Rock County, Wisconsin - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 3 of those read), 1908 (part 3 of 11)

The commissions of the officers of the territory were not received until the arrival of Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the territory, on July 15, when the governor, attended by his secretary and the judges, made a formal public entry into the village of Marietta and was received by General Putnam on the part of the citizens. An address was delivered by the governor and the ordinance of 1787 read by the secretary, and the government of the Northwest territory duly inaugurated.

On the 25th of July, the first legislative act of the governor and judges was passed. It was entitled "A law for the regulating and establishing the militia." It was passed by the governor and Judges Parsons and Varnum.

Historic Evolution Of Rock Count V 99

Immediately thereafter the governor by proclamation created Washington county, embracing that portion of the present state of Ohio lying east of the Cuyahoga and Scioto rivers.

On the 25th of August, 1788, an act was passed by the governor and judges creating and establishing general courts of quarter sessions of the peace and county courts of common pleas and also creating the office of sheriff. The act provided for a court in each county, styled the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, which was to hold four terms in every year in each county and a County Court of Common Pleas to hold two terms a year in each county.

On the 2d of September, 1788, the judicial system of the territory was inaugurated by suitable ceremonies. The territorial government of the first grade was then fully established.

By the fifth section of the ordinance of 1787 the governor and judges, or a majority of them, were authorized to adopt and publish such laws of the original states as were best suited to the circumstances of the territory and report them to congress from time to time and which should remain in force until the organization of a general assembly, unless disapproved by congress.

The government of the first grade continued in operation until September 16, 1799. During its existence many statutes from other states were adopted and where statutes were desired, that could not be found in the laws of other states, the governor and judges exercised legislative power and passed and published such laws as they deemed necessary.

In 1798, a census of the territory was taken by which it appeared that the population was sufficient to authorize the election of representatives to a general assembly. On the 29th of October, 1798, Governor St. Clair issued a proclamation calling an election of representatives to the first general assembly of the territory, to be held on the third Monday of December, 1798, and requiring the members when elected to meet at Cincinnati on the 4th of February, 1799, to nominate ten persons for the legislative council. The house of representatives consisted of twenty-two members, representing nine counties, including Knox county, which then embraced Wisconsin.

"As soon as representatives shall be elected the governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when met they shall nominate ten persons, resident in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in 500 acres of land, and return their names to congress, five of whom congress shall appoint and commission to serve" as the legislative council.

The representatives met in Cincinnati on the 4th of February, 1799, made their nomination and adjourned to the IGth of September, when they again met, but there being no quorum present, the two houses did not organize until the 24th of September, when Governor St. Clair delivered an address.

This was the end of the government of the first grade in the northAvest territory. Some of the laws that were adopted or enacted by the governor and judges are of interest as showing what laws have been in force in the state of Wisconsin and in our county.

Section 5, of chapter 6, of the laws of 1788, respecting crimes and punishments, provided that one convicted of burglary should "be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes and furnish sureties for good behavior for a term not exceeding three years." The crimes of robbery and perjury were similarly punished. One guilty of forgery was "to be set in the pillory, not exceeding the space of three hours." For drunkenness one was to be "fined for the first offense five dimes, and for every succeeding offense" one dollar, and in case of the offender's neglect or refusal to pay the fine to "be set in stocks for the space of one hour."

Laws were passed strongly condemning the use of profane language and recommending the observance of the Sabbath. Very strict laws in relation to divorce, gambling, vice and immorality and the sale of intoxicating liquors were passed. Many other laws covering various subjects of legislation, were adopted or enacted during the existence of the government of the first grade.

The first duty of the council and the house of representatives after its organization as a government of the second grade was the election of a delegate to the national congress. On October 3, 1799, the two houses met in joint convention to elect a delegate. The names of but two candidates were presented. Twenty-on6

The fifth article of the ordinance provided that there should be formed in the territory not less than three nor more than five states; that if but three states were formed the western state should be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers, and a line drawn from the Wabash at Vincennes due north to the line between the United States and Canada, and on the north by the north line of the United States. The middle state should be bounded on the west by the east line of the western state and on the east by a line due north from the mouth of the Great Miami river to the line between the United States and Canada. The eastern state should be bounded by the easterly line of the middle state and on the east by the Ohio river, the west line of Pennsylvania and the line between the United States and Canada. It was also provided by said section that congress should have authority to form one or two states "north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan."

If three states were formed, Wisconsin would be in the western state. If five were formed, Wisconsin would be in the western state north of the line running "through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan."

On the 7th of May, 1800, an act was passed by congress to take effect July 4, 1800, dividing the Northwest territory by a line beginning on the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river and running northerly to Fort Recovery, and thence north to the line between the United States and Canada. That portion of the Northwest territory lying east of the above line was to be called the Northwest territory and that portion lying west of that line was to be called Indiana territory, and its capital to be Vincennes. The territory embraced in the state of Wisconsin, therefore, became a portion of Indiana territory.

After this division the government of the second grade was continued in that portion that became the Northwest territory. The population of the new Indiana territory was not sufficient to authorize a government of the second grade and it was, therefore, provided by the act of congress that the government of that territory should be of the first grade, consisting of a governor, a secretary and three judges.

In pursuance of the above act of congress, the president appointed "William Henry Harrison governor of Indiana territory; John Gibson, secretary; AYilliam Clarke, Henry Vanderburg and John Griffin, judges.

On July 4, 1800, the government of Indiana territory began, although the governor did not arrive until January 10, 1801, and the territorial court did not convene until March 3 of the same year.

Tlie white population of Indiana territory in 1800 was 5,641. Of these sixty-five were at Prairie du Chien and on the upper Mississippi and fifty at Green Bay. A large majority of the population were French, who remained in the territory after the cession by France to Great Britain.

Governor Harrison w^as a Virginian. He was born at Berkley, Va.. on the 9th of February, 1773. His father was Benjamin Harrison, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and one of th^ early governors of Virginia. He was a descendant of Colonel John Harrison, one of the judges who tried and condemned Charles I, and who, after the restoration, and under Charles II, was tried, convicted and executed. Governor Harrison was educated at Hampden-Sidney college, Virginia. When the Indian troubles began in 1791, he enlisted and was appointed an ensign in the First Infantry, August 16, 1791. He was promoted to a lieutenancy, June 2, 1792, and joined the army under General Anthony Wayne. He participated in several engagements and was complimented for gallantry. He was made a captain, May 15, 1797, and placed in command of Fort Washington. He resigned his commission June 1, 1798, and was appointed by President Adams secretary of the Northwest territory, but resigned in October, 1799, to take his seat in congress as a delegate from the territory. When the new territory of Indiana V7as formed he was appointed the governor thereof and

Early in 1811 the Indians became troublesome. Harrison, with a small force, completed Fort Harrison, at Terre Haute, Indiana, and then marched to Tippecanoe, where, on November 7. he was attacked by the Indians and defeated them.

On August 22, 1812, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army and on INIarch 2, 1813, received the commission of a major general.

He defeated the British General Proctor at the battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, and resigned his commission May 31, 1814. He was defeated for president of the United States in 1836 by Van Buren, but was elected president in 1840, was inaugurated March 4, 1841, and died April 4 of the same year.

On January 12, 1800, a meeting of the governor and judges was held at Vincennes. At this session six laws were passed and three resolutions adopted. The laws that were in force in the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio before its division were regarded as in force in the new territory.

The wide domain lying west of the Mississippi that Spain had claimed and had ceded to France Avas by that nation ceded to the United States in 1803. That portion of it lying south of thirty-three degrees north latitude was organized into a territory named the Territory of Orleans and the northern portion was organized into a territory named District of Louisiana. In 1804, the governor and judges of the Territory of Indiana were made the governor and judges of the District of Louisiana. The two territories were kept separate, but both were governed by the same governor and judges at the same time.

The population of Indiana territory increased so rapidly that it soon grew into the condition that entitled it to a government of the second grade. On August 4, 1804, Governor Harrison by proclamation directed elections to be held on September 11, to give the people an opportunity to express their desire with reference to the adoption of a government of the second grade. The notice of the election was not widely circulated and the vote was small, but there was a majority of 138 in favor of the change. Thereupon the governor, by proclamation, declared that the terri-

The representatives elected convened at Vincennes February 1, 1805, and made nominations for the council. From those nominated the President appointed the council and a government of the second grade was inaugurated.

