Charles COWLES Dr.

[S9] [S10] [S22] [S23]
Family 1: Mary COWLES
  1. Maria Amelia COWLES
  2. Charles Lucian COWLES ( Dr.)
  3. Edwin Harper COWLES
  4. Mary Ellen COWLES
  5. Adna Harper COWLES
  6. Laura Ruby COWLES 
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Notes

1860 US Census Name: Mary Cowles Age in 1860: 42 Birth Year: abt 1818 Birthplace: Ohio Home in 1860: Baraboo, Sauk, Wisconsin Gender: Female Post Office: Baraboo Value of real estate: View image Household Members: Name Age C Cowles 43 Mary Cowles 42 Maria Cowles 16 Lucina Cowles 11 Mary E Cowles 7 Image Source: Year: 1860; Census Place: Baraboo, Sauk, Wisconsin; Roll: M653_1429; Page: 472 ; Image: 35. ________________ Household: Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Moth er's Birthplace Charles COWLES Self M Male W 63 OH Physician CT MA Mary COWLES Wife M Female W 62 OH Keeping House CT NY Mary E. COWLES Dau S Female W 27 WI At Home OH OH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source Information: Census Place Baraboo, Sauk, Wisconsin Family History Library Film 1255446 NA Film Number T9-1446 Page Number 17B __________________________________________________________ Early Days in Baraboo History: Tradition And Trail Breakers by Ruth M. Southard Reprinted fro m the August 1, 1934 Baraboo News Republic. In 1944, only the river was Baraboo. The north side of the river was called "Adams". When th e town was organized in 1847?1848, it was named Baraboo. The south side was called "Lower Bar aboo". It has been "under the hill" almost from the first. "While Wisconsin was still a terr itory and a wilderness, Abe Wood came as the first permanent resident of Baraboo, the exact d ate not being recorded, but it was about 1839. Water power and quick riches drew Abe Wood t o the Baraboo rapids. " He was a powerfully built man, rough and profane, impulsively ready t o divide his last crust and equally ready to pick a quarrel. It was only the accident of hi s being the first settler that made him prominent in Baraboo's history. In 1840, Wallace Row an arrived. These first settlers made a claim to the land where the Island Woolen Mill now st ands for the purpose of building a sawmill. They built the first dam an the Baraboo River jus t north of where the woolen mill is now located. Part of the Wood and Rowan dam may still b e visible at low water. The race is still visible below the south-west comer of Ochsner parkW allace Rowan brought with him his wife and three daughters. One daughter, Araminta, married J ames LaMar, also an early settler. The union of these two young pioneers gives us a bit of in teresting local history, for as the years rolled onward, it was revealed that they were the g randparents of Clifford M. LaMar and Mrs Wayne Newell of Baraboo, Wis. Abe Wood built a lo g cabin, 12 by 12 feet on the bank of the Baraboo River. Mr. H. E. Cole, former president o f the Sauk County Historical Society, was instrumental in having a bronze tablet placed to ma rk the spot which reads: "On this site in 1839, first permanent house was erected by Abraha m Wood, who, with Wallace Rowan built nearby in 1840 the first sawmill and dam on the Barabo o River. Placed by the Sauk County Historical Society, June 14, 1926." This tablet is one o f many which will survive the years for future generations and will also perpetuate the nam e of one who worked so unselfishly and faithfully in the interest of Sauk County history, Mr . H.E. Cole. Abe Wood died September, 1855, aged sixty years. The cabin he built was the beg inning of Baraboo. Levi Moore was a close follower of Wallace Rowan, locating in 1840. A whee lwright and ship builder by trade, he operated a sawmill in the early days of Baraboo. Part o f his land was known as Moore's Addition, bounded on the south and west by the Baraboo River , on the east by Center Street and on the north by 8th Avenue. Once a wild and picturesque tr act, it is now intersected by paved and busy thoroughfares lined on each side by attractive , modem homes. It was platted in 1859. The home place on 2nd Avenue has never been out of th e family. Levi Moore was the father of Mrs. Charles H. Williams and Valoo V. Moore and grandf ather of Mrs. Oscar Doppler. Eben Peck with his wife, Rosaline and two children, Victoria an d Victor, also came in 1840. Mrs Peck, who was well entrenched in the early history of Barabo o, was described by Levi Moore as: "Our lawyer, doctor and particular friend of the peopl e - and never told a lie." She herself is quoted as saying: "There were no deaths in Barabo o until the doctors came. "Mrs. Peck was the first white woman in Madison as well as