Lafayette County WI Archives History - Books .....The Beginning Of Settlement 1881
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 18, 2013, 5:58 pm

Book Title: History Of La Fayette County

THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.

The first settlements perfected by permanent occupation in La Fayette County,
were made during the year 1824, and were due to the existence of the lead mines,
which have since contributed so materially to the accumulation of wealth and
increase in values. There had been visitors who came into the country prior to
that date, but these were made up, as a rule, of transients, adventurers and the
like, to whom no place was home, and the pressing experiences of the hour the
uncertain lines wherein their lives were cast. The history of their occupation
of the territory now comprehended within the limits of La Fayette County, is
consequently enshrouded in mystery, which the lapse of almost three-quarters of
a century has tended to intensify. This is due in a great measure to the absence
of records and the fact that those who came, as also contemporaries, have all
passed away, rendering it impossible to determine with any degree of certainty
the name of him who is entitled to the distinguished honor of record as the
first who even temporarily sojourned in the lead regions of what was then known
as*Michigan Territory. The weight of opinion inclines to the belief that a few
straggling soldiers of fortune, with the habits and restless disposition of a
Bohemian gypsy, may have strayed into the mines and sought their development.
They had been identified, it is said, with the operations undertaken by Dubuque
and D'Bois, but, tiring of the monotony and sameness of the scenes about the
settlement, made by these French cavaliers, sought with a change of "base" that
relief which it brings. We know that Jesse W. Shull, as early as 1818, traversed
and explored what is now La Fayette County; and, in that year, employed by the
Hudson Bay Fur Company, trafficked with Indians and some French, then the only
inhabitants of the county. Some rude mining had been done, some mineral raised,
even before that date; and here and there, he found evidences of where smelting
had been done, even long before that early period.

Settlements had grown up in the region adjoining subsequent La Fayette County,
at a date anterior to that mentioned herein, notably at Galena and other points,
which afterward became the source of supplies to miners, and were built up by
the immigration to the mines, and the patronage such immigration attracted. It
would seem strange indeed, with the knowledge of the immense deposits of lead
and the abundance of game in this region, if its settlement was procrastinated
beyond that of other points possessing no more fruitful sources of wealth nor
advantages for settlers. Roving traders and agents of fur companies who operated
throughout the Northwest, could hardly have overlooked the value of sites, since
fringed with flourishing villages, which have been built up and become the
residence of intelligence, enterprise and wealth. They undoubtedly came into the
wilderness annually, and, remaining only long enough to exchange their
commodities for furs and minerals, returned to their abiding-places without
leaving any finger-boards to guide the historian in his pursuit of facts. But,
thus far, no records of such occupation have been discovered, and the only
positive evidence of settlements available after decades have elapsed, is to be
found in the statements of those to whom the award is made by universal
acclamation. The proof that visitors had ventured into the wilderness prior to
the coming of settlers in 1824, is established by the traces of mining which
they discovered, evidently the work of other than Indians. Some of the largest
leads in the mines, particularly about Shullsburg, were advertised to white men
by the Indians, who elaborated eloquently, it is said, and with great
earnestness, upon their inexhaustible sources of wealth. They had tested their
richness for years, and spoke familiarly of the vast deposits of mineral to be
found beneath the surface.

At this time, the present county was an almost uninhabited wilderness,
possessing, as would seem from the refusal of traders and strollers to remain
within its limits, few attractions, and those few of the most limited character.
The nearest settlements were Galena, Dubuque, Prairie du Chien, at that time,
and relatively of as much importance as St. Louis subsequently became. Chicago
then consisted of a few rude cabins inhabited by half-breeds, and gave no
indications either from its location or the immigration tending in that
direction, of what was reserved for the future to disclose. Peoria was at the
south and further east. Vandalia, subsequently the capital of Illinois, with a
number of struggling settlements, filling up the intervals, so to speak, between
these ambitious but impromptu municipal weaklings, constituted the permanent
growth of that day in the great territory which has since reflected back the
star of empire. St. Louis was then struggling for existence, and,
notwithstanding the wealth and enterprise therein residing, the battling was
difficult if not desperate. The confines of civilization, in its most perfect
development, were limited to the settlements contiguous to Lake Erie and the
western parts of the Eastern States. He who struck out for a home in the
Territories was regarded as an adventurous traveler to a country whence return
was a question of chance and not of probability.

This, then, was the condition of affairs as they existed sixty years ago,
according to sources of information in that behalf, presumably correct. There
was naught to attract save the intrinsic merits of the location, which, combined
with the hopes of a future, were sufficient to direct the residents of Southern
and Eastern States to Wisconsin Territory as an objective point of great
interest. To those who at home were independent, it furnished as an incentive
the resources for enabling men of means to add to their accumulations. To the
imprudent and impoverished, pulling with steady stroke against the current of an
adversity both pitiless and uncompromising, it held out a hope for better days,
when he, too, could enjoy a home with his household gods clustering, like olive
plants, about his table. To the speculator, it afforded a field for operations
incalculably valuable; to the scientist, an opportunity for discovery; to the
scholar and the Christian, the occasion for labors that have since returned to
bless the inventors.

As a consequent, the class of people who established themselves in La Fayette
County, and have since been identified with its growth and the development of
its wealth, were men of rare excellence. Earnest, frank and kind, they made all
men friends by being friends of all men. Illustrating by example rather than
precept, they bridged the brief interval between purity and sin by the power of
kindness, and looked with eyes of charity upon the mistakes and failings of man.
Brave but tender, they were indeed loving, generous Christian men, who have left
the shore touched by a mysterious sea, that "has never yet borne on any wave the
image of a homeward sail," their deficiencies made up in the book of life by the
love they bore their fellows.

And so, too, of the pioneer women, those who braved the absence of home,
friends, and congenial associations to accompany their fathers and husbands and
sons into the trackless waste of the Northwest, and contemplated a future the
horizon of which was darkened by discouragement and gloom. Yet they faltered
not, but sustained and soothed their husbands by a trust in the outlook that was
constant and bore an abundant harvest. As wives, they were the most agreeable of
companions, and as friends the most faithful and affectionate. As mothers,
gentle as children ever had the misfortune to lose, who corrected the most
pernicious of evils by the most tender management of them. Prudent from
affection, and, though most liberal of nature, they practiced economy from the
love they bore their husbands, and, at critical periods, preserved order in
affairs from the care of which the husband was relieved. She reclaimed her
choice from despair, urged his indolence to exertion, and was constantly by to
admonish industry, integrity and manhood.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN,

CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES; AN EXTENSIVE
AND MINUTE SKETCH OF ITS CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES—THEIR IMPROVEMENTS,
INDUSTRIES, MANUFACTORIES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOCIETIES; ITS WAR RECORD,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEN AND EARLY SETTLERS; THE WHOLE
PRECEDED BY A HISTORY OF WISCONSIN, STATISTICS OF THE STATE, AND AN ABSTRACT OF
ITS LAWS AND CONSTITUTION AND OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
MDCCCLXXXI. [1881]


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