By an act of congress, approved January 11, 1805, all of that portion of Indiana territory lying north of a line drawn east from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie and east of a line drawn from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan through the middle of that lake to its northern boundary and to the northern boundary line of the United States was formed into a new territory by the name of Michigan. The act provided that the form of government for such territory should be the same as that provided by the ordinance of 1787 for the territory northwest of the Ohio.

Under the provisions of this act, the president appointed William Hull governor of the new territory, Augustus B. Woodward, chief justice, and Frederick Bates and John Griffin, associate judges.

Early in 1809 an act was passed by congress dividing Indiana territory. The act provided that from and after the first day of March, 1809, that part of Indiana territory which lies west of the Wabash river and a direct line from the Wabash at Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, should constitute a separate territory and be called Illinois.

By this act of congress, the territory embraced within the state of Wisconsin was separated from Indiana territory and became a part of the Territory of Illinois.

On March 7, 1809, John Boyle was appointed governor of the Territory of Illinois, but declined to accept the office and Ninian Edwards was, on April 24, appointed governor.

On March 7 Nathaniel Pope was appointed secretary. On the same day the following judges were appointed : Obadiah Jones. Alexander Stuart and Jesse B. Thomas. The governor did

The government of the Territory of Illinois was of the first grade until May 1, 1812, when a territorial government of the second grade was formed and the necessary representatives to constitute the general assembly were elected.

Ninian Edwards was born in Montgomery county, Maryland, March 17, 1775. He was, for a time, a pupil of William Wirt. He completed his educational course at Dickinson college, Pennsylvania. After leaving college he pursued the study of law. Before completing his legal studies he removed to Nelson county, in the state of Kentucky. In 1803 he was appointed a judge of the county in which he resided. In 1806 he was promoted to the bench of the Court of Appeals and, two years later, he received the appointment of chief justice of the state. After the passage of the act organizing the Territory of Illinois, President Madison appointed Judge Edwards governor of the new territory. On June 11, Governor Edwards took the oath of office and began the administration of the territorial government. He held the office of governor until the admission of the state of Illinois in 1818, when he was elected to represent the new state in the senate of the United States. At the expiration of his term he was reelected. In 1826 he was again elected governor of the state. He died at his home in Belleville, July 20, 1833. During the whole period that Edwards was governor of the Territory of Illinois, Wisconsin was a portion of that territory.

Nathaniel Pope held the office of secretary of the territory until December 17, 1816, when he was elected a delegate to the congress of the United States. He continued a delegate until 1818.

During the years from 1806 to 1812 the United States and Great Britain were in constant and serious antagonism growing out of the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon, the Orders in Council of Great Britain and her claim of the right of search and impressment and the embargo and non-intercourse acts of the United States. The treatment of the United States by Great Britain became so offensive and exasperating that on June 18, 1812, congress adopted the following declaration :

"Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that WAR be, and the same is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United States of America and their territories."

Early in 1812, the people on the western frontier became alarmed at the threatening attitude of the British in Canada and their Indian allies, and urgently called upon the government for protection. Three regiments of militia and a troop of horse were raised in Ohio to be sent to Detroit. A regiment of United States troops joined this force. General Hull, who was then in AVashington, was given the command of these troops and joined them at Dayton, Ohio, May 25, 1812. Much valuable time was lost in procuring the necessary supplies for them, and when the march commenced, it was necessarily slow. General Hull did not reach Detroit until July 5th.

On August 16th, General Brock, then in command of the British forces, crossed the river into Michigan and sent to General Hull a demand for the surrender of Detroit. The demand was refused, and General Brock opened his batteries on the town and fort. The fire was returned by General Hull and continued without interruption until dark, and was resumed by both armies on the following morning, when General Brock landed a body of troops from his vessels in the river below Detroit and formed th(-m to assault the fort. General Hull then caused a white flag to be displayed on the walls of the fort. Terms of capitulation were agreed upon and the fort surrendered to General Brock. The reasons given by General Hull for his surrender were that his supplies were not sufficient to stand a siege ; that no relief could reach him; that a large body of Indians accompanied General Brock, and that if his troops were defeated, there was great danger of a massacre of the women and children of the town by the Indians. The officers under General Hull believed that they were able to successfully resist the attack of General Brock, and were greatly chagrined and humiliated by what they regarded as a cowardly surrender. "When the facts in relation to the surrender became known, a wave of indignation swept over ihe whole country. General Hull was tried by a court martial on a charge of cowardice, found guilty and sentenced to death. He was reprieved by President Madison and the sentence was never executed.

William Hull was born in Derby, Conn., in 1753. Prior to the commencement of the Revolution he had qualified himself for the practice of the law. When the war of the Revolution began, he at once abandoned his profession, raised a company of volunteers and joined "Washington at Cambridge. He marched with the army to New York and with his company was engaged in the battle of Long Island. He was wounded at the battle of White Plains. He was with Washington at the crossing of the Delaware and in the battle of Trenton and at Princeton. He was also at Valley Forge and fought at Monmouth. Congress recognized his gallantry by a vote of thanks and Massachusetts made him a major general of militia. His splendid record as a soldier justified his appointment by President Jefferson as governor of the Territory of Michigan when it w^as organized in 1805. W^hen the war between the United States and Great Britain began in 1812, Governor Hull was given the command of the northwestern army, with headquarters at Detroit, the capital of the Territory of Michigan.

The surrender of Detroit by General Hull, left the country west of Lake Michigan unprotected from incursions by the British from Canada, and the Indians under their control. They did not, however, avail themselves of the opportunity given them of occupying that country until in 1814, when they planned an attack upon the fort at Prairie du Chien. In that year General William Clark, a younger brother of General George Rogers Clark, was the governor of the Territory of Missouri. Learning that it was the intention of the British to send a force from Mackinac to capture and hold the post at Prairie du Chien, then called Fort Shelby, he sent by boats, from St. Louis, a company of regulars and a company of volunteers under the command of Captain Joseph Perkins to occupy and hold the post. The British force, consisting of about 500 white and 120 Indians, left Mackinac on June 28. 1814, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. McKay. It reached Prairie du Chien on July 17. Colonel McKay immediately made a demand on Cap- tain Perkins for a surrender of the fort. Captain Perkins refused to comply with this demand. The boats that brought up the force of Captain Perkins remained at Prairie du Chien manned by a portion of the troops that came from St. Louis. Colonel McKay brought with him a small field-piece. Upon the refusal of Captain Perkins to surrender Colonel McKay began an attack on the fort. With his field-piece he drove away the boats and prevented them from aiding in the defense of the fort. The firing continued through the 17th and 18th. On the 19th, the supplies of the fort having been exhausted, Captain Perkins proposed to surrender the fort upon the conditions that the garrison be permitted to march out with the honors of war and be protected from illtreatment by the Indians. These terms were accepted and on July 20, 1814, the fort was surrendered to Colonel McKay.

A treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Ghent, Netherlands, December 24, 1814, terminating the war of 1812. Information of this treaty did not reach Fort McKay until the latter part of May, 1815. Upon being advised of this treaty the British force was promptly withdrawn without awaiting the arrival of an officer of the United States to receive the surrender of the fort, and the British occupation of the territory northwest of the Ohio permanently ceased.

On April 18, 1818, congress passed an act authorizing the inhabitants of the Territory of Illinois to form a constitution and adopt a state government. It was introduced by Nathaniel Pope, the delegate in congress from the territory of Illinois, which then embraced the whole of AVisconsin. Pope was a resident of that portion of Illinois out of which the new state was to be formed.

AVhen the act was introduced it provided that the north line of the new state should be a line drawn east and west through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan as fixed by the ordinance of 1787. While the act was pending in congress and only fifteen days prior to its passage, Pope, disregarding his duty to the inhabitants of the northern portion of the territory represented by him, procured the act to be amended by making the north line coincide with latitude 42 degrees and 30 minutes north, thus cutting off from the southerly side of the proposed new Territory of Wisconsin a strip about sixty-one miles in width and containing about 8,500 square miles, or 5,440,000 acres.

The amendment of the act of congress changing the north line was introduced on April 3, and the act was approved on April 18. It is almost certain that "the original states and the people and the states in said territory" were not consulted in relation to, nor even advised of, the proposed violation of the compact in the ordinance of 1787.

If the bill introduced by Pope had not been amended and the compact in the ordinance disregarded, the south boundary line of Wisconsin would have been south of Chicago, where the ordinance placed it.

