Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-08-23


community. They undertook many
business enterprises wholly beyouni
the needs of the backwoods settlement
and beyond the powers of so primitive
community to support. First a general
store was established which extended
credit to all who asked. A brick yard
was put in operation from the product
of which building was erected by the
proprieters, but no bricks were sold
! to the trade. There was no demand for
them,-the architecture of the times
| and place called for logs. They took
band at steamboating, but one trip on
the tortuous, treacherous Wisconsin
showed them that this venture, too,
Was illtimed. A ferry boat was float.
ed, and although the patronage was
light, it was the most practical Imng
(, they undertook Not content with the
numerous enterprises at the river
bank, where now is Sank Coty, Har-
aszthy started merchantile house
In Baraboo, then coming into promin-
ence as new town. This lasted no
| more than year. He planted large
fields of the open prairie in corn, and
for time had a contract for supply
ing Fort Winnebago, where now is
Portage, with fodder for it's stock.
But this venture suffered because Of
the frequency of hunting trips and the
! multiplicity of interests. Finally he
| brought in large drove of sheep and
| hired a Swiss to attend them. but
wolves and neglect reduced them IRON
upwards of 1000 to 600, when ne sold
them out to German immigrants. But
the crowning effort of this copartner-
ship, the greater part of whose business
was done by Haraszthy and in his
own name, was the laying of town
site. The plat for this was one of the
early documents recorded in the newly
created county of Sank. There were so
blocks, of which rs were subdivided
into lots, and the town bore the name
OF the adventurous pioneer who con-
ceiyed it, Haraszthy. 1t has twice
changed name first to Westfeld, after
ward to Sank City, but the survey re-
mains unchanged
| In the meantime Haraszthy brought
out from Hungary his family. consist
Ing OF wife, three children, his father
and mother. They lived with some
pretensious of luxury, conditions con-
sidered. In a mortgage given soon
after the home was established, which
document was recorded in Dane county
1t appears they had what answered 20
the spelling of ''peanna." The father,
Charles Haraszthy, was a chemist by
education and he started a drug store.
From the diary of the late T. M. Fuller
ton. backwoods preacher who labor
ed in the villages along the Visions n
river, under date of July 23, 1S41, we
get fair description of these rare
characters:
There is here Hungarian count
SO he calls himself-who claims to
have large quantities of money and is
expanding it literally in Improvements.
There is also an Englishman here
! (Bryant, of course,) who claims to have
been lord in the old country. He is
in partnership with the count. They
both look like savages, wearing a Ioag
beard above as well as below the
mouth. And they are the great men of
the place, and others adopt their Gus
toms and make themselves as ridicu.
lous as possible"
Finally the crash came, for it is
4 about certain that neither Haraszthy
nor Bryant had money,-both were
travelling and operating on uncertain
titles, one as count, the other as lord.
Mortgage followed mortgage on proper
ty that then had little cash value, lots
were sold, but the titles to them were
never secure. All their enterprises were
| of the widest sort of kiting. With the
end upon all his operations Harasz-
thy brought his family on Christmas
day, 1S48, to Madison and began prep
arations for an overland trip to Cali
fornia with the opening of Spring. A
party was made up in the capital city
that included Thomas w. Sutherland,
at ore time United states district at
torney for the territory of Wisconsin.
The Haraszthys landed in San Diego
late in 1S49 and when the county was
| organized the following year Agoston
Haraszthy was made sheriff. But there
was not enough in the position to hold
his activities, so ne laid out the subdi-
vision of middle San Diego, now COM
pletely built up. In 1852 he was elect
ed to the general assembly as a mem
Der of the lower house. Already he
had tired of San Diego, and wnen he
went to Sacramento he moved his
family and settled in San Francisco.
In the legislature he proved a strong
and helpful member, always aggres-
sive. He developed farm in San Mateo
county, little south of San Francisco.
Early in the administration of Presi.
dent Franklin Pierce, Haraszthy was
appointed assayer of the branch mint
and later was made smelter and re.
finer. But ne was not long in these
positions before he resigned under
serious charges, from which he was
cleared by an investigation. He then
built extensive gold refining works in
San Francisco, but his restless spirit
/ called for a Iffa IN 4ho opnr