Incidents and Anecdotes of Early Days and History of Business in the City and County of Fond Du Lac From Early Times to the Present, Personal Reminiscences, Remarkable Events, Election Results, Military History, Etc.

              FROM EARLY DAYS TO THE PRESENT HI
at least two mills were cutting lumber on the bay shore, and one in 1840, built by Elisha and John Beeson, brothers of the late Edward Beeson, of this city, while some even more venturesome, about the same dates, had penetrated westward from Green Bay to the Wolf river country, were cutting lumber and floating it down in rafts, some of which taken from the river, was used in Fond du Lac. Such was the lumber, dried in the sun, that Dr. Walker put into his house which he built and occupied several years, at the southeast corner of Main and Fifth streets, now used for a hotel. The lumber industry developed rapidly and by 1848, the puff of steam could be seen from mills at almost every town. As we approached the middle of the century, lumber was abundant for all purposes and at reasonable prices. In the next ten years the rivers had been vastly improved with booms, to the end that logs came down by millions to be cut into lumber and shingles, lath, pickets, etc., and manufactured into sash,-doors and blinds, to the extent that it began to be felt that our forests were being depleted, and sure enough, long before the end of the century, after the railroads had taken the mills to the logs, instead of bringing the logs to the mills, our lumber industries practically ceased. Such was one of the vicissitudes of business here in about half a century.
But the farmer, he who went to work with a will on his land, dug out a comfortable living and found an anxious market for all he had to sell. They had their contentions, of course, and he might be troubled a little sometimes, to make both ends meet, but in the end he triumphed over all obstacles. Lumber may have been so scarce and high priced when he first came that a board shanty for his family was impossible and he had to be content with a hovel constructed of logs or poles, with a trough roof and puncheon floor, the logs chinked with split sticks and plastered with mud to make it habitable in winter. One of these early houses would be a marvel to the present generation, but they served their purpose. The material in these houses was not always of the best and often hauled long dis¬ tances. Relative to the shanty of John Folts, in Byron, Martin Mitchell says:
'Tn the summer of 1844, Mr. John Folts, with his wife and four children, removed from the state of New York to Byron. He set up crotches, upon which he laid long poles, and covered it over with prairie grass, and having blankets at the sides, for his domicil, lived until he could build a log house, obtaining hands from about ten miles distant to help him roll up the logs."
In the pioneer days of the county and up to about i860, compara¬ tively little attention was given to dairying. Some stock was raised but the attention of the farmers was given largely to the small grains, wheat, oats, barley and rye. The exclusiveness of these crops is shown by the fact that Ripon had six large elevators and Fond du Lac had the same number, and as the railroads were built elevators appeared at almost every station, while mills increased in number and capacity and no inconsiderable portion of the annual crop was shipped as flour, the output of the mills being larger than the people