USA > Wisconsin > Waukesha County > The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc > Part 52
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" Strangers who come to our village and look over Mr. Cutler's beautiful grounds of some seven acres are apt to cultivate his acquaintance ; they spend hours and hours with him, talking about the early days of his sojourn in Waukesha. The Indians with the three beautiful mounds in his park are subjects of animated conversation. Strangers invariably ask him who built those mounds, and he as invariably says : 'I and the Indians built them, and we buried old Chief Waukesha in the large one and his two squaws on each side in the smaller ones. The small ones are called his right and left hand supporters.'
" Mr. Cutler began to make his park, the first year he came here, by planting trees, which he has kept up until the present time. He has a mania for trees. He has now some twenty-five or thirty different varieties in his park, and some day not far distant it will be a lovely place ; it now beats anything that we have seen in the West, taking the location into account. A great many persons ask Mr. Cutler what he is going to do with such a nice park, and why he does not improve it. He almost invariably tells them ' that he is going to sell it, or get him a young wife and occupy it himself.' 'Well, how much do you ask for it ?' 'Oh, I don't know, how much will you give ?' In this way he draws out people to get their views of the value of the property in their estimation. There are a good many people, who have known him for years, who think he is not very shrewd ; but let these people undertake to make a trade with him, and they will find he knows all about the value of property, and can give his reasons for it. He never makes a trade because somebody wants him to. He never gives anything because some- body asks him to. He has a mind of his own on all subjects, and is able to maintain his posi- tion, and therefore has a strong individuality. He thinks for himself, and talks and acts for himself. Such men always succeed. He is a very quiet man, minds his own business, and is kind to those that have respect for him. All good citizens who are honest and mean to do right, and are prompt with him, can get most any favor they ask for; but if they deceive him, it is all day with them. 'Still, he has a kind and forgiving spirit toward those who have wronged him.
" He is from a long-lived family, and his habits are correct in eating, drinking and sleep- ing. He will, no doubt, live to a good old age. He was once married and had a most estimable woman, who was beloved by all who knew her ; she died some eighteen or twenty years since. Mr. Cutler has always had the name of being economical in everything that pertains to this life. Sometimes we have thought he did this to be odd, but we long ago learned that it was from habits that he had formed in an early day in this then new country. Everybody then was obliged to live close, and very often on short rations. This saving has grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength, so that we expect he will live and die with those same habits of honesty and industry. He will leave a very large property to somebody. He has no family.
" We have given our views of Mr. Cutler (imperfectly), because we believe it due to our oldest inhabitant that something should be said that will make us remember him, perhaps more vividly in the future, and, maybe, after he is dead and gone.
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"It would be strange if Mr. Cutler did not have some enemies ; but he has as few as any man we ever knew. No one doubts his good intentions, and it is proverbial in Waukesha that his word is as good as his bond."
These pioneers were all the inhabitants, except the Indians, that what is now Waukesha could claim during the year 1834. They returned to Indiana during the cold months of the winter of 1834-35, but came back early the following spring, bringing additional stock, farming utensils, and several other families.
This, briefly, is the story of the first settlement in what is now Waukesha County. Sub- sequent settlements, which were first in their respective localities, will be found in the various town histories.
GOVERNMENT LAND DISTRICTS AND OFFICES.
By the end of 1833, a large amount of the public land in what is now Southern and East- ern Wisconsin had been surveyed, and the fact being duly reported by the Surveyor General, Congress, by an act approved June 26, 1834, created two land districts. They embraced all that tract north of the State of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in the then Territory of Michigan. It was divided by a north and south line, drawn from the northern boundary of Illinois, between Ranges 8 and 9, to the Wisconsin River. All east of that line was called the Green Bay Land District ; all west, the Wisconsin Land District. Within the first-mentioned district was included the present county of Waukesha. A land office for this Eastern District was established at Green Bay, which was duly opened by the Government, and a notice given of a public sale of all the then surveyed public lands lying therein. In accordance with this announcement, a sale took place at Green Bay in 1835. So far as known, not an acre of land within the limits of Wankesha County was disposed of at this sale. As the southern and eastern portions of the State were settling much more rapidly than any others, and as it was becoming obviously unjust to compel settlers to journey to Green Bay to make entries, the Territory was divided into three districts, -the Green Bay, Mineral Point and Milwaukee, with offices at each of those points. The Milwaukee District was bounded on the south by Illinois ; on the east by Lake Michigan ; on the west by Range 9 (near a line passing north through Madison) ; and on the north by the south line of Town 11 (just south of Port Washington, Juneau and West Bend). In this dis- trict the first public sale took place in 1839.
