Grant County, Wisconsin - Chapter 3, 1881

Chapter 3

Thp; First Occupant - The Second Trader - Shaw's Trip to the Mines - Indian Mining - The Advance of "White Men - The First White Woman - Early Mining Experiences - . First Mills - Graham's Wolf Fight - Primitive Agriculture - The First Threshing Machine - The California Gold Fever - Mining Troubles.

There remains but little doubt that the pressure of a white man's foot upon Grant County soil was coeval with the presence of the earliest explorers, who, taking their lives in their hands, boldly plunged forward into the unknown wilderness and rescued from the realms of obscurity that mighty river which was afterward to become the diamond among diamonds in the crown of the conqueror and possessor.

But of the presence of these early explorers, we have only a traditionary and untangible knowledge, and up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and, in fact, a few years later, there is no evidence which would show that this section had been used as a tarrying place by the white man. But later on, evidence tangible and authentic proves beyond question that one Capt. Morand, a French trader, not only visited the present county of Grant, but had established a place for the deposit of his stock upon the east bank of the Mississippi, at a point some eight or nine miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin, in what is now Bloomington Township. Of the early history of this trader but little can be gleaned, or how long he had occupied this site, which was known as Fort Morand. Besides this depot, he had still another some seven miles west of Mackinaw, known by the same name. And it is only by events which happened later in the century that we can, with any degree of reliability, fix the probable date of this occupation.

During the early part of the century, the Ottigaumies, or Foxes, were located at the Little Butte des Morts, on the western bank of Fox River, some thirty-seven miles from Green Bay. Here, following their predatory instincts and the practices of civilized man of early times, they were accustomed to levy blackmail from every passing craft, the usual course of procedure being, upon the appearance of a trader's boat, to plant a torch on the shore as a reminder that he was expected to land and deliver certain tribute, and woe to the unlucky wight who failed to comply with the hint so expressed. The imperious nature of these demands so vexed Morand that he finally resolved to put a stop to them once and for all. He accordingly raised a small force of volunteers at Mackinaw, in all probability increased somewhat at Green Bay by friendly Indians and French troops, and with this force felt assured of giving his ancient enemies a castigation that would effectually prevent their levying any more tribute-money for some time to come.

The exact date of this expedition is involved in some doubt. Carver gives it that as far back as 1706 "the French missionaries and traders having received many insults from this people, a party of French and Indians under the command of Capt. Morand marched to avenge their wrongs." The Rev. Alfred Brunson, in a paper on the 'Early History of Wisconsin,' published in 1858, thinks it must have been somewhat later than this, probably in 1714; while Grignon, in his Recollections, agrees with the Hon. Morgan L. Martin in placing this expedition as late as 1745; yet this latter date seems too far on in the century, as Black Hawk, in 1832, claimed that the lands ceded by a portion of his tribe to the United States had been in the possession of the tribe over a hundred years, and it was not until after the third of Morand s expeditions when the Foxes were disastrously defeated and reduced almost to annihilation that they united with the Sacs, and afterward with them were driven out of their former country. However this may be, that this first expedition was previous to 1746 is absolutely certain, leav- ing the date of Morand's first occupancy of the Mississippi River depot somewhere during the early part of the century. Of this expedition and those which followed so quickly after, ending in breaking the power of this tribe, the following interesting account is given in the Grignon Eecollections.

" Morand's force was deemed suflScient, and his fleet of canoes started from Green Bay up the river, each canoe having a full complement of men well armed, and an oil-cloth covering large enough to envelope the whole canoe, as was used by the traders to shield their goods from the weather. Near the Grand Chute, some three miles below the Little Butte des Morts, and not yet within view of the latter, Morand divided his party, one part disembarking and going by land to surround the village and attack the place when Morand and his water division should open their fire in front. The soldiers in the canoes, with their guns all ready for use, were concealed by the oil-cloth coverings, and only two men were in view to row each canoe, thus presenting the appearance of a trader's fleet. In due time the Foxes discovered his approach and placed out their torch, and squatted themselves thickly along the bank as usual, patiently awaiting the landing of the canoes and the customary tribute offering. When sufficiently near to be effective the oil-cloth coverings were suddenly thrown off, and a deadly volley from a swivel gun loaded with grape and canister shot, and the musketry of the soldiers scattered death and display among the unsuspecting Foxes ; and this severe fire was almost instantly seconded by the land party in the rear, and quickly repeated by both divisions, so that a large number of devoted Foxes were slain, and the survivors escaped by rapid flight up the river.

" The Foxes next took post about three miles above the Grand Butte des Morts, on the Bouthern or opposite bank of the river, on a high, sandy point of land, with a marsh on its eastern- border. Here Morand, the same season, followed them, but, of course, could not resort to his old ruse, and must have approached the town in the night, or just before daybreak. At all events, according to the general statement given me by my grandfather (Charles de Langlade) and aged Indians, another severe battle ensued, and many Foxes were killed, though not so many as at the Little Butte des Morts, and again they were forced to fly. The Indians always spoke of this place as the locality where Morand's second battle with the Foxes took place. My half-brother, Perrish Grignon, informed me that he had seen, many years ago, a crevice or cavity on the rocky shore of Lake Winnebago, some six or eight miles south of Oshkosh, near the old Indian village of Black Wolf, a large number of skulls and other human remains, and I have thought that when the Foxes fled from Little Butte des Morts, they may have passed around the head of Lake Winnebago, and thinking themselves safe from pursuit, tarried at this point and gave attention to their wounded, and that the remains of those who died were placed in that cavity.

" The surviving Foxes located themselves on the northern bank of the Wisconsin, twentyone miles above its mouth, and some little distance below the creek next below the mouth of Kickapoo River. When I first passed there in 1795, I saw some crude remains of this village. As soon as the enterprising Morand heard of the new locality of his determined enemies, who still seemed bent on obstructing his great trading thoroughfare, he concluded it would be unsafe for him to suffer them to remain there, and consequently lost no time, even though winter had commenced, to collect his tried and trusty band of French and Indians and make a distant winter expedition against the Foxes. Perhaps he thought as he had once defeated them by stratagem, and then by the usual mode of Indian warfare, that it would now be policy to push his fortunes by a winter campaign, and fall upon his inveterate foes, and strike a fatal blow when they would least expect it. Capt. Morand pursued on foot with his troops, up Fox Kiver and down the Wisconsin, taking with them snowshoes to meet the exigencies of the season, and pursue their tedious march over the snow for a distance of fully two hundred miles, ine Foxes were taken completely by surprise, for Morand's men found them engaged in the amusement of jeu de paille, er game of straw, and surrounding the place and falling suddenly upon them, killed some and captured the others. So well planned was the attack, and so complete was the surprise, that not one of the Foxes escaped.

" It must have been on the return of this winter expedition of Capt. Morand's that the following incident occurred, as narrated by Capt. Carver, on the authority of an Indian. ' On the return of the French,' says Carver, 'to Green Bay, one of the Indian chiefs in alliance with them, who. had a considerable band of the prisoners under his care, stopped to drink at a brook. In the meantime, his companions went on, which, being observed by one of the women whom they had made captive, she suddenly seized him with both her hands, while he stooped to drink, by an exquisitely susceptible part, and held him fast until he expired on the spot. As the chief, from the extreme torture he suffered, was unable to call out to his friends, or give any alarm, they passed on without knowing what had happened ; and the woman, having cut the bands of those of her fellow-prisoners, who were in the rear, with them made her escape. This heroine was ever after treated by her nation as their deliverer, and made a chieftainess in her own right, with liberty to entail the same honor on her descendants - an unusual distinction, and permitted only on extraordinary occasions.' "

These defeats broke the spirit of the tribe, and not only rendered them powerless for some time to come, but their severe chastisement had a restraining effect upon other tribes located near or upon these water highways between the great lakes and the Mississippi.

Of Morand himself, but little more can be said. A person of the same name was mentioned in Gorrell's Journal as being, in 1763, at the head of an extensive body of traders, and was, in all probability, the same individual who years before humbled the power of the Foxes in 80 signal a manner. The mother of the wife of the Sac Chief, Keokuk, claimed in after years to be the daughter, by a Sac mother, of Capt. Morand. But the latter's disappearance was as sudden and complete as his former plans had been successful, leaving no trace behind by which the future history of the first known white man whose foot pressed Grant County soil could be traced.

