165 Back to Beginnings The Early Days of Dane County

BACK TO BEGINNINGS, The Early Days of Dane County. A history book for fourth grade students on the anniversary of 150 years of statehood pertaining to Dane County. Note: This is a copy of the book that is on the shelves at the Community Library. We are concerned both by the potential loss of the book for any of a variety of reasons and by the fact that it has a substantial amount of data that is not easily searched. By the process of the digital archive, we protect the book and allow for Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Thank you to A. Kenjar for her consistent efforts to photocopy for the project.

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165 Back to Beginnings The Early Days of Dane County.pdf

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Wisconsin

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Kenosha County, Wisconsin

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SNIPPETS of SALEM
165-- BACK TO
BEGINNINGS,
The Early Days of Dane
County

Contents: A history book for fourth grade students on the anniversary
of 150 years of statehood pertaining to Dane County.
Note: This is a copy of the book that is on the shelves at the
Community Library. We are concerned both by the potential loss of
the book for any of a variety of reasons and by the fact that it has a
substantial amount of data that is not easily searched. By the process
of the digital archive, we protect the book and allow for Optical
Character Recognition (OCR).
Thank you to A. Kenjar for her consistent efforts to photocopy for the
project.
The citations used to denote information found it the book should
reference the book itself, not this booklet.

0-64 pages
Researchers should also refer to the Digital archives at the SALEM COMMUNITY LIBRARY for
more images in this collection or digital images of items photocopied in this booklet or related to
the topic ..

Compiled 9/2009 by L S Valentine Copyright©Valentine2009

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BACK TO BEGINNINGS
The Early Days of Dane County
On May 29, 1848, Wisconsin was officially recognized by President
James Polk as the thirtieth state in the Union. Long before and after
this important event, Dane County played a leading role in the
development of the state. And for good reason.
One hundred fifty years ago in the heart of Dane County, the
University of Wisconsin and state government were established
a mile apart on facing hills. Surrounded by sparkling lakes and rich
agricultural land, these two great institutions, anchored in a
splendid setting, quickly attracted thousands of Yankee settlers and
European immigrants to the area. In succeeding years, the
population grew to become a diverse and expanding mix of
farmers, educators, government workers, artists, business people,
and others who in their daily life helped shape the intellectual,
political, and cultural life of the state.
Wisconsin's 150th birthday is an occasion to celebrate Dane County's
unique place in state history. Back to Beginnings helps us do just that.
Illustrated with nineteenth-century maps, photographs, drawings,
and artifacts, the book highlights our early struggles and successes
from pre-settlement times through the Civil War. It creates a
fascinating portrait of some of the areas's first residents and offers a
look at the early cultural and natural landscape.

Back to Beginnings was produced by the Dane County Cultural
Affairs Commission for Dane County's fourth-grade students.
Its publication was made possible through the generosity of the
Evjue Foundation, the Norman Bassett Foundation, the Wisconsin
Sesquicentennial Commission, and Lathrop & Clark-generosity
for which we are deeply grateful. The enthusiasm of the Dane County
Board of Supervisors for this project is also warmly acknowledged.
As we celebrate the state's 150th anniversary this year, I invite you
to explore these pages with the same sense of adventure that
inspired our forebears long ago to settle and develop this special
place: Dane County, Wisconsin's capital county.
Kathleen Falk
Dane County Executive
1998

Cover: In 1857 the Wisconsin Historical Society
asked Milwaukee artist Samuel M. Brookes and
his partner Thomas M. Steveuson to paiut the
Wisconsin Heights Battle Ground. The painting
helped everyoue remember the events that
occurred twefJty-five years earlier during the
Black Hawk War.

·~

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Opposite page: During late summer of 1852,
the visiting German artist, Adolph Hoeffler,
traveled throughout Dane County and neighboring
communities, sketching as he went. In this pencil
drawing of "A Road in Mndison," he recorded the
wilderness territory which still existed outside
the capital city.

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BACK TO BEGINNINGS
The Early Days of Dane County
a book for children produced by
Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission
for the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial

Copyright© 1998 by County of Dane, Wisconsin
ISBN 0-9638068-0-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 97-77240

The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission acknowledges
with gratitude the following individuals and institutions
for their contributions to the creation of this book:
AT&T, Norman Bassett Foundation, William Brewster, Julie Chase, Mary Clehr,
Reed Coleman, James P. Danky, Jill Dean, Robert Deering, Evjue Foundation,
Great Big Pictures, Mary Jane Hamilton, Jim Hansen, Kathleen Horning,
Jason Josvai, Percy Julian, Bonny Labno, Lathrop & Clark, Little Norway,
Bill Malone, Frederick Miller, Barbara Nelson, Julia Pferdehirt,
Dennis Ribbens, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Shelley Safer,
State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Stoughton Historical Museum,
Timothy Valdez, Mark Wagler, Ann Waidelich, Scott Winner,
Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation, Wisconsin Credit Union League and Affiliates,
Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission,
Wisconsin Veterans Museum,
Lynette Wolfe, and Richard Zeitlin

As artist Adolph Hoeffler tmz,eled through southern Dm1e County in 1852, he paused on a ridge to sketch the First Lake (Kegmzsa).

l:ij=
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The Four Lakes Country

pages 8-9

Paleo-Indians once made homes in what is now Dane County • Their spear
points were fotmd near the Yahara River • The area was called Tay-clzo-per-alz
by Ho-Chunk people • Many mounds were created by Woodland Indians •
The Four Lakes area was forever changed by new settlers •

Lead Brings Settlers to Future Dane County

pages 10-13

Ho-Chunk people had mined lead for hundreds of years • Lead brought
settlers to southwest Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s + Ebenezer Brigham
established "diggings" near the Blue Mounds • Brigham's Place became
key stop on Military Road •

James Duane Doty's Capital in the Wilderness

Dane County's Paper Towns

pages 14-16

Areas' rivers and lakes served as waterways for Indian canoes • United
States soldiers were assigned to forts at old French fur-trade centers •
James Duane Doty suggested building a road to cormect forts • Government
surveyors began to measure and map the area + Construction progress
was interrupted by the Black Hawk War +
Two Desperate Days of the Black Hawk War:
Through the Four Lakes Country to Wisconsin Heights

page 25-26

Doty's men staked off lots in the winter of 1837 +The Peck family moved
to Madison the following spring+ Their home became a boarding house
for those constructing the new capitol building +

pages 18-19

The Black Hawk War occurred in the spring and summer of 1832 + The
United States government forced Sauk people to leave their Illinois farms •
Black Hawk refused • Faced with armed settlers, he tried to surrender+
Militia fired, and Black Hawk fought back • He and his Sauk-Fox followers
headed north into Wisconsin • United States soldiers clashed with his
forces at Wisconsin Heights • Both sides suffered losses • Black Hawk
and his followers reached the Mississippi River • United States troops
killed many Indian people at Bad Axe + Black Hawk was taken prisoner •
Many Indian people were forced to leave southern Wisconsin •

Mapping Out the Land: Wisconsin Becomes a Territory

page 24

Speculators bought land during the territorial years • They gambled
that locations would become new communities+ Some towns
existed only on paper •

Madison Grows from Paper Town to Territorial Capital
Building the Military Road:
First Overland Passage Through the Four Lakes Region

pages 22-23

James Duane Doty bought land on the isthmus between Third and Fourth
lakes • He convinced territorial legislators to make the area a permanent
capital + Madison, then just a "paper town," was a key location between
Lake Michigan and the lead-mining district+

pages 20-21

Surveyors measured former Indian lands • By 1833 they reached the
Four Lakes region • The United States government began to sell land
to new settlers • In 1836 Wisconsin became a United States territory •
Dane County was organized three years later •

Sharing Dane County with the Animals

page 27

The new capitol brought more settlers to Dane County • Settlers shared
new homes and farms with many kinds of wildlife +

Making Dane County Home

pages 28-29

The 1840s brought still more settlers to Wisconsin + Most traveled on
steamboats across the Great Lakes to Milwaukee + Wagons transported
pioneers and their belongings to Dane County • The first shelters of some
pioneers were constructed of tree branches + Later log cabins were built •

Pioneer and Community Founder Luke Stoughton

pages 30-33

Good land attracted Luke Stoughton to southern Wisconsin + His wife and
baby came from Vermont to join him • He bought land on the Catfish
(Yahara) River in 1847 • He built a dam and sawmill and opened a general
store + The community was named Stoughton to honor its founder •

Dane County Before Dairy Cows

Pioneers had to make the land produce food for their families + Many grew
wheat to sell to others • Chinch bugs destroyed the entire wheat crop in the
mid-1860s • Farmers tried other crops and established dairy farms+
Locomotives with "Breath of Smoke and Flame"

Building a Community

page 34

Families joined relatives and friends who had arrived earlier in Dane
County • Schoolhouses and churches were built as people gathered
and formed real communities •

Wisconsin Becomes the 30th State in 1848

pages 42-43

pages 44-47

The first train arrived at Stoughton Mills depot in 1853 • Railroad tracks
reached Madison the following year • Railroad men named Mazomanie +
The railroad station was built between Stoughton Mills and Madison on
William McFarland's land+ Middleton Station and Sun Prairie were
important grain-shipping markets+

page 35

The United States House and Senate agreed that Wisconsin should
become the 30th state • On May 29, 1848, President Polk signed
a bill admitting Wisconsin to the Union+

Teamsters and Taverns

pages 36-37

The Military Road served as the main overland route for pioneers •
New roads were constructed as the population increased • Stagecoach
services opened between Mineral Point and Madison in 1838 • Taverns
and inns became stopping places for all kinds of travelers •

Building with Brick and Stone

pages 38-39

People were glad when they could afford to build permanent homes •
Settlers used construction materials that the land provided +
Selected materials were strong enough to last+ Some of the earliest
homes and buildings still stand +
Building a Bigger Capitol

pages 40-41

The first capitol in Madison proved to be too small + Governor Bashford
hired two architects to design a new stone capitol in 1857 + The second
capitol would not be the last •

Dane County During the Civil War

pages 48-52

Dane Cotmty economy was strong before the Civil War began in 1861 + The
First Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment was organized by Governor Randall •
Camp Randall in Madison was named in his honor • Women at home
learned how to run farms while the men in the family were gone to war •
Many soldiers from Dane County never saw their families again •
The war ended in 1865 •

Blacksmiths and Wagon Makers

pages 53-54

Local mills were needed by farmers • Good tools, wagons, and machinery
kept the farms going • Blacksmiths were the main source of machinery and
repairs • Some blacksmiths were also wagon makers • T. G. Mandt's
wagon company became Dane County's biggest business •

Place-Names that Take Us Back to Beginnings

pages 55-59

Place-names are clues to Dane County history • Some describe the
landscape • Some are in the language of Indian people living in the area •
Some are from the homes and homelands left behind by settlers •
Some carry names of famous people or local families •

Settlers to Futu_re ·oane County
n the 1820s and 1830s, large numbers of people from other parts of the United States began
to move to what later became southwest Wisconsin. They hoped to make their fortunes by
mining lead in the hilly Driftless area (never covered by glaciers) that lay between the
Mississippi, Sugar, and Wisconsin rivers. In the next ten years the population grew rapidly,
and Wisconsin became a United States territory.
Lead drew Massachusetts-born Ebenezer Brigham to Wisconsin. In 1828 he established his
"diggings" near the two Blue Mounds, the highest natural features of the area's landscape.
Brigham is considered to be the first permanent settler in what later became Dane County.
Thirty-nine years old, unmarried and alone, Brigham came to stay. What made lead so valuable
to early settlers like Brigham? How did lead mining change life in Dane County?

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In addition to his 111iue, boardiug house,
nnd smelter (a place ·w!Jere ore is
processed), Brigha111 owned a trading post
at Blue Mouuds. This page ji-o111 his
accou11t book shows that he wrote do-wu
Winuelmgo (Ho-C/wnk) a11d Potawatonn
·words to help lzim couwwHicate with his
customers ·who did not speak English.

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BRIGHAM AT BLUE MOUNDS

When Briglwmmoved to Blue Mounds, the nearest settler was Henry Dodge at w/wt is
now Dodgeville, about twenty~four miles to the southwest. Twenty-jive miles east of Blue
Mounds, a Whmebago (Ho-Clumk) village stood betwew tlte First a11d Second lakes.

Early in the nineteenth century, manufacturers used lead
to make gunshot, roofing and gutters, pipes, weights, toys,
printers' type, and paint-things that a fast-growing country
like the United States needed. But the Ho-Chunk, Sauk, Fox,
and other Indian nations had mined lead for hundreds of
years, even before French explorers entered the region in the
1600s. One traveler to the area in 1832 remarked, "So plentiful
is lead here that I saw large quantities of it lying about the streets
in the towns belonging to the Saukies."
Most Indian miners were women who used stone or horn tools
to scoop up the lead that lay just beneath the surface. They
formed the lead into objects like beads, small turtle shapes, and
tobacco pipes for trade with other Indian nations as far away
as Alabama and Ontario. After Europeans arrived, the
Indian miners increased production for trade with the

newcomers. Contact with Europeans brought new tools such
as pickaxes and shovels. By the time permanent settlers arrived,
they found the area pockmarked with the diggings of Indian
miners, some of whom were still actively mining in the area.
The Ho-Chunk, Sauk, and other Indian nations allowed a few
non-Indian people to mine. But they did not realize that when
the United States government invited men to lease land for
mining claims, the arrival of many more new miners would
ultimately force the Indian people off their land. Years later,
Spoon Decorah, a Ho-Chunk elder, said that when white
settlers began to work the mines, they promised to supply the
Indians with lead, but they broke the promise. "We never saw
any of our lead again, except what we paid dearly for," he
complained, "and we never will have any given to us, unless
it be fired at us out of white men's guns, to kill us off."

