Author: Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Bonniwell background: more Chatham links & docs

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

I’m still thinning out my backlog of Bonniwell-related documents that currently crowd my computer desktop. Today’s post includes some multimedia links, too. I hope you enjoy them.

A long, narrow, disagreeable, ill-built town…

Unlike the glowing prose of the description of Chatham we discussed earlier in Bonniwell background: Chatham, Kent 1832, not everyone was impressed by the Bonniwell’s home town, at least not in the late-1700s. For example, Edward Hasted (1732-1812), in his monumental History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (second edition, vol. 4, Canterbury, 1798, pp. 191-226) had this to say:

THE TOWN OF CHATHAM, the greatest part of which has been built since the reign of queen Elizabeth, adjoins to that of Rochester, which, with Stroud [sic, Strood], makes one long street of more than two miles in length, of which Chatham is one, being commonly called the Three Towns, through which the high road leads from London to Dover, as above mentioned.

It is situated close to the bank of the Medway for about half a mile, after which the river leaving the town flows north-north east. It is like most sea ports, a long, narrow, disagreeable, ill-built town, the houses in general occupied by those trades adapted to the commerce of the shipping and seafaring persons, the Victualling-office, and the two breweries, and one or two more houses, being the only tolerable built houses in it.

The 12 volumes of the second edition of Hasted’s complete magnum opus have been digitized and made available at British History Online. The quoted bits above are a brief excerpt from Hasted’s almost 9,000 words devoted to the parish history of Chatham. Click the link for online access, or download a PDF copy here.

I discovered Hasted’s sour appraisal of 1798 Chatham while watching an interesting YouTube video devoted to the history of two major disasters that befell the town—and our Bonniwell and Hills families—in the early 1800s:

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Bonniwell background: Chatham, Kent 1832

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Time for some housekeeping. I’m trying to wrap up my “brief” survey of the documentary life of Mequon pioneer (and Clark House brother-in-law) Alfred T. Bonniwell, and I need to thin out my collection of “not-specifically-Alfred, but still interesting and Bonniwell-related” documents that currently crowd my “to do” list. Today’s gem is a view and description of the Bonniwell family’s hometown of Chatham as it was in 1832, the year they left England and sailed to North America:

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More munching mammals!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

We have a vegetable garden in the backyard of our southeastern Wisconsin house. It’s not large, but we still manage to grow a nice quantity of green peas, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, peppers, basil, and squash, enough to top off several dozen vacuum-sealed mason jars and fill a chest freezer each year.

Nature being what it is, we are not the only critters in the neighborhood that enjoy the bounty of our labors. Last May I mentioned our ever-expanding population of Rabbits! and the efforts needed to keep them from our young and ripening produce. This week we face a new foe…

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Thomas Day: farmer, prospector, preacher

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

I’m still collating information about how and when the members of the Bonniwell gold rush expedition(s) returned to Wisconsin. I hope to have the full list posted here, shortly. In the meanwhile, I thought you might be interested in learning more about Clark family neighbor Thomas Day. He was a member of the Bonniwell 1849 by-land-and-sea expedition to the California gold fields and was a friend and colleague to Clark House neighbor and Methodist evangelist William W. Woodworth. Thomas Day’s life story sheds light on the early Washington/Ozaukee county settler experience, and illuminates various aspects of immigration, religion, and family life in pioneer days.

As we begin, be sure to note that our subject, Thomas Day, immigrated to Wisconsin from England in 1846, and is not directly related to the Tennessee-born, 1836 Mequon pioneer Isham Day.

Rev. Thomas Day, 1809 – 1901

Let’s start at the end, with the longer of two versions of Thomas Day’s obituary, as published on page 3 of the Indianapolis News, Sunday, April 21, 1901:

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1836: Astounding Produce News!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

While researching the life of one of Mequon’s first white settlers, Isham Day, I ran across the following breathless bit of regional puffery and promotion, penned by Milwaukee co-founder Byron Kilbourn. It’s from page 2 of the November 17, 1836, edition of the Milwaukee Advertiser:

Lawyer Pettibone has, indeed, grown some astounding turnips (“Ruta Baga”), ‘taters, and carrots in the fertile soil of Milwaukee. Likewise Mr. Douglass with his enormous radishes and “common English” turnips. Have others done anything comparable? Indeed they have, and Mr. Kilbourn has the details…

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Isham Day: Civil War casualty

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 5 Comments

Isham Day was one of the very first white pioneers to settle in the future Town of Mequon, Wisconsin Territory. I first wrote about Isham Day, and his historic house—later Mequon’s first post office, and also known as the Yankee Settlers’ Cottage—in an earlier post, River Walk. You might want to read that before continuing with today’s essay.

Isham Day was not only one of the first settlers in this area, he was active member of the small but growing community in what would become Washington and, later, Ozaukee counties. There is a lot to say about his role in the early decades of pioneer life in the Clarks’ neighborhood, some of which is already known through early local histories and various federal and local primary sources. (And he appears in six different posts here at Clark House Historian.)

