USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources biographical sketches the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 59
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TOWN OF WOODLAND.
Sixth Infantry-Co. A-Samuel J. Hutchins. Co. I- William H. Nicbols.
Twelfth Infantry-Co. B-Oscar Tabor, Stephen J. Davis.
Seventeenth Infantry-Co. II-Jonathan Stanley.
Nineteenth Infantry-Co. A-James R. Apker, Jesse Mellon, George W. Cooper, John Hollingshead. Sixtieth Ohio-Co. C-Adolphus Mellon. First Cavalry-Co. H-Nicholas S. Chambers. Third Cavalry-Co. F-Frederick Reincke.
THE DRAFT.
Under the call of the President, dated October 17, 1863, for 300,000 volunteers to serve for three years or the war, the quota of Sauk County was 197, divided among the towns as fol- lows : Fairfield, 6; New Buffalo, 9; Dellona, 5; Excelsior, 8; Winfield, 7; Reedsburg, 14; Lavalle, 6; Woodland, 7; Ironton, 12; Washington, 8; Westfield, 7; Freedom, 6; Baraboo, 24; Greenfield, 7; Merrimack, 8; Sumter, 7; Honey Creek, 10; Bear Creek, 8; Franklin, 7; Spring Green, 8; Troy, 8; and Prairie du Sac, 15. The 5th of January, 1864, was fixed as the date the draft should take place in case the quotas were not filled, but volunteers came for- ward in sufficient numbers to obviate a "last resort."
Under the President's call for 500,000 volunteers, dated July 18, 1864, the quota of Sauk County was 437, divided by towns as follows: Fairfield, 12; New Buffalo, 9; Dellona, 11; Excelsior, 15; Winfield, 8; Reedsburg, 27; Lavalle, 18; Woodland, 12; Ironton, 25; Wash- ington, 30; Westfield, 13; Freedom, 9; Baraboo, 42; Greenfield, 18; Merrimack, 19; Sumter, 16; Honey Creek, 30; Bear Creek, 18; Franklin, 20; Spring Green, 16; Troy, 23; Prairie du Sac, 46.
On the 1st of October, 1864, Deputy Provost Marshal Philip Cheek, Jr., was compelled to remind the citizens of Sauk County that there was still a deficiency in their quota. He said : " The draft will commence in Sauk County on the 3d of October, and those drafted will report at Prairie du Chien on the 19th. The towns that have not filled their quotas up to this date by the record of my office are as follows : Dellona, 4; Excelsior, 6; Winfield. 1; Reedsburg, 7; Ironton, 4; Lavalle, 11; Woodland, 6; Washington, 19; Westfield, 4; Freedom, 5; Honey Creek, 17; Sumter, 3; Franklin, 14; Bear Creek, 8."
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Accordingly, the draft took place in the towns of Lavalle, Woodland, Washington, Bear Creek and Franklin. In some a supplemental draft was necessary, owing to quite a number of those enrolled having business and being absent in Canada when the drawing took place.
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.
In March, 1865, the last draft took place, but the fall of Richmond and the surrender of Lee happily made its enforcement unnecessary.
In connection with the subject of the draft, the following from N. V. Chandler, of Reeds- burg, concerning local credits and bounty money, will be of interest.
