USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine > Racine, belle city of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 11
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
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Raymond was afraid to deny, and after a hearty meal they de- parted. White children were few, and Charles Raymond, Alvin's son, played so much with Indian children that he could speak the Potawatomi language when only three years of age.
The first marriage in Raymond was that of Willard Flint and Miss Eliza Raymond, which was solemnized on May 27, 1838.
On February 2, 1846, Governor Dodge approved an act of the Territorial Legislature, one section of which provided: "That all that district of country comprised in Township 4 North, of Range 21 East, and the east half of Township 4 North, of Range 20 East, in Racine County, be, and the same hereby is organized into a separate town to be called Black Hawk, and the first town meeting in said town shall be held at the house of Elisha Ray- mond."
This section was repealed the next day by an act, Section 1 of which reads as follows: "That all that part of the Town of Yorkville, in the County of Racine, lying north of Township 3 North, in Ranges 20 and 21 East, shall be and is hereby set off into a separate town, by the name of Raymond, and the first town meeting shall be held at the house of Elisha Raymond."
The repealing act, although written in different phraseology, included the same territory in the Town of Raymond that had been incorporated in the Town of Black Hawk the day before. As originally created, Raymond included all the present township of that name and the eastern half of Norway. It was reduced to its present dimensions by the act of February 11, 1847. The population in 1910 was 1,512, and in 1915 the assessed value of the property was $2,422,827.
ROCHESTER TOWNSHIP
The Town of Rochester is the smallest in the county, as it is comprised of the north half of Congressional Township 3, Range 19, and has an area of only eighteen square miles. It is situated in the western tier; is bounded on the north by the Town of Waterford; on the east by Dover; on the south by Burlington, and on the west by the County of Walworth. The Fox River flows in a southerly direction through the eastern half of the township and it is joined near the village of Rochester by the Muskego Creek, the outlet of Wind Lake. The outlet of Eagle Lake touches the southeast corner and falls into the Fox River
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in Section 14. A little of the north end of Long Lake lies in this township and there is a small lake between it and the Village of Rochester.
Levi Godfrey and John B. Wade came into what is now Rochester Township on foot in the fall of 1835. To the former belongs the honor of being the first white settler. He was looking for a water power and finding a place that looked suitable for his purposes near where the Village of Rochester now stands. he made a claim on the west side of the Fox River at that point. His shanty, sixteen feet square, was the first structure erected by a white man in the township. When it was completed he brought his wife to their frontier home early in 1836. Mrs. Godfrey did not see a white woman during the first six weeks of her residence in Racine County. Her nearest female neighbor was Mrs. Betsy Call, at Call's Grove, in what is now the Town of Waterford.
Mr. Wade also made a claim and his wife was the first person to die in the township, her death occurring on New Year's Day in 1837. In that year Levi Godfrey opened his hotel in Rochester.
A few settlers located in Rochester during the year 1836, among whom were G. W. Gamble, Gilman Hoyt, John T. Palmer, L. O. and Martin Whitman and Mary Skinner. The first bridge over the Fox River at Rochester was built in the fall of that year by Ira A. Rice and John T. Pahner.
Quite a number of immigrants came to the township in 1837, among whom may be mentioned George E. Duncan, George W. and Tristam Hoyt, Benjamin Flanders, Alonzo Snow, James H. Gipson, Thaddeus Earl, David M. Fowler, Joseph Clark, Philan- der Bartlett, Benjamin Bartlett, Horace Frost, Royal Flanders, Patrick Laughrin, John Freelove and Sela Whitman. Toward the close of the year John Freelove, Sela Whitman and Seth Warner also settled in Rochester. Seth Warner's son, Henry, was the first white child born in the township.
In 1838 Horace Andrews, Calvin Earl, I. O. Parker, H. S. Hurlbut, Hilliard Hely and William G. Lewis all made claims in the township, and the next year the population was increased by the arrival of Obed Hurlbut, G. M. Hely, Eleazer Everit, Jacob L. Myers, Jedediah Healy, Henry Cady, Luther Whitman, Abial Whitman, J. H. Hickox, Richard E. Ela and Pinkston Wade.
