Jacob W. Bailey Letters
1850-1862
SC 217
0.1 c.f. (1 folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society
(Map)
Letters addressed to Jacob Bailey, West Point, New York, concerning his negotiations with William B. Slaughter and others to collect on his investment in land in the City of the Four Lakes, a city to be located on the north shore of Lake Mendota in Dane County, Wisconsin, which never was built.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-sc00217 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Jacob W. Bailey of West Point, New York, the man to whom most of the letters in this collection are addressed, seems to have been an unfortunate speculator in a Wisconsin “city” that never materialized.
The entire collection of 31 pieces relates to Bailey's efforts to collect on his investment in the City of the Four Lakes. In July 1836, William B. Slaughter purchased from Michel St. Cyr the latter's claim on the north side of Lake Mendota, the site of the first permanent settlement on the Madison lakes. Together with James D. Doty and Morgan L. Martin, Slaughter laid out a city which he hoped would be made the capital, and invested in it money belonging to his sister, Mrs. Bailey.
Sixteen years later, at the date of one of the earliest items in this collection, the Baileys still owned 897 city lots. Letters in the collection record various negotiations regarding the property, including exchanging it for a mortgage on a farm owned by Slaughter. The final item, dated 1862, is the statement by a Madison attorney saying that Slaughter had secured a commission in the army and, according to a recent Wisconsin law, he was thereby exempted from all civil suits during the war.
The collection is interesting in that it undoubtedly typifies the experiences of many Eastern speculators in Wisconsin lands. It throws some light, too, on a hitherto obscure period in the life of Slaughter, a man prominent in the affairs of Wisconsin Territory.
