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 91

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 91

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The good old man of God has gone, Gone gently to his rest ; E'en as the low descending sun Sinks calmly in the west.

The dear old man now sleeps in death, He sleeps beneath the sod ; But O, he yet most truly lives, He lives above with God.

We gave to earth his precious form, And laid him softly down; But he'll come forth, in God's own time, To wear the saintly crown.

In Paradise he now doth rest, He rests from lahors rare; From ev'ry sin and sorrow free, And free from ev'ry care.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

The Church doth mourn a Father dear, A Father dear in God ; But she can still rejoice for him, While feeling yet the rod.

He did the mitre meekly wear, And ruled with gentle sway ; Nor did he swerve from duty's path, But onward kept his way.

In journeys oft, like Paul of old, His pilgrim life was spent ; He liv'd and labor'd in his work As one divinely sent.

O, he did ran a godly race, And prove to duty true; And for his good example here, Our thanks are justly due.

The good old man indeed is gone, We laid him to his rest ; We heard the sound of falling dust On his encoffin'd breast.

But we another sound shall hear, From God's eternal throne ; And this dear saint shall then arise, As Jesus claims his own.

CALVERT C. WHITE.

The subject of this brief sketch was a son of Lemnel White and Emily Brainard, and born in Cazenovia, N. Y., August 29, 1830. He removed with his parents to Illinois in 1838, and to Waukesha,. Wis., in 1840. In his childhood, he attended the Wau- kesha Academy, and afterward Carroll College-then in its incipiency-as a pupil of Prof. Ster- ling. At the age of fourteen, he entered the post office as clerk, under his father-who was then Postmaster-pursuing his studies in the mean while. At nineteen, he went to Milwaukee as an assistant in Mitchell's Bank, and afterward acted as Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court of Milwau- kee County. His father being elected Clerk of the Court for Waukesha County, in 1852, he return- ed to act as his Deputy. In 1853 he, with Col. Sidney A. Bean, edited a village paper, called the Independent Press. In 1854, he was married to Elizabeth A. Chester, and soon after removed to Bloomington, Ill. Finding his health impaired by close confinement in an office, he entered into more active out-door life, engaging in the lumber and grain business. With a taste, how- ever, for the legal profession, he relinquished this business in 1857, returned to Wisconsin, and established himself in the practice of law at Waukesha. In 1861, he was elected District Attor- ney of the county. He held this office in 1862, at the time of the organization of the twenty-eighth Wisconsin Regiment of volunteer infantry, in the formation of which he took an active part. He entered the military service as Captain in this regiment, and served the entire period of enlistment, three years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He returned home at the close of the war, in the fall of 1865, but with a constitution badly undermined by the exposure inci- dent to the war service.

Much of the time while in the army, he was engaged in important detached duty! During the last year of his service, he held the position of Provcst Marshal General of Arkansas, on the staff of Maj. Gen. J. J. Reynolds. He participated in Steele's campaign to Southern Arkansas, which was only saved from being disastrous, from the failure of Banks' Red River expedition, by the hard fighting of Gen. Steele's command.

In November, 1865, he returned to Little Rock and entered into a law partnership with Col. -now U. S. Senator-Angustus H. Garland. As he was about returning for his family in the summer of 1866, he was taken ill of typhoid fever, and was held in that climate until Novem- ber. He then started North, with buoyant hopes that the pure air of his Wisconsin home would recruit his wasted health. Reaching Chicago in a feeble condition, he was conveyed to his

H . A . You're MUKWANAGO

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

brother's suburban home at Evanston, that of Gen. Julius White, where, after lingering a few days, he died November 15, 1866, aged thirty-six years and three months. His remains were taken to Wankesha, Wis., and interred in the village cemetery. He lefta wife and two young sons, Calvert C. White, born at Waukesha April 11, 1863, and Edwin Chester White, born June 21, 1866, all residing at Waukesha. In private life Col. White's reputation was without blemish. His public service, whether civil or military, was distinguished by an intelligent appreciation and conscientious discharge of the duties devolving upon him. While reasonably ambitious, he never thrust himself forward, but, as in his entry into military life, always accepted positions of less importance than he might have obtained, thus evincing the true spirit of self-abnegation ; or, at least, appeared to the world as one subordinating any desire for advancement to conscien- tious and patriotic sense of duty. His success, and great promise in his chosen profession of the law, were most thoroughly attested by his associates of the bar and the bench, both in Wisconsin and Arkansas.

