Plymouth City (part 2 of 3)

English Supremacy In Wisconsin

When France yielded her inchoate rights in the west to England - where all the territory now included in the state of Wisconsin was by right of conquest delivered over as a part of Canada to the English - French trading posts, French forts and French missionary establishments had all disappeared. The fortification at the head of Green Bay had been vacated for some years. It was "rotten, the stockade ready to fall and the houses without cover." It was a fit emblem of the decay - of the fast crumbling and perishing state - of French domination in North America. Governor Vaudreuil surrendered Canada to General Amherst, of the British army, on the 9th of September, 1760, and immediately notified the commandant of the fort at Mackinaw, for the information of the people of the northwest, that thereafter they would be amenable to England's authority, under stipulations which guaranteed to them the undisturbed possession of their goods and peltries, and full liberty to continue their trade in the same manner as though they were subjects of Great Britain.

But Wisconsin was at this date a howling wilderness. There was not a single white settler within what are now its limits. The fur trader, however, was still upon the ground. The fur trade of the northwest, long coveted by England, was now to be firmly established with the various tribes under the new order of things. To do this required a military occupation of the country, among other places at "the Bay" - as the post for some time previous to its evacuation by the French was called ; for this was the point that commanded the Fox river country and the trade beyond. There were, however, no English residents to be protected by English bayonets - ^no settlers on Wisconsin's soil to need the shielding presence of the red-coats. Military possession signified only protection to English traders. Detroit was the first of the French posts in the west to surrender, then Mackinaw, and finally, in 1761, a small squad of English soldiers were despatched to the head of Green Bay to garrison the deserted post in that vicinity. A captain of the Eighteenth English Regiment was ordered to march from Detroit with a detachment from that and the Sixtieth Regiment, to take possession of and to leave garrison at the posts on Lakes Huron and Michigan. These were Mackinaw, "the Bay," (afterward Fort Edward Augustus) and St. Joseph (upon the river of that name in the present states of Michigan and Indiana). The detachment arrived at Mackinaw on the 28th of September, 1761, where a lieutenant of the Sixtieth Regiment, one sergeant, one corporal, one drummer and twenty-five privates were left to garrison that post, the residue sailing, with a fair wind, for "the Bay," where they arrived on the 12th of October, at the tumble down post, now the city of Fort Howard, Brown county. The captain departed on the 14th, leaving at "the Bay," Lieutenant James Gorrell, of the Royal American, or Sixtieth Regiment, and one sergeant, one corporal and fifteen privates, together with a French interpreter and two English traders.

"There were several Frenchmen," says Gorrell, "who had gone up the river that forms the bay which comes from Lake Winnebago about fourteen leagues up. These traders have gone up as far as the Sioux country, near two hundred leagues from the bay. As they went past this post, notwithstanding these very Frenchmen were employed by the English traders from Montreal, that come to Mackinaw by virtue of General Gage's license, they did all that laid in their power to persuade the Bay Indians to fall on the English on their way; as they heard of our coming, - ^they telling the Indians that the English were weak and that it could be done very readily." But the savages proved too wary and remained at peace with the conquerors.

The garrison in Fort Edward Augustus (the new name of "the Bay") busied themselves during the ensuing winter in repairing the fort, houses and grounds, for the reason that reports were rife of intended Indian attacks upon the fort, but happily they proved groundless.

Some few young men of the different tribes in the vicinity came at various times to know how they would be treated by Gorrell and his men, and they were agreeably surprised to find themselves received with civility, so contrary to the accounts given them by the French, who were still smarting under English chastisement, and anxious for a rupture between the savages and their new masters, which, indeed, was not long postponed. They asked for ammunition, which was given them at diflferent times. Flour was also sent to some of their old men, who, they said, were sick in the woods. Finally a council was held with the Menominees, the Winnebagoes, the Ottawas and the Sacs and Foxes, during the last of May and first of June, 1762, when Lieutenant Gorrell presented to the Menominees and Winnebagoes belts of wampum and strings of the same for the return of prisoners.

He made at the same time a conciliatory speech, which had a most happy eflfect. The Menominees, upon whose lands Fort Edward Augustus stood, answered in the same spirit. They said they were very poor, having lost three hundred warriors lately with smallpox, as well as most of their chiefs by the late war, in which they had been engaged by the then French commander at "the Bay," against the English. They expressed themselves glad to find that the English were pleased to pardon them, as they did not expect it. They were conscious they did not merit it. They assured Lieutenant Gorrell that he might depend they would adhere to whatever instructions the commanding English officers might give them for the future, as they had always done with regard to the French. They begged that Gorrell would send for a gunsmith to mend their guns, as they were poor and out of order. The French, they said, had always done this for them, and their neighbors at Mackinaw had had this favor granted them. They said, also, that the French commandant always gave them rum as a true token of friendship.

Lieutenant Gorrell had much the same understanding with the Winnebagoes, Ottawas, and Sacs and Foxes. From this time until March i, 1763, nothing of moment happened at Fort Edward Augustus, except the arrival of several English and French traders, some of whom went up the country and also sent up a large part of their goods. On the day mentioned twelve Sioux warriors came to the post. They seemed very friendly to the English. "This nation," says Gorrell, "is always at war with the Chippewas. They told me with warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the traders coming up, to send them a belt and they would come and cut them off the face of the earth.*' The Sioux then gave the commandant a letter written in French, and two belts of wamptun from their head chief, in which he expressed great joy on hearing of the English at the Bay, and a desire to make peace with them and to have English traders sent among them.

In June some Ottawas and Frenchmen came to the post and delivered to Gorrell instructions from Captain Etherington, commanding at Mackinaw, informing him that Mackinaw had been surprised by the Chippewas and taken, one lieutenant and twenty privates having been killed, and all the rest of the garrison taken prisoners, but that friendly Ottawas had taken Captain Etherington, Lieutenant Leslie and eleven men out of their hands with the promise to reinstate them. Gorrell was ordered to set out with all his garrison and traders to Etherington's relief. It was thus that they first got word of the beginning of Pontiac's war and of the fall of Mackinaw. Gorrell complied with the orders from his superior officer. He set off on the 17th of June, 1763, but was hindered by contrary winds. He did not get off until the 21st, when he set sail with a part of the three tribes - Menominees, Winnebagoes, and Sacs and Foxes. They found Etherington held a prisoner about thirty miles above Mackinaw and they all in due time reached Montrael in safety. Thus actual occupation of Wisconsin by an English armed force was at an end.

By the treaty of peace between England and France, in 1763, that part of French territory lying west of Lake Michigan, was ceded, along with the residue of Canada, to the English. It was thus that Wisconsin, although no longer under direct military control of the conquerors, became actual British soil, with no counter clafciants, save the savages who resided within its limits. The expectation of Captain Etherington that Fort Edward Augustus would soon be occupied was not realized. Instead thereof, the Indians were placed under control of the post at Mackinaw, which was soon regarrisoned. No sooner, however, had the soldiers under Gorrell left "the Bay," than French traders seized upon the occasion to again make it headquarters for traffic in furs to the westward of Lake Michigan. Not that alone, for a few determined to make it their permanent home. By the year 1766 there were some families living in the decayed Fort Edward Augustus, as well as opposite thereto, on the east side of Fox river, where they cultivated the soil in a small way and in an extremely primitive manner. Of these French Canadians no one can be exactly considered the pioneer - ^no individual one is entitled to the renown of having first led the way, becoming thus the first settler of the state, much less the father and founder of Wisconsin. It was simply that "the Bay," being after Pontiac's war occupied by Canadian French fur traders, their station finally ripened into a permanent settlement - ^the first in Wisconsin, and the leading spirits of which were the two Langlades, Augustin and Charles, father and son. It had all the characteristics of a French settlement. Its growth was very slow; its industries few and simple. Besides the employments of trading and transporting goods and peltries, the inhabitants engaged in hunting and trapping. The cultivation of the soil was only an incidental matter, though gradually a few persons turned their chief attention to agriculture. At length wheat enough was raised to supply the community with bread, while other grains were cultivated to some extent, and a few domestic animals were raised. Mechanical trades were almost unknown. A smith to mend firearms and to make and repair traps was all that was necessary. The implements of husbandry were rude and few. If a respectable house was to be erected, workmen were sent for to Canada. The people had the free exercise of their religious belief, which was Catholic. There were no schools nearer than Mackinaw for many years, though private instruction was occasionally given in families. Nor were there any physicians or lawyers. The settlers were allowed to govern themselves by custom and the "Laws of Paris." Many of them formed matrimonial alliances with the Indians, in consequence of which a mixed lineage became so prevalent that the community in course of years, numbered but few persons of white blood. Such was the settlement at the head of Green Bay, and so it continued until American influence became paramount, everything, even the occupation of the land, being subordinate to the Indian trade, which, directly or indirectly, furnished employment for every member of the community and in which all its interests centered. When the settlers, who at first held the soil in common, began to establish individual rights, they did so by apportioning to each a tract abutting upon Fox river, extending inland a considerable distance. So, when these were subdivided, the result was long, narrow strips, each with a water front. Nearly twenty years subsequent to the time when the Green Bay settlement began to assume a permanency, some French Canadians located on the east shore of the Mississippi, within what are now the boundaries of Wisconsin. There is no positive evidence of any permanent settlers being there before the year 178;^ It was in that year that four men permanently occupied the open tract upon which is now situated the city of Prairie du Chien. Quite a number soon after followed and located there. Here, as at the settlement at the Bay, no one could claim precedence, as being the first to "settle" on the prairie. Those who remained were first traders, then settlers, or, rather, they became permanent traders. They usually passed the winter months at the Indian village, and during the summer transported their furs to Mackinaw, returning with their canoes laden with goods for the next season's trade, and with a supply of provisions. In the winter, Prairie du Chien was half deserted, while in summer its numbers were swelled, not only by the return of its own people but also by traders from other quarters, and by throngs of Indian visitors. Little value was placed upon the soil by the inhabitants, though they found leisure to cultivate small portions of the prairie in a rude way, and occasionally a voyageur, weary of his roving life, or unable longer to endure its hardships, settled there and devoted himself exclusively to farming. The traders located there were generally men of considerable wealth, for it required means to carry on their business, provide stocks of goods and provisions for long periods, and transport them hundreds of miles by oarsmen constantly employed for that purpose.

