- EZRA GOODRICH was the only son of Joseph GOODRICH, the founder
of Milton and Milton
- College, the first landlord, first merchant, first treasurer,
and the first postmaster, of Milton. He was born Feb. 24, 1826,
at Alfred, Allegany Co., N.Y. He had an only sister, Mrs. Jane
(GOODRICH) DAVIS, of Rockford, Ill., born Feb. 6, 1828, at Alfred,
New York.
- Joseph GOODRICH was the son of Uriah and Mary (CARPENTER)
GOODRICH, and was
- born May 12, 1800 at Hancock, Massachusetts.
- Uriah GOODRICH was the son of Elijah and Margaret (GILLETT)
GOODRICH, was born
- Aug. 24, 1767, at Hancock, Mass., and died Sept. 2, 1845,
at Alfred, New York.
- Elijah GOODRICH was the son of Jacob and Benedict (GOODWIN)
GOODRICH, was born
- July 3, 1724, at Windsor, Conn., and died Oct. 3, 1791 at
Hancock, Massachusetts.
- Jacob GOODRICH was the son of John and Rebecca (ALLEN) GOODRICH,
was born Nov.
- 27, 1694, at Wethersfield, Conn., and died May 11, 1746 at
Windsor, Connecticut.
- John GOODRICH was the son of William and Sarah (MARVIN) GOODRICH,
was born May
- 20, 1653, at Wethersfield, Conn., and died Sept. 5, 1730
at Wethersfield, Connecticut.
- William GOODRICH was one of the "Pilgrims" on the
"Mayflower" from England, and was a
- descendant of the founder of "Goodrich Court" and
"Goodrich Castle," built during the feudal ages, in
Herefordshire, four miles southwest of Ross, about one thousand
years ago.
- Joseph GOODRICH at the age of nineteen years started out
in the world for himself with an ax
- and a pack of clothes on his back. He went from Hancock,
Mass., to the wilderness in Alfred, Allegany Co., N.Y., on foot
and alone. He got there with his clothes, his ax, and fifty cents
in money left. He went to work with a will to win. In 1821, at
twenty-one years of age, he took a contract for a tract of wild,
heavily timbered land on the Vandermark creek. He cleared off
a small patch, and put up a log shanty there. He then returned
East, to Petersburg, N.Y., and married Nancy MAXSON, Dec. 22,
1821. In the spring of 1822 they came to Alfred and began to
keep house in the little log cabin - without a window or a door,
and with the ground for a floor.
- In 1823 his father came out, and united with him in erecting
the first sawmill on the Vandermark
- creek, which they got to running the last day of that year.
In this he sawed logs on shares and obtained lumber to put up
a good-sized two-story house, which he had enclosed in 1824.
In it he had a large fireplace with andirons, and a crane to
swing over and off of the fire, with hooks to hang pot and kettles
on. Adjoining there was a large brick oven, for baking bread
and pork and beans. On the hearth in front of the oven was the
blue-dye tub for coloring stocking yarn, on which the children
sat to warm their toes and their shins. Mr. GOODRICH did not
get the house plastered and painted until 1827. In it he kept
travelers, and religious meetings and town meeting were held
there. It is still standing and is a good dwelling yet. He built
and kept a small country store and an ashery there, buying ashes
and making potash. The ashes were sometimes brought in sacks,
from the hillsides, by women on horseback, and sold by them for
pin-money.
- Mr. GOODRICH was a leader in the military trainings, was
made a "major," and was known as
- "Major" GOODRICH throughout his life.
- Allegany was a hilly, hard-pan country, and, hearing of the
rich, level prairies of the West, Mr.
- GOODRICH got the fever to go there; and he induced his neighbor,
H. B. CRANDALL, and hired a young man, James PIERCE to go with
him. He boxed up a load of goods from his little store, and on
June 26, 1838, they left Alfred with them, journeying to Buffalo
with a team, and then by steamboat up around the Great Lakes.
