Green County, Wisconsin - Chapter 8: Pioneer Reminiscences, 1884 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 8: Pioneer Reminiscences

I was born on the 12th of February, 1804, in Pendleton Co., Va., on Straight creek, one of the extreme head branches of the south branch of the Potomac. In 1819 my father moved to Ohio, and settled on the Scioto shore, at Chillicothe, where I remained till the 15tli day of April, 1825, when I left the parental roof, on an old one-eyed horse, with two shirts and |4 in my pocket, all told.

At about the end of a week, I reached the vicinity where Lafayette, Ind., now stands. At that time Lafayette had no existence, except in name. There I married my wife, on the 15th day of March, 1827. I remained in tliatcounty till September, 1832, when I moved with my wife and two children, to Laporte Co., Ind. I remained in that county till April, 1835, when I moved to Wisconsin with my familv, and settled in Racine county, six miles due west from the city of Racine. The February previous, I went to Wisconsin to select a location, and found but one white family in Racine county, being that of a Mr. Beardsley.* There was not a house, nor any sign of civilization between Grove Point, twelve miles north of Chicago, and Skunk Grove, now Mount Pleasant, in Racine county. We were at home wherever niglit overtook us; our fare was" rather hard, but the bills were not high at that time.

Capt. Gilbert Knapp had some men at work in Racine, and I thir^k he had a log cabin built, or partly built, at the time I first saw the place where the city now stands. I selected a situation for a farm on a branch of a stream, to which I gave the name of Hoosier creek; and so far as I know, it retains the name yet. I landed on my claim with my family about the first of May, and went to work in good earnest. On the 1st day of August, 1835, my son, J. W. Janes, was born, and was the first white child born in Racine county; he is now grown, and is a hale and active young man.

At that time there were no surveys of the land by the United States surveyors, and we all had to run the risk of the lines cutting us to advantage or disadvantage. Some time that fall the lines were run - that is, the town and range lines, and I ascertained that all my claim and improvements were on the 16th or school section This caused me to look around for a new location. By this time most of the choice claims were taken, or supposed to be taken; and I concluded to make a trip to Rock river, and started late in October in company with Levi Harness, a young man that I took to the country with me. We had little or no knowledge of the country, and started on foot as adventurers.

of late in October, it was probably in November, when Mr. Janes staited on this trip;t'or the eoiiipaiiy referied to. \yh(> li.id just before passed from Milwaukee, eonsistiiiir of John Inm-in. John Holmes, Thomas Holmes, William Holmes, Georg-e FoUmer and Milo Jones, .started from Mllwiiukee Nov. 15, 18;i5. with an ox team and wag-on, with provisions and fiirmiiui' tools; and on the ISthof the same moU' h, arrived at what was "Uh-equently known as the town of Kock, at a point on Ifoek river oppo'Jite the "Hiu- Uoek;" where they camped in their wa^'on until they built a log- c 'bin. This was the first seti lenient in Uoek'countv. See Guernsey's History of Kock County. pa3-es30 and U4;while on page 15tJ, October is given as thetime of this migration. - Ed.

had gone out from Milwaukee but a sliort time before, and were still not far ahead; so we pushed on in good spirits, and camped between Mukwanago and where Troy now stands. Having been misinformedabouttlie distance to Rock river at Prairie village, we supposed that we were not more than ten miles from the river. We started with light hearts as soon as we could see the Indian trail, (for there were no other roads in the country at that time,) one carrying our bed, consisting of a buffalo skin and blanket, and the other the gun, and knapsack with our grub. We ate no breakfast, expecting to be at the camp of our predecessors in two or three hours at the most. We had not got out of sight of our camp fire, uhen it commenced raining, and by the time we arrived at the place where Troy now stands, every thing, including ourselves, was completely thatched over with sleet. In this condition we trudged on, expecting, on seeing each hill, that we would be sure to see the camp of our friends, but we were doomed to disa|)pointment.

At length, cold, wet and fatigued, we reached the Rock Prairie, and seeing the trail struck into it, and concluded to camp, having eaten nothing all day. We tried to strike a fire and found that all our fire apparatus, like ourselves, was wet; even the powder in the horn would not ignite. In this dilemma we concluded to make one more effort to find the camp or river. Accordingly we started on the trail, and took a kind of dog trot, and kept it up till it got so dark that we lost the trail, and finally my man declared that he could go no further. I got him on his feet, and told him we must get to the brush for shelter, or we would perish with cold and hunger. We then' took the wind for our guide, and after some time reached the brush, where we sat down on the wet ground, and spread our blanket and buffalo skin over us. In this way I spent the first night I ever spent in Rock county. Uur camp, if such it may be termed, was some eight or ten miles east of Janesville, and near where D. A. Ricliardson lived when I left the city. The next morning found us in a bad fix - cold and wet - the ground frozen hard enough to bear a horse, and snowing beautifully. After holding a council, we concluded to retrace our steps to Rock river. We started, and in the afternoon reached Turtle lake, where after some three hours hard work, we succeeded in getting a fire and dried ourselves, and camped for the night.

We reached home without accomplishing our object, and remained till some time in December of the same year. I started again in company with a Mr. Glen from Racine, and a man by the name of J. C. Kapp.* This time I took a horse, and we got through without any accident worth noting, and found Samuel St. Johnf and W. A. Holmes, living in a log cabin on Rock river, one mile below Janesville. The ground was covered with snow some inches deep, and w^e could get nothing for our horses to eat; we therefore left them here, and explored the country on foot up to Fort Atkinson and around Lake Koshkonong, and concluded to purchase the land at the outlet of the lake on the west side of the river, and marked out claims on the east side with a view of settling there. We accordingly returned, and in a few days I started in company with Alfred Cary, of Racine, for Green Bay. At that time there was not a house between Call's Grove and Rock river, and but one between Milwaukee and Green 7)ay, and that was Farnsworth's mill, on the Sheboygan river.

On the first day out from Milwaukee, we were overtaken by a young man of the name of Roark, who informed us that Dr. B. B. Cary had been shot the niglit previous, and wanted his brother

+Mr. St". Jobn emigrated from Vermont with his wife and thive children, aud became the lir«t residents of what became Janesville, in November. 18:35. Mrs. St. John was the first to find a grave ia the n<'W settlement, in ,lune. 1836, caused by a decline of some months' continuiince. induced by the want of medi 'al attendance the previous winter, and the shelter ami care so necessaiT to the motber of an infant babe. Her gj-ave is marUed by a tombstone npon an eminence near the road le;uliniito Beloit. Mr. St. John survived her several years, and died while on a visit to his brother's, near town, and his remains were deposited on the eminence beside those of his wife. - Ed, to rettivn. lie accordingly returned, and Roark and myself went on. In four or five days we reached our destination without aTiy accidetit woi-th relalinijj. We had plenty of snow to make a soft bed to sleep iti, and wolves enougii to liovvl us to sleep at all times of night.

We found the members of the first legislature of Wisconsin, or the last Territorial legislature of Michigan, at Green Bay, waiting for Gov. Horner to put theni in motion; but that dignitary was among the missing, and the whole matter ended in smoke. I found on exaniining the books at the town office, that all tlie land we had selected was sold, and I had m}^ trip for my pay. So after looking at the town of Navai-ino, Fort Howard, and the sights we thought worth seeing, we laid in a stock of crackers, cheese, ham and tobacco, not forgetting some of the "critter," made our adieu to Green Bay, and in due time landed safe at home. Having made two trips to Rock river, and one to Green Bay, for nothing, and thinking perhaps t\\e third one the charm; so I accordingly started the third time for Rock river in company with John Janes, a cousin of mine, wlio now lives in Bad Ax, now Vernon Co., Wis., and crossed Rock river somewhere near wliere Rochester now stands, and continued on and explored the country north of Janesville, to near the mouth of Wliitewater; then turned down to St. John's and replenished our provisions; then explored the west side of Rock river up to the mouth of the Catfish, and up tliat to or near the First Lake; we then directed our course for Camp & Collins' Diggings, on Sugar creek, and made Mitchell's Grove in our route. We were some days traveling and exploring, and having run out of provisions, we concluded to repair to Camp & Collins' Diggings for supplies. Just at night we found the section, and quarter section, that we wrre informed they were on; but tliey were not there.

