Fennimore City

Fennimore City

This town owes its name to a settler, who, at the time of the breaking-out of the Black Hawk war, was living on Section 22, Town 6, Range 2 west of the Fourth Principal Meridian. He disappeared during this struggle and was not again heard from. In 1837, a Mr. Palmer settled on Fennimore's old claim, but left after remaining a short time. In 1838, John Robinson, Sr., settled on Section 34, Town 6, Range 2. John Switzer, John Dillon, John McReynolds and Henry Meeker settled in the year 1843. The first German settlers were Sigmund Stuart, who came in 1845, and John Nauert and George Bohl, who arrived in 1846. The organization of the town of Fennimore took place in 1849, embracing at that time the territory of the present towns of Fennimore, Marion, Hickory Grove, Woodman, Boscobel, Waterstown and part of Muscoda. The first town meeting was held on the 3d day of April, 1849, on Section 7, Town 6, Range 2 west, and the following officers elected : Supervisor, Lester Pratt, M. D., Chairman. Solomon C. Peckham and John Switzer ; Clerk, John A. Shearer ; Assessor, H. A. W. McNair ; Treasurer. Philo A. Dempsey ; Superintendent of Schools, John A. Shearer ; Justice of the Peace, Charles W. Loney ; Constable, Robert Munns. Chester Pratt, as Chairman, in 1849 received $10 for his services, and H. A. W. McNair, as Assessor, who had to tramp all over the above designated territory, $9.

At the present date, Fennimore embraces Township 6, Range 2, and Township 6, Range 3. The first Justice of the Peace, James Russell, was appointed by the Governor of the Territory. The first elected by the people was Charles W. Loney, elected as above. The first religious organization was formed in 1844 by Rev. Elder Allen, the class consisting of three - John Switzer, Philo Dempsey and Mrs. Dempsey. The first marriage celebrated was that of Elijah Goodrich and Allemina Russell, in 1817, the magistrate performing the ceremony being Justice Russell, nicknamed the " Chief Justice."

The first school district was organized on the 7th day of April, 1849, and the first school was taught by William R. Dixon, on Section 7, Township 6, Range 2, in 1847, or two years previous to the organization of the school district.

Fennimore is at present divided into twelve whole and eight joint school districts, and contains fifteen schoolhouses. The village of Fennimore Center was laid out in 1868. Previous to this, or in July, 1862, the first house had been moved to the '' Center " by Mr. John G. Perkins. Fennimore Center contains two churches, one Methodist Episcopal, and organized as early as 1849; the other. Advent, There is also a church at Mount Ida, in this township. The village comprises in its limits three general merchandise stores, doing a good business, two blacksmith and wagon shops, one harness-shop, two shoe-shops, one hotel, two saloons, and has two physicians. In 1879, the building of the narrow gauge railroad through from Woodman to Lancaster, and passing through Fennimore, gave added importance to the village, and, surrounded as it is by a good farming country, Fennimore Center is situated in a most favorable position for advancement in the future.

Village Of Montfort

A pleasant village, born about the time Wisconsin was admitted into the Union ; occupies a portion of Sections 24 and 25, in the eastern portion of Wingville Township. Located partly on a hillside sloping to the south, with a generous growth of forest trees behind, and partly along the limits of a ravine which stretches off to the west and is lost in the timber. Montfort presents the appearance of having flourished at a time when fortune was in her more genial mood. And, from all accounts, this presumption of fact is not without foundation. Its earliest settlement dates back to the days when "leads" and "ranges" were blessings, the departure of which long since brightened their former existence. The title page, so to speak, to the history of the more prosperous days of the present town, when it was known as "Wingville," may be read in the substantial improvements completed under a former regime. In those days, it is said, a well-filled wallet was essential to a comfortable existence; one Avho neglected to put money in his purse eventually came to be, in an algebraic sense, worse off than nothing, and his transpositions and relations in the equation of life were always indicated by the minus symbol. But not so with Wingville, when stage-coaches were the world and "whips" the potentates ; when guests of inns within its present limits sat by blazing hickory fires in old arm chairs and reflected upon the probable results of a "lead " sunk in the valley. Nor were they guests who tore up to the door, mounted on high-mettled racers covered with foam, to demand of the landlord brandy and water in stern accents. The town was the scene of many a struggle for supremacy with the wealth of mineral hidden beneath the rock-ribbed hills, and the hornyhanded sons of toil who wrested prosperity from their depths were the guests of the log tavern, and the founders of the village. Substantial of nature and character, they imparted that element to the buildings Avhich formed the nucleus of Montfort, and the preface to a history of its future growth.

