Dane County History from 1873 Plat Book by Harrison & Warner
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"In presenting to the citizens a brief history of Dane County, we wish to say the limits prescribed in this work will not admit of a lengthy detail of facts connected with its early settlement, rise, and progress. It is our design to present an account of the past and refer to the present without aiming at high-sounding rhetorical phrases or elaborately constructed sentences. In our brief sketch of the county, as it was and is, the contrast may show whatever growth and development has been obtained. |
Volumes might be written, relative to the primitive days in the Four Lake Country, in giving an account of the early scenes enacted, the hardships, trails, toils, and privations of the bold pioneer, but we must leave that for th historian proper, and will only attempt to give, in abbreviated terms, a few of the prominent facts concerning the early settlement, progress, and present prosperity as they are obtained from the records and memory of the old settlers, some of whom survive. This is a difficult task, from the fact that the statements until, with the aid of the Historical Library, we are assured that what we here present is substantially correct.
Only a few years have passed since along the banks of the beautiful lakes of Dane County no white man was to be seen. The broad fields, that to-day present almost every evidence of civilization, were only a short time since traversed in all directions by hers of deer, antelope, etc. All this section of country was the home and favorite hunting-grounds of the Winnebagoes and Sacs, and , as long as possible, they kept the pale face from the same. Through they gave up the mining lands, they clung to the lakes. But the Black Hawk War laid open the lake country to the eye of the white man, and the treaty made soon after with the Winnebagoes, then subdued by fear of the prowess of the whites, returned to their old haunts in search of the game and fish, with which the lands and waters teemed. As these lakes were the favorite hunting and fishing grounds, so they were the burial place of the Indian dead, and many Indian remains have from time to time been exhumed.
Dane County lies in the latitude 43 degrees north, and longitude 89 degrees west from Greenwich. It is bounded on the north by Columbia and Sauk Counties, on the east by Jefferson and Dodge, on the south by Green and Rock, and on the west by Iowa and Sauk Counties. It is 42 miles long, east and west, by 30 miles wide, north and south, with an area of 1235 square miles, 35 of which are covered by water of the lakes.
This county was set off from the west part of Milwaukee and the east part of Iowa Counties in 1836; but was not organized as a separate county until 1839. Its population in 1838 was 172; in 1840 was 314; in 1850 was 16,639; in 1860 was 43,922; in 1870 was 53,096.
The face of the county is beautifully diversified by hills and valleys. The hills, however, are always of moderate elevation and have gentle slopes to their summit. The valley occupied by the Four Lakes, and their outlet, is the principal one, and occupies the central portions of the county. There are no considerable portions that can be called timber land, it being almost entirely oak openings and prairie. Some of the eastern parts of the county are occupied by dry ridges, separated by wet meadows, but the majority of the land in the county is rich and fertile, producing the cereals, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, in abundance. Tobacco and hops are also extensively raised. The marshes yield fine pasturage.
Only a few years have passed since along the banks of the beautiful lakes of Dane County no white man was to be seen. The broad fields, that to-day present almost every evidence of civilization, were only a short time since traversed in all directions by hers of deer, antelope, etc. All this section of country was the home and favorite hunting-grounds of the Winnebagoes and Sacs, and , as long as possible, they kept the pale face from the same. Through they gave up the mining lands, they clung to the lakes. But the Black Hawk War laid open the lake country to the eye of the white man, and the treaty made soon after with the Winnebagoes, then subdued by fear of the prowess of the whites, returned to their old haunts in search of the game and fish, with which the lands and waters teemed. As these lakes were the favorite hunting and fishing grounds, so they were the burial place of the Indian dead, and many Indian remains have from time to time been exhumed.
Dane County lies in the latitude 43 degrees north, and longitude 89 degrees west from Greenwich. It is bounded on the north by Columbia and Sauk Counties, on the east by Jefferson and Dodge, on the south by Green and Rock, and on the west by Iowa and Sauk Counties. It is 42 miles long, east and west, by 30 miles wide, north and south, with an area of 1235 square miles, 35 of which are covered by water of the lakes.