Baraboo . Her daughter, Victoria, was the first white child born in Madison. Indians were numerous a nd a nuisance for their thieving and begging but the fact that Abe Wood's wife was a Winnebag o chief's daughter with authority over the Winnebago tribe, prevented in Sauk County the depr edations and tragedies that troubled other localities - although there were several serio?com ic Indian scares. The first wedding in Baraboo took place in November, 1884, when Chauncey B rown's daughter, Martha, was united in marriage to Erastus Langdon by Justice of the Piece, L orin Cowles. While the guests were still assembled, news came of the election of President Po lk, which took place two weeks earlier. No telegraph facilities, no railroads, no telephones , nor wireless, nor airplanes those days to bring news quickly. All these conveniences came l ater in one life span of ninety four years. To wind up the exciting events of that first wedd ing, there was an eclipse of the moon that night. Erastus Langdon was an uncle of H.C. and E. J. Langdon of Baraboo. In 1844, Baraboo had no licenses nor saloons. After the death of a ma n who drank himself to death , alone and privately, nearly everyone signed the pledge. It i s a noble list of names for a little village. The story of the first funeral held in Barabo o is told in a letter written by my mother's youngest sister when she was fourteen years old . Baraboo was her home with Great Grandmother Crandall from 1846 until her marriage in 1851 . The letter follows: "Saturday, the l8th of December, 1848. A funeral was held over the cor pse of George W. Brown, a friend of the poor, a loved and respected member of society. He i s lamented by a large circle of brothers and sisters, a father and mother. He was a single ma n but expected (reports say) to be married the night he was killed. His poor Maria is at mos t frantic with grief . He was owner of the sawmill and in putting up an addition, a bent fell , killing him almost instantly He never spoke again although he breathed for almost two hours . He was very rich, some say worth two thousand dollars ($2,000), but we do not know. The fun eral was held at the new court house, the first that was ever held in it. The text was this : 'Truly as the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.' H e was followed to the grave by nearly two hundred people. His was the first interment in th e village burying ground. Huldah Van Valken Burgh, 1848" When Mr. Cole saw this letter, he b egan a search for the first burying ground, as it was not until 1855 that the present cemeter y was located and named. There is a note, however, which says: "In the early days of the Bapt ist church, a burial place was purchased. The land formerly belonged to Ira S. Angle whose mo ther, a member of the church, was the first to be buried there. Her name was "Mercy". So th e cemetery was called "Mount Mercy." It was located on Cheek's Hill. Bodies whatever buried , on farms or in private burying grounds, were moved to the present cemetery after 1855. In c onnection with the location of the first burying ground, there was some correspondence on th e subject with Mr. Cole, his letters follow: Dear Miss Southard, I have always understood t hat the earliest cemetery here (Baraboo) was on the ridge east of where the Hills once live d - at Indian Ford - north of Ochsner park, all a field now. There was a cemetery about wher e Mrs. M. A. Warren now resides - later they selected a place on Cheek's Hill. George Brown w as, no doubt, buried in one of these places - but which? When I see Ed. Alexander, I'll ask h im. Wallace Rowan and Judge Cowles were buried in the Ruggles' field. The bodies were never m oved, Valoo V. Moore may know, I'll ask him also. Sincerely, H.E. Cole Dear Miss Southard, I met Ed. Alexander and spoke to him about Brown's burial place. He thinks he was buried fi rst in the Ruggles' field, north of Ochsner park, and later was moved to the present burial p lace. He thinks the Brown lot is south of the Warren monument, across the driveway, Ed. Alexa nder thinks the parents are also buried in the lot - Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Brown. Better loo k it up in the cemetery when the dandelions bloom again. As ever, H.E. Cole Dear Miss Sout hard, You will find the Brown monument in the cemetery. There are several inscriptions on th e stone. Am not sure , but think George, Edwin and William are all buried in the lot. Will lo ok again when there. Sincerely yours, H.E. Cole In June, 1944, a school meeting was held, w ith a committee composed of Wallace Rowan, Lewis Bronson and William H. Canfield. They