History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Part 53

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 53

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These are believed to be the earliest churches organized in the county. They are all now in existence, having stood through two generations as the early watch-towers on the walls of Zion. Thus it appears that the instrumentalities of church organization early became a potent element in the development of the character of the growing community.

The pioneer ministers did no holiday work. They were conscientious laborers in the Master's vineyard, and felt the heavy weight of responsibility that rested on them as the guardians of His trust in a "far country." They were poor in purse, and many of them eked out a livelihood by cultivating the land in addition to the scanty income derived from their clerical work. Much of their work gave only the return of the approval of their consciences, and the hopes of the coming verdict of approval-" Well done, thou good and faithful servant " -after earth's labors had ended. Funerals were attended wherever called, at whatever distance, regardless of the hardships incurred. Their efforts in missionary work, before the churches were organized, involved labor and privations that could have been performed and endured only under the exaltation that comes from a thorough devotion to duty and an unquestioning, un- complaining and trustful spirit.

The devoted followers of Loyola, at the command of the church, went to the uttermost parts of the earth to plant the seed of the church, "without staff or scrip, without question and without hope of earthly reward." In obedience to the commands of the Most High, the pioneer preachers of forty years ago, with the same spirit of self-sacrifice, came into the wilderness to plant the colors of the Christian Church in the van of the coming civilization of the West.

Among the earliest clergymen were Benjamin Perce, Lemuel Hall, P. W. Lake, Orra Mar- tin. Henry Topping, A. Gaston, C. Morgan, Daniel Smith, Cyrus Nichols, William R. Manning and Jesse Halstead. There were other vigorous workers who preached as occasion offered- Solomon A. Dwinnell. Col. Samuel F. Phoenix, Daniel Griffin and others, whose names cannot be remembered. In the town histories, further mention will be found of these early pioneers in Christian work.

MORAL AGITATION.

Withont discussing the merits or demerits of the moral questions that forced themselves into notice, not only in this connty but all over the land, it is a matter to be recorded in history that the initiative sources of agitation, far back of the times when they entered into politics, are to be traced to the early churches. The abolition of slavery became one of the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and resulted in its separation into two organizations, North and

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

South. Out of this and other churches, to which must be added a few sturdy and conscientious men ontside, came the early agitators of the slavery question on purely moral grounds. They were the early Abolitionists.

The agitation of the temperance question began vigorously at an early day, and has kept Wal- worth County foremost in the line of reform and prevention of the evil of intemperance even to the present time. In this it is not intended to attribute the entire moral force on the temper- ance side to the churches, but to treat them as the most aggressive and best organized opponents to the evil, leaving it an open question as to the wisdom of their varied and various methods of propagating the reform.

Allusion has been already made to the earnest and efficient work of Col. Phoenix, one of the first religious exhorters who ever preached in the county, to establish temperance as the hand-maid of religion in his infant colony at Delavan. His brother Henry was no less zealous in the temperance canse. Solomon A. Dwinnell, a clergyman as well as a reformer, thus wrote of his early labors in the temperance cause: "I came to Wisconsin a teetotaler, having assisted in forming the first society in the United States pledged against the use of all that intoxicates, at Andover, Mass., June, 1832. I have here labored to sustain these principles. In July, 1838, I lectured at Spring Prairie Corners, and assisted in forming a society of about twenty members -the first known to ns in Walworth County.

"On the 1st day of Jannary. 1839, twenty of ns. men and women, met in a small room at Elkhorn, exchanged greetings, some for the first time, listened to an address by B. C. Perce, Esq., of Gardner's Prairie, and organized a County Temperance Society which lived many years and its influence still survives. Among those present were C. M. Goodsell, S. F. Phoenix, J. Spooner, J. W. Vail and John F. Potter.

"In Jannary, 1840, a small band of ns met in a log schoolhouse in Troy, the same in which the Presbyterian and Congregational Convention was organized, in October of the same year, and formed a society for the Territory. We were very zealons and full of hope for the future. Addresses were given by S. F. Phoenix, Stephen Peet, A. Finch, Jr., M. Frank and others."

Another temperance society was formed in Geneva, December 25, 1839. The first meeting was held at the house of C. M. Baker. Fifty members took the pledge at the time of its organi- zation. During the year 1840, seventy more joined the society. The first officers of this vigor- ous association were: President. Benjamin Ball: Vice President. John Chapin; Secretary, C. M. Baker: Executive Committee, C. M. Goodsell, William K. May and Morris Ross.

