Sauk County, Wisconsin - Chapter 17: Lower and Upper Sauk, 1918

Main Features of the Two Villages - Sauk City - Baraboo Combination - Sauk City Incorporated - Gets Into Eastern Connection - The Sauk City Rifle Company - The City- Village in 1854 - Fire Department Established - Police Court Created - Postoffice Moved from the Upper to Lower Town - The ' ' Pionieb Presse" - Banks and Industries - Fire Department Formed - The Local Schools - Home Economics Club - Churches and Societies - Prairie du Sac, or Upper Sauk - First Bridge Across the Wisconsin - The Grabbing of the Postoffice - The Present Upper Village - Schools of Upper Sauk - Library and Village Hall (Tripp Memorial) - Water and Electric Plants - "Sauk County News" - Churches and Societies.

The history of the Lower and Upper Sauk villages - Sauk City and Prairie du Sac - includes the earliest events leading to the permanent settlement of the county ; as such, it has already been presented with pictures of their experiences drawn by the pioneer actors themselves. The coming of the Alban family, advance agents of the stable colony which located on the site of Sauk City, in 1838-39, and the location made by D. B. Crocker, at a somewhat later date on what is now the principal part of the Village of Prairie du Sac are matters of past record. The latter seemed to have gained the upper hand at the time the County of Sauk was organized.

Prairie du Sac was settled mainly by American families from the East, while the Lower Village of Haraszthy, largely under the stimulus of the Count and Robert Bryant, was chiefly settled by Germans and other immigrants. They were orderly, industrious people, who were saving and worked hard. Some of them brewed beer in big kettles and very soon a saloon was opened at Haraszthy and well patronized. Whether the fact that the Upper Village was distinctively Yankee and the Lower German, and rather foreign, had anything to do with the first location of the county seat at Prairie du Sac is not positively known.

although it has been suggested. At all events, Sauk City lost the fight, although it offered the county the Haraszthy-Bryant House, a building which might have been converted into a courthouse, and Prairie du Sac donated only some vacant lots, with the proviso that they should revert to the original owners in case the seat of county government should be moved elsewhere. It was claimed by the voters of the Baraboo Valley and others that the string mentioned was only discovered after the matter had been decided by the locating commissioners.

1845 Count Haraszthy, heading a delegation from Sauk City, with several citizens of the Baraboo Valley, explored the "interior of the county" and reported to the state authorities that the region was all fertile and very fair to look upon. People could get a good living from the lands and they were bound to be soon settled. In 1846, therefore, Baraboo drew the county seat prize from Prairie du Sac, and Sauk City forged slightly ahead of the Upper Town.

By legislative charter of March 30, 1854, the village corporation of Sauk City was created, and on the first Saturday of April its first election was held at the district sehoolhouse. Annual elci tions for ensuing years were to be held in March. Wrapped in the provisions of the charter was a special matter, which really was the object at which the act of incorporation was aimed. The people wished to obtain funds for the construction of a levee, or causeway, from the east shore of the Wisconsin River to and across the island opposite Sauk City, and a body had to be created through which they could work.

In the village charter the Board of Trustees of Sauk City were authorized to raise a sum of money not to exceed $2,500 on the credit of the corporation, and secured by its bonds, to be expended on that public work, and in providing such boats and tackle as might be necessary to connect the proposed causeway with the west shore of the river at Sauk City. Rates were also fixed for the transportation of live stock, humans and vehicles. The causeway was built, the ferry put in operation and Sauk City was not only legally created, but co-ordinated with the more settled country east of the Wisconsin.

In the same spring of the village incorporation, the citizens of the Lower Village, not a few of whom had received a military training in the "old country," formed a rifle company of sixty-four members, of which Robert Ilantzsch was captain. There were also two lieutenants, four sergeants and corporals and a brass band of seven instruments, besides a drummer. During the winter following they received their guns and accouterments from the state. The members of the Sauk City Rifle Company dressed in gray pants, green coats and glazed caps, and formed one of the best known organizations of the place until the outbreak of the Civil war, when it was absorbed into the Union army as Company D of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry. It was a matter of frequent comment that the boys of the old Sauk City Rifles went to the front sixty-five strong - one more than the original number who joined the organization seven years previously.

