The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 70

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

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In the winter of 1822-23, Congress passed an " Aet to provide for the Appointment of an Additional Judge for the Michigan Territory," and to establish courts in the counties of Michili- mackinac, Brown and Crawford ; these counties embracing, besides much other territory, all of what is now the State of Wisconsin. From the numerous applicants for the place, President Monroe selected Doty for the new Judge.

In May, 1823, he was already on the way to his new circuit, accompanied by his wife, whom he had just married.

Doty lost no time in entering upon his duties as a Judge of a country sufficient in extent for an empire. He repaired forthwith to Prairie du Chien, organized the judiciary of Crawford County, and opened court. It was no easy task to inaugurate justice in these wilds, to create sheriff's, elerks and jurors out of half-breed Indian traders, voyageurs and couriers du bois ; but the taet, talent and perseverance of the young Judge prevailed. Doty had thought to make Prairie du Chien his resting-place, his home, but finally determined on a permanent residence at Green Bay, where he resided twenty years.

The Judge proceeded to organize courts in Michilimackinac and Brown Counties, where he found the inhabitants generally disposed to render every assistance in bringing a wild country subject to law and order. The terms were held with regularity throughout the whole distriet. lle continued to discharge his onerous duties for nine years, and until superseded by Judge Irwin, in 1832. Relieved from the cares and responsibilities of the judgeship and courts, he immedi- ately commenced, on his own resources, a personal examination, by repeated tours, of the coun- try that now constitutes Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. It was then inhabited and possessed largely by the aborigines. He visited every village of note, made himself acquainted with, and gained the good will of, the chiefs, and contributed in no small degree to the good under- standing which followed between the Government and these savage tribes.

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

In 1830, Congress made an appropriation for surveying and locating a military road from Green Bay to Chicago and to Prairie du Chien. Doty and Lieut. Center were appointed Com- missioners to survey and locate these roads.

Doty's talents for usefulness were now conceded and appreciated by all. The people of the District of Michigan, west of the lake, elected him to the Legislative Council in 1834, in which he served with marked ability for two years. It was while he was a member of that body that the policy of a State government began to be agitated. This he favored and he was the first to introduce a measure looking to its accomplishment, which finally prevailed. Returning from the Legislative Council, he became an active operator in the public land sales, which were opened at Green Bay in 1835-36.

The rapid settlement of the country beyond the Great Lakes called for a new Territorial government-a separation from Michigan. Congress passed the act creating the Territorial government of Wisconsin in 1836. Henry Dodge received the appointment of Governor, and assembled the first Legislature at Belmont. One of the most important matters brought before that body, and to be settled by it, was the location of the seat of government. Doty, though remaining in private life, had not been idle, and especially was not uninterested in this matter of a capital for Wisconsin. There was great excitement over the matter in the Legis- lature. While others were planning, Doty was acting. Ile appeared at Belmont as a lobby- member; and almost before the Solons knew of it, by his superior taet had brought about a vote fixing the seat of government at Madison. There was a good deal of sparring and fault- finding with Doty and his management at the time, but all agree now that it was then, as it lias seen to be since, just the right place for the capital.

Wisconsin, as an organized Territory, had now a delegate in Congress. Doty succeeded George W. Jones in 1838, and served till 1841, when he was appointed Governor of Wiscon- sin by President Tyler, serving nearly three years, and was succeeded by N. P. Tallmadge. While Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the Indians in Minnesota-Sioux and Chippewas-began to be uneasy and troublesome. The War Department instituted a com- mission for conference with them. Doty, on account of his known acquaintance with Indian character, was selected as Commissioner, and made two highly important treaties with the Northwestern Indian tribes, which, however, were not accepted by the Senate.

Ile was a member of the first Constitutional Convention in Wisconsin in 1846; was elected to Congress from the Third District under the State organization of 1848, and re-elected in 1851, and procured by his industry and influence important legislation for the State and his constituency.

In 1853, he retired once more to "private life," to be recalled by President Lincoln in 1861, first as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and subsequently as Governor of Utah; hold- ing this last appointment at the time of his death, June 13, 1865. He lived in Fond du Lae County, town of Empire, for two years-from 1844 to 1846-when be removed to Menasha, on Doty's Island. his last residence.