The voyageurs constituted a different class. They were generally very poor and dependent upon their small wages, which barely sufficed to supply them with the simplest necessaries of life. Although there was no administration of law, the will of their employers, enforced by possession of their subsistence was very nearly absolute over them, and the distinctions of master and servant were strongly marked. The houses of the wealthy, though constructed of logs, sometimes clapboarded, yet rude and unattractive in external appearance, were comfortably, neatly and even elegantly furnished. Those of the poorer classes were very inferior structures, often without floors, and with straw for a covering, while the furniture consisted of a few rude kitchen utensils, benches and other domestic articles equally meager. A sort of middle class eventually sprang up in the small farmers scattered about the prairie, who were somewhat less dependent upon the will and caprice of the traders. They were enabled to live better than the voyageurs, whose diet consisted chiefly of corn soup. But their implements for work were very primitive, their carts and plows being made of wood, to which the oxen were attached by rawhide thongs. CoflFee mills were at first used for grinding grain. These were superseded by mills turned by hand power, the buhrs being cut from native granite boulders.

Amid these conditions, apparently favorable to the development of lawlessness and violence, these people, surrounded by savage life, were remarkably docile, having a disposition submissive to any authority assumed over them. Violent crimes were extremely rare, even when drinking and carousing were indulged in. Upon their wintering grounds the traders practiced many devices to overreach one another, but on their return they met and settled all difficulties over the "flowing bowl." Beyond these tricks of trade they genei*ally manifested a commendable spirit of honor, and when their word was pledged it might be safely relied upon. Morality was at rather low ebb, as they were destitute of both schools and spiritual teachers. Their amusements were limited to rude dances, foot and horse racing and other similar sports, aided with a free use of intoxicating liquors. Whatever semblance of law was adhered to, was derived from the "Laws of Paris," which England permitted Canada to be governed by. They were without administrative officers, or other constitutional authorities, but permitted the most learned man among them to exercise the powers of civil magistrate. AflFairs thus continued until finally, as adopted citizens of the United States, they were brought within its jurisdiction. The settlements of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were the only ones in Wisconsin, so long as English supremacy lasted. A number of French Canadian traders, it is true, located at the mouth of Milwaukee in 1795. But their establishments were not of that permanent character to entitle them to be designated a settlement. So, too, the location at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in 1793, of Lawrence Barth, who was engaged in the carr)dng trade.

After Pontiac's war, the Hudson's Bay Company, which had been chartered by parliament as early as 1670, began to exercise exclusive privil^es in the fur trade in this region, continuing in full sway until 1783, when the Northwest Fur Company was organized at Quebec, and established its posts at different points on the upper lakes and throughout the interior.

The result of this was a relentless feud between the two companies, which lasted many years. The fur trade, before Canada was wrested from France, had long been coveted by the English. Many years prior to that event the Iroquois had been encouraged by them to cut off communication with the northwest. When that failed they endeavored through the intermediate tribes to persuade the Indians to carry their peltries to the British frontier, and the disorders that at times confronted the French in this region were in some d^;ree due to their overtures. The French, after Canada had surrendered, while outwardly preserving an appearance of submission to the conquerors, regarded them with hatred and readily employed every possible means to hinder the Jndians from entering into friendly relations with them. Some of them, generally traders or voyageurs, preceded the English soldiery on their way to the west, endeavoring to persuade the savages to waylay and cut off the feeble detachments. They endeavored also to prevent English traders from venturing beyond Mackinaw, circulating tales among them of meditated attacks on the part of the Indians. But the judicious and friendly conduct of Gorrell and his little garrison at Fort Edward Augustus soon brought about a friendly alliance with all the bay tribes and several beyond that vicinity. They were the more readily disposed to receive the English traders, as they gave them much better terms than the French. The difficulties and dangers in the way of the new fur traders were, however, by no means overcome by the removal of their apprehensions of Indian hostility. Their lack of acquaintance with the language and manners of the western tribes was a serious impediment, yet, upon the whole, the English made substantial progress in establishing their trade with the western Indians. The influx of English traders before Pontiac's war threatened to destroy the principal means of subsistence of the Canadian French, and when Gorrell evacuated his post at the head of Green Bay, some of the more enterprising of the last mentioned seated themselves promptly in and around the deserted fort. Immediately after the return of peace, no traders were permitted to visit Wisconsin from Mackinaw. The traffic at the Bay was in the hands of local traders, who avoided British posts with the design of transferring their trade to the French province of Louisana. As soon as this policy became manifest, communication was at once opened and as early as 1766, both English and French traders were permitted to traffic at the Bay and farther west.

The expected reoccupation of Wisconsin by the military under a British command was indefinitely postponed, as Mackinaw had been garrisoned and was found sufficient to regulate the fur trade. The English, although commanding the market for furs, found the French voyageurs, clerks and interpreters indispensably necessary to their trade. This brought about a reconciliation. The English carried their operations no further than the frontier posts, the French retaining their favorite field - the Indian country. In this way all jealousy was overcome, the tranquility of the Indian was assured, and the necessity of a garrison at the Bay avoided.

Vague and conflicting claims of some of the British colonies in North America, to the northwest, including what is now Wisconsin, under their charters from the British crown, were all set at rest, so far as the mother country was concerned, before the declaration of American independence, by the passage by the British parliament, in 1774, of the "Quebec act," by which the whole region northwest of the Ohio river and extending to the westward so as to include the whole country lying to the westward of Lake Michigan, was made a part of the province of Quebec.

Under French domination no grants of land in Wisconsin were made to any one by the government, except that in October, 1759, the Marquis of Vaudreuil bestowed upon M. Rigaud an extensive territory, including the fort at the head of Green Bay, with the exclusive right to trade, and other valuable privileges. This grant was sold to William Gould and Madame Vaudreuil, to whom it was confirmed by the French king in January, 1760, at a very critical period when Quebec had been taken by the British, and Montreal only was wanting to complete the conquest of Canada. The English government wisely refused to perfect that title of the claimants and they lost their lands and privileges. By the terms of the treaty of Paris, of February 10, 1763, all the possessions in, and all the claims of the French nation to the northwest, were ceded to Great Britain. Among the first acts of the new masters of the country was one to protect the eminent domain of the government and the restrictions of all attempts on the part of individuals to acquire Indian titles to land. Nor does it appear that any such effort had been made by any one while the country constituted a part of New France. By a proclamation of the king of England in 1763, all private persons were interdicted the liberty of purchasing lands of the Indians. In face of this proclamation and within three years after its promulgation, under a purchase, as claimed, of the Indians, Jonathan Carver laid claim to nearly one hundred square miles of land, situated in what is now northern Wisconsin, and in the present state of Minnesota. A ratification of his title was actually solicited from the king and council but was not conceded. The representatives of Carver, after a change of government had brought these lands within the jurisdiction of the United States, asked congress for a confirmation of this title, which was refused. Many of the early maps of the country contain delineations of the so-called "Carver's grant."

By the treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, the country east of the Mississippi, including all within the boundaries of the present state of Wisconsin, became the territory of the United States. Possession, however, was arbitrarily continued by the British, of all the northwest, until after the treaty of 1795. During the next summer the ports in the west, none of which were in what is now Wisconsin, were delivered into the keeping of the United States. Thus the supremacy over this region, both military and civil, of Great Britain, was, after an actual continuance of thirty-five years, brought to an end. But the authority of the United States over the settlements of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, was, for several years after, only constructive. The people remained a law unto themselves.

Explorations Of Northwestern Wisconsin

It was nearly seven years after Joliet and his companions had floated down the Mississippi below the mouth of the Wisconsin, as is related in the forgoing pages, before the great river was explored above that point. In the early part of 1680, La Salle was upon the Illinois, and being anxious to have the last mentioned stream examined to its confluence with the parent river, and also desirous of having the Upper Mississippi explored above the point where Joliet first floated out upon its broad surface - one Michael Accau was sent on the expedition. With him was also sent Antoine Auguel. The Rev. Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollect friar, volunteered to go with the party and he became its historian, arrogating to himself, however, the chief honors of the enterprise. Accau left La Salle on the nth of April, 1680, "at two o'clock in the afternoon," says Hennepin.

