If you’ve heard of the Platte Mound, you may have heard of it’s “haunted house”
As you approach the Platte Mound from the south, you see a row of houses and on the far right, a farm. The old Nodolf house is hidden by the trees in the gap just to the left of the farm.
Numerous folktales start with the words “it was a dark and stormy night.” However, not all of them have influenced a community as much as “The Nodolf Incident.” This unique piece of lore has fascinated Platteville residents for over a century. Locals still remember the legend of “the strange night,” where the “dark and stormy” weather resulted in the mysterious disappearance of Minnie and Louie Nodolf. This article will introduce the Nodolf family and their unforgettable run-in with the supernatural.
The Nodolf Family Legend
The old Nodolf house as viewed from the road.
In the 1800s, an industrious German settler named Carl Nodolf (also known as Charles or Karl) set up his homestead near the Platte Mound. The Mound is a natural rock formation that is now marked with the world’s largest “M.” Carl bought a sturdy stone cottage surrounded by lush fields, taking the first step to creating a farm he could call his own. According to folklore, he then went back to get his fiancé in Hanover, Germany. Carl was eager to take his sweetheart to America and build a life with her in the frontier town of Platteville.
However, his dream was not to be. When he got to Hanover, he discovered that his fiancé and most of her family had died in a diphtheria outbreak a few weeks before his arrival. Only her sister, Louise Steinhoff, and her mother had survived. Heartbroken, Carl almost gave up on his Platteville home before deciding to give the States another try. He and his fiancé’s remaining family members moved to the Mound and did their best to live a normal life. Not too soon after the trip, Carl noticed the deepening affection he had towards his departed fiancé’s sister. The similarity between the two siblings must have been striking. As Louise Steinhoff was only sixteen at the time, Carl waited two years to ask her hand in marriage.
Carl Nodolf did settle by the Platte Mound in 1866 (“Charles Nodolf”). About six months later, he went back to his hometown of Hanover, Germany. There Carl met with his in-laws, the Steinhoffs. The family was safe and sound; nobody had died from diphtheria. Carl helped Johanna Steinhoff move to the Platteville area with her children Louise and Heinrich (“Johanna Caroline Bertram”). Johanna’s other daughter, Caroline, had already moved to Wisconsin. Caroline had married Carl’s brother, Louis Rudolf Nodolf, in 1861 (“Caroline Steinhoff”). In 1875, twenty-eight-year-old Carl Nodolf married eighteen-year-old Louise Steinhoff, creating more branches in the Nodolf-Steinhoff family tree (Johanne Marie Louise Steinhoff”).
The Strange Night
Carl and Louise took extra caution when they prepared their home for the impending storm.
By 1880, Carl and Louise Nodolf were doing well in their Platteville home. They had two children: a four-year-old named Minnie and a two-year-old named Louie. All was peaceful until “the strange night” in June when a massive storm rolled over their property. Oddly enough, the dark clouds seemed to hover over their home while the rest of the sky was blue and serene (Gard and Sorden). The soft rain turned into never-ending sheets at dusk, and the wind picked up into fierce gales.
Louise Nodolf heard wolves howling nearby. Public domain photo.
They fastened each shutter tightly and slid bolts across every door. After making sure that the house was completely secure, they tucked Minnie and Louie into bed. The chaotic lightning and howling of wolves kept Carl and Louise awake long after their children had dozed off. Louise had never heard the wolves so close to her home before. At around midnight, Carl and Louise decided that they would at least try to get some sleep. Louise led the way up the stairs with her lantern as she and her husband checked on the children. After seeing that Minnie and Louie were sound asleep, they finally went to bed.
Louise woke up in the midst of a thunderstorm to find her children missing. Public domain photo.
Several hours later, Louise woke to a crash of thunder. She thought she could hear her daughter crying out for help. She grabbed her lantern and ran to the children’s bedroom. Louise looked at their beds and saw they were empty. Carl was also awake by this point, and the two of them ran downstairs to see if their children had wandered in the night. Not finding them anywhere in the house, Louise and Carl called out, “Minnie!” “Louie!” in panic. All they heard was the rain beating down on the roof. Then, through the tumult of the storm, they noticed Minnie and Louie answering them from outside the house.
Carl unbolted the main door and found the children standing on the steps shivering. He ushered them into the house while Louise rushed to get them a warm change of clothes. Before she made it very far, Carl told her not to bother. Miraculously, Minnie and Louie had not gotten wet while they were in the middle of the storm. This detail was strange, considering the house did not have much of a porch, and there was no shelter for miles around that could have kept them dry. In the words of Haunted Heartland authors Beth Scott and Michael Norman, “it was as if they had been standing in some invisible shell on the doorstep of the house” (451). Carl and Louise were thrilled that their children were safe, but baffled by the bizarre event. They wondered not only how Minnie and Louie stayed dry in the rain, but also how they got out of the house in the first place.
Carl rechecked the house and saw that all the locks and bolts were untouched. Everything was still sealed from the inside. It would have been challenging for young Minnie and Louie to reach the bolts and slide the heavy bars to the side. Even if Minnie and Louie had managed to leave the house, who locked everything behind them? When Carl and Louise asked Minnie what had happened, she said that she did not know. The more she tried to talk, the worse she stuttered.
Minnie had never stuttered before that night, but both she and Louie would keep stuttering for the rest of their lives. According to Scott and Norman, they were the “only two of the eight Nodolf children to do so” (451). According to legend, Minnie and Louie never remembered what occurred on the “strange night.”
Minnie and Charles survived the strange event and grew to adulthood. Here they are pictured with the rest of the Carl and Louise Nodolf family, as shared by descendant on Ancestry.com
What happened that night?
What happened to Minnie and Louie defies all logic. But that fact has not stopped people from trying to explain the unexplained. The Nodolfs themselves tried in vain to come up with a reason for what happened on that “strange night.” Carl thought maybe some nomads (he used the term “gypsies”) had tried to carry off the children, before being scared off by the storm. This theory does not make any sense, and there were no camps or caravans anywhere near the Platte Mound at the time. Neighbors speculated that perhaps one of the parents had been sleepwalking and accidentally locked the children out of the house. This explanation is also strange because Carl and Louise kept waking up during the loud storm. Recently, independent researchers have rekindled interest in the case. Some of their wilder theories regarding Minnie and Louie’s disappearance include teleportation, alien abductions, and paranormal activity.
Did Minnie and Louis have an extraterrestrial encounter?
Michael Winkle and other proponents of the teleportation theory cite David Paulides’ Missing 411 series. These books focus on accounts where young people unexpectedly vanish and reappear in the Midwest area. The children in these cases, like Minnie and Louie, seldom remember how they got from one area to another. UFO enthusiast Joseph Trainor notes that Minnie and Louie may have experienced something that they could not comprehend, like an alien craft. Not too long after the incident, in 1894, local newspapers reported a strange ball of fire dashing through the sky in the Chicago area. The celestial anomaly was accompanied by “a terrific peal of thunder and vivid lightning” (“Fall of a Ball of Fire”). Some theorize that odd meteor-type objects like this one were actually spaceships. The trauma of seeing or being abducted by aliens could have led Minnie and Louie to their lifelong stuttering.
Some locals believe that Carl Nodolf’s long-dead fiance (of legend) was responsible for Minnie and Louie’s disappearance that night.
Finally, many Platteville residents think that the Nodolf house is haunted. Some people who believe Louise’s sister died from diphtheria point to her as the ghost (“Platteville, Wisconsin Ghost Sightings”). After all, she might have wanted to come to Platteville with the rest of her family. She could have unlocked and locked the door without anyone knowing. As stated before, Louise did not have any siblings who died of diphtheria, but it makes for a compelling story. A few of the people who have visited the old Nodolf home insist there is a ghost because of the eerie wailing sounds they have heard at the site (“Platteville, Wisconsin Ghost Sightings”).
Legacy
Only a few sources describe the Nodolf incident, with the primary account coming from Erva Loomis Merow (Gard and Sorden). She was a successful children’s book author from Kenosha, and there is a chance she “embellished” the tale when she relayed it in the 1960s (“Erva Merow”). Although the Nodolf Incident story is less well known today than it was in previous decades, the legend lives on. In 2015, Wisconsin composer Heidi Joosten wrote a collaborative choral piece about the incident. The work was performed by sixth through twelfth-grade choir students at Platteville High School (“Platteville schools The Strange Night”).
This painting of the Nodolf House adorns the Platteville Senior Center
The Nodolf home still stands today and is a great site to visit by the “M.” Although the walls are intact, the house is crumbling and structurally unsound (Burns). An outside glance is fine, but it is not safe to venture inside. Those who are brave enough to visit the property cannot help but wonder what really happened to Minnie and Louie on that “strange night” so long ago.
The Nodolf house still stands, but it is no longer safe to enter it.
by Terry Burns, Laurie Graney and Kristal Prohaska
Welcome to our third and final article on the mystery of “Indian Park,” the not-quite-an-acre of land just off fourth street in Platteville, Wisconsin. Our first article introduced the many mysteries of this place; our second article discussed the history we know for certain, particularly its history as a cholera burial ground and the seeming legal tug-of-war that’s occurred over the property since the 1850s.
[Note : we have added new information to this article as of January 31, 2022. That new information has been obtained as research performed as part of a Wisconsin Humanities Mini-Grant entitled “Unraveling the Mysteries of Indian Park and Developing a Vision for the Future.” We have also added a more formal separate page, “The History of Indian Park,” which includes references beyond what we refer to in this article.]
Is that circle in the center an Indian Mound? It originally rose at least two feet higher off of the ground and the area under the circular sidewalk is also sloped. Some people who lived in Platteville in the late 1960s and early 1970s remember that it was once surrounded with an iron fence. In the 1950s and early 1960s, elementary students from O.E. Gray elementary school were often walked out to the park as a field trip, and told not to walk on the mound because it was sacred ground to the “Indians.” Were these elementary school teachers right?
Finally we come to the legend that gives the park its name: the alleged “Indian buried in the middle.” We’ve already speculated that if there is truth to the legend, and we think there is, that the so-called “Indian” (no one has ever attached a tribe or nation) is not a recent burial. Elementary school teachers in the 1950s used to lead their classes out to the park from O.E. Gray elementary and instruct students that there was a mound in the middle of the park, and it needed to be treated with respect. If you grew up in Platteville and remember such a field trip, we want to say that your teacher was probably exactly right: that there likely is a conical mound in the center of the park, and perhaps were other mounds there too at one time. This article will explore that possibility and talk about how we might prove it.
So, is that a conical mound in the center? Was this area home to a mound complex? Could there even be a linear mound on the south side, perhaps one shaved off when the park was leveled?
As we explored this idea, we were told more than once that the kind of area “Indian Park” sits upon was not the kind of area that mounds were built upon. (Of course, we were only told this by other white people, as the “Mound Builders” are long gone. William Quackenbush, the Tribal Preservation Officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, kindly informed us that this was sometimes but not always the case.1)
Conical mounds do NOT need to be located near water, but even if they did, that would not be a problem. The area now known as “Indian Park” was once very near not only water, but a plethora of natural springs. In fact the whole area of what is now Platteville has been described by of the early setters as a forested area filled with gorges and springs. The area to the east, towards Darlington, was prairie, and it was easy to see what is now Platteville because it stood out both because of the large Platte Mound (the one that now has a large “M”) and because it was forested and full of water.
