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 95
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The Liberty party continued its political work under the name of the Free Democratic party, gaining in strength year by year. The union in 1848 of the Liberty party with the Wil- mot Proviso wing of the Democratic party advanced the principles of freedom, and elected to
621
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
Congress Charles Durkee, an old and true Abolitionist, from this, the First Congressional Dis- trict. So a union in 1853 with the Whig party in this State resulted in forming a new party (Republican) in 1854; and in electing three State Senators, who would not have been elected but for their union, and who helped to make a majority on joint ballot of one-which majority in January, 1856, elected Charles Durkee to the Senate of the United States. The union was brought about in this wise:
On the 8th of June, 1853, the Free Democratic party nominated Edward D. Holton for Governor ; Jonathan Dougherty, Lieutenant Governor; C. L. Sholes, Secretary of State; Vernon Tichenor, Attorney General ; Samuel D. Hastings, Treasurer ; O. T. Bartlett, Super- intendent of Public Instruction ; E. A. Howland, Bank Comptroller; Selah Booth, State Prison Commissioner.
The Whigs nominated a State ticket with Henry S. Baird for Governor.
The Democrats also nominated a State ticket, with William A Barstow for Governor, Mr. Barstow being then the leader of the Democracy. Both Whigs and Free Democrats pub- lished everywhere that the ticket nominated by the Democratic party was such as they could not support. At the same time, a large majority of the Whig party in Wisconsin had advanced to the same faith as the principles promulgated by the Free Democracy, but were not willing to work with them under that name. Therefore a few men from the Whig and Free Democratic parties on consultation at the Wisconsin State fair, held at Watertown on the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of October, 1853, issued a call and posted the same for a mass meeting of the people opposed to the election of the Democratic ticket, to be held in a schoolhouse in Watertown City, at 10 A. M., on the 6th of October.
At the time appointed the schoolhouse was literally packed with Democrats to prevent the object of said call. The friends of a People's ticket, not being able to gain admission to the schoolhouse, withdrew to a public hall and organized by appointing David Atwood Presi- dent, and put forth an address to the people of the State.
The ticket nominated was as following : Leonard J. Farwell, Governor ; Edward D. Holton, Lieutenant Governor ; J. A. Hadley, Secretary of State ; Samuel D. Hastings, Treasurer ; James H. Knowlton, Attorney General ; John G. McMynn, Superintendent of Public Instruction ; James S. Baker, Bank Comptroller ; and Selah Booth, State Prison Commissioner.
An Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of Rufus King, of Milwaukee; W. D. Bacon, Waukesha ; David Atwood, Madison ; R. A. Deming, Kenosha ; with full power to fill vacancies or to re-arrange the ticket for good cause.
This movement was not satisfactory to the Whig nominee for Governor, H. S. Baird, who refused to decline in favor of the People's ticket, but kept in the field and received 3,304 votes. Nor did the Free Democracy approve of the People's ticket. At the Janesville meeting of the People's Central Committee and of the press of the Free Democratic party, it was determined to support the Free Democratic instead of the People's ticket, W. D. Bacon and Vernon Tichenor, of Waukesha, only dissenting. It was urged that a fair division of candidates was not observed by the mass meeting at Watertown, the Whigs taking the head of the ticket and five out of eight of the candidates. Mr. Bacon assured the committee and press, he being one of the Executive Committee of the mass meeting at Watertown, that an early meeting of the Executive Committee would be called to fill vacancies, and it was expected Mr. Farwell, nominee for Governor, would decline, at which time he believed the ticket would be reconstructed, dividing fairly the candidates between Whigs and Free Democrats. The motion to support the Free Democratic ticket was reconsidered. The next day Mr. Farwell sent to the Executive Committee his declination to be a candidate on the People's ticket. The Executive Committee of the People's mass meeting met at Whitewater and reconstructed the ticket as follows: E. D. Holton, Governor ; Bertine Pinkney, Lieutenant Governor; J. A. Hadley, Secretary of State; S. D. Hastings, Treasurer ; Orsamus Cole, Attorney General; John G. McMynn, Superintendent of Public Instruction ; Benjamin F. Pixley, Bank Comptroller ; Selah Booth, State Prison Commissioner. The average Democratic vote in the State was 31,000 ; People's ticket 21,000 ; Whig vote 3,300. The union of the Whig and
622
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
Free Democratic parties having been effected under the name of the People's ticket, and having elected several members of the Senate and Legislature of the State, on June 9, 1854, the follow- ing circular was published throughout the State for a People's Mass State Convention to con- vene at Madison July 13, 1854 :
All men opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the extension of slavery and the rule of the slave power, are invited to meet at Madison Thursday, July 13, to take such measures as may be deemed necessary to pre- vent the future encroachment of the slave power, to repeal all compromises in favor of slavery. and establish the principles of freedom as the rule of the State and National Governments. The time has come for the union of all free men for the sake of freedom. There is but one alternative-we must unite and be free, or divide and be enslaved. MANY CITIZENS.
