USA > Wisconsin > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Wisconsin, past and present : including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county [microform] > Part 16
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A resolution was adopted by the committee that notes be accepted on subscriptions, payable on or before January 1, 1898,
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providing the subscriptions adopted including the notes amounted to $2,500. Several notes were made and delivered to the treasurer and cash subscribed and collected and in the treasurer's hands, but in less than the time limited for the payment of the notes, interest seemed to wane, and the fund grew only by the inter- est on the certificates of deposit at 3 per cent, so that the notes given matured and were returned and canceled. as the fund at their maturity had not reached the sum of $2,500.
But the project received new light, when. on November 16th. (897, a "Ladies' Auxiliary" to the post was organized with seventeen charter members: as soon as this organization became strong enough they took up for their special work the raising of funds for the proposed monument ; they gave socials with the usual refreshments and obtained subscription blanks from the secretary and solicited and collected funds; slowly and con- stantly the sum grew, owing to the hard work and with the perseverance of these few faithful workers, which could not be estimated and without whose work no monument would have been today in existence. After nearly five years of labor by these ladies a meeting was called September 19, 1902. to reorganize the committee for the special active work to complete all ar- rangements and secure the erection of the monument.
De Witt C. Beebe was made chairman of this committee, Ira A. llill, treasurer, and A. E. Howard. secretary ; the other members of the committee were George D. Dunn and William C. Hoffman. Afterwards an organization known as the Soldiers' Monument Association was formed, it having for its officers and members D. C. Beebe, president ; A. E. Howard, secretary ; W. C. Hoffman. George Dunn as the executive committee; other members being W. MeBride, Mrs. L. A. MeWithy. Mrs. E. S. Dems. Mrs. Mary Cole, John A. Sholts. D. A. MeWithy, Mrs. D. Benzie, Mrs. C. Foster, all of the above being of Sparta and J. E. Perry and A. C. Cole of Tomas and also N. J. Kemp, of Sparta.
A committee was appointed to confer with the county board of supervisors which endeavored to induce the board to give per- mission to place the monument on the court house grounds, have the county assume permanent care of it and if possible obtain an appropriation towards the expense of its construction, but these efforts met with no success whatever. This having proved an entire failure the committee appealed to the city council of the City of Sparta for aid. The council ordered a special election to be held upon the proposition as to the raising of the taxes on taxable property of the city of one-half mill on the dollar to
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aid in the monument fund and at this election the citizens of Sparta voted the tax by a large majority ; it was levied and col- lected with the regular taxes of 1904 and amounted to $1,087.21.
The treasurer of the committee, Ira A. Ilill, died March 20, 1904. and George D. Dunn was elected to fill the vacancy. In order to fulfill the legal requirements under the city appropria- tion, the mayor appointed Andrew J. Carnahan, William H. Blyton. A. G. Welker and Wilfred McBride to represent the city on the committee. Plans and specifications were then procured and bids called for to erect the monument; these were invited to be of different kinds of granite with the granite statue of the soldier and also with a copper bronze statue complete with foundation to be placed on a location to be designated by the committee. The successful bidder was Mr. Fred Schlimegan, of Madison, Wisconsin, whose bid was accepted, being one with the specification that the monument was to be of Barre granite, except the centre block for the inscription, which is of Montello granite, and the statue of the soldier which is made of copper bronze. The monument was completed and accepted on Decem- ber 4th and the contractor settled with and the total cost, in- eluding the monument complete, inscription, setting and ex- pense. being about $3,000. The statue of the bronze soldier stands facing the south and on the south side of the face of the monument appears the words "In Memory of Our Nation's De- fenders."
This monument was formally dedicated and accepted on the 30th day of May, 1905. Invitations were extended to all parts of the county and an elaborate program was planned and carried out. an extensive part of which was a march to the Woodlawn cemetery in the afternoon, where memorial exercises were held. and then proceeded, to North Park, where with due and appro- priate ceremonies the monument was unveiled and formally accepted on behalf of the city by Andrew Carnahan, then presi- dent of the city council.
