USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 39
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BIG FOOT ACADEMY.
Men and women of Walworth in its first twenty years felt the need of something more for their children than the opportunities of the district schools, however excellent these schools were for their time and its circumstances. In a new country there was no overshadowing educational center near enough to be available, to which the brighter youth might be sent. One forward step might be taken at home if home sentiment might be unified to such a de- sirable end. It cannot now be said who led or who were first to follow. But there were always men who were never far behind in any good work.
A meeting was held in April, 1855. at which Harlow M. Coon presided and Mr. Bell was secretary. Mr. Randolph moved to elect nine trustees, and this was shown to be the sense of the meeting. William Bell, Carlos L. Douglass. Ilarlow M. Coon were chosen for one year : Elijah Easton. William B. Maxson, Amos Bailey for two years: Rev. Oliver P. Hull, Cyrus Church, Ilowell W. Randolph for three years. This board made Mr. Douglass its president. Mr. Bell secretary, and Mr. Church treasurer. Eli B. Ayers, Joseph
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WALWORTII COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Bailey, Henry Hall and Ephraim B. Swinney are also named among these earlier movers toward the object desired. Amos Bailey and Mr. Randolph were made a building committee, but some delay was inevitable. The needful fund was not to be collected on instant demand, and the sum required was large for a yet small community whose wealth was in land rather than in money lying in ancient Herrick safes at Geneva or Delavan. Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Coon were teaching in a select school at the village in 1856, and they presented the matter to their patrons and others so well that large- minded farmers and villagers and clear-seeing and capable women were con- vinced that the time was ripe for instant action. The needful sum, about six thousand dollars, was soon subscribed or secured, and Amos Bailey gave a fine piece of ground in the heart of the village. \ substantial and sightly brick building was ready for its use at the fall term of 1857.
In 1861 Charles H. Gilbert bought this building with its site and in the sanie year sold it to the Seventh-day Baptist society, but the academy con- tinued its work until 1882, when it was closed. the property was sold to the village school district, and the academic functions were thereafter performed by the high school which was then ready to carry forward its general purpose. A larger new building was afterward placed in front of the old one, with but a foot-passage between. In a little more time further floor space and better inner arrangement were needed, and early in 1912 workmen were pulling away the now historic building of 1857 in order to double the capacity of the newer building and meet this century's requirement for high schools. A souvenir pamphlet was lately printed at the instance of living teachers, pupils, and patrons of the academy. These twenty-eight pages contain a fair picture of the academy. thirty-six portraits, and a pupil-list of six hundred and eleven names, of which eighty-six are starred to denote deaths. These are prefaced with a short account of the school and its teachers. Its list of principals, as slightly corrected by a teacher living at the village, was : Daniel B. Maxson, 1857: Joseph A. Badger, 1858-9: Adoniram J. Kingman, 1860: William Marriner, 1863; Ambrose C. Spicer, 1864; Samuel P. Ballard, 1865-8: Albert R. Crandall, 1868-9; Inez Childs, acting, 1869: James J. McIntyre. 1870-1 : Leander Elliott Livermore. 1871-5: Joseph S. Badger. Jr .. 1875; Wardner C. Titsworth, 1876: Jacob Sheffield Maxson, 1877; Frank W. Place, 1878-9: (). Eugene Larkin, 1879-80: Frank O. Burdick, 1880-1; Mazzini G. Stillman, 1881-2. Their assistants are well and kindly remembered: Dr. Edward G. Huse, Mrs. Ilenry C. Coon and W. H. Lewis. 1857-8: Elisha B. Coon, 1859; Pamelia Cronkhite. 1860; Hannah McPherson, 1863: Mrs. Spicer, 1864: Jennie Ballard. 1867-8; Inez Childs. 1869-70; Phoebe S. Coon and Mary A.
444
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Cuckow, 1870-1 : Mary Wicks, 1871-5; Emma Glaspey, 1876; Mrs. Jacob S. Maxson, 1877; Mrs. Alice D. Piace and Olive M. Ewing, 1878-9; Minnie Douglass, 1879-80; Mary Whitford, 1880-1. These teachers were known and esteemed in their profession and from its opening to its closing the academy sustained its high reputation, which drew for it many pupils from abroad.
