Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 English Barn Folk Concert

Join Us for an Evening of Story and Song in Cooksville

Fendrick and Peck, a folk duo, will perform at Cooksville Farmhouse Inn's English Barn on Friday, September 9th at 7:30 pm.  They are local artists with roots in Stoughton, WI and have performed all across the country.

Skip Anderson, winner of the 2015 Best Music Writing Award, states, "Fendrick & Peck harken back to the glory days of American folk music—stringed and strong. With inventive songsmithing and well-paired vocals...the duo reminds us why the genre continues to redefine its glorious, and refreshingly humble, relevance." 

Check out the performers at their website to listen to their music: http://www.fendrickandpeck.com/listen.html.

A suggested donation of $20 is much appreciated for the performers, but not required, especially for families with children.  Dress for the weather because the barn has "farmer stained glass" and is not weather-proof.  For more information call (608) 772-2550.

"Fendrick & Peck are future legends and presently merely amazing with their originals and occasional covers.”–The Coffee House (Milwaukee, WI)

Fendrick and Peck's Lucky Penny was selected as CD of the week by DJ Rich Warren of the Midnight Special Nov. 28, 2015 (Chicago, IL).

"Fendrick and Peck are a hard traveling, neo-traditionalist folk duo....  They released Lucky Penny this year, and it is one of my favorites of the year." -Ear To The Ground Music Blog, 2015 (Nashville, TN)

English Barn, Degner property, 138 & 59 in Cooksville

Farmer Stained Glass

"Perhaps one of the most talked about acts to appear at NERFA this year was the duo of Fendrick and Peck. There was a “buzz” generated by their performance on Thursday night that built all weekend. Folk radio mainstay Mary Cliff from Washington DC met this duo and invited them to come to NERFA. Wisconsin natives, currently residing in Nashville, Fendrick and Peck are the contemporary embodiment of what makes American folk music so intriguing. Their original songs could easily be confused for ancient ballads that were treasured by folk song collectors during the folk revival. There is a refreshing old time sensibility to their songs that can easily be accessed by contemporary audiences. Madeline Fendrick has a gorgeous voice and a delightful sense of humor that wins over audiences. Brian Peck displays a respectful understanding of the traditions that can be found in his instrumentals as well as his songwriting. It is encouraging to find new artists like this and I hope they will get support from the folk community so that we can have more chances to witness their performances." -Ron Olesko's Folk Music Notebook

Cooksville’s Lutheran Church Celebrates 125 Years With a Program and Tour of Cooksville’s 155 Year Old Cemetery

The Cooksville Lutheran Church is celebrating its founding 125 years ago in 1891 with an event planned for Sunday, August 14, 2016. Both the establishment of the Lutheran Church in 1891 and the establishment of the nearby Cooksville Cemetery in 1861 will be commemorated.

The day will include a special church service, a luncheon and a history program followed by a tour of the Cooksville Cemetery.  The program will begin with a church service at 10 a.m., luncheon at 11:15 a.m., a history program at 12 noon, and a guided tour of the cemetery at 12:30 p.m.  Church founders’ graves will be marked, and families of the founders will be available for questions and guidance.  A free-will offering for the lunch will be accepted from attendees. All interested persons are invited to attend any or all of the events

 

Cooksville Lutheran Church, photo 1941

The Cooksville Lutheran Church officially began life as the Norwegian Lutheran Church in 1891, a result of the increased number of immigrant from Norway who settled in the Cooksville area and who had been attending the nearby Stoughton Lutheran Church.

On October 5, 1891, at a meeting in the Cooksville Schoolhouse, the Norwegian settlers in the area decided to organize and erect their own Norwegian Lutheran Church in the village. The constitution of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church was adopted, with the first Cooksville congregation consisting of twelve families. The Reverend Theodor H. Dahl from Stoughton agreed to conduct services in Norwegian every third Sunday at an annual salary of $125.00

A campaign for funds to construct a Lutheran church in Cooksville was successful. The new Norwegian Lutheran church was a small, handsome Gothic Revival church with some Shingle Style details in the tall, graceful bell-tower and steeple, and it was dedicated on December 14, 1892, on South Street next to Cooksville’s existing Cemetery.

Unfortunately, the church was struck by lightning and burned to the ground on September 13, 1896.  The loss, calculated at $2,339.00, was mostly covered by insurance.  The congregation decided to re-build, and a second, similar church building was constructed in the same location in 1897, with more elaborate stained-glass windows.

