History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 76

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958

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A story, aptly illustrating the difficulties that environed early traveling, is related by Hon. Henry Merrell, who started from Mineral Point on March 21, 1837, for a trip to Chicago, where he arrived on the 26th inst. "One season," he says, " I arrived at Mineral Point on my way to New York, and found Messrs. M. M. Strong and John Catlin were going to Chicago. and they proposed we should all go together and strike a straight line for that place. We started and went to the East Branch of the Pecatonica, and found it full of running ice. So we con- cluded to encamp there. as we always went prepared with our blankets, ete., for it; and, the next morning, we could build a raft and float our baggage over. In the morning, we cut down a small pine-tree and made two stringers of it, and picked up some dry limbs, putting them aeross ; but we found it would not hold up our saddles. 'Well,' said Mr. Strong, . we can swim our horses across twice, and so get our baggage across,' and he prepared himself, putting his papers in his hat, and swam his horse across. Leaving his hat on the opposite shore, he returned. By this time he shook like an aspen leaf. We rolled him up in blankets, and he lay down by the fire, trying to get us to try it, but we declined. I told him I could swim my horse across once, but I would not try it twice, and the only way for us was to go by the West Branch and around by Rockford. After urging us until he found it no use, and getting warmed up, he mounted his horse and went over and got his hat and papers. Returning, we mounted and rode over to the West Branch. There we got a canoe, and, putting our baggage in, swam our horses over by passing several times ; thence we went to Rockford. One night we came to what we supposed was a ravine full of water running from the prairie. Strong was on the lead. I, watching his horse closely, thought he stepped as though there was a causeway he was going over. Catlin said to me, ' Here is a narrow place, I believe I will try it.' I answered, . I see Strong has got over very well, I will follow him,' which I did, and Catlin followed me. But a little further on we came to a house we were to stay at overnight. When we rode up, a man asked us which way we came, and how we got over the bridge ; we told him we had not crossed any : when he said if we had gone ten feet either side, we would have plunged into thirty feet of water. Strong tells the story that our horses crossed the stringers, the bridge being carried

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off. We had a great deal of sport on the way, and I don't think either of us will ever forget the journey."

As early as 1840, I. A. Lapham, State Surveyor, alluding to the inconveniences attendant on the transportation of mineral from the mining distriets, writes : " The great object which it is most desirable to attain, by works of internal improvement in Wisconsin, is the transportation of the 55,000,000 pounds of lead, copper and shot produced in the mines in the western part of the Territory, and adjacent portions of Iowa and Illinois, to the shores of Lake Michigan, and the supply of that 'mineral distriet' with merchandise by way of the great lakes. This, and the transportation of the surplus agricultural products of the intermediate country to market, and the supply of goods to the interior population, it is believed, can be best accomplished by means of a railroad from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River, a work entirely practicable.

For want of this improvement, the products of the mineral country have been transported to the Mississippi River, and, thence by way of New Orleans and New York, back to Mil- waukee, 150 miles from where it was produced. It is calculated that, in this way, the citizens of the mineral country have actually lost in useless transportation of their products, a sum which would be sufficient to construct this road.

The cost of transporting lead by wagons from Mineral Point to Milwaukee in the summer, when the drivers can sleep in their wagons, and their cattle can find an abundance of feed on the open prairie, is about 50 cents per 100 pounds. At other seasons, it varies from 50 cents to $1 per 100 pounds. At this lowest rate, the fifty-five millions of pounds, if carried on a rail- road, would yield an income of $275,000 per annum, which would be sufficient to pay the whole cost of the railroad in a few years. But, if we take into account the increase of business conse- quent upon this improvement, the merchandise that would be carried in return, the agricultural and other products that would be transported on the road, and the toll derived from passengers, we cannot resist the belief that this prospect is one that must soon attract the attention of eapi- talists, even if the people of Wisconsin should not exert themselves much to accomplish so desir- able an improvement.'

The above and subsequent treatises on the normal wealth of this country, induced capitalists to visit the much-lauded Golconda of riches. Their visits bore fruit in after years, when various lines of railroad were projected and carried through to completion. The principal lines are those of the Chicago & Tomah Railroad, the Chicago & Galena Narrow- Gauge line, the Belmont & Dubuque Railroad, and the main arteries that enter the mineral dis- triet-the Mineral Point Railroad, and the Milwaukee & Madison line which traverses this county from northeast to southwest. Now the swiftly gliding locomotive has revolutionized the commerce of the land, and the once solemn and impressive forests reverberate with the whistle and whirl of the express train as it rapidly speeds on toward the metropolitan cities, bearing its burdens of life and death, hopes, joys and multifarious passions. The slowly throbbing freight train has displaced the patient oxen, and now bears to the markets of the world the val- uable ores fresh from their elayey or rocky beds.

