The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 71

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

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Company F-Captain, A. Z. Wemple, died at Memphis March 9, 1863; First Lieutenant, W. L. Scott, promoted Captain April 9, 1863; Second Lieutenant, Charles W. Stark, promoted First Lieutenant April 9, 1863; Sergeants, Joseph H. Stickle (promoted Second Lieutenant April 9, 1863), Kirk W. Tanner, Edwin W. Burnham (died at Young's Point, La., May 31, 1863), Abner C. Babcock and H. Levander Farr. Corporals, Charles E. Hoyt, John Eastwood, Oliver S. Crowther, Hosea B. Stafford, Matthias Crall, Eugene S. Serl (died at Cairo. August 24, 1863), Erastus A. Gardner, and Samuel E. Lyon (died at Holly Springs, Miss., December 27, 1862; Drummer, Charles H. Hoard ; Fifer, William Snyder; Wagoner, Emery H. Bur- dick. Privates, Lucius P. Adams, August Buntrock, Nelson A. Bump, Silas M. Campbell (killed at Tupelo, Miss., July 14, 1864), Robert Carr (died at New Orleans April 19, 1865), John L. Clark, Charles Cole, Francis S. Cramer, John L. Daniels, John Devens, Samuel Don- aldson, William W. Eastman, John R. Edwards, Henry C. Eldridge, William H. Emmonds (died at Memphis January 23, 1863), Laban Fisher, Ansel Flint, Franklin Francisco, Albert Freeliauf, Jacob C. Iletrick (died at La Grange March 17, 1863), Joseph W. Higday, John M. Holden, Joseph L. Holmes, John Hoyt, Nathan B. Hoyt (promoted Corporal and killed at Tupelo, Miss., July 14, 1864), Harvey Iloward, Peter Jamison, Albert C. Jones (promoted Corporal and killed at Cane River, La., April 24, 1864), James Kelley (died at Moscow, Tenn., February 26, 1863), George W. Merry (died at Moscow, Tenn., March 13, 1863), William H. Minor, Blanchard Nevill, John Nus, Jonathan G. Patterson, Ezra Pepper, Lucien B. Pierce, Rollin C. M. Pond, August Pitzrick (died at Duvall's Bluff, Ark., September 11. 1864), Wen- dell Powers, Emerson Root) died at Eastport, Miss., January 24, 1865), Henry Reed, George Rodd, John Ryan, David Safford, William Smith (killed at Vicksburg June 4, 1863), Saren W. Serl, Michael Setzer, Abel Spencer, William Stern, Charles Stern, Frederick Stulke, Saegus Sutter, John Tuel, Joseph Thompson (died at Memphis July 2, 1864), Chauncey L. Van

Daniel Johnson . 1

EVANSVILLE

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IHISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Valen )died at Moscow, Tenn., March 6, 1863), William Weaver, Montgomery Wright (died at Natchez September 4, 1863), George R. Welch, Frederick Wisch, William I. Wheeler, Ezra Whitmore, Albert W. White, John M. Wray, Westley Wright, Herbert D. Whitford and Joseph Yates.

When it again became necessary to augment the Union forces, decimated in the battles of the Peninsula, Eastern Virginia, Tennessee and the Southwest, and a feeling of depression over- came the North at the cheerless prospect, President Lincoln issued his call for " more troops," of which Wisconsin was required to furnish five regiments, the quota of Rock County being two hundred and fifty. Accordingly, a meeting of the citizens of the county was held in the public square, at Janesville, Saturday afternoon, July 26, 1862, for the purpose of devising means for raising such quota in the shortest possible time, at which Isaac Miles, of Fulton, presided, sup- ported by the following Vice Presidents : Hugh Wheeler, of Porter ; the Hon. David Noggle, of Janesville; W. H. Stark, of La Prairie; B. E. Hale, of Beloit ; and Henry Wooster, of Clinton : E. B. Murray, of Beloit, and J. B. Cassoday, of Janesville, acting as Secretaries.

