Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1924-05-29

As CHdiFHldH ne Hau 10 make TWO trips
TO Madison to meet with the county
board lone of few days in October
and one in January that lasted two
weeks at the least When he made
his January trip brother Charles and
/ had about 40 head of cattle to feed
with hay twice a day, and l had to
make trip three Nmiles down the
river to an island where he had two
men making rails. They would load
me up and when / got home my bro
Their and / would tumble them off any
way to get the sled unlOaded for the
next day
The first wheat that father ground
he had to take to Heacocks' mill
somewhere south of Mineral Point, a
distance of forty miles and it usually
took about a week to make the trip
with OK team. A man by the name
of Steines had saw mill on Honey
creek, west of Sank. He put in a run
OF stones and i guess that is all he
did as father took some wheat there
and the -four made the blacklist bread
I ever saw.
In the summer of 1S47, father went
to BarabOo to mill and l went with
him. That was the first mill / ever
saw. After l got SO / could drive
oxen rather used to send me to mill
and l made several trips to Dover, n
distance Of ten miles. 1t took two
days. My brother used to go with
me- We took food to last and took
quilts and slept in the wagon. Where
Mazomanie now stands we used to
stop and water the oxen. In Black
Earth l don't think there was q house
in sight when I made the last trip
which was on Aug. % and &c, 1855.
Ny father died the afternoon we got
back We sometimes went to Lodi
about the same distance.
Some of the happenings that / re-
member follow:
Count Haristhy thought 1000 head
sheep for Sank Prairie and father took
me to see them ferry them across
the river. They had a fence around
the edge Of the boat but sometimes
a boat load would get scared at some
thing and several would jump the
fence I think about all that did SO
drowned.
The next spring after the Prairie
du Sac bridge was built an ice jam
took out a section Of it. There was
q small steam boat built at Prairie du
Sac named the Tiger. Father was
invited to take a ride on it's trial trip
and he took me with him. The boat
went up the river some distance and
back to the landing without a hitch.
/ don't think it made many trips on
the Wisconsin river, but boat call
ed the Enterprise made regular trips
for awhile.
/ saw the first reaper that landed
in Sank The team hauling it stopped
at the old ferry-houSe and father and
a few other men had big time look
ing it over and figuring out how it
worked. 1t was the first they had
ever seen. On our way to Dover to
the mill after crossing Dunlap of Big
Hollow, and getting up on the level
country we used to cross what they
called the long breaking. 1t was not
very wide but was said to be ten miles
long, which I doubt. The land was
bought by spectators and breaking
done to induce settlers to buy. There
was only one house in sight and the
last time we crossed it, it was sodded
over green, except where the house
stood, small piece was cultivated.
When we lived in the old cabin |
and was big enough to play out of
doors mother said one day lot Of
Indians stopped there to rest or some |
thing. The squaws were having a big |
time with me. Mother was working
around the house and did not pay
much attention to the Indians. She was
afraid of nothing on earth Soon she
noticed the Indians were gone and /
also. She took after them. I was
going off contented, squaw had hold
of each hand.
In the spring of 1856, mother moved
away from the farm up near the bluffs,
on the road from Sank to Baraboo, /
Since then I have seldom seen Rox-
bury