History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I, Part 14

Author: Beckwith, Albert C. (Albert Clayton), 1836-1915
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Indianapolis, Bowen
Number of Pages: 792


USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 14


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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The officers of this fair were Augustus Smith, president, and Seymour Brooks, secretary. Before dispersing, the members chose officers and man- agers for the coming year. In April. 1851, a meeting was held at Elkhorn, and the whole county was brought explicitly within range of the society's


170


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


activities. A premium list was made, and the fair appointed at Elkhorn, October 14th and 15th. The society met in the evening of the 15th for adoption of a constitution and election of officers and three managers, all to act as an executive committee. Article eight, of the constitution, fixed the place of holding the fair at Elkhorn. But in 1853 it was held at Delavan. Article nine prescribed the first evening of each fair as the time for electing officers. In 1852 the number of managers became five.


August 19. 1853, Samuel Pratt resigned as manager and Colonel Elder- kin was chosen in his stead. Mr. Hollinshead moved, and it was ordered, to hold the fair at Delavan, September 23d and 24th. A committee of arrange- ments for this purpose was appointed, all of Delavan town and village : Aaron H. Taggart, Ira P. Larnard, Charles T. Smith, William Hollinshead, Jonathan Williams, Cyrus Brainard. David Williams was made marshal, with Dr. Norman L. Gaston and Nicholas M. Harrington as assistants. Sep- tember 23d, election of officers. Ordered that executive committee procure one or more competent persons to address the people on one of the fair days.


September 27, 1855, the constitution was so amended as to require nine managers, besides the four principal officers. September 11, 1856, Hon. James R. Doolittle, of Racine, delivered the annual address.


September 25, 1857, the members of the society met in accordance with article nine, of its constitution, and passed the following resolution : "That the election of officers of this society be postponed till the first Wednesday in January, 1858, and at that time said election shall be held in the court house at Elkhorn."


January 6, 1858, Treasurer Hodges reported as the receipts of the fair of 1857 the sum of eight hundred thirty-nine dollars and fifty-five cents. The amount on hand after paying premiums was two hundred and fifty-seven dollars. Land had been bought of Colonel Elderkin in 1855 for a permanent fair ground on a time contract running ten years, with interest at ten per cent. This meeting ordered payment of two hundred and fifty dollars on this contract. Colonel Elderkin was directed to go to Madison to collect for the society the state's ycarly appropriation of one hundred dollars in aid of county fairs, then amounting to two hundred dollars. If allowed and paid, the sum was to be applied to payment for land. If not collected, he was to draw a suitable memorial. asking the Legislature for relief. Wyman Spooner, Horatio S. Winsor and Edward Elderkin were appointed to examine constitution and records to find if the society was so organized as to enable it to hold real estate, and they were directed to report at the next meeting. Mr. Ellerkin, then one of the secretaries, was ordered to buy a record book


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


and transcribe therein the constitution, by-laws, and the whole record of the society's proceedings. The acts of the annual meetings of the society and of its several executive committees for sixty years, as recorded, have not yet filled the book thus begun by Colonel Elderkin, though it is not an unusually large one of its kind. Its contents hardly present more than a fairly traceable outline of the society's history and rate of growth.


This is in part explained by the fact that in this, as in many organiza- tions for other purposes, it has been found convenient to add many executive functions to the secretary's duty as a recorder of proceedings in session of society and committee. For many years following 1865 this so variously useful officer has seemed to persons outside of the management to combine in himself the executive, legislative and judicial power of the society. The later creation of minor superintendencies has not made the secretary's duties much less diversified. For many years the officers were paid little or nothing above their expenses. The secretary now receives $400, the treasurer $250, the president $100 (by act of the session of 1911), the superintendent of privileges $75, the marshal $40. Members of executive committee are paid for one day's service, two dollars each. The working force, other than those just mentioned, at the last fair was 160 persons: Under the superintendent of the ground. 12: police, 29: treasurer's office, 18; secretary's office, 8; at gates and amphitheater, 23 : in floral hall. 22 ; in speed department, 14: judges for premium awards, 34. Their total pay, $1,355.71. Since the fair of 1909 there was paid to laborers and repairers employed in care of the ground, in the course of one year, $629.10: for permanent improvements, $773.57; for insurance, $233.75. The total receipt for 1910 was $19,147.73, of which sum $293.79 was the balance on hand from 1909, and $2,200 was received from the state treasury pursuant to provisions of statute in aid of county fairs. In January, 1911, the unpaid liabilities amounted to $65.62. These paid, and the state's aid received (usually in February), the society sets out for the year with $3,404.40. The sum of trotting purses paid was $4.760; sum of premiums paid. $4,072.75.