Able and stirring speeches were made by the Hon. Matt H. Carpenter, William II. Ebbetts, H. N. Comstock, C. G. Williams and Judge Noggle, of Janesville; also by Capt. Crandall, of Walworth County, and Messrs. James M. Burgess, J. R. Bennett, B. E. Hale, J. P. Towne and J. A. Sleeper, of the committee in that behalf, reported a series of resolutions providing for the employment of every man's services (those of slaves included), in the suppression of the rebellion, insisting that no loyal man could be neutral ; advocating the emancipation of the slaves ; proffering to the heroes who were battling for the Union, the warmest of sympathy, and $50, as bounty, to every soldier, who should enlist prior to September 1st, thereafter; or, $30 to those who enlisted October 1st, until the supply expected from Rock County was filled, were adopted, after which, the meeting adjourned. In the pulpit ; at the bar ; at the hustings; on the stump; through the columns of the daily press, and every channel of communication, the public were urged to assist in re-enforcing the army. War meetings were held all over the county, particularly in Janesville, where, on the evening of August 5, 1862, $8,055 was sub- scribed to the bounty scrip; $1,040, was subscribed at Lima ; $500, at Milton; $660, at Harmony ; $500, at Union ; in brief, throughout the county, the greatest diligence was exer- cised to avoid the draft.

On the 9th of August, E. G. Harlow made application to the Adjutant General of the State for power to enlist an artillery company in the county, and was refused on the ground that that branch of the service was full. A similar request, inade by that gentleman to the Adjutant General of the army, met with a similar disposition. Finally, after some further correspondence, Mr. Harlow was commissioned a Lieutenant of artillery, and authorized to enlist fifty men for the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery, then in the field near Corinth, Miss., as a portion of Gen. Hamilton's division ; Lieutenant Harlow immediately opened a recruiting office at the drug store of G. R. Curtis, corner of West Milwaukee and Franklin streets, and, within 48 hours, had filled the complement with twelve men to spare. The recruits went into camp at Madison with- out delay, and on the 1st of September, or within two days of the date when sworn in, they left Janes ville and proceeded at once to the field of action. But little delay attended their initiation into actual warfare, for they participated in the battle of Iuka, on September 19, and thereafter were Constantly in the thickest of the fray, following Price down the Hatchie, participating in the bloody fight thereon, and returning to Corinth, were engaged during the bloody battles of the 3d and 4th of October, and in the siege of Vicksburg, where, after lying in the trenches for fifty days, they were gratified with the sight of the Stars and Stripes substituted for the Stars and Bars. They are next heard of at Chattanooga, Mission Ridge, Allatoona Pass, Savan- nah, Atlanta, through the Carolinas, in Richmond and Washington, which cities were taken in the route to Madison, where they were mustered out on the 26th of June, 1865.

During the war, the battery belonged to the Third Brigade, Second Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee ; also to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, and was commanded by Gens. McPherson, Sherman, Osterhaus, Logan and Grant.

472

HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

The roster of the company when it left Janesville for its duties in the field was as follows: E. G. IIarlow, Jr., First Lieutenant ; Marcus Amsden, Second Lieutenant, died at Allatoona, Ga., October 5, 1864. Privates, Orrin Hubbard, Daniel Skelly, Thomas T. Croft, Wheeler S. Bowen, L. D. Lateer, Alonzo Kibbey, H. A. Robertson, S. Sisson, Owen E. Newton, Thomas H. Har- rison, W. H. Palmer, D. R. Brand, Jerome Howland, Frederick Miller, J. T. Wilcox, C. Fogle (killed at Allatoona October 5. 1864), J. H. Saunders, J. M. Anderson, C. A. Wilmarth, S. E. Cheeney, S. Eldridge, A. F. Glasscott, R. W. Burton, A. C. Ames, S. H. Doolittle (killed at Allatoona), James Croft, H. T. Wright, W. V. Fox, Joseph Whitman (died in the service), C. H. Brown, W. II. C. Johnson, A. V. Wickoff, W. H. Griffith (died at Cairo November 14, 1863), Sylvester St. John, Frank Wood, S. P. Dennin, John T. Norton, W. D. Hemingway, H. Com- stock, T. G. Trask, William Packham (died at Corinth in 1863), Ellis Shopbell, A. Russell, D. L. Noggle, C. L. Noggle, William E. Ward, Henry Wingate (killed at Vicksburg July 4, 1863). James Gray (died at Cairo July 22, 1863), J. W. Chase (killed at Allatoona October 6, 1864). James Plympton (killed at Bentonville, N. C., March 22, 1865), S. L. Dey (died at Chattanooga), S. W. Bartow (killed at Allatoona October 5, 1864), David C. Davy (killed at Allatoona Octo- ber 5, 1864), Alva P. Hamilton (killed at Allatoona October 5, 1864), George Pierce, B. B. Austin, HI. B. Sexton, O. W. Wallace and E. B. Fish.

