History of Reedsburg and the Upper Baraboo Valley, by Merton Edwin Krug, Publ. February 1929 by the author. Printed by Democrat Printing Company, Madison, Wis., Page 412-424

The settlement of this town, the most westward extremity of Sauk County, lying squarely west of LaValle township, dates from 1848. A man by the name of William RICHARDS is said to have been the first white man to enter its wilds. Possible the next settler was one John RICE, who is accorded the distinction of having been the first to take up land in this community. He settled on the southeast quarter of section 36, also at that time. Other settlers to come that year were Mr. and Mrs. Thomas MOORE, one Mr. KINGSLEY, and Isaac JAY.

Beyond all doubt John D. R. MITCHELL was the next of the Woodland pioneers. This gentleman was of Scotch descent, a native of Massachusetts. He is said to have led a very interesting early life, to have accumulated considerable wealth, and to have traveled extensively, making two trips to England. He married his wife, Catherine EVANS, in London. She was of a very wealthy Birmingham family, and they were married decidedly against the will of her people, as she was but 16 years of age and he was a foreigner. They lived in London eight years, then came to America, locating in New York City, where they conducted a large hotel. The main guests at this hotel were sailors, and Captain COOK, who first sailed around Cape Horn, was one who stopped with them. They remained in New York until 1848 when Mr. MITCHELL came west, stopping in McHenry County, Illinois, where he had a sister living. The sister was Mrs. Nehemiah AUSTIN.

About this time Mr. and Mrs. Nehemiah AUSTIN, having planned the trip for some time, left their McHenry County home, to take up a tract of virgin wilderness in the Little Baraboo Valley. The journey was made with a wagon and team of horses, together with other things they would need in a new and wild country. This was the first team of horses brought into the entire Upper Baraboo Valley; and old "Jim" was the first horse shod in the Village of Cazenovia, by a Mr. TINKER.

The AUSTINS located land in the Little Baraboo Valley, some two miles west of the present site of the village of Ironton. Mr. MITCHELL probably followed them some weeks later; it is known that he took up his land, what is now the farm of Mrs. Rufus OWEN, that year, 1848, the first settlement in the Little Baraboo Valley, town of Woodland. Returning to New York he continued his business there until the spring of 1850, when he sold out and came to Woodland to settle. He built a house on his land and his family joined him in November of that year. Mr. MITCHELL brought with him from the East, a stove, one of the first stoves to be brought into Northwestern Sauk County, and the first to the town of Woodland.

Mr. and Mrs. MITCHELL brought with them three children; John D. R., Jr., who married Lydia GEORGE and resided in Woodland; Catherine (Mrs. Elijah DYSON); Charles, who married Laura B. BENNETT and went to Nebraska in 1873. Two others, James, married Mary DYSON and spent his life in Woodland, and William H., who married Ellen SHATTAUCH and now of Peterson, Minnesota, were born in Woodland. Charles MITCHELL has two daughters, Mrs. Thomas COX and Mrs. E. L. WOOD, both residing in Woodland. William MITCHELL had a large family and two of his daughters, Mrs. B. U. SEAMANS and Mrs. FEIGHT are of Sauk County residence.

Prior to the return of John D. R. MITCHELL, one John KELLEY had settled on what is now known as the old St. CLAIRE place, about one mile northwest of Ironton. It was with the KELLEY family that the MITCHELLS stayed until their own house was completed. At that time the nearest house west of the MITCHELL place was at Debello, ten miles distant.

"There was an Indian village on the MITCHELL place, about twenty rods from the house and the Indians were very troublesome though not warlike," writes Mrs. B. U. SEAMANS in an article on local history published in the Free Press some years ago. "it was a village of fifteen tepees."

Other settlers of 1850 were Mr. and Mrs. Abram LANGDON, Mr. and Mrs. HAYDEN and Alexander CAMP.

1851- Mr. and Mrs. James JACKSON, Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim SANDS and James BURWELL.

The year of 1852 brought rapid settlement to Woodland, especially up and down the Little Baraboo Valley. Possibly Mr. and Mrs. Mark DAVIS were the first of those who settled in this community. They were in the vanguard of Indiana Quakers who were to come and as it were, found what is today said to be the only Quaker Church in Wisconsin. Mr. DAVIS was an inspired Quaker preacher, and was able to quote the Bible from memory, hours at a time. His ministrations were made up chiefly from these quotations.

Mark and Rebecca DAVIS were the parents of several children: Hadley, married Betty, daughter of Benjamin PICKERING; Jacob, married Mary Ann, sister of Betty; Neal, married for his third wife, Mary CAMMACK, daughter of William CAMMACK, Sr.

Mr. and Mrs. Elihu PRESNALL came simultaneously with the DAVIS family. Mrs. PRESNALL having been a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. DAVIS. They were also from Indiana and Quakers.

