History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              EECOLLECTIONS  OF WILLIAM  W.  WEIGHT.       223
ever towed to Fond du Lac by steam, and I believe the first ever taken there from this point. This lumber business brings to mind a little incident that happened in the camp of Wright, Ford & Brooks' company, as told by one of the party. They took turns in cooking and had breakfast very early so as to get to work by daylight, consequently must do their cooking by lamp¬ light. Brooks was cook at this time. He went to the spring a short distance from camp for water to make coffee and dipped it up in his pail in the dark and filled his coffee kettle and in due time called the others to breakfast. When about through breakfast one made the remark that the coffee tasted queer and not as usual. Finally they all thought there was something un¬ usual in the taste of the coffee and they began an investigation, which terminated in finding a large frog in the tea kettle well cooked and tender. They felt no bad effects, however, from the use of frog juice (as they called it) and passed it off with a hearty laugh.
The first great commercial occurrence that took place in Osh¬ kosh after its incorporation as a city was the advent of the North¬ western railway, which reached Oshkosh in the month of Sep¬ tember, 1858. This was truly a wonderful event for this city, as very many of the inhabitants had never seen a railway before, much less to ride on the cars. Now we had an opening to the out¬ side world and could go to Milwaukee and Chicago without much trouble. It was considered that it would help wonderfully in building up the young city, and so it did. We felt as though we were really in the swim. The first settlers here never expected to live long enough to see a real live railway in this wilderness. The officials of the road sent invitations to many citizens of Oshkosh and other cities for a trip to Chicago on the formal opening of the road. The writer and wife were among those invited, but owing to sickness were unable to go, and we were thankful that it so happened. For in the smash-up that took place south of Watertown five Oshkosh people were killed and several others in¬ jured more or less—a very sad ending to that pleasure excursion.
The next stirring event that struck Oshkosh was at the break¬ ing out of the Eebellion in 1861, by the capture of Fort Sumter and the seceding of the southern states from the Union. J. W. Scott, who had seen service in the Mexican war and was well versed in military tactics, immediately closed up his business as jeweler and offered his services to the Governor, who gave him a captain's commission, and he proceeded at once to raise a com-