" I had held aloof from enlisting from a conviction, that, so long as there were still tens of thousands of single men who had not entered the service, there was no pressing call of duty for one situated as I was, to sacrifice the comfort of those depending on me by doing so. I realized that, with the high and constantly rising scale of prices for the necessaries of life, the pittance of $13 per month, with all the bounties then offered by the National and State Governments, would be entirely inadequate to the comfortable maintenance of my wife and six children during my absence, even should I be so fortunate as to return at all. Nevertheless, I foresaw that the time would come when it would become a duty to enlist, and I settled that time to be whenever the needs of the Government should require it to levy and enforce a draft. That time had now come. A draft had been ordered, and the time for it to take place fixed. I left my home in Reedsburg on the evening of December 25, 1863, to go to Clinton Junction, Rock County, on business. While there, a rousing war meeting was held in the evening, and a local bounty of $300 was offered to every man who would enlist and be credited to the town. I was urged to enlist and take the bounty. I stated my willingness to do so, but questioned whether my credit to the town of Clinton would stand in view of the fact that I was a resident of another county. There was a division of opinion upon the question, no authoritative decision upon such a case ever having been promulgated, so far as any one present knew. I finally offered to telegraplı to Lieut. Col. Lovell, in command at Camp Randall, Madison, stating the case, and if he decided that I could be credited to their town I would enlist and pay the expense of the telegram, other- wise the town should pay the cost of the message; which proposition was accepted, and I telegraphed at 11 A. M. of December 28, I think, about as follows :
" LIEUT. COL. LOVELL, CAMP RANDALL, Madison, Wis. :
" Am resident of Sauk County. Can I be credited to Clinton, Rock County, and take local bounty ? " N. V. CHANDLER.
" On sending the dispatch, I stated to the town authorities that I would wait, if necessary, for an answer, until the arrival of the passenger train from the north at 12.5 A. M. of the 29th, thirteen hours, when, if no answer came, I would proceed homeward via Chicago. Frequent visits to the telegraph office during the afternoon and evening gave no answer, and it was within ten minutes of train time, and I had given up all expectation of one, when the following came rattling over the wires :
"N. V. CHANDLER, CLINTON JUNCTION : " A man will be credited to the town whose bounty he takes.
" LOVELL, Lieutenant Colonel, commanding Camp Randall, Madison, Wis.
" It seems that the question was as new to Col. Lovell as to me or to any one with whom I conversed at Clinton Junction, and he could not answer it ; but recognizing the impor- tance to the recruiting service of an official decision of the point by the highest authority, he liad at once forwarded my message to the Secretary of War, by whom it was laid before the full Cabinet, a decision arrived at, and that decision telegraphed back to Col. Lovell in season to hold me. The next morning's dailies throughout the North contained the following telegraphic announcement : ' It was decided in full Cabinet, yesterday, that a man will be credited to the town whose bounty he takes.' The decision had undoubtedly been made in my case."
THE ROLL OF HONOR.
"How sleep the brave who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest. When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mold, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Thon Fancy's feet have ever trod."
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.
The decoration of the graves of those who fell in the cause of the Union was extensively participated in throughout Sauk County, in May, 1868. In Baraboo, the citizens generally laid aside business cares and joined in the solemn procession that proceeded to the cemetery on that occasion. The heroes who sleep their last sleep, or whose monuments are in this home of the dead are twenty-one in number. They are but a platoon of the regiment of the county's slain A far greater number lie on the fields where they met death in their country's cause, or in unknown graves where the dead of the battle-field, the hospital or the prison pen, have been gathered together. Of these nineteen, a brief record is given :
Harlan B. and Burrett C. Cochran ; the former killed at the battle of Falling Waters, on the Potomac, July 14, 1863; the latter died suddenly at home July 27, 1865, eight days after leaving his regiment, and one day before he was to have been discharged from service.
Robert Crawford, one of the earliest and most esteemed settlers. He was a member of the Third Cavalry, and died January 30, 1868, from the effects of exposure in the south.
Francis Marion Crawford, son of the preceding ; a member of Company F, Twenty-third Regiment; died at Greenfield, Miss., where his body rests.
Henry R. Ketchum, Company F, Twenty-third; died from disease contracted in the service.
Henry W. Getchell, Lieutenant Company F, First Cavalry ; died at Little Rock, Ark., in a rebel prison.
Charles Cowles, First Sergeant, Company K, Fourteenth Veteran Volunteers; died Sep- tember 20, 1864, at Brownsville, Ark.
Elisha L. Walbridge, First Lieutenant Company F, Twenty-third; died March 31, 1863, while on his way home.
Howard H. Baldwin, Company F, Twenty-third; returned home sick at the close of the Vicksburg campaign, and died some two months after his return.
