USA > Wisconsin > Lafayette County > History of Lafayette county, Wisconsin > Part 70
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Their afflictions were largely aggravated, in addition to those they were compelled to endure, by the necessity incumbent upon them of pursuing the uncertain and precarious fortune of mining as a means of livelihood. A limited number of farms had been opened, as already cited, but the cultivation of the soil, as a rule, was expressly prohibited by the laws and regula- tions governing the mines. This was prolonged until the spring of 1832, at which date the Superintendent of the mining country, seeing the absolute necessity for a change, signified to the inhabitants that he would take no measures to prevent them from cultivating the soil, though he was unable, under his instructions from the Government, to permit them to do so. Up to that date it was necessary to procure a permit to mine, and the regulations of the mines were rigidly enforced.
This state of affairs lasted, as stated, for a continued period, and was but partially dissi- pated by the permits issued in 1832 to cultivate the soil. When this was promulgated and operations thereunder began, there was an evident appearance of increasing improvement and prosperity throughout the country, and settlers everywhere anticipated a season of comfort and plenty. Then the country once more began to hold out inducements to immigration, and the
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
population commenced to add to its numbers, to again drop off when the sudden outbreak of the Indians, under Black Hawk, appalled even the most hardy and adventurous pioneer from seek- ing the fields and mines of La Fayette County.
During 1829 and the years preceding this event, the Indians had become reconciled to the presence of the whites, and no outward appearance of hostility had been manifested since the close of the Winnebago war. In fact, the savages, in a measure, disappeared from South western Wisconsin and rambled about the country contiguous, as, for instance, Stephenson and Jo Daviess Counties, Ill., also about portions of Wisconsin less generally settled than Iowa County then was. Those who remained in the neighborhood of the mines, were lazy, thriftless, trifling, hard- drinking, characterless epitomes of the noble red man, with no idea of the difference between meum and tuum, or appreciation of the rights of individuals, when the latter were the weaker party or in the vocative and helpless. The Indians who had waged a war of conquest or defense against the advance of the white man into their territory years before, had gone to other points le-s accessible to intrusion ; those who remained were, as a rule, unworthy the character their nation - ality bore; the sparkle had long since disappeared and these were the lees that remained. They were not of the band that accompanied Black Hawk in his march through Michigan Territory, or accepted defeat with that brave campaigner at the battle of the Bad Ax, but, like the army of Falstaff, "a scurvy crew." Close the coffin lid over the hideous dust, and recall not deficien- cies that were born of the troublous times in which they lived.
During 1829, some of the first improvements of a public character undertaken in the county were completed and others begun. The hard times, of which mention has been made, came not until the sear and yellow leaf of fall had tinted the forests with prismatic colors, and not par- ticularly oppressive did they become until Winter, with his aged locks, had clothed the landscape in robes of fleecy white.
The spring was one of charming temperature, and the hospitality of the climate was pro- longed far into the months of summer The toiler in the lines of life cast in La Fayette County saw in his mind's eye the pastures folded in beauty and the vales burdened with a teeming abun- dance. Walking under dream-curtained skies, he contemplated the picture of a father content with his plenty, and generous to the world ; of a mother, whose patient watch and vigil long had been rewarded with a fruition of bloom and crowning happinesses. There are to-day old brown farmhouses resting snugly in the hollows among the La Fayette County hills, that were planned in those days of almost primeval bliss-quaint old affairs, with great chimneys, sloping roofs and dormer windows, over which for decades sweeping trees have swayed, sweet vines have clam- bered, and clustering berries, under the touches of the winter's frost, have opened up their scar- let hearts. Long walks lead off from these ancient homes, within whose sacred walls so much of sorrow and rejoicing have been sheltered, pass down through the shade of trees to end in the garden landscaped by these hardy pioneers when the future glistened with promise, and the hand of affliction was not yet reached forth. Pass out from the old home, sacred spot, standing amid the clustering trees to the wide-open meadows, afar from the drowsy stir of the country road, with the heights of blue, mountainous hills in the distance, and a glimpse of the narrow valleys severing these huge antiques in twain, through which the gurgling brook may be heard pursuing its way impatiently to the ocean, in the stillness of a summer's night. Beyond this can be seen the corn-field, surveyed before the country was overrun with settlers, and planted by the hand that was long since palsied in death. Beyond this the orchard, with interlacing arches of gnarled old trees, from among whose juice-gathering roots bubbles a clear spring that trickles down across the lane into a moss-covered trough, where the horses are led to water and the kine love to linger on their way to the milking yard. It is an old-fashioned home ; its sur- roundings belong to an age and generation that came in when the country was young, but it still carries the impress of times it has survived and of hardships it has endured. Modern citizens, boys and girls of days more enlightened, it is claimed, may not see its beauties ; but their fathers hold it sacred as the scene of the happiest years of their lives, before the cares of the world and the world's inhospitality had been allotel them. They recall its generous protection before
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
they wandered away from its threshold to encounter opposition as a wintry day, when the atmos- phere is cold and grayly clear, with a thin, pale sunshine lighting up the way and grimly smil- ing upon the soft, brown fields and russet woods, where the leaves of the oak and the beech cling with dying gasps to the parent stem.
