Name/Title
Histories, Incidents and Descriptions of Early WaupunDescription
Incidents and Descriptions of Early Waupun. Told by George Newton (Jud) Wilcox, son of Seymour Wilcox (one of the first settlers in Waupun). Upper right corner written in pencil reads "Bertsch." Written by Horatio H. Hoard. Page 7. Typed on onion paper.
Early Waupun:
Jan. 5, 1910 (Subj. Town and surrounding country).
It was over four years before a store was started. It was started by Tom Snow who was a peddler for several years before he started the store. He hauled his goods from Green Bay for several years. We used to go fishing. Thurst and I went down to Chester one day with an old horse and one box (crockery crate). (?) By the Chester bridge was a rapids and we took our guns to shoot the fish. We waited for an hour or over and as no fish came, we spent the time picking out the bullets in the water where others had shot before. But soon the fish began to come and it was only a very short time, probably two hours, when we had the crockery crate full of pickeral.
(Undated) (Subj. Coming to Waupun)
My father rented a house at Green Bay before coming to Waupun. A man by the name of Stearns (?) owned the land extending from Prison Street to Watertown Road and the man got sick of the coutnry and offered my father the eighty acres for what potatoes he could get out of the patch in father's garden. They made the trade and that is what brought Father to Waupun.
(Jan. 1, 1910) (Subj. Town)
The first store was built upon the corner where L. A. Hoard's Jeweler store is, East of Prison Street. It was built by WIlliam Snow. The next one was built by Lew Dodge on the H. H. Hoard corner.
Breaking plows of a larger type came in with plow beams eleven feet long. The first grist mill was of wood on the site of the present stone mill. It was built of wood and by Tom Snow who then went to the uppertown and built a store. He sold out his mill down town. The first grist mill in the upper town was built by Collins and Mc Elroy. It was sold to a German by the name of Pooker (Porker ?) and he turned it into a distillery. A sawmill was built on the Brandon road by the bridge. Settlers began coming in and located west of town. James Mc Elroy and Newton located just west of town.
After a year or so stock began to accumulate. The old oxen were sold. Newton took six yoke of oxen to Oshkosh and not being offered what he thought they were worth, took them out under a tree and butchered them and sold them for beef. Oshkosh had a few wooden buildings and we had to ford the river or go over in a skow. After years they built a float bridge. The country was what could be called openings all the way except White Prairie by John Howards farm.