Dane County, Wisconsin - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1880 (part 4 of 5)

" Another incident which illustrated the mode of Indian warfare was related, showing the necessity of meeting them with some tact. As a number of men were in close proximity to some straggling Indians in the midst of the battle, and were firing from behind bowlders, logs or anything that would afiford protection, a man, who was near Mr. Rasdall, would often raise his head above the log in order to reconnoiter. While thus engaged, a ball from the gun of an Indian who was concealed quite near them, and before unobserved, took eifect just above the eye. The poor fellow thus paid a dear forfeit for his disregard of the advice given him by his more careful companions.

" During the years referred to, other scenes were being enacted, and by other parties, in the Four Lakes region. On the 15th and 16th of October, 1832, Capt. Gidieon Low, with Privates James Halpin and Archibald Crisman, encamped on the Monona Lake ridge. At that time, about five hundred Indians were encamped between where the Capitol now stands and the shore of Lake Monona. These Indians came here for the purpose of trafiic with a French trader, who who had his goods in a temporary Indian-built hut. The name of this trader was Louis Armel [Oliver Emell]. Capt. Low and his command came down from the Portage (Fort Winnebago), in pursuit of some deserters, whom they readily found, as they had imbibed too freely of the French trader's bad whisky to be well qualified to secrete themselves. One of them had taken so great liberty in his debauch that he was unable to be carried back immediately. The amiable officer and his command, were led to patronize the drinking department which was conducted by the French trader, quite as much as corresponded well with their mission.

" This expedition came from the Fort by the way of Dekorra and Hastings' Creek, now known as Enspringer's, and then across the prairie and along the northwest side of Lake Mendota, through the old plat of the City of the Four Lakes, and around the west end of the lake, through the present University grounds. A cabin was built at Enspringer's place at a very early day. This house, which for some time served as a resort for persons coursing through the country, was supposed to have been burned by a soldier named John H. Megan, who had been flogged and drummed out of the garrison at Fort Winnebago, to which punishment he was subjected for selling liquors clandestinely. The man perished from cold the night following, about eleven miles toward Galena, along what is known as the military road. The poor fellow, probably finding that he would not be able to stand the severe cold, strapped himself to a tree with the fastenings of his soldier's knapsack. He was soon after discovered, frozen stiff, by an expedition on its way from Galena to Fort Winnebago, where his effects, including $500 in gold, were taken, and forwarded to the War Department, where they might be claimed by his friends. A command was immediately sent back to bury him. Hia body is supposed to rest at the foot of the tree under which he perished. This was about midway between Hastings' and Runey's, between which places there werie no habitations at that period, and this was the way most commonly traveled by persons who were passing from Fort Winnebago to Madison."

" Rasdall at one time kept a trading store on the east side of King and Webster streets, in Madison, and on one occasion a young Indian entered his store and attacked him with an open knife. Rasdall was unarmed, but, after guarding the blows, was finally able to wrench the knife from the hands of the Indian, and, though wounded across the back of his fingers, pursued him out into the street, where he caught and threw him down and then struck at him with the knife while he held him down with one hand. The knife each time struck a heavy buckskin belt the Indian wore, and thus failed to injure him. The father of the young man, coming up at the time, rushed up to Rasdall and besought him to spare the life of his son and take his, as he was an old man and had few moons to live. The appeal touched the heart of Rasdall, and, though naturally rash and vindictive, he allowed the young man to get up and go off with his father without further molestation. "

Wallace Rowan, one of the pioneers of Dane County, whose name appears on the list of those enumerated in July, 1836, lived in what is now the town of Cross Plains. Of his early history nothing is known. He was largely employed in trafficking with the Indiana, but was also inclined to "settle down," as the phrase is, instead of leading the wandering life of the trader. He was the owner, by purchases from the Government, of several tracts of land in what is now Dane County, but soon after disposed of them. He left the county late in 1836.

Eowan was the first settler in what is now Columbia County. On the 6th day of June, 1836, he entered, at the Green Bay Land OflSce, the northeast quarter of- the southeast quarter of Section 34, Township 11 north, of Range 9 east, in what is now the town of Dekorra, adjoining the village of Poynette. This was the first land entered in the county, but it was then Brown County, in Michigan Territory, afterward Brown County, Wisconsin Territory, subsequently Portage County, Wisconsin Territory ; then Columbia County, Wisconsin Territory ; finally Columbia County, State of Wisconsin, and so it remains. He moved froin Dane County to his forty acres in what is now Columbia County. " I was at his house," says Moses M. Strong, " on the 19th day of February, 1837, and there was no appearance of his having just arrived there." He was living in a log house, built by himself on his own land, and he ^vent thera to stay. There was no other settler (as the term settler is usually understood), within the limits of what is now Columbia County, so early as Rowan.

Rowan's house was a double log tenement, built for the purpose of trafficking with the Indians and as a house of entertainment for travelers. It was on the military road that ran from Prairie du Chien, by the way of Fort Winnebago, to Fort Howard. On this highway, there was considerable travel for a number of years. Rowan's tavern was a little south of what is now Dole's mill, near a large spring. Rowan was a kind-hearted man, perfectly honest, one in whom you would at first sight be persuaded you could put confidence. His wife, though not so refined as her husband, was equal to him in kindness to travelers and friends. Rowan was a man of medium height, rather thin in flesh, and of a somewhat dark complexion. He had great conversational powers, was very social, and took great pains to make everybody who stopped with him as comfortable as his situation would permit. He carried on a small farm at the same tirne, raising corn, potatoes, oats and the very best kinds of vegetables. He had a large family of children. His oldest daughter Mr. Rowan always called '- Ducky." She was a splendid girl - handsome, smart and well-behaved. His second daughter was called "Pop." Rowan also kept a trading-house at Portage City, in 18-38. "A daughter of Mr. Rowan," says the Wisconsin Enquirer of June 1, 1839, " who resides twelve miles this side of the Portage, was on Tuesday last shockingly burned, her clothes having caught fire during the absence of her parents from the house.^ Her recovery is very doubtful. She is eight or nine years old."

In 1840, with a man by the name of Wood, he made a claim on the Baraboo River. They built a saw-mill just at the upper end of Baraboo Village. They supplied the lumber that was used in building up the village, and rafted lumber down the river, which was so crooked that it caused them a good deal of trouble to reach the Wisconsin. In 1842, Rowan left Columbia County, and took his family with him to Baraboo. He soon after died ; his beautiful daughter quickly followed her father to the grave, and then the mother.

Rowan and his wife were from the State of Indiana, as understood by a remark made by Mrs. Rowan, who, when asked to what tribe she belonged, answered, " Gol darn it, I don't belong to no tribe ! I am from Indianer 1 "

There have been many stories told of Rowan's Hotel. An old settler relates this one : " I arrived there in 1837, at about 11 o'clock P. M., on horseback. The hostler, a Frenchman, was yet up, making fires to keep those comfortable who were sleeping on the floor. After taking care of my horse, I went into the house. There was a good fire, and the floor was covered with men, sleeping. I asked the French hostler for something to eat ; so he went into the kitchen and brought me a whole duck and two potatoes. He 'said that was all he could find cooked. After eating, I felt like lying down. He pointed to a place between two men. I took my blanket and crowded myself into it. Next morning the teamsters got up to feed their teams, and, in takmg out their corn, they scattered some inside and outside the house. James Duane Doty, (afterward Governor), was lying next to the door, in his robes ; I was next to him, in my blanket. A lean, long old sow found the corn that the teamsters had scattered outside the door.

This encouraged her to follow up the corn that was scattered inside. Finding some among Doty's robes, she put her nose under him and rolled him over, when he exclaimed : ' Landlord! Landlord ! you must postpone my breakfast for some time, as I have not yet got rested.' Instead of the landlord disturbing him, it was the old sow. Then I heard some curious noise outside which kept me awake ; so I got up, and found that the noise was created by a modern grist-mill erected in front of the door, for grinding corn into meal. A pestle hung to the end of a spring-' pole : there was a mortar made by burning out a hollow in the top of a stump. We all of us had the first mess made out of this mill, and you could compare it to nothing but the fine siftings of stone coal, such as jou find in a blacksmith-shop. We had good coffee and plenty of honey. We made a hearty breakfast, and were thankful for it."

Perry Haney, another of " ye ancient pioneers," well remembered by the old settlers of the county, was a resident of what is now the town of Cross Plains. Of his early history nothing is known. He was one of those enumerated as residing in what is now Dane County, in July, 1836. He was, in the true sense of the term, a borderer. His home was near the present depot in Cross Plains. He lived in a small log house ; was married,; his wife's maiden name was Baxter. He remained in the county until after the Territory became a State, when, in true pioneer style, " he went West ;" but, of the manner of his going, history is necessarily silsnt. Mention has already been made of Haney's shooting the Frenchman Pelkie. It is recorded that they " had the dispute about a claim of land in Cross Plains, and Haney shot the Frenchman through the thigh, the ball entering the folding leaf of a cherry table, and which for years afterward was shown by Haney to his friends as a curiosity. Haney, however, took care of Pelkie until his final recovery."

