USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 40
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Buyers at the land office. as recorded, were: Hans Arvedson, section 34: William Atwater. 31; Richard Bartele, 33: Jason Schuyler Beach, 19: Jesse Brown, 20: Jesse Collins, 20; Jeffrey Cox, 27; Prosper Cravath, 20; Warner Earl, 2: Eli Elsbre, 18: Morris Ensign, 31: Gunder Eriesson, 33; George Gleason, 32: George R. Goodhuc, 19, 20, 29, 30; Amos Gould, II ; Rasselas Gould, 14, 22: Hiram Gregg, 34: John Hackett, 20; Jolin T. Ilam- ilton, 15: Ole Hanson, 34: Ara Hardy, 30: Samuel Hull. 30: Andrew and Gardner Johnson, 35. 36: Daniel Price Jones, 21 : Hezekiah Kellogg, 1. 2: Martin Lonigan, 23; William and Sarah Lyon, 23, 24: John Mclntyre, 15: Isaac Magoon, Jr., 22: Christian Mason, 35: Peter B. Millis, 27; Levi IIale Nelson. 30; Thomas Stirratt Newton, 31; Delilah M. and Hannah H. Nichols, 14: Ebenezer Pardee, 30 : James and Joseph Porter, 9: Michael Regan, 24: Samuel Robinson, 2d. 26: Origen W. Royce, 19: Hezekiah M. Sanders, I : Harvey Jones Seymour, 1: John Shaw. 15: Erastus Sherman. 30: Caleb
.
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WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
T. Smith, 33: Absalom and George Spracklin, 27. 33: Frederick J. Starin, IO: Samuel Taft, 3; Cyrus Teetshorn, 27, 28; John Teetshorn, 30; Lewis Teetshorn, 22; Hans Thomason, 34: Benedict Birch Utter. 31 : Joseph Curtis Utter, 19: George Watt, II : Asad Williams. 6: George G. Williams, 23. 24, 28. 29: George Wilson, 4: David Wood, 32.
Hans Arvedson died in 1873. He and wife Esther were natives of Norway. A least one namesake changed his name to Arwood, by translating the syllable "ved." Seth M. Billings ( 1814-1880) became sheriff. His wife was Lena Markle. Dr. Joseph A. Clarke ( 1814-1873) came to Whitewater in 1839. His wife was Mary Jane Stedman. Warner Earle was a lawyer, served as town clerk, as member of Legislature, as hotel-keeper, and in 1850 went to California. Abraham Hackett ( 1811-1885) was son of Jacob and wife Eliza Moore. He married Mary, daughter of Joseph Randall. She died in 1852. John Hackett ( 1816-1886), Abraham's brother. had wife Eliza ( 1818-1869). John T. Hamilton ( 1815-1900) married, first, Marian Eliza Neill: second. Mrs. Amelia Chamberlain. Richard Hoppin ( 1783- 1869) was born at Salem, Massachusetts; his wife. Sarah A. ( 1790-1867), was born at New Haven. John McIntyre. a Nova Scotian, was born in 1809. a son of James C. He married Hannah, daughter of Moses Edison. Peter B. Millis ( 1819-1885) married Emma J., daughter of Samuel and Martha Vance. Ebenezer Pardee ( 1787-1877) married Thankful ( 1791-1868). Samuel Prince ( 1791-1867) had wife Eliza. Hezekiah Martin Sanders ( 1803-1894) married Elmora P. ( 1808-1890). Erastus Sherman died in 1866: his wife was Rhoda T. ( 1802-1870).
In 1836-7 men in quest of homes had to them a boundless area within which to make their choice. They looked for other advantages than deep vegetable mould, the nourishing mother of food crops. Between the great lake and Rock river the country was geographically favorable, for it was only just without the United States. Prairie land was desirable, but not so if no timber was in sight. Water powers promised villages with possibilities of cities second only to the well-harbored lake ports. They who came through Waukesha and Jefferson counties to Whitewater saw such advantages in section 3 and westward into Lima and southward along the line of Rock county. Later comers less hard to please or forced to second choice. found the northeastern quarter very far from forbidding. The comparatively wet land of the valley of the outlet of Whitewater lake, and even the morainal knobs of the southeastern quarter found buyers and improvers. Farmers of the town, as a whole, have prospered with not more than the usual struggle with seasons and other instruments of fate. Here, as elsewhere. for long the
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
staple crop was wheat. After nearly disappearing from crop reports there is said to be, in 1912, some observable tendency to increased wheat-sowing to meet demand at the home mills: but such movement is not likely to be- come general.
