The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 69

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

The first printing material ever brought to Waupnn was that on which the Whig had been printed in the village of Fond du Lac, and was bought by Eli Hooker in the winter of 1847- 48. Immediately afterward, George Howe came from Angelica, N. Y., with the old Ramage press on which the first edition of Morgan's "Exposition of Masonry " was printed, and Mr. Hooker entered into partnership with him in the job-printing business. This old press, made of wood, and on which two impressions with a screw were required to print one side of a sheet, was soon after sold to a man in Calumet County.

The Brandon Times .- Soon after the close of the rebellion, October 1, 1865, George M. West began the publication, in the village of Brandon, of a Republican newspaper called the Times. It was a four-column folio, Independent in politics. In November, 1871, Martin C. Short became editor and proprietor. He is also Postmaster of Brandon, having been appointed by President Grant, and personally attends to both the post office and the newspaper office in the same building. Although published in a small village, the Times has been supported with more than the usual liberality, and would be a creditable paper for a much larger place. The Times is now on its fifteenth volume and prosperous. It is now a seven-column folio, and has been straight and strong Republican ever since owned by Mr. Short.

The New Cassel Clarion .- On the 15th of January, 1876, Dr. L. Eidemiller began the publication, in the village of New Cassel, of a four-column local paper called the Clarion. It was devoted entirely to local news and advertising, and although well patronized, the locality considered, was discontinued before the end of the year.

The Waucousta Representative .- In November, 1869, Freeman Sackett and Spencer began the publication of the Waucousta Representative, a four-column folio, devoted to local matters exclusively in the town of Osceola. Mr. Sackett afterward became editor of the Phillips (Wis.) Times, and Mr. Spencer owns a job printing office in the city of Fond du Lac. The paper was filled with original poetry, locals, "jokes," in shape of burlesque advertisements and carica- tures. These caricatures were executed on wood with a pocket knife by Byron Hall and Free- man Sackett, and were richly enjoyed by the country-folk. The enterprise was not a paying one and was comparatively short lived.

SOME OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY'S ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD. EDWARD PIER

was a son of Calvin Pier, a tanner and currier, and later in life, a farmer, and was born in New Haven, Addison Co., Vt., March 31, 1807. The maiden name of his mother was Esther Evarts, and her father was a soldier a short time in the Revolutionary war. Edward attended school during the winter months after his seventh year, until he attained the age of twelve, when his school days were terminated. He was carly and thoroughly trained to work, and probably no young Vermonter ever applied himself with more diligence to any and every task assigned him, or was more faithful in the discharge of filial obligations. When he was twelve years old his family moved to the town of Ripon, in his native county, and there Edward passed his youth and early manhood, the whole household living in rustic simplicity. The house was built in the woods overspread by forest trees, and its chimney was made of boards, and up through it the children could look and see the birds which came to sing their morning songs.

In addition to farming, Edward learned to make and mend shoes, being his own teacher : for in those days on the Green Mountains, one of the great studies was how to save the hard- earned money. Hoping to find land easier to cultivate than the soil of Vermont. but without intending to slacken his industrious habits, Mr. Pier, on the 25th of August, 1834, started for that part of Michigan Territory which is now the State of Wisconsin. Five years before, Junc 2, 1829, he had married Miss Harriet N. Kendall, of Rochester, Vt., who with courage and a cheerful spirit, went with him to the land of the Mepomonces and the Pottawatomics. Two brothers, Colwert E. and Oscar, also accompanied him. They arrived at Green Bay in just four weeks-a remarkably quick trip in those days. In the autumn of that year, Colwert, the

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eldest of the three brothers, made a prospecting trip, extending into Illinois, and, in the summer of 1835, Edward made a still longer trip extend into Southern Illinois, where he purchased a herd of cows and young cattle for Charles D. Nash, and drove them to Green Bay-a distance of four hundred miles, much of the way through a country of bridgeless streams.

