USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 38
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
feet to the weather. The first manufacturing industry in Neenah besides the Government mills was the first woolen mill in the county, set up in 1847 by Daniel Priest, which he ran for sev- eral years, then moving to Menasha, where his industry finally became the Menasha woolen mills, which, very much enlarged, are still in operation. The poll list for the town of Neenah in 1849 shows 191 names, and the tax levy for that year was $60 for general funds and $20 poor fund.
The city of Neenah, originated by its water power, was in- tended at the beginning for a manufacturing place. Its dam was constructed to raise a head of water for the double purpose of power and navigation. The steamboat will never pass its locks again; but its mills will run by water power perhaps forever. The extent of its manufacturing was long ago limited by the use of all its power, and steam was long ago added to supplement the water. In the pioneer days the water rushing down its broad river seemed inexhaustible, but the extensive enterprise of its people soon made use of all the power in the river and then sought other powers on which to build down the river and far away on other streams.
When one looks back into the manufacturing activities of the past there are three great industries that stand out beyond all others-lumber, flour and paper making. The saw mill flourished in its day and long ago passed on to the fleeting timber line to the north. The flour mill has only one representative where one day it led all its neighbors. The paper industry, originating here, has spread to other parts and developed into one of the great manufacturing enterprises of the state.
The first mill built in Neenah was a sawmill, the first in the county and the first on the Fox and Wolf river, that afterward gave up its wealth of timber to the relentless mills of Oshkosh, where wealth undreamed was cut out of pine timber and still is cut in millions and billions of feet. This little mill with its big wide-blade saw jogged up and down through the log and cut off slabs and plank too slow for anyone but the pioneer. The old wood water wheel that jogged the mill along was made by the wheelwright and the lumber was all hauled by hand, though the logs may have been snaked into the mill with a chain on a power shaft. When C'ol. Harvey Jones came to own the village the old mill, which had done little else but rot down, was so much out of repair he set men to work at once to rebuild and reconstruct it into a new mill. Mr. Charles Lindsley was a partner with him
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PIONEERING IN THE OLDEN DAYS.
in the mill in 1848, but before the mill was finished Mr. Jones purchased his interest. Mr. Robert Hold, in company with Wil- liam L. Lindsley, having purchased it in 1850, conducted it for two years as a lath mill and furniture factory. Then Mr. Hold, as sole proprietor, continued the business up to 1864, when it was purchased and torn down to give place to the Neenah Paper Mill, the first of this industry in the city. The first new building on the water power was erected on the upper end of the canal bank near the abutment of the dam by Mr. Lucius A. Donaldson and John B. Lagest, in which they made sash and doors and ran a planing mill. Mr. S. R. Kellogg came in the spring of 1848, and having gone for his family, came back in August, bringing with him Mr. Benjamin Simmons. They owned machinery for making bedsteads and chairs, which was installed in the Lagest factory, the parties all joining their interests. Very soon Mr. Daniel Priest moved his carding machinery from another build- ing into this building. This building was afterward converted into the Empire flour mill by Cronkhite, Burdict & Co. After having several owners it was torn down in 1874 to give place to the Patton Paper Mill.
Mr. Henry Sherry, who operated mills in Neenah but whose sawmill and lumber operations was extended into all the logging districts of the state, was born in Monroe county, New York, August 3, 1837, moved with his parents to Neenah in 1849, where he was first a merchant, then became interested in mills. IIe owned the sawmill burned in 1874. He annually had cut on his lands 25,000,000 feet of logs and was one of the very largest operators in logs, timber, lands and lumbering in the state.
In July, 1871, Mr. J. R. Davis and sons made tight barrel staves, making 6,000 staves daily on a Bishop patent stave machine. Henry Sherry was reported by the local press in 1871 to have cut 2,500,000 feet of lumber in his sawmill, and J. H. Hungerford & Co. to cut 75,000 shingle each day. In November, 1871, the local press mentions a partnership composed of J. H. Sanford, S. J. Maxwell and W. L. Maxwell, operating as J. A. Sanford & Co., a sash factory in the red mill near the shingle mill. These enterprises have all passed away. Henry C. Tait was a tailor in Neenah in December, 1854, and had the first sew- ing machine in town, "Which is worth paying it a visit," says the "Advocate."