[Signed ]
On that day over fifteen hundred voters met at Madison and organized under the name Republican. At the next election, the new party secured a majority of the Legislature and cast an unexpected vote in Waukesha County.
The first call for the Republican Convention for Waukesha County was signed by Elihu Enos. Among the party leaders have been Mr. Enos, member of the National Republican Committee, Alex. W. Randall, I. M. Bean, C. K. Davis, Warham Parks, E. M. Randall, Rufus Parks, Sidney A. Bean, Vernon Tichenor, W. D. Bacon, W. M. Saunders, August Lins, F. G. Parks, John C. Schuet, H. A. Youmans, A. E Perkins, the Dousmans and the Reeds, of Ottawa, Albert Alden, Isaac Lain, William Blair, E. Beaumont, Henry Shears, George Cairncross, Richard Cooling, Thomas Sugden, Henry Bowman, A. E. Gilbert, Dr. Ingersoll, W. W. Collins, John A. Seabold, J. R. Carpenter, John and M. S. Hodgson, A. F. North, Asa Wilkins and Jesse Smith.
The Republican party now is resting on its laurels-exists only to perpetuate the deeds and preserve the fruits of the glorious past. When the Union was assailed the Republican party of Waukesha County was as one man in its defense; when financial heresy threatened the stability of commerce and national credit, the Republican party here and everywhere was all-potent to avert disaster. Whatever mistakes it has made, the party has aimed to do right-the heart of its masses has always been with the best interests of the common country.
The foregoing will show conclusively that Waukesha County was prominent and persistent in the work which resulted in the birth of the Republican party.
SUN DIALS.
So far as known, the first sun-dial in Wisconsin was made and set up, at or near Wauk- esha, by William Cruikshank, and now the county of Waukesha has more permanent sun-dials, without any doubt, than any other in the Union. They were all constructed by Mr. Cruik- shank, whose first one was set about forty years ago. They are to be seen at various central points in the county, and in all sunny days show at once to the stranger and resident the exact meridian time. The finest in the county is probably the one in the cemetery at Waukesha, which, if undisturbed by man, will point out the hour of the day unerringly for almost unlim- ited centuries. Very many people have no idea of the purpose of a sun-dial when they dis- cover one, and a still greater number have no idea how one can be accurately constructed. The mystery of the fundamental principles cannot be furnished for the million, but the trigometrical formula and an absolute rule can be given, so that whosoever has the will may construct a dial according to the latter, and if he understand trigonometry, may prove his work according to the former. First may be given three fundamental principles, as follows :
1. The true position of a sun-dial is the centre of the earth; but placed on the surface, as it must be, there is no sensible error, the distance of the sun being so great that his hori- zontal parallax is only 8.6 seconds. 2. The stile of every dial is parallel with the axis of the earth. 3. Every dial, in whatsoever direction it may face, and however much it may lean back- ward or forward is a horizontal dial for some point on the surface of the earth. Thus, a vertical dial facing south in 43 degs. N. Lat. is a horizontal dial for a point 90 degs. farther South, that is, in 47 degs. S. Lat.
623
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
To construct a dial geometrically, the operator not being required to understand anything but the use of tools, Mr. Cruikshank has ordered the following absolute rule, reference being had to the accompanying cut for plainer illustration :
F
d
b
a
E
12
V
K
STILE
A
B
IA A
C
For Lat 430
V VI VI
1. Draw the six o'clock line AB.
2. At any distance, draw FE parallel with AB, and produce it indefinitely.
3. Draw the meridian line CD perpendicular to AB.
4. Draw the stile CE, making the angle DCE equal to the latitude of the place.
5. From D draw DG perpendicular to CE.
6. Make DK equal to DG; and with DK as a radins, and K as centre, describe the quadrant DL, and divide it into six equal parts for the hours, twelve equal parte for the half hours, twenty-four equal parte for the quarter hours, etc.