In 1684, Nicholas Perrot was appointed by De la Barre, the governor of Canada, as commandant for the west, and left Montreal with twenty men. Arriving at Green Bay in Wisconsin, some Indians told him that they had visited countries toward the setting sun, where they obtained the blue and green stones suspended from their ears and noses, and that they saw horses and men like Frenchmen, probably the Spaniards of New Mexico ; and others said that they had obtained hatchets from persons who lived in a house that walked on the water, near the mouth of the river of the Assiniboines, alluding to the English establishment at Hudson's Bay.

Proceeding to the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, thirteen Hurons were met, who were bitterly opposed to the establishment of a post near the Sioux. After the Mississippi was reached a party of Winnebagoes was employed to notify the tribes of northern Iowa that the French had ascended the river and wished to meet them. It was further agreed that prairie fires would be kindled from time to time, so that the Indians could follow the French.

After entering Lake Pepin, near its mouth on the east side Perrot found a place suitable for a post, where there was wood. The stockade was built at the foot of a bluff, beyond which was a large prairie. A writer in 1700 who writes of Lake Pepin makes the following statement: "To the right and left of its shores, there are also prairies. In that on the right on the bank of the lake, there is a fort which was built by Nicholas Perrot, whose name it yet bears." This was the first French post upon the Mississippi.

Perrot in 1685 prevented with much difficulty the capture of his post by an expedition of Foxes and their allies. He passed the winter of 1685- 6 there, and then proceeded to Green Bay. A memento of his interest in the mission of St. Francis Xavier is to be seen in the shape of a silver "ostensorium," found not long ago in digging for laying the foundation of a house at Depere, Brown county. In 1688 he again ascended the Mississippi from the mouth of the Wisconsin to the mouth of the St. Peter's, returning to Green Bay by the route pursued on the outward journey. He was never again upon the Mississippi.

tember he passed the Wisconsin river. It runs into the Mississippi from the northeast. It is nearly one and a half miles wide. At about seventyfive leagues up this river on the right, ascending, there is a portage of more than a league. The half of this portage is shaking ground, and at the end of it is a small river (the Fox) which descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is inhabited by a great number of nations who carry their furs to Canada." Monsieur Le Sueur came by the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi, for the first time in 1683, on his way to the Sioux country, where he had already passed seven years at diflFerent periods. The Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin, is less than half a mile wide. From the ist of September to the 5th, our voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He passed the river "Aux Canots," which comes from the northeast, and then the Quincapous, named from a nation which once dwelt upon its banks.

From the sth to the 9th he made ten and a half leagues and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes filled with savages, descending the river.

Monsieur Le Sueur made, the same day, three leagues, passed a stream on the west and afterward another river on the east, which is navigable at all times, and which the Indians call Red river.

From the loth to the 14th M. Le Sueur made seventeen and a h^lf leagues, passing the rivers Raisin and Paquilenettes. The same day he left on the east side of the Mississippi a beautiful and large river, which descends from the very far north, and called Bon Lecours (Chippeway), on account of the great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deer which are found there. Three leagues up this river there was "a mine of lead," and seven leagues above, on the! same side, they found another long river, in the vicinity of which there "was a copper mine," from which he had taken a lump of sixty pounds in a former voyage. "In order to make these mines of any account, peace must be obtained between the Sioux and the Outagamies (Foxes), because the latter, who dwell on the east side of the Mississippi, pass this- road continually when going to war against the Sioux."

"In this region, at one and a half leagues on the northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six leagues long and more than one broad, called Lake Pepin."

On the 15th he crossed a small river and saw in the neighborhood several canoes filled with Indians, descending the Mississippi. He supposed they were Sioux but he could not distinguish whether the canoes were large or small.

The party was composed of forty-seven men of different nations who dwell far to the east, about the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur, discovering who the chiefs were, said the king whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent him to take possession of the north of the river and that he wished the nations who dwell on it, as well as those under his protection, to dwell in peace.

He made this day three and three-fourths leagues, and on the i6th of September he "left a large river on the east side, named St. Croix, because a Frenchman of that name was shipwrecked at its mouth. It comes from the north-northwest."

After Le Sueur no attempt was made to visit the Upper Mississippi for over a quarter of a century, for the reason that the governor of Canada had resolved to abandon the country west of Mackinaw, so far as trade was concerned. The first attempt at renewal of the fur trade with the Sioux was in 1727, by the Sieur de Laperriere, who erected on the north side of Lake Pepin a post called Fort Beauhamais.

Rev. Father Louis Ignatius Guignas, missionary of the Society of Jesus, left Montreal on the i6th of June, 1727, to found a mission among the Sioux on the Mississippi. He reached Green Bay on the 8th of August. The record of his journey to and his voyage up the Mississippi as given below, is very brief. It is an extract from a letter to the Marquis de Beauhamais, for whom the fort on the Mississippi, where the mission was located, was named. After describing the journey by lakes and streams, the missionary says :

"Forty-eight leagues from the mouth of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of islands at that point, where it may be half a league wide. The river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow and has shoals in several places, because its bed is a moving sand, like that of the Ouisconsin. On the 7th of September, 1727, at noon, we reached this lake, which had been chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore, about the middle of the north side, on a low point where the soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there (as Perrot also reported), but it is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the winter, which has been severe for the climate, for we are here on the parallel of 43*^, 41'.* It is true that the difference of the winter is great compared to that at Quebec and Montreal, for all that some poor judges say.

"From the day after our landing, we put our axes to the wood ; on the fourth day following, the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bastions. For so small a space, there are large buildings, quite distant and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide. All would go well there if the spot were not inundated, but this year (1728), on the fifteenth of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out and the water ascended to the height of two feet eight inches in the houses, and it was idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before and there was absolutely only a foot and a half from the 8th of February to the 15th of March; all the rest of the winter you could not use snow shoes. I have great reason to think that this spot is more or less inundated every year ; I have always thought so ; but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people, who said they had lived there fifteen or twenty years, declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much devastated houses till the 13th of the same month of April, and the disorder is scarcely repaired even now. Before the end of October, all the houses were finished and furnished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore the neighboring hills and rivers, to see those herds of all kinds of deer, of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired or diminished greatly since the time that the old voyageurs left the country; they are no longer in such numbers, and are killed with difficulty.

"After beating the field for some time, all reassembled at the fort, and thought only of enjoying the fruits of their labors. On the 4th of the month of November we did not forget that it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him in the morning and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyrotechnists and the inconstancy of the weather, caused them to postpone the celebration to the 14th of the same month, when they let off some very fine rockets and made the air ring with a hundred shouts of Vive le Roi, and Vive Charles de Beauharnais, It was on this occasion that wine of the Sioux was broached ; it was par excellence, although there are no vines here finer than in Canada. What contributed much to the amusement was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were, at the time, around the fort. When these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight, and the most courageous of the men to cry mercy and implore us very earnestly to stop the surprising play of the wonderful medicine.

"As soon as we arrived among them, they assembled in a few days around the French fort to the number of ninety-five cabins, which might make in all, one hundred and fifty men, for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all that we have seen, except a band of about sixty men, who came on the 26th of February, who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

"At the end of November the Indians set out for their winter quarters; they do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the winter ; but from the 2d of the month of April last, when some cabins repassed here to go in search of them, we sought them in vain, during a week, for more than sixty leagues up the Mississippi. We arrived yesterday without any tidings of them. Although I said above that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be supposed from that they are less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to be more so, at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dexterous thieves, great dancers and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and disgusting which, however, does not check debauchery among them, and is, perhaps, an eflfect of it."

The subsequent events of this region are of great interest, but we are especially in the dark as to the movements of the party at Fort Beauharnais. In spite of Guignas' opinion of the Foxes, they continued to be hostile, and in 1728, the year of this letter, De Ligneris marched against them. The traders had previously withdrawn, to a great extent, from Fort Beauharnais, and Father Guignas, in attempting to reach the Illinois country, fell into the hands of the Mascoutins and Kickapoos, who sided with the Foxes and remained a prisoner for five months, narrowly escaping a death by torture at the stake. His captors then tQok him to the Illinois country, and left him there on parole till November, 1729, when they led him back to their town. Nothing has yet appeared to show whether he then returned to the fort, or whether he made his way to some other French post. In 1736 he again appears on Lake Pepin with M. de St. Pierre, perhaps the same to whom Washington, at a later date, presented Dinwiddie*s letter. Nothing is known of his later history.

French traders reached this point at intervals for a number of years thereafter - ^probably until near the commencement of the war between France and Great Britain in 1755, after which the Mississippi seems to have been virtually abandoned by the French. Jonathan Gtrver was the first to ascend the Mississippi after the country had passed under the control of the English. He visited this region with a view of ascertaining favorable situations for new settlements. He left Mackinaw in 1766, pursuing his journey by way of Green Bay and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the mouth of the last named, where near by he found the Indian village called by the French "La Prairies les Chiens," signifying "Dog Plains," now written Prairie du Chien.

"On the 1st of November I arrived at Lake Pepin, which is rather an extended part of the river Mississippi, that the French have thus denominated, about two hundred miles from the Ouisconsin. The Mississippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it is very uncertain, in some places it being upwards of a mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way, which in particular parts approach near to it, in others, lie at greater distance.

