USA > Wisconsin > Sheboygan County > History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present > Part 16
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"In the earlier period my father was living on the Johnson place, John- son having gone into the wilderness to make a farm in the Gibbs neigh- borhood, and our relations were with the duller and more conservative region of Sheboygan. Little intellectual stimulus was found there, but the neighborhood of the fishermen and the frequent presence of sailors from the little schooners that carried lumber to Milwaukee and Chicago, led during the second year to the opening at Sheboygan, then always spoken of as 'The Mouth,' of an establishment which was a combination of a very small retail shop and a rather mild type of Saloon. It was kept by Mrs. Glass. She was a buxom, apple-cheeked woman of perhaps forty-five, and wore a white muslin cap with a ruffled border. Her hair and eyes were dark, she was a voluble talker and a kind hearted but reso- lute and self-possessed female. Mrs. Glass' stock consisted of a box of crackers, a bladder of snuff, some plug tobacco, a jar of striped pepper- mint candy, pins and codfish. She also had somewhere on the premises a barrel of whiskey and a decanter filled from it, which was exposed to the view of the thirsty wayfarer. Occasionally she had a keg of what was known as 'strong beer' on tap. Though a business woman, Mrs. Glass had a decidedly sentimental side to her character, and possessed a small but very select library of romances including 'The Scottish Chiefs,' 'Thad- deus of Warsaw,' 'The Romance of the Forest,' 'The Children of the Ab- bey' and a blood curdling story entitled "The Three Spaniards.' These are books not much read at present but Mrs. Glass loaned them to me with warm commendations, and I read them with great delight. Mrs. Glass had a husband, John, a small quiet person, whom she sometimes required to advance and allow her to smell his breath, when he was suspected of surreptitiously visiting the whiskey barrel. John preferred to keep well in the background.
"The third winter, that of 1842-43, I profited a little by indirect com- munication with the intellectual center here at the Falls. It was deter- mined to have a school for three months at 'the mouth,' and a young man from the Falls, but a newcomer, was employed as teacher. This young man was Samuel Rounsville, then early in the twenties, an active, bright eyed, hopeful man. For the most part the school consisted of another boy and myself. Of course, the teacher's duties were not very laborious. He read and smoked a good part of the time. He went to the Falls on dehating nights and Sundays and besides teaching me some arithmetic
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he loaned me Scott's 'Lady of the Lake,' 'Nicholas Nickleby.' 'Oliver Twist' and several of Bulwer's novels, which helped to pass the school hours, and wonderfully shortened the long winter evenings. Among my school teachers I remember none with more kindly feelings than Sam- uel Rounsville. A year or two later, after a visit east, he brought back a diamond edition of Byron, the first copy of that author's works without doubt ever brought into the county, and that also he loaned me. Books were scarce here in those days. I had long had my curiosity excited respecting Shakespeare by references to him and quotations prefixed to chapters in novels, before I ever saw a copy of his works. The first one brought into the county was, I think, by W. W. Kellogg, a lawyer who settled at Sheboygan about 1845. Benjamin Trowbridge was the only man who had a copy of Milton in the pre-plank road era. I could supply further information of this sort if it were desirable but have already ex- ceeded the limits I had intended to observe.
"The grown up men and women of the period referred to have nearly all passed away. But their works remain. By them and those who came a little later, the wilderness has been transformed into one of the richest, the most productive districts in the whole country, studded with com- fortable homes where dwelled a happy and prosperous people. Only those who saw the beginnings and who know the hard and straitened lives of the first settlers, can fully appreciate the strenuous toil, the wear and tear of human muscle, the self-denial, the stubborn endurance, the per- sistent energy required to clear away the tangled forest, to break up the soil filled with stumps and interlacing roots, to build roads and fences while maintaining themselves and their families, and to bring the great work on to its present stage of advancement. If he who causes two blades of grass to spring where but one grew before is a public benefactor, what shall we say of those to whose strenuous toil is due the broad meadows and pastures and productive fields that have supplanted the wilderness? The pioneers of Sheboygan county accomplished a great work. Their names may not be inscribed on monuments, or preserved in history; but the work they accomplished will remain a permanent benefit to succeed- ing generations.
"The poet of Faust makes his hero begin with an insatiable craving for all knowledge and all delight, to end, after sounding every depth of learning and philosophy and after exhausting all the phases of earthly pleasure, by finding his final and supremest satisfaction in reclaiming the waste places of the earth and fitting them to become the habitation of his fellowmen and the seats of civilization and culture: Such was the work performed by the pioneers of this county, and their successors will do well to cherish and honor their memory and to strive, like them, 'To plant the great hereafter in this now.'"