This county was set off from the west part of Milwaukee and the east part of Iowa Counties in 1836; but was not organized as a separate county until 1839. Its population in 1838 was 172; in 1840 was 314; in 1850 was 16,639; in 1860 was 43,922; in 1870 was 53,096.
The face of the county is beautifully diversified by hills and valleys. The hills, however, are always of moderate elevation and have gentle slopes to their summit. The valley occupied by the Four Lakes, and their outlet, is the principal one, and occupies the central portions of the county. There are no considerable portions that can be called timber land, it being almost entirely oak openings and prairie. Some of the eastern parts of the county are occupied by dry ridges, separated by wet meadows, but the majority of the land in the county is rich and fertile, producing the cereals, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, in abundance. Tobacco and hops are also extensively raised. The marshes yield fine pasturage.
The west line of the county passes between the two Blue Mounds, the largest or principal one being within the county of Dane. About three townships in the southwestern corner of the county are within the country known as the "Mineral Region," and lead mines have been worked at the Blue Mound.
The county touches upon Lake Koshkonong, an expansion of Rock River, at the southeast corner, and upon the Wisconsin River at the northwest, embracing the ground upon which the "battle of the Wisconsin" was fought between the volunteers under General Henry Dodge and the Indians under Black Hawk, July 21st, 1832. In the month of June was the first assault from the Indians in this region of country. At that time three men were killed near the rude fort that had been reared at Blue Mounds. Their names were Smith, Force, and Green. Lieutenant Force was killed by an Indian hid in the tall grass in a small ravine. He is buried near where he fell, and his grave is still to be seen. This Indian was afterward killed near the Four Lakes by a party of General Dodge's volunteers under Captain Gentry. So hot was their chase, that no time was appropriated to the examination of the body; but some weeks afterward, and after the prairie had been burned over; on examination of his body, the watch which had been taken from the body of Lieutenant Force was found among his effects. The watch was more readily recognized, as it had been used at the fort to regulate the sentinels. This fort was the refuge of several families during the Black Hawk War, and some of its remains were to be seen a few years ago.
The Blue Mounds are two conical hills, or mounds, one in Iowa County, the other, the largest, in Dane County, twenty-five miles west from Madison, and twelve mile south from the Wisconsin River. Their elevation is such that they can be seen at a distance of twenty-five miles or more; and in the first exploration of the country they were very important landmarks to guide the traveller [sic] through the boundless prairies. The Indian name is Mu-cha-wa-ku-nin, or Smoky Mountains, applied to them, it is said, on account of their summits being usually enveloped in a cloud or fog. From the top of these mounds there is a grand view of the surrounding country, extending far beyond the Wisconsin on the north and embracing a wide circle on all sides. The Platte Mounds, which are similar in many respects to the Blue Mounds, are seen at the southwest. In a perfectly clear day, a panorama of from fifty to one hundred miles is spread out to the observer in every direction. It overlooks the valleys of the Pecatonica, the Platte, the Galena, the Blue River, Wyoming, and Blue Mounds Creeks, the Sugar River, the Four Lakes region, and an innumerable number of lesser streams that cluster about or rise in the same highlands.
The valleys of the Mississippi, Rock River, and the Wisconsin, with its affluents, the Pine River, Bear Creek, Honey Creek, and the Baraboo, are all indicated by lines of forests, or can be traced by the spectator, and their dividing ridges plainly defined. The grand walls that hedge in the Wisconsin, the bluffs of the Baraboo, and every prominent elevation, is distinctly marked.
