Reminiscences
O.E. Dreutzer
FRANKFORT, TENN., Dec. 1st 1896.
At the request and solicitation of my children, grandchildren, relatives and friends, I here submit some of the incidents of my life, which I have thought worthy of mentioning:
I was born in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 27th day of January, A.D. 1816. My father was a high officer in the Swedish navy – commander-in-chief of the pilots, and superintendent of all the lighthouses and beacons on the west coast of Sweden, in which position he introduced and made many modern improvements. After finishing my education, being destined for the navy, I was sent to sea in the ship Hope, then the largest ship registered at that port. The ship sailed for Cadiz, Spain, loaded with lumber, and took thence a cargo of salt for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; cleared light for Bahia and took in a cargo of sugar. I will here mention an incident which nearly cost me my life. One afternoon in Bahia a very sever thunder and rain storm came up. The hatches were put on and the men were left in the dark. While I was sitting on a water-cask, the lightning struck the ship and I was struck senseless on the lower deck. I could here great turmoil on the upper deck, and the cry that the ship was on fire, but I could neither breathe nor utter a word. I finally got strength to call out, and a man came to my assistance. He grabbed me by the legs and helped me up. The ship had been struck although no damage ensued, except the splitting of the port pump, but it affected my body severely for several days. A Swedish man-of-war being in the harbor at the time, the doctor was sent aboard of our ship to attend to me. After finishing loading we cleared for Hamburg and experienced an uncommon long voyage. We drifted for a long time about the equator; got short of provisions and water in the fearful heat. Finally arriving at Hamburg, where the Asiatic cholera was raging, three or four men of the crew died there.
After returning home to Gothenburg, I became severely sick from the effects of the hard voyage, and was laid up for some time. My intention was to ship in a vessel owned by my intended brother-in-law, a lieutenant in the Swedish navy, and go with him to Brazil, but was prevented by this sickness. He sailed without me and arrived at Bahia safely; took in a cargo of sugar at that port, but on the return voyage the vessel was lost with all on board, and nothing was ever heard of the vessel or crew. In May, 1831, I shipped in the barque Niord, for New York, returned thence to Hamburg with a cargo of whale oil, and from Hamburg I went home to Gothenburg. After resting, having entered the Swedish navy, I pursued my studies of navigation, geometry, astronomy and algebra preparatory to my final naval examination.
In May, 1832, I shipped in an American brig, the Juneau, of New Bedford, Me., at which port we arrived after a pleasant voyage. Thence I went to New York, remaining there some time, and finally shipped to New Orleans where I remained during the winter, making occasional short trips from that port. In the spring I shipped on board the brig Sarah Louise, for Havana. At this port our mate left on account of the drunken habits of the captain, and the captain engaged me to take his place, but the same day he fell in with an old drunken chum, engaged him to take the position, and I had to take the berth of second mate to New Orleans, where he was discharged and another person of the same character was shipped as mate. After getting our cargo aboard we cleared for Charlestown, S.C. Both the captain and mate came on board much intoxicated, and I took charge of the vessel; several days passed before either of them appeared on deck. Off the coast of Georgia we encountered a very heavy gale and lost our main top-mast; it being my duty to go aloft and clear away the wreck, I took a hatchet in my hand and started; after cutting several ropes and running lines, and thinking that I had cut away all that held the wreck, I went down from the top on the main yard and noticed a stray rope which I also cut, and down came the top-mast and rigging over my head. I thought I was going over with the wreckage into the sea and I did; but, having presence of mind, I noticed a line hanging over the side of the vessel and caught onto it. I heard the captain shout, “try to save him.” There was no boat that could stand the sea, but clinging to the rope and manipulating it I managed to get on deck, and you should have seen the joyful faces of the men. The captain embraced me, then he gave me some brandy, which allayed the internal excitement and acted like “oil upon the troubled salt waters.” This happened at night and it was rather dark. We drifted along for a day or two until the gale subsided and the sea became calmer. We fixed up the main rigging so that we could carry our brig-sail and I went aloft to examine and arrange how to do it. In looking around I noticed breakers ahead and called out to the captain, who was shaving. He said, “You must be mistaken, no breakers here.” Climbing up the rigging he satisfied himself that I was right, but before we could get the vessel about we struck a rock, unshipped the rudder, sprung a leak and the breakers broke over the vessel. After getting loose and adrift we rigged an artificial rudder. Soon afterwards a pilot boat came out from Charleston, S.C. and we drifted along favorably, reaching Charleston harbor the next day in safety. There were no tugs in those days. The vessel underwent thorough repairs both to hull and the rigging, which occupied about three months. The captain was discharged on account of drunkenness.
