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Gc 977.501 Ea8b 1198627
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01052 8054
HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY, WISCONSIN
.
PAST AND PRESENT
Including an account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JUDGE WILLIAM F. BAILEY
Illustrated
1914 C. F. COOPER & CO. CHICAGO
1198627
INTRODUCTION.
After more than half a century of growth since its organiza- tion as a county, it seemed fitting that an historical account of its settlement, development, its people and institutions, should be made at this time and preserved; its primary importance is the placing in book form and for all time the earlier historical inci- dents surrounding the settlements of the various towns, cities and villages, and that the time was almost too late, and the work too long neglected, became very apparent to the editors when the search for material began, for with the passing of the early set- tlers, comparatively few of them still live in different parts of the county, have gone forever the opportunity to get early facts in some instances.
To properly and adequately write the history of Eau Claire county has been a task encompassed with tremendous difficulties ; it has been accomplished after laborious research, and the co-op- eration of many of its oldest citizens, whose aid the editors ac- knowledge most gratefully, for, without it, some parts of this work would have been impossible.
Eau Claire county, from its humble beginning, having been, through the untiring energy and perseverance of its pioneers, brought to be one of the finest counties in the state of Wisconsin. holds indeed a wonderful story of progress. Its cities built to stay, whose schools, churches and institutions are equal to any in the state, whose people are progressive and possess a fine sense of civic pride, are alone worthy of the efforts of the historian ; in addition to that, its beautiful little villages, its rich agricultural resources and dairying interests, place it in the front rank in many respects.
It has been the intention of the publishers from the start to publish a complete and comprehensive history of the county. They have endeavored to cover every representative subject and relate the story of all the various interests impartially, as was within the power of the editors to obtain. That there are some omissions on some subjects there can be no doubt, but the instances of this are almost wholly brought about by parties called upon and in whose possession faets alone were, have caused such omissions.
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INTRODUCTION
The publishers of the history desire to acknowledge the cor- dial and valuable assistance which has been accorded them in its compilation by many citizens of Eau Claire county. It has been a help deeply appreciated and deserves due recognition. Among those to whom special thanks are due is Hon. William F. Bailey, James H. Waggoner, Percy C. Atkinson, Marshall Cousins, Walde- mar Ager, Reinhold Liebau, Miss A. E. Kidder, W. H. Schulz, W. W. Bartlett, L. A. Brace, J. P. Welsh, Frank L. Clark, C. W. Lockwood, G. F. Caldwell, W. A. Clark.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
All the biographical sketches published in this history were submitted to their respective subjects, or to the subscribers from whom the facts were primarily obtained, for their approval or correction before going to press, and a reasonable time was al- lowed in each case for the return of the typewritten copy. Most of them were returned to us within the time allotted, or before the work was printed, after being corrected or revised, and these, therefore, may be regarded as reasonably accurate.
A few, however, were not returned to us, and as we have no means of knowing whether they contain errors or not, we cannot vouch for their accuracy. In justice to our readers, and to ren- der this work valuable for reference purposes, we have indicated these uncorrected sketches by a small asterisk (*) placed imme- diately after the name of the subject.
