I SWBbs^SSW' #: :•. AiJi£SEak- -v '$i£ils*i^ Significance of the Lead and Shot Trade in Early Wisconsin History I'T&i £ • ; vl£i 1 1 Chronicle of the Helena Shot-Tower Ut , u /»# ORIN GRANT LIBBY, PH. D. Instructor in History, in the University of Wisconsin WITH FIVE MAPS [From Vol. XIII., Wisconsin Historical Collections] MADISON State Historical Society of Wisconsin The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 0V2 IEC2 ? 9 t9?i l o 1913 DEC 1 3 1873 <\UG0 3 183d JUN 2 EB 2 8 FEB 11996 F 2 2000 / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/significanceofleOOIibb I Significance of the Lead and Shot Trade in Early Wisconsin History 1 1 Chronicle of the Helena Shot-Tower BY ORIN GRANT LIBBY, PH. D. Instructor in History, in the University of Wisconsin WITH FIVE MAPS [From Vol. XIII., Wisconsin Historical Collections] MADISON State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1895 V ■ 1836.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 293 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LEAD AND SHOT TRADE IN EARLY WISCONSIN HISTORY. BY ORIN GRANT LIBBY, PH. D. « Wisconsin is a young buffalo; and though, in a minority, he roams over his beautiful prairies and reclines in his pleasant groves, with all the buoyant feelings of an American freeman. He slakes his thirst at the purest fountains that gush from the adamantine base of his lovely soil, and bathes at pleasure in his limpid lakes, paved with agates and sapphires. He paws up lead with his hoofs; he plows up iron and zinc with his horns; and cultivates the richest soil the green earth affords. When John Bull talks of war, he stretches his muscular form on his ele- vated plains, and shaking his head, looks at the North East Boundary; then casting his eye at the Oregon, he bellows in thunder, his eyes flash in lightning; he whisks his tail in the whirlwind, shakes his mane in the tornado, and like the war-horse, snorts vengeance at the minions who would dare to desecrate the soil of freemen.” 1 The earliest routes of the lead trade of Illinois, Wiscon- sin, Iowa, and Missouri were fixed, naturally enough, by the obvious facts of physical geography. Of these routes the Mississippi is the most important; moreover, it offers a most striking example of that transference of routes from South to North, which it is the purpose of the present paper to discuss in some detail. In 1836, Lieutenant Albert M. Lea of the United States dragoons, whose duties took him through the West and Northwest, expressed it as his opinion that “ the Missis- sippi is and must continue to be the main avenue of trade for this country.” 2 The New York Annual Register for the 1 This remarkable specimen of rhetoric is quoted in Life in the West: Backwoods Leaves and Prairie Flowers (London, 1842), p. 233, as from Milwaukee Journal. 2 Lea, Notes on Wisconsin Territory (Phila., 1836), p. 16. 2Q4 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. same year also admits the commercial supremacy of the Mississippi. 1 For ten years this condition remained unchanged. Com- merce increased steadily. The receipts of lead at New Or- leans rose from 295,000 pigs in 1836 to 785,000 in 1846. 2 At St. Louis they were at about the same maximum in 1847. 3 But from this time forward there was a steady de- cline. At New Orleans the receipts of lead sank to 256,000 pigs in 1852, 4 in 1854 to 74, 000, 5 6 and in 1857 to 18,000® (round numbers), and thereafter they were never more than a tenth of the receipts of 1847 ; so that by 1857, in ten years, the lead trade was practically extinct in that city. For St. Louis the loss was not proportionately so large, but it was none the less decided; in 1855 the shipments were less than a half of those in 1847. 7 The explanations offered for this great falling off in trade were many and diverse. The discovery of gold in California, which attracted the miners from the lead re- gion ; the working out of the surface or shallow diggings, necessitating a considerable outlay of capital to make the mines again profitable; and the lack of scientific knowl- edge of the geology of the mining regions, these were all urged as the chief causes of the phenomenon. 8 Without doubt these, especially the two last, were factors of con- siderable importance. Lead mining had at this time pro- gressed beyond the experimental stage, and scientific knowledge and large expenditures of capital were neces- sary in order to overcome the increased difficulties in get- ting at and raising the mineral. The tariff of 1846 also played a part in reducing its value and thus lessening its production. The new act served to depress the Eastern 1 Williams, New York Annual Register (N. Y., 1836), p. 174. 2 Hunt's Merchants ’ Magazine , xvi., pp. 96, 97. 3 Id., xxvi., p. 325. 4 Id., xxix., p. 572. 6 Id., xxxi., p. 476. 6 Id., xxx vii., p. 604. 7 Id., xxxiv., p. 361. 6 Id., xxvii., pp. 431-432; xxviii., p. 426. i 847 ~ 57 -] significance of lead and shot trade. 295 market by causing British manufactures of lead to enter into competition with the American. 1 But these causes for lessened trade are inadequate to ex- plain what had taken place in the shipment of lead on the Mississippi, because they proceed upon the supposition of a greatly lessened production. An examination of the tables of yearly production of lead in the Upper Missis- sippi mines reveals the fact that, while the product had fallen off from 1847 to 1857, its rate of decrease was much less than the per cent of loss to St. Louis and New Or- leans in their lead shipments. The amount of lead re- ceived by these cities in 1854 was 806,000 pigs, 2 while the actual production for that year was 423, 000. 3 In 1856 the shipments of lead were 219, 000, 4 while the lead produced was 435, 000, 5 and in 1857 the shipments had fallen to 200, 000, 6 though the production was 485, 000. 7 These fig- ures for the lead production are all the more decisive from the fact that they include the product of the Upper Mis- sissippi mines alone. It was, after all, not a question of 1 Weekly Northwestern Gazette (Galena, 111.), Aug. 14, 1846: “ The Lead Trade and the Tariff. — While Pennsylvania deplores the ruin of her Coal and Iron Trade, Massachusetts her Manufactures, * * * our locality has been severely taxed as a first offering for the ‘inci- dental protection ’ of the McKay bill. But thirty days ago, Lead was worth, in the City of New York, $4.25 per 100 lbs. It is now neglected at $3.50. Here it was worth $3.05 to $3.10; now it is worth $2.50. Mineral was worth $18, yes $20 — now it is worth $14 to $15 per 100 lbs.” Also, from the same, Aug. 21, 1846: “ The Lead Trade and the Tariff. — Within the last thirty days no fewer than sixteen furnaces on this side of the Mississippi and two on the other, in all eighteen fur- naces, running twenty hearths, have ceased operations; and this is not all, several of the smelters speak of stopping. To all appearances, there will be a greatly diminished product of Lead this fall in comparison with that of last fall.” 2 Hunt's Merch. Mag., xli., p. 126. z Id., xl., p. 244. 4 Id., xli., p. 126. 6 Id., xl., p. 244. 6 Id., xli., p. 126. 7 Id., xl., p. 244. 296 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. production but of transportation, and the real cause lay in the lack of sufficient facilities for shipment afforded by the Mississippi River, and the opening of other routes to the New York markets. As early as 1842 the New Orleans Picayune , in charac- teristic fashion, had called the attention of its readers to the fact that the transportation facilities of the Mississippi were extremely unsatisfactory : “ Our conceptions are every day awakening more fully to the important and intimate con- nection of trading interests between New Orleans and the towering city of St. Louis, a bond of union already vibrating with loud pulsations from one place to another. * * * The Upper Mississippi, in its present condition, is the greatest wet blanket upon the spirit and enterprise of the West that may be conceived, or could possibly exist. The cry for relief is already swelling in the West, and shall we not lend our echoes to promulgate the sound? Yes, and let our united voices commingle in a roar, loud as the surge of the broad- spread Mexico, that shall, even like the singing sea- shell, buzz in the ears of Congress until proper action is taken upon a subject of such magnitude. * * * Illinois, alone, can victual the whole United States! Beef, bread, beans, potatoes, and a vast amount of the surplus produce of this prolific and fertile state is driven to Chicago and so across the lakes. The trade from Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa flies our market by the same route. ” 1 To the same effect was a memorial to Congress from the Galena chamber .of commerce, February 6, 1840. 2 At the Memphis convention of 1845, 3 the question of improvement of the Western rivers was discussed, and a report was read 1 Quoted in N. W. Gazette and Galena Advertiser, Jan. 29, 1842. 2 Exec. Docs., No. 68, 26th Cong., 1st sess., vol. iii. 3 This was a convention of delegates from Tennessee, Missouri, Ala- bama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Iowa Territory, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Ohio, met to consider internal improvements and the general industrial condition of the West, South and Southwest. See De Bow's Review, i., p. 7 (Jan. and June, 1846). 1 845.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 297 by the committee appointed to investigate the subject. In this report the need of improving the Mississippi is con- sidered in detail and the importance of immediate action emphasized . 1 The burden of the complaint from the Southern organs of popular opinion during this period was, that the Mis- sissippi must be improved or the importance of New Or- leans and St. Louis as shipping ports for the raw produce of the West would suffer severely in the near future; and 1 Jour, of Proc. Southwestern Conv., begun at Memphis , Nov. 12, 1845 (Memphis, 1845), p. 63:—“ The rapids in the Mississippi at the mouth of the Des Moines, and again, at the head of Rock Island, about seventy miles from each other, urgently require the attention of the general government. At these rapids, the river spreads out to a greater breadth than at other points above or below, making the water shallow; and the descent being great, the channel crooked, and the current rapid, boats, drawing more than two feet water, are liable to strike on the rocks, by which they are either totally wrecked or greatly injured. The Rapids are formed by chains of rocks running from shore to shore. Between these chains and above and below the Rapids the water is sufficiently deep. * * * The imports and exports to and from Iowa, and the North- ern part of Illinois; the lead and other articles from Galena and Wiscon- sin; lumber from St. Croix and the head waters of the Mississippi; the supplies for the Indians and United States forts on the Mississippi, have to cross these rapids — are subject to the dangers they create, and the increased charges and freights imposed by them. Steamboats, when as- cending or descending with freights, are compelled to discharge their cargoes- into flat-boats, of light draught, in which they are conveyed over the rapids. In ascending, the flat-boat is towed up by horses or oxen, a distance of about twelve miles, at each rapid. In descending they are floated down by the current. * * * By a comparison of tables of freight and charges made when the water was too low, it has been ascertained that the increased charges are about one hundred and fifty per cent. When the extent of the lead trade of Galena, Wisconsin, and Iowa is considered (about seven hundred thousand pigs in 1845), the largest por- tion of which has to be exported when the waters are low, the amount of agricultural and other products, and the imports of necessary articles from other parts of the Union, and from foreign countries, amounting to several millions of dollars annually, all of which is subjected to this increase of freight and charges, * * * some idea may be formed of the amount of injury which the community sustains, over and above the loss from the detention and injury to boats and cargoes.” 298 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. Xlii. the lake route through Chicago was pointed out as the probable rival of the Southern route. We have already seen, from statistics given, that the pre- dictions regarding loss of trade for the Southern ports were after 1846 literally fulfilled. The thriving cities on Lake Michigan were the chief gainers by this change in trade routes. And it is sufficient in this connection to in- dicate very briefly when and how Chicago appropriated its share of the commerce of the West and of the lead trade of the Mississippi. In 1836 there was formed in Chicago a transportation company whose purpose was to carry goods between Chicago and St. Louis, and other Missis- sippi cities. A line of wagons was to connect Chicago with a tributary of the Illinois River near Kankakee, flat- boats were to run thence to the head of steamboat naviga- tion, with a line of steamers to complete the trip. One hundred and twenty merchants in St. Louis and Alton en- tered into the contract to be supplied from the East by this route. 1 1 The following, from the Chicago American , is quoted in the Northwest- ern Gazette and Galena Advertiser, Jan. 16, 1836: “ Transportation Com- pany— The public will be gratified to learn that a company is now formed for the transportation of goods from Chicago to the Mississippi. A line of wagons is to be established from Chicago to the Illinois river, terminating, as we understand, at or near Kankakee, from which place flat-boats are to run to the head of steamboat navigation on the Illinois river, and steamboats will complete the line to St. Louis. The stock of the company is taken chiefly in Ottawa and Chicago. It is connected with one of the largest lines upon the Lakes and the Erie Canal. One Hundred and Twenty merchants in St. Louis and Alton alone have en- tered into contract to bring their goods this way. The company was formed for the accommodation of that portion of the country, the w r ants and business of which are so great as to make the undertaking profit- able also to the stockholders. The immense advantage of Lake transpor- tation over any other, in connection with this new arrangement, will enable merchants in the southwest to get their goods from New York at less expense through this channel than through the southern route. It should be understood that this important arrangement did not origi- nate here, but with those merchants referred to who are directly inter- ested, and who have calculated the advantage to be gained to them- selves. If under the present circumstances this route is preferable, 184O-46.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 299 In a report from the secretary of war, concerning the work of the topographical bureau in relation to internal improvements in the Territory of Wisconsin, January 31, 1840, occurs the following prediction regarding the future of Chicago: “The commercial interests of all the states that border upon the lakes is intimately connected with Chicago as a place of transhipment and deposite ; and the agricult- ural prospects of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri, are to become greatly dependant upon facilities for busi- ness upon a large scale at some point on the southwest part of the shore of Lake Michigan, which lake is a part of the great channel by which the surplus of the staples of these states will best reach the Eastern markets. ” 1 In connection with the Southern demand for the improve- ment of the Mississippi navigation, the following from a Wisconsin journal of 1846 is very significant: “Two great works are essential to complete the prosperity of Chicago, and make it the great emporium of Western trade, i. e., the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal — and what will be found equally conducive to her business and growth. how much more will it be preferred when the Canal is built. When that is accomplished, it will always be the channel for the commerce of Illi- nois and Missouri. The great bulk of the western trade will ever be carried on upon the Lakes.” In curious coctrast to the enterprise and aggressiveness of Chicago is the calm self-confidence of her Mississippi rival, St. Louis. The follow- ing well illustrates this, from Whittlesey’s Missouri and Its Resources , quoted in Hunt’s Merck. Mag., viii., p. 543: “It is to be hoped that in the course of a few years [this was written in 1846] a canal will unite this river [Mississippi] with the waters of Lake Michigan; which will open the trade of the eastern part of Wisconsin and western part of Michigan to the markets of St. Louis. The trade of the whole of this part of country passes by St. Louis, and it is constantly increasing. Groceries of all kinds will seek this market to be reshipped to the north, east and west. Instances have been known of persons purchasing cigars and coffee in St. Louis, shipping them to Peru on the Illinois by steam- boats, and waggoning thence to Chicago, and selling them at lower prices than those brought from New York by a continuous water navi- gation.” 