The reasons presented for changing the location of the north line of the state of Illinois a short distance was not wholly without force. If the line remained as fixed by the ordinance of 1787, Illinois would have small room, if any, for a lake port, while Wisconsin would have abundant coast line. The mouth of the Chicago river was an important element in building and developing a commercial center for the state. A strong feeling had been developed in the southern portion of the state in favor of the introduction of slavery into the state. The inhabitants in that portion of the Territory of Illinois lying north of a line drawn east and west through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan were largely from the eastern and northern states and were strongly opposed to slavery. The larger the portion of northern territory that could be incorporated into the state, the stronger would be the opposition to slavery. It was also urged that the commercial relations of the state of Illinois were geographically with the northern states ; that such relations could only be maintained by giving to Illinois an important lake port ; that if it could not have such a port on the lake, its commercial interests would be developed along the Mississippi and be drawn to the Gulf of Mexico, and that it was, therefore, desirable that the citizens of Illinois should become identified with the northern and eastern states.

These reasons were not sufficient to justify the cutting off from Wisconsin of so large a section of country. A much smaller tract would have given the state all that was necessary to preserve its commercial importance. To take so large a portion of the domain of the new territory was a very great breach of the compact in the ordinance of 1787, and of good faith on the part

In pursuance of the act of 1818, above mentioned, a convention was held at Kaskaskia, the capital of the territory, in the summer of 1818, to form a constitution.

This convention completed its work and on August 26, 1818, adopted an ordinance accepting the enabling act of congress. The convention, by the constitution prepared by it, ratified the boundaries contained in the enabling act. The constitution was presented to congress, and on December 3, 1818, that body adopted a resolution admitting Illinois into the ITnion and declaring it to be one of the United States.

By the admission of the state of Illinois into the Union, that portion of the former Territory of Illinois north of the north line of the new state was annexed to and became a part of Michigan territory.

At the time that the territory now embraced in the state of AVisconsin was attached to Michigan territory, General Lewis Cass was the governor of that territory.

On October 26, 1818, and after the constitution of Illinois had been formed, but before congress had declared Illinois a state, Governor Cass by proclamation divided the territory west of Lake Michigan and east of the Mississippi river into the counties of Michilimackinac, Brown and Crawford.

Brown county embraced that portion of the territory lying south of Michilimackinac county west of Lake Michigan and east of a line drawn north and south through the center of the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and Crawford county embraced that portion lying between Brown county and the Mississippi river.

The county seat of Brown county was fixed at such point on the Fox river, within six miles from the mouth thereof, as might be selected "by a majority of the judges of the county court of said county." The territory forming Rock county was then a portion of Brown county.

By an act of congress, approved March 3, 1823, the electors of the Territory of Michigan were authorized to choose, by ballot, at the next election of the delegate for that territory, eighteen persons whose names should be transmitted, by the governor of the territory, to the president, who was authorized to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the senate, appoint nine of such persons a legislative council for said territory, and who, when appointed, should hold their first meeting at such time and place as should be designated by the governor of said territory. Eighteen persons were selected as required and their names transmitted to the president, who appointed nine of them, with the approval of the senate, as such council.

By an act of congress, approved February 5, 1825, the legislative council was increased to thirteen members and by another act, approved January 29, 1827, the electors of the territory were authorized to elect the members of the council, without submitting names to the president for appointment.

At the time of the pasasge of the acts above mentioned, the territory that now forms the state of Wisconsin was a portion of Michigan territory. By these acts, the government of the territory passed to the second grade.

In 1832 occurred an Indian episode that has been dignified by calling it "The Black Hawk War." Prior to 1831 the chief village of the Sauk Indians was located between the Rock and Mississippi rivers near their junction. There, for many years, had been their home and there their ancestors were buried. Of this tribe, Black Hawk was the chief. The surrounding country was beautiful and productive and the white settlers who came into that portion of Illinois desired to occupy it. November 3, 1804, a treaty was made between the United States and the Sauks and Foxes, by which these tribes ceded this territory to the United States. This treaty was confirmed by a treaty made in 1816. Black Hawk claimed that his people were not parties to these treaties and were not bound by them. In 1831, difficulties arose between the settlers and the Indians in relation to the occupation of these lands. The governor of Illinois sent a force of militia on to the ground. Black Hawk removed his people across the Mississippi and while there signed a treaty, agreeing to remain west of the river, but, on April 6, 1832, in violation of this treaty, recrossed the Mississippi, with all of his tribe, at a point below the mouth of Rock river, and insisted that the settlers should remove from the lands formerly occupied by his people. The settlers were much disturbed by his demands. General At- kinson was at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, with a small force, and at his request Governor Reynolds of Illinois issued a call for volunteers. The militia who responded to the call were placed under the command of Brigadier General Samuel Whiteside. General Atkinson also came with his force. On the arrival of these forces Black Hawk fled up the east bank of Rock river. It was arranged that General Whiteside should pursue Black Hawk up the east bank of the river to Prophet 's Town and there await the arrival of General Atkinson, who was to proceed up the river in boats. On May 9, General Whiteside marched as arranged, and on the 12th reached Prophet's Town on the left bank of Rock river, in Whiteside county, in advance of General Atkinson. Here he found j\Iajors Isaiah Stillman and David Bailey with a force of 341 mounted militia. It was the intention of General Whiteside to March to Dixon's and there await the arrival of General Atkinson. The force under Stillman desired, however, to follow Black Hawk without further delay. On May 12 they began their march along the east bank of the Rock and on the 14th reached a creek, then known as Sycamore creek, but since appropriately called Stillman 's run, where they established a camp. This was about eight miles from the camp of Black Hawk. Three of Black Hawk's band came into Stillman 's camp with a white flag and were taken prisoners. Other Indians were seen near the camp. Stillman 's men, without orders, pursued them and they fled to Black Hawk's camp. He had only a small force with him, but when he saw his men pursued by the whites, he formed an ambuscade in the timber and when Stillman 's men came up attacked them Avith so much vigor that they turned and fled. In this skirmish Stillman lost eleven of his men. Black Hawk afterwards claimed that the three Indians who entered Stillman 's camp were sent by him with a flag of truce to request a meeting with General Atkinson to arrange for a removal of his tribe across the Mississippi, and that the five Indians that were seen and pursued by Stillman 's men were sent by him to see what might take place. After this skirmish, Black Hawk retreated north, along the east bank of Rock river. On June 27, General Atkinson left Dixon's in pursuit of Black Hawk. On July 1 he crossed the line between Illinois and Wisconsin at a point near the east line of the city of Beloit, and marched to Storr's lake in the town of Milton. On Juh'^ 2, General Atkinson marched to

Otter creek and on the 2d and 3d he was scouting in the vicinity of Lake Koskonong to ascertain the whereabouts of Black Hawk. General Atkinson did not overtake the retreating Indians until July 21, when he came up with them near the mouth of the Bad Axe, where the Indians were scattered and Black Hawk captured .

When Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi below Rock Island in the spring of 1832, he had the old men, women and children of the tribe with him. His purpose was to reoccupy the former home of the tribe. Where the old men, the women and the children of the tribe remained from the time they crossed the Mississippi to the time they fled to escape from General Atkinson, in July, does not fully appear. When the first settlers located in Rock county the remains of an Indian camp or village were found in abundance in what is now the southeastern part of the city of Janesville. The grove in that locality has been known, since the settlement of the county, as Black Hawk's grove. It is more than probable that this grove was the dwelling place of Black Hawk's people from the early spring of 1832 until the retreat of Black Hawk in July of that year.

Among the officers and soldiers connected with the Black Hawk war were many who afterwards became distinguished in military, political and civil life, most of whom were with General Atkinson on his march through Rock county. Among these were Colonel Zachary Taylor, who became president of the United States ; Abraham Lincoln, who also became president of the United States ; Robert Anderson, who was in command at Fort Sumpter at the beginning of the war of secession ; Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate states; Albert Sidney Johnson, who became a general in the Confederate army and was its commander at the battle of Shiloh, where he was killed ; General Henry Dodge, who was twice appointed governor of Wisconsin territory, twice elected delegate to congress and also twice elected to the senate of the United States ; General W. S. Harney, who was prominent in the Florida war and in the Mexican war and was appointed military commandant of Oregon territory ; Colonel William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton; Colonel Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone of Kentucky; Major Sidney Breeze, later chief justice of the supreme court of Illinois ; Captain Charles Dunn, who became a member of the supreme court of AVisconsin ; John Reynolds, afterward governor of Illinois ; 0. H. Browning, who represented Illinois in the United States senate; General John J. Hardin, who was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican war ; E. D. Baker, who was a colonel in the Mexican war and a member of the United States senate from Oregon and who was killed at the battle of Balls Bluff in the Civil War.

