USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. I > Part 15
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My Dear Sir: You have no doubt observed that the enemy decamped last night from the heights to the northward of Flush- ing bay. About three or four regiments are now eneamping on the hill to the westward of the bay, and opposite to the island which forms Hell Gate. Whether this body is that which de- camped or one marched from Newton, we cannot determine. Cer- tain it is their movements indicate an intention to land near you or at Harlem. Four boats were sounding the channel between Little Hell Gate and the opening to Harlem. Those appearances render it necessary that post should be taken on Morris hill this night, for reasons too obvious to be mentioned. (Morris' hill was near Harlem river at the present 169th street, New York city.) If you have not strength (of which advise us), we will post some regiments there tonight, although it will weaken the middle division if a landing should be made below this evening. Whatever may be your determination, pray advise us of it in time. I have the honor to be your humble servant,
John Nixon, Brig .- Gen. To the Hon. General Heath or General Mifflin.
Note 5 .- Captain William H. Brown's younger brother, Rev. John Kittridge Brown, a graduate of Harvard (born 1843, or- dained at Stearns Chapel. Cambridgeport, Mass., October 16, 1872). has been for the last thirty-six years, and still is, a suc- eessful missionary of the American board to the Armenians at Harpoot, Turkey. During the terrible massacres there he and his family were providentially in this country, but they bravely went back to Harpoot the next year. and he is there now, 1908.
Authorities .- History of Watertown, by Henry Bond, 1855, Vol. I, pp. 118, 145. Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England. 1860, Vol. I. p. 269-270, published by Little, Brown & Co .. Boston. Benjamin Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution. Vol. I. pp. 51, 76, 490 and 491. 534. Vol. II, pp. 66 and 637. Also
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History of Framingham, Mass., by J. H. Temple, published by the town. 1887. Also, Report of the Brown Association, 1868, and the Fiske Genealogies, all the Historical Society Library. Madi- son, Wis .- "Scribner's Magazine," July, 1876, pages 289 and 300.]
Soon after his arrival in 1840 Benjamin Brown started a brick yard east of the village and opened a general store on the east side of Turtle (now State) street, about number 321, where he sold almost anything wanted except fresh meats. One day that winter a customer rushed into his little place, calling out, "Have you a pair of specs?" My father had one pair and handed them to him. Trying them on. he remarked, "I have just come through Freeport and Rockford and couldn't find a pair of spectacles in either village. But they told me that perhaps a Mr. Brown at Beloit might have them and here they are, exactly what I want." (In 1883 a farmer, having his plough sharpened in Beloit, said, "I bought the steel and iron for that plough forty years ago from a storekeeper here, named Brown, who made me pay high for it, but my plough is good yet.")
In that same year (1840) came also Horatio Burchard. farmer, from New York, who located with his large family on the east bank of Rock river, a mile north of the village (where now the interurban line extends across.) He was one of the original trustees of Beloit seminary, begun in 1844, by Rev. Lewis H. Loss, which later became the preparatory department of Beloit college, and like his friend. Benjamin Brown, was of strong anti-slavery principles, not then popular. Brown, Burchard and Thomas Tut- tle, in 1842. amid many jeers, voted the first free soil tickets ever offered in Beloit. A son, Horatio C. Burchard (1826-1908), studied and taught in Beloit, graduated at Hamilton college, New York, in 1850, became a lawyer, a member of the Illinois legislature, 1862 to 1865. and United States congressman from 1869 to 1879. He was then appointed director of the United States mint, an office to which his distinguished services in the interest of a safer currency gave a new degree of honor. His son, Edward L., graduated from Beloit college in 1891.