were a ppointed to select a site for a district schoolhouse. This building stood for many years afte r its service as a schoolhouse ended, or until 1849. It served as court room, town hall and g eneral meeting house, as well as schoolhouse. The logs of this building were left in the roug h. The roof was made of slabs taken from Levi Moore's mill. The cracks were filled with batte ns. The size was about 12 by 14 feet A small blackboard, about 5 by 2 1/2 feet made by Jame s Webster, was put up. The furnishings were mainly benches made of slabs sawed on one side , rough bark on the other and arranged along the sides of the room in haphazard fashion. Th e teacher had no desk. Heat was supplied by a fireplace with outside chimney of rough stone . The first teacher Iwas E.M. Hart from Massachusetts. The subjects taught the first year wer e reading, writing and spelling. The next year, grammar and arithmetic were added. The book s were anything and everything. Fortunate was the pupil who had any, said David Reynolds, on e of the first pupils. David Reynolds married one of Wallace Rowan's daughters. He helped t o build the first schoolhouse on what is now Seventh Avenue. Oxen were used more than horse s in the early days - conditions demanded their greater strength and endurance and they wer e more quickly raised and put to work. Locomotion by ox-team was the slowest mode of travelin g known in America. A man could walk faster but it was necessary to walk beside a yoke of oxe n to guide and travel the one hundred miles to them. It took days with a load to Milwaukee, t he nearest source of barter and supply. In 1850 and later, merchandise of all kinds came di rect from Philadelphia, Boston and New York to Milwaukee, there being no wholesale house in C hicago for some years after. "Teaming" was one of the early industries. In the olden time wh en Wisconsin was putting on the dignity of statehood, a young man with eighty acres of land a nd an ox-team considered himself well-to-do. It wasn't an unheard of thing for him to call o n a pleasant afternoon and take his sweetheart out for a ride. As oxen had no bridles, they h ad to be governed by word of mouth and crack of the whip. The whip was essential. It had a sn ap on the end, not so much for punishment as for moral suasion. "Whoa, Haw. Gee!" and their n ames: Star, Buck or Bill, was the extent of the oxen's knowledge of the English language. A s the driver was on foot and fully occupied with urging on his steeds, love-making must hav e been extremely limited at such times. Often four oxen-a double yoke, were used for heavy lo ads. The wagons or carts were heavy and clumsy looking to match. In 1846, so many settlers came that there was not shelter for them at all. The housing proble m was so acute, people were uncomfortably crowded together. Among those who came in 1846, wer e my great grandfather and grandmother Crandall, about a dozen great aunts and uncles and the ir families. There is a family tradition that five of the Crandall families spent a winter i n the old log schoolhouse of two rooms! D.P. Crandall took shelter in the sawmill for awhile . There is also word that Miss Maria Crandall taught school in the old log schoolhouse. The r ecords do not explain if it was at the same time it was occupied by five families. To the ave rage person it would look impossible, but there seems to be no limit to the resources of thos e sturdy pioneers. A sawmill on the south shore of the Baraboo River was at the time kept running night and da y to provide lumber for the much needed buildings. D.P. Crandall was known to work forty-eigh t hours at a stretch without sleep to keep the mill at top speed so houses could be built fo r the homeless. Log houses were called huts. Those built of rough slabs were shanties. Thre e of the Crandall houses are still standing. The one at the head of Broadway was built by Ebe r Crandall, second postmaster of Baraboo. The old homestead on the Portage road was built fo r my great grandfather, Simeon Crandall by his son, Simeon, Jr., in 1848. It is now the prope rty of the Misses Huntington, having changed hands once. The house now the home of M.C. Crand all, was built by his grandfather, D.P. Crandall in 1858. All three houses were built on gove rnment land entered in 1845 in Mineral Point. Dr. Samuel Crandall who came with the others i n 1846, built his house on what is now Water Street, "under the hill". He devoted himself t o the practice of medicine almost at once. He was one of the old time doctors who carried the ir medicines in saddlebags on the back of a faithful horse through wind and weather. His prac tice