The society’s number one priority, protecting the former public school building from further damage, took a large step forward with in July with the completion of repairs to the west slope of the roof. Together with work done on the bell tower in June, the roofing project has now reached the halfway point and has made repairs to all but one of the significant leaks.

Jim Navis, the Brandon contractor working on the project, recently identified the repairs necessitated by years of water damage and the age of the roof. Parts of the west slope have required replacement of roofing boards as well as bracing. The north-south ridge of the roof had sagged more than six inches and has had to be jacked up and braced.

The next step in the project includes the north and east slopes over the primary classroom. Navis has indicated that the major concern in that area is the deterioration of the north chimney. Masonry and bricks in the chimney have weathered so badly that Navis has recommended that the chimney be removed below the roof line for safety reasons. He has proposed that a false chimney be constructed to maintain the historic appearance of the building. The chimney could be reconstructed as part of the restoration phase of the schoolhouse project.

While working on the structural problems, Navis also explored the original ceiling over the building’s first floor hallway and discovered that two original walls had been removed in the hallway area. One, located outside the upper division classroom, at one time formed a storeroom. The original metal ceiling is still intact over the area and clearly marks the location of the room.

With all but one of the major areas of leakage repaired, the project is now on hold until additional funds can be raised. Navis has estimated that the cost of the primary classroom roof, the next step in the project, will be about $4000. The cost of the remaining east and south slopes will also total $4000. Navis has offered to donate the labor for the chimney work.

Tom Montag and Barb Vande Brink have recorded four additional interviews for the society’s growing oral history collection: Iva Koso, William Loechelt, Arnold Siedschlag, and Bernice Warren.

Koso’s father Frank constructed many of Fairwater’s homes between 1904 and 1916. Her mother Emma was a state officer of the W.C.T.U. Koso remembered hitching rides on the runners of sleighs as they drove down the Main Street hill in winter. She also talked about playing baseball in an orchard on the hill.

Loechelt, a lifelong resident of Fairwater, talked of working on his father’s farm as a child and of the effects of the Great Depression. He shared a detailed description of the operations of a threshing crew and related a childhood incident involving a blasting cap accident.

Siedschlag taught arts and crafts in the basement classroom of the Fairwater school during the 1930s. He described one project in which a student built a matchstick house, leaving the heads on the matches, only to have another student light one of the matches. While the resulting fire did not spread, it did "add a good dark color" to the project.

Warren, a longtime employee at Frei’s grocery store, gave a detailed description of the operations of the store and of its delivery service. She also discussed her years as a student in the Fairwater school and her twenty-five years of work at American Stores.

The immediate Fairwater area became home to a significant population of Danish immigrants following the Civil War. Census records for 1870 indicate that of the 36 Danes living in Metomen 25 lived in or near Fairwater. This short autobiographical letter, written in 1929 by Sophia Simmons Hansen, provides an explanation. Sophia Simmons was the daughter of Soren Hansen Simmons and Porthe Marie Swenson, and the letter was apparently written for her son Marvin. It was located by Jerold Sanders through contact with the Simmons family living in White, South Dakota.

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF MY LIFE WRITTEN FOR MARVIN AT HIS REQUEST
Sophia Simmons Hansen

I was born October 28th, 1855, in the township of Faurbo on the island of Sjelland (called Zealand in our geographies), Denmark.

My parents at that time lived on a few acres of land containing peat. People in the surrounding country would come there and for a price would dig and dry their peat for fuel.

One of my earliest recollections is seeing the pits and the arrangements used to draw out the water.

When I was four years of age my father sold the place and bought another of about ten acres not far from there where we lived about five years.

At the age of seven I was sent to school and continued there about three years. I learned to read and write and also the rudiments of arithmetic and bible history, including a brief history of the great reformation and rise of the Lutheran church, which was the state church of Denmark. I also committed to memory a number of hymns and Luther’s little catechism.

While studying these subjects as a child I remember thinking that I would rather die a martyr’s death than be anything but a Lutheran. That was the only religion I had ever heard of at that time.

When I was ten years of age my people again sold their home and in the spring of 1866 left our native land for America. My father’s reason for emigrating was that his children might have better opportunities in life than was possible in Denmark at that time.

