Just the body of a house was put up in 1836 on the Churchill claim [near Fort Atkinson], built by Elias Ogden and Augustine Churchill with only an axe.

The evidence

• “Here he stayed for some weeks. Elias Ogden was with him, as the Ogdens had a like claim about a half mile east of that; just the body of a house was put up in 1836 the same as the Churchill claim. These two men, Ogden and Augustine Churchill, my stepfather, without a team of any description, and with really no tools except an axe, cut down trees, and split out shakes (a long shingle about three feet long and four inches wide) for a roof, and split out puncheons, or plank for a floor, and with the body of small trees for rafters, covered the shanty, and laid a floor.”

  1900-caswell-reminiscences/04-journey-to-rock-river-and-settlement.md, PDF pp. 3–27

  Caswell, Lucien Bonaparte. The Reminiscences of the Hon. L. B. Caswell. Written at Fort Atkinson, Wis., 1914–1916; four-column newspaper reprint, newspaper and date unidentified. University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources