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 6
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1. John C. Smith. German. Located in Racine in 1×42.
2. George Wustum. German settler of 1-44.
3. Barbara Ortner Wu -tum. Wife of George Wustum.
4. John Krantz. Settled here in 1\44.
1. A. Constantine Barry. Came to Racine in 1×46.
2. Achas P. Dutton. Located here in 1$41.
3. Elihu D. Filer. Came in the '303.
4. Roswell Park. Came to Racine in 1.52. Founder of Racine College.
si
1. Lucius S. Blake. Settled i :. Racine in I ...
2. Eldad Smith. Came to county in 1>35.
3. Dr. Elias Smith. Came in 1\26. First president of village.
- Reuben M. Norton. Came to Racine in 1>12. First Mayor.
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now Racine County. To compile a list of those early settlers, after a lapse of four score years, would be impossible. But from vari- ous sources, such as old tax records, the membership roll of the Old Settlers' Society, ete., a large number of the names of those who settled in the county during the three years immediately following the advent of Captain Knapp has been collected. It is not claimed that the list is complete, but it is believed that it contains the names of practically all who left their impress upon the county from the time of its first settlement to the time of its organization.
Settlers of 1835 - Edward Adams, John Adams, Joseph Adams, Samuel N. Basey, Elam Beardsley, Martin Beardsley, James Beeson, Hiram and Hugh Bennett, A. H. Blake, C. H. Blake, Levi Blake, Lucius S. Blake, Sanford Blake, Isaac and Nel- son Butler, Joseph Call, Stephen Campbell, Richard Carpenter, Alfred and Dr. Bushnell B. Cary, Walter Cooley, Henry F. Cox, Samuel Daniels, John Davis, Tristam Davis, Harrison Fay, Alan- son Filer, Eugene Gillespie, E. J. Glenn, Levi Godfrey, Thomas Green, Thomas Hood, Joel Horner, Samuel Kerr, Joseph Knapp, Sheridan Kimball, Paul Kingston, Silas Lloyd, Joseph S. Long- well, Samuel Mars, Levi Mason, Sarah Milligan, Marilla Morse, Alva, A. G. and Zadock Newman, D. N. Niblack, F. H. Nims. B. C. Perce, Andrew, Thomas and William Place, Benjamin Pratt, Alvin and Elisha Raymond, Joel and Nathaniel Rogers, Daniel B. Rork, Joel Sage, William Saltonstall, Stephen Sandford, Tim- othy Sands, A. B. Saxton, William See, Eldad Smith, Dr. Elias Smith, Lemuel Smith, Moses Smith, Amaziah Stebbins, John B. Wade, James and Nelson A. Walker, Edmund Weed, William Whiting. Daniel Whitmore.
Settlers of 1836 - Benjamin F. Barker, Hiram and Levi Barnes, J. O. Bartlett, Nelson Bentley, Levi and Rufus Billings, Edward and -- Bradley, Orson Bump, David Bushnell, George Bushnell, James Bussey, The Buttles Family, John Brewer, Jo- seph and Tyler Caldwell, Samuel E. Chapman, William A. Cheney, Amma Clark, Norman Clark, Archibald Cooper, Nathan H. Dar- ling, Charles Dewitt, Lewis G. Dole, A. W. Doolittle, Joseph Drake, Thaddeus Earl, Elisha and Osborne L. Elms, Benjamin Felch, Charles and Jared Fox, G. W. Gamble, Calvin Gault, James Graham, William Holmes, Emanuel Horner, Gilman Hoyt, E. R. Hugenin, Stephen N. Ives, Lorenzo JJanes, Orrin Jerome, Nathan
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Joy, Albert G. Knight, Sanmel G. Knight, Timothy Knight, Sam- nel Lane, Theodore S. Lane, Fordiee Lincoln, Alfred Lockwood, Alexander Logan, H. D. Morse, Wesley Munger, John M. Myers, Austin, Henry, Philip R. and Wallace Mygatt, James Nelson, Cyrus and George Nichols, Charles Nobles, Samuel Ormiston, Hiram Page, John T. Palmer, Newton and Silas Peck, Origen Perkins, Rev. Samuel Pillsbury, Seneca Raymond, Abram Res- sigue, Ira A. Rice, George F. and Henry B. Roberts, John Rogers, Reuben Rogers, Samuel C. Russ, Sidney A. Sage, Stephen H. Sage, Daniel Salisbury, Adney Sampson, Eseck B., Luther R. and Wil- liam Sears, J. Sellers, Charles and Lyman K. Smith, Jonathan M. Snow, Thomas Spencer, Marshall M. Strong, Enoch Thompson, Paul W. Todd, John T. Trowbridge, Henry and Stewart Trow- bridge, Caleb J. True, R. M. Walker, Thomas Warner, William H. Waterman, Arad Wells, Simeon Whitely, L. O. and Martin Whitman, Enoch Woodbridge, Adney and Daniel Wooster, Peter Wright.
