The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 78

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 78

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The First Death .- The first death of an adult to occur in the town was Newton Baker above alluded to, who laid down his life on September 19, 1839, the cause being typhoid fever.

The First Wedding was that of Mr. Solomon L. Harrington and Margaret Palmeter, June 7, 1841, the next being that of Oliver Salisbury and Miss Emily Cravath, which took place on July 22 of the same year. Mr. Salisbury had erected a house on the farm now owned by J. M. Fritts, on Section 14, which was the first frame house between Whitewater and Mil- ton. In that house was born January 24, 1843, the first white child in the town (now living), Albert Salisbury, at present of the Whitewater Normal School.

The First Church built in the town was constructed of logs in 1845, by the Methodist denomination, and was familiarly known as the log chapel.

The Organization .- Up to February 24, 1845, when it received a separate organization, the town of Lima formed a portion of the town of Milton, and after being so created it received the name of Lima at the request of Mr. Paul Crandall and a few others, being called after some Eastern township. On April 1, 1845, the first town election was held at the schoolhouse in District No. 9. At that election, Prosper Cravath received the choice of the residents for the office of Chairman of Supervisors. The other Supervisors were John Child and Abram Allen. Paul Crandall was elected Town Clerk ; William P. Stillman, Treasurer ; John H. Twining, Collector; N. Kemble and Azel Kinney, Assessors ; Bryce Hall, Abram Allen, Nelson Salis- bury, Commissioners of Highways; Ebenezer Rider, Paul Crandall, Azel Kinney, Commis- sioners of Common Schools; Prosper Cravath, Sealer of Weights and Measures; John H. Twining, Giles Kinney, Constables; John Child and Horace G. Hamilton, Justices of the Peace.

The advent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, then known as the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien road, in 1852, while it did a great deal of good in opening up the country, has done a great deal of harm ; for, in order to secure it, a great many of the farmers were led to mortgage their farms in the belief that as soon as the road was completed the Company would pay the principal and interest, but they had to pay both themselves.

The residents of the town are now comparatively well off, and they have of late been pay- ing considerable attention to the raising of stock, sheep culture especially receiving a large share of it. At one time, the township was one of the head centers of thoroughbred Merino sheep in the State, and, at the present time, there are large numbers of very fine flocks.

The inhabitants of the town were fully alive to the exigencies of the rebellion, and gave both money and men freely.

The Lyceum .- In the winter of 1862-63, J. B. Lewis, H. J. Wilkinson, S. Morgan and others organized a lyceum, holding their meetings in a schoolhouse in the north part of the town. In the fall of 1866, they formed a new organization known as the Farmers' Union Club and Lyceum. They have a library of about one hundred volumes, largely composed of agri- cultural works, nearly all of which were donated. The members of the Society claim to have been instrumental in procuring, in 1872, the re-enactment of the town insurance law of 1859, and, the spring of 1872, they organized a town insurance company, which has now a capital of over $200,000. The Secretary of the Company avers that it saves the farmers $1,000 per annum in insurance. Its operations are confined exclusively to the town in which it is located,

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

MAGNOLIA.

This town is situated in the northwest part of the county, adjoining Green. It was organ- ized by act of the Territorial Legislature, approved February 2, 1846. By this act, it was made to include Township 3 north, of Range 10 east, its present limits.

The first settlements made in the town were in 1840, by J. N. Palmer, Joseph Prentice, Andrew Cotter, W. Adams, W. Fockler, Abram Fox, Jonathan Cook, Edmund Basy, Ambrose Moore, George Mckenzie, Widow Hines and her son, William L. Hines, and Sanford P. Ham- mond.

The Chicago & North-Western Railway, formerly the Beloit & Madison Railroad, enters the town on the eastern border, on Section 24; runs northerly, passing into the town of Union from Section 2. A reliable record gives the following, among others, of the principal farmers in Magnolia at an early day : N. B. Howard, James A. Robson, William P. Hammond, A. K. Barrett, Jopthan Laiten, T. M. Lockwood, James M. Smith, William Huyke, Ezra Miller, Charles S. Dunbar, Hiram Barr and James F. Jones.

MILTON.

