Darlington City (part 7 of 7)

St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church. - The foundation for this present prosperous church organization was laid, it is said, in 1812, by some pious priests from the vicinity of St.

Louis, but the records referring to that event are in the hitter city, and no mention thereof is made in those now owned by the society ; and it was not until August 27, 1835, when Father Samuel Mazzuchelli first makes mention of the organization. On that day, he celebrated tiie baptism of Henrica Murphy, and, for some time thereafter, administered the office of priest for this parish, which was then more extended and less populated than to-day. The pioneer members, among others, included the families of Dennis O'Neal, Antoine Boine, John Griffin, John Ryan, Francis Varion, Henry Gratiot, Joseph Abare. Frank McLeer, Michael Slavin, Thomas McNulty, John Higgins and Morris Wead. Worship was had in the cabins of members until 1841, when a frame edifice was completed on the present church site, and was occupied for upward of ten years. At the expiration of that period, the increasing membership necessitated the procuration of more commodious quarters, and the present stone church was commenced, though its completion was not accomplished until about 1855. It occupies a handsome site on Judgment street, in the midst of lawn and foliage, presenting an appearance both grand and attractive to residents, as also to the casual visitor. The corner-stone was laid on June 19, 1853, by the Bishop of Dubuque. The church is of stone, 55x110, perfectly lighted, handsomely finished, possessing superior acoustic qualities, and cost a total of $15,000. The old frame church was disposed of, and now affords accommodations for warehouse purposes on Truth street. The society own and occupy four acres of ground, donated by John Ryan and John Roberts, comprehended in the square bounded by Peace, Charity, Truth and Judgment streets, which includes the church, cemetery and school. The latter is under the care of four Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic, and enjoys an average daily attendance of 140 pupils of both sexes.

The congregation numbers 1,100 communicants, and the following Pastors have executed the trust committed unto them in the care of the parish : The Revs. Samuel Mazzuchelli, Remegius Petiot, G. H. Ostlangenberg, R. V. Fariniacei, J, V. Bullock, Michael McFauI, J. V. Doly, A. R. Gangloff, R. P. Walker, Father Jarboe. M. Ilobbs, John Conroy, Richard Nagle, James Colton, Jonathan Kinsella and James Kinsella.

Secret Societies

Amicitia Lodge, No. :25, A. F. J- A. M. - Was organized under a dispensation granted January 4, 1849, with the following officers: J. H. Knowlton, W. M.; W. H. Howard, S. W., and James Stewart. Meetings were held under the authority therein granted, until December 15 of the same year, when the lodge was duly chartered, and the first board of officers installed. These were composed of J. H. Knowlton, W. M.; Jeffrey T. Halsey, S. W.; R. Campbell, J. W.; A. A. Overton, Secretary; Robert M. Long, Treasurer; Jesse B. Watts, S. D.; Barnett Cain, J. D.; David Schendler and John Newton, Stewards ; W. P. Boyce, Tiler. At first meetings were held in a room to the rear of William Riskin's establishment on Water street, whence a removal was made to Stephens' brick block, and again to Blakey's Block, when the Masons and Odd Fellows occupied a hall jointly, remaining there until January, 1874, at wliich date Masonic Hall, in Honeycomb's building, corner of Water and Judgment streets, was taken possession of and has since been occupied. The Amicitia is the oldest lodge in La Fayette County, and now enjoys a membership of eighty craftsmen, and owns property representing a valuation of $1,000.

The present officers are N. H. Brown, W. M.; B. Spenseley, S. W.; John Nichols, J. W.; William Dawson, S. D.; William T. Webb, J. D.; R. Brown, Treasurer; F. A. Thompson, Secretary, and C. Honeycomb, Tiler.

Justitia Lodge, No. 12, I. 0. 0. F. - WsiS instituted by John G. Potts, of Galena, January 1, 1847, under a dispensation granted by the Grand Lodiie of the United States, and chartered March 1, 1848, with the following members: Jeffrey T. Halsey, William G. Hovey, Robert Robinson, William H. Howard, A. P. Ladd and Augustus Rien.

Meetings were convened regularly, and the number of members increased with each year. The lodge-room, which was originally of limited dimensions and primitive appointments, gave way to handsome quarters, in time, which have served to accommodate fraternal meetings, sociables and entertainments peculiar to the order and the amenities of life. At present the lodge numbers 107 members, and meetings are held at stated periods in Blakey's Hall. The officers now in service are Richard Bunt, Jr., N. G.; R. M. Trestrail, V. G.; Joseph C. Gates and Thomas H. Gates, Secretaries ; Richard Ivey, Treasurer.

Town Of White Oak Springs

This is one of the smallest towns in the county, and takes its name from the beautiful and unfailing springs, which, shaded by the foliage of a miniature forest of white oaks, afforded abundant water privileges to the residents of the old and new villages. The town consists of the south half of Township 1 north, of Range 2 east of the Fourth Principal Meridian, except Sections 25 and 36, included in the town of Monticello. It possesses a gently rolling surface, rich though sparsely watered soil, and made up of a succession .of fine farms, interspersed with beautiful groves.

Small ranges and lodes of mineral have been worked in nearly every section of the town, but no very large bodies, except the "Blackleg Range" and " Medary Diggings," have ever been operated. The former are located in the southeast corner of Section 32 and the west half of Section 33. Cyrus Lichtenberger, a resident at present of Apple River, in Jo Daviess County, 111., claims to have discovered them on the 2d of July, 1835, though his claim in that behalf is disputed by general report, which attributes their finding to two young men named James Gillis and Stephen Lloyd, by whom they were sold to S. M. Journey, Henry Smith and S. H. Scales, it is said, for a consideration of $2,700. Formerly, they were immensely productive, but at present are not worked. According to authorities on the subject, these mines contain five main north-and-south crevices, with several smaller ones, the principal of which were worked for a distance of two thousand yards, and turned out millions of mineral, enriching their owners and those immediately interested with them to an extent almost without precedent or comparison in the lead mines of the Northwest. The village of Gratiot's Grove, was founded by pioneers in 1824, but its site, the special camp of Indians for many years previous, was mostly within the present town of White Oak Springs.

