LlBPulRY OF CONGRESS. I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. ? MADISOJST: ITS ORIGIN, INSTITUTIONS AND ATTRACTIONS.- PERSONS. PLACES AND EVENTS GKAPHICALLT DELINEATED. A RELIABLE GUIDE-BOOK FOR TOURISTS. ILL USTRA TED. BY C. E. JONES, n uo s^-^ MADISON, WIS.: WM. J. PARK & CO., PUBLISHERS. BOOKBINDERS, BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS, ETC. 1876. It f5%'] ^7 COPYEIGHT. WM. J. PAKK t CO. 1676 AT WOOD A CTJLVER, Stereotypers and Printers^ MADISOK, WIS. INTRODUCTOKT. Reminiscences, of the troubles, perils and pleasures, tlirough which men have passed, are always interesting unless the nan-ator descends to the enumeration of prosy details. Given the chief in- cidents attendant upon the arrival of the first family in Madison, and it is unnecessary to repeat the same facts as they occurred in the experience of subsequent pioneers. Wearisome and unpleas- ant particulars will always be avoided by the writer who aims at popular favor, if his judgment has been improved by the lessons of the past. Pioneer life in Wisconsin, including the days in which this terri- tory was part of Michigan, or of Inchana, and glancing back beyond the times of Captain Carver to the first coming of Jesuits and voyageurs to Green Bay, affords scope enough for the prepara- tion of a very interestmg volume, such as the reader may peruse upon the cars, or while away an hour withal, when the more serious affairs of the current season have necessitated change and rest. It is hoped that some such work is now offered to compete for the favor of the public. Not war alone, but incidents of peace have been treated. Charles Reaume, the Green Bay justice, could not be omitted from our pio- neer records, but it would have been tiresome to recapitulate the hundred stories which are reiterated with painful sameness as to his eccentricities. Tliere is a pathetic interest attaching to schoolmaster WiUiam- Bon's six pupils on Dayton street, and to the twenty students with whom Professor Sterling began the preparatory work of the Uni- versity, which culminates in a feeling of profound thankfulness, when we contemplate the scholastic advantages of to-day. 6 • HISTORY OF MADISON. Our book might have been a mere guide to the exquisite spots and general charms of scenery, but we have preferred a general statement in that respect, as well as in many others. We have glanced at most of the prominent features in our territorial, muni- cipal and state career, without attempting the dry detail of liistory. Have noted the growth of bench and bar, the development of our mercantile estabhsbments, the growth of the banldng interest, the beauty of the homes that add a pleasure even to the contemplation of our lakes. The mounds, caves and antiquities of the aboriginal people have been recorded, and side by side therewith the better tu- muh of Hterature, erected by the guild of letters in our own time, but above aU tilings there has been an effort to avoid tediousness, in which pm'suit we abandon the further drawing out of our preface. Madison, Wis., 1876. CONTENTS. Cfi. I. In the Beginning, - . - - 9 II. Locating the Capital, - - - 20 III. Pioneers and Celebrities, - - - 39 IV. State University, . - - - 65 V. State Historical Society, - - - 81 VI. Bench and Bar, - - - - 98 VII. Churches and Pastors, - - - 119 VIII. Newspaper History, - - - 131 IX. Merchants and Bankers, - - . 147 X. Schools, Literature and Art, - - 173 XL Madison Homes, - - - - 194 XII. Visitors and Their Pleasures, - - 199 XIII. Mounds, Monuments, Caves and Relics, - 207 INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece— View op City, - - Facing Title Lake Monona, or Third Lake, . - - 30 First House in Madison, - - - - 43 State University, - - - - - 73 Congregational Church, - - - - 128 Wisconsin State Journal Block, - 135 D. K. Tenney, Esq., .... - 137 View of King Street, - - - - 146 View OF Farwell Mill, - - - - - 151 View of Lake Side, - - - - 154 City Hall and Post Office — Lake Mendota in the Background, . - - - - - 169 Madison City High School, - - - - 178 RosEBANK Cottage, - - - . . 193 Madison Yacht, - - - - _ 198 Angle- Worm Station, - . - - . 201 Pre- Historic Collections— Marietta, ------ 205 Knives, Awls and Bracelets, - - - - 213 Porphyry and Greenstone, - - - - 216 Drinking Cup, - - . - - - 217 Sepulchral Urns, - - - . 219 HISTOEY OF MADISOK CHAPTER I. IN THE BEGINNING. Soon after Pere Marquette made his way to the Mississij^pi, from the Lakes, this IVestern country was overrun by Canadian French voijageurs^ whose .country, language and religion, were considerable aids to trade among the tribes of Indians, recently gath- ered into the fold of the Catholic church. There is no positive evidence that they were on this identical spot, but a probability, all but overwhelming, suggests their presence in the Lake country, because the In- dians were here, and, moreover, because the conform- ation of the country, the large and beautiful lakes, and other well known features, specially adapted this particular locality for the supply of peltry. There was a mission house at or near Green Bay before Marquette's world-famous canoe voyage by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; but there is no mention by which our topography is identified until more than a century later, in the records of Capt. Carver, as pub- lished after 1768. His " Travels through the interior 10 HISTOET OF MADISON. parts of jN^orth America " make unmistakable refer- ences to the Blue Mounds, wliicli lie knew, j)robably from the Indians, were snj^posed to be rich in lead. The captain shrewdly suspected the trappers of hav- ing purposely misrepresented the territory for their better security as to ulterior designs of their own. The Jesuit maps of the Lake Superior country, pre- pared a century earlier in Paris, were very good, con- sidering the limited facilities of the priests by whom the information was supplied, but the operations of the Canadian voyageurs, jealously defending their trading privileges after their old home had passed under the rule of strangers, would be subject to very different rules. The Sacs and Foxes held this territory from time immemorial, so far as we have any positive knowl- edge, until the year 1825, when the Nations sold their rights to all lands east of the Mississij^pi. Unfortu- nately, for the red men, they were persuaded by some of their leaders to play fast and loose with their treaty, and after the first removal, there were almost continuous returns, and on many occasions marauding l^arties inflicted damage on property and life by w^ay of asserting a right to their old hunting grounds. In the year 1831 things had become unendurable, and it was found necessary to drive the Indians back acrc»ss the newdy agreed upon barrier, the Mississippi. The Winnebago outbreak and the Black Hawk w^ar, the first named in 1831-2, and the latter concurrent with or immediately following, were parts of the same IN THE BEGINNING. 11 sclieme of aggression, intended to recover for the tribes the lands already sold and delivered by their chiefs and themselves. Eventually the Indians were repressed and forced back with a firm hand. The first attempt at settlement in this county was made in 1827-8, by Col. Ebenezer Brigham, who died in this city at the advanced age of seventy-two, in the year 1861. He visited Wisconsin in 1822, but it was not until -&ve years later that he came hither to make a permanent abode. The lead mines were the chief at- traction, but after a brief sojourn at Platte river, on what is known as the Block House branch, he and his party retired to Galena, not being strong enough to hold their own in a country possessed by hostile In- dians. Early in 1828, Col. Brigham and his asso- ciates took up a position in the Blue Mounds, still mining for lead. Food supplies, at first procured from' Galena, were afterwards obtained from Fort Winnebago, and it was while returning from Fort Winnebago that the beauties of the Lake country were first discovered by Col. Brigham. The Indians had told him about the lakes, but the beautiful real- ity vastly exceeded their description. The pioneer is not always capable of appreciating the picturesque, but the colonel predicted the greatness of the village that would be built where Madison now stands, being impressed by the charms of the scene, and he even assumed that the capital of the Territory and State would be here located. The first comers to this county were widely severed 12 HISTORY OF MADISON. from their nearest friends. Dodgeville was the resi- dence of their next door neighbor, and to the south- east they conld call upon somewhat distant acquaint- ances on the O'Plaine river, hardly twelve miles from Chicago. Col. Juneau was located near the junction of the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers, laying the foundations of the beautiful Cream City, which is now the commercial metropolis of Wisconsin. It will be seen at once that every settlement in those days had to rely mainly upon its own means of de- fense against the Indians, who were established in populous villages in every direction. As a rule there was a good understanding, and from time to time treaties were made defining the boundaries of the new comers, but the stipulations of the natives were extended and broken repeatedly. So slowly did the people migrate hitherwards, that Col. Brigham was still the nearest settler when the capital was located, and his residence was distant twenty-five miles. Gov. Lewis Cass, the chief executive of Michigan Territory, had jurisdiction from the earliest set- tlement, and he made Col. Brigham the first justice ever appointed here, but his office was almost a sine- cure during the four years that he retained the honor. The difficulties under which these hardy miners opened up their lucrative calling cannot readily be made to appear to the modern reader. The traveler of to-day is transported in a few hours from Madison to Chicago, can dispatch the business of the day in the metropolis of the northwest and return, without a IN THE BEGINNING. 13 sense of fatigue or a stain of travel, to liis home at niglit, but there was no such hixurj possible to the adventurous colonel and his companions who sent their product to Green Bay, Galena or Chicago, and who had not a wagon track to guide them toward the village which has now expanded to the colossal pro- portions of Chicago. That mighty Babylon was then an insignificant village, in which there seemed to be no probability that the people would master the diffi- culties incident to the position and render it habita- ble in the better sense. The old colonel was natu- rally and fitly included in the earliest attempts to or- ganize a government in this territory, when the sev- erance from Michigan was effected in 1836, and for very many years he was identified with the succeed- ing forms of administration. A trip from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien, on horseback, was undertaken for the first time in May, 1829, by Judge Doty, afterwards Governor, and two attorneys of the first named settlement, Henry S. Baird and Morgan L. Martin, guided by a Menomo- nee Indian whose acquaintance with the country was by no means perfect; but their seven days pilgrimage made them conversant with the topographical features of Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, our own Four Lakes, the site of our city, the Blue Mounds and Dodgeville, besides the vast range of country in- cluded in their interesting detour. There had been many transits by the Fox and Wisconsin to the Miss- issippi, since the days of Pere Marquette and his voy- 14 HISTORY OF MADISON. ageurs, but this, so far as can be known, was tlie "first journey made by white men overland. Three years later Judge Doty again visited this spot, having been much impressed by its beauty, and being desirous to see a town started in the midst of so much natural grandeur. The ambitious designs of Black Hawk, who had obtained an ascendency over the braves of his own and of neighboring tribes, led to a disastrous war w^itli the Indians in 1832, as already indicated, and the settlers of this portion of Wisconsin were not backward during that eventful period. There was an actual alliance between the deceitful Winnebagoes and the more immediate followers of Black Hawk, the Sacs and Foxes, some time before hostilities were openly commenced ; but the savages were full of pro- testations as to their peaceful and friendly disposition. Col. Brigham could not be hoodwinked by their flat- teries, and he, with the cooperation of his little army of industry, built a block house fort, on the prairie, near Blue Mounds, as part of their system of defense. When hostile demonstrations were anticipated, the whole of the settlers near at hand, with their families, congregated within the palisade that surrounded the main buildings. The Winnebagoes were still per- sistent as to their friendship and alliance, until the beginning of June, 1832, although there is good rea- son for believing that they were supplying informa- tion and help to their more warlike neighbors, lone before that date. Preparations for war w^ere madg, IN THE BEGINNING. 15 regardless of tlie Winnebago promises, as it was well known that Black Hawk's followers would cause trouble without much delay. The commanding officer at Mound Fort, Caj^t. John Sherman, saw the proba- bility of war to be so imminent that he communicated his apprehensions to Col. Dodge, afterwards governor, and the colonel marched to the reenforcement of Sher- man with two hundred men, collected from other and less exposed positions in the mining districts. Shortly after this timely aid arrived, James Aubrey, the first commander at the fort, was killed near the residence of Col. Brigham, while .procuring water from a spring. The Sac Indians killed him, being guided to their ambush by the treacherous Winnebagoes, within a few days of the time when they were most lavish in expressions of friendship. Their part in the mur- der was surmised, bnt not known, at the time of Au- brey's death. A second ambush was planned, and succeeded on the 20th of the month, fourteen days after the death of Aubrey. The savages having made their dispositions for the purpose, caused some few of their body to reveal themselves to the occupants of the fort. Lieut. Force, accomjDanied by a comrade named Green, the latter leaving his wife and children in the stockade, made a reconnoisance, in the course of which they were decoyed by the retiring Indians into a trap laid for the destruction of a much larger body. Force and Green fought and maneuvered with bravery and skill, but they were so completely en- meshed that there was no possibility of escape. The 16 HISTORY OF MADISON. savages mutilated tlieir victims in a shameful manner after death. The watch worn by Lieut. Force was subsequently recovered from the body of a dead In- dian, by a trader named Wallis Kowan. The red man, overtaken by fatigue, had apparently lain down to rest, and in that way was destroyed by a prairie fire. Tlie efforts and the deaths of Force and Green were seen from Mound Fort. 1^0 twith standing tliese cruel and purposeless suc- cesses, the Indians were pursued by the main body of settlers and troops, under the command of Col. Dodge, over the Crawfish, near Aztalan, across the site of this city, to the north end of Monona, and at Catfish Ford, a brisk engagement with the rear guard of the flying foe, taught the Indians what they might expect in the way of punishment. One Indian was shot sitting upon the newly-made grave of his squaw, having calmly taken that position apparently with the hope that he would thus readily join her in the Happy Hunting Grounds. Eventually the Black Hawk war was ended by decisive battles, the only kind of argu- ment that can be conclusive with savages, and nearly the whole of the red skins that had been in arms were killed, captured or dispersed. Black Hawk and his accomplice, the Prophet, who had buoyed up the tribes with delusive promises, were surrendered to General Street, at Prairie du Cliien, on the 2Tth of August, 1832, by the chiefs of their own people, One-Eyed Decorra and Cha-E. Tar. The treaty with the Sacs and Foxes, made at Kock Island in September of that IN THE BEGINNING. 17 year, happily terminated tlie Indian difficulties of Wisconsin. Shortly after the Black Hawk war had been crushed out, the attractions of this site brought settlers here, and on the 15th of October, 1832, an encampment was made by Capt. Low, James Ilalpin and Archi- bald Crisman, on Mendota Lake ridge. There were numerous Indians then located on the city site, hav- ing been concentrated here by the facilities offered by a French trader, wdiose abode was on the ground now crossed by Johnson street. Rowan, the Indian trader into whose hands the watch of Lieut. Force fell as lawful spoil, had long before taken up his location in this neighborhood. Mr. Abel Easdall, a native of Kentucky, another early resident, commenced his Wisconsin experiences as a lead miner, and thence diverging into the avocation of an Indian trader, was connected by marriage with a Winnebago woman. After her death, he married another of the same tribe, but she eventually migrated west with her own peo- ple, and her husband was not entirely inconsolable. Rasdall had been for a considerable time a prosper- ous trader among the Indians before the war com- menced, but during the continuance of hostilities with Black Hawk, Abel Rasdall was one of the readiest and most daring of our volunteers. He con- tinued a resident in Dane county until his death at Token Creek, in 1837, when he was fifty- two years old. After the conclusion of his Indian engagements, Mr. Rasdall took to himself a wife of his own race in this 18 HISTORY OF MADISOI^. city, and raised a family as tlie result of that mar- riage. He had traded in Dane county, and more esj^ecially around the Four Lakes, since the year before the Black Hawk war. From the time of the first colony planted in Illi- nois by La Salle, in 1678-9, the Canadian voyagers and colonists had customarily intermarried with the Indians with, as a rule, no other result than that the more civilized race was absorbed by the other, and the result did not exhibit a corresponding increase of capacity to appropriate the advantages of civ- ilization. Some of the half breeds were sharp and dangerous, but few are known as estimable men. One of the earliest traders here seems to have been an exception to that rule. His name was Michel St. Cyr, son of a Canadian Frenchman, by a Winnebago. Living always on the frontier and among the Indians, he had not participated in the advantages of schools, but he bore an excellent character as a man of verac- ity, a virtue not always found associated with civili- zation, although certainly a part of the highest. St. Cyr was one of the traders in the Four Lake country, dividing his attention between the traffic by which he made money and a small garden, that gave him and his Winnebago children a subsistence. His cabin served occasionally as a caravanserai, and something more, when travelers visited the lakes. Eventually St. Cyr sold out his improvements to Col. Slaughter, and retired to the Winnebago reservation in Iowa. His sons were considered w^orthless, even by the In- IN THE BEGINNING. 19 clians, and that atom of civilization was utterly erased. The F. F. y.'s would not trace their lineage to Poca- . hontas, if the husband of that lady had been domi- ciliated among the tribes, and if the result of that marriage had been given over to Indian customs and general training. Preliminary steps for the survey of the lands in this locality were taken by the general government in 1834, and before the end of the year, that duty had been comj^leted. The survey and plat of this city were made under special directions from Judge Doty, who had long before that time been impressed by the beauty of this site and its surroundings. The fur- ther proceedings of the early settlers must be dealt with in a future chapter. 20 HISTOIIY OF MADISON. CHAPTEK II. LOCATING THE CAPITAL. Settlement had made little progress when the ques- tion arose, " where shall we fix our capital ? " Suddenly, from all parts of the territory, arose the voice of in- domitable advocates, and when the first legislature was convened at Belmont, there was a display of log- rolling such as could hardly be excelled. Judge Doty, who had traversed nearly the whole territory on horseback or in his canoe, accoutred '' with his green blanket and shot gun," might have been trusted to make the selection, but for the fact, that he had long since decided in his own mind, and had joined with Gov. Mason of Michigan, in purchasing the site occupied by this city for $1,500. Fond du Lac, Dubuque, in Iowa, which was part of our territory, Portage, Belmont, Helena, Pacine, Milwaukee, Platte- ville. Mineral Point, Cassville, Green Bay, Kosh- konong, Belleview, Wisconsinapolis, Wisconsin City and Peru, were all advocated with unscrupulous zeal, and every one of the rival cities, many of which, like Madison, lived only on paper, had anxious friends who were ready to abandon their own chances for the time, to unite on any of the others, only to defeat the most dangerous competitor. Madison was, perhaps. LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 21 cliami^ioned in tlie same way as most of tlie otlier cities of the brain, but with more success. Corner lots were much in request, among the men w^hose votes coukl make or unmake a capital at Belmont, and lobbying was the rule. It is tacitly admitted by many, and openly stated by some, that Madison might not have been selected as the site, had not Judge Doty permitted many legislators and their bosom friends, a pecuniary interest in the venture which Gov. Mason and he had made. The majority in the legislative council, as it was, proved to be only one in an aggregate of thirteen, and in the house of representatives, only four in an aggregate of twenty- six. The margin was too small for comfort, but it was sufficient. Thus it happened, that after an exciting contest, the peninsula between the third and fourth of the Four Lakes was chosen as the home of our territorial government, and became the site of the handsome city which we claim has become the admired of all observers. The time in which this lively conflict occurred was especially full of land speculators. The public domain had enriched hundreds, and millions were hoping that the same process might cover all their needs forever. It was being realized in 1836 that there were blanks as well as prizes in the lottery, and a collapse was felt to be imminent. The founders of paper cities were snatching a new eloquence from despair, and this location of the capital was one of many schemes on which fortunes depended. The 22 HISTORY OF MADISON. elegance of some of the maps, tlie fervor of some of tlieir exj^ouiiders, might have charmed an impartial legislator, could a phenomenon so rare have been found in the territory of "Wisconsin, to record his vote for either of the projects. Happily, the proposi- tion of Judge Doty won a controlling interest, and three commissioners, chosen by joint ballot, were en- trusted with the task of selecting plans, making con- tracts and superintending the erection of the capitol. The sparse settlement of the territory generally, and of this section more particularly, cannot be better illustrated than by recording a few of the experiences of travelers, about the time of, and soon after the passage of the act which determined the seat of gov- ernment. The sessions of the legislative assembly were appointed to be held at Burlington, in Des Moines county, now Iowa, until March 4, 1839, unless the government buildings here should be completed earlier; and it was necessary to bring from a dis- tance every man that was wanted to assist in the work of preparation. The commissioners chosen for the task before named were Augustus A. Bird, acting commissioner, James Duane Doty, treasurer, and John F. O'l^eill. The sum aj)propriated for the erection was $20,000, a very small amount, considering the difficulties under which the work was to be under- taken, but help was expected from congress. In the month following the choice of commission- ers, that is to say in January, 1837, Madison was vis- ited from Milwaukee, by a young lawyer and land LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 23 surveyor, since known to fame as the Hon. Moses M. Strong, of Mineral Point, who from that time has been associated with the progress of Wisconsin l)y his identification with raih-oads, river improvements, and other piiblic works, as well as by repeated terms of service in various offices, and in the legislature of the territory, as member and president in the constitu- tional convention to form a state constitution, and in the house of representatives of the state, for some time speaker. Mr. Strong, accompanied by Mr. Marsh and Mr. Potter, explored this section of country, and after much trouble, found the locality on which the capitol now stands; but they were not quite so fortu- nate in discovering Michel St. Cyr's cabin, where they hoped to obtain quarters, so that they were com- pelled to pass the night without shelter or food for their horses or themselves, on the spot where Ashton post office now stands, in the town of Springfield. From that bivouac, the party made their course by the Blue Mounds to Mineral Point. Mr. Strong was em- ployed, in February of the same year, by Judge Doty, to survey and stake oiF capitol square, and some of the adjoining lots in this city, and the haste with which the work must needs be pushed through would not allow time to be lost in waiting for genial weather. Mr. John Catlin and Mr. George Messersmith accom- panied the surveyor on this expedition, and Mr. Josiah A. Koonan joined the party on the way. The com- missariat department was much better cared for than it had been in the preceding month, as Mr. Strong 24 HISTORY OF MADISOIS". and liis party stayed with St. Cyr, and were probably regaled witli tbe lialf-breed's standing dish, musk rat