USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of the state of Wisconsin : being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
The settlers of this county were of French origin; and we may add that the French is still spoken here, perhaps more extensively than any other tongue. The Belgians forin the most numerous portion of the French-speaking race, and, with the patient industry charac- teristic of their nation, are transforming a wilderness into fruitful fields. Ger- mans from every part of the "fatherland" are here working their way upwards with an intelligence, independence, and energy which always command suc- cess. The Scandinavian races, especially Norwegians and Danes, are among us in considerable numbers, and bring with them some sterling traits of character, which insure them a welcome from all classes of our people. One of our most thriving towns is alinost entirely ocen- pied by emigrants of this class. The Indefatigable Dutchman is here also, and has bestowed the name of "Hol- land" upon one of our most prosperous and growing agricultural towns. The omnipresent Irishman is here too, as everywhere, toiling successfully to gain a comfortable home for himself, and, with his sturdy arm and brave spirit, helping to build up the fortunes of the community in which he dwells. Some of the best farms and farming lands in the county are held by Irishmen. The native American element of the popu- lation may be counted of the best class; being mostly composed of original em- igrants from New York, Pennsylvania, and the different States of New Eng- land, or of the descendants of such.
"To judge of what Green Bay and.its adjuncts must become in the future, it will be necessary to go beyond their in- corporated limits, and take np the map of the Eastern, Northern, and Nortli- western States and Territories, and after carefully comparing certain geographical points, great common centres, the agri- cultural, lunbering, mineral, and other essential advantages, with the topogra- phy of the country, railroad connections (present and prospective), and interna- tional water-communications, - after comparing all these advantages with the natural advantages of other localities, it is by no means a very great hazard to predict that Green Bay and the adjacent towns named, will, before the close of the present century, be the largest town in the State of Wisconsin."
The advantages of Green Bay, Fort Howard, and De Pere, have been thus Bummed up :-
1st, It is two hundred miles nearer tide- water by water-course than Chicago.
2d, The Canada end of the North Pa-
Perry H. Smith and George L. Dunlap of Chicago, which secures its completion to the "Sioux," and from thence west- ward to East Canada, probably within two years. When this is done (as it inust and soon will be) Green Bay will be nearer New York by rail than Chi- cago is.
3d, Green Bay will be nearer Boston by rail thau Chicago is, by over two hundred miles.
4th, Green Bay will be nearer tide- water by rail than Chicago, by some three linndred miles.
5th, St. Paul, and all west and imme- diately south-west from that point, will be nearer New York, via Green Bay, by rail, than via Chicago, by over three hundred iniles.
6th, Madison and Milwaukee will be nearer New York, via Green Bay, by rail, than via Chicago.
7th, All towns on the Mississippi above Prairie du Chien, and all towns on the Missouri above Omaha, will reach New York by rail, via Green Bay, nearer and quicker than via Chicago.
8th, Passengers and freight from the Pacific coast, over the Central Pacific Road, may reach Boston two hundred ntiles nearer, via Green Bay, than via Chicago, and New York by about the same distance.
9th, Green Bay is becoming quite a railroad centre. Three roads (all com- peting) are now regularly running into that place. A few months will install the fourth; while two more are in prog- ress of construction, and still three others in contemplation; all of which, when completed, will give this great centre some nine roads.
10th, This is not only the best lumber region (including the range westward) in the world; but between this and the St. Croix, ranging north and south to the timber-limit, is a zone of some thirty thonsand square miles of hard and soft timber-forests, as good as the world pro- duces.
11th, Here (at De Pere) is a splendid water-power, capable of running three- score and ten mills, machine-shops, and manufactories. While lake boats may come within a stone's thirow of the cata- ract that pours over the dam, vessels di- rect from Liverpool may safely approach within sixty rods of this water-power.
12th, Iron ore, the best in the world, abounds on three sides of Green Bay, within easy distance, - enough to snp- ply the world with iron for centuries.
13th, The soil throughout the timbered zone, with the exception of here and there a sandy strip, is unsurpassed in fertility, and, being indigenous to the grasses, will yet rival Orange and Chau- tanqua Counties (New York) in the pro- duction of butter and cheese; while, for
661
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
most of the cereal productions, it has no | cities in the State. One of the impor- superlor, excepting corn.
