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. II > Part 16
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and is to be a leading product. It is found to mix admirably with stock raising. Tobacco requires a rich soil and is considered an exhaustive crop, but the stock raising makes up for the heavy draft upon the soil, and the farms, instead of losing in fertility, are more than holding their own and have never been more productive than now.
This town, having a population of 1,224, has within its cor- porate limits three communities, the city of Edgerton being the largest, with a population of 2,416, has immense tobacco work- houses, and is said to be one of the greatest leaf tobacco markets in the world. Indian Ford is next with a population of 212, and Fulton with 168 people. The Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad traverses this township.
Harmony. This town was first settled by Mr. Daniel Richard- son in 1837, he building a shanty on section 17, but soon after, in company with Charles and Alexander Hart, located permanently in section 24. They were soon followed by Arvah Cole, Jeremiah Warner and Ansel Dickinson, who settled in the same neighbor- hood. In the same year William and Joseph Spaulding also began a settlement in section 17. They were followed a year or two later by Phineas Arms and John N. Dean, who located in that neighborhood. In 1840 Mr. John Turner became a resident, and tells some funny stories about the pioneer settlement. One of them is to the effect that Mrs. Dean, being on one occasion very sick, her husband, one of the early settlers, called upon a resident and asked him to go and bleed her. Mr. Turner, being surprised at finding a surgeon in the person of his neighbor, asked him how he was going to do it, and was informed, "With a penknife." Mr. Turner placed his services and regular lancets at Mr. Dean's disposal, who, it is needless to say, accepted them in preference to the penknife.
In the early settlement of the town the residents were much troubled with gophers, and upon one occasion a bargain was made between Mr. Warner and Mr. Dean that the former should abate the nuisance on the latter's farm at one cent per head. With bucket and water Warner succeeded in taking up to noon on the first day about 220 gophers, upon seeing which Mr. Dean broke the contract on the ground that Warner was making too much money.
It was in those early days and in that neighborhood that
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Judge Knowlton first conceived the idea of studying law, and it happened in this way: Being a good axman and a generally handy man, he was engaged to do a certain amount of carpenter- ing, taking the lumber from the stump. A neighbor nearby, hav- ing purchased some calves, turned them loose to forage for them- selves. Mr. Knowlton on going for his coat at night to the bush whereon he hung it, found that the calves had ruined it. He went to the owner and demanded a monetary reparation of the damage, which was refused, so he hurried off in search of Black- stone. Professing to have discovered a legal authority, he re- turned to the owner of the stock and, with more threats than logic, frightened the unfortunate man into paying a good round sum for his lost property. The study of law became a favorite one with Mr. Knowlton after that.
In those primitive days neighbors living miles apart signaled each other by the discharge of firearms and by lights hung aloft on dark nights.
In this town is a very fine elevation known as Mount Zion. It was called so by the clergymen who were journeying from Chicago to some other point in the northwest. Upon reaching the top, being delighted with the magnificent view, one ex- claimed, "This is Mount Zion!" From this natural observatory the eye takes in at one view at least 140,000 acres of the finest agricultural land in the state.
During the immigration period from 1842 to 1850 the popula- tion increased to over 1,850. About 1845 the first teachers' asso- ciation was formed, E. W. Stevens, president, and T. C. Dowell, vice-president.
The town was organized by an act of the legislature, ap- proved by Governor Dodge, March 11, 1848, and composed the north half of township No. 2 and all of the township No. 3 north, range 13 east, in the county of Rock. The first town meeting was held April 4, 1848, at the school house near Mount Zion, upon which occasion John C. Jenkins and Justice P. Wheeler were elected supervisors, and Cyrus I. Mitchell town clerk. At a sub- sequent date the north half of township No. 2 was detached and became a part of La Prairie. Preceding the organization of March 11, 1848, township No. 3 had been a part of Janesville. The population of Harmony, as shown by the state census of 1855, taken by James M. Deans, was 805. The next decade
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showed the population to be 1,104. That of 1875, as taken by Addison More, 1,136, and the state census of 1905 gives it as 1,138. The population was made up mostly from New England and the Middle States, with the exception of a few first-class foreigners, principally Scotch, English and Germans.