The last post on this blog was a 1917 article by one of the early white settlers, Mr. J.E. Evans, entitled “Platteville Ninety Years Ago, as the Site Appeared to our Pioneers / Also Some Account of the Abundance of Water that Greeted Early Settlers.” As that article showed, the area looked vastly different then. It was a land full of ravines and springs. The area around Platteville was so plush, so full of resources and places for shelter, that its hard to believe it was not a meeting ground for Native American trade and ceremony.
Writers such as Wisconsin state archaeologist Robert Birmingham (in Indian Mounds of Wisconsin, co-authored with archaeologist Amy Rosebrough, and in Spirits of Earth: the Effigy Mound Landscape of Madison and the Four Lakes) and Anishinaabe professor Patty Loew (in Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal), along with on-the-ground educators like Effigy Mounds National Monument lead ranger David Barland-Liles, have discussed at length how the mounds connect to the cosmology of those who build them. For instance, bear effigy mounds are often associated with the bear clan; mounds occurring near springs are particularly significant since they were considered by some to be the opening to the underworld.
This graphic, used by Madison public schools to teach about the mounds in Dane County, shows the general distribution of “mounds and other earthworks” in Wisconsin.
In one of the earliest histories of the area, C.W. Butterfield’s 1881 History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Butterfield introduced the area with a long discussion of the “Mound Builders” (pp. 442-449) and conveniently listed off the locations of those he was aware of.
Since then, literally hundreds more mound sites have been rediscovered and in many cases, destroyed. Sometimes the locations drift into mystery for purly financial reasons: for instance, each of us have been told stories by retired civic leaders that either one or several conical mounds once sat upon Platteville’s Legion field, but were leveled off to build the current playing fields. Is this true? We suspect it is, as those individuals had no motive to lie about such a thing, and the reason why the act allegedly occurred– wanting playing fields more than wanting to preserve an archaeological site–does not seem surprising. But the only way to prove it would be with ground-penetrating radar or to locate such mounds on in a study done before the park was built.
That’s just one of scores of examples. After our first presentation on Indian Park back in February 2020, two long-time residents shared similar stories about other places. One, a former colleague of mine from UW-Platteville, [permission needed to use name], said that as a boy the area nearby that he helped farm had what he took to be a mound, and when he returned there later, it was gone. He was sure it had been scraped off by farming equipment. This sort of story has no doubt repeated itself over and over in this area.
Therefore, we find it extremely safe to argue that although there’s no record of when the mounds in “Indian Park” were partially scraped off, it is almost certain this happened, since the area was once described as looking so different. Also, we know for certain that two or more feet of fill have been added to the park. As you can see from the photo, when the new sidewalk was put in to the park several years ago, the excavation plainly showed the older sidewalk beneath, under at least a foot and a half of fill. Additionally, if one walks along the south border of the park, you’ll find that the adjoining properties sit more than a foot lower than the park; whatever fill was used for the foundations of those houses years ago still left them sitting lower than the park. Taken together, this means that the mound in the center used to stand out much more than it did. (Indeed, the park once called “Hill Cemetery” used to be hilly, near springs, and reputedly had more than one mound.)
As the new sidewalk was put in to the park several years ago, those watching could plainly see the old sidewalk under at least a foot and a half of fill. That means the mound in the center used to stand out much more than it did. Photo by Kristal Prohaska.
If there was a mound complex in the area, it’s not inconceivable–in fact, its predictable–that there would have been native gatherings here. In fact, that makes for a much more logical reason for people calling the place “Indian Park” than the story of an “Indian buried in the middle.” If someone or some people were buried there (if the mounds were burial mounds, as is often but not always the case), we’d be talking about someone buried there more than a thousand years ago, but peoples still visiting to the area to perform ceremony as late as the beginning of the last century.
Is that possible?
Yes. We will argue that it’s not only possible but likely. It matches the practice that continues (or in some cases has restarted) in places like Effigy Mounds National Monument. If we let ourselves be guided by those most familiar with the phenomena of mound-building– Ho-Chunk elders, Wisconsin state archaeologists who write about the “Mound Builders,” and others within the intersection of peoples who have studied and lived within native traditions–it starts to look more and more likely that there may have once been not just one mound but a mound complex in what is now called “Indian Park.” Discovering whether that is true requires archaeological excavation that is not permitted in catalogued state cemeteries, and as noted in our previous article “Indian Park cemetery” was catalogued as a state cemetery in 2021.
What we do know is that both articles and memoirs have referred to Native American gatherings at Indian Park. We also know that articles from the late 1800s and early 1900s
In 1962, someone recalled enough to tell the reporter that native people from “miles around congregated there once a year for a pow-wow. They always gathered under a big oak tree for their ceremonials and it is assumed they moved the grapes [graves?!] during one of these times, since they stopped returning rather abruptly.”
The park used to contain several “big oak trees”– they have simply blown down in recent years (the last one coming down during the big storm in the summer of 2020.) But as you can see from this picture taken during the 1970s, the park once boasted several oak trees.
From “Two Tours of Historic Platteville,” compiled by Betty Burgett in 1986 from two separate guides written by Eagle Scouts James Burgette (1976) and Dvid Burgett (1984), p. 6.
In addition, some residents at the turn of the last century recalled their being a multi-day Native American gathering in that park, though no one recalled, or perhaps knew at the time, the reason for the gathering.
Hopefully at some time in the future, ground penetrating radar will solve this mystery!
Notes
Often we have been asked if there are any Ho-Chunk or Potawatomi histories about the Mounds. Yes, the Ho-Chunk in particular consider themselves the living descendants of the “Mound Builders,” and have a plethora of histories concerning this. (Uniquely, the Ho-Chunk literally bought their way back in to the land of their ancestors by repurchasing some of their ancestral ground.) Because so much has been lost, it seems unlikely to tie a specific history to this one small patch of land. We did write to the Ho-Chunk Historic Preservation Officer, Mr. William Quackenbush, about the possibility of a mound complex in the park, and he said (on September 4, 2020) that this was not hte first time he had been asked. He also commented about whether or not a mound necessarily needed to be near water or on a bluff:
“You ask an interesting question in that there is no set distance from water or to water that determines burial placements. I believe in the field of archaeology there is this misconception that burial mounds for example, are placed in close proximity to water and that there are these set rules or guidelines that govern the placement of earthworks in general. This type of ideology originates within the field of archaeology for their use and it has now become generally accepted by their community to be the case. Traditionally speaking, burials are more apt to be placed where the individual and/or family preferred them to be placed, which doesn’t always include easy or short access to water. Ask a handful of archaeologists if earthen mounds were placed on sides of hills, or are there cultural resources such as burials on steep terrain, and they will have varying and differing viewpoints on the matter yet few if any conduct archaeological shovel tests across inclines or steep terrain. In short, their average standards & best practices dictate many thoughts on matters unless critically questioned. Bottom line is, there’s always an exception to the rules that need to be considered.”
Later in the letter, he mentioned other details that we have since asked him if we could publicly share. For now, we will just note that Burns’s inquiry was not the first one he’d received, but that “[w]e have heard others in your community through the years, have considered it as such – even going as far as including the recognition of the native community within the park’s name. Where these early thoughts originate would have to be researched to determine if they warrant consideration. I do know the Ho-Chunk People have been systematically displaced from most all of our ancestral lands since the mid 1800’s through various land cession treaties and ensuing series of forced removals to no less than four different reservation sites west of the Mississippi River. Many of those families associated with the Platteville area have likely succumbed to the genocide of our People that has taken place in our recent history.”
A land full of ravines and springs (more than 17 springs within what would become the city limits) was what greeted early settlers. The area around Platteville was so plush, so full of resources and places for shelter, that its hard to believe it was not a meeting ground for Native American trade and ceremony.
Below, you’ll find a copy of “Platteville Ninety Years Ago, as the Site Appeared to our Pioneers / Also Some Account of the Abundance of Water that Greeted Early Settlers” by J. H. Evans, from the January 31, 1917 Platteville Journal. Evans describes what the early settlers saw, based on his own 70 year history here and conversations with city founder J.H. Rountree and others. Since the article is a bit hard to read, I’ve also transcribed it.
Following this, you’ll find a Wisconsin State Journal article from 1962 that talks about the native gatherings that some recall being held in this area. That post is under construction now, but should be finished soon. If you’re interested in the possible mound complex that’s right here in Platteville, stay tuned.
Here’s the article:
< “Platteville Ninety Years Ago, as the Site Appeared to our Pioneers / Also Some Account of the Abundance of Water that Greeted Early Settlers” by J. H. Evans. From the January 31, 1917 Platteville Journal.
Platteville ninety years ago, as the site appeared to our pioneers
Also some account of the abundance of water that greeted our early settlers
By J.H. Evans
Transcribed from January 31, 1917 Platteville Journal
“This blessed year of 1917 marks the ninetieth anniversary of the white man’s advent on the present site of Platteville. Emanuel Metcalf’s accidental discovery of lead near the location of the City Water Works was unquestionably the primary cause of the founding of the city of Platteville. It was far from being the ideal site of the prosperous city tht now graces the location. If the traditional history of a combination of the “Badger” and the trapper Metcalf had made the discovery of mineral about half a mile further upstream, Platteville would have been located on much better ground.
“Just imagine the appearance of the 1920 acres that now comprise the corporate limits of Platteville which greeted the eyes of the pioneers who came here in 1827. The topographical features then were very different from that which meets the eye of the present dweller. At that time the site was covered with a dense forest of heavy timber, principally different kinds of oak, linn, and aspen, with a thick undergrowth of crab-apple, sumac, and briers. The site was traversed by a series of low abrupt ridges, generally running from North and North-west to the South and South-East. Many of these ridges had an altitude from four to six feet higher than at present, while the intervening ravines in nearly every instance had many springs of running water and often swamps where horses and cattle were occasionally mired. Probably there was no other place of like area better supplied with living spring water.
“To give an idea of the abundant supply of water, I will try to locate some of the principle springs which had something to do with fixing the homes of the early settlers. Most of these springs have disappeared through the effects of mining and the filling of smaller ravines.
“The Rountree spring came from a ledge of rock in the ravine which crossed Pine Street, and on the northwest corner of the lot now owned by Prof. McGregor. This spring did not have a strong flow of water, but it was important from the fact that it caused the location of Maj. Rountree’s log cabin, that being the first house built in Platteville. After the flow of water ceased, Rountree built on the site the first ice house in Platteville. Much filling has raised the grade several feet.
