Monroe City (part 1 of 3)

Sylvester

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.

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.

With Mr. Sutherland came Thos. Bragg of Virginia and Geo. Nobles of Illinois, both of whom were, after a few years, at work on their own farms near the village. In 1837, Chas. S. Wilcoxon bought Mr. Rust's farm, and Mr. Rust moved to his present residence. A. J. Sutherland and Geo. Reeder, both of whom made farms in the eastern part of the town, came in 1837 - the former from New York, the latter from Ohio.

The next farmers were Asa Brown, Dixon Bailey, Mrs. Morton, and Thomas Morton, who all removed herefrom Illinois in 1839. So much for the beginning. In contrast with this list of early farmers is given now a list of the largest farmers of to-day.

The following are the principal stock-raisers and dealers in Monroe: J. M. Chadwick, who, with his brother, J. C. Chadwick, of Juda, ships about threefourths of the stock that is shipped from the county; J. S. and L. S. Smock, importers and dealers; Wm. Brown, one of the first in the county to import fine cattle; A. Ludlow, who shipped to New York the present year the largest drove of Durham cattle ever shipped from the state by one man; T. J. Bragg; G. O. Stearns; Hodge Bros.

There are four cheese factories in the township, of which Jacob Kundert, George Figy, G. O. Stearns, and W. S. Wescott, have each one factory. Two of them make Swiss, and two of them make American cheese.

Monroe held her first town meeting April 3, 1849, at the court house. One hundred and forty-nine voters were jDresent, but hardly any of them had ever attended a town meeting, and no one seemed to know how to proceed. After an awkward pause, some one, tired of playing Mr. Micawber, exclaimed, "What do they do at town meetings?" Mr. Daniel S. Sutherland, who, when a boy, had attended town meetings in New York, replied, "first, they put some one in the chair, and then they go to work." Mr. Sutherland was then called to the chair, and this is the work they did: Taxes of $125 for contingent expenses, $25 for the support of the poor, $200 for making and repairing roads and bridges, and $300 for schools were voted; the running at large of domestic animals, and, as the record says, other incidental questions were considered, and the usual town officers were elected.

Early History Of The Village Of Read In Monroe March 21, 1876

The first house in the vicinity of the Village of Monroe was that built by Hiram Rust and Leonard Ross, Hn the summer of 1834. In the winter of 1834-5, these "two bachelor housekeepers were the only white men in the township, and they had a full taste of the pleasures of solitude. They had little work; to do, and were entirely free from that anxious hurry and bustle that cheats most housekeepers out of the calm, peaceful hour which should follow a good dinner. After each meal they sat back comfortably from the table to talk and "feed their fancies with sugared suppositions." Sometimes while they were thus engaged, the squaws came in, and, dipping their fingers into the pork dish on the table, transferred its contents to their hair. When the feminine love of ornament had been thus gratified, Mr. . Rust usually gave his visitors bread, with which they - sopped out the remaining gravy, and made a good din- Mier, Though they did not use them themselves, the -squaws conceived a violent fancy for the knives seen on ifche white men's table. Frequently, after their visits, iwo or three knives were missing; but, in a day or two, one of the noble braves, aesthetically weaker, if not morally stronger, than his squaw, would come in, and, without any talk about the woman's tempting him, lay the knives on the table and go away in silence. The chief sometimes compelled Indians to return stolen articles. When Mr. Cornelius was numbered among the bachelor housekeepers of this vicinity, an Indian borrowed a eun at the cabin to shoot a deer which he r;aid he had seen but a minute before. Mr. Enos wont with the Indian to see him shoot. They went cautiously, so as not to alarm the deer. Sometimes the Indian stopped and listened, always making Mr, Enos stop too. At each of these pauses he contrived to increase the distance between him and Mr. Enos. When they were several feet apart he lay down in the tall grajs, pretending he wanted to listen with his ear on the ground. Mr. Enos waited until his patience was exhausted and then went on; but the Indian was not in the place where he had dropped down, and though three white men looked for him all night, they could not find him. The next winter, for two bushels of corn, the Winnebago chief had the gun returned. The Indians had a sense of honor which made an Indian's promise as reliable as a white man's, and, as far as they could be, they were hospitable. The squaws were much more willing to give away their maple sugar than the whites were to eat it, and when they had soup, visitors were always invited to partake. A volume might be made of the early settlers' reminiscences of the Indians, and the habits of the vanished race are curious enough to warrant a still further digression from the history of our own town and village. One gentleman observed the progress of an Indian courtship. The girl proposed to her hesitating admirer that they should take a march of twentyfive or thirty miles to see how well she could do the work of a squaw. They went, she carrying all the things usually carried on a march, and doing all the work. He was satisfied with this trial of her strength, and soon after their return to the camp they were married.

In 1835, Mr. Paine built the first house built in the village. It was near the place now occupied by the house on what is known as the Capt. Foster place, and it marked the spot where Mr. Paine had concealed himself from the Indians in the Black Hawk war. A little later in the season, Mr. Jarvis Rattan built the second house. A house of that day was a log house. A year later, Milwaukee contained only two frame, and Chicago only two brick houses. The first white child born in Monroe was a daughter of Mr. Paine's, and the last Indian born here was born on the sunny side of Mr. Paine's house, the first winter of his residence here. The Indians had only stopped there to cook something which they had shot, and, when the pappoose was but an hour old its mother bathed it in snow and swung it over her back, and its journey west began.

In 1S36-7, Robert Ream, George McFadden, and Mordecai Kelly settled here with their families. Mr. Ream was the father of Vinnie Ream, and was the first postmaster in Monroe. In the spring of 1838 he moved

In 1S37, two frame buildings, one a store the other' a tavern, were erected here by the firm of Bininger, Smith & Paine. The lumber was brought from Pennsylvania, down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers to the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi to Galena, whence it was hauled across the country. The firm failed, and in less than a year the store was closed ; but soon after the failure, Mr. Jacob Ly Brand opened a store in the same building.

In the spring of 1838, Mr. John Hart, now of Milwaukee, started with a stock of ready-made clothing from Milwaukee to Galena, where he intended to open a store. When he had advanced on his journey as far as the hill which is south of the railroad in Monroe, one of his horses suddenly sickened and died. The only man in the village who had horses was Joseph Paine, and he had so few that Mr. Hart could neither buy nor hire one for the remainder of his journey. Mr. Paine said, however, that this was probably as good a point as Galena for a store, and that he had a log house which might be appropriated to that use. As it was impossible to go on with one horse, Mr. Hart remained. He sold on credit, and so, when horses became more numerous, there was still a reason for his remaining; but in time all bills were paid. The year 1838 also brought to the village Mr. John Porter and his family from Missouri.

The next year there was a school. It was taught by Miss Lucy Goddard, whose home was in "the state," as Illinois was called then. Everybody contributed something towards her salary, and the contract pro- Tided for her to board 'round. About twenty children were in attendance, several of them coming from Clarno. The same summer the Rev. James Ash, who lived on Mr. Austin's farm just out of the village, and who belonged to the Rock River Conference, organized the first religious society in the town. It began with less than a dozen members, but is still in existence, and is now the oldest society in the county. The first meeting was held at the house of Dixon Bailey, northwest of the village. None of the villagers joined the society, but most of them attended its meetings.

[The contest for the county seat, which convulsed the village from 1S38 to '40, having been already described in the sketch of the county, is omitted here.]

Let us now picture to ourselves this place as it appeared in 1840. The typical log house of that time contained but one room. This room had one window, one door, and a fire place with an outside chimney, which was built of sticks and mud. Other features of the domicil were less uniform. If the occupants were wealthy and somewhat inclined to luxury, they had a board floor. If they made no pretensions to wealth or elegance, they dispensed with a floor or' had one made of split logs called puncheons. The great fault of the house was that, when the door was open, the smoke from the fire place was very likely to enter the room.