It had become daik, and very cold, and we were tired and hungry; so we concluded to make to some timber and build up a fire, and do the best we could. After we reached the timber, and commenced dragging some limbs out of the snow, we saw a spark of fire rise, and after some circles in the air disappear. Soon after we saw others ascend in the same manner,and coticluded it was Indians, and that we would go and camp with them, rather than build a fire and lie in the snow all night, hungry and tired as we were. But judge of our surprise on reaching the place, to find it occupied by a white man, Michael Welch, who received us with all the hospitality with which a Wisconsin miner could receive a stranger; and any attempt on my part to describe that, would be but a failure to do justice to that noble hearted class of the citizens of Wisconsin. We were now snugly ensconced in a warm cabin, by a roaring fire, and soon liad a stool placed between us, on which was a pyramid of potatoes, and a dish of pork swimming in a minature lake of gravy, and each a tin cup of coffee. Ye upper tens! How does your nonsense sink into utter insignificance when contrasted with the pure, genuine hospitality of the frontier adventurer. Nearly twenty years have passed since the time of which I am now speaking, I do not know whether Mr. Welch is yet alive or not; but whenever I think of his kindness, it makes my heart throb with grateful pleasure.

We then went over to where New Mexico was afterward laid out, exi)lored there two or three days, and then to Hamilton's Diggings, and finally back again to Rock river. I then selected the claim that Janesville is built on, and marked it as my claim, on the 15th day of February, 1836, By this time I had become snow-blind, and liad to lay by some ten days before I could see to travel. My friend went to work for Mr. St. John, and as soon as I could see to travel I started for home. I took the line at the south end of Janesville and followed clear through to Call's Grove,* without seeing the face of a human being, or any trace of one, except the marks of the surveyors that had run the line that I was following.

Previous to leaving Rock river, I employed Mr. St. John to put me up a cabin, and on the 19th day of May, 1836, about 4 o'clock in tlie afternoon, I threaded my way to my cabin along an Indian trail that passed up the river through the present city of Janesville. My family now made about the fourth family in the county. It may, and doubtless will, appear rather strange to some of the citizens of Janesville, that nineteen years and a half ago the whole city consisted of one family, and one log cabin, eighteen feet square, with the bark on the logs, and no floor in it, or shutter to the door-way. I had at this time not the least idea of ever building up a town; but in moving to Janesville I opened a track, and all the travel followed that route to Rock river. At that time, AVisconsin City, Rockport, and I know not how many more paper towns, were in existence along Rock river.

Sometime in the fall of 1836 I went to Camp & Collins' mines, and purchased two wagon loads of lead, and that completed a communication from Racine to the Lead Mines by my house, and there was a constant throng of travel on it, and no way to cross the river only to swim the horses alongside of a canoe, and ci'oss wagons in the same way. The traveling community were constantly besetting me to build a ferry-boat, and I at length concluded to do so; and built one at no small expense. After I got it done, I went to Belmont while the legislature was in session, to get a charter; and not dreaming of any opposition, I took no pains to get a petition largely signed; and the proprietors of Rockport, Wisconsin City and Humes' Ferry united in a remonstrance. This then begun a war between the three points, I, by this time, concluded to lay out a town, and according did so. The next summer two of the other places found it was "no go" with them, and they compromised as far at* Janesville was concerned, and dropped their towns, and took up a place they called St. George's Rapids, about half way between the other towns, and made common cause against me in general, and Janesville in particular. I attended the legislature at Burlington, Iowa, and at Madison, for some three or four 5'^ears, got al! the roads, mail routes, and all the legislation I asked for. But in getting the county seat located at Janesville, the county took a pre-emption on that, and swept it from under me.* And having expended all my means in trying to build up the place, and all my improvements wnth it; to use a California phrase, I was completely strapped, and on the 24th day of August, 1839, I left the town to its fate. On the 15th day of May, 1838, my son Jasper was born in Janesville, the first male child born in the place. f

Ii. By Samuel F, Chipman, 1856

The winter of 1842-3 was extremely severe. The first snow fell on the night of the 8th of November, and continued until the '7th of April, a period of five months with interrupted good sleighing. Much of the time was severely cold, with strong winds and drifting snow; which continued to increase until it had attained to a depth of nearl}^ two feet. Road tracks across the Prairie [in Rock Co., Wis.] would catch the drifting snow until thej' attained to an elevation of two to four feet, which very much endangered the safety of meeting teams, as in turning out tbe horse stepping from the path would often sink and plunge so deep that the mate would fall on to, or over him, and both be floundering for life in the deep snow, with more or less icy crusts to cut and maim them. Freeport lay some forty miles southwest of us, to which place

*It may be seen in Guernsey's History of KocIj County tliat the county seat was est iblistiedupon Mr. Janes' location; and that much praise was awarded to aim for his diplomatic tact in ovir-rcoming- the obstacles which other local interestG had 0 1 St in his way.

By a law of Congress the county could secure a preemption to the quarter section upon which the county seat would be located. Mr. Janes was ignorant of this, and found himself a tenant iii on lands belonging to the county. A compromise waseifeited by which iho county, for a nominal sum.ajirced to deed back portions of the laud to the original claimants and settlers. - Eu.

tltis .'-tated by the Rev. H. Foote, in Guernsey's History of Uock Coujity, "that in January, 18;j6, there was an infant sou added to tlie family of t^arauol St. Sohii, who is supposed to be the tir^t wiiite child born in the I'pper Hock lUvir Valley. His uaiue was 8eih B. tt. Johtx, aud was living a few years siuce at Columbu?, in this St-.ite. - Ed.

we used to go to get our corn and oats to feed, plant and sow. In a snow storm it was rather a hazardous route to travel. I may as well speak here of one of the many little incidents of that winter.

On one clear, cold, frosty morning I started [from Rock county] for Freeport for a load of corn. On reaching the summit of the ridge of prairie above Bachelor's grove, that divides the waters of Bass creek and Sugar river, near what was then called the lone tree, T discovered a team and sleigh, loaded with men, driving in a direction to cross my track some distance ahead. We soon met. They anxiously enquired for the nearest house. I directed them to the house of John Call, a distance of some two miles. They had started from Monroe for Janesville, two days before, had missed their way and wandered over the trackless prairie for two days and nights without food for man or beast, and had (as they said to me at that time) just concluded, should they not find some other relief, to kill one of their horses and roast the flesh or eat it raw. In such a dilemma one would be led to suppose they were not very much displeased to discover a team ahead. There were four gentlemen I think in the sleigh. If I mistake not, three of them were brothers by the name of Hart; half brothers of Daniel A. Richardson, who was then trading in Janesville. The name of the other gentleman I do not remember. Long will they remember their cruise on the prairie.

As an evidence of the severity of that winter, I will here state a fact with which most of the settlers of that day were familiar, which was, that coons were so emaciated that when on a pleasant day they ventured from their holes in the trees, in quest of food on the ground, they were unable to return for want of strength, an«l were frequently found by the hunters, frozen to death at the foot of the tree in which they had lived, thereby betraying the whereabouts of tiiose who had been more cautious, or unable to get out. In the fall of IS-tl, while looking for a piece of land that I might be supplied with fencing timber and firewood, I accidently run upon a dilapidated set of bogus tools in a small grove near the head of the south branch of Bass creek, southwest of my farm some three miles, 'i here was a casting press weighing some eighty pounds, an iron bar, used, perhaps, as a lever with which to turn the screw to make the impression in coining. Also a small hand-vice, a steel spring, and steel punch with which to * cut the pieces to be stamped; and German-silver plates cut into strips the width of half collars, a small box containing a meal bag and a buckskin mitten, in which was found in an unfinished state thirty -nine half dollars. The effort was evidently a failure, owing either to inexperience in the operators or the imperfection of their lools. The press I still have in my possession. It serves as an anvil whea I am disposed to do my own smithing. I have also the hand-vice, punch and spring, which I intend to preserve as pioneer mementoes. Thf lynching of black-legs at Rockford, 111., and vicinity, was going on while I was on the road through Indiana and Illinois from Michigan to this place. The Driscols were shot and the gang dispersed. Perhaps the camp that I found was connected with the Rockford gang, and routed by <-he lynching league. I gave the grove in which their tools were found the name of bogus, by which cognomen it is known to this day.

Iii. By J. W. Stewart, 1857

The region of country embracing the county of Green, as it is now bounded, was not i)eopled by white men, and no tradition relating to it has come to my knowledge, prior to the year 1827. At tliat time we were attached to, or rather formed a part of, the county of Crawford, in the Territory of Michigan ; the county seat being at Prairie du Chien. The first white settlement in our limits, was at Sugar River Diggings, near the present village of Exeter. Two men by the name of Boner and McNutt, erected shanties for the purpose of trading with the Indians, at or about the p! ice where William

Davies' [Deviese's] furnace was afterwards erected - the same furnace wliich was afterwards held and used by Kemp & Collins, about one mile southwest of Exeter. This was in 1828 [J 827]. Soon after, during the same year, J. R. Blackraore, William Wallace and William Deviese came to Sugar River Diggings, and commenced operations in mining for lead ore.* The Indians had been engaged for many years, judging from the heaps of dirt, overgrown with grass, weeds and brush, in raising this valuable mineral ; and their discoveries led the whites to that particular locality, where the first settlement in the county commenced. The persons above named, together with a Frenchman [Dutchman] by the name of Van Sickle, who acted as interpreter for the traders. Boner and McNutt, and two men who settled further south, in the fall of the year, by the names of [John B.] Skinner and [Thomas] Neal, formed the entire population of the county in the fall of 1828. We would at once think, that with that little population of white men, surrounded by the savages, and separated by several miles from otlier white settlements, peace aiul order would be in the ascendency. All provisions, that were obtained, were purchased at srreat cost and trouble at Galena, All shared and felt as one family. And the malicious hand of homicide, we would suppose, would never be raised to reduce that little number. But unhappily, the same cause which produces so many cases now, operated then to accomplish the same result. [Here follows an account of the killing of Boner by McNutt, as given in Chapter XII, of this history].

