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 32
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He was married September 8, 1833, to Marie Ann Bussell. Two children, Robert Arthur and Mary A .. were the fruits of this marriage. In 1837 his wife died and a year later his marriage to Lucy Kellogg took place. The children by this marriage were Ruth K., Theodore W., Julia King and Frederick F. About a year after the death of his second wife he married Lois Ann Ingraham, October 27, 1849, a widow with two children, a son and a daughter. The son died at an early age. The daughter. Imey, lived a short time in Tomah. died in early womanhood. mourned by a large circle of friends. Robert E. Gillett died at Tomah, September 28, 1861.
No history of Tomah would be complete without reference, at least, to "Grandma Gillett," or "Aunt Lois," as she was known to the family, but universally known and called in the last years of her life "Grandma Gillett" by the people of Tomah. She possessed the true pioneer spirit and it was to her qualities of mind and heart that the social life of the new settlement owed much. Her interests were with everybody. her charity knew no limit except that of the means to do with, and her religion was
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of a type which is so rare and sweet that it has left its imprint on all who knew her. She survived her husband many years and was known and loved by the children of Tomah for three generations.
Robert Arthur Gillett, son of the founder, was born in Elyria, 0., July 6, 1834. As a mere boy he traveled on horseback and on foot as far as the Indiana line, going two or three times to Boston with his father, who was engaged in the business of drover. He lived in Ohio until about seventeen years of age, when he took his worldly goods, consisting of a team of horses, a wagon and a cow, boarded a steamboat at Cleveland and went west, arriving in Milwauke in due course of time, where he engaged in teaming. During the early period of the settlement of Tomah he owned and operated a sawmill at LaCrosse, and after the panic of 1857 wiped out his resources and his health demanded a change of climate, he again "went west," this time to the gold fields of Colorado, with a wagon train of emigrants composed of Wisconsin people, many of whom never returned to this state. He was located at Pike's Peak and vicinity for about eighteen months, returning home at the beginning of the civil war, being called back to his father's death bed.
As has been stated previously, after reaching Milwaukee and being employed by Kellogg & Strong in teaming, he joined the surveying party which blazed the trail of the Milwaukee & LaCrosse Railroad. As the road building progressed he followed the railroad business and was the first station agent at Iron Ridge, at Horicon and at Tomah for a short time, where the family were located, living in the log house on his grandfather's farm. After the death of his father he became the administrator of the estate, and although his grandfather, Griswold Gillett, was still living, he became the virtual head of the family. In 1862 he married Sarah Caroline Turner and took up his residence at Tomah, acting as recruiting agent for the army.
In the spring of 1864 he enlisted in the Forty-third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, and was commissioned captain of Com- pany K of that regiment. His discharge came with the close of the war. His family consisted of five children, Charles, Matie, Theodore W., who died in 1872: Minnie, who died in 1902, and Sarah Lettie, who died in infancy in 1872. During the few years following the war he endeavored to unravel the tangled affairs at Tomah, but in 1866 he was obliged to abandon the task as too big for his limited capital. He was elected chief clerk of the Wisconsin assembly in 1866, and after the close of the session of
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the legislature that year he reengaged in the transportation busi- ness and was contracting agent for the Western Transportation Company for nearly thirty years. During this time he also filled many of the clerical positions at Madison during the winter months and was always active in state politics.
In 1872 his wife died and a year later he married Serepta A. Atkinson, of LaCrosse. He was actively engaged in business in Milwaukee up to 1905. when he again went west, this time to Los Angeles, Cal., but returned the same year. His second wife died in December, 1905, at Fox Lake, Wis. His last years were spent with his daughter, Matie Warren, at Fox Lake, at whose home he passed away December 28, 1907, after a most active and useful life.
Resuming our narrative: After completing the trade Mr. Gil- lett employed William Spear. a civil engineer. of LaCrosse, who made the original plat of the village settlement on the south half of section four and a part of the north half of section nine, the plat being completed June 4, 1857. and the future city began to be a reality.
