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Early Impressions - 1853
Watertown Democrat, 11 23 1854
Watertown, Jefferson County - A friend has sent us the
following well written description of Watertown, as it appeared to the eye of
some intelligent traveler about a year ago, when the State Fair, held here,
drew thousands of strangers to our city, and requests us to give it place in
our local columns. We do so with great
pleasure, and thank him for his kindness in sending it to us. Time has only confirmed the correctness of
the principal statements of this article, and if they were true one short year
ago, they are doubly true now. It
originally appeared in the Milwaukee
Sentinel of
Watertown,
In noticing the villages north of this place, scattered
through portions of Dodge and Columbia counties, I have found much difficulty
in varying descriptions for your readers, the similarity between them being
great. On emerging from the woods and
obtaining the first view of Watertown, the difficulty no longer exists. The spires of the churches, the brick
buildings and the countless frame ones, and the hum of business, at once give
the impression that we shall soon be “in town”.
On entering the streets I find myself in an incorporated city, whose
settlement is about equal in age with that of the city of yellow brick, and I
think it must be conceded that Watertown has done her part towards the
population and settlement of our State, when in the same number of years she
has brought together, at a distance of near 50 miles from the Lake shore, and with
all the disadvantages of perhaps the worst roads in the State – a difficulty
which existed until the construction of the plank road, which, although it was
of immense benefit to the farmer, added but little, if any, towards enlarging
the city – a population of one fifth the number of that of Milwaukee. Watertown possesses an excellent water-power,
made by damming the Rock River.
On one side mills, and on the other factories of
various kinds are in operation. Standing
on the bridge, which, by the way, is a bridge, to which I have seen no equal in
the State, either for strength, convenience, or safety – and looking up and
down the stream, the view is surpassingly fine.
Here “the river has been made the patient servant of commerce, and the
torrent, subdued to man’s service, drives the complicated machinery invented by
his ingenuity, is taught to leap forth in the morning to its toil, and to glide
away at evening to its rest”. Several
machine shops, a foundry, cabinet shop, fork factory, &c., are on the east
side of the river, the grist mills being on the west side.
St. Bernard’s
Plank Road
I find seven churches here, five of which are
Protestant and two Catholic, the German and Irish. The latter is on the finest building spot in
the city – is large and well finished structure, its tall spire penetrating
high in the heavens, and surmounted by a massive gilt
cross, the symbol of its faith. From the
steps of this church you can obtain a splendid view of a great share of the
city, with the countless numbers of teams going to, and coming from Milwaukee –
the one loaded with grain – the others returning with goods, boxes piled on
boxes, and bales upon bales, marked with the names of the various towns at
which they are destined to be opened, and their contents sold to clothe and
feed the million.
Watertown is well supplied with Hotels. Among the first are the Planter’s kept by R.
Harrington, and the American, kept by Peter Rogan, which are equal to any in
Milwaukee, with as good fare, attention and low prices, and “Mine Host” is just
the man for his business.
Planter’s Hotel
American Hotel
Artesian well
At the Planter’s one of the Artesian Wells, by which
the water is drawn to the surface, and is conducted by pipes to the kitchen,
barn, &c. This water contains medical properties, and a
number of invalids have derived much benefit from its use, while staying at the
Planter’s. It is also the stage house,
and is doing a large business, Frink & Co.
sending several extras daily from the Forest House.
In school houses, Watertown is not deficient, and
movements are on foot to construct still larger ones.
There are three newspapers here of considerable
circulation, The Watertown Chronicle
State Register, (to which may now be added the Watertown Democrat) and the Anzeiger, the last of which is in the German language,
consequently I have no means of knowing its politics.
As far as I could judge, the heft of the business is
done on the east side of the river, on which side the water power is mostly in
use as far as manufacturing purposes are concerned.
There are some fine residences around Watertown, and
many sites not yet built upon, but purchased expressly for dwelling houses to
be erected on, all of which will naturally and certainly add to its
beauty. I believe Watertown has always
been healthy in the extreme. There is
nothing around it to indicate the contrary; no marsh, but a fine river, with a
rocky bottom, it sides appearing, in many places, like crumbling walls of
limb-stone, running through the heart of the city, and which can be improved to
any extent. An exciting “contest in
law”, has somewhat retarded it at present.
When that is settled, any amount of machinery may be run day and night
by improving the water power.
A great deal of interest is manifested in the early
completion of the Milwaukee & Watertown R. R. It is looked forward to as the means of
increasing the business of the place materially, and
doubtless will. If, when the road is
completed to this point, Watertown fails to purchase the grain of a great share
of the country north of her, by paying so near the Milwaukee price as to induce
farmers to sell, it will be her own fault and she will be the loser.
With her immense water-power for manufacturing
purposes, her numerous grist mills, &c., she is capable, if she exercises
the same energy for the future as she has for the past, in a few years to
quadruple her size and her population. A
difference of opinion exists in relation to the R. R. V. U. R. R., and it is
difficult to find out the real feeling in relation to it. As may be expected,
an immense amount of business is done here, the storekeepers are all on the qui vive, and I hear no complaints of
business being dull – all appear satisfied, and all are looking forward to the
completion of the R. R. as the great means by which their business shall be still
further increased.
It is difficult, mentally, to realize the fact that
nineteen years ago this was a dense forest, untrod by
the white man, the first having to axe his way through the forest, to the spot
on which the city now stands, and which at that time was the camping ground of
the Indians. Watertown is but one of the
many – although one of the greatest – proofs of the energy of the western
settlers who have penetrated these western wilds, to build up cities, each of
which, under the blessings of our government, is a miniature republic. Success to her, and
that success cannot better be insured than by cultivating and exercising good
feeling towards her lake shore sister, Milwaukee.
I must end these notes of this inland city or they will
be too long, and become tedious to those who read the Sentinel.
J. W. H.