The early settlers of that portion of the town of Shullsburg bordering upon Gratiot's Grove are so nearly identified with those who first ventured into White Oak Springs that it is difficult to draw the line of demarkation. In 1826, Choteau & Pratt, of St. Louis, followed Col. Henry Gratiot into the vicinity and began smelting. Col. Gratiot, in the summer of that year, purchased the privilege of mining in the vicinity, paying therefor, it is said, the sum of $500. At that time, he struck the old Gratiot Range, near where the Bull Pump subsequently stood, which was worked without molestation from the Indians. This privilege was afterward purchased by John Mc- Nulty, from Gratiot, and long operated by him. The policy inaugurated by Gratiot was adopted by miners from Illinois and Missouri, who worked in the mines about Gratiot's Grove under permission of the Indians during the summer, returning to their homes in the winter, thus acquiring the name of " suckers."

The beginning made at Gratiot's Grove and thereabouts attracted a generous immigration to what was afterward set apart as La Fayette County and the towns comprising its make-up. These included the settlers who built up White Oak Springs and rendered the same famous, as also the pioneers who strayed into other pastures, since dignified with historic appellations, notably Monticello, Seymour, Kendall, etc. The first settlers who joined issue with savage domination in White Oak Springs, according to authentic (or presumably so) sources of information accessible to the seeker after facts in that connection were, as stated, intimately identified with the disputes indulged for the possession of Gratiot's Grove. In 1827, however, Rowley McMillan is reported to have become a part and parcel of the territory afterward set out as

White Oak Springs proper, settling about two and one half miles east of the village, on the farm now owned by the heirs of Joseph Edge. It should not be understood that Mr. McMillan was the solitary vidette in the army of progress who first made a " claim " and established possession thereof in White Oak Springs, for he was not ; but one of a large number who came into Southwestern Wisconsin that year, attracted by the mineral developments made therein, and in the search for wealth, gravitated to the point under consideration.

The opportunity is here embraced to state briefly that the pursuit of knowledge regarding the early settlement of White Oak Springs was not attended with that abundance of success which was desirable or anticipated. Many of the old settlers have gone hence forever, many have removed to other parts, and the few who still remain in the homes of happier days are patiently waiting for the summons to that mysterious realm where all shall enter their chambers in the silent halls of death. The result is that the evidence adduced in support of suppositions regarding the initiatory steps taken to make White Oak Springs blossom like the rose was neither cumulative nor convincing. In fact, it was conflicting and limited, and (in language with the import of which all early settlers in the lead mines are familiar), the writer having thus dropped a shoe on the first quarter, metaphorically speaking, cannot be expected to distance his competitor "expectations" on the "home stretch." During this period and prior to 1820, Noah Daves came in and settled on ground now owned by George Collins. Hugh R. Colter also settled in White Oak Springs, and, after a residence of years in the vicinity, during which he acted in the capacity of a soldier, a farmer, Boniface and what not fortune appropriated to his refusal, removed to Lancaster, where he recently died. The Hulings family were among the number, and " opened up " what is now known as the Scales farm. Ephraim F. Ogden, better known as a "black cockade Federalist," began farming and mining in White Oak Springs in 1828. Mathew Colvin, now a resident of Apple River, came in 1827. Col. James Collins settled in the village the same year ; John W. Blackstone, a mile and a half east of the village ; Jerry Adams, in the lower town ; also A. V. Hastings, Conrad Lichtenberger ; George Lo who originally set up his home on the Pecatonica; R. H. Magoon, who built a furnace on a site east of the White Oak Springs Creamery ; Robert Drummond, also a smelter, with his base of operations on the road to New Diggings ; John Atchinson, a furnaceman in the old village ; Anson G. Phelps, similarly employed in the same place ; Fortunatus Berry, David Southwick, S. M. Journey, Franklin Washburne, H. H. Gear, George and Marvin Watson, John Shultz, Samuel H. Scales, George F. Smith, John Williams, and some few others who made their advent into the wilderness at a time when it required the elements of character rarely seen to-day to combat with the Indians, in addition to want and difiiculties unknown to modern adventure.

Those who came at this early day, as also subsequent arrivals, engaged in mining generally, a limited number reconciling themselves to the accumulation of wealth through the more tedious but more certain development of the agricultural resources latent in the town. A portion of the settlers engaged in both for the acquisition of the means of life, but the instances of pronounced success were scarcely measured by the number who thus employed their capacities. One of the more prominent in this connection was Col. Samuel H. Scales, one of the owners Df the " Blackleg Diggings," upon whom Dame Fortune seemed to have smiled benignantly and aided in assuring a prosperity reputed to be fabulous. His labors in the mines were accompanied by returns rich beyond computation, while his success as a cultivator of the soil was equally as gratifying. The same can be said of John W. Blackstone and some others. But the great mass of the people, taking no thought of the morrow, failed to wrest fortune from the mines for future use, and were left, when their days of labor were over, with a surplus of that treasure which defies the moth of improvement or the corruption of luxury to any appreciable extent.

About the spring of 1830, James S. Woodcock Avas married to Annie Jones. The event occurred, it is thought, about the merry month of May, when the sun of spring bathes the rich landscapes and pleasant vales with golden light, while its gay beams danced over the waters of creeks and rivulets as they glided onward to the ocean. Upon one of these mornings of glorious beauty - one of those calm, delightful days, found only beneath the voluptuous skies of that per, feet month in the year - the twain were consolidated into one, through the agency, it is believed of Hugh R. Colter, a Justice of the Peace, and took up the burden of life with the blessings of friends and neighbors to cheer them on their way. Though all around appeared so bright and joyous, the horizon of the future was shrouded with dark, portentous clouds of savage threatenings. The Black Hawk war was impending, and, almost before the guests had forgotten the occasion of their summons, the bride and groom were included in the force enlisted to repel Indian aggressions.

