Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-10-08
thur went to heal him of his grieyous

Nor wind blows loudly but 10 lies
Deep m endowed, happy. fair with orchsrdAwns.
And bowery holIows crowned with summers see.
At Cassvllle we found Captain Price build
ing fort and organizing company of SOL
diers. Upon telling him what we came for,
he desired 10 know whether we would or
could do any fighting. We said g take of
your coat and let's have round" He said
he guessed he'd take US anyhow. So we were
| mustered IN at once and forthwi In put on duty
Our company were knowL as Rangers, and
| were employed in ranging % the country be-
Tween Grant river and the Wisconsin. tract
(which we trayersed great many times and
wherein we killed eight or ten lndians and
made twelve or fifteen prisoners.
When the strife was over and the smoke OF
peace rose from all that region, which was IN
the month Of September, of the same year, we
returned to Potosi and resumed our picks and
| gads and shoyels as though we had not been M
| making history at all, but had only gone tsh-
ing or had been fooling around tor Our health,
as il were.
Late in the fall of $50 reports reached us OF
rich and remarkable mineral discoveries al
Dubuque was lured thther, of course, but
the weather being bitter cold, and houses ra.
Their scarce, made my way back to Potosi
| with as little delay as possible. In February
Of the next year the Government sent soldiers
to Dubuque 10 keep miners from working on
the mineral lands there until after the ratfcs
ton of certain treaty with the Indians -
| This was done about that time, and work in
the mines went on as usual.
AZ the time of which write farming was
hardly thought of in Grrnt county, though
the attention of many was beginning to turn
toward the pursuit. Several persons were
brea king ground for farms at Boice Prairie,
preparing TO get their mean MS of sustenance al
The surface of the ca tn instead of delying for
il YEARLY toward the centre. Corn and pota-
toes were about the only crops raised, though
il was seriously feared that the latter could
never be brought to maturity in climate like
this. The cultivation of wheat and oats came
afterward, and proved encourgingiy success sful
Oats then cost dollar bushei, corn IS cents.
Pork aud -four were shipped to US fron below
somewhere. the latter costing US SIS per bar
rel and the former $28. The first steamboa,
in Spring was always eagerly looked tor, Our
provisions usually running rather short before
the close of those long and dreary winters. -
Game, however, was abundant, at that time
and fortunately for US we could generally de-
| pend in part upon that source for supply of
excellent meat.
Some tune in the Fall of '33 went to
Il PlattevI'ie, where found only about two o Z
three rude structures called houses. Major
Rountree and family were there, James r.
| tmeydfu &uU atu EucipS.-
There may have beee others, but If so / am
unable to recall them now.
1t was in 1894, think, that Mr.. Aaron
Bolce built the first house ever erected on the
| present site Of Lancaster. This stood near
the Big Spring, and hard by the spot where
now the Wooden Mill stands.
The first store ever started in Potosi was
opened there by Messrs. Wheeler Price, il
the Fall Of 1892. Five years later, in 1887
James r. Vineyard and one or two others en-.
gagged in mercantile pursuits at British Hol-
low. About this time Mr.. De Tantabar hat
/ | store and smelling works at Paris, poin
, on Platte river frequently visited by the larg.
!, est Mississippi river steamboats,. In al Mr.
Detantabar became involved, and failed in bu.
) mess. This so discouraged him that he viii.
fully sought his own salvation by means of ;
: rope. And from that fatal day an evil genius
seemed to brood over Paris, exerting a mystt
S rious and uncanny influence which has broug'l
about desolation and decay, and has obi,erat
f, ed almost every trace Of what was once
| fourishing village.
In 1897, the famous Lowry Range" wa.
| discovered at Potosi, and flush were the time
in those dggings then. There was incessan
wrangling in regard to the ownership Of thi
range, making black eyes and broken head
matters oil common occurrence. A notorious
> character known as Jim Crow was then in hi
! prime-the best man, in fact, on the rancho
whs could " lam any galoot " in the diggings
He was desperate and bully, and everybod,
I | was afraid of hi! as matter OF COURSE
There was. however, merchant named Hdr
! per, and him fate ordained 10 be the slayer O
this dreadful dragon. He hired three men {,
shoot Jim at sight, loading with his own hant
. the pistol which was TO do the bloody bust
! ness. The assassins went to their victim
house with the fatal weapon concealed unde
| cloak. They accomplished their work, wer,
arrested and sent to Prairie du Chen for SAT,
keeping. Some time after they were released
, on bail and returned 10 Potosi, where they de
} voted themselves with great assi'iuity to drinl
ing gaming and the kindred vices, proving
greater terror 10 the community thau Jim Grow
: had ever been. They kept right on in in thei
wicked courses until ordered to leave the coun
try by the People of Potosi, Boice Prairie
and British Hollow They departed, and af
ter they We're out of tho way Mr. Harpe
was arrested, tried, and proved guilty his owl
clerk of loading the pistol with which jim
, Crow had been murdered. He was gwen tw,
days to settle his affairs and leave the coun
TRIP, which he did, glad to get away so easily
rhe same day we sent two other men across
the river with orders never to return, anC
from that time forth Potosi became civil adc
respectable place.
Gen. John b. Calls having pre-.
pared eulogies on the lives OF Hugh
r Golfer and A. E K,lby, the same
were read before the association, and
were as follows.
In the awful presence of death all is silent
except the voice of sorrow and eulogy. The
frailties and and infrmities of mortality are
forgotten; the good deeds of relations and
friends departed are, or should be, alone re-
membered; criticism is dissrmed-its weapons
are broken or transformed into thoughts OF
praise and honorable mention; censure loses
its power; in short, all seem to unite, with
one accord, in remembering and cherishing in
their hearts the good deeds and counsels Of
those who nave passed through the ordeal
which all human beings are destined BY the
God of our nature--thc power that gave US
life and gives US death to pass. Human be-
ings, with all their faculties unimpairsd, in-
stinctively concede, as they expect this immu-
nifty to the grave, in a manner thus: LET US
believe in and hope for an unconscious pres
fguration OF the better life to come" beyond
the wearisome trials of this, our worldly house,
domisile or habitation While Offering this
tribute to the memory of our venerable and
deceased associates and friends the late Hugh
K. Golfer and A. f. Kiby, it is seemingly
proper that | confne myself to that portion
of their lives spent since my first acquaintance
with them, and in doing so, pardon me il /
speak of them collectively and not individ
ually, as my earliest recollection of either
dates back some 80 or 23 years. Both of
| these now departed friends come before my
minds eye whenever the "reminiscences of the
past enter my mind, and I can see both of
those gentlemen in that panorama 1t seems
to me now as plainly as when one OF them re-
corded our deeds or adjudicated upon the
rights of minor heirs and plead our cause be-
fore q court of justice--as plainly, too, as
| when the other titled the soil, and in his good
| old way underwent all the tolls and hardshps
| of the frontier life to which we all, at that
| time, were subjected For many years it has
| been the pleasure of both these Old Settlers
| 20 Unite in their efforts to advance the cause
Of morality, and without evincing much re-
snect for mere taste, refinement, delicacy and