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HISTORY 
 
 CITYOFRIPON, 
 
 ASD OF ITS FOUNDER, 
 
 david :p. mafes 
 
 WITH HIS OPINION OF 
 
 ]Mei} kiid ]tfk-nnei^ of tlje Day. 
 
 MILWAUKEE : 
 
 CRAMER. AIKENS & CRAMER, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS, 
 1873. 
 
l^r^U 
 
 II WO 
 
 'a i 
 
TO MY FRIENDS 
 IN RIPON, 
 
 THTS BOOK IS MOBT 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In writing this history of myself and of the towns I have aided in 
 building, I have frequently been asked to write it out and get it into 
 book form, so if there is anything iu my long life and experience worth 
 keeping on the shelves of the book-case or taking down and reading, 
 here it is ; and you who have had my acquaintance will see that the 
 book is the Old Captain right over. I have not attempted to show the 
 scholar or the statesman, but simply to give a true history of myself, 
 and times as I have seen them, for I have learned that they who 
 attempt to pass themselves off tor something they are not, are discov- 
 ered at once by the discriminating public. 
 
 I once heard the celebrated clergyman, Orvil Dewey, preach, in the 
 city of New York, a sermon from the text "Truth,'' and he showed 
 most clearly that in all our acts of life we must be truthful or the 
 world would see that we had not the truth in our souls; even the mere 
 child will detect the putting on of airs. So here it is as thoughts have 
 come to me and I have penned them, and you, critics, take it and deal 
 gently with the old man, for such now they call me, if I do feel young. 
 I have written this without gloves, for I meant it should come bare- 
 handed if the hand may appear. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— My Own History, .... 9 
 
 CHAPTER II.— The West 29 
 
 CHAPTER LTL— Steamboating 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Founding of Ripon, . . . 60 
 
 CHAPTER V.— Ceresco, 83 
 
 CHAPTER VI— First Episcopal Church— Farming, 96 
 CHAPTER VIII.— My Speech at the Pioneer Festival, 132 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— Death of My Wife, . . 160 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Traveling for the Merchant's Associ- • 
 
 TION, 177 
 
 WlNNECONNE, ..... 204 
 
 CHAPTER XL— My Opinion of Myself, . . 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIX— Freemasonry, . . 230 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— Advice to Young Men, . . 233 
 
 CHAPTER VIV.— Conclusion, .... 239 
 
 Ripon College, . . . 243 
 
 Dedication, .... 277 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Fkontispiece — Capt. David P. Mapes. 
 
 Woods Hotel, . , 225 
 
 Ripon College, ..'.... 243 
 
HISTORY 
 
 CITY OF RIPON 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MY OWN HISTORY. 
 
 It is difficult for a man to speak long of him. 
 self without vanity or incurring the charge of 
 egotism. It might be thought an instance of van- 
 ity that I at all pretend to write my life ; but this 
 narrative shall contain nothing set down in malice 
 and not a word but facts as they have occurred 
 through the life and times of the three-quarters 
 of a century that I have lived. 
 
 I was born on the 10th of January, 1798, on 
 the banks of the Hudson, in the little town of 
 Coxsackie, State of New York. My father and 
 mother were of English oiigin, and had moved 
 from Long Island, New York, and settled at that 
 
10 H1STOEY OF THE 
 
 place some time before the date of my birth. My 
 father at this time built a hotel, known as the 
 Elm Tree House, directly under the wide-spreading 
 branches of one of the most noble elms that grew 
 in that region, and in the top, amongst its branches, 
 he built a summer-house. It became a place of 
 great resort, and those buildings are amongst my 
 earliest recollections. He had also a sloop to run 
 from that place to New York city, for in those 
 days a steamboat had never made its appearance 
 on those beautiful waters. 
 
 My father's family consisted of four children — 
 two sons and two daughters — with my brother 
 the eldest and myself the youngest. My brother 
 was a mute with all his faculties bright but that 
 of hearing, and this made him the more endeared 
 to the family; of him I shall make frequent men- 
 tion through this narrative. 
 
 This mute brother used to go with his father to 
 the city, and when he returned to his home he 
 had much to tell the Coxsackie boys of what he 
 saw in the city of New York. He saw the city 
 boys go in bathing, saw them plunge into the river 
 and swim out, and as he had not yet learned to 
 swim, he did not know but that he could swim as 
 well as he could walk, but when he attempted to 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 11 
 
 show the Coxsackie boys how it was done in New 
 York, he would have been drowned had he not 
 been rescued. By constant practice he soon 
 learned to swim and became an expert, as he did 
 in all boyish sports. He was a pet and favorite 
 with the boys of the place. 
 
 My mother died when I was about six years 
 old, and my father — as most fathers do — gave to 
 his children that much abused being, a step, 
 mother; but I, having been left without an own 
 mother, have to say, in justice to two step- 
 mothers, that they were kind to me and appeared 
 to love me as a child, but I could not compare 
 them with my own mother, for it is little we 
 recollect before six years of age. I remember 
 going to the funeral of my mother, and that is 
 the most I recollect about her. My sisters had 
 many complaints to make against the step- 
 mothers, for they (the step-mothers) had daugh- 
 ters of their own that did not so well agree. The 
 treatment which I received from my step-mothers 
 T always ascribed to my own facility of making 
 them love me, and here again is egotism. 
 
 My father was unfortunate in his business as 
 merchant, hotel keeper and sloop owner. The 
 long sickness of my consumptive mother had 
 
12 HIST0KY OF THE 
 
 exhausted his means, so he went into the woods 
 west of Goxsackie the then great distance of seven 
 miles and bought mills and commenced the lum- 
 bering business. This brings me up to twelve 
 years of age. I had to take charge of teams and 
 draw the lumber to the Hudson River and sell it ; 
 in the winter I attended school, and finally gradu- 
 ated in the log school-house, the teacher of which 
 boarded around and had to take most of his pay 
 in the ashes burned in the school-house. The 
 teacher was a great man in his way. He was not 
 great in mathematics ; he used to say, "Get a boy 
 as far as the Rule of Three and he was fit for any 
 business," but he did not believe in vulgar frac. 
 tions and did not want to bother the boys' heads 
 with them. It was hinted that the Rule of Three 
 was as far as he could go, so the rest of my early 
 education was picked up from guide-boards and 
 sign-posts. 
 
 The family battled on with the world until the 
 war of 1812, when I was a 'lad of fourteen years 
 but was small for my age. I wanted to get into 
 the army, but was too young. I was enthusiastic 
 in our cause and country, but my father was in 
 in politics a Federalist, and I, a Democrat, could 
 not see how he could be opposed to the war as it 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 13 
 
 was our war against the British. I gloried in the 
 success of our troops, and read of all the battles, 
 but my father kept on saying it was an unneces- 
 sary war. From experience I have learned that 
 a war party is the popular party. Young man, 
 never oppose a war. If your country engages in 
 one you have only to help fight it out. Be it 
 ever so unjust, the party in power has so many 
 positions to confer that they will win. The proof 
 of this you have at this date. The Democratic 
 party that was charged with opposition to the 
 war of the rebellion was unsuccessful in its elec 
 tions, and notwithstanding the aid of some of the 
 best men from the Republican party, called Lib- 
 erals, it was a failure. So the war party is the 
 party. 
 
 About the year 1816, my father sold out his 
 lumbering establishment and took his two sons — 
 that is, myself and mute brother, called Harry — 
 and started, in a covered wagon, to emigrate to 
 the West. The West, at that time, was the west- 
 ern part of New York and Ohio. The point 
 which he had fixed upon in his mind was out to 
 the lakes, that was meant to be the paradise of the 
 immigrant, but we brought up between Cayuga 
 and Seneca Lakes, and a lovely place it was. My 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 father purchased a new farm and set us at work 
 clearing it, while he went back to bring the step- 
 mother and other effects. We boarded" with a 
 good Christian woman, whose husband was a boat- 
 man down the lakes and the Mohawk River. My 
 father was a good praying man, and he aud our 
 landlady would have their prayers every alternate 
 night. My father was what was called gifted in 
 prayer, but I think our landlady was a little ahead 
 of him. When my father was gone after his wife 
 the landlady dispensed with praying, as my 
 brother was deaf and could not hear them, and she 
 must have thought that I was quite good enough 
 without her prayers. In due time my father 
 returned to the house which we had prepared, and 
 we all worked with a will to make a home for the 
 family. My sisters had married and were away. 
 But for all of our labor we got nothing but a 
 wasted strength, for the title to the farm we had 
 bought and almost paid for was not good, and we 
 lost all. My father was discouraged, and resolved 
 to gather the fragments and return to the land of 
 his boyhood on Long Island. While working to 
 clear the farm and make a home, I had overworked 
 myself, aud had to leave farming and go to a select 
 school, where I learned to go beyond the Rule of 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 15 
 
 Three which my first teacher thought was as far 
 as a boy need go in mathematics. I had arrived 
 at the age to see the need of more schooling, and 
 applied myself industriously to my studies, pro. 
 gressing so well that I took a school to teach, and 
 in this I found I was beaten. Reader, did you 
 ever keep school * If you have, you know some- 
 thing of its difficulties. To be cooped up with a 
 house full of little stupid urchins, and working 
 away at them, and seeing the slow progress if any 
 you make with them, is discouraging, and it dis- 
 couraged me. So I told the trustees, when my 
 term was half out, that if they would let me off I 
 would call it square, and they did. I had boarded 
 around and made the acquaintance of my patrons 
 of the district, and it has left many pleasant recol 
 lections outside of the school-house. 
 
 My father and family had gone back to Long 
 Island and left me to rough it with the world 
 alone, but he proposed to me to go and study for 
 a physician with a cousin I had in Jefferson 
 County, New York, but I did not think well of 
 that at first, for I thought I was better adapted 
 to the commercial world than to the world of 
 physic. Having had an offer to go into a small 
 grocery business with a young man, whose sister 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 he thought would do to keep house for us, I made 
 up my mind to take that course; whether the sis- 
 ter had anything to do with my choice of calling, 
 those who are acquainted with human nature may 
 judge. I entered the business with the determina- 
 tion to become a merchant, but with all my labor 
 and application to business I found that the young 
 man was not a fit partner for me, for I had been 
 taught to abhor gambling, and he would get his 
 crony in a back room and play at games for half 
 or more of the night, thinking that the company 
 of his sister would compensate me for his absence 
 from business, but it did not. I began to waver 
 in my choice, and leaned toward physic. I pro- 
 posed to the young man to let met withdraw, 
 but he said that his sister would not consent to 
 have me depart just then, so I resolved to leave, 
 consent or no consent, and one moonlight night, 
 having taken an account of stock and ascertained 
 that I could take a portion of what would be my 
 share, while my partner was engaged in his game 
 of cards and the loved sister was asleep in her 
 couch, I took the only boat on that side of Cayuga 
 Lake — and that belonged to the firm — and pulled 
 out into the calm lake, notwithstanding it was 
 midwinter. The lake at this point was about 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 17 
 
 three miles wide, and is seldom frozen over. I had 
 left everything behind but a very small amount of 
 money and some clothes packed in a little valise. 
 Early in the morning I landed on the east side of 
 the lake among strangers and set the boat adrift, 
 hoping that it might return and do some one 
 good ; at least I had no f in ther use for it. When 
 daylight came I could look back across that beau- 
 tiful lake, but felt no regret. I had no debts 
 against me, but I did not know but that the 
 housekeeper was somewhat anxious that I should 
 return as a partner for her brother or herself, but 
 I had never made any promise in that direction, 
 and here let me say that 1 have never, in my 
 long life, made a promise to the other sex that I 
 have not most religiously kept, and let me say to 
 you, young man, never make a promise unless you 
 mean to keep it to the word. When I got upon 
 the main road leading from Ithica to Auburn, I 
 looked back over the straight road for miles and, 
 saw a sleigh approaching ; waiting for it to come 
 up, as I was very tired, I found that it was going 
 directly on my route to Jefferson County, New 
 York, and my prospects began to brighten. In 
 passing from Auburn to where now stands the city 
 of Syracuse, there was only a lone public house, 
 3 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 which I found many years after standing on the 
 north side of the canal, which was not built at 
 that time, 1817. I have since seen a beautiful 
 city where the old hotel stood fifty-six years ago. 
 From thence I went to the city of Adams, where I 
 found my cousins, the Drs. Ely, and with them I 
 made arrangements to enter upon the study of 
 physic. I loaned my cash capital, which amounted 
 to twenty dollars, with the stipulation that it 
 should be repaid to me on call if I should get sick 
 of the profession, which I did in about three 
 months, but when I called for my capital it was a 
 hard matter to raise the amount in cash, for the 
 country was new and all that the settlers had to 
 sell to raise money was black salts, as it was 
 called, and the Doctor proposed to pay half in 
 cash and the remainder in a tin trunk and an 
 assortment of essences. This took me all aback, 
 as I had an early hatred of essence peddlars, and 
 to think of starting out with a tin trunk in hand 
 was revolting. But I had to be humbled, as he 
 could do no better, and the ten dollars in cash 
 would not take me to Delaware County, New 
 York, where my sisters had married and settled — 
 one of them to a Mr. Barlow, who was a 
 successful merchant there, and who had offered 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 19 
 
 me a clerkship. This was in the spring of 1818. 
 I started out from the village of Adams with 
 my ten dollars in cash and ten dollars in essence in 
 the latter part of April, 1818. At Adams the 
 snow had disappeared, and it looked quite pleas- 
 ant, but I had not gone far upou the road to 
 Utica when, crossing the high grounds of Red- 
 field, I found the snow of great depth, but partly 
 gone, and the traveling bad; still I trudged on, 
 tin trunk in hand, feeling small indeed. The 
 country was new and the inhabitants looked rude 
 and rough, and I, a lad of twenty years, was fear- 
 ful least I should be robbed of my ten dollars — 
 the essence I could willingly spare, as it was hum- 
 bling my pride every step I took. I first brought 
 up at a log tavern, about which a large crowd of 
 hard-looking strangers had gathered. I found it 
 was what they called a raffle for a watch, and one 
 of the crowd said to me, " Stranger, we are raffling 
 for a silver watch, fifty cents a shake; come, put 
 in half a dollar and that will make up the amount 
 for the watch." I gave him the half dollar and 
 was called in to dinner. While I was eating, one 
 of the company came to the door and said, "Stran- 
 ger, it is your shake, we have all had ours.' 1 1 told 
 him he might shake for me, and in a moment or 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 two I heard a loud shout of laughter, and he again 
 entered the room and handing me the watch said, 
 "Your shake beat us all/' I paid for my dinner 
 and a lot of whisky with which to treat the 
 crowd, and when I left the tavern they gave me 
 three cheers. My expenses were one dollar for 
 my dinner and the shake, but I still had my whole 
 stock of essence, for into every tavern which I 
 entered I found that a peddler had preceded me 
 with some tin cases filled with vials of all kinds of 
 essences, and those tin cases appeared to me in 
 in every bar-room I entered, and saved me the 
 trouble of asking if they wanted to buy any 
 essence. I arrived safely in Delaware County 
 without once drawing upon my stock of essences, 
 and I think the tin trunk could be found some- 
 where in Roxbury, for I put it out of sight. Some 
 of its contents were given to my sisters' babies to 
 relieve them of stomach-ache — we, fifty years ago, 
 called it the belly-ache, but that is now considered 
 vulgar. 
 
 I was twenty years of age when I arrived at 
 my sister's in Roxbury, Delaware County ; and, as 
 they would not allow me to leave them again, I 
 engaged myself to my brother-in-law to work in 
 the store, and on the farm in good weather. In 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 21 
 
 the night and on rainy days I tended the store 
 and slept in a bunk under the counter. The even- 
 ings were passed in dealing out whisky and gro- 
 ceries to the customers, and listening to their dis- 
 cussions, which at times were learned and inter- 
 esting, and posting up the books. In this way I 
 sei ved my employer for two years, and the second 
 year he increased my wages from ninety-six dol- 
 lars per annum to one hundred dollars. He was a 
 thorough business man, and from him I learned 
 many things relating to success in business, but he 
 died in the prime of life. After serving two years 
 I was admitted as partner with an equal share in 
 the business t in which I invested one-half of my 
 earnings of the previous years, which amounted to 
 one hundred dollars. This you will perhaps 
 think showed me to be rather a prudent young 
 man, it would be so considered in 1873, but that 
 is the way we had to begin life — with labor and 
 frugality. Then there were no Credit Mobiliers, 
 and no opportunities of the kind; the world 
 moved slowly, the sun rose and set then just as it 
 does now, but the men and women were Dot as 
 fast then as now. But think it not strange that 
 the world has existed from all eternity to the pres- 
 ent century in that old fogy way. What else can 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 you expect from a race of men born at this time, 
 with steamboats, telegraph and railroads to aid 
 them; now we expect men to get suddenly rich. 
 When I came here we had none of these aids, so 
 do not be astonished when men count their mil- 
 lions as we did our hundreds. 
 
 After I had been in business with my brother- 
 in-law one year he died, leaving me to continue 
 the business and close up his affairs. He left his 
 widow and two children in comfortable circum- 
 stances. I had now increased my capital from one 
 hundred to one thousand dollars, and as this was 
 quite a small capital to continue the business at 
 that place — a credit business, I took a partner by 
 the name of Morse, and conducted the business 
 under the firm name of Mapes & Morse. About 
 this time I thought it would be well to take a 
 a partner of another kind, and had been casting 
 about among my acquaintances to select one for 
 life. This sounds as though I could have had my 
 choice, which again sounds like egotism, but the 
 country merchant of the little village stands very 
 high, and is too frequently sought after by the 
 good mothers as a match for their daughters in 
 preference to some more worthy son of a farmer. 
 Young ladies, the custom of the country and times 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 23 
 
 is altogether wrong, and it should be changed. 
 Let the ladies have the same right to make over- 
 tures and proposals to the gentlemen which custom 
 grants unto the gentlemen of to-day, and not be 
 compelled to wait until some worthy, diffident and 
 bashful man makes his suit to them, and they 
 are compelled, thinking that it will be the only offer 
 they may have, to accept. No, the custom is all 
 wrong I would have the lady enjoy the privilege 
 of looking about her, and, if rejected, trying again. 
 
 After I had selected the young lady whom I 
 proposed to marry, and had obtained her consent, 
 it was meet that I should obtain also the consent 
 of her parents, and that was a great task for so 
 modest a young man as I then was. About this 
 time I dissolved partnership with Morse The 
 time approached when I must ask the consent of 
 the girl's parents, and I was at a loss how to express 
 myself, but I finally decided that point, and here 
 it is. I said: 
 
 "Capt. Frisbee, your daughter Ruth and I are 
 about to go into partnership, and we want the con. 
 sent of yourself and wife." 
 
 •'Well, sir, if you do not propose to continue 
 your partnership longer than you did with Morse, 
 you had better not go into it." 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 " Oh, Captain, I meant for life !" 
 
 And it was for life. 
 
 The arrangement was consummated, and time 
 has revealed the choice to have been a good one. 
 They say that I have been most fortunate in my 
 selections through life, for, by heaven's decrees, I 
 have twice been called upon to make a similar 
 selection. Most of the happiness and sorrows of 
 life grow out of the relationship of husband and 
 wife. 1 was twenty-two years of age when I made 
 the first choice, and from that marriage we had 
 two sons and one daughter; the sons are, at this 
 date, still living, and are at heads of families, but 
 the daughter died when a babe, and her mother, 
 with my consent, filled her place with a foster- 
 daughter, who was a source of happiness to the 
 family as long as she lived, for we all loved her — 
 father, mother and brothers loved her as they 
 would their own, her parents could not have loved 
 her more strongly, and this convinced me that 
 there is no such thing as natural affection, it all 
 grows out of mutual dependance and cultivation. 
 
 From the time I was married until I was thirty 
 years of age I continued in the business of selling 
 goods, making potash and whisky, and running a 
 grist mill and farm. I was the great man of the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 25 
 
 town, and my extensive business had made me 
 somewhat popular with the people, They had 
 elected me Town Supervisor against my wish, 
 and I was the youngest man on the board, for I 
 was studying all the rules and sayings in regard to 
 what constituted a good business man, and they 
 were all adverse to taking any part in politics, and 
 in those days a Supervisor was a stepping-stone to 
 further promotion; I was also chosen one of Major 
 General Preston's aids, with the rank of Major. 
 This had a tendency to make me vain, and caused 
 me to break through those business rules, for I 
 began to think that I was a greater man than I 
 thought I was, and hence I consented to be a can- 
 didate for office, and was always successful. 
 
 While I was in the Board of Supei visors party 
 feeling ran high, and I had taken the Democratic 
 side, as that was the war party. A discussion 
 arose on the subject of equalization of taxes, the 
 Democratic towns against the Federal towns. I 
 had taken great pains to inform myself on the 
 duties of my position, and went to work to defend 
 our ^Democratic towns. I was not aware that I 
 was making a speech until I had nearly concluded, 
 when, happening to look around and seeing the 
 court house filled with listeners to hear what I was 
 4 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 saying, for my voice had gone up with my feel- 
 ings, T caught the sound of my own voice and it 
 frightened me, and I sat down, for I was perfectly 
 oblivious to all but my subject ; I found that my 
 friends had gone out during the debate and got 
 the crowd to come in and hear young Mapes, as I 
 was then called, give it to the old Federalists. 
 From that day they offered me any position in the 
 county. 
 
 About this time the presidential election was 
 held, and General Jackson was the popular man. 
 This was the time for the old Federalists to come 
 over and join the popular side, and they improved 
 it, for they were mostly all Jackson men. This 
 was an easy road to the Democratic party, for the 
 Jackson party was know n as the Democratic party 
 at that day, notwithstanding almost one-half of the 
 old Federalists were in it. 
 
 At this time, 1819, General LaFayette and son 
 returned to America. It was a great day with 
 the American people, and they made every demon- 
 stration of gratitude. I well remember the occa- 
 sion of his passing through the country, for I was 
 at the city of Catskill on the Hudson River. 
 The people thronged to see the man who had spent 
 his fortune and time in aiding us and our cause, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 27 
 
 and they showed and seemed to feel such an over- 
 flowing of gratitude to him as I have never seen 
 before or since manifested by the American people. 
 The streets were lined with the multitude, and 
 spanned with beautiful arches, while the roadway 
 was strewn with flowers, and ladies waved their 
 handkerchiefs from the windows to the brave old 
 General and his son, whom he had named George 
 Washington after his much loved friend with 
 whom he had fought during the war of the revo- 
 lution. Congress gave to LaFayette a liberal 
 amount in lands and other means at that time, and 
 the whole people approved. 
 
 In the course of this history I shall have to 
 record the unpleasant duty of sending three men 
 to state prison. The first instance occurred in this 
 
 way : There was a widow B who had two sons, 
 
 the eldest of whom, when he became of age, thought 
 that he could get on in the world faster than 
 his father had done by the slow process of keep- 
 ing a dairy of cows and making butter, so he con- 
 ceived the idea of becoming a drover, and came 
 to me in company with his cousin, who was 
 in the business, for the purpose of having me 
 indorse their note as they desired to purchase a 
 drove of cattle. I did so, and they bought a 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 drove in the western part of the state and drove 
 them eastward, stopping at their home on the way, 
 and keeping them upon their farm for a few days. 
 
 While at Roxbury, this J. B came down to 
 
 my store, and, while about the store and tavern, 
 contrived to reach into the bar of the latter and 
 took about one hundred dollars. We soon missed 
 the money, as we frequently passed from the store 
 to the house, and had the company searched, but 
 he had hidden the money beneath the saddle upon 
 his horse, and was willing to be searched. We 
 did not suspect him, and had two other persons 
 arrested, whom we tried to frighten into a confes- 
 sion, and he, B ; was at their examination. 
 
 After selling his cattle and butter he returned and 
 robbed his neighbor, and as he was apt to have it 
 proven against him, he got into a confessing mood 
 and acknowledged that he stole my money, for 
 which I had him arrested, but while on the way to 
 jail he escaped from the officer and cleared out. 
 After an absence of six months he returned in 
 secret for his family, and was recaptured and sent 
 to prison, from which, after he had served about a 
 year, we had him pardoned. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 29 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WEST. 
 
 I continued to sell goods and make whisky, pot. 
 ash, etc., for about ten years. At that time many 
 of my customers were emigrating to Michigan, and 
 as that country was said to be the place for young 
 men, I sold out with the rest. I thought the field 
 too small, and was anxious to spread out. I had 
 done much to build up a town, but the country 
 was valleys and mountains, and as each narrow 
 valley had its center, T could only bring the people 
 of my valley to my place. I had built my stores, 
 hotel and mechanic shops, and had aided in build- 
 ing churches and a Masonic hall, having been 
 made a Mason as soon as my age would permit, 
 but of this I shall speak hereafter. I gathered 
 together my effects and started for Michigan in 
 1829. The currency at that time was mostly in 
 state bank notes, and when I started from Dela- 
 ware County they were almost all considered 
 good, as everyone supposed those in his immediate 
 neighborhood were. 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 My trip West was by the Erie Canal, on a line 
 boat, and we thought that was great traveling, for 
 those boats carried large numbers. All the enter- 
 prise of the country was emigrating West, full of 
 hope. This style of traveling was an improve- 
 went on the way I went many years before with 
 my father, in a covered wagon, and was all new, 
 novel and interesting, for the boatload of passen- 
 gers was a world in miniature, and clergymen, lay- 
 men, farmers, mechanics, wives and daughters, 
 were all cooped up together; we eat, slept and 
 conversed, and learned each other's business. 
 Upon the whole the trip was interesting, and 
 many little events which occurred at this time will 
 be remembered through life. When the boat 
 arrived at Buffalo we found the harbor all driven 
 full of ice, and had to wait some days for it to 
 drift out again, and when it did the only boat 
 that was going up the lake for some days was 
 bound for Dunkirk, for steamboats were not 
 numerous in at that early day, so I shipped for 
 that place, and from thence went by stage to 
 Cleveland, enjoying a delightful ride over the 
 ridge road and through a beautiful country. 
 While waiting at Cleveland, a schooner hove in 
 sight with a fair wind, and I made arrangements 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 31 
 
 with the Captain for a passage to Detroit. We 
 had but fairly got undei way when we were 
 becalmed, but finding on this boat the same kind 
 of emigiants that we had on the canal boat, we 
 made ourselves as happy as circumstances would 
 permit, and took to playing whist, which we made 
 very pleasant as we had the ladies join in, it being 
 my rule never to play cards unless one-half of the 
 party were ladies. In this way we passed the 
 time until, by light winds, we came to Fort Mai- 
 den, on the Canada side at the mouth of Detroit 
 River. Here again we were becalmed, and a few 
 of the male passengers, myself included, took to 
 the land and walked to Detroit, a distance of 
 about twenty miles, through settlements of French 
 and Indians; Detroit was a very small town in 
 1829. A landlord came and solicited our custom; 
 he said he kept the New England House. I 
 thought he might be an honest man, but I did not 
 find him so. He agreed to hire me a pony to go 
 to Tecumseh, and said that his pony was out on 
 the common and that he would send a man to look 
 for him. We waited for the man to return from 
 the search, still boarding at his house, and finally 
 ascertained that three of his guests, each trav- 
 eling in a different direction, were also waiting 
 
32 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 for ponies, when in fact he had but one pony, and 
 he had already hired him to a person who had 
 been at his house several days before. A guest 
 had discovered whereabouts of the pony and 
 informed us. We stayed no longer at the New 
 England, but we left our opinions with him in lan- 
 guage too profane for a religious work like this. 
 
 I traveled from Detroit to Tecumseh on foot. 
 The country was new, and the musquitoes were 
 old and hungry and we had to feed them or fight. 
 Passing through Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, I at 
 length arrived at Tecumseh, where I found many 
 of my Delaware County acquaintances, who were 
 pleased to see me and anxious to have me settle 
 with them and help build up their town, for I had 
 some reputation in that line thus early; but the 
 fever and ague was too prevalent at that time to 
 suit me, and I resolved to return to the country 
 from whence I came. I had in my possession 
 at that time about six thousand dollars in State 
 bank bills, which 1 considered good money. I 
 made my way back to Detroit just in time to take 
 a boat for Buffalo, and bidding good-bye to the 
 landlord of the New England House, the fever 
 and ague, and the musquitoes, we sped on our 
 way. Arriving at Buffalo I was greeted with the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 33 
 
 intelligence that all the banks on the Hudson 
 River had failed, which I found to be too true, at 
 least so far as all the money I had was concerned, 
 for out of my six thousand dollars I had not 
 enough good money to pay my fare back to the 
 Hudson, and had to borrow from a friend who 
 happened to have Western money. I then wished 
 that I had layed out my means in Michigan, but 
 here I was with about all my money in broken 
 bank bills. I wanted to go into business again, 
 but the bills would only command fifty cents on 
 the dollar, and as I had to sell them v or wait until a 
 receiver could close up the banks,. I chose to the 
 former, and decided to go into business with the 
 remaining capital, less what I would spend in 
 looking for a better place. And let me here 
 again give an old man's advice. We float about 
 too much; I have found that had I remained at 
 my starting-point in life, and practiced the indus- 
 try and frugality that I since have, I would have 
 been much better off to-day than I am now. 
 
 T bought a farm and mill site on the Delaware 
 River, built a mill, store, house, and shop, and 
 then bought a stock of goods and commenced 
 again. I was now flattered to accept the nomina- 
 tion for Member of the Assembly of New York. 
 5 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 At this time politics took another turn ; the 
 Masonic persecution came. The Masons were 
 charged with spiriting away one William Morgan, 
 who pretended to have published the secrets of 
 Masonry, and party feeling ran high. As I had 
 been made a member of the order, I was opposed 
 by the Anti-Masons, who had just discovered that 
 it was criminal to belong to the society. The 
 members of the Baptist Church were almost to a 
 man Anti-Masons. My father happened to be a 
 Baptist and a Mason about the same length of 
 time, and he had his choice either to leave the 
 Church or the lodge; he chose the former, say- 
 ing that he had never seen anything in Masonry 
 derogatory to a good Christian character. But 
 with all the opposition of the Baptist Church, I 
 was elected in 1830 and 1831. About this time 
 the law was passed abolishing imprisonment for 
 debt, and I am proud that my vote is recorded in 
 favor of abolishing that barbarous law to shut up 
 the Indian because he would not pay the skins. 
 An Indian asked why a debtor was imprisoned, 
 and was told that the debtor did not pay the 
 skins, his answer was, "How he catch skins 
 there?" ' 
 
 While in the Legislature a company of us 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 35 
 
 purchased, a tract of pine lands that came into 
 market in consequence of the improvements made 
 by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
 and I sold out my little town on the banks of the 
 Delaware, and removed to a place called Carbon- 
 dale, in Pennsylvania. Here I built a mill, took 
 a large stock of goods, manufactured five million 
 feet of lumber a year and got it into market, and 
 prospered in this world's goods. I look back with 
 fonder recollections to the five years spent at Car- 
 bondale (1831 to 1836), than to any five years of 
 my life; it seems as though it was all sunshine. 
 I gave employment to a large number of men, and 
 also gave a number of young men a start in life, 
 which they all improved, and they became the 
 very best of business men; of them I may speak 
 hereafter. 
 
 The society at Carbondale was composed of 
 young men from the adjoining States, and their 
 families. They were all strangers to each other 
 when they first arrived, consequently there were 
 no old quarrels, and all aimed to make one another 
 happy, and we were as much so as we can be in 
 this world of disappointment. 
 
 But now came another change. It became 
 necessary for the company to have a lumber yard 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in the city of New York, and I was chosen to go 
 and start one. I arrived at that place in Decem- 
 ber, 1835, while it was still smoking from the 
 great fire, and rented a dwelling for my family 
 and an office and lumber yard for my business. 
 In the spring of 1836 I commenced business with 
 a cash capital of thirty thousand dollars. The 
 country was then in a blaze of prosperity, which 
 was only based upon a paper foundation. I found 
 then that I had mistaken my place in the early 
 part of my life, for I made over ten thousand 
 dollars in one year, and supported my family, and 
 that was within one-third as much as I had made 
 in the whole of my life before. 
 
 While at Carbondale I was compelled to send 
 another culprit to state prison, in the person of 
 one Thomas Wall, who had contracted with me 
 to supply one of our mills with logs, and draw 
 the lumber to the railroad; the contract was quite 
 large, amounting to about five thousand dollars 
 a year. After he had worked under his contract 
 for some time, I found that he was taking up his 
 pay faster than he was earning it, so I demanded 
 some security and he deeded to me his farm, and I 
 gave him an article of agreement whereby he had 
 the right to redeem it by paying back, with inter- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 37 
 
 est, the amount which I had given him for it. 
 When I removed to the city of New York I had 
 a settlement with him, and found a balance due 
 him, after taking out the price of his farm, of 
 two hundred and sixty-five dollars, to apply on 
 the redemption of his farm, he having but one 
 more year in which to redeem it. I had allowed 
 him sixteen hundred dollars for his farm. When 
 the year was up he gave me notice through a law- 
 yer at Wilkesbarre that there was on deposit for 
 me in the bank at that place the sum of five hun- 
 dred dollars, when I should reconvey his farm to 
 him according to contract. When I received this 
 notice I could not conceive what it meant, as there 
 was due me the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, 
 with interest for two years, less the receipt of two 
 hundred and sixty -five dollars, so I made the trip 
 from New York to Wilkesbarre to see what it 
 meant, and there I was met with a forged receipt, 
 or the receipt for two hundred and sixty-five dol- 
 lars altered to one for twelve hundred and sixty- 
 five dollars. I had to commence suit to get pos- 
 session of the farm, and Wall came into court with 
 the aforesaid forged or altered receipt for twelve 
 hundred and sixty-five dollars, but we got hold of 
 the papers and he was found guilty and sent to 
 
88 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 state prison. After allowing him to serve one 
 year, I petitioned for and obtained his release. 
 
 While engaged in business at Carbondale I was 
 appointed postmaster, and kept the post office at 
 my store, placing the duties of the office in charge 
 one of my clerks, J. Bowen, to whom I have 
 before alluded; he also served as my book-keeper. 
 In those days we had no express companies or 
 postal order arrangement, and much money was 
 sent by mail. It was discovered that large 
 amounts so sent had not arrived at their destina- 
 tion, and frequent complaints were made to me 
 me in regard to the matter, and I at once wrote to 
 the Post Office Department. One day a tall, fine- 
 looking young man entered the store and inquired 
 about how soon a remittance would reach New 
 York, for he was not sure, as he afterwards told 
 me, that the iifficulty was not with us. He 
 mailed a letter with funds in it, and went on with 
 the stage the next morning, but in a day or two 
 he was back again and showed me my letter to 
 the Department and disclosed his business, stating 
 that he was a Government detective. He again 
 sealed up a large package of counterfeit money, 
 and mailed it to H. Wyckoff & Co., Grocer Mer- 
 chant, New York, of whom I bought goods; he 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 39 
 
 also mailed a short letter to the same address, 
 advising them of the contents of the package, 
 should they receive it. Again the detective 
 started off in the stage which contained the mail 
 bag wherein his package had been deposited, and 
 so contrived at the different postoffices along the 
 route that he saw the postmaster empty the bag 
 and then kept his eyes on the package until it 
 went into the bag again. It arrived in safety at 
 Milford, on the Delaware River, where he again 
 saw it placed in the bag and removed to a hotel 
 opposite, where it was deposited in the baggage 
 room to remain until two o'clock the next morn 
 ing. He then went to the next office on the 
 route, called the brick house, which was located in 
 New Jersey, and again witnessed the emptying of 
 the bags, but the package was missing. The stage 
 went on, but the detective remained behind, and, 
 in company with the postmaster of the brick 
 house ; leturned to Milford, where he gave his 
 companion a twenty-dollar bill with which to buy 
 groceries at the post office store in that place. He 
 did so and received in exchange one of the coun- 
 terfeit five dollar bills, and the detective thought 
 he had entrapped his man, but it was not so, 
 for upon inquiring of the postmaster where he 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 had got the five dollar bill, he reflected a moment 
 and then said that he had received it of the land- 
 lord across the way. We went to him and 
 inquired where he had received the bill, and the 
 trap had him; but the public was slow to believe 
 
 that Mr. D could have done so, for he was 
 
 class leader in the Methodist Church, and was 
 prosperous in his business. Although large 
 amounts had been taken from letters, he would 
 only acknowledge himself guilty of the act in 
 which he had been caught. He was sent to state 
 piison, and the society had to lose him as class 
 leader for a while ; but, after serving a year, he 
 also was pardoned. It was a narrow escape for 
 the postmaster at Milford, as a part of the money 
 was first found on him. The landlord had got 
 hold of a postoffice key, and found time to look 
 through the bags while they were deposited in his 
 baggage room. 
 
 The five years which I had spent at Carbondale 
 had more diversity of life in them than four times 
 five years of the rest of my life, for here was a 
 world in miniature, all nations being represented 
 in the laborers at the coal mines and lumber 
 camps. The Welch miner, the Scotchman, the 
 German, the Dane, and the Irishman, all found 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 41 
 
 employment here, and, having a stock of goods to 
 sell, I enjoyed an opportunity of reading their 
 characters and noting what was peculiar to each. 
 The Irishmen were numerous, and possessed their 
 usual store of fun and fight; much that we put 
 down to their credit as wit, is more frequently 
 honest blundering. Once, while traveling up the 
 valley of the Lackawanna from the mills to my 
 store, 1 discovered an Irishman by the roadside 
 digging a hole or sinking a shaft, and, it being 
 some distance from the mines, my curiosity was 
 aroused, and I said to him, "Pat. what are you 
 digging there for?" He answered, "For ffty 
 ce7its, sir/" That was all he cared about it, and it 
 showed his character; it was immaterial to him 
 why the hole was sunk, it was the fifty cents that 
 he was digging for. This would be set down as 
 Irish wit, but it was only an honest answer with- 
 out the thought of a witty reply. There was the 
 Welchman down in the mine under the earth, with 
 his lamp in his cap, working away, while his good 
 woman, with her round, healthy, beautiful face, 
 performed the housework and shopping; aod when 
 the Sabbath came, all went to church, foi they 
 were a very religious and conscientious people. 
 There was also a large sprinkling of Yankees, who 
 6 
 
42 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sold goods and done the mechanical work of the 
 place. Altogether, at this date, the population 
 was as good as could be found, at least they 
 pleased me and I think I did not fail to please 
 them. 
 
