FRANKLIN E. DARTT
The Bear Hunter of Clark County, WI
Written and submitted by Kay Scholtz <scholtz@tznet.com>
Franklin E. Dartt was born in the state of Vermont in about
1842 to parents Josiah H. Dartt and Mary A. (Ayers) Dartt. Frank
Dartt's parents were New England natives and according to 1860 Green
Lake County, WI, Census records, J. H. was born in Connecticut and his
wife Mary was born in Vermont. Frank had an older sister, Amanda,
and two older brothers, Edward and Alfred. Alfred died at about
age sixteen of an unknown cause. Frank also had a sister ten
years younger named Minerva Dartt.
In about 1849 the Dartt family uprooted itself from Vermont and
moved to Marquette County, Wisconsin, and located near the Kingston and
Montello areas. There were at least four Dartt families who
arrived in this area at approximately the same time, probably brothers
or cousins; the Josiah H. Dartt family; Justin N. Dartt; George H.
Dartt; and Joseph R. Dartt families. Along with other settlers
they built log homes and created a settlement. J.H. Dartt made
improvements on waterpower by constructing a dam and bulkheads on the
Montello River. J. N. Dartt held the first religious services of
the community at his home. The city of Montello, WI, still has a
subdivision named Dart's Addition, which was first settled by the Dartt
family.
At this time, Franklin was about ten years old and the
countryside he had moved to was entirely wild. Perhaps what he
saw formed a basis for his future lifestyle. Montello and Fox
River were nearby as well as Buffalo Lake. The land on the south
side of the lake was known as the "Indian Lands". As late as 1855
there was a large camp of Winnebago and Menomonee Indians on the north
bank of Buffalo Lake.
On the 1860 Federal Census Frank lived with his parents, older
sister Amanda, and younger sister, Minerva, in the Town of Kingston,
Green Lake County, WI. His given age was 19. He engaged in
farming and had attended school within the year. Frank's father
was a farmer also and owned real estate valued at $400. while his
personal estate was valued at $1,000. Frank's older brother,
Edward A., was on his own at this time and he had relocated on a farm
in Monroe County, WI, in the town of Wilton with his wife Martha and
their five children.
No records could be found of Frank entering the Civil War and by
1870 he had also settled in Monroe County, Wilton Township, WI, on his
own farm as a single man. His real estate was valued at
$2,000. and his personal estate at $260. He was 28 years old
according to the 1870 census taker.
In the next 15 years something provoked Frank to take up a most
unusual occupation and leave his farm behind. Some have suggested
he was distraught over a lost love, but this is uncertain.
Dartt's new interest caused him to move about 40 miles north to Jackson
County, WI, into a remotely wooded area near Spaulding in the pursuit
of trapping live bears. In 1885, state census records report him living in the town of Sullivan in Jackson
County. Sullivan was the former name of City Point
Township. "An interesting story is told about Spaulding, five
miles east of Pray, toward City Point. An eccentric Englishman by
the name of Frank Dart lived there, and his business was to catch wild
animals such as bears, wildcats, and wolves, and sell them to
zoos. But he was a true hermit, and wished to be alone, so when
P. T. Graves put a sawmill at Spaulding, Dart moved 10 miles north (to
Sherwood Forest)." - Fred J. Rogers, Forester, circa 1936.
WISCONSIN LEADER - Sept. 30, 1887 - SPAULDING, "Frank Dart
caught a large bear last Monday, weight 350 pounds. He has a
large log bear house, where he intends keeping them for a time, killing
them when the hides are prime. The one caught Monday was hurt so
it had to be killed."
In 1893 there is record of Frank Dartt's purchase of 40 acres in
Clark County. This wooded land was in Section 21 of Sherwood
Township, one half mile from the nearest town road. Frank bought
the land for $25.00 from C. S. Stockwell, a prominent businessman and
surveyor in Clark County.
There is reason to believe that Dartt lived in or near this
parcel prior to 1893. In 1889, Frank Dartt hired a Sherwood lad
of about 16 named Myron Pickering to help him trap bears for a month
during that fall. Following are transcriptions from Myron's
memoirs that he penned not long before his death at the age of 93 in
1966 at his home in Montana.
"I suppose there are more memories grouped in the month of September 1889 than any other month of my life.
At that time we had just finished building a ten-room house and
were moved in and as my folks had the post office, people from the
whole neighborhood came to our home for their mail. Among them
was Frank Dartt, the bear trapper.