The Second Trader

The next resident in this section, and the one whose name the county now bears, was another Indian trader named Grant. He was here as early as 1810, and for many years was supposed to have been the first known white man in Grant County. The Grrant County Herald, in an early isssup, speaking of this pioneer adventurer says :

" Grant was an Indian trader, one of those dauntless frontiersmen known to the earlier days of the Northwest, and who differed from the savage by possessing a thirst for gain and the enterprise to gratify it. As early as 1810, Grant was engaged in trade with the Indians occupying this region, making his headquarters at Prairie du Chien. He was noted for his hardihood and endurance, and for his disregard of every comfort and convenience of civilized life. His rifle supplied him with food ; his cooking utensil consisted of a brass kettle, which was fitted to his head, and which he wore under his cap. One incident of his history has been preserved, and is worth relating. The Sacs and Foxes were at war with the Winnebagoes. Grant was trading with the former, and was consequently regarded by the latter as their enemy. One day he happened to encounter a war party of the Winnebagoes, who immediately gave him chase. The foremost coming up struck him upon the head with his tomahawk, which produced no other effect than a sharp ring from the kettle before mentioned. The Indian recoiled with consternation and horror, exclaiming, Manitou (spirit) ! and precipitately retreated, accompa^nied by the whole party. This revelation of his divine character subdued the animosity of the Winnebagoes, and he was ever afterward regarded with the utmost awe by the Indians.

Of the future career of Grant, even less is known than of Morand. Whether he returned to the Northeast, from which he had originally drifted, or whether he pressed on in the van of the advancing tide of civilization, must ever remain enwrapped in the fog -bank of unexplamed . mysteries. It is enough that he left the imprint of his name upon the rivers and lands of his old trading-ground.

Shaw'S Trip To The Mines

John Shaw, who was engaged in boating on the river from 1816 to 1820, stopped during his trip in the first-named year at a point where Cassville is now situated, to obtain a return

-cargo of lead ore. This could not be obtained here, and Mr. Shaw was requested to drop dov with his boat to the mouth of Fever Kiver until the lead was brought down to him by the tradei This he refused to do, and, being conversant with the French tongue, he was enabled to pa himself off as a Frenchman, and ascend the river to where the Indians had their furnaces, despi the refusal of the savages to allow " a white man," as they called the Americans, to see the "mines. According to Mr. Shaw's narrative, the lead of each trader was stacked up separate on the bank. The lead was in a bowl-shaped form, called plaU, each weighing about seven pounds.

That the Indians had discovered and worked the mines for a long period of years, exten ing well back into the middle of the eighteenth century, there is but little if any doubt. 1 Hardscrabble, and in other parts of this county, the remains of their rude smelting furnaces we to be seen, and in some parts remained visible to a recent date.

Jonathan Carver, whose visit to Wisconsin in 1766 has been noticed heretofore, says in h account of a visit to the great town of the Saukies (Sacs) in that year. " While I stayed her I took a view of some mountains that lie about fifteen miles to the southward and abound in las ore. So plentiful is lead here, that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets in tl towns of the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as the produce of other countries."

This mining must necessarily have been of the most superficial character, both from la( of the proper tools with which to carry on the work to any great depth, and also from the inbre disinclination on the part of the lordly savage to do more manual labor than was absolute necessary.

Indian Mining

The means by which these untutored sons of the forest were enabled to locate " leads with a definiteness not attained by later explorers, except in rare instances, and when the seer had been communicated by the original owners of the soil, was a small bluish bush, somewh resembling the sage, and known as " mineral weed." This bush grew to a height of son eighteen inches, and was topped by a large red, tasseled head. When the mineral was n more than a few feet below the surface, this weed was found growing luxuriantly over it, ar furnished a means for tracing the direction of the mineral not less certain than if the ore h bare before the explorer. A fine, rank growth of wire grass also furnished information of tl hidden wealth beneath when the mineral approached close to the surface.

The Indian method of mining was one on which the miners of to-day would look wil astonishment and disgust. Their "bucket" being a tough deer-skin, and their windlass stoi thongs by which one or more muscular " bucks " would drag the loaded skin up the inclint plane, which formed the entrance to their burrows ; for to dignify them with the names of mini would be a mistake. When in their progress their way was found obstructed by a bowlder t( large to remove, a fire was kindled under it until it was heated to a high temperature, and the cold water was poured on, the immediate result being a splitting of the rock into the propc size to handle with ease. Ore, when found in large lumps, was encircled with thongs of stou green hide, and dragged by main strength to the surface. Here, by means of rude smeltin furnaces, the ore was reduced to pigs or plats of mineral, in which state it was sold to the tradei who visited the region. These furnaces were a curiosity in themselves, and are thus described " A hole or cavity was dug in the face of a piece of sloping ground, about two feet in depth, an as much in width at the top. This hole was made in the shape of a mill-hopper, and was line or faced with flat stones. At the bottom, or point of the hopper, which was about eight or nir inches square, other narrow stones were laid across grate-wise. A channel or eye was dug froi the sloping side of the ground inward to the bottom of the hopper ; this channel was about a fo( in width and in height, and was filled with dry wood and brush. The hopper, being filled wil the mineral, and the wood ignited, in a few minutes the molten lead fell through the stones i the bottom of the hopper, and thence was discharged through the eye over the earth. It ws -certainly a simple but rough and improvident way of gathering the melted lead. But, in tl ^reat abundance of mineral, and ease of its procuration, it sufliced for the wants of the Indiai

At many of these primitive smelting places, the white settlers afterward extracted a profitable harvest of rich lead from the slag and refuse of the Indian laborer's smelting." The Vinegar Hill mines are stated by old miners to have been thus worked long before the advent of the white miners.

The Advance Of White Men

Of this mining region, its development, richness and peculiarities, extended mention is made in an earlier portion of this work, hence we will but pause to note that through the industries and enterprise of DuBuque and others, this vast region of mineral-producing country had early in the century become known to the outside world. In 1822, a party of adventurous miners came up the river and progressed so far northward as the diggings afterward known as " Ilardscrabble," while a second party landed on Grant River, at an Indian town called Pascanans, near where the town of Osceola was afterward located. This is the first authentic knowledge of the advent of white men in what is now Grant County other than the few traders already mentioned. A traditionary legend exists that a party of English founded a town close by the site of the present city of Muscoda, but no mention is made by any of the early voyagers or travelers through that region of the existence of such a town. The legend further avers that the town was destroyed by the Indians. However, the whole matter can but be dismissed for lack of corroborative proofs into the misty region of mythland.

Those miners who entered the southern coasts of the county as mentioned above, in 1822, remained but a short time, and in absence of all account to the contrary, it is safe to infer that they failed to unearth those stores of mineral wealth which a few years later brought a heavy tide of immigration into the new El Dorado. But the way had been opened, and, in 1824, Thomas McKnight, John Ewin and several others made the first mining settlement at Hardscrabble." This name arose from a difiiculty experienced in deciding the ownership to a newly discovered lead. The exact date of this ancient game of grab is not given, but apparently was soon after the first discoveries, as in 1826 the name had already become the distinctive appellation of this section. In the latter year came a large addition to the new mining camp, and the news of the richness of the diggings began to attract miners and adventurers from all directions, chiefly, however, from Missouri, with a moderate infusion of Kentucky and Illinois blood. It is from 1827 that Grant County must date its first permanent settlement. Although it is true that those coming to the new country in this year did so with no settled intention of remaining, still the richness of the diggings and the numerous evidences of untold wealth, that needed only the pick and shovel to unearth it, so worked upon the intentions of these early pioneers as to change their character from that of mere adventurers to that of permanent settlers. Among those who thus became the pioneer fathers of the future county of Grant were Maj. J. H. Roundtree, Hugh R, Colter, Ebenezer M. Orne, Edgerton Hough, Henry Bushnell, Col. Joseph Dixon, Orris Mc- Cartney, Henry Hodges, Thomas Shanley and A. D. Ramsey. There were many others who came the same year, some of whom, after going back and forth spring and fall for several years, finally settled in the county ; and others, by far the larger majority, who sucked the orange until it began to show signs of dryness, and then turned to new fields. Of the former class were Joseph, Harvey and Frank Bonham, and James Grushong and brother, these two latter, however, making their first entry into the county in 1826.

