USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 55
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When Mr. Stevens was sent to the charge, he erected a cabin on the parsonage, the people of the neighborhood lending a very generous aid. Mr. Stevens cut away the underbrush from the ground, trimming the shrubbery and creating quite an attractive appearance about the premises
Mr. Cooley afterwards occupied the parson- age during his appointment, but some time after he retired from the charge the house and ground came into dispute, arising from the sale of the farm from which it was taken, and the Church tacitly relinquished its elaim and the premises ceased to he used for its benefit. After the re- linquishment of the claim on this tenement, the ministers took up their residence with the fami- lies of the members, or were provided other- wise with dwellings of some kind by them.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
At the time when Mr. Bishop and Mr. McIn- doe were filling the place of Mr. Perdunn, they conceived the idea of building a house for wor- ship in Viroqua.
During the years 1853, 1854 and 1855, the rush of emigration was so great to Bad Ax county and accessions to the Methodist Church were so numerous that it became difficult to find a house large enough to contain the at- tendants; and to remove this inconvenience, Mr. McIndoe started a subscription paper for the purpose of building a meeting house. This subscription was dated May 29, 1856. The members all subscribed liberally. Some as high as $100 and many who were members of other Churches donated lumber, and some la- bor, and others who were not members of any Church aided materially in building the house. During the coming summer D. S. Connelly put in a bid for the erection of the building and got the contract. He prosecuted the work with vigor and the following year services were held in the new church.
Mr. McIndoe's subscription list footed up $343.22. After this another subscription paper was circulated for the purpose of completing the building -- painting and plastering and other work.
This was the first building for public worship erected by the Methodist Church in the county; and having a building for the general meeting of the Church, the different classes were at- tended at dwellings and school houses until it became necessary to erect buildings in other lo- calities. Mr. Hartshorn preached the first ser- mon in the new church in Viroqua.
No doubt the annual camp-meeting did much toward the building up and strengthening the Methodist Episcopal Church in Bad Ax county. They were held three years successively on the same grounds, with the exception of the last year of the three, when they located a site with- in a few hundred yards of the former grounds, holding the meeting once, after which they pre- pared new grounds in the grove about one mile
east of Viroqua, where they held their meetings successively for three year, which brings this narrative to July, 1858.
Many hundreds of new converts were made at these meetings; members were strengthened in the faith; prayer meetings and revival meet- ings followed; and thus a religious spirit went forth perhaps without a parallel in any newly settled country in the west. Other Churches caught the fire of their zeal and crowded on their own work, sometimes joining with them in the great labor of Christianizing the land.
In the fall of 1857, during the first year of the appointment of J. E. Fitch to the Viroqua circuit, a union meeting was held at the new church in Viroqua, wherein Mr. Dean, Baptist missionary, and J. E. Fitch, minister in charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church, united for the purpose of showing to the world how well Christians could agree, and to show their love for the churches; and a revival ensued whereby many were saved from the sin of the world, taken into the Churches. About 200 were added to the M. E. Church during the first year of the labors of Mr. Fitch throughout the circuit.
New Brookville, a pleasant little village had in the meantime sprung np, four miles south of Viroqua, at which place Dr. G. A. Swain re- sided, who had already done much toward build- ing up a Church in that place. He first built a neat little dwelling in the village to be occu- pied by the circuit ministers; but during the appointment of Mr. Hartshorn a slight difficulty arose between him and the doctor, which re- sulted in the removal of Mr. Hartshorn to Viro- qua. What the difficulty was it is needless to mention. Mr. Martshorn found in Viroqua many warm friends and a comfortable dwelling.
The Church at New Brookville so increased that it became necessary to. have a building larger than any already there for the attendants to meet in; and Dr. Swain went to work in his usual persevering style, and a meeting house was soon erected.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
Previous to the building of the church at New Brookville, on account of the inconven- ience of so many in one class, it was di- vided, one part still meeting at the parsonage in the village, and the other class meeting at the school house, known to many as the Robin- son school house, two miles northeast of the village. The place of meeting of the new class became a regular place of preaching, and Wil- liam Cox was appointed leader of the class. During the winter of 1857 a revival took place among the new class, under the preaching of John Whitworth and J. A. Cooke, and many were converted and the class greatly increased and strengthened.