 Another change now came over the spirit of my 
 dreams, for in the very next year the whole com- 
 mercial world went by the board , every bank in 
 the country failed, and with them went about all 
 that I had earned through life. All my lumber 
 had been sold for notes at two, three and four 
 months' time, none of which were paid when they 
 became due, and out of the forty thousand dollars 
 capital which I could have counted the year 
 before, I could only save, after paying my debts 
 at par, about six thousand dollars, the remainder 
 is due me yet if it has not been paid off by the 
 bankrupt act. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 STEAMBOATING. 
 
 Well, here I am again, most 40 years old, and 
 with six thousand dollars capital. What shall I 
 go at next. I wanted to do something that had 
 no credit to it. I thought of a freighting and 
 passage business on the Hudson River, so I em- 
 barked in this, bought a steamboat called the 
 General Jackson, the boat that Vanderbilt built 
 to run between New York and Peekskill, and in 
 running with an opposition boat of that line, blew 
 her up at Grassy Point, on the route. After she 
 had been rebuilt I bought her, paying down my 
 whole pile, and getting in debt six thousand 
 dollars besides I put her on as an opposition 
 boat to run between Kingston, New York, to New 
 York city; the other boat on that line was called 
 the Hudson, and was commanded by Captain 
 Woolsey. I placed a young man named Rexford 
 in charge of my steamer as captain, but he was 
 drowned on the first passage down to the city, and 
 I assumed command in consequence; this is where 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rny title of captain originated, having before 
 ranked as major from the military commission 
 heretofore spoken of. 
 
 I again took hold with a determination to make 
 a business and property. Upon the steamer's first 
 trip she had carried but fifteen passengers and a 
 small freight, while the other boat had one 
 hundred passengers and a very large freight, but 
 after I went on board I endeavored to make mine 
 the most popular, and was successful, for in a 
 short time I carried the hundred passengers, and 
 Captain Woolsey had the fifteen. The owners of 
 the Hudson then offered me two thousand dollars 
 if I would haul my boat off", or they would take 
 one thousand dollars and haul off themselves. I 
 gave them the thousand dollars, and had the busi- 
 ness all to myself for a while. Now, young man, 
 perhaps you would like to know how this was 
 done; it was by making every man that came 
 on board the boat feel at his ease and at home. 
 I dressed plainly and was ready at any time to 
 assist a farmer or merchant in selling his freight, 
 and if I saw a retiring or bashful man on the 
 boat I engaged in conversation with him and 
 made him feel as if he was as good as a steamboat 
 captain, and that he had at least one friend aboard, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 45 
 
 and then when he returned home he would say 
 unto ever)' man he met, "If you go to New York 
 take Captain Mapes' boat, for he is a man that 
 will talk to a person with a sheeps'-wool coat on ' 
 Yes, that is the secret ; you must not only appear 
 friendly but must be so at heart, for "if you 
 would have friends through life, show yourself 
 friendly." 
 
 After getting my boat into a successful busi- 
 ness and paying for her the first season, I pro- 
 posed to turn my early acquaintances in Delaware 
 County to my advantage, and have them go to 
 New York by way of Kingston. They had here- 
 tofore traded by way of Catskill, where they had 
 steamboats, and had a line of coaches from their 
 place to Delhi. I proposed to my Kingston 
 friends to establish a mail route and line of 
 stages to Delhi, but no, the place had been a large 
 town for over a hundred years and nothing of the 
 kind ever came in from the West except, once a 
 week, a boy on horseback with saddle-bags; so I 
 left the boat for a week and went to Washington 
 and had a mail route established After estab- 
 lishing the route I supposed that I could get some 
 one to put on a line of stages, but here again I was 
 disappointed, and finally I bought three Troy 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 coaches and thirty horses and established the first 
 line of stages West from Kingston. This was 
 new business for me. Hiring stage-drivers, bar- 
 gaining with landlords to keep the same, together 
 with steamboating, occupied my entire time. I 
 will here relate how I selected one of my drivers. 
 A great, overgrown Dutch boy came and proffered 
 his services; I asked him if he had ever driven 
 any, and he answered, "Yes, I have driven lots in 
 my time — sometimes horses and sometimes oxen, 
 but mostly oxen." This settled the point, and 
 convinced me that he was an honest boy; if he 
 acknowledged that he had driven oxen more than 
 horses, he had not attempted to deceive me as to 
 his experience. I hired him and he proved faith- 
 ful and honest, and he and one other driver 
 handed me, at the end of the month, all the money 
 they had taken for way passengers between sta- 
 tions, which was sufficient to pay their month's 
 wages, while all the other drivers never handed 
 over a dollar. The inauguration of a line of 
 Troy stages through a country the people of which 
 had never before seen a four-horse team, was a 
 great event. The inhabitants along the line, and 
 at the little villages and corners, came out and 
 fired off their anvils, swung their hats, and shouted 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 47 
 
 "Great is the Captain !" I went over the road 
 on the first trip; now a railroad passes over the 
 greater portion of the route. 
 
 In speaking of my exploits at gunning, I have 
 an anecdote to relate: While living at Rondout, 
 and running my boat, acquaintances in the city 
 of New York would frequently come and spend 
 the summer , with us. On one occasion we had a 
 lady friend who was always boasting of her 
 exploits in gunning, and ; in order to give her an 
 opportunity of displaying her superior skill, we 
 made up a family party, and went back from the 
 town about seven miles and there ordered dinner. 
 While the dinner was being prepared our lady 
 friend loaded her gun, and we all sallied into the 
 woods in quest of game, she telling all the while 
 how she could shoot game on the wing. I was 
 not very credulous on that subject, so I said, " I 
 will throw my new beaver hat into the air, and 
 hit if you can." I thought my hat would be per- 
 fectly safe, and, as she dared me to the act, up it 
 went. Sure enough, she had completely riddled 
 and iuined it. It -was a good joke on me, for I 
 had to return home with an unbrella over my 
 head, but I took good care not to go through the 
 town of Kingston, on my way to Rondout, until 
 
4$ HISTORY OF THE 
 
 it was night. This incident helped to make the 
 ride a pleasant and enjoyable one, and I hope that 
 the lady who shot the hat is still living that she 
 may read this account of the affair, for it would 
 revive some pleasant recollections ; but I fear she 
 has gone over the river. A dear girl she was to 
 our whole family. She was the wife of Doctor 
 Spooner, and the daughter of John F. Darrow, 
 formerly of Catskill, and then of New York city. 
 An affair occurred, while I was captain of the 
 steamer, which made a lasting impression upon 
 my mind, namely, the falling overboard of my 
 youngest son, and his narrow escape from drown- 
 ing. He had been in the habit of going to New 
 York with me, accompanied by his mother, but 
 on this occasion a schoolmate, a great friend of 
 his, was going to the city, and he desired to accom- 
 pany him. As his mother could not go, she 
 refused permission, for he was so full of life that 
 she thought it required her constant care to pre- 
 vent his falling into the river, so he got me to 
 intercede for him, which I did, and, after promis- 
 ing to look after him and return him in safety, 
 she consented. But the boat had hardly gone 
 twelve miles on the trip before I heard the cry of 
 "Man overboard !" and springing to the yawl- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 49 
 
 boat, which was suspended from cranes on the 
 side of the steamer, I lowered away with all pos- 
 sible speed, and, while doing so, caught sight of 
 the body as it rose on the swell caused by the 
 wheels. I knew from this that the person who 
 who had fallen overboard had been carried 
 beneath the wheels, but could not say whether he 
 was dead or alive. The two expert oarsmen in 
 the yawl rowed with all their might, the steamer 
 was stopped, and all eyes were strained to see 
 whether they would be successful in lescuing the 
 person. I supposed it was a man, until I heard 
 the chambermaid remark to a lady beside her, 
 "Does the captain know that it is his son Tim?" 
 This was the first information I had as to who it 
 was, but my eldest son, who was also on board, 
 had made the discovery and was crying "Row, 
 row, row." As good fortune would have it the 
 boat was stopped just in time for one to reach 
 over the bow and rescue the lad, and then, oh ! the 
 breathless anxiety to know whether he was alive 
 or dead. They rowed back to the steamer, and 
 I went down the steps lowered for that purpose 
 and took him from the arms of the boatman ; 
 one little hand was reaching out for me, and the 
 other giasped a little straw hat which had nearly 
 7 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 been his la&t. It was with great care that we 
 restored hiin to life, for he was nearly gone ; then 
 came to mind my promise to his mother that I 
 would bring him back safe. He was always a 
 pet boy, and is now, at this writing, cashier of the 
 Fourth National Bank of Chicago. Such inci- 
 dents endear our our children to us, at least it has 
 had that effect on me. 
 
 While building my residence and improving my 
 grounds at Rondout, I employed a young man to 
 run the boat, but before he had been in command 
 two months he ran her upon a reef in East River 
 and stove a large hole in her. I had run her for 
 seven years and had never missed a trip, but this 
 brought us to a stand-still. She was sunk at the 
 Palisades, and was worth seventy-five thousand 
 dollars. I had a contract at that time for towing 
 the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's coal 
 from Rondout to New York city, and as mine 
 had been the only boat upon the North and East 
 Rivers which was not owned by the great steam- 
 boat monopoly of Newton, Drew & Co., I was 
 compelled to hire a boat from them in order to 
 fulfill my contract. But when that firm heard 
 that I had raised my boat and found her so badly 
 wrecked that she could not again be rendered 
 
/ CITY OF RIPON. 51 
 
 seaworthy, and would have to be sold for what 
 she would bring, I could not buy a boat of them 
 for what it was worth. My steamer was unin- 
 sured, for it was not thought necessary to insure 
 boats running on the Hudson as they were con- 
 stantly in a good harbor, and although she had 
 cost me seventy-five thousand dollars I finally sold 
 her for six thousand. 
 
 Here a blank occurs in my life,, and I do not 
 know how to fill it, for there are things which 
 have gone from me as effectually as if I had been 
 so long buried. I had worked night and day for 
 thirty days to raise my boat and put her in order 
 again, and was prostrated, body and mind, in con- 
 sequence. Reader, do you know by what a slen. 
 der thread the mind is held? When I found that 
 my boat was ruined, and my contract lost for want 
 of a boat with which to fulfill it, my courage 
 failed me for the first time in my life; what to do 
 I did not know. My family supposed that I had 
 a competency for life, they did not see as I did 
 that a house and home without an income to sup- 
 port it, was no home at all. So I left the scene 
 and threw myself on the steamboats and railroads 
 to take me anywhere, I did not much care where. 
 This was in the summer of 1844, when the presi- 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 dential election was held, and the Democrats 
 elected Polk for President and Dallas for Vice 
 President; but politics had no charm for me, and 
 life appeared like a blank. I had been tem- 
 perate, frugal and industrious in my habits, and 
 now, at forty-six years of age, I was without hope 
 for the little capital I had saved from the wreck 
 was not sufficient to allow me to compete success- 
 fully with EasterD capitalists. So I drifted along 
 to the West, where all go to mend or make a for- 
 tune. I was alone and all were strangers to me, 
 for I rather avoided acquaintances, but while 
 en route from Albany westward, I fell in with an 
 old friend who was Chief Engineer of the State 
 of New York. He asked me where I was going, 
 but I could not answer as I did not know myself. 
 He had not heard of my business disaster, but 
 had discovered from my appearance that some- 
 thing was wrong, so I told him all about it. He 
 told to cheer up, and asked me to have some good 
 brandy with him as he supposed it might have the 
 effect of awaking me from my gloomy thoughts, 
 and it did, for up to this time I had never taken 
 any stimulants, having been strictly temperate in 
 that direction, and the liquor had a most powerful 
 effect upon me. I do not here wish to recommend 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 53 
 
 brandy for all the ills of life, but it gave roe new- 
 life, for it operated upon me quite differently from 
 what it would have done had I been accustomed 
 to the use of stimulants. From my friend's advice, 
 and the medicine he gave me, I took another start 
 in life and tried to acquire a property that would 
 not sink by having a hole stove in it, so I drifted 
 westward past Detroit, by boat t and finally landed 
 at Racine, Wisconsin, where I went back into 
 the country. Here, for the first time in my life, 
 I ^aw a prairie, and to me, having been brought 
 up in the Catskill Mountains, it was most beau- 
 tiful; yes, that prairie was the loveliest sight I 
 had ever seen in nature, and through the summer, 
 with its monthly change of flowers, there was 
 nothing more enchanting. I resolved to go back 
 at once for my family, purchase some land in this 
 county, and make a new home in the far West, as 
 it was then called; so I returned, took my family 
 and effects, and again started. My family was 
 now composed of my wife, two sons and a daugh- 
 ter; my mute brother had lived with me since the 
 death of my father, who was buried at Roxbury, 
 btft now very reluctantly remained behind with 
 a sister in Delaware County, for we were very 
 much attached to each other, and my wife had 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 shown Herself so kind to him that he loved her as 
 a mother. The daughter was a foster-daughter, 
 and was adopted under the following circum- 
 stances: While living at Rondout our only 
 daughter was born, and a lovely child she was, 
 but as soon as she got to know and love us, 
 Heaven recalled her. The loss to her mother and 
 myself was great, and how to fill the space she 
 had occupied in our hearts we did not know. 
 About this time our nearest neighbor lost his wife, 
 and she left a child of about the same age as our 
 dear Fanny, and looked quite like her, so my wife, 
 obtaining the father's consent, adopted her. We 
 took more pains, if possible, in bringing up this 
 girl than we should have done had it been our 
 own, and we were well repaid for she grew into a 
 lovely woman. She married quite to our satisfac- 
 tion, and emigrated with her husband to Minne- 
 sota ; but Heaven claimed her also, and her body 
 lies in the family grave-yard at Ripon, Wisconsin. 
 Our trip to Wisconsin was very pleasant, the 
 only drawback being the uncertainty of my occu- 
 pation when we should arrive at that beautiful 
 country. Our route was by way of Oswego and 
 Niagara Falls to Buffalo, and thence by boat to 
 Racine. On the passage from Oswego to Niagara 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 55 
 
 Falls the entire family, myself included, were sea- 
 sick. Reader, have you ever been sea-sick? If 
 so, you know what it is to die, for I would as soon 
 die as linger long with sea-sickness. On arriving 
 at Racine we took a house and lived in a very 
 humble manner until we could look up a place 
 and make a home of our own, and for this pur- 
 pose I took team and, in company with my eldest 
 son, started for those delightful prairies upon 
 which we had fondly hoped to find a suitable 
 location. We traveled through to Galena, on the 
 Mississippi River, but found no lands at Govern- 
 ment prices, and our means were too limited to 
 purchase otherwise. I had given my sons their 
 choice to remain East and continue their studies 
 or come with me to the West, and the novelty of 
 trip caused them prefer the latter, but they found 
 that it was not so pleasant to take the laboring 
 oar as they had to in this country, for it was very 
 new as early as 1844. 
 
 About this time a friend of ours, from Albany, 
 was building a new hotel at Racine, and he 
 urged us to take it and furnish it, which 
 we did. It was Congress Hall, the best public 
 house in the Territory. After placing the hotel 
 in successful running order we left the family in 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 charge, and again started out to find the spot 
 which we had so long pictured in our minds. We 
 made up a party for the purpose of exploring the 
 Territory, consisting of Lieutenant Webster of the 
 army, a Virginia lawyer named Clarey, Captain 
 Lathrop of Albany, and myself, and crossed the 
 prairies by team to Janesville, which then con- 
 tained two stbres, two public houses, a court 
 house and about a dozen buildings. We next 
 went to Madison, then the seat of the government 
 of Wisconsin, a town about as large as Janesville, 
 and from thence to Portage City, or, as it was then 
 called, Fort Winnebago. Here we found the 
 remnant of the military garrison under command 
 of a sergeant, and spent the night. Old Captain 
 Lawrence kept the only public house, and could 
 tell all about the country, for settlers were few 
 and far between. The Captain had been in com- 
 mand of the old fort in days gone by ; he was a 
 very pleasant gentleman, and made our short stay 
 very pleasant. From here we started for Green 
 Lake, of which we had heard much, expecting to 
 find another village, but on approaching the lake 
 and inquiring for the best hotel, we were informed 
 that Saturday Clark's hospitable mansion was the 
 only place we could stay. Here we were most 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 57 
 
 kindly received and entertained, as was many 
 a traveller in the early settlement of the country. 
 Mr. Clark (he was best known as Sat Clark) could 
 tell us more than we had found out on the 
 whole trip, as he had been with his father, the 
 Colonel, when he commanded the old fort, and had 
 served as the army store-keeper. Our Virginia 
 lawyer, Cleary, was highly pleased with our visit 
 here, for he and Sat would talk over Virginia 
 affairs. Clark's hospitality consisted in meats 
 and drinks, the latter weie not objectionable for 
 the hotels at that time were some distance apart 
 which made it pleasant to a weary and wayworn 
 traveler. 
 
 * * «■ -H- * 
 
 How fleeting and frail is man's popularity. 
 When I went back to Delaware County in after 
 years, I expected to be the great man they made 
 me believe 1 was when they flattered me into run- 
 ning for office and sent me to the Legislature, or 
 when they put me in command of regiments, in 
 the days of militia training, with a sword in my 
 hand and brass epaulets on my shoulders. 
 
 On one occasion, by order of the General, I took 
 command of two regiments, got them into line, 
 and tried my voice, and was again frightened at 
 8 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 its sound. I had practiced the rule, "Raise youi 
 voice so that the furthermost man in the ranks 
 can hear you, and you have accomplished what is 
 needed," and found that I had succeeded; for I 
 saw the whole line move at the word ; but I had 
 to overcome a natural bashful ness that most young 
 men have, but they have nothing to fear but 
 ignorance, and they must cure that by knowing 
 of what they speak and do, for if they are right 
 they have nothing to fear. 
 
 On returning to those old haunts I was taken 
 all aback in my supposed greatness. I met a 
 farmer on the streets who appeared to be a well- 
 to-do man, so I accosted him and the following 
 conversation occurred : 
 
 "Do you live m this town?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How long have you lived here?" 
 
 "I was born here." 
 
 "What is your father's name?" 
 
 "Scudder" 
 
 "William Scudder?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Your mother's name was Betts?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 59 
 
 He looked at ine to see if he could recognize 
 me, but he could not. 
 
 "Do you know who built those houses, stores 
 and mills?" t continued, alluding to the little 
 village which T had erected years before, 
 
 "I do not," he answered. 
 
 "Have you never heard that David P. Mapes, 
 or Major Mapes as he was called, had erected 
 those buildings?" 
 
 "I have not/' 
 
 "Have you ever heard your father speak of 
 him ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Well," said I, "I am the person who built 
 them, and have so soon been forgotten." 
 
 He was a farmer, lived in the town, had a dairy 
 of twenty or thirty cows, and was a man of some 
 account, while I was forgotten. It humbled me 
 some. So you who are aspiring for name and 
 place can see how soon your greatness will fly 
 away if you do not stay to blow your own horn ; 
 and that will do you no good unless it is a silver 
 horn, for a common tin horn will not even keep 
 you in remembrance. 
 
 My family was now composed of my wife and 
 two sons, one of whom was studying law, and the 
 
60 HISTOEY OF THE 
 
 other attended school ; my daughter was not born 
 until we had lived at Kingston for some time. 
 What I call Kingston was composed of the old 
 town of Kingston and Rondout, on the river, and 
 had grown up when the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal was built from this point. I took part in 
 building up the town of Rondout, for after having 
 been in the steamboat business for seven years, 
 I concluded that I was well able to stay on shore, 
 so I built me a fine residence overlooking the town 
 and river. 
 
 It has been said that when the Quaker desires 
 a curse to befall an enemy, he wishes that the 
 spirit of building would possess him, for he who 
 contains this spirit is sure to come to ruin. I have 
 always been followed by the Quakers' curse, for 
 I was fond of seeing and making improvements. 
 I have built too much in every town in which I 
 have lived — too much for my own profit, but it 
 helped make the town. Once, at Rondout, after 
 I had laid up the steamer for the winter and my 
 clerk had made out his bills and was at leisure, he 
 said to me, "I want to go at it and build a 
 church?" "What," said I, "build a Baptist 
 Church ?" he being of that denomination. "Yes," 
 was his answer, "and what will you give?" I 
 
CITY OF REPON. 61 
 
 told him that I would give a lot to build it on 
 and one hundred dollars, so at it he went with a 
 subscription and in a few days had sufficient to 
 build a small church; he then got a revival 
 preacher to visit us, and before the opening of 
 navigation he not only had the church built, but 
 had members enough to fill it They had to cut 
 the ice in the river in order to perform the rite of 
 baptism. This clerk's name was Asa Eaton, and he 
 is one of the young men to whom I have hereto- 
 fore alluded as having started in life with me ; 
 he became one of the best business men in the 
 country. 
 
 While the Baptists were building their church, 
 I spoke to the agent of the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal Company of the success with which they 
 had met, and he said, "You have done so much 
 for them, why do you not do something for us 
 Presbyterians?" "You have already built a 
 church," I replied. "Yes," said he, "but it needs 
 painting." "Well," replied I, "start a subscrip- 
 tion and head it yourself with a liberal sum, and 
 it shall be done." He did so, and at it I went, 
 and in thirty days the church was handsomely 
 painted, both inside and out. 
 
 While upon the subject of church building, I 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 will boast of another exploit of the kind. When 
 I was selling goods at Beaver Dam, Roxbury, a 
 society called Christians or Unitarians was started, 
 and there was quite a large number of them. Their 
 revival preacher absented himself for some time, 
 but finally wrote that if they would have a house 
 for him to preach in within sixty days, he would 
 again return, so they went to the Presbyterian 
 deacons aud asked for the use of their church for 
 one occasion, but they said, "No; your man denies 
 the divinity of Christ ; you cannot have him 
 preach there." "But," said a Unitarian, "I helped 
 to build your church ; I subscribed and paid my 
 money" "No," said the deacon, "I recollect that 
 you did not sign for the church, you signed for 
 the steeple; if Mr. Martin is willing to go up into 
 the steeple he may, but he shall not go into the 
 pulpit." The Unitarians were out of patience, 
 and came to me with their complaints I told 
 them to build a church, but they said they could 
 not do it in sixty days. I then told them to get 
 up a subscription and I would see that Mr. Martin 
 had a church in the specified time. They did so, 
 and in sixty days the church was complete, with 
 pulpit and de«k, and with a Bible lying upon the 
 desk. Their preacher came, and the house was 
 
CITY OF RIPON. R3 
 
 filled to overflowing. This church has since been 
 destroyed by fire; it was located near what is 
 is now called Burhan's Corners. So I have gone 
 on through life, helping those who were behind 
 with their rows, and I have taken great satisfac- 
 tion in it, not so much for the praise I got, as the 
 self-satisfaction I experienced. Every act of life 
 has its selfishness; we get a self-satisfaction, and 
 that is selfishness; the very best acts of life can 
 be traced to the same source. 
 
 Even now, at this age of life, I am anxious to 
 go back to the old haunts and towns that I have 
 helped to build. I am told that a railroad now 
 runs up the valley of the Delaware, through the 
 place where I first commenced life. This valley 
 at Beaver Dam, Roxbury, has a beauty to it which 
 I can not forget; it is a narrow vale with stupen- 
 dous mountains on each side. I well remember 
 my impression when I first beheld it, over fifty 
 years ago. Judge Otis Preston said to me when 
 he first saw me there, "Young man, how do you 
 like the country?" "Your mountains are very 
 high," I answered. "They are," .'aid he, "but 
 they will not hurt you if you keep off of them." 
 I found it to be so, and I think you will have to 
 keep your railroads in the valleys. I well remem- 
 
64 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ber how we all turned out one Fourth of July, 
 fifty years ago, to improve the wagon road that 
 passed under what we then called Independent 
 Rock, which at that time hung over the road. 
 There we on that day ate our independence din- 
 ner, and, while so doing, concluded that we must 
 have some speeches from that overhanging rock, 
 Our orator and road-master and master of cere- 
 mony was Zachariah Snyder (he has gone to his 
 Father, I suppose,) and upon him we called for a 
 speech. He mounted the rock and commenced by 
 saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are all here," 
 this he repeated several times, and then broke 
 down. An old man in the crowd, named John 
 Delong, having noticed the Captain's embarrass- 
 ment, cried out, "Zachius, come down!" and this 
 you may well think brought him and the crowd 
 down at the same time. I hope that some of 
 those who were with us on that day are still left 
 
 to read this account. 
 
 * •* # * # 
 
 Keeping hotel at Congress Hall, Racine, was 
 not a success; although we had the house full of 
 boarders, including the elite of the place, it did 
 not pay It had taken about two thousand dol- 
 lars to furnish it, which had made a severe draft 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 65 
 
 upon my already depleted capital; and I would 
 have done much better had J invested it, as I 
 did the remainder, in government property in and 
 about what is now called the city of Ripon. My 
 eldest son had made the acquaintance of the foster- 
 sister and neice of George H. Walker, of Walker's 
 Point memory, and was married to her, and a most 
 worthy lady she proved to be. We left them in 
 charge of Congress Hall, but they soon gave it 
 up and came with us to Ripon, and we forfeited 
 the hotel furniture in order to relinquish the 
 lease. We found that Milwaukee carried too 
 many guns for Racine, notwithstanding the latter 
 possessed the most beautiful town-site in the 
 West, and did not lack for business men of the 
 right stamp. But the mass of emigrants in those 
 days shipped for Wisconsin, and, as the first 
 landing-place was at Milwaukee, they were 
 hustled out of the boat, upon its arrival, with 
 the remark, "'This is Wisconsin." And so it was. 
 I had found at Racine the same class of people 
 that I had left at Carbondale, Pennsylvania, with 
 so much regret, and I still cherish their memory ; 
 the past thirty years has made great changes 
 among them, but some of us still live on, and hope 
 to until this world is all we could wish it to be. 
 9 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF RIPON. 
 
 Who would have thought, forty years ago, that 
 Wisconsin would have accomplished so much in 
 so short a peiiod ? 
 
 While upon that exploring expedition through 
 the Territory we selected the country around and 
 about where the city of Ripon now stands, and of 
 this place I shall have much to say hereafter, for 
 it is a child of my own conceiving and bringing 
 forth ; they call me the founder of the city, and so 
 I am. It was here that we found the spot which 
 we had pictured in our minds, and a more beauti- 
 ful place I have never seen in nature. When our 
 party came out of what was called the (Ceresco) 
 valley they shouted with one accord, "This is the 
 spot ! " We were told that this prairie and grove 
 was government land, but we found that one 
 hundred and sixty acres had been entered by the 
 Register of the Land Office at Green Bay, so we 
 entered the lands about it. About two thousand 
 acres had been entered the year before by an 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 67 
 
 incorporated company called the Wisconsin Pha- 
 lanx, and a settlement had already been com- 
 menced. We had entered about two sections, 
 or twelve hundred and eighty acres, and as we 
 desired to build our city upon the quarter-section 
 above mentioned, we dispatched an agent to the 
 Register of the Land Office at Green Bay, Gov- 
 ernor Horner, with instructions to buy it, but the 
 agent of the Wisconsin Phalanx had out-ridden 
 our man, Charles H. Deekin, and had offered so 
 much for it that the price had risen beyond our 
 means, and as the land in question contained the 
 water-power, we could build no mill, consequently 
 we settled down to farming, and, having bought 
 eight yoke of oxen and a span of horses, com- 
 menced to put in our crops, build farm houses, etc. 
 The Wisconsin Phalanx had commenced the year 
 before and had already demonstrated what the 
 land would produce, for their crop consisted of 
 about fifteen thousand bushels of wheat. Our 
 first crop, the year after, comprised about seven 
 thousand bushels of wheat, oats and corn, but 
 was mostly wheat. 
 
 The Wisconsin Phalanx Company sprang from 
 the doctrines of one Charles Fourier, of France, a 
 sort of communist, hence they were called the 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Fouriers. The company comprised about two 
 hundred men, women and children, and came 
 in competition with many of my plans. They 
 built two long buildings to contain all the families 
 in the association, and had one general boarding 
 house. It was a sort of a joint stock company; 
 each put in his capital or labor, and each drew in 
 proportion to his share, being charged with board. 
 The system looked well in theory, but failed in 
 practice. I used to read, in the New York 
 Tribune, letters written upon the subject by one 
 Brisbane, and thought that the system would im- 
 prove the condition of man, and it would have 
 done so had all men been angels, but unluckily 
 for the world they are not. I suppose there were 
 as many angels in that settlement of Fouriers as 
 could be found elsewhere in the same number of 
 settlers. This system, with its varied attractions, 
 drew together quite a number. Having in their 
 midst a good band of music they held frequent 
 cotillion parties, and they had some very fine 
 dancers. These parties attracted the young men 
 and women, and they enjoyed themselves well for 
 a while, but finally it began to drag As they 
 had the society all to themselves, the men had to 
 dance with the same ladies and witness the same 
 
CITY OF BEPON. 69 
 
 display of ball dress on each occasion, and the 
 ladies had to be led out to dance by the same 
 man without a prospect of a new flirtation, and 
 it became monotonous. When we settled in the 
 neighborhood, Warren Chase was the President 
 or head of the association. He was a man of 
 much plausibility and some talent, and strove hard 
 to uphold the association; he had it incorporated 
 by the Legislature, but after a few years' trial he 
 found it would not work with frail, selfish man, 
 so he dissolved it. 
 
 The following extract from a work written by 
 William Mitchell formed a part of the history of 
 Fond du Lac County, and was furnished by me. 
 The two knit-browed men therein alluded to, were 
 Major Bovay and myself. I had taken the Major 
 into partnership with me when building up the 
 city, consequently he was one of its founders : he 
 was also one of the purchasers of a portion of the 
 Phalanx property, upon which we afterwards built 
 much of the town. The college was first called 
 Brock way College, and should still bear that 
 name, for it was adopted under the following cir- 
 cumstances: The county was then poor in con- 
 vertible funds, and we had to resort to every 
 available means to accomplish our purpose. In 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 order to dispose of the stock ; I proposed to grant 
 the privilege of naming the college unto the per- 
 son who should take the largest amount. E. L. 
 Lathrop, for his brother-in-law, Wm. Brockway, 
 subscribed for the largest amount, consequently 
 it was named Brockway College, and that name 
 should never have been changed. When we first 
 moved in the matter the college was to have been 
 a liberal institution, but the Methodists were then 
 building a denominational college at Appleton 
 and were selling their scholarships all about us, 
 so we offered our building, together with ten 
 acres of land, unto any orthodox church which 
 would make it a school of the highest order, and 
 Congregationalists took it, and well have they 
 carried it out. It required much labor to dispose 
 of the stock of the college, but determined minds 
 had said it should be done, and it was done. It 
 was almost creative power, for all that was Leces- 
 sary to build the world was the command of 
 of the Cieator that it should be done, and it was 
 done. I recollect going to one of our best farm- 
 era, Almon Osborne, for a subscription for the 
 college and he put down twenty-five dollars; 
 proud of so liberal a donation, I went to his next 
 neighbor, Julian Rivers, and, presenting the sub- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 71 
 
 scription, said, "Your neighboi, Osborne, has put 
 down twenty-five dollars." Scanning the list a 
 moment, he remarked, " Well, put me down for 
 thirty." He was not to be outdone by his neigh- 
 bors, for he burned lime from his quarry and 
 drew it to the site of the building in order that 
 the foundation walls of the first edifice might be 
 laid. To such men is Ripon indebted for its early 
 growth. We disposed of the gold watches which 
 we had brought with us from the East, that the 
 mason might be paid for laying the walls; and, in 
 older to facilitate the work, we bought him a 
 span of horses, giving our notes for them, and we — 
 that is, Major Bovay, J. Bowen, D. F. Shephard, 
 myself, and others, — had to pay them ; but we 
 had said it should be built, and it was. 
 
 ''In 1845 settlements were made in various 
 parts of the town, and nearly all the lands en- 
 tered. The Phalanx increased their numbers and 
 enlarged their capital ; they had about two thous- 
 and acres of choice land: in 1847 they built a 
 flouring mill, and raised nearly twenty thousand 
 bushels of wheat from a field of four hundred 
 acres; in 1850 they surveyed the villlage plat 
 into lots twelve rods square, with streets six rods 
 wide. They continued in association for six years 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with great pecuniary success ; there was no litiga- 
 tion in which a member of the company was a 
 party, no intoxicating liquors were brought into 
 the place, and their health was so uniform that 
 during those six years no one had occasion to call 
 a physician; yet the want of social adhesion led 
 them, in 1850, to divide their stock and assume 
 their individual claims, and this they amicably 
 adjusted among themselves. Most of the original 
 company still reside upon the same premises, and 
 peace and harmony still exists among them. 
 
 " Ceresco is decidedly a rural village. Twenty- 
 three of the inhabitants have village homesteads 
 of from two to ten acres each, which are well sup- 
 plied with choice varieties of fruit trees; three 
 of them having over five hundred each. There 
 are also several extensive nurseries. The village 
 is located in a valley of about one hundred acres, 
 with Silver Creek upon the east and a high bluff 
 on the west. On the opposite side of the creek 
 the land rises, presenting a beautiful hillside 
 prairie, and on this hillside, a little below the vil- 
 lage, is a circle of mounds some sixty or seventy 
 rods in diameter, many of which are elevated four 
 or five feet above the common level, while others 
 have been wasted by elemental action until they 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 73 
 
 are but slightly visible. They are from twenty to 
 thirty feet in diameter, of circular form, and from 
 two to twenty rods from each other. Near the 
 southeast part of this circle a semi-circle of similar 
 mounds commences, stretching in a southerly direc- 
 tion, then curving towards the creek, until the line 
 of the arch is half a mile in length. Similar 
 mounds are also in the village, some still remaining 
 prominent while others have been levelled in cul- 
 tivating the soil. Near these have been found 
 many pieces of iron tube, closely bound over with 
 wire and coated with copper. These tubes are 
 about half an inch in diameter, varying from 
 a few inches to three feet in length, and have 
 apparently been encased in red cedar wood, which 
 is so decomposed that it crumbles to dust upon 
 being exposed to the air. They are found a few 
 feet below the surface; one, now in my possession, 
 was found by Mr. Gerritt H. Baker, while plowing 
 his garden very deeply. For what purpose they 
 were used, when, and by whom, are questions 
 which may furnish contemplation for the curious. 
 "About half a mile south of the village there are 
 several fine falls in the creek, affording superior 
 privileges for manufacturing purposes; but a 
 quarter-section including this water-power had 
 10 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 been secured by the rapacity of speculators, put- 
 ting industry at defiance until 1850, when Captain 
 D. P. Mapes succeeded in negotiating with J. S. 
 Horner for this location. Up to this time there 
 was no finger-mark of improvement upon the face 
 of nature in this neighborhood; Mr. Mapes, a man 
 of energy, now set about building a village, sur- 
 veyed a plat, gave away lots on condition that 
 certain improvements should be made, built a 
 large public house called the Ripon House, com- 
 menced and nearly finished the extensive Ripon 
 flouring mill, and made ample preparations for 
 large improvements the next year. In 1851, the 
 flouring mill was completed, a cabinet and chair 
 factory put in operation, and a woolen factory by 
 Mr. S. Ford, and dwelling houses, stores and me- 
 chanic shops sprung up with rapidity. 
 
 "In the first year of the the existence of the vil- 
 lage a charter for the location of a college was 
 also obtained, on condition that it be located 
 here. Towards the close of the year in a gentle 
 snow storm, two men might have been seen staking 
 out the location for the first college building, 
 amidst the half -sup pressed jeers of the faithless. 
 But deep down in the heart of these two knit- 
 browed men the finger of determination was writ- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 75 
 
 ing, "it shall be done." The novelty, the boldness 
 and utility of the enterprise, the unequalled beauty 
 of the location, all united to attract the sympathy 
 and munificence of the surrounding country, like 
 moistening dew, to cheer on the work. The enter- 
 prise succeeded beyond the most sanguine antici- 
 pations of its most earnest friends. 
 
 u On the west side of the village of Ripon is a 
 conical elevation of about ten acres of land, the 
 ascent is nearly equal on all sides, except that 
 fronting the main part of the village, which is 
 somewhat less obtuse and presents an aspect a 
 trifle bolder. This eminence is covered with 
 shrubs and underwood, with occasional shadowy 
 oaks, which thicken as you go westward and, at 
 the distance of twenty-five or thirty rods, mingle 
 with the thick growth of forest trees which 
 spreads over about two hundred acres. The apex 
 of this elevation is nearly circular; it is about one 
 hundred yards in diameter, is smooth and level, 
 and is elevated about thirty feet- above the sur- 
 rounding country. Upon the center of the apex, 
 and upon the very spot staked out by those two 
 grim, determined men in the snow-storm, stands 
 Brock way College, a beautiful stone edifice pre- 
 senting its four equal fronts to the four cardinal 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 points of the compass. Upon all sides Green 
 Lake prairie spreads its rich, rolling surface like 
 a boundless garden, checkered, striped and dotted 
 with little groves of underwood and oak openings, 
 and its streams fringed with forest trees. The 
 vision of the traveler, as be approaches Ripon 
 from any direction, will have a full view of Brock- 
 way College at a distance varying from six to 
 eight miles. If the liveliest imagination could be 
 clothed with creative power, and give form, sub- 
 stance and vitality to its most brilliant paintings, 
 it could only mar the divine beauty with which 
 the Almighty Builder has crowned this spot for a 
 public edifice, a city of light set on a hill. The 
 college lands include the whole of the ten acres. 
 
 "The traveller, passing westward, soon finds him- 
 self in a beautiful grove of sugar maple and other 
 forest trees, the declivity increasing until it ab- 
 ruptly terminates in a deep ravine, through which, 
 over a stony bed, flows a stream of fine cold water 
 which gushes from a spring under a ledge of sand- 
 stone which is overlaid with a quarry of limestone 
 some fifteen to twenty feet in thickness. Ascend- 
 ing the rugged bank and continuing westward for 
 about half a mile, gradually rising through the 
 heavy timber forest, you again behold before you 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 77 
 
 the open prairie in all the beauty and fertility 
 which the most romantic mind attaches to the pri- 
 meval garden. 
 