The records are silent as to what transpired during the interval that elapsed between 1830 and 1832, at which date hostilities between the settlers and that powerful chief were begun. The year 1827 is memorable in the history of adjacent settlements as being the period in which the first serious troubles were experienced between settlers and their Indian neighbors, culminating in the Winnebago war. The territory north of the ordinance line of 1787, except the mining districts in Jo Daviess County, 111., and Michigan Territory, was in possession of the Indians. Early in that year, miners, adventurers and speculators, as is known, flocked hither in great numbers and extended their explorations beyond the " Ridge" recognized as the line of the " five leagues square." Many rich leads were discovered on Indian lands, and miners persisted in digging there in direct violation of orders of the Superintendent of Mines. Frequent disputes occurred, and four Winnebago chiefs warned the Gratiots at Gratiot's Grove that they had best remove. But Red Wing and We-Kaw were surrendered by the Indians before any prolonged difficulties were experienced, and, with the death of the former in jail at Prairie du Chien, the " Winnebago war" ended. A treaty, as is known, was made with the Indians, by the terms of which a large tract of land was released by them to the settlers.

Peace succeeded, presumably uninterrupted by any event in White Oak Springs, calculated to intimidate the miners or farmers, who, prior to the Black Hawk war, labored diligently if not successfully in all cases until 1832. New-comers made their appearance presumably, and all interests combined to reward the operations that were undertaken. The reader is entirely familiar with the general history of events occurring in that year, but there are some facts and incidents connected with the war, and some phases of it known to residents of White Oak Springs then, that should be recorded.

When war threatened, settlers throughout the present limits of the town gathered as with one accord, determined to protect their homes, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. The old fort erected at Gratiot's Grove during the Winnebago war, and then commanded by Capt. Hollingsworth, was strengthened and occupied by a company of mounted rangers under the control of Capt. J. P. Beon Gratiot, also a company of infantry, of which Fortunatus Berry was Captain. This force remained under arms until August 20, 1832, when it was disbanded. Among those who sought the fort for protection were the families residing thereabouts, including that of Antoine Boyne, Paul Garber, Eugene Fournier, Joseph Kemp, William Powell and about forty others whose names have escaped the memory of the oldest inhabitants and consequently cannot be recited in verse or these annals.

At White Oak Springs Village two forts were put up, commanded by Capts. Colter and Clark respectively. The largest was built by S. M. Journey and others, and was 100x50 ; the other fort was about fifty feet square and suppled with every available means of defense. Long before either were ready for occupation, the inhabitants for miles around flocked to them as their refuge, and enlisted under the standard, above which the eagle of the Republic spread its golden wings and looked down upon that spirit of resistance manifested by the hardy pioneers, with the banners of whose descendants it has flown from ocean to ocean, and from the snows of the North to the myrtle and orange blossoms of the South.

killed by the Indians), Henry Smith (brother-in-law to Col. Scales), John C. Thomas, John Ankeny and family, the two Scofield families, Henry Dougherty (who had married a half-breed), the Mason and Hawkins brothers, Elijah Charles, the Woods family, Samuel Warner, John B.

and wife, Conrad Lichtenberger and family, George Lett and family and many more, who were prompted by apprehension of danger to enroll themselves among the would-be secure. A blockhouse was built at Charles Mound, two miles southeast of the village of White Oak Springs. From May until October, the warriors patiently, mayhap nervously, awaited the onset of the Indian foe, which came not, however, though scouting parties were abroad in the town almost constantly, and doubtless saw the marks of the savage at every point. During these five months no effort was made to increase the returns of mother earth ; vegetation ran Avild in the sunshine in the whilom haunts of men ; blocks of ore lay unbroken in the subterranean rock, and the furnace of the smelter grew old in the sunshine of the summer's day. With the defeat of Black Hawk's legions at the battle of the Bad Axe, the old order of things was resumed. The farmer returned to his furrow, the miner to his pick and gad, the gambler to his cards, and the outlaw to his devices.

In the winter of that year, the child of James S. and Annie Woodcock, was scalded so severely as to cause death in a few hours, shrouding a family in gloom and breaking the current of life in the settlement for the first time since its establishment.

With the suspension of hostilities, the echo of the woodman's ax was once more heard in the forest, the dead corpse of the miner's art was touched, and it rose upon its feet, and the blast of every furnace turned out abundant rivulets of molten lead, which awaited not long the demand of the consumer. Nature, the most hospitable friend of man, smiled upon the scene, and combined with art to reward her devotees. Her most beneficent processes were woven under smiling veils, and her vast wheel of endless life and splendid transmutations turned beneficently. The farmer labored tranquilly in his fields, plowing the soil and sowing the seed to reap the bountitiful harvest; the miner with his spade. was one of God's levers of power, and the laboring classes in other spheres of life were the fulcrums. And so they always will continue to be, bright coronals that will sparkle with increasing luster until earth shall cease its revolutions and fall with languid lifelessness into the arms of dissolution.

Village Of White Oak Springs

The first village of White Oak Springs was situated one-half mile southwest of the present village, and was begun as early as 1827. This village once contained stores, groceries, furnaces, a fort, and about one hundred inhabitants, but of all its former greatness, only one house yet remains.

In 1834, the present village of White Oak Springs was platted by George F. Smith, and additions were made up to 1837 by H. H. Gear and John Williams. It was located on one of the most beautiful and romantic sites naturally that could be chosen, though for the past quarter of a century it has fallen into decay, and but little is now left to indicate the renown for which it was many years famous. Yet, its prosperity and life departed, it still possesses many charms for one who desires retirement. This village, in 1836, contained 150 people; and in 1846, five stores, four saloons, three blacksmith-shops, three hotels, and claimed not less than 500 inhabitants. Now, its population, we regret to say, cannot exceed fifty.

Thenceforward, the progress of the town was rapid and gratifying. Immigration into the lead mines was more general than had been previously remarked, and the character of those who came into the town, in keeping with those who settled elsewhere, was decidedly cosmopolitan, speaking nationally as also professionally. The mercurial disposition of the inhabitants found frequent expression in their removals from point to point as prospectors, and the amusements they indulged were of a class that subsequent generations regarded as neither childlike nor bland. These included gambling, horse-racing and athletic sports, in which the possession of superior physical proportions and prowess were gifts that almost invariably gained the day.