His life, though brief, was useful, and his memory is dear to all who knew him. He lived as he died, an honored and upright citizen.

ADAM E. RAY.

Adam E. Ray was born in Delaware, N. Y., in 1808. He secured a good prac- tical education, and began mercantile life in 1831, at Saugerties, Ulster Co., N. Y. In 1832, he was married to Miss Eliza Breasted, of New York State. They came West in 1838, and engaged in farming at Mukwonago, Waukesha County. He went South in 1859 to Alabama and built a saw-mill and a corn-mill, and had fitted them with first-class machinery, when the election of Lincoln in 1860 made the locality very unhealthy for a Unionist ; he came North, and all his movable property was destroyed or confiscated by the Confederates. He also owned between one and two thousand acres of Southern land, which has not been reclaimed since the Rebellion. His Alabama losses were about $14,000. He died in 1864, leaving ten children. They have had thirteen children ; the living are Charles, Edwin, Henry, the twins Mary and Eliza, Augusta, Jennie, Frederick, and the twins Ira L. and Ida V .; seven are married. Mr. Ray was a Democrat until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, but was thereafter an active Republican. He was a member of the Territorial Council from 1839 to 1841, and after- ward held several town and county offices. From 1845 until his death, he owned a farm in Wal- worth County, and, while living there, was elected State Senator from that district ; he was instrumental in securing the building of the old Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Railroad, and sacrificed heavily in its behalf. He was interested in whatever affected the public welfare, and his counsel was sought both by private citizens and public officials ; he was naturally a leader among men. He was devoted to the Republican party, and was well posted in political affairs ; he was a Master Mason. The entire family has always been highly esteemed. Mrs. Ray and her younger daughter have a pleasant home on Wisconsin avenue, in Waukesha Village. The head of the household passed away in the full vigor of his meridian powers, aged fifty-six. For twenty-six years, in the early life of this county, he was a potent factor in all public affairs. His was a positive character, energetic, but not aggressive, spirited, but not eccentric ; his fellow- citizens always reported him capable and popular.

RICHARD HARDELL.

Richard Hardell was born June 10, 1795, in Lincolnshire, England. His father was a gardener and did an extensive business. At the age of twelve, he entered, vol- untarily, with his father's consent, upon a seven years' apprenticeship at the carpenter and joiner's trade, earning at the same time, by over work, what little pocket money he could, as he received only board and clothes for his regular service.

At the age of nineteen, he was married to Jane Wingate, who was five years his senior. Soon after the marriage, the young couple moved to Yorkshire and settled, Mr. Hardell going into the contracting and building business, which business he continued until 1828, when he had accumulated sufficient means to enable him to carry out a desire which he had for some time entertained, viz., that of trying his fortunes in America.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

Accordingly, he settled his affairs, made such preparations as he deemed necessary, and with his family set sail in March of the above-named year, landing without accident in New York City, a few weeks afterward. He almost immediately found work, after landing, upon the Bowery Theater, which was then being built, and proved himself to be so good a workman that. he was the last one discharged.

Soon after leaving the theater work, he moved to Utica, N. Y., then a growing place, and resumed his old-time occupation as contractor. Here he did a very good business on a lim- ited capital, and also acquired such a reputation for honesty and integrity that one of the lead- ing bankers of the place (Joseph Stibbins), when Mr. Hardell's paper was presented, would indorse it with the addition of the word " good." In 1830, he removed to .Clinton, N. Y., and continued his accustomed vocation. During the time he was here, he did a very large and. profitable business, being employed as architect and builder of some of the finest edifices, both public and private, to be found in that locality at that time.