Of these pioneers, Maj. Roundtree, Hugh R. Colter, Ebenezer Orne and Col. Joseph Dixon settled at Platteville ; Edgerton Hough at Gibralter ; Orris McCartney first stopped at Platteville, and in 1828 settled at Beetown, but in the same year removed to his farm near Cassville. Henry Hodges and Thomas Shanley came to Hardscrabble in 1826, and, a few years later, settled a few miles southwest of the present city of Lancaster. Mr. Ramsey also settled near Cassville. The Winnebago troubles stopped for a moment the tide of immigration which had thus early began to flow in the direction of the new land, which, if not flowing with milk and honey, was at least supposed to exist on the surface of an aggregated mineral mountain, where all that was necessary was the removal of a few shovels of dirt, when, "presto! " the laborer was ready to take his seat among the Croesuses of the land. The following year this tide returned to its former channel and flowed, if not extravagantly, at least steadily, until the Black Hawk war of 1832. Across the wide open prairies they came, fording streams, following dimly shadowed trails, or striking out into the wild wilderness about them ; or loading the puffing, snorting steamer to the guards, the new seekers for the land of promise came hurrying in. Little villages began to arise here and there in the wilderness. First a mere collection of miners' cabins, then a store, again a rude smithy, the inevitable tavern, and then the family home, where, gathered around the broad hearthstone of the great open fire-place, they enjoyed the privileges and pleasures, and endured the privations of a pioneer life. But broad as was the hearthstone, and large as was the fire-place of which it formed the base, neither was so broad or opened so wide as the generous, hospitable hearts of these early pioneers - men of brain and muscle, clear of head and stout of heart, who thus put behind them the comforts and luxuries of civilization to wrestle with the primeval wilderness, and tear from its grasp another star which they should add to the constantly increasing constellation that formed the insignia of the young Republic.

The Fiest White Woman

Early in 1827, mineral in large quantities had been discovered at Beetown. The tradition of its discovery being that the discov^ers, while hunting for wild bees, found at the foot of an uprooted maple tree, a large deposit of mineral. This discovery was made by James Meredith, Thomas Crocker, Curtis Caldwell and Cyrus Alexander. Among the miners attracted by the new discoveries to this section, was Mr. Thomas, who was accompanied by his wife, thus making' Mrs. Thomas the first white woman in the present confines of Grant County. The "Winnebago scare" came on soon after their arrival, and all pulled up stakes and started for Galena. Mr. Thomas afterward moved into La Fayette County and settled about two miles south of White Oak Springs, where he resided for many years. In the fall of this same year, Mr. Henry C. Bnshnell located at Muscalonge, bringing with him his bride of a few months. They resided here until the following year, when, after the birth of their daughter, Dorethy J. Bushnell, they moved to a point just northwest of Lancaster, now known as "Bushnell Hollow." Thus Mrs. Bushnell was the second white woman in the county, and the first to actually settle within its limits, while her daughter, Dorethy, has the honor of being the first white child born in the county. When the Black Hawk war broke out, the Bushnells took refuge first in Fort Crawford, at Prairie du Chien, and afterward in the block-house at Cassville. Soon after the close of the outbreak, they returned. They returned to Lancaster where they remained some years, finally removing to Muscalonge, where they remained until called upon to prepare for the long journey upon which all, sooner or later, must start. Miss Bushnell was married to Mr. Charles Whipple, and, at last accounts, resided in California.

After the defeat of Black Hawk and his band in 1832 had settled forever the question of supremacy in this section, immigration again set in fierce and strong, as the spring torrent obstructed, for the time being, by an unexpected barrier, by its chafings and surgings tears aside the obstacle and rushes onward with a victorious roar. New diggings were being opened up, which, with the ranges already discovered, placed the county for the time being at the flood- Me of prosperity. Mining was then the principal, and indeed, almost the only employment. Ihe man with a "prospect " was, for the time being, the coming man, too often, alas ! to degenerate by future developments into the disappointed adventurer.

Early Mining Experiences

The following description of early mining, taken from a historic tale entitled " Struck a Lead," and published by James M. Goodhue, in the Grant County Herald at an early date, will give the younger generation, not "to the manor born," something of an idea of the country as It then appeared and the modes of procedure employed by the embryo millionaires to " make a

, ' ' lead district ' is embraced in the original Northwest Territory, ceded to Congress by the State of Virginia. Upon the extinguishment of the Indian title, the fee simple of course vested in Congress. The upper lead district as it was generally called, extended about seventy miles north and south on both sides of the Mississippi River, and about sixty miles east and west, embracing portions of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Perhaps the most prominent feature in the face of the country is the ' Mounds.' They are quite numerous ; among the most prominent of which are the Blue Mounds, the Sinsinawa and Platte Mounds. Some of these mounds are one or two hundred feet high, and appear to bo nothing more or less than hills dissolved by time, and by the gradual disintegration of the rocks of which they were composed rugged mountains razed into smooth green mounds. Standing upon one of these the traveler sees the mining region spread out before him like a map. The greater part of the land is prairie; though there is abundance of forest and barrens. The prairie is mostly undulating; but the forests and barrens are strongly marked with ridges and ravines. No country in the world is more abundantly watered. Every ravine has its- rivulet. The most successful mining operations have been in the barrens, where the land- is broken into irregular lobes or swells, ranging in altitude from ten feet to one hundred. In 'prospecting,' the miner generally commences by digging a hole as large as a well, on the north and south side of these hills, in some small ravine leading up the side. If, in sinking the shaft he finds scattering mineral - 'float' as it is termed - he infers that it descended from an east-aad-west crevice above. It is then termed a prospect, and the miner fs encouraged to sink another hole a few feet further up the ravine. If in the next shaft he finds the mineral still 'stronger,' that is, larger, more abundant, and of a character indicating the near approach to the crevice from which it 'floated,' he throws into a pile all the pieces of mineral he has found and calls it a ' show ' - a good show or a bad show as the fact may be. The speculator, upon examination of a show, often buys the discoverer's show or prospect of a 'lead.' The mere prospect of finding a large body of mineral is frequently sold for hundreds of dollars. The miner now proceeds to prove his 'prospect;' that is, to extend a range of prospect holes up the hill to the crevice. If he should pass over the crevice, in prospecting, he will find no mineral in the holes he may sink ; because mineral never floats up hill. He then commences 'drifting,' that is, digging horizontally from the bottom of the last hole in which he ' struck ' mineral, toward the bottom of the next hole above, and in his progress he strikes the crevice, which may, after all the labor in finding it, be a barren crevice, containing but little mineral ; on the other hand, the lead may be worth many thousands of dollars ; since the labor of raising the mineral when discovered is comparatively little, and the ore is worth when raised, from $10 to $25 per thousand pounds. [In some years of late it has gone much beyond this figure. - Ed.] ' Crevices,' of course, vary in depth and width. Some of these are openings thirty or forty feet wide, between perpendicular wall rocks. The ore is generally found mixed with ochre and flint - but is sometimes found in solid masses.

