by Bill Breihan
Originally published in Ancestral Diggin's (September, 1999), the quarterly newsletter of the Lafayette County Genealogy Society.
In the June, 1999 issue of Ancestral Diggin's it is noted that a Caroline Ostertag (b. 16 July 1828) may be "the first white child born in Lafayette County and possibly in WI."
The claim for Wisconsin is hard to accept. Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were settled in the first two decades of the century. The 1820 federal census lists 651 civilians and 804 soldiers with their wives, children and servants living west of Lake Michigan in what was later the Wisconsin Territory. No children were born to these pre-1828 settlers? Looking Backwards, publication of the Lafayette County Historical Society, in its Spring 1998 issue names one early white native of Wisconsin: Potite King, born in Prairie du Chien 12 January 1814.
The claim that Caroline Ostertag was the first white child born in Lafayette Co. is more plausible. But is it true? Possibly. But I offer another candidate: Mary Berry, daughter of Captain Fortunatus Berry of Gratiot’s Grove. She was born in Gratiot’s Grove in 1826, sometime before October 9th of that year. (Fortunatus Berry is, incidentally, my 3-great grandfather's first cousin. See Summer, 1998 of Looking Backwards for a biographical sketch.)
Fortunatus Berry was born in Cambridge, NY, May 20, 1792. Sometime before 1820, Fortunatus and family settled in what was to become Springfield, IL. He is listed in the 1820 census for old Madison County, IL. He was still living there in 1824, as he is included on the voting list for that year. In 1826, Fortunatus applied for a mining permit with government mining agent Charles Smith. The document (found at the Galena, IL Public Library) is signed by Fortunatus Berry and Charles Smith and dated (by Charles Smith), "Fever River, June 1826." In The Sesquicentennial History of Shullsburg, 1827-1977 it notes (p. 11) that amongst the "twenty-seveners" was Fortunatus Berry who "came perhaps before '27." Undoubtedly true.
In 1834, cousin Joseph R. Berry from New York arrived in Gratiots Grove and moved in with Fortunatus and family. (The Berry Tavern and Inn was built by Fortunatus Berry in 1829. It still stands, several miles south of Shullsburg.) Joseph traveled 550 miles alone from Ohio by wagon and team. He arrived Wednesday, December 17th after four weeks. Two days later he wrote his first letter home from Gratiot’s Grove, to wife Sarah. It begins, "I arrived here on Wednesday afternoon in good health and find my cousin & family all well with 6 children--4 boys and 2 girls. The oldest are girls, one 10 & the other 8 years old. The next are the twin boys, 5 last June, & one 2 and the 4th three months. The youngest they have named Edwin."
About that same time, another settler named Charles Lamar arrived from Maryland. We learn from the History of Green County that one of the daughters of Fortunatus Berry was the first wife of Charles Lamar. They apparently married about 1844. In the 1850 census we find the Lamar family of the Town of Shullsburg: Charles H. Lamar, age 30; wife Mary, age 24; and four children, ages 2-5. For "place of birth" Nancy lists "Wisconsin".
According to the 1834 Joseph Berry letter cited above, Fortunatus Berry of Gratiot’s Grove had a daughter born in 1826 (age 8 in 1834). As Mary Berry, daughter of Fortunatus and the wife of Charles Lamar, was 24 in 1850, she is undoubtedly the eight year old mentioned in the letter. Since the Berrys appear to have been resident in the area in 1826, the census information with Mary Berry born in Wisconsin in 1826 seems reliable. As the census taker came around the Lamar household 9 October 1850, that would mean Mary (Berry) Lamar was born in Wisconsin (most likely in what was to become Gratiot’s Grove) before 9 October 1826.