Pupilage so increased with the coming of a twentieth-century Walworth that a large new building, of good red brick, was placed squarely in front of the old one, masking it wholly as seen from across the park. The two struc- tures, with their three acres of ground. are valued at fifteen thousand dollars. In 1911 demolition of the older building and construction of a new one to meet present and prospective need of the district was decreed, and the work began with the spring of 1912. The estimated cost of the new building is also fifteen thousand dollars. This school employs nine teachers, and is on the list at Madison of what in official language are called "accredited schools." as is also the high school at Sharon.
The village of Walworth was platted by Carlos L. Douglass and grew until the business check of 1857. Its first tavern was at the house of Christo- pher Douglass, and was kept a few years later by Carlos L. Douglass, who presently engaged in larger affairs. At some time not recorded nor clearly remembered the Red Lion tavern was built and served its purpose until the new order of village life came in, when a handsome little three-storied house. built of brick, well finished and furnished within and well managed, supplied the later needs. It is named the Wayside Inn. Between it and the school house lies a little park, around three sides of which part of the stores and shops are ranged. As the town grants no licenses for sale of liquor, the school and hotel are not too near together.
Walworth remained little more than a hamlet until the electric railway was built from Harvard in 1899. followed in 1901 by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway line from Chicago to Janesville. In the latter year it was incorporated as a village, and it is now one of the handsomest of four such municipalities in the county. The street-ways are raised with good gravel forever out of the fertile mud and the walks are generally of cement. It has been lighted with gasoline since 1905 and its water works began service in 1911. It is not too far from Geneva lake to receive some benefits from sum- mer sojourners, for the electric line reaches the lake shore at Fontana, a ride of two and one-half miles.
Savery & Allen began to publish the Wakeorth Times in 1904. Their successors have been Walter A. Mc. Afferty, Edward M. Holston and Charles Clarke, Edward and Maurice Morrissey ( with Hiram S. Bell as temporary
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
editor), Herbert E. Miles, and since 1907 Frank F. Perrin. The paper is non-partisan.
The Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Walworth was in- corporated in January, 1878, for business in that town. Its risks in force at the end of 1910 were 461, amounting to $788,990. Losses paid since 1878 amount to $16.496. Its present officers are Carlos S. Douglass, of Fontana, president ; Martin F. Schacht, of Walworth, secertary.
The Walworth State Bank was incorporated in 1903. Its capital is $15,000, and deposits $190,000. Carlos S. Douglass is president and Frank E. Lawson. cashier.
FONTANA.
The highlands which bound and overlook Geneva lake are at its head. continued in wanton curvatures for about a mile southwestward in section 15 of Walworth. Recession of the water by some prehistoric bursting of the eastern wall left a very uneven bottom about a half-mile wide, whose numer- ous springs suggest the probable character of the whole lake floor. In or near this basin-like part of section 14 James Van Slyke built his cabin in 1836 and marked claims wheresoever he listed. In July, 1840, he sold part of his do- main to John Cumming, who, in January, 1845, sold it to Richard Montague, from whom Carlos L. Douglass bought in 1856.
It is not now known at Walworth when or where James Van Slyke went from that town or from this earth. Tradition preserves an impression that . his wife was in most ways his superior. This may do him much less than justice As Mr. Payne's friend in 1836 he was in small favor with the Brink party. . At Fontana he may not have stood as high as his half-heroic wife in Bigfoot's esteem. but the noble red man's standards of measurement are his own. From the scanty record of the family as landowners it is learned that in March, 1845, Charlotte Van Slyke bought for twenty-five dollars, of R. Wells Warren, lot 8 in block 19 (next west of the park), in the village of Geneva ; and that in March, 1859, Dolphus S. Van Slyke and Lovina, his wife, Fernando D. Joy and Mary S., his wife, James S. Chambers and Rosalie W., his wife, and D. J. Van Slyke, as "sole heirs of Charlotte Van Slyke, of Wal- worth, deceased," sold the same lot to Dan Wright. Also, that in 1851, Catharine Van Slyke received a deed of real estate in Walworth from Eliza- beth Cummings, and that in one or more papers Catharine's name is joined, her name placed first, with that of Dolphus S. Van Slyke. The child born at Geneva in 1836 died in 1836, but it is thought not at the home of her par- ents.
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WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
It is told that in 1837 James Van Slyke sold a part of his claim or claims to Amos Bailey, Dr. Henry Clark and Matthias Mohr. These three men planned rather than platted a village near the lake in 1838. but its building was postponed indefinitely. Mr. Mohr, however, named the locality Fontana. Near the water's edge, on the north side of the basin, was a grove of large trees standing on not too uneven ground and here, about 1871, Gurdon Montague and Doric C. Porter set apart a place for picnic and large out-of- door meetings. Some part of this ground was included in George M. Reid's park, deeded or dedicated "to the public" in 1890.