On the first of September, 1889, Mr. Dartt came for his mail and
asked if I would work for him through September. To me this was
like a great adventure and I took him up on the deal and got ready to
go, and as I loved hunting, was taking my gun along. But Mr.
Dartt said I would not need it, which spoiled some of my hopes of a
good time. But still there would be the adventure of catching bears.
When I came to experience a trapper's life, I found it was not
all play, for we had a trail six miles in one direction from camp and
three in the other that had to be patrolled every day, looking after 45
traps. Mr. Dartt went with me over the line and then made it my
job to patrol the six mile line, and he the three mile. In the
month I was with him I think we caught 13 bears, so you see we had a
bear to take care of about every two or three days.
Of course the first bear caught gave me by far the greatest
excitement, for it was so new and wonderful to think of handling,
caging and hauling home a real wild bear.
I quickly found that it was not only a very important experience
for me, but for Mr. Dartt also for before dropping the cage over the
bear he had to take many precautions. One of these was to tie the
15' long trap clog to a tree tying the trap with the bear up so to
speak. He then set the bear cage with open bottom toward the
bear, so that when close enough the cage would drop over the bear. A board for the bottom could be pushed in; then
the foot with the trap had to be taken care of. It was here I got
one of my most important lessons, for before starting to cage the bear
Mr. Dartt gave me the clamps for removing the trap when the bear was in
the cage.
Well, he yelled to me, "Give me the clamps!" In all the
excitement I had laid the clamps down somewhere and I had forgotten
where, and what was I to do? I'm sure my heart cried out, "God,
help me!" I don't think it took a minute to find them, but it
seemed like an hour.
The fact that Mr. Dartt had given me the responsibility of those
clamps and that for the moment was my only job, and I so utterly
failed, was driven home so the lesson had a permanent affect on my life.
I don't remember how we learned of it, but we somehow knew a
forest fire was moving in our direction and it meant fast and energetic
action if we were to save our traps and building from
destruction. A forest fire of this kind without wind to drive it
creeps rather slowly, giving time to prepare for its arrival, such as
picking up things that fire would damage and laying out lines of
defense for stopping it when it arrived.
The job given me was to go over the trap line and take up all
the traps and hang them up on trees which I did. Starting in the
evening I went the six miles and took up the traps, but when it came my
usual bedtime I became so sleepy I laid down on the ground and slept,
actually only a few minutes, but that was the total sleep for me for
that night and also the night following, for we laid out a large piece of ground on which the buildings were
located. By utilizing trails, roads, and a stream surrounding the
same, and constantly patrolling day and night for two nights and two
days we saved the home ground and all the buildings. It did not
take the fire that long to pass by, but there were many fires that
lingered after, in stumps and dead trees from which the wind sometimes
blew sparks quite a distance and started new fires which had to be
attended quickly to prevent them from getting out of control.
Hence, after the main fire had passed, there was a watch job for a time.
As time went on, caging and hauling in bears became routine and
the log enclosure became quite crowded. We fed the bears in
shallow feeding containers like cupboard drawers that we could pull out
to put in the corn which was the diet, about the same as hogs.
But the bears showed better intelligence for each had his own trough
and he would wait until he heard the feed poured into his trough, which was pulled out to fill. He would take hold
of his end with the claws of his front paw and pull it in with a bang.
When I finished my month, Mr. Dartt figured two extra days for
the fire fighting and I would not take it, for I wanted to share his
misfortune; and so to show his appreciation, at Christmas time when he
butchered his bears for the Chicago market, he brought us a nice
shoulder of bear meat."
Dartt continued to trap bear in Sherwood for several years and
was a curiosity to many. Remains of several large hand dug pits
where he kept his bears can still be seen today. Originally the
pits were seven to eight feet deep but are filling in with time.
Perhaps the largest pit yet visible was the one with the log enclosure
over the top of it. When Frank was ready to sell his bears live,
he would load them in his iron cage mounted on top of a wagon.
Then he would hitch up his horses and haul them to the nearest railroad depot. Alyce (Ferguson) Qualley, late
resident of Washburn Township, Clark County, recalled that the sled he
pulled behind his horse looked like an airplane.