 "Brockway College was opened for academic 
 studies, in the female department, on June 1st, 
 1853, under the superintendence of Miss M. J. 
 Adams, with about twenty students. On the first 
 of September, Mr. Martin opened and superin- 
 tended the male department for one month, when 
 Rev. J. Walcott, Superintendent of the Institute, 
 arrived and assumed his position over the various 
 departments. Mr. W. is a finished scholar, an 
 able instructor, amiable in character and affable in 
 manner, and is highly esteemed by all who know 
 him. In the first term there were three assistant 
 professors and eighty students. It is now in its 
 second term, with prospects entirely satisfactory; 
 and although no collegiate department has yet 
 been opened, there is entire confidence that the 
 institution will be endowed and prepared to enter 
 that sphere of usefulness as soon as the necessities 
 of the students will require it. 
 
 U A short distance west of the villages of Ripon 
 and Ceresco, runs a high bluff with frequent out- 
 croppings of limestone, which furnish abundant 
 opportunities for quarrying first-rate stone for 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 building or burning into lime. The layers of 
 limestone extend to a depth of fifteen or twenty 
 feet and are underlaid with sandstone, which 
 in many places is in a state of decomposition and 
 furnishes excellent sand for mortar. There is also 
 near by an abundance of superior clay for brick. 
 Material for building purposes, of the very best 
 quality, is easy of access to these villages, which 
 are in reality but one ; both are on the same 
 stream, which furnishes numerous water-powers in 
 less than half a mile; in the same town, separated 
 only by a space of about one hundred rods; and 
 both being good building-sites, with one common 
 interest, they in fact are and should be considered 
 but one village. 
 
 " Ever since the commencement of the village of 
 Ripon the enterprise has been attended with con- 
 siderable success. Merchants, mechanics, manu- 
 facturers, as well as the surrounding agriculturists, 
 have not only met no revulsion, but the success of 
 each year has added momentum to the next; the 
 only lack is an increase of laborers and capital to 
 meet the increasing demand. The surrounding 
 advantages of this place are such that it must con- 
 tinue to increase until it becomes a city of sub- 
 stantial importance. Taking this point for the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 79 
 
 center of a circle thirty miles in diameter, and a 
 more fertile soil with less ease of cultivation and 
 with equal healthfulness among the inhabitants 
 may be sought for in vain upon the earth. The 
 above territory seems to have been designed by its 
 Maker for one great seed-field, a perennial granary, 
 sufficient for a large city." 
 
 We have frequently to speak of one Warren 
 Chase who took a part in the politics of the 
 State. He was a man of some ability, was 
 a member of the first State Convention; and assisted 
 in framing our first constitution, but after the dis- 
 solution of the Fourier Clan he was charged with 
 aiding in the intioduction of the system of free 
 love and spiritualism which flourished in the 
 valley for a brief period. He also published a 
 book called "The Life-line of the Lone One," and 
 in that work he makes frequent mention of me as 
 the Captain, and of the fact that he always came 
 out ahead of me. How far that has proved true, 
 let the public judge from our works. I had laid 
 out my town of Ripon along side of his Ceresco, 
 laying out the streets at the four cardinal points 
 of the compass, running them north and south 
 and east and west, and had placed the same on 
 record, but the Association, having a majority in 
 
80 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the town, ran a street diagonally across my town 
 plat, making pointed lots and otherwise inconveni- 
 encing me, yet my town must go on, so I suited 
 my grounds to this road, and to-day the triangular 
 building known as the Green way and Salsbury 
 Block, together with the Masonic Temple, serve 
 as monuments to their spite and malice, for they 
 were determined to drive all settlements from 
 the township, except such as would join their clan. 
 I had another difficulty with them when I 
 attempted to remove the post office to Ripon. 
 They had located it in the valley below, and called 
 it Ceresco, as they did the whole township, but, 
 after a trip to Washington and Madison, I suc- 
 ceeded in changing its name and removing it 
 to the hill above, where it has remained to this 
 day. 
 
 After free love and spiritualism had had its day 
 in the valley below, and the town of Ripon had 
 taken her place among the prosperous towns of 
 Wisconsin, and the free love element had left for 
 a more congenial clime, a few of the best members 
 of that society took part with Ripon, and most of 
 them are now good citizens, still their clanning 
 propensity occasionally breaks out and a few think 
 that they must give fight to the Captain, as Chase 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 81 
 
 called me. This Chase is heard from, now and 
 then; he is traveling through the States, delivering 
 lectures and selling his book. 
 
 Once, while traveling through Iowa by stage, 
 we stopped at a public house for dinner, and, 
 while awaiting its preparation, I discovered a 
 copy of Chase's work upon a table in the parlor. I 
 asked the landlady where she got it, and she said 
 that while her husband was in Boston he had 
 heard the author deliver a lecture on spiritualism, 
 and bought the book from him. I told the land- 
 lady, who was then busily serving my dinner, that 
 I would turn down a leaf in that portion of the 
 work in which the author spoke of me, and, 
 when I had gone away, she conld look and see 
 who she had to dinner. I was then informed that 
 dinner was ready, and repaired to the dining-room. 
 But the landlady could not wait until I had 
 departed, for while I was still eating she slipped 
 into the parlor and examined the book, and when 
 she was called to fill my second cup of tea, she 
 was so flurried that she said, " Captain Mapes, did 
 you take cream in your first cup?" "Ye, 1 .," I 
 answered, "and you have made my acquaintance, 
 for you did not know that my name was Captain 
 Mapes until you had looked into the book ; but I 
 11 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 pardon you, for I knew woman's curiosity, and 
 thought you could not wait till I had gone before 
 knowing who your guest was So let us be 
 acquainted." This made a very pleasant little 
 interview out on one of the broad prairies of 
 Iowa. 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 83 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CERESCO. 
 
 The following extract from a Ripon paper of 
 April 11th, 1873, is the same as before written, 
 but is told by a different witness, Everett Cham- 
 berlin, with whom I have not the pleasure of an 
 acquaintance, yet as he appears to be aiming at 
 the truth of the history, I here insert it: 
 
 "The visitor at the beautiful city of Ripon, 
 Wisconsin, almost invariably takes a walk or drive 
 around bv the ruins — less picturesque than preg- 
 nant in meaning — of the deserted Ceresco. 
 
 " Tt is not a barren waste — by no means. Such 
 a thing could not be in a spot so favored by 
 nature, and so contiguous to such thrift and enter- 
 prise as abound in all this neighborhood. But 
 still there is a story slumbering in the nooks and 
 crannies of the few abandoned buildings which 
 piques the curiosity of the spectator and sets him to 
 inquiring, ' why all this is thus ? ' This inquiry it 
 it is the purpose of this article briefly to answer. 
 
84 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 "The history of 'The Wisconsin Phalanx' has 
 been told several times, but never completely — the 
 sequence of events being broken off at one* end or 
 the other in all the accounts now extant Of 
 these the fullest is that contained in J. H. Noyes' 
 'History of American Socialisms;' but this, 
 though full in details of earlier events, is deficient 
 in those which pertain to the closing up of the 
 concern and to the causes which led to the disso- 
 lution. 
 
 "There have been forty-five noticeable experi- 
 ments in founding non-religious communities in 
 the United States since Owens commenced his agi- 
 tation, late in the first quarter of the century. Of 
 these the most important — i. <?., those cairied out 
 on the largest scale and with the most persistent 
 expendituie of money — were the New Harmony 
 colony, of Indiana, and the North American Pha- 
 lanx, of New Jersey; but none of the forty-five — 
 certainly none at the West — came so near succeed, 
 ing as did the Wisconsin Phalanx. This is why it 
 is profitable to refer to the enterprise, now that it 
 is no longer a current event, and examine into its 
 workings. 
 
 "The agitation of Fourier's theories of society 
 began in America in 1838, Albert Brisbane being 
 
CITY OF R1PON. 85 
 
 tho chief expounder. In 1841 and 1846 a ma- 
 jority of all the colonies or communities; organized 
 according to Fourier's plan, had their origin — yes, 
 and their end, too, for the matter. The Wisconsin 
 Phalanx dates its inception to the winter of 
 1843-4, and the village and vicinity of Southport 
 (now Kenosha), Wisconsin, was its birthplace. A 
 few families living there, on the primeval prairies, 
 became sufficiently imbued with the French philos- 
 opher's theories of life and social organization to 
 forsake what then promised to be as much of a 
 lake port as Chicago or Milwaukee, and push out 
 into a still wilder country, in pursuit of the ideal 
 mode of life. 
 
 "They set out on the 20th of May, 1844, and in 
 just one week they arrived at the spot which had 
 been selected and pre-empted by a pioneer com- 
 mittee. They were as good material, probably, as 
 was ever got together for one of these experiments. 
 They do not appear to have belonged, even in 
 part, to the class of ' the unappreciated, the played- 
 out, the idle, and the good-for-nothing, generally,' 
 who, according to Horace Greeley, composed the 
 communities which failed under his eye. On the 
 contrary, they were persons whose industry and 
 general shrewdness had already been coined into a 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 goodly equipment of live stock, farm materials, 
 implements, money and other necessaries for fitting 
 out the new enterprise. What was better, they 
 had all, as Western pioneers, undergone that train- 
 ing in hard work and privation which fortified 
 them against discontent and home-sickness, the 
 bane of other communistic colonies. They were 
 rather religious than irreligious, and among them 
 were two who had standing as preachers in evan- 
 gelical denominations. Rather a surplus in so 
 small a community it would seem, and the ques- 
 tion may arise whether we have not, in these 
 prophets, the Jonahs who are to weigh down the 
 ship below the water's edge, It appears, however, 
 from the contemporaneous accounts, that there 
 was nothing like religious bigotry visible in the 
 community during its early career; that, on the 
 contrary, everybody was liberal, and the theologi- 
 cal sky seiene. 
 
 "It was for its financial and material success, 
 however, that the Wisconsin Phalanx presently 
 became distinguished. The colony, as already 
 indicated, arrived at its new possessions on the 
 27th of May. The domain (specify term in 
 Fourier's cant) had already been selected, embrac- 
 ing six hundred acres of arable prairie, fertile in 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 87 
 
 soil, delightful in situation, and watered by a 
 stream which afforded ample power for the pro- 
 pulsion of a mill's machinery. The colonists gave 
 their settlement the name of Ceresco — doubtless 
 founded on the name of Ceres, the protectress of 
 agriculture, with a syllable added at random for 
 euphony. The name always had a taking sound 
 about it, and helped give the town a striking indi- 
 viduality. 
 
 "Arrived at the site of their new empire, the 
 first task of these socialistic pilgrims was to stake 
 out the domain; after which some religious exer- 
 cises were held — a prayer at least, and a homily 
 by one of the members concerning their duty 
 toward one another. The working force on the 
 first day numbered nineteen men, one boy, eight 
 yoke of oxen, and thirty-four horses. The colony 
 had in all fifty -four head of cattle. The first task 
 was, of course, to get in the crops as soon as pos- 
 sible, the season being already far advanced. 
 Twenty acres of potatoes, buckwheat, turnips, 
 etc., were planted, and in due time harvested; a 
 saw mill was built, and with the lumber which it 
 produced a large hotel, or 'unitary dwelling,' was 
 inclosed but not finished; one hundred acres of 
 winter wheat were sown, and this constituted the 
 
88 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 work of the first year. It shows that the com- 
 munity was not only industrious, but well organ- 
 ized and intelligently directed. Warren Chase 
 was their leader, not only during this season but 
 afterwards. The association had a constitution, 
 and was governed by some of Fourier's formulae; 
 for instance, the workmen were arranged in three 
 series, agricultural, mechanical, and educational; 
 and the series were in turn divided into groups. 
 There was also a faithful attempt to carry out the 
 complicated plan of Fourier with regard to the 
 personal credits, and the equalization of labor by 
 reducing all to what was called 'the class of use- 
 fulness.' Under this arrangement, some of the 
 more skillf ul workmen were able to score as many 
 as twenty -five hours' labor in the day — a paiadox 
 in time-keeping which was exceedingly amusing 
 to the skillful ones, and correspondingly perplex- 
 ing to the unskillful, since everybody drew stock 
 or cash on settlement day in proportion to his 
 credit on the daily record. 
 
 "At the end of the second season the Phalanx 
 had increased its membership to thirty families, 
 and its property to twenty-seven thousand seven 
 hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-two 
 cents; had harvested one hundred acres of wheat, 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 89 
 
 sixty acres of corn, fifty -seven acres of oats, and 
 other crops in proportion; put in four hundred 
 acres of winter wheat; dug a race and laid foun- 
 dations for a grist mill, built a stone school house, 
 etc.; performing in all one hundred and two 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty hours' labor. 
 Yet President Warren Chase's policy was by no 
 means the all-work-and-no-play, which is said to 
 make Jack a dull boy. His annual report, dated 
 December 1st, 1845, says 'that many have culti- 
 vated vocal and instrumental music; and not only 
 that, but our young ladies and gentlemen have 
 occasionally engaged in cotillions, especially on 
 wedding occasions, of which we have had three 
 the past summer.' 
 
 "These were evidently golden days in Ceresco — ■ 
 a surmise not only justified by the facts already 
 cited, but by the testimony of those who lived or 
 visited with the Phalanx during the crescent 
 period. Men and women worked with an electri- 
 cal zest born of enthusiasm for a newly-espoused 
 cause and the holiday novelty of all the surround- 
 ings. Under sound direction their labor was 
 fruitful, and this in turn stimulated to new exer- 
 tion. Few or no tares sprang up in the social 
 garden. The annual report, already referred to, 
 12 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rejoices that 'the four great evils with which the 
 world is afflicted — intoxication, law suits, quarrel- 
 ing and profane swearing — never have, and with 
 the present character and prevailing habit of our 
 members, never can find admittance into society. 
 There is but a very small proportion of the tat- 
 tling, backbiting and criticisms on character usu- 
 ally found in the neighborhoods of so many fami- 
 lies. Perfect harmony and concert of action pre- 
 vail.' What could be more delightful than this, 
 especially when it was combined with material 
 prosperity, and unencumbered by debt? What 
 wonder that the Phalanx was overrun during the 
 winter and early spring with applications for ad- 
 mission to membership, albeit not one in five was 
 admitted? 
 
 "The material prosperity continued — indeed, 
 increased; for during 1846 the Phalanx not only 
 raised eight hundred acres of crops (one item of 
 which was twenty thousand bushels of wheat), 
 but played the profitable vole of manufacturers 
 for the rapidly settling comm unity around them. 
 It is a fact worthy of notice that through the co- 
 operation of labor within the community, the cost 
 of good board at the palanstery was reduced to 
 sixty-three cents per week — that being the average 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 91 
 
 cost during the year 1845. It is also worthy of 
 notice fehat, notwithstanding this great economy, 
 the number of families who patronized the com- 
 mon table became less and less, until, in 1848, 
 every family of them kept its own table. 
 
 "In fact it became quite perceptible, early in 
 1848, that the Phalanx was no longer a phalanx. 
 It was dropping apart, gradually but surely. In 
 the first place, the high moral tension which had 
 produced that beautifully harmonious state of 
 feeling described in the extract above cited from 
 the second annual report, seems to have been a 
 relaxed. It appears to have been a condition 
 which human nature is not able to bear continu- 
 ously for a very long time. To the 'perfect har- 
 mony and concert of action' which were reported 
 to prevail at first, succeeded a period of dull inac- 
 tion of the moral functions of the community, 
 which did not even feel equal to the task of pro- 
 viding proper education for the children: and this 
 was never done. After lassitude and indifference 
 in moral and religious matters, came an alarming 
 readiness on the part of some to imbibe all new 
 notions which the period developed. Free love 
 became rampant in certain sections of the country 5 
 and a pair of its apostles came to Ceresco and 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 preached, with very little reserve, their unwhole 
 some doctrines. Spiritualism came next, and 
 Chase became a convert to it. He was deposed 
 from the Presidency in 1847, and was succeeded 
 by Benjamin Wright, a more conservative man 
 Chase continued to labor for the Phalanx, how- 
 ever, and early in 1848 he published in the Har- 
 binger, at New Yoi'k, eighteen excellent reasons 
 why all the associationists in the country should 
 rally and unite their efforts upon Ceresco, and in- 
 sure its success as the test experiment of all. 
 
 "They did not rally, however. On the contrary, 
 while some of the Harmonists were bickering over 
 little questions of detail, and gradually losing 
 sight of the stupendous plan of their great apos- 
 tle ; while their local leader was putting off for a 
 whole decade the time for their entering upon the 
 first stage of their perfect career; while the more 
 strong-headed or light-headed of the band were 
 alarming the more moderate ones by the boldness 
 of their theories and proposed practices; while 
 the sordid element in the bosoms of all was being 
 quickened by the worldly prosperity of the asso- 
 ciation ; while all this is going on, the Goths and 
 Vandals of what Fourier would call the civilized 
 world, were gathering about and insidiously com- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 93 
 
 passing the ruin of Ceresco. A settlement had 
 been made on the hill to the east of the colony, 
 and, in the year 1849, Colonel Mapes, the pioneer 
 and proprietor of the new town, swooped down 
 upon that peaceful village — loveliest of the plain — 
 with a postmasters' commission from President 
 Taylor in his pocket, and bore away the mail-bags 
 and other insignia of office theretofore pertaining 
 to the Phalanx. From that hour the prestige of 
 Ceresco was gone — the more especially as Ripon 
 also offered flouring facilities, and other attrac- 
 tions, for the trade of the surrounding country. 
 
 "Notwithstanding all this, the colony might have 
 flourished as producers and special manufacturers 
 like the Shakers and Oneidans of the east, had all 
 been well within their own ranks. That all was 
 not well, we have already seen. To cap all, Chase 
 himself, carried away by his new notions, managed 
 by his own adventures, to bring some scandal upon 
 the association ; an indignation meeting was held 
 at Ripon, and delenda ''est Ceresco became the watch- 
 word — whether inspired more by local than moral 
 considerations, the writer cannot say. No specific 
 allegations are now made which go to hint — still 
 less to prove — that there was any more immorali- 
 ty in the social intercourse at the colony, than in 
 
94 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 any other community of like numbers. Indeed, it 
 was undoubtedly less open to such charges than 
 the average western community. Nevertheless, 
 there was enough to found an outcry upon, and 
 the outcry was raised with vigor. 
 
 "The annual report of the Phalanx for 1848, 
 showed a falling oft of seventy-two in member- 
 ship since the previous year, when it had been 
 one hundred and ninety-two; by the end of 1849 
 the dissolution of the corporation was fully re- 
 solved upon, and the members only waited for 
 legal authority from the State before proceeding 
 to disband. This was given in the spring of 1850, 
 and in April of that year, the property was sold 
 and distributed. It had been well husbanded 
 through all, and yielded nearly $40,000. The 
 members for the most part, remained in the 
 vicinity — many of them on the old grounds. 
 Several of them have occupied with credit, promi- 
 nent places in the State Legislature and govern- 
 ment of Wisconsin. Warren Chase has become 
 a leading itinerant lecturer on spiritualism, with 
 headquarters — and a bookstore — in St. Louis. 
 
 " Chroniclers have been at a loss to find a cause 
 for the failure of a scheme of association so 
 successful in outward seeming as the Ceresco 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 95 
 
 colony was. Human nature as the rock on which 
 this fine ship split just as did all other similar 
 argosies bearing the banner of Owen or Fourier. 
 In one case — as at Sylvania — it will appear to be 
 adversity; in another — as at Ceresco — prosperity 
 —which shatters the timbers of the ventursome 
 craft. In either case, however, the cause is .the 
 same, viz : the refusal of Human Nature to be 
 dredged or blasted away from its place in the Sea 
 of Life by anybody's patent apparatus. The old 
 rock is i ight there, where it always was — good to 
 anchor to, but bad to run against. 
 
 "The history of Ceresco undoubtedly demon- 
 strated more clearly — because the experiment was 
 more skillfully made — than that of any other 
 socialistic enterprise, the fact that association on 
 Fourier's plan — which is a great improvement 
 upon Owen's — is impracticable when either self- 
 interest or general humanitarian interest, is the 
 principal motive of the associators. Nothing 
 short of religious fanaticism furnishes a cement 
 sufficiently strong to bind a community of the 
 kind permanently together. 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 And now a word for the Church. You will see 
 by tUe following note from the good old Bishop 
 Kemper, how we became possessed of a fine Epis. 
 copal Church at Ripon: 
 
 "Delafield, Wis., Sept. 14, 1859. 
 "My Dear Sir: 
 
 "My excellent friend, Mr. Durlin, will 
 spend next Sunday at Ripon. Please make ar- 
 rangements so that he can officiate twice. I hope 
 you will be able to secure him as a settled minis- 
 ter, for I have the highest opinion of his zeal, 
 piety and talents. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "Jackson Kemper. 
 "Mr. Mapes, Ripon, Wis." 
 
 The following is an introductory note from the 
 Rev. J. P. S. Ingraham: 
 
 "Milwaukee, Sept. 16, 1859. 
 "My Dear Sir: 
 
 "It gives me pleasure to introduce to 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 97 
 
 your acquaintance as the pioneer and founder of 
 Ripon, and a good friend of the Church, the Rev. 
 F. Durlin of La Crosse. Mr. Durlin is traveling 
 through your section with our good Bishop, and I 
 most sincerely hope that you will all use your 
 influence to induce Mr. Durlin to make Ripon his 
 permanent home. I would not say this, did I not 
 believe Mr. D. to be a man most desirable for the 
 work of the Church in your section. Please exert 
 your influence to secure him. Extend to him your 
 usual courtesy to strangers, and you will oblige, 
 "Very truly your friend, 
 
 "J. P. T. Ingraham. 
 
 "Capt. Mapes, Berlin, Wis." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Durlin came and most fully car- 
 ried out the recommendation given by the good 
 old Bishop and Rev. Mr. Ingraham : he never 
 delivered a sermon after he settled with us to 
 which I was not a careful listenei, if in town, for 
 I have never heard a man in the sacred desk who 
 filled it as well, according to my views of the pro- 
 fession. He appeared beyond the reach of flat- 
 tery, but I found an avenue to him in this man- 
 ner : Upon the occasion of his first sermon, when 
 sent by the Bishop, he preached in the Baptist 
 Church, which had kindly been been placed at his 
 13 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 disposal for that occasioo. After the services 
 were concluded, I remarked, "Well. Mr. Durlin, 
 by this sermon you have got us into business." 
 Looking up at me for an explanation, he said, 
 "Why, what is the trouble V "Why," I replied, 
 "this sermon will compel us to build a church." 
 I had struck the right chord. He had been labor- 
 ing at La Crosse for two years, but could not 
 move the people to build a church, and this was 
 what he had set his heart on, and my remark gave 
 hope that he might here accomplish his favorite 
 theme. I had forgotten this incident until after 
 the church had prospered four years, when Mr. D. 
 recalled it again to memory, and said that he had 
 never forgotten my words upon that occasion. I 
 then saw where I had reached him. 
 
 After I had started farming, I went back to the 
 Hudson to bring my mute brother to my home in 
 the West, for my sister had written that he was 
 very unhappy ; but when he heard that I was 
 going to take him with me, he was the happiest 
 man 1 ever saw. I gave him to understand that 
 he and I were joint partners, and all of the prop- 
 erty was ours. He would work with interest, for 
 his father had taught him habits of industry, and 
 he was always unhappy when he had nothing to 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 99 
 
 do. Here, again, let me proffer a little more 
 advice: Parents,' teach your children habits of 
 industry, for it is the best thing you can do for 
 them. I had proof of this in my mute brother, 
 who, before he came to live with me, never had 
 the stimulous of accumulating property, but was 
 put to a trade when young, and had kept to work 
 always and had become habituated to it. After 
 he came to live with me, I added the stimulus of 
 acquiring property, and he was the most indus- 
 trious man I ever saw I have found that animal 
 man is lazy, the proof of which we have in the 
 native Indian; he will not work, he has no habits 
 of industry, and no pride of accumulation of 
 property. So. parents, teach your children to 
 work if you would not have them lazy Indians— 
 or, what is worse, white trash,- -with all of the 
 white man's bad habits. Idleness is the parent of 
 all vices. I look back and say thanks, many 
 thanks to my father for teaching me to be indus- 
 ti ious, for in whatever, position fortune has placed 
 me labor has been no toil. You never can appre- 
 ciate the luxury of resting if you are never tired. 
 In building the first shanty to winter in, I had 
 struck but few blows with the axe before it 
 glanced and cut a bad gash in my foot. I re- 
 
 LofC. 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 marked to Dr. Spalding, who was with me, that I 
 was in a bad fix, for my wife, who always kept 
 some healing salve, was in Racine, one hundred 
 and twenty miles distant. The Doctor laughed at 
 my faith in my wife and her salve, and said that 
 there were no healing properties in salve, but that 
 he had a needle and white silk and would sew it 
 up and bring the parts together, and nature would 
 do the rest of the work. He did so with good 
 effect, and this was the first intimation I had but 
 that medicines possessed healing properties, not- 
 withstanding I had, many years before, attempted 
 to study medicine, but left it in disgust with my 
 tin trunk of essence. 
 
 This brings me and my family out upon the 
 bleak prairie of Green Lake, but I had spent the 
 first winter, with my youngest son, upon those 
 Green Lake borders, having left the remainder of 
 my family at Racine while we prepared a dwelling 
 for them. This first winter had its hardships and 
 its pleasures. Doctor Spalding and myself and 
 son, built a log shanty to winter in, and got out 
 lumber for a better building m the spring. As 
 the Doctor's land adjoined ours, we worked to- 
 gether, boarded in the same shanty, washed our 
 own dishes, and went, with Sat Clark, the Dakins, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 101 
 
 and other of the first settlers, to all the parties for 
 miles around, for it took miles of population to 
 make up a party, for the settlers were few and far 
 between. 
 
 We had built our house in that beautiful grove 
 east of what is now Ripon, but that spot has had 
 many owners since, among them Mr. Bentley, of 
 hotel fame in Milwaukee. Around this grove we 
 entered our lands and commenced farming, and, 
 as f have heretofore mentioned, our first crop con- 
 sisted of seven thousand bushels. We continued 
 farming upon this lovely spot from 1845 to 1849. 
 We had a partner in our lands in the person of 
 Captain Lathrop, late of the Mansion House, 
 Albany, New York, and when he came on with his 
 family we divided the two sections of land that 
 we had entered together; Silver Creek or Green 
 Lake Inlet ran through the middle of the tract, 
 and I took the south side, and he the north with 
 the house and grove spoken of, consequently I had 
 to build a house on my section, and, as I had no 
 grove, I erected it by the side of a beautiful spring 
 which gushed out of the dry prairie,, on the spot 
 now known as the Thomas Farm, half a mile east 
 of the city of Ripon. My second house looked 
 as though it was out at sea; not a tree, shrub or 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 plant grew near it, consequently it could be seen 
 for a great distance, and became the stopping-placH 
 for all new comers seeking homes, for at that time 
 every one who owned a house, be it ever so hum- 
 ble, had to be a tavern-keeper. A peddler once 
 came to my door and said, " What are you sjoing 
 to do out on this bleak prairie? Are you not 
 afraid of blowing away?" "No," I replied, "the 
 wind does not blow as hard here as in the valley ; 
 there the wind is forced through a narrow chan- 
 nel, here it has a chance to spread out." " Spread 
 out!" cried he, "you can not make me swallow 
 that." It was new philosophy to him, but it was 
 the best reason I could give. A splendid brick 
 house now standi upon that spot, and fruit trees 
 and ornamental shrubbery serve as barriers against 
 the wind. 
 
 The early settler has many a story to tell of pri- 
 vations and hardships endured, but to me it was a 
 round of pleasure. Here we had our fields cleared, 
 stumps out, and meadows leady to cut. The yield 
 per acre was so great that we felt amply repaid 
 for our trouble, but we soon had to submit to 
 lower pi ices for our crops, for the soil was so pro- 
 ductive that we all had a surplus, which had to be 
 taken a great distance by teams to market As 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 103 
 
 we liad no railroads then, and as the Fox River 
 was unimproved, we depended principally upon 
 selling to new comers, 
 
 About the time of starting for Green Lake, or 
 Ripon, as it is now called, I had become acquainted 
 with Mr. Farwell, who was afterwards elected 
 Governor, and he thought of joining me in build- 
 ing a town somewhere in the vicinity of Ripon, 
 and promised to come up from Milwaukee, where 
 he was a hardware merchant, and see the spot 
 which I had chosen. So on a cold winter day 
 when the snow lay deep, he drove up to the door 
 of our shanty and hailed us, but got no response, 
 as we were in the woods hewing timber for the 
 buildings which we intended to erect in the spring. 
 The Governor was accompanied by a friend nQiUi&d 
 named Richardson, whom he had brought to start 
 the first store, and, having come a great distance 
 without refreshment, they wanted their dinner, 
 but the hospitable string to the door was not to 
 be seen, so they shouted to the top of their voices, 
 but without avail. They then searched for the 
 hidden latch-string, which, through Dr. Spalding's 
 ingenuity had been made so long that it reached 
 to the top of the door, and, passing out, displayed 
 but a knot, by which the latch was lifted; this the 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Governor discovered by looking through our small 
 glass window, and a close scrutiny revealed the 
 knot, which they lost no time in pulling, and, open 
 sesame, the door ifew open. They found the table 
 spread with our intended supper, and their appe- 
 tites had been sharpened to such an extent that 
 they left very little of it for us. They ] eft a card 
 acknowledging the receipt of a good dinner, for 
 which they returned thanks, stating that they had 
 gone to stay over night with the Phalanx, and ask- 
 ing us, upon our return from the woods, to come 
 down and see them. We were well pleased with 
 the card, notwithstanding that, hungry as we 
 were, we had to wait until we had cooked another 
 supper. After a hearty meal we went over to the 
 Phalanx and had a good laugh over their visit. 
 In the morning 1 took the Governor and his friend 
 to where the city of Kipon now stands and showed 
 them where I proposed to build the city. The 
 snow was two feet deep with a heavy crust which 
 would break at every step, and I saw that the site 
 looked dreary to the Governor, for it was one 
 hundred miles west of Milwaukee, with few settle- 
 ments between, still they promised to write to me 
 should they conclude to assist in building. They 
 returned to Watertown where they aided in the 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 105 
 
 erection of the Planters' Hotel, and that, they 
 thought, was as much as they would do in city 
 building. But the Governor had an ambition in 
 that line, which he cured many years afterwards 
 by helping to build up the city of Madison, for 
 judging from my own experience, I fear it did not 
 prove very remunerative to him. But, oh ! there 
 is a glory in doing so much for the public, when 
 they are so full of gratitude, for after the founders 
 of their cities are gathered to their fathers, they 
 may, in a stretch of veneration, help to make re- 
 spectable processions to their graves, which a good 
 Irish Catholic thinks is of some account, for when 
 he drinks the health of a friend, he says, "Long 
 life to you, and may your funeral be well at- 
 tended." But why grumble at the public, they 
 did not set us to work, we did it for the reason 
 that we loved to do it. Yes, I have had pretty 
 good pay as I have gone through life in working 
 for the public, aimiug to pay one hundred cents to 
 the dollar, and to do good to the generation in 
 which I lived. 
 
 I have taken great pleasure in giving young 
 men, whose parents could illy afford to aid them, 
 a start in life. I will here make honorable men- 
 tion of their names, some of them have fallen 
 14 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 asleep, and others are still living: At Roxbury, 
 New York, I had the first opportunity of aiding 
 young men, and took two brothers, named Calvin 
 and Asa Eaton, to live with me; they came to 
 manhood under my instruction and patronage, and 
 they well deserved all I had done for them, foi 
 better men never lived. Here I also started 
 Dubois Burhans, who afterwards represented the 
 county in the Legislature, and became a good 
 business man; he has gone to the other side of the 
 river. Many others have taken their business 
 notions from me, and among them one J. Gould, 
 who has made his mark m the woild. While at 
 Carbondale, Pennsylvania, I had the training and 
 starting of J. B, Barlow, Jedediah Bowen, Stewart 
 Barber, the two young Rexfords, and others, and 
 all have acquitted themselves right well; most of 
 them are alive at the present writing, and show 
 a work of which I am not ashamed; of them I 
 would say more, but modesty forbids as most of 
 them still live, and, I hope, continue to be an 
 honor to themselves and to me God speed them. 
 After a while, m 1854, I find myself elected a 
 member of the Board of Supervisors from the 
 town of Ceresco, now Ripon, and on meeting with 
 the Board at Fond du Lac, every town being rep- 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 107 
 
 resented, I found they were all strangers to me. 
 Upon the ballot for chairman I received every 
 vote but my own, and I had cast a blank in order 
 to ascertain who was the most capable member. 
 The Board was composed of Democrats and 
 Whigs, and I was elected to preside over them 
 without preference to party, but I found my 
 account in it, for when I wanted the post office 
 removed from Ceresco to Ripon the Whigs were 
 in power, and I, being a Democrat, wanted their 
 assistance and then found them my friends owing 
 to my liberal course in the Board of Supervisors. 
 I have ever found that it costs nothing to be civil 
 in our intercourse with the world. We succeeded 
 in having our man appointed postmaster, and the 
 post office was removed, and its name changed, 
 from Ceresco to Ripon. But the Fouriers came 
 down gracefully ; they formed a funeral procession 
 and marched from Ceresco to Ripon with the post 
 office effects, thereby turning it into a good joke 
 on Ceresco. While speaking of the post office, I 
 will continue its history still further. Time 
 rolled on and, after four years, brought another 
 change in politics, and the Democrats again came 
 into power. Ceresco then hoped to regain the 
 post office, and William Starr, who had been dis- 
 
10? HISTORY OF THE 
 
 placed for the Whig Lathrop, exerted himself to 
 be reinstated, but your humble writer was also a 
 Democrat and put in his claim, and the race for 
 the Office commenced with Starr and Mapes as 
 contestants. Both claimed to be Democrats, and 
 as the incoming administration of Pierce had the 
 distribution of the patronage, — to us, who were 
 starting rival towns, the post office was of great 
 importance,— Mr. Starr started for Washington 
 by way of Madison, where the Legislature was in 
 session, in order to get the signatures of the Dem- 
 cratic members to his petition, while I started for 
 the same place by way of the United States Sen- 
 ators and Congressmen, whom I had found to be 
 the "friends at court" that I needed. I had 
 also the friendship of the Assistant Postmaster 
 General, Major S. R. Hobbie, whom I had helped 
 get to Congress several years before. I had the 
 signatures of both Senators Dodge and Walker, 
 and all Congressmen from our State, to my peti- 
 tion before Starr had secured his Assemblymen. 
 We met at Washington. When I showed my pa- 
 pers to Major Hobbie he said, "You are all right; 
 you can go home and, when the time comes, your 
 commission will be sent to you." 
 
 Mr. Starr, and his then friend Temple Clark, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 109 
 
 remained at Washington for months, sending back 
 to Starr's clerk in his store, for papers against my 
 character, but with all they looked up or manu- 
 factured against me it done them no good, and 
 this same clerk is now the postmaster of Ripon, 
 but not by the aid of Starr, his former employer. 
 The post-office at Ripon has always been a source 
 of contention ; it has now got to be worth the 
 strife we made for it at its commencement. On 
 the day that Starr and his friend Clark returned 
 from Washington, my commission came in by mail, 
 and my Ripon friends were in high spirits. I held 
 the office until I could make some addition to my 
 growing town. About this time who should look 
 in upon us with a view of settling in town, but 
 A. M. Skeels, from Northern New York. I prom- 
 ised him that I would resign as postmaster, in his 
 favor, if he would come amongst us as one of our 
 merchants. He came well recommeded as a 
 business man, and said he was a democrat, so I 
 resigned in his favor, and his democracy held out 
 as long as the Democratic administration lasted, 
 but it gave out when the administration changed. 
 He made a good officer. After this Jedediah Bo wen 
 was appointed, and a most worthy officer he was; 
 but the then part} T in power, brought the charge 
 
110 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 against Bowen that he affiliated too much with the 
 Democrats ; that he would eondesend to sit in his 
 office and chat with his old friend and patron 
 Capt. Mapes, who was a democrat, and Bowen re- 
 signed, for he did not find anything in the post 
 office regulations against his being civil to every. 
 body, Republicans or Democrats. So much for 
 present Post Office. Jedediah Bowen has since his 
 resignation as postmaster, been elected to the leg- 
 islature, and a good &nd worthy member he made, 
 showing that the people were with him if he was 
 civil to both parties. He it was that I gave the 
 start at Carbondale, and he it is that has done 
 more than any other man in Ripon to forward all 
 of its enterprises, and without him Ripon would 
 not be the town it now is. Tn him the College 
 has found one of its best helpers all the way 
 through. Ripon, you may be proud of your 
 Bowen ; success does not make him vain nor for- 
 get to be grateful. 
 
