Knox, O. Lockhart, Jackson Calvert, etc. They departed with ox teams, and crossed the plains via St. Joseph and Leavenworth. A few went to Council Bluffs, but the majority pursued the first named route. The effect produced upon the township by this removal was disastrous. Those who went were mostly miners, and that branch of active life, upon which the success of Benton was largely dependent, received a shock from which it has never recovered. The prominent leads, except the Mills lead, struck in and the largest, it is said, ever worked east of the Mississippi River--were abandoned.
The furnaces, with one exception, ceased operations. This exception was the furnace conducted by Matt Murphy, on Coon Branch, west of the village, continued until , when it, too, suspended. Of those who went across the plains, many of them succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations.
They made money rapidly, and, while some of them saved their profits, the majority, being men of improvident habits, expended the same, and, in a few years, were worse for having been successful. Very few returned. Those who remained west of the mountains were distributed about the Pacific slope, Mexico, the Sandwich Islands and Australia, whence they never returned, but have been lost sight of in the march of events. From the time of the departure of this element, farming was resorted to for the purpose of supplying those who remained not only with labor, but with bread.
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About , the prairies were broken up and planted, and, within five years thereafter, were under fence, and rich with the harvest of cereal wealth. Within fifteen years from that time, mining became almost one of the lost arts. Farms and farming covered the township from end to end, and the song of the husbandman was heard where once the pick and gad disturbed the silence of the hills and vales.
Schools were being established and homes of education reared where once the forest prevented their presence. Churches and religious corporations became numerous, and songs of praise filled the air with their sacred melody. The panic of produced stringency in the money market at the time, which lasted for about two years. During that period, money was scarce, and there was little sale for produce, mineral or stock. In , times began to improve, and, when the war broke out, as also the few years it prevailed, recalled the flush times of In , the work of surveying the line of the narrow gauge road, since completed from Galena to Wisconsin River via Benton and Wingville, was commenced under Edward Harding.
This was completed in the spring of , and work on the road-bed begun the same summer.
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The object of this road was to tap the rich prairie and mineral lands between the terminal points and Benton, with towns along the line aided in its building by subscriptions of stock. Labor was prosecuted thereon with diligence, and, in , the road was completed to Benton, the first train of cars reaching that point in October. The completion of this enterprise to Benton made a material difference in the town's business and prosperity.
Previous to that event, famers, miners and merchants had communication with the outside world by means of teams alone. But now, the mode of communication being changed, times changed with it. The road was finished to Platteville also in , and an extension ten miles north of that point begun. This was worked until June, , when litigation and financial embarrassment compelled the company to suspend operations, and for one year operations were entirely suspended. At the expiration of that period, the litigation took a turn favorable to the company, the embarrassments were removed, and cars were once more sent over the entire route.
Benton by this means has direct communication with outside points, and is greatly benefited. The first birth in the town is said to have been Mary Ann O'Leary, a daughter to Peter O'Leary, who was born about half a mile east of the village in , and except Alphonso W. Moore, who was born in that year also, but prior to the birth of Miss O'Leary, was the first in the county. She is now Mrs. Conway, and resides at Fort Dodge, Iowa. The same year, Mrs. Andrew Murphy died, the first death in the town, and was followed by her husband in Both were buried in Galena.
The town at present contains a population of 1,, having diminished since It is the territory of many large and profitable mines, possesses superior educational and religious activities, and is the residence of much wealth. It was laid out March 18, , on land owned by Dennis Murphy, the survey being made by John Burrell, assisted by Matt Murphy, and portioned into eight blocks of four lots each, divided by Main, Bean, Catharine and Jackson streets.
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The only house on the village site was a saloon and grocery store on Bean street, carried on by Henry Myers and E. In , Joseph Arnold erected a residence on Main street, which has since been re-constructed and repaired, and is now occupied by M. The same year Charles Hewett put up a saloon and bowling-alley on the corner now occupied by the residence of Owen McDonald.