took him one hundred miles into the Pinery where only blazed trees marked the trail. H e rode when rain and sleet froze on horse and rider alike, when blinding storms made it almos t impossible to follow the trail. Sub-zero weather was only one of the dangers he faced. Hi s life ended at forty years. His diploma and saddlebags were presented to the Sauk County His torical Society. (Note: The saddlebags are on display in the Pioneer Room.) The D.P. Crandall house built in 1858, now the home of M.C. Crandall, has sheltered members o f the Crandall family for seventy-five years-a hospitable home. (Note: The Crandall home use d to stand where St. Paul's Lutheran Church stands on 8th Street in Baraboo.) Its latch strin g was out for friend or relative alike. Those in trouble or in need found peace and securit y within its walls. Many school boys and girls trod the road to knowledge from its doors an d took widely divergent paths out into the busy world. The house knew youth and gaiety. It kn ew marriage and death and the tragedy of wars. It has known a full life. If walls could speak , what a story they could tell. In 1934, only two are left in Baraboo to represent a once lar ge clan and they are of the fourth generation-M.C. Crandall and Ruth Southard. In 1850, there was a population of 250. In ten years, it had increased to 1,100. Dr. Charle s Cowles was the first physician who located in Baraboo Valley. He came here in May, 1846. Dr . Cowles was in the prime of life, full of vigor and had a practice which extended many miles . On one occasion at sundown, January 3, 1847, he was called to go sixty-four miles to visi t a lumberman taken with pleura-pneumonia. On an Indian pony, he rode that distance by four o 'clock the next morning without dismounting and the thermometer registered 26 degrees below z ero; such a feat demonstrated a degree of physical endurance seldom seen in our time. He exce lled in quick diagnosis, arriving at quick conclusions and was remarkably accurate as a rule. Under the head Musical I find the following: "Dr. Charles Cowles might be called with proprie ty, the father of music in this and other parts of Sauk County. He taught singing school in t he village of Baraboo and neighborhood some twenty years, and many who might now be called ol d singers received their first lesson from him." Dr. Cowles bought two lots for seven dollars and built a house where Mrs. John Griggs now liv es on Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Dr. B.F. Mills, the last of the steadily thinning ranks o f the pioneer doctors, made Baraboo his permanent home in 1850. After sixty years of medica l practice, he was so much a part of Baraboo that his personality is still like a living pres ence, while Dr. Mills' drugstore and Dr. Mills' home place are well known landmarks to the pr esent generation. The first and last of our pioneer family doctors! Brave they were with no thought of self whe n a call came. I would like to mention each one of those old-time heroic men, but space forbi ds; they were outstanding in their service to their community, in their relation to local his tory and in their unblemished character. Ed Marsh came in 1849. In 1855, he opened a photogra ph and ambrotype gallery. After his return from the Civil War, Mr. Marsh built the first hote l at Devil's Lake-The Minnewauken House. This hotel was later enlarged; the porches and rusti c railings added and rechristened The Cliff House. I visited there while the Warners and Thom psons were residents. The work was being done by Tom Thompson who was an architect from Engla nd. He was also artistic and a genius. The finished building nestling at the foot of the clif f with the rocks and pines for a background, the peerless, unspoiled lake in the foreground w as like a bit of Swiss scenery transplanted to Wisconsin. But man has marred and commercializ ed it. Some day, we hope, someone with vision and love of beauty in his heart will rise up an d restore Devil's Lake to its primitive beauty with its former peace and quiet, when visitor s who love rare things will gaze with awe and wonder upon masterpiece and those for revenue o nly will be conspicuous by their absence. In 1850, the first Methodist church in Baraboo an d Baraboo Valley was erected. The Sauk county Historical Society placed a bronze tablet to ma rk the spot near the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in 19 14. When I was seven years old , I attended my first School in the basement of the old Methodist church. As I remember, th e building stood on a high knoll, or so it seemed to my short legs. The ground sloped to th e rear to permit