Dane County, Wisconsin - Chapter 13: Madison As an Unincorporated Village, 1880 (part 2 of 3)

Not far below the State line, I was overtaken by a severe storm of wind, which made it impossible to keep the channel, and I took refuge at the cabin of a pioneer on the bank, and remained a day and a half with no abatement of the wind. I exchanged my boat for my board, and started on foot across the country for Ottawa, on the Illinois River. Arrivipg there in process of time, I was fortunate, after one day's delay, in finding a steamboat that took me to St. Louis, and from there I took passage by river to Wellsville, then across the State to Ashtabula County, my former home.

With my wife and her sister - afterward well known in this city as Mrs. George P. De'aplaine - we returned by steamer around the lakes soon after the opening of navigation, and landed at Milwaukee early in June. Procuring a team to carry our scanty supply of household goods and the female part of the family, we found our way to Janesville on the fifth day after leaving Milwaukee.

From Janesville to Madison was yet an uninhabited waste, with no roads or marks to guide our way except a few blazed trees and here and there a stake on the prairies, which had been stuck the fall before to indicate a route that it was supposed a team might pass over. We did not take the northern route from Milwaukee that Mr. Bird had marked out and passed^pver

Leaving Janesville in the morning, we proceeded very well until about noon, when we missed the " blind guides " and found ourselves lost in the openings. Our teamster, while dinine his horses on grass, gave them too much liberty, and the poor brutes, instigated by the devil or more likely, by an intolerable swarm of flies, took to their heels, and a half-day was lost in capturing and bringing the fugitives back from Janesville.

The weather was intensely hot, and the musquitoes as familiar as old acquaintances. The second night out, we camped about one mile north of a place since known as Oak Hall, in the town of Fitchburg. About 6 o'clock in the afternoon, we discovered unmistakable signs of an approaching storm, and immediately made the best preparation we could for protection against it. The storm was a terrific one, and lasted a great part of the night. It seemed to me I had never seen a more severe one, but perhaps that was in part owing to the fact that we took it outdoors, and there were but few to divide the enjoyment. My wife never forgot the injury done to her best patch-work quilts, which we used for tent cloths.

On the 18th of June, the third day from Janesville, as we passed over the ridge southwest of the fair ground, I pointed out the Third Lake and assured my weary charge that our journey was nearly ended. My wife, stimulated, I suppose, by the impulse which always seems to be uppermost in the human breast, especially the female half of it, the desire to make a favorable impression at first sight, quietly informed me that we were hardly in proper plight for presentation at court in a capital city, and half confidentially inquired if we could not enter the town through some back street and reach our house unobserved by the people. I quieted the doleful misgivings of the little helpmeet with the consoling assurance that we undoubtedly could, as our house would be the first we should reach, and was so hid away in the bushes as to be hardly visible to its nearest neighbor.

Arriving at the house, judge of our surprise to find it already occupied by two families, which at once took all the romance out of that little back-street arrangement. My wife, however, was equal to the occasion, and consoled herself with the side remark that one of the women, at least (human nature), made a more dowdyish appearance and looked the fright much worse than she possibly could, even in her then forlorn condition.

In the summer of 1838, Mr. John Catlin and myself, having rather outgrown our little log store, 14x16 feet on the ground, undertook the erection of a metropolitan building eighteen feet front, thirty-two feet deep and one and a half stories high, in which to open out our general assortment. We had so far progressed with the work as to have the building inclosed and the lower floor laid, but without doors and windows, when one Saturday was made notable by the arrival of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Kemper, the Rev. Mr. Cadle, later of Green Bay, and the Rev. Mr. Grier, of Galena, 111.

It must not for one moment be imagined that such an arrival in our little community was not the event of the season, that must be duly noticed and improved. It could not be truthfully said that Mr. Cwlin and myself opened our new store for religious services, for the front was already open, and, by the introduction of a few boards and blocks of wood for seats, and an empty flour barrel turned bottom end up and covered with a table spread for a desk, the First Episcopal tnurch of Madison, of sufficient capacity to accommodate the entire population, was complete and ready for dedication on the morrow by the Bishop of the Northwest.

,. . "^^ morning of the second Sunday of July, 1838, was bright and warm*, and the open condition of our improvised church was no uncomfortable feature of the morning service. The people assembled, and service was commenced at the appropriate time, but " as it was in the beginning," When no man was found to till the ground, so it was now ; when the hymn was given out, no man was found to "pitch the tune " and lead in singing. One of the reverend gentlemen and some ^'J'firs tried their hands and throats, and piped away awhile, but finally gave up in despair, en Mrs. Mills volunteered to lead the choir, and helped out that part of the service, as the

Bishop -vvaa afterward pleased to express it, " with marked ability." The discourse was given by the Bishop, and was the third sermon ever preached in Dane County.*

Service being over, under the direction of Mrs. Mills, who always took the lead in the family in all religious matters, the reverend gentleman, Mr. Catlin and a few other friends were escorted to our house and a banquet spread of everything choice that the market and the house could afford, the Bishop meanwhile making himself and the little circle merry at the expense of a reverend brother by imitating his style and effort to pitch a tune and lead in singing, and advised the employment of the hostess to give him a few lessons in music.

It is just possible that at our little dinner the courses were not as numerous or the viands as costly or abundant as may have been set before the Bishop in after years, but it was our best and at all events they were not sent away empty. It was an occasion never forgotten, and was the subject of a pleasant remark as we sometimes met in the downward journey of life.

Having given an accurate account of how the gospel was introduced into the county of Dane, I will now give a truthful statement of how it was "spread " by at least one effort, and made to take deep root in fallow ground and bear fruit more abundantly.

In the Eastern States, between the years 1830 and 1840, a great '* revival season " had been wroughj; up and worked out, until the names of Revs. Finney, Birchard, Foote and Knapp became familiar household words.

At a later period, it was thought desirable to transfer the revival work to the Far West, and, by pursuing the old methods, gather the unconverted into the fold.

Our good people, who had long been sleeping in blissful ignorance, were startled from their slumber by the advent of Elder Raymond, a minister from the East, working on the protractedrevival plan. After he had wrought a few days in this unpromising vineyard, the city was electrified one Sunday morning to find the streets placarded with large-lettered posters announcing that Elder R. would preach a special discourse, at the court room in the capitol, at 7 o'clock, sharp, that evening, and that during the performance the " Devil would be made to howl, and sinners would be stirred up with a long pole. Front seats reserved for the ladies."

According to announcement in the bills, the reverend revivalist was on hand, and, when the preliminary exercises were over, he arose, and, picking up from the desk an anonymous letter, opened it and said : " In my last discourse in this place, I took occasion to say that the devil had acquired a strong foothold in Madison, and I now perceive that he has his private secretary here," and then read the letter to the audience, which was merely giving some plain hints that his methods were worn threadbare and would not evangelize this community. Laying the letter aside, he drew from his pocket one of the placards, and, after reading it, said : " I see that the devil has his printer here, also, but whether the devil's printer is the printer's devil, I am not at this moment advised," which latter remark brought down the whole audience with tremendous rounds of applause.

He then proceeded to make the devil howl, and to vigorously stir up sinners in the manner advertised in the bills. He even went so far as to insinuate that the poster itself was the work of printer's devils or devilish printers, and it mattered little which, as they would all land " where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."

If it was really true, as he insisted, that the placard was the work of the devil, it was an unfortunate boomerang which returned to knock its owner over.

During his stay, the Rev. Mr. Raymond made a break in this " stronghold of the devil ; he added a goodly number, and did much toward building up the Baptist church in- Madison.

III. - Bt J. G. Knapp. My first recollections of actually seeing Madison and its sufroundings carry me back to the summer of 1838, when after a rapid reconnoitering for a canal from Waupun to the head of Duck Creek, I came to Madison as a delegate to a Territorial Congressional Convention. Our road then ran on the west side of the Fourth Lake (the lakes were numbered, and had no special names in those days), and over the high prairies in the western part of the towns of Westport and Vienna coining in at the paper " City of the Four Lakes," through Mandamus and around the south end of the lake, so as to enter the present road near the stone quarry.

But two roads then led from the capitol out of Madison, the one west partly along State street and University avenue, until it parted, one running southwest, leading toward Green County; the other continued west beyond the second railroad culvert, at which place it branched for Blue Mounds and Fort Winnebago. The Green County road branched again beyond the Dead Lake, for Hume's Ferry, over Rock River. Janesville was then scarcely beffun. This then, and long after, was the road to Rock and Walworth Counties. The «a8t road forded the Catfish River, nearly where the bridge now is, and, branching soon after, one led to Cottage Grove, where it again parted, one to Lake Mills, and the othfer to Fort Atkinson. The main track followed near the present road to Sun Prairie, and thence to Lake Mills by way of Marshall, then called "Bird's Ruins." It was by this line the first workmen arrived here from Milwaukee. Near the " '76 " farm, an Indian trail ran by the Prairie House. Horace Lawrence lived there then, in a little house, keeping " bach." This was the only house between Madison and Rowan's. The trail crossed Token Creek a mile above the present village, and then ran over the prairies, striking the military road at Rowan's, now Poynette. By this trail I returned from Madison.