Other families who came that year were: Mr. and Mrs. Isaac JAY, Mr. and Mrs. Calvin GARDNER, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac MEEK, and Luke and Eliza HALL. The latter couple will be remembered as possibly the first Negro family to locate in the Upper Baraboo Valley. We would mention the WALLACE children, Mary, Ed., Mrs. George VERGERONT.

1853 - No year in the early annals of pioneering brought more permanent settlers into the Little Baraboo Valley, than this. Many of them were Quakers, and hailed from the aguey lowlands of Indiana. These were the esteemed old Quaker families, and it is written that they "drove in covered wagons westward in search of a more healthy country and climate, and for some unknown reason, perhaps because of the pure water supply, took up landing the Little Baraboo Valley. This was the beginning of the Settlement of the Friends, though many came later who were not Quakers.

James STANLEY and his wife, Jemina, and family were among these. Mr. STANLEY, like Mr. DAVIS, was an inspired minister and often preached in the Quaker church which was later founded. He had two children, one of whom, Hulda, married William, also a child of Benjamin PICKERING. Jesse and Hanna DENNIS, the former a minister, Frances and Louisa JONES, Zimri and Pheriba SMALL, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph SMALL, Bailey and Betsy PEARSON, Solomon and Martha PEARSON, Mr. and Mrs. Elijah PICKERING, Mr. and Mrs. William BADGLEY, John HORINE, Henry and Rachael HORINE, Wilson and Martha SMITH, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gaylord BLAKESLEE, Mr. and Mrs. Irvin TENNALL, George HENRY, Adam FIGHT, Burford TUNNEL, William ALL and Jessie MALLOW and Simeon MORTIMER came that year.

Others were Mr. and Mrs. William MANN and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas MASON. Mr. and Mrs. William MANN had at a much earlier date resided east of the Ohio river, but early moved to the Quaker settlement in Indiana, where they remained until coming to Woodland, they locating on a farm in the Settlement of Friends, later known as far-famed Friendswood, seat of Quakerism in all Wisconsin. With Mr. and Mrs. MANN came a numerous family, one son, Richard MANN, meriting especial mention here. He was born in Ohio, in 1830, went to Indiana, where he was married in 1852, to Mary A. JONES, and accompanied his people to Friendswood in 1853. Other children besides he were: Lewis, married Sarah Jane JONES, and finally removed to Kansas; Thomas; Jonathan, who spent his later years in Iowa; Sammy, who gave his life in the Civil war; Amos, married Addie GREGORY first, and Saddie DAVIS, second. He also, went to Iowa.

It was his second wife whom Thomas MASON brought to Friendswood. His first wife, who died in Indiana bore him five children, as follows: Edith, who with her husband, William BATES was to come the following year; Mary, wife of Thomas ADDINGTON, who remained in Indiana; Melinda, wife of Meredith BEESON (the BEESONS accompanied her people here) - after the death of his wife, Mr. BEESON married the widow of Richard MANN; Elihu who remained in Indiana; and Eliot.

After the death of his first wife, Thomas MASON married his second, Mahala PUCKET, who accompanied him to Woodland. To this union were born eight children, all of whom came to the Little Baraboo Valley:

Nathan. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Ruth (JONES) MEEK, and had ten children: Mary Elizabeth, married L. G. GRAY, now of Portage; Isaac, who married Flora E., daughter of Richard MANN, now residing in Reedsburg; Thomas, married Clemetine SINCLAIRE of Ironton, now of Miltonvale, Kansas; Eli, married Minnie PEARSON, now of Sioux Falls, S.D.; Walter and Charles, who went to Iowa and married sisters - Charles, now of Glendale, Arizona; Walter of Idaho; Miles, now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Luzena, married Morton EDGERTON, now of Tabor, Iowa; Nora, wife of F. WHIPPLE of Farmington, Wisconsin, deceased; John of Harrison, Nebraska; Ida (Mrs. Ida KINNEY), Iowa City, Iowa.

Elwood MASON, son of Thomas, married Martha, daughter of Ephraim BUNDY. They had several children, two of whom were: Clara (Mrs. Clara SHELDON) of Ontario, California; C. G., of Wichita, Kansas.

Gilla, married Will F. BUNDY, and eventually went to Iowa.

Clarinda, who removed to Warren, Illinois.

Isom, who married Margaret THOMAS and went to Minnesota.

James, who died at the age of sixteen on Sherman's March to the Sea.

Falitha, who married George CANFIELD and lives at Luverne, Minnesota. They had two children, one of whom was Bertha (Mrs. Frank SHURR), now residing at that place.

