USA > Wisconsin > Outagamie County > The pioneers of Outagamie County, Wisconsin : containing the records of the Outagamie County Pioneer Association; also a biographical and historical sketch of some of the earliest settlers of the county, and their families, their children, and grand-children > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
James and William Grimmer and some other main lum- bermen had located there permanently. The nearest place supplies could be obtained was Oshkosh, and there was only one poor woods road leading there, requiring five days to make a trip with a team. This road passed about six
229
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
miles west of Appleton at a point where Greenville now is, and led on to Shiocton where W. D. Jordan about that time had settled, and the road continued north, keeping east of Wolf river, from one to three miles to Shawano. West of Wolf river there was no thoroughfare but an Indian trail, until made by Mr. Hyde. The first winter that he logged there he had only two yoke of oxen. There was not an- other camp on that river; and it was with difficulty that he kept this road open to get in his supplies, still he was not easily discouraged. The business was such that he nor anyone had more than a bare living, nothwithstanding supplies and wages were lower than now. This induced him, in the summer and fall of 1854 to erect a log house and barn on the site of his present purchase, in what is now the town of Bear Creek, Waupaca county, three-fourths of a mile west of Outagamie county line. Here it might be mentioned that this location was just over the line in Waupaca county, and its interests were so inter- woven with this county we cannot well omit it. About this time business generally throughout the country began to improve and the lumber business took a sudden impetus and increased ten fold. Shawano at the head of the lum- ber interest on Wolf river became a noted place for busi- ness. Chas. M. Upham, brother of the present governor, and several other good business men, started up large sup- ply stores, hauling their goods from New London. This, in connection with lumbermen going into and returning from the woods, created a large travel, compelling Mr. Hyde to throw open his house to the public, which forced all the business on him that he could well attend to.
He was versed in surveying, and being an expert woods- man his knowledge was in daily requisition. There was not a settler for miles but he knew and had some dealings with. He surveyed and helped lay out the public roads, and was well acquainted with the streams and surrounding country. He located large quantities of pine for Hon. Philetus Sawyer, Ebenezer Hubbard and other heavy lum- bermen of Oshkosh. About this time the Crimean war broke out and engaged the attention of the whole of
230
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
Europe which created a great demand for all kinds of American produce, especially wheat, which was from one dollar and a half to two dollars a bushel. This increased emigration, and stimulated all wishing to get farms to locate government lands.
Mr. Hyde in his explorations had been careful to note such lands which made him useful to this class of men. In the month of March, 1855, he located Norman Clinton and his son Urial on the Pigeon river at the place where is now the city of Clintonville. They built a saw mill, later on a grist mill, and added much in building up the new country. That same summer he located Lewis and Nathan Phillipps within a mile south of him, and soon after Allan Phillipps and Lucian Williams settled in the same neighborhood. That fall he got a Geman settlement of fifteen families to locate about four miles west of him. Lewis Schoepke, Lewis Tielkie, Gottlieb Raisler and Chas. Klem were the leading men of this settlement. Their improvements drew around them other representative men, such as August Roloff, Herman and Julius Finger, John Buboltz, Mike Ruckdassel, and many others who settled in Maple Creek, and did much in opening up roads and constructing local settlements. Their children now take an active part in the affairs of Outagamie county. About this time Henry Fulkman, Carl Miller and Joe Long came into the settle- ment. The former (Henry Fulkman), was a young mar- ried man who did business for Mr. Hyde for several years. His children are now among the leading men and women of Clintonville. His eldest daughter is the wife of J. F. Miesner, one of wealthiest merchants of that city. The youngest is the wife of J. H. Brady, editor of the Clinton- ville Tribune, and helps materially in editing that paper. The boys own and skillfully manage one of the largest stores in Waupaca or Shawano counties. They are good specimens of German, native citizens, born and educated on or near the old Hyde farm, surrounded by disadvantages natural to such an early period, yet they have worked themselves high in the scale of general usefullness. These are only samples of many other children of that early Ger-
231
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
man settlement. The Raislers, the Schoepkes, Thielkies and Munserts are doing homage to Wisconsin's best wishes. In the fall of 1858, John Palmer and Eziekel Matterson started the town site of Embarrass on the location of Mr. Hyde's former lumber camp. They erected a saw mill and grist mill together, with other improvements, which at- tracted a large community of worthy settlers.