In 1837, A. A. Bird, the acting Building Commissioner, with a party of workmen, came from Milwaukee to Madison . for the purpose of putting up the capitol. They made their road as nearly due west as they could, through an almost unexplored and roadless country, and where they might be expected to meet with all kinds of obstacles to impede their march. Little more was done that year than to build houses for their workmen, some of which were not of the highest order of architecture, since little or no lumber could be procured, except such as was cut with the whip-saw.

But preparations were made for commencing the work in earnest the following year. The Bteammill was erected. Two scows for transporting stone from McBride's Point, with which the walls of the capitol were to be constructed, were built ; the ground for the capitol was staked off, and the foundation partly laid. The act making Madison the capital also fixed the location of the building, as was supposed, on Sections 13, 14, 23 and 24, or on ^e exact center of the Public Square. But as the post of the section corners was found standing on the west edge of the level of the square, or where the ground begins to descend to the west, the ground for the foundation was so staked off that the corners should be under the w.est door and not in the center of the building. Moreover, the west wall was not placed upon section lines ; consequently, both these causes operated to throw the walls away from a coincidence with all the streets of the city. This divergence became more apparent in the new and enlarged capitol than in the old one, since its location has been governed by the same lines.

In the summer of 1838, the workmen, under the direction of A. A. Bird, the acting Commissioner, and James Morrison, the contractor, were busy in putting up the walls of the capiw; and when I saw them, they had just raised them to the window sills of the second storyhen the old steam-mill was busy in sawing up the oaks, which were freely cut from the land, arounil, without regard to ownership. I suppose it was difficult at all times to find the lines iveen different owners ; and the timber was wanted for public use. Yet I have many doubts about full compensation being made to the proprietors. At any rate, all went into the cons tiiV'V^ 'lie capitol which did not go somewhere else ; and as the difficulties of tracingall !1 '' '**^ sawed, are greatly increased, so we are bound to believe that these, like J 1° '^.'" *"}y pioneers, respected the rights of absent proprietors. The scow was making its

The Winnebago calling himself a Pottawatomie (for Indians can practice deceit or tell lies when it is supposed to be for their advantage) returned from where he had been removed and again shot his canoe across our waters, in pursuit of fish and ducks. Those were days when ducks did not run the gauntlet of shot-guns, as at present, but remained here during the summer and reared their young. Others than Indians, also, sought food from the blue waters of the lakes. There were white men who often started out in the morning with full knowledge that their dinner depended upon fish to be caught. Fish from the lakes and game from the, land, with such pork as they could get from the State of Illinois, or from Milwaukee, constituted almost the entire food of the pioneers. As men had not then heard of the dreadful trichinae, so they had no fears of those invisible monsters before their eyes. Then salted pork, smoked pork, pork fed on corn, pork fatted on acorns, pork built up with roots gathered in the woods and bogs, on the principle of " root, hog, or die," greased the staff of life, and they ate their pork and greased bread and lived.

Those old times tried the patience, the tempers, of men ; but complaipts could neither mend nor improve the irresistible laws of frontier life, and only tended to annoy the complainer. The walls of the capitol went up at the expense of " Uncle Sam," and there was great trade in town lots and wild lands. At the " Madison Hotel," on King street, the Birds served up such food as the lakes, woods and "prairie schooner" provided for the kitchen. R. L. Ream made the " Madison House," whose logs sustained a roof of boards, battened with slabs, the grand resort of the aristocracy of Wisconsin. That was the stage-house, too. At either of these places, two feet by six of floor could be had for the night, at two-pence a square foot, where the weary passenger might spread his own blanket, and use his saddle or portmanteau for a pillow, and rejoice that he had so good a bed.

Noonan had not then come here, though I think some of the printing materials had reached their destination, and the art preservative was not multiplying the pages of the Wisconm, Miquirer. That paper began its career in November, 1838, in a room over the " Commissioners' store " in King street. In one corner of that room we, the wise men of Wisconsin, met and decided upon the merits of George W. Jones and James D. Doty. The latter was nominated and succeeded before the people. That election may be said to have settled the question against dueling, as one of the institutions of Wisconsin, and placed the law abiding above the chivalry in this State. The next Legislature placed the present law against the sin of dueling upon the statute book.

In November, 1838, the Legislature of Wisconsin met in Madison. The capitol was still unfinished ; in fact, there was no room in which either branch could meet ; so the members of the Council met in the little room, even smaller than at present, on the left-hand side of the hall as you entered the "American," and the House of Representatives in the basement, in which permanent organizations took place. A day or two later, two rooms in the south side of the capitol were pronounced in readiness for the reception of the wise men of the first Legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin, which then contained 18,130 inhabitants, embraced in eight districts, consisting of the following counties : Brown ; Crawford ; Grant ; Iowa ; Milwaukee and Washington ; Racine ; Rock and Walworth ; and Green, Dane, Jefferson and Dodge. This last district was represented by Ebenezer Brigham'in the Council.

Having organized the Legislature, the next question was for members, oflScers and lobby to find places to eat and sleep in. Though we paid metropolitan prices, it cannot be said we had exactly metropolitan fare. But men were remarkably accommodating in those early times, and without a grumble, could eat "hog and hominy," or "common doings," when " chicken fixings " could not be had ; and they could occupy a field bed, where they were forced to lie spoonfashion. A frontier life is a mighty leveler ; much like poverty, making men acquainted with strange bed-fellows. The " school section " qf the American, embracing most of the garret, was marked into lodging places by cracks in the floor ; and its other rooms were equally crowded.

At the " Madison " House, only six men were placed in a room sixteen feet square, and four others had a place at the fire during the day and evening. The floors of the " Madison Hotel " were also almost nightly covered with shake-downs, for travelers and transient visitors. Happy were those men who could find places in the few private houses, where four men might find two beds in a cold room, ten or twelve feet square.

Those were merry days, also. Mrs. Peck's fiddle rang out sweet and clear, while A. A. Bird and his wife led off in the " Virginia Reel," or " Hunt the Squirrel," and were followed throuch the mazes of the dance by the McDonalds, Smiths, and others whose names escape me. As wide-spread hoops were unknown, less space was needed for the dance, except when some ambitious dame or lassie extended her skirts with both hands, as she performed a " double shuffle " or some nimble yet zealous worshiper of Terpsichore, stimulated by the music of the Fisher's hornpipe, " cut a pigeon wing " over some ten feet of ground floor, and would have bounded higher and higher but for the rafters and walls of the house. What entanglements of hearts and clothes then took place among the things which were. All went in for a full measure of merriment and joy, and thought they found it. Those days are gone now. "Hunt the Squirrel," and the " Virginia Reel " are too galloping for these days of broad crinolines, and the " double shuflBe " and " pigeon wing " too violent for tight-laced pretty youngsters, who are scarcely able to endure the fatigues of the ten-stepped cotillion, or the gentle measures of the waltz.

Lake Mills and Mineral Point, then so near that the young men had sweethearts there, and neighbors went on friendly visits, are now far off. The roads have not lengthened a jot, but time has.

Some of those people of 1838 have gone to other lands, helped to found other towns, cities and States. Not a few have passed away, like the tenements which covered them from the storms of winter. Only here and there a wanderer remains, like Noah, connecting the former with the present world of Madison. Simeon Mills, A. A. Bird, Darwin Clark, Geo. P. Delaplaine, E. M. Williamson, George Hyer and John Stoner, the common men of those days, have made such tracks on society as similar men always make, and I must content myself with this allusion to them.

But one, a very worthy and very valuable man in any place, then and still a character, deserves a longer notice. " Chief Justice " of the Peace Seymour was here, and his pipe was as much apart of the man as is the cigar of Lieut. Gen. Grant. With that in his mouth, he was clerk in the Commissioner's store, kept books, dealt out silks and dry goods, tea and powder; was Surveyor of the town plat, only he read the degrees and minutes at the wrong end of the needle; tried causes, civil and criminal, and administered justice mingled largely with equity and common sense, though some slanderously stated that at times his brain became muddled with the tobacco smoke. Some spoke hardly of him, as all good men are evilly spoken against. All knew he was the G-azette, and always of the very latest edition ; and he had at that early time under his special care all the affairs of town. State and church. But a few years ago a dreadful sickness came to him, one we all regret, and none more than myself, and Seymour lost m pipe, sai the city its best guardian.