The year of 1854 brought a number of other families, some of them Quakers, to Friendswood and other sections of the township. Among them were the following: Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin PICKERING, Mr. and Mrs. Isaiah FRAZIER, Mr. and Mrs. William BROAS, John THOMAS, Berry and Polly THOMAS, Mr. and Mrs. George WOOD, Mr. and Mrs. Alpheus SMITH, Mr. and Mrs. Charles DYSON, Mr. and Mrs. John FESSEY, Meredith and Melinda BEESON, William and Bethany JORDAN, Eli HOLINGSWORTH, William RICHARDS, Mr. and Mrs. Charles DYSON, Solomon and Mary COOK, Fielder and Martha BROWN, Jabez and Sarah BROWN, Ephraim and Elizabeth BUNDY.

We are able to make extended mention of some of these families, William A. BROAS, son of William and Lucinda (CLEVELAND) BORAS, was a native of Broome County, N.Y.; his wife, whose maiden name was Emeline R. SHEPHARD, was a daughter of Robson and Polly (BURTON) SHEPHARD and was a native of Cortland County, New York. The family came to Walworth County, Wisconsin in 1851, thence to the town of New Buffalo, now Fairfield, and then to Woodland. They had eight children: Allen A., who married Emeline THORNTON and resided in Woodland; Burton B., married Mary MOHLER, resided in Woodland; Chancy T., Phoebe A., Mary A., Lucy, John and Albert.

Far down in Indiana where this colony of eastern Friends had settled at an ungiven date when the Hoosier State was the western frontier, there were tied a number of hymeneal knots, which were to result in the transformation of the wilderness of the Little Baraboo into a valley of kinship. There moved from an eastern state one BUNDY family which had as its members, among others, one daughter and two sons, Martha, Ephraim, and Phenias. The name of the father is not available at this writing. It is very little, indeed, that we know of this BUNDY family. Possibly the first fact to be recorded is the marriage of Martha, the daughter, to Fielder BROWN, about 1820, sooner or later. Nor, is it known the place of her marriage. Suffice it to say that Fiedler and Martha continued to reside in the Hoosier state until their removal to Woodland. They were the parents of three children, Mary, Charlotte and Jabez. Mary was the wife of Solomon COOK; Charlotte was a young lady, who later, in 1856, became the wife of Nathan PICKERING; Jabez, was the husband of Sarah DURFLINGER; and all three of the children of Fielder and Martha were to come with them to the Little Baraboo Valley.

Ephraim BUNDY resided in Indiana also, until 1854. In Indiana a numerous family were born to him: Martha, married Elwood MASON; Will F. BUNDY, who was an accomplished physician, a learned scholar, and poet, one of whose poems appears in this work; George, who married a daughter of Neal DAVIS, and eventually went to Kansas; Jabez, who married Maria COUCHER first, and Margaret STEPHEN, second, and resided in Montana; Mary, who married Manlief WILLIAMS, son of John WILLIAMS; Eva (Mrs. Eva BERRY) now of Baraboo; Myron Phenias BUNDY, brother of Ephraim, came hither the following year.

Benjamin PICKERING, mentioned among the settlers of 1854, was born October 15, 1808, and died October 17, 1892. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah MOFFET, was born March 31, 1809 and died in 1888. Their son Nathan and his wife, Charlotte BROWN, who later moved to Iowa, were prominent characters in the early history of Friendswood and have a number of representatives still living in the Reedsburg community. Of their nine children, only five are living: Emma, who married first Thomas FITZGERALD of Ironton and later widowed, married Mr. FRIDAY of Richland Center; Celestine, who married Walter CRAKER, and is an active personage in Reedsburg; Sanford I., now a resident of Pasadena, Calif.; Charles, in Ohio, and Edna, wife of Phillip BOWTTS, also of Pasadena.

Solomon and Mary (BROWN) COOK were the parents of six children all of whom became outstanding citizens of the communities in which they resided: Antoinette, who married Andrew J. CORYELL and resided in Woodland for many years (more of them appears later); Ella C., who married Charles VEEDER, lived for some years in Woodland, and went with the Quakers to Whittier, Cal.; Sarah, who married Lewis WILLIAMS, and also went to Whittier; Drusilla, who married Ezra, son of Neal DAVIS; Charles and Caleb COOK, both of California.

Few of the early Quaker men were more widely known than the late, honored Mr. Jabez BROWN, for nearly thirty years one of Sauk County's foremost school teachers. His children were: Alonzo, who founded BROWN's Preparatory School in Philadelphia in 1876; Lorenzo, who married Emma HACKETT, North Freedom and later went to Dakota; George, who is now connected with the Philadelphia school; Eva (Mrs. George LILLY) of North Freedom and lived in Dolan, S.D.; Miss Melissa BROWN, who conducts the BROWN's Cafeteria on the State Street, Madison, Wisconsin; Miss Valeria BROWN, with the BROWN's Preparatory School in Philadelphia; Viola Catherine (Kate) who married a Mr. CHAMBERLAIN of Dakota; and Orin.

