Dane County, Wisconsin - Chapter 2: The Movement of Settlers to Wisconsin, 1905

No attempt will be made to give in detail the multifarious reasons which resulted in the movement of so many different classes of people to Wisconsin during the second quarter of the nineteenth century; to do so would require a history of Europe and America for that period. All that is here attempted is to show in rather rude outlines, the more immediate influences that contributed to the peopling of southern Wisconsin with the class of emigrants who gave form and color to the whole subsequent history of the state.

It will be remembered that Wisconsin had been more or less known to white men for two centuries before, and a considerable number of settlers had made their way to her borders. Hunters and trappers had long been familiar with the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, and vague reports were current about a lake region to the south of the portage. However, it was the lead region which first attracted workmen who settled down to making a livelihood by plain toil within the territory. Many of these miners at first with no thought of remaining longer than a season or two, in fact going back to civilization to pass the winters, finally became permanent residents and took part in the early territorial organization.

These men had come from the Illinois country, many of them finding their way to the West along the course of. the Ohio. Thus the first settlement of consequence, outside the old trading posts, was made in the southwestern part of the state, by men who had made their way against the current of the Mississippi, or had come overland from- the lead regions of Illinois. The first modern agriculture within the state was in the vicinity of these diggings, before the land was put on the market. Unlike the hunters and trappers, the miners were anxious to have farmers for neighbors, so as to bring the prices of provisions to a lower level and, in consequence, the reports given by these men as to agricultural possibilities of the new district were glowing yet not untruthful.

The first permanent settler in Dane county, Mr. Ebenezer Brigham, was a lead miner who was tempted to set his stakes far in advance of his fellow adventures. The Indians still claimed the region and killed several men near this pioneer's cabin. The Winnebago war in 1827, and the Black Hawk war of 1832, prosecuted as they were by Illinois militia, gave a large number of energetic young men a glimpse of a fine country, and as Professor J. D. Butler puts it, each one of the soldiers in the Black Hawk war chose for himself a fine quarter section and came back to settle on it.*^ This is not intended for a literal statement, but it is certain that many of these boys did return to take up government claims. It was the final blow to the Indians given by these wars that brought the region into good repute among the peacefully inclined foreigners, and even the aggressive New Yorker and New Englander preferred a habitation safe from Indian depredations.

First, the ease with which money was obtained by speculators, especially in the year 1836, resulted in an unusual interest in western lands. Hundreds of pieces of this land changed hands within a year or two, the presumption being that the purchaser was unable to hold it, or was at least sufficiently discouraged to prefer some other sort of investment. There are various scattering reports to the effect that much of this land was sold for less than had been paid to the government for it. The records of deeds given do not in any considerable number of cases bear out the statement, but still it seems not altogether unlikely. At any rate, much of the land was re-sold at about the government figure, and on mortgage at that, thus helping those of little or no means to get hold of a piece of land. There are also numer-

Second, the failure in business of a large number of men in the East turned attention to the West as a place in which to start anew. The importance of this factor can hardly be overestimated. It was not men fond of the fringed hunting shirt, the long rifle, and the general absence of civilization; not the class who were anxious to escape from the restraints of old traditions and customs, not to say laws, who turned their faces toward Wisconsin during the few years following the panic of 1837. The majority of the settlers who bought government land in Wisconsin before 1845, were from the farms and villages of New York ' and New England. True, there were many Norwegians and Germans who came almost as early, but these were not yet citizens, and so it may be said without qualification, that the people who first organized the territory of Wisconsin, and for that matter almost all of the counties within the state, were the sober New York and New England people.

Of this there is abundant proof. For example, in the town of Roxbury, Dane county, the Germans have been entirely in the majority, except for the first few years, and this is an important exception. In the list of town officers for the first year or two there is not a German name. The name Roxbury was given by a New York man who had lived in a town of the same name in his native state.**

It is to these first organizers that credit is due for the vigorous strides so early taken in establishing a public school system, the equal, if not the superior, of that which they had known in the eastern states. They were not afraid to vote taxes for improvements which were seen to be primarily needed for the comfort and advancement of the new community. It may be objected that these same institutions are also the work of foreigners; biit when it is remembered that there were two main classes of foreigners who came at that time, that they were settled in communities by themselves, unable to read or understand English, yet necessarily subject to our laws, it is hard to con-

"Thls is Mr. Jas. Steele, one of the oldest residents of the county, now living in the town of Dane. It Is also of interest to note that Roxbury, New York, is in a district settled about a century ago by Massachusetts people who likewise had brought the town name with them.

ceive how by any chance the Norwegian or the German, or both of them, could have attended to the organization of a school system, the administration of justice, the recording and securing of land titles, and the transaction of many other duties which play a large role in the beginning, as well as in the later history of any commonwealth. Yet it seems that it was by mere chance that a sprinkling of intelligent Americans preceded the rush of Europeans to this state.

