USA > Wisconsin > Three chapters in Wisconsin local history > Part 2
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Nelson Dewey, our first State governor, I also knew. Indeed, he lived more years in Platteville than in Cassville ; but resided at Lancaster before being elected governor. He used to come to Belmont to see Miss Kate Dunn, whom he married.
Other prominent men who lived in Platteville or the vicinity were Charles Dunn, the first chief justice of the Territory ; Ben C. Eastman, a member of Congress; Orsamus Cole, for many years chief justice of the State; James R. Vineyard, an early legislator of the Territory; and J. M. Goodhue, a lawyer and journalist, later the founder of a leading newspaper in St. Paul, Minn. These pioneers had much to do with making history for Wisconsin and shaping early legislation for the Territory and State.
Old Belmont
In the days when I knew Belmont, where the first Wisconsin Territorial legislature met in 1836, there were still some five or more houses in the already decaying village; although today there is nothing there save the old capitol, that is now used as a barn, and Judge Charles Dunn's house (now a farmhouse). I used to be told, as a boy-and that was only ten years after the session-that the senate met on the ground floor of the old capi- tol, and the assembly upstairs. In 1848, while I was still a minor, I was tally clerk of the presidential election that was held for our precinct in this building-Zachary Taylor, whom many of the neighbors had known when he was commandant at Prairie du Chien, was running for president.
Recollections of U. S. Grant
General Grant was also an acquaintance of mine in the ante bellum days. His father, Jesse, was senior (and absentee)
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partner in the firm of Grant & Perkins, leather merchants at Galena. Ulysses had been in the army, down at St. Louis, and married Julia Dent. He tired of army life, however, as our best military men do in time of peace. His father-in-law gave him some land and he rented a house, but made a most signal failure of farming-indeed, he almost starved. Then he ap- plied for a place as civil engineer in St. Louis, but somebody else with more politieal pull got the job.
Old Jesse Grant had several sons. Among them was Simp- son, who cared for his father's interests at the store in Galena. Simpson died at St. Paul, while on a business trip, and Jesse thought he would now have to do something for Ulysses. He wrote to him to go from St. Louis to Mr. Perkins at Galena, and do whatever he was bidden. Meanwhile, Jesse had written to Perkins that he was going to send Ulysses to take Simpson's place, but that Perkins should pay him only what he thought he was worth.
When Captain Grant appeared in Galena, Perkins set him at work, and after awhile wrote to Jesse: "Ulysses is here, and I have put him to work. I think he is worth about forty-five dollars per month, but he is drawing more." Indeed, I used to be told that he drew about ninety dollars a month, to pay his rent and support his family. But old Jesse paid the balance himself-I don't know whether Perkins knew this or not.
If you ever go to Galena, go down Main Street, then up Bench Street for a short distance. There you will find a little story- and-a-half brick house that would perhaps rent in Platteville for ten dollars a month-that's where Ulysses lived at that time. After the siege of Vicksburg, the citizens of Galena built a resi- dence for him, but he never lived in it.
Captain Grant used to come up through this region to repre- sent the firm. He rode in a one-horse open buggy, in which he carried leather samples, not only seeking trade but collecting bills. In those early days he was not at all impressive in ap- pearanee, being a short man, and rather spare. If he had not afterwards developed into a great man he would have quickly passed from one's memory.
The first time I ever met him I didn't see him. It was a starlit night in January, 1861, just before the war. Col. John G. Clark and I were county officers, and were riding to
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Reminiscences of Early Grant County
Lancaster, the county seat, having been at Madison during the senatorial contest between Randall, Howe, and Washburn. Where Fennimore now stands, was then but a wide expanse of prairie, with no houses in sight. We there met a team strug- gling through the snow drifts, from which two men hailed us, asking how and when they could get to Widow Philbrook's. We replied that they were about a mile and a half off the road. One of the men said, "Ain't you Evans?" He said he was Mark Brown, travelling for a liquor dealer named Lorraine, and added, "I want to introduce Captain Grant." That gentleman said, "You'll have bad news when you get home, gentlemen." He explained that Mr. Hyde, landlord of the Mansion House at Lancaster, had dropped dead, and everything was in such confusion that they had decided to come up to Philbrook's and spend the night there.