Yes, they remember it, and the old brown house is entwined with the most sacred associa- tions and treasures of years. They remember the home of their childhood, where only silence now and vacant places have succeeded stir and glad bustle, and where, perhaps, the pale-faced widow sighs, as she goes about her simple morning duties, for a "clasp of the vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is dead "-yes, they remember it, when, as children no longer, they went forth from that home sanctified by a mother's care, some to the tumults of life, some to the hush of the grave. Yes, they remember life there, when the great square room was lighted up with fires of cheerful holidays, and gay voices and laughter filled up the space that now is vacant, and, looking from the window of this great square room across the hills, they can see the white stones gleaming in the little burying-place, where the autumn leaves are drifting over the grave of him or her who, in the shadowy past, began the voyage of life with high hopes and pleasur- able anticipations. Indeed, they remember it, and the mother, too, who was its light-she who wafted them to rest with the lullabys of infancy or folded the hands of baby sister or brother who has gone before. Think you, reader, they can forget these sacred associations ? that they neglect to visit the old home after buffeting with the world? No; they come in the strength that is born of trial and the contentedness of a heart that here has found its rest. God bless that old home, and may his choicest gifts come to that white-faced, white-haired parent, who, having lived to see these perfect days, has nothing more to ask, and waits the winding-up of life in the old home and among old friends.
" Oh, happy ship To rise and dip With the blue crystal at thy lip ! Oh, happy crew, My heart with you Sails and sails, and sings anew !"
Among those who came into the present county, in 1829, were Joshua, Joseph and Isaac Bailey, William Field, Ami Dodge, James McKnight, R. H. Champion, William S. Dering, James Neagle, an Irish lawyer, very eccentric and audacious, and later, but prior to 1835, Henry Potwin, James H. Earnest, Phillip R. Earnest, Jesse Williams, Jefferson Crawford, Thomas K. Gibson, John Gray, Daniel S. Harris, Scribe Harris, Orrin Smith, Solon Langworthy, Jamos Langworthy, Lucius H. Langworthy, T. L. Shaw, Cuthbert Burrell, Peter Carr, Lot Dimmick, " Pony " Fletcher, Capt. De Selhorst, the Dodge family, a man named Collet, Oliver Holtzhouser, Isaac Hodges, William I. Madden, John Dunn, Alexander Willard, D. J. Seeley, H. C. Bar- retto, Horace Curtis, Henry Curtis, E. C. Townsend, "Devil " John Armstrong. Father Sam- uel Mazzuchelli came upon the stage first about this period, and began his labors in the cause of religion, supplementing the efforts made by pious priests from St. Louis who had preceded him into the lead mines. Joseph Currey, Robert Allison, William Hogle, Thomas Swinbank, Will- iam Hempstead, ---- Stevens, the pioneer Mc Nultys, Alexander Mack, a family by the name of Vansickle, a man named Lisle, John Ankeney and family, Henry Smith (brother-in-law of Col. Scales), the Scofield families, the Woods family, the Mason and Hawkins brothers, Samuel Warner, Sylvanus Bush, James S. Woodcock, George Cubbage, who, during the Indian troubles of a subsequent date, was taken prisoner with Henry Gratiot. When the savages learned, how- ever, from personal examination, that the capillary integuments of neither afforded scope for the scalping-knife, both were sold to a trader for one plug of tobacco per capita. The fact that they were bald seems to have been a dispensation of Providence in behalf of each, as it was the means of reserving them to a better fate in the future. Warren Johnson is said to have come in between the years above mentioned, also --- Busbee, William Field, Calvin Curry, Benjamin Carr, Benjamin Salle, James and Samuel Munday, James Faherty, Jacob, John and Abraham Jen-
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
kins, Thomas Bray, William Berryman, Edward Treganza, James Treganza, James Wright, Nathan Goddell, Henry Rablin (who, in 1836, erected the first Brewery in the county, in the present town of Elk Grove), James Wiswell and many others, whose names, grade in life and the roles essayed by them on the stage of the times have been forgotten. Of course, the list above mentioned is not submitted as complete-far from it-nor as specifically correct as to dates. The only effort made has been to furnish the names of those who came into the county in its infancy and aided in its settlement and improvement-the colporteurs, as it were, in the army of civilization, who made their advent into the unknown land and sowed the seeds that would be harvested "after many days," in the golden time when clouds and tears should be passed ; and it was after many days, indeed, before the sunlight of prosperity came stealing through the cloudy rifts. Day after day, these heroic men marked the fitful gleaming of its rays ; day after day, they watched and prayed for the falling of better times, for some small green sign of a crop, as the farmer watches for the sprouts of wheat crowding through the soft, brown earth.
