Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-03-18
Early Mining

years 6XI6QQluS We'll UdCh IHIO TIC
18th century there is but little if any
doubt. At Hardscrabble, Snake Hol-
low and in other parts of this county
the remains of their rude smelling fur
naces were to be seen and in some
parts remained visible to later date.
This mining must necessarily have
been of the most superficial charac-
ter, both from lack of the proper tools
with which to carry on the work to
any great depth, and also from the
inbred Discrimination on the part of
the lordly savages to do more manual
labor than was absolutely necessary
Indian Methods
The Indian method of mining was
one on which the miners of later days
would look with establishment and dis
gust Their ''bucket" or tub as now
called, being a tough deer skin and
their windlass stout thongs by which
one or more muscular bucks would
drag the loaded skin up the incline
plane which formed the entrance to
their burrows, for to dignity them with
the name of mines would be a mis-
take What was used for picks and
shovels is unknown. When in their
progress their way was found OBJ
structed by boulder too large to re-
move, a fire was kindled under 1t UNI
til it was heated to high temperature
and then cold water was poured on,
the immediate result being a splitting
of the rock into proper size to handle
with ease. Ore when found in large
Jumps was encircled with thongs OF
stout green hide and dragged by main
sertngth to the surface. Here by
means of rude smelling furnaces the
ore was reduced to pigs or plats OF
lead, in which state it was sold to the
traders who visited the region. These
furnaces were a curiosity in them
selves, and are thus described: A hole
or cavity was dug in the face of piece
of sloping ground about two feet in
depth. as much in width at the top.
This hole was made in the shape of
milI-hopper and was lined or faced
with fiat stones At the bottom or
point of the hopper, which was about
eight or nine inches square, other
narrow stones were laid across CRATE
wise A channel or eye was dug from
the sloping side of the ground inward
to the bottom of the hopper. This
channel was about a foot in width and
in height and was filled with dry wood
and brush The hopper being filled
with mineral and the wood ignited, in
a short time the molten lead fell
through the stones at the bottom OF
the hopper, and thence was discharged
through the eye over the earth. 1t
was certainly a simple but rough and
improvident way of gathering the
melted lead. At many of these prlm-
tive smelling places the white set
tiers afterward extracted profitable
harvest of rich lead from the Stag and
refuse of the Indian labOrerS' Smelt-
ing.
Advance of White Men
OF this mining region, its develop
ment, richness and peculiarlt1es, we
note that through the industries and
enterprise of Julian Dubuque and 9TH
ers this vast region of mineral pro-
ducing country had early in the CEN
/ tury become known to the outside
world In 1922 a party of adVentur-
| GUS miners came up the river ana
progressed so far nOrthward as the
diggings afterward known as Hard
scrabble" while a second .Iarty landed
on Grant river at an Indian village
i called PaScananS, near where the
! town of Osceola was afterward located.
This is the first authentic knowledge
of the advent of white men in what Is
now Grant county, other than the few
| traders already mentioned.
Early Corners Short StayerS
Those miners who entered the south
ern coasts of the county as mentioned,
in 1922. remained but a short time, and
in absence of all account of the cOun-
trv. it is safe to infer that they failed
to unearth those stores of mineral
wealth which a few years later
brought a heavy tide of immigration
into the new Eldorado. But the way
had been opened and in 1924 Thomas
Hymer, a great uncle of Wesley Hy-
mer, now a resident of POtos1, had
| log cabin on the fiat where the village
of La Fayette was later located. He
afterward removed up to where Cass-
Wills is now. La Fayette, like its little
sister city of Paris on the Platte, hau
its rise and downfall.
How transferable" Was Named
Thomas Mcknight, John Ewin and
several others made the first mining
settlement at Hardscrabble. This name
arose from a difficulty experienced in
deciding the ownership of newly
discovered lead. The exact date OF
this ancient game of grab is not CIV
en-, but apparently was soon AFTER the
first discoveries as in 1926 the name
had already become the distinctive
appellatiOn of this section. In the lat
ter year came a large addition to the
new mining camp and the news OF the
richness of the diggings began to at
tract miners and adventures from all
directions, chiefly however from Mis-
souri,, Kentucky and southern illinois.
1t is from 1927 that Grant county must
date it's first permanent settlement.
Although it is true that those coming
to the new country in this year did
so with no settled intention of re-
naming, still the richness of the dig
gings and the numerous evidences OF
untold wealth that needed only the
spade. pick and shovel to unearth it,
so worked upon the intentions of
these early pioneers as to change their
character from that of mere adven-
turers to that of permanent settlers.
Among those who thus became the
pioneer fathers of the future county
of Grant were Maj. John H. Roun-
tree, Hugh R. Coulter, Ebenezer NJ.
Orne Henry Hodges, Edgerton Hough,
Henry Bushnell, Col. Joseph Dixon,
Orris Mccartney, Thomas Stanley and
A. D. Ramsey. There were many 9TH
ers who came the same year of whom,
after going back and forth spring and
fall for several years, finally settled
in the county, and others, by far the