Judge John A. Bingham House

Monroe has disputed with Exeter the honor of being the first abode of white men in the county. The first comers were miners, John B. Skinner and Thomas Neal. They discovered mineral on the banks of the stream since called Skinner, erected a smelting furnace there, and had been working in the vicinity several years when the Black Hawk war began. The general opinion of the old settlers seems to be that the first discovery of lead on the Skinner was in 1S29; but Mr. Stewart, in his sketch of Green County published by the State Historical Society, says "some of them say it was. in 1827." In 1834, Hiram Rust and Leonard Ross came together from New York state, and built a cabin on what is known as the Pratt farm, east of the village of Monroe. In the spring of 1835 theY broke thirteen acres where the barn is on Wm. Brown's farm. Their claim also included a part of the land now in the county fair ground. In 1S35, Mr- Rust examined the old Skinner mines, which he found deserted. They were on sections three, ten, and thirteen; some of them were seventy feet deep. On section three there were a dozen shafts which were about twenty-eight feet deep, and which Mr. Rust supposes were abandoned for a reason which is readily understood after a moment's consideration of the order in which the rocks of the lead region are arranged. Though the thickness of each layer is variable, the order is invariably as follows : surface, clay and soil; hard, white limestone; shale; gray limestone, the ordinary surface rock of the mines, containing veins of lead, and, in its lower beds, zinc and copper; blue or brown limestone, cutting off the veins; yellowish limestone, in which the veins are renewed; sandstone, containing no veins; lower magnesian limestone. In the shafts referred to, the sandstone was reached after digging about twenty-eight feet. They were undoubtedly abandoned then in obedience to the general belief of that time that no lead could be found below the sandstone. Mr. Rust and Joab Enos sank these shafts three or four feet lower and struck rich veins. They continued to mine here through 1835-6, being joined in the latter year by N. Cornelius, who came from Illinois to Wisconsin some years before; and Mr. Rust thinks they raised more lead than has ever been raised in the county since, in the same length of time.

Passage source: History of Green County, Wisconsin, published 1877.

In 1835, Joseph Paine, having removed from Clarno, began to farm where the village of Monroe is now. About the same time, Jarvis Rattan, an Illinoisan who had been for many years a miner, built the second house in the village, and Julius Austin settled just west of the village - his brother, Elijah Austin, who came with him from Illinois, settling in Clarno. Jacob Andrick came the same year from Ohio, and made a farm in that part of Clarno which is now included in the southern part of the village of Monroe. There were at this time two cabins at the Skinner diggings, occupied by Nicholas Hale and Richard Palmer, and their families. Mr. Hale cultivated a small tract of land which miners, of whom Mr. Hale may have been one, broke before the war. In 1S36, the brothers Robert and Hiram Delapp came from Illinois. The former made a farm where Mr. Cornelius now lives, Mr. Cornelius being farther west, on what is called the Chamness place. Daniel S. Sutherland came in 1S36, from Illinois, to the farm where he still resides. At the land sale in Mineral Point, when a friend bought the farm for Mr. Sutherland, there was quite a strife for it. The price of land, good or bad, was $1.25 an acre, except where more than one person wanted it, in which case it was sold to the highest bidder. The price of Mr. Sutherland's land was run up to $2.50 an acre, by a man who kept a little store at Mineral Point. He did not pay for it that day, and, according to the rule in such cases, the land was offered for sale the next day. Before the hour of the sale a number of Mr. Sutherland's friends gathered in the store, and, by one pretext and another, kept the merchant busy until the farm was bought at the usual price. Land purchases were often attended with excitement, and sometimes with danger. One Monroe farmer, while on the way to Mineral Point to buy eighty acres which joined his farm, learned that one of his acquaintances had started on the same errand two hours before him. At first he was in despair, for he had only the money to pay the government price, and the success of his whole life seemed to him, then, to hinge on his poses sion of the eighty acres. But the bearer of the bad news had these words of comfort : " You will neither of you reach the Point before the office is closed; tomorrow I will lend you all the money you need to bid against him, for you are a farmer and he is a speculator." The farmer arrived at Mineral Point after dark, and went to bed, but not to sleep. The suspense was too great to be endured. A little after midnight he arose, and, with his money and the description of his land in his hand, went to the land office. He felt around in the dark until he found the door, which he pounded with the energy born of a last hope; and when, after a time, a few horrible oaths told him there was some sleepy wight within, he was filled with a wild delight which the sweetest music had never given him before. Then followed a practical exemplification of the text, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him. First, the deafened man opened the door, swearing he would not do business in the night; then, swearing still, he took the description and the money. The farmer went to sleep then, but, rising betimes, went again to the office to see the discomfiture of his speculating rival, who had relied so much on his earlier start from Monroe that he stopped for the night eight miles this side of Mineral Point. At another time, two would-be purchasers started together from Monroe. The one who had least money knew a shorter road to Mineral Point than the other knew, but the knowledge was of no advantage for he could not get away from his companion. In vain he stormed and declared that no one who bought the land away from him should ever return to Monroe alive. Greek had met Greek, and the victory was not to be gained by threats. Finally, when the greater part of the road had been traveled over, the involuntary guide turned back, and the other went on and bought the land.

Passage source: History of Green County, Wisconsin, published 1877.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

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