As a fitting ending of this chapter none ean better be written than the address by De Witt C. Beebe, whose untiring efforts had been largely instrumental in the successful completion of this project, whose words, patriotic and full of emotion were delivered with that earnestness which was one of the characteristics of Dr. Beebe, and although this address was short, it had a .profound effeet upon the assembled audience. It is as follows :
"FELLOW CITIZENS-COMRADES: We have come to this quiet shaded place today to unveil this shaft of granite and
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bronze and dedicate it with appropriate ceremony to the memory of 'Our Country's Defenders.' It seems eminently fitting and proper that we come directly here for this hallowed purpose from the little silent city over yonder, where we have tenderly strewn fresh, beautiful flowers upon the graves where he our beloved dead. The two occasions seem so tenderly similar in sentiment that they should not be separated. Comrades, we have reason to rejoice that the Great Commander-the God of Battles-has spared our lives and health that so many of us are enabled to see this day and this hour. We have reason for congratulation that so many wives, widows and daughters of the veterans of the war of 1861-65 are also permitted to be here today and enjoy the consummation of their long, persistent. loval labor, but for which. my friends, we would not be here today for this purpose. The memorial here which we shall unveil and dedicate today is the result of several years' labor and growth, a short sketch of which will be given later by Adjutant Howard. Comrades, it will mat- ter very little to us in a few years when we shall have been mus- tered into that great army over the river whether or not sweet Howers from loyal, loving hands will be strewn upon our graves in the springtime of the returning years, or that a memorial has been erected in some beautiful spot to our memory. but the senti- ment that is kept burning in the breasts of those who follow us. which prompts the doing of these offices is of momentous impor- tance. for it is this that makes loyal heroes and a nation invincible in times of danger.
"Sad will be the day, and may it never come. when this great American people shall become so absorbed in cold business. crazed in finance, or so drunken with the pleasures of the day that they shall forget to recognize the services of their nation's defenders. "
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GOVERNMENT MILITARY RESERVATION.
The Spanish-American war, while accomplishing the great result in the freeing of Cuba, amexing of Porto Rico, the Philip- pines and consequent turning to civilization and education of the people of those tropical regions, did another thing-it gave to the military authorities of this country the long-needed lesson, which could not be too well learned, that army methods in this young and lusty republic were way behind the times : demonstrated that in the mobilization, equipping and feeding of troops in the field there was plenty of incompetency, plenty of antiquated red tape methods-and the army began to wake up. For a long period after the civil war, in fact, not really until the Spanish-American war, was there little, if any, attempt to mobilize troops in larger bodies than a regiment for field practice. The experience in the Spanish-American war brought about the necessity of frequent mobilization not only of regular troops, but also national guard organizations, for field maneuvers, and the field manenvers now held in different parts of the country every other year are the result. Maneuver camps became a necessity and the war depart- ment began acquiring large tracts of land in different parts of the country for that purpose, under the provisions of various acts of congress.
The State Military Reservation at Camp Douglas, so admirably situated and equipped for riffe practice and maneuver ground, had years ago attracted the attention of the officers of the regular army, particularly of the then Department of the Lakes; and all reports sent the department gave praise to the location and nat- ural advantages and equipment provided by the state, it being in almost every case described as one of the finest rifle ranges in the United States. Its fame grew and a number of years ago a department competition was held there, and later two batteries of artillery were sent up from Fort Sheridan for summer practice. The officers of the Department of the Lakes became strongly de- sirous that the government might acquire the reservation, especially for artillery practice, and offers were made through
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Colonel Wagner to purchase the property, but the state refused at all times to part with control of it.
Way back during the time when the establishment of a range at Camp Douglas was being considered, the tract of land near what was then the station of LaFayette, in this county. on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, lying principally in the towns of LaFayette and Angelo, was suggested to Gen. C. P. Chapman, then adjutant general of this state, by Col. George Graham, then the captain of Company K. and interested strongly in the establishment of a state camp ground. Owing. however, to the distance from the cities of Tomah and Sparta and to the better railway facilities at Camp Douglas, after looking over both tracts the latter was decided upon and became subsequently the state property.