Grant was often in Platteville after the war. I remember chatting and talking with him in 1868, in my store, and giving him a cigar. He took it and put it in his mouth-but he didn't smoke it, only chewed on it, as Sheridan also used to do.
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The Settlement of Arcadia
By Eben Douglas Pierce, M. D.
The valley of Trempealeau River must have been known to the early French garrisons who occupied a post among the Sioux; for more than once they wintered near Trempealeau Mountain, and dispersed throughout the surrounding region in search of game, or followed bands of Indians for trading pur- poses.1 The east bank of the Mississippi was common hunting ground for the Menominee and Winnebago; and when the Chip- pewa moved sonth and west from Lake Superior, in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, they did not dispossess these tribes of their preserves, but confined their own hunting to the regions north of the river called by their name. The Trempe- aleau River and its tributary streams were noted for large game, both elk and deer abounding; and buffalo were not un- common in the vicinity, as geographical names testify. No ac- counts of Indian or French visits to this valley are, so far as known, recorded, and it is not possible now to tell who were the first to visit the site of the present village of Arcadia.
According to Winnebago tradition, Augustin Rocque had hunted and trapped on the Trempealeau as far back as 1820. Rocque was probably but one of many half-breeds who made headquarters at Wabasha's Sioux village, on the site of the pres- ent Winona, and sallied thence in search of game and furs in the pleasant valley of the Trempealeau. But to Americans this region was not open for settlement until after the purchase of the Indian rights to all this territory, and this did not occur un- til Wisconsin was separated from Michigan, and erected into a territory of its own.
1 For the French in this region, see Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1906, pp. 246, 247.
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Settlement of Arcadia
After the flood of new settlers that poured into Wisconsin at the close of the Black Hawk War had taken up the best lands in the southern portions of the present State, covetous eyes were turned to the upper Mississippi region, and the government was importuned to extinguish the Indian title. Accordingly in the autumn of 1836 the chiefs of the Winnebago were called to- gether at Portage, and Gen. Henry Dodge, governor of the new Territory, and likewise general Indian agent, entered into a long series of negotiations with the tribesmen for a sale of their lands north of Wisconsin River. This they refused to do, alleging that these were their homes, and that they liad no more land that they wished to sell to the whites. The council thereupon broke up without results.2
The following summer (1837), a band of twenty of the younger chiefs was induced to go to Washington, under the conduct of Thomas A. Boyd, sub-agent at Fort Winnebago, and Joseph Moore, Joseph Brisbois, and Satterlee Clark, traders of influence among them. Nicolas Boilvin, Antoine Grignon, and Jean Roy accompanied the delegation in the capacity of interpreters. The chiefs declined at first to make a treaty, saying that they were not authorized by their tribe to do so; they at length yielded to pressure brought to bear upon them, and on November 1 signed a treaty conveying away all their lands in Wisconsin for about $1,500,000 to be paid in annuities. The agreement was that the tribe was to remove from Wisconsin within eight months after the signing of the treaty ; although it is claimed by some of their friends that the signers understood that they were to have eight years in which to make the change.3 The removal of these tribesmen was accomplished, therefore, with great difficulty. Many of them straggled back to their old haunts, and for years wandered in the northwestern and central counties of the State, where some of their descendants may yet be found in scattered bands.
The title to Trempealeau valley was thus cleared, but it was several years before actual settlement took place. James Reed,
2 Wis. Hist. Colls., viii, p. 318.
3 Id., vii, pp. 359, 393; Indian Treaties (Washington, 1904), pp. 498-500; Niles's Register, liii, p. 146.
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to whom the settlement of Trempealeau city is credited,4 made several journeys up the river in quest of furs, soon after the treaty of 1837. The Bunnells came to this region in 1842. Wil- lard B. Bunnell hunted and trapped on some of the tributaries of the Trempealeau in the autumn of the same year, naming Elk and Pigeon creeks because of his successful hunts thereupon. In the autumn of 1843, the two brothers Bunnell, in company with Thomas A. Holmes and William Smothers, ascended the Trempealeau as far as the present village of Independence, where the party camped and spent several days hunting elk in the surrounding country.5
The valley had been a favorite hunting ground of the Indians long before the coming of white hunters, and tradition concerns itself with some of the principal landmarks, such as Barn Bluff ; but the occasional hunters and trappers who penetrated into the interior, enjoying their wild life of adventure, had no purpose to settle the country, and little dreamed the low marshy grounds along the Trempealeau River would ever afford a site for a vil- lage such as Arcadia is at the present day.
