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 65

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050

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 65

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Oconomowoc .- Nothing can surpass the charming location of Oconomowoc, and the most glowing description of it and its surroundings will ever fail to do it justice. Rural poets go into ecstacies over its beauties, giving evidence of the possibilities to which the unrestrained use of superlatives may be carried ; the most acrobatic feats in journalism are chargeable to Ocono- mowoc. These the calm and disinterested reader will benignly smile upon as attributable to the rising tendencies of the thermometer, but to those who have been here and who understand the beauties of this delightful spot, these manifestations seem less extravagant, and they will readily excuse the perpetrator. There is so much here to inspire that we involuntarily feel a desire to communicate our impressions, to render which, and to do justice to the subject, we find language inadequate. The isthmus between Lac La Belle and Fowler's Lake will ever form the center of attraction for thousands of tourists, and happy they who can come here every year! Beautiful Lac La Belle! Its pretty name leads to expectations of rare beauties, but our imagination had not pictured such a combination of loveliness and grandeur. Countless sail and row boats with their gay occupants, numerous elegant steam-yachts plow the waters of this most favorite of lakes at all times, the air resounding with the merry voices of the happy

Copeland downsend ( DECEASED.) OCONOMOWOC.

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occupants. The beautifully shaded islands harbor picnic parties, while the shore, gently rising from the water, adorned with pretty houses and fine grounds, with here and there a tent, lends a frame worthy of the picture. Judge Small's fine resort and Draper Hall, both favorite hotels, are located on this lake.

Lac La Belle is one of the largest and finest lakes at Oconomowoc. It is connected with Fowler's Lake, the most prominent feature on whose pretty shores is the grand, well-known Townsend House. All the hotels at Oconomowoc-there are quite a number, and they are all good-are located on the banks of one or the other of the lakes, and are provided with bath- houses. In addition, there are a number of first-class boarding-houses, and furnishing in all accommodations for about one thousand visitors. A beautiful drive leads to Okanchee Lake, another sheet of water, which would be prized by the quart in many localities, although it covers sixteen hundred acres. There is much to admire in the scenery at this lake, and soon you will doubtless find a number of commodious and excellent hotels on its shores to meet the wants of tourists who come here for the excellent bass and muskallunge fishing. Numerous private resi- dences are already erected and many more projected. This fact speaks better for this wonder- ful lake region of Wisconsin than volumes of argument, since expensive houses, to be used during a few months of the year only, are never built except in highly favored localities.

A drive south from Oconomowoc to Dousman's artificial trout pond, some eight miles distant, reached via the ancient mounds, Silver, Otis, Duck and Genesee Lakes and several smaller ones, through a most picturesque country, will prove of special interest to every lover of the rod and line, and not less to the lover of well-prepared trout, visitors catching their own fish, which are prepared for them at the farm at moderate charge.

Mention of the drives in the surrounding country has been made in several instances, but too much cannot be said in their favor, and it is no exaggeration to state that they compare favorably with the choicest drives of which the largest cities boast. In all these drives the visitor will fail to find a single poor team, Oconomowoc particularly boasting of a very superior class of livery. When we then realize that within a radius of nine miles there are forty-one of these charming lakes, a number of which we have described, that mineral springs are found in every direction, that the scenery is one of surpassing beauty, we must concede to Oconomowoc the claim of being the grandest resort for the enjoyment of nature, combined with the luxuries and comforts produced by modern civilization. The lakes are all of pure, cool water, wth pebbly shores, grassy, dry banks, and of great depth. They are literally alive with fish- pickerel, black, green and rock bass, perch and muskallunge. Two hundred thousand white- fish were planted in Nagowicka Lake from the Milwaukee hatchery in 1877, which are doing well. The fishing at all the lakes is done with minnows, the catching of which forms a regular business. Of the mineral springs in the immediate vicinity of Oconomowoc we have visited but few, they being the La Belle Springs, Draper's Flowing Magnesia Springs, Hitchcock's Medi- cinal Springs, and the famous Minnewoc Springs near Gifford's. These springs have been ana- lyzed, and are claimed to be equal to any found in this country. Croquet grounds are found at every hotel and boarding-house, while of churches we remember a Congregational, Methodist, Catholic, German Methodist and German Lutheran. The climate of this section is genial and wonderfully invigorating, owing to its high location, some 400 feet above Lake Michigan; the nights are always delightfully cool and refreshing, and there is a gratifying absence of mosqui- toes and other "pests of life " peculiar to the season. The sportsman in quest of a plenty of game will find duck, woodcock, snipe and other varieties in greatest abundance. There is a diversity of sport and pastimes which is practically unlimited, and while we enjoy every luxury and every sport to our heart's content, first-class hotel accommodations, driving, boating, fishing, bathing, together with a long list of etceteras, we find our expense account considerably within the appropriation, leaving a margin larger than the deficit generally resulting from vacations.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE.

