The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 73

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

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If she is, through no seeking of her own. for she and her sons alike have only sought to do their duty, if. how- ever, she is a candidate for such honors, she must not shrink from standing before you, the parents who have com- mitted your sons to her nurture, and the wide community who have called for their service, and answer such questions as these :

1. Did the sons of the College respond to the country's call, not in exceptional cases, but in such numbers a to justify the honor proposed to be paid to them as a body ?

2. Was their service a local one, or was it so general as to justify this general testimonial from the wide Northwest, and even from disant party of the land ?

3. Did they show themselves capable men, such as should come from an institution which professes to train in thought as well as in enthusiasm ?

4. Were they brave and true men, faithful unto death, so as to be worthy of an undying honor?

1. How many or what portion of the sons of the College answered the call ? When the war came, the College had sent forth but ten classes. Only 800 young men had been in it This number has since been increased to 1,500, of whom, however, fully one-half were, at the time of the war, too young or otherwise disqualified for service, or their record is not known. Of the 750) who may remain, 400 were in the service, more than half of all who could be there, and more than one-fourth of all, older or younger, living or dead, who have ever been in the College; and this proportion may assure us that those who remained were not uninterested in the cause, but bore their part in that grand support which the armies in the field received at home.

2. Is this a local object ? and is Beloit College a Beloit institution ? The citizens of Beloit do not fail 10 recognize the honor done them by the representatives of all this wide region, in not only choosing their loved city for the site of the College, but in associating the naine of their city with that of the College. They keep in view their pledge to cherish it by their prayers. sympathies and gifts. That their enthusiasms are its enthusiasms, this com- munity has shown by furnishing 100 of the 400 soldiers, and even a larger proportion of the honored dend. They have come forward, also, to bear a part in this memorial. and it is in their hearts to do more yet. But the College was established by all the region, for all the region, and the young men served in the ranks of many States, and for the deliverance of all the nation.

Shall we call up the regiments in which they stood, and see what an army they form ? On the far left is Maine, then Massachusetts with four regiments, and Connecticut ; next New York with seven. Pennsylvania with seven. and Ohio, Michigan and Indiana ; then the dense center, Wisconsin with two hundred in fifty-five regiments. and Illinois with one hundred and twenty in fifty-six regiments ; then ten regiments from Iowa, and five from Minnesota. And then the long right wing, covering Nebraska and Kansas, and reaching to California. But these are not all. In front of the central phalanx stand Missouri, Kentucky and Louisiana, and those regionents markel on our rosters by A. D.,

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

African Descent, they say it means. Anno Domini is our first thought ; and, perhaps, it is our best, for, in our gloom, their dark brows brought light an I the acceptable year of the Lord. But this army is not unsupported nor uncom- forted. There are the mortar-boats and the gun-boats, and the ships of war ; and the nurses in the hospitals, and the Sanitary Commission, and the Christian Commission, all that humane and Christian blessing by which the elements which are forming the better future, glorify the final struggle. We have, then, before us one hundred and seventy - seven regiments, benring the banners of nineteen States, besides the colored troops and the regular army, and their front supported by eight vessels of war.

3. But did these many men prove themselves capable men ? As children of so young a mother, they were young. and entered the service generally as privates. Many had not been long enough in the service to have their merit known before the war closed, or they were disabled, or lost their lives. Of many, also. we have the names without the rank. But of the whole four hundred, two hundred and fifteen are known to have become officers, and one hun- dred and forty-two bore commissions, as follows : Brigadier Generals, 3; Colonels or Lieutenant Colonels. 12; Majors, 9; Chaplains, 4; Surgeons and Assistant surgeons, 14: Adjutants, Quartermasters, etc., 14 : Captains, 42 ; Lieutenants, 44 ; non-commissioned officers, 73.

