But some of them were just drunks.

One such was Pinneo -- no one knew if it was his first or last name -- who, with a drinking buddy, was remembered as "the kind of pioneers it necessarily takes to build up a new country. Good workmen and useful in their way, and when on a bender they were the liveliest as well as the noisiest boys in the country."

Pinneo came to Madison in 1837 and built a hut on the outskirts of town (where Tenney Park is now) where he cut shingles. He worked hard when sober, something that occurred "only when every artifice and cunning had failed to provide the means of getting drunk."

Once he'd been paid in cash, "there was no more work in Pinneo, who would by a more direct route reach town in time to get glorious' long before the purchaser made his appearance with the shingles. After he had endured a week's drunk, his red face and bare breast shone in the sun with a peculiar brilliancy."

Pinneo slept outdoors and went barefoot for years. "His feet looked in shape and color like mud turtles," an acquaintance wrote, "and his toes resembled so many little turtle heads half drawn in." He had a laugh and a joke for everyone, especially when tipsy.

Like many alcoholics, Pinneo ultimately met a tragic end. He soon wandered away from Madison and died in a miner's cabin when his clothes caught fire during a drunken binge.

-- Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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