BRIGHAM AT BLUE MOUNDS

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B

righam met with his Ho-Chunk
neighbors at Blue Mounds to set a
boundary between Ho-Chunk land and
his diggings. He told one of his friends
how members of the Ho-Chunk nation
had drawn a line from

the head of that branch of the Blue Mounds
creek ... to that branch of the Peckatonakie
... east of the Mounds, and down these
streams to the Wisconsin and Rock ...
The Indians blazed the trees along this line,
notifying the whites not to pass it.
Then Brigham went to work sinking a
mining shaft. Out of the first three
buckets of ore drawn up from the mine,
two were pure lead. Brigham had
chosen his diggings well. He built a
furnace nearby so he could process the
lead, and expanded his business
interests when he erected Blue Mounds'
first "public house" or boarding house,
known as "Brigham's Place."
Because the Blue Mounds, as someone
remarked, "served as a beacon to the
traveler thirty miles distant," the
settlement became a key stopping-place
on the road between the military forts
at Prairie du Chien and Portage.
The arrival of other miners and farmers
who settled in southern Wisconsin
followed those who were just passing
through the region. At that time the
Dane County area formed a central
location between the Lake Michigan
shore and the lead-mining district.
Land developer and future territorial
governor James Duane Doty dreamed
of a city in the Four Lakes region. +

Once miners found and processed all the easily taken
galena (the main ore contailling lead), tlzey hod to
build deep shafts to mine what could not be reached
from the swface.

12

Children in the ninetemth century Flayed
with lead toJf soldiers like these that once
belonged to~ family in Madison.

Building the Military f{oad:
Passage Tl1rough the Four Lakes Region
or hundreds of years, Indian people who lived between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi
River paddled their birchbark canoes along the many water routes in the area. Although
the Indians used overland trails, waterways provided an easier way to travel great
distances. French and British trappers and fur traders also preferred traveling by canoe.
When the fur trade ended and other non-Indian settlers began journeying to what is now
Wisconsin, everything changed. The Military Road helped that change take place. It passed
right through Dane County, making it easier for settlers to reach the Four Lakes area.
Why was it called the Military Road? Why was it so important to the future of the region?

Building the Military Road near Fort Howard at Green Bay proved difficult because of IIIOrs!Jes and wetlnuds.

14

THE MILITARY ROAD
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Zac!tnry Taylor, a future Uuited States
president, was iu clwrge of the construction
that began at Fort Crawford. His crew built
the section of the road that crossed Dane
County north of Fourt!t Lake.

Once the United States government controlled Wisconsin,
it sent soldiers to the forts at the old French fur-trading centers:
Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River and
Fort Howard at Green Bay. But government leaders soon
realized that the forts were too far apart both to protect new
settlement and keep settlers away from Indian territory. They
wanted to construct another fort midway between these two,
so in 1828 the army built Fort Winnebago at the portage
(French word meaning "to carry") where canoes must be
transported overland from the Fox River to reach the
Wisconsin River.
Now that the army had a chain of forts, new problems arose.
How could the military posts communicate with one another
during that part of the year when the rivers were frozen?
While water travel met the seasonal needs of the fur trade,
canoes could not easily handle the transporting of lead and
lumber, both of which were keys to creating new frontier
communities. James Duane Doty, a land developer in the area
at the time, proposed a solution to the United States
government: Build a road across the region to connect the forts.
Beginning in the spring of 1829, Doty made several trips on
horseback. He traveled from his home in Green Bay to Prairie
du Chien. His good friend Ebenezer Brigham of Blue Mounds

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Doty zuns an excellent mapmnkcr and drezu
tlzis map of one of lzis o!'eria11d routes from
Fort Howard to Fort Crawford. Tlzc road
detours away from the Wisconsin River in
the Four Lakes area.

had also traveled widely over southwestern Wisconsin.
They probably discussed the best route along the high ground
in that part of the region, which later became known as the
Military Ridge. By 1832 the government was measuring and
mapping, or surveying (sur.vay.ing), the area in order to build
the road. Much of that road followed Indian trails which
already existed.
The Black Hawk War temporarily interrupted progress. But
once former Indian lands were settled by newcomers, soldiers
turned to construction. In 1835 they began to build the road,
with crews starting at both ends and in the middle.

THE MILITARY ROAD

An early historian of Dane County claimed that the
Dane County portion of the road

followed the well-trodden Indian trail from Blue Mounds . ..
a crude affair ... constructed by cutting through timber land,
clearing a track about two rods [thirty-three feet] wide and
setting mile stakes.
Because the landscape changed along the route, the Military
Road did not look the same everywhere. When building in
marshes and other low-lying areas, the crew had to construct
a so-called corduroy road made by crossing timbers and
covering them with brush and earth. The road at such a point
was particularly rough. During seasons when the water levels
rose, a traveler would have been forced to try another route.
Once completed, the Military Road linked the Four Lakes area
to Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) and Fort Howard
(Green Bay). Because the road made it easier for settlers to
travel with their belongings to their new homes, it helped
open the interior of Wisconsin.
James Duane Doty's plans for a major new settlement
moved closer to reality. +

In 1831 Juliette Magill Kinzie sketched tl1is view of
Fort Winnelmgo (Portage) wllenller ilusband, Jolm,
served as Indian agwt there.

Ma-ka-tai-me-slte-kia-kaik,
or Black (Sparrow) Hawk

16
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VVar:
to Wisconsin Heights
he Black Hawk War lasted only a few months in the spring and summer of 1832. But those
months determined who, would afterwards occupy the land that became known as
Wisconsin. At the time, Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black (Sparrow) Hawk, was an aging
Sauk leader. What led him through the Four Lakes country to Wisconsin Heights, far north of
his home? What part did the area, later named Dane County, play in this brief and tragic war?
The treaty of 1804 between the Sauk nation and the United States government eventually led to
the Black Hawk War. The Sauk leaders who granted land to the government on both sides of the
Mississippi River did not understand that they were permanently giving up the lands of their
ancestors. The treaty allowed the Sauk people to farm the land until the government was ready to
sell it to individual settlers. These land sales, as it turned out, began only some twenty years later.
In 1828 the government warned the Sauk leaders that they would have to abandon their villages
east of the Mississippi River by spring. Most of the Sauk people agreed, but Black Hawk and his
followers refused. By 1832 Black Hawk's anger and frustration had grown so great that he tried
talking to leaders of other Indian nations to get their support should he have to fight the government.

Wilen Black Hawk traveled jro111 Snukenuk
to Bad Axe, he tWoided a route which would
take lii111 through the populated lead regiou.

18

TWO DESPERATE DAYS

bank of the Wisconsin River, they were exhausted. Some
Indians defended themselves against the troops on this high
ground across the river from present-day Sauk City. Others
helped the women and children down the river bank.

Colo11el Henry Dodge commanded
militiamen during the Black Hawk War.
In 1836 he was appointed the first governor
of Wisconsin Territory.

In Aprill832, Black Hawk and about 1,000 followers, mostly Sauk
and Fox, decided to cross to the east bank of the river near the
village of Saukenuk, where they were no longer welcome. Fearing
an attack, the settlers formed a volunteer militia (citizen army)
to defend themselves. When Black Hawk realized that his band
was greatly outnumbered, he sent several men with a flag of
peace. In the confusion, militiamen fired anyway, and Indians
fired back in self-defense.
Black Hawk knew he had to lead his people back across the
Mississippi. With the militia blocking the way, Black Hawk and
his followers instead headed north toward the Wisconsin River.
Troops pursued (chased). The Black Hawk War had begun.

B

lack Hawk tried to keep his followers safe, but traveling
with families was slow. To keep the troops from striking
the main group of his people, Black Hawk sent out small war
parties to scare and distract settlers. Those in the lead-mining
district were frightened. Some_. like Ebenezer Brigham at Blue
Mounds, built stockades to defend their small communities.
Meanwhile_. Black Hawk led the larger group of his followers
north through the marshes along the Rock River where they
could easily hide. Black Hawk expected more help from other
Indian groups, but even most of those who agreed with his
protest resisted fighting the government
About the time Black Hawk reached the Four Lakes district,
Colonel Henry Dodge and his militiamen had picked up his trail
and were close behind. Even with horses, Black Hawk and his
followers could not move as fast as the troops. On July 20, Black
Hawk's band set up camp on the western bank of Fourth Lake
near the present-day community of Pheasant Branch. Dodge's
men were about eight miles east, near the Catfish (Yahara) River
just northeast of Third Lake. By this time, some of Black Hawk's
people were almost too weak to go farther.

When Dodge's men arrived and began firing on the Indians,
most of the women and children were already safely across.
Black Hawk reported that the Sauk nation had lost six men,
while Dodge believed that his troops had killed many more.
Dodge's men then headed to the fort at Blue Mounds for supplies.
As Black Hawk's people continued west, some died from hunger
and weakness. In early August, the United States soldiers attacked
them at the mouth of the Bad Axe River. Once more the Indians'
flag of peace was ignored. Soldiers on the Mississippi River fired
cannons and rifles, killing even the women and children
attempting to swim across. Others never made it that far.
After Black Hawk was taken prisoner, he sadly remembered
his old home when "all this land had been ours." He bitterly
complained that "the whites were not satisfied until they
took our village and our grave-yards from us, and removed
us across the Mississippi."
Other Indian nations also were forced to leave the region as
lead and land rapidly attracted more settlers to the area +

Whm Black Hawk told /tis story, he described the situation that faced hi111 when he fought
Dodge's metz at Wisconsin Heights: "I was on the rise of a hill, where I wished to form llt!J
·warriors, that we might have some ndvnntngc over the "lVltites . "

The next day Black Hawk and his followers traveled about
fifteen miles northwest. When they reached the hills on the east

19

_i_

.l.

tl1e
:
Becomes a 1erritory

B

y the early 1830s, the presence of lead and the promise of inexpensive land attracted
settlers to Wisconsin from other parts of the United States and Europe. They had caught
"Wisconsin fever." This excitement helped to populate the region.

After Black Hawk's defeat in 1832, the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, and other Indian nations south
and east of the Wisconsin River were also forced to give up their lands. Through treaties, the
United States took over this property so the government could sell it to new settlers. How did
people buy the land? How did the newcomers help Wisconsin become a territory? How did
these changes affect the Four Lakes area?
Surveyors used special
cquip111cnt including
mensuri11g cltnins,
compasses, and marking
stakes to set off t!tc ltmd iuto
tm:onsllips six 111iles square.
T!tm tl1ey subdivided mel!
::;quare ill to thirty-six oneJnilc-square scctiOJlS.

BECOMING A TERRITORY

According to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a new area first
had to be recognized as a United States territory before it could
apply for statehood. For Wisconsin to become a territory,
at least 5,000 free male United States citizens had to live here.
Women, slaves, and members of Indian nations were not
counted. By April20, 1836, enough newcomers had arrived.
President Andrew Jackson appointed Henry Dodge territorial
governor. Citizens who were property owners then elected
a temporary government.

Soon after the original thirteen colonies became the United
States, national leaders believed that the new country would
grow and expand. The government created an orderly way to
establish new territories and states. It also decided how land
that once belonged to the Indian nations would be measured,
divided, and sold. The government hired surveyors
(sur.vay.ers) to explore, measure, and determine boundaries
and property lines.
The surveyors worked carefully to create a regular, rectangular
grid to mark off the land, no matter what the land actually
looked like. This system made it easy for people who wanted
to buy land-even if they were far away at the time. They
would know exactly where they could find the property
they were purchasing.

Since lead mining was drawing the greatest number of new
settlers into the territory, Dodge selected Belmont, in the heart
of the lead-mining district, as the temporary capital. That
decision pleased those who lived in the southwest, but angered
those who lived in the east-central part of the state and along
Lake Michigan. Green Bay residents, especially, were
displeased. One of them, land developer James Duane Doty,
worked hard to assure that the capital would not remain
so distant from Green Bay.
Doty had his eye on the Four Lakes area. He and other
investors formed the Four Lakes Company and bought
1,360 choice acres between the Third and Fourth lakes.
There he planned to see the capital city rise. +

S

urveyors began by measuring and establishing land
boundaries in the lead-mining district and then worked
their way northeast. By 1833 they were in the Four Lakes
region. They also filled notebooks with information and
descriptions that mapmakers could use. One surveyor described

a good township of land . ... Its waters abound with different kinds
offish ... geese and ducks ... The land is rolling and has
many artificial mounds.
Lead miners, farmers, and all kinds of people who wanted to
work in growing communities--carpenters, lawyers, land
developers, preachers, storekeepers-were ready to
move to the region. In just a few more years,
these people followed Ebenezer Brigham
into the Four Lakes area.

This 1835 map shows the square towns/zips
that surveyors measured and marked.
Wlzm Dane County was organized in 1839,
the area included all thirtyjivc townships
that exist todmt.

DL1ane Doty' s Capital i11. the Wilderness
uring any period in Wisconsin history, James Duane Doty would have been
an outstanding man. He had energy and talents, but his familiarity with southern
Wisconsin made him particularly well qualified to found and develop towns in the
early days of Wisconsin Territory.

The artist who drew this early map of the
isthmus included the City of the Four Lakes,
the "Seat ofGovemment ofWiscousiu,"
and the surrowutiug wetlands.

Doty' s abilities to convince others and his mapmaking skills helped in planning the route and
building the Military Road. He bought land in many places. Sometimes he sold the land and
made money; other times, he failed. But amazingly, he talked the territorial legislature into
agreeing to move the permanent capital to Madison-a city that did not yet exist! How did one
man manage to move a capital? How did Doty's actions affect the growth of future Dane County?

MADISON BECOMES THE CAPITAL

ln 1836 Doty mtd his surveyor /tastily
designed a town to be built around a public
square 011 the isthmus exactly where tlze
Wisconsin capitol now stmzds. He named the
town to honor James Madison, fourtlt
preside11t of the United States, wlto !tad died
earlier that year.

