Ashland, Wisconsin: Its Early Days
November 29, 2016
By Amorin Mello
Magazine of Western History Illustrated
November 1888
as republished in
Magazine of Western History: Volume IX, No. 1, pages 12-17.
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ASHLAND, WISCONSIN:
ITS EARLY AND PRESENT DAYS.
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Detail of Lapointe du Saint Espirit and Mission du Saint Espirit from Claude Allouez Map of New France, 1669.
~ Research Laboratories of Archaeology
If the reader will look at the map of the United States, he will see on its northern boundary the largest body of fresh water in the world – Lake Superior, called by the Ojibways Kitche Gumi, “The Big Water.” It lies between 46 and 47 degrees north latitude, and stretches east and west through eight degrees of longitude. Its coast-line is nearly two thousand miles in extent, forming some of the finest natural harbors in the world. Its surface is six hundred and thirty feet above the ocean level, while its bottom in the deepest parts is four hundred feet below the level of the tide-waters. As you come from the east end of the lake, St. Mary’s river, approaching its western extremity, you will, from the deck of the steamer, notice a group of beautiful islands – the same islands which, more than two hundred years ago, met the gaze of Fathers Marquette, Allouez and Mesnard, and which, in their religious zeal, they named the “Apostles’ Islands,” thinking that in number they corresponded with the number of our Savior’s disciples. One of these they named “Madeline,” from a favorite saint of their own “Belle France,” and to commemorate one of the most noted churches of Paris.
Detail of “The 12 Apostles” from Captain Jonathan Carver’s journal of his travels with maps and drawings, 1766.
~ Boston Public Library
These islands in ancient times were doubtless a part of the main, as was also the land now lying under Ashland bay. Underlying them was sandstone, rising from twenty to one hundred feet above the water, and horizontal. The great glaciers coming from the north, and moving in a southwest direction, cut channels in the sandstone, forming these islands, and scooping out of the solid rock the large basin which, in after years, received the name of Chaquamegon bay, and which is now known as Ashland bay. This was the first prophecy of the city of Ashland. In the times, millions of years before this, the vast deposits of iron ore had been upheaved and stored along the south shore of the lake, to subserve the designs of the Mighty Builder in the development of that commerce of which we now see but the earliest down, and of whose future extent we can form but a faint comprehension. Chaquamegon, Le Anse and Marquette bays are the natural outlets on Lake Superior for the rich mineral deposits which line its southern shore.
The formation of Ashland bay was therefore not accidental, but in harmony with Eternal plans. It is protected from the storms of the lake by a long, low, sandy point, and also by the Apostles’ islands. Into it open from the lake three broad channels, with a depth of water ample for the largest vessels, called the North, Middle and South channels. Under these islands, vessels coming from the wild storms of the open lake are secure. It is the sailor’s haven of safety.
1834 Map of LaPointe by Lyman Warren for the American Fur Company.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society
The first settlement on the bay was made by the American Fur company in the early part of the present century, on the beautiful Madeline island, and named La Pointe. It continued for many years the headquarters of a flourishing fur and fishing trade. About 1830 a Protestant and, soon after, a Catholic mission were established there, and churches built by them, in which devoted missionaries labored to Christianize and civilize the Indians whose homes were here and in the surrounding country. Here toiled Rev. Sherman Hall, a missionary of the American board, and Rev. L. H. Wheeler, and also that devoted man, now known to us as Bishop Baraga. These have all passed away. La Pointe, then the most populous and active village on the lake, is now, alas, “The deserted village,” and is visited alone in veneration of its past memories.
Map inset of Chequamegon Bay with Houghton, LaPointe, Bayfield, Ashland, and Bay City.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society
On the west shore of the bay, opposite La Pointe, is the beautiful town of Bayfield, founded by Honorable Henry. M. Rice in 1856. It is the terminus of the C., St. P., M. & O. railroad and the headquarters of a flourishing fish and lumber trade, and one of the most charming summer resorts on the lake.
On the west shore of the bay is also the flourishing town of Washburn – named in honor of Wisconsin’s governor, Cadwallader C. Washburn. It is the favorite town of the Omaha railroad, and has several large saw-mills, and is an active and enterprising town.
Asaph Whittlesey circa 1860.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society
The first settlement on the spot where Ashland now stands was made, in 1854, by Asaph Whittlesey and George Kilborn, both natives of the Western Reserve, Ohio. The lands were not as yet surveyed, so that they could not preëmpt them, and there was as yet no Homestead law. For this reason they, with Martin Beaser, then living in Ontonagon, Michigan, laid claim, under the “Town Site” law, to about three hundred acres, embracing their log houses and small clearing. They platted this into town lots in 1855, and subsequently were allowed to enter their lands as claimed, and in due course received their title. In February, 1855, Edwin Ellis, a graduate in medicine, in the University of the City of New York, of the class of 1846, came on foot through the woods from St. Paul to the bay. He had been engaged in the practice of his profession in his native state – Maine – till 1854, when, attracted by the prospect of wider fields for enterprise in the new west, and by the advice of Judge D. A. J. Baker, his brother-in-law, then living in St. Paul, he came to Minnesota.
Edwin Ellis, M.D.
~ Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Lake Region by J.H. Beers & Co., 1905, pages 16-18.
The years 1853 to 1857 were years of wild speculation. The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota especially were covered with rising cities – at least on paper. Fabulous stories of rich silver, copper and iron mines on the south shore of Lake Superior attracted a multitude of active young men from the eastern states. The city of Superior had been laid out, and its lots were selling for fabulous prices. The penniless young man of to-day became the millionaire to-morrow. The consequent excitement was great, and in the event demoralizing.
The Bay of Ashland, stretching far in-land, the known vast deposits of iron near the Penokee Gap, whose natural route to market was evidently by Chaquamegon bay, indicated with moral certainty that at its head would rise a commercial mart which should command a wide extent of country. The vast forests of pine were then hardly thought of, and no efforts made to obtain them. The lands were unsurveyed, and all the “squatters” were, in the eye of the law, trespassers. Nevertheless, the new-comers ran “spotted” lines around their claims and built log-cabins to hold them, and began to clear up the land. In June, 1855, Dr. Ellis went on foot to St. Paul, and thence to Dubuque, Iowa, and secured from the surveyor-general an order to survey four townships about the bay, embracing the site of the present city of Ashland. In the meantime, many settlers had come in and preëmpted lands in the neighborhood. In the fall of 1855 many of them were enabled to prove up and get titles to their lands.
Portrait and biography of Frederick Prentice; the “first white child born in … Toledo.”
~ History of the Maumee Valley by Horace S Knapp, 1872, pages 560-562.
In the winter of 1855 Lusk, Prentice & Company, who had a trading-post within the present limits of Ellis’ division of Ashland, built a dock for the accommodation of the settlers coming to the new town. It was built of cribs, made of round logs sunk in the water about twenty feet apart. From one crib to another were stringers, made of logs, flattened on the upper surface, all covered with small logs to make a roadway. On the docks were piled several hundred cords of wood for the purpose of “holding” the dock from floating away, and to be sold in the summer to the steamboats which should come to bring supplies and begin the commerce of the town. The evening of the second day of April, 1855, saw the bay full of ice, slightly detached for a few feet from the shore, but with no sign of an immediate opening of navigation.
Portrait of Martin Beaser on page 24.
The next morning no ice was in sight, nor a vestige of the dock to be seen. Floating timber and cord-wood covered the bay. Till then the settlers had no idea the power of the floating ice moved by the tide of the bay. But they were not discouraged. The following winter two other docks were constructed – one by Martin Beaser, at the foot of what is now called “Beaser Avenue,” and the other by Edwin Ellis, near where Seyler’s foundry now stands.
These were also crib-docks, but the effort was made to anchor the cribs. There were no rocks to be had on the side of the bay where the docks were built, for which reason Mr. Beaser filled his cribs with clay, dug out of the banks. Dr. Ellis hauled stone across the bay, and filled as many of his cribs as possible, and on the top of the dock also piled several hundred cords of wood, and the settlers with anxious faces watched the departure of the ice. The shock came, and the docks afforded little resistance. The cribs filled with clay were easily carried. Those filled with stone stood better, but that part of those above water, and near the outer end, were swept away. The labors of many weary days and much money was thus swept away. There was, however, enough of the Ellis dock left to afford a landing to the few boats that came with supplies for the people.
Survey of Frederick Prentice‘s Addition of Ashland near the Gichi-wiikwedong village.
“It is in this addition, that, the Chippewa River and the St. Croix Indian trails reach the Bay, and for the purpose of accomodating the trade, already flowing in on their routes, a commodious store has just been built”
~ Wisconsin Historical Society
Translates as “Big Bay” in Ojibwemowin.
Traditional place-name for Ashland, WI.
Anglicized version of Gichi-wiikwedong.
Prentice Park and Maslowski Beach.
Area is famous for artesian wells.
“This was all Indian land then, but [Asaph] Whittlesey believed in take time for the forelock, looking he said, for a place that ‘might prove to be the most available point for a town, at or near Equadon (pronounced E Quay don, the second syllable emphasized.) The word ‘Equadon,’ is the Chippewa word meaning ‘settlement near the head of the bay.'”
~ The Ashland Daily Press, July 6, 1933, by Guy M. Burnham, reproduced on TurtleTrack.org. Read the full article for an interesting stories about how the town-site for Ashland was allegedly negotiated between Reverend Wheeler and Little Current.
