Lafayette County WI Archives History - Books .....The Early Miners 1881
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 18, 2013, 6:00 pm

Book Title: History Of La Fayette County

THE EARLY MINERS.

Prior to permanent settlements, temporary residences had been established by
lead prospectors in various parts of this county. Indeed, the settlement of the
vicinity was induced by lead discoveries made by miners who radiated from
Galena, which at that time was a point of importance. Whenever the discovery of
ore was made, a settlement followed, composed, as suggested, largely of
fortune-hunters, a portion of whom became permanent and influential residents.
In 1824, it is said, lead was discovered in large quantities in the southwestern
part of the present county, near New Diggings, by a party from Galena,
consisting of Duke L Smith, George Ferguson and a few others, who began their
work and succeeded in turning out immense quantities of the metal to their
profit. There can be no doubt but that La Fayette County—or, as it was then
known, Michigan Territory—would have been settled at an earlier date but for the
hardships imposed through a Government Superintendent of Mines, and also the
danger apprehended from attacks by the Winnebago Indians.

In 1824, a Superintendent of Mines was appointed for the mineral country claimed
by the Government in the Upper Mississippi district. His duties were confined to
the enforcement of rules and regulations formulated by himself, and, as they did
not always represent that portion of remedial justice in which the law, by
reason of its universality, was deficient, their enforcement was calculated to
create a variety of opinion, generally adverse to this official. Miners were
compelled to locate their claims on land which was free from the claims of
others, and restricted in the sale of their ore to licensed smelters. They were
obliged to submit to these regulations, because there was no retreat, and the
proof of damage the county sustained by the peculations indulged is to be found
in the increased numbers who immigrated into La Fayette when these regulations
were removed, and mining became the business of private individuals, companies
or corporations.

Another influence that was exerted disastrously in the earlier settlement of
this portion of Michigan Territory were the menaces of the Winnebago Indians.
They manifested a vindictive uneasiness from the date when adventurous miners
first appeared in the future county and began their prospectings. These
expressions of uneasiness, as will be seen further along, culminated, in 1827,
in open rupture between the savages and the settlers, which compelled the
Government to interfere and conquer a peace that was concluded three months
later at the Portage. To these two almost impassable embargoes is to be
attributed, in a very great measure, the delay experienced in effecting
permanent occupation of the domain.

Notwithstanding the difficulties cited, the wave of emigration began to tend in
the direction of the lead mines at a day when the Indians were prime factors in
its prevention and lords of the soil. As above noted, the first permanent
settlements made are said to have been commenced in 1824. The authority for this
is general repute, though there are those who claim that their coming occurred
during the year 1828.

It is asserted that Henry and J. P. B. Gratiot came in the year 1824. Others
maintain that it was not until early in 1825 that they came into the country. At
all events, they were there in the latter year, engaged in mining and smelting
and conducting business with the Indians and settlers. They are believed to have
been the first white men who effected a lodgment in the vicinity which resulted
in both permanence and profit. To them is due the honor of laying the foundation
in Southern Wisconsin for a large proportion of the wealth, intelligence,
morality and enterprise which has ever characterized the inhabitants of that
favored region. To these, as also to Col. Parkinson, Col. Moore, Jesse W. Shull,
Samuel H. Scales, the Murphys, and the thousand and one men of nerve and
character who came in during this period, is to be attributed the prominence La
Fayette County has ever occupied in the history of the State. The occasion is
here availed of to commend them to the honorable consideration of generations
yet unborn for their courage, their steadfastness and pioneer perseverance. The
Gratiots settled at a point near what has been known as Gratiot's Grove, which
became celebrated as the location of Fort Gratiot during the Black Hawk war. The
settlements made in 1825 were included between the present Shullsburg and the
Ridge.