4. But did they prove themselves true men in action ? As they were in all the lines, so they were in all the actions of the war. Let us glance through their history. calling from point to point those whom the impartial messenger of death summons as witnesses to the spirit which animated all. They were among the first three-months' men, on the Potomac, at Cairo, and with Gen. Lyon when he fell at Wilson's Creek. In August, 1861. George O). Felt, a soldier full of promise. was killed in North Missouri, and Burford Jenkins, the Christian scholar, whom, though he was here so long ago, we remember as if it were yesterday, fell, in the service of Ohio, in West Virginia. In the spring of 1862, they were nt Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. The field of Shiloh was sprinkled with them. Thence true Milton Rood was borne to die in captivity ; there C'apt. Silas W. Field and Quincy E. Pollock, both true Christian soldiers, fell mortally wounded on that first day of disaster Pollock had become a Christian in College. Ile left. home not expecting to live to the close of the war; but he said. " My life is no better than theirs who have gone to the war. If I fall, I know into whose hands I fall : " and so now he is in the bosom of the Father.

Meanwhile, they were also in the East, where Henry tooper, reliable there as here, fell in the ranks of New York at Antietam. And in the West, also, Edmund Dawes, attested as "a devoted Christian in the army as well as at home," left the hospital just in time to die at Prairie Grove, in Arkansas.

The year 1862 closed with the battle of Murfreesboro. There, on the 30th of December, in the service of Pennsylvania, but acting as Aide to Gen. Rosecrans, fell Evan W. Grubb, a soldier who, as his comrades say. " could at all times be depended upon for any duty that required fortitude or perseverance." There, also, Francis II. Caswell and Dudley H. Cowles sank with grievous wounds, which, aggravated by the sufferings of captivity, brought to each of them the call to pass from a rebel prison to the freedom and rest of the Jerusalem above. " If," wrote Caswell to his mother, as they moved to the field, " I should lose my life suddenly and soon, it will be no more than carrying out the great purposes of God, and they are all just right, you know." We stand in awe before such a purpose, respect- ing the son of a missionary. born on heathen soil, educated with many prayers and sacrifices, and who had fondly boped to preach Christ in the land of his birth. But let us remember it-those great purposes " are all just right, you know."

Turning now to the Potomac, we find that the glory of that army is the Iron Brigade, the pride of Wisconsin : and the College is fully represented in each of those Wisconsin regiments-the Second, Sixth and Seventh. In every charge, they charged, and sank one after another with wounds, and Alexander Gordon, Captain in the Seventh, the soldier without fear and without reproach, whose gallantry had formed so large an element in the glory of the Bri- gade, singled out for his nobility of form by the rebel sharpshooters, fell upon the Rappahannock. A little after him, but far away by the Mississippi, as the lines were drawn up before Vicksburg for the assault, William W. Works gave the life, of which he had written in his diary on the morning of that sime day, " If I fall, I lay down my life, deeming it only a fit sacrifice for the life of my country."

The year 1864 opens with the battle of Franklin, where Col. Porter C. Olson fell gallantly leading the Thirty- sixth Illinois, and Frederick W. Goddard. who had bravely volunteered for that special occasion with the Twenty- second Wisconsin. In the same week, as the scene shifts to the east, we see the last of a face which many of us saw in its childhood, William Pearl Lathrop, eldest son of one of the earliest Professors both of Beloit College and of the University of Wisconsin. The remains of the father repose in our own cemetery. The son, born in Vermont, edu- ontel in Wisconsin, serving in the ranks, first of California and then of Michigan, disappeared in the Wilderness of Virginia. No man knoweth his resting-place, but he is not forgotten In the same struggle, Whitney Tibballs met his mortal wound, on the 10th of May. 18:4. Within the last six months, he had laid hold upon the Christian hope. On the lot of May, he had written six resolutions in his diary, of which the fifth was, " I will be brave on the battle- fiol.i," and the sixth, "[ will be brave in refusing to do evil " Thus prepared to die, and prepared to live, he saw the battle coming. He was detailed to tarry with the baggage, but he went to his Captain and begged the privilege of going into the battle. ' You are unwise " said a comrade. " we are going to have a fearful fight." He replied, " I

