Page 185 - Family History
P. 185
Letters, Postcards, Clippings
solicitation of Chief Oshkosh, he located at he fixed a gun cap on the end of a ramrod
Oshkosh, settling at the mouth of the Fox and poking it through the cracks in the wall
river. The land was then owned by the held it in the candle until it was heated and
Indians and it was later that it became the exploded blowing the candle to pieces and
property of the government. He took up 118 leaving the lovers in the dark. He had also
acres of land but his experiences in losing cut wood for the schoolhouse which Mr.
the land are too extended for this article and Gallup was using and in order to secure
will be told in a subsequent story. At the peace, Mr. Gallup gave the boy fifty cents
time of the settlement, 200 soldiers came up and was not molested thereafter.
from Fort Howard and camped in his first
field. Mr. Stanley says that there were seven
pupils in this first school; Henrietta Wright
Mr. Stanley cleared and planted the first and Electa Wright, sisters of the late W.W.
field of wheat in Winnebago county and dug Wright, three McCarthy children, himself
a well which is still in existence. These and his sister Malinda Stanley.
soldiers drank that well dry. Mr. Stanley,
previous to coming to Oshkosh, built the After the teacher was married, which was
first mill at Peshtigo for Daniel Whitney of shortly after Mr. Gallup commenced
Green Bay. Mr. Stanley entertained A. D. courting her, school was closed and another
Clark of Fond du Lac, who brought down was not started for several years. All the
the second crib of logs ever rafted down the toting of provisions was from Green Bay,
river. The first crib was rafted by the then Fort Howard and Mr. Stanley’s brother
government. Mr. Stanley was followed next owns a coffee mill which was used in the
by Chester P. Gallup, who came in the same winter of 1838 to grind corn, when no wheat
month accompanied by his sons, Amos and could be obtained anywhere. Three families
Henry Gallup. Henry Gallup was the father used the same mill. The elder Stanley build
of E. H. Gallup. Chester Ford was the third a large double barn, each section being
settler, coming here in 1837. Next came sixteen by eighteen and conducted the first
George Wright, father of the late W.W. tavern just at the mouth of the Fox river on
Wright, and then Joseph Jackson. Mr. the north side. Later he moved it to the west
Stanley, the elder, built the first house in side of the Ferry (now Main street) and
Oshkosh, a log cabin sixteen and a half feet located it upon land owned by Joseph
square. This was located right at the mouth Jackson. To do this is was necessary to cut
of the Fox river and surrounded by Indian away all the underbrush on that section now
lodges. occupied as Main street, which the son of
Henry Stanley helped to do. He also moved
He conducted the first ferry near Bowen’s his ferry to that place. Later the father kept a
point. An addition to his house was used for hotel known as the Brooklyn house on
a schoolhouse. The first teacher was property owned by Joseph Stringham in
Emaline Cook of Fond du Lac, later Mrs. Brooklyn, now the south side of the river.
Henry Gallup. Webster Stanley, the father, left Oshkosh a
good many years ago. He came here from
In speaking of the matter, Henry Stanley Ohio and lived here several years but just
says that he distinctly remembers how Mr. the date of his removal his son cannot say.
Gallup “sparked the teacher” in the school He died in Dakota about twenty five years
room evenings, and how upon one occasion ago.
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