Hi Listers,
My aunt sent me this story from, I believe, a Wisconsin newspaper. Sorry she
didn't remember the date. Just thought someone could use it to fill a gap in
a tree, since there were no surviving family members. I'm pretty sure this
Fisk Carlin it mentions has probably died by now.
Thanks
Jeannette Carlin Mahony
The Old Days of Tall Grass and Tall Tales
Imagine a time nearly a century and a half ago when the woods were thicker
than they are now, when the prairie was lush and when the fear of Indians was
ever present among white settlers.
At that time, the Indians had been formally banished to west of the
Mississippi, Milwaukee was developing and Chicago already was filing its
broad shoulders.
What was to become Waukesha County was tarting to submit to conquest, but
virgin forest and unspoiled open space were prevalent?
Into this situation stepped an English immigrant whose family soon followed.
Walter Carlin, originally of Berkshire, England, entered the foreign
landscape and became, according to his own surviving accounts, one of the
area's 10 original settlers.
The area he referred to is ambiguous. Though Morris Cutler, the county's
first known settler, had arrived only a year earlier, the county had grown
rapidly - as it continues to do today - and probably had more than 10
residents.
Melendy's Prairie
According to country historians, Carlin's account probably refers to settlers
in the area called Melendy's Prairie - around what is now the Towns of Ottawa
and Eagle, and into Palmyra and Jefferson County. In those days the whole
area was part of Milwaukee County.
There are reminders in the area of the Carlin family. The Emma H. Carlin
Trail through the Kettle Moraine State Forest in Palmyra was named after
William's wife. She was Milwaukee's and Waukesha's first piano teacher,
according to a letter from a relative.
She supposedly taught the daughters of Solomon Juneau, one of Milwaukee's
founders, as well as two governors' sons.
Carlin-Weld Park was developed in Palmyra from land donated by Fish Carlin,
an 86 year old surviving member of the family. The Welds and Carlins
intermarried and were major forces in business and politics in communities
along the Waukesha-Herreson County border.
About $50,000 in improvements, including landscaped hills and a pond, have
been made in the 80 acre park since 1975, according to Norman Rabl, Jefferson
Country resource agent.
Surviving Family Member
Fisk Carlin, only know survivor of the family, lives in Eagle but spends his
winters in the Florida Keys and was unavailable for an interview.
Fisk Carlin's uncle, Christie Carlin, founded Palmyra's first bank, what is
today the Palmyra State Bank.
At his death at 96 in 1955, Carlin was described by a local newspaper as the
town's "oldest and most colorful citizen." He was known as a friend of
President Taft, a community organizer and a globe trotter.
Details of the family's history are somewhat sketchy. Existing accounts do
provide a glimpse of the life of hardy settlers beginning in a land
previously untouched by white men.
A 1929 story in a Janesville newspaper gave an account from Walter Carlin,
son of William, the original family settler, and father of Fisk Carlin.
He talked about staying on the family's Palmyra farm until age 23, when he
went to Green Bay to toil for the railroads. He spoke of "bed bugs and
vermin (that) would almost drag the blankets off of you while you slept." He
also talked about fun on the farm.
"For amusement we had spelling bees, husking bees and kitchen dances, and for
real sport they have never been equaled," he said. "Imagine the thrill of
finding a red ear of corn for ladies' choice at a dance and see a pretty girl
headed straight for you."
Finding a red ear of corn meant a boy could have his choice of the girls to
dance with after the husking bee.
Walter's parents, William and Emma, were the first couple married in the Town
of Eagle.
Family letters and accounts are full of Indian stories. Writing in one
letter, William said, "we slept with one eye open for Indians" while in
Mukwonago, then an Indian village.
In another passage, another family member talks about "staying all night with
the Indians, ever keeping awake."