USA > Wisconsin > Sheboygan County > History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present > Part 15
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1887-Senate, Ignatius Klotz, Campbellsport; assembly, W. M. Root, Sheboygan ; George Spratt, Sheboygan Falls; Daniel Steuerwald, Adell.
1889-Senate, M. C. Mead, Plymouth; assembly, Valentine Detling, Sheboygan ; C. A. Corbett, Greenbush; E. C. Oliver, Cedar Grove.
1891-Senate, M. C. Mead, Plymouth; assembly, D. T. Phalen, She- boygan ; A. F. Warden, Plymouth; A. R. Munger, Scott.
1893-Senate, D. T. Phalen, Sheboygan; assembly, Theodor Dieck- mann, Sheboygan; John Dassow, Sheboygan Falls; J. W. Liebenstein, Scott.
1895-Senate, D. T. Phalen, Sheboygan; assembly, Christ. Ackermann, Sheboygan ; William F. Sieker, Franklin; George W. Wolff, Rhine.
1897-Senate, Frederick A. Dennett, Sheboygan; assembly, Christ. Ackermann, Sheboygan; William F. Sieker, Franklin; George W. Wolff, Rhine.
1899-Senate, Frederick A. Dennett, Sheboygan ; assembly, M. O. Gal- away, Sheboygan; J. E. Richardson, Sheboygan Falls; W. A. Barber, Waldo.
1901-Senate, George W. Wolff, Rhine; assembly, M. O. Galaway, She- boygan; George Spratt, Sheboygan Falls; Henry Krumrey, Plymouth.
1903-Senate, George W. Wolff; assembly, Peter Bartzen, George W. Koch.
1905-Senate, George W. Wolff; assembly, Herman Heinecke, August Meyers.
1907-Senate, George W. Wolff; assembly, John M. Detling, E. J. Keyes.
1909-Senate, H. Krumrey; assembly, Ed. Kempf; second district, E. J. Keyes.
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1911-Senator, Henry Krumrey ; assembly, Otto B. Joerns, Otto A. La Budde.
CIRCUIT JUDGES OF THE FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
William R. Gorsline, 1853-58; David Taylor, 1858-69; Campbell Mc- Lean, 1869-81; N. S. Gilson, 1881-89; Michael Kirwan, 1889 to present time.
The counties comprising the circuit at present are Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Kewaunee.
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CHAPTER VII
REMINISCENT
TALES INTERESTINGLY TOLD BY MEN WHO WERE THERE-EARLY DAYS IN SHE- BOYGAN COUNTY AS PICTURED BY THE LATE J. H. DENISON-RECOLLEC- TIONS OF HORACE RUBLEE-COLONEL J. A. WATROUS NOW OF MILWAUKEE CONTRIBUTES VALUABLE LOCAL DATA.
One of the early settlers of Sheboygan county was J. H. Denison who died about two years ago at the age of ninety-two. He was a voluminous and interesting writer and contributed numerous historical articles to the newspapers and other publications. The appended sketch is given space in recognition of its worth and local coloring, notwithstanding the writer has gone over ground already covered in this work. Mr. Denison is cir- cumstantial, gives to his theme an atmosphere that is intensely interesting, and mentions details that have escaped other chroniclers of Sheboygan history :
"General prosperity prevailed throughout the country in the spring of 1835. The national debt, which had been a burden from the foundation of the government, was now entirely cancelled and a surplus had begun to accumulate in the treasury. The president, whom his friends delighted to call 'Old Hickory,' was approaching the close of his second term. With patriotic zeal and obstinate firmness he had not only suppressed nullifica- tion in South Carolina, but had virtually closed the United States Bank at Philadelphia. Upon the fall of this gigantic monopoly, numerous lesser in- stitutions for banking purposes arose in various places, which, by issuing a great abundance of paper money, served not only to enhance prices but also to stimulate speculation. At the west much of this circulating medium was issued by banks that had but a nominal existence, and very naturally the money at length proved to be entirely worthless. Yet confidence pre- vailed for more than a year from this period, and speculation in western lands was carried to an unparallelled extent.