The fair of 1851 was held along Church street, south of the park, south- western part of the village. One or more fairs were held on the park. In 1855 the society began to buy land for a permanent fair ground. The place chosen was (and is) well within the village limits, in one of the Elderkin additions, a few rods from the point at which the Spring Prairie road meets Court street. The certainty that the railway. then building from Racine to- ward Sunset, would reach Elkhorn within the next year had some effect on Colonel Elderkin's mind as to the coming values of village real estate, though


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


he stopped a little short of extravagance in his valuation of the six acres sold to the society. He let it go at one hundred dollars per acre, giving ten years for payment, and accepting ten per cent interest. The society now owns and occupies a fraction more than thirty-nine acres. About fifty or sixty rods further northeastward the branch railway to Eagle, curving along the eastern side of the ground, crosses the highway at an acute angle. It seems the so- ciety's manifest destiny to acquire this triangular space-about six and one- half acres-within a few months or years. By two extensions southward the old village cemetery, having been vacated by special statute, was added, giving a Court street frontage of twenty-two rods. A few groups of second-growth oaks and other trees give a parklike effect to this part of the ground, and a few lawn seats make it at present an attractive resting place for tired visitors. During the four days of the fair the railway supplies special trains, and the attendance, gathering from distant counties of Wisconsin and Illinois, has been computed variously at from twenty thousand to thirty thousand. When the fair week falls in dry weather, as it usually does, the dust-laden air along the several highways of the county, to one who has seen this sign of great armies in motion, is a reminder of the summer campaigns of the Civil war. For most of the morning hours the procession of vehicles headed for the white city inclines one to wonder if anybody stays at home in this holiday week.


In 1870 Henry G. Hollister, vice-president for the previous year, was chosen president of the society, and. thereafter, with two exceptions, such order of succession has been the usage. The vice-presidents thus declining or passed over were Benjamin T. Fowler in 1884 and Hiram S. Bell in 1894. Ebenezer Davidson has, since 1879, twice reached the presidency by way of the present order of promotion.


PRESIDENTS.


1861


1801


1 896


1884


1909


1886


1885


1888


1900


Aldrich, William H., Spring Prairie Allen, Dwight Sidney. Linn. Allen, George R., Bloomfield Allyn, Alexander H .. Delavan Babcock. Walter E .. Spring Prairie Blakely. William, Darien


Brewster, John M., Troy Briggs, Herman A .. Delavan Brooks. Seymour. East Troy


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173


1878


1905


1854


1897


1869, 1870


1903


1887


1874


1873


1877


1907


1880


1890


1904


0161


1871, 1872


1863. 1864, 1865


1879


1876


1898


1882


1908


1 892


1902


1875


1895


1891


1853


1906


IQOI


1883


1889


1856


1850


1852


1894


Buell, Sidney, Linn


*Davidson, Ebenezer, Lake Geneva Cross, Hiram, Lagrange Clough, Darwin P., Darien


Downs, Lemuel, Delavan


Dunlap, William Penn, Geneva Dunlap, Charles, Geneva


Edgerton, Stephen R., Lafayette


Flack, David Lytle, Geneva Foster, Asa, Sugar Creek


Gibbs, Charles R., Whitewater Fulton, John L., Whitewater


Grier, James M., Bloomfield


Grier, Thomas H., Bloomfield


Hollinshead, William, Delavan Harrington. Perry Green, Sugar Creek.


Hollister, Henry George, Delavan


Jeffers, John, Sharon


Johnson. John B., Darien.


Lawson. Frank E., Walwortlı *Knilans, William Allen, Richmond.


Manor, Newell B., Bloomfield Lean. Robert J .. Lagrange


Martin, Charles, Spring Prairie


Meadows, William, Lyons.


Mills. Dr. Jesse Carr, Lafayette.


Morse, Frederick A., Whitewater Mulaney, Charles A., East Troy


Nichols, Levi A., Linn


Reynolds, James E., Troy Preston. Otis, Elkhorn.


Seymour, Robert Thompson. Lafayette


Smith, Augustus, Troy.