"About sixty miles below this lake is a mountain remarkably situated, for it stands by itself exactly in the middle of the river and looks as if it had slidden from the adjacent shore into the stream. It cannot be termed an island, as it rises immediately from the brink of the water to a considerable height. Bbth the Indians and the French call it the Mountain in the River. (Trempealeau.)

"One day I walked some miles below Lake Pepin, to take a view of the adjacent country. I had not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which I perceived at a little distance, a partial elevation that had the appearance of an intrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had greater reason to suppose that it had really been intended for this many centuries ago. Notwithstanding it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that it had once been a breastwork of about four feet in height, extending the best part of a mile and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand men. Its form was somewhat circular and its flanks reached to the river. Though much defaced by time, every angle was distinguishable and appeared as regular and fashioned with as much military skill as if planned by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, but I thought on examining more curiously, that I could perceive there certainly had been one. From its situation also, I am convinced that it must have been designed for this purpose. It fronted the country and the rear was covered by the river; nor was there any rising ground for a considerable way that commanded it; a few straggling oaks were alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks were worn across it by the feet of the elks and deer, and from the depths of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was able to draw certain conclusions of its great antiquity. I examined all the angles and every part with great attention, and have often blamed myself since for not encamping on the spot and drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this description is not the offspring of a heated imagination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken traveler, I find on inquiry since my return that M. St. Pierre and several traders have, at different times, taken notice of similar appearances, on which they have formed the same conjectures, but without examining them so minutely as I did."

No other explorer has given an account of the Mississippi river above the Wisconsin in the years which follow Carver's visit, down to the time of the taking possession of the country by the United States, but the general government soon determined to be placed in possession of facts concerning the Upper Mississippi compatible with exercising jurisdiction over it.

In the year 1805, Major Z. M. Pike, of the Sixth Infantry, U. S. A., was delegated by his official superiors to "trace the Mississippi to its source." He set out from St. Louis in Ahigust of that year, with a party consisting of three officers and seventeen men. He was accompanied by Lieutenant James Wilkinson and Dr. John H. Robinson. The record left by this officer is so circumstantial and so easy of access withal, that the account of the exploration of the Mississippi in this Arolume may properly end here with a reference to that journal. Since the beginning of the present century, the student of history will find few obstacles in the prosecution of his work.

The political epochs of Wisconsin are those periods of distinct jurisdiction over this region from the passage of the ordinance of 1787 to the time of the erection of a state, and are as follows:

The northwest territory proper (1787-1800), had jurisdiction over all the lands referred to in the ordinance of 1787. In this tract Wisconsin was included. Ohio was set out as a state in 1802.

Michigan territory was formed June 30, 1805. It was bounded on the south by a line drawn east from the south bend of Lake Michigan, on the west by the center of Lake Michigan. It did not include Wisconsin. The upper peninsula was annexed in 1836. The state of Michigan was formed January 26, 1837, with its present boundaries.

Illinois territory was formed March 2, 181.0. It included all of the Indiana territory west of the Wabash river and Vincennes and a line running due north to the territorial line. All of Wisconsin was included therein, except what lay east of the line drawn north from Vincennes.

Indiana was admitted as a state April 19, 1816, including all of the territory of Indiana territory, except a narrow strip east of the line of Vincennes, and west of Michigan territory, her western boundary.

Illinois was admitted as a state April 11, 1818. All of Wisconsin was added to Michigan territory, Illinois extending northward only to 42°, 30'.

The counties of Michilimackinac, in the present state of Michigan, and Brown and Crawford - ^being all of now Wisconsin - were formed in October, 1818. Iowa - as much as was then ceded to the United States - was attached, for judicial and political purposes, June 30, 1834.

Wisconsin territory originally embraced the area of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and a part of Dakota. The counties were Brown, Milwaukee, Iowa, Crawford, Dubuque and Des Moines, with a portion of Chippewa and Michilimackinac. The jurisdiction of Michigan territory over the new territory ceased on July 4, 1836.

April 30, 1836, President Jackson commissioned Henry Dodge governor of Wisconsin. The remaining officers were: John S. Horner, secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irvin and William C. Frazer, associate judges; W. W. Chapman, attorney; Francis Gehon, marshal.

The census taken in 1836 gave Des Moines county 6,257 ; Iowa county, 5,234; Dubuque county, 4,274; Milwaukee county, 2,893; Brown county, 2,706; Crawford county, 850, making a total in Wisconsin proper, 11,683, and in the entire region, 22,214. Under this appointment Brown and Milwaukee counties each received two councilmen and six representatives, while Crawford received two representatives but no councilmen. The members chosen were: to the council, Henry S. Baird and John Arndt, from Brown; Gilbert Knapp and Alanson Sweet, from Milwaukee; E. Brigham, J. B. Terry and J. R. Vineyard, from Iowa ; to the house, Ebenezer Childs, A. G. Ellis and A. J. Irwin, from Brown ; W. B. Sheldon, M. W. Cornwall and Charles Durkee, from Milwaukee; James H. Lockwood and James B. Dallam, from Crawford ; William Boyles, G. F. Smith, D. M. Parkinson, T. McKnight, T. Shanley and J. P. Cox, from Iowa county. Belmont, in the present La Fayette county, was chosen as the seat of government. October 26, 1836, was the time of the first session. Henry S. Baird was elected president of the council.

The judicial districts were: First, Crawford and Iowa, Chief Justice Dunn ; second, west of the Mississippi river. Judge Irvin ; third. Brown and Milwaukee, Judge Frazer.

Madison was chosen as the permanent capital, the seat being temporarily removed to Burlington, Iowa. At the first session the counties of Walworth, Racine, JeflFerson, Dane, Portage, Dodge, Washington, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Calumet, Manitowoc, Marquette Rock, Green and Grant were defined and established.

History Of Sheboygan. County 43

The second session of the first legislature was held at Burlington, now the county seat of Des Moines county, Iowa. Among the resolutions passed was one asking congress to appropriate twenty thousand dollars and two townships of land for a university of Wisconsin. The land, fortysix thousand and eighty acres, was subsequently granted, but the money was not. The state buildings were put under contract in April, 1838. The only change thus far in territorial officers was that of William B. Slaughter, for J. S. Homer, secretary, which was made February 16, 1837. June 19, 1838, Edward James was commissioned marshal, and July 5, Moses M. Strong was appointed United States attorney.

July 3, 1838, the region west of the Mississippi was set off as a separate territory and named Iowa. The population of the eastern or Wisconsin counties at that time was 18,149.

The first session of the supreme court at Madison after the reorganization of the territory was held on the third Monday of July, 1838. In September of that year, James Duane Doty was elected delegate to congress from Wisconsin. On the 8th of November, Andrew G. Miller was appointed associate judge of the supreme court, to succeed Judge Frazer, who died at Milwaukee, October i8th.

On the 26th of November, 1838, the legislature met for the first time in Madison, being the first session under the reorganized condition of affairs, but the second legislature in reality.

March 8, 1839, Henry Dodge was recommissioned governor by the president of the United States. James Duane Doty was reelected delegate to congress, taking his seat December 8, 1840. Francis J. Dunn succeeded Mr. Slaughter as secretary of the territory, January 25, 1841, but was himself succeeded, April 23d following, by A. P. Field. On the 15th of March, Daniel Hugunin was commissioned marshal, and April 27th, T. W. Sutherland was appointed attorney. September 13th, Governor Dodge was removed by President Tyler and James Duane Doty appointed in his place. Henry Dodge was thereupon elected to congress to fill that vacancy, taking his seat December 7, 1841. October 30, 1843, George Floyd was appointed secretary of the territory. On the 21st of June, 1844, N. P. Tallmadge received the appointment of governor, and August 31, Charles M. Prevost that of marshal. April 8, 1845, President Polk reinstated Henry Dodge in the gubernatorial office. The official changes this year were: March 14, John B. Rockwell as marshal; July 14, W. P. Lynde, as attorney; Morgan L. Martin as delegate to congress to succeed Henry Dodge. January 22,

1846, A. Hyatt Smith became attorney and John Catlin was named as secretary, February 24th. John H. Tweedy was elected delegate, September 6, 1847.

September 27, 1847, Governor Dodge issued a proclamation for a special session of the legislature to commence on the i8th of the ensuing month, to take action concerning the admission of Wisconsin to the Union as a state. The constitutional convention met at Madison, December 15,

The Public Domain

The arbitrary assumption of authority over the region now known as the state of Wisconsin, and the several peaceful treaties by which governmental title was gained, as well as the changes in national domination by purchase or warfare, are briefly given in the following paragraphs.

