The Bear Hunter of Clark County, WI
Franklin E. Dartt was born in the state of Vermont in about 1842 to parents Josiah H. Dartt and Mary A. (Ayers) Dartt. Frank Dartt's parents were New England natives and according to 1860 Green Lake County, WI, Census records, J. H. was born in Connecticut and his wife Mary was born in Vermont. Frank had an older sister, Amanda, and two older brothers, Edward and Alfred. Alfred died at about age sixteen of an unknown cause. Frank also had a sister ten years younger named Minerva Dartt.
In about 1849 the Dartt family uprooted itself from Vermont and moved to Marquette County, Wisconsin, and located near the Kingston and Montello areas. There were at least four Dartt families who arrived in this area at approximately the same time, probably brothers or cousins; the Josiah H. Dartt family; Justin N. Dartt; George H. Dartt; and Joseph R. Dartt families. Along with other settlers they built log homes and created a settlement. J.H. Dartt made improvements on waterpower by constructing a dam and bulkheads on the Montello River. J. N. Dartt held the first religious services of the community at his home. The city of Montello, WI, still has a subdivision named Dart's Addition, which was first settled by the Dartt family.
At this time, Franklin was about ten years old and the countryside he had moved to was entirely wild. Perhaps what he saw formed a basis for his future lifestyle. Montello and Fox River were nearby as well as Buffalo Lake. The land on the south side of the lake was known as the "Indian Lands". As late as 1855 there was a large camp of Winnebago and Menomonee Indians on the north bank of Buffalo Lake.
On the 1860 Federal Census Frank lived with his parents, older sister Amanda, and younger sister, Minerva, in the Town of Kingston, Green Lake County, WI. His given age was 19. He engaged in farming and had attended school within the year. Frank's father was a farmer also and owned real estate valued at $400. while his personal estate was valued at $1,000. Frank's older brother, Edward A., was on his own at this time and he had relocated on a farm in Monroe County, WI, in the town of Wilton with his wife Martha and their five children.
No records could be found of Frank entering the Civil War and by 1870 he had also settled in Monroe County, Wilton Township, WI, on his own farm as a single man. His real estate was valued at $2,000. and his personal estate at $260. He was 28 years old according to the 1870 census taker.
In the next 15 years something provoked Frank to take up a most unusual occupation and leave his farm behind. Some have suggested he was distraught over a lost love, but this is uncertain. Dartt's new interest caused him to move about 40 miles north to Jackson County, WI, into a remotely wooded area near Spaulding in the pursuit of trapping live bears. In 1885, state census records report him living in the town of Sullivan in Jackson County. Sullivan was the former name of City Point Township. "An interesting story is told about Spaulding, five miles east of Pray, toward City Point. An eccentric Englishman by the name of Frank Dart lived there, and his business was to catch wild animals such as bears, wildcats, and wolves, and sell them to zoos. But he was a true hermit, and wished to be alone, so when P. T. Graves put a sawmill at Spaulding, Dart moved 10 miles north (to Sherwood Forest)." - Fred J. Rogers, Forester, circa 1936.
WISCONSIN LEADER - Sept. 30, 1887 - SPAULDING, "Frank Dart caught a large bear last Monday, weight 350 pounds. He has a large log bear house, where he intends keeping them for a time, killing them when the hides are prime. The one caught Monday was hurt so it had to be killed."
In 1893 there is record of Frank Dartt's purchase of 40 acres in Clark County. This wooded land was in Section 21 of Sherwood Township, one half mile from the nearest town road. Frank bought the land for $25.00 from C. S. Stockwell, a prominent businessman and surveyor in Clark County.
There is reason to believe that Dartt lived in or near this parcel prior to 1893. In 1889, Frank Dartt hired a Sherwood lad of about 16 named Myron Pickering to help him trap bears for a month during that fall.
Following are transcriptions from Myron's memoirs that he penned not long before his death at the age of 93 in 1966 at his home in Montana.
