The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 76

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Wisconsin > Columbia County > The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement > Part 76

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" At one time, Doherty came to the fort, and tried to get the chiefs to sign an agreement to give his wife and children each a section of land, when they made a treaty, and Panquette laughed at it, as he knew the Government had decided not to give any more lands to the half- breeds, but would give money instead ; but Doherty would not believe it. In this way, probably, the feeling against Pauquette was kept up. Man-ze-mon-e-ka said Pauquette did not give them their share of goods and provisions, and would not trust them as he did other Indians.

" I have dwelt upon this the longer as many stories were raised in regard to the cause of the Indians being incited to the deed. One was, that Pauquette had whipped him once or twice, which was the cause; but there was no evidence of it, and no one who knew all the facts believed it for a moment.

" Some years after, Capt. Thompson was out with a party of soldiers gathering up the Indians to remove them west of the Mississippi, and came across a young Indian whom he induced to guide him to Man-ze-mon-e-ka's camp, and he surrounded his wigwam before the Indian knew it. The Captain said he found him on an island in Winnebago swamp-since Lake Horicon-and never could have discovered his retreat but for his guide. Man-ze-mon-e-ka was taken to Prairie du Chien, from which he soon disappeared, and no one knew what became of him. Capt. Thompson said that Man-ze-mon-e-ka, after taking him, said that he was never happy after killing Pauquette, as he dare not venture himself among his nation, and had to secrete himself. He probably lived the rest of his life away from his people.

" Pauquette had purchased a number of sections of land from half-breeds, besides three sections which were given him by the Indians under their treaties, so that, at his death, he had twelve or sixteen sections of land, a large number of cattle and horses, together with a fine store of Indian goods and other personal property.

" The agent of the fur company took possession of the goods, and sold them for the benefit of the company, giving, as he said, Pauquette credit for them.

"In 1838, the company received the $22,000 which the Indians owed Pauquette at his death. The lands were disposed of by the administrator, and all this property disappeared without the heirs receiving a cent of it, and some outside debts were. never paid. Had he lived. I have no doubt he would have been very wealthy. He had put up a log building for a Catholic church, which was not finished, and his remains were deposited under it. The build- ing was afterward burned down. The lot belonged to Benjamin L. Webb, of Detroit, who reserved it from sale, for he (the owner) esteemed Pauquette so highly that he intended erecting a monument to his memory. Webb was the proprietor of Portage, platted as Fort Winnebago, originally a French grant of 640 acres, granted to a Frenchman named Lecuyer. I being Webb's agent, the Catholic priest applied to me for the lot, but I could not let him have it. He then got the consent of the family, which Mr. Webb required, and the lot was deeded to the church, stipulating that they should take care of the grave. Another church was built near the spot, which was afterward turned into a Catholic schoolhouse.

" At one time, Pauquette proposed, when the old men of the Winnebago Nation were in, that he would get them together and inform me, so as to have them give their history, and I

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take it down; but, to my regret, the opportunity never occurred, as he was too soon cut off. He told me the nation was divided into two sects-one believing the Great Spirit was a large animal, describing the mammoth, and they took their tribal names from animals, such as the bear, the elk, the wolf, beaver, fox, etc., etc., and carved the likeness of some animal upon their war-clubs, guns, and other things; the other believed him to be a great bird, and took their names from thunder and birds, such as the eagle, the hawk, the crow, etc., etc., and always marked upon their articles the likeness of some bird.

"There was an old Indian and his squaw, who lived in their wigwam close by Pauquette's house-whether any relation or not I never knew ; but Pauquette was very kind to them, and supplied them with provisions. We at the fort called him Pony Blau or Blaw. One day, he and wife had been over to some whisky shanty, and came across the portage singing, hand in hand; and when they got near the bridge leading to the fort, one says to the other, 'Let's go and see the Great Spirit'-believing him to be in a cave under Fox River. 'Agreed,' said the other ; so they walked off into the river. Pauquette happened along just then and pulled them out, else they would have drowned.