There are old settlers residing in La Fayette County at present who distinctly remember the race between the Hulings boys' quarter-horse Glass Eye and the mare Old Betsey, which

Col. Scales brought from Springfield, 111. The race was a quarter-mile dash, and was run over the track then kept in order upon the Hulings farm. Glass Eye was a high-mettled racer in his day, and, for the distance entered, is said to have been without a peer on the Western turf. His owner was justly proud of his achievements, and offered to match him against all competition. The challenge was accepted by Col. Scales, who entered Old Betsey, and the stakes, it is said, included every available resource, real and personal, possessed by either party. While pending, the utmost excitement prevailed, and the betting was general and liberal. An old settler, who was on the ground and witnessed the defeat of Hulings' horse, compared the excitement to that which prevailed at the famous eclipse which occurred forty years ago and upward. The heat between Glass Eye and Old Betsey was run early in the morning, and "finished almost before it was begun," in the expressive phraseology of one of the witnesses, resulting in the defeat of the Hulings entry, and vesting in Col. Scales the title to the Hulings estate, near White Oak Springs Village, which was included in the stakes.

Another feature of daily life here was gambling. Games of all kinds wherein cards are prime factors were ventured, and vast sums of money changed hands daily. Faro seems to have been the chiefest attraction to interested parties, and the betting indulged was always the limit. As an evidence of this fact, it is said that one of the prominent capitalists who flourished in those days patronized the sport liberally, and one morning before breakfast " coppered the deuce " for a thousand dollars, winning his bet. The sporting element, it is said, represented dispositions venturesome, cool, deliberate, liberal and equitable, a type of men who paid their way and distributed their winnings with a liberality that was extravagant to profusion. The absence of bloodshed, riot, fraud and dishonesty would indicate the existence of some claim to these characteristics with a class who are ordinarily prone to indulge practices poetic license has denominated "peculiar." If they ever sought the employment of " exterior influences" to win Fortune to their side, the records have failed to perpetuate the results. Amid this lawlessness, so to speak, moral influences were at work, and so leavened the little band of substantial, industrious. God-fearing settlers that within the near future the transient consumer gave way to the permanent producer, and all became as clay in the hands of the potter for the advancement of educational and religious interests.

George Cubbage, who was captured by the Indians, and released for the consideration of five plugs of tobacco, opened a school, which was attended by Harriet and Cyrus Lichtenberger, the Hulings boys, Elizabeth Neville, Sarah Streeter, five of the Daves family and four sons of Elijah Charles. The Revs. Mr. Thomas and Aratus Kent preached sermons and pointed the way to salvation by routes of the most orthodox character. Laws were enacted and enforced, and quiet and order succeeded to chaos and moral vacuity. In 1849, the California gold fever attracted miners and the general floating population from their lares and penates in White Oak Springs and their absence was supplied by many who live to see fields ripe for the harvest, luxurious homes, and schools and churches dotting a landscape that was once barren and vacant.

During the past twenty years, the cultivation of the soil has been esteemed as a duty of paramount importance, to discharge which was incumbent upon all who solicited public confidence or private independence. The war called many of the citizens who had become identified with the material prosperity of White Oak Springs to the front. Many were left in their windowless chambers afar from the scenes of home, and are remembered as they sleep the sleep of sanctified rest in the South. Many came back with the scars of battle to commend them to the regard of friend and foe; and all, by their prowess and achievements, sent their names down the dim, mysterious aisles of the future shrined in a luster that grows brighter as the days lengthen into years, and the cause for which they fought or died becomes more firmly linked with the days that are gone.

For many years, the lead mines have not been vigorously worked. This is due to a lessened demand for the product, which would not justify the investment of large sums in expensive machinery which the necessities of the situation require to be employed. But, when the occasion shall come requiring the utilization of these means. Blackleg, the Medory, and other

The town is well supplied with schools, where the advantages of education denied the early settlers are waiting the commands of all who seek these mediums of improvement. The town is generously populated by a thrifty, enterprising class of inhabitants, and the casual visitor to its beauties and advantages can but felicitate the enterprising and industrious at the promise that seeks their acceptance.

The Pkesent Village

A store and hotel, half a dozen residences, post office and grocery, with a population not exceeding fifty inhabitants totalize the latitude and longitude, with all the attendant concomitants of the present village of White Oak Springs. The old village occupied a prominent site to the southwest of Samuel Dunbar's present corn-field, and, in early days, gave promise of wealth and commercial advantages which have never been realized. When the forts were built, a dozen log cabins comprehended the number of domiciles which afforded protection to heterogeneous collection of inhabitants. After the Black Hawk war, many who came to the forts for protection, remained as residents, and, in 1834, as already cited, the present village was formally laid out and platted. Very soon thereafter, A. V. Hastings and Hugh R. Colter opened hotels ; Franklin Washburne and others, stores, and many whose names cannot be recalled, dispensed commodities from behind a bar, or proffei'ed wealth from behind the faro-table. At one time the population of the village was estimated at five hundred souls, but during the forties the route of the stage road from Galena to Freeport was changed, and the village losing the patronage of travelers, was removed to its present site, where it has gradually disappeared, the residents removing, in some instances, with their houses to Darlington, Shullsburg, Scales Mound and elsewhere. This, it is claimed, is due mainly to the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad, by which stage travel was abandoned, and the dozen vehicular conveyances which were wont to halt at the village inn daily, with large numbers of passengers, were seen no more on the public highway, to the irreparable detriment of the town and its progress.

When mining was at its height, the town was alive with business and other evidences of prosperity, already quoted. The storeroom adjoining Dunbar's grocery was formerly occupied as a gambling-house, and nightly was its interior the resort of vigorous youth, of men grown old, men with wasted intellects, who had consumed their youth in folly, and looked forward to death and an unknown grave without a shudder. Here, also, came men who had flung away high gifts, high birth and high chances; men with eyes in which the wasted genius of a mighty mind looked out through the mists of a drunkard's sight, all here in the flicker of a tallow dip, betting their thousands or their last dollar with a nonchalance born of desperation, or the license of a Catullus.

Among these, it is related, was one who had once occupied an honorable position, and, as the son of a prominent ofiicial, had been afforded opportunities denied less fortunate civilians. But he fell from his high estate, and, drifting into the lead mines, became a confirmed inebriate. The elegance of a Sardanapalus yielded place to the abandon of a drunkard, and he that once emulated the virtues of the youth of Lacedemonia, became a hopeless wreck.