I concluded not to ship on her to New Bedford, it being late in the season, so I remained in Charleston doing odd jobs until January, 1836, when the State called for volunteers for the campaign against the Seminole Indians in Florida. I enlisted as a volunteer in Company A, 1st Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, commanded by Captain Philip M. Dusein, the editor of the Charleston Mercury. We were shipped on a steamer, landed at St. Augustine and quartered in an old Spanish fort. We started out and after a march of about 20 miles, went into camp, when a corporal and two men deserted. Next morning we continued our march; (I think this was on the 4th day of March, 1836,) we camped over night at a ruined plantation. The next morning some of the men were detailed from the company to go out and fetch in wood. A man by the name of Venster, (a Swede from Gothenburg; his father had been a brewer, and his mother a widow,) was ahead of the squad, he was accompanied by one of the officer’s Negro servants. As they came up to the burned ruin of the sugar house, the Negro told him that he noticed some Indians ahead; they went on a few steps further when he (Venster) was shot by a rifle fired by an Indian. The balance of the squad was a few rods behind; there was a mud fort in our rear and it opened fire; the Indians also fired; we were forced to stoop down so as to be below the range of the bullets. I saw distinctly when two Indians approached the body of Venster; the appeared to be quarreling as to which of them should take the scalp. Venster was on his knees. One of them took his knife and cut around the head, then took hold of the hair and jerked off the scalp. Venster fell over dead. Two other men were shot, they were riddled with bullets. One, an Irishman, who had green stripes on the side of his pants and was probably taken for an officer, was scalped; the other was bald-headed. The Indian kicked his body and probably considered the scalp no good. We then went back to camp. I had been on duty as sentinel on the line of the regimental encampment before the fight took place and so had Venster; our beats joined and we stopped and conversed, when I learned of his family relations and home. The dead were buried and General Winfield Scott was present and made a short speech at the service. I was introduced to him in Washington, D.C., in 1861. I mentioned the circumstance, which he remembered. He shook hands with me and said, “Welcome, brother soldier.” On our return to Charleston I attended the Universalist meetings every day and every evening, which had a tendency to change my ideas of religion from Lutheranism to Universalism, and subsequently, Unitarianism, adhering to the Emerson theory, and have remained so ever since.
My leave of absence from the navy had expired and I had to return to Sweden and report in order to get what salary was due me, so I shipped in an American ship for Bordeaux, France. After having been out a few days the captain came to me and asked me to bring him some copper tacks. I answered that I had none, that I had not seen any, and that the mate might know. He asked the mate and he brought some to him. Then the captain, for the first time, mentioned that he Spanish sailors had lost some money out of their chest which had been broken open and repaired with copper tacks, which corresponded with those brought by the mate, but who denied that he had been the perpetrator. This was not true. He had brought some tobacco aboard of the ship and gave it to me to stow away until he called for it at Bordeaux. I showed the tobacco to the captain. The captain was desirous, for some reason, to fasten the theft on me. I was ordered to show my money, which I had in a bag, and was all in half dollars. The sailors said that the money lost was all in Spanish piasters. The captain ordered as search for the money which was found in my berth enclosed in a sleeve torn from a light summer coat. A boy who had been on board the ship for a long time, a relative of the captain, identified it to be like one the mate had been wearing; but this proof did not satisfy me; I requested that the mate’s cabin should be thoroughly searched to find more of the lost money. They took out everything in his cabin and found the coat from which the sleeve, containing the money, had been torn. This settled the question of the theft of the money. The mate was afraid to go forward on the deck. The captain called me and said I must take the mate’s place, as the ship’s crew would not obey his orders, and to take his cabin. The captain said that he was old and did not think he was able to navigate the ship alone. I replied that I was fully acquainted with navigation and could take the mate’s place, which I did, and we arrived in Bordeaux in due time. The men had discovered that the mate had been guilty before of some crime, and that he served in the ship to pay off a large debt, without any compensation except necessaries. I insisted that under the circumstances the captain had to make good to the Spaniards what they had lost, which he did. I shipped in a Holland koff at Bordeaux for Hamburg and from thence I took passage in a small schooner to Gothenburg. After arriving there I pursued my studies and afterwards done active service in the Swedish navy for some time. I was offered a commission as captain or foreman of several stations of pilots, with good pay, which I accepted.