1 Senate Docs., No. 140, 26th Cong., 1st sess., vol. iv., p. 19. 300 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. the construction of a substantial Railroad, fit for the con- veyance of freight as well as passengers from thence to the Mississippi river. Shut out from our Southern market by the rapids of the Mississippi river for three months in the year, the trade of the Upper Mississippi will soon be forced into the basin of the Lakes. Is it not already time for Galena, Potosi, and Dubuque to shake hands with their sister cities oh the western shore of lake Michigan? 1,1 In this paper, a few months later, there is much more to the same effect, accompanied by a strong plea for the imme- diate improvement of the Mississippi, for “ Our trade is draining into the lakes, even from the shores of the Mis- sissippi and beyond. ” 2 1 Wisconsin Herald (Lancaster), Sept. 26, 1846. 3 Id ., Dec. 31, 1846: “ The Trade of the Northwest. — What was the Mis- sissippi river made for with its great trunk and branches, embracing half a continent? To be navigated. * * * There are the rapids of the Mississippi, still damming that noble stream. * * * The products of Agriculture and the mines are multiplying while the perils and prices of transportation over the rapids yearly increase. * * * St. Louis and New Orleans are robbed of a large share of their legitimate trade. Our river towns are languishing. * * * Our trade is about to be forced into another channel. The river states south of us may as well awake to knowledge of this fact, first as last. Instead of commanding and con- centrating the trade at our river towns, half way to the lakes, our trade is draining into the lakes , even from the shores of the Mississippi and beyond. The river is becoming a mere tributary to the lakes. Our large river towns are threatened with a ruinous diversion of their busi- ness and capital — with being a part of the circumference, instead of the centre of trade. Goods brought by the way of the lakes can be sold quite as cheap at Madison or Mineral Point as goods brought by the river can be sold at Galena or Potosi. Boston is wide awake. Taking ad- vantage of the stupid inertias of government, in opening for us our nat- ural channel of trade, she is extending a line of railroad by the way of Ogdensburgh, Canada, Detroit and Chicago into our very midst. When this road is done, none of our towns east of the Mississippi will have any radius of trade worth mentioning. Everything will become tributary to the East. Lancaster, Platteville, Mineral Point, will undersell Potosi and Galena. The population, wealth, and political influence of the western half of Wisconsin, relative to the Eastern half, will be dimin- ished. The influences now operating with us, — the political strength in Congress to get appropriations made will yearly diminish — and the I847-] significance of lead and shot trade. 301 These admissions by an avowed advocate of the southern route are significant enough of the relative commercial standing of St. Louis and Chicago. In the following year the same subject is repeatedly mentioned : “ The difficulty in navigating the Upper Mississippi seems bound to drive our trade out of its natural channel into the basin of the lakes. The veto * 1 is the pivot on which that trade is turn- ing. So nearly balanced is the cost of transportation now, by the lake and by the river route, that if the lake route had the advantage of even 50 miles of railroad, which a comparatively small expenditure of money will give it, we should see all the lead, even from the wharves of Ga- lena and Dubuque, moving off upon wheels to New York and Boston. ” 2 Among the many elements which contributed to Chi- cago's success and brought her to the front as the leading city of the Northwest, none is more worthy of mention than the River and Harbor Convention held there July 5-7, 1847. Over 2,300 delegates, principally from Illinois, Wis- consin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York and Pennsyl- vania, assembled at this meeting to discuss the great questions of transportation and internal improvement so urgently pressing for settlement in the West at this time. The keynote of the convention was struck by a resolu- tion previously adopted at a Chicago mass meeting : “ Re- solved , That we sincerely regret the action of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce in reference to the subject of the proposed convention, believing that the almost unani- mous expression of the press in favor of Chicago, and the action of the meeting in New York, should determine the question in favor of this city, especially as the South-West have already held a convention [at Memphis] to advance river and peculiarly South- Western interests , and we deem it rocks in the Rapids of the Mississippi will lie there forever, to testify to the tameness of the northwest in submitting quietly to be robbed by a veto.” 1 By President Polk, of the river and harbor improvement bill. Wis. Herald , May 7, 1847. 302 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol.xiii. but just that the North-West should assert its claim, free from all prejudice, to have this convention held within Northwestern borders. ” 1 This period, then, 1846-47, marks the division between the early predominance of the Mississippi route and the later importance of that through the lakes, or overland by rail. It is full of indications of the economic revolution which culminated a few years later with the beginnings of Chicago’s railroad system. We have noted the great loss of trade to the cities of St. Louis and New Orleans, the continued demand for the improvement of the river navi- gation and the serious interruption of traffic on account of natural obstructions in the Mississippi; and lastly, we have seen the gradual appearance of a conviction among ship- pers that some other route must be secured, — a conviction that worked itself out concretely in the form of a complete change of trade routes for the raw produce of the West. In 1851 the Illinois and Michigan canal was completed, thus connecting Illinois River with Lake Michigan. The importance of this canal will be dwelt upon later. During the decade 1830-40, no railroads were built in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, or Wisconsin. During the fol- lowing decade, 97 miles of railroad were completed; and between 1850 and 1860, over 4,606 miles, of which more than 2,700 miles were built by the close of 1855. 2 Such a showing, taken in connection with the problem we have 1 Fergus Historical Series (Chicago, 1882), No. 18, p. 23. The Chicago Daily Journal of August 19, 1846, is also quoted on p. 15 as follows, con- cerning the president’s veto of the River and Harbor Bill: “ All other pretenses of objections to the Harbor Bill are idle and vain. The North can and will be no longer hoodwinked. If no measures for pro- tection and improvement of anything North or West are to be suffered by our Southern masters, if we are to be down- trodden and all our cher- ished interests crushed by them, a signal revolution will inevitably en- sue. The same spirit and energy that forced emancipation for the whole country from Great Britain, will throw off the Southern yoke . The North and West will look to and take care of their own interests henceforth.” 2 XJ. S. Census , 1880, vol. iv., pp. 354-364. 1 849.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 303 been discussing, needs no comment. The promptness and vigor with which Eastern capital and Western enterprise united in occupying the field to the exclusion of all rivals, is to be seen in such facts as the above. The South was slow to take the alarm, and loth to ac- knowledge the great changes inevitably coming to pass in the commercial life of the Mississippi valley. The rem- edy offered shows how little they realized the true situa- tion. The following from a Southern journal is a fair sample of their attitude: “It is ascertained beyond a doubt that the Legislature of Illinois, now in session, will now adjourn without passing a bill granting the right of way to the Cincinnati and Mississippi Railroad Company through that State, unless they are permitted to fix its termination at a point to which the stockholders and the people of St. Louis will never consent. Knowing that there is so strong a prejudice among the people of a large portion of Illinois against the growth and prosperity of St. Louis, the citizens of that city should endeavor to be- come entirely independent of a State that persists in a pol- icy so puerile and foolish. As we said last week, let them seek out a new channel — a new outlet for their immense trade. A railroad will be completed, not very long hence, from Charleston, in South Carolina, to some point on the Mississippi river, not far from the mouth of the Ohio, which in time will afford very great facilities to the trans- portation of the vast products of the West, to market, not only to points on the Gulf and on the Atlantic coast and the interior of the Southern States, but to Europe. It does not deprive the shipper of the privilege of the great out- let, New Orleans, and the trade with the West Indies, Cen- tral and South America, but it affords a new channel — it opens a new market to the surplus products of the West, and affords those who trade in Europe a means of convey- ance across the country direct to Charleston, thereby avoiding the Florida Reefs and other dangers incident to the navigation of the Gulf of Mexico. * * * Unlike the Illi- nois river, Michigan canal, the Lakes, the canals in New 304 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. York, which are closed by ice several months in the year, the transportation on the Southern railroad would be un- obstructed the year round. Why should the trade of the western part of Missouri be made to form an acute angle in finding its way to market ? A portion of it is now brought down the Miss, to St. Louis, and then sent back up the 111. river through the Michigan canal, the Lakes, and then by canal or railroad to Boston or New York, and from there to Europe. This route is an unnatural diver- sion, and is caused by the check which the current of trade receives at St. Louis. It is to be hoped that the citizens of that city will cease to be suppliants at the feet of Suckerdom , beseeching that state to condescend to permit them to have a road through its territory. Shall St. Louis, and the vast extent of country whose trade centers at that point, become beggars at the door of the North, when the South has stretched out her iron arms to receive it in her wide bosom? Shall Missouri beg the North to partake of her mineral and agricultural wealth, when the South, at her own expense, has constructed a means of transpor- tation which will soon extend to the borders of the State, requesting you to give her your trade ? We ask the citi- zens of St. Louis again, if they are disposed to wait the time with patience until Illinois gets into a good humor ? Our opinion is you will wait some time. The Mississippi River and the Michigan canal are even now inadequate to convey away the exports of the vast region above. If no other avenues of trade are opened, no other means of trans- portation are constructed, what will be done with the vast wealth of Asia, the islands of the Ocean, and our own Pacific coast, a great part of which will be poured into the lap of St. Louis, when the Pacific railroad is com- pleted. ” 1 It seems never to have occurred to this would-be prophet of the commercial future of the South that Northern rail- roads were not open to the same objection as their canals, and that for every railroad the South built, the North 1 Western Eagle (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), Nov. 9, 1849. 1852.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 305 would build ten. Yet such proved to be the case, and its great system of railroads, converging upon Chicago, ra- diated to every part of the West and Northwest and fixed forever the course of trade and the commercial centers about which it circulated. The result of this achievement may best be told in the words of their dispossessed rivals of the South. “ All the lead from the upper Mississippi now goes east by the way of Milwaukee. But the most recent and astonishing change in the course of the northwestern trade is to behold, as a friend tells us, the number of steamers that now descend the upper Mississippi, loaded to the guards with produce, as far as the mouth of the Illinois river, and then turn up that stream with their cargoes, to be shipped to New York via Chicago. The Illinois canal has not only swept the whole produce along the line of the Illinois river to the East, but it is drawing the products from the upper Mississippi through the same channel, thus depriving not only New Orleans, but St. Louis, of a rich portion of their former trade .” 1 Again : “ New Orleans has suffered herself to sleep soundly in the arms of all the prosperity which the God of nature seemed to have showered upon her. Like Achilles of old, she conceived that a Deity had lent her armor, and, as the pet child of destiny, she must be forever invulnerable. Bewildered in her dreams of eastern magnificence and rank, as she contemplated herself at the very foot and receptacle of all the greatest and most magnificent rivers upon earth, * * * with fifteen great states of the confederacy claimed to be inalienably tributary to her, * * * the connecting link between the two great continents. * * * This was New Orleans; but what is New Orleans now? Where are her dreams of greatness and glory ? * * * Whilst she slept, an enemy has sowed tares in her most prolific fields. Armed with energy, enterprise, and an in- domitable spirit, that enemy, by a system of bold, vigorous and sustained efforts, has succeeded in reversing the very 1 De Bow's Review , xii., p. 38, article on “ Virginia Commercial Conven- tion,” 1852. 20 3o6 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xili. laws of nature and of nature’s God — rolled back the mighty tide of the Mississippi and its thousand tributary streams, until their mouth, practically and commercially, is more at New York or Boston than at New Orleans.” 1 But the events just described have a wider significance than the decline of the relative importance of certain cities along the Mississippi river and the rapid development of the ports of Lake Michigan. Along with these occur- rences went a whole train of consequences fraught with deepest significance to the as yet undeveloped West. Pre- vious to 1846-47, the prime factors affecting commerce, and industrial and social life, were necessarily Southern, or at least had a Southern tinge. The newspapers and the trav- elers came from the South. Along the great river route pulsed the life and spirit of the older and richer communi- ties of the Gulf region. Unquestionably the influence thus exerted was a profound one. Much of the political history of the region is knit in with the effect of this vital con- nection between South and West, before 1846-47. But with the break-up of the old trading routes, there came into the life of this Western people a totally different set of in- fluences. The change meant not only readily accessible markets and flow of capital to flagging industries, an in- tensifying of the commercial life and a quickening of the spirit of enterprise, but still more it meant an influx of New England and Middle State population, men of ability and determination, who were in sympathy with the changed industrial and social conditions, or who themselves helped to bring about these changes. The special significance of this to the problem of Wis- consin trade and settlement may now be considered. The Fox- Wisconsin route is one too well known to need de- scription, and its connection with early trade and settle- ment has often been pointed out. We should expect, therefore, that it would be used in the lead trade, as was actually the case. The following, from a newspaper of 1822, indicates how early lead was shipped by this route : 1 De Bow's Rev., xii., p. 502. 