Settlers of 1837 - E. G. Ayer, Orrin Barry, Benjamin and Philander Bartlett, Robert Beatty, Philo Belden, Robert Bell, Cornelius Brezee, Archibald Brown, Jefferson Brown, William Brown, Edward Buchan, William Bull, Stephen Bushnell, Dyer Buskirk, Jacob Bussey, Owen Campbell, Joseph Clark, John Coggswell, Philander Cole, James, John and J. S. Cooper, William Crierston, L. R. Darling, William S. Derby, George E. Duncan, Franklin Emerson, E. D. Filer, Benjamin and Royal Flanders, David M. Fowler, John Freelove, Horace Frost, T. W. Gault, J. H. Gipson, Alexander Gray, Ebenezer Heald, S. F. Heath, George W. and Tristam C. Hoyt, Roland Ives, John Jones, Austin Kellogg, Patrick Laughrin, Jason Lothrop, William F. Lyon, George and Robert MeKey, Israel Markham, Louis D. Merrills, Henry Miller, William O. Mills, James H. Morgan, Ruel Nims, Isaac G. Northway, Nelson R. Norton, Thomas O'Sprig, Pliny M. Perkins, Benjamin and Ransom Reynolds, Lewis Royce, Zach- ariah Sands, Charles, George, Dr. John E. and Reynolds Scofield, James Scott, Alonzo and Annis Sears, Elisha S. Sill, Daniel Slau- son, David Smith, Alonzo Snow, George Stebbins, Oren Stephens, O. Van Valen, Samuel C. Vaughan, William Wade, C. E. Waite, Seth Warner, Frederick A. and Harvey Weage, David .Vells, Santell and Sela Whitman, Victor M. Willard.
Many of these men brought their wives and children with
Photo furnished by Billings
STEPHEN BULL Pioneer of Racine
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
them, but they are not included in the above. In 1840, six years after the first settlement was made at Port Gilbert, the popula- tion of Racine County (which then included the present County of Kenosha ) was 3,475. In the chapters on Township History and City of Racine will be found an account of most of the early set- tlers, where they located, what they did toward building up the community, ete.
PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS
Looking back to the fall of 1833, when the United States commissioners met the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi chiefs at Chicago and negotiated the treaty by which Southeastern Wis- consin was opened to settlement by the white men, it occurs to the writer that the young people of the present generation might be interested in knowing how the first settlements were made and how the pioneers of Racine County lived. Imagine a vast, un- broken tract of country stretching away westward from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. Here and there were dense forests from which there "was not a stiek of timber amiss," and between these woodlands were pleasant prairies, untouched by the plow and never trodden by the foot of civilized man. It was into this primeval wilderness that the Racine County pioneers came -
"Not with the roll of stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame,"
but with brave spirits, axes and rifles, they came to conquer and subdue the Wisconsin wilds, build roads, open farms, erect churches and school houses, found cities and build up a state that ranks second to none in the American Union.
The first duty incumbent upon the settler was to select and mark the boundaries of his claim. In choosing a location, soil, timber and natural advantages were the first considerations. If a tract of land with a good spring upon it could be found, it saved the time and labor of digging a well. Without chain or compass, the pioneer measured his lines by counting his steps, guiding his course by the sun. So many steps on each boundary meant 320 aeres, more or less, and as he went along he blazed the trees with his axe or carved his initials in the bark with his jaek-knife. Where trees were absent he drove stakes bearing his initials and sometimes the date when the claim was made. Such lines were often far from correct, but they answered the purpose, for the
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
settlers understood that when the lands were surveyed all ine- qualities would be righted. If a claimant lost some of his land on one side by the running of the section lines, he was almost cer- tain to acquire an equal area somewhere else along his boundaries.
