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 2

Author: Spencer, Elihu
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Appleton, Wis. : Post Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 314


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 2


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Let us look back from twenty to thirty years, then most of the pioneers were young men and women, in some east- ern state. They left home, friends, and all that was near and dear, except their little all they brought with them, and with hearts full of zeal, to obtain a home in the west, they came and located in the then wild woods of Wiscon- sin, with scarcely means to buy land and build a house, let alone helping to lay the foundation of one of the wealthiest counties in the state, as we have to-day.


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At that time many of us had to make roads to our new houses before we could reach them. Many of us still live where we first located, while others have moved west or south to try again the pioneer life. We miss them. Our worthy ex-president of this sociey and his family have gone to the beautiful shores of California for the benefit of the health of his family. We miss them to-day. Many of the pioneers have been called home to heaven. They did a noble work while here, and we all say, may they rest in peace. At the time we commenced our new homes, we seemed happy, we were living on anticipation, really on little else. To be sure, we always had enough to keep soul and body together.


Traveling through the county in those days you would find shanties here and there, with a small clearing, occa- sionally one had a cow and pig, and now and then an ox team. We had very poor roads in those times, and no school houses. Very soon new comers began to erect dwellings and school houses, and every year there would be new settlers entering the field of labor. Improvements progressed rapidly, the men exerted every nerve to clear their farms, much sweat was poured out from the brows of those strong men to make happy homes for wives, mothers and their little ones. Some of those "little ones" are present to-day. Mothers had all the kitchen work and sewing to do, the cow to milk, and the pig to feed. There were no girls to do the work then. Part of the time they devoted to helping their husbands underbrush, roll logs, drive oxen, gather sap and make sugar, etc., etc. Yes, young ladies, your mothers were "guilty of all this !" In those days we used to have visitors, but they were always pleased to take such as we had, for we had no nice things to offer, such as you have seen here to-day, that the ladies have prepared and brought here on this first grand anni- versary of this centennial year. There is not a person present that has taken dinner with us who will not say the ladies must be graduates in the cookery department ! You may now travel through the county, and you will find many of the pioneers surrounded with wealth, their children


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settling down near them on good farms, and many have graduated from the best schools. Now you will find large houses of brick or wood, as good barns as any in the state, herds of cattle and sheep of the best blood, scattered through many parts of the county, and around the houses are fruit trees and shrubbery in great varieties, and the barns and granaries are full of wheat and oats, and the corn cribs full of corn. From nearly every direction the best of gravel roads lead into the city of Appleton, our market for all our produce. It is not now with ox teams, and two days of time, as it once was just to go to mill or market and much hard work to do in getting through. Now with our grays, bays or blacks, we go to mill or market and back home inside of a day, and have plenty of time for pleasure also. Are we not now enjoying by participation what we enjoyed by anticipation in the long ago? One glance over this large assembly will answer that we are enjoying the present, and are not ashamed of our record as pioneers. Let us continue in well doing.


Everyone is welcome to our festival to-day, and we hope that this friendly greeting of pioneers and old time friends will long be remembered with pleasure, and that our next pioneer festival will attract all the pioneers of the county to a day of delight.


In conclusion, let us thank our Heavenly Father, for his mercies and goodness that have always followed us in this our beloved county. Many of our dear friends have been called home to a better clime to rest from their labors since last we met. But their works live after them.


Let us rally each year to the pioneer festival so long as we have pioneers left alive in our county in the full conscious- ness that we have done our work nobly and well, and that it is pleasant to sing again the loved songs of the olden time, and to talk over the pleasing recollections of the busy past.


J. S. Buck, one of the earliest settlers of the county, then introduced Prof. D. M. Hyde, a Badger boy, born just over the county line, who spoke as follows :


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PIONEERS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :


In behalf of the early settlers, I welcome you to this gathering. Let all rejoice for the sturdy pioneers have again assembled to exchange greetings with each other, and to relate the hardships they endured in former days. It is a reunion, a family gathering, if you please, that comes once a year to keep alive a friendship which is bound by those ties of endearment that sprang up in times of privation, and were cemented with a common interest to keep the wolf from the door.


As brave soldiers return home after the war is over and gather their families around them to recite tales of valor- ous deeds, so you have come together to relate your experi- ences and to impart lessons of wisdom.


It is to be hoped, then, that this celebration will be a profitable one to all. And as we have gathered here with the fathers of this county, let us participate in the fes- tivities and mirth of the hour, thus exhibiting our appre- ciation and sanction of the day's doings.


