The history of Jefferson county, Wisconsin, containing biographical sketches, Part 82

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 714

USA > Wisconsin > Jefferson County > The history of Jefferson county, Wisconsin, containing biographical sketches > Part 82

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Resolute Lodge, No. 191, I. O. G. T .. was instituted July 9, 1864. It prospered finel. for a time. It had upward of two hundred members, and owned its own hall and a library standard works, which cost over $200, but finally ceased to exist in 1874.

The Centennial Lodge, No. 238, was organized in May. 1876, and now (November, 1879 is stronger than ever before. Its work is mostly among the young, while efforts are put forth t save the downfallen among those of mature age.

The Hebron Lodge, I. O. O. F., was organized November 24, 1876, by Grand Worth Master J. W. Ostrander. The charter members were Lorenzo Dow Abbey. Robert Krause Daniel P. Elmendorf. Milton Ilenry Blakely, George W. Case and Myron Hollis. The follow have been Noble Grands : L. D. Abbey, William Henry Miner, James B. Miner, Charles C Brown, Barber W. Miner, Silas G. Westphall and J. Osborn Stevens. The total membership fifty-two. Twelve have withdrawn and organized a Lodge at the village of Rome.

An Anti-Thief Society was organized October 26, 1863, and, at one time, had upward ( seventy-five members. The first President was John Burnham : Vice President. D. D. Burring ton ; Treasurer, Joseph Powers ; Secretary, John G. Ridley. At the present time, it has $5 in the treasury. H. J. Munro is Treasurer.

The Jefferson County Agricultural Society .- The Jefferson County Agricultural Societ was organized in Hebron, in 1852. The first officers of the Society were elected here and thei names will be found in the Society's history, in another part of this work.

The Hebron Mutual and Farmers' Life Insurance Company, was organized during th year 1875, Jonas Folts, President, and L. B. Green, Secretary. Mr. Green has been the Sec retary since the organization of the Company. The Company has upon its books about $120 000. Its first loss occurred in October, 1879, and necessitated an assessment of 4 mills on th valuation of the property insured.

SOME OF THE FIRST THINGS.

The first physician who settled in the town was Joel Higgins. in 1847. The next was D W. 11. 11. Drake, in 1848. Dr. D. D. Burrington settled here in 1853, and lived here until hi decease, in 1872. Dr. S. G. Picket came in 1868, and still resides here. Dr. J. Sanborne set tled here in 1874, and remained one year. Dr. D. W. Case came in the spring of 1877 and remained till the spring of 1878; and Dr. J. Mahan came in May, 1879, and is still resident.

The first cabinet-maker was Seth Patee. He came in 1845. and remained until his death in 1861.

The first shoemakers were John Devore and his son, Hartley Devore, who came in 1846.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

The first merchant was Elijah Higgins, in 1848. Ile and D. F. Jones ran an ashery, and from that Higgins started a store.

The first blacksmith was Rufus C. Dodge, in 1836.

The first bridge built across Bark River was at Prince's Point, and the work was done and the material furnished voluntarily by the inhabitants, without taxing the town, and the sixty rods of corduroy across the marsh to get to the bridge was built in the same way.

The next bridge across the river was three-fourths of a mile below the village, and was built without tax. The people, after getting the frame up, were too poor to buy plank, got ont poles and spotted them down, which answered the purpose of a plank covering for six or eight years. In 1877, the town built an iron bridge across the river, on the site of the pole bridge, it a cost of $1.200. After the mail route was established, the people took hold and put up a bridge across the river just below where the dam now is, and it is needless to add that it was lone by voluntary labor.

The first roads opened by voluntary labor are the ones leading to Fort Atkinson and Whitewater.

The first brickmaker was D. F. Jones.

The first charcoal-burner was Azariah Cooley.

W. R. Case hauled the first load of maple-wood to Whitewater from the town. Hon. S. Wakely was the purchaser, giving a pair of stoga boots for two cords of maple-wood. Case broke down two wagons in hauling it.