7. From K draw the lines K1, K2, K3, etc., and produce them till they meet FE in a, b, c, etc.
8. Draw the bour lines Ca, Ch, Cc, etc. These are the morning-hour lines, and the afternoon-honr lines are found in the same manner.
9. Set up the stile. If the stile is of an appreciable thickness, there must be two meridian lines, just the thickness of the stile apart. In order to avoid crowding. the lines only for the morning hours are drawn, and the plan of the dial is left incomplete.
For this latitude these nine rules can be used and a correct dial produced.
For calculating the angle of the hour lines with the meridian for a horizontal dial, we have the following trigonometrical formula :
As Radius is to the sine of the latitude, so is the Tangent of the angle of the hour to the Tangent of the angle of the hour line with the meridian.
The dials in the vicinity of Waukesha are cut upon Illinois marble, usually with stone columns and Waukesha limestone pedestal, and will stand for ages. This much space is given them because Waukesha county probably had the first reliable dial in Wisconsin.
ANECDOTES AND HISTORY UNCLASSIFIED.
In 1844, while one of the most respected and best-known residents of Waukesha was on his way to Milwaukee on foot, he met a prepossessing young woman traveling by similar conveyance to Waukesha. She asked him some questions as to distance, and he replied properly. He then desired to know if she had a husband and family to follow, and received a negative. "How long before I can reach Mr. N-'s house ?" ""In two hours, if you keep steadily on ; but how long before you could get married?" frankly inquired the citizen. "In two hours if I had the opportunity," she archly replied. "Good !" exclaimed the tall man with a fine form, "it's a bargain. " And it was. They were married immediately and lived a happy and prosperous life.
P. Bannon was the only man who voted for Peter Cooper for President, in 1876, in the village of Waukesha.
James A. Rossman and Chauncey C. Olin voted an Anti-slavery ticket, the first, probably, in Waukesha County, in the spring of 1844.
DI I
624
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
In the very earliest days of the settlement of Waukesha, Morris D. Cutler's was the only ferry across the Fox River. He had a fee of 10 cents for carrying travelers across on his back.
A splendid piece of land in Pewaukee was the means of having no less than twenty families purchase farms and settle in Waukesha County. A shrewd land agent would take any land-seeker out to this rich tract of prairie and oak openings and make a good bargain for an eighty or forty, but make out the deeds for lands elsewhere and often very poor; at least never worth half as much as the land shown. The rough land near Sayles' mill, in Genesee, was sold to Mr. Sayles in this manner.
It was forty miles from Prairieville to Milwaukee by the trails of 1834-36, and sixty miles by the trails from Bark River to Milwaukee. Old settlers will understand this.
B. A. Jenkins got out of fire in Genesee over forty years ago, and was obliged, not having any matches, to take a potash kettle on a sled and go to North Prairie and haul a kettle of fire home before he could have a meal cooked.
Not far from where Carroll College now stands at Waukesha, the Indians had their corn- fields. M. D. Cutler's cattle, for want of fences, ran at will, and frequently destroyed large quantities of this corn. Mr. Cutler therefore, to keep everything lovely with the Indians, gave them an ox to butcher, which was entirely satisfactory.
David Jackson, the first Postmaster, was buried for a time in a pre-historic mound near the Silurian Spring at Waukesha, as the place had no cemetery.
In January, 1847, the County Board resolved "that the bounty on wolf-scalps of every description, should be and the same is hereby fixed at, three dollars each." This resolution brought many a dollar to the pockets of sharp hunters, as the county paid nearly as much for dog-scalps as for wolf-scalps. It requires a keen man to discover the difference between a wolf- scalp and the scalp of a pup.
In January, 1871, there was some excitement in the county, over a contest for the office of County Clerk, which case was also the means of deciding an important principle. John C. Schuet was a candidate for Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Waukesha County, at the gen- eral election held November 5, 1870. He received a majority of about five hundred votes. At the time of his election he possessed all the qualifications of an elector, except that he was an alien, and had not declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States. On the 14th of November, 1870, that disability was removed by appropriate proceedings in the Circuit Court for Milwaukee County, and he then became a citizen. The defeated candidate, Murray, refused to deliver up to his successor the office, and the Board of Supervisors sustained him in his action, the old Clerk taking the oath of office on the 2d of January following the fall elec- tion. The alien also took the oath and demanded possession of the office. The Supreme Court held [28 Wis., p. 96] that an alien who has not declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States may be elected to an office, and, in case his disability is removed before the commencement of the term of office for which he is elected, he will be entitled to enter upon and hold such office. Mr. Schuet accordingly took the office.