After the claim was selected, the next thing was to provide shelter for himself and family. Until this was done, they lived in an improvised camp and slept in the covered wagon, perhaps the only home they had known during their journey from the old home to the western frontier. The pioneer's home was usually small in dimensions and without any architectural adornment. But the style of the home was not uppermost in their thoughts - any kind of shelter that would shield them from the weather was sufficient. Frequently the first home would be a "cat-faced" shed, i. e., a small cabin built of poles that the members of the family could handle, with the roof slanting in one direction. These were generally known by the Indian name of "wickiup." Some- times two or more families would come at the same time. In such cases one cabin or wickiup would be built, in which all would live together until each settler could stake out his claim and erect his own dwelling. As the population increased and neighbors drew closer to each other, better log cabins were built. And what an event was the "house-raising" in a new settlement!
After the settler had eut his logs and dragged them - more than likely with a team of oxen - to the site selected for his cabin, he invited his neighbors, some of whom often lived several miles away, to the "raising." When all were assembled at the place. four' men were chosen to "carry up the corners." These men were skilled in the use of the axe and were possessed of a "me- chanical eve," which was the only plumb line relied on to keep the walls perpendicular. They took their stations at the four cor- ners of the cabin and as the logs were pushed up to them on "skids" they ent a "saddle" upon the top of each log and a notch in the under side of the next to fit upon the saddle. The man having the "butt end" of a log was required to ent his notch a little deeper than the man at the top end, in order that the walls might be carried up about on a level, but as the butt and top ends of the logs were generally alternated, the work was pretty equally distributed. No openings were left for doors and windows, these being ent out with the ax or saw afterward. At one end an opening would be made for a fireplace, just outside of which was
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
constructed a chimney of stone, or, if stone was not to be had conveniently, of logs and clay. The roof was invariably of elap- boards, split or rived from a white oak with an implement called a frow. The floor - if there was one - was of puncheons, or slabs of timber, split as nearly the same thickness as possible and smoothed off on the upper surface with an adz after the floor was laid. The door was also made of thin puncheons, or clap- boards. Nails were a luxury and not infrequently a cabin would be completed without a single article of iron being used in its construction. The door would be fastened together with wooden pins, hung on wooden hinges and provided with a wooden latch, which could be lifted from the outside by a thong of deerskin passed through a small hole in the door. At night the thong was drawn inside and the door was locked. This custom gave rise to the expression, "The latch string is always ont," signifying that a visitor would be welcome at any time. The clapboards of the roof were held in position by poles muuming the full length of the cabin and fastened to the end logs with wooden pins.
After the "house-raising" came the "house-warming." A new cabin was hardly considered fit to live in umtil it had been properly dedicated. In almost every frontier settlement there was at least one man who could play the violin. The "fiddler" was called into requisition and the new cabin would become a "sound of revelry by night." On such occasions no tango, maxixe, one-step or hesitation waltz would be seen, but the old Virginia reel, the stately mimmet and the old-fashioned cotillion, where some one "called the figures" in a stentorian voice, were very much in evidence. It is quite probable that the guests at a presi- dential inaugural ball never derived as much genuine pleasure from the event as did these simple-hearted folk of the frontier at a house-warming. If the owner of the cabin had conscientious scruples against dancing, the house would be warmed by a frolic of a different character, but enstom demanded that it be "warmed" in some way before the family took full possession.
THE FURNITURE
The furniture of the cabin was of the "home-made" variety and was of the simplest character. Most of the pioneers came from distant parts of the country in wagons, through a region in which there were no real roads, and to transport factory made
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
furniture such a great way was out of the question. Holes bored in the logs of the cabin were fitted with pins, upon which were laid clapboards to form a "china closet." If the housewife was fortunate enough to possess an extra sheet, or a few yards of calico, the china closet might be provided with a curtain in front. A similar contrivance in another corner of the cabin served as a "wardrobe," where the extra clothing of the family was laid away, carefully folded, until required for use.
Benches made of puncheons, or three-legged stools, took the place of chairs. The table was made of boards battened together and supported by two trestles. When not in use, the trestles were set on top of each other and the table top leaned against the wall, or set outside of the cabin to make more room.
In one corner a bedstead would be constructed in the follow- ing manner. About four feet from one wall and six feet from the other would be planted a stake, with forks as nearly at right angles as possible, the upper end of which extended to the joists, to one of which it was fastened. In the forks were laid poles, the other ends of which rested in the cracks between the logs, or in holes bored with a large auger in one of the logs, and boards were then laid from the long pole to the cabin wall. Upon these boards the tidy housewife placed her straw tick, or a feather bed, if she had brought one with her, and covered it with her cleanest sheets or a patchwork quilt. Sheets hung upon the walls back of the bed served as tapestry. Springs there were none, but after a hard day's toil such a bed provided a comfortable place. Such a bedstead was sometimes called a "prairie rascal."