This evil could not be so easily obviated by keeping the door closed as ignorant people may suppose. Usually,, the one window was an aperture provided with a wooden shutter that excluded light as well as air* Consequently, either the door or window was always open, the choice between them being determined by the direction of the wind. Most of the settlers had come from states farther south than this, and did not at once adapt their habits to a northern climate. The first thing to do each morning was to let in the light. Light having been admitted, the draught of the fire was regulated by putting up a cloth partition between the opening and the fire place. The cloth was easily suspended from the roof or from the floor of the loft. The loft - when there was one, for it was not found in all houses - was reached by a ladder, and was used as a sleeping room. The roof was made of what the Yankees called shakes, and western people called clap boards, held in place by logs laid crosswise. The advantages of such a roof were three. It afforded wakeful persons an opportunity of studying geography of the heavens without getting the neck-ache. It enabled people who had no door key to barricade the door on the inside and then go out on top of the house and view the landscape o'er like a prairie dog before they went away. It also enabled visitors who arrived when the lord of the manor was absent to go in and make themselves at home. Perhaps this advantage was not apparent in the village, but in the country many a traveller slipped into the house of a brother bachelor to warm and rest himself, and then departed in the same free, if not easy, way. There was no cellar. Vegetahles were kept in root houses, and pigs ran under the house. If the wealth or size of the family increased, a second room, in all respects like the first, was built, the two apartments being connected by a door. But it was a very large family that required two rooms, and so common was it for a house to consist of one room that house and room were synonymous terms. A lady who came here in 1840 was surprised, early one morning, to hear a girl say she had just mopped three houses. Her admiration of the girl's energy was somewhat diminished when she found the labor had all been expended in three diminutive rooms.

It is easy to enumerate the houses here in 1840. Three different parts of the village were known by three different names. Beginning with New Mexico proper, the most important house was Jacob Andrick's, now the residence of Mr. Niles. Across the road was the home of his brother, Christian Andrick. Near by was a third building used at different times as post office, court house, and store. In North, or Paine's, New Mexico was Mr. LyBrand's store, a frame building. It stood just west of Mr. Paine's public square, which is now known as the little park south of the railroad. East of the park or square, was Mr. Hart's house, in the front part of which -was his store. Just south of where the railroad bridge is, was a log house in which, to use the old phrase, school was kept. Between the school house and Mr. Hart's store was a cabin occupied by Mrs. Churchill and her family. Near Mr. Sheehan's present residence was a frame building, which, in a different locality, is known to us as the planing mill, but which was known then as " the tavern." Near the depot grounds, was the blacksmith shop of Buckskin Brown. The log house on Capt. Foster's place was occupied by Robert Kirkendoll and his family, and the Ream house, near the site of Mr. Geo. Spangler's residence, was the home of Mr. Joseph Smith, who had formerly lived in Clarno. Last, but not least in importance, among the twelve houses contained in the three villages was that occupied by Mr. John Porter just west of the spring. This was the only house in what was then called Monroe. It was built by Mr. Rattan, before the people were hampered in the selection of building spots by such things as streets, and when the county seat was laid out, was found to be in the road. The Kelly and Kirkendoll families had lived in it, and it was here Mr. Rattan lived in 1S37, when he raised wheat on the court house square and threshed it on a threshing floor on the site of the Universalist church. Here, in the summer of '40, was the first wedding in Monroe; and Mr. Joseph Kelly, who was then justice of the peace, came from Clarno, to perform the ceremony which allowed Mr. Joseph McConnell, a resident of " the state," to take away Miss Eurana Porter. The house was a desirable one on account of its proximity to the spring, and as the thoroughfare was not crowded, it was allowed to remain some time longer. Like two or three other cabins whose builders had gone away, it was the property of any one who obtained possession of it. Accordingly, when Mr. Porter, in the fall of '40, announced his intention of moving out, two or three families made preparations to move in ; and the question most discussed in the social circles in these three villages came to be, who is to live in the house by the spring? When the dawn of the long looked for moving day was seen at last, Mr. Porter solved this puzzling problem by carrying the goods of one of his neighbors into the house before his own were carried out of it. A rail fence was made around the house, and in the summer of 1S41 those who passed that way leaned over the rails and gazed with ever new surprise at the unwonted sight of flowering beans and poppies. Fences were regarded as a luxury rather than as a necessity in 1840, though most families having no permanent fence had a few rails to fence a garden in the summer, and a stack yard in the winter. A fence was the more convenient because hogs ran at large, and there were four times as many hogs as persons in the county. All the pigs went to market then, or at least to town, and thronged as mendicants around every door unprotected by a fence. They had all the energetic boldness of pioneers, and, when the outside gleanings proved insufficient to satisfy their hunger, they entered at the open door. Tradition tells of a sorrowful company at the tavern whose roasted wild turkey, left by the cook a moment while other things were preparing for the table, was seized by these hungry sentinels and borne away.

As there was hardly anything to be bought, the log house of 1840 contained only such furniture as had been brought from some former home, or the ingenuity of its inmates had contrived. Benches supplied the place of chairs; dry goods boxes served as tables; bottles were used as candlesticks; and a rag in a saucer of lard was a not unusual kind of lamp. A good bedstead was made in this way : the ends of two poles being stuck into the side of the house, the other ends, which projected into the room, were supported by poles resting on the floor. A few poles were laid on the frame work thus made, and the bedstead was completed. When there was company, the bedstead was sometimes made to support a temporary table. In houses of two rooms the inner door was accustomed to come down and serve as a table; and, since the cotton cloth used then for tablecloths allowed all the moisture on the tea-cups to penetrate to the door, such inner doors appeared ornamented with a series of rings, very suggestive of good dinners to those who understood them, but very perplexing to those unaccustomed to society. Aristocratic families had clocks with weights hanging down to the floor, - clocks which had kept time in the family for more than a generation. Next in the social scale were families that, having no heirlooms in clocks, had been able to purchase "patent clocks." Common folks went by the sun.

Now and then a wall was adorned with a portrait of George Washington, at which little boys were expected to look whenever called on to give an account of themselves. A more common household treasure was one of a character similar to the epitaph which the Vicar of Wakefield hung on his wall. It was a picture of a willow and of a funereal woman pulling a child by the hand and leaning over a tombstone, whereon were written the names of the departed. But, while the epitaph addressed itself to the wife only, - "inspiring her with a passion for fame, and constantly reminding her of her end," - the more modern ornament directed its memento mori to all the family alike, and joined to the warning a promise of a moderately enduring name on a guarded tombstone, provided (every promise has its limitation), the person addressed died while there was still vacant space on the stone. But the especial delight of every housekeeper was seen in the pictures on her dishes. In those days, plain, sober folks, ate their pork and potatoes from plates adorned with pictures of architecture more wonderful than the Pantheon, the originals of which could have been found only in some lunatic's castles in Spain ; and, when dinner was over, these strange combinations of the useful and beautiful were all displaved on a shelf called a dresser, where each plate rested on its own edge, and each cup stood in its own saucer. It must not be supposed, though, that the forefathers of the hamlet lived entirely on pork and potatoes. As late as 1S43, in one week and from one herd, a hunter killed in this vicinity fifty deer, and other kinds of game were abundant. The bee trees contained honey for all, while plums and all kinds of berries grew in the greatest abundance where the village is now. Crab apples sweetened with molasses had a prominent place on every table, and the festal board was often graced with sheep sorrel pies, and sometimes with mandrake pies.