The settlers of 1855 were: Mr. and Mrs. William CLEMENS, Jesse MALLOW, William and Edith BATES, Isaac BATES, Richard and Jane BATES, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan WRIGHT, Solomon and Elizabeth MOON, Caleb and Sarah CORYELL, John and Elizabeth SINCLAIR, S. W. and Ann SHERMAN.

We would make especial mention of Caleb and Sarah CORYELL. On their farm in this Little Baraboo Valley was run an inn which is familiar to the people of this community as "The Valley House". This was conducted by Mr. SANDS. The CORYELL children were: Edward, died in boyhood; Andrew, married Antoinette COOK, Mary Ann, married William WOOD and will long be remembered as a prominent teacher and benevolent woman in the village of Ironton; and Emma.

The settlers of 1856 were numerous: Mr. and Mrs. Caleb HARVEY and family, Mr. and Mrs. Phonies BUNDY, Benjamin COX, William and Elizabeth CAMMACK, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan STANLEY, Mr. and Mrs. William STANLEY.

Mrs. Caleb HARVEY, whose maiden name was Louisa, was a sister of Solomon COOK, and daughter of Nathan and Anna (WICKERSHAM) COOK. They were, prior to their coming here, of the Quaker settlement in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. HARVEY were accompanied by their son and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan C. HARVEY. The latter were married in Park County, Indiana the fall of 1856. Her maiden name was Mary A. KERSEY, her parents being Stephen and Jemina KERSEY. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan C. HARVEY were: Clementine, Wilson B., George L., Anna L., Mary E., Horace G., Edward S., and James C.

William CAMMACK, pioneer ancestor of the CAMMACK name, had several children, four of whom are now living; William, married Lydia WILLIAMS, daughter of John and Eunice WILLIAMS; Mary, third wife of Neal DAVIS; Whalen; and two maiden daughters, all of Whittier, California. Mrs. DAVIS and William, son of William died there.

Among the settlers of 1857, we can mention Louis and Sarah HUTCHENS, Levi and Maria BUNKER.

1858 - Wilson and Louisa DAVIS, William and Rachael PRICE, Calvin and Rachael DAVIS, Mr. and Mrs. Amacy BUNKER.

1860 - John WICKERSHAM.

1861 - Elwood WRIGHT, Abner and Janette STANSBURY, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan COACH, John and Eunice WILLIAMS, Nathan COOK, Hiram COOK, Virginia COOK. Mr. and Mrs. John WILLIAMS had eight children: Manley, married Mary BUNDY; Luella (Mrs. Luther PACKARD); Louis; Lydia, widow of William CAMMACK, residing in Whittier, California; Frank and Will; Louisa and Linford. Nathan COOK was the father of Solomon COOK.

We are unable to state further of the families mentioned in the foregoing pages.

Some settlers for the year 1862 were: Mr. and Mrs. Frank KERNON, and Mr. and Mrs. MULHOLLEN.

1863 - Mr. and Mrs. Josephus GOOD; 1864 - Mr. and Mrs. Abe GOOD.

Mr. and Mrs. Ain BALLENGER, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas HUTCHENS, Mr. and Mrs. John VORHEES, Mr. HESS, and Mr. VERGERONT were settlers about 1865. Considerable is known of Mr. and Mrs. VORHEES. They were both natives of Guernsey County, Ohio where they were married and resided until coming to Woodland. Her maiden name was Mary A. STRUBLE. Their family consisted of six children: Elizabeth, later Mrs. THOMAS; George; Alpheus W., who married Melinda GRIFFE; William A.; Eliza C., who married John SPERRIER, and lived in Woodland; and John R.

Other settlers for the period between 1865 and 1875 were: Mr. and Mrs. Ner STOWE, Mr. and Mrs. John THOMPSON, Mr. and Mrs. George STOWE, Pres. GRUBB, Mr. BOSTWICK, Isaac PEARSON, George WOOLEVER, Daniel WOOLEVER, Mr. BROOMAN, Louis GRAY, Mr. NOBLE, Reuben FARVER, Stephen LONG, Harmon DEAN, Aaron BENBOW, Dan ABER, GREGORYS, GIBBEANS, William MULLENIX, Hans THOMPSON, PETERSONS, SEVERSONS, MOSANGS, Rufus OWEN, GARDNERS, Ner STOWE and his wife, Ann MAW, came to America from Lincolnshire, England, and settled in New York prior to coming here. Four of their five children grew to maturity; Sarah, born in England, married Elwood STANLEY, now widowed residing in Springfield, South Dakota; Mary, widow of Charles NOBLE, residing in Baraboo; William, married Sarah HARRISON, Ironton; George, married Selina PEARSON.
Submitted by Carol