Yes, it was after many days, indeed, before hope crowned with its gentle influence the promises held out for many, many years. During these gloomy days, the hearts of the settlers were chilled and saddened by disappointments and failures ; the landscape of the future was sicklied o'er with clouds, and the fields of expectation were chilled by the snows of discourage- ments. Full many days came and went before the sparkling showers of success began to fall, cheering the doubting souls of those who regarded them as the forerunner of a more perfect period than that to which they had been committed. Finally, the sky was cleared of clouds, the sun began to shine, the soil to teem with springing green. The repiners gained courage at the outlook which greeted their vision, and those who had waited in peace for things unseen, rejoiced their souls with praise and thanksgiving, that the doubts repressed and abandoned had been wrecked, as was promised after many days.
During the early mining days about White Oak Springs. as also at other points where mining was the chief end of man, while many who came were men of brain and toil, it must not be inferred that visitations from men of education and professional excellence, as also men whose object in life was a superior personal appearance, were unfrequent. This was not the fact. Represent- atives of both factors in the sum of life and happiness were frequently to be seen consorting with miners, or accepting their hospitalities. Both classes were treated with consideration due their presence.
Upon one occasion, two pompous young men, severally named William Singer and Henry E. Van Osdel, made their appearance, rich in purple and fine linen. They wore rings on their fingers, relates the author of the incident, gloves on their hands, and, so appareled from top to toe, in addition to bell-crowned beaver hats so universal in those days among the select, became more than objective points of attraction to the general public, especially to the miners. This latter class determined to cultivate their acquaintance and initiate them into the mysteries, not less than the miseries, of the locum in tenens underneath the ground. Acting upon this conclu- sion, one day they were invited to inspect the labors of operating a " lead," the hardships and subsequent triumphs of which were elaborated in language convincing, if not select. Thus per- suaded, they consented, and, upon a day specially appointed for the purpose, preparations were made for lowering them into one of the " Black Leg" tunnels. The ceremony was published, and miners in the vicinity gathered to witness the descent into this modern Avernus, many of them assisting in the carrying out of the preliminary and subsequent arrangements. All things being in readiness, with safety lamps firmly attached to their bell-crowned "tablets," they were lowered into the regions of lead, the ropes withdrawn and the victims left to dream the happy hours away in vainly endeavoring to devise ways and means of escape. Meanwhile the miners hoisted pieces of mineral through convenient apertures into their abiding-place, which fell into the water, which, mixed with clay and refuse lime, was of the consistency of thin mortar, plas- tered them from head to foot and left them so entirely " broke up " that one could scarcely tell them, as the narrator expressed it, from a " last year's corpse." After some hours of torment,
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
during which their clothes, jewelry, bell-crowned hats and the attendant concomitants were rendered forever useless, they were withdrawn from their perilous position, and sent on their way, presumably rejoicing, with admonitions and warnings that doubtless proved of future value. Among the prospectors who came into the mines, a limited number worked diligently and husbanded their profits rather than expending them in riotous living, or at the tables of the gamester. Some were attended with the extreme of luck, but the majority "jogged " along without the happening of anything remarkable to change the current of their respective lives, at best, in numberless instances, "over shallows and full of bitterness."
