History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc., Part 232

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052

USA > Wisconsin > History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc. > Part 232

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).

973

HISTORY OF SHEBOYGAN COUNTY.

of 4 and 7 years, of these, 1,293 attended school ; of chil- dren between 7 and 15 years of age, there were 5,257, and of these, 4,272 attended school ; there were 3,140 children between the ages of 15 and 20 years, and of these 971 at- tended school. The average attendance was 60 per cent of the time. There was spent for all school purposes $32,- 242.04, and the value of school property was $64,892.

AGRICULTURAL GROWTH.

For some years after the first settlement of Sheboygan County, not enough provisions were raised in the county to subsist the people. Then the agricultural resources were sufficiently developed so that the staple productions had no longer to be imported. Gradually a surplus for shipment was acquired, until 1867 the surplus products of the soil amounted to a 81,500,000. Wheat, then the main crop, was produced of so fine a quality that Sheboygan County wheat had acquired a reputation in all the principal markets of this country, and enjoyed the distinction of a special quo- tation in Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo and New York. Rye, barley and oats of fine quality were also produced. A re- markable fact is stated by old residents, in reference to the prosperity of agricultural interests of the county, namely that there has never been a failure of crops, such as has oc- casionally been witnessed in many localities.

At this time (1867), the wool interest was a large and profitable one in the county. In an early day, some of the finest blood of Vermont was brought to Sheboygan County, and the quality of wool improved until the product of this county sold in the markets of New England at an advance over that of old Vermont herself. It was about this time that the great dairy interests, which now make Sheboygan known in all the leading markets of America and Europe, began to assume a permanently important character. The first premium awarded for cheese made in this county was awarded to N. C. Harmon, of Lyndon, at the fair of the Sheboygan Agricultural Society held at Sheboygan Falls, September 24 and 25, 1857. The next year, John J. Smith procured the first cheese vat and began to manufact- ure on the co-operative plan, collecting curd of his neigh- bors. It was not until 1859, however, that a regular cheese factory was started, in which year Hiram Smith took milk from his patrons and paying cash or manufacturing for a percentage of the cheese. A dairy board was first organ- ized at Sheboygan Falls, in 1872, which has held regular meetings each season since for the sale of cheesc. When John J. Smith first exhibited Sheboygan cheese in Chicago, dealers would not look at them, and he had to offer to pay a man for his time if he would examine them. But he sold the cheese, and in 1875, the export trade had reached 50,000 boxes, while buyers from Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal and Liverpool were present at the meetings of the dairy board. In 1867, Sheboygan County cheese sold at better prices in Milwaukee and Chicago than Ohio and New York products. In the best days of hop culture, Sheboygan County produced an article not sur- passed anywhere. Other evidences of the prosperity of the agricultural sections of the county were multiplied of a better character than even the superior quality of the pro- ductions, we mean the organization of schools and churches and building houses for the use of these objects. The as- sertion is ventured by a careful observer of that time "that in proportion to the area and population of the county, we have a greater number of schoolhouses, churches and mills

than any county in the State." This is certainly a flatter- ing statement in view of composite character of the people who had settled in the county, coming as they did from many different States of the Union, and nearly all the principal nations of Europe. In 1870, there had been erected 120 schoolhouses, and more than fifty churches, besides many schoolhouses being used for church purposes. A statement of the productions of the county carefully com- piled for the year 1870, indicates what advancement had been made in agriculture from small beginnings. There were then owned in the county 6,518 horses; 22,204 neat cattle and cows ; 38,378 sheep; 8,904 swine, and 94 asses, which, as some facetiously observe, was a " remarkably small number for a population of 30,000." There was pro- duced of the cereals, 570,665 bushels of wheat; 90,824 bushels of rye ; 126,651 bushels of corn; 425,374 bushels of oats : 56,427 bushels of barley. Other productions were 139,057 bushels of potatoes ; 134,240 pounds of wool ; 710,088 pounds of butter ; 85,565 pounds of cheese ; 39,- 424 tons of hay. There was received for pork in that year about $50,000, and about the same amount for peas. The raising of fruit has not been made a specialty in the county, but a careful estimate of the production of apples in the town of Plymouth alone, in the year 1869, placed the pro- duction at 15,000 bushels. A similar statement of agri- cultural products a decade later gives as the production of the soil in 1880, wheat, 236,104 bushels ; corn, 312,418 bushels ; oats, 544,280 bushels; barley, 230,077 bushels ; rye, 67,607 bushels; potatoes, 168,031 bushels; root crops, 66,716 bushels ; apples, 221,503 bushels : clover seed, 1,287 bushels; timothy seed, 626 bushels ; hops, 14,- 620 pounds; tobacco, 345 pounds; hay, 36,616 tons. There were 18,688 cows owned in the county, valued by the Assessors at 8333,793. The dairy products amounted to 419.711 pounds of butter, and 4,294,509 pounds of cheese. The yield of peas was estimated by dealers at from 50,000 to 60,000 bushels. There were owned 9,125 horses ; 31,522 neat cattle; 25.214 sheep, and 10,109 swine. The figures here given showing the production of cheese in 1880, are taken from the reports made by As- sessors on file in the office of the Clerk of the Board of Su- pervisors. But the German Bank, through which most of the transactions were made, kept a record of sales which shows that 4,768,110 pounds were shipped by the Lake Shore road alone in that year. Shipments by other routes and careful estimates made in reference to the yield in the western part of the county, placed the total production of cheese in 1880 at not less than 6,000,000 pounds.

