HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
horse and shot like an arrow for the doctor. 
Dr. Bankston after a thorough examination of 
the wounds exclaimed, "Bowen you could not 
do that again if you should shoot a thousand 
times. The ball has not touched a bone nor a 
cord nor an artery. If the girl had been stand- 
ing up straight and firm the ball would have 
made serious work."  As it was the wounds 
healed rapidly. 
Sometime in June, 1842, my uncle,Capt. Estee, 
Author Smith and myself, went "claim hunting," 
as it was called, up into Dane county. We 
stopped for dinner at Uncle John Porter's, who 
lived on the Camp and Collins' place. His 
daughter, Almida, did the honors of the occasion. 
After dinner we went into the village. It must be 
remembered that Old Exeter was a mining town 
and was filled with bachelors, old and young. 
They were discussing fast and furious (whisky 
was cheap in those days), which was the pret- 
tiest girl anywhere around. The balance was 
trembling between Old Durgin's girl and Miss 
Porter. We three cast our votes for Miss Porter 
-we would not go back on the girl ttlat got us 
a good dinner. Miss Porter subsequently mar- 
ried John Ferguson and raised a large family of 
nice children, and she is so well preserved in 
form and features that it would be a sin to call 
her an old woman. 
On our way back to Oneco, we crossed Lit- 
tle Sugar river where Gillette's cheese factory 
now stands, and bearing southwest, crossing 
over high ridges. About noon we came to a 
man shingling a log house, on the top of a ridge. 
It proved to be Uncle Sylvester Hills. He said 
he could not let us have dinner, as his family 
had not moved up yet. Ie directed us to keep 
on the top of the ridge until we got to a certain 
point, when we should turn to the left, go down 
into a valley, where a young married couple by 
the name of Bragg, lived. ie was very partic- 
ular to tell us that the maiden name was Noble, 
and a noble woman she proved to be, and she 
got dinner for us in forty minutes, baking bis- 
cuit, boiling potatoes and making tea. We ate 
 
with thankful hearts, paid our hostess in silver, 
returned many thanks and went our way. On 
the inside of three years ago, I rode to her house 
with Mr. Whitcomb, the music teacher. * After 
awhile we sat down to dinner. It was a long 
extension table well supplied with the solid 
comforts of life, but above all it was surrounded 
with rosy cheeked girls and boys, to be a stay, 
a staff and support to them in their declining 
years. It so happened that I sat opposite Mrs. 
Bragg at the table. I says to her, "you have 
forgotten me." She did not recognize me even 
then. I recalled the facts to her. She laughed 
heartily and said the reason why she got dinner 
so quick, was that she was all alone and that she 
was as fraid as death of us, and got rid of us as 
soon as possible. She wanted to know what 
had become of the other two men. I told her 
that Smith was murdered, for his money, in less 
than two years, and that Capt. Estee, of com- 
pany H, of the Eagle regiment (the 8th), was 
severely wounded at the assault on Vicksburg, 
May 22, 1]863, and died September following, 
and I alone was left to tell her. 
Coming back to Uncle Hills: He lived to a 
good old age and was gathered to his fathers. 
lie raised a large family of nice children, hav- 
ing been married twice. One of his boys, a 
tow-headed youngster, went to school to me 
when I taught in the early forties in the Amos 
Sylvester district.  Since then this boy has 
come to man's estate, has married the Hon. R. 
E. Davis' sister, and both, that is the sister and 
young  Sylvester, are keeping  the Nichols 
House in Albany, Green county, where you can 
be done up brown for $2 a day. We reached 
Oneco in due time. Shortly after this, Smith 
got Mr. Belknap's horse, mounted into the sad- 
dle, went to old Mr. Shook's, on Green's 
Prairie, and finally drifted into Dane county, 
and made three claims, one for each of us. We 
loaded up two ox teams and started back im- 
mediately. We hired a yoke of cattle of Capt. 
Leonard Ross and went to breaking on sections 
29 and 30, town of Montrose. By the next 
 
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