Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1921-01-20
DEAR OLD. MINERALsP0INT.
Another Interesting Letter..from the Pur-
ling Pen of William Goldsworthy.

Editor Tribune AS | scan the local
news columns of the holiday number of
The Tribune | observe so many old ia
miliar names of those lodgings who
have flown away from the home roosts
and come back for a brief stay during
the holidays that it seems there must
have been great rejoicing in the old
town, and it made me feel, indeed, as
| though ! envied them the great pleas
ure. Although there would be no Old
home for me to return to. | should.
nevertheless, rejoice in seeing at least
few of the once familiar faces, and
again go over the old landmarks
There is one old once familiar family
name that never see mentioned in
The Tribune columns. think it is
because the name has become extinct
so far as Mineral Point is concerned,
and that name is what | am going to
write of in particular in this letter.
Some few months ago | heard of an
old gentleman as residing in the city of
Modesto, about 40 miles from MERGED,
where | am living, who was an old
Mineral Pointer, and | determined to
call on him at the first opportunity. |
located his home and when he appeared
at the door the following test was APP
piled | said, This is Mr. William
Tregea? 2" He replied, Eyes sir F"
you are from Wisconsin :" Eyes
sir. " From the old mining town of
Mineral Point?" Eyes sir" And
you lived on Jerusalem street ?" Eyes
sir. !" In little house, the upper
part frame and the basement stone ?"
Eyes sir. 3" And you had to go down
several outside steps to reach the base
ment 2" Eyes sir. p" well then"
remarked. "you are the man | am look
ing for. "
To state that we spent a delightful
three or four hours together would be
putting it very mildly The questions
to and fro flew thick and fast. and
these facts / gathered from him and by
my observations of him He is in his
Seth year of age; his mental and phys
ical faculties are wonderfully we'll pre-
served he can see to read perfectly
the newspapers without glasses, and he
has every appearance of having lead
clean life. He left Mineral Point fifty
eight years ago for California and never
has returned His first wife, Mineral
Point girl, was Lizzie Peters. He and
his sister, Mary Maloney, are the only
living members of family of seven
children.
There are many of the old civil war
veterans who will remember the Tregea
family, for two brothers, John and
Leonard, were among the first of the
volunteers to go out John sleeps in an
unknown grave in the southland, and
Leonard died in 1915 and is buried in
Modesto. The sister Mary. heretofore
referred to, was the wife of the old.
time toy and candy storekeeper, Tom
Maloney.
Mr.. Tregea was a harness maker by
trade and in the fiftes occupied a little
shop on Commerce street, about where
Sam. Coad's grain warehouse later
stood. The same little room was occu-
pied by the old original "Bill Jacka,
the shoemaker. Just before coming to
California Mr.. Tregea sold out his lit
tie business to our old time friend
BILLY Curry"
In 1859 Mr.. Curry with my father and
Uncle Dick, Thomas Priestley, Mark
Terrill and one or two others of Mineral
Point made the trip across the Indian
infested plains to Pixies Peak A little
incident in connection with this must
relate On Mr. Curry's departure on
this trip young lady purloined a scarf
pin from Mr.. Tregea and placed it in
MIR. G. g scarf, who, on his return, re
stored 1t to it's original owner.
Mr.. Tregea plead hard for his moth
er's consent to permit him to be the
third and last of her boys to enter
Uncle Sans service, but the mother
said, II have given two, surely that is
my share. In our talk together he
told of many incidents of Dear Old
Mineral Point" that were beyond my
recollection. He referred to a temper
ance organization that existed long be-
fore the |. o. T. came into action.
1t was known as The Washing 4"
They used to have little song entitled
THE Drunkard." the chorus of which
was
'The crown Of bis hat went 1ippity hop,
And his boots wouldn't cover bis toes
And the boys would cry out
On Ny. WHAT A BLooMIN' NOSE 70
Mr.. Tregea was one Of the firing
squad that operated the old brass can
non during the contest between Mineral
Point and DodgeyilIe for the possession
of the county seat. They used to take
the old blunderbus out on the Dodge
vile road and point it toward that town