The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-09-14
HISTORICAL ADDRESS,
By Col. NJ. FRANK.

s. CC~' 49,"
at the gathering Of Old Settlers of Renosha
County, Paddhek's Lake, September 6, 1888.
LADIES AND GliNTLEMEN-OLD SETTLERS
AND FELLOW CITIZENS We have assembled
here to-day, in this grand temple Of nature,
to revive our recollections of the past history
of this county, and to speak of what has
been accomplished since its early settlement.
We have no olden-time history written or
TRADITIONAL no events to note in our history
which go back of the memory of men and
women now living. What races of men
other than Indians once roamed over these
prairies and through the woodlands we
know not. There probably were once
tribes of people differing from the Indian,
but, if so. they possessed no high order of
intelligence. Over all the vast region from
the Rocky Mountains to the ocean, no an
Equities have been found of chiseled block
or column of granite or marble, indicating
architectural skill in the building of dwell
ings or of cities. 1t is, therefore, reasonable
to conclude that no races of men, learned in
science and art, ever occupied this portion
of country prior to the present white race.
Beyond the Rocky Mountains, in Arizona,
the i" Cliff dwellers' were perhaps superior to
the Indian. Further south, ON the Isthmus,
and in Central America, still higher order of
people once possessed the country. But all
these passed away ages ago. OF the pre-his-
toric inhabitants before the Indians we know
comparatively nothing; no historian can tell
US from whence they came, nor where
they have gone. Of the Indian we know
nothing of his origin, beyond vague conf
ure; we only know he was our predecessor
on the soil we occupy here to-day. We
know. too, with all his sayagery and Wild
ness, he possessed traits of nobleness. In
tho wilderness of his ignorance he worship
ped the Great Spirit. II is no extravagant
play of the Imagination to suppose he once
stood on the borders of yonder beautiful
lake, and as he turned his eyes heavenward,
his inner soul scared beyond the clouds, so
well described by one of England's poets
Lo the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds or hears him in the wind
His soul proud science never taught to stray,
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has given
Behind the cloud-topped hill humber heaven
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the watery waste'
Here we leave our predecessor, the Indian,
whose pathways are no longer marked on
these prairies he has been driven to the
wilderness of the far west, and his race may
yet besome extinct, as have the pre-. historic
races in past centuries.
We pass to consider what industry, intelli-
gence and religion have accomplished in
this county the past forty eight years Ex-
plorers passed through the county prior to
its first settlement. James Duane Doty,
suhaenuently Governor of the Territory
marked out road between Milwaukee and
Chicago in 1884, afterwards known as the
" Milwaukee road !" it passed over the high
prairie lands of Pleasant Prairie and Somers.
The first settler in this county was Mr..
Jacob Montgomery he commenced building
a cabin in the town of Somers, March 4, 1895.
It was. therefore, forty eight years the 18th
of March last, since the first white man
fixed his habitation in what is now Kenosha
county. A few days later Mr.. Hugh Long
well settled in the same town.
In the town of Pleasant Prairie Horace