159 Come Back in Time, Volume 1, Communities by Elaine Reetz

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SNIPPETS of SALEM
159 - Come Back in Time
Volume 1
Communities

By Elaine Reetz

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Compiled 8/2009 by L S Valentine Copyright©Valentine2009

Come Back in Time
VOLUME I: COMMUNITIES

By Elaine Reetz

Fox River Publishing Co., Ltd.
P.O. Box 54

Princeton, Wisconsin 54968

1

About
the Author

Publishers Note:
This edition is the first in a series of books in which we plan to record the settlement
days of Central Wisconsin. The material in this and subsequent volumes is the result of
countless hours of research and interviews.
The next edition in the Come Back In Time series, Volume II: Business and Commerce,
is scheduled to be published in late autumn, 1981.
Much of the material in this book bas been previously published in the Fox River Patriot, Central Wisconsin's feature newspaper, between 1977 and 1980.

-----------------------------

A Note on the Old Plat Maps in this Book:
The old plat maps reproduced in this book were all originally published between
1900 and 1906. We have tried to retain as much of the original detail as possible, but
in reducing them from their original size, some detail is lost and some umudiness"
does occur.

First Edition: March, 1981
ISBN No. 0-939398-00-1

Elaine Reetz is an amazing woman.
When I first met her, some four years ago, I think we looked on each other with
curiosity. She, the writer, farm wife and many other things, some 25 years my elder,
and me, the editor of a new newspaper in town. Both curious by nature and profession.
I think Elaine was born curious. She's a natural reporter and photographer and a
prolific writer. Also a compulsive collector, especially of things that represent a bit of
the past, for Elaine is also a local historian, and preserving the history of Central Wisconsin is her passion. Which is why this book exists. Elaine has written one other book,
Deciphered as Neshkoro, and co-authored The Trail of the Serpent. She is a regular
contributor to the Fox River Patriot and numerous other Wisconsin newspapers.
Her favorite collectibles are old-time picture postcards of Wisconsin, and most of
the photos in this book are from her collection - - - "preserVed for future generations"
as she says. Many are from flea markets and auctions, which she frequents with continuing enthusiasm.
Elaine began her writing career in 1965 and has had enough material published in
the past 15 years to fill dozens of scrapbooks. She also produced and narrated a local
radio show for several years which focused on local history.
And while Elaine's journalistic endeavors consume many of her waking hours, she
still finds time for a busy home life. "!am the wife of a farmer," she says, and the
Reetz family still owns a dairy farm near Neshkoro that has been in the family since
1868. Her feel for history often spills over to her home where she still does things
the "old - fashioned" way.
With a sparkle in her eyes, she says of her writing: "It's my contribution for having
lived on earth".
---Michael Jacobi

Printing 54 3 2 1

Copyright 1981 by the Fox River Publishing Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2

3

Credits & Acknowledgements
We would like to credit the following publications as sources of material for this book:

Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties-Acme Publishing Company, 1890
An Illustrated History of the State of Wisconsin-- by Charles R. Tuttle, 1875
The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names- by Robert E. Gard and L.G. Sorden, 1968
1975 Extension Homemaker Study of Green Lake County
Histor-y of Waushara County -by Ex-Judge George P. Sorensen
Wisconsin Historical Records Survey, Feb., 1941
Wisconsin Rural Resources of Waushara County Apri/1958
Rqsource of Waushara History, 1959
Wisconsin Blue Books
A Historic Spot Near Wautoma, Wise. -by Hjalmar R. Holland (Wisconsin Magazine of His·
tory), 1950
The Trail of the Serpent- by Elaine Reetz and Robert Gard, 1973
A Heritape History of Beautiful Green Lake Wisconsin- by Robert W. and Emma B. Heiple
The History of Green Lake County (As Related by Pioneers), 1860
A History of Ripon Wisconsin -Compiled and Written by Samuel M. Pedrick; edited by
George H. Miller (Ripon Historical Society), 1964
Cross and Flame in Wisconsin- William Blake, 1973- (The Story of United Methodism in
the Badger State)
Prairie, Pines and People, 1976
And the following institutions that provided valuable information:

Ripon, Wautoma, Princeton and Berlin Public Libraries;
Oshkosh Public Museum;
County Courthouses and local newspapers;
Inventory of the County Archives of Wisconsin No. 69;
Centennial Literature or books from Villages and Towns in this Volume;
Marquette County Historical Society;
Waushara County Historical Society;
Green Lake County Historical Society;
Ripon Historical Society;
Wisconsin Historical Society.
A special thanks to the many individuals whose recollections of the times gone by are an
essential part of this volume.

Production Credits:
Typography ·Diane Egbert
Proofreading· Karen Sue Jacobi
Composition ·Michael Jacobi, Rick Maki, Sue Schmidt
Cover Design by Denis Kitchen
On the Cover: The General Store in Germania, early 1900's
On the Back Cover: Main Street of Neshkoro, early 1900's
Printed for the Fox River Publishing Co., Ltd. by Ripon Community Printers, Ripon, Wisconsin

Table of Contents
Tracing the Fox River ..
An In dian Tale . . .

.................... 9
................ 12

GREEN LAKE COUNTY
Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .·. :. : . ... 15
Dalton .................................... 19
Rock Hill Chapel. ............................. 21
Fairburn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 22
Green Lake (Dartford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 23
Kingston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Manchester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 33
Markesan . . . . . . . . .......................... 35
Marquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 39
Princeton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Utley ..................................... .49
Other Communities ............................ 52
MARQUETTE COUNTY
Briggsville . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Budsin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. ..... 59
Endeavor ................................... 62
Germania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.67
Harrisville . .. ..
. .. . . .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. ...... 69
Montello . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 71
Neshkoro . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . ................. 77
Oxford ..................................... 83
Packwaukee & Buffalo Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 87
Westfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .......... 91
Other Communities.........
. .......... 96
WAUSHARA COUNTY
Auroraville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 99
Coloma ..................................... 101
Dakota ................... , .................105
Glen Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............... 109
Hancock ................................... 113
Lohrville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 115
Mt. Morris .................................. 117
Pine River ................................... 119
Plainfield ................................... 121
Poy Sippi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 123
Raymond ................................... 125
Redgranite ..................................127
Richford ................................... 131
Sacramento ................................. 133
Saxeville. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 135
Spring Lake ................................. 137

4

5

...

Tustin ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' . . . . . ' .
Wautoma ......................... .
Wild Rose ..
Other Communities ............... .

.

.139
'' .141
'145
'' .149

TO THE EAST
Fond du Lac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 151
Brandon -two views- ... ..................... 156
Omro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 157
Fairwater- two views-.. . . . . . . .
.....
. ,160
Oshkosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Ripon . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . ........165
Rosendale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .... 169
Waukau .....................................1 71
TO THE SOUTH
Fox Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 17 3
Portage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 177
Pardeeville·- two views - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 181

Detail from a 1900 map of Wisconsin

6

Preface
Historical books are written in an effort to preserve, so the past is not lost
in time. In a world that is constantly changing, there is an advantage in knowing of the roots and traditions tliat established our culture. A glimpse at the
past may be a window to the future.
Come Back In Time is the culmination of over a decade of research in an
effort to record and preserve the history of those pioneers who settled Central Wisconsin. This volume outlines the lives of the early settlers while following the growth of virtually every settlement in Green Lake, Marquette and
Waushara Counties, and many others in Central Wisconsin.
Some of those communities, once bustling, are now only crumbling foundations and fading memories. Time has a way of moving- forward and backward - in endless movement. It is our desire to record this history before
it fades from memory - lost in time.

7

'i•

t

The Fox River in

Prince~on,

Tracing The.~'~Fox River
sluggish flow through a maze of marshes and lakes with an
average fall of only about four inches to the mile.
Near Portage both the upper Fox and the Wisconsin River flow in horse shoe curves and come within a mile and a
half of each other, making the most famous portage or carrying place in the Middle West. ln earlier days the waters
of both rivers in flood time overflowed the plain between
and traveilers could actually float boats from One river to
the other. The Wisconsin flows west and south, the upper
Fox flows north. The divide of land, causing the Fox to flow
northward, is caused by the Niagara limestone ridge which
extends north and south roughly parallel to the shore of
Lake Michigan, and prevents the streams from the interior
of the state from flowing directly to the lake.
The Fox has been called not only the River of History,
but the Man-tracked River; The River of the Curious; The
River of Adventurers; The Crooked River; The River of the
Serpent; The River of Voyageurs; The River of the Winnebago, Mascoutins, Sauk and Fox, There were in the
past dreamers who envisioned the river as a thread to the
Orient and great wealth.

The always scenic Fox River is also a river with a history.
Many moons ago, a famous Indian said: "For us this river
was a path. For our white brethren, to whom we sold it, it
is a power."
Louise Phelps Kellogg, a research associate of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, in 1924 said of the Fox:
'·'As the infant Fox runs northeast from the Portage, it
glides and twists through fertile meadows, broadens into
small lakes until it finds itself in the broad sweep of Lake
Winnebago. Lake Winnebago acts as the dam for the lower
Fox which continues on to Green Bay in a wide flood, tum·
bling over chutes now made into dams, becoming one big
scene of power deve]opment for the growth of its towns."
Several historians and writers have questioned where
the upper Fox River actually begins. Ina Curtis, retired at
Portage after serving as curator of the Fort Winnebago sur~
geon's quarters, said in 1973 for the book, The Trail of the
Serpent: "The Fox really starts up at Lake Emily--a sort of
extinct lake, and there used to be a Lake Sarah right next
to it. Increase A. Lapham, Wisconsin's first scientist in the
1850's, locates the beginning of the Fox in these two lakes;
that's in the Dalton area. Even in the early days, travellers
didn't go up the Fox much above Portage. In the 1920's
in a rowboat you would have t() ·get out barefoot and pun
your boat over the sandbanks 3nd mud ..,
Robert E. Gard, Wisconsin author and professor, wrote
of his search for the origin of the upper Fox: "We decided
that it is hard to discover the actual source of the upper
Fox. We had tried one time and got royally lost in the
small branches, little lakes and the wanderings of the small
stream through hill and pasture, in very lovely rural country in Columbia County."
The upper Fox is a crooked, contorted river and is actually not a large river either. It winds for 107 miles with a

8

early 1900's

White Men in the Fox River Valley
Samuel de Champlain, the first governor of New France,
in his rude castle on the hi!ls of Quebec, in the year 1634
learned from the Indians of a wonderful country "beyond
the seas." He sent Jean Nicolet, trader and adventurer, to
explore a land since known as Wisconsin,
Nicolet travelled by way of the Great Lakes, and at
Green Bay held a council with the savages, being the first
white man they had ever seen. Nicolet canoed up the Fox
River, but historians differ as to how far he went. Some
histories note that he arrived at the site of a large village of

9

,,

The spot where Father Marquette and Louis Jollie! in
1673 drew their canoe out of the Fox River and portaged
across the mile and a half between the upper Fox and the
Wisconsin to continue their journey to the Great River, is
just east of Portage and off Highway 33.
The colorful regime of the French in Wisconsin, particu·
larly the uncommissioned voyageurs who arrived before
the explorers and who sang as they worked, formally ended
in 1763 when a treaty gave to England lands which included Wisconsin.
Wisconsin had been made known to the world by French
explorers and ~as the connecting link between the Great
Lakes and the Mississippi. The Americans came into possession of the Northwest by treaty in 1783. A fur-trading
post was established at the portage in 1800. In 1816, American troops arrived at Gi-een Bay to construct Fort Howard.
The Fox-Wisconsin waterway (and the portage) became an
important military highway. It was the only natural highway through Wisconsin. A military post and Fort Winnebago were built at the portage in 1828 for the protection of

the Americans and John Jacob Astor's fur trade, after a
number of minor incidents when the Winnebago Indians
became incensed over the invasion of their land by the lead·
miners of the southwestern part of the state.
In 1887, the now-famous historian Reuben Gold Thwai·
tes canoed down the Fox River valley, The complete account of Thwaites' journey was reprinted in 1973 in The
Trail of the Serpent. His words paint a tapestry of the Fox
at that time. To quote: "It was 2:25p.m. yesterday when
the Doctor and I launched the old canoe upon the tan·
colored water of the government canal at Portage, and
pointed her nose in the direction of the historic Fox. You
will remember that the canal traverses the low sandy plain
Which separates the Fox from the Wisconsin on a line very
nearly parallel to where tradition locates Barth's and Lecuyer's wagon portage a hundred years ago. The railroads
have spoiled water navigation, and the government canallike most of the Fox and Wisconsin river improvement- is
fast relapsing in to a costly relic."

a:::@;C

Dredging operation on the Fox River, early 1900's
Indians near the present city of Berlin.
So far as we are aware, there were no other white men
in Wisconsin until 1658,59, when two fur traders, Radisson
and Grosseilliers, came to Green Bay to follow the course
of the Fox River, portage across to the Wisconsin River and
on to the Mississippi. This route from Canada to the Miss·
issippi became known as the Fox~Wisconsin route and was
one of the most famous of American waterways. It was
used by the French for more than a century.
Nicolas Perrot, Wisconsin's first historian, spent thirty
years in Wisconsin with the Indian tribes. In 1671, with
much pomp and ceremony, in the presence of fourteen In·
dian tribes and three missionaries, the French officer St.
Lusson took possession-for the King of France-of all lands
"discovered and to be discovered."
The first Catholic mass in Wisconsin is supposed to have
been said by Father Oaude Allouez on April 20, 1670,
when bearing the Cross he landed at a point on a lake near
Oshkosh.
For many years, explorers had heard of a great river that
flowed southwestward-the Father of Waters, the Mississippi. In !673, Louis Jollie! was leader of an expedition to
find this river in a journey of exploration. Father Jacques
Marquette, whose statue at the Capitol in Washin~ton, D.C.
represents-Wisconsin, was chosen as chaplain to accompany
JollieL There were older and more experienced missionar·

ies in the Northwest) but Marquette knew several Indian
languages and had an ability to sketch maps.
Marquette and JoJliet were the best known and most
colorful of the early explorers who voyaged on the Fox River because of Marquette's journaL Jolliet kept a journal
too. He supposedly had two copies of it, but both were
destroyed.
May 17, 1673 is the date they started from the mission
of St. Ignatius (near Mackinac Island) with five men accompanying them. They took two canoes and provisions of
jerked meat and Indian corn, "finnly resolved to do all and
suffer all for so glorious an enterprise."
"We left the Salt Bay to enter a river (Fox River) emptying into it. It is very beautiful at its mouth, and flows
gently; it is full of bustards, ducks, teal and other birds, attracted by the wild oats of which they are fond; but when
you have advanced a little up the river, it becomes very dif·
ficult both on account of the currents and of the sharp
rocks which cut the canoes and the feet of those who are
obliged to drag them, especially when the water is low."
"We knew, too, that the point of the compass we were
to hold to reach it (the Wisconsin River) was the westsouthwest, but the way is so cut by marshes and little lakes
that it is easy to go astray, especially as the river leading to
it is so covered with wild oats, that you can hardly discover
the channel."

10

The Albatross and the Thistle at the docks in Berlin, early 1900's

11

An Indian Tale
One of the Winnebago Indians' versions of how the
Fox River was created is a favorite old tale related to
Wisconsin's school children:
"Long. long ago, soon after the beginning of the
world, a monstrous serpent, wise and cunning, lived in
the Mississippi River. He became dissatisfied with his
home and desired to visit the Great Lakes. One day in
the
he started on his journey. He first ascended the
River, making a great noise and commo~
Lion, throwing up sand banks and making shallow places,
changing the natural flow of the river which
before
had been a beautiful running stream without
obstruclions. When he arrived at the Portage, the water
from the Wisconsin was flowing over it, in a northerly
direction. The ground over which the water flowed from
the Wisconsin was low and swampy, being nearly level~
th~ water was shallow and ran very slow and spread over
tract of country."
he serpent made his way over and through this
shallow water until he struck a small stream flowing
non h. He plunged in and soon widened and deepened its
narrow channel to accomodate his huge body, and gath·
cred the water flowing across the Portage to help him
:1\ong on his journey. He worked and wormed his way
in many directions, seeking a better place to pass.
At
after many turns from north to south and from
west to east he found the place that he thought would do.
He soon cleared a space sufficiently large to suit hlm,
and <~S abundant game suited his taste he remained and
enjoyed himself as best he might. This place is today

more open. He therefore went around the hillocks, in·
stead of going through them, steering his great carcass
among these obstructions until he had boxed the com·
pass many times."
"The serpent had arrived by this time where the obstructions were more fonnidable~ land higher, rock and
stone more compact and covered with a thick growth of
of forest. Not daunted, he rushed on, throwing his whole
strength into the work. He scooped out a small lake which
is now called Big Butte des Morts; by forming this lake he
had tapped a source of water to help him on his way--the
Wolf River. Encouraged, he moved along with more vigor
and force to greater and more herculean deeds. Here a lake
of great extent was fanned: Winnebago. The serpent sport~
ed, rolled, dove and swam to his heart's content. Being
wise he knew by the peculiar glimmer at times in the east·
em sky that his work was nearly done. The Great Lakes
lay to the east and north. He chose the weakest part of the
barrier, the northwest portion, went through and scooped
out a small lake: Uttle Butte des Morts. Then Winnebago
Rapids, Grand Chute, the Uttle Chute, and the Grand Kau·
kauna."
"The great fabulous serpent was eventually swept over
Niagara Falls and perished in the turbulent waters."

~

called Mud Lake."
"For many moons the serpent gorged himself with
his favorite food, until he had consumed or driven away
his supply. Hunger forced him to renew his journey. He
now struck a different formation of sand, thrown up inc
to ridges and hillocks, the drift of the glacial period. Of
this he made short work, soon throwing out a long channel of considerable width and several miles in length
\vhlch became a long narrow lake, called by the Indians
Buffalo Lake, because the last buffalo seen in this part
of the country was chased into it and drowned, according to the tales told around Indian campfires."
"Here the serpent remained for some time. Buffalo
and deer were plentiful and he enjoyed himself right royally. The water increased and formed a large lake; a high
bank or moraine formed a dam and held the water back.
1l1e noise and confusion he made caused the game to
leave this region. Having nothing to eat, the serpent de~
cldeU to continue his journey, broke through the oppo~
site bank and he and the water rushed on to the next
resting place, which was but a short distance below,
where another bank intervened and barred the way for a
time. By exerting his tremendous strength he removed
the obstruction and moved on, leaving another lake,
called Puckaway, because of its many reeds and rushes
from which the Indians made mats."
"The land to the right, or east, being high and piled
up in great ridges, he concluded to change his course to
a more westerly one, for in this direction the way seemed

Green Lake County
This is one of the smallest counties in the state. It contains Green L~he­
a beautiful sheet of water. Berlin, Princeton, and Markesan are the incorporated towns in the county, of which Berlin is the most important, havin[' a
population in 1870 of 2, 778. Berlin is situated on the Fox River, at a point
where the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad connects with it, giving it the advantage of both railroad and water communication. It is the seat of a very
extensive trade, especially with the country north and west of it. Several
branches of manufactures are established here, which are growing into very
respectable proportions; among which may be specified mills for the manufacture of tum ber, from one to three of which have been running since the
settlement of the town, and have added not a little to its development and
wealth. Some three or four wagon and carriage shops have given employment to a large number of hands; while the usual complement of workers in
wood and iron in the finer, as well as coarser, varieties of the arts, are not
wanting. There are also three steam flouring mills, and one steam woolen
mills of some half-dozen looms, that furnish employment for a number of
hands, and convert the produce of the county into marketable commodities.
Princeton, also is situated on the Fox River, a few miles above Berlin. It
has an extensive trade, and is a thriving village. It has an iron-foundery, a
flouring-mill, wagon and other shops. Marquette is a river town of considerable trade, especially in lumber and grain. Markesan is an island village, surrounded by a very rich and fertile country; has a good water-power; a prosperous trade with the surrounding country. Dartford, the county seat, is
situated on the outlet of the lake from which the county derives its name.
It has a beautiful location, overlooking the lake; and besides the court house,
jail and county offices, has two flouring mills, and an unusual variety of mechanics shops. Kingston and Manchester are inland village, with each a flouring mill; and they are, each of them, the center of some trade.
-From An Illustrated History of Wisconsin, 1875-

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Berlin
People often ask where and how the Come Back in
Time articles are researched. This history of Berlin came
from several sources, including a talk given by Annette
Secora in 1966; the Berlin Public Ubrary; old newspapers:
clippings from the 1938 Berlin Historical Pageant, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the city's founding; and material used in the Bicentennial WCWC radio program, A
Visit with Elaine. Abstracts and deeds, courthouse files
and visiting with alert elderly people are also valuable resources.
Nathan G. Strong is credited in histories of Berlin in
Green lake County as the first settler to build a dwelling
place in the settlement that the Indian traders called
Strong's landing. This was in 1846. It was a small shanty
erected where the Baptist Church was later built.
Strong was a member of the 1844 Fourierite Movement Wisconsln Phalanx settlement at Ceresco in the val~
ley west of Ripon. A man under thirty, he was sent with
three companiOns as government surveyors to find the
best crossing place on the Fox River for a public highway planned between Fond duLac and Stevens Point.-·
They left Ceresco January 2, 1846, on the prospecting
tour.
One history states: "Strong made the first wagon
track across the prairie and when he came to Winchell
Springs (the area south and east of Berlin) they could
see the winding Fox River in the hills rising to the north.
Strong exclaimed, 'There is the place for the crossing!' "

After Strong built his shanty in June of 1846, he began cutting logs for a small lumber trade with settlers on
the rich farming lands of Green Lake and Democrat
Prairies. In 1847 Oscar Wilson, Strong's brother-in·law,
arrived with ills family, the first white family to settle in
what is today Berlin. Thomas Noyes, a promoter with an
energetic personality, came in August of 1847 and was so
impressed with the site Strong had chosen that he pur·
chased an undivided half-interest· for $"500. Noyes returned to Watertown for his family and with five teams start~
ed for Berlin September 13, 1847, arriving on the 16th,
and occupying the shanty with the Wilson family. In
three days a new shanty was erected at Strong's Landing.
It was the second horneo Lumber for the shanty was pur~
chased from Strong at a cost of $12.50 a thousand feet."
Mrs. Secora noted: "The usual picture of a pioneer
settlement that comes to mind is a log cabin or group of
cabins. However, shanties were the first houses in the
area. Scandinavians introduced log cabins to tills country.
Berlin's first settlers were Yankees from the east, mostly
New York State and New England states."
With the arrival of Noyes, Strong's Landing received
as much publicity as a lively promoter could give it Settiers began to arrive, and one of these was Jacob R. De~
Reimer, his son Jacob, and three sisters. He said, "We
came to Berlin in a prairie schooner, leading a bob-tailed
cow. Our wagon loaded with household goods mired in
the marsh at the edge of the settlement and had to be

A quarry at B~rlin, 1918

15

Broadway and on the west by Washington Streets."

>;)";:

\\',t

~t\'t. t-.~l'l,\l\-\"1;1~

~'(~_\,\\\. -v-;'.';_,.

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Green Lake County Fairgrounds in Berlin, circa 1911
vernment was to effect a treaty with the Indians on that
spot for cessation of the Indian Land to the government.
pried ouL The place was called both Strong's Landing and
Strong and the settlers were interested because the cessaStrongville at the time. A ferry boat connected the east
tion would give them a chance to extend their village
and west sides of the town. Just after we arrived, a stage
across the Fox River."
coach began a run between Stevens Point and Strongville."
"On entering Lake Poygan they were guided to their
Joal Day is credited with building the first frame
place of destination by the incessant din of the camp.
building in tht winter of 1848 on the corner of Main and
There were four thousand Indians assembled (Menominees,
Capron Streets. The sett1ers had planted the first gardens
Pottowatomies, Winnebagoes, and Chippewas, and numerthat spring. A Dr. Shumway had his shingle out the auous half breeds). Every day these Indians held council.
tumn of 1847 and there was a hotel called the C.D. TayMany of the older Indian men did not want to sell. In the
lor House, while Dan Shailer had a variety shop. On July
time intervening between these meetings there were
4, 1848, Noyes celebrated the opening of his Fox River
dances to the sound of the Indian drum, pony races and
House Hote1 with a free dinner and dance.
games of all kinds. A live ox was delivered to them as a
The souvenil program of the 1938 Pageant tells of
part of their supplies. A sham buffalo hunt took place.
the first wedding in the pioneer community. The heading
The ox was driven mto the woods, chased by yelling Inreads: "!848 --First Wedding in Strong's Landing." To
dians and shot at until he dropped."
quote: "In the life of the early settlers a wedding was an
important event. One can imagine the f1rst wedding in
Squatters on Indian Land
Strong's Landing. What could be more appropriate than
that the bride should be Mrs. Strong: not the wife of Na·"
"This gathering of tribes continued for over a year
than, however, but of his brother William.''
and finally some of the men with Strong decided to re"Miss Tryphena Bignell, the bride, was the fust school
turn to the landing, after many trials and hardships, for
teacher in Strong's Landing. A 1og shanty erected by Nathe return trip was made by land, and the overland route
thim Strong, on the southwest corner of the new city
was little known. They arrived at the Landing, and the
park, was the schooL Here Miss Bignell taught two years)
settlers thought the sale of the land had been completed.
until she married Deacon Strong. Mrs. Strong and her husImmediately there was a rush for the new land. Crossing
band were a vital force in the early community. Mrs.
the Fox River they cut bark from trees and wrote their
Strong continued her teaching on the west side after her
names thereon, and piled up brush around the land chomarriage."
sen. When the news was given out that the sale was not
Sale of Indian Land to Whites is an 1848 headline:
completed with the Indians, they refused to move. These
"In October, !848, Nathan Strong with four other setwere the first squatters at Strong's Landing. The sale was
tlers (Flagg, Dickey, Shumway ant1 Eichsteadt) took a
later completed, and land was sold cheaply to the new
large flat boat and rowed down the Fox River to the pay
settlers. Van Horn bought a large holding from one of
grounds on the banks of Lake Poygan. All that fall, cathe squattersfor $600. The claim covered the ground of
noes in great numbers, containing Indians and their famithe Third Ward of Berlin, being bounded on the north by
lies, were seen moving down the river on their way to
the pay grounds, so-<:alled because the United States go-

16

Origin of Berlin's Name
"The name of the community of Strong's Landing
was changed to Berlin in the spring election of 1851. The
first tailor shop opened that spring and a tin shop and furniture shop were established near the bridge. Berlin re·
ceived its present name from the post office which was
established in 1848, with Hiram C. Conant as the first
postmaster," Mrs. Secora noted. "He was requested to select some name that had not already been given to some
other post office in Wisconsin and selected Berlin in honor of the famous European capitol. That is the most accepted story of our name.''
Berlin was organized as a city in 1857.
"At first the mail was brought m once a week and
then two or three times on horseback, Mail later was
brought by stagecoach, with a Wells Fargo office in Berlin.
Four horses pulling Concord stages pulled up in grand
style. Crossing the Fox River was first done by ferry, followed by a float bridge and then a wooden bridge. An
iron bridge was built about 1888 and the present one in
1931."
"There were many hotels in Berlin's early history)
each with a livery stable. In 1861 a liberty Pole was
erected just opposite the West Side school. This pole was
about twenty feet tall and on its top a handmade Union
flag was fiirnly fastened. The pole was erected as a reminder of the boys who were fighting for the freedom of the
slave, and also to defy any who might be southern sympathizers. Feeling was strong against the South."
"Berlin gave its full quota of young men to the Civil
War service. Those who enlisted went to Milwaukee w
join the companies being formed as there were no com~
parries in Berlin. When the soldiers returned, the John Williams Post was formed as was an auxiliary, the Women's
Relief Corps. The two organizations purchased the Soldier's Monument in the City Park and were always active
in any patriotic movement."

A patriotic parade
in Berlin
during World War I

"The settlement of Berlin has a great deal to do with
the development of Waushara County. Durlng territorial
days and the early days of Wisconsin statehood, Waushara
and Green Lake Counties were all Marquette County,
which had been organized in 1836 with the county seat
at Marquette. Waushara became a county in 1851 with
the county seat at Sacramento, a lost settlement preceed·
ing Berlin, located on the Fox River to the east. In 1854
the county seat was moved to Wautoma, and Sacramento
gave way to its more vigorous neighbor, Berlin."
"Green Lake County was formed in 1858 and Berlin
was the county seat for about six years, as well as a com·
mercia! center. Nathan Strong, founder of Berlin, had
died August 23, 1852, and was buried in Oakwood cemetery."
The 1883 Smallpox Epidemic
The 1883 headlines are grim: "Early in 1883 smallpox broke out in the city of Berlin and the disease spread
rapidly, The city tried to enforce a strict quarantine. The
dead were buried at night. The sick who had no one to
care for them were taken to a ~pest house' on the outskirts of the city" Houses in which the people having the
disease lived were watched day and night so that no one
from the house would go out and spread the disease further. No stage coaches came into Berlin for three weeks.
Berlin citizens who tried to visit neighboring cities were
held by the police. Food supplies were left at the door
and then the person who brought them would run for his
life," this entry concludes.
Berlin was called the "Cranberry City" in an 18711900 historical entry on file in the library. "Thousands
of barrels of cranberries were sold, orders being received
from all over the United States and Europe. Entire families lived in shanties on the marshes for the complete
picking season and a small village sprang up on the marsh
like a mushroom. A store that took care of the wants of
the pickers and a huge warehouse where the families gathered and enjoyed dances and games in the evenings were
a vital part of the cranberry community."

''Besides the pickers who lived on the marshes, wa·
gons and hayracks brought pickers each morning from
Berlin. A most common sight was that of a picker in calia
co gown and sunbonnet with a lunch pail in hand walking to a common meeting place to be picked up by the
hay rack."
.. As )ate as 1885 cranberries were an important crop.
Families depended on what they earned to buy their win·
ter fuel and clothing. No family could hire a maid with·
out first agreeing to allow her two weeks for work on
the marsh."
"One owner made $80,000 in one season and pickerS
earned from $200 to $300. A minor industry, that of
barrel-making, started late in the 1850's, and became a
major industry to care for the shipping of the product."
An episode of the gay 90's sounds like an interesting

topic. To quote: '"Bicycles or 'safeties' as they are called,
are popular at this timeo Business men in particular are
owners of them. A race was run from Waukau by some
businessmen on their safeties last Sunday. It took them
one hour and ten minutes to make the trip, Herm Tern·
me beat thls record for he turned in a twelve mile long
trip in one and one fourth hours. Can anyone say our
safeties are not time saving?" the news note questions.
"In 1900 J.B" Deibler brought the first automobile to
Berlin and the day of the bicycle as a great time saver
was over," this entry concludes.

Dalton

~

A view of Dalton in the early 1900's
Dalton in the southwest comer of the Town of Kingston is one of the Jater settlements in Green Lake County.
It grew quickly after the Chicago Northwestern Railroad
went through the area in 1910. By 1914, with the depot,
stockyards, warehouse, Jots surveyed and people building
homes} it was a promising community.
uSandy Hollow" was first suggested as a name (because
the sand lay so deep where the Military Road wound its
way through), Dalton was selected for pioneer farmer settlers by that name" Sandy Hollow was later called Pleasant
Valley.

18

lis, Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. Businessmen were soon
arriving to buy up the lots as they had been surveyed and
people were buying lots for new homes. The town went up
quickly."
A poem by Mrs. Ruth Herriot, Adams, called "Adams
on the Sparta line" speaks of the decision of the Daltons
to sell land. In part:
Where they didn't have a deed,
They had to have this piece of land
And yet no one could succeed,

In convincing Mrs. Dalton

(The Birth of a Town "From Sandy Hollow to Dalton,
written by lillian Walker for Green Lake County Extension
Homemakers' 1975 study of Green Lake County, is an exceiJent source. including a map, historical sites and facts,
for the genealogist or historian wanting details)
"It was a bright spring day in 1909 when Pete Quantius
and Mr. Pierce of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad came
to the Carley Noble and John Dalton homes to buy fortyfour acres of Jan d. A new rail line from Chicago to the
west was to be built and the Northwestern people needed
space for a station, section house, water tower, coal storage and shipping yards. The surveyors were on the farms
in 1910and by December 11,1911, the railroad was open
for traffic from Chicago through Milwaukee to Minneapo-

It was best for her to sell,
She was old and Scotch and widowed
But she knew her business well
She was hard as nails to deal with
And for guidance she would pray;
So Vilas knelt with her in prayer
And he brought the deed away.
He still admires this lady small
As the one for whom he feels,

The deepest most sincere respect
Ofall with whom he deals.