" When all the mineral is raised that can be found in sinking a shaft, the miner commences drifting east and west in the crevice for more mineral. For this purpose, it is sometimes necessary to brace the aperature with timbers to prevent caving. Sometimes a lead is worked out by means of a level ; that is, a tunnel being dug in the bottom of the crevice through the hill, and in this tunnel is constructed a cheap railroad for carrying out the contents of the crevice. The principal crevices run east and west ; those running north and south contain smaller quantities, generally in thin horizontal sheets, and are cut out by east-and-west leads (or, as geologists term them 'lodes'). Sometimes after drifting a few rods, the crevice 'closes up,' but frequently by sinking another hole still further east or west on the same crevice, another ' opening ' is found, and the mineral comes in good again. Leads vary greatly in extent. Some are wide and deep, while others are narrow and shallow. Some ' run ' well, while others ' give out ' in a few rods. Occasionally a crevice is found widening into a ' chamber ' containing an immense body of mineral. It is not, however, every crevice that contains mineral - the sanguine miner sometimes comes to the bottom of a barren crevice, confident all the time that he is about to strike mineral ; and when, after all his labor, he finds the crevice closed up at the bottom with solid rock, he leans perhaps on the handle of his pick, the very image of despair, and then ascends into the light of day by means of a windlass. In some places the diggers have run the mineral into the water. Of course these water leads cannot be worked unless by draining and pumping. Mining here is yet in its infancy, requiring but little capital. The diggings are generally superficial. Some miners and geologists believe, however, that much larger bodies of lead and also of copper ore, lie buried deep in these mines than have yet been discovered. For raining deep, much capital and large and expensive machinery is requisite. The population of the mines is rather fluctuating, drifting from one part of the mines to another and settling permanently nowhere. This state of things is of course unfavorable to the steady growth and permanent prosperity of the towns and villages in the mines. All the lands in the ' lead district ' which were known by Government to be mineral lands, and some which were not supposed to be mineral lands, but which were covered with forests to supply the wants of miners and smelters, have been reserved from sale 'for mining and smelting purposes.' Many tracts of land not reserved have been entered, that is, purchased at the land office. Before entering a tract of land, a purchaser was sometimes required to make oath that he knew of no mineral biiving been discovered upon it. If the miner discovers a valuable lead upon Congress land, and the discovery is known to no other person, the inducement to perjury by taking the oath required at the land ofiBce, and purchasing the soil in fee simple at $1.25 per acre is great. Perhaps some frauds upon the Government have been thus committed. No patents for these lands have yet been issued ; if such frauds have been committed, they may become the subject of legal investigation. Mineral lands thus purchased, are of course, leased by the proprietors upon such terms as they please to establish. A great part of the lands reserved from sale have, by a kind of prescription, become also the property of claimants in the following manner : They were at first farmed out to miners in small lots by an agent of Government. The miner was allowed to stake out his lot which he was then authorized by a ' permit ' from the agent to occupy, upon the condition of his mining upon the lot five days in every week, etc. Few, if any, of the miners complied with the condition of their permits ; but the miners were indulgent toward one another, and each respected the claims of the rest ; so that, although the lots were forfeited, no complaint was made to the agent. Permits soon began to be transferred by sale, like leases ; and every purchaser of a mineral lot held it by a title deemed even better than that by which the first claimant held ; because a valuable consideration had been paid. The revenue for the mines was collected from the smelter, who purchased his ore of the miner. Each smelter received a license from the Government, and was required to pay over to the agent one-tenth part of all the lead manufactured. Thus the revenue was paid indirectly by the miner.

" Many valuable leads were discovered upon lands which had been entered at the land office. The proprietors of such lots were of course under no obligations to pay rents to the Government. They required the smelter to pay them the full value for their mineral. But the smelter was bound to pay over one-tenth part of the lead manufactured by him as revenue to the Government, whether manufactured from ore raised upon 'reserved' lands or 'entered' lands. The smelter could not ascertain whether the mineral brought to him was raised on Government land or not. If he had been allowed to attempt a discrimination, it would have been unavailing ; since nothing could be easier than for a miner upon Government land to sell his ore to a neighbor who owned a mineral lot in fee simple, and who would sell the ore as his own, without any deductions for rent. The revenues for rent naturally soon became nearly nominal. The smelters were environed with difficulties. In the year 1836, the whole system went down, every smelter refusing to pay rent. The agency ceased, and Government was fairly 'elbowed out' of the mining district. The possession of such reserved mineral grounds as had been claimed by miners under the old regulations by virtue of permits, was left undisturbed. The proprietors, as they consider themselves, lease these lands to miners upon such terms as they deem most profitable ; some taking one-fourth, others one-fifth of the mineral raised. A great number of mineral lots are in many instances the property of the same landlord, some successful speculator in lead, perhaps, who has bought up, at a bargain, the claims of many poorer men. Whether nese tenures were exactly honest in their origin or republican in their tcdency, will not here a subject of inquiry. No doubt the most profitable disposition Congress could make of their mineral lands would be to sell them in small lots to the highest bidders. [This was afterward done, as will be seen in another portion of this work. - Ed.] By such sale a large sum of money would accrue to the treasury, as great, perhaps, in the aggregate, as the lands are intrinsically worth ; and more profit would thus be derived from them than could be derived from the best system of renting and leasing that could be devised.

'- The business of smelting is quite distinct from that of mining. The smelter must have some capital to do business. He constructs a furnace, usually in a ravine near the diggings, and over some small stream of water, which is used as well for washing the mineral as for turning the water-wheel that works the furnace bellows. The process of smelting is simple enough. The mineral is broken fine and thrown into a large slanting hearth filled with charcoal and wood. When, by action of the bellows, the heat becomes sufficiently intense, the lead begins to trickle down the hearth in bright streams, which unite and flow through one mouth into a reservoir, which is also heated. From this reservoir the melted lead is removed with a ladle and poured into molds made of cast-iron. When thus molded into ' pigs,' weighing about seventy pounds each, the lead is ready for the market. The per centum yield by good mineral is about 70 or 80. The ore contains a small quantity of silver ; though perhaps too little to warrant the cost of extracting it; the residuum is called 'slag.' "

Up to the close of the Black Hawk war, but little attention had been paid to the surface soil of the country, all endeavours being directed to obtaining wealth from below. The general feeling previous to that time is fittingly expressed in a few remarks made by Mr. A. D. Ramsay at a meeting of the Old Settlers Club, held at Lancaster, in 1876. Speaking of this feeling, he said : " I came here in 1827 ; then not a furrow had been broken in Grant County soil. Like others, I came to find a fortune in the mines, and, like many others, I found mining unprofitable. We then hardly knew what to do with ourselves ; we thought we were too far north and that the country was too cold for farming, but we tried it and were successful."

It was thus found by experiment that the surface teemed with wealth as well as the bowels of the earth, and a new class of settlers began to pour in, under whose hands the country, if it did not indeed "blossom as a rose," began to redeem its injured character as an agricultural district. Of the privations of these early pioneers, those of the present generation can know but little. Miners' cabins had at first been erected of logs, stone, and even sods ; the latter substance answering as well as other material for the length of time that the restless occupant would care to make it his home. But the new settler, he who was to wring his living from the cold, unyielding soil, and whip it in a fair fight before it would resign itself to that unquestioning, unresisting obedience so necessary to productive farm lands, must have something more stable ; hence, the first thing erected was a substantial log-house, made from logs of such size as two or three men could roll up with ease. The ends were rudely dove-tailed together, and the gaping cracks were made wind and weather tight by a liberal application of mud. Openings for doors and windows were then cut out ; the latter, when the owner was especially fortunate, consisting of a four-lighted sash of the smallest known panes of glass, and, when this was not obtainable, oiled paper was made to serve instead. On one side, and occupying a goodly portion of its entire length, was the generous fire-place, with its wide, cavernous chimney, built of sticks laid " cob-house " fashion and plastered with a liberal coating of mud, which was soon reduced to the flintiness of fire-brick, as up through the capacious throat poured the 'roaring flames, while the great fore-stick and back-log threw out their generous, all-pervading heat below. Here around the hearth the family would gather in the winter evenings, the good man indulging in a quiet smoke, provided he was fortunate enough to have laid in an ample supply of the weed, while the good wife busied herself in plying the busy needles from whose glittering points rolled in warm folds foot covering for all ; while the little ones romped and played around the brightly dancing blaze. The early settler of Grant County was probably better placed as regards the mere necessaries of life than the vast majority of the present race of pioneers. Game was abundant in the forest, deer being, in the expressive language of one of these early comers, as "thick as hogs," while the "stinging fly," as the poet Longfellow calls the industrious honey- maker deposited his stores in generous abundance in the hollow trees throughout the woods, so that among the preparations for the winter's stock was always to be found a barrel of honey, or perhaps two; while the remembrance of the luscious venison steaks with which ye first settler was wont to forget the finer luxuries of an effete civilization, will still cause a longing to arise in the heart of the remaining members of the fraternity that cannot be filled with any of the present delicacies, however toothsome.

