Page 258 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

254 WISCOBSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

in the Lakes, and much of what are now the Third, Fourth
and Fifth Wards, were submerged-no sidewalks, no streets.
Speculation had raged here through the years of '36 and '37,
and now everything was prostrated. And surely a more deso-
late, down-to-the-heel, slip-shod looking place could, scarccly
be found than was Milwaukee in October, 1838. Its popula-
tion was from 1200 to 1500. I turned away from the town
then, with the feeling that if it was a fair sample of the glo-
rious and beautiful West, I as one humble seeker of his for-
tune, had seen enough. But my journey took me into the
interior of the State, through all the southern part of our own,
and the northern and central part of the State of Illinois. At
this time, the population was very sparse. As an illustration,
I passed a night and day at the cabin of a gentleman who was
almost the sole occupant of the beautiful litdle prairie known
as Prairie du Lac, now the site of the village of Milton, in
Rock county, and the populous region round about. The
owner and occupant of that cabin is now a member of this
Board and upon this floor. I allude to N. G. STORES, Esq.
At what is now the site of Janesville, I tarried a number of
days. There were there thcn three log houses, and one log
blacksmith shop. JOHN P. DICKSON, Esq., just elected a
member of the Legislature from the city of Janesville, enter-
tained travelers in his more than usually ample log house.
Old 'Squire JANES, a frontier man from whom the town took
its name, was thcn residing there. At that time there were
no bridges, and but few roads in the whole country. But the
weather was delightful, and who that saw Southern Wisconsin
and Northern Illinois in that early day, when the annual fires
swept prairie and opening, and madc them clean and smooth as
a house floor, will ever forgot their beauty, or the facility with
which the traveler passed through the country even without
roads and bridges? Most fully now did my own observation
confirm the description given by Mr. FLINT, of the beauty and
natural wealth of the country! It Was not difficult for the