" I was told that, in the Sauk war, there was a company of rangers, I believe from Illinois, who encamped on the bank of the Wisconsin, and Pauquette was walking around, looking at them, when a large man kicked a little dog following Pauquette. The latter said to the soldier, ' Don't kick that dog, he is mine.' The man replied, 'I'll kick you if you say much. Who are you ?' ' My name is Pauquette,' was the response. 'Ah,' said the ranger, 'you are the very fellow I want to see. I have heard of you, and came up here on purpose to lick you.' Thereupon he pitched at Pauquette, who struck the man but once, peeling the skin from his cheek and knocking him down. Then he caught the man by the throat, raising him to his feet, and, shaking him like an aspen leaf, asked him if he called himself a man. ‘I was a man where I came from,' was the reply, 'but I see I ain't here.' Thus it ended. The soldier con- cluded he would not whip Pauquette."

ELBERT DICKASON.

When Milwaukee was but a straggling village, with most of her populous and busy streets and splendid architecture scarcely disturbed by the pale-face, and when East Water street, the great thoroughfare of Wisconsin, was yet a swamp, with the wild rice on its surface instead of Nicholson pavement, a certain New York capitalist named Nelson, we are told, sent the elder James Luddington to the Territory of Wisconsin, then the Far West, to secure land at low rates. He came to Milwaukee, and, as it is stated, meeting with Maj. Dickason, induced him to come to what is now Columbus, and assisted him with means to secure a large amount of land. Maj. Dickason may be regarded as the founder of Columbus.

He was a Virginian by birth, and removed to Ohio and subsequently to Illinois. When he came to this county, he was somewhat advanced in middle life, and is described as a tall spare man with light hair, which he always wore long upon his shoulder. He is represented as a very brave man and extremely generous. He served during the whole of the memorable Black Hawk war, and it was from that fact that he gained his designation as Major, and most of his knowl- edge of this Western country.

He erected the first habitation ever built by a white man in Columbus. It was a log cabin and stood upon the Crawfish, just beyond the site of the present depot. The Major brought with him, as previously reported, sixty or seventy head of cattle, upward of twenty horses and four or five wagons, and took possession of a considerable amount of land, which he had purchased of Luddington and another on time. The Major seemed to have a Daniel Boone idea of retain- ing sufficient hunting ground for himself. He believed that the wooded ground between Mud Lake and Lost Lake would never be settled, and that prairie lands alone would be ample for all the demands of agriculture. But it is also reported that, shortly after he he arrived here, he staked out twelve lots near his cabin for village purposes and called them Columbus, the embryo of a beautiful and prosperous village. The first ground broken by the

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

plow extended beyond the hill upon which are now situated the residences of James T. Lewis and William L. Lewis and that of A. G. Cook. Here the Major stacked his first harvest of wheat, and here the stealthy savage applied the torch to his stacks and burned them. He also erected on the spot now occupied by the grist-mill in Columbus a saw-mill, and built near it a blacksmith-shop.

The Major was of a hospitable and free-hearted nature. Even in the months succeeding the period we have mentioned, when blazed trees were the only milestones and guides to the adventurer on this frontier, the wave of civilization was flowing rapidly westward into the inte- rior of this Territory, and not a few men exploring these wilds in search of future homes, and whoever stopped with the Major departed without charge. He was not by nature intended for a farmer, and was not successful. Unable to meet his liabilities, he gave up his claim of 1,300 acres, now partially occupied by the city of Columbus, to Luddington, receiving a small sum for what he had done. With a team or two, he removed to Wyocena, where he remained until his death.

His cabin remained standing in Columbus for some time, and was afterward occupied by some of " the first families." A story is told about a hurricane which passed over the village and partially unroofed this cabin ; the cellar underneath it was merely a hole in the ground, but the family, terrified by the blackness of the air and the fury of the tornado, sought refuge in it and closed the door in the floor after them ; the deluge pourel through the rent roof in torrents and passed into the cellar, until the inmates, to prevent being submerged, were compelled, before the storm was fairly abated, to seek refuge at their next neighbor's.

