Wilmington Township

Wilmington Township

were four in the party, all natives of Ireland. John Edger was one of them, and he broke up twenty-five acres the following summer, but soon sold out and removed to the southeast part of the town, finally going to Iowa.

His father-in-law, Michael Callahan, also one of the party, sold his claim, which he held with Mr. Edger, to Ole Bye. Charles Kelly selected land north of the others, but he, with a blacksmith named Michael Tanner, not finding work, soon left.

Probably the first Norwegian to enter the township was Gjermund Johnson,, who in the summer of 1853 took a claim on section 16. After putting up a shanty and making some improvements, he removed to sections 7 and 18, where he established a good farm. Ole Bye, who, as already related, bought the Edger claim, in 1856 moved to the east line of section 33, where he remained for the rest of his life. Among the other pioneer settlers in the Norwegian part of the township were Halver Peterson, Knudt Severson, Enud Olson, and Ole O. Hefte.

Portland Prairie received a considerable accession of settlers during the season of 1854, aU or most of whom were Americans, and proved permanent residents. Among them were C. F. Albee, Dr. Alexander Batchellor, John McNaUy, Jeremiah Shumway, James and Duty Paine, and J. G. Cook. These Americans came from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, arriving by the river at Lansing, without having any specific knowledge of where they were going, except "to Minnesota." The land office was located at Brownsville, and some of the party having examined the location, they concluded not to look any further. The party bought out John Edger, and it is said that for a time the cabin had sixteen inmates.

These settlers were soon followed by a number of others, who arrived in increasing numbers. The first frame house on the prairie was built, it is said, by Asa Sherman, who was afterwards, as it was supposed, drowned in the Mississippi River.

The arrivals in 1855 included George Shumway, R. E. Shumway, John Albee, Horace Arnold, Arnold Stone, James Emerson and Amos Lapham, and by the spring of 1856 there had been built about eight dwellings, most of them being smaU and rude log cabins. Among the prominent pioneers who came later were : Cornelius Metcalf , Jr., in 1857 ; his father and family ; William Cass and Leonard Albee, with their respective families, in 1858; H. W. Pease, from Maine, the same year; D. P. Temple in 1859; L. L. Lapham in 1860; E. C. Arnold in 1861; H. P. KeUy in 1862; C. F. Wright in 1863, and Amos Arnold and Joel S. Yeaton in 1864. During these years and afterwards a number of others arrived, some of whom, however, proved only transient residents.

The first birth in the settlement occurred in the fall of 1852, in the cabin of Mr. Edger, and was that of James Kelly, son of Charles and Margaret Kelly, who were at the time living in a wagon near the cabin. This child grew to manhood and subsequently became a business man of New Albin, la.

The first death was that of the wife of *01e Bye. She was taken sick soon after they had bought their place here, and died in August, 1853, being buried in Winneshiek county, Iowa.

In 1855 occurred the first marriage, that of Ole A. Quarle and Sarah Everson, which was celebrated by the Rev. Mrs. Carson, of Decorah, at the house of Gjermund Johnson, on section 7. This couple reared a family of children.

Portland Prairie was the first part of the town settled. The locality known by this name, however, lies only partly in Wilmington Township, a part of it being in Winnebago Township, and a part extending across the state line into Iowa. The county records show that the ownership of the prairie farms, for a dozen years or so from the first settlement, frequently changed hands. The Germans and Scandinavians were appearing to take up the remaining vacant lands, or purchase of the Americans who desired to sell their improvements. Like most frontier places, the first residences were not commodious, but comfortable log cabins, requiring little except a few days' hard labor to erect. Many families had to bear their inconveniences many years before the luxury of a frame house could be enjoyed. The farming at first was of a rude character, with appliances such as were in vogue before the era of machinery, and while there was an abiding faith in the ability of the soil to produce root crops, corn and oats, there was many a dubious shake of the head when wheat was mentioned. But like many another question, practical experience soon solved the problem in the affirmative, although most of the flour at first used to come from outside the county. Wheat, oats and com soon began to be established crops. The trouble of getting it ground, at first very serious, was in a few years rendered satisfactory by Messrs. Harney & Edward Bell, who built a log mill and set it to running in Dorchester.

The first reaper was a McCormick, which, although an improvement upon the sickle and the cradle, must be regarded as the progenitor of the present self-binder, developed by the law of selection and the survival of the fittest. It was introduced by Samuel Evans about the year 1857, and a threshing machine arrived about the same time. At first there was absolutely no market for anything outside the settlement, so the people devoted their time to making themselves comfortable, and to do this, made the usual recreations of hunting and fishing a part of their business. The amount of money in circulation, especially during the panic of 1857, would take but few figures to represent.