The necessity of having timber at hand with which to erect his future home, and also to provide the "fore-sticks " and "back -logs " for use on the long winter evenings, led the new settler to choose the timber rather than the prairie, where, in addition, the springs that dotted the country were also found to hide their bubbling fountain heads among the ferns and brakes of the shaded woodland, the inducement was increased tenfold. This finally progressed, so far as to beeome the rule, until the prairie, so generous and bountiful in its crops, was long left unoccupied, even so late as 1853 there being a great deal of prairie land unoccupied throughout the county. This state of things gradually changed until now the prairie land is valued according to its worth.

First Mills

In 1829, Mr. Hough had erected a saw-mill on the Platte to which he soon after added the paraphernalia of a " grist " mill, where the early settlers could get their grain reduced to flour, if not indeed of the very whitest, at least a good, palatable article. A second mill was erected, by Abram Miller, on Pigeon Creek, a few miles from Lancaster, in 1835. For millstones the builders went to the Iowa side of the river and obtained what is generally known as " lost rock." These they dressed down for buhrs, and managed to grind wheat and corn " after a fashion." It is needless almost to say that the fashion would hardly prove an acceptable one in this present age of patent flour and meal thrice whitened. The result of passing grain through these frontier mills was a dark, coarse meal, made darker in all probability by a generous quantity of dirt, which might have adhered to the grain during the rude methods of threshing then obtaining. By 1836, Mr. Daniel Burt had a grist-mill in operation in the present township of Waterloo, which produced a very fair article of fiour. The mill was commenced in 1835. The mining camps, however, still in a great measure depended for their supplies upon flour which was brought up from below via the Mississippi ; but as the country became settled up, mills improved, and grain abundant, this dependence upon foreign supplies was reduced to the minimum. Yet it was many years before this wished- for time arrived. For the present, the county is still hovering between frontier barbarism and civilization, with the question an open one as to which side of the balance it would ultimately incline. This wild, primeval wilderness, had, however, a wonderful fascination for the mere passer-by, as well as for the dweller therein.

"It was forty years ago," says Judge J. T. Mills, in an address delivered a few years ago, " that I stood at the foot of the lower rapids. They came to me, or I to them. No difference, we got together. I occupied the same site then that the city of Quincy does now. You might have carried the embryo burg in a wheelbarrow, if you could find one. There was a block-house on the bank, and here, some mining adventurers and myself waited for steam navigation. The voyage forty years ago required a large reserve of patience. Often we put our ears down to the water as if the steamer was expected underneath the surface, for ' suckers ' were more numerous than any other passengers in those days. I well remember one day, while repeating this acoustic experiment, I heard a thumping like a heart-beat in the water, and soon, to my inexpressible satisfaction, I saw a smoke 'way down de ribber.' Puff, puff, the discharge of a blunderbuss, the ringing of a bell - no steam-whistle then - and the stout, strong-built steamer ' Warrior,' Capt. -Ihrockmorton, landed on the shore. The mining adventurers rushed aboard and threatened to take possession of the vessel. ' On to Dubuque ; ' ' Forward to Snake ; ' ' Hurrah for Hardscrabble ; ' were watchwords yelled as vociferously as ' On to Richmond ! ' years later, by the WW York Tribune. But what was the appearance of the Great West in 1834, as seen from the ifather and yet child of many waters? Illinois above Rock River, with slight exceptions, was wholly vacant. The State of Iowa had not even been christened. The owl hooted from the forests that covered its bottoms or crowned its headlands.

" If Thomas Campbell could make poetry out of this long howl, his muse would have been rampant had he tried this voyage. These devil-eyed, white-teethed denizens of the forest, amused us with their nightly serenade whether we hissed or applauded.

" And still the wide prairies on either hand seemed opening to receive the immense and teeming population destined to supplant nature's husbandry by that of civilized man. The very soil, the streams and the woods which skirted them, seemed conscious, setting up of nights and watching by day for the ' coming events that cast their shadows before.' The bear, the elk and the deer, heard all too frequently the crack of the backwoodsman's rifle. He was trespassing on the domain of the Winnebago, Sac and Sioux. The Great Spirit had packed up his airy wigwam, converted it into a balloon and sailed westward, beckoning his children to follow ; hard-fisted miners, men of ' mighty bone and bold enterprise,' had built their tenements of sod, paHsades and mud at different places. Galena, Neptune-like, had reared her awful head above the mud in which she floundered, and was visible to a considerable distance. Patches of corn and potatoes showed that a race of men were pressing into this region, who could work the surface of mother earth as well as, gopher-like, burrow in her bowels. These were the scattering drops, the earnest of that human flood that has swollen into millions, rolling westward on foot, on horses, on wheels, till the locomotive and thundering train behind commands the highway to California : has changed the frontage of the continent, has completed the American section of the thorough fare that encircles the globe, and changed the direction of commerce. All this since 1834."

I )a g howl " was heard only too often by the early inhabitant, as the loss of" many a fine porker or fat ewe bore testimony. Dogs were secured, kept and fed, to protect their master's property from these depredations, but in the majority of cases the owner awoko when too late, to find that he "had been hugging a fond delusion to his breast," as his muchvaunted guardian of the flock was found "gayly gamboling " with the foe he was expected tiy destroy. A good wolf-dog forty years ago was almost literally worth his weight in gold. Wolves when caught were often partially disabled, and then turned over to the dogs by the settlers, in order to accustom the latter to the sight of their foe, and many were the disappointed looks that crossed weather-beaten countenances as it was found that "Tige " or " Watch " would, instead of boldly attacking, drop their caudal appendage and incontinently quit the field. One of these wolf-fights which has become historical, is given below by an active participant in the scene :

Graham'S Wolf-Fight

" I don't remember the year. [It was 1838. - Ed.] We didn't take any account of time when we ranged at will over these fenceless prairies. We didn't cut the year into weeks and Sundays, but took it as it came. It was about the first court ; Harvey Pepper was SheritI ; Judge Dunn was on the bench; I was Foreman of the jury; old yellow-black Paul wjis plaintiff; and Col. Jones, who went to Congress, and perched himself on top of Sinsinawn, Mound - he was the defendant. Jones owned Paul down in Kentucky, and when Paul got on the mound he quarreled with his master and became obstreperous, and Jones drove him off. He then went through the country fiddling at what they called ' stag dances.' Females then were scarce and very dear and hard to get, so the boys would dance alone on the sod floor, and Paul would 'fiddle ' for his whisky, and when he ran too far out of knees and elbows he would go back to Jones and saw wood, and Jones would supply him with old clothes. After some years, Paul concluded, as courts and lawyers had made their appearance, he would sue his old master for wages, and have a final settlement in this free country. We heard the evidence. The yellow darkey hadn't a bit of proof in support of his claim, but eleven of the jurors went in steep for the plaintiff, contending if Paul recovered wages it would make him a free man. I asserted he was free any way - wages or no wages - that we were sworn to go according to law. Some of the jurors said, ' D - n the law ; when it comes in one door, justice runs out the other.' Pepper the SherifiF, locked us up, and, to make the purgatory complete, said he was sworn to allow us no meat or drink except water.

" Imprisoned in this ten-by-nine cell, we quarreled long and loud. I stood out for the defendant against the eleven who were determined that Paul should be paid for our ' shin-dig ' music, and that Jones was the man to do it. He got appropriations from Congress. I told my eleven brethren I was used to starving, and would die at my post rather than violate the law. They talked of fighting but I was ready there.

"We should have hung there until this time, probably, but for a couple of huge, gray, timber wolves, that old ' Wolf-catcher Graham,' had brought into the town plat, securely caged in his wagon. Everybody then attended court, and everybody brought his dogs. The old wolfcatcher set up a loud cry, saying he would let out a wolf against all the dogs in creation, if the people who desired the sport would pay him $20 each for his wolves, and allow him the scalps. The money was raised quicker than you could count it. We would have almost paid the national debt to see a wolf-fight. The first wolf - and he was an old settler, I tell you - was let loose in the yard, right under our window. We ran to it, and climbed on each other's shoulders. Such snapping, barking, growling and bristling you never heard or saw. Dogs and wolf werepiled up almost to the upper story, in a living, biting, snapping, rolling, tumbling and boiling mass. Some of the dogs were thrown hors du combat, but others took their place. The revolving mass turned round the corner where we couldn't see them, and then my eleven associates cried : ' For heaven's sake, Free, do agree, so we can get out of this cursed hole and see the fun. '

" We heard the uproarious laughter and shouts of the outside world. It was too much lorthe boys. The friends of poor yellow Paul yielded, and cried out : " We agree ; write out the verdict, Free.'