pie, while the actual survey was progressing. The several days journey to and from this city were thus recorded: The first day out from Mineral Point, the party reached Mr. John Messersmith's, just twelve miles east. On the 18 th of February, they called at Brigham's, where they procured provisions, and then pushed on to Haney's Creek, near the Cross Plains station on Black Earth Creek, spending that night at Steel's. The following day the j)arty arrived at St. Cyr's, early enough to permit of the work being com- menced. St. Cyr's place was so far from the scene of their labors, that the party camped out part of the time, despite the inclemency of the season, but heavy and incessant falls of snow compelled them to desist from their labors for many days, making the half- breed's cabin their headquarters. After completing their survey for the time, Mr. Strong and his party returned by way of Wallis Bowan's, who lived where Poynette now stands, about twelve miles south from Fort Winnebago. Going by the Wisconsin river, the party reached Helena, and thence struck across to Mineral Point. The scanty narrative indicates the nakedness of the land; but the work just accomplished led the way to the building of numerous habitations. Other travelers passing over various routes toward the mines, or with this city as their objective point, reveal the existence of Prairie Village where Waukesha now stands, and also the intermediate halting place at Fort LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 25 Atkinson, en route to the Catfisli river. Mr. Alex. F. Pratt and Mr. Augustns Story made tliat route in February, 1837, shortly after the survey party had set out on their return to Mineral Point, and the new comers had been twenty-four hours without food, when they left their camp near the present site of Dunkirk. The men who went exploring in those days had no reason to expect luxurious living. A few cold roast potatoes, unceremoniously found in a wig- wam from which the owners were absent, were con- sumed with abundant relish at noon after their long fast, and no other food was obtained until the next day, when they discovered St. Cyr's cabin on Fourth lake. The travelers had camped without supper, in a ravine near where the State University now stands. The savory musk rat was a treat, by comparison with such short commons, and the party started for Blue Mounds well prepared for a journey. Similar lodg- ings and fare would not now be considered tempting, but pioneer life does not encourage a too critical taste. More spacious and comfortable quarters were to be made ready on the site of Madison by Mr. Eben Peck and his wife, Kosaline. Two months only had elapsed since the second visit of the surveying party, when the Peck family started from Blue Mounds to open a pioneer boarding house here. The snow hacl not gone when Mr. Peck commenced the erection of his premises, on land bought immediately after the location of the capitol; but Mr. Catlin had already 26 HISTORY OF MADISON. caused a log liouse to be erected wliere tlie post office now stands. Owing to an accident, the interior of Mr. Catlin's honse was destroyed by fire before it conld be occupied; thus it happened that the Peck hosteh-y was the first residence in Madison. There were some rough and ready specimens of humanity then on hand in this region. Two French- men, who had associated with a party of Winnebago Indians in the Bhie Mounds during the winter, were emjDloyed to build the house, the work being superin- tended by Abraham Wood, who subsequently put up a saw mill at Baraboo. Wood was at that time liv- ing at Winnequah, then known as Strawberry Point, where he enjoyed the distinction of being the son-in- law of De Kaury, son of a Frenchman, a Winnebago chief. Wood bore an excellent reputation, but some of his surroundings were very hard cases. One of the Frenchmen was shot, in a dispute about land, by Berry Haney, a rival claimant, and generally, life was but cheaply held in those troubled times. Snow and the howling of wolves awakened Mrs. Peck from her slumbers in a tent, three miles from Madison, on Saturday, A]3ril 15, 1837, and she pushed on through the storm to the site of her more substan- tial dwelling, where she sat down under a tree in her wagon, twenty -five miles from the nearest white resi- dents at Blue Mounds, and nearly one hundred miles from the settlers at Milwaukee. The building was not far enough advanced to satisfy the demands of the hostess, and a temporary habitation was constructed, LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 27 to serve until the larger place could be comfortably floored and plastered. The little hotel was speedily crowded with guests. Milwaukee and far away ISTew York were represented by visitors, and even England had contributed its quota to the roll of occupants. The comforts of the establishment were substantial from the first, although necessarily the bill of fare consisted of such articles, as could be transported from considerable distances; but very soon the table was a marvel to beholders, and cleanliness, the first requisite towards elegance, was a welcome feature from the beginning. The grand dining room was as well ven- tilated as the winds of heaven could make it, the hos- pitable board being spread in the open air to meet the requirements of some fifteen new arrivals. Judge Doty, Col. Brigham and Commissioner Bird, with others whose names are historical, were frequent visi- tors, and the unfinished building was tapestried with bed sheets to furnish sleeping accommodations. The troubles incidental to pioneer housekeeping are always of interest to people living in the west, and, with few exceptions, the men who sought accommodation then in Madison made themselves completely at home, hunting, fishing and otherwise during their leisure, increasing the variety of the table. Judge, after- wards Governor, Doty gave an excellent example of helpfulness by assisting a party of amateur plasterers to make the kitchen habitable, and one day's work under his direction effected much. The cheery spirit thus indicated was worth more than all the material 28 HISTORY OF MADISON. aid, as it nerved the sturdy matron to master tlie sit- uation. Before long the sounds of gayety within that buikling would have been a surprise to the languid pleasure seekers in much more costly mansions. Really, at all times, the pleasure that can be found in palace or cottage depends upon glad hearts, and not n23on the presence of luxurious viands. Madison was then so great on various maps that it might well have been matter for surprise that tliG legislative assembly had been convened for its first ses- sion at Belmont, and for its subsequent sessions, until 1839, at Burlington, now in Iowa; but, as will readily be understood, it is far more easy to construct a city on paper than to build one on the solid earth. Castles in the air are very often erected before breakfast, but there is just one drawback, that nobody ever dines in such structures. Madison city was then, vide pros- pectuses, the metropolitan center of cities, corres- ponding to the seven hills of Rome, when, in fact, it was only a village in fuUtro. The beauty of the surrounding country, with its twelve lakes, might well have concentrated attention upon Dane county, and the four lakes in Yahara, or Catfish valley, lying almost in a direct line from northwest to southeast, could not fail to be recognized as the regal crown of all this natural loveliness. Ke- gonsa, or First Lake, lowest of the four bodies of water, covers five square miles, having a circumfer- ence of nine miles and a half, its longest diameter being over three miles, and its shortest fully two. LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 29 Waubesa, the Second Lake, is three miles and a half above Kegonsa, in the towns of Dunn and Blooming Grove. This lake has an average depth of twelve feet of crystal clear water, through which the pebbly bottom can be seen as if through glass. This beauti- ful sheet of crystal is three and a half miles long by about two miles across. Monona, the lovely Third Lake, is only seven-eighths of a mile above Waubesa, covering an area of six square miles, being six and a half miles long by two broad, and the strip of land which divides this lake from Mendota, the Fourth Lake, is the site of the capital of Wisconsin. The painter's pencil can alone do justice to the scene; words fail to convey an adequate conception of the picturesque effect which is mirrored to the brain, when an artist looks from the high ground, or still better, from the cupola of the capitol, upon the hills and lakes which seem to rival the loveliness of the moon and stars in the azure firmament under which they are now lying silvered before us. Mendota is by far the largest of the lakes, as it covers an area of more than fifteen and a half square miles. Its longest di- ameter is nine miles, and its breadth is fully six. Could the whole of the le£:islature have been brouo-ht to this spot in the spring or summer of 1836, it may be hoped that there would have been less scope for the log- rolling process at Belmont, in the succeeding winter, which came within one vote of negativing the propo- sition to make Madison the capital of the territory; but perhaps even then it would have been difficult foi LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 31 the tranquil cliarm of the scene to reach some of their minds through the dense fihn of local interest. The shores, banks and cliffs surrounding the several lakes present to the beholder almost every variety of scene, but want of space precludes an attempt at adequate description. The poet Longfellow thus writes con- cerning our lakes, in a contribution forwarded in Jan- uary, 1876, for " The Centennial Eecords of the Wo- men of "Wisconsin," a volume edited by Mesdames Anna B. Butler, Emma C. Bascom, and Katharine F. Kerr. THE FOUR LAKES OF MADISON. Four limpid lakes — four Naiades Or sylvan deities are these, In flowing" robes of azure dressed; Four lovely handmaids, that uphold Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold, To the fair city of the west. By day the coursers of the sun, Drink of these waters, as they run Their swift dim-nal round on high; By night the constellations glow. Far down their hollow deeps below. And glimmer in another sky. Fair lakes, serene and full of light. Fair town arrayed in robes of white, How visionary ye appear! AU like a floatmg landscape seems, In cloudland or the land of dreams, Bathed in a golden atmosphere. 32 HISTORY OF MADISON. The commissioners charged with the erection of the capitol building, in which the functions of govern- ment were to be undertaken, were not dilatory in commencing their duties, and by the tenth of June there were thirty-six workmen upon the ground, under the direction of Commissioner Augustus A. Bird. The party had traveled with their teams from Milwaukee, making their roads as they came, fording streams, and threading their devious way through occasional swamps, much of the time under a drenching rain, for just ten days, to effect a transit which is now daily accomplished in little more than four hours. The sun gleamed out once upon the travelers, and the spot, made glorious by that welcome illumination, has ever since been known as Sun Prairie. Other workmen speedily followed, and it is interesting to note, in their several narratives, the progress in settlement along the traveled route, as the summer wore on. Early in August there was a log house and an Indian camping ground at Prairieville, formerly Prairie Yillage, now Waukesha, and five miles beyond that location, a log house occupied by a family named Pratt, which had settled on 160 acres. Half a day's journey further on, some settlers of the name of Brown had taken up a quarter section, and about eight miles from the rap- ids of Bock river, near the site of "Watertown, were three brothers named Setchell, preparing homes for their families. A dam and sawmill were in course of erection at AYatertown, by Mr. Goodhue, and at Lake Mills the Atwoods had made a comfortable abode LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 33 just forty miles from tlie caj)ital. Settlement had made no nearer approach to Madison on that line of road, but the trail was well defined, and there was no difiicnltj in traveling where so many had already passed. The clear air of the capital, and the bustle of preparation, must have made the appetites of the workmen keen, as the records of the time continually mention expeditions to Galena and elsewhere, to re- plenish an often exhausted commissariat. Such crea- ture comforts as pork, flour, and some few luxuries, were dealt out with no sparing hand, as all testimo- nies go to show. The corner-stone was laid at the southeast corner of the capitol, on the 4th of July, 1837, and there was no lack of eloquence to celebrate the event ; but the press was not represented on the occasion, hence the speeches are not recorded. There was another celebration in November, when the foundation was completed and the stone w^ork ceased for the season. The money to pay the hands had to be brought from Green Bay; and Mr. Peck, who acted as courier in that emergency, swam several of the rivers, so that his wallet of paper money was somewhat dilapidated when he reached home. By ISTovember, 1838, the assembly and senate chambers were finished, but the plaster- ing was not dry, so that the sessions of the legisla- ture were held for a time in a new building, the American Hotel, erected at the corner of Pinck- ney street and Washington avenue, where the Park Savings Bank now stands, by Mr. A. A. Bird, the 3 34: HISTORY OF MADISOK. contractor for tlie capitol, and his partner, Mr. Mor- rison. Most of the workmen erected their own rude dwell- ings in the vicinity of King street, near the Third lake, immediately after their arrival ; but none of the buildings remain at this time. There was a very hearty and unanimous celebration on the 4th of July, 1837, and Mrs. Peck claims that there were from two to three hundred persons present, including the In- dian chief. Little Dandy and his party ; but Gen. Mills and Mr. Catlin believe there must have been a misap- prehension as to the extent of the gathering. The glorification lasted several days, and Madison has never entered with more general gusto upon the na- tional celebration than was realized on that occasion by the little handful of white men and their Indian allies. Probably some of the confusion that was subsequently found in the accounts of the commis- sioners was due to the spirit that pervaded the first and many subsequent convivialities. Under the act which provided for the building of the capitol, and appointed commissioners for the pur- pose, there was an appropriation of $20,000, to which congress added a like sum, making $40,000 in all, to complete the work; and there were explicit instruc- tions, under which the several commissioners were required to advertise for proposals, which would have, in some degree, guarantied the public against wrong. The commissioners agreed upon plans that were to cost more than the gross total available from both LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 35 sources of snpplj, and tlien deteriBined tliat tliey would not invite pnblic tenders for the work. Mr. Bird said, wlien examined on this qnestion, that he and his fellow commissioners believed that they conld get the work much more cheaply done than by regu- lar and comprehensive contracts. The work was car- ried on nnder this arrangement nntil April, 1S38; although proposals had been called for on two occa- sions, in September, 1837, and in February, 1838, and numerous bids had been received. The lowest bid received in February was $24,450, and from that sum the amounts varied up to $125,000; but Jas. Morrison, who was understood to be Bird's partner, had the contract for the completion of the building allotted to him, at $26,200. After the time had elapsed within which the contract should have been fulfilled, the legislature, during its session in 1839, held a convention of the two houses, and appointed other commissioners to supersede those who had acted up to that time. The new commissioners were ^N". C. Prentiss, Jas. L. Thayer and L. H. Cotton; but dis- putes and law suits continued to the end of the chap- ter. Mr. Daniel Baxter, who was in due course ac- cepted as the contractor to finish the work for which Mr. Morrison was originally engaged under commis- sioner Bird, was never paid what he considered his due for the services rendered. There were law suits between the first commissioners and the latter ap- pointees, and between the contractors and the legisla- ture, but little satisfaction for the public. There was 36 HISTOEY OF MADISON. one public servant who liad enjoyed excellent oppor- tunities in his professional career, as well as in the rep- resentative offices filled by him, to understand how the interests of the community had been treated; and he, the Hon. Moses M. Strong, before mentioned, charac- terized the proceedings of the commissioners first ap- j)ointed as being " as disgraceful to those concerned in it as it was destructive to the manifest intentions of congress. The appropriations amounted to $40,000. The commissioners, Messrs. Doty, 0']!^eill and Bird, received this large sum of money and .... exj)ended less than half that sum upon the public buildings. They entered into a secret partnership with the con- tractor in outside speculations, and had done little more than erect a shell of a capitol, scarcely capable of sustaining its own weight." Thus the first capitol building was raised in Wisconsin, and in this way the parties immediately involved showed their unfitness for the trust re230sed in them. But many things have to be considered in determining where, the blame should rest, and it is certainly significant that the commissioners retained the respect and confidence of their fellow citizens. The first meeting of the legislature in the city of Madison was held in the American Hotel on the 26tli of February, 1838, and Governor Dodge delivered his first message to the legislature in Madison in that building. • A committee reported that the hall and council chamber would be ready for the representa- tives and for the senate on the first day of March, LOCATING THE CAPITAL. 37 and after some little further delay tlie rooms were ac- tually occupied, but it was an act of liardiliood to at- tempt the transaction of business under such diffi- culties. Col. Childs, one of the members who was entrusted with the task of carpeting the rooms and rendering them habitable, has left a record of the sad condition of affairs, in which Contractor Morri- son's hosrs were better sheltered than the law makers for Wisconsin. If under such circumstances there were some efforts at log rolling, it may have been merely to maintain animal heat, by such exercise. The legislature adjourned for twenty days, to permit of the hall and chamber being rendered, in some de- gree, warm and comfortable. There was a difficulty in procuring hotel accommodation also, although there were now three houses where guests could be received. The Madison Hotel had two rooms that would lodge four persons each ; the Madison House also two rooms that would lodge six altogether, and the American Hotel had eight rooms, in which twen- ty-six members could find accommodation. The prices charged were high enough to satisfy the most fastidious, but in every other respect, there was abun- dant room for complaint. Happily the, pioneers were inclined to make the best of things as they were, al- though Judge J. G. Knapp asserts that six men were placed in a room, only sixteen feet square, in the Madison Hotel, and that the floors all over that pop- ulous establishment were nightly covered with shake downs, for transient visitors. Thus the task of locat- 88 , HISTORY OF MADISON. ing the caj^ital, erecting tlie government buildings, and assembling the first legislature in Madison, hav- ing been accomplished, we can relieve this oveiiong chapter from further duty, and turn our attention to- ward the new comers, whose j)resence had already en- livened the metropolis, and whose industrial efforts promised more for the future of the community than all that had been accomplished by log rolling and manipulation, in the speculative successes of the com- missioners and their attaches from the beginning. PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 39 CHAPTEK III. PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. The PIONEERS of our city were not the first settlers in tlie territory, now knowTi as Wisconsin, and there- fore we shall look outside our own borders to con- struct a sketch of the early days, which will connect the house of Eben Peck and his wife Kosaline, with the remote past, as well as with the present. The chief whose name is spelt by different writers in so many differing ways, De Kaury, Day-Kau-Ray, De- corrali, Decori, and otherwise, in every manner that will give even an approximation to the original sound, is said to have been the son of a French voyageur, or trapper, who had made his home among the Indians, giving rise to a succession of able men, who were in- fluential in the affairs of the tribes. One of that family, a Winnebago, surrendered Black Hawk to Gen. Street, the Indian Agent, at Prairie du Chien, after the close of the Black Hawk war in 1832. The Frenchman Pellkie — whose name is undoubtedly a corruption from the original, who assisted to build the first log house for Eben Peck — was officered by another resident among the Indians, named Wood, afterwards a mill owner, who had married into the family of a De Kaury. Some exquisite stories could 40 HISTORY OF MADISON. be written of the Four Lake country, connecting In- dians witli wliite men, in the days before the city of Madison was even imagined. One of the De Kaurys exercised the powers of a chief in this immediate lo- cality. Gray-headed Day-Kau-Ray or De Kaury, with a considerable force, met Gen. Atkinson at Portage, while Gen. Dodge was in the field during the troubles preliminary to the war, which was ended at the Bad Ax. They were various in their character- istics, as well as numerous and widely diffused, these Franco-Indian warriors and sachems. One-eyed De Kaury of La Crosse bore a good reputation, but an- other of the family was suggestively described as Rascal De Kaury. Mrs. Kinzie says that the mother of the race, a Winnebago, was alive in 1831, and sup- posed to be more than a century old. There were four or five brothers, of whom the Winnebago chief was one, and Washington — or Wau-kon — De Kaury another. One sister married a French trader named Lecuyer, another was twice married to Canadian French traders, named De Riviere and Grignon, and three married Indians. But enough about the De Kaurys. They were pioneers in this territory, busily eno^ao^ed in the war of 1812 on the side of the British, and the advent of white settlers was the prelude to their removal by death or transfer. Descendants from the Lecuyer marriage were united in wedlock with white settlers at Green Bay, and elsewhere, and pros- pered according to the customs of civilized life. Eben Peck and his wife came to the Blue Mounds, PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 41 where tliey rented the tavern stand o^vned by Col. Brigham, and boarded the old colonel and the hands emj)loyed by him. While so engaged, Mrs. Peek en- tertained Jndge and Mrs. Doty on one occasion, and the conversation turning npon Madison, where the location of the capital was yet recent, the jndge and his good lady made a promise, which was afterwards forgotten, apparently, that if Mrs. Peck was the first to commence housekeeping on the village site, she should have the best lot in the township, and also a present. Mrs. Peck was the first housekeeper, but it is probable that she did not care to recall the promise, which in the burry of afiairs, at that time, might easily have been forgotten by Judge Doty. Boarding honses must have been expensive and troublesome institutions to run, in the early days, as we find that flour fetched $17 a barrel in Milwaukee in 1838, iri*e- spective of the cost of freight, in the days when trav- elers made their own routes, and carried axes along to cut down the timber that blocked tlieir course. Pork cost as high as §33 per barrel, and potatoes $3 per bushel ; add thereto the cost of transfer, and the profits incidental to boarders must have been whittled down considerably. Some courage was wanted then to open an establishment, such as the Peck family meant to run, when Indian villages were the only habitations near, and deserted wigwams along the borders of the lakes and streams told of the red men who had flour- ished and faded in this locality. Until now the cabin of Michel St. Cyr had served all the purposes of a 42 HISTORY OF IMADISON. hostelry, and the old man liad not grown rich by en- tertaining his few and scattering guests. There was certain to be a much greater demand for hotel accommodation, because the capitol had to be soon erected, and visitors were sure to become more numerous as the works advanced, but the workmen, as the event proved, would build their own lodgings before long, and make arrangements among them- selves about cooking provisions. Travelers wdio came to see the country, to visit the mines, or to see the spots made famous by engagements during the Black Hawk war of five years before, seldom failed to visit Madison, which had charms of its own sufficient to justify a detour. Before long there were numerous hotels doing a prosperous business on the ground which had at first been exclusively possessed by Eben Peck's log house; and hundreds occupied their leisure in exploring the sparkling lakes, skirted with every kind of scenic beauty. Groves and meadows, sugges- tive of love in a cottage, capes, bluffs, ravines and prairies, the peninsula itself with its elevation seventy feet above the lakes, on which the capitol stands, now in the center of a lovely park, the undulating lines descending thence to rise again in numerous ridges, and most beautiful of all, in the grounds now occu- pied by the university, offered variety enough to grat- ify the most persistent searcher after loveliness. Mrs. Peck became the owner of a canoe which had been the property of an Indian chief, and Cleopatra never enjoyed her famous voyages, celebrated by the poets, 1837. 