Stoves were unknown and the cooking was done at the huge fireplace, an iron teakettle, a long-handled skillet, a large iron pot and a coffee pot with a copper bottom being the principal utensils. Bread was baked and meat fried in the skillet, and in the large pot was cooked the "boiled dinner," consisting of generous portions of meat and several kinds of vegetables. Often "johnny cake" was made by spreading a stiff dough of cornmeal upon one side of a smooth board and propping it up before the fire. When one side of the cake was baked, it would be turned over, so that the other side might have its inning. A liberal supply of johnny cake and a bowl of sweet milk often constituted the only supper of the pioneer, and it was a meal which no settler blushed to set before a guest, should one drop in unexpectedly.
1. Lorenzo Janes. Second Lawyer in Racine, 1837.
2. Bethea Sage. Located here in 1836.
3. Alfred Cary, Settled here in 1835.
1. Mary Knight Cary. Wife of Alfred Cary.
195331
3
1. Charles Jonas. Bohemian settler of 1863. Afterward Heutenant- governor of Wisconsin, and consul-general to Crefeld, Germany.
2. Anthony Kroupa. Bohemian settler, 1849.
3. Frank Korizek. Moravian settler of 1854.
1. M. M. Seeor. Bohemian. Came in 1852. Trunk manufacturer.
1. Ann N. Sellem. The first Norwegian settler, 1841.
2. Torbjorn Gonlenson. Norwegian settler, 1846.
3. Thora Gunlenson. Wife of Torbjorn.
-4. Betsy Torbjorn. Daughter of above.
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
To one of the joists or against the wall of the cabin were pinned two hooks, formed from the forks of small saplings, for a "gun rack." Here rested the long, heavy rifle of the settler, and suspended from its muzzle, or from one of the hooks, were the leathern bullet-pouch and the powder-horn.
SWAPPING WORK
In these early years of the Twentieth Century, with plenty of currency in circulation, when any one needs assistance he hires some one to help him. It was not so in the '30s, when the first white settlements were established in Racine County. Money then was exceedingly scarce, but the pioneers overcame this diffi- culty by helping each other. As soon as the cabin was built, the next step was to clear a piece of ground (unless a prairie formed part of the claim) upon which to raise a crop. The trees were felled and the logs cut into lengths that could be handled, when the neighbors would be invited to a "log rolling." An invitation of this kind was rarely declined, because each man in the commu- nity realized his dependence upon his neighbors and knew that the time would come when he would be compelled by force of circumstances to invite them to a similar function. Every pioneer provided himself with a "handspike" - a small sapling of some tough wood, from which the bark had been removed, and pointed at the ends - and armed with his handspike he repaired to the "elearing," where the logs were to be piled in heaps so they could be burned. Two men who boasted of their physical strength were chosen to "make daylight," that is, place a handspike under one end of the log and lift it high enough for the others to get their spikes under it, six, eight, and sometimes more men being re- quired to carry a large log to the "heap."
While the men were rolling the logs, the women folks would get together and prepare dinner, each bringing from her own store some little delicacy that she thought the others might not be able to supply. Bear meat and venison were common on such occasions, with a bountiful share of vegetables, corn bread and lye hominy, dried fruits, etc., to round out the bill of fare. By the time the meal was ready the men had a good appetite, and when they arose from the table it "looked like a cyclone had struck it." If the weather was warm, the dinner was often served out of doors, under the shade of the trees, and while the men
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
ate, one of the women would wave a small green bough over the table to "shoo off the flies." But each family had its turn and by the time the work of the neighborhood was all done, no one was at any disadvantage in the amount of provisions consnmed.
The same system prevailed in harvest time. After wheat fields made their appearance it was no unusual sight to see ten or a dozen men in a field, some swinging their cradles, the others binding and shocking the sheaves. When one field was cared for, the whole crowd would move on to the next one where the wheat was ripest, and so on until the crop of the entire community was made ready for threshing. No threshing machines had as vet come to the frontier and the first wheat grown in Racine County was threshed with the flail or trampled out by horses or cattle on a smooth piece of ground, or upon a barn floor, provided the set- tler was fortunate enough to have a barn with a floor suitable for the purpose. After the grain was separated from the straw by the flail or the tramping process, it was winnowed by throw- ing it up into the air on a day when there was a good breeze, which carried away the chaff. A few years later came the "ground- hog" thresher and the faming mill. Many a boy has grumbled because he had to turn the crank of the fanning mill at a time "when the fish were biting good."