.Among the earlier and successful breeders of live stock were John M. Clark and with and after him Charles M., his son, merino sheep, short- horned cattle, and horses; Oramel Cook, sheep and cattle ; George D. Dou- bleday, trotting horses and other live stock; Herman Hemenway, sheep; Leonard C. Smith, fine-wool sheep; Frank W. Tratt, cattle and sheep. These and other men gave the town some distinction at home and abroad in this line of farmer's enterprise. Before 1860 Hanford A. Conger began to raise fruit trees and berry-bearing shrubs, extending his efforts to other locally desirable nursery stock, and for several years made his business of some im- portance to the community as well as to himself. A few smaller enterprises of the kind had their beginnings and endings.
Galena (or Trenton) limestone underlies the glacial drift and crops out at points in the creek valleys. It has been quarried superficially, for home use. and George Coburn's kiln burned it to good lime, as did David Jarvis's.
Zerah Mead of Whitewater, Jared B. Cornish, George Esterly and Vol- ney A. McCraken, of Lagrange, and Jeduthun Spooner, of Sugar Creek, were appointed school inspectors for old Elkhorn in 1840. In the same year a school house was built in the village district, which was the northern half of the township. In 1844 there were also the Island district and the Bluff district. Nine districts have been rearranged as five, one of which is a joint district with part of Richmond. But this joint district. No. 9 of White- water, is not identical with Richmond joint district No. 3. which inchides part of Whitewater.
MEMBERS OF COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
Dr. James Tripp 1842
Dr. Oliver C. Magoon 1843-4
Thomas K. LeBaron 1845
Joseph L. Pratt 1861
Prosper Cravath 1846, '67-9
George Bunker 1862
Frederick C. Patterson 1847
Newton Moore Littlejohn 1863-6.
Isaac Underhill Wheeler 1848
'70-4, 76-84
George G. Williams 1849
Solmous Wakeley 1850, 52-5
Leander Birge -1851
Richard O'Connor 1856-8
Rufus Cheney 1859-60
William De Wolf 1875
William E. Wright
1885-'91. 93-4
David B. Richmond
-- 1892
456
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Henry C. Millis 1895-1901 Almon L. Peterson 1906
03-5, 'II-12 Frederick W. Henderson -1907-12
Henry Zandtke - 190.2
ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS.
Nathan H. Allen 1867
Gilbert Anderson 1874
Sheldon C. Hall
1845. '51
Thomas Bassett 1856
Sylvester Hanson
1 868-9
Charles R. Beach 1875
Morris J. Hawes
1906-9
Leander Birge
1850
Frederick W. Henderson 1902-5
Willian Birge 1842-3
Carl Kienbaum
1910-II
Charles Morris Blackman 1873
Azor Kinney 1843 1 1
Henry L. Clark 1893. 95. 1900
John Knox 1885 I
Dr. Joseph .A. Clarke 1846
August Krahn
1 893-96
1
1
Solomon Clark 1856-7
Julius C. Cole 1861
Dr. Oliver S. Magoon IS42
Warren Cole 1848 1 I
Joseph W. Maynard 1 846
John Conety 1891
Hanford A. Conger 1 1879-80
John Stanley Partridge 1855
Robert M. Cox 1897-1900
Charles E. Curtice 1860-I
Joseph L. Pratt
1853. '57-8. '60
Jolını P. Cutler 1876
Charles C. Danforth 1868
George Dann 1847-8, 59, '62
Isaac B. Decker 1849
John W. Denison
1 869
William De Wolf 1854
Ed. Dorr 190I 1
William Doud 1901-3 1
Andrew Engebretsen I
1877-9
George T. Ferris 1863
John P. Folsom 1844 I
George H. Foster 1862-3 1
Oscar W. Fowler 1865, '67
Orlando S. Gallt 1864
Charles R. Gibbs 1800
Lyman M. Goodline 1884
James Hackett 1892. 95
Henry Ridge 1910-II
Ansel Salisbury
1875
George H. Smith 1864
Orlin Smith
1 892
Stephen Henry Smith L 1887-90
Jacob J. Starin
1876-8
Charles R. Taft 1891
Sullivan S. Taft
1885
Cyrus Teetshorn 1881-4 1 1
Salmon II. Tuttle
1
1870-3
Harry Vail
1904-9
Andrus B. Warner
1894
Eugene B. Warner 1886
Herman Wegner
- 1902
Frederick C. Patterson 1847
Norman Pratt
IS14
George A. Ray
1880-3
Edward S. Redington 1859
Zerah Mead
1845, '66
George B. Hall 1849
Robert McBeath
1870-2
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
George O. West 1874-5
Isaac Underhill Wheeler 1854
George G. Williams 1852-3. 55
William H. Wheeler 1851-2 Lucius A. Winchester 1858
William E. Wight 1886-9
William Wright
1894
TOWN CLERKS.