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XXX.
THE LOCK, THE CANAL AND THE DAM.
The lock down there at the bank of the Little Lake Butte des Morts, once the glad hope of the village, lays rotted away, dug out, filled up and covered over with great brick paper mills. Way back there in those days of the beginnings it was the center of the most intense interest, the ambition of the town, and its proprietors hung their life on its building. The enterprise absorbed every activity of the town. Men saw wealth flow in with its completion. It unlocked the river. It was the way to the outer world. It would be the making of the town. It was a cheap thing at best, yet with all the things of pleasure that have come to the good people of Neenah in after years there was no pleasure that thrilled them like the making of the old lock. Every shovelful of earth thrown out in its making was sacred. It filled the gossip of the country side in the long ago. It was only a deep hole in the ground, walled up with framed timbers and planked sides and bottom. There were great double gates at either end. When the gladsome day came that the two lower gates swung open and the brand new "Van Ness Barlow" was pushed into the great walled hole in the ground and then the gates were closed and the big lock began to fill up like a great tub, and the boat rose on the bosom of the flood until it stood upon a level of Lake Winnebago, ten feet above Little Lake Butte des Morts, then the upper gates opened and the boat pushed out into the old Government canal, made wider and deeper by the enterprise of Col. Harvey Jones, the great act was accomplished and the whole village watched with tingling thrills of delight. Their lock was completed and passed boats long before the lock at Menasha was completed. That was enough of glory, besides the trade in boating that now opened up in the throb of commerce.
The fall in the river as it ran over the rapids past the settle- ment was to be dammed up and made to furnish hydraulic power to run the mills to be built to bring out the wealth for a great city, with its thousand lights and the sounds and hum of busi-
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THE LOCK, CANAL AND DAM.
ness; but all this could not come to pass without means of trans- portation. The easiest way was the means at hand-the water route. As early as 1844 Harrison Reed had cut out a road to Oshkosh under the authority of the primitive county board. Gil- bert Brooks had assisted in this work. Mrs. Reed had followed up the sappers and choppers with a buggy. Mr. Reed's wagon was the first double wagon to cross the Fox river at Oshkosh, being ferried over on an old scow owned by Robert Grignon at Algoma.
Rev. Clinton has told of a trip to Green Bay : "In the summer of 1847 an exchange was arranged between Rev. J. Porter, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Green Bay, and myself; but how to execute the arrangement with no roads or bridges was the difficulty. But the pioneer doctrine is, 'Where there is a will there is a way.' Well, by virtue of having a brother who was a blacksmith, I nailed some shoes to my horse's feet (it could not be called shoeing), took Mrs. C. and the little C.'s into the buggy, forded both rivers at the outlet, followed the beach of the lake to Clifton, often in rounding trees and logs plunging the horse into water nearly to his girth. At that time there were no settlers at Clifton. Having despatched our lunch upon. the native grass, with axe in hand I led the way, following an overgrown road of black hawk antiquity, and cut our way through two miles to the military road, and then the way was clear to Green Bay."
Mr. James Ladd has told of the primitive fords and trails : "In October following I moved my family into a block house with Mr. Colwell, who lived with an Indian wife on the Blair place. Other families moved in that summer and fall. We had no way to cross the lower lake with teams but to ford it, going into the lake by the old mill and guiding our course by an old oak on the Jourdain place, the water coming up to the middle of the wagon box, so that we were obliged to place ourselves and effects on top of the box to keep dry.
"Some Frenchmen with a load of calico and trinkets going through to trade with the Indians at their annual gathering to receive their annuity from the Government, in attempting to cross just at night to stop with me, there being no place in Neenah to stop, got out of the right course into deep water with a muddy bottom. They called for assistance and I went to them in a skiff. The men and horses were rescued, but wagon and goods were left to soak over night. The next morning, by means
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
of long poles tied together and oxen, the wagon was drawn ashore. They dried their goods and resumed their journey, thinking they would be none the less valuable to the redskins for having been soaked.