In the years of 1858, 1859 and 1860, on account of the war in Europe, and the high price of produce here, the country had fast been filling up, and many thrifty villages started and began to appear like an old farming district. No people enjoyed themselves better than these old pioneers. That air of freedom and liberty which they had and felt, the interest they took in each others welfare and with the pleasure they enjoyed in their social gatherings, cannot be realized in a dense and thickly populated coun- try. But this scene was to be changed.
In the fall of 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected presi- dent. The secession of the Southern States, throwing the North into financial distress, and badly depressing busi- ness. Mr. Hyde lumbered that winter following, but when he got his logs to Oshkosh he could get only two dollars and a half per thousand. He sold part for that price and took seven hundred and fifty dollars back to New London to pay his men. When he arrived there was less than one hundred dollars that he could use, the balance was on broken banks that had shortly failed. The cause of this was, these banks used Southern States bonds to secure their issue, and as fast as they went out of the Union this security became worthless. Most of the banks in Wisconsin were based on this kind of security, which converted the great volume of currency into worthless paper and spread ruin and consternation throughout the State.
In the winter of 1861-2 he organized a company, was elected captain and mustered into the Seventeenth Wiscon- sin Volunteer Infantry. The regiment joined the army at Pittsburg Landing and he continued to serve with it until Sept. 16, 1862, when ill health compelled him to resign. On his return home he took up his old business
232
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
of locating land on a much larger scale than before. The effect of the war had inflated the price of every kind of productions. The lumber interest, so badly depressed when it broke out, was now beginning to be more lucrative than ever before. This stimulated the lumbermen to cut the timber from the lands they had bought for that pur- pose and which had been kept from settling. At this time that part of the county east of the Shawano road for three miles each way, from the old Hyde farm, and comprising the town of Deer Creek, was comparatively a wilderness, notwithstanding a vast amount of lumbering had been done there. It is a very level township, almost a plain, having large, wide bottoms along the creeks and Embarrass river, which originally included more first-class oak, ash and basswood, than any other in the county, and the pine was mostly large, primitive timber, which grew along the barely perceptive ridges, skirting the expansive bottoms, which peculiar .kind is never found on poor land. The grove pine, that grows on sandy soil, would not exceed in that town two sections, therefore the quality of the land is genuine, being a rich alluvial deposit, and when rightly understood no town in the county will surpass it for general farming worth.
In 1862 Pat McGloan and J. Mariarty settled on section 31. Soon after Warren Jepson, a well known exemplary man, followed them. The next year Capt. Hyde assisted many others to locate there, among whom were Martin Dempsey and Daniel Murphy. They were men who well considered the propriety of an enterprise, but when once decided upon, knew no defeat. The former in the midst of prosperity met with an untimely death by the falling of a tree. His four sons are well-to-do men who have nobly filled the highest offices their townsmen could give. Daniel Murphy is now living in the village of Bear Creek, which is located on his old pioneer farm, enjoying in his declining days, the fruits of a well spent life. His son, P. D. Murphy, is doing business in the same village. He is a success in commercial affairs and has worked himself well up on the list of successful men. The next year 1864,
233
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
Frank Lyon, an expert in locating government lands, came in from Fond du Lac, with a retinue of French settlers and located them in the southeast part of the town. Among them were Louis Bricco, H. Babino, Oliver Besaw, O. Dery, M. Belthazor, E. Jubert, Joe. Faneuf and Lewis Lehman, with many others, all of whom have proved themselves worthy the effort of their leader.
North of them settled Wm. and J. Knapp, J. Wiesler, F. Werth and other Germans. Soon after followed a Danish settlement of over thirty families. Most of them went in to the northwest part of the town. There cannot be too much said in their favor. They have not only proved themselves reliable citizens, but indispensable to the wel- fare of the town. Many selections could be made from this Danish society that would honorably fill the highest trust that the county has the power to confer. There are others whose life sketch would be a history of the town. Dan. R. Thorn was among the first settlers and held the office of supervisor for many terms ; he devoted much time in laying out roads, building bridges and constructing turnpikes ; also had a salutary influence in the affairs of the county. His name will ever stand a worthy benefactor of his town. G. F. Richardson, Issac Thorn and many others who have worthily held offices of high trust are deserving of our notice, but space will not permit mentioning in detail the names of all these old pioneers, which I regret, more so on account of Capt. Hyde's business being so interwoven with the affairs and interests of these first settlers. After he moved to Appleton, which was in 1866 he devoted his time in the woods of Michigan, locating pine and iron lands, the aggregate of which will run into the millions of acres. Probably there are few his equals in this pursuit or who have seen, and passed judgment on more pine timber than he. With a. hardy constitution and a wiry frame, he has been able to successfully accomplish Herculean tasks, and few have done more active work and surmounted more difficulties.