To-day a schoolhouse rises above the site of the gambling-room, and a church of the Methodist sect, erected in 1865, wherein preaching is had semi-monthly, occupies a hill in view of what is left oi the "deserted village." These, with the post office of which Mr. Gilpatrick has been the official for thirty years, are the only evidences remaining of what might have been the portion of White Oak Springs. The mail is carried hither six times a week from Scales Mound and Shullsburg, on a stage which rests the weary traveler in his journeyings to the "city" of the past. School is taught on an average eight months in the year, and beyond a quiet home for the laboring and professional pilgrim after the heat of the battle, but limited inducements are offered to the visitor to remain permanently.

White Oak Creamery

An established enterprise for the manufacture of a superior quality of butter was organized for business in June, 1879, by J. and A. Blackstone, George and Henry Proctor and William Walton, and is represented as engaged in a lucrative and gradually increasing business. The premises consist of a creamery proper, of frame, 50x25, and two stories high, supplied with eleven pans, and the machinery usual to that line of business. The building cost $1,750. Attached to this is an ice house and residence, also of frame, and sufficiently complete in details for the wants of the service. Eight thousand pounds of milk are utilized daily, which is subjected to a temperature of 50 degrees, and from the cream thus arising 350 pounds of butter is manufactured each 24 hours. The business of the creamery is chiefly with New York and Chicago factors, and so successful has been the undertaking that the enlargement of the creamery is contemplated during the ensuing season.

Town Of Monticello

Monticello, the smallest town but one in the county, is composed of the south half of Township 1, in Range 3 (except the west half of the northwest quarter and the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 19, and the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 30, in Township 1, Range 3), and also of Section 25 in Township 1, Range 2 east. It is bounded on the north by Shullsburg and Gratiot, on the east by Gratiot, on the south by Illinois, and on the west by White Oak Springs. This town was organized, February 7, 1850, by an Act of the Legislature of Wisconsin, procured by the active efforts in that behalf, of Richard H. Magoon. Pursuant to that Act, the first town meeting was held at Thomas Wiley's house, in April, 1850; at which meeting it was resolved, that no charge should be made against the town by any town oflScer, for any official service. This resolution was long faithfully adhered to by the officers of the town.

The surface of the country is gently undulating prairie, well watered by Apple River and Wolf Creek, with their branches. The southern portion of the town abounds in valuable beautiful groves, and the soil is almost uniformly rich and productive.

The settlements made here were begun at an early day. During the year 1828, Benjamin Funk and Thomas Wiley adventured from the lead mines of Missouri, below St. Louis, into Monticello, and, erecting a small, inconvenient log house on the present site of Thomas Wiley's homestead residence, began the battle for existence surrounded by savages and a wilderness wherein beasts of prey found an abiding-place. These gentlemen, it is believed, were the original settlers in Monticello, and for many years both watched its progress and endured the trials incident to its building-up. Capt. Funk years ago yielded to the inevitable, but Mr. Wiley still lives, a hale old man, in the enjoyment of that independence which follows industry and thrift. A witness of the trials to which all who ventured into the once unknown wilds of Wisconsin were subjected, he has survived to rejoice in the triumphs of succeeding years.

For a year, these two men were the solitary inhabitants of the territory now included within the limits of the town, being without neighbors or any of the accessories which in other localities served to deprive frontier life of many of its cheerless features. During 1829, Mr. Humphrey Taylor removed from Gratiot's Grove, where he had been conducting a boarding-house, and settled in future Monticello, locating on a farm about two miles northeast of the cabin of Funk and Wiley. All of these settlers established themselves in their new abode to engage in farming. They had previously been identified with Gratiot's Grove in the capacity of prospectors and miners, but removed to engage in the occupation of farming, and succeeded in their several objects.

In 1829, R. H. Magoon, who had been smelting at the Blue Mounds, but had sold his furnace there to Ebenezer R. Brigham, and had become, in 1828, owner of land in Monticello, removed thither and erected a log furnace on his farm in the southern portion of the town, which was maintained until 1842 - the only one ever built and operated in the vicinity.

The emigration during 1830 was comparatively numerous and of a substantial character, the arrivals including that of a man named Simpson, who broke land and made preparations for opening a farm some distance east of Funk's hou?e ; Francis Clyma, removed trom Gratiot's Grove to a farm east of Funk's, and some few others were added to the population.

During the Black Hawk war, the inhabitants participated in the fear of that blood-thirsty savage endured throughout the county, and employed the same means of defense elsewhere adopted. Benjamin Funk, Thomas Wiley, Francis Clyma, R. H. Magoon, with hands by him employed at Magoon's furnaces, and others to be thereby benefited, erected -Fort Funk, which was built of logs, and occupied a site about two hundred yards northwest of Funk's residence. It was completed in May, 1832, the dwelling and smoke-house of Wiley and Funk forming a part of its construction, and occupied by the settlers of the neighborhood. Before affairs had become extremely threatening, a company was formed of the male inmates, and R. H. Magoon was elected Captain, but declined in favor of Benjamin Funk, who was elected to that position. Magoon was elected a Lieutenant ; but, being satisfied that cavalry and not infantry was the arm to repress and expel the Indians, he resigned the position, and at once went to White Oak Springs fort, enrolled himself as private in Capt. Clark's company of mounted rangers, was next day elected Lieutenant of that company, and as such served throughout the war. Humphrey Taylor, Kingsley Olds, Francis Clyma and Lot Dominick divide the honors of being Lieutenants in Capt. Funk's company until it was disbanded. The company of Capt. Funk was made up of miners, among whom were Messrs. I. B. Cowen, Quinn, Leroy, Irons, Andrews, Weathers, etc., the settlers whose names have been mentioned, the deficiency in numbers being supplied from the male cohorts who visited the fort as a means of preserving their several scalps. Thomas Wiley and " Pony " Fletcher were appointed scouts, and roamed the surrounding country daily to ascertain by personal observation what the designs of the Indians might be. "Pony" Fletcher was a character, whose reputation was cosmopolitan, so to speak, in Michigan Territory and Illinois. After he had run the race set before him in Wisconsin, " Pony"" removed to Stephenson County, 111., where, after assailing a Justice of the Peace in Freeport, he married the daughter of " Widow"' Swanson, in the town of David, and settled down to the life of a farmer. During the occupation of the fort, a young man, whose name cannot be remembered, died of camp fever, and was buried with military honors. But Indians avoided " Fort Funk," and, when peace was declared, the soldiers dispersed without having fired a gun in defense of their homes, lives, liberties, or the pursuit of happiness.

