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 73

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 73

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I landed in Milwaukee June 1, 1836; located in Pewaukee, Waukesha County, on the

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

farm now owned by A. V. B. Dey. I was married August 12, 1838, at the residence of Deacon Robert Love, whose house stood about four rods east of what is now Bethesda Springs. There were present Mr. and Mrs. Robert Love and their five children-Jerome, Sarah, Mary, Adelaide and Martha-Mr. and Mrs. Morriss Barnett, now living in Neenah, Wis., and, perhaps, others. The ceremony was performed by John Manderville, for the reason that our minister-Rev. Mr. Ordway-had his license packed among his goods, which were on their way up the lakes. I was done up good and strong, so the knot has held fast nearly forty-two years. I think mine was the first marriage * in what is now Waukesha County. There were no cards, no presents ; but Deacon Love took his pitcher and can to his spring, now Bethesda-which he always thought so much of-and passed the spring water around in the place of wine. The next morning he harnessed his horses to his lumber wagon and landed us at our door, in quite as good style as Gov. Dodge was escorted from the beach of Lake Michigan up to the Milwaukee House (which was upon a load of trunks) and he rode backward, to assume the Governorship of the Territory of Wisconsin.

In addition to being a party to the first marriage, I claim to have erected in Waukesha County the first threshing machine built in the State of Wisconsin.

BY T. S. REDFORD, MAY, 1880.

I was born in the year 1818, in Genesee County, N. Y .; my father and mother moved from that county and located in Cattaraugus County when I was twelve years old, and then in 1836, I started West to find a home; I traveled from Cattaraugus County through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, and reached Milwaukee the 23d of April, 1836. During my jour- ney, which was on foot, I carried a valise that weighed twenty-five pounds on my back. Some days I traveled in Michigan all day, and did not find more than two or three houses, and poor ones at that; I often got tired and homesick, but kept on till I found Wisconsin. When I came to Milwaukee, there were but very few inhabitants in the place ; no schools, no churches, in fact, nothing but a swamp of tamarack, with but few settlers in the town. After taking a rest, I fell in with a party of surveyors that were going out, and I went with them. On the 15th of May, 1836, I located in the town of Lisbon, on the southeast quarter of Section 25. To-day makes me forty-four years the owner of the same, it being the first claim made in the town. When I look back on the past, and see such a city as Milwaukee, with its schools, churches, hotels and warehouses, together with residences, banks, and the Chamber of Commerce, and railroads and telegraph lines leading in every direction, it often seems to me that it is not possible I have lived to see all the vast improvements that have taken place in this State within the space of forty-four years. When I took up my claim, the land from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi was nearly all in a state of nature, and to-day it is all under a state of cultivation, dotted over with farmhouses and fine villages, with schools and churches ranking second to those of no State in the Union. I am very sorry to say that most all of my old neighbors have passed away. There are but very few left to tell the hardships of settling a new country, without railroads or anything but an ox team and wagon to carry freight with through swamps and over corduroy roads. Some people complain of the roads at the present day ; but if some of the old pioneers could come back on earth and see the roads at the present time, they would not find any fault. When the town of Lisbon was first settled, it usually took two days to make the trip to Mil- waukee, a distance of sixteen miles, over logs and through the mud, fording streams and camping out one night on the. road. There were no horses, no buggies, nothing but the faithful ox. We may all thank God for the ox. If it had not been for him I do not know what we should have done. Provisions were high, and no grain had been raised to feed the horse ; but the ox was worked all day, then turned loose to pick his own food at night. There was plenty of wild feed through the summer, and during the winter we fed marsh hay to our stock. We generally thought it good living for our cattle, taking into consideration the way we used to live ourselves.

* See chapter on " First Things " for an earlier wedding.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

When we raised the first crops, there were no mills, and our corn was either hulled or ground in a coffee-mill for making johnnycakes. We took turns at the mill nights to grind for the use of the family the following day. When Wisconsin was first settled, we had every obstacle to contend with. First, we had no market for our produce. There was no outlet for it, except home consumption. The first log houses that were built are very nearly all gone. There is now and then one left to mark the first settlement of the county. I could fill out a volume with events, but it might not interest any one to read it. One thought more, and I close : I attended the first wedding that took place in the town of Lisbon. There were no gilt cards, no presents ; but we had a good big johnnycake passed around, and we wished them all the good things of this life the same as they do nowadays. After the ceremony, the young couple took their wed- ding tour home behind a yoke of oxen, just as happy as could be.