The year 1634 witnessed the arrival of the first European at a point west of Lake Michigan. Jean Nicolet came hither to confirm a state of peace between the French and the Winnebago Indians. This overture was made at Green Bay. In furtherance of the plan the Jesuits attempted to found a mission at La Pointe, in the present county of Aishland, on Lake Superior, in 1660. The French government realized the importance of possessing formal rights over the new northwest, and so, in 1670, Daumont de St. Lusson, with Nicholas Perrot as interpreter, started from Quebec for the purpose of inviting all tribes within a circuit of a hundred leagues of Sault Ste. Marie to meet him in council at that place the following spring. This invitation included the Indians of Wisconsin. In accordance with this request, fourteen tribes, including the Winnebagoes and Menominees, assembled at the Sault Ste. Marie, in May, 1671. There St. Lusson planted a cedar post on the top of the hill and loudly proclaimed the entire northwest under the protecting aegis of his royal master, Louis XIV. This act not appearing sufficiently definite, on the 8th of May, 1689, Perrot, then commanding at the post of Nadousioux, near Lake Pepin, west of the Mississippi, commissioned by the Marquis de Denouville to conduct the interests of commerce west of Green Bay, took possession of the counties west of Lake Michigan, as far as the St. Peter river, in the name of France. For ninety years the ownership and dominion over these lands remained unquestioned. The white men who knew by personal experience of this country were few in numbers and devoted to fur trading or commerce with the Indians. No attention was paid to agriculture, nor did the government oflFer a suggestion to induce settlement by men of humble birth. A few grants of land were made to French governors, or commanders. Within the limits of this state an extensive grant was made, including the fort at Green Bay, with exclusive right to trade, and other valuable privileges, from the Marquis de Vaudreuil, to whom the king of France confirmed it in January, 1760, at a time when Quebec had been taken by the British, and only Montreal was wanting to complete the conquest of Canada. The j^rant was not confirmed by the British government.

The victory of English arms in Canada in 1760, terminated French rule in the valley of the St. Lawrence, and the consequent treaty of Paris, concluded February 10, 1763, transferred the mastership of the vast northwest to the government of Great Britain. The first acts of the new possessors were to protect the eminent domain from those ambitious men who sought to acquire wide estates through manipulation of Indian titles. A royal proclamation was made in 1763, interdicting direct transfer of lan.ls

For many years maps of the northwest contained what purported to be the boundaries of a grant from the natives of Jonathan Carver, covering a tract nearly one hundred miles square and extending over portions of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The history of this grant forms one of the most noted pages in annals of congressional legislation. In the face of the proclamation of 1763, and within three years after its promulgation, Jonathan Carver made claim to ownership of this immense tract, through purchase or voluntary grant of the aborigines. He solicited a confirmation of his title at the hands of the king and his council. This was of course denied. After the establishment of American independence the representatives of Carver made application to congress for approval of the claim. This has been repeatedly denied.

The terms of peace between France and England provided for the security of the French settlers then upon the soil. Subsequent Indian outbreaks occurred in the eastern and more southerly sections of the new territory but Wisconsin was not involved in any of those bloody massacres. The expedition of Colonel George Rogers Clark to the Illinois country, in 1778-79, opened the way for the tide of Anglo-American emigration to the Mississippi. At the termination of the Revolutionary war, Great Britain renounced all claim to the lands lying east of the Mississippi river. As Clark's expedition was undertaken under the auspices of Virginia, that commonwealth laid claim to the so-called "Illinois country." It is a popular statement with some writers that Wisconsin was included in this general term and was therefore once under the government of Virginia, but "better authorities maintain that such is not the fact. There were but two settlements then existing in Wisconsin - Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. These places were in the hands of French residents, and, being undisturbed, were really under the authority of Great Britain. They so remained, with the territory now composing this state, under the terms of the definite treaty of peace of 1783, between the English government and the United States, until 1796, at which date Great Britain yielded her domination over the western posts. The several claiming states of the American Union ceded their individual rights to the general government at diflferent periods, ranging from 1783 to 1785, thereby vesting complete title in the United States, so far as they could.

A period is now reached where the public domain is held by the United States save only those claims possessed by right of occupation by the Indians, and which could not be gainsaid or ignored by any nominal assumption of rights by the government.

First after the Revolutionary war came the Indian war, wherein General Wa)aie distinguished himself. Then followed the treaty of August 3, 1795. One of the terms of this treaty was the relinquishment of title by the government to all Indian lands northward of the Ohio river, eastward of the Mississippi, westward and southward of the Great Lakes and the waters united by them, excepting certain reservations. The title to the whole of what is now Wisconsin, subject to certain restrictions, became absolute in the Indian tribes inhabiting it. The Indians acknowledged themselves under the dominion of the United States, and pledged themselves to sell their lands only to the United States. Settlement on their lands was prohibited white men.

The several treaties with the Indians, by which the domain of Wisconsin was transferred to the government are cited here : The treaty made at St. Louis, November 3, 1804, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States, William Henry Harrison, commissioner, ceded a large tract both east and west of the Mississippi, and included the lead region of Wisconsin. The validity of this treaty was questioned by certain Sac bands and became the cause of the Black Hawk war in 1832. The treaty at Portage des Sioux, now St. Charles, Missouri, between certain Sacs and the government, September 13, 1815, that of September 14, 1815, by certain Foxes, and that of May 13, 1816, at St. Lx)uis, were pledges of peace, not affecting land titles, excepting those involved in the treaty of 1804. The Winnebagoes of the Wisconsin river signed a treaty at St. Louis, June 3, 1816, confirming all previous Indian cessions, and affirming their own independence. This act was followed by the Menominees, March 30, 1817, August 19, 1825, the several tribes in Wisconsin defined the boundaries of their respective lands, by council at Prairie du Chien. The Chippewas held a meeting on the St. Louis river, Minnesota, August 5, 1826, and specified their boundaries and also ratified previous treaties. The Chippewas, Menominees and Winnebagoes again defined their boundaries by council at Butte des Morts, August I, 1827. The treaties of August 25, 1828, at Green Bay, and July 29, 1829, at Prairie du Chien, determined disputed points in the lead mine cession.

Ah important treaty was made at Green Bay, February 8, 1831, between the Menominees and the United States. The vast territory, the eastern division of which was bounded by the Milwaukee river, the shore of Lake Michigan, Green Bay, Fox river and Lake Winnebago; the western division by the Wisconsin and Chippewa rivers on the west, on the north by the Fox river, on the east by Green Bay, and on the north by the highlands through which flow the streams into Lake Superior, all came within the range of this treaty. The eastern division, estimated at two and a half millions of acres, was ceded to the United States. The tribe was to occupy a large tract lying north of Fox river and east of Wolf river. Their territory further west was reserved for their hunting grounds, until such time as the government should desire to purchase it. Another portion, amounting to four millions of acres, lying between Green Bay on the east and Wolf river on the west, was also ceded to the United States, besides a strip of country three miles wide, from near the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers north, on each side of the Wisconsin river, and forty-eight miles long, still leaving the tribe in possession of a country about one hundred and twenty miles long and eighty broad. The treaty provided for two New York tribes, granting them two townships on the east side of Lake Winnebago. The treaty of September 15, 1832, at Fort Armstrong, ceded all the Winnebago territory lying south and east of the Wisconsin, and Fox river of Green Bay. The Indians were excluded from that tract after June i, 1833. The treaty of October 27, 1832, at Green Bay, ceded to the New York

Indians certain lands on Fox river. The treaty at Chicago, September 26, 1833, by the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawattomies, completed the United States title to the lands in southern Wisconsin.

On the 3d of September, 1836, the Menominees ceded lands lying west of Green Bay, and a strip on the Upper Wisconsin, the quantity being estimated at four millions of acres in the Green Bay tract, and nearly one hundred and eighty-five thousand acres on the Wisconsin. July 29, 1837, ^^ Fort Snelling, the Chippewas ceded all their lands lying south of the divide between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Mississippi. The Sioux nation of the Mississippi relinquished their claim to all their lands east of the Mississippi and the islands in that river, while on a visit to Washington, September 29, 1837. The Winnebagoes gave up their rights, November I, 1837, at Washington, and agreed to leave the lands east of the Mississippi within eight months, retiring to their reservation west of the great river. The Oneidas, or New York Indians, at Green Bay, ceded their lands granted them in 183 1 and 1832, excepting sixty-two thousand acres, February 3, 1838, at Washington. The Stockbridge and Munsee tribes of New York Indians ceded the east half of the tract of forty thousand and eighty acres which had been laid off for their use on the east side of Lake Winnebago, September 3, 1839. The Chippewas, by treaty at La Pointe, October 4, 1842, ceded all their lands in northern and northwestern Wisconsin. The Menominees ceded all lands in the state, wherevr situated, October 18, 1848. A supplementary treaty was made, November 24, 1848, with the Stockbridges, the tribe to sell the town of land on the east side of Lake Winnebago; another supplementary treaty. May 12, 1854, the tribe receiving a tract lying on Wolf river, being townships 28, 29 and 30, of ranges 13, 14, 15 and 16. The Chippewas of Lake Superior ceded their joint interest with the Chippewas of the Mississippi in lands lying in Wisconsin and Minnesota, September 30, 1854. On the 5th of February, 1856, certain small grants were made by the Stockbridge and Munsee tribes, at Stockbridge, for which they received a tract near the southern boundary of the Menominee river, the Menominees ceding two townships for them. Thus ended the Indian title to all lands in Wisconsin, excepting some minor local grants, and the title to the vast domain became vested in the general government.

The original settlements of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were made on lands, part of which were granted by the paternal governments to the first settlers. The question of title based on these claims came before congress, in 1820, by the revival of a similar case raised to cover claims at Detroit, in 1805, and resulted in the establishment of some seventy-five titles at Prairie du Chien and Green Bay.

The ordinance of 1787 provided that congress might establish one or two states of that territory lying north of a line drawn east and west through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. In spite of this plain fact, Illinois was defined in its present northern line, and the Lake Superior region was added to Michigan, as the "Upper Peninsula." Efforts were made by Wisconsin at an early date to recover what was justly her right, but those efforts proved unavailing.

