History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Part 47

Author: Western Historical Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 998

USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth County, Wisconsin > Part 47

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"After this silent leave-taking, the chief walked over to see Mrs. Van Slyke. Leaning his tall form against the doorless doorway of her cabin. he talked kindly to the woman who was ever a friend to his race, and then, bidding her a final farewell, turned away to join his band and was seen no more.

314

HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

" The Pottawatomies were not pleased with their location on the Kansas River, and many of them afterward returned to Wisconsin, and are found roving over the wild and partially settled portions of the State. In June. 1867, I met at Necedah, Juneau County, an Indian who was for- merly connected with Big Foot's band, and removed with them in 1836 to the West. He seemed to be intelligent. His answers to my inquiries as to the Indian names of several lakes and streams in Walworth County convinced me that he was truthful. as they corresponded precisely with those given by the Indians to the whites before they left. He told me that Big Foot was alive when he left Kansas in 1865, although a very old man, and that the reason of their dissatisfaction with their new home was a sickly climate and the scarcity of wild game in that locality. .

"The United States, by recent treaties or legislative enactments, have admitted to citizen- ship 1.604 of this tribe, and we have information, official and semi-official, to the effect that a majority of them, after selling their lands in Kansas, which each family received when made citizens, have gone to the Indian Territory and associated themselves as a tribe."

FIRST SETTLEMENT BY WHITE MEN.

The foregoing sketch will have prepared the reader for the advent of the white race. The first steps toward the settlement of the county were made by the Government, in surveying the domain acquired from the Indians by the treaty of 1833. JJohn Brink and John Hodgson were the original surveyors. having taken the contract to run the town lines of what are now Rock and Walworth Counties. The two surveyors had each a separate corps, and took separate routes of survey. Brink's party surveyed the southern range of towns. He had with him Reuben T. Ostrander. William Ostrander and Jesse Eggleston. Hodgson, with Henry Mullet and others, whose names have not been recorded. ran the lines of the towns north. Brink completed his sur- vey of towns numbered 1 to the eastern boundary of Walworth County in October, 1835, and he, with his party, first reached the foot of Geneva Lake early in that month.

The party, all practical surveyors and engineers, were not slow in discerning the splendid water-power at the outlet of the lake, and made the only claim convenient at that time by blazing trees to indicate the priority of their claim. and entering a description in their field notes. The land thus claimed by Brink and the two Ostranders was upon Section 36. in the present town of Geneva, and covered a part of the present site of the village, including the outlet of the lake and the water-power. They at that time named the spot Genova, and went on with their survey, intending to return and improve their claim at some subsequent time. This was the first claim made in the county after the Government survey was made. It did not. as will appear. prove in all particulars valid. yet. as the first. is worthy of record. The claim was made jointly. on Oeto- ber 8. 1835, by John Brink. John Hodgson, Reuben T. Ostrander and William Ostrander. On the return of the party, later in the fall, claims were made by individuals of the party of land adjoining their first joint claim, which were not contested. Eighty acres lying west of the vil- lage, claimed by Reuben T. Ostrander, was held by him for many years, and subsequently went by purchase into the possession of H. B. Conant, and, later, of Shelton Sturges. This latter tract is probably the first of which a clear and undisputed title was obtained from the Govern- ment. The claim was made by Reuben T. Ostrander in October or November, 1835, and the purchase made in accordance therewith at the first Government land sale, held in Milwaukee in February, 1839.

The actual settlement of the county dates from 1836. Prior to that date. no claims were made on which the claimants remained as settlers. The most interesting period in its history is embraced within the two years succeeding Brink's attempted location at Geneva in the fall of 1835. Early in 1836, immigrants began to appear, and the settlement of the country was aet- ually begun. The surveys had been completed, the Indian title to the land had been extin- guished, and the country lay in its native loveliness, waiting to welcome the sturdy pioneers. who, with their descendants, have made it to " bud and blossom as the rose." and become the home of as happy and contented a civilized community as exists anywhere on God's fair earth. So, start- ing at 1836, the proper history of Walworth County begins.

315

HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

FORMATION OF THE COUNTY.