The town of Milton includes within its limits Township 4 north, of Range 13 east. Prairie du Lac is mostly in this town and is one of the richest and most beautiful in the county. There are several small lakes on this prairie, hence its name (Lake Prairie). Otter Creek, running through the north part; Lake Koshkonong, extending into the northwestern portion, and a small section of Rock River just as it leaves the lake, furnish, together with springs, small streams and marshes, a good supply of water. The northern part of the town is mostly open- ings and quite rolling; the southern part, prairie and openings. The town was organized in 1842, and included, at that date, the whole of the present town of Lima. The first board of officers were : Supervisors, N. G. Storrs, Chairman ; P. A. Cravath, G. W. Ogden ; Town Clerk, O. W. Norton. A writer, in 1856, says : "The inhabitants are noted for their industry, peaceableness and temperate habits, there not being a place in the town where ardent spirits are sold."

The following facts concerning early times in Milton are from the pen of a pioneer citizen of that town, written in 1856 :

"Milton is located in the northern tier of townships in Rock County, being eight miles north of the city of Janesville, and began to attract the attention of settlers in the year 1836, at which time its first settler located within its borders. It contains about 23,000 acres of terri- tory, but owing to a number of small lakes scattered here and there, and a portion of Kosh- konong Lake occupying a part of Sections 5, 6 and 7, about 1,000 acres are rendered useless, and besides this there are fully 1,000 acres of low or marsh lands, which are of no avail for purposes of tilling. Deer Lake (Clear Lake) is situated on Section 20, and is (1856) & besuți- ful sheet of pure water, of nearly circular form, averaging about half a mile in diameter. Its bed and shore are composed of gravel and white sand, and, being clear and deep with dry bluffy shore, it is, indeed, beautiful as well as of utility to the farming community near it. Other small lakes, furnishing water for farming purposes, are situated on Sections 25 and 26.

"The only stream of water of which this town can boast is a small one called ' Otter Creek.' It rises in the township to the east of this, and, running through Milton in a north- westerly direction, empties into Koshkonong Lake. In consequence of the levelness of the country through which it flows, and generally having low banks, no very valuable water-power is obtained. Yet Daniel F. Smith, who. by the way, was the first settler to bring his wife to this town, constructed a dam with a ditch or race, by which means a tolerable water-power was obtained, whereupon he built a saw-mill, which was of great service and convenience to the first settlers in this part of the country, but from scarcity of water and suitable timber. and also by opposition from other mills of later origin and of greater pretensions, this has been neglected

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

and is now (1856) silent, yet many remember the 'old mill' with pleasure, even if supplanted by fast growing Young America.

" Along the southern boundary of this town lies a small prairie called ' Du Lac Prairie.' It is about five miles in length and ranging from one-half to one and a half miles in width. Near the center of this prairie and near the village of Milton is a table-land of nearly circular form of a mile in diameter, rising about seventy-five or eighty feet. The top of this table-land is level, and, like the rest of the prairie, has a rich, black loamy soil, fertile and productive.

"The timber in this part, like the most of the southern portion of the State, is burr, white and black oak, with an occasional basswood, poplar and soft maple in and about the low lands. Koshkonong Lake, together with some of the smaller ones, produces an abundance of wild rice, which, although formerly used as an article of food by the Indians, now only furnishes food for the great numbers of wild geese and ducks which frequent these lakes.

" The first settlers came in 1836, among whom were D. F. Smith, Stephen D. Butz, Aaron T. Walker, Alfred Walker, Peter McEwan, George W. Ogden, Elias Ogden, I. T. Smith and E. Hazzard. Although some of them came in 1837-38, they were nevertheless the first settlers-the pioneers of this township. At that time, the now city of Janesville was only occupied by two cabins-one by Samuel St. John and the other by H. F. Janes. Their place of market was Chicago, as even Milwaukee was of but humble pretensions, and none only those who have tried its realities can appreciate the pleasures of packing provisions, even in scanty supplies, from the frontier settlements for an hundred miles back into a wilderness country, there to gladden the hearts of friends who had frequently felt conscious of other demands of human nature than beautiful country and a clear sky ; and before the country itself could support human life, trees had to be felled, cabins reared, and the soil had to be broken and prepared and crops sown, and even then the laborer had to await the harvest. Many were the days of toil and anxiety, attended with deprivations of every kind tending to ease and comfort that the first settlers endured, and they were only rendered tolerable by smiling Hope, as she whispered of comfortable homes and plenty in future. And, indeed, at this day, they have all been realized.