CLAIM COMMITTEE AND LAWS.
In early days, there were no laws in Waukesha County, except those the settlers brought with them, or agreed to abide by as emergencies arose. The laws most urgently required were such as would protect settlers, not simply against speculators, or land-sharks, as they were called, but against the encroachments of each other. The lands had not been surveyed, nor offered by the Government for sale; any person, therefore, had a right to " squat " wherever fancy led him. But as, in the absence of laws and legal boundaries, several parties might claim the same tract or building site, the settlers mutually agreed to abide by certain claim laws, improvised by themselves. Many of these laws were never even committed to paper ; but they were well known and thoroughly understood, and it was an unlucky hour when any settler broke the least of them. In fact, so far as Waukesha County is concerned, disobedience to claim laws was almost wholly unknown.
The Claim Committee consisted of John Manderville, the first Justice of the Peace, and one of the very early settlers, Nelson Olin and Israel W. Porter, who held claim court for trying cases in the same manner as any other case would be tried before a court and jury, adjusting all contests in Milwaukee (which included Waukesha) County. If their decision was not satisfac- tory, an appeal could be taken to Milwaukee, where a Claim Committee for several counties resided, and the decision of this committee was final. But few disputes came before this com- mittee for settlement, the most important one being that in which Messrs. McMillan and Sargeant
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claimed the tract on which the Cutlers had erected the first house built by the whites in the county. It was finally settled by the Cutlers agreeing to pay a certain sum to the claimants, after a contest lasting several days.
To illustrate the tricks resorted to for the purpose of securing land, may be mentioned the case of a New Englander, or Yankee, who found a claim had been made on a piece of land which he especially desired to secure. He, therefore, sent his wife in the night to Milwaukee, where she took several baskets of potato plants, which were two or three inches in height, from a garden near that village. While she was accomplishing this, her husband plowed and harrowed a patch on the coveted tract, and before morning, potatoes three inches in height were growing in the apparent usual thrift upon it. The real owner was amazed when he discovered the magic trans- formation, and was at a loss what course to pursue. He insisted that he was on the potato-patch one or two days before, and the land had not even been plowed. This, in the face of the rows of lusty potatoes, was difficult to believe. The wronged settler saw it, and was grieved accord- ingly. Finally a pioneer, who afterward became a noted and successful politician, took a spade and began to dig on the potato-patch, giving no reason for his course. In a few minutes, the spade turned up the under or grass side of the sod, and behold ! the grass upon it was as fresh and green as that of the prairie surrounding the patch ! The sod had not been turned long enough to cause the grass to become yellow. The rightful owner of the soil dug thirty-one bushels of potatoes from that patch in the fall, for next day the Yankee who attempted this novel trick was not to be found in the neighborhood. He moved to a neighboring county, and became u wealthy and respected citizen. His name may be read in the " Blue Book," as a member of the Legislature of Wisconsin, several years ago.
The extreme sturdiness with which the pioneers stood by each other and upheld the cause of right, in the days when there was no law but the underlying principles of the golden rule, is worthy of the most sacred preservation. The brief mention of a single case will suffice to illustrate :
In what is now one of the richest towns in Waukesha County, a poor man had built a cabin on a desirable claim which was not taken at land sale. A gentleman who afterward became honorable and prominent in the civil and political affairs of the county, came to that section to settle, and signified his intention to purchase the tract on which the poor man, with his large family and sick wife, was struggling along. The neighbors told him not to do it, as pioneers always stood by each other, and it would not be safe for him to turn the family out of house and home. A deputation also went to Milwaukee and informed the late Rufus Parks, then in the Land Office, of the circumstances, and requested him to persuade the stranger not to purchase the coveted tract from under a poor man's sick family, as it would certainly result in trouble.
The stranger replied that he knew his rights as an American citizen, and demanded to have a patent of the land. Mr. Parks remonstrated, but could do nothing else, as the money was tendered by the indignant stranger.
As soon as the land was bought, the neighbors-and any one within a radius of twenty- five or thirty miles was a neighbor in those days-held a meeting to decide what should be done. Some were for lynching, some for tar and feathers and some for running him out of the country under a lash. Finally, after many serious threats and determined efforts to carry them out, the law-and-order folks prevailed and a conservative plan was adopted. The settlers resolved to have nothing whatever to do with the " hard-hearted new-comer," as they called him. The wagon-maker resolved not to repair the stranger's wagons; the blacksmith, not to shoe his horses ; the merchants, not to deal with him-in short, he was to be totally ignored and shunned in every possible way by everybody. At these resolutions the stranger laughed jeeringly. In the mean time, four big-hearted settlers gave each five acres of land on the joining corners of their farms, thus making a fine little farm of twenty acres, enriched and sanctified by such whole-souled generosity as the county will never see again, for the poor man and his family ; and, as a coronation to the good work, the neighbors clubbed together and built him a snug house.
