USA > Wisconsin > Washington County > Washington County, Wisconsin : past and present > Part 9
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"Oh dread old November! can't you give us something better
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than this blustering, chilly, nasty, sticky, misty, slippery, shabby greeting ?
"Later .- Jack Frost has taken pity on us. He has crystallized the rain drops and laid his embargo on the clouds. The mud is mud no longer in his cohesive grasp .- The leaden sky is darker, the wind whistles instead of sighing; and in place of the driving, drench- ing rain of the past week, we have the first baby snow-flakes of the season, tiny and scattering, sifting scantly down on the grater-like surface of the earth. Numb fingers will fill the ballot box tomorrow; but don't, on any account, take anything hot inside to neutralize the outward chill !"
If the town needed some improvement, and the sentiment in favor of it was strong enough, the editor would help it along either in a fulminating paragraph, or in a mild suggestion, as in this case:
"Sidewalks .- This is about time for the citizens of our village to commence their annual talk about building sidewalks. We don't expect that any will be built, but it is a great pleasure to talk the matter over every spring."
The condition of the streets in the pioneer village was far from being ideal, as the following item tells:
"Mud! Mud! Mud! It has been very muddy for the past two weeks, and the 'wussedest' kind of mud too, a kind that every town ain't got. It is a kind that will jerk a man's boot off every time. On Friday night we were favored with a nice little shower, and it made it still 'wusser,' but on Saturday the wind blew a perfect hur- ricane. We could look from our window down-street and see sticks, cord-wood, shavings, hats, hoops, and everything else imaginable flying in all directions. A good day for 'sail crafts;' you could see 'em skudding before the wind with main-jib-sail hard on to port. The sun is shining bright and warm, the mud is drying up very fast, and we are in hopes to see pleasant weather once more."
The necessity of a new schoolhouse was emphasized thus :
"Schools .- Together with a professional chum of ours, whom we took along to give an air of respectability and gallantry to the expedition, we (a brace of journeymen printers and ex-officio locals in the absence of the editor) elected ourselves pro tempore a School Committee last Wednesday afternoon, and called in at the respective places where Misses Fanny Wightman and Ella McHenry are en- gaged in the performance of that
'Delightful task-to rear the tender thought,
And teach the young idea how to shoot.'
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"The Committee think that they are tolerable judges of schools, a majority of them having served a pretty good apprenticeship in this exceedingly up-hill method of serving one's country, and would report that the teachers reflect altogetlier more credit upon the com- munity than the schoolhouses. The schools are both well governed and systematically and thoroughly taught-much better, we think, than the average of country and village schools throughout the state, but we do think that this town can afford a good schoolhouse, in which all departments can be united, and the scholars more accurately and definitely graded. Besides, there are other considerations in favor of a good schoolhouse and grounds-considerations of mental, moral and physical health. The best teacher is shorn of half his efficiency when placed in a room which cannot but be connected with disagreeable associations in the minds of his pupils-a room with nothing pleas- ant in its internal or external aspect. We know how it operates on an ordinary teacher, for we have taught school in a house with white- washed walls and uncurtained windows through which the sun's rays streamed all through the long summer day upon blistered necks and sweating faces and aching spines, because the soil was too nig- gardly to nourish a tree to mitigate with its shade the suffocating, blinding heat; with seats so high from the floor that the feet of the tallest might not hope to reach them for years-seats with backs made by a plumb line, and confronted by horizontal desks, hacked with jackknives of no-one-knows-how-many generations, and be- smeared with enough logwood ink to cover with pot-hooks every sheet of foolscap in Wisconsin; a house whose builders must have thought that the young intellect could not grow without water as well as air, and so with wonderful sagacity placed the ventilating machinery in the roof; a house whose play-ground was a wilderness of sand and whose 'apparatus' consisted of an oaken ferule and Walker's Dictionary; and this was in a neighborhood where every farmer had a barn that cost five times as much as that schoolhouse; and we said: 'Never was economy so misdirected-never was it so penny- wise and pound-foolish !' The above is a type of very many of our Wisconsin schoolhouses, and though West Bend may not be quite so bad as this, it needs a new schoolhouse-it can afford it, and- let it be built !"