Charles A. Brier, Company K, Fourteenth ; mortally wounded at Pittsburg Landing, April 6, 1862; died 26th of the same month at Mound City Hospital.
Rev. John M. Springer, drafted September 1863; assigned to the Third Infantry, he was soon afterward made Chaplain ; right knee fractured at the battle of Resaca, from the effects of which he died in the hospital at Nashville.
John Starks, Company A, Sixth Regiment (Iron Brigade) ; severely wounded at Gainesville on the 28th of August, 1862; received a mortal wound at Vicksburg, "with a manifestation of a chivalrous and soldierly spirit scarcely ever surpassed," wrote Col. Vilas, after the battle.
Charles A. and Oliver W. Thomas, sons of Mrs. Joanna Thomas, who gave four of her five sons to the defense of the Union; Charles died at Milliken's Bend, and Oliver at Memphis.
Frank H. Crossman, Fortieth Regiment; died May 17, 1867, aged 21 years.
W. G. Fuller, Captain in the Sixteenth Michigan Volunteers; killed by guerrillas inOct. 1864. Warren A. Brown, Forty-sixth Infantry; died at Athens, Ala.
George W. Wing, Eleventh Infantry ; died from diseases contracted in the South.
George Turner, died while in the Navy.
Edgar Ames, enlisted early in 1861, in Company A, Sixth Infantry; died at Arlington Heights ; his was the first death in the company. His father belonged to the Seventeenth, and also died in the service.
Col. David S. Vittum, Third Wisconsin Cavalry; died in Baraboo, April 10, 1880.
Reedsburg's Roll .- Capt. H. A. Tator, Sergt. F. W. Henry, Corp. Alvah Rathbun, Sergt. Spencer S. Miles, Henry Bulow, Jason W. Shaw, Lafayette Ackerman, James Markee. John Hines, G. W. Priest, Harrison Root, George W. Root, George C. Miles, Lewis Curtis, John Collins, Hugh Collins, and John McIlvaine.
What it Cost .- The amount of money paid by the several towns in Sauk County for war purposes during the rebellion was about $100,000. The county raised $12,000 by tax for the support of families of volunteers. In addition to this, for the same worthy purpose, the town of Franklin raised $300; Reedsburg, $800; Washington, $3,600, and Woodland, $1,800. There is no measure by which can be calculated the amount of human suffering and self- sacrifice result- ing from the unhappy strife.
Saw Barker
BARABOO.
مو
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY.
CHAPTER V.
NATURE'S WONDROUS WORK.
DEVIL'S LAKE-TIIE DELLS OF THE WISCONSIN-THE PEEWIT'S NEST-THIE UPPER AND LOWER NARROWS-PARPIIREY'S GLEN-DORWARD'S GORGE-MIRROR LAKE-THE DEVIL'S POST OFFICE-ECHO ROCK-THE BEE-HIVE-FERN DELL-CONGRESS HALL.
DEVIL'S LAKE.
" Nestled close down between wild, rocky hills, Feeding no rivers and fed by no rills, Devil's Lake lies, like a jewel rare, Dropped from the Ocean's casket there."
Strangers coming to this delightful spot for recreation and pleasure or a brief surcease of business cares, are seriously perplexed to know why it is called Devil's Lake. " Blast me heyes," said a discerning English tourist, after returning from a trip on the " Minnewaukan," " hi caan't see hanything that looks like the devil, you know." Nor can any one explain the reason for applying to it so opprobrious a title. When the lake was first discovered by the whites, they called it Spirit Lake, because they were told by the Indians whom they found here that the daughter of one of their chiefs had drowned herself in it on account of a love affair, and that at certain stages of the moon her spirit could be seen floating over its smooth surface. From Spirit Lake, they say, it " degenerated " into Devil's Lake; but the two words are so far from being synonymous that this explanation can scarcely be accepted. There is certainly nothing about the lake or in its vicinity that suggests the devil or his handiwork. On the contrary, there is everything to suggest something nearer heaven ; for here nature has toiled with a divine hand. The place is less romantic than picturesque. It is almost devoid of cozy glens and wild nooks arched with moss-covered rocks from which ooze springs of clear, cool water ; but there is some- thing sublimely grand in the view obtained from almost any point. It is a perpetual object of interest, full of strange, inspiring beauty ; a home for poets and artists ; a retreat for lovers and misanthropes.
