Dane County WI Archives History - Schools .....The Founding Of A Village 1840-1850, Chapter 2 ************************************************ 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 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 13, 2009, 7:54 pm CHAPTER TWO The Founding of a Village 1840-1850 In an address given at Kumlien Hall in Albion on June 22, 1969, the late Jerome R. Head, M. D., whose forebears played such a vital role in the founding of Albion and its Academy, traced the movement of these early founders from the Old World to the New: To understand the origin of Albion Academy and the community and the men and women who founded it, it is necessary to go back a bit in history. Their ancestors were English yeoman farmers and dissenters from the established Church of England. They emigrated to this new land in the 17th century before, during, and immediately after the English Revolution, to escape the injustices to which they were subject there-the injustices which caused the revolution. Being yeoman farmers they wanted land-not estates, merely farms-a piece of land enough to support them and their families, land which they could till. As dissenters, they sought freedom of conscience and of worship; and as Englishmen, they sought political freedom. They were not peasants or serfs as were the tillers of the soil in "so many other parts of Europe and the world. They were deeply religious and deeply thoughtful. Many were well educated. All were appreciative of education and desired it for their children. Being dissenters, Baptists, and more than that, Seventh Day Baptists, the ancestors of the founders of Albion Academy came to Rhode Island, where Roger Williams had established religious freedom and religious toleration. They did not come singly but rather in groups of families and relatives3 and those who came later sought out the communities where friends and relatives had already settled and by whom they were welcomed. As years moved onward, the sons and grandsons of these early settlers with their families moved up the Hudson River to New York State, establishing Seventh Day Baptist communities there. One such community was located at Alfred, New York, and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Although the Heads were originally Congregationalists from Plymouth Colony, they became Seventh Day Baptists by proximity and marriage. Solomon Head married Sarah Coon of Alfred. Her two sisters, Harriet and Mary, became the wives of Jesse Saunders and Duty Green. Dr. Jerome R. Head continued in his speech: In 1838 Charles Head, Solomon's oldest son, graduated from the Academy at Alfred, New York. Immediately he and a friend started westward to visit friends who had already established a Seventh Day Baptist community in Milton, Wisconsin. They walked the hundred miles to the Erie Canal, took a canal boat to Lake Erie and a lake boat to the then marshy village that was Chicago. From there they walked the 120 miles to Milton. On his return to Alfred and his family, Charles' accounts of the beautiful and fertile country where a farm of 160 acres could be purchased for $l.25 an acre so convinced his family and the Jesse Saunders and the Duty Greens that that year, 1839, the Coon sisters and their husbands and children packed up their belongings and moved westward to the new country. Arriving in Milton, they found that the land about it had already been claimed and settled. They therefore decided to establish their own community. In 1840 they moved on, this time only fifteen miles away. There the three brothers-in-law filed claim to contiguous farms, and where the three farms met brought into being the village of Albion. Others came with them or followed them. They came chiefly as farmers but some as merchants and craftsmen. All were relatives or friends, and all were Seventh Day Baptists. Moses Crosley, kept a general store, Ferdinand Drake became the blacksmith, and Solomon Head the carpenter and builder.... They first cut down trees and built their log cabins and the shelters for their livestock. They cleared the land, split rails, and built fences and put in their first crops. Once these basic necessities were cared for, they built a church, and then a school.... A doctor was greatly needed in Albion, and Charles Head, after farming and teaching school for a few years, decided to return East and go to Medical School. He went first to a medical school in Castleton, Vermont, and later to New York City, where in I8I4.8 he received his M. D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the State of New York. He then returned to Albion to practice. Thus, the little village of Albion had blossomed into a reality and with a doctor in its midst. Staunch hearts, bent on the attainment of a desired, common goal; willing, eager hands unmindful of the burdensome tasks imposed upon them; strong, determined minds letting nothing dissuade them from the completion of a set goal-all three factors had combined in the accomplishment of a noble undertaking. These Seventh Day Baptists had arrived in Wisconsin at an opportune time. The beginning of a period of prosperity for this new state was at hand for the early Albion settlers. The hard times of the 1830's had receded into the background. The Black Hawk War of 1832 had removed the menace of difficulties with the Indians. It is true that Southwestern Wisconsin had been settled for lead mining purposes many years earlier, but for a century that region had received protection from the Indians by the military forces stationed at Prairie du Chien. By 1837 the warlike Indians had been driven westward across the Mississippi while those remaining behind were content to settle down peaceably. In those early days, there were no roads for incoming settlers. Even the Military Road from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien, opened in 1838, was but a trail through woods after woods, with only an occasional marker to follow. Between 1848 and 1853 at a cost of $119,000, the Plank Road was built between Milwaukee and Watertown (forty-five miles). This road was really made of oak planks two inches thick and eight feet long, laid side by side on heavy oak stringers. However, after four years, the planks rotted and were never repaired. [3] The Territorial Road leading out from the Chicago lake port in a northwesterly direction on its way to St. Paul and Minneapolis provided later means of access for the thousands of settlers pouring into this new state as time went on. The Road ran through Walworth and on to Milton, crossing Rock River at the foot of Lake Koshkonong first by ferry and later for many years by toll bridge. It skirted Albion on its way to Madison and her Four Lakes and beyond. Railroads were soon to follow. In 1850 there was only one-half mile of railroad in the entire state of Wisconsin. Within the next decade or two, l6,500 miles had been built. Manufactured goods in the East could then find a ready market with the early Wisconsin settlers, and wheat, the early cash crop developed in this region, could be shipped out. Even a sufficient water supply, an essential need of these early Seventh Day Baptist settlers in Albion, was at hand. Some had availed themselves of poor lands along the Rock River for their water for stock needs. But the villagers of Albion and Milton were more fortunate in their selection sites as the ground water, coming nearer to the surface, provided an abundant supply for their needs. Digging down but a few feet produced a good well. [4] Standing on the threshold of the new state of Wisconsin, which heralded an era of prosperity, these Seventh Day Baptists forged ahead immediately upon their arrival to subdue the wilderness area into which they had entered. With their firm belief in religious and political freedom and with their strong desire to offer to their young people the advantages of a liberal education, they moved steadily forward to achieve their aspirations for a good life. [3] You and Your Synod, Board for Parish Education, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Northwestern, Milwaukee, 1972), p. 4. [4] Claude D. Stout, Newspaper Article (Janesville, Janesville Daily Gazette, Aug. 4, 1949). Additional Comments: Extracted from: A History of Albion Academy 1853-1918 Svea M. Adolphson Published By Rock County Rehabilitation Services, Inc. Beloit, Wisconsin 1976 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/dane/history/schools/founding64nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/wifiles/ File size: 8.7 Kb