This township is occupied by a thrifty and progressive people who have modern and up-to-date homes and well-improved farms, many of them raising blood stock, horses and cattle, which compare well with the best in the state. There is one small vil- lage, Rock Prairie, with a population of thirty-three people, and located in the township are good schools and houses of worship.
Janesville. February 17, 1842, township 3 and the north half of township 2, north of range 13 and 14 east, and all that part of townships 3 and 4, north of range 12 east, lying east of Rock river, were organized into a separate town by the name of Janes- ville. On the 21st of March, 1843, that part of the town of Janes- ville comprised in township 3, north of range 14 east, was de- tached and organized into a separate town. On the same day township 4, north of range 12 east, was also organized into a town by itself. The organization of these two towns, of course, greatly reduced the size of the town of Janesville. But on the 10th of April of the last mentioned ycar all that part of township 3, north of range 12 east, was annexed to it, so that afterward it then contained the two originally surveyed township 3, north of range 12 and 13 east. Afterward in 1850 the east half (which was township 3, north of range 13 east) was organized into a separate town, and thus the town of Janesville was made to include territory six miles square-township 3, north of range 12 east. This is still its size after deducting therefrom so much of the city of Janesville as lies therein.
The town of Janesville is the most central in Rock county ; has two railroads, the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, besides the Janesville, Beloit & Rockford Electric Interurban. The farming lands are superior prairie, slightly rolling, well wooded and well watered. Rock river flows through it from north to south. The first bridge built across the stream was constructed by A. P. Pope and others in the northern part of the town on the Milwaukee and Madison territorial road, which was the most important thoroughfare in the county until the completion of the first railroad in Janesville.
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The farmers in the town are progressive and up-to-date. Their lands are well improved, their dwellings for the most part modern, and they are successfully engaged in general farming and dairying; tobacco and the sugar beet are prominent crops. In 1907 Janesville raised 592 acres of tobacco and 147 of beets. In 1908, as estimated in May, there were 403 acres of tobacco and 175 acres of beets.
Johnstown. The township of Johnstown was organized by an act of the legislature approved March 21, 1843. The town was bounded on the north by the town of Lima, east by Walworth county, south by the town of Bradford and west by the town of Harmony.
The first settlement was made in 1837. The first family was that of Norman Smith, who made a claim on the present site of Johnstown Center. The second family was that of Caleb B. Hill; among the other early settlers were Elisha Newhall and his sons, Wright and Elbridge G. Newhall, Noah Newell, John A. Fletcher, Daniel Phelps, A. Pickett and William Virgin. The first frame house was built by Daniel MeKillip as early as 1856; this town originally numbered many enterprising farmers, which number has been augmented by scores of others like them who have built up and improved the township with modern buildings and well improved farms.
The village of Johnstown Center has a population of 172, while the village of Johnstown has a population of 138, with mail from Janesville. The population of the whole town (in 1905) was 918.
The Town of La Prairie is located in the southeast quarter of the county. It received its name from the fact that the whole town is almost an entirely open and unbroken prairie. The name is from the French, signifying "The Meadow or the Pasture." It was organized by act of legislature approved March 26, 1849, by which act those parts of the towns of Harmony and Turtle, which were then comprised in township 2, north of range 13 east, were set off and organized as a separate town. The west half of section 6 was subsequently set off to the city of Janesville. The first town meeting was held at the house of Justus P. Wheeler on the 3d day of April, 1849; whole number of votes cast at this meeting was fifty-six. The town officers selected were: Justus P. Wheeler, Henry Cheesbro and James Chamberlain, super-
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visors ; Guy Wheeler, town clerk; Charles G. Cheney, treasurer ; Levi St. John, assessor.
The town is traversed by the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- way, which enters its borders at Shopiere Station, on the south line of section 35, passing out on the west line of the town on section 7. This is a rich agricultural town; the farms are under a high state of cultivation with good improvements.