During the years 1855, ’56 and ’57 many settlers had come to Ashland and built homes, and were all young men full of bright hopes for the future. In the spring of 1856 a township organization was formed, embracing more than forty townships of six miles square, and was called Bayport. The usual township officers were elected. The year 1857 opened with bright prospects. In Ashland streets were cleared and several frame houses were built. A steam saw-mill was begun and brought near completion. But in September of that year the great financial storm came, involving the whole country in ruin. The little village of Ashland was overwhelmed. The people had but little money, and in making their improvements had contracted debts which they could not at once pay. There had been so such speculation that the settlers had paid but little attention to the cultivation of the soil, depending upon supplies brought by water a thousand miles. We had no wagon roads nor railroads within three hundred miles. Winter was coming on, and many of the settlers – in truth, all who could get away – left the place. The few who remained saw hard times, whose memory is not pleasant to recall. Some of them, in making improvements, had assumed liabilities which well-nigh ruined them. If the county had then been organized for judicial purposes, so that judgements and execution could have been easily obtained, scarcely anyone would have saved a dollar from the wreck. But this fortunate circumstance gave them time, and their debts were finally paid, and they had their land left; but it then was without value in the market. Town lots in the village, which are now selling for five thousand to six thousand dollars, could then be sold for enough to buy a barrel of flour. The years following “’57” were hard years, and the settlers, one by one, moved away, so that in 1862 only two remained – Martin Beaser and Martin Roehn. In 1866 Mr. Beaser undertook to come alone from Bayfield to Ashland in an open sail-boat. It was a stormy day, and he never reached home. His boat was found soon afterwards at the head of the bay, and his body was found the following spring on the beach on the west side of the bay. Ashland was now left desolate and alone. Mr. Roehn, with a few cows, migrated backward and forward between Ashland and the Marengo river, finding hay and pasture for his cows, selling his produce and butter at Bayfield and La Pointe, and thus eked out an existence. The first railroad to reach Ashland was the Wisconsin Central, completed in 1877, connecting Ashland with Milwaukee. Work at the Ashland end was begun in 1872, and in 1873 finished to Penokee, twenty-nine miles south from Ashland. It had been built from the south to within about eighty-five miles of Ashland, and then came the panic of 1873, and all work stopped. The building in 1872 in Ashland was quite extensive, and village property sold at good prices, and everybody was hopeful. But the crisis of 1873 coming on, all enterprises at once stopped. Not till 1877 was the railroad completed. Its completion established Ashland on a substantial basis. In 1877 the Wisconsin Central company completed the Chaquamegon hotel, one of the finest in the country, which has added greatly to the attractions of Ashland.
The building of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha road to this place, in 1883, gave a short outlet to the west and southwest, greatly benefiting the lumber trade.
The Northern Pacific, whose eastern terminus is at Ashland, soon after completed, gave it new importance as in the direct line of transcontinental commerce.
But the advent of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western railroad had done more, perhaps to stimulate the growth of Ashland than any one of its great enterprises.
It runs northerly from Milwaukee to Manitowoc, where, turning in northwesterly course, it traverses vast tracts of valuable timber and farming lands, running for fifty miles along the Gogebic range – the richest iron region in the world.
This company has built two large and costly ore docks for the shipment of the vast amount of iron ore which it brings over its road.
South From Ashland
“The promoters decided to make Ashland the north end of their iron. It was a mere clearing, in the woods in 1870, formerly known as Equadon which was founded in 1854 and abandoned in 1863. The Ashland site was located on the bank of a splendid natural harbor called Cheguamegon Bay.”
…
“The clearing, grubbing and grading of the 30-mile Ashland-Penokee Gap Division had been practically complete in 1872. The iron rails were not laid into the Gap until October 1873, and there the railroad stopped for 4 long years.”
…
“Penokee Gap, 1000 feet above Lake Superior, is a break in the rough country, a regular gap where the Bad River breaks through the Iron Range Hills on its way to Lake Superior. The Gap is an historic pathway through which the copper workers from Mexico and South America came to Lake Superior centuries ago enroute to the copper deposits on Isle Royal in Lake Superior.”
~ History of the Soo Line, by James Lyden.
The Wisconsin Central Railroad company has also built a very fine ore dock, over which it ships the iron brought from the same range by its own line – the “Penokee Railroad” – built easterly along the northern base of the Gogebic range to Bessemer, in Michigan.
Notwithstanding the depression in the iron trade, more than a million tons of ore will be shipped from Ashland the present season.
Ashland has also two coal docks – one operated by the Ohio Coal company and the other by the Columbus & Hocking Valley Coal company – both of whom are doing a large business. The Lake Shore railroad and the Wisconsin Central obtain their coal for their engines, on the northern two hundred miles, by their docks at Ashland. The same rates for coal going west prevail as from Duluth and Washburn, and a large trade is springing up over the Omaha & Northern Pacific lines.
Ashland has three National and one private bank, all of which are conservative and carefully managed. It has also a street railway, two miles in length, with six fine cars and about forty horses, and is rendering very satisfactory service. We have also a “Gas and Electric Light Plant,” which affords abundant light for the streets, stores, dwellings and the ore docks. Ashland has also the Holly system of water-works, with about two miles of pipe laid, affording ample protection against fire and an abundant supply of water for domestic purposes. The pump-house has two ponderous engines, one being kept in reserve in case of accident.
As a point for the distribution of manufactured goods of all kinds, Ashland stands among the foremost. With practically the same rates as by the roads leading from Duluth west, it is prepared to compete with that lively town for part of the trade of the great northwest – now in its infancy but destined soon to attain great proportions; whose beginnings we can measure, but whose vast results we cannot now comprehend.
Portrait of Prentice’s brownstone quarries at Houghton Point.
~ Ashland Daily Press, circa 1893.
A Great Brownstone Industry Established At Houghton Point.