A saw-mill was built at Rochester soon after the first settle-
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ments were started, and when Eleazor Everit arrived in 1839 he decided to have a frame house. He therefore cut and hauled two saw-logs to the mill and had them sawed into boards. Then he ent down four small trees and planted them firmly in the ground for corner posts. To these posts he nailed the boards and also used some of his lumber for a roof. The house was not exactly "a thing of beauty," but it served as an abode for himself, his wife and two children on the farm where he afterward built a substantial residence and made other improvements second to none in the county. The first season he occupied his farm he sowed six acres of wheat, which viekled a good crop. In market- ing his wheat he was especially fortunate. Southport (now in Kenosha County) was the most convenient market town and to that place he hauled a load of wheat, for which he received thir- teen dollars in curreney, but upon trying to pass the money learned that the bank which had issued it had been in bankruptcy for two years.
Some idea of the hardships encountered by young women on the frontier may be gained from the experience of Emily Hoyt, daughter of Tristam C. Hoyt, who came with her father and brother to Rochester in 1837, when she was only thirteen years of age. She was the housekeeper for the family and after pre- paring breakfast on summer mornings she would hurry up with her work, fasten the door of the cabin as well as she could and go with her father and brother to the field, where she would re- main all day following the plow, rather than stay in the cabin, because Indians in considerable numbers were constantly prowl- ing about the neighborhood and she was afraid to be by herself.
The first physician in Rochester Township was Dr. Solomon Blood; Seth Warner was the first justice of the peace; Rev. C. C. Cadwell was the first resident minister, who preached for the Baptist Church, organized in 1837, which was the first religious society. Philo Belden built the first briek chinmey, hauling the brick from a yard at the month of the Root River, a distance of about twenty-five miles. Martin Whitman began the improve- ment of a water power on Muskego Creek in the fall of 1837, and in January, 1840, Oren Wright put in a turning lathe. He manu- factured chairs, tables and bedsteads - the only furniture of that description made any place within a radius of many miles. The first marriage was that of a Mr. Cole and a Miss Fowler. The
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groom walked to Racine for the marriage license, which cost him tour dollars.
When Rochester Township was first established by the act of January 2, 1838, its boundaries were described as follows: "Commencing at the southwest corner of the Town of Mount Pleasant: thence due west to the line dividing Racine and Wal- worth Counties; thence due north to the north line of Racine County; thence east to the northwest corner of the Town of Mount Pleasant, and thence due south to the place of beginning."
These boundaries included all the present Town of Rochester, the Towns of Dover, Norway and Waterford, and the north half of Burlington. The next Legislature passed an act, approved by Governor Dodge on March 9, 1839, creating a number of new townships in the state and modifying the boundaries of those pre- viously established. Section 21 of that act provided: "That the country included within the following limits, to wit: Commencing at the northwest corner of Racine County; thence due cast to the northwest corner of the Town of Mount Pleasant; thence due south to the northeast (southeast) corner of Section 13, in Town- ship No. 3 North, Range 20 East; thence dne west to the line dividing Racine and Walworth Counties; thence dne north to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby set off into a sep- arate town by the name of Rochester."
As thus described, Rochester included the Towns of Norway and Waterford, the present Town of Rochester and the northern half of Dover. There is clearly a misprint in the eastern bound- ary, where the northeast corner of Section 13 is given as its south- ern terminus. The southeast corner of that section is on a line with the southern boundary of Rochester as it is at present, and was unquestionably meant. This theory is borne out by the faet that the Town of Burlington was created by the same act, its northern boundary being fixed as the "Town of Rochester," and there is no record of the north line of Burlington having been changed.
In the act of January 2, 1838, the places of holding elections were designated as the house of Stebbins and Duncan, in the Village of Rochester, and Moses Smith's house, in the Village of Burlington. When Burlington was established the next year, the house of Stebbins and Duncan remained as the voting place for Rochester.
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Although the smallest township in the county and without a railroad, Rochester is not behind in other respects. The popula- tion in 1910 was 766, and the assessed valuation of property in 1915 was $1,297,385, or nearly seventeen hundred dollars for each person living in the township.
