Iowa County WI Archives History - Books .....Mineral Point, A History 1833 ************************************************ 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: Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com December 20, 2006, 12:08 pm Book Title: Mineral Point: A History, By George Fiedler From Mineral Point, a History, by George Fiedler, page 24-“In the early 1800’s lead miners from the Missouri and Galena [Illinois] mines, most of them southerners or Yankees, moved progressively north from Illinois across the [state] line into this area.” This intrusion into Indian territory caused an uprising of the Winnebago Indians, but after Chief Red Bird surrendered, the miners entered the area in greater numbers, and Mineral Point became a permanent settlement in 1827. The first general store was established in 1828. The mines were located on a hill, and the town was established on a creek, a branch of the Pecatonica River below. From Mineral Point, a History, page 28- “The very name of the place carried with it the thought that the settlement was a mining camp. It also had a nickname, Shake-Rag Under the Hill. Miners occupied the cabins at the foot of the hill and at noon the women would shake a rag and signal to their men at work in the diggings on the opposite hill that it was time to come home for dinner.” Daniel M. Parkinson established the first tavern in 1829. According to his account, there were “at least 1000 persons in attendance” at the Independence Day celebration. “When Iowa County was formed in 1829, Mineral Point was appointed the county seat. Rules were established to regulate the activities of the miners and “Farming was permitted free of rent, wherever it could be done without interfering with the timber needed for mining purposes.” At that time, lead mining was a simple process. “A man working alone could dig lead ore from surface outcroppings.” From page 31, Mineral Point, a History-“In 1830, the price of lead suddenly collapsed from $5.00 to $1.00 a hundred pounds. Mining temporarily came to a halt and some miners abandoned their diggings and returned south. The population of Mineral Point at this time was extremely fluid. Unmarried mining men were constantly coming and going. There was practically no farming, and for those who remained, food was brought in but was so scarce and expensive that all were compelled to subsist on the most meager fare”. Half of the population of Wisconsin lived in the lead region, 1,500, according to the census of that year, and 500 of them in Mineral Point. And then, in 1832, things came to a grinding halt with the Blackhawk War, which is not relevant to this story, and so shall be passed over. In 1834, the US appointed a land office in Mineral Point, so that non- mineral lands could be purchased by settlers for farms. The only other land office in Wisconsin at that time was in Green Bay. Theodore Rodolf, a German Swiss immigrant settled in south of Mineral Point in September 1835. From pages 49-50 in Mineral Point, a History-“We found the ridge road through the timber. The trees had already assumed the variegated hues, which a few light frosts had imparted to them; the wild plum trees and wild grapes lined out path on both sides as if they were set out in a regular park. I never enjoyed amore agreeable ride until we came within a few miles of Mineral Point. Here the hills were stripped of their trees, and windlasses, mineral holes, piles of dirt, rock and mineral greeted our view on all sides.” “It was in the middle 1830’s that the Cornish began to arrive in significant numbers. By sailing vessel from Cornwall, some landed at New York and other eastern ports, then took river boats down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi to Galena and on to Mineral Point. There were generally referred to as ‘Cousin Jacks.’ They would become the most significant ethnic element in the community.” “Like all frontier mining towns, Mineral Point had a celebrated tavern. Its proprietor was ‘Uncle’ or ‘Col.’ Abner Nichols, a fat, sunny little Cornishman. It was the ‘Mansion House’, known far and wide in Michigan Territory as the best place t spend a night, to have a drink to obtain a meal. Ab Nichols served his guests the best liquor and food he could obtain; he never overcharged; he never refused food or lodging to anyone, whether the guest could pay or not. As one traveler, Alexander P. Frost described the place: “We arrived at the Point a little after dark on Sunday evening, and were conducted into a room at the principal hotel, kept by Mr. Nichols, where all kinds of fun, sports and music were going on. Such a sight as presented itself to our view we never saw before or since. It seemed that the miners were in the habit of assembling there on Sunday nights to drink, gamble and frolic until Monday morning. The house was composed of three or four log cabins put together with passageways cut from one to the other. The barroom in which we were sitting contained a large bar, well supplied with liquors. In one corner of the room was a faro bank, discounting to a crowd around it. In another corner, a roulette; and in still another sat a party engaged in playing cards.” “One man sat back in a corner playing a fiddle, to whose music others were dancing in the middle of the room. Hundreds of dollars were lying on the tables, and among the crowd were the principal men of the Territory-men who held high and responsible offices. Being pretty much worn out by our journey, we expressed a wish to retire; the landlord then showed us through a dark room and opened a door of another, in which two men were also playing cards, while a third lay drunk on the floor. The landlord set down his light, seized the drunken man by his collar and dragged him into the next room, then returned and informed us we could choose between the beds, their being two in the room, and bid us good night…We threw down the outside blankets and quietly crawled into bed with our clothes on, except cap and boots…When daylight made its appearance, we got up and found our roommates were still playing cards.” From page 58, Mineral Point, a History-“we have the record of Strange M. Palmer, who visited Mineral Point in the summer of 1836: “‘The road from Galena by way of Elk Grove and Belmont then the great thoroughfare for the transportation of a very large portion of the mineral raised by in that region, was cut up and rendered almost impassable by immense trains of heavily laden wagons, drawn in most cases by oxen, numbering from four to twelve in a team…” “Mineral Point, or as it became more generally called Shake Rag at the time of which I write, was indeed a most humble, unpretending village in appearance, and was rendered peculiarly so by the fact that its few scattered log huts or shanties were principally ranged along a deep gorge or ravine… through which the principal road wound its sinuous way. Yet, entering it as we did, near the close of a delightful summer afternoon, at about the hour the miners and workmen had returned from their daily labor, there was in the streets a throng of hale, hearty men their faces, it is true, begrimed with dirt; but with cheerful laughing countenances, imparting an air of general prosperity and happiness, which a further acquaintance with the place and its inhabitants fully confirmed…” “Among other evidences of the crude and primitive condition of the town, was the almost unceasing howling and barking of the wolves during the night, around and within its very borders, sounding at times, as though the town was infested by scores of the brutes, much to the annoyance and alarm of timid strangers.” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/iowa/history/1833/mineralp/mineralp19gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/ File size: 8.0 Kb