John:

Hey, there, cousin! Found this through the Brault site. Octavie Brault was my great-grandmother also. Will be replying to that query separately through that board. But having been a long-time resident of Iowa County and having spent lots of time in the Wyoming Valley in particular, thought I might be able to give you a little helpful background.

Most of the Wyoming Valley, as you probably already know, now belongs to either the Taliesin Fellowship (Frank Lloyd Wright's organization, still a bonafide architectural firm/intentional community) or to numerous wealthy Chicago folks who consider it to be their personal playground. [If it sounds like I resent their presence there, you are entirely correct.]

Iowa County is loaded with tiny little family, church and township graveyards. You notice that I don't use the term "cemetaries". Most burial sites, even those used now, are quite small. Part of the reason is that, by law, a burial ground must be relatively flat and well away from any potential high water tables. That is a rare bird in Iowa County, which is, as you well know, very hilly with lots of watercourses. "Ledge", rock outcroppings lying just below ground level complicate the picture; ask anyone who has ever tried to build a new home or drill a well there. Unlike the flatter spots in the State, there are no large cemetaries where the majority of the people in the area wind up being buried.

You mentioned that Samuel operated a sawmill that went out of business in 1865. That was just about the year that a very powerful and far-sighted group of businessmen bought themselves a bunch of State legislators and got a dandy piece of legislation passed. It gives that private group the exclusive right to control the entire length of the Wisconsin River, including the headwaters. They've built dams that run from the northern end down to about Portage, This provides their factories, usually paper mills, with a continuous supply of free electrical power, with plenty to spare for sale to the utility companies and local communities. It also enhances their ability to pollute the river without interference. I've read the act myself. Talk about a crooked deal! It runs ad infinatum, with no compensation of any kind to be rendered to the State of Wisconsin, which legally holds the river in trust as a public waterway. The lower part of the river was left undeveloped. The water was simply too shallow at that end to make it economincally feasible for heavy industrial use. But for a small operation like Samuel Wood's sawmill, it was, I repeat WAS, perfect. Once the dams were in place and operating, the lower Wisconsin became an entirely different river. It became extremely unreliable, and sometimes downright dangerous, as a watercourse or a water source. So, what does that have to do with Samuel Wood and where he might be buried?

It explains why he had to close his sawmill and possibly leave the area. If he was able to stay in Iowa County, as his brother obviously did, it explains why it it so tough to find where he is buried. Another factor to consider is the absence of recording requirements for births, deaths and marriages. Even though Wisconsin was admitted to the Union in 1848, and Iowa County was one of the first areas in the State to be settled, collection of vital statistics did not begin immediately and was often ignored by the populace even after the mechanisms were established. Iowa County's topography and geology (hilly and rocky) do not make for easy travel by land, even now. Unless one lived in Dodgeville, getting to the County Courthouse to record an event, say the birth of a baby, which was already placing an extra burden on a rural household, was not a priority. Lots of folks merely ignored such trivialities. We take modern mobility and communication for granted and tend to forget that for people of that era, survival was key; it took virtually every ounce of time and energy they had. Traveling two days by horse and wagon just to fill out a stupid piece of paper was not in the cards for them. Life's events happened and were dealt with. Getting them written down, if you could read or write, was not a priority. I probably don't need to tell you that some of the best sources for old records are church records. Unfortunately, Iowa County had no predominant religious sect. The countryside is dotted with abandoned churches of every denomination imaginable, some of which no longer exist. If they kept records, those books are probably sitting up in someone's attic somewhere or in a bookcase as an oddity. One even sees such things for sale on eBay! But it might not hurt to check with the County Historical Society, if one exists. They often have or know of resources that exist outside of government channels.

I am assuming that you yourself have been to the RD's office in Dodgeville and done a thorough search. From all indications, Samuel removed himself from Iowa County after the demise of his business. If he went into an employment situation after the close of his business, Madison is a definite possibiity. You might want to check the records in Dane County. When folks couldn't make it in Iowa County, they usually headed east to the State capital which seemed to be less susceptible to the vagaries of the economy. Many an independent business person from a rural area has wound up mopping floors in a State office building, incredibly grateful for the regular paycheck, fringe benefits and the pension. My own father-law, now in his mid-80's, quit hog farming when the market got bad one year and landed a job at the Dane County garage up the road. He never went back to farming. Our own Brault ancestors, who came for the free land, wound up in Manitowoc and Two Rivers working at the aluminum factories within two generations. To my knowledge, very few stayed on the farms.

Returning to North Carolina, if that was where his extendeded family still lived at the close of the Civil War, would be another possibility. Welfare, government social service agencies, services for the elderly and nursing homes simply did not exist. Families tended to live within relatively close proximity of each other and rendered mtual assistance when it was needed. From all appearances, Samuel was not the "lone wolf" type. If he found himself alone in a tough economy at a relatively early age, he would most likely have gone to live somewhere where there would be a fairly supportive environment. (Just some observations from prevailing customs of that period)

Re: the burial of Samuel's wife in Missouri: my guess is that she died on route while traveling, very common in those days. I've found several examples of it in my own Acadien research. Travel was a rigorous and hazardous undertaking. If memory serves me right, Liberty, MO is right on the Mississippi. (My atlases are upstairs and I am too lazy to go look!) A common way to travel long distances for folks in Iowa County back then was to go the relatively short distance to Dubuque, Iowa, pick up a river boat and go down the Mississippi to New Orleans or pick up one of the east-bound tributaries. People who died while traveling were usually buried pretty quickly wherever they died. If they died immediately after arriving at home from an extended journey, the funeral and burial were usually held the same day, just in case the death was due to something contagious. Few communities were strangers to eipdemics. In cases like that, they acted quickly. Questions to consider: What was the wife's age at time of death? Was she of child-bearing age? If you were able to find a death certificate, does it give an address of residence to indicate whether or not they lived there? Did Samuel and his wife have any children? If so, where were they born?

You've got yourself quite a puzzle there. But the chase, the quest, whatever you want to call the pursuit of the answers to the "brick walls" of genealogy are what make it exciting. Without such challenges, it becomes a rote collecting of names, dates and places. If that's all it is, wake me up when it's over, please! Let me know if you hit paydirt. [End of dissertation]

Morgan "the Long-Winded" Lintereur