This town, says a writer, is a rolling prairie of deep soil with an underlay of sand and gravel in the western and northwestern parts. There is plenty of lime rock in the bluffs of the central and eastern parts of the town. The only surface water that can be boasted of is Turtle Creek, which rises in Walworth county, watering and fertilizing the town of Bradford from side to side, entering La Prairie on the east line of section 36 and passing out on the south line of 35 into the town of Turtle nearly from corner to corner, and falls into Rock river (as before mentioned) just below the state line of Beloit. This stream rose during one of the nights of June, 1851, ten or twelve feet above its usual level, carrying off mill-dams, bridges, fences, sheep, hogs and other property to a large amount. The water was highest about day- light, reaching as high as Clark W. Lawrence's doorstep, leaving a tree in the upper casement of the schoolhouse windows.
The township has two railroads, the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. The mail before the railroads came into this township over the old mail route from Chicago and Racine.
Samuel St. John and family were among the first who made a permanent settlement on Rock river within the limits of the county. He wintered with the first seven or eight who built the log shanty on the east side of the river at the rapids. His was the first claim made in La Prairie. He and his brother, Levi, claimed and afterwards purchased at the land sales in Mil- waukee the whole of section 6. He built a good log house on the west half of the section, which as late as 1856 was standing within the city limits of Janesville. William Mertrom about the same time made a claim on section 5 and built a log house, which Nehemiah St. John purchased and occupied for several years. Nathan Allyne in 1835 or 1836 made a claim on section 35, broke several acres, put in and raised crops without fence, except dogs. Lucius Burnham made a claim on section 36 in the spring of
.
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1837 and made his first improvement in 1838; he built the first frame barn in La Prairie. Clark W. Lawrence came into this county with his father and family in 1836, made a claim in sec- tion 36 and built the first frame house. Mr. Waterman, James Chamberlain and L. B. Allyne located on section 35 in 1837 or 1838.
The town being all prairie with only a small quantity of tim- ber in the northwest and southwest corners of it, other towns in the county filled up more rapidly with settlers, while La Prairie remained stationary. Justus P. Wheeler made his purchase in the fall of 1840; Eliakim Thatcher in 1843. A man by the name of Hocum made a claim on section 3 and afterwards sold to Mr. Covil. Charles C. Cheney, Henry Cheesbro, William Loyd, Adel- mon Sherman and Ephraim Leach, Jr., made their purchases in the years 1844 and 1845; Almerin Sherman, Peter Shufelt, James I. Hoyt, William G. Easterly and Mr. Ford in 1846. This town has undergone wonderful changes in the past sixty years, as it is today a rich, highly cultivated section with modern country resi- dences, and the citizens as a whole are prosperous and well-to-do. The state census of 1905 gives its population as 874. In 1907 this town raised 263 acres of tobacco and 123 of beets. In 1908 there were 188 acres of tobacco and 108 of beets.
Lima. As early as the summer of 183€ Col. James M. Burgess visited what is now the town of Lima and made a claim on sec- tion 17, but as he never improved it, it is to be presumed that the claim lapsed. He was followed in June, 1837, by Solomon L. Harrington and Thomas Vanhorn, who located and built a sawmill on the west branch of Whitewater Creek, in the east part of the town. In the same year came Mr. Joseph Nicholls, who made a claim and built a cabin in section No. 1. He combined the elements of strength and good nature with that of woodcraft in a great degree; one one occasion after a bee hunt, in which science he excelled, he drew 200 pounds of honey on a hand sled to Milwaukee, returning with a barrel of flour and some other commodities.
In the winter of 1837-38 the next arrival was Curtis Utter, who made a claim on section 36, where he resided until his death a few years since. In 1838 George B. Hall arrived and located on section 19, and was followed next year by Azel Kenney and Prosper Cravath, Jr., who located on section 13, where a house
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had been built for Kenney on the site occupied in 1878 by the residence of Miles C. Cravath, Prosper Cravath building on land adjoining. With Mr. Kenney came a young man named Newton Baker. In 1840 the town received a large accession to its popu- lation by the arrival of a colony from Cortland, N. Y. The colony consisted for the most part of Deacon Prosper Cravath and his large family, with Levi and Giles Kinney, Deacon Zerah Hull, James Hull, Ara Hardy and their families, all of whom located in what were known as the Cravath and Hall neighborhood.