"I suppose there are more memories grouped in the month of September 1889 than any other month of my life.
At that time we had just finished building a ten-room house and were moved in and as my folks had the post office, people from the whole neighborhood came to our home for their mail. Among them was Frank Dartt, the bear trapper.
On the first of September, 1889, Mr. Dartt came for his mail and asked if I would work for him through September. To me this was like a great adventure and I took him up on the deal and got ready to go, and as I loved hunting, was taking my gun along. But Mr. Dartt said I would not need it, which spoiled some of my hopes of a good time. But still there would be the adventure of catching bears.
When I came to experience a trapper's life, I found it was not all play, for we had a trail six miles in one direction from camp and three in the other that had to be patrolled every day, looking after 45 traps. Mr. Dartt went with me over the line and then made it my job to patrol the six mile line, and he the three mile. In the month I was with him I think we caught 13 bears, so you see we had a bear to take care of about every two or three days.
Of course the first bear caught gave me by far the greatest excitement, for it was so new and wonderful to think of handling, caging and hauling home a real wild bear.
I quickly found that it was not only a very important experience for me, but for Mr. Dartt also for before dropping the cage over the bear he had to take many precautions. One of these was to tie the 15' long trap clog to a tree tying the trap with the bear up so to speak. He then set the bear cage with open bottom toward the bear, so that when close enough the cage would drop over the bear. A board for the bottom could be pushed in; then the foot with the trap had to be taken care of. It was here I got one of my most important lessons, for before starting to cage the bear Mr. Dartt gave me the clamps for removing the trap when the bear was in the cage.
Well, he yelled to me, "Give me the clamps!" In all the excitement I had laid the clamps down somewhere and I had forgotten where, and what was I to do? I'm sure my heart cried out, "God, help me!" I don't think it took a minute to find them, but it seemed like an hour.
The fact that Mr. Dartt had given me the responsibility of those clamps and that for the moment was my only job, and I so utterly failed, was driven home so the lesson had a permanent affect on my life.
I don't remember how we learned of it, but we somehow knew a forest fire was moving in our direction and it meant fast and energetic action if we were to save our traps and building from destruction. A forest fire of this kind without wind to drive it creeps rather slowly, giving time to prepare for its arrival, such as picking up things that fire would damage and laying out lines of defense for stopping it when it arrived.
The job given me was to go over the trap line and take up all the traps and hang them up on trees which I did. Starting in the evening I went the six miles and took up the traps, but when it came my usual bedtime I became so sleepy I laid down on the ground and slept, actually only a few minutes, but that was the total sleep for me for that night and also the night following, for we laid out a large piece of ground on which the buildings were located. By utilizing trails, roads, and a stream surrounding the same, and constantly patrolling day and night for two nights and two days we saved the home ground and all the buildings. It did not take the fire that long to pass by, but there were many fires that lingered after, in stumps and dead trees from which the wind sometimes blew sparks quite a distance and started new fires which had to be attended quickly to prevent them from getting out of control. Hence, after the main fire had passed, there was a watch job for a time.
As time went on, caging and hauling in bears became routine and the log enclosure became quite crowded. We fed the bears in shallow feeding containers like cupboard drawers that we could pull out to put in the corn which was the diet, about the same as hogs. But the bears showed better intelligence for each had his own trough and he would wait until he heard the feed poured into his trough, which was pulled out to fill. He would take hold of his end with the claws of his front paw and pull it in with a bang.
When I finished my month, Mr. Dartt figured two extra days for the fire fighting and I would not take it, for I wanted to share his misfortune; and so to show his appreciation, at Christmas time when he butchered his bears for the Chicago market, he brought us a nice shoulder of bear meat."
"I suppose there are more memories grouped in the month of September 1889 than any other month of my life.
At that time we had just finished building a ten-room house and were moved in and as my folks had the post office, people from the whole neighborhood came to our home for their mail. Among them was Frank Dartt, the bear trapper.