"But many bonafide settlers came west during this year, desirous of making profitable investments and securing for themselves a permanent location and business. A gentleman of this class having arrived at Chi- cago from New England, might have been seen in August of this year, making his way along the lake shore toward Milwaukee, where he arrived as soon as the primitive mode of traveling would allow. Here he found a single white family who had arrived the March previous, also Solomon Juneau, an Indian trader, who had lived at the place for many years. The
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mail was carried from Chicago to Green Bay twice a month by a man on horseback, and upon leaving Milwaukee in the fore part of September, our New England pioneer, with two others who concluded to accompany him and explore the country, started for Green Bay, pursuing their way along the lake shore. With a great inland sea stretching far beyond the vision on the one hand, and an interminable forest extending for many miles to the west on the other, our travelers moved on, now along the nar- row Indian path upon the bluff, now upon the sandy beach where the dash- ing waves and moving sand had removed all traces of former travelers. At length, with weary steps, they arrived at the Sheboygan river; and, up that stream a short distance from the lake, found a resting place. Here a sawmill had just been completed and a few thousand feet of lumber manufactured. William Paine and two others had commenced this mill in the fall previous, and were the first white men to make improvements of any kind in this region. A small log tenement standing near the bank a little below the mill afforded shelter for the men engaged in the work, as well as the travelers who had just arrived. An Indian village composed of fifty or sixty wigwams lay upon both sides of the stream, perhaps a hundred rods below the mill, scattered over what seemed to be a prairie.
"Having passed the night at the mill our friend from the east, with his two companions, started the next morning to explore the country up the river. Pursuing their course westerly a few miles through the dense forest they came to the neighborhood of the present village of Sheboygan Falls. Here they heard the sound of falling waters, and, following the direction of the sound, they went through the thick underbrush, thence down a steep declivity, and there they beheld the overhanging cedars and loftier pines and the rapid waters of the Sheboygan dashing, splashing, roar- ing down the rocky ledge. This was a wild scene. No woodman's ax had marred its beauty. No march of civilization had yet reached it to change the aspect it had held for ages. Here on the river bank stood our pioneer from New England, a man in middle life, full six feet in stature, with the heart as well as the manner of a gentleman, courteous, kind and obliging as he always proved to be. As he looked upon the rugged scenery, little did he imagine that, when nearly a third of a century had passed, he would still have his home within a few rods of the point where he then stood. Then in the vigor of manhood, he lived to see over eighty years of life. Then he could see nothing but the river and the dark woods-now a hun- dred dwellings grace the scene, and the native forest lies far in the back ground. After exploring about the falls he returned to the mill and thence to the mouth of the river. Here he found two indifferent shanties erected for the purpose of entering a claim, but they were unoccupied, and the claim was never allowed. The men who had accompanied him from Mil- waukee now retraced their steps, but he continued his journey in com- pany with the mail carrier along the lake to Manitowoc and thence to Green Bay. On arriving at the bay he found that a sale would take place in No- vember, of lands in range 17 to 23 including the present towns of Sheboy- gan and Sheboygan Falls.
"Having obtained a sectional map prepared for him by John Banister,
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FALLS IN THE SHEBOYGAN RIVER AT VILLAGE OF SHEBOYGAN FALLS
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of Fond du Lac, a surveyor, Colonel Stedman, our pioneer, directed his steps toward Milwaukee by way of Lake Winnebago, accompanied by a young man who desired to see the country on that route. Encamping near where Fond du Lac now stands, they concluded to spend a day looking about in that region and went west a number of miles, but returned at night and encamped in the same place. For eight nights in succession the Colonel camped out while passing through a country entirely unoccupied, except by Indians, and at length arrived at Milwaukee. About the last of October, Colonel Stedman started on another journey to Green Bay for the purpose of attending the land sale, which would take place in Novem- ber.
"Having arrived again at Paine's mill, he says: 'I visited the Falls, and, by aid of my maps, I ascertained the section and, indeed, the eighty acre tract which contained them. Wishing to go through by way of Lake Winnebago to the Bay, in company with two other men, I employed an Indian to pilot us through to Fond du Lac for six dollars. But while at the mill I met Mr. Marcy, a lieutenant in the army, who was at this time stationed at Green Bay, and also S. Beal, receiver in the land office at that place. They had also come into Sheboygan county on an exploring tour, with the design of bidding at the land sale. They proposed that if we would wait until they could go down to the mouth of the river and examine the place, they would accompany us and pay a part of the Indian's fees. We did so and as the family were rather crowded at the mill we concluded to commence our journey immediately, and, going out about three miles, we encamped for the night not far from the Falls.