Richard Montague built a saw-mill in 1845, which became a grist-mill in 1860. In 1857-8 Carlos S. Douglass built a grist-mill lower down the fountain-born rill, equipped it, improved it, and for thirty years his flour was of the best in the county. Stores and dwellings gradually surrounded the mill. and Fontana became a village and summer resort, accessible by railway and steamer from all parts of the world,-half-hidden, as it is, in the ancient bay. Near the lake is a fish hatchery, well stocked with young trout. Behind the village a gravel crusher faces the northern bank of the basin, and its product is largely used at home and within the county, as well as shipped out of the state by the electric line. Mr. Douglass platted the village in 1895. but village life had begun there much earlier. In 1891 the women of the Congregational Aid Society built a union church, and the pastors at Walworth perform duty here. The postoffice remains a local convenience. James B. Davis and Oscar E. Davis have been postmasters since its establishment. about 1884. The vil- lage school has four departments.
WILLIAMS BAY.
The bay named by or for Capt. Israel Williams cuts almost rectangularly into section 6 of Linn, leaving on its west side a strip of that section about five-eighths of a mile long from south to north and, say forty rods wide. From the head of the bay to the town line of Geneva is one-third of a mile. From the Linn strip the ground slopes upward into section I of Walworth. The village of Williams Bay lies on the Linn strip and the Walworth slope. with such varied contour as to make the site practicable and pleasing to home-keepers and summer visitors. The village settlement began about 1879. Mr. Simmons noted that in 1893 the place "began to attract attention of such as were seeking summer homes." At the head of the bay the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company made one of its terminal stations, six miles from Lake Geneva. ninety-two miles from Chicago by way of Elgin and
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Crystal Lake. The first trains arrived and departed June 1, 1888. A post- office was established in 1892, with Mrs. Marie R. ( Barnhart) Williams, 1902. Mrs. Josephine Barnhart. 1898. Miss Anna Peterson, 1907, as post- masters. James L. Tubbs platted the village in 1897 for Mrs. Lucretia S .. widow of Royal Joy Williams.
CHAIRMEN AND MEMBERS OF COUNTY BOARD FOR THE TOWN.
George Hiram Lown 1843
James Alexander Maxwell 1844
Philip W. Mink 1845
James M. Clark 1846
Beardsley Lake
1847, '49. '63-4
Archibald Colburn 1848
David Coon. Jr. 1850-1, '53-4. '61
Doric Chipman Porter. 1852
Theodore T. Greene 1887-8
Abraham W. Henry 1890
George W. Pierce 1891
James B. Davis 1892-4
Ethan Lamphere Gilbert 1858-9
Sidney H. Moody 1860
Joseph Swinney 1895. '99
Mahlon Colburn 1 896-8
Carlos Stewart Douglass 1900-12
COUNTY SUPERVISORS FOR VILLAGE.
Edward E. Campbell 1901-2 Wells D. Church -1904-12
Joseph Swinney .1903
ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.
Amos Bailey
1843
Moses R. Cheney 1852
Kiah Bailey 1854 1
Barnabas Ball 1
1862
Benjamin Clark 1853-5. '60
Hiram Sears Bell I891
Cyrus W. Clark 1867, '69
William R. Bonham 1897-9
James Dallas Clark
1 1872
Phineas A. Bowen 1871,'74
Archibald Colburn 1868 1
Edwin Brown 1894
Mahlon Colburn 1873 I
George W. Brown 1886
David Coon. Ir.