It is also related that Haney at one time borrowed $50 of a citizen of Madison, and tendered him his note, which the latter refused, remarking that it was a matter of honor between Haney and himself, and all he wished was that the money should be returned at a given date. Haney was never known to honor his note, but this matter of verbal promise to pay was the highest form of integrity to him, and, on the appointed day, Haney passed over the lawful amount with a nervous earnestness that he never was known to experience at any other time when his note of hand fell due.

The first civilized claimants to the territory now included within the boundaries of Wiscon. sin were the French. The whole of the Northwest was claimed by France from 1671 to 1763 when it was surrendered to the British. By the " Quebec Act " of 1774, all of this region was placed under the local administration of Canada. It was, however, practically put under a des- ,potic military rule, and so continued until possession passed to the United States. Before the last-mentioned event, and during and after the Revolution, the conflicting claims of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut to portions of the country, were relinquished to the general Government. AH these claims were based upon supposed Chartered rights, Virginia adding to hers the right of conquest, as she contended, of the " Illinois country " during the Revolution. As early as October, 1778, Virginia declared, by an act of her General Assembly, that all the citizens of that commonwealth who were then settled, or should thereafter settle, on the western side of the Ohio, should be included in a distinct county, which should be called Illinois. No Virginians were then settled as far north as the southern boundary line of what is now Wisconsin, and, as none thereafter located so far north before Virginia relinquished to the United States all her rights to territory on the western and northern side of the Ohio, it follows that no part of the territory which afterward became Wisconsin was ever included in Illinois County as a part of Virginia ; nor did the last-mentioned State ever exercise any jurisdiction over any portion of the territory now constituting this State, or make claim to any part of it by right of conquest.

. Notwithstanding the passage of the ordinance of 1787, establishing a government over the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which territory was acquired by the treaty of 1783 from

Great Britain, possession only was obtained by the United States of the southern portion, the northern part being held by the British Government until 1796. Arthur St. Clair, in February, 1790, exercising the functions of Governor, and having previously organized a government for the country under the ordinance just mentioned, established, in what is now the State of Illinois, a county which was named St. Clair. But, as this county only extended north " to the mouth of the Little Mackinaw Creek, on the Illinois," it did not include, of course, any part of the present State of Wisconsin, although being the nearest approach thereto of any organized county up to that date.

In 1796, Wayne County was organized, which was made to include, beside much other territory all of what is now Wisconsin watered by streams flowing into Lake Michigan. But no part of what is now Dane County came within its jurisdiction. From 1800 to 1809, what are now the limits of Wisconsin were within the Territory of Indiana, and, in the year last mentioned, passed into the Territory of Illinois. It is probable that Indiana Territory exercised iurisdiction over the Territory now included in the State of Wisconsin, at least to the extent of appointing two Justices of the Peace, one for Green Bay and one for Prairie du Chien. In the year 1809, the Illinois Territorial Government commissioned three Justices of the Peace and two militia oflBcers at Prairie du Chien, the county of St. Clair having previously been extended so as to include that point, and probably Green Bay, thereby bringing into its jurisdiction what is now Dane County. In the course of time, other Illinois counties had jurisdiction, until, in 1818, what is now Wisconsin became a portion of Michigan Territory.

By a proclamation of Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, of October 26, 1818, Brown and Crawford Counties were organized. The county of Brown originally coLnprised all of what is now Wisconsin east of a line passing north and south through the middle of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, except a small portion of the Door County peninsula, which was included in the county of Michilimackinac. The limits of the county extended north into the territory of the present State of Michigan so far that its north line ran due west from the head of Noquet Bay. An east-and-west line, passing near the northern limits of the present county of Barron, separated the county of Crawford from the county of Michilimackina'c on the north ; on the east, it was bounded by the county of Brown ; on the south, by the State of Illinois, and on the west, by the Mississippi River. The present county of Dane was thus included in both the counties of Brown and Crawford, and the line " through the middle of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers," extending south to the Illinois line, divided the territory now forming Dane County into two nearly equal parts. By an act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, approved October 29, 1829, to take effect the 1st of January following, the county of Iowa was established, embracing all the present State of Wisconsin south of the Wisconsin River and west of Brown County ; in other words, it included the whole of what was previously Crawford County lying south of the Wisconsin River. What is now Dane County was thereby included in portions of Brown and Iowa Counties. On the 6th of September, 1834, the eastern boundary of Iowa was extended so as to be identical with the lin between the Green Bay and Wisconsin Land Districts ; that is, it was fixed upon the meridian between Ranges 8 and 9 east. By the same act, all that district of country before that time in Brown County, lying south of a line drawn between Townships 11 and 12 north, in all the ranges east of Range 8 (the east line of Iowa County as established by the same act), was constituted a new county, and named " Milwaukie ;" so that what is now Dane County fell into Iowa and Milwaukee Counties instead of Iowa and Brown Counties, as before ; that is to say, all of the present county of Dane lying west of a line drawn north and south thrpugh the extreme west end of Lake Mendota was then in Iowa County; while all east of that line was in Milwaukee County ; and the divisions so remained until December 7, 1836.

By an act of the Territorial Legislature of December 7, 1886, Townships 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 north, of Ranges 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 east - that is, so mu/jh of them as was then surveyed

- were set apart as a new county, to which was given the name of Dane. The seat of justice was located at Madison, and the county was attached to Iowa County for judicial purposes. It was njore than two years after the erection of the new county out of the thirty-five townships previously enumerated, before its organization for all county purposes was effected.

James Duane Doty gave the name Dane to the new county, in honor of Nathan Dane, who, when a delegate in the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, introduced into that body the Ordinance of 1787. Doty deemed it very proper that the county in which was the capital of the last Territory organized out of the old Northwest Territory should perpetuate the name of Dane.

The banks [of the Wisconsin after leaving the portage] at'fitst were low, and verdant with overhanging foliage, as were the beautiful islands which frequently presented themselves ; whilst often the river expanded into an uninterrupted sheet of water, of a reddish color, marking the quality of the soil it had passed through. The river, however, was so shallow in many places that our canoe frequently grazed the bottom ; and, going with unusual velocity, we more than once got so fast in the sand that we found it difficult to force it back into deeper water. Upon such occasions, or at any difficult passes, the men never hesitated to jump out, knowing what frail vessels birch-bark canoes are, and that no time is to be lost. I never had men in my service more to be depended upon in emergencies of this kind.

About 10 A. M., we came up with sandstone strata, of the same character with those which I had examined at Fort Winnebago. At 11, the country began to rise, and became hilly in the distance. We passed a sandstone bluif sixty feet high, the strata still preserving that horizontal character which distinguishes the coal measures and the other intervening silurian beds I had left behind me, all of which lay above these rocks. The loose sandbanks of the river contained seams of red oxide of iron, showing that they were derived from the strata the river had broken down, they being everywhere banded with red and yellow oxides. Our course being southwest by south by compass, ws came up at noon with some pine trees, and a sandstone bluff on the right bank 150 feet high. As a storm appeared to be rising in the west, I stopped here a short time, not wishing the men to eat their meal in so, much discomfort as they had done upon other occasions ; but we were soon off again, and got into a fine expanse of the river, free from islands, with lofty, sloping banks, pleasingly interspersed with oak trees. At half past 2 P. M., we passed an isolated ridge standing a little back from the left bank, with a singular crest, rudely resembling walls and batteries, near 200 feet high. Every now and then we passed heaps df dead, valves of the unios, many of which, from their freshness, appeared to have been very recently dragged there by the otters and musk-rats. I occasionally stopped to examine them, and sometimes obtained very beautiful shells, especially a large TJ. rectus, with a deep, salmoncolored nacre. The species, generally resembled those in the Tennessee, Cumberland, and other Western rivers, and confirmed my previous experience of the separation of Atlantic and Gulf species.

The day at length becoming cold and rainy, our musical propensities became dormant, and we went silently on, anticipating the evening encampment and its comfortable fires, when we discovered that we had not exclusive possession of the country, a small canoe heaving in sight from below. On coming up with it we found it contained an old-looking Indian, his squaw and two young children ; -the squaw had some clothes on, but the man and the children were quite naked. They looked uncomfortable enough, to be sure, but Indians are so accustomed to sufi'er in this manner that they never complain. They are only really unhappy when they cannot procure food. I gave this poor family a few biscuits, and the woman seemed grateful.

At 4 P. M., we passed a picturesque-looking mass of horizontal sandstone, extending with some interruptions for about a mile, distant probably about forty miles from the portage ; and at half-past five, observing a comfortable place, near to an ancient abandoned Indian village [now

Prairie du Sac, in Sauk County], I made, to the great joy of the men, the signal for landing. Whilst they were pitching my tent, I attempted to walk to an elevated ridge that appeared not very far from us, to get a look at the country, but I found it excessively fatiguing ; the distance was greater than I supposed ; the wild grass was wet, and often up to my chin ; night was coming on. I was alone and unarmed, and when I reached the foot of the ridge, and looked at the ascent, I began to think the wisest thing I could do was to return without delay, and I did return, but bedraggled in a most extraordinary manner. After regaling myself with dry clothes, a comfortable repast and a lounge at the cheerful fire, I shut myself in the tent for the night.