In 1836 when Henry Dodge was named governor of the new
territory, Doty was in the Four Lakes area. Much property had
already been taken, but he liked the isthmus, the narrow neck
of land between the Third and Fourth lakes. He had bought all
of the isthmus that he could for himself and his business partners.
Doty could envision a new capitol building on a high hill
overlooking the two lakes.
Governor Dodge thought that Belmont would make a good
temporary capital because of its location in the lead-mining
district, but it was a small town with very few buildings.
When the legislators arrived and found there were not enough
rooms in which to stay, almost all of them wanted to move
the permanent capital to another location.
Knowing that Wisconsin Territory would eventually become
a state, many settlements wanted to serve as the permanent
capital. Doty was there to argue for Madison. Several other
communities sent representatives to promote the advantages
of other locations. The legislators agreed that Belmont would
not do, but no other town received enough votes. After much
arguing, they finally chose Madison. While the capitol building
was being constructed, the legislature agreed to meet elsewhere.

No historian has found evidence for the buffalo robe story.
But we do know that Doty actually gave many of the lots he
had bought in Madison to various legislators, hoping that
owning land in the future capital would influence their votes.
And his plan worked.

S

hould legislators have allowed personal gain to affect the
way they voted? No. But arguments for moving the capital
to Madison made sense anyway. It was centrally located
between the growing communities along Lake Michigan and
the other population center in the lead-mining district.
The Four Lakes area had plenty of wood for new construction.
And the town now had plenty of landowners who wanted
to see the value of their property grow.
The fact that some of the new landowners were also government
officials helped the future of Madison and Dane County.
Now that they" owned land in Madison, they would not be
voting to move the capital elsewhere. They would want to see
the new capital city succeed and grow.
Doty's dream was about to come true.+

H

ow had Doty managed to convince the legislators to
move the permanent capital to a town that existed only
on paper, without any buildings at all? Not only had he
successfully convinced the legislators about the beauty of the
Four Lakes area, he did everything in his power to get them
to vote for Madison. Someone offered this explanation:

Doty supplied himself with afull stock of buffalo robes, and went around
camping with the members, and making them comfortable as he could,
until he organized a sufficient vote ... The winter was a cold, dreary one,
and Doty with his buffalo robes had been a real blessing.

James Duane Doty cleverly convinced tlte
territorial legislature that Madison would
make a11 ideal capital city.

23

's Paper Towns
n the new territory it seemed that everyone wanted to sell
or buy land. The legislators had land on their minds when
they were looking for the right location for a permanent
territorial capital. When they selected Madison, it existed
only on paper. What began as James Duane Doty's "paper
town" actually did become our capital city. But some towns
were not so lucky.
Speculators (spec-u.lay.ters) were men like Doty who bought
land during the territorial years. They gambled that the
locations they chose to sell to new settlers would all become
lively new communities. But their plans did not always work
out. Both speculators and settlers lost money when they
bought property in places that never existed anywhere beyond
the paper on which they were drawn. What were some of
Dane County's paper towns? Where were they?
After George Fcatherstonhaugh (Fan-shaw) retumed to England, he wrote a book about
his adventures. He explained that he had seen a "beautifully mgmved pla11" of each city
dnrwn "zoith all its squares, streets, iHstitutions aud temples," But lzefowut no sign of
these places beyu11d the paper.

In 1837 an Englishman named George William Featherstonhaugh
(Fan-shaw) traveled around Wisconsin by wagon through the
lead-mining region. He looked forward to visiting "the seven
large cities" he had only seen on maps of the Four Lakes area.
The maps showed City of the Four Lakes and City of the First
Lake. Other maps showed Madison City and North, South,
East, and West Madison. Was Featherstonhaugh joking when
he said he expected that each would contain "a population of
half a million people"? He found Madison, but it was hardly
a village at the time. The others were only paper towns.
At the outlet of Lake Waubesa, speculators promoted
a paper town for its superior soil and central location where
a railroad would soon pass. Like several other paper towns
in the area-Superior City, Troy, Dunkirk Falls, Manchester,
and Middletown-the City of the Second Lake never became
more than a map on paper. But the village of McFarland,
with real dirt roads and real stores, eventually included
some of its proposed area. +

-~

.~"§.

~
'""»

·'\.

(-(
~

JJJJJP

:::~"->- ol!he / ~
...-----.. -. r 2---...
--...._·. ·

0Llflt)l tji(: t~t' •·
"""~-

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'

Madison Grows from Paper Town to Territorial

I

n 1828 Ebenezer Brigham followed an Indian trail that ran between the Third and Fourth
lakes, and he camped on open prairie where the capitol building now stands. Nine years
later, only the Peck family and several fur-trading French and Indian families were living
in the Madison area. The following year the territorial legislators met in the first capitol
constructed in Madison and the city began to grow. Who worked on the capitol building?
What was it like when the legislators met there for the first time?
In1837 wizen George Featherstonhaugh
arrived in Madison, the only buildings he
saw were the Peck family's log cabins.
He was disappointed not to find a
comfortable hotel with a finefeather bed!
Dtis scene was painted many years later,
based on early descriptions by settlers.

...- ..- ..- ..-.-.__ ,.-_,

,-,v·~v<,·;~_,..'·-~-

BUILDING THE CAPITOL

trip from Milwaukee took them ten days, and it had rained
most of the time. On the ninth day when they were ten miles
northeast of Madison, the sun finally shone. They were so
relieved that they called that particular spot Sun Prairie,
a name they carved on a nearby oak tree to mark the event.
As they got closer to Four Lakes, they could see smoke rising
from the Indian settlements on the shores of what seemed
to be "lakes of liquid silver." Madison began to buzz with
building activity.

When the territorial legislators met in

Madison for tlzejirst time m Novt111bcr
1838, thcttllecdcd SO/llewhere to stny. Of the
twelve roo111s available, the American House
ofti!red eight rooms and a11attic.

James Duane Doty's men staked off more lots near the capitol
square in February 1837. In April Rosaline and Eben Peck and
their ten-year-old son, Victor, moved to Madison from Blue
Mounds where they had worked for Ebenezer Brigham. The
twenty-five-mile trip took two days, and as they camped the
last night they found themselves in a "tremendous storm of
snow and sleet." The Pecks' new log home was actually two
small, recently built cabins side by side. The French and Indian
builders did not have time to finish them before the Pecks arrived.
The Pecks intended to use their home as a "public house" or
boarding house for the men coming to construct the capitol
building. Eben Peck prepared by going to Mineral Point for
supplies. For $100 he bought the essential foods then
available: barrels of flour, salt pork, sugar, dried fruit, coffee,
and tea. Rosaline Peck added sacks of potatoes, butter, and her
own jars of pickles, cranberries, and plums.

Construction on the capitol building wasn't complete when
the legislators arrived, so they met in the basement of the
American House. When they moved into the still-unfinished
capitol, they found that the floor had shrunk so badly near the
fireplace that people could fit their hands between the boards.
One legislator recalled that the December weather was so cold
that "the walls of the room were iced over," and "our
ink would freeze."
To improve the situation, the legislators decided to postpone
meeting for three weeks. When they returned, they found that
the builder's pigs had moved into the unfinished basement
right under their meeting room. As the legislators conducted
their business, they could hear the pigs running and squealing
beneath them.
People blamed James Duane Doty for many of their problems. +

Scarcely had the Pecks settled when the first fifteen workmen
arrived from Milwaukee. They had worked to widen a former
Indian trail to Madison because no road between the two
communities existed.
Rosaline Peck spread tables outside their new home to feed
the men. Then the Pecks bought marsh hay from some French
and Indian families on the other side of Fourth Lake to fill
bed-ticks (mattresses) for the men. The men helped to finish
the house. They added a section between the two cabins
where they could sleep. According to Rosaline Peck,
"in a week's time they had it completed and moved in."

I
26

n June more workers, mechanics, and another pioneer
family moved to Madison. Their nearly one-hundred-mile

A visitor to Madison ill 1841 elite red tlze capitol
buildillg alld folllld it slillllmter constructio11,
"full of chips, shavi11gs, 1111d 111ortar."

Sharing Dane County with the Animals
fter the new capitol was built, many more settlers
moved to Dane County. No matter where people built
their homes, they had to share space with wild
animals and annoying mosquitoes. These creatures mostly had
had the Four Lakes area to themselves before so many human
newcomers arrived. What was it like in Dane Cmmty when wild
animals still outnumbered people? What were some of the
colorful stories that remain part of our county's history?
Even with more people arriving every day, Dane County still
had only a handful of small, new settlements. Oak openings,
surrounding prairies, and marshes served as safe habitats for
wild creatures. Deer, muskrat, mink, and beaver enjoyed the
streams, and passenger pigeons filled the air. An early Madison
settler remembered that "on all sides forest and prairie swept
down in lines and patches" to the shores of the lake. He often
shot prairie chickens and quail right on the capitol square.
When he talked about the settlement of Koshkonong Prairie,
Norwegian pioneer Knut Roe reported:

Many pioneers were afraid of the wolves. An early historian
wrote that people camping in the county "had to keep log fires
burning all night to keep the wolves away." People living in
one of the Irish settlements in the town of Fitchburg spotted an
occasional panther in the area.
And according to local legend, early resident Matilda Keenan
managed a terrifying escape from a black bear. One afternoon
while walking home, carrying her infant, Mrs. Keenan came
face-to-face with a full-grown bear. She distracted it by throwing the baby's cap and cloak toward it. While the bear sniffed
the clothing, she ran safely home with the baby in her arms.
Mosquitoes rarely threatened anyone's life, but no one liked
their general peskiness. Simeon Mills, Madison's first storekeeper,
reported that the mosquitoes annoyed him so much that
"rest by day and sleep by night were quite out of the question."
Some summer evenings, even today, we would probably agree.+

Almost daily I saw herds of deer, and flocks of prairie chickens,
and I was often awakened at night by the howling of the wolf

C ~-· t..fL.-<___a_
.F?' ,

'{/iv~-tc ,.j ;;.t'">-1 j...f}IJ';

The large blnclc limber wolves and tlzeir smaller gray co11sins, coyotes (also known as prairie wolves), lived 011 the prairie and
sometimes attacked settlers' animals. Especially i111ngry in the winter, wolz•es' nighttime barking "could sometimes be heard.
creating httmse excitement among tlte dogs; whose howling would add lltcir dismal melody."

Making Dane County Home
he 1840s brought many new settlers to Wisconsin, enough so that Wisconsin could
achieve statehood in 1848. Whether recent European arrivals to the United States
or Northeasterners resettling on more fertile Wisconsin soil, most traveled on steamboats
across the Great Lakes to Milwaukee. Then they piled their household goods and baggage
into wagons for transport to Dane County. Some, like Knut Roe, walked from Milwaukee
all the way to Koshkonong Prairie, southeast of Madison. That's when the real work
of pioneering began.
What were some of the supplies pioneers carried with them?
How did they build their homes and settle in?

Some Norwegians packed colorfitl storage
tnmks ji>r the lo11g trip to Dmze County.
Tlze hand-painted detail known as
rosemaling (mse•malll·ling) or
rosepailltiug, is a Scandallavian art form.

28

Comrnunity Founder Luke Stoughton

P

ioneers who moved to rural Dane County to farm intended to be fairly self-sufficient
(suf.fish.ent), which means that they expected to supply most of their needs through the
crops they raised, the game they hunted, and the fish they caught. Even though they knew
they had to be independent, farmers needed a few basic supplies and services, and they relied
on nearby communities to provide these. How did communities get started? Who settled in
them? What did communities do for those who lived in the surrounding countryside?

Luke Stouglltoll was so pleased with his own
po1·trait lpai11fL'd picture) that he had all

artistpai11t i11dividual portraits of his wife
and daughters. Not lllally families iu the
1840s conld afford this kind of expense.

30

THESTOUGHTONSOFSTOUGHTON

Like many other New Englanders, Luke Stoughton heard that
southern Wisconsin had land more fertile and less rocky than his
region. He traveled to Wisconsin in 1837 to see if the rumors were
correct. He liked what he saw and bought a farm north of
Janesville. Then Stoughton returned to Vermont to get his wife,
Eliza, and their baby, Luella. But the isolation of farm life made
Eliza Page Stoughton unhappy. After two years, the family
moved into town where Luke Stoughton became a merchant
(storekeeper). He was a much better merchant than farmer.
Eliza Stoughton missed her family. She convinced all but one
of her many brothers and sisters to move to Wisconsin with
their families. Before her brother, Benjamin Parker Page,
came, he received a letter telling him to bring useful equipment
like "two goose neck hoes" and "40 pounds of Northern
Red Clover seed" safely bagged and packed.

Eliza Page Stouglttmz

Luke Stoughton also bought and sold real estate. While
looking for land to sell, he found what he considered a perfect
location for a town. He chose a wide bend of the Catfish
(Yahara) River, just about halfway between Janesville and
Madison. Hard-working Norwegian and Yankee wheat and
grain farmers had already settled nearby. Knut Roe was part
of the Norwegian community along Koshkonong Creek.

Like many other Easterners who JJl(n>ed to
Wiscousi11, the Stoughton family traveled
across tl1e Great Lakes to their 11cw home.
What a trip tftett had across Lake Erie!
A violeut storm put the slzip in such dauger
that some of the freight had to be t/mmm
overboard. Some of tlte Stoughton family's
household equipment and fumilure were
among those items tossed. But the Stouglitous
and lite ol/tcr passmgers made it safely.
Lue//a Eliza, age 10

31

THESTOUGHTONSOFSTOUGHTON

This bonnet is similar to the one Huldalt
Delette was holding when she had her
portrait painted.

Luke Stoughton realized that new settlers needed a general
store where they could buy supplies. Pioneers would require a
sawmill to plane (smooth) lumber for building. They would
need a grist mill to grind the wheat they raised so that they
could bake bread. Settlers would also need a blacksmith, and
travelers would want a tavern and inn. The Catfish River could
provide the power for the mills that Stoughton planned to open.
Hulda II Dclcttc, age 8

Just like Brigham and Doty, Luke Stoughton had positive
feelings about the future of Dane County and about the village
he wanted to build. In 1847 he bought enough land there to
begin to put together the community of his dreams. The next
year the Stoughton family moved to the area he selected
at the bend of the Catfish River.
True to his vision, Luke Stoughton established the things he
believed would make the new village prosper. He had a dam
built to provide plenty of water power to operate the mills
that he constructed. He spread the word that Stoughton Mills
(as people called the village until1868} made a perfect location
for those looking for good land and a growing community.
When enough settlers arrived, Luke Stoughton opened a general
store, so that those in the area would not have to go so far to
buy the things they needed. As the village of Stoughton Mills
grew, Luke Stoughton's businesses thrived, and he built his
family a large brick home on sloping land above the mill pond
overlooking the dam on the Catfish River. From there he could
enjoy the view of the busy life of the community he had founded.
Today the community is known simply as Stoughton.

