USA > Wisconsin > Washington County > Washington County, Wisconsin : past and present > Part 2
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Could it be that the Moundbuilders were the people alluded to in the Iceland sagas as inhabiting New Iceland? The traditions of the Iroquois tell that their ancestors, the Lenni Lenapi, migrated from the northwest to the Mississippi, in the eastern valley of which a great civilized nation lived in fortified places, tilling the soil. They allowed the Lenni Lenapi the trespass of their country, but attacked them
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
treacherously while they were crossing the river. A war followed which ended with a victory of the Indians.
Does the idea seem incongruous that a thousand or more years ago there was a war fought in Wisconsin between the yellow and the white races, between a Germanic and a Mongolian people, in which the latter were victorious? For if the Moundbuilders came from Iceland-a supposition which is not altogether unfounded-they must have been Teutons, and if the Indians came from the eastern coast of Asia, they were Mongolians. The "Yellow Peril" which is a topic of the day, would then have had a precedent in America.
CHAPTER III
A JAUNT TO THE MOUNDS
The monuments of prehistoric times, which still exist in the town of Farmington and which are ascribed to that mysterious people, the Moundbuilders, had at last aroused my curiosity to such a degree that I could not bridle it any longer and simply had to go and look at them. It was on a warm afternoon in May when I with five com- panions, started from West Bend. We had agreed to walk as the crow flies, as much as possible, to cut off some of the distance which is about five miles. For almost two miles we followed the railroad track toward north. The Milwaukee river, being dammed below, and for that reason assuming a Mississippi-like width, glided past to our left. The brownish water outside the channel was dotted with black tree stumps, drear remnants of a woodland of yore.
Spring had been exceptionally tardy; or rather, it did not come at all, for summer almost stepped on the heels of winter. The warmth contrasted strongly with the few green things that had ventured out. The willows were just putting on the first leaves, and on the trees the first buds were bursting, some were yet all but bare. And still we were in the second half of the "merry month." On the swamps the yellow, dried-up cat-tails of last year were still rustling. But the air was full of the joy of spring: Red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds, robins, meadow-larks, woodpeckers and the rest of the winged chorus gave their grand concert. Occasionally a ruby-colored humming bird darted past. The first violets peeped out of the young grass.
We were in no mood to hurry. One of us carried a shot-gun, and because no other game came before its muzzle, he emptied it into a bull-frog in a swamp. It was the biggest bull-frog that I ever beheld, and with outstretched hind legs measured about a foot. In about two hours we arrived at the farm, owned by J. Myers, on which the mounds are. We soon saw that it would be well to take a guide along. Nearby in a field two boys were planting corn, two affable and intelligent young lads who were willing to be our cicerones.
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First we came to the "Horses," two mounds lying closely together and having the outlines of horses. They may be about 50 feet long and 2 to 3 feet high. We then came upon the "Lizard." The head, legs and tail of the saurian can be plainly distinguished. It is 250 feet long, the front legs taken together measure 50 feet, and the hind legs 52 feet. This mound is a little higher than the "Horses." A few trees stood around these mounds. We now went into a denser wood- land. Here we found a real maze of mounds some of them six feet high and higher, but without discernible animal shapes. Perhaps time had effaced them. At last we came upon a mound shaped like a man with outstretched arms, measuring 200 feet from head to foot. The head, body and limbs were plainly there. One of us made the re- mark that he looked like George Washington, for it seemed as though he was wearing the three-cornered hat of revolutionary days. Our guide told us that in a field a short distance away another mound of human shape existed, but that both legs had already been plowed away.
All of these mounds or tumuli are rounded off at their crest, their sides rising either abruptly or gradually from the surrounding soil, according to their height. On some of them trees as thick as a foot and a half in diameter are growing. The building material is sand which forms the top layer of the ground for miles around. They are covered with grass and brush which prevented their being leveled by the winds, and which preserved their outlines through many cen- turies up to the present day. The woodland surrounding them is mostly composed of maple trees. On some of the mounds more or less digging by less adept than curious people had been going on, for considerable portions of the original shape are missing. It is said that a summer guest from Cedar lake spent an entire summer here digging, and when he found nothing of the builders, had some bones sent from his home in another state, of which he triumphantly claimed that he had unearthed them at the mounds. The gentleman seems to have made a mess of paleontology and sport. We were told that the strange earthworks are annually visited by many people from many parts of the Union.