My rest was a good deal disturbed by the mosquitoes, which had taken possession of the tent ; and, although I was up early, we could not start for a dense fog that was upon the river. I therefore amused myself with looking at the deserted wigwams near us. They were formed with nine poles, about twelve feet high, fixed into the ground in a circle, about two feet apart from each other, and their tops bent to a point and fastened together.' These poles were strengthened with others interwoven round them, and the whole covered with birch bark. An Indian house of this kind costs but very little labor, and with a small fire in the middle is comfortable in the coldest weather, the smoke escaping through a hole where the poles meet. The fog began to clear away at 7 A. M., and we resumed our voyage.*

[In the month of February, 1837, the writer of the following, in company with Augustus Story, started on a tour to the mining regions. Passing through Prairie Village, now Waukesha, they proceeded by the way of Fort Atkinson to the Yahara River, near the present site of Dunkirk. Here they encamped, building a fire, which they kept up till morning, on account of the wolves, which watched them closely. The next morning they proceeded up the stream, knowing that it would lead them to the Fourth Lake, as it was then called, where there were several wigwams, and where they could obtain something to eat, even if it were not of the choicest kind.]

At about noon we reached the First Lake [Kegonsa,] and, seeing moccasin tracks in the snow, we followed them for a short distance to a wigwam, but found it tenantless. After searching it from top to bottom, we found a few cold roasted potatoes, which we (after having fasted for twenty-four hours) relished well. We remained in this wigwam an hour or two, and then passed on to the point where Madison is now located. At that time, neither the ax nor " the shovel and the hoe " had been hung up or laid down in that vicinity. It was nearly sundown when we crossed the Third Lake [Monona]. After traveling over the first eminence - where the State House now stands - we struck a ravine (between Capitol Square and the present site of the University), where we made a halt, struck up a fire, and encamped for the night, without even making any inquiry about supper. The cold potatoes which we ate at noon supplied the place of breakfast, dinner and supper. The weather had rnoderated a little, which, together with the hardships of the journey and our extreme fatigue, caused us to sleep quite comfortably during the night. The next morning we crossed Fourth Lake [Mendota], a distance of about four miles, where we saw a small log cabin, which was the first building of the kind we had seen since leaving Fort Atkinson. We knocked at the door, but all was silent. We were both cold and hungry, and the sight of a cabin was some relief. We did not wait for ceremony, but bolted in, where we found a squaw and some four or five papooses. We spoke to her in the Pottawatomie language, but she made no reply. We were soon satisfied that she did not understand us. We then made all the signs that our Indian education or ingenuity would admit of, to show her that we were hungry ; but all in vain. We expected that her husband would soon come in £^nd kick us out of doors, without waiting for an explanatiou, and were at a loss what to do. A white wan [St. Cyr], however, soon came in, spoke to us in good English, and seemed glad to see us. He informed us that he was a Canadian, that the squaw was his wife, and that the children were

He had been an Indian trader there for years. The lands which he had cultivated had been sold [entered] without his knowledge ; for, in fact, he took no interest in anything except trading in furs, etc. His wife, on being made acquainted with our wants, flew around and prepared for us a supper. It was a kind of pot-pie, which we relished very well. After finishing our meal we inquired what kind of meat we had eaten, and were informed that it was musk-rat. We remained there till morning, and then left for the Blue Mounds.

May 28, 1837. - Having finished our investigations in the course of the day, I began to pack up my fossils and minerals, preparatory to an excursion to Tycoberah [the Pour Lakes]. A more melancholy and dreary place than this Mineral Point I never expect to see again. We had not tasted a morsel of fresh meat, or fish, or vegetables, since we had been here. There was not a vestige of a garden in the place, and the population seemed quietly to have resigned itself to an everlasting and unvarying diet of coffee, rice, treacle and bread and salt butter, morning, noon and night, without any other variety than that of occasionally getting a different cup and saucer.

May 29. - Having engaged a wagon, we took our places in it very early, and I turned my back, not unreluctantly, upon our late quarters, leaving my luggage to keep company with the asafcetida until my return. We were now bound to Tycoberah, and to those prairies and lakes whose beauty had been so much extolled to me. Madison City, too, was an attraction before us ; in truth, we had been so wretchedly oif at oilr apothecary's that we were convinced any change would be much for the better, and were ardently longing to see new faces in the shape of potatoes, freSh fish and meat. As to architectural expectations, I was cautious enougfi, in consequence of my late experience, not to entertain any very exalted ones, and therefore limited my anticipations to the larder of the best tavern of .themetropolis of the Territory, where it was clear there must be something better than treacle and asafcetida. About five miles from Mineral Point we called upon the Governor, Gen. Dodge, at a quiet cabin he had built for himself in a small, secluded valley, tolerably well wooded, and spent half an hour with him. This gentleman, at that time the chief magistrate of the Territory, was said to be a perfect Western character. I had seen him on horseback in the streets of Mineral Point, and was struck ,with the appearance of his accouterments, having, although dressed in plain clothes, immense horse-pistols staring out of his holsters. He had been brought up on the frontiers, and since his manhood had been rather notorious for his desperate feuds with various individuals, many of whom still surviving, he always went armed, the invariable practice of bloods of his caliber being to fire immediately at any hostile approach.

On taking our leave of His Excellency, we passed some " diggings," with a few miserable huts erected near them, dignified with the name of Dodgeville. From hence we pursued our way across a rolling prairie, covered with charming wild flowers, and then came to some woodland, where the country became somewhat hilly. Here, at noon, we were met by my acquaintance, Mr. Messersmith, who was on the lookout for us, and who conducted us to his farm-house, situated at the bottom of a little wooded dell, near a copious spring of delicious, clear water. We were received in the kjindest manner by his family, and, after partaking of a homely repast, served to us with unceasing kindness, we set out on a long ramble to visit Ms diggings, which appeared to be very productive. On our return to the farm we were surprised by a hurricane and a heavy storm, accompanied with torrents of rain, in which we had to walk about four miles, drenched through and through. We were glad to get back to our host's cabin and repair our misfortune as well as we could at a rousing wood fire. Mrs. Messersmith then gave us a cup of coffee, and we lay down whilst our clothes were taken care of by the good lady.

May 30. - At the dawn of day I rose, and, finding my clothes comfortably dried, dressed, and went to the beautiful spring, where having made my ablutions, I took a stroll before breakfast, and; having taken our cup of coffee and thanked our friends for their very hospitable reception, wn again got into our wagon and drove sixteen miles over the prairie to the Blue Mounds, two considerable elevations of rock, consisting of a siliciOus hornstone, resembling that which I had seen in 1834, in the lead district of Missouri. The Galena procured in this neighborhood is so very white and brittle, and contains such a superabundance of sulphur, that, upon breaking many of the cubes, I generally found crystals of pure sulphur within. We here found an old bachelor, named [Bbenezer] Brigham, living in a log hut at this solitary place, following , as everybody does in this Territory, the occupation of a miner. He gave us a couple of hardboiled eggs and some stale bread, and charged us about ten times what they were worth for them.

Pursuing our journey at 1 P. M., we passed the military road leading to Fort Winnebago and Navarino [Green Bay], and soon afterward got into one of the most exquisitely beautiful regions I have ever seen in any part of the world. The prairie, that had hitherto been distinguished by a regular rolling surface, here changed its character and took the form of ridges, somewhat elevated, which frequently resolved themselves into masses of gracefully rounded hills, separated by gentle depressions, that occasionally become deepened valleys. In these, some of the heads of a stream called Sugar River, a tributary of Rock River, took their rise. In whatever direction our eyes were turned, the most pleasing irregularities of surface presented themselves. But that which crowned the perfection of the view, and imparted an indescribable charm to the whole scene from the knoll where w« stood to the most distant point where the alternate hills and vales blended with the horizon, was the inimitable grace with which the picturesque clumps of trees that sometimes enlarged themselves into woods, embellished this rural landscape from the hand of nature.

Here a thick grove hanging upon the slope of a hill, distinguished by its symmetry from its numerous companions impended over the amenity of the valley beneath ; whilst further on, a more robust line of dense foliage betrayed the ample volume of some pellucid stream whence it was nourished. Turn where we would, every object within the ample range concurred to cherish and to establish more indelibly the pleasing impression caused by the whole ; whilst the softness of these attractions contrasted here and there so strikingly with the noble rock escarpments peering out from the bluflfs, that nature might be said to speak to you in a voice that must be hstened to, and to tell you that she had here surpassed the most polished eiforts of English park scenery, the most difficult of all her achievements. America will justly boast of this unrivaled spectacle when it becomes known, for certainly it is formed of elements that no magic could enable all Europe to bring together upon so great a scale.