When the first settlers arrived at Arcadia (1855), they found a defence of breast-works, proving that some time soldiers had visited the place. The apparent age of the excavations at that time indicated they had been built several years before. Julius Hensel, a veteran of the War of Secession and an early settler in Arcadia. reports that the Indians claimed that a company of soldiers came up the valley shortly after the Black Hawk War, and near the present village of Arcadia met a band of Indians. No hostilities occurred, but the soldiers deemed it prudent to be prepared in case any evidence of enmity on the part of the tribesmen should be shown, and therefore erected breast-works. Where the soldiers were going, or what their mission may have been, has never been ascertained, and any effort to gain more in- formation concerning their movements has thus far been futile.
The first permanent settlement of Arcadia came about in the autumn of 1855. Collins Bishop, George Shelley, and James Broughton had made the journey by team from Southern Wis-
4 Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1907, pp. 252, 253.
5 L. H. Bunnell, Winona and its Environs (Winona, 1897), pp. 237-240.
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Settlement of Arcadia
consin to Fountain City, driving with them a herd of fifteen cattle. At La Crosse they learned of vacant land located in the town of Preston, which then included the present town of Ar- cadia. A few weeks were spent at Fountain City, during which time Mr. Bishop took up some swamp and State land. But the desire to visit the large tract of unoccupied land in Trempealeau valley still possessed the minds of the homeseekers, and on an autumn morning fifty-three years ago they set out afoot for the new country. The party was composed of Collins Bishop, George Dewey, George Shelley, and James Broughton, and they fol- lowed an Indian trail that connected the Mississippi with the lands on Black River.
They hit the trail with eager feet, for their hopes were high, and before them drifted visions of future homes of peace and plenty. Over hills and through valleys, across streams and through dimpling meadows of wild grass they worked their way, and in a few hours Glencoe Ridge was reached. Here they were overtaken by a lone footman, who was also looking for land. The new companion was Noah Comstock, a tried and faithful pioneer who brought with him the experience of a "forty- niner," and whose knowledge of surveying was a valuable aid to the land-seekers. The party journeyed on until the late after- noon, when they arrived at the home of George Cowie, where they- passed the night. Early the next morning they set out for their- destination, and, inspired by the fresh autumn air, and the ex- hilaration of adventure, the distance to Trempealeau River was: soon covered.
When the river was reached they drew cuts to see who should wade the stream and find a fording place. This was easily ac -. complished, for the water was but a little more than knee-deep,. and a fording place was found a short distance from where the bridge now stands. From the river to the hill they followed an Indian trail that led over nearly the same ground as the present Main street. When the summit of the hill was reached, a tree was sighted, and owing to the scarcity of trees the land-hunters decided to utilize it for a bearing tree. They were not disap- pointed, for when they came to the oak it proved to be just what they anticipated; and not far from it was a hole in the ground, which after examination Mr. Comstock concluded was a section- post mark.
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The day was spent in looking over the new country, and ex- amining its soil and general features with a view of locating. At night the men returned to Cowie's home, and the next day came back prepared to take each a quarter section of land, and select a favorable building spot. This done, they returned to Fountain City well satisfied with the prospects of the new coun- try.
Late in the same autumn Collins Bishop hired James Brough- ton and a Mr. Davis to build a house on his quarter-section. They erected this near the bearing tree, the site chosen by Mr. Bishop, and used logs for the main part, with boards for the roof. This was the first house in Arcadia, and some of the boards from the old cabin are still doing service on Mr. Bishop's barn in East Arcadia. The old tree under which the cabin was built, still stands, a majestic landmark and rustic monument commemorating the coming of the first settlers in 1855.
The next spring Mr. Bishop took possession of his new home and broke several acres of land. This was the first soil culti- vated in Arcadia, and the crop gathered in the autumn was en- couraging to the infant settlement. During the spring and summer of 1856 other settlers came, and by winter several houses had been built, and the little community had made itself known to the neighborhood. The settlers petitioned (1856) the county board that Preston township be divided, and a new town formed. Then it became necessary to decide upon a name for the rising village. Previous to this time it had been known as Bishop's Settlement, while some called it Barntown, on account of the number of barns erected by the early settlers. The petition re- garding the formation of the new town was granted, and so one winter day the pioneer neighbors met at Bishop's cabin to name the town. To the women this privilege was granted, and Mrs. David Bishop (later Mrs. Charles Mercer) offered the name Ar- cadia, suggested by Noah Comstock, which was accepted.
