Green County, Wisconsin - Chapter 24, 1884

Literature

In the domain of English literature, there has been, in Green county, no one in the past, nor is there one at the present time, who has achieved a national reputation nor even, perhaps, one co-extensive with the limits of the State; but several have written fugitive pieces of poetry published in the county papers of considerable merit; and there are not a few who, in prose, have done themselves equal credit. One book, however, has been written in Green county, of a high order of meiit, and is deserving of special commendation. It is the "Historjof Green County, Wisconsin," by Helen M. Bingham. It was published in 1877 and is a small 12 rao. volume of 310 pages. The author, in her excellent preface, says:

"In the effo.it to make this history correct, a great many letters have been written, and a great many visits have been made in the several towns. Assistance has been received from over 200 persons, more than one-fourth of whom came to the county before 1840, some of them before 18:50. With all the avidity of Dryden's reaper, who

"With just one plea in its behalf, the history is now submitted to the people of Green county. The plea is this: It is often said, though whether the saying originated with an unsuccessful historian cannot now be ascertained, that 'that people is most fortunate whose history is most wearisome to read.' Will those to whom this history is the dullest and most monotonous of books have the charity to infer that Green is the most fortunate of counties?"

But the fair author is altogether too modest. She has written a book which is neither dull nor monotonous, and one which, it may safely be said, has been fortunate for Green county. It is the best county history, not biographical, written by any Wisconsin historian. The style of the author is terse and lively and her generalizations are marked with much more than ordinary ability. There is but one matter of regret connected with the publication of JVIiss Bingham's history., and that is, that so few of the citizens of Green county liave purchased the book and attentively perused it. It is worthy a careful reading by all.

Helen Maria 'Bingham was born in Monroe, Green Co., Wis., Oct. 10, 1845. She is the daughter of the late Judge John A. Bingham and Caroline E. Bingham, {nee Churchill) who is still living, and is a resident of Green county. Dr. Bingham received her early education in Monroe. She afterwards attended the State University at Madison and Lombard University, in Galesburg, 111., graduating from the latter in 1867. She has taught school not only in Wisconsin but in Arkansas, and was, at one time, an instructor, in lier Alma Mater. She was, also, employed for awhile on the Janesville Gazette. She is the author of the "History of Green County, Wisconsin," published in 1877, mention of which has already been made in this chapter. In the fall of 1877, Miss Bingham went to Boston, and the succesd- ing spring began the study of medicine. She graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine, in June, 1881, with hon9rs. In January, 1882, she established herself in the practice of her profession in Milwaukee, where she now (1884) resides.

Extracts From The Monroe Sentinel

Helen Bingham, daughter of the late John A. Bingham, of this place, will take up the editorial pen and scissors for the Janesville Gazette,next Monday or Tuesday, as assistant editor. Miss Bingham is a young lady of good taste, education, and, what is worth still more, is possessed of that rare quality, good common sense. She will undoubtedly make an efficient and valuable acquisition to the Gazette, as a writer and compiler of entertaining and instructive reading. We wish her success in her new vocation.

Monroe, March 1, 1876. The undersigned residents of Monroe feeling confident of your ability to give an entertaining and instructive lecture upon some literary subject of your own choice, extend to you a pressing invitation to do so at some future time, to be selected by youi'self, for the benefit of the Young Ladies' High School Literaiy Society :

I thank you for the invitation of Mai'ch 1. I am anxious for the society to succeed in the the work it has undertaken. Therefore, though I feel that you have done me an unmerited honor, I accept the invitation, leaving the time of the lecture to be determined by the society.

Helen M. Bingham will lecture at the Universalist Church, on Tuesday evening, March 2], upon the "Early History of Monroe." Miss Bingham has lived here all her life. Her father came to Monroe in 1841, and was the first county judge of this county.

Science

The attention of the people of Green county, as well as of those of other counties of the State, have of late years been drawn 'more and more to the importance of a scientific education as one calculated not only to develop the powers of the mind, but easily to be put in practice. In this utilitarian age, mere theories go for little. What is demanded is that which is practical. Knowledge is perpetuated and aided by literature ; systematized, by science. As one of Green county's representative men in a profession dealing largely with scientific research, mentioned may be made of

Joseph T. Dodge, who was born at Barre, Vt., May 16, 1823, and who is the son of Joseph and Azubah (Thompson) Dodge, both natives of the same place. The "Dodge" family in the United States is now very numerous, but believed to have a common ancestor. A large branch of it has descended in a direct line from Richard Dodge, a native of England, m'Iio became a citizen of Salem, Mass., Aug. 29,1638. A well authetiticated family register, in possession of our subject, shows liiin to be a lineal descendant of the said Richard in the seventh generation, the intermediate linkw in the genealogical chain being