C. F. COOPER & COMPANY.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Island of Wisconsin 9
II. Coming of the Whites. 11
III. Carver's Cave Found. 18
IV. Indian Treaties
20
V. The Red Men. 23
VI. How Eau Claire County Was Made. 29
VII. Townships 33
VIII. Fruits and Berries. 43
IX. Agriculture and Dairying. 49
X. Eau Claire County Training School. 54
XI. Eau Claire County in the Civil War 56
XII. Grand Army of the Republic. 193
XIII. Organized Militia. 199
XIV. Griffin Rifles 206
XV. Spanish-American War 218
XVI. Courts and Legal Profession.
262
XVII. Medical Fraternity. 304
XVIII. Old Settlers' Association. 345
XIX. Asylum and Home for the Poor. 347
XX. Eau Claire Prior to Its Incorporation as a City. . 349
XXI. Lumber Interests. 373
XXII. Reign of Terror in Eau Claire. 379
XXIII. The City of Eau Claire. 381
XXIV. Eau Claire Fire Department. 387
XXV. Public Schools of Eau Claire. 407
XXVI. Floods 436
XXVII. City Parks 438
XXVIII. The Children's Home. 441
XXIX. Eau Claire Public Library
443
XXX. Post Office. 445
XXXI. Societies and Clubs. 448
XXXII. Young Men's Christian Association 456
XXXIII. Eau Claire Business Houses. 461
XXXIV. Eau Claire Industries. 474
XXXV. The Railroads. 489
XXXVI. Eau Claire Street Railway and Interurban Lines 497
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXXVII. Newspapers of the County 499
XXXVIII. Eau Claire Churches. 511
XXXIX. Banks of Eau Claire County 536
XL. Hotels 540
XLI. Germanism 553
XLII. Norwegians 574
XLIII. City of Augusta 582
XLIV. Augusta Churches. 598
XLV. Village of Fairchild. 615
XLVI. Fall Creek 619
XLVII. Biography
623
CHAPTER I. THE ISLAND OF WISCONSIN.
By
MISS A. E. KIDDER.
"Geologists assert with positiveness that ages ago the area that is now the north central portion of Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan was an island of great altitude. They trace the physical history of Wisconsin back even to a state of complete submergence beneath the waters of the ancient ocean." "Let an extensive but shallow sea covering the whole of the present territory of the state be pictured to the mind," suggests the eminent geologist, T. C. Chamberlin, "and let it be imagined to be depositing mud and sand as at the present day. The thick- ness of the sediment was immense, being measured by thousands of feet. In the progress of time, an enormous pressure attended by heat was brought to bear upon them laterally or edgewise by which they were folded and crumpled, and forced out of the water, giving rise to an island, the nucleus of Wisconsin. The force producing this upheaval is believed to have arisen from the cooling and contraction of the globe. The foldings may be imaged as the wrinkles of a shrinking earth." The climate was tropical, incessant showers crumbled the soil on top and the ocean waves crumbled the sides. This erosion through unnum- bered ages began to level the mountainous island till the sediment washed down on all sides, cut down the height and added to the area. Thus as the altitude was cut down, the area expanded. Soon little outlying islands or reefs were formed that in time became attached to the parent isle. Ages passed, the crust of the earth yielding to the tremendous pressure beneath, opened into fissures which were pierced by masses of molten rock holding the elements which later chemical processes have converted into rich mineral ledges. Thus by continued upheavals and erosions, the surface and the length and breadth of this ancient island of Wisconsin was subjected to constant change. After the upheav- als that resulted in deposits of iron and copper, and accumula- tions of sandstone miles in thickness, came a great period of ero-
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
sion. To the disintegrations thus washed into the water were added immense accumulations of the remains of marine life. The casts of numerous trilobites found in Wisconsin are relics of this age. Immense beds of sandstone with layers of limestone and shale were formed. The waters acting on the copper and iron of the Lake Superior region gave the sandstone deposit there its tint of red. On the southern end of the island, the sandstones lack this element and they are to this day light colored.
Next came the great ice age. One monster stream of ice plowed along the eastern edge and hollowed the bed of Lake Michigan; another scooped out Lake Superior and penetrated into Minnesota, while between these prodigious prongs of ice one of lesser size bored its way along Green Bay and down the valley of the Fox. When warmer days came, the glaciers melted and the water filled numerous depressions scooped out in the early irresistible progress of the vast masses. Thus were formed the 2,000 or more lakes that make of Wisconsin a summer para- dise. The warmth that melted the ice to water also brought forth the vegetation to cover the nakedness of the land, the forests grew, and "man came upon the scene."
CHAPTER II. THE COMING OF TIIE WHITES.
By
MISS A. E. KIDDER.