There have been pioneers in all ages, and wherever we find them they have been the ones to take initiatory steps in actually setting all new countries. Led by the hope of gain, or to escape persecution, they have severed the ties which bound them to their own people and have pushed out into an uninhabited country. There has never been a time when there was not an opportunity for men to engage in such undertakings. The history of our own country is . rich in events of this nature. Since the first settlements were made, men have engaged in this work continually, and have accomplished untold good for the nation in open- ing up new territory to the influences of civilization, and paving the way for others to follow and develop its re- sources.


Scarcely a quarter of a century ago, little bands, consist- ing of sometimes two or more families in the east, bade their relatives and friends an affectionate farewell, and started for the west to find a home. Some settled in this state, some in others- but it is of those who came to this county that we are called upon to speak to to-day.


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Here they settled in a wild wilderness, alone, isolated from the great throbbing world without. They built their little log cabins here and there in the wilds, and moved into them to find a shelter after weeks of wearysome jour- neying. With no roads except Indian trails, with no com- forts of life and in many cases scarcely anything to help themselves with, they started out anew to work their way up from nothing to abundance and wealth. Deprivations and hardships beset them on every hand. At times they became discouraged, disheartened, irresolute, but they as often conquered such feeling and worked on, hoped on, trusting in an unseen hand to aid and support them. A ray of light at last streamed in upon them. Other settlers came in, the country began to be settled, and gradually the forests yielded to the ax of the sturdy arm of the pioneer. Farms were cleared, roads were built, and they were able to surround themselves with some of the luxuries of life. Manufacturing establishments sprang up, school houses were built, churches erected, railroad communication secured, and in fact all the refining influences of civiliza- tion were at their very doors. They could foresee all this, but would it come in their day ? Doubtless it would not, butthey were willing to engage in a work that would in- evitably lead to such results.


It was once the custom for armed men to go out in quest of new territory, and when they had overcome the inhabit- ants of the soil, annex it by right of conquest to their own government. They were opposed to those who were not subjects of their own nation. War, rapine, plunder were the occupations of a large number of these men, and they gloried in laying waste the fertile fields of neighboring nations or principalities. But here we find a band of men who enlisted in a cause to subdue wild lands. They did not go out with munitions of war, yet how effectually. have they accomplished their object. They did not go to lay waste the productive fields of neighbors, but to clear away giant forests and open the way for others to follow to aid them in making fields. The object was not one of plunder and robbery, but to gain a livelihood, to gain a home, to


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build up and establish for themselves honor and wealth to the detriment of no one. The one went out to sow the seed of discord, the others to advance the cause of peace; the one for aggrandizement of themselves at the expense of others, the other for the benefit of all; the one to win re- nown for their bravery to establish a field of action where others might win renown as a scholar, or as a statesman.


As the miners and sappers precede an army to undermine and make a breach in the fortifications of the enemy, through which it can enter so these pioneers devoted them .. selves to the work of preparing a way through which the many immigrants could enter. In the west were vast fields of unproductive land, and they came here to reclaim them from a wild state and transform them into productive farms of utility.and value to the whole country. They had a mission to fulfill ; they may, or they may not have been conscious of it; but the fact of their having performed it entitles them to that honor, and whatever credit there is attached to the undertaking belongs rightfully to them.


But they did not go out alone to build a city and then invite their neighbors with their daughters and wives to a feast for the purpose of slaying the men to make captive the women as did the Romans. No. They were too brave, too manly for that. Like true hearted men, they permitted their wives and children to accompany them. But these mothers were not wanting in zeal and devotion. They, too, left the places of their childhood endeared to them by a thousand ties to follow their husbands, and share with them the burdens and trials of a pioneer's life. The sacri- fice was great, but they were equal to the emergency, and when the darkest days came they nursed the ray of hope, with words of encouragement, often creating a new energy, a new consecration to this work among the men. To-day I can see a mother with her two children living in a log shanty, alone, while the husband, the father, is away earn- ing a little something to live on. How many mothers were there in those days who cheerfully consented to do the same, and when their husbands returned, greeted them joyfully, making that little home a paradise to all its in-


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mates. That, ladies and gentlemen, was a mother's love -it was a mother's unselfish desire to administer to the wants of her husband and children.


It is to these mothers that we owe a lasting gratitude. They have assisted in accomplishing a work that never would have been successfully performed without them. True to the cause they have labored zealously for its pro- motion, and we look out over the county and see the happy homes and contented inmates. We cannot forget that the pioneer women have done their duty in effecting the mar- velous change that has been wrought. The moral and social status of society is due to their efforts in a greater degree than to the men. They have been the civilizers. It was largely through their influence that schools were established in an early day and morality maintained. Some of the strongest advocates of culture and refinement in the county to-day are to be found among these pioneer women.


Throughout these years, her handiwork has left its im- press upon all noble deeds, and never has she allowed society to relapse into that semi-barbarous state character- istic of pioneer colonies formed exclusively of men.


