Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-01-26
11Btth thu pntnai ptnttrrra
(By Judge Wilmott)

In the early fifties the business men
and others in Potosi purchased steam
boat called the James Lyon that piled
the Mississippi river from st. Louis to
st. Paul making its weekly landing at
Potosi, freighted southwark with lead
and brought back on return trips the
necessaries and Injuries of life such
as bacon, -four, groceries, dry goods,
whiskey and everything needed by the
many stores and business enterprises.
together with many passengers.
In those early days the country was
not overrun with travelling statesmen
as it is now consumers paying the
big salaries and high living expenses)
The business men then would order
their goods by mail and where the
bunch ordered at the same time there
was surely some goods unlOaded from
the steamer at Potosi landing. 1t was
custom then for the leading nler-
chants to make two trips to st. Louis,
once in the spring and once in the fall
of each year. On these trips they
would purchase immense quantities
of merchandise and when landed at
Potosi levee it required several teams
three or four days to deliver the goods
to the wholesale and retail stores. A
large tWo-story warehouse was built
at the landing to take the place of
smaller one that was built by JON
athan Craig in 1888. The new ware
house was on a stone foundation above
high water mark but on several &C.
casiCns i'll after years water ran in
on the first floor destroying some
grain. The house had grain cap
acity of 10000 bushels and was filled
to its utmost every winter. In the
spring the grain would be sacked in
five bushel sacks and shipped by
steamer to st. Louis and New Orleans.
The house was built by a stock COM
pany composed of the leading business
men of Potosi, and in the course OF
events Celestin Kaltenbach, one of the
original owners, became the sole own
i err. He afterwards sold it to James
Rowan, Dubuque grain buyer. 1t
eventually became the property of Ad-
am Schumacher who tore it down and
moved the lumber to his brewery and
today not a stick nor stone can be
seen to mark the place where stood
! this historic building.
! Among the early merchants in Po-
!
They conducted store in a brick
building where the present bank now
stands. Isaac G. Ury, who subsequent
ly moved to Lancaster, was another
early Potosi merchant Samuel Wilson,
native of county Down, Ireland, was
| a leading merchant He came about
1870 from Galena where he had pre-
viously been in business. After COM
/ i,,o IN Dnfnci no a a1prE for
| D. A. Mckenzie and shortly after that
engaged in business for himself and
continued until the summer TO 1857
when his active and busy career was
brought to an untimely end as he died
at Detroit, Mich, while on a visit. Mr..
| Wilson was a good man correct and
honest in all transactions and the soul
of honor. While residing in Galena
/ he married Miss Elizabeth Carpenter
an estimable young lady and the step
daughter of Gov Briggs of Iowa. Mr..
| and Mrs. Wilson resided in a cosy
| frame dwelling down the hollow. This
house has been remodeled and is now
the residence of r. H. Durley. Mrs.
| Wilson remained widow for some
| years after the death of her husband
and then was married in the early six
ties to Col. Cobb, a stately type of
southern gentleman who resided for
short time in Potosi during the civil
war. They afterwards disposed of
their pleasant home and moved to
Pennington, Mo-. where the colonel
came from in the troublesome times.
Both have since passed away. George
NJ. Wilson, an only son, survives his
mother and is a prominent attorney
at Pennington. He enlisted as sold
Ter in the civil war, in Potosi, and
served three years in Co. G, I'd Wis,
Inf. He visited in his birthplace a
couple of years ago.
Another merchant of note in the
early days was Simon E. Lewis who
came from Missouri to the lead mines
in 1910 and located in Van Buren,,
where he first started into business.
He later moved to the head of the
hollow. He built a brick residence
in Van Buren, that is now part of
Nick Schumacher's residence though
framed in. Mr.. Lewis was an Aust
rian by birth and an energetic, shrewd
and prosperous business man, secur
ing by his industry, tact and enter
prise an ample fortune. He became
we'll and widely known to all the
leading men of the county and was