About this time was the great revival through- out the United States. Never before in its his- tory was there known to be such a general turn- ing to the Lord; and the Methodist Church in Bad Ax county took an exceeding active part and had a bountiful share of new-born souls as a reward for her Christian zeal. New societies sprang up in every direction. New minister, took up the sword and helmet and battled val- iantly, and peace was multiplied in the Church. The era of the revival of 1/57 will never be erased from the annals of the Church in Bad Ax county, or from the memories of the people.
In the spring of 1858, the Church in New Brookville commenced the erection of a build- ing for public worship at that place, under the superintendence of Dr. G. A. Swain, as already intimated. The building was situated on a beautiful eminence in the outskirts of the vil- lage. It was finished the following fall, and the dedicatory sermon preached by Elder A. H. Walters, Tuesday, Oet. 10, 1858. The build- ing was well finished, and was an ornament to the village and neighborhood where it was erected, and an honor to the Church in general.
In the spring of 1859 conference made an appointment at New Brookville, and sent thither J. J. Walker. This was the first appointment at that place and the third one in the county. Mr. Walker's places of preaching were New
Brookville, Bad Ax, and in few school houses and dwellings throughout the circuit of his ap- pointment.
After the expiration of Elder Hobart's term of office as presiding elder, Elder R. Wood was appointed to the upper district. About the year 1853, Elder A. Brunson was appointed and following him was Elder A.H. Walters, who was afterward presiding elder, by re-appoint- ment.
The next church building of the Methodist Episcopal Church was erected in the town of Webster near the residence of Simeon Adams, who for many years was a leader of the class at that place. They had occasional preaching there by J. Whitworth, J. A. Cooke and Robert Adams. In June, 1859, the ministerial appoint- ments for Bad Ax county were : A. Foster, sta- tioned at Viroqua ; H. HI. Smith, at Newton ; and J. J. Walker at New Brookville.
AN AEROLITE.
"We will not annonnee," says the Western Times, of Ang. 16, 1856, "as an item of news, the fact that a few days, since a fire-ball or meteor was seen to fall near this village (Viroqua), and that the stone or mass of native metal which caused the phenomenon, was afterwards found on the surface of the earth. But the occur- rence has given rise to the question. what is the cause of so strange an appearance ? Several theories have been advanced to account for these bodies, the scientific name of which is aerolites. They are composed of metal in an ig- neous spongy form, showing the action of heat, and apparently of volcanic origin? They cannot proceed from any volcano upon the earth ; but one of the theories is that they are projected from volcanoes of the moon with such force as to be east beyond the sphere of the moon's at- traction and within that of the earth.
·
"Others suppose they are fragments of a planet or comet, or matter existing in space between the planets; and as the earth meets them in her orbit, they are brought within the sphere of her attraction and to her surface. In passing
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
from a rarer to a denser atmosphere, they are heated and form sometimes shooting stars and sometimes ærolites or meteoric stars. In the latter form, they fall to the ground, and produce the curious phenomenon which has called our attention to the subject."
DEATH OF MOSES DECKER.
(From the Northwestern Times, Aug. 8 1860.)
It is with sincere regret we record the death of Moses Decker, Esq., which occurred in this village (Viroqua) on Saturday, the 4th inst.
Mr. Decker had reached his three score years and ten, being in his seventy-second year. He was born in the State of New York, and portions of his life were spent in that State, in Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin. During the War of 1812-15, he was living in Ohio, was drafted as a soldier and served one campaign.
In January, 1847, he removed with his family on to the ground now occupied by the village of Viroqua, cutting his way with an ax. He had, previous to the moving of his family here, selected his lands, and soon after his arrival they were entered. When Bad Ax county was or- ganized, Mr. Decker laid out the village of Viro- qua, and as an inducement to locate the county seat here, offered to donate forty acres to the county, adjoining the village plat, to aid in the erection of county buildings. Viroqua be- came the county seat and Mr. Decker conveyed to the county board of supervisors the forty acre traet.
Since his removal here Mr. Decker has seen Bad Ax county organized and its population increase from a few families to 10,000 souls. He has seen churches and school houses spring up all around him, and the wilderness made to bloom like a garden. Amid all the changes and improvements that have been made Mr. Decker has stood in our midst like one of the ancient landmarks. But at last he is gone!
