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part of www.dodgejeffgen.com website
TALKS INTERESTINGLY OF EARLY
DAYS IN SULLIVAN
(As Written for the Palmyra
Enterprise, 29 July 1909)
A recent issue of the Milwaukee Sunday
Sentinel contained the following very interesting article in relation to
Whitewater’s oldest inhabitant, The Hon. Darius Reed. In as much as our fellow
townsman, Mr. S.A. Reed, is a son of the subject of this sketch, who was a
resident of this county for over 60 years, we take great pleasure in publishing
the same.
Approaching 96 years of age, Darius Reed,
the oldest man in Whitewater, is in posession of the five senses, in good
health, is up to date in current events and apparently has the promise of more
than enough to carry him past hi one hundredth birthday.
He was born in Vermont,
Ten miles walk out of Chicago was made
through swamp land he could have bought for a song. With the improvments that
land could not now be bought for $1,000,000 an acre. Young Reed liked
Wiscosnin, but there was a girl back in Chautauqua county who drew him back
east in 1838. Four years later he was married and next day they started on
their honeymoon for Wisconsin in a lumber wagon containing their belongings.
The trip lasted five weeks.
A log cabin was built, one of the first in
Sheboygan, and life in the woods begun.
"Yes we saw hard times," said the
veteran, "but we didn’t go hungry. Game was plentiful. I could shoot a
deer when needed, wild honey was plentiful, and each spring we made our year’s
supply of sugar from the maples. I usually made 3,000 pounds, more than we
needed, and would peddle it out for 10 cents a pound, and buy flour, dry goods
and groceries with the money. Howling wolves made night hideous. They would
come close to the cabin and give us their crude concerts."
Mr. Reed has lived under every territorial
and state governor, from Henry Dodge, appointed by President Jackson in 1836,
to James O. Davidson, and voted for every republican governor the state has
had. He was one of the seven republcians in the town of Sullivan when that
party was born "but we hung together and worked until we carried the town.
Tes, I have held some offices. I was chairman of the town board for several
years, and a justice of the peace. They sent me to the assembly in 1854 and
again in 1856. While a justice a young lawyer came out from Waukesha county to
try a law case. He won. The next time I saw the young lawyer, Alexander W.
Randall, he was governor of the state.".