We left Denmark in company with my Cousin Ann Lisbeth and her husband and four children. I was next to the oldest of five children in our family. We sailed from Copenhagen to Hamburg, Germany and from there across the North sea to England. We landed at a place called Hull and from there across England by train to Liverpool where we waited a few days for the Steamer which was to take us across the Atlantic.

After a voyage of six days we arrived in Quebec, Canada, and from there we came by boat and train to Fairwater, Wisconsin. During our journeys we fell in with a few other families and single young men who, while bound for America, had no special place in view and so when we arrived at our destination there was quite a large company. In this company was one Niels Johnson and family who had a brother in this country, who had come over a few years previous, so we all went to his home a couple of miles south of Fairwater. They lodged us in their barns and small house as best they could for a few days and assisted us all in finding places to live and work to do.

I was not 10 1/2 years old. I remained at home the following summer and attended school the next winter. The teacher’s name was Frank Sessions. I did not learn anything but managed to pick up a little of the English language. In the spring of 1867 I was sent to work for a family named John Chapman. I was with them that summer and late fall. My wages was to be my board. I milked their cow, tended their baby, carried water, washed dishes and anything that I could. I was to stay with them and go to school the next winter, but as there was always so much to do that I seldom could get away I went home and finished the winter term. The teacher was a fine Christian man named Burch. In the spring I returned to the Chapmans’ and was to have 50 cents per week, but they were poor and money scarce so they never paid me. After three months I went to live with a Mr. & Mrs. Hites at 75 cents per week and in the fall I went to pick hops together with others in a field near Fairwater. The next winter I stayed with Mrs. George Jones and two children while her husband went north to work in the woods. I cared for a horse, two cows, some sheep, pigs and young stock and helped in the housework. Wages-75 cents. The following spring I went to work for a widow named Louise Tolcott who ran two farms in the township of Alto. I was there one year and 8 months, wages $1.25 per week. I was now 14 years old and could now do all the housework, washing, ironing, baking and sometimes helped in the garden.

At the age of 16 1/2 I entered the Brandon High School where I attended the fall and winter term. I wanted more education as I had found that I was not strong or robust and the work of a maid was hard in those days. I attended high school again the following fall and winter and in the spring I took the examination and was given a certificate to teach a district school. I applied for a school and got it and taught that term.

Soon after that I met James Hansen and we were married (18 1/2) in Brandon by Rev. G. F. Reynolds, May 23, 1874.

We lived a short time on a farm near Fairwater, then on a small farm near Brandon, where my two oldest children were born. We then sold and moved to Neenah. My two youngest children were born there. My husband died in 1891 from typhoid fever. Since then I have supported myself and children until they became self supporting by raising fruit, selling milk and as a substitute rural mail carrier for 8 years.

I united with the M.E. church in Brandon in 1872. Should have mentioned that my father became blind soon after coming to this country so he could not work to support his family, hence we were all thrown on our own resources while young which, though hard, taught us to work and made us self reliant.

This, in brief, is a synopsis of the life of a little Dane girl, details being omitted to make a long story short. Some think her life has been hard, but I do not think so. God has been good to me. My needs have been supplied and strength has been given me to carry on. I am now 74 years of age. The fast coming evening of life promises fair and its pathway grows smooth to my feet.

This letter from James B. Pond, Fairwater area native, was written shortly after the massacre at Baxter Springs, Kansas, the battle for which he was awarded a Medal of Honor. The letter appeared in the Janesville Gazette on October 28, 1863.

I send you a copy of the Fort Scott Union Monitor, which contains an account of the recent fight (or slaughter) at Baxter’s Springs. I would like very much for you to publish the list of killed and wounded as they are nearly all 3d Wisconsin men. You will doubtless remember Henry Pelage, the leader of Pelage’s Band of Madison. He was shot through the head after having surrendered. Also James K. O’Neil. I think he has a mother living in Kenosha. He was formerly with Langrishe & Atwater’s theater, as scenic artist, and was known by nearly everybody in Wisconsin. He was shot through the heart with a Sharp’s rifle ball. He was with General Blunt’s artist. I saw his eyes closed and had him buried in a separate grave, and had it marked, so that his friends can find him at any time. He was universally loved by all who knew him in the army, and his sketches of the Frontier Army, in Frank Leslie, have afforded us amusement many times during the past six months. I don’t know as it is worth while to attempt to give you a description of the affair at Baxter’s, as you are probably bored with more of these prolix communications than you could possibly publish, provided you devoted your columns to nothing else. But being in the hottest of the engagement and the only one that kept the stars and stripes flying, I will give you a few facts and if you see fit you can make what you like of it?