CHRONICLES OF THIE CHOLERA, '49 AND '50.

The Asiatic cholera first visited the Southwest in 1849 and 1850, and ravaged the country with a violence unequaled in medical history. All the horrors of the celebrated London plague, were reproduced with manifold sufferings. The populace was panic-stricken, and people fled in every direction, with but a single thought-escape-controlling their fugitive footsteps. Parents forsook their offspring, and children abandoned their suffering parents. All order was set at defiance, and an inchoate justice dictating self-preservation, governed the actions and feelings of the survivors. Every man for himself, and Dieu pour tous was the egotistical voice of selfish utterances. Hamlets and the smaller burgs were depopulated in the panic. The smiling fields offered an inviting asylum to the refugees, who swarmed into the more healthful sections, and camped on the open prairie, free from the deadly miasma, the inevitable forerunner of the disease. In the eities and villages, the air was odorous of a thousand disinfectants, and a pall of gloom

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and mourning enshrouded the inhabitants in a reserve that bespoke sore bereavement. The fetid atmosphere of the hollows and ravines breathed the mephitie organism of the charnel house, and permeated the system with a penetration that sank into the vitals. Synonymous almost with the gold fever, the dual effect was palpable in the attenuated ranks that flocked the busy marts of trade. Between the two fires, all business was at a standstill, and the disheartened people, relaxing courage, offered unrestricted freedom for the inroads of insidious disease.

The Asiatic cholera first appeared in New York City in the spring of 1849, having been communicated by some emigrants, whose condition escaped the glance of the quarantine officers. From the metropolitan city, the disease overran the Southern States, and, following the course of the Mississippi, was imparted to that fertile and hygienic region called the valley of the Missis- sippi. There, the fell destroyer insinuated itself through the low-lying districts in ravines and hollows, to the lead region. Man's influence, combined with the most powerful agencies of science, were thwarted in every opposing move. Unchecked, the plague swept forward, to the dismay and consternation of physicians. From Galena, the germs of contagion were spread to White Oak Springs, thence to Highland. In the latter place, the havoc was terrible. and the citizens were mowed down by the unsparing scythe of death, with a rapidity that opened many a gaping swath in the community. In less than three weeks, sixty-nine deaths were recorded, when the malady disappeared, in the same unaccountable manner as it appeared.

In Mineral Point, the advent of the dread messenger was heralded by the sudden sickness and appalling demise of Mrs. Phillip Bennet, who lived on Hoard street, and John Prideaux, Sr. These deaths occurred June 29, 1849. Both cases were superindneed by imprudence in over- heating the system, and sudden strictures occasioned by imbibing ice-cold drinks. Mrs. Bennet manifested symptoms of cholera at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Medical assistance was summoned, and the usual antidotes administered. They were powerless to avert death, which carried off its first victim within twelve hours. Mrs. Bennet left five children in destitution. The second case, that of Prideaux, Sr., developed under the following circumstances : Prideaux had been mining, working in a close sultry atmosphere all day, until every musele and fiber in the body was debili- tated. In this super-heated condition, he returned home, and retired to a cool underground spring house, where he drank a glass of ice-cold buttermilk, and almost instantly complained of intense pain in the abdomen. This attack was followed by acute diarrhoea. and before four hours had elapsed a second vietim was enumerated among the fatal cases of cholera. To attempt to trace the con- tagion, would be futile. A commensurate understanding of the dreadful epidemie can only be entertained by those who manfully withstood the storm, and waited in chastened patience for the silver lining to the cloud of their discontent.

The first case that disturbed the halcyon repose of the residents of Dodgeville, occurred in Norway Hollow, three miles east of the village. Mrs. Eaton first succumbed, and her fate was only the first of a powerful host, who followed her to an untimely grave.

The majority of incipient eases were relieved when medical precautions were wisely fol- lowed; but, when the physical powers had collapsed, and the case was attended with corru- gated surface, the patient's fate was sealed. He or she was doomed to die. The first premoni- tory symptom was acute diarrhea, which, in those days of plague, was considered an infallible indication of the gerins of contagion in the system. The favorite specific administered was a compound of laudanum, tincture of camphor, and pepper, or a very little opiate. Brandy was sparingly doled out by the physicians, but copiously assimilated by the majority of citizens, who considered this liquor the best antiseptic.