In February, 1836, the brothers, Colwert and Edward, visited the laid-out village of Fond du Lac, then without a house or a settler. After Colwert had brought his family there, he was visited by Edward, who was accompanied by his father. They left Green Bay on the 20th of June, 1836, and soon after arrived at Colwert Pier's, where they remained a few days and then returned to the Bay. This was Edward Pier's second visit to Fond du Lac. In September, he again visited his brother Colwert. The next December, learning that his brother was nearly out of provisions, he started with a load but came near losing his life while crossing Lake Winne- bago, by breaking through the ice with his horse. He arrived at his brother's on the 21st of December. It was his fourth visit to Fond du Lac in the year 1836.

In March, 1837, he settled near Fond du Lac Village. From that time forward until incapacitated by age, Mr. Pier was known as a hard-working and eminently successful man, both in his agricultural pursuits and in his interests in manufactories and as a merchant. During his life, he held several important public offices, which he filled satisfactorily, capably and honor- ably. He was a member of the first Board of Supervisors (then known as commissioners) of Fond du Lac County, and was President of that body for ten consecutive years. At different times, he was elected County Treasurer, State Senator, and for ten years was chosen Superintendent of the Poor. At one time, he held the important office of Trustee of the State Insane Asylum at Madison. Besides these public offices, he filled the position of President of two banks with conscientions and scrupulous honesty and fidelity.

On the 21st of August, 1864, his wife breathed her last. Mr. Pier always claimed that whatever he had been to the community was directly attributable to his excellent companion. Ho survived her a number of years, his death occurring on the 2d of November, 1877. He left four children to mourn the loss of a kind, indulgent, affectionate and painstaking father -- Ann P., wife of J. W. Carpenter ; Ruth R., now Mrs. L. J. Harvey ; Carrie S., wife of H. R. Skinner, and Colwert K., now (1880) President of the Savings Bank of Fond du Lac.

In Edward Pier's death, the people of Fond du Lac County sustained a loss. He closed a life of usefulness and the public were touched when one was taken away who occupied so large a space in their minds. He was a frank, genial man, and a public-spirited citizen. He was prompt in his benefactions : and when a life like his closes, it leaves a vacancy, not merely in the family circle and among closest friends, but among all those reached by the fame and name of charitable deeds.

NATHANIEL POTTER TALLMADGE,

was born in the town of Chatham, Columbia Co., N. Y., February 8, 1795. His father, Joel Tallmadge, was a man of sterling integrity and incorruptible patriotism. In the war of the Revolution, he served his country with fidelity, and was present to witness the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne in 1777. The family is of Saxon descent, as the name (originally Tollemache) plainly indicates. According to Burke, "it has flourished with the greatest honors in an unin- terrupted male succession in the county of Suffolk since the first arrival of the Saxons in England, a period of more than thirteen centuries. Tollemache, lord of Bentley and Stoke Tollemache in the county of Oxford, lived in the sixth century, and upon the old manor-house of Bentley is still the following inscription :

" Before the Norman into England came,

Bentley was my residence and Tollemache my name."

At a very early age, the subject of this sketch displayed an earnest desire for knowledge, and a perseverance in its pursuit that stops at no trifling obstacle. While yet at the district school where the family resided, he chanced to get hold of an old Latin grammar and imme- diately determined to master the language. He subsequently pursued his classical studies under

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the tuition of William H. Maynard, who at length became distinguished as a lawyer and states- man. Young Tallmadge commenced his collegiate course at Williams College, in Massachu- setts, where he remained nearly two years, when he removed to Schenectady, and finally gradu- ated with honors in July, 1815. IFe commenced the study of law in Poughkeepsie, in the office of his kinsman, Gen. James Tallmadge, who then stood in the front rank of his profession. He was a close student, and when other young men, professedly engaged in similar pursuits, were returning home late at night from convivial assemblies, he might be seen alone, by the dim light of his lamp, absorbed in his studies. At the age of twenty-three, he was admitted to the bar. In 1824, he began to take an interest in political affairs, and, in 1828, was a member of Assembly from Dutchess County. In the same body were Elisha Williams, Erastus Root, Francis Granger, Benjamin F. Butler, Luther Bradish, Ogden Hoffman, Robert Emmett and others scarcely less distinguished. Mr. Tallmadge soon ranked with the most prominent mem- bers and, during the revision of the statutes, he took an active part, discussing with acknowl- edged ability the most profound questions of political economy and jurisprudence.

