HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


a small log hut. A. E. Sherwood came shortly after, settling on section 3I.
In
August, I849, came William Playfair and a Mr. Kelley, locating on section
i8,
John and Patrick Mullins came in September, and John Doolan and wife in
October of this year, Mrs. John Doolan enjoying the distinction of being
the first
white woman in the town. In i850 came Thomas Goggins, James Kirby, and
Jacob Hartman. Other early settlers following the above mentioned were:
Gottfried Fetzer in I852; J. E. Johnson, George Seibert, Richard Rolland,
Den-
nis Shea and Patrick Kavanaugh in I853; Thomas Earles, B. Nate, Charles Hayes,
Robert Cummings, Thomas and Patrick Long in I854; Michael Touhey, James
Mullane, John Hayden, Lawrence Keehan, Thomas Whalen and Edward Brown
in i855; August Gans, James T. Piper and A. Sullivan in I857.
The birth of Mary Goggin in March, I85I, was the first to occur in the
town. It is readily seen that the most inportant element in the settlement
of
this town as well as Maple Grove was the Irish. Many of these when first
arriving, had worked for years in the shoe factories of Massachusetts towns,
on canals and railroads in New York and Ohio, and in the mines of Pennsylvania,
but found more congenial and lasting homes here.
Religious services, consisting of reading the mass, were first held in James
Kirby's house in 1852, but a frame church was not built until some years
later
upon section i9-known as St. Patricks.
A school district established in i850, comprised the towns of Franklin, Maple
Grove, Cato and Rockland, with the exception of the southern tier of sections.
A schoolhouse was built in section i8. The town at present has nine school-
houses.
A postoffice was established on the town line of Maple Grove in 1854-and
Paquette postoffice located a half mile north of Grimms soon after-Taus near
the center of the town, and Menchalville in the northwest part in the nineties-
all were discontinued when rural delivery system was established.
Besides the Irish, there are Germans and Bohemians, practically all Roman
Catholics, the Germans attending church at Whitelaw in Cato; the Bohemians
in Kellnersville and Reif's Mills. The Bohemian element now predominates.
The Town Hall is situated on section 2I. The population in i9io was i623.
The chairman is John J. Hynek. Clerk Joseph Menchal was elected last year,
displacing Joseph Zahorik, who held the office continuously for twenty-five
years.
The Branch River, a tributary of the Manitowoc River, flows through the
town from northwest to southeast. Upon this stream in section 17, upon the
farms of Edward Brown, Paul Mangin and Anton Rathsack was once located
a well known and favorite camping place of the Indians, who lived in conical
wigwams. They were most numerous in winter, few remaining throughout the
summer. The old settlers exchanged potatoes, flour and tobacco of their own
raising for venison, and tallow for candles. Numerously attended pow wows
frequently made night hideous, for the majority were soon under the influence
of fire water. On one occasion, one Indian while on the trail home to the
Mud Creek village in an intoxicated condition, was overcome by the intense
cold, being found frozen to death near the Catholic church. His friends carried
the body on an improvised stretcher to their village and there buried him.
Re-
mains of fire places were but recently obliterated by the plow. In i869 six
wig-
wams were still to be seen-and this was the last seen of the Indians.
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