TOWN VILLAGES AND CITY - ONE OF THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS IN THE CX)UNTY - EARLY CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS - THE VILLAGE OF PLYMOUTH IS LAID OUT - MERCHANDISING AND COST OF LIVING - ^THE FIRST GRIST MILL - CITY OF PLYMOUTH - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND INSTITUTIONS - ^POSTMASTERS - SCHOOLS AND CHURCHESi - INDUSTRIAL PLYMOUTH.

Plymouth town was surveyed in 1835 by United States Engineers Mullet, Brincke and King, and the river which flows through the town, the Mullet, a branch of the Sheboygan river, was named after the first named engineer. It was called by the Indians, Ta-quit-qui-oc (crooked river). The town is in the second tier from the north and is bounded on the north by Rhine, on the east by Sheboygan Falls, the south by Lyndon, and the west by Greenbush towns. It is well watered by the Mullet river and several smaller streams. The first land sold to private parties in the present town of Plymouth was a portion of section i, to John Law, of London, England, August 13, 1836. The next entry was on the 23d of August, 1836, by Thomas Margrave, of London, on section 5. Other aliens also held titles to land in the town about this time.

The town of Plymouth then comprising Rhine and Plymouth towns, was organized April 3, 1849. At the town meeting held on that date at the home of John W. Taylor, Daniel Hyatt was chosen temporary chairman, L. A. Babcock, clerk, and Albert Walton and Henry P. Davidson, trustees. There were then elected the following officers: Supervisors, Elon W. Baldwin, Daniel Hyatt and Francis Krackenberger ; clerk, James Cleveland; assessors, Adonijah Carter and Valentine Bub; superintendent of schools, Franklin Bond; treasurer, Hiram Bishop; justices of the peace, J. F. Moore, Erastus C. Sessions, Henry Giffin and Julius Wolff; constables, Samuel C. Jerome, S. D. Wilson and Augustus Bettlehauser ; sealer of weights and measures, Daniel Weary. The whole number of votes cast at the election was ninety.

The geographical center of the county is within this town in section 36. The eastern part of the town is gently undulating, is highly productive and the farms are among the finest in the county. The western part is more hilly, as here is located a range of the Potash Kettle hills. Notwithstanding this there are many good farms in this locality. The town of Plymouth is unsurpassed by any in the county for the variety and quality of rich productions. Its cheese factories have a world wide reputation.

History Of The Town

In 1872, Mrs. H. N. Smith, a pioneer resident, wrote a series of historical articles pertinent to this locality, which were published in the Plymouth Reporter from week to week. Most of the facts herein related will therefore be taken as coming from the pen of Mrs. Smith, as the compiler of this history has extracted from her articles practically all of the data relating to the town of Plymouth. This foreword has been adopted in order to give Mrs. Smith credit for her excellent work and to avoid the use of quotation marks.

It was on the 8th day of May, 1845, Mrs. Smith relates, that Isaac Thorpe, William Bowen, John Thorpe, Renssalaer Thorpe, with wagons and lumber, traveled all day from Sheboygan Falls and camped at night just below where the house of H. N. Smith stands (1872). They were immigrants from Tioga county, Pennsylvania. Examining the land upon which the city of Plymouth now stands, they found it all along the stream to be swampy ground and covered with thickets of alder. Tired and hungry they went back as far as the place known as the Boutwell farm. Isaac Thorpe, then an old man, determined to remain here and on the same day Renssalaer Thorpe, a young man of nineteen, cut down the first tree for a house, which was constructed of logs and completed on the 12th of May. Its roof was made of long boards laid across the top. There was no floor and no chimney. Just as the four men were preparing for their first night under shelter, three wagons loaded with emigrants, men and women and children, stopped at the door. A little later Lieutenant Webster, U. S. A. and J. L. Moore rode up to the door. They also joined the party in the new cabin. A fire was built by the side of the logs and the smoke escaped through apertures in the roof. In four days more Mr. Thorpe's wife and children arrived, and in a few weeks potatoes, com, buckwheat and garden vegetables were in the ground that had been cleared. The yield of all these showed the excellence of Isaac Thorpe's judgment. The soil of the new farm was pronounced to be good. The same fall Renssalaer Thorpe cleared four acres of land on what later became the Reuben Qark farm and sowed the first winter wheat in the town. The yield was forty-four bushels to the acre. There was then a one **run of stone" in the county, - ^in the mill at Sheboygan Falls, so that in spite of the good yield the first crop of wheat in Plymouth was not a valuable one in dollars and cents, but precious as grains of gold in another point of view. It demonstrated to the settlers that their land was valuable and the soil as good for wheat as any in the world. The necessaries of life were cheap and well it was for the settlers, as the time and cost of transporting flour and provisions over the woodland tract was considerable. Flour at Sheboygan was $5 a barrel; a pair of boots cost $2.50. Game was abundant - partridges, rabbit, squirrel and deer." Young Thorpe soon became an expert huntsman and supplied the family with an abundance of excellent meat.

The Thorpe family was not left long in solitude. In July, 1845, Henry P. Davidson and his son, Thomas I. Davidson, selected the land near the Cold Springs, which had been rejected by Isaac Thorpe. Mr. Davidson at once built a log cabin here, with the assistance of a few men from Sheboygan Falls. Besides himself there were in his family his wife, two sons, Thomas and Henry, and two daughters, Julia and Susan. They had come from Hartford, Connecticut, and had brought with them much of the culture of New England breeding. The elder Davidson gave the name of Springfield to the new settlement, but Thomas named it Plymouth, in memory of a town in Connecticut dear to him. Davidson's log cabin soon became famous as the best on the road.

While the Thorpes and Davidsons were the first settlers of the town, they were not the first purchasers of land here. Cyrus Johnson on the 7th of June, 1845, entered land but did not settle in the town until the fall of that year. On December 18, 1845, Hiram Bishop purchased land on section 22. He located in the town with his newly married wife, in August, 1846. Joseph F. Weed purchased land on section 22, October 10, 1845. October 24, 1845, J- W. Briggs bought land on section 23, and December 29th of the same year, Jacob Mantz bought on section 23. William S. Turner secured land on section 27, October 16, 1845; Peter Van Patton, on section 25, November 20th of the same year, and James De Groff bought land on section 26, November 3, 1845. At the close of 1845 there were in the town the following persons and their families : Isaac Thorpe, John Thorpe, Renssalaer Thorpe, Avery Childs, William Bowen, Henry P. Davidson, Thomas Davidson, Cyrus Johnson, John D. Briggs, James De Groff, Bradbury Robinson, Abner Walton, Jacob Mantz, Ezra Andrews, Almon Andrews and Henry Gilman.

Early in the spring of 1846 Nelson and Ira Bradford settled here, and on the 28th day of May, 1846, William Hueppgen purchased land on section 22. This land is now a part of the city of Hymouth. Mr. Hueppgen built a log shanty just south from the old Quitquioc House, and cleared an acre or two of ground. John W. Taylor arrived in August, 1846, and purchased the property then owned by Henry P. Davidson on section 21, including the cabin tavern, which later became the bar room of the Cold Springs House of later date. The Taylor family were from Byron, New York, and consisted of J. W. Taylor, wife and three daughters, Mr. Taylor's parents and a sister of Mrs. Taylor, Miss Coleman, who afterwards married Thomas I. Davidson. Mr. Taylor soon established a land agency here, which was in no small degree the means of bringing many settlers to this part of the county.

In the fall of 1846 Martin H. Flint, with his wife and one child, came to Mr. Taylor's log cabin from Vermont. He bought the land then occupied by William Hueppgen and also a tract on section 22 of Henry P. Davidson. Before winter had set in, Flint had erected the first frame house in Plymouth, which later served as the kitchen and dining room of the Quitquioc House. C. E. Sessions and a Mr. Butters assisted in building this structure. There were several purchases of land in the town in 1846; James Crane on section 10, in November; James Coon, on section 11, in November; James Tryon, on section 11, the same month; William Tryon, on section 11, in November; Almon Andrews, on section 30, July 17; also on section 30, June 25. The Andrews were the first settlers west of the village. W. D. Moore purchased on section 33 in November ; Aaron Henry Sedgwick, on section

30, in Deciember; William W. Webster, on section 27 and section 28, in September; James M. Bunker, on section 23, in December; Albert Walton on section 23, May 14 ; Peter Rogers, on section 27, January 25 ; J. T. Maxby, on section 28, in August. Other purchasers this year were Adam Moore, George McCausey, Amos F. Brewster, James Andrews, Albert Walton, William Holcomb, O. D. Andrews, Elisha Taylor, Hubbard Sanderson, M. M. Flint and Ebon W. Baldwin. Not all of these purchasers, however, settled in the town.