BY MRS. JOHN WEAVER, 1875.

I was born in the town of Augusta, county of Oneida and State of New York, and had always lived there until I was twenty-four years old. My husband was born in England, and lived there until he was twenty-two. After our marriage, he often had a touch of the Western fever (as the phrase was in those days) ; but it did not meet my mind, exactly, to leave the old place, with all of the comforts and conveniences and high privileges that we enjoyed, neither could' I make up my mind to leave my parents, brothers and sisters, and many other relatives and friends, until the summer of 1836, when we had a flattering account of Wisconsin, and par- ticularly of Milwaukee, sent to us by a brother-in-law of my husband that went to Milwaukee from our place in the spring. He seemed to think that he had found the right place, just the place for young people to commence life in earnest; in fact, it seemed to him an earthly para- dise. My husband made up his mind almost immediately to settle his affairs and make ready, as fast as possible, to move, and to try his fortune in the "Far West," as it was then called. Therefore, on the 1st day of September, 1836, we left our parents, brothers, sisters, other rela- tives, friends and neighbors, and bid good-bye to our old home and to all that was near and dear to us, and, with our small children, a son and a daughter, we started on our journey. Slow and tedions was the way of traveling in those days, compared with the faster and much more comfortable way of the present. On the 27th, about 12 o'clock, midnight, we were a mile from Milwaukee. As late as it was, we had to go ashore in a small row-boat, which went three times from the schooner to the shore to take passengers and goods. We went the second time. There was no harbor or pier, and the sailors rowed as near as they could and then jumped on shore, with a rope in hand, and pulled the boat close to the shore, helping the rest of us to land; and there we were, with our two little children, on the beach of the lake, a long way from a house or any building, and so dark that we could scarcely see to walk on the beach and keep clear of the lake. We took our children, each of us one, in our arms, and walked half a mile right along close by the lake, the thunder growing louder and nearer. We came to a small log house, where lived three families ; but they were all in bed by the time that we got there. We rapped at the door, and a man called out to know what was wanted. My husband answered that he had just been landed from a schooner, with his wife and two children, and would like to get shelter the rest of the night. A lady let us in, the only man at home being lame and could not get out of bed. They were kind enough to give us shelter, but had no bed for us ; so my husband went back to where we had landed and brought a loose bed, and got back with it before it rained very hard. As there was no one living where we wanted to make our claim, we had to remain through the winter with my husband's brother-in-law, near Milwaukee.

We expected to pay for our land that fall, but as it was not in the market, we could not ; but as we found provisions and everything that we needed so much dearer than we had been used to paying, we found it necessary to use all of our ready money before we could raise any- thing on our land. We paid $16 for a barrel of white fish and $32 for a barrel of pork ; $6 a hundred for beef by taking the half of one animal; butter 25 cents, and not fit to eat, so we did not buy any for awhile, but used a jar of it that we brought from the East, and then went without any for two months. At the end of that time, there was a man came from Illinois with

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

a sleigh-load of nice butter that he sold for two-and-sixpence, as we used to count money then. The merchants sold what they called good butter at the same time for five shillings a pound ; very poor brown sugar, 18 cents ; a little better kind, 20, and loaf sugar 25 cents a pound. Tea, coffee and spices were also dear accordingly, and went up in price when navigation closed. About the middle of winter, flour had to be brought by teams from Chicago, and those who had to buy then had to pay $20 a barrel. We paid $1 a bushel for potatoes, and 50 cents for tur- nips. Clothing was very dear, but we had supplied ourselves so well that we did not need much for two years, and by that time it was a little more reasonable. My husband went to work at $2 a day, the third day after we landed, and worked until he earned $120, sometimes with car- penters and sometimes with masons. There were a good many men out of employment that would have been glad to have had work to do. Our men bought some oxen and got a chance to draw wood for the steamboats. They had to pay $22 a ton for hay, $2 a bushel for oats, and $2.50 for corn. Their job of hauling wood lasted about three weeks, and then they went out through the woods and began to build a log house. It was eighteen miles to their claims, so they would take provisions for a week and then come home and get more and go again. It was very cold, and they found it very slow business to get even a log house built. They had to saw all the boards they used by hand, and it took three men four weeks, including the time that it took to go to and from the place, and break their road through snow and cut trees and brush, so that they could get through with oxen and sleds. The third man was a neighbor that was going to live near us. When they had got one house so that they thought we could live in it, we moved, three families into the house, and all lived together four weeks. One of our neigh- bors fixed up a claim shanty, as they called it, and moved his family into it, on the same day that we moved, that being the 4th day of March, 1837. We were a mile and a half apart, and could not see each others' cabins.