What Frederick Prentice Has Accomplished During The Season.“
~ Ashland Daily Press article in the Washburn Itemizer, October 18, 1888, reproduced on BattleAxCamp.tripod.com
One industry on Ashland bay is the brown stone, which exists along the water’s edge for many miles on the shore of the mainland and on the islands. It can be quarried in inexhaustible quantities within a few hundred feet of navigable waters of Lake Superior. It is of fine texture and beautiful color, and hardens by exposure. Large quantities have already been shipped and the demand is rapidly increasing. It can be shipped by rail at about four dollars per ton to Cincinnati. This stone, used for trimmings in buildings built of white brick, makes a very beautiful appearance.
The vast quantities of pine and hardwood timber in the vicinity of Ashland, and its advantages as a point of distribution for manufactured articles in wood, render it one of the best locations for manufacturing industries. For tanneries its location is unrivaled; the supply of hemlock bark is ample, while hides can be cheaply brought from Minnesota and the northwest, and the products can be shipped in all directions at low rates.
The schools of Ashland afford the best of opportunities for the education of our youth. Our school buildings are large, new and commodious, with all modern improvements. Our schools are graded and the attendance is large.
In the churches, most denominations are represented. The Catholic is the finest church edifice in the city, built of our own brown stone at a cost of over thirty thousand dollars. There are Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and several Scandinavian churches.
As a summer resort, Ashland and the Apostles’ islands afford unrivaled attractions. Sail-boats, tugs and steamboats make daily excursions in all directions. They busy men from Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Cincinnati and other cities can, in one day, escape from the sweltering heat and sleep on the cool ore of Lake Superior, and with our lines of railroad and telegraph stretching in all directons, they can be in constant and instant communication with their counting-rooms a thousand miles away. Its advantages in this line are already drawing many persons of wealth and leisure, as well as invalids, who come here to spend the hot season and at the close of the summer return home with new health and vigor.
Portrait of Edwin Ellis, M.D. on page 20.
Ashland has just two daily and three weekly newspapers, models of enterprise and very newsy, contributing much to the prosperity of the city.
The population of Ashland is about fifteen thousand, composed principally of persons under thirty-five years of age, and full of push and activity, who have come to stay and built up fortunes.
With all these and many other advantages Ashland seems to have a bright future, and many of us think it bids fair, in the near future, to become the second city in the state of Wisconsin. And we will labor that she shall be worthy of her rank.
EDWIN ELLIS.
Barber Papers: “Houghton” Fall of 1857
February 17, 2016
By Amorin Mello
Selected letters of the Joel Allen Barber Papers
… continued from the Summer of 1857.
Sandusky Oct 24th 1857
Dear Son
At length your father and I have both reached this place but how soon we shall be able to leave it is uncertain. He arrived here last Monday night in a most miserable state. I did not get here ’till Wednesday morning when I found him much worse than I had supposed he had been, and I believe worse than he had been at any time with his lameness. He probably exerted himself too much and produced a relapse of his fever and swelling of the limbs.
He got to Detroit Thursday at night – when he got ashore he found his carpet sack was missing – he being to sick to bring it off himself. Friday morning he sent round to the hotels to look for it but got no trace and concluded to go without it – but found he was a few minutes too late for the boat. Saturday morning he went down to the wharf, then the driver pretended, or was told, that the boat would not come and go that morning but at 4 P.M. so he was carried back the house again and paid the scamp 50 cts. Soon after he saw a bill posted saying the “Bay City” would leave that day at 7 oclock but before he could get to it, they told him it was gone so he was obligated to remain over till Monday.
Michigan Exchange Hotel in Detroit, circa 1884.
~ Burton Historical Collection.
He put up at the Michigan Exchange where he was on the second floor and had to climb stairs until his limb became very lame and considerably swollen the whole length. He had some fever and no appetite all the way after leaving La P. and probably when he started. The day after he got here Hamilton procured a Homeopathic Physician who has called to “treat” him every day since. He had intermitent fever all the time. Broke a fever every afternoon and night till yesterday and today, when it seems to be leaving him – his appetite is returning. I think tho he is very weak and can bear but very little food and the of the simplest kind. The Dr thinks he will get up soon if he can get the pain out of his limbs, but that will probably take some time to conquer. Says it is probably a rheumatic affliction and might have been produced by taking Quinine. But he is decidedly better now than three days since – in all respects I believe that had he called an Alopathic Dr, he would surely had a Typhoid fever, but if he is quiet and patient I think he will escape this time. But I fear it will take a long time for him to recover sufficiently to go home in cold weather. He had set up a little the last three days but cannot get off nor on the bed without help, and cannot walk without great paid to his limbs – indeed, he has not walked a step since Wednesday. It has certainly been a very unfortunate season with him and with us all, but I must consider it very fortunate that he has fallen in to so good a place to be be sick, and is in the care of an experienced Homeopathist, who I believe will cure him.
Houghton Point aka “Cold Point”,“Stony Pointe” , and “Point Prospect”.
~ Detail of Map of Michigan & Part of Wisconsin Territory, Exhibiting the Post Offices, Post Roads, Canals, Rail Roads, &c from the 1839 Burr Atlas of Postal Maps.