The title of this article is not intended to convey the impression that there was but one "old log schoolhouse " in Waukesha County, for there were many of them. The one referred to had the honor of being the first schoolhouse, meeting-house and debating room in Waukesha County. In it the first school (except a private school taught at N. Walton's house, and one by Mrs. John Weaver) was taught; in it the first public gatherings were held ; the first spelling- school met; the first singing-school was organized; some of the earliest " sparking " was done and the first temperance society was formed. It was erected in the fall of 1837, on Section 3, town of Waukesha-that is, " under the hill," on the west side of the Fox River at Waukesha, the land being owned by Joel E. Bidwell. It was of logs-almost entirely of tamarack poles, taken without leave or license from an unentered tamarack swamp up the river, and was erected by the joint labors of the few pioneers who had then taken up their abode at Waukesha. It was located on the west side of the river, because a majority of the children who would attend school resided on that side. It soon became a noted building, its fame spreading for miles in all directions. It was a proud day for the few settlers of Waukesha County (then a part of Mil- waukee County) when they had a place for lectures, funerals and meetings of all kinds. Could the power to speak be given to the ashes of its moldered walls, their story would make the richest pages in the history of the county. But the story will never be told. Like the build- ing itself, those whose hands reared its homely walls, and whose voices resounded often within them, have nearly all passed from the sight of man.

The first teacher was John Moon Wells, who had between twenty-five and thirty pupils, and whose first term extended through the winter of 1837-38. The second teacher was Jane Mc Whorter ; the third, William T. Bidwell ; the fourth, Chauncey C. Olin.

The pupils were probably nearly all embraced in the following list-that is, the pupils who composed John M. Wells' school : Henry and Albert Clinton; Josiah, Diana, Matilda and Lucinda Mendall ; Elon, Hosea, Randall, Joseph, and Eliza Ann Fuller ; Oliver, Deborah and Henry B. Bidwell; Charles Rossman, Charles, Horace, Caroline and Eliza Owen ; Jerome, Sarah and Mary Love ; Elizabeth Walton and a few more.

Deacon Edmund Clinton's boys sometimes went home from school with "striped jackets," but the Deacon publicly declared "that the boys must mind," and that he " was satisfied as long as they did not come home with an arm or a leg broken." School-books were very scarce at first, some of the scholars having none at all during the first winter. The few who had books divided the use of them with those who had none or only a few. One or two scholars appeared every Monday morning with new, or rather different old almanacs, the source of supply being a collec- tion owned by their grandmother ; and Deacon Mendall's copy of the "Pilgrim's Progress " was finally brought into requisition. It was nearly destroyed by the voracious urchins before the winter was over. Some of the youngsters probably know more about Giant Despair, the twelve signs of the zodiac, how to take Marston's pills and Boltune's liver syrup, and what to do in case of croup, than they did about syntax, percentage or geography ; and probably some of them could get off stale almanac jokes with more accuracy and relish, if not with more polish and eloquence, than they could the multiplication table or the " double rule of three." Whenever a bit of white paper could be secured, the artistic youths made pictures from their almanacs, of tape-worms, cancers, goitre and monster lizards, alleged to have been taken from the stomachs of kings and noblemen by some patent nostrum. However, the school was a success, and with the exceedingly limited facilities at hand, most of the scholars made rapid progress, and their names will go down for ages as those honored as being members of the first district school in Waukesha County.

"OLD PRAIRIEVILLE ACADEMY."