Arcadia, with its new name, grew steadily, and with the growth came the inevitable changes incident to our Western mode of rapid development.
Mistaken identities were responsible for the names of two of our prominent bluffs. Noah Comstock's mistake in regard to the section-post mark in the ground near the old bearing tree, gave
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Settlement of Arcadia
him a bluff in East Arcadia. He was not compelled, however, to retain the quarter section containing this waste of land; but ever since the error was discovered, the bluff has been called by his Christian name, Noah's Bluff. Barn Bluff was called "Gage's Barn" until the railroad was built, when it took its pres- ent name. Mr. Gage on his way across the hills from Trempeal- eau one moonlight night saw in the distance what he supposed to be a barn, and arriving at Bishop's house mentioned what he had seen and asked whose barn it was that had attracted his at- tention, and caused him to turn towards the lighted cabin win- dow, where he found a hearty welcome. From that day until the railroad came the bluff was called Gage's Barn.
Few towns the age and size of Arcadia have yet in their midst the first settler of the place. But the venerable pioneer who saw the dawn of Arcadia, and who paved the way to our present prosperity still helps to till the soil on the old place he took as a homestead fifty-three years ago; and although the snowy hand of winter has touched his brow, he still possesses a clear and active mind that reflects the wholesomeness of a full-orbed life. His fibre is akin to the old oak under which he reared the first cabin in the town, and with a memory enriched by a variety of inter- esting experiences, he enjoys recounting events of the pioneer days gone by. He is the last survivor of the first set- tlers, and in looking back over the departed years he can see the contrast between the early awakening of the little settlement, and the progressive and modern town of today.
The dream of the pioneer has been more than realized. He has seen this county changed from a favorite hunting ground of the Indian, to a rich agricultural land; from a low, marshy swamp to a beautiful and prosperous village; from a wilderness, to a populous community, where instead of barren hills and val- leys in a wild state of nature, we have the cozy homes of a con- tented people, nestled among the woodlands, where silence has departed and left in her stead the song of the housewife and the plowboy.
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Settlement of Green Lake County
By Richart Dart1
Exploration
About the last of April, 1840, my father, Anson Dart, started southward from Green Bay with Samuel W. Beall2 to explore the Green Lake country, which, having been purchased from the
1 The following narrative was secured by Rev. Samuel T. Kidder of McGregor, Iowa, in 1906, when president of Ripon Historical So- ciety. Mr. Kidder had several interviews with Richard Dart, and much of the narrative is in the latter's own phrasing. Afterwards, when in manuscript, it was carefully revised by him. Richard Dart, son of Anson and Eliza Catlin Dart, was born May 12, 1828, in New York city. His removal with his father's family to the township of Dartford, Wis., is herein narrated. Mr. Dart still lives in the vicinity in excellent health, and with a remarkable memory for his early Wisconsin experiences .- ED.
2 Samuel W. Beall was of Maryland birth (1807), and educated at Union College. After his marriage in 1827 he removed to Wisconsin, where in 1834 he was appointed receiver of public lands at Green Bay. At the expiration of his term of office he went East, but in 1840 re- turned to Wisconsin in order to locate there permanently. After sev- eral years in the Green Lake country he removed to the neighborhood of Fond du Lac, where he was agent for the Stockbridge Indians. He served in both constitutional conventions, and was lieutenant-governor in 1850-52. After locating at Denver, Colo., for a few years (1859-61), he volunteered for service, was chosen lieutenant-colonel of the 18th Wisconsin regiment, and severely wounded at Shiloh. At the close of the war he removed to Helena, Mont., where he was shortly after- wards shot and killed in an altercation .- ED.