" After considerable consideration, Lewis Luddington and myself," says Mr. Hustis, "were induced to purchase for Maj. Dickason about seventeen hundred acres of land on and about the site of Columbus, in the month of February, 1839, each of us taking about one-half of that amount of land in our mutual arrangements about the several tracts. Mr. Luddington took the water power, and I, the cultivated land. It so happened at the sale of the Milwaukee land dis- trict, I became the first purchaser of land sold, by bidding-in part of Section 12, near Columbus, * and closed the sale by purchasing a tract on Section 28, near Racine. These tracts, near and including Columbus, were at once contracted to Dickason on a four-years credit, and Mr. Luddington aided him in building a saw-mill, and afterward in constructing for him a grist-mill. Dickason was in occupancy of the property for a period extending over the four years without paying either of us a cent of principal or interest, or any of the taxes levied thereon. We found that we had considerable of an elephant on our hands. Finally, Luddington gave Dickason some $600 in cash and the income of the mill for one year, it having been leased to Col. Drake. With these means, Dickason made a purchase of what was afterward Wyocena."

"Not a few of our old residents," says a Columbus writer, " remember Maj. Dickason, and are familiar with many incidents concerning him. He was the pioneer of Columbus, and among the very first white men who wandered over these prairies and through these groves. The little log cabin he built upon the banks of the Crawfish River, where the railroad depot now stands, in the dawn of settlement here, remained until a few years ago. The old borderer is buried at Wyocena. His grave is in a weedy, straggling cemetery encircled by Duck Creek, which here widens into quite a river, and shores as blue and gold of a cold, clear morning as some more pre- tentious waters, but the surroundings are desolate even in the brightest morning. Sandy slopes dotted with brown brush, wide-spreading marshes to the eastward, and a low line of dark woods, form the outline. Wyocena is within full view. The old Major's grave has a respectable slab, bearing the inscription : 'Maj. Elbert Dickason, died August 9, 1848, aged 48 years 9 months and 9 days.'"

LA FAYETTE HILL.

La Fayette Hill was the son of John and Cynthia Hill, and was born in Burlington, Vt., August 28, 1812. He received a common-school education, such as was afforded by the times

* The entry here spoken of was made on the 18th of February, and on the same day Lewis Luddington also entered a portion of Section 12. Mr. Luddington entered, at the same time, the half of Sections 13 and 24 .- ED.

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in which he lived. Just before completing his majority, he removed to Rochester, N. Y. Here he made the acquaintance of Elizabeth French, daughter of Amos H. French, and was united with her in marriage February 18, 1835. In the fall of that year, the young couple removed to Chicago, Ill., but the outlook not being sufficiently encouraging, in the fall of 1836, he moved to Milwaukee, Wis., where he remained until August, 1837, and on the 21st day of that month he landed in Columbia County, and in the newly platted village of "Kentucky City," now Dekorra, he erected a publie house, which he kept for eleven years. "Kentucky City," at this time, aspired to be the State capital, and its founders, Thompson, Trimble & Morton, were making every effort to that end. In the fall of 1846, without solicitation on his part, he received the nomination for member of the Constitutional Convention, and was elected without opposition. He was elected several times member of the Town Board of Supervisors, Justice of the Peace, and member of the County Board of Supervisors. He was also, at different times, solicited to use his name for the office of Sheriff, but, having no special love for political life, and his private business being such as to require his personal supervision, he invariably declined. In 1848, Mr. Hill purchased the northeast quarter of Section 9, in the town of Dekorra, and here laid out the village of Oshaukuta. He also erected here the first hotel in the village, and " Hill's Tavern" was soon known far and wide. This attempt to found here a village was unsuccessful. La Fayette Hill was a man universally esteemed. His kindness of heart was proverbial. In the family circle, not a harsh word was ever spoken by him ; he was kind in the extreme. It mattered not under what circumstances a favor was asked by a mem- ber of the family, he was ever ready and willing to accede to it if in his power. On the 7th day of July, 1853, he was called to his rest, after a lingering illness of six months, leaving his loved companion to mourn his loss.