14th, The Fox and East Rivers furnish over twenty miles of river-frontage, every rod of which might be used for dockyards.
15th, Green Bay is a land-locked liar- Sor, unsurpassed in security, extent, and convenience, by any in the world.
16th, From the above facts it must be apparent, that for manufacturing and commercial, for agricultural, mining, and lumbering facilities, Green Bay and environs has no peer in all the Great West, if, indeed, it has on this continent.
17th, The mineral and lumbering ma- terial are here all at hand. Power is here; and, when manufactured into wares and machinery, Nature has fur- nished the additional facility for trans- portatlon by an adequate water-course. What more, it may be asked, does Green Bay and her "partners" want? And yet one thing she lacketh, -capital. Give to Green Bay capital in adequate meed, and in ten years she would nmin- ber one hundred thousand inhabitants, and do more manufacturing than Chi- cago and Milwaukee combined.
Take, for instance, this "little town" of De Pere, which, two or three years ago, was nothing but a mere "way sta- tion," and now does a business of nearly five million dollars annually. Four blast- furnaces are now in successful opera- tion here, with an aggregate capacity of twelve hundred tons of pig metal per week. Then the car-shops turn ont somne twelve cars per week. The Bolles Fish Kit establishment turns out some six thousand kits per week. Besides there are numerous other establishments turning ont varions articles of manu- facture, all employing some thousand laborers and artisans. And yet the threshold of capacity of water-power and other facilities is scarcely reached.
Green Bay, the county-seat of Brown Connty, is one of the oldest settled places in the State, having been settled by the French at a very early period. The present site was platted in 1830, and was called Navarino; and in 1835 land adja- cent was platted, and called Astor. In 1839 both plats were incorporated under the name of Green Bay; in 1854 it was chartered as a city. It is located at the head of the bay which opens into Lake Michigan, and at the month of Fox River, and is one of the best harbors on the lake. The city is about a hun- dred miles from Milwaukee by the Mil- waukee and Northern Railroad, and a hundred and ninety-one by the said road from Chicago. Since the opening of the railroads, Green Bay has become a place of much business; and the facilities which it possesses of lake, railroad, and canal navigation, can but make it one of the most important commercial
tant improvements, erected In 1862, was the extensive elevator of . Ehnore and Kelley, sixty by a hundred and twenty- eight feet, with engine-room adjoining, and a hundred feet high, of solid plank walls, with a capacity of two hundred and . twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat; elevates from railroad and river for shipping. The same parties have docks extending to this structure eight hundred feet on the river. In 1860 the produce of Brown County was estimated at a hundred dollars; In 1870 it was over five million dollars. There are from forty to fifty mills in the country adja- cent, - linnber and shingle manufacto- ries, - which find a market at this point. Abont eighty million feet of humber are marketed here annually, and over two hundred million shingles, and six million staves. The city has four hotels, an elegant court-house, opera-house, Tur- ners' hall, nine churches, and four in Fort Howard across the river, five secret so- cietles, and a large number of mercantile establishunents and mechanical shops.
Population, 1875, 8,037, and Fort How- ard 3,610.
BUFFALO COUNTY.1-The general to- pography of the county is hilly, with rich valleys between. The soil is re- inarkably varied, especially in the north- east part. It is for the most part a light dark loam, common to black-oak open- ings; but it changes to the richest black soil, then to worthless sand, and again to clay. The perceptible causes are worthy of careful observation. There are about four hundred and sixty thou. sand acres in the county, and over 250,300 acres entered, estimated one hun- dred thousand improved: of the remain- der, two hundred thousand could be cultivated. Nearly two hundred thou- sand acres are owned by actual settlers, and are worth, on an average, eight dol- lars per acre.