A couple recollections from 1955 of the Hughes brothers who
resided at Kurth Corners, central Grant Township, Clark County, on what
is now State Hwy 10 were that Dartt used honey as bait to attract the
bears into his traps. They also remembered seeing him pass
occasionally, enroot to Neillsville with his burden of bear (meat and
pelts) in late fall and what a thrill that was.
The #5 Newhouse double long-spring leghold trap was a type used
by Dartt. The trap had a jaw spread of nearly 12 inches, weighed
17 pounds, and for most people would require a special tool to be
set. A 1902 Sears Roebuck catalog sold this trap for $5.00. as
well as the clamps that Myron Pickering spoke of.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - October 11, 1894 - "NEVINS
- Rumor has it that Mr. Dartt, the bear hunter, lost a valuable lot of
furs a few days ago, 6 bear hides, some coon skins, etc. There is
strong suspicion resting on some parties, and the investigation is
going on at present."
In January of 1898, Frank purchased an additional 40 acres from
the Island Mill Lumber Company, which adjoined his original acreage on
the west side. He paid $40.00 for this parcel with the
stipulation that Island Mill reserved the right to enter the land and
harvest all the pine timber. Due to the bear's dwindling
habitat in the latter 1890's he began to concentrate his efforts on
apiary. This kept Dartt occupied and gave him a good source of
income for nearly twenty years. He was a very successful hunter
of wild bees and sold a great deal of honey. Frank treated
the children of Sherwood who dared to visit him with honeycomb and
taught others the art of apiculture.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - January 24, 1901 -
"DEWHURST News: Mr. F. Dartt returned Friday from Kingston (WI), where
he had been visiting his mother, who is 93 years old and is now
confined to her bed."
Dartt was a rather scary character to some. Children, in
particular, were fearful of his long white beard and unkempt
features. As a young girl, Alyce Qualley recalled terror in
walking past the Dartt homestead when she spotted two bears penned up
near the road. She, in turn, had fond memories of Frank when he
would come to visit her parents, John and Esther Ferguson. Mrs.
Ferguson would prepare Frank with his favorite meal of johnnycakes or
corn meal mush. Alice and her sister, Louise, would fight to
clean the table off when the meal was finished as Frank would always
slip some change underneath his plate for the girls.
Many called Dartt eccentric, but in his later years he visited
neighbors and attended the annual town meetings in Sherwood and
participated in discussions. He also spent time defending his
character by submitting articles to the press. After a lengthy
blast in the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1898 recopied in several local
newspapers Mr. Dartt had this to say.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - March 3, 1898 - "...From
the manner in which the Black River Falls writer painted my mode of
living, it would be a good thing for him to become an author of 10-cent
literature of the "blood and thunder variety", as he seems to have an
extra supply of imaginative ammunition.. I can say that the writer of
the Sentinel article can soon eclipse the sum saved by myself, if he
will devote his ability to writing up "supposed hermits." In
conclusion, I think that dime museum managers could reap a handsome
profit, by capturing this Black River Falls correspondent and putting
him up as one of nature's greatest freaks. Yours truly, F. E.
Dartt" The article inferred that Dartt had saved $10,000 from his bear
trapping escapades, that his life would soon end, and be forever
enshrouded in mystery.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - January 2, 1902 - "Some
weeks ago Game Warden Geo. K. Redmond secured and confiscated the
carcasses of two deer in the Town of Sherwood, through assistance of F.
Dartt and H. Anderson, who followed the deer hunters, saw them hide the
deer and then one of them walked out to City Point, some 8 miles, to
telegraph Mr. Redmond. They are certainly enthusiastic law
enforcers."
Frank also wrote a letter to the editor on the subject of timber
theft and the need to mark land boundaries in the Sherwood area.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - March 18, 1909 - "A LETTER
FROM FRANK DARTT - ...It is hard to locate different pieces of land and
to find the section corners and especially when the snow is a foot and
a half or two feet deep. Parties owning timber here should locate
their land when the ground is bare, and where there is timber blaze the
lines, so they can easily be followed; then if one is cutting timber on
an adjoining piece of land he is not so apt to get over the line; but
we notice very often quite a few people here get two or three miles
over the line..Parties that own timber here that don't care enough for
their timber to look after it and let people go on at will and cut off
their green timber, I think it would be better to give it to poor
fellows like myself, or those who don't own a foot of land in the
world, then there would not be so many people with this terrible
disorder "trespassing." This we notice is very contagious. ..I
have here south of the ranch, a few green pine, five or six of them are
now large enough for small saw logs. Nearly every morning when I
go out I look over there to see if the tops of them are still in sight
yet or not...."