In the cavalry branch of the service, Rock County furnished the men to make up two com- panies, M of the Second and E of the Third Cavalry. Owing to the absence of data, as already cited, the roster of neither company could be procured and the names of the soldiers are thereby unavoidably omitted. The officers of Company M were: Captains, Nathaniel Parker, dis- charged, and Freeman A. Kimball, mustered out November 15, 1865; First Lieutenants, Free- man A. Kimball, promoted Captain, John Baxter, mustered out May 11, 1865, and George W. Walter, mustered out November 15, 1865; Second Lieutenants, John C. Metcalf, resigned April 3, 1863, John Baxter and George W. Walter, promoted, and George W. Taylor, mustered out November 15, 1865.

Company E was captained by Ira Justin, Jr., who died June 29, 1862, Alexander M. Pratt, mustered out February 14, and De Witt C. Brown, resigned September 4, 1865. The First Licutenants were : Alexander M. Pratt, promoted Captain ; Leonard House, resigned December 2, 1862; Arthur C. Kent, resigned June 13, 1863; . William Culbertson, transferred to Campany C, and Thomas O. Drinkall, mustered out September 8, 1865. Second Licutenants, Leonard House, Arthur C. Kent, William Culbertson and John C. Lynch, promoted, and Will- iam Ellis, resigned August 26, 1865.

Both companies served in the Western Armies.

The following Wisconsin soldiers are buried at Oak Hill Cemetery :

Edward O. Wright, James Armstrong, George Bentley, George H. Duncan, William Grif- fiths, Hawley Dow, John Prange, Robert F. Frazer, Henry Wingate, Charles S. Allen, D. Woodstock, Henry O. Ames, Charles H. Spencer, Joseph Harris, James Bliss, Isaao Woodle. W. H. Hays, Silas P. Dinnen, Gage Burgess, W. H. Frizzell, D. W. Inman, Daniel Davey, William H. Trask, Joseph A. Jones, Hiram, Cory, Ira Foster, E. D. Bostwick, David Denning, Daniel Moriarity, Jacob Smith, J. S. Whittlesey, C. G. Pcase, W. H. Sargent, Howard Hoskins, Theodore F. Tripp, Horace Tompkins, John Harrington, Asa C. Phelps, John Broyman, H. Allen, George Marshal, F. A. Kimball, Charles A. Wilmarth, A. H. Fitch, James Miles. Charles Francis and Arthur Keenan.

EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF ROCK COUNTY. BELOIT SEMINARY.

The first settlers of Beloit brought with them the thrifty habits and the devotion to relig- ious and educational institutions acquired in their homes amid the granite hills of New Hamp- shirc. To a New England settlement churches and schools were a necessity. With their education, it was simply impossible to hope for progress or enduring prosperity unless they were

IIISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

founded on religion and intelligence, and, consequently, one of the first things attempted to be done was to secure from the Territorial Legislature an act incorporating a seminary. With this object in view, as early as the fall of 1837, Maj. Charles Johnson and Cyrus Ames were selected to visit the seat of government and procure such legislation as might be necessary in the premises. The Legislature then held its sessions at Burlington, now in the State of Iowa, and these dele- gates accordingly made their way down Rock River in a " dug-out" to Rock Island, and then took.steamer down the Mississippi to the then capital of the Territory. Such an application from such an infant community may have excited some surprise, but in December, 1837, the Legislature granted a charter for the "Beloit Seminary," and the two delegates returned home highly elated at their success.

Under this charter, Miss Eliza D. Field opened a school for young ladies in the spring of 1843. In the fall of the same year, Mr. Abel Wood came from Oberlin, Ohio, and joined her, and the plan of the school was enlarged so as to admit the young of both sexes. The following year, 1844, Rev. L. H. Loss arrived and organized the " Beloit Seminary " regularly, with a Board of Trustees, but managed it alone. The Trustees were S. B. Cooper, D. J. Bundy. A. L. Field, L. G. Fisher, Jedediah Burchard, Dr. Jesse Moore and Moraco Ilobart. The academic year was divided into three terms-the fall term, beginning the first Monday in Sep- tember; the winter term, the first Wednesday in December, and the summer term, the first Wednesday in April, and the charges for tuition were:

Primary Class, quarter of eleven weeks $ 3 00

Junior Class, quarter of eleven weeks.

4 00

Senior Class, quarter of eleven weeks 5 00

French and Italian, exirn, quarter of eleven weeks .. ..

2 CO

Drawing and flower painting, quarter of eleven wecks 3 00

Oil painting and mezzotinting. quarter of cleven weeks. 5 00

Music on piano, quarter of eleven wecks ... 10 00

Mr. Loss continued to conduct the Seminary until the fall of 1846, when he was succeeded by Mr. S. T. Merrill and a corps of competent assistants, with the same Board of Trustees.