On May 13, 1846, Captain Hyde (as he is now called) was married in Edgar county, Illinois, to Sarah Markley, whose
-
234
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
parents were of German lineage. They had three children of whom two survive. Frederick, the eldest, is doing a general mercantile business at Bear Creek, and also takes charge of the old Hyde farm which comprises two thousand five hundred acres. Fifteen hundred being under a high state of cultivation, having over twenty-five miles of tile underdraining, converting much worthless land into rich fields of meadow and grain, not surpassed in the state. He was married in 1882 to Libbie Clark, the daughter of Walter Clark, who was living in the village of Hortonville at the time of her birth. She is also the granddaughter of the late John McMurdo. They have two children. Edith, born in 1883, and Rodger, born March 17, 1893.
D. M. Hyde, the younger of the two sons of Welcome Hyde resides in Appleton and is engaged in the real estate business with his father, is a graduate of the Northwestern University, of Evanston, Ill., and was professor of civil engineering and mathematics in Lawrence University for several years, but resigned, preferring a more active life. He married Miss Inez Angel who is well connected with influential people in Chicago. They have but one child, Gladys, born April, 1888. Frances Hyde, the only daugh- ter of Welcome Hyde, was born Christmas day, 1859, on the old farm. When but a child her parents moved to Appleton where she was educated. In 1883 she was mar- ried to James Simpson, which union was crowned with three children, Earl, born August, 1884, Lee, born 1886, and Ethel, January, 1892. On November 11, 1893, she was called by that Divine power, who knows best what is for our good, to leave her beloved children and participate in her long cherished hope of eternity, leaving the world without dread, but in full faith of the things laid up for those who fulfill their probation here. Five weeks only elapsed and her little daughter, Ethel, followed her mother to the grave.
The boys are being brought up by their grandparents where .they have the best of care. Captain Hyde is a thoroughly self-made man. When he started out in the world for himself, he was penniless and the accumulations
235
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
he has made are solely the result of close application and due attention to business.
O. A. BLACKWOOD
Was born in New Brunswick in 1815; came to Hortonville in 1849 and worked for A. E. Horton, running his saw mill eight years ; he married Lucy Apt in 1840; they have had one son and four daughters. First child, Sarah, born in 1842, married to Charles Sweetser in March, 1864; they have three daughters. Second child, Josiah, born in 1844, married to Rosetta Manley in 1867; they have one daughter ; Mrs. Blackwood died in 1871; Mr. Blackwood married his second wife, Emma Foster, in 1874; they have one son and one daughter; they now live in Appleton. Third child, Olive, born in 1846, married to Nicholas Luxinger in 1865; they have one son ; she died in 1887. Fourth child, Betsey, born in 1848, married to Romanzo Hastings in 1866 ; they had one son and one daughter; she died in 1874. Fifth child, Laura, born in 1849, married to A. Johnson in 1870; they have one son; Mr. Johnson died in 1875; Mrs. Johnson married James Taylor, her second hus- band, in 1885; they now live in Milwaukee. O. A. Black- wood died in March, 1874, in New London. Joseph Blackwood was a soldier in the War of the Rebellion; he enlisted Jan. 21, 1863, in Company A, Third Wisconsin Cavalry and served until the end of the war.
JUDGE JOHN GOODLAND.