It is very strange you did not receive any letters from me before father came away as I had sent, certainly three – some of which you may have got before now. And I got but two short letters from you and none from your father after you left me. He wrote to Mr Burr when first taken sick and I heard nothing more from him untill one reached us of Oct 3d saying he wished me to meet him at Sandusky as he was too sick to get to L. Of course, I suffered a good deal of anxiety to know what had become of him and how I was to get home alone – supposing he had gone home without sending me word – I had been so long waiting to hear from him that I had concluded to start in company with Miss Julia Hyde, when I rec’d his letter.
Detail of early settlements and footpaths near Houghton Point from the Barber brothers’ 1855 survey of Chequamegon Bay. Giles and Allen lived with the Maddocks family during 1856 and 1857 at what is now the Houghton Falls State Natural Area.
I had promised a visit to Mrs. Baker at Janesville, so not knowing how soon he would be here, or that he was much ill then, I concluded to stop there and I started Thursday morning from L – and spent three days at Ja – left there Monday at Midnight – that being the express train expecting to get here the next eve but did not till Wed Morning 4O.C.. There being but no train each day from Toledo to this place. I got along very well alone – without losing any thing of consequence. I am afraid that carpet-sack of father’s will never be found tho. Uncle H has written to some one who was on the boat – whom he knows and perhaps it may come again. If not it will be one more loss added to the many we have suffered within two years. When the tide of misfortune will turn with us is yet in the anxious and uncertain future. I yet hope our lives will all be spared to meet again. When I left Lancaster many people were having a sort of influence which they called “colds”. Grandpa – Thode Burr and Mary B. had it and since reaching here Martha has sent a letter saying that Addison – Mame. Lil and Em. in her house – Mother and Lucy – Lib and the two youngest children, and Mary Parker – and Father at Allen’s, Mr. Phelp’s son quite sick; and about half the people in town had the disease. I had the good luck to escape it entirely, tho’ I rode to Boscobel in the stage the worst day there has been this fall. I am afraid we shall not be able to go home without exposing father so much that he will be very sick. I am sure he cannot recover sufficiently to start with safety in less than four weeks if he has very good luck and no relapse on account of the season. But if good nursing & good medicine can cure him he will be well before winter.
Plan of Houghton, La Pointe County, Wisconsin, 1858.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society
Aunt Emeline is absent, with Frank at Columbus, but the rest of the family are here and show us every kindness. This is a most delightful – comfortable and convenient place to be sick in, if one must be sick. How I wish I could think of our house as possessing half the attractions for a family residence that this does. But, poor as it is I should be very glad to see it once more and be where I could call it home.
“Survey & Drawing of the town of Houghton
by G. L. Brunschweiler, T.E.”
I am sorry to hear that you have had to wait so long for your money – consequently could not go on with your work. I do hope you will not try to stay there through the winter unless you are sure of money, and that there will be plenty of provisions to be got at. What could have been the reason that your money did not come to you? I did not know that Uncle Sam has suspended payment or lost by the failure of the banks. Perhaps you did not keep reminding them of your case or give them your “address”.
You must write oftener to me and give me an account of your affairs – of all your pleasures and your pains – your disappointments and vexations and be assured no one can feel a deeper interest or more truely sympathize in all that concerns her you than your affectionate parents.
G. A. Barber and M. G. Barber
“A. W. Maddocks – Houghton, Wis.
Charles C. Tucker – Washington, D.C.
F. Prentice – Toledo, Ohio.”
Your father wishes you to say to Mrs. Maddocks that he feels under infinite obligations to her for the kindness shown him while sick at her house – that he wishes to express a thousand times more thanks than he was able, when parting from her in the Steam boat, to do. I congratulate you on having the privilege of making it your home at so nice and comfortable a place, with such kind people as father describes those to be. May you have the good fortune or good taste and disposition to make your presence in that, or any other kind hearted family, agreeable – is the wish of your Mother.
Houghton Falls State Natural Area within the Town of Houghton.
Monday morning
Your father rested better last night than before and had no fever thro the night but sweat a good deal as before – is very cool and comfortable this morning. Has some appetite – does not like to get up as it hurts his limbs. But much less than when I first came here.
Sandusky Nov 1st 1857
Dear Son,
Last sunday I wrote you about your father’s sickness and hope you have rec’d it, or will in good time; but as my letters of the past summer have failed wholey to reach you, perhaps the last has also failed. I shall continue to write to you often while he continues sick – and unless while navigation lasts and you may direct yours here until the last boat leaves your place as I see no prospects now of your father’s being able to move on for some time to come. I told you about the chill he had which made me fear he had got a regular chill fever but he did not have another tho he had pretty severe intermittent fever for three days last week. – indeed it continues somewhat yet, but much lighter. But his lameness is much worse than when he left you – that is – he cannot walk or step because his limbs are so painful and much weaker than when he had more fever. I believe he would never have got here alive had he not been sustained by tonics and morphine, but they would never have cured him, and I do think that had he fallen too sick to get here and had employed another Alopathist he would have gone into a typhoid fever and probably have died, as did the hon. R.C. Benton Sen. a short time since – at Rockford Ill. I met his son – our Johnson teacher one at Janesville who told me the sad news. – He was informed of his father’s sickness but did not reach there ’till after his death. His body was carried to Vt. for interment.
Nov. 2
~ “Business Directory” published in the Superior Chronicle, June 26th, 1855.