When Charles Albee arrived here he brought with him a single, oldfashioned rifle, and this was brought into frequent requisition to kill deer at long range, which were found along the river bluffs. The prairie chickens also had a peculiar fascination for the New Englanders, while the enormous catfish of the Mississippi were a never ending source of astonishment, in comparison with their diminutive namesake in eastern waters. Almost the first marketing of wheat realized the munificent amount of 38 cents a bushel, in Lansing, which was also the nearest postoffice for some time.

In 1856 a mail route was established between Brownsville and Dorchester, and Dr. Batchellor was appointed postmaster, Con Metcalf being deputy.

The residents in the northern part of the township, as a rule, came by way of Brownsville, while those in the south generally came through Lansing or McGregor. There were then two settlements of Norwegians, those who were in the vicinity of Ole Bye, in the southern part, and those who rallied around Gjermund Johnson, in the northern portion of the township.

Another important settlement at an early day, as well as at present, is known as the American settlement, the personel of which has already been given. The predominating element is still American on what is called the prairie. There are a few of Irish extraction, but the rest of the town was settled by people from Norway.

Four years after the general settlement of the community the first schoolhouse was built. Before this time it was hardly required, as most of the settlers were young men whose children were not yet of school age. The mail facilities were so slow and imperfect that few newspapers were taken. Letters or papers mailed in the East were ten to fifteen days on the road, and news on reaching the settlement would be so old as to lose its quality of news, and the settlers had recourse each winter to the debating club, which met in the house of Dr. Batchellor, and afterwards in the schoolhouse, where the relative gratitude due to Columbus or Washington was most vehemently argued ; with questions as the beauties of nature and art, and whether capital punishment should be abolished. Thus the tedium of the long winter evenings was bridged over.

The Sioux massacre of 1862 caused the most alarming panic throughout the whole Northwest, extending to Lake Michigan. The roads were filled with panic stricken settlers fleeing from the imaginary tomahawk and scalping knife.

The people of Wilmington, like the rest, became thoroughly frightened, and while some remained on their farms, most of them started with their families, and what few valuables they could carry, for Lansing. When near the southeastern part of the town, in the vicinity of C. F. Albee's farm, the American residents succeeded in halting the fugitives, and to assure them that there was no danger, C. F. Albee and A. Sherman started on horseback for Spring Grove to learn whether the Indians were really there, as all comers reported, murdering the people and burning all before them. Everything having been reported as quiet as the conventional Potomac, the people slowly went back to their recently forsaken homes, but many of them had turned their cattle into the grain, the losses were quite heavy.

The first town meeting was held on May 11, 1858, in what was known as the Norwegian schoolhouse, the present district No. 58, located near the center of section 28. M. Glanville was chosen moderator, and John G. Cook and Silas Perry, clerks of election. The foUowing officers were chosen: Supervisors, A. Batchellor, chairman, Jeremiah Shumway> and Herman Peterson; clerk, John McNally; assessor, Asley Swanson; coUec- tor, G. Pope; overseer of the poor, C. F. Albee; justices of the peace, J. G. Cook and Silas C. Perry; constables, J. M. Paine and Peter O. Quarle.

At this meeting the town was divided into nine ward districts, with the following overseers: Mike McGinnis, G. Andreson, H. Peterson, G. Gilbertson, Knud Severson and T. Oleson. A resolution that hogs should be permitted to run at large was unanimously adopted. The meeting then adjourned. And thus the town of Wilmington was started on its career as a political entity.

This township coincides with the government survey, and is the second from the Mississippi on the southern boundary of the county and state. It has Majrville on the north, Jefferson on the east, AUamkee County, Iowa, on the south, and Wilmington on the west. The town is drained by Winnebago Creek, which, with the township, gets its name from the Winnebago Indians who used to frequent this region. The main branch of this stream rises near the northwest corner, and running south of east, leaves the town about two and a half miles from the southern boundary on the east side. The valley of the river makes well up into the town and there is the usual hill and dale so characteristic of the west bank of the Mississippi in this vicinity. Away from the creek there is the table land which makes good farms.