large double doors such as are used on a garage these days. I recall we ente red through a vacant room before entering the schoolroom I was wearing to school a greyish, b rownish, wool delaine dress made with a low neck and short puffed sleeves. I wore over thi s a black silk sacque to protect my bare skin from tan. It was not the mode to look like an I ndian in my young days. There were plenty of original ones. I tore one of the sleeves of my d ress some how and so no one would know it was town, I tucked it under. "How did you tear you r sleeve?" my mother asked. "I don't know." I replied. Mother punished me not for tearing m y sleeve but for what she thought was an untruth. I have always been truthful, whether from t hat time on or whether I truly did not know - is lost in the mists of the long ago. This is e verything I can remember about my first school in the basement of the Methodist church. My n ext school saw me proudly marching to the head of a long spelling class when I out-spelled th e others or in "spelling the school down". Promotion simply took me from downstairs to upstai rs where the big girls of eleven and twelve in their fancied superiority had aroused my envy . Pupils were graded by reader - upstairs was fifth reader. The earliest building in Barabo o where the Methodists held their meetings was built of slabs with a saw-dust floor, accordin g to an early churchgoer. In this building, Miss Maria Train, later Mrs. C.C. Remington, hel d her first school. She was driven from Milwaukee with horse and buggy, the trip taking thre e or four days, stopping at some friendly place for the night when darkness overtook them,Yea rs later, when the population permitted district schools, teachers were paid eight dollars pe r month, six fifty, even as low as one dollar per week and boarded 'round. Teachers mostly ha d long distances to walk and fortunate was the teacher quartered near the school, for in addi tion to wading through deep snow in winter, they were required to build their own fires fro m green wood furnished by the district. Unseasoned green wood full of sap sizzled and stewed . It took the patience of Job plus an armful of kindling to get such a fire started. Plenty o f woe was the portion of the teacher who was short of kindling and plenty of tears were cause d by the smoke of a balky stove. Girls of fifteen, sixteen and seventeen taught the young id eas their three R's. Often the girl teacher had to study hard to keep just a jump ahead o f a more advanced pupil. Boys until twenty-one were kept at home to help with the farm work . Men grown, winter was their schooling time and some unruly ones paid "high jinks" even to t urning the teacher out of school. In such a case, a man was hired for the princely sum of fif teen dollars a month. My aunt, Ruth Van ValkenBurgh, later Mrs. Lewis Warner, my mother's si ster, told me storybook tales of her pioneer school teaching days. Her skirts, long and ful l over hoops, frozen from deep snow or slush would not thaw all day in a schoolroom. She ha d the courage to punish big boys, subdue them and gain their loyalty. She knew all the miseri es of boarding 'round in log cabins of one room and a loft - homes of many children. Part o f my aunt's equipment was a tin wash basin and her own soap and towels. The family used homem ade soft soap, strong with lye. Water froze in her room at night. There was no privacy, no co mforts. One of the sleeping problems was solved by the trundle bed where numerous small proge ny were stored for the night. This low bed was trundled into partial obscurity by day under t he higher bed in the main room. Necessity was its mother and gave origin to the descriptive e xpression trundle-bed truck used for small children for some years after. Some of those bed s required steps from which one plunged into smothering feather beds and between warm homespu n woolen sheets. In the loft where other members of the family were quartered slept teacher w ith various children for bedfellows. How different are conditions today! Hats off the unsun g pioneer teacher who broke the trail ! My aunt's teaching career ended in 1866 in a grade d school of two teachers. Jenkin Lloyd Jones paid a fine tribute to two teachers when he wrot e: "As a bashful, rustic boy, two sizes too small for companionship, I remember Miss VanValke nBurgh very well. She and Miss Sarah Joiner represented in that countryside the high-toned, c ultured class, much respected and looked up to. My elder brothers and sisters were better acq uainted with her than I was, but in the fifties and early sixties, the above were names to co njure by in that