Murdered By Indians

In April, 1846, an event occurred which must have cast a deep gloom over the minds of the settlers. On the morning of the 27th of that month Mrs. Asenath Briggs, the wife of J. W. Briggs, left her home to go to Nelson Bradford's cabin a half mile northwest, leaving her little son with her disabled husband, her errand being to get some milk and meal for her family, but she never returned and never again was seen alive. She was tracked by her alarmed neighbors and after days of fruitless search, all hope was abandoned. Weeks afterward word was brought to the friends of the unfortunate woman by Indians that they had found her remains in the "big bend" of the Sheboygan river in Manitowoc county. Renssalaer Thorpe, Cyrus Johnson, Avery Childs and E. F. Wright went at once in search. They found the body as indicated and strong suspicions were entertained that the poor woman had been murdered by the savages. The condition of the body led to the dreadful conclusion. The skull was found several feet from the bank. Her shawl was not upon her person but under her body and her clothes spread over her. Her pail and wooden measure were standing by her side. Strange to say, the remains were not removed and buried until the following fall.

February 8, 1846, the birth of the first white child took place in the community. This child was the daughter of Cyrus Johnson, who later became the wife of John Knowd, long the station agent of the M. & N. railroad. A son of Jacob Mantz, born on the 20th of March, 1846, was the next. Samuel Savage Robinson, a son of Bradbury Robinson, was born September 27, 1846. It might here be stated that a doctor and nurse were not needed at this period of Plymouth's history.

The first religious services held in the town were at Isaac Thorpe's cabin, conducted by "Father" Cole, an English Methodist, in the summer of 1845. It has been ascertained that a Mr. Hitchcock, a Baptist preacher who lived in Sheboygan Falls, also held services here occasionally that year. In September, 1846, Thomas I. Davidson became the first postmaster at Plymouth. He kept his office in the log tavern and later in the kitchen of his new Ipg house. The receipts of the office for the first quarter were $2.50. Postage was ten cents, and the mail arrived once a week by "pony express" by way of Sheboygan.

J. T. Maxby, who came here in 1846, was the first tailor in the town and it is believed that Miss Plautina Stone taught the first school, in Reuben Clark's house. In the winter of 1847-8 a Mr. Babcock, a young lawyer from St. Paul, Minnesota, taught a very small school in the village.

Mill Street

Three weddings took place in 1847. The first was that of S. V. R. Thorpe and Miss Jane Van Patton, who were married by Elder Hitchcock, March 12 of that year. This was the first marriage to be celebrated in the town. The second was that of William Richardson, of Sheboygan Falls, and Miss Julia Davidson, September 27. On Christmas day of that year the Cold Spring House was formally opened and the occasion made most interesting by the marriage of Thomas I. Davidson and Miss Elizabeth Coleman. In 1847 occurred the births of Marshall Baldwin, Marvin Oilman, Ira Jerome Bishop and Mary Asenath Flint. Adam Moore, who lived alone in a log shanty near the Qeveland place, was found crushed by a tree and buried near the spot. He was a brother of J. F. Moore.

On the 1st day of July, 1847, H. N. Smith, with his wife, the author of this history of Pl)miouth, one child, Anna, Mrs. Eliza Chase, mother of Mrs. Smith, Miss Charlotte Smith, who afterwards became the wife of Samuel B. Ormsbee, and Patrick Henry Smith, a brother of H. N. Smith, came to M. M. Flint's house. Mr. Smith returned to Sheboygan, where he opened a store.

The first important road leading out of Plymouth north and south was laid out during the month of June, 1847, ^Y Commissioners Davidson and Taylor. Its course was from the comer of Main and Milwaukee streets north to the county line, also south to the county line. Elon W. Baldwin was the only *ttler north of Plymouth at this time.

Other settlers who came to the town in 1847 were Adonijah Carter, and Allen Carter, from Indiana; Jacob F. Moore, George W. Barnard, C. W. Dawley, from New York; John Barber, Charles Ubbelido, James Collins, Charles Warbush, Daniel Hyatt, B. V. and Charles Nutt, a Mr. Plugge, Ferdinand Brown and Harvey Treadwell.

In the summer of 1847 John W. Taylor employed a surveyor to lay out the village of Plymouth, having purchased that portion of Plymouth lying west of Division street, and divided it into town lots. Mr. Davidson, who assisted Mr. Taylor, at the time expressed little faith in the future of Plymouth. In the spring of 1847 Thomas I. Davidson built a log grocery store, having purchased a small stock of goods from G. N. Lyman. In June, 1847, William D. Lipe built a small log shop opposite the Cold Spring House, wherein he placed a forge and anvil and became the first blacksmith of the village. He also built a log dwelling house for himself and family. George W. Barnard, a carpenter and joiner, erected a small shop for the first shoemaker, S. H. Houghton. This was the second frame building in the town.

Merchandising And Cost Of Living

In the early part of 1848 H. N. Smith put up a small building 13 by 30 feet, two stories in height, on lot 4, block 13, the work being done by Daniel Weary. It was neither plastered nor painted and had no chimney. A stock of goods amounting to $2,500, furnished by Mr. Smith, was placed in the building and on March ii P. H. Smith, his brother, opened the store as general manager. At this time maple sugar, shingles, baskets, eggs, beeswax, ax helves, hand made window sash, all in very small quantities, were taken in exchange for coffee, at twelve cents per pound, Young Hyson tea at seventy-five cents a pound, whiskey at ten cents per quart, tobacco at twenty-five cents a pound, shoes one dollar a pair, com meal $1.75 per hundred pounds, flour two and one-half cents per pound. The first butter trade of the town was begun by Mrs. Benson. She brought five and a quarter pounds of butter on the 20th of June, 1848, and received for it at eleven cents a pound, goods to the amount of forty-eight cents. Indians were frequent customers at the store. They would receive nothing but the hard cash for their goods but would at once return and purchase articles they desired, one of which would be a goodly supply of "fire water."

At this time twenty-five dollars a year was a fair average for the actual outlay of a settler's family. Kerosene was not in vogue, tallow candles were cheap and people had but little use for a light in their cabins other than that given by the fire place. Maple sugar and wild honey, blackberries and wild strawberries, gooseberries and wild crab apples supplied the backwoods tea table with the sauce dear to every housekeeper's heart. Canning fruit was not then thought of. Salt pork was a once-a-week luxury, white fish another. The woods were full of game and those who had cows were fortunate. As for clothes, a "wamus" was a man's coat Boot#were $2.50 a pair, and calico or cotton delaine was the height of feminine ambition.

During the summer of 1848 Henry I. Davidson, having purchased the water power, built the first sawmill in Plymouth. William Glenny made the dam and a Mr. Curtis was the millwright.

Others who came in 1847 ^^^e James T. Flint, a brother of M. M. Flint, Joel Parmeter, Carl Roehr and Carl Schwartze. L. F. Eastman and family arrived in the village in May, 1848, and built a small log house near Enos Eastman's subsequent residence. G. W. Glidden arrived in the fall of 1848 and settled on what afterwards became known as the Sanford farm. Joseph Ichstedt also was a settler of 1848, and the first wagon maker here. Others prominent among the "forty-eighters" were George Kebbel, Eliab West, S. C. Jerome, James Cleveland, William Witte, Jonah Brown, John Keiper, William and John Burton, John Vanderhoff, Solomon Dobbin, W. W. Warner, Hobart, Allen C. and George W. Grant, three brothers, who came from Maine. They bought land on section 11 of the Tryons, paying $2.50 an acre. The Grant families did not come until 1849.

Thomas Arnold settled in the town in 1849 and about this time came a Mr. McDonald and William Haigh and family. Other settlers in the town in 1849 were Enos Eastman and L. M. Evans, a young Vermonter, who was one of the pioneer fruit growers of the county. In October, 1849, E. M. McGraw removed with his family from Sheboygan here. He soon afterward, in company with J. Ichstedt, opened a wagon shop in the upper room of Lipe's building. Carl Schwartze built his blacksmith shop in the summer of 1849, ^^d that same year Daniel Weary, who removed here from Sheboygan, put up a house. The first schoolhouse was built during this siunmer.

which became the only resort for church, school, lecture, or any popular entertainment. Charles Knmirey was also a settler early in 1849. He met an untimely death by an accident in 1870. A Mr. Laudenbach and Ara Wilson were "forty-niners," the latter the first mason in the town.

The First Grist Mill

In the fall of 1849 Henry I. Davidson and Robert H. Hotchkiss,.of Milwaukee, erected a mill upon a site later known as the Wattier mill, which was under the charge of George Chamberlin, of Sheboygan Falls, during the winter of 1849-50. On the 27th of March, 1850, the first grist was ground, which was wheat belonging to Hiram Bishop. On the 28th of that month H. N. Smith bought Mr. Davidson's interests and the mill was then conducted under the firm name of Smith & Hotchkiss. Owing to the lack of wheat in the county and surrounding country, the mill had very little to do for a long while.

Increase Of Wheat Crop

The wheat crop in 1850 was good in quantity and quality. Four retailed at the mill for five dollars per barrel and the Smith & Hotchkiss mill during the fall and winter of that year had a very good run of custom. People living in Manitowoc, Calumet and Fond du Lac counties, though thirty miles distant, were regular customers, frequently remaining over night for their grist to be ground. Wages for laborers were from eight dollars to twelve dollars per month, with board. At this time winter wheat was the principal crop, little spring wheat being sown.

The Quitquioc House

The hostelry which became widely known as the Quitquioc House was built in the summer and fall of 1850 by W. D. Moore, G. W. Barnard and others, the workmen being paid one dollar a day. The house was formally opened February 22, 185 1, with a ball and supper in honor of the event and the birthday of the Father of his Country. At the banquet were served oysters, turkey, chicken pie, ice cream and every dainty in the shape of cake conceivable. It is said that G. W. Barnard declared "that he was going to this ball if it took every dried apple he had."