" I wrote out the verdict for the defendant ; but lo ! we were in a worse condition than ever, The Judge, SherifiF and all bands had gone to the entertainment. No time was to be lost. A chair was picked up - a window smashed - and, as Judge Dunn heard the glass come jingling to the ground, he screamed ' Pepper ! Pepper ! let those men out, they will tear down the court house ! '

" These words sounded like the trump of jubilee. We handed our verdict to the Sheriif, and rushed down stairs like a flock of frightened sheep when the dogs are after them.

"But the scene of the -fight had changed. In the dog and wolf revolution, the latter actually entered the sacred halls of Pepper's tavern, where all our fair female population were gathered and gossiping. Such a scattering, screaming, fright, running-up stairs and jumping on beds was never seen or heard of. But the poor wolf, as if he understood the tenderness of the female heart, galloped up stairs too ; on the bed he jumped with tongue protruding, and, with beseeching looks, prayed for mercy. But up rushed the dogs dripping with blood ; now mad with fury and blessed with victory, they scaled the parapet A universal and deafening hubbub ensued. Men rushed in with clubs, seizing a dog or two by the tail, and tossing them out of the witidow, and, sometimes punching the wolf, that by this time had learned that the generous dimensions of female apparel oifered him the safest retreat. But, notwithstanding the poor wolf s surrender and meek behavior after he entered the forbidden halls, he was slain without mercy. There is not a living man, or woman, or animal, that witnessed that scene but if they ire still alive remember it to this day. I am satisfied that jury never would have agreed in that case had it not been for Graham's wolf."

hound was found to be the only breed of canine that could with certainty be depended on to pursue this terror of the forest to the death. He flew the black flag, neither giving nor asking quarter, and was proportionately prized. Aside from the gray and black timber wolves and the prairie wolf, which was more stealthy and less dangerous than his larger brother, wildcats and foxes were also extremely troublesome at times. Bears were met occasionally, and were seen in the northern portion of the county late in the fifties. At a very early period both buffalo and elk roamed at will through the country, but this was anterior by many years to the date of the white man, although the horns of the elk were occasionally found by the early settlers. Deer, however, continued to be abundant until the severe winter of 1856, which did much to deplete their ranks. Wolves and wild-cats continue to be found, as many of our readers are aware, in the northern portion of the county, up to the present time.

Primitive Agriculture

Notwithstanding the fact that the thoughts of many were being turned at this date to agriculture, the mining furor showed but little if any signs of abating. According to Mr. Ralph Carver, who died some years ago at Muscoda, the year 1833 witnessed a slight improvement in the mining imp'ements in the shape of cast-steel drills, which introduction is thus noticed by him in a letter read before the Old Settlers' Club : " Previous to the Black Hawk war, we miners used iron drills and gads with steel points, but in that year some Cornish miners came to Gratiot's Grove and introduced the inestimable poll-pick and cast-steel gad, but used iron drills with steel points. In the succeeding winter, James Gilmore, myself and others, were mining at Snake Hollow (Potosi). Our blacksmith, whose anvil was on a stump of a tree with no covering but the sky and clouds, was absent on a spree. Mr. Gilmore and myself wanted new steel on our drills. He said he could sharpen and temper tools, but could not weld cast-steel. He proposed we should get a bar of cast-steel and cut it in two, for each of us a drill, and he could sharpen and temper the ends. We got a square bar, as octagon bars were then unknown, beat down the corners, and had each of us an excellent drill, which I have every reason to believe were the first cast- steel drills ever used. They soon came into general use in the lead mines, and, a few years afterward, ^ere in use wherever drills were needed. Whether this universal use of them was the result of Mr. Gilmore's invention I cannot say, but I know that up to that time the Cornish miners were unacquainted with cast-steel drills."

Numerous villages had now dotted the face of Grant County. Platteville, Hazel Green, Paris - soon to wither and die under the blight of a brooding presence - Fair Play, Potosi, Beetown, Lancaster - -just honored by being selected as the county seat - Cassville, Wingville and Muscoda, each had obtained a foothold on Mother Earth, and were boldly struggling for existence. The towns Hazel Green, Potosi, Beetown and Fair Play, had included in their limits some of the most productive mines in the lead region. The lead mines were also so prolific in the production of zinc that Prof. Owen, in his report to the War Department, made in 1842, stated it as his opinion that the supply in the mines was sufficient to furnish all that was needed of this mineral in the United States, and to furnish a surplus for export. The floodtide of the mining interests was the decade from 1839 to 1849.; the estimated annual production during that time being 40,000,000 pounds, employing 3,000 men.

In the years 1844-45, a second wave of immigration swept in upon the county. Both residents and outsiders had begun to awake to the fact that Grant County afforded unequaled fasilities for the agriculturist as well as the miner. The Herald, speaking in 1843 on this subject, said: "Few are aware of the extent of arable land within the mining district, particularly that portion lying within the confines of Wisconsin. Abroad, this region is looked upon as adapted to mining only ; and the fact that it is positively unsurpassed in agricultural susceptibility by any State or any portion of any State in the Union, would be news to at least threefourths of our own Territory." In 1845, the country between Lancaster and Fennimore received an addition of fifty families, who settled there during the spring of that year, and thirtythree emigrants arrived at Lancaster direct from Scotland. These were mostly mill operatives, and located at what was afterward known as the " Welsh Settlement." The settlement took its name from the leading spirit of the enterprise. Nor were other portions of the county allowed to suffer; immigrants came streaming in from every quarter, though even this large emigration was soon swallowed up by the vastness of the county, and, like Oliver Twist of romantic memory, the cry of those most alive to the interests of the county was still for " more." It was ill 1842 that the town of Sinipee, which had been started on the Mississippi, a few miles above Dunlieth, was abandoned, owing to the unhealthfulness of its location, and the houses moved during the winter, upon sleds, here, there and everywhere, while the spot that once knew it now was to remain forever desolate. But the demolition of this weaker brother only added the more to the strength of fts near neighbors, again illustrating the ancient doctrine that " To him that hath shall be given." The estimation of the different pursuits of the inhabitants of Grant County in the year 1844, showed : Farmers, 600 ; miners, 600 ; mechanics, 150 ; smelters, 100 ; merchants, 60; millers, 32; tavern-keepers, 16; grocers, 15; lawyers, 17 ; physicians, 16. There were at that time in the county, 21 common schools, 9 churches, 30 stores, 16 public houses, 20 furnaces, 12 saw-mills, 4 grist-mills, 12 groceries, and 1 academy.

The First Threshing Machine

In this year, Mr. Vedder built for Mr. Thomas Shanley, upon his place near Lancaster, a stationary threshing machine - so far as can be learned, the first machine of this kind in use in the county. The old-fashioned mode of laying the grain in a large circle on the barn floor, and then tramping it out with horses or cattle, had, previous to this time, been the only method, together with that ancient instrument, the flail, for releasing the kernel from its protecting husk. The first reaper in the county was used on the farm of Mr. William Wright, in 1845. It was a strange and unknown instrument, even to those who were operating it ; the man charged with the duty of "raking off," working like a Trojan to keep the machine entirely clear from grain, for fear "the d - d thing would get clogged." This fear, it may be inferred, was entirely done away with by a closer acquaintance.

In February, 1846, the last " Indian war " known to Grant County broke out at Muscoda, It was but a flickering flame and was extinguished almost as soon as ignited. Many of the Winnebagoes had continued to roam about the country instead of going upon their reservation. Some of the band at the above date were lingering in the neighbourhood of Muscoda. A quarrel was commenced between the whites in that vicinity and the savages, when one of the Indians fired, wounding one of the whites. This was a signal for donning the war-paint on both sides, ending in a tally of three dead Indians for the whites. The knowledge of the affray spread like wild-fire, and volunteers assembled from over the northern portion of the county to drive the savages beyond its precincts. The latter were amply satisfied to be allowed to withdraw in peace, and the war-cloud disappeared in thin vapor.

