The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 90

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 90

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

A writer in November, 1850, says: "The canal connecting the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers at this point is very nearly completed. The work of excavation is finished, and but a small portion remains to be planked. The locks at each end are nearly finished-all, we believe, except the hanging of the gates. In addition to this improvement a levee or embankment is being erected by Messrs. Webb & Bronson (the enterprising proprietors of that part of the land on which the city is located, sold by the General Government), extending from the high land, or bluff, on the south side of the canal to the bluff on the other side of the portage. This embank- ment, when completed, will entirely prevent the overflow of the portage. It is now far advanced, and will cost about $16,000. Messrs. Webb & Bronson have also completed a turnpike road across the portage, from Carpenter's Hotel, on the Wisconsin River, to old Fort Winnebago, on Fox River, at a cost of $1,700.

" Heretofore, there has been but little said on the subject of the progress of our city, for the reason that while its progress has been rapid beyond parallel, it has been steady and unmarked by any particular distinguished incident. Good buildings have been erected and others are still going up. The number built within the past year is over two hundred. Among them are stores of all descriptions, mechanics' shops, taverns, offices, etc. The population of the city, as shown by the Marshal's returns, is 1,176, and is steadily increasing. This rapid improvement, startling and wonderful as it is, has been made in the face of the most serious drawbacks. Previous to the ercction of the levee on the shore of the Wisconsin, eligible sites for building could only be found on the lands lately purchased from the Menomonee Indians, to which no higher title than that of a claim could be obtained. The ultimate value of such a title is subject to many contingencies, and present values and the safety of erecting buildings are determined entirely by the moral sense of the present inhabitants. So far, the confidence of those who placed a high estimate upon that moral sense has not been abused.

" The noise of hammers and saws is to be heard on every hand. The present progress of improvement is accelerated beyond that of any former time, and, during the rise of our city, the settlement in the surrounding country has more than kept pace with it. Building materials,

599

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

water-powers of any capacity desired, and a rich, rapidly settling country are with us and around us. No obstacle, save that of the title to the land, stands in the track of our advancement."

" The tourist finds at this place," says a writer at Fort Winnebago, in October, 1851, "objects of deep interest. Here is the line that divides the northern and southern waters. Let us ascend the beautiful elevation that lies between the two rivers, for observations. On facing the east, we see the wide tracts once possessed by the Winnebagocs. On the right hand rolls in silent majesty the Wisconsin River, which, emptying into the Mississippi, at length reaches the Gulf of Mexico. On the river is the flourishing village of Fort Winnebago, or, as it is called, Portage City. Here, but a few years since, we wandered through a grove, where naught but the grave of the murdered Pauquette arrested the attention. Now, how changed the prospect ! The place is sprinkled over with pretty white cottages and substantial stores of various kinds. A small, neat church stands in bold relief upon the brow of the table land ; and this being the shire village of Columbia County, the spot where the court house is to be erected is very attract- ive. Standing on the high ground, it is to be a splendid building, facing a square. The courts are now held in the old garrison. On the south rise the Baraboo hills, and on the left hand the fertile lands, lately ceded to the United States by the Menomonees, stretch out in boundless extent."

PORTAGE IN 1860.

"I noticed," says a writer in 1860, "some very extensive stores in which the quality of goods and amount of display were not a whit behind Milwaukee. In W. W. Forbe's magnifi- cent establishment in Pettibone's Block, there are no less than a dozen clerks busily engaged in their various departments. C. J. Pettibone's ' headquarters,' as he calls it, is in full operation. Pettibone opened his store in Portage eight or nine years ago, when it was a small village of only one tavern, one grocery, and a blacksmith-shop, where the lumbermen and farmers got cheated so badly that they christened it Gougeville. Indeed, that was the regular name for a long while of the now important and pretentious Portage. Pettibone's store has been carried on upon an honest principle, and has been largely influential, by square dealing, in removing from the incipi- ent city its odious name. I also observed some fine stores on Cook street, and in the Vander- cook Block, which appear to be prospering.