“The next most important spring was the ‘Vineyard Spring,’ located on the lot now owned by Rev. William Waters about eighty feet East of the present line of Water Street. This spring had a large flow of water. J.R. Vineyard built a commodious spring-house with a projecting portico over the spring on the north side. His dwelling of frame stood near the present site of the home of A. Kies. Further up this ravine were several springs, notably those of Samuel Pross and Frank Rowe. Below the Vineyard springs were other springs, those of Mrs. Nettie, Judge S.O. Paine and L.L. Goodell being best remembered. Crossing Main Street, a copious flow of water came out on a lot where the livery stable now stands. This was known as the Poersh spring, belonging to a man of that name who followed the vocation of “soap-maker.” Further south and on the west side of the ravine was a fine flow of water known as the “Hawley spring” now the property of Meyer lumber company. This spring is probably inexistence at this time.
“This ravine was a noted land-mark in early times, north of Main Street it was a boggy marsh covered with a scrubby growth of timber and brush. On the east side (of Carl’s addition), the principle raines of lead were located. At Main Street, there was a greater flow of water than at this time. This was crossed by a low wooden bridge at least fifteen feet below present grade. The apex of the ridge near the High School, and the ridge crossing Main Street between Oak and Second Streets being from four to eight feet higher than present grade made the crossing in the ravine so difficult that teams were often compelled to double in order to effect a passage.
“A spring much used in early times was located in a small ravine traversed by Prof. Williams. It served for a few years for the stables of Maj. Rountree, failing in a few years it was replaced by a well. Another spring remembered by early settlers came to the surface in the ravine which beads near the former home of W.H. Oettiker. It disappeared many years ago, long before the land was cleared by the heavy growth of timber.
“A notable spring of early times was located almost exactly under the southwest corner of the City Hall. It was on the north side of the ravine which headed near the north-west corner of the Public Square. This ravine was narrow and quite deep. So deep where it crossed Main Street between the Hendershot building and the Lumber and Fuel block, the original grade was at least ten feet below present grade. Here a small wooden bridge was built across the little stream.
“West of the city along the marshy ravine which headed near the present Fourth street there were many springs. First in order was the Hardnocks, then came the Doesher spring which afforded water for the cows in pastures as late as ten years ago. On the Grindell property, a spring for a time furnished water for the manufacture of brick. Further west on the H.S. Rountree lot there was a spring with a large flow furnishing abundant water for stock. Near this spring the village boys of 60 years ago (screened by abundant timber) had built a dam to impound water for a ‘swimming hole.’ For a few seasons this afforded the kids a fine bathing pool. Just on the south of Adams street, on a lot now owned by the E. H. Doescher estate, there was a spring notable in early times as a camping place of emigrants and gypsies. Further down the ravine there were springs on the Shepherd lot, the Oudyn lot, the Charles Nye lot, the Homer Perry lot, and the Carsten lot. Doubtless there were others. Some may yet continue to flow, but most of them have been drained by the shafts sunk for mining. Along the ridge running west from the Camp grounds, water seemed to be near the surface. Miners were troubled with water, but the intensive digging and clearing the timber finally drew off the water. The last spring on the Anthony Sherpherd lot disappeared a few years ago.
“Note: I have not attempted to name all the springs which furnished great abundance of water to our early settlers. My recollection goes back over seventy years. Some of the data here given has been gathered from our early pioneers; notably Major Rountree, J.R. Vineyard, Frederick Hollman, Samuel Moore and others. I thought a record of these matters concerning the topography of our city should be preserved.”
While researching “Indian Park,” we learned that some residents at the turn of the last century recalled their being *a* multi-day Native American gathering in that park, though no one recalled, or perhaps knew at the time, the reason for the gathering. We’ve speculated that it concerned the mound(s) that we think were more visible in the park when it was a hilly spring-fed area known as “Hill Cemetery” or “Hill Graveyard.” Kristal Prohaska located the article below in the Wisconsin State Journal. In 1962, someone recalled enough to tell the reporter that native people from “miles around congregated there once a year for a pow-wow. They always gathered under a big oak tree for their ceremonials and it is assumed they moved the grapes [graves?!] during one of these times, since they stopped returning rather abruptly.”
“Many Historical Mysteries in Platteville Cemeteries,” Wisconsin Capital Times December 12, 1962
(Or, the part of the story that there’s absolutely no mystery about at all! Updated January 31, 2022)
by Terry Burns, Laurie Graney and Kristal Prohaska
In the first article in this series, we raised a series of questions about this small park in the center of Platteville, Wisconsin. We noted that through this one small space runs a plethora of historic mysteries, echoing against some of the most painful times in the city’s past: the removal of native peoples, the 1850s cholera epidemic, city founder (and slave owner) John Rountree’s control of the press, and the division of people in town into pro- and anti-slavery factions.
We asked whether the small mound in the center was a Native American burial mound and if there are other mounds there; who other than 1812 veteran Thomas Aiken is buried there (and how do we know he was buried there), what is known about the “mystery stone” on the north side of the park, and what is known about the large group of native people were who gathered in Indian Park a century ago for a three-day ceremony.
Platteville’s tiny Indian Park, bounded by North Court and 4th Streets between West Dewey and Lewis Streets, seems to have been intersected by most of the major traumas of 19th-century Platteville: the removal of Native Americans, the cholera epidemic, and the legacy of the Civil War.
To answer these questions, we’ll need to also circle back through local history through several lenses. In this part of the series, we’ll look at the things we know are certain, and proceed from that to what is probable.
The first line we’ll follow is the story of War of 1812 veteran Thomas Aiken and other cholera victims. We’ll be looking at what has happened that can be locally or nationally documented. We’ll be dealing with recorded history.
The role of two 1800s epidemics (smallpox and cholera) play main roles in this story. The first World War and a third epidemic (Spanish flu) may explain why no one was much paying attention to “Indian Park” when the state, then the city, ordered bodies to be removed from the ground there in 1917 and 1918. We know for certain some of those bodies were never removed; in fact, at least one family, that of William Aiken, was prevented from removing them.
Perhaps those not directly involved were understandably focused on the draft for the Great War: stories of it dominated the Platteville Journal from March 1917 until local soldiers returned. The draft age for “young men” was about to be increased to 40 years of age just before the war ended. As soldiers returned, the “Spanish flu” broke out, and remained through 1919. One can imagine that there was little interest in digging up victims of one epidemic during another.
Let’s begin with names for the park, then move on to one family’s story.
Since the time white settlers first arrived in Plattevile, “Indian Park” has been known by various names (for a more exact reference of who called it what, and when, please see the History of Indian Park page.)
“Indian Park” (from at least 1912 and multiple times since)
Cemetery Park (1918)
Rountree Park (1918)
“North Park” (1929 and multiple times through 1961)
“Children’s Park” (1938)
“Fourth Street Park (also known as North Park and Indian Park)” (1959)
“Indian Park” (current name)
Indian Park, Est. 1917. Why this date?
Few if any current residents seem to remember any name but “Indian Park.” Long-time resident Thomas Boll told us that he and his family could not remember any name since Indian Park used since the 1940s. James Boll, who grew up next to the park, also could recall no other name. The sign says “Indian Park, Est. 1917,” though this date relates to when it became a park, not to the specific name (which by the next year, 1918, would briefly be “Cemetery Park” then “Rountree Park.”) In 1917, the state legislature under Chapter 307 granted the City of Platteville the right to “take care of the grounds therein.” From this point on, “the use of said lands for interment shall be prohibited and the title thereto shall be vested in the said city of Platteville.”
Popular books on the area invariably refer to it as a place that was once a cemetery and which still contains burials. Two such books are shown below.
Walking Tours of Wisconsin’s Historic Towns (1998) describes the park as an “unmarked cemetery in which cholera victims were buried” (p. 72).
Two Tours of Historic Platteville, Betty Burgett’s 1986 compilation of two Eagle Scout projects one completed by James Burgett (1976) and the other by David Burgett (1984) says that this “block of land has been left unmarred by the advances of civilization because the graves must not be moved due to the fact that the victims died of cholera” (p. 7). It also mentions the marker of 1812 veteran Thomas Aiken.
Many accounts exist of the cholera epidemic that raged in Wisconsin from 1849 through 1855, and peaked in 1850.1 Yet it seems hard to find any obituaries or church sexton records. Why? And if those records don’t exist, how do we know there were cholera burials?
The reason why there aren’t obituaries is fairly simple. The only paper in town, the Independent American started by city founder John Rountree, stopped publication during the epidemic’s peak years of 1850 and 1851.
City founder John H. Rountree encouraged settlers to “explore this section of Country;” that is, to come to Platteville. Here’s an ad he placed in a Galena advertising bulletin in 1835. As has become more common knowledge in recent times, Rountree and some other early settlers also brought slaves into Platteville, then part of the free Michigan Territory. This ad appeared as the frontispiece in Gardner, Douglas and Greens 1922 “Early Days in Platteville,” as noted below.
One may speculate why: Rountree had previously advertised in places like Galena for settlers to come to Platteville, and perhaps it was not easy to recruit people to town during an epidemic! From a practical perspective, it may also be that the manpower necessary for printing a paper was considered an unneeded luxury at that time.
What about the lack of church records? That brings us to a point we’ll explore in greater detail below: the Presbyterian church in town, associated with the fledgling Platteville Academy, had in the mid-1840s begun the unusual step of changing its governance structure. Here we see the first submerged hint of the slavery/anti-slavery factions in Platteville. The Presbyterian church nationally had taken a strong anti-slavery stance as early as 1818; city founder Rountree (and some others in town) owned slaves through the 1840s. Yet at least two other homes in Platteville or the vicinity were stops on the underground railroad, ways that sympathetic northern whites helped escaped slaves to freedom in Canada. There were also at least two free Black families in Platteville, and many more in the Pleasant Ridge community in Lancaster. Perhaps the anti-slavery/pro-slavery drama of early Grant county should be an article or book of its own, and indeed material on this subject is now available in ways it was not even a generation ago.2 But let’s return to that major conflict after we follow the story of the one veteran we know is buried in the park, Thomas Aiken.
Four-year-old Mary Andrews, sister Elizabeth and mother Mary all died of cholera in September, 1850.
Miner Thomas Sprague, infant John Sprague, and seven-year-old Julia Sprague all died of cholera in June 1850.
How do we know the name of not just Aiken, but other cholera victims? First and most logically, their families knew their loved ones had died, and many of those families left written histories. In three cases, the stories are mentioned on ancestry.com or find-a-grave.com. Secondly, 1850 was a census year, and along with the census, there was, for deaths that took place during six months of 1850, the U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule. The church of Latter-Day Saints has digitized these records; they’re now widely available on places like ancestry.com. In this database, once can find the names of many but not all of those who died.3 Some families, like the Sprague family and the Andrews family, lost multiple members. Not all of those who died are listed: for example, Thomas Aiken and his son William’s fiance Eleanor Donelson are not. Why? Because they were still alive when the 1850 census was taken but died later on.
Remember that 1812 veteran Aiken’s marker is the one legible marker left in the park. Yet the marker is clearly not from 1850. How did it get there? That itself is an interesting story.
Thomas Aiken’s headstone. Google maps street-view, photo courtesy of Jessie Brogley.
In 1917, when the state then later the city ordered all bodies in the park be removed, Thomas P. Aiken’s son William Aiken was still alive. He had two headstones carved, one for his father and the other for his one-time fiance, Eleanor Donelson, who had also died of the epidemic. (Years after his fiancee’s death, William Aiken married a young Swiss woman named Brugger, and many Bruggers still reside in Platteville today.) William Aiken endeavored to move his father and Eleanor Donelson to Hillside cemetery. But then he had to stop. He was told they couldn’t be moved.
