CHAPTER XXV. PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED HISTORICAL SKETCHES. There have been printed at different periods | locations for water and steam power of every historical sketches of a part or of the whole of description, and plenty of timber. Numerous the county. These are reproduced in this chapter springs are scattered over the county, from because of their value for comparison, as show- which flows, bright and sparkling, through ing the changes which have taken place in the trout brooks, plentiful supplies of the "nectar county, and its increase. that Jupiter sips." On the ridge, where wells have to be dug, the water is generally obtained at less than forty feet on an average, and unfailing water has been obtained near this place (Viroqua), on top of a ridge, at a depth of twelve feet only. I. FROM THE WESTERN TIMES, SEPT. 6, 1856. The fall emigration has commenced coming in, and new houses and other buildings are going up in all parts of the county. New villages are springing up and new roads are being laid and worked. The crops, already harvested, are good. The corn crop, although much of it was put in late, will not be below an average crop. Potatoes are excellent and abundant. very In short, Bad Ax county is going forward in fine style with every description of improvements. The Messrs. Gilletts' and Mr. Goode's steam mills will make lumber more plentiful for building. Land in this county, generally, we think, is very cheap, comparing the quality and convenience to good markets, with other counties. And there is just as good land as ever a plow was used in, to be pre-empted yet, in the county, or entered as soon as the land office opens. And mechanics who wish to obtain good homes and plenty of business cannot do better than come to Bad Ax county. In Viroqua there are the very best kind of openings for a large carriage shop, a jeweller's shop, a tailor's shop, a harness shop, a bakery, a machine shop and foundry, and many others. Now is the time for those who wish to get good homes cheap, to obtain them in just as good a country as there is in the wide world. II. BY GEORGE GALE, 1860.* Bad Ax county, notwithstanding its uncouth name, is an excellent county of land. The most part of the county along the Mississippi river is quite broken, being cut up by many large and small streams that flow west into the Mississippi, but the central part rises on to the high table prairie, and is now covered with fine farms under a good state of cultivation. The eastern part of the county, including the Kickapoo valley, is covered with heavy hardwood timber. There is no poor soil in the county. The bluffs on the Mississippi and the heavy timber of the Kickapoo, are equally as rich in soil as the high prairie of the central portion, but it is not as thickly inhabited. The origin of the name of the county I will here give you as I obtained it from an Indian trader and sutler in the army, nine years ago. *From the Galesville Transcript. The errors in this account by Mr. Gale will be sufficiently apparent to the reader from what has been said in previous chapters. We have not, And in Viroqua and vicinity are excellent locations for a paper mill; dozens of good therefore, attempted to correct them. The Winnebago Indians at an early time, attempted to manufacture axes and arrow heads out of the rocks near the mouth of Bad Ax river, but the rock being too soft the articles manufactured proved to be worthless. From that time the Indians applied the name of Bad Ax to the bluff, and also the river or creek near the point. The Winnebagoes called the creek Mar-she-rah-she-shiek Ne-shun-ugh-arah, which literally signifies Ax bad little river. Notoriety was given to the name by the battle that was fought with the Sacs and Foxes by the United States army in 1832, two miles below the mouth of the Bad Ax creek. To perpetuate the memory of the battle, the State Legislature, at the organization of the county in 1851 applied to it the name of Bad Ax, with the Webster spelling, Ax, without a terminating letter-e of some authors. The village sites of Bad Ax city, Victory, DeSoto, and some other points on the Mississippi river, had, for many years before the organization of the county, been occupied by Canadian Indian traders, who for many years were supplied with goods by Col. Dousman, agent of the American Fur Company, but as their residence was temporary, they are not generally recognized as the first permanent settlers of the county. The last of these traders who occupied these points at the ingress of the American population, was John Verdon, (called Battise), at Bad Ax city; Mr. Patwell, at Victory, and John Roberts, at DeSoto; none of which are now residing in the county. The first permanent American settlers, were Hiram Rice, Samuel Rice and John McCullock, who settled on Round Prairie, at what is now Liberty Pole, in the town of Bad Ax, in the summer of 1843. In the year 1846 their numher was increased by the addition of John Graham, Thos. J. DeFrees, Jacob, Johnson, John Harrison, Dr. Tinker and William C. McMichael. In 1847 Moses Decker settled the present site of Viroqua, and in 1848 John Warner settled at Warner's Landing. In 1847 and and