COLONEL J. A. WATROUS' PEN PICTURE OF EARLY DAYS
Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Watrous, now of Milwaukee, spent part of his boyhood in Sheboygan county-at the Falls-and early in the year
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1910 contributed the following pertinent and interesting remembrances of the early days of this section of the country and of the pioneers who helped lay the foundation stone of Sheboygan county :
"Seventy years ago Sheboygan Falls, then consisting of a small cluster of cheap dwellings, and the first grist mill run by water in that portion of Wisconsin, lying north of a line from Lake Michigan at Sheboygan to Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, was a very much more ambitious community than it is today, with its 1,500 population and much thrift, and it is still an ambitious community. The grist mill was supplying flour to its own citizens, and to most of the people in what are now Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Calumet, Ozaukee, Washington and Kewaunee counties. It was not much of an undertaking in those long ago days, aside from transportation to the few pioneers. The mill site and most of the resi- dences and business places that were in existence sixty-six years ago are readily recognized, including the Thorp house and Charles D. Cole store. "Hardy, energetic and ambitious pioneers were at Sheboygan Falls from the start; sixty-six years ago there was a goodly number of them, including the Coles, Giddings, Trowbridges, Browns, Stedmans, Prentices, Gibbs, Kellers, Cobbs and Rublees. If he was not foremost among the pioneers, Charles D. Cole was far to the front. He was a merchant, a banker in a small way, postmaster and leader in all lines of usefulness. Mr. Cole was receiver of the land office. His district was nearly half of the territory. Large sums of silver had to be transported by pony from the Falls to Green Bay, through the forests and on footpaths. At that time there were Indian camps at various points along the line, and not all of the Indians were friendly to the whites; quite the contrary. Bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats were numerous and ugly. Often Mr. Cole, with bags of silver strapped in front and in the rear of the saddle, would make the long, lonesome, dangerous trip, alone. On other occasions he deputized a neighbor to accompany him. They never went into camp, not daring to sleep a minute on the trip of two days and a night, lest thieving, murderous Indians make way with them and with their govern- ment dollars.
FIRST GOOD TEMPLARS LODGE
"It was Mr. Cole who nearly sixty years ago secured a charter and organized, at the Falls, the first Good Templars lodge, started in Wiscon- sin, Iowa, Missouri and the territories beyond the Mississippi and Mis- souri river. From the effort in this village grew thousands of lodges in western states and territories. In his declining years Mr. Cole laid spe- cial stress upon four lines in which he played a part: His pioneership in Sheboygan Falls and the county, his ability to have always been hos- pitable in home and honest in business, his leadership in the establishment of an order whose aim was to help men to lives of sobriety, and his will- ingness to give two of his three boys to help Abraham Lincoln in the Civil war To an old friend he said: 'If I am credited with nothing else I shall be satisfied.' I venture that the day will never come when Charles
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BIRD'SEYE VIEW OF SHEBOYGAN FALLS
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D. Cole and his services will not be spoken of by his people of Sheboygan Falls.
"One of Mr. Cole's soldier boys, Nathan, still a resident of Sheboy- gan, who was a member of the Fourth Wisconsin, was dangerously sick in a hospital in Virginia. The father immediately went to Washington, where he was informed by the military commander that he could not go to his son because of important military movements in contemplation.
"'I will see Secretary Stanton,' said the distressed old gentleman, and he started for the war department. There was a long line ahead of him -major generals, brigadier generals, colonels, senators, representatives and others, all anxious to have a word with the war secretary. At that time Mr. Cole was old, gray and bent. Mr. Stanton left his desk to glance down the line to see how many more were coming to see him. His quick eye caught sight of the bent, white-haired, pale-faced old man and he sent a messenger to Mr. Cole, with directions to conduct him to the secretary's desk ahead of forty military men and congressmen. As Mr .. Cole came into his presence the secretary arose, extended his hand and said: 'My good man, what can I do for you?' Mr. Cole told him of his sick soldier boy and his anxiety to go to him. The great secretary, one of the busiest men in Washington, wrote a pass for Mr. Cole to go south, and another paper which gave the father the right to take his sick soldier home on an indefinite furlough.