The Clinton Liberal Institute building, quite a famous organization in its day, was planned and erected by him, and as a memento of his connection with that enterprise, his name was. carved in white marble over the front entrance. In the spring of 1836, the tide of emigration was setting in heavily toward Wisconsin, whither he determined to come, where he believed he could enlarge his own fortune not only, but better pave the way for the future prosperity of his- family, which had now increased to seven. He embarked at Buffalo. They arrived at Mil- waukee in July, 1836. Soon after landing, he found employment as draftsman and foreman with the firm of Prentice & Bird, contractors and builders, and remained with them until the spring of 1837. In the fall of 1836, he, in company with others, made a trip to the town of Lisbon, located a claim and made some improvements, and returned to the city the same season ; afterward he disposed of his claim. Early in 1837, while Mr. Juneau was surveying the Terri- torial road from Milwaukee to Madison via Jefferson, he made several claims at different points along the route, one of them being for Mr. Hardell, on Section 34. A few weeks later, Mr. Hardell, in company with Mr. Dousman and Mr. Edgerton, came out on horseback to examine these claims. Mr. Hardell, after looking over his claim and the surroundings, at once purchased an additional one-half section adjoining, making in all one section of land. He went to work at. once and built a shanty and broke six acres of land, and in June went into the city and brought. out his family. From this time he devoted his energies almost wholly to agricultural pursuits. During the erection of the capitol building at Madison, he was appointed inspector of the work, and thereby saved the State an expense of several thousand dollars. He was also appointed inspector of the court house at Waukesha. At his death, which occurred June 10, 1878, at the advanced age of eighty-three years, the county and community lost one of its most worthy citi- zens-a man noted for his radical and just political opinions ; of undoubted probity of character and rare intelligence. He left one of the finest estates in the town of Summit, consisting of 1,800 acres of land, improved and stocked. There are now but four of the family left, two sons and two daughters. They are W. J. and A. G. Hardell, and Mrs. Charles H. Flinton and Mrs. L. P. Merickle, all of whom reside in the town of Summit.

ALEXANDER FOSTER PRATT.

The subject of this sketch was born in Westmoreland, Cheshire Co.,N. H., September 4, 1813. He was the youngest child of John and Nancy Pratt, natives of Massachusetts, who settled in New Hampshire in 1805. The father of A. F. Pratt was an extensive farmer and cattle-dealer, who died in 1822. Alexander continued with his mother at the old homestead up to the age of sixteen years with the ordinary advantages of a country common school, with the exception of the last two years, when he was sent to an academy in the adjoining town.

At the age of sixteen, he was employed in a dry-goods store in Woodstock, Vt., where he remained two years, when he went to Boston, Mass., and engaged as salesman in the wholesale dry-goods house of J. T. Hobart & Co., where he remained until the fall of 1836. He then came to Milwaukee with a stock of goods, and opened a store in a shanty, as there was no better building to be had. He built a shanty of boards on a leased lot large enough to hold his stock

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of goods, which was valued at $5,000, and commenced business under the firm name of Hobart & Pratt. Milwaukee was at that time, a big town on paper, but not much of a place for selling dry goods, as there were no roads in either direction by which to get into the country and but few people in the country when you got there. The trade was principally confined to dickering in city and town lots, which were bringing at that time from $1,000 to $5,000 each. The ground had been broken for the erection of a court house, out in the woods, as it was then called, and lots in that vicinity were a legal tender. In December, 1836, many speculators had left Milwaukee, and business became exceedingly dull. Mr. Pratt during that winter traded his stock of goods for a little money and the balance in town lots and settlers' claims. None of the land had been offered for sale by the Government and settlers' claims were good. In the spring of 1837, he pur- chased of M. D. Cutler, a claim on 480 acres of land on Fox River, in the town of Prairieville (now Waukesha), paying $1,000 for the claim in four village lots in the village of Ottawa, Ill., and commenced to build a house and make other improvements. He employed a man and his wife, and at once commenced farming. In January, 1839, he married Antonette M. Powers, daughter of Henry Powers, who had recently come from Plattsburg, N. Y., and settled in Troy, Walworth Co., Wis. Mr. Pratt had three children- two daughters and one son. Elizabeth S. was born in 1839, married Darwin Fuller of St. Louis, and died in December, 1871. Charles A. was born in 1843, married Emma Brown, of St. Louis, and is now one of the proprietors of the Garrison House, Sedalia, Mo. Francis H. was born in January, 1849, married Clarence A. Jones, and resides in St. Louis. Mr. Pratt resided on his farm until the Government land sale in October. 1839, after which. until the spring of 1844, he resided in Milwaukee; whilst in Milwaukee, he was Constable and Dep- uty Sheriff, and was considered the best detective in the Territory. In the summer of 1843, he built a house on Cass street, near Division, and cut a road through the brush from the court house before he could haul his building material to the site. In the spring of 1844, in company with his brother, George C., he returned to the farm in Prairieville, and purchased quite a large lot of lands adjoining the old farm, built another house, and commenced farming on quite a large scale for those times. The Pratt brothers, in 1845, had under the plow over 300 acres, and had a large stock of cattle, horses and sheep. Farming in those days, on a large scale, was anything but profitable. The best of winter wheat sold in Milwaukee for 38 cents per bushel, after hauling through the mud with ox teams. From 1844, that part of Milwaukee County now Waukesha, began to fill up rapidly with actual settlers, Mr. Pratt being what was then termed an old settler, was called upon to do considerable public business, such as laying out highways and building bridges. Out of settlers' claims, grew a great many little law suits, and Mr. Pratt became quite a celebrated pettifogger. This public life suited him better than tilling the soil. In the winter of 1847, Mr. Pratt and his brother sold a large part of their farm, which was the end of farming. Together with W. A. Barstow, A. E. Elmore and A. W. Randall, and perhaps a few others, during the session of the Territorial Legislature of 1846, he conceived the idea of seceding from Milwaukee, and organizing a new county .*