Water-power is good, though but little improved, and offers encouraging oppor- tunities for the manufacturer, especially In the erection of woollen-mills. Tim- ber of all kinds prevails. Beds of clay for the manufacture of brick are found in many parts of the county ; and several parties are successfully engaged in mak- ing brick. Limestone for lime and building-purposes are of the cholcest. Chippewa River is the only navigable streamn in the county. Trout are abnn- dant in the large streams. A railroad from Eau Claire through the county is among the glowing anticipations of the people. The raising of all the principal cereals and stock is the most extensive pursuit. Our undeveloped condition
1 I am indebted to John De Graff and Nich- olas Phillippi of Alma for this sketch.
C. R. T.
662
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
calls for capital to turn our water-power | ment does not own an acre of land. The into untold wealth. Farmu-labor is al- ways in demand; and, during the spring and summer season, some three hundred men are employed on the Beef Slough booms. Wages average all the year round two dollars per day.
The three principal villages in the county are Alma, the county-seat, with a population of a thousand, three churches, a good graded school, several good saw-mills, and one grist-mill ; Fountain City, with a population of eleven hundred, three churches, one graded school, two saw-mills, one grist- mill, a foundery and a plane-shop; and Mandovi, in the northern part of the conuty, with a population of about a thousand, four churches, a good graded school, a flouring-mill, and a foundery. The condition of the common schools throughout the county is good, the schoolhouses mostly of frame, but or- dinarily in fair condition.
BURNETTE COUNTY. - This county is located upon the St. Croix River. It is timbered with pine and hard wood; has an area of about a million acres, of which seventy-three thousand acres are State lands, and a large proportion Gov- ernment lands, which are rapidly being taken up for the valuable timber upon them. There are grants of land by the United States Government to aid in building several lines of railroads that pass through this county, which, when completed, will, with the St. Croix and its tributaries, give ity settlers ample facilities for getting their lumber and agricultural products to market. It is settled mostly by Norwegians; and, by their known industry, they will make it one of the best agricultural counties in the State.
Railroad is located through the centre of the county, and will, when built, open up a large and valuable tract of agricultural, mineral, and timbered lands.
CALUMET COUNTY. - This county contains an area of about two hundred thousand acres, and is one of the small- est counties of the State. The popula- tion of the county, according to the cen- sns of 1870, is 12,334. There are seventy- five thousand acres of improved land, the average price of which is abont twenty-five dollars per acre. The unim- proved land, consisting of one hundred and thirty thousand acres, ranges from three to twelve dollars per acre. Nearly the whole lands are capable of cultiva- tion. The south half of the county is gently rolling; the north being more fevel, and, in places, swampy. The swamp-lands are generally owned by commissioners, and have no appreciable valne. We believe the General Goveru- | Falls, for this sketch. - C. R. T.
Fox River Improvement Company owns a small tract of land in the western part of the county. The facilities for water- power are about average. Timber is prin- cipally of hard wood. Marble is found in the south-east part of the county; also valuable stone quarries and brick- yards in number on the west side. Sev- eral small streams run through the county, the largest being the Manito- woc; none navigable. Nevertheless, Lake Winnebago, lying on the west, gives ample facilities for shipping and market privileges.
Calumet County contains the finest oak-timber in Wisconsin; and, with the newly-acquired railroad facilities, this is going to prove of great value to the county. Here are great inducements to men of capital, who would desire to go into the manufacture of wagon or car- riage material, or other things for which hard wood is used. Bass-wood is also quite abundant.
Chilton is the county-seat; is located on the Milwaukee and Northern Rail- way, and has twelve hundred inhabit- ants. New Holstein has ten hundred inhabitants; Stockbridge, six hundred; Hayton, four hundred; Gravesville, six hundred; and Sherwood, one hundred and fifty.
The population consists of about one- half German, one-quarter Irish, and one- quarter Americans.
Homesteads are still quite plenty The proposed St. Croix and Superior ! Prairie du Chien. Times are changed.
CHIPPEWA COUNTY.1 - Twenty-five years ago, when the pioneers of this county entered its forests for the sole purpose of lumbering, they supposed that pine-lands would only produce pine- trees; and, consequently, they brought their flour, pork, corn, beans, potatoes, and, in fact, all the necessaries of life, up the Mississippi, in keel-boats, fromn Now the county produces both winter and spring wheat, -twenty bushels per acre, -which sells in Milwaukee for No. 1. Our oats are No. 1; average crop, forty bushels to the acre. Barley and rye grow equally as well. Hay grows wild in great abundance, and yields two tons to the acre. They also raise first quality of Timothy hay, two tons to the acre. As for potatoes, the world cannot surpass them in quantity or quality : the average crop is two hundred bushels per acre. Almost all kinds of wild fruits grow in abundance. Quite a large number of apple-trees and fruits have been set out the past few years; and, as apples do well fifteen miles southi, we hope soon to raise fruit in abundance.