On the 1st of October, I was ordered with my entire company, and a mountain howitzer, to Baxter’s Springs, 80 miles south of Fort Scott, there to assume command of that post, which was then being held by company D, 9th Wisconsin, and company A, 2d regiment, Colored Volunteers. In all making my command two hundred and twenty-five men. I arrived at Baxter’s (lately known as Fort Blair,) on the 5th, and proceeded to extend fortifications, and make preparations for a winter camp. On the 6th, at 12 M, my camp was attacked from the timber on the east side, and surrounded in less than one minute, with a force of not less than five or six hundred, who charged in at full speed, firing revolvers and double barreled shot guns. I rallied my men as well as I could, who were among the rebels so thick that it was almost impossible to tell them apart, and get them behind our entrenchments which were small, and the darkies opened a volley on them with their long guns, that compelled them to fall back a little. This gave my men a chance, who immediately rallied to the work, and we drove their line back to the timber. I then saw that they were preparing for a second charge, and called for men to help man the howitzer, which was outside the entrenchment, between my men and the enemy. Every one seemed busy shooting, and I was obliged to open a box of shell, and run the howitzer alone, which I managed to get along with, under the circumstances. I loaded and fired at them three times, the first shell bursting in their ranks, and killing a man and a horse. This drove their line still further back to the north of east, over a hill, in order that they might avoid my shell. Shortly after they had disappeared over the hill, I heard brisk firing, and not knowing what it could be, I started out, when I saw Major Henning of the 3d, come riding in informing me that the enemy were driving Gen. Blunt, who with staff and body guard were enroute for Fort Smith, Arkansas. The Major called for cavalry, but as my cavalry had all gone out on a forage expedition in the morning, I had none to give him, and the best I could do was to hold the post.

I got where I could see the whole massacre and saw the guerillas take in one after another, and after disarming them, shoot them. They were not long in finishing what they had to do, for they so completely surprised the general and party that they had them surrounded and

cut to pieces in less than five minutes. Gen. Blunt and Major Henning, miraculously cut their way through and escaped, and reached my camp safe in the evening. The casualties of Gen. Blunt’s command were 82 killed and 4 wounded. Six of my company were killed, and three wounded. Lieut. Cook, of the 2nd colored and one of the negroes were killed, and eight negroes wounded which were the casualties of my camp. I killed five of the enemy and wounded several, who were picked up by their own men. The negroes fought the best of any men I ever saw, not one would give up after they were wounded, but kept shooting as long as they could see a rebel. I think that if our northern pro-slavery friends could serve a few weeks with a colored regiment and witness the soldier like appearance of the darkies, all prejudice against them would be removed. It has cured all that have seen them, and I don’t want to be without a company of negroes if I can help it. Since the affair at Baxter’s I have been recalled with my command and am now stationed on the Dry Wood, Mo., twelve miles south of Ft. Scott, preparatory to making a raid into Missouri. My command now consists of two companies of the 3d Wisconsin, three companies of the 12th Kentucky volunteers, one company 2nd Kansas colored volunteers, and one section of Blair’s 2nd Kansas battery, in all, about 500 men. The rebels are making quite a route through this portion of Missouri. Shelby, with 1000 men, is being chased out on double quick. He has lost over half of his command within the last three days. Brig. Gen’ls. Ewing and Weer are after him with 2000 cavalry, running him from the Missouri river. I expect to join the chase and cut off the rebel general within the next 48 hours. Everybody is a soldier now-a-days, every man a rebel that is not Kansas is "sound on the goose" and rebels will soon get sick of invading her sacred soil. I see that this is too much extended to be interesting, so I will close by promising a report of my future campaign.
J. B. POND

James and Sarah Hinslea emigrated to Fairwater from Doncaster, England, in 1856. He was 81; she was 67. The couple settled on a 20 acre parcel of land on the William Plocker farm and subsequently moved into Fairwater and lived on Lot 3 of Block 6, just west of present day Cass Street. Their Washington Street neighbors included Mary Pangburn, widow of Henry Pangburn, and N. C. Hurlburt, proprietor of the Fairwater flour mill.