* ' 'It must not be supposed that [Ebenezer] Brigham was the first white man - the first Ameiicm - at the [Bhie] Mounds ; but, although this was not the facf, yet he was the first permanent settler. Before him, as already explained, the diggings had been worked. ' William Deviese went there in the spring just before Brigham's arrival [the arrival of the last mentioned was in the spring of 18:J8], where he found two men named Moore, who were trading a little, in whisky at least, and one John Duncan, a very large and powerful man. But on the l:Jth of August [182S] Deviese moved to Sugar River Diggings, leaving James Hawlhorn to continue the work there. So, it seems certain that ISrigham, upon his arrival, found miners .at work at tlie [Mine] Mounds, but none of them nuide a permanent slay. John B. Skinner had at one time a furnace there." - F;om C. ^V. Butterfleld's HMnry of Dane County, irisvonain, 1880, p. 34". - En.

About the same time, and indeed some say the year before, 1827, Mr. John [B.] Skinner and [Thomas] Neal came to Skinner's creek, about five miles northwest of Monroe, and commenced mining, and erected a log smelting furnace, the first one in the county.* These men, together with those referred to at Sugar River Diggings, constituted the entire white population of the county for two or three years, and until the agricultural settlement was commenced, by Andrew Clarno and others, in the sottth part of the county.f

In 1829 William Davies [Deviese] built a furnace near the old trading house of Boner & McNutt, and the remains of this furnace, which are but a heap of ashes and cinders, overgrown with grass, in an open uncultivated prairie, form the only monument to mark the place of the tragedy we have narrated. The only Indian settlement in this county, at that time, was located near the present village of Dayton. There the Indians raised corn, and had an extensive encampment in the summer season.

In 18.30|. Andrew Clarno made a settlement on tlie old farm where his widow now resides, and which was the first agricultural improventent in the county. His name is perpetuated in the name of the town where he settled, and in which he continued to reside till his death, which occurred some four or five years since. He was a man of a warm and a generous heart, in whose company the writer has spent many pleasant hours, listening to his rude history of the times of the Black Hawk War. This war broke out in 1832, at which time Joseph Payne, whose name is familiar to all in this vicinity, had just erected and moved into a cabin, together with William Wallace, in the same neighborhood with Mr. Clarno, and at the first out-break of hostilities, on the 5th of May, they fled from their cabins with their families, and the same day their deserted houses were fired by the Indians. These fugitives camped the first night on the ground Avhere Monroe now stands. Here tliey spent a restless night, occasionally hearing the savage whoop of the blood thirsty Indians, but were lucky enough to get off undiscovered, with a quick and light tread, in the morning, in the direction of Hamilton's settlement, where they staid the next night,and thence to Fort Gratiot, where they re. mained till the close of the war.

About the year 1834, several new settlers came into our confines, and among them Leonard Ross, late of Exeter, and Hiram Rust, of Monroe; also, John W. Dennison and Abner Van Sant, who located about three miles southwest of Monroe. These last named gentlemen erected the first flouring-mill in the limits of this county. During the year 1835 the lands of this county first came into market, and the settlers were enabled to procure undisputed titles to their farms. The privations and hardships of the first settlers can only be understood and appreciated, from the lips of those who preceded us. Provisions bore an almost incredible price, and could not be obtained nearer than Galena, some fifty to seventy-five miles distance.

At the first session of the Wisconsin Territorial legislature, at Belmont, on the 9th of December, 1827, the county of Green, detached from the county of Iowa, was established. The county of Iowa, of which we then formed a part, was represented in the Territorial legislature in part by William Boyles,* of Monroe; and to him, as the representative of the region of the newly proposed county, was left the selection of the name to be given it; and he selected the name of Green - indicative of the bright color of the vegetation of this region. Another member of that legislature, with whom I conversed some years since, suggested to our member that Greene would be a more appropri- ate or inore honorable name in memory and honor of tlie distinguished Gen. Greene, of the revolutionary War; but the present name was preferred by Mr. Boyles, and, through courtesy, the name remained as desired by our immediate representative.

The act of the legislature, creating the county of Green, was passed, as already stated, at the first session of the Territorial legislature; and at the next session, held at Burlington, in what has since become Iowa, an act was passed, Jan. 15, 1838, fully organizing the county of Green for judicial purposes, and declaring the new county indebted to the mother county of Iowa for a proportion of the old county indebtedness. Notwithstanding the solemnity and force of legislative law, the people of Green, although often sued in the courts of the State, have refused, (whether justly or not, I will not here digress to say,) to pay the whole, or any part, of said indebtedness. And this war with old Iowa is the only war in which we have participated. Our miniature wars, as exhibited in personal broils, have been numerous, but such as are common to all civilized countries.

The first court of record ever held in Green county was the United States district court, Chief-Justice Charles Dunn pi'esiding, in April, 1838. The first clerk was the late George Mc- P^adden, of Dane county, who was shortly after succeeded by M. Bainbridge, Esq. After the first term, the United States courts were for many years presided over by Hon. David Irvin.

Although our growth, at the earliest stages of our existence as an independent county, was not so rapid as some others in the State, and consequently our influetice not so extensively felt in the Territorial and State governments, yet no county in Wisconsin has been, or is now, settled by a more industrious, enterprising and thrifty population. Tiie principle business of nearly her entire population has been, from the first, that of agriculture; and the consequence is, that her wealth is generously divided among all her citizens. Nearly the entire population have the means and the will to support themselves. Pauperism and crime, the sure concomitants of large commercial communities, have made no inroads within our borders; and taking into consideration the richness of our soil, the abundance of our timber, and the great number of our water-courses, we can certainly expect to rank as one of the best counties in our flourishing State. The county is about twenty-four miles square, having an area of 576 square miles; traversed through its center by the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, from east to west, passing through Monroe, the county seat. The south and west parts of the county are nearly covered with a heavy growth of timber. Walnut, ash, oak, sugar tree and linn exist in great abundance, affording great facilities for building, and the manufacture of all kinds of wooden wares. The population of Monroe, the principal town, is about 2,000, while that of the county, by the census of 1655, was 14,727, which has since largely increased. Decatur, Brodhead, Albany and Dayton are flourishing villages.

Iii. By Albert Salisbury, 1871

Moved by an interest in the early affairs of this, my native State, I spent a part of my last summer vacation in looking up and "interviewing" some of the surviving pioneers of this portion of Wisconsin.* True, it is rather late to be seeking reminiscences, but "better late than never," especially since the men whom I have dug up, as it were, have thus far been almost wholly overlooked in all the many narratives that concern their times. A speciat interest attaches to them, moreover, from the fact that they have so long survived the events which made up the chief episodes of their lives. William Dev'iese.

William Deviese was born March 16, 1793, near Huntersville, Pocahontas Co., Ya., of French and Scotch lineage. In March, 1826, at the age of thirty-three, he left Virginia, with a surveying party, bound for Arkansas; but on reaching the mouth of the Ohio, reports of the sickliness of the country caused him to turn aside into Illinois. At that time Cairo had hardly begun its existence, there being but a few "squatters" on or near its present site. Going on foot to Vandalia, he passed there the winter of 1826-7. There he saw Abraham Lincoln in the legislature then in session, f In the early spring of 1827, Deviese went by wagon to

St. Louis ; thence by steamboat to the Des Moines Rapids; thence on foot to ShuUsburg, Wis., stopping over night at Galena. At Vandalia he had made the acquaintance of James Hawthorn, who accompanied him on this journey and was his subsequent business partner. They reached ShuUsburg March 28, 1827. They found there a Dutch trader named Shull, and four or five cabins occupied by perhaps forty or fifty miners, mostly Irish.