There were no houses all through the woods, as we went to our new home in the opening beyond, except the Half-way House, 'as our men called it; but it was only a place where a man had cut down a few trees and laid up some logs, as if for a house about twelve feet square, just to save his claim. There was no roof, not even rafters, but a few pieces of bark, and a little brush laid over at one corner. There was a doorway, but no door. There were some pieces of flat stone laid up against the logs in one corner, and as our men went to and fro once a week, for four weeks, they would stop there and give their oxen some grain, and as there was none there to entertain them, they would entertain themselves in the best possible manner. They would enter this wayside inn, build a fire in the corner, where stood those flat stones, and boil their tea-kettle, which they always carried with them, make tea or coffee, and take their lunch of bread, cold meat and some pie and cake, and such things as we could cook and put up for them. When they had finished their meal and warmed themselves as well as they could, and their teams had rested and fed, they would drive along again on their lonely road, never meeting or overtaking any one.

BY ALEXANDER F. PRATT, 1854.

Waukesha was originally called " Prairie Village." Afterward, the Legislature changed it to " Prairieville," and after the county was set off from Milwaukee, it was changed to Wau- kesha. The first white settlers were Messrs. M. D. and A. R. Cutler and Henry Luther. They came here in the spring of 1834, not very long after the close of the "Black Hawk war." At that time, the land had been purchased of the Indians; yet, in accordance with the treaty, they remained in possession of it up to the summer of 1836, when it was surveyed by the General Government. The Messrs. Cutler built the first "log cabin " in this town in the year 1834. It was located near where Messrs. Blair & Smith's machine-shop now stands. Mr. Manderville at that time made a "claim" on what is now the "school section." Mr. Luther claimed the land where Mr. Meyer now resides, on Section 20, in this town. These are the only settlers who came here that year. At that time, large tribes of Indians were located in this county. Their headquarters were at this place ; yet their wigwams were scattered up and down the Fox River (or Pish-ta-ka, as they called it), from Mukwonago to Pewaukee Lake; and for the first

