Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1883-09-21
An Interesting Letter.

hC h1SlCbh Va tA1O oCt-
Element of Iowa was commemorated
at Burlington, on the first day of
last June. General A. C. Dodge was
chosen president of the celebration
and among other letters of regret, he
received the following from Hon.
Morgan l.. Martin, who was at one
time delegate to Congress fIom Wis
Iconsin. General Dodge has kindly
presented us with a printed copy of
this letter, and it gives us pleasure to
reproduce it here, as the scenes and
incidents to which it relates are well
remembered by old settlers of the lead
region:
GREEN BAY, WIS, May %, 1sS3.-My
Dear General: Your welcome letter,
as also the very cordial invitation to
attend the semi-Centennial anniyer-
sary of the settlement of your state,
were duly received. They carry me
back in Imagination, to period fifty
five years ago, when first set eyes on
| the beautiful country now embraced
| in the popular and peerless State OF
| Iowa, and 20 the rude log cabin in
| Dodgeville, where Hon. Lucas Lyon
and myself were Hospitality enter
tanned by your excellent parents. 1t
seems like dream. | recognize the
portly Roman, the sanity wife, the
stalwart lads and modest daughters
comprising the household, protected
in their well armed fortress (block
house, from dangers incident to from
tier life; and from that early period
note that wonderful metamorphoSiS
which time has wrought in the entire
! West. 1t is much to be regetted that
we had no historian to make daily
record of the incidents of those carly
days when your honOred father with
others, who might be mentioned were
! laying the foundations of the present
fourishing empire of the Upper. Miss
iSSippi, but, unfortunately, those who
make history seldom write it, and
the daily occurrences of that early
period, important only as shaping the
future of the State, are lost in obi
WON or known only to US who are
still numbered with the living.
In the dead past we had our cleo
tions as now, for representatives in
the Michigan Legislature. a body
holding in hand the destinies of the
vast region extending from Lake Erie
to the Rocky Mountains We organ
lied municipal government, and in
1884 created the counties of Dubuque
and Des Moines, then comprising all of
what is now Iowa.
In 1881 your father and myself were
selected to represent the whole dis
trict west of Lake Michigan but the
stirring events of the Black Hawk
War in 1882. requiring his services in
defending the western settlements
from Indian warfare, which threatened
their entire depopulation, prevented
his attendance on the session at De-
alive. and as such | labored hard to
secure the passage of the act. ITO
lay off and organize counties west of
the Mississippi River, approved the
9th day of September 1884" 1t was
the law that created the original
counties of DesMoines and DUBUQUE.
My services continued from 81 to So,
TERMINATING on the admission of
Michigan. and | therefore well claim
participation in you Semi-Sentennial
which | must regret to be unable to
do in person. In the panorama of
the past, so wildly presented by your
letter, l see the gallant form of our
friend jefferson Davis, then mere
graduate of West Point. and on visit
to his fellow officers here at Fort How
ard. He was then OS29) stationed at
Fort Winnebago and fioated off soon
after with the first Dragons to re-
appear years afterward in the House
Of Representatives of the L. S at
Washington City. where you and
] as brother delegates to congress met
him in 1915. | recall also the
erect figure and proud bearing
OF your father when in 1925 he
volunteered to guide Mr.. Lyon and
myself on horse back to the re-
cent discoveries OF copper ore, at
Mineral p ONT, and to many pits and
shafts in the vicinity of Dodgeyille. |
Wis, from which his supply of lead |
ore was hauled to his furnaces. the
athletic figures of your brother and
yourself, youths of some fifteen or
eighteen, laboring about the smelling |
works with others engaged around the |
premises. Nor can l forget the APP
pearance of the negro slaves. who |
chung to your fathers family even
after they were given freedom, as
dutiful children dependent for pro-
lection and daily wants upon parent. |
| fear that / am becoming garrulous, |
as is the habit of old men, and | will |
add my kindest regards to all your |
family, and trust you may muster up
courage to visit place you have
never yet seen, Green Bay, and make
yourself and lady the welcome guest |
of Your Friend. M. l.. MARTIN.