1 822-39. J SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 307 "On the 12th ult. 12,000 lbs. of Mississippi Lead arrived at Detroit from Green Bay. It was transported by water the whole distance, with the exception of the short portage between the Fox and Ouisconsin rivers.” 1 The earliest shipments of shot made at Helena were to Galena and to Fort Winnebago, at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin. 2 There was, of course, good reason for the early shipments by the Green Bay route, for the shot tower, during 1831-36, was owned and operated by Daniel Whitney, a Green Bay merchant, and consequently inter- ested in turning trade in that direction. Still, as the Mis- souri shot probably controlled the markets of the Missis- sippi valley, the Wisconsin product could not be sent else- where. In 1834 the Portage Canal Company was incorporated by the Michigan Legislature (March 10). 3 Its operations at the portage 4 under the superintendence of John Wilson will later be referred to in another connection. 5 In 1839 the Green Bay Democrat contained the following article on steamboats on the Fox river : " There is now a strong probability — nay a certainty — that this long talked of enterprise is about being effected. The necessary amount of stock for two steamboats has been taken and the building of them, we are informed, will be immediately commenced. When completed, one is to be placed on the lower end of the Fox, and will be engaged in the towing of Durham boats from Green Bay to Grand Kakalin 6 — the other is to be placed on the upper Fox, and will be sim- ilarly engaged from the head of the rapids to Lake Apuck- away, a distance of but sixteen miles from the Portage. 1 National Gazette (Phila.), Oct. 19, 1822. 8 1 am so informed by Milton D. Persons, of Dodgeville. 3 The original stockholders were Daniel Whitney, Charles R. Brush, Daniel Jackson, John P. Arndt, H. G. Soulard, N. Goodsell, and John Lawe. 4 The site of the present city of Portage. 5 See post , “ Chronicle of the Helena Shot-Tower; ” also, Lapham’s Wis- consin (Milw., 1844), p. 48. The Kaukauna of our day. 3°8 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. From the foot to the head of the rapids, but a short dis- tance (which rapids are the only barrier to the uninter- rupted navigation of the Fox by Durham boats from here to Fort Winnebago), a good road will be made and teams provided for the speedy transportation by land of freight. From Lake Apuckaway, the highest to which the steam- boats will ascend, to the Portage of the Fox and Wiscon- sin, Durham boats can proceed without obstruction. * * * One of the most important results will be the diversion, to a great extent, of the lead trade in this direction to eastern markets. Indeed, during the course of the present season we anticipate that there will be extensive shipments of lead by the way of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, Green Bay, the Lakes, the Erie Canal and Hudson river to the Em- porium city. David Jones & Co., of this place, and the Fox River Hydraulic Company, are about investing largely in this trade, which sooner or later, must nearly all take this direction, for, while by the way of the Mississippi and Atlantic to New York, the cost of the transportation of lead is about thirty dollars per ton, by this route it can be transported for eighteen dollars — nine from the Wisconsin to Green Bay and nine from Green Bay by the Troy and Erie line (we speak ‘by authority’) to New York! Here is a saving of nearly one-half in the cost of transportation, to say nothing of the difference in the time of getting a re- turn, ” etc . 1 Again, quoting from the Wisconsin Democrat: " We have learned that Randall Wilcox, Esq., an agent for Fox River Hydraulic Company, purchased, on a late excursion to the mining country, one hundred thousand pounds of lead, to be transported by the way of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers and the Lakes, to a market in some of the eastern cities. We believe it is the intention of this company, when it can be done advantageously, to trade further in this article, transporting it to market by the above route, which is no doubt the cheapest and most expeditious. ” 2 1 Quoted in Wisconsin Enquirer , May 18, 1839. 2 Quoted in J&, June 22, 1839. 1841 - 43 *] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 309 In the (Madison) Wisconsin Enquirer for April 17, 1841, are given the two stage routes by which travelers might cross the Territory from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. One of these passed through Green Bay, Fond du Lac, Fox Lake, Fort Winnebago, Mineral Point, and Galena. February 17, 1841, the Fox and Wisconsin Steam Boat Com- pany was incorporated with a capital stock of $10, 000. 1 The members of the company were John P. Arndt, William Mitchell, Alexander I. Irwin, David Jones, Daniel Whitney, William H. Bruce, Charles A. Grignon, William Dickinson, Randall Wilcox, David Ward, and Hoel S. Wright. Nothing seems to have come from this enterprise, unless the following quotation may describe one of their schemes: “There is now lying at the wharf of Messrs. Lawson, Howard & Co., the queerest-looking steam water-craft that ever conde- scended to pay us a visit. She came in from Buffalo on Wednesday evening at the rate of ten miles an hour. She is nothing more or less than an Erie canal boat, propelled by a small but powerful engine, with a paddle-wheel astern, and a smoke-pipe in the center. She is com- manded by Capt. P. Hotaling, who proceeds with her to Green Bay and from thence up the Fox River, over the rapids, to Fort Winnebago. She is intended to ply regu- larly between the latter place and the rapids of the Fox River (twenty miles above Green Bay), and will be adapted to carrying passengers and towing the Durham boats laden with lead, which is transported up the Wisconsin river to within one mile of Fort Winnebago; and this one mile is all the portage required between Galena and New York, by way of the Lakes. ” 2 The following interesting mention is found in a Madison paper of the time: “ Green Bay and the Lead Trade . — A gentleman of our acquaintance, whose responsibility may safely be depended upon, lately passed through this town on his way to the west, to secure some portion of the lead 1 Laws of Wisconsin, 1840-41, p. 80. 2 Milwaukee Courier, July 5, 1843. 3 10 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. trade for Green Bay. By him we learn that covered canal boats, capable of carrying from fifty to ninety tons, are nearly completed, and arrangements are made that one will leave each end of the route, Green Bay and Portage, every week, and be through in about ten days. It is said that the Merchants’ Line have also undertaken to ship lead from Green Bay at so low a rate that it can be carried from the Portage of the Wisconsin to New York city for ninety cents a hundred. ” 1 And the following, in a Buffalo paper: “ The forwarders of Green Bay are resolved to be prepared for business next season, whether it is destined to seek that channel or not. There is already a small navy, a very small steam- boat in service there, and now we find preparations on foot to build another which shall be more deserving of the name of steamer. ” 2 November 1, 1844, a circular was issued by Morgan L. Martin, Daniel Whitney and others asking the people of Brown county to urge their Congressmen to secure a grant of land from the government sufficient to pay for im- provements on the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, with a view to opening them to steam navigation and forming an un- broken connection from Green Bay to the Mississippi. 3 * * * * * * In 1 Wis. Enquirer, Apr. 25, 1842. 2 Buffalo Commercial Advertiser , Jan. 11, 1845. 8 Circular in library of Wisconsin Historical Society: “ To . The people of Brown County in Wisconsin Territory, feel- ing a deep interest in the contemplated improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, appointed the undersigned, a Committee to address a Circular to the several members of Congress, requesting of each their individual endeavors in favor of the grant of land to effect that object. * * * The design of this work is to open a water communication from the Lakes to be navigated by Steam Vessels. * * * An experiment has been made for the first time the past season, in the use of Steam Boats upon the upper Fox River and its tributaries, which has given a new im- petus to the trade of that region, and no doubt can longer be enter- tained of the River being navigable at all ordinary stages of water except that portion of it between the Grand Chute and the foot of Kackalin Rapids. * * * “ The Fox and Wisconsin rivers occupy a position upon the Map of 1 844.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 3 1 1 this connection, also, the following comment of Lapham indicates sufficiently the importance of the movement. He says: “ Other portions of the Territory are endeavoring to secure this lead trade, and wherever it is brought to the shore of the lake, the magnitude of the trade will be such as to afford business for a great number of inhabitants, and thus be the means of building up a town. Besides the railroad, it is proposed to improve the navigation of the Wisconsin and Neenah rivers, so as to secure the trade to Green Bay, and efforts are now making to obtain an ap- propriation by Congress to accomplish this important work. ” 1 From this we can see how early the Green Bay route was used, and how thoroughly the experiment of lead shipment was tried. But the logic of events was too strong to be overcome. It was too long, too roundabout, and there was too much handling of freight ever to make it more than a pioneer trade route. What was considered in early days a our Territory to command the trade of the greater portion of it. The entrance of the Wis. into the Miss, is less than fifty miles from our southwestern border and the outlet of Green Bay forms the boundary between the Territory and the State of Michigan on the North East. The valley of these two streams, which are proposed to be made a chan- nel of trade, extends from the North East to the South West, and com- prises of itself a large part of the Territory. * * * The advantages to be derived from the proposed improvement would be almost incalculable, opening as it will an extent of country greater than that through which the Erie Canai passes, and making it contribute to the immense com- mercial operations already carried on upon the lakes and the Missis- sippi river. “ But a small part of this extensive region has yet been purchased by individuals from the United States. Of the estimated quantity of lands bordering upon the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and their tributaries, not more than one-twentieth have become private property. * * * Green Bay, Nov. 1, 1&44. M. L. Martin, Daniel Whitney, John S. Horner, Nathan Goodell, Ephraim Shaler, Samuel Ryan, Henry S. Baird, John Lawe, Wm. Dickinson, Peter B.Grignon.” 1 Lapham’s Wisconsin (Milw., 1844), p. 50. 312 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [_ v °l* prime fur- trade route was abandoned for the shorter, more direct, overland connection east to Milwaukee, t The his- tory of this change of commercial routes from the natural to the artificial, from water carriage and portage to prairie transportation and corduroy roads, is full of significance. With it is bound up the development of the railroad system of this State and the movement westward from Lake Michi- gan to Eastern and Central Wisconsin of the emigrant host of 1840-50. It is typical, also, of the process that went on elsewhere along the Mississippi, when the change was made from river transportation and Southern ports to lake transportation and Eastern ports. It will be remembered that Lieutenant Albert M. Lea is quoted as saying that the Mississippi River ports in 1836 had control of the Western trade and were likely to keep it indefinitely. 1 He adds, however: "But there is a rea- sonable prospect of our soon having a more direct and speedy communication with our brethren of the east. New York is now pushing her railroad from the Hudson to Lake Erie, where it will be met by another from Pennsylvania; thence the united railroad will be continued around the southern shore of Lake Erie and cross the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Mississippi, near the mouth of Rock River, touching the southern end of Lake Michigan in its route and receiving the tribute of the va.rious local works it will intersect.” In 1837 the Milwaukee Advertiser, in arguing for the Mil- waukee and Rock River canal, divided the lead region of Wisconsin into two sections, the one east and the other west of the meridian of Mineral Point (range 2 East), and it was conceived that the former of these sections would be tributary to Eastern markets provided that communica- tion could be secured by a canal with Lake Michigan. 2 It will be remembered in this connection that Chicago had in 1836, by her transportation company, already begun to 1 See ante, p. 293. 3 Lapham, Documentary History of Milwaukee and Rock River Canal (Milw., 1840), p. 19. 1 844-] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 313 move toward the realization of the Illinois and Michigan canal; and now Milwaukee, only a year later, is projecting a canal that ultimately becomes a railroad, connecting it with the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. The foilowing remark of Lapham in 1844 is fully appli- cable to the earlier period we are now considering: “The great object which it is most desirable to attain by works of internal improvement in Wisconsin is the transportation of the thirty million of pounds of lead, copper and shot produced in the western counties to the shore of Lake Michigan, and the supply of that ‘ Mineral District ’ with merchandise by way of the ‘ Great Lakes. ’ This, and the transportation of the surplus agricultural products of the intermediate country to market, and the supply of goods to the interior population, it is believed can be best ac- complished by means of a railroad from Milwaukee to the Mississippi river, a work entirely practicable. * * * For the want of this improvement, the products of the mineral country have been transported to the Mississippi river, and from thence by way of New Orleans and New York back to Milwaukee, within one hundred and fifty miles from where it was originally produced. * * * The cost of transportation of lead by waggons from Mineral Point to Milwaukee, in the summer, when the drivers can sleep in their waggons, and their cattle can find an abun- dance of feed on the open prairie, is about fifty cents per hundred pounds. * * * To bring the lead, copper and shot by way of the lakes, is an object of importance not only to Wisconsin, but to all the States bordering on the lakes, — and even the New England States will derive a share of the benefits, in the diminished prices which they will have to pay for these necessary articles.” 1 The importance of the early shot trade of Wisconsin in developing lines of communication with the lake, overland across the State, deserves mention here. The Helena shot- tower passed from the ownership of Daniel Whitney in 1836, and was bought up by certain Buffalo capitalists, 1 Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1844), pp. 48-51. 