The aspect of this lovely country at once accounted for so great a population flocking to the lakes, on whose enchanting banks those cities were founded of which we had heard so much, and to which we were now advancing. Four noble lakes; in the center of a region of such unrivaled beauty, must constitute perfection itself. Our expectations were exceedingly raised. Every moment produced a new excitement:' the occasional glimpse of the shy deer, with their elegant fawns, and the more frequent flushing of the prairie-hen from her nest, gave animation to the still beauty around us. Enraptured with all I saw, I could not but occasionally reflect on the oddity of seven large cities, each capable of containing a population of half a million of people, having congregated so close together. There was Madison City, which was the metropolis ; Emjacent to this was the City of the Fopr Lakes; a short distance beyond this was the city of North Madison. Close upon this again was the city of East Madison. Then there was the city of West Madison, the city of South Madison, and finally the City of the First Lake. Of each of th^e I had a beautifully engraved plan, with all its squares, streets, institutions and temples.

Having stopped to make a sketch of some ancient earthworks, the first of the kind I had ever seen, we hastened on, as the day was drawing to a close, and we had yet some distance to go to Madison City. For some time, I had kept a good lookout for some of the enterprising tamers, who must have come from great distances to this fertile country, and was rather surprised that we should hitherto have met with no one. We had not passed a single farm, and concluded that, being an Indian country, the settlers had clustered round the great city we were bound to, and had established themselves near that lake, where the best fish abounded. Fresh fish ! prodigious varieties ! cat-fish, pike, pickerel, salmon, trout, buflfalo, perch ! What anticipations for men who had for so many days been bolting pieces of tough fat bacon, cured 1,000 miles off ! At length we came to a belt of open trees, and, passing through it, we reached the flat, marshy shores of the largest of the four lakes ; we could see almost entirely around it, and much did we look ; but, alas ! no vestige of human dwelling was in sight.

This considerably changed the current of our thoughts and materially impaired the beauty of the prospect. Not being disposed to express all we felt, we reluctantly took to the woods again, along the margin of the lake, in the hope to stumble on some one or other. Night was gradually drawing her vail over everything, and it became rather doubtful whether we should not have - in the language of backwoodsmen - to camp out. Keeping, therefore, all my visions of fried fish in the background for awhile, I felt for my box of matches, and, finding it safe, turned my attention - as old Indian travelers always do - to the next best thing, a rousing fire to lie down by. Black clouds were forming in the horizon ; we had been drenched thoroughly the day before, and it became pretty certain there would be another storm. Groping our way, and occasionally jolting over the fallen trees, we, at the end of an hour and a half, got to the shore of the Third Lake, having somehow or other missed the Second Lake, where Madison City was supposed to be. We now changed our course again, and, keeping to the northwest, and meandering, and wondering and shouting for my companion, who had got out of the wagon to follow a small trail he thought he had discovered, I at length gave up the attempt to proceed any further, and, selecting a dry tree as a proper place to bivouac near, had already stopped the wagon, when, hearing my companion's voice shouting for me in a tone that augured something new to be in the wind, I pushed on in that direction, and at length found him standing at the door of a hastily patched-up log hut, consisting of one room about twelve feet square.*

This was Madison- City, and, humble as it was, it concentrated within itself all the urban importance of the seven cities we had come so far to admire, and to which, according to our engraved plans, Nineveh of old, Thebes, with its hundred gates, and Persepolis, were but babyhouses. Not another dwelling was there in the whole country, and this wretched contrivance had only been put up within the last four weeks. Having secured our horses, we entered the grand and principal entrance to the city, against the top of which my head got a severef blow, it not being more than five feet high from the ground. The room was lumbered up with barrels, boxes and all manner of things. Amongst other things was a bustling little woman, about as high as the door, with an astounding high cap on, called Mrs. [Rosaline] Peck. No male Peck was on the ground. f

My first inquiry was, whether she had any fresh fish in the house. The answer was " No !" Inflexible and unwelcome word. No fresh fish ! no large, delicious catfish, of twenty pounds' weight, to be fried with pork, and placed before the voracious traveler in quantities sufficient to calm those apprehensions that so often arise in Indian lands, of there not being enough for him to eat until he falls fast asleep. " Why, then," exclaimed my alarmed companion, "what's to be done ?" " I calculate I've got some salt pork,"§ rejoined our little hostess. " Then, madam, you must fry it without the fish," I replied. So to the old business we went, of bolting square pieces of fat pork, an amusement I had so often indulged in, that I sometimes felt as if I ought to be ashamed to look a live pig in the face. Our landlady, however, was a very active and obliging person ; she said she would make us as comfortable as it was possible for her to do, and " she guessed " she had a little coifee. and would make us a cup of it. Whether it was acorns, or what it was, puzzled me not a little ; it certainly deserved to be thought tincture of myrrh,

Why, at that time, A. A. Bird, tall as he was, needed only to make a very polite bow when crossing our threshold, to. call "*y '° wherewith to renew the inner man. But, recollect, this wag one of the kitchen doors, opening afterward into a dining-room ; there were tare other outside doors to the buildings. - R. P.

JMy husband and little son were both present. I cannot be mistaken ; as we had but two arrivals previous, I well recollect ever.v particular. - E. P.

and as we drank and grimaced, dear Mrs. Peck, in her sweetest manner, expressed her regret that she had no other sugar for our coflFee, they having, " somehow or other, not brought any with them."*

Whilst we were at this repast, the thunder-storm broke over us, and a deluge of rain came down, streaming through the roof in various places. In the midst of the confusion, two other vagabonds came in ; one of them a ruffian-looking fellow, who said he was a miner, on his way across the Indian country from Milwaukee ; the other, a stupid, boorish, dirty-looking animal, said he had not tasted anything for two days, having lost his way on the prairie ; and, having been overtaken the preceding night by a very heavy rain, whilst making his way up a coulee or vale, had been afraid to lie on the ground, and had passed the whole night sitting on a fallen tree. Fortunately, there was pork enough for us all, and when our landlady had put the fryingpan to bed, she did the same to us by the act of blowing the candle out. Where she stowed herself was her own secret. Choosing a place between two barrels, I lay down,"}" and drew my cloak over me ; of sleep there was very little to be had, for it rained in torrents almost the whole night, and, not having pitched my camp skillfully, it poured upon me from the unfinished roof as I lay stretched upon the floor,J not daring to move in the dark lest I should pull some of the articles of Mrs. Peck's museum upon me, or break some of her crockery.

May 31. - With the first ray of light, I jumped up from my uncomfortable berth, and having procured some dry clothes from my carpet-bag, strode over the two hang-gallows-looking fellows that were snoring near me, and gained the door. The illusion was now dissipated, and I had completely awoke from my dream of the Seven Cities, wondering how I could have ever thought it possible to have so deceived myself. Smart as I knew these Western Americans were, I had not thought them so systematically and callously fraudulent as to cause engravings to be made of cities, with all their concomitant appendages, in countries where not a human being was to be found, and where not a single tree was cut down ; and this for the purpose of robbing their own countrymen. To rob strangers might, from the predjudice of education, be considered even meritorious ; but to rob their own countrymen so remorselessly argued an absence of principle 80 universal and total, that I do not know where it is to be paralleled in history.

The all-absorbing passion for money, which the absence of those moral distinctions that so much protect society from it in Europe, has established in the American mind, has, with this class of men, obliterated every sense of that feeling that naturally inclines men to obey the divine injunction of " doing unto others as ye would they should do unto you." If a smart man cheats any one, no part of the disgrace of knavery falls upon him ; and if one smart man cheats another smart man, he receives the most unbounded admiration ; so that these smart fellows, having no motive whatever to be commonly honest, at last become callous and forget even the nature of justice, living only to carry out their own base and selfish maneuvers. The vender of cities, took no particular pains to conceal from me the atrocious nature of the occupations he had followed, and was hardy enough, in an argument with me, to attempt to justify his practices. " Men," said he, "that keep a bright lookout are never taken in; it is only fools that take themselves in, and they are of no account."

