The first mentioned in history is William of Douglas. The Good Sir James who fought with Bruce was a descendant of William. The title of Lord was bestowed in 1388 and was passed down from generation to generation. Douglas is the name of an ancient and celebrated family of Scotland. At the present time the Earls of Selkirk are the only representatives of this family of Douglas in Scotland. Scotch plaid is a woolen cloth worn as an overgarment over the shoulder to the waist or as a skirt-kilt, by the Highlanders of Scotland. Each clan has its own plaid. A square of the Douglas plaid is attached. Since in Scotland the title, the castle, ancestral acres and most of the wealth descends to the oldest son, a younger brother of one Lord Douglas came to America to seek his fortune. This was sometime in the 17th century. The rocky coast of Maine reminded him of the rocky coast of his native land so here he took up a grant of land and established a home. This was probably along the Penobscot River for this is where the Douglas families had their homes.

Grandfather (Jeremiah Douglas), a descendent of this brother of Lord Douglas* was born in Penobscot County, Maine, about the year 1785. He built his home in Howland Township, Penobscot County. The timber was heavy making it hard work to clear the stony land. However, here Jeremiah and his wife Margaret cleared their land, built their log house and reared their family of four boys - Josiah, Jeremiah Jr., David and John (my father), and three girls - Emily, Sophia and Charlotte. Some of Grandfather (Jeremiah’s) friends and two or three cousins had tired of the stony soil and long cold winters in Maine where the snowbanks sometimes reached to the eaves of their log houses. They journeyed westward with their families and covered wagons until they came to the fertile prairies of Illinois and some went on to the more timbered land of Wisconsin. Later on these friends and relatives wrote Grandfather urging him to join them in the West.

So with true pioneer spirit he sold his farm in Maine and with their household goods and farm implements loaded into two covered wagons, he and his family started for the West in the spring of 1839. My father, John, the youngest of the family was then 10 years old. He rode most of the time in one of the wagons with his mother and sisters, but his older brothers and his father took turns driving the teams of horses and walking to lighten the loads.

I have often heard Father tell of that journey. Sometimes they passed through prosperous settlements and other times the road was a mere trail through the dense forest. Many streams had to be forded. Wagon boxes had been made water tight so they would float if necessary. Some places corduroy roads had been built through swamps. This was done by laying trunks of small trees side by side so wagons could pass over them crosswise and not mire in the muddy ground. Of course it was rough riding. Grandmother and the girls cooked the food by the wayside. They brought wheat for seed and what flour they could from their Maine farm. This supply was replenished when flour could be bought in the villages they passed through. All kinds of wild game were plentiful, so their meat problem was taken care of. Maple sugar and molasses gave them their sweets.

The men’s summer clothing was cotton jeans and coarse cotton shirts. The women wore calico and linen. There were some cotton mills in Massachusetts and other eastern states weaving cotton cloth. Grand- mother and the girls had been busy in Maine spinning wool from their sheep and weaving it into cloth from which their winter garments were made. Socks and stockings were knit by hand. The men’s boots reaching almost to their knees were made from cowhide. Grandmother and the girls wore high shoes made of calfskin.

It was late fall when the family reached Danville, Illinois. By that time the snow was too deep for the wagons to go farther. Danville was only a small village then, and no houses were available - only what was known as a “half-faced camp.” It was a shed roofed building with three sides enclosed. The fourth side faced the south and was open. In front of this a fire was kept burning. Skins and blankets were hung to keep out the snow. Feather beds and blankets kept the family warm at night. Father attended school that winter. The seats were rough benches without backs. The schoolmaster ruled with a hickory stick.

As soon as the roads permitted in the spring, the family moved forward into Illinois. Somewhere in the region of Decatur, friends of Grandfather had settled. They persuaded him to rent a farm there and put in crops. He did this but was not satisfied. Wisconsin was calling him. As soon as the corn could be harvested they again loaded their wagons and started on. Emily, the oldest daughter, married a man by the name of Young and stayed in Illinois.

About 12 miles southwest of Madison, Grandfather found a location that suited him. He bought a farm of rich black soil and settled down. Father said they ate corn bread made from the corn they had raised in Illinois until he hoped he would never see any more corn bread as long as he lived. The school he attended there was little better than the one at Danville. He said the benches were long, seating eight or ten boys each. At a given signal the boys would all shove one and the poor fellow sitting on the end would find himself in the aisle sitting on the floor.