"'In the morning while viewing them; Marcy asked me if I intended to bid on this. I replied that it was my intention. He said they proposed to do the same, we soon agreed on the spot that instead of bidding against each other we would go in company, that Marcy should bid off the land and we would share equally. On arriving at the bay we found three others also, ready to bid on the eighty, including the Falls; these were Doty, after- wards Governor Doty; Jones, and Ellis, the surveyor. We then made an agreement that the six should buy in company and that Marcy should bid for the whole. Having the impression that we had now included all that would choose to bid, we confidently awaited the day of sale, but on that occasion several others were ready to bid, among whom was George Smith, of Milwaukee. We bid off the land at $13.50 per acre. I afterwards bought out Jones, Beal and Ellis, the remaining members of the company. Doty, Marcy and myself made a contract with a man to put up and complete a sawmill at the Falls by the next June, and I returned to Massachusetts.
" 'In June, 1836, I came to Chicago, saw the man who was engaged to build the mill, but no mill was built. He complained that he had been sick and unfortunate and wished to be relieved from the contract. I left my wife with her brother in Chicago, and, coming again to the Falls, engaged a man to put up a mill in six weeks. Lumber was worth, at that time, fifty dol- lars per thousand, which made it an object to commence manufacturing as soon as possible. I paid $5.00 per day for a master carpenter and the same for a millwright. Common workmen received $2.50 per day. The mill
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was not completed until December. By this time navigation had closed and nothing could be realized from lumber that year.'
"Thus the account of Colonel Stedman is brought down to the fall of 1836, but we will return and notice some events that happened the year previous.
"Some time in the summer of 1835 William Farnsworth purchased the mill and claim of William Paine for $10,000, and soon after, while at Chicago, engaged Jonathan Follett to take charge. Mr. Follett arrived with his family a short time previous to the second visit of Colonel Sted- man, and Mrs. Follett remembers very distinctly that Colonel Stedman and Messrs. Marcy and Beal were at their house in October. The Lieutenant Marcy mentioned here is the General Marcy of the Union army, father- in-law to General George B. McClellan, and grandfather of the present mayor of New York city, 1905.
"David Giddings visited Sheboygan during the year 1835, but made no purchase until two or three years later. The land where the city of Sheboygan stands was purchased by Daniel Whitney, George Smith and others, but no effort at improvement was made until the next spring. About the last of May, 1836, the old steamer Michigan came up the lake, and, as was the custom with all steamboats at this period, entered Green Bay on its way to Chicago for the purpose of unloading and receiving freight.
"A. G. Dye and family were on board this vessel, bound for Chicago, from Fulton county, New York. At the bay, among other passengers, Levi Conro, a mechanic, took passage for Sheboygan, with five or six other workmen, being sent there by Farnsworth, agent for the owners of the town plat. These men with their implements, were landed at Sheboygan, and immediately commenced on the building which was afterwards known as the Sheboygan House. Mr. Dye, with his family, went on to Chicago, but meeting with Farnsworth at that place concluded to take a contract to put up a store house at Sheboygan, and immediately embarked on board a sail vessel bound thither, where he arrived in August. There was no pier or other convenience except yawl boats, yet they succeeded in reaching the shore with their goods in safety. A small frame house had been put up near the mouth of the river on the north side which, though incomplete, made a very comfortable habitation for Mr. Dye and his family, after he had laid the floor and made other improvements. Conro and his men had by this time raised the Sheboygan House, and Dye im- mediately began work on the warehouse, which was placed on the north side near the foot of Seventh street.