Cooksville Lutheran Church today

The elegant rural Lutheran Church still stands, with several new additions and a restored bell-tower, a significant part of the history of the Village of Cooksville as well as an important part of present-day life.

The adjacent historic Cooksville Cemetery was established 155 years ago. Many of the original Lutheran Church family members as well as founders of the Village of Cooksville are buried there. The two separate historic properties, the church and the cemetery, adjoin each other on Church Street in the historic Village of Cooksville.

Cooksville Cemetery sign

The old Cemetery in Cooksville, founded in 1861, was historically named “Waucoma Cemetery” after the Village of Waucoma that had been platted next to Cooksville in 1846. The Cemetery replaced the village’s earliest burying ground used in the 1840s and 1850s and located northwest of Cooksville’s General Store.

Polly Woodward headstone, 1851

The Cooksville Cemetery contained 2.5 acres of land purchased from Waucoma’s founder Dr. John Porter for $25. The cemetery expanded to the west in 1947 with about 1.4 acres of land acquired south of the Lutheran Church, and in 1999, it was expanded again with the purchase of two acres of farmland to the east. 

The Cooksville Lutheran Church and the Cooksville Cemetery are both located on Church Street at the southeastern corner of the village. Both the Cemetery and the Lutheran Church are part of the Cooksville Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, which includes most of the small Rock County village.

 

The church will again celebrate its 125^th anniversary in November this year when a commemorative “Lutheran Church Memory Book” will be available.

For more information about the August 14 events at the Cooksville Lutheran Church and the Cemetery, contact Ilene Axford at (608) 873-6914.

Cooksville: A Community’s Heart and Soul

People have been in love with little old Cooksville for more than a 100 years—probably longer, since its founding 175 years ago.

Cook House, photo c. 1930

 The Village of Cooksville was founded in northwestern Rock County in 1842, and began life as a small frontier settlement of talented pioneers, farmers, merchants, and artisans in the Wisconsin Territory.

The village soon welcomed more immigrants—craftsmen and women, artists, teachers, gardeners, retirees, and, eventually, home restorers— all attracted by Cooksville’s rural setting and its small village charm, which continues to appeal to both residents and visitors in the 21^st century.

Cooksville Lutheran Church, photo c.1930

What is that attraction? People have been commenting for years about the small “Town that Time (and the railroad) Forgot,” and which is now officially designated as a historically significant village by the national, state and local governments. People have  been traveling to visit it, returning for the memories it holds in their hearts and praising it for its special history and architecture—and for its unique character as a survivor from the mid-19^th century.

Cooksville and the Famous Unity Preacher Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, by Larry Reed

Thanks to a recent gift to the Cooksville Archives by Stanley James (“Jim”) Naysmith of Cooksville more is known about the famous Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones and his missionary influence on the Village of Cooksville. Jim’s gift was the “Unity Society of Cooksville: Secretaries Book, Sept.1880,” a small, neatly hand-written notebook that contains the minutes, the finances, the activities and the constitution of that local Society.

 

Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the famous “Unity” preacher and advocate of Unitarianism in the late 19^th century, was based in Chicago and was a frequent visitor to Cooksville. Rev. Jones gave a dedicatory sermon at the first church constructed in Cooksville, the Congregational Church, on Dec. 18, 1879. And he was a frequent visiting lecturer after that, invited no doubt by the many New England pioneer settlers in the village who viewed with interest his philosophy of uniting all religions instead of focusing on just one in a creedless, universal, ethical, spiritual belief that had its roots in New England’s liberal Congregationalism.

Cooksville Congregational Church (1879), photo c.1900

In August 29, 1880, the Secretaries Book tells us that Rev. Jones “closed a course of lectures" in Cooksville at the Congregational Church, and the local sponsors of his visit issued an invitation to those in attendance who felt “friendly to the work” to meet the next day at the house of Benjamin Hoxie for a “a social and to greet Rev. Jones and to consent in regard to future work” in the village.

The next day, August 30, 1880, according to the Secretaries Book, “an organization was affected to be known as the Unity Society of Cooksville.” The attendees adopted a constitution, and twenty persons signed the constitution and became members. The preamble stated that they would “band ourselves together for the purpose of mutual helpfulness, intellectual improvement and the advancement of practical righteousness in the world.” Officers were elected at the first meeting: J.P. K. Porter, President; Eliza B. Porter, Vice-President; Jane I. Dow, Vice-President; J.T. Dow, Secretary; and James Fergrieve, Treasurer. They decided to meet every two weeks on Sunday evenings in the church with a special invited speaker or with “readings” by various local persons.