Then in 1841 arrived Charles Peek, builder, with his large family. May 1, 1843. he finished John Hackett's residence, where the high school building now stands, the first house on the west side of the river. And from Michigan, also in 1841, we have
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David Merrill, music teacher (1812-1906), who in a published letter thus pleasingly deseribes that earliest Beloit :
"I came to Beloit in October, 1841. The settlement had then about 300 inhabitants, all on the east side of the river. Through the winter I held a line of singing schools at Whitewater. Fort Atkinson. Milton. Beloit and Rockford. The winter was beau- tiful, with from six to ten inches of snow, but the next was the hard winter, with sleighing from the 9th of November to the 10th of April, 1843, and upon the 11th teams erossed Roek river on the ice. I was lost on Rock prairie November 17, 1842, in a storm with the snow two feet deep, which increased during the winter to four feet on the level, and cattle, horses, hogs and sheep perished with cold and hunger. The central bridge at Beloit had been built in the summer of 1842. In April, 1844, I moved to the west side of the river and built a stone house there, the second residence on the west side, at the northwest corner of Third street and E (now St. Lawrence avenue), later owned and occupied by Charles Hanson. From May 10, 1844, rain fell al- most continually for fifty days and in July a steamboat came up the river. going on up to Jefferson. During that spring Ira Her- sey, John Atchley and myself started building a dam across Rock river, but soon sold out to Hanchett and Lawrence, who chose the present location several rods further down stream, and com- pleted a dam of logs and stone late that fall. I helped build Gaston's scale factory in November, 1844. Bennett Wooster came in 1844 and began farming about three miles east of Beloit. On farms winter wheat was the staple product, yielding from twenty to forty bushels per aere; soon that began to fail and spring wheat took its place; then followed the noted days of Hedgerow, which, with basswood lumber rafted from Watertown by John Haekett, was next to legal tender. Barter became the rule and cash the exception. Wheat sold at 25 cents, eorn at 10 to 15 cents per bushel, and oats the same. Work in harvest was from $1 per day to $1.50, according to musele. Grain was cut with cradles. A good man and team got from $1.25 to $1.50 a day and board yourself. The Beloit & Madison railroad was graded in 1854 to Footville. I put on that road 20,000 ties between Beloit and Afton. The Raeine & Mississippi railroad, now the Western Union. was graded in 1856 and I delivered 20,000 ties for that road from Porter to Roekton. When Beloit was organized as a
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city, in 1856, the town supervisors were W. S. Yost, Green Ben- nett and David Merrill."
Here may fitly be noted some of the first things of Beloit. The first large building erected was a temporary structure, a big lodging and boarding house, made in 1837 for the men who were building Blodgett's mill. It stood on ground now occupied by the Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, next south of where the Beloit house was afterwards built, and in it, September 10, 1837, Professor Whitman, formerly of Madison university, New York, a Baptist minister from Belvidere, Ill., conducted the first public preaching service in the settlement, preaching morning and after- noon two most lugubrious sermons from Genesis 47:9 and Job 4:1. The Beloit house, built by the New England company at the southeast corner of Turtle and Raee (now State and St. Paul avenue), and the Rock River house, built by Mr. Blodgett about the same time at the northeast corner of Turtle and School streets (now State and East Grand avenue), were completed a little later. The first white woman settler was Mrs. Caleb Blodgett, who arrived in December, 1837, accompanied by her two daugh- ters, thirteen and fifteen years of age. The first death was that of Horace Clark, before mentioned, which occurred, after a four days' illness, December 2, 1837. The first survey of the village, that of Mr. Kelsou, was begun October 10, 1837. November 5 of that year Rev. William M. Adams, of Rockton, began regular preaching services here, and continued every two weeks until he organized the First Congregational church in the kitchen of Caleb Blodgett's home, later called the Rock River house, De- cember 30, 1838. There John Burroughs taught the first school of the place during the fall and winter of 1838, though Mrs. At- wood had, prior to that time, taught a few boys at her home on Race street; Lucian D. Mears, son of Henry Mears, was the first boy, born March 29, 1838, on the farm, two miles up the river, which his father had occupied as a "squatter," later known as the Peck farm. The first wedding was that of Harvey Bevedy and Mary J. Moore, who were married by Samuel G. Colley, jus- tice of the peace, in the winter of 1839. The first boy born in the village proper was a son of Selvy K. Blodgett; the first girl, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth, at the old Beloit house.
The first girl born to any family of the New England Com- pany was Alice J. Moore, at what is now 537 Public avenue, De-
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
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vember 18. 1838, who afterwards became the wife of William B. Strong. John Hackett. our first postmaster, opened the first store in his honse at the southeast corner of State and School streets in the fall of 1837; the following year a larger store was built and opened by Messrs. Field and Lusk at the southwest corner of State and Race streets. David Noggle opened the first law office, followed by Hazen Cheney. At the first election, held in the fall of 1838. Horace Hobart was elected a justice of the peace. The first locomotive crossed the state line into Wis- consin at Beloit November 4, 1853. The first plate glass store front was that built by Benjamin Brown in the fall of 1871 at 328 and 330 State street.