From this point all the lead regions of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin can be seen in one view. Innumerable villages, hamlets, and farm-houses got the landscape on all sides. A mighty swell of prairie and forest, stretches away in ever receding lines. The smoke of the lead furnaces, when in operation, looks like clouds of dim vapor, at a distance of twenty or more miles. Now, seen from this elevation, is the horizon without its ethereal beauties. The coming shower, the moving shadows of fleecy clouds, darkening patches of surface as they advance with the winds, and the bracing air, contrasting with the green and varied surface, combine to add charm to which no description can do justice.
This locality is of historical interest, as Ebenezer Brigham, the first white settler in Dane County, located here. Mr. Brigham journeyed from Worcester, Massachusetts, to St. Louis in 1818. The upper Mississippi country was then almost unknown. Beyond the narrative of Pike's expedition, and the somewhat vague reports of hunters, boatmen, and a few lead diggers about Dubuque, the public possessed no reliable information, and felt little if any interest. It was regarded as a wild region filled with hostile savages, and very few were willing to trust themselves among them. In 1822, Mr. Brigham followed up the river on horseback. to the present site of Galena; the place then consisting of one log cabin and a second one commenced, which he assisted in completing. Shortly after, he returned to Springfield, the present capital of Illinois, the young city then containing four or five cabins. In 1827, he again returned to the lead region for the purpose of embarking in the business. With a small party he pitched his tent on what is now called the Block House Branch of the Platte River, about four miles south of the present village of Platteville, for the purpose of prospecting. From this point the party retreated in some haste to Galena, owing to the commencement of hostilities by the Indians. In the spring of 1828 he moved to Blue Mounds, the most advanced outpost of the mines. The isolated position he thus settled upon will be apparent from the statement of a few facts. The nearest settlement was at what is now Dodgeville, about twenty-four miles distant. Mineral Point, and most of the other diggings, where villages have since grown up, had not then been discovered. On the southeast, the nearest house was on the O'Plaine River, twelve miles west of Chicago. on the east, Solomon Juneau was his nearest neighbor, at the mouth of the Milwaukee River, and on the northeast. Green Bay was the nearest settlement -- Fort Winnebago not then having been projected. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832, Mr. Brigham and his neighbors built a block house in a very commanding position on the prairie near the Mounds called "Blue Mounds Fort". Into this, he and nineteen other men, and a number of families withdrew, the men keeping up regular guard night and day for three months. Mr. Brigham was a member of the Territorial Council from 1836 to 1841. He died September 14, 1861.
Mr. Abel Rasdell, one of the pioneers of the Four Lakes region, was born in Barren County, Kentucky, August 15, 1805. When a young man he went to Missouri and engaged in lead mining, and in 1828 went to Galena and assisted awhile Colonel James Morrison in his mining operation at Porter's Grove, about nine miles from the Blue Mounds, and soon engaged in the business of an Indian trader, locating his cabin on the eastern shore of First Lake, about half a mile south of its outlet. He married a Winnebago woman, who was a real helpmate to him in the Indian trade; she sickened and died with the smallpox, Mr. Rasdell alone attending her, and burying her remains. He subsequently married another Winnebago woman, but when her people migrated west she concluded to go with them -- so Rasdell and his Indian wife cut a blanket in two, each taking part, the Indian mode of divorce. In his trading operations he would sometimes pack several poneys [sic] with goods, and would take a tour among the Indian camps and settlements, dickering off his goods for skins and furs.
Galena was the point at which he obtained his goods and where he disposed of his furs and peltry. He did service in the Black Hawk War, and was one of fourteen men who were sent forward as a scout, when General Dodge was pursuing the Indians from Rock River westward, before the battle of Wisconsin Heights. This party, which was commanded by Captain Gentry; was sent forward to reconnoitre [sic] and prevent a surprise by the main body of Indians, which they were assured were but a little in advance, as was afterward proven, for this was the morning of the memorable 21st of July, near the evening of which was fought the battle of Wisconsin Heights.
In 1846, Mr. Rasdell was married to Mary Ann Pitcher, in Madison. He died at his home at Token Creek, Dane County, June 6, 1857."