Linda Nelson, a descendant of the Hinsleas, visited Fairwater recently from Florida to learn more about the couple. Her research not only identified the location of the Hinsleas’ Fairwater home but also uncovered the fact that the couple were cared for by members of the Fairwater Free Baptist church during their last days. The Hinsleas died within two months of each other and were buried in the Fairwater cemetery in 1871.

 
The former Hinslea farm on Liner Road, left, and Linda and
Don Nelson viewing the Hinslea gravesite, right.

Nelson’s major question is why her ancestors moved to a frontier village in Wisconsin--thousands of miles from their ancestral home--at their advanced ages. She believes the answer lies in a relationship to Captain Plocker and speculates that Sarah Hinslea was related to Plocker’s English-born mother, Susanna Hart.

Nelson indicates that James Hinslea was the father of Ann Lyon, the wife of John Lyon and mother of J. W. Lyon, the prominent Fairwater businessman.

Dame, Knapp, Gallup, Spooner, Reynolds Families

Susan Mason of New York has been searching for information related to several branches of her family who emigrated from Vermont in the mid-nineteenth century and whose whereabouts have since been lost to the family.

Mason discovered one relative, Jemima Dame, in the 1860 Metomen census on the Fairwater Website and contacted Bob Schuster for confirmation. They discovered that Dame’s son, two daughters, and two Vermont-born nieces were also living in Metomen.

To date, Mason has located family members that include Ovet and Ellen Knapp, Chester and Mary Gallup, Edmund and Dorcas Reynolds, and Philo and Cynthia Spooner. Spooner was a Fairwater grocer in 1860. John W. Dame, a grandson of Jemima Dame, was one of the early teachers in the Fairwater school.

Yorty, Brady, Culbertson Families

Katherine Winslow also recently contacted Schuster after discovering members of her family in the Metomen censuses for 1850 and 1860, among them the Levi Yorty, James Culbertson, and Patrick Brady families.

Winslow has shared information indicating that a great-grandson of the Yortys’ is Sam Yorty, former mayor of Los Angeles. She is now looking for information about the burial site of Patrick Brady, who died around 1870 in the Brandon area. Brady was an Irish Catholic and could be buried in one of the area Catholic cemeteries.

Korth, Kuehn, Jahns Families

Linda McGoey, whose maternal family includes the Korth, Kuehn, and Jahns families, is looking for church records about the Fairwater marriage of her grandparents, Caroliena Kromer and Rudolph Jahns in 1890.

Mitchell Family

Christy Cole is looking for local information about her great-great-great-grandfather, Peter Mitchell, whose 1881 obituary identifies him as having built the Fairwater flour mill.

NEWSLETTER
Fairwater Historical Society
PO Box 151
Fairwater, Wisconsin 53931

Meetings

The Fairwater Historical Society meets the first Saturday of each month at the Fairwater Lion’s Club on south Main Street. An exchange of photographs and information begins at 2:00, followed at 2:30 by the meeting. The public is invited. The annual meeting is held the first Saturday of March.

Acquisitions

The Fairwater society accepts donations of items with historic ties to the immediate Fairwater area. Contact Lois Schmuhl, accessions officer, at Radio Road, Brandon, WI 53919.

Membership

Membership in the Fairwater Historical Society is $10 annually for individuals and families, $100 lifetime for individuals. Contact Arlene Leppin, PO Box 151, Fairwater, WI 53931

Web Site

The society maintains a Web site on the Wisconsin Local History Network. Featuring projects, activities, calendars, and copies of the FHS newsletter, the society’s site can be browsed at:

www.wlhn.org/fairwater_histsoc

Newsletter

Current issues are available at the Fairwater post office. Past issues and mailings are available through Bob Schuster, 6020 Kristi Circle, Monona, WI 53716 (608-221-1421).