MARCELLUS KENT STOW

was a prominent and respected citizen of Fond du Lac County. He came from a stock famous in Northern New York, in the early part of this century, for learning, wit and hospitality. His father was Judge Silas Stow, of Lowville, Lewis Co., N. Y., one of the most brilliant men of his day, an able lawyer and judge, and elegant classical scholar, a member of Congress in 1812, and the friend and compeer of Chancellor Kent, De Witt Clinton, Gen. Brady, Judges Cowen, Carnes and other luminaries of that period.

In an old number of the Albany Evening Journal may be found this mention of the old Judge, his social station and surroundings :

" One of the most hospital and generous of men. Numerous were the guests that thronged the old ' Stow mansion;' the quiet village, nestled there in the north, and fringed with the woods that inelosed Black River, was often graced with wit, learning and beauty that even a

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

metropolis might have envied. Fine equipages swept along the old "State road; ' song and wine and wit and eloquence sparkled and flowed; men of rank from Europe came there ; scholars from University halls; statesmen from the national councils ; soldiers who had gal- lantly fought; women who had reigned as belles in brilliant circles far away."

In such an atmosphere the subject of this sketch was born and reared, and he inherited and bore through life, the high traits and characteristics of a noble sire.

There were three brothers of them, all distinguished for great native talent, high culture, eloquence, judicial ability and integrity and eminent social gifts.

Hon. Horatio J. Stow was for many years a distinguished lawyer and Judge of the Record- er's Court of Buffalo. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and a State Senator of New York in 1857.

Alexander W. Stow, many years ago Chief Justice of Wisconsin, and a resident of Fond du Lac County, was, despite his eccentricities, a man of most wonderful mental powers and attainments, a scholar and lawyer almost without a peer in our State annals, of the soundest judgment and unblemished integrity.

Marcellus Kent Stow was, like all the sons of the " old Judge," educated to the legal pro- fession, and was for several years an able and popular member of the Lewis and Jefferson County bars, and Judge of the Jefferson County Court. Afterward he became actively engaged in shipping, banking and real-estate operations at Sacket's Harbor, then in its palmy days.

Some curious old documents preserved among his papers, while contributing facts to his biography, illustrate strikingly the dignity of old-time ways as compared with our " Young American " idea of things.

One of these is an elaborate and formal military commission issued and signed by De Witt Clinton, Governor, sealed with "our seal for military commissions," the device of which is a wonderful spread eagle perched on a globe, with the legend " Excelsior " inscribed about the margin. This document appoints and constitutes " Marcellus K. Stow. Judge Advocate of the Twenty-sixth Brigade of Infantry of our State," and bears date April 12, 1825.

Another is a parchment diploma "by the Hon. John Savage, Chief Justice of the State of New York," with the seal of the Supreme Court artistically attached by and on a white satin " tag," and bearing date the 26th day of October, " in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, in the fifty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America." This document authorizes and licenses the said Marcellus K. Stow to appear and practice in the Supreme Court as an attorney.

This is followed ten years later by a like parchment, dated April 4, 1837, " by the Hon. R. Hyde Walworth, Chancellor of the State of New York," admitting and licensing Mar- cellus K. Stow as a solicitor and counselor in the Court of Chancery of the State of New York.

These diplomas or licenses were only issued upon most rigid examination and proofs of several years of professional study and preparation. Now-a-days. the sweeping of a lawyer's office for a few months, the exhibition of requisite "cheek," and subscription to a dog-eared roll of attorneys in the Clerk's office develops a full-fledged barrister, authorized to practice in law, chancery and all courts short of the high court of heaven.

Judge Stow married, at Brownville, Jefferson Co., N. Y., in October, 1837, Mary W., the daughter of Gen. Thomas Loomis, then and since a prominent man in the Black River see- tion of New York, and, in the year 1852, came with his wife and children to the city of Fond du Lac. He purchased several tracts of land in Section 11, and erected the Stow homestead in the oak grove on East Division street, where he resided continuously until his death in June, 1871. His widow. loved and respected by all, with two of the children, Miss Anna and James W., yet occupy this old homestead.