Your father wishes to ask you if you know anything about that Geo Perry concern – the present shape of it. And if you have heard any thing farther from the Aminacon claim?
Did you get the money of Jack so as to save your compass? If so – how does it prove? Has Herbert got home since yet? If so, how do the boys fare – do they get any money of him? Does old Whacken let John have his paper? Do you hear anything from your money?
When father left the boat at Detroit he told the porter to get his Carpet bag in his room and send it ashore with his trunk – showing him the trunk. – but when he got to the Michigan Exchange it was not to be found – neither at that house nor any other in the city. In looking for it he was detained so as to lose the boat for Sandusky, Friday morning – Saturday he started in a carriage but was told at the wharf by the driver that the boat would not go – (had not arrived) till afternoon, so he was taken back again when soon word came that it had came, but before he could get started – he being unable to walk – it was off again, so he was obliged to stay ’till Monday.
Thus he was detained nearly four days – sick and lame and obliged to climb a long flight of stairs and take long walks to his meals and other necessities, which all together brought on his fever and rheumatism in the muscles worse than ever. He thinks it almost a miracle that he got through so long a journey – sick as he was when he left you, and without any one to assist or care for him – alive. His lameness is now in the left limb – the other being quite free from pain when kept in a horizontal position, but both pain him extremely yet if put down so that he does not attempt to step on his feet. Ham, Jay, and I brought him up stairs last Saturday where we have every thing we need for convenience and family are all as kind and attentive to one wants as people can be. I do not believe there is any better family, or one happier, than this. It is two weeks today since father came here and I know not how many more he may have to stay – the prospect looks rather dark for a speedy departure.
The “Geo Perry concern” related to Albert McEwen’s death and fraud during the 1856 LaPointe County election. This was investigated by the Wisconsin Assembly.
~ Journal of the Assembly of Wisconsin, Volume 9, 1857, page 191.
We got a letter from Am. Saturday in answer to one from me here, says he is well but I should judge he had not done much this fall but watch and wait for us. I do not wonder the poor boy is out patience as well as every things else, as he says.
Write often to your afflicted parents.
G.A.B. and M.G.B.
Sandusky Friday Nov 13 – 1857
Dear Son.
You will at once perceive that we are stationary since I wrote you last. And when we shall be able to move on, is as much a question of uncertainty as ever. Your father remains sick yet – and I cannot – dare not say that he is even convalescent, tho’ I have a little more courage to think that the medicine now being administered is breaking up his fever. He has had a most singular sickness – having – as I think – more or less fever – with or without chills every day – probably since he was first taking – certainly since coming here. [??] the Dr would not acknowledge – or believe it because his visits would be in the forenoon when the intermissions would occur. But the past week he convinced him that chills and fever do actually exist as he has been [presedest?] to break it up. His sickness is so unlike anything in the experience of the Dr. that he appears to be entirely mistified with [reward?] to the proper course to pursue. I have, and do, doubt his judgement – and sometimes have even put a harsher construction upon his course and doubted his honesty. But he has all along said he had not the least doubt of his ultimate recovery tho it would take considerable time to entirely remove his lameness. As to that lameness I hardly know what to say. He is now free from soreness and only his feet swolen; but he cannot straighten his knees as the cords appear to be contracted and are painful when strained and if his feet are brought lower than his body it brings on the same old tearing pain in the muscles.
But I believe that when his fever leaves him and he begins to gain strength his limbs will improve fast. This week past I have felt more discouraged than ever, as the chills would come on every day about noon – continue an hour – sometimes with a hearty shake – then fever – pulse 120 hr. m. – then a hot sweat most of the night with pulse at 85 at the least pain.
This lasted about 5 days – But the Dr has at length “come in with a Tonic” which appears to work right. It is the most powerful sweating medicine I ever saw. He has taken it two nights and one day – and now the 2nd day – 3 P.M. – he has fairly escaped the chill and fever. I feel greatly encouraged – that he is in a way to recover. He has all the time been quite confined to his bed except as he could manage to get into a great chair once a day and sit up – from two hours to half an hour – this several days he has not got in the chair as he was unwilling to exert himself so much. I have been with him – his only nurse – night and day for 3½ weeks, and I hope and expect to granted health and strength to continue to perform the duties of nurse so long as he shall need my assistance. I cannot but think that he was in just as good condition to receive the medicine, which is working so well over two weeks ago – when the billious fever first left him, as he was two days ago. But the Dr thought not, as his limbs were so bad then, and it might make them worse. It has been altogether an unique case, and the Dr has appeared liked one groping in the dark.
I told you in my letter of last week that father lost his carpet-bag – and intended to tell you to see if it was not returned to La Pointe and left there – he thinks the label on it directed there – tho’ at first he said it was to Lancaster. He can hear nothing from it since and I fear it was stolen by the darkies on the boat. This has truely been an unfortunate year for us as well as for thousands of others.
1872 cartoon of Wisconsinite Carl Schurz by Thomas Nast.
