The
Coming of the White Man
The emigrant from the east preferred sparsely timbered land to the
treeless prairie of Illinois. It was
his desire to be within reach of timber for building and firewood.
The modern means of transportation of coal was not then anticipated.
The pioneer in selecting the oak openings of Portland in preference to
grasslands was exercising a prudent foresight for his future convenience and
comfort. It was neither a prolonged
nor an arduous work to clear a limited area of the openings for cultivation.
For this reason, the western and southern parts of the town were first
occupied. The heavily wooded
district along the river was the last to be settled owing to the slow and
laborious task involved in getting rid of the timber.
The soil was fertile and promising. The
speculator forestalled the bona fide settler in Portland and in some way got
control of large sections of the land making it necessary for the pioneer to pay
more than government prices. Agents
in the East had correspondents in Milwaukee, among whom was Daniel Wells who
cooperated with them. Of the men who
bargained for their lands before personally visiting them were Bartholomew
McCormick, Stephen Hannifan, Stephen Buckley, Patrick Sullivan, Daniel Leahy and
John Rogers.
A description in the patent issued by the U. S. Government, signed by Z.
Taylor, President, to Patrick Sullivan for his farm in Section 30, dated 1850,
would indicate that the government was not correctly informed of the quality of
soil that characterized the town. This
farm is described as lying in the "district of the sands" which is in
bold contradiction to the fact.
The pioneers of Portland were men and women, almost all of whom came from
New York and the New England States and were either native born or had made them
their homes for a term of years after their arrival from Europe.
The stream of immigrants began coming early in the 40's, and before the
50's, it is quite probable that all the cultivable land was actually occupied
except the denser sections of the forests along the river.
Many took up government lands which they held for a few years before
making full payment and securing title. The
scarcity of money in a new country and the difficulty of accumulating it not
only caused delay in making payments but forced upon the settlers a course of
industry and economy unknown to Portland's present inhabitants.
But the men and women who faced the task of converting the virgin lands
into modern farms possessed the courage and endurance of patriots.
Their habits were simple and conducive to a vigorous life.
Aids to labor were few necessitating
the doing of everything by manual labor.
It was a struggle that called for privations and self denials; ease and
luxury never accomplished the work of the pioneer.
Those who were not willing to make the sacrifice called for, remained on
their farms but a short time. They
preferred to speculate by selling out at an advance, moving to the west and
trying the same thing again.
While the Yankee from the East must be given credit for doing the pioneer
work of carrying the frontier across the continent, it was not the Yankee as a
class who did the heavy work of reclaiming the soil and making it the productive
gardens of today. It is true that
many of his class underwent the hardships incident to this task and were most
successful in the conversion of nature's wilds; still a great deal is due to the
man of European birth. In what is to
follow, it will be observed that few now remain in the Town of Portland carrying
the names of those who were conspicuous residents in 1846 when Portland was
organized as a town proper.
The man from the East, whether of Puritan or Dutch ancestry, is scarcely
known to the families that now occupy the town.
Among the first to claim Portland as a home, and they were not few in
number, were men and women who were born of the tenant class in Ireland.
They followed closely after the easterner and many of their names will be
found as the grantees in the patents of the land executed by the U. S.
Government. The Yankee had the
advantage that is afforded the first on the ground.
The settlers from New York and New England preceded all others and made
good their first choice by selecting the better lands.
For purpose of illustration, it may be said that Cyrus Perry was almost
the first to make a purchase in the town, with the result that in 1842 he
selected one of the best farms that the town affords.
John Rogers came four years later to find that there was only left for
him the north 40-acre tract of the John McCormick farm which consisted of a
steep hill, a wet marsh and a few bunches of willows.
But poor as it was, it made a home where he raised his family.
Other neighbors whose homesteads were but little better made such
progress through thrift and economy that they became the proprietors of the
better farms which they found in the hands of the Yankee neighbors.
Bartholomew McCormick began his Wisconsin life as did John Rogers and
later became the owner of the James Sheldon farm.