While the army of General Atkinson was in camp on Bark river at the- mouth of Whitewater creek, the term of enlistment of Abraham Lincoln expired and he, with others, was then mustered out of service and returned home.

The territory embraced in the states of Iowa and Minnesota was, on June 28. 1834, for the purpose of temporary government, attached to and made a part of the territory of Michigan.

On September 6, 1834, the legislative council of that territory created Milwaukee county out of the southern portion of Brown county. The village of Milwaukee was made a county seat. The county embraced what is now the counties of Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Rock, Jefferson, and portions of Green, Dane, Columbia and Dodge.

In 1834 a census was taken in that portion of the Territory of Michigan lying east of Lake Michigan and it was found that the population was more than was required to entitle it to admission as a state.

In April, 1835, an election was held to select delegates to a convention called by the legislative council to prepare a state constitution. This convention met at Detroit, May 11, 1835, and completed its labors June 29.

The constitution prepared by this convention was submitted to the electors and ratified November 2, 1835. It was presented to congress by the president December 9 of that year.

Prior to 1834, a controversy arose between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan in relation to the boundary line between them, the adjustment of which resulted in a serious encroachment upon the rights of the Territory of Wisconsin.

When the state of Ohio was admitted into the Union, its north boundary was a line drawn east and west through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, as established by the ordinance of 1787. When the line was finally located, it was found to be some miles south of what was believed to be the line when the state was admitted. It was thereupon claimed on the part of Ohio that an error had been made in describing the north line of the state in the constitution and an application was made to congress by Ohio to correct the error. The Territory of Michigan was in the actual possession of the disputed land and resisted this application. No action was taken in relation to the matter by congress at that time.

In 1834, the controversy reached an acute stage. Ohio attempted to take possession of the lands involved in the dispute, and the governor of the Territory of Michigan ordered out a force of militia to protect the possession of the territory.

The proposed constitution of the state of Michigan was prepared and adopted by the constitutional convention while the excitement in relation to the boundary question existed.

By the constitution proposed for the state of Michigan, it was intended that the south boundary line of the state should be the line mentioned in the ordinance of 1787, drawn east and west through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan.

Congress delayed action upon the constitution presented to it and, on June 15, 1836, passed an act entitled, "An act to establish the northern boundary of the state of Ohio, and to provide for the admission of the state of Michigan into the Union upon the conditions therein expressed."

By the second section the southerly line of the Territory of Michigan was made coincident with the northerly line of Indiana and of Ohio as fixed by the first section, thus cutting off from the south side of the Territory of Michigan a large tract of country.

In the same act, as compensation for the portion of the Territory of Michigan taken from it, congress admitted Michigan as a state and gave to it all of that portion of the territory belonging to Wisconsin under the ordinance of 1787, lying north of the Menomonee and Montreal rivers and a line drawn between the head waters of those rivers, a territory containing about thirteen thousand square miles and over eight million acres of land, so that Michigan received in exchange for the few square miles of territory claimed by Ohio a large and valuable tract of country

The new territory was bounded on the east by the westerly boundary of Michigan ; on the south by the northerly boundary of Illinois: on the west by the Missouri and ^Vhite Earth rivers and on the north by the line between Canada and the United States and the territory west of Lake Michigan, now a portion of the state of Michigan.

The form of government provided for the Territory of Wisconsin was practically that of the second grade. The legislative power was vested in a governor and a legislative assembly, consisting of a council of thirteen members and a house of representatives of twenty-six members.

At the time that the territory, now the state of Wisconsin, became a portion of the Territory of Michigan, Lewis Cass was governor of that territory, having been appointed to that office by President Madison, October 29, 1813. He continued to hold the office of governor until 1831, when he was appointed secretary of war by President Jackson. He was the son of Jonathan and Mary Gilman Cass and the grandson of Joseph Cass, of Exeter, N. H. When the war of the Revolution began, Jonathan Cass entered the colonial army and was engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill, Princeton, Trenton and Monmouth, and was promoted to a captaincy and afterwards commissioned as major.

Lewis Cass was born at Exeter, N. H., October 9, 1782. He received an academic education and spent a few months teaching in an academy at Wilmington, Del., and then removed to Marietta, in the territory northwest of the Ohio. Here he pursued the study of law and was admitted to practice in 1802, receiving the first certificate issued under the new constitution of the state of Ohio. He was elected prosecuting attorney in Muskingum county in 1804 and to the legislature in 1806. When the war of 1812 with Great Britain began, Ohio raised 1,200 volunteers, who were divided into three regiments. Cass was commissioned colonel of the third regiment. He was ordered to Detroit and

On the 16th of August, General Hull surrendered his array and the fort at Detroit to General Brock, the commander of the British forces in Canada. The surrender included Cass and his regiment. So indignant and exasperated was Cass at the cowardly surrender by General Hull that he broke his sword rather than ingloriously surrender it to the enemy.

He was promoted and commissioned as major general. On being paroled he again entered into active service under General Harrison, and served as his aid-de-camp in the battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed.

In June, 1836, he was appointed minister to France. He was elected a United States senator February 4, 1845, and was nominated by the democratic party for president of the United States at the convention of that party in May, 1848, and was defeated by General Zachary Taylor. He was appointed secretary of state by President Buchanan. March 4, 1857, but resigned in December, I860, and died June 17, 1866, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He was governor of Michigan territory seventeen years and eight months.

After the passage of the act of congress creating the Territory of Wisconsin, and on April 30, 1836, President Jackson appointed General Henry Dodge, of Dodgeville, Wis., governor of the new territory ; John S. Horner, of Virginia, secretary ; Charles Dunn, of Illinois, chief justice ; David Irwin, of Virginia, and William C. Frazer, of Pennsylvania, associate judges.

On July 4, 1836, at Mineral Point in the new territory, the governor, secretary and judges took the oath of office and entered upon the discharge of their duties.

Prior to September 9, 1836, Governor Dodge had caused a census of the territory to be taken. By this census it appeared that the population of that portion of the territory east of the Mississippi river was as follows in

On September 9, Governor Dodge issued a proclamation apportioning the members of the council and house of representatives among the counties that had been organized in the territory, directing that an election of members of the council and house of representatives be held in the different counties on the second Monday of October, 1836, and requiring the members elected to convene at Belmont in the county of Iowa on October 25, next ensuing, for the purpose of organizing the first session of the legislative assembly of the territory.

The territory now embraced in Rock county was then a portion of Milwaukee county, and the proclamation of Governor Dodge apportioned to Milwaukee county two members of the council and three members of the house of representatives. The members of the council elected were Gilbert Knapp and Alanson Sweet. The members of the house of representatives were William B. Sheldon, Madison W. Cornwall and Charles Durkee.

On October 25, 1836, Governor Dodge, by proclamations, declared duly elected members of the council and of the house of representatives, the persons for whom a majority of votes had been cast at such election, and on the same day the first legislative assembly of Wisconsin convened at Belmont, in what was then the county of Iowa, but now the county of LaFayette, and organized by the election of Henry S. Baird as president of the council, and Peter H. Engle as speaker of the house of representatives.

By act No. 2 of this session, approved November 15, 1836, the territory was divided into three judicial districts. The counties of Crawford and Iowa constituted the first district, the counties west of the Mississippi, the second district, and the counties of Brown and Milwaukee the third district. Chief Justice Charles Dunn was assigned to the first district. Associate Judge David Irwin to the second district, and Associate Judge William C. Frazer to the third district.

By act No. 11, approved December 3, ]836, the seat of government of the territory was located "at the town of Madison, between the third and fourth of the four lakes, on the corner of sections 13, 14, 23 and 24 in township 7 north, or range 9 east."

Historic Evolution Of Kock Couaty 119

By act No. 39, approved December 8, 1836, the existing laws of Michigan, with slight changes, were declared to be in force in the new Territory of Wisconsin.

The second session of the legislative assembly convened at Burlington, now in the state of Iowa, on November 6, 1837, and remained in session until January 20, 1838, and then adjourned to meet at the same place on the second Monday of June, 1838.

Act No. 7 of this session provided for the election in each county of a board of commissioners for the transaction of the business of the county, consisting of three qualified electors who should be a body corporate and politic by the name of the board of commissioners of the county in which they were elected and who, as such board of commissioners, were authorized to transact the business of the county.

Act No. 9 of this session authorized the location of a territorial road from Milwaukee to Janesville and appointed three commissioners to survey and locate it.