Yet there is another class of pioneers who may accom- plish a not insignificant work. To-day we want men and women to pioneer the way for social and religious reform. The examples you have set are all we could wish to have them. You have demonstrated conclusively the results that can be opened by constant concentrated work, and have opened the way for the succeeding generations to labor for a better state of human existence; the state of perfection to which you have raised the county leaves the rising generation the means of solving many of the social problems of the day, if the spirit and zeal you have shown is persistently adhered to. The lessons you have taught are invaluable if rightly interpreted, and there is no doubt but what they will be treasured up by the young, being a source of wealth to them in fighting the battles of life.


These reunions should be of special interest to all, and I congratulate you on having organized such an association. If one will take the trouble to examine them properly, he


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will find in them a design of more significant meaning than is generally supposed. There is something more to them than a mere gathering of a number of persons for a passing enjoyment. There is an object in them, both com- mendable and praiseworthy. I have incidentally alluded to some of the good results to be derived and trust that all will feel a deeper interest in perpetuating them, and take such steps as may be deemed advisable to secure a more general movement in this direction.


Last year there were some with you whose names have been stricken from the rolls. They have been mustered out of service by Him who holds each of our lives in His hand. Others went before them. They are all missed in this gathering, but no one would wish to have them here to-day, because they have departed this life for a better one. They have finished their labors here which they did so faithfully, and have gone to receive the reward that was in store for them in heaven. Their memories are dear to you, and may they ever be cherished with the tenderest of feelings. Their names suggest associations both pleasing and sad. Being your associates in the struggle you have passed through, you have come to regard them as brothers, and no one can appreciate their sterling qualities better than you.


"The holy dead !- oh ! bless'd we are, That we may call them so, And to their image look afar, Through all our woe !


Bless'd that the things they loved on earth, As relics we may hold, That wake sweet thoughts of parted worth, By springs untold !"


The survivors have cause for congratulation that so many have been permitted to live to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Some have gone to other states, or sections of this state with the hope of improving their conditions, and some have been detained at home; still a good number are assembled here to-day to participate in the exercises.


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Again I welcome you to this reunion, and trust that the experiences of the day may be profitable to all.


Miss Mary and Master Frank McGillan, young Outa- gamians sang a song which was loudly applauded.


A long letter -thirteen pages of foolscap- from John Stephens, giving his experience in California life, was read by Mr. John Goodland.


Mr. Charles Wolcott followed with personal experiences and adventures in the early settlement of the county.


After another song from the little couple, short speeches were made by Sam Ryan, Jr., J. S. Buck, J. H. McGillan, Carl Breitruck, Joseph Rork, L. L. Randall, John Good- land, Samuel Boyd, and G. H. Myers, and the fun ran high.


The treasury was replenished, all expenses paid, and then all dispersed for their homes in excellent spirits.


Pioneers' Meeting, Feb. 22, 1877.


Pursuant to announcement, Washington's birthday, the Pioneers of Outagamie County assembled at Bertschy's hall, in this city, for the purpose of holding their annual festival and celebration. The day was pleasant and the attendance was larger than usual, most of the towns being liberally represented.


The meeting was called to order in the forenoon by John Dey, president of the association. The first order of busi- ness being the election of officers for the ensuing year, a motion was made to this effect. The following named persons were chosen as such :


President, L. E. Darling ; vice-president, Daniel Hunt- ley ; secretary, E. Spencer ; treasurer, John Leith ; executive committee, Harmon Jones, John Dey, H. J. Diener, Johnson Hawthore and John McGillan.


At 12 o'clock the association adjourned for dinner, which was served in the hall. This was not, by any means, the least entertaining feature of the proceedings. Every


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family represented had contributed largely in the way of edibles, and the bill of fare was quite exhausive to which there was no limit, either in quantity or variety. The way in which the dinner was prepared and served reflected credit upon the skill and the taste of the pioneer women of Outagamie County.


After dinner the exercises of the afternoon were intro- duced by a few appropriate remarks by the president, Hon. L. E. Darling.


Mr. John Leith, Jr., was then announced to deliver the annual address, which he proceeded to do. This paper, as well as most of the others, merits publication in full, but for the lack of space.we can do it no greater justice than to note some of the essential facts which it contains. Ap- propriate reference is first made to "the day we celebrate" being the anniversary of America's greatest patriot, George Washington. The obligations which succeeding genera- tions owe to the pioneers, by reason of the work performed by the latter, are manifold.


This is true not only of the pioneers who carry civiliza- tion into the wilderness of the West but of the pioneers in science, morals, church and state. And yet it is the ex- perience of the past that their contemporaries as well as posterity forget to pay these just debts. Indeed, it is often true that these pioneers become martyrs to the purpose of their lives. Numerous illustrations of this view of the subject were contained in this paper. The names of many who had suffered in this way were mentioned. And yet this class has never failed to make their impress upon the history of the world. Without their labors there would be no civilization, either material or otherwise.