WHO WERE AND ARE THE OLD SETTLERS ?

Horace Churchill and Hamilton MeCullom were in charge of the saw-mill in 1837 and 1838. William Reynolds moved to Wisconsin in 1836, and to Hebron in 1838, and settled on the farm adjoining the one where he lived for twenty years previous to his death, which occurred n September, 1878. Samuel M. Jones and Darius F. Jones settled in town during the sum- ner of 1838 ; Harrison P. Willard, in 1839. William Whapples and David Bartlett came during the summer of 1836, and to Hebron in 1841, and opened up farms on Sections 3 and 4. Jonas Folts came to Wisconsin in 1835, made his first purchase of property in Milwaukee and nade a tour into the interior, going as far as Janesville, or where Janesville now is. There was hot a single house between Milwaukee and Rock River at that time. He returned East in the all, was married, and came to Milwaukee with his wife in the spring of 1836 and erected a house. During the summer, he moved to the town of Summit, Waukesha County, and opened ap a farm, where he continued to reside until 1841, tben moved to the State of New York, where he remained until his return to Wisconsin in the spring of 1843, when he bought out David Bartlett, and, by other purchases, he had a farm of 500 acres, and here he made his home until his death, June 24, 1876, except one year at Jefferson, in 1847, when he was Register of Deeds.

Holsey J. Munro and David S. Wilcox settled on the farms where they continue to reside. n 1842. William Grant made a claim near Cushman's Mill in 1842, but sold it and purchased farm, the one on which he has continued to reside since 1843, except the years he was Register of Deeds and County Treasurer. His settlement dates from 1842.

Albert Burnham, John Burnham, Amos Gibbs and his father - Gibbs, Gideon Leavitt. A. B. Eaton, John Jackson. S. B. MeCune, Johnson McCune, Robert Wilson, Cyrus Cush- nan, Abel C. Cushman, Robert Barclay, Will Mitchell and Squire Brown settled during the rear 1843 ; Carlton S. Crittenden, Lafayette Fox, Lant Marble, Daniel Marble, Samuel T. Clothier, William Moore, William Brink, John Ritter. Joseph Green, James R. Dye, Clark Wil- our, Rufus Il. Parker, J. R. Van Norman, William R. Case, Chancey N. Torrey and Spencer Thayer, during the year 1844 : Billings Ballwin, Corydon Culver. Abraham Sanford, John Porter, Edward F. Hutchins, Truman C. Martin, Daniel Case, George Remmington, Marshall forrey, James Paterson, Charles Record. James Schoffer, R. A. Fenner, Asa Tyler, John A.

554

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Wilcox, James St. John, Amos H. Burnham, George Burnham and their father James Burn ham, Jesse Wright, Adin Reynolds, Daniel Case, Orin Clark, Richard Rhodes, H. M. Johnson E. H. and Jabez Hubbard and Sylvester Fox. came and made settlements in 1845 and 1846 Enoch J. Higbee, Freeman Martin, William Noyes, with his sons William H., Simon H., Henry and Wilder, and the Hays family. came in 1847.

The following are the names of those who have lived in Hebron and have been called to honorable positions in public life : Samuel T. Clothier. First Constitutional Convention, in 1846 Jonas Folts, Second Constitutional Convention, in 1847 ; George Trucks, H. K. Zimmermar and Alonzo Brown, Sheriff's of Jefferson County; Jonas Folts, Willard Grant, Registers o Deeds ; Charles T. Clothier, Clerk of Circuit Court ; D. F. Jones, Willard Grant, County Treasurers ; Edward Vincent, Samuel T. Clothier, H. D. Barrow, Willard Grant, Jonas Folts members of the Wisconsin Assembly ; Harrison Hutchins, Joseph E. Atwater, members of the Minnesota Legislature.

