USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement > Part 54
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The towns of Arlington, Courtland, Fountain Prairie, Hampden, Leeds, Lowville, Marcel- lon, Otsego, Randolph, Scott, Springvale and Wyocena are each co-extensive with a township of the Government survey. Caledonia, Dekorra and Lewiston each contains more territory than would make a full township, but each is made up of parts of townships. Lodi, West Point, Pacific, Newport, Fort Winnebago and Columbus each contains less than a Government-surveyed town- ship ; the last two because of the fact that portions are taken from them and included in the cities of Portage and Columbus.
The number of acres in each of the townships included within the limits of Columbia County is as follows :
Acres.
Township 13 north, Range 6 east (northeast of the Wisconsin).
5,270.66
Township 13 north, Range
7 east (north of the Wisconsin). 19,990.69
Township 13 north, Range
8 east.
Township 13 north, Range
9 east (west of Fox River) .22,160.66
Township 13 north, Range
9 east (east of Fox River) 10.158.58
12,826.03
Township 13 north. Range 10 east.
22,863.92
Township 13 north, Range 11 east.
.22,784.51
Township 13 north, Range 12 east.
.23,149.18
Township 12 north, Range
8 east (north of the Wisconsin)
2,699.32
Township 12 north, Range
8 east (south of the Wisconsin).
18,864.46
Township 12 north, Range
9 east (north of the Wisconsin)
1,316.17
Township 12 north, Range 9 east
(south and west of the Wisconsin).
5.860.71
Township 12 north, Range 9 east (east of the Wisconsin) 13,128.51
Township 12 north, Range 10 east. 25,931.61
Township 12 north, Range 11 east. .26,123.98
Township 12 north, Range 12 east. 23,085.13
Township 11 north, Range 8 east (southeast of the Wisconsin).
7,211.39
Township 11 north, Range 8 east (northwest of the Wisconsin). 14.056.64
22,192.12
Township 11 north, Range 9 east (northwest of the Wisconsin). 344.28
Township 11 north, Range 10 east. 22,971.67
Township 11 north, Range 11 east. .22,909.04
Township 11 north, Range 12 east. 23,134.52
D
Township 11 north, Range 9 east (southeast of the Wisconsin).
364
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
Асгеч.
Township 10 north, Range 6 east (east of the Wisconsin) ..
93.46
Township 10 north, Range 7 east ..
16,070.65
Township 10 north, Range 8 east. .22.905.95
Township 10 north, Range 0 eas 22,863.49
Township 10 north, Range 10 east. .22,680.42
Township 10 north, Range 11 east.
.22,556.14
Township 10 north, Range 12 east.
.22,627.36
The town lines of Newport, Lewiston and so much of Fort Winnebago as lies west of the Fox River were surveyed in May, 1851, by George R. Stuntz and James O. Sargent. This territory was surveyed into sections and quarter-sections in June, July and August of the same year, by Henry S. Howell. The town lines of all the residue of the county, lying east and south of the Wisconsin, were run in the years 1832, 1833 and 1834, by John Mullett and John Brink ; the sections and quarter-sections by John Mullett, James H. Mullett and John Brink. The town lines of Caledonia were run by William A. Burt, in 1840, and John Brink and J. E. Whicher, in 1845; sections and quarter-sections by Alvin Burt, in 1842, and John Brink, in 1845.
UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS.
By the end of 1833, a large amount of the public land in Wisconsin, south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, had been surveyed; and the fact being reported by the Surveyor General, two land districts were erected by an act of Congress, approved June 26, 1834. These districts embraced all the land north of the State of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and southeast of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in the then Territory of Michigan. The area was then divided by a north and south line, drawn from the base line to the Wisconsin River, between Ranges 8 and 9. All east of that line was called the Green Bay Land District ; all west, the Wisconsin Land District. A land office of the eastern district was established at Green Bay; of the western district, at Mineral Point.