Joseph, a younger son of (Ricliard), born 1651; Joseph, Jr., born 1676; Elijah, born April 18, 1 709. Thus far the family had continued to reside in Beverly, Mass., originally a part of Salem. Elijah married Dorcas KroAvn and removed to Winchester, N. H., where he died at a ripe old age, and where his wife also died, October 1809, aged 100 years and six months. He had three SODS - Elijah, Joseph and Nathaniel Brown. The last named married Lydia Barber, in 1761, and removed to Barre, Vt., where he raised a large family, and died in 1823. One of his sons, Asa, born in 1770, married Abigail Blodgett, and became the father of Joseph, who was born in 1795, and who married Azubah Thompson, in 1818, and became the father of our subject, who perpetuates his name (which seems to have been a favorite patronymic with the family) affixing to it, liowever, the maiden name of his mother. Thus far the successive generations had been tillers of the soil and had by the sweat of their brows wrung a frugal subsistence from the rocky hill sides of their native New England. Their habits were simple, their lives blameless and contented; they were a hardy and long-lived race, blessed with physical vigor and vital force, and were not disobedient to the divine injunction regarding the perpetuation of their kind. On the maternal side our subject is descended from James Thompson, a native of the north of Ireland, of Scotch Covenanter stock, born 1671, who emigrated to America in 1712, in company with his son Samuel, born 1698, and settled in Holden, Mass. The latter was the father of Capt. Samuel Thompson, born 1735, who served in the Revolutionary War, four of whose sons and two of whose daughters afterward settled in Barre, Vt. The Thompsons also belong to the agricultural classes, and were mainlv long-lived. The mother of our subject, however, was an exception to the rule; she died at the age of thirty-three, and bequeathed to her son a slender frame but an active nervous organization. Joseph Thompson Dodge attended the common d istrict school till the age of sixteen. I

1839 he entered Newberry Seminary, where he was prepared for Dartmouth College, which he entered in 1841, but not enjoying the atmosphere of the institution, he was honorably dismissed by letter at the end of one year, and admitted to Vermont University, from which he graduated with honors in 1845, ranking the first in his class in mathematics. During the latter part of his college experience he determined to devote his life to the profession of civil engineering, the various lines of railroad then in course of construction and in contemplation seeming to offer an inviting field in this department. The Vermont Central Railroad Company, then being organized, afforded the desired opening, and he served an apprenticeship of three years as assistant engineer of this road, and until the completion of the work. The building of a railroad through this part of Vermont was, perhaps, the best school of discipline that an incipient in the art of enginery could have enjoyed, and proved to be an excellent recommendation to him in after life. In 1849 he was employed to make the preliminary survey for a projected railroad from Montpelier to Bradford, Vt., by the way of his native town of Barre. Having completed this, he, in the following autumn, removed to the west, and after visiting the principal cities of Illinois and Missouri, accepted a subordinate position on the macadamized roads of St. Louis county, in the last named State, his principal being J. B.Moulton, Esq., who has since played a conspicuous part in developing that city and the State of Missouri, and for nine months had charge of the work on the St. Charles road. In 1850 he engineered the Illinois Coal Company's railroad, from East St. Louis to Caseyville, 111. Soon after the completion of the track, hovrever, all the bridges and embankments were swept away by the high floods of the Mississippi which occurred in 1851. The disaster proved to be a serious loss to the company, and for a time laid an embargo on the work. In 1852 be obtained na contract on the Missouri Pacific Railroad and spent that year in directing the work, but tlie climate proving injurious to his liealth, he resolved to move farther northward, and in the spring of 1853 settled in Milwaukee, Wis., and during the five years following was engaged in engineering on Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, having control of the work, first from Stoughton to Madison, and afterwards from Janesville to Monroe. During this period he invested largely in real estate in the county of Green and in the city of Monroe, and thereby laid the foundation of the large estate that has so amply rewarded his industry and wisdom.

The money panic which prevailed in 1857 and following years laid a temporary embargo on railroad construction, and Mr. Dodge retired to the then village of Monroe, and was employed by the corporation to take the oversight of the improvements provided for in the new charter, which he carried to successful completion. In 1860-61 he published a very complete map of Green county and the State of Wisconsin, which has since been the standard authority on matters of geography within its scope. During the last named year he also served several months as clerk of the mustering and disbursing ofticer of the United States army at Madison. From January, 1862, to July, 1863, he was principal of the high schools of Monroe, a position for which his thorough education and large experience eminently fitted him. In the autumn of 1863 he was employed on the Minnesota Central Railroad and placed in charge of the woi'k between Minneapolis and St. Paul. He also engineered the Winona & St. Peter Railroad from Rochester to Kasson, and made its location through Dodge and Steele counties. In 1866 he made the location of the La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott Railroad, but owing to a difference of opinion which arose between himself and the officers of the company, he i*esigned his position and for a time retired with his family to his early home in Vermont. Returning to Monroe in April, 1867, he bought a three-fourths interest in the Monroe Planing

Mill Company, of which he intended to take the management, but receiving an overture from the general government, he spent the following year in making a survey of the battlefields in the Atlanta campaigy. For the next three years, ending March, 1871, he was resident engineer of the Winona division of the St. Paul & Chicago Railroad, and during the two succeeding years held the position of chief engineer of the line, completing the work at La Crescent.

