Dane County WI Archives History - Books .....Rutland 1877
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 27, 2006, 5:32 am

Book Title: Madison, Dane County And Surrounding Towns...

RUTLAND.
BY S. W. GRAVES, ESQ.

  THIS township lies on the southern boundary line of the county, which
separates it from Union in Rock county. It is about fourteen miles southeast of
Madison, aud is known as township 5 north, of range 10 east.

  The first permanent settlement commenced in the summer of 1842, by three
families, Joseph Dejean and family, John Prentis and his father and Dan Pond.
They settled in one corner of the town on the old Janesville and Madison road.
The next year two other young men came in and took up claims in the same
neighborhood. There was no settlement made in any other part of the town until
1844, when Squire Jonathan Lawrence and son, and myself and family came from
Vermont, on the fifth day of July, and went back into the woods, as it was
termed then. We took up a section of land and commenced a settlement by
clearing, breaking and building our cabins ready for winter. During the fall
four other cabins were built, of which two in the northern part of town, were
for Jeremiah Douglass and Goodrich Cummings, and one adjoining me for Gideon
Cummings, while Richard Priest, who came late in the fall, settled at a large
spring in the center of the town. He came from Indiana, and had eleven children,
most of whom were grown to men and women.

  In early spring of 1845, there came in a large number of people from Vermont
and settled in the south part of the town, which took the name of the Vermont
settlement, while in the northern part there came in quite a number from Maine,
among whom were the Douglasses, Dammons, and Caslies, and a few from New York
and Ohio, and settled there, and it was known as the Maine settlement.

  It was estimated that there were about 400 inhabitants in the town in 1845. We
had the advantage over many other towns in the first settlement, as there were
no speculators' lands that could be held in reserve for the rise in value. The
town had not those peculiar attractions for them which other towns possessed,
with their large prairies and groves of timber, as the entire town was almost
all burr oak-openings, with considerable marsh and a small part prairie in the
north. The lands belonged to the general government, and were open for entry at
any time, but most of the settlers that came here were poor and not able to
enter these lands; some could enter a 40 acres and some an 80 acres, and so we
organized claim societies to protect one another in the settlement of our homes.
I must relate to you some incidents that occurred in 1845-6, which will
illustrate the method we had of protecting each other. Our societies were
thoroughly organized by officers. If anyone attempted to enter any land that was
already claimed by a settler, he was immediately notified to appear before the
executive board to give a reason why he entered the land; if he persisted, he
was immediately notified to settle satisfactorily with the claimant, and if not,
to leave town immediately. There were a few cases where they would not settle,
and if they attempted to build their cabins, the people would meet in mass and
tear down the same.

  In the winter of 1846, the legislature passed a law giving the people the
right to organize into towns in Dane county. The people of our town met soon
after the passage of the law, and organized themselves into a town, and called
it Rutland after the name of a town in Vermont. On the first Tuesday in April,
1846, we held our first election, and elected as Supervisors— Jonathan Lawrence,
chairman, David West and Henry Edmonds; Town Clerk — S. W. Graves; Road
Commissioners — David Tipple, S. W. Graves and Goodrich Cummings.

  Since the settlement of our town, we have progressed slowly but steadily in
agricultural pursuits, being all farmers. There are no large streams or
villages, no manufactories, but a few mechanics. Our soil is good and well
adapted for farming purposes; and as a farming community, we are very well
located as to markets. There are no railroads in town, but we have the advantage
of two, viz.: the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul, which runs along near the
east line of the town, and very convenient for the people on the east side of
the town to get their produce to market, while the Chicago & Northwestern road
just enters one corner of the town and runs along near the west line, which
gives us a good market with Chicago. Our market towns are Stoughton and Edgerton
on the east, Oregon, Brooklyn and Evansville on the west.

  Since we have changed our mode of farming (less wheat for chinch bugs to
devour), and gone to raising clover, neat stock, wool and pork, butter and
cheese, we have done much better, getting rich slowly.

  We have three churches, the Free-Will Baptist at the north part of the town,
with a good meeting house; the United Brethren church at a little village on the
west, with a small meeting house; and a Methodist church, with a good house of
worship in the village of Brooklyn, in the township of Rutland, the village
being on the line of two towns. There is quite a church of regular Baptists in
town, but they unite with the church in Union, and have a good house of worship
there.

  Our town is organized into eight school districts and some joint districts,
with very good school houses, and all maintain schools from six to eight months
in the year.

  We have but few natural curiosities, and they are some that used to attract
our attention in an early day. A small river rises in the northwest corner of
our town and runs southeast, and leaves the town at the southeast corner, and
along this river there are a great number of springs; there is one spring so
large that it runs a grist-mill within ten rods of its head with two runs of
stone. There is one mound spring twenty-four feet in diameter, and so deep it is
difficult to find bottom. I have sounded it twenty feet and found none. There is
a lake, known as Island Lake, which in early times was considered a curiosity.
It has an island near the center, of about three acres, which was once thickly,
wooded with good rock maple trees, with no others within twenty miles. They were
so fine, and all claimed them, that it led to a series of troubles, which left
no other alternative, in order to settle the matter, but to go on the island and
cut them down. Our stone quarries, of which we have quite a number, are full of
interest to the geologist in hunting out the fossil remains.

  The health of our town, from its first settlement until the present, has ever
been good, which is owing to the numerous springs of pure water and the
elevation of the land, which is ever receiving pure air from the surrounding
hills, and no sunken places to engender diseases.

  There are no Indian relics, no camps, trails, graves or mounds. When I first
came into town the Indians were very numerous. They would often pitch their
tents near some spring, and hunt deer for weeks and then move off.

  In speaking of our town politically, perhaps this is a delicate subject, but I
will give you a little something that has taken place in the political arena in
the settlement of our town. In the south part, in the Vermont settlement, the
Ohio people and part of the New York people were whigs. The Maine people in the
north part of the town were democrats, but the whigs had a majority. We used to
have some warm times in the first settlement, but in the organization of the
republican party in 1855, all of the Vermont settlement, all of the Ohio, and
most of the New York people joined the republican party, but the people of
Maine, to a man, held to their old party, and some of the old people were so
disaffected that they left the town. Since the organization we have remained
very strong republican, keeping a very even tenure; no ups and downs; there
being two hundred republicans to twenty or thirty democrats. It has ever been
termed the banner town of the county, Most of the first settlers of the town are
not here now; many have died, others have left. All of the Maine people except
one have left town. The present inhabitants are a majority American people, some
Welch, some Scotch, a few English, and quite a settlement of Danes.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Dane County Towns 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.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/dane/history/1877/madisond/rutland36nms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/wifiles/

File size: 9.4 Kb