Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families, Part 69

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 938


USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 69
USA > Wisconsin > La Crosse County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 69
USA > Wisconsin > Trempealeau County > Biographical history of La Crosse, Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties, Wisconsin : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each; engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 69


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where we fared sumptuously. I never was


adjoining Mr. Cameron's on the south, now so glad to get to a place as I was that night. , known as Straddars & Levy's addition, built The next morning we resumed our journey, a house and traded with the Indians, and had and got to La Crosse in three or four days, | a small piece of land under cultivation. This arriving there on the 2d day of April, 1843. On the 4th we started on the iee for Prairie du Chien, for the purpose of purchasing more goods; and after we got down four or


year we broke up some land baek near the bluffs, where the Miller farm now is, and also down near the south end of the prairie, and got out rails from the islands and bottom five miles I became snow-blind, which was | lands to fence the land; coru, barley and very painful, and returned home, but the wheat were planted, which was the first farm- ing done in what is now La Crosse county. Two or three years after, when a mill was built at Prairie du Chien, the only means of getting wheat manufactured into flour was by taking it to Prairie du Chien on the ice, and I remember hauling it there and return- ing with flour, ninety miles over the ice. Dr. Snangh, or "Duteh Doc." made a claim on what is now known as the State Road Cooley, and farmed it some, and years after- ward sold the land to J. C. Ramsey, of St. Paul. teams were sent down and returned with loads of goods on the ice. That winter was the coldest I have ever experienced in this country: the ice did not go out of Lake Pepin until the first days of May. I think it was in the winter of 1843-'44, Mr. Philip Jacobs had a trading eabin up Black River Lake, near where Onalaska is now situated. One day the Indians came into his cabin and scared him or drove him ont; he came down to my place and told his story, and wanted some assistance. I returned with him on foot on the ice; when we arrived at his cabin


In 1843 I made a visit home, to fulfill a we found it in possession of a big strapping promise I had made some three years before, Indian, who was deaf and dumb; nothing | and to purchase goods in New York. I went had been taken or disturbed. The Indian | by steamer to St. Louis, and thence to Cairo finally made us understand that he would go to the Indian camps which were on the islands above, and get some Indians and re- turn and take possession of the cabin or burn it. I gave him to understand that we would defend it; he went away; 1 remained there all night, and no Indians came. The next morning I returned home. In this way we wonld expose ourselves sometimes in protect- ing each other, even though we were trading in opposition to each other.


and up the Ohio river to Pittsburg, and took the stage at the Monongahela Hotel and traveled over the Alleghany mountains to Cumberland, and thence by rail to Baltimore, and by rail and steamboat to New York city, up the Hudson river to Albany, and by rail to Saratoga Springs, where I stopped for three or four days, not feeling very well, and by steamer from Whitehall to Westport. my former home. My people were very glad to see me, as well as I was them; and I recollect that my mother (God bless her memory!) asked me if I had come home to remain, and I replied that I was glad to come and see them, but would not remain if the whole of Essex county was given to me. In


In 1843 Dr. Snaugh, or "Dutch Doctor" as we called him, came up and built near Jay street and traded with the Indians. Asa White came and worked for Mr. Cameron that fall and winter, and boarded with us part of the time. Mr. White made a claim La few days I was taken sick, and was confined


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to my bed for three weeks or more. Soon mained in the hall near the door till I came out. I asked her if she found some money under the pillow, and she said she did, and took it to the office and gave it to the clerk. I hurried to the office and asked the clerk if anything had been given him by the chamber- maid from such a room, and he said there had, and 1 described it and my money was returned. No one can imagine the relief it gave me to get possession of it again. I went upstairs and gave the maid 85, and have always been sorry that I did not give her more, as she deserved it for her honesty. after I recovered I went to New York to pur- chase some goods for the Indian trade. My father, and two or three of his business friends, accompanied me, he having some business there, wanting to form a company to put an opposition steamer on Lake Cham- plain. and to see what kind of goods I pur- chased for the Indian trade. We went by steamboat to Whitehall, packet boat on canal and steamboat to New York, and we stopped at the Lovejoy House, across from the park and opposite the Astor Honse, Mr. Lovejoy having once kept a hotel or store in Westport, We went back to the store, paid for the wedding dress, and completed my purchases and made arrangements for future purchases. but was burned out and moved to New York. The next day I hunted up stores that kept Indian goods, and found only two of them. | Terms were one-fourth cash, and the balanec Grant & Barton and Syrdam, Doramus & Nixon.