Warner Earl
1842
Alender O. Babcock 1843
William H. Lull
1865
William A. Harding 1844
James D. Robinson 1866
Frederick C. Patterson
1845-6
William LeRoy Stewart
i 867-8.
Prosper Cravath
1847-8. 53-5
`75-8
Solmous Wakeley
1849
Mannering M DeWolf
1873-4
Peter H. Brady
1850
Henry Heady
1 879-84
Eleazar Wakeley
1851-2. '56
Harvey A. Loomer
1885-6
Henry J. Curtice
1857
Frank H. Williams
1887-1909
Newton S. Murphey
1858
Eri H. Lewis
-1910
Henry Oreb Montague __ 1859-60, '64
John Cassidy
1911-12
Fernando Cortez Kiser
1861
TOWN TREASURERS.
Isaac Underhill Wheeler. __ 1842, '66
Duane Starin
1 869-70
Joseph W. Maynard_
1843-4. 47-8
William H. Snyder
I
1885
Frederick C. Patterson 1845-6
Truman W. Taft
1886-7
1
t
Dr. George W. Lee 1849
1 Ralph H. Smith 1 888-9 I t
Lucius A. Winchester
1850
Henry C. Millis 1890-1, '94 1 1
Jacob J. Starin 1851
Warren J. Taft 1892-3 1 1
Philetus S. Carver .1852
John Conety
t 1895-6
William H. Wheeler I 1
853-4
William Doud
1897-8
1
1
1
Seth M. Billings
1855
John Cassidy
1
1899
1
Isaac Joslyn 1856 1 I 1
James Conety I |
1 -1900
Ira C. Day I
1857
William J. Ryan 1901-2
Sylvester Barnes
1858-9
1
David Chaffee
1860
Thomas Mountford 1861
Joseph C. Bower 1862-3, '71-84
Peter H. Nelson
1
1
1
1 1 1909-10
George A. Caswell 1864-5
August Krahn
I 1911-12
Frederick Hubbard
1867-8
Amos Engel
1903-4
Charles Peterson
1
1905-6
Robert M. Cox
1907-8
1
1 1
I
Asad Williams 1850
Elliott D. Converse __ 1862-3, '69-72
1
1
458
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
Henry L. Clark _1891
Thomas O. Nelson ISSy
Frank Cummings 1898-9
Charles H. Owens 1910-II
Jeremiah Dorr 1897-1900
James D. Robinson 1865-8
Frank N. Fryer
1905-8
Milton Rowley I 868-9
Gaylord Graves
1856-7
John F. Sedgwick 1905-6
John Halverson 1 1891-2
Simon K. Simonson I I 1894-5
Jeremiah Hardin 1863
James Smith
1863-4
Ira C. Harris 1893-4, '99-1900
Robert Stephenson 1864-5 1 1
Henry Heady 1879-84
Charles R. Taft 1889
Zerah Mead 1861-2, 74
John N. Westphall
I 885-90
Frank T. Millard 1891-2
Charles M. Williams 1909-13
Rev. Oreb Montague __ 1861-3, '66-73
Thomas Wogan 1899-1905, '07
Nels W. Nelson 1886-7
Henry Wright 1885-6
Mr. Graves was an East Trojan pioneer. Mr. Hardin seemed lost to all living men's memory, but William L. R. Stewart, who forgets few men or things, recalls him as one who had lost a leg-though this reminiscence indi- cates nothing as to Squire Hardin's squirely ability or conduct in office. Mr. Montague came in 1855 as a Baptist clergyman and built a house in Birge's addition. His son, Captain Montague, was a lawyer, soldier, and town elerk. Mr. Williams is a grandson of Capt. Asad Williams and Jenny MeGee, who came to Whitewater in 1839. Zerah Mead was commissioned in 1839 and served until 1858 and quite possibly in 1859 and 1860. thoughi his credential is not filed at Elkhorn. The record does not in all cases show whether the officer was of the town or of the village, or of both.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CITY OF WHITEWATER.
