USA > Wisconsin > Green County > History of Green County, Wisconsin > Part 7
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So full of valor that they smote the air For breathing in their faces, beat the ground For kissing of their feet;
and when the question, were you ever intoxicated, is propounded to the most temperate of the old settlers, it is likely to elicit the reply, Yes, when Vineyard was acquitted.
A brewery was built this year, and several new buildings made more clear the outline of the public square: the Monroe House on the north side, built by John R. Walling; a second dwelling on the west side;
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two stores on the south side, built by Beach, Goodhue and Slawson; and the old frame store of New Mexico, which was now moved over to the north side. There had been a tailor shop on the cast side a year.
By 1844, one-third of the land in the county was entered. Soon after the land came into market, a great number of acres, including much timber land, were bought by New England speculators-a proceeding that the settlers regarded as iniquitous. All non-resi- dents who owned land were called speculators, and opposition to speculators was held to be an essential element of loyalty to the county. The usual form of opposition was stripping the timber from the land of the obnoxious class. To a great extent it was the spec- ulators' timber that fenced the farms, and kept the cooking stoves and the saw mills running. Ordinarily, wood cut from any speculator's land was good enough; but a speculator owning land east of Monroe died, and (as though his death was an addition to his former in- dignity to the settlers), from that time until the timber was all used, his land, known as "dead man's land," was the favorite place of supply in this part of the county. Until 1844 the speculators made no effort to defend themselves, but in that year a number of them engaged J. A. Bingham to prosecute every one found cutting their timber, and for a time the old hatred of speculators was forgotten in the new desire to resist a citizen who dared to become a representative and de- fender of the obnoxious class. For a year or two, it seemed as though the more the timber cutters were
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prosecuted, the more they developed a martyr-like per- sistency and a very un-martyr-like aggressiveness. These qualities might have reached the heroic, had not the courage of the choppers wasted away so rapidly that their conduct became the laughing stock of the county. A brother of Mr. Thomas W. Thompson once came from New York to visit him. At Milwau- kee he hired horses and a covered carriage for the remainder of the journey. Before his visit in Sylvester was over, he wanted to see the county town. He
started, but lost his way. Presently he saw three men and three loads of rails standing in the road before him. Before he was near enough to ask for information, they all started. Two of the men had horse teams, and they soon disappeared. Mr. Thompson then called loudly to the man with the ox team to stop, but the more he called, the more the man pounded his oxen. Psycholo- gists may well tell of the strange influence which, under favorable circumstances, a man who concentrates his mind on one thing is capable of wielding, even if he does not utter a word. In this case, the circumstances were favorable, and the concentration was perfect; and, in an incredibly short time, both oxen and rails seemed to have been inspired with the belief that only a specu- lator would ride in such a fine carriage as that which was coming behind them. The oxen galloped, and the rails flew off at the sides; and the last Mr. Thompson saw of the driver, he was clinging with both hands to the wagon, from which the last rail was gone, while the oxen were making time to which Mr. Thompson, in
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his amazed and bewildered condition, was entirely un- able to bring his high-spirited horses.
In 1844, the brick court house was begun. The contractor, Mr. Wm. Dunton, burned his own brick, and it was not until April, '46, that the building was ready for use. A cemetery was laid out in '44, just west of the village, which at that time contained twen- ty-nine dwellings; and a frame school house was built the same year, near the present residence of Dr. Mon- roe. In this school house, in the summer of '45, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Wells, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Truax, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kirkendoll, uniting under the rules and regulations of the Methodist Episcopal church, formed the first religious society in the village.