The first efi'orts toward the establishment of a settlement where Montfort now stands were made, it is said, by Thomas Parish, who came into the country in the fall of 1827, and erected a cabin on the branch of Blue River, northwest of the present village. He was followed the ensuing season by others of his family, and miners generally, who located and worked out considerable mineral from leads which led into ranges that have since become celebrated for the amount of ore they have produced. It must here be observed that considerable difficulty was experienced in the procuring of reliable data regarding the early founding of this portion of the township, also with reference to the improvements completed in the village proper. The cabin of Thomas Parish was the first, presumably at least, that can be recalled ; the next was the fort which stood near the Methodist Church, and the third, also erected by Mr. Parish, was the old log tavern, raised into position about the same time, as a "halting-place" for soldiers en route from Fort Crawford to Portage. During the Black Hawk war, the fort was invested with troops, says current rumor, but the officer in command, as also the composition of the company, cannot be recalled even by those from whom such uncertain accounts have been obtained. After the war, the value of the mines, it is said, was thoroughly tested by prospecters and adventurers, who remained in the neighborhood toiling and triumphing, completing improvements, which are still visible in portions of the village, until the discovery of gold in California precipitated the exodus from the lead mines, with which all are familiar, and from which the country was years in recovering. Early in the forties some adventured into this portion of the county, and, remaining, became identified with its growth and the development of its resources during that and subsequent decades. Among these were Judge William McGonigal, now of Lancaster ; James (jrriswold, Dr. Rickey, Jacob Benner, a Mr. Crippen, John Shepherd, Asaph Leadbetter and some others, but it was not until 1848 that eff"orts were formally made to lay off" a village and begin the race with rivals for precedence. True, the subject had been mooted for some little time, and the desire to eclipse Centerville, distant three miles, and now celebrated as the center of zinc mines, from which mineral in paying quantities is daily being taken, found frequent expression, but no decisive action was taken in that behalf until the year above designated.

On the 3d of April, 1848, Ben C. Eastman, of Platteville, who was interested in the ownership of lands in the vicinity of Wingville, caused a survey to be made of the northeast corner of Section 25, for himself, and as the attorney in fact of Francis J. Dunn, and laid off for village purposes. The plat occupied five acres of ground, which were subdivided into twenty-eight lots, fronting on Main and Center streets.

At that time, the improvements of the village, which was thenceforward known by its present title, consisted of the Washington Hotel, a rude structure, conducted by Jacob Benner on the present site of the Fraukland House ; the old log tavern on the Leadbetter farm (still standing, by the way), presided over by James Basye and Claiborne Chandler ; a miner's cabin standing north of the Washington Hotel, occupied by Thomas Hitchcock, John Milburn, William Hudson and William Ballard; a miner's cabin at the south end of the same caravansary, occupied by William Kinney, Daniel Thorp, and one named Landrum.