PITTSVILLE RECORD - December 8, 1909 - "DEWHURST NEWS - Frank
Dart is putting out poison for wolves so the people better take care of
their dogs."
Frank Dartt remained a bachelor all his life and some locals
maintained that he was worth a good deal of money at his passing.
Their speculation was enforced by the fact that as Frank grew older he
would hire locals to do chores for him. He would always ask them
to return the following day for their pay and this made folks wonder if
Dartt kept his money buried somewhere near his home. Paul
Schwanebeck was one such hired lad. Frank hired him to
assist with his bee keeping. Paul took such an interest that bee keeping proved to be one of his lifelong interests.
In May of 1918, Frank Dartt at the age of 76, died at his
home. His nephew, Royal O. Dartt arrived by train from Montello,
WI, to handle arrangements. Royal was sure that his uncle had left
everything to him in a will. Neither the will nor Frank's life
savings were ever found. To settle the estate, the land and $580. ,
($400. in drafts found in Frank's shack by Town Chairman, J. R.
Coulthard, plus money obtained from selling his few possessions),
were to be divided eighteen ways, between nieces and nephews living in
Wisconsin, North Dakota, Nebraska, and California. After funeral
expenses, administrative costs, and bills from neighbors were turned in
to the estate, there wasn't really any money left, just the land.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - May 23, 1918 - "SHERWOOD
NEWS
The people of Sherwood were surprised Thursday morning to hear
of the death of Frank Dartt, an old resident of this town. Mr.
Dartt was an old bear hunter, trapper, and bee keeper in the pioneer
days of Sherwood. He was about 79 years of age. His nearest
known relative is a brother (nephew) who lives at Montello, Wis."
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - May 23, 1918 - "DEATH OF AGED HERMIT
Franklin Dartt, an aged man, who had lived alone in a secluded
place in the town of Sherwood, was found dead in his cabin one day last
week. It is supposed that he died about Thursday. A nephew
living near Montello received a letter from him telling that he was
getting very weak. The nephew took the first train, arriving here
Saturday, too late to see him alive. He had the remains prepared
for transportation and taken back to Montello for burial..In
former years he caught many bears. Some of these he fed in pens
until very fat before killing them. He had a heavy iron cage in
which he hauled some of his live bears about and sold them. Mr.
Dartt was a very successful hunter of wild bees and sold a great deal
of honey. While rather eccentric in his manner of life, he was a
man of intelligence and was considered very upright and
honest. He was reported to have considerable money some
estimating that he was worth $8000 or more. At the time of his
death no money could be found on or about his person. Later on a
search of the premises, J. R. Coulthard, chairman of the town, reports
that a sum of over $400. was found. As yet none of his papers,
not even the deed to his land has been found. His nephew was
under the impression that he had money loaned out in Monroe
County. No doubt records of these loans if they exist will be
found."
In Frank Dartt's estate inventory 50 bear traps were listed and
they were sold in one bunch for $12.00 to a Sherwood farmer, Albert
Gall. He also had owned a mare, an old wagon and a plow at the
time of his passing. His black bear skin overcoat was sold for
$5.00. Two iron bear cages were sold to a man in Colby for
$6.00. Frank also left behind 275 beehives, extracting machinery, platform scales, three guns, two caldron kettles, and a
silver watch. These items were all sold by the administrator of
the estate from Neillsville to whomever he felt paid the best price.
Royal Dartt took his Uncle Frank's body to Montello,
Wisconsin. Here he was buried in the Montello City Cemetery on
the south half of a family lot. Also buried here was Royal O.
Dartt's father, a Civil War veteran and cousin named Royal H. Dartt,
who had been married to Frank's sister, Amanda Dartt. Royal O.
still expressed dismay over his uncle's estate 22 years later, in 1940,
in a letter he wrote to the Clark County Judge. He stated
that Frank's money had never all been accounted for and even suggested
foul play may have been involved in his uncle's death. Royal O.
Dartt died in 1945. Upon visiting the Montello City Cemetery in
August of 1997, there was no gravestone found for Frank or any record
of his burial with the cemetery caretaker. A gravestone of the
nephew, Royal O. Dartt, was found and also a stone nearby for his
father, Royal H. Dartt. It is a sad case that the nephew
neglected to put up a stone for Franklin Dartt.