As late as 1845, there was but one well in Monroe, that one being on the place where Mr. Banta lives. It was generally regarded as woman's work to carry water from the spring; and those who had large fam- ilies and who lived far from the spring had in this way all the exercise they needed. This was especially the case when it happened, as it sometimes did, that after a laborious wading through the mud, seeing they were almost home, and going into a joyful calculation of how long the two pails of water they carried would last, how many faces, windows, and dishes it would wash, how many potatoes and turnips it would boil, they slipped in the mud, and, like the milkmaid whose story they had so often pondered at school, fell prostrate, los- ing the treasure so full of promise a moment before. Nevertheless, these women did not encourage men to
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drink anything stronger than water, as is proved by the existence of a temperance society, which in the fall of 45 had ninety members. Nor did this daily exercise weaken in any way the effect of the common law which forbade any woman, especially any young woman, to walk when she went to a dance. Though she might have carried the water for a washing during the day, and might have done the washing, yet, however short the distance to the tavern, she must ride to the party. It was a natural result of this social law that, before the days of livery stables, comparatively few young men could take any one to a dance. Another result was another inexorable law forbidding any young man to invite one girl without inviting, or persuading some one else to invite, all the other girls in the family. One lady says she has been one of seventeen girls to go to a party with one young man, and that she has been to many parties to which two gentlemen escorted all the young ladies. At supper the ladies sat down first, and their partners waited on them. A man compelled to wait on seventeen hungry girls would hardly care to practice his steps much in the ball room, or if he did, he would probably go too fast for the music; but it was mercifully provided that, once at the party, a girl might receive, until it was time to ride home, the devoted at- tentions of any pedestrian there, and accordingly all the gentlemen served at the supper table.
Long before this, the learned professions were repre- sented in Green County; but, with a few honorable ex- ceptions, they were represented, as they are in all new
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countries, by men poorly qualified for their work. The principal physician based his practice on the belief that when blisters, calomel, and the lancet will not save a man, nothing will save him, but that bleeding is then to be resorted to in order to make him die more easily; and he is said to have bled, blistered, and salivated his patients successively or simultaneously with an energy that made this a very easy place to die in. Physicians seem to have been distinguished by peculiarities in their dress, rather than by those in their practice. There was one who was always called the calico doctor, not that there was anything unusual at that time in the calico coat he wore, but the name was distinctive because his principal rival always wore buckskin clothes and a coon- skin cap. Most of the ministers scorned book learning and relied on inspiration. They made up in noise what they lacked in ideas. Their favorite subject was the day of judgment. One, who spoke in a nasal, sing- song tone, described it as a day when the sun will be darkened, the moon will be turned to blood, the tangents will fly out of their sockets, and the cattle will stick up their tails and run. Another, who was heard by those of the villagers who remained at home, as well as by those gathered in the court room, spoke as follows: " In that solemn hour, my dearly beloved bretheren and sisteren, all sinners will be call-ed before the judgment seat to receive their sentences. First, the murderers will be call-ed, then the burglars and highway robbers, then the horse thieves and the gamblers, and last and worst of all the Universalists will be call-ed." There was one
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minister who made some pretense to education. He had a Greek testament which, although he could not read it, he brought out whenever he found himself beaten in a theological argument. With his finger on the open page he would say, here is the original Greek, which proves that I am right; and, as his brother was, like himself, unable to read the passage, this always .ended the dispute. Professional men came in the order in which there was a demand for them. First appeared the doctors, some of whom never thought of doctoring until they came here, and most of whom were willing to preach. Next were the ministers, and then came the lawyers, the first of whom had nothing to do. One lawyer came and went away before IS40, and his dis- couraged successor went in 1841. Tivo came in 1842, both of whom would have starved had the law been their only means of support. But public sentiment was undergoing a curious change. Before 1838, and even later, the people had little to do with law, and they prospered so well that they were reluctant to change. Even the county organization they lamented as an evil. But after they had become accustomed to the workings of the new government and to the courts, there was a reaction in favor of law; and, notwithstanding the dif- ference in population, there was more litigation in the ten years beginning with 1842, than in the decade next following. As an extreme example of this reactionary feeling is quoted the case of Mr. Paine,"who, it is said, had forty summons served on him in one day. The number is probably an exaggeration, but the example