In general terms, it may be said that the whole of the present county of Columbia lying east of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, and east of the range line between Ranges 8 and 9, fell into the Green Bay District ; while so much as lay east of the Wisconsin, but west of the range line just mentioned, was in the Wisconsin District. But to be more specific, it may be said that, beginning at a point on the Fox River where the north line of the county crosses that stream, and running thence up that river to the southeast boundary line of what was known as the "A. Grignon Claim" (in what is now the city of Portage); thence along that boundary line to the Wisconsin River; thence down the last-mentioned stream to the range line between Ranges 8 and 9 east ; thence south on that line to the southern boundary line of the county ; and all east of the line so described, lying within the present limits of Columbia County, was in the Green Bay Land District-including what are now the towns of Randolph, Courtland, Fountain Prairie, Columbus (with the site of the city of Columbus), Hampden, Otsego, Springvale, Scott, Marcellon, Wyocena, Lowville, Leeds, Arlington, all of Dekorra lying in Range 9 east, Pacific, so much of the city of Portage as lies southeast of the " A. Grignon Claim," and all of Fort Winnebago lying east of the Fox River. The whole of the territory of the present towns of Lodi and West Point, and so much of Dekorra as lies southeast of the Wisconsin River, in Range S east, were in the Wisconsin Land District.
It will be seen that the towns of Lewiston, Newport and Caledonia, and so much of Fort Winnebago as lies west of Fox River, together with the " A. Grignon Claim," and all of the city of Portage lying northwest of it and south of the Wisconsin, were not included in either district, being, at that date, unsurveyed lands of the Government, or owned by the Indians, or included in the " A. Grignon Claim.'
Public sales of the surveyed lands in the two districts were held in 1835, at Green Bay and Mineral Point ; but Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, reserved from sale, Sections 2, 3, 4 and 9, in Township 12 north, and Sections 33, 34 and 35, in Township 13 north (both townships in Range 9 east), for military purposes, these sections forming a tract
$65
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
near the center of which was Fort Winnebago. Except these reserved sections, all of the land of what is Columbia County at the present time, lying east of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, was immediately open to private entry, at $1.25 per acre, after the land sales in 1835 at at Green Bay and Mineral Point, none of it being purchased at these sales. The first entry was made on the 6th day of June, 1836, by Wallace Rowan, of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 34, in Township 11 north, of Range 9 east, being forty acres in what is now the town of Dekorra, near the village of Poynette. Although this was the first tract regularly entered at the land office, yet a patent had been granted as early as the 12th of April, 1832, by the President of the United States, for 648.82 acres, to Augustin Grignon (the " A. Grignon Claim "), the tract lying at the "portage" of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, wholly within what is now the city of Portage, in Columbia County. This was what was known as a "French claim," and had been confirmed previously by United States Commissioners to Augustin Grignon, as will be more fully explained hereafter.
By an Act of Congress of June 15, 1836, the Milwaukee Land District was erected out of the southern portion of the Green Bay District, including all the land lying between Range 8 east and Lake Michigan, bounded on the south by the Illinois State line and extending north so as to reach to and include the tier of townships numbered 10 north; also Townships 11 and 12 north, of Ranges 21 and 22 east. Of course in this new district fell all of the town- ships numbered 10 north, in Ranges, 9, 10, 11 and 12 east, in Columbia County, being the territory now constituting the towns of Arlington, Leeds, Hampden and Columbus, including the city of Columbus. The land office for the new district was located at Milwaukee, where the first public sale of lands, which had been surveyed after the other lands had been offered at Green Bay and Mineral Point, was held. This was in the spring of 1839, but as all the lands in the tier of townships last mentioned had been offered at public sale in Green Bay and Mineral Point, in 1835, of course they were not again put up for sale; but parties now desiring to enter lands in those townships had to go to Milwaukee to purchase of the Government instead of Green Bay and Mineral Point as formerly.
It was provided in the act of Congress creating the Green Bay and Wisconsin Land Districts, that they should embrace the country north of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers where the Indian title to the same had become extinguished. On the 1st day of November, 1837, the Winnebago Indians ceded to the General Government all their lands east of the Mississippi River. By this treaty, the United States came into possession of lands north of the Wisconsin, of which that portion lying in the great bend of that river (now Caledonia, Columbia Co.), was a part; so this territory (with mnuch other) was ordered surveyed, which survey, as before stated, was finished in 1845. The two land districts-the Green Bay and Wisconsin-were then extended north, so that all of what is now the town of Caledonia, lying in Range 9 east, and so much of the city of Portage, south of the Wisconsin, as lies in that range, fell into the Green Bay Land District, while all that is now in that town lying in Range 8 cast, and so much of the city of Portage south of the Wisconsin, as lies in this range, fell into the Wisconsin Land District.