Two branches of Whitewater creek become lakelets before flowing to- gether seaward. Cravath's lake, the foot of the western branch, received by a short channel the outflow of Tripp lake. This meeting of waters is in the south half of section 4, on the claim of Daniel Butts. In 1838 a grist-mill was a most pressing need, and his fellow settlers urged Mr. Butts to improve the water power or to sell to somebody who could and would. He sold that part of his claim which included the water power to John Shaw, who promised to build. but did nothing. At a meeting of settlers in November, 1838. Willard B. Johnson, Zerah Mead and Norman Pratt, as their committee, were directed to take such steps, under squatter-sovereign's usage, as might induce or compel Mr. Shaw to build at once. In the same month Dr. James Tripp came from the lake region of the Troys, and from him the committee received five hun- dred dollars, to be paid for that body to John Shaw. Daniel Butts and Stephen Butts, claimants of the including half-section : provided these men should not prevent the Doctor from buying the premises at the coming land sale, which began in February, 1839. Tripp further bound himself to build a substantial grist-mill within one year from the land sale at Milwaukee. Having at that sale bought the half-section, Doctor Tripp began work on dam and mill in April. Men from all the neighboring towns came June 27, 1839, to help in raising the frame work of the mill, and Mrs. Tripp feasted them on such good things as the home market could supply.
In the same year a blacksmith not named in annals made his shop in a log-walled space of fourteen fect square, but soon moved onward. Egbert C. and William H. Wheeler came in 1840, and the clang of hammer and anvil has continued unto this day. David J. and Joseph Powers, in 1840, built a tavern at Main street, near the mill, its dimensions eighteen by thirty-six feet.
A smithy, a tavern, and a mill being thus grouped within friendly dis- tance, each from each, it was in order to lay out a village. Doctor Tripp called Prosper Cravath from the Cortland county colony in Lima to survey and establish street lines and lot corners. The mill was made a central point from which streets should radiate, crossing-streets disposed like concentric arcs. Three radial streets were named Main, Center and Whitewater. Four
460
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN
curved streets were numbered from First to Fourth. In fast following addi- tion to the village plat this spider-web arrangement was disregarded and no heed was given to geometrical symmetry, and hence Whitewater abounds with flat-iron points and discontinuities. The site is handsomely uneven in surface, and some or most irregularities were then in some way convenient or advan- tageous to owners, though to strangers half labyrinthine.
Benjamin F. Bosworth, of McHenry county, seems to have been he who had opened a store in 1839. and this he sold in 1840 to Benjamin F. and Joseph L. Stanton. In that auspicious year of village foundation the postoffice was established. the Milwaukee Sentinel came weekly to nearly every household. Patrick McLaughlin came as a tailor, the Murrays of Beloit. came to teach dancing for the refinement of pioneer manners, a log school house and a few dwellings were built, a Presbyterian society was formed, and Julius C., son of William and Mary Alvina ( Nobles ) Birge, was born.
Philander Peck built and occupied a second store in 1841, and Thomas K. LeBaron bought the Stanton store ; Corydon Pratt came to make and sell boots and shoes ; Joseph Powers repaired guns and watches, and did other such work as was beyond mere blacksmith's skill: the Wheelers began to make steel plows at twelve dollars each: William Wood's kiln turned out forty thousand bricks at its first burning : and Doctor Tripp built a saw-mill. At an election held September 27th, the town adopted the form prescribed by a recent statute for government of towns.