Why? Because they were cholera victims, and no one knew then if exhuming the bodies would again spread the disease. There might have been a city order to remove the bodies, but not only did many people not follow it: some, like Aiken, were prevented from following it.
Let’s fast forward to 1975.
A copy of Laura Graney’s typed letter to the the Platteville Journal. A picture of the headstone William Aiken had made for his father is attached to the upper-right.
That year, William Aiken’s granddaughter Laura Graney (mother-in-law to Laurie Graney, one of the authors of this piece) saw an article in the local Platteville Journal‘s folklore column that stated many people believed there was an “Indian” buried in the middle of the park. The article also stated that “all bodies, with the exception of the Indian, were moved.” As she said, “This is not true.”
She told the story we’ve presented in abbreviated form above. To the letter, she attached a picture of the headstone that her grandfather was unable to use for his father. That stone, and the one for Eleanor Donelson, still exist on the Aiken-Graney farm, because the Graneys were never able to exhume the bodies and move them to the proposed new location. The Platteville Journal printed the letter on April 8, 1975.
The article as printed in the April 8, 1975 Platteville Journal
We owe a lot to Laura Graney and the Leo M. Kane American Legion Post #42 for what followed.
In the spirit of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and with the help of Mrs. Graney and her record-keeping, Leo Kane American Legion Post #42 was able to obtain and put in an official veteran’s headstone for Thomas P. Aiken.
That’s the stone you see in the park today. The Platteville Journal article about this dedication appears below.
A July 1976 Platteville Journal article covered the dedication ceremony for THomas P. Aiken’s tombstone in Indian Park
Since that time, other articles have appeared about Aiken, such as this May 23, 2018 article by UW-Platteville archivist James Hibbard
Now that we know something about the group we know is buried in Indian Park, let’s consider another group of settlers who might be buried there: smallpox victims.
In 1835, surveying was begun to plot out the first lots and sections of the city of Platteville. Known as the “Original Plan of the Village of Platteville,” this survey was expanded the following year to include 28 more lots, including the park/cemetery. Maj. Rountree advertised in Galena papers for people to move to Platteville.
In 1837, Thomas P. Aiken was among those who arrived, traveling with his family and the Donelson family up from Illinois. In 1839, he and his family settled at the current location of the Aiken-Graney farm. That same year, the Platteville Academy (which would become the State Normal College then merge with the Mining school to become UW-Platteville) was founded. It was closely associated with the anti-slavery Presbyterian church. In fact, until 1853, the church and the Academy met in the same building. Presbyterian Rev. John Lewis and his wife Electa Lewis taught there, along with the first principle, Josiah Pickard.
But in 1843, disaster struck. Smallpox raged in Platteville from December 1843 to February 1844. The population was around 500, and 226 got smallpox, according to a Presbyterian Missionary report probably written by Alvin Dixon and extensively quoted in “Early Days in Platteville” (p. 14).4 There is no record of where those who died were buried, but as late as 1854 there were only two graveyards in the city, one being “Hill Graveyard,” now known as “Indian Park.” It seems logical that those who died of cholera only a few years later might be buried the same place as smallpox burials from less than a decade before. But there’s no record of this that we can find.
Similarly, there the stone we’ve come to call the “mystery stone,” located on the northern side of the park near 4th street.
No one so far has deciphered what the words are on this “mystery stone.” Photo by Kristal Prohaska.
What does it say? How old is it? No one we know–and two of us are life-long area residents as are our parents–has ever deciphered it.5 Looking closely, we have tried every name possible. Is this “Montgomery” misspelled? Are the letters above the main name Latin, or Roman numerals? We agree with Rollo Jamison Museum Director Erik Flesch, who reads the final letters as –MEEV. Is this, as he has suggested, an Eastern European, perhaps Bulgarian or Hungarian, last name, and the people or persons buried separately because of the early prejudice against Eastern Europeans? We don’t know. None of the names we could tentatively suggest match burial records or other death records… though of course, the further back in time one goes, the more likely it is for a death to be undocumented. Could this be a smallpox burial? A Menomonie name (since they tend to be very long single words, like this one)? Again, we don’t know.
That the burial stone has Roman letters at the least suggests contact with European or British Isles settlers, trappers or traders, but that could be before the town existed. This stone could be much older than the other burials in the park, as there were non-natives passing through the area long before Platteville existed. If it were the stone of someone who died and whose family or fellow trappers or traders had to continue on, it might be similar to the stone described to the left, placed alongside the Oregon Trail over the body of Plattevillian John Holman, who followed the gold rush to California along with Lewis & Clark Expedition old-timer Alexander Hamilton Willard and his family. Holman died and was placed under a large stone, perhaps like our “mystery stone,” to keep his body from being eaten by varmints.
This Lancaster Teller article from the early 190os reported “almost thirty bodies” buried in the land now called “Indian Park.” It also alludes to some of the other legal battles that have swirled around this small parcel of land.
So, what do we have so far? We know that the area called Indian Park was a cholera burial ground and still contains many unmarked graves. It contains a headstone that may be older that those burials, but we don’t know what that stone says. We know the terrain of the park once looked much different–a hilly area called Hill Graveyard that once contained many nearby springs.
How did this area turn into a city park? We’ve alluded to struggles between different slavery and anti-slavery factions and a plethora of deed changes and name changes. Its time to look at some of those changes and how they connect to regional history.
In the Fall of 1847 Reverend John Lewis and his family arrived in Platteville from nearby New Diggings. Rev. Lewis and Josiah Pickard are known today for their efforts in helping John Rountree found the Academy, which was the early start of the UW-Platteville. Lewis was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church; Pickard was the Academy’s first Principle.
On February 22, 1848, John Rountree deeded land to the Presbyterian Church to be used as a burying ground. It was to be “free to all persons to use and occupy for the purpose of interring the dead without tax assessment or charge.” Today, this parcel of land is known as Indian Park, but at that time, it became known as Hill Cemetery or Hill Graveyard (as reported in two articles, one in 1853 and the other in 1854, in the only paper in town, the Independent American, owned by John Rountree.)
Then something strange happened: the Presbyterian church that Lewis ministered at switched denominations. Lewis continued to preach there, but it was suddenly Congregationalist and he was Presbyterian.
Its easier to start a new church or to become an independent church than to shift from one protestant denomination to another. But on February 6, 1849 the Wisconsin State Legislature passed an act under Chapter 25 that authorized the Presbyterian Church in Platteville, Grant County, to change its name and form of government.6 The church it became, the Congregationalist Church in Platteville, has since been designated a national historic landmark, and this is an important albeit little explored part of their history.
The same year, 1849, the Presbyterian Church property was deeded to the Congregational Church for the sum of $1. The deed specifically mentions the special act of the Wisconsin State Legislature mentioned above, as well as that included with this property is a “certain one acre lot” that is “described and used as a burying ground.”7
How the switch and the underlying tensions between Rountree’s generosity in donating land, on the one hand, and his clear sympathies (as a slave-owner then former slave-owner) with the south as the United States moves towards the Civil War, on the other, is a topic much deserving of further exploration. Similarly, how this affects Platteville Academy, which continues to be run by those opposed to slavery connected to the Presbyterian church even as that church which it shares a building with becomes the Congregationalist church, also deserves further study. By 1853, the Academy moved to a new location, the one known today as Rountree Hall Apartments.
Platteville Academy as it appeared until 1853: A large wood framed building on Lewis Street about a block away from “Hill Cemetery.”
Platteville Academy as it appeared until 1866, at its new location. Today this is Rountree Apartments, and a historical marker in front tells its history.
The Academy’s first principle. Yes, if you are part of the UW-Platteville community, this is who Pickard Hall is named for.
The tensions over slavery in Platteville of course affected the academy, and even caused one prospective student, a “colored girl” named Ellen Woodell, to not matriculate. This incident is also much deserving of future study. At least one recent book, Slaving Zones (mentioned in note 2 below), says Woodell instead attended Rockford Seminary in Illinois, yet no record of her attendance exists at that seminary, based on the research of Laurie Graney.
At the time I entered Platteville Academy there were a number of boys and young men from Southern slave- holding families enrolled as students. They were among the popular and influential students. In course of time a refined colored girl came to town with a prominent white family and was entered as a student of the Academy. There were threats on the part of the Southern students of leaving school if that colored girl were allowed to remain. The matter was taken up by the trustees of the Academy, who decided the girl must he dismissed. Mr. Pickard, being ill at the time, gave notice to the trustees that when the colored girl was sent away they would receive his resignation as principal of the Academy
Maria Greene Douglas, “Early Days in Platteville,” Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 6 p. 59.
Against this backdrop, and still reeling from a smallpox epidemic, the cholera epidemic hit Platteville. The city only had two cemeteries. It’s a safe bet that those who died of cholera were all buried the same place, regardless of their view on slavery or their religious denomination. People were frightened of this highly contagious disease. Larry Butson still tells the story of a man who lived outside of town near his farm, also the farm of his ancestors: when the man died of cholera, he was left in his cabin and the cabin was burned to the ground. So frightened were people of contracting the deadly disease that they were not willing to remove the body of someone who had died of it.
The last cholera burial we have been able to find is that of Enoch Sanford, buried in the Presbyterian (Congregational) burying ground in 1855. That same year, on August 17, a warranty deed was recorded between John and Lydia Rountree and John Lewis. This warranty deed was for 21 acres that surround the area of Indian Park. A mortgage is also recorded on this date; you can find a transcription of the entire document on our admittedly dry “History of Indian Park” page right under the table that lists different names for the park and who called it what, and when. Notice that when Lewis buys this land from Rountree the one acre containing the cemetery is excluded.
John H. Rountree
It would appear that these actions concern both the denominational change of the Presbyterian church to a Congregationalist church and the 1853 change of location of Platteville Academy. It also seems that from then until Rev. Lewis’s untimely death, legal issues between the man known as “Saint John” and city founder Rountree keep shifting. Why they exist we can only speculate upon, but there’s no doubt that the legal issues between these two men, both men deeply intertwined with the city’s religious, educational and civic history, live on and have had the intentional or unintentional effect of hiding “Indian Park’s” past as a cholera burial ground and perhaps (as we’ll discuss in our final article) as a native burial ground and/or mound complex.
Rev. John Lewis
In 1855, the county surveyor certified that he had laid out lots in the Town of Platteville for John Lewis, E. W. Covell and John Rountree. The next year, for unclear reasons, Rountree released Lewis from the mortgage on the 21 acres surrounding Hill Cemetery (Indian Park.) Then in 1858, a warranty deed between Rountree and Lewis appeared. This deed is especially strange since it is not recorded until 1873, 13 years after Rev. Lewis died.
