The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 21

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899

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When the fish retire to the deep water, they are followed with miles of nets, and the poor fish are entangled on every side. There is a marked falling off in the number and size of white- fish and trout taken, when compared with early years. When fish were only captured with seines, they had abundant chance to escape and multiply so as to keep an even balance in number. Only by artificial propagation and well enforced laws protecting them during the spawning season, can we hope now to restore the balance. In order to give some idea of the valuable labors of the state fish commissioners, I will state briefly that they have purchased for the state a piece of property, situated three miles from Madison, known as the Nine Springs, including forty acres of land, on which they have erected a dwelling-house, barn and hatchery, also constructed several ponds, in which can be seen many valuable fish in the enjoyment of perfect health and vigor. As equipped, it is, undoubtedly, one of the best, if not the best, hatchery in the states. In this permanent establishment the commission design to hatch and distribute to the small lakes and rivers of the interior the most valuable of our indigenous fish, such as bass, pike, trout, etc., etc., as well as many valuable foreign varieties. During the past season, many fish have been distributed from this state hatchery. At the Milwaukee Water Works, the commission have equipped a hatchery on a large scale, using the water as pumped directly from the lake. During the past season there was a prodigious multitude of young trout and whitefish distributed from this point. The success of Superintendent Welcher in hatching whitefish at Milwaukee has been the best yet gained, nearly ninety per cent. of the eggs "laid down" being hatched. Pisciculturists will appreciate this wonderful success, as they well know how difficult it is to manage the spawn of the whitefish.

I append the following statistics of the number of fish hatched and distributed from the Milwaukee hatchery :

Total number of fish hatched, 8,000,000 - whitefish, 6,300,000; salmon trout, 1,700,000. They were distributed as follows, in the month of May, 1877: Whitefish planted in Lake Michigan, at Racine, 1,000,000; at Milwaukee, 3,260,000; between Manitowoc and Two Rivers 1,000,000 ; in Green bay, 1,000,000; in Elkhart lake, 40,000.

Salmon trout were turned out as follows : Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, 600,000; Brown's lake, Racine county, 40,000; Delavan lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Troy lake, Wal- worth county, 40,000 ; Pleasant lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Lansdale lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Ella lake, Milwaukee county, 16,000; Cedar lake, Washington county, 40,000; Elkhart lake, Sheboygan county, 40,000; Clear lake, Rock county, 40,000; Ripley lake,

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

Jefferson county, 40,000; Mendota lake, Dane county, 100,000; Fox lake, Dodge county, 40,000; Swan and Silver lakes, Columbia county, 40,000 ; Little Green lake, Green Lake county, 40,000; Big Green lake, Green Lake county, 100,000; Bass lake, St. Croix county, 40,000 ; Twin lakes, St. Croix county, 40,000 ; Long lake, Chippewa county, 40,000; Oconomo- woc lake, Waukesha county, 100,000; Pine lake, Waukesha county, 40,000; Pewaukee lake, Waukesha county, 100,000; North lake, Waukesha county, 40,000; Nagawicka lake, Waukesha county, 40,000; Okanche lake, Waukesha county, 40,000.

LARGE ANIMALS .- TIME OF THEIR DISAPPEARANCE.

Fifty years ago, the territory now included in the state of Wisconsin, was nearly in a state of nature, all the large wild animals were then abundant. Now, all has changed. The ax and plow, gun and dog, railway and telegraph, have metamorphosed the face of nature. Most of the large quadrupeds have been either exterminated, or have hid themselves away in the wilder- ness. In a short time, all of these will have disappeared from the state. , The date and order in which animals become extinct within the boundaries of the state, is a subject of great interest. There was a time when the antelope, the woodland caribou, the buffalo, and the wild turkey, were abundant, but are now no longer to be found.