The impression which these mute witnesses of an extinct people leave on the mind of the spectator is deep and singular, but mixed with some disappointment. For they are no ruins of old temples or tombs, still grand in their crumbling state, but simple piles of earth which in their crude outlines imitate the form of living beings. Their immense size and our utter ignorance of the people who threw them
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up are the only moments that are imposing and amazing. Nature here has let an entire people disappear without seeming to mind it. Judged by this, how little and unimportant must the individual be to her! Such thoughts strike the meditating visitor who stands before these figures of sand with about the same perplexity as before the Egyptian Sphinx.
I could not get rid of the impression that I was on a burial place, that these mounds had been erected to the memory of departed loved ones, that they are altars at which before the gray dawn of history the sorrow and the hope of mankind had prayed. A people who could honor their dead with such stupendous works were no savages, but had climbed a good number of rungs on the ladder of civilization. Their innermost being is lucidly revealed here even if their origin and history will stay a puzzle forever.
We had two cameras with us, and took some pictures of the mounds, but the efforts were in vain. For owing to the great extent of the objects and the little contrast with the surroundings, the elevations are hardly visible on the photographic film or plate. After we had taken a snap shot at our two guides seated on a mound, to repay their troubles with a few photographs, for money they would not take, we started for home. Instead of taking the road, we walked across the fields in a southwestern direction to the lakes near Barton, taking the big ice- houses as loadstar, where a good deal of the ice that is annually used in Milwaukee is stored up. How many barb wire and snake fences we had to wriggle through or climb, I don't know. In the dusk we ar- rived at home, thoroughly tired, but certain of having seen something that was worth all the trouble to see, and that will never be forgotten.
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CHAPTER IV
THE INDIANS
The former Indian population of Washington county is for the first time mentioned in the reports of the Jesuit Fathers La Salle and Hen- nepin. On a journey in the year 1679 they and their companions were compelled by rough weather, perhaps also by other causes arising from traveling in frail crafts on Lake Michigan, to land at the mouth of Sauk creek. There they found a village of Pottawatomie Indians who had entered an eternal peace treaty with the tribes of the Sacs (Sauks, Ozaukies) and the Foxes. The three tribes freely mingled with each other and had their hunting grounds in common. They belonged to the family of the Algonquins. One hundred and fifty years afterwards the Pottawatomies were found virtually in the same places in which the old missionaries had met them. But a change was preparing.
The first settlers could notice how the Pottawatomies slowly pushed to the south and the west. The vacated country was peopled by the Menomonies who also belonged to the great family of the Algonquins and heretofore lived in the southwest, where Waukesha county lies to- day. At the time the Indians ceded their land to the government, the Menomonies lived east and north, and the Pottawatomies west and south of the Milwaukee river.
In the treaty of February 8, 1831, the Menomonies ceded their land to the government ; about two and one-half years later, on September 26, 1833, the Pottawatomies followed their example. The treaty of the latter was ratified on February 21, 1835, but the Indians had a clause inserted which left them in possession of the land for three more years. So it happened that the country east and north of the Milwau- kee river was opened for settlement seven years earlier than that west and south. The tribes were removed to reservations west of the Mis- sissippi.
Many of the transplanted Indians, however, longed for their old cherished hunting grounds ; they wandered back singly and congregated Vol. 1-2
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in villages, living among the settlements of the whites and sustaining life with hunting and begging. After a while, Solomon Juneau, "the William Penn of Wisconsin," induced them to return to their reser- vation.
One of these Indian villages, quite a large one, was a short distance south of West Bend, near the shore of Silver lake; another one lay on the eastern shore of Pike lake in the town of Hartford. But the only places in the county which have adopted an Indian name are the town and the village of Kewaskum. It was the name of a noble chief of the Pottawatomies, who with his community lived near the village that today bears his name. The wigwam lay on a hill of considerable height, which ever since is called the "Indian Hill." It has on its top a roomy depression which afforded protection from rough winds. In the vicinity the grave of Kewaskum is shown up to the present day.
No wonder the Indians found it so hard to forget their old hunt- ing grounds in the county. The primeval wilds in their grandeur had nothing superior in all the state. The ground was covered with forests of oak, maple, beech, elm, basswood, cedar, birch and hickory; they were so dense that one could not see for more than a few rods in any direction. Between the trunks the wild vine hung its festoons. The many streams, creeks, rivulets and rivers, fed by thousands of bubbling springs, were lined with willow, elder and lilac. The low- lands had been picked out by the tamarack and juniper. Anything that would grow in a wild state in a temperate clime, whether tree, shrub, herb, or flower, could be found here. And the game! It is al- most incredible what the oldest settlers tell of it. One could not walk for a mile without a deer running across the way. Millions of pass- enger pigeons were cooing at the water courses. When they came in spring their immense flocks would cloud the sun. Today they seem to be exterminated. Partridges also lived here in great numbers. An old settler once saw a bevy of partridges alight on a hickory tree which under their weight bent to the ground and snapped. The lakes were covered with water fowl. The only reminder today of the once teeming animal life are the songbirds which in such numbers are said to be found nowhere else in the state. But even their variety has been lessened. The redbird of pioneer days no longer is seen in these parts. (The Hon. S. S. Barney, judge of the U. S. Court of Claims, in an address at the tenth anniversary of the West Bend Pub- lic library, Oct. 7, 19II.) There was a lot of other game besides, and the lakes and streams were full of fish. It must have been a prototype,
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
or something close to it, of the Indians' happy hunting ground, or the Eden of the redskin.
Proofs of their diligence as hunters are plentiful. There was hardly an old settler who did not possess a collection of flint arrow and spear heads and knives, stone hatchets and axes and spuds that he had plowed up from his fields. Indian trails, at some places sunk to three feet into the ground, ran in all directions, and because they were chosen with great care as to surface conditions, some of them were later widened to roads.
With the whites the Indians were on friendly terms. They were honest and appreciative of favors. Animosities, or bloody wars be- tween the two races, which stained advancing civilization in other parts of the country, were unknown here. A noble trait in the character of the redskins was that although to sustain their life they had to do considerable begging, they always tried to be of some service to their benefactors, or pay them back with something that might be of use to them. It is true, they had a great foible for "Goodnatosh" (fire water, whiskey), and for a jug full of it they would willingly give the result of a whole day's hunting. On their little clearings they laid out their peculiar cornfields on which they raised corn with irregular rows of kernels on the cobs, but of a superior taste.
The squaws did all of the manual labor; they were admirably skilled in making baskets of bast which were so tight that in them they could cook maple sugar over a fire. The bucks spent their time hunting and fishing. They walked in single file, if there happened to be several of them, or rode on ponies, and it was a droll contrast indeed when an especially lank Indian sat astride on one of the little animals, his leather pants showing slits like rifts on the sides.
It is a long time since the red man has disappeared from the county, but a kindly remembrance of him he did leave behind.
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST WHITE MAN
The fur trade with the Indians and the zeal of the Jesuit Fathers to spread christianity among the savages most likely brought the first white men for a longer stay to the shore of old Washington county which formerly extended as far as Lake Michigan. This, according to the old mission journals, happened in the summer of 1673. Two years previous, in 1671, the country came into the possession of the crown of France, to which it belonged for ninety years, thereafter. The French reign, however, was felt very little, and only fur traders and missionaries tried to bring the red son of the wilderness under their civilizing influences.