He brought with him here and ever maintained the character of an able, upright, enter- prising business man. His acquaintance was co-extensive with the population of this city and county. Every one knew him then and remembers him now as an exceptionally generous, genial and hospitable gentleman.

IShattich,

FOND DU LAC.

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

HIe was an honored member of the bar of Fond du Lac County, and, in 1865, was elected Judge of the County Court, which position he filled with marked ability, dignity, integrity and promptness, until his failing health compelled his resignation in 1868.

Then for four long weary years, cheered only by the devotion of a noble wife and loving children, and the general friendship and sympathy of our community, he gradually but surely failed in body and mind, lingering in the valley of the shadow of death until that evening in June, his life went down with the sun as peacefully and gently as an infant falling asleep in its mother's arms. He died June 10, 1871.

His surviving children are William L. Stow, General Agent at Toledo, Ohio, of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company ; Mary E., wife of W. D. Conklin, of Fond du Lac; Fred D. Stow, General Central Agent of the Merchants' Dispatch Transportation Com- pany, at Buffalo, N. Y .; Miss Anna P. Stow, and James W. Stow, Corresponding Clerk of the First National Bank, at Fond du Lac.

JOHN B. MACY.

The career of John B. Macy in Fond du Lac County was brief, if mcasured by years, but it was rich in great events and colossal in work for the public. He was born in Nantucket, R. I., March 25, 1799, and, after finishing the liberal education which all New Englanders in easy circumstances receive, embarked at once in a series of heavy business transactions, contracts and speculations, which ended only with his tragic death.

At the sale of the Fond du Lac Company's lands, Mr. Macy came to Wisconsin and made heavy purchases of real estate, and, in 1850, moved with his family to the town of Empire, near de Neveu Lake. He began building at once on a large scale, and although he soon had a magnificent place, with stone archways, handsome drives and a large yard shaded by all the trees common to Wisconsin forests and nurseries, continued the erection of buildings until his death.

He was all activity and enterprise-a leading spirit in all the great undertakings of the day. Perhaps no man did so much for the city of Fond du Lac, in the way of advertising the location, wealth, health and future prospects of the place, as John B. Macy. Wherever he went, he talked enthusiastically of the Fountain City, and always declared that before he reached his hundredth birthday, it would contain 30,000 inhabitants and a half dozen railroads. IIe cer- tainly did more than any other man to attract capital to Fond du Lac County, for it was through his repeated visits to the East, and by virtue of his enthusiastic persisteney that Robert J. Walker and other heavy capitalists were induced to invest liberally in what is now the Chicago & North- Western Railroad, which had its beginning in the city of Fond du Lac. One great scheme no sooner neared a successful consummation than he rushed into another. Ile planned and handled the largest enterprise as easily as ordinary men do their most trivial every-day affairs.

In 1852, he was sent to Congress in order to be in a position to more rapidly help on his railroad schemes and the Fox River improvement, but was defeated in 185-1 for re-election on account of what was termed his " un-Democratic action " on the Kansas-Nebraska bill.

Notwithstanding his large and perplexing business affairs, Mr. Macy found much time for social gatherings. He loved whole-souled generosity, and his house was the scene of more hospitality-dispensed with a peculiar aristocracy that showed a proud family and a good breed- ing, at the same time with that cordiality and indiscrimination that made everybody, whether rich or poor, not only welcome, but perfectly equal and at home-than any other in the county, not excepting that of N. P. Tallmadge's.

Mr. Macy was drowned from the burning steamer Niagara, about one mile from Port Wash- ington, an Lake Michigan, September 24, 1856. His body was never recovered.

He was a man of extraordinary physical development and of commanding presence, being considerably over six feet in height, elegant in carriage, perfect in address and entertaining in conversation. He had two children-John B., who died in 1850, and Elizabeth B., who married M. J. Thomas, only to be left a widow in November, 1859, by reason of the Bellville disaster,

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where Mr. Thomas, then United States Marshal, was killed. She now resides in Buffalo, N. Y., but without any relatives belonging to the Macy family.

The quaint but ample homestead erected by Mr. Macy is now owned and occupied by David Giddings. It is but a few rods from de Neveu Lake and attracts the attention of all visitors and travelers.