By act No. 12, approved December 7, 1837, the seat of justice of Rock county was "established on the fraction of land, on the east side of Rock river, it being a part of the northwest quarter of section 36, in town 3 north, of range 12 east."

By section 25 of act No. 18, approved January 2, 1838, it was declared '"That the country included within the boundary lines of Rock county be and the same is hereby set off into a separate town by the name of Rock and that the polls of election shall be opened at the house of Henry F. Janes, in Janesville."

Act No. 42, approved January 15, 1838, authorized H. F. Janes, his heirs and assigns, to establish and keep a ferry across Rock river at Janesville, in Rock county, on section 36, of town 3 north, of range 12 east, for ten j-^ears from and after the passage of the act, provided, however, that the proprietor of such ferry should at all times cross free all grand and petit jurors going to and returning from court.

By act No. 5 of this session, approved June 21. 1838, townships 1, 2, 3 and 4 north, of range 10 east, were added to and made a part of Rock county. The boundaries of Rock county have not been changed since the passage of the above act.

By an act of congress, approved June 12, 1838, it was declared that from and after the third day of July, 1838, all that part of the Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the head waters or sources of the Mississippi to the territorial line, should, for the purposes of temporary government, be and constitute a separate territorial government by the name of Iowa, and that from the said third day of July, the territorial government of Wisconsin should extend only to that part of the territory of Wisconsin which lies east of the Mississippi river. The Territory of AVisconsin as bounded by the above act embraced all of that portion of the present state of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi, being the section of country between the Mississippi on the west and the St. Croix river and Lake Superior on the east, including the city of St. Paul and a portion of Minneapolis.

Congress by an act approved May 2, 1824, granted to the several counties in the states and territories of the United States, a quarter section of land for the establishment of seats of justice thereon"^

Section 1 of act No. 22 of the territorial legislature of Wisconsin for 1839, entitled "An Act to Organize Rock County and for Other Purposes Relating to the same," approved February 13, 1839, provided that, from and after the passage of that act, "the county of Rock shall be and remain, to all intents and purposes, an organized county of this territory, and shall have all the rights and privileges which organized counties in the same, of right have."

By the third section of the act the county commissioners of Rock county were authorized to preempt, under the act of congress above mentioned, a quarter section of land in that county and procure the title thereof for the county.

On September 6, 1839, W. S. Murray, William Spaulding and E. J. Hazzard. as such commissioners, in pursuance of the provisions of said act No. 22, entered, for Rock county, the east half of the northeast quarter and fractional lots numbered 5 and 6, in section 3G, in town No. 3 north, of range No. 12 east. On May 14, 1840, the commissioners who entered said land caused a portion thereof, lying along the easterly bank of Rock river, to be platted into blocks and lots and the plat to be recorded in the office of the register of deeds for Rock county. This plat is known as the "original plat of the village of Janesville." In 1842 a court house was erected on the land designated as a park on such plat.

The territorial legislature, at its session in 1843, passed an act, approved April 1, authorizing William H. H. Bailey, A. Hyatt Smith and Charles Stevens, their associates and assigns, to erect and maintain a dam across Rock river within the present city of Janesville.

The dam was erected in pursuance of this act and is what is known as the upper dam in the city of Janesville. This act was amended by an act of the legislature of 1846 by repealing section 2, and substituting a new section providing for a head of four feet and a lock to be completed as soon as Rock river should be improved and rendered navigable from the southerly line of the territory to the village of Janesville.

The act of April 1, 1843, authorizing the construction of a dam across Rock river at Janesville, also authorized Ira Hersey, A. L. Field and their associates, successors and assigns, to build and maintain a dam across Rock river at Beloit, and gave them the same powers and privileges as were given to the proprietors of the dam at Janesville. This dam was constructed in 1844 and creates the water-power now in use at Beloit.

At the same session of the legislature, by an act approved April 7, Clouden Stoughton and Luke Stoughton were authorized to build and maintain a dam across Rock river on section 21, in the town of Fulton. This dam is now known as the Indian Ford dam.

river on sections 14 and 15 in the town of Janesville. This dam was constructed and maintained for several years until the dam in Janesville was raised and set the water back upon it and destroyed its value, when it was abandoned. The dam was known as the Dolsen dam.

By the same act, Anson W. Pope, David Hume and Virgil Pope and their associates were incorporated by the name of the Rock River Bridge Company with power to build a bridge across Rock river at Hume's ferry in Rock county and charge the same toll as the Beloit Bridge Company.

By section 2 of an act of the territorial legislature, approved April 10, 1843, all of township No. 3, north of range 12 east, lying west of Rock river, was annexed to and made a part of the town of Janesville.

By another act of the territorial legislature, approved April 12, 1843, commissioners were appointed to alter the road from Beloit to Madison; to lay out a road from Janesville to Ellis's Mill in Walworth county, and a road from Janesville to Mineral Point.

Prior to February 24, 1845, the counties of Rock and Walworth constituted one election district. The territorial legislature of 1845 passed an act dividing the election district and constituting Rock county an election district with authority to elect one member of the council and three members of the house of representatives.

By an act of the territorial legislature, approved February 21, 1848, A. Hyatt Smith and Ira Miltimore and their associates were authorized to erect and maintain a dam across Rock river in sections 1 and 2, in town No. 2 north, of range No. 12 east. This act was amended by chapter 214 of the laws of the state of Wisconsin. The dam was constructed and is now known as the lower or Monterey dam in the city of Janesville.

By an act of the territorial legislature, approved March 8, 1848, all that part of the town of Center in Rock county, embraced in township No. 2 north, of range No. 11 east, was organized into a separate town by the name of Plymouth.

By an act approved March 11, 1848, the north half of township No. 2 north, of range No. 13 east, and all of township No. 3, in said range No. 13 east, was organized into a town by the name of Harmony.

John Hackett

On January 14, 1846, Morgan L. Martin, the delegate of the territory of Wisconsin in congress, introduced in the house of representatives a bill, authorizing the people of the Territory of Wisconsin to adopt a constitution and form a state government. The boundaries of the new state as fixed by this bill were the same as those of the territory of Wisconsin. The bill was referred to the committee on territories, of which Stephen A. Douglas was chairman. That committee reported the bill with amendments, changing the northwestern boundary of the territory as fixed by the territorial act of 1836 to its present location, thus excluding from the new state so much of the Territory of Wisconsin as lies west of the St. Croix river and a line from it to the St. Louis river and west and northwest of Lake Superior. The delegate to congress strenuously objected to the amendment of the bill changing the boundaries, but the bill as reported by the committee was passed and became a law on August 6, 1846. For the third time congress disregarded the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, and deprived this state of a valuable portion of its domain.

The fifth legislative assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin met at Madison on the fifth day of January, 1846. The first act passed at that session was entitled "An act in relation to the formation of a state government in Wisconsin." It was approved January 31, 1846. The act authorized the taking of a census and the election of delegates to a constitutional convention. The census was taken and delegates were elected in pursuance of the act.

The constitutional convention met at Madison October 5, 1846. The delegates from Rock county were David Noggle, A. Hyatt Smith, S. P. Hammond, James Chamberlain, Joseph S, Pierce, George B. Hall and David L. Mills. The convention adopted a constitution which was submitted to the electors of the territory and rejected by them.

On September 27, 1847, the governor issued a proclamation, calling a special session of the legislative assembly, to be held at Madison, October 18, 1847, to take action in relation to adopting a constitution and forming a state, and as to its admission into the Union. The members of the legislature met, in pursuance of the proclamation and, on October 27, passed an act providing for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention to be held on November 29, 1847, and apportioning the delegates to the different counties. The election was held, the delegates were elected and met in convention on December 15. The members from Rock connty were A. M. Carter, Joseph Colley, Paul Crandall, Ezra A. Foot, Louis P. Harvey and E. V. AYhiton. The convention at once proceeded to prepare a constitution. It completed its work on February 1, 1848. This constitution was submitted to the electors of the territory on March 13, and was approved. Section 1 of an act of congress, approved j\Iay 29. 1848, declared, "That the state of Wisconsin be and is hereby admitted to be one of the United States of America and is hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever." This act went into effect on its approval by the president, and terminated the territorial period of Wisconsin.

Upon the approval of this act the constitution adopted by the convention of 1848 and ratified by the electors became operative. An election of state officers had been held on May 8, and on June 7 the officers and members of the legislature chosen at such election took their oaths of office and the new state government went into effect.