now that perfectly well, and choose to take my chance with the rest of the boys." He took his chance. God knew what was best for him. He was borne to the rear, and in two weeks more received the prize of him that overcometh. The army moved to Spottsylvania, where fell, wounded in like manner. Horace Turner, of the Twentieth Michigan, of whom his Captain writes, " He was a brave and true soldier, a faithful and consistent Christian, and lives fresh in the memory of his loving comrades." Three days after him, but in Georgia, sank Capt. Marshall W. Patton, known to many here as the boy with the bearing of a inan, whose distinguished valor in the Iron Brigade had given him promotion beyond his years, but not beyond his merits. He fell, leading his company in the Twenty-second Wisconsin, in the charge at Resaca, May 15, and died on the 18th. That army, too, moved on, and in front of the Seventy-fourth Illinois, at the terrible assault on Kenesaw, sank Lieut. Col. James B. Kerr, whom all Winnebago County knows as a scholar, a hero and a man. He threw his sword toward his friends. His person fell into the hands of his foes, among whom he died at Atlanta, July 8, 1864.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

Meanwhile, had occurred the disaster nt Guntown in Mississippi, where fell in the Ninety-fifth Illinois, the noble Colonel-and by brevet after his death General-Thomas W. Ilumphrey, and with him Lieut. Stephen A. Rollins, known and esteemed by many here to-day, as well as by his fellow-soldiers.

While these things have passed, the army of Virginia has gathered around Richmond. On the 18th of June. cheering his men to the assault on Petersburg. falls Lieut. Freeman B. Riddle. I need not praise him bere, among the multitude of those who knew him and loved him and will not forget him. lle was what we knew he would be. Next we are hurried back to Georgia, where falls Albert Walker, of the Twenty-second Wisconsin, who had just entered college, when his country called him and he gave her his life.

Then we are called to Petersburg again, where we find a regiment of these new-made men with dark skins, ready for the onset. It is not our first view of these warriors. In twelve, at least, of their regiments the sons of Beloit held commissions, among the rest, one whom their suffrages have now placed in the Congress of the United States, worthily representing in the Capital of the Nation, the Capital of the State which he had educatel. Also we claim one of the Captains who led the historic charge of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts on Fort Wagner. He, happily, still lives. Not so his fellow in renown-so were he equaled with him in fate-who led the charge of the Twenty-ninth U. S. Colored Infantry on the breach at Petersburg, where Capt. Hlector II. Aiken fel) July 30 and died August 18. On the 21st of the same August, you, young men of the Fortieth Wisconsin, stood around the remains of your comrade, Frank E. Woodruff, killed at his sentry post by Forrest's raiders, and you wished you might be true as he to the love of God and of man. So ends the record of that fearful campaign of 1864. More than half. of our slain are there. But yet at Averysboro, N. C., May 15, 1865, fell Almeron N. Graves, the last, and faithful to the last. Thus twenty-six of the forty.three died by wounds. There still remains the list of those who died by sickness : Elward R. Barber, Pardon E. Carpenter, Jerome B. Davis, Jeremiah Dooley, Jefferson Florey, Paul A. Goddard, Azel D. Hayward, Henry S. Kingsley, William L. Knight, John G. Lambert, Arthur W. Mason, Henry Meach im, Franklin P'rindle, Thonins S. Seacord, William H. Shumaker, J. Dwight Stevens, Eugene H. Tutile-good and truc men all, telling how brave men can suffer bravely and die bravely without the excitement of the field. Their lives and their deaths were not and they shall not be in vain.

Those that have gone-we call them our martyrs. Do you know what a martyr is ? A martyr is a witness They testity to us, in behalf of all their comrades as well as themselves, that there are causes worth dying for ; worth such young and precious lives as theirs ; and that there are souls in men capable of dying for a worthy ciuse. And you, who have joined or who yet may join in this testimonial, do set to your seal that their witness is true ; let that senl stand through the ages on this soil, which their young devotion has hallowed, and let it inspire from year to year new devotions in souls that are to be, that they too, in times to come, may serve and, if need be, may save again the land for which these, our martyrs, died.