237
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
JUDGE JOHN GOODLAND
Is a native of England, born in the town of Taunton, Somersetshire, Aug. 10, 1831; a son of Wm. Goodland, a merchant in Taunton of good standing, whose wife Abigail (Sharman) also a native of England, was a daughter of industrious respectable farming people. Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Goodland were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom the daughters all died young ; the eldest son, James, was a sailor and was lost at sea ; Joseph lives at La Crosse, Wis .; Walter is in New Zealand ; William is still a resident of Taunton, England, and John is the subject of this sketch. The latter received a liberal education at the schools and academies of his native town, proving an apt scholar and a clever one ; he and a chum named Geboult carrying off the first prizes at the examination in 1849. At the age of eighteen he came to America ; he stopped in Oneida county, New York until 1854; he came to Wisconsin, and in Walworth county engaged in various pursuits, such as teaching school, clerking in stores, etc. For a time he conducted a grocery business in Sharon, but unfortunately, was burned out. He also served as justice of the peace and as town clerk in that village. In 1864, having been given a clerkship in the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway com- pany at Chicago, he removed thither, remaining until 1867, when he was offered and accepted the position of agent for the same company at Appleton, Wis. This incumbency he filled with the highest satisfaction to both the railroad company and the public for a period of seven years, at the end of which time he resigned in order to take up the study of law, in the meantime conducting an insurance business. In 1878 and '79 he was clerk of the judiciary committee of the assembly; in 1879 he was admitted to the bar of the circuit and supreme courts, and the following year was admitted to practice in the district and circuit courts of the United States. In 1888 he was elected district attorney and re-elected in 1890, resigning in 1891, in which latter year he became a candidate for
238
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
Circuit Judge of the Tenth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Outagamie, Shawano, Langlade, Forest and Florence, was elected in 1891, to take his seat in 1893 ; owing, however, to the death of Judge George H. Myers in August, 1891, which caused a vacancy, he was appointed by Governor Peck to fill the vacancy, and accordingly took his seat in August, 1891. In September, 1850, Judge Goodland was married to Caroline . M. Clark, who was born in Oneida county, New York, of English parentage, and nine children came of this union. Seven of whom, four sons and three daughters, are yet living, as follows : Abigail, living at home with her father; Edward in Min- neapolis; Walter, postmaster at Ironwood, Mich; his brother Fayette being with him; Mary in Winnebago, Wis .; Edith in Eau Claire, Wis., married to a son of Judge Bartlett, of that city, and John, married and living at the parental home. The mother of these died in October, 1893. In fraternal association our subject is a master mason of Waverly lodge, No. 51, F. and A. M. Appleton. As a lawyer the judge has been very successful, though never what may be called a money maker, but he earned the high respect and esteem both on the bench and at the bar.
JOHN S. SOUTHMAYD
Was born in Jay, Essex county, N. Y., Jan. 24, 1821; he was married to Susan Bruce, Feb. 20, 1851 ; they have four sons and two daughters. First child, Kittie T., born June 7, 1852, was married to Charles D. Fox, April 30, 1878 ; they have two daughters; they now live in Appleton. Second child, L. D., born March 4, 1854, is married and lives in Polk county, Wisconsin. Third child, Frank E., born May 11, 1855, is married and has one son ; they now live in Bayfield, Wis. Fourth child, Marcia, born Aug. 17, 1857, was married to Clarence Murch, April 28, 1877 ; they now live in Kearney, Neb. Fifth child, Willie E., born May 9, 1859, died Feb. 1, 1862. Sixth child, John B., born Dec. 5, 1861, married to Ida Becker, July 8, 1885 ;
239
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
they have one daughter ; they now live in Milwaukee; he is general agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. John S. Southmayd came to Appleton in 1855; he was a soldier in the War of the Rebellion and died in the service at Petersburg, Va., Jan. 24, 1865. His widow died Dec. 10, 1887. Mr. Southmayd was a brother of Mrs. H. L. Blood.
THE GRIGNON FAMILY.
Augustin Grignon was born in Green Bay, June 27, 1780. About the year 1800, he came as agent of the American Fur Trade company to Kaukauna, then called Kockaloo and bought the log house, built by Dominic Ducharm in 1790. Ducharm was the first white man, who settled in what is now Outagamie county. He commenced clearing land and making a farm and trading with the Indians, where the city of Kaukauna now stands. He bought of the Indians 1550 acres of land fronting 99 chains, about 114 miles, on the river and a part of it running back in a northwest direction nearly three miles. He numbered his claims No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. He afterwards sold his Indian titles to John Lawe, of Green Bay, the father of Geo. W. Lawe, of Kaukauna, to whom he was indebted for his goods, to trade with the Indians. The claims passed to said John Lawe's heirs, mostly to Geo. W. Lawe, now of Kaukauna. Augustin Grignon bought of the Indians 1520 acres of land fronting on the river seventy-one chains and fifty links wide and running north forty degrees, west nearly at right angle with the river two hundred and seventeen chains and fifty-eight links. The United States government afterwards gave him a patent for the same land.