"My house, which consisted of three rooms with low chambers, was the only stopping place for travelers that winter west of the slough and the lake. That fall the settlers that were here clubbed together, there being no town board to raise an extra tax, to hire the Indians to cut a road through to the Oneida set- tlement, a distance of fourteen miles. We were to furnish them with provisions while they did the work. That road connected with a road to Green Bay, which was the only way we could reach the bay with teams. The Indians camped in rude huts as they worked their way along, taking my house for the terminus of the road, which they reached one night, headed by their chief, Mr. Breed. We gave them (twenty in number) a good supper, after which each took his blanket and lay down before our old- fashioned fireplace. Before leaving in the morning they pre- sented me with a cane with a snake's head neatly carved on the top of it. These Indians brought us our lumber for the first building in Neenah from their mills on Duck creek.
"We soon thought about some way to get across the Neenah slough. Some six or eight of the settlers agreed to pay me $100 to build a bridge, which I did by making cribs of logs, laying stringers from crib to crib and covering with poles. This bridge was completed in the spring and lasted a number of years. One of my family was taken sick that spring and I sent to Oshkosh for a physician, there being none nearer; but he did not under- stand the case and I sent to Stockbridge for Dr. Marsh. The only way to get there was to cross the lake in a skiff. Mr. C. Northrop, of Menasha, went across, a distance of fourteen miles, and returned with the doctor. We had to take him home, and sent for him a second time in the same way."
The transportation extended to more systematic facilities in those primitive days, effective for the purpose of the age, and developed the flush times on the river by the Durham boat routes, so well described by Mr. William N. Webster, a pioneer writer: "At this time and extending back as far as the memory of man, the great thoroughfare for all territory lying contiguous to the Fox, the Wolf and Wisconsin rivers was via Green Bay along the Fox river by Durham boats. These boats were from 80 to 100 feet in length, decked over for the protection of their
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THE LOCK, CANAL AND DAM.
cargo, and would carry from fifteen to twenty-five tons. They were propelled usually by four but sometimes six men with set- ting poles and a helmsman. Tow ropes were used whenever occasion required the passage of any of the numerous rapids of the river, and in such cases they were unloaded and their freight rolled or hauled around the rapids; the usual way, however, being to run from Green Bay to Kaukauna, unload and return, leaving their freight to be transported around the rapids, when it was taken on another boat, which proceeded to the next rap- ids, unloaded, and loading with a cargo destined for the opposite direction, returned. William H. Bruce, of Green Bay, seems to have been the first to engage in this enterprise on private account, establishing a line from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago. Another line was eventually started by Daniel Whitney, also an early resident of Green Bay."
Then came Capt. William Ball. He was born in Southboro, Massachusetts, in 1816, moved to Boston in 1834, to Chicago in 1847 and to Neenah in the spring of 1848. Ile at once con- tracted with Mr. Bruce to run that section of the route from Grand Chute and Neenah, including the portage around the rapids at Neenah. Large quantities of flour were being sent at this time by this route from the mills at Wakeford, Dartford, Kingston and Neenah to the fisheries on Green bay and east via the lakes. A number of years later after the building of the plank road from Menasha to Appleton and Kaukauna, Ball became associated with Reuben Doud, who had been in the service of the Durham line with William H. Bruce and operated a horse train of 100 teams between the head of navigation at the Grignon flats at Kaukauna and the shore of the river at Menasha, where the Lake Winnebago boats took up the freight and continued its movement or brought it from up-river points.
The plank road to Kaukauna was completed by 1852, and the next spring Mr. Aaron H. Cronkhite, a lawyer, who came to Neenah in 1848, having abandoned the profession and engaged in different enterprises, now joined with D. C. Van Ostrand, who had settled in Neenah in May, 1850, and established a team line on the plank road route for transfer of freights between the termini of steamboat navigation at Menasha and Kaukauna.