The deserted cabin used as a school house deserves a little of our attention. The seats had no backs, and there were no desks. The children sat doubled over like figure lives, and held their books in their laps. Sometimes, while they buzzed their lessons over to themselves, they rocked back and forth, to the time of their buzzing. The little abecedarians rocked and buzzed as many hours as the oldest scholar. Sometimes they swung their feet, which hung several inches above the floor. Sometimes they curled them up under them for warmth. Along two sides of the room was a shelf, where, when the master had time to set them a copy, the older children wrote. Parents had no fear lest the children, on coming home at night, should announce a change of text books. Those who had grammars parsed. Those who had arithmetics ciphered through a great many sums, and the master helped them on the hard ones. But one lady says she attended school here from 1 84 1 to '51, and never studied arithmetic until the last year, when she was fifteen years of age. Not until she was thirteen did she begin to learn to write. She committed her reading book and spelling book to memory, was called the best speller in school, and her friends were well pleased with her progress.

village and county were one. Everybody in the county knew everybody else, and there was a community of pursuits, interests, hardships, and sympathies that brought all the settlers into one brotherhood. The social centre of the county was the tavern. Private houses being small, most social gatherings were necessarily here ; and here, too, everybody went, as often as he could, to learn the news and see his neighbors. So vividly does this tavern stand out in all the chronicles of the early settlers that a student of the county's history soon is prone to think he, too, sees it in its olden form. Let us follow such a retrospective student as, in fancy, he enters unseen at the old tavern door. Perchance the first person he sees is Mrs. Paine, the voluble hostess, who has just broken off a long story of the Indian war, to discipline the children with her slipper. All undismayed, he seats himself and waits, sure that she will soon resume her story. In the intervals given to government, there is leisure to observe the other occupants of the room. Here is a group just returned from a " burying " at Andrick's grave yard. There was no clergyman with them, for there is none this week within several miles. Here is Mr. LyBrand, who, with his precise and punctilious ways, seems strangely out of place in a new country; and yet he cannot do business where there is competition. If you double the value of his goods, his customers get twice as much for their money. Reduce the value of the goods one half, and they will wait on their shelves forever for the price that was fore-ordained for them. In a few years he must be moving on to the

West, but whenever he goes, he will be remembered kindly by many he leaves behind him. His are the warmest friendships, the fullest of unselfish sacrifice, that our unseen listener hears of among the settlers. Leaning over the fire is Mr. O. C. Smith, of the old firm, Bininger, Smith & Paine. He and his brother, wrho together had $10,000, are spoken of as the two men who came to the county wealthy. The older brother is dead, the property is gone, and the younger brother is destined to be laid in a pauper's grave. Near the door is Mr. John Hart. He is the owner of a small library, which has been read and discussed over and over again by the reading part of the community. Reading: matter is so scarce that women sometimes take Washington and the doleful woman from their frames, in order to read again the bits of newspaper back of the pictures.

Our unseen observer stays a long time in his quiet corner. Meanwhile, the visitors come and go. Sometimes the observer sits alone; sometimes he has the company of a noisy group of miners, who make the walls ring with their jokes and quarrels. Now, there enters a young man destined to become an honored member of the legislature of another state. A few hours ago, hearing there was a letter for him in the post office, he dropped his work and hastened after it, only to learn that he could not have the letter until he paid the postage. Now, he is asking his friends to lend him money. Two or three wallets are quickly brought out, and soon he holds the precious letter. It forms its own envelope, and is fastened with small red wafers. Where we might expect the three-cent stamp to be, the postmaster has written twenty-five cents. Now, attention is fixed on a victim of the toothache. Red pepper and hot needles proving powerless to reach the aching nerve, the sufferer thinks he must go to the dentist ten miles away. The dentist is a blacksmith, who, after his patient has lain down upon the floor, sits down on him, and pulls the tooth out with a turnkey. But here is a man who bids the sufferer think no more of the blacksmith and the turnkey. He produces a small piece of hickory wood called a punch, which he directs another man to hold against the aching tooth, and with a hammer he pounds the wood until the tooth flies from its socket. The victim groans a little as he finds they have knocked out the wrong tooth; but they try again, this time successfully. Now, some one announces that Sunday week, there'll be preaching at Mr. Austin's house; and another brings news of a bee at Mr. Andrick's. Still, the unseen man sits in his corner. He listens to the conversation of men who astonish him by their general information, as well as by their shrewd, common sense; and then he gives ear to some good dame who describes the process by which she makes saleratus from ashes, and to another who retails the contents of the almanac that " he " bought at the low price of ten cents, when he went to Galena. He listens to conversations in which neighbors tell, with great minuteness, the particulars of the journey here, the events which induced them and their brothers and their uncles to come, what time of day these events occurred, whether it was before or after dinner, and how they know it could not have been early in the morning. The unsuspected listener sees that, for uneducated people, in a new country, this talk is almost the only avenue of escape from intellectual torpidity, and is ready to applaud it as he applauds the action of a man who, when confined many years in a dark dungeon, kept the use of his faculties by hunting three little pins upon the floor, throwing them down again as soon as found. And our friend is neither shocked nor surprised by the discovery that many of the settlers are intemperate; for he knows that never until 1 80S was there a temperance society of any kind in any part of the United States, and that the society organized then, like all the temperance societies of the next twenty-five years, allowed members to drink liquors at public dinners, dedications of churches, ordinations of clergymen, and ministerial conventions. He knows that when, in 1833, at a meeting of the American Temperance Union in Philadelphia, some one advocated total abstinence from all that may intoxicate, even the original apostles of the temperance movement opposed it, on the ground that it would be injurious to health, and that they regarded him who advocated it as a crazy radical, likely to bring disgrace upon the cause.

And now a dance at the tavern, to which fathers and mothers come with all their children, affords a good opportunity to study the styles of dress of a dozen different years, in nearly as many different states. In the course of the evening, liquors seasoned with nut- meg are passed around. In the ball-room, half a dozen women sip from one glass; in the bar-room, men drink from bottles, something less than half a dozen wine glasses at a sip. In the bits of talk to which he listens, the visitor is surprised by the changes that many of the names of the settlers are undergoing; he observes, for example, the change of Clarno into Clino; Chilton into Shelton; Hawthorne into Hartharn ; and Hensonlr-i-on' into Hanson Ireons. Occasionally, in the pauses of the dance, he hears the people say, in joyful manner, tomorrow we shall know; I'll have mine to-morrow; the peddler comes to-morrow. It is Mr. Ludlow upon whose coming these expectations hang. To his energy the people are indebted for many comforts and conveniences otherwise unattainable. His route is from Chicago to Madison, via Rockford, Belvidere, and Monroe; and, though there are only blazed trees and Indian trails to mark the way, he makes the trip every month. In the summer, he crosses the rivers in ferry boats. In the spring and fall, when the strength of the ice is uncertain, he first walks across. If there are no signs of danger, he crosses with one horse. If it still seems safe, the wagon is taken over. His customers are always watching for him at the appointed time. Hastening to meet him, they ask, " did you remember my tobacco?" " have you brought some pretty calico?" And he is always able to say he has remembered and brought whatever they wish. He stops a day or two at the tavern, intrusting his money, done up in a leather mitten, to the landlady, who puts it under the floor. Such is the hon- esty of the people that although everybody goes to see his goods, which seem to be scattered all over the tavern, and although in all his travels he has never had a lock on his wagon, he has never lost a single article.

The observer has marked many other good qualities of the settlers. He sees that it is by their own force of character they make their way. Many of them are the children of pioneers, and they have never been given those weapons for the battle of life which we call education and culture. The habit of encounterinsr and overcoming obstacles as pioneers has developed within them a tendency to resistance which is not always agreeable,, but their life brings them more virtues than faults- They are ever hopeful and helpful. They feel it nc* hardship to go ten or twenty miles to care for the sick and sorrowing. There is a spirit of kindly affection among them never called out in older places. The little successes of each one are rejoiced over by all, while individual misfortunes are regarded as common calamities, which all hands are ready to repair. They are all as one kindred. The good matrons are everybody's aunts; and their husbands, unless they happen to be squires, like Squire Rust and Squire Gardner, are uncles, like Uncle Jimmy Hawthorne, and Uncle Daniel Sutherland. All find their own good qualities reflected back to them from their neighbors and their county. When asked concerning the home of their adoption, they say it is the best new country God ever made. And, as our historical student brings his long

A building intended for a temporary court house was erected in the summer of 1S40, where the United States House now stands. The contractors were A. J. Sutherland and James Campbell. In the fall, however, before its completion, it was accidentally destroyed by fire. The next spring, the county commissioners agreed with Demas Beach to lend him $400 for six years, for which consideration he was to erect a building in which the county should have the use of certain rooms. This building, since known as the American House, had a court room and county offices on the second floor, while the ground floor was used for a store and dwelling. When court was not in session, a shoe shop was kept in the jury room. The building was ready for use in November, 1S41.