Eliza and Joseph Porter, photo c.1895

According to a local newspaper account, when that first business meeting was concluded, Rev. Jones “found himself in that somewhat novel situation for a preacher—a listener, not a talker,” because Benjamin Hoxie took the floor and proved “that he could talk, and talk well and to the point.” Then Hoxie presented Rev. Jones with a complete set of Herbert Spencer’s works, which took the preacher by surprise, and at a loss for words, he thanked them “in a somewhat broken way” and told the group how hard it was to leave Rock County and travel back to Chicago. (But he would often return to Cooksville to preach on other occasions.)

Benjamin Hoxie (1827-1901)

The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones (November 14, 1843-September 12, 1918), who inspired the Cooksville group, was born in Wales, England. As a one-year-old, he immigrated with his parents and nine siblings to Ixonia (in Jefferson County), Wisconsin, and then ten years later to a farm near Spring Green in Iowa County.

Jones was a pioneering Unitarian minister, missionary, educator, and journalist. He expanded the ranks of Midwestern Unitarians and built up much of the structure of the Western Unitarian Conference. He founded a major program church in Chicago, All Souls, together with its associated community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre. A radical theist, he tried to move Unitarianism away from a Christian focus towards non-sectarian engagement with world religion. Later in life, during a time of popular enthusiasm for war, he was a prominent pacifist

 

Unity Chapel, near Taliesin, Spring Green

In 1886, Jones directed the building of Unity Chapel in the valley near Spring Green. His nephew, Frank Lloyd Wright, served as a draftsman on this project with Joseph Silsbee as the designer. Jones's ties to family and the Wisconsin River Valley remained strong. There, on Tower Hill, with the help of his brothers, he founded a retreat center for city ministers and families. In 1890 this became the Tower Hill Summer School of Literature and Religion. For two months each summer, he vacationed there and used the Summer School as a channel for his energy. Worship was held in Unity Chapel near Tower Hill, where he eventually would be buried in the churchyard and where, nearby, his nephew Frank Lloyd Wright had built Taliesin in 1911.

In Cooksville, the Unity Society met regularly, often in the basement of the Congregational Church, which it voted to “furnish ½ the wood and lights” and help maintain the church where the Society held many “socials” and “entertainments” to help raise funds to pay for guest preachers and to pay the $5.00 annual dues to the Western Unitarian Conference. At one social in 1885, “chocolate & cake, sandwiches & pickles, coffee & doughnuts, pumpkin pie and cheese, and peanuts, constituted our Bill of Fare,” according to the secretary’s minutes. A “Social and Dance” was held at the Masonic Hall with “Nett proceeds $10.71” on Dec. 11, 1885.

With that last entry, the “Secretaries Book” entries end on Dec. 11, 1885. Whether Cooksville’s Unity Society continued its programs is not known.

Other religious communities had settled in Cooksville or nearby from the 1840s onward, some briefly. These included Free Will Baptist, Primitive Methodist, Methodist, Universalist, Congregational, Catholic, and finally Norwegian Lutheran, the latter established in 1891 and still in existence as the Cooksville Lutheran Church. 

In an interesting footnote, Frank Lloyd Wright, nephew of Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, would design a small. Prairie-style chapel for Cooksville in 1934, commissioned by the Gideon Newman family, but it was never built.

Jim Naysmith on his 80th birthday

[Thanks to Jim Naysmith for donating the “Secretaries Book” to the Cooksville Archives.]

Mallon Tree Service planting 'arboriculture' seeds in area, by Steve Ehle

Kyle and Emma Mallon, husband and wife duo of Mallon Tree Service
 www.mallontreeservice.com

 Family-owned business has roots in 
Stoughton/Evansville/Cooksville communities

South central Wisconsin, with its array of tree and other plant species -- and obvious seasonal changes -- can be an arborist’s playground or a major challenge. For Kyle and Emma Mallon it’s both. But that’s what makes it fun. The Mallons, owners of Mallon Tree Service, LLC, of Cooksville, WI, recently relocated to northwestern Rock County, after plying their trades in the Milwaukee area.

Mallon Tree Service is a Wisconsin born and bred, small, family-owned business. Kyle Mallon has been an arborist in the public and private tree industry in Southern Wisconsin for over 10 years. 