The idea still obtained, however, that the LaFayette tract was suitable for military purposes, and attention of the war depart- ment was called to it by Congressman John J. Esch a few years ago. As early as 1897 Col. George Graham again called the atten- tion of the officers of the national guard at a convention in Milwaukee to a tract of land lying between Tunnel City and Sparta.
Hon. W. H. Taft. then secretary of war, in 1906 advocated the establishment of four large military maneuver camps, to be used jointly by the regular army and the national guard of the several states, one to be located in the east, one in the south, one in the west. and one in the middle north. Congressman Esch at that time commenced a movement to locate the northern camp at Camp Douglas, Wis .. by the purchase of land adjacent to the Wisconsin Military Reservation. Other sites suggested were in Pennsylvania. Texas and California. None of these large camps proposed by Secretary Taft had been provided for by congress. but as incidental thereto Mr. Esch was successful in securing an appropriation of $150,000 to purchase land adjacent to the mili- tary reservation at Camp Douglas for the use of the regular army and an artillery range, a purpose entirely distinct from that of a maneuver camp.
During the pendency of this legislation a board of regular army engineer officers, with Gen. A. II. Ernest at its head, visited Camp Douglas under orders to make a topograhpical survey, and while in Wisconsin were invited to Sparta, and accompanied by General Boardman. Colonel Salsman and Colonel Graham were driven over the lands between Sparta and Tunnel City. General Ernest in his report to the war department on Camp Douglas, in-
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THE GOVERNMENT MILITARY RESERVATION
cluded a reference to the Sparta site. The summer work of the United States field artillery is comprised of long practice marches and a target practice. Very few places are available for this latter purpose, and artillery officers during this part were sent over the country looking for location for an artillery range. Maj. Samuel Allen, commanding the artillery at Fort Snelling, Minn., in 1905, while searching for a place for target practice, came to Camp Douglas during the encampment of the Third regi- ment that year. Adjutant General Boardman suggested to him the availability of the Sparta site, and called Colonel McCoy in consultation, with the result that an invitation was extended to the battalion commanded by Major Allen to go into camp on the McCoy ranch, Colonel MeCoy having gradually, during a long series of years, acquired title to about 4,000 acres of this land. Major Allen accepted the invitation and the battalion of artil- lery came from Fort Snelling and camped for sixteen days during the month of September, 1905, testing the various ranges which might be available for artillery practice, and his report upon the possibilities of the Sparta tract called the attention of the war department very strongly to it.
Meanwhile the passage of the appropriation of $150,000.00 proposed by Congressman Esch for the purchase of land near Camp Douglas, caused land owners in that vicinity to raise the price of land from $3.00 an acre to about $30.00, or thereabouts, and the war department found it impossible to deal with them, with the result that the attempt to purchase any land at Camp Douglas ceased and the appropriation remained in the hands of the war department unexpended.
This situation brought the attention of the war department back to Sparta and resulted in the sending of a board, consisting of Major Mott and Captain Overton, to report upon the advisabil- ity of purchasing lands at Camp Douglas or leasing lands at Sparta. In September of 1907 Battery C from Fort Snelling, under the command of Captain Overton, camped on the McCoy ranch, and was there when the board above mentioned, and of which he was a member, investigated the two sites of Camp Douglas and Sparta. They were accompanied by General Board- man, Colonel Salsman, Colonel McCoy, Major Williams, and a part of the time by Congressman Esch. After a thorough investi- gation the board made a report to the war department disapprov- ing of the purchasing of lands at Camp Douglas because of the exorbitant prices demanded, and recommended that the lands at Sparta be leased, but the board did, however, go a step farther
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
and recommended the purchase of 7,600 acres of land at Sparta.
