WAUPACA  DURING  THE  WAR.

 

            As a rule, Waupaca County responded promptly and generously to the appeal for aid made during the first years of the war.  Company B, Fourteenth Wisconsin Infantry, a Weyauwega organization, was the first raised, Asa Worden, of Waupaca, going out with it as Captain.  The village thus redeemed itself from reproaches which were cast up by other more enthusiastic places, that she was lukewarm, even cold toward the Union cause.  The war meeting held in early June had much to do with arousing this hostile feeling toward Weyauwega.  Capt. E.S. Bragg, of Fond du Lac, addressed the meeting in his most ringing and stirring tones, but his audience appeared to consider the matter as something of a joke, and when he called for volunteers only one gaunt, loose-jointed youth of sixteen came forward and signed his name, amid mingled laughter, cheers and ridicule.  His name was Eugene F. Hardy, and had imbibed strong anti-slavery ideas, young as he was, from an earnest father.  The drum and fife outside continued their noisy summons, the captain exhorted, but the second volunteer did not come. The crowd of several hundred people left the hall, and Capt. Bragg left for Fond du Lac and his company with his solitary boy volunteer.  The subsequent history of Hardy is thus traced by one who knew him;  “Young Hardy went into the army with a boy’s enthusiasm, and, boy-like, his fervor soon ebbed.  He served two years or more, faithfully doing his duty, then deserted and went North.  For several weeks he traveled through New England, and finally brought up in New York City, where he boldly went into the office of the Provost Marshal and acknowledged his desertion.  He was arrested, but was soon after pardoned on condition that he re-enlist for three years.  He rejoined his regiment all the better for his escapade.

            “He was taken prisoner in 1864, and confined in the shambles at Andersonville.  After many months of starvation and agonizing suffering he died, and his grave is unknown among the hundreds who gave up their lives in that modern Gehenna.”

            In 1882, William H. Searles was Principal of the village school, and he gave mortal offence to the good people by allowing his pupils to sing “John Brown’s Body”.  A serious schism broke out in the village over the question, whether the school should not be closed to prevent the incendiary song from being sung.  Col. Peter Meiklejohn, Dr. Post, Jerome Crocker, Mr. Matthews, I.C. Hardy, John B. Strain and Louis Bosteds took an active part in the discussion, which at one time threatened bloodshed and anarchy.  The School Trustees finally brought about a cessation of hostilities, by ordering Mr. Searles to stop singing the pestiferous song, under pain of instant dismissal.

 

 

 

JULIUS H. ZASTROW, farmer, Sec. 12, P.O. Weyauwega, was born in Prussia in 1845; came with his parents to America in 1848, and in 1849 came to Oshkosh.  In 1856 he settled in Weyauwega, and went into the mercantile business for a year and a half.  At the end of that time he and his father settled on one hundred acres in Sec. 12.  They have added forty acres to it since.  He was with Mr. Hardy in the mercantile business for two years.  In 1870, he went to California and Oregon, with intention of locating there if he like it, but returned to Waupaca Co. and clerked it in New London.  Took a contract of the W.C.R.R., since which time he has been with his parents, who are quite old and infirm.  His father was born in 1808 and his mother in 1804.  He is a graduate of Eastman’s Business College, of Chicago; has been Chairman of his town three terms, Supervisor, Clerk of his town three terms, and Clerk of Weyauwega; is a member of Weyauwega Masonic Lodge, No. 82.