the following years new settlers came in rapidly and now Bad Ax county contains a more numerous population than any county north of the Wisconsin river, excepting only, the county of La Crosse. The county is well watered by the Bad Ax and Coon rivers, running west into the Mississippi and the Kickapoo, running south through the whole county having its source in the county of Monroe. The new county was organized by an act of the Legislature approved March 1st, 1851, and the first election for county officers was held on the first Tuesday of April of that year. At that election, Thomas J. DeFrees was elected county judge, Lorenzo A. Pierce, district attorney, William C. McMichael register of deeds, and Orrin Wisel, clerk of the court. The first term of the circuit court, Hon. Wiram Knowlton, presiding, was held in the old log school house at Viroqua, on the third Monday in May, 1851. The second term of the court was held on the fourth Monday of November of the same year, at the same place, and by the same judge, at which latter term the writer attended as an attorney from La Crosse. This term beat the West for its rich scenes, many of which were so supremely ridiculous, that by common consent they never got into the papers. I doubt if any one will ever have the temerity to reduce them to writing. The present county officers are Hon. J. E. Newell, county judge; C. M. Butt, Esq., district attorney; William S. Purdy, clerk of the court; William H. Goode, sheriff; J. M. Bennett, clerk of the board of supervisors; James Lowrie, treasurer; D. P. Allison, regis'er, and Charles Pitcher, coroner. They are all very efficient officers, and are creditable to the county. At the general election last fall, William C. McMichael was elected to the Assembly from the district composed of the counties of Crawford and Bad Ax, and made an influential member of that body. Mr. McMichael has held some of the county offices nearly all the time since the organization of the county, and con 1853. Under the act of the 1st of March, 1851, the board of supervisors established the county seat at Viroqua, and subsequently, the question having been submitted to a vote of the electors of the whole county, this village was retained as the permanent capital of the county. The village is located on the southeast quarter of section 31, and the southwest quarter of section 32, in township number 13, of range 4 west of the 4th principal meridian. It is distant thirty-six miles southeast from La Crosse, fortyseven miles northeast of Prairie du Chien and twenty miles east of the Mississippi river. It is situated in a pleasant grove nearly surrounded by prairies and upon high rolling land. As a healthy location it cannot be easily exceeded in the western country. The village now contains a court house, jail, one bank, one postoffice, four dry goods and grocery stores, two blacksmith shops, two wagon shops, one cabinet shop, one steam grist mill, one school house, two churches, one harness shop, one boot and shoe shop, two hotels, one tailor, and several carpenter shops, five practicing lawyers, and two physicians, and a population of about 700 inhabitants. No spirituous liquors sold in town. DE SOTO. This village is named after the distinguished discoverer of the Mississippi river, and is loca ted principally on section 15, township 11, range 7 west, on the east bank of the Father of Waters. The village is divided. into the upper and lower town, the latter of which is in Crawford county. The original owners of the soil in the lower town were Joseph and Michael Godfrey, Canadian French, who sold out in 1855 to Gustavus Cheney, who purchased it for the Boston Company. That company have now a store, grist mill, boarding house, and the best and most extensive steam saw mill I have noticed on the Mississippi river. It is run with three engines, and besides many single saws, it has two gangs of twenty saws each. E. B. Houghton, Dr. Osgood and Dr. Powers purchased the upper town in 1854 and moved there in 1855. Dr. Osgood put up the first Dr. frame building in the spring of 1855. Houghton put up the second house very soon after the same spring. The village was laid out in the summer of 1855, by Dr. E. B. Houghton as its proprietor. The upper town of DeSoto proper, contains two stores, two warehouses, postoffice, one steam saw mill, one three-story public house, called the Bay State House, kept by Mr. C. H.Allen, and a few shops. The landing on the Mississippi is good. This town has been the river deposit of a large amount of wheat for shipment during the past winter and does considerable business with the south part of Bad Ax and north part of Crawford. It was originally called Winneshiek, after the Indian Chief of that name who died at Lansing Iowa about 1848. The population of the whole village is about 500 inhabitants. VICTORY. This village is situated five miles above DeSoto, on the Mississippi river, and received its name from the victory which was obtained over the Indians at the battle of Bad Ax, which was fought only a mile below the village. Ira Stevens originally pre-empted the land in 1849, and entered it in 1850. He sold out part of his interest to Hon. William F. Terhune, John Ca |