It is fearful to reflect what will be the condition of society here when honesty retires altogether from the field of action, and leaves fraud, smartly perpetrated, to be the principal feature m^all transactions; how much is to be apprehended from the future, when the generations of born wi'th hw'*"* ^'* °°' ''"°" "le coffee was made of acoros or tincture of myrrh, ttod he grimaced. I think he must have h^en maii» na? ' . "^ ^Ty, or been very much tronblcd with worms or gout, or perhaps reflections continually flitted across his memory of the continual ''°?'°^''* *" ''"' ->**" accustomed to swallow, so that he could not avoid drawing his fS,ce askew, and of course kept it in a there waa f "^'*'^'^ ' S?^ there was a perfect sameness on his countenance whilst he remained there, unless my memory is very treacherous. If its fixtim. A °i"* thing I took a pride in, it was in making good coffee ; and it is the first and only complaint that I ever heard of our table or ojp.llm,t 1 °T' "' 'ho.oW settlers of Madison in regard to this subject. [Simeon Mills testifies to the fact that Mrs. Peck did make most »..ouuiii conee.J True, we had no cream, as our cow was left at Blue Mounds, until grass started. - K. P.

eood enonirt. r Z "'"' """'^ Pounds of fresh geese feathers, laid on a good backwoods bedstead, with plenty of clean bedding, was not Iqiiire Sevmm '' "'JM'T, then he ought to have carried his accommodations, with blanket on his back, as many a better man has done, nuljllc P'"^"""'.'! 'te same bed when we left Madison ; if he owns it yet, I presume he will permit our Historical Society and the fuuiio fonerally to examme it for their own satisfnction. - R. P.

trouWeS with' 11.' "J"'"!^ through the roof into his face, it's aU gas. I guarantee that not one drop of moisture touched it, unless he was seen. - R. p Bi«u«srs, for I stood in the doorway watching flights of pigeons until late in the evening, and no clouds were to be

Having now fully made up my mind that I was in an Indian country as wild and unsettled as any I had yet visited, I hastened to the shore of the lake to espy what truly turned out to be the nakedness of the land, not a vestige of any human being or habitation to be discerned. Rambling, however, along the lake shore, picking up unios and anadontas, I came upon a wigwam, inhabited by a squaw of the Winnebago tribe, and learned from her that her mate was a French Canadian, and was fishing from a canoe a little lower down. Thither I hied, and having found him, engaged him, with the assistance of his squaw, to procure us a mess of suafish. This being accomplished, I sent them to Mrs. Peck, and, following my messenger to Madison City, requested her to prepare them for our breakfast. No time was lost in doing this, and we made a very hearty meal without putting her to the trouble of preparing us any coffee. Sallying out again, I walked across a tongue of land which separated this [Lake Monona] from he Fourth Lake, and soon reached its shore, whence I had a view of an extremely beautiful sheet of water.

Advancing along, I found more signs of humanity. Two men were cutting some poles down ; the one a Canadian, the other a somewhat desperado-looking young American, with cropped hair. Near to the lake, I observed other poles laid aslant upon a fallen tree, forming a sort of shed, and, looking beneath, beheld a youthful Winnebago squaw lying down on a filthy blanket, thoroughly drenched with the rain of the preceding night. She was pursy and immensely fat, but had some good features. Near to her was a bower of similar character, containing an elderly squaw, with only one eye, as hideously wrinkled and frowsy as she could well be. Whilst I was standing near to these creatures, the men came up, and I soon saw that the young American was the cavaliero of the fat squaw, and that the couch where she was lying was their bower of bliss. This fellow, having a canoe, agreed, for a dollar, to take me out upon the lake, and down a channel [the Yahara] that connects the Fourth [Lake Mendota] with the Third Lake [Lake Monona], and thence to Madison City. Accordingly, getting into a badly constructed log canoe with his fat beauty, we paddled off.

After visiting various parts of the lake, and being more than once nearly upset from the awkward management of this youth, at whom the squaw laughed heartily, we entered the channel which connects the two lakes. It was about three miles and a half long and about forty feet in breadth, and we found the current so very strong at the entrance that we shot down it with great rapidity, the shores on each side being, for the greatest part of the distance, a swamp very little- raised above the level of the stream. At length we came to a piece of ground where a part of the band of Winnebagoes had their wigwams. Three horrible-looking, frowsy she-savagej were eviscerating fish, which they were curing by fire on some stakes. " Their matted, coarse black locks stood, out at right angles, like the strands of a mop when it is twirled ; scarcely anything was to be discerned in their lineaments that was human, and more loathsome and disgusting objects I never beheld. Everything about the wigwams was in keeping with their revolting and odious persons ; ordure and dead fish in the last stage of corruption made a perfect pestilence around, amidst which they moved in the most contented and philosophic manner. Alecto, Megpera and Tisiphone, the far-famed furies, must have been beauties compared to these hags. I just stayed long enough to purchase from them a fine alligator gar {Esox ossem) for the sake of its skeleton, and then came away. Just as we were starting, one of these she-devils, wanting to visit the one-eyed squaw we had left behind, strode into our canoe, and a pretty inside passenger we had of her. The canoe itself was a wretched, tottering affair, imperfectly hollowed out of a small log, and wabbled about in such a doubtful manner that we had been several times near upsetting in crossing the lake. In this " dug-out " - for that is the expressive name they go by - I had taken my seat on the bottom near the prow, with my face toward the stern, holding the sides with my hands ; thus situated, this she-monster, clapping herself immediately in front of me, and seizing a paddle, of which she seemed a perfect mistress, most vigorously began to ply it. At first I was amused by her motions, but, alas ! my satisfaction was of short dura- tion for, warming with the exercise, every time she raised her brawny fins to propel the canoe, she at each stroke almost bobbed a particular part of her person into contact with my nose, when such lots of unknown odors came from her that I soon became wretchedly sick at my stomach, and was delighted when we arrived at dear little Mrs. Peck's paradise.

These Howchungerahs, or Winnebagoes, well deserve the name of "Puants," which the first French adventurers gave them. Establishing themselves where fish is plentiful, they never change the site of their wigwams, at the entrances to which they throw down the entrails and offal of their fish. They have thus become notorious amongst the other Indians for the filthy existence they lead. I learned from our hostess that the young Adonis, in whose canoe I had been, had deserted from the American garrison of Fort Winnebago, had been apprehended, flogged, his head shaved, and then drummed out of the fort to choose his own mode of life. He had wandered about until he fell in with this band of Indians, and, rejected by his own race, had found refuge and a mistress amongst the savages.

As soon as we had taken a good reconnoisance of the country around, and packed up the unios' and other fresh-water shells. I had collected, we bade adieu to the little inhabitant of Madison City and turned our faces to the prairie again. It had been part of my plan to strike across the country to a branch of Rock River, being desirous of examining the remains of an ancient city which I had heard a great deal about, and to which the name of Aztalan had been given. This had been described as of large dimensions, having archway's and casements made with brick and mortar, as if a city had, iir ancient times, existed here, built of cal-y-canto, like those which Cortez found when he advanced into Mexico. But, having spoken with various Indians well acquainted with the country, who declared they had never seen or heard of anything of the kind, or, indeed, anything but some mounds near the supposed locality, and, considering the small success I had had in my researches after modern cities, I gave up my intention of looking up this ancient one. It would have taken us at least two days to reach the mounds, and, being without a guide in a region where there was neither road nor inhabitants betwixt the lakes and them, we inclined more willingly to the supposition that it was quite as likely that the whole affair was a poetical speculation got up to establish a modern Thebes upon the ruins oflhe older one, for the purpose of selling the lots ; an ingenious device, of which we soon had a curious and instructive instance.*

United States Road from Milwaukee through Dane County - Pioneer Life - Dane County ON Early Mapis - Organization - A Brief History of the County - Record of the County Board for 1839 - County Board from 1840 to 1880 - Present Boundaries of the County - Census in 1842 - The First Sermon in Dane County - A Dark Deed.

Under an appropriation made by Congress, a road from Milwaukee by way of Madison to a point on the Mississippi River opposite Dubuque, was commenced in 1838. Capt. T. J. Cram reports, September 1, 1889, concerning this road, as follows :

" This road was located during the last autumn and winter as far as to Madison, a distance of seventy-nine miles. The road has been cut and cleared as far as located, where the timber needed it, and log causeways and bridges constructed, so that wagons with very light loads' maj now reach Madison on this route. The whole appropriation, amounting to $10,000, has been expended between Milwaukee and Madison, and to complete the road between these two towns in a manner to meet the wants of the inhabitants along the line and of Milwaukee and Madison, an additional appropriation of $5,000 would be required. This sum, although inadequate to the cons|;ruction of a durable road, would nevertheless leave it in such a condition that the inhabitants settled along on the line of the road might keep it in repair between Milwaukee and Rook River. Between that river and Madison there are few, if any, settlers, and the ground is wet and unfavorable for a road, and the land is not so well adapted to farming purposes as to induce the belief that it will be settled for some years to come. Between Madison and the Mississippi, natitre has done so much toward providing for a good road that an expenditure of about $10,000 in bridging the streams, ditching and grading, would be suflBcient, making an additional sum of $15,000 necessary to be appropriated to complete the construction of the road through from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River."

Pioneer Life

Records 6f the olden time are interesting, and they are not without their lessons of instruction. By the light of 'the past we follow in the footprints of the adventurous and enterprising pioneer. We see him, as it were, amid the labors and struggles necessary to convert the wilderness into a fruitful field. We sit by his cabin fire, partaking of his homely and cheerfully granted fare, and listen to the accounts which he is pleased to give us of frontier life, and of the dangers, trials, hardships and sufferings of himself and others in their efforts to make for themselves homes in regions remote from civilization, and unexplored hitherto, save by wandering Indians and wild beasts. Through these ancient records we make our way along to the present. From small beginnings we come to the mighty achievements of industry, the complex results of daring entef prise, subduing and creative energy, and untiring perseverance.