The first man to stake out a claim in Winnebago Township was Freeman Graves, a native of Underbill, Vt., who, however, was reared on a farm in New York state. In 1846 he came west as far as Columbia County, Wisconsin, from which locality he started on foot in the early spring of 1851 for the new territory of Minnesota. Crossing the Mississippi at Mc- Gregor, he pursued his course to the north through Clayton and Allamakee counties, Iowa, until he found a place which filled his requirements for a home, and at once stuck his stakes for a claim of 200 acres on what afterwards proved to be a part of section 34, in Winnebago Township, and the rest in the state of Iowa. There this solitary pioneer put up a shanty on the south half of the southwest quarter of section 34, and after making some improvements returned to Wisconsin and induced some of his neighbors to accompany him back, which they did in October of the same year, prepared to remain through the winter. When the lines were run his friends were found to be in Iowa. In the winter of 1851-52 he returned to Wisconsin for his family, and Mrs. Graves thus became the first white woman in this region.

Another early settler was Asa Benson, from Pennsylvania, who at first selected some land on section 30, but soon after went over into the valley and located on section 22. His claim, as first located, was among the first on Portland Prairie.

land. Mr. Sherman was afterwards drowned in the Mississippi River, as was believed at the time, while Mr. Perry left after living here several years.

Soon after this the German element began to arrive on the prairie, among the first to appear being F. Monk, William Schapper, F. Rhug, and Herman Carston. In the north part of the town John and Jacob Meyus came about 1855, and in time they established good farms. In the fall of 1854 Thomas Barry, a brother-in-law of Patrick Walsh, bought the northeast section 25, and remained, while Walsh moved to Jefferson after the war.

Michael Sheehan and Timothy McCarthy, who came in the spring of 1854, and took claims in sections 6, 7 and 16, were also permanent settlers. The Tippery brothers must have arrived in 1853, and put up a shanty a little south of that of Thomas Barry. E. D. Eaton made a claim on section 23, which included the site of Barber's mill. During the season Oscar Boomer became a partner with Eaton, and the two laid out a town and called it Watertown. In the spring of 1855 the property was purchased by Wyman Trask, except about three blocks, which were reserved. In the fall of 1855 Charles A. Coe came from Norway, Herkimer County, New York, and bought out the Tippery brothers. W. W. Doty also put in an appearance about the same time and formed a partnership with Coe to build a sawmill at Watertown. Coe and Doty went to New York state to procure the machinery. Trask got a large number of logs together in anticipation of the mill. In the spring of 1856, the mill machinery was shipped to Brownsville, but, some disagreement arising, the mill was never set up here, but finally went to Rochester. Trask had to turn his timber into rails and firewood.

The first birth in the township, of which there is any record was that of Patrick Sheehan, a son of Michael Sheehan, and occurred early in May,

1854. Louella Melvin, daughter of Joseph and Cordelia Melvin, was born on section 32, near Eitzen Village, on Feb. 7, 1857. She was a granddaughter of Eliakim and Elvira Laflin, and became the wife of Frank Willis, of Caledonia. The first death was that of old Mr. Spangler, in

1855, and he was buried on the bluff between the upper and lower mills. The first marriage was that of Albert Leach and Mrs. Martha McDonald, and was solemnized at the house of E. D. Eaton, a justice of the peace of the first precinct of the county, in the fall of 1854 or 1855.

It is supposed that the first log house put up in the valley was by Joseph Tippery and his brother William, which was in 1853. It was placed near the upper mill on section 23, where the cemetery now is, and near where there was at the time a ford across the creek. It was sold, as above mentioned, to Mr. Coe. In the spring of 1858 Peter McDonald lived in the house. He had two children, a son and a daughter, and that season the little boy was drowned in the spring branch near the house. This house was a source of considerable trouble afterwards as it was sold to I. C. Calkins, who moved it to the prairie, a quarter of a mile east of Eitzen, and placed it across the road south of J. A. Melvin's. Of course it made Melvin indignant to have his communications thus cut off, and the vendetta began in a modified Corsican style. Calkins proceeded to build a barn, which was burned on May 9, 1864. Melvin was arrested as an incendiary and held to bail to answer before the grand jury, but this tribunal found no bill against him. Melvin then proceeded against Calkins in a legal way and secured the arrest of him and his family, and he, securing a postponement of the case, took himself beyond the jurisdiction of the court, in May, 1865, and this practically ended the local war.