The Menomonee Indians, on the 18th day of October, 1848, ceded all their lands in Wis- consin to the United States, but the latter did not come into possession of them until the spring of 1851. That part lying in Columbia County-which included all the territory of the present town of Fort Winnebago, lying west of the Fox River, also all of the city of Portage lying north and west of what was formerly known as the "A. Grignon Claim," together with all of what are now the towns of Lewiston and Westport-was surveyed immediately after, and the two land districts-the Green Bay and Wisconsin-again extended north, so that that all in Range 9 east, fell into the Green Bay District, and all in Ranges 6, 7 and 8 cast, into the Wisconsin District. The whole county thus came to be included in the Milwaukee, Green Bay and Wisconsin Land Districts, with land offices, as before stated, at Milwaukee, Green Bay and Mineral Point, where lands subject to entry could be had at $1.25 an acre.
366
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
EARLY GOVERNMENT OF COLUMBIA COUNTY TERRITORY.
The first civilized claimants to the territory now included within the boundaries of Wis- consin were the French. The whole of the Northwest was claimed by France from 1671 to 1763, when it was surrendered to the British. By the " Quebec Act" of 1774, all of this region was placed under the local administration of Canada. It was, however, practically put under a despotic military rule, and so continued until possession passed to the United States. Before the last-mentioned event, and during and after the Revolution, the conflicting claims of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, to portions of the country, were relin- quished to the General Government. All these claims were based upon supposed chartered rights, Virginia adding to hers the right of conquest, as she contended, of the " Illinois country," dur- ing the Revolution. As early as October, 1778, Virginia declared, by an act of her General Assembly, that all the citizens of that commonwealth who were then settled or should there- after settle, on the western side of the Ohio, should be included in a distinct county, which should be called Illinois. No Virginians were then settled as far north as the southern boun - dary line of what is now Wisconsin, and, as none thereafter located so far north before Virginia relinquished to the United States all her rights to territory on the western and northern side of the Ohio, it follows that no part of the territory which afterward became Wisconsin was ever included in Illinois County as a part of Virginia ; nor did the last-mentioned State ever exer- cise any jurisdiction over the territory of this State, or make claim to any part of it by right of conquest. Wisconsin was never a part of Virginia.
Notwithstanding the passage of the ordinance of 1787, establishing a government over the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which territory was acquired by the treaty of 1783 from Great Britain, possession only was obtained by the United States of the southern portion, the northern part being held by the British Government until 1796. Arthur St. Clair, in Febru- ary, 1790, exercising the functions of Governor, and having previously organized a government for the country under the ordinance above mentioned, established in what is now the State of Illinois, a county which was named St. Clair. But, as this county only extended north " to the mouth of the Little Mackinaw Creek, on the Illinois," it did not include, of course, any part of the present State of Wisconsin, although being the nearest approach thereto of any organized county up that date.
In 1796, Wayne County was organized, which was made to include, beside much other ter- ritory, all of what is now Wisconsin watered by streams flowing into Lake Michigan. This brought so much of the territory of the present Columbia County into the county of Wayne as is watered by the Fox River ; that is to say, the whole of what are now the towns of Scott, Marcellon and Winnebago, and a large part of the present town of Lewiston. From 1800 to 1809, what are now the limits of Columbia County were within the Territory of Indiana and in the year last mentioned passed into the Territory of Illinois. It is probable that Indiana Territory exercised jurisdiction over what is now Wisconsin, at least to the extent of appointing two Justices of the Peace, one for Green Bay and one for Prairie du Chien. In the year 1809, the Illinois Territorial Government commissioned three Justices of the Peace and two militia officers at Prairie du Chien, the county of St. Clair having previously been extended so as to include that point, and probably Green Bay, thereby bringing into its jurisdiction what is now Columbia County. In the course of time, other Illinois counties had jurisdiction, until, in 1818, what is now Wisconsin became a portion of Michigan Territory.