Following on in the path of progress and improvement, we see once waste places rejoicing under the kindly care of the husbandman ; beautiful farms, with all the fixtures and appurtenances necessary to make the tillers of the soil and their families contented and happy, are spread out before us ; villages and cities have arisen as if by magic, and hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of human souls are congregated within their precincts ; the marts oi trade and trafiic, and the workshop of the artisan are thronged ; common schools, academies and colleges have sprung up ; young and ardent minds - children of the rich and poor-^ ' may press forward together in the acquisition of science ; churches are built, and a Christian ministry is sustained for the inculcation of religious sentiments and the promotion of piety, virtue and moral goodness ; the press is established, whence floods of light and glory may emanate for the instruction and benefit of all ; railroads are built to bring the products of every clime and the people from afar to our doors ; and the telegraph, " upon the lightning's wing," carries messages far and near. Let the records of the olden time be preserved; in after years, our children, and our children's children, will look over them with pleasure and profit.

The first important business of the pioneer settler, upon his arrival in Dane County, was to build a house. Until this was done, he had to camp on the ground or live in his wagon - perhaps the only shelter he had known for weeks. So the prospect for a house, which was also to be a home, was one that gave courage to the rough toil, and added a zest to the heavy labors. The style of a home entered very little into his thoughts - it was shelter he wanted, and protection from stress of weather and wearing exposures. The poor settler had neither the money nor the mechanical appliances for building himself a house. He was content, in most instances, to have a mere cabin or hut. Some of the most primitive constructions of this kind were halffaced, or, as they were sometimes called, "cat-faced," sheds or " wike-ups," the Indian term for house or tent. It is true, a " claim " cabin was a little more in the shape of a human habitation,,made, as it was, of round logs, light enough for two or three men to lay up, about fourteen feet square - perhaps a little larger or smaller - roofed with bark or clapboards, and floored with puncheons (logs split once in two, and the flat side laid up), or with earth. For a fire-place, a wall of stones and earth - frequently the latter only, when stone was not convenient - was made, in the best practicable shape for the purpose, in an opening in one- end of the building, extending outward, and planked on the outside by bolts of wood notched together to stay it. Frequently, a fire-place of this kind was made so capacious as to occupy nearly the whole width of the house. In cold weather, when a great deal of fuel was needed to keep the atmosphere above freezing point - for this wide-mouth fire-place was a huge ventilator - large logs were piled into this yawning space. To protect the crumbling back- wall against the effects of fire, two back-logs were placed against it, one upon the other. Sometimes these were so large that they could not be got in in any other way than to hitch a horse to them. The animal was driven in at the door, when the log was unfastened before the fire-place. It was afterward put in proper position. The horse would be driven out at another door.

For a chimney, any contrivance that would convey the smoke out of the building would do. Some were made of sods, plastered upon the inside with clay ; others, the more common perhaps, were of the kind we occasionally see in use now, clay and sticks, or " cat in clay," as they w'ere sometimes called. Imagine, of a winter's night, when the storm was having its own wild way over this almost uninhabited land, and when the wind was roaring like a cataract of cold over the broad wilderness, and the settler had to do his best to keep warm, what a royal fire this double back-log and well-filled fire-place would hold ! It was a cozy place to smoke, provided the settler had any tobacco ; or for the wife to sit knitting before, provided she had any needles and yarn. At any rate, it gave something of cheer to the conversation, which very likely was upon the home and friends they had left behind when they started out on this bold venture of seeking fortunes in a new land.

For doors and windows, the most simple contrivances that would serve the purposes were brought into requisition. The door was not always immediately provided with a shutter, and a blanket often did duty in guarding the entrance. But, as soon as convenient, some boards were split and put together, hung upon wooden hinges, and held shut by a wooden pin inserted inan auger-hole. As a substitute for window-glass, greased paper, pasted over sticks crossed in the shape of sash was sometimes used. This admitted the light and excluded the air, but, of course, lacked transparency.

In regard to the furniture of such a cabin, it varied in proportion to the ingenuity of the occupants, unless it was where settlers brought with them their old household supply, which, owing to the distance most of them had come, was very seldom. It was easy enough to improvise tables and chairs ; the former could be made of split logs - and there were instances where the latter was designed after the three-legged stool pattern, or benches served their purposes. A bedstead was a very important item in the domestic comfort of the family, and this was the fashion of improvising them: A forked stick was driven into tbe ground diagonally from the corner of the room, and at proper distance, upon which poles reaching from each were laid. The wall ends of the pole either rested in the openings between the logs, or were driven into auger-holes. Barks or boards were used as a substitute for cords. Upon this the tidy house-wife spread her straw tick, and, if she had a home-made feather-bed, she piled it up into a luxurious mound, and covered it with her whitest drapery. Some sheets hung behind it for tapestry added to the coziness of the resting-place.

The house thus far along, it was left to the deft devices of the wife to complete its comforts and the father of the family was free to superintend out-of-door affairs. If it was in season, his first important duty was to prepare some ground for planting, and to plant what he could.

The first year's farming consisted mainly of a " truck patch," planted in corn, potatoes, turnips and other vegetables. Generally, the first year's crop fell far short of supplying even the most rigid economy of food. Many of the settlers brought with them small stores of such things as seemed indispensable to frugal living, such as flour, bacon, coffee and tea. But these supplies were not inexhaustible, and once used were not easily replaced. A long winter must come and go before another crop could be raised. If game was plentiful it helped to eke out their limited supplies.

But eVen when corn was plentiful, the preparation of it was the next difficulty in the way. The mills for grinding it were usually at such long distances that every other device was resorted ' to for reducing it to meal. Some grated it upon an implement made by punching small holes through a piece of tin or sheet-iron, and fastening it upon a board in concave shape, with the rough side out. Upon this the ear was rubbed to produce the meal. But the grating could not be done when the corn became so dry as to shell off when rubbed. Some used a coffee-mill for grinding it ; and a very common substitute for bread was hominy - a palatable and wholesome diet - made by boiling corn in a weak lye till the hull or bran peeled off, after which it was well washed to cleanse it of the lye. It was then boiled again to soften it, when it was ready for use, as occasion required, by frying and seasoning it to the taste. Another mode of preparing hominy was by pestling. A mortar was made by burning a bowl-shaped cavity in the end of an upright block of wood. After thoroughly cleaning it of the charcoal, the corn would be put in, hot water turned upon it, when it was subjected to a severe pestling by a club of suflScient length and thickness, in the large end of which was inserted an iron wedge, banded to keep it there. The hot water would soften the corn and loosen the hull, while the pestle would crush it.

When breadstuffs were needed, they had to be obtained from long distances. Owing to the lack of proper means for thrashing and cleaning wheat, it was more or less mixed with foreign substances, such as smut, dirt and oats. And as the time may come when the settler's methods of thrashing and cleaning may be forgotten, it may be well to preserve a brief account of them here. The plan was to clean off a space of ground of sufficient size, and, if the earth was dry, to dampen it, and beat it to render it somewhat compact. Then the sheaves wete unbound and spread in a circle, so that the heads would be uppermost, leaving room in the center for the person whose business it was to turn and stir the straw in the process of thrashing. Then as many horses or oxen were brought as could conveniently swing around the circle, and these were kept moving until the wheat was well trodden out. After several " floorings " or layers were thrashed, the straw was carefully raked off and the wheat shoveled into a heap to be cleaned. This cleaning was sometimes done by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the grain was dropped before it ; but this trouble was frequently obviated when the stong winds of autumn were all that was needed to blow out the chaff from the grain. This mode of preparing the grain for flouring was so imperfect that it is not to be wondered at that a considerable amount of black soil got mixed with it, and unavoidably got into the bread. This, with an addition of smut, often rendered it so dark that it had less the appearance of bread than of mud ; yet upon such diet the people were compelled to subsist for want of a better.

Not the least among the pioneers' tribulations, daring the first few years of the settlement, was the going to mill. The slow mode of travel by ox teams was made still slower by the almost total absence of roads and bridges, while such a thing as a ferry was hardly even dreajned of. The distance to be traversed was often as far as sixty or ninety miles. In dry weather, common sloughs and creeks offered little impediment to the teamsters ; but during floods and the breaking-up of winter, they proved exceedingly troublesome and dangerous. To get stuck in a slough, and thus be delayed for many hours, was no uncommon occurrence, and that, too, when time was an item of grave import to the comfort and sometimes even to the lives of the settlers' families. Often a swollen stream would blockade the way, seeming to threaten destruction to whomever would attempt to ford it.

With regard to roads, there was nothing of the kind worthy of the name. Indian trails were common, but they were unfit to travel on with vehicles. They were mere paths about two feet wide - all that was required to accommodate the single-file manner of Indian traveling.