314 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. who held it, with but little interruption, till 1847. Now, when we remember that the Mississippi markets were mo- nopolized by the shot-makers of Missouri, the significance of this change of owners will be at once apparent Cut off from Western markets by the competition of long-estab- lished rivals, the only course open was to develop Eastern markets, with which the Buffalo capitalists were already more or less familiar. As a consequence of this, the shipments of shot between 1841 and 1844 were made to Buffalo and by no other than the lake route. For at least ten years, then, interest and necessity combined to turn the shot trade through Milwaukee. The important re- sults flowing from the establishment of such an over- land route will be mentioned later; it is sufficient to note its early appearance in connection with the agitation for such communication in both Wisconsin and Illinois. Hel- ena, as will be seen from the map, was situated in the easternmost of the two districts marked out by the writer in the Milwaukee Advertiser . In the Milwaukee Sentinel for September 18, 1838, ap- pears the following item: “The efforts to secure a rail- road for Milwaukee were at that time pretty generally in- dorsed. * * * But everything was, after all, talk and ended in talk, although the Village of Milwaukee had, by agitating the subject, succeeded in attracting Western shippers to this point, and it was a common thing to see oxen laden with lead from Grant and La Fayette counties appear at the wharves after a journey of eight or ten days.” Nor was this confined to Milwaukee; as early as 1836 there was shipped from Racine lead hauled from the interior of the State. 1 In 1840 there appeared in the Southport (Kenosha) Tele- graph a comparison of the lake and Mississippi routes, in 1 From Milw. Advertiser of August 25, 1836: “ Arrival Extraor- dinary— From a friend at Racine we learn that two waggons, con- taining 4,200 lbs. of Pig Lead, arrived there last week from the rapids of Rock River. It was purchased by Messrs. J. C. Knapp & Co. of that place and will be shipped to Buffalo the first opportunity.” 1839-] significance of lead and shot trade. 315 which the following occurs : “ The route by way of the lakes to New York city has already become a matter of common occurrence for merchants and business men of the southern and southwestern states. Whenever a canal or railroad shall be completed from Chicago to the navigable waters leading to the Mississippi, the Lake route will no doubt entirely supersede the route by way of New Orleans and the Atlantic to New York city. The business of the southwestern states will at no distant day be altogether brought thro’ the lake communication between Chicago and Buffalo to New York city. Cheapness, expedition and safety will be entirely in favor of this route. ” 1 On the other hand, it was beginning to be recognized by the Mississippi ports that transportation on that river was very unsatisfactory, and that the Northwest had good rea- son to look elsewhere for markets. In the St. Louis Re- publican for October 7, 1839, appears the following : “ The continued low stage of the river, especially the Upper Mississippi, adds not a little to the pressure of the times. The lead trade from the upper mines has been completely suspended for a time, as it is impossible to bring it over the rapids at a reasonable charge. A letter from Galena informs us that large quantities of lead have accumulated in the hands of dealers, upon which many have made heavy advances, and must lay unproductive until there is a rise in the river. To add to all this difficulty, the supplies of produce for the mining country, which are chiefly shipped from this port, have advanced very considerably because of the increased freights. Boats now charge from two to three dollars per barrel for flour from here to Galena, and in the same proportion per hundred for other freights. Even at these rates it is a difficult matter to forward any considerable quantity over the rapids. In the Rock river, and many other parts of the country above the rapids, the crops of wheat are very abundant, but unfortunately they have no facilities for manufacturing it, and such is the 1 Cited in Milw. Sentinel , September 29, 1840. 3i6 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. present condition of the river that they cannot be shipped to this or any other southern market. We were credibly informed last week that wheat was offering in the Rock river country at 37i cents per hundred and flour was sell- ing at from $10 to $12 per barrel. * * * The failure to get the lead to market is also a serious inconvenience to the merchants of this place, as in turn they are compelled to wait for their debts until it can be forwarded, and in the meantime are unable to meet their eastern engagements in the manner they had expected. * * * The continuous low stage of water in all the upper streams has also de- tained a large portion of the country dealers, and the re- sources from this direction have not been near realized. Freights from the south are abundant, and a large drain is constantly made to meet the bills from that quarter, while the goods, in many cases, have to be stored to await the rise. ” Turning our attention more particularly to Wisconsin, we see by the census of 1840 that there were then 49 smelting houses employing a capital of $664,600 and yield- ing annually 15,129,350 pounds of lead, worth about $500,000. Most of this went to Galena. 1 One out of every 38 of the population of the state was engaged in mining, while the average proportion for the rest of the United States was 1 to 1,122. The extent of this industry, and the unsatisfactory conditions attending the shipment by the Mississippi route, combined with the desire of merchants for a more direct communication with Eastern markets, gradually turned a considerable portion of the lead trade into the lake route through Milwaukee. The process was much facilitated by the necessity which, as early as 1831, com- pelled the Helena shot-tower owners to ship their product to the East. Following their example, the lead-smelters began sending an increasing proportion of their product, year by year, to the lake ports. It has already been pointed out that this had begun as early as 1836 and 1838. 1 Josiah Bond, “ Wisconsin and its Resources,” in Hunt's Merck. Mag., x., pp. 552, 553. 1841.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 317 Lapham states it to have begun for the Mineral Point mining region in 1839, 1 In a Madison paper for 1841 we find the following: “ The Lead Trade . — We are pleased to observe by notices in Milwaukee and Southport papers that this trade is beginning to find its way to our Lake ports on its way to Eastern markets. The Courier of the 4th inst. says: ‘Our citizens on Saturday afternoon were not a little surprised by the appearance in our streets of four sucker teams loaded with lead from the furnace of Thomas Parish, Esq., near Muskoday, in Grant county. These teams brought over about ten tons of lead to be shipped to New York. ’ If, as the Courier adds, the lead can be sent from that place to New York for about 50 cents per hundred, and it costs but 93 cents to have it delivered there from the mining country, making the en- tire expense of transportation to New York less than $30 per ton, while by the New Orleans route the average cost is $40 per ton, we can see no reason why the entire lead trade of the Territory should not be diverted from the Mississippi to the Lake route, especially when is taken into consideration the additional fact, that there is a dif- ference in favor of the latter route, in the time of getting returns, of at least tivo- thirds. The Courier says: ‘The lead which arrived here on Saturday was shipped on the ‘ Madison ’ on Monday, and will be in New York within twenty days from the time it left the furnace near the Mississippi river; and the owner will get his returns in about four weeks from the time the lead was smelted. A gentleman from Galena recently informed us that he shipped over 90 days since about $1,500 worth of lead to New York by the southern route and he had not then got his return from it. ’ Besides getting a better price for their 1 Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1844), pp. 139, 140: “ The first exportation of flour was in 1839, and in this year commenced also the exportation of lead brought here [Milwaukee] by wagons overland from the mining district about Mineral Point. In 1841, copper was added to the list of exports; and the amount of lead, shot, and copper shipped here during that year was 1,768,175 pounds.” 3 18 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. lead on the Lake shore than can be afforded on the Missis- sippi, our miners can procure their necessary supplies more cheaply, generally, at the lake cities than at Galena, or other points on the river where they have been in the habit of trading, and this including the cost of transpor- tation. The teams of which the Courier speaks, returned loaded with salt, which was obtained at Milwaukee for about 12.50 per barrel, and can be sold in the mines at about $7 per barrel. ” 1 The same subject is again brought up a few months later, and more detailed statements given of the comparative cost of transportation by the two routes. 2 On January 21, 1842, Governor Doty approved a resolution of the State legislature requesting New York to abolish the Erie canal tolls on pig and bar lead.* In his letter of De- cember 1, 1841, to Governor Seward, regarding the mat- ter, he says: “Our miners have produced more than twenty millions of pounds of lead during this year, and the difficulties, delays and expense of transportation upon the Mississippi and the ocean, and the return freights of merchandize, are so great that if they can receive any en- couragement to ship their lead and copper across the lakes they are ready to give their business this direction. If no toll is charged upon either article until the trade becomes established — say for two or three years — it would be an inducement for its commencement early in the spring.” 3 The result of this request was, that the tolls on the Erie canal were promptly reduced. 4 But the shipments of lead 1 Wis. Enquirer , Aug. 11, 1841. 2 Id ., Dec. 4, 1841. 3 Madison Express, Feb. 5, 1842. See also, Williams, N. Y. Annual Register, 1836, p. 172: “It will be seen by the comparative statement of tolls that the rates are reduced generally to the constitutional mini- mum. The trade of the canals might be materially augmented by a reduction of the toll on some articles below the constitutional mini- mum. This is particularly applicable to lead, which, by a reduction of the toll, might be transported in great quantities from the Galena mines through our canals to New York.” 4 Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1846), p. 46. I84I-42-] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 319 to Buffalo had already begun. The Commercial Advertiser of that city gives lead and shot as among the imports from the West, in 1841. 1 The following, from a Milwaukee paper, gives a hint at the reason for the establishment of the lead trade: “ White Lead . — The manufacture of this article has lately been commenced at Buffalo with the most flattering prospects of success. About ten tons, pronounced by good judges to be a first rate article, have been made this fall, from lead obtained from the newly opened mines west of the Sugar river in this Territory. 2 The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser remarks: ‘Taking into consideration the supe- rior facilities for procuring the raw material enjoyed here, the proprietors, we have no doubt, will be enabled success- fully to compete with foreign establishments, and at the same time meet a fair reward for their enterprise. ’ ” 3 In connection with the increased lead production after 1842, the influence of the white-lead factories of New York is stated to be of considerable importance: "These fac- tories are of recent origin. The Saugerties paint company, in Ulster county, New York, was one of the first estab- lished in this country. It was suggested by the extremely low price of lead in 1842. ‘It then commanded but 3 cents per lb. in New York, and sometimes was as low as 2£ cents. When lead was such a drug, it was thought by some enter- prising man in New York to be a most favorable time to try whether a fair profit could not be realized by making paint here, instead of shipping the lead to England to be 1 Cited in Milw. Sentinel and Win. Farmer , Jan. 29, 1842; also, Gor- don, Gazetteer of New York (Phila., 1836), pp. 89, 92. 2 Niles' Register , vol. 60, p. 384, Aug. 14, 1841: “The lead trade of Mil- waukie, says the Cleveland Herald, bids fair to be au important item of commerce. The ‘ diggings ’ are about eighty miles west of that place, and the mineral is already found to extend over about 25 miles of coun- try, and large quantities are constantly being raised. The Sentinel says Mr. Corbin’s furnace smelts 5000 lbs. per day, which is brought to Mil- waukie and shipped to Buffalo and New York. From 20 to 30 teams now arrive weekly at Milwaukie loaded with lead and return with goods, etc.” 3 Milw. Sentinel and Wis. Farmer, Dec. 4, 1841. 320 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. manufactured. The capital stock was taken, and opera- tions were commenced on a large scale. Enterprise has been well repaid by this manufacture, and white-lead fac- tories are gradually going up in different parts of the country, which are largely consuming our lead, while they are furnishing our country paint.” 1 In 1842, 1,888,700 lbs. of lead and 2,614 kegs of shot were shipped from Milwau- kee to New York. 2 The newspapers of this season are full of accounts of the lead trade. 3 1 McLeod, History of Wiskonsan (Buffalo, 1816), p. 216. * Ibid., p. 218. 3 Items in Milw. Sentinel and Wis. Farmer, June 18, 1842: “ Exports from Milwaukee. — On Sunday last the De Witt Clinton took 50 tons of freight from W. W. Brown & Co., consisting of Pork, Flour and Lead for Buffalo. On Wednesday the Madison took 1,550 pigs of Lead (about 60 tons) from the wharf of J. & L. Ward.” “ More Lead. — On Thursday evening and Friday morning, about twelve teams, with 4 yoke of cattle each, arrived here with from 25 to 30 tons of lead, consigned to Messrs. J. & L. Ward.” Item in Wis. Enquirer , Oct. 6, 1842: “ Lead. — The Madisonian and Missouri took from Milwaukee, on their last trips down, over 2,000 pigs of lead. — Milwaukee Sentinel .” Item in Milw. Courier , Oct. 26, 1842: “ Mineral Point.— From this point the Lead and Copper is sent to the East by the way of Milwaukee and the Lakes; this route is becoming a greater favorite than the one by way of Galena and the rivers.” Item in Wis. Enquirer , Dec. 24, 1842: “ To Smelters. — Messrs. Hutch- inson, Wheeler and Peters, and Messrs. Torrey and Russell, at South- port, we perceive by the Southport American , are prepared to make liberal advances on lead, shot and copper.” In addition to what has already been given, the following newspaper extracts represent what had taken place in that year: Milw. Courier , Feb. 2, 1842: “ Never since the settlement of our town has the prospects of Milwaukee been so flattering or so full of high hope and promise as they have been during the present winter. * * * An indication of what may be the future prosperity of Milwaukee may be found in the fact that the Miners and Smelters of the west are turning their attention to this place as offering superior inducements for the shipment of their lead and copper to an eastern market. Much credit is due to those of our merchants who have opened the way for the rich harvest, which the mines of the west are destined to pour into Milwau- kee. This trade has but just commenced, yet we are informed that up- l839 _ 40.