" Portage has one thing that is peculiarly enviable, and that is the beautiful cream-colored brick, of which most of her best buildings are made. Those who visit the place cannot fail to admire the splendid appearance of the Bank Block, Pettibone and Vandercook buildings, the Presbyterian Church, etc. These edifices owe their chief beauty to the material of which they are composed. I think that the pressed brick here are equal, if not superior, to the famous Milwaukee article. An extensive stone quarry back of Fort Winnebago furnishes substantial foundations for these beautiful structures, but there seems to be no disposition to use stone above the ground when brick and lumber are so easily obtained. The only stone building that I saw, except the county jail, was Reynolds, Craig & Co.'s Fort Winnebago Mill, at the junction of the canal and Fox River. This is an enormous building, four stories high, and now literally crammed with grain and flour, there being only room enough for six or eight runs of stone to operate in. The mill grinds steadily from Monday morning till Saturday night without cessa- tion. Large quantities of flour and feed are sold and sent off' daily.

" Portage is insufficiently supplied just now with good hotels. Last winter the, Lee House burned down, and, about a month ago, the famous Veeder House was destroyed by the same means. The City Hotel and the McTighe or Ellsworth House are all that are now left to fill the vacancy, and they are crowded to repletion.

" The system of union schools just established here is in great favor. Prof. Magoffin, formerly of Carroll College, and more recently Principal of the Waukesha Union School, is at the head of an able corps of teachers, and is doing much in the cause of education."

600

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

" CLAIM TWENTY-ONE."

The land upon which a large portion of Portage now stands presents historical features of interest. Although the city is still young, title to a very important part of its site dates back many years. The land in question is that covered by what is known as the "Grignon Claim," frequently referred to as "Claim No. 21." The following is a copy of a deed made by the United States Government in 1832 :

UNITED STATES TO AUGUSTIN GRIGNON.

The United States of America to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting : Know ye that there has been depos- ited in the General Land Office a certificate, numbered 266, of the Register of the Land Office at Detroit, in the Territory of Michigan, whereby it appears that, by the second section of the act of Congress approved on the 17th day of April, 1828, entitled " An Act to confirm certain claims to lands in the Territory of Michigan," Augustin Grignon was confirmed, saving the rights of the heirs of John Ecuver [or Lecuyer], deceased, in bis claim in volume num- bered one of the Reports of the Commissioners on Land Claims in the Territory of Michigan, to the tract of land containing six hundred and forty-eight acres and eighty-two hundredths of an acre, situate at the portage of the Quisconsin and Fox Rivers, bounded and described as follows, to wit :

Beginning on the northeast bank of the Quisconsin River, one-fourth of a mile below the landing-place, at a post from which a birch twelve inches in diameter bears north 35 degrees west, distant eleven links, and a birch 14 inches diameter bears south 64 degrees east, distant 75 links ; thence up the river north forty degrees, west twenty chains, to the landing-place (entered prairie at five chains), north 70 degrees, west five chains, north 61 degrees, west 26 chains and 50 links (at three chains foot of island ), south 81 degrees, west eight chains and 50 links to an aspen seven inches in diameter (corner on the bank of the river); thence north 10 degrees and 15 minutes, west thirty chains through prairie to the top of the hill to the corner of the pickets which surround the grave of the late John Ecuyer ( no post, no bearings near) ; thence north 50 degrees east (at 15 chains enter barrens, after passing through old field at 41 chains a pond, at 46 chains left the pond, and at 58 chains a wet prairie), 118 chains to a post on the left bank of Fox River, from which a white oak five inches in diameter bears north 564 degrees west, distant three chains and 46 links ; thence up Fox River south five degrees, west three chains, south 16 degrees, west 9 chains and 50 links to landing-place at Portage, south -17 degrees, east 23 chains and 40 links to a post on the margin of river in a marsh ; thence south 25 degrees and 30 minutes, west 116 chains and 70 links (entering timber land at 100 chains) " to the beginning.

1 There is, therefore, granted by the United States unto the said Augustin Grignon and to his heirs, saving any right or claim which the said heirs of John Ecuyer, deceased, may have in and to the same, the tract of land above described ; to have and to hold the said tract, with the appurtenances, unto the said Augustin Grignon and unto his heirs and assigns forever, saving, as aforesaid, any right, title or claim which the said heirs of John Ecuyer, deceased, may have in and to the hereby granted premises.

In testimony whereof, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand, at the city of Wash- ington, the 26th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the inde- pendence of the United States the fifty-ninth. ANDREW JACKSON.