+

The Stoughton girls could have played with
a doll/ike this one that dates from the 1840s.

Sam II Ellen, age 6

Building a Community
ust as Eliza Page Stoughton's family followed her to
southern Wisconsin, other families joined relatives and
friends who had pioneered earlier. Those who carne
expected to work hard to build a better life for themselves and
their children. That belief brought them to Dane County and is
the reason why the county continued to thrive and grow.

But teachers' salaries varied from community to community.
In Black Earth, a teacher could earn slightly more. The first
teacher in that community earned $1.75 a week and could
choose where she wanted to live. The first teacher in Madison
made $2.00 a week teaching fifteen children who sat on
oak-slab benches with the bark still on.

But stores and a mill alone did not build communities like
Stoughton. People needed places where they could meet,
worship, educate their children, and bury their dead. The early
settlers were proud of the first schoolhouse and the first
community church. What kind of schools, churches, and
gatherings pulled communities together?

In Gorstville near Cross Plains, the English settlers took turns
holding religious services in their log homes. They didn't wait
for a church to be built. In Black Earth, settlers were pleased
when the Methodist Episcopal Church sent a preacher out to
their community on a circuit (sir.kit), which means that Black
Earth was only one of the communities he rode out to serve.

The first schoolhouse was really a one-room log cabin, like the
one Primrose pioneers built in a ravine (ruh.veen, a steep,
washed-out area). They also built all of the furniture, splitting
logs to form desks and straight-backed chairs. The first
Primrose teacher earned $1.25 a month-the same amount of
money settlers paid the government for an acre of farmland.

A Norwegian preacher founded the West Koshkonong Church,
the first official Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United
States. He agreed to travel regularly to farm families
in distant parts of the county. +
The West Koshko11<mg Lutheran Clwrch (below) was built in 1852
KoshkollLmg Prairie and stood unti/1893. The double photograph
was meant to be viewed through a lwml-hcld stereoscope (stare•e•o•skope).

011

Wisconsin Becom.es the 30th State in 1

Wlit@con~in .~tgu~.

-

li'[ADISON, MAY 3~, 1848.

TENNEY, SMITH,-& HOLT.

--,..--

.----

. .
VOLUME 4, NO. 41.

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··;

....

--.~--:.·

isconsin Territory was bringing
large numbers of farmers and
community builders into Dane
.T \V:~ !Eli;l'Jtf¥~lliD:~~~ ·~l} 0
County. In 1839, just before the county was
organized, 172 people lived here. But the
"',
---real growth came afterwards. By 1846, Dane
,
· Enh: & •.:t.hc:;.H 'TEL•' OFFICio:,~
DETToiT, .1\tay ;l;)-th A.M.
5
County was home to 8,289 people. Henry
Jhr.TIMORE, Mnv ~3-2 P. M.-The
Dodge and James Duane Doty were ready
··~·Democratic Nnti~nal Cunvt:'ntion has
to see Wisconsin become a state. But
organized. and the .'W"·l.hird .rule wa~.
statehood didn't happen overnight.
adtlpt;;d bv a vote of 176 to 78. Diffie :ltlc> h··t.wf'en the two SPt" of delegates
from N <'W York w.us referrPd to a com·
In the spring of 1846, Wisconsin citizens
mit.te€'. It ls said the Utira dPiegates
voted that they were interested in applying
will he t·xclu···l·e·l'i··· ··b·.·y the. cun!milt<'!',. but
for statehood. Next they held a convention
the ques: ion has ,n •t YPI been dectdl:'d
! upon by.rhe G•mvention
·
and wrote a constitution. Many people in
1
Mar :.!4 -TilP ConvPnfion mel rt!!ri;
the territory were unhappy with one part
. thi<~ l~renoon, an<l.u.iter some pr.•lirnmof the constitution or another, and they
ary bu:,:inf.~s. lhe 'f!on: •I). S. ptc~INs •N,
.in behalf. of •tfi~ SV!'tt<"t.is~ . de!egtuion,
voted against it.
made· u' spee.cli; >~~.f., f>:ick!nsori spoke
hi~ hou~ •• nnd ~~as,dolto.'!.t>d by Mr.
A new constitution was written at a second
Sr.trm,,()t' Wayn<-/?~lHitt, ·N<
wbo 1
convention which met two years later. This
!:poke in•fiiV:ol'of.dle UHc•l delegation;
He made ~p()werful sp~ecb, occupying
time, people voted for it. Statehood was on
his hour •. ,·...
. ···
·
its way, and the people of Wisconsin began
.•. . ·. . . • , <·3 o'cu)cx, p, rtt.
to create their government. An article in
':a.Tr.Cn~s'll;hr.. has jnst·. rom:neMed
Madison's Wisconsi11. Argus newspaper titled a apl!'eeh itl favor of thP Svrlh·u:;e rlel~­
grttio:l., · A-beiit>r fet>Hng fn favor of the
"Thunder from Dane!" announced that
Ebenezer Brigham was one of those elected U:ica, deh•gathn sin~e ·the spPerh of
Mr. Smith. The VOle on the qn('Stion
to the state Assembly in early May 1848.
·of the New. York delt•gati.m will be
1 iaket1 b·mgli't,
Now the United States Congress had to
.
'\V ASIJINGTON, 1\Iny l9.
approve statehood for Wisconsin. The
Mr. BR~Gll1'. of indiana, mdvNI to
take nptheh,ll f()r.th!>ndmis~ion of Wis
House passed the bill on May 11, and
cons
in as. ·n· Sta. ·e ·.into th•~ U uion, wh id1
the Senate approved it on May 19. But it
was ngre(·d to. The bill was then after
wasn't until May 29, 1848, that President
a. brief con-ideration, read the 2d a!'ld
3d time, nnd passed.
James K. Polk finally signed the bill. The
l'IEw YonK, l\:Tav 24-9 P. l\1.
people of Dane County did not take time
The S'teamPr tuolr $Sl,(IOO in ·specie,
out to celebrate, but they were proud that
anti 70 pa>~sengers.
Wisconsin became the 30th state. +

PTEH.

wrseaHsm1in1WnrtED.
,'

-'

I.

l

'Y•·

deli'Ji.lf•r:ttic m"joo·ity nf
::Mill.< lti:uls. A olch 35.
1\hf':\<l of
!ll'nCf,
demncrtuio majority

"T

ofl

York.- A vernge. democrttt\c majority of I7
llfcd,ina.-A \'crage uemoerntio moJori~y <>f
22!
I
Sua l'raide -Aver:tgc whi!E majnritr 20.
i Dane -A \'('fOj!'O .democratic majority l I.-

I !\fills h•arls Wl'kh

18.

I
I

.

\\• e had

1\ SPVPf('

Ma.y 25.
hl.nv nilrl hail storm

DEi'RorT,

35

and Taverns

I

n the 1830s, the Military Road provided cross-country travelers and settlers with an overland
route from Green Bay via the Four Lakes country to Prairie du Chien. But with all the new
settlers moving into southern Wisconsin, other roads had to be built. Some of these, like the
Military Road, followed old Indian paths; some were new. All were rough and challenging to
those who traveled them, especially during bad weather.

During Wisconsin's territorial and early statehood periods, the Military Road was traveled
most heavily in the areas where most of the people lived-between Green Bay and Fond duLac
and between Madison and the Mississippi River. But as the population in southern Wisconsin
increased, new routes opened to transport goods and people. What were some of the main
routes between communities? How did people travel? At what kinds of places did they stop
along the way?

Oxen-driven prairie schooners like
this one brought travelers and pioneers
to settlements in early Dane County.

36

In the days before railroads, wagons pulled by teams of oxen and driven by men known
as teamsters hauled freight. Teamsters traveled in groups, and their large wagons with
four to six oxen were known as prairie schooners (sku-ners, or large "boats"). People claimed
that they could hear the teamsters crack their whips a mile away.

TEAMSTERS AND TAVERNS

Teamsters sometimes hauled lead from the area around
Mineral Point to Galena, Illinois, to be shipped down the
Mississippi River. They also transported lead from Mineral
Point to Milwaukee where it could be shipped on Lake Michigan.
This route put Dane County at the center between the
lead-mining region and the lake.
In the open countryside, teamsters camped out, cooked their
meals over open fires, and slept in or under their wagons.
They looked for shade trees for campsites. One of their favorite
places was a large oak tree just west of Sun Prairie, known
as the "Traveler's Home." Sometimes ten or more prairie
schooners camped there at a time.

P

rairie schooners were the kings of the road until
stagecoaches came along. In 1838 stagecoach service
opened between Mineral Point and Madison. Blue Mounds
served as the halfway point where passengers and horses
could find something to eat at Ebenezer Brigham's inn.
Three years later a stagecoach ran three times a week east and
west from Madison. In the winter, it ran on runners. In every
season, the west stage stopped at Berry Haney's tavern, the
Haney Stand, at Cross Plains. Haney constructed his first
tavern of logs in 1836, but five years later he built one of stone,
about a mile from town. Its fireplaces held blazing fires to
warm cold and weary travelers. In 1841 Amos Beecher built the
Cottage Grove House, a hotel and tavern at Cottage Grove,
to serve the east stage.
Goods were shipped north from Chicago by way of Janesville.
What we know today as Fish Hatchery Road was once part
of the stage route between Janesville and Madison. In 1841
William Quivey's hotel in Fitchburg was a stopping place for
stagecoaches, teamsters hauling lead, and for other travelers
on their way to or from Janesville.

T

averns and inns were like community centers in frontier
Wisconsin. As did many other crossroads taverns,
Quivey' s hotel also served as a polling place for elections
in Fitchburg and seven other Dane County townships south
of Madison: Dunn, Rutland, Oregon, Montrose, Verona,
Springdale, and Primrose.
In the early days, mail was the main means of communication
between communities. Post offices were extremely important
to frontier families. Since travelers needed stopping places
to eat and rest, taverns were frequently the first large buildings
in a village. Like Quivey's hotel, they often doubled as

ISCII
~~ ~~~ ~~~~~0
~
Leaves the General Stage Office, No. 13, \Visconsin strcl.:l
for GalenR, via Prairieville, Delafield, Summit, Concord, Az~
tnlan, Lake 1\fi!Is, Cottage Grove, .Madison, DodgeYillc, Mino
eral Point, nnd Platteville to Gnlenn.
With n branch running from \Vatertown, Beaver D:;m,
Fox Lake, Fond du Lac, to Green Bay.
Leaves the same office for Galena, "ria New Dcrlln, i\Iukwanago, East Troy, Troy, Johnstown, Jan~sville, Monroe 1
\Viotn, Shullsburgh, and 'Vhite Oak Springs to Gnlena.
With n brunch running from Janesville, via Union to l\IaJ.·
ison, in due connection with the Galena line.
Also, a branch running from Janesville via Detroit, Roscoe,
and Rockford to Dixon ; connecting with the Chicago, and
Galena Lines, at Rockford and Dixon.
Leaves Racine every 1\fonday, Wednesday nnd Friday~ for
Jnnesville ; Also, leaves Southport for l\ladison and Galena
same days.
Leaves the same office for Chicago, via Oak Creek, Ra.
cine, Southport, Little Fort nnd Wheeling, to Chicago-con·
necting nt Chicago, with the St. Louis and Michigan Stnges.
Leaves the same office for Sheboygan, via Mequon, Hamburg:

Saukville, Port Washington, and Sheboygan Falls to Sheboy.
gan.
JOHN FRINK & Co. Proprietors.
Milwaukee, 1848.

post offices. Berry Haney of Cross Plains and Amos Beecher
of Cottage Grove were two tavern keepers who also served
as postmasters.
At the end of the nineteenth century, an old settler told a
Primrose historian that "wherever a spring was found,
there a cabin was built and the location of the cabins
determined largely the first road." Fitchburg and Cross Plains
developed differently. In Fitchburg pioneers settled from west
to east along roads already built. Cross Plains grew up around
Haney's Stand at the junction (meeting place) of the
Military Road and the road west from Madison.
In 1846 just over 600 people lived in Madison, and most of the
area was still covered by brush and forest. Only two roads led
west out of town: one was a lead-hauling trail that ran southwest
toward Green County, and the other continued west where it
branched south toward Blue Mounds or northeast toward Fort
Winnebago. The tavern at Token Creek was the "watering hole"
where stagecoaches stopped on their way to the fort.
If we could listen to some conversations at those early Dane
County taverns, we could find out all about what it was like to
live in frontier Wisconsin. +
37

Building with Brick an.d Stone
ettlers in Dane County arrived from different parts of the United States and from
European countries, such as Germany, Norway, England, Ireland, and France.
Along with the tools and household supplies they carried by steamboat or wagon,
they also brought along family traditions. These included special ways of doing everyday tasks,
such as farming, cooking, and building.

Onun Bjorn Dahle left Norway and
settled in the town of Perry where he
opened a store to sell "all kinds of
everything." In l1is honor, the village that

greu> up around his store became known
as Daleyville (all Americanized version of
Dahle). Dahle built his fine stone home i11
1864 and is standing 011 the right in front
of the fwce with his soil, Herman.

38

We've learned that many families began their lives in Wisconsin in log cabins or other kinds
of more temporary houses that could be built quickly After Wisconsin became a state,
people felt more confident about the future and built permanent homes and buildings
as soon as they could afford to do so.
We can find clues to Dane County's history by looking at some of the buildings still standing
in the countryside and in various communities today. Why do certain structures still remain?
What were some of the materials that people used to construct their homes, businesses,
and public buildings?

BRICK AND STONE

STONE! STONE!