Colonel Henry Dodge was the first and also the last territorial governor of Wisconsin. He was one of the most distinguished of the territorial governors. He held the office of governor from July 4, 1836, to October 8, 1841, and from May 13, 1845, to June 7, 1848, when he was superseded by the governor elected pursuant to the constitution of the new state. He was the son of Israel Dodge of Connecticut, who was an officer of the colonial army, in the war of the Revolution. Governor Dodge was born in 1782 at Vincennes in that portion of the Northwest territory now embraced in the state of Indiana. Early in life he removed to Missouri territory and in 1808 was elected to the office of sheriff of Cape Girardeau county. In 1812 he was chosen captain of a mounted rifle company. In September of the same year he was appointed a major of militia. In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and in the same year he removed to what is now Wisconsin and settled near Dodgeville. Ho was appointed major of the United States rangers in June, 1832, and was in active service in the Black Hawk War. On March 4, 1833, he was appointed colonel of the First dragoons. When the Territory of Wiscongin was formed, he was appointed by President

Jackson its first governor. He held that office until September 30, 1841, when he was elected a delegate to congress from the new territory. He was reelected as delegate in 1843. On April 8, 1845, he was again appointed governor of Wisconsin territory and held that office until the admission of Wisconsin into the Union as a state. When the new state was organized, he was elected one of the senators to represent Wisconsin in the senate of the United States. He was reelected senator in 1851 and held the office until his term expired in 1867. He died at the residence of his son. Hon. Augustus C. Dodge, in Burlington, Iowa, June 19, 1867.

By chapter 93, of the private and local laws of 1853, approved March 19, 1853, the city of Janesville was incorporated and included in its limits sections 1 and 2, in township 2, and sections 25, 26, 35 and 36, in township 3 north, of range 12 east.

The city of Evansville first became incorporated as a village by an act of the legislature, approved February 28, 1867, and afterwards, on January 15, 1896, became incorporated as a city under the general statutes of the state.

But little more than seven decades have passed since the first hearth stone was laid in Rock county. Within that comparatively brief period it has become one of the most prosperous and highly developed counties of the state, with a population of nearly 60,000. The valuation of its taxable property for the present year, as fixed by the tax commission of the state, is $73,657,- 802. This valuation indicates an actual value of about $100,- 000,000. It ranks as the third county in the state in the value of its assessable property, being exceeded only by the counties of Milwaukee and Dane. Within the county of Milwaukee is the metropolis of the state, a beautiful city with a population of about 400,000. In comparing Rock county with the county of Dane it should be remembered that within that county is the city of Madison, the capital of the state, a city "beautiful for situation," with a population of nearly 30,000, and that the county contains thirty-five townships, while Rock county has but twenty. The average valuation of the property per township in Rock county is higher than the average valuation of property per township in Dane county. Rock county has within its borders four thriving cities and several prosperous villages. The residents of the county have reason to be highly gratified with its growth and development and its high standing in the state.

Before 1833 Rock River valley was the home of the red man ; his lodges were on its bluffs or by the clear waters of the winding stream, an unfailing source of food when he felt too indolent for the chase, and he looked upon and dreamed of this region, clad in the simple richness of its pristine beauty, as his permanent hunting ground. But there came a change ; soon after the close of the Black Hawk War of 1832 the Indian occupants of the valley were transferred to distant reservations, and so far as man is concerned this whole region was for several years a solitude.

In connection with the first settlement of our Rock River valley, except the war which advertised it, there was little of adventure. But that there was no lack of all the heroic and homely virtues on the part of those first settlers is seen in the good work which they and their descendants have wrought. Our prosperity today is the result and outgrowth of the energy, industry, frugality, patience, endurance and abiding faith of those who in past years planted here the seeds of our civilization. To them we of the present owe a debt of gratitude that we shall never be able fully to repay, but we show our gratitude by these records of remembrance.

The first white man who settled in the region contiguous to the present site of Beloit was Stephen Mack. He came from New England as early as 1820, for to settlers who saw him in his home near Rockton, 111., with his squaw wife and numerous children, in 1837, he stated that he had then lived with the Indians about sixteen years. Having traded much of this time with various Indian tribes, and, because of his acquired knowledge of their manners and customs, having come to be regarded by them as of superior wisdom, he had finally settled among a tribe of the Winnebagoes as confidential adviser to their chief. His not marrying among them, however, soon caused suspicion of his friendship and he was accused of using his influence for the benefit of other white traders and to the disadvantage of the red men. Their distrust finally ripened into bitter hatred, resulting in a plot to kill him. But one of the Winnebago chiefs had a comely daughter, Hohnonega, who had learned to love the victim of her people's hate, and her timely warning enabled Mack to flee for safety to the military post at Chicago. Various explanations and negotiations resulted in his returning to those Indians, only to have the treacherous foes seek his life again. This time the maiden concealed him on an island in Rock river near her home until the excitement had subsided. (Her tribal home, five miles south of Beloit, is now laid out as a summer pleasure ground and called Hohnonega Park.) Such devotion touched Mack's heart, and knowing also that their marriage would insure his safety, he promptly married her and was adopted into the tribe. He was living at Macktown, which he had laid out, about a mile northwest of Rockton, 111., when in the spring of 1837 R. P. Crane and 0. P. Bicknell saw him and talked with him on their way to Beloit, or Turtle as it was then called, and Mack himself must have often visited this locality. Hohnonega became an estimable woman, kind, hospitable, and a good wife and mother.

The first white man to settle within the present site of Beloit was a French Canadian trader and Indian interpreter named Thibault (Tebo), who in 1836 claimed to have been living in this general region some twelve years. There was no human habitation in this locality when John Inman and William Holmes visited it for part of a day July 19, 1835, so Thibault 's log cabin, which stood at the south end and west side of what is now State street, must have been built after that date. In May, 1836, Caleb Blodgett found him here living with two squaw wives, one about forty, with a grown-up son, and the other, a half-breed, considerably younger and the mother of a babe.

Thibault. who was a shrewd man, claimed all the land within "three looks" from his cabin. A "look," the unit of land measurement among the Indians, was the distance a person could see from a certain starting point, so that Thibault 's possessions were to be determined by looking from his cabin to some point as far distant as the sight could reach, going to that spot and looking again to the most distant point within the range of vision

The trader's son, said to be then about nineteen years old, and reckless yet intelligent, spoke not only English but also several Indian dialects, and wished to go west and be an interpreter, a plan which his father opposed. In the spring of 1837 Thibault sold his twelve-by-sixteen log cabin to Messrs. Crane and Bicknell and soon afterward removed with all his family to Lake Koshkouong. Of him and of his tragic fate Hon. L. B. Caswell, ex-congressman, now of Fort Atkinson, Wis., contributes this personal description and record. (Mr. Caswell was then a boy, living in his father's cabin at the south end of the lake, and his statement is of the highest authority. )

"I knew Thibault (Tebo), the Indian trader, well. He had two log cabins about a mile and a half above the mouth of Lake Koshkonong on the south side. He was a Frenchman with two Indian wives, one quite old, the other about thirty and very attractive. Thibault was, I should judge, about fifty, quite tall and slender. He kept a stock of goods suitable for his trade with the Indians, such as blankets, ammunition, traps and other articles, which he exchanged with the Indians for their furs. He was said to be a fur buyer for Solomon Juneau, of Milwaukee, and well off, and we always found him honest and exerting a good influence among the Indians. He kept nothing intoxicating for the Indians and sold them only such goods as they needed. Unfortunately, however, he had a reckless grown-up son named Frank, who gave him no small amount of trouble. Frank and the younger wife were greatly attached to each other. In the winter of 1839-40 the old gentleman disappeared, which fact was not made known by Frank for several weeks, till finally he came to our house and told us his father had been missing for some time, giving no intelligent story about the disappearance. Suspicion at once rested upon both the young people and extensive search was made for some trace of foul play. Persons came from a great distance and examined the surrounding thickets and the ice of the lake and tried to discover, if possible, any hole cut in the ice where his body might have been put through into the lake, but without success, and the search was finally abandoned. In the spring of 1840 Frank stored some of their household goods and articles of food with my people and, with the two wives, went away west to the Mississippi river. After some months Frank came back and took away his goods, and this is the last we heard of them. Thibault was succeeded by a Frenchman named Ellick LaMiere, who occupied the Thibault shanties for the next eight or ten years."

The tirst recorded visit of white men to this locality was that made by soldiers of the Black Hawk War under General Atkinson, including Private Abraham Lincoln, June 30, 1832. On that day they marched through this Turtle village, then deserted by its Indian inhabitants, and camped during the afternoon on the prairie about two miles north. The Indian scout whom the soldiers saw when they started on the next morning, openly watching them from a high bluff on the west side of the river, was probably standing on the brow of Big hill.