In little places the local items of interest are sometimes despair- ingly scarce. It was in such a week that these lines appeared :
"Local items is mighty skeerce now-a-days here. All we hear is quarreling about politics. Why don't somebody get up a horse-race
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
-a dog fight-somebody lick somebody-accidents of some kind -an elopement-a marriage-an affair of some kind, we don't care what, something, anything to get up an excitement. And you men that sit there in the house as though you were afraid some one will see you, come out and see what's going on, don't stay shut up in the house like a sick kitten, and when you do get out, you're as ferocious as a lion, but come out, and walk about, air yourselves, be cheerful, and try to make all around you happy, and rest assured, you will be happier men."
The editor of pioneer days had as a rule a hard scramble to keep the wolf from the door. The clamor to pay the subscription echoes through the years. This is a sample:
"Wish somebody would come in and fork over a little money, as it would do us good, and make us feel cheerful and life-like. Will some of our delinquents drop in and 'pony over some of the ready?' "
Necessaries of life were welcome in place of money which was scarce. Wrote he on one occasion :
"Wanted .- Won't some of our numerous friends bring us some butter? We have been without so long that the hinges of our jaws squeak like a dry grind-stone. We also want any quantity of good maple sugar, for which the highest price will be paid."
Here is another call for butter:
"Butter-butter !- Will some of our country friends bring us some butter? We are butter-less. Bread creaks and squeaks, as it goes down our throats, like a rusty hinge. There is but one advantage in going without butter: when our bread drops, it doesn't fall buttered side undermost. Bring us some butter-do!"
Oats, too, were taken for subscription :
"Oats .- Our big 'hoss' Prince likes oats, and we haven't any. Bring some along, delinquent subscribers, otherwise 'Prince' will strain himself .- Washington Co. Dem.
"' Would Farrar have us understand that he, an editor, has a horse? If so, the case is unparalleled .- Mil. Wisconsin.'
"Horse? guess we have, and the biggest kind of a horse, at that. He is particularly partial as to oats. Subscribers, bring 'em along.
"(Potter, you must be green-it's nothing but a saw-horse-we only take this method to induce our subscribers to pay up.) Bring along the oats."
Often the pioneer editor would receive presents from admiring
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
readers. The next issue would have the acknowledgment. Two of these have been picked out :
"Them Pumpkins .- We have long neglected to say that F. Everly, Esq., of this village, and A. Young, Esq., of Trenton, presented us with a couple of 'pumpins.' We won't attempt to give a descrip- tion of them; 'suffice it to say,' that we use one-half of it for a hog pen, and calculate it will serve this purpose and furnish feed for the hogs till spring. The other one we managed to cut with a hay-knife, and now use one-half of it for a cistern. This may be slightly ex- aggerated; but them pumpkins were whoppers."
"Garden Sass .- M. A. T. Farmer, Esq., sent us up a pail of nice new potatoes and cucumbers, the other day. They were gratefully received, because, you see, during our recent absence, somebody's infernal swine got into our garden and dug up all the early potatoes .-
"O, that we had ten thousand dogs, To fence our garden 'round, And keep the neighbor's cussed hogs From rooting up the ground!"
The people of West Bend are very fond of dancing, and as the character of the man is already present in the child, so the character of a city is traceable when yet in the swaddling clothes of the village. Said he:
"'No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet, to chase the glowing hours with flying feet,'-nor then either if a fellow has to work next day. But no matter-Morpheus the god must suc- cumb to Terpsichore the muse; dancing is one of the necessaries of life to a West Bender; and in our town rosin and cat gut are the staples of commerce-after lager beer, of course-after foaming, healthful lager, without which we should descend to the level of villages wherein no Christian beverage is sold, but where Death deals out his genuine forty-rod strychnine gut-rot; without which we should degenerate into a town abounding in bloated, blear-eyed, blood- beet-nosed gentry."
Ye editor was a politician of the old type-fierce and relentless to the opposing party. The county from its beginning had been a bulwark of the Democratic party. After Douglas had been nom- inated for the Presidency by the Democrats, he thus described the local reception of the news:
"Great Douglas Demonstration .- Last Monday evening after the arrival of the mail confirming the nomination of Douglas, the
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
greatest enthusiasm was felt amongst the Democrats of this village. As we have no cannon, four anvils were made to do shooting duty, and the firing was kept up incessantly for about three-quarters of an hour. Bonfires were lighted, fireworks let off, and cheers and shouts for Douglas rent the air. The few Republicans to be seen had faces as long as a rail, and with the corners of their mouths drawn down like a bullfrog's. Like the man in Noah's time, they didn't think it would be much of a shower, after all."