"Your fathers, where are they? and the pro- phets, do they live forever?" No; one by one, the links that bind the present to the past are sundered, and we look with sadness for a mo-
ment on the vacancy made by their removal, and then, hurried along by the waves, we float down the stream of time, soon forgetting the forms and faces that have been borne away from us forever.
Mr. Decker's first wife died Jan. 3, 1859. He was married again to Mrs. Anna Goode, widow of the late Thomas Goode, Esq., who survives him.
Eleven children scattered through the States of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and California mourn his loss.
STARTING A PAPER UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
J. A. Somerby, of Madison, Wis., early in the spring of 1856, walked through from his home to Viroqua to look up the prospects for establishing a paper at the county seat of Ver- non county. After his arrival he made arrange- ments with prominent men of the village to raise money to assist in getting his family, print- ing press and printing materials from Madison; this was effected by employing three teams which brought the whole to Viroqua. The first issue of the paper (the Western Times) was gotten out in the building then used as a court house- a hewed log, one-story edifice.
THIE BUCKEYE ON FIRE,
On Sunday morning, about 7 o'clock our citi- zens were alarmed by the cry of "Fire at the Buckeye." Fire had communicated to a bed in a room in the second story. When discovered the room was full of smoke and flame; but Mr. (Jeremiah M.) Rusk rushed into the room and succeeded in partially stiffling the fire, when he fell from the effects of suffocation and exhaus- tion and crawled to the door, when he again rushed in and brought out a burning trunk. Mr. Rusk's hands are very badly burned, so much so that he will not have the use of them for several weeks.
The flames were effectnally subdued in a short time by the citizens who collected in a few mo- ments and showered snow upon the fire. Dam- ages about $300. We bespeak a liberal patron- age for our popular high sheriff, the keeper of
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the Buckeye House, who is thus suddenly crip- pled for a second time within a few months, he having had the misfortune to put his knee out of joint early in the spring in landing from a Mis- sissippi steamer .- Western Times, Dec. 13, 1865.
WHAT WAS IT?
[From the Viroqua County Censor, April 4, 1866].
A strange noise was heard by many people in this vicinity last Thursday. Some say it was in the air and resembled the noise made by the rush and whirl of a tornado; while some think the noise was in the earth, and that there was a shock similar to the shock of an earthquake.
The noise was heard in other places; we have intelligence that it was noticed in Richland and Crawford counties. It seems to have been a somewhat mysterious noise; for no one can tell just what it was like, or where it seemed to be. If it was a light shock of an earthquake, and will never be any more serious than it was on this occasion, no one will care much about it; but if it was a tornado, our people must be ex- cused for having a wholesome terror of it, the one last year having been such a fearful visitor that we do not like to think that we can possibly have another.
WILD CATS AND WOLVES.
[From the Vernon County Censor, Jan. 1, 1868.]
Mr. John R. Casson, clerk of the board of supervisors, informs us that he has received during the month of December, 1867, applica- tions for bounty on forty-three wild cats and one wolf. The county bounty being abolished, the hunters get only the $10, the State bounty, which, however, will bring $440 on this account - a handsome sum. The wolves seem to be about all killed out. During the summer and fall they were much more numerous for wolf bounties; but they have gradually dwindled away to one a month.
A CALL FOR FACTS.
[From the Vernon County Censor, Feb. 26, 1868.] To the friends and relatives of deceased soldiers:
It is more than probable that at some future day Vernon county will ereet a suitable monu- ment to the memory of her soldiers slain in the
late war or who died from disease contracted in the service.
It is probable, too, that some person may undertake to preserve in book form a short history of the part performed by Vernon county soldiers in suppressing the rebellion.
I wish, therefore, that the friends of leccased soldier would send to me, if they can, the full name of such deceased soldier, the date of en- listment, the various actions in which such soldier engaged, etc., and such other facts con- cerning the history of the soldier as the friends may see proper.
I wish, too, that all of Vernon county soldiers who had commissions in the service would furnish me with the date of their various eom- missions, their first enlistment, the principal actions in which they engaged, etc.