By a proclamation of Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, of October 26, 1818, Brown and Crawford Counties were organized. The county of Brown originally comprised all of what is now Wisconsin cast of a line passing north and south through the middle of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, except a small portion of the Door County peninsula, which was included in the county of Michilimackinac. The limits of the county extended north into the territory of the present State of Michigan so far that its north line ran due west from the head of Noquet Bay. An cast and west line, passing near the northern
367
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
limits of the present county of Barron, separated the county of Crawford from the county of Michilimackinac on the north ; on the east, it was bounded by the county of Brown; on the south, by the State of Illinois, and on the west, by the Mississippi River. The present county of Columbia was thus included in both the counties of Brown and Crawford. By an act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, approved October 29, 1829, to take effect the 1st of January following, the county of Iowa was established, embracing all the present State of Wisconsin south of the Wisconsin River and west of Brown County ; in other words, it included the whole of what was previously Crawford County lying south of the Wisconsin River. What is now Columbia County was thereby included in portions of Brown, Crawford and Iowa Counties. On the 6th of September, 1834, the county of Milwaukee was set off from Brown County, embracing all of the last mentioned county south of a line drawn between Townships 11 and 12, in all the ranges east of Range 9. Columbia, as at present constituted, embraces portions of what was then Brown, Crawford and Milwaukee Counties.
In general terms, all that portion of Columbia now lying west and north of the Wisconsin River was then a part of Crawford County ; that part lying south of that stream was a part of Iowa County, and all the residue was a part of Brown County, except the territory now consti- tuting the towns of Lowville, Leeds, Hampden, Otsego, Fountain Prairie and Columbus, which then was a part of Milwaukee County.
By an act of the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin, approved December 7, 1836, Town- ship numbered 10 north, in Range 6 east (now wholly included in Sauk County); Township 10, in Range 7 (now a portion of the town of Merrimack, in Sauk, and of West Point, in Columbia) ; Townships 10 and 11, in Range 8 (now portions of the towns of Caledonia, Dekorra and West Point and the whole of Lodi, in Columbia); Townships 10, 11, 12 and 13, in Ranges 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 east (now including the towns of Fort Winnebago, Pacific, Arlington, Leeds, Lowville, Wyocena, Marcellon, Scott, Springvale, Otsego, Hampden, Columbus, Fountain Prairie, Courtland and Randolph ; a large portion of Dekorra and a small part of Caledonia, as well as most of the city of Portage, in Columbia County, and the towns of Fox Lake, Westford, Cala- mus and Elba, in Dodge County), were constituted a separate county and named Portage, the county seat being "established at the town of Winnebago." It will be seen, therefore, that very nearly the present territory of the county of Columbia was, in 1836, established as Portage County. It was, at the same time, attached to Brown County for judicial purposes.
During the legislative session of 1837-38, the four townships on the east-that is, those numbered 10, 11, 12 and 13, in Range 13, were detached from Portage and made a part of Dodge County. This change left the county, except most of that lying north of the Wisconsin River, identical with the present county of Columbia. Sauk County having been formed in January, 1840, taking a township and a fraction from Portage County, left the latter with terri- tory equivalent to about eighteen townships until February 18, 1841, when a large addition was made upon the north, comprising all of the area in ranges from Nos. 2 to 9, inclusive, com- mencing with Township 14 north, and extending to the northern boundary of the Territory of Wisconsin, with the slight exception of fractional Townships 14 and 15, in Range 9. The whole was then attached to Dane County for judicial purposes.
An election for the purpose of organizing for county government was authorized to be held on the fourth Monday of March, 1841. Returns of this election were to be made to the Clerk of Dane County, and the county officers elected were to hold their offices at "Wisconsin Port- tage." The voting-places of the several election precincts were established at the Franklin House, in Portage; Stevens' Mills, at Big Bull Falls ; at the house of E. Bloomer, at Grand Rapids ; at the house of Abraham Brawley, on Mill Creek, and at Dickason & Stroud's mills, on Crawfish River. The people having neglected to hold this election, the Legislature passed a special " Relief Act," on the 9th of February, 1842, authorizing the Sheriff of Dane County to call an election of county officers in Portage County on the fourth Monday in March, 1842, to hold office until the first Monday in January, 1843. By an act of the Legislature approved May 31, 1844, Portage was authorized to organize with all county privileges, and was assigned
368
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
as a portion of the Second Judicial District. On the 18th day of April of the same year, the people voted to accept the provisions of this act, and also voted on the location of a county seat. The north end of the county triumphed, and Plover became the county seat, instead of the other contestant, Fort Winnebago, at the Wisconsin portage. The first election of county officers occurred on the fourth Monday of September, 1844. There were then elected, as County Commissioners, Mathias Mitchell, Benjamin F. Berry and Luther Houghton ; Nelson Strong was elected Sheriff; John Batten, Treasurer; George Wyatt, Circuit Clerk, County Clerk and Register of Deeds. The first term of the Circuit Court was held at Plover on the first Monday of April, 1845. It was thus that, finally, the county of Portage was fully organ- ized ; but, as all of what afterward became Columbia was included within its limits, it was, at the same time, virtually an organization of the last-mentioned county-that is to say, all the people living within the limits of what afterward became Columbia County were enjoying the blessings of a county government, but it was Portage County in which they lived.
