Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-03-04
THE
HAZEL GREEN MANS STORY.
From the Milwaukee Monthly.

IN Inc OLD tune, when Nelson
| Dewey was Governor of Wisconsin,
dozen or more of US were gathered
one night around the great Franklin
stove in the spacious public room OF
BanfPs Hotel at Lancaster, Grant
county.
We had all of as travelled all the
afternoon, and some of US all day,
through cold autumn drizzle, admin
istered by strong west wind-regu-
lar potato-digging weather, as one of
our company observed.
We therefore crowded around the
fire with such determination that the
village loafers who strolled in soon
left in disgust, and went away to
church. ct was Sunday night.
There was then, and still is, statute
in Wisconsin providing that any
sheriff, coroner, district attorney or
register of deeds may be removed
from Office by the Governor upon
charges preferred in writing, and
after a hearing. Under this law
charges had been made against the
sheriff of Latay cite county. The
Governor, Grant county man, had
private Office at Lancaster. For
convenience sake, it had been arrang-
ed that the hearing should come off
there, rather than at the executive
Office in Madison. This hearing was
set for the next day, and was the oc-
casion which had brought all but
one or two of US to Lancaster.
had nothing to do with the trial, and
do not now remember how it result
ed
The sheriff and his friends was
there, and so was the prosecutor and
his witnesses.
Nevertheless, every body seemed
to be on amicable terms with every
body else. By common consent the
subject of the approaching trial
was avoided. The parties who
were there to attend the hear
irg were all from ShuIlsburg, ex-
cept two witnesses, one of whom
was from British Hollow, near
Potosi, and the other from Hazel
Green.
A resident genius whose left leg
was stiff, and whose left shoulder
lifted itself considerably above the
right, and who constantly wore
greasy cloth cap jauntily on one side
of his head, emerged from some hid>
ing place about once every half hour,
and mended the fire with a great
clatter.
The Shulsburg men we're full of
anecdote. Many stories were told,
each stranger or funnier than the
last, or intended so to be. Somehow
the subject of delirium tremens came
to be the prevailing theme. Numer-
Gus examples of the strange decisions
entertained by the unhappy victims
of this disorder were given. The
Hazel Green man, who up to this
time had contributed little to the en-
tertainment, suddenly demanded to
know if any of Us had ever heard
how Major Bracken came to quit
drinking. One and all we admitted
our ignorance of the cause Ct the gal
liant Majors reformation
The Hazel Green man arose from
his chair and stood with his back to
the fire. He was tall man with
slightly stooping shoulders, a serious
manner and nasal tone.
"You may have forgotten, said he,
"that there was ever such a placs as
Burt's Diggings. But there was
such place about nine miles east of
Galena. [ don't know what it is now
called, or whether it has any name.
Itwas named for the man who struck
the first and only lead pronounced
Iced that was ever struck there. 1t
was a rich lead, and would have been
a great gortune to any man who had
sense enough to keep his money.
But the discoverer, like many another
miner, contrived to fool away all the
proceeds of a really valuable mine.
In short, gentlemen, | am, as some
of you probably know, Colonel Burt,
the original proprietor of Burt's Dig
gins"
81 was called Colonel" continued
the Hazel Green man, "when [ first
came into the mines, and the title
sticks to me, though | never had any
thing to do with the military, or
even the militia. But you know
gentlemen, how titles were formerly
distributed in the mines A tall man
who was at the same time q heavy
man-ssy one who stood six feet high,
and weighed two hundred and fifty
pounds-was sure to be called Gen-
eral. A tall, slim man like myself
was ranked as Colonel. A short,
thick, broad-shouldered fellow, like
this Braeken I'm telling you of, was
considered native-born Major. A
little cuss was generally known as
Captain.
AT the time I'm speaking of, my
lead was turning out big mineral.
TGalena ore is always called miner
al by the lead miners.1 People
were prospecting all around there.
Quite village CT miners shanties
had sprung up. There were two sa-
looms, with card room back of each i,
and one of them had s. faro bank
overhead. In short, Burt's Diggings
was beginning to put on the appear
ance of smart mining village.
christmas came, and the whole
population quit work and went on a
big spree.
"Major Backen had, up to that time,
kept pretty straight for miner.
But this Christmas be took too much
whiskey between drinks and got as
wild a hedgehog. Somerascal got hold
of him and worked him into the rock
cry where the faro bank was. There
he played all night and lost all his
money. Next morning he was
crosser than sawbuck, and got into
two or three fights, and came mighty
near killing fellow. Then he went