Taking up the thread of our general narrative again, we remember that there were no railroads to the West, that the Erie canal furnished the great highway from New York and New England to the lake region and at the same time to the greater part of the Northwest Territory. It was up this canal and through the lakes to Milwaukee or Racine that nearly all of the eastern emigrants found their way to Wisconsin. The journey was long and tedious, often occupying two or three weeks' time; freight rates were so high that as a rule very little was brought besides a box of household goods and the family clothing. The foreign emigrants after landing at New York City came over this same route. The Indiana and Illinois people who desired to move to a newer country usually travelled with "prairie schooners," and took their farm stock and implements with them. No date can be set for the time the latter moved to Dane county. They began to arrive early and continued coming but formed no distinctive settlement of their own. From Ohio the emigrants came mostly by boat through the lakes, but a few by wagon. The Ohio settlers formed two distinct groups, one in the town of Dane, the other in the south part of the county near Wheeler Prairie.

A combination of circumstances resulted in the great influx of Germans. Political reactions had kept them uneasy in the Fatherland for some years, and beginning about 1830, there was a great emigration to America. By the time of the greatest movement of Germans to this country, i. e., 1844 to 1854, the greater part of desirable government land in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois was gone, leaving the choice between Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri, and possibly Minnesota; but although these other states succeeded in enticing a few of the newcomers, Wisconsin was favored with the largest share." As to Dane county, it was attractive in the main as a convenient and representative part of the state. But there was a quiet though powerful force at work in one corner of the county which resulted in a solid settlement of German Catholics.**

It remains to speak of the Norwegians, and this subject is treated at length by Prof. Rasmus Anderson in his "Norwegian Immigration." As here shown, the sixth colony of Norwegians in America, and the third one in Wisconsin was in Dane county, near Lake Koshkonong. The first Norwegian of this county settled in what is now the town of Albion in the spring of 1840. The preceding fall a small party of Norwegians from La Salle county, Illinois, had come to Dane county via Milwaukee, making the entire trip on foot; they located land in Christiana but went to a settlement on the Fox River to pass the winter. Some more Norwegians making the trip through the lakes to Chicago walked overland to Beloit in 1839, ^^^ ^^ ^^^ spring came up Rock River in a boat and took land in Albion. From this time on there was a steady stream of Norwegians to Dane county.

Both the Norwegians and the Germans were almost entirely without resources when they reached Wisconsin. They frequently worked out by the day or month for pitifully small wages in order to get the first fifty dollars to pay for a forty. Very often the only house they had was a "dugout," made by digging a cave in the side of a bluff and covering it with brush and hay. Many of them were twenty or more miles from market, or from a doctor, and worse yet, had nothing to pay either for provisions or medicine ; but credit and courage carried them through.

*«**Father Adelbert Inama came to Rozbury in 1845 and tbis determined the future nationality and religion of the town. He was a highly educated young German Catholic priest. After coming to America and liying two yean In New York, he pushed westward and at the above date, built a little log cabia In a secluded dell, back a few miles from the the Wisconsin. There was but one Catholic in the town at the lime and he not a permanent settler ; of Germans of any sort there were almost none. Father Inama, an enthusiast, and at the same time an able writer, set about the task of persuading his Catholic countrymen to emigrate westward. Entering a considerable amount of land for himself, he held it for his friends and let them have it for the original goTsmment price which it had cost him. The response was strong, for soon thers had clustered about him the desired parishioners, both from other states and from the Fatherland. For a few years the Americans were In the majority* bat no sooner had the foreigners obtained their naturalization papers than they out-TOted the rest and to-day the town Is as free from people of Bngllsh extraction as Germany Itself.** - History of Madison, Dane County and Surround- 0tgs, p. 500.