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

two or three years, they were a great annoyance to the white settlers. There being no fences, the settlers' cattle would often get among the Indians' corn fields, and caused much trouble. The Indians, being legally in possession of the land, and having the numbers and power to rule, would demand such damages as they saw fit; and upon one occasion claimed and received of the Messrs. Cutler a fat ox for the damage he had done their corn. In the spring of 1835, Mr. McMillan and family came and built a cabin where the court-house now stands. Mr. A. C. Nickell and Dr. Cornwall located on the south part of the farm now owned by Mr. Nickell. Mr. Ira Stewart located on what is now known as the "Cushman farm," and Messrs Isaac and Rich- ard Smart located where they now live. These were the only settlers who came that year. During the summer and fall of 1836, Mr. Murray located on what is now William White's farm. Messrs. Nelson and Thomas H. Olin located on what is now known as the "Gale farm." Mr. Sergeant located on the west side of the river, near the water-power. Soon afterward, this town was surveyed, when it seemed that the Messrs. Cutler, McMillan and Sergeant were all on one quarter-section, where the village and mills are now located. This, for some length of time, was a bone of contention, all being anxious to " claim " the water-power. In the fall of that year, Nathaniel Walton, with his family, located where they still reside, near this village. Up to this time, Mrs. McMillan was the only white woman in this part of the country ;* con- sequently there was no tea-table gossip at that time. Mr. McMillan's cabin, which was about 16x24 feet, was the only public house in the place, and an interesting spot it was, too. At that time, we were located at Milwaukee, and came out here often. Upon one occasion, we stopped, with twelve others, at this hotel over night, there being but one room and two beds in the house. We have often seen the hogs occupy the inside of the house, and the whisky barrel placed on the outside to make room. If a landlord at that time could raise a barrel of flour, pork and whisky, it was all that was necessary for a first-class hotel. In short, tavern-keeping was more an act of necessity than choice with many, as the settlements were so few and far between that they were compelled to keep all travelers that came, regardless of their means of accommoda- tion, as all preferred sleeping on a floor to a bed, or on a blanket in the open fields, as we were often compelled to do. In the spring of 1837, we came here to look at a claim owned by Mr. Cutler, which he had then recently purchased of Mr. Luther for $500. We stopped with Mr. Walton. who at that time kept the best house. In the morning, we started on foot, in company with M. D. Cutler, to view the claim-a distance of about four miles. When we came to the river, which at that time was nearly two feet deep, Mr. Cutler commenced fording it. We backed out, and proposed to return to the hotel for our pony ; but Mr. C. insisted on our trying our pedestrian powers in the water, and, after spending some time in consultation, he supplied the place of our pony, and carried us safe through the river. Upon arriving at the claim, we found it to be all our fancy painted, and we soon closed a bargain for it at $1,000, paying in four (paper) city lots, at $250 each. Previous to this time, Orrin Brown had come and located on the quarter-section where the stone quarry is, and Mr. Manderville having found himself, after the survey, on the school section, located on the quarter-section that A. Minor now lives on. In the course of that season, Messrs. E. D. Clinton, Y. Bidwell, Henry Bowron, James Z. Watson, J. M. Wells, J. Rice, J. W. Rossman, E. Churchill, Ezra Mendall, Joel Bidwell, Daniel Thompson, Robert Love, Moses Ordway, Sabina Barney, Asa S. Watson and Peter N. Cush- man located on different claims in this town. This comprised the most of the settlement here in the year 1837.

In the spring of 1838, several new settlers immigrated. Among them were H. N. Davis, James Buckner, Charles Crownheart, Ira Doliver, B. F. Chamberlain, O. N. Higley, Albert White, James and Edward W. King, I. C. Owen, Daniel Chandler, Allen Clinton, Lyman and E. W. Goodnow, and several others. During that season, James Buckner and Mr. Bowron built what is now a part of the Prairieville House. f Robert Love built a small frame dwelling- house, and we another. These were the only framed buildingst in this county at that time.

* See chapter on " First Things" for the name of the first woman in the couoty.

+ An error of one year-this hotel was built in 1837.

į The house now occupied by Austin Waite, in Waukesha, was built before these two.