The manner in which this original plat was laid out reflected the tendencies and character of Mr. Gillett in a most gratifying manner, Superior avenue being made 100 feet wide and all other avenues running north and south seventy feet wide, and all cross streets sixty feet wide. His generosity was further evidenced by the fact that for a time after the plat was completed he offered to give free lots to any who would build buildings upon them. In the southeast corner of the village he set aside a ten-acre tract. known as the Gillett reserve. Here was to be the home of the founder of the village. This traet. however, was destined never to fulfill its original purpose, and in 1869, or early in 1870, was divided and sold to Watson Earle and Judge George Graham. Directly north of this plat a piece of ground was set aside for a female seminary. a beautiful place. well wooded and sloping eastward to Council creek. This project was never carried out owing to the death of Mr. Gillett in 1861. His monument, how- ever. is the attractive Gillett park which. through the enterprise of later generations, has been made into a delightful spot.
S. D. Hollister, who came to the village soon after the arrival of Mr. Gillett, owned the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section four, and in August. 1858, platted what is known as "Hollister's first addition" to Tomah. The survey was made by C. C. Miller, a civil engineer, lately settled in the village, and this plat was added to and became a part of the village
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proper. This was followed the same year by "Railroad addi- tion," platted by Robert E. Gillett and MeLean Stoughton, on August 7, 1858, being also surveyed by C. C. Miller. Then came "Hollister's second addition," which was platted August 19, 1859, so that in the space of two years the little settlement began to take form and shape as a municipality. Buildings sprang up like mushrooms, people came in rapidly from the east to swell the population, and in 1858 Tomah was incorporated into a village having facilities for transportation by the opening of the Mil- waukee and St. Paul Railroad, became an important trading point.
The first building of which there is any record built in the village proper was the cabin built by Cady Hollister and occu- pied by him and his wife and son, Solomon Hollister, which was erected on the hill where the high school building now stands. The cabin built by Robert E. Gillett in 1856, on what is now known as the Benjamin farm, was the second building erected and is still standing, being preserved as one of the few land- marks still remaining to remind us of pioneer days. This cabin, according to Robert Howie, was originally started by two hunters whose names are unknown, but was afterwards enlarged and finished by Mr. Gillett.
Robert Howie at the writing of this work is still living at the ripe old age of eighty-two years, and deserves more than passing mention in this book. Meeting Robert E. Gillett on his way to the future village they became acquainted, and Mr. Howie came with him and worked for him a great many years. Mr. Howie was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 6, 1830. When about twenty-six years of age he left his native country and landed in New York on the Fourth of July, 1856, and came directly to Wisconsin. Mr. Howie engaged for several years in farm and mill work, and among his early employments was that of carrying mail between Tomah and Sparta. This he did on foot through the wilderness, following the Indian trails, and it is related that he made the trip from Tomah to Sparta and back in one day, sometimes carrying as much as $2,000 in orders and eash in his mail sack. This trip he made twice a week.
After leaving the employment of Mr. Gillett he assisted C. C. Miller in surveying for several months, and then engaged in teaming from Sparta to Tomah and LaCrosse, hauling many of the early families and their goods to Tomah, and was well known throughout all that region. About 1858 Mr. Howie began to farm the land which he had purchased from Gillett and others, eon-
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sisting of 100 acres in and around Tomah. He first erected barns for stock and then built his frame residence, which still stands upon the original site, having been enlarged and improved. In 1871 he was married to Agnes Alexander, a native of Scotland, and to them was born five children. During the course of his life he has had many hardships to undergo. One time his jaws were broken by the kiek of a horse; at another time he was run over by a wagon load of hay. In the winter of 1857, when the snow covered this territory to a depth of five feet on the level, he, in company with Mr. Gillett. befriended the Indians in many ways and won their love and friendship.
As early as 1854 W. W. Jackson and Webster Kenyon, with several others, settled in the town of Adrian, at a point which they afterwards called Jacksonville. Two years afterwards Gil- lett built a sawmill in the northern part of the village of Toman, which was run for him by Jackson and Kenyon.