I have been looking about for the old landmarks, those old houses that made the Madison of 1838, then as now, the gem in silver setting. The hand of man guided by want and civilisation, time gnawing out the hearts of oaks, and the red tongue of fire, have swept them out of existence. The old steam-mill on the bank of the lake is gone to its foundations. The log hR ** "arsh, where Stoner reared his household, has left no mark behind. The site of the first frame house built in Madison, at the southwest corner of Wilson and Pinckney streets, or J. S. Schermerhorn, is now occupied by a large two-story brick dwelling-house - that where a man died "by touch ethereal slain," can only be traced by. the crab trees planted by Pross / Pii ' -*°'^ ^^^" ^^^ coarse gray sandstone which marked Warren's grave on Univery liU IS buried beneath academician soil, to be at some remote period brought to light, perhaps by a people who shall speak another tongue.

The demands of improvement have removed, demolished or added to other places, until it is diflBcult to trace the originals ; and, like the jack-knife with twelve new blades and six new handles, to those who have seen their transformations, they are the same old knives still. To all others they are new ones.

The old Capitol, like its companions of 1838, has fallen before the demands of improvement. It was first attacked on both sides and resisted long and well, but when it was at last flanked at both ends it surrendered and fell on the spot where it stood. May the beauties and just proportions of the new capitol be emblematical of the reconstructed Union; and then even we who have a love for old things may cherish the one as we love the other.

In 1838, the munificent gift of the General Government, the nucleus of the State Library, was kept in a little four-roofed, one-storied wooden building, fifteen feet square, standing on King street.

As the houses have changed, so the people have changed, some giving way to new-comers; others have found rest in the tomb. Rest, did I say ? Three times have sites been fixed within the limits of the city, and as often have they been removed and the dead transferred ! Are they safe yet from the march of civilization ? Here and there we find almost among strangers one of those old sojourners of 1838. But how few they are ! One may tell them on their fingers' ends, enumerate them as their works at that day can be told. The rains and snows, sunshine and storms, the heat and cold, of almost thirty years, have beaten upon them, faded the sparkling eyes, and blanched the glossy locks. The very thought makes the limbs tremble, the body stoop, the step shorten, the voice creak, and the blood flow sluggishly through the veins. It makes one feel more of the old man, as it sets him back on the dial of time.

Those were the oldest times in Madison, and but little time remains to speak of later days and things - none of the private buildings, streets, charters, and city growth. Then the capitol stood out unfenced ; even the corners of the square were unmarked by post or stake. However, Madison was the capital of a growing Territory, and the work of improvement went on.

In the latter part of April, in the year 1838, I first visited Madison. I traveled there in company with Mr. Wells, who, with a two-horse team, was supplying the people of Madison with produce from his farm in Green County. Madison then consisted of not more than a dozen houses, built and in process of erection, counting every cabin and shanty within three miles of the capitol, and was the only market for Green County farmers.

Mr. Wells and I left Monroe, then called New Mexico, in the morning, and reached Grand Springs, near Sugar River, late in the afternoon, and camped there for the night. This was before the land there was entered by Mr. McFadden, and the springs had not yet been named. We built a large log fire (to keep off the wolves, as Mr. Wells said), and fried our bacon and boiled our coffee. The aroma of our dainty dishes must soon have filled the atmosphere, for the prediction of Mr. Wells was verified in an incredibly short space of time, by the surrounding of our camp with prairie wolves in droves. Then commenced such a snarling, fighting, barliing and howling as I never heard before or since. They made the " night hideous," and kept up the music with a thousand and one variations until morning's dawn. During the night we chopped down more trees, cut them into logs, and kept up a rousing fire, the roar and crackle of which made a splendid accompaniment to our opposition concert in camp, which consisted of negro melodies and camp-meeting songs, which we had learned from the Hoosier prairie-breakers in Greene, where it had been my good fortune to serve an apprenticeship at prairie-breaking. Thus we spent a sleepless night (my first night in Dane County). We struck camp early next mornmg, without bidding our recently made acquaintances a very formal adieu.

We found the then traveled road very crooked and winding, and running at almost aU points of the compass, and when within five or six miles of Stoner's Prairie, we halted and took observations. After determining the proper course to take in the direction of Madison, 1 wen ahead with an ax, blazing trees. Mr. Wells followed with his team. We struck the prairie where George Vroman's farm was afterward located. The road which I then blazed was afterward adopted by the public, and traveled for many years. After passing through the prairie, we followed the old trail to Madison, where we arrived the second day.

Having business at Fort Winnebago, and there being no travel in that direction, I was compelled to make the journey alone, so I negotiated with Mr. Ubledine for a roan- colored, bob-tailed Canadian pony, with cropped mane, large ears and white belly. Mr. Ubledine kept the only livery stable, and this was the only horse to be hired in Madison. On this imposing steed I seated myself next day, and started for the fort, forty miles distant, by the trail. There was no wagon road from Madison in that direction, and the only two houses between there and the fort were those of William Lawrence, near Token Creek, and Wallace Rowan's hotel, on the military road, some thirty miles distant from Madison. At this hotel I put up for the night, and, being not much used to that particular kind of locomotion, was tired. Rowan's wife served me bountifully with hoe-cake and bacon, i then went to sleep and slept soundly until toward morning, when I was aroused by several cocks crowing simultaneously, in close proximity to my bed. I did not discover until daylight that the foot-rail of my bedstead was theroost of Mr. Rowan's chickens.

I remained the next night at Fort Winnebago, and picketed my pony on a grass plot near the hotel, giving him about thirty feet of rope. The hotel was the only house where travelers could be entertained outside the garrison. Mr. Henry Merrell and his family lived in it. I found the accommodations excellent. An amusing incident occurred there that night, which I cannot help mentioning. In the room in which I slept were four beds, one in each corner, and all curtained. I occupied one of these beds, and it appears that the other three were occupied by gentlemen and their wives. In the night we were all aroused by a cry of robbers, thieves, Indians, etc. All started up at the alarm, the ladies shrieking with fright. The room was dark, and in the confusion we ran against each other very amusingly. When a light was struck, the scene was extremely ludicrous - ladies, in their night-clothes, loqking like affrighted ghosts, some of them clinging to the wrong man ; men without any night clothes, and very little of any other kind, making frantic exertions to find out the cause of thfe disturbance. The supposition was that some soldiers had been on a carousal, and had mistaken the hotel for the garrison ; but, under the charge of Capt. Gideon Lowe, such a breach of the regulations would never have been allowed ; and the cause of the alarm was not satisfactorily explained.

I found my pony safe in the naorning. The gallinippers had worried him badly, and kept him in motion most of the night. The blood was still oozing through his perforated skin. Then, and not until then, did I realize the true force of the expression " thicker than mosquitoes. Thp atmosphere was literally filled with them. In those days, persons in the habit of traveling much were obliged to protect their faces and heads with gauze or mosquito-bar veils, so very great was the annoyance of these insects.

It often happens that the Government troops in these Western outposts become badly demoraUzed and mutinous. When watched so closely that they cannot safely carry bottles or j"S^ 'f ^''^"'"^ ^"'^ quarters, they resort to every imaginable means of smuggling it in. They have been known to saturate their blankets, overcoats and other garments with whisky obtained 0 tne sutler, then pass the guards unsuspected, and, after reaching quarters, wring out the whisky and drink it. i- ' ' & i > s in command. The sentinels at the gate refused to obey orders, which was reported to the Capwh** li ^^^ '^'^ appearance in due time, and demanded an explanation. As the sentinel vised tactic (not in the manual) was so demonstrative that the mutineers quailed before him and at once subsided into submission, and no further attempt at mutiny was made during his command at the fort.

Returning to Madison, I spent the next night at Mr. Rowan's, slept in the same bed, and, as before, was awakened at cock-crowing. At the dawn of day, I discovered what I thought was a small flock of sheep scattered around on the floor, but, on closer observation, I found they were Indians. They had come in during the night from some trading-post, where they had obtained new white blankets, £^nd had taken possession of the floor without ever disturbing my slumber.

From Madison back to Monroe there was jio mode of conveyance, and I made this journey on foot in one day. It was then fully forty miles by the meanderings of the road. There were no bridges, and I was obliged to wade Sugar River and its tributaries, as well as several large marshes, in some of which the track lay knee-deep under water, and I suffered severely with the rheumatism in consequence thereof.

Aside from the promising prospect of Madison as the seat of government of a great State not far in the future, I became so infatuated with the natural beauties of the place, that I soon determined to make it my home. Like an emerald gleaming among pearls, it nestled amid the clear placid waters of the Four Lakes, and the view from the undulating surface of the country around was a setting well fitted for the unsurpassed jewela, not unworthy of comparison with the famous views from the shores of Lakes Como and Maggiore, or the Bay of Naples, in the old world.