Elisha Pearl LISBON

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

Associations had been formed by the settlers for the mutual protection of each other in their claims, Each had his claim registered, and was protected in the peaceable possession of so many acres, which was altered from time to time by the association. At first, each man was allowed to claim 160 acres, after which, claims became more valuable, and it was extended to a whole section. Disputes having arisen between the Messrs. Cutler, McMillan and Sergeant, who were all on one claim, several claim trials were had, and finally the Messrs. Cutler bought off the other claimants. In the mean time, M. D. Cutler had bought out Mr. Brown and taken possession of the quarter where he now lives. Up to this time, the only provisions used or seen in the country were salt pork, flour and potatoes. Flour was worth, in Milwaukee, from $16 to $17 a barrel, pork $30 to $33, and potatoes $2 to $3 a bushel; and the price of hauling a bar- rel of pork from there was $5, and other freights in proportion. The road from here to Mil- waukee was anywhere we chose to travel, as travelers generally preferred new routes each time, knowing that a change must necessarily be an improvement. It had never been cut out through the timber, and each traveler was obliged to carry an ax to cut the trees whenever he ran against them. Previous to the summer of 1838, there were but few settlers between here and Milwaukee. During the summer of 1836, Messrs. Camp and Andrews had settled at Mukwon- ago, Messrs. Hatch and Rockwell at Oconomowoc, and Messrs. Fuller and Porter at Pewau- kee, where they now live; and, in 1837, Messrs. Edgerton' and Dousman located their claims in Summit and Ottawa, where they now reside. The same season, John Gale, who then lived at Milwaukee, bought Mr. Cutler's claim to the quarter-section containing the water-power, for $6,600, and, the next season, built a flour and saw mill on it, after which he sold an undi- vided interest in it to William A. Barstow and Robert Lockwood, who, in company with him, laid it out into village lots, many of which were sold at a high price, and bonds for deeds given while the title still remained in the General Government. In October, 1839, the lands were brought into market and sold. At that time, all the best locations had been taken, and each occupant was permitted to purchase his land at public auction, at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre. Many of the settlers, being poor, paid from 25 to 50 per cent for money to purchase their lands, and allowed the speculators to take the titles to them in their own names, as a secu- rity for the money loaned ; whereby, in the end, being unable to pay, they lost their all. All those who succeeded in paying for their lands and have remained on them up to the present time have become wealthy ; while some who were unable to pay for their lands sold their improvements for what they could get, and commenced anew on unimproved lands. From that time to this, the settlement of our country has gone forward steadily, and the lands are now mostly owned and occupied by actual settlers. Several large and flourishing villages have been built up in the county. In 1847, the Milwaukee & Waukesha Railroad Company was incorpo- rated, and subsequently it was changed to Milwaukee & Mississippi and extended to the Missis- sipi. The road was completed from Milwaukee to this village in March, 1851. There are also charters for three other railroads running through Waukesha.

BY MRS. A. B. HALL, 1880.

In the spring of 1843, before Horace Greeley advised young men to go West, Mr. Hall left New York for Wisconsin and settled in Oconomowoc, and at that time it was very far West. The next August I took our little son and started on the perilous road to meet him. When we stepped on board the Great Western, at Buffalo, with only a plank to stand on, I thought I should never find him ; but an invisible guide and Capt. Walker, with a good steamboat, car- ried us safely through to Milwaukee. As soon as the boat reached the pier, John S. Rockwell came on board and told me Mr. Hall had left a horse and buggy with him to take us to Oconomowoc. "Tell it not in Gath," but it was a long time before I saw another horse and buggy.

We left Milwaukee in time to reach Wauwatosa as the sun went down, and my heart went down with it when told I was thirty miles from home, but drove on, hoping to get there during the night. It was not until the third day that we arrived there. The road through the Mil- waukee woods was nearly impassable. The mud and darkness added made it almost unbearable.

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My little boy was tired of riding and wanted to go back to grandpapa's. I remembered Lot's wife and drove on until late in the evening, when we reached Prairieville. Spent the first Sun- day in the Territory there, at Mr. Walton's. On Monday, we ended our journey, and were cordially received by strangers, as they were pleased to have acquisitions to their numbers. The pioneers will understand this allusion.

The first Sunday in Oconomowoc we attended church in a log house in " Canada." I went over on the floating bridge; some went in boats. Nearly every family owned a boat then, and they were used in place of more expensive locomotion. It was a beautiful sight, Sunday morn- ing, to see the boats drawing near the house of God. We found many of the inhabitants Christian people, transplanted from some of the Eastern States. The Episcopal students at Nashotah brought us the Gospel ; the Presbyterian Mission Society sent us a missionary for a time, and the Methodists helped on the good cause, also.

In 1825, I drew a map of the United States from Woodbridge's Atlas, and while printing the map, found mountains and lakes and rivers and Indian villages, but not a name for one of them on that vast tract of country from Lake Michigan to the Pacific coast. Near the head of Lac La Belle the land looked familiar to me, and, in referring to the map, saw I had been here with my pencil in my girlhood, and had printed on it "unknown regions." After eighteen years, I found myself here in this same wilderness ; yet Oconomowoc then, in the absence of art, was in nature's loveliness, and was wildly beautiful. Language is tame in descrip- tion, but its " beauty will be a joy forever." We then called it Eden ; but the tree of evil was soon planted here and soon began to flourish, and it was impossible to tell how far its branches would extend.

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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 73

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