19

The Military Road wound its way through Sandy Hollow, as did another sandy road going north, winding up the

~~~.~~W~~mm=Itwas~························································

hill between the land owned by John Dalton and Carley
Noble. Noble and his wife Bess (Jenkins) lived (in 1909)
on the east side of the road on land his father John Noble
had purchased when he emigrated from the Isle of Mann,
British Isles, in 1869. Carley Noble had two wives, both
named Bess.
Bess Jenkins, Carley's second wife, "was a local girl.
Her grandfather, Joseph Parkinson, took up land from the
government, built a home and then brought his bride here
in 1848. He was a printer and a very religious man. He
would get up early in the morrdng and walk to Berlin,
where he worked in a printing shop all week. He walked
back to his home on Highway H and held singing school
in the old Rock Hill schoolhouse, and then on Sunday
held church as preacher and song director."
John Dalton's farm was to the west of the sandy road.
He was born in Belfast, Ireland, and married Jeanette
ffiackwood from Scotland. "They purchased the land in
1849. The first thing John had to do was to build a log
cabin. He hail no trairdng for such work-he would cut
round and round a tree, watching it all the while to see it
fall, for he never knew which direction it would topple!
Mter a great deal of work he had the logs all put together,
cut two holes for windows and made a door. He chopped
a large white oak tree and made a table and bench. The
bed was made from green poles. He was a very happy man
when he had this cabin completed. The couple had four·
teen children. As the family grew, they built a new home
of Milwaukee brick."
The Dalton map legend includes these facts: "The ori·
ginal Dalton homestead, 1851, on the old Military Road."
"The original homestead of Carley Noble. This land
was purchased from the government by William Williams
in 1846, sold to Naaman and Martha Case, and purchased
by the Nobles in 1869 ."
"The first white settler in the Sandy Hollow area (later
called Pleasant Valley) was Bigelow in 1840. He built the
first schoolhouse next to the creek across the road. It was
a log building with benches along the wall for the students.
The first teacher was Tlan Thomas; when he finished his
term he siad, 'This was the most disagreeable employment
I ever engaged in.' "
In I 868 another school was built with Mrs. Nobel's fa·
!her, Richard Price Jenkins, as carpenter. The land was donated by John Dalton; the school is still used as a dwelling,
(1975).
Pleasant Valley Congregational Church was built in 1892.
Before this services had been held in the school (along with
Good Templers Lodge Meetings, spelling bees, singing con·
tests and other social events). The first mirdster was Rev.
A.E. Leonard and he boarded with the Nobles. This church
burned and two churches were built in its place-the Dalton
Congrejl"tional Church and the Bible Church.
Charles Haas of Kingston built a skimming station. Far·
mers brought their milk to have it separated and the cream
was taken to Kingston to be made into butter, the fanners
taking the skim milk home for the pigs. This old station
was a gathering place for young people after church. Sam
Vaughn ran the station, his daughters Edith and Sadie
hauling the cream to Kingston. Fanners began to buy separators,.and the station closed about 1905. O.H. Swenink
built a cheese factory along Military Road in 1915. He and
his brother were cheesemakers until it was sold to a Far·
mer's Coop. Later it was sold to George StoUfus, who con·
verted it to a feedmill. About 1914 a feedmill was built by

troyed by fire.
The legend locates the railroad station and section house.
John Essex was the first section foreman. The Hassah Brewing Company built a saloon operated by Mr. and Mrs. Verdon. The building later was sold to C.F. Groose and in
1920 he moved it across the street and made it a meat market.
Other businesses of the early settlement days of Dalton
were William Walthers 1918 concrete building, where he
operated a farm equipment business; I.enz' shop to sell
wire fencing and farm supplies; Mr. and Mrs. Samples res·
taurant business and boarding railroad men; John Essex'
large square building three stories high which became the
hotel.
"The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1928.l.eona Zanto
was to give the alarm·but she found the rope broken which
rang the bell at the top of a tower and had to ring the bell
by hand. People turned out but the hotel could not be
saved. They almost forgot to waken the dentist, Dr. Mor·
ries, who had rooms and an office on the second floor. He
escaped but lost all his equipment."
"The first telephone exchange was installed in 1913.
Ella Brown was the first operator. Delos Walker built the
Music Hall;J.F. Groose was the first merchant in Dalton,
beginrdng with a small building, and a large one in 1911.
Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson's 1912 general store on the
corner of Main and Oak; the drug store built about 1914
by Charles Gi!igan; Walter Brenneman and William Chapman's 1914 harness shop; the first post office was in Richard Schultz's 1910 store. He was the postmaster (until
1913)...
"The Dalton State Bank was built in 1912, with officers
Robert Dalton, Richard Schultz, Fred Semple, A.S. Bangs
William Von der Sump and Bert Loveland. First cashiers
were Ephraim Dixon and his son, Ray, and Errde Williams.
When the Depression hit, the bank was closed. When re·
opened it was combined with the Kingston Bank."
"The Grace Lutheran Church was built in 1918; the
first baby born in Dalton was a son, Kenneth Dalton Lee,
to Mr. and Mrs. Otto Lee in 1911."
"The railroad maintained cattle and produce yards, and
a scale house. Through these Dalton shipped a great deal.
Among the businesses established were: I) the Equity Ship·
ping Association, a farmers' cooperative established in 1918;
2) the Farmers' Cooperative Oil in 1922, with Fred Brenneman, president, later reorganized as Dalton Oil in 1928;
3) the Cooperative Equity Exchange bought the building
erected by Quantius in 1912; in 1920 this was reorganized
and in I 926 Cbarle.s Knight bought the business, selling
feed and seed and his own lumber."
"The W.C.T.U. was organized under the leadership of
Mrs. Otto Swenink, Leota Dalton, Maude Semple and
others. Many women belonged and their objective was to
vote Dalton dry, which they did until 1932 when William
Warnke started a tavern in the Groose building. A story is
told of the day the W.C.T.U.Iadies in all their fmery met
at the Mustc Hall to listen to a speech by a very educated
woman of her day (a professor at Ripon College). The
men of course had driven the women to the meeting and
they all congregated downstairs in the furnace roomwhich was unfortunately under the stage. The guest speak·
er,s voice rose-and rose-and rose-as she tried to cover the
sound of the men below her as ihey became louder in
their enjoyment of their own conversation, stories and
card games. The men won!"

20

Rock Hill Chapel &Cemetery
The 130-year-old Welsh Chapel one and one half miles
from Dalton on County Trunk H, off Highway 44 between
Kingston and Dalton, is one of a very few churches in the
United States built in this manner.
The Rock Hill Little Welsh Chapel was built in 1850·51
by a large Welsh settlement living around the foot of Mt.
Moriah in the original town of Albany, then Marquette
County, as a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. The area
later
became part of the Town of Kingston in Green Lake
County.
One of the first Welshmen in the vicinity, Humphrey
Hughes, gave land for the church and cemetery, west of
the building. The first Welsh held services on Sunday and
a prayer meeting on Wednesday rdght, each week. DaVid
Pugh, who lived in the community, is thought to have been
the first minister. The people usually walked to services,
some coming three miles or more.
Thomas Phillips was one of the ministers who carne to
montbiy meetings of the church in 1853. The first "sermon
in song" lasted more than a day and people who came from
great distances stayed overrdght. There was no organ and
the tune was pitched on a luning fork.
A "Gymanfu Ganu," a Welsh title meaning "service in
song," became an annual event after the first one took
place on a Sunday at the centennial observance at the chapel in 1951. Names of importance to the success of these
events have included Mrs. Lou Williams, Dalton, as chairThe origiTIQ/ Rock Hill Chapel (below) and one
of the unusllQ/ erave markers (right)

1

r'

\

man; Mrs. Olwen Morgan Welk, Ripon, song director; and
Mrs. Catherin Mays, Cambria, organist.
The church has an unusual interior, with a semi~circular
seat enclosing the pulpit. Elders and diguitaries sat in this
"seat of honor" which has a paneled back and a door at
eachThe
side.
pews rise one above the other, with steps providing
access to them. Doors lock on the outside "to keep children in!' The men sat on the right hand side and women
on the left. The men kept their hats on racks under the
seats.
One of the first remembered lights was a candle with a
tin reflector, standing on the altar by a large Bible. Oil
lamps, Aladdin lamps, hanging lamps and finallY electricity,
were in tum used to provide light.
There are two versions of the story of the building of
the church. Some people believe Richard R. Williams,
grandfather of Mrs. Lou Wllliams' late husband, hauled the
bricks for it from a kiln near Marquette. Others believe
they were brought to Marquette on Lake Puckaway by
boat and hauled by teams of oxen>
Names of the early Welsh settlers can be found on mark·
ers in the cemetery just west of the chapel--Hughes, Pugh,
Davis, Jones, Griffith, Owens and others. The first record
of the cemetery is of a deed filed with the Green Lake
County register of deeds in 1865 by Clark A. Millard.
Two unusual markers on the old section of the cemetery are about five feet tall and shaped like gray, gnarled
old tree stumps, with unusual carving and inscriptions.
Lillian Walker in her 1975 history of Dalton wrote:
"The Welsh Chapel was built in !851 by the Welsh farmers
who had emigrated to this location. They desired a church
built in the manner to which they were accustomedp-the
pews are raised one above the other and in each the plain
wooden bench is surrounded by a wooden wall about two
feet high. The pew is entered by a door and this may be
shut to keep the children in. The Welsh are famous for
their "Song Fest" and this church has only been used lately for such an evenL It is one of a very few churches in the
United States built in this manner and is now owned by
Mrs. Inez Evans.'~

~

Fairburn
Fairburn, in the town of Seneca, Green Lake County,
was at one time quite a busy community, with the name
Fairburn appearing on state and county maps, and atlases
and plat books.
The smooth highway today, with the fifty mile per
hour speed limit, runs past the Seneca Town Hall and neat
houses on both sides of the road. It is quite a contrast to
the sandy road with deep ruts from the horses and buggies
traveling to Berlin or turning to Spring lake and Redgranite, in the days before automobiles.
In 1906 there was a sawmill, east of the hall, run by
brothers, the late Joseph and Charles Markowski. There
was also a creamery, school, church and a grocery store 1
attached to the house on the forty acre farm purchased
by the late Louis A. and Anna Clocksin Leigh, then newlyweds.
The church remains today, with an active congregation,
led by the Rev. Paul Johnson. The businesses are only
memories, and the school was gone with consolidation.
The grocery store had been in business from about 1890,
run by James Leigh and his wife, Lillian. James Leigh was
later clerk of the Green Lake County Circuit Court.
General merchandize was sold in the store, mainlY gro~
ceries. The candy man, a Mr. Leland, came from Oshkosh
with samples. In front of the store was what "might have
been called a post office," for Fairburn was then Rt.. 2,
Redgranite, and John Steinhelber, the rural route mailman,
hauled the mail out of the Redgranite Post Offlce and left
it in the dozen or so boxes lined up in front of the store.
Older residents figure it was over fifty~five years ago that
Fairburn became Rt. 5, Berlin, and later was changed to
Rt. Anna
3, Berlin.
Leigh was Fairburn~s oldest resident, who exercised her right to vote since women's suffrage, when the
privilege of women going to the polls went into effect after
World War l. She lived immediately west of the Seneca
Town Hall in Fairburn and celebrated her one hundredth
birthday November 7, 1977. Her husband, Louis, was in
charge of the Fairburn Creamery.
Mrs. Leigh told of her most harrowing experience in the
little community of Fairburn: "Gypsies would have stolen
our son Norman ifit hadn't been for our dog, Rover. Nor·
man was about five years old, and they were taking him
when Rover, who was very protective, drove them off."
The Town of Seneca Town Hall in Fairburn is a more
than 1os.year-old landmark, which gained a modern, practical and attractive exterior and interior appearance in a
Green Thumb project in 1977.
In 1951 the hall was moved back from the road, where
it faced east and west, to its present location, and placed
on a north-south foundation. Rows of shelving hold tax
roll and assessment books dating back to 1886. All of the
heavy old books are neatly stored together in one place.
Checking the assessment roll of 1886 figures shows
that $732.13 was the total town collection for that year.
The assessment roll included carrii'ges. wagons and sleighs,
with ninety-three listed with a total value of $1,352. There
were !52 horses; 788 (neat) cattle; 814 sheep and lambs;
and 366 swine. Watches, pianos and melodeons were all
listed on that assessment roll.

22

-~

Green Lake (Dart ford)
Green Lake, Wisconsin is one of the small cities of
the Fox River Valley rich in Indian history, pioneer settlers, and the resort era-and is still prominent in modern
lodging and dining.
The first resort in Green Lake was the Oakwood~ con,
structed by David Greenway in 1867. lt was the first resort built west of Niagara Falls. Elite people from the
southern states, St. Louis and Chicago journeyed to Green
lake to escape the searing heat during the summer
months in those years following the Civil War. The Sherwood Hotel, Pleasant Point, the Spring Grove Hotel, Maplewood, Forest Home and others are among those recalled as first class resort hotels at Green Lake in the days
when a room without a bath was the accepted lodging
and a ride on the lake was a natural "air conditioner."
A Heritage History of Beautiful Green Lake, Wiscon.<in, a literary and pictorial book by Robert W. and Emma
B. Heiple, is the result of years of research, interviews
and collections of printed and written materials. Wi~h per~
mission of the authors, quotes from this book are One
source (or this article, as is the Green Lake I 25th Jubilee
book, compiled for the 1972 celebration of its founding.
Although excerpts of Green lake history have been
written "now and then," the introduction to the Heiple's
large book notes "this is the first time since its founding
that the complete story of Dartford (renamed Green Lake

in J907) has been put together into one document."
Jefferson Davis was responsible for some of the early
boating on the waters of Green Lake, in a rather roundabout manner. John Norton, the grandfather of "Bud"
and John Norton, noted Green Lake guides and fishermen,
returned to Green Lake after the Civil War, bringing with
him a $500 reward he had received for assisting in the cap·
ture of Davis, the former president. of the Confederacy.
As the story goes, Davis had been stationed at Fort Winnebago at Portage as a young soldier. He travelled to
Green Lake to fish, being guided by Norton in his small
craft. Norton, while in the service as a soldier, recognized
Davis, who was disguised as a woman while attempting to
escape. Norton alerted his superior officers when Davis
set out with an escort after General lee surrendered to
Ullyses S. Grant at Appomatox. Norton's reward money
was used to buy land on Sugar Loaf at Green Lake and
get him started in the boating business."
In the early resort days at Green Lake, the Heiple's
note in their book, "'nearly a11 hotels were built of wood
structure and all had wide verandas> it was in 1866 that
the story of Oakwood began, when David Greenway pur,
chased over thirty five acres of land, having a lake fron·
tage of some 2,000 feet. The deep, emerald waters of
Green Lake to the south of it, the Vi11lage of Dartford to
the north, a gentle slope to the water's edge, and majestic

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The trail entered to the north of the glen~ coming out on
m
M

the old Marquette trail, crossing and recrossing small
streams several times, passing to the rear of the present

Bible Institute grounds and on west to Spring Grove."
"The dells were so beautiful we called one 'Fairyland.'"

s<

"'

Green Lake County Court House and Jail
forest trees shading the green sward, all made a beautiful

children" In 1966 those grandchildren and the Dartford
and Ripon Historical Societies published the Judge's Green
Lake tales.

location, and a healthy one for a summer home."
The era of Oakwood and other Green Lake resorts
continued for over sixty years. 44 When the days became
hot in June and fevers a threat, southern gentlemen and

Runals had come to Wisconsin in the westward

move~

men! of 1844" He settled on the southern shore of Green
Lake at a place he named Glen Dora, undoubtedly for his
wife, Dorlesca. His legend of La Tour was inspired by his
discovery of the cellar of an old trading post or fort below
a hill on the lake shore, with a stoned-up well and abandoned log cabin at the top of the hilL
Chief Highknocker is an Indian name known throughout Winnebagoland. He is buried in Dartford Cemetery,
(Green Lake) He was the grandson of Chief Big Soldier,
who had fought in the Black Hawk War. Highknocker's
Indian name was Hanageh, and because he delighted in
wearing an old top hat, white people called him "Highknocker." This great Indian chief, who died in 19!1, was
descended from the tribe of friendly Indians who worshipped the Great Water Spirit at Green Lake. They camp-

ladies, with their children and Negro "mammy" govern~
esses, would come by train to cool Green Lake. Some
shipped their horses and carriages to Dartford and stayed

the full season. The railroad station was a busy place in
Dartford at this time. By 1904 there were often around
480 guests in Oakwood Hotel, the annex and the ten
main cottages,)\
Of Sherwood Forest Hotel we read in part: HThe resort hotel business became large and profitable in Dartford
during the last half of the 1880's to accommodate the
number of people coming into this famous resort area. It
was originally built by John C. Sherwood in !873-1874,
on one hundred wooded acres on the north shore of Green

Lake, a little south of the Village of Dartford. This com·
fortable and roomy hotel attracted people and had very

ed along the shores of the clear water that was claimed to

reasonable rates at the time of two dollars a day for room

be " the deepest lake west of the Finger Lakes of New
York" in the days of advertising the resort era that made
Green Lake famous.
Monapacataca. which in Winnebago means The Home
He Loved So Much, is a paperback sources of information
on Indian mounds and trai1s and early traditions in the
Green Lake area. This book contains the words of Rev.
Elmer G. Hamley, a pastor for forty years. The first edition was published in July of 1933, and the second in
1975.
Of the fascinating nature trails around Green Lake he

and ten to twelve dollars a week for board. Before the rail·
road came to Green Lake, passengers for Green Lake got
off at Ripon, where they were picked up and transported
free to the door of Sherwood Forest HoteL"

The chapters on the Green Lake hotels of the past
make fascinating reading. "The large, sprawling Maplewood
Hotel once overlooked Big Green Lake waters near the

west edge of the village of Green Lake on the beach road.
It was the last of the big hotels that helped to make Green
Lake one of the best known resorts west of Niagara Falls
before the turn of the century."
The Legend of La Tour, the French Trader, is a Green
Lake story that intrigues the history buff. Judge Edmund
Lucien Runals of Green Lake and Ripon had written his
original tales in the 1870's for the enjoyment of his grand-

wrote: uone of the most interesting places about the lake

for side trips on foot is the region about Mitchell's Glen.
In my boyhood days there was a wagon trail still in use
between the glen and the lake. A few settlers were living
by the trail, a very interesting leftover of frontier days.

26

Green Lake was first called Dartford for Anson Dart,
credited in all research sources for this article as .. the
founder of the location known today as Green Lake."
The book, The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names. notes:
"Anson Dart, the first settler, arrived in 1830 in Green
Lake County and started a community known as Green
Lake Center at land he had acquired near two small lakes
called Twin Lakes. He built a mill, but by 1845 the water
level had fallen so the mill could not operate. Mr. Dart
moved hls family across the lake to its outlet on the Puckyan River where he built a dam, another mill, and a ford
across the river. A village grew up known as Dartford, for
Dart's Ford. In 1871 the railroad was extended to Dart·
ford but named its station Green Lake. MaH became con~
fused with Green Lake Center so Dartford changed its
name to Green Lake, and Green Lake Center became Center House."
"Green Lake County is named for the large lake that
lies near its center. Winnebago Indians called it Ti-Cho-ra,
tira meaning lake, and cho meaning green, because of the
distinctive color of the water. The French translated it
to Lac du Verde," this book states.
In the history of Green Lake written by Peg Power
for the !25th Jubilee excerpts read: "In 1836 Wisconsin
was set up as a..-1 independent territory, the large counties
were subdivided; what is now Green Lake became part of
a large Marquette County which comprised 388 square
miles and had a population of eighteen people. The village of Marquette had most of the population and was
platted in 1837. The land in the area was opened for
settlement with land being sold at $1.25 per acre. By
1840 there were settlers near Center House, including Wilo
liam Beall and Anson Dart They bought land near what
is now Center House and Twin Lakes."
"John C. SJ.>erwood, his brother William and three
cousins came to Wisconsin in 1845. John and WilHam
bought I ,600 acres on the north side of Big Green Lake.
The Sherwoods had been prosperous fanners in NeW
York State and had sufficient money to make a good
start in the new area. Mter their families came to the
area, William devoted his time to farming and John to
milling. In the meantime the Darts also moved to the
north shore of the lake and purchased part of the original plat of Dartford, including the Puckyan River. They
needed water power and built a dam on the site of the
present dam but not so high. After completion of the
dam in 1846, Dart opened a saw mill. That year he and
John C. Sherwood bought a full quarter section of land,
pooled their interests, platted this quarter section and
filed their plat of the Village of Dartford with the register of deeds in Marquette County."
"In 1850, John C. Sherwood built a four story frame
grist mill and the mill race. Henry Eaton, Green Lake historian, points out that the first needs of settlers were for
a saw mill to provide lumber to build homes, a grist mill
to grind flour and feed, and a blacksmith shop to shoe
horses and oxen anti repair wagons and implements,"
the book states.

27

Early luxury hotels in Green Lake:
The Maplewood (top); The Oakwood (middle);
and The Sherwood Forest

"While the village was named for Anson Dart, Dart
did not stay long in the area and left in 1851 for Oregon.
John C. Sherwood came with capital and the desire to
settle and prosper. He later built the Sherwood Forest
Hotel. The village was platted in 1847 and the following
year about seventeen lots were sold. In 1848 I. Stinson
built a house and operated a tavern on the site of the
present courthouse lawn."
"In 1860 the Village of Dartford had a number of

"The decade of the 1870's saw reverses when both

businesses and industries, including a grist mil1 and woolD
en mill belonging to John C. Sherwood, a machine shop,

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IV.

"

of Sherwood's mills were destroyed by fire, the grist mill
in 1871 and the woolen mill in 1873. On July 4, 1873,
ten persons were drowned when a tornado struck the lake
while they were crossing it to a picnic on the south side."
From the Heritage History book: "There was plenty
of small game around Green Lake in the early years~~
ducks, prairie chickens, wild turkey and geese. There were
deer also. Elk and moose were seen but later seemed to
move north. The Dart family saw buffalo wallows, chips
and horns. The prairie flowers were of endless variety
and changing beauty. Wild strawberries grew thick as a
carpet."

a cooper shop that made barrels, a planing mill, a cabinet
and wagon works, two blacksmiths, two boot and shoe
shops, a harness shop, two tailors, two churches, the MeD
thodist and Congregational, two general stores, a lawyer,

A.B. Hamilton, H. Barnes, the doctor, and C.B. Cody, a
druggist. There were three hotels, including the one built
in 1850 by John L. Root, which was a three story frame
hotel on the southeast comer of Hill and Mill Streets,
and which was later sold to J.C. ~~Deacon" Mills, and ex·
isted until after the death of Mills' daughter Hattie in
1933. This hotel was the center of village activities and
its third floor ballroom doubled as courtroom and meet·
ing halL"

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Kingston
(This Kingston history, as in all our other articles, is not
intended to give complete coverage, for that in most in~
stances would take a book. We are indebted to Pearl Williams, Kingston, for her material When Kingston Was Young,
written for the bicentennial; the 1890 book, Biographical

Album of Green Lake, Waushara and Marquette Counties;
a semi-centennial booklet published in 1974; and the Green
Lake County Extension Homemaker Study of the County
1975.
This Kingston Mill post card addition to our collection
was discovered this summer in a Chetek antique business
place. It is dated August 2, 1912 and was mailed from the
Kingston post office to Eau Claire to a Mr. Robert Millard.
By coincidence or relation, the Millard name is on an 1855
addition platted in Kingston.)

•

To quote the 1890 book: "The village of Kinston, like
Markesan and Manchester, is on the Grand River. This river
furnishes power for a flouring mill. Kingston is pleasantly
situated upon elevated land. It was platted in 1855 by
Edward RS. Dartt with Millard's addition laid out the same
year."
"Eight miles east of Marquette, the nearest railroad station, and 18 miles from Fox Lake, the nearest banking
point, the place contains a flouring mill, two churches, a
school and about three hundred inhabitants. Josiah H.
Dartt made the first settlement here and Zacharias Kilmer

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DARTFORD
LOCAT£0 IN SROOKI..'(N TWP.

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came in 1846 and built the first frame house, located in
section 13, on South Street. The first general store was
opened soon after by E.R. Stevens in a building covered
with split logs and so poor a roof that it is said the merchant had, at times, to sit up nights when it rained and
catch the dripping water in pans to prevent soaking his
goods."
"The first tavern in the village was kept by D.M. Phelps.
The nearest grist mill in the early days was at Watertown,
but the inhabitants of Kingston were not exempted from
the unfair rules which existed at this grist mill. Consequent·
ly they had often to go to West Troy-one hundred miles
distant-with oxen, to get their flouring done."
"A grist mill was built at Kingston by Drummond and
Jewett and was later owned by J.E. Millard and Brothers.
The local miller in 1890 is Henry Pettit. The water power
is said to be the best on the Grand River. In 1860 Kingston
had a population of about nine hundred, about three times
its 1890 population."
"The 1860 business interests and features of the village
are said to have included a carding mill. wagon shop, saw
mill, tavern, three blacksmith shops, two wagon shops, one
paint shop, two tailor shops, two shoe shops, two tin
shops, one cooper shop, one cabinet shop, one drug store,
one church and post office. The Baptists owned the church,
with services held also by the Methodists and Episcopalians,
The church building later became property of the Me tho-

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only three chapels of this kind in the United States. The
church in now closed, but for the last ten years, (as writ~
ten in 1975), a Sunday in late summer is chosen and services are held there. This service is called the ·cymanfa
Ganu,' a Welsh title meaning a 'service in song.' It is like
a Welsh homecoming. The three services are held on that
day and at noon well-filled picnic baskets are opened.
Songs are sung in both Welsh and English."
Pearl Williams wrote of the First Hotel: "The Kingston
House or Hotel was built in 1846-48. It was operated by
Granpa Greenleaf from 1848-1860. In 1848 Bert Greenleaf, the first child, was born in Kingston House, Other
proprietors were: Richard Gray, 1860's; Jesse Sims, 18711883; Charles Chapel, 1883-1890; E.E. Pettit, 1890-1903;
Emil Stroschein, 1903·1939;0arence Lueck, 1939-1959;
Don Reif, 1959-1962; Reifand Helmer, 1962-1967; Don
Reif, 1967 to the present time."
An old newspaper clipping titled Kingston Folks of
1899 speaks of the Kingston House as being one of the

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most popular in the county. "The hotel is first class in ev~

ery respect; the table is set with everything the market af·
fords, while sleeping rooms are large, airy and well ventilated.
A good livery is run in connection with the hotel 1 and care~
ful drivers may be had at any hour. Rooms were $1.50."
In The First Grist Mill, Pearl Williams states: "In 1848,
Josiah Drummond and Charles Hewett built the first grist
mill. It is a four story building that still stands today. It was
sold about a year later to J .E. Millard. His very beautiful
and charming wife came from IGngston, Canada) and thus
the village was named Kingston."

"
~

"The mill is made of hand~hewn timbers that measure

l{INGSrroN

fourteen inches square, and are forty to fifty feet long. It
took two years to finish. The nails used were made of iron

LOCATE:O lN Jo<1NCSTON TWP,

and hammered out by hand. A good man could turn out
eight hundred nails a day."
"The water from the mill pond was led through a trough
to the front platform of the milL This power turned the
large circular grinding stones that ground the wheat into
it was sold to Ed Warnke. This paper had the distinction of
being the youngest editor in the state. (Elaine became
Mrs. Wally Mfeldt.)"
"The Kingston House or Hotel was built in 1846 and
completed in 1848. It was a two story building composed
of an office, kitchen. dining room, eight bedrooms and a
large shed in the back. Later the kitchen and dining room
were enlarged and a third story added. A small building
was joined to the west end and served as an election place
for many years. The Hotel was operated by Granpa Green·
leaf. Mr. and Mrs. Emil Stroschein owned and operated
the Kingston House for thirty-seven years. The third floor
was a dance hall, the stage is still there on the west end.
When dances were held lunch was served in the main dining
room at midnight. Mrs. Stroschein's specialty was oyster
stew-twenty-five cents a bowL In 1939 Mr. and Mrs. Oar,
ence Lueck purchased the hotel and owned it for twenty
years. They sold it in 1959 to their daughter and son-in·
law, Mr. and Mrs. Don Reif, who operated it as Kingston

dists and was built in !855."
"'A depressing evil here at Kingston at one time was the
choice of the place as the headquarters of a gang of thieves,
counterfeiters and incendiary rioters who occasionally var~
ied the monotony of their business avocations by the per-

petrations of quite serious crimes. In the fall of 1868, a
fire destroyed five of the best store buildings.It is thought
to have been the work of part of this gang. Later some of
the men were arrested for offenses against the United
States laws. This fact and other good influences brought
about the overthrow and departure of most of their num··
ber."
"E.G. Boynton, George S. Greenleaf, Henry Vinz and
Henry Volkman are 1890 merchants. Dr. James Lawn is
resident physician and W.M. Chapel is postmaster. The
Kingston Spy is a four page paper published by W.E. Willi·
ams and is devoted to general and local interests."
The Extension booklet quotes of the Kingston Spy: "An
old time enterprise was the Kingston Spy, founded in 1880
by Bill (Spy)Williams. It was in the Frank Tessman home.
The first issue was a sheet about nine by twelve and printed
on one side only. It finally became an eight page paper,
edited by William Williams. In later years it was published
by a nephew, A.S. Stiles, in a small addition built back of
the Harness Shop. After his death, his daughter Elaine,
seventeen years old, took over the work with success until

House."

'.'In the Welsh part of the township of Kingston in 1850
was built the Welsh Calvanistic Methodist Church, now
known as the Welsh Chapel. This settlement lived around
the foot of Mt. Moriah. The church was built like the
church in Wales, square red brick with a four-sided roof.
The Welsh were famous for a 'sermon in song.' There are

30

IRON 81!/DGE. AT KfNGSU/N, WIS.

Iron Bridpe
at Kingston,
circa 1908

flour. The top stone revolved, while the lower stone was sta*

tionary. The wheat spouted through the center hole, and
worked through the outside rim, where it dropped into a cir~
cular trough underneath the outer edge."
"The miller operated twenty-four hours a day, keeping
two shifts busy. About I 20 pounds of flour was turned out
in a day. Ox teams hauled the flour and other products to
market many miles away. Until the late 1890's, this water
power was the best on the Grand River. The miller kept one·
eighth of the farmer's wheat as a toll for the grinding."
Village Organized- "In 185~ the village of Kingston
was organized and platted, with P.D. Hayward as president
and E. Boyenton, E.R. Stevens, L. Boyenton and E.H.
Dartt as trustees, and S.G. Sea tori, derk. The village was
laid out as far west as the school grounds and as far east as
the Methodist church, The part added to the east was
known as the Snow and Walden addition, while to the west
was the Fox and Millard additon. In 1860 the village had a
population of nine hundred.''
John Muir Here in 1849 - Pearl Williams wrote: "King·
ston was the community to which John Muir, Wisconsin's
first naturalist and the father of the National Park and For·
estry System, came when he left Scotland. In the spring of
1849, the eleven year old boy arrived with his father, Dan·
iel Muir, a sister Sarah, thirteen, and brother David, nine.
The mother, Ann Gilrye Muir and the remaining members
of the family arrived a year later after a home had been es·
tablished in Marquette County."
"The family chose Kingston as they had a recommendao
tion to meet Alexander Gray, a pioneer fanner, who lived
near Kingston. Gray was familiar with land descriptions
and helped in locating a farm for the Muir family. A room
was rented to house the family in Kingston during their
stay. Gray moved the family and their possessions by ox
team from Kingston to their Fountain Lake farm south of
Montello."
(~

Manchester

The Manchester Feed Mill, circa 1910
"The village of Manchester is prettily situated on high
land nearly in the center of the town, and has a population

Grand River flows westwardly through the town and the
east branch of the Fox River heads in the southwest cor·

of about three hundred. It was laid out in 1857 by E.R.
Hoyt, and is eighteen miles southwest of Dartford, and

ner of town."
"The first settler in the town was an o]d soldier named

three miles southwest of Markesan, the nearest railway
point. Grand River furnishes a good water power," the

McGee, who located on the Henry Vinz farm. He built a
log house and broke up land, the first in his neighborhood.

Biographical Album author wrote in 1889.
"W.A. Millard was probably the first settler on the vii·
!age site and arrived in 1846. He was long a Justice of the
Peace, (seventeen years). M. Seward built a sawmill here
in 1847, which was later superseded by a flouring mill of
good capacity. Mr. Seward built the first frame house in
1857; the first store was opened by Dr. E.R. Hoyt, the
founder of the village, in 1856. In 1859-60 the place con·

This was in 1837, some years before other areas were being

cultivated. R.R. Langdon came in 1843. Madison Miller
arrived in 1844 and brought with him some fifteen hundred sheep, but soon lost most of them by misfortune
and mismanagement."

Before the founding of the village of Manchester the
first settlers in the township had to travel a distance to the

tained two stores, one shoe store, a blacksmith shop, a tin

shop, a wagon shop, school, post office and gristmill. The
present (1889) business men are: John E. Wiselvinca, proprietor of flour mill; Fogel Wolfgang, dealer in farm implements; George C. Rhein, harness maker; William Elliott,
dealer in live stock; A.M. Houke and Louis Klatt, shoemakers; V.E. Babcock and F. Schwandt, carpenters.''
The unincorporated village was first called Albany and
changed to the name of Hardin in 1853. It was in 1858
that English people from Manchester, England, settled and
the name Manchester was decided upon.
The township of Manchester is located in the center of
Green Lake County, east and west and on its southern bor~

der. "Tills town is quite equally divided into openings of
timber, prairie and marsh lands," the 1889 author wrote.
ul..ake Maria cuts into the town near its southeast comer)

and the large Kingston millpond on its western border.

Tornado destruction in Manchester, May, 1918
33

32

n
~

nearest grist mill at Waupun. Often they went as far as Watertown or Janesville because the Waupun mill "made them
wait a week fo'r their grist while the millers ground their
own grain. and compelled them to buy their flour·~ or wait
longer than they could afford to for their own. In those
days a man could get for flour what money would not
command.~'

"A. Miner built the sawmill at the village of Manchester
in 1847. Dr. Hoyt laid out the village and built a flouring
mill in 1853. (It was apparently regularly platted in 1857.)
The first school was opened in 184 7. The first church organized was by the Methodists the same year, the Rev. Mr.
Welcome, pastor. The Rev. G.W. Freeman organized the
Baptist Society in 1860. The first white child born in the
town was born in McGee's family. The first marriage was
that of Mr. Bates to Miss Margaret Stalker, daughter of Jo·
seph Stalker. The first death was that of a child of Mr.
Stewart:'
1'The town of Manchester was organized in 1849, with
A. Barlow as chairman of the Board of Supervisors; J. Stalker and H.A. Millard associates, and M.B. Lathrop, Clerk.
At one of the early elections a sugar bowl was made to
serve as a ballot box."

School District No. 4 was formed in 1850. A school
was built for three hundred dollars on a half acre ofland
in Manchester, which cost five dollars. Julia Wilson, the
first teacher, taught for three months at $1.20 a month.
It was found necessary to have a man teacher (A.L. Rounds)
when older pupils came (some twenty years of age). His
salary was fourteen dollars a month. A new school was
built in 1872.
"Mr. Charles L. Pierce owned a store and hotel in Man~
chester in 1869 which was purchased in 1892 by George
C. Rhein. The room above the store had been used to store
caskets during the epidemic of black dip theria. The tradi·
tion of Rhein family members serving as postmasters in
this building continued throughout the decades, waiting
on customers in a typical country store."
Manchester facts: Sunday, July 13, 1975, was the !25th
anniversary of Manchester School. A Baptist church was
built in Manchester in 1861. The St. Paul Lutheran Church
was built in 1879 on a piece ofland purchased for eight dollars. The Lutherans organized on January 15, 1873, and observed the Centennial Jubilee in 1973. The church cost
$2,209, with a dedication held. The Manchester post office
was established August 9, 1856.

Markesan

MANCHESTER
LOCATED IN MANCHESTER TP.

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The Main Street of Markesan in 1907

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As the country observed the 1976 Bicentennial, people
took an added interest in the local history of Wisconsin. It
has been my aim in research, writing, and talking that this
interest should continue-a means of preserving the rich heritage of the sturdy settlers who came to this area with the
opening of tM Indian Lands.
A picture postal card showing the main street of Marke~
san as it appeared about the turn of the century was incen·
tive to delve into the first settlement of Markesan. The card
shows the main street, when horses and buggies were the ac·"
cepted and only means of transportation to the village. A
close look shows the street-length dresses worn by the women at the time.
There are several sources of information when research·
ing, including old books, newspapers, abstracts, deeds and
courthouse records. My facts on Markesan were taken from
the Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, a rare and large book print~
ed in 1890.
Markesan was one of the settlements founded by hardy
immigrants when the territory known as Indian Lands was
opened for homesteading. It was platted in 1849 by John
Chapel and C.E. Russell, proprietors. The original plat was
one and one half miles square, with Parker's addition plat~
ted in 1858.
Markesan was first known as Granville. It is said to have
been renamed after the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific
Ocean, since the people were as hospitable as the islanders
supposedly were.

35

The village was incorporated in May, 1853, and its first
officers were Ira Manley. president; John Parker, P. Nelson,
G. Harris, E.A. Wilder and M. George) trustees; with R.

Lexington serving as clerk.
The first frame house built on the present site of the
village was erected in 1844 by John B. Seward, who put in
operation a sawmill and gristmill which was afterward remodeled and made a flouring mill only.
The early settlers were said to be of good stock, mostly
Yankees, but with a sprinkling of English. In 1859 the pop·
ulation of the village was estimated at eight hundred. It
contained the gristmill, then owned by Parker a four story
high structure, with two runs of stones and a daily capacity
of one hundred barrels.
There were also three blacksmith shops, a wagon shop,
two cabinet shops, one cabinet wareroom, three shoe
shops, two taverns, one drug and book store, two saloons,
four good general stores, one variety store, one hardware
store, one stove and tin shop, one harness shop 1 two coop~
er shops, a livery stable, tailor shop, watch and jewelry
shop, millinery shop, meat market, printing office, and a
bank with a capital of $75,000 with C.P. Dearborn as cashier.
An 1890 writer said, to quote: "Markesan is pleasantly
situated on the uneven land lying on both sides of the
Grand River, in the Town ofMackford on the branch of
the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway which penetrates this county. It is seventeen miles south of Dartford
(today Green Lake), and twelve miles northwest of Fox

Lake, the nearest banking point" (The village had appar·
ently lost the bank as listed in 1859.)
The village in 1890 contained a gristmill, feedmill, grain
elevator, cheese factory, carriage and wagon works, several
churches and a 'live newspaper,' The Herald. George H.
Larke was editor and proprietor. It was noted that much
live stock, grain and produce were shipped out of Markesan.
The 1890 author said, "In point of natural advantages,
trade and enterprise, Markesan is the leading village in the
southern portion of Green Lake County. It is the center of
a rich and beautiful farming country in which it possesses
no rivals to be feared and it is predicted that its progress
will be steady and satisfactory. The district schoolhouse is
well located and one of the best buildings in the county,"
The author continued: "The Universalists have a neat
church, built in 1857, the year in which their society was
organized. The Congregationalists Society was organized in
1847 and their church built in 1858. The Methodists organized in 1859 and have a neat church."
Half a mile east of Markesan on the Grand River, a lime
kiln Was long kept running constantly. There was also a
manufactory of a superior kind of building material comf

/.

posed principally of lime and gravelly sand. Buildings put
up of this kind of composition appeared to the eye, when
coated with a cement or varnish finish, as durable as stone,
and the viewer unacquainted with the material wouJd readi·
Jy believe that sandstone had been cut out to make the walls.
The 1890 author concluded his opinions of Markesan
with a paragraph about the weekly newspaper: "The MaT'
kesan Herald is in its eighth year. Its publisher is George
H. Larke. It is a neatly printed, newsy sheet, well patronized by subscribers and advertisers and has had its influence
for good upon the development of Markesan and that portion of the country round about."
Entertainment enjoyed by the people of Markesan in the
early 1900's, "some usual and some quite unusual," was
described in the Markesan article in the 1975 Green Lake
County Extension Homemaker study of the county history.
"One most of us have never heard of was the Chatauqua.
(Pronounced sha-ta-kwa.) This was a traveling show stressing an educational theme, though entertaining. Sometimes
they had bellringers, plays, poetry readings, dance reviews,
comedy routines, magic, etc. Quite a variety and always
very 'high class.' These groups didn't seJl things, unlike the

Markesan High School,
circa 1908

The Grand River flowing
through Markesan, circa 1908
(below, left)
The East End of Main Street,
Markesan, circa 1914
(below, right)

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medicine shows. The town would back the chatauqua and
guarantee them a certain amount of money."
·,
"Another memory is of the year the circus came to Markesan and was rained out. The tent had to be abandoned
after they had to shoot holes in it to get the water to drain
off faster! People took off their shoes, gathered up skirts,
and literally sloshed home in the mud."
"In the winter skating on the millpond was popular.
There was a dam at the gristmill just east of town which
provided the pond."
"The Grand River flows westwardly, through the village
of Markesan in the northwestern part of the town of Mackford," the Biographical Album states. "The town of Mackford was organized in 1849, At the first town meeting there
were seven votes cast. Hiram 'Squire' McDonald was elected
chairman. He had the honor also of being the first settler
in the town of Mackford, arriving in 1837. Samuel McDonald, his father, came soon afterward. In 1843 Hiram built
a sawmill at his place. Lyman Austin and George Pratt came
in 1844 and in 1845 and 1846 there was quite a number
added to the small settlement. Austin McCracken built a
sawmill in 1848 and a large gristmill in 1855. In 1850
Messrs. McDonald, Carhart and White erected a large four-

story gristmill at Mackford Village. This was destroyed by
fire. John B. Seward started the village of Markesan in 1845
and built a saw and gristmilL"
The town of Mackford derives its name from the first
part of Hiram McDonald's name (Mac) and a crossing place
(ford) on the river, at a point where Mr. McDonald was
sanguine of building up a town, The History of Northern
Wisconsin and Gillespy's little book oflocal facts, figures
and reminiscences, quoted in the Album, states: "Gillespy
says: 'Nothing but the "dog in the manger" policy of some
of his old neighbors prevented this place from becoming a
place of business and importance---sociable, free, compan~
ionab1e, as wen as gentlemanly, his future plans were frus~
trated not only to his own detriment, but the disappoint·
ment of the speculators. McDonald was a soldier of the United States Army, having served in the war of 18!2-14, before he settled in 1836 in the town of Mackford. The first
white child born in the t'own was his son, John:"
Edythe Schure, writing Here is the Town of Mackford
in the Homemakers Study, noted: "There is evidence that
there were Indians in Mackford, especially around Lake
Maria (in the southwest part of the town) during the early
1890's. Travelers that came through the area would write

c;

East End of Main sn-~~~. M:>rkesdn, \Vis

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This would take a week or more so they had to stop at taverns on the way to rest and eat for themselves and their
horses. These taverns or rooming houses weren't the taverns
we have today, but one wonders if they didn't stir up some
merriment for themselves."
"It was at the location of the canning factory (where it
is located in 1975) that Hiram McDonald came to Mack·
ford and was the first settler in 1837. He was sanguine to
[uild a town by the shallow place in the river. It progressed
and had a sawmill and McCracken built a gristmill powered
by water of the Grand River. There were stores, a black·
smith shop, Koopers' wooden barrel shop in this location.
The first church was Presbyterian with Rev. Kaison as pas·
tor; the first wedding was Mr. Vedder and Miss Patterson;
the firSt funeral was that of Mr. Lyon, who was killed by
a fallen tree."
"Later the gristmill moved closer to Markesan but still
on the Grand River, in the area where a milk receiving sta·
lion was located in the early 1900's. This mill was run by
H.A. Long until the dam broke and it never was rebuilt. By
this time electric power was used to operate the mills in~
stead of water power."
"There was a lease in trust dated November 16, 1863,
from William Butler to the Methodist-Episcopal and Free
Will Baptist Churches which conveyed a certain parcel of
land in the center of the town to erect a church. This
ship:'
"School was held seven months a year around 1910.
church was called the Union Church, because the two de·
Four in winter and three in summer. They always had a
nominations exchanged Sundays to hold services."
man teacher in winter because of the boys, some who
"Lumber for the church, the Charlie Sherwood home
were twenty five years old. The children would go in the
and nearby Schaumburg was brought by boat from Green
summer months and a lady usually was the teacher. The
Bay to Princeton and thence overland by ox teams."
teacher's salary was ten dollars a month."
"During World War l a hemp factory was built in Mack·
"Hardships and hard toil were necessary lust to main
ford.lt was known as the Farmers Hemp Company and it
tain themselves, especially in the early 1800's. Women as
was flourishing as long as there was a demand for fiber.
well as men helped thresh the grain with a flail, which was a
After 1922 the bottom began to fall out of the hemp busi·
single bar tied to a handle. With this they had to separate
ness and the decision was made to convert the mill to a pea
the grain by beating by hand. Then in order to have flour,
cannery. One old-timer can remember women were hired to
they had to load the grain on their crude wagons drawn
sit around a load of pea vines and shuck them out by hand."
by oxen or horses and travel to Milwaukee to get it ground.

down what they saw. The Indians would herd the elk and
oxen over an eight foot ledge and in this way would cap·
ture their meat. During a severe dry summer when Lake
Maria was almost dry, elk horns could be seen and were
pulled out and mounted for wall decorations. It was not
uncommon to see Indians hanging dead from the trees. In
winter they couldn't be buried so their bodies were saved
and in spring were buried in effigy mounds,"
"Around 1848, people like Hamilton Stevens, John Wil·
son and James Field bought thousands of acres from the
government for one dollar an acre. Later the English came
aod bought and for a long time the English predominated
the area. After the German-Franco War of 1870 the Ger·
man boys came to work for the English farmers in the area.
The language barrier was a problem but gradually the Ger·
mans bought the land."
"In !850 the superintendent of schools, James Kasson,
laid out the town of Mackford into seven districts. By
1867 there were eleven districts, besides joint districts
wit4 other townships. As travel became more convenient
and because there had to be a certain number of pupils per
land valuation, some schools had to join other districts.
Only five districts remained in 1958 when the schools con·
soli dated and built a new school in the center of the town·

a

White Way in Markesan in the early 1900's

Marquette
The history of the village of Marquette dates to 1673
when Father Jacques Marquette, the French Jesuit explorer,
stopped at this site on his journey to the Mississippi.
An 1890 history notes: "The village of Marquette has a
more picturesque situation than any other village. The busi~
ness portion is built on low, sandy ground, and tasteful
dwellings surmount the hill. The village is situated on Lake
Puckaway, an expansion of the Fox River. It is a natural
shipping point for a large extent of country. The popula·
lion was about 275 at that time:'
uThe village was laid out as a speculation, as early as
1836, by Sherman Page, Otsego County, New York; Joel
B. Sutherland, Philadelphia; Andrew Palmer, Toledo, Ohio;
and Albert G. Ellis and John P. Amed, Green Bay. The ori·
gina! plat on me looks like a map of some beautifully laid
out city of three thousand to six thousand population.
There is no tradition that much of anything else than the
platting of the village was accomplished at that early peri·
od. The survey was altered in 1854."
"Marquette is situated in the town of the same name,
eighteen miles southwest of Dartford, nine miles northwest

of Markesan (on a branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railway and the nearest railway station), and fifteen
miles south of Princeton, the nearest banking point. Lake
Puckaway is eight miles long and from half a mile to a
mile wide. It is really an expansion of the Fox River."
"Marquette is one of the many flourishing villages lining
the banks of that stream, and is a natural shipping point
for a large extent of country. In 1848 when Marquette
County was fully organized and detached from Brown
County, ihe county seat was established at Marquette. In
1853, by a vote of the people, the county seat was removed
to Dart ford. In November of the same year the Board of
Supervisors, forcibly and without authority oflaw 1 seized
the records and conveyed them back to Marquette. For
some reason the people submitted to this bold movement,
and the county seat remained at Marquette until 1858 1
when it was established at Berlin after the erection of
Green Lake County. The old Marquette county buildings,
long diverted from their original uses and adding some~
thing of architectural effect to the scene, the county jail
having been a long familiar sight, stand sentinel-like on

"The Wolf and Fox, two large boats, came through
the locks at Montello into Puckaway each spring to get
granite from the quarry at Marquette. When the horns
sounded for the lock operators, many sightseers from the
local area ran to the river banks to watch these great boats.
{1860. 1910.) Dredgers worked during the summer to
keep the channels open!'
"The capitol of Wisconsin could have been in Marquette
instead of Madison, but Marquette lacked thirty·six votes."
"The first boats were moved by steam power or paddle
wheels. The Edna Harke was one of them. Many boats
traveled up and down the lake route to Princeton, Berlin
and Montello. Later the gasoline engine served as power
and conserved space, time and cost. Many launches were
used for carrying baggage, freight, and passengers."
HThe south shore of Lake Puckaway, 'O'Bryan's Point,'
became a place to spend Sundays and holidays. Hundreds
came with baskets oflunch to enjoy the day. The launch
Puckaway was used to take boat loads of people on trips
and to gather lotus lilies on the northllake shore."
"O'Bryan's Point was owned by William O'Bryan, whose
mother, Anne Carson, came from England and obtained
land through the Homestead Act of the Government. Dor"
othy Jerrison of Portage, O'Bryan's daughter, saved Anne's

A view of Marquette in 1909
two carpenter's shops; and two law offices and a school
house. The Methodist and Baptist Societies used the court
house for public worship" There were also three lumber
yards and docks, and Mr. Green had a dock at which stean
boats stopped regularly. The population was then about
four hundred, and it was believed that, as the country
settled up and the wants of the people became more nu·
merous, Marquette would become a place of much importance, it being the nearest point on the river for the
shipment of produce for the southern parts of Green
Lake and Dayton (extinct in 1899) and for Mackford,
Manchester and Kingston."
From the Green Lake County 197 5 Extension Home·
makers Study: "In the 1850's LJ. Brayon organized a
brass band in Marquette. He built a fine and flamboyant
band wagon painted in all colors of the rainbow, with
elevated seats. He used this to transfer the Marquette
Band to Markesan, Kingston, Princeton and other places.
The band was employed to play three days at the County
Fair in Berlin, receiving the enormous compensation of
forty dollars, of which each member received two dollars.
(Of course they got board.)"
"W .L. Pierce wrote some of his memoirs in 1931. He
was born in the 1840's and arrived in Marquette in 1854.
Pierce told of the two Indian women who lived on the
lakefront, He-no·ka and We·hun·ka. They were held in es·
teem by the villages. Wehunka was a priestess or medicine
woman of the Menominee tribe and held an exalted posi·

the hill south of the flat:'
"The first settler on the village site (and it is thought
the first in the county) was the Vermonter, Gleason, who
was an Indian trader there as early as 1831, with a store
and cultivated land. The first tavern was built in 1848.
Some of the county buildings were used for church pur·
poses after the removal of the seat of Justice."
'"The village was thus made up twenty~five or thirty
years ago, according to the best recollection of an old

resident. There was a large brick tavern house in the east·
ern part; a temperance house near the center; a steam
window, blind and cabinet factory~ a wagon and carriage
shop; two general stores; three store houses and docks;
a shoe shop; a saddler's shop; a cooper shop; a tailor shop;

tion."

"Indians lived on the Grand River west of Marquette.
At the turn of the century they trapped and fished on
Lake Puckaway and moved south for the winter."

The Marquette Cemetery around 1910
40

permit to teach at No. 2 school in the town of Marquette,
dated 1857. Ai, well as the shell horn blown for lock tend·
ers. Anne was a second cousin to Kit Carson, the famous
scout. O'Bryan sold the Puckaway in 1918, and it was used
to pull rafts up the Wolf River. The boat was built by
O'Bryan at Drager's sawmill in Marquette. It seated thirty·
five passengers."
"Marquette had promises of being a very busy town in
the years of the 1800's. Stores, a blacksmith shop, taverns,
hotels, tailor shop, school and churches all made it a cen·
ter for settlers. The lumber business and granite quarry
used Puckaway Lake as a chief means of conveying their
products!'
"The first log cabin in Marquette was built by Olaf Ole·
son on the east street, a short distance from the tailor shop.
In 1852 the 'Cobble Stone' was built by Captain Ketchum.
Marquette was the seat of the present Marquette and Green
Lake counties. Charles L Sargent was elected clerk of Coun·
ty Board of Supervisors from 1859·1871."

~

Princeton
Princeton was granted a village charter in 1867. It
was incorporated as a city at the April 6, 1920 election
and Erich Mueller was the first mayor.
Friendliness and interest for the welfare of neighbor
and land are as apparent today as in those early frontier
settlement days when Royal C. Treat, on April 15, 1848,
saw the beauty of the Fox River and surrounding terri£
tory.
The village being laid out is said to have been named
Princeton by Henry B. Treat, brother of Royal, after the
county seat of Bureau County, lllinois. Royal Treat had
staked a claim on what was later called Block B of
Treat's original plat.
Treat built a temporary shack in the area of what is
now the Dizzy Bar. He was joined by Nelson Parsons, al~
so a bachelor, and the place was called Treat's Landing,
situated as it was on the east bank of the Fox River.
Treat and Parsons were soon joined by people from
the earlier settlement of Pleasant Valley, east of the present city of Princeton. John Knapp became the first p_ost·
master and Ezra Rosebrook bought and platted land, as
did the Flint family, who in 1857 built a three story
grist mill with two runs of stones capable of processing
fifty barrels of flour in a twenty-four hour day. Water
was brought from the Mecan River in a seven mile canal

dug for the purpose of supplying power to operate the
mill.
Old histories reveal that Henry B. Treat and his wife
had arrived soon after Royal Treat. The Treat brothers
travelled to the Green Bay land office to become the owners of 132 acres of ]and bordering on the Fox RiveL
They had this land surveyed and platted. Royal Treat
was the first president at the 1865 election, with several
of the Flints also elected to this office as .time progressed.
The first death in the little community was the loss
of Henry Treat's wife. W. Glendenning and Julia Duane
were the first couple married and Jackson Ross was the
first child born in the Town of Princeton. The first village resolution concerned raising money to pay volunteers for enlisting in the United States service to fill the
quota set by the President of the United States.
While dates and names are important in a chronological history of any community or city, it is the nostalgic memories that most people enjoy reading and talking
about. Of the hundreds of people who grew up on
Princeton's tree-lined streets, many have moved to distant places, while others remain on the scene of their
childhood. Most, however, never forget those happy, carefree days in home, school and community.
Summer memories of running barefoot along

j?'I\\'A\S.\~'i<

_i

The American House Hotel in downtown Princeton early in the 1900's

43
42

~,/,\;

banks of the Fox River, searching for arrowheads,

men and beauty of the maidens who cheered them in ex-

the journeys of Indians, early fur traders and Fa"tYing
Marquette.

hibitions.
In his words, "Girls swing in hammocks in front yards

A warming sun on bare heads, as children with pails
:ked wild berries for mother to make into jam. Purple
teared mouths were testimony to the sweet goodness
the juicy fruit.

beneath the shade of maple and crabapple trees and
smile at boys as they lean on newly painted fences. Princeton ts a generous, whole-souled community with enough
seasoning of German element and sandburrs to make life

Winter recollections of plodding through unplowed
reets to attend school.
A Berlin editor visited Princeton one Sunday afterJon in 1879 and in his newspaper wrote of the Hubbard
Id American House hotels, in business at the time. He
ad heard of the gymnastics being practiced in a PrinceJn hall and was impressed by the prowess of the young

agreeable."
"Sunday afternoons are spent one-fourth mile from
the village in a nice grove of trees. The girls sell refreshments and cigars while the young men work on the tuming pole and execute giant swings, turning their shoulders
around two or three times and seeing who can put the
chin over the pole the most times "

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The Princeton Business District, circa 1914
of the century. It was in the stillness of night that the
dread call of "Fire" was heard on the main street in 1895.
The saloon owned by John Budnick was in flames. A
wooden structure, the building stood where the Wachholz
Furniture Store is today<
It has been told how the fire department answered
the call with their hand pumper, rushing down to the

The Fox River figured in the social as well as the industrial life of the thriving community in the early days.
Steam boating excursions were frequently enjoyed. In

April of 1879, Princeton residents had the opportunity to
go on the steamer Weston to Berlin and hear the opera

Pinafore.
Cattle Fair became a permanent tradition, continuing

today on Market Square. October 6, 1869, was the first
official fair with more than 250 head of cattle on the
grounds. In the 1880's, there were fourteen of fifteen sa·
loons which did a thriving business.

river bank from which six or eight men pumped water

to the scene of the blaze. The fire spread rapidly to the
surrounding business establishments. A bucket brigade
was formed to assist them. Will Whittemore's bicycle and
jewelry store became enveloped in flames, as did the bar·

There was no bridge across the Fox River until 1867,

G-=ttti~b

J)ul71il~:r

Those travelling west of the village crossed the river by
