A Guide To Old Wade House Historical Site PDF
Preview A Guide To Old Wade House Historical Site
GUIDE TO ADE HOUSE .. ORICAL SITE A Guide To Old Wade House Historical Site by David Paul Nord Illustrations by Kathy Haaga 4-f\TE HISTQ~ ~sbs~ ~ w ~ Owned and Operated g ~ 1946 .,YOFWISC by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Nord, David Paul A guide to Old Wade House historical site. 1. Greenbush, Wis. Old Wade House. 2. Greenbush, Wis. - History. 3. Country Life - Wisconsin - History. 4. Wisconsin - History, Local. 5. Carriages and cam - Wisconsin - Greenbush - History. I. Title. F589.G712 167 977.5'68 78-3677 ISBN 0-87020-169-7 Copyright © 1978 by TH£ STATE H1sTOR1CAL Socm-rv OF W1sc0Ns1N TABLE OF CONTENTS lNTROOUCTION 1 PART ONE TAVERNS A ·o TRAVELERS 3 PART TWO RUTS AND ROADS 25 PART THREE WAGONS AND WAINWRIGHTS 37 ,,. INTRODUCTION "In America, and especially in the West, everybody travels." A European nobleman wrote these words in the late I 830's after an extended tour through what we now call the Midwest. This impression of universal mobility, though a bit too sweeping, was in those days fairly accu rate-and mobility has remained a national characteristic. Americans have been travelers and movers throughout their history. And when they have settled down, as farmers or craftsmen, businessmen or manufacturers, they often have been obsessed with moving the product of their labor into distant markets and with tapping distant sources of supply. Much of the story of America is the story of transportation. Wade House a1~l the Wesley W. Jung Carriage Museum ponray sev eral important aspects of the history of overland transponation in Wiscon sin. Wade House and the village of Greenbush, both offspring of a traveling society, grew up along one of the main-traveled arteries in mid-nineteenth century Wisconsin- the Sheboygan-Fond du Lac road, now Highway 23. 1 Today's Wade House represents the hundreds of inns and taverns that once dotted the roads and trails of Wisconsin. The Jung Carriage Museum shows another side of Wisconsin's mobile society-the carriage and wagon industry. From the beginnings of settlement in Wisconsin, men and goods moved by wagon. The wainwright or wheelwright, who repaired old wag ons and constructed new ones, was a valued citizen in nearly every town and village. By the turn of the century, carriage and wagon making was a large-scale industry in Wisconsin, producing over I 00,000 vehicles annu ally. Today, Wade House no longer houses weary travelers, and the wag ons and carriages have ceased to roll. The old highway inns died in the 1860's, '70's, and '80's with the coming of rapid, comfortable passenger travel by railroad. The carriage and wagon industry died in the 1910's and 'I 920's with the coming of the motor car and truck. This booklet is a guide to the history that Wade House and the Jung Museum represent. Part One, "Taverns and Travelers," begins with the story of Wade House, but also touches on the colorful history of travel and tavern life in other parts of Wisconsin before the Civil War. Part 'Two, "Ruts and Roads," focuses on the.Sheboygan-Fond du Lac road and other main-traveled roads in Wisconsin to sketch some of the history of road building and the tribulation of road travel in nineteenth-century Wiscon sin. Part Three, "Wagons and Wainwrights," looks at the rise and fall of the carriage and wagon industry in Wisconsin, with special emphasis on the Jung Carriage Co. of Sheboygan and on the giant factories of Racine, Kenosha, and Stoughton, the leading centers of the industry in the state. 2 DOLPHIN 5TOVE Part I Taverns and Travelers Sylvanus Wade, 1844 Sylvanus Wade, .founder of Greenbush and builder of Wade House, was in several ways typical of the small-scale pioneer businessman and townsite promoter. When Wade settled with his wife and nine children on the banks of the Mullet River in April 1844, he was already a man of some means. His wagons were loaded with material goods not usually associated with pioneer life-books and sketching sets, dress clothes and china, an organ and sheet music. Unlike the pioneer farmer, Wade was not interested primarily in cheap agricultural land, though he did plan to do a little farming. He wanted strategic location and waterpower. He paid $150 for four acres and a "mill privilege" on the Mullet River at a time when farm land could be had in some places for ~1.25 an acre. As a skilled blacksmith and an ambi tious businessman, Wade could have made a good living in the East. But like many others, he had a vision of greater success in the West. Far from Sylvanus Wade Betsy Wade seeking escape from civilization, Wade sought to be a builder of civilization in this new land. Sylvanus Wade was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1796, the great-great-grandson of Nicholas Wade, who arrived in Massa chusetts from England in 1632. As a young man, Sylvanus moved with his parents lo Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he practiced the blacksmith's trade and married Betsy Oakley of New Milford. In 1836, Sylvanus and Betsy and their growing family moved west to Joliet, Illinois. In 1841, they came tO Wisconsin, settling first at Fort Atkinson. Then in the spring of 1844 they moved again- north to the wilderness site that was to become Greenbush. Greenbush, 1844-1850 ln 1844, Greenbush was an excellent site for a settler of Wade's skills and ambitions. The place was virgin forest, and the Wades were the only settlers within fifteen miles. But its potential was clear. The location, mid way between the budding cities of Sheboygan and Fond du Lac, was sure to attract travelers and commerce as the two cities grew and as the trail be tween them, designated a territorial road in 1838-39, developed into a gen uine wagon highway after 1845. In addition, the mill site promised to make Wade's little community a local center for lumber and grist milling, two pioneer processing industries that would become increasingly important as more and more settlers moved into the area. Wade's vision of founding his own bustling little village in the wilderness was more foresight than dream, for it was based on economic reality. Yet in 1844, it required some faith as well as foresight to believe in the future of Greenbush. It took the Wades two and a half days to trek the twenty-miles from Fond du Lac along a foot-trail trod mainly by Indians. At times they had to fell trees and cut brush to move their wagons through. Their first home was a log cabin located across the road from the present site of Wade House. Years later Mrs. Wade often told her children that the canopy of forest was so dense in those days that she "could hold in her apron all the stars she could see." The difference between the Fond du Lac area and the Wades' new wilderness home is symbolized by the fate of their dog. On their way through Fond du Lac, a farmer gave the Wades a large mastiff that had killed several of his sheep. A killer dog no longer had a place in developing 4 farm country. But the big dog was not wild enough for Greenbush. He was soon killed and eaten by a pack of gray wolves. Within a year after the Wades arrived, the road between f ond du Lac and Sheboygan was improved, and the Town (township) of Greenbush was organized. Wade had expanded his log house and had set up his smithy
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