The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 52

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

USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc. > Part 52

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At one time, I came near having trouble with a company of six Indians. I had a grind- stone, the only one, perhaps, in Rock County, and I allowed the Indians to grind their knives and tomahawks whenever they wished to. This was in the latter part of the winter, when these Indians came to my shanty and asked the privilege of grinding, which I readily granted, as usual. After grinding, they came into my shanty. I was alone-the only white person in the settlement. They asked for food. I had been in the habit of giving it to them frequently, but. at this time, I was almost out myself and did not know when I could get more from Milwaukee. I knew they were nearly famished, having consumed their winter's stock of rice and muskrats, and pitied them ; but was obliged to refuse them. They then offered me money, even to a handful of half-dollars for a small piece of bread ; but I told them how little I had, and that I knew not when I could get more. I could talk Indian considerably then. Still they insisted on having something to eat, and one of them stepped to my pork barrel and took off the cover and looked in, where I had a few small pieces of pork swimming in the brine, and manifested a disposition to take it, when I took my ax and resolutely stepped toward him and told him to "puckachee"-clear out. I was fully determined to split him down if he had not desisted ; and he undoubtedly thought so, for he stepped back, and, after some consultation, they left me unmolested. I almost tremble, even at this late day, when I consider the risk that I ran and my fortunate escape from my probable and almost inevitable fate had I struck the Indian down with such odds against me, and the probable effect that would have been produced on the others under the circumstances.

V-LEVI ST. JOHN, JANESVILLE, 1856.

I arrived with my family at Rock River, October 5, 1836, and went into a log house on the farm now owned by Mr. Cobb, with my brother. his wife having died the June previous. The first election in the county was held at my brother's house, five days after my arrival. The

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

number of votes cast was very small. I at that time knew and traded with every man in the county, having brought in leather, boots and shoes. At this time, there were only six white women within six miles of Janesville, and none at Beloit. We procured our provisions with great difficulty, and were obliged to pay $3 per hundred weight for hauling from Milwaukee or Chicago, which, added to the cost, made our flour stand us at $21 and pork $40 per barrel ; salt 15, and saleratus 25 cents per pound, and butter from 3 to 6 shillings. But the greatest trouble, after all, was to procure seed for sowing. I rode into Illinois, and, at the end of four-days' travel, succeeded in obtaining only three bushels of buckwheat, for which I paid $6, and thought myself very fortunate at that. For the first twelve bushels of oats that I sowed I paid $24.

Bred as I was to the business of farming and tanning, in the quiet old town of Hubbardton, Vt., I had very little idea of what vicissitudes a frontier life subjected a man to. I have frequently camped on the prairies or openings, rolled myself in my blanket and gone to sleep, with nothing to break the stillness of the scene but the howling of the wolves. At that early day, the Indians were quite numerous in this part of Wisconsin. I have frequently visited their camps, gone into their wigwams, and bought honey and maple sugar of them. At times, as many as a dozen Indians would ride up to my house, armed with tomahawks, knives and loaded guns; and I have at such times thought how easy a matter it would be for them to butcher my family, if they were so disposed. It was reported, from time to time, that they intended to have a general rising, and massacre all the whites ; in fact, they did murder a man on Rock River, near its head, of the name of Burnett, and wounded another. But they were always friendly with me, and I have traded a great deal with them. They learned to be quite shrewd in their traffic. If they had a large lot of peltries or fish to sell, they would only show a few of the poorest at first, and then producing more, and so on, until they sold out. The Indians are remarkably generous, always offering their .visitors something to eat. I was generally in the habit of feeding them when they called at my house. I have frequently given a loaf of bread to a company of half a dozen, when the one who received it would divide it, reserving the largest share for himself. Indians always share together ; no matter whose papoose it is, he has his spoon in the succotash as long as it lasts. But the Indians, together with the deer and wolves, have left.