On the first of September, 1889, Mr. Dartt came for his mail and asked if I would work for him through September. To me this was like a great adventure and I took him up on the deal and got ready to go, and as I loved hunting, was taking my gun along. But Mr. Dartt said I would not need it, which spoiled some of my hopes of a good time. But still there would be the adventure of catching bears.
When I came to experience a trapper's life, I found it was not all play, for we had a trail six miles in one direction from camp and three in the other that had to be patrolled every day, looking after 45 traps. Mr. Dartt went with me over the line and then made it my job to patrol the six mile line, and he the three mile. In the month I was with him I think we caught 13 bears, so you see we had a bear to take care of about every two or three days.
Of course the first bear caught gave me by far the greatest excitement, for it was so new and wonderful to think of handling, caging and hauling home a real wild bear.
I quickly found that it was not only a very important experience for me, but for Mr. Dartt also for before dropping the cage over the bear he had to take many precautions. One of these was to tie the 15' long trap clog to a tree tying the trap with the bear up so to speak. He then set the bear cage with open bottom toward the bear, so that when close enough the cage would drop over the bear. A board for the bottom could be pushed in; then the foot with the trap had to be taken care of. It was here I got one of my most important lessons, for before starting to cage the bear Mr. Dartt gave me the clamps for removing the trap when the bear was in the cage.
Well, he yelled to me, "Give me the clamps!" In all the excitement I had laid the clamps down somewhere and I had forgotten where, and what was I to do? I'm sure my heart cried out, "God, help me!" I don't think it took a minute to find them, but it seemed like an hour.
The fact that Mr. Dartt had given me the responsibility of those clamps and that for the moment was my only job, and I so utterly failed, was driven home so the lesson had a permanent affect on my life.
I don't remember how we learned of it, but we somehow knew a forest fire was moving in our direction and it meant fast and energetic action if we were to save our traps and building from destruction. A forest fire of this kind without wind to drive it creeps rather slowly, giving time to prepare for its arrival, such as picking up things that fire would damage and laying out lines of defense for stopping it when it arrived.
The job given me was to go over the trap line and take up all the traps and hang them up on trees which I did. Starting in the evening I went the six miles and took up the traps, but when it came my usual bedtime I became so sleepy I laid down on the ground and slept, actually only a few minutes, but that was the total sleep for me for that night and also the night following, for we laid out a large piece of ground on which the buildings were located. By utilizing trails, roads, and a stream surrounding the same, and constantly patrolling day and night for two nights and two days we saved the home ground and all the buildings. It did not take the fire that long to pass by, but there were many fires that lingered after, in stumps and dead trees from which the wind sometimes blew sparks quite a distance and started new fires which had to be attended quickly to prevent them from getting out of control. Hence, after the main fire had passed, there was a watch job for a time.
As time went on, caging and hauling in bears became routine and the log enclosure became quite crowded. We fed the bears in shallow feeding containers like cupboard drawers that we could pull out to put in the corn which was the diet, about the same as hogs. But the bears showed better intelligence for each had his own trough and he would wait until he heard the feed poured into his trough, which was pulled out to fill. He would take hold of his end with the claws of his front paw and pull it in with a bang.
When I finished my month, Mr. Dartt figured two extra days for the fire fighting and I would not take it, for I wanted to share his misfortune; and so to show his appreciation, at Christmas time when he butchered his bears for the Chicago market, he brought us a nice shoulder of bear meat."
OLD BOWLS
Old stoneware bowls, shiny and smooth
Creamy colored with hairline cracks.
Stripes of blue, white, and blue again
Or sponge patterns in blue and orange.
Why do I love old stoneware bowls?
I think I know the reason I do.
Because when I was little my aunt
Mixed biscuit dough in bowls like that.
Freddy as a baby! Cute!
ReplyDeletesure like all these stories, poetry is awesome, pictures are great some I've never seen before
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