The first blacksmith's shop in town was started by Thomas Biggs, a practical workman, who built shop on the farm of J. A. Melvin on section 32, in 1862, near Eitzen, and was carried on by him for several years. T. H. Templeton, in 1862 or 1863, built a shop on section 25, but his fire only continued to burn about a year. The next man to erect a forge was B. J. Smith, in 1867, near the upper mill, who after hammering away a while sold to Mr. Kemp. About the year 1870 Charles Vorpole started a shop at Eitzen.

The first mill in the valley was the "Upper Mill,'* which was built of stone in the years 1860 and 1861 by Ensign McDonald, but he sold it to McMillen & Rose before any machinery had been introduced. The new firm began to put in machinery, but sold to Sevin & Lindburg about the year 1865, who finally got it into operation. The next year Sevin sold his share to Charles Johnson, and then, Lindburg dying, his widow sold her share to McMillan & Clark, and the firm became Johnson, McMillan & Clark. During the summer of 1877 the firm razed the old mill to the ground, and enlarging the basement, placed a two-story frame building upon it, put in new and improved machinery, and in the fall of that year were again in operation.

The next stock of merchandise to be opened up was in Semfer's building at Eitzen, the proprietor being Mr. Hilbert. About 1866 C. Bunge started a store in a log house. In 1873 H. F. Bucholz opened a store near Eitzen, but he was financially submerged in 1878, after a five years' struggle. Previous to this, however, in 1866 or 1867, W. R. Balloe built a store near the upper Winnebago Mills, and rented it to Oleson & Co., who ran a grocery and dry goods store for two years, when they failed. T. B. Barber in 1874 erected a two-story building near the lower mill, on section 23, to be used for store purposes. In the spring of 1881 C. Bunge commenced the manufacture of brick, and during the season burned two kilns containing in the aggregate 150,000 brick.

senior resident, was elected moderator, and Asa P. Beman, clerk. A motion to proceed to the election of town officers prevailed. The polls were kept open from 9 :50 a. m. to 5 :00 p. m., the result of the balloting being as follows : Supervisors : Joseph A. Melvin, chairman, Fred Kolhmeier, and Edward Lynch; clerk, Lovel Hougton; assessor, Lark E. Laflin; collector, Harvey E. Jones; overseer of the poor, John Tourtelotte; justices of the peace, Asa P. Beman and Herman Carston; constables, Frederick Ruhe and James H. Templeton ; overseer of roads. Freeman Graves. There must have been 28 persons present, as nearly all the candidates had 27 votes each. A motion to have the next town meeting at Lovel Houghton's was carried. Soon after this three road districts were arranged by the town oflScers, and the following overseers appointed: Wyman Trask, Michael Sheehan, and Freeman Graves.

Eitzen is a flourishing village on the state border. Conrad Lauf er had a farm house in 1865 and occasionally kept travelers. In 1867 he opened a saloon and arranged to accommodate, in a more suitable way, his increasing trade. That same year Charles Hilbert, of La Crosse, put in a small stock of general merchandise, but before long he failed and his goods were sold at auction in Caledonia.

About the same time C. Bunge, Jr., procured a small stock of goods and displayed them in an old log cabin, it being the place in which the first town meeting was held. His success was such that he purchased a larger building from Laufer, moved it across the street, put in a larger stock, and continued to enjoy a large and increasing trade.

In 1871 Mr. Laufer erected a commodious hotel at a prime cost of $3,000 besides the furniture. In 1871 W. B. Johnson erected a hotel near the lower mill.

In 1868, on Aug. 28, C. Bunge, Jr., received the appointment of postmaster at Eitzen. The office was first in the old log cabin, but was transferred into the new store on his removal into it.

In 1858 an office was established on section 22, called Winnebago Valley. James Langmuir was appointed postmaster. The mail was due once a week. Mr. Langmuir held the office until in 1874, Edward Stevens was appointed, who kept it at his farm house for a few months. Then T. B. Barber became assistant, and the office was removed to the store at the lower Winnebago mill.

Wilmington post office was established at an early date, probably about 1855. Alex Batchellor was appointed postmaster and David Salisbury, deputy. The office was at a farm house in section 30. In about a year Mr. Salisbury moved away and was succeeded by Mr. Sherman as deputy, who attended to the business under Mr. Batchellor until J. G. Cook was regularly appointed, when the office was moved to his residence on section 25, Wilmington Township, and during this time the name was changed from Portland Prairie to Wilmington. In 1863 R. E. Shumway received an appointment as postmaster, and the office went to his residence on section 36. There he remained four years, then went to section 25, and in 1868 to section 30 in the township of Winnebago.