The Antelope, Antilocarpa Americana, now confined to the Western plains, did, two hun- dred years ago, inhabit Wisconsin as far east as Michigan. In October, 1679, Father Hennepin, with La Salle and party, in four canoes, coasted along the Western shore of Lake Michigan. In Hennepin's narrative, he says; "The oldest of them " (the Indians) " came to us the next morn- ing with their calumet of peace, and brought some wild goats." This was somewhere north of Milwaukee. "Being in sore distress, we saw upon the coast a great many ravens and eagles " (turkey vultures), " from whence we conjectured there was some prey, and having landed upon that place, we found above the half of a fat wild goat, which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very acceptable to us, and the rudest of our men could not but praise the Divine Providence which took so particular care of us." This must have been somewhere near Racine. "On the 16th" (October, 1679), " we met with abundance of game. A savage we had with us, killed several stags (deer) and wild goats, and our men a great many turkeys, very fat and big." This must have been south of Racine. These goats were undoubtedly antelopes. Schoolcraft mentions antelopes as occupying the Northwest territory.

When the last buffalo crossed the Mississippi is not precisely known. It is certain they lingered in Wisconsin in 1825. It is said there was a buffalo shot on the St. Croix river as late as 1832, so Wisconsin claims the last buffalo. The woodland caribou-Rangifer caribou-were never numerous within the limits of the state. A few were seen not far from La Pointe in <045. The last wild turkey in the eastern portion of the state, was in 1846. On the Mississippi, one was killed in 1856. I am told by Dr. Walcott, that turkeys were abundant in Wisconsin previous to the hard winter of 1842-3, when snow was yet two feet deep in March, with a stout crust, so that the turkeys could not get to the ground. They became so poor and weak, that they could not fly, and thus became an easy prey to the wolves, foxes, wild cats, minks, etc., which exter- minated almost the entire race. The Doctor says he saw but one single individual the next winter. Elk were on Hay river in 1863, and I have little doubt a few yet remain. Moose are not numerous, a few yet remain in the northwestern part of the state. I saw moose tracks on the Montreal river, near Lake Superior, in the summer of 1845. A few panthers may still inhabit the wilderness of Wisconsin. Benjamin Bones, of Racine, shot one on the headwaters of

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FAUNA OF WISCONSIN.

Black river, December, 1863. Badgers are now nearly gone, and in a few years more, the only badgers found within the state, will be two legged ones. Beavers are yet numerous in the small lakes in the northern regions. Wolverines are occasionally met with in the northern forests. Bears, wolves, and deer, will continue to flourish in the northern and central counties, where underbrush, timber, and small lakes abound.

All large animals will soon be driven by civilization out of Wisconsin. The railroad and improved firearms will do the work, and thus we lose the primitive denizens of the forest and prairies.

PECULIARITIES OF THE BIRD FAUNA.

The facts recorded in this paper, were obtained by personal observations within fifteen miles of Racine, Wisconsin, latitude 42° 46' north, longitude 87º 48' west. This city is situated on the western shore of Lake Michigan, at the extreme southern point of the heavy lumbered district, the base of which rests on Lake Superior. Racine extends six miles further into the lake than Milwaukee, and two miles further than Kenosha. At this point the great prairie approaches near the lake from the west. The extreme rise of the mercury in summer, is from 90° to 100º Fahrenheit. The isothermal line comes further north in summer, and retires further. south in winter than it does east of the great lakes, which physical condition will sufficiently explain the remarkable peculiarities of its animal life, the overlapping, as it were, of two distinct faunas. More especially is this true of birds, that are enabled to change their locality with the greatest facility. Within the past thirty years, I have collected and observed over three hundred species of birds, nearly half of all birds found in North America. Many species, considered rare in other sections, are found here in the greatest abundance. A striking peculiarity of the ornithological fauna of this section, is that southern birds go farther north in summer, while northern species go farther south in winter than they do east of the lakes. Of summer birds that visit us, I will ennumerate a few of the many that belong to a more southern latitude in the Atlantic States. Nearly all nest with us, or, at least, did some years ago.

Yellow-breasted chat, Icteria virdis ; mocking bird, Mimus pollyglottus; great Carolina wren, Thriothorus ludovicianus ; prothonotary warbler, Protonotaria citrea; summer red bird, Pyrangia astiva; wood ibis, Tantalus loculator.