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 32 1 We have here depicted the decisive turning-point in the Wisconsin lead trade, and later evidence will make it clear that during the succeeding years the process was simply one of expansion and development of those lines of com- munication roughly sketched out in 1842. The state of af- fairs in 1839-40, which was the result of the low stage of water in the Mississippi and its chief tributaries, leading to almost complete stagnation of trade, had compelled merchants and smelters alike to seek new markets to the eastward until those at the South were again accessible. The fact that both lead and flour are first mentioned as be- ing brought to Milwaukee in 1839, is significant in this connection. In later years, when low water again inter- fered with traffic, or the ordinary channels of trade were inadequate to carry off the ever-increasing surplus, the route to the East was again and again followed till it be- wards of 100 tons of bar lead and shot will be shipped to Buffalo from this place at the opening of navigation.” Wis. Enquirer , June 11, 1812: “ Lindsay Ward, Esq. of the firm of J. & L. Ward, returned last week from a visit to the mineral region and from him we learn that for the balance of the season a very great portion of the lead trade will be turned, via Milwaukee, through the Lakes. In fact there has been received for shipping, since the return of Mr. Ward, about one hundred thousand pounds of lead and a consider- able quantity of shot. * * * The Messrs. Wards have shipped during the spring 600,000 pounds of lead, 150,000 pounds of shot, and 20,000 pounds of copper. As will be seen by the advertisement, a large num- ber of teams are wanted to haul lead from the mineral region to this place. — Milwaukee Courier .” Id ., July 2, 1812: “ The transportation of lead from the Mines to Lake Michigan, which has been extensively commenced this season, bids fair to become an important link in reuniting the interests of the two por- tions of the Territory. Heretofore the trade of the west and the east has sought different channels and no union of interest has been felt; but it will soon be otherwise. The products of our mines will seek an eastern market across the Territory and through the lakes, and the amount heretofore paid to Galena and St. Louis merchants will be kept within our own borders. Lead is now transported from the mines to the lake for $10 per ton, and from thence to New York for $9. The teams, which take it across the Territory, return laden with lumber, shingles, 21 322 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol.xiii. came the chief commercial highway for most of the prod- ucts of Wisconsin. * 1 Among the exports of Milwaukee for 1843 were 2,200,000 pounds of lead and 250,000 pounds of shot. 2 The Albany (N. Y. ) Argus of March 30 makes an earnest plea for the return to the Erie canal tolls of 1840-41, urging that the increased rates would result in the loss of the newly- acquired trade of Wisconsin. 3 Among the evidences of a growing trade in lead and shot, are the newspaper adver- tisements of 1843, in which retail merchants offer to take them in exchange for goods; 4 and forwarding and commis- salt and merchandize, which under these circumstances can be obtained from the east to better advantage than from any other quarter.” Buffalo Patriot and Journal , quoted in Wis. Enquirer, July 16, 1842: “ The Lead Trade. — This is yet in its infancy, in fact it is only of two years growth, but it will soon become an important item in the business of our port. The great market of the lead of the Upper Mississippi country is to be found in the maritime cities of the northern and middle states, and thither nearly all that is sent down the river to New Orleans event- ually finds its way. If there were any easy water communication be- tween the ports on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, by far the greater portion of the mineral products of that region would seek a market via Buffalo. The amount received here up to the 22nd inst. from ports on Lake Michigan, chiefly from Milwaukee, was 6,763 pigs, or 453,410 lbs. — the pigs averaging about 70 lbs. — and 402 kegs of shot. * * * The lead is brought across the country to Lake Michigan in wagons drawn by oxen, at a cost of about $10 per ton or half a cent a pound. The teamsters find it a profitable business, as they get loading both ways, carry their own provisions, and the prairies afford all they want for their oxen by day or night.” 1 The activity of private and public enterprise in attempting works of internal improvement may be seen from the list of such enterprises given in Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1846), pp. 42-47. 3 Milw. Courier, Jan. 18, 1843. 3 Cited in Grant County Herald, Apr. 29, 1843. 4 Adv. in Milw. Conner, July 19,1843: “ Westward Ho.— New Store and New Goods. All kinds of produce, lead, shot, and also cash taken in payment. R. Jennings & Co.” Adv. in Id., Apr. 5, 1843: “ Weeks and Miller of Center Store, Milwau- kee, offer their goods in exchange for most kinds of Country Produce, Lead, Shot, Furs, Peltries, &c.” i 843-] significance of lead and shot trade. 323 sion merchants announce the rate of advances made on shipments of these products., 1 ^ In the latter part of May, /: the Buffalo Commercial Adver- tiser has the following: “Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa will soon send to this mart an incalculable amount of lead and copper, in addition to the whole of their surplus agricult- ural products. We already export lead to England, from whence we have heretofore imported many millions of pounds. * * * Lead and copper are to be transported this season by contracts recently entered into, from Wis- consin to Boston, through this city at 35 cents per hundred pounds or $7 a ton. Capitalists interested in the lake and canal trade, and especially those holding real estate in New York and Boston should not delay in aiding the con- struction of a canal or railway from Milwaukee or some other point on Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. ” 2 And the Rochester Democrat, in an article upon the lead and copper trade of the West, says: “Within the last eighteen months, an excellent road has been opened from Milwaukee to the Mississippi, 3 passing through the mining district, which will be much used hereafter in sending lead to the east by way of the lakes. * * * When the canal is finished through Wisconsin, this vast lead freight will 1 Adv. in Milw. Courier , Aug. 9, 1843: “ New Store — Milwaukee whole- sale and retail Cash Store, at Walker’s Point, on the south side of the Ferry — James Rathbun has just arrived from New York with an ex- tensive assortment of Goods suitable to the wants of the country round about, such as Domestics, Groceries, Hardware, &c., which he will sell at wholesale or retail, at the lowest prices for Cash, Wheat, Shot, Cop- per, Lead, Flax and Timothy Seed, Flour, &c., and would say to those in Mineral Regions that he is prepared to make liberal advances in Cash or Merchandise on Shot, Lead and Copper, and as he can make it an object for those working minerals, he hopes to receive a large share of their patronage. — Milwaukee, May 26, 1843.” 2 Quoted in Milw. Courier , May 31, 1843. 3 Item in Wis. Argus , Sept. 26, 1844: “ Mail Stages . — We would call the attention of the traveling public to C. Genung & Co.’s line of Mail Stages now running between Madison and Milwaukee, on the old United States road leading from Madison through Cottage Grove, Lake Mills, Aztalan, Summit and Prairieville to Milwaukee.” 324 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. be floated through the lakes and Erie canal to market. It now gives employment to hundreds of keel and flat boats from Galena to St. Louis, where it is reshipped for New Orleans, and then again reshipped for New York or Eu- rope. By way of the lakes and Erie canal, it could be ac- complished in fifteen days. ” 1 The trade of Mineral Point is thus referred to by Lap- ham : “ The quantity of lead and copper sent from here is very considerable; most of it finds its way to Galena, 111., whence it is shipped down the Mississippi and by way of the ocean to New York. Within the last few years, how- ever, much of it is sent by waggons to Lake Michigan, mostly at Milwaukee, and thence sent direct by way of the lakes to New York.” 2 The Buffalo Pilot, 1845, had this reference: ‘‘More than the usual quantity of lead from the mines of Illinois and Wisconsin have sought a market through the lakes this year. A few sales are made here, but the great bulk passes on. The white lead manufactories consume a con- siderable quantity, which will annually increase. 3 In August about 2,100 pigs were loaded.” 4 The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser , in the same year, spoke of the increase of the production of lead and shot, but lamented the insufficient means of transportation which alone kept the resulting trade from seeking the lake ports. For the three years 1842-44, the imports of lead into that city were, respectively, 23,926, 23,753, and 6,276 pigs. 5 For 1846, the condition of the lead trade is sufficiently 1 Quoted in Milw. Courier , Feb. 1, 1843; also to be found in Mc- Leod’s Wiskonsan , p. 218. 2 Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1844), p. 236. 3 See ante , p. 319; also, the following advertisement in Weekly N. W. Gazette (Galena), October 9, 1846: “ White Lead Manufactory. — R. Conk- ling & Co., Court Street east of Broadway, Cincinnati. * * * The old firm of R. Conkling & Co. still continues to manufacture best pure White Lead and at as low prices as can be purchased anywhere. — Cin- cinnati, September 21, 1846.” 4 Cited in Niles' Register , vol. 68, p. 102, April 19, 1845. 6 Cited in Wis. Herald (Lancaster), September 20, 1845. 1846 - 47 *] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 325 indicated by the following from a Grant county news- paper: “ Trade by the Lakes. — Our trade with the east is rapidly increasing. Nearly all the goods brought into this county this fall, except groceries, are hauled from Chicago or Milwaukie — chiefly from Milwaukie, although Grant is a river county distant from Lake Michigan one hundred and fifty miles. ” 1 In 1847 a Milwaukee newspaper published the follow- ing : “ The Lead Schooners are constantly arriving here from the Mineral region. These singular teams drawn by six, eight or more yoke of oxen, excite some curiosity in those who are not used to such sights at the east. They sleep under the canopy of heaven with the camp fires and the primitive meals of a military encampment, pitching tents with the first dusk of evening and rising with the early dawn. These scenes are daily occurring within a few miles of a city with 13,000 inhabitants.” 2 We may fairly conclude, from the evidence offered, that by 1847 the overland lead trade to Milwaukee was well established, and that Buffalo, the leading port in Western New York, was very desirous of holding as large a share of this trade as possible. It has been shown how, little by little, the movement of Eastern goods from Milwaukee westward to the Mississippi grew into the importance of later years; and we have noticed utterances of dissatisfac- tion from time to time with the primitive means of trans- portation, and of hope for some better conditions in the near future. Just as, in 1839-40, the delays and difficulties of the Mississippi route brought about the discovery of some better and shorter way to Eastern markets, so now it was beginning to be keenly felt that if the lead industry was to continue, some improvement must be made in the means of communication between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. It was just at this time that the agri- cultural interests of Wisconsin began to suffer for want of a better market, and more adequate means of transporta- 1 Id., November 28, 1846. 2 Cited in Id., Sept. 25, 1847. 326 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. tion for their increasing product. The following communi- cation expresses the general sentiment among that class of producers: “ We have been so accustomed to dilate upon the superior advantages of the western part of the state (for we are now a state) that it is extremely unpleasant to open our eyes on our real condition. The prevalent opin- ion has been that the mining region contains within itself the means of never-ending prosperity and independence. We have an unequalled soil, and the mining interest will always be able to consume and pay well for all the products of that soil. The farmer has only to go fifteen or twenty feet into the bowels of the earth to find a liberal market for everything he can raise on its surface. Such used to be the talk ; but it is now manifest that the producing and consuming classes have not maintained the anticipated equi- librium. The capacity of production has satiated and overpowered the capacity of consumption. Such has been the increase of farms and farmers that the mining interest does not furnish a market for a tithe of the agricultural product which a liberal and reliable price would call forth. * * * The desperate struggles evinced by our leading towns for county seats is a sure indication that their resources are drying up, and that they keenly feel the gnawings of internal famine. * * * We need a reliable, liberal market for our increasing agricultural products. This is the thing. It is melancholy to see the noble- hearted, toil-worn farmer point to his granary and tell you it is full but not a cent of cash can he get for his grain. Labor ought to be rewarded. If a farmer wishes to get a few dollars, he must watch the moment when a tavern- keeper is out of oats, or peddle eggs, butter, bacon, and hams to the diggers. The merchants will not give him cash for anything. Western Wisconsin has reached a crisis; it must retrograde unless we can have a liberal market, pay- ing a fair price for the products of the whole agricultural community. * * * It is evident our state has reached a crisis. We need annexation to the lakes; some access to the 1846-48.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 32 7 markets of the great world. When, and through what ave- nues is light from Lake Michigan to break in upon us?” 1 Manifestly we have here depicted a state of things simi- lar to that which was observed more than half a century earlier, in the then pioneer states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, when the economic pressure of a superabundant product, for which no market could be found, burst the barriers that shut out the new West from the older East. So in the early history of Wisconsin, the amount and value of the lead production compelled the opening of a new route to New York markets as early as 1838-39. Ten years later a similar development in agriculture again made it necessary to seek new markets and adequate outlets to the Eastern centres of trade. This period of industrial unrest and change, 1846-48, was not by any means peculiar to Wisconsin. It affected the whole Mississippi valley. We have already noticed it in connection with the change of the lead trade from the New Orleans route to routes north of St. Louis. It will be re- membered how the first decline in Southern trade was ac- counted for by the diversion of the miners to California, by the lack of capital to open new mines or to sink the old ones deeper, by the discriminating tariff of 1846 that no longer afforded sufficient protection to the lead industry, and by the lack of needed improvements in the channel of the Mississippi. From our brief survey of the develop- ment of a new route in Wisconsin, we can add to this list of causes, the natural growth of industrial life in the North- west, making the more primitive arrangements of an earlier decade so entirely inadequate to the larger needs of the time that better markets and shorter and more accessible routes of trade became indispensable. With this development clearly in mind, we may now con- sider a few of the more general aspects which are pre- sented by the early development of railroads in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the West. The following from the Bos- ton Traveller well expresses the general sentiment of the 1 J. T. M., in Wis. tier aid, June 10, 1818. 