Now, friends of soldiers, do not be afraid to write me and write at once. I do not care how poor your penmanship is, nor how bad your spelling is. I only ask you to write all your communications on good, clean paper. If I should not use the materials myself, I will carefully preserve them, so that they can he used by somebody.
R. C. BIERCE.
BEARS.
[From the Vernon County Censor, July 29, 1868.]
Just east of this village (Viroqua), two or three bears seem to have taken up their quar- ters, making themselves quite at honic. Not long since, Mr. Brothers, on rising in the morn- ing, found several of these animals composedly sitting on their haunches at his door-step, and he being unarmed was not able to secure the prize thus almost within his reach. The other day we hear Mr. "Put" White was chased from his field to his house by an old bear with two cubs. Unless the "varmint" are careful our market will soon be supplied with bear meat.
CLIMATOLOGY OF VERNON COUNTY.
The climate of a country, or that peculiar state of the atmosphere in regard to heat and moisture which prevails in any given place,
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
and which directly affects the growth of plants and animals, is determined by the following causes : 1st. Distance from the equator. 2d. Distance from the sea. 3d. Height above the sea. 4th. Prevailing winds ; and 5th. Local influences, such as soil, vegetation and prox- imity to lakes and mountains.
Of these canses, the first, distance from the equator, is by far the most important. The warmest climates are necessarily those of tropical regions where the sun's rays are verti- cal. But in proceeding from the equator toward the poles, less and less heat continues to be received by the same extent of surface, because the rays fall more and more obliquely, and the same amount of heat-rays therefore spread over an increasing breadth of surface ; while, however, with the increase of obliquity, more and more heat is absorbed by the atmos- phere, as the amount of air to be penetrated is greater. If the earth's surface were either wholly land or water, and its atmosphere motionless, the gradations of climate would run parallel with the latitudes from the equa- tor to the poles. But owing to the irregular distribution of land and water and the prevail- ing winds, such an arrangement is impossible, and the determination of the real climate of a given region, and its causes, is one of the most difficult problems of science.
On the second of these causes, distance from the sea, depends the difference between oceanic and continental climates. Water is more slowly heated and cooled than land; the climates of the sea and the adjacent land are therefore much more equal and moist than those of the interior.
A decrease of temperature is noticeable in ascending high mountains. The rate at which the temperature falls with the height above the sea is a very variable quantity, and is influenced by a variety of causes, such as latitude, situa- tion, moisture, or dryness, hour of the day and season of the year. As a rough approxima-
tion, however, the fall of 1 deg. of the ther- mometer for every 300 feet is usually adopted.
Air in contact with any part of the earth's surface, tends to acquire the temperature of that surface. Hence, winds from the north are cold ; those from the south are warm. Winds from the sea are moist, and winds from the land are usually dry. Prevailing winds are the result of the relative distribution of atmos- pheric pressure blowing from places where the pressure is highest, toward places where it is lowest. As climate practically depends on the temperature and moisture of the air, and as these again depend on the prevailing winds which come charged with the temperature and moisture of the regions they have traversed, it is evident that charts showing the mean pres- sure of the atmosphere give us the key to the climates of the different regions of the world. The effect of prevailing winds is seen in the moist and equable climate of western Europe, especially Great Britain, owing to the warm and moist southwest winds; and in the ex- tremes of the eastern part of North America, due to the warm and moist winds prevailing in summer and the Arctic blasts of winter.
Among local influences which modify climate, the nature of the soil is one of the most im- portant. As water absorbs much heat, wet, marshy ground usually lowers the mean tem- perature. A sandy waste presents the greatest extremes. The extremes of temperature are also modified by extensive forests, which prevent the soil from being as much warmed and cooled as it would be if bare. Evapora- tion goes on more slowly under the trees, since the soil is screened from the sun. And as the air among the trees is little agitated by the wind, the vapor is left to accumulate, and hence the humidity of the air is increased. Climate is modified in a similar manner by lakes and other large surfaces of water. Dur- ing summer the water cools the air and reduces the temperature of the locality. In winter, on the other hand, the opposite effect is produced.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
The surface water which is cooled sinks to lower levels ; the warmer water rising to the surface, radiates heat into the air and thus raises the temperature of the neighboring region. This influence is well illustrated, on a great seale, in our own State by Lake Michigan.