Those were days of romance, when the rules of etiquette were laid aside. The highest tax was for the necessaries of life. We then enjoyed ourselves in visiting, riding in a two-horse or ox wagon or cart, with old Golden and his mate, snuffing up the fragrance of the prairie air. There were no political or road contentions, for we traveled where we pleased, and voted for whom we pleased. But those good and bright days are gone, and are succeeded by fashion and exorbitant taxes.

VI-ISAAC T. SMITH, MILTON, 1856.

On the 4th of March, 1837, a company of us took a team and sleigh and started for Otter Creek to make claims. D. F. Smith made his claim where the Milwaukee and Mineral Point road crosses the creek on the lot where I now reside. [Mr. Smith lives now (1879) in Col- orado.] It was at that time considered valuable as a water-power ; was selected for the purpose of building mills, as well as to make a farm. I made a claim on Prairie du Lac, on what is now occupied as a farm by Joseph Goodrich and John Alexander. The 27th of the same month, I hired a team and some men to come here and help me put up a cabin for a family to move into. The weather was cold, and, as we had to camp on the ground, we worked lively to make as short a job as possible. In our haste in preparing our camp equipage and eatables, we forgot the article to raise our hoe-cake, and were obliged to eat it in an unleavened state. That would have satisfied the most rigid Jew of old.

We put up two cabins, each fourteen feet square, and covered them with "shakes," as long shingles were then called, the gable ends being finished with logs and the shingles held. to their places by weight-poles on top, instead of nails. That style of building is fast going out of practice; and, if we do not preserve a description of these primitive cabins on paper, the people will soon forget the style of Western pioneer cabins. I took up my residence here on the 10th

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

of April, in company with a man named Lyman C. Smith ; but in one week's time he tired of our way of living, and I bought him out. My nearest neighbor south was Daniel Smiley, where Col. H. P. Culver now resides, and on the north was John Allen, above Lake Kosh- konong. I lived by myself until D. F. Smith moved his family here, about the 25th of May, the same spring. Like all early settlers, I was pleased to have those seeking locations call, and. if I could show them a place that suited them for a farm, to do so. Sometimes my family was large for a house of this size, as I had no chamber-room and a cabin but fourteen feet square, and, to show you how many can stay in a small house, I will give the names of my family-on one occasion for a couple of nights it consisted of the following persons: D. F. Smith, L. C. Smith, Simon Smiley, Franklin Griffith, William Voice, John B. Babcock and three others. There came up a severe thunder-storm. D. F. Smith had a small Indian pony that he paid a high price for; said it was too bad for the pony to stay out in such a storm, so I moved my dishes, and it was led in and tied to my cupboard, or rather a pin in the log that was part of my cupboard. Eastern housekeepers will be curious to know how we slept, as I had but one bedstead, and that had but one post, the logs of the house answering instead of the other three posts. Three of us lay on the bed and as many under it, while the rest ranged around the fire in one corner and the pony in the other. The flour that I used was made at Adamsville, in Cass County, Mich., and hauled on wagons by the way of Chicago and Racine to this place and was current at $20 per barrel. Pork was worth $45 per barrel; potatoes $4 per bushel. One day, while I was gone to my former boarding-place, where I still had my washing done, a neighbor. some eight miles distant, came near my cabin looking for his horses that had strayed, and, being very hungry, called to get something to eat, but, finding the door fastened on the inside (a pre- caution that I had taken to keep the Indians from taking my eatables), he looked for another place to enter, thinking if I got out, he could get in, so, climbing to the top of the house and taking off some shingles, was soon making a fire to cook supper for himself, which, with what I had on hand and some prairie-chickens' eggs that he had found, made a rare supper for a new country. On leaving, he went out as he came in, and the next time I saw him, he told me he had helped himself, and, of course, it was all right.

I think Jason Walker was the next one that came to this town, and soon after that G. B. Hall and J. Giblet settled above us, on the creek. N. G. Storrs, S. D. Butz and G. T. Mackey came in soon after, but I am unable to say which one first, or what time. G. W. Ogden was one of the first, in the west part of this town [Milton]. After our first supply of flour gave out, we were obliged to go to mill down to Aurora, on Fox River, in what is now Kane County, Ill., or in some cases to Green's mills, at what is now called Dayton, within three miles of Ottawa, La Salle County, same State. When we could get grinding done at Beloit, it was quite a relief, as it took but two days to go to mill, and I have done it in one.

