A Standard History Of Sauk County Wisconsin PDF Download

Excerpt from A Standard History of Sauk County Wisconsin, Vol. 2: An Authentic Narrative of the Past, With Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development David Myers. The distinction of being the oldest man, not only in point of residence, but also in point of age, in Sauk County, is enjoyed by the venerable David Myers of Prairie du Sac. It is now more than ninety-five years since David Myers first saw the light of day. James Monroe was president of the United States when he was born. There was not a mile of railway in the United States, the Erie Canal had not been opened to traffic, and he was a grown man before the marvelous invention of telegraphy was put to practical use. Probably no one in the State of Wisconsin can better appreciate the marvels of the present age than Mr. Myers, who has his personal recollections of the crude times and facilities in the early part of the last century to sharpen the contrast. It was more than seventy years ago that David Myers first made the acquaintance of Sauk County, and here, too, he has witnessed a transformation almost beyond belief. He was born in Otsego County, New York, January 10, 1822, a son of Cornelius and Penny (Clark) Myers, his father a native of New Jersey and his mother of New York. David Myers was reared and educated in the East and came West to Madison, Wisconsin, with his father in 1844. For two years he worked as a blacksmith at Madison, and in 1845 came to Prairie du Sac in Sauk County. Here he resumed blacksmithing, and in those early days one of the things most demanded of him was the making or repairing of plows. He handled plows when the old-fashioned wooden moldboard was still a prominent feature. He became widely known as an expert horseshoer. He set a record of making a hundred shoes in a single day, and also of taking off and resetting a hundred shoes on horses. In those times he would be paid a dollar a team for shoeing. Blacksmithing was Mr. Myers' regular vocation and work until twelve years ago. He was more than four score years old when he did his last work in that line. He finally sold his shop to Chris Platts, and in later years has found employment for his leisure in looking after his present little town farm of two acres in the northwest section of Prairie du Sac. He has found both pleasure and profit in raising a crop of tobacco on his land. Mr. Myers has always been extremely fond of horses, skillful in managing them, and has owned some of the best examples of horse flesh ever seen in this part of the state. At different times he owned eleven fine stallions. He bought them at high prices, securing a number from New London, Canada, and some in Michigan and in other places. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.