In the spring of 1841, one of the citizens of Monroe, who had endured many of the hardships of frontier life, was called on to bear trouble of a new kind. The unfortunate man was the postmaster, Mr. Noah Phelps. The postmaster's duties were not arduous. Only three newspapers were taken at the office. Sometimes, owing to high water, there was no mail for a month, and the receipts of the office were only about $3.00 a year.. Whatever the duties of the office were, Mr. Phelps performed them faithfully and well - always thawing: and drying the mail by the fire when it had been dipped in the river, and always striving hard, as a faithful servant of Uncle Sam, to avoid being convinced by letter writers, whose postage was in proportion to the distance their letters were sent, that the continent was only five hundred miles wide. But political parties had been organized in Monroe in 1S40, and it happened that the party which elected Gen. Harrison president that year was not the party which received the aid and sympathy of the postmaster, who accordingly lost his office, being the first victim brought under the political axe in Green County. It was several years, however, before elective offices were made dependent on political views. Comparatively few of the early settlers had any aspiration for office, and a man who had both the ambition and the qualifications, received the support of all parties.. For years, Mr. Rittenhouse held, at the same time, the three offices, clerk of the circuit court, county clerk, and register of deeds. He spoke of them as " my offices," and everybody else, both before and after election day, called them " Rittenhouse's offices."

Occasional shopping expeditions to other places were still necessary. The shoppers travelled in a covered wagon, and carried - besides the load intended for market - corn for the horses, food for themselves, cookings fodder. (In those days women preferred to have their husbands go shopping with them.) Bad as the roads were, there was some pleasure travel. In November, 1S42, a party went from Monroe to Mineral Point to see a murderer hung.

In 1842, the county built a kind of bastile. Remembering the fate of a house built upon the sand, the commissioners paid fifteen dollars for a foundation of stone.

1S43 is memorable, in the annals of Monroe, as the year in which James R. Vineyard, a state senator, was tried here for the murder of C. P. Arndt, also a senator, or councilor, as the name was then. An account of the murder reads like a telegram from Texas. An altercation arose during a session of the council, and, immediately after the adjournment, Vineyard shot his antagonist in the council chamber. The jury acquitted him, and the acquittal was the signal for great rejoicing. Mr. Vineyard received his friends at the new Monroe House, and entertained them so well that they rose almost to a level with those men of Shakespeare's, and when the question, were you ever intoxicated, is propounded to the most temperate of the old settlers, it is likely to elicit the reply, Yes, when Vineyard was acquitted.

A brewery was built this year, and several new buildings made more clear the outline of the public square: the Monroe House on the north side, built by John R. Walling; a second dwelling on the west side; two stores on the south side, built by Beach, Goodhue and Slawson; and the old frame store of New Mexico, which was now moved over to the north side. There had been a tailor shop on the east side a year.

By 1S44, one-third of the land in the county was entered. Soon after the land came into market, a great number of acres, including much timber land, were bought by New England speculators - a proceeding that the settlers regarded as iniquitous. All non-residents who owned land were called speculators, and opposition to speculators was held to be an essential element of loyalty to the county. The usual form of opposition was stripping the timber from the land of the obnoxious class. To a great extent it was the speculators' timber that fenced the farms, and kept the cooking stoves and the saw mills running. Ordinarily, wood cut from any speculator's land was good enough; but a speculator owning land east of Monroe died, and (as though his death was an addition to his former indignity to the settlers), from that time until the timber was all used, his land, known as "dead man's land," was the favorite place of supply in this part of the county. Until 1844 the speculators made no effort to defend themselves, but in that year a number of them engaged J. A. Bingham to prosecute every one found cutting their timber, and for a time the old hatred of speculators was forgotten in the new desire to resist a citizen who dared to become a representative and defender of the obnoxious class. For a year or two, it seemed as though the more the timber cutters were prosecuted, the more they developed a martyr-like persistency and a very un-martyr-like aggressiveness. These qualities might have reached the heroic, had not the courage of the choppers wasted away so rapidly that their conduct became the laughing stock of the countv. A brother of Mr. Thomas W. Thompson once came from New York to visit him. At Milwaukee he hired horses and a covered carriage for the remainder of the journey. Before his visit in Sylvester was over, he wanted to see the county town. He started, but lost his way. Presently he saw three men and three loads of rails standing in the road before him. Before he was near enough to ask for information, they all started. Two of the men had horse teams, and they soon disappeared. Air. Thompson then called loudly to the man with the ox team to stop, but the more he called, the more the man pounded his oxen. Psychologists may well tell of the strange influence which, under favorable circumstances, a man who concentrates his mind on one thing is capable of wielding, even if he does not utter a word. In this case, the circumstances were favorable, and the concentration was perfect; and, in an incredibly short time, both oxen and rails seemed to have been inspired with the belief that only a speculator would ride in such a fine carriage as that which was coming behind them. The oxen galloped, and the rails flew off at the sides; and the last Air. Thompson saw of the driver, he was clinging with both hands to the wagon, from which the last rail was gone, while the oxen were making time to which Air. Thomuson, in

In 1S44, tne brick court house was begun. The contractor, Mr. Wm. Dunton, burned his own brick, and it was not until April, '46, that the building was ready for use. A cemetery was laid out in '44, just west of the village, which at that time contained twenty-nine dwellings; and a frame school house was built the same year, near the present residence of Dr. Monroe. In this school house, in the summer of '45, 'Sir. and Mrs. Matthew Wells, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Truax, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kirkendoll, uniting: under the rules and regulations of the Methodist Episcopal church, formed the first religious society in the village. As late as 1845, there was but one well in Monroe, that one being on the place where Mr. Banta lives. It was generally regarded as woman's work to carry water from the spring; and those who had large families and who lived far from the spring had in this way all the exercise they needed. This was especially the case when it happened, as it sometimes did, that after a laborious wading through the mud, seeing thev were almost home, and going into a joyful calculation of how long the two pails of water they carried would last, how many faces, windows, and dishes it would wash, how many potatoes and turnips it would boil, they slipped in the mud, and, like the milkmaid whose story they had so often pondered at school, fell prostrate, losing the treasure so full of promise a moment before.

drink anything stronger than water, as is proved by the existence of a temperance society, which in the fall of '45 had ninety members. Nor did this daily exercise weaken in any way the effect of the common law which forbade any woman, especially any young woman, to walk when she went to a dance. Though she might have carried the water for a washing during the day, and might have done the washing, yet, however short the distance to the tavern, she must ride to the party. It was a natural result of this social law that, before the days of livery stables, comparatively few young men could take any one to a dance. Another result was another inexorable law forbidding any young man to invite one girl without inviting, or persuading some one else to invite, all the other girls in the family. One lady says she has been one of seventeen girls to go to a party with one young man, and that she has been to many parties to which two gentlemen escorted all the young ladies. At supper the ladies sat down first, and their partners waited on them. A man compelled to wait on seventeen hungry girls would hardly care to practice his steps much in the ball room, or if he did, he would probably go too fast for the music; but it was mercifully provided that, once at the party, a girl might receive, until it was time to ride home, the devoted attentions of any pedestrian there, and accordingly all the gentlemen served at the supper table.