"It was never safe after that for any one to criticise Secretary Stan- ton in the presence of Charley Cole. Upon his recovery, Nathan was made a lieutenant in the Twentieth Wisconsin and was frightfully wounded at the battle of Prairie Grove. . Later he was made a major. James, the other son, was made a lieutenant in the Fourth Wisconsin.
THE DEACON BEATS THE DRUM
"Deacon William Trowbridge was the pioneer preacher, a devoted Christian. One Sunday in April, 1861, Deacon Trowbridge was preach- ing a sermon on Sabbath breaking. Suddenly, near the church there were shouts and the beating of a bass drum. The old Deacon was in- dignant. He did not send a messenger to stop the noise but went him- self. He saw young Nathan Cole beating the drum and demanded to know why he was thus breaking the Sabbath. Nathan replied :
"'Why Deacon, haven't you heard that war is declared and President Lincoln has called for soldiers?'
"The old Deacon's eyes flashed as he said: 'So war is declared, and Mr. Lincoln has called for troops, has he?'
"'Yes sir,' replied the young drummer.
"'Nathan, give me that drum!' and the preacher who a few minutes before had been pleading for the keeping of the Sabbath day holy was beating a big drum up and down the street to call together recruits for the first company that left the county.
"If Sheboygan is not the first county in Wisconsin where cheese- making began, it is certainly among the first, and the initial factory was
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near here. Many millions of dollars worth of cheese have been shipped from the county, and the butter and cheese interests have had a large part in making Sheboygan county one of the richest in the state. A leader in this interest was the late Hiram Smith, who served in the legislature and for years contributed largely to building up the dairy interests of the state. One of Mr. Smith's brothers was Joseph A. Smith, who nearly sixty years ago established here the Freeman. A leader among abolition- ists, he made the Freeman a power in the war on slavery, and had much to do with giving Wisconsin the honor of being the first to move, prac- tically, in the organization of a party whose principles, advocates and elections had a mighty part in forcing the war of the rebellion. And if that party had never done anything else it deserves to be remembered for centuries to come. We could not have become a great nation without that clash of arms and its far-reaching results. For many years after that Mr. Smith was editor of the Fond du Lac Commonwealth and still later he was Governor Hoard's assistant editor on Hoard's Dairyman.
AN OLD SCHOOL HOUSE
"On a side hill by the electric line, is an old wooden building that has a history. It was the first schoolhouse built in Sheboygan county, ex- cept a small one at Sheboygan. It was built sixty-two years ago. I re- member two of the teachers. The first was Miss Prentice, a large, hand- some woman, who could wield a ferule on a small boy's hands and thighs to perfection. She was a good teacher in other respects. . Another was a white-haired, awkward young man of eighteen. He taught two terms and then swarmed to Madison, where he served as legislative reporter and became a partner of General David Atwood, of the State Journal. That was Horace Rublee, President Grant's choice for minister to Swit- zerland, many years editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and for a long time chairman of the republican state central committee. It was Chairman Rublee who pulled the republican party out of the greenback mad house in 1878. The state has produced no greater editor, no finer scholar ; and his public career began in that old school building at Sheboygan Falls.
SHEBOYGAN FALLS CONTRIBUTES TWO CONGRESSMEN
"The village has contributed two congressmen, Charles H. Weisse, the sitting member, and the late George H. Brickner, who served two terms. Mr. Weisse is serving his fourth term. The republican party has gone to the village on two or three occasions . for its candidate. It named George W. Spratt in 1908. Mr. Spratt came to Sheboygan county in 1854, when a lad of seven years. He began service as a day laborer that year, by picking up potatoes, twenty-five bushels a day for five days, at five cents a day. He invested the quarter in a first reader and began the work of his self-acquired education. Though a mere boy he was a sol- dier in the Civil war, has been a leading manufacturer in his own town, for twenty-five years has had a large interest in a chair factory in She- boygan, and has served in the assembly."
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ONE OF THE OLDEST SCHOOL HOUSES IN THE COUNTY, SHEBOYGAN FALLS
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CHAPTER VIII
TRANSPORTATION
INDIAN TRAILS AND PLANK ROADS-FIRST RAILROAD BUILT IN 1856-CELEBRA- TION AT THE TIME OF BREAKING GROUND-THE NORTHWESTERN SYSTEM -FIRST STREET RAILWAY AND THE PRESENT TROLLEY SYSTEM-INTERUR- BAN FROM SHEBOYGAN TO MILWAUKEE AND FROM SHEBOYGAN TO PLY- MOUTH AND ELKHART LAKE-PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAFFIC ON LAKE MICHIGAN-SHEBOYGAN'S BEAUTIFUL HARBOR-RECEIPTS AND SHIPMENTS OF MERCHANDISE BY WATER AND NUMBER OF VESSELS ENTERING AND DE- PARTING THE PAST CALENDAR YEAR.
The first work usually performed by the pioneer of a new country was to make roads for the transportation of his products to the nearest markets and until this had been accomplished he used the primitive trails of the aborigines or cut crude paths through the forests. In this region the mak- ing of roads was imperative to many settlers before they were able to reach their claims and in more than one instance several days were consumed in .
cutting a path to the desired locality. "
Wagon roads were cut through along the lake to Milwaukee and also to Green Bay during the winter of 1836-7, to obtain provisions, but the first public acts to establish highways were passed by the territorial legislation of 1838-9, when two roads were established. One of them was made to run from Sheboygan by way of Hustis Rapids on Rock river, near Horicon, to Madison and the other was laid out from Sheboygan to Rochester (now Sheboygan Falls), and thence to Fond du Lac. The commissioners for the former were B. L. Gibbs, of Sheboygan, James L. Thayer, of Manitowoc, and John Hustis, of Milwaukee; and for the latter, Charles D. Cole and David Giddings, of Sheboygan, and John Bannister, of Fond du Lac. The necessity of having good roads into the interior and the benefits to be de- rived from the same soon induced private capital to be invested in the build- ing of roads and a large number of corporations were formed for the pur- pose of building plank or gravel toll roads, but, as with railroads, there were many more projected than built.
In 1850 the Sheboygan & Mayville Plank-Road Company was incor- porated. The road was to extend from some point in the town of Sheboy- gan, or Sheboygan Falls, through the village of Cascade to Mayville, in Dodge county.
In 1848 the Sheboygan & Fond du Lac Plank-Road was incorporated. H. C. Hobart, C. D. Cole, J. W. Taylor and others were appointed commis-
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sioners. There was no work done on the road until 1851, when the charter was amended. The following officers were elected: H. H. Conklin, pres- ident; B. Williams, secretary ; and A. L. McCrea, treasurer. Operations on the road were commenced immediately, and by July, 1852, the road was complete from Sheboygan to Fond du Lac.
In 1852 the Plymouth & Saukville Plank and Turnpike Road Company was incorporated. W. R. Ellis, F. W. Horn, A. Lamberson, Oran Rogers, E. M. McIntosh, John W. Taylor, William D. Lisse, LaFayette Eastman, William Payne, J. Feischbein, George C. Daniels and William Hudson were appointed commissioners. The road was to be built from Plymouth, in Sheboygan county, to Saukville, in Washington county.
In 1851 the Sheboygan & Calumet Plank-Road Company was incorpor- ated. The road was built as far as Howards Grove, in 1856, and to Kiel, in Manitowoc county, in 1859.
The Sheboygan River Plank-Road Company was organized in Septem- ber, 1852. J. F. Seeley, president; S. B. Ormsbee, secretary ; and John Keller, treasurer.
In 1854 the Plymouth & West Bend Plank-Road Company was incor- porated. R. H. Hotchkiss, M. M. Flint, H. N. Smith, Henry Averill, James Preston and R. C. Brazelton were appointed commissioners. The road was to have been built from Plymouth to West Bend.
In 1855 the Sheboygan Lake Turnpike & Bridge Company was incor- porated. E. Keach, S. Wade and others were appointed commissioners. They proposed to build a bridge and road on section line between sections 14 and 15, 26 and 27, 34 and 35, in township 16 north, range 20 east.
The idea of building a railroad out of Sheboygan seems to have engaged the minds of the people as early as that of building plank roads. The She- boygan & Fond du Lac Railroad Company was incorporated as early as 1847. But the company seems to have been unable to raise the necessary funds to build the road. The following communication appearing in the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette of January 6, 1848, illustrates the general feeling of the people in Wisconsin toward railroads at that time :
"Mr. Editor: I have seen much in your city papers on the subject of roads; many are advocating railroads; that is well; but have you capital to build them, and can you for a great number of years to come, induce for- eigners to invest in so new a country as yours? If not, why do you not ad- vocate plank roads, ten miles of which can be built for the cost of one rail- road, and in my opinion they would enhance the value of farming interests, as well as the general prosperity of your city more than railroads. Each farmer could take a small interest in the stock, and pay for it in materials for building, and do much of the labor, thus building up your own pros- perity instead of waiting for 'dead men's shoes.' It is a subject that the present state of roads admonishes, one that should be agitated."