In the latter part of May of the same year [1838], I made another trip to Madison, when I ' negotiated with Mr. Peck for the Madison House, and in the month of June removed my family there, and took possession as the landlord. This was the first house in Madison, now passed from our view into chaos, the shadow only remaining - it has been photographed - was not an isolated cabin, but comprised two log cabins built of oak logs, each cabin twenty feet square, one and a half stories high, the ipside hewed slightly with an ax to straighten the walls, the cracks between the logs chinked and daubed with mortar. These cabins were set about twenty-four feet apart, the space between them boarded up, roofed with oak plank, battened with slabs, and floored with puncheons, as was also the balance of the house. There were plenty of doors and windows. The grand hall between the cabins made a spacious dining-room, answered well for a ball-room, and was often used for holding caucuses a,nd secret councils under lock and key. On the north side there was also a cabin built of logs, shed shape, called a lean-to ; this building made a large kitchen and room for servants. I take that back - there were no servants but the mistress of the house. The hired help occupied it when we had any. To this we built an additional room of framework, boarded with shakes and roofed with shingles, for a family room.

The pioneers of a new country, before the era of railroads, telegraph or mail facilities, can only realize the domestic trials, troubles and turmoils incident to a backwoods life. Fortunately there were few lady travelers, on account of the great inconvenience in modes of travel and accommodations on the road.

There were a number of Indian wigwams around us, some in sight of our doors. At first, Mrs. Ream lived in great fear and dread of them, and attributed her peace and the success with which she gained their good graces to a large bunch of peacock feathers which she had brought with her, and dealt out to them one by one. They seemed to have a talismanic effect. We made repeated efforts to civilize them, and teach them to be of service to us, but their utter disregard to cleanliness and innate laziness baflfled all our efforts. Hired girls were out of the question, and the stronger sex were consequently often to be seen bending gracefully over the cook-stove or wash-tub, as well as cleaning and scrubbing. On one occasion we were happily relieved for some weeks by the assistance of two young ladies, the Misses Pierce, of Cxreen County. Their help was invaluable to us, but it seemed so also to others, for they both soon returned to be married to worthy men of their own county. One became Mrs. Rust, the other Mrs. Rattan, both well-to-do farmers' wives. Next there came along a Teutonian, named

Schwartze, with a kit of cabinet-maker's tools upon his back, which he had packed all the way from Milwaukee to Galena, expecting to find work there, but failed ; then returning by way of Mineral Point, reached Madison broken down, discouraged and disheartened, and without a penny. I think it was on the 4th of July, 1838, when he arrived - at any rate, the people of Madison were holding a jubilee of some kind, and a ball was coming off at the Madison House. Our newly arrived guest desired to engage in the festivities, provided he could borrow some clean clothes suitable to the occasion. These were soon forthcoming from our wardrobe, and when properly arraved he became the grand attraction of the occasion, and exhibited his accomplishments by waltzing a long time with k tumbler filled with water on his head. He was nearly sixty vears of age, but as agile and as active as a boy of ten. As we could converse with him in his native tongue, he was loath to leave, and, more from sympathy than anything else, we engaged him to make some articles of furniture, such as could be wrought from oak or basswood lumber, as we had no other kind. Among other useful articles that he constructed was a wheelbarrow. When he had finished his mechanical labors, we employed him as head cook, at the rate of $75 per month, and he was also to keep the household furniture in repair. He was exceedingly kind and clever, all the time looking out for our interests. He remained with us several months.

I remember one strong, blustering day in the fall. Judge Doty and Col. Morrison arrived with their ladies. They had traveled all the way from Mineral Point without rest or refreshment, and reported themselves, tired, cold and hungry. With orders to get the best supper the house could aiford, Schwartze was soon in the dough up to his elbows, and some one else was directed to build a fire in a large Franklin stove standing in the best room, which had been placed at the service of our distinguished guests. There had been no fire in the stove during the past season, and it was not discovered until the smoke gave warning that there was a large crack or fissure in the back of the stove. The fact was soon made known to Mr. Schwartze, who felt bound to see everything about the house in good repair, ran with an unbaked loaf of bread in his hands, clapped it on the crack in the stove and filled it up, thus stopping the smoke for the time being. He returned to the kitchen congratulating himself upon his ingenuity in improvismg so readily this cement. As soon as the stove became heated, the dough baked and burned, thus causing a denser smoke than before, and the ladies were obliged to leave the room. Mrs Ream, who was somewhat more practical in an emergency than the German cook, soon mixed another cement of salt, ashes and vinegar, which answered the purpose well, and the weary travelers were soon quite comfortable in their room.

Not long after this, our Teutonic friend, having earned enough money to make a payment on his lot in Milwaukee, disposed of his kit of tools, left for his home in Milwaukee, and we worked our own way as usual. Our customers and patrons were not at all fastidious. They were satisfied with clean beds, good board and genteel treatment, and this we always provided to the fullest extent of our ability. There was by this time a large amount of travel through Madison, and some sixty or seventy men at work on the capitol. We boarded a large number of them, and our house was often crowded, so that floor room could not always be had at "two-pence per square foot," and the diflference between the bare puncheons and shakedown was, " you pays your money and takes your choice."

ins-r ^*'/'^*°"'^ eighteen feet square, two-stories high. The upper story was used as a lodgg- oom, and the lower story as a bakery and grocery. We kept a temperance house, and Thau's

" Than " unabbreviated, means Nathaniel T. Parkinson, who was afterward elected Sheriff of the county, and held the Sheriff's office in this bake-shop grocery. There was as yet no prison in the county, and when the Sheriff made arrests or brought in prisoners, they were at once presented at the bar, treated, and placed in the care of Shaw as jailer, with orders to feed and treat them well ; they were then put upon their parole, with orders to report themselves at the bar at least three times a day. It is but just to sayjthat these prisoners rarely forfeited their parole, the kind and liberal treatment they received at the hands of the Sheriff as well as their custodian Shaw, endeared them to these officers ; and there was no grumbling or cutting down, or disputing Sheriff's accounts in these primeval days.

Covalle and Pelkie furnished us with daily supplies of fish from the lakes, until we were sufficiently skilled in fishing to procure our own supplies. Shooting pickerel in the Catfish River soon came to be one of the grand sports of the time. When the fish " run up," they are shot in shoal water in large quantities, which is done by simply discharging your loaded piece at tiie fish ; neither ball nor buckshot will penetrate the water over an inch or so, but the fish are stunned by the report and concussion of the water, and, in a twinkling, are on their backs and easily captured. Spearing fish was the next best sport, and many nights have I spent at the outlet of Fourth Lake when the channel was narrow, and a single log which was used for a footbridge spanned the stream, in spearing fish of almost every kind. The water was very clear, and with a good brush fire on both sides of the stream, sufficient light was furnished to see all the fish as they swam by. From the foot-bridge you could spear all you wanted. It was not an unusual thing for Ed George and myself to return with our boat loaded to the water's edge with fish of many different kinds as the reward of one night's labor. Fishing with a spoon-hook was also a favorite sport, and, when winter came, we fished with scoop nets through holes cut in the ice. In those days we always fished for fish - never for fun.

. On the south side of Lake Monona, there is a small estuary or inlet from a spring. In approaching that inlet, one time, I espied a red fox near the water, on the lookout for game; being curious to know what he was after, I kept some distance where I could watch him unobserved. Suddenly he sprang into the water and hauled out a large pickerel, longer than himhimself, and commenced tearing it to pieces. On my approach, he disappeared with a part of the fish in his mouth, which he had torn from his prey, leaving the back bone plainly exposed half its length, and the fish still alive, although high and dry out of water. That fox musthave been hungry, for I had not gone far from the place, when I saw him stealthily retracing his steps to finish his meal.