Long before this, the learned professions were represented in Green County; but, with a few honorable exceptions, they were represented, as they are in all new countries, by men poorly qualified for their work. The principal physician based his practice on the belief that when blisters, calomel, and the lancet will not save a man, nothing will save him, but that bleeding is then to be resorted to in order to make him die more easily; and he is said to have bled, blistered, and salivated his patients successively or simultaneously with an energy that made this a very easy place to die in. Physicians seem to have been distinguished by peculiarities in their dress, rather than by those in their practice. There was one who was always called the calico doctor, not that there was anything unusual at that time in the calico coat he wore, but the name was distinctive because his principal rival always wore buckskin clothes and a coonskin cap. Most of the ministers scorned book learning and relied on inspiration. They made up in noise what they lacked in ideas. Their favorite subject was the day of judgment. One, who spoke in a nasal, singsong tone, described it as a day when the sun will be darkened, the moon will be turned to blood, the tangents will fly out of their sockets, and the cattle will stick up their tails and run. Another, who was heard by those of the villagers who remained at home, as well as by those gathered in the court room, spoke as follows: " In that solemn hour, my dearly beloved bretheren and sisteren, all sinners will be call-ed before the judgment seat to receive their sentences. First, the murderers will be call-ed, then the burglars and highway robbers, then the horse thieves and the gamblers, and last and worst of all the Universalists will be call-ed." There was one minister who made some pretense to education. He had a Greek testament which, although he could not read it, he brought out whenever he found himself beaten in a theological argument. With his finger on the open page he would say, here is the original Greek, which proves that I am right; and, as his brother was, like himself, unable to read the passage, this always .ended the dispute. Professional men came in the order in which there was a demand for them. First appeared the doctors, some of whom never thought of doctoring until they came here, and most of whom were willing to preach. Next were the ministers, and then came the lawyers, the first of whom had nothing to do. One lawyer came and went away before 1S40, and his discouraged successor went in 1841. Two came in 1842, both of whom would have starved had the law been their only means of support. But public sentiment was undergoing a curious change. Before 1838, and even later, the people had little to do with law, and they prospered so well that they were reluctant to change. Even the county organization they lamented as an evil. But after they had become accustomed to the workings of the new government and to the courts, there was a reaction in favor of law; and, notwithstanding the difference in population, there was more litigation in the ten years beginning with 1842, than in the decade next following. As an extreme example of this reactionary ieeling is quoted the case of Mr. Paine,*who, it is said, had forty summons served on him in one day. The .number is probably an exaggeration, bat the example is a good one. Though formerly prompt enough in the payment of debts, he now refused payment in a number of cases, saying, " if you're going to have law here, you may as well use it." And there were many who were willing to use it. With great freedom of speech and manners, with the freest hospitality, and the greatest brotherly kindness, there existed a seemingly incompatible severity of judgment, and an admiring approval of all severe punishments. At one time a grand jury in Monroe came near indicting a man for playing cards, and subpoenaed Mr. F. F. West to explain the nature of card playing. Mr. West told the jury he could not give the desired information without the assistance of a pack of cards. The jury ordered a pack brought in, and Mr. West explained its uses at some length, enjoying at the end of the explanation the satisfaction of seeing all his hearers thoroughly interested and pleased, and some of them so enthusiastic that their continued investigations were a matter of no doubt whatever. But even in the midst of legal proceedings men sometimes showed that it was more agreeable to them to fight their own battles than to intrust the duty to a lawyer. A case in point is that of Mr. Peter Rutledge, one of the early settlers of Jefferson, and afterwards a resident of Washington. He was indicted for giving a challenge to fight a duel. At the trial it appeared that, while riding horseback in Washington, he met a man to whom he said: "Here's a pistol, d - n you, take it and defend yourself." Mr. Rutledge's attorney, the Hon. David Noggle, claimed that this was not a challenge, and he was trying to prove that his client was innocent of the charge brought against him, when Mr. Rutledge, a Virginian as full of pride as any of the F. F. V.'s and as ready to defend his honor, arose and silenced his advocate with the words, " sit down, Xoggle, you don't know what you're talking about." He then denied as calumnious the implied assertion that he did not know how to give a challenge, and insisted that no one who understood the law would deny that there was one in the words which have been quoted. Judge Whiton decided that they did constitute a challenge, and the prosecution then went on to show that Mr. Rutledge bore a bad reputation before he came to Wisconsin, that he had stabbed one man, inflicting a dangerous wound. The stabbing was proved, and Mr. Rutledge's friends despaired of saving him from the penitentiary. They brought rebutting testimony, but this made the prisoner more impatient than anything that had been said against him. He again took the floor, and, in spite of the remonstrances of his and of the opposing council, in spite, too, of the repeated order of the court to be quiet, he acknowledged the stabbing, and gave his reasons for it, and then his reasons for the challenge. He gained the sympathy of all jDresent, and was acquitted.

Some of the lawyers who practised here while Judge Irvin was on the bench, and the number included many whose residence was out of the county, seem to have believed, like Aaron Burr, that law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained, The daemon of gush seems to have taken possession of them, and they talked so long and so strangely that the justices were reduced almost to imbecility, as is shown by the following bit of Green County history: A lawyer, distinguished for education, dignity, and piety, stated his case, and the justice said to him: u The right is clearly on your side. I think I may decide at once in your favor." "Hold on," cried the second lawyer, who, like his opponent, came from Madison, "I haven't told my side, yet." When he had finished, the justice said: -- 1 was mistaken, the rig-fit seems now to be on your side." " But I have still something more to say," said the first lawyer, who then launched forth in long continued praises of the majesty of the law, and of the sacred responsibilities of the law's officials, closing with a statement of the duty of this particular justice. The justice was much affected by his appeal, but, before he had time to give a decision, up sprang the other lawyer, apparently in a frenzy of righteous indignation. Pointing contemptuously at his opponent, he said, " that sanctimonious hypocrite hopes to deceive you by all this cant; he takes you for a has^wood man; he thinks he can grease and swallow you; can such hypocrisy succeed?5 " No," said the now irate justice, "it can no: succeed; "I decide in your favor."

Sometimes, however, the justice showed a remarkable ability to weigh conflicting claims, as is shown in the case, Harcourt vs. Bedtner. Dr. Harcourt was called to prescribe for Mrs. Bedtner, a mile and a half away. Arrived at the house, the Doctor found he had forgotten his saddle bags, in which were his medicines ; and he sent Mr. Bedtner after them, When the Doctor presented his bill, Mr. Bedtner refused to pay. The case was tried before a justice who decided that Mr. Bedtner owed nothing, as, in going after the saddle bags, he had rendered as great a service as the Doctor had rendered him.

When the district court was in session, the lawyers felt obliged to say something that would make a strong impression in a short time; for there was always a possibility that Judge Irvin would adjourn court at a moment's notice, and go hunting. The Judge was a man of whom no rival would have said to the lady of their choice, as was said to Amy of Locksley Hall, "he will hold thee something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse." In the Judge's opinion, the three things most essential to a happy existence were gun, horse and dog; and to intimate friends he stated very frankly his belief that his gun was the best gun in the United States, that his pointer, York, was the best dog in the world, and that his horse, Pedro, was possessed of more sense than any lawyer in his court. It was supposed that his strongest feeling was his affection for York; and more than one poor man, when judgment was rendered against him, ruefully, and probably mistakenly, attributed his misfortune to a kick, which in some hour of wanton pride he had bestowed upon York. The Judge had' no natural qualifications for his office above those of any honest, indolent, pleasure-loving man, who firmly believes that everything southern is good, and everything "Yankee" is thoroughly bad. His talk was more of prairie chickens than of law; and his knowledge of law was so limited that in court he was in the habit of ordering a recess, that he might take his successor, Mr. Whiton, then a practising attorney, one side, and ask him the law bearing on the case under discussion. The following is said to be a charge given by him to a jury in 1841 : " It appears from the evidence that the plaintiff' and defendant in this action are brothers-in-law. On the Wabash river, in the state of Indiana, they associated themselves together for the purpose of swindling their neighbors. Not content with that, they got to swindling each other, and I am like the woman who saw her husband and a bear fight: 'fight husband, fight bear; I don't care which beats.' And, gentlemen of the jury, it is a matter of indifference to me how you bring in your verdict." Five minutes after the jury had retired the sheriff was instructed to see if they had agreed. A negative answer was returned; whereupon, the jury was immediately ordered in and discharged.

At the close of his term of office, Judge Irvin went to Texas. Judge Knapp, in his Early Reminiscences of Madison, says that, " as penuriousness had prevailed over love, leaving only kindness in the bosom of Judge Irvin, York was left in the kind family of Joe Kelly at Monroe, where he died;" and "the high bred Pedro fared worse: he was sold for the purpose of drawing the plow and the lumber wagon." Mr. Kelly pronounces the above a mistake. Judge Irvin was a Virginian, and he always spent his winters in the south.

During these absences from Wisconsin, York, to whom all the old settlers concede a place in the history of Green County, was left in Monroe; but when the Judge went south to remain both York and Pedro accompanied him.

In 1S44 or '45 Sanger's stage-coaches began to run from Milwaukee to Galena, by way of Monroe. There was a coach going one way or the other every dav, and each coach was capable of carrying seventeen passengers. Preference was given to through passengers, and Monroe people were never able to pre-engage a seat for a journey in either direction. There was so much travel that Monroe men sometimes waited a week for a seat, and were then obliged to find some other conveyance.

A package of old letters written in Monroe in 1845 and succeeding years gives some facts of interest to those who care to follow the progress of the village.