At this place something occurred which might be of interest to the reader. While selecting goods (my father was with me) I saw a piece of light-colored fancy silk, which I thought would make a nice wedding-dress, and expecting it to be put to use very soon told the clerk to ent me off a pattern, which he did, and that I wished to pay for it and not have it put on the bill with the other goods, put my hand in my pocket for the ' the largest affair of the kind that had ever money to pay for it, and to my great astou- been given at Westport. About the last of September I was ready to start on my return trip West. My money had given ont and I with my father's endorsement. Our parents on both sides had given us some household goods, which were packed in boxes, and we took them along with us. We shipped on a fast freight boat, which was towed by steamer to Whitehall, and to Troy by eanal, stopped and took on board the goods which I had purchased in New York, and thence to Buffalo, arriving there in a week or ten days. We ishment there was no money or pocket-book there. 1 then remembered that I had put my money under my pillow the night before ' went to General IInnter and borrowed 8500 and had left it there. I told my father about it and asked him to go with me to the hotel. he being acquainted with the landlord, to see if we eonld find the money. He said there was not one chance in 100 that I would find it. However, we went up to the hotel, and direct to our room. As we en- tered the room the chambermaid came out; father stood at the door while I went in and examined the room; the chambermaid re- | took passage on a steamer for Chicago,


in six and eight months' time, note payable at bank, with my father's endorsement. The goods were shipped to Troy and stored there until I went West in October. We went home and on the 17th of Angust I was married to Miss Rebecca E. Ismon, at Charlotte, Vermont. Soon after our arrival at my father's house, he gave us a second-day wedding, and invited his acquaintances and friends from the entire county. Ile was so well known and had such a number of acquaintances that it was


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with our goods all on board, arriving in Chi- built on an addition or "L" part, 12 x 16, cago in due time. We had with us on this making a kitchen, bedroom and pantry. which gave us considerable more room. We also built on the north end of the house an addition, with a stone chimney and fireplace. called the "Indian room," where they could cock their food and sleep, when coming in from their hunts. We opened our new stock of goods, and when the Indians returned from the payment of their annuities at Tur- key river we had a good trade. Just before the river closed with ice, we sent what fall furs we had taken in to the American Fur Company at Prairie du Chien, and in Decet- ber I made my second trip to Prairie du Chien on the Indian trail under the bluff's, but on horseback this time, as we were now the owners of two or three horses. My objeet in going was to provide for the payment of my note given in New York. I had almost $1,000 in silver in saddle-bags on the horse under me, which made a pretty good load for the horse I was riding. Nothing occurred of any consequence until I came to the creek about ten miles north of Prairie du Chien, a little after dark. The weather was cold; in crossing the creek the saddle-girth broke, and let my saddle, money and myself into the creek. I fished around and got the money and saddle out on the other side, put trip a young lady by the name of Louisa Pearson, who wished to visit some friends in Illinois. I told her that I would pay all of her expenses if she would go through with ns and spend the winter, and visit her friends in the spring. This she did, and was eom- pany for Mrs. Myrick the first winter at La Crosse. There were no railroads at that time running out of Chicago, but there were stages running to Galena, where we wanted to go; but I wanted to make sure of getting the goods aeross to Galena, on the Mississippi river. I finally hired three or four schooner wagons and loaded them up, one of which was loaded lightly, and on which we took passage. The roads were not in the best of order, and our progress was pretty slow, and when we got to Rockford we abandoned the wagon and took the stage for Galena. In three or four days the teams got through with our goods. Our trip was a slow one, but on the whole pleasant, and we enjoyed ourselves very well. We had to remain in Galena eight days waiting for a steamboat to go to La Crosse, and finally arrived there with our goods, being almost four weeks making the journey. We were made welcome on our arrival by the few who were there, and the women were almost a curiosity, and they were : the saddle on the horse and saddle-bags across. the first white women who settled in the embryo now flourishing eity of La Crosse. The news went far and near among the Indians that the tall trader, "Wonk-se-reck." as that was my name among the Indians, had returned with two white women, one his wife, and they came flocking in to greet us, and see the curiosities, "white women."