It is, lastly, of importance whether a given traet of country is diversified by hills, valleys and mountains. Winds with their warm vapor strike the sides of mountains and are foreed up into higher levels of the atmosphere, where the vapor is condensed into elouds. Air eom- ing in contact, during the night or in winter, with the cooled deelivities of hills and rising grounds becomes cooled and consequently denser and sinks to the low-lying grounds, dis- placing the warmer and lighter air. Hence, frosts often occur at these places, when no trace of them ean be found at higher levels. For the same reason the cold of winter is gen- erally more intense in ravines and valleys than on hill tops and high grounds, the valleys being a receptacle for the cold-air currents which deseend from all sides. These currents give rise to gusts and blasts of cold wind, which are simply the ont-rush of cold air from such basins. This is a subject of great praetieal im- portanee to fruit-growers.
In order to understand the principal features of the elimate of Vernon county, and the con- ditions on which these depend, it is necessary to consider the general elimatology of Wis- eonsin, particularly of the western portion of the State, of which Vernon county is a part ; and from this, the reader ean readily deduce the character of the elimate in the county.
The remarkable manner in which so large a body of water as Lake Michigan modifies the temperature has been carefully determined, so far as it relates to Wisconsin, by the late Dr. Lapham, of Milwaukee. It is seen by the map that the average summer temperature of Raeine is the same as that of St. Paul. The weather map for July, 1875, in the signal service report for 1876, shows that the mean temperature for
July was the same in Roek county, in the southern part of the State, as that of Brecken- ridge, Minn., north of St. Paul. The moderat- ing effeet of the lake during hot weather is felt in the adjacent region during both day and night.
Countries in the higher latitudes having an extreme summer temperature are usually charae- terized by a small amount of rain-fall. The Mississippi valley, however, is directly exposed in spring and summer to the warm and moist winds from the south, and as these winds con- dense their moisture by coming in contact with colder upper eurrents from the north and west, it has a profusion of rain which deprives the elimate largely of its continental features. As already stated, the average amount of rain-fall in Wisconsin is about thirty inches annually. Of this amount about one-eighth is precipitated in winter, three-eights in summer, and the rest is equally distributed between spring and autumn-in other words, rain is abundant at the time of the year when it is most needed. In Wisconsin the rainfall is greatest in the southwestern part of the State; the least on and along the shore of Lake Michigan. This shows that the humidity of the air of a given area can be greater, and the rainfall less than that of some other.
In comparison with western Europe, even where the mean temperature is higher than in the Mississippi valley, the most striking faet in the elimatie conditions of the United States is the great range of plants of tropical or sub- tropical origin, such as Indian eorn, tobacco, ete. The conditions on which the character of the vegetation depends are temperature and mois- ture, and the mechanical and chemical compo- sition of the soil.
The basis of this great eapaeity (the great range of plants) is the high eurve of heat and moisture for the summer, and the faet that the measure of heat and of rain are almost or quite tropical for a period in duration from one to five months, in the range from Quebec to the
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
coast of the Gulf. Indian eorn attains its full perfection between the summer isotherms 72 deg. and 77 deg., in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas ; but it may be grown up to the line of 65 degs., which includes the whole of Wiscon- sin. The successful cultivation of this impor- tant staple is due to the intense heat of summer and a virgin soil rieh in nitrogen.
While Milwaukee and central Wisconsin have a mean annual temperature of 45 deg., that of southern Ireland and central England is 50 deg .; the line of 72 deg, the average temperature for July, runs from Walworth eounty to St. Paul, while during the same month Ireland and Eng- land have a mean temperature of only 60 deg. In Wisconsin, the thermometer rises as high as 90 deg. and above, while the range above the mean in England is very small. It is the trop- ieal element of our summers, then, that eauses the grape, the corn, ete., to ripen, while Eng- land, with a higher mean temperature, is unable to mature them successfully. Ireland, where southern plants may remain out-doors, unfrosted the whole winter, eannot mature those fruits and grasses which ripen in Wiseonsin. In England a depression of 2 deg. below the mean of 60 deg. will greatly reduce the quantity, or prevent the ripening of wheat altogether, 60 deg. being essential to a good erop. Wheat re- quiring a lower temperature than eorn, is better adapted to the climate of Wisconsin. This grain may be grown as far north as Hudson bay.
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