1 1875
William Chelson Bunnell 1885
Harlow Merrill Coon 1874
Solomon Champlin Burdick 1870
Marshall Coon 1892
Ephraim B. Swinney 1873
Amos Hunn Hitchcock 1876
Edgar Read Maxon_1879. '82. '84. '89 Zina Cotton 1880
Livingston E Parker 1883. '85
Amos Bailey 1855
Elijah Easton 1856-7
Henry Hall 1 862
Carlos Lavalette Douglass __ 1865-72. 74-5. 77-8. '81.'86
Cyrus Church 1847. '68
448
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Zina Cotton
1867,'77
Ezra A. Mulford
1887-89
John Milton Cramer 1893
David Ottman
1847
Joseph Clark Crumb 1851
Livingston E. Parker
ISSI-2
William H. Davis
1891
Carl Peters
1884
Carlos Lavallette Douglass_1856, '61
George W. Pierce
1890, '95-6
Carlos Stewart Douglass
1884-5
Christopher Douglass
1848
Horace Greeley Douglass
1888-9
Michael Dunn
1905-6
William Ramsay
1844
Curtis Hector Eaton
1846, '55
Howell W. Randolph I857
John Reader
1846, 52
Henry Francis_
-1881-2, '96, 1906-7
Ethan Lamphere Gilbert
1856-7
George G. Green
1858
James E. Hagan
1903-4
Robert B. Hubbell
1888
Charles W. Huff
1851
Amos Dike Johns
1844,'50, '73
Claudius C. Jones 1893
William A. Lackey 1898-9
Beardsley Lake
1858-9
James C. Mckesson 1880 1 1 1
Darius B. Mason 1843 1 1 F
Edgar Read Maxon 1883
Frank W. Maxon
1 863
John W. Voss
1901
George W. Webber
1876
1
George Ileman Merwin
1883-6
August C. Miller -1900
Philip W. Mink 18.49-50
Emery J. Wright
1908-9. '12
Stephen Mink
1863-4
Howell W. Randolph
1854
Harlow Merrill Coon
1855-63, '67
William B. Maxson 1864
Nathan J. Read
1865-6
AAmos Hunn Hitchcock
1868-75,
'80-3. '95-6, '99-1900
TOWN CLERKS.
James M. Clark 1843-5
Robert S. Dunn 1846
Jeremiah Pollard I
I
1847
Albert H. Holley 1848 / I
Seth Doolittle 1849-51, 53
David Coon, Jr. 1852
George W. Scott
1869
Edwin J. Sherburne
1878
Ephraim Swinney
1870-2
Joseph Swinney.
1890. '92. '94-5
Henry Timming
- 1902
Russell S. Trumbull
1876, '79
John A. Van Dreser, Jr.
1908-10
John E. Van Schaick
1900-2
William B. Maxson
1862
Hiram R. Whiteley
1878
Charles M. Williams
1897
Jonathan Fish
1845
Joseph Rector
1860-1,'65-6
William S. Reser
1905
Charles H. Ripley
1887
Levi B. Ripley
1875
Martin F. Schacht
1907,
10-12
Mark F. Pierce ____ 1864-6, '77, '79-80 Doric Chipman Porter __ 1848, '53, '59 Lester C. Porter 1903-4
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
John E. Van Schaick 1876-9 Frank E. Lawson --- 1901-2, 04-6
Mazzini G. Stillman 1884 Herbert Leroy Rodebaugh 1903
Edward W. Ripley __ 1885-94, 1907-1I J. W. Wesson 1912
Oscar E. Davis 1897-8
TOWN TREASURERS.
Joseph Bailey 1843
Elijah Church 1844-8
John E. Van Schaick 1880
Cyrus Church 1849-50
Delaney B. Peck 1881
Caleb H. Conant 1851-4
James B. Davis
1 1882-4
William H. Redfield
1
1855
Oscar E. Davis 1 1 1885-6
James N. Lamphere 1 1856-7
John R. Siperly 1887-8 I
Orrin Coon 1858-61
Henry D. Ripley 1 889 1 I
Henry Ferow 1 862
Frank M. Pollard 1 890 I Edgar O. Burdick 1891-2 1 1 1 1 1
Daniel C. P. Carvey 1863-4
Zaccheus M. Heritage 1865
Lester C. Porter
1893-4
William B. Maxson
1866
Nathan Dwight Maxon
1895-6
Amos Hunn Hitchcock
1867
Frederick G. Taylor 1897-8
Harrison Davis 1868
William C. Coon
1899-1900
Oscar Wallace Douglass 1869
Homer D. Lackey
1901
Henry Marriott 1870. 73
Leonard L. Loynes - 190I
Charles Herbert Burdick 1871
Edwin W. Brown
1902-3
Mark Ayers 1872
John E. Wells 1904-5. 12
Amasa D. Truax I874
Milton S. Freer
I
I
I 1906-7
George W. Mckesson 1875
Frederick Rector 1 908-9
Eugene L. Church 1876
William S. Davis
IQIO-II
JUSTICES OF TIIE PEACE.