It was about this time that Green county gained the name of " the sang county," a name so well known that one of our representatives at Madison began his first speech there by proudly announcing himself as the member from the sang county. Sang, which being interpreted means ginseng, was very abundant here; but as men, women, and children devoted all their leisure moments to digging it, the supply was exhausted in a few years. Mr. Ludlow bought all there was, being the onlv person in this part of the sang region who shipped it to New York, and says he made more money on it than on any other little thing he ever dealt in. A letter dated August, '46, says: "Flour is $3.00 a barrel.

Wheat can't be sold. Oats are twelve and one-half cents, and corn twenty cents a bushel. Wild hay is $2.50 per ton. A boy from Maine has dug five hundred pounds of ginseng within three months and sold it for twenty-two cents a pound." It is not recorded whether wheat was ever too abundant to be "iven away, but two or three years later Mr. C. J. Simmons hauled oats from his farm in Washington to Janesville, and sold them for six and one fourth cents a bushel; and, as the oats did not bring him as much money as he needed, he sold some yearling calves for $3.50 apiece.

In 1846, Mr. Samuel Spangler's gun shop had its beginning, and Mr. Ludlow opened a store to which his old customers came from all directions. In 1847, our chronicler mentions as signs of progress a public library and preaching three times every Sunday. The Presbyterians, Christians, and Methodists had each a regular minister, though the Christian minister was partly, and the Presbyterian minister was wholly, supported by eastern missionary societies. One letter (written to induce immigration) has this significant remark : "Please tell James Collins this would be a very good place for him as a preacher if he still works at his trade of making chairs." There was also a Mormon shoemaker here who preached sometimes. There were several Mormons in this vicinity, some of whom are still here, but none of them were ever polygamists. In '47 the Methodists began, on the land given them for that purpose by Mr. LyBrand, the first meeting house in the county. It was finished in '48, the same year the compensation such sun:- as he may collect for tuition.*' .ougrh students of all ages nd desrrees of advancemen: we ceived, the seminary v : great power for all the stock, received a deed. 7 .-. _-..:_: school there a short tune, after rich the braiding was sold several times, being once used as a carper:: er 7 shop, and becoming, in : had founded and endowed a college, and had deposited a lar_ 1 sum of monev in the bank at Wc mont. It had been such a benefit to its meml t : hat thev had all become -wealthy. Influenced by the5, ports, the farmers of Greer County formed an . _ _dtural - . :id they invited Mr. Hitchcock - for - and those who went oftenest excited the jealousy of those who had tailed to secure his company. He rode all over the county several times. At one time, thinking his Vermont friends would prefer living near each other, he decided to buy a whole township, and thought he would take Clarno ; but he also selected land in other parts of the county, and in other counties. Finally he published a notice that, on a certain day in September, he would meet the farmers of Dane, Rock, and Green, and conclude his partial contracts with them. Mr. Hitchcock brought no money with him, and, not being fitted by education to write an order on the Woodstock bank, he employed Mr. Dunwiddie, and kept him writing drafts a whole diiy. With these drafts he paid his creditors, some of whom soon found to their sorrow that the drafts were not honored at the Galena bank, whereupon Mr. Hitchcock swore that a lawyer who could not write a draft that would bring money was a humbug, notwithstanding which there began to be a suspicion that Mr. Hitchcock was a humbug. Shortly before the time appointed for the land purchase, Mr. Hitchcock married a widow living in the village. Charivaris were fashionable then, and there was a charivari the night of the wedding. It was good, after the manner of its kind, ending with the entrance of three goats at the window of the bride's 'parlor. When morning dawned Mr. Hitchcock had gone, and he has never been seen in Monroe since that time. He was undoubtedly insane. After his disappearance, his wife and sons came from Vermont, in obedience to the direc- tions given in his letters. They were very worthy people, and remained here several years, hearing nothing from the husband and father who had assumed the name of Hitchcock. When the farmers came, on the appointed day, and found there was to be no sale, they stood around the streets for a time, telling what they had always believed, and then called a meeting of the agricultural society. J. V. Richardson was called to the chair, and nominations for president were declared to be in order. The old hat and coat of Mr. Hitchcock were brought in as the regalia of the president, who, it was agreed, must be some one who had been dear to the departed. One gentleman was nominated because of the oysters he had given Mr. Hitchcock; others were brought forward who had loaned their horses, or worn out their buggies in the service. Then Mr. Stewart urged the claims of Mr. Taylor. He was understood to say that once when half a dozen of them were showing Mr. Hitchcock the town of Spring Grove, they came to a small brook. They were all anxious that the old gentleman should keep his feet dry. One offered boots, another offered to make a bridge of his coat, still another to bring stepping stones, but Mr. Taylor seized the venerable personage in his arms and carried him over the stream. Mr. Taylor was unanimously elected. He was arrayed in the official coat and hat, after which the society discussed the best method of carrying butter to market. There were several subsequent meetings, all conducted in a noteworthy manner, peculiar to themselves; and until a recent time the recollection of them has been a source of unalloyed pleasure. But lately - since the authorship of Shakspeare's plays has been attributed to Bacon - the opinion has gained ground that the society was guilty of an injustice to Mr. Stewart; and Mr. Taylor, with a frankness that must commend itself to both Shakspeare and Bacon, declares that Mr. Stewart himself performed the work which got his friend into office.

A more formidable visitor than Mr. Hitchcock was the cholera, brought to the village by a teamster. About half a dozen persons died, and a panic ensued, which led to this entry in the record of the circuit court, September 3, 1S50: " It having been made to appear that a mortal sickness is now prevalent at Monroe, where this court is now sitting, it is therefore ordered that this court do now adjourn."

In April, 1850, was started the Green County Union, subscriptions to which might be paid in cash, grain, potatoes, butter, eggs, wood, lumber, saw-logs or labor. It was edited by J. W. Snow, and published in Francis Emerson's stone building on the south side of the square. The first number contained this promise: " In reference to the subject of politics we shall studiously avoid injuring the feelings of any one." The Union lived only about a year. In May, 1851, John W. Stewart published the first number of the Sentinel. It was a whig paper for a few months, and then the Rev. J. Walworth and O. D. Moulton bought it and made it an organ of the democratic party. In September, 1854, the paper passed into the hands of republicans, Geo. W. Tenney

The papers of 1S53 complain that Monroe has never had a baker, and is " much in want of a person who will butcher regularly." The village had already recovered from the surpise occasioned by her first barber shop; and both baker and butcher were here before the end of the year. The need of a bank was first pointed out by an Ohio congressman by the name of Delano, while he was here on a visit. In accordance with an agreement made with him, J. A. Bingham opened in May, 1854, an exchange office, in which he was joined in the fall by A. Ludlow. Circumstances prevented Mr. Delano from taking any interest in the business, but through his influence J. B. Galusha came from Ohio to act as cashier, and early in iS^6, the firm, which, having been joined by Asa Richardson, was known as Ludlow, Bingham & Co., obtained a charter as the Bank of Monroe, and in May of the same year, the first notes of the bank were issued.

In February, 1855, in the destruction of the jail, the county suffered her second loss by fire. This led to the erection of a stone jail, and, a little later in '56, to the erection of a fire proof building for county offices. The stone jail was used until the last and best of the county buildings in Monroe was built, in 1870, to take its place.

In 1855, the senator from Green, Mr. West, introduced in the senate a bill whose object was to take from the town of Clarno that part of the township now included in the village of Monroe. A remonstrance was sent to Mr. West, and he withdrew the bill; but soon after this, during his absence from the senate, the bill was introduced again, and passed, all unknown to the good people of Clarno, who, in April, 1855, elected as their town clerk, Alfred Wrisberg, who lived in that part of the town which had been transferred to Monroe. Their blissful ignorance ceased when their votes at the fall election were thrown out on the ground that, because of his residence in Monroe, Mr. Wrisberg, who made the returns, was not legally a town clerk of Clarno.

In 1857, the foundry of R. Sylvester & Co. did away with the necessity of a trip to Janesville or Beloit every - time any part of a threshing machine was broken. In January, 1S5S, Monroe was joined to the rest of the world by the railway; and in the following April, when she had the town-like possessions of a brass band, a fire company, and one sidewalk before a private house - being that built by Mr. J. S. Bloom in the spring of 1857 - the village was incorporated, and the early history of Monroe was ended.