The Sheboygan County Agricultural Society was or- ganized July 4, 1851. The annual fair is held at the fair grounds, of which the society has a permanent Icase, one mile west of the village of Sheboygan Falls. The grounds are fenced and have buildings suitable for carrying on the fair. A half-mile track is used for the exhibition of horses. The society is free from debt. A liberal premium list draws out good exhibits in every department. The officers of the society are : President, C. II. Pape, of Sheboygan ; See- retary, J. Q. Adams, of Sheboygan ; Treasurer, J. W. Ilanford, of Sheboygan Falls; Vice Presidents, G. A. Willard, of Sheboygan, William Chaplin, of Plymouth, and William Wonsor, of Ilolland : Executive Committee, G. N. Gilbert, of Sheboygan Falls, R. R. Wilson. of Plymouth. M. Guyett, of Sheboygan Falls, Asa Carpenter. of Plym- outh, and J. E. Thomas, of Sheboygan Falls ; Discretionary

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

Committee. N. C. Farnsworth. I. Adriance and G. W. l'eck, all of Sheboygan Falls.

Fairs were held in Sheboygan under the auspices of the German Agricultural and Industrial Society, as long ago as the year 1>65. They grew from small beginnings, and it was not until August 13. 1872, that the society was for- mally organized according to the plan under which it has since worked. The principal movers in the organization and in drafting the constitution, were F. Stoesser, F. Muel- ler. G. Pieper. A. Froehlich and J. Dengel. The first offi- eers elected by the new organization were M. Trimberger, President : F. Stoesser, Secretary ; C. Reich, Treasurer. The first Board of Directors consisted of F. Zimmerman, A. Froehlich, G. Pieper, J. Dengel and N. Mueller. About 120 members participated in this organization. The. pres- ent grounds, in the northern part of the city, were pur- chased, and the main building at once erected. Other buildings, sheds. etc., have been added from time to time. The society now numbers 350 members, and offers premi- ums to the amount of about $400 for exhibits at its fair for 1581. The present officers are, President, Charles Wipperman ; Vice Presidents, W. Froehlich, August Zsch- etzsche ; Secretary, Joseph Bast ; Treasurer, Carl Reich.

As it was the lumbering interests which first brought business enterprise into Sheboygan County, so there has always been manifested a commendable interest in the de- velopment of the resources of this region in the direction of general manufactures. In 1849 there were in the county one flouring-mill. carrying four run of stone, two custom mills, one steam saw-mill, seventeen saw-mills, running by water-power, and two foundries. In 1858, there had been added in Sheboygan, two steam flour-mills, one steam saw- mill, a planing and siding mill, two more foundries, four or five wagon shops. thirteen cooper shops, a fanning-mill shop, three ship yards, two of them with steam machinery, and two brick yards were turning out from 300,000 to 800,000 beautiful cream brick annually. In 1870 there were seven- teen grist-mills and twenty-six saw-mills. The value of leather manufactured was 8200,000 ; wagon stuff shipped, $30,000; cooper's stuff. 830,000. The immense strides which have been made in manufacturing, covering a large range of products, will be noted with justifiable pride, as shown in the portion of this history devoted to the city of Sheboygan and the several towns respectively.