Among Arctic birds that visit us in winter are :

Snowy owl, Nyctea nivea; great gray owl, Syrnium cinerus; hawk owl, Surnia ulula; Arctic: three-toed woodpecker, Picoides arcticus; banded three-toed woodpecker, Picoides hirsutus; mag- pie, Pica hudsonica; Canada jay, Perisorius canadensis; evening grosbeak, Hesperiphona vesper- tina; Hudson titmouse, Parus hudsonicus; king eder, Somateria spectabilis; black-throated diver, Colymbus arcticus; glaucus gull, Laurus glaucus.

These examples are sufficient to indicate the rich avi fauna of Wisconsin. It is doubtful if there is another locality where the Canada jay and its associates visit in winter where the mock- ing bird nests in summer, or where the hawk owl flies silently over the spot occupied during. the warmer days by the summer red bird and the yellow-breasted chat. But the ax has already leveled much of the great woods, so that there is now a great falling off in numbers of our old familiar feathered friends. It is now extremely doubtful if such a collection can ever again be made within the boundaries of this state, or indeed, of any other.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

BY PROF. EDWARD SEARING, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

From the time of the earliest advent of the families of French traders into the region now known as Wisconsin, to the year 1818, when that region became part of Michigan territory, education was mostly confined to private instruction, or was sought by the children of the wealthier in the distant cities of Quebec, Montreal, and Detroit. The early Jesuit missionaries, and -subsequently to 1816, when it came under the military control of the United States - representatives of various other religious denominations, sought to teach the Indian tribes of this section. In 1823, Rev. Eleazar Williams, well known for his subsequent claim to be the Dauphin of France, and who was in the employ of the Episcopal Missionary Society, started a school of white and half-breed children on the west side of Fox river, opposite "Shanty-Town." A Catholic mission school for Indians was organized by an Italian priest near Green Bay, in 1830. A clause of the treaty with the Winnebago Indians, in 1832, bound the United States to maintain a school for their children near Prairie du Chien for a period of twenty-seven years.

THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL CODE.

From 1818 to 1836, Wisconsin formed part of Michigan territory. In the year 1837, Michi- gan was admitted into the Union as a state, and Wisconsin, embracing what is now Minnesota, Iowa, and a considerable region still further westward, was, by act of congress approved April 20th of the year previous, established as a separate territory. The act provided that the existing laws of the territory of Michigan should be extended over the new territory so far as compatible with the provisions of the act, subject to alteration or repeal by the new government created. Thus with the other statutes, the school code of Michigan became the original code of Wiscon- sin, and it was soon formally adopted, with almost no change, by the first territorial legislature, which met at Belmont. Although modified in some of its provisions almost every year, this imperfect code continued in force until the adoption of the state constitution in 1848. The first material changes in the code were made by the territorial legislature at its second session, in 1837, by the passage of a bill " to regulate the sale of school lands, and to provide for organ- izing, regulating, and perfecting common schools." It was provided in this act that as soon as twenty electors should reside in a surveyed township, they should elect a board of three com- missioners, holding office three years, to lay off districts, to apply the proceeds of the leases of school lands to the payment of teachers' wages, and to call school meetings. It was also pro- vided that each district should elect a board of three directors, holding office one year, to locate school-houses, hire teachers for at least three months in the year, and levy taxes for the support of schools. It was further provided that a third board of five inspectors should be elected annually in each town to examine and license teachers and inspect the schools. Two years subsequently (1839) the law was revised and the family, instead of the electors, was made the basis of the town organization. Every town with not less than ten families was made a school district and required to provide a competent teacher. More populous towns were divided into two or more districts. The office of town commissioner was abolished, its duties with certain others being transferred to the inspectors. The rate-bill system of taxation, previously in existence, was repealed, and a tax on the whole county for building school-houses and support-

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

ing schools was provided for. One or two years later the office of town commissioners was restored, and the duties of the inspectors were assigned to the same. Other somewhat important amendments were made at the same time.

In 1840, a memorial to congress from the legislature represented that the people were anxious to establish a common-school system, with suitable resources for its support. From lack of sufficient funds many of the schools were poorly organized. The rate-bill tax or private subscription was often necessary to supplement the scanty results of county taxation. Until a state government should be organized, the fund accruing from the sale of school lands could not be available. Congress had made to Wisconsin, as to other new states, for educational purposes, a donation of lands. These lands embraced the sixteenth section in every township in the state, the 500,000 acres to which the state was entitled by the provisions of an act of congress passed in 1841, and any grant of lands from the United States, the purposes of which were not speci- fied. To obtain the benefits of this large fund was a leading object in forming the state con- stitution.