At the time Sauk City was incorporated and raised its rifle eompany the local newspaper, "Pionier am Wisconsin," which had been established five or six months, said : "Sauk City is a flourishing town on the banks of the Wisconsin, ninety miles from Prairie du Chien and forty miles from Portage City. There are two sawmills here, one saw and planing mill and one saw and grist mill, besides a distillery, a brick yard, a printing office, ten stores, hotels and saloons. There is a IIu- manist Society, and one Catholic, one Lutheran and one Methodist Episcopal church, a singing society, a theatrical society and a military company. The population here and in this vicinity is principally German, and most of them are farmers. Wild land can be bought for from $2 to $5 per acre." The population of Sauk City was then about 650.

By 1857 the property interests at the Lower Village had become so considerable that the original charter was so amended that provision was made for the establishment of a fire department, and in the following year an additional legislative act was passed authorizing the village board to borrow $20,000 with which to build a bridge from the causeway to Sauk City. The action of the state was subject to the approval of the village voters. It was several years before the bridge was built.

In March, 1868, the Legislature passed an amended charter by which a police or municipal court was created, and provision made for improving the village streets, and two years later another act extended such work, as well as provided for the digging of drains and the taking of other sanitary measures.

In the meantime, also, Sauk City had acquired a really, truly postoffice, the period when her people had to go to Prairie du Sac for their mail being a season of humiliation. In 1851 Simeon Dean, a resident of the Lower Village, was appointed postmaster, although the office was at Prairie du Sac. Aeeordingly, it was proposed by the residents of Sauk City to move the office to the new postmaster rather than to transfer the official to his office. Twenty or twenty-five stalwart men from the city went up to Prairie du Sac one day and returned with the postoffice outfit to Mr. Dean's store, where it was kept until his establishment was burned in 1854. It was then moved into a stone warehouse and Postmaster Dean resigned.

Siuce those days of small things and lively happenings Sauk City has become a growing and well built village of 1,200 people, with creditable stores, banks, several noticeable industries, and all the social, educational and religious advantages provided by truly American comimmities. It still has a large German element, so thoroughly American- ized as to make the people all the more dependable. This characteristic stability is illustrated in the record of the home paper, the "Pionier am Wisconsin," of which the Pionier Presse is the direct successor. It is therefore not only the oldest living newspaper, of continuous publication in Sauk County, but is said to be the oldest living paper in Wis- printed in the German language.

The "Pionier am Wisconsin" was first issued at Sauk City on the 23d of November, 1853, by L. Joachim & Company, publishers, and C. Duerr, editor. Although it leaned toward Democracy, it was strongly opposed to slavery. C. Knutz became proprietor of the paper in April, 1855. Four columns had been printed in English for about a year, but the experiment was abandoned when Mr. Kuntz assumed the proprietorship and a return made to all-German print Messrs. Kohn & Baumann bought out Mr. Kuntz in January, 1856, and in October, 1858, L. Crusius and H. Kleinpell purchased the plant, and changed the neutral policy of the newspaper to straight Republicanism. In March, 1878, H. Muehlberg bought Mr. Kleinpell 's interest and assumed the editorial management Other changes occurred before another newspaper (the Presse) entered the local field.

In 1890 C. F. Ninman formed the Sauk County Publishing Company, became its president and manager, and issued the Sauk City Presse. In 1897 a consolidation was effected with the old Pionier am Wisconsin under the title of the Pionier Presse. Mr. Ninman had received his son, Max H., into partnership, and at the death of the older in 1904, the latter became editor and principal proprietor.

Sauk City has a good electric light and power plant, and the finances of the place are conserved by two banks - the State and the Farmers & Citizens. The Sauk City Bank was established as early as 1856, but existed for only a few years, and after its discontinuance the village depended upon various private enterprises of many degrees of stability, or banked elsewhere. Of the existing institutions, the State Bank was organized by J. E. Buerki in 1906, with a capital stock of $10,000, subsequently increased to $20,000.