Another specimen in the same strain is this:
"On Wednesday evening last, A. Scott Sloan made a speech in the Court House, in this village. The audience was not large, yet fully as large as could be expected, considering the unfavorable appear- ance of the weather, and the shortness of the notice.
" 'Popular Sovereignty' was the great mountain that stood in the speaker's way .- He sought in every way to climb over it, to go around it, to get through it or crawl under it; but every attempt was a sublime failure. He climbed tolerably well until he touched upon the slippery ground of the incapability and incompetency of the people to regulate their own affairs, then his feet slipped from under him, and he came rapidly back, in rather an ungraceful position, to the place of starting. In attempting to go around it, he got be- fogged and bewildered, and unconsciously wandered back to the place of beginning. His success in getting through it was no better, he got in as far as he could go, 'wriggled' awhile like Gov. Randall's snake, then took himself by the seat of his pants, and pulled himself out.
"He said this was the very last effort of the Republican party- that, if they did not succeed this hitch, they were 'gone in' for all time to come-that it was their last gasp, dying kick and struggle if they were beaten, an eminently wise remark of his, but it took poorly with his Republican listeners. They think his two last defeats have soured his temper, spoiled his disposition, and about discour- aged him."
But the doom was approaching :
"According to the telegraphic reports, the state elections held in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio last Tuesday resulted in favor of the Republicans, generally. The Republicans hereabouts have all swelled prodigiously, since hearing the news. Some of them have patronized the cooper shops, and been re-hooped to prevent their 'busting.' Their heads have swollen so that they can't wear hats, and they go around with 'cabasas,' wrapped up in woolen comforters,
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asking everybody if they have heard the news from Pennsylvania."
And when it struck, he hid behind "the rest of the Democrat of- fice," and published this :
"Lincoln Elected .- Special notice to our friend W. P. Barnes, and about a dozen others.
"Gentlemen :-
" 'The spider's most attenuated web Is cord, is cable to our tender tie'
to each single one of the numerous hats, boots, cigars, breeches, dic- tionaries, etc., etc., etc., out of which we so confidently-so fondly hoped to scoop you. Gentleman, we talked big before election, but now we have got to talk small; we betted our five-dollar trifles very 'brashly,' but now we have got to fork over. Gentlemen, we are like the boy of whom you have all heard-'we have nothing to say.' We have emerged from the most frightfully little end of the most tremendously large horn we ever entered, and we feel dimimutive and delicate. It is unnecessary to enlarge on a topic so painful to us; you know how we bragged, and you know how utterly we are squelched; you don't need to be told that fusion wasn't a safety fuse for us; nor that the Quakers did vote, this time, with a vengeance; nor that the hosts of Egypt have gone down into the Red Sea of Republicanism, and been overwhelmed; nor how the stump ticket stumped us for a game of bluff, and skunked us blind; nor how My Dear Brother came over Our Gallant Little Joker. Knowing these things as you do, you can appreciate our 'pheelinks' without any ap- peal from us. But one more word is necessary in this connection: -When we put our hands in our collapsed and empty pockets and anxiously ask 'where, Oh, where is the spelter which we shall be called upon to shell out?' the dolefulest of echoes answers 'where?' Now we ain't going to repudiate. No !- The Dutch dictionary, the hat, the breeches are all yours, Oh, most elongated student at law; the half-a-thousand weeds a thine, Oh, mine host of the American House, and our fallen chops must suck short-stemmed clay pipes ; the hats and the books are yours, Barnes, even the ones we spouted on Breckinridge; the hats and the boots are yours, Oh, man of the stave machine !
"'Oh, truly wise, the moral Muse hath sung,
That suasive Hope hath but a Syren tongue!'
"Yes, gentlemen, we propose to pay our lost wagers-we haven't
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
got anything left but honor, and we must take precious care of that. There are one or two reasons, however, why we can't do this just now: In the first place, we didn't expect to have to pay those bets when we made 'em, and so we spent all our loose change in helping boss run for the Legislature; in the next place we expected that if we should happen to loose, the Republicans would owe us enough for 'lection tickets to make it square; but we have lost every bet and the Republicans owe us nary red; consequently, we are down.