We passed the winter quite com- fortably in our house, although somewhat crowded for room, one end of the building being occupied as a store. In the spring We 37


and walked the balance of the way into town. iny clothes being frozen stiff. I got in about eight o'clock, tired. wet and hungry. The next day I went on to the American Fur Company's store, in charge of Il. L. Dows- man. I sold the furs which were sent down to him from La Crosse, and gave him the money I had, and he sent to St. Louis and ordered a draft sent to my father of the amount sufficient to take up my notes that my father had endorsed. There were no steamboats running at that time, and no rail-


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road, and mails were carried by stages, and it took nearly six weeks to get the draft aronnd where I wanted it. This was the only way that I could remit at that time, there being no banks at Prairie du Chien. This was the first remittance made for goods purchased for La Crosse. On my return trip to La Crosse I went part of the way on the ice; I recollect following up a trail on a slough, which ended in a round pocket about fifteen or twenty feet across it, and when reaching it my horse broke through the iee and I had all I could do to keep from being pawed under. I finally succeeded in getting out, and also the horse. It was only a few rods to the main channel of the river, which was frozen, and I got my horse upon it, and walked about three miles after dark without a road or track to a house near the foot of Coon slough. My clothes were soon frozen. I met there General Stewart, paymaster of the army, who was returning from Fort Snelling, where he had been to pay the troops. The next day I arrived at La Crosse, and glad to get home.


We had men cutting steamboat wood on the bottom and islands about two miles above La Crosse, the most of which I hauled with one horse, crossing at the foot of Black River Lake, and coming down the slough and over La Crosse river, and banked it on the steam- boat landing, which met with ready sale to steamboats the next summer. The summer while I was East, Miller built an old fashioned barn, 30 x 40 feet, about where the Cameron LIonse now stands, and also a warehouse, sit- nated on the corner of Front and State streets, where the Bellview Hlouse now is, and a blacksmith shop on Front. between State and Main streets. These were about all the im- provements made in 1843.


In 1842 or 1543, quite a colony of Mor- mons came up from Nauvoo, in charge of


Miller and Wight, who rented Mr. Spaulding's sawmill at Black River Falls to get out lum- ber to use at Nauvoo. They got short of pro- visions and goods, and we furnished them with what they wanted during the winter, and took our pay in sawed lumber, to be de- livered at La Crosse in the spring. The lumber was delivered as per agreement, all rafted. Jacob Spaulding got a raft of Inm- ber out at the same time, and we coupled our rafts together and ran it to St. Louis, which was the first raft of lumber ever run from La Crosse or Black river to St. Louis. The river was high and we made a very quick trip, tying up to the shore only three or four times all the way down to St. Louis. We had a good deal of trouble in landing our rafts below the steamboats where we wanted to haul the lumber ont, the water being so high and eurrent so swift. We however sue- eeeded, Ifauled our lumber out, and by the time we got the last lumber ont the first taken ont was afloat, the river rising so fast. We went to work and put the lumber on higher ground, handling it all over twice, and then it had to be moved the third time, and could not be sold as long as the river was rising so fast. I went np into the city and rented two lots, and got teams and hauled all the lumber upon them, and then began to sell the lumber. Mr. Spaulding was taken sick, and I attended to selling his lumber also. I worked in the water up to my waist nearly two weeks. It was said that the river had never been so high before or since. It is known as the high water of 1844. After our lumber was sold and supplies and goods purchased, we chartered the steamboat Potosi to bring our supplies and men to La Crosse, and she returned from there. The Mormons who were located at Black River Falls rafted up their lumber and went to Nauvoo in the suinmer. In October of that year quite a


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colony of Mormons came up from Nauvoo and landed at La Crosse, and camped there several days, and finally settled in what is now called Mormon Cooley, some four or five miles south of La Crosse. They built twenty- five or thirty log houses and made themselves qnite comfortable. We hired quite a number of the men, some entting cordwood and get- ting ont rails on the islands, and some of them were sent up the Black river to make shingles. The pay was drawn by the elders in provisions to support the families in the settlement. Just as the river opened in the spring, the men all came down from Black river, and the men stopped cutting cord wood, and they had just at that time completed a flat or wood-boat for us. In the meantime they had built some flat-boats down on the slough hear the settlement. News got out that they were all going to leave. I went down to the settlement to see the elders and adjust matters. They came up to the store and I got a settlement by taking some oxen and horses for the amount they owed us. That night they set fire to most of their houses and embarked in their flat-boats, and left by the light of their burning houses for Nauvoo.