ferry. Those travelling east depended upon Babcock and
leonard's Stage, running to Ripon.
In 1881, the religious needs of the growing community were cared for by six churches: Methodist, Congregational, German Lutheran and three Catholic churches.
Residents recall that throughout the years most children
attended Sunday school.
In 1881, there were two public schools, one on each
side of the river.
The Princeton Republic, the largest newspaper in
Green Lake County in 1881, had been established Febru·
ary 21, 1867, by Thomas McConnell. J.C. and A.E.
Thompson were owners of the Princeton Republic in 1881.

bershop run by Ed Henmg ana rhe bakery of John Hen·
nig. Only the fact that Yahr Brothers hardware store (in
the middle of the block) was built of brick prevented the
fire from destroying the entire block.
There were living quarters over Hennig's barbershop;
in one room, Bill Knobloch was confined with a broken
leg. Men managed to go up the back stairs and carry him
to safety, just as the wall collapsed into smoke and fire.
The wind was quiet that night full of fear and terror;
residents rushed about the dark streets which were lighted
by dancing flames. Arson was suspected, but never proven.
Threats had been made (and were overheard) by a disgruntled saloon customer who had imbibed too much
and who resented being put out of the establishment late

A historian wrote in one of the issues: "With her excel~

in the afternoon.

lent facilities for transportation, by rail and the Fox River,
fine pastures and rich farming lands, water power unw
equalled by any town in the county, Princeton has a
bright and promising future."

An account from an old newspaper tells of the Sunday evening fire of April I I, I 880. Before it was contained, that fire destroyed eleven buildings, from the Hubbard House site (today occupied by Bill's Super Market)
burning east, fanned by a strong northwest breeze.
The devastating fire was discovered when smoke is-

Fires also figure in Princeton,s history, with many

buildings destroyed in destructive blazes before the turn

45

hitching posts in front of the wooden sidewalks. The

with their snappy uniforms, polished instruments and
plumed helmets. The Princeton performers were joined by
musicians from Gerrnania. They played spirited music for
parades and gave "oom·pampah" concerts in surrounding

sandy streets were swept dean of the winter's refuse in

the spring, but by fall with horses tied to the hitching
posts each day, they required another good clean~up 1 to
prevent soiling the women's Jong, flowing skirts, Banners

villages.
In the 1880's, there were two brass bands which
played for every affair in Princeton. TWo societies at
this time were the Turn Verein and Schuetzen Verein,

stretched between gaily striped poles proclaimed to all,
in German naturally, that Princeton was having a holiday.

People lined the streets waiting for the procession of
bands and decorated lumber wagons drawn by prize
teams (white horses were favorites) with ribbons in their
tails and flowing manes.
There was a beat of drums; flags waved from every
window along the Main Street route; excitement vibrated
in the morning air. Pretty young girls entered the contest

for Queen of the German Day Celebration and the covet·
ed title carried with it the prestige of presiding not only
over the day's event, but at the evening street dance.
The sensation of the day was the wire extending
· across Main Street, and the man dressed in tights who

crossed it, hanging first by his hands and then daringly by
his teeth.
Princeton was justly proud of its brass band, a German
musical group whicn performed for every occasion before
1900. John Radtke's Brass Band was a spectacular sight

comprised almost wholly of German members; they were
in great competition for members. Frederick Schendel,
proprietor of Hotel Princeton, was a captain of the
Schuetzen Verein. They had an extraordinary annual
picnic with all types of entertainment..•
The Princeton Ideal Band led the crowd through the
streets the Saturday night in 1900 when Princeton Re·
publicans celebrated McKinley's election. There were
cheers, colored lights burning and shooting of Roman
candles and firecrackers. Senator~elect Morse, who lived
in a big three story house east of Main Street, decorated
his own· with Japanese lanterns. Princeton then-and
now -· has always known how to put on a celebration,
including the July 23-25, !948 one-hundreth birthday
of Princeton, and the July 19·22, 1973 Quas Qui Cen·
tennial, the !25th anniversary.

The C. & N. W. Depot in Princeton, 1914
sued from the Hubbard House bam. Messrs. Cooke, Chit·
ten den and Morse had eight head of cows in the barn
which suffocated in the heat and smoke.
The rear of the Hubbard House was two or three
rods from the bam, and the flames spread rapidly. In the
space of an hour the blistering fire had enveloped Mart
Wicks' building, east of the Hubbard House, T.J. Jake·
man's house and jewelry store, Turner Hall (rebuilt in
!905), Mrs. shop,
Dantz's
house,
Charlie
Hess'and
wagon
and
Tim
Paull's
ice-house
a house
blacksmith
occupied
by C. Piper, belonging to Paull, and a small
barn.
The severe heat tinged the American House on the
opposite side of the street. The fire burned dry grass
on the public square. Buildings on the east side of Far·

mer Street wore in danger. Blazing sparks and cinders
set fire of roofs several blocks away. Many valuable
keepsakes were damaged while being removed to safety.
In the rear of Otto Lictenberg's drug store stood an
old stone and masonry vault which once contained doc·
uments and records of Green Lake County, from the
days when Princeton was the county seat. In the excitement of the fire, thieves stole many articles from the
vault.Princeton has always been noted for the enthusiasm
with
residents
for all celebrations,
with which
special her
emphasis
on prepared
the old German
Days. Held
toward harvest season, German Days celebrated the day ·
the immigrants landed on the banks of the Fox River.
The
pageantry
was watched
fromupthein shores
by men,
women
and children,
all dressed
their best
"go-tomeeting" clothes. It was about !900 that Charley Clark,
who owned a big barge, would load it with some fifty
"actors'' and tow them up to Warnke's Park.

The barge then floated down the Fox, cheered on by
the crowds waiting on shore beside the dock. Tar paper
had been put on the barge to make it look like a steamer.
Helmuth J. Wuerch, who settled in Oshkosh, told how,
as a boy of ten in 1907, he had the misfortune to fall into
the Fox River during the German Days river trip. Only by
the quick action of Charley, the boatman, was Dudley
(as Wuerch was then called) pulled from the deep waters,
scared but safe.

German Days was noted for decorated street, floats
and crowds of people who came from miles around the

countryside. When the big day came, farmers and their
families hurried with morning chores to be able to join

their Princeton neighbors in the aU-day festivities. Tree
limbs were brought into town and erected beside the

Princeton High School, circa 1909

46

Original bridge on Princeton's West Side around 1907. the sign on the bridge reads: "Five Dollars Fine For
Driving Or Riding Faster Than A Walk Over This Bridge"

47

Utley
"Utley-itis" - there is no dictionary definition for

this word that aptly describes the dedicated research, interest and nostalgia involved with rekindling the history
of a Green lake County granite ghost town.
Utley is located on County Q between Highways 44
and AW, east of Markesan.
I?

:\1

.\

II

E

along with historical facts.
Kirkpatrick has completed writing a book on the
history of Utley, which he hopes to have published soon.
"The Lost Wagon of Gold," "The Old School House,"
and the "Broom Stick Christmas Tree" are all chapters
in his history of Utley.

A granite mining community from 1880 to 1924,
Utley gained fame for the unusual black granite-like rock
that was crushed and shipped out to be used for Chicago
streets. A thriving village of about 300 residents in those
years, its history is based on billion- year-old rock.
Utley is no longer forgotten, for it regained its identity Sunday, May 2, 1978, with a dedication ceremony
of a handsome redwood marker. The Rural Community
Homemakers Club, a Markesan-based group, worked toward this marker goal since 1974.
John 0. Kirkpatrick, Madison, has researched the
history of Utley for five years. He was editor of the Wau-.
pun Leader News from 1965 to 1973, and became
aware of the ghost town. "Ut!ey-itis" is the term he uses
to describe his involvement and research which turned

"As in Western ghost towns, my land came complete
with a squatter named Fude, who claimed property rights.

up artifacts, a multitude of pictures and memories,

He walked around the quarry with a rifle, and said, 'Me

Lester Schwartz, Green lake ana Ripon, artist in
residence and professor of art emeritus at Ripon College,
purchased
forty-four acres of the Utley property in the
1950's.
"I bought this site of rhyolite stone and volcanic
granite because I liked the way it looked, not realizing
the history connected with it until later," Schwartz
said. "I was searching for land with white sand to cover
a terrace. This acreage is in contrast to the rolling hills
of my Green lake farm. I call it Avrom Roc after my
father.

and the church own this land.' He lived in a shack, and
was what might be called quite a character," Schwartz

48

Class at the Utley School, early 1900's
49

A diary was the key to opening the door to the Utory ," Kirkpatrick said.
Irs. Chester (Marion) Passin, Waupun, told how her
er, the late Mrs. Henry G. Halle, found the diary in
<of her mother's old clothes packed away in the at'The red leather book entries were made before 1885'· It was written by Wesley Jones Norton, an Utley
Jn agent who died of typhoid fever," Mrs. Passin said.
Mrs. Passin has had a picture of Norton made from
ld tintype and it shows him to have been a handsome
With an alert and interesting face.
To quote from An Histon'ca/ Look at Utley, Wiscondistributed to the large crowd attending the marker
cation ceremonies: "Even the briefest history of this
ll portion of Green Lake County must start more than
billion years ago. While those living in the 20th ceny seek ends to the threads of the more modem history
rounding Utley, it is necessary to look through the
" of a geologist to gain an appreciation of what lured
migrants from Scotland, Wales and Italy to this spot
Wisconsin, why it became the selling point for the con~
uction of a twelve mile rail spur and how this geologll oddity has made an impact on the people in this area."
HGeologists place the creation of tills unusual rock
rmation in the pre-Cambrian period of more than one
Ilion years ago. They say that a crack developed in the
trth's crust at this point and eight separate lava flows
>illed onto the surface. The lava cooled so quickly that
ink felspar and glistening clear crystals of quartz were
lle only minerals to form. The other minerals melted toether in a solid groundmass giving the Utley rock its disinctive black color. Later, in another earth movement,
he eight layers were shoved upward to form a knob more
:han one hundred feet above the valley of the Grand River."
"This knob remained for thousands of years withstanding the seas which surrounded it and helped to create the sand and rock deposits which are worked today.
Even the Indiansj whose craftsmanship turned more work~
able stone into essential tools, found the composition of
this rock did not meet their needs."
"It wasn't until late in the 19th century of current
history that man was able to fmd a use for this extremely
hard rock. It seemed to be the answer to replacing mud
With a road surface more suitable to moving about in the
rapidly groWing urban areas of the United States."
"Stone cutters from Scotland and Wales were brought
to Wisconsin, as they were skilled at the art of cutting and
dressing stone. The four by six by eight inch paving
blocks were hauled by team and wagon to the station at
Brandon for shipment to the larger cities."
"The future of this site was painted in glowing tenns
to the leaders of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul
railroad by Jim Densmoor. It is not known if the richness
of Utley quarry of Densmoor's six-foot, seven-inch, 250
pound frame helped to sel! the giants of the industry on
the spur line. It took about ten months to build the line
With the first run being completed December 29, !882.
The first published timetable listed the quarry stop as Utley in honor of Charles P. Utley, an assistant superintendent on the line during the construction period."
"As the fame of the quarry spread, Chicago interests
purchased a portion of the site and moved in a twentytwo ton stone crusher. While this move increased the pro-

duction of quarry rock it also brought about a change in
the nationality of the men who worked on The Rock. The
earlier cutting and dressing skills were not required, so
Italian workerS were brought in to handle the blasting operations."
"Improved building methods plus the outbreak of
World War I brought work to an ebb at Utley. Records
show that large slabs of Utley rock were hauled to Mil·
waukee and Chicago to help form breakwaters for these
Lake Michigan cities. lt is believed that the last slabs were
taken to Chicago to be used as fill in the development of
the area near the Field Museum that was used for the
1933 Century of Progress."
"The vacant homes, hotels, general store, blacksmith
shops and other buildings were tom down With the wood
used in the construction of homes in the neighboring
communities. The last structure to be demolished was the
school house located on the knoll near the road leading
into the quarry. The last classes were taught during the
1941-42 school year."
"In a brief sketch it is impossible to bring in the
many stories about Utley, but it should give those who
are interested a deeper appreciation of the formation of
the earth's surface, the many interesting geological oddities in Wisconsin; a feeling for the countless hardships en~
countered by the state's early settlers; the foresight of
the state's early capitalists; and the warmth held for the
'good ol' days' by those who vividly recall Utley before
it was caught up in the whirlWind life style of the 20th
century."
"Utley will never really die for in this beautiful spot
one will continue to find many ongoing forms of life
which will continue to connect the early formation of
our world one billion years ago With today," the historical
summary conc1udes.
Important events compiled concerning Utley are: one
billion yeacs ago eight separate lava flows spilled onto the
earth's crust in what was later to be known as the Village
of Utley, Green Lake County, Wisconsin.
December 29, 1882 -first train to travel the twelve
mile spur line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul
railroad from Brandon, past Utley to Markesan.
January 5, 1883 - grand opening celebration which
honored James Densmoor for selling the rail company on
the need to build the raillineo
July 9, 1883 - Utley post office given federal approval with Jim Densmoor as the first postmaster.
February 7, 1884 - Chicago Judge buys quarry from
Densmoor.
March 17, 1884 --John D. Sherwood becomes second
postmaster. Four double cottages to be built in Utley during the coming spring. Telephone to be put into Utley.
April, 1884 - twenty-two ton steam crusher being installed at the quarry.
1886- stone polisher installed at quarry.
September 30, 1902 -Florence H. Smith named
third postmaster at Utley.
November 30, 1904 - Utley post office discontinued.
1933 - Chicago Century of Progress. Slabs of Utley
rock were hauled to an area west of the Field Museum as
fill. This was the last major use of the Utley rock.
May 21, 1978 - dedication of a marker at Utley.
Names of people who worked toward the preservation of the historical value of Utley are important, as are
those who recall their memories. They include Mrs. Wil-

50

fred Lenz, Markesan, president of the Rural Community
Homemakers
Club, and !rene Schure, co-chairman of the
dedication
event.
Austin Schultz, Markesan, created the handsome redwood marker, The Homemakers Club paid about two hun
dred dollars for the marker from their treasury to allow
future generations to appreciate the historical significance
of the black rock quarry, the building foundations and
the remaJn,. of the crushing industry that provided a livelihood for Utley's residents.
Arthur J. Willette, Markesan, provided a poetic description of the quarries, mentioning "the scream of steam
power, the rattle of dishes at the boarding houses, and a
beauty...that we may appreciate of our past, present, and
future
Acting Governor Martin J. Schrieber has commended
the people involved With the Utley project for their dedication and research by means of a letter.
Only the steps and foundation remaJn of the old
school house on the knolL Former pupils like Mrs. Ervin (Laura Jahns) Lenz, Fairwater, and Mrs. Herbert (Mabel Jahns) Moderow, Green Lake, recall World War l days
of studying at their desks. Their father owned a farm
west of the school.
August Belau was the teacher in one picture Kirkpatrick has on file of the school. "I was told that Belau ·
Jived in Markesan while he taught and pumped the hand
car on the tracks to get to schooL He was a young man
and most of his girl students thought he was handsome.
When he married, the girls were so disappointed that they
came and broke into the school and did some damage."
Kirkpatrick's artifacts include a blue granite water
dipper found in a barre] beside the crusher site; a cream
separator bowl picked up back of where the general store
stood; a gun powder can that held black powder used in
blasting; a horse shoe from the race track, for horse racing was recreation (a man who was plowing his field in
recent years
railroad
track.picked up the racing shoe); and a piece of
Mr. and Mrs. Norbert Fiegel, Rt. 1, Fox Lake, were
perfect guides for a tour of the granite quarries, hidden

from l>iew of the road behind concealing trees, and reached by travelling a narrow, winding path to break into a
the sharply etched rocks of the quarry
clearing
reaching With
skyward.

Fiegel was born one and a half miles south of Utley.
He recalled his father, the late Fred Fiegel, working at
the quarries With a team. "Dad brought an old barn in
the 1930's when they were selling the buildings," Fiegel
said.
A watering tank for horses, hovering close to the
ground, as it apparently sinks deeper With passing time,
is glimpsed to the left of the path starting the drive into
the quarry site. The blossoming honeysuckle growing in
Wild profusion with no hindrance to its spreading added
to the beauty of this nature spot.

The quarry rocks had an appealing fascination for
the young folks scrambling to the top. It made an adult
ponder as to how the large size printing on the quarry
walls had been done, and by whom. I wondered how the
climbers had the nerve to clamber up to those heights
And then we were doing the same climbing on the
opposite wa]] of rock, folloWing the narrow footpath,
stepping over granite and reaching the top where the
huge reservoir water storage tank holds its solid shape
today. The view from thds high vantage point extends
to outlying farms, the Grand River to the west and
north, the roads stretching toward the horizon. There
are trees of all descriptions. It is a nature and Wildlife
refuge With a feeling that a person is away from the
world's rush, w!Ji]e activity stretches out in all directions
The metal anchors embedded in granite by which
the cable
was hooked onto the conveyor may be seen
near
the reservoir.
It is a long, steep distance to the Valley floor below
the quarry rock, and in looking across to the opposite
tall wall of rock, even with the quiet, it is possible to
imagine the bustling days when the quarries were operating at full steam, with a crew of men sending their
daily production out into the world beyond.

~

Rock crusher at
the Utley Quarry,

circa 1910

'-~._-._ ........ ~.....,_.,. .-""":-"!'=·-.""""'"'-''""v""""\~~ ·~

~

f;'J

t.

Other Communities
BLUFFTON

STATE CENTER

lluffton, once so celebrated as having the best water•er in the state, is situated in the northwest part of the
n of Brooklyn. Here was a grand chance to have made
•rtune if the owner had been less sanguine and vision·
. Nothing less than a large city was to be built at this
:e, having the whole of Green Lake and Puckyan Marsh
1 reservoir, some eighteen miles long by an average of
J miles in breadth, with a fall or head of eighteen feet.
, bounds could be put to its future growth and extension.
.e owner was offered for one~half of the waterpower
1 thousand dollars. No! It was worth forty thousand dols.

State Center was another town that was begun in the
town of St. Marie in the speculative days and which was
subsequently carted away piece meal after it was demonstrated that it would never hang together. It was so named
because it was claimed to be in the geographical center of
Wisconsin. It would have been easier to have shown that it
was in the center of the superficial earth.

CENTER HOUSE
In 1840 Anson Dart and his two sons located
at the outlet of Twin Lakes. In 1841 he built a small grist
grist mill. Dart is also recognized for putting up the first
house in that area. A Mr. Beall also arrived in 1840 from
Green Bay with his family and William Bazely. Bazely
and Pier, {a Stockbridge Indian) employed by Beall did
the work that fall. This town soon became the rendez·
vous for those looking for land. Messrs. Burdick and Cab
Cable had a room at Beall's house, which they used as a
land office. The first post office in Green Lake County
was kept at Saterlee Clark's dwelling {known as Center
House) and subsequently moved to the store of E. Smith,
one mile north of the Center House. This was probably
the first post office and second store in the county. (The
first store was kept by Gleason from Vermont, a white set
settler who located at the village of Marquette as early as
1831 and was an Indian leader.)
Peter LeRoy, a half-breed trader /farmer, lived about
four or five miles south of the Center House. S.H. Palmer settled on the open prairie southeast of the Center
House, He built a comfortable frame house; here was a
general stopping place, and the wants of the traveler cheer
cheerfully supplied, in so far as his larder would afford.

VILLAGE OF ST. MARIE
The village of St. Marie is pleasantly situated on the ra,er uneven high bank ofland on the east side of the Fox
iver. In times gone by it bade fair to become a place of
:msiderable importance; but other localities as places of
usiness have shorn it of its advanta"ges for trade and com·
1erce. Its appearance denotes dilapidation and shows
hat much means was at one time wasted in the endeavor
o make a good village at this point. The village plat which
;vas recorded June 25, 1851, embraces part of section 7,
:ownship 16, range 12. The village was described in 1860
thus: 'One church edifice in an unfinished condition; a
bridge across the river; a steam boat landing; two hotels;
one store; one shoe shop; two blacksmith shops; a post
office; a district school and about 125 inhabitants.' There
is in 1890 no post office of that name.

HAMILTON
About half a mile south of the village of St. Marie is
the site of the village of Hamilton, a competitor with St.
Marie for metropolitan honors, which at one time had a
population of 125. This town was platted on a showy and
extensive scale and looked as well on paper as any town
of 3,000 population.In the days of its prosperity it had
two stores, two blacksmith shops, a tin shop, two taverns,
post office and a bridge across the river, which the fates
in an angry flood at the breaking up of the river in the
spring carried down stream, thus sealing the doom of this
unstable product of speculation. An old settler described
Hamilton as it appeared about the outbreak of the Civil
War: 'What there was left of the place were four dwellings
and a barn. Tavern houses and stores had gone off bodilythe College House of St. Marie moved off under the steady
pull of fifty-three yoke of oxen. while some less cumbersome took a more lengthy flight to Princeton where one was
occupied as a store by R.C. Treat (the founder of Princeton).

[<

~!
f

I

Marquette County
The whole country is openings and timber.' The soil is diversified clay and
loam, with considerable sand, and extensive marshes, furnishing abundance of
natural meadows and pasture, The county is well watered with springs, small
creeks and large mill-streams. There are ten flouring mills, four woolen factories, two saw mills and one iron {oundery in the county. Fox River runs
through the county from east to west, with two thriving villages upon its
banks, having four warehouses for grain and other shipping purposes. There
and
well Patronized.
are nine
villages in the county, all of them well supplied with business houses,
Montello is the county seat, With a large and commodius court house, built
of stone and brick, two churches, stores and mechanics shops, two flouring
mills, and a Woolen factory. Montello is situated upon Fox River, where they
they have a regular line of steam boats from Berlin down the river. It has
more water power than any other town west of Neenah, and only about onefourth improved and used. A foundery, tannery, sash and blind factory, and
many
of factories, could do a good and paying business here, and
and
areother
much kinds
wanted.
The Montello River, a large millstream, empties into the Fox at this place,
and furnishes power tor one-half mile of machinery, which is not one-fourth
part improved. The inhabitants are made up of one-third Americans, onethird Germans and one-third Irish. A large majority of the settlers carne in
poor, and are now in good circumstances, some of them getting rich. Land is
worth from five to fifteen dollars an acre; and there can Yet be found good
chances for several hundred families to make good homes, with very little
money_ Railroad facilities are excellent. The climate of the county is good,
the water excellent, and the people are healthy and happy; and others who
me
rated.
come
amongst us to live will be made to enjoy all the blessings we have enu.

*****
(St. Marie, Hamilton and State Center were all located
north of Princeton on County J, east of the Fox River.
The villo.ge of Hamilton plat is the fann of Fred Folske.)
(From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Green
Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, 1890.}

~
52

-From An IUustrated History of Wisconsin, 1875-

~

....,

.,~

·--~~'

"'< ·t)~,~~'tf~J~u~~

Marquette Go..
JLc":C'::::;\i:\'tscoxsi.N~( ":~·•.'

Briggs ville

Briggsville in the southwest comer of Marquette County
was settled in 1849 and by Civil War days had a population
of one hundred and fifty, The village was platted in 1854
by RA, Briggs, in whose honor Briggsville was named.
Oms is the generally accepted brief version of the historical beginning of the village.)
Briggs is also identified as E.A. in the Biographical
Album. However, in a channing, novel-type factual
book, compiled in 1950, entitled The Early Days of
Briggsvme, his initials are listed as A.E. This is also
true in Jne Romance of Wisconsin Place Names.
The Place Names book reads, to quote: "In the fall of
1850, Alexander Ellis Briggs of Vermont arrived here With
a group of homesteaders. Mr. Briggs became a partner of
Amplius Chamberlain, and the two men negotiated for the
right to build a dam across Neenah Creek to provide water
power for a sawmill. The first lumber manufactured was
some heavy oak planks and joists used in the building of
the first jall at Portage. The dam, begun in the fall of 1850,
made a lake to the west about three miles in length. It was
named Lake Mason for the carpenter who built the mill."
The 1890 Biographical Album states: "Briggsville'is a
post-village in this town twenty miles southwest of Montello and eleven miles northwest of Portage, the usual shipping point and banking town, It was settled in 1849 and
has a population of about one hundred and fifty, It contains two churches, flour and carding mills, a district school
and several stores. William Murphy is postmaster. The other
principal business men are FJ. & W.C. Kimball, P.E. Peterson and Cbarles Waldo, proprietors of general stores; Jo.

seph Champney & Son, proprietors of flouring mills; A.O.
Dean, dealer in pianos and organs; H.T. Dean, harness maker; H.H. Dyer, hotel keeper; J.H. Dyer, carding mill owner; E.C. Gray, millwright; Evan Hanson, dealer in boots
and shoes; W.C. Kimball, dealer in seWing machines; and
Thomas
O'Connor, wagon maker. Briggsville was platted
1854 by E.A. Briggs,"
in
For inspired writing of history, which sparks even nonbelievers in the values of the heritage of the past, the twenty three page booklet of The Eiir/y Days of Bni;gsvi/le ·

Marquette County, Wisconsin- 1850-1959, is recommended reading. (Come Back in Time is indebted to the Marquette County Historical Society files for loan of this material.)
The introduction: "This small work is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the intrepid pioneers of the early
Briggsville region, With the hope that new frontiers ofinterest in making 10ne World' and maintaining it in peace
Will be as eagerly pioneered by their descendants."
"The facts contained herein have been compiled by Carla Lovesy and Marie Beyer, with the aid of Katharine Green
(who also drew the map), the folks 'round about' and the
Briggsville and Big Spring Telephone Company. Any errors
are
entirely unintentional, and for them we beg the Reader's
indulgence."
The cover map legend includes this information: "A.E.
Briggs home- 1852; village school-1853; feed and grist
mill- 1853; saw mill - 1852; William Murphy store and post
office- 1854; Barney Brogan- blacksmith- J854; Peter
Peterson - 1854; sugar mill - 1853; brickyard - 1851 ; Na-

l Gray homestead- !857; second schoolhouse- 1855;
'ellows Hall-1885;G.A.R. Hall-1886;Kimball
• 1895·, William Murphy- about !854."
xcerpts: "On abright day in January, !850, an ox
, drawing a heavily loaded sleigh, plodded slowly along

a narrow woods rood hewn out of the pine and hardwood
forest that stretched without a break on either side. A
light snow had fallen the night before, and the dazzling
flakes on pine branches and roadsides made a fairyland of

the Wisconsin wilderness."
'The New comers besides the ox team 'liveryman· from
Portage city, were Amplius Chamberlain, his wife and son,
who had traveled out the Old Pinery Road that January
day in 1850, enroute from Elkhorn, to a new life.·-- The
cabin on the Big Slough belonged to Silas Walsworth. Silas
had come to Portage in 1837 by steamboat, and established
a trading post for furs and two meeting houses in Portage.
He also built this log house to which the travelers had
come. In summer he operated a ferry on the Wisconsin Ri~
6

ver."
"A cabin was built by the new settlers and here in the
fall of 1850 came Alexander Ellis Briggs of Shoreham, Vermont with a group of homesteaders.--- Besides giving the
new settlement the name of Briggsville, he had given it a
purpose.'~

"At that time the Government had not completed the
subdivision of land into sections, and all that one had to do
was to claim what one could see from some high point,
mark the comers, blaze a line around it, build a 'claim shan~
ty' and live upon the claim within a certain item, being care~
ful not to encroach upon another's holding."
"life was not without excitement and even danger in the
Briggsville area of those early times. Amplius Chamberlain
in his History of Columbia County, tells us that: 'In 1849
a claim society was organized. composed of settlers in the
towns of Newport and Lewiston, Columbia County, and
the counties of Adams and Marquette. The object of the
society to protect the first settlers in their claims. The land,
not then being in market, was not subject to entry, but
many men locating and improving lands selected, with the
intention of securing their claim as soon as thrown in the
market. It was feared that there would be those who, observing improvements made, would hasten to f:lle claims
before the original settler could do so, thus defrauding
them out of their just rights. A number of cases of disputed claims came before the society, which they attempted

to settle in their own way.' "
"Many of the pioneers were kind and ftiendly towards
their Indian neighbors and the latter frequently showed
their appreciation by giving them Indian names and adopting them into their tribe, as well as by performing kindnesses of a more material nature."
"The Indian women taught many a worried housewife
how to use the native herbs as medicine, and it is reported
that once when Alexander Briggs had a terrible nose bleed,
'Blue Eyes' Decorah brought herbs and instructed Mrs.
Briggs how to use them. The bleeding stopped almost immediately."
"Marquette County is one of the oldest of the political
units formed by the subdivision of Brown County in pre·
territorial days. It wasset aside by an act of the Legislature December 7, !836. The village of Briggsville was
platted October 23, !854 by Harvey Briggs. Amplius
Chamberlain was the first Town Superintendent, and Hen·
ry Parrott was the first town clerk who transcribed the
records for Douglas and Moundville. The Town of Douglas was formed in 1858, so named for Stevan A. Douglas
of the Lincoln-Douglas debates."
"Amplius Chamberlain wrote: 'The cultivation of hops
for the general market commenced in this vicinity in 1859.

56

Main Street, Briggsville, circa 1912
The profits made by those engaged in the culture of hops
being large, one after another of the farmers engaged in
it until, in 1867. the whole vicinity was excited in a won·
derful manner and a very large area of land was devoted
to this purpose.' "
"When the season carne for picking and drying, consi·
derable difficulty was experienced in securing a suffici~
ent number of pickers, and this demand created a new in~
dustry. Leroy Gates conceived the idea of going to many
of the cities and villages throughout the state, securing
the services of as many girls as possible, and hiring them
to be farmers at a certain amount per head. It required
fifteen thousand pickers to gather the crops this year,
ten thousand of whom were brought from abroad."
"The total yield for the year, shipped from one sta·
tion, was 5,400,000 pounds, and sold from fifty cents to
sixty-five cents per pound, yielding over $2,700,000;
$270,000 of which was paid as wages to the girls."
"In 1869 the hop yards were few and far between,
though there are a few who never abandoned the business."
"On December 2, 1892, the dam, which had been reconstructed the year before, went out because of heavy
frost which cracked the foundations. The catastrophe
occurred in the middle of the night and before it was discovered had washed out the dam, the walls beneath the
mill, and eight feet on the west side of the flume, taking
with it a part of the Champeny sawmill and the millshed.''
"History usually deals solely in 'facts 'n' figgers' and
there is little room between its covers for the folklore and
humor which are the essence of the living characters who
walk across its pages.''

"In 1860 Briggsville Library Association was formed,
with a membership of forty~two persons and nine books."
uAmong the amusing characters, who should remain
anonymous, was the lady who, never content with one
apron in a day, wore three, four or even five, one above
the other!"
1876 --The Odd Fellows organized with five charter
members.
1884 --October 27th, G.A.R. organized. (JV.J. Ker·
shaw Post, no. I 88, with nineteen comrades.)
1886 -- G.A.R. Hall built by Peter Peterson and Thomas Barlow, the supervisors raising the money by Pork and
Bean dances.
1891 --May 12, the Briggsville Creamery opened.
!892 --December 2, the Briggsville darn went out.

~

57

Bud sin
The echoes of a historical past ring louder than pre·
sent in some Wisconsin hamlets which figured prominent~
ly in settlement days. One of these is the little communi·
ty of Budsin, located five miles southwest of Neshkoro on
State Highway 22 in Marquette County.
The name Budsin does not appear on any present
day county or state maps. There is no sign on the roads
passing and entering the community to mark its existence.
St. John Lutheran Church, built of brick in 1907 at the
intersection of Highway 22 and County E, is Budsin's
outstanding landmark. A short distance west of the
church is the weatherbeaten building formerly used as
the meeting hall for the Crystal Lake Fanners Mutual
Fire Insurance Co., organized December 27, 1875. A
building which housed Teske's Store stands on the corner.
The remnants of the once bustling settlement, and
traces of the foundations on which Budsin was built and
grew, are visible for those guided through the community
by a native son or daughter.
In this election year, area people are expressing inter
est in the fact that Acting Gov. Martin J. Schreiber's father, Martin E. Schreiber, was born on land owned today
by Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Doege, Route 2, Neshkoro. The
tract is located east of Budsin.
William E. Schreiber, Gov. Schreiber's grandfather,
taught at the Lutheran parochial school in Jludsin from
the last years of the 19th century, until shortly after
1905.
A school picture taken at Budsin about 1905 by the
late Herman E. Megow of Princeton, is a link in the
Schreiber family genealogy. During an August visit at
Budsin and Germania, the Governor's parents from Mil~
waukee verified that the teacher standing to the right in
the picture is the Governor's grandfather. "Our father
taught ali eight grades at Budsin with over seventy pupils
4

in his classes," Schreiber said. "l was the youngest of my
parent's fourteen children, and was born November 11,
1904. A member of the parish gave my parents William
and Amalia Schreiber, the Ganske farm (on a life lease
type of agreement) to care for the aged mother, Mrs.
Karl Ganske," the governor's father~ said.
"My parent's youngest daughter, Adelheid, born
April 22, 1902, in Crystal Lake township in Marquette
County, died when she was seven days old. She was bur·
ied in St. John Lutheran Cemetery beside the church at
Budsin. We moved to Milwaukee when I was three years
old. My father died when I was ten, but I remember that
throughout the years my mother, older brothers and 1
continued to make trips to Budsin to visit the little grave."
A sense of the values of the past history of the hamlet, and a man's awareness of the driving forces which
made possible the settlement of the wilderness by his ancestors, were apparent in the simple ceremonies on a Sun·
day afternoon in November of 1976 at the dedication of
a marker-plaque in Budsin.
The plaque, mounted on a huge field boulder nlaced
in front of the old insurance meeting hall, was the Bicentennial project of Edwin Tagatz, 82, a native of Germania.
None of his historical research enterprises since his 1962
retirement and return to Germania reached the magnitude of his marker in Budsin in behalf of the Crystal Lake
Utica Mutual Insurance Co,
Tagatz believes that Budsin deserves to be recognized
and his marker was the first step in this direction. A 1976
petition signed by forty-two Budsin residents was circulated by Mrs. Vada Zepf: it asked that a sign be placed on
State Highway 22, recognizing the community as "unincorporated Budsin." To date, the efforts have not brought
any results.
·~Budsin Bruckner," in his Fox River Patriot columns,

The 0/de Budsin Band, early 1900's
59
58

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1915, the congregation collected money for this memor·
ial to him.
The white frame school house beside the insurance
hall holds special memory for Mrs. Rossow. "For I taught
this school the term of 1920-21, with about thirty students. I had attended the Waushara County Normal
School at Wautoma for two years, and Oshkosh Normal
for my first grade teaching certificate. 1 was not quite
seventeen when I took my first school in 1915."
The old hand pump still stands in the yard east of
the Budsin school. "My students drew the water from
this well, and 1 remember that they always called me tea·
cher."
The Lutheran Church Congregation at Budsin dates
back to 1855. William Mueller, Mrs. Ro~sow's grandfather,
had helped build the first wooden Lutheran church which
stood on the cemetery grounds west of the present church
The Methodist church stood north of Budsin, with the
small, narrow white gravestones including the names of
Holtz, Detert, Freidrich and Engel. Large granite stones
bear the family names of Mueller, Dravitz, Hart, Schultz,
Doege and Clocksene.
Mrs. Rossow recalls hauling milk and cream to the
creamery which stands today weatherbeaten and boarded
up on County E on the west side of Budsin. "We hauled
milk every day and brought the skim milk home for the
hogs. We separated cream at home, using the crank se·
parator, and sold the cream twice a week. I drove one
horse 1 named Father James, on my trips to Budsin."
"A grist mill was another busy place in the early
1900's, operated with wood power,'' Mrs. Rossow said.
"August Tagatz burned slab wood from the saw mill,
which stood behind Teske's Store, in his mill boilers. A
nephew, Richard Tagatz, was killed in a grist mill accident. The governor was tied down because it was not goA
ing fast enough, and the speed broke the grindstone,
which hit Richard, killing him instantly."
Impressive gray or red granite monuments on the
Budsin Lutheran cemetery include the family names of
Teske, Schauer, Breitenfeldt, Berndt, Krueger, Kroll,
Buchilolz and Tagatz. It is usually the narrow old white
markers which preserve for the history buff the names
of early settlers, and reveal incidents of sorrows.

Ilks of Budsin of the past in a humorous manner
nd what has been termed as 'fantastically imaginary,'
ut sprinkled with 'possible incidents~ in an effort to re~
ive interest in the hamlet. Bruckner dreams up his wri·
ngs while engaged in his daily efforts of trying to keep
p with the rush of work at his woodworking shop locat«
d immediately south of Budsin on Highway 22. He has
1tentions of "carving out a sign designating this as Budin."
Ludwig Gust, whose monument in the Budsin cemeery reads "1845-1914." is credited as an early settler
vho gave the settlement its name, after "Budsyn," a Prus~
ian village in his homeland.
The Budsin Post Office, No. 3188, was established
~ay 1, 1900, with the mail carried everyday on foot to
Jermania by Julius Weckwerth. Gustav Gust was the postnaster. His general merchandiSe store also housed the
){)St office, and the store held special attractions for the
roung children of Budsin. This building stands today west
>f the cemetery and is a home.
Mrs. August Weckwerth of Westfield wrote in 1963
Jf Budsin's history and Teske's Store. "A lot of Budsin
Ustory came to an end with the death of Grandma Teske,
>~ho passed away January 4, 1962, at the age of 92. The
1ame of Teske, along with the Weckwerth's and the Mil.er's can be traced back to the very origin of Budsin."
Theodore Teske came to this community from Ste·
vens Point, and the new family decided to build a store
to accomodate the farmers who came from miles around
to the creamery. John Miller of Fox Lake was the butter
maker, sucoeeded by Art Miller. The Teske's stocked
their store with everything for the household, and also operated the sawmill. They threshed grains and beans, and
hulled clover with every machine operated by the old
steam engine, which bellowed out a loud screech at din·
ner and supper time.
At one time Budsin boasted of four homesteads over
one hundred years in the same family name. They includ~
ed the oentury farms of the Weckwerth, Guderjalm, Tetzlaff and Dreger families. Mrs. Avolt (Olga Breitenfeldt)
Rossow, Route 1, Green Lake, was my guide on one tour
of forgotten Budsin landmarks. She pointed out sites she
had known since her birth, November 13, 1898, at the
former Breitenfeldt homestead west of Budsin on County
E; Mrs. Rossow was one of six children of Julius F. and
Augusta Mueller Breitenfeldt.
"Great-grandfather August Breitenfeldt and grandfather Herman Breitenfeldt came to Marquette County from
Prussia," Mrs. Rossow said. "August and his wife Beata
purchased their eighty acre farm from the United States
government when James Buchanan was serving as presiA
dent in 1857 to 1861. They used tbe natural fountain on
the land for their water supply."
"I was told as a child how there had been seven years
of dry weather, and when I was three years old, Uncle
Emil Mueller, who was married to my father's sister Eunice, came back from Fond du Lac to buy the homestead.
My parents purchased a farm on nine forty's three miles
east of Budsin from the Berndt family. We then went into
a seven year cycle of wet weather, and they worked very
hard, farming in the mud.)'
Mrs. Rossow pointed out in the cemetery beside the
church, a monument erected to "The Rev. Edward Theel,
who preached in Budsin for 41 years." When he died in

On the Lutheran cemetery one of these stones reads:
"Augusta P., wife of Ernst Kruger, died March 21,1881aged 21 yrs.-and their daughter, Ida P. died April 6,
1881--aged 26 days." Asmail stone nearby reads:
"Albert, son of Ernst and Augusta Kruger, died April
7, 1881-aged 2 yrs."
Other family names on these small stones include
Guderjahn, Schwanke, Muhere, Kulmke, Berndt, Wichner,
Zuelke, Polinske, Priebe and Siewert.
Mrs. Rossow spoke of "My uncle Edward Breitenfeldt, who owned the tavern and dance hail which stood
to the south of the present Lutheran parsonage. He was
a good tavern keeper, and would only sell a customer
so much, and no more. He donated the two granite markers on the brick church. Community activities were important to us, and 1 remember the Budsin Band practi·
cing in the insurance hail. On the Fourth of July we aJ.
ways had a big oelebration in the woods behind the Ger·
man school, which stands today opposite the Lutheran
church," Mrs. Rossow noted,

60

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Students at the Budsin Lutheran School around 1905. The teacher, William E. Schreiber is at right
"At confirmation school the girls always sat in the
front seat and the boys behind us. They would pull our
braids, so we decided to get there first and sit in the
back. But the Rev. Mr. Theel softly reminded us that
the girls were to sit in front, and the boys in back,"
Mrs. Rossow recalled.
Budsin has also figured prominently in the search
for "the dim footsteps of the founders of Lutheranism
is this section of Wisconsin." Descendants of early pas.
tors delved into the past church-founding history of
their ancestors and pioneer predecessors. Crumbling foun~
dations, overgrown with brush, which served as pastor's
homes northeast and west of Budsin have been investigated.

The autobiography of the Rev. John Strieter, publish·
ed in 1905, in Gennan, was written when he was seventy
five years of age, it tells of the six thousand miles a year
he travelled by horseback, buggy or sleigh, covering an
area extending from Portage to Wausau. He was among
the circuit of missionary riders who extended the Lutheran Church throughout the state. Orlan Warnke, a Marquette County native who translated the Wisconsin chap~
ters of the book from German to English, indicates that
the Budsin site was the Rev. Strieter's home for six years.
The Rev. Strieter recounts moving to Wisconsin in
November of 1859 with his wife and three children. They
arrived by train at Ripon and travelled by team and wagon to Princeton. Then they set out by wagon for their
parish log cabin house. "Built in German fashion, frameA
work and plastered with clay. It had two normal rooms
and a small one,"
ul purchased a six-year-old horse, Charley, for sixty
dollars, harnessed him to a sled and drove to Wautoma
and got two stoves, beds, etc., and we moved in," the
book continues. Budsin today is continuing as an active
Lutheran congregation in the church on the corner, but
the other foundations of past industry or business are only memories. Budsin does have one claim to fame, along
with the Schreiber family roots. The current governor of
Illinois and his parents have homes on the banks of the
Mecan River, west of the church.

Marquette County Historical Society members in
1970 research determined that the moss-covered foundation rocks and cistern of the Rev. Edward Theel parsonage, a Budsin pastor from 1874-1915, may possibly be
the same site as that occupied by the Rev. Mr. Dielmann, 1857 to 1858, and the Rev. Mr. John Strieter
from 1859 to 1865,
St. John Lutheran Church · Budsin congregation,
was organized as the result of the missionary work of the
Rev. Martin Stephan, Jr., pastor of Trinity Lutheran
Church, Oshkosh. Rev. Stephan made three missionary
trips into Marquette, Waushara and Green Lake counties
in 1855 to 1859 to organize Lutheran parishes.

61

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Endeavor
In Marquette County's Village of Endeavor, one sees
individuals, organizations and town officials working to·
gether to save memorabilia from the past as a legacy for

branch of the Sons of Civil War Veterans, was cur inspir·
ation for realizing that someone should start a historical
collection of artifacts and memories for Endeavor," the

The Green Thumb Garden Club "got the history ball
rolling" within the past few months after discussing in
their meetings the fact that Endeavor had no place to
keep and display artifacts that would be invaluable in
years to come. Club members and officers approached
the Endeavor Lions Club, village and town officials and

Mmes. Donner and McTier said.
Irma Montier Taylor, Portage, did the research on
Old Abe and had a picture of the stuffed image of an
eagle carried by the 8th Wisconsin Regiment. Mrs. Tay·

their children.

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local residents with their idea of ''preserving artic1es of

the past."

Mrs. Melvin Donner and Mrs. Nellie McTier, Garden
Oub members, have acted as co·chairmen for the project

.,

and the open house. They have started a scrapbook of
the village's history and a record of donated and. loaned

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pictures. They are planning to have copies made of loaned
pictures for the permanent files, for some people prefer

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to keep the originals in their families. Mrs. Joseph Burke
is Garden Club president.
·
"Talk of Old Abe, an eagle that was captured and
trained by Sam Franklin, who belonged to the Endeavor

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lor's father, the late Peter Montier, Was· seCtion foreman

on the railroad. She donated a picture of the first depot
built at Endeavor in 1895, noting on the back that fore.
men following her father had been Will Leach, her uncle,
Charles Perkins, and Albert Hudson. In the picture are a
part of the Ennis Lumber Company sheds and the Per·
kins residence (which also used to be used as a hotel),
and one of the first houses in Endeavor. It is the Van
Johnson home now, Mrs. Taylor said.
Mrs. Taylor noted of Old Abe: "This picture was given
to me by Sam and Esther Skinner. It is of an eagle that
was captured and trained by Sam Franklin, who belonged
to the Endeavor branch of Sons of Civil War Veterans.
When they marched, Mr. Franklin carried it on a tall staff
with a perch on the top. The bird was named for an eagle

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The first depot at Endeauor, circa 1895
63

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that the 8th Wisconsin Regiment carried all through the
Civil War. It was said that the southern soldiers tried to
capture it (the first eagle) as they said it would kill the
8th's spirit. Mter it died it was preserved and proudly
displayed in the old first capitol building, but was lost
when that burned down. The Endeavor Lodge was very
proud of their eagle and of course named it Old Ahe after
the famous Civil War bird, which was in tum named for
President Abraham lincoln. We had a woman's organization at Endeavor sometime later called the Sons of Veterans Auxiliary. Mother Montier was president at one time
and my sister Beulah and I were color guards."
It is said that Endeavor "is the village a church built."
In fact, many of the bricks for the buildings on the streets
today came from the church's own brickyard. It was in
1890 that a series of religious tent meetings led to the
founding of the Trinity Congregational Church. The Christian Endeavor Academy was organized and built in 1891.
The Academy was the heart of the community until it
was forced to close due to lack of funds in 1925. The
village was incorporated about 1940, but before that the
site of Endeavor was a part of the Town of Moundville,
and was governed by the town.
The history of the Moundville area goes back to the
Town of Staffordshire, in England, where there was a society called "The Potters Society". Composed of men
in that trade, the society formed to organize a mass immigration to America, called the "Promised Land".
Members of the group included the Rev. Isaac Smith
and William Scholes, who came to America in 1847 and
then to Wisconsin and Fort Winnebago (Portage today).
They were followed the next year by more Potters Society members; records show that in 1848 a Smith, Scholes
and Mountford went up the Fox River to investigate
homestead possibilities.
An 1876 account in the Montello Express describes
their trip: "The intrepid Englishmen, who had braved
the dangers of the deep, and had ventured among wild
beasts and painted savages, were not to be restrained for
fear of being lost in the wilderness. Repairing to an elevation (thought to be just north of the Marquette·
Columbia County line, but it may have been Endeavor
hill), they selected the highest tree near its summit,
which Mr. Mountford, assisted by his clerical friend, proceeded to climb."
In 1849, following this rough survey of the "new
country," the Potters Society sponsored a large influx of
settlers into Moundville, thought to have been named for
the many Indian mounds or for Mountford. Early Potter
settlers included S. Wade, G. Skinner, M. Shaw, H. Brown,
R. Wells and others. The Rev. Smith is considered the
first settler.
The site koown today as Endeavor was settled after
the Civil War when traffic on the Fox River increased.
The WISconsin Central Railroad line being laid in the
1870's gave added impetus to the community. This rail
and river center was originally called Merritt's Landing.
Cornelius Merritt, postmaster and merchant, gave his
name to the small community. Histories note that period
of the early 1870's found the community with four
dwellings, two grocery stores, two lumber yards, and a
post office located in one of the grocery stores. There
were no churches or schools. The settlement continued
to be known as Merritt's Landing during those years and

showed little growth until the next phase in the history
of Endeavor-the eventful season of the summer of 1890.
Walter March Ellis was the pastor who came from EJ.
roy on Nov. 10, 1901, to be principal of the Christian
Endeavor Academy and pastor of the church until 1909.
According to his account entitled 'Endeavor Academy,'
in A Hundred Years of Congregational History in Wisconsin: "In 1890 the home missionary interest of the Wisconsin Congregational churches was largely focused upon
frontier and rural regions. In Adams County, the last
county in the state to be traversed by a railroad, there
were then ten small churches, nurtured by the Home
Missionary Society. A tent in the charge of district mis·
sionary Russell Lea Cbeny and evangelist Eli A. Cbild,
assisted at times by Mrs. Cheney as organist and Father
and Mother Cheney, charming singers, was this summer
being used to quicken the life in these small scattered
fieMs. A widely signed petition invited the evangel tent
and workers to Merritt's Landing, a rare firm bank on the
marshy Fox River where flat bottomed boats, then plying between Oshkosh and Portage, might tie up and perhaps exchange barrelled salt or sugar for baled wool or
cordwood or wagon tongues. It was a flag station also on
the Portage branch of the Wisconsin Central railway. The
tent came duly and was pitched under friendly oaks, between the sandy trail and Leach's fine spring at the edge
of the marsh. On July 7th, the only human habitations
in sight were the John Merritt farm place, quite bare, and
Hugh Ennis's combined store and post office."
"But the tent, the word sent about, the music and
the earnest preaching brought the people from the nearby
farms. Stretches of these sandy hills and boggy marshes
had not been richly soiled by nature, but the soul soil of
the region round about had been more richly prepared.
East Moundville township and vicinity had been chiefly
settled by a colony from the pottery region of England,
intelligent Free Methodists. who made their religion ever
a central, normal thing in faruily and community life. The
adjacent parts of Douglas, Oxford, Packwaukee and Buffalo townships were pioneered by like-charactered Bap·
tists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians-also English speaking. This yielded the spiritual soil which responded to the
familiar evangel, and in which sprang and grew the Endeavor church and Endeavor Academy. Well nigh half the grad·
uates of the academy through the years were descendants
of these substantial pioneer families."
"Though the time was mid-summer, haying and har·
vest season, the response was most gratifying. Ten days
and evenings of meetings developed over a hundred confessions of the Christian purpose. The wishes of the people interested led to the organizing of a local Congregational Church .. Sixty three charter members joined the
church organized August 7, 1890, a large number for a
new rural church in those days. The Rev. Mr. Child re·
mained as pastor. Steps were at once taken to build a
house of worship."
"Mrs. Cbild was a college woman with experience in
teaching. She came from a missionary family and was a
woman of outstanding talent, devotion and personal winsomeness. A Christian Endeavor Society was formed and
before the church building was fmished, weekly evening
meetings of this group, led by Mrs. Cbild, were taking up
courses of study. The little church, dedicated December
7, 1890, was so framed that it might provide rooms for

64

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Endeavor around 1915
continuing these classes. Early in January, 1891, in one
of these rooms, with a class of eleven, was begun the
Christian Endeavor Academy."
"At this time the two hundred acre farm running a
mile back from the landing and from the neat white
church was being offered for sale by the heirs of John
Merritt. Mr. and Mrs. Cbild were dreaming and talking of
a permanent, Christianly potent school. The oak groved,
far-visioned hilltop became the resort for prayer by a woman who believed in prayer. In the family purse remained a five dollar bill; this was venturesomely paid down
to secure the privilege of buying the farm. Then in this
adventure of faith the prophet teacher went to a few
men he knew: Deacon A.D. Harwood of Ripon; Senator
Philetus Sawyer of Oshkosh; and Deacon E.D. Smith of
Menasha. Returning with loans and gifts he was able to
purchase the farm."
"There followed then the incorporation of a board
of trustees for the Academy, and the platting of a village,
named Endeavor. Invitations were sent out to all interested in the project to come and buy and build there.
There followed also the starting of a brick-making plant,
for the Cbilds were brick-makers by trade, and the clays
at hand were believed to be good brick clays. People
came to share in the adventure. Scores of young people
came, eager for improvement. By autumn of 1891 Logan Hall had been built of Endeavor-made brick, a modest house with rooms for both school and domicile.
During the first four years eighty two young people
were enrolled in academy studies proper, besides many
others taking only elementary studies or music. The new
Academy building, of brick from the Endeavor yards,
was completed at the site chosen at the hilltop in 1900.

The Truax Extension, including a gymnasium and dormitory rooms for boys was dedicated in June, 1917. Be-

cause expenses were increasing more rapidly than income,
the Academy called a halt in June of 1925. Two hundred and thirty eight graduated from the school. More
than double this number took literary studies for shorter
periods, not graduating. Still others took only music or
other specialties. These are scattered the country over,

even beyond the oceans."
A booklet published by Trinity Congregational
Church at the time of the 75th anniversary on August
7-8, 1965, lends an added insight into the founding of
the church. The history was compiled by Isabell Mills,
historian, assisted by the Rev. Dale Shotts, pastor. It
tells of the original church and its remodeling and improvements throughout the years. Schaller Hall, dedicated April 30, 1958, at a dinner, gave the church an addi-

tion of a dining room, kitchen, and rest rooms.

65

One of the people recalling the past at the open
house in Endeavor in August was Merlin Jones, 86. He
was in the garage business in Endeavor for fifty years.
A dapper man in stylish sports suit, he spoke to me
about his father, Levi Jones, the first Marquette County
highway commissioner. Jones contributed to the village's
project his large framed pictures of the roads which his
father had supervised ·being built in 1913, when crushed
granite from the Montello quarries was used as the base,
with oil sprinkled on top.
Businesses of the past include a creamery, a riverbottom hay-cutting industry, an ice cream factory, doctors and dentists, a saw mill, blacksmith shop, butcher
shop, Park Hotel, and potato warehouses. Joseph Luger
opened the first barbershop; Bert Fish the first furniture

establishment; Frank Worden founded the first State
Bank and served as cashier; and A. Powell and Son ran
a dry goods store.
A 1913 calendar was issued by "Pattee and Schwan·
ke··dealers in fresh and cured meats, hides and poultryoysters in season." Gift plates were "Compliments of:
I, O.F. Howen and Co. Store; 2, William Pattee, 1910
dealer in groceries, fruits, shoes and notions; and 3, B.
W. Fish, 1912,stapleand fancy groceries, confectionary
and cigars."
Muriel Watson Feltz and Esther Watson Skinner,
daughters of George Watson who worked with the railroad, recalled many of the old businesses. Mrs. Feltz
spoke of "stacking shelves for the fun of it with Marie
Campbell in the Fish Store, and eating coconut and
playing it was tobacco."
Many of the pictores on the post cards being dis·
played were taken by F.E. Dewsnap, a rural mail carri·
er and Mrs. Donner's father. "My grandfather, Charles
Dewsnap, wai born in 1851 and brought my father
from St. Louis, traveling on a steamboat up the Fox
River to Grandma Nixon's at this site. My father told
of cutting hazel brush as a boy on the Academy hill
for twenty five cents a day, when it was used as a pasture for Colonel Merritt's sheep. The Fox River was an
important waterway then, and lodians came for fall powwows and to gather wild rice."
Endeavor once had a newspaper office and we saw
copies of 1910-1914 issues of the Marquette County Epitome and 1916-1917 issues called "The Endeavor".
A picture of the brickyards shows oxen used for power. A medicine bottle bears the name of Dr. J .E. Simpson.
Milk bottles came from the Walter Moss Pleasant View
Dairy. A picture depicts the first curling club on the Fox
River, about 1900. A metal match holder was given by
Henry Fenske Store, who dealt in drygoods and mercan·
tile.
A collection of LeRoy Sweney pictores included one
of the Fenske Store, with a ladder leading to the top
shelves and the clerks at the counters, piled with bolts of
cloth. A picture of men harvesting sorghum was identified
as "Glen and Alex Powell, assisted by Phil Coleman, a
black man." Coleman was brought back from the Civil
War as a small boy and was a handy man around town
until his death.
An interesting receipt was that of September, 1863,
listing the amount of taxes raised and presented to the
clerk of the Town of Moundville for school district purposes as the sum of ten dollars, with the names included
of people liable to a school district tax.
A copy of an original deed reads: "May 15, 1891-$3,300. This indenture deed from Merritt heirs of Colonel John H. Merritt-to the trustees of the Christian Endeavor Academy located in the Town of Moundville-Section
5 and 6-Marquette County. 240 acres, more or less."
This land plotted into lots is today the Village of Endeavor. Now the former academy, with its top story removed,
is the Endeavor Elementary School. The old Park Hotel
is Harbor House, a home for veterans. Brick houses remain sturdy.

Germania
The unincorporated village of Gormania in Marquette
County has a glorious past, all out of proportion to its
present size and influence. It was founded as a prosperous
religious colony in the 1850's. At the turn of the century
the hamlet had great dreams of a railroad running through
the community. A raised road on which to lay tracks had
been nearly completed, but the railroad bypassed Gormania. The uptrend in fortunes was not to materialize.
Gormania's history has been researched by several people. The most dedicated is undoubtedly the late Edwin C.
Tagatz, who molded his retirement years on the motto:
"If you do not remember the past-and are not conscious
of the present-then you have no future." Tagatz was dedicated to the purpose that Gormania's name be brought before the public eye as an example of one of many small

Wisconsin communities.