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is a good one. Though formerly prompt enough in the payment of debts, he now refused payment in a number of cases, saying, "if you're going to have law here, you may as well use it." And there were many who were willing to use it. With great freedom of speech and manners, with the freest hospitality, and the greatest brotherly kindness, there existed a seemingly incompat- ible severity of judgment, and an admiring approval of all severe punishments. At one time a grand jury in Monroe came near indicting a man for playing cards, and subpoenaed Mr. F. F. West to explain the nature of card playing. Mr. West told the jury he could not give the desired information without the assistance of a pack of cards. The jury ordered a pack brought in, and Mr. West explained its uses at some length, enjoying at the end of the explanation the satisfaction of seeing all his hearers thoroughly interested and pleased, and some of them so enthusiastic that their continued investigations were a matter of no doubt whatever. But even in the midst of legal proceedings men sometimes showed that it was more agreeable to them to fight their own battles than to intrust the duty to a lawyer. A case in point is that of Mr. Peter Rutledge, one of the early settlers of Jefferson, and afterwards a resident of Washington. He was indicted for giving a challenge to fight a duel. At the trial it appeared that, while riding horseback in Washington, he met a man to whom he said: "Here's a pistol, d-n you, take it and defend yourself." Mr. Rutledge's attorney, the Hon. David Noggle, claimed that this was not a challenge, and he was trying to prove
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that his client was innocent of the charge brought against him, when Mr. Rutledge, a Virginian as full of pride as any of the F. F. V.'s and as ready to defend his hon- 'or, arose and silenced his advocate with the words, " sit down, Noggle, you don't know what you're talking about." He then denied as calumnious the implied as- sertion that he did not know how to give a challenge, and insisted that no one who understood the law would deny that there was one in the words which have been quoted. Judge Whiton decided that they did constitute a challenge, and the prosecution then went on to show that Mr. Rutledge bore a bad reputation before he came to Wisconsin, that he had stabbed one man, inflicting a dangerous wound. The stabbing was proved, and Mr. Rutledge's friends despaired of saving him from the penitentiary. They brought rebutting testimony, but this made the prisoner more impatient than anything that had been said against him. He again took the floor, and, in spite of the remonstrances of his and of the opposing council, in spite, too, of the repeated order of the court to be quiet, he acknowledged the stabbing, and gave his reasons for it, and then his reasons for the challenge. He gained the sympathy of all present, and was acquitted.
Some of the lawyers who practised here while Judge Irvin was on the bench, and the number included many whose residence was out of the county, seem to have believed, like Aaron Burr, that law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained, The dæmon of gush seems to have taken possession of them, and they
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talked so long and so strangely that the justices were reduced almost to imbecility, as is shown by the follow- ing bit of Green County history: A lawyer, distin- guished for education, dignity, and piety, stated his case, and the justice said to him: " The right is clearly on your side. I think I may decide at once in your favor." " Hold on," cried the second lawyer, who, like his op- ponent, came from Madison, "I haven't told my side, yet." When he had finished, the justice said: "I was mistaken, the right seems now to be on your side." " But I have still something more to say," said the first lawyer, who then launched forth in long continued praises of the majesty of the law, and of the sacred responsibilities of the law's officials, closing with a state- ment of the duty of this particular justice. The justice was much affected by his appeal, but, before he had time to give a decision, up sprang the other lawyer, apparent- ly in a frenzy of righteous indignation. Pointing con- temptuously at his opponent, he said, "that sanctimo- nious hypocrite hopes to deceive you by all this cant; he takes you for a basswood man; he thinks he can grease and swallow you; can such hypocrisy succeed?" " No," said the now irate justice, "it can not succeed; " I decide in your favor."
Sometimes, however, the justice showed a remark- able ability to weigh conflicting claims, as is shown in the case, Harcourt ys. Bedtner. Dr. Harcourt was called to prescribe for Mrs. Bedtner, a mile and a half away. Arrived at the house, the Doctor found he had forgotten his saddle bags, in which were his medicines;
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and he sent Mr. Bedtner after them, When the Doctor presented his bill, Mr. Bedtner refused to pay. The case was tried before a justice who decided that Mr. Bedtner owed nothing, as, in going after the saddle bags, he had rendered as great a service as the Doctor had rendered him.
