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Belmont Township First Settled in 27The southern part of Lafayette county was settled before the northern section, the mines being the first to attract immigration here. But this element was rather unstable because of the uncertain fortunes of mining. When the object of settlers was farming we find them more inclined to become permanent residents. Many of these first farmers amassed great acreages of land at nominal prices. We have heard old timers say that even as late as 75 or 80 years ago land could be bought for a dollar and a -quarter an acre. These early landowners may have owned a thousand or more acres of laud.Early settlers were for the most part native Americans coming from the older states. Not until possibly forty or fifty years later did we have direct immigration from foreign countries to this district.Early trappers there were and some mining had been done north of the Winnebago ridge, about 2 miles north of Shullsburg, through individual agreements with Indians previous to 1828 but the purchase of the lead region in that year and the discovery of lead ore at Mineral Point and Dodgeville brought in a flood of settlers. Many of these were miners but some homesteaded larger areas of land upon which they commenced some farming. Farming, however, proved to be the most successful oi these various projects for this district as is attested by the general prosperity of the community,ill ioz/ tne nrst set tier, isonner uy name, came into the town of Belmont and settled upon Section 10, which lies northwest oi Behnont v.i-lage. No records or trace is left of this early settler save the name of Bonner’s Branch given to the creek which rises in that section. He saw' when he came here a gently rolling terrain, dotted with groves of trees, rising gradually to three prominent wooded peaks—the three beautiful mounds—toward the east the Belmont mound, to the west the bald-fronted West Mound and between the two the “Little Mound’’.During the same year _ Thomas Welsh settled near Leslie. Soon after in 1828, came Robert Terry; 1829, Col. James H. Gentry and Oliver Holzhouser, and in 1930 followed Janies Wiswell. In 1833 Col. John Moore and Moses Whitesides, Cor-.nelius Delong and Moses Eastman settled here.Farming metnods m these early days were crude. No effort was made to maintain the fertility of the soil. The use of manure for fertilizer was unknown to the farmer and the farmer was at loss as to its disposal —often dumping it in sink holes and ditches but more often left it in great heaps about the barns When it £iled up so greatly that his stock could hardly get in and out of the farm building he tailed is hi; nejgh-hors and moved the farm buildings bodily to a new site. A much easier melhod than to remove the manure pile a shovel full at a time.The first building erected in Belmont township was a log cabm built by Thomas WeLh near the site of Old Belmont, now called Leslie In 1829 Robert Terrj built a smelting furnace on his selection and continued to smell the minerals of the surrounding country until the Black Hawk uprising when he abandoned : the business. The old Mineral House connected with the turnace was afterward used for a school house. About 1830 Oliver Holzhauscr es-t.d.hahcr! tin. fi.al blatksmdh shcp using the tools of the smelting works.An amusing incident occurred here during the winter of 1831. Mr. Holzhauscr had an order to build a sleigh tor a certain settler and the weather being acvc re he gathered!”; materials into his log shop and pro ceded with the work He built the sleigh with one 12-ioot runner o iSuccess Publishes Centennial EditionThe Belmont Success presents to its readers this week a historical edition of 30 pages.For the last two months every avadable moment has been spent in securing material, taking pictures and the various mechanical operations necessary to the printing of an edition of this kind. All the printing of the edition was done in the Success office.We are indebted to many people for their kindness in loaning us pictures, news articles and telling us incidents of early history. We should like to express our thanks to each and every one of them. Although the task ha3 been a large on the cooperation of nearly all of our townspeople has made it a pleasure. 4A limited number of copies of this issue are available—printed on a special book paper—and will be sold while the supply lasts at 25 cents each. Your early order will insure a copy or two sent to friends or relatives.each side and spaced them five feet apart as was the custom for building sleighs in those days. Finally the sleigh was completed and Mr. Holz-hauser, viewing the result ot his labor with pride, proceeded to move it outside Then to his consternation he realized that whereas the sled measured 8x12 feet, the dimensions of his doorway were but 3x5. No amount of manuevering short ot tearing down the shop would get iton secured the services of neighbor settlers, removed the roof of the building, raised the sleigh through the opening and lowered it carefully to the ground. Mr. Holzhauser enjoyed telling of the ridiculous incident to his friends. \Mr. Holzhauser, as chain man, assisted Capt. Craig, surveyor, of Ga- lt;lena, to plat the village of Old Bel- lt;mont, now Leslie, in 1835. He also = homesteaded 160 acres in Section 1. .James Wiswell or W is wall owned I the farm in Cottage Inn purchased I in 1841 by Nathan Olmsted. This land is today in the hands of Nathan Olmsted’s daughter-in-law, Mrs Charles Olmsted. The house on the v Olmsted farm wa9 built in, 1845 and 1 is still standing. It was used as an 0 Inn in the early days and served the weary teamsters traveling on the k ancient Galena-Mineral Point road c M. V. Burris m 1839 homesteaded on Section 35 and built his home I east of the Belmont Mound about ( where the Alfred Taylor farm home s now’ is situated. Burris owned about t 900 acres of l^nd (including the Will F DeBuhr, Frank Mohlmann, Sr., and Mrs. Wm. Grata farms and possibly C others ) It is stated that in 1844 he c built what was the ‘largest barn in a the county,’ dimensions 55x60. Bur- i: ris also had a deer park surrounded c by a high fence where these animals b were Kept m captivity anu vveie -killed ior food. FEdwin Johnson located in Section J1 10 in 1844 and owner! 740 acres of '■ land. *Dave Wright arrived in the town- 1 ; ship about 1839 and accumulated r 1600 or 1700 acres of land, some of r which he entered’ (The term enter ed refers to land having been taken j J up directly from the government.’!* Wright’s home wa- acros- the road j “ from the homestead occupied at j h present by John Bnrcherdmg It i- ‘ P - id his acreage extended from jlm! v Belmont Mound to the West j Mound i0M V Burris. D.np Wr.ght an-* |n one otrier ot w nose liuiiini e lt;u j not certain came from the ea-ocrn z -tales by team and wagon When lt;• the-, came around the edge of Lake Michigan thcv -topped ove • light at a log c.ib;:1 at a retail1 po’r.t on the sou;bn e-‘err x short hue They uihs In id -it. I-. m this neighborhood ht fovtt i *fContinued on P ge 6) o
Newspaper Details
Belmont Success
Belmont, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Oct 23, 1936
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Uw -.
WI, USA 20 Jan 2025
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