It is a noteworthy fact that the greatest tippler in Mineral Point-a certain peripatetic whiksy-barrel, facetiously termed the "Commo lore "-escaped unscathed. His filthy habits were, notoriously, town gossip ; yet, notwithstanding his constant exposure, day and night, to the fury of the elements, his fondness for an oozy couch in the gutter, and general disregard for sanitary rules, he emerged from the plague unshorn of his physical powers. In contradistinc- tion are numerous cases where men of strong temperance proclivities, refusing to stimulate their sluggish blood with the proffered cordial, sank to the grave.

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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.

THE SECOND VISITATION, '51.

In 1851, the cholera returned with redoubled vigor, and decimated households and communi- ties. Those who, on the first visitation, had braved an attack, now fled, terror-stricken ; but the country homes and farmers' residences offered no protection, as the doors were resolutely closed to all intruders.

Wingville, in Grant County, was first assailed. Cholera appeared there in a rambling rookery, originally intended for a miners' boarding-house. When the mines were exhausted, the miners removed, and the building was converted into a tenement-house. Under the house was a large excavation, or cellar, used by the tenants in common to bestow the refuse and gar- bage of the various households. One day, after a furious summer shower, the cellar was inun- dated, and the decomposed vegetable matter floated around on the surface. Under the indirect heat of the sun's rays, the fetid mass emitted an overpowering odor, that assailed olfactory or- gans at a considerable distance. The miasma was perceived on Saturday afternoon, and, on that night, several of the inmates were attacked with cholera. A special messenger was dispatched for medical help, to Dodgeville. Dr. Sibley responded, in hot haste, to the urgent call, but, before he arrived, six patients had paid the debt of nature.

Dr. Sibley, irrelevant of his personal safety, remained in the tenement, eating and sleeping there, and constantly breathing the vitiated air. His compassionate- soul was stirred with the heart-rending scene, and he exerted himself strennously to mitigate the suffering and alleviate the dying pangs. Under this incessant mental and bodily strain, his constitution weak- ened, and afforded a foothold for the insidious disease, and he finally resolved to return home with a lady companion, Mrs. Storms. In passing through Montfort, Wis., he was accosted from Becmer's tavern, and, on solicitation, parted with his last quantity of medicine-a very efficacious remedy, of which he alone possessed the secret. On noaring Dodgeville, when within three miles of the village, Dr. Sibley began to feel faint. Mrs. Storms called to some men em- ployed shingling an adjacent house, to succor the Doctor. They lifted him tenderly out of his buggy and carried him into the house, where he expired in a few minutes, a martyr to his pro- fession. The date of his death was August 23, 1851.

The malady extended from Grant County to Highland, where it did terrible execution, killing sixty-nine persons within a month, and driving nearly all of the citizens and both doctors out of the place. A sanitary committee was organized, under the management of Amasa Cobb. Bonfires were kept burning, cannons fired off regularly, and disinfectants used in profusion ; but to no avail ; nothing could stay the ravages of the fearful messenger of death.

The first case at Mineral Point, in the second year, was that of a man and his wife from Dodgeville, who had come to pay a friendly visit to some relatives living on the high hill near the mill. They arrived on Saturday night, and were buried on the next day.

Among those who labored earnestly in their profession and maintained a vigilant watch while their professional brethren were fleeing the doomed country, were Drs. Van Dusen and J. H. Vivian, of Mineral Point, and Dr. Burrell, of Dodgeville.

On May 8, 1851, Eber Polk, Samuel Thomas and P. W. Thomas, J. P., organized under Chapter 26, of the Revised Statutes of Wisconsin, as a Board of Health of Mineral Point. The effect of this organization was soon apparent in the purified alleys and cleansed sewers, and the removal of nuisances which no longer saluted the eye with an offensive display, or greeted the nostrils with a redundant rancidity.

Following is a diary kept during the cholera, which, although not professing to mention one-fourth of the fatalities, covers the progress of the contagion in Mineral Point and locality :

June 29, 1849-Two fatal cases of cholera. Mrs. Phillip Bennet, on Hoard street, was taken with cholera at 3 A. M., Wednesday, which terminated fatally in twelve hours.

John Prideaux, Sr., aged thirty, attacked at 1 P. M., Wednesday-fatal in eleven hours. Medical assistance not obtained until the evening.