Wikipedia.com definition of a Carpetbagger:
In United States history, a carpetbagger was a Northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War, during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). White Southerners denounced them fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South. Sixty Carpetbaggers were elected to Congress, and they included a majority of Republican governors in the South during Reconstruction. Historian Eric Foner argues:
“… most carpetbaggers probably combine the desire for personal gain with a commitment to taking part in an effort “to substitute the civilization of freedom for that of slavery”. … Carpetbaggers generally supported measures aimed at democratizing and modernizing the South – civil rights legislation, aid to economic development, the establishment of public school systems.”
“Carpetbagger” was a pejorative term referring to the carpet bags (a form of cheap luggage at the time) which many of these newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. The term is still used today to refer to a parachute candidate, an outsider who runs for public office in an area where he or she does not have deep community ties, or has lived only for a short time.
We get nothing yet from you. Why is it that you remain so silent? I think it probable we may have to stay here four weeks longer – waiting for him to get well. You may direct here if you send by return mail or by any boat.
You cannot know, nor be told the amount of distress in the country this money panic has produced. I presume you do not see the papers so often as we do, and perhaps do not realize at all. You father warns you to be careful what you do this winter. – not to meddle with any thing – in Ironton shares – or any kind of property – even if you can buy it for a “song” – Every thing is “dead broke” and the less you have to do with Lake Superior property, the better.
Father sends his best love along with mine to you and his respects to Mrs. Maddocks and family.
I am very sorry to think that you will stay up in that wilderness this winter. I wish you could get your money – settle up every thing – come down here and go home with us. It would be a great relief to us to have your assistance for your father if he should continue too lame to walk without help.
We are under a great many obligations to Uncle H. and family for their kindness.
It is growing dark, so good night
Mother
Sandusky Dec 6th 1857
My Dear Son.
Yesterday we rec’d a letter from Am. containing one from you. I was greatly surprised and grieved to learn that you had not got one of my letters since you left Lancaster. I have sent you three from there and as many from here. Neither had you rec’d your draft. I am really suspicious that some one watches the mails and steals your letters hoping to get money or the draft – which, it is possible he has taken out – forged your name &c and taken the money out. In such case you might not discover the theft for a long time – and would be subjected to a great deal of trouble in consequence. I shall have a deal of anxiety in your account this winter, or until I hear that your money has reached you and that provisions are to be had at reasonable prices – which I fear they will and be this since the loss of that new boat must make quite a difference with that region in supplies.
American carpetbag circa 1860; wool with leather handles.
~ Wikimedia.org
I have before written you an account of your father’s journey and continued sickness which you may have yet [??] now. Lest you have not I will briefly say that he got safely to Detroit where he lost his carpet-sack – was detained there three days – arrived here Monday night 19th ult. Oct. 19th where he has remained ever since, confined to his bed. The fatigue of the journey probably somewhat increased his lameness which has been very severe, and he has not been entirely free from chills and fever and sweats until the last week. He has been improving fast for a few days, but just now he is having a little more fever which I presume is caused by some impending diet – either in quantity or quality.
His disease – a very uncommon one – is, in fact, inflamation of the veins extending from the Loins throug the whole limbs – the left much the most – to the toes. He has not been able to put his feet to the floor without extreme pain since he got here, until the last week, and even now, but a few minutes at a time. The cords under the knees have been considerably constrainted but are getting relaxed a little so that his legs make nearly straightened, tho he cannot begin to bear his weight on them.
The disease has been so complicated and so badly treated before he got here that the Dr has been very much perplexed with it. If you have not got my former letters you do not know that we have had a Homeopathist – one whom Uncle H. and Aunt B. think knows enough for all cases but we think that had he possessed a knowledge of anatomy equal to his partner in business who has called twice with him of late, he would have discovered the seat of the disease at first from the symptoms then apparent. But for four weeks he seemed to be in a state of uncertainty, and baffled at every step. But since he discovered the seat of it he has treated it with very good success.
Your father is much reduced in flesh and strength. I cannot now give you a full description of his case but when he gets able to write much I presume he will amuse himself by giving you the particulars if you should feel interested in the subject. Uncle H and family are very kind and obliging and we have every thing our necesities demand at present, but that does not make me contented to remain so long from home. I wish to be in my own house, but it is impossible to leave here until he can walk enough to help himself a little. We have been here 7 weeks, and I fear it will be many more before it will be safe for him to leave or proper for me to leave him for others to wait on. My health is very good so that no one has had to assist me day or night, in nursing.
Your Aff’nt Mother
I suppose this will never reach you unless I direct to some other person for you.
All well at Lancaster last Sunday. Monday morning Aunt Lucy saw a fine little daughter added to her family.
Sandusky Dec 18th 1857
Dear Son
~ Wikipedia.com
You will see that we are here yet, now nearly 9 weeks since I landed here in an almost insensible state from the effects of morphine which I had to take constantly to allay or drown the pain in my limbs. I have been quite sick much of the time. Three or four weeks were spent in treating my sore before the [rest seat became?] of my disease was ascertained, since which time there has been steady progress toward health. My legs had become crooked at the knees, absent at an angle of 45*. My ankles and feet swollen, white, cold & as useless as though made of putty, but I found the pain that had so long affected them was gone & by much exertion, rubbing &c I got so as to bear any weights, & [thoutes who?] crutches, & I have now got so that I can go twice the width of the house at a time on them. My appetite has returned & I am gaining rapidly. My real disease was what is called Spormator [hea?] or a disease of the Spormation vessels or cord on the left side of my body, which the Drs & your Uncle Ham think was the origin of my sickness & all my pain. Sir Astley Cooper [in thing?] authority, giving all the symptoms of my case. We hope to be able in a week or two to go home to Vt. Your mother wants to start in my present helpless condition when I cannot stand alone in a minute without support to save my life, but I have sworn that I will not go to be jostled around & in the can till I am better able to take of my self than now. I cannot get up or down stairs or sit at all weight with crutches, & as neither of my legs are reliable I assure you it is ticklish business to dare go on them (the crutches).