Rev. Lewis’ marker in Greenwood Cemetery
Rev. John Lewis died of tuberculosis on September 2, 1860, at the age of 43. Presbyterian records note that he was laid to rest on an afternoon of “autumnal splendor,” and that the entire Academy followed his casket to the cemetery. While records state that he is buried at “Hillside cemetery,” that may be an error, since that cemetery is quite a way for pallbearers to carry a casket. More likely, the procession just walked down what is now Lewis Street for a couple of blocks to Hill Cemetery. (Lewis’s headstone is in Greenwood Cemetery, which didn’t exist at the time. We speculate that the headstone was moved from Hill Cemetery to Greenwood Cemetery in 1918 when some bodies, or at the least some headstones, were removed to another location.)
After Lewis died, his wife became heir to his estate. While she moved to Chicago, she continued life-long friendships with people in Platteville, according to Josiah Pickard as quoted in her lengthy June 7, 1911 front page PlattevilleJournal obituary.
From 1860 and through 1904, numerous irregular events appear on the tax rolls concerning Indian Park. For instance, in 1868, 1869 Eliphalet and Rebecca Covell and Electa Lewis sign a quit claim deed for Lots 9, 10, 19 & 20 of Covell’s Addition (Indian Park) to John Rountree for $50… even though none of them have ever owned the property. (Lewis owned the 21 acres around the cemetery but not the cemetery itself, which had been a gift from Rountree to the city.)
After John Rountree died, his heirs (in 1898) attempted to sue the Presbyterian Synod to eject them from the ground and to terminate the land’s use as a cemetery… but note that Chapter 25 of the 1849 Wisconsin State Legislature says the Congregational Church is now the successor in law of the Presbyterian Church and has been sold the cemetery as well as other church property. The Congregational Church had never (and still has never) sold the land.
Court documents show that the court found that the Rountree heirs were entitled to possession of 41’ 6” on the south side of lots 10 and 19, but “the balance of lots 10, 19, 9 and 20 [of Covell’s Addition, or “Indian Park”] are for cemetery purposes.” Why this tiny strip of land was shaved off of the lot remains another mystery.
Eventually E.B. Rice, in 1901, put a lien on the property, for for compensation of materials, labor and attorney fees, (caring, upkeep and maintenance), of the “Presbyterian burying ground.” Rice, who lived right next to the cemetery in Lot 8 of Covell’s Addition, got the land and sold it to a man named Barrett; Barrett paid no taxes in 1901 or 1902 because the land was a “graveyard” . . . although taxes were earlier, and irregularly, paid on the land when they should not have been. 8
Then suddenly, and for no reason we can determine, the 1904 tax roll record indicates that “Indian Park” is “public property.”
For just over fifteen years, nothing happened. Then on May 29, 1917, the state legislature passed an act to “vacate” the cemetery. One can’t help but wonder why the state has even taken notice of this small piece of land. But for some reason, they have. The city is given six months from the passage of the act to “remove all remains” to suitable lots in Greenwood Cemetery. “Thereafter,” the act declares, “the use of said lands for interment shall be prohibited and the title thereto shall be vested in the said City of Platteville.”
One can’t say the City jumped right into action. It took them over ten months to do anything at all… no doubt because at the same time, the draft of young men called up for World War I was increasing and attention was focused there. Platteville City Council meeting minutes show that the council did not vote to remove the remains from the cemetery until April 3, 1918.
A 1918 map of part of Platteville. “Indian Park” was then briefly called “Cemetery Park,” and appears in Covell’s Addition just north of Lewis Street
Once this task was completed (and it clearly never was), the city council authorized and empowered the “Rountree Park Committee” to level the surface to the ground. (Apparently the name “Cemetery Park” was not a big hit, so it briefly became “Rountree Park.”)
Laurie Graney continued to read through the Platteville City Council meeting minutes for over two years from this date, and did not observe where the Rountree Park Committee reported back to the council that their task had been completed. Because of this, its not clear whether the park was leveled or not. It is clear, however, that during the preceding 90 years, someone and likely many people at different times had changed the topography of both the park and much of old Platteville. Not only is the area once called “Hill Graveyard” no longer hilly, but it no longer has springs. Elsewhere we’ve referred to a wonderful description penned by J. H. Evans in 1917, “Platteville Ninety Years Ago, as the Site Appeared to our Pioneers / Also Some Account of the Abundance of Water that Greeted Early Settlers.” Here’s how Evans described the part of land around “Indian Park”:
West of the city along the marshy ravine which headed near the present Fourth street there were many springs. First in order was the Hardnocks, then came the Doesher spring which afforded water for the cows in pastures as late as ten years ago. On the Grindell property, a spring for a time furnished water for the manufacture of brick. Further west on the H.S. Rountree lot there was a spring with a large flow furnishing abundant water for stock. Near this spring the village boys of 60 years ago (screened by abundant timber) had built a dam to impound water for a ‘swimming hole.’ For a few seasons this afforded the kids a fine bathing pool. Just on the south of Adams street, on a lot now owned by the E. H. Doescher estate, there was a spring notable in early times as a camping place of emigrants and gypsies. Further down the ravine there were springs on the Shepherd lot, the Oudyn lot, the Charles Nye lot, the Homer Perry lot, and the Carsten lot. Doubtless there were others. Some may yet continue to flow, but most of them have been drained by the shafts sunk for mining.
J.H. Evans, in the January 31, 1917 Platteville Journal
What a beautiful place that part of town must have been! The profusion of springs also starts to suggest an answer to our final mystery: whether there is an “Indian” buried in the middle of “Indian Park,” and/or whether the small rise left in the center is a Native American conical mound. That will be the subject of our final article.
If you have read this far and wonder why we have spent so much time on a small parcel of land, we’ll tell you. We want the history of this place to be recorded and remembered.
The City of Platteville’s interest in this park is seems to be periodic. Every few decades the city shows interest in re-purposing Indian Park. Along with the instances we’ve discussed above is another in the late 1950s, when the City Council explored the idea of selling off Indian Park as four buildable lots. (Attorney Block advised against this, presumably because bodies are literally still buried there, and that letter is still on file with the legal firm.)
Recently there has been talk of re-purposing it again. Why not re-purpose it to remind people here of all the historic currents running through one small piece of land?
Perhaps it is time to get the history of Indian Park carved in stone and shown its proper respect. Think of what a wonderful teaching tool it could be!
Notes
1One that is easily accessible is Peter T. Harstad’s “Disease and Sickness on the Wisconsin Frontier: Cholera” (1960), available on JSTOR at https://www.jstor.org/stable/4633516
Slave-owning in northern states is no longer the secret it once was. Slaving Zones is one of several recent works to address this issue.
2Along with references to Platteville in recent books such as Slaving Zones (pp. 288, 298, 306), UW-Platteville archivist James Hibbard has recently given the first of three presentations at the Rollo Jamison Museum in Platteville about slavery in the city. In 2019, students at UW-Platteville worked with historian Eugene Tesdahl to repair the headstone of Rachel, one of John Rountree’s slaves. Slavery was illegal in Wisconsin and as archivist Hibbard reported, local pressure eventual resulted in Rountree and some but not all of the Platteville slave-owners freeing their slaves, even though strong pro-slavery sentiment remained.
3For the many examples we gave in our presentation of those listed as having died of cholera, please see our History of Indian Park page. These names all were all entries in the Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index, 1850-1880 [database on-line] as transcribed by the Church of Latter-Day Saints church and made available on Ancestry.com. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
4“Early Days in Platteville,” by D.J. Gardner, Truman Douglas, and Maria Greene Douglas originally appeared in the WIsconsin Magazine of History Vol. VI No. 1, September 1922. It is reprinted in its entirety here: https://archive.org/details/earlydaysinplatt00gard/page/12/mode/2up
5The one exception we’ll talk about in our next article, but in case you can’t wait: a piece in the December 12, 1962 Wisconsin Capital-Times quoted long-time resident Harley Ritter who thought it said “Stephens.” We have never known Mr. Ritter, do not know where he came by this information, and cannot see that name on the sign. However, we will consider the reporting in this article–both what it says about this stone and about repeated Native American gatherings in the park–in our final article.
6February 6, 1849 the Wisconsin State Legislature passes an act, Chapter 25, that authorizes the Presbyterian Church in Platteville, Grant County, to change its name and form of government.
“Section 1. That it shall and may be lawful for the members of the Presbyterian Church in the town of Platteville, in Grant County, to change their name and form of government to that of a Congregational Church.
“Section 2. That the trustees of the aforesaid Presbyterian Church be and they are hereby empowered to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the property belonging to said church, and to make, execute, and deliver to the trustees of the Congregational Church, when duly chosen, deeds therefore, under their hands and seals: Provided, that a majority of the members of the said Presbyterian Church concur in such transfer by their votes cast at a meeting called for the purpose, of which public notice shall be given from the pulpit, at least two Sabbaths next preceding the time of holding such a meeting.
“Section 3. That the said Congregational Church, when formed as hereinbefore provided, shall be the successor in law to the said Presbyterian Church, and when the same shall have been duly organized as a Congregational Church, under an act of the legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin, approved February 8th, 1847, entitled “an act to provide for the incorporation of the Protestant Episcopal Church and other religious societies in the Territory of Wisconsin,” then the property both real and personal, owned by said Presbyterian Church, shall by virtue of proper deeds of conveyance, made as hereinbefore provided, vest in the Congregational Church, so organized as aforesaid: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to give the trustees of the Presbyterian Church the power to sell or convey the Platteville Academy.
7, 8For a list of all the deed changes which follow, see Laurie Graney’s “What I Know About Indian Park as of April 2020.” After her timeline, she has a list of tax rolls and a transcription of one of the most important deeds.
By the way, if you’d rather see this as a video, the authors did present on this at the Platteville Senior Center. That presentation is on Youtube in three parts, beginning here. The follow-up presentation, called “The Mysteries of Indian Park, Revealed,” was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and did not occur until September 10, 2020. That second presentation begins here.
The following contains a summary of my research into Indian Park compiled over many years time. It was the basis of the presentation by Terry Burns, Kristal Prohaska and myself on the Mysteries of Indian Park. Many of the newspaper clippings and other family information saved over the years by my mother-in-law, Laura Graney, are also included in the article, especially in Part II.
For a reference page listing non-primary resources, please see the final article in the series by Terry Burns, Kristal Prohaska, and myself.
The research here was the basis for the research we did from 2021-2022 to learn more about the park’s history.
1837 – 1839 –
Thomas Paine Aiken, (buried in Indian Park), and his family arrive in the
Platteville area in 1837, and they live with Thomas and Laura Donelson. Laura Donelson is Thomas Aiken’s sister. In 1839, Thomas Aiken purchases a farm
homestead consisting of 80 acres in Section 2 of Platteville Township. Descendants of Thomas Aiken have lived in the
Platteville area ever since. Upon Thomas
Aiken’s death, his son, William Aiken, purchases the Aiken family farm
homestead. Upon the death of William, the
farm was then purchased by William’s son, Leslie Aiken. Leslie Aiken had one child, a daughter by the
name of Laura. Laura and her mother,
Sarah Aiken, were teachers by profession, and they were very well respected in
the Platteville community. Sarah taught
at country schools in the area for many years.