In 1829, Mr. Tallmadge, at the earnest solicitation of his Democratic fellow-citizens, reluctantly consented to be a candidate for the place made vacant by Peter R. Livingston, who had gone over to the opposite political party. He was accordingly nominated and elected to the State Senate without formal opposition. He took his seat in January, 1830, and soon became distinguished as one of the ablest debaters in that body. lIe had always sustained the canal policy of De Witt Clinton, and when a Chairman of the Committee on Canals was wanted the choice fell on Mr. Tallmadge. At the same time, the subject of railroads began to attract public attention in this country. No man in the State was better informed in respect to the experiments in Europe than Mr. Tallmadge, and his information was embodied in an elaborate report to the Senate, in which he discussed the feasibility of a railroad along the banks of the Hudson, and intimated that travelers, in haste to reach their destination, would soon leave the stream for the shore, and the spectator be "amazed at velocity which only lags behind the celerity of thought." Twenty years elapsed and the Hudson River road was completed.

Before the expiration of his term in the State Senate, Mr. Tallmadge was elected United States Senator for the term of six years. and entered upon the duties of that office in December, 1833. He was the youngest member of that body, but his talents, both as a lawyer and legislator, made him conspicuous even among the eminent orators and statesmen of the generation that has just passed away. He exerted a powerful influence during the slavery agitation in Congress. Mr. Calhoun maintained that the Senate should not receive the petitions for its abolition, either in the District of Columbia or elsewhere. Mr. Tallmadge took a firm stand against him, insisting that the people had an undoubted right to offer any petition to Congress, and that so long as such petitions were couched in respectable terms, the Senate was bound to receive them. The Senator from South Carolina could not let the matter rest, and at length Mr. Tallmadge, in a masterly speech, took occasion to present the subject in its essential principles, its historical relations and its practical bearings. Mr. Van Buren was in the Chair and the Senate Chamber was crowded with anxious listeners. Mr. Calhoun was not prepared to reply ; many Southern Senators admitted the great force of the argument for the right of petition, and the President of the Senate personally complimented Mr. Tallmadge for the sound discretion and distinguished ability which characterized his speech. When Mr. Calhoun subsequently returned to the sub- ject, he was promptly met and silenced by the Senator from New York.

It was near the close of his first term in the Senate that Mr. Tallmadge felt constrained to oppose certain measures recommended by Mr. Van Buren, which excited the displeasure and hostility of the latter. Mr. Tallmadge was not the man to be intimidated by denunciation or diverted from the purpose inspired by his sense of duty. The controversy was pointed and vehement. The press, in the interest of Mr. Van Buren's administration, charged Mr. Tall- madge with political apostacy. The last personal interview between those gentlemen was char- acterized by great freedom and not a little asperity of speech. The President insisted that the Senator from New York did not comprehend the spirit and wishes of the people. "I will show

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you." said Mr. Tallmadge, " that I do understand the people. I am one of them-born in the same county with yourself. But I am much more recently from amongst them than you are. You have been abroad, luxuriating on aristocratic couches, and mingling in lordly associations, until you have forgotten what constitutes a republican people." "Well," rejoined Mr. Van Buren, "we shall see." "Be it so," said the Senator from New York, " be it so, 'thou shalt see me at Philippi.'"

Mr. Tallmadge did not misjudge in presuming that the public sentiment would sustain him. The sympathies of the people were with him ; and on his return to New York from congres- sional session, he was honored with a grand ovation. An immense cavalcade met him at the steamboat landing and escorted him through Broadway to the Astor House. The streets were thronged and his presence excited the greatest enthusiasm. In the evening, he was honored with a public reception at National Hall.