The same year, or early in the spring of 1849, John Shepherd procured a survey of eight acres of land, and divided the same out into ten lots, the dimensions of some of which described nearly an acre of ground. Previous to that episode in the history of Montfort, an enterprising settler by the name of Henry Pohun built a store south of Edward Bell's present store, and Levi Sloan a saloon, in the same direction. Judge McGonigal resided north of the Washington Hotel, and was engaged in commercial ventures with Levi Sloan, who lived in a house standing on the lot west of the present post office site. This year, as has already been stated, miners left in large numbers and emigrated to California. The Leadbetter, Shepherd and other ranges were abandoned, and the laborers therein rushed to the fields of famine and gold on the shores of the Pacific. The same year witnessed a limited number of improvements in the village. Mr. Bouchard, of Mineral Point, erected a grocery, where G. Hess now lives ; William Ballard a domicile on Shepherd's Addition, on the present site of J. T. Taylor's residence, and Samuel Stephens, of Potosi, a house on the site of that occupied by A. Mathews.

During 1850, no improvements of note were either projected or completed. The miners had nearly all left the vicinity, anl with a population of not more than 150 souls, and little to encourage them, the year passed without any evidence of enterprise being manifested. Added to this deplorable condition of affairs, the cholera broke out on the 24rth of June, and the village became a veritable Golgotha. It seems that a number of immigrants were passing through the village, and among them was one who, in the light of subsequent events it was concluded, was suffering from an attack of the Asiatic enemy of mankind. The resident of a house which was built for a store, and stood on the corner of Leadbetter's garden, whose name is forgotten, endeavored to minister to the invalid immigrant, and was soon after taken down. He was attended by a man named Starms, but died the same night, his atti>ndant and the latter's child following in his wake almost before the body of the first victim had become stifi"ened in death. The bodies were interred on the hill opposite Leadbetter's farm, where they were left to await the summons of the resurrection morn. McMurtry and Isaac Goodin were the next fatal cases, notwithstanding the attentions of Drs. Hamilton and Moffatt, of Highland ; also of Dr. Sibley, of Dodgeville. By this time the inhabitants became panic stricken and fled for their lives, some going to Mineral Point, some to Dodgeville and some to Mifflin. Those who were unable to flee were cared for by the physicians who could be procured, and nursed into health or shrouded for the tomb by those who remained, who were limited to William Ballard, John Adney, D. Gard, R. Duncan, Tom Kelly, Mr. Bouchard and a German named Fick. The epidemic lasted fully a month, and yielded only when a lack of material prevented its continuance, but not before it had sickened and paid the debt of nature, including Dr. Sibley, who was taken with the preliminary symptons while en route to his home in Dodgeville and died before the remedies available could effect a change for the better.

From 1851 to 1855, there was comparatively no building or improving, but four houses having been erected during that period, according to the statements of the "oldest inhabitants." These were raised in Shepherd's Addition, by Thomas Kirkpatrick and Mr. Laird. Two years prior to this, another addition had been made to the village, it being that of Asaph Leadbetter, who laid out eighteen and nineteen one-hundredths acres of land in Sections 2-1 and 35, which were subdivided into eleven blocks, with a total of eighty lots. But this produced no visible effect upon the lack of enterprise or change in the absence of improvements, as the ensuing five years were as unproductive of results in this connection as the preceding semidecade appears to have been.

During the war, the village furnished its quota of troops and means necessary for the suppression of the " rebellion," and sought by every means at the disposal of its inhabitants to contribute aid and comfort to the cause of the Union and the enforcement of the laws.

During the past twenty years, the enterprise of the citizens has not been altogether demonstrated by the erection of architectural monuments to perpetuate their fame, but sufficient improvements have gone forward to completion to evidence the existence of such enterprise as is developed by opportunity.

During the period mentioned, houses devoted to residence and commercial purposes have been completed and occupied by S. B. Green, G. Hess, J. A. Thomas, John Tucker, James Gaston, William Stephens, Elijah McDonald, George Kendrick, etc. A new schoolhouse has supplied the place of that formerly employed, a Methodist Church built and furnished, a railroad built and in operation, and some other material results accomplished, that have added to the wealth and beauty of the village and the surrounding country. On the 23d of November, 1879, the Narrow Gauge was finished and the running of trains begun. One year later, the depot building was completed, and with each succeeding month since, the shipments of grain, produce and stock have increased in a most gratifying degree.