Jacob Spaulding went to Black River Falls in 1839 and built a sawmill, in partner- ship with Andrew Wood, I think, of Quiney, Illinois. Horatio Curts, from Nauvoo, came up in 1841, and went up Black river. Jona- than Nichols and family, James O'Neil, H. McCollom and some others went up Black river in 1842. John Morrison, William and John Levis, Andrew Shepard, Vallantine Thomas and William Douglas arrived and went up Black river in 1543, and engaged in the lumber business. In 1844 Thomas and Peter HIall arrived, also William Pauley and Andrew Ferguson; they all went up Black river. In the spring of 1844 Miss Pearson


went to Illinois to see her friends, and in the fall Mr. Miller, my partner. went down and married her, and returned to La Crosse. We put up another addition to our house-a bedroom -for their accommodation.


Lafayette Bunnell arrived in 1843 or '44, and made a claim adjoining Asa White on the south, and made a field and put in crops. which claim I afterwards purchased of him. Dr. Bunnell and family, consisting of wife and two danghters, one a widow lady and the other single, and a young son, arrived from Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Bunnell was the first physician who settled in La Crosse. Shortly after their arrival the eldest daughter told me that we would have a railroad at La Crosse, either from Milwaukee or Green Bay. She was the first person that I ever heard speak . ing of a railroad coming to La Crosse. Her prophecy more than came to pass, for La Crosse lias a railroad both from Milwaukee and Green Bay. If I remember correctly, the family all died at La Crosse, with the ex- eeption of Lafayette, who now lives at Ilomer, Minnesota, and is known as Dr. Bunnell. Newell Houghton came to La Crosse this year and made his headquarters at Asa White's: he was a great hunter, and was killed at New Ulm, Minnesota, while defend- ing the city during the time of the great massacre by the Sioux Indians in 1562.


Jolin and Charles Naigle came to La Crosse this year, and worked for us, getting out rails and cord wood more or less for two years. They made a claim south of the State Road Cooley, and made a farm, and I think it has been occupied by some member of the family ever since. The Naigles used to ent oak logs on top of the bluffs, roll them down and split them up into rails, which were used to fence in their land and mine at the south end of the prairie.


In 1844 or '45 a Swiss or French colony


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eame over from the old country and landed at La Crosse, camping on the banks of the river below Pearl street for some time. It was quite a siekly season. and some of them died; one or two families settled under the bluffs and the others left, some going up the river to the St. Croix country, and others re turned South or East. If I remember cor- rectly, Charles Naigle married the widow of one of the Swiss families who had settled under the bluffs.


In 1843 I was appointed Postmaster, under President Tyler's administration, and it was at my suggestion to the Postmaster- General that the "Prairie" be left off and the office be called La Crosse, which was adopted. I resigned the office in 1845 or '46 in favor of. and recommended, the late Major E. A. C. Hatch, who was elerking for me, and he was appointed; when he left La Crosse, in 1848, he resigned in favor of II. I. B. Miller, who held the office until Henry lubbel was ap- pointed in 1851 or '52. if I remember cor- reetly. In 1841, and for some prior years, and for several years after, the mail was ear- ried to Fort Snelling onee in two weeks,-in the summer in a canoe, and in the winter by dog-train, and occasionally by a one-horse train. The man leaving with the mail at Prairie dn Chien would take it as far as Lake Pepin, and another mail-carrier would meet him and exchange mail, and both would re- turn to their starting-place.


In those years the postage on letters was | Seales, of Galena, and also elerk of the steam- 64. 123, 182 and 25 cents, according to dis- tance, and letters could be sent withont pre- paying the postage, and postmasters conld receive and send their mail tree as part con- sideration for their services. While I was performing the duties of the office, my free postage was worth more to me than my com- missions, as the most of my letters were 25-cent letter postage. The work of the post- The boat met with a serious accident on


office was much more laborious and compli- cated than it is now: then we had to mark the postage on each letter according to dis- tance, enter every letter on a way-bill, with the amount of postage paid and unpaid footed up in columns, and a way-bill on every pack- age, and a record of every way-bill had to be kept in a book made for that purpose, and to make quarterly returns from. From La Crosse, packages going East had to be sent to Chicago, to the distributing office, and those South to St. Louis. Now a postage stamp must be put on every letter before putting it in the office, the letters connted and the date stamped on them, and ean then be put into the mail-bag and sent off.