The history of Walworth County began with the history of the Territory of Wisconsin. One of the earliest aets of the first Territorial Legislature was to divide, geographically, the domain into counties sufficiently small to enable the citizens of the new country to begin under the forms of law. At that time, Milwaukee and Brown Counties, under the old laws of Michigan Territory, embraced all of what is now Wisconsin east of a meridian running north and south through the four lakes near the present site of Madison. In the division of those two counties, the present boundaries of Walworth County were defined. It was one of the original counties of Wisconsin, and was named " Walworth " in honor of Chancellor Walworth, of New York, at the suggestion of Col. Samuel F. Phoenix. then a pioneer settler of Delavan, who attended the session as a lobby member. The county, by the organic act which defined its geographical boundaries, had none of the functions of self-government conferred upon it. It was attached to Racine County for judicial purposes, and, except in the election of Commissioners, who had the power to lay out roads and levy school taxes, was essentially a part of that county till 1838, at which time the first town organizations were made. and provisions made whereby it took upon itself the functions of an independent government. During the time intervening between the erection of the county, in 1836, and its organization. in 1838 and 1839, the county was settled. and experienced all the throes incident to the birth and establishment of a new life in a new country.

The country at that time was in a state of nature. There was not a house within its bor- ders, except the rude wigwams of the Indian. and its soil had never been touched by the plow or harrow. Here and there a patch of corn showed that the Indian farmer sought to gain from Mother Earth something to add to the fruits of the chase. A few Indian villages skirted the lower lakes, and beyond that no traces of human occupancy were apparent. The roads were only the trails that stretched from one Indian village to another. and were, according to the ac- counts of early settlers, as follows:

THE ROADS OF 1836.

The only roads found by the first settlers were the Indian trails, many of them trodden for hundreds of years. Unlike the raised turnpike of the whites, they were depressed, by constant travel, below the surface of the ground, and. but for the instinctive wit of the Indian, which unerringly led him to the highest elevation, would have proved only drains and ditches for the floods of spring, and have been impassable for foot travelers during a large part of the year. They were, however, although trodden some six to ten inches below the surface, always passable, and are now the chosen grades for the railroads laid out by the engineers, who, with level and compass, have only confirmed the traveling instincts of the aborigines. The trails were perhaps two feet wide, and looked more like ditches than roads. The beds were trodden almost to the solidity of a macadamized road, and are, after the lapse of forty years of disuse. quite plainly marked in some parts of the county. The principal trail led from the head of Big Foot Lake (Geneva) in a northeasterly direction, through the towns of La Fayette and East Troy to an In- dian viliage in what is now the town of Mukwanago. This was known as the " army trail," it being the route taken by a regiment of Government soldiers on their march from Fort Dearborn to Fort Howard in 1836. Another trail started from the foot of Geneva Lake, led through Spring Prairie, and thence easterly to Lake Michigan, with a diverging branch to the Mukwan- ago Village. Still another started from the foot of Delavan Lake, passed through Elkhorn, La Fayette and Troy to Prairieville, now Waukesha. There was also an old trail leading from Mil- waukee to the Rock River, near where Janesville now stands. It passed through East Troy, Troy, Sugar Creek and Richmond. These were the only paths or roads in Walworth County in 1836, except a track made in the fall of that year, from Spring Prairie to Delavan Lake, which was

THE FIRST ROAD MADE BY WHITE MEN.

The road was very primitive in its construction, and was made by dragging an oak tree from the settlement in Spring Prairie to the present site of Delavan-a distance of twelve miles. The track thus marked out became the main traveled road between those two places, and one of the main thoroughfares of to-day is essentially on the line then marked out.

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

To the early explorers, the country seemed a very paradise, waiting only for man to enter into possession. The southern and eastern part, generally first viewed by prospectors, was wa- tered by the most considerable lakes in the county. Geneva Lake, lying east and west, stretched for a distance of nine miles through a heavily wooded, rolling country, opening out at its south- ern extremity on to the beautiful prairie of Big Foot. Across the country, some three miles northwest. another beautiful lake, then known as Swan Lake (now Delavan), lay in all its native loveliness, quite heavily wooded about its banks, but flanked further north by open prairie and groves, or openings, as they are termed, of oak. Many smaller lakes dotting the country were interspersed with stretehes of prairie, bordered with oak openings, entirely free from undergrowth. In the southwestern part of the county, the country was more heavily wooded, with a more diver- sified hard-wood growth, consisting of birch, maple and other varieties not generally found bor- dering the prairie lands.

In the northern part of the county, a cluster of small lakes lay stretehing from what is now East Troy, through Troy, La Grange and Richmond, in a continuous chain. there being sixteen in a distance of as many miles east and west, within a bolt five miles wide. Small creeks and streams threaded the country. Those to the west of the highest land along the center of the county are tributary to Rock River. Those further east mostly run into White River, which has its souree in Geneva Lake.