By a provision in the charter of the Sheboygan & Fond du Lac Railroad Company construction of the railroad was to begin within five years; so at the expiration of that time, in 1852, a new company was incorporated under the name of Sheboygan & Mississippi Railroad Company. A. P. Lyman, H. H. Conklin, W. W. King, C. D. Cole, H. N. Smith, John Bannister, A. B.
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Hamilton, S. W. Beall, J. P. Sherwood, Robert Jenkinson, B. F. Moore, T. B. Stoddard and James McM. Shafter were appointed commissioners.
The company was organized at Sheboygan, Tuesday, April 8, 1853, by the choice of J. F. Kirkland as president, M. J. Thomas, secretary. Hon. Robert J. Walker and Harrison C. Hobart were the leading financiers in this enterprise, but before any work had been accomplished a disagreement arose with a result that these gentlemen severed their connection with the com- pany.
THE PEOPLE JOLLIFY
After weeks and months and years of disappointments and heart burn- ings, the time had actually arrived for substantial and real operations. Dirt . was about to be thrown from its resting place and grades made for railroad beds and tracks. Hence, the people of Sheboygan took on a spirit of hope- fulness and gaiety, when the word came that work was to be started on the first railroad to be built in the county. In the spring of 1856, a contract had been made with Edward Appleton & Company, for building the road to the present village of Glenbeulah, but many obstacles were encountered and the road was not completed to Glenbeulah until the spring of 1860. How- ever, when the work did commence, no thought of its being interrupted was entertained and on the 4th day of June, 1856, the citizens of Sheboygan indulged in a little glorification by way of celebrating the breaking of ground on the Sheboygan and Mississippi railroad, an event which had long been talked of and labored for. About ten o'clock A. M. the German Rifle Com- pany, the Turners, Fire Engine Company and Hook and Ladder Company formed in procession, George Throup acting as marshal and, followed by a large number of citizens on foot and in carriages, marched to the spot where the contractor intended to commence grading, a short distance west of the Seeley hill in the town of Sheboygan. Here the gathering was addressed by Messrs. David Taylor, Bille Williams, A. P. Lyman and A. Marschner in German. Ground was then broken by three of the oldest residents, Wil- liam Farnsworth assuming the pick, Stephen Wolverton the shovel, and Henry Otten engineering the barrow, amid the repeated cheers of the assembly.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, refreshments were served in a grove near by. A ball at the National Hotel in the evening concluded the cele- bration.
The following year the company was reorganized under the name of the Sheboygan & Fond du Lac Railroad Company, by the choice of S. P. Ben- son as president, and J. O. Thayer, secretary and treasurer.
By 1869 the road was opened through to Fond du Lac. Later the road was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company.
There seems to have been a large number of people anxious to build a railroad. during the '50s. In 1852 the Cascade & Lake Michigan Railroad Company was incorporated, E. F. Cook being the promoter. The road was to be built from Sheboygan to the village of Cascade, a distance of about sixteen miles.
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In 1853 the Sheboygan & Appleton Railroad Company was incorporated; A. P. Lyman, D. Taylor, A. L. McCrea, P. H. Smith and others as com- missioners. The road was to be built from Sheboygan to Appleton and thence to some point on Lake Superior.
In 1857 the Sheboygan & Horicon Railroad Company was incorporated. D. Taylor, C. Mercer, P. Ernst, C. T. Moore, D. Giddings and others were appointed commissioners. The road was to be built from Sheboygan through the village of Sheboygan Falls, and then to Horicon, in Dodge county.
The Milwaukee & Superior Railroad Company was incorporated in 1856. The road was to be built from Milwaukee north, through the city of She- boygan, Manitowoc and Green Bay to Superior. A preliminary survey was made over a part of the route and some grading done.
The Milwaukee & Northern Railroad Company, which was incorporated in 1870, immediately organized and let contracts for building the road. The road was built from Milwaukee north to Green Bay, entering Sheboygan county near the west shore of Random Lake, in the town of Sherman, it extended thence north through the towns of Sherman, Lyndon, Plymouth and Rhine. They utilized part of the grading, done by the Milwaukee & Superior Railroad Company. Trains were run to Plymouth in February, 1872.
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