Daniel Bullock, the manager and Superintendent of the Wisconsin Manufacturing Com pany, made his first settlement in Hebron, and was employed by Mr. Powers, as a wood-turner

Dr. F. B. Brewer. of Fairbury, Ill., has met with great success in the practice of his pro fession, and his wife. the daughter of J. B. Miner, has achieved great popularity as a concert singer throughout Wisconsin, and being well known. her services, as a singer, are frequently called in requisition in the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. There might be many incidents related of early times, but want of space precludes it.

Harrison P. Willard and Cynthia Martin were married in 1844, being the first couple married in the town.

William and Susan Reynold had the first burial-a boy, in 1838.

A WOMAN FOR A DOLLAR.

Walter Searls sold his wife to George Oreutt, the consideration being $1, he (Searls) releasing all his right, title and interest in the " goods." Searls was a shiftless sort of a fellow. with a disposition to appropriate other people's property to himself, while Orcutt was a self. reliant, wide-awake man-a blacksmith : the woman, spirited and not satisfied with her lot, wa- pleased to have the bargain consummated. Mr. and Mrs. Orcutt have been prosperous, and are respected citizens of a thriving town in an adjoining county.

REMINISCENCES.

HI. J. Munro brought with him a dog, a cross of the Newfoundland and bull terrier. " Cease " was famous as being the only dog that would give battle to the big gray wolf. Hc would close in with a wolf or wolves, no matter how great the odds were against him, and many a battle he had At one time, a large, gray wolf was trapped, taken to a stable and let loose. Dogs were put into the stable with the wolf, but one snap from the animal would send them howling to a corner. Finally, old " Cease " was put in, and immediately closed with the wolf, and would have killed him had he been let alone. "Cease" would follow unerringly the tracks of a wounded deer. When he caught a deer, he would make a meal, then lie down, and with howls, let his master know of his whereabouts. He was as well known as any of the old pioneers in the " settlement." Ilis death was caused by the falling of a tree. His owner, Robert Wilson, mourned his death almost as he would one of his children.

D F. Jones and his brother Samuel kept " bach " for ten years, and their shanty was the place where the weary wayfarer could find shelter and food. D. F.'s culinary acquirements were famed from Rock River to the lakes. The brothers owned a single-barreled shot-gun, and, when pointed at game, would, like Crocket's coon, come right down. When loaded too heavy. its recoil was simply immense, and it was the custom of the last one that used it to leave a · heavy charge in it. then find some game that needed shooting and call for some one to come and

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

shoot, the result being that the shootist would be prone upon the ground with a painful shoulder or face, most likely both. Willard Grant was at one time making the ferry of Bark River in a canoe, the gun being placed the nearest to him intentionally, and, as some dueks were flying ver, his companions ealled on him to shoot, the result being a man overboard and " Plausam' the name of the gun) to the bottom, where it remained some months. It is needless to add that when the wet man gained the shore, there was no one near enough for him to vent his wrath ipon. Many and many the joke that was played upon the unsophisticated with " Old Plausam."

Mrs. Mark Curtis is the oldest native-born person that was born in Wisconsin. She was porn October 3, 1838, in the town of Summit, Waukesha County.

Dr. S. G. Pickett is one of the oldest practitioners of medicine in the State. He came to Wisconsin in 1836 and has been in active practice of his profession ever since.

Lyman Doud, the owner of the Hebron Flour-Mills, has been in business since 1842, his irst settlement being at Kenosha, and was one of the founders of the village of Port Washing- on, Washington County.

SETTLERS' SCIENCE.