For a few years everything appeared favorable to a rapid and extended increase in the wealth and population of the county. Judge Colter, years later, referred to this early period as a time when " there was more honesty than now. People were not required to lock their doors ; when they met at each other's cabins for social recreation, or to attend to business, they never met to quarrel ; but the whisky was better than now."

The California Gold Fever

In 1849, the discovery of gold in California made the first break in the chain of fortuitous circumstances which was fast advancing the county to the front rank ; and for the succeeding three years this section had to wrestle with the alluring attractions of the distant gold-fields, as well as the demon cholera which made its appearancein 1850. This dread scourge broke out suddenly in Beetown, in September, 1850, and in forty-eight hours ten or twelve deaths had occurred. In less than a week's time twenty corpses attested the measure of the affliction. The inhabitants fled in every direction. Forty-one deaths occurred in two weeks. The towns of Fennimore and Wingville also suffered heavily, the latter town being evacuated by the inhabitants. A tew cases had been noticed in the southern portion of the county, but it seemed not to rage with such virulence as in the other portions.

Speaking of the settlements in the county, the Herald, of cotemporaneous date, notices that " in the region west of Patch Grove, known as ' the timber,' no improvements worth the name were made previous to 1850 ; and in that year only thirty bushels of wheat were raised." This section, however took on a new life in after years. The problem that now arose before the minds of the people was the depopulation of the country by the California gold fever. The god, mammon, seemed to have laid his beguiling fingers on the bravest and best, and the good results which were just making their appearance as the consequence of the fostering care of years were blighted almost at a breath by this terrible excitement. <

It was estimated that at least two-thirds of the miners had left for the gold-fields, while of other classes the proportion was frightful to contemplate. The Herald of April 17, 1851 expressed the opinion that the craze had run its course, but in the issue of the same paper of February 5, 1852, it says editorially : " By May next, Grant County will have disgorged more than a fourth of her adult population, and California, like the whale that swallowed Jonah, will have swallowed this entire animal export ; we have lost none to migration to other parts ; all have gone to golden California. They were the bone and sinew of the country, and we parted with them as reluctantly as did King Pharaoh with the Children of Israel. In 1848 and 1849, the California fever commenced, and the end is in the misty future ; we dare not venture an opinion as to when the disease will abate. Grant County -has invested $1,000,000 in the gold mines." Again : " It is difiicult to fix the amount of depreciation in the value of real property as the result of this migration. To say that land has fallen one hundred per cent may be true or false ; that depends upon circumstances. We set down the average depreciation at one hundred per cent. In many cases two hundred per cent would be a closer estimate. Village property has slid lower than farm property." And a careful scrutiny of the events then transpiring and their efiects show this to be no fancy sketch, but almost literally true. The rush in the spring of 1852 was so great that Chapman's ferry at Potosi was unable to accommodate the crowds that came, and the impatient emigrants had to wait four and five days before they could cross ; yet other ferries were equally blocked. In the exodus of this year were fifty persons with trains from Lancaster, a moderate number from Fennimore and Patch Grove, a few from Harrison, and a large throng from Jamestown ; while Beetown, sorely afQicted with every plague, sufiered more than any other place. This enormous rush is certainly in a great measure accounted for by the fact that the population of the county was at the time largely composed of miners, who were at first attracted by a prospect of " striking it rich ; " but even this does not account for this extraordinary depletion in population which the county experienced in these' ever-to-be-remembered years. The greed for gold seemed to have seized every one old enough to endure the privations and weariness of the six months' journey, and not until the disappointed victims began to return with their tale of wretched hopes and terrible sufferings did the fever abate its devastating work. The following are the rules and regulations adopted for the guidance of one of the many trains and will serve as an illustration of the times :

Sec. 2. The general organization shall be composed of divisions of not less than ten nor more than fifteen teams ; each division choosing its own officers, which shall consist of a Captain, a Committee of Two, and a Secretary, which said Committee shall only act in concert with the Captain when so required by a majority of the Company; and the said ofBcers to be elected every Saturday night, at the call of the then existing Secretary, a majority of votes electing. It shall be the duty of each Captain to take a general supervision of his own company, and to act in concert with each other in inspecting the outfits before starting, and in selecting the most practicable routes, crossings of streams and camp grounds, and to give the orders for starting and stopping.

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of each Secretary to keep a record of all the names of the individuals in his company, also a list of every able-bodied male member liable to stand on guard, and to call the guard to duty each mgnt according to their turn on the roll.

Sec. 4. Every male member of the company, over sixteen years of age, shall be liable to perform duty on guard, at night, when not disqualified by sickness. , ,

Resolved, Sd. That we will avoid open immorality of all kind, such as profane swearing, gambling and the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage.

Resohed, 4tlt- That we will render mutual assistance to each member of the organization, in case of sickness or other misfortune ; and that we will respect the feelings and property of alJ, and on all occasions avoid giving oifense by word or deed, and in any way acting contrary to the spirit and meaning of the foregoing by-laws and resolutions, for the faithful performance of all which we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Three years later, in 1855, the population of the county, according to the State census, was 23,170, against 16,169 for 1850, showing not only that the tide of outflowing gold-seekers had been stopped and even returned upon itself, but had been counteracted by a much larger wave of immigration flowing into the county which now advanced with steady strides for the next five years. Then came the war of the great rebellion which again depleted old Grant of its brawny sons, who responded so nobly to the call for living breastworks to oppose the slimy wave of secession. Of this great and patriotic outpouring, extended mention is made in its proper place. With the return of peace. Grant County once more resumed its onward march. Manufactories began to spring up in different parts of the county, while agriculture, which at first, as we have seen, was hardly noticed or thought of, had now become the principal occupation of the inhabitants. The census reports of 1870 showed that about one-half of the land of the county was under cultivation. Of the remaining half, the greater portion was woodland ; leaving but about one-fifth of the land of the county unimproved ; which, when the bad and broken lands among the bluffs are taken into consideration, is an extremely creditable showing. The number of farms in the county at that time was 4,-301, of which the great majority, threefourths in fact, were from twenty to one hundred acres in extent. The value of these farms was $11,662,855, their products amounting to $2,629,805. The capital invested in manufacturing at the same date was $627,130, with an annual production of $1,122,000. The principal industries, stating them as they came on the relative scale of value were : Flouring-mills, with an annual production of $261,845; lumber, $117,150; woolen goods, $65,568, and carriages and wagons, $64,670. The productions of the lead mines within the county was at the same time $196,957.

Thus Grant County took rank not only as an agricultural and mining county, but as one whose manufacturing interests would make a respectable and goodly showing alongside those of any other county of the State. This rank it has since maintained. It will be found that the census returns when published for 1880, will show about the same amount of production in the manufacturing industries, although in some branches there may be a slight falling off, especially in the matter of carriages and wagons, which industry has in a great measure been driven from the county by the competition from the eastern part of Wisconsin and other States. The flouring interests have also suffered somewhat, but that which is lost in one branch will be offset in a measure in the increased production in another. Possessed of a fine country, water-power in abundance, with Its mines still unexhausted, Grant County may well view with a hopeful countenance the great future which stretches away before it. All it needs to develop the latent wealth, is better transportation facilities, and these are already promised with a goodly prospect of the promises being fulfilled with proper transportation by means of which goods manufactured in the county can be brought into direct competition with the productions of other sections, the advancement in manufactured productions will be steady and unbroken. The vista is constantly brightening. Although lovingly referred to by its children as " old Grant," the county is yet young in possibilities, and the evelopment of its latent riches with its three sources of wealth, agriculture, manufacturing and 1(9 mmes from which to draw, the county has yet to enter iupon its most felicitous period of existence. j j c

Mining Troubles

"1 , '^'^^y upon the earliest discovery of mineral in that section afterward known as the J, °. ""egion," the Government withheld these lands from sale, and established a system of fental, stationing a Government agent in the different mining districts to collect the same, one- tenth of the product of the mines being the general rule of tribute. This tax was not very well received by the miners, even at the establishment of the new regulations, and as the region became more thickly occupied by delvers after the hidden treasure, many miners refused to pay '- tribute to Caesar." This course became gradually more and more popular, owing, first, to self-interest, and second, to a growing suspicion that the Government agents were given to lining their own pockets, rather than transferring to Uncle Sam the rents received. Among the later agents was one of the Floyds, a name afterward rendered odious by secession proclivities, and one Flanagen. The general rule was for these gentlemen to remain as long as it was deemed healthy to do so and then decamp, leaving the Government to appoint a new agent who was sure to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. At the period mentioned, agents wielded an additional authority in having the power to grant new trials where contests in regard to claims had been tried before the usual board of arbitrators. These arbitrators were six in number, and their verdict was decisive unless the Government agent saw fit to grant a new trial in the premises.

