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The Slagg Family in 1850's Wisconsin
By Jon S. Berndt
you are visitor # since 29 April 1999
THE three sons of Thomas Slagg along with their respective wives and children settled in or close to the small township of Albion in Dane County, Wisconsin. The property map for Albion in 1870 showed lots owned by Henry Slagg and two lots owned by Joseph Slagg - probably one of which was Henry's brother Joseph, and one was Henry's son Joseph. The Slaggs had very close relationships with their neighbors. In various letters - and marriage records - many neighbors' names are mentioned: there was Sam Marsden, Thomas Abbott, Bill North, Tom North, Ben Bussey and others. In the days before the old quarry Stone Church was built in 1853 church services were held in neighbor's homes. The Slaggs lived just northeast of Albion's "downtown" area about two and a half miles out, in a log cabin they built. Mostly, people in that area were farmers. One of the more prominent farmers with a large land ownership was Ben Bussey. John Slagg, the oldest of the Slagg children at 19 in 1850 helped farm the land at Busseyville. Ben Bussey and his family were originally from England as were the Slaggs and a large portion of the population of Albion.
The Slagg family in 1850 consisted of Henry, age 47; his wife Elizabeth (Parker) Slagg, age 42; John, age 19; Harriet, age 17; Thomas, age 14; Alex, age 14; Joseph, age 11; Arnold, age 10; Frederick William, age 9; Margaret, age 8; and Henry, age 4. The elder Henry's brother Joseph, who was born in Yorkshire, also resided in Albion township in 1850. He was a successful merchant, the value of his real estate was listed as $1000 in 1850, one year after the Slaggs came to America. He opened one of the first general stores in the area, and in 1853 opened a second store in Cambridge just north of Albion. The elder Joseph was 35 in 1850, his wife Elizabeth (Clark) Slagg, age 47; Margaret, age 16; Thomas Clark Slagg, age 13; and Mary, age 9. The third of Thomas Slagg, Sr.'s emigrant sons was Edward who settled south of Albion near Edgerton. Edward, age 39 in 1850, was married to Jane (Clark) Slagg, age 47. They had seven children: Mary E., age 17; Sarah, age 16; Louis, age 13; Edward E. "Ezra", age 11; Jane, age 10; Ruth, age 5; and Benjamin, age 2. Edward Sr. was a laborer.
The children attended school in an old log schoolhouse and grew up on the farm, the boys helping Henry and caring for the cattle and the girls helping Elizabeth. Arnold remembered driving the cattle from the old stone and log barn to the creek for water in the winter, and that the water would freeze as the cattle were drinking in minus 20 degree weather.
Life in the new frontier state of Wisconsin (statehood was granted in 1848) was in ways still quite primitive. Native Americans lived in tepees and wigwams in various parts of the state representing the Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox tribes. Farther to the west in 1851 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, a council was convened between the U.S. government and chiefs from several tribes. Among them were the Sioux and the Crow tribal chiefs. So great were the animosities between some of the tribes that chiefs from the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes refused to participate. In 1854, only three years after the Fort Laramie treaty was signed, the U.S government again broke a treaty. Things were much quieter in Wisconsin than what the Slaggs read about that were occurring in the west.