In January, 1847, the County Board passed the following resolution :
Resolved, That the thanks of this Board be tendered to the Hon. George Reed for Territorial Script, amounting to $21.50, tendered by him to the county ; and that the Treasurer be directed to preserve the same in the treasury, until it can be used for the benefit of the county.
In 1835-36, a store-keeper named Longstreet sold flour in Milwaukee at first for $15 per barrel. Before the ice went out in the spring of 1836, he sold it at from $30 to $35 per barrel, and the article was pretty sour and black at that. When the navigation opened, sour flour went down to $10 per barrel, and then the settlers assembled and gave thanks. Beans at the same time were $6 per bushel, 24 to 28 quarts being all that was allowed the purchasers for a bushel, and mess- pork was $33 per barrel.
Aumable Viean says he saw a score of little Pottawotomie Indians swimming and splash- ing in Bethesda Pool at Waukesha as early as 1827.
625
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
The Pottawatomies had a tradition that one hundred of their strongest warriors were once doomed to death on the plateau where Carroll College now stands at Waukesha, and that " two moons " were required to complete their torture and death.
At the election held November 6, 1849, the question of equal suffrage to colored persons, received 1,086 votes, of which 964 were in favor of equal suffrage, and 122 against it.
One exceedingly cold morning in early days, a very prominent attorney went down to his office at Waukesha, and found he was out of wood. As it was so early that he supposed no one in the neighborhood was out of bed, he essayed to " borrow " enough for the day from a neigh- boring pile already nicely sawed and split. He therefore tossed a liberal supply over the high, tight board fence between the wood and his office. Alexander W. Randall chanced to be in his office, and saw what was going on. He therefore carried the wood into his apartments as fast as the other attorney tossed it over the fence. When the prominent attorney passed around with countenance gleaming over his good luck in finding wood, to the other side of the fence, and found every stick of the big pile he had thrown over gone, he was riveted to the spot with astonishment, and was soon warm enough to perspire pretty freely without the aid of borrowed wood. The mysterious disappearance of that pile of wood made an entirely different man of the prominent lawyer. That was thirty-odd years ago, and he is a poor man now, having never stolen a thing from that day to this. He has always since contended, that God not only looks after the sparrows, but has a mighty sharp eye on lawyers as well. If this paragraph does not come under his eye, he will die expecting that pile of wood will be offered in evidence against him at the day of judgment ; for he never learned the part " Aleck " Randall played in the affair.
In the earlier days of its history, the business of advertising and selling mineral water at Waukesha was one of extreme difficulty. Those who were loudest in pronouncing the water a humbug, and who left their legitimate business to run down the various mineral springs and injure the character of their owners, resided in Waukesha-not out of it. Finally an Eastern gentleman became interested in a spring, and, falling in with the croakers, soon made his busi- ness methods so obnoxious that they were the subject of a mass indignation meeting. One butterfly sort of a fellow, who assembled himself more to give vent to fun than indignation, pre- pared the following analysis which caused no small amount of merriment :
LABORATORY OF NEW YORK GLUE FACTORY.
Dear Sir-Your letter containing a sample of the water from the mineral spring you recently purchased in Wau- kesha, Wisconsin, is at hand. I have forgotten precisely what you said you desired my analysis to show ; but, after carefully reading all the almanacs to he had, I have compiled the following, which I should think would fill the bill, as it embraces about everything the ignoramuses on a frontier town like Waukesha will be likely to know :
Double extract of pure-cussedness.
2 wash-tubfuls
Bicarbonate of cancer juice.
16.09 grains
Epsom salts (4 spoonfuls after each meal)
8.01 grains
Chloride of sodium (Syracuse diary salt).
1.00 wash-tubful
Paris Green
10.11 grains
Asafoetida
406.03 grains
Sulphate of Best's bottled beer.
2.00 cases
Simmons' Liver Regulator (six bottles, $5).
18.00 grains
Chloride of pilgarlic.
82.06 grains
Bicarbonate of Lorillard's Bloom of Health
11.18 grains
Tincture of abuse ...