-

WE HAVE FITTED UP, at the Steam Mill on Morris etreet,

FOUR GANGS OF SAWS,
to

I&W

Stone, and have opened, and are working, one of the

BEST QUARRIES
in ~he neighborhood, furnishing Stone of superior qnality and
beautiful color. Having engaged skillful and experleneed workmen, we are prepared to execute ordors for Building Stone, of
every destription, with GREAT DISPATCH and at Low Paxcu. We
W!Oild keeping COnli~antJy On hand for snJe,

Caps, Sills, Water Tables, &c.
and furnish to order, at short notice, MOULDINGS, CORNICES,
ORNAMENTAL WORK, STEPS, POSTS, or Stoll8 dreued ia
any rensonable shape or form.

Built in 1851, North Hall (top ,far right) is the oldest building on tlze University of
Wisconsin campus. Madison plzotogrnpher John S. Fuller took this early l'lwtograph te11
years later. You Ctm read tl1e historical marker on the wall of Nortl1 Hall the
next time you climb Bascom Hill (then k1wwn as College Hill).

ROlJGD STONE
for Cellar Walls, Underpinning, or Well•, will" be sold at tho
Quarry, or delivered in Town, very low for C.UB.
Contractors, Builder;;, and all in was& of Stone, will find it for
their interest to gitre us a call.
Oruers from abroad will meet with prompt attention.
Thin Slabs, for .Floering, can be had low.

E. D. ILSLEY & CO.
Madison, April, 1865.

When the settlers chose to construct their buildings of stone
and brick, they chose materials strong enough to last for many,
many years. That's why we see more early buildings of these
materials today. Many of the early wooden structures
deteriorated (di.teer.ee.or.a.ted, fell apart) too rapidly
to stand more than a century.
People chose materials that the land provided. Early Wisconsin
builders found limestone and sandstone readily available. The
sandstone blocks range from a white or ivory to a tan or brown
color. Early stone quarries (kwor.rees, open pits where stone is
removed) in Dane County include Stephen's Quarry, now the
site of Hoyt Park in Madison.
Just as the color of stone used in building gives us an idea
about the location where that stone may have been quarried,
the color of bricks from various parts of Wisconsin point to
local clays used in making them. You can see all the creamy
yellow brick and golden sandstone buildings against the
summer green fields throughout Dane County, but especially
in the rocky, hilly northwest area around Roxbury where many
Germans settled. Their skills as stonemasons came in handy.

About halfway between the state capitol and the university campus in Madison, the large,
stone Lawrence house lws a square tower that calls attmtion to one comer. It was built by
architects San wei H1mter Donne/ and August Kutzbock just before ti!C!f designed the new
capitol building in 1857.

By the spring of 1855, so much building was going on that a
Madison newspaper claimed:

Never before was the building mania [may.nee.a, madness]
more apparent than now ... You pass an untouched, vacant lot
in the morning, and at night you find it strewed over with building
materials ... It seems that everybody is coming to Madison,
and everybody who does, must build.
Some of those early buildings are still standing today,
though they look different with additional buildings,
wider streets, and more recent landscaping around them.

+
39

a Bigger apitol
he first capitol building, with pigs squealing in the basement, proved too small.
After 1848 the number of departments within the capitol grew to carry out the
responsibilities of statehood. More people were moving to Wisconsin, and they were
sending more representatives to Madison. The building became even more crowded.
At first many legislators worked in rented rooms of other buildings. Finally, in 1857, Governor
Coles Bashford threatened to move to another community unless the capitol could be enlarged
and improved - the building even lacked fireproof areas in which to store official state papers.

Early Madison jitruiturc Jlfaker Darwin
Clark 111ndc tl11s desk i11 1846 for the

The small town of Madison did not want to lose the capitol, so its leaders and legislators got
busy making sure the renovation (ren-o.vay.shun, rebuilding) took place. People in Dane
County and the rest of Wisconsin supported the project, and the governor and the secretary of
state took charge. Who designed the renovation? How did the new building look?
Is this the same building we see today?

Assc!llbly in the territorial legislature.

in tl1is 1852 drawing yo11 can see the old capitol building (center) and the "'new"' sto11e Dane County Courthouse in the fnr distance,

40

A BIGGER CAPITOL

No architect had been hired to design the first capitol in
Madison. But now that Wisconsin had become a state, it
needed a more impressive building. When Governor Bashford
took charge, he organized a contest to select the best design for
a new capitol. Luckily, two trained architects, August Kutzbock
and Samuel Hunter Donnel, had moved to Madison and
formed the county's first architectural firm. They had met in
Madison and had already designed other buildings around the
town, including the impressive octagon-shaped Farwell mansion.
On May 4, 1857, the Madison Daily State Journal claimed that
Kutzbock and Donnel had won the contest, since their plan
"contained eight new fireproof offices" and came closest to
"nearly answering the requirements of the State in point of
size, convenience and economy." They had the experience
necessary to design a major building and stay within a tight
budget. Governor Bashford hired them, and construction
began two months later.

Kutzbock and Donne/ created this handso111c design for tile new capitol.

By 1859 the east wing awaited the legislators. The rest of the
renovation took another ten years. The Civil War-taking
both Wisconsin men and money-interrupted the progress.
People wished that the building materials could equal the
beauty of the Kutzbock and Donnel design. But the architects
had a limited amount of state funds to spend. The new stone
capitol had marble columns and a domed rotunda (ro.tun.da,
circular space with high ceiling). No more pigs could squeal in
the new enclosed basement. In addition to housing state
government offices, the new building held a post office,
the historical society and its collections, and the agricultural
society with exhibits and advice on farm-related issues.
The new capitol worked well in a state that was growing
rapidly. People all over the state could be proud of it.
One early history of the county mentioned, "Few persons
visit Madison without mounting the wide iron stairs that
lead from the upper floor to the second."
Wisconsin's population continued to grow and government
services expanded. This second capitol building would not
be the last. +

Samuel Hunter Donne/, pictured in Ids stovepipe lwt, was born in Pennsylvania
and became an arcltilect in Ohio. Before coming to Madison, lte worked as a
111ercltant and supervised tile construction of mil road depots.

41

our1ty Before Dairy Cows
lack and white Holstein cows and fields of corn can now be found throughout
Dane County. Although frontier farm families often kept a cow for milk, the early rural
settlers did not raise corn or establish dairy farms.

Chinch bugs are actually many times
smaller than this drawing shows.
These hungry insects destroyed local
wheat crops in the en.-Jy 1860s.

A wheat jar111er with an older lzand cradle

and nezuer equipment that /11ade harvesting
somewhat easier.

The fertile, rolling hills of Dane County attracted large numbers of Norwegians, Germans,
and Northeasterners, pioneers from other parts of the United States, and from countries such
as Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, and France. Their earlier experiences shaped the choices they
made when selecting land on which to settle and crops to introduce.
What were some of these choices? How did these choices affect later developments
in Dane County's agriculture?

BEFORE DAIRY COWS

A

n early historian described Dane County as a place where
the woods and the prairie were locked in a "constant
struggle" in a region favorable to both. Since the weather and
soil allowed woods and prairie to thrive in the same general
area, pioneers tended to settle where they could take
advantage of both. Fortunately, in the hilly areas, springs and
streams were numerous.
Settlers from Germany and Norway were accustomed to
farming hilly plots of ground close to woods in their
homelands, and they tended to choose the same kind of land
in Dane County. Typically, German settlements such as
Roxbury and the town of Dane were located closest to woods.
Norwegians generally preferred oak openings to heavily
wooded spots. Many settled on land immediately adjacent
(ad. jay-sent, next to) to the prairies. Historical records show
that the first three Norwegians in the county settled on the
oak land in the northeast corner of the town of Albion.
Settlers from "back East" in the United States, especially those
from Ohio, were more accustomed to open fields, and
communities like Wheeler Prairie and Stoner Prairie carry the
names of some of these early Ohio families. Dane Prairie in the
northern part of the county is the largest section of prairie in
the county, and the Ohio settlement was on its western edge.

A

gricultural pioneers needed to make the land productive
to feed their families. Prairie sod (grass and soil) was
tough. Digging a well was one of the most important and most
difficult of tasks. Some pioneers hesitated to settle on prairie
land because they knew how hard it would be to get a good
and constant supply of water.
In the 1840s the settlers had only the simple hand farm
implements (im.pluh.ments, machinery) they had brought
with them. The first settler in the town of Vermont had only
a hoe and a spade when he began farming. The process
was not easy.
The first farmers concentrated on raising wheat because they
believed it would grow well in Dane County and because they
could sell it to others. They thought Wisconsin was too far
north to support a good crop of corn and, in the days before
railroads, that corn would be too bulky to transport to distant
markets like Milwaukee or Chicago.
To help them "break" the land, pioneer farmers now used the
same teams of oxen that had hauled them and their belongings

to Dane County. This "breaking team," a plow, a harrow
(a heavy frame with teeth for breaking up or leveling off
plowed ground), and some seed wheat to get started were
all that the farmer required to plant wheat
Farmers welcomed the inventions of the mid-nineteenth
century that made their lives easier. By 1860 Isaac DeForest
was able to harvest 25,000 bushels on his 2,200 acres using
eight reaping machines and sixty men.
In 1864 and the two years following, chinch bugs devoured
(de.vow.erd, ate up) the entire wheat crop. By the end of the
1860s, crop failures and falling prices convinced farmers to try
other crops and such agricultural enterprises as dairying.

B

ut wheat was never the only crop produced for the market.
On a much smaller scale, Dane County farms produced
oats, rye, and flax. Settlers from Vermont and Ohio raised
sheep in the northeastern and northwestern parts of Dane
County, and farmers from Ohio also introduced tobacco in their
communities of Albion Prairie and Wheeler Prairie. From these
settlers, tobacco cultivation spread, and Norwegian farmers in
other parts of the county began growing the crop.
There were no fruit trees in territorial Dane County. An early
Madison resident, J. C. Plumb, claimed that he introduced
fruit trees to the county in 1845 when he peddled them from
a wagon. Dr. Joseph Hobbins, one of the founders of the
Madison Horticultural Society (established in 1858), praised
those who followed Plumb and cultivated (cul.tiv.a.ted,
planted and grew) orchards of fruit trees, vegetable gardens,
and flowers in the county.
These pioneering farmers established Dane County as an
agricultural capital. The Dane County Agricultural Society,
founded in 1851, held annual fairs after 1856. A broad shed
located a block from the capitol displayed the fair's "more
substantial articles of production and manufacture."
From 1860 to 1930, the county led the state in the number
of acres farmed. +

Writing about the town of Bristol, 1111 enr/y
historimt me1ttioued thnt fnnuers realized
the en use of the problem ouly nfter the
chiltclt bug destruction. People hod killed off
too many prairie clrickcns nnd otller birds.
The prairie chicken (sometimes coiled pmirie
hen) hnd been thefnnners' "frieml" n1u! the
"mcmy of tlwusnnds of insects"' thnt fed
upon their crops.

with "Breath of Smoke and Flame"
ven pioneers who crossed the Great Lakes to reach Wisconsin relied on overland
travel once they arrived. The Military Road and other routes helped prairie schooners
and wagons reach the interior. But once settlers had grain, lumber, and livestock
to get to market, these same roads proved slow and difficult. Railroads promised a more
efficient (ef.fish.shent, easier and quicker) solution.

Many towns throughout mid-nineteent/1celltury America advertised their grozuing
comnillllities by hirh1g nrtists to illustrate
them. Here ·we see Mazomanie built on either
side of the mil road, which, by this time,

had been named the Milwaukee and St.Paul.

What was the first railroad to reach Dane County? Where were the railroads built? How did
they affect the growth of villages and towns?

"BREATH OF SMOKE AND FLAME"

Realizing how important railroads would be for the future
growth of Wisconsin, the territorial legislature chartered
(licensed) several railroad companies between 1838 and 1841.
But it took many more years before these companies could
organize and put enough money together to build tracks
across the state.
Location on a railroad line with a depot (de-poe, railroad
station) gave a town great advantages. It brought farmers to
town to send their wheat or oats or tobacco to far-away cities
like Milwaukee or Chicago. The same trains that carried away
crops or livestock delivered manufactured goods-bolts of
fabric, sugar, coffee, barrels of crackers-to those living
in isolated rural areas.
A railroad line often meant success or failure to a town.
By bringing new people, the railroad allowed a community to
prosper (do well) and grow. Communities that were bypassed
shrank or disappeared. Before the invention and popularity of
automobiles, railroads were that important.

I

n 1851 the pioneer line that became the Milwaukee &
Mississippi (the M & M) Railroad Company laid twenty
miles of track west of Milwaukee and Waukesha. Luke
Stoughton found out that the M & M planned to build tracks
through the nearby village of Dunkirk. He knew he had to do
something to get the tracks laid in the village of Stoughton Mills
instead. He decided to offer theM & M a large plot of land on
the east side of town if the company would change its plans.

The idea worked. In 1853 the first train arrived at the Stoughton
Mills depot, and the following year track was built all the way
to Madison. Without a railroad, Dunkirk remained a small village.
To reach the center of Madison, theM & M built a railroad
bridge over the bay of Lake Monona. On May 23, 1854, about
2,000 people from the surrounding countryside crowded
around the.new tracks. They awaited the arrival of the first
passenger train pulled by a steam-powered locomotive. Bands
were playing as the thirty-two-car train moved slowly across
the bridge. The Wisconsin State Journal reported:
It was a grand but strange spectacle [speck.tuh.kul, sight] to see

this monster train, like some huge, unheard of thing of life, with
breath of smoke and flame, emerging from the green openings ...
beyond the placid [plass-id, peaceful] waters of the lake.