"Considering that Mr. Lincoln is down on the Fugitive Slave Law, we have had serious thoughts of running away, but have finally con- cluded that
"Tis nobler in the mind to suffer The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, than
'To take arms against a sea of troubles,'
By bidding adieu, between two days, to the
'ills we have,
To fly to others that we know not of.'
"So, gentlemen, we shall stay, and face the music as soon as we can raise the wind; and in the meantime if we don't raise our hats when we meet you it will be because we haven't any to raise, (hang it, yes, we have-a half a dozen of 'em,) and if we dodge around corners when we see you coming, it will be because we don't like to look you in the face.
Yours respectfully, Not the Editor,
But the rest of the Democrat Office."
But he was a gentleman and was ready to pay his election bets, for in the next issue this announcement appeared :
"Walk Up .- We have made arrangements to pay up our nu- merous bets lost on the recent election, on Wednesday morning, the 3Ist inst., at 10 o'clock, at B. S. Potter's store. The crowd will march in at the front entrance, single file, receive their hats, boots, etc., etc., from the counter, and march out the back way, where a big nigger will be stationed with a club to prevent all hurrahing for Old Abe, and also to see that none of the crowd smuggle themselves in at the front entrance again .- Those winning oyster suppers of us, will be duly notified of the time and place of payment."
In the issue of July 23 appeared a reproduction of a letter to the
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
editor of the "Milwaukee News" signed by "Sioux," from which the following vivid descriptions of life and country in and around West Bend at that time are taken :
"While you are pent up in your seven by nine office, enclosed by the huge .walls of your much admired brick, your occasional corres- pondent is rioting amidst the sumptuous hospitalities of our mutual friend, ex-Senator Weil, here on the banks of this beautiful lake (Cedar lake). This lake is about five miles in length, and nearly three- fourths of a mile wide at this point, with hard gravel banks, and surrounded by the prettiest scenery that our Creator has ever ex- hibited to man.
"Senator Weil has a small farm of about 800 acres, bordering on this lake, upon which there are between two and three hundred acres of grain, mostly ready for the cradle. The new-made hay is now being gathered and sheds a perfume around the borders of this lake, that would cause both Jew and Gentile to forget their friends, their oldest creditors, or their unpaid notes.
"Fish of nearly every description abound in this lake, and nearly everybody goes a-fishing on their 'own hook.'
"Yesterday afternoon we attended a Douglas ratification meeting at West Bend. *
* In the evening a grand ball was held in the open air in the grove upon the opposite side of the river. This was the best affair of the kind that I have ever witnessed. A foot bridge is built over the river, well lighted the whole length of it, which leads you into the thick woods where a splendid dancing floor, staging, etc., has for some time, by appearance, been kept in good working order. Around it upon each side were well regulated seats-the floor well lighted with a reasonable number of candles set in Nature's chandeliers. In front is an elevated stand for the music, and in the rear is a similar one for furnishing all kinds of refreshments, includ- ing a very little lager beer.
"Here a company consisting of some forty or fifty couple 'tipped the light fantastic toe' until the petit hours informed them that the Sabbath was approaching. Among the crowd were the first ladies and gentlemen of the place, both married and single-Americans and Germans all mingling together, apparently determined to excel each other in the enjoyments of the evening.
"This is my first appearance in this part of the state for some fifteen years, and I find all of the old trails and landmarks totally obliterated. What was then a wild forest, is now richly cultivated and laden with a bounteous supply of all kinds of grain. The farms are generally
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
small, but mostly well fenced and under a good state of cultivation. Such fields of rye and wheat I never saw growing. The former is now being harvested, and the latter will soon be ready. The fences are all made of oak rails. * *
"The village of West Bend contains about five hundred inhabitants. The buildings are mostly built of wood and painted white, giving them a new and neat appearance. It contains quite a number of stores and groceries, and by what I have seen, I should judge that they were all doing a lively business. * *
To wind up this chapter in good fashion, just one more account is offered, that of the Fourth-of-July doings:
"The Glorious Fourth .- Last week we promised our readers a more extended account than our limits then permitted of the way in which we celebrated our country's 84th birthday.