The village, with a population estimated at upward of 200, contains a complement of stores, shops, etc., a well-sustained school, one church and three hotels, while the professions are ably represented, and good order is invariably maintained. It is the center of a rich farming land, and the point of shipment for vast quantities of zinc ore obtained in the mines at Centerville, three miles distant. Taken as a whole, Montford is the residence of an industrious, thriving community, with many features of interest to commend it as a place of temporary sojourn or permanent residence to the traveler and settler.

Educational. - The village of Montfort, from small beginnings and limited opportunities for the availment of its- youth, to-day is unsurpassed by any town of its population in the county, in the facilities afforded for the procurement of a substantial and practical education. And it might be said, in addition, that this desideratum is valued and appreciated by those upon whom its benefits are sought to be conferred.

The first school taught in the neighborhood of the present village was opened in 1848 by David Bunyan, in a log cabin which stood near Dr. Dewitt's present residence. Here were gathered the children, also those of more mature years, from the adjacent country, ambitious to become familiar with the rudiments of learning, Mr. Bunyan remained in charge a year, it is believed, when he vacated the position, and was succeeded by "old man" Petello, who taught in the same place, and with a success, it is said, commensurate with his efforts, which were determined and energetic.

Along in 1850, the school was removed to the " old fort house," as it was called, where a Mr. Edrington illustrated the beauties and advantages of an education, followed by John Adney and others in the same laudable undertaking. In 1855, a frame schoolhouse 18x22, was built on a lot in Leadbetter's Addition, and was constantly occupied for nearly a quarter of a century, John Adney, Robert Gill, Smith Johnson, Mary Clark, Mrs. S. T. Yorke, Mrs. Lord and others officiating as teachers. This building, after its abandonment for school purposes, was devoted to other uses until 1879, when it was torn down.

In 1870, the increasing attendance of pupils, which each succeeding year subsequent to the war witnessed, necessitated other arrangements, and, with a view to provide for the then existing emergencies, it was decided to erect a graded school of sufficient dimensions to meet all demands for the future. The present handsome frame structure in the eastern part of the village was planned, contracted for and built, its completion being reached during the same year. It is of frame, 28x60, two stories high, containing two departments and supplied with every accessory that will, in any way, contribute to the success of the cause. Its cost, exclusive of the furniture and equipments, was f 3,500.

Ordinarily, two teachers are employed, but at present, the services of one only are necessary. The average attendance of pupils is about 100 daily, and the cost of conducting the school, $600 per annum.

Religious. - Religious services of the Methodist faith were held in early days in the log tavern adjoining the Leadbetter farm, being used for sacred, as also caravansary purposes. Afterward, church was had in private residences, the old fort, and finally, in the several schoolhouses which have been raised in the village. This was the case until the present Methodist

Church edifice was erected some years ago, since when, it has been occupied for church purposes. The Rev. J. V. Bachman is the Pastor at present in charge.

Montfort Cemetery Association - Was organized in June, 1858, when G. Hess, W. 0. Thomas, S. D. Green and Edward Bell were elected Trustees. Soon after, they purchased half an acre of ground from Peter Dewill, which was laid out, fenced and otherwise prepared for burial purposes.

The first interment made in these grounds, was that of Margaret, wife of F. McSpaden, her funeral occurring on the 21st of June, 1858. Since that event, numerous "storied urns " and marble headstones have been raised above the verdure and blossoms, to mark the spot where loved ones sleep, awaiting the summons that shall quicken them into life once more, on the shores of the Beautiful River.

During late years, the association has made additions to the original tract, and concluded needed improvements. The affairs of the cemetery are intrusted to a Board of Trustees composed of G. Hess, E. Carrington and G. T. Kendrick.