Politics, at that time, had not entered very much into our elections. Mr. Pratt was an uncompromising Democrat, and upon the admission of the State became one of the leading Democrats in the county and State. In 1848, he was elected Sheriff ; he discharged the duties of the office to the general satisfaction of the people.

Mr. Pratt was usually at Madison during the sessions of the Legislature, either as member of the " Third House " or as correspondent of some Democratic paper.

He was the reporter for the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin when that was a Democratic paper, and was reporter at Madison for the Milwaukee News for several sessions. In about 1853 or 1854, he commenced the publication of the Plaindealer at Waukesha. It was a strong supporter of Franklin Pierce's administration, and Mr. Pratt was appointed Postmaster at Waukesha by him.

Mr. Pratt went to Kansas in the spring of 1862, with the Third Wisconsin Cavalry (Col. Barstow), in the sutler's department. Whilst in Kansas, he wrote for the Milwaukee News,

*Elsewhere this subject is more elaborately treated.

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and was for a short time editor of a newspaper at Leavenworth. His editorials in that paper were not pleasing to Gen. Blunt, who was in charge of the department, and he ordered the paper suppressed, and very soon Mr. Pratt (for something said in his correspondence to the Mil- waukee News), was banished from the sutler's department and escorted over the line into Missouri, where he remained three or four months. At the end of that time, the command of the Depart- ment of Kansas had passed into other hands, and it became necessary to look for some of the parties whom Mr. Pratt had accused of stealing from and defrauding the Government. The officer in command being a Wisconsin man, and having some knowledge of Mr. Pratt's reputa- tion as a detective, sent for him, and Mr. Pratt was appointed United States Detective to hunt some of the very men who had caused his paper to be suppressed, and himself to be banished beyond the Union lines.

He returned to Waukesha in July, 1865, and commenced the re-publication of the Plain- dealer, which he continued up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 30th day of Nov- ember, 1874.

Mr. Pratt held various town, village and county offices ; was twice elected to the office of Sheriff, three times elected President of the village of Waukesha, and discharged the duties of all these offices with honor to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. In public progress and improvement, he was always in the advance, and few men in Waukesha ever did more to make the village what it now is than Alexander F. Pratt.

He was liberal in his religious views ; a member of no church, but contributed to the sup- port of the Episcopal Church, of which his wife and family were members. His long residence and business connection with Waukesha County made him one of the best-known men in it.

Mr. Pratt was always ready to express his opinion, never waiting to find out the opinion of others ; and when he engaged in any enterprise, never abandoned it till he got to the end. Sometimes he would fail to accomplish his object, but never for want of energy or perseverance. He was a very warm and true friend, as well as a very bitter enemy. He was a very kind neighbor, always ready to grant any relief in his power to persons in trouble, and at his death many exclaimed, " I have lost my best friend."

SIDNEY ALFRED BEAN.

Sidney Alfred Bean, the subject of this sketch, was born in Chesterfield Village, Essex Co., N. Y., Sept. 16, 1833. He came with his parents to Waukesha in the year 1846, the previous years of his life having been spent in about equal portions at the place of his nativity and in the city of Milwaukee.

Physically, he was of a somewhat slight organization, though but seldom prostrated by sickness, or in any way prevented from discharging thoroughly and successfully the many ardu- ous duties that thronged his young life. In his early childhood he displayed an unusual fondness for learning, as well as an unusual facility for acquiring it. At the age of ten years, he was quite proficient in the science of algebra, and, while still a mere lad, became far advanced in many of the higher branches of knowledge.