In 1618, Jean Nicolet, son of a Parisian mail carrier, came from Cherbourg, Normandy, to Place Royale, now Montreal, Canada. He possessed sterling character, abonnding energy and great religious enthusiasm. Champlain, the restless navigator, had passed fifteen strenuous years in exploring the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, Lake Huron and Hudson Bay. He now sent the newcomer to stay among the Algonquins of Isle des Allu- metles on the Ottawa river to learn their language and customs and share their hardships, and then to dwell with the Nipissings until 1633. Then Champlain, governor of Canada, recalled him and made him commissary and Indian interpreter to the one hun- dred associates, with Quebec as his residence. He had now served his apprenticeship and later was selected by Champlain to make a journey to the Winnebagoes and to solve the problem of a near route to China. The upper Mississippi had not been discovered, nothing was known of a vast land toward the west, and it was believed that a few days' journey would reach China. This was in July, 1634. Seven Hurons accompanied him, and in a birch- bark canoe they passed along the northern shore of Lake Huron and at Sault St. Marie set foot on land which is now part of Michigan, and discovered the lake of that name. Steering his canoe along the northern shore of Green Bay, he thought he had reached China. This was about fourteen years later than the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Nicolet had met sev- eral Indian tribes, and now the Menomonies at the mouth of the Menomonie river. He was now on Wiseonsin soil, its discoverer, and the first white man there. One of his Hurons had been sent forward to announce his coming as a mission of peace to the sup- posed celestials. Arrayed in their gorgeous mandarin robe, he advanced to meet the crowd with a pistol in each hand which he fired into the air one after the other. The chiefs called him "Thunder Beaver." Four thousand chiefs of different tribes
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
assembled in couneil, each chief giving a feast at which Nicolet explained the benefits to be gained by their trading with the French colony at Quebec. After a rest, he journeyed through regions of wild riee marshes until he reached the Mascontins. Had he but known it, a journey of three days would have taken him to the Wisconsin river and thence he could have drifted down to the "Great Water." But he proceeded southward to- wards the Illinois country and thus missed discovering the upper Mississippi, which Joliet found thirty-nine years later. After a visit among the Illinois and kindred tribes, Nicolet returned to the Green Bay country, and when spring made canoeing pos- sible, to Montreal. Six months later the great Champlain "Father of New France" died. Troubles among the Indians in Canada kept his successors from following up these researches in the West, but the gallant Nicolet had "blazed the path" which Radis- son was to follow in twenty-five years.
The death of Nieolet is a pathetic story. After his return to Canada, he spent much of his time in ministering to the sick and in official duties at Three Rivers and Quebee, where he served as commissary and interpreter, being greatly beloved by Frenchmen and Indians. One evening word was brought that Algonquins were torturing an Indian prisoner. To prevent this, he entered .a launch to go to the place with several companions. A tempest upset the frail boat, the men clung to it till one by one they were torn from it by the waves. As Nicolet was about to be swept away, he called to his companion, "I'm going to God. I com- mend to you my wife and daughter." In 1660 two explorers, Radisson and Grosseilliers, returned to Montreal with the tale of their journey to the Lake Superior region. They had also visited the head waters of the Black river in Wisconsin, and the Huron village on the head waters of what apparently was the Chippewa river. In their second voyage on the shore of Chequamegon Bay, they constructed the first habitation ever built by white men in Wisconsin. A little fort of stakes surrounded by a cord on which were "tyed small bells (wch weare senteryes)." It is believed that the two Frenchmen wintered in the neighborhood of Mil- waukee and possibly Chicago in 1658 and '59. After many adventures among the Sioux and at Hudson's bay, they returned to Montreal. Wavering in allegiance between the French and English as best suited their interests, they finally made England their home and died in that country. The account of the perilons journeys of these adventurous men has been gathered from a manuscript written by Radisson when he was in England. This
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THE COMING OF THE WIIITES
has a curious history. It was not written for publication, but to interest King Charles in the schemes of these renegade French- men to help the English wrest the Hudson Bay country from French control. They did interest Clint Rupert, and the found- ing of the Iludson Bay Company was the result.
This journal of Radisson's came into the possession of Samuel Pepys, author of the well known "Pepys Diary," who was sec- retary of the admiralty. After his death in 1703, many of his valuable collections were sadly neglected. Some went into waste paper baskets, some into London shops, and in one of these in 1750 this journal was picked up by a man who recognized its valne and placed it in a British library. There it slumbered until 1885 when the Prinee Society of Boston published it in a limited edition. Only two eopies are owned in Wisconsin.
