Walworth County, Wisconsin - Chapter 19: Miscellaneous Items of Interest, 1912

Chapter 19: Miscellaneous Items of Interest

The formation of local temperance societies began at Spring Prairie as early as 1838. In this work the men and women of Delavan, Elkhorn, Geneva, and Whitewater were but a few weeks or months behind Mr. Dwinnell's neighbors. At Lake Geneva. December 25, 1839, a temperance society was formed by fifty citizens, at Mr. Baker's house: Benjamin Ball, president; John Chapin, vice-president; Charles M. Baker, secretary; Charles M. Goodsell, William K. May and Morris Ross, executive committee. In the autumn of 1843 a county society of Wasbingtonians was formed at a meeting assembled at the -court house. Its officers were Doctor Mills, president ; William A. Bartlett and Jarvis K. Pike, vice-presidents; James Simmons, secretary; George Gale, treasurer; James O. Eaton, Solomon A. Dwinnell and Experience Estabrook, executive committee. No further record of this societv is found, but among well-remembered and oft-repeated names of organizers and sympathizers are those of Ball, Baker, the Goodsells, Hall, Lake. McNish, the Phoenixes, Potter, the Spooners, Sturtevant, Topping and Vail.

These early movements were followed by a continuous line of societies similar in form and devoted to like purpose, namely: By moral suasion to induce men to become total abstainers from the products of the distillery, brewery, wine-vat and cider-press Closely after them came, first, the Sons of Temperance, then the Good Templars. - both continuing with varying acti\it\ and energy until all such societies, with their doctrines and rituals, became supplanted by or merged in politically organized prohibitionism. Hut the growth of total abstinence, as a habit of life rather than as a moral dogma professed, is not exactly measurable by the number of votes counted lor the Prohibitionist party ticket.

Until 1871 the statutory fee for bar-room license was nol less than twen ty-five nor more than fort) dollars. In 1873 the higher limit was made one hundred dollars, and in [874 one hundred and fiftj dollars. |n September, 1889. pursuant to a new statute, the villages voted separately to determine if flu- fee should be two hundred and fifty dollars, three hundred and fifty dollar-, or five hundred dollars, and the highest sum prevailed. When the license fee was lowest it went, appropriately enough', to the poor fund : when increased it went to road and street fund ; it is now part of the general fund of cities, villages and towns. The effect of the higher fee has not heen to reduce the number of drinking places - nor, perhaps, to increase it. though there are more licenses issued than before.

Civic Societies

The several affiliated societies, fraternal and benevolent, found here at once a friendly atmosphere; for, within and without the lodge rooms, Walworth is sociable and neighborly. Freemasonry began almost with the villages, and, though it has felt some alternations of zeal and luke-warmth, it has withstood the assaults of well-meaning opponents at home and of wandering apostles from Wheaton. It was never healthier in body and spirit than it is here in 1911. Its feminine ally, the Order of the Eastern Star, also finds favor here as elsewhere about the states. The list of lodges, past and present, is shown as follows:

There are Four Royal Arch chapters: Elkhorn Xo. 17. Union 1 at Lake Geneva) Xo. 28, Delavan Xo. 38, Whitewater Xo. 00. A commandery of the Masonic degrees of knighthood, at Delavan, is numbered 33.

Odd Fellowship had also an early foothold, and ha^ not yel yielded wholly to the rivalry of the younger orders. Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen, Catholic Knights and Knights of Columbus have each established their claim to recognition as a part of modern social life.

