Iowa County, Wisconsin - Some of La Fayette County's Illustrious Dead, 1881 (part 2 of 2)

Judge Strong was pre-eminently a self-made man, arriving at such a measure of success as he achieved in life through his own energy and worlli of character. A good type of tiie early pioneer of the West, a warm-hearted friend, a liberal citizen and a thoroughly honest man. Was a Democrat, and leading politician.

was born at Plattsburg, N. Y., in 1826. He received his college education, and left home and came West in 1848. He mined in the lead mines of Wisconsin until 1851, when, in partnership with John A<lams, he engaged in the mercantile business at West Blue Mounds and Dodgeville. During this partnership, he built the Adamsville Mill, and continued the milling business until 1858, when he dissolved partnership and retired from business. Upon the death of Stephen Ansley - then County Judge - in the spring of 1864. John Bonner was appointed by the Governor as his successor. He was elected by the people for the ensuing term at the April election in 1864. This office he held until his death, which occurred in the fall of 1867. He died and was buried at Dodgeville. He was a charter member of the Dodgeville Masonic Lodge. He was a very competent business man, and possessed traits of character that rendered him universally admired.

George Jiui.Ks

At one time, among the shining lights of the Iowa County bar, prominently appeared the name of George Mulks. He was born in New York State ; came West before 1850, and settled at ShuUsburg, La Fayette County. Here he studied law with J. H. Knowlton ; was admitted to the bar ami for some years practiced his chosen profession here, and, later, with Mr. Knowlton, at Janesville. In 1861, he was employed by Hon. Amasa Cobb to attend his law business during his absence in the war. Here he remained until 1864, when he took his departure for the gold mines of Idaho, and was one of the first white men at Helena City, in that Territory. He returned to Wisconsin in the fall of 1868, and entered into partnership with S. W. Reese, Esq., at Dodgeville, where he remained until his death. He perished in a severe snow-storm, in the town of Linden, while laboring under a fit of temporary insanity, in March, 1871. His body was found in April of 1871, and buried in the Dodgeville Cemetery. He was a man of fine address, clear intellect, and one of the brightest lawyers in Southern Wisconsin. He was strictlyJionest, and loved his profession more than money. He was forty-five years of age when he died.

Hon. George L. Frost

George L. Frost, who was for many years one of the representative men of Iowa County, was born at Springfield, Mass., March 18, 1830, and died very suddenly, February 15, 1879. at Madison, where he was then performing the duties of Assemblyman for the county. He first attended school at Wilson's Academy. Eivsthampton, Mass., where he took a rudimentary and college preparatory course ; then, in 1846, he entered Yale College, from which institution he graduated with honors in 1850. Eventually, he entered the Harvard Law School, where he acquired his legal training and completed his education. From the foregoing, it will be seen that he was a thoroughly accomplished scholar and lawyer.

In 1853, Mr. Frost came West, and finally located at Mineral Point, where, in connection with Dodgeville. he made his home until his death. The various public ofliiccs filled by him with integrity and, it may be added, great ability, may thus be summed up: He waa elected District Attorney in 1854; Superintendent of Mineral Point Public Schools in 1862; State Senator in 1863, and Assemblyman in 1879. He was a candidate for Circuit Judge in 1864, but was defeated. Mr. Frost, it is generally acknowledged, was a man of sound judgment, and unusually fine legal attainments. lie was also a brilliant and graceful orator. Like the speakers of old Sparta, he could say much in a few words. He never spoke long, but to the point, and what he uttered was couched in such terms as to be easily understood by any audience.

During Mr. Frost's last term of office, he was a member of the Judiciary Committee, in which capacity he served with considerable distinction. His last public speech was made in opposition to the bill for the establishment of the whipping-post, that relic of barbarism, for the punishment of tramps. He claimed that the use of the lash was against the better sentiments and common usages of civilized man, and said in eloquent and impressive terms : " If we establish this law, we shall go back to the line of civilization and restore barbarism." It is said that " Mr. Frost was too thoroughly honest to establish an enviable law reputation," the natural inference being, that to succeed in the legal profession, a person must be more "wise than nice." His funeral obsequies, both in Madison and at home in Dodgeville, where he was taken to be buried, were performed with distinguished honor to his memory and worth. Mr. Frost was twice married. His first wife, by whom he bad five sons, has been dead over twelve years. His second wife and a little son are now residents of Dodgeville. He thus leaves a widow and si.x sons to mourn his loss.

entered into rest October, 1848. He was born in Stratford, Conn., July 4, 1796. Removed to Madison County, N. Y., where he studied medicine and practiced his profession fifteen years at Fayetteville. He removed to Michigan City, Ind., in 1836, and to Mineral Point in 1843. From the first, he took front rank in the profession, having graduated with high honors, and, being possessed of very fine natural abilities, and being of an earnest, social and genial nature, it eminently fitted him for the bedside, so much so that it was a common saying among his patrons that " his genial face was worth more than his remedies."