Starin, Henry J., Whitewater


Stewart, William H., Richmond


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1893, 191


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


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*Meadows, John Greenwood, Lyons


Pratt. Orris. Spring Prairie


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1855. '58-'60. '62


Edwards, Simon Buell. East Troy


*Hare, Ambrose B., Richmond


1867, 1868


1851


1912 1866


1894


1856


1866


1860


1877


1871


1884


1875


1 869


1867. 1868


1862


1874


1872


1876


1850


1855


1912


1865


1853


19II


1861


1853


1855


174


Wales, Charles, Geneva


*Wylie, George Washington, Lafayette Wiswell, Charles Harriman, Sugar Creek Williams, David, Geneva


VICE-PRESIDENTS.


Bell, Hiram Sears, Walworth


Brooks, Seymour, East Troy.


Cheney, Rufus Jr., Whitewater Buell, Sidney, Linn


Edwards, Simon Buel, East Troy Derthick, Walter George, Lafayette


Flack, David Lytle, Geneva


Harriman, Rufus Dudley, Lafayette Fowler, Benjamin T., Lagrange.


Hendrix, Wellington, Lafayette


*Hollister, Uriah Schutt, Darien Hollinshead, William, Delavan Hill, Thomas Worden, Lyons.


Potter. Robert Knight, Lafayette Morrison, William Henry, Troy. Martin, Charles, Spring Prairie.


Starin, Henry J., Whitewater Smith, Augustus, Troy


1 *Wylie. George Washington, Lafayette. Wiswell, Charles Harriman, Sugar Creek Williams, John. Darien Wales, Charles, Geneva Voss, John Augustus


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SECRETARIES.


Brooks, Seymour. East Troy


Latham, Hollis, Elkhorn Williams, David, Geneva Elderkin, Edward, Elkhorn.


Golder, Peter, Elkhorn


Winsor, Horatio Sales, Elkhorn


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1850. 1851


1850, '51, '54-'65


1852-'54. '56. '61-68


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


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1863, 1864


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1859.


1854, '55, '57. 73


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1852.


1870.


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1852


1851 .


175


1858


1859


1860


1 869-1878


1878-1884


1885-1890


1891. 1892


1893-1896, 1903, 1904


1897-1902


1905-1908


1909-1912


Until 1866 it was usual to elect two secretaries sometimes, assigning one


to the duty of recording and the other to the division of correspondence. After Mr. Carpenter-a young lawyer who lived a few months at Elkhorn- Mr. Latham served as corresponding secretary until 1866, when the two sec- retaryships were united in one officer.


TREASURERS.


Rockwood. Sherman Morgan. Lafayette Hodges. Edwin, Elkhorn


Golder. Peter, Elkhorn


Hollinshead, William, Delavan


Mallory, Samuel, Elkhorn


Brett. John Flavel, Elkhorn


Rockwell. Le Grand, Elkhorn


Lyon. Wilson David. Elkhorn Latham, Hollis, Elkhorn.


Latham. Le Grand, Elkhorn


*Brett, James Elverton. Lyons


also Hollis and LeGrand Latham.


Names marked with a * are of soldiers of the Civil war.


1850


1851, 1854, 1856-1860


1852


1853


1855


1861-1866


1867-1869


1870-1883


1885-1897


1898-1911


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Frost, Eli Kimball, Sugar Creek


Martin. Charles, Spring Prairie


West. Stephen Gano, Elkhorn


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1884


John F. and James E. Brett were respectively father and son, as were


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


Carpenter, Seth L., Elkhorn


Morrison, William Henry, Troy *Allen, Levi E .. Elkhorn ( from Sharon)


*Stratton, William James, Elkhorn


Norris, Harley Cornelius, Elkhorn Porter, Francis Maxwell. Elkhorn Mitchell. Samuel, Elkhorn Harrington. George L., Lafayette


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CHAPTER XV.


RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS -- PUBLIC SCHOOLS.


Clergymen and pious men with gift of tongue and not unused to leader- ship in prayer meeting were among the early settlers of Delavan, Lafayette, Spring Prairie and Walworth, and perhaps other towns, and were not long wanting in any town. It has been learned how Colonel Phoenix came by his military title. His religious activity was even then as manifest as his energy in founding a city. He prayed. exhorted and preached at Delavan and Spring Prairie and, not unlikely, at Elkhorn and other points. Mr. Dwin- nell was nearly as early and quite as zealous in this field of labor, though he. too, had his load of secular cares as farmer and town officer. Their fellow pioneers, though not all of them professors of religious faith, were not gen- erally unwilling to hear instruction and exhortation ; and these preachers of good tidings for a time carried their messages through a nearly roadless country, crossed by many bridgeless streams, with the steadfast resolution and, if needful, high hardihood of the pioneer clergy everywhere and always.