It is'worthy of note here, as illustrating the accuracy of Mr. Dodge, as an accountant, that although during the last named period, over $1,000,000 had been disbursed by him, yet, a rigid audit of the accounts, failed to reveal an error of even one cent. Subsequently he was chief engineer of the Hastings & Dakota Railroad, and directed its construction from Carver to Glencoe. He also engineered the McGregor & Missouri River Railroad, from Algona to Spencer, Iowa. At this point we will make a slight digression, in order to place on record a matter of history, which cannot be otherwise than gratifying to our subject. In the fall of 1871, he had made the location of the St. Paul & Chicago Railroad, from Winona to La Crescent, and after a careful survey of the river - its banks, channels, islands and bottom lands - for two miles, he made a location of the bridge that was to span its channel at La Crosse, and connect that line with the La Crosse division of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, which was immediately staked out, and has since become celebrated, as the location of the La Crosse bridge. The citizens of La Crosse, however, interposed objections to the proposed site, because it did not terminate in the heart of their city, and much local feeling was engendered by the circumstance. The late secretary of war, Gen. Belknap, lent himself to the citizens of La Crosse, and appointed a commission of three government engineers, who twice reported against the location in question. An injunction was obtained from the United States circuit court, to restrain the company from proceeding with 'the construction of the bridge, but the court in rendering the opinion conimented 'so severely upon the injustice of the proceeding, that the opinion itself became one of the strongest grounds for contesting the decision. In the trial of the case, six of the most eminent civil engineers of the northwest had given their testimony, in the most emphatic manner, in favor of Mr, Dodge's location, and their report ultimately proved the turning point in the case. After a flight of years all obstacles were finally removed, and now a magnificent triumph of engineering skill spans the "Father of Waters" at La Crosse, having been completed and put in operation during the centennial year of the republic, and tlie wisdom and skill of our subject have received the most flattering indorsements and commendation from the most eminent engineers of the county. The name of Mr. Dodge is indissolubly connected with that magnificent enterprise.

The panic of 1873 being followed by a persistent "granger crusade" against railroads, nearly all public works were, in that year, suspended, and the year following, our subject made an extensive tour in Enurpe,visiting many of the cities and monuments of art and science in tliat distinguished quarter of the globe. In November, 1875, he removed his family to Monroe, from Madison, where he had resided for some years, and took charge of his interest in the planing mill, which he had owned since 1807. Mr. Dodge was raised in the communion of the Methodist Church, to which his ancestors for several generations belonged, but his theological views have undergone a change; he now attends the Universalist Church. He is in politics a republican, although reared a democrat. He having, in early life, become indoctrinated with anti-slavery principles, he joined the republican party soon after its organization, and is still identified withit. On the 24th of October, 1850, Mr. Dodge married Melissa J. Marble, of North Hartland, Vt. This union has been blessed with a family of one son and three daughters: - Joseph, Marion, Florence and Mattie. In 1862, his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of M. A., and in 1S75, the still more complimentary distinction of Ph. D., an honor worthily bestowed,

As the kindred art of poetry and music, that painting is gradually gaining a prominence in Green county, as, indeed, all over our country. That which illustrates knowledge is certainly worthy the consideration of the greatest and best of minds; and, in all ages of the world, it has received it, but not more generally than at the present time. The growing desire of the matrons of Green county to adorn their dwellings with beautiful pictures is one of the "signs of the times" of the progress of enlightened culture right here at home. The labor of the artist is more and more appreciated. This is as it should be. To the people of Green county we Avould say, cultivate the fine arts.

Wilbe)' O. Woodworth war born in Monroe, May 7, 1861. He is the son of W. P. Woodworth and Almira Prescott Woodworth, both of whom are now living. The subject of this sketch was educated in the schools of Monroe. He early developed a talent for drawing and received his first instruction of H. G. Austin of Monroe in colors, at about the age of eighteen years. Mr. Woodworth's flrst paintings were landscapes. Two paintings - Mt. Washington and Hoosatonic - have attracted much attention. Portrait painting, however, with Mr. Woodworth is more of a specialty than landscape. One deserving of particular attention is an antique portrait of the mother of Mrs. A. Ludlow. Mr. Woodworth has received advantages in his artistic career in sojourning in the east, studying master-pieces and typical scenery, and in Chicago, where he has spent much time with profit. He has taught large classes in painting and drawing in Monroe, with flattering and deserved success. Mr. Woodworth is unmarried.