Indeed, Mr. McDonald changed the same for living purposes, and has lived there since In , a man named Logstone built a hotel in the south end of the village, and Augustus Chaperon, a hotel, also, where the Benton House now stands. The same year, Dr. Phillip McBrien built a drug store adjoining Chaperone's hotel, on the north.
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Through that year buildings were quite general; residence went up in all parts of the village. Pickett, George Mathiot and C. Rand carried on blacksmith and wagon-making shops; several tailors came in, but remained a short time, while saloons were usually prolific and wide awake. In the fall of , the old Catholic Church was built of frame on the site of the present stone edifice, and for some time was the only house of worship in the village.
In March, , about the middle of the afternoon, a disastrous fire began in Logston's house, consequent upon a defective flue. A meeting of miners to make arrangements for bidding on the mineral lands to be sold that season at Mineral Point was in progress in the second story of a building put up the year previous, and now used as the United States Hotel, and the cry of fire created an excitement which suspended deliberations without delay.
The village was then as now without means for extinguishing flames, and the fire spread with alarming rapidity, enveloping all within reach of its devouring maw. But all efforts were vain, and it was only when the citizens had razed Dr. Brien's drug store and a portion of the hotel that any successful advance was made against the progress of the flames. Along toward evening, the smoldering embers were all the remained of a once prominent landmark. In the summer of the same year, the Bentonians, appreciating the absence of a hall for lectures and other entertainments, held a meeting for the purposes of securing the building of suitable premises for such purposes.
Subscriptions were made liberally, and the frame building now used as the Methodist Episcopal Church was erected. It was used for the objects for which it was erected, various religious sects alternating in its occupation on the Sabbath meanwhile until , when it was donated to its present owners. About the same time, the Primitive Methodists built a church on the present sit of the brick church of that organization, which was occupied until the winter of , when it was burned down, and the brick church referred to raised upon it ruins. The first stone building of any kind built in the village was the Catholic Church, commenced in The next was put in , by Matt Murphy, on Main street.
About , the store and dwelling-house of James Kearns was erected, and still survives. Thomas Beck put up his stone store and residence at the northwest end of Main street in , and his example was followed by others, who substituted frame, however, for stone in the construction of homes in that vicinity. These stone houses are the only building of that material in the village.
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No recorded additions have ever been made to the village, though outlots have been added to the number of seventeen since the original survey, increasing the area of village territory to about twelve acres. By far the most important enterprises in the way of building in Benton were those undertaken by the Father Samuel Mazzuchelli. It is the stone building erected under the administration of that worthy gentleman in the southeast corner of the village. When the Catholic Church was completed, the old frame edifice was removed to its present site, and constituted a part of the old Benton Academy.
The school flourished to an extraordinary degree, and the accommodations soon became too limited for those in attendance. At this juncture, Father Mazzuchelli conceived the idea of increasing the capacity of his building by the construction of what now is known as the "Academy. At present it is designed to tear down the building, and remove the material to Sinsinawa for use in the building now in progress there. Since , the village has held its own. In , when the railroad came, the village took a "jump" and increased rapidly. Improvements were made to a greater extent than ever before, and the hope is now indulged that the impetus given at that time will not have expended its force until great expectations are fully realized.
The village contains a population of about ; four general stores, one grocery store, one drug, one tin shop, three wagon and blacksmith shops, an agricultural warehouse, a furniture store, three churches, one hotel, and is generally prosperous, more so, it is claimed, than any other village in the county save Darlington. Patrick's Church was of frame, built under the direction of the Rev.
Samuel Mazzuchelli, and was presided over for many years by that venerable and eminent Pastor. The natural increase in the number of the congregation, however, necessitated the procuration of the new quarters, and led to the erection of the present stone church. This was commenced in and completed about , when it was consecrated, it is believed, by the Rt. Bishop Henni, of Milwaukee, and has since been occupied.