Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-07-10
Old Times in jefferson County,

meeting of the Jefferson County Old
Settlers society held in Watertown
June 20th:
WHITEWATER, June 19, 1889.
| 40 non. MARX curtis, Secretary:
| DEAR SlR:-I regret more than l have
words to express the necessity which
prevents my being present at your
meeting tomorrow Bur this is the
week Tor both our normal and public
! School commandments and my work
in connection herewith will keep me
at home. | should especially have
liked to attend the meeting at Water
town, as my first eight years were spent
on farm one mile up the river from
Pipersville, and all my earliest recol-
| lect1ons are concerned with events In
that part of the county. The beautiful
island on which | suppose you will
meet, l doubtless saw more than once
before L can remember, for [ have
heard my parents tell of the expeditions
they took me on while yet wearing
long clothes, including in their reach
Watertown, Fort Atkinson and Sum-
NIT. But my first recollection of going
to " atertown lis yet very vivid and was
probably about forty-fve years ago,
| u. l.
Der the high hill east of the city and
the view of the metropolis, containing
| probably fifty houses, which burst upon
stricken gaze as we reached it's
summit. My father put his oxen out
| at the preachers, thereby returning
| one OF that gentleman's many similar
liberties at our home, and left me in
| charge of his wife while he went to
trade at the Dutch" store or John w.
Coles, perhaps, concerning both of
which | used to hear much in those
days. | SOON found playmates on the
street and Was enjoying life hugely, un-
til suddenlvon lookingup / discovered
that | WAS absolutely unable to tell
| which of the three or fonr houses near
| by | belonged to. | soon settled the
question, however, by setting up a howl
| which brought a woman to every door,
| and from the lot easilysorted out the
preachers wife; and she promptly re-
| ciprocated my recognition and sorted
me out by the ear and conveyed me in
to the house, telling me that she was
ashamed of nae for making such a dis
turbance She doubtless soon forgot
the circumstance, but can still see those
cold, unfriendly houses as plainly as on
that day and | could not have felt more
utterly lost for the moment if | had
been left alone in the heart of the TX
on1a woods The place where this oc-
CURED, If my idea is correct, was on
| Main street, not far west of the Enos
! grounds.
| My father was a great hand to keep
| Sunday in the old-fashioned way, and
| IT there wasa religious service anywhere
within 10 miles he would bes to hunt
it out. Usually he went on foot, and if
| the preaching was at the Pipersville
| school house, or at one over in Farming
| ton-about mile away-he would take
me; and | remember more than once of
| being carried on his back as he waded
| the river, his boat having been left on
the wrong side by some traveller who
| had come along during our absence.
recollect the first time that he took me
to the Watertown church, and | never
expect to see a more magnificent build
ing than the "little tin-top meeting
house" seemed to me to be. [ remem-
ber the grand edifice better than the
service. We were probably two hours
| at the church and six hours on the road
coming and going, with our OK team.
Another Sunday is strongly impressed
upon my memory. 1t was probably in
the summer of 1S47, and there stands
Outa picture before me of three wagons,
each carrying six or eight passengers,
moving along the road on the crest of
! hill across the river from our home, on
the way to Milwaukee. The travellers
were volunteers for the Mexican war
The most of them came from Water
town and other points west of us, but
| two were from IxOnia-John Bradshaw
and Martin Piper. The latter had been
my teacher the winter before, and I
was full of grief over his departure on
such dangerous business. He was a
young man of excellent abilities and
unusual promise. My childish fore
| bodings regarding him were sadly real
lied, for he died of fever at Vera Cruz !;
a like fate also befel his comrade Brad
shaw. The incidents of the day of their
| the long watch for the teams, the inter
! rupted dinner on account Of their ap-
pearance, the fact that Mrs. Daniel
| Burns was our guest that day, and the
sympathetic talk of the older people
| all clear cut and vivid
Our neighborhood abounded in peo-
pie of marked characteristics, but to us
children probably no one was more
prominently in mind than man named
Pease. He lived about half way to
| Watertown, and about opposite Coop
er's tavern, if Judge right, on the op-
posite side of the river He was an
Englishman, and partly insane. His
mental peculiarity was great abhor-
renee of women and Free Masons, and
he thought that they had entered into
an individual and collective combine to
massacre him. His house at night was
a perfect arsenal, and about his bed
were gathered for defense every i'm
plement that could break bone or
puncture skin, two guns, an ak, hoe,
scythe, fork, shovel, handspikes and a
hammer constituting the outfit in part.
He would eat nothing that woman
had had any share in cooking. Some
times he would be at work on our farm
for day or probably changing
works"-and the greatest concession
his prejudice would allow was to eat his
lunch by the fireside while the others
were at the table In March, 1916, my
oldest sister was born, and he never
thereafter could be induced to enter
the house, thus showing his unqualified
disapproval of the encouragement
which had been given to the feminine
sect" For a time he lived with man
named Little, but the latter's purpose
of bringing wife to his bachelor home
| cOmnal1ad paaSa to Saak orortarc nm.