Mr. Tallmadge proceeded to organize the Democracy of New York with a view of prevent- ing the re-election of Mr. Van Buren. This purpose was fully accomplished and in the sue- ceeding national canvass the latter was defeated. Gen. Harrison was the Presidential eandi- date of the Whigs, and Mr. Tallmadge would have been the choice of the nominating conven- tion for Vice President, but he declined the nomination. Had his personal ambition been equal to his ability, he would doubtless have numbered among the Presidents of the United States. In January, 1840, he was returned to the Senate of the United States from New York, and his re-election was regarded as a triumph of principle over partisan restraints and the un- scrupulous exercise of executive power. " We hail," said an influential paper, " the return of of Mr. Tallmadge-the great conservative chieftain, who refused to quail beneath executive denunciation and party ostracism-to the Senate of the United States, with the most profound and heart-felt joy. It bespeaks the vitality of principle and the triumph of a righteous cause in the land." Mr. Tallmadge was offered a seat in Gen. IIarrison's cabinet, and subsequently a foreign mission, both of which he declined. At the close of the session of 1844, Mr. Tyler nominated him for the office of Governor of Wisconsin Territory. He had just purchased lands near the village of Fond du Lac, with a view of making it a permanent home ; and, after mature deliberation, he resolved to resign his seat in the Senate and accept the place offered him by President Tyler. His nomination was at once unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Dur- ing his Senatorial career, he served on the committees charged with management of the public lands, on the Committee on Naval Affairs, and on that of Foreign Relations, on all of which he displayed the same industry and ability. With the acceptance of the Governorship of Wiscon- sin Territory and the entering upon the duties of that office, ended his career in the political arena. outside of Wisconsin. In the United States Senate, he deserved and was accorded an eminent position. " His style," says a writer of the day, "is lucid and classical-he reasons with force and energy. His language is copious, and his powers of illustration always apparent. His speeches are frequently interspread with poetical allusions, which appear-not like awkward strangers -- but fitting with ease the context * * and the subject-matter to which they are applied. This is a legitimate exercise of the credit system in letters. * Scholarship and literary attainments are evident in everything that escapes him."

When he came to Wisconsin, the country well understood that some of the most important reforms had received from him an earnest advocacy. It well knew that he was one of the first to urge a reduction in the rates of postage; and that every beneficent measure-whether designed to check executive usurpation, to enfranchise labor, or otherwise to guard the liberties of the people and the sanctity of the law-received his cordial support. It could not forget his indignant condemnation of every form of injustice, and his supreme devotion to principle ; nor could it be unmindful of the intelligent and liberal influence he had exerted in public affairs, and the large place he occupied in the public confidence and esteem.

" I find in my account-book," writes Gustav de Neven, " that I commenced giving French lessons on the 5th day of December, 1844, to a class composed of Miss Laura Tallmadge, John Tallmadge, Mary and James Doty, and Fanny and James Conklin, at their respective homes,

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alternating each week from house to house, and three times a week, teacher and pupils meeting at the appointed house for the purpose. The three families lived about one and a half miles apart, the house of Col. Conklin northernmost, on Section 7. Township 15, Range 18; Gov. Doty, on south half of the same section, and Gov. Tallmadge, farther south, near the north line of Section 19. The house of Gov. Doty, being in the middle, was abont half a mile from that of Col. Conklin, and not much over a mile from Gov. Tallmadge's.

" It is my impression," continues Mr. de Neveu, " that the family of the latter came here in the summer of 1844, but that neither he nor his son Isaac, then unmarried and who was sec- retary to his father during the latter's brief office as Governor of Wisconsin, were there at the time. The family occupied a large and, for that period, elegant and convenient log house, built in anticipation of their coming by Harry Giltner. Grier Tallmadge was at West Point ; Miss Louisa Tallmadge, afterward Mrs. Boardman, was at a female seminary, East (I think Mrs. Willard's, at Troy, N. Y). There were then in the family Mrs. Tallmadge, nee Smith ; Miss Laura, Miss Julia, afterward Mrs. A. G. Ruggles ; William and John. William died in that house a year or two afterward, and was buried on a mound visible from his bed, and belonging to the estate, in accordance with his request. This was the origin of the beautiful Rienzi Cem- etery. William was its first occupant. The Governor then generously donated ten acres for the purpose of a burying-ground, to a company who were to expend all the receipts for the sale of lots in adorning and beautifying it. Accessions have been made by purchase since, both from Gov. Tallmadge and from other parties, and the cemetery now contains, I think, about fifty-five acres. It is beautifully located, commanding an extensive view of lake and prairie, as well as of the city, to which itis easily accessible and about three miles distant.