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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
Next came the business of ostracising and freezing out the stranger. The resolutions were all adhered to with crushing rigidity, and, in addition, his children had no playmates at school ; were scorned and taunted with the sins of their father, and no one offered seats to the family at church or recognized them in any manner.
This went on for a time without much apparent effect. Finally, the gentleman began to bow and speak to his neighbors as he met them, attempting to win the friendship, if possible, of some one. But all efforts in that direction, however polished and persuasive, utterly failed. At last, wholly nnable to bear up longer under the ostracism that was all the more crushing in those days of generosity and unlimited warmheartedness, he sent for two or three neighbors. They came. "I can live no longer like this," said the haggard pioneer. "My children refuse to go to school ; my wife is in tears and utter loneliness, and I-I-well, I am no better off. I now see I did wrong by the poor man who had claimed this land, and I am willing to make amends. I can see in these noble-hearted men, who have stood by him like brothers in his hour of need, such qualities as I do not wish to leave behind. I am determined to stay with you. Pay back the original sum the land cost me and I will give it up, more than cheerfully, and make me a home somewhere else near by."
The neighbors saw he was penitent, was a man of ability and would make a good citizen. He had made a mistake in attempting to override the unwritten pioneer laws; was sorry, and ready to make amends. The matter was therefore adjusted; friendships established which lasted until death, and that stranger became afterward one of the good citizens and respected and honored public officials of the county, holding several high positions of trust.
His name would not be dishonored in the use of this case to illustrate the noble qualities of the men who left behind all the comforts and luxuries of civilization, to turn the wilderness into a garden, for his after-life blotted out the wrong done when he attempted to go to the limits of the laws of the United States, but break those of the pioneers, and he forever after was a true friend to those in sorrow or need.
LAND SALE.
To the settlers who held claims, or occupied lands in Waukesha County previous to 1839, the land sale was the most important event in their history up to that time. A comparatively large number of claims had been taken-that is, shanties had been built on lands marked out as near, with the four cardinal points of the compass as the rude appliances of the time would permit, and bounded by "blazed " trees or stakes. These boundaries were respected among themselves by the actual settlers ; but not by the "land-sharks," as the speculators were called. These sharks, unless prevented by some united action on the part of the actual settlers, could make such claimant "bid up" his land to a high figure, or lose it together with all the improvements he had made, perhaps through the greatest sacrifices. Many of the settlers under- stood, from costly experience, the manner in which the sharks had operated in other States, which was like this : Some of them did not have a dollar with which to back their bids. This class would go to a settler and say they had fixed upon bidding off his claim, no matter how high the bidding might be carried ; but if he would pay them $100, or some other sum then and there, they would not molest him. Hundreds of settlers came to such terms as these, thus put- ting thousands of dollars into the pockets of a set of men rightly named sharks, and rendering many of the claimants unable to pay for their lands. Those who were financially disabled in this manner, as well as others who could not command sufficient cash to pay for their lands, engaged to pay from 25 to 50 per centum interest, and more than half of this class lost their claims entirely and were compelled to start anew in another locality.
Other sharks who had the money added greater certainty to their nefarious business. They said nothing to the settler claimants, but always out-bid any one of them who had a particularly valuable piece of land, or had made such extensive and permanent improvements thereon as would make a forced abandonment of them disastrous. After they had outbid the settler, this class of
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sharks went to each claimant and offered to make terms of abandonment, nearly always succeed- ing in getting large sums of money, a horse, or several head of cattle. This exasperating busi- ness was soon squelched by the settlers of what is now Waukesha County.
The land was offered for sale, as provided by law, to the highest bidder [provided, however, that no bid for less than ten shillings ($1.25) per acre was entertained], on a platform in front of a building located pretty near the site of the present Custom House in Milwaukee.
Col. Morton, a Kentucky gentleman, was Register of the Land Office at Milwaukee, and offered the lands for sale, and the late Rufus Parks, who died at Oconomonoc, was receiver and took the money. Each town appointed a "shark committee," consisting of several of the strongest and most fearless men in it, whose business it then became to look after the speculators, and also appointed a keen and trustworthy man who knew the location of all the claims in the town for which he was appointed, to do all the bidding. He took his stand near the Register, and when any claimed section or quarter was offered, would bid ten shillings for it, by direction of its claimant. The real claimant made no bid ; but if any speculator or shark offered to run the land up above the lowest Government price, the " shark committee" would grab him and start for the river. He generally would withdraw his bid before going far ; but if not, he was " doused" until he did. The settlers thus secured their lands at the lowest Government price, each town having a " bidder " and a " shark committee."