44 HISTORY OF :madisqn. more than did the few who were privileged to glide over the lakes of crystal in that vessel. Only to see that boat freighted with pleasure seekers was a delight equal to all that is realized by the average looker on in contemplating a regatta. The joy of the rowers, and the charms of the scene could not be surpassed. A picture painted by 0. A. Johnson, a fine and truth- ful representation of the first residence in Madison, with the canoe in the distance, is one of the most val- ued properties of the Historical Society, and an en- graving of that scene accompanies this sketch. The primitive looking dwelling was at one time quite a luxurious abode, on Butler- street, near the Lake House, now the Meredith House, not far from the Third Lake. The picture is a perfect reproduction of the reality, in almost every detail. Professor Chapman has recorded one fact wdiich should long since have been tested by experience, in the natural desire of the early settlers to vary the sup- plies on their table. He states on the authority of Mr. Easdall that the Indians used a root which grew in the marshes, as a substitute for potatoes, called by the red men no-ah-how-in. It was bulbous, but did not resemble arrow root. Mr. Rasdall said that hav- ing been cast ashore, without provisions, from Men- dota Lake, in 1835, while arranging a trading estab- lishment near the First Lake, he had subsisted on the root in question for ten days. The early settlers were not very speculative, as it appears that water for daily consumption was brought from the lakes until 1839, PIONEEES AND CELEBEITIES. 45 wlien tlie first well upon the plat was excavated on the American House lot, the labor being performed by two soldiers, James ISTevil and an Italian named "Whildean. Mi'. Darwin Clark, our fellow citizen, gives a vivid idea of the state of society in the sum- mer of 18 37, and while glancing thereat, we can un- derstand that a fully employed population, engaged upon a task wdiich must be finished in a hurry, and surrounded by hot blooded Indians, had little oppor- tunity for making j)ermanent imj^rovements, wdiich others would probably enjoy. That summer a party of Winnebagoes camped on the shore of the Third Lake, on the flat just below the Meredith House. During the continuance of the encampment, a quarrel occurred between two young Indians, one of whom stabbed the other, and from different sources we learn that the murderer sat on the body of his victim with perfect unconcern, smoking his pipe, as though mod- estly disclaiming special merit in a very creditable transaction. The white workmen, who were unaccus- tomed to look upon murder with satisfaction, were much incensed, and by way of warning that the knives of the red men must not be too freely brought in as umpires, they carried their rifles and shot guns to and from their work. The Winnebagoes took the hint in a proper spirit, and soon after left for parts unknown. The Indian stabbed as above described, was the brother- in-law of Pellkie's partner, another French Canadian, and, as stated elsewhere, Pellkie was himself shot on a subsequent occasion. There were consequently other 46 HISTORY OF MADISON. matters deserving attention besides digging wells, and seeking roots as substitutes for the potato. The vigorous action of the volunteers, who provided their owa. rifles and ammunition, may have prevented worse trouble. Public oj)inion, speaking through the rifle barrel, was a power which the red skins did not wish to provoke. About two weeks after the arrival of Mrs. Peck in Madison, a party of fifteen men came on from Mil- waukee via Janesville, and the work of the hostess be- gan in earnest. Commissioner Bird was one of the ar- rivals, and he was accomj)anied by hired hands wliose work had consisted in blazing and preparing a road by which other workmen and supplies would follow. It was important that proper tracks should be defined where so much trafiic must shortly occur and the act- ing commissioner was provident. The American Hotel, already mentioned, was built in 1838, and cir- cumstances gave that establishment an advantage over all competitors, for a time. It continued to be a place of considerable note, imtil it was destroyed by fire in 1868. The Madison Hotel also dated from 1838, but the structure was at first quite small. The territor- ial supreme court was organized in this building, in June, 1838, and held its first session here when the legislature assembled in the American Hotel. Gov. Dodge and many of the leading members of both houses made the Madison Hotel their headquarters. The structure belonged to Commissioner Bird, and was at first kept by his brother. The long continued efforts PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 47 of tlie other side to remove the seat of government from Madison found in this biiildino^ an unceasinfi: watch- fulness which could not be evaded. There were nu- merous hosts, after the hotel passed out of the hands of the Bird family, and the name was changed several times, but it w^as known by the old name at the last, in March, 1863. It was situated on King street on the present site of Dean's block. The establishment kept by Mr. and Mrs. Peck, has already been mentioned. The new comers, whose names and influence have been beneficially associated with Madison since that date, would defy enumeration, but there are some who cannot be omitted, from a record, however brief, which aims at any measure of completeness. The scene en- acted in plastering the kitchen of the Peck boarding house, in wdiich Judge Doty, Col. Brigham, and all the available masculinity of Madison, took part, is historical. The pioneers of Wisconsin were w^ell rej)resented and w^ell occupied on that occasion. One of the earliest yisitors from abroad, was an Eng- lish geologist named Featherstonehaugh, afterwards a British consul until his death in 1866, and he pro- voked the ire of his hostess at a later date, by some ill-mannered jokes and very unnecessary criticisms, about Mrs. Peck and the accommodations obtained in her pioneer restaurant, which were published by him in London. There is unexceptional testimony, from a witness no less reliable than Gen. Mills, that Mrs. Kosaline Peck made excellent coffee, a point expressly denied by the earliest writer whose lucu- 48 HISTORY OF MADISON. brations concerning Madison, were puMislied in Europe. The somewliat vulgar and untrustworthy book served its purpose in procuring him a govern- ment appointment under the British crown, so that Madison helped at least one man to fortune. Before the days of Feather stonehaugh, there had been celebrities in Wisconsin, and not a few of them had stood where the capitol has since been erected. Capt. Jonathan Carver may have been a visitor to this precise locality, certainly he was for some time in the lake country. Gen. Dodge, who came occasionally to the capital, in discharging his official duties as governor, was in that way a Madisonian, and it is no small matter that we should be identified with the man whose conduct of the war did most toward effecting the defeat of Black Hawk in 1832. Col. Zachary Taylor was for some time in command of the troops in Prairie du Chien, and while there, a young lieutenant, Jefferson Davis, was sparking the daughter of the commandant, so that there were two celebrities in Wisconsin ; the one destined to become president of the United States, after serving the country for many years in the field with " rough and ready " effective- ness, and to die of the turmoil of political life; the other, to lose by ill-directed ambition, the repute won as a soldier, and to find the grave of his success in the presidency of the confederation whose ruin it was liis fortune to survive. Both officers rendered good ser- vice in the Black Hawk war until the end was reached in the battle of the Bad Axe on the second of August, PIONEERS AND CELEBEITIES. 49 1832. But for tlie vigor witli wliicli the United States troops and. volunteers fought then, in vindication of the faith to be placed in treaties, and in defense of property and life, there might have been no Madi- son on this peninsula. In that sense the men named were pioneers. The Hon. John Catlin was essentially among the first comers. He was one of the party that accom- panied the surveyor, Moses M. Strong, to survey and plat the town, and a lot purchased by himself, the site of the present post office, was utilized by him by the erection thereon of a log house, long used as the post office store. That building was the first erected in Madison, as it was commenced some time before Eben Peck began his structure; but an accident destroyed the interior of the building, a fire having been by some means originated, and in consequence the prime- val log house was not the first residence. Mr. Catlin was the pioneer jpar excellence. He was a Green Mountain boy, as he came from Orwell, Vermont. HeVas a partner with Mr. Strong in the law business at Mineral Point in 1836, and clerk of the supreme court. He became postmaster in this city in 1837. Pe- moved from office by Gen. Harrison, he was reappoint- ed by President Tyler. Subsequently he served as chief clerk of the house of representatives ; was district attorney for Dane county, and judge at a later date ; in 1846, he became secretary of the territory. Mr. Catlin was a good citizen and an able man of business, and his genial manners secured him a wide circle of friends. 50 HISTORY OF MADISON. Hon. Simeon Mills ranks in tlie same category, with this difference, that he still remains in onr com- munity. Born in I^orfolk, Litchfield county, Conn., in February, 1810, he is now in his sixty-seventh year, and he has spent his lifetime in Wisconsin since attaining the age of twenty-five. Mineral Point was his first abode in this territory, but immediately after the loca- tion of the capital, he moved to this city when there was only one house upon the ground, and on the 10th of June, 1837, he commenced a small building of hewed logs, in which to begin business as a storekeeper. For five years from 1837, Mr. Mills carried the mails to and from this city for the government, and about the same time the responsible duties of a justice of the peace were imposed upon him by Gov. Dodge. Numerous offices of honor and emolument have since that date been conferred on Mr. Mills. He was one of the commissioners for Dane county upon its organ- ization in 1839; clerk of the United States district court; territorial treasurer; first senator for Dane county; one of the regents engaged in the organiza- tion of the state university, and subsequently pay- mastei- general of the state during the war, from 1861. The record left by Gen. Mills, in every relation of his well spent life, reflects credit on one of the oldest pioneer families in Dane county, and his industry has contributed, in no small degree, to the prosperity and growth of the city. Darwin Clark came to this city with acting com- missioner Bird, in the spring of 1837, to commence nONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 51 work as a cabinet maker on the capitol, and since tliat time lie lias been a resident in Madison, holding many offices of trust with honor to himself, and conducting for many years a very extensive business. He was born in Otsego county, N". Y., in May, 1812, in which state he also married his first wife. He set out for the west when twenty-five years of age, to make a home where there would be better opportunities than in the crowded east. The pioneers had among them few more estimable men. A young mechanic of mark in the earlj^ days, when there was only one family in Madison, and growling up with the place, figuring in its gayeties in the first New Year's festivities, which lasted two days, a guest at the first wedding wdien a young woman in Mrs. Peck's household became the wife of Jairus S. Potter, his name is interwoven with most of the early celebrations, as w^ell as with many later responsibilities. The community was very limited when that mar- riage occurred, on the 1st of April, 1838, and the bet- ter half was held in high esteem. Gen. Simeon Mills, not then holding military rank, but a prosperous store- keeper, and in office, rose betimes to gather an early bouquet of wild flowers to grace the occasion. The spring, in honor of the event of course, came early, or that feature would have been wanting from the festi- val. The wedding ceremony was performed by Mr. Eben Peck, in his capacity as justice of the j^eace, and when the dance followed, the better half of the Peck family played on the violin, assisted by Luther, her 52 HISTOEY OF MADISON. husband's brother, according as the exigencies of the time demanded. Mrs. Peck played well, but she danced well also, and there were so few ladies to take the floor that one could hardly be spared to form the orchestra. The disparity of the sexes was happily ex- pressed by Mrs. Peck: " You cannot call it succotash; there was too much corn for the beans." Both bride and bridegroom have since passed away, but the mem- ory of the event is part of the domestic history of the city. Mrs. Prosper B. Bird was present, and she yet remains to honor and grace- our community, a living memento of a time from which sad memories, mingled with few delights, yield a gentle perfume as of bruised but never dying flowers. Mr. Potter died in Madi- son, somewhere about the year 1841. His wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Allen. There were two Potters then in the village, Jairus, known as " Long Potter," for he was a man of great altitude, and Hor- ace, whose more stunted proportions caused him to be known as " Short Potter." Miss Allen, after consid- ering "the long and the short of it," did not follow the maxim "of two evils choose the least," conse- quently there was more husband in her home than in any other household near the capitol. Darwin Clark was good for many things, besides, being good com- pany, in the early days, as thank goodness, he still re- mains. In the summer of 1837, when Wm. A. Wheeler came here to erect a steam saw mill west of the foot of Butler street, on the bank of lake Mendota, the young cabinet maker was able to give valuable PIONEERS AND CEI.EBRITIES. 53 assistance toward tlie erection of tlie works; and althongli owing to the fact that the engine and ma- chinery had to be brought from Detroit, operations were not commenced until nearly the end of the year ; much of the timber used in the old cajDitol was sawed in Wheeler's mill. The McDonalds, the Smiths, and others whose names have escaped us, who mingled in the throng when Commissioner Bird and his wife led off in the " Virginia reel " or "Hunt the squirrel," will never have for us more than a phantom existence, as they "come like shadows, so depart ;"' but friend Clark is a reality. The days in which Judge Doty, treasurer of the board of commissioners, came in from Green Bay with specie and currency to pay the men, guarded by Capt. John Symington and a squad of soldiers from Fort Howard, were not without their charm; more especially when we see the commissioner laying aside the pomp of office to stand sponsor at the informal christening of the first white child born in Madison; and editor Sholes, who was then in his company, must have been favorably impressed by our band of pio- neers. Some four years later we find the Hon. C. C. Sholes identified with the publication of the Enquirer newspaper, the material of which journal was eventu- ally removed to Milwaukee from this city. Mr. Sholes was more actively identified with Kenosha. The name most intimately associated with our early press is that of the Hon. George Hyer; but his work in that capacity will appear in reviewing our news- 54: HISTORY OF MADISON. paper historj. He was one of our pioneers, and be- fore Madison was platted, lie had accustomed liimself to thread his devious track through the woods, having on one occasion made his way from Milwaukee to Green Bay, and on another in 183 7, from the same starting ]3oint to Rock river settlement, when he was specially sworn in by old Solomon Juneau to carry the mail. In the earliest apportionment of offices for Dane county, the name of John Stoner occurs as treasurer, and that of R. L. Ream, father of the famous Yinnie Ream, a Madisonian, as register of deeds. Ream succeeded to the old log house erected by Eben Peck, after another residence had been built for that family. Gen. Geo. P. Delaplaine was surveyor. Col. Bird was the first sherifi*, William A "Wheeler, assessor, Adam Smith, collector, and the three commissioners were, Simeon Mills, Eben Peck and Jeremiah Lycan, with LaFayette Kellogg for clerk. The father of Yinnie Ream assumed the management of the pioneer ^'Tavern Stand," as Mrs. Peck phrases it, when Eben and his wife gave their attention to farming, unfor- tunately for themselves, cultivating a piece of land which had been deeded to them by mistake. The change was made in the spring of 1838, and the birth place of the sculptress was torn down in 1857, after twenty years of peculiarly eventful service. The old Madison House, the picture of which we preserve, was, imder the presidency named, the resort of the aristo- cracy of "Wisconsin, and it long continued to be the PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 65 stage house. According to Judge Knapp, the charges were not very moderate, as " two feet by six of floor could be had for the night," only upon payment of " two pence per square foot," and " the weary traveler might spread his own blanket, using his saddle or portmanteau for a pillow, rejoicing that he had so good a bed." The other hotels w^ere no more sump- tuous than Keam's, as in all of them, the lakes, the w^oods and the slow coming " prairie schooner," were drawn upon liberally to supply the table. Sleeping accommodation was at a premium everywhere, even after the American Hotel, the largest on the ground, was raised. The first treasurer of Dane county, John Stoner, was born in Washington county, Maryland, in 1791, consequently, when he died in this city, in 1872, he w^as in his eighty-first year. He served in the war of 1812, and was one of the early arrivals in Madison village. His pioneer log cabin Avas in the second ward, standing on the lot now occupied by the church of Norwegian Lutherans. The old landmarks are nearly all eftaced, so far as they were raised by men in the springs and summers of 1837-8. The log house on the marsh is gone, the first frame house built in the city at the southwest corner of Wilson and Pinck- ney street, for J. S. Schermerhorn, has given place to a large two story brick dwelling. The old steam mill on the bank of the lake is so entirely gone that it is not easy to find even a trace of its foundations. A grey sandstone slab, erected to mark the spot where a 56 HISTORY OF MADISON. carpenter named S. "Warren was buried in 1838, hav- ing been killed by lightning in that summer, cannot be found. " Chief Justice of the Peace, Seymour," who is mentioned in a very pleasant and appreciative way in " Keminiscences of Madison," by Judge Knapp, loomed large in our early days, at once a pioneer and a celebrity. Mrs. Peck mentions him as possessed of a feather bed, once her property, and containing ^'over thirty pounds of fresh geese feathers," so that he had ideas of luxury. Judge Pratt says, that " his pipe was part of the man; with that in his mouth, he was clerk in the commissioners' store, kept books, dealt out silks and dry goods, tea and powder; was surveyor of the to^vn plat, only he read the degrees and minutes at the wrong end of the needle ; tried causes, civil and criminal, administered justice, min- gled largely with equity and common sense All knew he was the Gazette^ the very latest edition, and he had under his special care all the affairs of town, state and church A dreadful sickness came upon him and Seymour lost his pipe, the city losing its best guardian." Gov. Dodge appointed Seymour justice of the peace, upon the recommendation of Eben Peck, when Dane county was organized, and the com- missioners set about bridging the Cat sh, and cie t- ing the jail, reducing " the bounty on wolves' scalps," to render their funds available for such works as have been suggested. AYm. '^. Seymour published a direc- tory of Madison, a copy of which is in the liands of ^ PIONEEKS AND CELEBKITIES. 57 the Historical Society. He has lived to see several other works of a similar character, but none of them more interesting than his own. The stroke of paraly- sis under which he fell in J^ovember, 1859, has not deprived him of the satisfaction of witnessing the steady growth of the city, the infant steps of whose village days were in part guided by himself. His form is well known on the streets, and most of the old pioneers can tell of some good deed in his career, which retains for him a pleasant place in their mem- ories. The Masonic fraternity stood by the " Chief Justice of the Peace " in his affliction, and by their aid he is comfortably circumstanced. Gen. Geo. P. Delaplaine was county surveyor. We find him on the Fourth of July, 1839, reading the JeiFersonian Declaration, when William T. Sterling was orator of the day, and the music on the occasion was anything but first class. The dinner that day consisted of bacon and fish, with the addition of much whisky. Customarily the dinner comprised fish and bacon with less whisky. The celebration lasted three days. The pioneer Geo. P. Delaj)laine came from Milwaukee to clerk in Jas. Morrison's store, and his ability no less than his high character soon made him master of the situation. His name stands honorably identified with most of the movements in early days for the advantage of Madison. Another of the early pioneers whose life has been honorable to the community, although there are no brilliant deeds to be pointed to in his career, is Mr. E. M. Williamson, 58 HISTORY OF MADISON. of Pinckney street, one of our earliest school teachers, and identified with the establishment of the Episco- pal church, which will be found more particularly mentioned elsewhere. Many names that should have had notice have been omitted, but that is inevitable because of our limitations. The position and labors of Mr. and Mrs. Peck have already been briefly indi- cated. Eben Peck started overland to California when the gold fever spread over this w^estern country, and it is supposed that he was slain by the Indians on the jDlains, but there is no record of his death, and it is claimed that he was heard from at a later date. His wife, a brave and able woman, has written many piquant papers, descriptive of pioneer life, in which her own experiences made her proficient. In her house the earliest visitors to Madison found a home, in her dining room the gayeties of several seasons found their earliest expression. Her husband as jus- tice of the j^eace united in the bonds of wedlock the first coujDle lawfully married in this city, and after the irrevocable knot had been tied, as we have seen, the violin of the justice's lady gladdened the hearts of the assembled throng while they threaded the mazes of the dance. In the old log house was born Miss Wisconsiana Yictoria Peck, the first child that saw the light in this city, concerning whose christen- ing some ^particulars are given. Mrs. Peck and her husband were the pioneer settlers, and subsequently the lady became the first settler in Baraboo, where she still resides. PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 59 Mrs. Prosper Eiirgoyne Bird, formerly Miss Hewitt, another of our pioneers, came of good revolu- tionary stock, and was one of the most valued of our early residents. Her husband built a house for her in tlijs city, while she remained in Milwaukee. There was only one house in Janesviile when the lady came through to her destination. The party had seen enough of pioneer life to have discouraged most people, before they left Milwaukee. "While they were neighbors of " Old Solomo," as the Indians al- ways called Col. Juneau, they witnessed an election, in which the principal argument used in favor of the successful ticket was a dipper placed in a barrel of whisky, by the founder of the Cream City. The po- tency of such logic was manifested in the fact that a §ober man could hardly be found in the settlement at the close of the day. The first boat launched on Lake Michigan, '^The Juneau," kissed the water while Mrs. Bird w^as remaining in Milwaukee. The party set out on their road altogether, but at the last mo- ment Mr. Bird, having business to transact on account of the capitol, for the building of which his brother was acting commissioner, returned to the village, leavino- his courageous wife to prosecute the journey without his guidance, until sundown the following day. The ferryman at Janesviile was not at home, so the little band went round by Beloit, where there were two log houses, one on each side of the river. The home provided for their accommodation was an uninclosed frame building, on the street now known as Webster 60 HISTORY OF MADISON. street, on lot eight, and the bnilding was not com pleted nntil April, 1838. During part of the inter- val, Mrs. Bird resided in a log honse on the site where Kentzler's livery stable now stands, and after- wards moved into the old log boarding house near Mr. Pyncheon's residence. There were, when Mrs. Bird arrived in the village, only four log houses; that built for Mr. Catlin, and partly consumed by fire; that occupied by Mrs. Peck, and known long after as the Madison House; the residence of Mr. Stoner, already mentioned; and one other of less note. Such an addition to the village was im- portant. The workmen engaged upon the capitol boarded with the newly arrived housekeej)er, and there were rough times and hard work for all hands when she began her pioneer experience in this locality. In Mrs. Bird's mother's home the first death in the new settlement occurred from typhoid fever, and the second happened from her own house having been struck by lightning. The cemetery then in use forms now a part of the university grounds. The Bird family was one of the most numerous and energetic among the pioneers, but a volume would be required to re- cord their several fortunes and adventures. Col. Wm. B. Slaughter, whose eloquence is still the pride of his fellow townsmen, was born in 1797, in Culpepper county, Yirginia, and came to reside in Green Bay in 1835, where he was appointed register of the land office. While serving as a member of the PIONEERS AND CELEBRITIES. 