Laura taught at many country schools in the area, as well as the
Platteville public schools. Laura
married Wilburn Graney in 1940. Upon
Laura’s death in 2006, part of the family farm homestead was inherited by
Richard (Dick) Graney. It should be
noted that there are other Aiken family members still living in the Platteville
area today. The Aiken family farm
homestead is now 181 years old.
1847 – In the
Fall of 1847 Reverend John Lewis and his family arrive in Platteville from New
Diggings. Rev. Lewis and Josiah Pickard
are known for their efforts in helping to found the Academy, which was the
early start of the UW-Platteville.
1848 – Rev.
Lewis is installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church.
1848 – On
February 22, 1848 – John Rountree deeds land to the Presbyterian Church to be used
as a burying ground for the interment of the dead. It is to be free to all persons to use and
occupy for the purpose of interring the dead without tax assessment or charge.
Today, this parcel of land is known as Indian Park. This deed states that the land is to be used “for
and in consideration of their respect for the Christian burial of the dead”. The deed says the land is to “forever remain
a cemetery”, and that it is “not to be used for any other purpose whatsoever”.
1849 – On
February 6, 1849 the Wisconsin State Legislature passes an act, Chapter 25,
that authorizes the Presbyterian Church in Platteville, Grant County, to change
its name and form of government.
Section 1.
That it shall and may be lawful for the members of the Presbyterian
Church in the town of Platteville, in Grant County, to change their name and
form of government to that of a Congregational Church.
Section 2.
That the trustees of the aforesaid Presbyterian Church be and they are
hereby empowered to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the property belonging
to said church, and to make, execute, and deliver to the trustees of the
Congregational Church, when duly chosen, deeds therefore, under their hands and
seals: Provided, that a majority of the
members of the said Presbyterian Church concur in such transfer by their votes
cast at a meeting called for the purpose, of which public notice shall be given
from the pulpit, at least two Sabbaths next preceding the time of holding such
a meeting.
Section 3.
That the said Congregational Church, when formed as hereinbefore
provided, shall be the successor in law to the said Presbyterian Church, and
when the same shall have been duly organized as a Congregational Church, under
an act of the legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin, approved February 8th,
1847, entitled “an act to provide for the incorporation of the Protestant
Episcopal Church and other religious societies in the Territory of Wisconsin,”
then the property both real and personal, owned by said Presbyterian Church,
shall by virtue of proper deeds of conveyance, made as hereinbefore provided,
vest in the Congregational Church, so organized as aforesaid: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall
be so construed as to give the trustees of the Presbyterian Church the power to
sell or convey the Platteville Academy.
1849 – On July
9, 1849, a deed is recorded in Grant County.
This deed deeds the Presbyterian Church property to the Congregational
Church for the sum of $1. This deed
mentions the “special act” that was passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature,
which was approved on February 6, 1849.
This deed specifically states that included with this property is a “certain one acre lot” that is “described and used as a burying ground”.
1850 – On
August 27, 1850, Thomas Paine Aiken and Eleanor Donelson die from cholera. Aiken and Donelson are buried in the
Presbyterian (Congregational) burying ground.
1855 – Enoch
Sanford dies of cholera and is buried in the Presbyterian (Congregational)
burying ground. Sanford’s will is on the
Ancestry website.
1855 – On
August 17, 1855 a warranty deed is recorded between John and Lydia Rountree and
John Lewis. This warranty deed is for 21
acres that surround the area of Indian Park.
A mortgage is also recorded on this date.
1855 – The
county surveyor certifies that he has laid out lots in the Town of Platteville
for John Lewis, E. W. Covell and John Rountree.
1856 – A release
of mortgage is recorded for the 21 acres that John Lewis bought from John
Rountree.
1858 –
Warranty deed – John Lewis and Electa Lewis to E. W. Covell. It is interesting to note that this
warranty deed was not recorded until May 14, 1875.
1860 – On September
2, 1860, John Lewis dies at the age of 43.
Lewis was very much respected and loved in the Platteville
community. People referred to him as
“Saint John”. Lewis was laid to rest on
an afternoon of “autumnal splendor”. The
entire Academy followed his casket to the cemetery.
1860 –
December 10, 1860 – A certificate of probate for John Lewis’ estate is recorded. Electa Lewis is named as heir to his
estate.
1861 – November
6, 1861 – Tax Deed – Ownership of the cemetery goes to Grant County. (According to Register of Deeds Marilyn
Pierce, this should not have happened as the parcel is a cemetery and
cemeteries were not to be taxed.) (The
tax amount of $2.71 was due from the year 1857.) W. R. Beach represented Grant County in the
purchase of the cemetery. It should be
noted that I have tied W. R. Beach to the 1850 Beetown cholera. There is an entry about the Beetown cholera
in the 1900 Holford edition of the History of Grant County Wisconsin, which
ties Beach to this event. (Is it
coincidental that Beach would purchase a cemetery for the county with known
cholera victims?)
1868 – On May
30, 1868 Grant County quit claim deeds the Presbyterian Burying Ground to John
Rountree for $3.
1869 – On July
20, 1869 Eliphalet and Rebecca Covell and Electa Lewis quit claim deed Lots 9,
10, 19 & 20 of Covell’s Addition, (Indian Park), to John Rountree for
$50. (It is unknown as to why Rountree
did this, as the Covells and Electa Lewis did not own and had never owned these
lots, and Rountree already had a quit claim deed recorded with Grant
County. ???????????? Electa Lewis had long ago left Platteville
and was living in Chicago at this time.)
1875 – tax
roll records show that John Rountree has ownership of lots 9, 10, 19 & 20
of Covell’s Addition.
1890 – John
Rountree dies on June 27, 1890.
1895 – July
25th, 1895 – Lydia Rountree, Jennie Rountree and John S. Rountree sell Lots 9,
10, 19 and 20 of Covell’s Addition and several other parcels to Robert
Spear. (Robert Spear lived in Platteville,
and he is listed as a “capitalist” on the 1900 census. I also located documentation indicating that
he was on the Grant County Board of Supervisors in 1898. Robert Spear’s father was John Spear. John Spear was on the Platteville City
Council in 1892. The 1920 census shows
John Spear was a bank president. While
internet surfing I later found info showing that a John Spear was the president
of the State Bank in Platteville.
1898 –
Rountree heirs attempt to sue the Presbyterian Synod to eject them from the
ground and to terminate its use as a cemetery.
(Note Chapter 25 of the 1849
Wisconsin State Legislature says the Congregational Church is now the successor
in law of the Presbyterian Church.)
1898– Court document showing that the Rountree
heirs are entitled to possession of 41’ 6” on the south side of lots 10 and
19. The balance of lots 10, 19, 9 and 20
are for cemetery purposes.
1901 – January
15, 1901 – E. B. Rice has a lien
recorded at Grant County for lots 9, 10, 19, & 20 of Covell’s
Addition. (The word “affidavit” is
written alongside this handwritten document.)
The lien is for compensation of materials, labor and attorney fees,
(caring, upkeep and maintenance), of the “Presbyterian burying ground”.
1901 – January
16, 1901 –A deed is recorded at Grant County, which transfers the ownership of
Indian Park/Cemetery, Presbyterian burying ground, (except for a strip of land
on the south side of lots 10 and 19), to O. W. Barrett. Barrett purchases the cemetery from E. B.
Rice and Della E. Rice for $500.
1901 & 1902
– tax roll records show that O. W. Barrett is the owner, but no taxes were paid
as the said property is a “cemetery” and “graveyard”.
1902 – June 9,
1902 – Survey is done for Lots 10 & 19.
1903 – tax
roll record line is left blank.
1904 – tax
roll record indicates that the property is now “public property”.
1917 – May 29,
1917 – The state legislature passes an act to “vacate” the cemetery. The city is given six months from the passage
of the act to “remove all remains” to suitable lots in Greenwood Cemetery in
the said City of Platteville.
Thereafter, the use of said lands for interment shall be prohibited and
the title thereto shall be vested in the said City of Platteville. (Platteville City Council meeting minutes
show that the council did not vote to remove the remains from the cemetery
until April 3, 1918. (The April 3, 1918 date
is over 10 months from the passage of this act.) Once this task was completed, the city
council authorized and empowered the Rountree Park Committee to level the
surface to the ground, etc.. The
remains of several individuals still remain in Indian Park, as these
individuals died of cholera. At that
point in time, it was believed, if the remains were “dug up” the dreaded
disease could once again be spread.) I
continued to read through the Platteville City Council meeting for over two
years from this date, and I did not
observe where the Rountree Park Committee reported back to the council that
their task had been completed.
1917 –
Sometime around this time the Aiken family ordered grave markers for Thomas
Aiken and Eleanor Donelson to be placed at the “new” cemetery where their
remains were to be moved. According to newspaper
accounts and what my mother-in-law told to me, the Aiken family was prevented
from moving these remains, as Thomas Aiken and Eleanor Donelson had died of
cholera and there was fear of spreading the cholera once again. The grave markers were found on the family
century farm several years back. Laura
Graney told me that she and my father-in-law, Wilburn, had buried the grave
markers. She also mentioned the
approximate location of them. It is
possible that we might be able to locate the grave markers. Copies of the grave markers photos have been
sent to the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
1918 – March
8, 1918 – City Council votes to rename the cemetery “Rountree Park”.
1918 – April
3, 1918 – City Council votes to remove all bodies found in Rountree Park and to
rebury them in Greenwood Cemetery.
Rountree Park Committee is then authorized and empowered to level the
surface of the ground and to erect fences on the north and south sides of said
park and that the expense, thereof, be borne by the city.
1919 – tax
roll record line is left blank.
1920 & 1921– tax roll records indicate “park lots 9 &
10”.
1929 & 1930
– tax roll records indicate “North Park”
9, 10, 19, 20.
1936 – tax
roll record indicates “North Park” lots
9, 10, 19, 20.
1945 – tax roll
record indicates “North Park”.
1951 – tax
roll record indicates “North Park”.
1961 – tax
roll record indicates “North Park”.
1962 – tax
roll record indicates “City of Platteville”.
1959 – November
11, 1959 – Atty. Robert Block sends a letter to the city clerk that indicates
the Council had authorized him to secure an abstract to the property known as
“North Park”. The purpose of this was so
that the city could possibly sell the property as building lots. Atty. Block states in his letter that the
Grant County Abstract Company said that the abstract did not show title to any
one person or group, and the property is in an uncertain state in that three
different groups own some interest of record in the property. (See Attorney Block’s letter for specific
details.)
1975 – April
1975 – Laura Graney writes a letter to the Platteville Journal. The letter talks about an error that had been
made in the Platteville Folklore column of the paper. Her letter to the editor was then published
in the April 8, 1975 edition of the Platteville Journal. Laura’s letter is in response to a Folklore
Column that was published in the April 3, 1975 edition of the Platteville
Journal. Of special note is the mention of one Indian Mound left in the
cemetery.
1976 – April
13, 1976 – Platteville City Council approves permission for the Thomas Paine
Aiken marker to be placed in Indian Park.
1985 – November
22, 1985 – City of Platteville registers the Application for and Approval of
Lot Re-Division with the Grant County Register of Deeds, as the City wanted to
“remove” the interior lot lines to create one lot, so that Indian Park would be
only one parcel.