From 1832 until 1840, there was very little immigration into Monticello. Between these dates are said to have been days of hardship, trials and bitterness to the resolute men and heroic women who established their beautiful and flourishing homes in Monticello, named out of compliment to the secluded retreat of the drafter of the declaration, in Albemarle County, Va. During the latter year, Ebenezer Bostwick settled one mile, say, north of Wiley's, which, being the location of the fort, was the central point in the township, toward which and from, the site of which early settlements orient. Mr. Bostwick engaged in farming, it is believed, and denied himself the search for wealth through the agency then almost universally appealed to in that behalf. About 1850, too, the Rev. Mr. Buck came into the township, the first colporteur and ministerial laborer in Monticello, as far as can be ascertained. As a rule, however, the time of most settlers was then devoted to supplying temporal wants, leaving little leisure for the enjoyment of spiritual impressments or benefits, and the call of the parson was seldom heard in the land until the -country became more thickly populated and generally developed. The same may be said of schools, though efforts in that behalf were improvised at an early day in Monticello. and these have culminated in the adoption of a system of education which, being nurtured, proves to be of incomparable value. The denials, public and private, to which the first comers were obliged to submit, were not mitigated by any soothing influence, but improved their hardships universally and without discrimination, and with no redeeming feature, unless it may be the exceeding salvation they accomplished for those who were affected, as also their descendants.

Early in the forties many came into the country, and, while a vast majority of those who arrived distributed themselves about Galena, White Oak Springs and other resorts, more desirable on account of the mineral wealth to be found within their limits, a very respectable nunjber tarried in Monticello. Among these were Messrs. Burdick and Crowell, two young men who came in search of fortune. Burdick married, and, settling down to farming, acquired wealth. Crowell sought the same felicity, but, upon a visit to Galena, was placed in a room in the hotel but recently vacated by the death of a former occupant from small-pox. When this fact waa brought to his knowledge, he became almost paralyzed with fear and hastened home, when his apprehensions doubtless quickened the attack of this loathsome disease, for, within a few hours of his arrival, he was stricken down. While thus afflicted, he was most tenderly nursed by Miss Bertha Bostwick, and, notwithstanding the employment of every means possible to arrest the malady's progress, he died.

In 1845, the Stanawa family were added to the population, the head thereof maintaining a tavern on the farm now owned by Edward Funk, three miles west of Apple River. John Rundell settled near them soon after, and Jacob Haffle previous to 1850. Since that date the township has grown with the times, and to-day presents an appearance of prosperity comporting with the advantages exerted in that connection. It has always been free from the annoyances and incidents the almost invariable concomitants of a new country, and order among its inhabitants has never been an exception.

The first school was opened in Capt. Funk's house soon after the Black Hawk war. Among the pupils were Thomas E. and Alonzo Funk, Harriet Funk, now Mrs. Kleeberger, Mary Funk, now Mrs. Rundell, Maria Clyma, subsequently Mrs. Hampshire, William H. Clyma, George Taylor, Eliza Taylor and some few others. The township is to-day well supplied with schools, and every opportunity is accorded the youth to secure a substantial education.

The first marriage was that of R. H. Magoon to Elizabeth Kenney, a resident of Illinois, which occurred January 21, 1831, and the first birth, H. S. Magoon, subsequently a member of Congress, and at present prominently identified with the bar of La Fayette County, who made his first appearance January 31, 1832. The first death is reported to have taken place twa years previous. A lad named Kingsley Olds became overheated while skating, and, sitting down to recover from fatigue, was chilled through, precipitating pneumonia, from which he never recovered. He was buried in Illinois. The first death from accident was Aaron Kinney, who, on July 5, 1838, was thrown from a wagon near Humphrey Taylor's house, and died the same day. The first hotel was opened by Francis Clyma, in 1836 ; and the first stone schoolhouse was built in 1846, about one mile east of the site of Funk's fort. The first singing-school in the town was taught in this schoolhouse, in 1850, by Mr. Woodworth, who had sixty scholars in his class. The first debating club was organized in the same schoolhouse, in 1851 ; and the first writingschool was taught in a log-house, near the site of the same school, in 1845.

Monticello has two churches ; the Presbyterian Church, a stone edifice four miles west of Apple River, and Monticello Methodist Episcopal Church of frame, on the road to White Oak Springs. Both were erected about 1850.

Town Of Gratiot

Gratiot was a polling precinct as early as 1843, which it remained, including a large area of adjacent territory, until January 3, 1849, when the town was laid off by the County Commissioners, to include within its limits an area seven by nine miles square, as follows : Nine sections in Town 2 and fifty-four sections in Town 1, within Ranges 3 and 4 east of the Fourth Principal Meridian. The town remained in this form until March 1, 1855, when a portion of

The first town meeting was held in the schoolhouse at the village of Gratiot on the 3d day of April, 1849, when the town was regularly organized, and the following officers, among others, were elected : Samuel Cole, Chairman ; Elias Slothower and Dow Lerozee, Supervisors ; H. S. Rodolf, Clerk ; J. R. Shultz, Treasurer ; William Cook, Assessor ; Samuel Parks, Superintendent of Schools. The number of votes cast was forty-two. The amount of taxes assessed for general purposes in the town in 1849 was $575.58. The town was named Gratiot in honor of Henry Gratiot, the founder of Gratiot's Grove, and one of the first claimants in this section. The town rents a small building in the village of Gratiot for the transaction of business.

The surface of this region is variable in contour. In the south and southeast portions, it is generally beautifully undulating prairie, while in the north and northwest parts it is quite rough and broken in places.

The soil is good, that of the prairie lands being principally a rich, black, friable loam, as distinguished from the clay loam and limestone marl of the hills and uplands.

Gratiot is bounteously watered in all portions. The northeast corner is crossed by the west branch of the Pecatonica, which at one time was navigable for small craft. Into this stream flows Wolf Creek from the south, and its several tributaries which intersect the south and west parts of the town. There are also four small streams rising in the eastern part of the town, which flow east and empty into the Pecatonica. The Pecatonica and Wolf Rivers furnish good waterpowers.