Churches were not an immediate need. Men and women met for relig- ious communion in many small assemblies at the larger cabins, and when school houses appeared these were made doubly useful. In pleasant weather no finer temples than the oaken groves-nowhere distant nor liable to be over- crowded-were needed for the larger gatherings. The short pioneer period, "the first low wash of waves where soon would roll a human sea," was fol- lowed by immigration at such increasing rate that co-operative effort was made as available for church building as for more mundane enterprises. After 1843 the county board authorized the sheriffs to let the court house for Sunday tise of infant religious societies at a nominal rental rate, which was later but little reduced by imposing only the cost of heating and sweeping. Not the church- less sects at the county seat only, but all within convenient riding or driving distance of the center stake might avail themselves of this liberal disposition of the supervisors -- if such sects could agree upon a scheme of days and hours for their several services.


Baptist societies were formed at the villages of Delavan in 1839. Spring Prairie in 1841, East Troy and Millard in 1842, at Walworth in 1844, East Delavan and Geneva in 1845. From these were formed the Walworth Bap-


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


tist Association in 1846, now the oldest of the county associations, which are constituents of the almost venerable Wisconsin Baptist convention, the first session of which latter body was held at East Troy in July. 1846. A session of the convention was also held at that place in 1856, and at Delavan in 1870, 1883, 1891 and 1909. Increased population in the several towns soon enabled each local society to build itself a church, and these primitive meeting places were most of them followed by a succession of better buildings, each showing some advance in the means, liberality, and architectural taste of its builders. In order of membership the Baptist churches in 1909 were Delavan, 391 ; Elkhorn, 189; Walworth, 135: Lake Geneva, 100: Millard, 90; East Dela- van, 55 ; Darien, 37; Spring Prairie, 25. In order of value of church prop- erty ; Delavan, $35,000; Elkhorn, $21.500; Lake Geneva, $19,000; Walworth, $4.900 : Millard, $4.500 ; East Delavan. $4.200 ; Darien, $3,100; Spring Prairie, $1.500. This denomination is the only one which has a county association.


Of the several denominations now having society or parish organiza- tions within the county, the Baptist, Congregationalist. Methodist and Epis- copalian were earliest on the ground; and the first of these was and is numeri- cally strongest. But Catholic missionaries had been long first in Wisconsin, and among these the Fathers LeJeune, Brebeuf, LeMercier. Vimont, Lale- mant, Raguneau, de Quens, and Dablon, in their now invaluable "Relations." laid the foundations of Wisconsin history. These and other patiently heroic men also laid the foundations of an archiepiscopal province and its three di- oceses. It is not unlikely that Fathers Marquette and Allouez had crossed this county and had lingered by its lakes long before Bigfoot lorded it at Fontana.


It is certain that the settlements of 1836-7 were not long unnoticed nor neglected by the Episcopal bishop at Milwaukee, and the infant parishes at Delavan, Elkhorn, etc .. soon knew Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper's face and voice. Parishes were organized where and when practicable, and these have pros- pered steadily and, in total effect, mightily. There are now large and hand- some churches at Delavan, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva and Whitewater, and chapels or missions at other points.


The Congregational church was planted early and has grown with the county. Its now most active societies are at Delavan, East Troy, Elkhorn, Geneva Junction, Lafayette, Lake Geneva and Whitewater.


A few Presbyterian societies were formed, but nearly all were soon ab- sorbed by its ancient rival, the Congregational church. The Presbyterian church at Lake Geneva had a long and generally prosperous life, but in 1883 its members voted for Congregational organization.


(12)


178


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


The Methodists, never far or long behind the founders of new communi- ties, sowed on fertile ground and now stand beneath a broadly sheltering tree. They have absorbed the allied sects, which a while flourished in Walworth as everywhere else in America. Wesleyans struggled a few years for separate existence, and then yielded to the inevitable. The churches of this denomina- tion show the usual increase of wealth among its members, with incidental growth in architectural taste.


English-speaking Catholics have been for more than three centuries ac- quainted with poverty as to their parishes, and too often with worse than poverty as to themselves; and none have shown forth better than they the sweet usefulness of adversity. For several years Catholics of English and other tongues were so few and so dispersed that the county seemed over-long but a field for painful mission labor. Theirs is the good that comes from waiting without resting. for time has been kind to them. They have emerged from the wilderness and one looking upon their churches at Delavan. East Troy, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva, Lyons and Whitewater might feel moved to adapt the Davidian verse : "Pray ve for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem :, and abundance for them that love thee."