When the surveyors were coming through the route of the Milwaukee and LaCrosse Railway a keen rivalry existed between the village of Tomah and Jacksonville as to the route of the original line. Much pressure was brought to bear upon the surveying party, but Mr. Gillett in his engaging and logical way finally induced the surveyors to make the line where it now stands, instead of swinging farther to the south and going through Jacksonville; in the meantime a plat had been made of Jacksonville and its inhabitants had full faith that the railroad would go through their community and there would be estab- lished a future city : they were doomed to disappointment. how- ever, and JJacksonville dwindled to a mere settlement and later became only a farming community, and thus the dream of a municipality faded away, the victim of circumstances.
To attempt to follow out the arrival of the earlier settlers is a task for which no record now serves, to name them all in the first few years of pioneer days is now an impossible task ; many familiar names, however, are remembered and are here given as well as can be done at this time: James Garnock and family came with Robert Howie in 1855. Mr. Garnock soon after opening a blacksmith shop and building a residence on what is still the old Garnock homestead: William Plunkett came from Walworth county the same year: William MeLauren also came with Mr. Howie and James Garnoek and settled in the town near the village.
The year 1856 saw the coming of S. Jennings, C. W. Kellogg,
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Joseph D. Cady. who afterwards bought a lot on Superior Avenue and built a house, Alden Cremer, Amasa Meloy, Harvey Bush, who built the third house or cabin in the vicinity, being situated somewhere near the present cemetery, C. C. Miller, the civil engineer, who built a log cabin about where Watson Earle's house now stands and afterwards secured the property on the ridge in later days known as the "Beers" place. In 1856 or 1857 Dr. Walker and Dr. Goyer arrived, which was first on the ground is not known, but they came at about the same time and commeneed the practice of medicine a few years later. Dr. Rouse Bennett located here and went into the army as a surgeon soon after the commencement of the civil war. The Bradley boys. Josiah, Charles and Henry, came in 1857.
In 1858 James Rockwood and his four sons, Theodore, Delorama, Edgar and James N. moved into the village from Limerick where they had located about two years before, there being at that time a saw mill operated there by Jackson and Kenyon. Mr. Rockwood secured the piece of property where the old Grant house stood and proceeded at once to ereet a barn on the back end of it. When the barn was finished he moved and started to keeping boarders. He at once, however, began the construction of a hotel building on the corner and at its com- pletion called it the "Rockwood House," which he ran until 1867 when he sold the property to a man named Smith from Leon or LaFayette: it being right after the war he changed the name to the "Grant House," in honor of General Grant, and conducted a hotel for a member of years, when the property was sold to Mike Gondrezick.
John Dodge came in 1858 and built a shop having over it a public hall on the site where the old Dr. Vincent residence stands; afterwards this building was moved down to the St. Paul depot and enlarged, being converted into a hotel, which was known for many years as the "Dodge House."
In every history there must necessarily be the "First Events" which are so often alluded to and concerning which at times there is much discussion : the year 1856 saw the birth of the first white child in the little settlement, being a daughter who came to brighten the home of Mr. and Mrs. Amasa Meloy, March 6; she was named Hattie and grew up to womanhood in the village: the first male child was Frank, the son of C. C. Miller, born in June of the same year. He now resides at Pasadena. Cal., where he runs a large hotel.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
The cause of education received a feeble start at this time, school being held in a cornerib for a brief period; afterwards conducted in a building built for the purpose.
The year 1857 was indeed a red letter year for the village, for with it came many new families, including Asher Haynes. Reuben Schaffer and many others: C. W. Kellogg, who was a Methodist clergyman, commenced religious services that year, holding church on the first Sunday in July in a new barn erected by Robert E. Gillett, which Gillett said he wanted to have "dedi- rated"; the first business building which was put up was a small store building erected by Elder Kellogg on the corner now occu- pied by the Ziegler store ; Kellogg put in a small stock of groceries and drugs. Soon after that Asher Haynes built a store and dwelling combined a little further south in the same block and entered into the mercantile business. The premises were after- wards occupied for a number of years by Dr. J. H. Moseley; part of the building is still standing, though the place has been fre- quently remodeled during these modern times.