During the summer of 1838, we had some very violent thunder-storms in Madison. An Englishman named Warren, employed in building the capitol, was killed by lightning near our house. Another serious accident of that summer was the falling from a scaffold on the capitol of a man named Gallard, who broke his leg. These men were boarding with us, and dependent upon us for nursing and attention as well as burial. Another boarder, named Simons, was prostrated a long time with typhoid fever. In those times, the duties of surgeons, physicians, nurses and undertakers were only a few of the extra duties which devolved upon the proprietors of public houses. * *,* * * * * *.,

Impelled by purely philanthropic principles, we once undertook to civilize, Christianize and domesticate a wild Winnebago Indian squaw, who answered to the euphoneous name of Lenape. This young squaw was about thirteen years old when brought to us in the usual filthy Indian costume. After the ablution process had been performed and the vermin extricated from her head, she was dressed in citizen's attire and really made an attractive figure. She was expected to assist in some domestic duties, and at first evinced quite a desire to learn, but the charm lasted but a few days, when she suddenly disappeared, and when next seen she had donned her native costume and returned to her wild, roving, indolent habits. ,

The Indians were very loath to leave their old fishing and hunting grounds in the vicinity of the lakes, and for several years hovered around in camps in the neighborhood of Madison, and it frequently happened after obtaining liquor that they became very noisy and troublesome,

The following good story is told of Oalimanee, an old Winnebago head chief, who was invited to Washington to arrange some matters between his tribe and the Great Father. Oalimanee was accompanied by a second chief named Snake. During their absence from Wisconsin thev had learned to talk some English and had paid some attention to the rules of etiquette. When they returned, they were furnished with new blankets, plenty of trinkets, and money to pay their way home, also an order from the War Department on the commanding officer at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, for two horses to carry them. They left Chicago in grand style, the old man considerably inflated with vanity and importance at the attention paid him, and we hear no more of them until they arrive at Blue Mounds, which place they reached about noon. Oalimanee knew Brigham, for he was known by everybody in the country. The chief thought he had found a good opportunity to display the politeness as well as shrewdness he had learned from his pale-face brothers on his recent tour to the national capital. Riding up to the house, he accosted the old hero thus: ''How! how! Brigham!" Then dismounting, he presented his man Snake, saying, "Brigham, Mr. Snake; Mr. Snake, Brigham." Pointing to the house, he said : "Brigham, dinner;" then to the stable, "Brigham, horse, corn. Big man, me." Mr. Brigham kept a bachelor's ranche and did his own cooking, but to expedite matters for his most important guests, he called in one of his workmen to aid in preparing dinner. From the manner in which they devoured the victuals, it was considered doubtful whether they had broken fast between Chicago and Blue Mounds, a distance of over two hundred miles. After dinner, Oalimanee called out, " Brigham, horse." The horses were brought, the Indians mounted, saying, "Brigham, good-bye,' and rode oiF at full speed. Mr. Brigham, finding himself badly sold, remarked to the bystanders that he thought they might have paid him something after putting him to so much trouble, especially as the chief had made a display of a quantity of silver coin furnished him by the Government to pay his expenses.

For many years, the Winnebagoes had made the head of the Fourth Lake their winter camping-grounds, from which locality they sallied out in small parties for the purpose of fishing and hunting. Their camps were distributed around on the streams in the vicinity. Sugar River was one of their favorite places of resort for game.

Mr. Brigham relates the following singular incident which took place some years before Madison was located. He (Mr. Brigham ) happened to be at the camp at the time, which was situated on Sugar River Crossing, near Grand Springs. An aged Indian became reduced by sickness and disease. He had the consumption and was failing rapidly. The medicine-man of the camp had exhausted his best skill on the patient in vain. The chiefs of the tribes were summoned in consultation. The spirits were invoked and an incantation held with them, accompanied by singing and dancing, and when concluded the decision arrived at was that the sick man must be removed to the headquarters at Four Lakes. The snow was about a foot deep at the ^me. Hunters were sent out to kill a buck, which they did, and brought into camp next flay. The animal was carefully skinned by the squaws and the invalid securely sewed up in the green buckskin and tied to the tail of a stout pony. In this manner he was dragged to the J) our Lakes camp, a distance of about twenty miles. As the narrator did not accompany this novel expedition, he was unable to say whether the subject so tenderly cared for was killed or f K p * ^^^ years, the Indians were all removed from the vicinity of Madison, by orders rm the Government, to their reservation west of the Mississippi, much to the relief of the citiwh' \ ti! i^ contact with them soon removed every spark of the romance and poetry with oth" 1-?*^,. ^° °'^'' imaginations been surrounded from the reading of Cooper's novels and there was diflBculty in crossing the streams. To be " stuck " with a loaded wagon was a daily occurrence in almost every stream on the road. When " stuck," it generally became necessary to carry your load out on your back, or with your hands, by piecemeal, deposit it on the further bank, then, with your horses hitched to the end of the wagon tongue, where they would most likely get dry footing, you must wade into the water waist deep with a sapling to pry out the wheels. By this means, with considerable language more expressive than elegant, directed especially at your horses, you reach dry ground and then re-load, but, when your stock consisted of potatoes and turnips in bulk, and you had nothing but a wooden bucket at your service with which to transfer your load, you can imagine the amount of philosophy it required to do this good naturedly, and more especially in a wet or rainy day, and the probabilities very strong that you would have to repeat the process at the next stream.

I shall always remember one particular occasion on which I was returning from one of these periodical trips. After much persuasion, I had induced my good sister, Mrs. McFadden, of Grand Springs, to fill a patent pail with choice fresh butter, which I carefully stowed away in the back part of my well-loaded wagon. Any one living in Madison at that time may possibly realize the value of a bucket of nice dairy butter. The owner would be envied by all his neighbors for being the- fortunate possessor of such a prize. I drove along, happy at the thought of being able to cater to my guests, to the envy and jealousy of others, and enj'oying, in anticipation, the welcome I would receive on reaching home with it. But, before long, I experienced the sad truth of the old rhyme,

There were many bowlders and deep ruts in the road, the wagon jolted and the bucket of butter rolled out. Driving carelessly on, unconscious of my loss, I had traveled some four or five miles before I missed my treasure. As soon as I made the discovery, I unharnessed one of my horses, mounted him bare-backed, and went back at a cantering speed, and reached the ill-fated spot where I had met the sad misfortune just in time to scare off a pack of wolves that had not only devoured the entire contents of the bucket, but had actually eaten the greater part of the bucket itself, it had become so impregnated with the golden butter.

We were very much troubled for help during the first year of our sojourn in Madison. To spend four or five days in traversing Rock and Green Counties in search of a cook or chambermaid and return without one, and be compelled to turn in and assist in doing your own cooking and make your own bed, required the cultivation of much patience and fortitude, which bordered on genuine heroism.

To provide for the winter, I had a large quantity of hay cut on the marsh east of the Capitol, between the lakes. The gra^s was best at the lower end of the marsh, but the surface was so underlaid with quicksand, although it would support a man it would not an animal. After the hay was made, we found we could not approach it either with horse or ox teams. We overcame the difiBculty by placing crates or racks on two long poles fastened together in style of a stretcher or hand-barrow, and fastened clapboards to the bottoms of the boots of the carriers, who could then carry out large loads, and thus we saved our crop.

During the summer of 1838, a two-horse stage line was put in operation from Mineral Pomt to Madison, owned by Col. Ab Nichols. The distance was about fifty miles, and the only post offices on the route were Dodgeville, Ridgeway and Blue Mounds. The latter point was made the midway or half-way house, where passengers and horses were fed on the way. The line was afterward extended to Fort Winnebago, and Rowan's made a stopping-place on the route. At Madison, we entertained all the stage passengers and most of the drivers. With the latter we always kept on good terms, and were often under obligations to them for kind favors in bringing our supplies of groceries and other things from the " Pint," or " Shake-rag," as they called it.

Tom Haney drove in the first stage from the Point. He kept his headquarters at the " Worser," in which the stage proprietor was interested. Tom was a good friend of ours, a hail fellow exceedingly obliging and accommodating. He had and deserved many friends. In extending the stage line to Fort Winnebago, a span of extra horses was required at Madison, and it was arranged that Tom Haney should bring them through one at a time. Accordingly, one extra horse was duly entered on the way bill with orders for the proprietors of the stage house in Madison to take charge of the animal, and look out for another by the next stage. Tom set out as usual with his stage load of passengers from Mineral Point, and the extra horse lashed to the hind axle-tree with a stout windlass or well rope. All went well and was passed and the woods entered. Some distance this side of the prairie there is quite a descent from a high rolling plateau down into the valley, which is nearly on a level with the lakes. The slope is not steep but gradual. The rains had washed the ruts so that it became necessary to make another track on the hill side. These tracks diverged in the valley at the base of the hill in the shape of a letter V, and about halfway up the hill formed a junction similar to the V reversed or the letter A without the bar. In the junction, or the apex of A, stood an oak tree. Usually there is nothing significant in an oak tree, especially when the surrounding forest is composed of oak trees. They may stand on either side of the road or between the two roads, they are simply forest trees placed where they are by Providence, subservient to the use of man, butthisoneplacedat the forks of this road had its mission to perform, as we will soon see. Persons accustomed to traveling in stage coaches know that when the drivers approach a city, a station or even a post office, they resort to fast driving. Tom Haney was not behind his fellow Jehus in that line. Now, having reached the brow of the hill, instead of putting on the brakes and driving down slowly, as careful drivers should have done, he started his team with a yell and crack of his whip and came rattling down at full speed, the stage taking the road on one side of the tree and the extra horse the road on the other. The rope brought the horse with such sudden force against the tree as to break his neck. The extra horse was not receipted for, nor was the other sent by the next stage. When Haney reached Madison his feelings were something akin to those of your humble servant when he found the wolves had devoured his butter rolls.