The supervisors of the town of Neenah passed a resolution October 10, 1849, which is found now in the records in the hand- writing of Governor Doty, directing the building of a bridge which was to cross the river from the council tree to the resi-
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
dence of Governor Doty. It was to be a "foot bridge" with the thirty feet of the bridge "over the middle of the stream to be high enough to enable Durham boats with decks to pass and contain a draw to pass other boats if required for navigation." This bridge was commenced in the winter and was carried out by the ice in the spring, when the project of a bridge so near the lake was forever abandoned. The following year the bridge across the river at its present location was first built and the road cut out through the woods across the island, afterward marked on the maps of 1856 as the "plank road."
On becoming proprietor of the village site of Neenah, Col. Harvey Jones had joined with the owners of the island and the rapids on the Menasha side, or north outlet, for the damming of both channels. They applied to the legislature and obtained rights to close the channel in the act of February 8, 1847:
"An act to authorize the construction of a dam across the Fox river-Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representa- tives of the Territory of Wisconsin :
"Section 1. That Harvey Jones, Loyal H. Jones, Harrison Reed, Charles Doty and Curtis Reed are and they are hereby authorized to erect a dam across Fox river at such point as they may deem suitable on section 27 and lots 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in section 22, and the fraction of the said section 22 on the main- land, all in township 20, north of range 17 east, in said territory, and to make use of the water of said river for hydraulic purposes.
"Sec. 2. Said dam shall not exceed seven feet in height above high water mark of said river, and shall contain a suitable and convenient lock, not less than 120 feet long, between the gates, and not less than twenty-four feet wide in the clear of the cham- bers for the passage of boats, barges and water craft, and the proprietors of said dam shall maintain said lock and shall at- tend the passage of all such boats, barges and water craft through said lock, free of all charge to the owners thereof, and if the said lock shall not be kept in repair as aforesaid and suita- bly attended for the safe and speedy passage of any such boat or water craft navigating said stream, said Harvey Jones and his associates. their heirs or assigns, being in possession of the works hereby authorized. shall pay to any person or persons who may be injured by delay. all damages which such person or per- sons shall sustain thereby, together with all costs which may ac- crue in suing for or collecting such damages; provided, that said
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THE LOCK, CANAL AND DAM.
dam shall not raise the water in Lake Winnebago above its ordinary level.
"Sec. 3. The said Harvey Jones and his associates, their heirs and assigns shall be subject to all the provisions of an act relat- ing to mills and mill dams, approved January 13, 1840.
"Sec. 4. This act may be altered, amended or repealed by any future legislature.
"William Shrew, "Speaker of House of Representatives. "Mason C. Darling, "President of the Council.
"Approved February 8, 1847. Henry Dodge."
Harvey Jones at the time of building this dam owned the land on which it abuts on the south shore of the south outlet. Charles Doty then owned the land on which it abuts on the north shore of the south outlet. Before building the dam Harvey Jones took from Charles Doty conveyance, as follows :
"Quit Claim.
"C. Doty to H. Jones.
"Know all men by these presents-That I, Charles Doty, of Fond du Lac and territory of Wisconsin, for and in considera- tion of the sum of $1 to me paid, have given, granted and quit claimed, and by these presents do give, grant and quit claim unto Harvey Jones, of the state of New York, and to his heirs and assigns forever, all of the right, title, interest and claim which I have in law or equity to the use of the waters in the Neenah or Fox river for hydraulic purposes, on or adjoining to fractions number 7 and 8 of section 22, in township 20 of range 17 east in the county of Winnebago, in said territory, and do authorize and empower the said Harvey Jones to the full extent of my power and authority as the owner of said fractions to make and construct a dam for the purpose aforesaid on the bank of said river, on said portions or either. To have and to hold the said right and privilege as aforesaid unto the said Harvey Jones, his heirs and assigns forever.
"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 8th day of August, A. D. 1846.
"Charles Doty (L. S.).
"Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of :
"J. Elliott.
"Henry C. Finch."
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
This conveyance was acknowledged on January 8, 1847, and recorded February 20, 1847.