Resource materials for guidelines to Gormania's past includes the manuscript of Faith in the Keeping by Ruth
Louise Preston, who was born in the colony's 'Big House,'"
privately printed in 1952 by her daughters; a historical
manuscript titled Looking Backward; Early Days in Germania and its Pioneer Builders, written by George Mueller of
Gormania as a part of his 1945 Neshkoro High School as·
signment; the 1890 book, The Biographical Album of Marquette, Waushara and Green Lake Counties, and maps,

deeds, abstracts, pictures, memorabilia and memories of
pioneer settlers Tagatz had known in his youth.

Friendly Indians inhabiting the area before the white
men, German settlers, an Englishman-Abraham Pierce, and
Colonel Benjamin Hall all figure into the early history of
Gormania. In 1847 in Groton, Mass., Pierce had married a

widow, the former Henrietta Jones Ellis. A son, Oarence,
was born to the couple in 1850 in their dugout home on
the banks of Comstock Lake, southwest ef Neshkoro.
Pierce had tremendous plans for a new settlement, but
died in 1852 before his plans could be realized.
Mrs. Pierce returned to Groton with her two-year-old
son and four daughters, two by her first husband, the Rev.
Joseph Ellis, and two of Major Pierce's by his first marriage.
(That son grew up to be Wisconsin's Senator Clarence
Pierce, serving from 1894-98 at Madison. He also served as
Wisconsin assemblyman in 1890-94, and is Germania's
most illustrious native son.)
On her retom to Massachusetts, Mrs. Pierce met a devout
merchant, Benjamin Hall, who believed in the second advent
of Christ. Although he was not an ordained minister, he
preached to his faithful followers. According to one early
history:"Mr. Hall, becoming interested in the lady, also became interested in the land she owned in Marquette County.'
Mrs. Pierce became a convert to Hall's religion; she became
his wife in 1857. Glowing accounts of the Comstock Lake
site led twenty five to thirty of his followers (or forty families, according to one source) to arrange for sale of estates,
and journey by train to Ripon in 1858.

~·
66

The Germania Hotel (today the Long Branch Tauem) in the 1890's
67

Harrisville

Several buildings and residents of Germania in the 1890's
1888, with some of the boards used to build a large house
standing today.
The people in the religious colony at Germania are said
to have set a religious and moral example in Marquette
County. The general store purchased products of surround~
ing farmers, which were then hauled by teams to cities. Colonel Hall was the area banker, keeping the money in the
colony house. He made frequent trips to Milwaukee to
buy goods and make investments.
"The Colonel was a respected man, easily the most
prominent businessman in Marquette County at that time)
and possibly the most wealthy," wrote an early historian
at the time of Hall's death in Germania on October 31,
1879, at the age of83. The Colonel was buried in Germania Cemetery, where a modest monument stands today.
The religious colony known as Germania Company be·
gan to disintegrate with Colonel Hall's death. The commu·
nity of Germania continued) however, to grow and prosper, with Clarence Pierce a leader in Marquette County as
banker, farmer and merchant. The Pierce family lived in
elegance and style in a large white, square houses at the top
of a small knoll, beside the old community building. Sen.
Pierce died December 3, 1923; and is buried in Madison.
The remaining farm property and the Pierce family homestead was sold in 1925.

They travelled by oxcart to Comstock Lake from Ripon.
Colonel Hall purchased a tract of I ,200 acres of land where
Germania now stands, to be used for the mutual interest of
the community group. A religious, cooperative colony, the
settlers built and lived in one large house, sixty feet long,
called the 'Big House.' They lived on the second floor, ate
in the first floor dining area, and prepared meals in the base~
ment. The property was owned as one unit and work was
shared by alL Members of the colony were called to prayer
meetings every evening and Sundays.
Colonel Hall is known to have prayed under a tall elm
tree (cut down several years ago) preaching stirring sermons,
his long white hair flowing in the breeze. In 1860 he began to
to build a dam on the Mecan River. In about 1863 the fortunes of Colonel Hall and his colony members were increased
>y the death of William Hall, a brother in England, who left
an estate of $80,000 to each of five American heirs, after
crown taxes were paid. With his share Colonel Hall developed the colony at Germania and built a woolen mill at
Montello in 1875. Germania then had a general store, wagon shop, brick yard, cooper shop, sawmill, the dam, and
grist mill. Two small white country churches, Methodist
and Lutheran, built in 1875 and 1876, stand as landmarks
today. The streets are said to have been lighted by kerosene lamps. LE. Leighton, an early miller, is honored in
memory by Leighton Avenue, the road leading to the dam
at the 2,400 acre Germania Wildlife area, established in
1959 as a conservation project.
Main Street was distinguished by a twenty four room hotel, built in 1868 by Samuel N. Hartwell, at the east end of
the village. The hotel and livery stable catered to the drummers and travellers, and it housed a hardware and furniture
establishment. Versatility was a characteristic of Hartwell,
for he was also town clerk. librarian, a poet and ran the
creamery. With changing times, the hotel was torn down in

Mueller, in his 1945 essay, wrote of the decline in Germania: "After many prosperous years there was a dream
of more prosperity. Plans were made to have a railraod go
through Germania. They made a raised road on which to
lay the tracks, but plans were changed and the railroad
ran through Neshkoro. Germania began to decrease. All
that is left is one store and one tavern. One of the old
creameries still stands but is not in use. Most of the dam is
washed away. The businessmen that had prospered in Ger·
mania moved to Princeton, Neshkoro or other larger towns.

Harrisville in Marquette County was named for
James Harris, who settled there in !850 on the farm of
the late Alfred Walters. Harris built the first dam and
sawmill, and is said to have been a very good teamster
and woodsman. The scenery and potential water power
no doubt were reasons a settlement was made at the site.
The dam went out and water power was sold to
H.L Warren, who completed the mill and sold it to
William Stebbins. Harris eventually moved further west.
In the early days the woods around the little village
were filled with Indians. There were Winnebagos, whom
the settlers had no reason to fear, as they were peaceful
and very friendly. 'They were often seen walking single
me from their campsite on Buffalo Lake to their camp
near the village. The point which projects into the mill·
pond and is known today as Bullhead Point was then
called Indian Point. The Indians planted corn in the first
land cultivated in the Town of Harris. Among the noted
Indians who were leaders at that time were Big Join>
Coons and Chief Packwaukee, for whom the town and
village of Packwaukee were named.
The settlement of Harrisville was platted by Joseph
Farrington, C.L. Farrington and William Stebbins as
proprietors on May 13, 1856. James Harris owned a
large amount ofland which he had purchased from Join>
Squire, who had obtained the land from the United

States government in November of 1852, and sold it to
Harris in December, 1854. Several streets of that early
plat were opened to traffic during the past years.
The history of Harrisville was compiled in 1966 by
Mrs. Archie Harring, with contributions from Margaret
Huebner, Albert Lang, and Mrs. Joe Zaske.
At the time white people began settling in the area,
it was a part of a large territory ConSisfing of Brown
County, Green Lake County and Marquette County, with
the first post office at Green Lake (first called Dartford).
In 1840 the county had five horses, forty five cattle,
twenty swine and produced one hundred bushels of oats,
one hundred bushels of buckwheat, 320 bushels of pota·
toes and twenty tons of hay. The population was fifty
nine in 1844, when it was separated from Brown County.
Water power was necessary for the operation of industries in those early days, and a creek which had its begin·
ning about ten miles west of the new community ran
through Harrisville. A dam was built on this stream, called
Duck Creek; when it widens, it is known as the Montello
River. A pond was formed, and a canal dug from the
southwest corner of the millpond, a distance of fifty five
feet, where a grist mill was built in 1856 with its tailrace
entering into the Montello River. It was entitled to one
half the water rights of the stream.
The building was four stories high, with all kinds of

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69

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Montello
(This history of Montello in Marquette County is ta·
ken from the Montello Express of May 27, 1876. In re·
searching the history of most communities, I have found
there are variations in names, spellings and dates, depend·
ing on the source.)

The Grist Mill
in Harrisville,
circa 1910

grain ground, including rye, wheat, buckwheat and com.
The old fashioned flat mill stones were used to grind
feed for stock, while steel discs were used to grind flour.
Mrs. Hanks, wife of Worthy Hanks who had come
from Greenwich Village, New York, and settled in the
locality of Sheldon (now known as Meadow Valley), a
distance of about seven miles from Harrisville, is said to
have carried a bushel of wheat on her back to the mill.
She had it ground into flour, and she carried it home
again. Some have even said that she "knitted all the way
and never dropped a stitch.n
This mill served the area for many years. A washout
of rhe mill race or canal in 1878 caused a wider millrace.
The grain was usually ground on a toll basis. It was
weighed in and the miller took his pay when rhe feed or
flour was weighed out.
Probably no man in Marquette County did more for
its advancement during its early history (nor was more
widely and favorably known) than Joseph Farrington,
who owned the gristmill at Harrisville until 1876 with
his two brothers, Emerson and Chancellor. The history
of the Farrington family dates back to 1620 when three
brothers of that name embarked on the Mayflower for
the New World. Though the misgivings of their friends
and the fears of the crew were many, the vessel at length
reached its destination. One of the brothers settled in
Lynn, Mass., and built the first gristmill in the colonies.
The Harrisville sawmill was built about 250 feet
west of the dam or waste gates in April, 1859. L.P. Lu·
ther and Joseph Farrington were early owners, having
5/16 of the water rights. Other places of business in the
early history were a cooper shop, furniture shop and
woolen mill, built in 1862 by Caleb Fuller, east of where
the waste gates are now. It was operated by water power
md the raw wool was carded there, continuing until
1880 when the mill accidentally burned to the ground.
'<granite polishing mill was then built on rhe same site,
he granite being hauled from the Montello quarries by
:earn, to be polished and then returned.
Schools were always of first importance to those

***

early settlers, and by 1885 enough settlers had moved in·
to the community to build a frame school to replace the
first small log building used for that purpose. It was also
used for church and public and town gatherings. The
school term was three to five months, as there was no
compulsory attendance legislation, and each district voted
to have as much school as they felt they could afford. The
teachers, hired by the week instead of the month or year.
were paid $2.50 or $3 per week, and "boarded around"
among the families in the school district.
The first and only church, a Lutheran one built in
1872, is an active congregation today. The first general
store was kept in C.L Farrington's parlor in the only
frame building of the time. Goods for the store were
brought from Milwaukee by ox team. The post office
was also housed in this little store.
Hardships at that time were considered a part of dally
life. A competent midwife, Mrs. Truman Blakely, migrated
to Harrisville in 1870 wirh her husband from the New En·
gland states, to care for her aging father, John Smith. She
cheerfully answered calls for help whenever there was ill·
ness, day or night, rain or snow, whenever anyone came
for her. She left a record book of over three hundred ba·
hies she had delivered in and around Harrisville, and was
affectionately known as "Auntie Blakely" by young and
old.
Family and community ties were close in this early
community. They had ways of helping each other. Husk·
ing bees, bean picking, quilting bees, wood cutting, wood
sawing, threshing of grain and barn·raising bees were com~
mon get-togethers. In fact, a complete barn could be
raised in one day. "Many hands make light work" was a
common contention.
The sorghum mill~ a cobbler shop, a creamery association organized in 1901 and a creamery built in !902, the
growing of hops to be stored in hop houses and then trans·
ported to outside breweoies, the buying of furs, all these
figured into the economy of Harrisville.

'~
70

"Business of the Village in 1876 - The Water Pow,
ers and Importance as a Manufacturing Point" is the
headline.
"The first land claim within the territory now comprising the Village of Montello, was made in the month
of February, 1849, by Josiah H. Dartt, and included the
water power site on the Montello River. In March of the
same year, J.N. and G.H. Dartt came on from Kingston,
where they were then residing, and made claims, spending
a few weeks here cutting and hauling timbers for the
houses. They did not, however, build their houses until
late in the summer, and did not remove to this point
with their families until September."
uJason Daniels was the first actual settler in the place,
bringing his wife here the first of June, and taking possession of a log cabin he had built a few days previously
on a claim made shortly after the first of Messrs. Dartt.
The 'house' stood near Jason's present residence (!876)
and was about as 'airy' a building as any family ever in~
habited. The roofing was made of elm bark, and carpets
served as doors ...
"At that time the country hereabout was entirely
wild, the nearest accessible town being Kingston, sixteen
miles distant, and only a few families scattered through
the country south. Mrs. Daniels was the first white woman across the Fox River, as she was also the first land~
lady in this section, the family having to keep open
house for a time to accomodate many of the new settlers
and the land h\lilters who flocked in here that summer.
In June, quite a number of the families settled in and

about the place, forming a hamlet of sufficient impor·
tance, it would seem, to bear a name distinctive from
the town (Buffalo). A meeting of the citizens was called
the latter part of that month or early in July, to consider the subject."
"This meeting was held about where Dodge and Sea·
ver's Grist Mill now stands~" the 1876 article continues,
"and among those present were J.H., J.N., G.H. and Ri·
ley Dartt, a Mr. Goodsale, Mr. Kilby, and we believe, Mr.
Daniels. ·Montello' (meaning mountain or hill and ~
water) was proposed by Riley Dartt which was, after
some little discussion, adopted unanimously as the name
of the embryo village. During the summer and fall a
large number of houses (all logs) were built in the neigh·
borhood, Mr. Daniels assisting at twenty one 'raisings.' "
"J.H. Dartt began the improvement of his water pow~
er, putting in the bulk heads and doing other work on
the dam. In the fall of 1849 a pole bridge was laid over
the Montello River, at the present crossing. These com·
prised the improvements that year. The only event of
note the following winter was the holding of the first re·
ligious services in the community, which occurred at the
house of J.N Dartt, conducted by a missionary."
The book, The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names,
by Robert Gard and L.G. Sorden, notes of Montello's
settlement: "James Daniel settled here in 1849 and
named the site 'Serairo' after a place in Mexico where
he had fought during the Mexican War. Later it was call·
ed Hill River because of the granite hills and the Fox Ri·
ver. There are two accounts of how the name of Montello came to be chosen."
"I • In the fall of 1849 a meeting was held in the
home of J.N. Dartt. There were a number of suggestions~
but Joseph R. Dartt, who had read of Montello in a nov·
el, carried the majority,"
u2 ~ French voyageurs and fur traders named the 1o~
cation Mont l'eau, or 'hill by the water.'

)'110

Montello Business.District around 1910
71

CITY OF MONT ELL 0

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Marquette County Court House in the 1920's

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disposed toward them. It was only when some of the Indians were inflamed with whisky or had been made an·
gry by ill-treatment from their pale-faced brothers that
the settlers had anything to fear from them. No serious
disturbance ever occurred, however."
"The first school was opened in 1851, in a little log
building. That summer the first steamboat, the John Mitchell, came up the Fox, causing almost unbounded enthusiasm among the citizens."
"The township of Montello was created in 1852, the
territory being detached from Buffalo. At the first election for town officers, held that spring, E.B. Kelsey was
chosen chairman of the board of supervisors; Bonaparte
Baker, treasurer; DJC Devany, clerk; Mr. Farrington, ju~
tice; and Joseph Lake, constable. That year a bridge was
built across the Fox River, under a charter granted by
the State legislature."
"A grist mill was erected in 1854 by E.B. and C .S.
Kelsey, but it was not in operation until the winter or
spring of 1855, when it had one run of stone, and grounc
corn and other grain that did not require bolting."

To continue the 1876 history: "Early in the summer
of 1850 the dam was completed and a saw mill erected
and put in operation. That summer Montello had its
first frame building, built by Dr" Phillips and R. Giddings
for a store." (It is the store not so long ago occupied by
J.F" Lowe for saloon purposes, the 1876 writer notes.)
"Soon after E.K. Smith put up a frame hoteL This building was later moved to the present (1876) site of the
American House, and formed a part of that hoteL Sep·
tember 23, 1850, a post office was established at Mon·
tello, with J.N. Dartt as postmaster and weekly service
from Kingston. The only other post office in the area at
that time was at Roxo (a place long since defunct in
1876). Through the influence of the Montello post office
several were established during the winter of 1851. The
Fox River was navigable for boats but transportation by
water was on rafts. During the summer or fall the Fox
and Wisconsin River Improvement Co. sent a dredge up
the Fox, which removed the bars and deepened the channel, encouraging the people along the line to believe they
would soon see vessels passing bY their doors, laden with
the products of many nations. The only thing that came
of it that season was a few horse drawn boats employed
in rafting lumber."

...

"In February, 1855, the first newspaper was printed
at Montello on second hand material brought from Sauk
County. F.A. Hoffman, a German, was the publisher. It
was what might be termed a double-header, the name
Montello Young American being set up in two lines. For
those times it was a fair sized sheet, ftlled principally
with miscellaneous matter and advertisements of patent
medicines. A copy of the fifth issue is before us as we
write this, (1876 editor notes) and we find but one article that has anything in regard to Montello or her people.
The article was on a subject whlch our citizens are yet

***
"A considerable addition was made to the popu]ation
of Montello and vicinity during the year of !850 and several business enterprises were begun. Trade was a lively
portion of it, consisting of swapping with Indians, who
vrere numerous in the area. The splendid rice fields and
fishing and hunting grounds rendered it a most attractive
rendezvous for several bands of Indians. Although greatly
outnumbering the whites, the Indians were peaceably

73

quite tender. It was the prospect of an early completion
of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, from Elkhorn via Columbus and Montello to Stevens Point, which was then
most favorable indeed) according to the account

found in the whole west than at Montello. Being located
on the line of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Ship Canal,
now in the course of construction by the General Governm

publish~

ment, the raw cotton could be brought from the

ed."

Missis~

sippi River in boats to the very door of the factory, without ever breaking bulk from the country where it is

"From a few local advertisements we learn that the
people in business in Montello in 1855 included: E.B.
Kelsey, LO. Evans and William Cogan, storekeepers;
John Lewis and J.B. Graves, hotel keepers, (the former
proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, on Montello's southsside,
and the latter proprietor of the American House); W.L.
McKenzie, cabinet maker; H.B. Worden and James Barry,
boot and shoemakers; HJ. Pratt and P. Baldwin, physi·
clans; C.M. Seley, notary public; A.C. Knight and John

grown to the place of manufacture. That cotton can be
successfully manufactured in the West has been demonstrated at Janesville, where a large factory was recently

built. We have an advantage over Janesville in the way of
location, as we can ship our cotton direct from the cot-

ton growing states to the factory here, all the way by wa·
ter, and at much less rates than the railroads could possiA

bly transport it. The attention of the capitalists seeking

Lewis, wagon makers; and Frank Woodman, blacksmith.

profitable investment is called to these facts. We also have
an admirable location for a paper mill. An abundance of
rye straw can be procured very cheaply. Other manufac-

The Young American was subsequently purchased by
E.B. and C.S. Kelsey, both practical printers, and the
name of the paper changed to the Montello Ledger. C.K.
Simonds bought the office in 1858, and continued the
publication of the paper to the spring of 1862, when it
suspended. On his death in 1863, the material was pur·
chased by S.A. Pease and became part of the Express office, which was removed to Montello from Oxford in the
spring of 1862."

turing establishments could be profitably started here.
Montello is destined to become a manufacturing town of
no mean proportions. What we need now is men and cap~

...

ita!."

...

Woolen Mills - 1876
"One of the most complete woolen manufacturies in

the West is located at Montello, built in the summer of

"ln 1856 the Catholic Church building was erected,"
the 1876 history continues. "The following year times
were lively. A daily mail route was established between

1867 by the Wisconsin Industrial Association, and owned

and operated this year of 1876 by the Montello Woolen
Mills Company. The main building is 45 by 64 feet, four
stories high, of brick and stone, and contains two full sets

Montello and the railway station at Pardeeville; work on
the river improvement was commenced under the Canal

of the most improved maehinery for the manufacture
of wool into clothes. Extensive improvements have recentA

Company; a bank of issue and deposit with E.B. Kelsey,
president, was opened; a new school building was erected

ly been made about the establishments, in the shape of a
large addition to the main building, for a dye house, engine room, etc.; a new iron water wheel with sufficient
power to run another factory like this has also recently
been added, and everything about the establishment has

and numerous improvements made in the town. George

Hartwick was the leading merchant, the other store keepers being Vieth and Cordes, 1Jrner and Catlin, LO. Evans and William Cogan; C.E. Havens was editor of the
Ledger; Devany and Havens, attorneys; HJ. Pratt, physician; Henry Cordes, furniture dealer; and J .F. Roehm,
tailor."
"In 1858 the first Protestant church building was
erected by the Baptists. That year the county was divided,
with this portion which is now Marquette County retain·
ing the original name, with the county seat located at
Montello."

been put in the most complete order. The institution
gives employment to about thirty persons, and the carding,
spinning, weaving, and finishing departments are in the

charge of the best workmen that can be had. The mill is
now running to its fu~ capacity, and is turning out better

clothes than ever before, not withstanding the fact that
Montello Woolen Mills clothes have for several years ranked with the best."

The 1876 editor notes: "From 1858 until the breaking out of the Civil War, the town progressed backward,
and during the five years of the Rebellion there was little
or no change for the better. Since 1865, however, a
healthy growth has prevailed. Many neat residences have
been built; the finest being owned by J.F. Lowe, M.B.
Haynes, F.A. Kendall, L.A. Perkins and A.H. German.

Flouring Mills ·· 1876
<tThere are two flouring mills, one on the Montello
River and the other on the Fox, knoWn as the Montello

Sidewalks were laid, shade trees set out and the village
beautified in other respects. Public improvements have
also made fair advancement, such as the completion of

River Mill and the South Side MilL The Montello River
Mill contains three runs of stone, and is owned by Dodge
and Seaver, who purchased the property in the winter of
1873. The mill was a good one when they came into poso
session but they have expended nearly three thousand

the lock and dam, building of substantial bridges, a new
county building, the factory, etc."

complete establishment."

dollars in the way of improvements and it is now a very

...

"The South Side Mill contains two runs of stone,

one for fiour, and the other for feed. It was originally
built by C.S. Kelsey, but not working successfully, it
was overhauled and improved by John Lewis, who has
operated it for several years. The title to the property
(1876) is now in dispute and the case is to be tried at

Under the heading 'Water Powers' the 1876 writer
stated: "Montello is possessed of two magnificent water
powers, sufficient to operate a large number of manufac~
turies. No·berrer location for a cotton factory can be

the next term of our circuit court.' 1

74

Montello Granite Co. crew around 1920
General Merchandise - 1876

grocery and provision store; S. Pond, produce buyer in
MonteUo since 1867; A. Turner, furniture store, underta-

"Our stores for the sale of general merchandise are

king business, furnishing caskets and plain coffins readymade or to order; A. Smith, boots and shoe shop; Fred

something over which all citizens may feel justly proud.
We question if any other pJace of its size in the country
can make a better showing in this line than Montello.

There are three large, fully-stocked establishments-two of
them supplied with every article for which there is any
demand, besides many things to be found nowhere
else outside large cities."

"C.F. Roskie and Brothers are the oldest firm in business. On the 17th of March, 1866, C.F. Roskie, just then

German, son of our county clerk, manufacturer of boots
and shoes; C.L. Kendall, stoves and tinware; and Henry

North makes it a specialty; Jules IGnitz and Fred Mittlestadt, liquor saloons; JJ. Wall, an old liquor dealer, recently opened a temperance saloon or cfub room where
temperance men can meet for recreation and amusement;

out of his teens, started trade as a successor to F. Knaek,

in the building now occupied by JJ. WalL In 1868 his
brother W.F. was taken into partnership. A.M. Morill
opened a store in January, 1873, and is upright in all his
dealings and what he says of his goods and prices can be
relied upon every time."
.. Messrs. Perkins, Newhall, and Perkins became im~

pressed with the idea that a large establishment for the
sale of goods for a small percent over actual cost, would
draw trade from a larger extent of the country. Anum-

ber of attentive, faithful clerks are employed and among
their regular customers are many families who reside

twenty five and thirty miles distant."
1876 Business Establishments included:
"C.P. Goreline, general merchandise; D. McDougal,

Cutting granite blocks at Montello, circa 1919
75

Neshkoro

An overview of Montello in the early 1900's

Pleasure boating at Montello, circa 1907

Edward Chapel, harness shop; millinery and dressmaking,
Miss Agoes Baird, Mrs. A.M. Morill, Miss Alma Dartt and
Mrs. Hale; A.S. Trow and Co., pine lumber yards; Mr.
Paine of Oshkosh also has a yard, but has difficulty in
getting boats this spring to deliver the lumber; black·
smith and wagon makers, J.C. Murphy, Mr. Grulke,
George Lowe and Charley McDonald; Myron Gage and
G.M. Davis, livery stables; James Keeler, tonsorial artist;
Messrs. Peters and Stimson, first class copper shop; Dr.
H.J. Pratt, and Dr. S.A. Pease, physicians, and Dr. Wil·
Jiam S.S. Straight, dentist."
"The Fountain House, run by Thomas Eubank, can
accomodate fifty guests and the excellence of our hos·
telries is the subject of much comment of travelling men.
The American House with accomodations for sixty is
kept in apple pie order by Mr. and Mrs. Ed McCaffery."
"Montello has for a dozen years past been blessed
with good schools (1876) and by another year we hope
to see a fresh school established."

The peacefully flowing clear water of a river, wending
its way among treesJ marshland, and level ground which
could be cleared for fields, undoubtedly influenced Mrs.
Helen Maria White and her brother, Ebenezer Dakin, to
make their campsite in 1848 at the spot we now know as
the Village of Neshkoro.
Coming from New York state, they are the first known
white settlers to seek homes in the country northwest of
the Fox River; the land had been an Indian reservation and
was known as "Indian Land." We do not know if Mrs.
White and her brother arrived by ox team, on horseback,
or walking in this country where Indians and fur traders
had roamed, attracted to the sparkling water of the river.
Old histories written for school assigoments reveal that
they buflt a log cabin on land where St. James Catholic
Church now stands. The cabin had two rooms and an attic
loft. The floor was made of rough boards, fastened together
with wooden pegs. A fireplace was at one end, with the
chimney built from the outside. The furniture was hand·.
hewn logs and rough boards, with one door fastened with
leather hooks and hinges.
Wisconsin was said to have a climate and soil similar to
that of Germany in 1847-48; the young and flourishing
state, with government land available, drew large numbers
of immigrants. Many spread to Green Lake County, crossed
by the Fox River. The Fox was then navigable as far as

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Princeton, and formed the boundary line betweeen govern~
ment and Indian lands.
The early 1848 settlers after Mrs. White and Dakin were
mainly of German descent. In the Neshkoro area, it was
about 1855 when many Scottish and Irish settlers arrived.
The present Village of Neshkoro was platted in 1852 by
Mrs. White, with Dakin's two additio.ns to }he plat added
three years later. The 1852 plat taken from the record
book in the Marquette County Courthouse at Montello
shows Bluff, Park, Pearl and Berlin Streets; church lots
No. l and No.2; a school lot; public square; and building
lots. The plats were surveyed by G. DeWitt Elwood, surveyor. Some of the earliest settlers' names on village ab~
stracts are Titus, Lyman, Daniel, John and Sybrunde Hall.
Helen M. White sold the property known today as the
Miss Clara Gley and .Mrs. Martha Ward home, but once called
Gley's Hotel, to John Clay, Aprill4, 1854. Other names
on this abstract are William Clay and Hannah, his wife; Alvah Nash and Matilda, his wife; David L. Bunn; George
Gustin and Edmond Alexander.
Other early names on property on the west side of Neshkoro's main street included George Parker, Mary Ann Bunn,
wife of David L. Bunn, Silas W. Holmes and Eunice, Leonard D. Ralph and Harriet, Martin Hayes and Eliza his
wife - their insertion signed with "Love and Afiection."

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Churches
"The Catholics have a large congregation and a new
edifice will soon be built. Rev. John Larmer, the present
pastor, is a strong temperance man and well-liked. The
Protestants have a handsome church edifice, held in
trust by a board of trustees chosen from different socie~
ties. It was built in the summer of 1873 for the Metho·
dist Society and was then made a Union Church. Rev.
J.T. Martel, M.E. pastor, holds services every Sabbath."

~·
Sharapata and Kunart Store, early 1900's

77

·.S,

1851 a dam was built on the White River and it powered
a mill to grind corn between two large stones. The mill
stood where the Farmer's Exchange Bank is today. John
Wood was the first operator of the Pond Uly Roller Mill,
as it was called. In 1843 the nearest mill had been at Watertown, and Dakinsville was showing progress by providing

The village was first called Dakinsville, for Ebenezer Dakino It was also known as "Whiskey Comers," for the num·
ber of stills in the area, as there were no restraining laws.
Indians brought corn for barter, obtaining supplies in return"
The early settlers in Dakinsville were tillers of the soil,
clearing woodland and breaking land for farming. About
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ting was poor and at Washington it was deciphered as
~·Neshkoro"- and so it has remained to this day.
The first post office building in Neshkoro is today the
Canopy Restaurant on Main Street. The land was purchased in 1852 from Mrs. White (buyer's name unknown)
with the present building erected in 1865 by Harriet E.
Ward. In 1869 Andrew Scobie woned the building, using it
for a store. James Sexton became the owner in 1877, and
the postmaster. The building stayed in the Sexton family
until 1944, when Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Smart bought it
from Mrs. Clara Sexton Dahlke. The original walls in the
basement are of fine white stone.
Sexton, the grandfather of Mrs. Arthur (Myrtle) Reetz,
of the Village of Neshkoro, was born in Ireland. In 1848
he came to America, arriving in Dakinsville in 1850. He
fought in the Battle of Vicksburg, Atlanta Campaign, and
many other battles of the Rebellion, spending four years
in the south.
Sexton married Tille linskey on his return to thes area
and in 1866 embarked in the mercantile business. Record·
ed as an "energetic and entefprising business man," he
had the distinction of personally meeting each governor
of the State of Wisconsin. In 1902 he completed the build·
ing of his Sexton Block (the Komer Keg, south of the
Canopy Restaurant, was a part of this block).
Mter years of searching, I have discovered no record
of what happened to MrS. Helen White and her brother,
Ebenezer Dakin. According to old abstracts, Ebenezer's
wife was Catherine A. We do know he met financial mis·
fortune. Montello Courthouse records reveal that his

power for grinding meal for the surrounding settlers.
The road from the present site of Princeton to the prem
sent site of Stevens Point was an Indian trail known as the
"St. Marie Road," today State Highway 73. It passed
through Dakinsville and north.
The settlers knew the value of education for their chi!·
dren and in I "!ISO a log school was built on the present
school grounds comer, just north of Zion Lutheran Church.
Andrew Scobie was an early teacher, receiving four dollars
a month to teach twenty-five children.
The lirst known cemetery in Neshkoro was on the lot
designated for that purpose by Mrs. White, on the slope
south of Zion United Methodist Church, today school play·
ground. It was about sixteen by sixteen rods in size. In
1851, a Miss Nichols was the first person buried there. Most
of the graves were moved in later years. Older residents re·,
call that in their school days the tall, narrow white headstones remained, leaning and tumbling to earth. Early picm
tures show the tombstones, behind the schoolhouse.
The story of how Neshkoro received its official name
has several versions. It has been generally accepted that
the village's present name is an Indian word meaning
"Clear Water." Chief little Eagle, a Wisconsin Dells Indian,
said that in his language Neshkoro means "Twisted Rock."
According to the writings of Charles Robinson, a country school teacher who was born in 1867, the name was a
mistake when a post office was established. Alvah and Matilda Nash were the hotel keepers, and Nash applied to
Washington for an official post office, intending to honor
himself, and call the place "Nashboro." But his handwri-

79

"goods, chattels, lands and tenements were posted and
sold at auction to the highest bidder, William H. Dakin,
February 8, !862." A Moses Chamberlain was the complainant.
Perhaps Mrs. White and Dakin and his wife left the
Neshkoro area with those who moved further west for
new adventures, as there are no markers for them in area
cemeteries"

•••
Jottings From This Historian's Journal
Research notes on the historical background of the Village of Neshkoro in Marquette County, gathered from numerous sources since 1965. inake for interesting reading<
"The grandfather of Qarence Rhode was Sam Miller
who lived near Budsin, on the farm where Ferdinand Nimphius, the boat builder, lives today. Miller told how the
Indians traded beans and trinkets for the farmers' produce.
They would travel through the county, with their herds of
horses and sheep. One Indian in particular would bring in
corn and exchange it for whiskey. "
"On the rim of the hollow between the Fanners Exchange Bank and the bridge crossing the Neshkoro Millpond, there stood shortly after the tum of the century the
bright red ftre house with a jail below, and the ftre bell in
the steeple. When the bell was rung, Hennan Kropp would
harness his horses and go quickly to the iJre bouse to hitch
onto the fire wagon""
"Five old grave stones on the Catholic cemetery lie flat
on the ground. The long. narrow grayish white stones read:
'Margaret Degnan, December I 0, !886 -age 63-bom in
!823; Patrick Degnan, Mary 12, !882 -age 72- born in

18!0; John Dagnan, !866 -age 58-· born in !808; Julia
Dagnan, wife of John, 1870, -age 75- born in !795; Thomas O'Connor, !876-age 57-bam in !8!9.'"
«Andrew Scobie \4\1S engaged in the manufacture of
plows in Neshkoro. A native of Scotland, born in 1833, Andrew Scobie was ripe in years of experience and in kno~
ledge of the world and ways of men, and has been very
successful in his business enterprises. He married Elizabeth
Harper, an eamest worker, in the Methodist Church. Their
daughter Mary Scobie was the wife of Thomas Wells, of
the woolen factory, and died inl887."
"William Scobie in 1852 came to America and in 1869
settled on a farm near Neshkoro. With his brother-in-law
Thomas Wells, he built the Neshkoro Woolen Mills, which
they operated successfully for nine years. The poor and
needy have found a speeial friend.''
"William Harper-mustered out of the army in !865.
Robert Harper died in !863 in Nashville, Tenn., while
serving in the army."
"Jacob A. Wegenke - born in 1842 in Germany. Father
of Robert Wegenke, born in 1872. Jacob came to America
in 1865. Taught German in the schools of Town of Crystal
Lake in Marquette County and farmed on 140 acres. Numbered among the well-to-do citizens, fidelity and promptness characterizing his discharge of official duties in the
township. Supported the Democratic party in politics and
was one of the most influential men of the community.
Organized the Neshkoro Mutual Fire Insurance Company
in 1895, taken over by his son, Robert."
"In 1867 there were only two hon;e teams between
Neshkoro and Wautoma. They were owned by Ed Murray
and Ransom Tone."
"John W. Johnson, 88, a pioneer Neshkoro business-

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Two views of Main Street, Neshkoro, early in the century

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The Neshkoro Depot, circa 1914
80

man, died in August, !939. He was born in 1851. In 1883
he came to Neshkoro and established a general merchandise business. The building in which the store was located
was erected in !888, and stands today on Main Street. He
was for many years president of the Neshkoro bank, and

was father to Dr. Ray Johnson, and grandfather to Dr.
Charles Johnson."
"October 5, 1904 - residents of a certain territory of
Marquette County, consisting of 1,217 acres of land, with
308 people residing, made application to the arcuit Court

81

Oxford
population is about four hundred. Jason Daniels is postmaster."
"The present business interests may be thus summarized:
general stores, S.J. Fish, A.F. Myers, R.L. Nickerson;hardware stores, Jason Daniels, Alonzo Roberts; boots and
shoes, E. Hall (store), Charles Nickerson (shoemaker); drug
store, Benjamin Chilson; sorghum mill, A. Houghtaling;
farm implements, W.N. Johnson; blacksmith shop, C. Uoyd;
harness shop, Alonzo Roberts; hotel, Samuel Stowe; flouring mill, James Summerton; and wagon maker, H.H. Ward."
"The town of Oxford is on the western border of the
county, bounded on the north by Westfield, on the east by
Packwaukee, on the south by Moundville and Douglas, and
on the west by Adams County. The surface is generally level and it is a good agricultural town. The head waters of
Neenah Creek flow through the western part of the town,
aod in the eastern part several small tributaries to Buffalo
lake have their sources. On the southern border there is a
small marshy lake, extending into Douglas. There is aoother
in the east part and still another in the northwest part, the
latter crossed by the road."
"William Axford, the Ormsbys, H.H. Taylor, William

"The Indians still claimed this section of the country as
their hunting grounds when the first settlers arrived in the
area to be called Oxford," an !889 author wrote.
"The wild and unsettled condition at that time, and the
unattractive appearance of the country was not conducive
to rapid settlement, but after a few noble men and women
had braved the trails aod dangers of pioneer life, inunigrants flowed rapidly in and the work of transformation
placed the county in its present advanced position."
Oxford in Marquette County was settled about 1850
and the village plat was filed in 1854 by C.J. Pettebone,
David Ormsby, W.V. Miller, P.B. Hillyer, Cornelia Smith,
Franklin Abbot, V.G. McCullock and J .B. Sanderson. Ro·
ber and David Baker's addition was platted in 1857. It was
important to early travelers as a fording place for oxen
and wagons crossing Neenah Creek.
"Oxford Village," is described in the 1890 Biographical
Album as located on "Neenah Creek, fifteen miles west of
Montello, and seven miles west of Packwaukee, on the Wis·
consin Central Line, the nearest railroad station. The nearest banking point is Montello. The village contains a water·
power flouring mill, two churches and a public school. The

The Pond Lily Roller Mills in the 1890's
at Montello, for incorporating the village to be known as
Neshkoro."
"AprillO, 1906- Neshkoro Village came into being
by the order of Chester Fowler, Circuit Judge at Montello.
A meeting was ordered to be held in the Village of Nesb·
koro May 12, 1906, for the purpose of electing its first
officers. Seventy nine people voted at the first election.''
"October 7, 1906 - The Neshkoro Village board agreed
to graot Charles Dahlke a franchise to construct and operate an electric light plant."
"December 5, 1907- The Neshkoro Village granted a
franchise to the Neshkoro Telephone Company for twenty
years. .,
"December 5, 1907- The Neshkoro Village board
voted to buy a frre engine and twelve pails. Also forty feet
of extension ladder for the use of the village fire department. Also voted that in case of frre a great distaoce away
from the engine house that a team of horses be hired to
draw the said frre engine to the frre. The sum of two dollars to be paid to the owners of horses used at the time.
Seventy five cents a month was paid for storing the engine."
"September 6, 1908- There is now a fine board cement
walk extending from the south side of the bank lot to the
corner of the old river flume and material ready for cross
walks to the store of Johnson aod Son."
"May 3, 1908 - The Neshkoro bank is all settled, but
whether it will be built on the old mil/lot, or on the Sexton lot adjoining the brick block, is not fully settled yet.

Mr. Sexton certainly makes a good proposition. "
"The Redgraoite freight train came through the village
every morning about eleven thirty as the school children
were ready to go home for lunch. They could see in the
flat cars all the granite being shipped to Milwaukee. It was
used on the lake as a break water.~'
"For entertainment there were medicine shows in Dahlke's HalL The place was packed. They sold patent medicine,
gave a play aod had a sing-along. Stayed two weeks. Had
snake oils. If you bought several bottles you received a
pair of stockings. The grand prize was a lady's watch."
"August 31, 1911 - A double nmaway occurred while
unloading some farm machinery from a box car near the
depot. The team owned by F.E. Zank became frightened
and ran. As they crossed the iron bridge, another team
owned and driven by Mr. Bonnlender of Milwaukee, who
was driving through from Marshfield, also broke loose. The
passengers were hurled down an embankment ten feet
high. The buggy turned over several times, but fortunately
no severe injuries resulted. ,
"Johnny Byrnes, the grocery mao, was good to little
children. For every tobacco wrapper with a red spear on
it that they brought to him, he gave them a stick of candy.
He died of a heart attack on the steps of the old black
building which stood north of Gley's Hotel. Dr. Foley had
an office in this building. It was tom down after Byrnes'
death."

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The Oxford Mill, around 1910
Johnson and Eli McNutt were among the early cornerS to
this town. The town officers of Oxford for 1889 were: B.K.
Johnston, chairman; WJ. Ogle, town clerk; S.W. Strouse,
treasurer; A. Franklin, assessor."
Wolf packs posed a threat to the Oxford pioneers. The
1876 Oxford news in the Montello Express newspaper
states: "Considerable excitement has prevailed among the
sheep raisers of this part of the country on account of the
wolves. They are getting quite bold and in some instances
have been seen in droves of four or five. Quite a number
have been killed, as the bounties offered for the scalps have
induced parties to hunt them."
An 1879 clipping relates another wolf incident. "A 'terror by night' was experienced by Mr. James Stowe, as he
returned from lodge late on Saturday evening. In the woods
near his house he encountered what appeared to be two
wolves. On attacking the first it began to show fight; and it
was only by calling the aid of his trusty dog that Mr. S. succeeded in driving it off. In the darkness he examined the
other animal, and found it to be a sheep, badly wounded by
the wolf. Nightly wolf prowling is quite too frequent in
this region. A regular Putnam wolf hunt should be in order,
for there are little children as well as sheep in the neighbor·
hood."
Oxford's Centennial Celebration was observed June 27,
28, 29, 1958. Dr. J.A. "Doc" Hines, chairman, said in the
Oxford Express Centennial Edition-1958 (published every
one hundred years): "We know Oxford isn't exactly one
hundred years of age in 1958, but back in 1948 or 49

when the centennial year rolled around, nobody thought
about it. So 1958 looks like a good year for having funso why not a slightly late Centennial?"
Highlights from Oxford's Century of History:
"Practically all of the earlier villages in Wisconsin were
built up around a water power gristmill and Oxford was
no exception to this rule. 'When the first settlers arrived
in the area, they quite naturally picked an ideal site for a
mill on the Neenah Creek--and the village of Oxford simply
grew up around it."
"William R. Axford has always been credited with being
the first permanent inhabitant, settling in 1849, though
there were a number of persons who came about the same
time--William T. Goodue, the Waldrefs, James Dunn, Nathan Brown, the Ormsbys, Thomas Henry and James Jones."
"A sawmill was erected by the Browns and Ormsbys as
early as 1850 and in the winter of 1852-53 Ormsby (probably David Ormsby) acquired sole ownership and put in a
'run of flouring stone' hauled by ox team from Milwaukee.
This mill provided sawed lumber when the first log cabins
began to give way to more pennanent homes in the midfifties, and also ground the wheat, buckwheat, cornmeal
and rye which the early settlers brought to have ground
for home and stock purposes. In the first five years of the
settlement, little or no grain was exported because of transportation. With the coming of the first roads to the area in
the mid-fifties, teamsters began to haul wheat to distant
points such as Milwaukee."
uThere appears to be several legendary reasons for na-

85

~

......
Packwaukee &Buffalo Lake
Buffalo lake and the unincorporated village of Pack·
waukee in Marquette County figure prominently in area
history. Packwaukee is credited with being the first settlement in the county and Buffalo lake was a part of
the Fox River waterway, traveled by Indians, voyagers,

south shore of Buffalo lake opposite the site of Pack·
waukee. It was laid out on a liberal scale that made the
plat resemble that of a town of three thousand to five
thousand inhabitants, but as a matter of fact there was
never really any town there; it was only laid out on paper. The land was later sold for taxes."

adventurers, explorers and pioneer settlers.

"When forest covered most of Marquette County, ex-

Packwaukee, platted in 1853, was named after a
friendly Winnebago Indian chief. It had been the site of

cept where the Indians camped, there were no wagon
roads, only trails. Mail had to be carried by men who
walked from place to place. later a man on horseback
brought the mail. Often-times the pioneer preachers and
circuit-riders delivered the mail as they performed their
pastoral duties. When new roads were built the mail was
delivered by ox team or horse drawn wagons. later the
stage coaches had regular delivery routes from Portage,
Pardeeville, Kingston, Princeton and other mail stations
outside of Marquette County."
"The first post office in Marquette County may have
been Buffalo lake Post Office. It was given the number
591, and was established May 23, 1850, with Datus N.
Root as postmaster. It was discontinued February 28,
1851.''
Roxo on Buffalo lake was another of those cities
providing lots for five thousand homes which failed to
develop. There evidently were some people, perhaps fur
traders and Indians living there according to the speech
given by the Hon. W.H. Peters at an Old Settler's club

a somewhat permanent Indian encampment and was located at the intersection of several trails. A small trading
post existed there, within the radius of protection of
Fort Winnebago at Portage, several years before a permanent white settlement. Old histories state that the name
of the Indian trader is not known but that the building
in which he did his business with the Indians was in recent years known as the Trimble house and had been
moved from its original location on Buffalo lake. No
written records verify the date, but it is said to have
been built in the 1830's, before the land was opened to ·
settlers.
From research of the Marquette County Historical
Society we read: "Even before the county was opened
to settlers, speculators with big ideas were platting huge
'cities' and selling lots for homes to unsuspecting pioneers. As early as 1837 a town named Buffalo was platted by John Noyes and James Lyman on Section 29,
Township 15, Range 9, Township of Packwaukee, on the

Packwaukee's Main Street in the 1920's
The site of Oxford's first City Hall (in 1877)
almost three hundred to less than two hundred, and like
Rip Van Winkle, the village lay down to sleep for twenty

1g the place 'Oxford.' One, the least likely, is that bee there were any bridges, ox teams were obliged to ford
:Neenah Creek. A century ago the name Oxford appear·
in a dozen places on the map of eastern America (for
ford on the Thames River in England). Another version
: it named for the first settler whose name was startlingsimilar-Bentley Axford."
"According to a history compiled in 1936 by Leo Stalk·
neither of these versions is correct. He states that 'Mr.
ntley Axford was given the honor of choosing a name
r the village and he named it for his old home town of
<ford, New York, which in tum had got its name from
e original in England.'"
"Hopes were high for the future of the new village lying
tride the main tote-road west from Milwaukee and north
Jm Portage. Two stage stations served traffic along this
ad in the 1850's.''
"The Civil War cast its pall over Oxford as it did the na·
JR. For at least three years, about one hundred of the
ea's men were fighting, and many never did come back.
fter the war the coming of the railroad to Portage dealt a
ow to Oxford. It lost any importance it may have had
>r its position on the main wagon and stage routes. Severof the better stores were tom down and moved to Por·
:ge. Even the saloons closed up, the victim of two forces:ilroads and the booming temperance movement which
mnd plenty of followers in Oxford. A short time later the
r.sconsin Central Railroad, running through Packwaukee
nbut halted traffic on the north..outh wagon road, Ox·
>rd's one remaining artery. The population dwindled from

years."
"In 1885 a new era of prosperity began. A creamery

was built, bringing more farmers into town; new machinery
was installed in the mill; local capital built new stores; the
mail was increased to two deliveries per day; a livery stable
and freight line to Packwaukee came into being and travel·
ingsalesmen began to speak of Oxford as one of the best

inland towns in the state."
"In 1911 came the greatest single factorin the village
growth: the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. It forever put an end to the team and stage lines and brought in
new lumber yards and warehouses, etc. In five years the
number of residences in the village doubled. July 19, 1912,
the village incorporated.''
"Streets were improved, sidewalks built, an electric light
plant installed, a bank capitalized and a state trunk high·
way (135, now 82) ran through the village. In 1915 a new
school was built. In 1916 a creamery. Even Oxford's
famed race horses pepped up and ran races all over the
Middle West. It was quite a time for Oxford!

~

86

87

.eting held in Montello in 1876. To quote: "I recollect
'll the large political meetings and eloquent and stirring
eeches made by Mark Durham and Steve Fallis up at
JXO and Forrestville to the Winnebagos, and down in
ecan to the German voters~-and they always made it
1Unt because they were never beaten."
The historical records contain accounts from people
ho recalled having heard of a store at Roxo that was

built upon strong posts. Later when it was no longer in
use, sheep would graze near it and go under for shelter.
There was danger that it might fall on them, and the
posts were cut so the building would collapse. It is also
told that the train stopped at this building on stilts and
people would get off the train and pick the daisies grow·

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ing in profusion.
Roxo post office was established July 16, 1850, with

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months and English the other three. Seventy·five dollars
was commonly spent for all maps and books and teaching equipment in a term and pupils studying McGuffy
readers advanoed by ability to read and not by grades.
Reuben Gold Thwaites, the famous Wisconsin historiR
an, canoed down the Fox River Valley in 1887, record·
ing his voyage in a journal, the complete account of
which was reprinted in the book The Trail of the Ser·
pent. Thwaites wrote 1 on June 8, 1887, in the period
when steamboats were plying the Fox River and many
landings were seen on the river where freight and passen~
gers were informally taken aboard: "Packwaukee is twen~
ty-five miles by river below Portage, and at the head of
Buffalo U.ke. It is a tumbledown little place, with about
one hundred inhabitants, half of whOm appeared to be
engaged in fishing. A branch of the Wisconsin Central
Railway, running south from Stevens Point to Portage,
passes through the town, with a spur track running along
the north shore of the lake to Montello, seven miles east.
Regular trains stop at Packwaukee, while the engine
draws a pony train out to Montello to pick up the cus·
tomers of that thriving village. Packwaukee apparently had
great pretensions once, with her battlement fronts and
verandaed inn; but that day has long passed and a pictur·
esque float~bridge, mossy and decayed, remains the sole
point of artistic interest."
"Buffalo U.ke is seven miles long by three quarters
of a mile broad. The banks are for the most part sandy,
and from five to fifty feet high. The river here merely
fills its bed; being deeper, the wild rice and reeds do not
grow upon its skirts. Were there a half-dozen more feet
of water, the Fox would be on a chain of lakes from Portage to Oshkosh. As it is, we have Buffalo, Puckaway

George S. Leatherbury as postmaster. It was discontinued
May 18, 1854. U.throp Ellis, the surveyor of Roxo,
wrote: HRoxo is beautifully situated on the north side
of Buffalo Lake about two miles from its mouth in the
.
Township of Packwaukee."
When the tide of immigration began to flow through
Marquette County in 1850, it centered arOund Packwau~
kee and for many years it was the principal trading cen~
ter of the county. Among the early settlers of the area
were: E. Pettingill, E.T. Older, C.G. Barker, Jesse Older,
William Ewen, David Phelps, S.A. Pease, John Chapman,
E. King, and Samuel Wayman, all of whom came in 1849
and 1850. Others coming the first few years of settlement
include E. McCaffrey, Robert Page, William Peel, Charles
Metcalf, Chester Frink and Tom Whitson. Clark, Kendall
and Neale are other names associated with Packwaukee
history.
Marquette County's first Fourth of July celebration
is also recorded as having been observed in Packwaukee
with James Cook, the first lawyer, as orator. Packwaukee
Post Office No. 6!3, was established July 27, 1850, with
William Buen, Jr. as the first postmaster.
School districts one and two of Packwaukee were or·
ganized in 1852, the first in the county. The "three R's'
were stressed in the teaching of early settlers' children.
Records show that the schools were made oflogs and from
1850 to 1860 they were built at a cost of $200. School
minutes of an 1868 meeting called for six months of
school, with a male teacher in winter and a female in
summer. Teachers were boarded at neighboring homes
and fathers of pupils furnished one half cord of wood
per scholar for fueL By 1873 there were fifty.gix schools
in Marquette County, some teaching German for three

89
88

flA...
would you call me at that time a daring, adventurous
kid, who fired and engineered the boat, christened the
Sport of Packwaukee, on its maiden voyage on the Fox
to Oshkosh."
"The mound builders once inhabited the shores of
Buffalo Lake. Left scores of mounds or burial places,
from which many archeological specimens have been
found. Been some shady dealings around here too. On
the land homesteaded by Byron Royce in 1852, a counterfeiting gang was found making counterfeit half dollars.
A depression in the ground marks the cave in which they
operated. Then in the Prohibition era a large still was
found on the same property."
"I'd guess every kid ever born in Packwaukee learned
to swim in the Fox or Buffalo Lake. Came automatically.
Either fell in or jumped into the water. Then paddled
their way to shore. Clear, clean water."
"Bull frogs were a real delicacy. Grew to an enormous
size and were plentiful. William Smith once told me that
my grandfather caught one that weighed three and one
half pounda. The Opera House was the place to go for
entertainment, of one sort or another. The travelling
stock companies were fme. Then a man named Bamsdale
built his own machine to treat Packwaukee to movies.
The Great Train Robbery was his specialty. He used
sound effects and explained the pictures as they flickered

and Grand Butte des Morts, which are among the prettiest of the inland seas of Wisconsin. The knolls about Buffalo Lake are pleasant, round-topped elevations, for the
most part wooded, and between them are little prairies,
generally sandy, but occasionally covered with dark loam."
"little bog-islands, heavily grown with aspens and
willows, occasionally dot the seas of rice. They often fairly hum with the varied notes of the red-winged blackbird,
the rusty grackle and our American robin, while whistling
plovers are seen upon the mud-spits, snapping up the
choicest of snails. And such bullfrogs!"
"In the pockets and the sloughs, we find thousands
of yellow and white water lillies, and sometimes progress
is impeded by masses of creeping root-stalks which have
been torn from their muddy bed by the upheaval of the
ice."
"Fishing boats were also occasionally met with this
morning, occupied by Packwaukee people; for in the
widespreads just above this village, the pickerel thrives
mightily off the swarms of perch who love these reedy
seas; and ·the weighty sturgeon often swallows a hook
and gives his captor many a frenzied tug before he consents to enter the 'live-box' which floats behind each

craft."
"An elderly gentleman pointed out to us the location of the old steamboat dock--a very busy place, he
said, and in those days at the end of the last century,

on the screen. Most of the evening's entertainment was

Packwaukee was real booming."

spent in listening to his explanation of why his machine

Harvey Jones compiled a history of Packwaukee in
1966. He told us: "The first land entry in Marquette
County was made by John Noyes in 1836. He and James
Lyman platted ground on the south shores of Buffalo
Lake. That land has long been known as the old Kennon
place. Those men visualized a city of several thousand
and chose the name of Buffalo. The people who came to
this area in 1849 and 1850 favored a location directly
across the lake. They established a village, naming it
Packwaukee, after a friendly Winnebago Indian Chief."
"What's reputed to be the first frame building in
Marquette County was erected on the shores of Buffalo
Lake in Packwaukee. Used as an Indian trading post, and
saloon. Appropriately called it the Wigwam. It was later
moved to the north side of town. Still stands and is
known as the Jim Trimble place."
"Many interesting stories have been handed down
about the Wigwam. Heard tell how the various windows
were broken out by an irate wife, whose husband imbibed too freely of firewater. Saturday night regular celebrations were held there by gay blades coming by boat
and horseback."
"Buffalo Lake and the Fox River were mighty important to people living along their shores. Caught bullheads,
and marketed them. Trapped fur-bearing animals. Were
abundant back in those days. Been told the first steamboat to navigate this route in 1851 was the Aquila. AJ.
Priest, a Packwaukee man, owned a boat. Went out of
existence before the tum of the century. Captain Michael
Garrow operated the I.E. Leimer. Made its last run in
1905 or 1906. Docked it, dismantled it--and then allowed
it to sink in the waters where it had done so much to
help build a thriving community. End of an era."
"As proof of his love for the Fox, Captain Garrow
later built a small steamer. Used machinery salvaged from
a steam_yacht owned by the Nee Pee Nauk Lodge on
Lake Puckaway. I'm proud to say I was the man, or

was constantly breaking down!"
"There were many fires in Packwaukee in those long
ago days. The community was so jittery that they instinctively grabbed a pail of water when the church bell rang."
"During the construction of the railroad in 19101911 , Packwaukee being the closest place in the neighborhood where liquor could be legally obtained, a rough
time was feared. A warning was issued that it would be
unsafe for women to be on the streets after dark. But,
except for an occasional fist fight, the crews of imported

Westfield
"Westfield village is located in the northeast part of the
Town of Westfield on Duck Creek and on the Wisconsin
Central Railroad line, twelve miles northwest of Montello.
It is the center of a large agricultural district and is comparatively a large shipping point for produce and stock. Its
general trade is good for a village of its size and it has some

srnaJl manufacturing industries."
(From the Portrait and Biographical Album - 1899.}

The village was platted in 1856 by Pickens Boynton for
Robert Cochrane, who with his brother H.B. CoCllrane, located before anyone on the site of the present village in
1849. When the town was organized in 1854, H.B. Cochrane became one of the supervisors. After the Cochranes
came Samuel Crockett, Austin Stone, William Phillips
and others to settle in the village. The Cochranes built
a house on the banks of Duck Creek, just south of the
sawmill in the village. It was a log structure sixteen
by twenty-four feet, with an addition in which the
proprietors lived. They boarded fifteen mill hands
and kept hotel. This was the first house erected
in town. In 1850 the sawmill was built. The post office
was also established in 1850 and Robert Cochrane was appointed postmaster.