Among the articles of faith of the first Baptist Church in Delavan, were the following:

ARTICLE 16-Believing the use of all intoxicating drinks as a beverage to be needless, dangerous and hurtful, we will neither drink nor vend, nor manufacture the same to be drank, nor admit to our communion any who do not conform to this rule.

ARTICLE 17-Believing that American slavery is an institution in opposition to the law of God and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, and the happiness and sacred priveleges of more than 100,000 of our brethren, therefore, we, in the face of God. solemnly protest against it, and cannot fellowship those who are directly or indirectly engaged in it.

Thus this, the first Baptist Church in the county became a temperance society and an anti- slavery organization.

On December 9, 1843, the articles and covenants of the Spring Prairie Baptist Church were revised, and in the covenant the following clanse was inserted:

That we will not countenance the use of, or the traffic in, intoxicating liquors, or the buying or holding of human beings as property.

Thus another of the early churches arrayed herself beside her elder sister. It is quite likely that a perusal of the articles and covenants of the other early churches would show that they had taken a like positive stand against the twin evils. The above have come to notice, and are recorded as showing the general stand taken on these two absorbing questions, one of which was washed out in rivers of blood, the other, unhappily. remaining yet to vex the souls of Immani- tarians and Christians who, with forty years of faithful labor, have stayed the flood of tribnla- tion and sorrow, but have not dried its sources.

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

THE WALWORTH COUNTY BRANCH UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

As has already been stated, the anti-slavery cause found stanch adherents in Walworth County from the beginning. Even among the comers of 1836 were several of the then unpopular race of Garrisonian Abolitionists. Dwinnell, the Phoenixes, Dyer, Elder Manning and many others, were the uncompromising enemies of the system and braved danger and eontumely in defense of their principles.

The first "Underground Railway " from Milwaukee to Canada was located through the eastern part of the county as early as 1843, and no fleeing slave was ever captured on the Wal- worth section of the line. The first passenger sent safely through was the slave girl, Caroline Quarlles, a quadroon who had escaped from her owners and fled to Milwaukee, to which place her pursuers had tracked her. It soon came to the ears of the Abolitionists of the town that she was to be claimed by process of law and returned to slavery. It was at once determined to ship her to Canada by the Underground Railway. The starting-point of the journey was in Waukesha County, to which point she was carried in the night, being conveyed aeross the river and out of the city by Asahel Finch, now one of the leading lawyers of Milwaukee. From the boundary of the city she was taken to Pewaukee by Samuel Brown, father of the present Mayor of Milwaukee. On the way he was met by a party from Waukesha, who were returning from a fruitless search for the girl. They passed him, not suspecting that he carried the object of their search in the bottom of his wagon. Farther on, his vehicle broke down. He mounted his horse, took the girl before him, and landed her at the first station of the Underground Rail- way, in Pewaukee, before daylight. For several days she was secreted there, in Waukesha, and other parts of Waukesha County, being removed from place to place by night to avoid her pur- suers, as often as they discovered her place of concealment. Early in August, 1843, her jomney to Canada and freedom by the Underground Railway began.

Lyman Goodenow, of Waukesha, was the man chosen to take Caroline through to Canada. She had been sent into Walworth County for safety. froni whence Goodenow was to take her on . her perilous journey. She was at first seereted in the house of Solomon A. Dwinnell, who gives the following account:

"Early of an August morning, in the year 1843, a loud rap was heard at our door at Spring Prairie, Walworth County. I at onee arose, and, upon opening the door, was accosted by Deaeon Ezra Mendall, of Waukesha, and two associates, with a slave girl apparently about eighteen years old, of fine figure and light yellow complexion. They said to me, "We have work liere for you. This girl is hotly pursued, and a large reward is offered, and many are out hunting for her. We wish you to conceal her to-day, and to-night remove her to another place, so that she eannot be tracked. We will come in a few days and take her. We must leave at onee to avoid being seen here by daylight. As they arose to leave, the poor girl looking at them anxiously, and with an expression of terror that I ean never forget, inquired, 'Are you leaving me with friends? Am I safe here?' Giving her an affirmative answer, they took leave. The girl was eonecaled during the day, and the following night was placed in care of Deaeon J. C. P., at Gardner's Prairie, where she remained a few days, when the cars of the Underground Railroad conveyed her to what was then " the land of the free" in the dominion of the British Queen, where at the last adviees she was prosperous and happy."

