HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


On the old Charles Hayes farm are plainly discernable twelve circular pits,
two or two and one-half feet deep, and six to nine feet in diameter. These
are
cache pits, once used for the storing of corn and other foods.
The greatest elevation in the town is in the southwest '4 of section1-335
feet.
TOWNSHIP OF CATO
Cato was set off and organized for town purposes in i855. At the first
election April I, I856, Alanson Hickok was elected chairman, H. Rawlane and
H. Madson, supervisors, and J. E. Stirling, clerk. The town receives its
name
from Cato, Jefferson county, New York, the home of Mir. Hickok. John Nagle
in his series of articles on county history in I878, says: "The early
history of
Cato savors of romance. As early as i845, one Burns, a printer by trade,
at
one time employed on Long John Wentworth's paper penetrated the forests of
Wisconsin Territory in order that he might manufacture spurious money with
impunity. The location of his establishment was section 4, Cato, where he
plied his trade of making unlawful money, occasionally going forth to put
it in
circulation. While upon one of these tours he was at length seized, tried
and
condemned. Thus this disreputable individual, who erected the first building
in
the town was doomed to a felon's cell.
R. M. Brown squatted upon a piece of land now owned by Jacob Grimm
about i845; but, as he remained but a short time, the honor of first permanently
settling in the town is conferred upon Hiel Heath and P. R. iClasson, who
built
upon section 5, in I847. Mr. Heath came from Vermont, arriving in Manitowoc
on the i9th of May, I842. He preempted southwest 14 of section 5 in i847
and after one or two exchanges finally, in I850, purchased in section i6.
Ira Clark in i850, built a sawmill in section 28, on the bank of Manitowoc
River, also a grist mill on the opposite side of the stream in i852. The
village
which has sprung up at this place still retains the name of Clark's Mills.
S. and U. Olson located land in section 36, with soldiers' warrants in 1848.
Andrew Olson, another brother, locating in Liberty at the same time, moved
into the town the next 'year. Those who came the same year were Gunder
Madson, A. 0. Aubol, and William Chisholm; Messrs. H., P., and 0. Madson,
Andrew Jackson, L. Salverson, and Ole Larson coming a year later. Jacob
Grimm purchased of some speculators the tract in section 6, originally squatted
upon by R. M. Brown, but did not commence improving the same until I850.
Mr. Grimm came to New York in 1833 and after five years removed to Ohio,
where he married and worked at his trade of shoemaker. While on a visit to
relatives in this county, he determined to settle upon the tract, the beautiful
spring upon his land, no doubt influencing him to so decide.
S. D. Robinson, Darwin Davis, Linsley Dunham, Richard Evans, seeking
homes in the west, settled in the town in i850, followed by Thomas Thornton
in i85I, William Hempton, Luther Wicker, Alanson Hickok and Eli Robinson
in I852; S. D. Harris, William Cary, John Morgan,'A. R. Classon, Peter Comer
in 1853; E. Roble, Gilbert Hanson, J. Lyon and Michael Fitzgerald in I854;
A. P. Cary in 1855, also William Kiel, Carl J. Gilbert and John Jacobsen.
N. A.


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