~\.~ ~\\'l.f1

& MISS!SSt,~~p
1

I?
Completed and Running to Mazomanie,
117 :Miles • .Jnnc 1st.. 1856, a!Hl tn l.>e

COMPlETED TO PRAIRIE DU CHIEN,
.Jann,u·y 1857, ant! tu

Sugar River on the Southern Wisconsin Route,
J~tnuary

J st, 1857,

True to its name, theM & M intended that its tracks reach from
Milwaukee on the shores of Lake Michigan to Prairie du Chien
on the banks of the Mississippi River. After passing through
Madison, the tracks continued toward the Wisconsin River
valley. Two communities, Black Earth and Dover (in neighboring
Iowa County), were already located along the proposed rail
line. But those who owned stock in the railroad chose instead
to found a new town, Mazomanie, midway between the two.
In July of 1855, Edward H. Brodhead, head of construction for
theM & M, and other railroad men mapped out Mazomanie.
The name probably came from a well-known Sioux Indian
chief from Minnesota named Mazomani. Early pioneers
remembered him for his role in the signing of a major treaty.
Mazomani means "walking iron" or "he-who-walks-on-iron."
That name seemed just right for a railroad town. Newcomers
began arriving the following fall.
45

"BREATH OF SMOKE AND FLAME"

The sihtation in Black Earth was very different. When theM & M
tried to buy land for tracks and a depot there, the land owner
named a very high price. This angered the M & M, and the
company refused to build more than a side track in the village.
Black Earth residents had to build the first depot themselves in
order to ship wheat. After chinch bugs destroyed the wheat crop,
Black Earth shipped mostly livestock from nearby farms.
The M & M also wanted to build a depot somewhere between
Stoughton and Madison. William Hugh McFarland was a
Scotch-Irishman who began working for theM & Mas a
carpenter and later became a construction boss. In 1856 he
made a deal with the railroad company.
Pheasant Branch, a Pillage just west of Madison,
lost ont to nearby Middleton Station wl1m the
M 1:.'-t M went jnst south mstead. Like Sun Prairie,
it shipped a great deal of wheal and other grains.
When the gmin tmde fell off and tile station became
less important, the town changed its name to Middleton.

McFarland bought land on the railroad line between Stoughton
and Madison. The railroad put its depot on the McFarland
property and agreed to name the station after him and hire him
as its agent. The first shipment of goods-1,611 bags of
wheat-left the McFarland depot the following year.
Many of the railroad laborers (workers) on theM & M were
Irish. After reaching the area, some decided to stay, and they
settled in towns along the line such as McFarland, Madison,
and Mazomanie.

T

he Milwaukee & Baraboo Valley Railroad also had many
Irish railroad workers who settled in Sun Prairie once its
track reached that community. The railroad had proposed a route
about three miles south of Sun Prairie, but its citizens did not
want to be cut off from progress. They convinced the railroad
builders to change their minds and the route. The railroad
constructed tracks and a depot right in the heart of town.

"BREATH OF SMOKE AND FLAME"

Sun Prairie's days of quiet beauty were over. With its two
large grain elevators, the town became one of the largest
inland grain markets in the state.
By the 1880s, nine separate railroad lines passed through
Dane County. Some, like the M & M, headed west or
northwest. Others headed north to lumber country. The people
who lived in Dane County towns and villages along the lines
were glad to be there.
But did the communities remain important when highways
replaced railroads? +

When this map wns created in 1855,
the mil roads slnnon were not yet completed.
People wanted to sec where they would be,
just as people wanted to see ·where paper toums
were lnid out. Unlike some pnper towns,
however, these mil roads were actually built.

Clinton (now Rockdn/c) hnd n grist milltlzat
brought severn/ other busiuesscs to town,
Its rcsidmts hoped n rnilrond would help the
village grmu ePeularger. But the railroad
never arriued, Cli11tmz never grezu,
a11d people began moving away.

47

Dane County During the Civil War
ith grain crops and railroads, Dane County, like the rest of southern Wisconsin,
grew rapidly in the first dozen years after statehood. By 1860 the state ranked second
in the nation in wheat production, and the county's economy was booming.
But the Civil War changed everything.
A civil war occurs when citizens cannot peacefully agree about their country's future.
In the United States in 1860 the northern states and the southern states disagreed about many
things. But slavery was the problem that divided most people. Some northerners wanted
slavery kept in the South where it already existed. Some wanted all black slaves freed.
Southerners wanted to preserve slavery. They wanted to be free to make their own decisions.
After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, southern leaders feared he would
abolish (do away with) slavery. South Carolina voted to secede (sih-seed, separate)
from the United States. Six more southern states immediately followed to form
the Confederate States of America.

Primte Jolm Gaddis of the Twelfth

WiscoHshzlHfimtry sketched the soldiers
drilling at Camp Randall. People cn111e from
all over the county to watch.

Most northerners did not want the United States to be divided. In April1861, Lincoln sent supplies
to United States troops at Fort Sumter, located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
South Carolina troops fired at the United States soldiers. Four more southern states joined the
Confederacy, and the American Civil War had begun. How did the war affect Dane County's citizens?

CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865

This lwt was part of the
Dane Cavalry uniform.
The Dane Camlrywas one of the
militia groups that Governor
Rmuia/1 called upon for volzmtcers
at the beginning of the war.

For numy soldiers, being at Camp Randal/was their first experimcc away from/tome. When they
had passes to go into town, smnctimes they attended cl111rdt services. More often they spent their
free time in taver!ls and saloons, and Madisc.m tozu11speople complained tllat they becalllc "rorvdy."

Lincoln, along with many other Americans, believed that
the war would be brief and that the North would win easily.
He asked for 75,000 men to volunteer for three months
of military duty.
Wisconsin's Governor Alexander Randall was ready to support
President Lincoln and immediately organized the First
Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment (rej.im.ment, a military unit
of 1,000 men). A local militia organization known as the
Madison Guard became the first to serve. They traveled by
train to Milwaukee, where they joined men from other
Wisconsin cmmties.
Even though black Americans were free to live in Wisconsin
at that time, they were not considered equal to their white
neighbors. They could not vote, and they could not be
soldiers. President Lincoln himself refused to let black men
fight for the Union.
William H. Noland, one of Madison's first black residents,
did not agree with the president's official policy. On April18
Noland wrote Governor Randall and asked that he "accept
the Services of a Military Company of Coloured Men" who
wanted to "take an active part in this war." As far as anyone
knows, the governor never answered the letter. But Dane
County's black residents did not lose hope.

G

overnor Randall felt that the effort to win the war would take
more time and men. He wanted to organize more regiments
to train and to be ready for future calls from the president.

The governor wanted skilled soldiers. He told state legislators
that those "sent to war should be soldiers when they go, or there
will be few of them living soldiers when it is time for them to
return." They needed good training to learn how to take orders
and follow directions. They needed to know how to use
weapons and equipment.
The men needed a special place to train and acquire these
skills. The grounds of The Wisconsin Agricultural Society
seemed ideal. On the western edge of Madison, the gently
sloping, well-drained land was the scene of the yearly state
fair. This property became a military camp named in honor
of Governor Randall.

W

hen the first soldiers arrived at Camp Randall, the new
barracks (bear.ecks, special housing for soldiers) were
not ready. The soldiers had to sleep in old cattlesheds with
leaky roofs. When it rained, the straw-filled bunk beds got
soaked. But the men were proud to serve and were willing
to accept any hardship.
Soldiers arrived from all over the county. They came from
towns such as Springfield, Dane, Cottage Grove, Windsor, and
Stoughton. Everywhere families were sending their husbands,
fathers, sons, and brothers to prepare to fight.

Just before l1e sewed as captain in tire
First Wisconsin regiment, Gemxe E. Bryant
rcceh•ed this Colt remlver as a gitr fromlJisfatlzcr.

townspeople came to Camp Randall to watch men drilling.
Fewer women were preparing special dinners.
Being at home without husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers
meant more work for those left behind, especially the mothers
who were trying to support their families. Besides farmwork,
women organized in groups to support the families of soldiers.
The first winter they made mittens, quilts, and blankets to send
to the soldiers far from home. Women rolled cloth bandages at
home and sent special foods to hospitals where wounded
soldiers needed comfort.

C

ordelia Harvey of Madison became known for her
outstanding work during the war. After Governor Randall
served his last term, her husband, Louis P. Harvey, served as
governor just ninety-four days. Concerned about wounded
and sick Wisconsin soldiers, he traveled by steamboat to visit
the troops in Tennessee. One dark night he made a misstep
climbing from one boat to another, fell overboard, and
drowned. His widow (surviving wife) carried on the
work that he had just begun.

Colond Hans Christian Heg orgauized what becallle kJWWil os !he "Scandhuwion Regiment."
Some Dane Cou11ty Norwegian settlers foined this regiment, but /Hally more had volunteered
earlier with otlu:r units.

Mrs. Harvey did everything she could to help soldiers. She felt
that wounded Wisconsin soldiers were not getting enough care
in hospitals far from home and would recover faster in
Wisconsin. She traveled to Washington, D. C., to discuss the
problem with President Lincoln. He listened and allowed her
to establish three hospitals in Wisconsin. She arranged to buy a
large stone mansion on Lake Monona that became the Harvey
United States Army General Hospital (named for Governor
Harvey), the first of the three.

M

en, women, and children flocked to Camp Randall to
watch the men drill (march). The soldiers drilled during
the day, and they read, wrote letters home, played cards or
musical instruments, sang, or just sat around talking at night.
Some women prepared tasty food or fancy dinners to add
variety to the soldiers' regular dinners of beef, potatoes, bread,
and soup or beans. The women were glad to help.
But the North did not win the war in three months.
President Lincoln had been wrong. The Confederates fought
hard. Governor Randall was right to have soldiers already in
training. More and more men were filling the barracks.
Civil War battles took the lives of many soldiers. The
excitement of wartime was wearing thin. Fewer Dane County

50

Soldiers ji·om Eou Claire brought Old Abe (the bold engle)
to Camp Ronda/1. As o mascot (good-luck pet), Old Abe
went off to war and came back to Wisco11sin with theJ/1.

CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865

Even though fewer than 2,000 black Americans lived
in Wisconsin, 353 volunteered to fight. They wanted to show
that they were loyal patriots.

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Some black soldiers came from Madison and towns in Dane
County, such as Blooming Grove, Dunkirk, Burke, Roxbury,
Vermont, Blue Mounds, Cottage Grove, and Sun Prairie.
They still could not serve in the same units with their white
Wisconsin neighbors. But just as William Noland had
wanted three years earlier, they now had a chance to fight
for "the triumph of justice."

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.

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The war finally ended in 1865. The Fourth of July that year
was a great celebration in Madison with patriotic speeches,
a target practice on the shores of Lake Monona, and a
fireworks display. A large sailboat on Lake Mendota
carried visitors to Picnic Point.
After the war that had divided the nation was over, families
could return to their peacetime lives. But so many men had
died! Life continued to be hard on farms and in towns
all over Dane County and throughout the country. +

Wilen the war ended, soldiers would no l01zger need tlze Harvey Hospital. But Cordelia
Harvey knew of another need in the coznllzwzity. Clzildren had been orphaned (or•fizmd,
left without parmts) by tlzc war. Size asked that the hospital change once more,
this time into a Home for Soldiers' Orphans.

52

'f'.·:;

4

Blackstniths and Wagon Makers
ills located in places around the county, such as Stoughton, Verona, Paoli, and Clinton
(later Rockdale), provided just one of the services that farmers needed. During
and after the Civil War, when so many men had left home to fight, good tools,
wagons, and machinery made it possible for women and their children to keep their farms
going. Who made, repaired, and sold tools and farm implements?
During the early years of pioneering, blacksmiths were the main source of machinery and
repairs. Blacksmiths also served as wagon makers or worked with wagon makers in towns and
villages throughout the county: Pine Bluff, Pheasant Branch, Oregon, Dahleville (Daleyville),
McFarland, and Black Earth. The little community of Marxville in the town of Berry
supported the Hagemann brothers, August and John, who each opened his own shop in 1859.

lu 1870 T. G. Mandt bought Luke
Stouglztou's old sawmill. Now !te could use
water power to help produce his machinery.
This bird's-eye view shows Mandt's "Wagon
and Carriage Mmwfactory" as number 5 at
the comer of South and Forest streets.

When a town had no blacksmith of its own, the farmers in the area had a difficult time. In the early
days, the town of Medina had no blacksmith. An early historian of the township reported that to
repair his "breaking" plow, farmer H. S. Clark had to place a heavy piece of it "upon his shoulders ...
and carry it to Madison, nearly twenty miles distant, get it sharpened, and return with it the same
day." No wonder farmers later moving into an area tried to locate near a blacksmith.

BLACKSMITHS AND WAGON MAKERS

The Prcsto11 family of Mnzo111a11ie repaired i111ple/llents, 111ade horseshoes, a11d produced their own cultivators a11d plows.
This photogmplt shows the jatl1er m1d sons in front of their shop 011 Crescent Street.

S

ometimes smaller blacksmith and wagon shops grew
because of the excellent work of those who owned them.
As a young man, John Theodore Parman left Germany with
his parents to live in Black Earth. Trained as a wheelwright
(a maker and repairer of wheels) and wagon maker, he opened
his own shop in Mazomanie in 1858. As a railroad town,
Mazomanie could ship the wagons that Parman made. By 1864
he had built a two-story brick shop where he built wagons and
carriages for customers all around Wisconsin and as far away
as Iowa and Minnesota.
Blacksmith Asa Preston moved from New York to Ohio before
settling in Wisconsin. In 1861 he opened his shop in
Mazomanie with his two sons, David and John. John F.
Appleby, who also worked in the blacksmith shop, perfected
and then patented (officially registered) a twine binder to hold
bundles of wheat together. When he later sold the rights to the
McCormick Harvesting Company, Appleby-type binders
became standard machinery on harvesting machines shipped
throughout the world.

L

arger wagon and carriage makers and implement dealers
opened their doors. In 1846 Charles H. Billings founded
Madison Plow Works as a general blacksmithing and plow
shop. When Madison became a major railroad center, Billings
was able to ship his plows throughout Wisconsin and the
northern Midwest. Madison Plow Works advertised "Encourage
Home Manufactures" in the Madison City Directory and Business
54

Advertiser for 1871-2. They hoped that those in the area would
order plows from Dane County suppliers.

