitchell.
John Luchsinger.
6*
Orrin Bacon 12
Marshall H. Pengra.
Marshall H. Pengra. John Luchsinger.
Egbert E. Carr.
David Dunwiddie.
C. D. W. Leonard.
Wm. W. Mclaughlin.
Wm. W. McLaughlin.
Martin Mitchell.
Obadiah J. White.
Calvin D. W. Leonard.
F. H. West
24
Amos D. Kirkpatrick.
Wm. Brown.
Edmund A. West.
62
History of Green County.
GOVERNORS OF WISCONSIN.
HENRY DODGE, appointed April, 1836.
HENRY DODGE, appointed March, 1839. JAMES DUANE DOTY, appointed September, 1841. N. P. TALMADGE, appointed June, 1844. HENRY DODGE, appointed April, 1845.
UNDER STATE GOVERNMENT.
NELSON DEWEY, (2 terms).
EDWARD SALOMAN, (vice Harvey).
L. J. FARWELL.
JAMES T. LEWIS.
WM. A. BARSTOW.
LUCIUS FAIRCHILD, (2 terms).
COLES BASHFORD.
C. C. WASHBURN.
ALEX. W. RANDALL, (2 terms). WM. R. TAYLOR.
LOUIS P. HARVEY. (died).
HARRISON LUDINGTON.
GUBERNATORIAL VOTE IN GREEN COUNTY.
1848. Dewey, dem.,
481
1861.
Harvey, rep.,
1,461
Tweedy, whig,
406
Ferguson, dem.,
661
1849. Dewey, dem.,
443
1863. Lewis, rep., - 2,046
Collins, whig,
324
Palmer, dem., 836
1851. Farwell, whig,
504
I865. Fairchild, rep., 1,552
Upham, dem.,
530
Hobart, dem.,
728
1853.
Barstow, dem., Holton, rep., Baird, whig,
769
1867.
Fairchild, rep., -
2,094
748
1869.
Fairchild, rep., -
2,002
1855. Barstow, dem.,
600
Robinson, dem.,
920
Bashford, rep,,
· 1,128
1871.
Washburn, rep.,
1,757
1857. Randall, rep.,
1,156
-
832
1873. Taylor, dem.,
1,366
1859.
Randall, rep.,
1,726
Washburn, rep.,
1,402
Hobart, dem.,
- 1,14I
1875.
Ludington, rep.,
1,960
Taylor, dem.,
1,595
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.
DELEGATES FROM TERRITORY. '
Geo. W. Jones,
elected 1836.
Henry Dodge,
elected 1843.
James D. Doty,
1837.
Morgan L. Martin,
1845.
James D. Doty,
1839. John H. Tweedy,
1847.
Henry Dodge,
1841.
Tallmadge, dem.,
1,137
153
Doolittle, dem.,
934
Cross, dem.,
-
-
63
History of Green County.
SENATORS SINCE THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE.
Isaac P. Walker, elected 1848.
T. O. Howe, elected 1861.
Henry Dodge, 1848. Jas. R. Doolittle, 1863.
Isaac P. Walker, 1849. T. O. Howe, 1867.
Henry Dodge, I851. Matt. H. Carpenter, וו 1 869.
Charles Durkee,
1855. T. O. Howe,
1873.
Jas. R. Doolittle,
1857.
Angus Cameron, 1875.
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
*FROM FIRST DISTRICT.
Wm. Pitt Lynde,
elected 1848.
+FROM SECOND DISTRICT.
Orsamus Cole,
elected 1849.
C. C. Washburn, elected 1857.
Ben. C. Eastman,
I851. C. C. Washburn,
1859.
Ben. C. Eastman,
IS53. L. Hanchett, (died) " IS61.
C. C. Washburn,
1855. W. D. McIndoe, 1862.
#FROM THIRD DISTRICT.
Amasa Cobb,
elected 1863. Amasa Cobb, elected 1869.
Amasa Cobb,
I865. J. Allen Barber,
I871.
Amasa Cobb,
1867.
SFROM THIRD DISTRICT.
J. Allen Barber,
elected 1873. Henry S. Magoon, elected 1875.
CIRCUIT COURTS.
The act establishing the territorial government of Wisconsin provided for the division of the territory into three judicial districts, and for the holding of district court by one of the three judges of the supreme court in each district. The three judges were Chas. Dunn,
*By the state constitution, adopted March, 1848, the counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth, Rock, and Green, constituted the first congressional district. There was one other district in the state, and each dis- trict had one representative.