In May, 1673, the adventurer and fur trader Louis Joliet and the Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette with three companions in two In- dian canoes had on an exploration trip started from the Straits of Michilimackinac, the water way which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. They paddled along the northern shore, always keeping the land in sight, for their flimsy conveyances would not have withstood hard weather on the lake. When the dusk fell, they turned to the shore to go into camp for the night. In this way they reached the Green Bay and ascended the Fox river to a point where later the Portage was founded. There they engaged some Indians to guide them to the Wisconsin river which was not far away. On that river they glided down into the Mississippi, and on the back of the Father of the Rivers they continued their journey to the mouth of the Arkansas river. Then they again paddled their canoes up the Mississippi and by way of the Illinois river reached Lake Michigan. Along the western shore of the lake they proceeded to the newly founded mission at the Green Bay.
From their mode of traveling it may be presumed with the best chance to hit the truth that the party spent at least one night on the shore of old Washington county. They probably landed at the mouth of Sauk creek which could be easily reached in a day after leaving
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the mouth of the Milwaukee river. It was the place where the steep high shores of red clay retreat for a distance, forming the trough in which the business portion of Port Washington now lies, and which in a former era most likely was washed out by the Sauk creek seeking entrance to the lake, after the clay which, as science tells us, is of lacustrine origin, had by plutonic forces been lifted up from the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Autumn had put golden and purple tints on the leaves when the expedition took to the shore. It is said that from here Marquette made a side trip to the unknown inland and traveled some twenty miles west until he reached a hill of dominant height. The legend of Lapham's Peak, or Holy Hill, as it is called since the advent of the pilgrimages to its summit, 824 feet above the surrounding country, relates how Father Marquette ascended the steep hill and planted a cross on its top, dedicating the place to his patron saint, the Virgin Mary.
In October of the following year Marquette with two white com- panions (Pierre and Jacques) and ten canoes full of Pottawatomie and Illinois Indians undertook another trip south along the western shore of Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Chicago river. The journey took a month, and it is assumed that this party too landed at the mouth of the Sauk creek. If Marquette at any time made a stop there, it must have been on the previous or on this journey, for on his return he died and was buried on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
Another expedition which followed the route of the last one and which had for its object the christianizing of the Indians and the establishing of trading and military ports was started upon by the Jesuit Fathers La Salle and Hennepin and twelve companions in September, 1679. Mention of this trip has already been made in the chapter on the Indians. They used four canoes, and on their way were subject to the fury of the storm-swept Michigan, and were often compelled to make for the shore.
One evening the raging elements again drove them ashore. Their provisions had been exhausted or spoiled by the waves dashing over- board, and they were glad to find tractable Indians who supplied them with corn for which they paid out of their store of barter articles. Because this was the last landing north of the Milwaukee river, it is supposed to have been on the ground of old Washington county.
In the seventeenth century two more white men, Henry de Fonty
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and St. Cosme, journeyed by water along the western shore of Lake Michigan. The latter in 1699 found an Indian village at the mouth of a rivulet, probably that of the Sauk creek. There he learned that in the preceding winter a Jesuit missionary had lived and worked among the Indians of the place, and the wooden cross which he erected was still up, a witness of his labors. His name was Joseph J. Marest, and he most likely was the first white man who lived in the county.
During the entire eighteenth century nothing worthy of Clio's pencil seems to have happened in the parts known later as Washington county. We will shortly recite the vicissitudes they went through as a parcel of a vast territory. In 1761 England, after the Seven Years' War with France, took possession of the West which included the future state of Wisconsin, then a "howling wilderness" without any real settlers. The English rule-if such it can be called-lasted till 1796, although after the revolutionary war and since the treaty of peace with Great Britain the country belonged to the United States and was a part of the "Northwestern Territory." For a time the eastern part of the county was embodied in a vast stretch of land including the states of Indiana, Michigan, and portions of Ohio and Illinois, all of which was named Wayne county. Since July 4, 1800, Wisconsin was a part of the "Territory of Indiana." March 2, 1809, it was transferred to the "Territory of Illinois," except a small por- tion between the Green Bay and Lake Michigan. In 1818 it was attached to "Michigan Territory." July 3, 1836, Wisconsin was made a territory, its name of Indian origin and meaning "wild rushing water" appearing for the first time. It then included Iowa, Minnesota and a part of Dakota. May 29, 1848, Wisconsin became a state with boundaries as they exist today.