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP
Situated in the northwest corner of the county is the Town of Waterford, which includes Congressional Township 4 North, of Range 19 East, and has an area of thirty-six square miles. The Fox River enters it from Waukesha County near the middle of the northern boundary and flows in a sontherly direction, leaving the township near the Village of Waterford. In the northeastern part, in Sections 11, 12, 13 and 14, lies Tishigan Lake, a beautiful little body of water about one mile in length. The surface is slightly undulating and the soil is generally fertile.
The settlement of this part of the county began in May, 1836, when Samnel E. Chapman, P. R. Mygatt, Ira A. Rice and Arad Wells made claims in what is now the Town of Waterford. Chap- man and Rice brought their wives with them and were the first to establish homes. Levi and Hiram Barnes came a little later; Benoni Buttles and his family arrived in Jume; Hiram Page came in August; Archibald Cooper in September, and before the close of the year Henry and Austin Mygatt, Elisha and Osborne L. Elms, Alpheus Barnes, Samuel C. Russ and Adney Sampson had located in the neighborhood. Joseph and Tyler Caldwell settled in the northwestern part, where a postoffice called "Caldwell's Prairie" was afterward established. They were soon afterward joined by Abram Ressigne, William A. Cheney and Calvin Gault, and in the fall Charles Dewitt, Paul W. Todd and Wesley Munger settled upon the prairie.
During the year 1837 a number of pioneers came to the Town of Waterford. Among them were: Louis D. Merrills, Frederick A. and Harvey Weage, Israel Markham, Orrin Barry, James and John Cooper, Sautell Whitman, Dyer Buskirk, William Wade, J. S. Cooper, Lorenzo Ward, Vietor M. Willard, T. W. Ganlt, William Jones, John Fisher, and a man by the name of Burbank. The following year Nelson H. Palmer, Elijah K. Bent, Jefferson Brown, Tra Coleman and a few others came into the township.
The first settlers located on or near the Fox River. Samuel
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E. Chapman built his house on the site of an old Indian council house called "Cadney's Castle," not far from the present Village of Waterford, of which he was one of the founders. Ira A. Rice went a little farther from the river and located his claim in Sec- tion 27, where he developed a fine farm, upon which he continued to reside for many years. The Caldwells, when they first came, built a small shanty, but in 1837 Joseph built a frame house, which was probably the first in the township.
Concerning the manner in which these pioneers lived, Judge Dyer, in his address to the Old Settlers in 1871, said: "The hard- ships of these pioneers, during the first seasons of their settle- ment, were often severe. They had not only to contend against thieving Indians, but were obliged to transport their provisions and seed with ox teams from Racine, Southport and Chicago. There were no roads in the country; streams had to be forded, marshes traversed, and all the difficulties of travel which prevail in an unsettled region encountered. At some seasons, hunting and fishing afforded the chief means of subsistence. The men worked days, and hunted game and speared fish by torch-light at night. But amid all their privations the settlers were happy. for they enjoyed the freedom and independence of their rugged life. New comers were always welcome to their humble hospital- ity; every cabin and shake-roofed house was open; friendship and brotherly love prevailed. There were no drones in those days. Every man and woman had work to do, and did it, and when one of the settlers had a job on his hands that he could not manage alone, all his neighbors gave him their gratuitous assistance."
The first crops raised by the settlers in this part of the county were potatoes and rutabagas. Archibald Cooper used to tell how he and his family lived for two weeks upon rutabagas alone. He also said that the first johnny cake he ate after coming to Racine County was made of corn meal ground in a coffee mill at the house of Osborne L. Elms, and the molasses they had with it was made from watermelons. Flour was a luxury. Louis D. Merrills paid twenty dollars for the first barrel of flour that he bought after coming to the county, and paid for it by splitting fence rails. He sowed the first crop of winter wheat in the fall of 1836, and the following summer made the cradle with which it was harvested.