A· current of fiction seems to pervade the surcharged atmosphere, and it is not surprising that love-tragedy tales are willingly related to those who will listen, by the few inhabitants there- abouts. It is said-and of course no one will dispute the authority-that in very early times, before white men came to till the lands, there was camped on the lake's shores for awhile, a roving Indian band. The dusky chief of the tribe had a bright-eyed daughter named Ke-she-ah- ben-o-qua, which in our language means the "early dawn." She is described as having been
beautiful as dawn, with a slender form of swaying grace, and dark, sweet eyes, full of love. It was in the queen month of summer, splendid June, when the Indian band lit their camp-fires in the woods just back from a grassy slope near Devil's Lake. And by strange chance a hunter, who had strayed here from vine-wreathed France, strolled, weary and woe-begone, longing for sight of some human face. He discovered the lake, and, well-pleased with so beautiful a picture, wandered down to its shore. But Ke-she-ah-ben-o-qua had preceded him to that wild nook, for she loved the sky and its twin-sister in the water. So when Pierie's eyes caught sight of her, they were magnetized and spell-bound by her wonderful beauty. The shy Indian maiden was startled by the unusual presence of a white hunter, and she vanished among the trees like a scared bird. She was not averse to the stranger's face, and for a long time she pondered the mystery in her heart; but at night she found the pale-faced hunter in her father's tent, smoking the pipe of peace. A blush of recognition and a downward glance of the sweet eyes Ke-she-ah- ben-o-qua gave in return for Pierie's admiring look. From this their acquaintance grew and ripened into love. For months the French hunter camped with the Indian braves, and when the
F
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corn was ripe and rustled on its stalks, and the moon hung full in the sky, Pierie went to the Chieftain to ask of him his daughter ; and Windago, a young brave who had jealously watched Picrie and loved Ke-she-ah-ben-o-qua from afar off, went also. The old Chief gave a strange reply. Actuated by pride only, he led the rival lovers to the side of Devil's Lake, and pointed to a pine tree, high up in the crags of the opposite shore, in the topmost branches of which he had seen an eagle seek her nest. He said, "The chosen suitor shall be he who can first bring to me from yonder tree, an unfledged eaglet." Windago and Pierie were in their canoes and across the lake in a trice. They were pretty nearly even in scaling the almost insurmountable rocks to the base of the tree, but here Pierie gained upon Windago, and climbed the tree first. He went up, up, and-O ! victory-clasped the eaglet in his hand. But fierce Windago, seeing his adversary triumph, threw a glance of wicked hate upward, and gave the branch of the tree whereon Pierie's foot rested, a wrench that sent poor Pierie headlong, bleeding and lifeless on the rocks below. A wild cry, in falling, like the cry of a broken heart, the pale French hunter gave. And Ke-she-ah-ben-o-qua. Ah! she saw it all from the opposite shore of the sweet little lake, and, with a wail of despair, threw herself into the water, and her spirit went to meet her lover's on the Shadowy Plain. It is said that on moonlight nights, the shades of the lovers may be seen floating over the water. So it was named at first Spirit Lake.