328 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. time : “ Lake Michigan and Mississippi Railroad. — Mr. Editor : Permit me to request the favor of your directing such at- tention to the subject of the subjoined memorial to Con- gress, relative to the connexion of Lake Michigan with the Mississippi by means of a railroad, as the importance of the project so obviously deserves — particularly at the hands of every friend, not only of Boston but of New Eng- land generally. * * * Suffice it at this time simply to state * * * that within the present year, a continuous line of direct steam communication will have been completed from Maine to Wisconsin — stopping short of the Great Father of Waters only about 160 miles, — and that the citi- zens of the Upper Mississippi country, generally, confi- dently appeal to their brethren of New England for their cooperation in the removal of the only remaining obstacle to a direct commercial and social intercourse between them and their Fatherland. * * * John Plumbe, Jr. Ex Chairman Wis. R. R. Com. Cor. Boston, Jan. 10, 1842. 1,1 In a Galena paper for 1846 is a detailed statement of the comparative advantages of the Mississippi route, and the lake route, after a railroad had been constructed. Among other things it is shown that the distance by the two routes is 4,000 miles and 1,700 miles, respectively; and by the former route the cost for lead was 70 cents per hun- dred, and by the latter 61 cents. 1 2 In a Madison paper of the same year appeared the fol- lowing plea for a railroad from Milwaukee to Galena: “ The citizens of Milwaukie and Galena are seriously agi- tating the subject of a Railroad between the two points. 1 Cited in Milw. Sentinel and Wis. Farmer , Jan. 29, 1842.- The petition to Congress above referred to, recites the various advantages of railroad connection between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi; among which are: more efficient checks upon the Indians, better mail facilities, a be- ginning for the Oregon railroad, a means of securing the trade of the Upper Mississippi. 2 Weekly N. W. Gazette , January 23, 1846. 1846 - 47 *] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 329 To the thoroughfare of the Lakes and Erie Canal such an enterprise would be of great importance, inasmuch as it would secure for their route the entire trade bf the Upper Mississippi. It would not only penetrate the finest agri- cultural portions of the Territory of Wisconsin, opening a channel through which their products would seek a ready market by the Lakes; but it would secure the transporta- tion of the vast products of the Lead Mines, a large por- tion of which now find a market by way of the Mississippi River. When this communication shall have been opened, there is not a doubt that the lead of the Upper Mississippi will be diverted to this route, as a matter of interest with the mines. ” 1 On the 21st of April, 1846, E. H. Darby, a prominent rail- road man of Boston, wrote to a gentleman in Galena that a company had been organized to complete the Michigan rail- road, and that the next enterprise would be the building of a line through to the Mississippi. 2 In this connection should be mentioned Asa Whitney’s scheme for a Pacific railroad, which, while aiming at something more than the opening up of Mississippi trade, belongs with the movement to connect the lakes with the great river, since he proposed beginning his trans-continental line at Lake Michigan. 3 In the Wisconsin Herald (Lancaster) for December 25, 1847, is given a letter from a prominent Eastern capitalist concerning the future of railroads in the West. The fol- lowing extract is of interest in this connection: “There can be no doubt that the most direct and economical line ensuring you a continuous, daily, uninterrupted communi- cation throughout the year is most for your interest. Where that line must, from natural causes governing the question beyond the control of man, be constructed there can be no division of opinion. The southern bend of Lake Michigan must be forever the key and railroad outlet to the East for the whole country northwest of it. * * * 1 Madison Express , March 5, 1846. 2 Weekly N. W. Gazette , May 15, 1846. * Madison Express , Ang. 25 and Dec. 15, 1846. 330 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. Arrangements have been made and elements are at work which will, it is believed, gather into one bond at the south end of Lake Michigan all the great Railroad inter- ests of Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New England, and the Canadas, from thence to radiate over all the country between Milwaukee and St. Louis and Cairo. ” The editor, in commenting upon this letter, says: “The writer is probably better informed than we are of the ar- rangements made with other Railroad companies in the South and West, by which they concede to us in the North, the main trunk of Railroad communication from the Atlantic as far west as the southerly bend of Lake Michigan; but we are of opinion that there must be a serious struggle yet with interests south of us to accom- plish all this — that the northern road must be done speedily — done before a central Railroad shall be com- pleted from the Atlantic to St. Louis; for if done now it becomes a basis of an extension of Railroad still west- ward to Oregon; if not done before the completion of a Railroad from the Atlantic to St, Louis, then St. Louis becomes the starting point of an extension of Railroad to the Pacific. The question is, shall the upper West, or shall the lower West be the great avenue of trade and commerce, not only with the heart of this great continent, but ultimately with the islands of the Pacific and with the opulent Indies. ” A year later we find the following vigor- ous editorial in the same paper: “The Northwest is lag- ging. The world is running away from us. Look around us. See our undeveloped resources, our fertile lands unculti- vated — our rich mineral lands ineffectually scratched over on their surface — our streams idly running, which ought to propel all sorts of machinery — our villages languish- ing — our farmers troubled to barter off their produce at ruinous prices for goods at an enormous profit — our popu- lation, as a whole, living without the conveniences and luxuries which should always reward patient industry — why is all this? Simply for want of easy communi- cation with the great markets of the world. Western 1836-40.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 33 1 Wisconsin must arouse. We have slept long enough. Something must be done, we must do it for ourselves. Chicago saw the necessity of a railroad to Galena, and she went to work at it and will build it. Western Wisconsin must be put in communication with a railroad.'” 1 It is not necessary to go further and point out how the lead and shot trade figured in the demand for a railroad from Milwaukee to the Mississippi. The importance of that industry was on the wane, and its peculiar value was being overshadowed by the immense development of agri- culture and the growing importance of the lumber and mill- ing interests of the State. It remains to point out the sig- nificance of the shot and lead trade in the settling of South Central Wisconsin. In examining the three maps herewith presented, showing the distribution of population in the State in 1836, in 1840, and in 1850 respectively, one is struck by the difference between them. The population in 1836, and even in 1840, lay massed in the southwest and in the east about Milwaukee, in two distinct, unconnected, inharmonious sections. The western section had its inter- ests centered about the mines, its social and economic life affected by the peculiar relations arising from this oc- cupation; and more important than all, it was a section in closest touch with the South — with St. Louis, to which went the lead produced and from which all supplies were obtained ; with New Orleans, and the other Southern cities, more distantly but none the less vitally connected. Its newspapers were Southern in tone, so were its correspond- ents. The great river steamboats that plied between Ga^ lena and the Mississippi markets carried from New Orleans and St. Louis more than their sugar and coffee, their arti- cles of foreign luxury and their everyday necessities. Economically this section was linked with the South, but socially and intellectually the tie was even closer; its people habitually turned in this direction for that sort of leadership which every large city exercises among the smaller communities with which it is in touch. Slavery took root for a while in this part of Wisconsin, brought 1 Wis. Herald , June 10, 1848. 332 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. Xlii. Southern Wisconsin: showing density of population in 1836. For convenience of comparison, the county divisions given are those of 1895. See ante , p. 251, for remark on localizatiou of population in Territorial census of 1836. Southern Wisconsin: showing density of population in 1840. For con- venience of comparison, the county divisions given are those of 1895. 1 836-50.] SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAD AND SHOT TRADE. 333 naturally enough from the neighboring slave States, whose views on this question had a place among the common stock of popular ideas. As opposed to this stood the eastern section of Wiscon- sin, with its population of native Americans from New England and New York, its Germans and its French. The interests of this section were not mining, but agricultural and commercial; and it faced, so to speak, the East, es- pecially New York and Pennsylvania. These two sections of our State, thus looking in opposite directions, divergent in ideas and sentiments, and mode of life, were made to coalesce by uniting their economic in- terests upon a common source of profit — the lead and shot trade of Southwestern Wisconsin. The western section was, as it were, compelled to find a direct route eastward for these products. The lake cities of the eastern section needed just the stimulus afforded by a new and profitable trade to develop into the rich and important centers they were afterwards to become. Thus a common subject was found for State legislation and agitation in Congress, and both sections joined hands in the work of securing im- proved means of transportation. More than all, the open- ing of roads and the regular passage of freight wagons to and from the lake cities, especially Milwaukee, served to people the vacant iands which in 1836 divided the two sec- tions from each other. A glance at the map of 1850 will show how thoroughly that had been done. The State, which in 1833 had two separated sections of population, was to all appearances fairly desectionalized in 1850, so far as mingling of population could do it; and this was largely the result of improved means of communication and mutual economic interests. The initiatory impulse given to the settlement of this central region of Southern Wisconsin by the early lead and shot trade was of the utmost importance. It coincided with a movement westward in New England and New York, itself connected with the completion of the Erie canal; and it enabled Wisconsin to take advantage of this great 334 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. forward movement of population, and fill up the fertile counties of the Rock River valley, and farther west. With- out such a path as was traced out for them by the team- sters of 1836-38, the emigrants of 1840-50 might have been delayed a decade in penetrating to these regions; without the prize of the lead trade to tempt them, the merchants and capitalists of Milwaukee, Buffalo, and New York would not at this early date have taken so lively an interest in our lines of communication between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. In general, then, the lead trade and the shot trade to- gether attracted capital to Wisconsin, helped to fill its southern counties with population, and gave an impulse to its industrial life that the State has never lost. THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 335 1894.J CHRONICLE OF THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. BY ORIN GRANT LIBBY, PH. D. Introduction. In the summer of 1894 the writer was visiting friends at Hillside, Iowa county, while attending the meeting of the Unitarian Sunday School Assembly, held on the grounds of the Tower Hill Pleasure Company — the site of the old Helena shot-tower. Among other improvements carried on that summer was the clearing out of the shaft of the tower, which had become filled with debris from i above. This vertical shaft, sunk some 120 feet through the rock, is met by a horizontal shaft 90 feet long, running in from the face of the cliff on the northeast side. The shot “ tub ” or “ cistern, ” at the bottom of the vertical shaft, is about three feet below the level of the horizontal shaft or “drift.” In removing the debris, this portion was left untouched, as it offered a standing-place for visit- ors, from which a clear view of the upper end of the shaft could be obtained. Thinking that something of in- terest might be secured by exploring this pocket, I ob- tained permission to dig here, and soon brought to light remains of the machinery and implements, and some of the shot as it had lain there for over thirty years. These relics were given to the State Historical Society of Wis- consin. It was suggested by the editor of these Collec- tions that a paper be prepared, giving an account of the Helena shot-tower and its place in the history of the 336 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. State. With this end in view, the following sketch has been prepared, not as a formal monograph, but as a col- lection of such data as are obtainable. The death of many of the old settlers who lived in the early lead- mining days, and the scarcity of materials on this subject, have made the task an extremely unsatisfactory one. It is published with the hope that its mistakes and short- comings may be rectified by those who actually took part in the events, or have recollection of them. The Story of the Toicer. Materials for a historical sketch of the old Helena shot- tower are for the most part not to be found in books, least of all in the local histories of the State. They have been gathered from official records, newspapers, letters, and es- pecially from the recollections of old settlers . 1 Aside from inadequate and often erroneous accounts in the quarto History of Iowa County , only five works were found which 1 1 desire especially to acknowledge aid given in my work, by the fol- lowing: Within the State — Reuben G. Th waites, Secretary of the State Histor- ical Society; John L. Jones, William Lockman, Mrs. M. S. Mabbott, Mrs. John Sliter, John King, Mrs. Margaret L. Jones and Robert Lloyd, of Hillside; Robert Joiner, D. W. Culver, Archie Brander, Mrs. Joseph Smith, and Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Culver, of Wyoming; Milton D. Persons, Clark Hickox, Thomas J. Williams, John Shaunce, Joseph Bennett, Nicholas Sherman, and Robert Wilson, of Dodgeville; John Thomas, S. P. Hoxie, W. H. Harris and Dan. J. Davis, Spring Green; Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Yorker, Wm. Hodgson, Mrs. Evan Lloyd and Mrs. Susan Slau- son, of Arena; William Ruggles, of Ridgeway; W. T. Cass, of Lone Rock; Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Oertel and Robert Baxter, of Prairie du Sac; Charles Teel, of King’s Corners; J. T. Kingston, of Mauston; W. H. Canfield and Mrs. Henry Willard, of Baraboo. Outside the State — A. J. Lockman, of Lamoure, N. D.; Mrs. Blanche B. Bunker, of Winslow, 111.; Miss Mary Woodman, of Cambridge, Mass.; E. W. Blatchford, of Chicago; Ralph Flint, of West Baldwin, Me.; Dan- iel Thompson, of Calumet Plantation, Patterson, La.; G. W. Chadbourne, of St. Louis; J. K. Graves, of Dubuque, Iowa; Evan J. Davis, of St. Cloud, Minn. MAP OF OLD HELENA Recorded by R. McPherson, Daniel Whitney, and others in the office of the Register of Deeds of Iowa Co., Dec. The original, of which the above is a reduced facsimile, is still on file in that office. EirepH 4PJ3*o.uoi{S luoj) jtmtTptf pu? HM» MUSKO.imt. 3HA MB XSHM. 1809-28.] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 337 contained even a mention of the tower. 