Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1898-10-06
gO6HbH HIST DRY OF y.
"reminiscences OF EARLY
Times by Luther hc
ks
BasfOrd. 80 y.

- u y
Basford. sboo3 ~
a Z still fsaGf 9dt 9n
dssAd BY Mrs. r3.,;B .-sn5#sltdsahcsnAlcitd
s. G = + JR9s9ni9ER333QD 6sss,gI.(
ElgY., for WiscohJfA 4eftifor9 r. May
479h, 1886, a1obg feajpps "trip. TO I'M
akgtake. We,,sstrrgFe5le9 lhys ~ 10
B51falo, thenGs BY steamer to Green
Bat aSo<sAsxire4i6l9 lIal8a5 then
eaAed wHefe Ie found . large num-
6eH anImliGpEi hangihg about the vii
age, Nv BStf I6 .1lra. adgibes for the
CITY aPGa4osis, tt9getFfIFrIwith some
atAer .freig ht sfor NCassv1lte. We fin
ally ppoeared,Sa AEaekipaw boat and
twenty-five Itdians to help pole the
bdat up Fox River, to Fort Winnebago
aaistance of9twes hundred and ten
miles, with not "a white settler the
whole route. : Our boat was long and
narrow and was propelled by oars
Or poles the whole distance. We
wereahreeayaeks in getting up to the
forts With the twenty-five Indians
we-hffetf, about one hundred and fifty
kept along with us, they being the
families and relations of those hired i.
They had their ponies and camping
equipage along with them.
Il learned some things in the way of
cooking that might be a benefit to
campers. AS soon as we struck camp
the squaws would build fires. Then
with the flour we gave them they
would mix up into a stiff dough, then
they would sharpen sticks and stick
them in the ground, and roll out the
dough the size of their fingers and
commence winding at the bottom of
the stick until they come to the top
and turned it over the end to keep 1t
in plaee' apd as the bread baked they
wolkld turn tine, stick little until it
was well baked and it was quite pal
atableSbreatt I assure you. They had
another way of baking by mixing a
loaf(1pf Ia yingefn in the fire and Gov
erilig JAWt6 @6pers and ashes which
was not quite as eatable. We, for the
most Spapty stopped at Indian villages
over Sunday for we made it a rule
not to do any work on Sunday. The
only white>meq I-epY- in, goiDS two
hundred 4n9 te3 415dyf, a %tbeljt
missionary at an Indian Village where
we stoppgdBE6f s dniiaF iie u aian
children seemed to enjoy their games
at night as well as white ehildrens@a =
When we arrived at the fort we
found fifteen hundred Indians of the
Winnebago tribe camped between the
FbN and Wisconsin rivers After un-
l9adiDas our goods we obtained yoke
oEoxen and cart and moved them to
helyisconsin River where we pitched
ouFStent, we being the ,onlyo whfF
men in the crowd We had but one
thing to do and that was to build
a boat suitable to ship our goods
down the Wisconsin river t. the Mis-
sissippi and so on to Cassville. We
obtained whip-saw at the fort and
of square piece of timber that we
purchased of half breed, we sawed
out gunnels. There was but one saw
mill in the whole northern country
and that was Whitney's mill on the
upper Wisconsin liver. Our only
show was to saw out lumber with a
whip-saw for the bottom of the boat.
felt just as safe with that body OF
Indians as | ever did in my life. We
loaded our goods and pushed off down
the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi
river.
l arrived at Cassville, Grant Coun-
ty, Wisconsin, on July 1st, 1886, and
Grant county has been my home ever
since. The village consisted of five
log house, one of them being built for
the protection of the few white set
tiers during the Black Hawk war
which was in 1882. There was at the
time quite settlement of Winnebago
Indians in the village. | was en-
ployed in Albany, N. Y, to come on
to Cassville to help build the hotel
now known as the Dennison House.
About this time spectators began to
arrive and the New York Company
started the sale of lots to parties who
desired to build and in little while
we had quite village. At that time
there was scarcely any farming. the
population being made up mostly OF
miners without families. Among the
new corners were some hard char.
acters and we had no civil laws to
control them. They all went around
with pistol and bowie knife to intimi.
date each other.
At this time we established the
Lynch Law. We had a discharged
soldier in the cook room who stole
some things that belonged to one Of
our party and we thought it time tc
try the Lynch Law on him. We took
him before the justice and had jury
of six men summoned to try the case.
After hearing the evidence the verdict
was given in. He was to receive
twelve lashes on the bare back by the
party from whom he stole the goods.
We took him to a tree on the bank oil
the river and Tapped his arms around
the tree and he received the twelve