Josiah and Jeremiah Jr. (or Jerry as he was called), bought farms nearby. They married and lived there the rest of their lives. Both brothers came to visit Father once when I was a little girl. They wore beards and were both so serious I remember being afraid of them. Father wore a beard too, but he had a real sense of humor. Jerry and his wife had one girl, Arabel, but Josiah and his wife, Nancy, had a large family - Jerry, Steward, Maggie, Marilla, Ora, Nella, Carrie, Mason (Flora Heitman’s Father), Edward, Floria and John. Sophia married Goodridge Cummings and lived in Iowa. They had three children - Thomas, Eliza and Nancy. Charlotte married a cousin, Harrison Douglas. I do not know much about her family or Emily’s.

After Grandfather’s children were all married and settled but David and John (Father). Grandfather’s cousin, Frank Douglas, persuaded him to sell out that wonderful farm he had near Madison (I have seen it) and buy the farm adjoining his in Adams County. Frank Douglas then owned the farm that Rufus Douglas now owns. The farm that Grandfather and Father, who was then twenty-one, bought was the one we know as the John Heitman place. The road then ran north and south through the farms following the course of the Wisconsin River. The house was a story and a half building which had a lean-to kitchen. Besides the kitchen there was a sitting room with a bed-sink (a bed sink was an alcove just the size of a double bed), a bedroom and one or two rooms upstairs. The house was pleasantly located near the bend of the little creek about ten rods from the road with plenty of shade trees around it.

After the folks had lived here for a few years, Grandmother went to Iowa to visit the daughter, Sophia. She took a severe cold, died and was buried out there. Years later Grandfather was buried there beside her. I have visited their graves in a little cemetery near Volga, Iowa. When the folks first moved to Point Bluff, as the place was then called, they had the only team of horses in the neighborhood. The other farmers were using oxen. There were no houses at what was later Kilbourn, but a few houses were on the west side of the river. Portage was the nearest town having dry goods stores. Father made two trips to Portage each year with the team and wagon. It was a day’s drive each way. The neighbors sent by him for yard goods, thread, shoes, hats and many other things. When he arrived there in the late afternoon, he gave the lists of articles he was to purchase to Mr. Pettibone who kept the general store. Mr. Pettibone put up the orders that evening so that they were ready for Father to load and start back in the morning. He bought Mother’s wedding bonnet from there. It was white silk with little pink roses inside the brim.

Now a little about Mother’s family. Her name was Isabel Oakes. Her father was Edward Oakes and her mother was Nancy (Lawrence) Oakes. They owned a farm in the town of Greenbush, Penobscot, Maine. They had 17 children. Of this number 13 grew up and married. The boys were - Edward, Albert, Levi, Henry and George. The girls with their married names were - Elizabeth Evans, Amy Woods, Angeline Cummings, Frances (?), Marie Pelton, Eunice Smith, Isabel Douglas (Mother), and Susan Carsley.

Grandmother Oakes was a very energetic person. Besides her housework, caring for her family, and preserving fruits, she spun yarn and wove cloth, which she made into clothing for the family. I have heard Mother say that while there was always plenty of food, their parents did not think it necessary to have the shoemaker make shoes for the children until they were old enough to go to school. The younger children gathered large chips where the men were cutting wood. These they bound on their feet with strips of cloth when they wanted to go out to the barn to play in the winter. They could always stand on the warm bricks by the fireplace to warm their feet.

The path that they took going to school led through the forest. I have heard Mother tell of the moose that they saw and of one that shook his head and stamped his feet when they came too near. When Mother was quite a young girl, Grandfather Oakes was caught between two logs at a skidway. His back was injured so badly he was never able to do hard work again.

Elizabeth, Amy, and Angeline were married at that time, but Frances, Marie and Eunice were working in the cotton mills at Farnamsville, Massachusetts. The boys excepting George were far away from home.The three girls at Farnamsville urged Grandfather and Grandmother to sell their farm in Maine and move there so they could board at home and help with the family expenses. At the age of 11 Mother was working in the cotton mill during vacation and after school at night, winding spools for the weavers. Her sisters taught her how to run the looms. She was quick with her fingers, and by the time she was 13, she was a weaver.