Hiram Sears Bell 1892
William Bell 1859-64
Phineas A. Bowers 1869-71
Walter W. Britt 1906
George F. Eifer 1902-5
Lavallette E. Francis
1895-6.
98-9, 1901-2. 04-5
Milton S. Freer
1898-9, 1901-2
George C. Gardner
1866-7
(29)
Oscar E. Davis 1897-8
Carlos Stewart Douglass
1883-6
George Quincey Dunlop 1898
Solomon Champlin Burdick -1867-8
Harlow M. Coon 1860-1, '69-76.
'87-8, '96-8
Edwin F. Crumb
1863-6
Benjamin Franklin Wright 1877
Mahlon Colburn 1878-9
450
WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Amos H. Hitchcock '89-96, William H. Redfield 1862
93-6. 99-1900
Edward W. Ripley 1892-3
Amos Dike Johns 1869-77
John Simmonds .1910
Phipps Waldo Lake, Jr. 1876-83.
Benjamin W. Sawyer 1907-10
94-5
Frank Starr 1908-9
William B. Maxson 1862-5
Stephen Mink I866-7
William F. Newland 1908-10
68-9
George F. Orcutt 1897
William J. Warren 1902-3
Nathan J. Read
1876
Randall D. Williams 1879
Joseph Rector 1860-I
Frank Wolff 1906-7
William Bell was among the first justices appointed by Governor Dodge for the county. It is said that he served for sixteen years-but not con- tinuously, unless for more than that period. County records do not show all the facts as to service as justices, and oral statements supply such omissions but scantily and not without liability to error.
Presidents of Walworth village have been : William Higbee, 1901 ; Thomas H. Pugh. 1902 and 1906; Elmer A. Peterson. 1903 and 1908: Hiram S. Bell. 1904 and 1905: John C. Partridge, 1907, and Mahlon Col- burn in the same year: Joseph W. Robar, 1909: Harlow Irving Coon, 1910, 1911, 1912.
Village clerks: Oscar E. Davis. 1901: Amos H. Hitchcock, 1903 : Harold E. Waters. 1904-5: Amos 11. Hitchcock, 1907. and still in service.
Village treasurers: Gilbert E. Dangerfield. 1901-2: and Edgar O. Bur- dick since 1903.
Justices who filed credentials: H. Irving Coon in 1901 as police justice and in 1907: Frederick Goelzer, 1905: Lewis F. Phillips. 1909.
John C. Thacher 1876-83
Samuel Henry Van Schaick. -1859-60.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
TOWN OF WHITEWATER.
Township 4 north. range 15 east, was at first one-quarter of the town of Elkhorn. It was detached August 13. 1840, and named from the lake and creek, which the more learned Algonquins called by various names, the most euphonious of which was Wau-be-gan-naw-po-cat-equivalent to whitish or muddy water. To these few syllables they added "bess" for the lake and "se-pee" for the creek. For several years the more precise of old settlers persisted in writing the simpler name with two capitals, as was often done with the name of Elkhorn. The town has Cold Spring. Jefferson county, next northward and Lima. Rock county, next westward.
The surface of the town was determined by a meeting of leisurely- moving glaciers, resulting in a compromise honorable to all whom it then concerned. Barometric measurements at various points show at highest and lowest places a difference of ninety feet in heights above sea-level. The height at the lake is 795 feet : along the creek, 806 feet ; at the railway station, 819 feet : in section 2, 820 to 837 feet: in north half of section 19, 875 feet: on Normal hill. 885 feet. The long, irregular ridge from which the waters of the county descend each way to the Fox and the Rock lies in the eastern half of the town, sending but little water to the Fox. The southern sections. west of the dividing ridge, are generally lower than the northern ones, and these are occasionally marshy.
Whitewater lake, in sections 34. 35. has an area of forty or fifty acres. It is fed by two little streams in sections 2. 3 of Richmond. A little lake or wet spot in section 35. irregularly five-pointed and therefore appropriately named Round lake. is connected by a few rods of creek. These lakes dis- charge into Whitewater creek, which flows through sections 26. 27. 22. 23. 15. 10. 4 and finds its end at Bark river in Cold Spring, receiving two lateral currents on its way to the city. Bass lake lies in sections 25. 26, 35. Its area is eighty or more acres, and its inlets and outlets are unseen. The west branch of Whitewater creek comes out of Lima into section 19, crosses sec- tions 20, 17. 8. 9. and meets the main stream at the city, where both creeks spread into Cravath and Tripp lakes before uniting. A little stream rises in section 12, crosses section 1. and finds its way to the Fox by way of Jeffer-
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
son and Waukesha counties. A short water-course crosses section 6 and runs toward Bark river.