Extravagances such as this, with many other unforeseen mishaps and derelictions of drivers, created the necessity of placing agents upon the route. The first agent, or superintendent rather, of this two-horse enterprise, was Jonathan Taylor, accompanied by a tall, lean, lank Kentuekian, whom he introduced as Micajah Thacher, a new driver. We found Thacher a most obliging fellow, well posted in horse flesh, as drivers generally are. Mr. Taylor hailed from Wabash, Ind., a noble specimen of a Hoosier, remarkably good looking, and generous to a lault. Although somewhat deficient in education, he was possessed of good hard sense and a remarkable knowledge of men and the world. He was very shrewd at a trade and soon evinced fine business qualities, which, with his kind heart and frank, open countenance, made him very popular. He quartered with us, and an attachment for our family soon sprung up, and he remained with us nearly ten years. After the stage line passed from Uncle Ab's hands, Mr. iaylor commenced the world with a two-horse team purchased on credit. He hauled goods from Chicago and Milwaukee to Madison, and in the winter season brought sled loads of Mackinaw trout from Green Bay, carried them to the Point and Galena, returning with articles needed at Madison, Port Winnebago, Fond du Lac and Green Bay. I have not time to follow his career; suBicient to say he prospered, and now lives on Fifth avenue in New York City and counts his wealth by hundreds of thousands.

Being desirous of adding something useful to the capital city in the way of domestic animals, 1 brought some fine shoats from Green County - the first brought to Madison. They . "^^, T ^^^ increased rapidly in numbers. When autumn came and acorns were plenty, I wh"^ T \,^^ k"' *° ^°^^S^ for themselves. The drove wandered down to the lake shores, and, en thought them in a aufiSciently good condition to kill, I undertook to drive them home, corraHy ""^^ *s*on'shment, I found them perfectly wild ; they would neither be led, driven or ea. So hunting parties were made up, and my beautiful porkers were hunted down with dogs, shot and captured as wild game, and once more we had to depend on Green County for supplies for the winter. Daniel Baxter furnished us a great deal of acceptable produce that winter.

The next season I procured some pigs of a more, domestic breed, and kept them penned close to my house near to the old cabins, but, in spite of neighbor's dogs and all the care I could bestow on them, they were carried off by the prairie wolves.

The wolves continued to annoy the people of Madison very greatly, until we petitioned the county authorities to pass an order fixing a bounty on their scalps. The Board of Commissioners finally yielded to this request, and established a bounty. A wolf-hunter soon turned up, in the person of William Lawrence. He undertook to catch them with steel traps, but as their name was legion he found that process entirely too slow, and resorted to poison. By a skillful distribution of strychnine, he succeeded in soon bringing in a large number of scalps, and leaving a large number of their carcasses on the town site, and in this manner a quietus was placed upon their further depredations and annoyances.

In the fall of 18.38, the first session of the Territorial Legislature was held at Madison, and with it came crowds of people. The public houses were literally crammed, shake-downs were looked upon as a luxury, and lucky was the guest considered whose good fortune it was to rest his weary limbs on a straw or hay mattress. We hired some feather beds from Mr. Nute, of Jefferson County, and paid $10 in advance for the use of each during the session.

Among our boarders that winter, I remember the names of the following members of the Legislature : James Maxwell and 0. Beardsley, of Walworth County ; Morgan L. Martin and Alex. J. Irwin, of Brown County. Then there were Ben C. Eastman, Joseph G. Knapp, Peter B. Grignon, Theodore Green, of Green Bay, who officiated as clerks, reporters, etc., of the Legislature. Mr. Knapp says these were the " aristocracy of Wisconsin." We thought so, too, and treated them as such.

We had then no theaters or any places of amusement, and the long winter evenings were spent in playing various games of cards, checkers, and backgammon. Dancing was also much in vogue. Maxwell was very gay, and discoursed sweet music on the flute, and Ben C. Eastman was an expert violinist. They two furnished the music for many a French four, cotillion, Virginia reel and jig, that took place on the puncheon floors of the old log cabins, that were enjoyed, probably, quite as much as are now the round dances and Germans on the waxed floors of fashionable dancing halls, to the witching strains of Dodsworth's fine band. Want of ceremony, fine dress, classic music and other evidences of present society life, never deterred us from enjoying ourselves those long winter evenings.

Log cabins stand no chance in competition with new, fashionable hotels - rivals of Delmonico's. Fifth Avenue and the Grand Central - not that patrons fared any better than at the cabins, but " the aristocracy," the unerring barometer of the people in all countries and in all places, soon gave convincing proofs of the decline of business, and that shake-downs were no more necessary, and puncheon floors absolutely vulgar, then, in our anguish of soul, in the language of Othello, we found our " occupation gone ;" and as we were, Micawber-like, '-waiting for something to turn up," the mail, a much rarer visitor l^en than now, brought us a letter inclosing an agreeable surprise, which was nothing more nor less than a commission from uov. Dodge, appointing me to the office of Treasurer of the Territory of Wisconsin. This was done at the ins'tance of our good friend " Uncle Ab," at the " Point," without our knowledge. Ine salary was fixed at $60 per annum, and no stealings. I accepted, gave bonds, entered upon the duties of, and continued acting as, such officer, until my bond mysteriously disappeared from the archives of the Executive Department. By this act of prestidigitation, I was teetotally cle*"*'* out and exterminated from the high and honorable position as Treasurer. I have not the slightes recollection of a single dollar of money ever passing through my hands as disbursing officer oi t e Territory, yet some important financial paper transactions took place. The issuing "' ^ Baxter bonds to complete the capitol were perhaps as important as any. These were signed ^ your humble servant, as Treasurer, and countersigned by N. C. Prentiss as Commissioner o Public Buildings. They were issued on fine paper, and passed current in Chicago.

In the meantime, Dane County was organized according to the laws of the Territory. At the first election, in 1839, I was put in nomination for the office of Register of Deeds. We had then no party politics to influence and control elections. My competitor, Darwin Clark, was considered a good man. He came to Madison with Bird's party of laborers, to work on the capitol. had shared their hardships, toiled with them, and claimed their votes, whilst I had come there with my family to reside as a citizen. I was the candidate of the resident population, and was sustained by them. We both ran on our merits and good standing in the community. We canvassed the county fairly, honorably, and without the slightest attempt at disparagement of each other. No canvass could have been more fairly or honorably made. After the canvassing, I reported to my friepds that I would be elected by a majority of one. I was advised to recanvass which I did as thoroughly as before, and arrived at the same result. It was insisted that I should use means to turn some of my opponent's votes in my favor. This I positively refused to do, stating that I would rather be defeated than resort to anything underhanded to obtain my election. I was perfectly willing to risk my election with a plurality of a single vote. On counting the votes after the poll, I found myself elected by a majority of two votes, which much surprised me, and remained a mystery until some time after, when a friend explained to me, after exacting a promise of secrecy on my part, that the extra vote was obtained by strategy, to make my election sure.

Dane county is composed of what was originally a part of the counties of Milwaukee, Brown and Iowa. The titles to the lands lying within these counties had been recorded in the original counties. Under an act of the Territorial Legislature, it became my duty, as Register of Deeds, to have these records transcribed for the use of Dane County. In the prosecution of these labors, I visited Milwaukee and Green Bay, on horseback, and made arrangement for the transcripts of those portions of the records necessary. In the county of Iowa I did the transcribing myself, often working twelve, fourteen, and sometimes sixteen hours a day. This work was well and satisfactorily done. No more than ordinary (and I think less) fees were paid for this work in county scrip, and nothing for expenses of travel, so that no money was made by the operation. At the next election I was nominated for re-election, but this time more than one vote was covered by strategy on the other side, and I was defeated by a small majority.

On a beautiful Sunday morning, when the religious community of Madison were assembled in the Representative Hall in the capitol, attending divine service, a servant came hastily from the American House to the door of the hall and inquired for Dr. Lull, who was called out with Mr. Fake, the landlord of the hotel. On perceiving them hurrying across the park, Mr. Sholes and myself, with several others, followed and overtook them as they reached the house, where we were informed that Mr. Duncomb, one of the guests, had locked himself in his room, stood up before the mirror, and deliberately cut his throat with a razor, the act having been witnessed by a servant m the back yard, through the windows, which were open. We were not long in forcing the door open, when, to our horror, we saw this man Duncomb standing on the floor with his throat cut from ear to ear, the bloody instrument still in his hand, which was instantly wrested from him. Both main arteries and the wind-pipe had been severed. He looked like a madman. Ihe sight was awful. Mr. Fake fainted. Those most resolute took hold of the man, all covered with blood, which was still flowing from his throat and gashes in his arms, and laid him on the floor, wnere it took the united strength of four men to keep him. He could not speak, but wrote with a pencil on paper, " All I want is to see my wife" which dying request could not be ^\!'^ A ^l>e scene is as vivid in my mind as if it had happened yesterday. He had been 0 served to act strangely in the morning, and tried to persuade his wife not to go to church, but she feared to remain with him.

th '^'?°°^^i'6<l tliat he had cut the arteries of both arms, and had written his name on tr* I / ''-* '"°°"' ^'''^ ^^® ^VLg^^ dipped in his own blood, and had broken open his wife's twe't 'P"°^'®^^®' clothes with it, and scattered them over the floor. He expired in about dreadfi H'''^'^* ^^'^-^ ^^ entered the room. Jealousy was the only cause ever assigned for the fron u ' ^^^ '*' '^^ considered very fortunate his wife had absented herself, or in his ifenzy he would probably have murdered her also.