 Wisconsin was created a Territory in 1836, and 
 was admitted into the Union as a State in 1848 
 At the first State Democratic caucus for the nom- 
 ination of Presidential electors and State officers. 
 I was a member, and when they nominated Dewey, 
 for Governor, and Doctor Darling for Congressman 
 
CITY OF RlPOtf. Ill 
 
 from this district, they also nominated your writer 
 for a Presidential elector, and, as the State was 
 then Democratic, we were all elected, and I had 
 to saddle one of my ponies and go over the then 
 wide prairies to Madison to attend the convention. 
 I was proud to associate with the men I met at 
 Madison, for they would well compare with any 
 assemblage of men I had ever met with; there I 
 found many whom I had met with at Albany, for 
 at that time the population was largely made up 
 from the State of New York and New England 
 States, but of late our population has had a large 
 sprinkling from all parts of Europe and the whole 
 world beside, to the great detriment of the rising 
 generations, for the emigrant has brought with 
 him his notions of industry and frugality, and as 
 we meet and mingle we improve, so let them come 
 and welcome and we will marry our daughters to 
 their sons and our sons to their daughters, (of the 
 same color) but no other mingling, and a most 
 noble race will we have on this our American soil. 
 And now that the country was almost all bought 
 up and being made into farms, and the soil so pro. 
 ductive, that a large surplus was accumulating 
 without means to get it to market, especially that 
 which was grown in the interior of the state, back 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 from the lakes, and some means had to be devised 
 to get our grain to market, for it used it all up to 
 draw it by teams; and who but a Wisconsin man 
 would have got it in his brain to have thought of 
 the plan that a Mr. Goodrich, of Rock County, 
 did. As I am told, he proposed — when every 
 every other mode was tried and failed and we had 
 sent our best financiers east to raise money to 
 build railroads — we, in this State, had started one 
 road west from Milwaukee, but had not built it 
 but a few miles when the means gave out, and 
 something must be done, and the friends of the 
 road were in council — and this Mr. Goodrich of 
 Milton Junction comes forward with his plan and 
 says to his fellows I will mortgage my farm, and 
 on that we can raise money East, but others must 
 do the same. And from this started the idea of the 
 farm mortgage system as it is called, and by this 
 system the first road was got through from the 
 Lakes to the Mississippi, with many branches, and 
 all agoing before we could make eastern capitalists 
 believe in our ability to pay them. And was this 
 not a bold undertaking for a farmer to put a mort- 
 gage on his home to help build a public railroad? 
 But it would not have been so bad had they all 
 went into it, but no, there is always a part in a 
 
CITY OF RIPOK. 113 
 
 community that stands back and the more liberal 
 do the work while the wise ones reap the benefit 
 equal with their more public spirited neighbors 
 who brings about the improvements that enhauces 
 the value of his farm one half; and all the close- 
 fisted farmer does is to sit and chuckle over his 
 rneaness, for says he, I have got the road and did 
 not give a mortgage ; you, he says, you were not 
 smart as he calls it. But so has it ever been and 
 ever will be. But I ask to have those boasting men 
 that think they are so smart to be marked by the 
 coming generation, and say to them you have 
 reaped where you did not sow, and of such let the 
 world keep aloof; they are not good citizens. 
 
 In this chapter on railroads I may as well say 
 how I served in my time and age. When the 
 farm mortgage system of road making got under 
 way it occurred to me that we could get out from 
 Horicon over to Ripon in that way, so we enlisted 
 under J. B. Smith, Joseph Vleit and Daniel Rich- 
 ards to get the Horicon Road to and through our 
 town, and to accomplish this their must be mort- 
 gages got, so I commenced by giving a mortgage 
 on our own homestead, and went out to make 
 school-house speeches to induce the farmer to give 
 his mortgage. And we had deacons and judges 
 15 
 
114 HISTOEY OF THE 
 
 to go with us and back us up and say " we have 
 given our mortgage and we would not have done 
 it if we had not faith in it that all will be right." 
 And it was all rio-ht if it had all been carried out 
 agreeable to the original plan — and we were suc- 
 cessful in converting many to the faith, for Deacon 
 Clinton and Judge Rose was good talkers, and it 
 was said that I was not tongue-tied ; but the mort- 
 gages were got, the road built and running, proper- 
 ty rose in value, towns grew up with a general 
 prosperity through the country, and we who gave 
 our mortgages and paid them without getting any 
 stock in the roads in return, know that the county 
 is largely indebted to us, for thus early in its set- 
 tlement, being able to bring it about. Now 
 after we had got the road so that we could carry 
 off produce to market we wanted the road so ex- 
 tended to the pine regions north, to get the pine 
 lumber on the Wolf river, where it grew, and have 
 it floated down. Now a town had grown to some 
 account on that river called Oshkosb. They had 
 mills and wanted a market, and to that town, we 
 of Ripon, proposed to join and build a road 
 Arrangements were entered into to vote their bonds, 
 Oshkosh voted a hundred thousand dollars, Ripon 
 seventy-five thousand, and other stock was taken to 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 115 
 
 build the road, and a day set to meet at Oshkosh 
 to make a permanent organization. But disappoint- 
 ment is the common lot of all men. When we, of 
 Ripon, got to Oshkosh we found that Wni. B. 
 Ogden had proceeded us one day and had prevailed 
 on the Oshkosh common council to rescind their 
 vote of one hundred thousand dollars to the Ripon 
 Road and vote it to the Northwestern Road, which 
 at this time had got as far north as Fond du Lac, 
 and which Ogden promised to extend to their place 
 sooner than we could ; and this he made them be- 
 lieve. But we had a large meeting in one of their 
 halls and had the matter talked over ; but when a 
 Ripon man would attempt to speak, the hired 
 bully s for the Northwestern interest, would hiss 
 him down if possible. But I got up on one of the 
 seats and spoke at the top of my voice, saying 
 "hear me for one minute and I will sit down." The 
 request was so modest that the chairman gave me 
 a hearing, and it was to this effect: "Gentlemen 
 of Oshkosh, we of Ripon know where the pine 
 lumber grows and we know the nearest route to 
 it, you will her from us again." So our courtship 
 broke off without a marriage and we started for 
 home. 
 
 We started a Ripon delegation for Madison, as 
 
116 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the Legislature was in session, and asked for a 
 railroad, to be called the Ripon and Wolf River 
 Railroad, and our request was granted. The road 
 was to commence at or near Ripon, to run from 
 thence to Wolf River, and up said river. This 
 would give us the pine lumber at Winneconne, 
 with as short a road as to Oshkosh, and would 
 dispense with all the tug-boats ; and, as we had no 
 land grants or Credit Mobilier, we had to take the 
 new and novel mode of farm mortgages. My eld- 
 est son was a civil engineer, and 1 set him at work 
 making surveys while I disposed of the stock, 
 a sufficient amount of which was taken to have 
 built the road, had the proceeds been in Govern- 
 ment bonds, but at that time they were not so 
 plenty, and it was mostly in farm mortgages 
 instead, which would not pass at par. We then 
 made a contract with a party to grade and tie the 
 road through to Winneconne. He had the pile of 
 mortgages before him and commenced and graded 
 a few miles, but the times of 1847 were hard on 
 the finances of the country, and be backed out 
 of the contract, and taking pay out of the pile of 
 mortgages for what he had done, left us to finish 
 it as best we could. 
 
 Many amusing incidents occurred while dispos- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 117 
 
 of the stock and building this road. A party of 
 us started out to go over the country through 
 which the road was to pass. It consisted of G, N. 
 Lyman, Jedediah Bo wen, G. N. Barnum, Ransom 
 Smith (who was here on a visit from New York 
 city to his son-in-law, Major Bovay,) and myself; 
 Ransom Smith we called our Eastern capitalist, 
 and the rest were speakers before we got through. 
 We were met from the villages on the route by 
 committees, who had the crowds out at Omro, 
 Wiimeconne, New London and Weyauwega, all 
 enthusiasm, all full of hope and expectation of a 
 road at once. And this party meets occasionally 
 and a good laugh is the consequence, for looking 
 back now and seeing how little we had to base our 
 hopes upon of a road, the country being new and 
 undeveloped, it is laughable. But time, pa- 
 tience and perseverance accomplishes all things, 
 and this is demonstrated in one of the committee 
 who came down to take us up to his place in 1856, 
 and now, in 1873, he is the president of a road 
 built and running into his Town of New London, 
 in the person of President Ketchum of the Green 
 Bay and Lake Pepin Road. This road comes from 
 an other way than he hoped to get through to us. 
 But hope on, our road will come yet, for the St. 
 
118 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 Paul Railway Company should put that link in at 
 once, for it is much needed ; but we worked on 
 with labor and means until we had about exhaust- 
 ed both strength and means and finally got it 
 graded and tied through from Rush Lake Junc- 
 tion to Winneconne, and we then started with the 
 road all paid for but the iron, and we made a 
 first mortgage bond on our road to purchase the 
 iron. We had a contract with the Horicon Rail- 
 road Company to run our road for us when ironed, 
 but when we got our bonds and went East to pur- 
 chase the iron we found we could not do nothing 
 with them; foritwasin 1857, when Western bonds 
 were worth but little, and our road a short one, 
 and after staying months came home discouraged ; 
 but we made one more trial and went to Pennsyl- 
 vania, at Johnstown, where the iron is made. We 
 proposed to purchase our iron, or as much as 
 would iron the road to Omro. That would reach to 
 the Fox River, and then after the road had got 
 under operation it might earn the remainder to 
 reach to Wolf River. We could get the iron by 
 paying one-fourth of the purchase money down 
 and the remainder the President and Directors 
 must give their own notes, to show their faith in 
 the road. The notes we could give much easier 
 
CITY OF RIPON 119 
 
 than we could raise the ten thousand dollars, as 
 the whole would cost about forty thousand. 
 
 We came back and proposed to show to the 
 business men of Milwaukee that this road, when 
 completed and in running order, would directly 
 cut off the trade that went to the Northwestern 
 road and bring it to their city. The Chamber of 
 Commerce and Merchants' Association called a 
 meeting in order that we might be heard on the 
 subject, and, after we had our say, they appointed 
 a committee to treat with us. Our proposition to 
 was to borrow from their business men the sum of 
 ten thousand dollars, for which we would give our 
 first moi tgage bonds on the road in the proportion 
 of two dollars to one; they gave the amount, each 
 merchant stating upon the paper what part he 
 would take. After we had paid for the iron as 
 agreed, it was shipped to Milwaukee, and upon its 
 arrival another difficulty presented itself for it 
 had incurred a freight bill of one thousand dol- 
 lars, and there was no money in the company's 
 treasury. Even had we paid for this freight bill, 
 we would have had to provide means for laying 
 the iron. We dare not go back to the Milwaukee 
 merchants and ask for more aid, for they done all 
 they had agreed, and a most liberal spirit they 
 
120 fflSToRY OF THE 
 
 manifested. Finally I returned and called upon 
 Lester Sexton, unto whom I told our trouble, and 
 he said, ""You must have the iron; make a mort- 
 gage on some of your Ripon property." This I 
 did not want to do, as I was selling my lots in 
 Ripon and building up the city and it would not 
 do to encumber them, so I proposed to give him a 
 mortgage upon my homestead, which he accepted, 
 and I received the money for the freight. I then 
 saw Mr. Higby who agreed to load the iron into 
 the cars for one hundred dollars. We now went 
 to work laying the track and got it all down but 
 two car loads, and these were held by Higby until 
 his one hundred dollars were paid; so this sum 
 had to be raised, and the question was how shall 
 we do it ? Reader, you may think that this is a 
 small story for railroad men to tell, but we had 
 exhausted our resources, and had no Congress, no 
 land grant, no mobilier — nothing to fall back on. 
 The country was poor in everything but her soil, 
 and that we had mortgaged in order to advance 
 the road thus far. I taxed uiy brain to its utmost 
 capacity to devise a method by which to i-aise this 
 one hundred dollars, and finally hit upon this plan. 
 We made ten notes in sums of ten dollars, each to 
 be paid in a car load of wood containing seven 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 121 
 
 cords to be delivered in Ripon as soon as the road 
 was in running order, which it was expected to be 
 in a week or so. These notes I took to the two 
 banks then at Ripon, and they went like hot 
 cakes. I believe the banks hold those notes 
 against the Ripon and Wolf River Railroad to this 
 day, as the wood was growing in the forest at 
 Omro at the time they were negotiated, and the 
 Company has not cut much wood or run much of 
 a railroad since, for the Horicon Company failed 
 and the road was sold to the Milwaukee and St. 
 Paul Railroad. But I little regretted this loss to 
 my bankers, for with all my solicitations for aid 
 for a road which would have brought them all 
 their lumber, and which would had done more to 
 build up their city than any other one road, we 
 had never received a dollar in Ripon, except from 
 Gr. N. Lyman and J. Bowen. Yes, the one hundred 
 dollars which we received for that wood at the 
 low price at which it was offered, was all Ripon 
 gave, yet they voted seventy -five thousand dollars 
 to build the Oshkosh road. I believe the city has 
 since given fifteen thousand dollars for another 
 Oshkosh railroad without deriving any commer- 
 cial advantages from it, not even sufficient to 
 compensate her for the trade which she has lost 
 16 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in consequence of little towns springing up along 
 the line; but I think that Oshkosh has heard from 
 that Ripon delegation by this time, for they had 
 to build their Ripon road themselves, less the fif- 
 teen thousand dollars above mentioned. They 
 were compelled to build it, for the Ripon and 
 Wolf River Railroad together with the St. Paul 
 road connected with all the railroads leading 
 west, the market where all of the Wolf River 
 lumber had to go to. Oshkosh must either build 
 a road to Ripon, or move her mills to Winneconne, 
 She chose to build the road, as she had the homes 
 of her mill men already built, and it would cost 
 her more to move them than it would to build the 
 road ; but I am not sure but what it would have 
 been better for her to have done that, for that 
 would have dispensed with her fleet of tug boats, 
 which they have to keep to tow their logs down 
 from Winneconne to Oshkosh, and then when 
 they were just as near market as they were when 
 they left Winneconne. But so much for the far 
 seeing men of Oshkosh, of 1856 ; but in 1872 
 they were thoroughly aroused, and built a road to 
 Ripon, and gave it to the St. Paul R. R., still 
 keeping their tug boats going, while it could all 
 have been done at Winneconne, and saved the ex- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 123 
 
 pense of building the road, and of keeping the 
 tug boats in operation. So much for Oshkosh to 
 this date ; I may have something farther to say 
 hereafter. 
 
 In the the matter of town buildings, it has had 
 its difficulties, as well as in railroad building, and 
 without them what is life. Town proprietors are 
 called on and expected to aid in every enterprise. 
 Churches, schools, roads, and everything that goes 
 to make a live town, the proprietor is expected to 
 lead in. So I gave the ground for all the churches, 
 and colleges in Ripon, and also helped to build 
 them. But I would notVjoin all of the churches, 
 even had I been found worthy, besides it would 
 have been very expensive to have assisted in run. 
 ning them all. As to my fitness to join ; I was 
 asked to by many, and my reply in most cases 
 was, that if I joined one the others would not 
 like it, and I had in early life joined the frater- 
 nity of Masons, and was persecuted for that. So 
 I have thus far kept out of the churches, except 
 as a regular attendant at some one of the different 
 denominations, hoping some day to find out what 
 could be found out on the subject of religion. I 
 have, in my after life, read all that T could find to 
 read on the subject, to find out, or get some evi- 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 dence that we shall live again in a better world, 
 and it would be, to a deserving man, a great solace 
 through this life of tribulation, if he could get 
 together evidences in his mind that he is to have a 
 glorious future. But I have my mind made up 
 on that subject, and if I should disclose what that 
 is, it might make or shake a faith, and that I do 
 not want to do, for I do believe there is a great 
 number, without hypocrisy, believe that they will 
 meet all of their departed friends who have gone 
 before them, 
 
 I know that I have a dear sister who most fully 
 believes that she will be made happy in that meet- 
 ing beyond the grave ; I pray that it may be so But 
 if I have not at this late period of life got my 
 mind made up, it would be proof that I was too 
 stupid and not worth the labor of attempting to 
 convert. But this much I do believe, that the 
 power that brought me into this state of existence 
 will do what is right in the matter, and to that 
 power I surrender myself, trusting that all will be 
 well in the end. I was brought up by Baptist 
 parents and taught in the doctrine of Calvin, and 
 I know all the parts of the scriptures that my 
 father use to urge to sustain that doctrine; and 
 he made himself believe that it was the true doc- 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 125 
 
 trine. But I made up my mind long ago not to 
 discuss the subject. A man's belief is his as much 
 as his coat, and I would not take either from him 
 if I could. But if a man thinks himself wise on 
 those subjects let him prostrate himself on the 
 earth and look up to the heavens and see all of 
 those bright stars in the arch of blue above, then 
 look back on all he has got from books, and then 
 ask himself, " what do I know of all this beauti- 
 ful structure above and about me" Will it not 
 humble him to think how little he really knows ? 
 At least it has that effect on me. Even ask the 
 most learned astronomer what the sun is made of, 
 and what answer can he make \ 
 
 In the course of this history I have alluded to 
 a mute brother, who had to live with me, and 
 helped, by his labor, to build up the City of 
 Ripon ; and here he labored daily ; and he had 
 become so attached to my wife, by her kind care 
 of him, that it deserves a passing note, for he had 
 had a step-mother the most of his life, or until he 
 came to live with me, and he found that my wife 
 looked after his every want, and a growing attach- 
 ment sprang up between them. He would not 
 let her lift her hand to do a chore about the house, 
 for he would fly and do it himself ; and she found 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 out he was very particular how his linen and 
 clothes were done up, for he was a proud man, 
 and the Sabbath da) would always find him at 
 church, and always w 7 ell dressed. He would often 
 call my attention to the care and pains my wife 
 took of his clothes, and it was with the greatest 
 pleasure that he showed me the difference be- 
 tween this and the way his step-mother used to 
 do. And they were happy, each to serve the 
 other. But then comes the death scene ; he must 
 die. But he had lived to the age of over 70 
 years, and was always healthy. But one night, 
 after he had done every chore about the house, as 
 he was wont to do, my wife discovered that he 
 did not appear well, and she said : " Harry is not 
 well ; he looks pale and puts his hand to his heart 
 and shows he has a pain there." I thought he only 
 had a .severe cold, and I told my wife so ; but she 
 discovered something was the matter, and she said ; 
 " J shall not go to bed ; poor Harry is sick, and I 
 shall look after him ; " and she did so. She 
 nursed him all night, and in the morning he 
 dropped to sleep, and she left the room for awhile. 
 Our carpenter, a Ned Rogers, who slept in the 
 room, called to Mrs. Mapes, and said : " Harry is 
 fainting ! " Mrs. Mapes ran to the bed ; he had 
 
CITY OF BIPON 127 
 
 attempted to get up ; he looked at her with a 
 smile, as he always did, then laid back, folding 
 his hands across his breast, looked at her again and 
 said : " God bless you; you have always done all 
 you could for me," as well as a look and a smile 
 could say it, and expired without a struggle. Be- 
 fore I could get into the room he was dead. He 
 is buried by the side of my wife, whom he loved 
 so well, in our family grounds in Ripon. 
 
 I will relate an incident to show how the growth 
 of Ripon was accomplished. I had commenced 
 to build and had a mill, a public house and a store 
 or two, and I was soliciting every man that passed 
 through the village (that I thought would be a 
 good business man) to stop and help build us up. 
 G. N. Lyman had passed through on his way to 
 Berlin, and had made a commencement tbeie by 
 building a store and filling it with goods and get 
 ting lumber to supply a yard. I said to Lyman, 
 "you have mistaken your point in going to Berlin, 
 this is the spot, we have the water power and are 
 in the midst of a fine farming country." His re- 
 ply was, "your town will never amount to a row 
 of pins." But I saw that I had made him listen 
 to my story, for he came to me and said, "what 
 do you ask for your business lots," so I took him 
 
128 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 out on the plat and showed him the lots, and when 
 he had selected one he took a gold watch out of 
 his pocket and said "I will give you that for the 
 lot " I said to my son " make him out a deed," 
 for I knew that if you wanted a man to talk for a 
 place you must make him interested in the place, 
 But what I said to him about the town did not 
 affect him as much as a bargain that followed this. 
 There came to Bipon, a few days after this, two 
 good business men, seeking a location for business. 
 One was a dry goods and the other a hardware 
 merchant. They were pleased with the place but 
 found no stores, and they told me they would 
 come to Bipon if they could find accomodations 
 for their business. I told them that if they would 
 each advance one year's rent I would build them 
 a store and have it completed in sixty days. They 
 said that as soon as they could get a stock of 
 goods from New York, they would ; " but what 
 kind of a store will you build in that short time, 
 and what rent will you ask ? " "I will build you 
 two good stone stores, 60x24 feet, and have a pub- 
 lic hall over them and charge for each $250/' 
 And the bargain was made, binding myself to 
 have them done in time or pay five dollars per 
 day for every day's delay. But now for the loca- 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 129 
 
 tion of the store; no lot' would suit but the 
 one that I had sold a few days before to G. N. 
 Lyman, and he was at his home in Sheboygan, so 
 I wrote to him asking his lowest cash price for it. 
 The watch which he had given for the lot was 
 worth about fifty dollars, but his price was two 
 hundred and fifty, and, as I had no other alterna- 
 tive, I paid it; the stores had to be built, for I so 
 contracted. But Lyman was converted to Ripon, 
 and property advanced at such a rate that within 
 six months I sold him more than ten thousand dol- 
 lars worth of real estate. The stores were built 
 in time and filled with goods, and the hall over 
 them completed. At that time it was called Henton 
 Hall, since City Hall, and is now converted into a 
 large furniture wareroom. When the hall was 
 completed, we marked the floor off into twelve 
 circles for cotillion sets, and had an opening, sell- 
 ing one hundred tickets at two dollars and fifty 
 cents each. By this transaction we received seven 
 hundred and fifty dollars in advance for the stores 
 and hall, and this went far towards paying the 
 fiist cost of the building. 
 
 It is interesting to the pioneers to get together 
 and talk over the early scenes of the settlements. 
 We also used to have our yearly festivals at which 
 17 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 we usually had a good and sociable time. On one 
 of these occasions I was requested to give a history 
 of the first twenty years of the setthnent, which 
 I prepared and read at one of our meetings. The 
 address was published in the Ripon Common- 
 wealth, and found its way to all parts of the 
 country and to Europe. It was published in a 
 Belfast (Ireland) newspaper, which commented at 
 length upon it and tried to explain unto the people 
 of Belfast how we built cities and improved the 
 country in this our American world. Another 
 copy found its way to California, where it fell into 
 the hands of James Tombs who was then living 
 there with his family ; they had been among the 
 very first settlers about Ripon, and to them, amid 
 the golden mountains of the Pacific coast and far 
 from their old friends, it was particularly interest- 
 ing. They read it over and over again ; and finally 
 resolved to return to the country which I had so 
 fully described, and back they came. As I had 
 moved a short distance out of town they failed to 
 meet me until some time after their return, but 
 Mrs. Tombs espied me on the street one day, and 
 sent for me to come to the Mapes House, where 
 they were then boarding. When I arrived, she 
 said, "Now I feel as if I had got back to Ripon. 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 131 
 
 It was not Ripon without Captain Mapes. Yes, 
 Captain, that address of yours, which was pub- 
 lished in the Commonwealth, brought us back, 
 and here we are going to stay; the little girl 
 standing befoie you is to be educated here if she 
 lives. I read the address to our men every Sun- 
 day until I got them started, and now we have 
 bought a delightful home here." Thus is Ripon 
 indebted to the Captain for one more good inhab- 
 itant, for such they have always been. 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MY SPEECH AT THE PIONEER FESTIVAL. 
 
 The following is the lecture delivered before 
 the pioneers of Ripon, at Opera Hall, Tuesday 
 evening October 8, 1870. 
 
 Ladles and Gentlemen: — I claim to be the 
 founder of this fair and beautiful City of Ripon. 
 It is my child, born of my loin and brain. This 
 child has now reached the years of manhood, it 
 is precisely twenty-one years old, and at such a 
 time it is not out of place for father and child to 
 talk together, so I claim the privilege of talking 
 to you this evening. It is a wise child that knows 
 its father, and, in order that you may be wise, it 
 is proper that in commencing what I have to say 
 at this time I should give you a brief history of 
 myself, and that will tell how I came to be father 
 of so promising a child. 
 
 Your speaker was born on the banks of the 
 Hudson River; resided there until twenty years 
 old, and then went to live with a brother-in-law — 
 
CITY OF BIPON. 133 
 
 who was father of your J. B. Barlow, — in Dela- 
 ware County, New York, fifty miles west of the 
 place of my birth and boyhood, hiring out to him 
 at eight dollars per month as clerk in his store and 
 general helper upon his farm. I served him faith- 
 fully and to the best of my ability for two years 
 and a half, when I went into business with him as 
 a partner. In about a year he died, leaving me to 
 go on a] one. I there sold goods in a country 
 store, made potash, and made improvements for 
 twelve years. At the same time I got up such a 
 popularity that, in 1831, I was elected to the 
 State Legislature. How strange are the vicissi- 
 tudes of life ! My competitor in this election was 
 William B. Ogden, the great railroad king and 
 millionaire; he was a strong and popular oppo- 
 nent, but I beat him easy. That winter, while at 
 Albany, I became one of a lumber company that 
 purchased a tract of pine land in Pennsylvania, 
 near Carbondale. We there built mills, made 
 lumber, sold goods, and made some money. From 
 Carbondale I went to the city of New York in the 
 spring of 1836, and there opened a yard for the 
 sale of lumber. I was very successful the first 
 year; but the next year (1837) was the great 
 financial crash, when every bank in the United 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 States failed, and in that crash went all I had 
 made, except about six thousand dollars. With this 
 money I went to steamboating on the Hudson 
 Hi ver— following it for seven years with great 
 success — and this is why they call me Captain; my 
 military title is Major. But now again came mis- 
 fortune, by the sinking of a boat in which I had 
 put my all. I was once more in the world with 
 nothing but health and energy This was in 1844. 
 Gathering up the fragments of the wreck, and 
 taking with me my family, I came West in search 
 of that which was lost. You ask me did I find 
 it % My answer is, that 1 did not find riches, but 
 I found a substitute — I found the Garden of Eden. 
 It took a great deal of travel from East to West 
 and from West to East ; but in 1845 I did find it, 
 and when found I moved right into it — right here 
 in the midst of these beautiful and fertile prairies 
 and openings — right here upon the banks of your 
 beautiful Silver Creek. 
 
 After about four years spent in cultivating this 
 fruitful soil and improving the waste that lay 
 upon your broad and beautiful prairies, I pur- 
 chased of the owners, Governor Horner and fam. 
 ily, the property upon which the heart of your 
 beautiful and prosperous city is situated, extending 
 
CITY OF RIPON 135 
 
 from the railroad bridge to the Cresco mill-pond — 
 a spot which was, in its state of nature, the fitting 
 center of that Garden of Eden. These of you 
 who were here early enough to have seen it as 
 nature made it, with its silvery ©reek leaping and 
 jumping over rock and gravel, between its sloping 
 green banks, and skirted with its handsome groves 
 upon hills and in valleys, will, along with me, 
 remember its great beauty with almost a regret 
 that it must make way for your present splendid 
 improvements, your princely stores, your gorgeous 
 palaces, and the activity of an energetic go-ahead 
 city. 
 
 In February, 1849, myself and sons came upon 
 this beautiful spot with axes in hand, to strike the 
 first blows which were to change this beauty of 
 nature into a town, which, with your help, is a 
 beautiful specimen of the work of man. The boys 
 could not resist that feeling for the beautiful, 
 which made them regret the necessity of spoiling 
 so perfect a picture, and I was as soft in my feel- 
 ings as they, but man must labor, and must earn 
 his bread by the sweat of his brow — the axe must 
 go to the tree - felling must yield to utility ! Then 
 and there I struck the blow which began your 
 city! Then and there, twenty-one years ago, at 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the age of fifty -one years, / begot Ripon! This is 
 your genealogy. 
 
 I purchased these grounds with certain condi- 
 tions, some of which were that I should build a 
 grist-mill and public house within a year, and that 
 I should keep the house myself for one year. I was 
 to have the water-power and every alternate lot. 
 This called for an outlay of at least ten thousand 
 dollars, and was a big undertaking, for what few 
 dollars I had were in wild lands around what is 
 now your city and the improvements I had been 
 able to make; but the mill was completed, the 
 house built, and all running on time ! This hotel 
 was called the Ripon House, then the American, 
 and is now Woods' Hotel. 
 
 When the house was finished we had to give an 
 opening party, (for this was the custom in those 
 days,) and it was a great event The parties in 
 those days were social, and brought great good 
 feeling, extending acquaintances and making 
 frienships over a large section of country ; people 
 came from great distances to meet each other and 
 find neighbors. At this party, Algoma and Osh- 
 kosh bad their Spalding, Butrick, Mills, Wolsey 
 and others ; Rosendale her Col. Pinkney and 
 others ; Green Lake her Horner ; Berlin, Sat. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 137 
 
 Clark, Dakins, and others, and so on, from far and 
 near, they came in hosts, all doing credit to them- 
 selves and the occasion. Some of the fruits of 
 these parties were matrimonial. Col. Buttrick of 
 Milwaukee here met the belle of Green Lake, 
 — Miss Fanny Berlin — the result was matrimony; 
 and I suppose many other families might trace 
 their origin to the Ripon House opening. 
 
 It was no boy's job to make this a town to equal 
 or outdo its neighbors ; all of them had two, three, 
 or more years the start of us. We were on no 
 navigable waters, we then had no railroads, and 
 this little stream, although so beautiful, was small 
 for a water-power; but by talking water into the 
 stream, and giving away about all of my lots, I 
 induced settlers to come and commence, and we — 
 you and I — have gone on and made it the center 
 of trade for this rich and fertile country. 
 
 One of our first and best efforts was to com- 
 ttnence a college. We were then laughed and 
 jeered at for calling it a college, but how is it 
 now? I think it is worthy of the name, and of 
 all the effort we made to get it. When Ripon 
 had not a dozen dwellings, we put up and enclosed 
 the first college building, and your speaker was 
 President of the first institution, so you see I have 
 18 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 held office, an old Democrat, in this Republican 
 town. Our object was to draw around us a class of 
 inhabitants that would have the pride to educate 
 their children, and they would be good for every 
 good work. But it was a great undertaking;; the 
 country so new, the settlers so poor; and we had 
 to resort to every honorable means to induce them 
 to take hold. I well remember oar getting up a 
 Fourth of July celebration so as to get the people 
 together. We were all too poor to pay fifty cents 
 for a dinner, so we made it a pic-nic, and they 
 came out in crowds. Mr. Starr, myself, and oth- 
 ers, spoke to them of the advantages of a college, 
 waking up their interest nobly. With an old fife 
 and drum at the head, we formed in procession, 
 and worked up such an enthusiasm that everyone 
 was for doing all he could. One farmer got so 
 enthusiastic that he left the ranks and, running 
 ahead, whispered in my ear, " Captain, send down 
 your teams to-morrow, and I will give three thous- 
 and feet of clear lumber." I am sorry to acknowl- 
 edge that our conversion of this particular man 
 did not hold out, for when I sent the teams, the 
 next day, they came back with five hundred feet 
 of common boards, showing that his faith had 
 dropped down, but hosts of liberal men took hold 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 139 
 
 and hung fast. We started our college as a lib- 
 eral, not sectarian, institution, and afterwards 
 found that this would not do. The Methodists 
 had started a college at Appleton, and their cir- 
 cuit ministers were selling scholarships to our 
 neighbors ; so we offered our grounds and building 
 to any orthodox church that would take it and 
 make a permanent school of the highest order. 
 The Congregational Church, through Mr. Walcott, 
 took it, and most nobly are they carrying out 
 their agreement. 
 
 Upon the occasion of the celebration I have just 
 been speaking of, in my speech I took occasion to 
 say to the young ladies present that they ought 
 not to receive the addresses of any young man who 
 would not aid us with our college, "for he is not 
 fit to be your husband or the father of your chil- 
 dren." Some censured me for this, but that was 
 twenty years ago, and the number of scholars 
 under twenty now in attendance, are witnesses of 
 the wisdom of the remark. May children con- 
 tinue to be born to fill the halls of this noble 
 institution, and may its teachings always do those 
 children good ! 
 
 A newspaper was another item in your progress 
 which required effort and labor to establish, and 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 without this you might still have been a four 
 corners. We made many efforts to get a printer 
 among us, to take notes and print them, but with- 
 out success until, in 1853, one of our own number 
 (A. P. Mapes) was induced to start' the Herald, 
 and blow a horn for Ripon. The Herald was the 
 foundation of your Press -the Commonwealth is 
 its successor. Since it started we have had one 
 or two papers up to this time; we have had a Times, 
 a Spur, a Star, and several others, and they have 
 generally been conducted with ability. Among 
 the earlier editors were Judge Runnals, C. J. Allen, 
 T. J. Mapes, and George W. Parker. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago we had no churches^ 
 Episcopal services by the Rev. Mr. Ingraham, of 
 Dartford, were sometimes held in a shanty on the 
 bank of Silver Creek ; and occasional} 7 the Rev. 
 Mr. Murphy, of Waupun, held Baptist services. 
 He preached at Ceresco, to the Wisconsin Phal- 
 anx ; but the Phalanx, through their President, 
 Mr. Warren Chase, had to report to the Governor 
 of the State yearly, and in his report Mr. Chase 
 says, " We have religious services by the Baptists, 
 but not of that high order that the people were 
 prepared to appreciate " — Elder Murphy preached 
 no more. That admirable system of the Metho- 
 
CITY OF K1PON. 141 
 
 dist Church, by which their circuit ministers travel 
 between rich and poor settlements, and can get 
 out of the poor into the rich before he starves, is 
 au excellent arrangement, for which all new set- 
 tlements should thank them. To this system we 
 were al«o indebted for occasional religious ser- 
 vices. These were our religious opportunities for 
 some years ; now we have eight fine church edi- 
 fices, and I hope all well filled. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago where your Public Square 
 now is was brush and underwood. Twenty -one 
 years ago the population of what was then Bipon 
 consisted of your speaker and his family and his 
 two sons and their families. Then came the Ped- 
 ericks, father and sons; then E. L. Northrop and 
 wife, as a merchant, and with them, as a clerk, 
 E. P. Brockway, now the President of the First 
 National Bank ; then Asa Hill and family, whose 
 sons are your Hill Brothers. Then — well, they 
 came so fast after this that I can't follow them, 
 but it was from these first settles that our big 
 help in energy and liberality came. 
 
 There are two more notable characters in our 
 early history that I must mention : Our first 
 doctor, whose name was Whitcomb — he made 
 some very critical operations on his patients ; Cof 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 these, however, I had better speak when we are 
 alone) — then, there was Sebastian Shanks, a Ger- 
 man shoemaker. Him we made our first high 
 marshal 1. These, together with the Phalanx, of 
 about 20 families, in the valley below, constituted 
 the entire population of what is now your city ; 
 but I suppose you now count 5000 or 6000 — I 
 judge so from the vote you polled some years 
 since on the county division question, and of course 
 it has increased since then! That vote — 925 — Ire- 
 collect that, but have not had much to do with 
 voting since then — so I have to go back to them 
 for figures. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago, your township, post office 
 and the first ward of your city was called Ceresco 
 - -now it is all Ripon. Some may ask why these 
 names, and why this change ? Ceresco was the 
 name given to the entire township, by the Wiscon- 
 sin Phalanx, an association that had settled in the 
 valley below, the year before I came to it ; and 
 who had control of all town matters in its earliest 
 days And let me here say, that the great un- 
 popularity that became attached to this name, 
 grew out of a misapprehension of the Phalanx, 
 its objects, management, and of its members. A 
 better population of that number you will seldom 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 143 
 
 find, and some of your very best citizens of to-day 
 were of that institution. 
 
 Ripon was at first the name of but a part of 
 your city, and did not reach outside of it ; it orig- 
 inated in this way : At the time I purchased of 
 Governor Horner, he asked the privilege of giving 
 the name to our embryo city. This I granted with 
 restrictions. First, that it should not be a per- 
 sonal name. Second, that it should not be like 
 any other name in the United States; for I had 
 seen great confusion in locating towns of similar 
 names Third, that it should not be an Indian 
 name, for our State was then being covered all 
 over with Wans, and similar names, that were per- 
 fectly confounding to strangers. And lastly, that 
 the name should be short. The Governor's ances- 
 tors came from Ripon, in England; that name he 
 selected, and as it came within all the restrictions, 
 I adopted it as the name for this center. And af- 
 terwards, when the early strifes had died out, 
 and a name common to all was wanted, Ripon was 
 adopted as not having the unpopulaity attached to 
 it as there was to Ceresco, but was associated with 
 the idea of progress, and otherwise popular. Rip- 
 on and Ceresco were married in interest and feeling. 
 Ripoc being the man in the match, covered the 
 bride with its name. 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Twenty-one years ago you had no Railroad — 
 except some of basswood, with the rails running 
 the wrong way — -and if you made the trip to and 
 from Milwaukee in a week, you were fast. But 
 now you make the trip in one day, and grumble 
 because it's slow. Now, without labor or fatigue 
 you may go west to California, east to Maine or 
 sunrise, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and north 
 by railroad and river 100 miles into the heart of 
 your lumber region. But to accomplish this you 
 had to mortgage your farms ; yes, and to pay your 
 mortgages without anything in return, except the 
 benefit and a clear conscience from knowing that 
 you have all done your duty — that is, some of you 
 have done this, whilst others stood back and 
 chuckled over the event and never gave one cent. 
 But hold ! I come to praise, not to censure. You 
 did not pay for admittance here to be found fault 
 with, and if I have a chapter of censure I will 
 reserve it for another day. It is not expected that 
 you can all be saints — your sinners— well, I will 
 put them in my book. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago you had one small store, 
 12x16 — Starr & Rounds — and in that same small 
 building was your post-office This present sea- 
 son you have built between 20 and 30 stores of 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 145 
 
 stone and brick — splendid buildings, that would 
 be an ornament to any city. Twenty-one years 
 ago you had no halls ; now you have four, three 
 public and one private — all doing great credit to 
 your town. The public halls you may name ; the 
 private one I will — Jo Hall ! 
 
 Twenty-one years^ago you had no manufacto- 
 ries — now you 'have several carriage and wagon 
 shops, turning out work in large quantities and of 
 superior quality. You are making a great many 
 agricultural implements, (but not near enough;) 
 and you have a machine shop and foundry, which, 
 from a small beginning, has grown to be an insti- 
 tution you should foster and be proud of — and 
 you have some others. But let me here say, that 
 upon this question of manufacturing, much of the 
 future growth of Ripon depends ; you must give 
 men something to do if you wish to keep them in 
 town. Go to manufacturing. He who works him- 
 self, and helps his fellow to work, and gets his 
 pay, is the great man. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago you had a small grist mill 
 
 — at Ceresco — now you have at least one large one 
 
 and at one time we had five|flouring mills on the 
 
 stream ; we also had at one time, a woolen mill, 
 
 19 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 but that, except what is left as a brewery, has 
 gone into the mills. 
 
 The question is frequently asked, why these di- 
 agonal streets % The answer is, that I hud out the 
 town at right angles, with the cardinal points of 
 the compass ; but the Phalanx then held the town 
 offices and town power-, and they had laid out 
 these angling roads and would not change them. 
 We had our town to build then, and could not 
 wait to out-vote them, so had to submit to the 
 " powers that be." But that inconvenience is 
 probably more than compensated for, by the fact 
 that these same men extended their angling roads 
 far into the country in every direction, and made 
 the distances into Ripon the shorter for it ; besides, 
 Philadelphia, with its square corners is only a 
 second-class city, whilst New York, the great city, 
 is full of just such three cornered blocks as yours, 
 and like you, makes the best of it, by building on 
 them noble and ornamental buildings. 
 