This recommendation to become effective required legislation by congress to enable the war department to use the Camp Douglas appropriation at Sparta or so much of the same as might be found necessary to purchase the Sparta site. This again opened the fight between the people interested in the lands at Camp Douglas and Sparta. Congressman Esch was successful. however, in amending the bill, or law, which had appropriated the $150.000.00 by having the words "Camp Douglas" stricken out and the word "Sparta" inserted, so that the appropriation became available for the purchase of this land.
Colonel McCoy, during the time that the board of investiga- tion was looking upon this site, prepared and presented strong arguments for the purchase of the property. The idea of leasing this land was given up and the war department finally decided to purchase a tract of 7,500 acres, and negotiations were com- menced and were pending for some time, it being found that so many of the pieces of land were acquired by tax title transfers that it would be necessary to condemn the lands in order to get a perfect title in the government, and proceedings were inau- gurated in 1909 for that purpose.
Through the good work of Congressman Esch and others interested in the matter the department was finally convinced that it would be the best thing to buy the inner tract of 7,500 acres, as it was called, and also to buy an onter traet or rim of land around this of about 7,500 acres more. Eventually negotia- tions were concluded through the efforts of Judge R. B. McCoy in the summer of 1909 whereby the government became the owner of a grand total of 14,206.65 acres, and the Sparta maneu- ver tract became a reality.
In April. 1909, the war department announced the commence- ment of artillery practice, and during July and August sent a battalion of regular army officers, consisting of Captains William Brook, Albany. New York; C. K. Green, Chicago. Ill. : William Cruikshank, Fort Sheridan, Ill .; John J. Calerus, of Chicago. together with District Passenger Agent W. W. Winton. of the St. Paul company; Trainmaster Henrichs. of Milwaukee, and Roadmaster P. H. Madden, together with Col. R. B. MeCoy and Maj. D. W. Cheney located the place for the temporary build- ings and for the camp grounds. The whole matter was gone over thoroughly and a manenver camp selected on the north side of the railway tracks, and the artillery camp remained at the loca- tion which had been previously occupied by Colonel Allen, near
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THE GOVERNMENT MILITARY RESERVATION
the artesian well, close to and on the south side of the tracks of the St. Paul company.
Temporary galvanized storage buildings were provided for and erected during the summer of 1909. The St. Paul company provided a side track for unloading purposes near the artillery camps, and ran a spur into the maneuver camp grounds and placed there a large amount of side tracks so that troop trains could be handily unloaded. An artesian well was sunk at the maneuver camp ground in the summer of 1910, and a large steel elevated water tank erected and pipes laid to conduct the water throughout the camp grounds. A tank was also erected at the artillery camp which is supplied from the large flowing well, which had been running for several years.
The war department having issued orders for artillery prac- tice, in addition to the regular batteries ordered to Sparta, bat- teries from the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota were, upon invitation, ordered to Sparta for artillery practice and instruction during the months of August and September.
Three regular batteries of light field artillery. one from Fort Sheridan, one from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and one from Fort Snelling, Minnesota, arrived about the 8th of July, 1909, together with the regimental band of the Fifth artillery from Fort Leavenworth, being Companies E. D and F, of the Fifth artillery, under the command of Captain Cruikshank as camp commander. The camp was named "Camp Robinson" in honor of Colonel Robinson, at one time a resident of the city of Sparta, and the government military reservation known as the "Sparta Maneuver Tract," was duly inaugurated as one of the great mili- tary centers for field operations for the army and the national gnard. The possibilities of it would seem to be far greater than was originally anticipated ; as the strategic location in the middle west, with the railroad facilities and the large acreage, makes it at once available as a point for the mobilization of large bodies of troops in the time of war and for conducting maneuvers on a larger scale than ever heretofore adopted in time of peace.
On the 13th of July Company A, of the Hospital Corps from Fort Russell, Wyoming, consisting of 120 and ten officers, arrived and went into camp. They were under the command of Major Fauntleroy, and the officers of the corps in attendance were Major Purpiance, Major Pratton, Captain Whitcomb, Captain Bale, Captain Talbot, Lieutenant Jones, Lieutenant Leary, Lieu-
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tenant Doerr and Lieutenant Bayley, all surgeons of the regular army.