862.99 grains
Bicarbonate of corrugated iron
.82 grains
Bromide of tar and feathers
22.00 quarts
Vermifuge (kills the largest or smallest worms)
.18 grains
Bicarbonate of lily white and garlic.
84.16 grains
Permit me to say that I took the water from your spring carefully apart by all the methods known in a first-class glue factory, and do not hesitate to pronounce it just what everybody wants, and the water of all other springs a humbug. You will observe that the principal ingredient is double-extract of pure-cussedness, though tincture of abuse is found in more liberal quantities than in any other mineral water I ever dissected. I also find strong traces of the solid salts of meanness, and strong indications of the quintessence of dishonesty. I have no doubt it will serve your purpose well, and when you remit $1,000 for this analysis, you may say I said so.
Yours,
H-P -.
626
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
The Democratic and Free-Soil Congressional Conventions for 1848 were held at Muk- wonago. The former nominated William Pitt Lynde, on October 4, and the latter nomi- nated Charles Durkee, on September 25.
In 1849, the bar of Waukesha signed a petition, asking the County Board to raise the salary of the District Attorney to $300 ; but he was granted only $250 per annum.
The seven-year-old son of J. R. Wheeler, of Mukwonago, was missing in December, 1849, and, after a most thorough search, extending over several weeks, in which all the neighbors par- ticipated, the little fellow was given up. It was generally agreed that he had been stolen by the Indians, a few wandering Pottawatomies having been seen in the vicinity, but luring the next spring, his skeleton was found in a neighboring swamp. He had got lost and died alone in the woods from exhaustion and starvation.
At the " Independence celebration, " at Waukesha, on July 4, 1851, over five thousand people were present. The address was by Arthur McArthur, now of Washington.
At the Democratic State Convention, of September 12, 1855, Andrew E. Elmore was formally " read out" of the Democratic party, for bolting and for "obnoxiously advocating " the doctrine of " all the rights of all men."
In 1843, a petition praying for the removal of Gov. James D. Doty received 131 signa- tures in Summit and 130 in Muskego. But Gov. Doty was not removed.
The greatest constitutional meeting ever held in the county was in front of Vail's Hotel, at Waukesha, March 30, 1847. It was an imposing demonstration. The Mukwonago dele- gation led the procession with about 200 men, with flags. A. D. Smith spoke against " wild- cat " banks. While in the midst of his speech, a coon-skin was let down from the hotel and sus- pended in front of him. Without the least perturbation, the speaker pointed to the skin as a fit- ting emblem of the moneyed power, swinging in the breeze, hanging by its last thread, bodiless and spiritless, and, as the man said upon the gallows, with "but a single line between him and ruin."
E. P. Pearmain shot himself through the head at his home in Summit, January 25, 1842, on account of financial difficulties.
According to the local and other papers of 1843, the Postmaster did not send or deliver opposition newspapers until they were ten days or a fortnight of age.
Among the bankrupts from Waukesha County, advertised in the official State paper after the session of the Legislature of 1841-42. were Rufus Parks, William A. Barstow, Peter H. Turner, Winthrop Chandler, Samuel Hinman, Curtis Reed, Joseph Turner, Edward Manning, Orson Reed, M. B. Cushing, Gust. A. Foster and Ferdinand Durand.
Some of the Indian shanties found near Waukesha by the first settlers were quite sub- stantial, being covered with bark. These were not removed when the Indians made their annual journeys to pass the cold weather in deeper woods. B. S. McMillan began to tear them down and haul the material to his hotel for sheds. He was warned to desist, but said the Indians never would return, and if they did, he would not care. A few of them did return in a few days, but did not leave at night, as usual. "Mac," as he was everywhere called, fearing for the safety of a fine horse he had, tied the beast to his door latch, thinking it could not be taken from there without his knowledge; but on going out at 4 o'clock next morning he found the pony gone, together with other things, and never afterward saw hide or hair of it. He never took any more Indian houses without leave.
Once the Barstow Brothers-William A. and Samuel H .- were surprised by some stylish company from abroad. They had no meat in the house ; and, as none was to be had in the vil- lage, William, who was the better talker, entertained the company while Samuel, who was the better fisherman, waded up and down the Fox River spearing fish. That was about forty years ago. Since then, both of the Barstows have had meat enough for ordinary and extraordinary occasions.
The first settlers in Waukesha County were very much interested in the great number of " Indian ladders " found everywhere. They were made of long saplings, the limbs being cut
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