To the list of the dead should be added the names of J. Lyford Peavey, who died in hos- pital, and of Michael Clark, of the Fighth Illinois Cavalry, killed at Milliken's Bend June 6, 1863, and Jared II. Knapp, who fell at Gettysburg July 1, 1863, making forty-six who died, twenty-eight of them, or 60 per cent, by wounds. This proportion of deaths in battle is double that which prevailed in the army in general, and may be taken as showing that the sons of the College were men ready, in a good cause, to go to the front.

If, however, the College was felt in the war, the impress of the great crisis upon the charac- ter of the College was not less marked. The young men returning from the field to the campus, brought with them a blended vigor and loyalty of character which have made the history of the College after the war a new era in its life. . During the war, the course of the College had gone on without interruption, except that the Commencement of 1864 was omitted, the entire Senior Class, as well as the Professor of Rhetoric, being in camp. But the classes were composed, neces- sarily, of young men under military age, though the great events of the time were preparing them to sympathize in the high purposes with which their elder fellows returned to complete their training to serve the country which they had helped to save. As they and their successors have approached or entered the moral battles of life, they have been found still pres-ing to the front, seeking to make their lives most serviceable to their country and to mankind. For exam- ple, though the number of graduates has been much less than those of the older colleges of the East, Beloit has sent during the last ten years more students to Congregational Theological Seminaries than any other college except Yale, Amherst, Dartmouth and Oberlin; and in the number of missionaries sent abroad, during the same time, by the American Board Beloit is second only to Amherst.

The College has sent forth 272 graduates from its full course, of whom about 40 per cent have chosen the clerical calling, 40 per cent have chosen other professions, and 20 per cent are in business life. The distribution of the sons of the College illustrates the relation of such an institution, in such a position, to the whole land and world, as well as its own vicinity. The 130 sons of the College who have entered the ministry have preached in thirty States or Territories,

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

and in twelve foreign lands and in more than five hundred congregations, in which they have completed more than a thousand years of work, to which each year now adds more than a hun- dred years. The record of other professions and employments would show like results. Beloit has given Presidents of colleges to Minnesota and Kansas, and principals or professors in high educational institutions to Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, as well as to Illinois and Wisconsin. IIer sons have been State Superintendents of Education in Kansas and Alabama, and have represented both those States, as well as Ohio and Wisconsin, in the Congress of the United States, and have filled high positions in legal, medical and editorial life in New York, Colorado and California, as well as throughout the interior. Nearly twenty-five hundred students have been connected with the College, of whom two thousand are now representing it in various employments and localities. Though, as a young College in a young region, its growth has been, as it should be, attended with effort, it is believed that the results already realized have been such as to justify any past labors or sacrifices, and that the foundation already secured. and the work which the College has done and is doing, give assurance that it is a College worth build- ing up, and encourage the effort upon which its Trustees are now entering to secure such an increase of endowment as will develop it as an institution worthy of the region which it represents.

If to the record of Beloit College we add that of the Female Seminary at Rockford, Ill., which sprung from the same origin, we have a total of more than six thousand minds, which have gone from a longer or shorter course in those schools to diffuse their influence in almost every State, and in many foreign lands. The conventions and consultations in which these institutions were devised, contemplated, also, other objects which gather around the College as a center of liberal and Christian culture, especially the religious newspaper and the Theologi- cal Seminary. But, as these involved, more than the College did, a metropolitan and a denom- inational position, they have been realized for the field of the College in the periodicals and seminaries established in Chicago by the two denominations which planted the College, and for which, especially, it cultivates the common field of evangelical liberal education.

MILTON COLLEGE.

The idea of opening a school at Milton, in which might be obtained an education more advanced than that afforded by the district schools of this vicinity, originated with Mr. Joseph Goodrich. Meager instruction in the elementary branches was imparted in the very few com- mon schools in that section, which were generally taught three months in the year, in small private houses, and had at that time been in operation only four or five years. There was no. college in the State. Four academies had been started in the southern portion, viz .: Southport Academy, at Kenosha, now extinct; Prairieville Academy, at Waukesha, afterward merged into. Carroll College ; Beloit Seminary, which has been suspended for several years, and Plattville Academy, in Grant County, recently changed into a State Normal School.