Our good neighbor, Mr. Rasdall, once owned a valuable gray horse, but, from lone usage and old age, the animal became useless, and was turned out to browse ; when, throui^h with life's weary wanderings, he had reached that period so graphically expressed in the song of the departed soldier - he hied himself to the summit of an elevated knoll of ground on Lake Monona's shore, in a southwesterly direction from our house, and there, in full hearing' of the melancholy murmurings of the waters as the waves rolled against the shores, he laid himself down and gave up the ghost. The soft and balmy breezes from that direction, not exactly perfumed with the rose or lavender, gave us timely warning thereof Scavengers, there were yet none, and, in the absence of other or better authorities, we engaged some boys to perform the act of cremation. on this defunct quadruped. A funeral pyre of dry brush was built over the subject, and the torch applied ; this ended only in smoke. Another and another fire of the same material caused a denser smoke, perfumed with unambrosial odor. Finding our first experiment at cremation proving a total failure, we caused a pit to be dug, and the unconsumed remains of the horse, with the smoldering ashes, to be swept therein and covered up, when the air soon became purified. This spot was for a long time protected by a flag-stafi" and pennant, erected there by the boys of the village, who also buried sundry favorite dogs and cats on the same ground, always with a procession and military honors. They called it the hecatombs.

Father Quaw, a very clever old gentleman, made his first appearance in black ; he was the advance guard of the clergy, a Presbyterian, hailing from the British Provinces. Afterward, the highly esteemed Bishop Kemper visited Madison, and organized an Episcopal Church there. It will be found by the records of that church that I was appointed a vestryman of that organization. I was also pressed into service as the leader of singing choirs at religious meetings of, all kinds and in all places, and it was understood that my house was open and free to all traveling clergymen, of any and all denominations, and there were not a few who availed themselves of this information.*

In the year 1840, I had completed my legal studies, and was attracted to Madison by reports of the natural beauty and salubrity of its location, as well as by its prospective advantages as the future capital of the State. I arrived in Madison in the month of August in the year above named. On my way from Ottawa, 111., where I had been residing, I passed through Beloit and Janesville, the former containing some half a dozen houses ; the latter, but one, made of upright boards, and which was built for the accommodation of the stage, which was running somewhat regularly^ on that route. There were then a number of buildings in Madison, the principal ones being the American Hotel, on the northwest corner of Pinckney street and Washing ton avenue, and the Madison Hotel, on the south side of King street, east of the capitol grounds, (both since burned), one frame store building belonging to James Morrison, just above the Madison Hotel, a small printing oflSce, and several dwellings - some of logs and some of boards. The walls of the old Territorial capitol were up and the building inclosed, but the inside was almost entirely in an unfinished state. On my first visit, as above' stated, I found the District Court m session. Judge Irvin presiding, and S. Mills, Clerk, with quite a number of cases on the docket, mostly marked with the names of John Catlin, William N. Seymour and David Brigham, as attorneys, Seymour having rather the largest number of cases. This fact may - account for my forming a partnership with him in the law practice, which lasted a year or more. The improvements at Madison were at that time confined almost entirely to that part of King street lymg between the east corner of the capitol grounds and Lake Monona, and that part of Pinckney street fronting the northeast line of the capitol grounds. W. W. Wyman and J. A. Noonan were each publishing a paper, the former an administration paper, and of which I ^^^^ editorial charge for some time, and the latter an opposition paper, as parties then existed. Ine steam saw-mill, where most of the lumber was manufactured for the construction of the capitol and other buildings, stood on the bank of Lake Mendota, at the foot of the hill, just below the residence of the late B. P. Hopkins. With the exception of the small portions I have named above, almost the entire area of what is, at this day, the beautiful city of Madison, was in its wild and native condition ; and what is now the most attractive portion of the city, was then and for some years later, almost an impassable forest, with a dense undergrowth of young trees' and briars, through which I used to make my way hunting for partridges and other game, with gi^eat difficulty. I refer to the ridge or high lands on the southeastern border of Lake Mendota. But the greatest change has taken place in the character of the level stretch of land lying between the two lakes on the east side of the city. In the early settlement of the place, most of that part of the city was covered with water, especially in the spring of the year, when the lakes were full. At such times, fishermen in their boats would spear abundance of fish in its shallow waters.

One reason, perhaps, why the growth of Madison was slow, at first, may lie in the fact that for several years, at almost or quite every session of the Legislature, an effort was made to remove the capital to some other place, generally to Milwaukee, and this effort upon the part of the members from that place, as well as the general hostility which its citizens entertained, or at least were thought by the people of Madiso);i to entertain toward Madison, tended to create an aggrieved and embittered feeling toward the former city, which I doubt not still exists to a greater or less degree, in the minds, at least, of the early settlers of Madison. Another fruitful source of trouble and perplexity at that time was the uncertainty regarding the title to the village lots. There were three plats of the place on record, each of them differing from the others and made by two different parties. Time and the adjudication of the courts have long since settled these questions, which were once a prolific source of litigation and strife. If any one is curious to know the nature of these contests, an examination of the records of the courts of that time will give him all desired information.

The place, for some time, had but little business to sustain it, except what it received as the capital of the Territory through the Legislature, the courts and the residence of the Territorial ofiioials; and the affairs of government were then managed with more economy than now. The Territory was in all parts sparsely settled, and during the sessions of the Legislature such of the more prominent settlers as were not actual members of that body were very sure to be present, either looking after some public or private interest, or to pass the time in social enjoyment, for It 18 one of the pleasantest recollections of that period, that there was a heartiness and warmth of attachment and good fellowship felt and manifested without stint among those early pioneers which has not existed since their time. It was not uncommon to have social entertainments ^yen, at which there would be present invited guests from Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Mineral Point, Platteville, Prairie du Chien, and all the then settled parts of the lerntory ; and this, notwithstanding the almost entire want of any public conveniences for traveling, either in the matter of roads or vehicles. ,Such a one had just been held and very largely attended only the day before the cruel fate of the lamented Arndt - a very sad termination to one of the most successful and pleasant festive gatherings that the village has seen, either in its earlier or later history. Among the guests was the father of Arndt. He was one of the old *!i w "^ ^^J> *iid was quite advanced in years - a gentleman of great respectability and unblemished character. He had made that long and tedious winter journey for the purpose 0 meeting his son, around whom the hopes and aflfections of his declining years centered with a y strong paternal fondness - and not without reason, for the younger Arndt possessed in a ah \F^^'i.^ addition to his mental endowments, those amiable and social qualities which which \ '"rl warmly those who shared his friendship. The Territorial Council, of the H I p*^ * member, occupied the room on the east side, or rather in the east corner, and close T^h the room at the north corner of the old capitol. It was at the elicited '"°''."'ng session, which had been somewhat stormy - and the debates, which had been a on certain nominations made to the Council by Gov." Doty, had been considerably per- sonal, and acrimonious and iryitating in their character, especially on the part of him who was soon to leave the room a homicide. The President had experienced some diflSculty in maintaining order during a portion of the debate just before the adjournment; and fearing a personal collision, as soon as he declared the session adjourned, he stepped rapidly from the desk to place the fatal shot had been given, penetrating the heart of the unfortunate Arndt, who fell back into the arms of those who were standing near, and expired immediately without a struggle. His father was in the opposite hall at the time, and hearing the commotion came, with others, into the Council Chamber, little imagining the deep interest he had in what had transpired. I was present during the whole of the morning session, and near the parties at the time of the occurrence, and thus a witness of the whole tragedy ; and of all the sad recollections of that event that which is the most vivid is the unutterable anguish and desolation of the elder Arndt when he saw his son, so lately full of life and hope, lying on the floor still in death. As to the character of the deed, I never had a doubt. The slayer had been the aggressor from the beginning, and had employed irritating and insultillg language in the course of the debate, and when called upon for explanation, met it on the moment against an unarmed man with the deadly shot.