When the early settlers were compelled to make these long and diflScult trips to mill, if the country was prairie over which they passed, they found it comparatively easy to do in summer when grass was plentiful. By traveling until night, and then camping out to feed the teams, they got along without much difficulty. But in winter such a journey was attended with no little danger. The utmost economy of time was, of course, necessary. When the goal was reached, after a week or more of toilsome travel, with many exposures and risks, and the poor man was impatient to immediately return with the desired staff of life, he was often shocked and disheartened with the information that his turn would come in a week. Then he must look about for some means to pay his expenses, and he was lucky who could find employment by the day or job. Then, when his turn came, he had to be on hand to bolt his own flour, as in those days the bolting machine was not an attached part of the other mill machinery. This done, the anxious soul was ready to endure the trials of a return trip, his heart more or less concerned about the affairs at home.

Those milling trips often occupied several weeks, and were attended with an expense, in one way or another, that rendered the cost of the breadstuffs extremely high. If made in the winter, when more or less grain-feed was required for the team, the load would be found to be so considerably reduced on reaching home, that the cost of what was left, adding other expenses, would make their grain reach the high cash figure of from $3 to $5 per bushel. And these trips could not always be made at the most favorable season for traveling. In spring and summer, so much time could hardly be spared from other essential labor ; yet, for a large family, it was almost impossible to avoid making three or four trips during the year.

Among other things calculated to annoy and distress the pioneer, was the prevalence of wild beasts of prey, the most numerous and troublesome of which was the wolf. While it was true, in a figurative sense, that it required the utmost care and exertion to "keep the wolf from the door," it was almost as true in a literal sense. There were two species of these animals - the large black timber wolf, and the smaller gray wolf that usually inhabited the prairie. At first, It was next to impossible for a settler to keep small stock of any kind that would serve as a prey to these ravenous beasts. Sheep were not deemed safe property until years after, when their enemies were supposed to be nearly exterminated. Large numbers of 'Wolves were destroyed during the early years of settlement. When they were hungry, which was not uncommon, particularly during the winter, they were too indiscreet for their own safety, and would often approach within easy shot of the settlers' dwellings. At certain seasons "their wild, plaintive yelp or bark could be heard in all directions at all hours of the night, creating intense excitement among the dogs, whose howling would add to the dismal melody. It has been found by experiment that but one of the canine species - the hound - has both the fleetness and courage to cope witH his savage cousin, the wolf. Attempts were often made to capture him with the common cur, but this animal, as a rule, proved himself wholly unreliable for such a service. So long as the wolf would run the cur would follow ; but the wolf, being apparently acquainted with the character of his pursuer, would either turn and place himself in a combative attitudsj or else act upon the principle that " discretion is the better part of valor," and throw himself upon his back in token of surrender. This strategic performance would make instant peace between these tw6 scions of the same house ; and not infrequently dogs and wolves have been seen playing together like puppies. But the hound was never known to recognize a flag of truce ; his baying seeming to signify "no quarter;" or at least, so the terrified wolf understood it.

Smaller animals, such as panthers, lynx, wildcats, catamounts and polecats, were also sufficiently numerous to be troublesome. And an exceeding source of annoyance were the swarms of mosquitoes, which aggravated the trials of the settler in the most exasperating degree. Persons have been driven from the labors of the field by their unmerciful assaults.

The trials of the pioneer were innumerable, and the cases of actual suffering might fill a volume of no ordinary size. Timid women became brave through combats with real dangers, and patient mothers grew sick at heart with the sight of beloved children failing in health from lack of the commonest necessaries of life. The struggle was not for ease or luxury, but was a constant one for the sustaining means of life itself.

The country of the Four Lakes, all of which was afterward included in Dane County, appears for the first time with any deguee of accuracy upon a map published in 1829, by R. W. Chandler, of Galena, entitled a " Map of the United States Lead Mines, on the Upper Mississippi River." The four lakes are represented with a tolerable degree of accuracy, but, as the date of the publication of the map was prior to the survey of the country by the General Government, they are not designated by numbers ; indeed, no names are given them. The stream which runs through them (now known as the Yahara) is designated as the Cos ca-ho-e-nah. It is stated that there is " Fine farming land around these lakes." Time has verified this, notwithstanding a writer who visited this region in 1832, declared that the country in which the lakes are situated, " is not fit for any civilized nation of people to inhabit." " It appears," says the writer, "that the Almighty intended it for the children of the forest."

Two Indian (Winnebago) villages are indicated on this map as being located in the Four Lakes region - one on the north side of what is now known as Mendota Lake ; the other, on the southeast side of Lake Waubesa. Through the first of these villages runs a "trace" from the Blue Mounds to the portage (Fort Winnebago, now the city of Portage). Through the second, runs a "trace" from Spotted-Arms village to Green Bay. Both these traces or trails lead from the Lead Region in a northeast direction, through what is now Dane County. The trail which led along the north side of Lake Mendota, was the one then traveled by persons going from Prairie du Chien or Cassville to Fort Winnebago. It ran northeasterly through Dodgeville, by the Blue Mounds and Lake Mendota ; thence in a more northerly direction, across Duck Creek, in what is now Columbia County, to the portage.

On John Farmer's " Map of the Territories of Michigan and Ouisconsin," published in 1830, the country of the Four Lakes is fairly represented. The publisher evidently drew largely for information from some one acquainted with this region. The name given to the Yah&ra, is Goosh-ke-hawn, or River of the Four Lakes ; the first word having a resemblance to the one heretofore mentioned, Cos-ca-ho-e-nah, the principal change being in the pronunciation of the last part, which, if rapidly enunciated, nearly corresponds with the syllable " hawn." Lake Koshkonong is noted as "The Lake We Live On." This map not only gives the two Winnebago villages, described on Chandler's map as being located, one on the north side of Lake Mendota, and the other on the southeast side of Lake Waubesa, but also locates a third one, giving its site as on the south side of Lake Monona.

No sooner had a considerable portion of the country south of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers been surveyed by the General Government, than there appeared a " Map of the Surveyed Part of Wisconsin Territory, Compiled from Public Surveys." It accompanied "Reports and Estimates from the Surveyors General for the Year 1836," made to the first session of the Thirty-fourth Congress. In a letter to E. A. Brown, Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated September 21, 1835, Robert T. Lytle, one of the Surveyors General, says : " In the Northwest (or Wisconsin) Territory, there remains to be surveyed only the tract ceded to the United States by the united nation of the Chippewa, Otlawas and Pottawatomie Indians, by treaty of Chicago, of September 26, 1833, embraced in the Green Bay Land District. This tract did not include any portion of what is now Dane County. As the various townships afterward erected into this county had been surveyed, the representation upon the map of the country of the Four Lakes was much more accurate than upon any preceding one. The Government plats were an excellent guide for the draughtsman. However, as it was about a year subsequent to this that Dane County was created, of course its boundaries are not indicated on the map.

The last map published before the erection of Dane County, was one by David H. Burr, draughtsman to the House of Representatives of the United States. It was entitled '' Map of the Territory of Wisconsin," and was dated 1836. It shows that the territory now constituting Dane County was then in both the Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Land Districts. On the north side of Lake Mendota is located the " City uf the Four Lakes," and there is given the line of a "Proposed Rail Road," extending direct from the mouth of the Wisconsin, east to the " City " just mentioned; thence, in a course nearly due east to Milwaukee. On this map and on the one last above described, the "Battle Ground" is prominently located, where was fought the battle of Wisconsin Heights, between the Americans and Black Hawk's army.

On Farmer's " Map of the Territories of Michigan and Ouisconsin," of 1836, the " Four Lakes" are partly in " Milwalky County," and partly in the county of Iowa. It was not, however, until all the lands south of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers had been surveyed ; not until many new counties, in the beginning of the winter of 1886-37, had been created, that a map was published showing Dane as one of the counties of Wisconsin Territory. This was entitled a " Map of Wiskonsin Territory, Compiled from the Publia Surveys." Now, for the first time, Madison appears upon a Territorial map and the " City of the Four Lakes " is still in existence - upon paper. The Lakes are numbered as upon the Government plats. The lower one is the "First Lake;" the next one the " Second Lake ;" the one next above, the " Third Lake," and the last one, the "Fourth Lake." A tributary of the latter, upon its north side, is " Tokun River ;" while the stream which connects the Lakes is put down as the " River of the Four Lakes." The small lake to the southw2st of Kegonsa is denominated " Weengra Lake." Since the publication of this map, there has been no lack of accurate delineations of Dane County and the Four Lakes.

Organization

By an act of the Territorial Legislature, approved March 11, 1839, it was provided that the county of Dane, from and after the first Monday of the succeeding month of May, should be an organized county for all the purposes for which any county in the Territory had been organized. It was provided, also, that the first election should be held on the first Monday of the month last mentioned, at the American Hotel, in Madison, and thereafter the elections were to be holden at such times and places as should be provided by law. The returns of the first election were to be made to the Clerk of the Supreme Court at Madison, who was, in the presence of one or more Justices of the Peace, to canvass the same and certify the result.