And while the generation lived to which these men belonged, they and
their Irish neighbors in most part lived and died on their Portland farms to
which they held title from the government. During
the '50's, the Germans became competitors of the Irish for the lands of the
Yankee making greater progress in the eastern part of the township, and not
until recently, succeeding in getting much of a foothold on the west side where
they are now locating on places formerly held by the Irish.
Among the early settlers were a few from Pennsylvania.
Timothy Burgess, D. W. and L. D. Rosencrans are said to have been
descendents of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Duncan
and Alexander Campbell were from upper Canada.
The Scotch were represented in Charles Russell, John, Dave, and Robert
Chalmers, W. H. Foxwell and Andrew Smith. Several
families were fresh from England or had been in the U. S. but a short time.
The father of Thomas C. Tagg came from England in 1844 and, after a stay
of a few years in Charleston, S.C., made his way to Wisconsin.
He settled in 1850 upon a farm in the northern part of the town.
Christopher Hodgson was another immigrant from England who purchased his
land in the southeastern part of the town receiving a patent therefore executed
by President James K. Polk. One of
his neighbors was John Wall, also an Englishman.
North of Van Deldan Bridge resided James Stokes, father of Hugh B. Stokes
of Waterloo, John Vokes and William Webb, all of whom were born in England.
Mr. Stokes arrived in 1855. Hatfield
Edwards, who resided on the farm now owned by Frank Lea, came from England.
There were probably others.
The immigrants from the eastern states were in the majority, the State of
New York having furnished the larger percentage of them.
Among these settlers who arrived during the last half of the decade
1840-1850 from New York, were James Sheldon, Cyrus Perry, Alphonse Whipple, D.
V. and L. P. Knowlton, Moses C. Kenyon, John V. King, Silas Johnson, E. P. Cole,
Massena Cone, Hannibal and Jedediah Kimball.
Schuyler Hyer; Charles S. and Jonathan Powers came from Maine and Addison
Thompson, Ohio. It was not possible
to secure as much datum of this character as was desired but, from what has been
given, it appears that New York furnished a greater proportion of the pioneers
than any other state. Among other
names of supposed Yankees are K. P. Clark, S. M. Cone, Andrew Storer, E.
Gilmore, J. D. Sandborn, S. H. Hains, Noel Rew. A. B. Potter, George Walrod, R.
P. Loveland, John S. Perry, R. S. Hart, Nelson and Schuyler Hyer, and Jacob
Graft. There was also Aaron C.
Fisher, George Plum, Wm. F. Bond, Wm. O. Manter, Ruel Parker, Jedediah Smith,
Hiram, Jacob and Solomon Johnson, Asa Porter, Albian Carter, Moses Austin and
Charles Freeman. In point of numbers, the Irish settlers of the 40's were a
close second to the immigrants from the Atlantic States.
They began to arrive as early as 1846 and, before the close of the
decade, they were in evidence in nearly every part of the town.
They too, like some of the Yankees, made their way over hills and through
swamps from Milwaukee following Indian trails and guided by blazed trees.
Many of them came with all their belongings in the small pack fastened to
their backs. They had neither money,
horses, nor cattle.
All their earnings had been invested in the forty or eighty acres on
which they were about to settle. Many
of them never saw the prairies of Illinois and knew nothing of this overland
route traveled hither by those who came with their families bringing with them
horses and cattle. They came by way
of the lakes as far as they could and walked the remainder of the distance.
They had to look to the product of the still uncultivated soil and to
their own brawn and industry to make money to use in the purchase of farm
animals and necessary tools.
This is not true of all the Irish who came to Portland, but it is true of
many of those who were first on the ground.
It has not been possible to secure complete information concerning more
than a comparatively few families, hence a limitation of illustration is the
unavoidable result.
During the summer of 1846, Bartholomew McCormick, Daniel Leahy, Patrick
Sullivan, John Wickhem, Stephen Hannifan, John Dean, Stephen Buckley, John
Rogers and Owen Sullivan started from Boston, where they had landed from Ireland
a few years before, to locate the land for which they had bargained with land
agents. They reached Milwaukee and
under the lead of an employee of Daniel Wells, walked by way of Watertown.