One thing that is less well known is what happened to Isham Day after those early days in Milwaukee and Mequon. I wanted to know and, after an extended search, I found out. In many ways, it’s a story of the stereotypical moving-ever-westward American pioneer experience. But it’s also a story of a man trying to live a peaceful life in the midst of violence and rebellion. In our recent post, Memorial Day, 2023, we remembered some of our local men that fought and died to preserve the Union and end the scourge of slavery in “the land of the free.” Today we examine one of the many civilian casualties of that conflict: Isham Day.

Isham Day house (“Yankee Settler’s Cottage”), built 1839, Mequon, Wisconsin. The oldest house in Ozaukee county still on its original foundation. Photo credit: Anna Perkins, 2021.

Please note: sensitive or younger readers may find some of the language and events documented below to be disturbing.

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Nope. Not our…Henry Clark in the Civil War

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Today we introduce a new category on Clark House Historian, one that I’m calling “Nope. Not our…”

What’s “Nope. Not our…” all about? Well, it’s about keeping track of some of the most important dead ends and disambiguation efforts that are—in fact—a huge “behind the scenes” part of the research that goes into this blog.

“Nope. Not our…” An all-too typical day in the Clark House Historian’s office.1

The fact is, I spend a lot of time chasing down “hot tips” for various unsolved Clark House history mysteries and, sadly, many of those promising clues turn out to be duds. From time to time I have written blog posts discussing specific erroneous or misleading bits of information, and then adding clarifying or corrected information and documents for the record.

But some ambiguous or promising Clark House Historian research paths are so complicated—and have taken so much time to research and document before being proven incorrect—that I need to create a more organized record of which research approaches were tried, and how each succeeded or failed. And since this blog is where I “show my work” as we uncover new chapters of Clark House history, I thought it was time for a CHH category dedicated to eliminating confusion and error in our search for a more complete and accurate history of the Clark House and its pioneering residents and neighbors.

And so we present our new category: “Nope. Not our…” And the honor of the first “Nope” post goes to:

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Memorial Day, 2023

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 5 Comments

Lest We Forget

Our annual Memorial Day post, first published in 2020. Updated for 2023 with new information about Evander B. Bonniwell’s service.

Graves of Unknown Union Soldiers, Memphis National Cemetery, photo by Clayton B. Fraser, (Library of Congress), public domain. Memphis National Cemetery is the final resting place of Mequon’s Watson Peter Woodworth, and almost 14,000 of his Union Army comrades.

Today is the day our nation officially observes Memorial Day. For many Americans, Memorial Day represents “the first day of summer,” and is traditionally celebrated with trips to the lake, picnics, parades, and sales on cars, appliances, and other consumer goods.

But for many of us, Memorial Day remains rooted in its origins as Decoration Day. The first national observance was in 1868, when retired general John A. Logan, commander and chief of the Grand Army of the Republic—the Union veterans’ organization—issued his General Order Number 11, designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

On this Memorial Day, let’s take a moment to remember what this day truly represents.

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Random bits of Gold Rush history

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

UPDATED, May 28, 2023 with additional information about Panama (City) and Postal Museum hours.

I’m still organizing a final roundup of what we know about the Bonniwell gold rush expeditions and when everyone returned to Wisconsin. Until that’s ready, here are three random bits of history that might interest you. All are closely tied to the homecoming experiences of the Clark House neighbors that went prospecting in California between 1849 and the mid-1850s. And if you missed our series of Farewell to California! The Bonniwell party returns, you can catch up with these links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Piracy

In a follow-up question to part 4 of this series, reader Laura Rexroth asked: “Reading about the robberies on land, traveling from San Francisco to New York, I’m wondering if there was any piracy at sea with all these ships carrying so much gold dust?”

That’s a good question. As I mentioned in my original reply, the U.S. Mail Steamers that served the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the California mail route were considered the latest and greatest in ocean transportation and I suspect they could probably out run most other ships of the day. That said, I did find this interesting news item, “Arming of the Chagres steamers” on page 2 of the September 10, 1851, Milwaukee Weekly Wisconsin:

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Rabbits!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

Audubon, John James, artist, and John T. Bowen, printer, Lepus Sylvaticus, Bachman, circa 1845-1848, Smithsonian Institution, Peters Prints Collection, Creative Commons CC0 license.1

There they are: Mr. & Mrs. Cottontail and one of their many offspring. The Eastern Cottontail and its relatives were a common sight in Jonathan and Mary Clark’s world, just as they are today.

We seem to have a bumper crop of rabbits in our suburban Wisconsin yard this year and, no doubt about it, the bunnies are cute and entertaining. But for the gardener, rabbits mean trouble. If you are trying to raise vegetables and fruits to feed your pioneer family, these amusing little fur balls are the enemy. They can consume huge amounts of seedlings and sprouts in just a day or two. What’s a gardener to do?

Last year—after they ate through the plastic fence around our vegetable garden and then devoured our entire crop of green been sprouts—I went to the local big box store and got a roll of metal wire rabbit fencing and some steel posts to hold it up. That worked great for us, but it made me wonder: what did Jonathan and Mary Clark use to keep the ravenous rabbits at bay? Well, I don’t have any documentation from the Clarks’ farm, but during my researches, I have noticed some popular 19th-century methods of rabbit control.

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