"Mr. E. Beeson, who lives in Fond du Lac, tells me that he thinks Gov. Tallmadge's family came in the spring or summer of 1844. They stopped at his house, then four miles south of the city, on a Saturday evening, staying over night and the next day. The two boys took down their guns in the morning, and Mrs. Tallmadge, who was then knitting, said to them : ‘ Do you know, boys, that you are going to break the Sabbath ?' to which Mrs. Beeson remarked : " Why, Mrs. Tallmadge, what are you doing yourself?' This was a surprise, and Mrs. Tallmadge, who had mechanically taken up her knitting without thinking of the day, put it by in a hurry.

" I believe that Governor Tallmadge spent much of his time in Washington in the early years of his settlement here. Some seventy acres of prairie had been broken on the farm, the fall preceding the arrival of the family, by his brother, William R. Tallmadge, and Cornelius Davis, who afterward built a mill on the creek that runs through Section 7, near what was J. D. Doty's residence. Gov. Tallmadge was considered a resident of this county to the time of his death, in November, 1864. He died at his daughter's house, in Michigan. llis remains were brought to Fond du Lac, and he was buried by the side of his son and wife in the family lot in Rienzi Cemetery."

Mr. Tallmadge reared a large family, consisting of Isaac S., W. D. (deceased, and the first buried in Rienzi Cemetery, near Fond du Lac), Grier (who died a Captain in the rebellion), Marv, Louisa, Laura. John, James, Julia T. (Mrs. A. G. Ruggles, of Fond du Lac) and Emily. His wife. Abbey Smith, daugliter of Judge Isaac Smith, of New York, was one of the first women of Wisconsin. She was a lady of culture and breadth, but gave a large share of her time to doing good. Her charity was like rain-descended alike upon the just and the unjust. She loved hospitality, too, nearly as well as her husband, and for some years joined Mr. Tallmadge in the strife to see which should entertain most liberally and cordially-his own ample house or that of his near friend and neighbor, John B. Macy.

The last few years of Gov. Tallmadge's life were spent in feeble health; and he resided some of the time among his friends in the East. Just before he died, a visitor to his "forest home," on the Ledge in the town of Empire, remarked that one who possessed such a home, ought to live forever to enjoy it. "Oh," replied the Governor, " I have no idea of remaining here, I am only preparing this for some one else, who has no better situation. I understand that up there (looking toward heaven), where I am going, they have much finer places than this." Hle

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died at dusk after a beautiful sunset, while the leaves were falling from the forest trees that shaded his pleasant home, on the 2d of November, 1864, in the seventieth year of his age.

Before his death, Mr. Tallmadge prepared the manuscript for a biography of himself, suffi- cient to make a large volume, and entrusted it to S. B. Brittain, of New York. It has not yet been published.

The ashes of Nathaniel Potter Tallmadge rest on the top of the hill in the "old grounds " of Rienzi Cemetery, about four miles from Fond du Lac, in a spot chosen by himself, when he gave, free of cost, that portion of his farm for cemetery purposes.

JAMES DUANE DOTY

was a native of Salem, Washington Co., N. Y., where he was born in 1799. In the year 1818, he settled at Detroit, Mich .; and, a young lawyer of good repute, he was the next year admitted to the Supreme Court of that Territory, and was the same year promoted rapidly to places of publie trust, being appointed Secretary of the Legislative Council, and Clerk of the Court.

Gov. Cass, in 1820, made his famous tour of the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi to its source, traveling a distance of 4,000 miles with his party, in five bark canoes. Doty was selected by the Governor to command one of the birch flotilla, C. C. Trowbridge and John H. Kinzie each having charge of another. The trip from Detroit to Mackinaw and the Sault Ste. Marie consumed nearly ninety days, and was one of great difficulty and. peril. It was on this occasion that Gov. Cass, supported by his assistants and canoe-men, in the presence of the assembled dignitaries of the fierce Chippewas, and in defiance of their menaces, pulled down the British flag, which those Indians had displayed on the American side of the straits on his arrival, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes in its place. Doty was present, and aided with his own hands in displaying the American flag. The party left Detroit early in May, traversed the lakes, and reached the source of the Mississippi, held conferences with various Indian tribes, and returned the last of November. Doty, besides having charge of one of the canoes, acted as secretary of the expedition.

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 69

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1082

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082