61 legislative council of Micliigan, wliicli assembled at Green Bay in tlie winter of that year, lie initiated tlie memorial for the organization of Wisconsin. About the same date, he entered the lot held by St. Cyr, near this city, and gave the half-breed $200 for his im- provements. When the capital was located, he made his residence where the City of the Four Lakes was platted by M. L. Martin, Judge Doty and himself, and continued a resident until 1845, when Yirginia attracted him to his old home. On the commence- ment of the war, the colonel was appointed commis- sary and quarter-master by the president; and now, nearly eighty years of age, he is one of the most active and . intellectual of the residents in this city. There are but few men to be found who, from their personal experience, know more about Madison from the beginning. Soon after the capitol was commenced, and when Commissioner Bird's residence was small and cold. Sheriff Cliilds from Green Bay mentions a visit to Col. Wm. B. Slaughter's, on the west bank of the Fourth Lake, near Pheasant Branch. Long before this time, all the land business of the territory had passed through the colonel's hands at Green Bay. "When the location of the capital was under debate, and long before it came to the vote. Col. Slaughter made arrangements with St. Cyr, under which the half-breed enabled the colonel to enter the tract in the summer or autumn of 1835, and he subsequently conveyed an interest to Judge Doty, with the hoj)e that the capital would be there located. The arrange- 62 HISTORY OF MADISOX. ment witli Gov. Mason of Micliigan, and tlie purchase of the peninsula for $1,500, wrecked Col. Slaughter's project, seeing that he was absent in the south while the session was being held at Belmont, upon w^hich the location turned. Sheriff Childs, already men- tioned, says that the votes which determined the mat- ter were those cast by representatives who knew that their several localities would be erected into a distinct territory soon afterwards. Iowa had six councilmen and representatives, so that the influence of the out- siders really determined the issue, and the country west of the Mississippi was separately organized with little delay. Childs says that the town plat of Madi- son was divided into twenty shares, and that he was offered one share for $200, apparently w^ith the hope that he would in that way be induced to vote for the location. His Roman virtue was equal to the emer- gency, and Green Bay was pleased with the course taken by him. Col. Slaughter's site had been very wisely chosen, upon the historical ground where Gen. Dodge held his " talk" with the Winnebagoes, when the Black Hawk war had begun, and after Stillman had sustained his defeat. Josiah A. Koonan did not come to our territory until the year 1838, and in 181:0, removed to Milwau- kee, whence, still later, he migrated to Chicago to take charge of the Industrial Age; but as the founder of the first newspaper issued in this city, the Wisconsin Enquirer^ he must have a place among our pioneers. The first press and printing materials PIONEEES AND CELEBEITIES. 63 boiiglit for this enterprise, were thrown overboard, off Mackinaw, in Lake Huron, in a storm, on the voyage from Buffalo to Green Bay, and in consequence the Racine Argus^ with its material, was purchased and removed, to do duty in the caj^ital. The paper was published on King street, in a room over the commissioners' store, and eventually some of the ablest journalists in the state were identified with its career. C. C. Sholes became a partner in the paper in 1839, as is elsewhere mentioned, and it lived until June, 1843, taking an active part in all public affairs until its death. Judge Knapp was for some time its editor. That gentleman has left on record a brief description of the Fourth of July celebration in 1839, and according to his winged words, there was no lack of spirit among the celebrants. There was an oration, and the declaration in proper order, but a liberal sup- ply of "Pecatonica" and "Eock River," the latter a peculiarly strong water, with an orchestra consisting of two violins and a flute, filled every soul with mar- tial music. A fat steer which had been brought to grace the tables of the citizens on the Fourth, was forgotten until three days later, when the keg was empty, and there was then but little superfluous fat upon the bones of the delayed sacrifice. It must not be supposed that all the citizens were affected by " old rye," but the carrier, who had brought the steer, had kept the secret of its whereabouts, until his senses were sobered by the emptying of the keg. Abel Rasdall cannot be utterly omitted from a 64 HISTORY OF MADISON. record of our pioneers ; his bravery during the troubles and his good faith at all times, entitle him to be men- tioned, but he has been referred to at large in the first chapter, as will be remembered. The schoolmaster was in request, but the number of pupils was not great. Mr. Edgar S. Searle taught school in the summer of 1830, and was followed by Mr. E. M. Williamson, mentioned among our pio- neers, w^ho had six pupils. Mr. Williamson taught at the corner of Pinckney and Dayton streets, in a very primitive building, and his love for the task, which was continued until 1842, must have been much greater than his remuneration. Mr. Theodore Conkey succeeded him in the winter of 1842. Miss Pierce was at the same time engaged in the tuition of girls in an old building near the spot where Dean's block is now standing. Another step in the same direction, aiming at the improvement of adults, was an associa- tion for church purposes, entered into in July, 1839. The instrument of association indicated the establish- ment of a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church as the object of the members. There were sixteen signatures to the document. THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 65 CHAPTEE lY. THE STATE UNIVERSITY. The example set by tlie Pilgrim Fathers in 1636, in preparing for the foundation of Harvard, less than sixteen years after their landing on this continent, has been fruitful in suggesting like works all over the Union. An endowment of public lands for a sem- inary in "Wisconsin was provided by an act of con- gress which was approved on the the 12th of June, 1838. The land thus given amounted to 46,080 acres. Prior to the passage of the congressional act, and an- ticipating its provisions, the territorial legislature, in January, 1838, prepared to incorporate the University with all the powers and limitations common to such institutions. The first quorum of the board of visitors stands on record as having met pursuant to adjournment, Decem- ber 1, 1838, when Henry L. Dodge and John Catlin were chosen treasurer and secretary. Col. Slaughter was one of the most active members, and the requisite steps devolving upon the board were fulfilled. Re- gents were appointed, and an act was passed specifi- cally incorporating the ^University, immediately after the inauguration of the state government, in 1848. The first board consisted of John Bannister, Hiram 5 QQ HISTORY OF MADISON. Barber, Alex. L. Collins, Julius T. Clark, Henry Bryan, Edw. Y. "Whiton, John H. Rountree, Eleazer Root, Simeon Mills, Rufus King, Thos. W. Sutlier- land and Cyrus Woodman. Four of tlie members were nominated for six years, and the others were ap- pointed, four for four years and four for two only; their successors thereafter to hold office for six years. The present site of the University was purchased from Mr. Aaron Yanderpool of 'New York, on the 17th of October, 1848, subject to the approval of the legisla- ture; and a building in the village of Madison, erected as a private venture for the purposes of an academy, having been tendered to the regents, rent free, by the citizens, it was determined to open the " department of science, literature, and the arts," by means of a preparatory school, on the first Monday in February, 1849, under the superintendence of Prof. John W. Sterling. The next step was the election of John H. Lathrop, LL. D., as chancellor of the University, at a \ salary not to exceed $2,000. The preparatory school was opened at the time named, with twenty pupils under Professor Sterling and Chancellor Lathrop. The cabinet of natural history was formed by Horace A. Tenney, who rendered his services as agent free of cost, and gave excellent aid to the institution at all times. The formal inauguration of the chancellor took place on the 16th of January, 1850, and buildings were erected, the north dormitory in the following year and the south dormitory in 1854, from the in- THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 67 come of tlie University fund. In the same year the first class, consisting of Levi M. Booth and Chas. T. Wakeley, graduated. The intention of congress in granting a liberal en- dowment of public lands to the University was to a great extent defeated by manipulations in the legis- lature, under which the lands were appraised at very inadequate prices, and so passed into the hands of speculators and others, who became the recipients of advantages which should permanently have assisted the intellectual culture of the community. Under such injurious action on the part of honorable mem- bers, some of the best lands in the state were pre- empted, or otherwise obtained, at less than one-fourth of their actual value, and the authorities of the Uni- versity were powerless to defend the interests entrust- ed to their charge. The fund necessary for Univer- sity purposes being thus rendered inadequate, con- gress was once more approached, and mainly in con- sequence of the exertions of Gen. Simeon Mills, a further grant of seventy-two sections was obtained. Mr. Tenney, already favorably known by his services, se- lected the lands thus given for the purposes of learn- ing. The selections made by Mr. Tenney were among the choicest lands in the state, and although there was some delay in reporting them at "Washington, in con- sequence of which private j)arties j^rocured many of the best, other lands fully equal were eventually pro- cured. Once more the legislature using its powers defeated the express design of the endowment, by ap- 68 HISTORY OF MADISON. praising the picked lands of the state at $3.00 per acre, reducing a property which was well worth $500,000 to a selling valne of only $138,240. Even then the designs of the manipulators were not ex- hausted, as it was found that by pushing the lands into sale by auction, away from the centers of population, still lower prices could be made to rule, and yet the representations made by the institution were without avail. Even worse, during the summer session of 1854: a bill was hurried through one house, and came very near j^assing the other, under which all the lands sold, and to be sold, in the interests of the State Uni- versity, some of which ranged as high as $30.00 per acre in value in open market, should be subject to patent at $1.25, and that all moneys already paid in excess of that amount should be refunded. A propo- sition more shameful was never submitted to a legis- lature; but Mr. Tenney, then reporting in the house, and a number of members acting with him, by whom he was called upon for a statement, only succeeded in defeating the nefarious project by two votes. Two purposes were served by the members who voted for the despoilment of the University: one, the enrich- ment of individual speculators, and the other and more justifiable design was the encouragement of immigration. Precisely similar tactics were pursued when the Agricultural College act was passed by congress in 1862; but no good purpose can be served by recapitulating discreditable details. The Eegents of the University faithfully discharged their duties THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 69 in the premises, and at lengtli, in 1872, procured the passage of an act granting from the state a sum of $10,000 per annum, as compensation to the Univer- sity. That amount was not an equivalent for the loss, but it was something to have procured a recognition of the principle, that the lands granted by the federal government for purposes of education, should not have been sacrificed in pursuance of personal gain, or in carrying out schemes to promote immigration, in the lower interests of the territory and state. The le«:islature acted for some considerable time as though the funds accruing from the sales of land granted for the University by congress were, in fact, taxes levied upon the state, and in consequence there were dark days and great causes for discontent among the- promoters of learning in this city; but thanks to a more enlightened spirit wdiich now prevails among the directors of the j)ress of the state, and in the main, among the people at large, a better understanding has. been reached. The fact that the University was doing its best under the disadvantages incidental to want of funds, during the dark and troubled times, is now admitted on all hands; and it is too ap2>arent to re- quire comment, that the cause of that poverty con- sisted in the breach of trust of which legislators were guilty. A bill aiming at the reorganization of the University was introduced, and came near passing both houses of the legislature in 1858. The chan- cellor of the institution, taking up the leading ideas of that measure, carried out most of the proposed al- 70 HISTORY OF MADISON. terations during tlie same year, witli tlie concurrence of tlie board of regents. Chancellor Lathrop sug- gested the several changes apparently demanded by the public, and in j)ursuance of the change, resigned his position as chancellor, which was afterwards filled by Henry Barnard, LL, D., who united therewith the duties of professor of normal instruction. Chancellor Lathrop was elected professor of ethical and political science, but he subsequently resigned his office, and w^as reelected to the position he had previously filled as president of the University of Missouri. Beyond doubt, that gentleman fell a sacrifice to circum- stances not properly chargeable to himself; but his retirement, and the change of administration conse- quent thereupon, permitted the complete establish- ment of a good understanding between the people and their most valuable institution. The new scheme originated by the retiring chancellor was, in effect, a full recognition of the right of the people to control the University, and it devolved upon them the fullest share of responsibility. Chancellor Barnard was unable to attend to the duties to which he had been called, thus the scheme which was to have united the University with the normal school system of the state failed completely. Eventually, in consequence of continued ill health, his resignation was accepted in January, 1861. The civil war, and the stress upon every department of the state, joined to the diminution of the number of students, rendered a reduction of expenditures inevitable. Prof. THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 71 Jolm W. Sterling was made dean of the faculty, with the powers of chancellor, and schemes of retrenchment were adopted which enabled the University to continue its operations, without asking aid from the legislature, during the war. The University was largely repre- sented in the army, and a military company was formed among the students, which has eventuated in the establishment of a military department, giving effect to an excellent suggestion made to the re- gents by the faculty. The drill undertaken to secure military efficiency has conferred mental as w^ell as physical vigor. In the year 1864:, all the class was in the field, and for the first time during ten years, there was no commencement. A normal department was opened in 1863, under the care of Prof. C. H. Allen, and the result was in every way satisfactory. The apprehension commonly ex- pressed, that the introduction of ladies would lower the standard of culture, has been proved groundless. Prof. Pickard succeeded to the control of that department in 1866, when the " female college " was established, which continued until 1873, since which time all de- partments of the University have very properly been thrown open to both sexes, without those invidious distinctions, which too long have evidenced the want of genuine culture among men. Gifts made to the institution bv c^enerous citizens, have done much to increase its efficiency. Gov. Jas. T. Lewis made a donation to enable the board of regents to bestow an annual prize. The amount was 72 HISTORY OF MADISON. only $200, but the regents having invested the fund, were enabled in June, 1874, to offer a prize of §20, which sum is to be awarded every year, under the name of " the Lewis prize," to the writer of the best essay, received in the competition of that year. The Scandinavian library, known as "" Mimers library," was a contribution from private individuals in 1868, through the agency of Prof. R. B. Anderson. The col- lection now aggregates about one thousand volumes of Scandinavian literature, and its value can hardly be stated. The world-famous Ole Bull was induced by Mr. Anderson to increase the library fund by giving a concert in the assembly chamber, and the sum thus obtained was very advantageously expended in IS^or- way by the professor, who made a voyage thither in 1872 for the purpose, and procured at the same time valuable contributions from some of the ablest pro- fessors and most distinguished Norwegian scliolars. The books obtained by the several means indicated render the Scandinavian library one of the best in the United States. The " Johnson student's aid fund " was in part due to the same agency. The sum given by the Hon. John A. Johnson, some time senator for this district, is $5,000, the interest of which is to be applied from the time of the donation, 1876, until the end of the present century, to assist indigent Scandi- navian students, with sums not to exceed $50 per an- num in any individual case, nor to aggregate more than $200 in the aid afforded to one person ; with this further proviso, that in every case the student assisted 74 HISTOEY OF MADISON. shall understand that the advance is a loan, and not a gift, and that whenever it may be in his power, he shall be expected to re^aj the sum to the fund, to in- crease its efficiency for future operations. On and after the end of this century the fund will be available for all students, irrespective of nationality, on pre- cisely similar terms. Clearly, the object of the donor is to break down whatever barriers may at present ex- ist, to the complete unification of the I^orse element in our j)opulation with the great body of the peoj^le, made u^^ of all the nations of the world. It would be difficult to imagine a form in which enlightened mu- nificence can more elegantly express itself, than by such contributions to the improvement of the State University, and it is gratifying to observe that other persons are preparing to follow in the path thus nobly indicated. Most of the universities and scholastic in- stitutions in Euroj)e have been enriched by just such acts of individual munificence, generally by way of bequests, taking eff*ect upon the death of the donor. The state bestowed upon the University the building which had been occupied as the soldiers' orphans home, with the intention that it should be used as the location for a medical school or department; but for many reasons it was found inexpedient to carry out that design, and the regents having memorialized the legislature to that eftect, have been permitted to sell the structure and grounds for ^18,000. The i^or- wegians, who have made the purchase, will establish an academy and theological seminary in the building, THE STATE TNIVERSITT. 75 wliicL. will thus become a considerable addition to tlie educational facilities in Madison. Keturning now from a prolonged digression on the subject of gifts, to resume the narrative temporarily broken, we may say, tliat in June, 1865, the war having come to an end, it was thought advisable to reorganize the State University, but in consequence of an offer of the chancellorship having been declined, Prof. Sterling continued in his position until the following year. The increase of students and the improving asj^ect of affairs generally, so far as the University was concerned, led to a reconstruction, which was aided by a vacation of all the chairs in 1866, whereupon Pres. Paul A. Chadbourne was called to the management of the University from the agricul- tural college of Massachusetts. Prof. Sterling alone, of all the old faculty, was retained and reelected. The change made in 1866 entitled the University to the advantages accruing under the act of congress, which granted lands for agricultural colleges. The alterations necessary were embodied in an act, which was approved on the 12th of April, 1866, and there- upon the county of Dane issued bonds to the amount of $40,000 for the purchase of lands for an experimental farm contiguous to the university grounds. The requisite funds were provided and the farm procured, but two professors in turn declined the nomination as president, and the members of the old faculty were recalled for another year. After certain amendments had been made in the regulations, as to the several 76 HISTORY OF MADISON. departments being open to both sexes on precisely similar terms, Prof. Chadbourne accepted the presi- dency in 1867, and the work of reconstruction pro- ceeded. Since that time, the state has pursued a more liberal and enlightened policy towards the University. The educational power of the institution has been felt in the community, in the presence and force of men trained therein, or in kindred establishments, and now editing the leading journals of the state, or filling other responsible representative positions. The sec- retary of state, in his report for 1866, recognized the fact, that "Wisconsin had not approjDriated one dollar toward the support of the University, but had absorbed from the endowment given by the general govern-/ ment, sums aggregating more than $10,000, in the form of charges for taking care of the lands, besides reducing the vahie of the property in question, so that the fund arising from the interest had decreased $7,000 per annum in less than two years. The action of Dane county in affording substantial help was speedily followed by compensatory measures in the legislature. In the year 1867, an appropriation of $7,303.76 per annum was made for a term of ten years, and it was supposed that a like amount would be granted in perpetuity as an act of simple justice; but, as will be seen, a much more generous arrange- ment has been effected. The charge unwisely levied by the state upon the University, property for taking care of its lands, was at the same time abandoned. THE STATE rNIVEKSITT. 