Few buildings or institutions in Wisconsin, and, perhaps, none in Waukesha County, have a more interesting history than the " Old Prairieville Academy," at Waukesha. It has long been honored with the credit of being the first institution of its kind in the State. That idol

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the historian must shatter. There were two, in name, at least, before this; but neither of them began to be successful as early, and the walls of not one have re-echoed the voices of so many students who afterward became distinguished in the State, national and foreign diplomatic circles, and in the war. The building which took the name of the Prairieville Academy is claimed to be the first structure wholly of stone erected in the State. It certainly was the first in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties, and there are no records by which the historian can dispute the claim of its being the first in Wisconsin. It was the first academy building of any kind erected in the State of Wisconsin. It was erected for an academy, and for no other pur- pose. William T. Bidwell was a school-teacher, without a school, and Lyman Goodnow the proprietor of a fine stone-quarry, with no market for its products. They, therefore entered into partnership for the purpose of founding an academy, and the building, which stands next west of M. D. Cutler's splendid park, in the village of Waukesha, was begun by them early in June, 1840. That Waukesha was to have a real academy soon became well understood through- out the vicinity ; for while Mr. Goodnow was quarrying stone and erecting the walls, Mr. Bid- well was advertising the enterprise and securing scholars in advance, as far as he could. Neither of them had any money with which to pay the masons or for the purchase of lumber and glass ; so $400 in gold was hired for this purpose of J. Nanscawen, and Morris D. Cutler gave two lots for a site. The plan, at first, was to erect a small one-story building ; but as the enterprise was looked upon with so much favor, Mr. Goodnow urged that it was not philosophical and progressive to build only for the present. The hardy builders, therefore, determined to be more liberal, and the two-story structure now used by the Lutheran Church was the result. As soon as the walls. were up, Mr. Bidwell began a school in a room finished for the purpose ; but the building was not wholly completed until 1841. When done, the $400 had been swallowed up, other debts had been contracted, and Mr. Goodnow had expended nearly two years of his labor in addition to donating stone, lime and sand-quarrying his own stone, burning his own lime and hauling his own lime. The academy was duly incorporated by an act passed and approved February 19, 1841, as follows :

SECTION 1. That there shall be established in the town of Prairieville, in the county of Milwaukee, a seminary of learning, by the name and style of the Prairieville Academy ; and that Lyman Goodnow and William T. Bidwell, and their aasociates and successora in office, are hereby created a body politic and corporate by the name of the Trusteea of the Prairieville Academy, by which name they and their successors shall forever be known and have perpetual succession, and shall have power to contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and he impleaded, defend and be defended in all courts and places, in all actions, suits, complaints and causes whatsoever ; and they shall have a common aeal, and may alter the same at pleasure. . And they shall have power under said corporate name to acquire, purchase, receive, poasess, hold and enjoy, in deed and in law, to themselves and their aucceasors, property, real, personal and mixed, and the same to sell and convey, rent or otherwise lawfully dispose of at pleasure, for purposes of education ; provided, that the real estate owned by the said company at any one time shall not exceed $10,000.

SEC. 2. The stock of said corporation shall consist of shares of $20 each, which shall be deemed personal property, and shall be transferable on the books of aaid corporation in such manner as shall be directed by the Trustees of the same.

SEC. 3. The corporate concerns of said academy shall be managed by three Trustees, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. They shall be elected annually, on the first Monday of May, by the stockholders of the academy, and shall hold their offices for the term of one year, and until their successors are elected. The election of Trustees ahall be by hallot, and each stockholder shall be entitled to one vote for every share owned by him, to the amount of ten shares, and then one vote for every five shares over and above that amount. * * * * * * * * * * * * *

SEC. 5. No religious test or qualification aball be required from any Trustee or other officer of said corpora- tion as a condition for admission to any privilege in the same.

At first, Messrs. Goodnow and Bidwell held nearly or quite all of the stock, for much of which they were in debt. The former, therefore, in 1842, sold his interest, debts and all, for a horse. That was all he ever realized from the academy. By an act approved January 27, 1844, the number of trustees was increased to seven. This was in reality a re-organization, as Mr. Cutler, who donated the lots, had purchased the property for its debts, which he paid, of Mr. Bidwell. This new company, or organization, purchased the academy of Mr. Cutler, and continued the school. But it soon became again financially involved, and again fell into Mr.