JOHN A. BROWN

was born in Canandaigua, N. Y., on the 10th of November, 1812, and was emphatically a self- made man. He enjoyed only the ordinary advantages of a common-school education, in what was then a backwoods country. He graduated where so many of the ablest, most successful and distinguished men of our country have graduated-in the printing office. His trade was learned in that good old school of good practical printers-Batavia-working in David Miller's office while Miller was publishing Morgan's famous book on Freemasonry, and 'when the office and all hands were threatened with violence from an excited community. In the intervals of an industrious application as an apprentice to an old established printer, he made himself acquainted with the classic literature of our own tongue, and paid some attention to Latin and mathematics. In those studious nights of boyhood, he stored his mind with choice selections of English poetry and prose, which his retentive memory enjoyed to the last. At the age of nineteen, he assumed the editorship of the Hartford (Conn.) Intelligencer. Here he was brought into contact with some of the leading minds of American literature at that time, and formed friendships which lasted through life. Some time was thus spent in a round of genial duties, when, in 1833, the love of adventure drove him to sea. For some two or three years at least, he was well acquainted with the changing moods of the great deep in all latitudes and longtitudes, and once was among the very few saved from a wreck of the ship of which he was second officer, on the coast of South America.

He returned to his own country shortly after this occurrence, and taking to his old employ- ment, removed to then Territory of Michigan, in 1837, joining his brother Beriah at Tecumseh, where they published the Democrat, until, in February. 1838, he joined C. C. Britt, at Niles. Here he remained as a partner in the publication of the Niles Intelligencer until 1841, when he removed to Galena, Ill., where he published a paper several months. This enterprise was unsuc- cessful, and he went to Rockford, where he published the Rockford Pilot until the fall of 1842, when he removed to Chicago and took charge of the Daily Democrat of that city-its proprietor having been nominated for Congress. In 1843, he came to Wisconsin, taking up his residence in Milwaukee, and publishing until 1847 the Milwaukee Courier, afterward the Daily Wisconsin.

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He then went to Washington County, and there established a Democratic paper at Port Washington, which he subsequently published at Grafton. Thence he removed to Janesville, where he published the Badger State, which he published until his removal to Madison, where he was engaged with his brother on the Madison Democrat, afterward the Daily Argus and Democrat. In 1853, he came to Portage, a point which he had kept a long time in view, and where he had determined to make a permanent home. He began his work there with the ardor and energy of youth, purchasing the River Times newspaper, the name of which he changed to that which had become a favorite, and which he had come to regard as his own-the Badger State. Continuing its publication in connection with Mr. Britt, his political friends forced upon him, in 1856, the office of Postmaster, to which he was again appointed just previous to his death by President Buchanan, and confirmed by the Senate of the United States. He died in Madison February 10, 1859, and was buried in Portage on the 12th, after appropriate and impressive funeral services. Thus, at the age of forty-six, closed the carcer of a brave, true man, of refined and generous sentiments-the exemplary citizen, the chivalrous champion of the innocent and oppressed, who rebuked vice, detested meanness, and, liating with a cordial hatred all falsehood, all dishonesty, and all trickery, worked faithfully to fulfill the law of truth and love.

JEREMIAH DRAKE

was born in Ulster County, N. Y., and at an early age removed to Herkimer County in the same State. When quite young, he was thrown upon his own resources, and supported himself by the fruits of his own labor. Thus early was laid the foundation of that self-reliance and that independence of spirit which distinguished his whole life, and thus was developed a strong and vigorous constitution, and a mind fitted in a remarkable degree for the transaction of business. Western New York at that time was a wilderness. The busy tongue of enterprise had as yet uttered no prophecy of its future development. Mr. Drake was among the early pioneers who explored that portion of the State. He was among those who projected and urged to completion the Erie Canal. He saw the first section completed, and was present when the first trip was made. As the work progressed, he superintended large contracts, and saw this great line of communication stretching from Albany to Buffalo, thus connecting the East with the then unknown West. He was largely acquainted with the leading men of those times, and took a deep interest in the political questions of the day. His piety was a principle rooted in the heart, and yielding the fruits of righteousness. His sympathy was always with progress, laboring to advance those measures that should result in general good. Statesmen of a past generation were his neighbors. De Witt Clinton was his friend, and he remembered Gov. Seward as a mere stripling. He was for a time largely engaged in public works in the State of New Jersey, and during the war of 1812 he was in the lumber trade in Canada. He came to what is now the city of Columbus in 1842, when there were but few improvements, and thus he took rank among the early pioneers of the West. He repaired and enlarged the grist-mill, and built the first frame house in Columbus. After residing there five years, he removed on a farm three miles south, where he remained until the gradual decay of nature rendered it neces- sary for him to relinquish his business and seek that rest which he had so richly earned by a long life of labor. But the rest was short. Old age has but few comforts at best. Mr. Drake was a man to whom honor was more than a name. He was a man positive in his principles, of remarkable energy and perseverance, strong in his political views, firm in his Christian faith, reliable in his business as a man tried and true. He died early in December, 1868, aged eighty-four.