"In the spring of 1836 Charles D. Cole left Cleveland, Ohio, for Green Bay, in a sail vessel, with the purpose of locating somewhere in the west. He was recommended by Mr. Giddings of the former place, to Brush, Rees & Company, at the bay, who advised him to visit Sheboygan. Accordingly after remaining at the Bay a week or two he took passage on board the steamer Michigan in company with Mr. Farnsworth, a partner with Brush, Rees & Company, and landed at Sheboygan on the 16th of June. After visiting Farnsworth's mill and examining the ground, he concluded that, although now a primeval forest, it would be a favorable point for business,
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and determined to locate here. In company with Farnsworth, he then started for Chicago on horseback along the lake shore, intending to attend the sale of city lots on the Sheboygan plat. He made some purchases but finally the lots reverted back to the original owners. Returning to Cleve- land he took his family and also a stock of groceries and dry goods, and set sail in a brig for the upper lakes. Touching Green Bay as all vessels did at this period, he landed at Sheboygan about the middle of August. It was his intention to board at the Sheboygan House but the family that was to keep the house had not yet arrived, neither was the house in a con- dition to be occupied. In this dilemma, Mr. Cole piled up his dry-goods boxes on the bank of the river, and by stretching carpets and blankets over them, constructed a sort of tent in which the family lived for about two weeks. Mr. Dye's family had been here a week when Mr. Cole arrived, and Mrs. Cole, in speaking of this period, says she was very well satisfied with her habitation, but when she saw that Mrs. Dye, who was almost the only woman about her, was sick and helpless and indeed had been brought from the vessel in that condition, with a little child of a year old very ill, and when she looked upon her surroundings, a wild shore almost un- inhabited except by the dark savages of the forest, she experienced for a short time those feelings of homesickness of which most pioneer women know something at one time or another; but they passed off the first day of their arrival, never to return, and Sheboygan county has ever since been to her an accepted and loved home.
"But soon the Sheboygan House was enclosed, and before it was com- pleted they moved into it and Mr. Cole opened his stock of goods under the name of C. D. Cole & Company. William Ashby came from Oneida county, New York, in the fall of 1835, with sixteen others, all of whom had been hired by an agent of Farnsworth, Rees & Company, to come to Me- nominee and work at the lumbering business, for it will be recollected that, previous to this time, most of the laborers about Green Bay were French- men who, although preferable to the Indians, were much inferior to the Americans. Mr. Ashby and the others came to Buffalo where the fore- man presented an order to the captain of the steamboat from Farnsworth for their passage. They came to Detroit on this order, went to a hotel and remained several weeks, boarding on the credit of Farnsworth & Company, until their bill amounted to eighty dollars. This was paid by the company and they embarked on board the Jefferson, a sail vessel be- longing to Farnsworth who owned also another vessel, the Traveler, and whose credit was good for a large amount anywhere on the lakes. Hav- ing remained a year at Menominee, Ashby, with ten others, started for Milwaukee by land through the woods. Having an order from Farns- worth on Juneau for their pay as that trader had been receiving lum- ber from Menominee, they came to the Sheboygan river. At the mill the people were out of flour, but had potatoes and beef. The party got a few crackers of Cole down at the mouth of the river, and pursued their way on to Milwaukee, but could get no pay of Juneau. 'Being obliged to wait I concluded,' says Mr. Ashby, 'to return to Sheboygan, and with a single companion retraced my steps to that promising land.' Arriving at Sheboy-
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gan, the Sheboygan House, the warehouse and a house that Dye lived in, were all the buildings of any account in the place. Where most of the city is now built there was a growth of pines and oaks of not very heavy timber, with occasionally a maple."
RECOLLECTIONS OF HORACE RUBLEE
The following paper was read by the late Horace Rublee, well known as a former editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, before a literary society of Plymouth :
"On occasions like the present one, reminiscences are the order of the day. I, therefore, propose to do a little raking among the embers of the past. I can justly claim to be one of the early settlers of Sheboygan county. My father came here in the autumn of 1839, his family follow- ing in June, 1840. The second ten years of my life were mostly spent here, coming from Milwaukee on a schooner, as no steamer landed at Sheboygan in those days. I vividly remember the transfer from the little craft which anchored off the mouth of the river, in the star-lit quiet of a lovely June night, just before daybreak, to a large scow, which was then rowed into the river, the warm breath of the land wind scented with odors of the forest and wild flowers, the brilliancy of the fire flies, the sense of strangeness and romance imparted by the silence of the night and the consciousness of the vast and almost unbroken wilderness into which we were entering, the short walk up a soft, sandy roadway to a square frame building which then served as a lodging house to the seldom coming stranger.