Henry Carey's theory seemed to hold good in the settlement of the town of Hebron, that nen never opened up the richest part of the country first, for it took more means where the soil was very rich than where it was poor-not that the soil of the timbered land is necessarily poorer n quality than on the openings or prairie, but that it took less to make a start in the timber- ands than on the prairie. The timber was at hand, and a man could cut enough for a fair-sized og honse in two days. Another day with the help of neighbors would roll it up, and a week's work of one man would get out the "shakes " and put on the roof, and if the settler was very poor, and a long ways from a saw-mill, he would get out logs and spot them down for the floor. Often, when unable to own a stove, the chimney and fire-place were made of mud and sticks. Thus a comfortable dwelling would be erected by an outlay of a trifle for glass, and, in many nstances, oiled paper, taking the place of glass. So, in clearing and fencing, a single yoke of oxen sufficed for all the team-work. Three or four acres were usually cleared the first year and planted to corn and potatoes, and, after a year or two, enough would be eleared for wheat, and as the country settled, there sprung up a demand for portions of the timber, first being for the better class of saw-logs and hewing timber, then staves for barrels.

After awhile there came a limited demand for cord-wood. Charcoal burning was one of the industries that engaged quite a number, and in time the timber would pay for elearing the land, as it became worth something, and for the last ten or fifteen years the standing timber has been worth from $25 to $75 an acre. As timber became scarce men turned their attention to farming, and for the past few years dairying has occupied their attention. During the year 1878, there were nearly five hundred thousand pounds of cheese made in the town, and, in 1879, about the same amount. The assessed valua- tion of the town in 1878 was over half a million dollars. The total number of acres of land is 18,318 ; almost one-third is marsh. Of the balance, which was heavy timber, but comparatively little yet remains save in a few instances. Cyrus Cushman has some two hundred aeres-the estate of Jonas Folts fifty acres, and the estate of A. H. Burnham fifty aeres ; H. J. Munro, fifty acres ; estate of John Evans about the same amount. The town has not one dollar of cor- porate indebtedness. Only one school district is in debt, and this year it has made the neces- sary provisions for paying it. The farmers throughout the town are free from debt as a general thing. The habit of running in debt at the stores has never prevailed to any great extent ; per- haps, for the reason that the first settlers were limited in resources, consequently their credit was the same, and the habit formed of paying for what they bought has been adhered to.

THE PRESENT.

There is one grist-mill, three run of stone, Lyman Droud, proprietor ; one mill for grind- ing feed, one run of stone, and a saw-mill belonging to the Wisconsin Manufacturing Company,

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

of Fort Atkinson. Cyrus Cushman owns a saw-mill and has in connection with it a run o; stone for grinding feed. Two general stores. A. F. Windau and Robert Kranse. proprietors : two shoe-shops, Herman Rohde and Frederick Sipperb, proprietors ; one repair-shop, run by F. B. Stagg; two blacksmith-shops, Bernard Grogan and Michael Grogan, proprietors ; Chris topher Grogan manufactures wagons ; one sorghum manufactory, L. B. Green, proprietor : four cheese-factories, one of which is owned and managed by the Cold Spring Cheese Company. Of the other three-the Whitney and the Schleickenmair-Messrs. Clark and Reynolds are the proprietors. The Excelsior Cheese Company, of Oakland, are also interested in the manage ment. There are three practicing physicians in the town. Alonzo McDaniels (Eclectic), S. G. Pickett and James Mahan (old school). The estate of John A. Wilcox owns a cider-mill. and some years manufactures six to eight hundred barrels of cider.

FIRST SETTLERS.

