Old Opera House--Cemetery on the Hill--Deserted Ringlingville--Bunn the
Baker of Baraboo
A huge and humorous hoax was the Cardiff Giant. The collapsed humbug
was told at every fireside in the land in 1869 and has been retold
thousands of times since then. (If the reader is interested go to the
Carnegie Free Library, Baraboo, and obtain a copy of the Century
Magazine, vol. 64,--new series of Century is Vol. 42--Oct. 1902, page
948; or read in the Sauk County History, 1880, page 547.) The figure
was made at Fort Dodge, Iowa, shipped to Chicago, where finishing
touches were made, and later taken to Binghampton, New York, then
buried on the Newell farm at Cardiff. Not long after the giant was
exhumed and still later the fraud was exposed. One of the star actors
in the performance was George Hull, who came from Binghampton, New
York, to Baraboo, in 1867, and manufactured cigars in a shelly kind of
a structure at 614 Oak Street, next to the alley, across the
thoroughfare from the rear of the Warren Hotel. While Hull was away the
building was burned. It is stated there was insurance of $12,000, that
Hull settled for $1,000, and many people said, "Nigger in the fence."
Where Celebrities Were Heard
At the northeast corner of Oak and Fifth, 701-705, now occupied by a
garage, was located the old Opera House. Here were heard such
characters as Robert G. Ingersoll, the skeptic; W. J. Bryan, the
silver-tongued orator; Elbert Hubbard, a victim on the Lusitania; Opie
Read, the author; Robert M. La Follette, the senator; and many others.
Nat Goodwin, Salvini and stars of divers magnitude played here and
noted musicians filled the structure with their harmonious
reverberations. The old building burned on February 22, 1905.
The Oldest Living Thing in Town
If, perchance, one dwells in a town where the inhabitants do not keenly
appreciate the pleasure derived from rare old trees, or where the
authorities have destroyed many a precious one, the visitor will be
charmed with the beauty of the streets of Baraboo. In many places grand
old elms arch the thoroughfares, giving wondrous beauty to the vista
and shade in the mid-summer season.
The gnarled burr oak nearly opposite the garage, standing at 708 Oak
Street, is without doubt the oldest living thing in the town. An
appreciative magazine editor once graced the pages of his publication
with a story of this old oak and since then it is often spoken of as
the "Magazine Tree."
Church With Memorial Windows
On the northeast corner of Oak and Sixth Streets is seen Trinity
Episcopal Church, a charming edifice of Gothic design, adorned with
several memorial windows. A bronze tablet on the interior speaks of the
long service of out of the rectors, Rev. Samuel B. Cowdry.
A Giant of the Town
A few paces on the opposite side of the street towers a giant
cottonwood, one of the largest trees in town. It stands nearly in front
of the residence at 821 Oak. Here Mrs. August Ringling, the mother of
the circus brothers, enjoyed the evening of life and died in 1907. The
daughter, Mrs. Harry North, and her family resided here until the
spring of 1919 when they moved to the stone mansion at 617 Broadway.
Diagonally across the way, 107 Seventh Street, is the home of the late
J. J. Gattiker, one of the early residents of the town. It is now
occupied by his two daughters. This delightful old home, with its
luxurious shrubbery and garden, its extensive library and pipe organ,
has long been a gathering place for the literary and musical folk of
Baraboo.
Passing up the street one block brings the stroller to Eighth, and to
the left about two blocks, number 234, is the late home of A. G.
Ringling, the first of the seven brothers to answer the call of death.
The home is now occupied by Mrs. Ringling.
Relatives of a Movie Star
Just east of the Ringling residence, 218 Eighth Avenue, a small house
is half hidden behind a group of pines, the place where Clara Kimball
Young's grandparents, Professor and Mrs. J. S. Kimball, resided for
many years. The parents of the movie star, Mr. and Mrs. Edward M.
Kimball, dwelt there with the professor and his wife for a year or more
when the daughter was in her infancy.
Other Ringling Homes
On up Oak Street, number 103 Tenth, stands the home erected by the late
Alf. T. Ringling, who died at Oak Ridge, New Jersey, October 21, 1919.
The place is surrounded by a vineclad, sandstone retaining wall, has a
commanding view, and is well appointed within. The place is now the
home of Mrs. Ringling. Henry Ringling died in September, 1918, in the
colonial house at 201 Eighth, erected by Charles E. Ringling and
occupied by the family for a number of years. Mrs. Henry Ringling and
son now live in the home.
The Baraboo Cemetery
One of the pleasing prospects of the region is obtained from the high
point on the south side of the Baraboo Cemetery. The burying ground is
reached by ascending East Street from the greenhouse, passing the old
T. M. Warren home buried among the trees on the right and a row of
trees planted on the same side of the thoroughfare through the efforts
of the Civic League. The view from the knoll in the cemetery includes a
sweep of the eastern portion of the Baraboo Valley and the south range
of the Baraboo Bluffs, the Devil's Lake gap being almost directly south
and Point Sauk, 1620 feet high, to the southeast. The Baraboo River is
hidden in its depressed bed and the lake is closed from view by the
terminal moraine left by the sea of ice in glacial times.