The industries of Sauk City comprise a large factory for the canning of peas and corn, an elevator, a creamery, a brewery, granite works and (the newest manufactory) a plant for the making of farm tractors. As to its business establishments may be listed two lumber yards, two large department stores and other houses.

In November, 1854, when Postmaster Dean's store with a few other buildings was destroyed, the village bestirred itself to organize a fire de- partment. The usual recommendations were made at a public meeting held that month, but not until January, 1855, was a company actually organized under John A. Hantzseh. It was divided into fotir departments, of which the fourth was composed of the Rifle Company. In August, 1859, the records show that a hook and ladder were purchased, supplemented in April, 1862, by a hand engine from Milwaukee. An engine house was then built by the village, and the fire apparatus was afterward increased, so that the protection has become adequate to all needs.

From the early times of Sauk City the local school has been faithfully supported. There was a school at the Lower Village in 1841, although the records of District No. 5, in which it is included, date back to 1847 only. The only brick schoolhouse was completed in 1861 at a cost of over $2,000, and in the early '70s additional frame buildings were erected to meet the requirements of the expanding school population. About a decade later a still larger schoolhouse was built. Since that time the citizens have taken a lively interest in the education of the young people of their village. Literary societies have been organized and provided with places of meeting in the high school and the up-todate methods of intellectual development encouraged. One of the late movements in that direction is the establishment of the Charles Deiningcr Memorial Fund for the purchase of story books for the school children ; which is a recognition, along the lines of modern pedagogical thought and conclusion, that it is as necessary to exercise the imagination of the child as it is to train the reason ; that to provide the right kind of play is as vital as to keep the pupil to his task ; in a word, that all-around elasticity of the mind will prevent it from being overtrained, or "muscle-bound."

The women of Sank City are also well forward in the advanced line of thought and action. They have a Home Economies Club, organized in April, 1913, the expressed purpose of which is the "improvement of home and civic conditions." Tt has a membership of sixty and the following officers: Miss Josephine Merk, president; Miss Amelia Pohlmann, vice president; Mrs. Oscar Buerki, secretary; Mrs. Louis Back, treasurer.

Aloysius Catholic Church and Society, which was founded in 1844, is the oldest organization of that faith in Sauk County and one of the first to he established in Southwestern Wisconsin. The first settled priest was Rev. Adelbert Inama, of Tyrol, who came in September, 1845, and, through the generosity of Count Haraszthy, who gave some lots for the church with other donations, a house of worship was soon after erected. It was burned in the following year and another building put up. In 1853 a large church took the place of the smaller one, and in later years a mission in the Town of Honey Creek was added to the Sauk City charge. Its present pastor is Father A. Schaucnberg, who is the twenty-eighth priest who has been in charge of St. Aloysius Parish.

The Free Congregation at Sauk City are sometimes designated by religionists as "free thinkers." The congregation had its origin in the Free German Association, which held its first meetings in 1842, the members styling themselves Humanists. Charles Duolrr was their firsK: speaker, but the society was not regularly founded until October, 1852, after Eduard Schroeter had become their leader. The congregation has no settled dogma ; equality of the sexes is recognized ; morality, absolute honesty in doctrine and living are inculcated, and the underlying basis of the movement is radicalism, or going to the root of whatever matter is under investigation. Mr. Schroeter served in the capacity of speaker for thirty-three years, or until a short time before his death. The congregation owns a hall at Sauk City, in which its exercises are held, and from the platform of which lecturers from various cities address its members on religious, moral and reformatory topics of the day.

The German Reformed Congregation is in charge of Rev. C. M. Zenk. Its first religious services were held in 1850, at the old schoolhouse, by Rev. Mr. Knoepfel. The church was built during the pastorate of Rev. A. Winter in 1861. The membership of the German Reformed Congregation is large and on the increase.