The paper then dwelt at considerable length upon refer- ence to the original pioneers of America, to what they suffered in the effort to establislı a free government, under which all men should be recognized as equal. Proper trib- ute was paid to them and the labors which they performed - for establishing in this country the principles of civil and religious liberty. The work of the pioneers since the time when the successful termination of the war of the


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Revolution gave to this government an independent and dis- tinctive existence, was reviewed with considerable accuracy. The determination, the sacrifices and the privations which attended all their efforts were treated with appropriate com- ment, and proper credit was also given to these potent agents of civilization. The following is the closing part of Mr. Leith's address :


With our county I must be brief, for I fear that I intruded too much already on your time. Since the early settle- ment of this county great have been improvements. The wilderness of Outagamie has been made to blossom as the rose. A few scattering shanties have given way to beauti- ful frame buildings, numbering thousands. A few log school houses have increased to over a hundred, and our schools are better than they were at first, better than they were under the town dispensation. And although they are far from being perfect, they are yearly amending. When I first went to school, it was scarcely possible for a scholar to go through fractions, and he could get but a vague idea of grammar; history and constitution were unknown in schools. Now it is not uncommon for a pupil in our com- mon school to go through the progressive higher arith- metic, the higher grammar, the constitution of Wisconsin, the constitution of the United States and the history of our own country. We have better farms, better houses, more comfort, and can perform more work in much less time, than we could twenty years ago. I will not stop to enumerate the hardships and privations of the early settlers. This has been dwelt upon in our past meetings by those who had experience in that direction. I was too young to participate in those hardships. But there is one thing I cannot pass unnoticed, that is the spirit of friendship which prevailed among the pioneers of this county. When one was sick, or in trouble, all sympa- thized - all were ready to do their part and did it well. No one was persecuted on account of his opinions ; no one was persecuted on account of his religion ; no one was per- secuted on account of his politics ; no one was sneered at on account of his nationality - all were treated as friends, and


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this is the spirit we wish to renew every 22d of February. And as we meet to recall those pleasant associations of the past, we meet not as Americans and foreigners, not as Catholics and Protestants, not as Republicans and Demo- crats, but as friends ; and as we grasp the hand of friend- ship, love warms the whole soul, as by the genial rays of the sun.


As is customary at these gatherings representatives from the city and various towns in the county, previously ap- pointed for this purpose, were then called upon to give a brief sketch of the early history and settlement of their re- spective localities.


APPLETON .- Mr. J. S. Buck, one of our earliest settlers, responded for Appleton.


Some time since, I received a communication from your secretary, notifying me that I was chosen to prepare a brief sketch of the early history and settlement of the now city of Appleton to be read at this your annual festival.


At one time I had concluded that I would not undertake the task on account of lack of time to pick and cull the various items, put them in their proper places, fix transac- tions and dates, and give names and dates of arrivals. Feeling that it would be impossible on so short a notice, and the time that I would be enabled to give to it, it could not possibly be otherwise than that a great many important omissions would of a necessity occur ; but at the personal solicitation of some of my old time friends I consented to give a brief outline of the earlier settlement of the place.


If time would permit of details possibly I could make it more agreeable than the few dry statistical facts which will be presented to you.


There had been a few settlers on the north bank of the Fox, previous to 1848, but they were not of the class termed pioneers, according to the common acceptation of the term, at least they were not a people who went in for a development of the country, agriculturally or commercially, but they had left for other parts with the exception of the Grignon family, a branch of which still remains upon the


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old homestead which to early settlers was known as the White Heron.


A Mr. Thurber and wife settled in the spring of 1848, in what is now the Third ward of this city, near the big cut on the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, but like the wild geese, they soon sought a more genial clime.


The real settlement of Appleton should be credited to the Methodist Episcopal church of this state. It is true that Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, tendered a donation of $10,000 toward founding an institution of learning in this state, but it was a qualified donation. It provided in the first place that said institution should be located on the Fox river between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay, and further that the sum of $10,000 additional should be raised by the parties accepting the proposition. The Methodist conference after due deliberation accepted the proposition and appointed the Rev. Wm. H. Sampson its agent to se- cure the requisite amount, and at the same time appointed a committee consisting of Geo. E. H. Day, H. L. Blood and Rev .. Reeder Smith to make the selection which action re- sulted in its location where now stands the city of Appleton.


And through the munificence of Geo. W. Lawe, of Ķau- kauna, and the late John F. Meade, of Green Bay, the col- lege received a donation of sixty or seventy acres of land in consideration of its location at this point.




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