Following Indian trails, they reached the present site of Hubbleton,
where a modern cement bridge is now being erected, but they found neither boat
nor bridge; settlers nearby had driven a series of posts across the Crawfish on
which was fastened a sort of improvised foot and hand rail.
That it was crude and shaky in its makeup became known to this band of
Irishmen who attempted to cross on it. Leahy
and Buckley lost their nerve, and as the structure shook under the weight of
their companions, they fell into the water.
Their bath furnished merriment and cheer for the rest of the journey.
The stretch of alternating ridges and marshes, which still separated them
from their future homes, was marked by neither bridle path nor highway; it was
for most part, as the Indian had seen it for centuries.
The same was true of the land they had purchased; it was virgin soil
demanding great industry and persistency before it would yield its wealth for
their support. They were forced to
improvise a temporary home.
McCormick, Buckley and Rogers, whose farms joined, united their efforts
to build a "dug out" on the east side of the high hill on the forty
acre lot then owned by John Rogers and which is now owned by E. E. Gaumitz.
This answered all the requirements of a dwelling for a year or more until
they could put up more suitable log structures.
Mr. McCormick formed a partnership with Joseph Ghastin to break land.
They secured a plow and several yoke of oxen and the first land broken up
lies on the west side of the road immediately north of the yard on the Gaumitz
farm. In this way, McCormick earned
the money he needed to start farming for himself.
Later, he put up his log house using shingles made by Timothy Burgess,
one of his neighbors. This was one
of the trades followed by Burgess and his tools consisted of a shaving horse and
a draw knife with which he shaped the shingles split from sections of logs.
This shingle factory was probably the first factory established in the
Town of Portland. It was migratory
and followed the person of its owner who went from place to place to make
shingles. Mr. Burgess was not
limited to the making of shingles but was a cobbler as well and repaired shoes
and boots of his neighbors. These
men were soon followed by others from Ireland.
They settled on both sides of the river.
Among those of the east side of the town were John Corcoran, Patrick
Reynolds, James Donohue, Hugh McGovern, John McGovern, Thomas McGovern, John
McCormick, James Murray, William Dunn, John Gingles, James Ruane and Michael
Devney. Among those on the west side
were James Joice, Edward Bolger, the father of John, Michael, James and Edward
Bolger, Morris Powers, Edward Powers, James Doyle, Michael Doyle, John Mulvaney,
James Byrne, Miles Burns, Anthony Harmon, Martin Welsch, Patrick Griffin, John
Fitzpatrick, Michael Torpy, Thomas Torpy, James Carty, Patrick Cooper, Michael
Scanlon, Thomas Dowd, James Holmes, James McCormick and James Murphy.
Of these men, many lived where they settled until their respective
deaths. The marble in the Elba
cemetery, at Waterloo and other points, bears inscriptions that show that many
of them lived to an old age on their Portland farms.
Michael Torpy and John Fitzpatrick lived for more than a quarter of a
century after they reached their allotted time of three score years and ten.
In another connection, it will appear that Portland's citizens of Irish
descent grasped the idea that a necessity of modern times is a liberal
education. It does not necessarily
follow in this age that such education as our public system now affords is
conducive to contentment with farm life. It
has thus far had a different effect; the members of families who were sent to
school from Portland are not numerous among its present citizens, but few of the
high school graduates are either in the kitchen or at the plow anywhere in
Portland. Much less is the number of
the graduates of the University of Wisconsin credited to Portland.
Among these are Stephen Leahy, Michael Leahy, W. H. Rogers, James G.
Wickham, Mary Clark, Adolph Beerbaum, Henry Youker and B. E. McCormick.
None of these remained long in their old homes after receiving their
diplomas. Of course, Portland
possessed no field for men of this character who depended upon their educational
acquirements to make a living.
The Irish occupants of Portland soil were not victims to the craze of
race suicide. Almost without an
exception, they raised large families who are now among the strong and useful
citizens wherever they are making their homes.