In addition to the churches and the congregations at Sauk City, there are several lodges which have substantial followings. The leaders in that connection are the Modern Woodmen, with its auxiliary, the Royal Neighbors, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Degree of Honor and the Equitable Fraternal Union.

The Upper Village never fully recovered from the setback it received when it lost the county seat to the Baraboo-Sauk City combination. It was, however, for a number of years thereafter a strong contender as an industrial center and a point comparatively easy of access from the east on account of the bridge thrown across the river in 1852. The early stage line operated by Prescott Brigham from Madison also gave Prairie du Sac transportation importance. The Moores, who started a large store and a lumber yard in 1850-51, and soon afterward quite an extensive warehouse, brought forward Upper Sauk, and encouraged the building of the bridge, the first crossing the Wisconsin River for several years, or until the people of Sauk City completed their span in August, 1860.

With the arrival of Mr. Moore, in the spring of 1850, the bridge matter was vigorously pushed. The charter had been obtained, but all seemed to lack initiative until he came upon the ground. Under his direct supervision, the engineer, or chief mechanic, commenced work in the fall of 1851, but as the structure was built directly on the spile foundation, which was simply planted on the bed of the river, the ice and the spring freshets of the following year swept away almost the entire bridge. The foundation put in during 1852 was supported by stone piers, as it should have been before, and therefore stood the battering of ice and water. The bridge, which was eighty rods long, with a suitable draw, originally cost $1,500. It was at first a toll enterprise, under the management of a bridge company, and was long a paying institution. E. B. Crane, a resident of Bloomfield, New Jersey, was at the head of its affairs for a number of its earlier years.

For several years in the period of most strenuous rivalry between the Upper and the Lower villages, Prairie du Sac had also the advantage of postoffice location. Thomas Baker, who was its postmaster for nearly a quarter of a century, thus presents the topic: "When Prairie du Sac was first settled much of the land in Sauk county had not yet been surveyed, but Lyman Crossman managed to secure a quarter section immediately south of the village plat, and was appointed postmaster. This was when the postage on a letter was twenty-five cents. Money was scarce and Mr. Crossman sympathetic, and if a poor man found there was a letter in the office for him and had no money to pay the postage, he usually got his letter on a promise to pay, but the promise was not always fulfilled.

"On the death of Mr. Crossman he was succeeded by George Cargel. In the meantime the village of Sauk City (one mile south) had been platted, and Simeon Dean moved from Madison and started a store in Sauk City. Having friends to assist him, he secured the appointment of a postmaster for Prairie du Sac, and moved the whole postoffice outfit to his store in Sauk City. Such a howl of rage as went out from the citizens of Prairie du Sac would be hard to describe, but postmaster Dean remained serene. He headed and dated his letters, 'Sauk City,' then stepped to the corner of his store where he kept the postoffice, and postmarked them, 'Prairie du Sac.' The matter was finally fixed up by the postmaster-general establishing a new postoffice at Sauk City, and Alexander Ostrander was appointed postmaster at Prairie du Sac. Mr. Ostrander was a young lawyer looking for a place to practice his chosen profession, but Prairie du Sac was then, as now, a poor place for a lawyer, and finding his legal practice unrenumerative Mr. Ostrander resigned the office of postmaster in favor of Isaac D. Evans, and moved to New York City where he secured a lucrative practice. This was under the administration of President Franklin Pierce, and Mr. Evans held the office until August, 1861, when he was succeeded by Thomas Baker. Mr. Baker remained in control of the office until November 16, 1885, when he was succeeded by W. T. Kelsey (now Judge Kelsey). Mr. Kelsey held the office until January 1, 1890. when Mr. Baker again assumed the duties and on January 1, 1894, surrendered to Harwood V. Page."

Prairie dn Sac is a neat, rather quiet village of some 800 people at the present time, and its old promise of industrial growth has not materialized. In the '50s and '60s its position in the center of a rich grain, dairy and agricultural district pointed to it as a likely center for the manufacture of farm implements. In 1858 James Christian built a plow factory in the village, which was maintained there for many years, and perhaps twenty years later J. Werner established a reaper factory for the special manufacture of the Challenge Harvester. Mr.