 I have spoken of giving away lots, to induce 
 settlers to come in. The first three of these were: 
 to E. L. Northrop, a lot upon the east side of the 
 public square ; this lot, without buildings, is now 
 worth at least, $7,500, and was given upon condi- 
 tion that he kept a stock of goods one year. To 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 147 
 
 the Pedricks, the lot where Coe & Corbit are now 
 selling goods ; this lot, in its naked state, is now 
 worth at least $8,000, and was given on condition 
 of the building and painting of a two story house. 
 To Alexander Beardsley, a lot east of the Ameri- 
 can House, upon condition of building a stone 
 blacksmith shop — the one that is there now — and 
 I might go on and tell you of a greairmany more, 
 if I had the time, but I have not. They have all 
 received their deeds and a good title from me. 
 and, I am glad to say, made money out of them. 
 
 Twenty years ago you had no fire companies, 
 and no fires except the prairies on fire. Up to the 
 time I left here— a year ago last September — we 
 never had a fire, except Dobb's small barn; but 
 since then you have been getting ambitious in that 
 line, and have had several that would do credit to 
 any town. Now you have fire companies and en- 
 gine houses, somewhere in town, I suppose, but I 
 have not seen them. 
 
 Twenty-one years ago the naked prairies was 
 your only race-course and fair grounds, and there 
 was no association to run them. But now you 
 have a beautiful driving park and fair ground, with 
 fine enclosure, track, stands, buildings and every- 
 thing complete ; but above all, two hundred stock- 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 holders — two hundred as live men as ever associ- 
 ated in any enterprise. The organization of this 
 association, and the getting up of its grounds and 
 buildings in thirty days, and the extraordinary 
 success of its undertakings for the last four years 
 cannot be surpassed — I don't believe it can be 
 equalled. These two hundred men are just as lib- 
 eral, go-ahead, energetic men as they make. Arid 
 it is to these, and to others like them, that your 
 town owes most for its prosperity. I never asked 
 one of the two hundred to take stock but what he 
 took it. I have often been asked how we got to* 
 gether such a set of men in and about Ripon. The 
 answer is, that I had a net set here at Ripon, to 
 stop the big ones and let the little ones go on. 
 
 In early days the emigration to all the country 
 north of this had to pass through Ripon; this was 
 on the road to Princeton, Berliu, Eureka, Omro, 
 Oshkosh, Neenah, Appletou, <fec, giving me the 
 opportunity of talking with those who were trav- 
 eling in these directions. If I found a man I 
 thought would make a good citizen, I spent time 
 on him, but if I thought he was little fish, I let 
 him slide, telling him that they were building 
 towns north of us on navigable waters, and there 
 was the place for him. This is the way I caught 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 149 
 
 such a lot of good fellows, and fastened them to 
 Ripon. It took some tall talking, and sometimes 
 led men to call me gassy. I had some friends who 
 followed me from the East — Mr Bowen, who has 
 done so much for your college, and so much for 
 your building, and Mr. Barlow, who has been an 
 active and good business man with you. They 
 had be^n clerks with me thirty and forty years 
 ago, and knew that all I said was not gas; at any 
 rate I had not spoiled their business habits, and 
 all I have said for Ripon has been more than car- 
 ried out. 
 
 In starting your town 1 used to take strangers 
 to the top of College Hill, and there, whilst show- 
 ing them the beauties and extent of our country, 
 explain to them our plans, and what we were 
 going to do; how we would have a line of colleges 
 here; how, upon the one hundred aud twenty feet 
 fall on our stream, a division into twenty feet each 
 would make a circle of five mills; that upon every 
 hill we would have a church, and upon every swell 
 of ground a beautiful lesidence; that our Main 
 Street would be built up with two and three story 
 houses, and how we could and would do a great 
 deal more. I remember distinctly of one day 
 taking to that hill a lamented friend — Lester Sex- 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ton, of Milwaukee. I told him all these things, 
 and remember how he looked at me f.s though he 
 doubted my prophecies. As he afterwards told 
 me, he went home and got about him his salesmen, 
 book-keepers, clerks, and some friends, and told 
 them about his trip; how at Ripon he saw the 
 gassiest man he had ever seen; an old steamboat 
 captain by the name of Mapes; how I told him 
 where we were going to have colleges, mills, stores, 
 etc., and almost made him believe that he saw, 
 right on the naked prairie, a population of four 
 thousand or five thousand inhabitants. When 
 telling me of this, he said that I appeared so san- 
 guine of what I said that he did not lose sight of 
 me or my town; and the last time I saw him 
 before he died he told me that he had seen all my 
 gassy story carried out, and more too. It was 
 through him that we borrowed ten thousand dol- 
 lars to put through the Ripon and Wolf River 
 River Railroad, over which passes all that lumber 
 for your city and the country around you. So 
 you see, the Captain's gas has done something to- 
 wards the building up of your town 
 
 Speaking of my foretelling what Ripon would 
 be, there were some who believed me and acted 
 upon that belief at once. My good friend, Mr. 
 
CITY OF RIPOK. 15 L 
 
 Richard Catlin, rode up to where we were laying 
 the foundation for the first house (that was the 
 American House), and asked what we were going 
 to do here. I stopped work long enough to tell 
 him my plans, and he believed, for he went right 
 off and bought up all the Government lands he 
 could for miles around Kipon. These lands were 
 all good, and by having this center grow up as I 
 said it would, his lands have brought him a good 
 price His faith in me has done him good, and he 
 has found his account in it. 
 
 Pioneers always have some doleful tales to tell 
 of privations and hardships gone through with in 
 settling up a new country ; but I have none to tell 
 of this. When I was a boy I had some experience 
 in the hardships of clearing up heavy timber, but 
 here we had none of that. Our meadowy were 
 all ready to put in the scythe and cut all the hay 
 we wanted ; the ground was already cleared, ready 
 to put in the plow. Could there be anything 
 more delightful than we had in the work of im- 
 proving our prairie farms? And they have paid 
 so well ! You, farmers, must not get the blues. 
 Wheat will come up again; and if it does not 
 raise something else. Your lands are rich, you 
 have good markets at your door, and you get your 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 lumber here in the city as cheap as it can be pur- 
 chased in America. Your climate is as good as 
 any in the worldj; no long droughts, but alternate 
 rain and sunshine. I hear some wishing they 
 could sell out and go where the winters are 
 shorter. Why are you so fearful of winter? You 
 are not obliged to be out more than to make the 
 contrast agreeable. Your fuel is cheap, so fill 
 your stove, look out of the window, and whistle 
 at the cold. Sitting by the fire with your wife, 
 that is comfort, if your tempers are compatible ; if 
 not, you have only got to go to Chicago or Dodge 
 County and get a divorce, then try the compati. 
 bility again. But do not go away from Central 
 Wisconsin to find a better place; you can't do it! 
 You may be proud to say, when away from home, 
 that you hail from Ripon. If your daughter is 
 educated at Ripon College, that will pass her to a 
 good husband ; and if your son is schooled here, 
 his addresses will be cordially received in the best 
 families of the country. I have seen the little 
 girl grow up here to be the accomplished lady; to 
 be the bride gracing the drawing-rooms of Eastern 
 cities, and in this, believe me, I have pride, as also 
 in your young men. Yes, and my own daughter 
 who was schooled here; she and her husband went 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 153 
 
 away from me. But they brought her back, and 
 laid her upon that beautiful hill. Beautiful? 
 Yes, if there can be beauty in a grave-yard, it is 
 in that spot of ground, lying in the very centre of 
 your city, so retired from the stir and bustle of 
 town; it is "death in the midst of life." I have 
 dear friends there; and when the time comes that 
 I must go, you that may be here, please lay me 
 quietly by their side. When I tell you how many 
 years I have lived, you may think that those ser- 
 vices can not be delayed long, and they may not ; 
 but it is not the number of years that always 
 make men old, but how those years have been 
 lived, and I am willing that yon delay these ser- 
 viees, as long as good Heaven may have decreed. 
 
 On the 16th of January last, 1870, I had lived 
 72 years, and I stand before you reading my own 
 manuscript, without glasses ; I have my own 
 teeth and hair, and am hale and hearty. I feel 
 some like the old Vermonter, who had the idea, 
 and used to say, that people would not die if they 
 did not kill themselves with medicine. His 
 friends said, " you must die ; how are you going 
 to keep from it ? He said he would keep walking; 
 " no man ever died walking." So I propose to 
 keep walking. Yes, I have led an active life, and 
 20 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that, I think, helps to prolong it. T hope to see 
 much improvement in your city yet. 
 
 I had almost forgotten some of our early institu- 
 tions. When I speak of our first livery stable ; some 
 of you will smile at the recollection of its proprie- 
 tor, Jesse Campion Do you see him? An Eng- 
 lish plowman, with a walk that gave a peculiar 
 swing to his body, as though one foot was travel- 
 ing on the land and the other in the furrow. His 
 "'orses," as he called them, were three; one spa- 
 vined and two ring-boned. He used to carry his 
 passengers by weight; so much a hundred weight, 
 and distance was of no account; for his customers 
 had to pay bis bills on the road. His was the 
 first wedding in the city. He married a Yankee 
 girl; but the match was incompatible. Ripon 
 now has livery stables to compare with any of its 
 neighbors. 
 
 Our first dray-horse was " Dick." He had the 
 misfortune to break a leg while on the road from 
 Milwaukee to Ripon, and was turned out to die; 
 but Dick did not die; his leg calloused over so he 
 could be used, and the public, with him, done their 
 own draying. He was a sort of public property, 
 for he who got Dick up first, had the best right. 
 But the citizens began to quarrel who should use 
 him; then I sold Dick into other service. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 155 
 
 Our first Congregational clergyman was a young 
 man by the name of Sherrill. He was fresh from 
 the schools, and had much to learn of Western 
 men and manners. He officiated at the second 
 wedding, and weddings of those days were not 
 like Ripon weddings of 1870. This was a young 
 carpenter of about twenty years old, and a young 
 girl of about thirty. I received a description of 
 the affair from Mr. Sherrill, and sympathized with 
 the girl. They had walked about six miles to 
 town and found Mr. Sherrill away from home, but 
 he was expected back soon. They waited ; the 
 hours went away slow to them; the girl got very 
 impatient and would go to window every few 
 minutes, apparently fearing that he would not 
 come so as to marry them that night. But he 
 came at last ; and the poor girl was relieved. 
 
 I have said that T came to praise not to censure, 
 but I suppose you have vices amongst you, though, 
 I think, as few as any town of its size. One of 
 the best helpers I had in starting and building up 
 the town had peculiar and very rigid notions on 
 the subject of temperance. He did not want a 
 drop of liquor sold in the town, and was deter- 
 mined there should not be if he could help it- 
 He made war upon the settlers and got up a great 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 trouble with them, making for himself many ene- 
 mies. They took the wheels from his carriage 
 and hid them in the pond; they disfigured his 
 horse, besmeared his sign, and behaved badly with 
 him. He then used to wish he had soveieign 
 power, he would banish liquor from the world. 
 But time rolled on ; he went into the army, and 
 became Provost Marshal of a large Southern city, 
 with all the power he could sigh for, but he found, 
 as he told me, that with all his power, he could 
 not banish it from use; some men will have it. 
 His views are changed on that subject. The tares 
 and wheat will grow up together, even in this 
 moral town of Ripon. 
 
 Twenty years ago, when the commnnity resorted 
 to hot bricks, and perhaps a little No. 6, for medi- 
 cine, we had no drug stores. Perhaps Mr. Nor- 
 throp or Mr. Starr might have supplied you with 
 opodeldoc or pain-killer; but that would have 
 been all. Now you have three fine and extensive 
 establishments, the fixtures of which alone are 
 worth more than the whole of Ripon was then. 
 
 Now you have extensive stocks of boots and 
 shoes, but twenty years ago the best you could do 
 was to get a pair of stogies of Mr. Starr. I re- 
 member one pair that he sold. An immigrant 
 
CITY OF R1PON. 157 
 
 who had just moved into the town of Rosendale, 
 walked into Ceresco barefooted to get himself 
 boots. He said he had a pair of calfskin boots at 
 home, but for every day use they were too costive ! 
 Mr. Starr sold him a pair less costive 
 
 1, might go on for hours with these comparisons, 
 and with anecdotes and incidents that would per- 
 haps be interesting — and there are many that I 
 should like to speak of — but I have talked long 
 enough for this occasion, and will draw to a close 
 after I have said a word for the ladies'. 
 
 If we had a milliner shop twenty one years ago 
 the business was poor, for at that time our ladies 
 were glad to trim over their old bonnets, and make 
 the new ones themselves. But now it is changed 
 — in war times the business was prosperous, and 
 the shops made money, and built up several fine 
 establishments for you, who keep up with the 
 fashions and tastes of the day. 1 think the gen- 
 tlemen who have to pay the bills, should be thank- 
 ful for the late improvements, for a ladies' hat 
 used to cost ten dollars and upwards; but they 
 must be cheaper now, they are so very small. I 
 do not mean to ridicule the fashions, for I like to 
 see a well dressed lady, and see her dress in the 
 fashion. Gentlemen who travel much know how 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a well dressed lady look^ to them after making a 
 trip up in the back -woods, where the poor woman 
 has to work hard and go barefooted. No, all 
 would dress well if they could ; do not envy the 
 well dressed, for you will all do so when you can ; 
 and I like it. 
 
 Now, take Ripon as it was, and compare it with 
 the present, and are we not all satisfied with its 
 progress ? Take Ripon as she is and compare her 
 with other towns, and is there not full reason to 
 be proud of her ? I could go on all night in her 
 praise ; but you know it, and with me are proud 
 of your place. 
 
 I have talked mostly of your town, but it is 
 to your country and farmers that you owe your 
 growth. You had your Beardsleys, your Wests, 
 your Kelloggs, Lights, Osborns, Higleys, Millers, 
 Turners, Taylors, and hosts of other good fellows — 
 and Geoige was not the least amongst them, — to 
 back you ; names that have always stood by 
 Ripon. And may they never leave to look for a 
 better country, for they can not find it this side of 
 Jordan. I believe as my stuttering friend told the 
 hoosier who was looking for the best and healthiest 
 country. He had traveled far to find such a place 
 and felt anxious upon the subject; and when told 
 
CITY OF RIPON 159 
 
 by my friend that he did not know of but one bet- 
 ter and healthier than this, inquired at once where 
 that was. The answer came out in that dry man- 
 ner which some of you will recollect, "H-e-a-v-e-n !" 
 
160 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DEATH OF MY WIFE. 
 
 In the niidst of Life, Death must keep pace and 
 make its demands upon the living. And here, 
 while pursuing my daily cares, he asked me to 
 surrender a much loved wife, with whom I had 
 lived through many years of joy and sorrow ; she 
 who only a short time before had so kindly soft- 
 ened the pillow of my mute brother, had to have 
 the same sad duty performed for her. Here let 
 me say to the reader, how little we know of this 
 world, or another. The mind is held by so small 
 a thread, that twice in the course of my life there 
 appears to have been almost a blank ; once when 
 losing about all of my property in the sinking of 
 a steamboat, and now in the loss of a w if e. There 
 is a space ; and when I try to run back in my 
 memory and call to mind things that transpired, I 
 am lost. In this last blow I almost lost mind and 
 all, for she was with me in prosperity and adver- 
 sity and was always the same; ready to help to 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 161 
 
 cheer up and help face the frowns of fortune. 
 But she was gone, and I was alone in the world, 
 except my wife's maiden sister, who had lived with 
 us since she was nine years of age. She was 
 called Aunt Mary; almost every family has an 
 A ant Mary in it. 
 
 My children were married and gone for them- 
 selves, so I resolved to break up my home, and 
 Aunt Mary went to live with a sister in a distant 
 part of the State, leaving me quite alone. Aunt 
 Mary had been in the family as child, sister, help, 
 had assisted in bringing up my family, and was 
 much endeared to us in all these relations. I 
 had taken great pains to give her a liberal edu- 
 cation, and had taught her music and every 
 little accomplishment, for all through my pros- 
 perity I had the means to do it, and she was an 
 accomplished woman. I bought her a piano and 
 parlor organ and had her taught to play them 
 well, and when I came in wearied from my busi- 
 ness I would sit down for a little rest, and say, 
 " Mary, please play me a lively tune and sing a 
 song," and she was always ready to please me in 
 that way. But she went to visit a brother, who 
 was a Methodist clergyman, in Delaware, and 
 while there attended a religious revival, became a 
 21 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 convert, and was taught that the Lord would not 
 be well pleased with her if she played those lively 
 tunes upon the piano — tunes that had been ray 
 delight in moments of weariness. I lost so much 
 by the revival. As she was not a hypocrite, and 
 really believed in what she had heard, I did not 
 insist upon her playing them. Some time after- 
 wards, upon entering the house I heard some one 
 in the parlor playing "Roy's Wife" upon the 
 piano, and I said to my wife, "Who have you got 
 for company in the parlor, playing the piano?" 
 "There is no one but' Aunt Mary," she replied. 
 "No," said I, "it can not be her, for they are play- 
 ing "Roy's Wife." "Well," said she, "there is no 
 one that I know of." I stepped to the door, and 
 it was Aunt Mary; she had come across a work 
 called "The Southern Harp," containing religious 
 hymns set to lively tunes, such as "Roy's Wife" 
 and "Old DaL Tucker;" so I got back my tunes — 
 the words I could think. 
 
 But Aunt Mary was dissatisfied away from 
 my family, and kept writing to me, urging 
 me to commence housekeeping again, so I re- 
 solved to make them a holiday visit about 
 New Years, and, while on that visit, I proposed 
 that she should return to Ripon and keep house 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 163 
 
 for me. She was willing to come, but her sister 
 said, "No, you can not go with the Captain, unless 
 he marries you." This was the first thought of 
 the kind that had entered my mind. She had 
 lived with me in almost every relationship but 
 that of wife, and I had loved her as a sister, an 
 adopted daughter and a friend, but this put us to 
 the blush. I could make no other terms with her 
 sister in order to have her return, so we had to 
 submit, and when the visit at my brother-in-law's 
 closed, he got the clergyman to say she might go 
 back with me, and we returned to Ripon. She 
 made a good wife, and for one act of her's I give 
 her praise. She was, as you have learned, a good 
 Methodist sister, and on a certain occasion she 
 was approached by another sister who said : 
 
 "Sister Mapes, do you know that your husband 
 is talked about ?" 
 
 "Well," she replied, "what do they say of my 
 husband V 
 
 " Why, they say he is fond of women." 
 
 "Has he ever been rude to you?" 
 
 " Oh, no ! He has always been the gentleman to 
 me?" 
 
 "Sister ", said my wife, "I have known my 
 
 husband ever since I was a child, and I think I 
 
164 H1STOEY OF THE 
 
 know him well ; when he is rude to you it will be 
 soon enough for you to come to me about him, and 
 not until then." 
 
 In the early part of this history I omitted 
 giving an account of my military exploits. I 
 omitted my first exploit, and I will now give it, so 
 that you may know why I became a military officer 
 with my hat-crown full of commissions. When 
 but a boy, I went on horse-back from Coxsackie 
 (the town of my birth) to Vent, to visit my sister 
 who had married Mr. Barlow, a merchant in Del- 
 aware County, N. Y., a distance of about fifty 
 miles. While there I saw a gun in Mr. Barlow's 
 store, and asked the privilege of inspecting it. 
 While lookiDg it over, my brother-in-law asked me 
 if I would like to own that gun. I said that I 
 would, as 1 had not, up to that time, ever shot a 
 gun. He then told me that if I would carry the 
 gun home with me, on horse-back, f might have it. 
 He did not think that I would do it; but he was 
 mistaken, for I had that gun on my shoulder when 
 I bid my friends good-bye. I have always thought 
 that it was the gun that shortened my visit, as I 
 was extremely anxious to try my skill as a hunter. 
 So home I went, and made haste to get ammunition 
 for the trial; the powder and shot was obtained, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 165 
 
 but I did not know the necessary quantity required 
 for a load, but I meant to make a sure thing of it 
 anyway. The first object that I saw to shoot was 
 a red headed wood-pecker that was sitting on an 
 old, dry tree, pecking away for his dinner. I 
 thought that I would be able to carry his red head 
 home with me, as a trophy of my skill as a hunter; 
 so, to make a sure thing of it, I got over a rail 
 fence and pointed for the bird, and pulled away ; 
 the charge was so large that it sent me sprawling 
 in one direction and the bird in the other. The 
 gun I kept, but sold the ammunition, and have 
 never shot a gun since then. My first wife used 
 to remind me of it whenever I put on my regimen- 
 tals for a grand dress parade, by asking me if I 
 was the man that shot the wood-pecker. It would 
 generally bring me down 
 
 This shooting business I have never liked since, 
 although I once threatened an object meaner than 
 that bird, the circumstances of which I will here 
 relate: During the war of the rebellion a regi- 
 ment, known as the First Wisconsin Cavalry, was 
 raised at Ripon, and Ed. Daniels was placed in 
 command. The regiment was composed of as 
 noble a set of men as ever went into the service — 
 " barring " the Colonel, of whom I need not speak 
 
1G6 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 for he has proved his unfitness for any post of 
 trust. At the time the regiment was assembling 
 at Ripon, my son and wife and James Lambert 
 were running a newspaper, and the officers and 
 men of the regiment got up a petition to the Gov- 
 ernor for the removal of Daniels, and brought it 
 to my son to have it published in the paper, and 
 it was being set up for insertion in the next issue. 
 To prevent it from appearing, Daniels hired some 
 vagabonds, whom he kept about his house, to go 
 into the office, while my son and wife were 
 at tea, and break it up, throwing the type into 
 the streets, and demolishing the windows. This 
 was in the fall of 1861, during a cold snow-storm. 
 In the morning the office was a desolate sight; all 
 that my son's family depended upon for a living 
 having been destroyed by Daniels. My son had 
 just tied up all his means in the Ripon and Wolf 
 River Railroad, and had only the press for the sup- 
 port of his family, and as winter was just setting in 
 it was gloomy indeed ; and when I came into the 
 office I found my son's wife, who had come there 
 to commence her daily toil of setting type, and 
 she in tears ; you may well imagine my feelings. 
 I went to one of my sons and got a bill of what 
 was destroyed, and I told him to make it out 
 
CITY OF RIPON 167 
 
 against the scamp Daniels. He done so, and I 
 took the bill, together with a revolver that I had 
 got of D. Greenway, with instructions to use it if 
 the bill was not paid, and I was determined that 
 he should pay the bill or fare worse than the 
 wood-pecker that flew away, I started for him. 
 He was mounted and riding at great speed, giving 
 orders and having his regiment removed to Racine 
 before there could be action taken against him. I 
 placed myself at the corner of the street, by the 
 Baptist Church, waiting his approach to make the 
 demand. During these preparations, my son and 
 Judge Mayham had heard of my doings, at D. 
 Greenway's, and fearing that something wrong 
 might grow out of it, they went in pursuit of me, 
 and found me, one hand holdine: the horses bit, 
 and the other holding the revolver, making the 
 demands. They caught me around my arms, and 
 told Daniels, the scamp, to save himself by flight, 
 which he done. But he was a white man, as far 
 a^> color is concerned, and he ran his horse at the 
 top of his speed, got into a car and put a double 
 guard about it until the train moved off with the 
 regiment. 
 
 At the time of my writing this history of 
 Daniels, the post boy came in with this letter and 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the article enclosed, and I think it fitting to insert 
 it just here as a part of the history. This letter 
 is from Senator G. W. Mitchell, who has repre- 
 sented this Ripon district in the State Senate since 
 the occurrence of these acts, and has held other 
 prominent offices in this place, and was living here 
 in Ripon at the time it occurred. 
 
 Dubuque, Iowa, Feb. 1, 1878. 
 Dear Capt : 
 
 I cut from a paper the enclosed re- 
 poit of Col. Richard Daniels, which I enclose 
 hoping it may serve you in writing up your life ; 
 as the newspaper men say, it furnishes an item. 
 In haste, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 G. W. Mitchell. 
 
 COL. EDWARD DANIELS. 
 
 From the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Common- 
 wealth, we take the following : 
 
 Col. Edward Daniels, being an outlaw and a 
 thief, is just about the style of a man the Re- 
 publicans of Virginia, or the Republicans of any 
 where else, are likely to respect. Such a person 
 makes a magnificent representative of such a 
 party. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 169 
 
 In 1860, this Edward Daniels, in company with 
 Oscar Hugh LaGrange and several others, went 
 into the federal building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
 and liberated therefrom one S. M. Booth, who was 
 held for the violation of a federal law. When 
 the United States Marshals were sent to re-capture 
 the escaped criminal, Daniels and LaGrange 
 organized mobs who paraded the streets of the 
 quiet little city of Kipon on Sunday, making a 
 great display of guns, and bidding positive 
 defiance to the laws and authorities of the United 
 States. 
 
 A year later, this Daniels, who had been such a 
 furious States Rights man, began the organization 
 of a cavalry regiment, with which to invade cer- 
 tain States, whose citizens, like himself, Booth, 
 LaGrange, and the Republicans of Wisconsin 
 generally, had bid defiance to the federal authori- 
 ty. The organization and equipment of this regi- 
 ment had not been authorized by the State, nor 
 had any authority to proceed with it been receiv- 
 ed from the United States. However, recruiting 
 for it went forward during the summer of 1861, 
 and its fragments went into camp at Ripon. 
 
 With his usual foresight and sagacity, " Colonel 
 Edward Daniels" had gathered together several 
 22 
 
170 HISTOEY OF THE 
 
 hundred men without any means of feeding or 
 providing for them. But what did he care for 
 this ? Was he not the self -constituted colonel of 
 the regiment ? To be sure he was, and " Colonel 
 Edward Daniels " in time became so much a 
 Colonel that one day at drill he dextrously and 
 corageously cut off the ear of his horse by the 
 clumsy manipulating of his sword. A another 
 time a lady who was on the parade ground had a 
 new silk dress ruined and was nearly slaughtered 
 by the brave "Colonel Edward Daniels," whose 
 sword — that unfurtnnate instrument — parted with 
 his hand while " Colonel Edward Daniels " was 
 nobly brandishing it in mid-air. 
 
 The generous-hearted citizens took compassion 
 on those who had arrived in camp, and for weeks 
 supplied them with food, with blankets and cloth- 
 ing. Almost every house in the city was appeal- 
 ed to, and almost every one gave more or less. In 
 time the regiment received the sanction of the 
 authorities, and then " Colonel Edward Daniels " 
 presented a bill for keeping the regiment, for food 
 and clothing supplied, and got the pay, which he 
 magnanimously put into his own pocket. The 
 generosity and humanity of the people were his 
 profit. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 171 
 
 The Ripon Star, a semi-weekly newspaper, 
 owned and edited by Mapes and Lambert, had the 
 courage to expose these thieving outrages of " Col- 
 onel Edward Daniels." The exposures struck him 
 so tenderly that "Colonel Edward Daniels" de- 
 tailed about him one hundred of his lacqueys, 
 chief of whom was a Lieutenant Hobbs, and these 
 on the night of September 21, 1861, mobbed the 
 office of the Star, throwing its type and cases and 
 materia] out of the window into the street. "Col- 
 onel Edward Daniels" took good pains not to be 
 in town at the time of this outlawry, but his 
 lacqueys made no secret of the fact that he had 
 ordered the destruction. The next morning the 
 regiment took an early extra train and went into 
 camp in another part of the State. Although the 
 Republicans outnumbered the Democrats three to 
 one, it was altogether too hot there for "Colonel 
 Edward Daniels," for there he was too well known; 
 
 An outlaw and thief ! 
 
 "Colonel Edward Daniels" is a good man for 
 the scallawags and carpet-baggers and negroes — 
 who are called the Republican party in that 
 State — to honor. And yet when the Republican 
 party of Virginia has any chance of success it 
 even will not nominate "Colonel Edward Daniels.' 1 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 And of all that can be said of this, our times 
 perhaps, it ill becomes me to speak disrespectfully 
 of such men as this Daniels, who, by his position, 
 is taken into what is called the first society, as I 
 see by the meeting in Washington, in honor of 
 Senator Howe. AmoDg the great men of Wiscon- 
 sin appears the name of Col. Edward Daniels. If 
 justice was done him he would be looking through 
 the bars of a prison door. But such are the aris- 
 tocracy of America to-day, and all that is needed 
 to place yourself among them, is the dollars. If 
 you think I censure to harshly, read the papers of 
 the day and see the investigations of bribery and 
 corruption going on in the land, and then say if I 
 am to severe. They say that when matters get at 
 the worst they mend — pray that they may menft 
 soon, for Heaven knows they are bad enough now. 
 But I cannot write with any patience when my son 
 and daughter, who had been laboring for the im- 
 provement and prosperity of the country, should 
 lose their litlle all by such villains, and never get 
 one cent for it, while such men as Daniels, and oth- 
 ers that I mi^ht mention, are holding all of the 
 best offices of the place, when they never lifted a 
 hand but for themselves. I had thought that I 
 might live to see my country redeemed from their 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 173 
 
 hands; that I might have said with good old Simeon, 
 " Now let Thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes 
 hath seen her salvation;" but it looks doubtful at 
 present. 
 
 Tn giving the history of myself and Ripon, it 
 becomes proper to speak of the wars we have been 
 through, and taken a part in. I will now speak 
 of the Booth war that occurred in Ripon. There 
 was a colored man brought to the jail of Milwau- 
 kee for safe keeping, until his owner could come 
 and claim him under the fugitive slave law of the 
 United States. When the owner came for him 
 Sherman M. Booth, who was at this time, editing 
 a paper in Milwaukee, called the Free Democrat, 
 learning that the negro was to be taken by the 
 laws of the United States, mounted a horse in mid- 
 day and rode through the streets of Milwaukee, 
 shouting at the top of his voice, " Freeman to the 
 rescue, to the rescue ! " A mob followed him to 
 the jail, and throwing open the doors they took the 
 negro out and passed him on to Racine, and so out 
 of the hands of the Government. For this Booth 
 was arrested and tried, and fined two thousand 
 dollars and one year's imprisonment, and if the fine 
 was not paid at the end of the year, to remain in 
 prison until it was paid. The United States hav- 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ing no prison in the State but the Government 
 Custom House, at Milwaukee, they kept him in 
 that for a year; and as the two thousand dollars 
 was not paid then, he had to remain there until 
 some sympathising friends at Ripon conceived a 
 plan to liberate him from prison. A conspiracy 
 was formed and, by forged papers to the keeper, 
 admission to the prison obtained, and Booth liber- 
 ated at mid-day. He was taken by team to a 
 railroad station six miles west of Milwaukee, and 
 thence to Ripon, the den of his liberators, who 
 fondly protected him. Here he remained for some- 
 days, defying the whole power of the United 
 States Government. Such was the loyalty of the 
 then majority of the citizens of Ripon that the 
 officers who came to arrest him could not find 
 him; so they arrested some of the conspirators 
 and escorted them to the depot, where they were 
 beset by an armed mob who rescued the prisoners 
 and compelled the officers to return empty-handed. 
 After this, Booth came out of his hiding-place, 
 and gave notice that he would deliver public 
 speeches at the City Hall and in the groves. The 
 United States Couit again sent a Marshal to effect 
 his recapture This officer put up at the Mapes 
 House, and there remained until Booth had com- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 175 
 
 menced speaking at the hall, whither he proceeded 
 and, displaying the process from the Court, at- 
 tempted his arrest. The entire audience arose in 
 one infuriated mob, and threatened to kill the 
 Marshal before Booth should be taken. They 
 then seized the Marshal, dragged him from the 
 hall, and threw him down stairs into the street, 
 crying, "Kill him, kill him!" and I think they 
 would have done so had he not hurriedly returned 
 to the hotel for protection, and even there my son 
 and I were compelled to stand at the foot of the 
 stairs and, by main force, deter this mob of loyal 
 citizens from committing further violence. 
 
 Booth then visited the radical villages, making 
 harangues against the Grovernment, and defying 
 the laws of the country. At Berlin arrangements 
 had been made whereby he could hold forth in one 
 of the churches of that village, for the churches in 
 this region were all loyal on the wrong side, 
 excepting the Episcopal and Catholic, and to their 
 praise be it said, they were truly loyal and would 
 not join in against the Government. Marshal 
 Taylor, of Berlin, immediately took measures to 
 secure his speedy return to prison, and called on 
 the law-and-order portion of Bipon's citizens, to- 
 gether with a few Mil waukeeans, to assist in car- 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rying out the programme. The railroad was then 
 in charge of Lindsey Ward and Levi Blossom, who 
 also assisted, and, at the time appointed, an engine 
 and caboose was in waiting, fired up and ready 
 for a run. The meeting was held in the church, 
 agreeable to notice, and Booth incited the good 
 radicals of Berlin against the Government, and 
 again defied its laws. At the close of the meeting 
 he was taken in charge by two Berlin ladies, and 
 a company of what were at that time called 
 4 ' Wide- A wakes" escorted the trio until they 
 considered them beyond the reach of danger. 
 But the Marshal, backed by Mr. Rundel and the 
 friends from Ripon, were in waiting for him, and 
 Cooley, the livery man, had a team in readiness 
 close by. Rundel seized Booth and laid him gently 
 in the carriage which was quickly driven to the 
 waiting train, to which he was transferred, and 
 was soon speeding to Milwaukee, where the morn- 
 ing sun found him safely ensconsed in the Cus- 
 tom House. Here he remained until the Govern- 
 ment let him out. I hope it has made him a 
 better citizen, and that he has learned to obey the 
 laws of the country. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 177 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TRAVELING FOR THE MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I will give a chapter of my life and times in a 
 new business, for me, In my struggles to build 
 the Ripon and Wolf River Railroad, I had to talk 
 to the business men of Milwaukee to get from 
 them the ten thousand dollars to purchase the iron 
 for our road. At that time there was a great com- 
 petition, between Milwaukee and Chicago, for the 
 State trade, so the Merchants' Association of Mil- 
 waukee conceived the project of employing a suit- 
 able man to travel and solicit the trade of the 
 States of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa; they 
 thought that if I could talk them out of ten thous- 
 and dollars in one night, at the chamber of Com- 
 merce, I would do to travel for their interest. So 
 they gave me a call, as the clergymen say, and I 
 accepted, as I had my City of Ripon under good 
 headway, and had the misfortune to lose a good 
 wife, whose obituary notice I will here insert: 
 
 "Died, on the 19th of January, 1864, after a 
 23 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 short illness, Mary C, wife of Capt. D. P. Mapes, 
 aged fifty years. 
 
 "The deceased was one of the first who under- 
 went the many hardships incident to a pioneer life 
 in this portion of Wisconsin, and has ever, by her 
 many truly Christian virtues, endeared herself to 
 all who knew her. Those of 'her friends who were 
 
 a, 
 
 with her when her spirit took its flight, know that 
 she has but fallen asleep." 
 
 I went to work for the Milwaukee commercial 
 interests with a will — and let me hear say that I 
 had a high opinion of the business men of Mil- 
 waukee — for at the time I labored for them the 
 Association was made up of high-minded, honora- 
 ble business men, at least, that part of them that 
 were my employers. I will here insert a list of the 
 first-class and reliable wholesale merchants of Mil- 
 waukee, Wisconsin, July 1st, 1863. 
 
 Boots and Shoes. — Atkins, Steele & White; 
 Bradley & Metcalf ; A. F. Clarke & Co. 
 
 Clothing.- — H. Friend & Bros.; Wells, Simonds 
 &Co. 
 
 Crockery and Glassware. — Blair & Persons. 
 
 Drugs, Paints and Oils. — Greene & Button ; 
 John Rice. 
 
 Dry Goods. — James Bonnell; Bradford Bros.; 
 
CITY OF RLPON. 179 
 
 J. L. Davis & Co.; Sexton Bros. &> Co.; Young & 
 French. 
 
 Grocers. — G. Bremer & Co.: John Dahlman & 
 Co.. Dutcher, Ball & Goodrich; Cordes & Wets- 
 kisch; Goodrich & Terry; Inbusch Brothers; Lit- 
 tell <fc Smith; Wm. M Sinclair; Warren, Hewitt 
 & Baker. 
 
 Hardware and Tinners' Stock. — Brockhaus 
 & Merkens; John Nazro & Co.; Kellogg Sexton. 
 
 Leather and Hide Dealers. — Wisconsin Leath 
 er Co. 
 
 Saddlery Hardware. — Geo. Dyer & Co. 
 
 Stoves and Tinners' Stock. — Geo. Williamson 
 <fcCo. 
 
 Hardware and Agricultural Implements.— 
 Lefevre, Green & Co. 
 
 Tobacco and Cigar Manufacturers. — F. F. 
 Adams <fe Co ; S. G. Spaulding. 
 
 Books and Stationers. — S. C. West. 
 
 In four years constant travel I never heard a man 
 say aught against one of those firms; but all joined 
 as one, in saying, that with all their dealings with 
 them everything was satisfactory. I was proud to 
 be employed by such men, and help them build up 
 a great trade along side of a competition from her 
 sister city, Chicago. 
 
180 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In those travels for Milwaukee, I took with me 
 the above cards to be put up in all the business 
 places and stores throughout Wisconsin, Minne- 
 sota and Northern Iowa. My business was to 
 make the acquaintance of merchants, learn their 
 standing, show them the routes by which they 
 could ship their goods from Milwaukee to their 
 places of business, speak well of the different 
 firms they would find in Milwaukee, and hear 
 complaints if any ; but, as I have before stated, in 
 those four years of constant travel I never heard 
 a complaint, and to this Milwaukee may largely as. 
 cribe the prosperity of her city. In making these 
 acquaintances throughout the country, I found, in 
 many places, a strong prejudice against the regular 
 drummers, as they were sometimes called, for some 
 of them had rendered themselves obnoxious by 
 their importunities; but the feeling was only 
 against those who really were bores, for the greater 
 portion of them were gentlemen in every sense of 
 the term, and with such I was always pleased to 
 meet in my travels. I would here say to firms 
 sending out agents, send out men who have studied 
 men as well as the price of the wares they exhibit, 
 and you will not have them called bores, and 
 merchants will be glad to see them. 
 