The above described land covered a large part of the lands formerly bought by Ducharm of the same Indians and patented to him. The title to some of said lands is now in litigation.
Augustin Grignon built an addition to the log house bought of Ducharm and resided in it and traded with the
240
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
Indians until his death. His son, Charles A. Grignon, was born in said house (which was standing in 1894) June 15, 1808 and after his father's death he continued the busi- ness, buying furs of the Indians, until the United States bought all the remaining land of the Indians and removed them to a reservation in Shawano county. He also built a nice frame house where he died, which is now the residence of his widow and children. Charles A. Grignon married Mary E. Mead, a sister of Mrs. Geo. W. Lawe, and also of M. J. Mead, of Kaukauna. They have three sons named, Augustin, Ross and Charles, and five daughters named Fanny, Maggie, Lydia, Mary and Emelia.
Augustin Grignon was descended from the famous De Langlade family. His mother was Domitelle De Lang- lade, a daughter of the famous Charles De Langlade whose mother was a sister to the head Ottoway chief, King Nesso- wa-quet, of Mackinaw. Charles De Langlade became a famous leader of all the western Indians, it was he who planned and executed the famous battle known in history as the defeat of Gen. Braddock in 1755; he was also with Gen. Montcalm in the battle before Quebec in 1759, which resulted in the surrender of all the Canadas to the British ; he was also engaged in most of the battles in the French and Indian War from 1755 to 1760.
The children of Augustin Grignon were: Margaret, who married Ebenezer Childs; Charles A., born in Kaukauna, June 15, 1808, Alexander and Paul, and Sophia, who mar- ried Louis B. Porlier, and Louis Grignon.
241
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
COL. THEODORE CONKEY.
Col. Theodore Conkey was born in Canton, St. Lawrence County, New York, Dec. 11, 1818 ; his father, Asa Conkey, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, was a man of marked strength of character ; the first twenty years of Col. Conkey's life was spent on the old farm near Canton ; he enjoyed all the privileges which the common schools of that day afforded and af- terwards concluded his studies at the Academy of Cazenovia. In 1841 he came to Wisconsin, stopped awhile in Fond du Lac, where there were then but four or five white familes; his eldest half- brother, John Banister's family being one of them ; COL. THEODORE CONKEY. the succeeding three years he spent at that place and at Madison, teaching the first schools established in those places ; about the year 1843, he engaged in the United States service as surveyor, first being associated with Gen. A. G. Ellis, of Green Bay. A large portion of Northern Wisconsin reaching as far north as Lake Superior and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi were surveyed for the first time by them; in 1849, Col. Conkey settled in Apple- ton and acquired that year considerable property interest in company with Hon. M. L. Martin and A. B. Bowen in the site which the Third ward of the city of Appleton now occupies. Col. Conkey was united in marriage to Cynthia Foote, of Canton, N. Y., January 28, 1848; they have had four children; only one survives, Mrs.
16
242
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY PIONEERS.
Lyman E. Barnes; they have one daughter, and three sons living. Edward Conkey was born in 1854 and died in 1882 ; their daughter, Mrs. Alice Reid, born May 21, 1852, died Nov. 21, 1892. Upon the breaking out of the rebel- lion, Col. Conkey tendered his services to the government ; he raised a company and joined the Third Wisconsin Cavalry in January, 1862; his regiment was assigned to arduous duty in southern Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and upon the plains and continued in active service until the October following the close of the war. He was lieutenant of the regiment when it disbanded; soon after his return from the war, he engaged with the Messrs. F. and C. Pfennig in the flouring business in the famous Genesee Mills ; on the death of Charles Pfennig bought out the other interests, enlarged and improved the mills, kept constantly in the business until near the close of 1879 when he disposed of them to Kimberly, Clark & Co., after which time he virtually retired from business. He served several terms in the Senate and Assembly. His widow survives him ; his daughter, Mrs. Lyman E. Barnes, and her husband now live on his homestead.
SOLOMON RHODES
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.