Cochrane brought the first mail bag, containing one letter, on his back from Packwaukee. There were no wagon
roads in those days. In 1853 Joseph Wood built the first
hotel in the village. Among the earliest general merchants
were Alneck and Older.
The Central Union, a Republican paper devoted largely

workers were quite peaceable."
"A real eye-popping experience for us kids, who had

never seen anything larger than a scoop shovel, was to
watch the snorting monster--a Bucyrus Erie Steam
Shovel-used in the operation, with no apparent effort
handle a yard of dirt with one scoop!"

~

90

91

to local interests, is in its fifteenth volume and is published by S.D. Forbes. This paper has done much toward the
up-building of Westfield.
The high school house at Westfield was erected a few
years ago at a cost of eight thousand dollaill. There are thre<
churches-the Congregational, the German Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal. The latter was organized in 1867 and the house of worship was erected in 1863.
Thomas B. Crawford Post, Grand Army of the Republic,
of Westfield was mustered March 5, 1883, by Col. O.L.
Holmes, chief mustering officer and D.O. Hanks, both of
Baraboo. The officers chosen and installed were the following: S.D. Forbes, commander; P. Lockey, S.V.C.; J. Waldo
J.V.C.; R.D. Malloy, Qmr.; J. Crawford: Serg.; L.M. Preston, chaplain; J. Perkins, O.D.; H.M. Ormsby, O.G.; H.S.
Ball, Adjut.; C.A. Parker, S.M.; W. Fuller, Quar. Serg.; W.
FuUer,J. Crawford and W. Pond, trustees.
The 1890 business houses may be thus briefly mentioned: general stores-Breitenfelt & Just, Samuel Crockett,
Carl L. Krentz, Ferdinand W. Meinke, Julius Warnke, Andrew Waterson; druggists-- Frank Abbot, Dr. Her~rt D.
Hill; blacksmiths-Walter W. Bissell, Kalmnete & Hallender,
Meneke & Springborn; miller-Robert Cochrane; lumber
dealer-Robert Cochrane; produce dealers--Robert Cochrane, H.B. Deneby; furniture dealer and undertaker- Robert H. Duff; photographer-John Fenner; livery-William
Megill, A.C. Fuller; stationer--Caleb F. Fuller; tanner and
glove manufacturer-William Fuller; shoemaker--Charles W.
Gay; hardware and implement dealers-Hamilton Brothers,

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Robert and Brown;jeweler·-Frederick W. Kline; millinersMiss LJ. Peck, Mrs. J. Warnke; dentists-Melvin 0. Straight,
E.L. Perry; real estate agent-William Phillips; butcher-William Quinn; insurance agent-Harvey R. Rawson; hotels..
A.T. Wooster, William L. Sims;hamess maker-George A.
Waldo.
An example of tum-of-the-century houses in Westfield
is the setting for the Marquette County Historical Society
Museum at 213 Lawrence St. Painted white, with 'ginger
bread' ornamental wooden scrollwork and an old-fashioned
porch, the house is shaded by trees on the spacious lawn,
stretching to the banks of the Westfield Millpond.
Known locally as the Cochrane-Nelson house, it was
built in 1902 or 1903 by T. Harry Cochrane, the son of
the founder of Westfield. Nels Nelson, a Danish immigrant,
purchased the property in 1906. It is a house of warmth
and charm, exuding the friendly feeling and love of family
living.
The house features an open stairway, tall ceilings and a
'cuddling room,' built as an alcove off the downstairs bed·
room. It was here that the babies were cared for. The ori~
gina! door knocker, placed by Cochrane, has been made
into a plaque and mounted on a parlor wall. Flowered wallpaper, hardwood floors, carved and painted woodwork and
a host of memoriesare a part of the basic style of houses
of that period.
A brick fountain house built over the artesian well, butter
and cream kept fresh and cool; woodbine growing on the
green lattice-work at the back door; a carriage house for
the horses, buggy and surrey, and an ice house later used
for a bam were typical.

93

The following histol)' of Westfield is taken from the Montello Express newspaper of June, 1876, and was written by
a 'subscriber.' This is how he saw twenty-eight years of
progress, to quote:
"Westfield was first settled in 1848. James Mitchell made
a claim upon the land in that year, where the village of
Westfield is now standing. But within a few months, Messrs.
James, Robert and H.B. Cochrane, three brothers, bought
Mr. Mitchell's claim and commenced at once to make pre·
parations for erecting a grist and sawmill upon the water
power, where said mills were soon built and where they
now stand. These three brothers continued in business at
Westfield for several years. H.B. serving as chairman of the
Board of Supervisors nearly all the time he was with us.
But some twelve years ago, James moved to Waupun, where
he has since resided. About the same time H.B. moved to
Trenton, Dodge County, where he is engaged in farming.
Our town lost a good and worthy man when H.B. moved
away. And as true merit will be appreciated wherever
found, therefore the chairman of Trenton today (1876) is
our old friend and neighbor H.B. Cochrane. Mr. Mitchell,
after selling his first claim, soon took another one, some
two miles southwest of our village, where he remained until
some eight years ago, since which time he has been living in
Minnesota."
"In 1849, A.O. Hubbard settled upon the farm near the
village, where his family are now living, he has several years
departed this life."
"Our early settlers came into the county by wagons, by
way of Montello. As there was no bridge across the Fox River at that time, the women and children crossed in a canoe,

as the water would come up into the wagon boxes while
crossing the Fox. Many are the interesting incidents related
by them in relation to our town's early history. W.W. Hanks
of the town of Harris, carne into the county about the same
time that Mr. Hubbard and family came. L.D. Hubbard and
wife, the daughter ofW.W. Hanks, were among the first
whHe children born in this part of the country."
"The first merchandise sold in this village was kept in the
sawmill; but within a short time two brothers, William and
Hugh Cochrane, cousins to the mill owners, started in trade
at this place on a small scale. They remained but a short
time with us, prefering to try their fortunes in the far west."
"In 1855, Mr. Wood, now Probate Judge of Wood County,
built the first hotel at Westfield. During the same year three
store buildings were erected and occupied as follows: Booth
and Lock, in the first, Aldrich and Older in the second, and

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Fisher Brothers in the third. These firms were short-lived,
Robert Cochrane taking the place of Aldrich and Older in
1856. In the spring of 1856 we had quite an accession to
our town. S. Crockett came here in that year, and opened
a tailor shop and kept a few goods for sale; and he is long
since set the goods and shear to one side of things of the
past, and devoted his energies to the mercantile wants of
the people, until now he stands among the first merchants
in our county."
"In the spring of 1863, the nice large hotel built by Mr.
Wood was burned. Three families were occupying it at the
time. Their loss was heavy, as there was no insurance except
upon the building, which was owned by parties living in the
east. For three years houses of entertainment were opened
by some of our town's men. In 1866 Philo Lackey built a
new hotel upon the same ground where the old one stood

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Westfield High School, circa 1907
before being burned, since which time the place has been
furnished with good hotel accomodations-although at the
present time, one hotel appears inadequate to supply the
increasing demands of the public, and at no very distant
day we expect to see one or more new hotels with their
omnibuses ruttning regularly to meet the railroad cars as
they arrive here in town."
"W. Phillips entered the mercantile field at this place in
the fall of 1864, and was very successful in business until
the spring of 1872, at which time the fire consumed his two
store buildings and his dwelling house, with ali of his goods,
in a very short time. Philips paid ali his debts promptly, but
from this heavy loss he has never been able to rally so as to
again enter the mercantile field."
"E.J. Beck, M.D., came along in the fall of 1855. He was
a first class physician and a gentleman in every sense of the
word. He remained with us until 1862, when he entered
the Union of the South army. He returned to us after the
war closed but he stopped only a few days, preferring
a larger field in which to labor. He is now (1876) and has
been for several years, in Platteville, Wise. For several years
past we had H. Russell and S.H. Duly as our practicing physicians ...

94

"Our public school interest has not been neglected, as
we have a two story large school house where the young
idea is taught by first class instructors."
"We have this year as merchants S. Crockett; Krentz
and Meinke; W.M. Gilchrist; William Cochrane and Henry
Gibson. Druggists are Frank Abbott and Hugh Russell; wa-

gon makers and blacksmiths are Lackey and Meinke and
A.G. Fuller. Tailor, Gottlieb Somerfield; harness makers,
George Waldo and William Fraser; James Dick as boot and
shoe maker; John Fenner, painter and photographer."
"Our dressmaker and milliner·«Mrs. LJ. Peck and Miss
M. Pinkerton. Mr. W. Fletcher keeps our meat market and
a temperance eating and drinking room. We have one saloon
where the worst of all poisons is dealt out for the destrucft
lion of ali the good and noble qualities in man. We also
have two wide awake, active temperance societies with a
large membership which are making their influence felt
far and near. In fact, every- branch of business carried on
at Westfield is being done with energy, and activity seems
to be the motto."
"We do not claim that our soil is the 'best' to be found
in northern Wisconsin, but we do think we have some very
good soil in Westfield, and nearly all who live here are
willing to remain at this railroad, with all the 'unpleasantness' which we may have to settle with the greedy and
soulless corporations."
"It is with your correspondent as with .every other per~
son in Westfield, very busy, and this is why the 25th Centen,
nial of our town is so short and has been so long delayed."
-Subscriber (1876)

~
95

Other Communities
MERRITT'S LANDING

JEDDO
Jeddo is a post office in the Town of Buffalo, near the·
center, eight miles south of Montello, the nearest railroad
station and banking point. Daniel J. Dixon is postmaster.
Mails are received tri-weekly. The population in the vicini~
ty is about seventy-five.

Merritt's Landing is a hamlet of twenty-five inhabitants
in the Town of Moundville, twelve miles southwest of Mon·
tello, and on the line of the Wisconsin Central Railroad.
C.A. Merritt, dealer in lumber and proprietor of the only
general store 1 is the assessor.

LIBERTY BLUFF

MIDLAND
Midland is four miles south of Jeddo, twelve miles
south of Montello and eight miles north of Pardeeville, on
the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, the nearest
railroad station. It contains the general store of levi

Reeves, two churches, a blacksmith shop and schoolhouse.
Montello and Portage are the nearest banking points. D.W.
Brown is postmaster Population is about two hundred.
0

ROSLIN
This is a recently established post office eight miles
from Montello and twelve miles from Portage, the nearest
shipping point. It contains a general store, flouring mills
and other interests. J. Graham is postmaster.

Liberty Bluff is a post office on the Wisconsin Central
line in the northeast corner of the Town of Springfteld,
eighteen miles northwest of Montello. The business of the
place begins and ends with the lime kiln of J .A. Glover
and the general store of William Guderjohn. Etta Smith
is postmistress. There is no other village or post office
in the bounds of the town which is almost entirely given
over to agriculture.
The Town of Springfield's officers in 1889 were: Julius
Berndt, chairman; J.A. Glover, town clerk; Henry Alexander, assessor; William Guderjohn 1 treasurer,
(From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Green
Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, 1890.)

~

GROVER
This is a newly established (1890) post office in the
Town of Buffalo.

DOUGLAS CENTER
Douglas Center is a small village with a population of
about fifty, near the center of the town of Douglas. It is
eighteen miles southwest of Montello, seven miles southwest of Merritt's landing, on the Wisconsin Central line,
and fourteen miles northeast of Kolboum City. The principal business interests are the general store and post office.
York and Moore (W.H. Moore, postmaster); blacksmith shop
ofJ. Blume; flouring mill ofl.W. & G.E. York; and the wagon
'Shop of Andrew Swemlive. Among the leading business
and professional men are Dr. H.H. Parrott; James Starkey,
miller; and P.H. McMahon, railroad contractor.

Waushara County
Waushara County comprises 18 townships, and is in the shape of a parallelogram, being 18 miles wide and 36 miles long. General topography of the
county is level; some bluffs in the northern and central towns; swampy at the
mouth of Pine River and Willow Creek. The three eastern towns are heavily
timbered, with the exception of some quite large tracts of marsh. These marshes are valuable for the cultivation of cranberries. The soil in the timber parportions of the county is of a clay-loam; on the prairie, black loam, and in
the openings sandy. County contains 207,360 acres of land; one-tenth being
under cultivation.
The county is well watered by Pine River and Willow Creek, both good
millstreams, on which are several saw and grist mills. In addition to these
streams, almost every farmer has what he calls a fountain, or flowing well,
the water never freezing in the coldest weather in winter, and always suffcient to supply any amount of stock. The forests of the county contain all
varieties of timber, such as are found in North America. They have large
beds of clay, that make cream-colored brick, and with the facilities for manufacturing, would be equal to any manufactured in the state; afso potters clay
of excellent quality, which makes superior stone ware.
.
Of the principal rivers and streams, Fox River on the south, Wolf River and
and Lake Poygan on the east are navigable. Pine River, Willow Creek and
Mecan River are larger streams, and stocked with fish. Small game is abundant. Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, at Berlin, is half a mile (rom the
south line of the county, and will be extended through it. The Wisconsin
Central passes fourteen miles north; and a road from Prince'ton to Stevens
Point will be built from Berlin to Weyuawego, through the three eastern
towns, connecting the Milwaukee and St. Paul with the Wisconsin Central
Railway.
The principal industry of the town is agricultural; wheat, rye, corn, oats
and potatoes being raised to perfection. A large amount of hay is also rais·
ed. There are seven custom flouring mills, ten or more saw mills, and three
carding machines in the county. All these would be well sustained.
-From An Illustrated History of Wisconsin, 1875-

~

MOUNDVILLE STATION
Moundville Station is a post village on the Wisconsin Cen·
tral line, which runs north and south through this town. It
was settled in 1848, and (1890) has a population of about
four hundred. This place is fourteen miles southwest of
Montello, and ten miles north of Portage, the nearest bank·
ing point. It contains a church and a school. Following is
a summary of its principal business interests: C.A. Merritt,
lumber dealer and proprietor of a general store; H. Ennis,
merchant; J.Smlth, blacksmith; C. Ellison is postmaster.

97

96

Aurora ville
W ausbara County

Streams of clear, cool spring water for mill power,
marshes and swamp land supporting the cranberry bog har·
vesting and a lumbering industry all figured importantly in
the early settlement days of Auroraville.
In 1890 Auroraville had a population of three hundred,
and the village contained two churches; the general stores
of E.P. Covill and Strang and Wells; a sawmill run by J.
Montgomery; the nursery ofW.W. Daniels;hotel of J.W.
Hollenbeck; and Charles Fero, T.M. Harvey and James

vest was a means of income, brought large numbers of people who depended upon this work for a livelihood.
The water which was divided by a small island at Auroraville was important to early settlers. The north side of the
stream became the location for the sawmill while the other
side served the furniture factory and feed mill. The area
was known as Daniel Mills in the wilds of the Indian Land.
As the village grew the name became Auroraville. The mill
furnished lumber for the prairie country to the south, and
men came from as far as Ripon and Markesan for building
materials.
The first white child born in the town of Aurora was
Eunice N. Culver on February 22, 1851. E.W;Daniels is
credited with erecting the first frame house oil the north
side of the stream, east of Olsen's Mill. (Olsen's Mill con·
tinues to operate by water power in 1981.)
Hotels became a paying investment, for teams travelling
between Milwaukee and Stevens Point (and other settlements north) with supplies necessary for a new country,
took considerable time to make the journeys. Hotels often
were called taverns and travellers stopped for the night at
them, or at homes if a business place could not be found.
A.B. Byers operated such a half-way house in Auroraville.
It had a large dance hall upstairs and people came from

Brown, carpenters.
The history of this small Waushara County village dates
back to the early spring or summer days in 1849 when the
government land providing maple trees for sugar, timbers
for siding for new homes, and meadows oflush grass for
cattle grazing attracted the first settler in the town of Aurora, Henry R. Aoyd. He was followed by E.W. Daniels in
1850, N.W. Harrington in 1851; A.A. Dainels in 1852; W.
F. Williams in 1854;and B.F. and D.L. Davenport in 1859.
Willow Creek, crossing the northwest comer of the town
of Aurora, with a broadening at Auroraville on the way to
Lake Poygan, was a favored spot for Indians and early settlers to gather wild rice in the fall. The bogs of the Berlin
cranberry barons, Sacket and Carey, were known throughout the state. The cranberries in the years when their har·

EV. LUTH. ZIONS CHURCH,

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SO~ND

PARSONAGE,
AURORAHVILLE, WIS.

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R, KRET2MAN 1 PACTOR.

The Lutheran Church in Auroroville, early 1900's

98

99

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Eugene and Peter Bowen first harnessed the millpond for
water power to operate a saw mill. The first of three water
wheels was built in 1923 and is still operating.
After the saw mill closed, Wisconsin Power and Electric
Company operated it for a short time to generate electricity for Auroraville. It was in the early 1930's that A.A. Olsen became interested in the water wheel. This was the beginning of the Olsen family tradition in the mill. A.A. and
Andrew Olsen were partners in the water-powered mill
which has been operating continually, "giving the most efficient power in the state, old as it is."
The three water wheels at the mill, two used continually
for power, and the third one occasionally, have been maintained throughout the years. This is possible because their
manufacturer, Leffel Turbine of Ohio, has every cast from
every turbine they built, so parts may be ordered.
The approximately quarter acre of iand donated to the
state in the 1930's by A.A. Olsen was developed by the
State Department of Highways for a small wayside park beside the pond. This rest area is enjoyed by fishermen, sightseers and motorists who come to the community located
on Highway 49 a mile north of Highway 22 in Waushara
County. The flowing artesian well, the red granite wall and
a small pool are attractive offerings.

AtrRORAVILLE

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miles around for the festivities. This building was later a
cheese factory.
Schools were of utmost importance. "The first school
house in Auroraville was a primitive affair with only one
room and no entry for protection from cold blasts when
the door was opened," one history of Auroraville stated.
It served as not only schoolhouse, but as a community
meeting place and center. It was lighted with tallow candles,
as were most of the business establishments and homes in
the early years. This building was removed and a two room
school erected in 1860.
JoluiAustin is credited with the building of this school
and it was used as a county normal school, offering enough
high school work to send out good teachers to the small,
one-room country schools.
A Mr. Merral of the United Brethren Church did most
of the building rf the frrst church. A skilled workman.from
the East, he prepared and polished his own lumber. "He
was also equally zealous in advancing the kingdom by singing and exhorting in his pleasant way," the history notes.
"After Tom Haruilton of Berlin acquired the water power at Fargoville (two miles, more or less, up the stream),
there was for a time bitter feelings between the herdsmen
from Fargoville and Auroraville. The dairying industry later
bought the mill site at Hamilton Mills (Fargoville) and made
it into a cheese factory." The town slowly disappeared and
faded from sight. The community of Haruilton Mills (Fargoville) had a post office for a time.
AI Wheaton and Oscar Wolfe were the cheesemakers in
the first Auroraville cheese factory, situated where the famous Artesian Fountain (old Faceful, originally a horse wa·
tering trough) lias become a landmark. The Ayers Hotel was
later converted into a cheese and butter factory. The dairy
industry was of utmost importance in the area. "Joseph
Mathews planned to keep one hundred cows, mostly pure·
bred Holsteins but the economy changed, and soon the
cheese and butter factories disappeared."
Olsen's Feed Mill, Auroraville's largest landmark and a
family's heritage since 1932, dates back to the 1800's when

Coloma
"The village of Coloma was formerly known as Coloma Station. It was settled in 1858. It has two banks: the
People's Bank, of which Vilas Follette is president, and
Darwin Follette, cashier; and the Coloma State Bank, with
J.F. Bartz, president, and Alan A. Gibbs as cashier. W.A.
Roblier has been the postmaster there for a number of
years.
Coloma, like its sister village!, Plainfield and Hancock,
is located on Federal Highway 51 and on the Soo Railroad (formerly the Wisconsin Central, completed about
the year 1877, and the first railroad in the county).
Both railroad and highway run though the Main
Street, parallel with the business places and many private
dwellings along and by the side of the road.
Judge Sorenson inserted bits of poetry from various
sources between chapters in his book. This verse is his
choice for Coloma: "Let me live in a house by the side
of the road, where the races of men go by; the ':Den who
are good, the men who are bad--as good and as bad as !."

(These bits and pieces of Coloma history came from
various books and compiled histories on file in the Wautoma Public Library. As with most communities, dates may
vary by a year or two when researching the published
facts, and names are spelled differently.)
COLOMA (From Waushara County Has a History, compiled in 1952 by Ella Poulette.)
"Early in the spring of 1849, Jobn Drake of Green
Lake carne to the western part of Dakota township and
staked out a claim for a tavern, as a halfway house between Portage and Stevens Point. Lumber was bought and
hauled from Stevens Point, but sickness made Drake return to Green Lake until the following year. Meanwhile,
a young man named Stowe came on a honeymoon trip,
learned of the proposed Drake tavern, then appropriated
the lumber which Drake had purchased and built a tavern named Stowe's. Drake returned to find his lumber
stolen, and had to have his tavern made of hewn logs,
which caused rivalry between the two taverns for years.
Thus Coloma was said to have been started with stolen
lumber."

COWMA (From the Portrait and Biographical Album,
published in 1890.)
"Coloma is a hamlet of about fifty people, in this

COWMA (From the History of Waushara County, by
ex-judge George P. Sorensen. Printed in the Redgranite
Times, 1932.)

town seventeen miles west of Wautoma, twelve miles
south of Plainfield and a little Jess than four miles west
of Coloma Station. It was settled in 1850. Here are the

The Coloma Hotel, circa 1910

100

101

besides the general stores of S. Dulin, E. Exner, Smith
Brothers and Mrs. J.A. Smith; the hardware store of C.P.
Schmudlock; the harness shop of H.W. Gibbs; and black·
smiths, wheelrights and other small mechanics shops."
TOWN OF COLOMA
"This is the western of the southern tier of towns
of Waushara County and is considered a good agricultural
town. In common with Hancock and Plainfield, its companion towns in the western tier of towns, it enjoys the
advantages of railway facilities, the Wisconsin Central
crossing east of the center in a north and south direction
with a station named for·them, Coloma. Hancock is the
town lying north of Coloma; Richford is to the east; Mar·
quette County to the south; and Adams County to the
west. There are no streams worthy of note in this town
and only one small body of water lying mostly in section
33, on its southern boundary. The Mecan River might be
said to have its source in the northeast section of the
Town of Coloma."

--,

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(From Resources on Waushara History for School, compiled in a 1959 special studies workshop.)

Iteam, feed and saw mills of J.W. Smith; the hotel of
f.B. Smith; and the general stores of J.F. Spaulding, W.T.
liisbop and Elias FoDette."

"The question is often asked, how did Coloma get
its name. William White and Elias Follette were among
the throng of gold seekers at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma,
California. They became fast friends and both returned
to Waushara County about the time the formation of a
new township was being discussed. White, being a member of the county board, and Follette, being clerk of the

COLOMA STATION
"Nearly four miles east of Wautoma, it has a popula·
tion of 150. It was settled in 1858, after the corning of
the railroad and contains a church and a district achool,

Main Street Coloma, early 1900's
Town of Richford, both used their influence to thus
commemorate the most exciting event of the century."

and south travel between the cities of southern Wisconsin
and the huge pineries of the north. A stage line was rna·
king scheduled trips in both directions."

...

•••

"At a special meeting of the Waushara County Board
in 1853, a resoltffion was introduced by supervisor Mer·
rick Dodge of Dakota, authorizing the establishment of a
new town out of part of what was then Wautoma town·
ship. The proposal was voted down, but after much bic·
kering two new towns were created from a part of Dako·
ta. The first included what is now Coloma and Hmicock.
and the second was Adario, now called Richford. In 1855
the north half of the new town of Coloma was detached
to form the township of Sylvester, later renamed Hancock."

a Station,
·1900's

"At the first town meeting held in the newly organ·
ized township of Coloma a man named William White was
elected its first chairman and the first town supervisor of
schools. He was the most influential official in the town's
early history. He sat on the County Board for five years,
was its chairman in 1857 and 1858, and served in the Wisconsin Legislature one term. In April, 1854, he organized
School District No. I, which was known as the White
School; District No. 2, in what later became Hancock;
and District No. 3 at Ross Comers in Coloma."

•••

•••

"At its first town of Coloma meeting held April 4,
1854, only twenty-three votes were cast, of which three
were by residents of what later became Hancock. Yet
there had been settlers in the area for several years, the
earliest being a man named Stowe, who arrived in 1849.
He was followed the next year by Francis Drake and both
these men became prominent in the early development of
the town.
The Portage-Stevens Point Road was at the time a
well-travelled highway entering the Town of Coloma at its
south line and continuing on a north-easterly direction
through the entire town. It was the main artery for north

102
-··---·~--------~-------·

"Coloma was first called "Ross Comers," but came to
be called Coloma because that was the official name of
the post office located there. A new railroad was being
built from Stevens Point to Portage and Elias Follette
built his new store near where he thought the rail line
would be. But differences arose between the owner of
the railroad and the owner of the land through which the
road was to be laid, with the result that trains began run·
ning in 1876 over tracks that were several miles east of
the Follette store. Promptly a new village sprang up called
Coloma Station.

103

, ..... ~~~

Dakota
Dakota in Waushara County was settled under the Military Bounty Land Act of 1850. Reading from the abstract of title entry: "The United States to Chapin M. Seeley-September 16, 1852-Govemment entry book.
The Military Land Warrant Number 416 was registered
in the Menasha office on that date. "In the name of Nathan Hatch has this day been located by Chapin M. Seeley-Section 31-Contents of tract location-160 acres;
(with other lands)." It is signed by A. Spaulding, register,
and "recorded in the office of the register of deeds for
Waushara County, on page 180 of Volume A of deeds."
The Village Plat reads: "C.M. Seeley to the Public-September 3, 1853. Plat of the Village of Dakota, Wau·
shara County. Section 31-Town 18-North-Range 10
East."
From the flies of the Waushara County Courthouse in
Wautoma: "September 3, 1853--Certified that C.M. Seley (spelling) appeared before Justice of the Peace M.
Dodge, Waushara County, and acknowledged he execut~d
the annexed plat of the Village of Dakota."
This was "flied for record September 5, 1853-at 9
o'clock a.m. in the plat book No. 1-page 3. Signed by
J.S. Bugh, register of deeds, R.D. Hathaway, deputy."
The Plat of the Village of Dakota in Section 31 in·

The high school in Coloma, circa 1910

As the new trading center grew the old Coloma began
its slow but steady decline and in due course the first postoffice was closed and the name of Coloma Station was officially changed to Coloma. The old village has since been

eludes a Public Square, Pond, Mill mock and layout of
streets named Temple, Eagle, Pearl, Water, Chapel, Cen·
tre, Spring and Main.
Reading from various abstracts of title of the vilJage,
the fact is determined that W.H. Gleason surveyed the
area. (Seeley is spelled as Seeley or Seley.) His wife's
name was Phebe Maria. There was a mortgage for $2,000
on September 3, 1853--"Chapiri atid Phebe Seley to
George W. Smith."
Other names on mortgage, bond or quit claim deeds
in 1854 were those of Josiah and H.A. Rice, G.C. Davidson and James B. Dakin. A notation reads: "A portion
platted and recorded as the Mill mock, on which stands
the Dakota Mill." February 18, 1854: "Charles R. Dakin
to Chapin M. Seley-bond-- for Dakota Mill property.''
''The Mill Block was included and recorded as the
plat of the Village of Dakota, surrounded by approximately 220.62 acres.''
Reading from the abstract of title for October 11,
1857: "Alvah Nash, sheriff ofWaushara County-sheriffs
deed to Josiah Rice. The Mill Block only not to be sold
at public auction--220.62 acres.'' The names of Chapin Seley, Charles R. Dakin, G.C. Davison, James B. Dakin and
Charles P. Taber appear. A later entry discloses that the

A bit of history of Ross Comers:
"In 1855 Huntress Ross had purchased the Hopper
House, a small hotel which was operating when the Stowe
House burned (as the first fire in the Town of Coloma).
He enlarged it and in one part he opened a store, the
first one in the Town of Coloma. In June, 1855, he became Coloma's first postmaster. Later he started a shoe
store. The community came to be known as "Ross Cor~
ners." Victor Thompson operated a blacksmith shop. A
resident physician located there and a Methodist Church

...

known as Coloma Comers."

"Elias Follett died in 1901, still operating his store to

the very end. His son, Vilas, retained his residence at Co·
lorna Corners, while his father lived, butlaterin 1901 he
moved to the new Village of Coloma where he had a wellestablished business in grain and farm supplies. In October,
1902, Vilas Follette organized the People's Bank of Coloma with which he was actively associated until 1932,
when he resigned his position as president to be succeeded
by his son, Darwin Follete, who in tum yielded the office
in 1959 to his son, Kenyon FolJette, grandson of the
founder of the bank."

was built a year or two later."

***
"Ross Comers survived when Drake's Stand became
a place of the past. Bur Oak Prairie, as it was also calJed,
was level, free from stone and fairly rich in humus. There
were few trees and huge breaking plows pulled by twelveox teams could quickly convert the virgin soil into pro·
ductive farms. The population increased rapidly and prospered."

•••

~
The Dakota School around 1905

104
::.;;.~-""=·=='="~·

property was sold for $2,400.
The names of Alvah Nash and Dakin figure in the history
of the Village of Neshkoro in the very early settlement days.
Ebeneazer Dakin was one of the founders. The village was
supposedly named for Nash, with a mistake in spelling, One
document reveals that Ebeneazer Dakin was involved in a
bankruptcy case in the Village of Dakota.
By studying old abstracts and records the names in the
founding of Dakota are revealed. An 1869 Dakota di·
rectory lists: Oscar Babcock~postmaster, real estate

and collection agent; F. B. Munson-dealer in dry
goods, groceries and general merchandise; N. B. Prene~
tice, proprietor Farmer's Hotel; Rosencrans-physi*
cian and surgeon. Other information has been found
in the 'Biographical Album of 1890'.
To quote: "Dakota is a small village of seventy-five in·
habitants, and has the only post office in town. It is eight
miles southwest of Wautoma, and ten miles southeast of
Coloma Station, the nearest railroad point. It was settled
in 1851. Here are the sawmills ofJulius Gramse and Her·
man Testlauf, the general store ofW.L Roberts, the hotel
and grocery of Mrs. LJ. Crandall and some small mechanic's
shops."
Among the early settlers and prominent men of Dakota
were: G.W. Wilter, D.R. Coon, F.E. Wandrey, HJ. Peep,
B.S. Crandall, Gottifried Stenzel, William Diggles, Peter
Hamel, H. Harrington, John Wandrey, H.W. Rood and AI·
len Dewell. These are only a few names from the 1852
abstracts,
The town of Dakota in 1890 was located as "the middle
tier of towns of Waushara County, and lies just west of the
line dividing the county into its east and west halves, In
the northern part of this town the White River is formed
by the junction of several small streams. Pine Creek and
another stream of equal size have their courses through and
their sources partly in the western parts. Bass Lake and three
other smaller bodies of water lie within this town. There is

considerable swamp land in the western central portions,
but good farms are found in nearly all parts of the town.
Dakota's boundaries are these: north, the town of Wautoma; east the town of Marion; south, Marquette County;
west, the town of Richford."
The old creamery is mentioned often in memories of the
Dakota of the past. 1l1e abstract of Harold and Kay lmm,
owners of Block J-lots l-2-3-where the creamery was loca·
ted, at the junction of JJ andY, and of Dakota Inn and
Store, Block C, sets the date of the organization of the Da·
kota Creamery Company of Dakota as May 8, 1903. The
company was terminated July 9, 1934 and the property
was sold to Frederick and Wilhelmina Muske. Albert A,
Meyer was company president at that time and Fred Dee
was secretary.
The Dakota Bar and Store is one of the landmark buildings in the village. Mrs. Imm figures "the oldest part is over
one hundred years old, and the business portion and attached home were built in three sections, at different times." The
second story was a dance ha11 in the early years of the cen~
tury. "The floor is cherry wood, and the dance hall is sup·
ported by tamarack poles."
In the days when it was the center of the villlage and
neighborhood for dancing there was an outside stairway to
the hall, and an ice house in back of the store "was fllled
in winter with ice for summer use." The millpond shown
on the village plat is today marshy land, for the dam went
out years ago and the grist mill is relegated to the pages of
history.
The Public Square remained constant over the 130 years
since Seeley platted the village. It is maintained by DakotaRichford American Legion Post 163 as a Veterans Memori·
al Park. When wedding celebrations or dances are held at
Grosenick's Dakota Inn Tavern, south of the Square, cars
are parked around the park in every available place. Grose·
nick's security light illuminates the area at night The Le·
gion's annual events of a February Pancake Day and June

Two views of the Dakota Store, Top photo is from the early 1940's, lower photo about a decade earlier

The Dance Hall
above the
Dakota Store,
circa 1910
Chicken Barbecue bring airs of festivity to the little village.
Grosenick's Dakota Inn is located on Block E--Lots 1-2·3
of the village plat and their home is on Block B--Lots l-2.
Ella Semrow Rhode lives in her home on the comer of
Highways JJ andY, her land touching the banks of the Mecan River which furnished the water for the millpond when
it was dammed up by the pioneer settlers< Mrs. Rhode is a
lady who has known the hamlet all of her eighty-seven years-the mill, creamery, post office in the store, names of people
and dances in the haiL She was born February 22, 1894,
three miles southwest of Dakota, the daughter of Carl and

106

Paulina Buchholtz Semrow.
"My dad owned eighty acres east of the village about
1905 and the butter maker, Chris Muehren, boarded with
my parents. There was an American Lutheran Church par~
sonage where Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gramse live." Mrs. Rhode's
home is the former German Lutheran Bible School which
the children attended for three weeks after the school term
ended for the summer in the little public schoolhouse east
of the store. Ella and her late husband, Richard Rhode, had
the German school moved to its present location in 1961 and
remodeled as a home.

107

According to an old Dakota legend, the village was first
Ued "Commora"""thought to have been and Indian word.
Harold Kromrie, owner of one of the businesses in the
!age, Harry's Auto Service, points out that County High,
ty Yin front of his shop, was in pioneer days the main
•d between Wautoma and Montello leading to villages
d cities north and south.
Milo Brose, 75, has lived on "the old Belter Farm since
>Vember 10,1910, when my parents, Edward and Louise
:yer Brose, purchased the two hundred acre farm just
rth of Dakota on Y." An only child, he recalls attending
~summer sessions at the German schoolhouse, and the
joyments of his youthful years.
"The Rev. William Roy was our German preacher. We
j Bible classes and it was hot in June. When Rev. Roy
nt to visit with Carl Semrow they'd smoke their pipes
ring recess, and doze off. This was a chance for the kids
slip off to the river and cool off or kill snakes. There
san old plank board bridge across the river then."
Brose was secretary of the St. John Lutheran Church
>rth of the store) when it closed in 1958. The record
)k shows that the first annual meeting was held in
rch, 1889. "Julius Gramse gave the land for the church.
•ne Church south of Dakota was attended by Lutherans
'ore and since the Dakota church closed." In 1921,
Rev. Conrad Behrens' Dakota share of his salary is re~
ded as "$402.75." The Dakota pastor also cared for the
gious needs at Richford~ Coloma and Newton parishes.
·ecall years when the pastor's salary was about $!200,"
•se said. "Wages and prices were in accord."
Brose told of the last days of the rustic grist mill, "when
•as so weathered it looked like it could fall over. There

Glen Rock

Typical house in Dakota in the early 1900's

unofficial census quotes the number to have been any~
where from 400 to 800. In 1904 and 1905 there were
many stores and businesses. Families lived in large houses
along the then sandy road. Foreign·bom quarry workers
bunked and ate in two huge boarcling houses. William
Harvey ran one, "as large as Wautoma hospital," near the
Milwaukee Quarry, by the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad tracks, south of Spring'Lake.
There was a smoking room for the men, kitchen and
dining room and a wing for steeping. Four hired girls car~
ried water from a pump in the yard, washed clothes on
a scrub board and cooked for possibly one hundred men 1
all at very low wages.
The Northern Quarry was operating on the south side
of the road just before the curve that led to Spring Lake.
Mr" and Mrs. Fred Dahlke ran a second boarcling house,
which sat across the road, north of the present farm build·
ings.

Glenrock community in Waushara County is today
just a memory, It can't even be called a ughost town of
the granite era, " for the town is gone.
The name "Glenrock" no longer appears in Waushar·
a County atlas, plat or farm directory books. Depressions beside clumps of trees and lilac bushes, a few crumbling foundations and two vacated granite quarries along
County Trunk N, between Neshkoro and Spring Lake.
are the only visible evidence of the once booming town.
Both granJte quarries are today private property.
But to a history enthusiast, a drive down "Glenrock
Memory Road~' almost brings a vivid image to mind after
talking with people who remember the heyday of those
granite quarries.
Today, the two,mile stretch in the Town of Marion
is blacktop road and acres of fields. Huge boulders of
granite are glimpsed in a wooded section along the high·
way. Memories of former Glenrock residents are vivid
with recollections of the turn of the century, when the
two quarries were at top production and this was a pro·
gressive and prosperous little town.
Statistics vary as to the number of inhabitants. An

The Scottish, Irish, Swedish, Australian, Finnish, Ger·
man and Polish men who worked in the quarries were
big and strong, willing to work and play hard. Many of

were a few planks where the water wheel had turned in the
river. The mil] stones were moved to the Gramse home~
stead near the store, and feed was ground with a steam en~
gine."
There were two stores at one time in Brose~s recollections. uHome brew was made in the kitchen of one. Uttle

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towns made a living making brew, buying the syrup, hops,
yeast and malt for bottling." Moonshine was manufactured
illicitly at Lake of the Woods, southeast of Dakota, in
Prohibition days, with several raids by law enforcement
officers.
Brose tells of the creamery, where farmers brought their
cream and took the skim milk home to feed to pigs. "Then
came the cream separators, and my dad hauled wood for
sale all one winter to pay for his separator. A load of potatoes would buy a $2.50 tall kitchen clock in those days."
(The type that are collector's items today.)
Brose speaks of "teachers, Shirley Gilson, Esther Lowe,
Nellie Marr, Lillian Olson and Ethel Marcy; blacksmith and
farmer Julius Gramse; Herman Tetzlaff, carpenter, and the
sleds and wagons built in Dakota; the post office in the
store; and store owners Bill Gutche, Bill and Fred Miller
and Paul Thalacker, store keeper--horse trader, who would
barter for furs or horses."
Mrs. Imm points out where Thalacker's name was
scratched in the store foundation before remodeling. Paul
and Ida Thalacker's names apppear in 1909 on the Jmm
abstract, when they purchased the store in Block C for
$1600. Main Street on the plat is County Highway JJ.

The Glen Rock Hotel around the turn - of- the- century

108

109

danced all night and stayed for breakfast, all for twentyo

them had left loved ones in the "old country." The
Greeks lived in a long building south of the general store,

five cents.

Mrs. Nellie Cutts, 76, Spring Lake, was a girl of two

which then stood on the curve opposite the house known

at~

as the Fred Priebe home. The Greek cook baked bread,

when her family moved to Glenrock. She remembers

one hundred loaves, every other day, in open brick-lined

tending school in the buildings which were moved to South
Glenrock and North Glenrock on division of the district afo
ter changing trends and methods ended the demand for
granite

ovens under the open sky. Having no well, the eighty· toone hundred Greek men carried their water from a spring
;ecluded in a deep ravine.
In the words of one former resident: "It was a hum~
Unger of a town! The men were tough, with no stopping

Clarence Rhode, Neshkoro, operated the store for six

months in 1916 after the second closing and final decline
of the community. The quarries reportedly went bankrupt.
The Milwaukee quarry hole was noted for deep water,
which couldn't be kept pumped dry during quarry days
because of springs dotting the bottom. A landmark that

•hen they started to fight, with fists or knives. When
hey tired out, that was it, and next day they were
fiends again. The only law in town was Justice of the
,eace George Fuller."
Toad Stool Depot, a roof on top of posts, sitting
ear the Harvey Hotel, did business for the "busiest spur

just disappeared a few years ago with the ravages of time

was a gnarled crabapple tree that stood beside the Dahlkeoperated boarding house, giving shade for the resting quarry

ne in the county," with three passenger trains a day and

10 p.m. freight chugging on to Redgranite and back to
1e main line leading to Marshfield on the north and
ond du Lac and Milwaukee to the south. The spur line
as built about 1902, with as many as twenty-five car·

workers. Former Glenrock residents remember the beauti*

ful voices of the Welsh and Scottish workers singing in the
evening hours, close by the tree.
After the granite decline, when the boilers, air com~
pressors and heavy machinery had been removed, the nor~

ads of granite a day sent out from the quarry towns in

e 1910 peak days. The spur line tracks were removed
1971, and today the railroad right-of-way is the Banrman Snowmobiling and Hildng TraiL
Granite was shipped to Milwaukee and Chicago to be
ed on the lake front as a breakwater in the days before
ncrete. A few recall the cyclone that ripped through
:trip of Glenrock, carrying the Toad Stool Depot into
ring Lake and leaving windmills twisted like rope_ There

them quarry land was purchased by Fred Dahlke. The
boarding house was taken down and rebuilt on the south

side of the road for the Dahlke farmstead home. Granite
was used for the house and barn foundations. Houses were
moved away~~and Glenrock became only a memory,

***
Of interest at the corner of Czech Avenue and County
N, the beginning of Glenrock on the south, are four red·
topped steel posts and heavy wire, enclosing at least two
graves. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Shead have owned the land
since 1946 and never knew the graves were there, "until
one day about 1952 we saw that someone had erected the
fence," Mrs. Shead explained.
Inspecting their abstract, Mrs. Shead found a transac~
lion in June of 1882, when the farm was owned by Lester
King and a German Methodist Episcopal Church was started on this I \:1 acre corner of land.

re no casualties among the Glenrock inhabitants.
Quarry men were noted for enjoying their liquor and

•g. On Sundays the men walked into Neshkoro and
nt the day in Gley's Hotel and the six taverns, making
)ack in time to start the week's work on Monday.

Large quantities of food were consumed by the husky
1rry workers. Polusld's Butcher Shop was down the
d from the store. Neshkoro businessmen sent in meat
bread to be served in the hotels. A bakery was oper·
l by Adolph and Robert Koats in a shed behind the
iness places on the east side of Neshkoro's Main StreeL

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ost office was in the Glenrock store, the mail being

ded out by the proprietor until a Neshkoro rural route
established. Roads were so sandy that the first Model
ords had to be pushed up hill as they could not operLinder their own power. "In rainy weather the mud
'deep as heck' and horses could barely trod tl!J!ir way

The crew of the Great Northern Quarry at Glen Rock early in the 1900's
The most tangible evidence of the Glenrock community is Marr Cemetery, on the southside of County Trunk
N, shielded from the north wind by a pine grove. In 1964
Marr Cemetery was so run down it was unrecognizable as
a burial place. It had grown into a littered mass of hazel
brush and fallen trees, with gravestones toppled and im·
bedded in the earth and debris.
Fred Priebe, today an Oshkosh resident, was then
a man of eighty living in his country home on the curve
east of the cemetery. He enjoyed "tidying things up, so
they look neaL" Priebe was hired by the Town of Marion

ugh," it has been told.
Pictures of two schools, standing side by side, are tan~

• proof of a large number of children in the communibe white frame buildings stood in front of Marr Cern·, immediately west of the Dahlke boarding house
10rthern quarry. Sarah Lane and Mary Emigh are re·
bered as good, dedicated teachers.
\!fred E. Kolpin, 79, Westfield, nicknamed "Doc" by
1bling man, lived in Glenrock as a boy and young
His parents ran the general store after the Fred Wie·
'ck family. I sat with Doc on New Year's Eve in
, writing his remembrances of Glenrock on napkins,
all around us merrymakers in the Village of Nesh-

board to bring order out of havoc in the cemetery-and

he did.
Seventy~five

graves are known to have been in the
cemetery, many never marked, and all records were lost

many years ago in a fire in the Spring Lake store of the
late George Fuller, another man who enters into the his·
tory of Marr Cemetery.
Fuller became interested in the cemetery in the mido
1930's when his cousin, Ella Mills, came to him because

were welcoming in the new year. We were enjoying

ng on the past.
oc told how he and two young men, playing guitar

olins, furnished fast music for dances, where they

110

mold. Animals dug holes. Trees toppled over the graves.
Fuller purchased the school grounds, to obtain a right-ofway to the cemetery. He bought Marr Cemetery and the
estate of Marr was settled by having heirs sign for a clear
title.
About 1946 at a town meeting Fuller made a motion
to deed the property to the town, to be certain of per·
petual care. He had a plat of the land, which burned in
the aforementioned fire, and the one possesed by Volney
Williams was not found at his death. No one knows where
t~1e unmarked graves are 1 for certain, and only a few

of the deteriorating condition of Marr Cemetery. Her fam·

ily, the Cutts, were buried there, Fuller told her, "I'll see
what I can do," and he formed a cemetery organization

with the late Fred Grant and Volney Williams of Spring
Lake. A fence was erected and the pines planted in front
of the cemetery where a schoolhouse had stood.
ln the earliest settlement of the locality, before the
Civil War days, the old school was the gathering place for
a small community. They also held their prayer meetings
there when the traveling preacher made his circuit. Any~
one who died was buried in the back of the school, in
what became known as Marr Cemetery. because the land
at one time was owned by Oscar Marr.

stones could be salvaged.

It was about 1962 that the town put up a new woven

wire fence, and with Priebe's work they had a cemetery
which will remain as a memorial to those early settlers.
One stone recalls a Civil War veteran, Thomas Joslin,

In the fme days of the thriving community of Glen·
rock before and after the turn of the century, the cemetery was again the haven of rest for those who had died.
There was no deed to the land, people moved away, and

who served in Co. F-18 of the Wisconsin infantry. He
had been a government Indian agent in Oshkosh and en-

the gravestones tended to fall and become buried in leaf

111

Hancock

The Glen Rock Grade School, circa 1905

Hancock's growth by 1890 was attributed to the fact
that the railroad was put through, with a depot in the village. The Biographical Album states: "Hancock is a village
in the town of Hancock, on the Wisconsin Central Railway
Une, fifteen miles northwest of Wautoma and five and
three fourths miles south of Plainfield."
"It contains a steam feed mill, a church and a district
school and has a population of about one hundred and fif.
ty. The business of this village twenty years ago (1870) may
be thus stated: A.R. Edwards, dry goods and groceries; D.
S. Kingsley, blacksmith; Isaiah Moor, meat market; S. Mi·
ner, physician; Horace Merriman, proprietor of hotel; Mrs.
OJ. Wiley, millinery; J.F. Wiley, general merchant. The
principal business interests of the present day ( 1890) are
the general store of Fred F. Goss; the drug store of B.L.
Hales; the feed mill of G.E. Moor; the harness shop of J.
Ordway, and the store of J.F. Wiley.
Although settlement began here about forty years ago,
the growth of the village has occurred since the railroad
was put through it. A Mr. Sylvester was the first settler and
erected a small house, called a "Hotel" in 1850. About 1855
quite a number came .. J.F. Wiley, Levi Babcock, G. and C.
Hutchinson, J.B. and L Rawson and G.T. Youts. Mr. Wiley
opened a store, and is now a leading merchant of the place,
owning also an elevator and warehouse. The Moor brothers,
pioneers, also became substantial businessmen.
Hancock is not incorporated as a village. It was surveyed
and platted by C.F. Atwood, in 1877, for its proprietor,
J.F. Wiley. The Congregational Church was organized about
twenty years ago, (1870). Several congregations worship in
its neat edifice.
Thomas Eubank Post, No. 150, Grand Army of the Re·

public, was organized at Hancock, March 26, 1884, with
thirty three charter members. The officers were Com. John
E. Tilton; S.V.C.- F.B. Hamilton; J.V.C. -B.L Hales; Adj.
C.W. Moors; Q.M.- F.R. Jones; Surg. K.B. Wilkinson; Chap.
W.S. Curtis; O.D. Thomas Beal, O.G. C.W. Babcock;
Q.M.S. Henry Edion; S.Maj. W.D. Weld.
This post holds its regular meetings at Hancock on the
second and fourth Saturdays of each month. It has had a
membership of over one htindfed, but by transfers and
dropped members it now (1890) has eighty members in
good standing. It has lost only two members by death George C. Guest, Corp. Co. G., 29th Ohio Infantry, and
J.L. Wing, Corp. Co. A., 2nd Wisconsin Infantry. It has
a Relief Corps just organized with thirty-two charter mem·
bers, with Mrs. W.D. Weld, president, and Mrs. Lucy Bar·
ton. secretary.
"The town of Hancock was organized in 1856 by the
legally qualified voters of the territory comprising the
town. The sandy soil was adapted to general farming. Pine
and Fish Lakes in the northeast part of the town are the
main bodies of water."
The Wisconsin Central Railroad ran a branch line in
1876 to connect Stevens Point and Portage, crossing the
eastern part of the town of Hancock. With the depot in the
village used as a shipping station center Hancock prospered
and grew, Potatoes were considered ideal for growing in
the sandy loam soil, and in the 'boom' days as many as
six potato warehouses handled the crop.
A side product of potatoes was "Penny's Starch Factory." A news clipping from the Hancock News of January,
1903 ~states: "In one five· week period, Penny's Starch Fac·
tory converted 31,000 bushels of potatoes into 105 tons

listed early in the war. In later years he lived in Spring
Lake and wished to be buried in Marr Cemetery. Fuller
obtained the marker on his grave by searching in the libraries for information on his regiment and writing to
Washington.
If you are a person who takes an interest in the past
of our state~Aand have a bit of imagination~~take a ride
down the "Glenrock Memory Road." Look for the landmarks I have recalled, as told to me in numerous visits
with Fuller, when he was owner of a Redgranite store;
Priebe in the days when he gave loving care to preserving
the cemetery as a landmark; and memories of those who
lived in the community.
If you listen closely--who knows--there may be whispers of the past through the pines at Marr Cemetery, for
Glenrock is gone, but not forgotten.

~

South Lake Street in Hancock, circa 1909

112

Lohrville
senger and two freight trains. The trains went on to Red~
granite from Puerth, with spur lines or extensions built
later to travel around in the quarries.
Most of the people who worked in Puerth or Lohrville quarries were Irish, Italians, Scottish or Swedish. As
they were accustomed to rugged terrain they found the
farming and working in the quarries to be no great hardship.
. .
A meeting was held May 7, 1908,'by village officials
as to the incorporation of the new village. Notices were
posted on May 8 telling all the people to be present at a
town meeting to present their views regarding incorporation. <One of the village officials wrote to Madison asking
for information on incorporation and also applying for
the necessary papers.
There was debating for two years in Puerth and Madison, with Puerth legally incorporated in April of 1910,
and the village name changed to Lohrville. "That day
there was parades and celebrations," wrote Gerald Leone,
in a history of Lohrville he compiled which was printed
in 1964.
Very soon signs were put up giving Lohrville's popu·
lation--a total of 670 people, Hard working people had

The history of the village of Lohrville, in Waushara
County, dates back to the beginning of this century. The
incorporated village located one mile west of Redgranite
on County Trunk E was founded in the sand by farmerS
and built to a boom town on the granite rocks by quarry,
men.

The hard times in Europe in the early 1900's caused
thousands of people to emigrate to this country. A large
percentage of those who worked in the Lohrville quarries
had worked in Pennsylvania and Vermont, quarrying gra·
nite and marble. They came in flocks to work when they
heard of all the granite in this area. They sent for their
families whom they had left in the East when they earned
enough money to care for their loved ones, and sometimes
built their own homes.
Lohrville was first named Puerth about 1906 by the
people settling this area, the name thought to be related
to something in Ireland. The Chicago Northwestern Rail,
road line was extended from Bannerman Junction, north
of Neshkoro, to Puerth, where a depot was set up. Old
records reveal that the firSt train leaving Puerth in 1908
had 125 carloads of granite rock. Each day four trains
came through Puerth and stopped at the depot, two pas-

Early Department Store in Hancock,
around 1906

of starch at a cost of $3,688.23 plus labor and other exo
penses at $1,540.25."
Potato boxes were another industry stemming from the
growing of potatoes. J.L. Kretser and his son, Charles, "de,
veloped an automatic bolting machine for making potato
box slats about 1900. The machine produced 10,000 to
14,000 slats a day."
"Hancock went 'modern' in 1914 when Rolly White.
who operated the roller mill, was awarded the contract to
produce electric power from a gasoline engine driven generatoL The power was shut off at midnight."
"The Soo Railroad Line took over the Wisconsin Cen~
tral branch in 1909, operating until the November 9, 1945
final run."
One verison of the naming of Hancock is found in the
book The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names by Robert
E. Gard and L G. Sorden. To quote: "When the township
was settled in 1854 it was named Sylvester, because the
pioneers found a man named Sylvester cutting marsh hay
at the west end of Pine Like. The reason for changing the
name to Hancock is not given, except that the post office
of Hancock had been established."
One history source tells of the stage line which followed the old Indian trail past Pine Like, on the journey be·
tween Stevens Point and Portage, before the event of the
railroad. A settlement started at the spot known as Hancock. Called Sylvester, after an early pioneer. it organized
in 1856 as 1-fancock and was platted in 1857,
Disastrous fires destroyed many of the early buildings,
The February 14, 1893, and April 3, 1894, blazes "practi·
cally wiped out the business district." There was also a bad
fire in 1904. The village businessmen rebuilt after each fire
and Hancock grew throughout the years.

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Street scene in Lohrville around 1916. The airplane is a result of trick photography common at the time
114

115

finally put Lohrville on the map and they were proud of
it. They had come to this area when it was just a strip of
land and had made it a boom town of the quarry days.
Famous people and high ideals provided the names
for the streets when it was first platted in an informal
pencil sketch, possibly by officials of the granite firm
that opened the quarries.
There are the usual Main Street and First to Fifth
Avenues, as well as Washington, Prospect and Uberty
Avenues. Lohrville Boulevard is the beginning of a true
boulevard running along the southern edge of the village.
park and Sandburr Stadium at the north edge of the vii·
!age. It is the first thing noticed by motorists who drive
into the village from State Highway 21. Today plots of
pines cover the empty spaces left when the quarries shut
down in Depression times and many houses burned or
were moved away. At that time the population dwindled
to little more than I 00, but with the years it has risen.
In the days when Lohrville was newly incorporated
and a quarry boom town back in 1910, one need of the
village was a school with eight grades. Students went to
high school in Redgranite. Each day bags of mail came to
the post office, where it was sorted and put into boxes
ready for people to come and pick it up. There was no
mail route or walking mailman.
There were three taverns and two hotels, one owned
and run by Fred Paulson, and three grocery stores. There
was also a butcher shop, where steak in those days sold
for 17 cents a pound, a barbershop where the neighborhood and community gossip could be heard, and a bank.
The most important business of all was the quarrying
of granite, with many fine quarries in the rear. Some of
the stone quarried in Lohrville was cut into blocks, with
the stone shipped to Milwaukee and Chicago for public
buildings and paving blocks. Later the federal government
purchased carloads of big chunks of stone for breakwaters,
using it for filling harbors and shaping them. This raised
the income of Lohrville residents.
There were two main quarries in Lohrville-the Westpoint and Big Job. Big Job covered about five acres, and
over three million tons of granite were removed from it.
West Point was a little smaller. The quarries were run by
steam, with a boiler set up in a stone building with a very
large smoke stack that was a landmark up to 1960, at
which time it was removed for safety. There were ten
derricks and each could produce six to nine carloads in
one day. There was a crusher building with three crushers,
making many varied sizes of crushed granite. The quarry
,
had a system of railway tracks running around. The
Depression was one of the reasons the big quarry closed
down, when money was hard to get. People could not
fmd work in Lohrville between 1930 and 1936. The population fell to 130 and many houses were moved away.
Some of the quarry workers went to Milwaukee, Sussex
and Lannon, with the people running the quarries in Lannon originally from the Lohrville area.
Lohrville lost its train depot in 1934 and the school
in 1946. The post office was discontinued in 1956. When
he compiled his information in 1964, Leone wrote that
Lohrville had a population of 223 with three ntiles of

county roads, three of village, with 30 regular street lights
and two mercury vapor lights.
The lots along Washington Avenue today front on a
picturesque view of the granite ledge which runs across
the village from northeast to southwest from Redgranite,
a part of the ridge which extends to the quarries at Mon·
tello.
In the spring the jumbled red rocks are covered with
green lichen and overgrown with wild plants and vines
native to this sandy area of Wisconsin, including shooting
stars. The ridge is shaded by all the wide variety of shrubs
and trees, many of the flowering and fruiting kinds, which
are haven and food supply for birds.
Old timers can tell of the lot and old building the
village purchased in 1908 to use as its meeting place, for
the sum of $1,000. The village hall was built in 1916 by
Kramp Construction of Berlin, with much discussion as to
whether to have a hall with a full cistern for $2,800 or
one with a cistern under it for $1,400. They chose the
hall with the cistern under it so there would be plenty
of space for water for fire protection.
With the opening of the quarries, and the growth of
a new community, the hundreds of European imntigrants
settling in Lohrville brought with them some of their old
country customs and foods: the Italian spicy foods, the
Finnish baths, a love for rousing music from the Polish
and the Germans, and their traditional foods such as
sauerkraut and Polish sausage.
Yes, the quarry workers of Lohrville and their fantilies were living history every day they worked the quarries, in those decades when the red rock served a purpose
in the ''way of life."

~

116

Mt. Morris
History is generally researched and related as fact. When
a bit oflegend and folklore is recalled, as is the case in the
nanling of Mt. Morris, facts and legend mingle until the of·
ten-told tales are accepted, to become a part of the heritage