June 4-Richard Burnett died at Diamond Grove, after returning from St. Louis.

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August 10-Twelve have died of cholera ; 20th-Death of Mrs. Lauraney, wife of Gardner Lamps, and of Arran J. Minor, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Lamps; 27th-death of Joseph James; 28th-Mrs. Joseph James, Mrs. Catherine Wasley; 30th-Richard Crocker, Sr., Mrs. Eliza McIlhon, Johnson Smith, Mrs. William Lancaster, James Richardson. Mrs. Mary Gunderson, Luke Swayne and wife, Nicholas Curry and three children.

June 25, 1859-Josiah Marks, from Dodgeville ; 30th-A woman and child from Dodgeville, name not given.

August 5-Mrs. Elizabeth Meadows, Dr. David Ross, John Thomas. Amelia Nebeldine ; 6th-Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Hamilton; 17th-An unknown child; 10th-Mr. Allen ; 13th- Rachel Meadows ; 14th-Elizabeth Smith ; 15th-J. Ramsay, J. Oleson ; 16th-A child of Phillip Eaton ; 19th -A child of Mr. Troy, a Galena teamster ; 20th-Mrs. Dr. Ross, Mrs. Hoskins ; 21st-An unknown Charley, confectioner ; 22d-Frank Healey, Luke Avery, Joseph, a colored man ; 23d-Thomas Stuzaker, a child of Mr. Oats; 24th-Two children of Mr. Tomp- kins : 25th-An unknown German ; 27th-William Thomas; 28th-James L. Vance, Mr's. Hornbrook, Mr. Jacka : 29th-An unknown German, J. Garreta Pulford; 30th-Mr. Schen- oneh, Elizabeth Tompkins and two children ; 31st-Mrs. Murrish, an unknown miner.

September 1-Mrs. E. Harris ; 2d-Thomas Terrill, Sr .; 3d-A son of William Thomas ; 5th -- Mr. E. Phillips, Mr. Harris; 8th-Cromwell Lloyd; 10th-A child of Joseph Lampshire, a child of Ed Prideaux; 11th-Mrs. John Champion; 16th-Richard Gundry: 17th-A son of R. Gundry, Thomas Riddell; 21st-Mrs. Ann Pryor; 27th-Three children of Abraham Golds- worthy ; 28th-A child of Edward Cornish, Charles Nauveldon. William Edwards, a child of Thomas Vincent. Thomas Hambley.

LAND SWINDLING SCHEMES.

During the Territorial days, and even for many years after, land speculation and swindling of all kinds ran rampant. Various devices for entrapping the unwary into purchasing valueless lands. were the most common as well as profitable methods of fleecing the uninitiated. The lands were graded according to their relative value for farming or mining purposes, at prices ranging from 50 cents up to $1.25 per acre. Some rogue would come along and enter the very cheap- est that he could get. which was always at the best very poor, then, with his patent in his pocket. he would repair to some Eastern city professing to be a business man, desirous of making a pur- chase of goods for the Western trade or to take into the mineral regions, where he owned large quantities of very valuable land, which, as a matter of course, he desired to exchange or to use as security in part, at least, for his purchases. This ruse was very often successful : but the worst feature of these affairs was that those who ordinarily made such exchanges, were people who wanted to obtain lands "out West " to live upon, and who were thus, in some instances, stripped of everything they had, for. in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the lands were utterly untillable, or, if they were tillable, they would not even raise beans.

Another trick very often attempted and sometimes successful, was in this wise : A stranger would come into the country and announce his intention to purchase land. No sooner did it become known what his object was, than he received numerous attentions both from rogues and honest men, who were anxious to show him around and assist him to make a desirable selection. If he was so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of a " professional," his fate was very likely sealed. He would be " dined and wined " and marched around to his heart's content. and would be shown the very best land in the country, nearly all of which was sure to belong to his guide, or to have been placed in his hands for sale. But, as said guide was very desirous of having the country settled up by men of enterprise and intelligence, he would sacrifice personal interest and let the land go at the nominal price of $1.25 per acre, or what Uncle Sam charged. Ac- cordingly, where a sale was effected, a deed would be drawn or contract entered into, for certain lands which were, of course, numbered to suit the man of intrigue, and represented 50-cent land. Then our artful swindler would have a few preliminaries to settle before the business was concluded, which would cause some delay. but the purchaser could, if he desired to do so, find a

MINERAL POINT.

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safe place of deposit for his money until the business was concluded, so that a perfect title to the land could be given. The titles were usually all right, but alas for the lands, when the buyer " looked where they was they was not there."