Having discovered at last that it was playing a losing game, the Government determined, in 1846. to throw the lands upon the market for sale to the highest bidder. This decision created a whirlwind of opposition from every miner's camp in "the diggings." The danger of having their claims bought up by some speculator, who could at his will, run the price up to a figure where the unfortunate occupant could not touch it, was more appalling than the former Governmental policy. Indignation meetings were held in all the camps, and resolutions adopted protesting against this action on the part of the Government, and calling for the appointment of committees who should proceed to adjust all disputed claims, and then provide for the appointment of a bidder whose duty it should be to attend the land sales and bid ofi" the difiierent lands, after which he was to re-convey them to the original owners. A claim was about two hundred yards square, but as the mineral was sometimes found running east and west, sometimes angling from that line, the different claims assumed an oddly jumbled appearance when viewed upon the surface and upon maps. As an example of the text and tone of the resolutions passed at these miners' meetings, below is given the preamble and resolutions adopted at a meeting held at British Hollow, December 19, 1846 :

Whereas, The President of the United States has ordered the sale of the reserved mineral lands in this land district, which sale takes, place on the 24th of May next, to the highest bidder without respect to claims or to settlers, leaving it for speculators to bid off our claims and property which have cost us the labor of years. Therefore,

Bosolved, 1st. That we are willing to pay the price fixed by the Government, $2.50 per acre, for our homes and claims, and will repel by force any attempt to make us pay more.

Resohed, 2d. That we will all be at Mineral Point on the first day of the land sales, and there remain until all the reserved lands on the west side of the Big Platte have been offered for sale.

Resolved, 3d. That there will be a committee of five appointed by this meeting, three of whom shall form s quorum, whose duty it shall be in all cases where there are conflicting claims, to hear the evidence in the case and decide according to justice and equity, and their decision shall be final.

Resolved, 4th. That the jurisdiction of this committee shall extend over Town 3 north, of Range 3 west, and the whole of Section 12 in Town 2 north, and Range 3 west. Said committee shall give a certificate of decision to the rightful owner, with the appropriate value afiixed thereto.

Resolved, 5th. That the owners of claims on each section shall appoint one or more of their number, who shall receive the certificate of each forty -acre lot as it is bid off at the land sale, and who shall give bond in double the appraised value of said claims to redeed it to the rightful owners.

Resolved, 6th. That the claimants shall employ the County Surveyor to survey their claims and give a certificate to the owners thereof, specifying the number of acres in the claim surveyed, and also a plat of the whole survey, for the settlers on the reserved lands.

Resolved, 8th. That a committee of five be appointed by this meeting, who are claimants of recerved lands, whose duty it shall be to correspond with all meetings held in this and Iowa Counties, for the purpose of carrymg into effect the objects of this meeting, offering them our and soliciting their co-operation.

This feeling of injustice was shared by all classes. The Wisconsin (now G-rant Gounty) Herald, commenting on the action of the Government, and the meetings of the miners for protection, says:

"The only fault we have to find with the bill providing for the sale of these lands is, that the claimants are not allowed to enter them at $1.25 per acre. The law makes the minimum price $2.50. By reference to our first page it will be seen that the claimants in the west part of the county, have formed an association for mutual protection against the rapacity of speculators. This is the only plan by which their best rights can be secured. In union there is strength. Fill up the ranks, present yourselves in solid, serried phalanx at the la,nd ofiSce on the day of sale. Submit all disputes unconditionally to the arbitrament of your committee, heal all dissensions, sacrifice even what you deem your individual rights if need be, and substantial justice will be done to all. * * * * Congress walks into us to the extent of ten bits per acre; that is we have to pay just twice as much for land as others who buy of the public domain. There let the robbery of Government forever cease.

That by the late proclamation issued by the President of the United States for the sale of lands in the Mineral Point Land District, in the Territery of Wisconsin, to be held at Mineral Point, on the 24th day of May next, a large number of tracts of land are proclaimed for sale, which were entered at the Mineral Point Land Office several years ago, some of them as early as 1832, in accordance with the laws of the United States regulating the sale of the public lands. Some of the said lands were entered by pre-emption, and some were purchased at public sale, at prices ranging from $1.25 to $1.60 per acre. The principal value of these lands at present has been given to them, in many cases, by the labor and improvements of the pioneer settlers of the country, who came to the country at an early day and were exposed to all the hardships and privations peculiar to the settlement of a new and wild country. Those privations and hardships can be appreciated by those, and those only, who are acquainted with the nature and character of savage and uncivilized Indian tribes, with which Wisconsin, in the days of the early settlement of this portion of the country, was filled. These settlers have by their own hands subdued the forest, cultivated the prairies, opened the mines, constructed the roads, etc., and have thus done much and everything toward developing the rich resources of the country, and paving the way for the unparalleled growth and settlement of the richest portion of the hitherto public domain of the United States.

In other instances these same lands have been sold and transferred by the original settlers to other persons who have purchased in good faith, and paid large considerations for improvements thereon, and from time to time have made further and other valuable improvements, equal, in many instances, to five times at least the original value of the land. These lands so entered and transferred from individual to individual, in some cases many times, and by deeds of warranty, are now offered for sale a second time under proclamation. As the most injurious and disastrous consequences would result to a large and respectable portion of the citizens of Wisconsin, if the lands entered and paid for should again be disposed of at public sale, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin deem it an act of duty to the people residing in said district to address your honorable body in their behalf.

After referring to the welfare of one portion of the Territory upon the prosperity of the whole, the importance of the tenure of leases and the suggestion that the proper place to submit fraudulent entries was the organized tribunals of justice, while to expose the lands for sale would be to strip many settlers of homes, the memorists closed by stating, " In view of these facts, and urged by the most important considerations of public policy and public and private justice, and as the only effectual means of protecting and securing the rights of innocent parties, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin respectfully and most earnestly petition your honorable body to provide by law for withholding from sale all lands in the Mineral Point District heretofore sold, and for the issuing of patents for all lands purchased at said land oflSce, saving such entries as have been, or may hereafter be declared fraudulent entries by the proper tribunals."

Despite memorials, resolutions and entreaties, the Government continued with its preparations for the sale of the mineral lands. The miners, in their turn, as the time drew near for the sales, assembled in large numbers at Mineral Point. Previous to the day set for commencing the sale, a public meeting was held, Maj. J. H. Roundtree, of Platteville, officiating as Uairman, at which it was determined that the bidders from each place should bid off the land in their vicinity, and that none others should be allowed to bid. An "inspection committee" was appointed, whose duty it was to see that no officious meddlers interrupted the harmony of we sale. It is needless, perhaps, to add that none of that class made themselves manifest, and we lands were bid oflF as proposed ; the bidder taking the land in the name of the owner, when only one party laid claim to the portion up for sale, and where several claims were located on a piece it was taken in the name of the bidder, and then by him conveyed to the occupants forthwith. Thus the long-disputed land question was settled once and for all.

First Things

The first farming in the county was done by Col. Joseph Dixon, who, in the early fall of 1827, began to prepare a farm a short distance from Platteville. The succeeding spring he plowed twenty acres and planted it to corn, of which he raised a generous crop that year.

The first marriage in the present county was performed in September, 1828, at Esquire Holmans, the contracting parties being James R. Vineyard and Miss Mary Jones.