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Cutler's hands in consequence. After lying idle a year or so, in January, 1846, a complete re-organization took place and a new company was formed, which had the name changed to Carroll College. In January, 1847, the charter was amended so that the Board of Trustees should consist of twenty-one persons. During this year, Elihu Enos, now Postmaster of Waukesha, and Prof. Sterling were paid $40 by the county for the use of the building for the first term of the Territorial District Court. School was closed while Judge Miller held court.

In 1849, the name and rights of " Prairieville Academy " were restored by legislative act. The school thereafter was kept along, in a very weak way a portion of the time it must be recorded, until about the beginning of the war, when it was discontinued, probably forever. In 1866, the building was remodeled inside, a vestibule added, and taken possession of for religious worship by the Lutheran Church. Before that, however, it had been used as a cabinet shop, as a storeroom and for various other purposes.

Among the graduates of this time-honored institution may be numbered some of the conspicuous men of the war and the nation, such as Lucius Fairchild, a General in the army, Governor of Wisconsin in 1866-67, United States Consul to England, and now United States Minister to Spain ; Cassius Fairchild, a General in the army; Charles D. Parker, twice Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin ; Cushman K. Davis, Governor of Minnesota in 1874-75; Capt. W. V. Tichenor, now of Iowa; C. C. White, deceased ; Col. Sidney A. Bean, deceased ; Capt. I. M. Bean, Collector of Internal Revenue for this district ; Walker L. Bean, deceased, and others hardly less distinguished.

Some of the teachers, too, have been men of note. The first was William T. Bidwell, the junior founder of the institution ; the next, Silas Chapman, the great map man of Milwaukee, who taught about one year from the spring of 1841; Winchell D. Bacon, still a resident of Waukesha, taught three terms next after Chapman ; he was succeeded for nearly a year by Myron B. Williams, of Watertown; Judge Green, now of Dodge County, taught for a time; Eleazer Root, the first State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was Principal for about three years, to October, 1847 ; Elihu Enos and Prof. Sterling managed the school from October, 1847, to October, 1848, under the name of the " Classical Institute and Normal School," and afterward a Greek of the name of Rev. A. Menaos, and various other parties taught until the old Prairieville Academy building-the first in Wisconsin-was sold and dedicated forever to other purposes.

It had an eventful history ; so much so, perhaps, that the future historians will always have some reason for perpetuating its identity as the first academy building erected in Wisconsin Territory. It was a monument to its founders and builders worthy of their energy and fore- thought, and for many years served a good purpose well.

NASHOTAH HOUSE.

This old institution and its lovely surroundings are known everywhere in Waukesha County as "Nashotah Mission ; " but very few, however, have any adequate idea of the rich- ness of its romantic history, nor of the want and privation suffered in founding it. Instead of being condemned, the historian will be praised for incorporating in this sketch of the oldest Episcopal Mission in the great Northwest, without further or more particular specification, the main points in the Rev. John A. Egar's " Story of Nashotah," published in London, England. In the summer of the year 1841, three young clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church came to do missionary work in this new region. They were the Rev. William Adams, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin ; the Rev. James Lloyd Breck, a graduate of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania ; and the Rev. John Henry Hobart, a son of the great Bishop of New York, of that name, and a graduate of Columbia College, New York City. They had been classmates in the General Theological Seminary, and while there the design had been formed, by themselves and others, of establishing an associate mission somewhere among the settlers of what was then the Far West.

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The honor of originating the project is given to a classmate, Mr. J. W. Miles, a candidate for holy. orders from the diocese of South Carolina. He had been actively engaged in Sunday- school and mission work in connection with his theological studies, and entertained, with some enthusiasm, the idea of missionary life after his ordination. The study of the great missions of the seventh and following centuries, in the Ecclesiastical History course, fired his imagination, and the Great West and its wilderness seemed to present a field where the labors and self-denial of Augustine and Boniface, and Willibrord and Anskar and their companions might be imitated. On the 18th of June, 1840, he presented a scheme to such of his classmates as seemed likely to enter into it, in which, with some youthful exaggeration of thought and language, the general plan was set forth. He proposed that a certain number from every class, as they completed their seminary course, should devote themselves to the West.

