THE WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

July 27, 1876

 

Historical Sketch of Dayton.

 

            From a sketch of the town of Dayton, read by J. D. HOLMAN on the 4^th, the following facts are gathered:

            The county of Waupaca as it now stands was organized as a town in 1850, and was called Waupaca.  At the first meeting of the Board, May 6, 1851, at which Peter Meiklejohn and Tyler Caldwell were present, the county was divided into eight road districts, what is now the town of Dayton being included in district No. 5.  This district was described as “All the land lying south and west of Spencer’s marsh, also all that called the Pleasant Valley country.”  The county Board met in Mukwa, March 5, 1852, and divided the county into six townships, the two present towns of Dayton and Lind comprising one called Lind.  That spring Lyman Dayton was elected chairman of the town:  J. W. Chandler and Chas. Beadleston supervisors, and J. L. Rice, clerk.  In December, 1852, the present town of Dayton was separated from Lind, and became the first single township in the county, separately organized as a town.  The first town meeting held, after the organization, was at the house of Lyman Dayton, on Dec. 15, W. C. Carr being elected chairman.  In 1854 was established the custom of holding alternate town meetings at Parfreyville and Rural, which has since been followed.

            The first settler in the town of Dayton was a Mr. Hitchcock who built a shanty on what is now the farm of W. D. Emmons, on Sec. 8.  He staid but a few months.  Samuel Shaw and Thos. F. Thompson both settled in the town in 1850.

            Geo. C. VanHorn drove the first span of horses into the town in May, 1850, and settled on the land where his family now live.  He built the first log house in the town, and was the first to take land.  While his house was building, himself and family lived in a tent made of a carpet hung over some poles, Mrs. VanHorn doing the cooking in the open air.  June 20, of the same year, Geo. Barnhart, Jas. Robbins and the Forbes brothers with families, twenty persons in all, moved in.

            In the spring of 1852 the Carrs, Simcocks, Packards, Eatons, S. Randall, J. Conklin, and others, who made what is still known as the Crystal Lake settlement, moved into the town.  In 1853 W. D. Emmons, F. Shoemaker, G. W. Steinemates, J. Stratton, J. Day and A. Potts came into the town, and in 1854 M. H. Rice, S. W. Hoyt and R. Holman.  During these years the settlers depended largely upon wild game for provision, and got their other supplies from Strong’s Landing – now Berlin – Sheboygan and Milwaukee.  To show what straits the settlers were reduced to and the expediences resorted to for food, this is told of Mrs. VanHorn:  Mr. VanHorn was away from home during the fall of 1850 or 51, in Racine county, at work with a threshing machine.  The flour at home gave out, and Mrs. VanHorn went to a neighbor who had half an acre of buckwheat in the shock, and tried to buy some.  He told her she was welcome to it, as he was soon to move away.  She took a carpet for a threshing floor, and some bags to the field, gathered the shocks and with a stick threshed out eight bags of wheat and chaff.  With the first favorable breeze she winnowed this out, took half a bushel of wheat on foot to Mr. Dayton’s, ground it in their coffee mill, leaving the bran for toll.

            In the fall of 1851 Mr. Parfrey built a mill, called the “pepper mill”, 16 x 20 feet, boarded up and down.  The shafts were made of tamarac and oak, unhewn.  The “wobble” of the machinery occasioned by crooked shafts, was counteracted by tightening pulleys weighted down with stones.  The belts were made of bags sewn together, and cotton factory cloth.  This mill was burned in 1854.

            The first frame house in town was built by J. H. Jones in 1851, and in 1852 he built the house now owned by W. J. Chamberlain, in Rural.  He built the mill now owned by the Ashmuns, in 1856, which was not put in operation, however, until 1862.  In 1853 a saw mill was put up at Crystal River, and in 1867 the carding mill now in operation at that place, was built.  The first post office was established in 1851, called Nepawan, and L. Dayton was P.M.  The first public school was taught by Miss Emmie Randall, in 1852.  The first frame school house was built in Pleasant Valley in 1854, and is still in use.  The first preaching in town was by a “Methodist minister, named Miller,” and Rev. Cutting Marsh, of Waupaca Falls.  Rev. Samuel Simcock preached during the years 1852-5.

            In 1853 the total value of property assessed was $9,630.75, upon which a tax of $231.68 was paid.  The total assessed valuation in 1875 was $126,593.  The number of families in 1850 was eight; in 1875 the population was 817.  The first furrow was turned in 1850.  In 1876 the assessor reports 4,091 of crops growing, not including potatoes.