The timber supply is somewhat limited, especially in the south part. The best timber lies north of the Pecatonica. Here exists, in abundance, maple, walnut, elm, ash, poplar and several varieties of oak. There is also some very good timber lying just south of and bordering on the Pecatonica, and in patches throughout the town.

The first inhabitants were nearly all Americans, but at present a variety of nationalities is represented here. The northeast corner is now occupied by a settlement of Norwegians ; the northwest corner is settled principally by Irish ; in the central part, several families of Germans have located, while in the south part the population is made up mainly of Americans and English. In early days, the Democratic element was very strong, but now the reverse is the case. The social, religious and educational condition of the people at present is excellent, there being a goodly number of schools and churches.

The products at present are such as pertain to agriculture, there being no manufacturing done other than milling and cheese-making, and no mining work pursued, although mineral is frequently found in the town in digging wells, cellars, post-holes and other excavations. There is an abundance of limestone at difterent points throughout the town, which can be easily quarried for building purposes.

The people are generally prosperous, and a majority of the old settlers remaining can show, as the fruits of their industry, fine farms and comfortable dwellings. The climate is good, the water good and the soil highly productive. What more can be asked by an agricultural community to insure a good living ?

In all probability, the first claim was laid by Henry Gratiot, who located at the lead mines of Illinois in 1823, probably, and came thence to the Grove in 1824. From that point, early in 1828, he came into this town accompanied by John Curtis, and located the Wolf River mill privilege and the land in the vicinity, where the village of Gratiot now stands, on Section 9. Mr. Gratiot's object at the time was to establish a saw-mill where he could obtain lumber for building at the Grove mining camp. That he accomplished his purpose, is well known, for, during that year, a rude dam and log saw-mill were constructed, and from that time to this the waters of Wolf River have, through nearly all the years, supplied power to the busy wheels of mill machinery. During the time the mill was being built, Mr. Curtis caused a log cabin to be constructed, into which his wife and two little ones were moved.

In the winter of 1828-29, a third building was erected, to be used for a grist-mill. The stones, two small buhrs, were imported from France by Mr. Gratiot at an expense of $400. Coming by way of New Orleans and Galena, they arrived here early in 1829, and, very soon after, the first regular set of buhrs in the county were at work crushing grain for the miners and farmers of adjacent localities.

The mill was conducted by Mr. Curtis in conjunction with a man by the name of Kellogg - but, whether as owners or not, cannot be ascertained - until the breaking-out of the Black Hawk war in 1832, when they were closed. The mills were not molested by the Indians.

Previous to this time, in 1828, Aaron Hawley, who had formerly been a missionary among the Indians, moved into the town and settled on Section 4, near the West Branch of the Pecatonica, opposite to the mouth of Wolf River. This was the first farm claim laid in the town. Mr. Hawley brought a large family of boys and girls, and lived here until the Black Hawk war, at the time of the breaking-out of which, he was in Illinois buying cattle, but, hearing of the danger to which his family were subjected, he started for home, joining Felix St. Vrain, Indian agent, and a. party with him, who were bearing dispatches from Rock River to Galena. Four miles south of Kellogg's Grove, in Jo Daviess County, they were attacked by Indians, and four of the party killed. Mr. Hawley, it is supposed, was one of them, although his body was never found. Mr. Hale, an early settler of Wiota, was also one of the killed. The fight occurred in May. On the 8th of June following, Capt. Stevenson's company of mounted rangers found three of the dead bodies, and gave them decent burial.

A son of Mr. Hawley, Robert, who now lives at Warren, 111., was born in Gratiot in the autumn of 1828, before the dwelling of his parents was finished. He is the first born white of the town.

The year following the advent of Curtis and Hawley, Stephen and Nicholas Hale located in the town about half a mile north of Gratiot Village, and began the work of making a home. If there were any other settlers in the town previous to the Indian war of 1832, it is not known ; probably there were none. During the war. the people were obliged to leave and take refuge in the different forts adjacent, where they remained until its close, when Mr. Curtis returned, and with him Mr. Kellogg and a Mr. Whitney. The mills were again started.

In 1833, J. R. Shultz and Peter Corish settled in the town. Of Mr. Shultz, it is related that he was an honorable and generous-hearted but fire-eating Kentuckian, who taught his children to fight on the slightest insult against their honor, or expect a sound drubbing from him if they did not. He was a highly respected citizen, and lived here many years.

William S. Hamilton, son of the eminent statesman Alexander Hamilton, and a pioneer of the town of Wiota, lived with Mr. Shultz during a part of the latter years that he was in the country.

In 1834, a Swiss family by the name of Rodolf, the male members of which were H. L., and J. C. F., settled in the town, and the Hastings brothers, A. V., Sylvanus and David, came and located on the old Hawley place. The Rodolfs were a high-bred and well-educated family. H. L. Rodolf, uncle of J. C. F., was a polished gentleman, and had been President of the Swiss Republic previous to emigrating to this country. There are none of the family now living here. The Hastings family were genuine borderers, rough and ready. They early emigrated to fresh fields.

John and Charles Lace, the former a somewhat notorious character, came in soon after this, and located at what was then known as Gi'atiot, where John opened the first liquor saloon in town. He removed to other parts and was subsequently shot. His brother was drowned in 1839, the first white person known to have been drowned in the Pecatonica. At his funeral, three kinds of liquor were provided, and something of a suction was indulged in by those pres- ent, who came from far and near. In digging the grave, mineral was discovered. This excited the cupidity of a miner by the name of Belden, who began prospecting soon afterward, near the grave. He soon ceased, however, declaring that he heard groans proceeding from the tomb.

In 1836, several parties came into the town, of whom may be mentioned Zera Bebee. Horace Bebee, Hiram Smith and John Thompson. Very soon after the arrival of the Bebees, the Gratiot Mills were rented by them from De Garmo Jones and J. P. Sheldon, who had purchased the property from the former owners a short time before. Hiram Smith was employed to assist in running the mill and to employ his spare time in building a new dyke, which he did, a wheelbarrow and spade being the implements used in the work. Smith was a chronic bachelor, and lived in a dug-out. Peace to his memory.