Next came the reign of the forest ranger, the "Coureur de bois." New France held a host of soldiers of fortune, younger sons of the nobility and disbanded soldiers, who, with no ties to bind them to domestic hearthstones, turned the prows of their birchbark canoes westward, and with utter disregard of hazards that threatened and hardships that must be endured, penetrated to the most remote regions of the lake country. For a century and a half the forest ranger and the fur trader were the most potent factors in the discoveries that preceded settlement. Unlike the sturdy Saxon, whose meeting with the aborigines meant the survival of the fittest, the easy-going Frenchman did not seek to crowd the Indian from his place. Instead, he adapted himself with the customs and habits of the red man, and became half Indian himself, danced with the braves, smoked the ealumet at the councils of the tribe, or wooed and won the dusky maidens of the woods.
After a time, the French authorities tried to suppress these lawless rangers of the woods, deeming their barter for furs an infringement on the rights of the government. Severe repressive measures did not deter the unlicensed traffic, and then the author- ities tried to regulate it by stipulating how many canoes would be permitted to engage in it. There were three men to each canoe. Despite their disregard of law, the rangers proved of great service to the government, for wherever they went, they made friends of the Indian. This friendship for the French remained steadfast in the case of every Algonquin tribe but one- the Fox Indians of Wiseonsin. The lawless coureur de bois thus beeame the advance guard who spread for France the great arteries of trade in the western country. Of this company of
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ILISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
coureurs de bois whose favorite abiding place was Wisconsin, none became as famous as Nicholas Perrot. The oldest memorial in Wisconsin today of the white man's occupation here is a soleil wrought in silver and presented by Perrot to the Jesuit mission at Green Bay in 1686. This aneient relic was unearthed by workmen ninety-five years ago while digging a foundation. and is now in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society at Madison. Long before the thought of giving to the mission on the Fox this Catholic emblem, Perrot had become familiar with the region around Green Bay. In his earlier years, he attached himself to the wandering missionaries as a hunter to provide for their wants while they were threading the woods in search of converts. He was twenty-four years old when in 1665 he made the acquaintance of the Wisconsin Indians and obtained an ex- traordinary influence over them. It was of the greatest impor- tance to French interests that the western Indians should remain at peace with each other, and the authorities at Montreal in- trusted to Perrot the delicate role of peacemaker. He found in what is now northwestern Wisconsin "a race unsteady as aspens, and fierce as wild-cats; full of mutual jealousies, without rulers and without laws." Perrot succeeded well in paeifying the unruly nomads of forest and prairie. He built a number of rude stockades or forts in Wisconsin. One was Fort St. Antoine on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Pepin, traees of which fort were visible four decades ago; another was near the present site of Trempeleau where but a few years since was discovered the hearth and fireplace that he had built two hundred years before. He also built a fort near the lead mines which he discovered while traveling among the tribes to prevent an alliance with the Iroquois who were friendly to the English. When in 1671 the French commander St. Lusson formally took possession of the entire western country in the name of "Louis XIV," the mag- nificent, fourteen tribes were represented, gathered hither by Perrot at Sault Ste Marie. The ceremony was elaborate ; a huge wooden cross was surrounded by the splendidly dressed officers and their soldiers, and led by the black-gowned Jesuit priests of the company, the uncovered Frenchmen chanted the Seventh Century hymn, beginning thus: "Vexilla Regis Proderunt Fulget erneis mysterium," etc. As the sound of their hoarse voiees died away, St. Lusson advanced to a post erected near the cross and as the royal arms of France engraved on a tablet of lead were nailed thereon, he lifted a sod, bared his sword and dramati- cally took possession of the soil in the name of the Grand Mon-
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THE COMING OF THE WHITES
arque, Louis XIV, styled "The Magnificent." St. Lusson, in taking possession, claimed for the king of France "Lakes Huron and Superior, the Island of Manitoulin and all countries, rivers, lakes and streams contiguons and adjacent thereto; both those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the South sea." "Long live the king," came from the brazen throats of the soldiers as the ceremony was eoneluded, and the primitive savages howled in sympathy. Ilardly had St. Lusson's gorgeous pageant come to a eonelusion, when the Indians celebrated on their own account by stealing the royal arms. When Rene Men- ard, a Jesuit missionary, came to the wilds of Wisconsin in 1660, he was already an old man, and his life was soon sacrificed with hardships and the brutalities of the Indians. A band of Indians more compassionate than those among whom he had first jour- neyed took him to their wintering station at Keweenaw bay on the south shore, where he started a mission. Later he heard of distant pagan tribes to be brought to Christianity, and under- took the journey to find them in July, 1661, with a French com- panion and a party of Indians. Before long, the latter brutally abandoned the two Frenchmen. Father Menard beeame lost while following his companions, and the cause of his death remains a mystery, though his cassock and kettle were found later in an In- dian lodge. In 1665, Piere Claude Allouez was appointed to the Ottawa mission in Menard's plaee. He went to the village of the Chippewas at Chequamigon, selected a site and built a wigwam of bark. This was the first mission established in Wisconsin and was also a trading post. Here Allonez remained four years. In 1670, having been joined by two other priests, they visited Green Bay and established the mission of St. Xavier. Father Marquette who succeeded Allouez at Chequamigon, also found it a hard field. The Indians were a hostile tribe; battles were frequent, and when defeated tribes sought refuge on the Island of Michili- mackinac, Marquette accompanied them and founded the mission of St. Ignace on the opposite main land. Two years later he went with Joliet on his expedition to the Mississippi.