In taking the land in a state of nature and improving it until the " wilderness shall blossom as the rose," a vast amount of wealth is created -- wrought out by hard toil and careful economy. This is the most substantial form of wealth, and is the truest political economy. After a quarter of a century of growth, Sheboygan County con- tained, in 1860. a population of 27,082, residing in 5,469 dwelling houses. The value of the real estate was 85,211,- 021, and the number of acres of improved land was 107,- 245. The value of personal property was $1,542,532. The value of agricultural products was 8562,403. and of manufactured articles, 8722,140. In 1870, 31,759 people lived in 5,738 dwellings, and owned real estate to the amount of $11,366.540, of which 150,093 acres was im- proved land, and possessed personal property to the amount of 4,252.611. The value of agricultural products was 82,076,892, and of manufactured articles, $1.765,953. In the year 1880, the population numbered 34,221. The re- sults of the census of that year are not yet published, re- lating to the enumeration and valuation of property, but a

fair estimate, calculated upon the basis of the assessed valu- ation, shows a real property valuation of $14,318,528, and personal property amounting to 84,686,822. The state- ment of agricultural products given elsewhere, shows a large increase of value over 1870 in some articles, notably in the immense production of cheese. The value of man- factured articles in above figures does not include the prod- ucts of the manufactories, but only articles owned and used by the people of the county. When to the figures already given are added the values of all manufactured prod- ucts of the great factories now in operation, and the prop- erty exempt from taxation, it will readily be seen that the wealth of Sheboygan reaches vast proportions.

THE WAR PERIOD.

Sheboygan County bore bravely its portion in that great struggle, the war of the rebellion. and a large proportion of men, in the strength of their prime and vigor of young man- hood, devoted themselves to the cause of their country, while those who stayed to care for the business interests at home showed their loyalty and patriotism in other ways. No sooner had the news of the fall of Fort Sumter reached Sheboygan, than her citizens were roused at once in patri- otie indignation, and rallied immediately to respond to the call of President Lincoln for the handful of troops with which it was thought to quell rebellion and restore the stars and stripes to the ascendancy on rebel soil. On Sunday, April 14, 1861, meetings were held in Sheboygan and throughout the county to urge the enlistment of volunteers, and on the following Sunday, the 21st of April, the first company was organized under Capt. Edmund B. Gray, afterward known as Company C, Fourth Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry, which regiment was subsequently re-organ- ized as a cavalry regiment. This regiment went into camp at Racine, and on the 28th of June Company (' was ordered to Milwaukee, to aid in quelling a riot, where the first She- boygan man was killed in the performance of his duties as a soldier. W. V. Reed is reported on the muster roll as accidentally killed in the State service on the 29th of June, 1861. On the 15th of July, this company left with its regiment to go into active duty at Baltimore. The company saw severe service, and very many of its number lost their lives in the service of their country.

The First Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, as re-organized after its three months' service, contained two companies from Sheboygan County-Company II, Capt. Eugene Cary, and Company I, Capt. Orrin Rogers. In the Eighth Regi- ment, Company B, Capt. D. B. Conger, was raised in this county. This company afterward enjoyed the honor of being the largest veteran company in the regiment. Com- pany A, Capt. Frederick Aude, known in the service as the "Sheboygan Tigers," belonged to the first exclusively Ger- man regiment which went into the war from Wisconsin, the Ninth Infantry. In the Fourteenth Regiment was Company II, Capt. C. M. G. Mansfield, enlisted in this county. Company E, of the Seventeenth Regiment, was raised here. and commanded by Capt. Peter Feagan. Sixty men from Sheboygan County were enrolled in Company HI, of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, and were accompanied by bient. Joseph Wedig. The Twenty-seventh Regiment, of which Conrad Krez, of Sheboygan, was Colonel, and Dr. J. J. Brown, Lieutenant Colonel, contained four companies of Sheboygan County volunteers, namely, Company B. Capt. E. W. Stannard : Company C, Capt. Fred Sclmellen ; Com-

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HISTORY OF SHEBOYGAN COUNTY.

pany E, Capt. Alfred Marschner ; Company F. Capt. S. houses, the prostration of growing crops and in many other D. Hubbard.

Sheboygan County was well represented in Company E, Capt. Jerome Brooks, Thirty-sixth Regiment ; also in Company D, Capt. Andrew Patcher, Thirty-ninth Regiment, which was enlisted for 100 days.

Besides the companies named, Sheboygan County men were scattered through many other regiments, many enlist- ing as recruits in old companies. Some of these regiments were the First and Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, the Sixth, Nineteenth, Thirty-seventh and Fifty-second Infantry.