CITY OF KLPON. 181 
 
 I had no goods to sell, and had only to attract 
 the attention of the business men in the country 
 to Milwaukee, but I found men always and every- 
 where made of the same material ; the same motive 
 moves and actuates them. Men in every situation 
 of life love to be praised, and I found that I must 
 make men pleased with themselves before they will 
 be pleased with you or listen to your story. In 
 one of my excursions through Northern Iowa, on 
 a route then seldom canvassed by Milwaukeeans 
 I arrived at a town of considerable business on a 
 Saturday night, and having found a good hotel, 
 concluded to stop and spend the Sabbath. In the 
 morning I attended services in an Episcopal 
 church (that being my preference), and found a 
 well-dressed congregation, one of whom handed me 
 a prayer book. During the services the responses 
 were full and clear, and as one man seemed to lead 
 well, I kept up as I was wont to do in my church 
 at Ripon. The discourse was one I am inclined 
 to speak well of. On Monday I commenced busi- 
 ness and was well received by the merchants, who 
 seemed to be well pleased to make my acquaint- 
 ance, until I came to the largest establishment in 
 the town, which contained a large stock of all the 
 different kind of goods usually kept in a country 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 store. I made my bow to a man engaged in sell- 
 ing goods to an old lady, and inquired if the prin- 
 cipal of the house was in; he directed me to 
 a person quite at the extreme end of the store, 
 whom I approached and saluted with a "Good 
 morning," but his response was not as loud and 
 distinct as it was at church the day before, for it 
 was he with whom I had attempted to keep up 
 during the service. I asked him if he ever bought 
 goods in Milwaukee, but he answered, u No! I 
 buy my goods in New York!" and turning 
 abruptly upon his heel, left me standing alone at 
 the back end of a very long store. I thought he 
 had treated me rather rudely, and my first impulse 
 was to get out of his way, but I did not know 
 how to leave the great store in so ungraceful a 
 manner, so I took a survey of the man and said to 
 myself, " I have seen men as large as you, and there 
 must be some avenue to you." Walking slowly 
 down the store until nearly opposite him, I said : 
 
 "You have the largest stock of goods I have 
 seen in some time; I am looking through your 
 town not to sell goods for any particular house 
 but just to make acquaintances, and have found 
 it a most beautiful place, with excellent water- 
 power and fine mills, and everything appears in a 
 
CITY OF RrPON. 183 
 
 prosperous condition ; I shall have a good report 
 to make of it. I attended the Episcopal Chuich 
 yesterday and heard a good sermon, but was most 
 pleased with the way the congregation made their 
 responses. In going through your business houses 
 this morning I have met with the most kind and 
 gentlemanly treatment that T have yet experienced 
 in my travels. I leave with those whose acquaint" 
 ance I make this general card of the wholesale 
 houses of Milwaukee ; will you please put one up 
 in a conspicuous place in your store?" 
 
 u Most certainly /" he replied. 
 
 "My name is Mapes," I continued, and I am 
 pleased with my visit to your beautiful town." 
 
 " Mr. Mapes, how long do you remain in our 
 town ?" he asked. 
 
 " I shall leave on the evening train." 
 
 "Well, Mr. Mapes, I keep a horse and carriage 
 and would be pleased, if you have time, to show 
 you over the town." 
 
 "Most certainly, I should be happy to have 
 you do so." 
 
 On our ride we passed his residence, and he 
 insisted upon my dining with him. He found 
 that he was out of an article of stoga boots, and 
 referring to the general card, saw that Atkins, 
 
184 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Steele & White were dealers in and manufacturers 
 of that article. He asked rne if it was a good 
 house, and I told him it was one of the best in the 
 city, so to them the order was sent, and before I 
 got around to Milwaukee again it had been dupli- 
 cated. Milwaukee has since had a good trade 
 from that direction. I have found, in all my trav- 
 els, that it costs nothing to be civil. 
 
 While traveling in Minnesota I saw a sign of a 
 millinery store, and the name was one I had been 
 acquainted with in Wisconsin, so I stepped in. 
 I found a well stocked shop, with a fine assortment 
 of goods, but did not see the old acquaintance that 
 I was lead to suppose was there by the name I had 
 seen on the sign, so I asked for Mrs. P. 
 
 "That is my name/'' says the lady. 
 
 "I beg your pardon then, for making this inqui- 
 ry, I had supposed that I would find an old ac- 
 quaintance of your name." 
 
 " Where did you know a Mrs. P ? " 
 
 "At F. L., in Wisconsin." 
 
 " I came from there," she said, " and was acquain- 
 ted with your friend. The good-for-nothing thing- 
 ran away with my husband, to California, and 
 took all I was worth with them." 
 
 Now, hear I was in a fix. I had acknowledged 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 185 
 
 that the good-for-nothing thing, as she called her, 
 was an old acquaintance of mine, and that I was 
 looking her up. But I had to get out of it in 
 some way, and thought I would fall back on my 
 stock of kind words. I commenced, by saying 
 that I called solely in a business way, as I was 
 traveling for the commercial interests of Milwau- 
 kee merchants. I then asked her if she ever pur- 
 chased goods at Milwaukee. She said, "Yes, I 
 have, but I want no more dealings there, for when 
 my husband ran away with all I had, I went to 
 Milwaukee to get trusted for a small stock of my 
 kind of goods, but I could not get credit for a 
 cent's worth, so I went to Chicago and got all the 
 goods I wanted, and now I want nothing to do 
 with your Milwaukee merchants " This headed 
 me off again, but I commenced by saying what a 
 fine shop and stock of goods she had ; how, f roni 
 the number of customers, she must be doing a 
 first-rate business ; and what a villian her hnsband 
 must have been to have left so beautiful a woman 
 and gone off with that ill-favored creature who 
 did not begin to compare with her. And indeed 
 she did not, for this was a fine-looking lady, and 
 when I told her so I but told the truth. I hold 
 that the truth is not flattery, and I have never y< t 
 24 
 
186 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 said anything to a lady that I did not mean, for 
 this I have held to all through life. When I left 
 my new Mrs. P., she said that she did not know 
 but that she was rather severe on the Milwaukee 
 merchants for she was very poor when she asked 
 for credit, and promised to take Milwaukee in the 
 route when she went after goods again. So you 
 see that you must make them think well of them- 
 selves through your good opinion of them, before 
 you can reach them; and this is all right if you 
 deal in facts, hence it is no flattery, and in speak- 
 ing of the good qualities of those you address, be 
 sure that they have those qualities and are well 
 aware of it. 
 
 In all my travels for Milwaukee, I labored hard 
 to build up a lasting trade for her, and I have 
 watched her growth with great solicitude, and she 
 has done most nobly as against one of her com- 
 petitors, the city of Chicago. Truly Chicago is a 
 host to compete with; history has nowhere given 
 us her equal; she built, was burned, and built 
 again; nothing has come up to her; it is not all in 
 her location, she has the business men on the cor- 
 ners what does it. Milwaukee will have to em- 
 ploy some one with a better horn than old Captain 
 Mapes blowed to keep her in hearing distance of 
 
CITY OF KIPON. 187 
 
 her Chicago competitor. But Milwaukee has 
 done well, and is now spreading out her radius of 
 railroads through a rich and beautiful country 
 thus securing their surplus produce. 
 
 City building has its secrets, and to those who 
 have had no experience, I will make a few sugges- 
 tions. To secure the patronage of country mer- 
 chants from the interior you must have good 
 hotels and good places of amusement; in fact you 
 must please the country merchant if you would 
 have him visit your market. He not only wants 
 his goods, but he makes the trip to the city after 
 them one of recreation and pleasure. I remember 
 while I was traveling for the interests of Milwau- 
 kee I made a visit to Chicago to learn what was 
 so attractive to the country merchant in that city, 
 and played the spy. I pretended that I was after 
 goods, and drew from the country merchant the 
 reasons why they preferred Chicago. I said to 
 one of them, "Have you got through with your 
 purchases?" "Well," was the answer, "I could 
 have finished up and gone to-day, but I want to 
 go to the theater to-night, for I see by the bills 
 that a favorite play is to come off, so I will stay 
 spend another day." Another one said, "I come 
 to Chicago to buy goods, and I also want to hear 
 
188 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 the Rev. Mr. Collier and shall stay over Sunday 
 to hear him; we don't get such preaching in the 
 country very often, and it is worth staying over 
 to hear him.' 1 Milwaukeeans may take the hint. 
 In early life I was a country merchant and went 
 to the city of New York for goods, and heard the 
 celebrated preachers, and have heard Forrest and 
 Booth play at the theatres. There are many 
 attractions in a large city, and this must all be 
 looked to in making and keeping the trade of a 
 city. You must think this a singular chapter 
 recommending churches and theatres in the same 
 paragraph, but they both go build up your com- 
 mercial interest, and for this I have been laboring 
 for years. For your spiritual welfare you must 
 look to your clergy, for you pay them for that; 
 but I suppose you have as high an order of talent 
 as is found in any city of its size. 
 
 In traveling for the Milwaukee Merchants I found 
 the labor too ardous for a man of my age, so I sent in 
 my resignation, and received a very complimentary 
 letter from the Secretary of the Merchants' Asso- 
 ciation, regretting my leaving their employment. 
 When I came home from traveling for Milwaukee 
 I found my house very lonely, as my second wife 
 had been buried by the side of her sister in Ripon, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 189 
 
 and my children were all married and away, so,* 
 dear leader, do you censure me for making the 
 acquaintance of a worthy woman, who was a widow 
 in our own town ? If you do it will make no dif- 
 ference, for I have made myself happy in making 
 that acquaintance. The consequences are, two 
 bright little children, a girl of seven years and a 
 boy of five, so if there is anything wrong in the 
 matter it is not in those two little children. You 
 may call this egotism, but call it what you like, I 
 would not exchange my little family for the wealth 
 of that old batchelor, Wm, B. Ogden, who started 
 in life when and where I did, and now if he can 
 count more dollars that I can I would not exchange 
 places with him. If we all think well of ours we 
 will always be satisfied with our lot. 
 
 In the growth and advancement of Ripon, we 
 felt the need of an agricultural association, and 
 not being in the center of the county we could not 
 have the county fairs at our city, so we went about 
 it and got up one of our own. I took the matter 
 in hand, as I knew every man that was able 
 and would take an interest in it. It was got up 
 by making a joint stock company, no one to take 
 more than twenty-five dollars each, so that the 
 stock should be well distributed through the coun- 
 
190 HTSTOKY OF THE 
 
 ty, and that every leading man might bring his 
 influence with him to the fair. The stockholders 
 had free passes to the exhibitions, so that they 
 would be sure to come and bring their neighbors 
 with them, and in this way we got our crowds In 
 getting up the stock of two hundred stockholders 
 at twenty-five dollars each, which amount was 
 sufficient to purchase the grounds and build the 
 buildings suitable for our exhibitions, I was but 
 thirty days. In thirty days more we had our 
 buildings done and a track for racing finished, and 
 held one of our fairs, and it was a success. We paid 
 all of our premiums off and made a dividend of 
 ten per cent, on the stock, and have gone on year 
 after year with the greatest success, having funds 
 invested in Government bonds. All this I claim 
 as an enterprise of my own getting up, and to 
 show how the stockholders viewed it I will insert 
 the following extracts from the papers of that 
 day. 
 
 "a presentation. 
 "On the evening of December 7th, 1866, quite 
 an interesting affair came off at the Mapes House. 
 A number of Captain Mapes' friends gathered in 
 the hall for the purpose of presenting him with a 
 slight token of their esteem for him as a citizsen 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 191 
 
 and zealous worker in all enterprises calculated to 
 benefit our city. The meeting was called to order 
 and H. T. Hinton, appointed Chairman, and G. W. 
 Peck, Secretary. Mr. Win. Taggart was called 
 upon to state the object of the meeting. 
 "mr. taggart's remarks. 
 " Captain Mapes : — A portion of your fellow- 
 citizens have ' appointed me to present to you this 
 watch. The trinket possesses intrinsically but lit- 
 tle value. Regarded as a testimonial of our appre- 
 ciation of your services in founding this city, in 
 steadily laboring to promote its interests, but 
 especially in your late efforts to build up our 
 Agricultural Association, we hope it will possess 
 in your estimation some value. Accompanying this 
 is a card containing the names of the donors. 
 This cake basket you will please hand to your lady 
 with our regards — our compliments. You have 
 been so intimately associated with the interests of 
 Ripon that your presence suggests its history. 
 You have seen our prairie clothed with its carpet 
 of primeval sreen; our city plat covered with 
 trees and shrubs ; our little stream bounding over 
 its rocky bed in its native freedom ; you have lived 
 to see that prairie covered with growing crops; 
 those trees and bushes supplanted by fine resi- 
 
192 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 dences, stores and shops ; where herds of deers 
 once roamed, now peaceful folks are feeding; the 
 emigrant train gives place to the noisy locomotive ; 
 and the little creek has been chained to do menial 
 service to man. These great changes you have 
 witnessed, and to their accomplishment you have 
 materially contributed. We do not forget how 
 boldly and with what forecast yourself and asso- 
 ciates commenced, at an early period in the history 
 of our city the building of a college which is now 
 filled with students, and which is a credit at once 
 to our city and State. And now, in the retire- 
 ment of old age,— if such a man can ever retire 
 fi'om active pursuits — we invoke heaven's choicest 
 blessings upon you, and hope that your balance of 
 life may be peaceful and happy. 
 
 "The affair had been conducted on the sly, so 
 that the Captain was completely surprised, and du- 
 ly affected. When he overcame his emotions suf- 
 ficient to speak, he acknowledged the compliment 
 in a few fitting words. 
 
 "the captain's reply. 
 
 " Mr Chairman and Gentlemen of Bipon : — 
 I can only say, I thank you most heartily for 
 the manifestation of your good opinion of my ser- 
 vices with you, in the effort to build up the insti- 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 193 
 
 tution of your city, in presenting me with this 
 donation from your kind and liberal hands Again 
 I say, I thank you, and in receiving this donation 
 at your hands I think much of the articles, but 
 most of all, that I have so many friends. I have lived 
 many years, and have had many friends, and some 
 enemies, but a large majority of friends, which 
 makes me willing to live on. Looking at this 
 event reminds me of one of the presidents of the 
 La Crosse Railroad. When the stockholders wanted 
 to fill his place with another man they voted him 
 a gold-headed cane, and let him down with that. 
 But I hope you do not want to get rid of me in 
 that way, for if you do you cannot, as I propose 
 to stay with you and aid in future improvements!. 
 And again I thank you for myself, and in behalf 
 of my wife, for the present to her. They were 
 all unexpected, and will be kept in kind remem- 
 brance of - you all. I might go on with a little 
 histoiy of your city, but my good friend Taggart 
 has so eloquently alluded to it that T will forbear. 
 And so good-night kind friends 
 
 "The articles were a splendid silver watch, of 
 
 American manufacture, with a heavy chain of the 
 
 same material. On the inside case is engraved, 
 
 'Presented to Capt. Mapes by his friends in Ripon.' 
 
 25 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The ^ake basket, intended for Mrs. Mapes, is a 
 beautiful silver shell, of the latest style. Accom- 
 panying these presents was a card, neatly framed, 
 with the names of the donors neatly written, we 
 might almost say engraved, by James Beynon." 
 
 The following is an extract from the Ripon 
 Commonwealth of the same week: 
 
 " One of those pleasing incidents which are of 
 somewhat rare occurrence, but which always 
 gladdens the hearts of all who participate, took 
 place in the office of the Mapes House on Satur- 
 day last in the presence of some eighty or ninety 
 persons ; it was the presentation of a watch and 
 chain to Capt. D. P, Mapes and a cake basket to his 
 lady. This presentation was made as a token of 
 appreciation of the services of Captain Mapes in 
 forwarding every public enterprise known to be 
 identified with Ripon interests ever since Ripon 
 had an existence. The Captain was taken wholly 
 by surprise, and in which consisted the principal 
 pleasure of the affair, for if he had known what 
 was coming he would certainly have had a speech 
 ready, and then his embarrassment, modesty and 
 surprise could not have been seen. The whole 
 affair was very neatly and appropriately con- 
 ducted, but we must express our regret that a 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 195 
 
 larger number of our citizens were not given an 
 opportunity to subscribe to the fund, and have 
 made the watch and chain of massive gold instead 
 of silver, for the Captain has worked night and 
 day for the interest of the city for the past twenty 
 years, and he is worthy of a more magnificent gift 
 at the hands of the people of Ripon. Thus has 
 he labored for Ripon, and we should have really 
 liked to see him receive a more valuable gift, 
 though he will undoubtedly prize this as highly as 
 if it were of more value. The associations and 
 manner of presentation will make it to him and 
 his family of more value than the commercial 
 worth. We hope the Captain may live many 
 years yet and be subjected to many more such 
 surprises at the hands of his fellow-citizens." 
 
 The following is an extract from the La Crosse 
 Democrat of December 16th, 1866: 
 
 'A number of the citizens of Ripon, in this 
 State, recently presented Captain D. P. Mapes, the 
 founder of that handsome burgh, with a valuable 
 watch as a testimonial of respect and esteem. 
 The Captain was the first person to design the 
 building of a city where Ripon now stands. He 
 built the first house, the first store, the first 
 flouring-mill, was most active in building the 
 
196 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 college (than which a better does not exist in the 
 State), and at a later day he built a substantial 
 hotel known as the Mapes House. He has given 
 away many acres of land for the benefit of his 
 city, only providing that they should be properly 
 improved. His son, now an attorney at Fond du 
 Lac, established the first newspaper ever printed 
 at Bipon, and by their united exertions the town 
 soon grew quite rapidly. The testimonial of 
 respect was fully merited, and will be earnestly 
 appreciated." 
 
 One difficulty in the location of the City of 
 Ripon was that it laid in the extreme corner of 
 the county, but by the formation of the county, 
 and its lakes, a county seat would be well located 
 at Ripon. The surrounding towns were anxious 
 to have a county made, and so arranged, that Ripon 
 should be its center: but your humble author was 
 on the wrong side of politics for favors, although 
 the people about Ripon were willing to lay aside 
 their politics for one year, as you will see by the 
 following article published in an opposition paper: 
 
 "Me. Editor: — As the time for making nomi- 
 nations for our member of Assembly approaches, 
 it behooves us to see that some man is nominated 
 who will devote himself, heart and soul, to the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 197 
 
 great object Ripon has to accomplish. Who will 
 bring to the work, in the Legislature, industry, 
 energy and perseverance, to effect a division of the 
 Counties of Marquette and Fond du Lac, making 
 Ripon the county seat. 
 
 "The project is viewed with favor by nine-tenths 
 of the voters in what would constitue the new 
 county, and if we can for once, trust to the world 
 political to roll on by itself — if we can let the 
 State subject of Kansas alone, and, looking as we 
 ought to do, to our local interests, send some one 
 to represent us who will effect this great thing for 
 Ripon, it were surely better for us than to be fight- 
 ing battles in which we have little or no interest. 
 
 "Such a man, Mr. Editor, is the pioneer of our 
 fair young city, Capt. Mapes. He can bring to the 
 work all the essential qualities needed, and that 
 he will effect the object if any man can, we have 
 ample proof in the industry and fidelity he has 
 ever manifested for the interest of Ripon. 
 
 "Let us then objure politics for once, and send 
 the Captain to the Legislature." 
 
 But it was of no use, I was not nominated and 
 the county not made, as the affairs of bleeding 
 Kansas were of more account than to have Ripon 
 made a county seat. 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In building up Ripon Major Bovay proved one 
 of my greatest aids. I well recollect his first 
 arrival at the Ripon House, for at that moment I 
 was busily expatiating to one of my guests upon 
 the advantages of Ripon as a site for a beautiful 
 inland town. The Major had come to Wisconsin 
 to assist in building up a town, and this particular 
 spot had been ably set forth by Warren Chase in 
 letters to Horace Greeley of the New York 
 Tribune, of which office the Major was a fre- 
 quenter, having once edited a paper, published 
 there, called Young America, the motto of which 
 was, "Vote yourself a farm. 1 ' While at the 
 Tribune office he got hold of some of Chase's 
 letters describing this region, which pictured in 
 his mind a perfect Western paradise, and he left 
 New York with his family and came to Wis- 
 consin, intent on seeing Ceresco, as this place was 
 then callled. Leaving his family at Milwaukee, he 
 tramped on foot to Fond du Lac, and thence to 
 this place, where he arrived, as I have before 
 stated, while I was displaying the beauties of 
 Ripon and its future prospects The Major at 
 once became a convert, and he has never back- 
 slided from his faith in me, for he has been a 
 boarder in the Mapes' family for more than five 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 199 
 
 years,, and has been foiemost in every enterprise 
 which would result in advantage to Ripon. Our 
 political paths have not always run in the same 
 direction, but in that we have found our account, 
 as changes in party have frequently occurred; 
 when his party was in power he would go to court 
 for favors, and when my side was up I would go, 
 and we were both lucky in carrying our points for 
 Ripon. The Major was never burdened with the 
 Quaker's curse — the spirit of building, but that 
 made no difference so long as he kept with me 
 who was so accursed. 
 
 Thus far I have got on through life, and now, 
 when I come to publish these manuscripts, I find 
 my means too short to do it without an advance 
 from my friends, for I have been, as Matt Carpen- 
 ter, the United States Senator says of himself, 
 " one of God's dispensing agents " through life, 
 consequently there is not much in the bank to 
 draw from. Many have complained that I have 
 done too much for the public, and not cared enough 
 for myself; but what if I have? If I pay my 
 debts in full, and have sufficient to secure a 
 respectful burial, what is the difference? I have 
 taken great pleasure in being liberal with my own 
 means, and what I have had through life I worked 
 
200 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 for, and have never yet been charged with the 
 want of industry. 
 
 Stories of the early settlement of Ripon still 
 occasionally appears in the papers. I propose to 
 collect them into one book, as will be seen by the 
 following from the Free Press of July 3d, 1873: 
 
 "Captain D. P. Mapes of this city, although at 
 present living in Winneconne, writes us that he 
 has been for some time engaged in writing up a 
 history of his life and that of the city of Ripon, 
 its earliest and later days. After three-quarters 
 of a century of hard work the Captain finds him- 
 self poor. Although, like our somewhat distin- 
 guished salary -grabber, Matt Carpenter, he has 
 considered himself one of God's dispensing agents, 
 still there is this noticeable difference, the Captain 
 has dispensed from his own pile, till now he is 
 compelled to ask subscriptions to his book in 
 advance, to defray the expense of publication. 
 Those who shall aid him in this way will receive 
 honorable mention. He goes East soon to complete 
 the manuscript and arrange for the forthcoming 
 of the work. The copies subscribed for will be 
 da\\\ ered upon his return. Some friend will take 
 the subscription of those desiring to aid him. He 
 ought to have a large list " 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 201 
 
 The following sketch of the city appeared in 
 the Milwaukee Journal of Commerce in June, 
 1873: 
 
 "A noted Frenchman bearing the name of 
 Charles Fourier, started out as a philosopher with 
 this theory : That man was the creature of cir- 
 cumstances, that as his surroundings were pleasant 
 or otherwise, so the man became good or other- 
 wise. That, to remove the friction of a personal 
 competition, society should be made up of what 
 he called co-operative labor, and that all expendi- 
 tures should be made on the same principle, from 
 which it was expected to derive these several 
 advantages, viz : The purchase of a home for the 
 whole community; the ability to secure all the 
 commodities which they had need of at wholesale 
 prices; an organization through which could be 
 marketed to the best advantage whatever they 
 saw fit to produce. 
 
 " A band of Fourierites entered the State — then 
 Territory — of Wisconsin in the year 1844, organ- 
 izing themselves into what was known as the 
 'Wisconsin Phalanx,' and established their field of 
 operations about half a mile west from the present 
 center of the city of Ripon, and this was the 
 earliest settlement of the township of Ripon — at 
 26 
 
202 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that time called Ceresco. The chief leader of the 
 Phalanx was the celebrated barren Chase, well 
 knowD among all old political men of the State. 
 For a few years the organization was prosperous, 
 though some of them lead an indolent life, never 
 working when not disposed, and always obtaining 
 a livelihood through the exertions of their more 
 industrious brethren whether they labored or not. 
 A person of keen observation could not fail to be 
 convinced that the workings of the Fourier system 
 of life would result in failure, and in the year 
 1859 it was found impossible to make human 
 nature satisfied with its lot by any such means, 
 and the property of the Phalanx was almost all 
 disposed of during this year, and its members 
 located themselves in different portions of the 
 country. 
 
 "In the year 1849 the first permanent settle- 
 ment of Ripon was made by Captain David P. 
 Mapes, who removed here and leased the water- 
 power of Judge John S. Horner, and purchased a 
 one-half interest in the village site. Captain 
 Mapes erected a grist mill on the water-power, and 
 since that year he has labored hard to make the 
 site of his early home a city of importance, and to 
 him, to a considerable extent, is due the steady, 
 
CITY OF EIPON. 
 
 203 
 
 permanent growth of the place. The Captain has 
 nearly, or quite reached his allotted three score 
 years and ten, but enjoys excellent health and has 
 much vitality left. He is still among the first to 
 aid, pecuniarily or otherwise, any new scheme 
 which is likely to benefit his city." 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WINNECONNE. 
 
 After getting Ripon well started and the Woli 
 River Railroad completed to the Wolf River at 
 Winneconne, your author purchased a farm on the 
 west side of the river, and had it platted and laid 
 out for a town. 
 
 The following is an article from the Evening 
 Wisconsin, of Milwaukee, the matter for which I 
 gave to Mr. Moore, who, at that time, was traveling 
 correspondent for that paper. 
 
 "advantage of position. 
 
 "Winneconne is pratically at the junction of the 
 Wolf and Fox Rivers, twelve miles above Oshkosh. 
 There is no crossing point between Winneconne 
 and Oshkosh, one side of the river being bordered 
 by marshes. Nor is there any crossing point for 
 a dozen miles up the river. Just above town the 
 river widens into a broad bay, affording the safest 
 harbor room for a thousand million of logs. The 
 shores of the river and bay for miles, afford the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 205 
 
 best possible site for steam mills. It only needed 
 a railroad outlet'here ten years ago to have secured 
 nearly all 'of the thirty great lumber mills now 
 driving away at Oshkosh. A splendid body of 
 hard wood timber adjoins the town on the west, 
 for twelve'or fifteen miles. The prairie openings 
 extend for a dozen miles on the east, and are 
 unsurpassed in the State for richness and produc- 
 tion. All these advantages are apparent and 
 secured, and it required only the strong arm of 
 capital to build up mills, machine shops, foundrys* 
 stores, and open direct lines of communication with 
 the vast lumber and supply trade of Wolf River, 
 to start Wmneconne in the rapid headway of 
 advancement. Such strong arm of capital has 
 recently been furnished by the 
 
 THE RIPON BUILDING COMPANY. 
 
 "Some time in August last, eight or ten wealthy 
 clear-headed men from Ripon, purchased three 
 forties of John S. Williams, on the west side, for 
 $12,000, Williams reserving his resident block of 
 two acres. The company stock was divided into 
 twelve shares, and is now owned as follows: Gr. N. 
 Lyman, three shares ; J. Bowen, banker, one share ; 
 E. L. Northrup, banker, and P. Olmstead, three 
 shares together; M. Pedrick, one share; Capt. D. 
 
206 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 P. Mapes, one share; Hon. A. E. Bovay, two 
 shares and Hon. Wm. Stan 1 , one share. The com- 
 pany represent over a million and a half capital. 
 Capt. Mapes, the well-known railroad man and 
 founder of Bipon, is the agent in charge. The 
 Captain has taken up his residence at Winneconne. 
 His great energy, experience and clear judgment 
 make him the man for the place. The company 
 have laid off their plat with much taste and liber- 
 ality — The main business street starts from the 
 bridge, extending westward. The mills and found- 
 ries will stretch far along up the river and bay. 
 The resident lots, on the higher table, overlook 
 the lake, river and the wide, reaching slope to the 
 Fox River on the south. Business and resident 
 lots are sold off daily, at moderate rates, and all 
 the wards are thick and noisy with uncounted 
 buildings going up in every quarter. 
 
 "The Mapes House has also been fitted up in 
 good style, and needs no other recommendation 
 than the name of its landlord, Capt. Mapes. 
 
 '* STEAMBOATS. 
 
 "A daily line of steamboats from Oshkosh to 
 New London, thirty miles north, stops at Winne- 
 conne at nine in the morning — going north, and at 
 two in the afternoon — going south. The ' Tigress' 
 
CITY OF BIPON. 207 
 
 and ' Northwestern ' make the trip daily, alternat- 
 ing each other. They take up an average of 
 twenty tons of freight and fifty passengers at each 
 trip during the season. The 'Berlin City' comes 
 up from Berlin by the Fox River, reaching here 
 at nine in the morning, thence back to Berlin in 
 the evening. A boat is to be put on in the spring 
 to make daily trips from here, to the west end of 
 Lake Poygan. 
 
 " STAGES. 
 
 " Three daily lines of stages will run from here 
 the coming winter, viz: One to Oshkosh, one to 
 Young's Corners to connect with New London 
 and Waupaca, and one to Poisippi to connect with 
 Berlin. 
 
 " HUNTING AND FISHING. 
 
 " My Winneconne friends would hardly excuse 
 me if I should omit to say that they had the best 
 hunting and fishing grounds in 'four States.' 
 Hundreds of fishermen are often crowded upon 
 the bridge, hauling in pickerel, catfish, silver bass 
 and sixty-pound sturgeons. The sturgeons are 
 either jerked out with naked hooks, or they jump 
 onto the bridge themselves. The river here never 
 freezes, so the fishing season nevei ends. The 
 lakes and marshes just above are alive with bird- 
 game. Ducks by the million flood the lake at all 
 
208 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 seasons, and snipe the marshes. Woodcock are 
 
 plenty in July. A. H. Gardner, the old fur-buyer 
 
 at Milwaukee, often visits here and takes a 
 
 hunting-bout with the old-time sportsman, James 
 
 Clark. 
 
 "its name. 
 
 "Winne-conne signifies the place of the skulls. 
 Hundreds of Indians were slaughtered here in an 
 ancient battle, and their bodies left exposed on 
 the ground. Years afterwards as the Indian trav- 
 elers came in from the West, and saw the white 
 bones gleaming from the opposite shore, they 
 were accustomed to the one exclamation, ' The 
 
 skulls ! ' 
 
 "location. 
 
 " The location of Winneconne, as seen by the 
 
 visitor at daylight, is one of extreme beauty. 
 
 The broad, smooth river; the rounded and even 
 
 banks receding into the park-like timber on the 
 
 west, and the handsome prairie openings on the 
 
 east; the wide, open lake above; the long, skirting 
 
 line of forest and marsh beyond, —all make up a 
 
 figuration rarely equalled in the postures of classic 
 
 lands. In fact, this whole lower Wolf region may 
 
 be set down as the classic land of the Indian. It 
 
 was densely peopled for centuries. All along the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 209 
 
 eastern bank of the -river, avouDd Lake Poygan 
 and the Little Buttes des Morts, were thickly 
 scattered encampments and villages, dating far 
 beyond the traditions of any living red man.. 
 Besides the attractions of scenery, the Indians here 
 found the greater attractions of fish and birds and 
 wild rice, profusely abundant in the lakes and 
 rivers. From here went out the deer-hunters to 
 the higher regions of the Wolf, Black and Wis- 
 consin rivers. Corn-planting patches are scattered 
 all through the country. In the fall and spring, 
 nearly all the Menominee and Potowotomie tribes 
 gathered here for feasts and dances. 
 
 "INDIAN TRADERS. 
 
 "I have not at hand any account of the first 
 Indian traders here. Old August Grignon had his 
 trading post three miles below, before the time of 
 the Black Hawk war. Here he contiDiied until 
 the time of his death, in 1860. Old Chief Oshkosh 
 always did his trading with Grignon, and spent 
 much of his time in the neighborhood. Old Chief 
 Sho-ne-nee, with his band, had their summer lodges 
 here till the Indians were moved north. Wm. 
 Bruce and H. M. Wright, both Green Bay men, 
 put up a trading shanty on the east side of the 
 river at Winneconne, as early as the time of the 
 27 
 
210 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 great Indian payment here of $40,000, in 1838. 
 Thirty-five hundred Indians were present; also a 
 company of soldiers from Fort Winnebago, and 
 over a thousand white traders and visitors from the 
 eastern part of the State. An eye witness informs 
 us that nearly all the Indians and soldiers and 
 traders got gloriously ' how-are-you ' at the winding 
 up of the payment. 
 
 "oldest resident. 
 
 "John L. Williams, son of the famous Eleazar 
 Williams, (of the Dauphin of France notoriety,) is 
 the oldest white resident of Winneconne. 
 "prospects ahead. 
 
 "Captain Mapes believes that the town, now 
 having a population of over twelve hundred, will 
 quadruple its numbers and business within two 
 years, and I think the Captain is right. There is 
 no place that I have seen in the State where half 
 as many steam mills, manufactories, and machine 
 shops are being built and projected as at Winne- 
 conne. The prospects of the place are best shown 
 by the number and extent of the new 
 
 "buildings and mills going up. 
 
 "Since the coming of Captain Mapes here in 
 August, over fifty buildings have been put up, 
 and nearly as much more are in active state of 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 211 
 
 prosecution. Among the rest is a new three-story 
 brick hotel, 50x86 feet, to be completed this winter 
 at a cost of $10,000. Messrs. Bovay & Lyman, 
 of Kipon, are the contractors. Opposite the hotel 
 is going up a block of four stories, with a brick 
 front, and hall overhead. 
 
 " Machine Shop and Foundry — Messrs. Wilson 
 <fe Co., have just moved their machinery from 
 Appleton and are putting up a foundry and 
 machine shop, 36x138 feet, and will have it in full 
 operation by the middle of December. 
 
 "Steam Lumber Mill— Roddick, Parmenter, Wel- 
 lington & Co., from Berlin, have nearly completed 
 a large steam mill near the depot. The engine 
 was made by Melms of Milwaukee, and is one of 
 the heaviest in the State. It has three boilers 
 twenty-four feet in length, with fourteen-inch 
 flues. There will be two large rotary saws, shingle 
 mill, lath mill and gang edgers. The mill is 140 
 feet in length, and will turn out 110,000 feet of 
 lumber every twelve hours. The company expect 
 to move one of their large mills at Berlin to Win- 
 neconne in the spring. They are running one saw 
 here and have a full supply of all kinds of lumber 
 for sale. 
 
 " Planing Mill and Ship Yard—T. W. Lake, an 
 
212 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 old resident here, has just completed a new planing 
 and matching mill, 36x60 feet, just above Rod- 
 dick's mill. His machinery is all new and of the 
 first class. Next spring he will put in sash and 
 door machinery. He has a large boat yard beside 
 his mill. He built the 'Northwestern' and 'Berlin 
 City' steamers, besides several schooners and tugs. 
 
 "Steam Saw Mill — Mc Arthur, Leonard & Trask 
 are running the saw mill, just above the planing 
 mill. The mill was put up in 1864, and has a 
 double rotary, gaug edger and lath mill. It has 
 a most capital booming range just below the 
 bridge, and is cutting out 30,000 daily. McArthur 
 is an old pioneer-mill man, and one of the most 
 active and extensive pine land operators in the 
 state 
 
 " Flour Mill — A large, first-class steam flour 
 mill is to be put up in the spring, on the bridge 
 corner, just north of Mc Arthur's mill. 
 
 " Shingle Mill — A party from Fond du Lac have 
 purchased lots, and will put up a large shingle 
 mill in the spring, just above the new foundry. 
 
 u Another Saw Mill — Redford & Co,, for Hor- 
 tonville, will build a large steam saw mill, adjoin- 
 ing the shingle mill, early next season. 
 
 Another Flour Mill— Men on the east side have 
 
CITY OF R1P0N. 213 
 
 decided to have a flour mill put up on the river 
 bank, neaity opposite the depot. 
 
 "Stave Mill — It is expected that a large stave 
 mill will be started next season ; also a hub and 
 spoke factory. 
 
 U A Tannery would be a rich paying institution 
 here, and the company are casting about for par- 
 ties to take hold of it. Here is the place too, for 
 manufactories of agricultural implements and 
 cabinet works. 
 
 " Wagon Shops — A steam power wagon shop is 
 running on the east side, and another is being 
 built on the west side 
 
 '"Brewery — Last and most necessary of all, is 
 the big brewery nearly completed, just south of 
 the village. 
 
 "business on the river. 
 
 . "The amount of freight taken up Wolf river, 
 the past year, exceeds three thousand five hundred 
 tons. The amount of logs scaled in the lake boom 
 just above, and tugged down by Winneconne the 
 past season, foots up to 175,000,000. Tugs, boats, 
 flats, and fleets of logs and lumber are passing up 
 and down at all hours of the day. Thousands of 
 woods-men and raftsmen go up to their camps in 
 the fall, returning in tbe spring on the drives and 
 
214 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 boats. From three to four hundred men are em- 
 ployed at the boom till late in September. At 
 present the business of Wolf river connects mostly 
 with its lumber trade. But its greater wealth and 
 business is to be developed hereafter, when a 
 hundred thousand settlers are driving up their fat 
 herds and growing thirty bushel of winter wheat 
 to the acre." 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MY OPINION OF MYSELF. 
 