Up to February 24, 1845, when it received a separate or- ganization, the town of Lima formed a portion of the town of Milton, and after being so created it received the name of Lima at the request of Mr. Paul Crandall and a few others, being called after some eastern township. On April 1, 1845, the first town election was held in the school house in District No. 9. At that election Prosper Cravath was made chairman of supervisors. The other supervisors were John Child and Abram Allen. Paul Crandall was elected town clerk; William P. Stillman, treasurer ; John H. Twining, collector; N. Kemble and Azel Kenney, assessors; Bryce Hall, Abram Allen, Nelson Salisbury, commis- sioners of highways; Ebenezer Rider, Paul Crandall, Azel Ken- ney, commissioners of common schools; Prosper Craveth, sealer of weights and measures; John H. Twining, Giles Kinney, con- stables; John Child and Horace G. Hamilton, justices of the peace.
The advent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, then known as the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Road, in 1852, while it did a great deal of good in opening up the country, also did a great deal of harm; for in order to secure it a great many farmers were led to mortgage their farms in the belief that as soon as the road was completed the company would pay the prin- cipal and interest, but they had to pay both themselves.
The residents of the town are now comparatively well off, and they have of late been paying considerable attention to the raising of stock and dairying.
Magnolia. The town of Magnolia is situated in the northwest part of the county, adjoining Green. It was organized by an act of the legislature, approved February 2, 1846. By this act it was made to include township 3 north, range 10 east, its present limits.
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The first settlement was made in 1840 by J. N. Palmer, Joseph Prentice, Andrew Cotter, W. Adams, W. Fockler, Abram Fox, Jonathan Cook, Edmund Basy, Ambrose Moore, George McKen- zie, Widow Hines and her son, William H. Hines, and Sanford P. Hammond.
The Chicago & North-Western Railway, formerly the Beloit & Madison Railroad, enters the town on the eastern borders on section 24, runs northerly, passing into the town of Union from section 2. A reliable record gives the following, among others, of the principal farmers in Magnolia at an early day: N. B. Howard, James A. Robson, William Huyke, Ezra Miller, Charles Dunbar, Hiram Barr and James F. Jones.
The late day residents have made great improvements in the township, which is now under a high state of cultivation; the soil is productive and in a good state of cultivation, and the homes are modern and up-to-date. The population in 1905 was 899.
Milton. The town of Milton includes within its limits town- ship 4 north, range 13 east. Prairie du Lac is mostly in this town and is one of the richest and most beautiful in the country. There are several small lakes on this prairie, hence its name (Lake Prairie). Otter creek, running through the north part; Lake Koshkonong, extending into the northwestern portion, and a small section of Rock river just as it leaves the lake, furnish, together with springs, small streams and marshes, a good supply of water. The northern part of the town is mostly openings and quite rolling, the southern part prairie and openings. The town was organized February 17, 1842, and included at that date the whole of the present town of Lima. The first board of officers were: Supervisors, N. G. Storrs (chairman), P. A. Cravath and G. W. Ogden; town clerk, O. W. Norton. A writer in 1856 says : "The inhabitants are noted for their industry, peaceableness and temperate habits, there not being a place in the town where ardent spirits are sold."
The following facts concerning Milton are from a pen of a pioncer citizen of that town, written in 1856:
"Milton is located in the northern tier of townships in Rock county, being eight miles north of the city of Janesville; it began to attract the attention of settlers in the year 1836, at which time its first settler located within its borders. It contains about 23,000
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acres of territory, but, owing to a number of small lakes scat- tered here and there, and a portion of Koshkongong Lake, occu- pying a part of sections 5, 6 and 7, about 1,000 acres are rendered useless, and besides this there are fully 1,000 acres of low or marsh lands, which are of no avail for purposes of tilling. Deer Lake (Clear Lake) is situated on section 20, and is (1856) a beautiful sheet of water of nearly circular form, averaging about half a mile in diameter. Its bed and shore are composed of gravel and white sand, and being clear and deep with dry, bluffy shore, it is indeed beautiful as well as of utility to the farming community ; other small lakes, furnishing water for farming pur- poses, are situated on sections 25 and 26.