" The person who can claim the honor of having done the first 'breaking ' (plowing) in this town is Stephen D. Butz, and he, with his sister, constituted the second family in the town. This plowing was done in 1836, on Section 28. Peter McEwan made the first rail fence, but to the Walkers can be ascribed the honor of inclosing the first field, raising the first crop of wheat and potatoes. The wheat was from two bushels sowing. The first potatoes were bought by A. T. Walker from an old miner on Sugar River, and 'packed' home on horseback. While on his way home, he was offered $5 for his bushel by Mr. Janes, of Janesville, but money was no object in comparison to the much coveted potatoes.

"In the year 1838, the few settlers were favored with that valuable acquisition to all com- munities-a blacksmith. Orrin Sprague, during that year, established a blacksmith-shop on Prairie du Lac. He, being a man of ingenuity and mechanical skill, was just such a man as the times needed ; he could mend a plow or make one, or do any other work in his line which was required by the farmers. He made many plows, and made them so faultlessly that he acquired the reputation of being the only man in this section who could make a breaking-plow that would 'run to a charm ; ' and without giving him anything more than his due, we can say that he fairly and faithfully won that reputation. About the year 1839, quite a number of families came into the town from Allegany County, N. Y., and among them were Joseph Goodrich, H. B. Crandall, James Pierce and Ebenezer Phelps.

"This township was not organized until the year 1842, when, with many other towns, it organized under an act of our Territorial Legislature. At that time, Milton and Lima were both united under the name of Milton, and Lima was not organized as a separate township until 1845.

" A post office was established in this town in 1839, and Joseph Goodrich was the first Postmaster.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

" As early as 1838, the settlers, without regard to sectarianism, united and supported rel ious meetings. They gave to their minister such of their substance as they could spare, ad their subscriptions for the support of ministerial labors were duly paid in labor, produce (wheat, corn and oats then being an acceded legal tender), and cash ; the last of which articl so scanty that, when it touched the palm of the hand of the official, it felt truly spiritual. W the increase of population and wealth, the town has become blessed with the salutary influer ce Day Baptist Church at that time numbered 180 members, the Presbyterian Church 36, and

th of three organized churches, each having a separate edifice for its devotions. The Seven h- Methodist about the same as the Presbyterian.

"At this time [1856] the town numbers between 1,300 and 1,400 inhabitants, of which between 300 and 400 reside in the so-called village of Milton. We are now benefited by t. The ' Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad,' and also the 'Janesville Branch,' alias .South Wisconsin Railroad." [The railroads in the town, as at present named, are the Prairie Cầu Chien Division of the C., M. & St. P. R. R., and the Monroe Branch of the same road; they have have also the C. & N .- W. Railway.] The benefits of a speedy market, and ready commun & ai- cation with the East and South are apparent. Property has increased rapidly in value ; mom cy more plenty, and consequently business is brisk and every branch of industry is on the po- gressive plan.

" This town has ever been noted for its health, and even its morals have not been overlook -d. Its first settlers, having a tincture of the blood of our Pilgrim Fathers coursing through their veins, have studiously and piously endeavored to keep those hot-beds of sin and iniquity-gg shops-out of this town."

A list of the prominent and largest farmers of Milton, at an early day, contained & the names, among others, of Joseph Goodrich, Peter McEwan, James Stockman, James Craa &g, Isaac T. Smith, N. Maxson, J. E. Culver, John Alexander, Stephen D. Butts, H. B. Crand Il, John Livingston, M. T. Walker, Ezra Hazzard, Levi H. Bond, D. T. Hudson, Jeremiah Den- nett, G. T. Mackey, Joel Wood, Alfred Walker and J. Bunnell.

The following incidents are furnished by a resident :

On the 1st day of September, 1836, Aaron and Alfred Walker. the first white settlers in the town of Milton, pitched their camp on the south side of a little lake, called Walker's La ke -which is now nearly dried up-on the northwest quarter of Section 36, where they still res ice. They erected a little log cabin near the lake and lived in it during the winter of 1836-31. This was the first cabin built in the town, and was afterward used as the residence of * he

first Pastor in Milton, Rev. Daniel Smith, of the Congregational Church. Mrs. Smith died in this shanty in the fall of 1839, and was the second person buried in Milton Cemetery. gravestone ever marked the spot, and the identity of her grave, with others, is lost. Diada La&, wife of Hezekiah Waterman, died October 12, 1839 (leaving an infant child, H. H. Watermann), was the first person interred in the cemetery.