AGITATION FOR FREE SCHOOLS.

Shortly before the admission of the state the subject of free schools began to be quite widely discussed. In February, 1845, Col. M. Frank, of Kenosha, a member of the territorial legislature. introduced a bill, which became a law, authorizing the legal voters of his own town to vote taxes on all the assessed property for the full support of its schools. A provision of the act required its submission to the people of the town before it could take effect. It met with strenuous opposition, but after many public meetings and lectures held in the interests of public enlightenment, the act was ratified by a small majority in the fall of 1845, and thus the first free school in the state was legally organized. Subsequently, in the legislature, in the two constitutional con- ventions, and in educational assemblies, the question of a free-school system for the new state soon to be organized provoked much interest and discussion. In the constitution framed by the convention of 1846, was provided the basis of a free-school system similar to that in our present constitution. The question of establishing the office of state superintendent, more than any other feature of the proposed school system, elicited discussion in that body. The necessity of this office, and the advantages of free schools supported by taxation, were ably presented to the convention by Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, in an evening address. He afterward pre- pared, by request, a draft of a free-school system, with a state superintendent at its head, which was accepted and subsequently embodied in the constitution and the school law. In the second constitutional convention, in 1848. the same questions again received careful attention, and the article on education previously prepared, was, after a few changes, brought into the shape in which we now find it. Immediately after the ratification by the people, of the constitution pre- pared by the second convention, three commissioners were appointed to revise the statutes. To one of these, Col. Frank, the needed revision of the school laws was assigned. The work was acceptably performed, and the new school code of 1849, largely the same as the present one, went into operation May first of that year.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM UNDER THE STATE GOVERNMENT.

In the state constitution was laid the broad foundation of our present school system. The four corner stones were: (1) The guaranteed freedom of the schools; (2) the school fund created ; (3) the system of supervision; (4) a state university for higher instruction. The school fund has five distinct sources for its creation indicated in the constitution : (1) Proceeds from the sale of lands granted to the state by the United States for educational purposes; (2)

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

all moneys accruing from forfeiture or escheat; (3) all fines collected in the several counties for breach of the penal laws; (4) all moneys paid for exemption from military duty ; (5) five per cent. of the sale of government lands within the state. In addition to these constitutional sources of the school fund, another and sixth source was open from 1856 to 1870. By an act of the state legislature in the former year, three-fourths of the net proceeds of the sales of the swamp and overflowed lands, granted to the state by congress, Sept. 28, 1850, were added to the common- school fund, the other fourth going into a fund for drainage, under certain circumstances ; but if not paid over to any town for that purpose within two years, to become a part of the school fund. The following year one of these fourths was converted into the normal-school fund, leaving one-half for the common-school fund. In 1858, another fourth was given to the drainage fund, thus providing for the latter one-half the income from the sales, and leaving for the school fund, until the year 1865, only the remaining one-fourth. In the latter year this was transferred to the normal-school fund, with the provision, however, that one-fourth of the income of this fund should be transferred to the common-school fund until the annual income of the latter fund should reach $200,000. In 1870 this provision was repealed, and the whole income of the normal fund left applicable to the support of normal schools and teachers' institutes.

At the first session of the state legislature in 1848, several acts were passed which carried out in some degree the educational provisions of the constitution. A law was enacted to pro- vide for the election, and to define the duties, of a state superintendent of public instruction. A district board was created, consisting of a moderator, director, and treasurer; the office of town superintendent was established, and provision was made for the creation of town libraries, and for the distribution of the school fund. The present school code of Wisconsin is substantially that passed by the legislature of 1848, and which went into operation May 1, 1849. The most important change since made was the abolition of the office of town superintendent, and the substitution therefor of the county superintendency. This change took effect January 1, 1862.

THE SCHOOL-FUND INCOME.