left by those early settlers. (Legend may be more interesting than logical facts in some histories.)
As the tale goes, Mt. Morris, the first settlement in the
Town of Mt. Morris, situated on Willow Creek in the sha·
dow of "The Mountain," might have been named "Mt.
Gunderson," had it not been for the fleet footwork of Sol·
omon Morris. "The name was entirely settled by a foot

race to the top of the mountain."
Gunnar Gunderson and Solomon Morris are the two
men credited down through the years as seeking to have

the "mountain" and the community named in their honor.
"A controversy resulted, and the backers of the two men
decided to settle the naming dispute with a foot race; the
first man to reach the crest to have the honor of naming

the settlement."

There are, naturally, variations in the story. An accepted
one is that the two set out on a course extending from the
mill pond to the mountain top. It was not an easy run, for
the mountain in the ntid-years of the 19th century was de·
scribed as "being thickly wooded." (In histories of Mt. Mor·
ris reviewed for this publication neither man's name was
seen.)
The foot race story became woven in the folklore tapes·
try of the village, and is an intriguing version compared to
the ordinary relating of place names.
The 1890 Biographical Album (relied upon as factually
correct) credits E.W. Alverd and William Tibbitt as the first
settlers, arriving in 1849. "Thomas E. Cope and Floyd E.
Barker carne in 1850, and Benjamin E. Raeppoll in 1856.
It is a hamlet of about twenty-five inhabitants, located se·
ven miles from Wautoma and twenty miles from Berlin. It
contains a church, school, two general stores and a water
power flouring mill."
Early events in the historical background: "A child of
Nus and Anna Nilson, born July 26, 1850, was the first
child born in the town of Mt. Morris. The first marriage
was Andrew Deseals and Catherine Campbell, the ceremony
performed by Captain Sax. The first death was that of
Margaret Nelson, August II, 1850. The first religious meet·
ing was held in Nilson's house. William Stewart preached.
A Sunday school was organized in the same house in 1854.
The first school was opened at "The Mountain" in District
No. I, in 1854, with Miss Mary Morse as teacher. The first
school house was erected in 1854."
One source of Mt. Morris history, the picturesque and
scenic unincorporated village nestling in a valley in the shadow of the "hill," is the Berlin Historical Society File on
on Waushara County, on rue at the Berlin Public Ubrary.
(Taken from a history of Waushara County published in a
1941 Waushara Argus.)
"The town was given its present boundaries at the second
annual session of the county board held in November, 1852.
It was early settled by New Englanders and Norwegians.
The U.S. Survey of 1851 shows only three houses, orca·
bins, in the town-that of W. Tippett, located on Section
33; Carpenters in the northeast comer of Section 25; and

an un-named house on Section 31 (on the road later known
as the Wautoma-MI. Morris highway.)"
"The Mt. Morris Millpond was created about 1860, at
which time Lewis H. Begg established the Mt. Morris Grist
Mill. (The waters of the !63 acre Mt. Morris Millpond are
today called Mt. Morris Lake.)
The 1870 census lists George Tracy, Jr., as miller. Other
business and professional people incl11de.: Jra L. Parker,
merchant; Gustavus Bergstrom, shoemaker; William Ham·
lin, wagon maker; Thomas Anderson, millwright; Klaus
Halverson, blacksmith; Erick Himingson and John Thomp·

son, carpenters; and Georgiana Morse, teacher.
Production of the Mt. Morris Mill in 1870 was: 1,930
barrels of rye flour and feed, 470 barrels of corn meal,
and 1,120 barrels of buckwheat flour.
"The mill passed from the ownership of Tracy to John'
Peatie, who sold in 1875 to William Skinner and Son, Chi·
cago Comntission merchants. A Mr. Borton was the next
owner, selling to William Keup, who was succeeded by his
sons, Otto William Keup and Emil G. Keup in 1917. Under
the management of the Keup brothers, the mill enjoyed a
wide reputation for the quality of its buckwheat flour."
"Following the death of E.G. Keup, a former represen·
tative of the county in the State Assembly and member of

Ye Olde Mill at Mt. Morris still stands today

117

the county's first Teacher Training School Board (I 908),
the mill property was sold in 1929 to Dahlke and Giese of
Neshkoro and Princeton. O.W. Keup was retained as manao
ger. In 1930 a new turbine and generator was installed for
the purpose of generating electricity, which was transmit~
ted to homes and farms throughout the town of Mt. Morris."
A history of Waushara and Green Lake Counties, published in 1869, gives the information that "at an early day,
AJ. Tanner located near the foot of '"The Mountain" and
attempted to build up a village. Its first proprietor, who
was not a man of family, left the county in the 1850's
and the village collapsed, remaining dormant until revived
by the building of a dam on Rattlesnake Creek and erection of a milL In its early days the hamlet of Mt. Morris
was the rival of Wautoma, Saxeville and Pine River, with
high expectations of becoming the county seat. This hope
had not been abandoned by 1875, in which year the town
board, at its annual meeting, tendered its town hall and
grounds for a courthouse together with a cash bonus of
three thousand dollars for removal of the county seat to
Mt. Morris."

"Pioneer," a writer of sketches in the old Wautoma

Journal in the 1850's, said in speaking of'The Mountain':
"A person standing upon its summit can take in a view of
nearly the whole county in all its richness and beauty."
"The altitude of the The Mountain has never been de~
!ermined, but upon a clear day, after the foliage has fallen
from the trees, it is possible to see the city of Berlin, twenty miles away, as well as Lake Poygan, and Wolf River,
and 'Big Prairie' in the town of Oasis,u the history contin~
ues.
"The extensive tamarack and spruce swamp which lies
in the west central part of the town. now known as the
'Ox~Box Swamp' has been a favorite refuge for every var·
iety of wildlife in the county. Wolves and bears in large
number were captured there.- From this refuge wolves
preyed upon the sheep of Mt. Morris farmers until the
late 1890's. Five sheep were thus killed in a flock belonging to Martin Thompson in October, 1896."
"The extensive raising of sheep led to the establishment
of a wool-carding mill at Colebrook, on the line between
Sections 35 and 36, in the 1850's. Its first proprietor was
George Marshall, first supervisor of the town of Marion,
and supervisor of the town of Mt. Morris in 1858. The
carding mill was later operated by J.C. Younglove who
closed the same down in the 1880's and removed to Wautoma where he opened a photographic gallery. It was
about this time that Mt. Morris fanners turned to dairying on a commercial scale, with establishment of a cheese
factory under the management of Steve CovilL The cheese
factory was abandoned about 1915."
"There were in the 1850's, three post offices in the
Town of Mt. Morris: Mt. Morris, Colebrook and Howe's Corners. The one at Howe's was abandoned soon after. The Mt.
Morris and Colebrook offices were supplied by stage lines
for several years after the tum of the century."
"The farmers of the Town of Mt. Morris was largely enlisted in the Grange movement which swept the Middle
West in the 1870's. Willow Creek Grange erected a large hall
at Colebrook in the summer of 1875, one of many in the
county. There the county organizations celebrated on June
3, to the number of several hundred attired in the organization's regalia. Colebrook, in 1890, also had a feed mill

and blacksmith shop. Its population was then about seventyfive." (The Grange worked for greater income for the farmer" He should receive more for his products, while the fanner's expenses should be reduced considerably. It was a movement which took the interest of the people, and they sat
and discussed it into the early hours of the morning.)
~'Stone hauling, wood sawing and barn raising bees were
common. An excellent sandstone quarry was opened on the
farm owned for many years by Martin Hamre. Among the
social customs of the town may be mentioned the •Kwinde~
forening,' an organization of the Norwegian ladies which
generally gathered to give surprise birthday parties. At these
affairs many wore brightly colored bodices which were
brought to America by former Norwegian peasants. Every
celebration at 'The Mountain' was marked by numerous little girls in white dresses set off with wide ribbon. A wellknown institution for many years was the ML Morris Corv
net Band. It obtained new uniforms from the firm of Lyon
and Healy, Chicago, in 1892, and appeared at programs
throughout the county."
"J.P. Petterson launched a new sailboat on Mt. Morris
Millpond in May, 1896. The Wautoma-MI. Morris Telephone
Company, organized 1903-1904 with Hon. Edward F. Killeen of Wautoma as its first president. It was sold in later
years to the Community Telephone Company of Wisconsin.
The Mt. Morris Guernsey Cattle Qub Co-operative, organized in 1930 and incorporated in 1932. The Mt. Morris Mutual Fire Insurance Company was organized February 2,
1876."
History of the Norwegian Settlements (1908) by Hjalmar
Holand, M.A., Ephraim, Wis., noted authority on Norse antiquities in America, is a detailed source on names of Nor·
wegians who settled at Mt. Morris.
About 1853, "the settlement had grown so much that a
need for a church was felt. Rev. O.F. Duns, who lived in
Scandinavia, Wis., helped to organize the congregation and
was its first pastor. It was decided to name it 'The Holden
Evangelical Lutheran Church,' the name suggested by Nils
Nilson, one of the leading men in the community,''

Pine River
A good part of the village of Pine River in Waushara
County was located on government land to which B.F.
Frisbie staked a claim in 1849. Frisbie was one of a party
of surveyors chosen to lay out a highway from Strong's
Landing (today Berlin) to Waupaca. On the return trip,
they passed through the Cedar Lake district and the present location of Pine River. Finding a good river there
and realizing the possibilities of water power, Frisbie decided it was a fine place to locate. He later moved onto
the land and paid for it, having walked to Menasha to do
so.
In the fall of 1849 Ensign Noble and Frisbie laid out
the land into townships in the area one mile square. Frisbie built a dwelling on the bank of the river, where the
hotel later stood. In the spring of 1850 the town was resurveyed into quarter mile squares. Frisbie moved across
the road and built a general store which he operated, followed by his son Herbert, and then grandsons Frank and
fu~

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.

The population of Pine River increased, with 1856
being the boom year. In this year Martin Ream, John A.
Williams and Frisbie built the grist and saw mills. Frisbie
also built a hotel. Pine River had its first post office in
1856, with A.P. Noyes as postmaster. The Masons Lodge
headquarters was built in 1865 and was occupied by A.
M. Kimball who had moved his stock of merchandise
from the building in Centerville. Kimball began operating
the Pine River store with $800 worth of stock.
Later he bought frozen dressed hogs by the hundreds

Hotel at Pine River in the 1920's
and all the wool in the surrounding county. One shipment
of wool alone was hauled to Berlin by twenty nine farmers on hayracks, the loads being equal in size to capacity loads of hay. This single shipment netted $8000.
In 1851 it was decided the community should be
named. A meeting was called and the name favored by
Frisbie, Martin Ream and Oliver Pierce was "Pine River"
because of a huge pine tree which stood near the stream"

:->111'~1 i-al!', f'm"' Hn~l. 'l-n

~

118

Ye Olde General Store built in Pine River in 1856
119

David Lange suggested "Leon" because he had come from
l.eon, New York, but tbat name was given to the town·
ship. Mr. James, a blacksmith who lived across from the
large pine, wanted the village named ..Aetna." Pine River
received the most votes.
The sad ending to this history of the naming of Pine
River is the fact that the morning after the meeting to
select a name, the large pine tree standing near the stream
was found to have been girdled with an ax, which caused
the tree to die.
In 1866 the building of the Congregational Church
was started. Frisbie furnished the stones and labor for the
foundation of the church and sheds for the shelter of the
horses. Some of the lumber was hauled from Winneconne
by ox team and the bricks from the Saxeville brickyard.
The Rev. D.A. Campbell was the first minister. The Cath·
olic Church was given a deed to the land where a pine
grove stood. A tornado demolished the grove and the
church was never builL Pine River also had a Lutheran
Church for a while. This church and a cemetery were on
the north side of the millpond across from the hotel. Fire
destroyed the church, which was never rebuilt, and the
cemetery was transferred to the present one.
Gilbert and William Skeel specialized in making lumber
wagons. These were all hand-made and were said to have
been masterpieces. Flour was ground from wheat, rye and
buckwheat at the Pine River mill. Two mill stones of
great weight and huge size were used. Water power turned
the mill wheel. Mr. Delittle was the first miller followed

PINE RI\'ER

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by McNeely and later by Thomas Patterson. He operated
the mill both day and night with shifts of crews turning
out several thousand barrels of buckwheat flour to fill
orders from many states and foreign countries. Pine River
buckwheat flour was sold as far away as Japan.
The first newspaper in Waushara County, the Pine
River Argus, was published by Pulciser and Barker from
March to May, 1859. Its publishers then decided to move
to Wautoma. In 1888 the Marshall Hotel became the Kimball House and Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Kimball were owners.
In 1857 he had become affiliated with the A.M. Kimball
store and in 1871 he established a mercantile business, con·
tinuing in this line until he bought the hotel. After his
passing Mrs. Kimball operated the hotel until her death in
1921.

Romance also played a part in those early days. Olive
Trumbull, a 16 year old girl, was alone at the farm of her
parents when a band of Indians traveling though the com·
munity stopped, demanded food and started ransacking
the house. She was very frightened and rushed out the
door. Fortunately, a young man on horseback happened
to be passing by. She hailed him, and he came in, drove
the Indians away, and stayed until her parents arrived
home. The young man was Dr. Jewell, and after a proper
courting period the young couple was married.
On April 5, 1870, an exciting election was held in
Waushara County. Pine River, with ideas of being the
county seat, made a vigorous but unsuccessful attempt to
wrest the county seat from Wautoma. Principle campaign~
en were A.M, Kimball and John A. Williams. The resuJts
were 1,076 in favor of Pine River and 1,678 for Wautoma.
Hard times came in 1857. Many of the young people
left Pine River for other regions to seek employmenL The
Civil War broke out shortly and many from the communi·
ty rjoined Wisconsin forces. Among the Town of I.eon sol·
diers was Captain Terrill. He entered service as a private
and was discharged as a captain.
To A.M. Kimball went the distinction of being Pine
River's only congressman. His election to the State Senate
took place in 1862. Then twelve years later, he served in
the U.S. Congress and in 1884 was a delegate to the na·
tional convention that nominated James G. Blain for pres·
ident.
·
Other people of fame from Pine River were George P.
Sorensen, who served Waushara County as a judge for a
number of years. Bert W. Sorensen acted as postmaster,
barber and insurance man. George Carpenter collected in=
formation for the Milwaukee weather bureau for fifty seven years.
The old days in Pine River are long gone, but pro·
bably will never be forgotten. Some of the founding names
have disappeared, but memories live on. The Pine River Re·
sort, which was a log dwelling started in 1849, was oper·
ated as a hotel only by B. F. Frisbie. The hotel was run
for fifty years by Mr. and Mn. Nathan Kimball, and was
sold to Archie Topping following Ed Kimball's ownership.
According to the book, The Romance of Wisconsin
Place Names, by Robert E. Gard and L.G. Sorden, the In·
dian name meaning Pine River was Poy Sippi.

Cou~·Ltv-y

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120

Plainfield
The Village of Plainfield was described in 1890 as the
center of a good country trade and the shipping point of
large quantities of grain and livestock. "It is one of the
wide-awake and progressive villages on the line of the
Wisconsin Central Railroad," the 1890 Album notes.
The first settlers in the town of Plainfield were Thomas
and William N. Kelly, father and son, who came from New
York state in 1848 or 1849. C.E. Waterman and Charles
Hamilton came in the winter of 1849-50, and located at the
site that was to be known as Plainfield. Early in its history
the little settlement was called Norwich.
"In 1852 Elijah C. Waterman settled on land within the
corporate limits of the village and erected a shanty twelve
by sixteen feet which he used as a dwelling and hotel. It is
left to the imagination of the traveler of today (1890} to
picture such hotel accomodations as he must have had.
This building was afterwards eniarged into the nucleus of
the Plainfield House."
Waterman was said to have offered free lots to settlers
if they would build and live on them. A saw mill, grist mill
and general store were built within a short time of Water·
man's arrival. Other early settlers in Plainfield were Judge
T.H. Walker, 1850; Jesse Bentley and family, 1850; and
Samuel Westbrook, !852.
When the post office was established, E.C. Waterman
was appointed the first post master. The name Norwich
was, at Waterman's suggestion, changed to Plainfield. in her
nor of his earlier home, Plainfield, Vermont.
"In March, 1855, W.W. Beach, who became one of Plainfield's most honored citizens, settled in the village and built
the next house. Hamilton, Waterman and Beach built the
first school house. Miss Mary Chester was the school teach·
er. The year 1855 also marked the arrival of G.W. Shear·
down and Charles Mann.
"The fanner erected the second house after Mr. Beach's
and the latter the third. Having been named, the village was
platted the same year by S.W. Hall, surveyor for E.C. Wa·

Waushara County Bank
at Plainfield around 1910

terman~ proprietor. Hamilton's and other less important ad~
ditions were also platted."
"The location of a post office and the platting of a viJ.
]age is always the signal for fresh growth. This proved true
in Plainfield. The first grist mill and a saw mill run in con·
nection with it were erected by Cady and Chamberlain in
1856. It burned in 1857 and was rebuilt. Beach and Ches·
ter had opened the first general store in 1855. By 1856
the groundwork had been laid for a prasperous village. The
building of the railroad gave it an added impetus."
An 1869 list of prominent business men included: Sher·
man Bordwell, RF. Griffith, J.R Mitchell, F.B. Munson,
J.A. Rozell, general merchants;J.F. Cannon, Hamilton and
Rist, blacksmiths; J .H. Millington, merchant tailor; R.R.
Rapp, wagon maker; G.W. Sheardown, druggist and post·
master. Grist and saw mills were also in operation.
·
In 1890 Plainfield had fifty or sixty business establish·
ments, including the Bank of Plainfield, H.N. Drake, pro·
prietor; the general soles of Sherman Bardwell, F.J. Luce
and Co., and L.S. Walker; the planing mill ofW.J. Durham;
the flouring mill of O'Cain and Bardwell; the marble works
of Joseph T. Sherman; the Mitchell House, Coon and Per·
rins, proprietors and the Plainfield House, J.L. Shaw, pro·
prietor; the drug store of Bishop B. Borden; and the farm
implement warehouses of George B. Fox, Charles H. Millington and Albert J. Steele.
"J.T. Ellanon some years since (written in 1890) published a paper here named the Plainfield Times. It was local in character and Republican in politics. The Sun, published by L. W. Chapman, is in its seventh volume. It is a
five column, ·eight-page paper, devoted to upbuilding the
best interests of Plainfield and vicinity, ably edited and
with a large and growing circulation. A special feature is
its large amount of local correspondence from towns around
about, which makes it one of the newsiest sheets published
in this section."
Walter Waterman Post, No. 197, G.A.R., was organized

odist Episcopal, Rev. A.W. Alderman, pastor; Baptist, Rev.
J .R. Wolf, pastor; and Congregational, worshipping in the
Baptist Church, Rev. E.A. Child, pastor. St. Paul's Catholic
Church in Plainfield was organized February 7, 1898, the
Rev. Peter Kurzejka, pastor. Prior to this the Catholic fam·
ilies in Waushara County had been served as missions of
St. James Catholic Church at Neshkoro. (History of the
Catholic Church in Wisconsin -reference.)
The rapid growth of the Plainfield area population is recorded in the History of Portage County. "After the Civil
War the state, railroads, counties and individuals all united
in holding out inducements to ambitious 'Old World' people to better their condition by coming to the cheap wild
lands of WISconsin." (In the Homestead Act of 1862, settlers got 160 acres of government land for eleven cents per
acre, one source states.)

August 22, 1885, with forty-eight charter members. Plain·
field Lodge, F.A.M., No. 208, was holding its regular meet·
ings on the first and third Saturdays of each month, at Ma·
sonic Hall, over Sherman Bardwell's Store in 1890.
The village officers that year were President, B.B. Bor·
den; trustees, E.M. Pickering, H.E. Pratt, W.W. Runcom,
FJ. Loce, J.H. Mattice, W.T. Michi;clerk, L.W. Chapman;
assessor, John A. Printup; treasurer, L.S. Walker; justice of
the peace, George Spees; police justice, H.F. Treadwell;
and marshall, George W. Goult.
There were in 1890 three churches in the village: Meth·

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The Moffett and Barr General Store in Poy Sippi around 1908
Poy Sippi is a bonnie place
It stands between two hills,
And through it runs the river Pine
Which drives the Hawley Mills

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dians because it flowed into Poygan Lake. l..egend has it
that a friendly Indian coming to see the first exploring party was asked the name of the place and replied "Poy Sip."
He is said to have explained that Sippi meant rlver and Poy
came from Poygan. The name was contracted to Poy Sippi.
It has often been described as a little Swiss village because
of its location between two high hills.

This bit ofverse describing Poy Sippi in Waushara County appears in books written about the village by two former Poy Sippi women. Dorothy Dodds Rogers, Oshkosh,
is the author of Those Dodd3 Girls ofPoy Sippi, released
in 1977. The late Maljorie Rawson ofPoy Sippi had two
books to her credit: The World at My Door and It~ a
Pleasure. All three books, available in libraries and book
stores, are invaluable sources of the heritage, historical
facts, pictures and the flavor oflife in a small community.
Mrs. Dodds' hardcover book was written, she said, "to
preserve the early history of Poy Sippi. My great-grandfather
George Hawley, was one of the first four white settlers to
come from Waukesha in 1848 to the place to be known as
Poy Sippi."
"He returned in 1849, platted the village and ran the
Hawley Mill on the Pine River. My grandfather, Fred Haw·
ley, was three years old at the time. It was Fred Hawley
who founded the Hawley House, a favorite stopping place
for stagecoach travelers and salesmen who traveled the area.
with horse and buggy, operating it for sixty years."
Mrs. Rogers was born and raised in Poy Sippi where her
father, W.H. Dodds, was a doctor in the 1890's. Her mother,
Jessie Hawley Dodds, had compiled notes of historical value
for over fifty years, but never had them published:
Poy Sippi's unusual nnme is said by some sources to be
a corruption of an Indian word meaning "Sioux River." The
Pine River was called Poygan Sippi by the Potawatomi In-

123

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"Records tell that the first exploration of the site was
in 1848, but the first land claims were not fried unitll850.
George Hawley platted the village in 1856, He not only
owned the water power but was the first postmaster and
later a manufacturer of lumber wagons and sleighs. The
other three men in the first party of pioneer explorers in~
eluded Martin Becker, Vernon Evans and Dr. J.S. Ewing."
"Dr. Ewing was the first physician and surgeon to settle
in Poy Sippi. He practiced until Civil War days when he
went to care for sick and wounded soldiers. He returned
to Poy Sippi after the war and is buried in the Poy Sippi
Cemetery. Martin Becker owned and operated the first hotel in the community, located near the river. Vernon Evans
was a surveyor, but no records reveal where Becker and
Evans settled after leaving the village they helped to found.'
A vivid description of the Hawley House by Mrs. Rogers
brings to life the importance of hotels in the days when
people had to stop overnight when traveling by horse trans·
portation or early automobiles, even short distances.
To quote in part: "When our grandparents purchased
the building for a hotel it was not nearly as large as they
made it. Wealthy travelers from Berlin took over the mortgage for Grandpa so that he could repair and enlarge it. An
upstairs was built along the entire length plus a wing in
the back which made it possible to have ten bedrooms,
several of which were very large double rooms. Two stair~
ways went up to the bedrooms. Almost all the rooms were
carpeted. Those carpets had to be taken out at house
cleaning time, hung on the clothesline and pounded with
a carpet beater to remove the winter's dust, then taken
back up and tacked to the floor."
"The big dining room had a long table that spread out
to seat many guests. Even small circus troops were fed
there. It accomodated a whole band plus speakers and oth·
er out of town guests at Fourth of July and Decoration
Day celebration. There were two sitting rooms: one for
the public and one for the family. The office was large

and the walls were plastered with calendars of many years.
Plants climbed over the ceiling. The furniture in that room
included office armchairs painted red, a dropleaf table, a
fainting couch, an old style cigar case topped by a tooth·
pick holder, pen holders and inkwelL A marble-topped
lavatory was filled with water Jugged from the spring
or well, and used as a drinking tank. A round oak
heater was stoked with huge chunks of wood, with
five stoves supplying heat for the big building. The
floors in the large rooms were hardwood and kept
scrubbed white with sudsy water from wash days.
Sheets were kept white by boiling in a copper boiler
and the soft water tanks under the eaves caught the
rain to be used for washing clothes."
The big Hawley House clock hangs today in the living
room of the Poy Sippi home of Merrill and Blanche Mad·
ison Paulson. Paulson, 84, is a native ofPoy Sippi and
long time businessman. He remembers the early history
as told to him in his youth by Civil War veterans.
"Poy Sippi was a shortcut on the trail from the east
to Stevens Point. It was also called the old Waupaca
Trail from Berlin. My dad and his family had come from
Denmark in 1865 and first settled at Pine RiveL He later
owned the Poy Sippi Mill and was an undertaker, and I
helped him in both businesses. I took over the mill on
my return trip to Poy Sippi after serving in World War 1."
Paulson's collection of old postcards and pictures of
Poy Sippi are used with this Come Back in Time article.
He also assisted Mrs. Rogers with information and pic·
lures for her book.

Raymond
The community of Raymond in the town of Dakota has
memories of bygone industries. The busy brickyards and
pottery industries came to a standstill in the decades before
and after the turn of the century. The Raymond church
and school house are private residences. The redeeming fea~
tures of the past are the well-preserved cemetery; and the
Lower White River Millpond and 1924 brick power plant,
continuing to produce electrical power in 198!.
Because Mrs. Willard Wilcox shared her memories and
facts of Raymond history over twenty years ago, its impor~
tance will not be forgotten. "The first known permanent
settlers before the 1851 original government survey, Lorenzo Wilcox and his wife, travelled by ox cart from Remson,
Oneida County, New York, The countryside was heavily
wooded and the Indian trails were the only path."
The story of the Wilcox journey has been told and retold. "How Mrs. Wilcox decided after they had started that
she didn't want to go to the wilderness that was Wisconsin,
and jumped out of the cart. That in doing so she broke her
arm, and her husband splinted it with hazel brush, and they
continued their journey.~·
They found a small cabin and a small cleared field near
Snake lake and decided this was the place they would
homestead. They never knew who had lived there before

them; whether it was a trapper, or Indians, who had left
the dwelling.

Trexell, Hayes and Currier were other early settlers who
came to the area, breaking the wilderness into fields for
farming, "The White River was narrow and deep in the pioneering days, The first road followed the curves of the river.
Remains of old pilings, forks in the road that was discontinued in 1924, remnants of a road' north of the power dam
and a bridge settled at the river bottom after the millpond
was formed" were reminders of the past that faded from
recognition with passing years.
The building of the first settlers' roads was universal in
that the work was done by hand with oxen or horses drawing scrapers. Traffic depended upon the weather and
amount of time the men had to devote to road building.
The first Raymond School deed was dated 1871, and
the church deed May 3, 1894. The school deed shows that
March 1, 1871, Edwin D. Mosier and his wife, Lucy, for
the sum of twenty five cents, registered with B.S. Williams
Jand for school dsitrict no. 5, which became known as
Raymond SchooL
"Services were held in the school by the first minister,
Daniel Woodward of Wild Rose, a young man from the
Methodist Episcopal Conference, who served Leaches,

~

124

Bright Water Creamery, Raymond, in the early 1900's
125

Spring Lake and Raymond churches. Later Reverend Fry
and Reverend Weeks came and spoke in the school to as~
sembled Methodists and had charge of funerals in the area."
The cemetery has three soldiers from the Civil War bur·
ied in the peaceful shade of maple trees; George Wilcox,
Allen Deuel and Nate Redlin.
Frank C. Rochill was preaching in the school in 1892
when a decision was made to plan for a church. George
Wilcox, Sydney Currier and Silas Booth met and decided
on the building of the church. The church deed is signed
by trustees Silas Booth, Delbert Raymond, George Wilcox,
Sammy Booth, Allen Deuel, J. Deuel and Dallas Gunder.
The land was donated by Sidney L. Currier and Melissa, his
wife.
The church was dedicated July II, 1893. Seats were la·
ter obtained from the old M.E. Church in Wautoma. The
first janitor, Thomas H. Wedge, walked two or three miles
to start fires and fill lamps, never charging any money for
his services.
Lumber had been hauled from Coloma by team and wa·
gon. Willing hands helped carpenter William Moore all
spring and building funds had been added to by suppers
and bees of all types. In 1895 the Raymond Ladies Aid
was organized. Charter members were Mrs. Silas Booth)
Mrs. George Wilcox Sr., Mrs. Wedge, Mrs. Edwin Benjamin,
Mrs. Sidney Currier, Mrs. John Deuel, Mrs. Delbert Ray·
mond and Mrs. Orin Bebee. The Rev. Mr. Jaquith was pas·
tor. In 1932 the Ladies Aid was changed to the Women's
Society of Christian Service.
Throughout the decades the Aid raised money by mak·
ing rugs. silent auctions, aprons, grocery baskets, ice cream
socials and suppers. Because members of the Raymond
Methodist Church were determined to preserve their house
of worship and cemetery, the Maple Grove Cemetery Asso·
dation, composed of church members, purchased the old
church in July, 1964. The East Wisconsin Conference of
Methodist Churches had resolved to discontinue and aban·
don the Raymond Church.
The church was the hub of the community life. Members
maintained it until the spring of 1978, when it was sold to
provide money to be used for perpetual care of the Maple
Grove Cemetery across the road.
The first small brickyard was on the southeast side of
what was called Frank's Lake in later years. It was owned
by Edwin Mosier, who made his own mixer. A description
of the work involved in produCing the bricks was written
down as told by the late Arthur Deuel, from boyhood re·
membrances. "There was a long sweep or pole running
from the center of the mixer to the outside of the mixer,
Oay) sand and water was put in the mixer. A horse was
harnessed to the outer end of the sweep. On the end of
the sweep was a box in which Clyde Mosier, (Edward Mo·
sier's son) rode to steer the horse. The molds held twelve
bricks. The mixture was poured into the molds and was
struck off on top to make the bricks smooth. Then a palette
board was placed on top of the molds. Next the molds were
tipped over and lifted off, and fired in the kiln to dry. Some
was dried in the sun.n
The pottery company business was running at the site of
Brickyards Number Two before bricks were made there.
Pottery waste was used for fill on the roads leading to the
White River banks. Years ago this waste fill was visible on
the roads and along the banks. "Pottery requires better clay
than that used for bricks." Mosier Pottery pieces made in

Raymond are today considered as collector's items.
"The late Allen Deuel worked as a salesman at the pottery works, with the jars, pots, etc., sold by the gallon."
(Some jugs held thirty gallons and sold at ten cents a gallon.)
"The pottery procedure: A treadle was worked with the
feet. A bunch of clay was placed on the treadle. When the
treadle was turned the clay was held between the thumb
and finger and pushed up into the shape wanted. The clay
was then baked, fired and brought out and glazed and fired
again.H
Glazing clay was found in other areas along the river
banks. The veins were small, and of not enough quantity to
continue the industry.
Brickyard Number Two, located on the river banks
northwest of the church and school was built and owned
by Frank Wisner and Will Bugh. "Twenty to thirty men
worked in the yards, some coming from Green Bay. A rail~
road track and a small car went to the bottom of the riveL
A foundation was built around the clay and the men worked
down at the soft, deep and one hundred foot long bottom.
The small amount of water that seeped in was pumped out.
When the car was at the bottom a drum was mled with clay
and carried to the top by the car. At the top the mixture
was mixed, put into molds and tipped over on the palette
boards by machines. After the molds had been removed
from the bricks, the bricks were placed in big brick mudplastered ovens to be fired. The plaster kept the heat in."
Mrs. Orin Beebe kept a house near the present road
where the workers ate and slept. They washed up at an out·
door pump, and then ate good meals, requiring a bushel of
potatoes a day;cake every meal; puddings; pie served
twice a week. Salt pork was a staple in the meat diet, with
fresh beef brought from Wautoma three times a week.
Crackers and cheese were kept in a barrel. Raymond Church
sometimes served ice cream left over from church suppers.
(Mrs< Alfred Blader is noted as having worked in the kit·
chen for Mrs. Beebe. She spoke in a 1959 interview of the
"fun of watching the fires at night. They were kept going
day and night. The wet bricks were hard to handle and were
laid alternately for firing on the racks." She recalled seeing
the boys, Johnny and Clyde Mosier, helping with the bricks<
Ward Mosier piled up bricks after they were fired when he
was twelve or thirteen years of age< All this happened fiftyseven or sixty years ago, which places the time as about
1898 or 1899.)
The clay ran out-and with it the end of an era of brick
making. The former Sonora School and Bushweiler home
are examples of Raymond bricks used in construction.
The building of the White River Power Co. project took
about a year, with the concrete dam, red tile power house
building, home and bridge across the lower White River be·
gun in the fall of 1924. Edwin Daye, 94, was hired by the
late Charles T. Dahlke to direct the building. The bridge
further north across the White River before it was dammed,
was referred to as "Blackman Bridge" on old deeds and abstracts.
The "pond raising" in 1924 is an eventful bit of history
recalled by a few "old-timers". Raymond is one of the
many small Wisconsin communities with auspicious begin~
nings, which settled down into favorite recreation and fish~
ing spots of today.

~
126

Redgranite
Redgranite in Waushara County is not one of the oldest villages in the Fox River Valley. It does have one
of the most colorful histories. This was the site of what
was called a "boom town,n comparable to the home~
stead rush for fertile soil and the lumberjack era that
took place shortly before the Civil War.
In the late 1800's the area was called Sand Prairie.
It was settled as farm land. Theodore Chipman, said to
have been a small, thin-faced gentleman in his late 40's,
ran a little blue trading store. Around his store were
many boulders of hard reddish rock, extending from the
yellow sand. Chipman discovered that these prominent
out~croppings of rock were mahogany¥red granite.
fu 1889 six granite quarrymen from Berlin ..William
Bannerman, John Bannerman, David Home Jr., William
Horne, William Laing and George Thackeray-visited Sand
Prairie to investigate and examine the granite ledge on
the north side of the George H. Cronk farm in the Town
of Warren. They decided to buy it. These men were at
that time operating a quarry at Berlin under the name of
the Berlin Granite Company.
The book, The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names,
includes this paragraph on Redgranite: "William Bannerman, a Scottish immigrant, first found a red granite forma·

SCtnl A\ ·n.\l

t\\SA~R'{

tion near Berlin and operated two quarries there for a
time. He found, however, that the hard stone would not
split properly in cold weather. He looked around for other
deposits and found the very fme rock underlying the five
or six farms in an area known as Sand Prairie. Crops could
not be raised in the thin soil on top of the granite, and
the land was considered valueless. He purchased the 126
acre Cronk farm at a very re3sohable price in 1889, and
found the stone under it was unusally hard and saleable.
Although the quarry he operated had a comparatively
short history, the town that grew up on the edge of it
boomed. The quarry became a water·filled pit in back of
the post office. It serves as a swimming hole and tourist
attraction. Older residents like to remember that the
streets of some of the largest cities in the United States
were paved with the hard red granite from their area."
Hedley Bannerman of Redgranite wrote a history for
the July 28-30, 1967, Redgranite Homecoming celebration.
He recalled coming to the area of Sand Prairie as a small
child when there wasn't even a house.
In Bannennan's words: "'The Cronk farm granite was
of pink or red color and was not as hard as Berlin granite.
Its nature was such that it could be worked in 'Winter as
well as in summer. It would split straight and clear in cold

~lVC...~ ~\~.\\~

"'W

.~

Scene at the Redgranite Quarry around 1916

127

mething different from the Berlin stone. The
ry had to shut down in the winter and this new
:red an opportunity to work year round."
)Uarry turned out to be a success from the start,
tajor difficulty being the fact that the paving
' main product, had to be hauled eleven miles
n the winter by horses and sleighs. This was a
1e area farmers, because they could furnish trans.,.,. r..;. iE

- ~ \

\

1- r - -- - ""'l

portation at a time when they had little to do on their
farms."
"The blocks so hauled were stored on the right of
way of the Chicago-Mibvaukee and St. Paul railroad at
the stockyards in Berlin until such time as they were sold
to either Chicago or Milwaukee markets for street paving
purposes. llte paving of heavy traffic streets in the midwest, prior to this time, was mostly of brick or cedar

s..r.J. r.

,,,-,~

- -"!'t

Wisconsin Granite Co.
rock crusher
in Redgranite,
early 1900's

I

I

I

Joh-n. P.JJe d rick

Z?

$7

L _________ _
~·lr.4 /&.&$.

Wt ..f'llO'ft.,rt.·n.

G7·At..n..i·

e,

blocks, which did not stand the test of time. When gri,ute
was introduced the future looked bright for the quarry
bUSiness."

II, "

Co.

I

I
I

l

"After years of effort on the part of the granite quarrymen, the Chicago and Northwestern railroad agreed to
extend its Fond du Lac-Princeton railroad to the quarries.
Upon getting a guarantee of a certain number of carloads
of stone each year, the railroad built its line from Princeton totoMarshfield
and ran a spur from a junction ten miles
west
the quarry."
They named the junction, located north of Neshkoro,
&nnerman Junction. They expected that the quarry town
would
alsoinbe190
named
completed
I. &nnerman. The railroad line was
About this time several of the quarry, owners and
Chipman, the store keeper, decided that the old name of

this crossroads place, Sand Prairie, was not proper, in View
of the growing granite business in the community and the
color of the stone. In 1904 Redgranite incorporated as a
village. Just before this event several other quarries had
been opened within a distance of a few miles. After the
name Redgranite had been decided upon, the Cronk farm
of 126 acres was subdivided into lots and these were put
on the market for the quatry workers to purchase.
The main street of the new town was to run from
&nnerman Avenue east to the Village limits. The Northwestern depot was placed half way along this street. However, other nearby farmers also subdivided their farms and
the business district around the depot did not develop. It
ran along Bannerman Avenue and Pine River Street in connection With some other subdivisions.
After the village was incorporated and the railroad in

..<

U>GH.ANITE

..,~
~

..
"Ci

"d

~

Quarry crew, circa 1906

128

11 operation, Redgranite began to grow. It had four in·
mnd trains daily and four outbound" Mail was received
Ld dispatched on all trains.
Granite paving blocks were in great demand. Paving
ttters quarrymen of all nationalities flocked in from the
stem states, MiiUlesota and a number of European coun&
ies. At first there was just the one little store, with the
ost office and public telephone in one corner of the
Jilding. Later, it was recorded, Charles Tice moved his
•neral store from Terrill's Corners (two miles north) to
edgranite and B.E. Upton also opened a general store.
About 1905 Redgranite really boomed. From 1905 to
118 the village was in its heyday. There were three large
1arries in the vicinity, in addition to the Redgranite quar~
•-the Universal Granite Quarry at Lohrville; the William
annerrnan Company at West Point; and the Waushara

of the best in Wisconsin, it has been noted. Their leader
was Professor Leto, a private music teacher in the village,

Richford

and they took many prizes.
There were two churches, two theaters, four general
stores, two men's stores, two hardware stores, two jewe1D
ry stores, two drug stores, two meat markets, two milliu
nery storess two shoemakers, three barbers, three doctors,
two dentists! two pool rooms, several potato warehouses,

a furniture store, a flour and feed mill, a tailor shop,
bank, lumberyard, post office, bakery, milk station, sever·
al candy shops, restaurants, four hotels, a number of
boarding houses and other small business places, including
saloons.
There was always a keen interest in the operation of

Today, Richford ..in Waushara County-is a small community of several businesses and homes, but in days gone

by it had its boom days, according to a history of the settlement compiled by Philip Poullette, Waushara County
historiail.
An 1860 census shows that the Richford Mills turned

out 23,636 sacks of wheat flour, 375,000 pounds of com
meal, and 33,000 pounds of rye flour. The Bright Water
Pottery made 19,200 gallons of pottery valued at $1,920"
A sawmill was also located on the Mecan River.

ranite Company, also called Shaw's or Flynn's.

right to vote. There seemed to be two factions~ as a rule
there was the north side versus the south side.

A September 3, 1910, postal card in my collection de·
picts the "Richford Mill Disaster." People stand in the debris of the mill and a crumbled end of the tall building.

All were within two miles of Redgranite. There were
vo quarries six miles away at Glenrock. In addition there

After a strike in 1913, a history of Redgranite relates,
and gradually until about 1920, concrete and asphalt took

Poullette, despite his research on the area, has been unable
to determine what caused the disaster, unless it could have

ere several small operators who sold their blocks to one

over the city paving business and paving blocks became a

r the other of the large quarries. The 6:30a.m. train car·
ed many Redgranite men to work in the Lohrville, West
:>int, Flytu1 or Shaw quarries.
Mter the first firm which had purchased the Cronk
trm, there followed the Bannerman Granite Company,

thing of the past. Only stone for buildings, monuments,

been a flash flood; there is apparently a puddle of water
to the right of the picture.
The large hotel, built by L.D. Harris, was in full operation in the 1880's. An old photograph used by Mary

the village at election time. Everyone voted who had a

crushed stone and riprap for Great Lakes breakwaters

were quarried. When the depression of the 1930's hit,
there was very little work and Redgranite was almost
down and out.
Stores went out of business. Houses were sold for

little or nothing and some were moved out of the village.
h1 a few years the village population settled down to
about 600.
The late George Fuller was a homespun philosopher
and writer who ran a combination general store and se-

cond hand shop on Redgranite's Main Street. He recalled
when his father started a general store in Spring Lake
with a capital of $100.
Fuller sometimes told of the days when the quarries
were working at top speed, and the people from many
northern European countries came to the village to work
in the quarries. There were difficulties in communication

with the different languages. One story relates of a deter·
mined rescue when a ''big Swede picked up a German la-

dy and carried her into her house, she protesting all the
way in fluent German. When she was in her house, and

heard the dynamite blast go off near by where the crews
were building the railroad· line to Redgranite, she understood what the Swedish man had been trying to tell her."
A book of village board minutes found in 1937 by
village clerk Harold Bauman detailed the proceedings of
the board's first regular meeting held Nov. 7, 1901.
h1 1904 H.R. Berray, constable, was appointed as vii·
!age marshall, with his fee to be $1.50. His orders-"To
act only when called upon."
An ordinanoe on the books at that meeting stated
clearly "that no team or single horse was to stand on the

The Redgranite "New School" in 1911
he Western Consolidated Granite Company, and finally
he Wisconsin Granite Company. The latter company
"as in business during the big times,

together with the

[Uarries near Lohrville. William Wiske was the last super·
1tendent of the Redgranite quarry.
During the boom days Redgranite had close to two

street more than three consecutive hours and that they

were to be blanketed."
The U.S. Geological Survey of Waushara County
stated in 1913: "The climate of the area is healthful and
invigorating, though the winters are long and severe."

housand inhabitants and was the largest village in Wau~

hara County. It had a first class school system, includlg a high school with all college graduates as teachers-nd that was before college level teachers were the rule.
Redgranite was shipping out about twenty.five car>ads of paving blocks each day during spring and fall
easons. It had a Labor Day celebration that was known
hroughout the state. It had a band of fifty pieces, one

~

130

Jane Schmudlach in an article she wrote on the history

of Richford pictures people, the hotel, and a cutter
pulled by a team of black horses.
To quote Poullette•s information: "When the

Wiscon~

sin Legislature established Waushara County in 1851, it
was organized into one

town~-Waushara.

At the first meet-

ing of the county board at Sacramento, three new towns
were formed: Wautoma, in the western half of the county; Ontario, part of which is now Saxeville; and Marion,
which was much larger than now, leaving Waushara town~

ship {now Aurora) only slightly larger than today."
"On December 23, 1853, the county board created
the Town of Adario (now Richford) by taking some of
the Town of Dakota and also part of what is today Deer·
field. The present eighteen townships were set up in
about the same manner as they are today at a November,
1855, meeting. At this meeting, the name, Adario, was
changed to Richford. Both names were believed to have
been chosen in honor of eastern United States' towns
where most early settlers were from."
"A post office was established at Adario and accord~
ing to the United States post office records the name was

not changed to Richford until July 12, 1859. Daniel Root
was the first postmaster and served several years in the

1850's. He took in a total of $7.93 for the fiscal year of
1853. H.F. Follette was postmaster in 1861, succeeded by
Elias Follette in 1865. He was followed by Th0mas Bart·
lett, S. Bartlett, Elias Follette again in 1871, J.H. Monroe,
Andrew Wal terson, G .A. Eichman, and S.R Runnels in
1891. The yearly income from the post office reached
$74.94 in 1887. It is believed that August Wichner had

the office in his store and was the last postmaster when
the post office was discontinued in 1908 and mail was re~
ceived by rural route from the Coloma station. In those
early years, when postmasters changed, the location of the
post office moved either to the residence or business place
of the new postmaster."
"Names of early residents in Richford include Daniel
Root, William Durgin, F.G. Cogswell, L.M. Follette, Elias
Follette, Hiram Durgin, C. Tiffany, John Caves, and WilliamS. Monroe who arrived in 1857."
Richford supplied at ]east 44 men for service during
the Civil War, and of these, eight died of wounds or disease and two deserted. Another, William Parks, was Hsted
in the records as missing in action in the Battle of Shiloh,
Tennesse, Poullette found as he delved into the history
of the area. George Skeels, Richard Leigh and Charles
Hodge were killed in action or died of wounds from the
same battle. Roswell Bacon died of wounds at Blakely,
Alabama; Daniel Titus was killed at the battle of Atlanta,
Georgia; John Durgin died of disease at Vicksburg; Reuben Sawyer died of disease in New York in 1864; and
First Sargeant John Cogswell died at Lena, Illinois, of disease.
The Richford Cemetery is the last resting place of Caleb Richardson, a veteran of the War of l 812. Only one
or two of the 44 Civil War soldiers are buried in the Richford Cemetery, meaning the men and their families moved
to larger towns after the war was over. Bob Wilson, a Re~
publican congressman in Washington, D.C., is a great·
great-grandson of Caleb Richardson.
Richford had the only post office ever estabUshed in
the Town of Richford; the closest railroad in 1888 was
at Coloma Station. The village of Richford in 1888 contained two churches~-one was the present St. Peter Lutheran Church; the other a wooden church near the cemetery.
A wood frame school stood just south of the present
Richford schoolhouse; the flouring mill of A. Weshner
and Son, later known as the Sultz Grist Mill, was situated
near the Mecan River.. In this same period Richford contained the general stores of G.A. Eichman, E.L. Tiffany,
and August Weshner. In those days the taverns were also
connected to general stores. In 1800's photographs, Richford had many buildings and homes, but very few trees
covering the wide open fields,
According to Paulette, Richford had at least three
taverns before Prohibition, and that is probably the reason the town was allowed to keep the saloons. The town
accommodated the large hotel of L.D, Harris, a blacksmith shop, and other shops. A creamery was established
later and was in business for a number of years; butter
was made there '\!ld shipped to the cities. The population
before the 1900's was about one hundred.
Poullette mentions the "two ghost towns" of the
Town of Richford, Forest City and Allendale. A common
occurrence during early settlement of new lands was the
promotion of cities by "slick operators" who laid out
lots by the hundreds in what seemed like good locations.
The office of the register of deeds in Wautoma has the
plat of Allendale, revealing the city was to accomodate
several thousand people at a site two and a half miles
west of the village of Richford. Although lots were sold,
no houses were ever built and no record seems to exist
about the person or persons who promoted Allendale.

Forest City was the other Richford area ghost town,
This proposed city at least had a known owner, Matt
Cowling. He advertlsed in the May 9, 1857 Wautoma
Journal that he had lots surveyed and was selling them
at reasonable terms in Section 5 on the upper Mecan Ri·
ver. A schoolhouse known as Forest City School was built
in this general location and a dam was constructed on the
Mecan River. Forest City at one time had a grist mill,
sawmill, shoemaker and the home of a doctor. The minia·
ture city was built near the dam where the county road
crossed--today known as County Trunk GG. Many years
ago the dam washed out, and a small bridge was built to
cross the river.
The doctor's residence was moved up the road about
one mile north by six teams of oxen, and the other buiJd,
ings of the proposed city fell down or were torn down.
The late County Judge Gad Jones had shown Poullette
papers regarding a lawsuit over water rights between the
Richford Mills and one at Forest City. It seems the firms
couldn't agree on the times to use the water. Forest City
never reached a large enough population to have a post
office or be placed on any map.
An interesting item is found in the Waushara Argus'
30th anniversary edition: "Phil Miller, of Richford, the
heavyweight of the Northwest, died April 23, !885. He
weighed over 400 pounds."
The Mecan River was very likely used as a highway
by Indian tribes before settlement of the county by the
white pioneers. Two Indian campsites, a village site and
at least 36 mounds, were found in this township, Poul·
lette notes.

~

132

Sacramento
The once flourishing community of Sacramento in Wau·
shara County was the first Waushara County seat. A country cemetery in a field surrounded by a small grove of trees
on the south side of the Fox River about two miles north
of Berlin is one of the few remaining memories of the village
which supposedly had a population of 250 to 350 inhabitants in the mid-1850's.
Sacramento in the Town of Aurora was not only the
county seat, but also a trading post before 1850. It was
platted in 1849 or 1850 by T. Townsend. "The plat area
as laid out in lots would have been large enough for a population of several thousand." The north side of the village
touched on the shore of the Fox River. A temporary bridge
was erected, but washed out in a spring flood long before
Sacramento disappeared into history.
A trail from Pine River led to the Fox River at this point.
It was used by trappers, traders and hunters. An early settler named Mason was said to have built a feny crossing to
what was to be known as Berlin. One historian credited the
naming of the village to a man named Hatch, who had mem·
ories of the California gold rush and Sacramento.
A post office was established at Sacramento October 12,
1850, with Benjamin Langworthy as the first postmaster.
At this time Green lake and Waushara Counties were part
of Marquette County for judicial purposes. It was not until
the winter of 1852 that the lines were defined.
David H. Robinson succeeded Langworthy as postmaster
in 1851. He was replaced by George F. Bellis, who was postmaster when the office was discontinued December 19,
!86!. The greatest revenue listed in postal records was for
the fiscal year 1852-1853-in the amount of $16.4!.
Business places in Sacramento included a steam sawmill
with a yearly capacity of one million board feet; a hotel;
school; tavern; storehouse near the boat landing; shoe shop;
butcher shop; soap factory; a fair sized cooper shop for the
making of barrels; and a distillery which made strong spirits.
The cemetery is a source of names, inscribed on the mar~
kers. The number oflog cabins or dwellings is not recorded.
The names include Griggs, Stiller, Schraeder, Barker, Mehr,
mann, LaBrodt, Schumer, Rogers, Edger, Wendt, Cum·
mings, Petters, Erlich, Jessup, Bronson and Willard. Children who died in a diptheria' epidemic are believed to be
buried in the unmarked graves.
While there is no record of a church, it is thought the
people met in the homes, schoolhouse or went to Berlin
for prayer Services, one history notes.
A bitter battle was waged over the Waushara County
seat site when the people of Wautoma held a meeting in
January, 1854, to take it away from Sacramento. An account of this incident reads: "At this time there were only
twelve families in the village (Wautoma) and not a vacant
house in the place. At the meeting Jacob Bugh was chosen
to go to Madison and obtain passage of a bill to authorize
a vote on the question of removal. The bill passed and September 2, 1854, was the time set for the election, which
was warmly contested.
"The total vote in the county was 756, of which 402 were
for removal, 352 against, and two scattering. The people of
Wautoma had previously taken steps to have a special ses-

sion of the county board at the office ofW.C. Webb in Wau,
toma on September 12, where it was voted that the county
officers should forthwith remove all records to Wautoma.
It was also voted that the October term of Circuit Court
should be held at Wautoma, although the jurors had already
been summoned to attend at Sacramento. The jurors were
again summoned to attend at Wautoma and on October 2.
1854,Circuit Court convened in· the rtlom over the store of
D.L. Bunn. So it was a fixed fact that Wautoma was the
county seat." (From the Anniversary Edition of the Wau,
shara Argus, Wautoma, Wis., Friday, March 30, 1888.)
The extension of the Milwaukee and Horicon railroad
to Berlin in 1856-57, and the building of the Berlin bridge
over the Fox River drew traffic away from Sacramento.
Berlin became an important shipping point for Waushara
and Green Lake Counties. Buildings were moved out of Sa,
cramento, taken across the Fox River, and used in the cran~
berry marshes or tom down.
Sacramento was bypassed. It became a name in history.
Today only traces, fast fading away, recall that here was a
prosperous community, which figured in the settling of the
wilderness.

(Sacramento is spelled with an 'a' in the Biographical Album. The 1890 book locates it in the town of Berlin, Green

Lake County. County boundaries were changed.)
"Sacramento, in the north part of this township, is a
small village which once had quite brilliant hopes. At the
organization of Waushara County, it was temporarily the
county seat. The village was regularly platted in 1849.lts
original owner was James Hobden, and he sold it to one
Townsend. At that time the population numbered six per,
sons. A steam sawmill was built in !857, and Morse, Abbott
& Co. were among the early owners. In 1860 the place contained this industrial establishment, a tavern, a store house
and landing, a cooper shop, two shoe shops, and about three
hundred inhabitants. The inventive genius of its citizens,
led, about that time, to the establishment there of two
washing machine factories; but they were small and shortlived. A bridge formerly spanned the Fox River at this place,
which was washed away by a flood. A ferry superseded it
a mile below, and was in its time an accomodation to the
traveling public. A later bridge was the ruin of the ferryman's business. The old race course was established half a
mile south of Sacramento, and a mile and a half from the
center of the city of Berlin, on S. Barlow's farm."
An Album explanation of the changing boundary lines
of Sacramento: "The City of Berlin, taken mostly from its
territory, leaves its outlines irregular. The village of Sacramento originally belonged to Marquette County, and was
by an act of Legislature attached to Waushara County, at
the organization of that county, contrary to the wish of
Sacramento's inhabitants, and, as some contended, contraJY
to the constitution of Wisconsin. By a subsequent enactment
it was attached to the town of Berlin." (And thus became
a part of Green Lake County.)

~

133

Saxeville
The bronze "Saxeville Bell" has been an attraction in the
village on the Pine River in Waushara County since it was ta·
ken as a "trophy" by soldiers who served in the Civil War.
The plaque beneath the bell in Saxeville Village Park reads:
"Originally was used to call the slaves from the fields at the
Jefferson Davis Plantation in Corinth, Miss. In 1862 during
the Civil War, local soldiers captured it, and shipped it back
to Saxeville."
There are slight variations on the capturing of !he bell.
The story of its origin is documented in several publications
Captain Edward A. Saxe, for whom Saxeville was named,
"Had formed a volunteer company of Waushara County
men to head south following the shot at Fort Sumter that
set off the Civil War. The Saxeville unit took part in the fa·
mous battle of Shiloh. Saxe was killed, but his unit con tin·
ued on and fought in many more battles."
It has been told how the Saxeville soldiers obtained the
bell as uspoils of war" when the Union troops looted sou·
them plantations, including the Jefferson Davis property.
The bell at Briarfield Plantation had called the slaves from
the fields and to prayer.
"Sgt. Solomon Howe and Prtvates Thomas Protheroe
and James Watson of Saxeville packed the bell in a hard
tack barre! and carried it nine miles through swamps to the
company's headquarters. From there it was shipped north
to Strong's Landing (Berlin), and then taken to Saxeville.
The bell was installed in a church, later transferred to the
old school, and then put on the school in use in 1891,
where its ring hastened the laggard pupil to school."
Saxeville in 1899 was spelled Saxville. It had a popula·
tion of about fifty and was located as fourteen miles north·
east of Wautoma, and tltirteen miles south of Waupaca, the
nearest railway station.
"J. Noble came to !!tis place in 1849 ," the Biographical
Album states. "Mr. Sax came soon after and built a sawmill
the same year. In 1850 he built a frame house and a hotel,
and in 1853 a f!During mill. The village was platted in 1854
by E. Sax. The first store was kept by Sax and Brothers.
Captain Sax, whose name is perpetuated in that of Ed Sax
Post, Grand Army of the Republic of Wautoma, was killed
during the Rebellion at the battle of Shiloh."
In 1869 the business of Saxeville was summarized thus:
"E. Bardwell, wagon marker; Bates Cook, blacksmith; John
Coon, postmaster and proprietor of the Cedar Lake House,
Berlin and Waupaca Road; Edward Ghoca, flouring mill;
William James, steam sawmill; Joseph Milliken, postmaster

Saxeville Congregational Church early in the 1900's

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134

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and notary public; N.W. Milliken, general merchant; Mrs.
L.B. Vosburg, hotel; John A. Willaims, general merchant;
V. W'tlmer,sawmill. Saxville in 1899 contains the general
store ofH.C. Van Airsdale and N.W. Milliken; the blacksmith shops of J .S. Burson and John Crandall, and the shoe
shopsof W.B. Coburn."
A word picture of Saxeville's early day history was pre·
served in an article written in 1967 by Charlotte Van Airs·
dale, of her interview with the late Charles Jenson of Saxeville for a special Wausharo Argus historic section.
Excerpts: "Perhaps the earliest Saxeville industry was
the brickyard. Jenson related how his father molded the
bricks for a portion of !tis house east of Saxeville. The
schoolhouse was built of brick from the same brickyard.
The first blacksmith shop was located on the north side
of the millpond where oxen were shod by Peter Johnson.
Later a blacksmith shop was built by Foster T. Hanson,
where he was blacksmith until the late 1940's. Everyone
who grew up on the vicinity has memories of standing before the open door and watching Foster at work.
The Saxeville band met for practice one evening a week
upstairs in the shop. The band would play at picnics and
celebrations. 'There was nothing slouchy about that band.
Their suits were remdoeled uniforms donated by police·

men from a nearby city,' Jenson said.
The band played concerts at celebrations in the picnic
grove. The bandstand was painted red and cream. People
had to come early to find a place to tie their teams. The
Fourth of July was a big celebration with a parade led by

the band, a picnic dinner with homemade ice cream, and

t?-~~·-"',

. 135

fire crackers and a speaker. The Old Settlers and Macabees
also had annual picnics. The Macabees held their monthly
meetings overhead in the drug store. Oyster suppers, ice