Soon after the arrival of this company and the army surgeons a new feature to the regular army service was inaugurated by the establishment of a School of Instructions for National Guard Medical Officers. The school conducted at Camp Robinson is one of three held during the year 1909, the other two being at Annapo- lis, Maryland, and California. In previous years the instruction which the National Guard medical officers received was given at the encampments of the state troops by officers of the regular army detailed for that purpose.
The present system which brings the medical officers of the various states under the instruction of a fully equipped hospital corps becomes so evident that there is but little doubt but that the medical school of instructions will, and practically has, be- come a part of the plans of the War Department for increasing the efficiency of the National Guard.
The instruction given at this first school consisted in daily lectures given by the regular army surgeons concerning the various phases of practice encountered in connection with the army work. There was also given practical demonstration of field work by the members of the hospital corps. and the work throughout was made as realistic as it was possible to have it without the actual presence of the wounded.
The first class of National Guard surgeons arrived on the 15th of July, and consisted of thirty-one officers from the states of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Mississippi and Wisconsin. After their departure another class arrived as large. was estima- bly from these various states, and remained for another period of ten days, and on the 12th of August. the Company A. of the Hospital Corps returned to its station at Fort Russell. Wyoming.
Connected with the Minnesota batteries which were in camp during the fore part of August in that year was Mr. P. Daley, a wireless telegraph expert, who had been conducting experiments with the wireless telegraph as a means of communication between inland points. With the permission of County Clerk Talbot. Mr. Daley erected upon the roof of the Court House a small wireless apparatus, the object of which experiment was to demonstrate the usefulness of the wireless telegraph as a means of communi- ration between troops so that in case of actual warfare it will be possible for detachments to creet stations at any point and com- municate with each other.
After the apparatus was finally set up Mr. Smith, a represent-
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THE GOVERNMENT MILITARY RESERVATION
ative of the St. Paul Dispatch, about 4:00 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, August 5th, sent the following message to St. Paul, addressed to Judge Thomas Wilson, the oldest living resident of that city: "This is the first wireless message ever sent into the city of St. Paul, and in appreciation of the many things you have done to make it possible, it has been addressed to yon."
The message was received all right in St. Paul and the experi- ment was pronounced a success. In the history of the reservation the encampment of 1909 was made memorable by a visit of Maj. Gen. Fred D. Grant, commanding the Department of the Lakes. which occurred on the 26th of August.
The General arrived at Colvin station, which was the name given for the stopping place near the artillery camp, and was received by Captain Cruikshank and escorted to the headquar- ters tent. After breakfast the General was met by Congressman Esch and United States District Attorney George II. Gordon, of LaCrosse, and Maj. D. W. Cheney, of Sparta, and this party was taken by Maj. Cheney in his automobile for a tour of inspection of the range. During the forenoon the distinguished visitors were shown all of the portion of the tract which could be reached with an auto. and in the afternoon the inspection was continued in an army wagon. The following day the General was taken over the more inaccessible portions of the range, including the many hills, on horseback.
His inspection was most complete and at the end of it General Grant expressed himself as highly pleased, and stated that he found it in all respects superior to what it had been represented to him as being. and it was reported at this time that the General was in favor of extending the reservation by the purchase of additional land up to the amount of 20,000 acres. Ile afterwards in a report recommended that the range be converted into a general maneuver traet for all branches of the service, that small arms ranges be installed, and other extensive improvements made. The General's visit was productive of much good and his report afterwards resulted in further action by the War Department as to the installing of fixed distance ranges, and early in 1910 in the army operation a bill passed by congress was in- eluded the amount of $40,000 for improvements on the military reservation near Sparta, and was the first definite step towards the development of the traet for further uses, in accordance with the plans which the War Department then had in view, for it marked the beginning of a settled policy with regard to this reservation, and indicated that in the near future the national
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