They landed in Milwaukee, and from there came on foot. Mr. GOODRICH
again brought a pack on his back, but instead of an ax to fell
trees he brought a spade to test the soil. Coming out onto a
wild little prairie covered with flowers, and surrounded with
small silvery lakes and green trees, they tested the soil and
were pleased, and GOODRICH got a claim where "Milton"
now stands, and CRANDALL a claim where "Milton Junction"
now is. No highways were laid out, but GOODRICH drew an air line
from Chicago to Madison on the Territorial map, and one also
from Janesville to Fort Atkinson, and finding they crossed on
his claim he there located the site for his house. These roads
were laid out the next year, and they crossed each other, as
he expected by his house. He built this dwelling 16 by 20 feet
in dimensions and one and a half stories high; it had one small
7 by 9 glass window above, and one below. The frame he made of
hewed oak, and it was covered and shingled with oak, had a three-ply
battened Indian-proof oak door, and an oak floor. It still stands,
and is now all antique shelves for his goods, which was Milton's
first store; Janesville and Fort Atkinson had none. He bought
the claim to the land where Milton now stands with $60 worth
of goods, and the claim to Hon. S. C. CARR's "Pioneer Farm"
with $125 worth of goods. Mr. GOODRICH left his house and little
store in charge of Mr. PIERCE, and returned East for his family,
and while he was gone PIERCE sold $400 worth of goods.
- Mr. GOODRICH moved his family and goods from Alfred, N.Y.,
with four teams and covered
- wagons, by the overland route. The first half way the wagons
were mounted on sleighs, as they started in snow four feet deep,
Jan. 30, 1839. There were twelve in the party, including passengers
and hired help. One sleigh tipped over during the first day's
drive, and Mrs. GOODRICH's collar bone was broken. The surgeons
could not set it and keep it in place, and she rode all the long
way with it loose in a sling. In Ohio they crossed the "great
Maumee Swamp," where there were thirty-one emigrant taverns
in the thirty miles. In crossing the Calumet, near Chicago, one
team and wagon broke through the ice into the water, twelve feet
deep, one horse being drowned, and the best load of goods wet.
The streets of Chicago (then a small city) were entirely submerged
in a sea of black mud. They had to ford the Des Plaines river
and Turtle creek, each being deep, flood-swollen streams. Not
a house was to be seen on Rock Prairie, and only Mr. NEWHALL's
log cabin was in sight, as they struck into the wild oak openings;
nor was there another shanty until they came out onto Prairie
Du Lac, where, standing out alone on the cold bleak prairie,
the little, red, oak, pioneer cabin stood, where it still stands
today. Here they arrived March 4, 1839, after an overland winter's
journey of thirty-four days. In this little 16 by 20 building
they lived, with PIERCE, a family of thirteen, and kept the store,
and travelers besides, and in it religious meetings were held.
- Here Joseph GOODRICH decided to found a village, for which
he platted and gave to the public
- a large and beautiful "Public Square." He gave
lots to mechanics who would settle there, gave grounds for a
church, a district school, the college, and a cemetery. He built
an academy, and maintained it for ten years. He secured the line
for the first railroad via Milton, gave them the right of way
and depot grounds, and took $10,000 worth of its stock. He was
a man of unbounded hospitality, and a friend of the poor, the
oppressed and the enslaved. He was elected to the legislature
by the unanimous vote of his district. In religion he was a Seventh-day
Baptist, and in politics a Whig and a Republican. His devoted
wife died in 1857, and he was married to Mrs. Susan H. ROGERS
in 1859. They lived happily together. He died in 1867, and was
buried by his beloved wife at Milton, where his son has erected
a monument to their memory.
- Ezra GOODRICH came with his parents to Wisconsin in 1839,
when he was thirteen years old.
- He was a pupil in the first school in Milton, and in the
first academy; but the constant need for his help in his father's
business, in making a new Wisconsin home, deprived him largely
of schooling. His education was mainly the rough and ready lessons
of practical pioneer life. When he came to Milton the Black Hawk
and Gen. Atkinson army trails were fresh and plainly to be seen.
He was here when Rock County was organized; when the first highway
to Milton was laid; when the first mail route and stage line
in the county was established; when the first church and school
house was built; and the first grave in a cemetery was made.