country-side." In 1847, the first post office was established. It was locat ed under the hill on what is now Water Street. Seth P. Angle was the first postmaster. In 18 51 the ol' swimmin' hole where the boys of that day sported, was located on the north bank o f the river exactly where a group of Ringling circus buildings later stood. Not one mentione d of those your swimmers is left. Body maple wood was sold in Baraboo for $1.00 per cord, th e rest destroyed. Now few wood lots are left. In the early days there was a flour mill, seve ral saw mills, planing mills, sash, door and blind factory, a chair factory and other industr ies on the north and south shore of the Baraboo river. The first Sauk County courthouse was l ocated in Prairie du Sac. There were not enough voters in Baraboo at that time and Prairie d u Sac made a better offer than Sauk City. In early days, doctors compounded their own medici nes. Every doctor and druggist had as part of his equipment, a heavy iron mortar and pestle i n which to prepare medicine. All that was needed for a sign for either was a mortar and pestl e. In 1856 the first fair by the Sauk County Agricultural Society was held in the old courth ouse. It was an indoor fair and the exhibits were very small. In pioneer days, the home wa s a factory were everything was manufactured. Wool was sheared from the sheep, washed, carded , spun, dyed, woven and made into garments for the whole family and families were large in th ose days. Sewing machines were unknown and sewing was done by hand. Stockings, socks and mitt ens were knit by the busy fingers of the women; even little girls knit their own stockings. T he moment a woman sat down, she picked up her knitting. There was no fruit for years. Cannin g was unknown for many more years. When fruit was finally raised in the Baraboo valley, pickl es and preserves were made after treasured recipes. Tallow candles first dipped, a slow proce ss, then poured into molds, provided all the light. There were no newspapers, no magazines , few books. Letters were few and far between. Postage was 25Ù! on a letter. Men made and mend ed tools, sowed grain by hand as there was no machinery to lighten the labor of men and women . Butter and cheese was part of the woman's work. A shoemaker came to the house once a year t o make boots and shoes for the family but there were many bare feet in the summer time. Pion eer women braided wheat straw and sewed it into hats for their men. They braided the finest s traw into hats for their daughters. Sunbonnets were worn universally. These women, many of th em, came from comfortable homes down east, New England or New York State. Some brought with t hem a silk drew and string of gold beads which served for all gala occasions. Silk was pure a nd lasted a lifetime - was often handed clown to descendants who treasured them and called th em quaint. Old poke bonnets and ruffled dresses are perpetuated in every picture, story and s ong. Is there anything beautiful or quaint to perpetuate in the modern view of one's spine o r the bare knees of a short period ago? In the early winter days, women wore shawls and war m hoods beautifully quilted. Men also wore shawls, large, double gray ones. Overcoats appeare d with tailors and prosperity. Large shawl pins connected with a chain were used to pin the m securely in place. Quilting was an art. Piecing quilts and exchanging pieces was one of th e highlights of uneventful days. Quilting bees were a social function with a banquet from th e larder of that day in which pie was conspicuous and here the husbands were honored guests . Specimens of the quilters' art from that day to this are treasured by the fortunate possess or. How those wor-hardened fingers could take such tiny stitches so close together and provi de such exquisite results with so little room and time and conveniences is one of the unsolve d mysteries. The young pioneers probably got more real fun out of their spelling and huskin g bees, their singing schools, skating and horseback riding than the modern youngsters, out o f their automobile trips. Sleigh-rides were fun, too, with a long wagon box perched on bobsle ds, clean straw packed in, covered with blankets and a hilarious singing crowd of boys and gi rls aboard, bound for some hospitable home where refreshments might have been only popcorn o r it might have been a taffy-pull. Prancing steeds and jingling bells were a happy accompanim ent. They were rare and simple pleasures, but they lingered long in one's memory. Custom Field:<_FA#> married 4th cousin Geneva, Ohio Physician



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