MASON C. DARLING

was born in Amherst. Mass., in May, 1801, of old Puritan Yankee stock. His family settled in Massachusetts and Rhode Island .. He graduated at Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, and practiced in Greenwich, Amherst and adjoining towns.

In 1823, he married Naomi Ingram, of Amherst. He was sent for several terms as Rep- resentative to the Legislature of Massachusetts. In 1837, being obliged to quit practice. on account of ill health, he emigrated to Sheboygan, Wis., where he held some lands and interest in mill property, in connection with R. B. Marcy (now Brigadier General of United States Army). In 1838, he exchanged his property at Sheboygan, with J. D. Doty, for property at Fond du Lac, Wis., and settled there in 1838; his family arriving there in June of the same year.

At Fond du Lac, his property was south of and adjoining the old Fond du Lac Company plat, and he owned also an interest in the Fond du Lac property. He platted his land, built upon it, gave away lots for schoolhouses, Court House site and grounds, churches, for merchants, mechanics, lawyers and doctors, and, in the course of a few years, he found a thrifty village growing around him. Meantime, he practiced medicine, kept a public house for travelers, entered lands for settlers, built houses and stores for citizens and business men, gave away much of his pro- perty to induce settlers and improvements, and lived to see his village grow into the city of Fond du Lac.

He was a man not without faults, but with many excellent qualities. He had his friends and enemies, as all men of positive qualities will have.

From 1840 to 1847, he was chosen a member of the Territorial Legislature. In 1846-47, he was chosen Speaker of the House. In 1847-48, he was elected to the Council of the Ter- ritorial Legislature. In 1848, he was elected a member of Congress from the Second District of Wisconsin. He was the first Mayor of Fond du Lac.

In 1864, he removed to Chicago, where he had business and investments, and, in 1866, he died there of diphtheria, and was buried in Rienzi Cemetery, Fond du Lac, in sight of the city which he had founded. For a number of years before his death, he was a member of the Con- gregational Church at Fond du Lac, and was a consistent member of it at the time of his death.

Whether wisely or not, the inception, the start and growth of Fond du Lac as it is, was due largely to the shrewdness, vigor, energy and watchful care of Mason C. Darling. But for his gifts of lots for various purposes, the city would possibly have been built at Taycheedah.

HENRY CONKLIN

was born in 1794, near Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., N. Y. He received a common-school education, commenced business as a merchant at Poughkeepsie, and soon after became propri- etor of the Main Street Docks and engaged extensively in the forwarding and shipping trade on the IIudson River. He was the cotemporary and friend of Cornelius Vanderbilt in the North River steamboating and transportation enterprises of fifty years ago. He was one of the founders of the "up-river" whaling trade, and built the first (and we believe only) three whal- ing-ships, with their apartment docks, oil-houses, etc., at Poughkeepsie. He also developed the iron-ore beds at Beekman and Amenia, organized companies, built furnaces and inaugurated and carried on, at that day, an extensive shipping trade in pig iron, etc., with the old Albany and Troy stove and iron manufactories.

He held several local offices, and represented Dutchess County in the New York Legislature several terms, as a Henry Clay Whig. The anti-tariff disturbances and financial crashes of 1838-40 shattered the handsome fortune his energy and enterprise had built up, and led him to

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seek new fields in the Far West. After spending the summer of 1841 in prospecting the wil- derness of the Northwest, he, in the fall of that year, gathered together the remnant of his fort- une, his family and household goods, and emigrated to this, the spot he had selected for his future home. We thought then that "out West" was easily accessible, compared with the means of transportation within the reach of our grandfathers. Yet, the subject of this sketch. with ample means to use the fastest lines, by steamboat to Albany, by canal to Buffalo, by " the stanch and fast upper-lake steamer Columbus," to Green Bay, by Durham boat up the Fox River and Winnebago Lake, only got his family and "plunder " into their " diggins " after a month's toil and travel.