When the district court was in session, the lawyers felt obliged to say something that would make a strong impression in a short time; for there was always a possibility that Judge Irvin would adjourn court at a moment's notice, and go hunting. The Judge was a man of whom no rival would have said to the lady of their choice, as was said to Amy of Locksley Hall, "he will hold thee something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse." In the Judge's opinion, the three things most essential to a happy exis- tence were gun, horse and dog; and to intimate friends he stated very frankly his belief that his gun was the best gun in the United States, that his pointer, York, was the best dog in the world, and that his horse, Pedro, was possessed of more sense than any lawyer in his court. It was supposed that his strongest feeling was his affection for York; and more than one poor man, when judgment was rendered against him, rue- fully, and probably mistakenly, attributed his misfortune to a kick, which in some hour of wanton pride he had bestowed upon York. The Judge had no natural qual- ifications for his office above those of any honest, indo- lent, pleasure-loving man, who firmly believes that everything southern is good, and everything "Yankee"
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is thoroughly bad. His talk was more of prairie chickens than of law; and his knowledge of law was so limited that in court he was in the habit of ordering a recess, that he might take his successor, Mr. Whiton, then a practising attorney, one side, and ask him the law bearing on the case under discussion. The follow- ing is said to be a charge given by him to a jury in 1841 : " It appears from the evidence that the plaintiff and defendant in this action are brothers-in-law. On the Wabash river, in the state of Indiana, they associated themselves together for the purpose of swindling their neighbors. Not content with that, they got to swind- ling each other, and I am like the woman who saw her husband and a bear fight: 'fight husband, fight bear; I don't care which beats.' And, gentlemen of the jury, it is a matter of indifference to me how you bring in your verdict." Five minutes after the jury had retired the sheriff was instructed to see if they had agreed. A negative answer was returned; whereupon, the jury was immediately ordered in and discharged.
At the close of his term of office, Judge Irvin went to Texas. Judge Knapp, in his Early Reminiscences of Madison, says that, " as penuriousness had prevailed over love, leaving only kindness in the bosom of Judge Irvin, York was left in the kind family of Joe Kelly at Monroe, where he died;" and " the high bred Pedro fared worse: he was sold for the purpose of drawing the plow and the lumber wagon." Mr. Kelly pro- nounces the above a mistake. Judge Irvin was a Vir- ginian, and he always spent his winters in the south.
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During these absences from Wisconsin, York, to whom all the old settlers concede a place in the history of Green County, was left in Monroe; but when the Judge went south to remain both York and Pedro ac- companied him.
In 1844 or '45 Sanger's stage-coaches began to run from Milwaukee to Galena, by way of Monroe. There was a coach going one way or the other every day, and each coach was capable of carrying seventeen passengers. Preference was given to through passengers, and Mon- roe people were never able to pre-engage a seat for a journey in either direction. There was so much travel that Monroe men sometimes waited a week for a seat, and were then obliged to find some other conveyance.
A package of old letters written in Monroe in 1845 and succeeding years gives some facts of interest to those who care to follow the progress of the village.
It was about this time that Green county gained the name of " the sang county," a name so well known that one of our representatives at Madison began his first speech there by proudly announcing himself as the member from the sang county. Sang, which being in- terpreted means ginseng, was very abundant here; but as men, women, and children devoted all their leisure moments to digging it, the supply was exhausted in a few years. Mr. Ludlow bought all there was, being the only person in this part of the sang region who shipped it to New York, and says he made more money on it than on any other little thing he ever dealt in. A letter dated August, '46, says: "Flour is $3.00 a barrel.
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Wheat can't be sold. Oats are twelve and one-half cents, and corn twenty cents a bushel. Wild hay is $2.50 per ton. A boy from Maine has dug five hun- dred pounds of ginseng within three months and sold it for twenty-two cents a pound." It is not recorded whether wheat was ever too abundant to be given away, but two or three years later Mr. C. J. Simmons hauled oats from his farm in Washington to Janesville, and sold them for six and one fourth cents a bushel; and, as the oats did not bring him as much money as he needed, he sold some yearling calves for $3.50 apiece.