When Mother was 16, Frances and Eunice married and settled in the East. Maria was anxious to go to Wisconsin where Charles Pelton was waiting for her to marry him. Angeline and Amy had been living in Wisconsin for some time and had homes near Point Bluff. It seemed best for Grandmother and Grandfather, who by that time was almost helpless, to join these daughters. Isabel (Mother), George and Susan were the only children left at home to go with them. Mother had never done much housework, but there were no cotton mills at Point Bluff for her to work in, so she helped a sick neighbor the first winter they were in Wisconsin. Their son-in-law built a log house for Grandfather and Grandmother on the northeast corner of what we know as Ketchum's Corners.

Not long after the family came to Point Bluff, Father and Mother met one evening at the sister, Angeline's. They were married the following Spring on March 23. Father was then 27 years old, and Mother was not quite 17. Before this time Father had been some-what interested in a young lady by the name of Aribel Gates. Her father was the tollkeeper at the wooden bridge across the Wisconsin River just below the "Narrows" on the old Pinery Road. At that time the old Dell House which stood not far from the West end of the bridge, was a favorite stopping place for woodsmen and for rivermen as they brought fleets of lumber rafts down the river. Indians were plentiful but not dangerous. They often trudged past the farm with their furs, beadwork and baskets, taking them to the Trading Post at Portage. The big Indians rode ponies so small their feet almost touched the ground, while their squaws walked and carried the articles for sale done up in blankets.

Father bought his father's half interest in the farm at Point Bluff, though his father and Uncle David continued to live there with Father and Mother. David died a few years later and is buried in the Olin Cemetary. Father and Grandfather were hunters and trappers as well as farmers. They were fond of taking a boat up near Green Bay in the fall of the year, then trapping and hunting as they floated on the Fox River back to Portage. They carried flour, tea, salt, and salt pork with them. The rest of their food was the wild meat that they killed on the way. Their cooking was done over an open fire. At night they slept on blankets spread over hemlock boughs. Other hemlock boughs served as a tent. They caught mink, muskrats, racoon, foxes and sometimes wolf or bear. They worked fast and were back home before the river froze over.

The oldest son Jeremiah (Jed), was born in 1857. Edward (Ed), the second son was born in 1858. A school house was needed, therefore a small piece of land was deeded to the school district with the understanding that it would be returned to the owners when no longer needed for school purposes. A small log building was put up across the creek from their house and was used for a number of years. Both boys attended school in this building.

When the boys were grown. Father developed symptoms of tuberculosis following pneumonia. The doctor prescribed mountain air for him, so the farm was sold and the family journeyed by train west to San Francisco then by boat to Portland, Oregon. There they spent the summer in a cottage on the mountain side. The men worked in an orchard part of the time, then bought a team, cut and hauled wood to Portland. The mountain air did its work so by fall the family headed back toward Wisconsin. With a covered wagon they crossed the mountains to Red Bluff where they could take a train. It was a distance of 500 miles.

Frank Douglas was an old man by this time, so when the family returned from the West, he was ready to sell his farm. Father bought it and that was his and Mother's home for the remainder of their lives. Here their two daughters, Maybelle (me) and Libbie were born and grew to womanhood. Jed married Sarah Reeves and later built his home on the north one-third of the farm which Father had deeded to him. They had one son, Marion. Ed married Hattie Morris. They made their home with Father and Mother. The old house grew as the family grew. Their children are - Henry, Celia, Cecil, Rufus and Hattie. After the death of Ed's wife, Mother cared for the children. The farm passed to Ed and was later bought by his son Rufus. Rufus' daughter Lois Fay was born there. The central part of the house is now nearly 100 years old. Maybelle married Arthur E. Hart. Libbie married William Henry Colburn. Their children are - Albert, John, Joyce, Chester, Owen and Maybelle.

Grandfather Douglas was a Baptist. Father was also a Baptist when he was a young man. Later he and Mother joined the Methodist church and continued to be members of that church the rest of their lives. They were people of sterling character who lived their religion. They were honored and respected by their neighbors and loved by their children and grandchildren, were always ready to lend a helping hand to a neighbor in time of sickness or trouble.

About the year 1890, Father received letters stating that a quarter million dollars was in Scotland belonging to the Douglas heirs of Lord Douglas's brother who had made his home in America. Among those who wrote him was W.L. Douglas, the shoe man, who was one of the heirs. By that time there were so many of the Douglas heirs living in different parts of the country that it would have been a hopeless task to locate them all. There would have been lawyers' fees and other expenses so as far as I know the money is still in Scotland. Fortunes of that kind pass into Chancery if not proven within a certain length of time. Once in Chancery they usually stay there.

Written in September, 1952 by Maybelle (Douglas) Hart

*The connection to Lord Douglas has not been established