Later History

The village has had but a moderate number of sensations since its incorporation. The greatest of these grew out of the war. In the summer of 1862, there was in Monroe a man who was said to have expended .a. large sum from his private funds in purchas- ing Sharp's rifles for the Confederate army, and tohave served six months as a Confederate soldier. He expressed treasonable sentiments so freely that a public meeting: was held to consider his case. D. W. Ball was chairman of the meeting, and W. W. Wright was secretary. Addresses were made by T. H. Eaton, E. Bartlett, F. Q. Ball, and L. Davenport, after which it was " resolved that the said Morris Rosa be allowed twentyfour hours in which to leave the county, failing to do which he remains at his peril." Morris Rosa went; but there were other secession sympathizers who resided in the county. To decide upon the course to be pursued with them, other meetings were held. At a meeting held the 29th of July, and presided over by Mr. L* Rood, the following resolutions were adopted : of Green and State of Wisconsin, do solemnly swear that I am a loyal citizen of the United States of America, that I will bear true allegiance to the same, that I will to the utmost of my abitity support the Government in its efforts to suppress the rebellion ; that in rendering such support I will discountenance in every possible manner by word or action every sentiment or expression the tendency of which may be to encourage disloyalty to the Government, and that I will not, by word or deed, countenance any disloyal, secret organization; and for a violation of this oath may I suffer the just penalty of the crime of treason."

Resolved, That any person refusing to subscribe to said oath shall be considered and is our enemy, whom it is our first duty, as good and loyal citizens, to expel from our midst.

of this meeting, the course indicated and ordered in Gen. Pope's Order No. 3, (which we annex; be adhered to and carried out, so far as applicable to the case, the same as though we were acting in his department and under his authority.

Resolved^ That a judicial committee of fifteen of our best citizens be appointed to investigate and take judicial cognizance of all refusals to take, and subscribe to, and violations of said oath, and that the Home Guards being organized here to-night be authorized and ordered to faithfully execute the decrees of said judicial commtttee.

Messrs. E. Bartlett, A. J. Sutherland, Harris Pool, S. E. Cole, Dr. S. Porter and C. Godfrey, were appointed a committee to invite citizens to take the oath.

Commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades, and detached commands will proceed immediately to arrest disloyal male citizens, within their lines or within their reach, and within their respective stations. Such as are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and will furnish sufficient security for its observance, shall be permitted to remain at their homes and pursue in good faith their accustomed avocations. Those who refuse shall be conducted to the South beyond the extreme pickets of this army, and be notified that if found again anywhere within our lines, or at any point in the rigor of military law. If any person having taken the oath of allegiance as above specified shall be found to have \ iolated it, he shall be she:, and his property seized and co ed.

The oath was left with L. Rote, who was justice of the peace. A majority of the citizens hastened to subscribe their names to it; and some who did not do it voluntarily, did so from fear. A few refused. Of these, one, who was an old resident of Sylvester, was marched to the village limits, and ordered to keep outside. Another, a resilient of Clarno, rode part way home on a rail. While the excitement caused by these eases a man who was generally believed to he a secessionist, chanced to be in the village, lie was denouncing the proceedings in a violent manner, when some one remarked than probably Mr. Steves had better take the oath. A crowd formed, and escorted him to the court house, and summoned Mr. Rote from his supper table to administer the oath. Mr. Rote read! it and asked the prisoner if he would subscribe to it. Being answered in the negative, he said nothing more, tor by that time the office was so full of men who wanted to take it that he was obliged to light a candle and go up into the court room to accommodate them. When about sixty men had been sworn, proceedings tip stairs were interrupted lw a cry that those who had been laboring with the man below were riding hint out of town on a rail. Mr. Steves' fate made copperheads cautious about expressing themselves in Monroe; and his resistance taught union men to be less busy in seeking out offences. This was the last encounter of the kind during the war, but it was long before men heard the last of this. Mr. Steves brought suit against twelve citizens of Monroe. In selecting the twelve, he was assisted by Monroe men whose opinion of the war was the same as his own. All those selected were zealous supporters of the war, and most of them were members of the committee of fifteen appointed the 29th of July; but a majority of them were opposed to such violent measures as were adopted in Mr. Steves' case, and some of them did not reach the square that night until the work was done. One of those sued was Mr. Rote, whose part in the affair has been told. On the other hand, some who helped carry the rail were not mentioned in the suit. The case was tried in 1S65 in Milwaukee; Judge Miller jDresided, and during the trial gave vent to his feelings by exclamations of " oh! " and "horrible!!" The disunion element predominated in the jury, and damages were awarded Mr. Steves to the amount of $5,000 and costs.

The robbery of the Bank of Monroe, in October, 1S64, is still a subject of wonder and sjDeculation. Burglars entered the bank in the night and blew the safe open with gunpowder. The explosion, which broke all the glass in the room and carried the safe door, weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, through the opposite wall and left it under the staircase, was heard a long distance; but the night was dark, and the burglars escaped with $25,000 in money. They had dropped one package of $5,600, and one small door in the safe was

The greatest improvement to be noted in Monroe since its incorporation is in its manufactures. In July, 1865, Messrs. Whitney, Treat, Lloyd, Pullen, Patterson, and Billings organized the Monroe Manufacturing Co., with a capital of $25,000. The works were burned in June, '72, and in the following August the company was re-organized as a stock company with a capital of $40,000 with A. C. Dodge, president, and H. W. Whiting as business director and secretary. The general business of the company is manufacturing farm wagons, carriages, and farming implements. The usual number of men employed is twenty-five. Fine carriages and sleighs are made at several other places in the village, and wagon shops are numerous.

Another important manufacturing establishment, is the planing mill of Dodge, Churchill & Co. Its history is as follows: The brick flour mill on Racine street was built by Moulton & Fish in 1S50. The machinery was afterward taken out, and in the spring of 1859 Norman Churchill and Jesse Robertson put in its place wood cutting machinery. About the same time a Janesville firm converted Payne's old tavern (which had been moved to its present position and used successively as tavern, cabinet shop, and flour mill) into a planing mill. In '61 Mr. Churchill united the machinery of the two mills in the historic frame building. A saw mill has since been added, and the business has been enlarged so as to include the manufacture of doors, sash, blinds, screens, cheese boxes, and brackets. The manufacturing establishments in the village include two other saw mills, two flour mills, two breweries, two marble shops, a gun shop, furniture shops, and a brick yard where both red and white brick are made; and a large number of persons find employment in the manufacture of clothing, patent medicines, cigars, confectionery, and pop. Three lumber yards and a large number of groceries and dry goods houses do a thriving business. Nearly all the old land marks have disappeared from the square since the village was incorporated. Of the new buildings required by the increase in business the largest and best were built by B. Chenoweth, Elisha and Jared Mosher, Washington Hill, McKey Bros., Eilert and Whitney, D. F. Corson, Henry Duerst, Treat & Co., John W. Stewart, Peter Wells, John H. Bridge, and the German Turners.

It is claimed that there is no point of shipment in Wisconsin, outside of the great centres of transportation, where a larger amount of produce is bought and sent to market than at Monroe. During the two months ending Dec. 30, 1S76, the First National Bank of Monroe paid upon the checks of Barber & Van Dyke, Johnson & Gillett, and J. M. Chadwick, stock and produce dealers, the sum of $227,675.71. These firms do not deal in cheese, which is supposed to, have brought into the county during the year 1S76 nearly $200,000. Moreover, a great many shipments were made in the two months referred to, by the producers and by other firms dealing in cattle, sheep, hogs, and grain, of the value of which no record has been kept. The bank to which reference has just been made is the result of the union, in May, '64, of the old Bank of Monroe and the First National Bank of Monroe organized in February, '64, by Messrs. Chenoweth, Hoffman, Perine, Bingham, and Jacob and Mathias Marty. The second and only other bank in Monroe was that of N. R. Usher & Co., (Usher & Thrall). It was not a bank of issue, and after an existence of three or four years was closed in '64.