The stock of the county is of good average quality, but is mostly brought
1 We are indebted to L. C. Stanley, William Richardson, and D. W. Campbell of Chippewa
-
663
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
from Southern Wisconsin, Illinois, and | three hundred thousand feet to two Iowa. The pineries make a great de- million seven hundred thousand feet. It is then sold to go down the river, at an average price of fourteen dollars per thousand, by the raft, -a clear gain to mill-men of four dollars per thousand feet. The process is repeated every year; and the result has been, that most of the Itinber-men have accumulated large wealth. mand for horses and working-cattle. Wild land can be bought for from three to ten dollars per acre. Twenty miles from the county-seat, or froin the West Wisconsin Railroad, good land can be bought at government price. Improved lands are held at ten to twenty dollars per acre. The soil of the heavy, hard- wood timber-land is what istermed clay soil; that of the prairies is a rich, black, sandy loam. The people settled in this Connty are from every nation; and the door stands open to all.
In the northern part of the county, copper, silver, and lead ores have been found, but not in paying quantities. There is plenty of sandstone and granite for building-purposes.
Lumbering is the specialty of the county, in the way of manufactures. According to the lumber inspector's re- port, 43,316,419 feet of luinber, 20,000,000 feet of lath, and 18,000,000 shingles were manufactured in 1870. There are 1,580,- 480 acres of pine-lands in the county, which, at the present rate of consump- tion, - 200,000,000 feet per year, - will last fifty years. A large portion of our pine-lands have oak, maple, and ash tiin- ber scattered through them. Chippewa Falls, with a population of five thou- sand, situated at the head of steamboat navigation on the Chippewa River, is the base of operations in the lumber-region. It has the best water-power in the world, and one of the largest saw-mills in the United States ruu by water; ca- pacity, thirty-five million feet per sea- son. For twenty miles up the river, saw-mills of a capacity of from one to fifteen million feet occur frequently. Over two hundred million feet of saw- logs are cut and put into the river each season. This requires two thousand men, and horses and cattle in propor- tion. To supply this force furnishes our farmers a good market for all they can raise. Above Chippewa Falls is a reservoir large enough to stop and hold all the logs that are cut in the winter season. The logs are held secure until the ice melts ; then they are assorted, and turned out as fast as required. Each owner, having his own mark, can get his own logs. The logs are run over the falls, and into the several booms along the river, and as far as the mouth of the Chippewa, where they are rafted, and sold down the Missis- sippi.
When the lumber is sawed at the mills, it is rafted in cribs sixteen by thirty-two feet, coupled up to make rafts containing a hundred thousand feet. It is then run down the river, by skilled pilots and hardy raftsmen, to Read's Landing, on the Mississippi River, there coupled up in rafts from
Much of the land is indifferent; but there is also much that is good, covered with hard-wood timber. This land will soon become valuable to settlers, as there are good railroad facilities. The home markets are also very excellent on account of the pineries; and the far- mer can sell his products, of all kinds, at much higher prices than those prod- nets will bring in Milwaukee or Chi- cago. The West Wisconsin, Wisconsin Central, and St. Croix and Superior Railroad Companies own large tracts of land in this county, which they offer to actual settlers at reasonable prices. The water-power in this county is enormous, and is only improved in and around Chippewa Falls. The Chippewa River is navigable to Chippewa Falls; and there are almost countless smaller streams and lakes where fish of all kinds abound. Game is also plenty; such as deer, bear, wolf, and many smaller fur-bearing animals. The pop- ulation and wealth of the county are rapidly increasing.
