Several stories that describe the trials and tribulations of settling the newly-opened land in the Cooksville area of Wisconsin —and settling the disputes—were told by Joseph K.P. Porter and the McCarthy family. The stories reveal the rough-and-tumble land “rush” that sometimes occurred in southern Wisconsin in the early1840s.
Before government surveys were completed in the 1830s and
for years afterward, land “ownership” on the new western Territorial frontier was
often determined by a messy “border law”— basically a “first-come,
first-served” informal set of “rules” for the squatters or early settlers. The
earliest arrivals “enforced” their (illegal) land claims by “registering” them
by simply carving their names on posts erected at the corners of the land they
had measured off by pacing the boundaries on foot. And then later the claimants
would appear at government land sales with some of their friends and fellow
squatters armed with weapons to ensure that rich land speculators and other
richer new-comers did not out-bid these earlier and poorer pioneer settlers.
Of course, some land speculators (such as Cooksville’s famous
Senator Daniel Webster) and serious-minded settlers (such as Daniel Cook)
bought their land as soon after the U.S. Government opened the land for
sale in 1837 and registered it as soon as feasible. Their claims were settled
early.
Joseph Porter, in his reminiscences as an “old settler”
printed in the Evansville Badger newspaper of April 6, 1895, describes some of
these disputatious events. His uncle, Dr. John Porter, had purchased land near Cooksville
in 1842 from the famous Massachusetts, Senator Daniel Webster, a land
speculator, who had bought it from the U.S. government in 1837 when it first
went on sale. Joseph Porter, Dr. Porter’s
young nephew, was instrumental in helping transform the newly-purchased
land into a potential settlement that he had platted as the Village of Waucoma
in 1846, next to the Cook brothers’ little village of Cooksville.
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| Eliza and Joseph Porter |
In the 1830s and 1840s, the fertile prairie land in the
Wisconsin Territory with clear water and plentiful trees for timber and fuel
was what pioneer farmers wanted. But it
was not always available to them at the right price. As Joseph Porter described,
“The injustice of the laws at the time in regard to the sale of public lands,
bore heavily upon the settler; he would find the choice timbered lands adjoining
the prairie taken by the speculator, for which he would be obliged to pay an
exorbitant price, or go back into the heavy oak openings, or settle upon the
bald prairie, with no timber to build either house or fence.”
As Porter wrote: “The assessor had but little mercy for the
speculator, often assessing his land at a higher valuation than cultivated land
adjoining. Also those who had not trusty agents to look after their lands, on
coming out to see them would find their fine tracts of timber only a stump
prairie. It was considered no crime for the prairie farmer to cut timber on the
speculator’s land, and if prosecuted, it was impossible to convict. This was long before the homestead law was
passed. [in the 1860s]. The first homestead law was vetoed by a democratic
president, James Buchanan.”
Porter continued: “To show the grit of some of those early
settlers, I will relate a few instances that came under my observation. A
neighbor, who had made a claim, built a cabin and made some improvements,
learned that ‘Shylock’ had been in the neighborhood and had taken the number of
his land and was going to the land office to enter it. The neighbor started that night on foot for
Janesville. The next morning he called upon William A. Laurence and informed
him of his situation. Mr. Laurence said, “You make out ten notes of ten dollars
each, bearing fifty per cent interest, due in one year, and I will guarantee
them. I will see some mechanics and try and get the money.” By ten o’clock the money was raised. He started
on foot for Milwaukee, walked all night and the next morning was at the land
office. When ‘Shylock’ arrived he found the land entered.” The pioneer settler
had prevailed!
Porter related a second incident: “Another case, where a
young man had made some improvements intending to pre-empt, but had not
complied with the law, which required that he should live upon the land, found
that ‘Shylock’ was after him. But he was equal to the occasion. He takes a few
poles, leans them against the limb of a tree, covers them with blankets, takes
an armful of hay and makes a bed, rolls himself in a blanket and goes to sleep.
An accommodating neighbor passes and sees him sleeping. He rises, builds a
fire, makes some coffee and sister brings some food. Again the neighbor passes
and sees him eating his breakfast. They start immediately for the land office,
driving all night, get his pre-emption papers, the neighbor swearing that he
was living upon the land. When ‘Shylock’ arrived he found himself outwitted.”
“The early settlers had but little money,” wrote Porter. “They
would enter an eighty [acre] and claim an eighty adjoining, and band together
to protect each other in their claims.
Occasionally the claim jumper would build a cabin on the claim. I recall
to mind such a case. The settlers met and agreed to visit their new neighbor in
the morning. They came, to the number of more than thirty, went into the cabin,
walked in and out, smoked and chatted. The jumper was a little nervous at
seeing so many of his neighbors present. Soon the cabin was found to be on
fire. They insisted in removing his goods. He concluded that it was not such a
neighborhood as he would like to live in.”
The pioneer settlers made clear their disapproval of the “claim-jumper.”
“Another case,” related Porter, “where a jumper had nearly
completed a log cabin, the settlers met, brought ropes and attached them to the
logs. The cabin was soon razed to the ground and the tenderfoot concluded with
such help he would not be able to complete his cabin. The honest pioneer was
always welcome and though the cabins were generally well filled, there was
always room for one more, without money and without price."
Apparently, “frontier justice” was hard at work on the
frontier of the Wisconsin Territory in the early 1840s.
Speculators in the 1830s and 1840s continued their attempts
to sell land to Easterners and immigrants attempting to lure them to southern
Wisconsin by platting “paper cities” near Cooksville such as “Van Buren,”
“Saratoga,” “Carramana,,” “Warsaw,” and “Wisconsin City,” but only Cooksville
and nearby Union were settled communities in those earliest years.
Cooksville (and Waucoma) flourished at first, with fertile
lands, oak trees, and a clear-running
creek—plus a nearby stagecoach line— that furnished the basic
requirements for the early pioneers on the Wisconsin frontier. Cooksville
remains the only village in the Town of Porter.
~ END OF PART ONE ~
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