As I said before, the steamboat Rock River was the first steamboat that commenced run- ning regularly from Galena in 1842, and was the only regular boat for that year, although there were three or four transient ones on Government business. In 1843 the steam- boat Otter was put in the trade from Galena to Fort Snelling, commanded by Scribe Har- ris. In 1844 the Argo was put in the same trade, under Captain Sedgwick, and Captain Blakely was elerk, and in later years became captain and commanded some of the best boats on the Upper Mississippi river.


In 1845 II. L. Dowsman had a boat built and named it the Lynx, and I think was com- manded by Captain Hooper, who was once a member of the firm of Hooper, Peck & boat Otter. Mr. Hooper afterwards started for California, in 1848 or '49, during the gold excitement; he got as far as Salt Lake City, where he remained and joined the Mormons; he became a prominent banker, and was afterwards elected delegate to Congress. I have met him sinee several times in Wash- ington.


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the return of the first trip. The night was very dark, and while passing Wabashaw vil- lage, now called Winona, the pilot saw an opening up the valley near the lower end of the prairie, and, taking it for the river, steered the boat for the opening and ran with full speed on the lower point of the prairie, with but little water on it; she ran elear out of the water nearly to her 'midships, and they had to take everything off the boat; a low- river boat came up and tried nearly a whole day to pull her off, but had to give it up. They still continued to lighten the boat. Finally another boat more powerful than the other came along and hitched on to her, and succeeded in pulling the boat off; she was detained there over a week before she was liberated. Afterward the Dr. Franklin, the Senator and the Yankee Nominee, occasional transient boats, would make trips from Pitts- burg or St. Louis. The names of those transient steamboats were: Amaranth, Ohio, General Brooks, Highland Mary, and some others, whose names I do not now remember.


In the spring of 1844, after selling our furs to II. L. Dowsman, he said he would like to furnish us goods, as Mr. Labath, whom he had supplied with goods and traded about four miles below La Crosse, opposite the month of Root river, and whose contract of five years had expired, and said Mr. Labath ! told him that he did not want to trade there any longer, as that tall trader could sell goods cheaper than he could. I replied that I had made satisfactory arrangements for goods in New York. Mr. Dowsman said to me that I could look at their invoices, and he would furnish imported or sterling goods at seventy-two per cent. from original cost or invoice price, New York goods at thirty per cent .. and St. Louis goods at fifteen per cent., and could return all goods unsokl, and would furnish ns money whenever wo | ing what might happen, I thought it best to


wanted it, and would not sell goods to any one else near by. After thinking the matter all over we concluded it was best to accept the proposition, and did so. We got our sterling Indian goods mostly imported of Mr. Dowsman, so long as he was in charge of the American Fur Company, and when he sold out in 1846 to II. M. Rice and Gokie Bris- bois, purchased goods from them under the same arrangements until 1848, when the Indians were removed to Long Prairie. Min- nesota, and the American Fur Establishment was abandoned at Prairie du Chien.


In the year 1845-'46 H. L. Dowsman and a inan living out in the country some ten miles, whose name I cannot recall to memory, and myself were nominated for County Com- missioners for Crawford county on one ticket, and three others on an opposition tieket; our tieket was elected, and I served as one of the County Commissioners until I went to Min- nesota in 1848. I had to go to Prairie du Chien whenever the County Commissioners met. Crawford county was then a very large I county; it commenced at the mouth of the Wisconsin river and ran up North and in- elnded all the country through to Lake Superior, and, if I remember correctly. sev- eral counties have been organized out of it since and are well populated. The Govern- ment surveyed the lands in 1845 or 1846. but they were not put in the market until January, 1545. I supposed that we had the right to pre-empt the lands, but we had not complied with the pre-emption laws, which I think were passed in 1541; consequently we had to take our chances in bidding in our land. When the land was advertised for sale on the 17th of January, 1848, at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, Peter Cameron, Asa White, Dr. Snaugh, J. M. Levy and myself went there to secure title to our lands. Not know .




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