Emma has roots in Evansville, Stoughton and Cooksville. “Kyle’s experience with, and passion for, trees is the backbone and drive of our honest and hardworking company,” Emma Wilde Mallon says. “With us, ‘What you see is what you get.’” Kyle “calls the shots” and “will be on location all the time, every time, you call MTS. He gives the free estimates, plans the work and executes it until the last leaf is raked,” Emma says.

Emma’s father, Jonathan (a well-known wildlife artist) grew up in nearby Evansville and her grandfather, internationally known artist John Wilde, lived near Cooksville. Emma and Kyle now reside in Emma’s grandfathers and step-grandmother’s (Shirley Wilde) house just east of Cooksville, about seven miles south of Stoughton and 25 miles southeast of Madison. Kyle, a Milwaukee native, is a certified arborist. Emma is a UW-Wisconsin Madison graduate with a degree in Journalism.

The young couple brings nearly a decade of experience in arboreal management to the area. After just a few months establishing themselves and their business in the Cooksville/Evansville/Stoughton/Edgerton area, Mallon Tree Service has already landed a number of jobs. Mallon Tree Service has 24/7 emergency services and offers the following services:

* Tree and shrub pruning and removals

* Tree preservation and plant health care

* Emerald Ash Borer treatment and prevention

* Tree planting, future plant management

* Tree cabling and bracing

* Firewood splitting and stacking

So, what is an “arborist”?

Kyle: “An arborist is an individual trained in the art and science of planting, caring for, and maintaining individual trees. Arborists are knowledgeable about the needs of trees and are trained and equipped to provide proper care.”

Edward Gilley’s Letter of 1845: “The Greatest Wheat Growing Country in the World” by Larry Reed

In 1843, Edward Gilley (1811-1897) arrived in the Cooksville area from his home in Northumberland County, England and settled on 80 acres of land that he immediately purchased and began to farm just east of the newly established Village of Cooksville (1842). In 1845 he wrote a detailed and expressive letter home, very pleased with his decision.

Edward Gilley portrait, c.1890s

Edward had come to America with his brother George Gilley (1819-1888) to begin a new life on the new lands in the Wisconsin Territory that the U.S. government had been selling since 1837. In 1855 a third brother, John Gilley (1817-1856) migrated with his family to Cooksville but he died the following year. All three brothers and several other family members are buried in the old Cooksville Cemetery. A fourth brother, William, remained in England.

A brief biographical sketch of two sentences in the 1879 “History of Rock County, Wisconsin,” describes: “Edward Gilley, retired farmer, Sec.4; P.O. Cooksville; born in Northumberland, England, Feb. 11, 1811; he came to America in 1843, locating in Porter Township, Rock Co., Wis., in May of that year, and purchased of the Government 200 acres of land, on which he has since remained. He married in Porter Township, Rock Co., Wis., April 1, 1854, and his wife died May 28,, 1875.”   In the 1889 “Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock County,” both Edward and George Gilley merited longer biographies as significant early pioneer settlers and farmers in southern Wisconsin.

Edward’s letter home in 1845 to his relatives in England, written 171 years ago, reveals as much about himself as the new land he now owned and farmed.

Edward Gilley Farmstead, east of Cooksville, etching from 1873

The letter written on September 28, 1845, to his sister Anne (or possibly to his half-sister Jane) in Rothbury, England, appears to have been his first letter sent to his family from Wisconsin.  His return address on the letter was “Union [the nearby stagecoach-mail stop], Rock County, Wisconsin Territory, United States, North America.” The envelope had post marks of “Janesville, Wis. Sep 30” and “America-Liverpool Oct. 27, 1845,” and “Morpeth [near Rothbury; no day/month] 1845.”

A transcribed copy of Edward’s letter was recently given to the Cooksville Archives through the combined efforts of Gilley descendents now living in Iowa, North Carolina, Scotland and England. In theisHis letter— a glowing report of his new home on a “smooth prairie” —Edward wrote, “I believe this is going to be the greatest wheat growing country in the world.”

Edward’s sister had apparently written that she was “poorly” and “much fatigued,” and in his letter Edward assured her that “if you were this side of the Atlantic Ocean I could soon put you in to a comfortable way of living. You might make a good living here by keeping a few milk cows.”

