Stop inside Brass Ball Mobil to see the second Brass Ball that hung over Brass Ball Corners.

Dr. Francis Paddock

Pioneer physician and landowner in Salem area. Paddock Lake was named after him.

Back in 1838, Dr. Francis Paddock and his family;three generations of it, traveled from New York to Kenosha in a covered wagon. Enroute to Kenosha he passed Chicago which he described as "a marsh with a few Indian huts scattered here and htere."

Out on the Geneva Road he took over 400 acres of governement land at $1.50 an acre and built a log cabin. The Paddock farm had between 1500 and 2000 sheep and at one time over 100 cows and perhaps as many horses. He was the typical country doctor, riding horseback for miles in all directions in all kinds of weather, carrying medicines in saddlebags. Howling wolves followed him in winter.

Dr. Paddock kept his medicines on shelves in the pantry. Once in a while his supplies would get low, in which case he would divide up what was left among patients. If anyone wanted a tooth pulled, he would do the job for 25 cents. One night he delivered a baby at a home that did not have a candle.  He put grease in a dish, placed a rag in it and lighted it.

In 1841, he marriend Martha Cecilla Munson. In 1842-1844 he found time to be supervisor of the town of Salem and also was commissioner of schools. In 1855 he served his district in the state senate.

Of his 14 children, five died in early childhood. Concerned about providing the survivors with the best education possible, Dr. Paddock's land became the site of the Paddock school house. When there was not money enough to pay a teacher, he often kept one in the house for his own and neighbor children, paying the salary himself. He turned the front room of his home into a school room by taking up the carpet.