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ITEM: Captain William Plocker biography SOURCE: The History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880
His will was remarkably clear and concise, and written in that elegant hand which, even after three-score years had passed, was the pride of the "Captain." The special cash legacies of the will amounted to about $6,000, and the remainder of his large property was divided ratably among his sisters and brother, or their heirs. The special legacies were, however, to all appearances, bestowed upon faithful servants or cherished friends--no one whom he loved being forgotten.
The document ends in rhyme--
Then follows the signature of William Plocker.
Then follow the signatures of C. P. Knapp, Leander Ferguson and William D. Ash. In one clause of the will is disclosed a bit of the tenderest romance, strongly characteristic of the fidelity and constancy of the man, which, as the party interested is now living in the county, will not be mentioned further. Suffice it to say it furnishes one of the reasons why he lived and died an old bachelor.
His collection of stereoscopic views number over five hundred, and covered the places most interesting to him in Europe and America. Many of them were very fine. The Nuremberg Bible, bequeathed in the will to the State Historical Society, is a book about 18x12 inches, and six inches in thickness. It is heavily bound in what appears to be thick, whitish hog-skin, and is in perfect condition, although printed in 1710. It is in good German, printed on thick, yellow paper which looks as if it might have been made of wheat straw and water--the straw not finely cut--as it undoubtedly was. The title-page is in glaring red ink, which has not faded, apparently, in the least, All the principal events are finely but quaintly illustrated by steel engravings. Many of the passages are greatly dissimilar from the corresponding ones in modern Bibles, the fault, probably, of translating into German. His scrap book is of absorbing interest. On the first page is a yellow leaf of paper on which is written in brown ink and in the "Captain's" clear hand, the following:
Everything he ever did is thus accurately noted down. His father paid his passage money for the trip here mentioned, but in order to gratify his desire for information, he worked before the mast as a common seaman. This "scrap-book"contains all the notes he ever gave and receipts for all the money expended by or for him. He must have been an honest man, or he would not have dared thus to preserve for the public the record of every act of his life! Among other receipts is one for board, washing, room-rent and fires at the Park Hotel, Madison, for $129.70 in full, and signed by M. H. Irish. The amount included all his expenditures while in Madison as Assemblyman from the First district. This was the only time the Captain ever was in the Legislature. On the middle pages of the book, which is a large one, are bills of various denominations of all the insolvent State banks, as well as counterfeit bills on those and other banks--each marked "fraud," "failed," or "counterfeit," as the case might be, with the date of issue or failure. Among these--and there are very many of them--is a counterfeit on the Wisconsin Fire and Marine Bank, of Milwaukee, dated July 4, 1847, and signed by Alexander Mitchell. It must have cost some time and money to collect even these bank bills. Further on may be found page after page of signatures. These comprise almost all the prominent men of the county and State--many of them marked, as is the signature of Gen. Halbert E. Paine, "a good friend of mine;" or "an honest man," or "good business man," as he might know the different men. He has also at least a thousand signatures of such persons as Jeff Davis, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Lincoln, John G. Saxe, Fillmore and the leading authors, statesmen and poets, beginning from the earliest colonial times. when or how he became possessed of them he left nothing to indicate. The signatures of the prominent county and State men were evidently clipped from business or other letters received during the last twenty-five years. Further on in this scrap-book, appear to be all the letters he had ever received, many of them fifty years old and written in various languages. also all the receipted bills of expenses in his European travels. These bills are all modest.
The manuscript book of "Anecdotes and Comicalities," mentioned in his will, is one of the most interesting in the whole collection. All the incidents, stories, jokes, anecdotes and peculiarities of all he ever knew, are recorded in his own hand in the quaintest, drollest manner imaginable. Sometimes an anecdote is written in the form of a snake, or like a triangle, or a house, parallelogram, crescent, full circle, star or whatever at the time seemed to strike his fancy. Every letter and mark of punctuation is perfect throughout. Probably no other book was ever written like it in the world. It is quaint, interesting and valuable. He had also a large number of Chinese and Pacific Island curiosities, some of them not to be duplicated in any antiquarian in the country. He saved, arranged systematically, and properly marked, everything coming into his possession. All his newspaper, secret society and other receipt papers were arranged in groups, and all the papers received from the federal Government, and so on, in other groups.
The Fort Wilkins Agate, one of the greatest newspaper curiosities extant, was found carefully preserved. The first copy is dated July 4, 1846. It is a folio, and all printed with a quill pen. It is as fine as ordinary bourgeois type. The name of the editor and printer could not be learned, but from the peculiar expressions it may be presumed to be the work of the Captain. He had also carefully preserved his first commission as Postmaster of Fairwater, which is signed by Cave Johnson as Postmaster General, and dated July 1, 1848. His collection of postage and revenue stamps was also large and valuable.
NOTES: See Captain William Plocker's Inn for additional information related to William Plocker. |
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CAPT.
WILLIAM PLOCKER was born in London, England, May 28, 1811. His father
was a Hollander, who spelled his name Plokker, and his mother was an English
lady. He was educated and brought up in Amsterdam, Holland. He left there
as recorded above, landing at Boston July 1, 1827. In 1829, he moved to
Orleans County, N. Y., and engaged in farming, teaching, and clerking.
In 1839-40, he was Collector of canal tolls at Brockport, N. Y., and later,
cashier in Buffalo and Albany of the Western Transportation Company. In
1845-47, he was clerk and then Master of the fine steamer Wiskonsin, plying
between Buffalo and Chicago. From this he obtained the title of Captain,
by which he was always afterward known. In 1847, he settled at Fairwater,
Fond du Lac County, where he thereafter lived and accumulated a competence.
He was Supervisor of Metomen many years, chairman of the County Board
in 1857, Town Clerk some years, and a member of the Assembly in 1875.
He is well remembered in Fond du Lac. His slow, steady walk, as with hands
clasped behind him he carefully scanned many times over the architecture,
signs and features of every building as he passed, marked him at once
with every person. He loved to take dinner at the American House, and
when he visited his niece, Mrs. James Spence, which was often, he hardly
ever failed to spend a day at the residence of Mrs. Keyes Darling, being
an old friend to both Mrs. Darling and her husband. He was a great lover
of bezique, and loved to visit those who played his favorite game. Singularly
enough, he returned to Boston to die, the place where he first set foot
upon American ground. He loved America and praised her people and Government
wherever he went. While returning from a concert in Boston on the evening
of December 11, he fell while on a street car and died without speaking,
December 20, 1878.