The land area of the town, 20,302 acres, valued at $1,239,500-average value, $61.02. Land in city, not in building lots, 199 acres, valued at $20,900 average value, $105. Acreages of crops: Barley, 1.016: beets, 12; corn, 2,843; hay. 2.304: oats, 2,050; orchard. 57; potatoes, 78: rye, 66; timber, 538: wheat, 7. Live stock, town and city: 3.315 cattle. $87.600; 731 hogs, $7.300 ; 964 horses. $62,400: 243 sheep. $900.
Census of the town: 1850, including village, 1.229; 1860, 915: 1870; 1,006; 1880. 902 : 1890, 849 ; 1900. 806; 1910, 722.
First comers knew nothing of county borders or of town lines, for these were then but about to be established. The towns of Cold Spring. Lina and Richmond, with adjacent sections of Whitewater, were parts of one region full of promise to settlers. Late in 1836 or early in 1837 Alvah Foster marked his name on a tree on the east bank of the creek in section 4, but did not halt to secure his claim by improving it. Finding a few weeks later that William Barron had, in April, taken advantage of this neglect, he gave way without contest-the more readily because he thought the water-power of little worth. Mr. Barron had come with a party of twenty. families included, from Milwaukee; but his companions went a few miles farther. He se- cured his claim by cutting a part of the logs for his house, and, as is supposed, was the first to cut a tree within the town. About mid-April. Samuel Prince marked his claim in section 6 and built the first house in the town. It was twelve feet square and eight feet from the ground to the caves. In July Mr. Sawyer claimed the southwest quarter of section 5 and was the first in town to disturb the ancient sod with a breaking plow. In the same month Nor- man Pratt claimed for his brother, Freeman L. Pratt. the rest of section 5, for himself the whole of section 8, and north half of section 6 for Dean Williams. He then broke ground and chopped trees to secure these claims. Leander and William Birge, with Dr. Edward Brewer, came also in July, and the Birges invaded the Pratt claim to the southeast quarter of section 5. Thereupon a dispute arose as to the interpretation of the settler's code con- cerning claims. It was decided that a quarter-section was the unit. and that improvements on other quarters of the same section counted for nothing. The Pratts withdrew their claim to that quarter and bought Mr. Sawyer's quarter of the same section. Houses were built at once. and before cold weather came again the two Pratt families were actual residents. Rufus B. Clarke came to section 5. Charles Hamilton and Willard B. Johnson to sec- tion 7. and Zerah Mead built a house in section 6, though he did not live in
453
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
it until he had brought his family from the east in 1838. A few settlers came also in 1837 to the towns before named, and these several little con- munities often co-operated in procuring supplies from Milwaukee and the hardly less distant mills. Rufus Branch Clarke, according to Mr. Cravath, was an accomplished deer slayer, and neighbor Joseph Nichols, of Lima, was a successful bee-hunter. Until a crop could be raised, and in some after- years when crops failed, flour, pork, potatoes, and other staples of food were procured only at famine prices. Most of the men already named were fairly provided with money, but there was much unavoidable difficulty in freight carrying, which of itself made prices high. Such conditions, of course, were not peculiar to Whitewater,-though the journey to Milwaukee was a day or more longer than from Geneva or East Troy.
In 1838 Richard Hoppin came to section 1. David J. Powers to section 7. and. fortunately for Whitewater, Dr. James Tripp to the water-power in section 4. At this point Messrs. Johnson, Powers and Norman Pratt had some rights which depended on non-interference by Daniel and Stephen Butts and John Shaw, men of Rock county. The first named three men con- tracted in November, 1838. with Doctor Tripp to build within one year "a good substantial grist-mill." In the same year Willard B. Johnson built his framed barn, the first of that kind in town. When finished he celebrated his work with "a splendid ball." at which the Pratts discoursed excellent music with their fiddles, while of the dancers twelve were women, whose names Mr. Cravath thoughtfully recorded: Mrs. Clarke. Miss Collins, three Misses Hawes, three Misses Humphrey. Miss Keech, Miss Mott, and two Mrs. Pratts. Seth M. Billings and Abraham Hackett came in 1839.
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