Goodenow and Deaeon Mendall, having left the slave in the care of Dwinnell, returned to Wankesha. The story is continued substantially in his own words:

" We came home by a different route from that on which we went, and found everything serene. We had not been missed from Prairieville ( Waukesha). Those fellows were satisfied she had left the place, and, for two or three days, a few friends of us talked of the affair, and concluded that, though the people the girl was with were stanch Abolitionists, we did not know how good managers they were. The more we talked the more fearful we were she would be found. Finally, we decided that one of us should go and take the girl through to some station on the Underground Railroad, and they pitched upon me, being an old bachelor with no family to keep me from going, as the proper one to do the job. At this time money was not plenty in Prairieville, as every one was paying for his land. I had to start away with very little money. I rode my horse to Deaeon Edmund Clinton's, as I always did when I wanted to get him shod,

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with a rope-halter on so as not to look suspicious. It was about dark. I told the Deacon I wanted his saddle, bridle and all the money he had. . I am going on a skeerup, and I may be obliged to pay the Queen a visit before I get back,' said I. He handed me $5, all the money he had by him. That made $S with what I had, to start with. I mounted my horse and started for the oak openings. Went through North Prairie, Eagle and to West Troy. Before reaching the last place it began to rain, and it was the darkest night I had ever seen. Lost my way several times, and did not reach my destination till 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, I had break- fast, baited my horse and dried my clothes till noon. I was startled to find Caroline gone. I was more easy, however, when I found that they had moved her Tuesday night to Gardner's Prairie (two miles from Burlington), where she was left, but they didn't know at whose house. I started for Gardner's Prairie to hunt her up, and on the way stopped at Elder Manning's. He had not heard there was such a girl as Caroline, and knew nothing about the excitement con- nected with her case, having been confined to the house by illness. He declared his intention of going with me to the Prairie to find the girl, in spite of the pleadings of his wife, who thought it too great a risk for his health, this being his first day out of bed. The weather had cleared and we started, the Elder going straight from his bed to his horse. We rode to Mr. Peffers', who, knowing the Elder, upon being questioned, said the girl was there. I was ac- quainted with the brothers Arms, Abolitionists, and went to them. They called in two or three other friends to consult what to do, and, while talking. Dr. Dyer, father of Judge Charles E. Dyer, came along. He proved to be the Commander-in chief-a strong Abolitionist, the greatest and best friend to humanity. We could not keep the doctor from seeing the girl: so we all went down where she was, and held another consultation, when it was decided that I should take Mr. Chenery's buggy and harness and continue the journey to safety and freedom. Dr. Dyer went home and made preparations. He came back with a pillow case full of cakes, pies and cheese, to be used in ease of an emergency. He inquired into my finances. I told him what I had. He commanded the friends to draw their wallets, and took up enough to make $20 with what I had. The doctor gave me a recommendation, the best I ever had, and an appeal to the friends of hu- manity to assist me without question to the extent of my asking. I believe there was never an appeal like that written by mortal man before or since. It would almost stir the heart of a stone.

" While at this place just before night, who should we see coming up the hill but Arnold and Spencer, still wearily but doggedly pursuing the fugitive girl. Caroline, myself and the rest of the party were out in the yard, but, fortunately, were not seen. When night came on, we started from Dr. Dyer's, Caroline on the buffalo-robe in the bottom of the buggy, which covered her so no one would know but that I had a sheep or a quarter of veal."

Mr. Chenery accompanied Goodenow to the next stopping-place, which was Elder Fitch's; thence by stages, mostly at night, stopping with trusted friends by day, through Illinois and Michigan, to Windsor, Canada, opposite Detroit, where the fugitive was left a free woman on British soil by her faithful conductor. The journey going and returning took Goodenow five weeks, during which time he was fed and sped from station to station by the willing employes of the Underground Railway, a branch of which, as will be seen by the above story, ran through the eastern part of Walworth County.

THE BEGINNING OF HUSBANDRY.

In 1881, there were, under cultivation in Walworth County, 95,000 acres of plowed land. Besides, there were 47,000 acres of fenced mowing and pasture land, giving sustenance to 10,- 000 horses, 27,000 neat cattle. 108,000 sheep and lambs and 25,000 swine. There were also 4.000 acres of fruit-bearing trees.

At the commencement of the year 1836, the plow had never turned a furrow; there was not a white inhabitant in the county, nor horse, nor ox, nor sheep, nor swine. That year saw the beginning of the vast agricultural domain of 1881 above mentioned.

The first sod was turned by Palmer Gardner, still living in Burlington, Racine County, and owning the land he first tilled. He commenced plowing on Section 25 in the present town of Spring Prairie, May 2, 1836, and plowed eighteen acres, which he sowed to wheat, barley and oats. This was also the first of these cereals sown in the county. About a week later, Othni

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HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.

Beardsley plowed a few acres around some quarter stakes in Troy, to secure his claim, and the same spring Jesse Meacham and Adolphus Spoor plowed some eight acres. Mr. David Pratt and Solomon Harvey plowed five acres each in Spring Prairie, in June, 1836, on Section 30. On it they planted a few potatoes and sowed the rest to buckwheat. Isaac Chase and William J. Bentley also broke ground and put in their first seed in the same year, on Sections 28 and 29. Daniel Salisbury broke four acres in the summer of 1836. which was planted to potatoes in 1837. According to Mr. Solomon A. Dwinnell, who came in himself in 1836, the above consti- tutes the whole of the tillage of 1836. He wrote, January 1, 1868:

" Thirty-one years ago, there were but four fenced and plowed fields in the county within my knowledge. Spoor and Meacham had one at Honey Creek, now Troy, of ten acres; David Pratt and Solomon Harvey, one of five acres each, fenced together, where Calvin Hempsted now lives, on Spring Prairie; Isaac Chase and William J. Bentley, a field of twelve acres just east of the large burr-oak tree on the present farm of R. B. Billings, a mile east of Spring Prairie Cor- ners and Palmer Gardner, one of forty acres, on his farm just cast of his present residence on Gardner's Prairie. The grain then raised must have been limited to a few hundred bushels of sod corn and buckwheat, and the vegetables to a score or two of bushels of potatoes and turnips."

The total number of acres cultivated the first year could not have exceeded one hundred acres, including a few small patches of vegetable garden at Geneva, Delavan and East Troy.

The first apple-seeds were planted by Daniel Salisbury on his claim in Spring Prairie in the fall of 1836. They grew well and made stocks on which to graft. Mr. Salisbury obtained the seeds from Mrs. William Phoenix. Samuel C. Vaughn, of Spring Prairie, brought from Michigan two dozen grafted apple trees and put them out in March, 1837. They bore the first apples grown in the county. Mr. E. Cheesebro, of Darien, brought about two quarts of apple- seeds in when he came, in 1837, and planted them the same fall. Many of the trees are still . living and bear good fruit. John Bell had quite a nursery on Palmer Gardner's farm, in Spring Prairie, in 1837 and 1838. He furnished the trees for many of the earliest orchards set out.

In 1837, the comers of 1836. having got generally settled in their cabins, went at the soil in earnest and tracts were put under cultivation in nearly every town in the county. Some very large tracts were plowed, the largest of which mention is made was on Big Foot Prairie, where Van Slyke, who settled there in the fall of 1836, plowed 100 acres, and Collins Wadhams took a contract to break 500 acres for five settlers between Walworth Center and the State line. The furrows were two and one half miles long. The Placenixes, at Delavan, the colony at Elk- horn and others all over the county, plowed large tracts and farming may be said to have been fairly begun that year

"In 1836," says Mr. Dwinnell, "there were about one hundred head of cattle in the county, five or six horses, a few swine, perhaps fifty, and no sheep. From these small beginnings the increase and progress was unexampled, as will be seen by the following reliable statistics of the county for 1839, which are taken from the United States census report of 1840: Population, 2,611; domestic animals-409 horses, 2,861 neat cattle, 410 sheep and 6,380 swine. Products of 1839-59,580 bushels of wheat, 1,499 bushels of barley, 35,155 bushels of oats, 205 bushels of rye, 40,837 bushels of corn, 42,455 bushels of potatoes, 3,624 tons of hay and 1 pound of reeled silk.