"The only stream of water of which this town can boast is a small one called 'Otter Creek.' It rises in the township to the east of this and, running through Milton in a northwesterly direction, empties into Koshkongong Lake. In consequence of the levelness of the country through which it flows and generally having low banks, no very valuable water power is obtained. Yet Daniel F. Smith, who, by the way, was the first settler to bring his wife to this town, constructed a dam with a ditch or race, by which means a tolerable water power was obtained, whereupon. he built a sawmill, which was of great service and convenience to the first settlers of this part of the country, but from scarcity of water and suitable timber, and also from opposition by other mills of later origin and of greater pretensions, this had been neglected and is now (1856) silent; yet many remember the 'old mill' with pleasure, even if it is supplanted by fast growing young America.
"Along the southern boundary of this town lies a small prairie called Du Lac Prairie. It is about five miles in length and ranging from one-half to one and a half miles in width. Near the center of this prairie and near the village of Milton is a table- land of nearly circular form and a mile in diameter, rising about seventy-five or eighty feet. The top of this tableland is level and, like the rest of the prairie, has a rich black loamy soil, fertile and productive. The timber is in part like the most of the southern portion of the state, burr, black and white oak, with an occasional basswood, poplar or soft maple in and about the low- lands. Koshkonong Lake, together with some of the smaller ones, produces an abundance of wild rice, which, although
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formerly used as an article of food by the Indians, now only fur- nishes food for the great number of wild geese and ducks which frequent these lakes.
"The first settlers came in 1836, among whom were D. F. Smith, Stephen Butz, Aaron T. Walker, Alfred Walker, Peter MeEwan, George W. Ogden, Isaac T. Smith and E. Hazzard. Although some of them came in 1837-38, they are, nevertheless, the first settlers-pioneers of this township. At that time the now city of Janesville was only occupied by two cabins-one by Samuel St. John and the other by F. H. James. Their place of market was Chicago, as even Milwaukee was of humble preten- tions ; and only those who have tried its realities ean appreciate the pleasure of packing provisions, even in seanty supplies, from the frontier settlements for a hundred miles back into the wilder- ness country, there to gladden the hearts of friends who had frequently felt conscious of other demands of human nature than beautiful country and a clear sky; and before the country itself could support human life trees had to be felled, cabins reared, and the soil had to be broken and prepared and erops sown, and even the laborer had to wait the harvest. Many were the days of toil and anxiety, attended with deprivations of every kind, that the first settlers endured, and they were only rendered tolerable by smiling Hope, as she whispered of comfortable homes and plenty in the future; and, indeed, at this day those hopes have all been realized.
"The person who can claim the honor of having done the first breaking (plowing) in this town is Stephen D. Butz, and he, with his sister, constituted the first family in the town. This plowing was done in 1836 on section 28. Peter MeEwan made the first rail fence, but to the Walkers can be aseribed the honor of inelosing the first field and raising the first crop of wheat and potatoes-the wheat was from two bushels' sowing. The first potatoes were brought by A. T. Walker from an old miner on Sugar river and packed home on horseback. While on his way home he was offered $5.00 for his bushel by Mr. Janes, of Janes- ville, but money was no object in comparison to the much coveted potatoes.
"In the year 1838 Orrin Sprague established a blacksmith shop on Prairie du Lac. He being a person of ingenuity and mechanical skill, was just such a man as the times needed; he
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could mend a plow or make one, or do any other work in his line which was required by the farmers. He made many plows, and made them so faultlessly that he acquired the reputation of being the only man in this section who could make a breaking plow that would 'run to a charm.' About that year (1839) quite a number of families came into the town from Allegany county, New York, and among them Joseph Goodrich, H. B. Crandall, James Pierce and Ebenezer Phelps.
"This township was not organized until the year of 1842, when, with many other towns, it organized under an act of our terri- torial legislature, February 17. At that time Milton and Lima were both united under the name of Milton, and Lima was not organized as a separate township until 1845.
"A postoffice was established in this town in 1839, and Joseph Goodrich was the first postmaster.
"As early as 1838 the settlers, without regard to sectarianism, united and supported religious meetings. They gave to their minister such of their substance as they could spare, and their subscriptions for the support of ministerial labors were duly paid in labor, produce (wheat, corn and oats then being legal tender) and cash-the last of which articles so scanty that when it touched the palm of the hand of the official it felt truly spiritual. With the increase of population and wealth the town has become blessed with the salutary influences of three organized churches, each having a separate edifice for its devotions, the Seventh Day Baptist Church, the Congregational and the Methodist.
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