The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-08-02
COL. ELLSWORTH IN KENOsHA
Present Crisis Leads Pioneer to Write
Companion of Ellsworth's Answer to
Call to Colors in Civil War Days
Great Leader Once Indian Chief.

Answering the cali to the colors to-
day reminds many pioneers of the stir
ring scenes of 1861 when war then as
now engulfed the nation. This is crap
hically recalled by stirring letter re-
ceived recently from Charles HI. COTE
by Frank H. Lyman Of Park avenue
Mr.. COTE is resident Of San Antonio
Texas but he has often visited Kenosha
which was the scene Of his early life
and there are few men alive today
who have q better recollection of the
city in ante-beIlum days. His letter
mentions many Of the old landmarks of
Kenosha but is especially pertinent
because of the description of how the
youth Of 81 answered the call as gal
lantly as the boys Of III. Mingled
in the letter is the history Of the fam.
Gus Col. Ellsworth, who won honorable
death and undying fame, in the first
month Of the Great Rebellion. How
this hero lived life of mystery in
Kenosha and across the lake among the
Indians in Michigan is fascinating
chapter in his life, which is probably
first revealed to the public in the
letter which follows:
San Antonio, Texas, July, 1917.
My Dear Lyman:
Your letter brings to me reminder
of early days, when you and were
young and when the old landmarks of
sixty years ago were the charm and
pride of our boyhood; when the great
northwestern territory was the objec-
tive Of splendid colonization. 1t was
far back in the '40's and the rolling
undulating prairies of Wisconsin were
the dream of the home seekers of New
England and the eastern seaboard.
j am reminded that sixty-six years
ago ] was the "carrier boy' for the
Z" Kenosha Democrat" weekly news
paper owned and edited by George H.
Paul, a prominent politician of those
days. In the following year, 1852, l
was at work ON the "'Times,' Butts
and West publishers, and Homer Schoff
was editor. will digress here to say
that thirty years afterward met Mr..
Butts in Topeka, Kas., where ne was
engaged in the grocery business. Mr..
Butts was noted as the man who es-
capped in women IS apparel at "Quan-
trell's Massacre in the raid on Lawr-
ence in 1863.
But this was not the story / had
started out to narrate. During the
summer of 1853 / was employed by G.
i. Sholes as a compositor on the "Tele-
graph and while at work on that pa
per / was sent to Mrs. Bell s boarding
house to board out an advertising ac-
count. Mrs. Bells house was just
north of where years later Milton n.
Petit erected his Malt House. recall
that Charley Mather married one of
Mrs. Bells daughters Mr., Mather
was popular salesman in the dry
goods house of G. O. Brown.
There was also boarding at Mrs.
Bells at this time, young man of
handsome features and fastidious ways,
accumulated by repelling hauteur and
exclusiveness, so often found peculiar
to genius. His associates were few and
his disposition was not calculated to
make intimates of those he came in
contact with. No one seemed able to
penetrate the mystery of his personal
ity and yet there was something about
the youth which arrested the attention
of all. But he was obsessed with a
pepchant or habit born perhaps OF
idle vanity of writing Cor scribbling)
his name in bold flowing, and not I'M
graceful hand, upon every scrap of pa
per, on the weatherboards of the house,
and on gate and fence posts, name,
which few years later was on everv
tongue, flashed in the headlines of the
daily press, and stamped in deathless
lines upon the history of his country
TIE name of Elmer Z. Ellsworth. the
famous colonel of the New York Fire
Brigade. The tragic death of this me-
teoric young leader, was an event that
stirred the country, coming as it did
only month after Mr.. Lincoln had
called for $4,000 men to suppress the
secession movement in the south, in
May, 1861.
But I anticipate: In the fall of 1853
when the Kenosha High School opened
for the winter term under Prof. De
Wolff, Mr.. Ellsworth attended for a
while buf Vvas no+ sok;Of "a Mfr aabooJ
life, and suddenly dropped out of view
and was for a time forgotten.
In the fall Of 1855, the writer was
called to the little city of Muskegon
Mich, to take charge of the central
school in that, then, important lumber
and saw-mill mart. October 25, 1856
found me a passenger on the schooner
Challenge, Capt. Reed, with Capt