77 Three years later, in 1870, a sum of $50,000 was appropriated to erect a female college, tliat being the first snm actually granted by "Wisconsin in aid of her own University. In the year 1875, upon proper repre- sentations as to the necessity for additional buildings, the legislature appropriated $80,000 to enable the regents to proceed with the erection of Science Hall, now rapidly nearing completion; and still later, dur- ing the present year, an act has been passed repealing all other measures of appropriation touching the revenues of the institution, and giving, by way of liberal acquittance for every error in the past, an annual tax of one- tenth of a mill on the dollar, on the valuation of the state, upon the condition, that from and after July, 1876, all tuition shall be free to every citizen of Wisconsin. The line of policy thus indi- cated, places the State University on a sound basis, and will not fail to establish the character of our people thoughout the union. The struggle for life has ended, and the munificence of the legislature, expressing the will of the community, will materially aid in developing the resources of the state. The line of conduct pursued in the beginning was an aberra- tion, such as we are not likely to see repeated. A desire to narrate in the proper order, and in a connected way, the several items of financial policy which, since 1866, have characterized the legislature, has led to a deviation from the straight course in de- scribing the steps by which the regents and the faculty have discharged their duties; but allowances can be 78 HISTORY OF MADISON. made for tliat offense in tlie presence of sncli ad- mirable provocation. There will be no further need to break the continuity of the narrative. The IJnivereitj has now a department of engineer- ing and military tactics, to which has been added a department of civil and mechanical engineering and military science. Mining, metallurgy and engineer- in 2: as connected with mines, have also received atten- tion; and the department of agriculture, a branch of training second to none in importance, is very slowly advancing in appreciation as well among the people as in the minds of the regents. Efforts have been made to render this branch of education effective, but up to the present time there have been no agricul- tural students. The Law Department, under the able Dean of the Faculty, Prof. J. H. Carpenter, aided by the best authorities in the state, deserves the very highest encomiums. President Chadbourne's labors, under the recon- structed board, and the better tone of public opinion, gave an impetus to educational effort. The University became more worthy of support, a better exponent of scientific culture; and the leading minds in the com- munity recognized its higher usefulness. The in- crease of students consequent upon those improve- ments, rendered additional buildings necessary, and the want has been in part supplied, but the require- ments of the institution will continue to- increase with the growing importance of the community. There cannot be finality in supplying the wants of an THE STATE TJNIVEKSITY. Id intellectual people wliose numbers and demands in the realm of knowledge are daily expanding. Already there are murmurs because of the want of an ob- servatory and astronomical instruments. There can be no question that these requirements will be sup- plied. President Chadbourne was obliged to retire in con- sequence of ill health in 1870, and his place was tem- porarily suj)plied by Yice President Sterling, during whose incumbency, at first as a matter of necessity, and afterwards as a matter of principle, young women were admitted to recite with any of the classes. The change has proved beneficial. President Twombly, D. D., w^as elected in ISTl, and continued in ofiice until 187-1, when President Bascom, LL. D., D. D., was called to the work. Under the two officers last named in succession, but more especially under Presi- dent Bascom, the institution has grown in usefulness and in public favor, and there is no reason to doubt that the good understanding, fully established, will be maintained. The income of the University from all sources, now amounts to about §80,000 per annum, and with the growth of the state generally, the prosperity of the institution wdll steadily keep pace. Henceforth there will be no reason why every young man and young woman in Wisconsin, having an ambition to possess the advantages of complete training, should not culti- vate the powers with which God has blessed them, in the development of their intellectual faculties, under 80 HISTORY OF MADISON. the sanctions of religion, and with all the benefits ac- cruing from well applied moral force. President Bascom is steadily and very wisely reduc- ing the amount of preparatory work, which was at first forced upon the University, and he states that in car- rying out that reform, he is largely assisted by the High School Law prepared by Professor Searing, the state superintendent of public instruction, whose ex- pei'ience in the work of tuition and training enabled him to initiate a measure, which wdll grow in favor continually, so far as its main features are concerned. The University and the high schools of the state will give to "Wisconsin in the mass a much higher intel- lectual status than was possessed by Athens, even in its palmiest days; but the work that has been accom- plished must be accepted as only an indication of the progress yet to be achieved. The men and women engaged in the task have won popular appreciation and regard, without which no good result could be hoped for; and with that helpful condition attained, everything is possible. STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 81 CHAPTEE Y. STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The state library dates from the earliest days of our existence as a territorial government, tlie first pur- chase of books having been made in 1837, since which time the collection has been largely increased. The State Historical Society was organized on the 30th of January, 1849, and its treasures now com- prise by far the best collection of materials for north- western history that can be found anywhere in this western country. There was at one time a superior collection in Chicago, but the great fire unfortunately destroyed that, among other priceless treasures. The organization of the society was suggested in the Mineral Point Democrat of October 22, 1845, by Chauncy C. Britt, but notwithstanding the support given to the project by the whole of the press, it was not found possible to carry it into effect until the date mentioned, more than three years later. Even then it was not a vigorous existence, upon which the association entered. Events called off the attention of some, sickness and misfortune impeded others, and the act of incorporation was not procured until March, 1853, when there were not fifty volumes in the library. In the month of January following, a com- 82 HISTORY OF MADISON. plete reorganization having been effected, a vote of $500 per annnm was subsequently procured from the legislature to assist in attaining the objects aimed at by the promoters ; and the first annual report for the year 1854 showed very considerable progress. There were already more than one thousand volumes in the library and promises of assistance and coo23eration had been received from numerous societies on this continent and in Europe, as well as from American authors whose names are to-day more honorable to the nation than our material riches. Collections of autographs, portraits, and life sized pictures had al- ready been commenced, including mementoes of our worthiest men, and those lines of eftbrt have been persevered in with great success to the present time, until the gallery of the Historical Society has become singularly complete. With the report for 1854 were presented many valuable and interesting documents forming parts of the contemporary and more remote history of the northwest, in a striking way illus- trating the importance of the society. One paper was a translation from the French, setting forth the policy which the soldiery of that nation should pursue to- ward the Chippewas and Foxes; another an English record of the days when the British forces had taken possession of Green Bay and other frontier posts, soon after the reduction of Canada by the English, and a very interesting appendix consisted of Jas. W. Biddle's recollections of Green Bay in 1816-17, about the time that this country really passed under Amer- STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 83 ican rule. The discriminating reader is of course aware that although the British should have surren- dered this country in 1783, there were excuses made for the retention of Detroit and other posts until Jay's treaty was made, and that even after that date it was not until the end of the war of 1812 that the English authorities abandoned their manipulations with the Indians in this territory. The conduct of the Chij^pewas in hoisting the English flag at Sault Ste Marie in 1820, and defying Gov. Cass, w^as an event of still later occurrence, and the courage with which the old General tore down the insolent hunting, in the face of the Indians, won for him honest ad- miration. James Duane Doty, who was then travel ing in the suite of Gov. Cass, assisted in hoisting the Union colors, and thereby increased his favor with the governor of Michigan. The drain on the material resources of England, caused by long continued wars against I^apoleon, ended by the banishment of that ruler to St. Helena in 1815-16, made it inexpedient for the nation to continue its system of annuities to Tomah and the Menomonees, as well as to other In- dian allies. The change was announced in 1817, and Mr. Biddle's recollections embrace that period and event, as well as much other matter that deserves re- capitulation. The customs of Green Bay as to lim- ited marriages, and transfers of marital engagements, among the voyageurs^ fur traders and their semi In- dian squaws, read like the records of South Sea Island life, with a few business like variations. There 84: HISTOEY OF MADISON. had not been a priest in Green Bay for some time, and Judge Reaume, whose commission was said to have been given by Gen. Harrison, or earlier by the British, was for many years the only justice. Nobody could say when his authority first claimed recognition, but on the other hand nobody presumed to question its potency. "The Judge's old jack knife," sent by the constable, was a sufficient summons for any real or assumed offender, and the judgment of the bench could be influenced by a present, so that in one respect he resembled Lord Chancellor Bacon; but like the more celebrated man last mentioned, he was not with- out many excellent points, and his usefulness was be- yond question. Gov. Cass recognized the substantial worth of Judge Keaume and gave him an appoint- ment as associate justice, tow^ard the end of his career, after the organization of the territory of Mich- igan. The state will not readily comprehend how much is due to the labors of the Historical Society, and to its corresponding secretary, Lyman C. Draper, in the procurement and preservation of the treasures amassed by the society; but the Union and the reading world will some day recognize their worth, and this city can- not fail to reap honor in having been the birthplace of the institution. Col. "Whittlesey's "Tour Through "Wisconsin in 1832," written in 1838, gives a vivid and life-like description of the Black Hawk War, but our space will not -allow of such extracts as might be desired, STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 85 and it is to be hoped that some person favored hj tlie society, will embody in a few volumes the choicer mat- ter in its priceless collection. For the present it is impossible even to enumerate the contributions that he before us, and it is necessary to confine ourselves to a bare mention of only a few of the chief items of interest. Major H. A. Tenney, whose services to the community in many ways have been beyond praise, has given an admirable ^r^c^/^ of ^' Early Times in Wisconsin," written in this city in 1849, after he had succeeded in buttonholing Col. Erigham, and had collated the information thus obtained, with knowl- edge from innumerable other sources. The first settler m Dane county was not inclined to write his recollec- tions, but in his manly and genial way he was induced to talk of his early experiences, and currente calamo, Major Tenney converted his veracious words into history, which must always be the foundation of Wisconsin's records. The second annual report showed that the Histori- cal Society had increased its store by 1,065 volumes during the year 1855, and that in every other respect It was growing in usefulness, with experience. The picture gallery then consisted of twenty-five paintings, besides which the likenesses of numbers of local and national celebrities had been promised as additions to the collection. ^ less than forty-seven portraits, chiefly of pioneers and friends of Wisconsin, had then been engaged, nearly all of which were afterwards supplied. ^Ye are almost entirely at a loss in general 86 HISTORY OF MADISON. history, wlien we attempt to recall tlie features of tlionsands of men and women with whose deeds the world may be said to be familiar, yet " the counter- feit presentment" is often the best commentary upon the actual career of a person. Could we only be sure as to which of the several pictures, busts and casts, said to have been made at various times and places, of the player and poet, "William Shakspere, was really taken from his features, in life or in death, it would be much easier to pronounce upon the question whether the wool-comber's son, who married Anne Hathaway, was truly the writer of the plays and son- nets that bear his name, or only the stalking horse of a still greater personage, the founder of our modern system of investigation. The pictures then in the gal- lery of the society were particularized, and where pos- sible and necessary, as in the case of Black Hawk, the pro^^het, and in other such, certified to by the then librarian. Prof. S. H. Carpenter, in an excellent report on his particular branch of the society's possessions. The library has gone on increasing in every feature with accelerating rapidity every year, so that in 1857 the volumes aggregated 3,122, exclusive of pamphlets and unbound newspapers ; in the year following, 4,116; in 1862 there were 14,400 volumes ; in 1866, when the change was made from the basement of the Baptist Church to the suite of rooms in the capitol noAV occu- pied, there were 21,000 volumes and documents ; in 1868, the Tank Library donation added 4,812 volumes, and the number of books, bound and unbound, had STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 87 increased to 31,505, wliicli in 1872, wlien the last pub- lication appeared, showed a total of 50,530. The sup- plementary catalogue, in August, 1875, showed a fur- ther exj)ansion to 65,000, and the gratifying increment goes on with continuous energy. There are now in the galleries more than one hun- dred oil paintings of noteworthy men, a feature of surpassing value. The cabinet of pre-histoi'ic relics contains nearly ten thousand specimens of the tools, ornaments and weapons of the stone age, in many re- spects second to none in the world. The copper era is illustrated by even a still more valuable collection, which has latterly been transferred to the Centennial Exj)Osition in Philadelpliia, an assemblage of celts, spearheads and knives, in unalloyed copper, such as all Europe cannot equal. The maps and other valuables which are preserved in this institution would alone repay all the outlay that the state has incurred in sup- porting tlie invaluable movement, with which it is an honor to have been associated, as even the humblest pains-taking assistant. Tlie Tank collection above mentioned deserves more detailed notice. One of the earliest pioneers in Wis- consin was Otto Tank, wliose widow, the daughter of a clergyman in Zeist, in Holland, inherited from her father his exceedingly choice collection of works, amounting to more than 5,000, inclusive of pamphlets, and this great treasure was by Mrs. Tank fi*eely given to the State ITistorical Society, the cost of removal from Holland to this country being covered by a legis- HISTORY OF MADISON". lative approi^riation. In tlie next year a full set of Patent Office Eeports, wliicli cost the donors no less than §12,500 gold, and which covers the whole range of invention since the year 1617, the year following the deaths of Shakspere and Cervantes, w^ere presented to the Historical Society by the British government, through the intervention of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, late minister to the court of St. James. The favor thus conferred does not end with the donation named, as the society will continue to receive the series of publications from the Patent Office in Lon- don, at the rate of about one hundred volumes per year, and thus the inventive genius of this state will continue to be stimulated by the opportunity at all times to inspect what has been accomplished and at- tempted, and what is still within the range of tenta- tive effort among our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. Like donations may be expected from every other European government, w^hen tlie purposes of the institution are made known in the proper quarters. To continue such an enumeration would prove tedi- ous to the average reader, and in consequence, we refer our friends for more com^^lete details to the reports and catalogues of the society, and the rooms in the state capitol, which already are too small to do justice to an always increasing literary, archaic and artistic treasure. Mr. Draper has proved himself, in an excep- tional degree, " the right man in the right place," one of those whose deeds will live after them, and to him STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. more than to any other individual, the state and this city owe the wonderful g-rowth which we have utterly failed to chronicle according to its merits. Tliose who have been associated with him best know his peculiar fitness for the task to which his life has been devoted^ and none of them will grudge the patient and modest w^orker the credit to which he is honestly entitled. His name has been the ojpen sesame to numerous col- lections, and to innumerable pockets, from which the resources of the society have been enriched, and his zeal has contributed to induce the legislature to assist the movement by appropriations which, without great economy, must still have been wholly inadecxuate, while his example has induced hundreds to become willing laborers in the good cause. The lover of books cannot pas« from such an admir- able collection without pausing for a moment to gossip about some few of the immortals, whose genius must shine upon the printed page forever, as the stars be- gem the firmament. Said one of the vulgar rich, who had built for himself a mansion, "Send me enouo-h books, handsomely bound, to fill a library." That w^as " the be all and the end all " of his care, or taste, in the matter, the bindings in Eussia leather being of greater moment than the contents, or even, may be, the authors' names. ISTot in that spirit would James Eussel Lowell feast on the lettered wealth wdth which the world grows truly rich. Not so will any loving soul approach literature, the highest gift of man to man. Said Wordsworth: 90 HISTORY OF 3kIADIS0N. ** Books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good; Round these, with tendrils strong- as flesh and blood, Our pastime, and our happmess will gTOW." Says Lowell: ^' There is to us a sacreclness in a book, we live over again tlie author's lonely labors, and tremulous hopes; we see him. ...... .doubtfully entering the Mermaid, or the Devil Tavern, or the coffee house of Will, or Button, blushing under the eye of Ben Jonson, or Dryden, or Addison, as if they must needs know him for the author;" as though he might expect to rest, like Shakspere, '* Under a star-y-pomted pyramid, Dear son of memory, great heir of fame." How high was the hope of Milton when he essayed the calling of an author: "By labor and intent study — which I take to be my portion in this life — joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written, to after times, as they should not wdllingly let it die." " The writer," said the blind bard, " ought himself to be a true poem." Then indeed there comes to be a sacred verity in his w^ords : " A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured uj), on purpose, to a life beyond life." Looking in this aspect upon the page which may instruct the world for a millennial term, as it were, creating " Brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages," there is no delight greater than to find some congenial wor- STxiTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 91 shipper who will talk or listen while the merits of the masters are expounded, not as they really are, but as our slowly expanding powers enable us to see them, the world's teachers, the intellectual leaders of the race. Before us, on the desk, lie the volumes of Halli- welFs Shakspere, a costly and rare luxury, originally published at $800 per coj^y, beyond our reach in any other way. The Historical Society enables us to see all that is knoAvn about the man with whom the greatest treasure of poetry on this earth is associated. Here are fao similes of his writing, and of his fath- er's mark. The deeds and acquittances, and unhap- pily, also the writs, which tell of the poverty that fell upon the poet's home. Here are figured, as though in very fact, the original documents as they were presented to his eyes, letters and memoranda in which Shakspere and his immediate surroundings moved, in their daily lives. They " fret and strut their hour upon the stage," and we see the homes in which their pleasures and anxieties arrived at frui- tion. Here Anne Hathaway was w^ooed and w^on. There is the rustic bridge on which mayhap the lovers murmured fond hopes, scarce louder than the music of the stream, but such as linked heart to heart for all eternity, while each soul in the sweet oblivious- ness of youth — " Mistook the rustic murmur of their woods, For the big waves, that echo round the world." 92 HISTORY OF MADISON. Turning now from tlie man and the cottage in wliicli lie saw the light, shutting out his financial griefs and successes, banishing John Shakspere and Mary Arden, forgetting Henley street, Stratford, and the family of Lucy, painfully associated with his youthful fortune, we are in London, and the actor is before us, in the old Globe theatre, where he learned how shamefully the average player can mar the best passage, by an ill-mouthed sentence, where he gave force to his advice to the players, by such deliverance as did, indeed, " Suit the action to the word, and the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature." His plays are being acted, and standing in the pit among the commonalty, for which they have paid their penny, every man, day after day, it is possible to forget the fatigues incident to the position, while " The Tem- pest" is presented, without the charms of modern scenery and the upholsterer's art. The genius of winged words enchains us to the spot, until the end, when we reluctantly recall his own language as our dismissal — " Our revels now are ended. These, our actors, As I foretold you, were aU spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of tliis vision, Tlie cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it mherit, shall dissolve. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack beliuid. We are such stuff STATE niSTORICAL SOCIETY. 93 As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep." Puritan are we, to our spinal marrow, and tlie player is not suspected of favoring our " ism," but again and yet again we pervade the enclosure, in which his works are rendered. Sarcasms grate upon our ears, because of the nonconforming spirit with which we are imbued, and the " unclean knight " John Fal staff is, we know, presented as a play upon the peculiarities of the Lollard, Sir John Oldcastle, through whom those who would carry religious re- form too far may be impaled; but even in the wild- est license of his merriment, who cannot see that there is a love for Falstaif pervading every line of the portraiture. Shakspere w^as a reformer in his soul. Cassio, when he is betrayed by "Mine An- cient " into drunkenness in the Isle of Cyprus, shows under the film of his lovable nature, the Puritan in his prayer. The new philosophy is in the play- wa-ight, not the old dry theology. Within his subtle expression there is a breadth and profundity which shall convey the deepest meaning to unnumbered generations. Othello will forever unfold his simple manhood — " Not easily jealous, but being wrought Perplexed in the extreme." And Hamlet unveil his endless dubitations, wander- ing on the verge of madness, until the purpose of his 94 HISTORY OF MADISOX. life is lost. In liim, better tlian in any other, can we see the mind — " SicMiecl o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard their cmTents tmii awry, And lose the name of action." Eomeo will still come npon the scene, and Shak- spere with his perfect face and form, if some tradi- tions can be relied on, may well have been that lover, making immortal pleas for the affection of a lady, whose — " Beauty hangs upon the cheek of night, Like a rich jewel m an Ethiop's ear." The " sweet sorrow " of that parting will never die out of the memory of the race. Yet while the audi- ence pauses to rest, the demon of ill-applied ambition is on the stage. Macbeth, the story of whose life, in very truth, is warped by the genius of the poet to the doing of murders that were never done, and whom we see uttering the agony of a conscience-smitten soul, " Methought I heard a voice cry: ' Sleep no more; Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep; Sleep that knits up the ravelFd sleeve of care The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath. Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course." But the play has ended. Antony, Caesar, Brutus, call to us in vain; no human power can follow the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 95 beck of this magician through all his charm. " The cry is still thej come;" Shylock demanding his pound of flesh, and the gentle Portia defeating him with woman's wit, when her imperishable plea for mercy has been placed upon the record in vain; Lear moans to the midnight storm, as he sallies forth in his agony of sorrow. *' Blow, blow, thou wiiitiy wind, Thou art not so uuldnd As man's ingi^atitude." And we see " a man more sinned against than sin- ning; " " A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man; " Broken to worse than the bitterness of death by the experience, ** How sharper than a serpent's tooth, it is To have a thankless chUd." The rage of Coriolanus who " banished Eome " and *' Fluttered the dovecotes in Corioh; " The cynic hate of Timon; the noble sorrow of Wolsey who had realized "How wretched Is that poor man, that hangs on prince's favors; There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their niin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have; And when he falls, he falls Kke Lucifer, Never to hope again." 96 HISTORY OF MADISOK. The melanclioly Jacques, tlie moody Touchstone, the lovely Eosalind, Puck, Ariel, Titania, the Hen- ry's, Faulconbridge, distorted Eichard and a myriad others, born or fashioned from his brain, can never live for us upon the boards that Shakspere trod, but they are here within these volumes, to be called forth whenever sympathetic eyes shall break the magic of their tomb and bring them back to sunlight. Gossip about the immortals, indeed; when, where, and how? Time and space forbid. ^Ye have glanced but at one book, and the floods of memory well forth from every crevice of the brain, until the subject is "taboo," and we must turn in haste to other themes. The state library has been already named, as its chronological right demanded, seeing that it came into being before the capitol was planned. Apart from that feature, it is of great merit as a law library, hardly second to any in the west, and the complete- ness of the collection long since suggested to the managers the transfer of all its miscellaneous works to the shelves of the Historical Society. The cour- tesy of the librarian, the perfect order prevailing in the department, and the extensive as well as excellent assortment of works, combine to render the state library, in every sense, an honor to its promoters and to this city. The location occupied by this depart- ment in the capitol, adjoining the supreme court and the chambers of the legislature, renders it easy of access to all who are concerned in its advantages. The city library, in City Hall, and the library at STATE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. 