In 1838, Hiram Bebee the elder, brought on his family from the East, and opened a hotel, and bought the first acre of land in the village of Gratiot. Mr. Bebee was a very noted person in his day, a great hunter and story-teller, and an eccentric character. It is said of him, that, no matter what he might be doing, he would drop everything suddenly and start off, and be gone weeks, giving no notice of his whereabouts. The first religious services in the town were held at his house in 1839, by Elder Osborne, a Baptist "preacher, who lived in Wiota. After services, he would take his gun and fish-pole and start out with the boys to work off the effects of the sermon. It is said that during the first times of religious excitement, Zera Bebee, who was a great enthusiast, would unbutton his coat by jerking off the buttons. Horace Bebee, his son, who now lives in Wiota, was one of the first surveyors, and the first storekeeper in the town.

In 1838 and 1839, the number of settlers was largely augmented. They were David Atwood, Samuel Cole, S. G. Bragg, Erastus Bebee, Charles Webster, B. W. and JE. W. Tuttle, William Fleharty, and perhaps two or three others. David Atwood and Mr. Cole, who has been the representative of his district in the Legislature during ten or eleven sessions, opened the first blacksmith-shop in the town, very soon after their arrival.

During the next few years the influx of people was very rapid. Among these may now be mentioned the following persons, some of whom are yet living here: Elias Slothower, John Connery, Hiram Tuttle, Henry Randolph, William Long, William Cook, William Bradshaw, Joshua Brown, Joseph West, E. Butterfield, Martin Wheaton, Samuel Slothower, Lyman Clark, David Blubaugh, J. F. Beard, E. W. German, John Lines, N. Dobking, George Heindel, W. H. Stevens, P. Campbell, N. and H. True, Dow Levisee, N. B. Richardson, S. Parks, Mr, Lyman, A. Blood, Jeremiah Chapman, John Barber, James and William King, John Eaton, Mr. Sprague, Mr. Foss, A. P. Kane, E. Farnham, P. D. Jerry, James McDonald, C. H. Gratiot (son of Henry Gratiot), H. Heffernan, J. and W. Leavitt, D. E. Dull, John Shay, D. and J. McHugh, G. W. Russell, Peter Slothower, Mr. Ball and the Rues. The oldest settlers now living in the town, are Messrs. Cole, Thompson and Slothower.

The first Methodist Episcopal minister to perform service in this town, was Elder Crammer, the frontier circuit-rider, who came before 1840. William Fleharty and William Long were also early local preachers officiating throughout this section.

Many of the old settlers will remember how stringent the local customs were regarding the jumping of claims. On one occasion, a claim made by Mr. Bradshaw having been taken, an indignation meeting of the citizens was soon after held, in the south part of town, at what was known as the Spring Valley settlement, and measures were adopted which resulted in recovering the land, but, before the settlement could be effected, there was a bloody fight, and one person was stabbed, being seriously wounded.

The first death chronicled occurred at a very early day; a child, either of Mr. Curtis or Mr. Kellogg, having been killed by a saw-log, which lay wedged up on the side of the race, above the mill, and which, getting loo^ie, rolled over the little one, crushing it to death.

The first marriage remembered to have been celebrated in this town was on New Year's Day of 1841, when Henry Law and Harriet Bebee were united.

During the early days, wild animals were very thick, especially deer and wolves. For a good hunter to get eight or ten shots in a day's hunt was a common occurrence.

One of the singular beings of early times was a tramp and beggar, who made his headquarters about a mile north of the village. He was a Texan ranger, who, having been bitten by a tarantula, had lost the use of one of his hands. He wandered here and there about the country ; he departed for good before 1840.

Spring Valley was, in 1845, quite a thriving village, having several houses, and a hotel and store kept by Dow Levisee, and a blacksmith-shop kept by Mr. Chapman. There is no business done there now, and scarcely a dwelling to mark the place.

The first burials were on the farms of the residents ; now there is a general cemetery on Section 9, managed by a corporation called the Gratiot Cemetery ; one on Section 1, Range 3, and one on Section 29.

There are four churches in the town. The Methodist Episcopal Church, called the "' Stone Church," as it is built of that material, stands on the southeast corner of Section 29, and is the oldest in town, having been erected about twenty-five years ago. This church belongs to the State-line Circuit, from which it is supplied with a minister. The Kingsley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, named after a place in England, is a commodious frame building, located on Section 10, and which was erected in 1871. It belongs to the Shullsburg Circuit. The other churches are situated in the village of Gratiot. Several years ago, there was a strong Baptist organization at Spring Valley, which held services in a schoolhouse on the old stage road. This society long since ceased holding meetings.

A saw-mill was built in the northeast corner of the town in 1839, by John Connery, J. Slothower and George Schellenger. They run it for a time, then sold to Selden Quimby, from whom it passed to D. Blubach. After him J. Barrington was the owner. The mill was closed two years ago.

There is a small cheese factory in town, built some years ago on the northwest quarter of Section 15, Range 3, and owned by a stock company.

In 1839, B. W. Tuttle secured an interest in the Gratiot mill property by the erection of a new rhill. In June, 1868, this mill was swept away by a freshet, some of the machinery being carried ten miles. The mill was not rebuilt until some time after, when E. C. Bruner and Nelson Bower, having purchased the property, erected the present substantial and commodious structure. The mill is supplied with ample and first-class mill fixtures, and is now owned by Nelson Bower, Mr. Bruner and family havino; been killed at the Ashtabula disaster.

Village Of Gratiot

A village plat, to be called Gratiot, was first laid out by De Garmo Jones and J. P. Sheldon, on Section 4, at the junction of the Wolf and Pecatonica streams, in 1835. This place existed solely on paper, John Lace being the only one who located there. In 1838, the idea of building up a town at that point was abandoned and the present village laid out by the firm, the mills and surrounding property having, as before mentioned, become the property of Jones & Sheldon. The village was properly platted and surveyed by Thomas Brown for C. H. Gratiot and B. W. Tuttle, on the 12thof December, 1856, they then being the owners. The place was at first generally called Wolf's Ford. As previously appears, this point was the nucleus of the first settlement of the town. The second house was a frame building, which stood on Block 9 ; who the builders were is not known. The bachelors, David Atwood, Samuel Cole, and B. W. and E. W. Tuttle, occupied it when they first came. The building remained until 1876. A shed which was erected against this house was where Messrs. Cole & Atwood opened the first blacksmith-shop in tlie town, as elsewhere mentioned.