Table Of ContentGUIDE TO
ADE HOUSE
.. ORICAL SITE
A Guide To
Old Wade House Historical Site
by David Paul Nord
Illustrations by Kathy Haaga
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Owned and Operated
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~ 1946
.,YOFWISC by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Nord, David Paul
A guide to Old Wade House historical site.
1. Greenbush, Wis. Old Wade House. 2.
Greenbush, Wis. - History. 3. Country Life -
Wisconsin - History. 4. Wisconsin - History,
Local. 5. Carriages and cam - Wisconsin -
Greenbush - History. I. Title.
F589.G712 167 977.5'68 78-3677
ISBN 0-87020-169-7
Copyright © 1978 by
TH£ STATE H1sTOR1CAL Socm-rv OF W1sc0Ns1N
TABLE OF CONTENTS
lNTROOUCTION 1
PART ONE
TAVERNS A ·o TRAVELERS 3
PART TWO
RUTS AND ROADS 25
PART THREE
WAGONS AND WAINWRIGHTS 37
,,.
INTRODUCTION
"In America, and especially in the West, everybody travels."
A European nobleman wrote these words in the late I 830's after an
extended tour through what we now call the Midwest. This impression of
universal mobility, though a bit too sweeping, was in those days fairly accu
rate-and mobility has remained a national characteristic. Americans have
been travelers and movers throughout their history. And when they have
settled down, as farmers or craftsmen, businessmen or manufacturers, they
often have been obsessed with moving the product of their labor into distant
markets and with tapping distant sources of supply. Much of the story of
America is the story of transportation.
Wade House a1~l the Wesley W. Jung Carriage Museum ponray sev
eral important aspects of the history of overland transponation in Wiscon
sin. Wade House and the village of Greenbush, both offspring of a traveling
society, grew up along one of the main-traveled arteries in mid-nineteenth
century Wisconsin- the Sheboygan-Fond du Lac road, now Highway 23. 1
Today's Wade House represents the hundreds of inns and taverns that once
dotted the roads and trails of Wisconsin. The Jung Carriage Museum
shows another side of Wisconsin's mobile society-the carriage and wagon
industry. From the beginnings of settlement in Wisconsin, men and goods
moved by wagon. The wainwright or wheelwright, who repaired old wag
ons and constructed new ones, was a valued citizen in nearly every town
and village. By the turn of the century, carriage and wagon making was a
large-scale industry in Wisconsin, producing over I 00,000 vehicles annu
ally.
Today, Wade House no longer houses weary travelers, and the wag
ons and carriages have ceased to roll. The old highway inns died in the
1860's, '70's, and '80's with the coming of rapid, comfortable passenger
travel by railroad. The carriage and wagon industry died in the 1910's and
'I 920's with the coming of the motor car and truck.
This booklet is a guide to the history that Wade House and the Jung
Museum represent. Part One, "Taverns and Travelers," begins with the
story of Wade House, but also touches on the colorful history of travel and
tavern life in other parts of Wisconsin before the Civil War. Part 'Two,
"Ruts and Roads," focuses on the.Sheboygan-Fond du Lac road and other
main-traveled roads in Wisconsin to sketch some of the history of road
building and the tribulation of road travel in nineteenth-century Wiscon
sin. Part Three, "Wagons and Wainwrights," looks at the rise and fall of
the carriage and wagon industry in Wisconsin, with special emphasis on
the Jung Carriage Co. of Sheboygan and on the giant factories of Racine,
Kenosha, and Stoughton, the leading centers of the industry in the state.
2
DOLPHIN 5TOVE
Part I
Taverns and Travelers
Sylvanus Wade, 1844
Sylvanus Wade, .founder of Greenbush and builder of Wade House,
was in several ways typical of the small-scale pioneer businessman and
townsite promoter. When Wade settled with his wife and nine children on
the banks of the Mullet River in April 1844, he was already a man of some
means. His wagons were loaded with material goods not usually associated
with pioneer life-books and sketching sets, dress clothes and china, an
organ and sheet music.
Unlike the pioneer farmer, Wade was not interested primarily in
cheap agricultural land, though he did plan to do a little farming. He
wanted strategic location and waterpower. He paid $150 for four acres and
a "mill privilege" on the Mullet River at a time when farm land could be
had in some places for ~1.25 an acre. As a skilled blacksmith and an ambi
tious businessman, Wade could have made a good living in the East. But
like many others, he had a vision of greater success in the West. Far from
Sylvanus Wade Betsy Wade
seeking escape from civilization, Wade sought to be a builder of civilization
in this new land.
Sylvanus Wade was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, on July 3,
1796, the great-great-grandson of Nicholas Wade, who arrived in Massa
chusetts from England in 1632. As a young man, Sylvanus moved with his
parents lo Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he practiced the blacksmith's
trade and married Betsy Oakley of New Milford. In 1836, Sylvanus and
Betsy and their growing family moved west to Joliet, Illinois. In 1841, they
came tO Wisconsin, settling first at Fort Atkinson. Then in the spring of
1844 they moved again- north to the wilderness site that was to become
Greenbush.
Greenbush, 1844-1850
ln 1844, Greenbush was an excellent site for a settler of Wade's skills
and ambitions. The place was virgin forest, and the Wades were the only
settlers within fifteen miles. But its potential was clear. The location, mid
way between the budding cities of Sheboygan and Fond du Lac, was sure to
attract travelers and commerce as the two cities grew and as the trail be
tween them, designated a territorial road in 1838-39, developed into a gen
uine wagon highway after 1845. In addition, the mill site promised to make
Wade's little community a local center for lumber and grist milling, two
pioneer processing industries that would become increasingly important as
more and more settlers moved into the area. Wade's vision of founding his
own bustling little village in the wilderness was more foresight than dream,
for it was based on economic reality.
Yet in 1844, it required some faith as well as foresight to believe in the
future of Greenbush. It took the Wades two and a half days to trek the
twenty-miles from Fond du Lac along a foot-trail trod mainly by Indians.
At times they had to fell trees and cut brush to move their wagons through.
Their first home was a log cabin located across the road from the present
site of Wade House. Years later Mrs. Wade often told her children that the
canopy of forest was so dense in those days that she "could hold in her
apron all the stars she could see."
The difference between the Fond du Lac area and the Wades' new
wilderness home is symbolized by the fate of their dog. On their way
through Fond du Lac, a farmer gave the Wades a large mastiff that had
killed several of his sheep. A killer dog no longer had a place in developing
4
farm country. But the big dog was not wild enough for Greenbush. He was
soon killed and eaten by a pack of gray wolves.
Within a year after the Wades arrived, the road between f ond du Lac
and Sheboygan was improved, and the Town (township) of Greenbush
was organized. Wade had expanded his log house and had set up his smithy