I married my wife, Miss Nellie Uppling, a most excellent young lady, and lived happily with her until her death, in September, 1887. She bore me fourteen children of which seven are now alive – Harriet, Gustave, Axel, Yugve, Jennie, Jessie, and Florence. We left Sweden and emigrated to America in 1843; took up our residence in Kenosha county; bought a small farm and worked it for almost two years. I sold out and went to the city of Milwaukee, where I went into mercantile business for about two years, and then went to Plover, in Portage county, pursued merchandizing. Then went further north, bought a timber claim and built a saw mill, which, when completed, I sold. Returned to Plover and again engaged in mercantile business. Having a taste for the study of law, for which knowledge I was always partial, I got admitted to the bar of the Circuit Court and worked up a fair practice. I got my first desire for the study of this profession in Sweden. One of my pilots, an old man, in piloting a schooner into Gothenburg in a fog ran on a reef, he was arrested and brought up for court-martial. I conducted the defense and cleared the pilot. I felt that I was fitted for the law. I then, I think in 1850, moved to Waupaca, a new village in Waupaca county, about twenty miles from Plover, and opened a law office to a good business. One day I was attending court at Plover, and being through, and the evening clear and moonlight, I concluded to walk home in company with one C.O. Browne, a farmer and a countryman, (we had served in the Swedish navy at the same time) arriving at home in the morning. After breakfast I noticed a number of Indians running down the street. A little daughter of mine told me that they had stole a child from Mr. Partridge, living on Fox river. I thought that it was a great act of cowardice to let them escape with the child before the father, Mr. partridge, who had been sent for, had come. The people had paid the Indians to wait till he came. Mr. Browne, myself, and a few other men ran after the Indians to their camp. They had broken up the camp except one wigwam. I entered and grabbed the boy, although an old squaw scratched and the Indians raised their tomahawks, but, I took the child and brought it to my house and kept him until the father came. When he saw the child, whom the Indians had badly disfigured, he at first did not recognize him, but his brother, who accompanied him, was satisfied that the boy was the lost child, Casper. The boy, when he heard the name Casper, opened his eyes and appeared to recognize the name. He was taken home by the Partridges in their wagon. The next day a writ of habeas corpus was sworn out before U.S. Commissioner Buttrick, and the boy was brought before him, but, notwithstanding evidence was offered which was offered which was thought to be sufficient to identify the child to be Mr. Partridge’s, he decided against him. Another writ was issued at Milwaukee and the child was brought there. Mr. Partridge had lost confidence in the Commissioner, so he took the child and brought him to McHenry, Illinois, to a relative. One day when the boy was going home from school, the Indian Agent, Dr. Hubschman, came in a buggy from Milwaukee, coaxed the boy to ride with him, saying that he would take him home, but he drove on and took him to Milwaukee and commenced proceedings. Mr. Partridge came and took him away. He was then brought to Oberlin, Ohio, where the boy was educated, and I was afterwards told that he became a Methodist preacher.