1986 – December
22, 1986. The City of Platteville
completes an application, which is approved by Grant County, to remove the
interior lot lines from Indian Park/Cemetery.
TAX ROLES
1895 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 & 20.
1896 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 & 20.
1897 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 & 20.
1898 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 & 20.
1899 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 &20. (There is a note in the “by whom paid” column
that says “Cemetery Illegal Account”.
1900 John Rountree Est. 9, 10, 19 & 20. (Note that indicates it is a “Cemetery”.
1901 Note that lines 3 and 4 indicate that O. W.
Barrett and the John Rountree Est. are owners.
9, 10, 19 & 20….then there is a note saying 35 feet S. side Lots 10
& 19, Cemetery”. There is no tax
information.
1902 O. W. Barrett is the owner listed. Lots 9, 10, 19 & 20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S.
side 19. “Graveyard”.
1903 Public Property Ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. side of
10, 19. Lots 9, 10, 19, 20. No tax
information is listed.
1904 Public Property Ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. Side of
10, 19. Lots 9, 10, 19, 20. No tax information listed.
1905 Public Property Lots 9, 10, 19, 20. Ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. Side of 9, 10, 19,
20(??????) No tax information
listed. Whatever information was written
in the “By Whom Paid” column was erased.
1906 Public Property 9, 10, 19 and 20. Ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. side 10, 19.
1907 Public Property 9-10 and 19 and 20 ex 41 ½ ft. off S side of
10-19.
1908 Public Property 9-10-19 & 20 ex. 41 ½
ft. off S. side of 10-19.
1909 Public Property 9-10-19-20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. side of 10
& 19.
1910 Public Property 9-10-19-20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S. side of 10
& 19.
1911 Unknown Owner 9-10-19-20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S.
side of 10 & 19.
1912 Unknown Owner 9-10-19-20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S.
side of 10 & 19.
1913 Unknown Owner 9-10-19-20 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S.
side of 10 & 19.
1914 “Unnone” Owner 9-10-19 and 20 ex. 41 ½ ft.
off S. side of 10 & 19.
1915 Unknown Owner 9-10-19 ex. 41 ½ ft. off S.
side of 10 & 19. (Nothing about 20.)
1916 Unknown Owner 9 & 10-19 ex. 41 ½ ft. off
S side of 10-19. (The number 20 is
penciled in and a written note is made asking, “what about lot 20”.)
1917 Unknown Owner 9-10-19 ex 41 ½ ft. off S. side
of 10-19-20. ( First mention of lot 20
not being a whole lot.)
1918 Unknown Owner 9-10-19 & 20 – ex. 4 ½ ft.
off of S. side of 10 & 19.
1919 Unknown Owner 8, 10, 19 – ex. 4 ½ ft. off of
S. side 10, 19. (No mention of 20.)
1920 Park lots 9, 10 less 4 ½ ft. of S. side of 10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1921 Park lots 9, 10 less 4 ½ ft. of S. side lot
10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1922 Park lots 9, 10 less 4 ½ ft. off S. side of
10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1923 Park lots 9 & 10 less 4 ½ ft. off S.
side of 10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1924 City Park – 9, 10 less 4 ½ ft. of S. side of 10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1925 City Park – 9, 20 ex. 4 ½ ft. of S. side of
10. (No mention of 19.) *****
1926 City Park 9, 10 ex. 4 ½ ft. of S. side of
10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1927 City Park 9, 10 ex. 4 ½ ft. of S. side of
10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1928 City Park 9, 10 ex. 4 ½ ft. of S. side of 10. (No mention of 19 & 20.)
1929 North Park – City Park 9, 10 ex. 4 ½ ft. of
S. side of 10. (No mention of 19 &
20.)
1930 North Park – City Park 9, 10 ex. 4 ½ ft. of
S. side of 10. (No mention of 19 &
20.)
1931 North Park – lot 9 & S. 48 ½’ of 10
& lot 20 & S. 48 ½’ of lot 19.
1932 North Park – Lot 9T S. 48 ½’ of 10 & lot
20 & S. 48 ½’ of lot 19. (Sec. or
Lot column indicates 9-10 19-20.)
1933-1954 North Park –
1955 (No Tax Role at Southwest
Wisconsin Room)
1956–1959 North Park B –
1960 (No Tax Rolee at Southwest
Wisconsin Room)
1961 City
of Platteville / North Park
1962-1969 City of Platteville
1970 -1975 (No Tax Roles at Southwest Wisconsin Room)
1976 City of Platteville
1977-1981 (No Tax Roles at Southwest Wisconsin
Room)
1982 City of Platteville – Lot 9; N 48 ½’ of Lot
10 N 48 ½’ of Lot 19; Lot 20
Tax rolls for Indian Park/Cemetery
for the years 1848, 1849, 1850, 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860. The 1849 Tax Roll indicates “Graveyard”. The 1850 Tax Roll indicates, “land in NW ¼
not included”. This is the Presbyterian
burying ground. I was either unable to
locate or there was nothing in the tax rolls for the Presbyterian burying
ground for the tax roll years of 1851-1856.
The tax rolls for 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860 show the lot numbers, but
does not show a taxed amount. The 1860
tax roll specifically says that the parcel is “exempt”.
SPECIAL NOTES OF INTEREST
1848 & 1849 Deeds – The trustees named on the 1848 Presbyterian Church deed are
Josiah Pickard, Isaac Bancroft, Edward Estabrook, Joel Potter and J. W.
Clark. Three of these individuals also
appear on the 1849 Congregational Church deed as trustees for the
Congregational Church…… Edward Estabrook, Joel Potter and J. W. Clarke. Thereby, these three individuals are now members
of the Congregational Church.
Note:
The E. B. Rice lien indicates that he was caring for the “Presbyterian
burying ground” from May 1894 until 1901.
Rice had purchased materials for repairs and fencing, and that he had
“cared for said premises”. Also of
special note…..the tax rolls show that Della Rice is the owner of Lot 8 of
Covell’s Addition, and E. B. Rice is listed as the person paying the tax. Lot 8 is right next door to the
cemetery……Lots 9, 10, 19 and 20 of Covell’s Addition. Therefore, it is very possible that E. B.
Rice cared for the cemetery. The 1900
census shows that E. B. Rice’s occupation was that of a “dairyman”. Therefore it is likely that Rice did do
fencing, repairs and other upkeep around the cemetery.
Note:
E. B Rice and his wife, Della show up on a 1910 census, and they are
living in Dubuque, Iowa. This census
shows that E. B. is working for a nursery.
Note:
Chapter 307 – Laws of 1917 – indicates lots 9, 10, 19 & 20 in
Covell’s Addition for many years in the past and now being in ruinous and
abandoned condition, and that no person or association had taken charge or care
of the cemetery for the past 20 years.
(This is not true, as E. B. Rice indicates in his lien that he had taken
care of the cemetery until 1901.
Also…..city records shows “clean up at the Old Cemetery”. It is unknown which old cemetery.)
Note:
Congregational Church records indicate that Rev. John Lewis was buried
at Hillside Cemetery. Lewis’ grave
marker is not at Hillside Cemetery……it is at Greenwood Cemetery. An early newspaper article from 1854 calls
the Presbyterian burying ground “Hill Grave Yard”. Is there confusion between the two cemeteries
Hillside and Hill??? (Why was the
cemetery called Hill Grave Yard? Is it
because the cemetery was once a Hill, or could it possibly be because there
were Indian mounds (hill(s)) in the cemetery???) City records indicate that John Lewis’
gravesite was not purchased until sometime in 1955. Was John Lewis actually buried in his own
church’s cemetery? Note the possible
confusion of Hill and Hillside cemeteries.
It’s easy to move grave markers, but not so easy to move the remains.
Note:
John Lewis’ wife, Electa Page Lewis dies, June 2, 1911, at the age of 94
in Baraboo. It was Electa’s wish to
return to Platteville and to be buried next to John. Electa’s funeral service was held at the
Congregational Church in Platteville.
Near John and Electa Lewis’ grave
markers at Greenwood Cemetery are grave markers for Harlan Page (Electa’s
brother), Fanny Lewis (John’s mother), Olive Lewis (John’s sister), and Henry McFall
(Olive’s husband – Olive’s husband was a doctor). Harlan Page was once an editor for a
Platteville newspaper. Harlan went on to
bigger and better things….he became one of the editors for the Wisconsin State
Journal. Harlan eventually had a stroke. Harlan lived in Baraboo at this time. Electa’s obituary says that she lived with
Harlan for a time. I think that it is
possible that she cared for Harlan after his stroke. Harlan’s wife was an accomplished opera
singer. She traveled the country
performing her talent. Harlan’s wife
might have been supporting the family by doing so.
I have asked myself several times why
Indian Park might have been called the Hill Graveyard in the 1850’s. This cemetery is not on a hill. In fact, the surrounding area can most
definitely be described as being flat.
Could their possibly have been someone by the last name of Hill that was
buried in the cemetery, or could it be possible there were Indian burial
mound(s) in the cemetery? As a child
growing up in Platteville, I recall many people saying that the “hill” in
Indian Park was, in fact, an Indian burial mound. I recall a teacher(s) in the 1960’s telling
the students that this was an Indian burial mound and that we needed to respect
it.
We have attempted to come up with
pictures that were taken in and around Indian Park, but have been unsuccessful. When talking with other local citizens, we
have been told they recall a wrought iron fence or some other type of fence that surrounded
the Indian burial mound. When this fence
was removed, it is not known.
It is a mystery to me how the
Congregational Church lost ownership of the cemetery. I have yet to locate any documentation transferring
the ownership of the cemetery from the Congregational Church to any other party
or individual.
by Terry Burns, Laurie Graney and Kristal Prohaska
[Note : we have added new information to this article as of January 31, 2022. That new information has been obtained as research performed as part of a Wisconsin Humanities Mini-Grant entitled “Unraveling the Mysteries of Indian Park and Developing a Vision for the Future.” We have also added a more formal separate page, “The History of Indian Park,” which includes references beyond what we refer to in this article.]
Platteville’s tiny Indian Park, bounded by North Court and 4th Streets between West Dewey and Lewis Streets, seems to have been intersected by most of the major traumas of 19th-century Platteville: the removal of Native Americans, the cholera epidemic, and the legacy of the Civil War.
In the middle of Platteville, Wisconsin sits a small but comely green space called “Indian Park.” Unless you live nearby or have ancestors buried there, you may never have heard of it. But through this small space runs a plethora of historic mysteries, echoing against some of the most painful times in the city’s past: the removal of native peoples, the 1850s cholera epidemic, city founder (and slave owner) John Rountree’s control of the press, and the division of people in town into pro- and anti-slavery factions.
Some readers may have tripped over the line above, “unless you have ancestors buried there.” After all, this is a city park. City parks can’t be placed on top of old burial grounds, can they?
They aren’t supposed to be. That’s one of the mysteries we’ll run into over the course of this article. But there’s no question people— definitely early settlers and possibly Native Americans–are buried there. “Indian Park” is also a catalogued state cemetery.
Some wonder, for good reason, about the name. What connection does it have to the indigenous people of this area? Is that center area a burial, as some have said, or what’s left of a conical mound?
