Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-12-21

he served out his three year term of
enlistment and re-enlisted for the
balance of the war being honorably
discharged at it's conclusion.
The opening few weeks ago of
the magnificent new bridge over the
Wisconsin river at Sank City, thus
connecting the counties of Dane and
Sank, has served to recall many in
teresting stories and incidents relat-
ing to a region which is unusually
rich in romance and story. 1t was
probably at the present site of Sank
City that white men first put foot
on the soil of these counties, as in
May or June, 1873, Father Marquette
passed this site on his way down
the Wisconsin river to discover the
Mississippi and may have landed
there. At any rate, when Jonathan
Carver went down the Wisconsin in
1855 he tells of seeing the Blue
Mounds in Dane county from this
point.
However, leaving all that behind
and much more that is Of interest,
and coming down to some 80 years
ago, we find living link connecting
that time with the present in the per-
son of Robert Richards, of Riverton,
Kansas, an uncle by the way, of E,
R. Mcintyre, of The Wisconsin FarRar
er editorial staff. Mr.. Richards has
just written some interesting recollec
tons Of mis- boyhood life at this point
a few of which may be here given.
His father came to this place with
Count Augustin Harasthy, the Hun
garian nobleman who founded it, and
whose story is itself one of great ro-
mantle interest. OF this fact Mr..
Richards writes:
My father, Robert Richards, came
from Somersetshire, England, in 1910
[ think he met Count Harasthy in
New York and was employed by him
which accounts for his landing at
Sank My mother came from New
York in 1841. She was employed as
a nurse by a family from England
by the name of Bryant. 1 don't know
just when they married, but an early
history of Dane county gives the cen
sus return for 1912 and the town of
Roxbury is credited with one male
and one female That was my father
and mother l was born May %, 184S
MY father bought 100 acres of land
of Count Harasthy located about a
mile below the Sank bridge. The
Count had a hunting lodge on this
land and in that was born. Mother
said the nearest house on that side
of the river was 16 miles on the road
to Madison. The picture of the house
that Lincoln was born in is an exact
picture of the house l was born in.
Tho, Count owned ferry and-huilt a
house on the east side of the river
which was occupied by a man by the
name of Froelich, who ran the ferry.
This house was built in the summer
of 184S and Sophia Freolich was born
there in the fall of that year. She
was the second white child born in
Roxbury | visited Sophia few
years ago. She had spent her entire
life in Sank do not remember her
husbands name, but he owned a
foundry and had lately lost one of his
foot Tbara I.as steam boat called
the otter that used to i',,p- up as far
as Portage. My father was WorhiAss
on that boat at the time | was born
Freolich and father ran the ferry
for a while. Then Freolich moved to
Sank and father moved in the ferry
house and his brother, Uncle Henry
helped him. In the ferry house my
oldest brother, Charles, and sister
Caroline, Cater Mrs McIntyre) were
born.
Mr.. Richards tells of many of the
early settlers of the region, the first
of whom were Americans; then OF
the early German settlers, among
whom were several who had fought
at the battle of Waterloo and who
are now buried there. and then takes
I'M the conditions Of early life there
saying in part:
| think it was in 1850 that father
had a frame house built little south
vi the old log cabin. That house still
stands. In the spring Of that year