SEAL

By the President. ELIJAH HAYWOOD, Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Recorded on Friday, the 17th of August, A. D. 1832, at 6 o'clock P. M.

SAMUEL IRWIN, Deputy Register.

Augustin Grignon came into possession of the above described lands by purchase from the heirs of John Lecuyer, who acquired title to it by priority of settlement.

Under an act of Congress entitled " An act to confirm certain land claims in the Territory of Michigan," commissioners were appointed and sent out by the Government of the United States to inquire into the validity of title to "certain claims," and it was in accordance with the report of the commissioners that the Grignon claim became a valid one, recognized by the United States, from whom a patent accordingly issued. The boundaries of this claim have ever since been relied upon and followed by local surveyors, and frequent reference to " Claim No. 21 " are made in the land records of Portage. The land was patented to Grignon in April, 1832, and on the 18th of June, of the same year, an indenture, made "between Augustine Grignon and Nancy Grignon, his wife, of the first part, and Daniel Whitney, all of Green Bay, county of Brown, of the second part, to wit: That the said parties of the first part, for and in consider- ation of the sum of $500 to them in hand paid by the said party of the second part, conveyed the property to Whitney. This conveyance was witnessed by Peter B. and Charles A. Grignon, and acknowledged before L. Grignon, a Justice of the Peace, being recorded June 26, 1832. by Samuel Irwin, Deputy Register of Brown County.

601

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

On the 14th of June, 1836, Sheldon Thompson, of Buffalo, N. Y., and De Gamo Jones, of Detroit, Michigan Territory, became the purchasers and owners of the land, paying therefor $12,500. Messrs. Thompson and Jones were trustees for themselves, Robert McPherson, Daniel Whitney, G. P. Griffith, and others, constituting "the Wisconsin Shot Company." They remained the owners of the Grignon claim until October 17, 1839, when the Portage Canal Company came into possession through purchase. The consideration was $34,234.61. " This indenture " was witnessed by Evan Griffith, B. L. Webb, Asher B. Bates and Samuel Haines Porter, and acknowledged by Sheldon Thompson before N. K. Hall, Commissioner of Deeds for Erie County, N. Y., and by De Gamo Jones before Samuel Haines Porter, a Notary Public in Wayne County, Mich .; received for record May 30, 1840, by Jacob Mckinney, Register of Deeds, Brown County.

Thompson and Jones, it appears, again came into possession of the property, for in Sep- tember, 1842, Claim 21 was sold by them, as trustees for themselves, and others, constituting the Shot Company, to Benjamin L. Webb, and in May, 1844, Alvin Bronson became the pur- chaser of an undivided four-nineteenths of the claim, paying Webb therefor $2,500. In November, 1849, a plat of the town of Fort Winnebago, covering the Grignon claim, was made by Messrs. Webb and Bronson, John Mullett, Surveyor. The boundary lines of this plat may be easily traced upon any of the modern maps of the city of Portage. The northwesterly boundary, designated as " the line of public lands," as distinguishing them from the early Menomonee possessions, begins at a point on the Fox River, opposite old Fort Winnebago, and runs southwesterly to the corner of Adams and Conant streets; thence almost directly sonth across the canal to the Wisconsin River ; thence southeasterly along the bank of the river to a point half a block east of Ontario street ; thence northwesterly on. a direct line to Fox River, and down that stream to the place of beginning.

RICHARD FREEMAN VEEDER

was a man of wonderful constitution, and, had the laws of health been studied and more care- fully observed by him, it seems as though he might have lived to an age not often allotted to mankind. His name is intimately associated with the early settlement of Portage. While he was frequently rude and rough in speech, he had a heart wonderfully tender and sympathetic, which was never appealed to in vain, and few men performed more acts of charity than " Uncle Dick." Hundreds will remember hita for his charities, and speak kindly of his name, and all who ever knew him will never forget the peculiar characteristics which so emphatically distin- guished him. He died at his residence, in Portage, January 19, 1870, aged about fifty-eight years. He lives largely in the remembrance of the people of Portage because of the " Veeder Claim," an account of which is given.

THE GUPPEY PLAT AND THE VEEDER CLAIM.

