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WASHINGTON. 
About the time the capitol at Madison was begun in, 
1837, Josiah Pierce of New York landed at Milwaukee,, 
where he was almost immediately engaged to go to 
Madison and board the workmen. His was the second 
nfamily in Madison. In the following November, he re- 
moved to a cabin which he had built during the sum- 
mer in what is now the town of Washington, Green 
County. The cabin, whose dimensions were sixteen by 
eighteen feet, was on the line of nearly all the travel 
from the eastern part of the state to Galena, and there 
was hardly ever a night that some one did not stop 
there. Sometimes the guest was Gov. Dodge attended 
by his colored servant, who rode at a respectful distance 
behind the Governor, and carried his excellency's pistol. 
This was the time of the "wild cat" currency. Ap- 
parently everybody could issue money and as much as 
he chose, and those who did not issue it had no trouble in 
getting it, though it was often not worth the getting. 
Mr. Albert H. Pierce, then seventeen years of age, 
could easily earn $30 a month at farm labor, but it took 
$5o dollars to buy him an ordinary coat. A man who