Deviese began mining about three-quarters of a mile east of ShuUsburg, selling his ore to smelters. After spending a year here, he went, in the spring of 1828, to Blue Mounds, leaving llavvthorn to continue the work at ShuUsburg. At the Mounds he found tw^o men named Moore, who were trading a little, in whisky at least, and one John Duncan, afterwards well known throughout the region, and whom he thinks to have been the largest and most powerful man he ever saw.

Col. Ebenezer Brigham came to the Mounds soon after Deviese, and Jenkins and McCraney l)uilt a smelting furnace in the same year. It was while he was at Blue Mounds that the tragedy was enacted at Boner & McNutt's trading post, near what was afterwards Exeter village.* He had known Boner and McNutt at ShuUsburg. They had been led to establish themselves near Sugar river by the same information which also led Deviese to go thither at a later day for mining purposes. A man named Burks, in attempting to cross the Territory, had become lost, and liad chanced upon the Indian diggings while making his way towards Shullsburg, on horseback. Deviese, in his account of the Exeter affair, agrees substantially with that given by J. W. Stewart, in Vol. Ill, Wisconsin Historical Collections, except that he says that Van Sickle was not a Frenchman but a Dutchman - an excellent interpreter, but a great liar, * * *

In July, 1828, Deviese went down to this old trading post to prospect the old Indian diggings already mentioned, and afterwards known as Sugar River or Exeter Diggings. Being successful in "prospecting," he returned to the Mounds, and on August 12, of the same summer, he started to establish himself permanently on Sugar river, leaving Hawthorn to continue work at Blue Mounds, as he had before done at ShuUsburg. In the autumn, William Wallace and wife, and Josiah R. Blackmore, went down as employes. Blackmoi'e stayed two years. He is the man from whom Mr. Stewart chiefly derived his reminiscences of early da5's in Green county, and is .said to be still living at Warren, 111.

In the spring of 1 829, Deviese built a smelting furnace near the old stand of Boner & Mc- Nutt, one and a half miles west of Exeter. Other diggers had come down during the winte»', and his smelting business became quite lively in the summer of 1829. That summer he broke and planted a turnip patch. In the fall he went to Fulton and Peoria counties, Illinois, and brought up a drove of hogs. The following summer, 1830, he broke sixteen acres, and put in corn, pumpkins, turnips and oats.

The lead smelted meantime was hauled to Galena, by oxen, sometimes as high as eight yoke being attached to a single wagon. It commanded, generally, about eighty dollars a ton, but in the spring of 1829, it was very low, owing to the tariff excitement that accompanied the election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency.

of 1828, as stated by Mr. Stewart, that John B. Skinner and Thomas Neal commenced at Skinner's Diggings, a few miles north of Monroe.* Skinner had previously owned a furnace at Blue Mounds. Andrew Clarno was living with Skinner in 1830, and began on a farm in the town that bears his name, in 1831,f as Deviese thinks.

Deviese had all along done something at trading, besides his mining operations ; but in 1831, John Dougherty set up a trading stand on the present site of Exeter. This was a dull year, but Deviese kept on smelting with four employes, and put in a crop in 1832. * * *

[After the Black Hawk War was over, in which conflict Deviese took an active part,]* he went back to [what is now the town of] Exeter and began to re-build in the latter days of August or first of September [1832]. He found his oxen, cut hay, and re-established himself as best he could. He kept on smelting till the next year, when he sold his furnace to Dougherty ajid went to mining exclusively, continuing at this until 1850. By 1835, he had become worth a considerable figure, but suffered severely from the crash of 1837. It was estimated that during the time he was in the lead business, he made and spent (or lost) about $40,000. In 1835, Kemp & Collins bought out Dougherty. [What was then the village of] Exeter saw its palmiest days in 1839, 1840, and 1841 and was platted in 1843. In those days, a great deal of money was handled there, which is now, perhaps, the most forlorn hamlet in the State.

Thus far Deviese - almost in his own words, and without addition or embellishment; but, of the years that follow, he does not wish to speak. Some particulars were added concerning the

* See Mr. Stewart's stiiterufnt next procedins- this (ino of Mr. Salisbury, where he says : "About the same time 'that is, in IH:is|, aiul some say the year l)et'ore, ]83T, .Joliii [B.l Skinneraml [Tliomasl Xeal came to Skiimei-'s erei'k. about five mles northwest of Monroe." The idea Mr. Stewart desires to convey is, thflt "some say" they came in 18;7. IJut Mr. Deviese is undoubtedly correct as their not working in what Was afterward the "Skinner Dig'ging-s" until 18;J0. - Ed.

state of society among the early miners, the method of making claims, etc.; but, to our interrogatories touching later years, he quietly replied, - "that is all that is worth telling." Though in his seventy-ninth year, he seems to have clear and definite recollections of the interesting times now nearly half a century gone by, but has little or none of the boastful garrulity so often observed in men of his age and experience.

Since the Black Hawk War, he has but once been outside of [what are now] Green and Dane counties. A dozen years ago or more, he spent part of one summer in following up some indications of lead that he had seen while scouting in the Bad Ax country [now Vernon county] in 1832. For the past eighteen years he has been a member of the household of Hollis Crocker, residing tiiree miles west of Belleville, Dane county, whose wife, by the way, the mother of ten children, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Gratiot's Grove, Deviese has always lived a bachelor. As he says, - at the time he ought to have been marrying, he was going out of the marrying world into the wilderness.

"His most noticeable infirmity is a partial deafness. Though not vigorous, he is still able to walk to church every Sunday morning, a distance of over a mile. It may interest the few who may have known him in the days of his^ reverses, to learn that for the last sixteen years he has entirely abstained from strong drink, and lived an exemplary member of the Methodist church.

"Major Deviese has not been without some scanty and imperfect notice in the historical records of Wisconsin; but his name is always incorrectly given.*"

James Hawthorn. "Uncle Jimaiy Hawthorn" was born Oct. 22, no?, in Orange Co., N. Y., and lived in that region up to the age of nineteen. When New

York city was threatened in the War of 1812, though but a boy of sixteen, he was among the volunteers stationed at Brooklyn. Among his recollections of that time is that of seeing launched one of the earliest steamers on the North river.

"A young man iiad no chance there," and so with a view to make his own opportunities, he went on foot to Pittsburg in 1817, carrying his total effects in a knapsack. From Pittsburg a flat-boat conveyed him to the mouth of the Scioto; thence he went by land to an uncle then living near Old Chillicothe. After working at Chillicothe a year, he went on a flat-boat to New Orleans, and thence took passage for New York in a brig, for it was before the day of ocean steamers. He paid |25 for his passage, boarding himself.

After spending three years in his native county, he again clambered over the mountains to Pittsburg, and thence went on to Hamilton, Ohio. May 9, 1822, he started down the Big Miami on a flat-boat, loaded with flour, for New Orleans. He received $40 as wages for the trip. By this time there were several steamboats on the Mississippi, and on one of these he returned from New Orleans, at a fare of $12; the passage to Louisville occupying twenty two days.

.From Hamilton he next went to Edwardsville, 111., where he worked at "carpentering" about two years. He then went to Vandalia, where he worked for another two years. During the winter of 1826-7, he fell in with William Deviese; and in March, 1827, they left Vandalia for the mining country. Going by wagon to St. Louis, they there took passage for Galena on a steamboat; but, on account of low water, were unable to get over the rapids near what was then known as Fort Edwards. The captain of the boat refunded half the passage money, and a party of about twenty went forward on foot. From Rock Island they got their provisions carried by teams that were going uj). On Ap[)U' river they made a scanty breakfast of their last "grub," not knowing at that time anytliing about their distance from new supplies, but they reached Galena that afternoon.

Hawthorn and Deviese began mining near ShulLsburg, where Hawthorn remained till October, 1828, when he followed Deviese to Blue Mounds. 'J'here he found Col. Brigham, Jenkins* and Thomas McCraney, and, he thinks, Esau Johnson also. He remained at the Mounds about two years, mining there while Deviese was on Sugar river. [Here follows an account of the trial and acquittal of McNutt for the killing of Boner, as given in Chapter XII of this book.]

Another trial which excited much interest, was that of two men for the killing of Clopton. Clopton and Van Meter were traders near Dodgeville, and had become involved in a dispute with one Wells and another man, over a mineral claim. Matters had gone so far that Clopton and Van Meter were approaching the claim with the avowed purpose of driving off the other claimants, when they were fired upon by them. One ball passed through Van Meter's leg and hit Clopton, as did also the other ball. Wells and his comrade escaped, but a reward of $2,000 having been offered for their apprehension, they went into St. Louis, and got a lawyer named Bates, to deliver them up and take the reward as a fee for defending their case. Bates was the best lawyer in St. Louis, and, Hawthorn thinks, the same who was in later years Lincoln's Attorney-General.* They were acquitted.

At length Hawthorn and Deviese dissolved partnership, and Hawthorn went back to Shullsburg, where he prospected through the summer of 1830. He then went into partnership with

*Hon. Edwai'd Bates, who was born in Goochland Co., Va., Sept. 4, 179:5, and died at St. Louis, March 18G9, was at the period referred to, one of the most eminent jurists in the west. He settled in St. Louis in 1814, and subsecjuently filled many important positions, including that of Attorney-tieneral of the United States. --Ed.

John Armstrong, near Gratiot's Grove, where they worked a wet mine. They "ran up a water level," and cleared 13,000 in eighteen months. The mineral after smelting, was sent to Galena. A tax of one tenth was paid by the smelters to the government.

In the summer of 1832, he "sauntered about," staying for awhile at Funk's Block-house, as he had an excellent rifle, whose services the inmates of the Block-house were anxious to retain. In the autumn of that year, Hawthorn went to St. Louis, there bought a horse, and rode all the way to the Hudson river, a two months' trip, passing through Vandalia, Indianapolis and Chillicothe. He paid |65 for his horse, and sold it in Orange Co., N. Y., for $100.

The next spring, 1833, he came by way of Buffalo to Detroit. The stage then ran westward from Detroit only to St. Joseph, from which latter place he got conveyance by wagon to Chicago and Ottawa. From Ottawa he went by steamboat to St. Louis, and thenceto Dubuque, where the excitement over the new lead discoveries was then at its height. Dubuque then consisted of a few miners' shanties. Anticipations proved delusive. But little lead was found; cholera made its appearance, and as we may infer, a stampede ensued. In October, 1833, Hawthorn returned to Green county, and located the farm where he still lives, two miles south of what is now Monroe.

He relates that in the ensuing winter, as he was one day coming in from making rails in the woods, he saw his cabin door standing open the wrong way. Some Indian guns were standing outside, which he might have got possession of, had he retained proper presence of mind. He first stood in the door with his ax drawn, but then sprang for his own rifle which was hanging inside. He did not see an Indian ])ass him, but when he got back to the door, the nearest one was standing some distance away, with gun raised ready to shoot. The others were out of sight. Thirty or forty dollars in silver were in his saddlebags, but the attention of the Red-

Joe Paine, who afterwards killed a man and left the country, William Wallace and J. R. Blackmore, both formerly employes of Deviese at Exeter, and Andrew Clarno, were in the same vicinity before him. All had but twenty acres broke when Hawthorn came. Clarno broke his first land in 1830 or 1831. Hawthorn thinks wilh Deviese, that it was in 1830 that Skinner and Neal opened the diggings north of Monroe. After Hawthorn came Hiram Rust, Capt. Ross and others.

The first marriage in the settlement was that of Blackmore to Wallace's daughter, in the fall of 1834. Hawthorn was married next, in 1836; and after him, Cameron. The first white child born in Green county was Charles R. Deniston, in 1834.

"Uncle Jimmy" is still living on the farm that he opened in 1833, and, though not married till the age of thirty-nine, has raised thirteen children, some of whom are already pioneering in the far west. He is still a hale, jolly man - well-to-do in the world, and likely to remain therein for years to come.*

French Lake is, in the fullest accei^tation of the term, an original character. Pie is one ot nature's greatest successes in the line of oddities. No connected narrative could be obtained from him, he was so fearful of getting into print.

He is a Virginian by birth, having begun life in that part of the Old Dominion which was devastated by the Potomac army. He is still a Virginian; has visited his native region since the war; is as bitter over its ruin as any lover of the "Lost Cause" can possibly be; and "</o(?.<< not wish to be identified loith Wiscofisin at (ill,'''' tiiuugh a resident since May, 1828. "

Woe betide the writer hereof, should this sketch ever come to the eyes of "old Lake." When I was first introduced to him on the street, a dozen men had gathered in the corner store to see what manner of reception I would meet. As I proceeded to make my wishes known, I was somewhat apprehensive, after all that I had been told, of his ample cowhide boots; but all went well until the idea of publication began to develop, when, with an emphatic and profane explosion, he bolted for the other side of the street. Nothing daunted, however, I gave pursuit, and the final result was a promise that if I could find my way out to his place some day he would talk over old times.

He lives in "Spring Grove Woods," about eight miles southwest of Brodhead, and four or five miles southeast of Juda. Like all the old Virginian and Peimsylvanian settlers of this region, he had selected the close vicinity of a spring as the necessary place to build; and so I found him living close by the site of his original cabin, which is still standing, though built thirty-five years ago, and surrounded on all sides by heavy timber, with his nearest plow land nearly half a mile away. He owns, if I remember rightly, over 1,200 acres of land, all valuable timber or plow land. He raises large numbers of horses, sometimes keeping them strangers to the harness till eight or ten years old, refusing all offers, even though extravagant; while, on the other hand, a man that strikes his fancy may very likely get a team at half the real value. In all other traffic he is no less eccentric.

I obtained from him an account of the battle of the Pecatonica, which he had received from a young fellow called "Pony Fletcher," who was a participant; but after all that has been said about that little fight, it is hardly worth while to add yet another version. * * *

Lake left Blue Mounds in the autumn of 1833. After the opening of the land office at Green Bay, he, with a few others, went thither to enter land. They went to Fort Winnebago, and followed down the Fox river, walking the wiiole distance except tlie last day's journey, for which they hired passage in a canoe.

On his return, he, with another man, took a contract to furnish the troops at Fort Winnebago with hay, and spent the autumn in hay making upon the Portage marshes. They made well at it, earning from $:5 to |4 each per day - no small sum in those days.

He settled at his present abode in May, 1836, living for many years a bachelor; but is now a widower, with growing sons and daughters. And, with all his peculiarities, the State has many citizens whom it could better spare than French Lake.*

I presume an old pioneer, who has resided in Wisconsin for fifty-seven years, will not appeal in vain to the State Historical Society for space to set aright his own services, and to vindicate the truth of history.

I was born in Montreal, Canada, Oct. 4, 1804, and left there in the spring of 1816, for the Selkirk colony on Red river; went there in the canoes of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and paid |>45 for my passage. While there, I was employed by the fur company to go on business through the Cariboo mountains to the Pacific coast. After many hardships and adventures, I returned to the Selkirk settlement; and, in the fall of 1819, went to Prairie du Chien.

*Mr. Lake is styj ^884) living at his old homo. +In a sketch of several Greoil county pioneers, which was printed some years ago, retiection was made on the character of Mr. Beouchard, charging him with having burned the buildings, goods and tools of Wm. Dev.ese and .lohn Dougherty at Sugar Kiver Diggings - this, apparently, in revenge, on account of some disagreement with Douglierty. It was added that Mr. Beouchard was a boastful, re\engeful, worthless fellow. Also, several of the facts related in Dr. Beouchard's narrative given in Smith's History of Wisconsin, were disputed and contradl'ted; and Mr. Beouchard was further spoken of disrfSpectfuliy. The sketch spoken of was that written by Albert Sa.isbury to be lound in this chapter; but the reflections upon Mr. Beouchard we have in this connection thought best to omit. Mr. Salisbury made them on the avithority and dictation of Mr. Deviese and French Lake. What these several allegations were will suflicieiitly appear in Mr. Beouchard's denial. - Ed.

son came to Galena in 1822, I desire to set this error aright. I was, in that year, at Prairie du Chien, running a keel-boat on the Mississippi for Jean Brunet and one Disbrow. Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was then stopping at Prairie du Chien - the same who had served at the battle of the Thames, and has since figured so prominently in public life. It was then that Old Buck, a Fox Indian, not a Winnebago,came to Prairie du Chien to sell some diggings he had on Fevre river, near Galena. Col. R. M. Johnson, in the fall of that year, hired the boat of the owners, Brunet and Disbrow, and they sent me down with him, in charge of the boat, to Fevre river; and I had orders that if Johnson bought the diggings of the Indian, Old Buck, and wanted some help to put ixp cabins, to remain and assist him in the matter. He bought the diggings, and I aided in putting up three houses in 1822. Johnson then started for Kentucky, and left at the diggings Thomas January, Amos Farrar,one Anderson, nick-named "Kentuck," myself, and two other Frenchmen, one of whom was named Trepanere and the other Barney. I sent back the boat and hands to Brunet; and by request of Johnson, and consent of Brunet, I staid there that winter, Johnson never returned; but in June, 1823, James Johnson, his brother, came with provisions, tools and several Negroes.

Major Legate mentions that Col. Johnson sent me with goods with which to buy old Buck's diggings. I only conveyed Col. R. M. Johnson from Prairie du Chien to Galena, with his goods, to buy them. I am certain that it is a mistake that anybody came to Galena in the fall of 1822 from (Cincinnati ; but a good many did come in the spring of 1823. During the winter of 1821-22, there were but the six of us there all winter, whom I have named.

After Col. James Johnson's arrival, I quit working for the Johnsons, and engaged in the employ of A. P. Van Meter and David G. Bates, continuing with them until the spring of 1826, when I went to digging mineral on my own

Sometime in August, 1828, in company with John Sweetslow and Major Adney as partners, I came from the mouth of Big Platte, to Sugar River Diggings, at Exeter ; my partners not liking the place, soon took their departure. About that time Mr. Deviese came there, and proposed to join me in digging mineral and trading with the Indians, and I accepted his offer, but he had no interest in the smelting business. We then sent to Galena for provisions and goods, and in the meanwhile put up cabins and went to work. The Indians troubled us a good deal. The Winnebago village of "Spotted Arm" was about eight miles north, and that of "White Breast" about twelve or fifteen miles south of our diggings, on Sugar river ; each of which had about eight or ten Indian houses. Now Mr. Deviese knew very well that he could not stop there, had I not been there myself to keep the Indians off. It is well known that Mr. Deviese and I had three houses at Exeter, near to each other, with a garden spot ; we built them as partners, and had an equal ownership in them. He says I burnt his place to spite a man by the name of Dougherty; now that man Dougherty had no property there at all, but he had a cabin about a mile and a half, east of us ; and I can prove in Mineral Point to tins day, that had I felt disposed to do so, I could have cow-hided that Dougherty any time that I chose. Had I wanted to injure such a man, is it reasonable to suppose that I would burn my own, and my partner's houses and property to sjjite him ? On the contrary, from Mr. Deviese's own statement, is it not reasonable to conclude that the Indians burned them during his absence that summer of the war?

Mr. Deviese makes his statement as though I was not at Sugar river during all this early period. I was there, however, all the time, up to April, 1832, when I left. I did not sell or transfer my interest in the liouses and improvements because I intended to return, but the war soon breaking out, I did not go back until May, 1833. When I departed from Sugar river in April, J 832, there was not, according to mj' judgment, 5,000 pounds of mineral at the diggings. From that time until May, 1833, the period during which the buildings and property at Exeter, on Sugar river, were burned, I state unequivocally that I was never nearer Sugar river than the Blue Mounds, Mineral Point and Col. William S. Hamilton's, at Wiota; I did not, and could not, have burned them. Messrs. Deviese and Lake have done me great wrong and injustice, to wait forty years, and then make such misstatements. I never heard of these accusations until I saw them published, and cannot imagine any reason, why Major Deviese should do so, never having had any disagreement him, and he having paid me a friendly visit, and spent several days at my house in Mineral Point, long since the occurrence of these transactions. As to French Lake, it may be that he does it out of revenge ; for when I commanded the fort at the Blue Mounds, I was obliged several times to reprove him.

The battle of the Pecatonica occurred on the 16th of June, 1832. Mr. Deviese says that one man came up after the battle, "spoiling for a fight." He seems to refer to me, for I was the first who came. I had command of a party of friendly Winnebagoes on foot,* who, of course, could not travel as fast as Dodge's command on horseback, but I was not more than 400 yards behind. When I got up to the battle ground I was ahead of my Indian party. Adjt. Woodbridge told me that he had shot one of the hostile Indians as he was rising the bank on the opposite side of the pond. By that time two or three of my Indians had overtaken me. I told them of the one Woodbridge had shot, when they went around the pond, found the dead Indian, and brought back his scalp. They

Mr. Deviese says tliat Col. Hamilton was absent from his station, Port Hamilton, just after the fight was over, and the dead Indians and their guns and their lances were found; Col. Hamilton came up with his party of friendly Menomonees. My Winnebagoes now asked Col. Hamilton's Indians to take some scalps; they said: "No, the scalps don't belong to us, they belong to him" - pointing to Gen. Dodge - meaning that they, the Menomonees, were too proud to appropriate and display scalps from enemies whom they had not slain.

We then went to Col. Hamilton's fort at Wiota, and started home. When we arived at the fort at Dodgeville, Gen. Dodge ordered me to go to the Wisconsin river and collect all the Winnebagoes that I could get to go with us to Rock river, after the Sacs and Foxes. On the 20th of June, 1832, I was ready to start; I was then at the Blue Mounds. My horse being ready, and while taking leave of my friends, George Force and a man by the name of Green, started to ride out. Presently we heard the firing of guns; I spoke and said that they were Indian gutis. On looking in the direction of the gun reports, we saw Green running toward the fort, and a good many Indians after hi in. I threw the baggage off my horse, and started to meet him, but the Indians overtook Iiini before he got half-way to the fort. I saw a good many around him, perhaps fifteen or twenty. On reaching the fort, I told the people, and then started for Gen. Dodge's at the Dodgeville fort about half-past eight in the morning. I reached there at 10 o'clock, and gave the general intelligence of the presence and depredations of the Indians. I then returned to the Blue Mounds, and found that two men had gone after Thomas McCraney and his family, who were then living on their place between the Mounds and Peter's Grove, and I started after the body of Green,

Previously, on the 0th of June, when Capt. James Aubrey was killed, I started out from the fort by myself to get his body, and after I had gone a half mile or so, John Dalby and Jefferson Smith came after me on horse back to assist me, and we got the captain's body and brought it in. I had, on that occasion, asked Lieut. Force to go with me, to get Capt. Aubrey's body, but he refused to go, and I told him if he got killed, and was only six feet off, I would not go for his bod3^ When Force and Green were killed, on June 20, and I went and got Green's remains, and brought them to the fort, they asked me if I would hold, spite against a dead man. I replied that I would do what I said, whether a man was dead or alive, and Lieut. Force's body lay where it fell for four days.

While at Gen. Dodge's, my orders about going to the Wisconsin, to collect Winnebagoes, were countermanded. Four days afterward. Gen. Dodge and his troops came to the Blue Mounds fort, buried Lieut. Force, Col. Gratiot being present at the burial. Gen. Dodge told me that I would have to go with the army to pilot them to Rock river, and if need be, to act as interpreter. After preparations we started, and kept on until we got out of provisions; when we reached Fort Winnebago, my horse got lame, and I w\as sent back as express to Dodge's Fort. I remained there until the battle of the Wisconsin, when I was ordered with a party of men to go to Helena to build rafts, on which to cross the army in pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

The next morning after we got there, one of the guards told me that my horse and others were in the field of Mrs. Green. I jumped up and ran into the field, the grass and everything was wet, and I got wet up to my neck and by 10 o'clock I was ahnost speechless. Gen. Dodge sent me back to his fort, with some other men, who had lame horses, or were themselves unwell. I remained there until after the battle of Bad Ax. After the capture of Black Hawk, I had to go to Rock Island to make my return to the commissioner, Gen. Winfield Scott, of my agency at the Blue Mounds, and of the delivery to me, at the Mounds, of the captive Hall girls, by the Winnebagoes. When Capt. James Aubrey was killed at the Blue Mounds, I, as lieutenant, succeeded in command at the fort there. So soon as Gen. Dodge came, he ordered an election for captain, and I was beaten by one vote. Col. Gratiot, Indian agent, then appointed me his sub-agent, to look after and care for the Winnebagoes about the Mounds. On my return to the Blue Mounds, I was ordered to Fort Winnebago, to receive four Winnebago Indians, who had joined the Sauks during the war. I staid there until they were brought to me, and I delivered them to Capt. Plympton, commander at that place, and there I was discharged, Nov. 19, 1832.

Now, I do not want to speak of a man after he is dead; but for the sake of truth, I must say oiie thing about the rescue of the Hall girls, as given by John Messersmith in Gen. W. R. Smith's History of Wisconsin. Had I seen the account before, I would have given it a notice. Mr. Messersmith says that an express came to the Blue Mounds, and they found that the dispatch with which he was charged was on public business, and they prevailed on me to open it, as perhaps it would be of benefit to us all.

In the first organization of the militia at the Blue Mounds, I was elected first lieutenant; Messersmith, McCraney and some others did not like to be commanded, using a rough prefix to the word, by a "foreigner," and the same rude language was used at the election for captain, after Aubrey's death.

Now I leave it to anybody that knows me, if I would go to men who were mj- enemies for informalion or instruction. No, sir: it is well known that at that time the commander, in addition to his military duties, acted as postmaster; now this express arrived there after Capt. Aubrey's death, and I, as lieutenant, had succeeded to the command. There were present Col. Ebenezer Brigham, Esau Johnson, John C. Kellogg, and others of my friends, who supported me. Messersmith had no more to do with the letter or express than the man in the moon. On getting the letter, I spoke to Col. Brigham and others of ray friends, and by their advice opened and read it to the crowd; then sealed it up, and got a man by the name of Henry Starr to take it to Gen. Dodge, who was requested to send it on to Col. Gratiot; he did so, and Starr returned to the Blue Mounds.