Our breaking-plow was made by Mr. Stevens, of Pleasant Prairie, near Kenosha; and, when worn until it needed a new lay, it could not be had short of Racine, and Dr. F. Smith took two yoke of oxen and started with it for the shop, sixty-five miles off. The people at and around Rochester had raised a bridge at that place across Fox River, and got one track planked, and when he drove his team on, the leaders were afraid, and seeing the danger of their falling off, he unhooked the chain just in time, for one ox pushed his mate over, and he held him by the neck, his mate hanging down toward the water. Smith put his shoulder to the other, and tum- bled him off too. Both cattle struck the water with their backs down. Then he jumped in, and succeeded in unyoking them, and getting both out. After getting the plow fixed, he started at noon from Racine, and it was dark when he came to the river, and not liking the bridge, thought best to ford it, and found, when too late, that the river had raised so as to make fording dangerous. The cattle had to swim some, and the wagon-box was like to leave. but by holding the stakes, he kept it on, but the groceries were worse for water, that lay in the box.

While thinking over those times, it brings to mind a case of one of Janes' hands, and shows the consequence of " getting on a bust."

- PINCHSO I.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Janes sent a man to Racine with three yoke of oxen and a wagon, and when there, he met several of his old acquaintances, who had not the practical importance of the " Maine Law " before their eyes, and, after drinking awhile, it occurred to the said driver, that it would be wis- dom in him to look out well for the cattle, lest they should stray while he was drinking with his party. He put a bell on one ox, and to make sure, chained him to a tree, thinking the others would not leave the bell. When he went to yoke his team, the bell-ox was all that could be found. This vexed him much, and he started for the old place where they had been kept before moving to Rock River, and being somewhat cast down with his error, he passed a yard in which a man had turned the cattle (as they had started back), but not seeing them, he went eight miles to the old place, and then to Janesville, thinking they had gone home. He footed it to Janesville,. and then back, and finally found his team after several days' delay. A few more of such snaps would make an advocate of the Maine Law of almost any man.

As many people often inquire if the Indians were not troublesome, I would say that they never stole a dollar's worth from us, and we felt as secure when they were about as while gone. and always allowed them to sleep in the house, if they wished. I never slept at home with the door fastened, yet.

VII-G. W. LAWRENCE, JANESVILLE, 1856.

My father, William Lawrence, formerly a resident of Northern Pennsylvania, visited Wis- consin on a tour of observation in the fall of 1836. Caleb Blodgett, then of Beloit, and since deceased, claimed at that time, probably, thousands of acres in the town of Beloit, and in various other portions of the county of Rock, particularly along the Turtle Creek ; of him my father purchased a couple of claims, one very near the village of Beloit, the other, a few miles out. Passing the ensuing winter in Pennsylvania, he returned to make some improvements on his- claims in the spring of 1837, accompanied by my brother and brother-in-law, C. W. Lawrence, and P. Bostwick. But his most valuable claim, the one bordering on the village, was out of his reach. It had been re-sold, I think ; at all events, it was occupied ; hence his right and title were extinguished; the occupant had decidedly the advantage over him. Speculation was rife in those days, in the matter of making and selling claims.

I came into the county in July, 1838. Previous to this, various persons had made claims extensively, some for settlement and cultivation, and others for purposes of speculation, on and in the vicinity of Turtle Creek, and. in other places where it was thought farms could be made. The central portions of Rock Prairie were considered, at that time, unavailable for farming pur- poses. Turning a furrow round an eighty-acre lot, for instance, was the simple process of mak- ing a claim. The man who had thus inclosed his piece of land with a plow-mark would then sell his claim, perhaps, to some new-comer for as much as he could get. My father was not the only one who was "taken in," somewhat, in buying claims ; there were many who lost in this way what they bargained for, and the money which they expended in the fictitious purchase.