The Grand Army of the Republic, its membership limited by the lives of one generation of men, is by that circumstance peculiarly conditioned. Its normal growth was rapidly upward, reaching its maximum within a few years, after which it^ course must he steadily downward until nothing hut its records and its few relics shall be left as reminders that such a post-bellum comradeship once existed. Its several posts are named and numbered thus:

Turtle Creek Drainage District

Proceeding under provisions of chapter 419, statutes of 1905. two-thirds or more of the interested owners of land lying along Turtle creek and marsh filed their petition, November 1, 1908, to the circuit court for the establishment of the Turtle Creek Drainage District. Charles Dunlap, Henry D. Barnes and John G. Meadows were appointed commissioners, and took the oath of office April 19, 1909. Thev were empowered to survey and determine such ditch lines as they should find practical and expedient, to appraise benefits and damages, and on acceptance of their report to let the contract and see it faithfully performed. Henry H. Tubbs was employed as civil engineer. There were several ineffectual remonstrances received and filed, and on June 26, 191 1. the contract was filed. The work is practically begun. The main ditch begins in section 14 of Richmond, and ends in section 6 of Delavan, its course generally that of the creek. Its length is 5.94 miles, depth four to seven feet, with a fall of 14.93 teet- Four lateral ditches - one from section 19 of Sugar Creek - have a total length of 5 25 miles, with fall varying between 9.15 and [5.2 feet. These nearly eleven miles of ditching and dredging will cost nearly $38,000, and will drain 3.188 acres. The work includes thirtyfour bridges or crossings.

Troy Drainage Ditch

A similar petition of owners along the great Hone) creek marsh was filed in the circuit clerk's office April 13. [910. Judge Belden appointed Walter A. Babcock, Charles H. Nott and George B. Cain as commissioners and these men took the official oath October 8, [910. ( In this, as in the other commission, the member first named is chairman, the second is secretary, and the third is treasurer.) Their report has been accepted, the contract will be let early in T912. and the work will begin without delay. The main ditch, from a point in section 25 to a point near the middle of section 31, is 3.375 miles long, two to twelve feet deep, and lias eighteen feet fall. There are seven lateral ditches with total length of 8.75 miles. These ditches will be crossed by thirty-eight bridges, one of which will cost $1,500. This work will recover or improve 4,832 acres of land, at a cost of nearly 850,000.

County Commissioner Of Roads

At the session of the county board, November, 191 1, Herman J. Peters, of Sharon, was chosen county commissioner of roads. This was in accordance with a statute providing for a state system of road-making.

Assessor Of Income Tax

Pursuant to a statute of 19] 1 the office of supervisor of assessments has been abolished, and that of assessor of income tax created. The first appointee, in 19 1 2, is William Francis Dockery, of Whitewater.

The Speculative Spirit

Not every man of older Walworth was entirely content to hoe in prairie mould or drudge in village labor for plain subsistence and scant\" savings. Hardy men went, in iN-|.<) and after years, around Cape Horn and across plains and Sierras fur the gold of California and Pike's Peak, and a few came back rich in one kind of experience. Other men, in another way adventurous, confided part of their little surplus to the keeping of the beneficent lottery, and the example of one who drew $3,000 was for long set forth in Mons. Dauphin's advertisements and circulars as proof that they only can win greatly who risk a little. Thu>. the sanguine projectors and reckless schemers ol a later period did not break new ground here.

The return of gold and silver to general circulation, after seventeen years of irredeemable paper currency, gave rebirth to business of every kind in 1X71). Monetary panics were thought to have been at last retired to the limbo of serfdom, judicial torture, the death penalty for petty felonies, and other relics of the barbarous pasl Confidence soon became extravagant hope - prolific parent of a few successes and many failures. Speculators of the type of -elf deluded John Law, of Lauriston, and operators of the tribe of Montague Tigg, of Pall Mall, flung their enchantments broadcast, and with such effecl that for a few months not a few men seemed so bereaved of their usually better judgment thai prudence was out of date and even com: men ial honoi a barren ideality. Projects, from legitimate to lawless, inviting inexperienced investors, increased like insects, and men's day-dreams and mi- sound sleep were rilled with visions of sudden wealth. Among the myriad temptations were lots in new cities of the South and West and in new suburbs of old cities everywhere between tbe poles, farm lands from Assiniboia to the Arctic circle, mines of all the metals from aluminum and antimony to yttrium and zirconium and of minerals from anthracite to zinc-blende, railways across every continent, oil wells, silk without cocoons, - in fine, gold from seawater, sunbeams from cucumbers, something from nothing.