William Reynolds was the first permanent settler in Hebron, Cyrus Curtis the first one in the town of Sullivan. He built the first house. Cyrus Cushman was the first man to winter in the town of Sullivan, being the winter of 1837-38. Cushman built the second house and Crowder the third. Alexander Henderson was the first settler of the town of Cold Spring (1837), and Abram Brink, of Brink's Mill, the second (1838). The people who first settled in Hebron, came from many different States, some from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Each came with strong convictions that the customs and laws from the locality from which he emigrated were the best, and men with wills and courage enough to hew homes for themselves out of the solid forest, were not ready to yield and give up without a struggle their long-established opinions. There was the usual bickering about roads and bridges, which are incident to the settlement of a new country. Their necessities caused them to form habits of concession. Men that backed a set of drag teeth or a plow, were not show in coming to an agreement as to where was the proper place to locate a road or bridge. Those who have resided in Hebron are now to be found in as many different States as the States from which they came. Many of them live in Oregon, California, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota. Washington Territory, etc. The unrest that brought them here impels them to move on. buoyed up by the hope that the El Dorado will be reached at last. The fortitude and pluck exhibited by them in the years 1843 and 1846, when families were prostrated by the ague. is worthy of all praise. These years are still spoken of as the "sickly seasons." In many neighborhoods, there was not a person to be found who was not afflicted with the "shakes.' There was but little homesickness, all having faith that cold weather would effect a cure.

HONORED DEAD.

Of the old settlers, but few remain, and of these, the silvered heads, beards flecked with white and the stooping forms admonish us that their work is nearly done, and these few have been called upon to mourn within a few years the following who make up the roster of the old settlers' " honored dead," to wit: Edward F. Ilutchins, Rufus H. Parker, Billings Baldwin. Spencer Thayer, Mrs. John Burnham, William Whapples, David Bartlett, John Vanderwater, Amos Gibbs, John Hutchins, John Porter, Giles Porter, James R. Dye and wife, Mrs. Enoch P. Dye. Johnson MeCune, James Wenham, Sr., Philadelphia. his wife, William Noves and wife, Harthy M. Johnson. Elias Reynolds, his wife. Clarinda C. Reynolds, Mrs. Ruth Edwards, Dr. Jason Cushman, Jonas Folts. John A. Wilcox, A. E. Fuller, William Reynolds. Chancy N. Torrey, Amos H. Burnham, George Burnham. James Burnham, Sr., and wife, Joseph Green, Charles Johnson, Jason Roekwood, Alexander Graham, Robert Wilson, Dr. D. D. Burrington, Ebenyer 11. Hubbard, Sylvester Fox, Samuel T. Clothier, J. R. Van Norman, A. S. Stevens, Jonathan Marsh, Sylvester Miner, Mrs. A. R. Eaton, Milton Blakely, Seth Patec, Mrs. Nancy Patee, Mrs. D. F. Jones, their daughter, Elijah Higgins, the first merchant; Charles T. Clothier,

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Mrs. Powers, William Moore, William L. Blakely, William Brink, Mrs. Martin, John Evans. James Clay, Mrs. Polly Whopples, Daniel Case, James Paterson and Henry Ferguson. Requi- seat in pace:

AZTALAN.

Especial interest attaches to this portion of Jefferson County, from the singular fact of its having been the first point decided upon for the location of a village in this part of the Rock River Valley. But the most important part of its history is buried in the dim past, and, although some of the very brightest scientific men known to modern times have written exhaustive papers on the subject of what they are pleased to term " a pre-historic race," whose scions are believed o have inhabited this region at some period between "the emergence of the land from the osom of Old Ocean," yet definite information as to the time of such habitation or the char- icter and origin of the people is lacking, and we are left to marvel over the antiquities some- imes revealed to sight from the inner recesses of the grand old earth mounds of the " Ancient City," with far less accurate knowledge of their real nature and uses than the most ordinary mind possesses relative to the history of the wonderful articles recently exhumed by Dr. Schlie- mann from the ruins of Ancient Troy. The theory-not at all an unpopular one-is advanced that the ancient Aztecs were once in possession of this region, and that ages ago they emigrated o Mexico, where they have since degenerated, until their habits and barbarous customs entitle them to the very appropriate name of "Greasers." No satisfactory explanation of the cause for this emigration is given, but the one susceptible of the greatest plausibility is founded in the belief that they were harassed by the lightning-rod agents and bunko men, and, finally, when in ex-patent-right genius , with the word " Professor prefixed to his ugly name, came round and advertised to lecture upon the rascalities of his own ilk, ye ancient Aztec, with the facility with which a buttered onion glides from an oily saucepan, left for parts long to remain unknown ; hence the word " Greaser."