A murder took place in Waupaca county in 1858, (note was May 2, 1857) the date I do not remember, but I deem it of enough importance to relate the circumstances. One Delos Hutchinson had been in town and started for his home in the town of Farmington, about eight miles west of the village. In going down a hill near a creek a young man named George Severance met him and jumped into his wagon, he being his nearest neighbor, their farms adjoining. In crossing the creek, about five miles, out, Severance struck Hutchinson on the head with a club, the victim falling out of the wagon and into the creek. Severance then turned the team around and drove it back up the hill. A German coming from the village had noticed the team coming down the hill and wanted to get a ride toward his home, but seeing the team returning up the hill again he went on his way. We got word of the murder, went to the spot, and found Hutchinson’s dead body in the creek. I took the body out of the water and examined the surroundings. A team came up, I think it was his own, and the body was brought to Waupaca. The German was suspected and a warrant was issued for his apprehension. Severance and his father went with the sheriff to assist. The German could not speak a word of English and did not understand what they wanted; he did not know anything about the murder, and no possible motive for the deed could be discovered. One of the party had picked up a German paper and thrown it down near the spot of the murder, no doubt to create evidence against the German, who was brought before a justice for examination and I was employed for the defense. There were threats of lynching. I understood the German language somewhat, and at the examination I was satisfied, notwithstanding much positive evidence was given, that the German could not be guilty of the crime charged against him. I set about to examine further into the case, and was warned to withdraw. I told the crowd if any one should make an attempt at violence he would be at once arrested. The German was bound over to answer for the offense and taken to Plover jail. The next morning I went out to view the premises and found the club used by the murderer. One Mrs. Perkins testified for the prosecution that she stood in the door of her house and identified the German turning the team around. There was an intervening hill between the Perkins house and the creek, so that she could not possibly have seen anything which transpired at the creek. I picked up much evidence against young Severance and my suspicions were aroused. I went to the home of the German to get bail for his release, which I got without difficulty among his neighbors, he having an excellent character. The judge remarked that the evidence was too conclusive to overcome. A few days thereafter young Severance had discovered some prospective evidence in the case and the pressure of his conscience prompted him to confess his guilt and the German was released. Severance was sent to the Portage county jail where he remained a short time and then escaped, and was never heard of afterwards. Nothing was done for his re-capture. One thing is certain, if I had not worked up the case as I did, the German would have been lynched, which would have ended all.
I was engaged in ferreting out the Waupaca election frauds in 1856, when the board returned the result of the election as having polled 612 votes. There was not one-half that number, including women and children, in the town. I was not there; I attended as chairman of the town board of the town of St. Lawrence, in Waupaca county, and knew nothing of the proceedings at Waupaca. The first I knew of the matter was some days after election, Col. Boon and Mr. Reynolds came to town and called at our office, they said they had some land for sail situated in the town of New Hope, then in Waupaca county. We told them that the land could not be worth much as that town was entirely unsettled and it would be difficult to find the land. Mr. Reynolds said that we must be mistaken, as at the late election held in the town, Governor Barstow, democratic candidate for Governor had 76 votes, all of the votes cast at that place. We knew that was fraud. I then began to look over the matter of election; went up to New Hope the next day and found that there were no settlers in the town, only some one contemplated to build a sawmill on a stream there. As soon as I returned I went and examined the returns filed in the town clerk’s office at Waupaca which I found as above stated. I will here remark that the object of this fraud was not to defeat any candidate running, but a vote was taken to locate the county seat in the county. One morning Governor Cowles Bashford came up to Waupaca, through the woods from Oshkosh, called upon me, and I engaged to assist him in collecting facts so as to prove the fraud. The case came before the supreme court, which declared Mr. Bashford elected Governor of the state. He was the first republican Governor of the state.
In 1859 I was appointed County Judge of the county and in 1860 was elected to the office. The same year, 1859, I was appointed by the Governor as one of his staff with the rank of Colonel, and in 1861 received the appointment of Brigadier General of the Militia by Governor Randall. In 1862 was appointed U.S. Consul to Bergen, Norway, which office I held until June, 1867. The appointment, under the law, should terminate, or rather, the salary cease at the close of the war. I received the tanks of the state department at Washington for extra services in four different dispatches, which are on file in the consulate archives, at Bergen. I brought copies of them home, but in the destruction of my office by fire at Sturgeon Bay, everything in it was destroyed and lost, including appointments, title deeds and library, nothing saved; and therefore, the time may not be correctly stated. After my return I received an appropriation from congress of $1,100 for extra services rendered. I was elected and served the full term as District Attorney for Door county until I gave away for my son, Y.V. Dreutzer.
In 1890 I had occasion to go to the state of Tennessee, where I owned some real estate, and as President of the Frankfort Land Company, to attend to a suit in the Court of Chancery. In moving to Tennessee I contracted the la grippe, got very sick and nearly lost my life. I now reside at Frankfort, on the Cumberland Plateau, nearly 2000 feet above the level of the sea, which is, no doubt, as healthy a place as can be found in the United States, I am comfortable, and will pass the remainder of my life here.
O.E. Dreutzer.