+In 1849 the number of districts was increased to three. Rock, Green, La Fayette, Grant, Iowa, Dane, Sauk, Adams, Portage, Richland, Crawford, Chip- pewa, St. Croix, and La Pointe were included in the second.
#In 1861 the state was divided into six districts. Green, La Fayette, Iowa, Grant, Crawford, Richland, and Sauk were the third.
§By a law puplished April 4, 1872, Grant, Iowa, La Fayette, Green, Rich- land, and Crawford constitute the third district.
64
History of Green County.
David Irvin, and Wm. C. Frazer. Green County was in the first, or Judge Dunn's district. Judge Irvin was assigned to the court in that part of the territory after- wards included in the state of Iowa; but on the 12th of June, 1838, the territory of Iowa was organized, and the legislative assembly which convened in the follow- ing November made a new assignment of districts. From July, 1839, until Wisconsin became a state, the second district, which in 1839 included the counties of Walworth, Rock, Green, and Dane, and of which Green County formed a part until 1848, was Judge Irvin's district. In 1848 the state was divided into five judicial circuits, the first of which was composed of Racine, Walworth, Rock, and Green. By a law of 1870, which went into effect January 1, 1871, Green, Rock, and Jefferson constitute the twelfth circuit.
Circuit judges who have presided in Green County ;
Edward V. Whiton, - elected August, 1848.
James R. Doolittle,
"
I853.
John M. Keep, to fill vacancy, -
April, IS56.
David Noggle,
1859.
Wm. P. Lyon,
"
1865.
H. S. Conger, 1871. 1876.
H. S. Conger,
.
¥
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES.
EXETER.
In the beginning were the lead mines. The Sauk, or Sugar River, diggings were situated a little over a mile southwest of the present village of Exeter. The squaws were the first miners, but they had neither the knowledge nor the tools to make their labor very profit- able. With such instruments as they could make, they picked out the surface or float mineral; and when their excavations became too deep to step into, they threw in a dead tree on which they climbed up and down. When a vein ran under the rock, they dug it out as far as they could reach, built a fire in the hole thus made, and, when the rock was heated, cracked it by pouring on water.
The first white man who saw these diggings was a miner named Burke, who happened to pass them after losing his way on a journey across the territory. Led by his account of what he had seen, McNut and Boner, two traders, went to the diggings in 1828, and built a trading house there. They were undoubtedly the first white men to settle in the county. In August of the
66
History of Green County.
same year, Wm. Devise, who had already spent some time in prospecting at the diggings, went there to live. Almost always after this there were transient miners at the diggings. While Mr. Devise was preparing to go to Exeter, Edward D. Beouchard, a Frenchman, began to mine there. In the fall, Mr. Devise was followed by his employees, Wm. Wallace and wife, and J. R. Black- more. It has been said that soon after the arrival of the Wallace family at Exeter, Louisa Wallace, afterwards Mrs. Chas. Thomas, was born there, and that she was the first white person born in Green County. Mrs. Thomas thinks she ought to have had the honor ascribed to her, for Exeter was the home of the family at the time of her birth, but she was born in Galena, August 7, 1830. Mr. Devise, who is now living at Bellville, is a Virginian. At the time under consideration, he and Mr. James Hawthorne were partners. Their acquaint- ance began at Vandalia, from which place they jour- neyed together in IS27 to Shullsburg, where they en- tered into partnership, and where, in about a year, Mr. Devise left Mr. Hawthorne to carry on their mining enterprises there alone, while he went to Blue Mounds. Soon after this he went to Exeter, and then Mr. Haw- thorne went to Blue Mounds.
After their arrival at the diggings, McNut and Boner, by means of whisky and a few worthless baubles, pos- sessed themselves of all the lead raised by the Indians. In August, 1828, when there happened to be no white person there except the traders and Van Sickles, their Dutch interpreter, McNut killed Boner. Whether the
67
History of Green County.