Spring Lake

cream socials, house parties, sliding and skating parties
were popuJar.
In the early 1900's there were a number of business
places on the west side of main street. Dr. Van Airsdale had
a drug store. Then in line were the livery stable, feed mill,
hotel and store. An interesting thing about the feed mill
was that power was provided by a windmill. The sixty by
forty livery stable often housed twenty-five or thirty horses
on special occasions. Travelling salesmen rented teams and
travelled throughout Waushara County selling their wares.
A night's lodging was available for fifty cents and meals
were twenty~five cents.
A 1910 business venture was a ginseng garden started by
Frank Bartleson and Ludwig Christenson on lots rented
from Charles Peterson. The vast amount oflabor and expense left little profit so the project was discontinued and
the fence was removed in 1916.
The grist and sawmill were scenes of great activity. Ear·
ly in the century a skinuning station was in part of the mill
and the cream was hauled to Poy Sippi each day. At one
time flour was ground and later it was primarily a grist mill.
Under the ownership of Ben Heald, it became a popuJar
lumber mill where all types of!umber, including lath and
flooring, were sawed.
Garrett Van Airsdale ran a 'strip' mill where fence strips
were sawed. On Poplar Creek, flowing into Pine River, was
a grist and sorghum mill operated by Dr. Van Airsdale and
son, Charles. The first grist ground was for Nicholas Willi·
ams when he had two bags of navy beans ground for feed
because there was no market for them.
Mr. Jenson told of demonstrations put on the night pre·
ceding the presidential elections at the tum of the century.
He had a small metal cup-shaped container with a wick. This
was fastened to a long stick, lighted and carried by the villagers as they marched through the streets. 'Most of the
natives were Republicans then,' he said.
Saxeville at one time had three churches--the Congrega·
tiona!, Lutheran and Baptist, all filled at capacity. Some
members walked seven miles to attend services.
When the creamery was built in 1907 Jenson and De·
Forest Waid mixed all the cement for the floor and carried
it in pails. They were paid one dollar per day and worked
from seven in the morning until six-thirty in the evening.
The creamery burned in 1926.
Jenson lived in the house occupied in 1853 by Captain
Edward Saxe.,'

Willow Creek, but figured the land was too sandy, and
moved to what became Spring Lake.
The Fulier name has figured prominently in Spring Lake
history since A. P.'s arrival. Today Charles Fulier, 67, retiring after thirty two years as town of Marion treasurer. is
the last member living in Spring Lake. There are no sons to
carry on the family name. A Fulier family tree gives information on those early Fuller settlers.~
A.P. and Sarah's children were Percis. Annette, Amelia,
Jerry,John, Ella and George Sr. John, 1847-1899,
Charles Fuller's grandfather, took over the hotel-farm section o(the Fuller holdings after A.P. died, while George Sr.
subdivided his share into village lots.
It is told that George Sr. bought his first store in 1878
for the sum of one hundred dollars .. It was an impressively
large building with the addition Fuller built. George Jr. was
the owner after his father.lt was a bitter cold night, Janu·
ary 22, 1936, when the first landmark store burned. The
fire started about seven in the evening from unknown
causes.
"There was such a bad snow storm and blizzard that
night of the fire that all the roads to the north and west
were blocked to travel. No vehicles could move on the un~
plowed roads," Fulier explained. The Redgranite and Lohr·
ville fire departments came and saved the other buildings.
"'When George discovered the fire he put out a general
ring on the telephone, and got his mother Mary out of her
living quarters in the store. That store fire was the biggest
one ever in Spring Lake, as far as I have heard," Fuller con·

The Oark Hotel and stage coach stop figured promi·
nently in Spring Lake history in the decades when travel·
lers stopped to rest and eat on their journey from Berlin
and on to Stevens Point. The community in the Town of
Marion in Waushara County was a part of the exciting and
romantic memories of the ear1iest settlement years, when
a team of spirited horses drew the coach over the unpredictable roads, through the wilderness and cleared farm lands.
It is not known why the hotel was named "Oark." In
1890 it is listed in the Biographical Album as "the hotel of
A.P. FuJler." There was also the general store of Thomas
H. Joslin. The hamiet nine miles southeast of Wautoma and
thirteen miles northwest of Berlin had the only post office
in the town of Marion. The population "was about twenty~
five."
The hotel was tom down in 1920 and the lumber used
to build the home where Violet Turner lives today, across
the street from the store on the corner. The sign "Hotel
Oark" is saved in their basement as well as memorabilia
collected by the late Mrs. Lillie Turner, a granddaughter of
A.P. Fulier.
One picture of the hotel-stagecoach stop taken in 1880
shows the two story structure as a large building, neatly
trimmed and painted, with an outside stairs leading to the
second story.
Aseph Putnam Fulier was born in 1819 and died in 189!.
He and his wife, Sarah Ann Wallen, the parents of seven
children, came to Wisconsin in 1853 from Bloomfield, Essex County, Vermont. They settled west of Redgranite on

~

The Stage Stop & Hotel in Spring Lake was once the home of the Fuller family
136

137

Tustin
Tustin, on the north shore of Lake Poygan in Waushara
County, was the home of Indian tribes before the wooded
area became government land, to be developed into a thriv·
ing community by early settlers.
Historians record that the Winnebago and Mascoutin Jn.
dians hunted and camped in this area until they moved
southward, and were followed by the Menominee tribes.
The land lying east of the Wolf River and north of the Fox
River was made 'Indian Land' in 1796. This included the
territory which was to become known as Waushara County.
The Indians had pledged to sell their land only to the government. White men settling in the area before the October,l8, 1848 treaty, signed by the government and Menominees at Lake Poygan, were considered squatters. The Me·
nominees were looked upon as one of the friendly Indian
tribes.
Tustin, in the southeast section of the Town of Bloom·
field, is listed as a village of 250 population in the 1890

Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Wausham Counties, which describes Tustin as located "twenty

Fuller's Store in Spring Lake, early 1900's
tinned. ''There was no fire in the downstairs when I arrived
at the scene, so a group of men went in to help carryoout
merchandise. There was a sudden explosion upstairs, and
we ended up in a heap against the closed door, from our
standing positions in the middle of the store."
"Burning shingles from the roof were strewn ail over
Spring Lake, and people were stationed to watch the bum·
ing embers to save the settlement. The heat of the fire in
the store melted the two feet of snow around the building,
and water began to run like a stream in front of the house
south across the street. The only way we saved that house
when it started to bum was to scoop up the running water
and form a bucket brigade," Fuller recalled.
The onlY things George Jr. saved from his father's
store in that fire were the original old cash register with the
G.H. Fuller name prominently displayed at the top, a coupie of drawers ffiled with records from a ffiing cabinet, a
bread rack and a case of Sweet Cuba chewing tobacco.
"The Spring Lake Store was the only place the late Edward Leach, a farmer and distant relative of Fuller's, could
buy the Sweet Cuba, and in ail the rush and excitement of
the fire George thought of Leach," Fuller said.
''Those were the depression days and George Jr. found
it most economical because labor was cheap; to have the
unused Micksell store in Redgranite tom down and rebuilt
at Spring Lake. Many of the other buildings left over from
the quarry days at Redgranite had been moved out by that
time;'' Fuller said.
According to information from Philip Poullette, Wan·
toma and Waushara County historian, Spring Lake's post
office was established AprilS, 1852. William Skinner was
the first postmaster. Depending upon the postmaster, the
post office was housed in various places, including the
store, hotel and private homes. It was discontinued about
1923, reading from Poullette's records.
Charles Fuller recalls hearing of the first log cabin school
in Spring Lake. It stood east of the brick one built about
1900, used at present by CAP Services. The second Spring

Lake School was on Cree Lane, north of the village. It was
there that Charles Fuller's father, Roy, born in 1879,had
gone. Pictures show a large enrollment.
A comparison of prices of yesteryear is evident in scan·
ning the 1909 bill for the materials and labor when the
Fuller home was built. "It cost $1,479 ," Mrs. Fuller said.
Ross and Schubert of Neshkoro were the carpenters. Morse
and Dahlke, Neshkoro lumber dealers, also had a yard in
Spring Lake, "by the railroad tracks."
Dr. G.A. Steele came from Redgranite to Spring Lake
to make house calls. A bill to Roy Fuller when Charles
Fuller was born January 26, 1914, lists seventeen dollars
for confinement, with five dollars paid by cash January
27, and five dollars by cash February ll,leaving a "halance of seven dollars."
Spring Lake at one time included a second store, which
stood near the United Methodist Church, which is active to·
day. The cornerstone of the church is inscribed "1912John Bell M.E. Church." Church members note that according to church history Bell gave a "sum of money to help
build the church, and it was named after him."
Granite quarrying days figure in the Spring Lake history,
for the community was a hub of trading' and business, with
two boarding houses, store, a lumber yard, warehouse, cheese
factory, blacksmith shop and a depot shelter. The "Grasshopper" saloon was located east of the store and a second one
stood beside the tracks.
Another landmark building in Spring Lake is the Marion
Town Hall. It was originally the United Brethren Church. In
the late 1920's George Fuller Sr. offered one hundred dolJars for it, and then deeded the building and land to the
Spring Lake School District. "About twenty-seven or twen·
ty-eight years ago the school trustees decided to deed the
building and strip ofland in front ofit to the town of Marion," Charles Fuller recalled. Fund raising events and benefits were held to install a hardwood floor and build on a
stage and a kitchen. "Many dances and good times were
held there."

138

six miles northeast of Wautoma and contains the feed and
saw mill owned by the Leverson Brothers; a saw and heading
mill owned by Clark and Nelson; the hotel of O.C. Jenks;
the boat building establishment ofF. LaBorde and Son;
cheese factory of John lind; hotel of William Richards;
cheese factory of John Schindeholtz; general store of Gottlieb Velte and John Boyson and other business interests."

Charles Freer who had first settled at Berlin, but was
originally of Uttle Sutton, England, is credited as being
the first settler, although the community was not named
for him. Freer purchased a tract of government-owned land
in 1856. Land was selling at one dollar and twenty five cents
per acre (most histories agree upon this price), and as Freer
has 'means' as he had brought jewelry and money with him
from England, he loaned that money to individuals to use to
purchase land. Freer was said"to ha~e preferred the life of a
sportsman.
Tom Tustin, for whom the new settlement was named,
was one of those who purchased a piece of land from Freer.
He built a store, and a thriving community soon grew up
around it. Tustin became a fishing and shipping center. There
was daily transportation of freight and passengers on the
Wolf River and Lake Poygan. Oshkosh was a distance of
twenty four miles by water and the regular schedule included the six in the morning departure, and a five in the
evening return docking.
The water traffic included government boats, tugs,
dredges to keep the water open, freights and passenger
boats. The double-decked boats carried freight on the lower deck, with passengers on the cabin or upper deck. A
round-trip ticket from Tustin to Oshkosh sold for seventy
five cents, and a single fare was fifty cents.
Excursion boats plying the route included the ary of

wine factory operated by Ed Laubenheimer. The wine was
shipped out by the barrel, including dandelion, grape, currant, strawberry, etc. Eight vats were used in the process
and several people were employed in the business. In dandelion season it is said that pupils were dismissed from
school to permit them to pick dandelion blossoms, earning
two or two and a half cents per quart.
Down through the years the street fountain dug by
Charles Freer became a landmark. The hunters carne in
season from the big cities to take their share of ducks. Education was important to the settlers, and as many as sixtyfive pupils were enrolled, according to an early history. Tustin was also recognized for the quality of its cheese and butter, as well as wine, in the days when water transportation

Wautoma
Wautoma, the county seat of Waushara County, supposedly has an Indian derivation meaning "Good Land,"
which is what the early settlers were seeking. Instead, in
some spots, they found clear sand.
Some people recall their grandparents saying that the
settlers were so busy looking at the clear flowing water
and lofty trees that they didn't bother to dig under the
leaf mold to examine the soiL Generally, however, they
were not disappointed in the growing power of the earth.
In the Wautoma area today, the clear water in the
lakes and streams, and the stands of trees are every bit
as important as the growing potential of the soiL

was a way oflife.

eX®:::>
Tustin
Berlin, Mayflower and Valley Queen. These boats made regular trips on occasion, but were mainly for pleasure. Dances
were a part of the festivities as the boats made their run.
Boats sailing on Lake Poygan in those years of river travel
included the John Lynch (which burned on the Wolf River
May 2, 1902),AnnaM. Thistle, Dixie, Fashion and O.B.
Reed. Some of these boats were known the entire length of
the Fox River route, including Princeton to Portage.
The chief exports of Tustin included dressed pork, beef,
cordwood, fish, cheese, wine, potatoes, butter and lumber.
The provisions shipped in on the boats were staples of groceris, brick, clothing, coal and beer. The shipping season
usually ran from April 15 to November 15.
Two commercial fishing companies formed duriog 1895·
1905 were the Miles and Durkee and Hooper and Marble.
In those years there was no limit on the aroount of fish
caught and no closed season for fishing. The fishermen
used gill and hoop nets, and the day's catch might weigh
as much as one to two tons of fish. Tustin people found employment cleaning the catch for the commercial fishermen.
The companies utilized their own ice houses for preserving
the catch. Barrels of fish were shipped daily to Oshkosh, to
be sent in to Chicago and Milwaukee. This business ended
by about 1923, with the enforcement oflaws on legal fish,
seasons and limit.
The later day commercial fiShermen, contending with
laws, caught rough fish, manY of which were shipped to
the New York City Jewish Fish Market. The years 1919·
1920 were mainly the end of boats for transportation, with
the modernization of roads, automobiles, and trucks .
.One source notes the Tustin grist mill as using stones
for grinding. For sharpening, the stones were taken out
and chipped to make them rough. The cooper shop was
engaged in constrocting beer kegs, cracker barrels of the
type seen in old-time stores and other wood containers.
When Ed Cobb's blacksmith shop was in business, he was
busy working at sleds and iron parts for wagons.
One of Tustin's busiest establishments in season was the

•••
An 1869 history of Wautoma states: ''Wautoma is
the natural center and trading point for a considerable
area of country. The land in the town and vicinity is productive, through rather sandy. There is good waterpower
in the village. In the neighborhood there is some of the
·
best pottery clay in the state."
The first known white settlers in Waushara County,
William & Isaac Warwick had come to the "forbidden"
area in the fall of 1848; September 24 is the date specified in some historical articles. The brothers had served
in the Mexican War and were originally from Ohio. They
came into the area to make a claim on a piece of land in

what came to be known as Colebrook in the Town of
Marion. They built an 8 x 10 log shanty, and in the
fall Isaac went with two yoke oxen to Stevens Point, and
secured lumber for the erection of a larger and more convenient house.
This was Indian land and unclaimed wilderness, not
as yet opened for settlement by the United States Government. The Warwicks .were ordered repeatedly by the
Indians and Indian Agent to vacate their claim, but
stayed despite the wrath of the Indians.
Fortunately for those early pioneers, the Indian tribe
of Pottawatomis (signifying fire-makers) living in the area
were friendly. The Warwicks built the first sawmill. During the settlement of the new territory, people came
from all directions to secure lumber to build their homes,
rather than using logs.
A new road, opened in 1849 from Strong's Landing
(today Berlin) to what was to become Wautoma was inducive in bringing in many more settlers. Phillip Green
had settled at the site of Wautoma in the winter of 184849, building a shanty (where the hotel is today). He sold
his claim in 1849 to George Atkins, who built a tavern,
a welcome haven for the lumberjacks travelling to the
woods further north.

The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names, authored by

H

Business block in Wautoma, circa 1921

141
140

11141N 5T/YEET,
I'Vf!UTOMI!, 11/1$

Wautoma
Wautoma, the county seat of Waushara County, sup·
posedly has an Indian derivation meaning "Good Land,"
which is what the early settlers were seeking< Instead, in
some spots, they found clear sand.
Some people recall their grandparents saying that the
settlers were so busy looking at the clear flowing water
and lofty trees that they didn't bother to dig under the
leaf mold to examine the soiL Generally, however, they
were not disappointed in the growing power of the earth.
In the Wautoma area today, the dear water in the
lakes and streams, and the stands of trees are every bit
as important as the growing potential of the soil.

what came to be known as Colebrook in the Town of
Marion. They built an 8 x 10 log shanty, and in the
fall Isaac went with two yoke oxen to Stevens Point, and
secured lumber for the erection of a larger and more convenient house.
This was Indian land and unclaimed wilderness, not
as yet opened for settlement by the United States Government. The Warwicks were ordered repeatedly by the
Indians and Indian Agent to vacat~ their claim, but
stayed despite the wrath of the Indians.
Fortunately for those early pioneers, the indian tribe
of Pottawatomis (signifying fire-makers) living in the area
were friendly, The Warwicks built the first sawmilL During the settlement of the new territory, people came
from all directions to secure ]umber to build their homes,
rather than using logs.
A new road, opened in 1849 from Strong's Landing
(today Berlin) to what was to become Wautoma was inducive in bringing in many more settlers. Phillip Green
had settled at the site of Wautoma in the winter of 184849, building a shanty (where the hotel is today). He sold
his claim in 1849 to George Atkins, who built a tavern,
a welcome haven for the lumberjacks travelling to the
woods further north.

...

Main Street of Wautoma around 1912
arrived shortly after Atkins in this country rich with
pines. The Shumways bui1t a sawmill and storehouse and
chartered the new settlement called Shumway Mills. The
official marker erected by the city of Wautoma in 1955
reads that John Shumway bought out Atkins and built
the Wautoma HoteL The Shumways sold in 1854 to William Everard, who became proprietor. The village of Wau·
lorna was platted out for him in December, 1853, by a
Mr. Stowers. Everard built the flour mill in 1854.
In those early days the few settlers in Wautoma and
Waushara County were exposed to great hardships, and
they labored under difficulties that would perplex and
astonish us today. They had to go to Kingston and Ceresco (Ripon) for their grist, and to Dartford (Green Lake)
for blacksmithing. Many strange experiences they had on
the way .. sometimes amusing, but often penlous.
John Bugh, Daniel F. Hodge, Judson Luce, Thomas
Oay and Henry Weiner settled near Wautoma in 1849
and commericed farming. A school house was built by
contribution, and religious meetings were also held there
at what is now Wautoma in the summer of 1850. Rev. J.
Milliken was the first clergyman, F. Munson brought a
stock of goods from Ohio in 1852 and opened the first
general store in Shumwais storehouse. In 1853 Davis L.
Bunn came from Dane County (he became county judge)
and established a store. The hotel was called the Wautoma House, with N.W. Boynton, proprietor. Dr. Moses
Barrett arrived in 1854 and was later county treu"surer.
The Waushara County population as listed on Octo·
ber 5, 1860, was 8,814,
The Wautoma business line-up in June, 1859, was
listed as: one cabinet shop, cooperage shop, sawmill, grist
mill, blacksmith and carriage shop, two hotels, two newspapers, one hardware store, meat market, drug store·, two
physicians, four lawyers, two notaries and livery and stage
barns at each of the hotels. During this year a new bank

times for life and occasionally for ground or earth, and in
fact seems to drop in naturally anywhere and exr>ress
whatever the occasion requires.
Tomah was the name of an Indian chief. Whether
Wau~toma was chosen as an appropriate name for this
"neck of the woods," as meaning the "land of Tomah,"
or in order to follow the prevailing fashion of Wisconsin,
to wau everything, we know not; tradition is silent on
the subject."
"Jabez Nelson Rogers and Charles and John Shum·
way purchased a sawmiU and started manufacturing lum~
ber here in 1~49. The three men as partners owned and
laid out the town. It was necessary to have a post office,
so Mr. Rogers made application through General King of
the Milwaukee Sentinel, choosing the name Wautoma,

The first town meeting for the Town of Waushara,
which then constituted the whole county, was held at the
house of Cyrus Langworthy, in the village of Sacramento
(on the Fox River, three miles from Berlin) on April!,
185L At this election there were no less than 50 votes
cast. The hamlet of Wautoma became the county seat in
a special election held September 2, 1853, when 40 settlers cast their votes to move it from Sacramento.
There was an attempt in 1870 to change the location
of the Waushara County seat from Wautoma to Pine Ri·
ver. The vote after the final counting stood at I ,678
against removal, and I ,076 in favor of the Pine River lo·
cation.

****
No history of Wautoma is complete without telling
of the Shumway brothers, John P. and Charles N., who

143

An 1869 history of Wautoma states: "Wautoma is
the natural center and trading point for a considerable
area of country. The land in the town and vicinity is pro·
ductive, through rather sandy. There is good waterpower
in the village, ln the neighborhood there is some of the
best pottery clay in the state."
The first known white settlers in Waushara County,
William & Isaac Warwick had come to the "forbidden"
area in the fall of 1848; September 24 is the date specified in some historical articles. The brothers had served
in the Mexican War and were originally from Ohio. They
came into the area to make a claim on a piece of land in

The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names, authored by

Business block in Wautoma, circa 1921
141

Wild Rose
erected a blacksmith shop at Wild Rose in 1874 (a wagon
shop was later added). The Grange built a hall in the village
about the same time. The blacksmith shop was later operated by John Fisher. He and his partner, Thomas Lowe, devoted most of their time to manufacturing the 'Lowe' potato planter in 1883. The same year James Fisher purchased his brother's share and carried on the blacksmith
trade .. A C.A. Smart was later associated with L. Atwood
Jones in the mercantile business," the Centennial booklet
states under the heading of Nineteenth Century History

Wild Rose in Waushara County celebrated the Centennial of its founding in 1973. The community is known nation-wide as the "Village of Roses" for the Garden of Historic Roses established with the Wild Rose Woman's Qub
funds. Wild Rose is also recognized today for the Pioneer
Museum, Wild Rose Hospital and Fish Hatchery, started in
1908.
The following history of the Village of Roses is excerpted from the Centennial booklet compl1ed and written
by Robert A. Ramlow, who was assisted by W.R. Ronaldson. The pictures in this book are typically interesting as
are all pictures of that period in the settlement of the
state.

of Wild Rose and Environs.
"An interesting and amusing incident occurred during
the building of the first store in Wild Rose. The first load
oflumber for the new store was being hauled during the
month of Februal)'. It had rained and snowed for two
days prior to making the trip and when crossing the creek
near town, the whole load, including the keg of nails and
the lumber, slid into the water, where it remained for several days before it could be gotten out. The store was only
twelve by seventeen feet in size, and the posts seven feet
high. It was built without a level and there was only one

"Wild Rose was erected on the line between the towns
of Springwater and Rose in 1873 by J.H. Jones, who established a store on a portion of the John Davies farm and
procured the establishment of a post office. Jones had
come to Wdd Rose from Pardeeville. Davies was from Wales
and his wife from Scotland. The first store burned in 1874
and a hotel was built on that site by Dr. W. Briggs."
"L. Atwood Jones erected a store, which with the second J. Jones store gave the new settlement two general
merchandise establishments. Ceylon C. lincoln, the Wautoma drummer boy who went to war at the age of ten,

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claw hammer for four men. Wire nails were a new thing,
and when one bent, the only solution was to drive it into
the lumber anyway. The store was not exactly level, and
one of the workmen said it would do for sober men only."

"'~''·"'

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An oueruiew of Wild Rose, circa 1910

145

"~-"'

The Wautoma Mill Pond around 191 0
was erected and opened, and another blacksmith shop
started.
Quoting from the Milwaukee Sentinel of April 5,
1855, an item regarding Wautoma: "The village of Wautoma has won the honor of being the county seat of
Waushara County. It is worthy of it, being beautifully
laid out and having a central and thriving trade. Situated
on a fine creek, there are already 50 buildings in the village which has a population of 300. A courthouse is being erected."
An April, 1883, news item in a county newspaper
denoted a new concept of modern living: "The village
cows are no longer allowed to roam at large in Wautoma
as they had in the past foraging for grass and water. With
this in mind, Will Johnson plans to solve the Wautoma
milk problem by establishing a milk route."
Wautoma was incorporated as a village in 1901 and
became a city in 1940.
As in many of the young and growing communities
of that period, Wautoma had disastrous fires. After the
midnight fire of April 29, 1901, the third in a series that
had come in swift succession, the old grist mill and the
early AlgUS newspaper office were the only buildings
which escaped destruction. The fire travelled from Bean's
lincoln House on St. Marie Street, and thence westward
down both sides of Main Street.
The conflagration had begun with sudden fury in a
row of warehouses that lined the rear of the stores on
the south side of West Main Street. A band of valiant
citizens fighting the flames had brought into play a
pump in use at the mill and a stream of water kept back
the threate"ling flames from the majestic structure. Many
men joined in the fight to save the mill. When the Moulton building tumbled into the White River downstream,
water in the spillway backed up high enough to reach
the firefighters' chests. The rest of Wautoma was entirely
without protection during Wautoma's most devastating
fire.
A clipping reads: "People from surrounding villages
arrived to inspect the ruins for days. Every nook and cor-

ner in this village is now urilized. Even barns are being
used for residence purposes. In most cases the insurance
losses in the village have been adjusted satisfactorily. It
is impossible to fill the orders for lumber at present because teams to haul it cannot be had. The village council
has provided for the purchase of a fire engine provided
that it proves by test all that is claimed for it. There is a
a shortage of masons here at present and the prospects
for progress are not flattering for the future when the
brick laying commences unless some workmen fmd their
way here."
A 190 I newspaper picture taken the day following
the fire shows devastated Wautoma Main Street, the mill
standing unscathed amidst destruction in every direction.
"Wautoma rebuilt following the fires and the mill
continued as in the past to be the destination for farmers
and their families who arrived with loads for grinding.
While father caught up on the latest farming information
with his cronies at the mill, mother and the children
shopped for necessities of the day."
A name of importance in early Wautoma history was
Phineas Walker, who came to the settlement in 1851,
bought timber lands and loaned money before the days
of banks. He also owned a hop house and farm land
where the new Wautoma High School stands today.
"A.J. Walker, an owner of the old grist mill after
1900, was an impressive Wautoma figure who loved his
city. He had a large collection of photographs, including
tintypes of West Main Street during the Civil War era. It
was his fear throughout the years that the mill could
possibly catch fire and the entire city of Wautoma would
bum. Every time the fire whistle blew he would go outside and listen to see in which direction the trucks went,"
his daughter, Mrs. A.R. Hotvedt said.
At one time the old Wautoma grist mill was grinding
and manufacturing its own buckwheat flour which was
famous all over the United States. A.J. Walker had printed a prized recipe on the side of each sack for buckwheat
pancake fanciers.

144

"C.A. Smart, who engaged in business in Wild Rose in
1874 when he opened his store, was widely interested in
:eal estate and other interests. By 1901 he was doing about
S40,000 a year in general merchandise business." His store
s pictured on postcards of that era.
"The store of ToH. Patterson and Son was the finest
milding in the village in 1902. It was two stories high; fif.
y by one hundred feet in size and all brick construction,
vith a large roomy basement. The first floor carried a
arge assortment of general merchandise. The second floor
ontained a good hall equipped as a fme opera house. In

the front of the building were office rooms supplied with
all modern conveniences of that period!'
Interesting Minutes From Early Village
Board Proceeding Read:
"The Village of Wild Rose was incorporated April 25,
1904. The first board meeting was held June II, 1904,
with the oath administered by justice of the peace F.M.
Oark to the following: C.A. Smart, president; W. Hughes,

"'ILD HOSE

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C. A. Smart General Store in Wild Rose, circa 1908

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and village property. Robert Murphy was appointed as
marshall, to receive twenty five cents per hour for services
rendered. Street commissioner, two dollars a day for ten
hours duty, also to collect poll tax and taxes of every kind
in the village. Street laborers are to receive one and one
half'tlollars for ten hours work; man with a team- three
and one half dollars."
There are several versions as to how Wild Rose was
named, as are likely to be found in many Wisconsin com·

J.C. Pierce, T.H. Patterson, O.A. Holt, F.M. Sage and GA
Radley, board members. Treasurer's bond was set at five
hundred dollars and clerks at two hundred dollars. D.W.
Jones was appointed as street commissioner, and instruct·
ed to remove all 'narrow sidewalks' on the east and west
side of Main Street and River Street, the work to be com·
pleted by June 13, 1904."
June 14, 1904 meeting: "J.C. Pierce was appointed to
go to Wautoma to study procedure of the division of town

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Other Communities
CEDAR LAKE
WEST BLOOMFIELD

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West Bloomfield is a village of about three hundred in·
habitants, twenty-six miles northeast of Wautoma and
seven and one-half miles south of Weyauwega, on the Wis·
consin Central line, the nearest railway station. It was set~
tled in !85 5, and contains a Lutheran church, schools, the
general stores of H. Koehler and A. Bast, the blacksmith
shops of W. Loose, William Timm and R. Wendt, and other
interests. This is the home office of the Bloomfield Insur·
ance Company, of which G. Bachman is president; F. Ko·
piske, secretary; and William Kerist. treasurer.

BRUSHVILLE

Scene at the Wild Rose Depot as troops leave during World War I

Brushville is a hamlet of about seventy··five inhabitants,
on Spring Creek, twenty miles northeast of Wautoma, and
sixteen miles north of Berlin, the nearest railroad station.
It contains a steam sawmill, the property of S.R. Clark
& Son, two churches, a creamery and other business interests. The first death was Calvin Swift, in 1853. He kept
the first public house in a log and board shanty on section
8. Justin Noble and Charles Stowers built the first sawmill
on section 2 in 1857. The only house on the Berlin TOad
from little River to Cady's, north of Auroraville, was Joel
Howard's. The first school was taught by Miss Wilson in
1856, and the school was built the same year.

Cedar Lake in the Town of Saxeville is twenty-two miles
northeast of Wautoma. It has a post office and little of
business importance and only a small population. E< Emer·
son is postmaster and William James deals in lumber-

SPRING WATER
Spring Water is a village of about 1SO inhabitants in the
Town of Spring Water, eighteen miles northeast of Wautoma. It was settled in !852, and has two churches, a school,
a sorghum manufactory and other interests. Mr. C. Wilson
is postmaster.

HAMILTON
Hamilton is a hamlet of about twenty population, six·
teen miles southeast of Wautoma in the Town of Warren.
The principal interests here are the dairy, blacksmith shop
and sawmill of Thomas E. Decker and the cheese factory
of J ,R. Wilcox.
{From the Portarit and Biographical Album of Green
Lake. Marquette and Waushara Counties, 1890.}

COLOMA STATION
furnished with authentic and original furnishings of the
1880's, There are other buildnigs of interest, including a
harness shop with a farm equipment display; a museum
gift shop, old drug store and artifacts of ethnic groups."
"The Wild Rose Historical Society felt the need to pre·
serve, for generations to come, the relics of the pioneers
who settled here. They have accomplished just that with
their quaint little museum in the village of roses. Daily
tours are conducted during the summer season."

munities. The Centennial book states: "When the first pio-neers came to this part of what is now Waushara County,
they were from Wales, Norway, England and New York
State, each nationality forming its own settlement, in the
early 1850's."
"Those from the east, who had lived in Rose, New York,
named their township the 'Town of Rose' when the land
was surveyed and divided into counties and townships. Later, as a little cluster of business places grew along the Pine
River~-a grist mill, a general store, a blacksmith shop-~ a
new name had to be found for the village. The little settle·
ment from Rose, New York, as it struggled to make a home
in the wilderness, remembering the comforts and security
of their old home began to call the tiny town 'Wild Rose: "
"Another legend springs from the building of the first
store. When the basement was being dug, in the fall, the
workmen are reputed to have found a wild rose bush
blooming out of season. One of the men supposedly said,
'Wild Rose should be the name of our town: "
The Biographical Album of Marquette, Waushara, and
Green Lake Counties, published in 1890, notes of Wud
Rose at that time: "A village of about eighty population
on a branch of the Pine River on the line between the
towns of Rose and Spring Water. It contains a water power, grist mill, church and school. Charles A. Smart is post·
master and proprietor of the only general store. The mill
is owned by James Larson. Mrs. Mary Gordon keeps a ho·
teL"
"The Elisha Stewart house, built in 1884, is since 1963
the Pioneer Museum on Main Street, occupied by the Wild
Rose Historical Society. The house has been restored and

~

Coloma Station, nearly four miles east of Coloma, has
a population of !SO. It was settled in 1858, after the com·
ing of the railroad, and contains a church and a district
school, besides the general stores of S. Dulin, E. Exner,
Smith Brothers, and Mrs. J .A. Smith, the hardware store
of C.P. Schmudlock, the harness shop of H.W. Gibbs, and
blacksmiths, wheelwrights and other small mechanic's
shops.

TERRILL
Terrill, known as 'Terrill's Corners,' in the Town of Leon,
has a population of fifty, a general store, grist mill and other

business interests.

COLEBROOK
Colebrook in the Town of Mount Morris is a post office
on Willow Creek, seven miles east of Wautoma and four~
teen miles north west of Berlin. There are a blacksmith
shop, feed mill and other industries. The population is

seventy-five.

Street scene at Borth in Waushara County in 1911

OASIS
This is a post hamlet of about fifty population, and the
only post office in the Town of Oasis. It is twelve miles
northwest of Wautoma and six miles southeast of Plainfield,

the nearest railway station.

148

149

To The East
Fond du lac
The recorded history of Fond du Lac dates back to the
1700's, the period of Indians and fur traders. Fond du Lac
in Pioneer Days, by W.A. Titus, an extended historical
story, appeared in the 1936 Fond duLac Centennial and
Homecoming souvenir booklet. To quote:
"When white men first came to the site of Fond duLac
they found the Winnebago Indians in undisputed possession
with at least three villages located in the vicinity. It is not
definitely known when the first white man's trading post
was established at the forks of the Fond duLac River. Grig·
non, in his 1 Recollections.' makes reference to 1788, but he
speaks of it as the 'old' trading post, indicating that it might
have been in existerice at the time of the RevolutiOnary War
Nor is it known for a certainty who was the first white man
to view this region, although old records would seem to jus·
tify the belief that Allouez, the famous French missionary
explorer, visited the southern end of Lake Winnebago about
1670."
"The first trader in the Fond du Lac vicinity whose
name has been preserved was a Frenchman named Laurent
Durcharme~ and the period of his occupation was about
1785-87. The records show that a Spanish trader named
Ace came here with his wife and children about 1788. Mrs.
Ace is believed to have been the first white woman who
ever lived in this region. Some of the Winnebago Indians
were friendly toward the traders, while others were openly
hostile, and a band of the latter enticed the Spanish trader

and his clerk away from the post and killed them. Mrs. Ace
escaped with her children to a village of friendly Indians."
uShortly after this, according to 'Recollections,' a
French-Canadian trader named Chavodreuil with two clerks
took charge of the post. He too was slain by the Indians. In
1795 Jacques Portier and John Lawe were sent out by Jacob
Franks, a Jewish fur trader at Green Bay. Porlier and Lawe
later played an important part in the history of Green Bay.
About 1800 the old post at the forks of the river was aban..
doned. In 1801 Grignon and Michel Brisbois built a post
on the west branch of the river and occupied it for about
two years."
little is known of the Fond duLac region from 1803,
when the Indian trading post was abandoned. It was 1815
when Joseph Rolette opened a trading post, and paddled
his canoe on the lakes and rivers, doing a thriving business
with the Indians along the banks. From then until I 829,
the records are silent except for repcrts of Indian hostility
and occasional trading expeditions by the Grignon brothers.
By 1829 the regime of the fur trader had come to an
end and the era of permanent settlement was at hand. In
that year James Duane Doty, Morgan L. Martin, Alexander
Grignon and a Menominee In..dian named Wistweaw made
the journey from Green Bay on horseback, the first overland trip across Wisconsin ever recorded. Soon after that
the tribal villages along the southern end of the lakes were
abandoned, and the Indian occupation of the site of Fond
j

.~<·

····;~
•'0'\.

150

The Fond dulac County Court House, circa 1913

151

duLac quietly passed into history.
The period of pioneer settlement is described in the
1936 Centennial booklet and 1948 Fond du Lac City Directory as follows: "In 1835 a corporation known as the
Fond du Lac Company was formed at Green Bay for the
special purpose of promoting a settlement at the southern
end of Lake Winnebago. There were twenty-one original
share holders, several of whom have been honored in the
names of Fond du Lac streets. James Duane Doty was elected president, and A.G. Ellis was the surveyor who laid out
the village plat."
"The company acquired 3,705 acres in what became the
city of Fond du Lac, most of it then a swampy waste. The
first permanent house was erected in 1836. This building
was located on the north side of Rees Street, adjacent to
the Chicago and Northwestern railway, and was for years
a familiar landmark. The company began to sell city lots
and about March I, 1836, Colwert and Edward Pier, noted
as the first permanent settlers, arrived. They made the journey from Green Bay by horse and sled over the ice in midwinter. June 6, 1836, marked the beginning of the permanent settlement of Fond duLac, when Colwert, Pier and
his wife·, Fanny, began occupation of the first 'house' as a
hostelry for the accomodation of new settlers until they
could build their own homes."
"At first the settlers travelled from Green Bay in Durham boats. Later rough roads were hewn out of the forests
along the Indian trails, and other settlers came from New
England and foreign countires. Agriculture was the first actiVity of the pioneers. As time passed these sturdy people
conquered the tough sod of the prairies and the stumpy
land of the forests and began to grow wheat, rye, and buckwheat."
"This brought the necessity for mills to grind the grain
into flour. Sometimes it was crushed in the farm homes by
means of hammers and mallets, While other farmers carried
their grain to mills as far as fifty miles away. The first grist
mill in the Vicinity of Fond duLac was built in 1843 and

WtSOONS!N O!NTRAL Dt.nor,

FOlm DU L4C, WIS.

Wisconsin Central Depot in Fond du lac, 1910
152

soon thereafter a number of mills sprang up to serve the
growing farming community.~'
"Fond duLac's early history includes an account of the
importance of mail to those settlers. The first mail arrived
on February 8, 1838, carried by William Lalone, a FrenchIndian half-breed, who thereafter came in on foot from
Green Bay every two weeks. In the spring of 1838, the
first physician, Dr. Mason C. Darling, arrived. Dr. Darling
was later prominent in Fond du Lac's ciVic affairs, among
other things, and figured in the final settlement of the
Fond du Lac Company's affairs in 1844."
By 1847 the population had reached a total of519, and
the settlement was incorporated as a village, with Dr. DarJ.
ing as village president. In 1850 there were 1,940 residents.
In 1852 Fond duLac was incorporated as a city. Dr. Darling became the first mayor.
Sheboygan was the nearest lake port to Fond du Lac,
and the necessity arose for a road to that point, as an outlet for the community's products. In 1852 a plank road
was completed over the forty miles of hills and valleys
leading to Sheboygan. The timber was sawed in the forest
adjacent to the highway. Later similar roads were built to
other nearby towns. Nearly all of these roads were financed
by charging a toll to those who used them.
The plank roads served very well until a faster transportation system was deVised. It is significant that the birthplace of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad was in
Fond duLac. John B. Macy, New York frnancier, built the
first section of the new road from Fond du Lac to Chester
(East Waupun) in 1853. Locomotives were brought in by
ox team over the plank road from Sheboygan.
Although the original line was only twenty miles long,
two trains each way were operated daily. This was the second stretch of railway in Wisconsin, the. fmt haVing been
a short line from Milwaukee to Waukesha. Soon the line
was extended southward to Watertown. In 1860 it was
built northward to Oshkosh, reached Appleton in 1861,
and in 1862 connected Fond duLac with Green Bay.

Henry Boyle Theatre,

Fond du Lac, Wis.

The Henry Boyle Theatre, circa 1908
One hundred years ago, in 1879, pioneer settlers wrote
their actual experiences and memories for the pages of the
book, 1880 History of Fond du Lac County. To quote the
author as to Iris purpose in publishing this book: " Records
of the olden times are interesting and are not without their
lessons ofinstruction. By the light of the past, we foUow
in the footprints of the adventurous and enterprising pio·
neer. We see him, as it were, amidst the labors and struggles necessary to convert the wilderness into a fruitful
field. We sit by his cabin tire; partake of his homely and
cheerfully granted fare; and listen to the accounts of him·
self and others in their efforts .to make for themselves
homes in regions remote from civilization. Through these

"Because of the proximity of the dense forests, Fond
duLac became an early lumber manufacturing center. The
first sawmill, a water power mill, was established in 1844,
and the first steam power mill in 1847. In the period im·
mediately following the Civil War, the city was a beehive
oflumbering. The river banks were lined with sawmills,
and the river was jammed with Jogs."
Fond duLac's finlt schoolhouse was built in 1843, on
the east side of Main Street between Second and Third
Streets. In 1848 the building was moved to the north side
of Fifth Street, between Main and Marr Streets. At first
there were about twenty pupils, and the schoolmaster was
paid by the parents of the children. The first tax-supported
school in Fond du Lac was organized under an act passed
by the Wisconsin territorial Legislature in 1846. The an·
nual budget was $2,000, raised by a real estate tax.
In 1850 the Man Street school was built, and in 1852,
when Fond du Lac became a city, the community was di·
Vided into four school districts. A report of the superintendant of schools in 1854 showed a total attendance of 203
pupils.
The first high school was opened in 1859, in rented
quarters. The first high school building was erected in
1860, on the comer of Merrill and Amory Streets, where
the Roosevelt Junior High School was later built.
"From that time forward the public schools increased
in attendance and efficiency," an old history of Fond du
Lac states.

ancient records we make our way·along to the

present.~'

The writings of Louisa Parker Simmons are of particular interest, as she recalls the family struggles as pioneer
settlers in the Fond du Lac area from a wo01an's Viewpoint.
She told of the long journey to arrive in Wisconsin Terri·
tory in 183 7 from New York State when the old steamer,
the Bunker Hill, caught fire and then the main shaft broke.

"We took up our residence in Green Bay after a long
and stormy passage, keeping a boarding house. My hus·
band worked at his trade as a carpenter and joiner. In the
fall, he with three others, took a large canoe and paddled
up the Fox River to Winnebago Lake, carrying Iris own
proVisions and other necessaries. They caroped on shore
wherever night overtook them. After traversing the shore
of the lake, he finally reached the mouth of the Fond du

153

Lac River, up which he and his companions paddled their
canoe, camping near the Jog house which had been erected
by the Fond du Lac Company in the spring of 1836. This
cabin had boen built in the Town of Fond du Lac, and
was better known as the Old Fond du Lac House. It was
a double log house, and was quite roomy and large!'
"In the morning they started out, and for some days
travelled over beautiful wild prairies-all in a state of nature, covered with wild flowers in every direction. My hus·
band and companions returned to Green Bay safely after
a very pleasant trip. Mr. Simmons entered into a contract
with James Duane Doty, who at this period was not a
judge. Doty was the owner of much real estate in the ter·
ritory, and a member of the Fond duLac Company."
"Doty agreed to furnish lumber and materials for
building a house on a farm he owned in the present Fond
duLac County. Me Simmons was to erect the house at
Doty's expense. In the winter of 1838·39 my husband
hauled all his lumber and materials for the house from
Green Bay through the woods. The previous fall he had
drawn a load of lumber up to what was to be our new
home and built a board shanty twelve by sixteen feet, mak·
ing three tiers of bunks on one side. He put a cook stove in
one comer and provisions in another. He and his three men
lived there during the winter months while building the
house. It was very warm and cozy. My husband finished the
house in the spring. It was large and was the second fam1
house erected in Fond du Lac County··in the town of Tay·
cheedah."
"In March of 1839 we all came from Green Bay and
moved in. Our family consisted of my husband; our daugh·
ter, who was eight; four sons~ two hired men, one of whom
was a Brothertown Indian. Our house had loose boards laid
down for a floor, and blankets hung up at the windows. We
then moved on to a larger farm of James Duane Doty's. It
had a large stock of cattle, from sixty to one hundred
head; where my husband, sons and hired men carried on
farming on a large scale for the then new country. All our
butter, cheese, honey (which was abundant, wild in the
woods) and pork had to be taken to Green Bay in the win·
ter, or by boat in summer, there being no market nearer
at that time. These articles he traded for necessaries for
the family. His usual way was to go to Green Bay each
spring and fail with a Durham boat taking our youngest
son, Amasa P., to help guard the goods and talk to the
Indians, and four Indians to propel the boat. On his return,
heavily loaded and arriving at the Rapids, he would unload
half of the goods, leaving the son to guard them. With the
Indians who would wade by the side of the boat, they
would lift it over the entire rapids. Then unload, andre"
maining there himself to guard, he would send the Indians
back to get the remainder of the goods ..and so it was on
over ail of the rapids, until they arrived at Winnebago Lake.
Then by coasting around the shore, he would get home, after a trip of seven days."
"If the family ran short of necessaries after that time,
they had to go without until the next trip, as there were no
stores nearer than Green Bay, sixty miles away. I would
sometimes run short of pins for sewing, and the boys would
cut thorns from the trees. which I used, making a very good
substitute. On one occasion, the boys' boots gave out, and
for a long time they had to wear Indian moccasins. Yet in
all those years, the entire family was happy, being blessed
with good health, plenty to eat, and plenty work to do."

Mrs< Simmons wrote a vivid account of her encounter
with a band of unruly Indians. To quote: "On a certain day
some fifteen to twenty Indians came to our house. They
had been having whiskey from Luke Laborde, enough to
make them ugly. All of our men folks were away three
fourths of a mile, and I was alon~; with my two youngest
children; Amasa, twelve years old, and Eliza Jane, nine. The
Indians came into the house and demanded whiskey.! told
them we had none, but they would not believe me. The
pantry door being open, they saw some bottles standing on
the shelf, and were determined to get to them. But I told
them they must not. At last, they made a rush for it, but
having prepared myself for the emergency, I took a small
chair in one hand and a pair of fireplace tongs in the other.
I stopped them and finally drove them out of the house.
The last one I pushed out, and he fell on his back, hurting
him somewhat. They were very mad~ and said they were
going home for their guns and left. I then quickly sent
Amasa on horseback for his father. He came home immediately."
"Soon after my husband arrived home, the Indians
came back with guns. When they saw Mr. Simmons they
stood around a short time-· then left. The next day the
chief brought a fine, fat deer, dressed, and made me a pre~
sent of it. The chief said, 'You are a very brave squaw.'"
"! never had any trouble with that band of Indians after
the incident."
The first store in Fond du Lac County, Mrs. Simmons
wrote, was started by James B. Oock and George Weikert.
They bought a small stock of goods and put them in the
north half of the old Fond du Lac house. By boring holes
in the logs and driving in pins and laying on slabs and
pieces of boards, they laid their goods on and made quite
a respectable store.
"The first singing school was at the little schoolhouse,
built where the city of Fond duLac is now," Mrs. Simmons wrote in her 1879 memories. "A paper was circulat~
ed and each one subscribed what they could and sent it to a
Mr. Robinson in Sheboygan. He came and taught the school
two nights each week, during winter, for three dollars a
week. The people boarded him and his horse during his stay."
"The first dancing school was taught by A.H. Oark at
our house, there being no other large enough for the purpose. My husband had put up a temporary partition through
the center of the house and by taking it down each time
there was a dance, it made quite a good dance hall, being
eighteen by thirty·two feet. For some years large dancing
parties were held there, until the Old Badger Hotel was built."
The first Fourth of July celebration held in Fond du Lac
County was described vividly by Louisa Parker Simmons in
her 1879 narrative: "The celebration waS held in our front
yard. We built a bower of green boughs, then drove stakes
in the ground, and laid boards for a table. This we covered
with table cloths. The seats around the table were built in
the same way. Then we took a sheet with pieces of red and
blue cloth and made a respectable flag which we attached
to a long pole. One of the men climbed to the top of the
tallest tree and fastened it there. It showed plainly for miles.
around. This was the first American flag raised by citizens
in Fond duLac County."
"Most of the people in the county, men, women and
children, came. Each family bringing what they could of
good thh'lgs to put on the table. When all was on it, it was
a bountiful table indeed...,nough for ail and plenty to spare.

154

\lAIC\ STRL!cT. H)ND DC L\C. WIS.
,,f 5llr.'h'-'Y¥"n Sttf'<'l.

A view of Fond dulac's Main Street, circa 1908
When everything was ready, they all formed in line. Alonzo
Simmons with his violin played Washington's March and
they marched and countermarched, until they were all
seated at the table. Dr. Darling delivered an address and
many toasts were drank. Taking it all together, it was a
grand old time and all went to their homes happy indeed."
Mrs. Simmons wrote of prairie fires: "The prairie fires
were sometimes terrible. In March of the spring that Mr.
Simmons built this home on the old homestead we had all
the timber to build· with, which had been hauled the fall
and winter before from Green Bay. It was piled up closely,
the snow was gone and the grass dry. One day in the fore·
noon we saw black smoke arising in the south. My son,
A.P. Simmons, took a pail and riding his horse as fast as
possible arrived there in time to 'back fire' and save the
timber. But the next thing was to save himself. He jumped
onto his horse the fire after him~ leaping sometimes
twenty feet - then catching again."
"At last being cornered, he had to turn and ride through
the fire with all speed. In doing so he burnt the hair all off
where it was not covered with his cap. Also the hair was
burned off the sides of his horse. He got back home nearly
exhausted."
"It was quite common to have our hay stacks bum.
One fail our hay was nearly all burned, and having a large
stock of cattle my husband had to go to the woods and cut
down trees, and let the cattle browse off the tops. By care
he brought the cattle through the winter without losing
any."
"Old Father Halstad, a Methodist missionary, located
among the Stockbridge and Brothertown Indians, was t.'le
first man who preached a sermon in this county. A good
old·fashioned Christian gentleman, he would ride up here

and preach every two or three weeks. The people paid him
in flour and other necessaries, and sometimes a very little
money. little indeed, for the people had but very little."
"In an early day the government cut a military road or
track through the woods from Fort Howard at Green Bay
to Fort Winnebago at Portage. It could be used in winter
and in very dry weather in summer. In 1841 some men in
Milwaukee sent word they would meet the settlers at the
Milwaukee River and cut a track or road through. A gang
started out with a large pair of oxen owned by Mr ~ Sim·
mons, ox chains and provisions for a trip."
"They cut the underbrush, moved the logs and bridged
the small streams with poles, making a passable road. A
few years after immigration started, a plank road was built
in nearly the same track," Mrso Simmohs states in her remembrances.

C@;2::l

155

Branden

Commercial Street in Brandon in the horse and buggy days
Brandon's Main Street around the 1920's

lW

Omro
Turkeys and other poultry selling for a cent a pound on
account of the wam1 weather
Thompson & Hayward sold $1700 worth of cutters to
Milwaukee parties on the 4th.
Sixteen degrees below zero on the morning of the 7th.
Pork selling at $4.25 to $4.50.
Eureka about to build a new bridge across the Fox.
February
Eggs only eight cents a dozen.
New maple sugar.
The ice all out of the river on the 28th.
March
Prairie chickens crowing, blackbirds making their appearance, and every indication of an early spring.
Winneconne visited by fire on the 1st, destroying Klaus'
shoe store) Larson's variety store and Stewart's dwelling.
Grasshoppers stirring around March 2nd.
Frank Bunker sowed wheat the first week in this month.
The steamer O.B. Reed commenced running the 12th
and might have done it ten days before.
Roads so bad that Charley Wills carried the mail to
Oshkosh on horseback.
April
The steamer Weston made its first appearance of the
season on the evening of the third.

(This Omro history is taken from the Winnebago Coun~
ty-Cities/Villages historical collection on file at the Berlin
Public Library.)
Omro, Wisconsin. (Report of John T. Challoner, historian, Oshkosh Public Library, July 16, 1964.)
"Omro was named on June 23, 1849, when Joel V. Tay~
lor, Elisha Dean and Nelson Beckwith lald out the original
plat of the village. Prior to this, trading posts had been operated intermittently, beginning about 1836, and the site
had been known as Smalley's Landing.
The village was named in honor of Charles Omro, a halfbreed Indian who was one of the early Indian traders in
this area. 'Indian Lands' were located a few miles to the
west and northwest of Omro; these became Waushara County in 185L
Omro's first settlers came mostly from England or were
descendants of English immigrants. Some of the early settlers were Edward West, David Humes, father-in-law of Nel-·
son Beckwith, Theodore Pillsbury,Joel V. Taylor, William
P. McAllister, Andrew and John Wilson, L.O.K Manning,
A. Corfee, Elisha Dean and William Hammond.
It was David Humes' vision that sawmills would beestablished on the Omro site when he arrived here in 184 7.
In the summer of 1849 the steam sawmill of Dean, Beckwith and Co. was built. Shortly afterward, gristmills, hotels,
general stores and other sawmills were constructed.
Omro was chartered as a village in 1857, the year in
wleich the Ripon & Wolf River Railroad Company was chartered. The tracks of this company were laid in Omro in December, 1860. City incorporation occurred in 1944."
Village of Omro. (Oshkosh Week(v Northwestern--] anuary 8, 1880.)
"The town was known as Winnebago when it was first
settled, in 1846. In the spring of that year, Hezekiah Gifford, Edward West and a man named Monroe counted
themselves as the original settlers of the place. The following year several accessions were made, and the town organo
ized under the name of Buttes des Morts. Two years later
the name was changed to Bloomingdale, and in 1852 it was
again changed to Omro. The village of Omro was platted in
1849.
Omro is one of the pleasantest little villages in this
county, situated on the Fox River, twelve miles west of
Oshkosh, exactly on the line of the north city limits.
Steamboats ply daily between Oshkosh and Omro during
navigation, and the village is also accessible by rail, via Ri·
pon and the Winneconne branch of the Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railroad. At the time represented in a 1855 daguerreotype (presenting a true picture of the appearance of the
village, from the opposite banks of the Fox River), the village contained a flouring mill, two or three sawmills, about
eight mercantile establishments on a small scale, a harness
shop, a machine shop, two taverns, two churches and a
school house. At the organic election of the town in 184 7
there were eighteen votes cast. In 1855 there were 1,605
inhabitants in the town."
Excerpts from the Omro Journal of January, 1878. The
past twelve months, a brief record of the important events:
"A steamboat excursion on Lake Winnebago was adver,
tised for New Year's Day, but did not come off.

0

Omro 's City Hall, early 1900's
1~

April 25th, the river very high and rising.
The 28th was the anniversary of the big fire in Oshkosh.
Bees swarmed on the 30th.
May
Eggs seven cents per dozen,
On the third, the Omro Shooting Club visited Waupun,
and Johnny Orchard took the best prize."
(The following account of the early days in Omro was
written for the Aprill8, 1931, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern by W. J. Wagstaff, whose grandfather and father were
pioneer residents of the community.)
"The romance of the locality described in 1843 as
Butte des Mortes covered the open prairie from the lake
west and south which is now the township of Omro.
In 1847--Edward West who has built a log house in
about the center of section 23, called a meeting to attempt
some plan of cooperation with the scattering of settlers.
Nineteen votes were cast.
In J848,.The name was changed to Bloomingdale.
In 1849-- April 3, the first town meeting was held.
In 1852,.The name was changed to Omro. Named for
Charles Omro, one of the early Indian traders. For some
years previous to this white settlement on the banks of
the Fox River, Jed Smalley and Capt. William Powell had
established a trading post and were temporarily located
there. Up to this time the few settlers were mostly on
lands in the prairie distirct.
In 1846-David Humes arrived and built the first permanent structure, a log house, in the east end of what is now
the village of Omro, later known as Beckwith Town. Other
arrivals that year, some to the village and others on land
in what is now the township were: Abram Quick, John
Monroe, John R. Paddle ford, JohnS. Johnson, B. Haskell,
Myron Howe, Gilman Lowd, Nelson Olin and about fifty
others.

Up to 1849 the river was crossed by a ferry. Dr. McAllister was one of the new arrivals. In 1850 one Colonel
Tuttle built a float bridge and charged toll.
In 1850--N. Frank and C. Bigelow arrived. The Larrabee Hotel was built. In the winter of 1849-50, the first
school in the village, in a rough unfinished building near
the site of the present (1931) post office. A private school
was taught by George Henrick. Dasks were made for the
larger pupils by nailing boards to the walls, and benches
without backs made of rough planks were placed in front
of these desks. Similar benches were in the center of the
room for the younger pupils.
In 1850--0n May 8, a meeting was called, fifty-three
voters being present, to select a site on which to build a
schoolhouse. At that time two hundred dollars was voted
for the building and in September an additional eighty dollars was voted to finish and furnish it. In March, 1851, a
meeting was called and the voters considered raising a tax
of twenty-eight dollars to pay the teacher for 1850.
Miss Phoebe Pettingill was the teacher for the summer
of 1851. Her wages were two dollars a week and she
boarded at the home of the pupils--'boarded round.'
In 1849--Nelson Beckwith built the first sawmill.
In 1851--Hiram Johnson built a sawmill.
In 185S.,The Methodist Church was built.
In 1856.,Andrew Wilson built a sawmill and a flour and
grist mill was built.