1 This does not include the Wisconsin Historical Collections , which makes two references to the tower, incidental to the narratives of old settlers. 2 It is not presumed that this exhausts the material on the subject, but it serves to show how scanty it is in this particular field. The fragmentary nature of the sources makes it impossible always to give exact ref- erences to authorities, especially when the evidence is con- flicting, but so far as possible the source of the information will be indicated. Although Wisconsin very early and with success en- tered the field of shot-making, Missouri appears to have been the home of this industry. The Missouri Gazette of March 1, 1809, contains the following notice of the first shot-tower in the West, and probably the first this side of the Atlantic: “At Herculaneum a shot manufactory is now erecting by an active and enterprising citizen of our Territory; the situation is peculiarly adapted for the pur- pose, having a natural tower, or rather stupendous rock, forming a precipice of about one hundred and sixty feet, having the lead mines in the neighborhood, and one of the finest harbors for vessels. We presume the proprietor (J. Macklot) will be enabled to supply the Atlantic States on such terms as will defeat competition. ” 3 The following year, one Austen erected another tower near the first. 4 In 1827-28 there is found another description by a traveler in Missouri of a shot- tower at Herculaneum; 5 and in 1840 the 1 W. R. Smith, Observations on Wisconsin Territory (Phila., 1838), p. 77; Lapham’s Wisconsin (ed. 1811), p. 231; McLeod’s History of Wiskonsan (Buffalo, N. Y., 1816), p. 223; Featherstonhaugh’s Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor (London, 1817), i., pp. 196-199; Sketches of the West , or the Home of the Badgers (Milw., 1817), p. 11. 5 Wis. Hist. Colls., viii., p. 369; xi., p. 103. 3 Cited by Scharf, Hist. St. Louis (Phila., 1883), ii., p. 1252. Macklot ran his first cast of shot at Herculaneum, Nov. 16, 1809; see ante, p. 285, article by the editor. 4 Scharf, same reference. 5 Beltrami, Pilgrimage in Europe and America, leading to the discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River (London, 1828), ii., p. 118. 22 338 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. St. Louis Gazette mentions an editorial visit to a shot- tower a few miles below the city. 1 In 1847, Kennett, Sim- onds & Co. completed the St. Louis tower, begun three years before, an establishment that is still running. 2 The pioneer shot-maker of the Northwest was Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay. 3 Coming to this State in 1819 he rapidly extended his business operations so as to include fur-trading, lumbering, and retail and river trade, — and finally, in 1831, shot-making. His many undertakings took him up and down the Pox, Wisconsin, and Mississippi rivers, between Green Bay and St. Louis. The success of the Missouri towers already referred to, and the rapid de- velopment of the lead mines in Wisconsin, suggested to his enterprising mind the idea of the Helena tower. The fact also that John Metcalf was employed at the portage by Whitney, to manage his stores there, makes it probable that the new venture was partly a result of Metcalf’s pre- vious experience in the same line of business, and that he came from Missouri to manage the tower when it was com- pleted. The origin of the company that built the Helena tower seems to be involved in uncertainty. Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay, gives the following account: “About 1830, a shot-tower company was organized, principally composed of gentlemen living here and in 'Detroit, with one from Oswego. The firm name was Daniel Whitney , Platte & Co. ” 4 The following record of the transfers whereby the land on which the shot-tower was built passed into the hands of its successive owners, I have gathered from the rec- ords of the Iowa County register of deeds. The tower and buildings were erected on government land, before it was open to settlers. August 4, 1835, John C. Kellogg entered as government land 59.40 acres, which tract appears in 1 Milwaukee Sentinel , Oct. 6, 1840. 9 Annual Review , etc. (St. Louis, 1854), p. 16. 8 For a biography of Daniel Whitney, see Wis. Hist. Colls., xii., p. 274, note. 4 Wis. Hist. Colls., xi., p. 403. 1831-47-] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 339 all subsequent records of transfers, without the change of a fraction of an acre. The next record shows that Daniel Whitney, June 14, 1836, deeded to Sheldon Thompson, of Buffalo, N. Y., for $10,000, the land on which stood the tower, with all its buildings and improvements; the Wis- consin Shot Company paid the money, but the land was entered in Thompson’s name. On May 25, 1838, Thompson sold the estate for $10,000 to the trustees of the Wisconsin Shot Company, De Garmo Jones and Sheldon Thompson. The next owners were Charles Townsend and John L. Kim- berly, of Buffalo, N. Y., who bought it September 16, 1842. Henry Hamilton, of Buffalo, next bought it for $6, 000, Sep- tember 5, 1843. The same year, John Metcalf and John B. Terry, of Mineral Point, each bought a third interest in the property, — October 20 and October 13, respectively. On February 15, 1847, these three partners sold the property to Washburn & Woodman, of Mineral Point, for $6,000. From manuscript account-books kept by John Metcalf during portions of 1831-33/ we are able to follow the oper- ations of the company in some detail. The record begins with September, 1831. There are at first but three men employed, John Metcalf, Louis Beaupre, and Cornelius Hill. They are boating on the Wisconsin during September and part of October, reaching the Fox-Wisconsin portage Octo- ber 19, from which place a week later they go up the Wis- consin to a lumber camp, probably at Whitney’s mill. April 5, they are joined by two others, Almon Green and one De Reese. A month later, Metcalf and his men return to the portage, where he hires four more, one Stewart, A. Dero- siere, Levi Warrington, and one Dejordor; Louis Kirby and one Dixon join the force in July, but all the others save Warrington have now left. 1 2 This fragmentary record indi- cates in a general way the character of the work in 1831-32. It consisted largely of getting out and floating down the Wis- consin the materials for the proposed buildings at Helena, 1 Now in possession of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 2 In the spelling of these several names, I follow Metcalf, save where there is better authority. 340 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. which are to be used by the company in their shot-making operations. Among the most interesting of these records are those relating to the articles bought and sold at Whit- ney’s stores at the portage, 1 and the men who dealt there. Among the customers appear the names of two of the Grig- nons; Paquette, the famous half-breed scout; and Oliver Newberry, well-known as a lake captain and steamboat owner. 2 While at the portage from May to August, 1832, Metcalf and his men lived as ordinary lumbermen, or log- gers on a drive. Wages ranged from $12 to $30 a month. The accounts show considerable connection with Fort Win- nebago. In the autumn of 1831, Whitney hired T. B. Shaunce 3 * * * * * 9 to dig the vertical and horizontal shafts of the present tower, 1 The articles in the account-books most frequently mentioned are to- bacco (smoking and chewing), pork, flour, and sugar. In a second class, less frequently called for, appear tea, corn, shot, blankets, moccasins, thread, beans, ham, potatoes, and deerskins. Tea seems to have been used instead of coffee, and there is very little liquor mentioned in the accounts. 2 The list of men employed, or having accounts with the shot-tower, were: Oliver Newberry (his agents at the portage probably acted in his name), Francis Roy, Levi Warrington, Louis Bopre, Charles Grignon, A. Grignon, Cornelius Hill, Almon Green, A. La Dow, De Reese, A. Dero siere, Benjamin Lequeire, Jean Baptiste Van Sant, Dejordor, Dixon, Louis Kirby, Stewart, Louis Manaigre, Absalom Quinney, Pierre Pa- quette, Indian Tom, and Indians John, Peter, and Irvan. 9 T. B. Shaunce was born in New York, May 8, 1808. His family moved West in 1811, first to Indiana, and later to Viola, 111. At the age of twenty, young Shaunce left home and went to Galena. In 1831 he was hired by Whitney to sink the shaft for the tower at Helena. When the Black Hawk War broke out, work was temporarily abandoned, Shaunce having enlisted to serve during the war. After his work was completed at Helena, he went to Dodgeville and engaged in mining. In 1841 he married, and settled down on a small farm, where he died Aug. 31, 1863. “ Colonel ” Shaunce, as he was called, was one of Dodgeville’s best-known characters, in early days. He had a large fund of jovial humor, that vented itself in practical jokes upon his associates. On one occasion, in 1835, he was challenged by an Irishman, Joseph McMurtry, to fight a duel. Shaunce, as the challenged party, chose the weapons — rocks, at a distance of forty feet, neither party to stir from his tracks till satisfied. 1827-30.] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 341 in which work he was assisted by Malcolm Smith. * 1 They were boarded at the house of a Mr. Green, who lived with his wife on a farm near by, having come to the place in 1827. The following from the quarto History of Iowa Co. (p. 844) gives some idea of the first attempt at settlement here: " The point of greatest interest in the north part of the county, from 1828 to 1840, was what is usually termed Old Helena, which was located on Section 29, in what is now the town of Wyoming. As will be seen in the general history, the first village in the county was planted here in 1828 , the intention then being to build a place at that point which would rival Galena, as by that means the great water thoroughfare of Wisconsin could be utilized advantageously for the shipping of lead, and also for transporting all needful supplies into the country. In 1828, there were a few huts, but the principal objects to be seen were the stakes that marked out the town lots. In 1829, a large hewed-log house was erected by three Morison brothers, who also broke a few acres of land. In 1830, this house was purchased by George Medary, who moved there with his family and opened a sort of hotel, and also did (or rather attempted to do) legal business. Soon after him, William Green, who was afterward killed by the Indians, came here with his wife and erected a comfortable log house, and preempted the land where the shot-tower was afterward built. The first white child born in the north part of the A large crowd turned out to see this remarkable duel. Each of the men, accompanied by his second, came to the appointed place, the mouth of an old mining shaft, just outside the little village. When called upon to indicate where his opponent was to be stationed, Shaunce coolly pro- posed that McMurtry should stand at the bottom of the shaft, which happened to be just forty feet deep, and he would stand at the top. Of course the affair was declared off, and the whole party adjourned to the nearest tavern, to drink at the expense of the discomfited Irishman. 1 So I am told by Milton D. Persons, who arrived in Dodgeville Oct. 20, 1827. He remembers these two men stopping with him all night at his little cabin, on their way to and from Galena. Smith was after- wards killed in the Black Hawk War. 342 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. county was a son of Mr. Green’s. The Government erected a small building for storing lead and supplies, in 1829, and stationed an agent here. In 1830 Frank Guyon opened a store here, and for a short time the prospects for building up a smart little town were good; but, alas for human hopes, the Black Hawk war came on, the place was abandoned, and that was the last of it.” The soldiers in pursuit of Black Hawk crossed the Wis- consin river here, and the log houses were torn down to furnish materials for rafts. 1 Some time after the close of the war, Shaunce resumed work on the shot- tower shaft. His implements were the ordinary mining tools and such contrivances as necessity compelled him to make use of. He seems to have dug the first fifteen or twenty feet of the shaft before he hired Smith to assist him. He would fill both buckets, fasten the rope to one of them, and prop up the bail of the other with a stone. Climbing out by his frail Indian ladder 2 he would wind up one bucket by windlass, and then by swing- ing the rope back and forth a few times he would hook and draw up the other. This method of work could only be carried on to a depth of about twenty feet, and little progress could be made thereafter, without an assistant. After the vertical shaft was completed to the required depth, he began work on the horizontal. In getting his direction and distance, he had no compass or surveyor’s chain, but made use of a line of stakes, over which he sighted. Inside the drift, where it was too dark to see the stakes, he used a row of lighted candles. He thus struck the vertical shaft nearly in the center; the amount of vari- ation, as can be seen to-day, is slight, and the whole work 1 Reynolds, My Own Times (Chicago, 1879), p. 263; Wakefield, History of the War between the TJ. S. and the Sac and Fox Notions of Indians (Jacksonville, 111., 1834), p. 75. 2 The simplest form of this ladder is a pole to which cross-pieces are lashed by thongs. When a greater length is required, two such poles are tied together at the ends. An improvement consists in the use of nails or an auger, and even in the use of two parallel poles instead of one. At best it is a fragile support for a climb of fifty feet. THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 343 I833-] does credit to his engineering skill. Some blasting was done in the harder portions, but most of the work was performed with gads and picks, as the sandstone was soft and friable. Some time in the latter part of 1833 the tower was com- pleted, so that shot could be made, and John Metcalf 1 was for many years the regular shot-dropper. Referring to the account-books of the company kept by Metcalf from September to November, 1833, we find every indication of activity at Helena, and this is probably very nearly the time when operations at the tower were commenced. Besides Metcalf, there were five men employed, Thomas B. Shaunce, 2 B. Smith, J. Wallis, B. Gardepie, and Mills. 1 John Metcalf was born in Rhode Island in 1788, and died at Baraboo, Wis., Jan. 22, 1864. Educated at Boston, at the age of nineteen he began the practice of law in New York. His health failing him, he went to Pennsylvania and worked in the pineries a few years. Thence he went to Missouri, in the interest of a stock company that had purchased land there. Thinking it unlikely that the small French town of St. Louis would ever develop into a business center, he located at Herculaneum, where he built and ran two stores and was connected with a shot-tower. He next purchased a farm in Jefferson county, Mo., where he resided for many years, holding the office of sheriff for a number of terms. In 1831 Daniel Whitney hired him to take charge of his business at the portage; and some years later, probably 1839, he was given the manage- ment of the Helena shot-tower, which position he held till 1847. In 1843 he bought a third interest in the Shot-Tower Company, which in 1847 he sold to Washburn & Woodman. In December, the same year, he bought of Alvah Culver a half interest in a sawmill at Baraboo ( Sauk Co. Deeds , Vol. A, p. 438). Out of this investment was later evolved the firm of Metcalf, Paddock & Waterman. (See Canfield, Baraboo and its Water Powers, p. 12.) Metcalf was a gentleman of the old school, a man without an enemy, a thoroughly upright and honorable character. Such is the unvarying testimony of all who knew him during his sixty- three years of residence in Wisconsin. With Daniel Whitney he is to be remembered as one of the founders of the shot-making industry in our State, as well as one of the first lumbermen on the Wisconsin river. His account-book, and many other of his papers, are in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society. 