These are some of the questions about Indian Park we have explored. We’ll attempt to answer each of them before this article series finishes. Our story will also lead us through most of the great but often traumatic events of Platteville’s 19th and early 20th century history: smallpox and cholera epidemics, church schisms, a city founder who was a slave-owner in likely conflict with abolitionists and that conflict spilling over indirectly into this small parcel of land. One of those abolitionists, Josiah Pickard, was the first principal of the Platteville Academy, which after a series of mergers and name changes became what is now the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.
Let’s start with some of the most-often-asked questions, and then we’ll give you a timeline of the park/cemetery’s history.
What’s that in the center?
Many local residents remember being taken out to the park from O.E. Gray Elementary in the 1970s and being told that the sidewalk in the center was an “Indian Mound.” Was that true? Others were told that it contained a native burial.
The story is possible and plausible, but we don’t know if its true. That would require archaeological work that hasn’t been done, and invasive archaeological work is not usually permitted in cemeteries. However, there are many stories (ones we’ll get to later in this series of articles) of native gatherings in “Indian Park” as late as 1917.
What we can tell you is the reason why the story is plausible.
First of all, Southwest Wisconsin has the greatest concentration of Native American mounds in the country. Second of all, the “mound in the center” is in a likely location. It could plausibly be what’s called a conical mound.
Is that circle in the center an Indian Mound? It originally rose at least two feet higher off of the ground. Some people who lived in Platteville in the late 1960s and early 1970s (including Kristal Prohaska, one of the authors of this article) remember that it was once surrounded with an iron fence. As we’ll see in part two of this series, the elevation of the park has steadily increased so that the “mound” now sits only slightly higher than the surrounding concrete.
But, as the Wisconsin Historical Society might also tell us, such a claim could only be verified by excavation or by burial records which (given that conical mounds were mainly created between 350-1300 A.D., well before the European conquest of the Americas) simply don’t exist in written format. Also, many conical mounds don’t contain burials. The main way that one might determine that a conical mound is there is through ground penetrating radar, and a study has never been done.
But is the “legend” itself likely? We will suggest that it has at least a grain of truth, and maybe more. The center of the park contains a rise that may be a conical mound, and apparently the park itself used to have more than one mound. It also used to be the highest ridge in a hilly, spring-filled area. (Here’s an old article about how Platteville looked in 1827 when white settlers arrived; it looked very different back then!)
The conical, linear, and effigy mounds in southwest Wisconsin were not made by any people who still exist, but by their ancestors. Contemporary Ho-Chunk people are among those who consider themselves descendants of these “mound builders” and are the best source of stories about their history. According to Ho-Chunk Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Bill Quackenbush, some conical mounds are burial mounds but some are not. Are there stories about this particular mound? Not that anyone is aware of, but the reason for that should be clear: the Ho-Chunk people were systematically displaced from all of their of our ancestral lands from the 1800s onward through various land cession treaties and then by forced removals to no less than four different reservation sites west of the Mississippi River. The Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin are here today because they literally bought some of their land back. Expecting a story about ancestors hundreds of years ago connected to the area of “Indian Park” is asking a bit much.
It’s plausible but not provable that the center of the park is a conical mound and plausible but not provable that is a native burial, and these are two separate issues.
But whether or not there were native people or at least one native person buried in the center of the park, its certain many early settlers were. For example, retired UW-Platteville mathematics professor Richard Graney’s great-great-grandfather Thomas Aiken is buried there, along with his son’s fiance Eleanor Donelson and other victims of the 1850 cholera epidemic. Perhaps victims of the earlier smallpox epidemic are also buried there. We will look at “Indian Park” as a cholera (and possibly smallpox) burial ground in our second article.
2. Who were the large group of native people who gathered in Indian Park a century ago for a three-day ceremony? Was this a gathering that happened more than once?
Several Platteville residents recall stories handed down by older relatives that tell of a large native gathering at the park around 1915-1917. The gathering, so the stories go, went on for three days and involved drumming late into the night. Then the native people, whomever they were, left and did not come back.
What tribal background were these people from, or were they from multiple tribes? Could the gathering have been a ceremony to say good-bye to departed loved ones, or would it have been for another reason? Do memories of this event also still exist in Wisconsin native communities (or has any non-native person ever asked native Wisconsin elders that question)? We will explore this in the third article in this series.
An early 1800s map by Italian missionary Dominican priest Samuel Mazzuchelli, founder of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. Public domain map from Father Mazzuchelli’s memoirs, p. 155, of his accounting of where different tribes in the Driftless Area lived.
3. Who else, other than 1812 veteran Thomas Aiken, is buried in the cemetery?
As mentioned, we know for certain that Thomas Aiken, an early Platteville settler and veteran of the War of 1812, is buried in the cemetery. His great-granddaughter Laura Graney, Richard Graney’s mother and the mother-in-law of Laurie Graney (one of the authors of this piece) had a headstone put there in his honor during the American Bicentennial in July, 1976. In fact, it was by comparing documented family history to other documents of the time period that Laurie Graney was able to piece together part of the history of Indian Park.
Thomas Aiken’s headstone. His granddaughter Laura Graney had the marker installed in 1976. The second article in this series will include two articles from the Platteville Journal recounting how that came about. Google maps street-view, photo courtesy of Jessica Brogley.
There’s also a second stone in the park, one no one so far has been able to read. When we look at the park as a cholera burial ground, we’ll explain why this stone is probably also a burial marker.
No one has yet deciphered the words on this “mystery stone.” Photo by Kristal Prohaska.
No doubt exists that Indian Park was once the cemetery for the German Presbyterian church (which, through a series of events to be discussed, became the Congregationalist church). An undated 19th century article (below) notes that at one time at there were “about 30 bodies” buried there. The park was at that time known as “Hill Cemetery or “Hill Graveyard.” It doesn’t look too hilly now, except perhaps for the low mound in the center. But as that article about how Platteville looked in 1827 when white settlers arrived explains, the area looked different then. It was a hilly ridge. Fill dirt and even old bricks have been added to the , and others may have been leveled. (See this timeline. In 1917, the city voted to level the park.) The part of the park nearest to 4th street appears to have been disturbed much less, while the area along North Court Street has definitely had fill dirt added.
Thomas Aiken and his son William Aiken’s fiancée, Eleanor Donelson both died from cholera. Others buried in the cemetery were victims of the 1849-1854 cholera epidemic, which peaked in 1850. Significant uncertainty exists about how many Platteville citizens died during the epidemic and who they were, because the only paper in town, the Independent American, shut down during this time so there are no obituaries. Sexton records of the church have not been located, perhaps because of some other unusual events happening at the time (we’ll get to those in part two). Local records shed little light on the subject, perhaps both because of the fear the disease engendered and the fact that Platteville’s mines needed workers. One might speculate that it would be difficult to recruit men to work in the mines if those men knew others in the area had died of cholera.
“Luckily,” though, 1850 was a U.S. Census year, so there is both a census list of those who lived here and a Federal Mortality Index of who died during part, but not all, of 1850. Thomas Aiken and Eleanor Donelson, both of whom are still buried there, are not listed in the mortality index; many others are listed in the mortality index but we don’t know where they are buried. Some families, like the Sprague and Andrews families, had multiple family members die of cholera in just a few short months.
4. If this is a cemetery, why and how did it become a park? (After researching this, we might add another question: Why is it so hard to trace how this property was bought and sold?)
John Hawkins Rountree, founder of Platteville and slave-owner. Public domain photo from History of the First Methodist Church 1832-1945.
Rev. John Lewis came to Platteville to serve as pastor of the Presbyterian Church. He and his wife Electa also taught at the Platteville Academy. In 1848, he helped assisted with a form of government and name change for the Presbyterian Church, which then became the Congregational Church. Photo by Kristal Prohaska of the original in the Congregationalist church office.
Many “curiosities” seem to occur in the buying and selling of this property. Some of them may have concerned fear over cholera, a disease that terrified early settlers.
But its almost certain that some of the irregularities were the product of divisions between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery or “no opinion” churches. The views of city founder John Rountree, who owned slaves, were not those of all people in Platteville. While the city founder illegally owned slaves, there were others who were abolitionists including some who vehemently preached against it and who operated safe houses (at least two of them) on the “Underground Railroad.”
One who likely disagreed was the founder of the Platteville Academy, Reverend John Lewis, who was so beloved by his parishioners that some even called him “Saint John.” One of his friends, Alvin McCord, was the chief Platteville “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad.” Josiah Pickard, the first Academy principle (in the days when Platteville Academy and the Presbyterian Church shared a meeting house) also strongly opposed slavery and resigned as principle of Platteville Academy when the Board of Trustees refused to admit a young black woman because southern students objected. Yet slave-owner Rountree had founded the Academy and it was also Rountree who gave the “Presbyterian burying ground” that would become “Indian Park” to the church. The conflict between slavery/anti-slavery factions seems a submerged theme in this park’s history.
Does it account for some of the strange changes in deeds for this park? Is this also why the Presbyterian church took the highly unusual step of changing its entire governance structure and became a different denomination? The answers to these questions are both dramatic and tragic, but they do open a window to a past almost forgotten.
To attempt to answer these questions, we’ll need to circle back through local history through several different lenses: native history, mining history, the history of Thomas Aiken, and the history of a series of confusing land sales and taxes.
That will bring us forward to the area becoming a city park, at which time (1917) the bodies buried there were supposed to be removed by order of the state legislature. But all of them were not. Why?
Here’ we are fortunate to have the Aiken family history and their written record that they were not allowed to remove the bodies. Thomas Aiken’s descendants even paid for new headstones for where they planned to move Mr. Aiken and Miss Donelson. These headstones still exist, unused, on the Aiken-Graney family farm. According to the Aiken family history, the reason why the bodies were not removed is because Mr. Aiken and Miss Donelson died of cholera. Likely that was true of others as well.
Also, some of those interred at the burying grounds may have had no descendants in the area. Its certain that no notice went out in the paper. If there was no family left to dig up a grave, the grave likely remained untouched.
One may wonder why there was no legal notice given in the local paper until one remembers what was going on in 1917 and 1918, the years when the bodies were supposed to be removed. Most in Platteville and the entire United States had their focus elsewhere: on the Great War and the Spanish flu epidemic that followed it. A quick perusal of Platteville Journal articles for those two years will show you that after March 1917, the front page stories almost entirely concern the war, the draft of local boys to fight in the war, battles, and their return home. One soldier who died, Leo Kane, is the man that the Americal Legion/VFW post in Platteville is named after: the same post that worked with Laura Graney in 1976 to secure a military headstone for her great-grandfather Thomas Aiken in Indian Park.
Ready to circle through this story again in more detail? In Part II, we’ll look at Indian Park as a burying ground for cholera victims, and in Part III return to the mystery of the mound(s).
(By the way, if you’d rather see this as a presentation, the authors did present on this at the Platteville Senior Center on February 27, 2020. That presentation is on Youtube in three parts, beginning here. You can also find links to the final presentation, as well as copies of the slides of you’d rather read it than watch it, on our History of Indian Park page)