The institution was originated with no other purpose than to accommodate the young people of this immediate vicinity. There was no expectation that it would ever become a first- class academy or a college. The few inhabitants of the place and the sparsely settled condition of the prairies and oak openings about, gave no prophecy of the present growth of the country, nor of the high position to which the college has attained. In fact, the idea was regarded as chimerical and pretentious by many people, who, in consequence, did not furnish much pecu-' niary aid in the beginning, but subsequently patronized the school very generously by furnishing students for its classes.

The nature of the locality, one of exceeding healthfulness, materially aided the enter- priso.

First Building .- In the summer and fall of 1844, an odd-looking structure was erected in the village of Milton for use as an academic school. The walls were composed of gravel and lime so mixed that they would harden like mortar and in a short time become impervious to the

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

action of the atmosphere. The size of the building was 20x30 feet, and one story high; a small " lean-to " was attached to the rear end; a cupola with four spires and a bell mounted in it, graced the front peak of the gambrel roof, and a huge sign-board, subscribed with the letters " Milton Academy," which was placed along the front of the school-room, announced to the world the birth of a new enterprise; which was eventually to become a very important item in the history of Milton. The moldings of the doors were very plain, and with the benches, which nearly filled the room, were painted a dark blue color. The plastering was rough and fell, after awhile, in spots from the ceiling, which was very soon left almost bare. At the farther side of the room was the rostrum, one step high, occupying one-fifth of the area of the room. This magnificent specimen of architecture stood near the northwest corner of the public square, and its conspicuous sign was visible from all points of approach. The cost of construc- tion, which was paid by the Hon. Joseph Goodrich, who planned and erected the edifice, was $300, and for ten years the building served all the purposes for which it was intended.

First Opening .- About the beginning of December, after the building was erected, Rev. Bethuel C. Church came from Michigan, on an invitation, and opened it as a select school, the premises being furnished to him without charge, an arrangement by which he was enabled to live on the income arising from the tuition. He, however, taught only two terms, the winter and spring, and had over sixty students in attendance. It was thus shown that a school of this grade was needed, and a sentiment in favor of sustaining it was created.

Following him came the Rev. S. S. Bicknell, a Congregational clergyman and a graduate of Dartmouth College, who remained here two years and a half, during which time he worked the attendance up to an average of seventy students per annum, and formed the basis of the real academic course. The rates of tuition were very low, being only $3 per term, and board in private families cost from $1 to $1.50 per week.

DU LAC ACADEMY.

Up to the winter of 1847-48, the school had been under the management of the Hon. Joseph Goodrich, by whom all the losses of the teacher's salary and the incidental expenses were sustained. But in that year, the citizens combined to procure a charter for the school. It had been demonstrated that a school with academic privileges could be maintained, and accordingly, on February 28, 1848, an act of incorporation was obtained from the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, granting to seven Trustees the exclusive control of the school, which was then entitled " The Du Lac Academy," a name, however, which was never popular, nor one used beyond the charter and the correspondence of the officers of the school. The shares were fixed at $5 each, and one of the rules decided upon was, that instruction should not be given nor any meetings of the corporation held on either the seventh or first days of the week. The Trustees were : President, Abram Allen ; Secretary, Hon. A. P. Blakesley ; Nathan G. Storrs, Alfred Walker, Clark G. Stillman and John Stillman, each of whom met the deficits of the school for teachers' wages.

The building was engaged by the Trustees of the Academy under the condition that no rent should be paid for its use, provided the services of a college graduate could be secured as Principal They fulfilled their portion of the contract by engaging a Mr. Prindle, a graduate of some Eastern college, who, however, only remained one term. The winter succeeding, Prof. Jonathan Allen, now President of Alfred University, N. Y., had charge, but he, also, resigned at the close of the term, being succeeded the following spring by the Rev. Amos W. Coon, his assistant teacher, who remained two years. During his administration, the average atten- dance per year was increased to 100. At the close of the winter term of 1851, Prof. Coon retired, his successor during the following spring term being Col. George R. Clarke, now of Chicago.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 73

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