Deer in large herds fed upon the prairies or browsed in the thiek woods south of the lakes. Animals of prey were not plenty. Accounts of bear, and occasionally lynx, and of one eatamount, are given by the early settlers, but they were never numerous enough to occasion any inconven- ience to the settlers, and disappeared almost simultaneously with the settlement of the country. Wolves were for awhile a pest to such as kept sheep. and commanded a bounty till a quite recent date. Even now, a gray wolf is sometimes seen, and are increasing. Fur-bearing animals were, except the muskrat and mink, not plenty. Otter were occasionally seen at an early day, and the dams of the beaver were to be seen in the vicinity of the Troy lakes. Fish were abundant in all the lakes, and. in the season, water-fowls covered the marshes in flocks innumerable. Prairie chickens and other fowl of the gronse species were plenty. A few flocks of wild turkeys were noted by the settlers who came in prior to 1838. The deer ceased to be common after 1842, and by 1844, had virtually disappeared from the county. The lakes still abound in fish, but neither fowl nor animal are now sufficiently numerous to make it favorite ground for sportsmen.

Before the disappearance of the deer, their abundance was such as to furnish an easy supply of food to the hunter. Rufus B. Clark, of Troy, shot ninety-eight during the winter of 1838-39.

The principal prairies became known as soon as the early settlers came in by the following names, which they still retain: Meacham's Prairie, in Troy; Round and Heart Prairies, in La Grange; Elkhorn Prairie, in Elkhorn, Geneva and Delavan; Spring and Gardner's Prairies, in Spring Prairie; Turtle Prairie, in Sharon and Darien; Big Foot Prairie, in Walworth; and Su- gar Creek Prairie, in Sugar Creek.

The oak openings had a peculiar fascination for the incoming explorers. Few of them had ever seen the like before. Emerging from the deep woods lying east and south, they came upon these natural parks, as elear of underbrush as an ordinary orchard. and skirting the prairies on every side. As an old pioneer expressed it, " They seemed like the old apple orchards of York State. only the fences were all gone, and they extended as far as the eye eould penetrate the shade." Along the borders of these openings where they skirted the prairies, the first farmers' elaims were made, generally embracing a strip of the timber and a strip of the adjoining prairie.

THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.

Prior to January, 1836, it is believed that no efforts had been made to secure any permanent land title. except those of Hodgson-Brinks party, which have already been noticed. Early in 1836. the prospectors began to appear, and, by the opening of the winter of 1836-37, considera- ble settlements had been made at several points in the county, where the most important villages now are.

The actual residents, who had erected cabins and determined to remain, numbered not far from two hundred, including men, women and children.

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

A peculiar interest attaches to these early settlers of 1836. They were the Pilgrim Fathers of Walworth County. They comprised thirty one families, and some thirty men without fami- lies. The names of such as are known, with first place of settlement. are given below:

In East Troy were five heads of families-Asa Blood, Austin McCracken, Daniel Griffin, Delanson Griffin and Allen Harrington.

In Troy, three families had settled, viz .: Those of Jesse Meacham, Adolphus Spoor and Othni Beardsley.

At Spring Prairie, Dr. A. A. Hemenway, David Pratt, Solomon Harvey, Isaac Chase, Rob- ert Campbell, Rufus Billings, Daniel Adams, Luke Taylor, Benjamin Peree. Reuben Clark and Gilman Hoyt.

In La Fayette, lying directly west of Spring Prairie, and at first embraced within its bound- aries, Isaiah Hamblin, Sylvanus Langdon and Isaac Fuller had settled with their families.

In Geneva, at the foot of the lake, where the beautiful village of that name now stands, C. Payne, Robt. W. Warren, G. S. Warren and P. K. Vanvelzer had taken up family quarters.

In Walworth, at the head of Geneva Lake. at the Indian village, lived James Van Slyke, with his wife and one or two children. Mrs. Van Slyke was one of the first women (perhaps the first) to permanently settle in Walworth County. She was brave to the extent of heroism, as appears in further accounts of her, elsewhere given.

At Delavan. Allen Perkins and William Phoenix had settled with their families.

At Linn, Israel Williams, Jr., had erected his cabin and settled his family on Section 6. Lucien Wright also had a eabin on Section 1.