The lives and characters of those first settlers of this place not only shaped the course of its early development but also in large measure determined its future destiny. Especially is this true of the members of the New England Company and their asso- ciates, most of whom were descended from Pilgrim or Puritan ancestors. With reverence, for God. love of home and country, respeet for law, and aspirations for all that is enlightening and ennobling. they brought with them and wrought into the fabric and life of the young settlement those innate qualities the fruits of which are seen in the model homes. the college and public schools and various religions organizations, and in the spirit of patriot- ism and of independence and enterprise, which always have been and today are marked features of the city of Beloit.
From 1840 to 1845 the growth of the town and the develop- ment of the farming community round about exceeded the ex- pectations of the most optimistic and the need of a more com- plete village organization was felt by all. To this end a measure was introduced in the territorial legislature during the winter of the last-named year. February 24, 1846, that body passed an act incorporating the village of Beloit, and on Monday, April 7, next following, was held the first election of village officers.
The following were the first village officers chosen: Presi- dent, Thomas A. Power; trustees, Joseph Colley, Thomas Tuttle. Tyler H. Moore, Asahel B. Moore; assessors, Charles M. Messer, William Stevens. Henry Mears; constables, Otis P. Bieknell, Daniel Blodgett; treasurer, John P. Houston; clerk. John B. Burroughs.
The first item of accounts is a countersigned order for $6 to
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William Stevens for six days' service as assessor. Thomas Tuttle, for repairing the schoolhouse, received $6.11, and A. F. Cutting, for tuition, $32. Mrs. Atwood's bill for teaching two months was $24. S. G. Colley and A. B. Howe received $1 each for service as judges of the charter election. C. H. and O. P. Bicknell were paid $3, the record says, "for hous room." (They didn't waste ink on silent letters.) The trustees were each paid $7 for services, the term not mentioned. The item for "attor- ney's fees" was $2.75, and $7 was paid T. A. Power for his report of January 17, 1846. The tax list that year, at one-quarter of one per cent tax levy, returned as the amount of taxes collected $205. Several entries of petitions and other papers were also made in the handsome writing of A. J. Battin, clerk pro tem. ("Free Press" of June 19, 1879.)
At that time the village contained all told 191 dwelling houses and a population of 569 males and 575 females, of whom only two of each sex were past sixty years of age. There were three public schools, a seminary for males and one for females, a branch of the American Bible Society, a Congregational, an Epis- copalian and a Methodist church. and one literary association, two hotels, five lawyers, five doctors and one drug store, fifteen dry goods stores and a clothing store, one scale and pump, and one fanning-mill factory, two large grist mills and two sawmills. The village contained one hatter, five milliners and dressmakers and five tailors. two watchmakers, two millwrights, twenty ma- sons and thirty carpenters, two tinsmiths, one gunsmith, a har- nessmaker, a cabinetmaker, two stonecutters and one cooper, two stove stores, two groceries, an oil mill, a brick yard started by Benjamin Brown in 1841, a lime kiln, three paint shops, one carding mill and two iron foundries.
Of the population 340 were natives of New York, nearly 200 were born in Wisconsin, while Vermont contributed 177 and New Hampshire 195. Forty were born in Massachusetts, 24 in Con- necticut, 6 in Rhode Island and 28 in Maine. Illinois furnished 21, Pennsylvania 32, Indiana 12 and Virginia 8. Sixty-eight were natives of England, 41 of Canada and 10 of Scotland. Ire- land was the birthplace of 14, 4 came from Germany, and a few were natives of different southern states.
The character of the buildings, even at that early day, was a striking feature of the village, a large portion of the dwellings
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being of brick and stone construction. Notable among these was the beautiful home of Benjamin Brown, father of William F. Brown, D.D., who still lives here, which stood on the south side of the public landing at the southwest corner of Turtle and School streets (a couple of rods back from Nos. 328 and 330 State street fronts, as now built up), at the west end of School street, facing east. It was built in 1845, solidly of brick, two stories and attic, 44x24 feet in ground dimensions, having a conspicuous front portico suported by four tall Corinthian columns, and in all its appointments was for that date a model of artistic taste and architectural skill. The first Presbyterian Society was formed within its walls in 1849, and the hospitalities of its owner and his New England wife, a pure-minded Christian lady, were there dispensed with unfailing generosity until the house and sur- rounding stores were all destroyed by fire in 1871.