T. G. Mandt's wagon works in Stoughton became the largest
and best known of all the Dane County companies. In 1848
Targe Mandt was a young child who left from Norway with his
parents and settled in the community of Pleasant Springs,
about six miles northeast of Stoughton. Mandt learned skills
from his craftsman father, who carefully shaped iron tools at
his blacksmith's forge. By the time he was sixteen,
Targe Mandt had completed both the wood and the metal
work on his own wagon.
Although he was too young to serve in the Civil War,
Targe Mandt went to St. Joseph, Missouri, to build wagons for
the northern army. After the war he returned to Stoughton to
open his own factory. The first year nineteen-year-old Mandt
and the five men he hired built five wagons and one buggy.
A year later, Mandt added a blacksmith shop and made ten
wagons, four buggies, and five sleighs.
The business continued to expand and grow as new groups
of Norwegians arrived to join the successful company. By the
early 1880s, T. G. Mandt employed 225 men and sold over
$350,000 worth of wagons and other machinery every year.
You can see how farming and the manufacture of implements
worked together to make Dane County an agricultural center.

+

Place-Names that Take Us Back

P

laces have names that often give us clues or represent different ways of thinking
about the county in which we live . Place-names offer hints about the history
of the area around us.

Sometimes these names describe the natural landscape, the way Dane County looked or looks.
Sometimes place-names carry the language of some of the Indian people whose homes and
villages existed here long before the first Europeans and pioneer Americans arrived. Sometimes
the names mirror the places settlers left behind when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean or the
Great Lakes to travel to Wisconsin. Other names provide reminders of places in eastern and
southern states where some people lived before making their homes in our state.
In other words, some place-names are links to something left behind. Others highlight
natural features in the land that Indian groups or settlers found when they arrived.
How do Dane County's place-names take us back to the beginning?

ln1857 William McFarland built a large
!tame near the depot for his family.
Newcomers also stayed at the house
whe11 they nrri1'ed iu the community.

55

DANE COUNTY PLACE-NAMES

T

hose who named Dane Cow1ty places such as Blue Mounds,
Black Earth, or Pine Bluff were describing natural features
that stand out from the surrounding countryside. The Blue
Mounds look blue when seen from a distance, and Black Earth
Creek runs through the dark valley soil around it. Pine Bluff
refers .to the rocky ledge or bluff that early became
a local landmark.
Other place-names include "spring" or "springs." Pleasant
Springs, Springdale, Springfield, and Nine Springs Creek
tell us that sources of fresh water were important to early
residents. Travelers knew Grand Spring well because it was
located close to the road between the lead mines and Madison.
Token Springs and Token Creek remind us that the early
settlers weren't the first people who enjoyed fresh water
sources: Token is a newer spelling of the name of a Ho-ChunkMenominee chief who probably camped in the area with his
people as they traveled north to their home village.

a Madison surveyor named the fourth lake Mendota from a
Sioux Indian name meaning "the mouth of a river," the
Potawatomi people called it something similar, Man-ta-ka.
This means "snake maker" and might point to the many
rattlesnakes that once lived along the lake's shore.
Many similar words existed in the Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and
Menominee languages for Koshkonong. The meaning in all of
them seems to be "where there is heavy fog." Koshkonong
referred to the lake and also to the land surrounding it. A large
Ho-Chill1k village stood there when Black Hawk and his
followers were traveling through the Four Lakes region.

Names like Blooming Grove and Cottage Grove describe the
groves of trees that once provided good, shady spots in which
to settle. At one time a huge grove covered about a quarter of
the town of Vienna, including the area around Norway Grove.
When clearing land for their crops, this community of
farmers cut down most of the trees. Now Norway Grove
is in the center of plowed fields.
Groves of maple trees gave us many Dane County place-names.
The name Sugar River came from the grove of sugar maple
trees near its mouth. And the original survey notes described
as a "sugar grove" the area now known as Maple Bluff.

S

ettlers often chose names from various Indian languages.
But these names were not usually those that Indian people
in the area used for the same places. For example, Yahara
probably comes from the Ho-Chunk word for catfish,
simplified by English-speaking settlers.
In 1855 the non-Indian settlers chose official names for the four
lakes. These men chose words from many Indian languages.
The first lake, Kegonsa, comes from the Ojibwa word meaning
"little fish." Many Ho-Chill1k people thought that Lake Kegonsa
was an excellent place to fish. Lake Waubesa, the second lake,
received its name either from the Potawatomi name meaning
"white foam" or from the Ojibwa word meaning "swan."
Lake Monona was probably named for a town in Iowa. But
the name itself may be Sauk-Fox. Those who chose it for the
third lake undoubtedly liked the sound of the word. Although

J

ust as waterways were important to many Wisconsin Indian
people, once Europeans and permanent settlers arrived in
Dane County, they also settled along creeks and rivers. Some
early place-names remind us that communities such as
Badger Mills (later the village of Verona) or Elvers Mills in the
township of Vermont were settled near the water source that
powered their grist (grain) mills or lumber mills.

Many names on early maps describe the grasslands that dot
Dane County. Albion Prairie, Halfway Prairie, Koshkonong
Prairie, German Prairie, Liberty Prairie, Stoner Prairie, and
Sun Prairie are just a few of them.

A

s roads began to crisscross the county, some communities
grew up at crossroads: Baker's Comers, Rome Corners,
Ashton Comers, Hyer's Corners. The village of Horeb's
Corners grew where the Military Road crossed the lead-mining
road from Mineral Point to Milwaukee, but we now know the
community as Mount Horeb.

DANE COUNTY PLACE-NAMES

This 1876 bint's-eye view of Black Earth shows
the town's location at tlze bend of Black Earth
Creek. T/ze grist mill is on Mill Street near the
creek (see detail on page 56).

57

DANE COUNTY PLACE-NAMES

Detail from tl1e birds-eye view of Black Earth

Berry Haney, who built his tavern at Cross Plains, was also
the town's first postmaster. Haney came to Wisconsin from
Kentucky and probably named the post office and community
for a place he remembered there. And the name Cross Plains
proved perfect in its Dane County location, where two major
roads soon intersected (crossed) the valley.

Doty also chose the name Madison for the capital he planned.
James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, died
the year Doty proposed the city on the isthmus between Third
and Fourth lakes. You can see that Doty was not only a
history-maker himself, but he liked others who had played
important parts in the history of the United States.

Later on, people gave roads names that kept the history of the
county alive. For example, Frenchtown Road, Old Stage Road,
and Old Military Road remind us of the lives and times
of the early settlers.

The town of Perry was named for Commodore Oliver H. Perry.
During the War of 1812, Commodore Perry was a hero of the
battle of Lake Erie. Settlers who moved to Dane County from
Virginia named their little village Mount Vernon in memory of
President George Washington's home in the state they left behind.

S

ettlers also carried to Dane County names of the places
they had left in Europe. This list includes Christiana
(which should be spelled Christiania), named for the capital
of Norway. That capital city is now known as Oslo. Westport
was first the name of a town in Ireland, and Belleville
a community in Canada.
Pioneers also selected names brought from other areas of this
country. Albion, Bristol, Cambridge, Dunkirk, Roxbury, Utica,
Verona, Vienna, and York are names that come from the state
of New York, just as did many Dane County pioneers. Small
towns in several eastern states carry the name Deerfield.
It is hard to know whether or not the settlers of Deerfield,
Wisconsin, were recalling one of these places when they
selected that name for their commnunity. Or maybe, once they
arrived in Dane County, they found a field full of deer!

T

You won't find the names of people such as Isaac DeForest
and Luke Stoughton in United States history books, but they
were important enough to give their names to their own
communities. Samuel Marshall, William McFarland,
Richard Dean, and James Morrison all owned land on which
railroad tracks and depots were constructed. The communities
that grew in these places took the names of these men. We can
easily recognize Marshall and McFarland. In French, ville
means town. Morrisonville and Deansville (like Belleville)
each have this ending.
Another railroad town, Waunakee, took its name from the
Ojibwa language. Wan-a-ki could mean "pleasant land"
or "pleasant earth." Frederic G. Cassidy wrote the book
Dane County Place-Names, where you can find out even more
about places, small and large, around our county.

he county's name, Dane, and those of many other cities
and towns, come from the names of people. Remember the Looking back to our county's beginnings helps us understand
Northwest Ordinance of 1787? It established the rules that
the many ways life here has changed since the days
helped United States territories like Wisconsin Territory
of Tay-cho-per-ah. +
become states. Jc:,mes Duane Doty suggested that the county be
named for Nathan Dane, the author of that law, or ordinance.

58

DANE COLNTY PLACE-NAMES

The village of Sun Prail'ie lies two miles
west of the point where the prairie was
discovered and named. On this 1875
bird's-eye view of Sun Prairie, Main
Street is the widest road. Windsor and
Brf>;to/ streets lend to those neighboring
Dane County COII!IIIJtnities. You could
also take a t;ai11 from Sun Prairie
southeast to Milwaukee or northwest all
the WOlf to St. Paul, Min11esota.

59

Picture Credits
Cover
Wiscont_-;ill Heights Battle Grou11d by Samuel M.
Brookes and Thomas M. Stevenson. Oil painting,
1857 (detail). State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Museum 1942.489.

Frontispiece

A Road ill Mildison by Gem1.an artist (lohrum)
Adolph Hc)effler. Pencil drawing, August 1852.
State Historical Sociely of Wisconsin VJSual Material
Archives copy negative WHi(X31 )398.

Acknowledgments
First L.ake (Kcgm1su) by German artist (Johann)
Adolph Hoeftler. Pencil drawing, August 1852.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin Visual Material
ArdLlves copy negative WHi(X31)394.

The Four Lakes Country
Paleo-Indian spear points from the Skare site, tmv:n
of Dwm. Stale HistorJcal Society of Wisconsin Office
of the State Ard1aeologist. • Grouud Plan v_{a Groupe

(iflndimi Mounds o{mriousfi.Jmls, 011 the Elt'l.rated
Prairie, Sen.:11 Miles east o( tl11! Blue Mou11ds, Wisconsin
TI:rrit01y,engraving (Pl~te 1, Figure 1) from Bc11jmuiu
Siflimnn's The American Joumol ofScimce and Arts.
Vol. XXXIV, July 1838. Seeley C. Mudd Library,
Lowrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin copy negative
WHi(X3}14570. • RngravingofWinneb<~go
[Ho-Chunk] wigwams drawn by Seth Eastman,
from The Indian 'Jhb~:s of tlu· United States by H.R.
Schoolcraft, 1884. State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Library. Copy negative WHi(X3)31266.
Lead Brings Settlers to Future Dane CoWlty
Account book, 1828MJ832, from the Ebenezer
Brigham (1789-1861) collection. State Historical
So..:it~ty of Wi.'>Cml.Sin Manuscript Archives. • Map of

overlay route). State Historical Society ofWrsconsin
Map H/GX902/1829. • Oil portrait of Colonel
Hemy Dodge (1782-1867) by James Bowman.
Dodge served in the Iowa County militia and later
a!:> Wisconsin territorial governor (1836-1841 and
1845--1848). State Histmical Society of Wisconsin
Museum 1942.467. • Wisconsin Hdg/Jts Battle Grmmd
by Samuel M. Brookes and Thomas M. Stevenson.
Oil painting, 1857. State tlistorical Society of
Wisconsin Museum 1942.489.

Mapping Out the Land:
Wisconsin Becomes a Territory
Surveyor's marking stakes and chains.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin Museum. •
Surveyor's brass compass in case, made irt
Liverpool, England. St.tte Historical Society of
Wisconsin Mu,sewn 1%2.75. • Mtp L!(flle Sun~t?yed

Part cif.Wiscollsin Territmy, Compiled fivm Public
SuniL>ys, 1835 (detail). State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Map GX902/1835/D. Copy negative
WHi(X3)51354.

James Duane Doty's Capital in the Wilderness
Hand-colored. manuscdpt map of the isthmus from
the _pa.pers of Aaron Vanderpoel, a partner in James
Doty's Madison land speculation, 1836. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin Map H /GX9029 I
M18/1836/V. • Manuscript plat of tl1e town of
Madison on the Four Lokes, July 1836, surveyed for
James Duane Doty by Jolu1 van Suydam and
annotated with the lol<> that went to legislators.
State Histmical Society of Wisconsin Map GX9029/
M18/1836/M. • Oil pottrait of James Duane Doty
(1800-1865), Wisconsin territorial governor from
1841 to 1844, by William Cogswell State Historical
Society o£ WISConsin Musemn 1973.91.11.

Map oftlze City C!f the First Ulke, engraving. State

&x:iety of Wisconsin Map HIGX902Il829. •
Lithot:,"raph of a iead-mining shaft (Plate IX),
from Report (~r n Geological E1plomtion of Part t{lowa,
Wiscousi11 and Illi11ois, by David Dale Owen, 1844.
Stale Historical Society of Wisconsin Govemment
D.:x::urnents. Copy negative WHi(X3)8420.
Lead soldiers, 1879. State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Museum 1951.2537.

Madison Grows from Paper Town
to Territorial Capital
Oil on canvas board copy of the Eben Peck cabins,
painted by the yotmg Isabella A. Dengel about 18911894, from tl1e 1869 painting by Mrs. E. E. Bailey
based on pioneer settler' earlier recollections. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin Visual Material
Ardlives Oversize .5-5413. • Engraving of U1e
American House from Tite Mufison Ciht Directon;
and Business Mirror ... 1858. Private co.Hection.•
View tif. tlu• Capitol of Wisconsin, engraving from

Historical Society of Wisconsin Map GX9029/C57/J.