The Pastor of the Episcopal Church was the Rev. Mr. Philo, a very kind, earnest and simple-hearted man, a characteristic anecdote of whom I cannot resist the impulse to repeat : During the sessions of the Legislature, there was (a common thing in the West in those days) a good deal of gambling practiced; and, although severe laws had been enacted against it, yet so little attention was paid to enforcing them, that there were several places in the town where gambling was carried on in as public a manner as though it had been an ordinary, innocent amusement, several members of the Legislature being among the most ardent of its devotees. In the winter of 1841, the ladies of the town took the matter in hand, and made an earnest and energetic efibrt for the suppression of both gambling and drinking. Through their influence, a mass-meeting was held in one of the halls of the capitol to consider the best means of accomplishing the desired object. Everybody attended, citizens, strangers, members of the Legislature ; all were there, men, women and children. All sides of the question being represented, the discussions which followed were considerably animated, some of the speakers finding their speech and their poise a little too diflBcult from the present eff'ect of having imbibed a little too freely before going. It was said, among other things, that the laws already passed were amply sufficient to meet the case, if honestly and faithfully administered, and that the fault, if anywhere, was with the officers, whose duty it was to see to the proper execution of the laws. W. N. Seymour, who was then, and for years afterward. Justice of the Peace, was present, and taking the remark as a personal reflection, upon his official integrity, arose and defended himself from the charge. After he had taken his seat, Mr. Philo, or " Dominie " Philo, as he was more commonly called, arose, and addressed the Chair as follows : " Mr. Chairman : I arise to to make a motion. The motion which I wish to make, I hold in my hand. I will read the motion. ' Motion : That William N. Seymour is,a good and sufficient Justice of the Peace ;' and I hope the motion will prevail." The character of the motion, together with the earnestness and naivete of manner in which it was delivered, was too much for the gravity of the house to stand, and the meeting was forced to adjourn amidst a perfect tumult of cheering,, without being able again to address itself to the consideration of the subjects for which it had been held ; and Mr. Seymour's right to be consideired " a good and sufficient Justice of the Peace," was not regarded as an open question from that time.*

At that time [1841] there was a wagon stage running from the capital east and west three times a week in summer, and on runners in the winter. The one going west went by Mineral Point and Platteville to Galena, and of course did not reach Prairie du Chien, the place of my residence. Our only means of reaching Madison was by private or hired conveyance. In my first visit myself and several others hired a sleigh and driver. Lodging places were few and far between, and we had to fix our stages of day's travel accordingly, requiring two nights out to make the one hundred miles. The only houses on the road were log cabins, not very large, and if the company was large, lodgings were in heaps, and mostly on the floor.

' The road we traveled, till within sixteen miles of Madison, was the military road leading from Fort Crawford [Prairie du Chien] to Fort- Winnebago [now the city of Portage], on the dividing ridge between the waters flowing into the Wisconsin River on the north, and those flowing south into the Grant, Platte, Pecatonica and Sugar Rivers. This road was one of the best natural roads I ever saw. After crossing the Wisconsin, we had no water to cross ten feet wide in the whole distance ; nor was there a bridge or a foot of dugway, except between the Wisconsin and the ridge. The road of course had to wind in a serpentine course to keep the ridge, and up and down the ravines to reach and descend from the ridge. Wild deer and other game were plenty along the road.

The old and first sapitol was then in use, and for the time was considerable of a building. It served not only for legislation, but for courts, plays, shows, and for Divine worship, there being no other place in Madison where such assemblages could be a'ccommodated. The dwellings, stores and shops were in " magnificent distances " - so much so that pigs and poultry were in little danger of getting so mixed as to lose their identity.

I think there were but two hotels - the old American and the Madison. The American stood on the site of the present "Park Savings Bank." It was of wood, two stories above the basement, with a spacious attic ; and, such was the crowd when the Legislature was in session, that the attic (all in one room) was filled with beds on the floor to accommodate lodgers, and it got the cognomen of the " School Section." The Madison Hotel was not so large, but equally crowded, and besides these, every private house that possibly could accommodate boarders, was filled to overflowing. The Territory was generally well represented on such occasions, and every one had an ax to grind. I boarded at a private house near Lake Monona.

The streets and sidewalks were not in their present state of repair, and in soft weather locomotion was not a desirable exercise. We had some thaws that winter that would do credit to a more southern and eastern climate, a thing seldom seen in Wisconsin, and the mud and slush were such as to call for boats and canoes almost, to get from one place to another. A jocose member of the Assembly offered an amendment to a bill to prevent obstructions in the street leading from the park to Lake Monona, that would prevent the fish from coming up the street to the park.

At that time, being a Territory, Congress paid the expenses of the Government, and the spirit of the majority of the Legislature was to create as many offices as possible, so as to give a place to partisan favorites and friends, to pay them for electioneering, and to secure their votes atfiiture elections; also, to get as much money as possible out of " Uncle Sam," to circulate in the country. I objected to this course on the ground of needless expense, and that it was constituting a precedent for our future State that would be a burden when we had to foot the bills ourselves. But when the vote was taken, I foiind myself in a slim minority.

At the close of the session, it was found that considerable stationery that had been bought tor the use of the Legislature at the public expense was remaining, affording an opportunity for another "steal," and a motion was made to distribute it among the members. This I also opposed, as being improper, unjust and dishonest, but I, with a few others, was voted down. It was alleged that preceding Legislatures had done so, and that the present one had the same

[t i/"*^ ^^^" ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^'*^ '^P"" ^^^^' ^ objected to receiving it, but was told that could not be returned to the Secretary's office and be retained for another year, and if it was

Bad as this Legislature was in this and some other respects, the citizens of the place said it was a great improvement upon its predecessors. Whether this was a fact or a mere complimentary flattery, I had no means of knowing. The next session, composed chiefly of the same men, was like unto the other.

Political hobbies were mounted and rode at John Gilpin speed. Log-rolling was the order of the day. You help me and I will help you, was the ruling spirit of that body. Personal or party interests were the Inotive power with a majority, and but few seemed to inquire whether a proposed measure was in itself right or wrong, but whether it would be for the interest of the party, himself or his constituents ; and the history of legislation in both the Territory and State has not exhibited as much improvement in these respects as is desirable.

In those times, when the Legislature assembled, it seemed to call together the worst elements of society. Faro banks, a thing called "the Tiger," and other gambling institutions, were said to exist, and to be run with great boldness and in defiance of both moral and civil law, and many poor wights were said to be Stripped of all the money they had. Bad whisky, in large quantities, was said to be consumed, much to the damage of the consumer. Lager beer had not then been inaugurated, but other vile drinks equally detrimental were said to be in common use. There were, however, some redeeming spirits in the place, both among citizens and, visitors, and divine service was kept up in the capitol on Sundays, morning and evening, during the whole session, with large attendance, the moral effects of vhich were quite visible.*

In the summer of 1843, having received the appointment of Receiver of Public Moneys at Mineral Point, Wisconsin Territory, I proceeded thither, and, in the first discharge of my official duties, held a public land sale in the month of October. I took a steamer at Buffalo, N. Y., and after a safe and pleasant trip, landed at the nice little village of Milwaukee. , Thence, I took early stages via Watertown, to the embryo village of the lakes (Madison), where we spent the Sabbath in calling upon the most notable men, among whom was the late James D. Doty, one of nature's truest noblemen, Alexander L. Collins, George B. Smith, Thomas J. Sutherland, J. G. Knapp, Simeon Mills, A. A. Bird, and many others of the early settlers, some of them men of merit and becoming modesty, with a smart sprinkling of would-be limbs of the law, who were then resident here, and all striving, with the small means they then possessed, to make Madison the grand point for settlement to men of enterprise and capital.

Mailison, at this time, was the veriest representation of a wilderness, which required but the hand of industry to cause her to bud and blossom as the rose in the valley. Arriving at Mineral Point, I settled down to business, and in the society of a people, although much feared and but little loved at a distance, whom I soon learned to admire for their native frankness and good feeling, if not for their morality and good breeding. The character of the miners - being prmcipally Cornish - was not that of a strictly mild and moral people, Still they possessed and exercised some redeeming qualities, among which, to their praise be it spoken, was their uniform attendance, with their families, at the churches on Sabbath mornings ; although, in the afternoons, they employed themselves in various recreations, but mainly in card-playing and drinking. While I was living here, Dr. Pulford and others had occasion to send East for a Rector to take charge of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and for this purpose we sent an invitation to a young clergyman in Western New York, who lost no time in answering, desiring to know which was. best - to come by steamboat, or to drive his horse and buggy up the lakes. After every possible assurance that the good character of the people would aff"ord ample protection to all newcomers, the reverend gentleman came, with a friend, and, when near the village proper, on being informed that they must pass through a rather low and dangerous place in the suburbs, cailed " Shake-rag," they became seriously alarmed, which alarm was greatly enhanced by the darKness of the night ; and so they put themselves in an attitude of defense, and having primed and eked their pistols, the one drove the team, with a pistol pointed ahead in one hand, while the ther reversed his position and kept a sharp lookout for any invasion in the rear, and in this condition they at last tremulously, but safely, arrived at the domicile of the writer, more scared than hurt, and as free from danger or harm as could be.