Among others who came to the town in 1850 were Henry Fischer, Francis Lozau, Herman Kropp, William Steele, Isaac Shauger, John Zinkgraf, Anthony Komans, with his son, Christian, and William Kistner, with his first wife and child, William.

In the winter of 1849-50 M. M. Flint taught the first school in the new schoolhouse. He was a man of education and a superior teacher. In the summer of 1850 Miss Mary Tickner taught this school and she also taught here a portion of the next winter. She married Daniel O'Neal and her place was supplied by a Miss Averill. In the summer of 1851 Miss Fannie Lawrence, of Sheboygan, taught this school.

horse sawmill. This same year Mr. and Mrs. Orrin Treadwell became settlers of the then village of Plymouth, bringing with them the first piano known to the place.

Many have become residents of the community since 1850 but it is not the purpose of this work to name each individual for the reason that space forbids it. Matters of importance, however, will be given place.

The first fair in the county took place at Sheboygan, October i, 1851, where Adonijiah Carter, of Plymouth, took the premium for three-yearold colts, and James Cleveland captured the first premium on field crops. Miss Carter received the first premium on bed quilts. The second county fair was held in Rymouth in the fall of 1852. This fair was notable from the fact that Henry Tidman, of Sheboygan Falls, exhibited two merino rams, the first fine wool sheep in the county.

In 1867 William Schwartz built the Central Mills, putting in three run of stone, and in the fall of that year V. Wattier purchased Mr. Schwartz' lower mill and gave it the name of "Paris," adding two nm of stone, making four in all.

The City Of Plymouth

While Plymouth has not grown as rapidly as the county seat, its attractions in the way of population and trade have been steady and substantial. For a large section of the county this place is an important trading and shipping point and its many large and well-stocked mercantile establishments are attractions that make for a generous patronage. Plymouth is the greatest cheese mart in the state of Wisconsin and is the place for the activities of the largest individual cheese dealer in the country. Its chair factory gives employment to many hands, and other industries of this thriving little city gives her prestige with the* outside world needing her manufactures.

The city now has a population of 3,100. The site is an ideal one, both for business and residential purposes, nestling down in a beautiful valley as it does, where nature protects it from the elements by her hills and forest. H)rmouth, now in the vernacular known as "The Hub," by reason of being almost in the center of the county, is about fifteen miles from Sheboygan city and fifty-five miles from Milwaukee. Seven miles away is the enchanting summer resort of Lake Elkhart. Transportation facilities are equal to the needs of merchant and traveler. Direct communication with the outer world is accessible over the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul and the Chicago & Northwestern railroads. Hourly, trains run on an interurban electric line to Sheboygan and also to Elkhart Lake. Many beautiful and substantial homes, churches, schoolhouses, places of amusement, fraternal and social bodies and the like make Plymouth a most desirable place to select as a permanent abode.

The government and business aif airs of Plymouth were conducted under a village charter until 1877, when the general assembly granted the village wider privil^es under a city charter. That year the municipality was l^;alized as a city and perfected as such, by its first election under the new charter. H. H. Huson was chosen as the first mayor, D. M. Jackson, clerk, and E. A. Dow, treasurer.

In 1874, a fire engine house had been erected for the use of the fire department and council and in 1893 a new and more commodious structure took its place on the comer of Main and Stafford, and is known as the city hall, where the fire apparatus is kept and the city council holds its meetings.

The Fire Department

The fire department was organized October 5, 1868. The officers elected were: William Elwell, foreman; Andrew Schneider, assistant foreman; Otto Puhlmann, secretary. A hand engine and 200 feet of rubber hose were purchased for $650, the money being raised by subscription.

In 1874 a fire house, with basement, was built, the upper room being used as a place for meetings and the basement was used for storing the engine and hose.

In 1875 a hook and ladder truck was bought, with necessary equipments. They were under charge of the fire company but owing to lack of interest on the part of the citizens, that part of the apparatus was never successfully handled. A desire was felt to organize a separate company that would devote their time to that part of the department, and October 8, 1883, a company was organized to take charge of the hook and ladder truck. In December of the latter year the two companies formed a fire department and elected as the first chief, August Scheibe, Sr. Eventually the city purchased a new Watrous engine, a new hose cart and sufiicient hose, also a new hook and ladder truck. The charter members of the hook and ladder company, fourteen in all, were: John Carroll, James Blackmore, Fred Dobbratz, B. A. Gaifron, C. W. Brown, H, M. Freutel, John Holzschuh, W. G. Karpe, Andrew Dowset, Fred Donarth, Otto Derrwaldt, E. Pokriefke, G. Albrecht, W. Schwartz. At a meeting held November 8, 1883, the following officers were elected: E. Pokriefke, foreman ; C. W. Brown, assistant foreman ; W. G. Karpe, secretary ; B. A. Gaffron, treasurer; H. M. Freutel, steward.

Kissinger, F. A. Prussell, J. W. Schuler, W. J. Sweet, Charles D. Eastman, Frank Derrwaldt, E. A. Dean, J. A. Stretch, E. R. Gohr, J. B. Kolsta, A. J. Strassburger, Addison Corbett, Carl Runge, F. L. Carroll, Otto Ullrich, William Behrend.

In 1893 the city provided a new and handsome engine house, at a cost of $5,500. In 1896 a 100 gallon, single tank engine was added to the apparatus. The department now numbers 200 members. Water is obtained from the Mullet river. There is also a live well, 8x14 feet and 16 feet deep, carrying 9 feet of water. There are also many cisterns in the outskirts of the city.

The first chief was August Scheibe, and his successors have been, H. C. Bade, A. H. Schram, T. F. Ackermann and Herman Luedtke. The present equipment consists of one steam fire engine, one hand engine, one chemical engine, one hook and ladder truck and three hose wagons and carts.

The police force is small, owing to the small number of misdemeanors demanding attention. The city as a whole is orderly and well behaved, so that, a marshal and two or three policemen are able to cope with any attempt to disrupt the peace and quietude of the city.

Waterworks And Electric Lights

Plymouth has a waterworks and electric light system all its own and the citizens, who patronize both, are given an excellent quality of water and are served with both necessities faithfully and to their entire satisfaction.

At a special meeting of council, held September 19, 1900, a contract was let to W. H. Wheeler & Company, of Janesville, to build an electric light and waterworks plant, the contract price being practically $70,000. Ground for the reservoir was broken in October and soon thereafter the laying of mains was b^^n. Two wells, one 371 feet in depth, and the other, 129 feet, were drilled, and proved a capacity of 500 gallons of pure and limpid water per minute. This reaches the reservoir, on a hill in the west part of the city, which is circular in form, sixty feet in diameter, fifteen feet in depth, and holding 325,000 gallons of water. The power house is a brick structure, in which is installed a Corliss engine, two Sn^ith pumps, the power pump having a capacity of 500,000 gallons per day and a larger one with a force sufficient to pump 1,000,000 gallons every twenty- four hours. In the system are six miles of pipe, varying in diameter from four to ten inches, and fifty Eddy hydrants.

At the power plant are three dynamos, one a Western electric arc, an eighty-five lighter ; the second the Westinghouse incandescent, with capacity of 1,200 lights; and the third dynamo, a Warren alternator, for use in case of emergency. There are ten miles of electric wires, conducting the subtle agent to 2,400 incandescent lamps and sixty arc. On September 17, 1901, one year after the measure was adopted, these two utilities in one were turned over to the city in a finished state and since that time Pl)rmouth has been making and supplying to her citizens electric lights and water of a superior quality.

Plymouth Postmasters

On the 22(1 day of Sq)tember, 1846, Thomas I. Davidson received the appointment of postmaster from the Polk administration and kept the office in his little log tavern the first year. He then removed his office to the kitchen in a new log house he subsequently built. The receipts of the office for the first quarter were $2.50. For letters coming from a distance at that time the postage was from ten to twenty-five cents and the revenue was always demanded and paid before the delivery of mail matter to the patrons of the office. In those days there were no fast mail trains, nor slow ones for that matter. "Uncle Sam's*' carriers rode horseback and delivered mail at Plymouth about once a week, according to the weather and conditions of the road. .

Henry P. Davidson succeeded his son, Thomas I. Davidson, July i, 1848, and retained the office in the kitchen of his log cabin. He only handled the mail a few weeks, when his successor, Patrick Henry Smith, was appointed to the position, July 25, 1848, and distributed the mail over the counter of his general store. September 11, of the same year, Mr. Smith handed back the burdens and responsibilities of this primitive office to Henry P. Davidson, who made his headquarters for the short period of his incumbency in the Smith business establishment.

John W. Taylor took up the labors of a village postmaster November 5, 1849, and was succeeded by William West, May 5, 185 1. Mr. West was only in the office until October 9th of that year, when he retired in favor of William D. Lipe. During the administration of President Franklin Pierce, Patrick H. Smith was appointed once more to the position of postmaster at Plymouth, his credentials bearing date of June 5, 1853. Mail facilities had so increased and improved that the citizens were served by Mr. Smith triweekly with incoming mail at his store.