From Cornwall to Wisconsin

The Kitto name is strictly Cornish, of Celtic Blue Blood origin, dating back to 0 A.D. They were the original pioneers of Southern England, Cornwall and Devonshire. The Saxons entered England from the East in 500 A.D. It may be noted here that following a Civil War in 1440 the Celts went off in five directions. A branch went to Scotland and became the Scottish people; a branch to Ireland, a branch to Wales, a branch to the Isle of Man, a branch to Devonshire, and those that stayed became Cornish, that's us!

The Kitto family were hard working Miners in tin and copper mines, they were very honest people, not too religious and seldom entered into the business world. One Kitto family today owns and operates one of the famous tin mines of Cornwall at Red Ruth.

Historians tell us in many volumes of Cornish history that the years from 1840 to 1850 were "the hungry years of Cornwall". A close scrutiny of the 1841 and 1851 census of Cornwall - Helston area confirms this. The enumerator in 1851 made notations in the census where 25% of the homes were recorded as an "empty house". The 1841 census was indicative of better times and no empty houses.

The Kitto families, plus hundred of others left Cornwall before 1850 for several reasons:
1. They started out as mentioned above.
2. They wanted freedom. This needs explaining. True there was a civil government that had little or no power. The Church of England held all the power through the Canterbury Courts and their bishops. This means an ecclesiastical court not holding valid government jurisdiction. Note: no separation of church and state. One example can be noted of many. When the Father or breadwinner died, the Church of England confiscated the property. Result many families left the dominant church and joined other small churches. They were then recorded as non-conformists. Others packed their bags and left the country for America.

On this side of the ocean will be noted the Land of the Free since the Founding Fathers made sure of a divinely inspired constitution of the USA, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, separation of church and state.

So the stage set; the Cornish people and others plus a few Kitto families boarded a small boat at Falmouth, traveled east to the big harbor of South Hampton (south of London). Here they boarded the Ocean liners and traveled over the deep for ten days to dock at New York usually. From here they would travel up the Hudson River to Albany, intercede with the Eire Canal. The barges on this famous Erie Canal at this time in history were not motorized, but were powered by a team of horses that walked along the bank of the canal with a long rope tied to the barge.

Those barges carried people and freight. People at 1¢ per mile and freight at $4.00 per ton for about miles ending at Buffalo, where it extended to the Great Lakes. Large boats then took the Kitto Families and others to Chicago.

From Chicago - westward ho - by team and wagon charted by the Cornish miners to the community hub - Galina Illinois, right in the northwest corner of the state. From here our Kitto family traveled 20 miles North to a mining district near Hazel Green, Grant County, Wisconsin.

The date now is 1848 the same year that Wisconsin became a state. A flood of pioneers and homesteaders now came into Wisconsin. A great number of these "Cousin Jack" (Cornish people). Wisconsin is known today as the "Badger State". You ask where did it come from? Well, turn the clock back to 1848 and '49 and you will find record of Cornish miners (some Kitto families) entering Wisconsin, for the first year, dug holes into the hills - these they called their homes, hence "The Badger State".

Our Kitto ancestors continued as miners living near the town of Hazel Green, but working in the mines at Jamestown. (Note: Jamestown today is Louisburg).

Written by Curtis E. Kitto c 1970