The second shanty built was by a Mr. Lane, on the southwest quarter of Section 26, but he did not occupy it; he also talked of building a mill on the outlet of Storrs' Lake, then a living little stream, about the center of the northwest quarter of Section 25. He sold his cla m to N. G. Storrs, and afterward built a mill, one of the first, and known as the Herrington Mi on a little spring run on the southeast quarter of Section 24, in the town of Lima, where early pioneers got oak lumber for clapboards, floorings, well-curbing, etc. It was a much neede and a well patronized institution.

D. F., or " Dan " Smith, as he was called, erected the first mill and was a man of mark - among the early settlers of Milton. He was a little rough, but full of daring, pluck and energy; could eat a "wolf meal " of frozen pork and beans, wade or swim through floating ice and swollen streams, camp out anywhere or in any weather, and furnish more labor for both men and teams from Milton to the northern pinery than any other pioneer ; he had a whole soul and a generous heart withal. As an incident illustrating the man : A Methodist minister in an early day was sent by " Uncle Joe" to " Dan " to solicit something to keep the minister's soul and body

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

together. The man went to Smith's and found " Dan " butchering hogs; he introduced him- self, told his calling and the condition of his larder. "Dan " looked at him a moment, then taking down a dressed hog, and, placing it in the minister's vehicle, told him to " take it and go and preach like the devil." The astonished dominie expressed great gratitude and went away wondering how many really better men he had in his Church.

The first white woman that settled in the township was Mrs. Eliza Smith, who came in May, 1837. Mrs. Hannah Bowers came, with her brother Charles, in October, 1837, to keep house for another brother, S. D. Butts, in a large, commodious (?) log house that it had taken the neighbors three days to build. The board roof was put on the day of her arrival, but there were no floors, doors or windows. It stood near Mr. Butts' present residence on the northeast quarter of Section 28. On March 18, 1838, the first regular religious meeting was established in this house by Revs. Halstead and Pillsbury, two young Methodist ninisters. The next meet- ing was held there April 15, 1838. These meetings were continued once in four weeks by these brethren.

The third white woman settler was Mrs. Sarah Storrs, wife of N. G. Storrs. They came in December, 1837, staying the first night at Farnum Chickering's, a bachelor, on the east end of the prairie; Chickering gave them his bed and slept on the floor. Mr. Storrs' settled on the south half of Section 26, occupying the shanty put up by Mr. Lane.

The first white boy born in the town of Milton was Daniel Smith, son of D. F. and Eliza Smith. He was born February 24, 1839, at Otter Creek. He, with a younger sister, died in February, 1844, with fever, and were buried in the cemetery at Otter Creek.

The second white boy born in Milton was Leffingwell Culver, son of Jonathan E. Culver, born in August, 1839. He is still living, and resides at Rochester, Minn.

The first white girl born in Milton was Mary Butts, daughter of S. D. and Rebecca Butts, born September 3, 1839. She died February 22, 1876, and is buried at the Milton Junction Cemetery. The oldest native born citizen of Milton is H. H. Waterman, born October 12, 1839. The next oldest native-born citizen is Joseph Goodrich Carr, born March 19, 1840. The first marriage in Milton was that of James Murray to Margaret McEwen, January 1, 1840. Mr. Murray was a painter, lived in Milwaukee, and is now deceased.

William Douglass married Caroline L. Walker, November 27, 1840. They were the sec- ond marriage, and now live at Deansville, in Dane County, Wis.

The first death in Milton was that of Jane Bowers, daughter of Andrew and Hannah Bowers. She died September 14, 1838, of quick consumption, aged fourteen years eleven months and twenty-five days. Her funeral was held September 15, 1838, at the house of S. D. Butts. A sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Adams, of Beloit; quite a large congregation attended. She was buried on the bluff, between Milton and Milton Junction, near the spot now covered with evergreen trees ; the most central, eligible, beautiful and appropriate spot for a cemetery in the town of Milton. She was subsequently removed and buried in the cemetery at Milton Junc- tion, by the side of a younger brother. The second death in Milton was a son of Mr. Storrs, buried in the grove on the west side of Storrs' Lake. Nothing now marks his grave.