deed was prompted by a desire to possess alone the treasure filched from the Indians, or was the unforeseen result of a drunken quarrel, cannot now be ascertained. Van Sickles hastened to Blue Mounds, the nearest set- tlement, with the news. McNut, probably supposing Van Sickles had gone somewhere else, also went to Blue Mounds, and was lying there drunk when Van Sickles arrived. The next day, miners, one of whom was Robert Kirkendoll, now of Cadiz, buried Boner near the spot where he was killed; but the plow long ago removed all traces of this first grave. McNut was arrested and sent to Prairie du Chien, where six- teen other men were awaiting trial for murder. Since Van Sickles, the only witness against him, was a noto- rious liar, McNut was acquitted; and immediately after his release he left the country. Van Sickles was very much dissatisfied with the trial, not because he laid any claim to veracity, but because one of the men called on to swear to his bad character was Jacob Hunter, whom Van Sickles declared to be a greater liar than himself. After NcNut's arrest, Devise and Beouchard obtained control of the mines. In the spring of 1829, they built a log smelting furnace near the old trading house, and broke the first land broken in the county. The first crop was a crop of turnips raised in 1829. It appears from Prof. Salisbury's biographical sketch of Mr. De- vise, in volume 6 of the Wisconsin Historical Collections, that in the fall of 1829 Mr. Devise went to Fulton and Peoria Counties, Illinois, and brought up a drove of hogs, and that in the summer of 1830 he broke sixteen
68
History of Green County.
acres, on which he raised, the next year, corn, pumpkins, turnips, and oats.
The Indians foresaw their own doom in the advent of more skillful miners, and endeavored to avert it by throwing the windlasses into the shafts and carrying away the ropes. They stole all the mineral left on the ground, but were too cowardly to go into the shafts to steal, though few shafts at the Exeter diggings have been sunk more than thirty feet. The name diggings, by the way, was so universally applied to the excava- tions for lead that when a stranger asked a man who had once worked there the way to the mines, the man stared and said he did not know. After a little conver- sation, a sudden light burst upon him, and he exclaimed, with the air of a discoverer, "Oh, you mean the diggings!"
The customs of the miners, and the rules in regard to the diggings were much the same at Sugar River as in the more populous mining districts. The government did not sell mineral land for a number of years after other land had been in the market, but when a miner discovered a lead he was allowed to make a claim there of two hundred square yards. Claims frequently proved unsatisfactory, were abandoned, and then claimed by other miners who made them productive. In such cases, the first miner sometimes insisted that he had never giv- en up his claim, and a quarrel was the result. The miners' houses were many of them holes in the hillsides. A traveler might derive his first knowledge of the ex- istence of a habitation by his sudden descent into it
History of Green County. 69
through the chimney, which consisted of a barrel with the ends knocked out. There were also sod houses and log houses.
There were few women at any of the diggings in the state. In some places where a hundred men were at work, there was not one woman; and many of the men became as careless of their dress as the wolves were. A miner who worked sometimes in Green Coun- ty, and sometimes farther west, says that one day, when he had not seen a woman for several years, he was called to ferry Mr. and Mrs. Paine over a stream, and that he ran in an opposite direction as though a tribe of Indians was after him. Another miner says that while he was digging at Mineral Point, all the men came up from their shafts one day to see a woman that one of their number had discovered in an emigrant wagon.
Some of the miners made fortunes in a short time; others dug for years with no success. A few, working with a definite purpose, engaged in other occupations after a few years, and are counted with the best citizens of the county; but most of them were reckless and im- provident, spending all their earnings, whether large or small, and being sometimes rich and sometimes mis- erably poor. Two miners usually lived and worked to- gether. There was hard work to be done outside the mines. James Slater, who went to Exeter in 1828, and . who is now a resident of Clarno, tells of walking from Exeter to Blue Mounds-a distance of twenty-eight miles-for a bushel of potatoes, which he bought of Mr. Brigham for two dollars, and carried home on his back.
7
!
70
History of Green County.
One-sixteenth of the lead raised belonged to the gov- ernment. It was paid by the smelters, who bought the lead of the miners, usually paying them from eight to ten dollars a thousand pounds. Mr. Hawthorne, who left the mines in 1833, says the highest price he ever received was twenty dollars per thousand pounds. The first lead smelted at Exeter was hauled by oxen to Ga- lena, where it sold for eighty dollars per ton. In 1833, Col. Hamilton, who had a furnace at Wiota, built some boats with which he attempted to transport his lead down the Pecatonica, Rock, and Mississippi rivers to St. Louis; but two of the boats were overturned, their con- tents were lost, and the experiment was never repeated. The tariff excitement that accompanied the election of President Jackson, brought lead down to its lowest price, and caused many miners to leave Green County ; but Mr. Devise, with four employés, kept on trading and smelting through 1830 and the greater part of '31. Sometime in 1831, John Dougherty established a trading post near the furnace. Prof. Salisbury says that the first information the settlers on Sugar River had of the Black Hawk war was given by the Winnebagoes about noon one May day to Dougherty's half-breed wife, and that they all started that same day to Galena. As all the teams had gone some days before with lead, the fugitives went with an old buggy and a broken down yoke of oxen. Mr. Devise afterwards went to Wiota, where he assisted in the erection of Fort Hamilton. He took an active part in the war, sometimes fight- ing, sometimes going on long and dangerous jour-
71
History of Green County.