TOWN ORGANIZATION
At the first town meeting, held April 5. 1842, besides the officers named in the official lists for the town, Capt. Asad Williams and Azor Kinney were chosen assessors: William H. Wheeler, collector; Doctor Magoon, Zerah Mead, Calvin Pike, road commissioners; Harrison Bishop, Drs. Clarke and Magoon, school commissioners; Leander Birge. Charles Robinson, William H. Wheeler, constables; Norman Pratt. Samuel Prince, Thomas Van Horn, fence-viewers: Sidney S. Workman, sealer of weights and measures. In that year Nehemiah B. Parsons and Jedidiah Brown opened a newly built hotel, the Whitewater Exchange. In the next year Brown withdrew from the busi- ness and the house was let to Daniel Niemann. In 1842 also a cemetery was laid out : Solmous Wakeley bought the Stanton store: Freeman Liberty Pratt improved the Powers tavern and made it the Whitewater Hotel: Richard O'Connor came with another stock of assorted goods: Alender O. Babcock. Warner Earle and Frederick C. Patterson formed a lawyer partnership: Cory-
461
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
don Pratt moved his kit into his own shop from the Matthew Hicks dwelling ; Mr. Patterson taught school : a debating society formed; the Baptists organ- ized their society : several new houses were built. Mr. Cravath noted that in this year spring wheat sold at 36 cents to 40 cents ; winter wheat, 40 cents to 46 cents ; butter, 16 cents : eggs, 8 cents : calicoes, 18 cents to 37 cents. He also ob- served that fifteen calico dress patterns were sold within the year and that about fifty bonnets were charged at 371/2 cents a piece and trimmed at 121/2 cents to a half dollar each. Men of 1912 may well sigh for a return of that good old time, when a small family could live on $240 for a year.
Congregationalists organized in 1843. having already built a church. More merchants and mechanics came to add the enlivening element of compe- tition to village trade. In this year stage coaches ran from Milwaukee through Whitewater to Janesville.
In 1844 there were six stores, two hotels, three smithies, two cabinet shops, a grocery, a grist-mill, a saw-mill, a law office, a wagon-maker, a tailor, a shoemaker, a gunsmith, a cooper and twenty-nine dwellings. At such steady rate, without reckless or indecent haste. Whitewater grew throughout the pioneer period, which may be held as having ended with the coming of the first jolting railway train from Milwaukee. In that year the assessed valuation of village lots was $2.761. Buildings thereon were exempted from taxation, as was all personal property except merchandise, which was then valued at $5.200. The late Henry George may have taken a leaf from the book of a Whitewater assessor. In this year. September 4th. Dr. James Tripp, the father and friend of the village, died at one day less than forty-nine years old.
ADVENT OF RAILROADS.
Along the generally traveled wagon route from Whitewater to Milwau- kee, something more than fifty toilsome miles, there were in 1849 fifteen tav- erns, subsisting chiefly from the custom of farmers who hauled grain to the city and teamsters who hauled goods from the city. It was evident that the time was nearly at hand for quicker and cheaper transportation. A railway company was organized in 1847 to build its line from Milwaukee to Waukesha. An amended charter empowered the company to extend its line across the state. In 1849 the western terminus and the route thence from Waukesha were not precisely defined. A line through liberally subscribing villages and townships would warrant a few curves in the road-bed. If the route chosen should be across Jefferson county, leaving Whitewater ten miles from the nearest station, lots at that village would be of little more value than like
462
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
areas at any cross-roads of Lagrange or Richmond. Here was matter of near concern to village and town. All men agreed that the railway must come this way, but ingenuity and cunning were taxed to their utmost to invent or imagine methods by which the required aid might be given without burden to indi- viduals or community.
In 1850 the directors of this Milwaukee & Mississippi line proposed a simple expedient. Land owners were to buy stock, mortgage their real estate as security for its payment in ten years, and the company would pay the inter- est from its earnings. Dividends from like source, interest not included. would more than clear away the mortgages and thenceforth the stockholders would derive an assured income from their shares. There were doubters at Whitewater, but their ratio to the generously confiding was about that of St. Thomas to his more trustful fellow-disciples, which was one to eleven. There were at the village Rufus Cheney, Jr .. Eleazar Wakeley and others whose manna-dropping tongues could perplex and dash the wisest of the would-be prudent and persuade men that to shut their eyes was the better way to see clearly into the next-coming years. The good almost within grasp was not to be foregone by too literal adherence in practice to the maxims of ancient wisdom. Shares were taken, farms and homes were mortgaged, the railway was built, and at the end of the dance the piper was paid.