His good lady is still living, hale and hearty, aged eighty-three. Two sons and two daughters survive him. R. D., the old-time druggist; Rev. Samuel D., a church clergyman of no mean rank ; Laura A., wife of George W. Cobb, Superintendent of the railroad ; and Esther M., wife of Hon. M. M. Cothren, now Circuit Judge.

Maj. Charles F. Legate

was of American parentage and was born on the family estate at Legate's Hill, near Leominster, Worcester Co., Mass., October 13, 1804. He received his education at the Worcester Academy, devoting much of his time to civil engineering, which proved of inestimable value to him in his after life. After completing his academic course, he went to Boston and there learned the gilder's trade, which business he carried on in Boston, and Providence, R. I., until early in 1836, when he came West, arriving in Galena, 111., in the spring of this year. Here he remained until the spring of 1837, when he settled at Mineral Point, and, being a man of considerable ability and intelligence, soon became extensively known among the early settlers, and especially so throughout the lead region. In 1837, he built the smelt-furnace now run by James Spensley, and continued in the smelting business until 1848, when he sold out and removed to the village. He was then appointed District Surveyor and Government Land Agent, being for some time engaged in the sale of land warrants. In 1853, he was appointed Inspector of Surveys and Assistant Deputy United States Surveyor, which position he held until 1864, when he was employed as mapping clerk in the Secretary of State's office at Madison. Here he was engaged until January, 1874, arriving home the 8th of this month, and, after a brief illness, died January 14, 1874. While in Mineral Point, the Major lield various city offices, being its first Mayor. He was a man of rare worth, of a naturally quiet disposition, hospitable, kind and generous to the deserving.

He was married in 1824, in Hartford, Conn., to Eraaline M. Shepard, who is now living with her daughter in Mineral Point. The result of this union was a large family of children, only four of whom survive - Charles T., now in Virginia City, Nev. ; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Craft, at Woodland, Cal. ; Charlotta, now Mrs. Prideaux, at Mineral Point; and Francis A., now Mrs. Van Buren, at Montfort, Grant Co., Wis.

Edward D. Beouchard was born in Montreal, Canada, October 4, 1804, and died in Mineral Point, Wis., on March 22. 1881. In the spring of 1816, when scarcely twelve years of age, he " moved West," going to the Selkirk Settlement on Red River, and from there to the Pacific coast ; while there, he was employed by the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and, on their business he traveled through the since celebrated auriferous Caribou Mountains. After enduring the hardships of that then almost unknown country, he made his way East again by way of the Selkirk Settlement, and, in the fall of 1819. he arrived at Prairie du Chien. He there engaged as a boatman, in the employ of Jean Brunet and one Dishrow ; and, in the fall of 1822, Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, having hired a boat of Brunet and Disbrow for the purpose, the boat commanded by Beouchard was sent with Col. Johnson, his men, tools and supplies to Galena, ^where the Colonel purchased the celebrated "Buck Lead" from the Fox Indian of that name. By direction of his employers, Beouchard .sent the boat back to Prairie du Cliien. remaining with Col. Johnson's party. They erected three log cabins near the mine, and worked there the succeeding winter. Then Beouchard was employed by A. P. Van Matre and David G. Bates about their smelting works, near Galena, until the spring of 1826. That spring, in company with eight others, he went on a prospecting tour, and they discovered the *" New Diggings," where Beouchard had very good success. In the fall of 1828, after having discovered diggings in Grant County, with others, he went to the Sugar River Diggings in Green County, where he had very good diggings, and established a store or trading-post. This place he left in the spring of 1832, so soon as he heard of the breaking-out of the Black Hawk war. After the war was over, he returned to his trading-post at Exeter, in May, 1833, and found that during the war the Indians had burned the buildings and destroyed all the property left there.

In his roving and trading life with the Indians, he had become familiar with their character, habits and disposition ; partly knew several of their languages, and .spoke the Winnebago language like a native. Early in the war, he was actively serving his country as interpreter, express rider and soldier under Gen. Dodge. When the militia was first organized at the Blue Mounds, he was elected First Lieutenant of the company in "Mound Fort," at that place. I.'nder the authority of Gen. Dodge and Col. Gratiot, then Indian Agent, he recruited and commanded fifty or sixty friendly Winnebagoes, who did good service during the war ; and it was Beouchard who sent out the Winnebago chief, Wa-kon-kah, with others, to rescue the Hall girls from the Sacs; and it was he, who, on 3d of June, 1832, bravely rode out to the Indians, and brought into the " Mound Fort" the captured Hall girls, who, on May 22, 1832, at Indian Creek, near Ottawa, III., witnessed the cruel butchery of ther parents, brothers and sisters and others (fifteen in all), and had been carried into captivity by the Sacs. If a fearless rider was wanted who would faithfully carry express, orders or news, through a foe-ambusheil cmntry, from one fort to another, or to undertake any dangerous mission, the writer has heard Gen. Dodge say that he could always rely on Beouchard.