Perhaps Franklin E. Dartt, the bear hunter of Sherwood, never
had a fortune at all, but the mystery remains to this day. Upon
Frank's passing, locals recalled seeing the ground surrounding his
cabin disturbed. Letter from Helen Seman (age 93) written in
1997, who resided on the LaFlesh/Pickering farm many years -"It seems
to me like we bought a gallon of honey from Frank Dart, never heard what he did for a living or much about him.
This happened long ago - my brother, Joe, was on the town board at one
time and when that party living on the road west of the town hall died,
Joe went over to the place to look things over and he said the ground
was all spaded up. Someone thought maybe he buried some money or
something there." If a stash was found, no one told.
Upon hearing of Frank Dartt's death from friends, Myron
Pickering sent a letter to the editor giving his reflections on Mr.
Dartt and excerpts follow.
NEILLSVILLE REPUBLICAN & PRESS - June 20, 1918
"..I was
escorted to his lodge by a neighbor, who had learned the way to his
headquarters. They were located at the head of a small meadow
creek with pine and hardwood growing so thickly on either side that
they nearly shaded the little opening where the buildings were
located. I well remember the peculiar sensations that the many
sounds of animals, birds and falling acorns gave me when rising at
daybreak on those September mornings to take care of the horses and
bears and get ready for an early start on five miles of traps I usually
watched...On one occasion I discovered a trap with the twenty-five foot
sapling used for a log gone. The trail led straight into a dense
thicket of saplings, blackberry briars and windfall timber, thru which
I followed it at least a half a mile, expecting all the time to hear
the rattle of the chain or other noise that usually accompanies such a
circumstance; but nothing of the kind happened for as I opened an
especially thick bunch of brush imagine my surprise to find myself
facing a four hundred pound bruin almost within striking distance of my
face..Evidently he was as scared as I for he allowed me to quietly back
away out of reach and I hastened to report to Mr. Dartt. An hour
later he, with some long, sharp stakes crept close enough to the bear
to stake the ring of the chain to the ground, after which we proceeded
to the caging process..Another time...after working until evening we
had started for camp when I, hearing a sound much like a cow
bellowing, and remarked to Mr. Dartt on the strange circumstance of a
cow so far from civilization. Stopping to listen he informed me
it was not a cow but a bear experiencing the first pangs of the jaws of
the seventeen pound trap...Coming up to the perpetrator of the
unearthly bellows in the person was a cub bear about six or eight
months old; and although I was never permitted to carry my rifle with
me, on this occasion Mr. Dartt had his and gave it to me to hold off
the old she bear who threatened us from the brush nearby while he caged
the cub...This was not the only occasion when I heard the voice of the
bear for when a new recruit was added to the bear pen there was always
a night of the fiercest howling and wailing..The last day of my stay
with Mr. Dartt it happened that one of his bear died and he asked my
assistance investigating the circumstances. The place where the
bear were kept was a large log enclosure with log covering and a
partition of logs making two parts with a slide door between, and the
dead bear was in the back compartment which had no exit from the
outside.
After an assurance that all the live bear were in the other part
and the door closed, by his request I held a lamp in thru a feed hole
that he might look down thru a crack from above to see the dead
bear. While holding the lamp I felt something cold touch my arm
and not knowing what it was, peeked into the opening only to discover
the brown nose of a bear on my arm. To say the lamp was removed
abruptly is saying it easy. Mr. Dartt had overlooked one bear,
and she was not the kind that gets scared at a light either..They
naturally display their pugilistic tendencies by striking viscously at
anyone who ventured too near the cage or peep holes in the pen.
Before I learned this I got a shirt sleeve torn and four deep claw
marks on my arm....I often wondered that no one was seriously injured
at the peep hole in the pen where visitors often looked at them.
Mr. Dartt was honest to the cent. I had reasons to believe
his money was buried in the woods near his home. Taking
everything into consideration, I can remember no month of my life more
profitably spent than the one with the trapper and hunter, Frank Dartt."
Many years after his death, Dartt's lifestyle remained a topic
of local conversation and some still ponder about Frank Dartt to this
day. The Sherwood Bluff was referred to by some locals in the
1930's as Dartt Hill. It was located just one half mile south of
the Dartt homestead. A logging dam and a creek, west and southwest of
Dartt's land, were referred to as Dartt Dam and Dartt Creek for a time
by residents.