Werner had built the Eureka flour mills in 1864, the original establishment being a planing mill. In 1869, again, M. H. Keysar & Company erected at Prairie du Sac tin* largest grain wan-house and elevator in the county, and operated in connection with it livestock yards of large capacity (for those days). Hut the building of the North-Western through Baraboo Valley, three years later, completely changed the outlook for both Upper and Lower Sauk.

Prairie du Sac is now a pretty, neat village with hopes not founded on a rushing present. Her people, however, arc contented and comfortable, surrounded by a beautiful and prosperous country of farmers and dairymen. It is a desirable residence village with a good school, a news- paper, a couple of banks (the Sauk and the Peoples State), good water and electric light, and churches and societies sufficient to meet the wants of the higher life.

It is said that the first teacher at Prairie du Sac was a Scotchman named Quentin Smith, who taught a private school in 1843. When the old courthouse reverted to its builders in 1846, with the removal hence of the county seat, the village took it for school purposes, and used it as such for ten years. Then the stone schoolhousc was built and the little frame courthouse moved off the lot and converted into a workshop. Tiie next move to improve the public school accommodations of Prairie du

Sac was taken in the spring of 1871, when the Academy Building, which had been used as a private high school for seven years, was sold to the district which included Prairie du Sac.

The village also now numbers among its educational institutions the J. S. Tripp Memorial. Mr. Tripp was a finely educated New York lawyer, who located in Baraboo at the commencement of his practice in 1853; moved to Sauk City in 1854 and there spent thirty-four years engaged in practice and the banking business; thence to Prairie du Sac, where he was a. banker and a public spirited citizen until his death in July, 1915. In 1862 he had represented his district in the Assembly and was for sixteen years clerk of the Town of Prairie du Sac. At the time of Iiis deatli lie was the oldest Mason of continuous service in Wisconsin. The Memorial Building, the cornerstone of which was laid in October, 1912, includes not only accommodations for the library but various village offices. The village clerk's ofiiee adjoins the stairway hall on the main floor. The library is also on the main floor, and assembly hall above. The building is a little gem - a decided ornament to the village. Its construction involved an expenditure of $13,000, of which Mr. Tripp donated more than $10,000.

of water comes from deep wells and is noticeably pure. It is another feature of the village which emphasizes its standing aa a desirable residence town.

The Sauk County News of Prairie du Sac was established by Burnett & Son of Black Earth, Dane County, and G. W. Aahton of the Upper Village, its first number being issued October 21, 1876. Mr. Aahton was ita editor. The newspaper was printed in Black Earth and published at Prairie du Sac for the first few years of its life. S. W. Corwith conducted the paper from November, 1877, to December, 1884; Charles E. Whelan, now national lecturer for the Modern Woodmen of America, was the next, retaining the paper until June, 1886 ; George L. Conklin, two years; Fred W. Johns, 1888 until his death in 1892; Etta Johns till 1894; Brown Brothers and E. J. Browne, 1894 to 1899; Bert Giegerich and W. P. Just, 1899 to 1909; since that time Bert Giegerich.

The Evangelical Association and the Evangelical Lutheran Church have long supported growing societies at Prairie du Sac. Of the former, Rev. Phillip Schneider is pastor and Rev. F. Lambertus is in charge of the Evangelical Lutheran organization. The Methodists have a stable society under Rev. R. C. Hallock and the Presbyterians with Rev. S. G. Sctiek as pastor. The last named is the oldest religious society in the village, dating its organization from January, 1841, when eight members, formerly affiliated with the Church of Christ, formed themselves into the First Presbyterian Church of Prairie du Sac, under the pastorate of Rev. Solomon Chaffee.

The societies which are most in evidence are the Masonic (including a chapter of the Order of Eastern Star) , the Modern Woodmen, Royal Neighbors, Beavers and Loyal Americans. The Masonic lodge (Eureka. No. 113) was founded in 1858.