2 In Metcalf’s account-book, Shaunce is credited (Sept., 1833) with 187 days’ previous work. This probably expresses quite accurately the time spent in excavating the tower shafts. 344 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol. xiii. Smith did the cooking for the crew, and worked in this capacity till the latter part of November, when all but Shaunce stopped work. The record of the purchase 1 2 at this same time of temper-kettles, arsenic, shot-kegs and bags, and cord-wood (20 cords), clearly indicates that shot- making ^was at least begun experimentally during the lat- ter part of 1833. Not much shot was made at first, and this was shipped principally to Fort Winnebago and thence to Green Bay. A small quantity found its way to Galena, chiefly in exchange for goods. Even at this early time, Helena was a supply station of no small importance. Daniel Whitney was too keen a trader to let slip a favorable opportunity to drive a good bargain. With the establishment of the shot-tower, there was opened a local store similar to those at the portage ; a glance at the list of supplies brought in from both St. Louis and Green Bay will sufficiently show this. It cer- tainly was not to supply his own men at Helena that he had on hand, Nov. 25, 12,997 lbs. of salt, 14 box stoves, 12 bake-ovens, and $105 worth of stoves; and we shall see that his store continually increased its stock so long as he was connected with the tower. 1 Sept. 1, 1833, there was received by the boat from Green Bay: 30 lbs. salt, 13 lbs. meat, 1 lb. flour, 1 bu. peas and beans, 11 box stoves, 1 Franklin stove, 13 tea-kettles, 12 bake-ovens, 34 doz. pots, 6 skillets, 1 spider, 2 hand mills, 4 kegs powder. Sept. 25, there was received by E. Johnson’s team, via Blue Mounds: 1 box door-hangings, 2 balance wheels, 1 pair scales, 1 cross-cut saw, 6 pair shoes, 1 lb. chalk, 1 lb. pepper, 2 scythes, 1 fine saw. Oct. 19, received by boat (presumably from St. Louis): 1 hogshead sugar, 2 doz. candles, 9 boxes soap, 4 shot-guns, 2 temper-kettles, 1 axe, 2 sacks coffee, 2 boxes tobacco. In another record, without date, we find the following: — 100 lbs. Arsenic $4 00 British Lustre 2 50 10 Shot kegs . . t 4 50 1043 “ bags 38 25 Stoves 105 00 1 Shovel $1 00 1 Harness 5 00 Cooking stove 25 00 20 cords wood 30 00 House Furniture 22 00 Cows and calves . . 126 00 1834 - 35 -] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 345 The first printed reference we have, to the tower, is by- Henry Merrell, whose business took him to Fort Winne- bago in April, 1834. He became well acquainted with Daniel Whitney, and speaks of his sawmill on the Wisconsin, his stores at the portage, and the shot-tower at Helena. 1 August 30, 1835, the place wai visited by George W. Featherstonhaugh, an English geologist then traveling in the United States, and the following is from his interest- ing account of the establishment: “At 9 A. M. we reached a shot- tower belonging to Mr. Whitney, on' the left bank of the river, and landed there to breakfast. Mr. Whitney had entrusted to my care a large bag of silver money, with some other funds he wished to remit to his nephew and agent there. I had been very reluctant to re- ceive it, * * * but he had shown me so much obliging zeal in my service, that, upon his pressing me with some urgency a short time before my departure, 1 consented; and the treasure being put into the middle of one of my carpet-bags, which contained some heavy fossils, was em- barked. * * * As soon as the canoe was fastened to the shore, I told L’Amirant to shoulder the sack, and away we trudged with it to the agent’s house, to which the name of Helena had been given, where I delivered my charge and took a receipt. Mr. Whitney’s nephew 2 and his wife received me civilly, and insisted upon entertain- ing me with breakfast, which when I had dispatched, I went to see what they called the shot-tower, where lead brought from the lead district of Wisconsin, not many miles off, is cast into shot of various sizes. ” 3 In the summer of 1835, Benjamin L. Webb, the agent, was the means of securing a substantial reenforcement to the workmen at the tower. John Wilson had been sent out by the Portage Canal Company with a party of sixty men to dig a canal across the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. He brought his wife and children with him, and the 1 Wis. Hist. Colls., vii., p. 367. 2 Daniel M. Whitney, — so I am told by J. T. Kingston, of Mauston. 3 Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, i., pp. 196-99. 346 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol.xiii. party arrived at Green Bay on the steamer “Michigan.” They were carried up the Fox river on flat-boats, pushed by Menomonee Indians, and arrived at the Portage in May. After building a house for the accommodation of his family and the men, the work on the canal was begun. They succeeded in excavating a channel deep enough to float a canoe, and then, because of high water, were obliged to cease operations. Webb, hearing of their ar- rival, went overland from Helena to visit their camp and persuaded Wilson to return on horseback with him to Helena. After his wife had almost despaired of seeing him again, he returned to the portage, and transferred the Original Shot-Tower Buildings. (Facsimile of sketch by John Wilson, made July, 1836.) entire party to the shot- tower. At Helena, the men were employed for nearly a year in getting out stone, cutting logs, sawing lumber, and erecting buildings. Among these buildings were a store, cooper shop, blacksmith shop, a log barracks for the men, and a warehouse, — the last named, a large five-story structure, the first two stories being of stone. Not a little of the lumber was ob- tained from the pines, just across the river from the tower. Early in the summer of 1836 the men were discharged 1 1 Most of the men returned to New York. Among those remaining were Archie Dempster, David Coffin, and Charley Morgan. 1836 .] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 347 by Webb, who had hired Henry Teel 1 to come from Ohio and superintend operations in place of Wilson . 2 The Teel family boarded some of the men in the company’s house, as the Wilsons had done before them. Among the men who worked under Teel were the brothers A. B. and Elisha Sampson, who were employed in getting out window-sash, door-frames, etc., for the new warehouse, which at this time was completed only in the 1 Henry Teel was bom at Kingston, Luzerne Co., Penn., Jan. 14, 1788, and died at his home in Sauk Prairie, Feb. 14, 1856. He was of Penn- sylvania- Dutch stock, his name being originally spelled “ Dale.” Feb. 20, 1812, he married, and in 1828 moved to a farm in Sunbury, Delaware Co., Ohio. Webb, who was well known to the family as a Methodist circuit- rider in their vicinity, came out in 1836 from Helena, where he had been employed by the Shot-Tower Co., and hired Teel to go to the tower, to do teaming and superintend the men. In May, the Teels moved from Ohio, arriving at Helena the latter part of the month, with Thomas Peacock, one Lathrop, and Margaret Dunn. The two last afterwards married, and returned to Ohio. After remaining two years at Helena, Teel removed to Willow Springs, from which place he went June 22, 1840, to Sauk Prairie, where he spent the remainder of his life. 2 John Wilson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1792, and died at his home in Wilson Creek, Wis., Dec. 1, 1866. He was educated in his native city. He served as cooper on board the British man-of-war “ Kerry Castle,” in the war of 1812-15, and was wounded in an engage- ment with an American privateer. After his discharge he went to Canada, and subsequently to Buffalo, N. Y., where he married. He found employment with Judge McPherson, of Black Rock, and was given charge of a company of men to be employed in digging a canal at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin. Their subsequent transfer to Helena has been mentioned in the text. In July, 1836, Wilson took his family to St. Louis, where he had charge of a plantation owned by Mc- Pherson. In 1839, Samuel Knapp persuaded him to return to Helena and make shot-kegs for the Shot-Tower Co. When the Mineral Point bank failed, two years later, Wilson bought a piece of land at Wilson Creek and began farming. But up to 1849 he continued to make kegs and do other kinds of cooper work. His double log house, situated as it was at the mouth of the valley on the river road, the most direct route from Galena to the Wisconsin pineries, became a favorite stop- ping place for travelers. Wilson was an artist of some talent, was pos- sessed of a library, and was, for the times, a well-informed man. An erroneous account of him is to be found on p. 665 of the Hist, of Sauk Co., where he is styled Thomas Wilson. 348 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol.xiii. two lower (stone) stories. A. B. Sampson was afterwards employed by Whitney to take charge of his mill on the Wisconsin River, where he worked for five or six years after he left Helena (1837). An Englishman, named Thomas, took Wilson’s place as cooper, until the latter’s return three years later. Before leaving this early period we must mention Jef- ferson Davis’s connection with the pioneer days of Helena. Although he resigned his commission in the United States army in 1835, and never again returned to this State, yet he was a well-known character at Fort Winnebago (Fox- Wisconsin portage), where he was stationed with troops; and at Helena, where the boats to and from Ft. Crawford (Prairie du Chien) frequently stopped. 1 Davis was many times at Helena, and in after life was wont to refer to his experiences there. 2 The Wisconsin Shot Company was replaced by the Wis- consin Mineral and Transportation Company, incorporated by the Territorial legislature December 8, 1836. 3 The old name, Wisconsin Shot Company, was retained, however, and occasionally appears even in legal documents. Besides the shot-making, the company had a well-stocked store and lumber- yard which supplied the surrounding country with necessaries. The first notice of the store occurs in 1836, 4 1 Mrs. Katherine Oertel, of Prairie du Sac, tells me that when a child she boarded a boat commanded by Lieut. Davis, which was conveying soldiers from Ft. Winnebago and had stopped at the shot-tower. She was a favorite with the soldiers, but for some childish prank was sent from the boat by Davis, who was a strict disciplinarian. This occurred in the summer of 1835, after her father, John Wilson, had arrived at Helena with his family. 2 From a MS. letter by Mrs. Davis, dated June 13, 1895. 3 Laws of Wis., 1836-39, p. 69; Id., 1836, No. 33. Among the members of the new association were James H. Lockwood, David Jones, Benja- min L. West, William H. Buen, Daniel Whitney, Robert McPherson, and Theophilus S. Morgan. 4 Adv. in Belmont Gazette , Nov. 23, 1836: “ New Store at Helena . — The Wisconsin Shot Company have opened and now offer for sale a general assortment of European, Indian, and American Dry Goods, Groceries, 1836-38.] THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 349 and down to 1840 it seems to have done a thriving busi- ness. * 1 Benjamin L. Webb was agent of the Shot-Tower Com- pany from 1886 to 1838, but David B. Whitney, a cousin of Daniel Whitney, seems occasionally to have acted in his place; 2 3 * 5 and while Henry Teel was at Helena he himself had Hardware and Crockery on as reasonable terms as can be purchased in the Territory. Also on hand for sale 60,000 feet of Pine Lumber and 65 bbls. of Cranberries.” 1 Adv. in Miners’ Free Press (Mineral Point), July 21, 1837: “ Wiscon- sin Shot Co.— Have on hand, and for sale at Helena for cash, or ex- changed for lead: 20.000 feet of thoroughly seasoned Pine Boards. 80.000 do green do 22.000 do Pine Shingles. 1 new one Horse Carts, with harness complete. 3 good young Horses. 3 yoke of excellent work Oxen. 30 Cast Iron Barrow Wheels. “ They will also keep on hand a supply of Dry Goods, Groceries, Hard- ware, Crockery, Pork, Flour and Candles, — also a supply Ready Made Clothing. “Orders received for any quantity of shot, of any sizes, deliverable in any part of the United States, at as low rates, as good an article and packed in a superior manner, as can be had from any similar establish- ment. Bar lead and Balls, also made to order. “ The Steamboat Science, having this season made three trips from St. Louis to Fort Winnebago, and continuing to run as a regular trade through the season. Any quantity of Lead will be received and shipped free of charges (except actual expense incurred) at 50 cents per 100 lbs. to St. Louis, and if requested, forwarded through our agents to any part of the United States for sale. Advances made on shipment if required. Helena, July 21. Benj. L. Webb, Agent.” Adv. in Miners’ Free Press, Sept. 1, 1837: “The Wisconsin Shot Co. Have just received and for sale at Helena, 800 bushels of Corn, 2,500 lbs. Bacon, 40 bbls. Flour, 30 bbls. Pork, 10 kegs Lard, 1,000 lbs. Cheese, 1,000 lbs. Candles. — July 28, B. L. Webb, Agent.” 5 David Blish Whitney, a cousin of Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, died at Helena, Aug. 29, 1838, aged 34 years. He was buried on the east slope of Quarry Hill, southeast of the shot-tower, and a picket fence was placed about his grave. His widow married one Kline of Dodgeville 350 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [vol.xiii. charge of the business there, as Webb had hired him for that purpose; indeed Webb was often absent during these two years. From August, 1838, to the following spring, H. Sands was agent. It was under his direction that the wharf in front of the warehouse was constructed. * 1 He also made application for a license to run a ferry on the Wisconsin at Helena, but seems to have been unsuc- cessful. 2 The same year the place was named as one of the voting precincts for the county and State election that autumn. 3 The first blacksmith shop had been established a year previous, 4 and by this time Helena was a busy and thriving little place. 5 The part it took in the contest for (1840-41), and about 1850 they moved to California. One of his sons (Isaac Whitney) returned about 1858 and had his father’s remains re- moved to Dodgeville, his grave being the first one in the new cemetery there. Whitney was part owner in Whitney’s mill, on the Wisconsin River, and was leaving Helena for the pineries with his wife when the Wilsons arrived in 1835. He was taken ill on his way down with a drive of logs, and died at the house then occupied by the Teels. 1 Adv. in Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser , commencing Sept. 15, 1838, and running till March 14, 1839: “ Notice . — The sub- scriber wishes to contract to have a Wharf built and filled in at Helena, W. T., of the following dimensions, viz.: 120 feet front, and 10 feet high from the bottom of the River, and to extend out 10 feet from the low water mark. The timber will be pine, squared to 12 inches and furnished to the Contractor on the spot. Said Wharf to be filled in two thirds with stone and one-third dirt. Apply personally or by letter. Helena, W. T., Aug. 8, 1838. H. Sands, Ag't. Wis. Min’l & Transp. Co.” 2 Miners' Free Press , Oct. 2, 1838: “ Notice . — The subscriber will make application to the commissioners of Iowa county, at their next meeting, for a license to establish a Ferry at the Shot Tower on the Wisconsin River. Oct. 2, 1838. H. Sands.” 3 Id., July 31,1838. 4 Id., July 21, 1837: “ Blacksmithing will be done regularly through the season at Helena at moderate rates and in good style by the sub- scriber. July 7. • Thos. Wilcox.” 5 “ In 1836, a post-office was established here, and B. L. Webb appointed Postmaster, and Mr. Culver, Deputy. John Lindsay, now the second THE HELENA SHOT-TOWER. 351 l837-] the location of the State capital, 1 shows its importance and the brilliant future confidently predicted for it. In the summer of 1837 the shot- tower was visited by William R. Smith, and his description confirms the state- ment just given, of the rapid growth of the village. 2 But oldest settler in the county; was the first mail-carrier through the north part of the county .” — Iowa Co. Hist., p. 845. J See Council Jour., Wis. Terr. Z,c