Chippewa Falls. - This city is situat- ed on the west bank of the Chippewa River, on a succession of low hills, rising gradually backward from the river. It is twelve miles north of the West Wis- consin Railroad, connected with Eau Claire by the Chippewa Valley Railroad, which has recently been completed. It is noted for the immense water-power it possesses; there being a fall of some twenty-six feet in three-fourths of a mile over a rocky bottom; also for being the heart of the valuable lumber- business of Chippewa Valley. The county has an area of 2,580,480 acres, 1,580,480 of which is heavily timbered with pine, oak, and maple. Duncan Creek runs through the city, and fur- nishes several fine water-powers, among which are the flouring-mills, which pro- (Ince one of the best brands of flour in the State. The city has two hotels, the Union Lumber Company's store, and the First National Bank building. The Union Luunber Company is by far the largest business-firm in the city. Of the mill of this company, an account has been given in the chapter on lumber- ing in Wisconsin. There are Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist churches. The Catholic church-edifice was erected in 1872, at the cost of forty thousand dollars.
Population, 1875, 5,050.
664
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
CLARK COUNTY.1-This is one of the | road communications are good, no point in the county more than twelve miles from a line of road; and more roads are in prospect. Agriculture is the active pursuit; and the growing interest taken by farmers leads us to believe that it is in a prosperous condition. Manufac- turing is not carried on to that extent that it might be: with the unsurpassed facilities of water-power, it should rank among the first in manufactured goods in the State.
largest counties in the State. It is well watered by the Black and Ean Claire Rivers and their tributaries, and by some of the tributaries of the Chippewa River. Lumbering has been the principal busi- ness of the people of this county until within the last five years: now quite a large number are engaged in farming. There is a large amount of excellent farming-land in the southern and east- ern portions of the county, mostly heav- ily timbered. The county is but thinly settled, but is rapidly filling up with an industrious class of men, who are not afraid of the hard work that is inevita- ble where farms are cleared up in a heavily-timbered country. The greater portion of the settlers are from the East- ern and Middle States, with a few Ger- mans, English, Scotch, and Canadians. Many improvements have been made within the past five years. Roads have been opened in every direction; s. hool- houses have been built; villages laid ont and settled. A railroad has been built, running through the south-western part of the county, with a station at Hum- bird, sixteen miles from Neillsville, the county-seat. Other roads and improve- ments are in contemplation, which promise to add much to the prosperity of the county. Neillsville is a flourish- ing town.
COLUMBIA COUNTY.2-Columbia Coun- ty is one of the inland counties of the State. The general surface of the coun. ty is level, yet not flat, but sufficiently rolling to afford ample drainage. The general quality of the soil is good. The county contains 492,500 acres of land, abont two-thirds uuder cultivation, including improved swamp-lands. Near- ly one-third of the balance is capa- ble of being worked. In the possession of actual settlers is 485,580 acres. Aver- age price, as assessed, $12.83.
The facilities for water-power are good, but only partially improved. The prin- cipal timber is oak, maple, basswood, and elm. Stone quarries, lime, and sand- stone are found, but only worked for local use. A cream brick is manufac- tured at Portage, which commands the highest price of any put into market. Wisconsin and Fox Rvers are the only navigable streams running through the county. This county has several lakes, of which Lake George and Wissahicon are the largest, except Swamp Lake, which covers about seven hundred acres. There is not an abundance of game : prairie-chicken and duck are about all that now remains. The rail-
1 I am indebted for this sketch to Hon. G. W. King of Humbird .- C. R. T.
" The materials for this sketch were fur- nished by Thomas Yule, P. Pool, and O. A. Southmayd. - C. R. T.
Leather is manufactured to some ex- tent at Portage, and some other points in the county. There are a few wagon- shops, where all kinds of wagons and carriages are made. At Cambria, there is a woollen-factory of considerable im- portance.
The great geographical feature of the county, that which will be eventually of more benefit than any thing else, is the peculiar position of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to each other, that makes possible a ship canal to unite the waters of Lake Michigan and the Mis- sissippi River. At "The Portage," a name given by the early French voy- agers, where now stands the city of Portage, they approach so near togeth- er, that, in high water, the waters of the Wisconsin are wont to flow across the intervening flats into the Fox. Boats of considerable draught had floated across from time to time, before any canal was dug. Several years ago, a canal about two miles long was dug, with a lock at the Wisconsin River, and another at the Fox (which, at that point, is some six feet lower than the Wisconsin), and the channel of the Fox dredged in places, and somewhat straightened; and a successful naviga- tion from Green Bay was commenced. A considerable amount of business has for years been done through this chan- nel.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.