In 1850, he entered the sophomore class of the University of Michigan, and graduated in 1852. going forth into the world with every promise of a brilliant future. One of the professors of the university wrote that "he was distinguished for the ease and rapidity with which he acquired knowledge. Indeed, he seems to have mastered the subjects almost intuitively, so that, while his scholarship was thorough and accurate, he was enabled to devote much time to inde- pendent literary and scientific studies outside of the regular college curriculum. His pro- ficiency in mathematics already indicated for him an exalted position in this branch of science ; besides, the talent and earnestness which he thus early exhibited as a speaker and writer, prom- ised unusual eminence in more popular fields of usefulness."

His first business venture after leaving college was the establishment of a newspaper, entitled the "Independent Press," and in its columns he wrote with the ardor of youth, and yet with marked intellectual acumen, making appeals in behalf of the weak, the down-trodden and the poor. In all things he raised his voice for justice ; and there could exist no meanness or

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vice that did not meet his scathing denunciation. At the time of the border trouble, known as the Kansas war, he was untiring in his efforts to rescue that fair Territory from the clutches of the slave power, and it is well remembered with what graphic eloquence he sought to rouse the people to a realization of their impending peril.

He afterward became connected with Carroll College as a Professor of Mathematics. This institution was, at that time, in a most flourishing condition, and gave promise of becoming a seat of learning second to none in the country. No one labored more assiduously, or gave more freely of his means that the institution might be established on a lasting foundation, than did the subject of this sketch. His specialty as a student had thus far been the science of mathe- matics ; but he now sought other fields of learning and became engrossed in the study of lan- guage. "Not of the languages,"' as he wrote, " but of that science which treats of the forces that underlie all forms and idioms, and out of which all forms and idioms grow."

In the year 1859, at the request of Chancellor Barnard, he delivered a lecture before the University of Wisconsin on the "Study of Language ;" and among his papers are found an elaborate ontline of a philosophical treatise on this subject, which it is known he intended to publish.

He was a careful and accurate writer, and, aside from the purity of his style, he always wrote with the well-defined purpose of doing good, of correcting abuses, and of exalting the standard of human conduct.

In a lecture delivered in Waukesha when he was not yet twenty years of age, he said : " The holiest thing a man can do, is to make himself a perfect man by loving and living for his broth- er. Do good ! 'Tis a simple phrase, but there is a melody in the thought of it that out-sings all the weariness of the heart. Oh, suffering, sad humanity ! In thy name will we live to do good, in thy name do we cast in our lot with that little band of which Jesus is the King, who are laboring for their fellows, to beautify the world with blessings, and give it an undying garni- ture of noble, and disinterested deeds." Among his best-remembered lectures, are those on " Heroism " and " God in History ;" they were both of them masterly discourses, compact in logic and style, and replete with passages of fervid eloquence. The moral of the latter one was that God takes cognizance of the actions of nations, and that he will most certainly punish them for every deviation from the principles of justice and mercy. He insisted that human slavery was such a deviation and in answer to the plea that it had Christianized the African race, he exclaimed : "Oh, the iniquitous solecism of evoking the Christian from the ashes of the man ! If the Jews held slaves, not so much the better for slavery, but so much the worse for the Jews. Slavery is fairly responsible, not only for all the actual consequences of it, but for all the possible consequences. It is logically held for all the evils which exist in posse and not for those alone in esse. A law or an institution which confers a power to do wrong, is criminal to the full extent to which that power may be car- ried under any circumstances, because a power that onght never to be exercised ought never to exist." At the breaking-out of the late war, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth Wisconsin Infantry, and dedicated his great abilities and his great heart to the cause of human freedom. No purer or more disinterested patriot ever drew his sword in defense of the right. Few men occupied positions so enviable as his ; surrounded by everything that makes life pleasant, a happy home, warm friends and bright prospects of future honor and usefulness, he sacrificed all to his sense of duty, and followed his country's flag, until he met a soldier's death in the hour that its showy folds waved victorionsly over the enemy's works. In his mili- tary career, as in every other undertaking to which he applied his comprehensive mind and unwearying energy, he was eminently successful. On the promotion of Col. Halbert E. Paine, he was made Colonel of his regiment, which position he held at the time of his death. It is not designed in this brief sketch of Col. Bean to give a narrative of his career as a soldier. for the materials at hand will not permit ; but from the glance that has here been presented of his exalted character and noble life, it will readily be inferred that in the field of arms, as well as in the quiet walks of life, his star was still in the ascendant. Such was the fact, for the

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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 91

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