Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-05-01
SKETCHES OF THE MINES
Dubuque in Its Infancy II angling It's First
Murderer.
BY a VETERAN.

SSoiSCt1 EtbpHebiC stetcu-au utt
born City slumbering in the matrix
OF nature. And few years later, il
was little more than a clump Of uni
ners' shantles aud a few Struggling
cabins that gave shelter and cover to
a hundred or more of hardy pioneers
who gophered around the hills for
mineral, and made plats of their lead,
after the fashion of the Indian, in
round holes dug in the ground. Even
when its rich vains of mineral wealth
were being opened, and the rapid in
tiux of immigration began to give it
the appearance of town, those who
saw its ill-shaped, ague-shaken body
and watched its hydro cephalic de-
velopments, little thought this indigo.
nous offspring of nature, nesting in
tie arms of its rude, unkempt mother,
would soon become comely city, in
thrift, intelligence and beauty the
peer of the realm. Yet so it is. 1t
has thrown off the ungainly features
OF its youth, outgrown its ailments,
and now asserts its vigorous manhood
with growth and dignity wonderful
in the eyes OF its most ardent behold,
ers And still it's Drawn and muscle
are undeveloped, and the day fast
approaches when, throwing aside it's
short clothes and peurile garments, it
will assume the toga 0irilis and stand
forth the champion city of the West.
AT the time speak, 1t was an unpre-
tentious mining village where gov
eminent boats occasionally made a
landing as they wendell their tedious
Journey to those out-posts of civillza
ton, forts Crawford and Smelling,
bearing troops and military stores
Even thirty years ago the old Sena-
tor making weekly trips, was more
than ample for all the trade along
the wilderness shores of the upper
Mississippi. In these days such boats
reached Dubuque through a deep
slough extending up from the main
channel and terminating near the
present site of the Julian House.
Here they were accustomed to throw
out their plank from the deck and de.
post in The sand a few barrels of
-four and that other essential of min
ing life, smoked hacon," and re-
freighting with the only commodity
the country afforded, "pig lead" =
Whether the former commodity was
manufactured from the latter, | am
not apprised, but from the similarity
of terms, presume it was. They
were both equally indigestible. Main
street was thoroughfare OF moving
sand, moving through the air on a
windy summers day like simoom
and the luxuriant abode of countless
gnats and fees. Frogs gamboled
and carolled their evening lays from
the staguant pools and ponds that
everywhere abounded and the gay,
gallinipper with his voracious crew,
came nightly from his island home,
that made up the beautiful landscape
view in front-to sing his Joyous
notes and feast on sleepless human
flesh and blood. But these unpleas.
ant sights and sounds with the deni
zens and places which begot them,
have long since disappeared; the
scar rattles Ger the stony street. and
warehouses, workshops and stately
edifces have sunk their strong foun-
dations deep into@ tue bed of the
green, scum covered pools where fes
tered disease and death; and resist
less energy has carted down the bluff
and thrown up boulevards and lovely
flower gardens where lately lived and
fourished the batrachian tribe aud
his noisy companions. The heavy
trees and thick underbrush that once
INSTRUCTED the river view and gave
dense shade to the islands and inter-
vening space, have long since disap-
peared; but, otherwise, nature re-
tains the same rugged features of her
youth--the same lofty grandeur and
freshness she assumed when the
mountains were brought forth and the
rivers of earth began to flow. The
bold ,frowning bluffs have not changed
fronts or lowered in the least, and the
valleys and ravines have not been
lifted up. The contour is not varied
or strength and solidity diminished,
Their airy SUBMITS, though dotted
with palatial mansions and the artis
tic works of man, present the same
matchless view OF landscape and
river, which, in limitless and varied
beauty, almost rivaling the beatific
vision of the prophet who, of men,
alone was permitted to view the
heavenly land, was untolded on the
blest morning when the stars sang
together and the sons of God shouted
for JOY. Eagle Point, with its lofty
pinnacles and pendant rocks greeting
the first beams of the morning sun,
lifts up its gray head amid the habi-
tation that crpmbie at its base and
proclaims as of yore the eternity of
its years. The eagle has left its eyry
in its crags-the tall pines have fallen
from lis corrugated brow, but in moth.
ing else has it parted with a vestige
of its ancient grandeur. Julian Du-
buque, could he peer from his leaden
vault, might stll behold the mounds
of Wisconsin rearing their stately
forms to the clouds ana woodland
and field stretching far into the dis.
lance; and, the mighty river that
washes the granite base of ais lonely
sepulcher. with its ceaseless flow, if
be could speak. might exclaim -"such
as creations dawn beheld, thou rollest
now"
But / set out, not to describe this
"lofty city" and its magnificent envi-
rons, but to sketch . scene in its en-
bryo days, and tell the serious fate Of
one of its "early settlers" who was
summarily dealt with ere law had as
serted its stern sway over its sparse
population or justice cleared its fair
temples.
Many were the eyil-doers that made
the mines retreat and refuge from
Justice. But no blacker villain-no
more heartless wretch ever sought
shelter or safety in its shafts and
shanties than Jimmy Conner. ] scorn
to mention bis nationality for he was
an outlaw and bis country disowned
him; and his soul, if one he had, has
long sojourned in those birthstone
heated regions so fearfully depicted