" A very few af the pioneers in this vicinity," says a resident of what is now the city of Columbus, " came together in an informal manner in 1844, and east their ballots at the election which sent James Duane Doty as a delegate to Washington from the Territory of Wisconsin ; but the first election in this part of the territory which at all approached a regular canvass was in September, 1845.
" Columbia County was not organized, and there was not an organized township within its present area. It was a portion of Portage County, with its county seat at Plover Portage, 145 miles away. With unimportant exceptions, the area west of the Mississippi River and north to Lake Superior was a vast wild, into whose forest and over whose prairies the dawn of civili- zation had not begun to break.
" The only subdivisions of the present county was then in three election precincts, known as Dekorra, the Fort Winnebago and the Columbus Precincts. The latter comprised the pres- ent townships of Randolph, Courtland, Fountain Prairie, Columbus, Hampden. Otsego, Spring- vale and Scott, and including an arca twenty-four miles long and twelve wide. The only offi- cers of any kind within a precinct were the Judges of Election, Justice of the Peace and Over- seer of Highways-the system of County Commissioners then prevailing.
" The election at this time was for members of Assembly to the Territorial Legislature, composed of a Council and House of Representatives, and including that year only thirteen members in the former body and thirteen in the latter. The Assembly district then included the counties of Brown, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Marquette, Portage, Sheboygan and Winnebago, and the area then reached to the Mississippi and Superior, and embraced almost all the civilization in Wisconsin to the west, northwest and northeast of us. Tim Burns had not discovered La Crosse, and little attempt had been made at settlement beyond the lumber dis- trict of the Wisconsin River.
" The district was represented by three members, all of whom seem to have been voted for by every elector. The only contest in this locality seems to have been between Stodard Judd, the Whig candidate, then a resident of Green Bay, and Abram Brawley, Democrat, then living at Grand Rapids, in Portage County. Judd had just been removed by President Tyler from the position of Receiver of the Land Office at Green Bay. Thus, one of the candidates lived on the head-waters of the Wisconsin, and the other on the head-waters of the St. Lawrence. A trackless wilderness lay between them, and they were practically at least 200 miles apart, as the only communication between Green Bay and Grand Rapids was by the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers.
" In this precinct, the Judges of that election were Jeremiah Drake, of Columbus ; Asa Proctor, father of W. A. Proctor, and James C. Carr, the two latter from the prairie, after- ward crected into the township of Fountain Prairie. The Clerks of Election were W. W. Drake and John Quincy Adams.
" The chief local issues at that time were whether the present area of Columbia should be erected into a county or not, the people in this vicinity being in favor of this change,
369
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
and the residents of other localities opposing any subdivisions. Judd promised our people to use his influence to secure the new county, and received nearly all the votes in this pre- cinct and in the Dekorra and Fort Winnebago Precincts. But, as the record shows, Brawley was elected. About fifty votes were polled in this precinct, and about one hundred and twenty- five in the area of this county. The year previous, Maj. Dickason had made a claim of Wyo- cena, and was then living there. The pretty name of Wyocena was then unadopted, and that region was then called Duck Creek, from the stream on which the Major's cabin stood. Under the law, a man could vote in any part of a district for which the officer voted for was elected, and the Major came down to Columbus and cast his ballot here. Judd had been canvassing his district, and had come down from Green Bay to Fox Lake, through to Portage and so up the Wisconsin to Grand Rapids, to the home of his competitor. He reached Maj. Dickason's cabin, on his return, on the day previous to the election, and came to Columbus with the Major, and was here during the election.
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