In 1848, there were 77 male and 48 female pupils, aggregating 125. Among these appear the names of Joseph Collie, now an cminent divine of Delavan, in this State; Jonas M. Bundy. editor of the New York Mail; Horace White, recently editor of the Chicago Tribune, and Horatio Burchard, the present Director of the United States Mint, at Philadelphia.

Upon the establishment of Beloit College, for which the Seminary had prepared the way, the male department was merged in the preparatory school of that institution, while the Female Seminary, under the charge of Mr. Merrill, and subsequently of Misses Chapin, Blodgett and White, and of Rev. Mr. Bean, continued a course of high usefulness for several years until the Beloit Iligh School and the Rockford Seminary, established under the samo auspices with the Beloit College, were prepared to do its work.

BELOIT COLLEGE.

The same educational instinct which produced the Beloit Seminary in the infancy of that community, was working throughout the other settlements of kindred blood which were filling the region between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. The rapid strides of the Northwest had also become a subject of discussion in the community from which the colonists had come, and there was a general feeling that the young New England which was rising in the Interior ought to have a college like those of the mother New England. This was particularly the case with the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches, and whenever these religious organizations met in convention the subject had a prominent place in their deliberations. Finally, in conferences of delegates attending a convention of Northwestern ministers and churches, held at Cleveland. Ohio, in June, 1844, these thoughts and desires began to assume a more definite shape, which were matured in four successive conventions, l:eld in that and the following year for the specific purpose of considering what could be done for the promotion of higher education in the

474

HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Northwest. These conventions were held at Beloit, as being in the geographical center of the region for which provision was to be made.

At the first convention, which met on the 6th of August, 1844, Wisconsin was represented by sixteen ministers and ten laymen, Illinois by thirteen ministers and fourteen laymen, and Iowa by four ministers. They thought it best that separate provision should be made for Iowa; but, after two days of earnest consideration of the subject, unanimously resolved that Northern Illinois and Wisconsin ought to unite in a college and a female seminary of the highest order, one in each State and near the border, and appointed a committee of ten leading men from Chicago, Galena, Racine, Milwaukee, Platteville, and other places throughout the region, to study the question of location, and report at another convention in October of the same year.

This second convention, numbering fifty delegates, received a report from the Committee, recommending Beloit as the place for the college, and, after two days' deliberation, re-affirmed the decision of the previous convention, but, judging that there should be the utmost care in deciding a matter of such wide and permanent importance, directed that the matter should be laid by circular before the churches, and by committees before ecclesiastical bodies, and referred to a third convention, to be held in May, 1845.

At this third convention, which met May 27, 1845, all the Congregational and Presbyte rian bodies of the region were represented as follows :

Ministers.

Delegates.

Ottawa Presbytery, Illinois.

Galena Presbytery,

·2

Fox River Union,

Rock River Association, Illinois.

Milwaukee Convention, Wisconsin.

Beloit Convention, =

Mineral Point Convention, "

Total

After most thorough discussion, this convention, with but one dissenting voice, approved the conclusion of their predecessors. Beloit was selected as the location for the college, as being situated in the center of the region for which the college was intended, and as having shown itself a suitable home for such an institution by its already established educational and moral character, and as having proved its interest in such an object by pledge on the part of its citizens of a site and of $7,000 toward a college edifice, together with sympathies, prayers and future efforts according to their means-a pledge which has been most faithfully made good during all the history of the college.

This convention, after selecting Beloit as the best location for the college, appointed com- mittees to mature measures preliminary to its establishment. These committees reported to a convention which closed its labors on the 23d of October, 1845. This convention approved and adopted a charter prepared by one of the committees, and appointed a Board of Trustees, to whom was committed the future development and care of the enterprise. The same Board was also charged with caring for and promoting the Female Seminary to be established in Illinois, near the Wisconsin line, and, in September, 1850, this Seminary was organized at Rockford. under a charter from the State of Illinois.

Application was made to the Territorial Legislature, and a bill passed granting a charter to Beloit College, approved February 2, 1846, which has continued in force, without alteration or amendment, to the present time. The administration of all the affairs of the College was vested by the charter in a Board of Trustees composed of sixteen members, who were authorized to increase their number to twenty-four, if they deemed such an increase advisable. Seven mem- bers of the Board constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. No special qualifications for membership are prescribed, nor is any definite term of service fixed for the Board; but fail- ure on the part of a Trustee to discharge the duties of his office during a period of one year or longer, may create a vacancy. The original Trustees named in the charter were Revs. A. L.

