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The village of Milton, or old Milton, as it is sometimes
called, is situated on the line of the Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad, 48 miles from Milwaukee, 33 from Madison, and
IOO from Chicago.
The first settleK in the immediate vicinity of the village
arrived in 1837, in the person of Peter McEwan, who left-
Milwaukee in company with ten' others, in the summer of
that year, and tramped westward in search of land. At
Rock river they split, McEwan and five others pursuing
their way in the direction of Koshkonong lake, where they
spent a night at the camp of Teboe, a French trader. To
Teboe they told the object of their expedition, and the next
morning he guided them through the oak groves, which
then flourished west of the village, to the edge of Du Lac
Prairie. When McEwan reached the elevation on which
Milton tests and viewed the landscape about it, he instantly
exclaimed: "This is good enough for me !" Finding a
claim already located by the presence of a furrow, in what
seemed to him the most desirable portion, he set off to
Janesville and acquired title to it, and on his return at once
constructed a house of logs some 2o feet long and broad in
proportion. The house stood on the site of a frame one
now standing on Janesville avenue, 4oo yards from the pub-
lic square. Mr. McEwan's purchased claim amounted to
i6o acres, but he subsequently claimed and held possession
of much more.
In 1838, Joseph Goodrich, of Allegany county, New
York, and James Pierce, arrived at the place. Mr. Good-
rich had walked .from the lake shore at Milwaukee with a
pack on his back, and a sp'de in his hand to test the soil,