It will be seen by the above statement that at the close of 1839, the settlers had, from the crops of only two years, come to have a surplus of grain, beef and pork, far beyond their wants, and were, so far as provisions went, a prosperous and forehanded community. Such sudden and bounteous returns for agricultural labor were unprecedented, and the fame of the Walworth farming country brouglit in a deluge of immigration, which made its rapid settlement no less phenomenal than its fertility. At the beginning of 1837, the population did not exceed 200; at the close of that year, it had increased to 1,019; in 1840, it had more than doubled, being 2.611, which number again more than doubled in the succeeding two years, being, in 1842, 4,618.

CHAPTER III.

WAR HISTORY.

WALWORTH COUNTY MILITIA-SIXTH REGIMENT WISCONSIN MILITIA-THE GRAND MUSTER-A COURT MARTIAL-MORAL INDIGNATION-THE WAR OF THE REBELLION-FOURTH WISCONSIN CAVALRY- TENTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY-THIRTEENTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY-TWENTY-SECOND WISCONSIN IN- FANTRY-TWENTY-EIGHTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY-FORTIETH WISCONSIN INFANTRY-FORTY-NINTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY-ROSTER OF OFFICERS WALWORTH COUNTY -- TROOPS AND MONEY FURNISHED.

WALWORTH COUNTY MILITIA.

TI THE statutes of the Territory of Wisconsin were profuse in provisions for the enrollment. organization, equipment, drill and inspection of the militia, and in accordance therewith, the first Governor, Henry Dodge, had an enrollment taken, commissioned the officers, and had the whole militia force of the Territory on a war footing, on paper. There was, however, little military ardor among the pioneers. They were more engrossed in the serions business of sub- duing the soil and making for themselves homes, than in playing soldier in time of peace. So it came to pass that the military statutes, by common consent, were disregarded, and the ap- pointed Captains and Colonels had never mustered their commands in accordance with the law, nor even seen them, except in small squads, plowing in the fields, or in detachments at the var- ious "raisings" in the county. Thus it was in January, 1842, when Gov. Doty took the gubernatorial chair.

At that time, rumors were rife that an alliance had been formed by all the various tribes of Indians west of the Mississippi, who had ceded their lands, with the intent of invading the Territory, massacreing the whites, and re-possessing themselves of their former hunting-grounds. The rumor obtained sufficient credence to impel Gov. Doty to prepare for the impending danger. He accordingly issued his proclamation for a thorough organization of the militia throughout the Territory, and ordered the officers then commissioned to see their commands fully enrolled. drilled and mustered for review, at the time and in manner as by law provided. on pain of the penalties prescribed for non-performance of military duty.

The law required, first. that the commissioned and non-commissioned officers and musicians of the several regiments and separate battalions should meet within their several districts not less than three nor more than six days, successively, between the 1st day of June and the Ist day of September in each year, for the purpose of discipline and improving in martial exercise: second, all uniformed companies were to meet, in addition to the general rendezvous, not less than three nor more than eight days in each year, and as much oftener as a majority of all the members of their company may direct. for the purpose of drill and martial exercise; third, the regiments, or separate battalions, to meet once in each year, between the 10th day of September and the 15th day of October, at such time and place as the commanding officer of the brigade should direet, for the purpose of inspection, review and martial exercise.

The penalties varied in accordance with the offense committed-$10 fine against any person refusing to give information to the enrolling officer: $5 for non-attendance of a private, besides such other penalties as a court martial might infliet.

At the time the toesin was sounded, the militia of Walworth County was known as the

SIXTH REGIMENT OF WISCONSIN MILITIA.

Col. Edward Elderkin held command. It is not within the province of this department of history to enlarge on the varied accomplishments or qualities of Col. Elderkin in the walks of civil life. He was a lawyer of good repute, one of the first admitted to the Walworth County bar. He has served the county in various capacities. He was the faithful Secretary of the

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Walworth County Agricultural Society for twelve years. He has been an enterprising and stir- ring man of affairs. He is remembered as a man of large heart and most jovial disposition. He still lives amid the scenes of his younger days to tell of the good old times of forty years ago. These traits must receive merited mention elsewhere. It is of the military career of Col. Elder- kin, detached from his civil life, though surrounding it with a halo which years have not dis- pelled, that now rivets the attention.

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History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Part 53

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