Land sale for what is now Waukesha County began the second week in October, 1839, and lasted until all the lands had been offered. "Specie," that is, gold and silver, was required to pay for lands, except that Illinois bank bills had been declared "land-office " money, and were received in payment for lands.
Mr. Cutler, father to M. D. Cutler, of Waukesha, the oldest settler in the county, brought $10,000 of. this money from La Porte, Ind., to help his son and any friends who had settled in this county, in case the land sharks made a fight. This large sum, for those days, was not needed, as the "shark committees " of the various towns proved far more effectual and infinitely less expensive.
PIONEER HARDSHIPS AND PLEASURES.
The term " early settler " carries only one idea to the marionettes of modern fashion and civilization, and that is an erroneous one. They believe it to be the condensation into two. words of the history of a long fight with stumps, stones, wild beasts, Indians, poverty and some- times want. " Pioneer " is not the synonym for terror and suffering-not the condensed defini- tion of isolation from enjoyment, happiness and social pleasures. But, however desirous the historian may be to preserve all the rich details of pioneer life, that erroneous ideas may be cor- rected and the foundation and beginning of all civilization and wealth pictured for the future in their true colors, he will find his task a difficult one. Newspapers were either entirely want- ing, or of small proportions ; no books were making ; no child of genius and leisure was taking notes and making histories. Events, great and small, transpired and dropped into oblivion with- out being recorded, except such outlines of them as might chance to be impressed, perhaps, without date or detail, upon the minds of a few, only to be soon afterward erased beyond recall, as years rolled on and other events crowded upon the failing faculties. But whatever there is should be sacredly preserved, as the foundation of all the history of ages yet to come must begin with and rest upon it.
The youths of to-day-some of them born in luxury and reared in idleness-as well as the more sturdy men of business and the lovers of romantic facts in history, will love to delve in pioneer records, however incomplete they may be ; for they have a charm no person can describe and no reader fail to appreciate. By their light, imagination can follow where the actual foot- steps of the dwellers in more advanced civilization never can. No matter how long this world may swing on and Waukesha remain a prosperous community, no one within its borders to-day or hereafter can be a pioneer in the sense in which the term is here used. Pioneerism is forever and forever finished in Waukesha County. By its light, however, the historian can guide his
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readers back to the unadorned domain of the early settler, and watch the struggle necessary to make " the wilderness blossom as the rose." We can sit by his cabin fire, partake of his homely but 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 by wandering Indians and the 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 or daring enterprise, subduing and creative energy, and untiring perseverance ; but all resting upon the labors of the brave few who broke the first glebe, felled the first tree, built the first cabin and first made friends with the Indian occupants.
The first important business of the pioneer settler, upon his arrival in Waukesha 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. Many a poor settler had neither the money nor even mechanical appliances that are considered absolutely necessary, to-day, in such undertakings, for building himself a house. He was content, in most instances, to have a mere cabin or hut. Some of the most primitive constructions of this kind were half-faced, or, as they were sometimes called, " cat-faced " sheds or " wike-ups," the Indian term for tent or house. It is true, a " claim shanty " 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, 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 practical 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-mouthed fire-place was a huge ventilator-large logs were piled into this yawning space. To protect the crumbling back-wall against the effects of the fire, two back-logs were placed against it, one upon the other. Some- times these were so large that they could not be got in except by attaching a rope or chain by a " half-hitch " to one end of them and all hands, with a tug and a shout, uniting their strength to drag the source of future warmth into position.
For a chimney, any contrivance that would convey the smoke out of the building would do. Some chimneys were made of sods, plastered on the inside with clay; others-the more common, perhaps-were of the kind we occasionally see in use now, clay in sticks, or "cat in clay," as they were sometimes called, but of proportions as ample as an old-fashioned "bed- sink." Imagine, of a winter's night, when the storm was having its own wild way over this almost uninhabited land, when the wind was roaring like a cataract of cold over the snowy wilderness, and the settler had to do his best to keep warm, what a royal fire this double back-log and well-filled fireplace would hold ! It was a cozy place for smoking, provided the settler had any tobacco; or for the wife to sit knitting before, provided she had any needles and yarn. At any rate, it gave something of cheer to the conversation, which very likely was upon the home and friends they had left behind when they started out on this bold venture of seek- ing fortunes in a new land, or whether the rocking cabin would survive the frozen hurricane.
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