A school house was built on the site where the home of Harvey M. Sowle now stands and school regularly commenced with an attendance of eight pupils under the direction of Emma Bush, daughter of Harvey Bush as teacher. The old school house stood on that place for a great many years, one of the landmarks, afterwards used for dwelling purposes until torn down by Mr. Sowle. Elder Kellogg also built the first frame house in the village in that year upon the knoll on a lot given to him by Mr. Gillett. This house is still standing, although greatly changed in appearance upon what the later generations called "Kellogg's Hill," and the editor has many pleasant recollections of coasting down this hill on bright moonlight winter nights.
On November 13, 1856. a resolution was passed by the County Board of Monroe County detaching from the town of Adrian all of township seventeen range one west and constituting it a new town to be known as the town of Tomah. There was at this time only a temporary government in the so called village and this was the beginning of municipal government in the town and of course the village which was then a part of it. This resolution provided that the first election should be held in the house of James Randall on the first Tuesday in April, 1857, for the election of town officers; it seems, however, that when the time came for the election it was not held at Mr. Randall's, but in the home of John Sexton, who, much to the disgust of the town officers,
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charged $3.00 for the use of his house: at that election John J. Stacy was chosen chairman, Benjamin Mead and C. A. Adams supervisors, Harvey Bush town clerk, Alden Cremer treasurer.
The following year 1858 the village was incorporated, but the charter, however, was not granted by the legislature until several years later; 1858 saw the completion of the railroad from Milwaukee to LaCrosse, with exception of a small strip at Tunnel City ; the rails being laid from the east to the tunnel and starting on the west side of it, going to LaCrosse; the tunnel was not completed until about seven months later and during this interval the company was compelled to run a stage over the tunnel hill to transfer passengers from one side to the other; the opening of this line to traffic caused a large increase in the population of the village.
The population now demanding it a petition was gotten out and forwarded to the postmaster general asking for the estab- lishment of a post office and this was granted early in 1859 and the office established amidst the rejoicing of the inhabitants; it seems that in those days people did not quarrel about who should be appointed postmaster, Cady Hollister was appointed to that office which was rated fourth class, at which rating it continued until 1867 when it was made a money order office, and the records show that the first money order was purchased by a Mrs. Charles W. King for the sum of $50.00; by 1860 manufacturing interests began to come and different lines of business to open up, until the time of the breaking out of the civil war when the little village did more than its share in sending to the front a large number of its best citizens.
While there was no company recruited and organized at Tomah Dr. Foote, who had located there some years before, raised quite a number of men and took them to New Lisbon where they enlisted in Company H Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry of which company Dr. Foote was a lientenant. A great many enlisted at Sparta, some at LaCrosse. some went to other parts of the state to enlist. so that the record of those who went from the village of Tomah into the great struggle is impossible to compile at this time.
The implements of industry were in great part laid aside for those of war and while business was carried on in all lines in a desultory way, all watched the course of that great struggle, which appeared at times to have no end; a reign of sadness existed most of the time, from which it slowly recovered at the
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close of the war. With the declaration of peace and the return of the soldier boys who survived, an era of prosperity began and a number of stores and dwellings were erected in this and the succeeding years and the people branched out in all kinds of business.
During the war period there were some new arrivals, notably Harry Howard, who came in 1860 and bought a farm next to Robert Howie; Lewis S. Barnes, in 1861, who immediately went into business, became one of the substantial citizens and mer- chants for nearly a half century ; Watson Earle came in 1863 and built the little feed store which existed for so many years on the site of the fine block now owned by him on Superior avenue, at first he kept a meat market and then went into the feed business and later putting in groceries. A. D. Benjamin also came in that year in March, and his brother L. S. Benjamin in June of 1863; Edwin Eaton arrived in 1865 and went into business; A. W. Gibbs, who had originally settled at Ridgeville, moved to Tomah in 1864 and put up a livery stable, purchased considerable property and later platted Gibbs Addition; Sam Gunn also came in 1864 and went at first into the lumber business; in 1866 Dr. J. F. Richards moved up from Milwaukee and entered into the practice of medicine; L. S. Griggs moved in from LaCrosse that year; James Tormey also arrived and at once entered into business, some time later being joined by William Prettyman, and the firm of Formey & Prettyman was a household word for years; we neglected to mention the advent of Col. J. P. Tracy who came in 1861 and erected a store building down at the lower end of Superior avenne, which was at first used as a sort of a hotel. Thomas MeCaul moved here in 1867 and laid the founda- tion for the large real estate holdings he now enjoys.