The first white child born in Waterford was Louisa, daughter of Israel Markham, who was born in 1837. The first justice of
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the peace was Samuel E. Chapman, and the first physician was a Dr. Blanchard. Harriet Caldwell taught the first school in 1840. The first saw-mill in the settlement was built in the fall of 1837, when a mmber of pioneers joined together and built a dam across the Fox River to furnish the power. In 1840 Samuel E. Chapman erected a grist mill at the same place. The first mill-stone was only twenty-two inches in diameter. It was kept as a relic by Mr. Chapman for many years after the mill ceased to do business. Levi Barnes was the first preacher. He was not a doctor of divin- ity, but he was not afraid to rebuke the sins of those who listened to him. Some of the settlers were in the habit of going fishing on Sunday, and it is said that Mr. Barnes, in one of his sermons, reproved them for this practice, as follows: "Pioneers and sin- ners! I come to call you to repentance; and as one so called, I declare to you that unless you repent of your sins, you are gone, hook and line, bob and sinker." The language was certainly more forcible than elegant, but it is not known what effect it had on the recreant fishermen.
Tra A. Rice succeeded Mr. Chapman as justice of the peace. While he was magistrate, a man was brought before him on the charge of stealing a sheep. The evidence was conchisive, the culprit was found guilty, and "Squire" Rice sentenced him to twenty days' hard labor. The prisoner served out his time in helping to build a bridge across the Muskego Creek, which was then within Rice's jurisdiction. The sentence may not have been strictly according to law, but the offender evidently did not know it and no one else offered any objection.
Mr. Rice was also the first captain of the Waterford militia, of which Archibald Cooper was first lieutenant. Samuel E. Chap- man had formerly been a captain of light infantry and when the Waterford company assembled for drill he presented himself with a wooden sword "about six feet long," apparently intending to take command. But Captain Rice disarmed him and redneed him to the ranks.
Just when Waterford was set off from Rochester is not cer- tain, as a careful search through the session laws of Wisconsin fails to reveal any act establishing the township as a separate civil jurisdiction. It was probably created about the same time as Norway, which was in February, 1847. The township has no railroad and the Village of Waterford is the only one within its
BILLINGS
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Photo furnished by Billings
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Photo furnished by Billings FOREPAUGH'S CIRCUS IN PUBLIC SQUARE, RACINE, IN THE EARLY '70s
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limits. In 1910 the population (exclusive of the village) was 935, and in 1915 the assessed value of the property was $2,640,682.
YORKVILLE TOWNSHIP
The Town of Yorkville is one of the southern tier. It is bounded on the north by the Town of Raymond; on the cast by Mount Pleasant; on the south by Kenosha County, and on the west by Dover Township. It embraces Congressional Township 4 North, of Range 21 East, and has an area of thirty-six square miles. The South Fork of the Root River flows in a northerly direction through the central part, and this stream, with its trib- utaries, affords good natural drainage to the entire township. The surface is generally level, or slightly rolling, and the soil is above the average in fertility.
To Joseph Call belongs the distinction of having been the first settler in Yorkville. He located at what is now known as Ives' Grove in the summer of 1835, built a log house, and after- ward conducted it as a tavern. The fall after he located there he sold 160 acres of his claim to Nelson A. Walker, whose family came the following March. When Mr. Walker bought his claim in the fall of 1835, there was not a single house between Ives' Grove and the settlement at Rochester, and Mrs. Call was the only white woman in the Town of Yorkville. Other early settlers were Samuel Daniels, Daniel Whitmore and Samuel Kerr, who all lived together in one cabin, though each had a claim of his own. In 1838 Mr. Walker sold his claim nad removed to Mount Pleasant.
Charles Nobles and George Nichols settled near the Grove in 1836. Late in that year or early in 1837, Marshall M. Strong, of Racine, and Stephen N. Ives purchased Joseph Call's claim, including his tavern, and in May, 1837, sold it to Roland Ives, from whom the name of the grove was derived. About that time John Nobles settled at Ives' Grove and L. S. Blake made a claim in another part of the townhisp, but soon afterward sold it to Cornelius Brezee, who settled upon it in June, 1837, and there passed the remainder of his life.