A statement furnished by the Adjutant General of the State shows that Sheboygan County furnished 2,215 sol- diers for the war, of which number only 479 were drafted. There were, then, 1,736 volunteers, besides those who enlisted outside the county, and for which the county did not get credit. The population of the county was 27,082 in 1860. Separate bnt of the population, the men capable of military duty, and the 2,215 who actually went into the war, would certainly exceed one-half the whole number capable of bearing arms. No further commendation is needed of the patriotism of the citizens of Sheboygan County than such a statement. The number who did not return, and who sealed their devotion with their lives, was large. Many of the companies enumerated above were in the thickest of the fight, and some of them suffered exceptionally. Hundreds of homes in Sheboygan County could testify with tears to the havoc of war. Very many of those who served their country from this county were not born on American soil, or were sons of those who were citizens of the United States by adoption only. But here as elsewhere, through- out the nation. foreign-born citizens showed their love for the land which had given them homes by being in the fore- front of battle.

The so-called "Indian scare," was a memorable event in the history of the county. On September 3, 1832, the rumor started that the Indians had begun an uprising, and that the whole county was in danger. Mounted messengers spread the report of burned and sacked villages, and the whole population was thrown into a state of intense excite- ment. People gathered together in the villages, armed with pitch-forks, scythes and such other weapons as could be found. At Sheboygan, the draw to the bridge was taken up and the whole city guarded. At Glenbeulah a railroad train was kept in readiness to carry off the terrified inhab- itants in case of attack. All through the county people secured their valuables and took measures for their personal safety. Many hundreds of people left their homes expect- ing to never again see them. It was a number of days before the excitement died away. How and where this "scare " originated, is unknown, but the public excitement over the Indian atrocities at New Ulm and Mankato, led people to ignore the utter impossibility of such scenes being enacted here.

TORNADO OF 1873.

The most severe tornado which ever visited this region swept over Sheboygan County on the 4th of July, 1873. A dense fog prevailed, accompanied with a chilly wind from the lake. About 11 o'clock in the forenoon, a violent storm of wind and rain, accompanied by terrific lightning and thunder arose and raged with fearful force for the space of twenty minutes before its power began to wane. Short as the time was, it was long enough to canse much damage in the destruction of trees, the overthrow and unroofing of

ways. In the city of Sheboygan, trees fifteen or sixteen inches in diameter were snapped off like reeds, and a large number were prostrated to the ground, oftentimes doing damage to houses, fruit trees and fences in their fall. Nu- merous chimneys were thrown down, and injuries done to dwellings by their fall in several cases. Turner Hall and the court house as well as private residences suffered from this cause. Tin roofs were rolled up or torn entirely off. The smoke stacks of the two chair factories, Freyberg's mill, Bertschey's elevator, Vollrath & Co.'s steel foundry, Look, Waechter & Co.'s box factory, and Zschetsche & Heyer's tannery were blown down. About one-third of the roof of the latter building was carried away with a quantity of bark. The roof of the large Empire tannery was raised over a foot in height and dropped down without further damage. The frames for two dwelling houses on Niagara street were prostrated, and the engine house of the Lake Shore Railroad was laid flat. The sails of several vessels in the harbor were torn in shreds, even when closely furled. Vessels were torn from their moorings and three were driven against the Eighth street bridge, one of them moving the south end several feet from its position and necessitating repairs. In one instance a two-inch oak plank, fourteen feet long was taken up by the wind and thrust through the side of a box car. The roofs of the buildings belonging to the Sheboygan Manufacturing Company's chair works were stripped clean of their gravel and cement covering. Whole piles of lumber were sent flying. The aggregate loss in the city was considerable, but fortunately the injury to life was limited to the breaking of a woman's arm, in the Third Ward, from the falling of a shop on the premises. Outside of the city, several buildings were blown down on Judge Taylor's farm, as were most of the barns along the gravel road to Sheboygan Falls. Sixteen buildings were reported blown down or unroofed on the Fond du Lac road before reaching Plymouth. Forty-two barns are said to have suf- fered from the hurricane in the town of Rhine. At Elk- hart Lake and at Howard's Grove, several buildings were blown down, including three dwellings. At Plymouth, buildings were unroofed, and a maple grove laid low. Al- together, it was such a celebration of the national anniver- sary by the elements as this section does not care to witness again.

SHEBOYGAN.