An old settler, wliom I do not now remember, has said that Col. Hamilton went to Dubuque and got Menomonee and Sioux Indians to the number of 500 for the Black Hawk War. This is a mistake, so far as the Sioux are concerned, for the Sioux and Menomonees were always at war; when they met at Prairie du Chien, or at other places, they always attacked each other. I only saw Col. Hamilton's Indians at the battle of the Pecatonica, and I think he had thirty or forty, possibly fifty or sixty, and all Menomonees; and my Winnebagoes were generally about fifty or sixty. But this seems to be the way in which history is too often written.

In May, 1833, I returned to my old diggings at Exeter. Mr. Deviese was not there. After cleaning up what mineral I had there, I went to Dubuque and remained there until 1834, when I came to Mineral Point, where 1 have since resided. I was some time at Centerville, on Blue river, and some time at the New Diggings.

I have no knowledge of Grant, who is said to have given name to Grant river, and since to the county of that name. Grant river was so called when I first came to Prairie du Chien in 1819.

For forty-two years Mineral Point has been my" lionie, and I am satisfied that none of my old neighbors, those who have known me longest and best, and for whose good opinion I care the most, will give any credence to unkind and unworthy reflections cast upon me. Those who know nie best, T am sure, will acquit me of all such charges and insinuations as foreign to ray character and nature.

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

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

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

From Madison back to Monroe, there was no mode of conveyance, and I made this journey on foot, in one day. It was then fully forty miles by the meanderings of the road. There were no bridges, and I was obliged to wade Sugar river and its tributaries as well as several large marshes, in some of which the track lay knee-deep under water, and I suffered severely with the rheumatism in consequence thereof. In the latter part of May, of the same year [1838], I made another trip to Madison, when I negotiated with Mr. Peck for the Madison House, and in the month of June removed ray family there and took possession as the landlord.*

*Says Mrs Koseliiie Peck : "The old log- house, which we used ns a hotel I'or over a year, thvu leased, or reiiti d t») K. L. Ueani, and by him kept as a house of entertaiiiiueiit until we left th'' place, has since been removed. Mi-. Ream was the taihtu' of Vinnio Id am, who was born in the cabin after we left it." It is hardly neeessaiy to say that A'innie is the famous American sculptor. She is the wife of Richard L. Hoxie. - En.

twenty-three miles in a northeast direction from the city of Hartford, in that State. When I was about three years old my parents moved into tlie State of New York and located about 100 miles west of Albany, in the town of Madison, Madison county, on the Cherry Valley turnpike road, or thoroughfare from Albany to Buffalo. My parents lived there till the death of ray mother in 1837. My life up to near that time was occupied at least till I was about twenty-one years of age in assisting father in procuring the necessary things for our daily living - spiced with some little wanderings as to locality to near the time of my majority, but always with the knowledge and consent of my parents. A part of this time I was at work in a cotton mill at low wages (|1 per week, including board and washing) was supposed to be learning the trade of managing or overseeing the carding room; but they instructed me slowly, keeping me most of the time at cleaning the cards. After one month's work at that, I could do it as well as the best and as quick also; but after some nine month's labor at that craft, I bid the cotton-mill good day and sought some more lucrative business and found it in being a farm hand. I soon was able to command the wages of a common hand to-wit: $8 per month, washing and mending thrown in. This was in the summer season ; in the winter I found work at threshing out grain with a flail and got every tenth bushel of wheat, and for rye and oats I sometimes got every eighth or ninth bushel. Sometimes this included my board. At other times I got an occasional job of cutting a few cords of wood at twenty-five cents per cord and boardbig myself, or twenty cents per cord and boarded. The timber was mostly beech, sugar and maple. In the spring of 1827, I started for Chautauqua Co., N. Y., some 250 miles from home ; and there I found work with an old school-mate at |10 per month and washing. That year, about the 1st of June, Gen. La Fayette passed through Fredonia on his way e:\st. The nulitary, in that vicinity, were all called out to give the general a reception, and most nobly did they obey the call, thinking themselves highly honored to assist in the reception of a man who had assisted, both by his sword and purse, the colonies in their struggle for that freedom which they were then enjoying.

The general, by special request, took the overland route from Cleveland to Fredonia, and thence three miles to Dunkirk, where a steamer awaited to carry him to Buffalo. It was expected that he would arrive about 1 or 2 o'clock p. M., so, in order to have things ready at the proper moment, they improvised a sort of telegraphic communication for some fifteen miles above by putting trusty men on the housetops along the line with a flag which was to be raised as soon as the general arrived at the first station; and that was the signal for the man at the second station to raise his flag; and his flag raised was the signal for the next man to raise his; and so on to the last one. But, witl) delays and receptions, he did not arrive till between 1 and 2 o'clock in the night; then a reception-speech and answer, and the military passing in review, and each one shaking hands with him, detained him so long that it was not till sunrise that he reached Dunkirk, w^here the steamer was still in waiting to convey him to Buffalo.

Fredonia was illuminated with a lighted candle at each light of glass in every front window and at Buffalo, there was a similar illumination.

The next winter, by the aid of friends, I got a school in a back district, as teacher, at |8 per month, and boarded among the scholars. In the spring, or forepart of the summer, I attended a select school more particularly to get a better knowledge of grammar. The teacher was known as a good grammarian and a fair writer. These comprised most of his qualities as a teacher. The next winter I got a school at $ 1 2 per month, and the succeeding winter at ^13, atsame place. My health not being good, I found light work, atteiuling bar at a hotel or tavern, and other light work, till the fall of 1835, when I found myself some two and a half miles down the Susquehanna, below Wilkesbarre, where I kept a school for three terms. I then took a wife and started the same day, for Wisconsin, where my wife hac^a brother, John Inman. We took a steamer at Buffalo, for Michigan City, where my wife had several relations; but when we arrived at Chicago we were politely told if we would wait till they got ready they would take us there.

After a few days spent there in visiting, we started for Wisconsin where we arrived on the 13th day of September, 1836, with provisions sufficient to last us five or six weeks, and between $84 and $85 in money, without a stove or the first hoof of any stock. My wife, for some four years, had the charge of her brother's son, a lad then some ten or eleven years old. She boarded, clothed and schooled the lad for four years without any pay, though he supposed she was getting her pay quarterly.

We moved into his (Mr. Inman's) house just below Janesville, mine making the eighth family in Rock county. The house was a log one, 12x14 feet inside, with a fire-place about half in the house, and the other half out doors, and the chimney entirely outside. The house had one window by the side of the door, consisting of two lights of glass, 8x10 inches. The door was made of shakes nailed to two sticks, with a sort of wood hinge. There was a wood latch, the same being raised with a string.

Mr. Inman got a team and went to CI)icago for some winter provisions, where he got some sour flour at $7 per barrel and two barrels of pork, at $20 cash. lie also got a few groceries such as coffee, tea and sugar with some rice. He there learned that his brother with a large family would be along in a few days. Finding his load of provisions heavy, he left one barrel of pork some twenty-five miles out from Chicago, which he afterward sold for $45. The pork we got was of a miserable quality, poor and scant of salt and soured. It consisted of heads and shanks, hardly affording fat sufiacient to cook itself in; but, bad as it was, what with all of us together it did not last till January. We could get fish all we wanted but we lacked any fat to cook them with. No butter, no milk, no grease of any kind.

About Christmas Richard Inman moved on to his claim a little above Afton on the east side of Rock river. We (that is, my wife; her girl, say eleven years old; John Inman and his boy) by dint of good management, made our flour last until the middle of February, when I went to Rockford with one of my neighbors, - he to get grain for his horses and I to get flour. There had been a thaw the day before we started which made it difficult to cross ravines. Sometimes we had to go up them and at other times, down. At Roscoe, we had to cross a small stream which was swollen. It was without a bridge and the water had washed off the snow and left the banks icy and very slippery. A person living on the opposite side told us to keep up as high as we could and we tried to cross according to his direction; but the current took both horses and wagon down stream, so that my neighbor jumped into the water and got hold of the horses bits but could not get them over. I then jumped into the water and got ahead of him and took hold of one of his hands to help him and the team out, but as I stood on smooth and slippery ground, I could help but little. The man living there then waded into the stream and took my hand, by which assistance we got the team and wagon out and across the stream, but we were wet to the middle. We went into the house to dry ourselves and finally staid there all night. We went to Rockford next day where I bought a barrel of flour at $16 offering to take two at $15 each, which was refused. On our return, we passed through Rockton where we.foujid two barrels of flour at $15 each of which my neigh- bor took one and I took the other. We left them there, with the understanding that I should take his team and get them home in two or three weeks. The Turtle creek atBeloithad then became impassable for teams to cross; but I got across by the help of some of the halfbreeds living on the north side, who took me across in a canoe, and I made tracks for home. When this flour was gone I bought another barrel of Daniel Smiley, now living in Albany, Wis., paying him |19 for it. When that was gone (which was not till after harvest) I went to Fox river above Elgin and got flour there. Along in April and May, when we had to live on flour and tish, we could hardly keep body and soul together. As to myself, I know I could hardly walk straight from mere weakness; but as vegetation came forward we got a few greens to boil, and seasoning them to some extent with wild onions, they certainly made a change of diet and little more relish. I also got an old Indian shot-gun about this time, and could once in a while get a duck, which made a sort of a feast for us. If it was a small one, it was better than none at all; but as we had some garden and a little corn, and in the summer raised some buckwheat, the next winter was passed quite comfortable.