During the building of these sawmills, David Hume
built the Hume Horse Boat to tow rafts ofiogs to the
mills. There were four horses on a sweep for power with a
'grouser,' or upright anchor, to hold the boat while the
rafts were pulled along. Later Aaron Hume, son of David,
built the first steam grouser boat. The idea of the grouser
was considered a marvel of engineering at that time.
In March, 1856--$2,170 was voted to build a two-story

Omro High School, circa 191 0
,schoolhouse in the village. This school was the famous 'Old
Presbyterian services were held in the school
1867.
arrivals of importance were Dr. McCall, Dr. Gibbs,
and William Larrabee. It was in that
was pledged and paid by the village and
of the railroad.
bought the float bridge from the
dollars.
permanent newspaper, The Omro
The population was two thousand,
, Pnmmm-.au for a background.
I was built at the site of
mill. In I892 the operation was

known as the H.B. Hatch Roller Mills. The name changed
to the Omro Roller Mills about 1900. William Prehn pur·
chased the property in 1902 and operated the mill until
!907, when it was destroyed by fire. The blaze lasted four
days burning in the grain stored in the milL
Pioneer factories were: the Johnson sawmill; the Wilson
sawmill; the Gerard shingle mill; the hub and spoke mill;
the sash and door factory, owned by C.C. Morton; the cof·
fin factory; the carriage factory of Drew & Hicks, later
Thompson & Haywood; the wagon and carriage works of
1.E. lindsay and the glass factory.
~-

Water Street in Omro, early in the century

158

159

Fairwater

Oshkosh
"'There is much in a name," said the author of the
Finney and Davis History of the Oty of Oshkosh, pub·
Jished in 1867. "For places as well as persons, a pleasant
name is a thing of beauty, and lives long to bless the
giver, while that which has claim to neither beauty nor
appropriateness will live long and like the mantle of
Nemesis will ever trouble the possessor."
The settlement that was to be the city of Oshkosh,
by the.year 1839, was beginning to feel conscious of the
fact that it had no name. One Hundred Years A Oty,
the book published in 1953 to commemorate the centen·
nial celebration notes of the city and its name: "Its
growth, while not phenomenal, had been steady, and the
few. settlers there had rather loosely been calling the vilJ~ge by the name of Anthens. A meeting was held at the
I!!l.use,nf George Wright for the purpose of selecting a
IIO:!he;for the community. It is said that a Mr. Evans fur~f~jlled ·a box of cigars, and that a little brown jug was in
during the course of the meeting. The room in
home of George Wright was filled with tobacco
everyone present, including Robert Grignon
des Morts, together with some of his Indian
••.o name of Fairview, Oceola and Stanford v
!."'"""*''·''""''wlll~f· "'·-·•n-.n••·A by various delegates to the meeting.
eaded by Robert Grignon seemed to have
the meeting, and finally, the name of Osh·
name of the Indian chief in the vicinity, was
and carried by a small majority."

"The name was originally spelled 'Oskosh' and the
accent was placed on the last syllable. There were quite
a number at that time who felt disappointed in the
choice of names, but by some manner the 'h' in the
first syllable was added, the accent being put on the first
syllable, so that the name was spelled 'Oshkosh' and was
pronounced without the accent on the last syllable. The
name, of course, is Indian in origin and means brave."
Some histories relate that there was such an empha·
sis on securing the name Oshkosh -that squaws dressed in
brave's clothing to insure enough votes at the election.
"Oshkosh has been the brunt of many a joke-smith,"
the book continues. "The slogan 'Oshkosh B'Gosh' has
captured the fancy of the public, and has been oft-times
times quoted. However, the city of Oshkosh had never
suffered by'reason of the choice of names, and it posessesses much native virtue by reason of the fact th;lt it is
Indian in origin."
Webster Stanley, born in Connecticut in September
of 1798, is generally credited with being the first settler
and founder of Oshkosh, coming to the site in the summer of 1836. He had decided to locate here after travel·
ling on journeys between Fort Howard and Fort Winne·
bago in government employ transporting supplies. He
brought with him a boat load of lumber and provisions
to last a year, his object being to locate land, make a
permanent home and build up a city.
"In 1836 Governor Dodge, returning from the Cedar

Canning Factory at Fairwater, date unknown

Fairwater's Main Street in the early 1900's

160

~)fain

Street, 50 years aoo, fookinu South, Oshkosh, &Jis.

furnished an abundance of good road making materiaL
Before the use of gravel became so extensive, however,
plank roads were built and proved better than the bottomless muck of the woods and prairies," the Centennial
book states.
Fires were a problem in the Sawdust CapitoL "In
1859, 1866, and twice in 1874 costly fires bit out
chunks of Oshkosh real estate, But it was a temptation
to rebuild stores and offices out of the lumber that could
be had so cheaply," the book, The Trail of the Serpent,
notes, "Oshkosh drilled its bucket brigades, polished its
steam~powered, horseDdrawn fire engines, called steamers,
and mruntruned constant vigilance, But in 1875 the April
winds blew fiercely, and the spring rruns did not materialize."
The Daily Northwestem 's city editor, Charles W,
Bowron, chronicled events of April 28th, 1875: "It was
about one o'clock p.m. and while the wind had reached
its greatest fury, that the startling whistles screamed out
the alarm of fire all along the line of mills and steam factories, It was a fearful day, and ten thousand souls started in wild excitement as they heard those first peals of
the alarm wltistles, and well they might. The deep volume of smoke, thlck and black, that rolled up from Morgan's mill, showed plainly what danger might be expected."
uThe wind was too strong, and the volume of flame
too sudden for effective operation on any body's part.
Great chunks of burning cinders came floating over into
the lumber piles more adjacent to Main Street, and they
quicldy caught on. On came the rushlng tide of flame,
more furious than the descending floods of Mill River.
The steamers seemed powerless to check such a fearless
adven;ary, No sooner could they get set at work than the
enemy would charge with bayonets of fire, and drive
them from their work," the article detailing the devastating fire reads in part.
"As darkness stole gradually upon the footsteps of
the retreating sun the scene was changed. Excitement
a..Ttd anxious fear gave way to quiet despair and resigna·
tion. Tired hurnani ty, relaxed and weary, began to seek
a rest and refuge from the toils and fatigues of that aw~
ful day.''
"A Theatre For All" is an Oshkosh Daily Northwestern entry in 1883. (Also mentioned in the book, Trail
of the Serpent.) "Everybody who was anybody in Oshkosh
society wanted to attend opening night at the Grand Opera House, It was a social gala the likes of whlch Oshkosh
would never see again. That it was the dedication, also,
of what would become a historic monument - who could
foresee?"
"'The lack of an opera house had been embarrassing
in view of Oshkosh's boast that it was the "second city
in Wisconsin," Now the blemish was replaced by a beauty
spot, enhancing the city's reputation far beyond original
hopes.''
"Engineering genius plus a touch of magic created in
Oshkosh an opera house that is a marvel of accoustical
perfection. No modern theater can equal it for true sound
reproduction. Its reputation became such that famed performers often agreed to include Oshkosh on itineraries
that excluded every other community between Milwaukee
and Minneapolis.''
Describing the brick building we read: ~·roday's mov-

Rapids treaty, informed Stanley of the purchase by the
government of all the land herebout, Soon Stanley was
joined by Chester Gallup, and they promptly lrud claim
to all part of the land now comprising Oshkosh, between
Ferry Street and the lake on the north side of the river,"
the 1953 book states.
"By 1853 the population had increased to 2787 persons, and the people decided to constitute it a city.
They thought that it had passed through its period as a
small country village and was entitled to be recognized as
a grown up community. Edward Eastman was elected as
the first mayor and the city was incorporated on April
5, 1853 with three wards and six aldermen, The population had increased to 4118 by 185 5 and the industrial
life of Oshkosh was increasing rapidly, That year Edward
L Paine and his family travelled from Canisteo, New
York, with all the machinery and equipment for the new
saw mill he was to start with the aid of his grown sons.
The founder and !tis son Charles had come to Oshkosh in
1853 to choose a site, Both sons, Charles N. and George
M. Paine, had learned the lumber business early in the
saw mill their father operated on the Canisteo River.
There was a good reason for Oshkosh to become
known as the "Sawdust CapitoL" By 1856 the manufac-

The Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, circa 1908
turing concerns consisted of 15 saw, sltingle, planing mills,
sash and door factories. There were also two grist mills,
two plow factories, two steam boiler factories and a large
number of macltine shops, About three million feet of
lumber were manufactured during the year.
"Meanwhile, the stream of immigration continued
unabated and the countryside became dotted with
houses and cabins of early settlers. Roads were built to
neighboring communities~ as in the early days the roads
in the timbered portion of the county were, in wet peri·
ods following heavy rains, almost impassable, Many small
streams had, in the absence of bridges, to be forded but
roads were now being rapidly improved" Gravel beds were
found throughout the county at short intervals, which

162

On'~·{nl

:::it r·"'1

r;l'J•l\!!·.

n:-:hl.:p~h.

\\"i~.

1"

The Oregon Street Bridge in Oshkosh in the 1920's
ie goers can hardly imagine the splendor that once existed
inside The Grand" There were brocade draperies, plush
seats, woodwork in two shades of Pompei an red, copperbronzed columns supporting the balcony, and a drop cur¥
t_ain_,featuring a romantic scene from a poem by Goethe<
ltl __ painted panels on the ceiling, cherubs cavorted amid
, sJars, circles, scrolls, beads, bars, sunbursts, birds and ani-

ma1s. Bordering this profusion appeared a series of styft
lized, potted plants and in the center of the ceiling was
the monogram, O,H,''
Except for the curtain, which was painted by Louis
Kindt of Kenosha, a11 decorations were created by an·
Oshkosh artist, Frank Waldo. "Although gold is the predominating color/' said the Northwestern, August 4,

Victory Arch in Oshkosh in the World War I era

163

Ripon
Much of Ripon's historical background has a state·
wide and even national significance. A huge bun oak

tree called "The Signal Oak" stands at the northwest
comer of Ransom and Thorne Streets. Measuring nearly
twelve feet in circumference and judged to be about 220
years old, the oak was a landmark on the Butte des
Morts trail followed by the soldiers, traders, Indians and
trappers who moved between the frontier forts at Green
Bay and Portage when they did not travel on the FoxWisconsin waterway.
West of the oak, in May, 1884, the Fourierites experimented in communistic living at Ceresco. Across the na~
tion in 1843 there had been widespread interest in Fran~
cois Marie Charles Fourier's theory of association. A typ~
ical meeting to discuss and debate the idea was the Lyce-·
urn in Southport (now Kenosha). The organization form~
ed to implement Fourier's plan took the name of the
Wisconsin Phalanx and decided to settle the 2,000 acre
site in the fertile valley immediately west of Ripon's present business district. They called their town Ceresco, de·
riving the name from Ceres, the goddess of the -bountiful
harvest, and adding the abbreviation for company.
Warren Chase was the president or head of the com·
pany-·some two hundred men, women and children. IC
proved to be a major, econornically·successful American
experiment in co·operative living. The group built two
"'long houses," applying the principle of joint ownership
,of stock,

Main Street of Oshkosh in 1908
1883~ "Mr. Waldo has endeavored to avoid an extreme
that could possibly be irksome,''
'"A balcony for outdoor band concerts protruded over
the main entrance, which was centered in the High Street
facade, not on the comer as now. Inside, staircases swept
upward from each side of the spacious foyer. Parlors,
equipped with fireplaces, provided cozy retreats during
intermissions. And a central chandelier ill the auditoriuw
blazed with eighty-two gas jets,"
"At a time when performers classed most of the Midwest as the Kerosene Circuit, Oshkosh outfitted its opera
house with complete gas lighting, Production features al·
so included a stage with a grid that towered forty to fifty feet high, and a trap door that concealed a mechanism
for catapulting objects or persons into the air with con~
siderable force. Wellwishers sent floral horseshoes to line
the walls of the opera house on opening night, August
9, 1883, The audience was decked out in full evening
dress."
Important dates in Oshkosh history include: "Thursday, October 13, 1859, when the first train on the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, carrying passengers, arrived.
This train brought in a large party of both men and women who were intending to make a steamboat trip as far
as Appleton. However. some change in plans was made
and they took a trip up the Wolf RiveL"
"The Oshkosh educational system had an inauspicious
beginning in 1841 with six pupils convening in a 'not too
warm' addition to the Webster Stanley home, The school
was closed when the teacher, Miss Emmeline Cook, mar·
ried and it was not until 1846 that another school was
conducted by Miss Lucy Alden. Publius Lawson, who

wrote the History of Winnebago County in 1908 reported
that this school was located at the foot of what is now
Washington Boulevard. The seven students shared two
books - a speller and a mental arithmetic. The teacher's
remuneration for the three month term consisted of
room, board, thrity dollars in cash and ten dollars in furs."
"Four years after the first white people settled in Oshkosh, the first post office was established, President Van
Buren appointed John P, Gallup the first postmasteL The
office was located in his log cabin on Lake Street near
the first settler marker. Edward Eastman was appointed
postmaster in 1846."
uA bridge across the Fox River was one of the prob~
!ems facing the newly organized government of the City
of Oshkosh in 1853, The first means of transportation
across the river had been a canoe for people, with horses
swimming, The Territorial Legislature in 1842 authorized
Webster Stanley to maintain a ferry for four years, with
operations near the site of the present Chicago and North~
western Railroad bridge. Later a scow that could carry
two Indian ponies was used, and in 1846 a ferry boat
large enough to carry a loaded wagon and a pair of hor·
ses was built by George Cross. The cost of transportation
was 10 cents for a man; 18 cents for a man and a horse;
37;6. cents for a man, a horse, and a wagon; and 2 cents
each for sheep or hogs,"

~

164

AJthough it was financially successful, the experiment
failed socially because of the members' desire for individuality, The land and personal property owned by the corporation were sold in 1850.
In his Histo~v of the City of Ripon, published in
!873, Captain Mapes wrote, "I had laid out my town of
Ripon alongside of Chase's Ceresco."
The captain also spoke of the part Chase took in the
politics of Wisconsin. "He was a man of some ability,
and a member of the first state convention, who assisted
in forming our first constitution. But after the dissolution
of the Fourier clan he was charged with aiding in the introduction of the system of 'free love and spiritualism'
which flourished in the valley for a brief period."
An intriguing story of the founding of Ripon College
is found in Ripon College--An Historical Sketch, written
by Edward R Merrell, college president from 1876-1891,
Merrell describes Captain Mapes as a .. leader and marked
manl trained in business and steamboating in the State of
New York. He was accustomed to the tough condition
that belonged to business life before the days of railroads
or even canals. He brought to the enterprise of building
a new city the courage, sagacity and magnetism that mark
the veteran generals of many hard campaigns."
Captain had lost the bulk of his fortune when his
steamboat, the General Jackson, sank in the Hudson Ri·
ver. Merrell noted: "At that time there was one common·
ly accepted way of mending a broken fortunev·it was to

Ripon's Carnegie Library, circa 1911
in a 1915 issue of Ripon Weekly Press about the Republican Party's origin: "In putting forth Ripon's claim it
should never be construed that it is in any way suggested
that here were set in motion causes that resulted in the
formation of a new national party. Those causes were
fundamental in national conditions. Ripon claims, mere·
ly, that here, in a frontier village, was the !_!artiest meeting that recognized that those causes meant the casting
aside of old party ties and the organization of some new
party to grapple with the problems arising from the slavery question, and that the name for the new party was
first suggested by a Ripon citizen!'
The opportunity to act came in January, 1854,
when Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which permitted extension of sla·
very beyond the limits of the earlier Missouri Compromise. Three months' debate on the bill created upheavals in all the existing political parties.
When the bill passed the Senate on March 3, 1854,
Bovay promptly called a meeting of fifty-three voters in
Ripon's little White Schoolhouse to organize a new party. Years later Bovay recalled: "We went into the little
meeting as Whigs, Free Soilers and Democrats. We came
out Republica.t1s, and we were the first Republicans in the
Union."
The name "Republican" was adopted for the new par·
ty at the February 22, 1856, convention held at Pittsburgh to establish a national organization. Abraham lin·
coln and Horace Greeley were among those present.
Many people, including historians and students, are intrigued by the so-called "Booth War" and the possibility
of an underground passageway beneath Ripon's business
district.
The Booth War is verified in historical accounts, in~
eluding A History of Ripon, Wisconsin, by Samuel M. Pe·

gather up what remained, if there was anything left, and
migrate to the wonderful West!"
Mapes and his co~founders believed that no model
town was complete without a college. The ground of the
first building of Ripon College (first called Brockway
College for the man who furnished $300 to put on the
roof) was staked out in a snow storm during the winter
of 1850-51. Subscriptions in the amount of $800 had
been secured for the building, "payable in goods, lum·
ber, labor, lime, grain and such other commodities as
were then current."
Captain Mapes gave his gold watch for the work as
the need for money became pressing. It was a precious
reminder of his more prosperous days_ The Wisconsin Legislature granted the college a charter in 1851. It opened
for instruction June 1, 1853. Lumber had been hauled
from Neenah.
One historian wrote of this period: "Even the prairies surrounding the new village of Ripon (named for Ripon, England) were occupied by only a few, and were
for the most part untouched by the plow. It was noun·
common thing to count from fifty to one hundred wagons a day passing through Ripon on their way to the
then newly opened Indian Lands!"
"The little White Schoolhouse on Ripon's Blackburn Street is noted throughout the nation as a shrine
to the founding of the Republican Party. (Even though
every few years other cities lay claim to this honor.) It
was in 1852 that Alvan Earle Bovay of Ripon met with
Horace Greeley in New York and advocated dissolution
of the Whig Party and formation of a new party to fuse
together anti-slavery elements. He suggested the name
'Republican' because he felt 'it was a good name, with
charm and prestige.' "
The late Samuel M. Pedrick, a Ripon historian, wrote

166

Ripon City Hall around 1907
and George H. Miller, published in 1964 by the Ripon Historical Society.
r, a professor of American History at Ripon Colpresident of the Society, was one of many peo··
talked to regarding the underground passageway,
some people believe was used to hide runaway
during the period of the Booth War. Others, includ;torians, firmly believe there is not an iota of truth
of the hidden passages.

Ripon was whole-heartedly involved in the feelings
rampant in the nation during the anti-slavery movement.
Sherman M. Booth, about whom the Booth War revolved,
was one of the editors of the Free Democrat in Milwau~
kee. He had been arrested March 11, 1854, on a charge
of having aided escape of one Joshua Glover (alleged to
be a fugitive slave) from United States Deputy Marshall
C.C. Cotton, who had the slave in jail in the city of Milwaukee.

Quoting from Predrick's and Miller's History of Ripon: "The historical episode familiarly known as the
"Booth War," though sometimes characterized as an abnormal development of fanaticism, was nevertheless one
of the manifestations of the aroused spirit of resistance
to the aggression of the slave power, which prevailed in

the country at that time."
Booth, after his arrest, was held on $2,000 bail by
U.S. Commissioner Winfield Smith. Booth obtained a
writ of habeas corpus from the Wisconsin Supreme Court
and the case was argued. He was convicted in the U.S.
Court on the original charge, and sentenced to thirty
days imprisonment (and to be held until he paid his fine
of $1,000).
To quote from the History of Ripon: "Excitement
in the state over the continued imprisonment of Booth
was becoming intense."
A letter written by Booth was published in the March
23, 1860 issue of the Ripon Times. In the July 6, 1860
edition, the editor called upon the people of the rural
districts to do sornethlng to aid Booth in securing his liberty. He closed with the words, "We have had speeches
enough. We want money and muscle !n
The Ripon Times of August 3, 1860, told of Booth's
rescue from jail. "Booth was carried out of the city in a
carriage to a station on the Milwaukee-Chlcago and St.
Paul Railway, where he took passage for Waupun. He
became the guest of Hans C. Heg, the warden of the
State Prison. A reward of $100 was offered for the capture of the prisoner." The Milwaukee News stated: "Professor Daniels and O.H. LaGrange were leaders of the res~
cue party."
Booth arrived in Ripon on Saturday, August 4, 1860,
accompanied by a Waupun escort, to speak in the city
hall. The hall at an early hour was crowded to overflowing. William Starr presided at the meeting. After Booth
began hls address, Frank D. McCarthy of Fond du Lac,
a United States deputy marshall, and two assistants en·
tered the hall from the door by the outside stairway. An-

nouncing he had a warrant for Booth!s arrest, he stated
that Booth was his prisoner.
"McCarthy was thrust aside by stalwart young men
as they (the deputies) laid hands on Booth and grappled
with him. McCarthy was collared, hustled off stage and
tumbled down the stairs in a manner unceremonious.
The League of Freedom was pledged to resist enforcement of the fugitive slave law. The hatred of slavery had
led Ripon citizens to resistance of the United States au~
thority ," the book continues.
An account of the incident in the Ripon Times notes:
"Public sentiment had reached the point that the fugitive
slave act cannot be peaceably enforced in Ripon!"
Booth had hls freedom in the Ripon and Green Lake
area until October 8 of !860, when he spoke in Berlin.
He was arrested on a Berlin street when returning from
the evening political meeting he had addressed, but was
accompanied by only a group of ladies. Resistance was
impossible.
Booth's remission of his fme was granted March 2,
1861, by President James Buchannan.
A little Octagon House on Ripon's State Street, at
the foot of Stand Pipe Hill, had a legendary connection
with the underground railroad and Booth's War. During
the Civil War years the house acquired notoriety as the
home of Chauncey Allen, editor of the Ripon Weekly
Times. It was said that the cupola of the house was used
as a hiding place for fugitive slaves on the underground
railroad The house had been built by Warren Chase, the
leader of the Wisconsin Phalanx, and was called the "Ink
BottleH because of its many~sided appearance. Chase's
spiritualistic activities as one of the leading exponents
the cult and his "communication with the spirit world"
led Ripon's better citizens to view the house as the cen·
ter of strange and unnatural happenings in the occult
science. The house was torn down in 1912.
Throughout the years I have questioned various people about the legend of underground passages in Ripon.
!learned that the flat limestone rock formation under
the hilly sections tends to be in layers, which causes
caves. There are also small caves to be found in South
Woods Park, a forest preserve, I was told.
George H. Miller, president of the Ripon Historical
Society, told of his understanding that there is an underground stream flowing from the water tower on the southa
west corner of Ripon, under the business district on the
hill, and into Silver Creek near the Northwestern Railroad depot on the north.
I spoke to some older people who claimed that they
had crawled through the dry stream bed during the summer months in their youth. Except for such accounts,
there is no other evidence of this underground river or
stream. It is my understanding that the entrance was
plugged years ago.
The people who do not believe that there was ever
an underground passage possibly used in the escape of
slaves point out that, as a general rule, the slaves were
hidden in homes and barns, and moved out under cover
of night.
At the least, the tunnel legend has provided many
hours of speculation. One version of a story about it
tells "how in one of the early butchering establishments
at the top of Ripon's hilly business district, the entrails
of animals and poultry were dumped down a hole into
the underground tunnel, until it became plugged and
would take no more!"

Of

Bartlett Hall at Ripon College in 1913

168

Rosendale
Collectors of old postal cards are aware that these
srriall pictures of places, people or events are usually
quite accurate historical records.
A !908 postal card of Rosendale in Fond duLac
in my collection, pictures the railroad depot,
name Rosendale in large whlte letters. An en·
·s on the track, while a cart full of milk cans apis ready to be loaded by the man leaning on the
woman wearing a whlte blouse and a long black
away from the horse hltched to a top buggy.
as remembered by old timers, is a lifestyle
ucn.wuerent than that of the present.
assistance of the librarians at the Ripon Pubhistories of the Town of Rosendale and
ndale were found in a large 1880 book enof Fond du Lac County. This book was one
pecial section of shelves in the library baseto Wisconsin hlstory.
versions of how Rosendale was named have been
> 1yu.<~lcu. The 1880 book states: "In an early day the name
df.Rosendale was the most appropriate that could have
the tract of land constituting the town of
was suggested by Mrs. George P. Curtis, 'ber~-li~P.Ht-w~r.:. such a perfect dale of roses:"
of Wisconsin Place Names, written by
and L.G. Sorden, says of the naming of
"One of the pioneer group coming by over~
caravan in 1845 is said to have selected this name.

Upon reaching the big hill east of the the village he looked
down on a perfect dale of roses and exclaimed: 'We'll
name our new home Rosendale!'"
The first settler in the Town of Rosendale was Samu·
el Sanborn, who located on the southeast quarter of sec~
lion 35 in June, 1844. The 1880 book states: "He plowed
during the summer, keeping 'old bach,' and sowed wheat
in the fall. He returned to Waukesha County for the winter, returning with his family in the spring of 1845. Dana
Lamb, however, had located in the town with his family
before Sanborn's return in the spring, so Mrs. Lamb was
the first woman in the settlement. That year also came
over twenty other leading families, and in 1846 nearly as
many more, and Rosendale at once became one of the
leading towns in the county:,
The first election was held April 7, 1846, at the house
of Samuel Sanborn, who with W.H.H. Dodd and H.C
Ward were elected as the first three supervisors.
The first birth was that of James, son of Alban Harroun, in October of 1845. The first schoolhouse was
built of logs in 1845-1846. Dwight Hall taught the first
school in the winter of 1846. The Rev. Jeremiah Murphy,
a Baptist minister, preached the first sermon in Samuel
Sanborn's house in January, 1846.
The first post office was called Rosendale, and was
established in May of 1846, the writer states. Dana Lamb
was the first postmaster, with J .R. Blackburn listed as
postmaster in 1880.

In the fall of 1846 Jonathan Daugherty opened the
first store in Rosendale, for Fay and Collins where the
present village is situated.
Railroad cars passed through Rosendale in February,
1872, on the Sheboygan and Fond duLac Railroad. Two
stations were maintained in 1880, one at Rosendale and
another at West Rosendale.
At the first election two men, Captains William and
N.P. Stevens, offered to vote, but were debarred. They
entered into an argument and finally convinced the judge
they could vote at any seaport in the United States
and were allowed to vote.
A.H. Bowe was listed as the first physician in the
Town of Rosendale.
The 1880 book states: "Rosendale contains several
large mounds from wlilch have been taken bones and
various interesting evidence of a prehistoric race. Rosen·
dale is comparatively level and has a warm, rich, quick
soil. It is one of the leading farming towns of the county, and in nearly all branches."
An interesting sidelight pertains to the Village of
Rosendale. To quote: "The Village of Rosendale, a little
hanilet, is not wholly in the Town of Rosendale. The
south side is in the Town of Springvale. The first hotel
was built by Daugherty and Woodruff on the Springvale
side in 1847."
In 1850 Wheeler and Humphrey erected a larger hotel
where Blackburn's Hotel stood in 1880. The builders
were the first landlords. In 1878 J .R. Blackburn rebuilt
and enlarged tlils hotel making a "large, comfortable and
well-appointed hostlery ."
C. Stowe opened the first blacksmith shop in Rosendale in 1846. The hanilet in 1880 had two stores, a drug
store, blacksmith shop, cheese factory and hoteL The
school had two departments, and was formerly called
Rosendale Academy and was organized by A.S. Crooker.
WJ J. Dodd was for twenty five years a leading mer·
chant in Rosendale. By 1880 he was residing in the Dakotas.
Religion was important to the early settlers. The first
Episcopal services were held in 1847 by Bishop Kemper.
In April, 1861, the Rev. F. Durbin organized St. Mark
Church. The cornerstone of the church edifice was laid
in 1863. The building cost $1,800.
The Congregational Church was given its first sermon
by the Rev. Dana Lamb, and was organized in the school·

Waukau
Waukau- a place with a personality. Ruth Westover
chose tlils title for the first chapter in her book Waukau -A History, published in March, 1979. Excerpts from her
book are used with Mrs. Westover's permission. The pictures
are from her collection. The book is written with feeling
and perception. "Facts are gleaned from old letters, diaries,
scrapbooks, genealogies, tombstones and shoeboxes fuJJ of
yellowed news clippings and phot.ographs," Mrs. Westover

riOtes.

The Rosendale Bank in 1907
house on May 21,1848, by him and twenty members.
The church edifice was built at a cost of $2,000 in 1854.
The first Methodist services and organization took
place in December, 1848, or January, 1849, in the school·
house, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Lathrop. Services were held in the schoolhouse until 1854, when the
edifice was built at a cost of $1,219, dedicated by the
Rev. N.E. Cobleigh of Appleton, in January, 1855.
The Rosendale Fanners Club was one of those ac~
tive organizations which gave people a change of pace
from their working days. The formation of tlils club was
suggested by WJ. Jennings on Thanksgiving Day, 1865,
and organized a week later.
To quote: "The most successful and influential farmers, stock and fruit growers are members of the club
and its discussions are widely published. The first meeting each month is a social one at which essays, music,
and readings and a good repast are served, the ladies al·
ways being in attendance."

~

Rosendale's Main Street
in the early 1900's

170

'"Waukau is an unincorporated village a mile long. It is
on the map of Winnebago County, Wisconsin in the
of Rushford, and it sits astride State Highway 116
between Oshkosh and Berlin."
11 of people know that a part of the story of
the locust trees that line the long driveway to
"'-k:Ciumblimz wreck of a large horne built by Luther Morton
first white man to settle in Waukau in 1846.
, very few people know that the Trenton limestone
foundations of many of the older houses in Waukau
,e from a ledge just west of town. The slabs were pried
out by Uriah Hall and sold to pay for his first team of oxen
in that first settlement year."
Waukau is more than facts. A clue to what Waukau
upon the crude wooden bench that was allowed to
until it finally crumbled to dust beside the D.S.
ne in Waukau Cemetery. Long after he died,
at the bench and recalled that every summer
Dave Maxon sat there smoking his pipe and resting
against the cold stone marking his wife's grave."
"Waukau is also the memory of the male quartet that

used to harmonize on pleasant evenings as they sat on the
railing of the bridge over Waukau Creek. And when the air
turned chilly after midnight there were people who declared
they could hear a quavering crying under the bridge where a
young girl had drowned her baby many years before."
"There are old men who say that a part of Waukau will
always be the hazlenut tree thickets from wlilch small boys
could haul home sacks full of fat nuts every fall, the creek
where fishing was so good in early_ spring, and the marshes
and woodlands where hunting was a part of the fall season."
"A bit of the story of Waukau is also in the tale of two
men who traded wives and the one man who claimed he
got the small end of the bargain--his best yellow hunting
dog had followed lils wife to her new home."
Quoting in part from the chapter titled Luther Morton
Parsons -Founder of Waukau: "Historical facts in black
and white are abundant for a researcher into the life ·of the
first white man to settle permanently in Waukau. And there
are quite a few local memories to give him a more lively color."
"Luther 'Levi' Morton Parsons arrived March 7, 1846,
according to an account in Harney's History of Winnebago
County published in 1880. Subsequent histories have gener·
ally tended to copy Harney's statement that Parsons was a
member of a branch of the Morton family of Vermont. Tlils
family in the last century produced Levi Parsons Morton,
a noted American and London financier who served as vice
president under President Benjamin Harrison."
"When Parsons arrived at the banks of Waukau Creek,
about two miles south of the Fox River, his first act was

to build a log house. According to Harney, this dwelling
was ten by twelve feet) one story, and with corner posts
driven into the ground."
"Historian and attorney Fred L. Holmes, who grew up
in Waukau, called the architectural style of the Parsons
shanty 'Indiana Lincoln.' He wondered how this shanty
could have provided lodging for the incoming settlers as it
was reported to have done. Another source flatly stated,
'They slept eight in a bed, crosswise: "
Holmes continued: "As. soon as the sawmills were built
in Algoma and Oshkosh, the Parsons sawmill in Waukau
was superceeded. But that did not stop Parsons' progress.
He soon built the first grist mill, again using the waterpow·
er of the creek he had harnessed for his original sawmilL
The Waukau mill took the farmer's grist that formerly had
gone to Ceresco and to the government mill at Neenah.))
"Uriah Hall's limestone ledge furnished the stone slabs
for the foundation of the mill, as well as for many of the
first houses in town. Not satisfied with all the aforemen~
tioned 'first', Parsons also hosted the first Rushford Town
meeting in his home April 5, 1847. The original shanty had
by been made more commodious. At that time the town
of Rushford also included what is now the towns of Utica
and Nepeuskun. (They separated from Rushford in 1849.)"

school superintendent and held the office for many years.
First store:
Elliot and White.
First frame house:
James Deyoe.
First town election:
At the home ofLM. Parsons, AprilS, 1847.
First grist mill:
1848, by LM. Parsons, completed in 1850.
First railroad:
Completed to Waukau in 1860, completed to the river
bank in Omro,January 1, 186L"
Romance

"'It is ever thus." Romances do not always have a hap-py ending. Jennie Elliot and William, eighth son of Luke
and Louise LaBorde, fell in love. They carved their names
together on a big maple tree in William'ssister Jane's front
yard in Delhi.
«Uncle Bill was about twenty years old then," accord~
ing to the story as told by Mrs. Grace Wendt, granddaugh·
ter of Luke LaBorde. "They broke up and he went to Min·
nesota. He never married and never returned until he died
and was buried in Omro Cemetery in 1905. Jennie later
married someone else, but she always said she was in love
with Uncle WilL"
The chapter Health Ozre in Waukau is illustrated by ad·
vertising of a family medical booklet published in 1878.
to quote Mrs. Westover's words: "'At one time in 1846, only one woman in Waukau was we11, she drove to Ceresco
with wheat to be ground into flour for the whole village.
She also collected the mail for everyone. Fever and ague
had laid the whole town low. Nell Webster Heslop, a prac·
tical nurse and midwife like her mother before her said,
"it was like malaria: n
"Mrs. Heslop also remembered Doctor J.A. Foster who
came to Waukau after he had served in the Civil War. She
said patients sometimes quailed at taking the medicines he
concocted out of roots and herbs he gathered. To calm
their fears he always took the first dose himself."
"Maud Packard Gay (Mrs. Eugene) treasured a poem
written by Doctor Foster telling how he was paid with a
cord of wood for delivery of a Packard baby. Mrs. Gay re·
marked, "Those were the days, when, if you wanted a doctor, you went after him and took him back home again."
Of the name Waukau Mrs, Westover wrote: "There are
several versions of what the white man thinks the Menominee Indian word waukau means. No Menominee contacted
thus far has been able to provide the true meaning of the
word. One early letter writer of the fur trading days spelled
it wacquau, indicating he heard it differently than the peo·
ple who now spell it Waukau."
"'Probably the most accurate statement of what the word
means was made by one early Waukau woman who testified
that it was an Indian word that meant something."
The Waukau Name Ozrries On - The Waukau Indian
village passed into memory in 1852. Now there are only
four things in the world named Waukau: the numerous
descendants of the Waukau clan which moved to the Me·
nominee Reservation over a century ago; the winding
creek that flows northward from Rush Lake to the Fox
River; a small lake that Mitchell Waukau found and named
in the northern Wisconsin woods when he was a timber
cruiser; and the unincorporated village in Rushford Town~
ship, Winnebago County, Wisconsin.

***
In Mrs. Westover's words: "'Harney's History of Winne~
bago County gave a list of 'firsts' for Waukau. Every histor·
ian has copied that list. This is it:
First residents of Waukau:
March 7, 1846, Luther M. Parsons.
March 21, 1846, John R Hall and his brother Uriah,
Erasmus Hall who was an 1848 member of the State Assem·
bly when Winnebago County sent only one, and J .M. Hall,
cousin of Uriah.
June 9, 1846, Eli B. ThralL
Spring, 1846, R. Stone.
March, 1846, John Johnson and family and Mr. Pinrow.
October, 1846, James Deyoe from Pittsville, N.Y. and
Joseph Mallery.
Fall, 1846, Richard, Thomas, and John G. Palfrey, all
brothers, with their parents.
First death in Waukau:
October 23, 1847, Samuel R Manning, age thirty seven
years and seventeen days, twin brother of Elder Manning,
service by Elder Pillsbury.
November, 184 7) ML Pinrow.
First birth:
A son to John Johnson.
First marriage:
Henry Bixby and Mary Palfrey by the Elder William
Manning.
First post office:
July 1, 1848, William H. Elliot, postmaster.
First plat map of Waukau:
.December 30, 1848, G.W. Woodrich and S.W. White,
proprietors.
First religious service:
Baptist, the Rev. Hiram McKee, called the sledgehammer
preacher, in the summer or fall of 1846.
First school:
A log house in the fall of 184 7, taught by the elder Wil·
liam Manning the first winter. In 1848 he was elected

172

To The South
Fox Lake
Fox Lake, in Dodge County, is particularly intriguing
to historical researchers, Material is documented from its
1838 settlement to the present. A pleasing array of old
and new buildings are viewed by travellers on Highway 33,
through the town's business district. The past of this old·
est settlement in the county is recorded in Fox Lake, Wis~
consin - 125 Years - 1838 · 1963; American Bicenten·
tial, published in 1976 in numerous newspaper clippings
and in the Public Library and Wisconsin historical publi·
cations. This history is garnered from excerpts of the
printed word on people and events, with the intention of
encouraging the reader to delve deeper into factual dates
and names.

...

A Wisconsin official marker was erected for one of
Fox Lake's illustrious sons, Bernard (Bunny) Berigan,
1908·1942, in May, 1976. To quote: "This was the home"
town of famed jazz trumpeter and band leader Bunny
Berigan. As a child he played in the Fox Lake Juvenile

l}utlt.

L.A_KE

Band directed by his grandfather John C Schlitzberg."
"In his early teens, he beg-an his- professional career
with the Merril Owen dance band at Beaver Dam. A few
years later in Madison he was in demand for campus
dances."
"Beginning in 1930, he became the featured soloist
for such band leaders as Paul Whiteman, Benny Good·
man, and the Dorsey Brothers. Singers Bing Crosby and
Boswell Sisters were among those who recorded with
him. With his own orchestra in 1937 he recorded his
most popular hit and theme song, I Ozn 't Get Started
With You."
""Jazz great Louis Armstrong predicted Berigan would
be the trumpeter most likly to succeed him in the affection of music lovers, but Berigan's life and music came
to an untimely end at the age of thirty~three in New York
City. He is buried in SL Mary's Cemetery, south of Fox
Lake."

...

A Fox Lake team of horses sold to President William

'CQV>I!l,.,.-1k0 ~~~ ><. '-'"" tGC\IE!'!Y

Oak Spring Resort, Fox Laket Wis.

Main Street in Fox Lake in 1907

I:
'"

!:.

1~

• l

t.;

1::

I:,.
o I•

»

accompanied them and will have a nice trip. Quite a few
from here were down to see them off."

McKinley in 1899 made headlines which are interesting
reading today. The Fox Lake Representative editor, the
late Dean J. Hotchkiss, wrote in the July 21, 1899 edition:
"Fox Lake gained some notoriety this week over the sale
of a pair of horses to President McKinley by George Warren and sons of this place."
"The sale was negotiated some. time ago, but for obvious reasons was kept quiet until the team was ready to
ship. Secretary Wilson of the agricultural department and
R. Huntington, the great New York horseman, were instrumental in effecting the deal, and the consideration, tho
private, is said by pretty good authority to be in excess of
$2,500. It was given in press dispatches as $3,000, but the
former figure is approximately correct."
"The team was bred and raised on the Warren farm in
Trenton. They are beautiful chestnuts with white faces
and feet and are five years old; 16\i hands high and weigh
2400 pounds."
"Fred Warren broke the team and did some good work
with them, being particular with them as he knew they
were to go to the President· for a carriage team. They are
a very stylish team with all around action, and can do
twelve miles an hour without trouble. They are well mannered to heavy harness and are, in fact, an ideal carriage
team."
"They are from some of the best blood and breeding
known to horsemen, being bred by Warren's Americanbred stallion 'Damascus II ,' a grandson of the celebrated
'Unden Tree,' the Arabian stallion presented to General
Grant by the Sultan of Turkey. On the maternal side they
are direct descendants of that famous horse 'Grand Bashaw,' through 'Henry Clay' down to 'Clay Pilot II,' owned
by the Warrens here."
"The team was shipped in a special car Monday morning on the early passenger train and will go through by
fast train. Emmor Houston and George Baw of this villag<•

...

174

Fox Lake -Resting Place of Florence Nightingale Suitor?- are questioning headlines. William Shore, Jr., born
in 1808 in England, died in 1868 at Fox Lake and is buried in Riverside Memorial Cemetery. "People sometimes
ask about a single grave plot with its white marble monument which bears the name of William Shore, Jr. Sentimental historians claim it is the grave of a self-exiled suitor of
Aorence Nightingale, the famed English nurse and hospital
reformer for the military during the Crimean War, 1854 to
1855."
According to this article and one printed in the !25th
Anniversary book, Shore and Miss Nightingale were cousins. The two families objected to a marriage when they
fell in love. uso the two made a promise never to many
and always to love and remember each other."
"Many such promises are made during a youthful romance but few carry them to death. Aorence Nightingale~·
drowned herself in nursing; but William Shore, plagued
with the fact that she was in England and he could no
longer be with her,left for the United States."
"Letters and newspaper stories in Fox Lake's historical
files indicate that Shore chose to live here because of people he knew who had been employed on the estate of
Shore's parents."
"He was described as an aloof, sedate and scholarly,
melancholy gentleman. His silver mounted gun was admired by 'all the hunters around' while the ladies noted
his courtly manner and excellent wardrobe with very correct hunting attire."
"Some called him 'The Remittance Man' because he
would disappear for a few days at regular intervals and re-

Oak Spring Resort in Fox Lake in 1913
turn with a sum of money. It was believed that he went
to the Dodge County seat at Juneau to receive a remitl"nce from England."
"Fox Lake was a sportsman's paradise in 1863 when
Shore purchased ISO acres of choice hunting and fishing
land, about four miles northwest of the city on County A.
property owners may find a copy of Shore's will in
He drove a smaU oxen team on a two wheel

A footnote on Brower as the pioneer settler states regarding his claim on the lake: "Brower did not locate the
1and there, it having been entered the season previous by
Mr. Merrill, a resident at Fort Winnebago. Mr. Brower either
leased the land or worked it in partnership, Merrill furnishing the teams for breaking and a part of the furniture for
the house. Mr. Brower built the house and did the work
and therefore we do not propose that he shall be deprived
of the honor of being the pioneer settler." In the spring
Brower crossed the lake and made additional claims to the
city limits .
"The same season Hamilton Stevens, John Van Eps and
Julius H. Williams came, entering claims upon lands now
constituting the main part of the village. In the fall of 1841,
Mr. Brower, sti11 retaining his interests here, removed to
Beaver Dam, and became one of the four pioneers of that
town. He died at Beaver Dam in November, 1845, while
yet in the vigor of manhood, widely known and respected,
aged 46 years."

Paul Brower, a farmer from Jefferson County,

<, is honored as the first settler at what is today
Fox Lake. To quote from a Fox Lake history pubJune 2, 1876, in the Fox Lake Representative: "In
1836, Brower came west prospecting. From Milhe went on horseback to the site where now stands
of Madison, and from thence to Green Bay, passing
this section on his route. During the trip his horse
by Indians, and he met with some sharp practice
of the land office officials at Green Bay. He
lry disagreeable incidents, but reached home
next season he came again, bringing his family,
eleven members, and located at Sheboygan,
'PI a hotel for one year. Leaving Sheboygan,
started for Fox Lake, going by sail to Green Bay,
canoes to Fond du Lac, and from there by wae north shore of the lake, where he located a
November, 1838. Here he built a log house, three
north of the present city of Fox Lake, the
nent upon the bark huts of the aboriginals
town or county."

•••
The 1963 Fox Lake book states, regarding early settlement: "The settlement incorporated as the township of
Fox Lake in 1846. The town was named after the Lake
which held the Indian name, 'Hash-a-rae-as-tab.' This name
was changed to Waushara, which means 'fish spear' and
then again to Fox Lake. Incorporation as a village in 1858
brought the first election which was a battle between the
Whigs and the Democrats, referred to in this area as the
'Locofaco.' The May 4 election brought the principal issues
to a head. First, 'should animals be allowed to run loose?'
Second, 'should the village build sidewalks?' "

175

,,,~££[£,.M,E££~,M·.~-.'!i."""'"'''·'''"'"''"""';,,,,,·:

and the money used for construction of a railroad spur
and loop. The owners of the old horse railroad donated
their stock to the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company.
June 24, 1884, marked the date when petition for the
loop had enough signers to insure its construction. According to an old newspaper clipping: "That evening arrangements were made for a 'jollification.' The cannon was
brought out at six o' clock and the church bells were
vigorously rung for five minutes. Immediately afterwards, the loud boom of the cannon was heard. Twentyone shots were fired and the old piece never spoke
louder. The village was bubbling with excitement."
"Completion of the railroad to the village was celebrated on September 9,1884 by the arrival of a gaily decorated train carrying many of the officials of the C.M. & St. P.
Rwy. Co. A community dinner was served on the campus
of the Wisconsin Female College, an institution which was
later named Downer College, and moved to Milwaukee. 'Old
Crow,' owned by Express agent John McCarthy, the last
horse to draw the car, was gaily decorated and had a place
of honor in the exercises."

"It was during the early pioneer days that animals were
first allowed to run loose. It was impossible for the settlers
to build fences around the massive tracts of grazing land
which rested a short distance from the village. Cows were
identified by bells but other animals were expected to
come home each night of their own accord. Members of
the 'Locofaco' objected to a cow, horse or sheep staring
through a window at them."

•••
"The first thing Abel Merwin did after his election as
village president in 1858 was to enact an ordinance which
regulated the swimming. He then put into effect ordinances
which forbade the discharge of firearms; fishing the Sabbath; drunkenness and brawls; and the running of animals
at large in the town. With the prohibition of fishing on the
Sabbath went a two dollar fine. Drunkenness and brawls
included a fine ranging from one to ten dollars. A 'pound'
was built to restrain stray animals in the village. A five to
twenty-five dollar fine was provided for anyone who interfered with the marshall as he was leading the livestock to
pound. In 1876 mules were added to the list of possible

•••

prisoners."

•••
A 'horse railroad' was devised in 1859. "The original
survey for the extension of the LaCrosse and Milwaukee
Railroad into this area showed Fox Lake as one of the
towns through which it would pass. Since the people of
Fox Lake could not decide where the depot should be, the
railroad company, headed by Dr. Stoddard Judd, president,
in 1856 changed the surveyed route and sent the track two
miles south of Fox Lake."
In 1859 the 'horse railroad' was devised as a solution to
the problem, when it was built from the tracks at what was
called the Fox Lake Junction, into the village. The horsecar was built on the style of the old-fashioned street cars
with seats running lengthwise and it furnished transportation for passengers and mail between the Junction and the
VIllage untill884.1t usually made four trips daily, meeting
all passenger trains. Freight cars were shoved up to the village with a team of horses harnessed to a railroad sulky. A
long pole was fitted into the coupler and the team plodded
on behind the cars. The Fox Lake Horse Railroad Stock
Company operated the horse-car Une. Fare was twenty-five
cents one way.
"The Junction depot building of this road was destroyed
by fire in 1886, together with five or six warehouses," a
1947 newspaper article on early history of the 'Fox Lake
Spur' states. "Also lost were one thousand bushels of
grains and one of the railroad's freight cars loaded with
wheat, ready for shipment. It was an uninsured loss. The
Fox Lake Junction became a community of fourteen families. The railroad water tank and wood yard located there
in the days of wood-burning engines, gave employment to
several men and the road bed was constantly in need of repair, requiring more men. Families at the Junction used a
hand car to attend church and evening entertainments in
village. The children rode to and from school on the horse c
car."
A snow blockade in 1881, when the village was without
mail or freight for two weeks, aroused demand for better
railroad service. In 1884 the village was bonded for $9,000

People and events in any community's settlement are important in the final accomplishments recorded in historical
accounts. A name mentioned often in Fox Lake is Miss Harriet O'Connell, born in 1877 in the Township of Fox Lake
and "passed away January 8, 1971, missed by all." Miss
O'Connell worked for law firrns in Fox Lake for fifty years,
and compiled and recorded historical matter on Fox Lake,
Dodge County and the State of Wisconsin. A member of
the Fox Lake Woman's Club and in charge of the historical
division, she was responsible for most of the information
available of Fox Lake's growth.

...

Dr. Clara Frances Tyrrell, a Fox Lake girl who left Fox
Lake to study medicine, is another name from the past. "In
1888 she returned to her home town to practice medicine.
Her office and home were at the present 401 Green Street.
She moved to Montana in 1905. In those days it was a revolution for a woman to practice medicine.

•••
The work of Miss Mary Ellen Collins was responsible for
Fox Lake acquiring a library. As the book written about
her says, "She lived in a drean!land and that dreamland
was the library.'' She was born in 1865. After attending
a Woman's Club convention in Fond du Lac, she brought
back the idea to members of saving and selling waste paper
to fmance the beginning of the first library on the second.
story of the old Bank building." In 1961 the city built the
present 65,000 volume library building. Fox Lake has been
a city since 1938.

~
176

Portage
The city of Portage in Columbia County is not only rich
with historical heritage, but is also a Wisconsin landmark.
Throughout the years, Portage writers have compiled the
figures and recalled the events which chronicle the history
of the community. What we bring you, here, are "'gleanings"
of historical interest-from books, old newspapers, and
Tales of Old Portage, compiled by Dorothy G. McCarthy,
Ina Curtis, and the Portage Public Library.
Robert E. Gard and L.G. Sorden in The Romance of
Wisconsin Place Names, said of Portage: "The Fox-Wisconsin River portage here was a landmark in early Wisconsin
history. The name was given to it by French explorers who
called it 'le portage.' No other place in Wisconsin has a
more colorful history, for Portage saw Indians, explorers,
fur traders, voyageurs, soldiers and settlers. It was the site
of Fort Winnebago. Marquette and Joliet portage here enroute to discover the Upper Mississippi.''
The writers also noted of Portage County: "The original
county was much larger and at one time included the site
of the City of Portage where the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers
come within one mile of one another. When the county
was divided, representatives from the northern part wanted
to keep the record books and thereby save a few dollars, so
they kept the name for the new northern section."
The Military Road, which linked Portage and Green Bay,
Fort Winnebago and the Portage Canal and locks, along
with the Fox-Wisconsin waterway all figure prominently in
the days when the canal was being used constantly.
Congress in 1827 appropriated two thousand dollars for
a survey ofland from Fort Howard at Green Bay to the
Portage. In 1829, James Doty, later to be elected Wisconsin governor, Morgan L. Martin, one of the founders of
Portage, and Henry S. Baird pushed through the wilderness
to determine the feasibility of an overland route, known
today as "The Old Military Road." In 1830, the appropriation was made to lay out the road, its chief purpose being
transport of military personnel and army materials, particularly in winter when the waterway froze over.
Fort Winnebago was established as a military post by
an August 19, 1828 military order to Fort Howard at
Green Bay, after the Winnebago Indians living along the
river valley became incensed in 1827 over the invasion of
,their land by the lead miners of the southwest. The Fort
one of three major military establishments in Wiscon-

piano which Juliette played well caused a sensation among
the Indians and frontiersmen. The IGnzies moved into the
Agency House in 1832."
The book, Wau-Bun, The Early Days in the Northwest,
written by Juliette M. IGnzie, is an interesting source of
information on life in the wilderness. The Kinzies stayed
about two years at the portage. Mrs. IGnzie's piano supposedly burned in the Chicago fire of 1871.
The first election in the n.ewly-!ncorporated city of
Portage was held April 2, 1854, with William Sylvester selected mayor. Three hundred thirty-six votes were cast.
Other officers included John Dodge, clerk; Decatur Vandercook, assessor; Henry Carpenter, marshall; Alexander
Christien, superintendent; and aldermen John McTighe
and M. Van Winter, first ward; Joshua Arnold and George
Wall, third ward; Alva Stewart (who, having faileg to qualify, was replaced by W.K. Miles on June IS) and John
Gates, fourth ward.
The legisturehad passed an act to incorporate the city
as a municipal corporation in March of 1854, and Governor William A. Barstow approved it. The city was divided

book, The Trail of the Serpent, says of the Fort:
high hill on the right of the river was chosen as the
for the fort, composed of a three hundred foot
The surgeon's quarters, only remaining dwelling
ld fort proper, was built sometime before 1824
leRoy, an enterprising young Frenchman who
across the neck ofland to the Wisconsin Rireverse, to the Fox."
the river and the canal from the fort location
the old Indian Agency House, built by the IGnKinzie, Indian agent at the portage, had courted
Juliette Magill, a lively Connecticut girl who conprovided IGnzie would transport some of her
belongings, including a grand piano, to Wisconsin.
possessions came, hauled by Durham boat, and the

· tU9tt 'SCHOOL, ·.PORTAtJI!, WIS,
"'I• MI~WMIIII.~ liD. 318

1. 0. MIIIWP Gil.

177

C0o"k Sttett, Looking East, Portage, 'V/is.

Cook Street in Portage, circa 191 0
into three wards, bounded roughly by the canal, the Wisconsin River and DeWitt Street.
Sylvester had organized a private "select school" in the
winter of 1851-52; the school offered classes in all the English branches, as well as Latin, Greek, French, music and
drawing. It is thought the "select school" was located on
the second floor of Sylvester's store at the comer of East
Cook and Main Street. The Portage public schools were
graded and a high school established in 1859.

Vandercook was the Bank of Portage president, and a
new building her erected was known as the Vandercook
Block; it was later replaced by the City Bank and Trust
Company.
Carpenter had arrived at the portage in July, 1837, af·
ter he and his bride Sarah travelled on the Fox River from
Green Bay in a birchbark canoe. Their son, George, born
in 1838, was the fnst white child born at the Portage. Carpenter built a tavern/inn, called the United States Hotel,

The Portage Canal around 1912
a hostelry for the convenience of travellers and lumber·
men going to or coming from the pineries in northern Wisconsin.
Monuments, markers and Portage street signs carry histories, with one of the outstanding names that of Pau~
quette. The American Fur Company assigned Peter or Pierre Pauquette (also spelled Packquette) to the portage in
1824. He was an interpreter, hauled boats across the por~
tage, was noted for his memory and honesty in his Indian
de_alings, and his great size and strength. Born in the year
1800 of a French father and a Winnebago mother, he was
Illu_fd~red in October of 1836) and has over the years be~
~n ~~-~ t. at of a legend.
once ran in Portage. In 1912 when it was a
of about five thousand, the Chicago and Wiscon·eet Railway Company had laid track through
two street cars in use; they were the horseand were 1ater operated by electricity. The comorganized in September of 1909, with headquar' and later in Madison, and intended an interrailway from Janesville to Merrill and from
1nd duLac.
McCarthy wrote in 1975 of the street cars:
ontact was made by the familiar trolley pole
be reversed at the end of the line for the return
the street cars could be operated from either
were apparently no turntables. J.E. Jones, forof the Portage Daily Democrat and several terms
the city was its vice president. Closely associated
were A.B. Shannon, Hal Rockwood and Chauncy
..........

bookkeeper, secretary and general dispatcher. Leaving the
corner at West Wisconsin and Cook Streets, the cars ran to
DeWitt where the tracks turned north to the depot. Returning to town) another schedule took the trolley on West Wisconsin to River Street. Downtown, another schedule ran to
Ketchum's Point via East Canal Street, where passengers
could be discharged to walk across the Chicago, Milwaukee
and St. Paul railway canal bridges to the Soo Depot. There
they found train service both north and south. The car barns
were located about midway between town and Ketchum's
Point on East Canal Street. The fare was a nickel for a
round trip on any of the three schedules, but a transfei to
another called for a second nickeL Something between
three and five years was the life of the street cars in Portage.)
Portage author Zona Gale captured the "Portage Spirit"
in her prolific writing and literary success in the 1920-1938
era. Her Friendship Village stories, books including Portage,
Wisconsin and other Essays, and Bridal Pond and magazine
articles describe the Portage she knew and Javed.
There are memories of Zona Gale in Portage today. TI1e
Portage Women's Civic League Clubhouse at 506 West Edgewater is the home Zona Gale built for her parents, her study
overlooking the Wisconsin River. It was given to the Wo~
men's Civic League, of which she was the founder, by her
husband, William Uewelyn Breese. There is also the Portage
Public Library, where the spirit of Zona Gale is felt by those
who enter the study room where her books and belongings
may be viewed.
Old newspaper items make for interesting insights into
history. The Fox River Times gave us this news: "The land
sale of U.S. Military Reserve Fort Winnebago, containing
four thousand acres of land, will be sold at public auction,
September I, 1853."

•••

officially started at the company office at
Cook St., where Miss Ida Jennings held forth as

Trolley cars on Cook Street in Portage in the early 1900's

178

179

Pardeeville

The Wisconsin River Bridge in Portage around 1910
A view of the Pardeeville Station, circa 1908

The Fort had been evacuated in 1845, and the troops
sent to other assignments. Fort quarters were rented to
those who needed temporary homes, some of whom were
Potters Emigration Society members or local farmers.
An Apri13, 1856 news item reads: "Fire' Sunday morning, the north block at Fort Winnebago was entirely burned.
The building was occupied by four families. A straw bed
was emptied into the fireplace. Consequence of that the
garrison took fire, and that block was burned. A water buc~
ket brigade to extinguish the blaze was brought from the

time, calculating the possibility of passing them without
having to make too wide a detouL
Once safely past the ladies~ he was heard to grunt, '"Heap
big wigwam."
There are many chapters of Portage history which make
for good reading--and listening. Mrs. FJizabeth Cushing,
Justice of the Peace; the Potters Society; Der Wecker, the
German newspaper pub1ished at Portage in 1874; the businesses and mode of life; the Hanging Tree and an 1869 incident: the Hop Craze; the yellow brick houses, and the Portage brickyards dating back to 1850: buildings, people and
names in history, including Jefferson Davis.

Fox River.

A note of humor is evident in a September 8, 1857 news
column: "Two ladies wearing immense hoop skirts were
walking along one of our thoroughfares a day or two since
and were met by a stalwart Indian who stood for some

~

The Old Dam at Pardeeville in 1909

180