The plat of Portage City, covering Lots 2 and 3, and the northeast quarter of the south- west quarter, and the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 5, and Lots 5 and 6 of Sec- tion 8, all in Town 12 north, Range 9 east, and known as the " Guppey Plat," was surveyed in July, 1852, by Henry Meriton, and was recorded August 14, of the same year, in Volume VII of deeds, pages 2 and 3, by Josiah Arnold, Register. This plat was made under the provisions of a law of the United States authorizing County Judges to enter in trust for settlers thereon any portion of the public domain occupied as town sites. The above-described lands were entered by Joshua J. Guppey, County Judge of Columbia County, at the United States Land Office, June 1, 1852, but it being soon afterward discovered that the Government authorities at Wash- ington would only recognize as valid the entry of lands on even sections, the tracts on Section 5 passed to the State, under the act of Congress, approved August 8, 1846, granting the " land equal to half of three sections in width on each side of Fox River, and the Portage Canal for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers." The Governor having selected the odd

602

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

sections for the State, and the land comprised within the boundaries of Section 5 being within the limits of the grant-although the Indian title to it had not been extingnished when the grant was made-it was held that when the Indian title was extinguished the Governor's selection of the odd sections operated upon it, and it became the property of the State. Hence, its entry at the United States Land Office being unauthorized, the title must be secured from the State. Therefore, it will be seen that the County Judge, in making a plat to Section 5, was laboring under a very natural misapprehension of the then undefined law, and his action was not binding, his title having failed.

Finally, it having been conceded that title to Section 5 was vested in the State, Richard F. Veeder, who, in 1850, as one of a committee of settlers, platted an addition to the Webb & Bron- son survey covering portions of Sections 5 and 8, was assured by his friends that he had a valid claim. Mr. Veeder had been living for several years on Block 163 of the Webb & Bronson plat, but had improvements to the value of $100 or more on the southwest quarter of Section 5. The State law, approved August 8, 1848, providing for pre-emptions on improvement land, gave to each person, who had made improvements worth $50 or more on each quarter-section of such land, the right to purchase the same at $1.25 per acre. There was also a State law passed at a later date, providing for the entry of any improvement lands occupied as town sites by the County Judge in trust for settlers thereon. This law, it will be observed, was similar in its provisions to the law of the United States on that subject. Under the State pre-emption law of 1848, Mr. Veeder made application to purchase the land as a pre-emption ; under the State law for entry of town sites, Judge Guppey made application to enter the land in trust for settlers. Other par- ties-whose claims it will not be necessary to consider here, as the principal contest was between Mr. Veeder in his own interest, and Judge Guppey, acting as Trustee for the settlers-also attempted to establish pre-emption rights to the land.

As against the claim of the former, the rights of the settlers may be briefly stated, as fol- lows: In February, 1850, a committee of settlers (acknowledged as such by the settlers), composed of R. F. Veeder, S. Dean and William R. Dewitt, laid out a plat, commonly known as Spain's Plat, which was duly recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds. It is described in the book of plats as "an addition to the town of Fort Winnebago, laid out by authority of a committee appointed by claimants in the said addition, which is situate in the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 8, and the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 5, Town 12, Range 9, consisting of five blocks, surveyed by William H. Spain." At this time, Mr. Veeder, believing that his improvements on the Indian land were on Section 8 and not on Section 5, encouraged the people to settle on the latter sec- tion, assuring them that no one claimed the lots on that section. In the winter of 1850-51, the settlers on both sections jointly petitioned the Legislature to pass a law which would insure each settler on Section 5 not exceeding five lots at a reasonable price, and Messrs. Veeder, Thomas Christopher, J. A. Johnson and F. W. Peabody were appointed by the settlers a com- mittee to urge the enactment of such a law. These gentlemen took the petition to Madison, and labored arduously to secure the required legislation, Mr. Veeder uniting with the others in the request.

When a hearing was reached at the State Land Office, all these facts were shown, and the Register decided that Mr. Veeder had a right to the land by pre-emption, for the reason that he had $50 worth of improvements thereon prior to any other occupancy thereof. On the 8th of August, an appeal was taken to the Circuit Court, and the decision of the Register was reversed. A counter appcal was then taken to the Supreme Court, where the decision of the lower court was set aside, and the original decision of the Register of the State Land Office affirmed, the higher tribunal declaring that the equitable relations existing between the settlers and Mr. Veeder could be more properly determined in other proceedings between them. The result was that Mr. Vecder took the legal title to tracts on Section 5, subject to the equitable rights of the settlers thereon ; and, as before stated, the action of the County Judge in laying out the same into a plat was of no binding force.