Louis Hennepin and his companions appear to have been the first white men to traverse the Chippewa river from its mouth northward. This was in 1680. In 1767, Jonathan Carver fol- lowed him. Jonathan Carver was a Connecticut soldier, energetie and enterprising, who purposed to journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making a correct map and tell the truth about the
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HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY
great interior country. He was well fitted for his task by early training along the Indian frontier of New England. Fitting him- self out as a trader, he reached Green Bay in September, 1766. A few days later, aseending the Fox river, he reached the great town of the Winnebagoes. An Indian queen named "Glory of the Morning" ruled the village, and Captain Carver enjoyed her hospitality for several days. "She was an ancient woman, small in stature and not much distinguished by her dress from the woman who attended her," says Captain Carver. In depart- ing from her village, he made the queen suitable presents and received her blessing in return. Ile then proceeded along the Fox to the portage, and thence down the "Ouisconsin," as he spelled it. The great fields of wild riee that almost ehoked the former stream, and the myriads of wild fowl that fed on the sue- eulent grain, attracted his notice. "This river is the greatest resort of wild fowl of every kind that I ever saw in the whole course of my travels," he wrote. "Frequently the sun would be obseured by them for some minutes together. Deer and bear are very numerous." From the time he left Green Bay until his canoe was beached at Prairie du Chien, Captain Carver had seen no trace of white men. Well-built Indian towns greeted his view as he floated down the Wisconsin, but at Prairie du Chien he found the most notable town. "It is a large town and contains about 300 families," he wrote. "The houses are well built after the Indian manner and situated on a rich soil from which they raise every necessary of life in abundance. This town is a great mart where all the adjacent tribes, and even those from the most remote branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble abont the latter end of May, bringing furs to dispose of to the traders, but it is not always that they conclude the sale here; this is deter- mined by a council of the chiefs who consult whether it would be more conducive to their interests to sell their goods at this place or carry them on to Louisiana, or Miehilimackinac." It has been claimed for Carver that he was the first traveler who made known to the people of Europe the existenee of the ancient mounds found in the Mississippi valley, and long believed to have been the work of an extinct people. Carver spent the winter among the Sioux and explored Minnesota to a considerable ex- tent. They told him mneh about the country to the west, of the great river that emptied into the Pacifie, of the "Shining Moun- tain" within whose bowels could be found precious metals, and mueh else that was new and wonderful. In their great eouneil eave, they gave to him and to his deseendants forever a great
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THE COMING OF THE WHITES
tract of land about fourteen thousand square miles in area, em- bracing the whole of the northwestern part of Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. At least this gift was afterward made the basis for the famous Carver claim. The United States Congress after long investigation and consideration rejected the claim. Despite this action, many persons were duped into purchasing land on the strength of Carver's Indian deeds. After spending some time in the Lake Superior region, Carver returned to Mich- ilimackinac. In his little birchbark canoe he had made a journey of nearly twelve hundred miles. He returned to Boston in 1768 and thence to England. Ill luck pursued him there, his coloniz- ing schemes collapsed, and in the great city of London this noted traveler died of starvation.
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