In the old cemetery sleep many lawyers, doctors, ministers, merchants,
enginemen, trainmen, circusmen, newspapermen, and others identified
with the city which is half-hidden below. The mausoleum near the south
boundary of the cemetery is that of Henry Ringling, the one farther
north and in the same row of lots, that of Al. Ringling. The father and
mother and Otto are buried near the granite resting place of the
youngest son, Henry. August G. Ringling is interred in St. Joseph's
Catholic Cemetery, adjoining the protestant, and near the public
highway while Alf. T. sleeps at White Plains, New York.
Between the vault and the sexton's house is the grave of Mrs. Eben
Peck, the first white woman to come into the Baraboo Valley, and on a
stone in the same lot one reads the name of her son-in-law, Nelson W.
Wheeler, the author of "Old Thunderbolt in Justice Court."
The Hull House
Returning to the greenhouse and continuing one block south, 820 East
Street, one finds where George Hull, of Cardiff Giant notoriety,
resided while a dweller in Baraboo.
House With Many Gables
While passing Sixth Street one may see on the ridge to the right,
number 216 Fifth, the house of many gables. For years the place was the
home of Terrell Thomas, the first banker in Baraboo, and here died Rev.
Fr. J. T. Durward in September, 1918.
Church With Beautiful Windows
Several blocks towards the river, St. Joseph's Catholic Church stands
on the brow of the hill. The structure was erected during the
priesthood of the late Fr. J. T. Durward and one of its characteristics
is the beautiful windows, impressive and artistic in design, portraying
many Biblical scenes.
Deserted Ringlingville
At the foot of the hill, and extending several blocks to the eastward
along Water Street, lies deserted Ringlingville. For more than thirty
years the circus went forth in the spring time and, after a season in
many commonwealths, returned with the autumn, weaving into the years a
name which will cling to the place for many decades to come. Here the
lions roared and the hyenas snarled, while there trumpeted in a
building hard by the largest herd of elephants this side of Africa.
With the coming of the mellow days of spring, horses and camels and
pachyderms in long processions gave to the streets an individual air,
while the yards and thoroughfares filled with gilded wagons
emphatically denoted the circus center that it was. On account of the
war and influenza in the fall of 1918, the show sought refuge in
Bridgeport, a calamity in Ringlingville.
A Pioneer Home
Turning to the west the loiterer passes the Ringling Hotel on the left,
and a block more reaches Ash street. Perched on the hill to the right,
308 Ash, is the pioneer home of Colonel D. K. Noyes and family, erected
in 1850. It was the first example of a solid and dignified abode in
Baraboo, built of red brick and graced with four fluted columns.
Between those two same pillars on the left the owner went away to war,
losing a foot at Antietam, and to win honors as postmaster and
politician. Between those two same pillars the guests assembled on
their golden wedding day and later the venerable pair passed out, one
after another, to their last resting place on the hill.
Bunn The Baker of Baraboo
Bunn the Baker of Baraboo, made immortal by B. L. T. in the Chicago
Tribune, had his shop across the river at 114 Walnut Street, the street
name changing at the river. Here the tradesman-merchant with the
alliterative appellation, made sweet buns and bread until the fall of
1919 when a home was purchased on Cheek's Hill where Mr. and Mrs. Bunn
reside.
Birds of Many Feathers
Advancing and turning to the right on Lynn Street, then crossing the
long bridge over the Baraboo River, one arrives at the high school
building on the right, and postoffice on the left. In the former
structure is the extensive bird collection made by Charles Deininger
of Sauk City. Here may be seen a male and female passenger pigeon,
mandible to mandible, as if pitifully predicting the doom of the
species. At one time millions were slaughtered at roosting places on
the bluffs and in the pine woods near Kilbourn, after they had darkened
the sky at evening on their return from feeding grounds. At present as
far as known no living birds are in existence. The two exhibited are
rare and interesting specimens.
An Idea Makes a Million
Where the Corner Drug Store is located at the southeast corner of Oak
and Third Streets, once stood a frame building fronting the first-named
thoroughfare. On the second floor of the old structure A. N. Kellogg
published a newspaper and during the Civil war he found it necessary,
the typesetter having shouldered arms, to have his paper printed on one
side at Madison. The idea developed into the "patent insides" for
newspapers. Mr. Kellogg's name became familiar in every rural newspaper
office in the land, and he garnered a fine fortune as his reward. His
business was absorbed by larger interests several years ago and the
name is no longer known in the newspaper world.