While the first capitol building was being constructed, Caswell often ferried footmen across the river [at the foot of Lake Koshkonong] with his canoe.

The evidence

• “How their faces brightened to see a white man's abode, though very humble, and they gladly laid down upon the floor when necessary and would sleep as soundly as if at their own home. The foot of Lake Koshkonong was a fording place for travelers between Milwaukee and Madison, then called "The Four Lakes." In 1838, while the first capitol building was being constructed, I very often forded footmen over the river en route to and from their work, with my canoe. These little crafts had to be handled with great care if not with skill; they were as uncertain as the Indians who constructed them.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/07-caswell-reminiscences.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 219 / book p. 199

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

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