Among those who made their advent during 1826, both before and after the
Winnebago troubles, were the Van Matre brothers—John, Joseph and Lewis—who began
mining in Shullsburg Township, developing what has since been known as the
Badger Lot Diggings, having been discovered by these adventurous men through the
information imparted to them by an Indian squaw, who pointed out the ore thrown
up by Badgers in mining. Jesse W. Shull came the same year and settled in the
same vicinity, as also did Devee and Hawthorne, who opened the Stump Grove mines
on the Ridge, between the Fever and Pecatonica River; Work and Redford, who
employed about twenty men and operated mines on lands east of Shullsburg, now
owned by the McNulty Brothers; Abraham Miller, a man named Wakefield, Isaac
Hamilton, Humphrey Taylor, George Earl, the Townsends, and many others who made
the vicinity of Shullsburg their abiding-place. It should be observed this
section of the county had been sought a year previous by Choteau & Pratt and
Col. Henry Gratiot, as a field of operations for lead mining. In the summer of
that year, the latter gentleman purchased the privilege of sinking for ore in
the vicinity from the Indians, paying $500 therefor, and was employed in
profiting from his investment when the rush of '27 began. As early as 1826,
there were six log furnaces in operation, and sixty French and Indians employed
at Gratiot's Grove.

To continue with the list of settlers who came to the county in 1827: D. M.
Parkinson and family reached New Diggings that year; John Armstrong established
himself, it is claimed, in 1826, and struck a promising lead, which he afterward
sold to George Ferguson; Solomon Oliver settled on Fever River, near the Benton
line; Abraham Looney located on the same stream, as also did D. Oliver, a Mr.
Leland, Caleb Dustene, a brother-in-law of Gov. Henry Dodge named Willard; P. A.
Lorimier, who subsequently removed to the Dubuque mines; Warren Johnson, A. D.
Wakefield, Thomas Oliver, a family named Jones, Peter and Benjamin Carr, George
Wiley, James Hutchinson, Harvey Carvener, John W. Blackstone, Calvin Curry, Mr.
Vosburg, Mr. Harper and others, all of whom put up habitations in the present
limits of the New Diggings.

In the spring of the same year, a number of straggling miners had made some
approach toward settling up Benton, though here, as in New Diggings, the claim
is urged that the township was first visited by pioneers, who came to stay, in
1826. These were a Mr. Rawlins, accompanied by Ashford Rawlins, his son. In
March, 1827, Andrew Murphy adventured into Benton with his family, consisting of
a wife and five sons, and to that gentleman does the present prosperity of the
township owe its origin. Attending him into the wilderness was Peter O'Leary and
Catharine, his wife, an old family servant named Peggy, and a French adventurer
by the name of Francois. The "group" hailed from St. Louis, and erected their
temporary domiciles east of what was afterward known as Murphy's Mill and
Furnace. These composed and concluded the roster of settlers who came into
Benton that year.

The arrivals in other townships were necessarily limited, immigration being
mostly confined to sections of the county wherein ore could be obtained in
paying quantities. Fortunatus Berry settled near Gratiot's Grove, in White Oak
Springs; Col. William Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, in Wiota Township,
and engaged in mining and smelting, erecting the first furnace in the county,
save the furnaces built by the Gratiots. This settlement was known as
"Hamilton's Fort." Hamilton also platted a village, which he named Wiota, hoping
to induce settlements and hasten improvements; Jameson Hamilton began the
building up of Darlington; George Skellinger came to Gratiot's Grove; Richard H.
Magoon began smelting in Monticello, and afterward built and operated other
furnaces in White Oak Springs; Samuel Scales, Capt. Frank and Mr. Deering began
the settlement of White Oak Springs. These were aided in their labors by the
willing brawn and "pat" advice of those who also came during the same year,
notably, James and John Woods, William, Thomas and Augustus Chilton, Andrew
Clarno, Hugh McGeary, Anthony Miller, Crawford Million, Mathew Colvin, Col.
James Collins, Jerry Adams, A. V. Hastings, Conrad Lichtenberger, George Lott,
John Atchinson, Anson G. Phelps, David Southwick, Sample Journey, Frank
Washburne, H. H. Gear, George and Marvin Watson, John Shultz, George F. Smith,
John Williams, and others throughout various portions of the county, who
exchanged the courtesies of pioneer life and united in acts of pioneer safety in
Belmont, Kendall, Wayne, Argyle and elsewhere, though their names and the
current of their lives have become obscured with the lapse of years. Added to
these was a colony of immigrants, who came hither from Selkirk, a primitive
settlement on the Red River of the North. This colony was made up, in part, of
Antoine Bane, Joseph Yarien, Peter Gorey, the Breckler and Rendsburger families,
Gabriel Gorke and others, who established themselves near Gratiot's Grove, where
they engaged in mining and smelting.


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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