He was in Janesville when it had but one log house, H. F. JANES';
in Fort Atkinson when it had but one log house, Dwight FOSTER's;
in Watertown when it had but one log house and one frame one,
and GOODHUE had a sawmill there; at Waupun when it had but one
log house, Mr. WILCOX's; and at Fond du Lac when Dr. DARLING
had the only house there. He was here when the first railroad
in Wisconsin was built, and the first wire for a telegraph or
a telephone was strung. It is marvelous to see the changes that
have been made in one lifetime. In 1849 Ezra GOODRICH engaged
in the mercantile business in Milton, dealing in dry goods, groceries,
crockery, clothing, iron and hardware, in which he continued
until the dark days of the Rebellion, in 1861.
- On Oct. 14, 1852, Mr. GOODRICH was married to Elizabeth L.
ENSIGN, near Binghamton,
- N.Y., and they had four children: Joseph C. GOODRICH, born
June 24, 1854, now of Milwaukee; William H. GOODRICH, born Feb.
15, 1856, now of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Mary E. GOODRICH, born
March 23, 1859, now Mrs. Dr. POST, of Chicago; and Anna S. GOODRICH,
born June 18, 1861, now Mrs. Will DAVIS, of Colorado Springs.
In religious belief Mr. GOODRICH is a Seventh-day Baptist. In
politics he was a Republican; he is now independently independent,
and votes for the best man. He is a man of strong convictions,
and that which he believes to be right he dares to defend; and
that which he deems to be wrong he dares to denounce. This gives
him bitter enemies as well as warm friends. He has been an active
factor in Milton events for the past sixty years and more than
an ordinary lifetime. He raised the controlling stock in "Milton
Academy" when it was incorporated - over which there was
a red-hot denominational strife. He raised the money to fill
Milton's quota in the army of the great Rebellion, when the hearts
and hopes of all others had failed, and they were ready to throw
up the sponge. He raised the money to set Milton College again
on its feet, when it was hopelessly bankrupt, and the efforts
of all others had utterly failed, they having succeeded in raising
only $20. For this he raised a subscription of over $13,000,
of which he gave $2,300 himself. He secured the location of the
Milton high school building, on the Public Square, in which he
was opposed by Milton College, and many others, who wanted it
located in an uncouth lot, still vacant, south of the railroad,
and south of Lane's mill. He drew the plan, and superintended
the erection of the building. He platted the grounds and set
out the trees and today Milton's high school grounds are conceded
to surpass any public school grounds in the Northwest. Mr. GOODRICH
secured the subscription and set out the trees in the beautiful
park north of the railroad at Milton. He re-organized Milton
cemetery after it had lost its organization, and its grounds
were grown up to brush and weeds, and he organized a uniform
system of grading and sodding the lots, and adorning them with
trees. In these innovations he was also opposed, but Milton now
has one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Rock County.
- Some twenty years ago Mr. GOODRICH inaugurated a system of
raising a special tax in the
- town for graveling the roads in which at first he was bitterly
opposed. By persistence he succeeded; and today Milton has more
miles of road, that is good at all seasons of the year, than
any rural town in the State; and if she continues but a few years
longer she will have a good hard highway to every farm in the
town.
- Many years ago, when they began to gather milk for the factories,
Mr. GOODRICH began to
- advocate gathering the children of the towns into centralized
schools. In this he was opposed to the point of almost hissing
him down; but, of late, a marked change is seen, and many are
now advocating the coming change. He now claims that the school
children of Milton will ere long all be riding in covered spring
wagons, over good roads, to and from school, and that, when the
good time comes, every child alike will have the opportunity
of a good education free.
- On April 23, 1892, Mr. GOODRICH lost his estimable wife.
He was again married, Oct. 16,
- 1893, to Mrs. Charlotte M. LITTLE, daughter of I. P. MORGAN,
one of the founders of Milton Junction, and widow of L. V. LITTLE,
who died Feb. 18, 1886. The marriage of MR. GOODRICH, a son of
the founder of Milton, to Mrs. LITTLE, a daughter of a founder
of Milton Junction, is to some extent a union of these two rival
villages, which, it is hoped, may soon be blending together,
and eventually become a prosperous, happy and harmonious one.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 48-49; lithographs from the same book.
-
- The same lithograph of Ezra GOODRICH can also be found
in "Rock County, Wisconsin, Vol. II" by William Fiske
Brown, (c)1908.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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