The summer vacation now coming on, the class dispersed. When they re-assembled, five were found to be still interested in the project. Its reality began to be felt, and the matter was opened to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Kemper, the Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, and received his approval. As the time for their ordination approached, one more withdrew, and the original mover of the project was held by his Bishop for work in the diocese to which he properly belonged. The three who were free to go received, in the course of the summer, their appoint- ment as missionaries, with a stipend of $250 each, and an assignment to work in Wisconsin, and started on their journey of a thousand miles into the Western wilderness ; the Rev. Mr. Hobart in advance, and Messrs. Adams and Breck together, a little later.

The headquarters of the mission were established, under the Bishop's direction, at what is now the village of Waukesha, and a field was assigned them for their work, thirty miles north, west and south.

Having arrived in Prairieville, the three associates obtained such accommodations as the village could afford, by engaging an apartment in a log house, consisting of two rooms, one of which was occupied by the family of the proprietor, while the other was given up to his " boarders," with one reservation. The table was set for the entire family in this room, and here all took their meals in common. Subject to this interruption, the apartment was their own, and constituted their entire domain ; and here they lived and studied, and prayed and slept, and here they were " at home." It was a marked change from the comfort of the city ; but the life was so new, and all around them so strange, that the privations and primitive simplicity of the situation doubtless added to the interest with which they entered upon their work. Their first public services were held in a stone building, called the Academy, which they occupied on Sundays until a small frame church was built. This was begun in the fall of 1841, but was not completed for some time.

So marked had been the success of the mission during the fall and winter of 1841-42, that Bishop Kemper cheerfully gave his consent to an appeal to churchmen at the East for funds to establish an institution under their care, where they could still further develop their plans, and bring their school into operation. The Rev. Mr. Hobart was therefore authorized to proceed to New York and endeavor to interest the church there in the enterprise. He arrived in that city early in March, 1842, and by the kindness of the editor of the Churchman, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., was permitted to print in that paper a modest and dignified appeal.

The appeal was favorably received, and the responses made to his personal solicitations were such as to permit him to acknowledge, on September 24, 1842, the receipt of moneys amounting to the sum of $2,274.44. The encouraging advices he forwarded to his colleagues, from time to time, justified them in proceeding to secure a location ; and their knowledge of the country, gained by their itineracy, enabled them to lay down in advance certain conditions to guide them in their selection. It seemed unadvisable to establish such an institution as they had in view in the village of Prairieville, partly because, from the growth of the village, the church there would require before long such exclusive attention as could be given only by a settled Rector, and partly because it was desirable to secure a larger domain than could be bought with the means at command in immediate proximity to a settlement of that size. A few miles to the west was a region of small

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lakes, beautiful for scenery, and where land could be obtained at a lower price. It was resolved to purchase a tract upon one of these lakes, and the clergy made it a point, when on their journeys, to examine different localities. In the course of the summer, it was learned that a claim could be bought upon the Nashotah Lakes, and on a set day the Rev. Mr. Adams, accompanied by the Rev. Lemuel B. Hull, of Milwaukee, rode out on horseback to view the spot. They took with them their lunch, consisting of dried beef and biscuit, and spent the day upon the ground. Their unanimous con- clusion was that this was the place of all others for their purpose. The Nashotah, or Twin Lakes (upper and lower), are two of a chain of four, the others being the Upper and Lower Nemah- bin, lying about the center of the lake region, twenty-five miles from Milwaukee, and on the summit or ridge which separates the tributaries of Rock River and the Mississippi from those of Lake Michigan. They lie east of Oconomowoc, south of Okauchee, west of Nagowicka, and north of the Nemahbins, into which their surplus water flows, the Upper Nashotah being the head, and having no inlet ; it is fed by springs in the bed of the lake itself. The Indians called the Upper and Lower Nashotah by this name, meaning "twins," because of their correspond- ence in size and shape.

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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 65

Author: Western Historical Co., pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050