Building the Military Road: First Overland
Passage Tiuough the Four Lakes Region
Hand-colored lithograph of Fort Howard on Green
Hay, about 1840, from Vws et Stnm:nirs dc !'Amerique
du Nord by Francis (Comte) de Casteh1au, Pa.rls,
18J2. State Histmical Society of Wisconsin Visual
Material Archives Oversize 3-3043. • Engraving of
Ztchary Taylor (1784-1850), twelfth president of the
Unlted States from 1849 to 1850. State Historical
Stxiely of Wisconsin Visual Material Ard1ives copy
negative VVHi(X3)51352. • Manuscript map of the
route taken by James Dwme Doty from Green Bay
to Prairie du Chien m 1832 (det.1il). St<1tc Historical
Society of Wisconsin Map GX902/1832ID. •
Lithogmph of Fort Witu1cb,1go in 1831 (Portage
City). Original drawing by Mrs. John H. Kinzie
Ouliette rvlagiU Kinzie), from ~er memoir, Wiw-bwi,
Tilt> "Early Day" iu the North-West, 1856. Courtesy the
National Societ'1.' of the Colonial Dames of America
in the St.1te of Wisconsin. State Historical Society ot'
Wisconsin Libnuy. Copy negative WHi(X3)1895.

Wlxxlen tnmk with rosemaled painting on front
which says "Brile Smnso!JS dotter Nors 1832." l-ittle
Norwav, Motmt Horeb 35.532. • An unidentified
family in front of a log house in the vicinity of
Christiana and Pleasant Springs townships,
photographed about 1874 by Andrew L Dahl,
DeForest. State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Visual Material Archives negative WHi(D31)540.

Two Desperate Days of th£ Black Hawk War:
Through the Four Lakes Country to
Wisconsin Heights
Oil portrait of Black Hawk (1767-1838) by Robert
Sully, painted in 1833 while Blnck Hawk was
imprisoned <It Fort Momoc in southeast Virgit1ia.
State Histnrical Society of \oVisconsin MuseLml
19.f2AO. • Map of the Ll11itcd States L.'ad Mines on the
Upper Mississippi Riz1cr, engraving, drawn cmd
published by R.W. Chan( 1ler of Galem1, 1829 (with

Pioneer and Community Founder
Luke Stoughton
Oil portrait of Luke Stoughton (1799-1874), pmnted
by his sister Nancy Stoughton. "Portrait artist Mrs.
Pope" painted Eliza Page Stoughton (1807-1891), as
well as luella Eliza Stoughton (1837-192.1), born in
Westfield, Vetmont; Huldah Delette Stoughton
Williams (1839-1928) <md Sarah Ellen Stoughton
Turner (1841-1914), both bom in Janesville,
Wisconsin. Stoughton Historical Museum.+

60

Building a Community
1l1e octagonal West Koshkonong Church,
photographed by Andrew L. Dahl, DeForest,
in the 1870s. Built in 1852, the church stood in the
COllUlllulity until1893. State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Visual Material Archives negative
WHi(D31)699.
Wisconsin Becomes the 30th State in1848
"Thunder hum Dane" from the Wisco11Si11 Argus,
Madison, May 9, 1848, Vol. 4. No. 41. State Historical
Society of Wisconsin Librruy. • Masthead and
"Wisconsin Admitted" news item from the
Wiscousin A1gus, Madison, :May 30, 1848, Vol4, No.
41.. State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library.
Teamsters and Taverns
lmmigm11t Trai11 in Wisco11sin by Franz H6lzlhuber.
Watercolor, 1856-1860. Glenbow Collection,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. • Advertisement for the
Wisconsin Stage Lines from the Milwaukee DircctoJy,
1848-1849. State Historical Society of
WISConsin libnu:y.
Building with Brick and Stone
The 0. B. Dahle house, DaJeyville, town of Perry,
photographed by Andrew L. Dahl, Deforest, about
1873. State Historical So.:::iety of Wisconsin Visual
Material Archives negative WHi(D31)526. +
Advertisemt>nt for E.D.Ilsley & Co. from Wm. N.

Seymour's Madison Directory and Busi11ess Advertiser,
Dane County's Paper Towns

tlw United Statrs Lead Mi11es 011 tlu: Llppcr Mis._qfs:.ippi
RiPer, engraving, drawn and publllihai by R.W.
Chandler of Galena, 1829 (detail). State Historical

*

Quaker-style bonnet of shirred taffeta, 1849. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin Musetm11946.510.
• Doll from the 1840s with papier-m<lch€ head and
painted stuffed leather body, whid1 was given to
Alice Miller, age eight, about 1850. State Historical
Society of Wisconsin Mu.<:.ewn 1945.564.

S!atistics ofDnnc County, Wisnmsi11; lPith a Business
Oirectmy in part, c:fthe Villnge[!(Mntlison, 1851.
Private collection.
Sharing Dane County with the Animals
Watercolor brush drawing of a prairie wolf painted
at Prairie du Chien in 1829 by Swiss artist Peter
Rindlsbacher. State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Visual Mnterial Ard1ives color copy WHi(X3)38135.

1855. Private collection. • Cart€"de-visite of U1e
University of Wisconsin, about 1861, photographed
by jolm S. Fuller, Madison. State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Visual Material Archives copy negative
WHi(X3)50771. • Photograph of the H.K. Lawrence
house and gardens, Pinckney and Gilrmm streets,
Madison, about 1870, by J. Haynes, Madison.
State Historical Society of WlSConsin Visual Material
Archives copy negative WHi(X3)20029.
Building a Bigger Capitol

Assembly desk made by Madison fumihlre maker
Darwin Clark for the 1846 Wisconsin Territorial
legislature. Private collection.+ PencilMdmwing
view of Madison from University Hill, August 1852,
by German artist (Johrum) Adolph Hoeffler. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin \lisual Material
Archives copy negative WHi(X31)384. •
Ambrotype copy of tl1e August Kutzbock (18141868) and Samuel Hnnter Donnel plm1 for the 1857
state capitol building. State Historical Society of
WISConsin Visual Material Archives Lot 4195 I #456.
+ Daguerreotype f."llrtrait of Samuel Hunter Dormel
(1824-1861 )- State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Visual Material Ard1ives Lot 4195 I #86.

Making Dane County Home
Dane County Before Dairy Cows
Engraving of a chinch bug from Guide to tile Study cif

DirectOJy & Business J\dz,ertiser, 1856-57.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin library. •
A Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad engine passes
ncar the Middleton depot on tracks laid by the
Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad. Photographed
by Andrew L. Dahl, DeForest, probably in 1873.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin VIsual Material
Archives negative WHi(D31)642. +View looking
across U1e mill pond on Koshkonong Creek at
Clinton (later Rockdale), in the town of Christiana.
Photographed by Andrew L Dahl, DeForest, about
1874. State Historical Society of Wisconsin Visual
Matetial Arduves negative WHi(D31)604. • Mnp of
Daile Cormh;, engraving done in 1855. This shows
the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad tracks
coming into the county from below Stoughton .:md
continuing north and west across the cotmty. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin Map GX9028/D17.
Dane County During the Civil War
Watercolor view of Camp Randall, December 1&51,
by Private Jolm Gaddis, Company E, Twelfth
WL'Konsin Infantry. WISConsin Veterans Musewn
VIFC1978.32.1. • Dane Cavalry Militia chapeau,
1858-1860. On extended Joan to the Wisconsin
Veterans Museum from the State Historical Society
of WISConsin Musernn 1951.2623. + Carte-de-visite
view of East Main and South Pinckney streets,
Madison, about 1860, photographc>d by JohnS.
Fuller, Madison. State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Visual Material Archives copy negative
WHi(X3)50767. • Colt revolver, .31calibct;
Mcx..iel1849. Wisconsin Veterans Musewn V1998.1.1.
+Flag of the Fifteenth WiSConsin Infantry
Regiment, 1861 (detail). WLsconsin Veteratl.S
Musewn V1%U19.79. •Photograph from the 1870s
of the war eagle, Old Abe, by E.R. Cuttiss, Madison.
Wisconsin Veterans Musemn VI FC 1986 July 28- •
Photograph of Elon Frru1cis Brown, Srm Prairie,
Company H, Second Wisconsin Vohmteer Infantry,
taken in Frcdricksburg, Virginia, in 1862. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin. Visual Mate1ial
Archives copy negative WHi(X3)43922. • Letter
from William H. Noland to Govemor Alexander
Rru1dall. Wisconsin Executive Department Military
Correspondence, Series 49, Box 7 April12-19, 1861.
St:1te Historical Society of Wisconsin Archives. +
Photograph of the Soldiers' Orphans Home in
Madison. Copies were sold in 1867 to raise money to
assL<>t in educating the children. The octagonal house
was originally consbucted for Leonard J. Farwell in
1853. State Histmiu'll Society of Wisconsin Visual
Material Arcllives copy negative WHi(X3)1.
Blacksmiths and Wagon Makers
Lithot,'Ffaphic bird's-eye view of Stoughton in1871 .
State Historical Society of Wisconsin Map GX9029 I
5881187118. • Asa Preston &Sons Blacksmiths,
Mazomanie, were photographed about 1873 by
Andrew L. Dahl, DeForest. State Historical Society
of Wisconsin Visual Material Archives negative
WHi(D31)601. + Advertisemei1t for the Madison
Plow Works from the Madison Cit11 Dirccton; &
BtiSiiiess Adi.Ji'rliscr fOr 1871-1872. State Hist~rical
Society of Wiscon~in Library

fusects and a Trmti~e o[T110se Injurious and Bcn~ficial fa

Place-Names that Take Us

Crops ... by AS. Packard, Jr., 1869. • Wheat
harvesting tableaux photographed by And!·ew L.
Dahl, DeForest, in the 1870s. State H.istorical Society
of Wisconsin Visual Material Archives negative
WHi(D3)7. • Pinuatcd Grouse or Prairie Hm,
engraving from Tl!e Count1y Gentlel/lall: A foumal for
tl1c Far111, Garden, mtd Fireside. June 8, 1865. Vol XXV,
No. 23, p. 370.

Back to Beginnings
William H. McFarland and family photographed
by Andrew I .. Dahl, about 1880, DeForest. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin_ VisLml Material
Archives negative WHi(D31)343. + Litl1ographic
bird's-eye view of Black Earth in 1876. State
Historical Society of Wisconsin Map GX9029IB61I
1876. + Lithot,rraphic bird's-eye view of Sun Prairie
in 1875. State Historical Society of Wisconsin Map
GX9029/S957/1875/B.

Locomotives with
"Breath of Smoke and Flame"
Lithograpl1ic bird's-eye view of Mazomru1ie it1 1875.
State Historical Sock:.ty of Wisconsin Map GX9029 I
M47 I18751B. • Advertisement for the Milwauh•e
& Mississippi Railroad from the Milwa11kee City

Producers of BACK TO BEGINNINGS
Greg Anderson, photographer, works on a free-lance basis for a wide variety
of local and national clients. From 1985 to 1996 he worked for the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, photographing people, art, and sports events.
His recent projects include A Gallery of Colors and Numbers, a children's
introduction to Madison's art museums, published by the Dane County
Cultural Affairs Commission; the Ron Dayne Heisman trophy billboard and
poster campaign; and a forthcoming catalog of Georgia O'Keefle painting
published by the National Gallery of Art.
Lynne Eich, project director and fifth-generation Dane County native, enjoyed
supervising the creation of Back to Beginnings and assembling the talented team of
professionals that produced it. As director of the Dane County Cultural Affairs
Commission, she expresses profound thanks to the book's many contributors
whose advice, hard work, and financial participation have successfully conspired
to transform the book from a gleam in the eye to a finished publication.
Phil Hamilton, designer, has taught graphic design courses at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison for the past thirty-four years. He has also designed numerous
books, catalogs, magazines, posters, banners, corporate and institutional logos and
identity systems. For the past twenty years he has collaborated with the Dane
County Cultural Affairs Commission, designing many of its award-winning
publications, including CAPITAL LETTERS in Dane County Architecture, Ez,erybodt/s
Ethnic, Settlers of Dane Cowzty: The Photographs of Andreas Larsen Dahl, and A Gallery
of Colors and Numbers. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Cincinnati
and an M.F.A. degree from Indiana University.
Timothy Heggland, historical researcher, is a historic preservation consultant and a
former preservation planner for the City of Madison. He has authored more than
one hundred and fifty individual and district nominations to the National Register
of Historic Places, and his publications include: a history of Olbrich Gardens;
walking-tour brochures for University Heights, Old Market Place, Tenney-Lapham
and Vilas-Brittingham neighborhoods in Madison; and a chapter in a recent
Elvehjem Museum of Art publication on Frank Lloyd Wright. He is a Madison
native and has done extensive research on Madison history.
Bobbie Malone, writer, directs the Office of School Services at the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin where she oversees the development of materials and
programs on Wisconsin history for classroom use. She coauthored Digging mzd
Discovery: Wisconsin Archaeology and wrote the accompanying teachers' guide.
She also initiated and coordinated the creation of Celebrating Everyday Life in
Wisconsin History: A Classroom Exhibit Resource and Planning Guide. Before obtaining
a Ph.D. in American history from Tulane University, Bobbie taught elementary
school for ten years in New Orleans and East Texas. A native of San Antonio,
she has fallen in love with Wisconsin.
Faith B. Miracle, editor, is editorial director for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters and editor of the Wisconsin Academy Rwie1L', a quarterly journal
featuring nonfiction, fiction, poetry, art, history and reviews, all with a Wisconsin
connection. She lectures throughout the state on Wisconsin writers and their works
and has published numerous book reviews and articles, including, "Stories from a
Wisconsin Bookshelf" and "She Rose from the Marsh: Poet Lorine Niedecker," both
of which appeared in Wisconsin Trails. A DeForest resident, she formerly was
executive director of the Wisconsin Library Association and currently serves on the
Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission.
Christine Schelshom, general editor, is a familiar figure to many researchers from
across the county and state for her years of work in the Iconographic Collections of
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In 1987 she produced Woman's Work on the
Farm, a traveling exhibit of photographs from 1866 to 1982 which continues to
travel throughout the state under the auspices of the. Wisconsin Humanities
Council. Today she is still working with many of those same historical picture
collections on exhibit and editorial projects. Christine has lived for nearly twenty
years with her family on a farm on Dane County's southernmost border
in the Town of Dunkirk.
Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission
Room 421, City-County Building
210 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Madison, WI 53709
608.266.5915 FAX: 608.266.2643