Reminiscence of Luther Basford
(A Story of the Early Wisconsin Territory in 1836)

Page 4 - Cassville

I arrived at Cassville, Grant Co., Wisconsin on July 1st 1836 and Grant Co. has been my home ever since. The village consisted of five log houses, one of them being built for the protection of the few white settlers during the Black Hawk War which was in 1832. There was at the time quite a settlement of Winnebago Indians in the village. I was employed in Albany, N.Y. to come on to Cassville to help build the hotel now known as the Dennison House. About this time speculators began to arrive and the New York company started the sale of lots to parties who desired to build and in a little while we had quite a village. At that time there was scarcely any farming, the population being made up mostly of miners without families. Among the newcommers were some hard characters and we had no civil law to control them, they all went around with pistol and bowie knife to intimidate each other.

Page 5 - Prairie Justice (soon)

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