Schools and churches have kept pace with the material progress of the village. In 1S66, the school districts were united, since which time the schools have been more or less perfectly graded. Three school buildings furnish accommodations for nearly 900 pupils. Several newspapers have been born and have died since the village was incorporated. Mr. Tenney's successors in the editorship of the Sentinel were James Bintliff and E. E. Bryant. Mr. Bryant left the paper to enter the army, and the firm name became Bintliff & Carr. A little later in the war Mr. Bintliff entered the army, still retaining his interest in the paper, which was edited by Egbert E. Carr. In July, '65, the paper passed into the hands of A.J. High and C. A. Booth. Five years later Silas E. Gardner purchased Mr. High's half of the paper, and leased it to Mr. Booth.

The Jeffersonian Democrat, edited by Geo. C. Baker, lived only from late in the summer of 1856,10 April, '57. In the fall of 1857, the Independent Press, edited by S. P. Condee and E. C. Moulton, arose from the ashes of the Democrat. Mr. Moulton withdrew from the Press in January of the next year; and three or four months later Mr. Condee sold it to gentlemen who transformed it into the Albany Times. The next venture in the way of a newspaper was that of N. L. Stout, who published the State Rights a year or two, beginning in the spring of 1S59/ The next was that of A. W. Potter, who, in January, 1870, started the Green County Republican. In the fall of 1S72, F. J. Mills started the Liberal Press, which in September, 1873, was consolidated with the Republican, the new paper being known at first as the Republican and Press, but latterly as the Green County Reformer. It was edited by A. W. Potter and Geo^ H. King, until January, then by Mr. Mills until April, then by G.J. Patton until January, 1S75, since which it has been edited by I. T. Carr, with whom Wm. Bullock was associated the first year. For two or three years Mr. Geo. South has published a semi-monthly paper called the Sun.

Source changes here: from History of Green County, Wisconsin, by Union Publishing Company, Springfield, Ill., Pub. [from Old Catalog], published 1884; 23,454 words in this source stream.

Monroe City

The town of Monroe embraces congressional township 2 north, range 7 east, of the fourth principal meridian, except that portion which is included within the incorporated limits of the city of Monroe, which lies in the southeastern part of this town. The surface of this town is, in places, quite broken, yet it is all an excellent agricultural and stock raising region. The soil here is variable. That in the east and south is a rich, dark loam, while in the northwest there are some ridges with a clay soil.

The principal farm products grown in this town during the year 1882, were as follows: 1,731 bushels wheat; 79,568 bushels corn; 40,- 577 bushels oats; 160 bushels barley; 2,242 bushels rye; 5,550 bushels potatoes; 1,510 bushels root crops; 1,780 bushels apples; 44 bushels clover seed; 24 bushels timothy seed; 2,919 tons hay; 46,900 pounds butter; 172,250 pounds cheese.

The acreage of the principal farm products growing in the town, at the time of making the annual assessment, in 1883, was as follows: 146|^ acres wheat; 2,572 acres corn; 1,450 acres oats; 103 acres rye; 70^ acres potatoes; 554^ acres apple orchard; 2,865 bearing trees; 1 acre tobacco; 2,723 acres grass; 1,907 acres growing timber.

The land in this town was assessed at $15.50 per acre. The total value of real estate $424,560; total value of real and personal property, $649,- 835.

John B. Skinner came here that year, for the purpose of mining. He erected a log cabin and smelting furnace just north of the south line of the northeast quarter of section 10. There were others here at the same time, in his employ. It seems that they all left about the time of the Black Hawk War. In the spring of 1834, Nicholas Cornelius visited the place and found four vacant log cabins, and a log building for a smelting furnace. One of these cabins was on arise of ground, and there were port holes in every side of it, showing that they were prepared to defend themselves in case of attack. In 1835, operations were again begun here by Nicholas Cornelius, Hiram Rust, Richard Palmer and Joab Enos. Mr. Palmer had a wife and three children. The other men were single, and boarded with him. Mr. Enos left in the fall of

In the spring of 1835 Hiram Rust and Leonard Ross claimed the east half of section 35, built a log cabin and did some breaking. Mr. Rust was there but a short time, when he went to the mines as before stated. Mr. Ross stopped and held the claim until that fall, w^ien he went to Wiota and engaged in smelting ore, HeNOM

In the winter of 1835-6, Hiram Rust entered the southwest quarter of section 27, and also the southwest quarter of section 28. He employed some one to do the first breaking on his land, while he was engaged in mining. He afterward married and settled on section 27, and made his home there until the time of his death. He was a native of Litchfield Co., Conn. He was a man much respected by all, and was one of the first justices of the peace of the town. For a number of years he was superintendent of the county poor.

George Reeder, a native of Ohio, came in 1836, and entered land on section 25, He improved a farm and lived thereon some years, when he returned to Ohio.

N. Cornelius came in 1836, and is a native of Illinois, born in St. Clair county nine miles east of St. Louis. He was reared upon a farm, and remained upon the same until he came to Wisconsin. His parents were Joseph and Mary (Rutter) Cornelius, both of whom are now dead and buried in St. Clair Co., 111. The former was of Scotch descent and the latter of German parentage. In 1834 he left his native county and went to Galena, thence to this county. During that summer he broke land at Brewster's Ferry. During that time he passed over the land where the city of Monroe now stands, which then was without an inhabitant or anything except the wild prairie. He also visited "Skinner's Diggings'" and the following wMnter worked in the new diggings. The pioneers of that day had many and varied experiences, and accomplished, under the existing circumstances, what would now seem impossibilities. In breaking prairie, it is a necessity to have a plow in good condition, and it must be frequently sharpened, and for that purpose, Mr. Cornelius had to go sixteen mile* and carry the iron part of an old breaking plow on his back, wading the Pecatonica. Not many people at the present time would break prairie under such circumstances. Not only such inconveniences were the lot of people at that time, but actual danger often threatened them. Indians were, at times, abundant, and liable at any time to take the war path, and spread destruction and desolation among the settlers. On one occasion, Mr. Cornelias was down near the Pecatonica, and saw large numbers of squaws and papooses going down the river. This was not considered an occurrence at all favorable to the settlers, for frequently such a move was made when fighting was contemplated, and this knowledge had a tendency to put the people on theirguard. Mr. Cornelius and Mr. Plummer slept, "with one eye open," on the banks with ax and butcher knife under their heads, ready, at a moment's warning, to give up their lives if they must, only after a struggle. They slept in that manner about ten nights, when one night Plummer looking about said, "I hear them coming." Mr. Cornelius was on his feet in a moment, but in the excitement Plummer could not find his pants, which caused him some trouble. The Indians were singing and dancing and it was supposed they were coming, and the two quickly gathered up a couple of quilts and concealed themselves in the brush, where they reniained an hour and a half, when, becoming chilled, they took refuge in an old cabin and remained until day-break, then returning to their cabin they found everything all right. In the spring of 1835, Mr. Cornelius came to Green county again and mined at Skinner's Diggings until the fall of 1836, during which time he had taken out considerable mineral. He went to White Oak Springs in the fall of 1836 and thence to Blue river, where he mined until the fall of 1837 with good success. He then came again to Green, county and entered 220 acres of land on section 33, township 2 north, of range 7 east, in the present town of Monroe, within a short distance of the place where he now lives. In 1840, having traded off a part of his land, he secured a deed for eighty acres on section 34 which he has owned since that time. During all these years Mr. Cornelius was an unmarried man and continued in the county most of the time, and mined principally until about 1844. He then came to Monroe and built a store, which he rented to Mr. Ludlow to put in a stock of general merchandise. At length concluding it was not best to be alone, on the 16th day of June, 1849, he was married to Phillippi Tresidder. She was a native of Ohio, and of French descent. Her parents were both dead, the father died of cholera in 1832, and the mother died in 1845. They have two children - Alice and Erwin. After marriage they lived on the place they still occupy, in a log cabin, which in time gave way to a good brick house. He now owns 150 acres of land joining the corporate limits of Monroe, valued at $100 per acre, and some city property. Politically, he adheres to the principles of the republican party, and is a temperate man, having never drank a glass of beer or liquor.

In 1836-7-8 there were quite a number of arrivals, among whom were the following: Rev. R. H. DeLap, Asa Brown, D. S. Sutherland, John Walling, Dickson and Hamilton Bailey, Isaac Chamness and T. Bragg.