Seventh-day Baptists have long maintained themselves, as in a strong- hokl, at Walworth.


The Lutheran church is firmly fixed and its societies are well distributed through the county, at Darien, East Troy. Ekhorn (two). Lake Geneva (two), Lyons, Richmond. Sharon, Sugar Creek, Whitewater (two).


The ideas or opinions of Universalism have been and are yet. perhaps, as widely held in this county as elsewhere, but its denominational activity has thus far shown fewer results than that of some numerically smaller religious divisions. Its adherents have sometimes made temporary alliance with Uni- tarianism and other forms of liberal theology. Its few churches are not always open, nor does its printed teaching circulate among its readers as of old.


Spiritualism, or "spiritisin," as scoffers have named it. traveled as fast as the mails of the time from its birthplace at the home of the Fox girls, not far from the depository of Joseph Smith's golden plates. Walworth was thus but few days behind Cattaraugus in receiving tidings from the unseen world of the unstable but far from unfruitful air. Intelligent and worthy men and women were not wanting among converts, and "mediums" of various gifts of perception and power of interpretation were at once developed. Believers met at household "seances" and met in general conventions, newspapers and books were read and studied, and at Whitewater a temple was built. Its doc- trines and practices are not yet obsolete, though it has here less of the aspect of an organized sect.


179


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


At Joseph Smith's death a rag of his mantle was wafted to Spring Prairie and lodged upon James Jesse Strang's shoulders, thus to endue him with gifts of prophecy and leadership. The city and temple of Voree rose, obedient to revelation, in 1845 and, obedient to counter revelation, was aban- doned in 1847 to rats and weasels, and the temple rafters were suffered to fall down on a cow. . \ few persons may have returned from Beaver Island in 1856. but not to restore "the fair city of Voree." A few followers of the younger Joseph Smith came from the desolation of Nauvoo, in 1845. to the vicinity of East Delavan, where they built a church of Latter-day Saints and lived without offense to their neighbors. The society still exists, somewhat dwindled in number and with less regular service at their church.


Mrs. Eddy's doctrines have pervaded rather than divided the churches of the old Protestant orthodoxies. Her followers are not easily to be estimated as to their number. but their influence is manifest. They are diffused through- out the county and appear to be still increasing at some fair rate. Their prog- ress is more like the silently powerful natural forces than like the swiftly rushing whirlwind or the upheaving and rending earthquake.


PUBLIC SCHOOLS.


The liberal policy of the federal government liad set apart section six- teen of each township of the national domain as an aid to new states in the establishment of common schools: but, in earlier years of the county a square mile of public land, at its best, was not a rich endowment. Some notion may be formed of its value to the school fund from a report in 1848 of a committee of the county board as to the condition of school, seminary and university lands within the county. Of section 25 (a seminary section ) of Sugar Creek it was noted that the timber had been cut away unlawfully and that the value of the land was thus reduced by one-half. But this may have been the only instance of such spoliation of the rights of children.


Before the full organization of towns the schools received some attention of the county commissioners. One of their first duties was to set off school districts, referring boundaries to range, township and section lines. Private enterprise had taken the first practical steps, for American matrons and maidens could not and would not suffer the young children to lose more than one school year in the transit from a land of schools to the late home of the Pottawattomies. So, as volunteer teachers, they brought together their pupils by twos and threes and sometimes sixes at some consenting neighbor's house and at once laid bases for the better order of things about to follow : while


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


men met. debated, resolved, amended, referred, reported, voted and after much such like ado, acted.


Judge Gale observed that however men differed on most things of town- ship concern, they were at one as to the instant need of schools. The com- missioners, in 1839, appointed town school inspectors: For Darien, Nicholas S. Comstock, Loren K. Jones, Amos Older, Lyman H. Seaver, Jacob Lee; for Delavan, Charles S. Bailey, Milo Kelsey, Alvin B. Parsons, Henry Phoenix, Salmon Thomas; for Elkhorn (old town), Jared B. Cornish, George Esterly, Volney. A. McCracken, Zerah Mead, Jeduthun Spooner; for Geneva, Charles M. Baker, Andrew Ferguson, Charles M. Goodsell, Samuel Hall, Russell H. Mallory; for Spring Prairie, William Arms, Richard Chenery, Solomon A. Dwinnell, Ansel A. Hemenway, Jesse C. Mills : for Walworth, William Bell, Phipps W. Lake, James A. Maxwell, William Rumsey, H. Smith Young. Better men than these, taken all together, could hardly be named for such service in 1911.




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