603

HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.

This decision was reached in 1854. The litigation had very much impeded the develop- ment of the young city, and, after the decision was made, the settlers and Mr. Veeder differed so much about their respective rights, that the impossibility of an amicable settlement between them became more and more apparent, and improvements continued to be delayed for several years on account of the difficulty new-comers encountered in obtaining good titles. There seems. however, to have been no personal ill will between the settlers and Mr. Veeder, for the latter is said to have been a very kind-hearted man and good neighbor, while the former were of that class of order-loving citizens who will undergo much sacrifice to secure peace and quiet. At last, and in the year 1860, Mr. Veeder's misfortunes practically worked an unlooked-for settlement of the whole matter; for, on the 22d of March of that year, a judgment was recov- ered against him and others as sureties for Mrs. Sarah A. Babcock on an administrator's bond, amounting to $7,198.34, and his interest in lots on Section 5 was sold out in due course of law under an execution issued to satisfy said judgment. The lots were bid in by the settlers thereon or their friends for nominal sums. Prior to this time, most of the settlers, or parties interested in their behalf, had obtained tax titles to the lots occupied by them, so that with the tax deeds and the deeds of the Sheriff, the settlers considered their titles perfected.

In April, 1854, Mr. Veeder replatted a part of the southwest fractional quarter of Section 5, the survey being made by L. Van Slyck, but the plat was never recognized by the citizens or the local officers. All descriptions of lots on Section 5 were and have continued to be given to the present time in accordance with the plat laid out by J. J. Guppey.

There have been numerous additions to Portage since the Guppey Plat originated. Dunn, Haskell & Tenney's Addition, made in July, 1854, covers the north half of the southeast quar- ter of Section 6. Then came Schultz's Addition and Houston's Addition, lying in what is now the Second Ward, north of the railroad track ; McFarlane, Dunn & Armstrong's Addition, south of the railroad depot ; McCulloch's Prospect Hill Addition, on the Wisconsin River, one mile west of Mac street ; Ketchum & DeWitt's "Rattle-Trap Farm" Addition, long since vacated, lying in the northwestern portion of the Second Ward; Borden & Fargo's Addition, south of the Wisconsin River, in Section 7; Ketchum's Addition, bounded by Houston street on the north and Hamilton street on the east, containing eight blocks ; Leache's Addition, a strip along the Wisconsin River, east of the bridge ; Haskell & Fargo's Addition, bounded by North, West and Harrison streets and the west line of Section 6; Hettinger's Addition, Hart & Norton's Addition, Pixley's Addition and H. R. Pettibone's Addition, on the Northern Division of the St. Paul Road.

The city limits of Portage are two and a half by three miles square, containing about four thousand eight hundred acres, including the area covered by waters of the Wisconsin River.

ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF PORTAGE.

The first steps toward the township or precinct organization of the territory now included within the city limits of Portage were taken in July, 1846, when the County Commissioners set off " all that portion of the county embraced in Town[ship] 12 lying north of the Baraboo River, and Town ship] 13 and Fractional Town[ship] 14, Range 8; also, Town[ship] 13 and the north half of Town[ship] 12, Range 9"-the territory described to " compose an election precinct to be known by the name of the Winnebago Portage Precinct ; elections to be held at the house of Gideon Low ; Richard F. Veeder, Daniel D. Robertson and Henry Merrell being appointed Judges of Election in said precinct." Such is the record of the County Commissioners dated July 10, 1846. No part of the territory west of the Fox and east of the Wisconsin Rivers and north of a line, connecting these two streams, running northeasterly and southwesterly through the present limits of Portage, was then attached to Columbia County (it being Menomonee land and belonging to Portage County. Consequently, all that portion of "Town[ship] 13 and Fractional Town[ship] 14, Range 8," as described by the Commissioners ; also that portion of Town[ship] 13, Range 9, lying west of Fox River ; also the northeast fraction of Town[ship]

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, Part 90

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