OBTAINING SUPPLIES
Many of the early settlers brought with them small stores of flour, bacon, salt, sugar, and such other things as they deemed necessary, but even by the practice of the most rigid frugality these supplies were in time exhausted. The first year's farming was mainly the cultivation of a "truck patch," where a few bush- els of corn, potatoes, turnips, etc., were raised and stored for winter use. Often the first crop proved insufficient for the needs of the family until another could be raised. Game was plentiful in the surrounding forests, and the trusty rifle was depended upon to furnish the supply of meat.
Just now it is an easy matter to telephone the grocer to "send up a sack of flour and a bushel of potatoes." but then there were neither grocer, flour, potatoes nor telephone. Mills were few and far apart and, if the settler had plenty of corn, he would frequently have to go such a distance to get it ground into meal that the greater part of a week would be required to make the trip. To
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
avoid these long, arduons journeys to mill, various methods of making corn meal - the principal breadstuff - were introduced at home. One of these was to build a fire upon a large stump of some hard wood and keep it burning until a depression was made, thus forming a "mortar." The charred wood was then carefully removed, a small quantity of corn poured into the mortar and beaten with a hard wood "pestle" until it was redneed to a coarse meal. This was a slow process, but it was often resorted to in- stead of a trip of forty or fifty miles to the nearest mill.
In the fall of the year, before the corn was fully hardened, the "grater" was frequently used. The grater was an implement made by punching holes close together through a sheet of tin and then fastening the sheet on a board, with the rough side outward, so that the tin was slightly convex on the outer surface. Then the car of corn would be rubbed back and forth over the rough surface, the meal would pass through the holes and slide down the board into a vessel placed to receive it. Another slow and tedious proc- ess was this, but a bowl of mush made from grated corn, with a bountiful supply of good milk, formed a common repast in those days, and one which was not to be despised.
Matches were hardly ever seen on the frontier and the set- tlers were careful not to waste the few that found their way into the neighborhood. Somewhere about the cabin a little fire was always kept "for seed." In the fall, winter and early spring the fire was kept in the fireplace, but when summer came and the weather grew so warm that a fire in the house would be uneom- fortable, one was kept burning out of doors. If a heavy rain extinguished it, or through negligence it was allowed to die out, one of the family would have to go to the nearest neighbor's for a blazing brand or a shovelful of coals to renew the supply.
What a simple matter it is at the present time to enter a room, push a button and flood the whole place with electric light. But when the first settlers came to Racine County even the kero- sene lamp had not been invented. The housewife devised a lamp by using a shallow dish partially filled with lard or some other kind of grease. Into this grease was dropped a loosely twisted cotton rag, one end of which was allowed to project a little way over the side of the dish. The projecting end was then lighted. and while it gave light enough to enable the woman of the frontier to attend to her duties, such a lamp emitted both smoke and odor
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HISTORY OF RACINE COUNTY
that would cause fastidious persons now to "turn up their noses." Next came the tallow candle, made in moulds of tin, usually con- sisting of six or eight fastened together. Occasionally only one family in a settlement owned a set of candle moulds, but they were freely loaned and passed from house to house umtil all had a sup- ply of candles laid away in a cool, dry place for future use. Dur- ing the long winter evenings the family would often have no light except that which came from the roaring fire in the great fireplace.
No one wore "store clothes" in those days. The housewife carded her wool by hand with a pair of broad-backed brushes, the wire teeth of which were all slightly bent in one direction; then spin it into yarn on the old-fashioned spinning wheel; weave it into cloth on the old hand loom, and make it into garments for the members of the family with a needle. A girl sixteen years of age who could not spin her "six cuts" a day or make her own dresses was rarely seen in a frontier settlement. Yet how many girls of that age now can make their own gowns, or how many young ladies who graduated from the Racine High School in 1916 know what "six ents" means ?
All scraps of grease and the ashes from the fireplace were saved for the soap-making season, which was generally in the early spring. Then the good man would build an "ash-hopper" of clapboards sloping downward to a trough. Into this hopper the ashes would be placed, water poured on and the lye drained into pails. Then the lye and grease would be boiled together in a huge kettle until converted into soft soap. The soap thus manu- factured might be lacking in perfume, but it would take the dirt out of the clothes, and that was the main consideration.
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