97 tlie University, deserve more lengthened notice than our space will permit, seeing that the witchery of books would infallibly cause an overrunning of our limits, " contrary to the statute thereunto made and provided." Before ending this chapter, it becomes our imperative, as well as our pleasant duty, to ac- knowledge the manifold kindnesses of Librarian D. S. Durrie, wdiose own labors as a writer have made him apt to render aid to every one toiling with pen or pencil. His merits need no eulogy, but this word of recognition is due to ourselves. 98 HISTORY OF MADISON. CHAPTEK yi. BENCH AND BAR. Naughty people, long ago, in their desire to be smart, dubbed the lawyers "The Devil's Brigade;" but like their commander, the brethren of the long robe are not nearly so black as they are painted. Those who have lived in countries from which courts and lawyers are remote, or still worse, entirely wanting, know that the expounders of law are the defenders of property, liberty, and life. "Wisconsin has passed through that perilous era when there was no law but the will of the strongest. The " oldest inhabitant " can still rivet the attention of his hearers, by recount- ing the manifold pains and penalties incidental to that condition. Judge Reaume, with his cocked hat, regi- mental coat, broken English, and general appearance of caricature, dispensing eccentric justice, was better than the utter absence of organization, which might otherwise have prevailed in the Green Bay region, where "Wisconsin was first peopled. The Coutumes de Paris and an odd volume of Blackstone consti- tuted the law library and basis of operations for the old Judge, and his authority came, as it has been sur- mised, in the first place from George III; afterwards from General Harrison, as Governor of Indiana, and BENCH AND BAR. 99 jet later from Governor Ciiss. The strangest customs of Paris conlcl hardly cover many of his decisions, contrary to all law, Avritten or nn^vl•itten ; but in any form, order is to be preferred to the horrors of anar- chy. Old Judge Reaume was tolerably wise in his way. Rich suitors, such men as the traders, who constituted a privileged class, and could afford the luxury of an appeal to the supreme court, at Detroit, seldom found cause of offense in his decisions. Some of the anecdotes concerning Reaume will not bear repetition, but enough remain to illustrate the curious compound ^j^hich invited the criticisms of the earlier settlers. Free love doctrines, and proposals for limited wedlock, which are now offered as novel- ties by Mrs. Victoria C. Woodhull, had long been in practice in the frontier country, where the voyageurs mated themselves by a kind of marriage, for six months or a year, with Winnebago and Menomonee women. Reaume was the high priest, and his cabin, the altar, where the postulants made their vows and offered up their fees. If a man who had contracted an engagement for a limited j)eriod presumed to con- tinue the union after the term had expired, the old Judge sent his constable, carrying his jack knife as the symbol of authority, to compel the parties to come before him, to renew their vows, their license and their payments. There is literally no new thing under the sun. Marriages for six months were some- times inconvenient, when the voyageitr was suddenly called to a distant field of operations, but the customs 100 HISTORY OF MADISON. of the country in siicli, as well as in some other cases, permitted a transfer of liis domestic relations, proba- bly upon the j)ayment of a reduced amount. Reaume was equal to any such emergency, and the elasticity of an unwritten law must have facilitated his opera- tions. He was not the only authority in such matters. There was an Irishman named Campbell, later in the century, who was appointed by the U. S. government, a sub-Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, in 1809-1810, who depended upon ci^^il marriages for part of his emoluments. He would solemnize a contract of mar- riage for a hundred pounds of flour, that being then the Prairie du Chien currency, and should the parties grow dissatisfied with each other, he made no diffi- culty about granting a divorce upon the payment of two hundred pounds of the same commodity. There was law in the territory at that time, and there were courts also, but they were so distant and expensive that few dared indulge. Campbell had a dispute with a well known trader named Brisbois, as to the ownership of a heifer, and the parties being $^ "^-CNS^V^^A"' KtNl@ §TRiiT, (Between Webster and Pinckney Streets) LOOKING WBST. MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 14:7 CHAPTEE IX. MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. Great cliauges have come since Madison was set- tled bj four housekeepers, who procured supplies from the peddler's cart and the post office store. There -svere bright fellows in the settlement, but they dis- pensed with much that we deem essential. Tom Jack- son, the Scotchman, whose whip-saw cut lumber for the capitol, before Wlieeler was ready, was almost a man- ufactory. Tom illustrated the possibility of doing without indispensables, but not as they do in some parts of Scotland. His old log house was on fire, and the last glass had dulled his wits. Tumbling out of bed, Tom, who was called Jack for brevity, pushed his lower limbs through the sleeves of his jacket, and with many an adjective declared that " some fellow had cut off the legs of his pantaloons." The better appliances of life were more remote than the seedy unmentionables of Tom Jackson. Everything was in the rough. The park was the forest primeval. Prai- rie fires annually crossed from marsh to marsh. Game was abundant. Prairie chickens and quail were shot in the village, where bears, wolves and deer were not strangers. Many years later Col. Bird's hotel stood in an unbroken forest, and trees that now ornament 148 HISTOKY OF MADISON. the park were planted at the instance of Judge Knaj)p, who risked having to pay for the improvements. The woods abounded with game, and deer were particu- hirly plentiful until 1849, when the Winnebagoes killed 500 near the Asylum. They would have cleared the country, but the settlers interfered. The supply was important, when any man might depend on his skill for a dinner. The commissioners' store was not the pioneer. Simeon Mills was dej)uty postmaster and storekeeper before July, 1837. Mr. Catlin, his partner, says that barrels of salt and flour, hauled from Galena, were then worth $30 and §20 each. " Wild cat currency " was the circulating inedium, and the notes of Judge Doty were at a premium. The legis- lature, during the session of 1838-9, passed a ^' stay law" against recovering debts. The predominant sentiment of the community was hatred of banks. 'Squire Seymour says that in 1839 there were two stores, three groceries, a steam mill, three public houses, and in all thirty-five buildings. Dr. Chap- man mentions, in 1846, Shields & Snedden, Finch & Blanchard, and E. B. Dean & Co., as the storekeepers of the villaije. Fairchild's store came next. The population had increased from 62 to 283. The doctor was told there were 400 inhabitants, but many farm- ers were looked on as village residents. Messersmith's house, on Pinckney street, was in full blast, with a "wet grocery" down stairs and "the tiger" above. The first help to Madison was the location of the capitol. The next, the arrival of Mr. Farwell, who MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 149 invested money and energies in permanent improve- ments. His fortune was not large, and part was in- vested elsewhere, but he brought the reputation of w^ealth, and turned it to excellent account. He sys- tematically made known the beauties and excellences of the locality, and induced others to invest. His coming gave an impetus, labor acquired value, real estate changed hands, roads were opened and cleared; the press all over the union had paragraphs about Madison. We were no longer out of the world. The marks left by Farwell can be seen in our growth. Until the capital was permanently located there was little progress. Lobbyists hoped that another site would be chosen when the constitution was adopted, and Milwaukee wooed the legislature. Fixity of tenure could alone justify expenditure on property. Hence the slowness observable in every branch of en- terprise. That period of doubt had passed when Mr. Farwell came and invested in real estate in 1848. The business advantages and beauty of Madison were his constant themes, and he spared no expense in giv- ing them publicity. Kemunerative w^orks on a large scale were undertaken. Mendota was dammed at its outlet, increasing the fall two feet, and Monona, low- ered by the removal of an old obstruction, made a further improvement. Farwell became more benefi- cially associated with the growth of Madison than any of its pioneers. The inexhaustible reservoir, thus turned to account for industrial enterprise, created a demand for workmen. The lakes unfolded a promise 150 HISTORY. OF MADISON. of wealth. When H. A. Tennej came, he was intro- duced by J. A. J^oonan to all the celebrities in a few minutes. The little coterie in 1845 numbered few besides Governor Dodge, Secretary Floyd, Judges Dunn, Jrvin and Miller, George P. Delaplaine and Mr. Mills. Manufactures and enterprise changed the aspect of society. Until Mr Farwell came, the place had never been thought worthy of a circus. When that distinction was attained the legislature adjourned to see the show. The villagers had depended on each other for amusements, but there had been ample leisure. Improvements were made rapidly, and golden vis- ions were common. The circuitous Yahara was su- perseded by a straight canal. At the outlet of Men- dota a long building contained a saw and grist mill. Tibbits and Gordon built their brewery below the mill, and the court house was commenced in 1849. The old jail, once let as a shoemakers' shop, no longer met the wants of the community. Farwell started. his grist and flouring mill in 1850, and opened two roads across the Yahara. The first dormitory at the university was erected in 1850, in a thicket remote from the village, hardly approachable. Prominent citizens began more beautiful homes and other im- provements. Men became speculative. Ditching, planking and planting Washington Avenue, by Mr. Farwell, was an act that found no competitors, but in other ways his conduct provoked a spirit of emula- tion. Farwell Mill. 152 HISTORY OF MADISON. The years 1851-2 were prolific in the erection of business blocks. Public houses were found inadequate and the Capital House was commenced by associated effort. Messrs. Yilas, Fairchild and Farwell bought the venture in 1853, and the hotel was completed be- fore the fall. Madison was a paradise for builders. The best positions were rapidly occupied for busine-ss. The Presbyterian church was finished, the founda- tions of the Catholic church laid, and the Milwau- kee and Mississippi railroad company commenced building their depot in a growth of coppice wood on the spot occupied by the successors of that company. Early in 1854 the depot was ready, the bridge con- structed and the first train of passenger cars arrived. The celebration took place on Tuesday, May 23, 1854. That was a great day for Madison and the surrounding country. Other works were undertaken during the year, including a fire-proof structure for the safe keeping of the state registry, a new bridge across the Yahara, a brick church for the Baptists, the second dormitory of the university, the extension of Wash- ington Avenue, specially due to the liberality of Ex- Governor Farwell, and the commencement of the asy- lum for the insane. Men assumed that there would be a population of ten thousand here within two years. There was a woolen factory, a flouring mill, a grist mill, two saw mills, an oil mill, a mill for saw- ing stone, foundry and machine shops, two steam planing mills, besides other extensive undertakings, three daily papers and five weeklies, and a sale of MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 163 more than $500,000 worth of produce during 1854—5. Seymour's Madison Directory, in 1855, gave excellent grounds for anticipating rapid growth. The j)opula- tion was nearly seven thousand. Ex-Governor Far- well was offering desirable lots, with credit, extending ten years if required, provided that purchasers should occupy and improve. Telegraph lines connected Mad- ison with the whole circle of civilization. Goods could be purchased at little advance on the charges in any metropolitan city, and some storekeepers said much cheaper. The American Express Company had an office, the Madison Mutual Ins. Co. had entered upon its successful career, and other comj)anies had opened agencies. The State Agricultural Society had rooms in Bruen's Block, and there was every facility for coming into the world with the aid of science, re- maining, with all the graces that art and dry goods could afford, and at the last being undertaken for, in a style replete with grace and finish, so that the end crowned the work. There were banks, a water cure, and it is difficult to imagine a want which Madison had not appliances for immediately satisfying. Over three hundred and fifty houses were built in 1854. The Madison Hydraulic Company, to supply water from Lake Mendota, was a failure; there was a dif- ficulty in procuring capital. The Gas Company seemed to be in danger, but the secretary, B. F. Hop- kins, leased the works, and made the enterprise a suc- cess. In the same year, Ex-Governor Farwell com- menced the residence, which was purchased as a MERCHANTS AND BANKEKS. 155 "Hospital for wounded Soldiers," next occupied by the " Soldiers' Orphans," then given to the State University, and since sold to be nsed as a Theological Seminary and College, by the ISTorwegians. Eapidly as the building mania spread, every new comer was forced to build, if his means would permit, so con- tinuous was the demand. Trade prospects grew more encouraging, school houses were required, and churches well sustained. Madison became a city on the fourth of March, 1856, and Colonel Fairchild was its first mayor. The necessity for school houses was recognized by the city council, and $21,000 appropri- ated to erect schools. The City Hall was commenced in 1857, and the main building of the University was awarded to contractors, to be finished before ITovember, 1858. The log house erected for Eben Peck was saved from falling by being torn down, after twenty years' service. About the same time, as if the old " tavern stand " must be identified with the capital, there was a new proposition to remove. The capitol was dilapidated, and rivals said that as a new structure must be raised, the time was favorable for a transfer. The city authorities met the difficulty by donating §50,000 in bonds, towards erecting the present edifice. That settled the question. While aifairs were thus progressing, came the financial crisis of 1857. The crash was disastrous to Madison. Mil- waukee availed itself of the confusion, to renew the attempt to remove the seat of government. Upon the third reading of the bill, there was a tie vote; but 156 HISTORY OF MADISON. by an adroit movement, the measure was killed for the session; delay, meant death. Many associations of public value date from this time, among which, we note: "The Capitol Hook and Ladder Company, 'No. 1;" "Mendota Fire Engine Company, No. 1;" "Madison Engine Company, No. 2; " the " Govern- or's Guards; " the "Madison Guards;" and the DSeQIWStM'S eA.POTQ)L. "Dane Cavalry." Already, the excitement arising from the troubles in Kansas, was producing an effect in military and other organizations. The postoffice had long been established, and well served, but railroads had given greater completeness. Pioneers remember when the nearest postoffice was at the City of the Four Lakes, from which village there was a road partly cleared to Fort Winnebago. MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 157 When John Catlin and his deputy got into working- order, things were better. Darwin Chirk remembers the mail for the village being brought in a handker- chief. Newspapers increased the bidk, but foi* some months there was only an occasional copy of the Cooperstown Freeman^ 8 Journal^ which had a w^on- derful circulation from hand to hand. There would have been more newspapers, as there were few books, and whisky drinking w^as not universal; but there was a strike among the hands. The men that came with Colonel Bird signed articles, with the under- standing that their pay, $2.25 per day, would com- mence with the journey, but a proviso, that if they left within three months, there were to be deductions. The transit from Milwaukee commencing on Wednes- day, ended eleven days later, on Saturday, so that there would be a large drawback on every man's pay, if he should quit the work prematurely. The trouble arose on the questions that still agitate the Union — paper money and resumption. The commissioners were said to have been paid the amount of the con- gressional vote, in specie, which they had deposited in the bank at Green Bay, the bills of which estab- lishment were used for wages. The notes could be used with little loss in the territory, but every re- moval cost a " shave " of from ten to fifteen per cent., and even then the exchange might be made in "wild cat" paper, that would speedily lose all value. Hence the workmen demanded specie payments, and the commissioners deferred that operation. Many 158 HISTORY OF MADISON. would liave left at once, but for the three months' pro- viso. A large proportion did leave as soon as that time had expired. There was little difficulty in suj)- plying their places. There was not much employ- ment in Wisconsin. Several strikes occurred. The stone cutters, at Stone Quarry Point, now McBride's, combined to get higher wages. The prices charged for everything were enormous, and there was little margin, unless men limited them- selves to bare necessaries. A man could get board for $5.00 per week, and lodge in the dormitory near the east gate of the j)ark — the club house, sleeping a]3art- ment and literary assembly. But as soon as ambi- tion suggested the desirability of personal adornment, or outlay for any other purj)0se, money took wings. Would the workman build a log house to pre^^are for matrimony? The barrier was not only that better halves were scarce and that the cost of calico was pro- digious. Pinneo and Butterfield would have their own price for shingles, .and the customer must wait until there was no whisky to be had on credit. Kails cost three shillings per pound; the brownest of brown sugar fetched a like price; a pound of sperm candles cost one dollar, and every article was propor- tionately dear. Xo wonder men struck for higher wages. Speaking of prices, we may revert to the charges preferred against the old commissioners and their contractor-partner, " Uncle Jim " Morrison. The amount of the two votes from congress — not from the territorial legislature, for that body had no money MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 159 to appropriate — was $40,000; and wlien the terri- torial authorities brought suit against Morrison, it was proved by measurements and vouchers that the basement alone cost $13,000. Moses M. Strong was the attorney for the territory, and Mr. Fields con- ducted the case for Morrison, so that there was no lack of zeal or ability on the side of the government, but the action was a failure. When the population had settled down to industrial pursuits, upon the re- turn of the citizen soldiers, a directory was published, in 1866, by B. "W. Suckow. John Y. Smith was the historian. Many prominent business men, in the record of 1855, did not survive the crash of 1857. Those who had invested in real estate, found that item the least real among their assets. Ex-Gov. Farwell had specially devoted himself to that branch. It would be an endless task to name the failures, there- fore one instance may suffice for many. Tibbits and Gordon, a short time before the crisis, could have realized $60,000 beyond paying every cent ; and when the storm burst, so hopeless was every effort, they could not pay fifty cents on the dollar. Gov. Far- well's ruin called forth much sympathy. He had built up the community, spending his own money in a liberal spirit and inducing others to invest. Men thrown out of their customary labor could remember the generous employer who had given w^ork to hun- dreds. A policy less open handed might have en- abled him to tide over the panic, but the village would have been much slower in becoming a city. 160 HISTORY OF MADISON. The crisis destroyed tlie value of real estate, closed up stores, factories, workshops and offices, threw men out of their gainful avocations, and brought gaunt famine near to many doors which had. been fondly thought secure from its dread approach. After the crisis, some mills were resumed, and in 1866, the manufactories of the city included the flour- ing mill built by the ex-governor, owned by Mr. Briggs ; a woolen factory, the steam flouring mill of Manning and Merrill, and the iron foundry com- menced by E. W. Skinner in 1851, on the corner of State and Gorham streets, sold in succession to W. S. Huntington in 1859, and to Andrews & Co. in 186-1. The foundry of E. W. Skinner & Co. occupied the building raised by Gorham for a steam saw mill. The mill changed hands, and was made into a foundry by I. E. Brown. P. H. Turner bought the property in 1859, when the country was recovering from the crash, and Mr. Skinner became the proprietor, adding to his firm O. S. Willey and S. D. Hastings. That establishment, in 1865-'6, employed fifty men, be- sides canvassers all over the northwest. Beginning with one sorghum mill in 1861, it extended its opera- tions to eleven in 1862, one hundred in the following year, and in 1865 more than five hundred. The Cap- ital Iron Works, owned by J. E. Baker and operated by Mr. Stillman, had been entered upon in 1865. There were, besides, two planing mills, three cabinet ware manufactories, and great hopes that the peat beds would become factors of immense prosperity. MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 161 The Agricultural Society, a young institution when Mr. Seymour j)i^^hlished his directory, had grown strong, and the old rooms were to be given up for the better location in the capitol. The patriotism of the society in vacating its grounds for military use ren- dered it impossible to liold exhibitions from 1861 to 1863; but in September, 1861, Camp Randall having well nigh completed its military avocation, was avail- able for the arts of peace. The value of the institu- tion is beyond praise. It has stimulated agricul- tural and inventive industry and skill, largely to the advantage of our city and state. Abraham Lincoln, then not dreaming of the presidency, honored the society on one occasion by delivering the annual ad- dress. Other orators, well worthy of being particu- larized, are omitted for want of space. The State Hospital for the Insane was commenced under an act passed by the legislature when Gov. Barstow was in office, in 1854, but in consequence of a misunderstanding, the contractor, Andrew Proudiit, did not proceed. There was no blame attaching to him, and he recovered damages. Two years later the fecheme was revived, but the original name of Lunatic Asylum was changed to the title now in use. The contractor, in 1857, was compelled to abandon the enterprise, but the building was made ready in 1860. Col. S. Y. Shipman was the architect; additions were made in 1861. Dr. Clement was medical superinten- dent in 1860, and Dr. Favill assistant. In 1861, Dr. Yan Xorstrand became medical superintendent, and 11 162 HISTOEY OF MADISON. Dr. Sawyer assistant. There was no cliange in tlie office of matron, wliicTi continues to be filled by Mrs. M. C. Halliday. The fact that the capitol graces Madison is due to the business tact of the citizens. The grant of $50,000 in city bonds has been mentioned. The east wing was undertaken in 1857, and the legislature occupied tlie building in 1859. The west wing was com- menced in 186f, amid the discouragements and financial pressure incident to civil war, and that wing was finished in 1863. The north wing, the south wing, and the rotunda followed in the order named, • the dome being completed before the commencement of this decade. The material is not so good as the beauty of the structure demanded, but the commis- sioners did the best possible under the circumstances. The internal finish is admirable, and the conveniences afforded for the several departments are all that can be desired. Few persons visit Madison without mount- ing the wide iron stairs that lead from the upper floor to'the second, in which are found the chambers of the senate and assembly, the supreme court, the state library, and the still more attractive collections of the^ state historical society. Those who are wise and vig- orous mount the tholus, whence the scene is enchant- ing. The galleries and storerooms are reached by the same stairways, and one suite is occupied by a lady artist, whose*^ paintings and statuary reflect honor upon the state. The want of proper banks caused the first strike MEKCIIANTS AND BANKERS. 