Col. Conklin, as he was then, in accordance with the custom of the country, called, and which title he bore and was always known by, brought with him his indomitable pluck, enter- prise and business habits, together with perhaps more capital in cash than was then possessed by the whole county besides. He settled first at the big spring, under the Ledge, where Sheriff Colman now resides, built the old log house, since moved and now standing on the west side of the highway just beyond Colman's. This house was a palace in those days. The first house with real shingles, with pine floors, board partitions and "pinted-up" with real lime mortar- luxurious materials. all carted from Green Bay or Fort Howard, over the old military and Doty road.

He entered large tracts of land in Empire, Byron, Oakfield and on Calumet prairie ; started several farms, built the first grist-mill, the " Mountain Mill," three miles east of the city of Fond du Lac, and afterward built the Oakfield Mills. He drove overland from Ohio the first large flock of sheep to this county, and distributed them amongst the few farmers then settled and settling here.

He stocked and fitted up the first extensive dairy farm in this part of the county, each 1,000 acres of land with fifty to one hundred cows ; three barrel churns, worked by machinery with horse or dog power, after the old style. before cheese and butter factories were dreamed of.

Ever liberal, active, sanguine, he invested his means in, or lent a helping hand to, many of the pioneer exterprises of our county, connected with farming, milling and stock-raising on a large scale-eschewing his old ventures in the mercantile and city lines of business. His ideas were, like those of many pioneers, in advance of his times. With the then limited mar- kets, machinery and transportation, a successful Dalrymple wheat farm or Colorado stock ranche was impracticable if not impossible.

His Whig principles found no congenial clime in this red-hot Loco-foco section, and it is believed he never, after an early day, aspired or interested himself much in politics.

He was, with his good wife, a faithful, consistent Christian, and member of the Baptist denomination, and prominent among the founders and supporters of the first Baptist Church of Fond du Lac.

After about 1856, he lived a quiet, retired life, in the city of Fond du Lac ; suffered long from ill health, culminating in paralysis and softening of the brain, and died in the year 1868, aged seventy-four years.

Many an old settler is indebted to the kind heart and open hand of the " old Colonel " for a quiet lift or a fair start in life here, and the memory of his genial disposition and manly character is green in the hearts of all our surviving pioneers, as well as many of the later generation.

ALLIE ARNOLD CRAWFORD

was born in the city of Fond du Lac February 10, 1850. She was the only daughter of Leon- ard and Lucy Arnold. Her life measured but a brief space in years. It is seldom one meets a person who combined so many noble qualities, and who possessed no bad ones. She was respected and loved by, and had the confidence of, all classes. The poor man, woman or child received a greeting as cordial as was extended to the rich and refined. Nothing could induce her to utter a word or do an act that would wound the feelings of any one. Nothing gave her more pain than to think that a word or deed of hers could be construed as conveying a slight

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offense. She was a pure-souled, tender-hearted, sweet-tempered, large-minded, noble woman. No one could become acquainted and converse with her without feeling that he was in the pres- ence of a person far above the average. Modest, unassuming, great-great in intellect, good- ness of heart, purity of character, and in all that goes to make up a perfect type of a woman. She graduated from the high school in 1867, with the highest honors. It was about this time that one of her essays attracted general attention, and was pronounced by many as one of the best written papers that had come from the pen of a Wisconsin student. She had written many poems previous to that, some of which were published and well received. From the date of her graduation up to within a month or two before her death, she wrote a great deal, both prose and poetry. Commencing with the Fond du Lac press, it was but a short time until she was requested to write for some of the foremost papers and magazines in the country. Her productions always commanded a good price. During the three last years of her life, she was a regular contributor to the Christian Union, the Christian at Work, Harper's Weekly, the New York Independent, the Chicago Advance and various other papers. Her "Easter Morn- ing," published in Harper's Weekly, was highly praised by some of the best authors in the country. Had her physical strength equaled her mental, and had her life been spared, Mrs. Crawford would have become one of the very first among the long list of lady writers in Amer- ica. MIer loss to the home circle, the social and literary world, and to humanity, was very great. She died at Traverse City. Mich.

The words " Allie Arnold is dead," sank deep into the hearts of every man, woman and child who knew her. They felt that they had met a great loss. Never was sorrow more genu- ine. One of earth's purest gems had passed over to that other and better world.

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 70

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