Upon a hot, dusty day in July, about this year, when the earth was parched with thirst, and the very atmosphere, laden with sirocco blasts, oppressed the inhabitants as also the beasts of the field with its sultry gusts, a stranger made his appearance at one of the places of resort with which the old village of White Oak Springs then abounded, and at once became the cynosure of public observation. He was lank and lean, and hungry-looking, rawboned and angular, thrown together, as it were, to define the most intricate of geometrical devices that was ever originated to puzzle the wit and provoke the irc of an ametuer mathematician. He was attired in jeans, built after the most primitive fashion, and his entirety surmounted by a broad brown felt hat, duplicated in modern times by the peripatetic editions of "Col. Sellers," who roam the country at large, presented an appearance not more peculiar than persuasive.
His peace of mind remained undisturbed by the miners for a brief period only, when they began to twit him with interrogatories as pointed, though less biting, as the Grecian javelin of Thermopyla. To all of these, he answered cheerfully, and before the day was done he had not only traced his origin, experiences and ambitions in life for the edification of his tormentors, but fully identified them with his object in forcing a passage into their midst. He had been raised in Illinois, he said, upon the Grampian hills of which State he had fed his father's flocks, and was an humble swain, in the strictest acceptation of the term. As days grew into months, and months were succeeded by years, he began to tire of the monotony of life at home, as also of the im- poverishment inseparable from the surroundings, and started forth to battle with Fortune, wherever the fickle goddess would be moved. He came to the mines on foot, to strike a lead, and would be darned if he didn't realize expectations before the day's sun had run its course. Would some one guide him to a point where his hopes could be gratified ? Of course they would, and did. The day was terribly hot, but a delegation of miners took him in charge, and, piloting him into the shade of a solitary tree, placed tools in his hands and directed him to dig. He fol- lowed this injunction faithfully, and with such good results that before sundown he had struck a lead and taken out a large quantity of mineral.
When the " boys " realized that the "fool's errand " upon which they had sent him was the reverse of what was designed, they revoked their determination as to the quality of his wit, and decided to purchase the " discovery " made by the unsophisticated traveler from Illinois. This they succeeded in doing, after some "higgling," for $150, and, at the expiration of two months thereafter, the find had turned out upward of two million of mineral. The vender, upon receipt of the consideration quoted, expended $25 in the purchase of a music box, upon which he discoursed constantly, if not eloquently, for a day or so, after which he retraced his steps to the home of his ancesters and was forgotten in the whirl and excitement of life in the lead mines.
During this year the first event of great interest in those days was celebrated in the present town of White Oak Springs, being the celebration of the national anniversary, and was attended with very great success. The inhabitants of the country were much more inclined to a proper observance of the country's holiday at that period than in thesc later years, and its coming was hailed by all with a spirit of congratulation nowhere visible now. Settlers gathered in conven- ient groves, and, after an exordium of singing, oratory and appropriate ceremonials, wound up the day with dancing and athletic sports, which were continued far into the night, concluding with an exhibition of improvised fire-works, the bray of the trumpet and note of the drum keep- ing time to their explosion.