In 1866 the legislature granted a charter to the village and in 1867 the first village officers were elected : they were as fol- lows: President, D. (. Proctor; police justice. D. R. Meloy; village trustees. William Runkel. L. S. Barnes, John Dodge, Il. L. Crandall, A. W. Gibbs and Mr. Shepherd; village clerk, W. H. Wright ; treasurer. J. H. Charreton; street commissioner, Levi Benjamin. It appears that the new administration started in with a wave of reform right away by passing an ordinance imposing a fine of $40.00 upon a person caught playing cards in a saloon, thus the cause of good government started at once.
In 1867 all of the above officials were engaged in business and several other well known names call themselves to mind, J. J. Kibbe, who kept a feed store: David Johns, who conducted
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a wagon factory and blacksmith shop: J. A. Wells, who estab- lished the Tomah Journal; George Runkel, who afterwards engaged in milling and established the first bank.
In 1871 and 1872 Tomah in common with all new western towns felt the shock of the Jay Cooke failure and business received a setback from which it was many long years in recover- ing; in 1871, however, the building of the Wisconsin Valley Railroad from Tomah to Grand Rapids in Wood county did much to revive business and marks the beginning of a rapid growth in population ; many families moved in, as they knew that Tomah would be the division point of the new road and the increase in population of the village was nearly five hundred.
One thing in which all Tomahites are interested is the old reliable "Sherman House"; at the close of the war Joseph McGinnis' father had a little building on the old Sherman House corner which was about 16x24 in which he had a shoe shop in front and lived in the back end; it is impossible to supply exact dates, but along about the last year of the war Mr. Schultz, father of Adolph Schultz, bought the property of MeGinnis and erected a large frame building upon it and commenced keeping boarders ; he sold the property to II. G. Boyington after he had improved it by building what was called the north wing: in this wing upstairs was the only publie hall and stage in town for a number of years; Boyington ran the hotel as the "Boyington House" for a great. many years and when the Opera House Block was built by Thomas McCaul, Mr. Bovington turned the public hall into sleeping rooms. Along in the early eighties the property was sold by Mr. Bovington to R. F. Parshall who built on what is known as the east wing and rented the place to Frank Sherman, of Mauston, who conducted the hotel up to the time of his death for a long term of years as the "Sherman House" and finally purchased it; under his management and that of his excellent wife and daughter, Mrs. Altenberg, the hostlery became famous for its excellent home-like cooking, cleanliness and home appear -. ance and became a favorite resort for traveling men, a reputation which has been sustained to this day under Charles Hamilton, the present owner, who elerked for many years for Mr. Sherman. In 1907 the Sherman House property was sold to the Tomah Cash Mercantile Company and the buildings were purchased by Charles Hamilton who moved them to the present location on the southeast corner of the same block and later added another story, putting in steam heat and improving the entire property so that it is today a modern little hotel in every particular.
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In 1876 the old Grant House. then owned by M. Gondreziek, was destroyed by fire. The building had been raised up by Mr. Gondreziek, a basement with a barroom and offices put under it and the building greatly improved. It was destroyed with its contents December 17th of that year.
But to go back to the chronological narrative. The period from 1872 to 1890 did not hold many noteworthy events, per- haps the most important of which was the mustering into the Wisconsin National Guard of Company K on May 28, 1884. Numerous business blocks and residences were built during the time, and in 1883 the city was incorporated by the granting of a charter by the legislature, which was known as chapter 134 of the laws of 1883, and the city of Tomah was a reality.
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