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ANSON DART, 1797-1879
From a daguerreotype in possession of the family
RICIIARD DART
Settlement of Green Lake County
Winnebago Indians,8 had been surveyed in 1839 and opened to the market in 1840. Beall having been in the land office at Green Bay was interested in this Green Lake country, rumors of whose fertility and attractiveness had reached his ears. Half- breeds and others were telling what a beautiful region it was. So Beall and Dart started on horseback up the great double Buttes des Morts trail.4 From Knaggsville (now the Algoma district of Oshkosh) they followed the trail southwest until they reached the place where it ran a mile or two south of Green Lake. There they remained some weeks exploring. Both picked out land that they approved.
Father chose an eighty-acre tract half a mile south from Green Lake Sandstone Bluff, on a little stream that ran in from Twin Lakes, just east of Spring Lake. The stream was much larger then than now. The lakes have receded, and the outlet is now nearly dry. Father and Beall went entirely around the lake, exploring with a view to settlements. There were no settlers
3 Mr. Dart says that the rank and file of the Winnebago knew nothing of this government purchase. It was effected by agency men, who got the chiefs drunk and secured the cession papers. The gov- ernment paid no principal, but ninety-nine years' interest with no entail to the Indian's family or children after his death. The rate of interest was small, and mostly eaten up in advance through the Indians getting trusted at Fort Winnebago agency for adulterated and poisonous whiskey. Mr. Dart considers that the Indians were badly treated by rascally traders and agents .- S. T. K.
4 The big Butte des Morts trail ran from Green Bay along the northwest bank of Fox River to Knaggsville (now the Algoma dis- trict of Oshkosh), thence southwest past the site of Ripon; thence westerly to Marquette, the seat of Marquette County; thence to Fort Winnebago, at Portage. There were no settlers in the Ripon or Green Lake region as yet. One branch of the trail struck off to Powell's spring and Le Roy's plantation.
Dr. H. L. Barnes of Ripon says that the trail crossed his father's farm, now owned by Almon Bradley, three miles northwest of Mark- esan. Thence it went over the hill, past the old Whittier place; it then passed near Satterlee Clark's, and across to Deacon Staple's farm on Grand Prairie. A son of John S. Horner recollects that this trail passed by the Steele and Foltz farm and kept near the timber line along the edge of the prairie, and that Satterlee Clark lived nearly a half mile north .- S. T. K.
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there as yet, only wigwams of the Winnebago grouped or seat- tered round the lake. There was no timber there then, but oak and clay openings, with Green Lake prairie to the south.5
Settlement
On returning to Green Bay, my father and brothers bought a large, wide skiff, something like a Durham boat, big enough to hold a ton of merchandise. This we loaded with provisions and supplies, and my father, my two brothers, Putnam and Charles, and myself, then a boy of twelve, started up Fox River. We worked our way slowly, rowing, poling, or towing by line. It was hard work because of the rapids. At the little and great Kakalin or Chutes,6 the government had military stations, equipped with wide-wheeled, low carts, supplied with tackle; and, for a consideration, they hauled up boat, load and all, around the rapids.
Fox River was then a rushing, broad stream, a third larger than it is now. Besides the hard work it was a lonely trip, for we could not talk Menominee-that was the tribe then most prevalent on the lower Fox-nor could the Indians talk English. We saw their large bark-covered houses made of peeled oak bark hung over poles, placed between crotched posts. Many of them had seen but few Americans before.
We had neither map nor guide, and the river was so winding that it was all guess-work as to when we should meet the Green Lake outlet, now called the Puckayan. We supposed it would be the first stream met after passing Lake Winnebago. So up that stream we started. The water began to grow bad-colored, but we kept on. The stream grew smaller and smaller and clogged with reeds. Logs fallen across it had to be sawed off. Progress was painfully slow. The third day from its mouth, we came out into Rush Lake, shallow and muddy, lined with broad marshes. We were forty rods from dry ground, with mud all around. We had to get out into the mud, unload what camp outfit we needed for the night, and wade through the mud and
5 Mr. Dart was not personally present on this first exploring trip, but has heard his father describe it .- S. T. K.
6 Now Kaukauna and Little Chutes .- S. T. K.
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marsh to a place dry enough for a camp. Swarms of mosquitoes and deerflies were cating our life out. We saw flocks of ducks and prairie chickens. The Indians were at that time nearly all away from this their popular resort. We were very tired, but there was nothing to do in the morning but take our stuff back to the boat, turn round as best we could, and pole our way back to the Fox.
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