Of the church edifices that of the Congregationalists, built in 1842 and 1843 at the northwest corner of Broad and Prospect streets, was the most imposing, being constructed of hammered limestone, covered with a simple bell tower and having in front, as it faced south on Broad street, a spacious portico adorned with four lonic columns, and steps the whole width of the front, lead- ing directly up from the sidewalk. In the basement rooms of this building, entranee down several steps from Prospect street, Beloit Seminary. chartered in 1837, was housed from the time of its practical organization by Rev. L. H. Loss in 1844. There also the seminary was reorganized in 1846 by Sereno T. Merrill, who in 1847 taught there the first freshman class of Beloit Col- lege. That seminary was the school of Horace White and Ho- ratio Burchard and of the editor when, at five years of age, he spoke his first "piece" there in 1850, the year when the First Presbyterian church edifice was finished, southeast corner of Broad and Pleasant streets. And, far more important fact, in the "old stone church," as it was called, August 7, 1844, met the first convention held to consider the question of organizing a college here.
The village had prospered, but there were now to be met and overcome grave difficulties pertaining to land title. In 1837, when the village was first platted, the land had not yet been even placed on the market by the government. Stringent laws prohibiting the preemption of lands for other than farming pur-
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poses, and especially for speculation in village lots, had been passed by congress, and the new settlers in their haste had gone ahead in direct opposition to these laws. To obviate this diffi- culty the leaders of the settlement conceived the idea. to which all interested readily assented. of having all join in a deed quit- claiming to Mr. R. P. Crane. in whom everybody had absolute confidence, all the land of the village. he to preempt it in his name and, after perfecting his title, reconvey to the others their several interests. This was done, and on November 26, 1838, Mr. Crane at the land office in Milwaukee entered under his preëmp- tion claim, lots 6 and 7. the southeast fractional quarter in section 35. town 1, range 12 east, containing seventy-eight and fifty-seven one-hundredths acres. as per government survey, and without waiting to receive from the government his patent, deeded to the various parties their several lots and interests according to what was known as the Kelsou survey, made in 1837 under direction of Dr. White and others. Later it was discovered that a certain piece of ground bordering on the river, that had been set apart in the interest of navigation for a public landing. had not been reconveyed and the title, supposedly, remained in Mr. Crane. After the first bridge, a toll bridge, was built over the river by a private company in 1842 and given to the village in 1844. it was found advisable to lay out a street forming the approach to this bridge. across the northeast corner of lot 6, block 59. Hopkins' survey. property belonging to Benjamin Brown; in exchange for the land thus taken, which Brown deeded to the village in 1846, the trustees of the village at the same time conveyed to him by warranty deed a portion of the public landing. that small cor- ner of it which adjoined his land and was south of the new street, extending from what is now No. 356 East Grand avenue westward to the river, a rough gulley through which all the storm drainage of School street rushed down to Rock river. Later Mr. Brown filled it up with logs and abont a thousand loads of gravel and on the land thus made built a row of small store buildings, facing the new bridge street and extending to the bridge, among them our first separate postoffice building, Mr. Bastian postmaster, 1852.
It was discovered soon after this date that the village had no title to the landing, it not having been reconveyed by Crane, and that he had quit-claimed it to a man named Gardner for
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$50. Out of this arose the ejectment suit of Gardner vs. Tisdale and Tondro, the defendants being tenants of Brown. The ease is reported in the second volume of Wisconsin Reports, page 153. In the supreme court Mr. Matthew H. Carpenter appeared for the plaintiff, while the defendants were represented by Messrs. Joseph A. Sleeper and John M. Keep; that tribunal held Brown's title invalid, the village having no authority to alienate land dedicated to public use, and that because of the irregularity of the dedication, and Crane's quit-claim to Gardner, the latter's title was good. Mr. Brown then had a clear case of recourse on the trustees of the village of Beloit. yet for some reason never pressed his claim.
But this was only the beginning of troubles respecting the titles. As before stated, Mr. Crane had entered lots 6 and 7 No- vember 16, 1838; the government patent was issued to him May 9, 1842, and before receiving the patent he had reconveyed the lands to the respective parties in interest.