In addition, several men without families had taken up claims. Palmer Gardner, I. T. Hunt. Horace Coleman. A. L. Merrick, Samuel Britton, David Patten. Perrin Smith. Joel Smith, Will- iam J. Bentley, Daniel Salisbury and Benjamin C. Perce were located in the vicinity of the Spring Prairie settlements: Alpheus Johnson, Henry Johnson and S. A. Dwinnell were in La Fayette; Jolin Davis was at Sugar Creek: Col. Samuel F. Phoenix and several hired men were at Dela- van: and Charles A. Noyes, William Ostrander, Samuel Ross, Jonathan Ward, George W. Trin- ble and two or three others, whose names are not remembered, wintered at Geneva.

There were also several men without families at the Troy settlements. At East Troy were Gorham Bunker and Elias Jennings, both married men, who made their claims, but did not bring in their families till 1837; also, Delanson and Reuben Griffin, and possibly Allen Harrington and Gaylord Graves. In Troy were the three grown-up sons of Jesse Meacham, Edwin and Ed- gar, long since deceased, and Urban D., now a lawyer, living in Freeport, Ill .; also, Sylvanus Spoor, a cousin to Adolphus; Alex Beardsley, a young man named Roberts, and one or two other unmarried men, who came in from Indiana with Otlini Beardsley and family. The Robinson brothers, John and Simeon, made claims and stayed during the summer, but did not winter there. A young man named Ruggles also came in with Spoor.

THE EARLY NEIGHBORHOODS.

At this time, there were no town organizations, yet it will be seen that the settlers had located sufficiently near to make defined neighborhoods. There were five in the county -- Genova, Spring Prairie, Delavan, Troy and East Troy-not then known, however, by those names. Spring Prai- rie was by far the largest, comprising some twenty families and a dozen single men-perhaps a hundred in all -within a distance of five miles from Dr. Hemenway's house.

The next in importance was the settlement at the outlet of Geneva Lake, where the water- power had been already improved by the building of a dam and the erection of a saw-mill, not completed till spring of 1837- the first erected in the county. There were six families at Geneva and about the lake, and some six or eight single men-perhaps thirty in all

Delavan was the only settlement in the western part of the county, and consisted of the families of Allen Perkins and William Phoenix. Col. Samuel F. Phoenix, one of the founders of the village, and two or three hired men, engaged by him in feneing, plowing and getting out timber for a saw-mill, which he built the following spring. Two log houses constituted the only settlement there at that time, and the only settlement in the western part of the county.

The Spring Prairie settlement became known at a quite early day as Franklin Post Office. The first settler in the township was Palmer Gardner. He came in and took his claim on Section

318

HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

25 or 26, on the 15th day of April, 1836. He was at that time over thirty years of age, and un- married. His elaim was made on a beautiful prairie, which still bears his name. It was heavily wooded along its western edge, and he built his cabin in the edge of the timber, on the northeast quarter of Section 26. He is still living in Burlington, Racine County. A more complete biog- raphy appears elsewhere.

Mr. Daniel Salisbury, now living at Elkhorn, gives the material for the following sketch of Spring Prairie settlers in 1836 and 1837, before there was any town organization:

The settlers near Palmer Gardner. in the east part of the township, were: Israel T. Hunt. who was from Ohio, and worked a year for Palmer Gardner. James Nelson, wife and two chil- dren, eame in April 30, 1836, and lived in Gardner's house a month. and then moved into Racine County. Mrs. Nelson was the first white woman who ever lived in Walworth County, but her residence was of too short duration to render her the first woman settler. Mrs. Van Slyke came in a few weeks later than Mrs. Nelson, but romained for years, and raised a family in the county.

Lemuel R. Smith came in from Raeine County and made a claim on Section 25 May 20. 1836. He plowed the first week in July. and made sufficient improvements to establish his claim, but did not take up his permanent residence in the county till 1841. He is not living. He was a Whig. afterward a Republican. His religious faith is not known. His son is still living in the town.

The Spring Prairie settlement, which was known afterward as Franklin Post Office, was in the western part of the township, at the half-seetion corners of Seetions 30 and 29. some three miles west of Palmer Gardner's cabin.

The claims in this vieinity were made on Sections 28 and 29, by Isaac Chase. William Bent- ley and Joel Smith, who came from Western New York. The claims were made May 20, 1836. Mr. Chase was married, but his wife did not come till fall. Bentley and Smith were single men. The next arrival was Daniel Salisbury, an unmarried man, who came in five days later and made his claim on Seetion 29.

