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. Pages 12 and 13. Typed on onion paper.
Early Waupun:
Jan. 4, 1911
The early settlers like Ross Gould, Whitings, and Fairbanks, used to buy the Indian tanned buckskin for thirty to fifty cents for a deer hide tanned as soft and brown as a piece of velvet. I remember my mother sending me out to Rock River with some food for the Goulds who came in and settled here and were in want of food. We had but little but what we had we would divide with those who had none. These early settlers came with ox teams. Cataragus people the first here. Utley Dewitt, Brooks' brother-in-law, came here with team from New York State.
Grandfather Wilcox, Seymour, came here March 27, 1839. Drove from Green Bay, then called Fort Howard. Came to Green Bay from Canada, Clarkstown. Born Town of Madrid, St. Lawrence Co. (?) New York. Married Lucy Newton from Ferrisburg, Vermont. Came to Green Bay 1836. Hugh Walker and John Ackerman came with Wilcox and were the first white settlers in Fond du Lac County. Scattering timber to Fond du Lac.
Thurst Wilcox carried mail from Fond du Lac to Portage, Monday to Fond du Lac and back to Portage Tuesday, Wednesday back, Thursday Fond du Lac and back, etc. When we came here there was 1500 Indians on the Flat where Clyde Harris and W. W. Harris Mill is situated. THey came and went all the time. They were very friendly. We bought furs from them. They never sold all their furs at once but would sell a few at once and then take some more out from their blankets and sell them.
John N. Ackerman at one time was buying fur from them. He would buy the furs and put them behind his chair and buy more and put them behind his chair and they tell that an old squaw would stand behind his chair and when their furs were all sold, would just pick up his furs he had bought and pass them around to the Indian in front and sell them to him again.
We usually at first traded whiskey with them [the Indians] for furs and maple sugar. It was put up in Maycocks, made of birch bark. The bundles would hold from one to eight pounds. They were made of sheets of birch bark sewed at the ends and closed at the top with twine they made themselves. They also made handles.
The city of Waupun was an open space in the forest from the river to the Cole Farm. The openings extended from the North Ward School to the Smith farm. It was large timber. Across from the Catholic Church was a grove of heavy (?) oaks. The wolves were so thick that we had to have someone with our sheep all the time. I was watching sheep one day by the Catholic Church and went away for an hour or so to attend to something and while I was away the wolves came out of the brush and killed two of the sheep. They were prairie wolves and unless in pack or very hungry would not attack man. When the stone mill was being built, a millwright boarding at our house saw a wolf kill my two pet lambs in the night and when the wolf came back after the lambs in the morning, he saw the wolf from the mill and took his gun and fired at him. He was about where the North Ward school house is. We saw him jump over the fence and we thought we would see how near he came to him and upon going down there, we saw Mr. Wolf dead by the fence. He jumped the fence after being shot through the heart.
We killed an ox and placed a trap by H. H. Hoard's house and during the winter we caught fifteen foxes and wolves. We set a trap up in the big woods, North of town, for the large gray wolves. The wolf drew the clod (? Trap ?) a half mile or more. Our dog hunted him up and we followed him and when we found him we had the pleasure of killing him. Pleasure because a few days before we had to go to the hog pen and drive him off, he having undertaken to kill our only pig that weighed more than a hundred pounds. Had we not gotten there as we did he would have carried him away. We did our trading at Taycheedah, 3 miles east of Fond du Lac. The store was opened and run by Frank Moore. We went to the mill at Columbus.