Most of these several short roads to riches were in effect one: to buy printed certificates of shareholding and watch the markets hourly for first indications of coming showers of the world's chief desire. A local annalisl has told of one who. living but to make his fellowmen quick-process millionaires, took real estate and personal property in exchange for shares and came to own one-sixth part of the area of his home village. There were about a dozen of these guides to Aladdin's cave who were citizens of the countv, most Of whom were involved with their clients in the collapse of their undertakings. The period of greatest local interest to investors and onlookers was 1885-7. The county was not, as a whole, made poverty stricken, and speculation did not end with the memorable rise and fall of thai period, but became of less public concern.

Melodrama In Court

A tragi-comic affair was said in the next day's Independent to have taken place at an evening session of the circuit court. March 31, [859. A man most improbably named "Burorecy" flung a tobacco quid at somebody within the bar. The shot hit ex-Judge Cowdery's bald seal]) and. ricochetting, struck Judge Xoggle's left eye. The startled Judge losl his balance and knocked over a lamp filled with the compound of camphene and alcohol, then sold as "burning fluid," spilling it- extra-dangerou contents upon Sheriff Stone and thence upon ex-Sheriff Pern, whose coat tails caught fire. In the sudden movements of men - tor a wonder, in the dark -the clerk's bai was nearly broken, the stove-drum and pipe knocked down, and a general combat followed in which Messrs. Clarke, Farr, Keep. Kellogg, Lyon and Menzie were more or less battered or ruffled. Oi course, tin- account was intentionally made extravagant and impossible, M, to confuse the public mind as to what had actually taken place, - which, most likely, was some breach of court decorum by two lawyers not named. Tin- date of publication, too, may have helped to suggesl to reader- thai all this was but the local reporter's "joke of the season." But FTotchkiss & Leland were to., editorially caution- to take such liberty with the names of judges, sheriffs, and lawyers without some slight foundation of truth for it. The fact that the following Tuesday was judicial election day may have disposed Xoggle, Keep and Lyon to let the voters laugh the matter into forgiveness and speedy forget fulness.

Early Educational Efforts

Before a system of common schools could 1>e evolved children were assembled in small groups at the larger log dwellings for private instruction. Many of the teachers were moved by their sense of duty toward those whose education seemed too likely to be arrested indefinitely - for some of them - ineffect, to the marring of all later life. Such names of these teachers as have been preserved from the wreck of the unrecorded past, and are available for present use, are too few for imposing tabulation. Dates assigned to teachers at Elkhorn are conjectural, but nearly correct.

In 1837 Mrs. Rebecca A. Vail, in a room over Andrew Ferguson's store, at Lake Geneva. She was the wife of James W. Vail, an early settler of East Troy, and afterward lived at Milwaukee.

Louisa Augier, at East Troy ; daughter of Robert Augier, of that town Mary S. Brewster (1816-1910), at Spring Prairie, daughter of Deodat Brewster, of Geneva (Mrs. Edward Pentland). Julia Dyer, at Delavan. Mrs. Ladd, of Mukwonago, at Troy. Juliette Merrick, at Gardner's Prairie; daughter of ('"1. Perez Merrick.

Sheldon C. Powers, of East Troy, at Whitewater; district school. Mrs. Adeline M. (Seaver) Carter. Dr. John Stacy, of and at Lake Geneva. Airs. Electa (King) Ward, Bloomfield. Mrs. Moses D. Williams. Walworth.

Marietta Chapman, Lafayette; fifteen pupils. George W. Hoyt, of Rochester, Lafayette; winter term. Harriet Lyon. Hudson, a daughter of David Lyon. J. B. Hunt, Whitewater.