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
Upon the occasion referred to, the programme was commenced with a toothsome dinner, which lasted until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and was succeeded by an oration, of which J. M. Strode, of Galena, was the speaker, supplemented by dancing to the cheerful notes of the violin, lasting until daylight the next morning, when the crowd separated to their homes. The celebration was duplicated at Mineral Point this year, and attracted crowds of visitors from all parts of that section. At one of these gatherings subsequently held in the former place, a stage of dry-goods boxes was set up, on which the prominent figure-heads of the occasion were col- lected. The platform proved unequal to the weight it was called upon to sustain, however, and, at the conclusion of one of the orator's most eloquent periods, yielded to the pressure and incon- tinently gave way. While the cheers which succeeded the happy flight of D. W. Kyle, the orator were still ringing, that individual, with those who surrounded him, were suddenly precipi- tated to the ground, the President in one direction, the orator in another direction, and the crowd in all directions.
During this year, the improvements were comparatively numerous and of a very substantial character. These included the completion of the first mill built in the county, to which refer- ence has already been made. It was that of the Murphys in town of Benton, located in what is known as Mill Seat Bend, on the Fever River, a short distance from the present village of Benton, and its site has been occupied constantly for mill purposes from that day to this. The building was of frame, three stories high, supplied with two run of stone, and afforded accom- modations to settlers not only in La Fayette County, but from a distance-residents of Rockford, Dubuque, Wisconsin River and of other places, coming hither to obtain supplies of meal and flour for their families. Soon after it began operations, the Curtis mill at or near the present village of Gratiot, on the Mineral Point Railroad, offered inducements to patrons, and disputed for prece- dence with the Murphy mill until along about 1833, when Rufus and Benjamin Scott settled on Otter Creek, in Willow Springs Township, and erected what have since been known as the McGuire Mills, which were operated under various ownerships until 1872, when they were abandoned. The mill buildings still stand in sight of the road from Darlington to the residence of Peter Parkinson, Jr., monuments to the enterprise of that early day, but decayed and falling to pieces.
The influx of population at this period necessarily required the erection of taverns at vari- ous points in the county, on the routes usually traveled, which were always liberally patron- ized, and furnished a more comfortable cheer to the incoming hosts than can to-day be obtained at houses of entertainment advertising more pretentious claims. Taverns then flourished at Gratiot's Grove, in Elk Grove, Benton, White Oak Springs, Willow Springs and Belmont Towns, maintained by pioneers who evidenced their capacities to contribute to the comfort of guests, and make for them a home in the wilderness, both inviting and liberal. Houses of the plain- est architectural ambitions, but elaborate for the times, were distributed at intervals, but with more frequency than during the previous year ; and, had the same prosperity which dawned upon the county with 1829 maintained its ascendancy, the material interests of the county would have largely appreciated ; but, for causes which have been but superficially referred to, such a consummation was temporarily postponed. Taken as a whole, the year had been one in which much good was accomplished among the people, and the resources of the county devel- oped before the coming of evil days, worked inestimable benefits to its future.
While the hidden wealth of the rocks and soil was materializing with a gratifying rapidity, the agencies of civilization were comparatively backward in asserting their supremacy. Mer- chandising was not universally engaged in as at a day later, and educational and religious facil- ities were extremely limited. A school had been organized at Gratiot's Grove, as will be remembered, a year previous; but it was abandoned, as will also be recalled, by Miss Lamb, who united her destinies with those of George W. Skellinger, and is now a resident of Wiota Township.
There was no house of worship at any points where colonies had been established, and, beyond the occasional visits of the pious Father Mazzuchelli, and a Methodist class-meet-
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HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY.
ing, led by James Wood, who died in the fall of 1880, services of a sacred character were ignored.
Society was in an unsettled state. The population was composed of all grades and condi- tions of men, and there were few of the opposite sex to exert a womanly influence. There were soldiers of the Winnebago war, who, upon the expiration of their terms of enlistment, remained at the field of action, to grow up with and participate in the prosperity of the coun- try. To these were added emigrants, who sailed from their homes across the sea, at the dawn of the day, who care little for life anywhere, and are not always important factors in the sum of human advancement. In addition, miners, middle men, gamblers, outcasts and outlaws came hither to improve or increase their fortunes, and who, by taking the tide at its flood, hoped to attain glory and financial responsibility.
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