CHAPTER VI
THE VANGUARD OF THE PIONEERS
In this chapter it is attempted to present a short history of the beginning of the several townships. Only the names of the very first few settlers will be mentioned, for it would be beyond the com- pass of this work to tell of all who with their brawny arms have swung the ax of the settler, and it would not be meet to overburden a work that should be entertaining as well as instructive with names, however deserving their bearers may be.
Town Addison .- By an act of the Legislature the town of Addi- son was incorporated on January 21, 1846. It included the ter- ritory of the town of Wayne. On March II, 1848, by another act, the latter was separated and the present town line established. Tim- othy Hall, the first settler of the town of Hartford, found at his arrival in July, 1843 Alfred Ohrendorf to be the only settler in all of Town Addison. He had settled on Limestone creek, close to the Fond du Lac Road. In the same summer Uriel S. Wordsworth took up land two miles farther away. Hall helped him build his log house. In 1844 four more settlers, Simeon Aaron Andrus, Harmon Ostrander, and Jacob and Franz Stuesser, arrived in the town. Following them, and during 1845, the pioneers came in squads and platoons to take possession of the teeming wilds. On April 7, 1846, the first town meeting was held in the home of Caleb Spauld- ing. It was resolved to levy $50 for incidental expenses, and $9 for the poor fund, furthermore that the town officers shall be paid $I a day for services and that pigs shall not be left running at large. The first street built by the town commenced near the house of J. W. Dickerson and led in a northwesterly direction to the town line. At the first election in November, 1846, a total of 44 votes were cast. Among the first settlers of the town was Lehmann Rosenheimer who in 1844 arrived with his young wife and bought a farm. In Germany he had learned the butcher's trade, and this vocation he continued here, besides doing a lively business as a drover. He ac-
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
quired extensive tracts of land in the town, and in 1856 removed to Schleisingerville in the town of Polk. Another German whose name stands out prominently among the old settlers was John Schlagen- haft. He came in 1850 and was the first Catholic layman who settled in the town. In 1851 Father Bieter of Hartford read the first mass in the old church of SS. Peter and Paul, which was built of logs. The surroundings were as primitive as the church.
Town Barton .- This town, originally called "Town Newark," was in 1848 sliced off from the town of West Bend to the south and the town of North Bend (now Town Kewaskum) to the north. On November 25, 1853, the county board re-baptized it "Barton," in honor of its first pioneer, Barton Salisbury. In the home of Martin Foster (the site now lies in the village of Barton) on October 16, 1848, the first town meeting was called to order. John K. Avery was the moderator, and Samuel H. Alcot the secretary. After being organized, the meeting repaired to the schoolhouse where the election of officers was held. The schoolhouse was built of logs, and had formerly served as living quarters for Barton Salisbury who on an exploration trip along the winding course of the Milwaukee river in 1845 had decided to settle here. When in the following year he built for himself a frame house, the log shanty was turned over to the cause of education, yet in its swaddling clothes like the rest of the community. At the election aforesaid thirty-seven votes were cast. A coffee pot served as a ballot box. The first assessment of all tax- able property in the towns of Barton, Trenton, West Bend, Farm- ington, and Kewaskum showed as a grand total the sum of $3,700. The old log schoolhouse in the village of Barton was the accepted meeting place of the old pioneers. They gathered there to talk over the questions of the hour as well as to perpetrate many a stunt. From all over the country they came. One evening they had a sham session of the Legislature. Hank Totten was elected governor, and Reuben Rusco secretary of state. Each town in the county had a representa- tive, But when these had assembled it was found that the secretary of state had mysteriously disappeared. The doorkeeper was ordered to look for him and bring him back as quick as possible. He found the recalcitrant officer way off in the woods where he and another deserter were deeply absorbed in a game of Seven-up on a spacious tree stump. After the governor's order had been read to him, he thought it best to leave the jacks, spades, clubs, aces, etc., and betake himself to the schoolhouse. The session was a highly humorous one. No burning question, whether touching upon state or national affairs,
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