Noteworthy Events

Generally, events here noted are not mentioned elsewhere in this work. Many more of at least equal interest might have been included had the) been within the narrow range of one person's knowledge or opportunities for finding and placing them in true order of time.

July 10, 1836. - Colonel Phoenix preached to fifteen persons - all the neighborhood but one family - at Dr. Hememvay's. Four of these professed religion. Daniel Salisbury prayed, and all sang. Jul) 17th. the Colonel preached to the Hemenway family, Palmer Gardner, David I 'ran and daughter, and Mr. Salisbury. Two of these nodded and Doctor Hemenway fell fast asleep. At the close of service seven more persons came in.

June 15. 1839. - William Birge vs. Willard B. Johnson, first suit docketed in Zerah Mead, Esq.'s court, Whitewater. In this year a sovereign's court, for settling disputed land claims, was assembled at Whitewater. A territorial road was made from Rochester to Madison, through Spring Prairie, Troy, Lagrange and Whitewater.

lulv 4. [840. - Celebration at Whitewater. Dr. James McNisih, of .Geneva, spoke on intemperance and slavery, at William Birge's big barn. Milwaukee Weekly Sentinel taken by subscribers at Whitewater.

1 800. - An exceptional year for wheat crop. The county's surplus estimated at one million bushels. The crop for the state was largest of any in the union.

August - , 1889 - \ hoard of pension examiners appointed to sit at Elkhorn Drs. Benoni O. Reynolds, William Henry Hurlbut and George I lenry Young, Jr.

Dairy Interests

Statistics of dairy industries for 191 1 show five milk condensing' factories: H. M. Clark's, at Delavan; Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company, at Elkhorn (nearly read}' for work) ; Borden Milk Condensing Company, at Genoa junction: American Milk Company, at Sharon: Walworth Milk Condensing Company, at Walworth. At Lake Beulah is a factory for making "fancy" cheeses. At Fayetteville, Jacobsville and North Geneva are "skimming stations" of the Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company.

Dairv production, as reported for 1910, showed 4,754,48] pounds ol butter, or four and one-half per cent, of the production of sixty-six counties; and 147.400 pounds of cheese. Walworth was third in creamery production, and in fifty-six counties was forty-second in cheesemaking. Amount received for all dairv products was $1,438,888. The whole number of cows milked was 26,022.

Early Births

The following list of earlier births within the county, though not in each instance verified by reference to public or family record, musl be nearl] correct. Names marked * are of buys who became soldiers oi the Civil war: July j, 1836 - Geneva, daughter of lame- Van Slyke, Geneva; died fune, 1856.

Wl; 10. [840 "Henry Christopher, son of Christopher Wiswell, Lafayette. - [840 Wendell Ptilver, son of W. Fletcher Lyon. Hudson. . (840 Florana Lily, daughter of John Rosenkrans, Sugar Creek.

Mar. 10, 1843 - August, son of John Bernhardt Wilmer, East Troy. Nov. I, 1843 - Mary Jane, daughter of Daniel J. Bigelow, Sugar Creek. . 1843 - Emmet, son of Thomas McKaig, Geneva.

There were several known instances in which one. first choosing his claim, made the coming wife's way clear and then went eastward to marry her. Thus it was with Palmer Gardner, James Holden and Solomon A. Dwinnell, for examples. Tin- very earliest marriage ceremonies were likely to have been performed at Milwaukee. Racine, or at some convenient clergyman's or magistrate's just across the county line.

Jan. 2^. [837 - Charles Augustus Noyes and Xanc Page- Warren, of Geneva, at Racine. Sept. 3. [837 - Reuhen Clark and Maria Van Valin, Spring Prairie.