The Post Office. - The first attempt at supplying the inhabitants of Montfort and the surrounding country with mail facilities was during the year 1828, or thereabouts, when Daniel Durnell carried the mail from Mineral Point to Blue River, the post office at the latter point being Centerville. In time the same was changed to Montfort, where it was located under the care of D. S. Benner, it is believed, or Robert Langley. In 1854, S. D. Green succeeded to the trust, establishing the office in his store, where he continued to discharge the duties of the office until 1863. In that year, W. 0. Thomas was appointed and served two years, when Mr. Green again took charge, remaining the recipient of Executive confidence four years. At the expiration of that period, W. 0. Thomas was once more invested with authority, which he exercised until his death in 1873, since which event J. A. Thomas has officiated.

The Montfort Independent - A folio of twenty-eight columns, edited and published by W. A. Thompson, was born March 31, 1881, and though yet an infant gives promise of strength and influence with each succeeding number. Personally, politically, and as the medium for a dissemination of news, the paper, as its title would indicate, aims to cultivate the independent features of journalism, and as such has become a many-winged messenger to the homes of subscribers, exerting a general influence, and imparting useful and beneficent knowledge of men and measures.

With the issue of May 26, 1881, the name of the paper was changed to that of the Montfort and Fennimore Independent, the design being to extend the benefits of its publication to the flourishing village of Fennimore.

Montfort Lodge, No. 107, I. 0. G. T. - Was first organized December 15, 1873, and was conducted until July 31, 1880, when it lapsed and was reduced to a condition of quiescence that at the time seemed hopeless. Meetings had been convened at irregular intervals in the hall over the People's Store during its earlier experience, but the attendance gradually diminished, the spirit of temperance seemed to have departed, and, as already stated, they were finally abandoned entirely.

During the succeeding winter, however, the question of a revival of the Lodge was agitated, and the desire that the same should be accomplished found frequent expression. Finally a meeting was convened at the Methodist Church, on the evening of February 19, 1881, at which the initiatory steps to resume service were taken, culminating in the re-organization of the Lodge with twenty-two members, and the following officers: J. A. Jeffrey, W. C. T.; Miss Delia Parish, W. V. T.; Louis Grossenburg and Miss Etta Hess, Secretaries; Miss Anna Boulder, Treasurer; Frank Bell, Marshal ; Miss Nellie Bernard, Guard ; Benjamin Jenkins, Sentinel ; R. H. Palmer, Chaplain, and W. J. Gordon, P. W. C. T.

Since that date, the Lodge has increased its membership to fifty, and meetings are held weekly, on Saturday nights, in the hall of Bunt's Building.

The present officers are: J. A. Jeffrey, W. C. T.; Miss Anna Straw, W. V. T.; Jasper Palmer and Miss Etta Hess, Secretaries; Miss Allie Bachman, W. T.; F. Parish, W. M.; C. James, W. C, and Miss Jennie Bernard and G. G. Palmer, Guards.

Ferrin Lodge, No. 165, A., F. ^ A. M. - During the year 1866. upon the petition of S. A. Ferrin, M. D., and others, of the village of Montfort and vicinity, a dispensation was granted under and by which the present lodge Avas worked. This continued for the space of a year, at the conclusion of which period the lodge was duly organized under a charter bearing date June 11. 1867, with the following officers: S. A. Ferrin, W. M.; E. T. Comfort, S. W.; G. Hess, J. W.; James Chandler, Secretary ; Edward Bell, Treasurer ; Samuel Taylor, S. D.; Marion Sylvester, J. D., and Martin Van Buren, Tiler.

Regular meetings were convened in the second story of a vacant building in the western part of the village, where proceedings were conducted until 1869. In October of that year, the society erected a hall on Main street, which was completed and dedicated the same year, and has since been occupied. The building is of frame, 20x40, with a hall 20x33, substantially constructed and handsomely furnished, and cost a total of $1,500.

The present membership numbers forty-seven, and the official roster is made up of: D. T. Stephens, W. M.; 0. P. Comfort, S. W.;' George P. Smith, J. W.; 0. P. David, Treasurer; James S. Chandler, Secretary; W. H. Van Dusen, S. D.; John Bideg, J. D., and J. H. Lincoln, Tiler.