 Job says, "Oh, that mine adversary had written 
 a book," and what he wanted of that I never 
 could quite understand ; but I have written a book 
 for my friends ; and my adversaries, if I have any, 
 may consider the prayer of Job answered for 
 them. In shaping my course through life my 
 object has been to please. I have been a man of 
 mild disposition, generally had control of my 
 temper, social, of cheerful humor, capable of 
 attachment, little susceptible of enmity, and of 
 some moderation in most of my passions; even my 
 love of praise never soured my temper notwith- 
 standing my frequent disappointments. My com- 
 pany was not unacceptable to the young and care- 
 less, as well as to the grave and serious, and as I 
 took a particular pleasure in the company of 
 modest women, I had no reason to be displeased 
 with the reception I met with from them. In a 
 word, although most men complain of calumny, 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 I never was attacked by her baneful tooth. My 
 friends never had occasion to vindicate any one 
 circumstance of my character and conduct, not but 
 some would have been glad to invent and propa- 
 gate any story to my disadvantage, but they could 
 never find any which they thought would wear 
 the face of probability. I can not say there is no 
 vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, 
 but I hope it is not a misplaced one, and this is 
 matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 In writing up this history of my life and times, 
 the question arises of what service have 1 been to 
 my age and generation? It is true I have lived 
 longer than the average of mankind, but in this 
 long life have I learned anything that I can recom- 
 mend to the next generation? If not, then my 
 life has been a blank, and of no account. But 
 the desire of man is to live long and be happy 
 through life. Now what I have learned is that it is 
 best for man's health to live temperate, I have 
 so lived in regard to meats and drinks ; never 
 drank to excess in my life, my food has been coarse 
 and hearty. I have ate foui meals a day when I 
 could get them; that is three regular meals through 
 the day and a lunch on going to bed. And this 
 
CITY OF RIPON, 217 
 
 everybody has told me, is unhealthy, but I was 
 never sick a day in my life, that is, so sick that I 
 could not leave the house. I have always been 
 active in my vocations through life, an dso, with 
 a good constitution I have managed to live three- 
 quarters of a century. And now whether it is 
 best to o;et married or not. I think it is the 
 only true way for man to live ; their is no relation- 
 ship like it, nothing that binds man so strongly to 
 earth as that. I have had fifty years experience 
 in married life, and think that I can safely recom- 
 mend it. 
 
 Yes, young man, look up a good wife as soon as 
 you can support one, but upon that selection 
 depends your future happiness or misery. I hope 
 your good sense will lead you to select a girl that 
 does not run much to dress and jeweliy, but one 
 whose mother has taught her the duties of a good 
 housewife. And you, girls, avoid the fop and vain 
 fool, even though he should be a good dancer ; no, 
 do not marry a man unless he has shown by his 
 life that he is capable of taking care of you, and 
 when you have got him treat him to smiles and he 
 will not return it in frowns, unless you have got a 
 brute and not a man. Now let me go a little fur- 
 ther with my advice to the young men. Be 
 28 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 industrious in everything you undertake — you 
 must be so in order to succeed ; be prudent and get a 
 start; get your snow-ball rolling and keep it in 
 motion and you will soon see how it will accumu- 
 late as you roll it Let your religion be such as 
 will teach you to do unto others as you would 
 have them do unto you in like circumstances In 
 politics be a good loyal citizen to the powers that 
 be, and take sides with the party based upon the 
 principle of an honest administration of a republi- 
 can form of government. At the date of this 
 writing we have fallen upon wicked times. Not 
 only have the officers of the Government mani- 
 fested great wickedness, but by the tone of the 
 people's conversation they are prone to wink at 
 the delinquencies, and are only waiting to take 
 the place of those who are now stealing from the 
 public crib, but I still hope we may get back to 
 the times of a Jefferson and Jackson, which I pray 
 God may soon come. 
 
 I am one whom time has not much withered, 
 but how long I shall have this to say of myself I 
 know not. The number of years which I have 
 lived would indicate that I was in my dotage, but 
 I am not, and it is enough for me that I feel the 
 inspiration of youth as I write. I have set a 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 219 
 
 critical watch over myself, and one of my tests 
 for dotage was that company would avoid me, and 
 that the old man would tell his stories over and 
 over again, until they would become irksome to 
 the listener; but as I find that my company is 
 rather courted than shunned, I have come to the 
 conclusion that I have not grown old. On one 
 occasion I told my wife that one of my dreads of 
 old age was that T should tell the same story over 
 and over to the same person, and said, " I suppose 
 you get weary of my old stories." "No," she 
 replied, "you have a way of telling them different 
 at different times." I rather think she had the 
 joke on me,, but the reply pleased me at the time. 
 1 had also observed that old men were prone to 
 thrust their advice upon' their acquaintances, and 
 this I have tried to avoid. Why should we not 
 tell the coming generations what we have learned? 
 What use would our lives and experience be if we 
 did not give it? But all do not give it in book- 
 form, as I pi'opose to do. Young people are wont 
 to ask the opinion of their elders upon subjects 
 on which they are equally at fault; for instance, 
 if they have a ride or something else in view for 
 the next day, they will come to ascertain what the 
 weather will be; in all such cases I first find out 
 
2"20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 what weather they desire, and then answer to 
 please them, for I do not know what changes 
 might occur, and even if I did tell them differently 
 from what they wished they would say that I did 
 not know anything about it. 
 
 In a former chapter I have given the early 
 history of Winneconne and its prospects, I will 
 now describe it after five years improvement. It 
 has not grown as rapidly as it would if emigration 
 had not set towards Kansas and Nebraska. But 
 that will soon have had its run, as the emigrant 
 will find that those extensive prairies are deficient 
 in timber and lumber for building, and he must 
 have both to make himself a home, even if the 
 soil is ever so rich and productive. Five years 
 ago we had, at Winneconne, an old float bridge 
 across the Wolf river, which is at this place six 
 hundred feet wide ; we now have a beautiful bridge, 
 ten feet above the river, with two carriage tracks 
 and fine walks on both sides From these walks 
 you get a beautiful view up and down the liver. 
 Looking up the river you get a fine view of the 
 lake, which is constantly dotted over with steamers, 
 tugs and vessels, in fact, a more interesting view 
 cannot be found, as the banks of the river and 
 lake come down with a gentle slope, and the 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 221 
 
 country around about is moat delightful. The 
 town contains about two thousand inhabitants. 
 Mills and factories are springing up daily, but they 
 must be driven by steam as we are on navigable 
 waters, hence no water power. But the steam 
 power can be made at less expense here than at any 
 other point I know of, as the refuse lumber (both 
 pine and oak) from the mills can be had for the haul- 
 ing. The fine forest on one side of the lake makes 
 fuel lower than at other point in the State. Their 
 comes to this point, each year, over two hundred 
 million feet of lumber, a very large amount of 
 which is worked up here, hence it is the cheapest 
 place to live in America. We are not living in a 
 wilderness; we have our railroad trains arriving 
 and departing, also our steamboats going and 
 coming daily, freighted with passengers and goods 
 for the river is navigable one hundred miles north 
 of this place. We have our hotels — the "Lake- 
 View House," " Mapes House," and others. Aside 
 from its commercial advantages it is a point where 
 pleasure seekers can find all they could ask for in 
 the line of hunting, fishing or sailing. We have 
 a lake on each side of the town, and the broad 
 river, six hundred feet wide, running directly 
 through it. And now, dear reader, what do you 
 
222 HISTOEY OF THE 
 
 think of Winneconnp, the last town I propose to 
 build? 
 
 I will now comment on Ripon as she appeared 
 to me in 1873. I hope she has not got her growth. 
 She has all of her beautiful location left; that can 
 not be taken from her. Let the future visitor 
 take a stand on her western hill-side and look over 
 her, for a more beautiful picture cannot be found. 
 It was from this point that our party first caught 
 a glimpse of the spot, and broke out in admira- 
 tion of its loveliness. We had stayed with the 
 hospitable family of Satterlee Clark during the 
 previous night and had come over to this spot on 
 a bright morning of 1844 ; then the natural 
 beauties of those undulating hills and valleys had 
 not been marred. Much has been done to improve 
 the spot, but in its natural state it had an attract- 
 iveness which I have never found elsewhere; its 
 beautiful Silver Creek had not then been chained 
 to do menial service for man, as my friend Tag- 
 gart has so finely said in his presentation speech 
 to me which appears elsewhere in this work. No, 
 I hope that she may continue to prosper, and that 
 this little book will 'fall into the hands of many 
 good men who will see the beauties of the place 
 as I have always seen them. To-day I love to 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 223 
 
 take the same position on that western hill-side, 
 and sit and gaze upon the scene for hours; it never 
 tires rue. Railroads now meander through the 
 vallies and the cars are laden with the fruits of 
 the richest soil in the world, for one of the attrac- 
 tions of the place is that man can get his living 
 from the soil with as little toil as upon any spot 
 on this globe, and he who will labor is sure of his 
 pay, and without labor lie deserves nothing. This 
 is all I shall say of the location, but will now 
 take the visitor to the office or parlor of Wood's 
 Hotel, and look out upon the broad street in front, 
 or public square as it is sometimes called. Ex- 
 tending to the south for nearly a mile is a well- 
 built city with cream colored brick fronts two and 
 three stories high, beautifully designed and with 
 all modern improvements. On a street leading to 
 the right, going south, stauds the Mapes House on 
 one corner and the Opera Hall on the other, both 
 ornaments to the place. Advancing on this street, 
 which rises about fifty feet in as many rods, you 
 come to the apex or College Park, and a most 
 beautiful spot it is, with its shrubbery and trees, 
 and its winding gravel walks running in front of 
 the church and three college buildings — the latter 
 are built of cream-colored limestone and are three 
 
224 . HISTORY OF THE 
 
 stories in height — and thence to the cemetery, 
 which is situated on a more subdued height directly 
 west of the college grounds ; the whole forming a 
 scene seldom equaled. If an English gardner had 
 laid out those grounds he could not have made 
 them more beautiful than nature has formed them. 
 We had merely to erect the buildings in order to 
 make the building complete, and from this spot 
 you have a view of the whole town lying below 
 you, and although in the midst of the business 
 portion, it is still completely retired. Such is 
 Ripon. Wayside and other avenues commence 
 south from College Park and run through the 
 most beautiful natural groves, in which are located 
 the fine residences of Richard Catlin the banker, 
 Jedediah Bowen, Samuel Sumner, and many other 
 prominent men who have stood by Ripon from its 
 infancy, and who when Ripon was but a small 
 pistol like Paddy's, hoped they might live to see 
 her a great gun. It is only necessary for her citi- 
 zens to act in conceit and stand shoulder to 
 shoulder in every enterprise, for it has already 
 been demonstrated what a united effort will 
 accomplish. The present position of Ripon shows 
 it; she is one of the most beautiful cities in the 
 West, and yet it is but twenty- three years since 
 
A *z 
 
 *9 *&. <S 
 
CrTY OF RIPON. 225 
 
 the first house was built, the American, and 
 this stands amongst you to-day; it is now situated 
 in the rear of Wood's Hotel, having been moved 
 back in order to make room for that beautiful 
 structure which now occupies its site, and which 
 would be an ornament to any town. 
 
 This hotel when completed had an opening 
 festival, and I will insert the proceedings as pub- 
 lished in a Ripon paper at the time of the opening : 
 
 "This anxiously looked for event has passed, and 
 is now one of the historical events of our city. 
 The weather was just what was needed; the hall 
 in excellent condition, the house ditto, and in fact 
 everything was just as it should have been on this 
 important occasion. The cuisine proved equal to 
 the occasion, and the excellent manner in which 
 the many tables were attended to, was the subject 
 of many flattering remarks by the guests. About 
 two hundred and fifty tickets were sold, fiom which 
 $1,200 were realized. We can in no better manner 
 show how the affair was appreciated, than by 
 publishing the notices of the several newspaper 
 men who were present, and this we do below. 
 Capt. Mapes was on hand and made a few remarks, 
 which we give beneath to our readers : 
 
 "Ladies and Gentlemen : — About twenty-three 
 29 
 
226 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 years ago we had a hotel opening on this very 
 spot, and we had the elite of the whole country in 
 attendance, and to-night we have the aristocracy 
 of the same country; and is there one among us 
 who is not proud to be here to do honor to the 
 host and hostess of this house. They have moved 
 back what we thought was a palace on the border 
 of this beautiful prairie, to give place to this 
 palace of our city Wood's Hotel. How rapid is 
 the march of improvement. The host of this 
 house was but a boy by the side of his widowed 
 mother when the opening of the first hotel 
 occurred. He, I hope, may not see this moved 
 back to make room for a better, this is quite good 
 enough for this generation, and beautiful it is, and 
 I am proud to see manifested that generous good 
 feeling which to-night fills this house. And now 
 keep on with this spirit, and all hands help to 
 make business with which to keep all your busi- 
 ness places busy. Ripon has not slumbered yet. 
 Keep her awake, if some of us do fall asleep. 
 There is one improvement you are making; I refer 
 to your gas-works. They used to speak of the 
 growth of Ripon, and said it was owing to Captain 
 Mapes' gas, but as you are now gettiDg the real 
 gas, you will have a more solid growth. 
 
CITY OF REPON. 227 
 
 "But now I propose not to use any more of your 
 time, but let all go on and see how many each can 
 make happy by word or look, and make it a day 
 long, long to be remembered. But I want to tell 
 you Bipon people that you are talked about. 
 And what do they say about you? Why, they 
 say you are proud. Yes, and well may you be 
 proud — of the best schools in the West, the best 
 built town of its size, the most beautiful women 
 in the West, that is, the young ladies who come 
 here to school, and live in the surroundings of 
 Bipon. I do not mean Bipon ladies, they are here 
 to show for themselves; you, young men, can 
 speak to them, alone, of that, and it will not 
 offend — I have tried it. And now long may the 
 banner wave over Wood's Hotel." 
 
 The Saturday Beporter contained the following 
 item : 
 
 "The opening of Wood's new hotel at Bipon 
 on Thursday evening, was attended by a very 
 large concourse of people, and if the standing 
 and intelligence of the people is an index, the 
 popularity of the hotel will be second to none in 
 the State. If we had space we would give the 
 affair the extended notice it deserves this week." 
 
 Bipon is a small town to write a book about, 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 but small as it is it has beauties which can 
 nowhere else be found. 
 
 Oakwood, a watering-place, is a Ripon produc- 
 tion, having been conceived and brought into 
 existence by Ripon men, and is a success. It is a 
 beautiful villa situated on the banks of Green 
 Lake, and is accessible by the Northern Division 
 of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, also by 
 the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railways, direct 
 route from Chicago and Milwaukee. The location 
 of this much sought summer resort and delightful 
 watering place is only one mile from Green Lake 
 Station and depot, where omnibusses and carriages 
 await the arrival of the trains. The Oakwood 
 House is open for guests the first of May in each 
 year. Here are found all the creature comforts 
 incident to watering-places, and as long as the 
 present proprietor and family shall live to preside 
 as landlord and lady, the visitors will be well 
 cared for; they will be welcomed with a smile by 
 the host, David Greenway, and his sons, and will 
 be loth to bid them adieu. The natural scenery 
 around Oakwood is unrivalled in variety and 
 beauty. Groves of primeval grandeur, far stretch- 
 ing prairies, and an extensive lake view greet the 
 eye from any point. It is the healthiest location 
 
CITY OF R1PON. 229 
 
 in the United States, being so pronounced by the 
 hundreds of people who visit us each summer 
 season. No place in the world equals Green Lake 
 for its fine black bass and splendid duck shooting, 
 while pheasants, partridges, quail, woodcock, snipe, 
 prairie grouse, squirrels, rabbits, etc., are found 
 upon its borders. 
 
30 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FREEMASONRY. 
 
 In writing up this history I have twice alluded 
 to Freemasonry, and will now relate what I know 
 of it, without fear of being Morganized. I have 
 been a Mason for over fifty years, and should 
 consider myself competent to judge of its worth 
 as an institution to do good to the world, or work 
 it evil, and this much I can say, I do not regret 
 that I have been one, although I have never been 
 forward in showing the public, by the display of 
 emblematic jewelry, that I was a member of the 
 fraternity. I have found that where I have 
 accidentally met a worthy brother among stran- 
 gers it has helped to make the acquaintance very 
 pleasant. I once thought that I had discovered 
 where Masonry had done a great good in forming 
 the character of a young man. I was at Madison 
 at the opening of the State Legislature, and, as 
 usual, a Speaker had to be elected, and the choice 
 fell on H. L. P., of Milwaukee. He was at that 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 231 
 
 time a very young man, but he walked up to the 
 chair, called the house to order and* proceeded to 
 business with as much ease and grace as though he 
 had held the position for years. On leaving the 
 house, I said to my old friend, the late G. H. 
 Walker, of Milwaukee: 
 
 "I am proud of the young man whom you have 
 made your Speaker. Did you perceive with what 
 ease he went through the opening?" 
 
 "Yes;" he answered, "and do you know how he 
 came by that familiarity of presiding?" 
 
 "No, I do not," I replied. 
 
 " Well," he said, " he got that from being the 
 Grand Master of Masons of the State." 
 
 "If that is the result of Masonry," I replied, 
 "I will go home and recommend my two sons 
 to become Masons !" 
 
 As that is as far as the order allows the recom- 
 mendation or solicitation of a member to a person 
 outside, I did so. In after years I chanced to be 
 a room-mate of H. L. P., and I related my conver- 
 sation with Mr. Walker, but he said : 
 
 "You give too much credit to Masonry. I did 
 not get all this fitness from Masonry, I got it while 
 1 was a student-at-law in Troy, New York. I 
 used to go down to Albany, six miles, daily when 
 
232 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the Legislature was in session, and there listen to 
 the proceedings and debates, and when the Legis- 
 lature broke up I could have gone through with 
 presiding as well as now." 
 
 But I think his presiding in the Lodge helped 
 him to ease and experience, for all Masons know 
 that "order is Heaven's first law," and order we 
 are taught in the Lodge. I have also learned that 
 a very mean man taken into the fraternity, makes 
 a very mean Mason ; members of churches make 
 the same complaint in regard to their members. 
 Upon the whole I think the institution has done 
 a great deal of good, and I have never yet seen 
 where it has worked evil to society, unless it does 
 so in taking us away from our wives for short 
 seasons, as they are not allowed to sit in Lodge 
 except on festive occasions, but the good old 
 Scotch poet, who was a brother, compensates for 
 that in one of his songs: 
 
 "A Freemason's arms is a bonny, bonny place, 
 Where you can safely lay 
 On a cold winter's night and never think it long till day." 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN 
 
 Horace Greeley said, "Young man go West," 
 I say young man stay where you are if you have 
 anything to do. You see by this history of my 
 life, that I have been following Horace Greeley's 
 advice too much for my own good. Had I remained 
 in either place where I have lived I would have been 
 better off than 1 am now. A man should so live 
 that his acts in life will go to his credit; if he has 
 not, then he had better stay and live down slander 
 by acts that shall go to his advantage. For if he 
 has had aught said against him, and he removes 
 from there, the story will follow him, and like the 
 rolling snow-ball, it will increase with every turn 
 of the ball. The time spent in removals is so 
 much time lost. So, young man, if you have a 
 situation, that you can, by frugality and labor, lay 
 by something, be it ever so little, you had better 
 30 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 be contented and remain there. Then as Burns 
 says to the young man: 
 
 " Then gather wealth by every means that honor doth approve of; 
 Not to hide it in a hedge, nor for a train attendant, 
 But for the glorious privilege of being independent." 
 
 In many places in these passes, I find some of 
 my advice on this subject, but it is nevertheless 
 true, if I do repeat it. It is my conviction from 
 a long life's experience, and I wish to impress it 
 upon the minds of the youths of our land. Reader, 
 excuse repetition, it is what I was afraid I should 
 run into. 
 
 I hope this work will not appear to the reader 
 as did the book which an old batchelor was read- 
 ing at his boarding house. When the ladies would 
 go into the general parlor and find him reading he 
 had the politeness to turn down a leaf in the work 
 he was reading, and join in conversation. One of 
 the ladies was mischievous enough to steal away 
 the book and turn up the leaf and turn one down 
 farther back, and in this way compelled our 
 batchelor friend to read over his work again. One 
 day the ladies took occasion to ask him how he 
 liked the book, and his reply was that it was very 
 good, but most too much sameness. 
 
 I have just taken up a newspaper from which 
 
CITY OF BEPON. 235 
 
 I have clipped the following extract to excuse 
 me for the vanity of writing at this advanced age 
 of seventy -five years. Here is a man whom 
 I have frequently met and always admired, Wil- 
 liam Cullen Bryant, and who is now nearly eighty 
 yeai s old. But it cannot be said of me as of him, 
 that I was early in life engaged in writing for the 
 Press, for I never was. As you see by the pre- 
 ceding pages I have been engaged in commercial 
 pursuits, but used occasionally to write short 
 articles for my sons, both of whom were editors 
 in times gone by. I never have been ambitious to 
 be an author, and this last effort is for pastime, 
 but such as it you may have it, and should it do 
 good to the coming reader I shall be amply 
 repaid. 
 
 v "Mr. Bryant is now seventy-nine years old, and 
 no other period of t his life has been more prolific 
 in compositions of the highest order than the 
 eighth decade of time through which he is now 
 passing. But the most extraordinary fact about 
 this life is not only that its productiveness has 
 extended in reality into extreme old age, but that 
 it began in extreme youth. We have examples 
 in literature of men like Dryden, who bore his 
 best fruit in his last years; but of him it must be 
 
236 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 said that in his first years he bore no fruit at all. 
 Then, again, literature is full of cases of men of 
 precocious genius, who exhibited an astonishing 
 intellectual splendor at an early age, but whose 
 power seemed to burn out in the process, and to 
 conduct their possessors to a speedy death or to a 
 later life of impotence. But Bryant, who excites 
 the admiration of this generation by the marvel of 
 his genius burning undimmed in old age, excited 
 the admiration of our grandfathers by the marvel 
 of his genius already enkindled and radiant in his 
 early youth. As far back as 1804, when he was 
 but ten years old, he published translations from 
 the Latin poets. In 1807 he wrote an effective 
 political satire called 'The Embargo,' which ran 
 through two editions in a few months. The per- 
 fect poem of 'Tnanatopsis,' which may itself defy 
 the power which it celebrates, was written when 
 its author was only eighteen. A long, literary life 
 like this, that sheds a remarkable light at both 
 extremes — that is as glorious for the long preser- 
 vation of its powers as it is for the precocity with 
 which they were first manifested — has an interest 
 for us scarcely to be surpassed in the history of 
 letters. It is a noble privilege to add that the lit- 
 erary activity of Mr. Bryant, thus astonishing for 
 
CITY OF BIPON. 237 
 
 beginning so earnestly and continuing so late, 
 forms but one side of a life which has been strenu- 
 ous in professional labors, faithful and sweet in 
 the privacies of home and friendship, alert in the 
 attention to all the duties of a citizen, and which 
 has from the first lent itself only to what is pure, 
 dignified and humane in society." 
 
 Oh ! would some power the giftie gee us, 
 
 To see oursel's as ithers see us, 
 
 It wad frae mony a blunder free us. — Burns. 
 
 And now, after having passed through a long 
 life, and been an observer of men, manners and 
 customs, the world, as it now passes, is to me 
 but as a grand play, and I as a looker on ; and 
 as the play is almost at an end, I have a right to 
 comment on the actors and the audience as they 
 go out before me. I hope to see the play go on 
 for so some time; so in my comments on others, I 
 must not forget the part I have and am at the 
 present time playing. But from affectation, good 
 Lord deliver me. You, young man, who think 
 you must smoke a cigar to make a man of yourself, 
 try and hold your cigar gracefully, especially the 
 first one, for remember that the eye of the public 
 is on you, and should you fail to carry it with ease 
 and grace, you will be laughed at and ridiculed, 
 for you are more noticed than you would really 
 
238 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 suppose. Remember that the character of every 
 one, old or young, is commented on, more or less, 
 on every street corner. Now bear in mind that 
 you will be talked about, and let your conduct be 
 such, that whatever may be said of you, it may be 
 in your praise. 
 
 I was once traveling with a friend, and stopped 
 for the night at a hotel, and as our bill was not 
 exactly satisfactory when we came to leave, T said 
 to the landlord, "I can give yon a receipt by 
 which you can keep a good hotel and never fail." 
 
 "Well," he says, "that I should like." 
 
 Then I said to him, "Do you know what this 
 man and myself will talk about when we first drive 
 away from your house." 
 
 "No, I do not." 
 
 " Well, the first subject that we will discuss will 
 be you, your house, your fare, and the price paid. 
 Always keep that in mind, and so behave to your 
 customer that he will have nothing to find fault 
 with, for there is nothing surer than that he will 
 talk you all over. But take care that you do not 
 overdo the matter and be too much of a landlord. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Iii bringing this book to a close, and reviewing 
 my long life, it appears a mystery why we should 
 have been brought into this world. It is a curi- 
 osity to me; to me it has been an enigma. We 
 have thought we possessed friends and have held 
 them in high esteem, but when we came to test 
 them by dollars and cents we have found how 
 wofully we had been disappointed. 
 
 I met an old acquaintance, to-day, who seemed 
 pleased to see me, and 'the following conversation 
 ensued : 
 
 " Why, Captain, how pleased I am to see you ; 
 how young you look; it does me good to meet 
 you. You have been the foremost man in all our 
 town in building colleges, churches, and every 
 public institution, and in getting railroads to the 
 place ; without you we should have no town here. 
 I passed the place that you are now building at 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Winneconne, and thought I saw your handiwork 
 there. It is a beautiful place, and, if you live, 
 you will make it a town.'' 
 
 " Yes, I hope to. But why did you not call and 
 see me? I should be pleased to have entertained 
 you at my house." 
 
 " Well, I should if I had the time, for I know 1 
 should have been welcome." 
 
 " Elder, I have been writing up the history of 
 Bipon, and other towns that I have helped build, 
 together with my own life ; I am getting it into a 
 book of about three hundred pages, at a cost of 
 two dollars a copy, and should like to have you 
 subscribe for it; if you do so, your name will 
 appear in the work as one of my friends and 
 patrons to the book." 
 
 "Ahem ! W-el-l I don't know ; I have a great 
 many ways for money tmVfall; I have had to pay 
 out much to our church; I don't see howl can " 
 
 "I am sorry, not so much for the two dollars, 
 but I had reckoned on your name as truly my 
 friend." 
 
 "Well, I will see you again!" 
 
 Perhaps he will, if so I shall be pleased to meet 
 him. This is nothing new; I have seen it all 
 through life, but it does not set me back much. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 241 
 
 The next man I met, after hearing my story and 
 being solicited for a subscription, said : 
 
 "Yes, Captain, set me down for two copies; I 
 will send one to my friends East, and show them 
 how we build towns, and what a lovely country 
 we have here about Ripon." 
 
 In the preceding pages I have written of my 
 religious belief. I have a little boy, five years of 
 age, running thi'ough the room, and his inquisitive 
 mind propounded to me a question that I can not 
 answer. His mother tells him of a God, whom 
 he seems so anxious to learn more of, and he 
 supposes he can get all the knowledge that is 
 necessary from his parents ; but, alas, how little do 
 we know. He said, " Pa, how large is God ?" 
 Yes, that is the question, "How large is God?" 
 How does He govern this world? How does he 
 produce those beautiful flowers which blossom in 
 the garden, with all their variegated colors on one 
 stem ? Here, while I write, is the simple but 
 beautiful morning-glory, running and twining up 
 the window-casing, with three or four distinct 
 colors on the same vine, in the same sunshine or 
 shade. It would seem as if there was some great 
 Designer, whose object was to please man. Well 
 may we ask, with the little boy, "How large is 
 31 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE CITY OF RIPON. 
 
 God?" I cannot answer, except that he is in and 
 through everything, that the world is God, and 
 God is the world, and, oh, how beautiful it is. 
 Yes, roll on as you will for generations to come, 
 when he whose thoughts have been put in print 
 and laid on the shelves, to be dusted off, or 
 perhaps taken down and read by some one to see 
 if those who have gone before them knew any 
 more than they can learn through their senses. 
 
RIPON COLLEGE. 
 
 ITS HISTORY 
 
 The first efforts to establish an institution of 
 learning in Ripon, had their origin in the public 
 and educational interest of the first settlers of the 
 town. In the year 1851, the citizens made a move- 
 ment to found a literary institution of a hisrh 
 order. A corporation was formed under a charter, 
 obtained for the purpose. In the summer of that 
 year the walls of what is now the East College 
 building were erected, and late in the autumn the 
 roof was put on. The money was wholly furnished 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 by the people of Ripon, and vicinity, and, consid- 
 ering their very limited resources, their contribu- 
 tions were very liberal. Some who had no money 
 gave materials or their own labor. 
 
 Having exhausted their scanty means on the 
 unfinished building, and seeing the need of enlist- 
 ing some religious denomination in the enterprise, 
 the Trustees, the next year, sent a proposition to 
 the "Winnebago District Convention of Presby- 
 terian and Congregational Ministers and Churches," 
 offering to transfer the whole property to the 
 Convention for the sum of $400 — the amount of 
 their debts — on condition that the building should 
 be so far finished as to admit of the opening of a 
 High School, and that such school be actually 
 begun in it early in 1853. 
 
 The churches of this region, being then very 
 small and poor, the Convention did not deem it 
 practicable to raise even the very small sum of 
 money required. But one of its members, Rev. 
 J. W. Walcott, then minister of the church at 
 Menasha, personally accepted the condition 
 in behalf of the Convention; the Convention 
 being pledged to take the institution under its 
 care with a new organization, so soon as 
 the money necessary for the purpose could be 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 245 
 
 raised. Mr. Walcott accordingly secured the 
 property by deed from the Trustees. He also 
 enlarged the site, by the purchase of nine 
 acres of adjacent land. The building was so far 
 finished that winter, that, according to the agree- 
 ment, a school was opened in it in the Spring 
 of 1853, and was continued from that time with a 
 good degree of success. 
 
 In February 1855, in accordance with a resolu- 
 tion of the convention, a new charter was obtained 
 from the Legislature, incorporating the " Board of 
 Trustees of Brockway College," as it was then 
 entitled, and naming, as the first trustees, the 
 persons who had been designated by the conven- 
 tion for that purpose. The Board was organized 
 under the new charter, in March 1855. The College 
 grounds and building were conveyed to the Board 
 by warranty deed, February 21st, 1857. That 
 year, a liberal subscription having been obtained 
 for the purpose, the Second College Building, now 
 the Middle^College, was erected. 
 
 At this time the Board was heavily in debt, and 
 the disastrous financial crisis of 1857, struck the 
 young institution a sudden and severe blow. The 
 promising subscription almost collapsed. For 
 about five years the institution struggled almost 
 
246 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 hopelessly with its financial difficulties. Its em- 
 barrassments were so great that some of its warm- 
 est friends were discouraged. For about a year, 
 at the opening of the rebellion, the Trustees were 
 compelled to suspend the school. Many of the 
 students enlisted in the army, the College grounds 
 were leased to the Government for a camp, and 
 occupied by the First Regiment of Wisconsin 
 Cavalry. 
 
 But in 1862, the convention and steadfast friends 
 of the College rallied. A subscription to pay its 
 debts was so far successful, that in September of 
 that year the Trustees reopened the school, under 
 the charge of Professor Edward H. Merrell, (now 
 Professor of Greek) assisted by efficient lady 
 teachers. Under them, the school grew so rapidly, 
 and its prospects seemed so favorable, that in April 
 1863, the Trustees began the organization of a 
 permanent Faculty for regular college instruction. 
 Rev. Wm. E. Merrimen, then pastor of the Pres- 
 byterian church at Green Bay, was elected Presi- 
 dent, and E. H. Merrell, Professor of Languages. 
 At the annual meeting of the Board in July, the 
 President entered upon his duties, and the policy 
 of the College was define J. At the opening of 
 the term, in September 1863, the first regular 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 247 
 
 college class was formed. Before this time the 
 institution had only been a high school ; this is the 
 date of its organization and beginuing as a regular 
 college, while its preparatory department has been 
 still continued. The first collegiate year, its debts 
 were wholly paid, the east building was completed 
 and the library begun. Some amendments to the 
 charter were also obtained, changing its name to 
 "Ripon College," and granting additional privi- 
 leges. 
 
 Since its permanent organization for regular 
 collegiate work, in 1863, the college has made 
 constant progress, in the number of its teachers, 
 in funds and facilities for instructions, and in 
 reputation and influence. In I860 it had outgrown 
 its accommodations; and in 1867 the West College 
 building, larger and better than either of the 
 others, was erected. The College is now firmly 
 established, with a full faculty, and with means 
 sufficient, so that it may afford ample instruction 
 in all departments of a liberal education. 
 
 THE CHARTER, POWERS AND CONTROL OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 The charter incorporates, "The Board of Trus- 
 tees of Ripon College," fifteen in number, including 
 the President of the College, who is ex-officio a 
 
248 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Trustee. The others hold office three years, one- 
 third going out of office every year; but they are 
 re-elegible. The Board fills its own vacancies. It 
 has power to maintain an institution of learning 
 of the highest order, with all the powers necessary 
 to its operation and control. It may establish any 
 deparment of learning, confer the usual degrees, 
 may receive donations for special educational pur- 
 poses, and apply them according to the designs of 
 the donors. It may hold property, both real and 
 personal, to any amount, provided the annual 
 income from it shall not exceed $20,000. 
 
 The title to the College grounds is perfect and 
 obsolute, and the property is wholly encumbered- 
 The entire control and government of the College 
 is vested in in the Board of Trustees, according to 
 the charter. It has been built up mainly by the 
 Congregationalists. The majority of the Trustees 
 are members of Congregational churches, and the 
 Board has the confidence of that denomination. 
 It is a Christian College, under the patronage of 
 Congregationalists. But it is not designed to be 
 sectarian; no sectarian instruction is given; it is 
 not under any sectarian control ; it has no organic 
 connection with any church or ecclesiastical body. 
 Many of its strong friends and liberal benefactors 
 
ClTt OF RIPON. 249 
 
 are in other denominations. Its privileges are 
 open to all, on the same terms ; and there is hardly 
 a denomination in the land that is not represented 
 among its students. 
 
 DESIGN AND POLICY OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 The two sexes are here educated together. 
 Students of each sex may take the same courses 
 of study, and they enjoy the same privileges. 
 This is uo experiment here ; experience has satis- 
 fied us that this plan is every way the best. It 
 does, indeed, require the best conditions, but 
 these being granted, it produces the best results. 
 
 Health, temperance, sterling morality, christian** 
 character and christian usefulness, are made promi- 
 nent objects of instruction as conducted here. A 
 christian philosophy will be taught, and the aim 
 will be to have all instruction accordant with 
 christian principles, and pervaded with the christ- 
 ian spirit. 
 
 The Academic Department will be continued 
 in connection with the Collegiate. The institution 
 will be open to all students of a suitable age, 
 when they have concluded their studies in the 
 Public Schools ; and if they cannot take a full 
 course, they may pursue any studies for which 
 they are qualified. The College is thus prepared 
 32 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to meet the wants of all classes of students, and 
 that too, without destroying the regular order of 
 instruction. 
 
 There are two courses of instruction in the 
 College, the Classical and Scientific ; both of four 
 years, and differing chiefly in the relative attention 
 given to Classical and Scientific studies. The 
 completion of either entitles the student to the 
 corresponding literary degree. We seek to main- 
 tain the standard of a liberal education, both in 
 thoroughness and extent ; but we seek also to 
 adapt instruction to the wants of the times. The 
 courses of study are equivalent to those of the 
 colleges of the east 
 
 LOCATION, GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS. 
 
 The beauty and healthfulness of Ripon and the 
 character of the people, are favorable for a 
 college. The College Grounds include twelve 
 acres. They are very convenient and pleasant, 
 being high enough to overlook the town. There 
 are three College Buildings, all of stone. The 
 East Building is fifty feet square and three stories 
 high. It contains recitation rooms, reading room, 
 chemical department and cabinet, besides private 
 rooms for students. The Middle Building is 100 
 feet by 44, three stories high, besides the attic 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 2c 1 
 
 and basement. This is the Ladies 1 Building ; it 
 contains the boarding hall, reception rooms, music 
 rooms and private rooms of the lady teachers and 
 students. The West Building is 80 feet by 50, 
 and four .stories high. It contains the chapel, 
 library, lecture rooms and private rooms for male 
 teachers and students. Each of the buildings 
 also contains the hall of one of the literary 
 societies. The buildings afford room for the in- 
 struction of 300 students, of whom about 200 
 may reside in the buildings. 
 
 FINANCIAL CONDITION AND POLICY. 
 
 The whole amount of the College property is 
 estimated at about $120,000. There are no in- 
 incumbrances of any kind on it. The amount of 
 floating debt is very small. Upwards of $25,000 
 of its permanent fund has been given by friends 
 of education at the east. 
 
 Since the orgauization of the institution as a 
 College in 1863, it has been operated wholly on its 
 Earnings, its teachers receiving only what was ob- 
 tained from tuition, until the endowment fund was 
 begun. This now affords about half its support. 
 Every dollar contributed to the College since 
 1863, has been employed in building it up, with- 
 out any diminution for current expenses, or for 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 management, or for raising money. It is proposed 
 to continue this rigidly economical policy — to 
 spend nothing given to the College in operating 
 it, but co use every donation in increasing its per- 
 manent means of instruction. It is designed to 
 keep the College within the reach of the poor. 
 The expenses of the student are very low, tuition 
 being but $8.00 a term and board but $2.50 a 
 week. 
 
 THE WORK WHICH HAS BEEN DONE. 
 
 The foundations of a Christian College have 
 been established. It has secured an eligible home 
 It has acquired a considerable part of the neces- 
 sary property. It has permanently arranged its 
 educational work, and already accomplished a 
 very important and valuable service. Seven classes 
 have graduated. A considerable number having 
 received their entire training here, have gone to 
 older colleges to complete their course. A large 
 number who could not pursue a full course, have 
 had here an incomplete, but very important, trail- 
 ing. By the work of education already done, the 
 College has secured the confidence of the people 
 so far as it is known. 
 
 The College has become dear to the churches. 
 It is rooted in thousands of Christian hearts, and 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 253 
 
 draws their prayers and gifts. It has developed 
 much interest in higher education. It has acquired 
 such a measure of moral and religious power, as 
 to be the efficient all}' of the churches. The work 
 thus done opens the 
 
 GREATER WORK TO BE DONE. 
 
 With ample means for their instruction and 
 assistance the present number of students might 
 be greatly increased. The demands for the College 
 must greatly increase in the future. Wisconsin 
 is nearly as large as the whole of New England, 
 and if peopled as densely it would have a popu- 
 lation of over four millions. It will sustain a 
 population far greater. While then we seek to 
 make the College as useful as possible, in doing 
 the work now required of it, we should so plan 
 that it may grow to be adequate to the greater 
 work to be done hereafter. 
 