I, that winter, kept a school - the first one kept in Rock county, and had for one of my scholars Daniel Stone, now living at or near the mouth of the Catfish.

In the spring of 1838 there was to be elected in the district then comprising Rock, Walworth, Racine and Kenosha counties, three county commissioners and one assessor; - and as there were two sets of candidates, there was considerable strife as to which should be the successful party. As I had previously held some written communications with the sheriff of this district, he and Fred. S. Lovell came to my house to enlist my services toward electing their favorites, in which I became a cheerful volunteer; and as I then knew every man in the county, it was supposed I might be worth to them more than a niere

I learned that the assessor could appoint as many deputies as he pleased. I made application for the place of deputy assessor for Rock county, which I obtained without difliculty; but it was necessary that I should go to Kenosha or Southport to be sworn into ofiice by the said Lovell, who had been appointed as clerk of the board of commissioners - distance sixty-five miles. This journey I made on foot, there and back, in three days.

There were but few inhabitants at this time in Rock county, and none of them on the west side of Rock river, nor was there any land to assess in the district except on the west side of Rock river. After providing myself with plats from the land office at Milwaukee, showing the entries of lands, I proceeded to the assessment of that part of my district. At one time I was four days on the west side assessing, using the plats as best I could, endeavoring to find at night some wood and water near each other. I often, when thus assessing, thought what a laughable picture I should present to my fi-iends at the east, by representing me with a quilt on my back for a bed at night, my provisions in a sack, with a coffee-pot on the top of my pack to make ray coffee in, and a tin dipper to be used as occasion might require, - and myself examining my plats to see what I should assess.

It was part of my duty to call to my aid two assistants whgn assessing city or village lots. There was at this time, no less than four cities or villages in each county to be thus assessed, some of which had been surveyed and staked out and others merely platted on paper. Lots were usually assessed at 25 to 30 cents each for corner ones, and for inside lots 15 to 20 cents each.

As I passed along, I took something of a description of the country for future use. The entries were mostly fractions on the river, or heavy timber in the interior, and were assessed from Si. 50 to S3 per acre.

At the time I made ray assessment return to the board of coram issioners, the sheriff, Edgar R. Huganin, who was ex-officio collector of taxes, proposed to rae to collect the taxes in Rock county, but thinking it would not prove to be a lucrative business, I declined his offer, telling hira, however, that I thought I knew a person who perhaps would like the position. On inquiry, I ascertained that I could get no one whora I would recommend, and so informed him by letter. In the latter part of August, or fore part of September, he came to Rock county to post up some election notices, when he again asked to take the collection of taxes in Rock county, but as my ideas were that I would not get much pay, I again declined. However, I made him the offer to do the collecting for fifty cents a day, but if I had to be away from home over night he should pay my bills. This offer he declined to accept ; but still urged me to accept the position, saying he would not ask me any bonus, and further said he had no doubt but that I could made more than fifty cents per day clear. He said he would not come there and collect the taxes for all he could get. He would sooner pay the personal property taxes himself than bother with them.

As I felt under some obligation to him, I told him I would take the collection of the taxes as we had talked Jibout before, provided I could get bondsmen satisfactory. On his return home, he sent me a blank bond except as to the amount, which I got some of my friends to sign, and I returned the same to hira. I shortly afterward got the appointment in due form to simply collect the taxes due from the residents of the county. This would not have paid me fifty cents per day, but I got some taxes paid by non resident holders of land on the west side of the river.

I had to publish a notice of sale of lands for taxes due as delinquent, but as there was no newspaper published in either of these counties, I had to go to Milwaukee to have the i)ublication made as required. When the time came to sell the lands, the sheriff was on hand to pay the taxes on some lands to the amount of some $30 more or less. I had to open the sales however, and I offered a few pieces of which were rapidly sold. I then stopped to take the taxes from individual owners of land who were present. I soon took in' over |100, and then again I coramenced selling, which was done as quick as I could call off the description of the land with the taxes and costs added. Bidders were so plenty that they sat around a large table and each took his turn in the bidding. When I finally closed the sale, I found I had averaged some $4 per day instead of fifty cents, and that after giving Mr. Hugunin the taxes which he was to pay me, a prouder fellow in rags than myself one did not often meet.

The next season I bought on time, the land on both sides of Bass creek, near its mouth, and where Afton now stands; but after putting up a house and doing some fencing, I sold out the next season, and in the spring afterward removed to Green county. Two years after my settlement in Green county, I was elected assessor for the four east townships in the county, and was re-elected. I was then elected as county commissioner and subsequently was honored with a seat in the first Constitutional Convention. Not far from this time Alvinza Hayward proposed to me to buy some law books with him and go into the practice of law, I told him it was ail proper for him to commence the study of law, but as to myself I was too old to undertake to study a profession.

'J'he following winter after the suggestion of buying some law books by Mr. Playward, of which I have spoken, he went into the pinery on the Wisconsin river, and worked in a logging camp, and when the raft went out he went with it to St. Louis where the raft was sold and he was paid off. He then bought -il>130 worth of law books and came l)ack to his home in Exeter, where he again made the proposition to sell me one-half interest in the books, and both study them as best we might, he keeping a part and I a part; we were to exchange as we might desire. It becoming known in that neighborhood that I had an interest in the books, and rather aspiring to make myself somewhat acquainted with law proceedings, I "was occasionally called upon to plead some plain cases, (as most clients have plain cases, any way) with Mr. Hayward as opposing counsel. In one of the first suits tried, when we called a certain witness on the stand to give his testimony in the case, Mr. Haywai'd objected *to him, as he intended to impeach his testimony. My reply was, that possibly the witness might not state any thing objectionable to his case, and that, at least, he should wait till the witness gave in his testimony before he attempted to impeach it - to which he said he should not object. We were then, both of us, as ignorant of the rules of impeachment as we were of tli.e Bible, if not more so. After the witness had given in liis testimony, Mr. Hayward called on a man as an impeacliing vvitness, and after the iinppacliiiig witness was sworn, Mr. Hayward asked him if he was acquainted with such a man (witness to be impe.uhed). Answer, "yes." Second question: "Would you l)eli.eve him under oath?" Answer, "No, I would not." He then turned the M'itness over tome for cross examination. First question: "Has this man ever been convicted of crime, punishable by imprisonment for a length of time in the States prison, and not pardoned?" "No, I dont think he was ever in any States prison." Second qu(>stioti : "Do j'ou live near nim?" Answer: "Yes." Third question: "Is he a fair neighbor?" Answer: "Yes, one of the best I ever knew." Fourth question: "Well, if a good neighbor, and you have noktidwledge of his ever committing a crime, why would you not believe him under oath?" Answer: "I once heard him say that if he had a brother who had perhaps committed a crime (when in reality, the person injured was the aggressor), and the officers in pursuit should call on me to know if my brother was not there, (although I had in reality secreted him), I would deny it, as was done in a case that had occurred in the county some time previous - and under like circumstances, he would do as that other man had done."

Counsel for defence asked if I had no other questions, as he liked the way I was doing. He had merely asked the witness if he would believe the witness under oath - but that proved the reason why and thus strengthened the point beyond a cavil or doubt. In his remarks to the court and jury he said the plaintiff had no case, as the testimony of the impeached witness must be taken for nothing, and that being thrown out, we had no case (which was true).

In answer to Mr. Hayward, I replied that he had not impeached our witness at all ; but, if there was any impeachment, the impeaching witness had impeached himself. He swears he would not believe him under oath, and yet he believes him some when not under oath, and could only make the case applicable when a paiallel case was under examination. Such was jiot the case then and there to be tried. I further stated this riddle for counsel and jury to unravel: When a man says he lies, does he lie or does he speak tlie truth. If he speaks the truth then he lies and if he lies he speaks the truth. The jury decided the suit by giving me the case, which proved to be a feather in my cap.