This plan of money-making, or gouging, did not succeed very well after the public land sale of 1839. In the period of which I speak, a man who desired to make a home in the country, would make or buy a claim ; while on his trip East for his family and effects, some interloper would come along and take possession, in the most deliberate manner, of the absentee's contem- plated property. This was called jumping a claim, and unless the original claimant had made some improvement, such as throwing up a few logs, poles or boards in the shape of a shanty, plowing or fencing a few acres, he had no remedy, and could only obtain possession by turning off the intruder forcibly, without the aid or intervention of law. In case he had made slight improvements, and was designing to become an actual settler, it was thought he had a right to the premises, and the sympathies of the people, if they did not prevent the jumping of his claim, were frequently of great service in assisting him to recover it. Thus much in relation to mak- ing, selling, buying and jumping claims, in the early settlement of Rock County.

Beloit was my first stopping-place. The harvest of 1838 coming on, I went into a wheat field near by, owned by Caleb Blodgett, the largest I have ever seen, embracing, I should

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

think, from eighty to one hundred and sixty acres. Here I took my first lesson in raking and binding wheat. John Hackett, who was the worthy Postmaster at Beloit in those days, was in the habit of exercising himself in a similar manner. In the lapse of eighteen or twenty years. he has become rich ; but I presume he is not ashamed of his early history as a worker. David Noggle, I think, tilled Mother Earth for a living during the first year of his residence in the West. IIe left the plow for the bar. During the period to which I refer, it was fashionable to work-I mean with the grain-cradle, the mowing-scythe, the ax, the shovel and the hoe. The farmer's and mechanic's tools in those days were handled without gloves.

The inhabitants of Rock County, in July, 1838, were not numerous-probably somewhere from three to four hundred ; perhaps a trifle over the last figure. At all events, persons living from five to ten miles apart considered themselves neighbors, and there was a good deal of sym- pathy and kind regard for each other.

The first death occurring. to my recollection, after I came to Beloit, was that of a brother, Amos Lawrence, who died in August, 1838. His attending physicians were Drs. White and Bicknell, the former now deceased, the latter still a resident of Beloit. My brother's remains were among the first deposited in the Beloit burying-ground. The funeral service was conducted by a Rev. Mr. Adams, a Congregational or Presbyterian clergyman living at the mouth of the Pecatonica, now Rockton. About a year afterward, if I am not mistaken, I was present at the funeral of a Mr. Pickett, near Johnstown, where Mr. Adams. also officiated. On funeral occasions then, people would assemble from far and near, thus indicating their sympathy for bereaved and sorrowing hearts.

The first numerously attended public meeting at which I was present was held on Jefferson Prairie, to make arrangements in reference to the approaching land sale of 1839. The objects of the meeting were to fix upon the amount of land which each settler might be allowed to claim ; and in the effort to secure this quantity (whether it was a quarter or a half section, I will not pretend to say), they agreed to protect each other on the day of sale, should any attempt be made to overbid them. Another object of the meeting was to appoint bidders for certain districts, who were to bid for the specified lands in the names of their real or contemplated occupants. The sale was held in Milwaukee. There was but very little overbidding.

In the spring of 1838, the village of Beloit was mostly made up of inhabitants who were dwelling in shanties erected merely for temporary occupation; aside from these, three or four regu- lar frame buildings, and perhaps as many more log houses-and we have Beloit before us as it was then. But the year 1838 was one of enterprise and activity. Before its termination, quite a village was under way there, and it gave promise of a brilliant future. It is but just to say it has made steady progress ever since.

