Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter 65, 1880

Chapter 65

Situation and Description - Farm - Buildings and Roads - Soil, Timber and Face of the Country - Social and Educational Facilities - Churches, Schools and Population - Town Officers - Early Settlers - First Schools - First Religious Services - Organization of the Town - Organic Election - The Lost Partridge Child - Interesting Relicts of French Indian days.

sHE Town of Vinland, lying east of Winneconne, and with its southeastern portion bordering on Lake Winnebago, comprises the north two-thirds of Township 19, Range 16, and nearly five sections in Township 19, Range 17. The western two-thirds of the town was originally prairie and openings/ its surface beautifully undulating and entirely free from waste lands. The soil is a rich, deep black loam, with limestone clay base, and is remarkably productive, and of exhaustible fertility, with proper tillage. In its present highly improved state, it is a lovely tract of country; and it would be difficult to find in the State

The eastern part of the town was originally covered with a heavy growth of maple, oak, hickory, butternut, elm, basswood and other varieties of forest trees. The soil of this portion is a rich vegetable mould, overlying clay. While the whole town is well adapted to grain raising, it is also one of the best for stock raising and dairying. Good well-water is readily obtainable, in all localities, by digging or drilling.

The inhabitants of this town are composed largely of people from the Eastern States, and their descendants, with some Germans, Irish and other European nationalities.

The houses, many of which are very fine residences, and the large barns and tidy appearance of the farms, give every evidence of a very general thrift and prosperity. Many of the homes in this town are luxuriously furnished, and the farms are provided with the modern conveniences of agriculture.

The town has also good social and educational facilities, being well provided with school-houses and churches, and is also in proximity to the cities of Oshkosh and Neenah.

The free-will Baptist church, on Section 8; another of the same denomination, on Section 13. TheMethodistEpiscopal, at Clemansville, one of the same denomination across the line in the Town of Clayton, and one on Section 20, in the eastern part of the town.

Town Officers

The present town officers are: Anthony Bowers, chairman; James P. Davis, W. S. Frazier, supervisors; A. T. Cronkhite, Clerk; L. B. Bemis, treasurer; J. F. Libby, assessor, A. Bowers, Hiram Miracle, Sr. , S. B. Doty, G. M. Beardsmore, justices.

First Settlers

FIRST SETTLERS. The first settlement in the town was made in the spring of 1846, by N. P. Tuttle, and immediately after, Horace Clemans located on

Southeast corner of Section 21, (now Clemansville); Jeremiah Vosburg, on Section 15, In June, William W. Libbey settled on Section 13; about the same time came Charles Scott, on Section 8; Wakeman Partridge, Section 21 ; William Swan, Silas M. Allen, Jacob and Walter H. Weed, William G. Gumaer and Thomas Knott, also came the same year. In 1847, the number was largely increased, and among the arrivals of this year were: Luther and Henry Robinson, I. W. Mears, Seth Wyman, George Clark, Charles Libbey, William Merriman, Lorin. B. Bemis and A. T. Cronkhite. FIRST SCHOOLS - RELIGIOUS SERVICES.

The first school-house was a frame building erected in 1847, on the northeast corner of the southeast quarter of Section 9, under the supervision of Jeremiah Vosburg. Miss Luc)- Alden was the first teacher in this town, commencing the same fall.

In 1849, a joint school district was set oft' in the northeastern part of the town, and the southeastern part of Clayton, and the first public school-house erected, on the northeast corner of Section 2 (now known as Gillingham's Corners ) , and here Miss Elizabeth McLean taught the first public school, in the .summer of 1849.

At the time of the organization of the town, in 1849, it included two tiers of sections on the South, which were subsequently set off to the Town of Oshkosh. and for this reason the leading incidents of the two towns were so intimately connected, that it is found impossible, at the present time, to distinguish between the two.

Divine services were held in various parts of the original town, at an early period, by Rev. O. P. Clinton, then residing at Neenah, and Rev. Slingerland, from Stockbridge, probably as early as 1846.