475

HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Chapin, Dexter Clary, Stephen Peet, F. Bascom, A. Kent, R. M. Pearson. J. D. Stevens and C. Waterbury, and Wait Talcott, Lucius G. Fisher, C. M. Goodsell, G. W. Hickox, A. Ray- mond, S. Hinman, C. G. Hempstead and E. H. Potter-one-half clergymen and one-half lay- men ; one-half residents in Wisconsin and one-half in Illinois. Four of these original Trustees, viz., Revs. Dr. Chapin and R. M. Pearson, and L. G. Fisher and W. Talcott, are still members of the Board, which now numbers twenty-four.

The powers vested in these Trustees by the charter are broad and general, subject to no direct supervision or control by the State or municipal authorities ; but the charter directs that the College shall always be open to visitation and inspection by the State authorities, and a sub- sequent general statute requires that a report of the condition of the institution be made to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. To avoid anything like the appearance of sectari- anism, the charter expressly provided that no particular religious belief or opinion should be prescribed as an essential qualification for instructors, or as a condition of admission for students. The charter further provides that the College and all its branches and departments shall be located at Beloit, empowers the Trustees or Faculty to confer on those whom they may deem worthy, all such honors and degrees as are usually conferred by similar institutions, and reserves to the Legislature power to amend or repeal the act of incorporation.

The object of the College was primarily to provide for "the thorough, liberal, Chris- tian education of young men." It was the design to make it especially "a religious College- not denominational, but distinctly and earnestly evangelical." The course of study and disci- pline corresponds with that of the New England Colleges, known as the " American College course," Yale being regarded, more than any other, as the model. This course embraces a train- ing in language as the great instrument and condition of all culture, civilization or thought; in mathematics and science, as a most valuable discipline, as well as furnishing the mind; in the histories of nature and of man, as the sources of practical knowledge; and in those philosophic and religious principles necessary to complete the general preparation for a broad and useful life. and, when supplemented by special technical training, for the best success in any desirable pro- fession or occupation. To meet the wants of those who may not contemplate professional life, the College has provided an additional course, called the philosophical course, which combines with such an amount of Latin and Greek as is essential to a liberal education, or to proficiency in any art or science, a more varied range of study and a more extensive culture of science. In order to provide the requisite foundation, a preparatory school is maintained, to give thorough preparation for the respective College courses.

The object of the College and the methods adopted to carry that object into effect having been disposed of, it will now be proper to recur to the material history of the institution and carry it on from the organization of the Board of Trustees, the procurement of the charter and the final adoption of the location. On the 24th of June, 1847, the corner-stone of the first building was laid. "The day-a great day for Beloit and its infant College-was as bright as ever dawned, and never did the green slopes of broad prairies spread themselves in greater beauty to the eye of man anywhere than as seen that day from the College bluffs," says a report of the occasion. The village people poured out en masse, hundreds more from the vicinity and many from distant States helped swell the crowd until it numbered fully two thousand souls. A procession was formed and, marshaled by John M. Keep, proceeded to the site selected. Rev. A. L. Chapin gave an account of the steps by which the enterprise had pro- gressed so far. Rev. Mr. Peet gave a statement of the resources of the College, and addresses suitable to the occasion were delivered by Rev. A. Montgomery, Rev. T. M. Hopkins, of Racine ; Rev. F. Bascom and Rev. S. G. Spees. At the conclusion of the speeches, the procession re-formed and " passed to the rising walls near by," when the Rev. A. Kent, President of the Board of Trustees, laid the corner-stone in due form, and Beloit College " gained a local habita- tion as well as a name." The College was opened for its first class on the 15th of October following, and five young men were examined and admitted as a Freshman Class and placed for

476

IHISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

the time under the charge of Mr. S. T. Merrill, the Principal of the Seminary, who now site with one of the members of that first class among the Trustees, who watch over the Colleg of which they were then so large a part. The Faculty was first constituted by the appointmen in May, 1848, of Mr. Jackson J. Bushnell, as Professor of Mathematics, and Mr. Jose Emerson, as Professor of Languages. The new professors immediately took charge of the clas already formed, and they were also charged with the further internal organization and admin tration of the College. Dr. S. P. Lathrop was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Natus Science in September, 1843, but did not entor upon his duties until the September followin the Rev. M. P. Squier was appointed Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Ju 1849, and assumed his office in May, 1850; the Rev. A. L. Chapin was elected President November, 1849, and entered upon the discharge of his duties in February, 1850; Mr. F. W Fisk was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in July, 1853, and assutched his chair in April. 1854; the Rev. William Porter was appointed Associate Professor of Mat he- matics in July, 1854, entered upon his duties in September, 1854, and was subsequently trans- ferred to the chair of Latin ; Professor Lathrop resigned in July, 1854, to assume a similar position in the Wisconsin University.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 71

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