On June 6, 1832, the Indians killed James Aubrey, who was the Captain at Mound Fort; at Mrs. Aubrey's request, Beouchard started by himself to get the body of Aubrey: before going, he requested Lieut. Force to accompany him, but the Lieutenant refused, and Beouchard said to him, "that if he were killed and his body were only six feet off. he wouldn't get it." After B. had gone a half mile on the way, two others from the fort joined him, and they brought in the mutilated body of Aubrey. On June 20 after, Lieut. Force and one Green were killed, Beouchard went out by himself and brought to his wife the horribly mutilated remains of Green ; others in the Fort wanted him to bring in the body of Lieut. Force, saying he ought not to hold spite against a deail man. He replied "that he would keep his word whether a man was dead or alive," anil Lieut. Force's body lay where it fell for four days, when Gen. Dodge came to the Fort with some troops raised about Platteville. and buried it. The act and remark were characteristic of the bravery and chivalrous honor of the man. After the war, he mined at Dubuque until 1834, then at Mineral Point, New Diggings and Centerville, until in 1847, when he joined Col. Collins' regiment of Illinois volunteers, and honorably served as a soldier during the Mexican war. Since then he has resided in Mineral Point, except a few years in Diamond Grove, most of the time being engaged in some business, until the last ten or twelve years, during which time his health was so poor that he was obliged to retire from an active life and rely for support upon the pension he liad earned in the service of his country, he, like nearly all the pioneers, being so possessed of generosity, hospitality, and all their accompanying virtues, that it was not possible for them to accumulate much of this world's goods. He was married in 18.52, and leaves surviving him a widow and five sons.

Dr. Burrall was born at Stockbridge, Mass., October 18, 1824. His early education was received in the common schools of his native place, and when twenty years of age he graduated from Williams College. He then began the study of medicine with Dr. H. H. Child, an eminent physician of Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated as an M. D. from the Berkshire Medical College in 1847. After one year's successful practice in the famous Bellevue Hospital in New York, he came West, locating at Perry, III. Here his skill as a physician and admirable qualifications as a man were soon recognized, and a brilliant future appeared before him. He remained here but a year, however, when he came to Wisconsin in 1849, and settled at Dodgeville, and here began the battle of life. His energetic character and practical ability soon secured to him numerous friends and an extensive and lucrative practice.

His intellectual parts were more solid than showy, more useful than ornamental. His aim was success, and he sought it in the slow but sure and solid pathways of industry and perseverance. He knew the r;ice was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. He saw the prize of victory in the far distance waiting for all who would labor to achieve it ; and he entered upon the pursuit, not with the impulsive flights of genius, but with the steady gait of practical common sense. He valued and appreciated learning in all its branches, and for all its legitimate purposes, and strove patiently and laboriously to acquire an extensive knowledge of sound literature.

Dr. Burrall was gentle, courteous and truthful. There was no malignity in his nature. All who knew him loved him. He was a gentleman, too, with graceful manners and refined tastes. He was dignified without being pretentious, cheerful and sunny in his disposition, generous and obliging, with a vein of quiet humor that made him a pleasant and welcome companion. In his home he was hospitable to the last degree, and was never happier than when entertaining his friends. He attracted friends to him and won their attachment by his magnetic influences, and forever held them by his faithfulness to them under all circumstances.

In the death of Dr. Burrall, Dodgeville lost an enterprising and influential citizen - one who was ever alive in advancing the interests of the village in which his Western home was located. His zeal in promoting every village improvement never flagged, and his labors have "been effective in the procurement of many things that have resulted in the advancement of Dodgeville.

He was married on the 22d day of May, 18G1, to Miss Hester Nelson, of Dodgeville. The fruits of this union were two children - Lucy II. and George W., both of whom survive him.

For some time before his death the Doctor had been feeling unwell, but he was confident that he would be able to answer a portion of his numerous professional calls, and while attending a sick child in the village, on the evening of March 8, 1881, was suddenly stricken with an apoplectic fit. After being removed to his home, there was a slight rallying from this prostration, but only sufllicient to kindle a hope in the minds of his anxious friends to be immediately blasted. The best of medical skill and the kindest attention that friends could bestow were of no avail. Death had marked him as an early victim, and no human power could save him. He died March 9, 1881.

The funeral ceremonies were imposing. People came from all parts of the county to pay their last tribute of affection to their deceased friend, attesting the deep reapeot in which he was held while living. There was hardly a town in the county that was not represented at the funeral, and the Doctor's spacious residence afforded room for but a small portion of those present.

Thus passed away from earth and friends a kind and affectionate husband, a considerate and indulgent father, a generous and obliging citizen.

On a sunny slope in Dodgeville Cemetery, in that " windowless palace of rest," lies all that was mortal of Dr. George W. Burrall. The hands of affection will plant shrubs around it,

In their odorous beauty around it waye. Through all the sunny hours - The still, bright sunny hours ; And the birds shall sing in the tufted grass,