From this fact it was argued by Mr. Carpenter, who discov- ered the irregularity while engaged in the case cited, that the title to lots 6 and 7 was invalid and consequently the titles of all concerned were clouded and jeopardized. On January 22, 1855, Mr. Crane executed a deed to one Samuel B. Cooper, who in turn conveyed the village property to Jared L. Demmon, and he executed a deed to Mr. Carpenter's father-in-law, Governor Paul Dillingham of Vermont, the last conveyance being dated April 23, 1855. At that time Mr. Lueius G. Fisher held the title to lots at the northwest corner of Publie avenue and Pleasant streets under a deed from a Mr. Kearney, to whom Crane had deeded them before receiving his patent. To test the validity of the title to these lots the suit of Dillingham vs. Fisher was start- ed and tried in the circuit court of Rock county. resulting in a victory for Fisher. It was then, November, 1856, taken to the supreme court of Wisconsin on a writ of error, Governor Dilling- ham being represented by Mr. Carpenter and Chief Justice Ed- ward G. Ryan, Rufus Choate preparing the complainant's brief and Mr. Fisher being represented by James R. Doolittle, assisted by Daniel Cady, a celebrated authority on real estate law, of Johnstown, N. Y., and Abraham Lincoln, who prepared a brief for the defendant. Judge C. J. Whiton of the Wisconsin su- preme court affirmed the finding of the lower court (5 Wis. 475).
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Dillingham promptly carried the case by Matthew H. Carpenter to the supreme court of the United States, whence it was after- wards withdrawn by the complainants without trial on account of a decision by JJudge David Davis of that tribunal adverse to Mr. Carpenter's theory, in a case involving the same question. which was brought thither from Louisiana.
Naturally there was intense anxiety during this period of suspense on the part of all whose titles were involved and who were awaiting the outcome of these proceedings; several citizens bought new titles to their lots from Dillingham, and a great re- lief was felt throughout the community when his claim was aban- doned and the property holders at last felt themselves secure in their possessions. Nor was it to be wondered at that a general feeling of bitterness, that found expression in threats of per- sonal violence, prevailed against the lawyer who was held re- sponsible for all the trouble.
Journalism in Beloit will be treated in a separate chapter, but we may say here that it began with the publication of the Beloit "Messenger" by Cooley & Civer on September 4, 1846. The first issue of the Beloit "Journal" was issued by Stokes & Briggs June 28, 1848, their office being on Broad street east of State; ten years later it was edited and issued by our well-re- membered editor, B. E. Hale. The "Free Press," founded in February, 1866, by Cham Ingersoll. first appeared as a daily February 1, 1879. The city editor from the beginning, and still in harness, is Albert F. Ayer.
According to No. 24 of the Beloit "Journal," dated Decem- ber 6, 1848, Mr. George Stearns then reported the population of the village alone as being 1,678, of whom 1,131 lived on the east side of the river and 547 on the west side. There were 271 dwelling houses, eighty-eight of which were of brick or stone.
The ten years next succeeding the incorporation of the vil- lage were marked by a steady increase of population. a corre- sponding substantial growth in commercial, industrial and man- ufacturing enterprises, and a forward movement along all lines looking to the development of the educational and moral inter- ests of the place. There were now-1855-in Beloit, according to the census taken by James W. Strong. 4.241 inhabitants, 2,235 on the east side of the river and 2,004 on the west side of the river; the number of churches had been doubled to six: two
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college buildings had been erected; the dwelling houses num- bered 583; and during the year ending with June, 1855, the out- put of manufactured products amounted to $418,812 in value.
The question as to the advisability of taking on the dignity and powers of an incorporated municipality, which for some time had been discussed among the people of the village, now began to assume definite shape; and finally in March, 1856, the state legislature passed an act incorporating the city of Beloit. Under the powers thus given its corporate existence began on the first Tuesday of May of that year, the city government being vested in a mayor and common council, comprising twelve alder- men. These, with a city treasurer, a public magistrate and two justices of the peace, were chosen at the first election under the charter, held on the first Tuesday of April, 1856, and annually thereafter; at their meeting next succeeding this election the council elected a city clerk, a marshal and one constable for each of the four wards of the city. The first mayor was Mr. W. T. Goodhue, who served one year. S. O. Humphrey was the first city treasurer, and W. H. Sherman was elected by the common council as the first city clerk. The corporate seal adopted bears in the center the figure of a locomotive within a triangle formed by the words "Industry," "Enterprise" and "Prosperity," this in turn being eneireled by the words "City of Beloit, Incorporat- ed March 31, 1856."
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