Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIX BROWN COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR The year 1860 and the one following--the first year of the great war--were spoken of at the time and afterwards as "the golden years." Industries along all lines were booming; large crops of wheat (both spring and winter) oats, barley, corn and peas were harvested in abundance and excellent profits realized. Brown county shared largely in the fat of the land and throughout her borders was peace and plenty. The grain elevator built by I. G. Beaumont and A. Pelton was finished at Green Bay, Hathaway and Penn, lessees, with an aggregate storage capacity of forty thousand bushels, and was found absolutely inadequate from the first to meet the required demand. The grain trade in 1860 promised to be larger than ever before. In preparation for the heavy shipments from the Green Bay port the New York Central placed two new screw steamers, Rocket and Comet on the Buffalo line, and these with the steamer Michigan made the tri-weekly trip with regularity. On the river the most important addition in transportation facilities was the Elwood belonging to D. M. Loy, De Pere, which carried ten thousand bushels of wheat at a speed of six miles an hour. The greatest crops of wheat ever raised in Wisconsin were during the years of 1861 and 1863, when the yield was respectively twenty to twenty-five million, and twenty-five to thirty million bushels. The price per bushel ranged from $1.75 to $2.00. On July 28, 1860, Portage City called a meeting to consider running a steamboat from Portage to Green Bay. "The purpose for which this meeting is called is one of vital interest to every farmer in Columbia county. We believe that with united effort at least one good boat can be put in immediate operation and if so we are...