" Woe to the warrior, maid or child, That meets the specter, weird and wild, Or hears the notes of the vengeful cry That fills the air as it passes by ! "
Notwithstanding the persistency of these ever-present " spirits" in flitting from rock to rock and hill-top to hill-top and skipping over the water at all hours of the night, regardless of the weather, Devil's Lake has become a favorite summer resort for large numbers of people from almost every clime. Its popularity is increasing from year to year, and its convenient location-situated on one of the principal railway lines running northwest from the great city of Chicago, the entrepot of America-brings it within easy access. Visitors, to the number of seventy or eighty, can find first-class hotel accommodations at the Cliff House-a structure built in Swiss style, with ample wings and verandahs, and surrounded by groves and walks, both nat- ural and artificial-now under the management of W. B. Pearl, an experienced landlord. At the south end of the lake N. C. Kirk has erected a row of summer cottages with all the appur- tenances to housekeeping. Each cottage will accommodate six or eight persons, and, as an evidence of their popularity, they are in constant use during the summer months usually devoted to quiet vacations by "city folk." Bathing, boating and fishing occupy the time of the pleasure seeker, either of these recreative pursuits being conducive to good health and amiable dispositions.
In 1868, a small steamboat, the " Capitola," was placed on the lake, but it soon proved to be too small a craft for the accommodation of visitors, and, in 1873, Capt. Thompson, who has an eye to the comfort of every one, built a larger boat, the " Minnewaukan," capable of conveying 150 passengers. A trip around the lake on the " Minnewaukan " is one of the most pleasant features in the long list of pleasant things with which the visitor meets.
The particular points of interest about the lake can be better seen and more thoroughly appreciated by a pedestrian tour over the bluffs ; though the most striking objects are pointed out from the deck of the "Minnewaukan." The curiosities of the east bluff, aside from the magnificent view, are the Devil's Doorway and Elephant Rock. The Doorway is situated over 400 feet above the lake's level, and is in the form of two well-defined columns of bowlder stone standing side by side, and reaching probably forty feet above the base. The top stone of each column appears to have fallen at the same moment, and, meeting each other over the aperture between, formed an arch or lintel.
Elephant's Rock is a large sandstone bowlder, some fourteen feet long and eight feet high. In form, it represent an elephant lying upon one side, with well-shaped head and ear. It is said that Capt. Tho pson appropriated the ivory tusks, and that a Chicago traveling man secured the trunk. T ere are many other fantastically shaped rocks on the east bluff, which a
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well-developed imagination might form into various things, from a dry-goods box to a locomo- tive.
The especial features of the west bluff are the Turk's Head and Cleopatra's Needle, the latter being about fifty feet high, and standing out from the face of the bluff-wall in an attitude of perpendicular security. The Needle can scarcely be called an obelisk, which literally means a high, slender monument of one stone. The Supreme Architect has used many stones in the masonry of the Needle. Therefore it would not be a convenient article to transport, and when transported would be very difficult to reconstruct. Should Chicago become ambitious for an obelisk to perpetuate the memory of a wicked woman, as did Gotham, she may go elsewhere than Sauk County for it.
The Turk's Head is a rocky promontory which stands a short distance north of the Needle. The rocks comprising it appear to have been piled one upon the other, or left there when the bottom of the adjacent territory "dropped out." At a distance the huge mass has the outline appearance of the turbaned head of a Turk. The facial complexion is also of the Ottoman hue. The tall pines in front so obstruct the view that we are left in the dark as to whether this par- ticular Turk occupies a sitting posture and smokes the serene nargile. After all, it may be only the head of a Turk severed from the offending body by a God-fearing Russian, or a gory-handed Circassian.