The first annual report of the state superintendent, for the year 1849, gives the income of the school fund for that year as $588, or eight and three-tenth mills per child. Milwaukee county received the largest amount, $69.63, and St. Croix county the smallest, twenty-four cents. The average in the state was forty-seven cents per district. The following table will show at a glance the quinquennial increase in the income of the fund, the corresponding increase in the number of school children, and the apportionment per child, from 1849 to 1875, inclusive ; also, the last apportionment, that for 1877. The rate for three years past has been 41 cents per child :

YEAR.

NO. CHILDREN OF SCHOOL-AGE. SCHOOL FUND

INCOME OF

RATE PER CHILD.

YEAR.

INCOME OF NO. CHILDREN OF SCHOOL-AGE. SCHOOL FUND

RATE PER CHILD.

1849 --

70,457

$588 00

$0.0083

1865 -.

335,582

151,816 34

.46

1850 .-

92,105

47,716 00 125,906 02

.518

1870 .-

412,481

159,271 38

.40

1855 --

186,085

.67

1875 --

450,304

184,624 64

.41

1860 ..

288,984

184,949 76

.64

1877 --

470.783

193.021 03

.41

The amount of productive school fund reported September 30, 1877, was $2,596,361.07. The portion of the fund not invested at that date, was $74, 195.22. _

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

In his message to the first territorial legislature, in 1836, Governor Dodge recommended asking from congress aid for the establishment of a state educational institution, to be governed by the legislature. This was the first official action looking to the establishment of a state university. The same legislature passed an act to establish and locate the Wisconsin univer- sity at Belmont, in the county of Iowa. ' At its second session, the following year, the legislature passed an act, which was approved January 19, 1838, establishing "at or near Madison, the seat of government, a university for the purpose of educating youth, the name whereof shall be 'The University of the Territory of Wisconsin. " A resolution was passed at the same session, direct- ing the territorial delegate in congress to ask of that body an appropriation of $20,000 for the erection of the buildings ot said university, and also to appropriate two townships of vacant land for its endowment. Congress accordingly appropriated, in 1838, seventy-two sections, or two townships, for the support of a "seminary of learning in the territory of Wisconsin," and this was afterward confirmed to the state for the use of the university. No effectual provision, how- ever, was made for the establishment of the university until ten years later, when the state was organized. Congress, as has been said, had made a donation of lands to the territory for the support of such an institution. but these lands could not be made available for that purpose until the territory should become a state. The state constitution, adopted in 1848, declared that pro- vision should be made for the establishment of a state university, and that the proceeds of all lands donated by the United States to the state for the support of a university should remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be appropriated to its support

The state legislature, at its first session, passed an act, approved July 26, 1848, establishing the University of Wisconsin, defining its location, its government, and its various departments, and authorizing the regents to purchase a suitable site for the buildings, and to proceed to the erection of the same, after having obtained from the legislature the approval of plans. This act repealed the previous act of 1838. The regents were soon after appointed, and their first annual report was presented to the legislature, January 30, 1849. This report announced the selection of a site, subject to the approval of the legislature, announced the organization of a preparatory department, and the election of a chancellor or president. The university was thus organized, with John H. Lathrop, president of the University of Missouri, as its first chancellor, and John W. Sterling as principal of the preparatory department, which was opened February 5, 1849. Chancellor Lathrop was not formally inaugurated until January 16, 1850.

Owing to the short-sighted policy of the state in locating without due care, and in apprais- ing and selling so low the lands of the original grant, the fund produced was entirely inadequate to the support of the institution. Congress, therefore, made, in 1854, an additional grant of seventy-two sections of land for its use. These, however, were located and sold in the same inconsiderate and unfortunate manner, for so low a price as to be a means of inducing immigra- tion, indeed, but not of producing a fund adequate for the support of a successful state univer- sity. Of the 92,160 acres comprised in the two grants, there had been sold prior to September 3º, 1 866, 74,178 acres for the sum of $264,570.13, or at an average price of but little more than $3.50 per acre .* Besides this, the state had allowed the university to anticipate its income to the extent of over $100,000 for the erection of buildings. By a law of 1862 the sum of $104,339.43 was taken from its fund (already too small) to pay for these buildings. The resulting embar- rassment made necessary the re-organization of 1866, which added to the slender resources of the institution the agricultural college fund, arising from the sale of lands donated to the state by the congressional act of 1862.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 21

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 899

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899