David Pratt, wife and five children, and Solomon Harvey, wife and three children, came in June 1, 1836. The two families settled on Seetion 30.

Dr. A. A. Hemenway, with his wife and one child, came June 6, 1836. He settled on See- tion 30. He came from Indiana. and, being naturally a man of affairs, started the village by opening his house as a tavern. He was a Free-Thinker and a Whig, as everybody discovered who stopped at his house over night. A further sketch of him appears elsewhere.

June 23, 1836, Col. Perez Merrick arrived from Delaware County. N. Y., and took a claim on Section 28. His family, a wife and six children, joined him the following spring. He re- mained on his farm till 1853, when he sold and moved into Racine County. Both he and his wife died several years ago. He was a. Democrat and a Universalist. At the same date, Austin L. Merrick settled on Section 29. He sold out his first claim within a year. and bought on Sec- tion 21, where he still lives. He was married in 1839. The family by this marriage consisted of two sons and four daughters. His wife died May 5, 1855. He is now living with his second wife. He, like his brother, was a pronounced Democrat, and, in religious faith. a Universalist.

Horace Coleman, then an unmarried man, came in with the Merricks, and settled on Section 30. He subsequently married Miss Juliette Merrick. He died some years since. He was a Universalist.

Luke Taylor and wife moved in from Racine County some time in the summer of 1836, and settled on Section 25, near Palmer Gardner. He attempted to put up the first frame house in the town, but was thwarted by ill luck. He erected a frame, and, to procure humber to cover it and finish it inside went into the Raeine woods and cut and drew logs to the mill, and had them sawed on shares. He drew his part home and packed them up in shape to kiln-dry. In a day or two, the pile took tire and was totally destroyed. He became discouraged, and moved to Del- avan the next spring. It is stated that he took the Allen Perkins place. Allen came to Spring Prairie about the time that Luke left. Perhaps they swapped elaims. Taylor fought through the rebellion, and is now an inmate of the Soldiers' Asylum at Milwaukee. He is a Methodist. a Republican, and a worthy veteran.

Robert Campbell, long deceased. came from Pennsylvania in September. 1836, with his family-a wife and six children. He was a Baptist and a Whig. Daniel Campbell, brother to

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

Robert, came in at the same time. with a wife and four children, and settled on Section 28, where he lived three years. He died in Lyons some two years ago. He was a Methodist and a Whig.

Rufus Billings came from Oneida County, N. Y., and settled on Section 23 in November. His family consisted of a wife and two boys-Rufus M. and Levi. He lived there till 1869, when he sold out and removed to Burlington, Racine Co .. where he still resides. He was for- merly a Whig. His religious affiliations were with the Congregationalists. Daniel Adams and David Patten, also from Oneida County, came in at about the same time. Adams had a wife and one child, and wintered in the house of Palmer Gardner. He lived in the town some eight years. Patten took up a claim on Section 21, and brought his wife and one chill the next spring. He sold out and moved away in 1869. Ho was a Whig and a Congregationalist. Benjamin C. Perce, a native of New York, came in from Racine County some time in the summer of 1836, and made a claim on Section 36, and built the first frame house in the county. He was unmar- ried, but the family. consisting of the father, Rev. Benjamin Perce, his mother and a sister, moved into the new house in December, 1836. The shingles and clapboards were all hand- made, riven from oak loys and shaved with a common draw-shave.

Samuel Daniels came from Indiana in the fall of 1836, and remained through the winter with Dr. Hemenway. He located on Section 21, afterward married, and sold out and removed from the country in 1845.

Capt. Charles Dyer, from Herkimer County, N. Y., came in July, 1836, and purchased his claim on Section 23. His family did not arrive till the following spring. His children were Norman, William. Arvilla. Mary and Hattie. Norman is still living in Illinois. William, a most exemplary young man, closely identified with the Baptist Church as Superintendent of the Sabbath school, and Chorister, met a sudden and untimely death in the autumn of 1848, by fall- ing from a tree. Hattie (now Mrs. Bunnell) is still living in La Fayette. Other children did not come with the family. Among them was Dr. E. G. Dyer. of Burlington. Capt. Dyer was honored, before emigrating from New York, by being elected to the State Assembly. His son, Dr. E. G. Dyer, has had the same honor in Wisconsin. as has had his grandson, Charles E. Dyer. of Racine, now District Judge of the United States Court-one of the most popular and learned jurists of the West.

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History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Part 47

Author: Western Historical Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 998

Author: Western Historical Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 998