No matter what the real history of the race of human beings who once inhabited the west bank of the Crawfish River may be, the wonderful evidence still remains that they belonged to in intellectual race. The place was first known to the whites of our own age during the time of Marquette and his brother Jesuits. The present generation discovered the mounds of what was afterward known as the "Ancient City " (now Aztalan, from the word Aztec), during the Black Hawk war, and their existence was not unknown to the first settlers in Southeastern Wis- consin, for they had heard of them from returned soldiers. Accordingly. when Thomas Bray- ton, James Payne, A. A. Brayton and his uncle, William Brayton, N. F. Hyer, Stephen Fletcher. Ruben Keene, J. F. Ostrander, HI. H. Sedgewick and others, settled in that vicinity in 1836-37, they were not surprised to find the ridge south of the point where they built their homes dotted with huge pyramids of earth, the evident work of the hand and brain of man.

In October, 1839, the first purchase of land was made from the Government, by Thomas Bray- ton and II. H. Sedgewick, each buying a quarter-section, and paying therefor $1.25 per acre. The village was platted in 1841, by Thomas Brayton, Edward Abbe and J. F. Ostrander, from a sur vey made by J. D. Waterbury, who settled there in 1839. The plat embraced twenty or thirty acres of land in Section 17. on the west side of the river, and, after being surveyed and recorded became, and for a long time remained. a village of great expectations. The chief employment of the settlers was catching fish and killing game, upon which they found themselves compelled to subsist. During the summer of 1839, before the Government land came into market, a few of the most enterprising settlers commenced the erection of a dam on the Crawfish, but aban- doned the enterprise when the homestead proclamation was made, and busied themselves with the slow but ultimately successful task of clearing the land and planting bread seeds.

558

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

THE MAILS.

The post office of Aztalan (the first in the county), was established in 1837, with N. F. HIyer as the first Postmaster. To this institution Aztalan owed much for its early prominence. The inhabitants came from all directions for letters from their far-off friends at the East. As late as the winter of 1838, the mails were carried on a man's baek each way from Waukesha (then Prairieville), to Madison, the carrier making weekly trips through the woods and across unbridged streams. For some time after the establishment of post offices at other points, Water- town in particular, Aztalan remained the distribution point, whence the mail was taken by extra carriers. But the building of plank-roads, and, finally, railroads, caused many advantageous improvements upon this system. The names of the individuals who have held the office of Post- master since the first official term of Mr. Hyer are : James Payne, N. F. Hyer (again), James Payne (a second term), Benjamin Baldwin, H. B. Willard, P. N. Waterbury, D. I. White and George Knapp.

RELIGIOUS RECORD.

It is said that missionaries of the Methodist persuasion visited Aztalan for the purpose of reelaiming the few wayward and graceless residents, as early as 1837. Services were usually held in the houses of believers, and later in the schoolhouse. But this denomination never attained sufficient strength to build a church. Divines of other creeds also came occasionally at an early day, but, as the population inereased and yellow-legged chickens became more plenty, their visits were more regular and frequent. The Methodist fold went into final dissolution about 1865.

The Baptists formed a society in 1839, with Elder Matthews as their spiritual adviser. The Elder will be remembered as entertaining strong abolition sentiments, and infusing his ser- mons with that doctrine, which, at that time, was regarded as being almost atheistical. What a change in forty years ! The Elder frequently went to Mineral Point to preach the Gospel and air his abolition belief and, upon one occasion, (in 1841), returned with well-defined marks of decayed eggs upon his sackeloth. The Aztalan Baptists built a church in 1873, but the society was merged with that of Lake Mills about ten years ago.

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The history of Jefferson county, Wisconsin, containing biographical sketches, Part 82

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 714

Author: Western historical company, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 714