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world, were silently cutting a channel for a population to
flood the country. The pioneers, or headsprings of civilization,
more transitory and evanescent than the gurgling brook
or silent rill, in almost every nation have passed away 
unnoticed and unknown; with no historic stone to mark the scene
of an embryo world for actual life, or tell the names of those
who felt its travail throes.
To erect some humble, but enduring monument at the birth-
place of civilization in the County of Winnebago; to notice
its progress, some of its obstructions and conquests, in its early
struggles to become part of the broad flowing stream of
humanity in Wisconsin; and to place in the annals of history the
names of some of the heroic pioneers through whose energies
the recent hunting grounds have been reduced to fruitful fur-
row-fields, the wigwam exchanged for elegant dwellings,
marts of trade, seminaries of learning and houses of worship,
is the prime object of the following pages; while, as a secondary
consideration, we would spread a truthful picture of the
natural advantages, unrivalled prosperity and hopeful prospects
of this section of the Great West; that those of less favored regions,
who are seeking the advantages of a new field
of enterprize, may have something better than vague and
uncertain report to direct them in their search for a new home.
And while the design of this work is to give in a truthful
manner, a description of the County of Winnebago, it seems
but just, to give a brief sketch of the great State of which
Winnebago County is a small, but integral part.
The immense resources of the Great West, the genial nature
of its climate, the variety and fertility of its soil, its admirable
facilities for commerce and its rapid progress in improvements,
population and wealth, have long been a subject
of deep interest to the older States and to European countries.
For several of the preceding years, the troubled state of
Europe, and shortened crops in the Eastern States, have
made the West more conspicuous, as the granary of the
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INTRODUCTION .