163 in Madison, hence it is important to mark the career of our banking institutions. We were dependent on Green Bay, in 1837, for doubtful advantages, and "wild cat" currency. The early traders were bank- ers. Business was not sufficient to permit of money being made a specialty. There were only thirty-live buildings in Madison in 1839, and there was no bank. The census in 1813 showed that banks were still un- known, and the total of population was 312. There was a considerable increase of inhabitants, but no bank in 1848, when Wisconsin became a state, and permanent improvements were in order. The Wis- consin Fire and Marine Insurance Company j)rovoked the governor in 1819-50 by issuing certificates of de- posit, which served the purposes of banking. Great numbers availed themselves of the facility, denounced as unlawful. The question, "banks or no banks," Gov. Dewey said, in 1851, must be .dealt with. He strongly op- posed the banking system. The law of 1852, ap- proved by the people, was the answer to his fears. Wisconsin concluded that there should be safe banks. There was no lack of justification for the doubts en- tertained by Gov. Dewey. People could not forget the disastrous failures of the banks at Dubuque, Mil- waukee and Mineral Point ; the last of which cost the community more than $220,000. Those failures im- poverished all classes. There had been a struggle against " wild cat " currency from the earliest days of the territory, which may be summarized. The strike 164 HISTORY OF MADISON. of the workmen on the capitol is matter of histor3^ They wanted money that would not require a perj^et- ual "shaving" process. An act, which passed the first legislature, to establish a bank in the village of Prairie du Chien, was disallowed by congress. Two years later, Gov. Dodge recommended an investiga- tion of the three banks at G-reen Bay, Milwaukee and Mineral Point, and there was a show of inquiry. The bank at Green Bay was pronounced insolvent, but that had long been patent to everybody. The Bank of Mineral Point was declared in flourishing circum- stances, although it failed soon after for nearly a quar- ter of a million. Gov. Dodge and Mr. E. Y. Whiton did their utmost to protect the people, but without success. The fate of the Milwaukee Bank has been already mentioned. There was little cause for won- der that many persons dreaded the banking system. So well defined was the sentiment, that the first con- vention drafted a constitution that prohibited banks, and the circulation of small bills. The people rejected that constitution, but the feeling remained powerful. The message of Gov. Dewey intimated his views, and it was not until 1852, when the peo2)le had pronounced on the bank j^roblem, that Gov. Farwell assented to a banking law. Precautions were adopted to protect the community from being flooded with worthless bank bills. Unauthorized bank paper required stringent legis- lation in 1854. Banks rapidly increased, circulating semi-secured bills, under the inspection of the bank MERCHANTS AND BANKEKS. 165 comptroller, whose duties merged in tlie functions of tlie state treasurer in 1868. There were in the days of Gov. Bashford forty banks, but the crash year 185 T saw many contractions in number and amount. The bank comptroller declared that many institutions closed without loss to billholders, but the statement did not hold good throughout the crisis. The bank- ing law was amended in 1858 under Gov. Randall's Tegiine. There were then seven tj^-five banks, twenty- seven of which took their rise in 1857. There was a large increase of banks up to 1861, when Wisconsin currency was discredited in Chicago, and the farmers, alarmed beyond measure, held meetings to discuss financial dangers. Many banks that were sound were looked upon with disfavor. Thirty-nine were discred- ited. In one year there was a decrease of $3,209,000 in the declared amount of capital invested in banking. The bank comptroller exacted additional securities from the banks that continued, and there was no great failure during the remainder of the war. In 1868, the office of bank comptroller was discontinued on the recommendation of the then incumbent. Gen. Eusk. Resuming our narration as to Madison, little time was lost after the law of 1852 came into force. The State Bank, on Pinckney street, between the postoffice and Bruen's Block, was opened in January, 1853, with a capital of $50,000, under the direction of President Samuel Marshall and Cashier J. A. Ellis. The Bank of the West began on the second floor of Bruen's Block, in March, 1851, with a capital of $100,000, 166 HISTORY OF MADISON. and the officers were Samuel A. Lowe, President, and Wm. L. Hinsdale, Cashier. The Dane County Bank, in the same block, began its operations in October, with a capital of $50,000, the officers being Levi B. Yilas, President, Leonard J. Farwell, Yice President, and I^. B. Yan Slyke, Cashier. There was, in addi- tion, in 1855, a bank of discount and brokerage on Morris street, of wdiich J. M. Dickinson was man- ager and OAvner. Catlin, Williamson & Barwise ad- vertised as bankers and land agents, dating their establishment from 1836, just a little before Madison came into existence. The Merchants Bank of Madi- son was organized in 1856, and commenced business in July. A. A. Bliss, of Ohio, and C. T. Flowers were president and cashier. The Wisconsin Bank of Madison, with M. D. Miller, President, and I^oah Lee, Cashier, was also organized in" 1856. The Bank of Madison began in April, 1860, with a capital of $25,000. The president was Simeon Mills, and the cashier, J. L. Hill. The First National started into vigorous existence in December, 1863. The board of directors consisted of L. B. Yilas, S. D. Hastings, ]N". B. Yan Slyke, George A. Mason and Timothy Brown. The directory of 1866 only showed four banks in op- eration: The Farmers' Bank, the First N^ational, the Madison, and the State Bank. Many of the leaders had entered into new combinations; some had disap- peared altogether; 'N. B. Yan Slyke had become pres- ident of the First J^ational. The State Bank retained its first i^resident, but procured a new cashier, L. S. MERCHANTS AND BANKEES. 167 Hanks, who still remains. The Farmers' Bank had offices next door west of the State Bank, and J. H. Slavan was its cashier. Brainard's city directory for 1875 showed a total of five banks, comprising in addi- tion to two of the fonr last named, the German Bank, on King street, near Main, the Park Savings Bank, and the State Savings Institution, the last of which has since ended in disaster. The Bank of Madison failed for a considerable amount. The loss fell heav- ily upon all classes because of the faith reposed in the Unancial strength of some few names. The banks now operating in the city are, The First National, with a capital of §150,000 ; the president, N. B. Yan Slyke, deserves mention for the care with which he has presided over the finances of the State University ; The State Bank, with President Marshall and Cashier L. S. Hanks; The German Bank of J. J. Suhr, on King street, and The Park Savings Bank, which com- menced in November, 1871, and has transacted a busi- ness quite as large as circumstances warranted the proprietary in anticipating. Capital, $50,000. The president is Dr. J. B. Bowen, and the cashier. Dr. Jas. E. Baker, the offices being at the corner of Washing- ton avenue and Pinckney street, in a handsome block, the property of Dr. Baker. The time in which banks were dreaded by the poorer class and distrusted by the leaders of public opinion has, we may hope, passed for ever. Failures are inev- itable; misfortune will overtake individuals; but the banker ^iity and Difficulty of Independent Thinking." Prof. Carpenter's " English of the Four- teenth Century," and " Introduction to the Study of Anglo Saxon," cannot fail to live as standard works; and he has translated from the French of Emile de La- veleye, " The Future of Catholic :N'ations" and " Po- litical Economy and Socialism," besides contributing largely to periodicals of the highest type. Dr. James Davie Butler, LL. D., was born in Rut- land, Yt., and graduated at Middlebury College at twenty-one. Having studied theology in Yale and Andover, he next became a traveler in Europe, Asia and Africa, extending his researches into Polynesia by visiting the Sandwich Islands. Returning to his alTiia mater, he became a tutor in Middlebury College, and, in succession, professor in I^orwich University, Wabash College, and in our University, in all, about eighteen years. He officiated as a Congregational pas- tor at Wells River, Yt., Peabody, Mass., and at Cincin- nati, O. He has published " Armsmear," a memorial of Col. Colt; " Letters From Abroad," which appeared in Boston, Kew York, Cincinnati, Chicago and Mad- SCHOOLS, LITERATURE AND ART. 185 ison, and valuable papers in Kittcrs Cydoj)edia Bihll- otheca Sacra^ Quarterly Register^ and in connection with the American Institute and our State Historical Society. The professor is well known as a lecturer, and his occasional sermons are always listened to with profound interest. Lyman C. Draper, A. M., LL. D., has rather aimed at preparing material for future historians, than at becoming a writer of books ; but he has won for him- self the title of " The Western Plutarch." His atten- tion was early directed to the want of efficient collec- tion, which prevented masses of facts, once well known, from being authenticated for historical use, and much of his life has been devoted to the rectification of that class of errors. Circumstances have aided him in some degree in becoming acquainted with notabilities, and his personal reminiscences of La Fayette, De Witt Clinton, Gov. Cass, Chas. Carroll, Daniel Boone, and others equally celebrated in their several spheres, would make one of the most readable volumes of the day. His collection of MSS. is certainly the most valuable in the west, and in the hands of a skillful writer, might be wrought into works of engrossing interest and great literary value. Mr. Draper has seen service in the field; has been justice of the peace in ISTorthern Mississippi, editor of a newspaper, farmer, and since his removal to this state, has been identified with the State Historical Society, as we have else- where recorded. As state superintendent of public instruction, his labors deserve honorable mention. 186 HISTORY OF MADISON. His published works consist of pamplilets and school reports, evincing much research, the seven volnmes of collections of the Historical Society with valuable notes, " The Helping Hand," a work in which Mr. Croffut assisted, and two works are now ready for the press; one, in which Mr. Butterfield was his colaborer, entitled "Border Forays," and, though last, not least, "The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," a book fall of careful comj^ilations on the daring asser- tion of independence enunciated at Mecklenburg, IsT. C, more than twelve months prior to the time from which we date our centennial. Dr. J. ^Y. Hoyt, A. M., M. D., LL. D., is already known to our readers as editor of " The Wisconsin Farmer^'' but he has served the state in numerous other capacities. Worthington, Ohio, was his place of nativity, and in that state he was Professor of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence in the Cincin- nati College of Medicine, as also, at a later date. Pro- fessor of Chemistry and Natural History in Antioch College. The doctor was Secretary of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society ; was founder and President of the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, besides holding many other appointments of honor and use- fulness, which defy enumeration. His services to the State University alone would require more space than we have at our disposal for this brief notice. His works consist of thirteen annual reports of the State Agricultural Society, and other reports on the re- sources and progress of Wisconsin; on the London SCHOOLS, LITERATURE AND ART. 187 International Exhibition; on tlie Paris Exposition Uni'versellej on the Ivaih^oad Commission; as chair- man of the National University Committee; a work on "University Progress;" and numerous mono- graphs, industrial, educational and scientific. The doctor has a well stored mind, and its resources are ever at his fullest command for the work of the hour and the age. Mr. H. A. Tenney has figured in many other chap- ters of our history, and he must not be forgotten among our authors. To him are due the earliest sketches extant of Dane and Pierce counties, and in- numerable contributions preserved by the State His- torical Society. He has been a Wisconsin man from a very early date. He has now almost ready for the press, a volume on "Early Humor in "Wisconsin," which should have a good sale. D. S. Durrie, whose unobtrusive labors in the State Historical Library have been too little noticed, deserves more than a passing mention. He has long filled the position of Librarian. His works consist of the "Bibliography of Wisconsin;" "Early Out- posts of Wisconsin;" "Bibliographic Genealogy of America;" "The Steele Family;" "Holt Geneal- ^^1\ " " Utility of the Study of Genealogy; " " His- tory of the Four Lake Country;" and parts of the "History of Wisconsin;" of Iowa and Missouri. Mr. Durrie compiles with faithfulness, and has a con- science in his literary labors. C. W. Butterfield was born in July, 1824, and has 188 HISTORY OF MADISON. prosecuted his literary labors witli miicli good for- tune. His principal works are the " History of Sen- eca County," Ohio; "A System of Grammatical and Rhetorical Punctuation;" "Crawford's Expedition against Sandusky, in 1782;" and in conjunction with Mv. Draper, Mr. Butterfield has produced " Bor- der Forays." A new edition of Crawford's Expedi- tion may be expected shortly from the pen of this able writer. Rev. J. B. Pradt has long been a resident in this state. He has issued ten volumes of the Wisconsin Journal of Education^ from 1860 to 1865, as editor and publisher, and from 1871 to the present time, as co-editor and publisher. Mr. Pradt has also assisted in issuing eight annual reports of the Department of Public Instruction; and an edition of the Constitu- tions of the United States and Wisconsin, with his- torical notes, questions and glossary. Pev. Ames C. Pennock came to "Wisconsin in 1844, and four years later, joined the M. E. Conference, preaching in this state and in Minnesota until 1862, when in consequence of impaired health, it became necessary to abate his labors. Mr. Pennock has had experience as a farmer, merchant, agent, author, editor and newspaper correspondent. He is now a publisher of books as well as a writer. His mind revels alike in poetry and prose, and those who have encountered him in theological controversy will long remember the event. He has published a brief, but very exhaustive work, on " Tlie Fall and the Rescue SCHOOLS, LITERATUKE AND ART. 189 of Man;" lias now in course of publication, "The Problem of Evil, or Theory and Theology," and has written a volume of poetry. Professor Nicodemus has now ready for the press a translation of " Weisbach's Engineer," a work of admitted value, which cannot fail to be recognized as a standard production. The translation from the Swedish, by Professor Anderson, of Svedelius' " Handbook for Charcoal Burners," was edited by Mr. Kicodemus, who contributed copious notes from the writings of acknowledged authorities. Many articles in the published proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters are due to his industry, and other additions to our current literature might be given, were it necessary to complete the catalogue. Prof. Searing, superintendent of public instruction,, was one of the faculty of Milton College, in this state, prior to his election to the office now worthily filled by him. His published works consist of an address on the " Character of Abraham Lincoln," delivered shortly after the assassination of the martyred presi- dent, and a school edition of Yirgil's Eneid. The great success of the book last named, led to the pre- paration of an edition of Homer's Iliad^ which was nearly ready for publication when Mr. Searing was elected. In consequence of his call to the unsought honor, the book has not yet seen the light, but its ap- pearance may be anticipated shortly, and its success looked upon as assured, so great and well applied has been the labor, and so exceptionally elegant will be the 190 HISTORY OF MADISON. illustrations. Prof. Searing deserves liigli honor for tlie strenuous personal efforts by which he has earned his own advancement in the department of letters. His official services have been properly noticed else- where. His career has been highly meritorious, and substantially successful ; he is yet only on the thresli- hold of his literary eminence. Mr. John Y. Smith, who wrote a history of Madi- son, in brief, for one of the earlier Directories, was a writer of great force, and fineness of intellect; but want of space precludes a becoming notice of his merits. Col. Slaughter has been frequently mentioned in our pages, and it remains only to say that as a writer, he is a gentleman of high repute. He is now engaged on a series of Wisconsin Biographies, which will widely extend his fame. Jas. J\. Stuart is a native of South Carolina, where his forefathers settled in the first half of the eighteenth century, hence probably his adhesion to the " lost cause " for which he fouo^ht. His scientific trainino; was procured in Harvard, his first instruction in art in the studio of Joseph Ames of Boston. After some years of school teaching in Savannah, he was enabled to prosecute his art studies in the academies of Mu- nich and Carlsruhe. Mr. Stuart came to Madison in 1872, and many of his pictures have commanded ad- miration. Judges Dunn and Paine, in the supreme court rooms, are from his studio, and he has also painted Gen. Allen, of Oshkosh, Judges Miller, SCHOOLS, LITERATURE AND '.ET. 191 Smitli and Jonatlian E. Arnold, of Milwaukee, besides others whose names could not be given without ex- press permission. The fineness of touch for which Mr. Stuart is justly ]3raised does not detract in any degree from the faithfulness of his presentations. It may be thought that the ladies should have been preferred to the gentlemen in noting the literary and artistic workers in this capital; we propose always to keep the more precious to the last. Miss Ella Au- gusta Giles, authoress of "Bachelor Ben," and " Out From the Shadows," has been honored with copious notices in metropolitan journals accustomed to wield the scalpel of criticism- with little mercy. Her books survive such scrutiny, and further contributions from her pen may be anticipated. Miss Giles has now assumed the role of editress of the Ifiliva iihee Maga- zine^ which with the commencement of the coming year will put on a new dress, and become much more widely known as the " Midland." Mrs. Sara C. Bull has recently entered the field of literature, and has already established for herself a brilliant record by her excellent translation of Jonas Lie's " The Pilot and his Wife." The leading peri- odicals on both sides of tlie Atlantic are loud in their praises of Mrs. Bull's book, and indeed she has chosen for translation a novelist whose pictures of !N^orse life cannot be surpassed. They are like the music of Die Bull played by Ole Bull himself, or like sky rockets that burst in the zenith and fall in gentle showers of fiery rain. The Pilot and his Wife is already in its 192 HISTORY OF MADISON. second edition, and more books may soon be looked for from Mrs. Bull's pen. Miss Ella Wheeler has won triumphs as an author- ess in this city, and her residence in Dane county ena- bles us to include her name among the LitUrateuTS that adorn the history of Madison. The young poet- ess came before the public first in JSTew York in 1873, when " Drops of Water " was the significant title of her work. During the same year, and almost at the same time, her second book " Shells" was being pub- lished in Milwaukee, so that east and west were alike doing homage to her genius. " Maurine," her third production, has evoked much' friendly criticism, but we believe that " The Messenger," a piece published by Harper and Brothers, IN'ew York, will hardly be excelled by any of her later ^productions, bright and telling as they prove. Miss Wilhelmina Fillans, an artist of considerable merit, has been already referred to as occupying a siiite of rooms in the capitol; but since that mention was made. Miss Fillans has removed to other quarters. The lady comes of a family of artists, and her skill is beyond question. Many of her paintings grace the homes of Madison, and her modelings are no less fine. It would have afforded us much pleasure to have named a few of her works, but the lady's modesty for- bids us that pleasure, and we can only refer our read- ers to her studio, where her labors will speak for themselves. 194 HISTOEY OF MADISON. CHAPTEE XI. MADISON HOMES. Our title would justify a long chapter, but the limits allotted to our lucubrations have been reached, and we deny ourselves the pleasure of communicating to our readers many interesting details compiled with care. It would be strange if the charms of scenery, which have been praised by all observers from every part of the Union; which determined the location of the Cap- ital and its retention here; and which won the ad- miration of the Antoctlionous mound builders so com- pletely, that they abode here for several centuries until war drove them out; had not induced many of our private citizens to erect elegant residences and almost palatial homes. Architectural beauties salute the sight on every hand in such numbers that it would be an endless task to name them all, and invidious to make selections. We content ourselves with doing homage to the general bea,uty which richly deserves more particular praise, and pass on to note the several societies which in a secondary sense become homes to wayfarers and new-comers; such as Goldsmith has im- mortalized in the line referring to the wanderer: " Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow; " who but for such institutions would find no welcome MADISON HOMES. 195 among strangers, but by every incident would be com- pelled to remember with sorrow the home of earlier days, hard to be effaced by new associations. Poor Oliver realized the fine poetic sensibility which made his traveling experience a " Ceaseless pain, That drag's at each remove a lengthening chain." The old time prejudices have been well nigh removed in this vast caravanserai of nations and peoples, and every man who comes well vouched for, finds a home that may be made as happy as his first. Society in Madison has been largely made up of men who have represented other parts of the state in some capacity, and coming here, have been tempted to prolong a temporary sojourn into a life residence. Men who can command the suffrag^e of their fellows must, as a rule, possess some excellence. The congre- gation of such minds makes a city a metropolis. The state officers make their homes in Madison and are, as a rule, handsomely lodged. The city officials include not a few who began adult life in this settlement, and have grown up with their surroundings, accumulating wealth with sound ideas as to life's enjoyment. The same may be said to a large extent of other officials, and it is still more true of our professional classes. The development of elegant tastes has resulted in beautifying this city until it challenges comparison with others of like dimensions and wealth, certain of victory. 196 HISTOKY OF MADISON. The masonic fraternity dating its claim on Imman regard from Solomon's temple, and the fidelity of the Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, has three blue lodges, one Royal Arch Chapter, one Council, and one Com- mandery in this city. Brethren of the mystic tie make the five points of fellowship a sober reality in this region, and where the hailing sign becomes neces- sary, there is never a lack of response to the call. Labor and refreshment are alike regarded as sacred duties, and free and accepted Masons who understand the golden rule of life make the society which they tincture a desirable place of abode. Masonic Lodges, and the celebrations arising therefrom, were among the earliest social gatherings in this community, and they retain preeminence. Other organizations founded on the same general idea of brotherhood have a large aggregate of members. Knights of Pythias are well represented. Sons of Temperance abound in good works; and Good Templars are more numerous than, and as well organized, as the Templars of old time. The Odd Fellows have three Lodges and one En- campment; the Druids have a Grove ; the Germans have a Scheutzen Club, a Msennerchor, a Dramatic Society, a Turn Yerein, a Literary Society and other associa- tions. There are also a Grand Army of the Republic ; a County Bible Society and other affiliations so num- erous in connection w^ith the several churches, that no person desiring fellowship can long remain a stranger. The city has innumerable attractions for every variety of taste. Tliat must be a strano-e intellect that would MADISON HOMES. 197 find nothing congenial in the numberless societies that open their circle to the worthy; nor any objects of interest in the vast collections in the rooms of the Historical Society, the Agricultural Association, and the Academy. The schools and churches have been named in their order, but their social value as organ- izations would deserve whole pages of comment and laudation. Our illustrations must afford some faint idea of the architectural beauty of this city, and the discreet reader will argue from the less to the greater. The University overlooking Lake Mendota tells its own story. Lake Monona, and the vessels of the Yacht Club furnish a handsome picture. One church must stand as the representative of many. The streets and principal stores are not entirely wanting in our illustrations. The view of Lakeside over Monona is beautiful as a scene in dreamland. The old house of Eben Peck, long since torn down, reappears as it stood in 1837. The view of the Post Office and City Hall, with Lake Mendota in the distance, is a charm- ing representation which, in a general way, will give the distant observer an idea of the capital of Wis- consin. The presentation of the Capitol itself comes as near as the circumstances will permit to a repro- duction of the original; and but that the expense would have been such as to have largely increased the selling price of the work, it would have been a pleasure to have completed the pictorial circle, so that the artist's pencil and graver might have done justice to beauties which the skill of the writer fails to present in adequate language. (Or Third Lake) LOOKING TOWARD MADISOH. VISITOES AND THEIR PLEASURES. 