 PRESENT BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 
 
 Rev. William E. Merriman, Ex Officio; Jehdeiah 
 Bowen, Esq., Ripon; Charles F. Hammond, Esq., 
 Ripon; Hon. E. D. Holtou, Milwaukee; Richard 
 Catlin, Esq., Ripon, Rev. E/ P. Goodwin, D. D., 
 Chicago. 
 
 Term expires with the Collegiate year in June, 
 1873. 
 
254 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 Rev. J. J. Miter, D. D., Beaver Dam; William 
 Starr, Esq., Ripon ; Rev. Henry A. Miner, Colum- 
 bus; Edwin M. Danforth, Esq., Oshkosh; Rev. F. 
 B. Doe, Ripon. 
 
 Term expires with the Collegiate year, in July, 
 1874. 
 
 Rev. Charles W. Camp, Waukesha; Rev. Arthur 
 Little, Fond du Lac; Storrs Hall, M. D , Rosen- 
 dale; Thomas H. Little, Esq., Janesville, 
 
 Term expires with the Collegiate year, in June ; 
 1875. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE BOARD AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 Rev. William E. Merriman, President; Rev. J. 
 J. Miter, D. D., Vice President; Storrs Hall, M. 
 D., Secretary; Jehdeiah Bowen, Esq., Treasurer. 
 
 FACULTY. 
 
 Rev. William E. Merriman, A. M., President, 
 and Professor of Mental and Moral Science; Rev. 
 Edward H. Merrell, A. M., Professor of the Greek 
 Language and Literature; Rev. John P. Haire, A. 
 M., Professor of the Latin Language and Litera- 
 ture ; Joseph M. Geery, A. M , Professor of Rhetoric 
 and English Literature; John C. Fillmore, A. M., 
 Instructor in German; Lyman B. Sperry, M. D., 
 Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science ; Car- 
 los A. Kenaston, A. M., Professor of Mathematics 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 255 
 
 and Astronomy; Mrs. Clarissa T. Tracy, Matron 
 and Instructor in Botany; Luthera H. Adams, A. 
 M., Assistant in Greek and Mathematics; Kate A. 
 Bushnell, Principal of the Ladies' Department; 
 Mrs. William M. Bristoll, B. S., Assistant in Latin ; 
 John C. Fillmore, A. M., Professor of Music; 
 Camilla M. Nettleton, Instructor in Vocal Culture, 
 and Assistant Instructor in Piano Playing and 
 Harmony. 
 
 Penmanship and Drawing are taught by extra 
 teachers. 
 
 Prof. Bristoll, Registrar and Assistant Treasurer ; 
 Prof. Geery, Secretary of the Faculty and Libra- 
 rian. 
 
 SUMMARY OF STUDENTS FOR 1871-72. 
 
 
 t 
 i 
 
 Course. Course. 
 
 Genfmen. Ladies. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Graduates o: 
 
 E 187! 
 
 2, 3 4 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 Seniors, 
 
 
 5 11 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 Juniors, 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 Sophomores, 
 
 
 10 10 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 Freshmen, 
 
 
 0-20 9- 
 
 42 6 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 In select studies, 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 7-69 
 
 Praparatory 
 
 Students, 
 
 147 
 
 118 
 
 265 
 
 Students in 
 
 Music 
 
 only, 
 
 1 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 193 178 371 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 COURSES OF INSTRUCTION. 
 
 Classical Course. College Department. Scientific Course. 
 
 FRESHMAN YEAR. 
 
 First Term — Greek, Xenophon's Memorabilia ; 
 Latin, Virgil; Anglo Saxon, Corson; Mathematics, 
 Algebra finished ; Elocution, Mitchell. 
 
 Second Term — Latin, Livy ; Greek, Iliad ; Latin, 
 Virgil; Astronomy, Burritt; Mathematics, Geom- 
 etry begun ; Elocution, Mitchell. 
 
 Third Term— Latin, Horace; Latin, De Senec- 
 tute; Natural Science, Botany, Wood; Mathe- 
 matics, Geometry finished; Elocution, Mitchell. 
 
 Essays and Declamations throughout the year ; 
 also Latin and Greek Prose Composition. 
 
 SOPHOMORE YEAR. 
 
 First Term -Greek, Thucydides; Natural Sci- 
 ence, Zoology ; English Literature ; Mathematics, 
 Trigonometry ; Elocution, Mitchell. 
 
 Second Term — Greek, Tragedy ; Latin, Xivy, 
 Prose Composition ; English Literature ; Mathe- 
 matics, Conic Sections and Analytical Geometry. 
 
 Third Term — Greek, Demosthenes on the Crown ; 
 Latin, Horace, Prose Composition ; Rhetoric, Art 
 of Discourse, Day ; Mathematics, Surveying and 
 Mensuration. 
 
 Declamations and Orations throughout the year; 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 25? 
 
 also Smith's Greece with Lectures in the Classical 
 Course. 
 
 JUNIOR YEAR. 
 
 First Term — Modern Languages, French or Ger- 
 man ; Natural Science, Inorganic Chemistry ; Math- 
 ematics, Mechanics, Snell's Olmsted. 
 
 Second Term — Greek, Plato ; Language, French 
 or German ; Natural Science, Inorganic Chemis- 
 try, 'Organic Chemistry; Physics, Snell's Olmsted. 
 
 Third Term — Latin, Cicero's Philosophical 
 Works; Language, Fieuch or German; Natural 
 Science, Mineralogy, Geology ; Astronomy, Snell's 
 Olmsted. 
 
 Orations and Forensic Discussions throughout 
 the year. 
 
 SENIOR YEAR. 
 
 First Term — Mental Philosophy, Porter; Logic, 
 Fowler's Inductive Logic, Lectures; Natural The- 
 ology, Butler's Analogy. Orations and Extem- 
 pore Discussions. 
 
 Second Term— Mental Philosophy, Porter; Po- 
 litical Philosophy, Constitution of the United 
 States, International Law, Woolsey, Political 
 Economy, Mill ; Higher Physiology, Lectures. 
 Orations and Extempore Discussions. 
 
 Third Term — Moral Philosophy, Fairchild ; 
 
258 HISTORY »0F THE 
 
 ^Esthetics, Bascorn ; Evidences of Christianity, 
 Hopkins ; History, Lectures on the Philosophy of 
 History. 
 
 NORMAL COURSE FIRST YEAR. 
 
 First Term — Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
 Year, Sc., Natural Science, Physiology ; Mathe- 
 matics, Higher Algebia. 
 
 Second Term — Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
 Year, Sc; Natural Science, Physical Geography; 
 Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 
 
 Third Term- -Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
 Year, Sc ; Natural Science, Botany, Wood ; Rhet- 
 oric, Hart 
 
 Essays and Declamations throughout the year. 
 
 SECOND YEAR 
 
 First Term — Language, Latin as in Freshman 
 Year, Sc, French or German ; Natural Science, 
 Zoology ; Mathematics, Algebra finished ; Elocu- 
 tion, Mitchell. 
 
 Second Term— Language, Latin as in Freshman 
 Year, Sc, French or German ; Astronomy, Bur- 
 ritt ; Mathematics, Geometry begun ; Elocution, 
 Mitchell. 
 
 Third Term — Language, Latin as in Freshman 
 Year, Sc, French or German; Rhetoric, Art of 
 Discourse, Day ; Mathematics, Geometry finished ; 
 Elocution, Mitchell. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 2£9 
 
 Essays and Declamations throughout the year. 
 
 THIRD YEAR. 
 
 First Term— Mental Philosophy, Porter ; Logic, 
 Fowler's Inductive Logic, Lectures ; Natural Sci- 
 ence, Inorganic Chemistry. Orations and Extem- 
 pore Discussions. 
 
 Second Term — Mental Philosophy, Porter; Polit- 
 ical Philosophy, Political Economy, Mill ; Natural 
 Science, Inorganic Chemistry , Organic Chemistry : 
 Higher Physiology, Lectures. Orations and 
 Extempore Discussions. 
 
 Third Year — Moral Philosophy, Fairchild ; /Es- 
 thetics, Bascom ; Evidences of Christianity, Hop- 
 kins; Natural Science, Mineralogy, Geology; His- 
 tory, Lectures on the Philosophy of History. 
 
 classical course. Preparatory Department, scientific course. 
 
 .rPINTOR PREPARATORY YEAR. 
 
 First Term- Latin, Readei, Grammar, Prose 
 Composition ; History of Rome, Smith ; Mathe- 
 matics, Arithmetic finished; History of the United 
 States, Scott. 
 
 Second Term -Latin, Reader, Grammar, Prose 
 Composition; Science of Accounts, Bryant and 
 Stratton ; English Grammar, Analysis. 
 
 Third Term — Latin, Reader, Grammar, Prose 
 
260 H1STOEY OF THE 
 
 Composition ; Mathematics, Elementary Algebra ; 
 Elementary Physics, Cooley. 
 
 MIDDLE PREPARATORY YEAR. 
 
 Fit st Term — Latin, Caesar ; Greek, Grammar, 
 Lessons : Natural Science, Physiology. 
 
 Second Term- Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Greek, 
 Grammar, Lessons; Natural Science, Physical 
 Geography. 
 
 Third Term — Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Greek, 
 Grammar, Lessons, Reader; History, Student's 
 Hume. 
 
 Latin Prose Composition throughout the year. 
 
 SENIOR PREPARATORY YEAR. 
 
 First Term — Latin, Virgil; Greek, Reader, Tes- 
 tament ; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 
 
 Second lerm — Latin, Virgil ; Greek, Reader, 
 Testament; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 
 
 Third Term — Latin, DeSenectute; Greek, Reader, 
 Testament; Rhetoric, Hart. 
 
 Latin and Greek Prose Compositions throughout 
 the year. 
 
 SENIOR PREPARATORY YEAR 
 
 First lerm — Latin, Caesar ; Natural Science, 
 Physiology; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 
 
 Second lerm — Latin, Cicero's Orations; Natural 
 
CITY OF R1P0N. 261 
 
 Science, Physical Geography ; Mathematics, Higher 
 Algebra. 
 
 Ihird Term — Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Rhetoric, 
 Hart; History, Student's Hume. 
 
 Latin Prose Composition throughout the year. 
 
 NORMAL COURSE PREPARATORY YEAR. 
 
 Same as in the Junior Preparatory Year of the 
 two degree courses. 
 
 Robinson's Mathematical Series, Harkness' and 
 Chase and Stuart's Latin Series, Hutchison's Physi- 
 ology, Warren's Physical Geography, Youman's 
 New Chemistry, and Dana's Geology, in addition 
 to those specified in the courses, arc authorized 
 text-books of the College. 
 
 Essays and Declamations throughout each Pre- 
 paratory Course. 
 
 Note — It will be observed that the Classical, 
 Scientific, and Normal Preparatory Courses are 
 respectively of three, two, and one years duration. 
 
 DESIGN AND CHARACTER OP THE COLLEGE 
 
 It is the aim of this institution to furnish young 
 men and women with a thorough mental and moral 
 training. Instuction will be conducted on Christian 
 principles, and it will be the aim of the instructors 
 to have it pervaded with a strong and healthy 
 religious influence. Education will be directed 
 
262 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with special reference to health, self-control, Chris- 
 tian character and usefulness in life. 
 
 Two liberal courses of study — the Classic and 
 the Scientific — have been arranged, each extending 
 over four years. The Normal Course is designed, 
 not only for those who intend to teach, but also 
 for those whose time and means do not allow them 
 to get a liberal education. 
 
 The courses of study are open to students of 
 both sexes. Ladies reside with the lady teachers 
 in a separate building ; but students of both sexes 
 are instructed in the same classes, enjoy the same 
 privileges, and may take the same degrees. 
 
 LECTURES. 
 
 Lectures will be given on Physiology, Chemistry, 
 Mental ano! Moral Science, Logic and History. 
 There will also be one lecture a week, throughout 
 the year, on subjects of practical information to 
 students. 
 
 EXAMINATIONS, DEGREES AND CERTIFICATES. 
 
 At the close of each term, each class in the 
 College Department, is subjected to a thorough 
 examination upon the studies of the term, In the 
 Preparatory deparment, monthly examinations are 
 held. The degree of Batchelor of Arts is conferred 
 on those who have completed the Classical Course, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 263 
 
 and the degree of Bachelor of Science upon those 
 who have completed the Scientific. Graduates of 
 the Classical Course, of three years standing, and 
 of the Scientific Course of four years standing, 
 who have been engaged in any literary or profes- 
 sional pursuit, and have sustained a good moral 
 character, may, on application, receive the degree 
 of Master of Arts. Students who complete the 
 Normal Course, receive a certificate, but no diploma 
 or degree. They take no part in the exercises* of 
 Commencement day, but their names are publicly 
 announced by the President on that occasion. 
 
 LIBRARY, CABINET AND APPARATUS. 
 
 The College Library contains over three thous- 
 and volumes, and is constantly increasing. The 
 Cabinet is furnished with a valuable collection of 
 Minerals, which has now been permanently located 
 and arranged. The Chemical Department is pro- 
 vided with Laboratory and Lecture Room, and 
 there is considerable apparatus for the illustration 
 of the other Physical Sciences. 
 
 LITERARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 The three Literary Societies — the Ecolian, Her 
 mean and Lincolnian — afford their members abun 
 dant means of voluntary improvement. These 
 societies have each a well furnished hall. 
 
264 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 THE JAMES FUND. 
 
 For the Encouragement of English Composition. 
 
 The interest of a fund of $1,000, given by Mrs. 
 John W. James, of Boston, for this special purpose, 
 will be annually appropriated, by the direction of 
 the faculty, to the four students in College classes, 
 who during the year, have made most improvement 
 in English Composition. 
 
 REGULATIONS. 
 
 The regulations of the College are few and sim- 
 ple, and designed to cultivate manliness and self- 
 respect, by placing the students largely upon his 
 honor and personal responsibility. Students attend 
 public worship in some church regularly twice on 
 the Sabbath. Puuctual attendance on all prescribed 
 exercises, and cheerful observance of the rales are 
 required. Study hours must be spent in study. 
 Students are expected to be exemplary in morals 
 and manners. None but those who earnestly desire 
 improvement are wanted here, and such as continue 
 to be disorderly or idle cannot be allowed to 
 remain. Students will be admitted at any time, 
 but it is very important that they should enter 
 promptly at the beginning of the term, and remain 
 until the close of examinations. Excuses from 
 recitations will not be given except for sickness or 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 265 
 
 unusual causes. Unless it is strictly necessary, 
 students will not be allowed to make visits home 
 or ele where, if their absence would include the 
 time of recitation. Even when no recitation is 
 lost, such visits are highly detrimental to a student's 
 progress, and should be discouraged. Parents are 
 requested to make their arrangements accordingly. 
 No student is permitted to visit the room of a 
 student of the other sex, except by special per- 
 mission in case of severe sickness. 
 
 The College Registrar will send to parents or 
 guardians a monthly report of the scholarship and 
 deportment of each student in the Preparatory 
 Department. 
 
 EXPENSES, 
 
 Tuition in any College Studies, $8.00 a Term. 
 Tuition in Preparatory Studies, 7.00 " 
 Drawing, - : 3.00 " 
 
 Room Rent, - 3.00 " 
 
 Incidentals, - - 2.00 " 
 
 Board in the Hall with Teachers, 2. 50 a week. 
 There are no extra charges. French and Ger- 
 man are included in the above. Instruction in 
 vocal music is free. Washing is done at very low 
 rates. Students furnish their own fire and lights. 
 All charges payable in advance. 
 34 
 
266 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 About two hundred students may have rooms 
 and board in the College Buildings. Several of 
 the teachers reside there and board at the same 
 table with the students. The middle building is 
 exclusively for ladies. Board may be had in pri- 
 vate families at reasoable rates. 
 
 MANUAL LABOE. 
 
 Young ladies who wish, may assist in the domes- 
 tic department, and thus pay in part for their 
 board. None are required to render any domestic 
 service, and none are allowed to work more than 
 two hours a day, except in special cases. Those 
 who expect such employment, must apply for it 
 before coming. Young men who need it, may 
 generally find remumerative employment for an 
 hour or two a day, but the College does not agree 
 to furnish it. Those who are in earnest for an 
 education, and have tact in helping themselves, 
 need not be deterred for want of means. Those 
 who are needy, if they are faithful in working 
 with both head and hands, will here receive all 
 possible encouragement, and may earn a considera- 
 ble part of their support. But parents should 
 consider that a good education is always worth 
 more than it costs; and that money well expended 
 in it is the wisest investment for their children. 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 267 
 
 Dutiful students should never be required, except 
 by necessity, to earn their own support, or any 
 considerable part of it, while getting their educa- 
 cation. 
 
 OUTFIT. 
 
 The rooms in the College Buildings are furnished 
 with stove, bedstead, wash-stand, table, and plain 
 chairs. Other furniture — bed, bedding, lamp, cur- 
 tains, etc., — is supplied by the student. A carpet, 
 even if it be a small one, a table-spread, and every- 
 thing that contributes to the comfort and pleasant- 
 ness of a room, should be brought, if possible, 
 from home. The beneficial influence upon the 
 student's manners, of surrounding him in his room 
 with all that makes home cheerful and attractive, 
 can hardly be over-estimated. Every student 
 should be provided with table-napkins, an umbrella, 
 overshoes, and plenty of warm underclothing. 
 
 LOCATION AND BUILDINGS. 
 
 Ripon is reached by the Chicago and North- 
 western and Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the 
 Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railways. It is one 
 of the most attractive places in the State The 
 scenery is pleasant and the climate healthful. The 
 grounds occupied by the institution are beautifully 
 
268 H1ST0BY OF THE 
 
 located, commanding extensive views of the sur- 
 rounding country. The College has three large 
 stone buildings, three stories high. These afford 
 ample room for the purposes of instruction; also 
 for Chapel, Cabinet, Labratory, Library, Literary 
 Societies, Reading Room, Boarding Hall ; and resi- 
 dence for teachers and students. The buildings 
 were thoroughly repaired and renovated one year 
 ago, and very great improvements made, especially 
 in the ladies' building. 
 
 GKOWTH AND WANTS. 
 
 The progress of the College has been very 
 encouraging. All the departments of instruction 
 are now well organized and filled with permanent 
 instructors. During the past year, besides the 
 improvement of the building, valuable additions 
 have been made to the'Library and Cabinet. The 
 Endowment Subscription has reached nearly 
 $45,000, of which about $35,000 is paid in and 
 well invested. 
 
 But it is evident that the work of the College, 
 important and useful as it is already, is only fairly 
 begun. Its usefulness and growth are now limited 
 only by want of means adequate to its work. 
 Hitherto, with severe economy, and great sacrifice 
 from its teachers, it has been sustained almost 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 269 
 
 wholly on its receipts from tuition. Nothing con- 
 tributed to it has been used in current expenses or 
 in raising money, and it is not proposed to use 
 any gift for these purposes. But the work which 
 the College is now doing requires that its endow- 
 ment fund should be raised to $100,000. The 
 library should be largely increased immediately, 
 and there is much need of apparatus, and of addi 
 tions to the Cabinet. The friends of the College 
 and of liberal education generally, are invited to 
 contribute to these objects. Their donations will 
 be used most advantageously in the present work 
 of instruction, and in building up a strong and 
 permanent institution for liberal culture. 
 
 MUSICAL DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The object of this department is to give thor- 
 ough instruction in playing the Piano forte, in Solo 
 and Chorus Singing, and Harmony and Higher 
 Musical Theory, including Counterpoint and the 
 elements of Form and Composition. Its instruct- 
 ors will also seek to develop in their pupils a 
 sound and healthy musical taste. 
 
 The course of study is divided into two parts, 
 Preparatory and Advanced. 
 
 PREPARATORY COURSE. 
 
 In this course the student will become familiar 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with the staff, clefs, notes, rests, dynamic signs, 
 and all that belongs to musical notation ; also with 
 the different intervals, the major, minor and chro- 
 matic scales. They will be exercised thoroughly 
 in transposition, and will become familiar with the 
 chords of the major and minor scales, so as to be 
 able to commence the study of Harmony in the 
 Advanced Course with the connection of chords- 
 They will also pursue the study of Form suffi- 
 ciently to distinguish readily phrases, sections, and 
 periods, and to analyze the common Song-forms. 
 
 In Piano-playing they will acquire a good finger 
 action, touch, and facility and ease of execution. 
 They will also become familiar with the principles 
 of fingering as applied to all classes of passages. 
 They will devote one lesson a week for three terms 
 to the study of church music, using either piano 
 or cabinet organ for this purpose. Those whose 
 voices admit of training will be required to spend 
 at least three full terms in the study of vocal 
 culture. 
 
 The following studies belong to this course : 
 Plaidy's Technical Studies ; Brunner, Op. 23 ; 
 Lemoine, Op. 37 ; Bertini, Op. 100 ; Huenten, 
 Op. 80 ; Bertini, Op. 29 and 32 ; Czerny, Op. 636, 
 Op. 718, Op. 817 ; Krause, Op. 2; Heller, Op. 47, 
 
CITY OP RIPON. 271 
 
 and parts of Op. 45 and Op. 46. Compositions : 
 Jacob Schmitt, 6 Sonatines, Op. 207 ; Clementi, 
 Op. 36, 6 Sonatines; Kuhlau, Op. 55 and Op. 59, 
 Sonatines; Schumann's Album, Op. 68; and such 
 other selections as may be deemed best adapted to 
 promote the musical progress of the pupil. 
 
 In vocal culture Mason's Solfeggios will be used, 
 with technical exercises and songs selected from 
 the best authors. 
 
 The time occupied with this course will vary 
 with the ability and diligence of the pupils, and 
 the time they are able to devote to daily study 
 and practice. Those who complete this course 
 satisfactorily will be admitted to the Advanced 
 Course, and will receive a testimonial stating their 
 musical attainments in full. 
 
 ADVANCED COURSE. 
 
 The course will comprise two years of practical 
 and theoretical instruction. The study of the 
 Piano-forte will be continued through the entire 
 course, and the study of vocal culture at least one 
 year, except in cases where inability to sing ren- 
 ders such study impossible. 
 
 The theoretical study will be as follows : First 
 year, Harmony and Part writing, Elements of 
 Form and Analysis. Second Year, Harmony 
 
272 HTSTOEY OF THE 
 
 continued, Counterpoint, Analysis, Form and Com- 
 position. 
 
 CLASS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 The instruction in Piano-playing and Vocal Cul- 
 ture will be given in classes of three, and the theo- 
 retical instruction in classes of six pupils each, the 
 classes receiving three lessons per week. The class 
 system has many advantages over private instruc- 
 tion ; it has been thoroughly tested and is used in 
 all the Musical Conservatories of Europe and 
 America. 
 
 CHORUS SINGING. 
 
 There are two singing classes, free to the pupils 
 of all departments of the College. Those who 
 are found competent to sing somewhat difficult 
 music, will be presented for admission to the Men- 
 delssohn Society, a choral society under the direc- 
 tion of the Professor of Music of the College, 
 whose object is the study and performance of the 
 best choral works of the best masters. Pupils are 
 required to attend one or moie of these singing- 
 classes unless excused. 
 
 ATTENDANCE, &C 
 
 The terms will commence with the regular Col- 
 lege terms. The pupils are expected to begin 
 promptly with the term and continue to the end, 
 
CITY OF RTPON. 273 
 
 attending punctually all the lessons, and making 
 full use of all the hours assigned for practice. The 
 teacher cannot make up lessons lost through ab- 
 sence of the pupil, even when such absence was 
 excused. Pupils must receive all the lessons in 
 each term which the teachers stand prepared to 
 give, or bear the loss themselves. Exceptions can 
 only be made in cases of several weeks' illness, or 
 other equally unavoidable contingencies, in which 
 case lessons will be made up, or if that is for any 
 reason impossible, a portion of the tuition will be 
 refunded. 
 
 TUITION AND OTHER EXPENSES. 
 
 All bills for tuition, piano rent, etc., are due in 
 advance. No deduction is made for temporary 
 absence, except in case of several weeks' illness. 
 
 Music can be obtained at twenty-five per cent, 
 discount from retail prices. Pianos can be rented 
 at from three to four dollars per quarter, one hour 
 a day. 
 
 Board may be had in the college at $2.50 a 
 week; or in private families at very reasonable 
 rates. The following are the rates of tuition : 
 
 Piano, or vocal culture, in classes, term of 14 weeks, $14 00 
 
 « u « .« 13 « . 13 q 
 
 " " " " 12 " - 12 00 
 
 Theory, half the above rates. Private lessons $1.00 per hour. 
 35 
 
274 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Applications for admission to the Musical De- 
 partment, or for further information should be 
 addressed to John C Fillmore, Professor of Music. 
 
 Application for admission to the Ladies' De- 
 partment, should be made to Miss Kate A. Bush- 
 nell, Principle. 
 
 Other applications may be made to the Secretary 
 of the faculty, or to Prest. W. E. Merriman. 
 
 ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 Class 0/1867— Lufchera H. Adam^, B. A. (M. A., 
 1870), Teacher, Ripon; Harriet H. Brown, B. S., 
 Teacher, Fond duLac; Mary F. Spencer (Thayer), 
 
 B. S., Missionary, Aintab, Syria; Susan A W. 
 Salisbury, B. S., died at sea, October, 1871 ; 4. 
 
 Class of 1868 — A. Jerome Chittenden, Theo- 
 logical Student, Andover, Mass.; Emily S. Cook, 
 Government Clerk, White Earth, Minn.; George 
 
 C. Duffie, B. A., Editor, Ripon ; Lyman B. Ever- 
 dell, B. A., Teacher ; Myron W. Pinkerton, B. A. 
 (B. D., Chicago Theological Seminary, 1871 ; Rev., 
 1871), Missionary, Umtwalumi, South Africa; 
 J. Horace Tracy, B. A. (M. D., University of the 
 City of New York, 1870), Physician, Fond du 
 Lac; 6. 
 
 Class of 1869— Caroline D. Chittenden, B. S., 
 Teacher, Brooklyn, New York ; Isabella S. Cragin, 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 275 
 
 B. S., Teacher, Brooklyn, New York ; Greorge M. 
 Steele, B. S. (M. D., College Physicians and Sur" 
 geons, 1871), Physician, Oshkosh ; 3. 
 
 Class of 1870 — Daniel De Loss Bathrick, B. S, 
 Clerk, Chicago, Illinois; Josiah B. Blakely, B. A., 
 Clergyman, Neenah; Eunice E. Durand, B. S., 
 Teacher, Chester Cross Roads, Ohio; William Syl- 
 vester Holt, Missionary, China; Ella E. Mapes, 
 B.S.,Ripon; RosaE. Olds (Bristoll), B. S., Teacher, 
 Ripon ; Annah M. Smith, B. 8., Teacher, Ply- 
 mouth; 7. 
 
 Class of 1871 — Jas A. Blanchard, B. A., Lawyer, 
 New York City; James H. Bradish, B. A., Law- 
 yer, New York City; Joseph B. Da vies, B. S., 
 Teacher, Fox Lake ; John T. Evans, B. A., Chem- 
 ist, California ; Moritz E. Eversz, B. A, Theological 
 Student, Oberlin, Ohio ; Sarah E. Powers, B. A., 
 London, England; Albert F. Rust, B. A., Clerk, 
 Fond du Lac ; Charles H. Yeomans, B. A., Lawyer, 
 Onargo, Illinois ; 8. 
 
 Class of 1872— John W. Allen, Jr., B. A, Civil 
 Engineer, Ripon ; James M. Brush, B. A., Teacher, 
 Brush ville; Frank I. Fisher, B. A., Law Student, 
 Chicago, Illinois; Sarah E. Scribner, B. S., Teacher, 
 Ripon ; Martha A. Shepard, B. S., Teacher, Man- 
 kato, Minnesota; Margaret B. Shoemaker, B. S., 
 
276 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Teacher, Grand Rapids; Harmon M. Wilcox, B. S., 
 Teacher, Sioux City, Iowa; 7. 
 
 Class of 1873— Henry S. Akin, B. A., Ripon; 
 Horatio A. Brooks, B. S., Dartford ; Sarah F. 
 Combs, B. S., Ripon ; Rowland S. Cross, B. A., 
 Bloomer ; Ida Elwell, B. S., West Salem ; William 
 Foulkes, B. A., Oshkosh ; Oscar E. Hanson, B. S., 
 Nebraska ; Marietta Hunter, B. S., Welaunee ; 
 Harriet A. Johnson, B. S., Fond du Lac ; Henry 
 B. Miter, B. A., Beaver Dam; Charles M. Pond, 
 B. S., Brandon; Jesse F. Taintor, B. A., Mil- 
 waukee; 12. 
 
CITY OF R1PON. 277 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To you whose names are hereunto set, I dedicate 
 this book. You who have so kindly lent me the 
 aid to publish it, by giving me your names before 
 you saw the work, I shall hold in grateful remem- 
 brance, and shall teach my children after me to 
 cherish your memory. It has been through such 
 continued encouragement and applause that we have 
 built up so beautiful a city as your Ripon. Keep 
 her as she is — the pattern little city of the West. 
 Keep up all her institutions, and add to her as 
 you shall see, in her future, what she may need. 
 And if, when the opportunity presents itself, you 
 neglect to do your duty to yourselves and to pos- 
 terity, to God and to your country, I shall have 
 one consolation left — that while I was with you, 
 I labored with a healthy and sanguine constitution 
 to bring about your present prosperity. But if 
 you neglect to do all this, and I live, I shall often 
 remind you of your duty. If not, let this do it 
 
 when I am gone. 
 
 DAVID P. MAPES. 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 COPIES. 
 
 David Greeuway, 3 
 
 J. B. Barlow, 2 
 
 J. B. Morey, 2 
 
 John Haas, 1 
 
 G. L. Field, 1 
 
 E. Manville, 1 
 
 E. P. Brockway, 2 
 
 S. L. Whitney, 1 
 
 Dan Furnace, 1 
 
 E. B Soule, 1 
 
 J. B. Vliet, 1 
 
 J. H. Brooks, 1 
 
 F. Richmuth, 1 
 
 A. S. Jelliff, 1 
 
 Charles Combs, 1 
 
 George Goodfellow, 1 
 
 L. M. Carlile, 1 
 
 W. T. Iris, 1 
 
 James Stevens, 1 
 
 Dan Cross, 1 
 
 Albert Walker, 1 
 
 Captain Marshall, 1 
 
 H. Bryyer, 1 
 
 Robert Mason, 1 
 
 Captain Blacker, 1 
 
 Albert Rolfe, 1 
 
 Hiram Turner, 1 
 
 L. Allen, 1 
 
 Wm. Trainor, 1 
 
 H. Dugnen, 1 
 
 COPIES. 
 
 A. M. Skeils, 2 
 
 Samuel Salsbury, 1 
 
 S. Wood, 1 
 
 John Kingsbury, 1 
 
 Julian Rivers, 1 
 
 A. E. Bovay, 5 
 
 Josiah Rogers, 1 
 
 J. M. Dakin, 1 
 
 C. B. Heart, 1 
 
 C. Taylor, .1 
 
 Deacon Mills, 1 
 
 C. B. Seward, 1 
 
 L. Graf, 1 
 
 Wm. Bayley, 1 
 
 Almon Osborn, 1 
 
 Anson Kellogg, 1 
 
 P. M. Potter, 1 
 
 Charles Rice, 1 
 
 P. C. Brown 1 
 
 Frank Corlis, 1 
 
 A. Bishop, 1 
 
 Steven Brown, 1 
 
 Norman Miller, 2 
 
 Jacob Wooruff, 1 
 
 Volney C. Mason, 1 
 
 Joseph Kingsbury, 1 
 
 H. Leach, 1 
 
 George Riggs, 1 
 
 I. Hoosen, 1 
 
 O. R. Borloom, 1 
 
CITY OF RtPON. 
 
 279 
 
 COPIES. 
 
 H. Dodge, 1 
 
 Albert Long, 1 
 
 Timothy Hays, 1 
 
 C. Clyford, 1 
 
 George E. Bushnell, 1 
 
 Zobel Brothers, 1 
 
 Levi Morton, 1 
 
 W. O. Hargrave, 1 
 
 Edward Martell, 1 
 
 P. Burk, 1 
 
 S. A. Coe, 1 
 
 J. Corbit, 1 
 
 John Taylor, 1 
 
 James Meigher, . . ' 1 
 
 J. Tombs, 1 
 
 James Knight, 1 
 
 Peter Lambert, 1 
 
 Charles Lawson, 1 
 
 William Starr, 1 
 
 A. Whitmore, 1 
 
 Daniel Eggleston, 1 
 
 F. Nohl, Sen., 1 
 
 Wm. Simpson, 1 
 
 Mrs. Peck, 1 
 
 Wm. E. Merriman, 1 
 
 A. C. Nye, 1 
 
 B. F. Beebe, per Mitchell, . 1 
 
 Emery Lawson, 1 
 
 Jacob Carter, 1 
 
 Asa Hill, 1 
 
 COPIES. 
 
 Ed. Reynols, 1 
 
 Rud Clark, 1 
 
 J. E. Mason, 1 
 
 Armin Pickett, 1 
 
 M. Weisgaber, 1 
 
 J. Wheeler, 1 
 
 Andrew Wilson, 1 
 
 Robert Shelden, 1 
 
 John Tygart, 1 
 
 S. W. Dodge, ^ 
 
 Fred England, 1 
 
 D. E. Haywood, 1 
 
 Frank Grant, 1 
 
 Ingersoll, 1 
 
 Wm. H. Folsom, 1 
 
 C. R. Hamlin, 1 
 
 Thos. Ford, 1 
 
 Gaylord & Sons, 1 
 
 G. Stocking, 1 
 
 W. H. Dakin, 2 
 
 A. T. Glaze, 1 
 
 O. I. Wolcott, 1 
 
 David Fowler, 1 
 
 Wm. Mason, 1 
 
 A. A. Loper, 1 
 
 A. C. Gibbs, 1 
 
 C. F. Hammond, 1 
 
 M. H. Powers, 1 
 
 Mr. Allen, per son, 1 
 
 Ezekiel Babcock, ........ 1 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 COPIES. 
 
 Arthur Wilson, 1 
 
 Baldwin, 1 
 
 G. H. Light, 1 
 
 Sanford Erye, 1 
 
 J. C. Oakes, 1 
 
 Joseph Shiker, 1 
 
 E. L. Northrop, 2 
 
 B. H. Phelps, 1 
 
 Frank Horner, 1 
 
 Sfterlee Clark, 1 
 
 H. Town, 1 
 
 D. Hunter, 1 
 
 Hayen Hill, 1 
 
 F. Lulke, 1 
 
 C. Pinney, 1 
 
 A. W. Pettibone, 1 
 
 Norman Mason, 1 
 
 Samuel Sumner, 1 
 
 H. C. Bateman, 1 
 
 C. Dunham, 1 
 
 Levi Blossom, 1 
 
 D. R. Bean, 1 
 
 James Clancey, 1 
 
 F. McArthur, 1 
 
 C. & S. Knapp, 1 
 
 Ned Stollard, 1 
 
 Doctor Robinson, 1 
 
 John McCabe, 1 
 
 Mich. Lynan, 1 
 
 G. W. Trask, 1 
 
 COPIES 
 
 J. N. Foster, 1 
 
 O. R. Ellis, 1 
 
 Henry Pritchett, 1 
 
 Elder Sabin, 1 
 
 J. B. Shaw, 1 
 
 Wm. Salsbury, 1 
 
 Jehdeiah Bowen, 5 v- 
 
 Delano & Cooley, 1 
 
 Samuel McAssey, 1 
 
 George W. Mitchell, 1 
 
 J. W. Walcott, 1 
 
 D. W. Akin, W 
 
 L. Nohl, 1 
 
 Byron Kingsbury, 1 
 
 C. Wheeler, 1 
 
 0. Parker, 1 
 
 E. P. West, 2 
 
 H. Wolcott, 1 
 
 D. P. Impson, 1 
 
 G. N. Barnum, 1 
 
 W. W. Robinson, lvX 
 
 John Scott, 1 
 
 H. T. Hinton, 1 
 
 A. Foot, 1 
 
 W. Hargrave, 1 
 
 Thos. McConnell 1 
 
 Richard Harris, 1 
 
 Theodore Neilson, 1 
 
 Doctor Eggleston, 1 
 
 John White, 1 
 
CITY OF RIPON. 
 
 281 
 
 Spencer "Whiting, 
 C. Faustman,. . . . 
 Joseph Hanley, . . 
 Gabriel Bouck, . . 
 
 .... 1 
 
 .... 1 
 
 .... 1 
 
 ... 1 
 
 E. M. Hearney, 1 
 
 H. Crosswell 1 
 
 R. McDonald, 1 
 
 Jackson Walker, 1 
 
 J. Dobbs, 5 
 
 Jacob Enos, 1 
 
 Ed. Wilson, 1 
 
 J. Lockwood, 1 
 
 Hawley, 1 
 
 Thos. Harris, 1 
 
 Atkins, Steele & White, ... 1 
 
 O. P. Reed, 1 
 
 Marcellus Pedrick, 1 
 
 W. Wardwell, 1 
 
 Scott McDole, 1 
 
 D. I. Turner, 1 
 
 Alpeus Tucker, 1 
 
 George L. Marsall, 1 
 
 C. A. Sweete, 1 
 
 Alex. Martin, 1 
 
 D. L. Harkness, 1 
 
 J. W. Edwards, 1 
 
 Deacon Brown, 1 
 
 C. T. Shephard, 1 
 
 Rev. G. W. Matthews, .... 1 
 
 Ed. Smith, 1 
 
 James Thomas, 1 
 
 W. T. Whiting, 1 
 
 Jason C. Russell, 1 
 
 Caleb Shephard, 1 
 
 Doctor Barnes, 1 
 
 Richard Catlin, 1 
 
 C. Bennett, 1 
 
 C. F. Dodge, 1 
 
 A. B. Coe, , 1 
 
 J. D. Rush, 1 
 
 John B. Martin, 1 
 
 I. Men-ills, 1 
 
 Adolphus King, 1 
 
 J. C. Cooper, 1 
 
 J. Sechnell, 1 
 
 Wm. Catin, 1 
 
 R. C. Kelley, 1 
 
 J. Thacher, 1 
 
 Eben Basstt, 1 
 
H 60-79 • 
 
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