neys as messenger of the commanding officers; and, when he was mustered out he received a dollar a day for the services of himself and horse during the war. As soon as the war was over, Mr. Devise, the Dougherty family, and a number of miners returned to the diggings. Their buildings had been burned during their absence, and Mr. Dougherty found his merchandise, which had been left buried in the ground, much injured by moisture; but a barrel of metheglin which had been made early in the spring "to keep" was found so much improved that all present drank im- moderately, forgetting, until intoxication came, the un- usual strength of its ingredients. Mr. Beouchard went away from Exeter a month before the war, intending to return soon. He was a scout during the war, and did not return to Exeter for a year, and then he remained but a short time. He has now lived at Mineral Point nearly forty years. Before he came to Wisconsin in 1819, he was sent by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company to the Pacific ocean. He went to the diggings near Galena in 1822.
Soon after his return, Mr. Devise sold his fur- nace to Mr. Dougherty, and thenceforth worked in the mines until 1850. It is thought that during his mining life he made and lost or spent about $40,000. In 1835 Mr. Dougherty sold the furnace to Camp (or Kemp) and Collins. From that time the diggings were known as Kemp and Collins' diggings. John and Joseph Camp were natives of Cornwall, England; the Collins broth- ers, only one of whom, William, worked in Green
1
72
History of Green County.
County, were Irish. A great many of the first miners at Sugar River were from England and Ireland, which explains the appearance in Green County of the Eng- lish name of Exeter. The other name, Sugar River Diggings, came from the Indian name of the river in that vicinity, Tonasookarah, meaning sugar, and refer- ring to the maple trees on the river banks. With the new firm came new traders and miners, but traders and miners do not make villages. In the winter of 1835-6, while looking for a place to make a claim, Henry F. Janes, for whom Janesville was named, and his cousin, John Janes, went to the diggings for provisions. It was very cold and dark when they reached the place to which they had been directed, and no miners were there. While they were making arrangements to pass the night, supperless and shelterless, they saw a light. Sup- posing it was an Indian camp, they hastened to it, but " He received us,"
found a miner, Michael Welsh.
wrote Mr. Janes twenty years later, "with all the hos- pitality with which a Wisconsin miner could receive a stranger, and any attempt on my part to describe that would be but a failure to do justice to that noble heart- ed class of the citizens of Wisconsin. We were now snugly ensconced in a warm cabin by a roaring fire, and soon had a stool placed between us on which was a pyramid of potatoes, a dish of pork swimming in a mini- ature lake of gravy, and a tin cup of coffee for each of us. * * We then went over to where New Mex- ico was afterwards laid out, explored there two or three days, and then to Hamilton's diggings, and finally back
History of Green County. 73
again to Rock river. I then selected the claim that Janesville is built on."
The cabin of Michael Welsh stood where the vil- lage of Exeter is; and there was a still older cabin there built by Pierce Bradley. Both houses were built before the war, and there was a small garden adjoining each. Mr. Welsh was an Irishman, who had been educated to be a Catholic priest. Mr. Bradley was a native of New York. He had an Indian wife, and when the Indians went away he went with them. Soon after the war, Thomas Welsh built a house where the village is. He cultivated a little ground, and his wife, known as old mother Welsh, kept tavern there.
At the diggings, new miners were constantly coming and going, but they made no permanent improvements. Camp and Collins cultivated the land broken by Mr. Devise, but it was not until 1838 that James Slater be- gan to make the third farm in the township. The next farms were made by Joseph Dunbar, John Ferguson, Leonard Ross, Geo. Magee, Chas. George, John Arm- strong, Amos Harris, and Wm. and Robert Oliver. These farmers all came to the county before the war, or very soon after it, but, with perhaps two exceptions, their farms were made after 1840.
In 1839 or '40, Chas. Stevens built a log tavern and a furnace where the village is. The new furnace at- tracted miners, and the village began to grow, so that the year 1841 saw it in possession of a post office and three stores. The stores were kept by Thomas Somers, always called Tom Somers, John S. Litchfield, and
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