At that day, Janesville had scarcely a name to live, and, indeed, there were very few per- sons in the place, or out of it, who believed it ever would amount to much. It had very few attractions at that time. An item or two in reference to it touching its early educational history, and I am done. The first public school, I think, was opened in the summer of 1840. The first teacher was Miss Cornelia Sheldon, daughter of Gen. Sheldon, now Mrs. Woodle. The writer of this fol- lowed her as instructor through the ensuing winter. The schoolhouse was a log building, situated in the woods near Main street, and some three or four streets north of Milwaukee street. Here I let patience have its perfect work for the space of four months. The first debating club of Janesville was organized during this winter. The meetings for discussion and mental improve- ment were held in my schoolroom. Prominent among those who participated regularly in our debates was one James H. Knowlton, who, I think, was just about that time undergoing the initiative of public speaking. He was a good debater, and contributed largely toward making our meetings interesting and profitable. He is now not unknown to fame. Harrison Stebbins, now of the town of Porter, I think, opened the first select school in Janesville, either in the latter part of the year 1841, or in the beginning of 1842.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

PIONEER LIFE.

Records of the olden time are interesting, and they are not without their lessons of instruction. By the light of the past, we follow in the footprints of the adventurous and enterprising pioneer. We see him, as it were, amid the labors and struggles necessary to con- vert the wilderness into a fruitful field. We sit by his cabin fire, partaking of his homely and cheerfully granted fare, and listen to the accounts which he is pleased to give us of frontier life, and of the dangers, trials, hardships and sufferings of himself and others in their efforts to make for themselves homes in regions remote from civilization, and unexplored hitherto, save bý wandering Indians and beasts of the forests and prairies. Through these ancient records, we make our way along to the present. From small beginnings, we come to the mighty achieve- ments of industry, the complex results of daring enterprise, subduing and creative energy, and untiring perseverance.

Following on in the path of progress and improvement, we see once waste places rejoicing ' under the kindly care of the husbandman ; beautiful farms, with all the fixtures and appurtenances necessary to make the tillers of the soil and their families contented and happy, are spread out before us; villages and cities have arisen as if by magic, and by hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands, human souls are congregated within their precincts ; the mart of trade and traffic, and the workshop of the artisan are thronged; common schools, academies and colleges have sprung up ; young and ardent minds-children of the rich and poor-may press forward together in the acquisition of science ; churches are built, and a Christian ministry is sustained for the inculcation of religious sentiments and the promotion of piety, virtue and moral goodness ; the press is established whence floods of light and glory may emanate for the instruction and benefit of all ; railroads are built to bring the products of every clime and the people from afar to our doors; and the telegraph, "upon the lightning's wing," carries messages far and near. Let the records of the olden time be preserved ; in after years our children, and our children's children, will look over them with pleasure and profit.

The first important business of the pioneer settler, upon his arrival in Rock County, was to build a house. Until this was done, some had to camp on the ground or live in their wagons-perhaps the only shelter they had known for weeks. So the prospect for a house, which was also to be a home, was one that gave courage to the rough toil, and added a zest to the heavy labors. The style of the home entered very little into their thoughts-it was shelter they wanted, and protection from stress of weather and wearing exposures. The poor settler had neither the money nor the mechanical appliances for building himself a house. He was content, in most instances, to have a mere cabin or hut. Some of the most primitive construc- tions of this kind were half-faced or, as they were sometimes called, "cat-faced " sheds or " wike-ups," the Indian term for house or tent. It is true a "claim" cabin was a little more in the shape of a human habitation, made, as it was, of round logs, light enough for two or three men to lay up, about fourteen feet square-perhaps a little larger or smaller-roofed with bark or clapboards, and sometimes with the sods of the prairie, and floored with puncheons (logs split once in two, and the flat side laid up) or with earth. For a fire-place, a wall of stones and earth-frequently the latter only, when stone was not convenient-was made in the best practi- cable shape for the purpose, in an opening in one end of the building, extending outward, and planked on the outside by bolts of wood notched together to stay it. Frequently, a fire-place of this kind was made so capacious as to occupy nearly the whole width of the house. In cold weather, when a great deal of fuel was needed to keep the atmosphere above freezing point-for this wide-mouth fire-place was a huge ventilator-large logs were piled into this yawning space. To protect the crumbling back-wall against the effects of fire, two back-logs were placed against it, one upon the other. Sometimes these were so large that they could not be got in in any other way than to hitch a horse to them. The animal was driven in at the door, when the log was unfastened before the fire-place. It was afterward put in proper position. The horse would be driven out at another door.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 52

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