The first meeting held by the Seventh-Day Baptists was the first Sabbath succeeding the 4th of March, 1839, at the house of Joseph Goodrich. But two families of this denomination were here-Henry B. Crandall's and Joseph Goodrich's. They established regular weekly meetings, holding them alternately at the houses of Goodrich and Crandall. In 1840, the Seventh-Day Baptist Church of Milton was organized, with about forty members.

Elder Stillman Coon was their first Pastor, visiting them in the fall of 1840, and returning and settling among them about the 1st of July, 1841. Joseph Goodrich proposed the purchase of forty acres of land, by the Church, for his first year's salary, with such donations of provis- ions, etc., as they could make him This was accepted, and the land made him a good home, subsequently becoming valuable, being located at Milton Junction, where Elder Coon lived and died, a useful and a universally respected man.

The first town meeting in Milton was held in 1842, at Walker's.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

In 1838, Joseph Goodrich purchased a claim on Sections 26 and 27, and erected a house 16x20, the first frame building in the town of Milton, and dug a well, the first one in Milton.

NEWARK.

The town of Newark is situated in the southwestern part of the county, its south boundary line separating it from the State of Illinois. It was organized by act of the Legislature, approved February 2, 1846, and included the present town of Avon, adjoining it on the West. The first town meeting was held at the house of I. D. Marvin, April 1, 1846, when the first officers were elected.

In the year 1842, Mrs. Gunale, a Norwegian widow lady, made the first location in the town, and erected the first log cabin. The following year, she was followed by several of her countrymen. In the year 1844, purchases and improvements were made by Nathaniel Strong, J. B. Smyth, John Stephens, Peter McVain, A. G. Felt, P. P. Chase and others.

A Lutheran Church was organized in 1844; a Congregational Church in 1845; and s Baptist Church in 1849.

PLYMOUTH.

The town of Plymouth is situated in the southwest quarter of the county, bounded on the north by Center, east by Rock, south by Newark, and west by Spring Valley. It was organ- ized by act of Territorial Legislature, approved March 8, 1848, by which act it was made to include all of Township 2 north, of Range 11 east, of the Government survey.

Early times in Plymouth are well described in the following from the pen of one of its pioneers, written in 1856: "The town of Plymouth was first settled in the spring of 1841. David Douglass, Stephen C. Douglass and Samuel Colby arrived with their families from Michi- gan on the 31st of May, and pitched their tent near the center of Section 2, on the bank of a branch of Bass Creek. They made use of their tent and covered wagons, of which they had three, for a habitation, until they were enabled to build a house for the elder Douglass, which was but partially roofed when they removed into it with all of their effects. It was destitute of doors, windows and chinking. On my arrival on the 8th day of July following, I found them as above stated, and though the population of the house was rather dense, room was made, and we were domiciled with them.

" Our nearest neighbors east," continues the writer, "were Jasper P. Sears, on 'Rock River, and Judge Holmes and family, who lived on the farm now (1856) owned by David Noggle. To the west were John Crall, Abraham Fox, John D. Holmes, Alanson Clawson, Wendel Fockler, George W. Adams and father, with their families, some nine miles distant. I believe it was eleven miles south to a settler ; and north seven miles to Lemuel Warren's. Over this area of country embracing some six or eight townships of land, the beasts of the forest-the wild-cat and wolf-held undisputed sway. I speak of them because the saucy rascals more than once took my fat pigs from my door, and were unwilling to give them up even when hotly pur- sued.

" The first civil office in the town of Center (that is, that part of Old Center, now [1856] called Plymouth) was filled by the writer. He held his appointment from the Governor and Council in the winter of 1841-42. The next winter was extremely severe. The first snow fell on the night of the 8th of November, and continued until the 7th of April-a period of five months-with uninterrupted good sleighing. Much of the time was severely cold, with strong winds and drifting snow, which continued to increase until it had attained to a depth of nearly two feet. Road tracks across the prairies would catch the drifting snow until they attained the elevation of two to four feet, which very much endangered the safety of meeting teams, as, in turning out, the horse that stepped from the path would often sink and plunge so deep that its mate would fall upon or over the struggling animal, and both flounder for life in the deep snow. with more or less icy crusts to cut and maim them. Freeport lay some forty miles southwest of

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

us, at which place we used to get our corn and oats to feed, plant and sow. In a snow-storm, it was rather a hazardous route to travel. I may as well speak here of one of the many little incidents of that winter.

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 78

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