The term of the District Court, required to be held in the month of April in each year, was not to be holden until the Judge of the district should so order, which order was to be directed to the Sheriff, and by him published at least two months before the time of holding the court; and the Librarian of the Territory was required, on the application of the Board of

Commissioners of the county, to cause to be opened a suitable room in the capitol at Madison, in which the sessions of the District Court should be held until otherwise provided for.

The term of office of the Board of Commissioners first elected in the county, was to be determined as had already been provided for in the second section of an act, entitled " An act organizing a Board of County Commissioners in each county in this Territory," approved December 20, 1837.

At th6 election on the first Monday in May, 1839, as provided by the act of organization, the following county officers were chosen : Eben Peck, Simeon Mills and Jeremiah Lyoan, Commissioners : John Stoner, Treasurer ; Robert L. Ream, . Register of Deeds ; William A. Wheeler, Assessor, and Adam Smith, Constable.

The following appointments were made by the Governor for Dane County : John Catlin, District Attorney; Isaac H. Palmer, Judge of Probate; Nathaniel T. Parkinson, Sherifi'; Isaac Atwood, Administrator ; George P. Delaplaine, District Surveyor ; William N. Seymour, Justice of the Peace, vice Eben Peck, resigned; John T. Wilson, Auctioneer.

At the first meeting of the Commissioners, held May 15, 1839, Eben Peck was appointed Chairman, and La Fayette Kellogg Clerk. The latter resigned on the 22d of July following, and R. L. Ream was appointed in his place. On May 16, the county Was divided into two election precincts - Madison and Moundville.

At the general election, held on the first Monday of August following, a number of county officers was elected. The following " notice " was published several times in the Wisconsin inquirer, the only paper then printed in Dane County :

Agreeably to an act of the Territorial Legislature, approved March 7, 1839, the qualified electors of the county of Dane are hereby notified that an election will be opened at the several precincts heretofore established, on the first Monday [5th] of August next, then to choose by ballot one person for Delegate to Congress, one Register of Deeds, one County Treasurer, one Collector, one Coroner, three Assessors, two Constables in the Madison District and one Constable in the Moundville District, which election will be opened at 9 o'clock in the morning and will continue open until 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. Dated at Madison, this 16th day of May, A. D. 1839.

As already mentioned, the county had been divided into two election districts, or precincts. At the one known as the Madison Precinct, the following persons voted at the August election : Berry Haney, A. A. Bird, George A. TiiFany, John Vosburg, George Vroman, William N. Seymour,* Darwin Clark,* W. W. Wyman, W. G. Simonds, Almon Lull, John Catlin, John i. Wilson, Simeon Mills,* Abel Rasdall, W. G. Van Bergen, Ebenezer Brigham, N. T. Parkinson, Charles H. Bird,* Jefierson Kinney, Samuel Chappell, Zenas H. Bird, Reuben Brown, Abram Wood, Lucius Hammond, Prosper B. Bird, Isaac II. Palmer, Eben Peck, Thomas Jackson, Jonathan Butterfield, Charles 8. Peaslee,* Josiah A. Noonan, R. L. Ream, W. B. Slaughter, George H. Slaughter,* J. Pelkie, Adam Smith,* A. Wakefield, W. A. Wheeler,* W. Hoadley, David Hyer, H. Lawrence, J. S. Potter, George Baker, Oliver Em ell, John Stoner, John i Betts, Henry Fake, N. C. Prentiss, Nelson Hart, Thomas Perry, Isaac Atwood, Hiram Fellows, Richard Palmer and Luther Peck. Total, 54 voters.

The following county officers were chosen at this election : Collector, Adam Smith ; Assessors, George Vroman, William N. Seymour and Mahlon Blaker; Treasurer, John Stoner; Register of Deeds, R. L. Ream.

This was the first general election held in the Territory which was participated in by Dane as an organized county ; and, as already indicated, a Delegate in Congress was chosen. The choice fell upon James Duane Doty. His opponents were Byron Kilbourn and Thomas P. Burnett. The vote in Dane County stood as follows : For Doty, 40 votes ; for Kilbourn, 27 votes; for Burnett, 6 votes. The whole number of votes cast in the county was seventy-three. As there were fifty-four of these cast in the Madison District, it leaves nineteen as the number polled in the Moundville Precinct. Voters at that time were not compelled to vote in the pre-

The first history of the county was the work of J. A. Noonan, and was published in the Wisconsin Enquirer of May 25, 1839, not many days after the county was organized. It was exceedingly brief, and as follows :

" The County of Dane was formed in 1836, from the counties of Brown,* Milwaukee and Iowa, and includes Townships 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, of Ranges 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 east, making thirty-five townships. A law was passed at the last session of the Legislative Assembly to organize the county, and in pursuance thereof it was organized on the 6th inst., and the first court will be held in October next. Until the spring of 1887, there were but few families in the county, and those few resided at the Blue Mounds. The county now numbers over 300 inhabitants, a greater part of whom reside at Madison, the county-town and seat of government of the Territory.

" The County of Dane very early attracted the attention of speculators. In 1835, Lucius Iiyon, who had surveyed the Four Lake country, and who was well acquainted with the soil, etc., purchased at the land sales for himself and others a considerable portion of valuable lands. It is owing to this reason and no other, that the settlement of the county has been very much retarded. It is, however, at the present time, attracting the attention of the emigrant ; and it is believed that the present season will do much toward settling and improving it.

" The county is known as the 'Four Lakes Country,' so called from a chain of lakes which are connected with the Rock and Wisconsin Rivers. These lakes are four beautiful sheets of water, and are stored with fine fish, and plenty of game is found on their banks. The county contains a large portion of rich and valuable lands, principally prairie, but interspersed with groves of timber. The prairies. are very handsome, and are generally of a deep black soil. The timber lands are oak openings, but in the immediate vicinity of the lakes and along their outlet there is a large body of excellent timber, consisting of maple, ash, butternut, walnut, hickory, linn, aspen, etc. The outlet of these lakes, called the Cat Fish, or River of the Four Lakes, empties itself into the Rock River in Town [ship] 4, of Range 12 east, being about twenty miles from Madison. In this stream there is plenty of water. There is also a water-power in the immediate vicinity vicinity of Madison, but none of these as yet have been improved.

" This county offers as great inducements to emigrants as any other section in the Territory. Good farms can be obtained at the government price - $1.25 per acre - having timber, prairie and water, and no country exceeds it in health. Madison is the only town of any importance, and has a delightful situation. It contains two stores, three public-houses, three groceries, one steam-mill, and in all thirty- five buildings. During the sessions of the Legislature, Madison afford quite a good market for the surrounding country. Prices the past season have ranged as follows : Corn, per bushel, $1.25 ; oats, 75c. ; potatoes, $1 ; butter, 37J to 62J ; eggs, 37| to 75 cents per dozen ; pork and beef from 7 to 12 cents per pound."

There were many matters besides the election and qualification of officers arising under the law, to be attended to in the organization of the county before the machinery of the county government was fully put in motion, and there were several meetings of the County Commissioners during the year 1839, for that purpose. The record of these meetings has an historical significance, and is as follows : tt a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners of Dane County, Wisconsin Terri- .- eld at the Madison. Hotel on the 15th day of May, A. D., 1839. The Commissioners viz.,

Simeon Mills, Eben Peck and Jeremiah Lycan, presented their several certificates of election and ordered the same to be entered on record. Eben Peck, Esq., was appointed Chairman of the Board. LaFayette Kellogg was appointed Clerk of the Board, who appeared and was duly qualified to act as such. The following persons presented their bonds, with security, which, were approved by the Commissioners and filed in the Clerk's office, and the several persons sworn to wit: John Stoner, as County Treasurer ; William A. Wheeler, as Assessor ; Robert L. Ream, as Register of Deeds ; John T. Wilson, as Auctioneer ; Adam Smith, as Constable. Board adjourned until to moiTow morning at 9 o'clock. La Fayette Kellogg, Clerk.

Thursday, May 16, 1839. - Board met pursuant to adjournment. The following precincts of election were established for the year 1839, viz., one at Madison, one at Moundville, and the polls of election ordered to be opened at the following places to wit., in Madison, in the Madison Hotel; in Moundville, at the house of Ebenezer Brigham, Esq.

The following-named persons were appointed Judges of Election in the two precincts to wit, in the Madison precinct-^Prosper B. Bird, Darwin Clark, Jairus S. Potter. In the MoundviHe pre'cinct^Prescott Brigham, John C. Kellogg, Sidney Carman.

Ordered, That the Clerk procure all necessary blanks for the use of the county, at the expense of the county. Board adjourned until meeting in course.

June 4, 1839. - George P. Delaplaine filed his bond with the Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners as District Surveyor. Nathaniel T. Parkinson filed his bond with the Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, as Sheriff.