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The Early Years
In the
early 1850s, settlers from the eastern United States first put down roots along
the Kickapoo River in Crawford County, Wisconsin. Inspired by the large groves
of white pine that were so prevalent in the area at that time, they called the
village they established Pine Grove.
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Black Hawk
Chicago Historical Society |
In 1867, the name of the village
was changed to Soldiers Grove to honor the soldiers who had camped here
during the course of the Black Hawk War, which swept through the area in
1832. In May of that year, Sac and Fox Indians under the leadership of
Black Hawk left the Iowa territory and returned to their homes across
the Mississippi River in northern Illinois. These Native Americans had
lost their Illinois lands in a disputed treaty signed in St. Louis in
1804. Their return to northern Illinois sparked widespread panic among
white settlers, and Illinois Governor Reynolds quickly called up the
militia, which included a young Abraham Lincoln. Both the militia and
regular army troops proved unable to locate the elusive Indians at
first, but by July they had begun to pursue Black Hawk's band across
northern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin, engaging them in a major
conflict at Wisconsin Heights before finally routing the Indians at Bad
Axe on the Mississippi River. |
Much of the land around
the future site of Soldiers Grove was deeded to the veterans of U.S. wars,
as the custom was to allot property for service in lieu of money. The first
settler was Joseph H. Brightman, who in 1856 received 80 acres of government
land in compensation for his service in the War of 1812. His property
encompassed what would later become the downtown area of Soldiers Grove. He
erected the first frame house and barn, and built the first commercial
building—a water-driven saw mill. The first village school was taught in
the Brightman family barn by Miss Frank Carter. After teaching for only two
weeks, Miss Carter resigned on account of illness, and 13-year-old Mary
Brightman was compelled to teach for the remainder of the term.
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Main Street Soldiers Grove
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Ten years
later, in 1866, Samuel Hutchins built the first general store and
opened the first hotel. In that year the village was laid out, and
ten years later it was legally platted. At first the village
consisted of only four blocks; a little later three more were added.
By 1867, the population had grown enough to merit the first frame
schoolhouse. Over the following years, the town saw the addition of
a large brick bank building in 1869; a flour mill in 1870; and a
hotel, department store, drug store and opera house—which itself
contained a saloon, dance hall, and furniture store), all around
1877. A hardware store opened in 1879. By 1884, the
population had grown to some 300 people. The railroad came to town
in the spring of 1892, and its arrival generated a depot, stock
yards, and a tobacco warehouse.
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Although early
settlers grew wheat, during the late 1800s, the switch to dairy
farming was well underway. Tobacco also became an important crop
and high-quality cigar leaf and chewing tobacco were produced on the
small family farms around Soldiers Grove. |
Tobacco Harvest |
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Ben
Logan, in his wonderful book, The Land Remembers, delivers the best
description of the local farm of the 1920s and 30s:
" There were two
hundred sixty acres of cultivated fields, woods, and pasture land
sprawled out along the narrow branching ridgetop. There was the cluster
of buildings, dominated by the main barn with its stanchions for dairy
cows, stalls for work horses. Attached to the barn was a tall silo,
which oozed the strong smell of fermented silage when it was filled and
made a marvelous, echoing place to yell when it was empty. A second
barn, mostly for hay and young cattle, had a machine-shed lean-to. An
eight-foot-tall wood windbreak connected the two barns. Across the
barnyard, like the other side of a compound in a fort, was the great
tobacco shed. It stood on poles rather than foundations and it creaked
and groaned in the wind.
There were the bulging granary, with bins for oats; a slatted corncrib
with white and yellow ears showing; a hog house with roof ventilators
turning restlessly in the wind; a milkhouse next to the tall
steel-towered windmill; and a woodshed with sticks of oak for the
kitchen range and heating stoves.
There was the house. It had two wings, the walls of the old one very
thick because the siding hid what had once been – a log house. In the
yard around the house were lilacs, elms, box elders, junipers, white
pines, and one immense soft maple tree that looked as if it had been
there forever. On the east side of the yard was the orchard with its
overgrown apple, cherry, and plum trees. On the west was the rich black
soil of the garden."
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Farming near Yankeetown |
Stump Dodger |
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And
Soldiers Grove thrived because of the farms. In his article “Reflections from
the Upstairs Window,” resident Duane Moore recalls his childhood in Soldiers
Grove. In 1939, Mr. Moore—then in second grade—lived above the grocery store on
Main Street.
“Soldiers Grove was a
relatively prosperous community of 750 residents, with four grocery stores,
three restaurants, two barbershops, four filling stations, two auto dealers, a
5&10 cent store, butter creamery, cheese factory, drug store, theatre, hardware
store, grain mill, post office, weekly newspaper, pool hall, and seven taverns.
All were located on Main Street and our store was right in about the middle,
just across the street from the pool hall. The village was nestled in the
scenic hills of the Kickapoo River Valley and relied mostly on area farms for
its business.
When prohibition ended in
the 1930s, many communities in Wisconsin elected to remain “dry.” That meant no
beer or liquor was sold within their boundaries. Viroqua, 12 miles to the north,
and Richland Center, 20 miles to the east, were two such communities. Therein
was the reason why Soldiers Grove prospered with seven taverns. Every Saturday
night, and a few nights in between, the roads to and from Soldiers Grove were
traveled by folks from the “dry” towns. It seemed like everybody came to town
on Saturday night when the stores were open late and there was a dance in the
town hall. The local theater would have a double feature. Usually Tex Ritter,
Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, or Hopalong Cassidy were featured. The population of
Soldiers Grove would top 2,000 on Saturday night. Those were the nights when
the Upstairs Window over the store on Main Street offered sights one could write
a novel about.”
Soldiers Grove grew right along with the dairy industry during the first half of
the century, until World War II and the subsequent decline of family farming.
Its population peaked at 778 in 1940. But in 1939 the railroad through town
was discontinued, an event that often brought demise to small rural towns.
Also, in the 1950s, U.S. Highway 61 was moved to bypass the Soldiers Grove
business district. The highway, which used to coincide with Main Street, was
relocated a half-mile to the east, and downtown business was never the same.
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Soldiers Grove Bar in the 1950s
All Photos Courtesy of Betty France
Sources
James Lewis, PhD, “The
Black Hawk War of 1832,” Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitalization Project,
http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/
C. W. Butterfield, History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin,
Union Publishing Company, Springfield, IL, 1884,
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/crawford/history/history.htm
Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin: A Village of Change”,
http://fortunecity.com/meltingpot/wisconsin/970/history.html
Ben Logan, The Land Remembers – Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition, North
Word Press, Minnetonka, Minnesota, 1999, pp. 6,7
Duane Moore, “Reflections from the Upstairs Window,” Crawford County
Independent-Scout, Thursday, April 3, 2003 |
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