"A few hours later, we returned to the scow, and, with our goods and chattels, were rowed up the river to what was known as the 'Follett place,' the head of river navigation, and about half a mile below a sawmill, in the management of which my father was then interested, and where there was a fairly comfortable, indeed a large house for that period, which we occupied. At that time I believe there were but eleven families in the county. Only one, that of Joshua Brown, was to be found at Sheboygan. A mile and a half up the river lived John Johnson, an Englishman, with a large family of sons and daughters, who cultivated the adjacent flats, which had long been cleared and used as corn fields by the Indians. Be- tween the mill referred to, now gone, and the Falls, was an unbroken for- est, with the exception of an acre or two on a knoll now occupied by a cemetery, where Charles D. Cole had made a clearing and planted corn between the stumps.
"At the Falls were Charles D. Cole and Albert Rounsville, with their families, and David Giddings, then unmarried, occupied the only house on the right bank of the river. There was a sawmill on the left bank. A mile or more up the river Deacon Trowbridge, with his stalwart boys, had begun the farm now occupied by his son. Five miles to the south John and Benjamin Gibbs had settled and begun clearing farms, and about the same distance to the west, Dye, Firmin, Hoffman and Upham had reared their log habitations and made a small opening in the prim-
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itive forest. A road had been cut through the woods to Port Washing- ton the previous winter, by which, once a week, the scanty mail was brought on foot or on horseback. Westward to Fond du Lac and north to Manitowoc, the wilderness was traversed only by Indian trails. On the lake shore south of Sheboygan a few fishermen from Ohio and Michigan lived in summer, returning to their homes for the winter. Among them was the Wilson family, who have given their name to the town of Wilson.
"During the season of 1840, Colonel B. H. Moores and family came to Sheboygan, and kept the hotel there. A lighthouse keeper named Woolverton came also that year with his family. He was a florid faced, middle aged man from Maryland. It denotes the general condition of the colony to recall the fact that Woolverton, with his government salary of $365 a year, was probably the most affluent person in the county, and regarded as a sort of capitalist who could afford to dress and live in a more sumptuous manner than the others. With the exception of the lighthouse keeper the settlers were all people who earned their daily bread by daily toil. The style of living was plain. Most of the flour used was unbolted wheat and corn ground in a little run of stones set in one corner of the sawmill. Salt pork and salt whitefish were the staple articles of animal food. There was hardly a horse owned in the county except the ponies belonging to the Indians who remained here in con- siderable numbers. There were few cattle except oxen, and hardly any domestic fowls. The second year my father obtained a pair of fowls. I remember the intense interest with which I watched the growth of the first brood of chickens. They were the most remarkable chickens ever seen ; each one had a name, and I can still recall their names and per- sonal appearance of each.
"Nearly all the settlers were from the New England states and New York. There was neither clergyman, doctor or lawyer among them. Al- most all were under middle age, active, hardy young people. No gray haired men were seen. Deacon Trowbridge was the patriarch. He was about fifty and was regarded as an old man. You all remember him in his serene and beautiful old age, for he lived to be a veritable patriarch. Then he was not only a farmer, but the blacksmith of the county, and he occasionally assumed the office of a clergyman and preached on Sundays.
"Other arrivals during the same year were a family named Russell and two young men, Worthy McKillip and Starke. Another, William Ashby, better known as 'Sam,' had previously spent some time in the county. He and McKillip are still with you, holding places of honor among the pioneers. The little colony received from year to year some accessions but the growth was slow until about 1844 or 1845, when a plank road was constructed to Fond du Lac. Then steamers began to land at Sheboygan and settlers to arrive in greater numbers. The German immigration soon followed and land began to be taken and clearings made in all directions.
"The pre-plank road period was the true pioneer period in our his- tory. In those days Sheboygan was of little consequence. The Falls was the business and intellectual center. Here was the only postoffice. Here val. 1-0
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the elections were held. Here Charles D. Cole, who was the postmaster and general adviser and business man of the little community, lived. In the winter at the Falls a debating society held weekly meetings and the debates were sometimes preceded by an original essay or poem. Nearly everybody took the New York Tribune, then edited by Horace Greeley, in the heydey of his power. A smattering of phrenology had been ac- quired by some of the citizens and several had read 'Combe on the Con- stitution of Man,' a book then much in vogue. Greeley and Combe pro- duced no little mental fermentation and the social movement known as 'Fourierism,' which led to the Brook farm experiment, broke out with a good deal of virulence right here in those primitive days.
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