Dane County WI Archives History - Books .....Chapter II Locating The Capital 1877
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Book Title: Madison And Dane County And Surrounding Towns...

CHAPTER II.
LOCATING THE CAPITAL.

  SETTLEMENT had made little progress when the question arose, "where shall we
fix our capital?" Suddenly, from all parts of the territory, arose the voice of
indomitable advocates, and when the first legislature was convened at Belmont,
there was a display of logrolling 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, Racine, Milwaukee, Platteville, Mineral
Point, Cassville, Green Bay, Koshkonong, 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, championed in the same way as most of the other cities of the brain,
but with more success. Corner lots were much in request, among the men whose
votes could 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 elegance of some of the maps, the fervor of some
of their expounders, 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 proposition of Judge Doty won a
controlling interest, and three commissioners, chosen by joint ballot, were
entrusted with the task of selecting plans, making contracts 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 government. 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 distance 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’Neill. The sum appropriated for the erection was
$20,000, a very small amount, considering the difficulties under which the work
was to be undertaken, but help was expected from congress.

  In the month following the choice of commissioners, that is to say in January,
1837, Madison was visited from Milwaukee, by a young lawyer and land 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 by his identification
with railroads, river improvements, and other public 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 constitutional 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 fortunate in discovering Michel
St. Cyr's cabin, where they hoped to obtain quarters, so that they were
compelled 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 employed, in February of the same year, by
Judge Doty, to survey and stake off 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 accompanied the surveyor on this expedition,
and Mr. Josiah A. Noonan joined the party on the way. The commissariat
department was much better cared for than it had been in the preceding month, as
Mr. Strong and his party stayed with St. Cyr, and were probably regaled with the
half-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 18th 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 party arrived at St. Cyr's, early enough to permit of the work
being commenced. 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
Rowan'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
Atkinson, en route to the Catfish river. Mr. Alex. F. Pratt and Mr. Augustus
Story made that 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 wigwam from which
the owners were absent, were consumed 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 lodgings 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, Rosaline. 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 had 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 caused a log house
to be erected where the post office now stands. Owing to an accident, the
interior of Mr. Catlin's house was destroyed by fire before it could be
occupied; thus it happened that the Peck hostelry was the first residence in
Madison.

  There were some rough and ready specimens of humanity then on hand in this
region. Two Frenchmen, who had associated with a party of Winnebago Indians in
the Blue Mounds during the winter, were employed to build the house, the work
being superintended by Abraham Wood, who subsequently put up a saw mill at
Baraboo. Wood was at that time living 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, April 15, 1837, and she pushed on through
the storm to the site of her more substantial dwelling, where she sat down under
a tree in her wagon, twenty-five miles from the nearest white residents 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, to serve until the larger place could be
comfortably floored and plastered. The little hotel was speedily crowded with
guests. Milwaukee and far away New 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 ventilated as the winds of heaven could make
it, the hospitable 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 visitors, 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, afterwards 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 aid, as it nerved the
sturdy matron to master the situation. Before long the sounds of gayety within
that building 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 upon the presence of
luxurious viands.

  Madison was then so great on various maps that it might well have been matter
for surprise that the legislative assembly had been convened for its first
session 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
prospectuses, the metropolitan center of cities, corresponding to the seven
hills of Home, when, in fact, it was only a village in futuro.

  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 circumference of nine miles and a half, its longest diameter
being over three miles, and its shortest fully two. 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 beautiful 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 twenty square miles. Its longest
diameter is six miles, and its breadth is fully four. Could the whole of the
legislature have been brought to this spot in the spring or summer of 1836, it
may be hoped that there would have been less scope for the logrolling process at
Belmont, in the succeeding winter, which came within one vote of negativing the
proposition to make Madison the capital of the territory; but perhaps even then
it would have been difficult. 

  The commissioners charged with the erection of the capitol building, in which
the functions of government 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 Village, 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 rapids of Rock 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 Watertown, by Mr.
Goodhue, and at Lake Mills the Atwoods had made a comfortable abode just
twenty-eight miles from the capital. Settlement had made no nearer approach to
Madison on that line of road, but the trail was well defined, and there was no
difficulty 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 replenish an often exhausted commissariat. Such
creature comforts as pork, flour, and some few luxuries, were dealt out with no
sparing hand, as all testimonies 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 work 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 November, 1838, the assembly and
senate chambers were finished, but the plastering was not dry, so that the
sessions of the legislature were held for a time in a new building, the American
Hotel, erected at the corner of Pinckney street and Washington avenue, where the
Park Savings Bank now stands, by Mr. A. A. Bird, the contractor for the capitol,
and his partner, Mr. Morrison.

  Most of the workmen erected their own rude dwellings in the vicinity of King
street, near the Third lake, immediately after their arrival; hut 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 Indian chief, Little Dandy and his party;
but Gen. Mills and Mr. Catlin believe there must have been a misapprehension as
to the extent of the gathering. The glorification lasted several days, and
Madison has never entered with more general gusto upon the national 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 commissioners 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 purpose, there was an appropriation of $20,000, to which
congress added a like sum, making $40,000 in all.

  The first meeting of the legislature in the city of Madison was held in the
American Hotel on the 26th 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
representatives and for the senate on the first day of March, and after some
little further delay the rooms were actually occupied, but it was an act of
hardihood to attempt the transaction of business under such difficulties. 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 Morrison's hogs 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 degree, 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 twenty-six members could find
accommodation. The prices charged were high enough to satisfy the most
fastidious, but in every other respect, there was abundant room for complaint.
Happily the pioneers were inclined to make the best of things as they were,
although 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
populous establishment were nightly covered with shake downs, for transient
visitors.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Madison Section

MADISON, DANE COUNTY AND SURROUNDING TOWNS;
BEING A HISTORY AND GUIDE
TO PLACES OF SCENIC BEAUTY AND HISTORICAL NOTE FOUND IN THE TOWNS OF DANE COUNTY
AND SURROUNDINGS, INCLUDING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWNS, AND EARLY INTERCOURSE
OF THE SETTLERS WITH THE INDIANS, THEIR CAMPS, TRAILS, MOUNDS, ETC.

WITH A COMPLETE LIST OF
COUNTY SUPERVISORS AND OFFICERS,
AND
LEGISLATIVE MEMBEES, MADISON VILLAGE AND CITY COUNCIL.

ILLUSTRATED,
MADISON, WIS.:
PUBLISHED BY WM. J. PARK & CO.,

BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS AND BINDERS, 11 KING STREET.
1877.

COPYRIGHT.
WM. J. PARK & CO. 1877.

DAVID ATWOOD, STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER, MADISON, WIS.


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