The impressions left upon the minds of those who visit Devil's Lake are naturally very marked. The awe-inspiring hills, with great quartzite bowlders clinging to their sides, and massive piles of sandstone heaped high above the soil-level of the adjacent peaks, are silent though eloquent witnesses of Nature's wonderful work. By what process did the result we see come about ? Let us consult the scientific mind. James H. Eaton, A. M., in a report on the geology of this region says : Running east and west through the center of Sauk County are two parallel ridges, with an average elevation of 400 to 500 feet and a base of two to four miles. The distance between them is three to four miles. The Baraboo River runs in this valley, and empties east into the Wisconsin. A north-and-south valley cuts half-way through the end of the southern ridge, and trends east toward the valley of the Wisconsin. In the north end of this
valley lies Devil's Lake. The ridges are compact, crystalline sandstone, without cement, or quartzite. The predominant colors are pink and red, often banded with straight or contorted parallel lines of lighter or darker colors. In some places, the rock is a homogeneous white quartz with distinct and well-formed crystals. Both the nature of the rock and its position give evidence that it is metamorphic Potsdam sandstone. The rock presents all gradations, from the simple sandstone to the perfectly crystallized quartz. The Potsdam sandstone consists of small, round grains of quartz, and is very loosely cemented. It can easily be crumbled with the fingers. Pieces of the quartzite may be obtained in all stages, from this friable sandstone to that where the grains are apparent and the rock is less friable, to that where the homogeneousness is here nearly approached, but the small grains can still be seen, and finally to the perfect homo- geneous quartz. No sharp geographical line of demarkation between the sandstone and quartzite, and no gradation in any direction, is observed. The homogeneousness of the colored quartzite is not as perfect as it appears. Whenever a surface has been subjected to the weather, the small grains come to view again. The bandings of the quartzite are very similar to those in the undisturbed sandstone. These bands sometimes consist of layers of fine grains of sand. Some of the great blocks of quartzite, which have fallen down the sides of the valley, are most beauti- fully covered with regular ripple-marks. They must have been first made in the moving sands. The layers are nearly as perfect as in the sandstone, and have a dip equal to the inclination of the ridges. The dip on either side can be seen best from the opposite side. The anticlinal ridge on the east side of the lake is removed by the valley, which trends to the east, and on the west by another valley, which comes down to the lake. Vertical joints also lead to the conclu- sion that the ridge has been formed by the upheaval of the horizontal layers of sandstone. The layers were not traced north and south to determine whether they are continuous horizontally. Both the nature of the rock and its position forbid the idea of aqueous fusion or active volcanic
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agency. The change must have taken place by the purely wet way of partial solution and crys- tallization, or by a low degree of heat, working for a long series of years, through the moisture in the sandstone, probably aided by the pressure which lifted the ridges, If the latter, the change and elevation of the rock took place at the same time, and both effects were produced with extreme slowness. The ridge must have been raised before the glacial epoch. Abundant proofs of the movement of glaciers over the rock since it has been metamorphosed have been dis- covered. In many places on the elevated portions, smoothly polished surfaces .of quartz of great extent have been exposed by removing the soil. Before the glacial epoch, there seem to be no data for fixing the time of the elevating and metamorphic action. There has, therefore, been ample time for metamorphic action of the most extreme slowness.
Dr. Lapman has advanced the view that the Baraboo River once ran through this valley on its way to the Wisconsin, and was turned from its former course into its present one by glacial drift. If this view is correct, as the facts seem to warrant, this valley may have been made at any time from the Lower Silurian up to the glacial period. It is not necessary to introduce any great convulsion. The regularity of the layers would forbid any sudden and violent upheaval and cracking of the rock. The slowly-acting agencies of the atmosphere and of water can have thrown down the great mass of debris which lies on the south of the valley. The valley is about half a mile wide. The ridges slope up from two hundred to three hundred feet, as steep as the large blocks will lie upon each other, and the remaining height is a per- pendicular wall cut by vertical fissures into most fantastic shapes, with natural fortifications and castles, turrets and towers, making one of the most charming bits of landscape in our State. A word in evidence that the Baraboo River formerly ran through the valley and was turned aside by the glacier. drift: The surface of the lake is thirty feet above the court house at Baraboo, and one hundred and sixty feet above the Wisconsin River to the south. The lake is more than thirty feet deep, and has a bottom of sand. There is, therefore, a sufficient descent. The valley is a natural course for the river, and running water would have given it some of the features of its present form. In the valley, both north and south of the lake, there is an abundance of drift. In a few hours, a large variety of northern rocks was col- lected-granite, syenite and Lake Superior rocks. They, with sand, have filled up a deeper val- ley to such a height that the river finds a new course to the Wisconsin.
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