Those of them who failed to reach the level of good citizenship were the
small minority and can be looked upon as rare exceptions.
So far as is known to the writer, no one family in Portland compares in
point of numbers with that of James Joice. It
numbers sixteen all told and all living. Mr.
Joice's father, Patrick Joice, settled on the present homestead of the Joice
family in 1849.
It is certain that no one pioneer of Portland is represented by so many
descendents as Edward Bolger, who settled in Portland in 1847.
Four sons and five daughters lived to become adults and seven of these
married. The sons were John, Edward,
Michael and James. The married
daughters were Mrs. Bartholomew McCormick, Mrs. Morris Powers, Mrs. James Carty
and Mrs. B. Conklin. Johanna Bolger
lives in Waterloo and remained single.
The McCormick family is represented by
four children, twenty-two grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren, all of whom
are living except one grandchild and one greatgrandchild.
John Bolger's family consists of five children and eight grandchildren,
only one of whom is dead. The
Conklin family embraces eight children, four grandchildren and three
greatgrandchildren. The Carty family
consisted of nine children, all of whom are dead.
James Bolger's family comprises of thirteen children, and at the date of
this writing, twenty-eight greatgrandchildren.
The Powers family is made up of six children and seven grandchildren and
Edward J. Bolger's family numbers nine children and eight grandchildren.
It appears that Edward Bolger, the Portland Pioneer, has now living four
children, forty-three grandchildren, seventy-two greatgrandchildren and four
great greatgrandchildren. Among the
grandchildren and greatgrandchildren appear such Germanic and Slavonic names as
Detert, Janisch, Durow, Packel and Lueck. The
large majority of this family are residents of Wisconsin and by far the most of
then are in Portland and vicinity.
The German immigrant made his way to Portland at an early day, not so
early but that the "blazed" trees of the pioneers had in most parts
given to roads. William Geise
located on the river road a mile southwest of the Van Deldan Bridge in 1849.
About the same time, Adolph and Frank Geise located on the same east and
west road. They purchased their
lands from the government. They were
soon followed by others, most of whom purchased lands from Yankees.
The German is first found along the banks of the Crawfish where it
required the hardest work to produce an agricultural district.
Many of the early settlers of German descent later on sold their Portland
farms and went elsewhere, but they were succeeded by the Germans.
A drive through eastern Portland will reveal the results of their hard
work and persistent self-denial in their family expenditures.
This section of the town is characterized by fine farms giving it an
appearance of great prosperity.
Among the Germans that took an active interest in the political life of
the town are Phillip Fuchs, William Geise, John King, John Goebel, William
Etscheid and Louis Hannefeldt. Although
the district of the lower Crawfish was the territory that was first available to
the Germans, it was not long until they became purchasers of land elsewhere.
Early in the 50's, Phillip Daum purchased a farm on the Plank Road and in
1858 Phillip Fuchs and John King, who were business men of the Village of
Portland, purchased land. Mr. Fuchs,
a blacksmith, and Mr. King, a wagonmaker, both purchased lands still owned by
some member of their respective families. Mr.
Fuchs states that the Germans did not come in large numbers until after 1860
when they began to buy out the early occupants at a quite rapid rate.
A letter written by William Gingles, living near Hubbleton, is evidence
that but few Germans were in the southeast quarter of the town in 1855.
He states: "My father,
John Gingles, located in Section 25 in January 1855.
Around the "mile square" from his home, our neighbors were
Thomas McGovern, Louis Cappelle, John Wells, Christopher Hodgson, Isaac
Doddimede and John Corcoran. West to
the Youker district were John
Steigman, Hannibal and Jud Kimball." As
stated elsewhere, the buying out was done by the Germans and the selling out by
the earlier settlers until at present, the German is in all parts of the town.
The following classification prepared by James A. McCormick indicates the
change in ownership and occupancy of the farms along the several roads of the
town. The names of the first, a
subsequent, and the present owners of each farm are given.
It will be readily seen from the names that the American, English and
Scotch are nearly gone and that the Irish are fast giving way to the men of
German extraction.