Election

The organization of the town was consummated April 3, 1849, at an election held by virtue of an act of the legislature, approved March 15, 1849, Said election was held at the house of Samuel L. Brooks, now within the Town of Oshkosh. Horace Clemans was chosen chairman; Orlando B. Reed, clerk; Thomas Kimball and Charles Scott, inspectors. It was voted to raise a tax of twenty-five dollars, to pay supervisors; twenty dollars to pay clerk and six dollars to pay school super- intendent. m

Orlando B. Reed, chairman; Corydon L. Rich and Hiram Wilcox, supervisors; Jacob Weed, clerk; Isaac W. Mears, treasurer; A. T. Cronkhite, assessor; Watson Bowron, Dan Emery and Luther Robinson, justices; Samuel Brooks, Superintendent; Gilbert Brooks, Jerry Bemis and J. C. Nutter, constables; Samuel Brooks, sealer.

At the election April 2, 1850, there were one hundred and ten votes cast, electing Watson Bowron, chairman; Timothy Allen and David Murray, supervisors; William T. Merriman, clerk; Thomas Kimball, collector and treasurer; Corydon L. Rich, assessor; Charles E. Scott, superintendent; Horace Clemans and Dan Emery, justices; Joel C. Nutter, F. L. King and Joseph Langley, constables.

This town was the scene of a very exciting event, in the early day. A little son of Mr. Alvin Partridge, living in the northern part of the town, mysteriously disappeared, and was never found. The poor little fellow wandered off from a sugar-camp in the woods, where he was staying with his parents, who were making maple-sugar. When night came and the parents had failed to find him, they were frantic with grief. The whole community then turned out and scoured the woods; but their search was fruitless. It is now thought that he wandered off to the marshes, which were partly frozen, and escaping observation perished; for the remains of a small child were afterwards found in the vicinity. The history of this occurrence, and the supposed discovery of the child among the Indians, is fully narrated on pages one hundred and seventeen and eighteen, of this work.

Mr. D. C. Church is now the owner of the Partridge farm, on which he resides. It is a beautiful place, and Mr. Church is the possessor of several very interesting relics of Indian- French days, in this section; among them the pipe of peace, or calumet of Chief Oshkosh; and the hatchet-pipe of Augustin Grignon. He also presented to the Lawrence University, a medal from George the Third to Wildcat, a Pottawattomie chief, and which Mr. Church obtained from Louis B. Porlier.

One of the fine farms of Vinland, is that of Mr. Samuel Pratt, one of the pioneers who settled there in 1847, and prominent among the old settlers and prosperous farmers of the town are, L. B. Beemis, A. B. Devins, J. F. Libby, Levy P. Worden, William Demhart. the Vosburgs, J. Whitacre, H. Clemans, C. Newman, A. Bowers, S. A.March, J. Ihrig,

The publisher of this work is indebted to Mr. A. T. Cronkhite, long prominent in the town affairs, for kind attentions and generous hospitality.

Mr. Cronkhite migrated from Saratoga Springs, New York, in 'l'846, to Wisconsin, and in June 1847, settled in what subsequently became the town of Vinland. In 1848 he moved to the Village of Winnebago Rapids, now Neenah, and opened the first drug store in that place. He subsequently became mine host of the Winnebago Hotel; and among the recollections of the earlier settlers, and travelers of Northern Wisconsin, the name of

Dud " Cronkhite will be associated with the Winnebago Hotel - a hearty welcome and a generous entertainment. In 1855, he returned to his much loved occupation, that of farming, and has been on his farm in Vinland from that time to the present.

Among the illustrations in this work will be found a view of the farm of E. L. Bartlett. This handsome place is most eligibly situated, and is one of the finest farms in the town, with good buildings and all the conveniences of farm life. The publisher of this work is indebted to Mr. Bartlett for aid and encouragement in its publication.