Ellen Pratt Gilley (1860-1944), niece of Edward

He boasted about the prices of crops and the rich soil and compared the geography and climate of Wisconsin with that of England. He also mentioned a few set-backs in the challenges he faced living on the new American frontier.

“Butter sells now from 8 pence to 9 pence per lb your money, that is from 16 to 18 cts….There are many a thousand acres that wants nothing more than turning over the sward [the grassy soil surface] and sowing the seed—it will produce from 10 to 12 bolls [about 50-60 bushels] an acre and by cross plowing it will produce 16 or18 bolls per acre.”

Edward continued: “Our cattle costs us nothing to keep them, except mowing hay for the winter feed. About 1 half of the land here where we are is clear of timber [and] it grows abundantly of wild grass and weeds where the soil is very rich, the other half is occupied with oak timber not very great size from 5 to 15 yds apart and the soil in general very good… the melons and cucumbers here are so numerous we feed the hoggs with them, likewise onions, cabbage, pease, beans, potatoes and turnips grow abundantly here without manure—in fact, it lacks nothing here for being a good farming country except coals….”

Then Edward explained how he managed to acquire his rich lands: “Dear Sister, I must now turn to giving you some account of my own transactions since I came to Wisconsin and my circumstances now. First move I made I bought 80 acres land 5s. [about $1.25] per acre and claimed another 80 acres calculating to pay for it as soon as I am able as the 80 bought is mostly timber and marsh with a small stream of water running along one side of it, and the other 80 acres is smooth prairie or plough land so the one will not make a good farm without the other… I have got along pretty well except last year one of my horses happened an accident, she broke one of her hind legs—it was a great hindrance to me in getting along with my improvements not being able to buy another to put in her place for some time.”

Stebbins-Tofsland-Gilley Octagonal Barn, owned by Edward's nephew

 He described his animal stock and his living conditions: “I will also give you a small account of my stock—1 aged work horse, 1 yearling colt which the mare had when or before she died—it is a very fine one now, 3 milk cows, 2 yearling heighers [heifers], 1 calf, 2 yoke of oxen, 1 bull, 2 sows, 10 pigs, 7 shot [young] pigs for pork this fall….and about 2 score hens and chickens together and I have now got my house made pretty comfortable. It contains 3 rooms and a good cellar—building is also rather expensive here, as mechanics wages are high—they charge pretty near 1 dollar a day…”

Edward praised a grain new to him: “There is also another plant called Indian Corn, a very useful thing it is, it is good for either Man or Beast. I like it better than oatmeal made into pottage and it is better than anything else to fatten hoggs with and horses likewise. I think the climate varies a little more here than it does in England. It is a little hotter here in summer and cooler in winter but the air is more clear… Our land is very even with a little decline and well watered.”

But Edward was lonely and needed a helpmate. “And I found when I got settled that I could not get on without a Housekeeper so I got me a wife last January, but she by casting [sic] some clothes in the month of June caught cold which turned to inflammation of the bowels and died in the month of July which causes me to feel very destitute as am living alone with a great deal of care.”

Edward hoped he would have enough money to pay off his additional 80 acres at the Land Office, “and have as much left as will bear my expenses to England and back, I should like to pay you a visit in the Fall and stay all winter and return in April if all go well with us.”

He wrote that his brother George “bought 40 acres of land which is in cultivation and claims another 40…He likes the country very well and has a better prospect than in England but is rather scant of means to build and improve. But if he have his health to put in his crops in the Spring, they will raise considerable of means…”

He hoped he would hear back from his family. “But I must conclude with George joining me in love to you and all inquiring friends, Your affectionate brother, E. Gilley.”

And so ends Edward Gilley’s wonderfully detailed, enthusiastic, newsy letter home to his family and friends in England describing his satisfying, successful life that he began on America’s frontier in the Territory of Wisconsin, United States, North America.

*   *   *   *      

[Many thanks to Diane Gabrielsen Scholl of Iowa, and all her Gilley relatives including  Janet Hancock of North Carolina, Edward Freeborn of Kent, England, and Julia Carter of Scotland, descendents of the Gilley family and distant cousins, for sharing the transcribed  copy of Gilley’s letter  with me, along with other information.  The “Gilley Family” file is part of the Cooksville Archives maintained in Cooksville, Town of Porter, Rock County, State of Wisconsin, United States, North America, the Earth, the Milky Way, the Universe. The Cooksville Archives is available to interested people by appointment with Larry Reed, (608) 873-5066.]