In 1851 the track-layers reached Waukesha, in 1852 they were at White- water, Lima, and Milton, and by 1856 they had finished at Prairie du Chien. The effect on village growth was at once so striking as to raise hope to its highest at all the villages of Walworth. Three other lines across the county were projected and to each was given local aid. One of these was the Wis- consin Central railway from Chicago to or beyond Columbus, by way of Genoa Junction, Lake Geneva, Elkhorn, Millard. Heart Prairie and White- water. Cheney and Wakeley were officers of this company and, as Mr. Cravath has told, "entered into the work heartily and energetically, and were very successful in obtaining subscriptions, most of the mhabitants taking from one to five shares." The town issued bonds in aid of this work to the amount of forty thousand dollars. Most of the grading done was in 1856 and 1857. and rails were laid from the state line to Lake Geneva. The rest of the story has been told in another chapter. The panic period was borne as patiently and manfully here as elsewhere throughout the states, and when civil war followed the men and boys of Whitewater were among the earliest in the field and among the soldiers who remained there, after the proclamation of peace, to warn or encourage Maximilian's too serviceable French army to "get out of Mexico."
463
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.
Doctor Tripp sold his grist-mill in 1853 to William Birge, who rebuilt it in 1856 of stone from a Waukesha quarry. Mr. Birge died in 1860, and in 1866 John Lean bought the mill. After him were Byron Brown, Charles M. Brown (unrelated) about 1878. A. I. Dexter, 1881, Albert F. and George S. Bridge, 1882, Thomas N. Sedgwick, 1894, Edwin D. Coe, 1905. Some of these may have had but part ownership. The mill is yet in operation for cus- tom work and for production of graham flour. It has always been reckoned among the business enterprises which brought some good to Whitewater.
Asaph Pratt built the "red mill" in 1843 at the upper power in section 8. a little more than a mile from the Tripp mill. Ansel Salisbury bought it in 1857 and it was thereafter known as the "branch mill." In 1888-9 Oliver P. Posey and George W. Chesebro formed the Posey and Chesebro Milling and Elevator Company. A few months later Mr. Posey withdrew and Mr. Chesebro formed a partnership with William J Pike and George H. Goodhue. During the Posey ownership a side track was laid from the station to the mill. The rails remain, but the mill is no more.
George Dann made bricks in 1847 and for years afterward. His kiln was near Cravath street, east side. (Mr. Wood's kiln was near the pond, south of the track. ) About 1852 Albert Kendall, in 1866 Augustus Y. Chamberlin were owners and about 1879 Joseph Dann and Edward Roethe added three more kilns. In 1891 Mr. Dann sold the works to Charles Martin, who fired the kiln for two years more. In 1903 came the Whitewater Brick and Tile Company, without local competition. Thomas Van Horn is also named among early brick-makers.
Warren Cole began to make pottery wares in :845, and two years later George G. Williams bought a half interest. In 1855 the firm was James C. Williams & Company. In 1859 it was Daniel Cole and William Hunter. The works were burned in 1867. and rebuilt by Mr. Cole. About 1870 Michael Ohnhaus, with and without partners, continued the works for a few years. Timothy S. Abbott then bought the building and changed its product from jugs and flower-pots to cheese-boxes. Mr. Ohnhaus with John Milz had worked a second pottery about 1859-1865.
Oscar A. Weed made wagons in 1843. In 1845 his partner was Joseph L. Pratt. who in 1848 opened a larger shop, and in 1860 sold it to Elliot D. Converse. Lucius A. Winchester came in 1844 as a blacksmith, and with Daniel C. Tripp established a foundry in 1850. William De Wolf joined the firm in 1852 and the next year plow-making began, and other things useful to
464
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
farmers were turned out. Plows were made until 1873. About 1860, the firin made stronger by the entry of John S. Partridge. wagon-making became the principal business of this shop, and so continued to be until 1888, before which year the firm had become Winchester. Partridge & Company. Mr. Winchester died in 1890 and Mr. Partridge in 1892. It was not found profit- able to continue their work, though twenty years before they had shipped five thousand wagons yearly.
George Esterly, an inventive farmer of Heart Prairie, began at White- water in 1856 to make his reaper. The business and the reaper improved yearly, and in 1889 five thousand of his self-binding machines were made and sold. He had begun by contracting at Racine for making his castings and for doing the machine-wrought woodwork. Local shops at Elkhorn and other convenient points contracted to receive the parts "in the knock-down." to add the needful hand labor and the painting, and to deliver to buyers as directed. In another year all this work was done at Whitewater. Like the wagon-works, the reaper-shops drew mind, muscle, business, and wealth to Whitewater. In 1893 this industry was moved to Minneapolis, "to run a short and disappointing career." At the height of its prosperity it had em- ployed from two hundred to five hundred persons.
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