JOSEPH M. DOTY.

Mr. Doty was born in Lewis County, N. Y., and entered Union College at the age of six- teen. After graduating, he read law in the office of Davis & Pierson, of Troy, N. Y., and, on completing the course, took up his residence in Ogdensburg, N. Y. Taking an active part in the current politics of the day, and enjoying the friendship of that eminent statesman, the

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lamented Silas Wright, as well as of Preston King, he at once took a high position in the party whose cause he had espoused, and was appointed, by President Polk, Postmaster at Ogdens- burg, which position he held for four years. His natural tastes, however, led him into the editorial chair, and for five years he was editor of the Buffalo Courier, the leading Democratic paper in Western New York. Removing to the West, he was editorially engaged in Milwaukee for awhile, and afterward was associated with H. D. Barron, in the editorial conduct of a Democratic paper at Waukesha. Removing to Portage, where his parents resided, he became editorially connected with the Budger State, in conjunction with John A. Brown, and on his retirement from the sheet he became the sole editor. He went to Florida in the spring of 1861, for the benefit of his health, and was there when the war broke out. After the war was over. he edited a paper for awhile, but latterly was engaged in fruit-growing. A residence of several years in Portage-during which time he took a leading and conspicuous part in all public mat- ters-as editor of the Badger State, gained for him many friends who will, through life, ever cherish the virtues which distinguished him.

Few men possessed more of those peculiar abilities which distinguish the good editor than Mr. Doty. Possessed of fine scholarly attainments and culture, with a fondness for all public matters, more especially politics, and with a large fund of rare good nature and humor, the posi- tion of editor was one exactly adapted to his tastes and liabits, and he lent to the columns of his paper unusual interest. Always liberal in sentiment, generous and courteous, he never suffered his columns to be defiled by coarse, vulgar abuse of political adversaries, and never allowed political differences to disturb personal friendships. He died in Jacksonville, Fla., June 19, 1868. aged forty-five years.

BARON STEUBEN DOTY

was born at Salem, Washington Co., N. Y., in 1795, but removed to Lewis County with his father when a child. He was educated under Dr. Alexander, at Fairfield, and subsequently studied law at Cherry Valley with Mr. Hammond, an eminent jurist of his day, and completed his seven years' course with Judge Williams, at Utica. He went into practice with Ela Collins, District Attorney of Lewis County, in 1818. Mr. Doty was a brother of James Duane Doty, one of the Territorial Governors of the State. About 1818, he married. Subsequently, he removed to Ogdensburg, and was there associated in business with Bishop Perkins. In 1826-27, he served St. Lawrence County in the Legislature of New York. Jabez D. Ham- mond, the eminent political historian, makes special mention of Mr. Doty, speaking of him as one of the most prominent of the Democratic members, and with others named respectable for talents and intelligence. He was the political associate of the lamented Silas Wright and Preston King, and was appointed Collector of the port at Ogdensburg by Gen. Jackson, which position he held through the administration. Removing to Buffalo, he remained there for a few years. He came to Wisconsin about the year 1851, first settling at Green Bay. He removed to Portage about 1855. Here he practiced law. For several years, he was the Treas- urer of Portage. Judge Doty, as he was accustomed to be called, was truly a gentleman of the old school. Ilis manner and habits of life were formed at a time of which few of the present generation have any knowledge. He had a proud, dignified spirit, a courtly bearing, and in his intercourse with men was a true gentleman. He attracted friends to him and won their attachment by his magnetic influences and forever held them by his faithfulness to them under all circumstances. Ile died in Portage on the 28th day of October, 1872.

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The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 76

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899, [from old catalog] ed; Western historical company, chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1104