The next white man's visit occurred July 19, 1835, when William Holmes, Jr., and John Inman, prospectors who had lost their ponies, walked south across the prairie to the moutli of Turtle creek and found here a solitary wilderness. They left the same day, and by July 23 had returned to Milwaukee, which had then only two white families. In the same month of July, 1835, soon after their departure, Joseph Thibault fprouounced Tebo) came here, and his log cabin was our first building. At this cabin, as they passed through the place on March 9, 1836, in a lumber wagon, on their way to the present site of Janesville, early in the evening, the family of Judge William Holmes, including two women and two girls, stopped a few minutes to warm up. That was the first recorded visit of white women. The youngest girl, Catherine Holmes, born August, 1819, now (1900) Mrs. Volney Atwood, of Janesville, Wisconsin, says she remembers well the dirt floor of Thibault 's cabin and its big fireplace, built of sticks plastered over, with a large log burning in it. The Frenchman 's two Indian wives took their children and went out of doors, giving up the whole cabin to their visitors. Thus the history of Beloit virtually begins with an act of hospitality.

As a matter of fact when, about a year later, R. P. Crane bought that hut and cleared it out, he found that the floor was made of slabs but covered so deeply with earth, brought in, that Miss Holmes was excusable in supposing it to be a dirt floor.

ness part of the city, while on the higher were burr oak openings. There were no miasmatic swamps along our beautiful spring-fed Rock river and this whole region, my father often declared, was a natural Indian's paradise. He said to me once, "I don't wonder that Black Hawk fought for it; if I had been an Indian I would have laid my bones here rather than leave it."

And Mr. W. F. Packard, now in his ninetieth year, living at Rockton, 111., remarked to the editor, May 18, 1908: "People living here today cannot appreciate what nature did for the beautifying of this valley and are insensible to how it looked when I first saw it seventy years ago today. It was a gorgeous garden of natural loveliness and I have several times tried to picture it on paper, but my powers of expression have failed me."-

(Until with comparatively recent years prairie chickens have persisted in returning every summer to one of their favorite drumming grounds two miles north of Beloit. And I can well remember the clouds of wnld pigeon that would literally darken the sky during my boyhood here. Some of those flocks were undoubtedly a mile long. - Ed.)

From the prairies, lowlands, forests and streams of this favored region such nomadic adventurers as Thibault desired nothing, and in them saw nothing beyond the daily supply of their physical wants ; our real pioneers, however, inspired with high ideals, impelled by manly qualities, inherited from Puritan ancestors and nurtured in their New England homes, looked beyond the toils and trials, incident to every new settlement and, with prophetic eye. saw in all these marvelous provisions of nature means for the accomplishment of great ends. To this class belonged nearly all the first permanent settlers of Beloit and none, perhaps, was more worthy of being the leader than Caleb Blodgett, whose native qualities eminently fitted him for that important place in its early history.

A native of Randolph, Vt., with meager education, acquired in his boyhood home, Mr. Blodgett had a strong, vigorous mind, clear foresight, restless energy and an indomitable will that nothing could daunt. Passing over the events of his earlier manhood, struggles in the then wilds of western New York and Ohio with successes and discouragements and final disaster in the loss by fire of the accumulations of years, we find him in 1835 temporarily located with his family in a log cabin at Meacham's

Grove, twenty-five miles northwest of Chicago, near another of our pioneer families, that of Chauneey Tuttle. The prospects there proving unsatisfactory, in May, 1836, Mr. Blodgett came to the site of the present city of Beloit exploring, attracted by its many natural advantages returned again in June, and spent the summer and fall of 1836 breaking land for a farm and getting ready for his family. Then he went after them and came back in December, 1836, accompanied by his wife, Phoebe Kidder, his sons. Nelson and Daniel, and his son-in-law, John Hackett, who had married Cordelia Blodgett, and who became intimately associated with him in his enterprises. From Thibault Mr, Blodgett, for $200, bought all his claims on the east side of Rock river, the "three looks," comprising, as Blodgett thought, about ten sections of land, and at once with characteristic enterprise began securing his rights and planning for the future. With the kindly aid of Indian bucks and squaws, who still lingered on the west side of the river, he constructed near the east bank (in the rear of what is now 322 State street) a log cabin of two rooms, separated by a passageway, one room being for his family, and the other for prospectors and hired help. At this time nearly all the land, bordering on the west bank of Rock river, as far north as the site of Janesville, had been sold by the government, so that Blodgett 's operations were confined to the east side of the stream where, after the completion of his home, he began preparations for the erection of a saw mill. Assuming that his claims would in time be protected by government patents Mr. Blodgett, even before getting settled in his new home, for $2,000 sold a one-third interest to Charles F. H. Goodhue who, although a native of Massachusetts, had come here with his family from Canada, he in turn selling half his purchase to some other newcomers, John Doolittle and Charles Johnson. After this sale to Goodhue the saw mill, then being built, was completed by Blodgett and Goodhue working together ; in the spring of 1837 water was turned into the mill race and the first boards were sawed April 15.

(The dam, which Mr. Blodgett had built, was on Turtle creek, over half a mile northeast of his cabin. The raceway was dug along under the south side of the bluff and extended southwestward along the south side of what was afterward Race street, now called St. Paul avenue, until it led into Turtle creek at the

Horace White, L.L. D., now of New York City, a graduate in 1853 of Beloit college and its most distinguished alumnus, has kindly allowed the editor to insert here his (Mr. White's) personal account of that event, substantially as he gave it at the semi-centennial of the college in 1897.

I am permitted to tell you something of the beginnings of Beloit and of Beloit college, most of which I saw and part of which I was. Through the kindness of my early playmate and infant school mate, Hon. Ellery B. Crane, now a member of the state senate of Massachusetts and a resident of the city of Worcester, I have been enabled to examine an old account book, hitherto unpublished, much of which is in my father's handwriting and the rest in his father handwriting. This book contains the business transactions of the New England Emigrating Company, which was formed in Colebrook, N. H., my native place, in October, 1836, and of which Dr. Horace White, my father, was the agent. The book of which I speak shows that the company consisted of fourteen members, Cyrus Eames, 0. P. Bicknell, John W. Bicknell, Asahel B. Howe, Leonard Hatch, David J. Bundy. Ira Young, L. C. Beech, S. G. Colley, G. W. Bicknell, R. P. Crane, Horace Hobart, Horace White and Alfred Field. The book shows to a cent how much each man contributed to the funds of the enterprise, the whole amount being $7,067.27, and how the lands and other property were distributed, how much and what kind of work each one did and what credits he received for the work done. These fourteen names and no others appear and reappear as copartners in the enterprise, although others are found in other relations to it. These men were not speculators. They had no thought of taking up claims on public land and selling out to somebody else at a higher price. They intended to create an agricultural community like the New England village from which they sprang, and new homes like the old ones which they still loved. They were the kind of stuff that enduring communities are made of, as this fair city today attests.

It was the principal duty of the company's agent to select and purchase a site for the new homes of the emigrating company. In pursuance of his duties as such agent, my father left Colebrook in the winter of 1836-7 on his westward journey. He was then in his twenty-seventh year. The book says that he was to receive $100 per month and all of his expenses, and that the company was to furnish him a horse and cutter. With this conveyance he set forth as soon as there was a good fall of snow and drove through Canada, taking that route for the reason that the sleighing was better on the north than on the south side of the lakes. He arrived at Ann Arbor, Mich., on the 25th day of January, 1837, where he found Mr. R. P. Crane (the father of Mr. Ellery Crane), who was a member of the company, and who had started westward somewhat earlier. Mr. Crane had arrived at Detroit by steamer from Buffalo in company with Otis P. Bicknell and they had set out to make the rest of the journey on foot, not knowing exactly where it might lead them, but keeping in the track of the general emigration of the period. Arriving at Ann Arbor Mr. Crane found his funds exhausted and took a job of finishing a partly-built house at that place for which he received the sum of $100. It was here that my father overtook and passed him, taking Mr. Bicknell in his cutter as far as Calumet, 111. Mr. Crane was one of those benefactors of the human race who "keep a diary" and it is fortunate for us that the historical spirit has descended to his son. From this diary his son gives me the following extract:

"On reaching Rockford, March 3, 1837, Dr. White was there, stopping with Harvey Bundy, who was employed as clerk by George Goodhue, who was proprietor of a small store or trading post. The doctor had been up to the Turtle but had not purchased yet. Had already been to Des Moines, la., and Quincy, 111., but did not like it there. The doctor wanted Otis and myself to see the location at the Turtle defore deciding, although he thought well of it. We (Otis and I) arrived at the Turtle Thursday, March 9, and Dr. White came up the week following and we three went out three miles northeast to see the landscape. We liked it so well that we (Otis and I) encouraged the doctor to secure an interest here if he could."

had arrived the previous year and had bought for $200 a claim from a Frenchman named Thibault, who was living with one or more squaw wives in a construction of logs near the junction of Turtle creek and Rock river. A bargain was struck with Blodgett on the following day (March 14) for one-third of his claim. In those days claims to public land were rather indefinite. That of Blodgett was as far-reaching as those which excited the ire of the elder Gracchus in old Roman days. His own idea was that it embraced about 7,000 acres. Purchasers of claims took their chances of being able to hold what they had bargained for. What was paid for in such a case was the chance that the government land office would eventually recognize the claim as valid under the preemption laws, and give a patent for it, on receiving the price of $1.25 per acre. A bargain was struck with Blodgett for one-third of his claim for the sum of $2,500, and patents were issued in my father's name which are now in my possession. This included 100 acres of land already under the plow and ready for a crop, this fact being a moving consideration in the purchase. Blodgett retained one-third of the claim for himself and sold the remaining third to Messrs. Goodhue, Jones and Johnson. The name of Goodhue is an honored one in the history of Beloit. Mr. W. T. Goodhue came from Canada. He erected the first saw mill in the place. He was living at that time in Rockford, but the mill was already under construction and it began to deliver boards on the 15th of April, 1837.

Dr. White returned to Colebrook immediately after the purchase was made from Blodgett, to report progress and to dispose of his own property, leaving Crane and Bicknell in charge. Blodgett had built a double log house on the river bank near the foot of Broad street. In putting the logs in place he had been assisted by a band of Indians who were encamped on the west side of the river under charge of army officers. Until the saw mill was completed, so that boards could be obtained, the ground served as the floor of this house. My earliest recollections of Beloit, or of anything, are associated with this old log house, in which Dr. White's family was installed and where they lived until better accommodations could be provided. This was a double house with a door in the center and was generally occupied by two families or more. The south end, which we occupied, consisted of one square room which served as kitchen, din- ing-room, bed-room, sitting-room and doctor's office. The joints in this establishment had not been very carefully closed and hence it was not unusual in the winter time for my parents to find themselves in the morning under an extra counterpane of snow which had sifted through the crevices during the night. There were no streets in the place, only Indian trails through the woods and one road leading from Rockford and following the general line of Rock river from south to north.

I have a letter written by my father, dated Colebrook, May 10, 1837, to my mother, who was then in Bedford, N. H., in which he says that he found the emigrating company in good spirits. "I had requested them," he says, "to raise $1,400 on my return and it was done." He then gives the names of a number of persons who would start westward within a few weeks, some being members of the company and some not. He said that James Cass and wife would go out in his employ. This fact explains some of the entries in the old account book where Dr. White receives credit for labor performed by Cass for the company's benefit. Many of these entries possess an economical interest showing how society may get on without money in case of need. Thus we read under date of November 7, 1837:

As a sequence, two days later we find Horace Hobart credited with "one-half day salting beef" and Horace White credited with the services of Cass in hauling beef and also "some pumpkins." A. L. Field is credited with three-fourths of a day "at business of different kinds for Co." There are several entries in November, 1837, where Horace White is credited with "1 day each for Crosby, Cass and Grimes on bridge over Turtle." The explanation is that Crosby and Grimes were indebted to Dr. White and that they worked out the debt in the company's service for which he received credit in the final settlement. The current rate of interest is shown in an entry in December, 1837, where Horace White is credited with $15 cash paid to B. J. Tenney for the company, "interest 12 per cent." The usual rate of interest when I became old enough to understand such things was 12 per cent, and I think that it was not less than 10 per cent at any time when I lived here.

Among the crops produced on the land broken up by Blodgett and included in the company's purchase, was 200 bushels of oats. This was divided among the members of the company in exact proportion to their interest in it, the name of each one being set down opposite his share of the crop in bushels and pounds.

It should be added that there is no indication in the book or in any letter or memorandum, so far as I have been able to discover, that there ever was any dispute or disagreement among the members of the company touching money matters or the eventual settlement of the joint enterprise. Each one had entire confidence in the good faith of the others and in the correctness of the bookkeeping.

The hardships of this early period can be little understood by those of the present day. We read in the early records that during the first year our pioneers were often in want of food, and that the arrival of Alfred Field in July, 1837, with a team of four oxen and a load of four barrels of flour relieved them from severe distress. Also that on another occasion when the stock of provisions had run low they heard of a whole barrel of pork for sale at Rockford and sent one of their number down there to buy it. The streams furnished a plentiful supply of fish and when Goodhue's mill was completed the flume was converted into a kind of trap by means of which the water could be drained ofl:' and the fish picked up on the bottom, but the fish could not be rendered palatable without some accessories, and these were frequently wanting. The hardships of travel in those days were almost beyond conception. Some of these are within my own recollection. It was customary for the stage drivers to carry rails with w^hich to pry the coaches out of the mud when the horses could no longer draw their loads. In this exercise the passengers were expected to take part under pain of stopping for an indefinite time in some unfathomed bog. When a man driving his team alone was stuck fast in this way he must either wait till somebody else came along to pull him through, or take out his load by piecemeal and carry it on his back to dry land so that his horses might draw out the empty wagon. I have witnessed many cases of both kinds and have participated in some.

A sadder case is that of an emigrating party from Colebrook who left the steamboat at Detroit and started to cross the state of Michigan with a team of four horses. The roads were so bad that one of the horses died of fatigue before they had made half of the distance. Soon afterward another horse was so exhausted that he could not pull. It was necessary to lead him by a rope. Then they came to the sand hills at the southern bend of Lake Michigan and it became necessary to lighten the load in every possible way, for there was danger that the other horses would fail, or perhaps die in the road. Delicate women were obliged to get out and walk in the sand carrying infant children on their backs. It was impossible to stop on the road. Houses were ten to twenty miles apart. Shelter and food for man and beast must be found every night. While these toilers were trudging through the sand darkness overtook them, accompanied by rain. There was nothing to do but push on. Continuous movement was the price of life. With eyes straining to see a light they toiled on fainting with hunger and fatigue and drenched with rain. About 9 o'clock their hearts were gladdened by a distant twinkling light. They hastened to reach it. They found it a short distance from the road. It was an Indian wigwam. The occupants were very civil. They invited these foot-sore travelers to the shelter of their lodge, but it was so filthy that the pilgrims, weary as they were, could not bring themselves to enter it. So they turned back to the lonely road and resumed their journey, for near three hours longer. Midnight brought them to a house in a condition of mind and body that can be better imagined than described. This was the Crosby party. One of these women, whose trembling limbs had at last borne her to a door, was Mrs. Crane, and the babe whom she carried was my friend Ellery Crane, who has given me these facts. They reached their journey's end in August, 1837. Mrs. Crane never recovered from the effects of that terrible journey. Her health was undermined by it. She lingered a few years and died at the age of 33.

There was another branch of the early emigration to Beloit to which I think that Dr. Horace W^hite must have given the impulse. It came from Bedford, a town in the extreme southern part of New Hampshire, Colebrook being in the extreme northern part. Among the families represented in this emigration were those of Colley, Riddle, Dole, Atwood, Houston and Gordon. My mother was a native of Bedford. As the movement originated in Colebrook and as our family was the only connecting link between the two towns, which were separated from each other by the whole length of the state, I conclude that the Bedford people took the Beloit fever from us and that S. G. CoUey was enrolled as an original member of the New England Emigrating Company at my father's instance, and that the others were similarly induced to come later. However that may be, it is certain that my mother with her two sons, aged three and one, respectively, came hither from Bedford, in company with Mr. Colley and his family, and Mrs. Atwood and her daughter, in the summer of 1838, arriving here on the 25th of June of that year. My father had returned to Beloit in November, 1837, but did not bring his family because there was then no place to put them. There were only three log houses in the town in 1837 and those were all occupied by the male workers who were preparing the ground for their wives and children. In 1837 Caleb Blodgett erected a house of boards, the product of Goodhue's mill. This was the beginning of the Rock River house, situated where the Goodwin house now stands. The fact of immediate interest to the White family was that when Blodgett moved out of the old log house they were enabled to move in.