199 CHAPTER XII. VISITORS AND THEIR PLEASURES. FuRSiJiT of health has brought thousands to this city, who have found hygienic conditions not often combined. Beauty is a large element in relieving the pressure of nervous complaints by calling attention from real and assumed disorders. That charm is here in the superlative degree, and, in addition, a mild and salubrious atmosphere. There are exquisite nooks for bathing, and enclosures in which art has assisted nature in making the pellucid waters attract- ive, so that swimmer and nonswimmer can enjoy the health giving plunge. The amateur fisherman could hardly find better sport than here, and while patiently waiting for a bite, his eyes can feast on beautiful im- pressions, which can never be effaced. The lakes in- vite rowing and sailing; the shores unfold new at- tractions with every change, and steamboats make ex- cursions with modest speed, lest visitors should not enjoy the landscape inclosing the crystal gem. Citi- zens propose to improve the drives which girdle the city and lakes. One suggests a road round Fourth Lake, following the shore, which would give "a drive of twenty-five miles, absolutely unrivaled for beauty." A second proposition contemplates a new 200 HISTOKY OF JVIADISON. lake shore drive of five miles, to tlie charming site of the State Hospital for the Insane, and there is good hope that the idea will be realized. The beautiful university drive is likely to be extended to Picnic Point. There are rural retreats, easy of access from this capital, which shut out the city, yet within an hour's transit, all the advantages of social science and material advancement can be reached. Visitors are attracted by our university and pleased with our graded schools. The church spires pointing to the stars challenge admiring notice. The railroads and postoffice, with always increasing facilities, and the telegraj^h wires by which the world is girdled, bespeak the obedient spirit of science, more apt than the fabled Ariel. The Capitol, whose form of beauty compels admiration as soon as the eye lights on Madison, offers substantial evidences of civilization connecting us with the great world which we daily miniature. Here, in the several libraries, are choice books, news- papers and periodicals; the best works of juriscon- sults; the treasures of common and civil law, ex- pressed essences of knowledge from the days of Justinian to our own; and by their side the liveliest essays of magazine contributors, separating them from works of profound historians and scientists. On the desks are our best newspapers, in many respects the foremost in the world, filled with vigorous assaults of partisan editors, who anticipate the final cataclysm unless their measures and their men are sustained; yet reassuring us by the news flashed along the wires, A.MeLiW©RIV« S?A.f6©M. 202 HISTORY OF MADISON. through, mid air and under the sea, which, in reveal- ing the condition of every country on the earth, from I^ew York and London to Japan and "Far Cathay," unfold the fact that a thousand such jeremiads daily reach the limbo of nonfulfillment. It has been objected that our population of ten thousand has not originated a line of steamboats that will compare, for beauty, power and conv^enience, with the Atlantic glories of Cunard or White Star; but the Scutanawheqtion possesses a name that rivals the finest on the sea, and our boats, if not numerous and large as the Spanish armada, are equal to the occasion and will increase with the demand. The names of celebrities who have visited us, as revealed by the books of the Park, the Yilas House, and the Capitol, would fill a volume, but few would peruse the record. Prince I^apoleon, who passed through our city to Saint Paul, accompanied by his beautiful wife, the daughter of Yictor Emanuel, II Re Galantuomo, as Garibaldi named him, could hardly be considered our visitor, for he and his suite were closely cooped within locked doors, during the stay, but that could not prevent a cheer of welcome before the distinguished Prince j^arvenu moved on. It is more to our purpose that such men as Secretary Sew- ard and Charles Francis Adams have been our guests, and raised their eloquent voices to infuse their spirit into the people. The balcony of the Yilas House, and the eastern steps of the capitol had on that day immense assemblies. Frederika Bremer was for YISITORS AND THEIR PLEASURES. 203 months a delighted visitor to our city and lakes. Louis J. D. Agassiz, the eminent Swiss naturalist, of whom Whipple says: "He is not merely a scientific thinker, he is a scientific force. The immense influence he exerts is due to the energy and geniality which distinguished the nature of the man. He in- spires as well as performs; communicates not only knowledge, but the love of knowledge." He was. an appreciated and appreciative visitor, and many in this city can testify to those truths from personal experi- ence, who grieved as for a dear friend when Agassiz died. The magician Ole Bull, whose wand is the wonder working bow^, has on the shores of those lakes a home, to which the demands of a music loving world make him a rare visitor; but when leisure on this side of the Atlantic j)ermits, he can forget Ole- ana in the w^itcheries of this region. The praise be- stowed upon Ole Bull by Longfellow in his " Tales of a Wayside Inn," beggar any tribute that we could render. We content ourselves with claiming the dis- tinction that belongs to Madison. Horace Greeley and Bayard Taylor visited us as lecturers ; during the same season Jas. Russel Lowell, Parke Godwin, John G. Saxe, and other national celebrities were with us, and their appreciative words are treasured. Sumner lectured here on the question, "Are We a J^ation?" Gen. Sherman was with us as the guest of Col. Rey- nolds, w^hen the famous "March to the Sea" was the topic of all talkers; and Philip Sheridan, not less famous for his dashing exploits with cavalry, could 204: HISTORY OF MADISOX. testify to the charms of which we boast. Hardly a clay passes without the advent of some celebrity, at- tracted by our Historical Society, the reputation of our University, the beauty of the country, or the health giving charm that more than all else should vastly increase our popularity. There is hardly a city of the same dimensions in the Union that can show so excellent a record as to the number and eminence of its medical practitioners, side by side with such hy- gienic conditions in the resident population. Fain would we say more concerning the attractions which concentrate on this lovely spot, but space forbids. This will be, as its excellences become known and improved, by added wealth and numbers, one of the fairest cities in the • M ; our parks, eloquent with the plash of waters from numerous fountains, musical with the charms of art and nature, will hereafter remind the traveler of the vast outlay with which the Grande Monarqiie built up a far inferior beauty at Yersailles. "We have no palace of marble, such as he has left, no Grande nor Petite Trianon, no treasure of a nation spent in lakes and mountains ; but there are glories from the hand of nature herself, grouped in this county, and visible from this spot, that beggar the triumphs of art, and we cannot better close this brief tribute than by saying to ^vhosoever can appre- ciate all that is most excellent, come and help us to make the setting, worthy of the gem. MOrNDS, MONUMENTS, CAVES, ETC. 207 CHAPTER XIII. MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, CAVES AND RELICS. We live surrounded by monuments wliich point to the almost forgotten past, telling of our remote prede- cessors, the mound builders. The site occupied by our city was for a prolonged term, thousands of years ago, the abode of a people whose semi-architectural remains connect them with the civilizations of Aztecs and Toltecs, in Mexico and Central America. The Teocallis or temples, and the Pueblos or village houses, preserved by the more enduring cliaracter of their materials, in some cases, as at Palenque, Copan, TJxmal, long buried in impassable forests, are the wonder of the explorer; our monuments are only less complete. Where the central building of our State University stands, was a large mound crowning the eminence, but necessity compelled its removal. In other supremely beautiful positions, such mounds, all that remain of more extensive erections, bespeak identity in taste and judgment between the aboriginal occupants and ourselves. St. Louis was once called Mound City, because of the large number of emi- nences standing where that city unfolds her vast pro- portions. There are mound cities in many of the states. Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, among oth- 208 HISTORY OF MADISON. er cities indicate like agreement with the building of this city upon a spot on which the mound builders congregated. That fact is repeated in almost every large town in the Mississippi valley. Kapoleon told his soldiery that from the pyramids, four thousand years looked down upon them ; and not forgetting the w^ords of Fuller, that those structures, " doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders," it seems probable that this continent had an older civili- zation than that of the Ptolemies. Possibly this was the first habitable land then connected with Euroj^e and Asia, and the home of a people who never dreamed of submergence by the barbarism, wdiich has omitted to preserve, where it has not exjDunged their records. There are strange agreements, and variations no less curious, between some of the Egyptian structures and our mounds. Should the sands that flow on that land as the sea once rolled over Sahara, ebb back from the works which they partially cover, more significant resemblances might apjDcar. We find no traces to determine the relationship between the people, unless the Ethiopians from Arabia Felix were the founders of both civilizations; but the likeness and unlike- ness of their works afibrd evidences that similar ideas prevailed in the same or succeeding cycles in widely distant quarters. The discovery of America by Co- lumbus, and by his predecessors, the Norsemen, are affairs of yesterday, compared with the primitive oc- cupation to which the mounds bear testimony, dat- ing from thousands of years before the Christian era. MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, GATES, ETC. 209 Settlements in this region must have been large, so great were the remains that had defied " the tooth and razure of oblivion," until our civilization, with build- ings and cultivation of the soil, made demolition rapid. Animal shaped mounds were here first noted. Dr. Laj)ham wrote on this subject to the papers in 1836; subsequently, Mr. Taylor communicated to the Am^erican Journal of Science, describing eminences with outlines of man and the lower animals, at dis- tances ranging six, ten and twelve miles from the four lakes. So marked were the differences between our mounds and those in other states, that many con- cluded they were relics of a distinct race; but inves- tigation showed agreements between the structures that dot the country from the great lakes to Mexico and Central America. Some of the curious mounds in this region that were in existence at recent dates, or are now, may be mentioned ; but a complete record will not be attempted. Visitors coming to explore, will find no lack of indications to put them on the track of discovery. Dr. Lapham, assisted by the re- sources of the Antiquarian Society and the Smith- sonian Institution, omitted surveys which would have been as interesting as any in his "Antiquities of Wisconsin," and Messrs. Squier and Davis, in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Yalley," were similarly unable to complete the catalogue. A great mound on State street was used grading the hollows in that locality. Near Lake Monona, ad- joining Ex-Governor Fairchild's residence, was a liz- 14 210 HISTOKY OF MADISON. ard 318 feet long. The figure was rude, but not more so than was inevitable, considering that the mound was formed of surface soil, nobody knows how many centuries ago. It was removed in grading Wilson street and Wisconsin avenue. The mounds near the Hospital for the Insane are too well known to require description, and moreover, too numerous. I^orth of Lake Wingra there were many mounds, embodying specimens of almost every variety, except works for defense. Five of them were oblong, twenty seven circular, one circular with lateral projections, one a bird, and two quadrupeds. Every writer on this sub- ject is indebted to the surveys made by Dr. Lapham, whose work adorns the shelves of the Historical Society, with those of other authors who have made mounds their specialty. The south angle of Third Lake has extensive and regular works, in rows paral- lel with the ridges, occupying ground that slopes from the lake, like the seats in an amphitheatre. Back of these mounds is another, uniting the forms of a bird and a cross. At the foot is a sandy ridge having twenty- four elevations, on some of which ad- ditional eminences appear, representing animals. The twenty-four elevations may have been accidental, but they do not bear that appearance. The animal- shaped mounds upon them are clearly artificial. Dr. Lap- ham noticed a modern grave on one of the eminences, and on another the poles of an Indian wigwam, but no Indian can give an idea as to the origin of the mounds. The third volume of Bancroft's " United MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, CAYES, ETC. 211 States " contains a suggestion from Prof. Hitchcock that accident and natural action would account for many supposed antique works. There are earthworks that will not admit of any such explanation, and numer- ous circumstances connected with the majority are con- clusive as to human ingenuity aiding their construc- tion. Probably some of the twenty-four mounds were natural elevations, others having been added. All of them were covered with soil, and forest trees were growing on some of them when Dr. Lapham wrote. A ridge of land near the margin of a lake might be ascribed to the frosts of succeeding winters, but no such action could produce a series of mounds. The First, Second and Fourth Lakes have eminences that will repay inspection. The world-famous " ancient city of Aztalan " de- mands greater space for description than can be afford- ed. The visitor cannot do better than spend a portion of his time in the rooms of our Historical Society, con- sulting the volumes mentioned and others yet to be specified, after which he will undertake inspection more intelligently, with much increased pleasure. Nothing short of actual examination can give an adequate idea of those earth-works. • Between Williams' Bay, on Lake Geneva, and the head of Duck Lake, overlook- ing both waters, is a mound representing a bow and arrow, aimed at Lake Geneva. The span of the bow is fifty feet, the work, finely outlined, is in proportion. Lake Kpshkonong skirts Dane coimty, miscalled Dade, in the " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi 212 HISTORY OF MADISON. Yalley," and tlie monnds in that locality have been visited by President W. C. "Whitford, of Milton Col- lege, and Mr. W. P. Clarke. The party cut through some mounds, and were repaid by relics of great ar- chiac value. A skull of excellent type was removed by them, and many fragments of pottery similar to the deb7'is in the remains of the Pueblo Indians, besides tools, ornaments and weapons, which will reward a visit to the college. Some of the mounds have been used for sacrificial purposes, and others for burial, but whether originally constructed for those purposes must be matter of conjecture. Residence, fortifica- tion, burial and worship have been served by the mounds in varying proportions. Assume a common origin for Mound builders, Aztecs and Toltecs, an affiliation which becomes easy now that the mounds have been traced to Mexico, and we can comprehend the purposes for which many of those elevations were prepared. In Mexico, and along the line by which the Mississippi valley mound builders must have migrated if they reached or departed from the magnificent cities of Palenque and Uxmal, there are wrecks of dwellings in advanced stages of decay, which illustrate the service rendered by the founda- tion mound. The earthworks were floors on which were erected the pueblos, supposed by the Spaniards to be palaces of nobles, attended on by armies of de- pendents; but in reality, common abodes, in which whole cities, towns or villages found lodgment, pur- suing customary avocations, living together in com- KMBViS. /^WfeS ftiUCB ®a^@iLiT§. 214 HISTORY OF MADISON". mniiistic equality. Some of tliose buildings would accommodate five hundred, in others five thousand could find room. The mound, sometimes faced and covered with stone, was itself a fortification, difiicult of access, unless the visitor was aided from within. The platform being reached, the assailant, supposing war to be his object, found himself confronted on three sides bj bnildings, each story receding from the building line beneath, so that a stage remained avail- able for defense. The edifice could not be battered down, the enemy possessed no artillery ; could not be set on fire, it was faced, and to a great extent con- structed with stone; could not be stormed, there were no doorways and stairs, the upper fioors being reached by ladders and window entrances, which could be made unapproachable. Within that fortification the Pueblo Indians found safety against aboriginal war; and from windows and stages, as well as from occasional apertures for defense, missiles could be pro- pelled with deadly efiect. We find the floors of such buildings scattered through the valley of the Missis- sippi, but the vast deltas not being prodigal of stone, wooden buildings or mud walls were substituted. These materials decaying, the mounds alone remain. The Natchez Indians lived in houses of wood erected on mounds, which may have been their own handi- work, or that of long forgotten predecessors, when Tonti and La Salle observed their worshij) of the sun, and other indications of Mexican fellowship. The long house of the Iroquois, in which the tribe lived in com- MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, CAVES, ETC. 215 men, with a fireplace for each family, shows that there may have been a time w^hen nearly all were one brotherhood, acquiring customs since modified by cir- cumstances, never wholly changed. The TeoealUs or Temple mounds, of which there are many examples, had also crowning edifices. Features of resemblance remain where compatible with the partial use of per- ishing materials. The truncated pyramids approached by graded ways, and the final stages upon which sac- rifices were offered, continue, because their constitu- ents are little subject to decay. Professor C. G. Forshey followed those works with minute annotation through the Mississippi valley, and the reader can find the results in "Foster's Pre-Historic Paces." Many of the mounds support trees estimated at from four hundred to a thousand years old. Capt. Jona- than Carver was first to invite attention to the mounds in the great valley, having examined works of defense near Mount Trempealeau. He also discovered the cave of Wakan Tebee, since destroyed by railroads, which had hieroglyphs or pictographs on its Avails. Much that pertains to this subject is omitted. Our book can be little other than a fingerpost, pointing to localities and monuments that will not permit of enumeration. The undeciphered hieroglyphs on Gales Bluff's, near La Crosse, are monuments that will not serve their purpose until the signs have de- livered up their meaning. Sun dried bricks, bearing impressions of the hands of workmen; clay that served as a casing for a great man defunct, bearing 216 HISTORY OF MADISON. similar impressions of hands that shaped it over the corpse, preparatory to the burning which gave the consistency of brick; the burnt clay that is found mixed with charred straw, in the works at Aztalan; the ornaments of copper, silver, obsidian, porphyry and green stone, the tools and weapons by which men sustained themselves and little ones, are of the high- est interest. The telescopic tube of stone, with which the mound builders examined the heavenly bodies, as P©RPMYiY, 6RilNST©5ti, appears on a Peruvian relic, showing a figure carvea on silver, bespeaks high civilization. The stone bat- tle axes found at Kenosha; stone hatchets from Cot- tage Grove, from Green Bay, and from our immedi- ate surroundings, are replete with human interest, be- cause full of mystery from an age unkno\\Ti. Some day we may master the problem which, spliynx like, demands solution, as to the tumuli systematically raised, enclosed in mathematical figures and lines of MOUXDS, [MONUMENTS, CATES, ETC. 217 circumvallatioii, builded by men who were conversant with mining operations, who could procure their own copper from the matrix, as well as shape it into artis- tic forms ; who wove cloth probably when the lake villages of S\vitzerland were first settled; who could prepare designs in stone and clay, expressing thoughts that approach the sublime, and evince a comprehen- sion of the beautiful ; yet have fallen below the realm of history, leaving to generations now remotely fol- lowing them, the task to discover ''Whence came they \ " " Whither did they go \ " R. [ f( K t N G e y p . By the kindness of S. C. Griggs & Co., the well known publishers, we present engravings of earth- works and other relics of the Mound Builders from "Foster's Pre-Ristoric Eaces," a book which should be in the hands of every thoughtful reader. The Mound Builders could not be omitted fi'om our rec- ord, but a complete statement within our limits is im- 218 HISTORY OF MADISON. possible, and it affords us pleasure to refer tlie stu- dent to the fascinating j)ages of Foster. The works at Marietta were examined by Lyell in 1842. On that sj)ot Dr. Hildreth saw a tree which showed eight hundred rings of annual growth. Prior to that time President Harrison had written a memoir, which went to show,, that thousands of years must have elapsed from the first formation of the mound before such growths were possible. Every circumstance con- nected with the mounds points to a remote antiquity. Illustrations of utensils, weapons, tools and orna- ments, might have been indefinitely extended, but enough has been given to suggest the degrees of civ- ilization attained by the builders and occupants of the mounds in the Mississippi valley. The times in which they fiourished cannot be safely computed, but Dr. Dowler found a skeleton at 'New Orleans, for which he claims an antiquity of fifty thousand years; and Agassiz gives an estimate of ten thousand years, at the least, as the age of human remains in Florida. The wondrous transmutations witnessed by this con- tinent cannot be better illustrated than by the fact that the fossils of our rocks alone, reveal the form of the ancestors of the horse and ass; although there were no horses on this continent when the Spaniards landed in South America, save those which were brought by the invading soldiery. Enough as to our predecessors, although enough has never yet been said. We turn to other features of interest. Eleven miles a little to the south of MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, CAVES, ETC. 219 west of Madison, in the ridge dividing the vallev of Sugar river from the lake country, is a wonderful cave, which unlike the "cave of the Great Spirit," discovered by Captain Carver, has not been destroyed by railroads. The basin of a lake covering an area of four thousand acres, discharged its volume ages since into the bluff by which it was bounded, and lias worn the channel into a series of chambers and pas- sages, which have been penetrated two thousand feet 220 HISTORY OF MADISON. by explorers, who do not know the extent of the cav- ern. There is no lake to fill the basin, nor has it been ascertained where the waters found egress below. The Four Lakes are five hundred feet be- neath the level of the basin, and Sugar river flows at a distance of about a mile and a half; but nothing indicates that the riparian current is augmented from the old lake level. Explorers, with proper appli- ances, will find within the cavern a field for romantic adventure and curious observation. The grotto opens in the upper magnesian limestone, beneath which a stratum of sandstone has been reached, and the action of the water cannot have failed to shape vast halls, which imagination may people with gnomes, fairies and dwarfs, sufiicient for unnumbered nursery sto- ries. The entrance is obstructed by debris^ but four narrow passages remain; within, is a succession of chambers, ornamented by stalactite and stalagmite, that glisten in fantastic shapes when torches are in- troduced. Voices of visitors can be heard distinctly on the ground overhead, the roof is in some parts much attenuated. After a storm, when the waters have been dammed back from underground fissures, the air escaping, roars like a steam whistle. It is probable that fossil remains may be found in the many storied cavern, sufiicient to fill our museums. Two hours ride from this city conveys the tourist from this placid beauty, to the blufi*s of Baraboo and the wild aspects of Devil's Lake; which none fail to admire. Few localities offer so many charms within MOUNDS, MONUMENTS, CAVES, ETC. 221 a space so easily traveled. The Four Lakes are of course unrivalled; the mounds tell of hoar antiquity, when antediluvians may have jDcopled the country; the cavern suggests fossil treasures never rendered to the eye of man; and the Devil's Lake, even Lucifer must look upon with delight.