In IS46, Mr. Samuel Spangler's gun shop had its beginning, and Mr. Ludlow opened a store to which his old customers came from all directions. In IS47, our chronicler mentions as signs of progress a public library and preaching three times every Sunday. The Pres- byterians, Christians, and Methodists had each a regu- lar minister, though the Christian minister was partly, and the Presbyterian minister was wholly, supported by eastern missionary societies. One letter (written to induce immigration) has this significant remark: "Please tell James Collins this would be a very good place for him as a preacher if he still works at his trade of mak- ing chairs." There was also a Mormon shoemaker here who preached sometimes. There were several Mormons in this vicinity, some of whom are still here, but none of them were ever polygamists. In '47 the Methodists began, on the land given them for that pur- pose by Mr. Ly Brand, the first meeting house in the county. It was finished in '48, the same year the
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Christians built the meeting house used now as a mar- ble shop. In '47. the United States House was built by Chas. Hart, and Mr. Eilert opened a drug store on the north side of the square.
A fanning mill factory, a traveling daguerreian, a jeweler (probably Mr. Thos. Emerson, as his was the first jewelry store here), and a load of apples hauled from southern Indiana and sold on the square for a cent a piece, are told of in the letters of ISAS. A letter of '49 speaks of those carried off by the California fever, and says: "Twenty-four wagons left this place last
Monday. They go with from three to six voke of oxen to a wagon. and with eighteen months provi- sions."
In 1849. the county town had one hundred dwellings and five hundred and twenty inhabitants. A saw-mill was erected in the village this year. and the trustees of the Green County Seminary let the contract for the seminary building. In the fall of 1850. Mr. H. C. Bur- chard. now a member of congress from Illinois. took charge of the seminary on the following terms: "Said Burchard," says the trustees' journal. " will conduct a school therein, under this board, supply suitable assist- tant teachers. furnish the rooms (as rent therefor) with stoves and pipe, and furnish fuel; he will receive as compensation such sums as he may collect for tuition." Though students of all ages and degrees of advance- ment were received. the seminary was a great power for good in its time. In August. 1852, Mr. Burchard held, at the seminary, the first teachers' institute in Green
History of Green County.
County; it continued several weeks. The land on which the seminary was erected was part of that given to the county when the county town was located. It was sold to the stockholders of the seminary or the country. in 1848 or '49: but no deed was given until :Sss. when John B. Bachman and Geo. Bloom, who had purchased all the stock, received a deed. These gentleme n had a school there a short time. after which the g sold several times. being once used car Enter's shop. and becoming, in IS:S. the property hc school -- district No. S.
In i8;0, there came to Monroe an old man, who said he was sent by the New England Agricultural Society. to select farms for men who wanted to come west. He wore a broad brimmed hat. a butternut coat. and red flan- nel shirt; he was plain and unassuming in his manners. and speedily became very popular. He said the New England Agricultural Society was so wealthy that it had founded and endowed a college, and had deposited a large sum of money in the bank at Woodstock. Ver- mont. It had been such a benefit to its members that
they had all become wealthy. Influenced by these re- ports, the farmers of Green County formed an agricul- tural society; and they invited Mr. Hitchcock-for so the old gentleman was called-to act as their president as long as he should be with them. Meanwhile, Mr. John W. Taylor. a land agent residing in Monroe. and several citizens who had land to sell, were devoting their time to the work of assisting Mr. Hitchcock. Some one of them took him out every day to see the country.
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and those who went oftenest excited the jealousy of those who had failed to secure his company. He rode all over the county several times. At one time, think- ing his Vermont friends would prefer living near each other, he decided to buy a whole township, and thought he would take Clarno; but he also selected land in other parts of the county, and in other counties. Finally he published a notice that, on a certain day in September, he would meet the farmers of Dane, Rock, and Green, and conclude his partial contracts with them. Mr.
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