A gentleman who made the trip from Green Bay to Chicago by steamer, as long ago as 1845, wrote a com- munication to an eastern paper, in which he spoke of She- boygan as follows: "This I found to be a place about which not so much has been said, yet one of the most romantic and promising villages on the entire lake. More natural advantages center here to make this, in time, a large and splendid city, than any other place within my knowl- edge." "There is no city on the lakes more pleasantly located than Sheboygan." So said the leading newspaper of Wisconsin a decade ago, and the truthfulness of the statement is indorsed by every visitor of to-day. The She- boygan River enters the city at a point a little south of the middle point of the western boundary line, runs in a north- easterly direction nearly to the northern limit of the orig- inal plat, curves to the east, then makes a broad sweep to the southeast, reaching a point several blocks below a middle line run from east to west across the city, when it curves

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

sharply to the north for a few blocks and turning east empties itself immediately into the lake, affording two miles of navigation within the city limits. On the beautiful ele- vated plateau north and east of the river, undulated along the lake and dotted with fine groves (giving to it the name of " Evergreen City "), is situated the residence and main busi- ness portion of the city. Most of the great manufacturing interests are located on the south and west banks of the river. The city is admirably located, geographically, for commeree and manufacturing. and its facilities for com- munication, both by rail and water, are complete. The town of Sheboygan is No. 15 north, Range 23 east. The original plat of the village comprised fractional Section 23. east half of Section 22, northeast quarter of Section 27

płat of the village was surveyed. The owners of the prop- erty were George Smith, Daniel Whitney, William Bruce and Seth Rees, all non-residents, to which fact was due, in part, at least, the delay in the permanent growth of the place at the outset. In August, of 1836, Charles D. Cole and family settled here and were soon followed by other families, as related in the record of the early settlement of the county. A charter was granted incorporating the vil- lage of Sheboygan, by the Legislature of 1846, and an election for choosing officers was held on the 9th of Feb- ruary of that year. The result was as follows: President, H. 11. Conklin ; Trustees. Warren Smith, J. L. Moore, William Farnsworth, R. P. Harriman ; Clerk, D. U. Har- rington ; Treasurer, Van Epps Young; Assessor Stephen

CITY OF SHEBOYGAN.

and fractional north half of Section 26. Additions were made from time to time on the north and on the south, the present legal boundaries being as follows : Commeneing on the lake shore in east and west section line of Section 14, running west on quarter-seetion line of Seetions 14 and 15 to the center of Section 15, thence south on north and south quarter section lines of Sections 15, 22 and 27 to south quarter post of Section 27, thence east on section lines of 27 and 26 to the lake shore, thence north along lake shore to beginning, embracing about 1,850 acres.

In 1835, William Paine and Wooster Harrison built cabins within the limits of the present city of Sheboygan, but as they stayed only a short time, they can hardly be called the first residents. In the winter of 1835-36, the

Wolverton; Constable, Robert Watterson. The city of Sheboygan was incorporated by act of the Legislature March 19, 1853, chapter 94, private and local laws of 1853. The first election under the charter was held on Tuesday April 5, 1858. The following officers were elected: Mayor, H. H. Conklin; Clerk. C. E. Morris; Treasurer, Kasper Guck : Superintendent of Schools, J. J. Brown; Marshal, George Throop; Police Justice, D. Man- ville. The city was divided into two wards, and the Alder- men elected were: First Ward, G. H. Smith, Jas. Fagan, John Deitzel; Second Ward, Jas. Hogan, Joseph Schrage, John Gee. The following is the list of Mayors who have been elected from the organization to the present time with dates of their service: H. II. Conklin, from April. 1853,

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HISTORY OF SHEBOYGAN COUNTY.

to August, 1858 ; F. R. Townsend, August, 1853, to April, 1854; J. F. Kirkland, 1854 to 1855; E. Fox Cook, 1855 to 1857 ; Z. P. Mason, 1857 to 1858; W. N. Shafter, 1858 to 1859; Z. P. Mason, 1859 to 1860; Bille Williams, 1860 to 1862; Godfrey Stamm, 1862 to 1863; J. L. Moore, 1863 to 1867; J. O. Thayer, 1867 to 1868; Franeis Geele, 1868 to 1870; Thos. M. Blackstock, 1870 to 1871; William Elwell, 1871 to 1872; T. M. Blaek- stock, 1872 to 1873; James Bell, 1873 to 1874; B. Will- iams, 1874 to 1875; George End, 1875 to 1876; F. Geele, 1876 to 1879; George End, 1879 to 1880; F. Geele, 1880 to 1881. The present eity officers are : Mayor, William H. Seaman ; Clerk, W. Kunz; Comptroller, M. H. Wilgus ; Treasurer, J. H. Abrahams; City Attorney. Conrad Krez ; Assessor, Joseph Bast; Marshal, Louis Otte. The School Commissioners are L. D. Harvey, Superintendent, Joseph Bast and James Bell. The city now embraces five wards, each represented by three Aldermen.

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Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1052

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052