Of land speculators there were very many, who, beginning with a little money, realized be- fore the harvest was over handsome fortunes. Their business was done on an eminently safe plan ; but, in the majority of cases, it was no less a swindle than any other robbery. A poor man would come into the country and look around until he found a desirable location. Then he would make a pre-emption claim, and " trust to luck " to pull through and pay for it. Often this would commence the struggle for bread and for a home, which generally found him at the end of his year just where he began. The next thing to be done was to obtain aid. Having inade some improvements, this was an easy matter; all that he had to do was to go to the capi- talist, let him enter the land, he giving a bond for a deed when the purchase money and a liberal interest was paid, according to the conditions of the contract. The programme being settled, the next thing to be done by the capitalist was to make the entry, which, in nearly every case, was done with soldiers' land-warrants purchased at one-fourth or less than that of their value.

In doing this, the speculator ran no risk, nor indeed did he feel it at all necessary to go and look at the land, for in no case would a person be willing to improve and run in debt for worth- less land. In the event, if the land was redeemed, well and good, the land merchant would make at the least 400 or 500 per cent on his investment. Otherwise, equally well and good, for he would have the land which was certain to be as good as any to be obtained. Many other schemes for making money out of the ignorant or unsuspicions were in vogne at that time, but those spoken of were the most notorious and generally successful. So it is that villainy fattens on the labors of honorable industry.

CHAPTER V.

OFFICIAL RECORDS-LA FAYETTE AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES-STATE GOVERNMENT AND SUB_ SEQUENT REFORMS-PAST AND PRESENT COUNTY BUILDINGS-JUDICIAL DISTRICTS AND FIRST CASES-THE COUNTY SEAT WAR-COUNTY POOR HOUSE AND FARM.

OFFICIAL RECORDS.

Iowa County, one of the original sections of Wisconsin Territory, was organized by an act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, approved October 29, 1829, to go into operation on the ensuing January. The area einbraced all of the present State of Wiscon- sin south of the Wisconsin River and west of a line drawn due north from the northern bound- ary of Illinois through the middle of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. Samuel W. Beale and Louis Grignon. of Brown County, and Joseph M. Street, of Crawford County, were nominated, in the same act, Commissioners to select the county seat of the new county. They were required to perform the duty on or before January 1, 1830, and file their written decision with the County Clerk, and the place designated by them was to become the county seat. A stipulation in the act provided that, in the event of the Commissioners not making any return, then the county seat was to bo temporarily established at Mineral Point. The county was divided into five precinets, for voting purposes, which were known as Pecatonica, Blue Mound, Fever River, Platte and Wisconsin.

The report of the Commissioners is not on file; consequently, it is not generally known that the town of their choice was old Helena, a settlement, which, at one time, gave promise of speedy development. The first session of the County Court was held here, but, owing to the paucity of the population, it was impossible to procure a full panel of jurors.

The Judge was James Duane Doty ; Warner Lewis acted as Clerk. The court was convened by J. P. Cox, as Sheriff, and, in the absence of jurors, was immediately adjourned. The case recorded for trial was a breach of martial law. The county seat was then transferred to Min- eral Point, the center of the mining district, which teemed with life and industry.

The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held in May, 1830. Owing to the absence of the official records, the nature of the business transacted by them becomes a mere matter of con- jecture. They evidently appointed, as Clerk, John L. Chasten, whose name figures subsequently in a discharge for dereliction of duty, in not attending the sessions of the board. M. G. Fitch was appointed in his stead. The sum of $11 was voted James Scantlin for the use of his house during the October term of the Circuit Court. At the October session, a log cabin was pur- chased of G. B. Cole, of Mineral Point, wherein to incarcerate all malevolent individuals whose conduct rendered them amenable to the Territorial laws. The munificent sum of $50 was paid for this, the first county jail. The calaboose, which was nothing but a rude hut, was in an advanced stage of dilapidation, requiring immediate repairs, which were executed at a cost of $50-equal to the purchase money. Jonas Meirs was awarded the contract, and W. W. Wood- bridge was allowed $1 for a plan of the repairs. Thomas MeCrancy presented his bill for $50, for services in transporting the laws of the Territory from Green Bay to Mineral Point. Payment was refused, and a resolution was adopted characterizing the charge as excessive and exorbitant. Among the very earliest appointments was a Sheriff, James P. Cox having first discharged the obligations of that office in consideration for certain perquisites.

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History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 76

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 958

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958