10. [837 -Sylvanus Spoor and Caroline S. Goodrich, Troy. Nov. - . 1837 - William Bentley and Jane Campbell, Spring Prairie. Apr. - , 1838 -Hollis Latham and Lemira (Bradle) 1 Lewis, Elkhorn. Apr. [8, [839 - Elijah Belding and Man James, Richmond. May 15. 1839 - Bradley B. Plato and Lucretia C. Hawes, Richmond. May 25, 1839 - Caleb Blodgett and Orinda Jones, Darien June 4, 1839 - Rev. Jami I I I ndei and \nn Elizabeth Porter.

840- Josiah Burroughs Gleason and Sarah Bacon, Spring Prairie. 840 - Peter Noblet and Lydia A. Baker, Spring Prairie. 840 - Samuel N. Loomer and Huldah L. Loomer, Sugar Creek. 840 -John Mayhew and Lucinda Allen. Spring Prairie.

840 Leland Latch and Harriet A. Estes, Troy. 840 - Benjamin Sweet and Elvira Cornish, Lagrange. 841 - James Fuller and Ruth L. Bunnell, Lafayette. 841 - John Powers (of Linn) and Laura Stephen-. Geneva. 841 - Abel Sperry and Eliza Beckwith, East Troy.

841- Samuel Brittain and Eliza Hoyt, Spring Prairie. 1 1 Oliver Salisbury and Emily Cravath. Whitewater. 841 - Alfred B. Weed and Elizabeth Rice, Richmond. 841 - James E. Bell and Chine Electa Van Nostrand.

< !racken, Sugar 1 "reek 841 [saac Van Wen Severson and Elizabeth Topping, Walworth. 1 1 David S. Elting and Eliza Manwell, Lagrange. 841 Horace 1 oleman and Juliette Merrick. Spring Prairie. 84] William Carter and Adeline Scaver. Darier

Jan. 10, 1843 - James O. Eaton and Mary Miranda Dwinnell, Lafayette. Feb. 8, 1843 - Edwin DeWolf and Elizabeth C. McCracken, Lagrange. Feb. 9, 1843- -William Birge and Frances Ostrander, Whitewater.

The death list, within the years here shown, must fall very far short of the facts. For the following years the stones and records of cemeteries partly supply the lack of official registration. Even after cemeteries were laid out and dedicated many of the dead were buried in small private enclosures, some of which must have been plowed over for a half century, - whatever reservation may have been mule at the first sale- of the including farms. Rain- spon heat down and gra>- and weed- hide unvisited, uncared-for graves, and white man has not more reverence for the resting places of strangers of his own race than for those of the conquered or cheated heathen tribes.

Losses By Fire

An incomplete list of more or less destructive fires, though of little value as history, may help to fix dates of other events associated with them in men's memories. It is so far from full that a list nearly as long may be found in the Delavan fire department's record of the last twenty years. Apr. 14. 1844 - William Birge's house. Whitewater. A child of three years

Prairie. 881 - John ( i. Flack's house and creamery. North Geneva. 881 - Artemas Baird's house, Elkhorn. 884 - Cooler E. Wing's house, Elkhorn 885 - William Harwood's barn. Little Prairie, lightning-struck and burned. 880 - Public school building, Elkhorn. 888 - Railway passenger house. Elkhorn. 890 - Dynamite explosion and tire at Doane's store, Delavan, liimsel 1 and another killed. 890 - George W. Ferris's house, Elkhorn. 891 Mrs. Margaret Casey's house, Elkhorn.

893 William K Chambers's house, Lauderdale Lake. 893 - Strow hotel and twelve more stores and shops, Delavan. 893 Field lire, wesl of Elkhorn, threatened the whole villa 893 Kachel's dairy supply building, Elkhorn, 893 Isaac Vloorhouse's dwelling, North Geneva. No 1 Whiting House. Lake Geneva. No 1 I [1 tllenbeck cottage, I -auderdale. 896 Barn and cattle on Franklin II. Eames's farm. Lafayette.