Echo Dells at Houghton Falls State Natural Area.
~ Shared under Creative Commons from Aaron Carlson © 2011
Coming down the lakes from La Pointe I had a pretty hard time of it, was quite sick, had chills, kept my berth most of the time, & when I got to Detroit I was detained by losing my carpet bag and one thing & another because I was unable to help myself, from Thursday P.M. ill Monday A.M. when I came here. Lucky that I had such a refuge to [want?] to in my extremity, had I tried to reach home, my life would have paid the forfeit of I might have had a long sickness among strangers without any of the comforts or conveniences I now enjoy, and insured an enormous train of affection.
Map inset of Chequamegon Bay with Town of Houghton, LaPointe, Bayfield, Ashland, Bay City, and the LaPointe Indian Reservation.
We get letters from Amherst occasionally, he is well & in good spirits boarding at Mr Griswolds, is very anxious for our return to Vermont. By him I learn that Ambrose Chase died after about an hour illness in Nov, & that John Burcham of Johnson died still more suddenly being found dead in the privy. Old Mr Dorsker died lately & that is all he has told of to us. On opening my new trunk here I find some books are missing. Who do you suppose is the rogue? I hope he will russ some amusements & instruction from the books, if so I am content.
Frederick Prentice (“Man of Money and Mystery”) was an “Indian interpreter for Indian agents and traders”, and owned extensive properties in the Chequamegon Bay region during the 1850s. Prentice started the City of Houghton around the same time he cofounded Bay City (Ashland) during 1854, purchased the Buffalo Tract (Duluth) from Benjamin Armstrong during 1856, and cofounded the City of Houghton (near Washburn) during 1857. Prentice returned to Houghton in 1887 and organized the Prentice Brownstone Company, becoming “the most famous quarryman in northern Wisconsin”. Houghton had a “population of about 250 people, a school house and a sawmill with 25,000 foot capacity” by 1888.
~ This portrait and a profile of Frederick Prentice (the “first white child born” in Toledo, Ohio) is available from History of the Maumee Valley by Horace S Knapp, 1872, pages 560-563.
~ “Business Directory” published in the Superior Chronicle, June 26th, 1855.
August 22nd, 1857
“John H Osborn,
Banker and Land Agent,
And Dealer in Exchange, Superior, Wis.
REFERENCES, — J. B. Ramsay & Co., Cincinnati; J. R. Morton & Co., do; E. Jenkins & Son, Baltimore; A. R. Van Nest & Co., N. Y.; Heston & Druckla, Phila; Holiday & Coburn, St. Louis; John H. Richmon, Esq., Maysville, Kentucky.”
Have you recd your draft yet? Was your compass saved to you? Have you got at work on the reservation yet? If so how do you prosper? How does Herbert make it, does he still remain agent? Does he sell any shares, if so, for how much? Is the work still going on at the City of Houghton, or has the news of the general crash and prostration of all kinds of business failed of reaching Stony Pointe? I recd a letter from Prentiss last week who says, there are some going from Toledo next spring to live there, & he appeared to feel as well as ever.
He said he sent 50 bbls Ham & a lot of Pork to Detroit to go up, but it arrived too late for the last boat to Lake Superior. I have written to Hayes that if the Ammanicon case is decided against me to take an appeal to Washington at once & I will go there & see if testimony has been supplied or any unfair things have been done by the clerks in the office.
I have now sat up [little?] hours, read Douglas’ speech & written this much to you but I feel that I have over taxed my powers and must go to my heated bed for rest. Douglas has come out against the Administration policy toward Kansas & will make a split in the party not easily healed. I will send you his speech.
Tell Mr. Maddock’s folks that Judge John Fitch of Toledo was shot yesterday [????] once of his family by one T.G. Mellon, the ball entering his mouth, lodging in the back of his neck, some hopes are entertained of his life. If this is a ½ sheet it is as long as your letters. Be careful of yourself. I remain your affectionate father.
G.A. Barber
Give my respects to Mr & Mrs Maddocks, & to John Cosborn.
Detail from the 1857 “Township map of Wisconsin showing The Milwaukee & Horicon Rail Road and its connections“. The town-sites of LaPointe County shown here are Ironton, Boyd’s at Old Fort (mislabeled as “La Pointe”), Bay City, Ashland, and Houghton (mislabeled here as “Bayfield” and later as “Lower Bayfield” in the 1865 Colton Atlas). The railroad shown on the LaPointe Indian Reservation correlates to Barber/Wheeler/Stuntz details from “the Gardens“.
~ Library of Congress
Chequamegon History 