Alexander Gray, accompanied by Charles Waite, came in 1837. Other settlers of that year were: Robert Bell, Edward Buchan, Ebenezer Heald, Owen Campbell and Col. F. F. Lincoln. Colonel Lincoln had been here in June, 1836, and selected his
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claim, but did not become a permanent settler until in September, 1837. In the early days he traveled through the different settle- ments threshing wheat with a flail, in the use of which he is said to have been an expert.
In April, 1838, Reuben Waite, father of Charles E. Waite, located near his son. He was one of the most public spirited of the early settlers. Late in the year 1839 he concluded that the children of the neighborhood ought to attend school, so he fitted up part of his house for a school room and employed Levantia Barnum at his own expense as a teacher. Eight scholars attended the school, which ran through the greater part of the winter.
Another settler of 1838 was Arba B. Terrell, who located at Ives' Grove. He was a carpenter by trade and had no trouble in finding employment. One of the buildings he erected was the first barn of Elisha Raymond, in the Town of Raymond. He was something of an eloentionist, a great mimie, full of good humor, and was quite a favorite at entertainments.
In the fall of 1838 Owen Campbell purchased Nelson A. Walker's claim for $1,000, Mr. Walker removing to Mount Pleas- ant, as above stated. Mr. Campbell had first come to the county the year before with Roland Ives. Forty acres of his claim had been improved by Mr. Walker. His family consisted of a wife and ten children. One of his sons, Homer Campbell, afterward studied medicine and practiced his profession for years in Racine County. Owen Campbell was one of the early justices of the peace of Yorkville.
The first white child born in the township was Mary Jane, daughter of Nelson A. Walker, who was born on May 13, 1838. A few months later her parents removed to Mount Pleasant, where she grew to womanhood and married a man by the name of George.
Yorkville Township was first erected by an act of the Leg- islature, approved on February 7, 1842. Section 4 of the act provided: "That all that part of the Towns of Mount Pleasant, Burlington and Rochester comprised within the following limits, to wit: Commencing at the southeast corner of Section 25, Town- ship 3 North, Range 21 East; running west to the southwest cor- ner of Section 27, in Township 3, Range 20; thence north eleven miles to the north line of the County of Racine; thence east on said line to the northeast corner of Section 1, in Township 4,
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Range 21; thence south to the place of beginning, shall be and is hereby set off into a separate town by the name of Yorkville."
The boundaries as above described included all the present Town of Yorkville, except a strip one mile wide across the south side, all of Raymond, the eastern half of Norway, and the eastern half of Dover, except Sections 34, 35 and 36. The act also stipu- lated that the first election should be held at the house of E. Adams.
When the Town of Raymond was set off by the act of Feb- . ruary 2, 1846 - under the name of Black Hawk -Section 10 provided: "That all that district of country comprised in Town- ship 3 North, Range 21 East, and the east half of Township 3 North, of Range 20 East, in Racine County, be and the same is hereby organized into a separate town to be called the Town of Yorkville, and the first town meeting in said town shall be held at the house of E. Adams."
By this act the southern boundary of the town was extended to what is now the Kenosha County line, and when the Town of Dover was created Yorkville was reduced to its present area. A division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway system runs across the southern part of Yorkville and there are two stations in the township - Sylvania (formerly called Windsor), near the eastern boundary, and Union Grove, in the southwest corner. The latter is an incorporated village. In 1910 the popu- lation of Yorkville, not including the Village of Union Grove, was 1.146, and in 1915 the property was assessed at $3,164,022.
A RETROSPECT
Looking backward over a period of four score years, one can not help recognizing the fact that the present generation owes to the pioneers of the several townships of Racine County a debt of remembrance and gratitude, that can only be paid by studying their achievements and cherishing their memory. They lived in rude cabins, wore homespun clothing, dined on homely fare. fought prairie fires, contended with prowling wolves and pred- atory Indians, and often suffered for the commonest necessities of life. But they conquered the wild wastes, improved their lands, opened roads, bridged the streams, built up villages and cities, established factories, inaugurated civil government in county and township, and gave to their posterity the splendid civilization
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that the people of the present day enjoy. All honor, then, to the pioneers, whose conquest of a trackless wilderness is as much deserving of a place in history as the conquests of Alexander the Great, or the victory of Wellington over Napoleon at Waterloo.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
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