"At 9 o'clock the Invincible, Unconquerable, Unquenchable, Unter- rified, Never-say-die Brigade assembled at their rendezvous, becom- ingly masked and arrayed in full uniform, fell into line, and marched into town, preceded by a drum and fife and an enormous hoop skirt by way of flag, made of hickory poles, and appropriately ornamented with garlands of 'pig-weed' and 'tickle-grass.' They were received by the largest concourse of spectators ever assembled in West Bend, who vociferously manifested their appreciation of the ridiculous. The Brigade marched to Barton and Young America at which latter place they were regaled by two or three kegs of beer, imbibed through conduits of wooden and clay pipe stems. Mr. Coe has the thanks of the entire Brigade-maugre the Good Templars-for his liberality. On returning to the Bend, they found an immense crowd gathered around our wood pile which had been announced as the speaker's platform. Here an impudent fellow who styled himself John E. Mann read a ridiculous jumble in imitation of the Declaration, which contained some things which we fear he would hardly have wished to read unmasked; and the orator who was announced as H. L. Palmer, read a speech sixteen rods long, which was unrolled from an enormous windlass by Fred Douglass. After testing the quality of the Sharp Corner lager, the Brigade disbanded in time for dinner and dancing at Ewe's Park.
"Mr. Ewe prepared a splendid dinner for those who had time to attend to the demands of their animal nature, though we got around in time only to partake of the 'seven baskets full' that remained. He had a brass band from Milwaukee, and dancing continued unin-
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terruptedly from two o'clock p. m. until the morning of the fifth. In the meantime they were having a good time on the 'Island.'
"At ten o'clock, the Turners proceeded with music and accompani- ments to the 'Island' which was presided over by Messrs. Goetter & Vieth. They performed in good style for about two hours, when they were followed by the reading of the Declaration in German, by Charley Miller, and orations-in German, by Prof. Regenfuss, and in English, by F. O. Thorp, Esq. Another dinner was in readiness there, and was duly honored, after which a German couple named Bingenheimer celebrated the Golden Hochzeit or Golden Wedding, a national ceremony which is performed on the 50th anniversary of the wedding day. Then came dancing until dark, when the company formed a torchlight procession and marched to the village, where they joined in the festivities of the night.
"The foot race which was announced for 8 o'clock in the morning was postponed until 4 in the afternoon, on account of the absence of some who were expected to compete for the purse. At the appointed time, a crowd assembled at the brewery, the distance-forty rods- was measured off, a shake purse made up, and the runners 'buckled in.'-Mr. D. St. John came in first, a young man named Perry sec- ond, and Mr. Levi Bunce third. The purse was divided propor- tionately between them, after which Mr. Farrar offered a gold pencil worth about $5 to the winner of a second race, free to all who chose to run, except Mr. St. John, with whom no one present could com- pete. Five or six entered for this prize, of whom Sol. Tuttle and Levi Bunce took the lead, Tuttle keeping a little in advance until near the end, when, mistaking the terminus, he slacked up, and Bunce passed him and came in first, winning the pencil.
"The races, as a whole, were very creditable. Mr. St. John's run- ning was particularly fine. He carries himself beautifully, runs with- out apparent exertion, and gets over the ground at a rate that will win any man's money who stakes it on his speed.
"The day was cloudless and cool, and nothing occurred to make the day other than it should be, one of gaiety and jubilant joy. Fire- works-on a small scale, we must confess-were exhibited in the evening. On the fifth, as a climax to the celebration, Messrs. Goetter & Vieth got up a successful balloon ascension, and the young folks had their dance out at the hall and park .- Our people have too much money and patriotism to expend all in one day. Altogether, we are not ashamed to hold up our heads with our neighbors when they speak of Fourth-of-July 'Splurges.'"
CHAPTER XVII
THE WAR PERIOD
A heavy April shower was pattering on the shingled roof of the West Bend courthouse and splashing against its wooden walls of old colonial design. Within, a throng of people had assembled to take the first steps in a matter of nation-wide import. In the same hall a year previous, in 1860, Carl Schurz had spoken in favor of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the presidency. Lin- coln had been elected, and under his administration the volcano of Southern rebellion which had been grumbling for a long time burst forth in deadly eruption, and its first missiles struck Fort Sumpter. The North wanted to have a word in the slavery question, but the hot-blooded Southerners stomached it. Thus it came about that, following the victories of the North, slavery, instead of being re- stricted as was originally proposed, was abolished altogether.
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