The following year the associates of Colonel Jones became interested in the enterprise of building up a rival town at Menasha and obtained an act of the legislature which confirmed this act to Neenah alone and threw all the responsibility of the improvements on Harvey Jones. He employed a large crew of men to build a spar dam 450 feet long across the river on its present site and deepened the old canal or the original mill race, and set to work with great vigor and enterprise with all the means at his command to construct the lock. The enterprise was a great undertaking in those days on the frontier and was in- tended to supply the mills expected to be erected with power and the canal and lock for the water transportation, which would bring and carry for the millman and the settler.
In its natural state, as shown by the surveys of Captain Cram, the river was 7,720 feet long. The fall between the lakes was seven and a half feet. The depth of water at the mouth of the river was five feet, and at the lower rapids the deepest water was three feet. There were three stages to the rapids, as shown on the Government survey. The upper rapids was just below the Grand loggery, the middle rapids about at the present dam and the lower rapids at the entrance of the river into the lower lake. A wide bend and enlargement of the river bowed way into the land above the mills nearly to Wisconsin street. Near the library a small creek ran across the village, now nearly ob- literated. On its banks there was a Menominee Indian village at the coming of the first white people.
At a very early time in the settlement of Wisconsin the sub- ject of a transcontinental navigation by a system of dams, canals and locks between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi was ad- vocated, and the historic Fox and Wisconsin river route was selected as the most economical and practical route as early as 1839, when Captain Cram made his survey. When the state was admitted into the Union in 1848 Congress ceded to the state one- half of three sections along either side of the river "for the pur- pose of improving the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers" and the Portage canal. The work was placed under the control of a board of public works, and a land office was located at Oshkosh to sell the lands, the money to be applied to the work. Captain Cram in his survey of 1839 had stated the falls to be overcome at Winnebago Rapids at ten feet, and estimated
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ALBERT H. BARTLETT.
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THE LOCK, CANAL AND DAM.
the cost for dam, lock and canal at .Winnebago Rapids at $23,- 748.50 on the depth of five feet, as proposed by him, which the board of public works reduced to four feet, but increased the dimensions of the locks to 125 feet by thirty feet. From the re- port of the improvements made in 1849 by the board of public works it appears that contracts were made for improving both channels at Winnebago Rapids, but no work was done that year. From this report it seems the state had a hand in the improve- ments at both Neenah and Menasha, as both rapids were known by the same name. The reports of the board made during their administration from 1848 until 1852, when the work was taken over by the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company, shows that no money was expended for any work at either Neenah or Menasha. In the report of C. D. Westbrook, Jr., he gives the condition of the improvement of the channels to November. 1854. Of the Neenah channel he says: "At the Neenah or southern channel the canal lock and dams have been completed ready for use. The improvement here was executed without cost to the state in consideration of the use of the water power. The lock and canal, however, are of the original size. The canal is sixty feet wide on bottom and four feet deep. The lock is 140 feet long by thirty-five feet wide in the chamber." Of the dam he said it was holted to the solid rock. The lock, he says, was made of timber filled with clay.
In September, 1849, the state board of public works met at Oshkosh. All the influential men of the settlement of Neenah and Menasha were on hand to press their favor on the board to have their channel officially declared the state channel. The Reed and Doty interests were now combined for the north chan- nel at. Menasha, as there was strong rivalry between the two near-by villages, both struggling to gain something over the other. Curtis Reed had been a member of this board, but re- signed that he might put in a claim for his interests in Menasha. Harvey Jones offered to make all the improvements at Neenah required by the engineers in charge of navigation on the south channel at his own cost if they would establish a line of the state's canal officially on that channel. Curtis Reed offered the same and added $5,000 to be paid if called for. The Menasha channel was selected. This is said to have been a great disap- pointment to Col. Harvey Jones, as indeed it must have been, as well as to all the villagers. Colonel Jones died within two months of this decision-on November 8, 1849. Mr. Cunningham
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says of him: "He was a man of untiring industry, rather ner- vous and exceedingly anxious concerning all matters wherein he was interested, and indeed it is the general belief among the early settlers that his anxiety concerning his matters here, more particularly the vexatious litigation with Harrison Reed and the disappointment in failing to secure the state canal on his side of the island, so wore upon him as to hasten his death." His sons, Gilbert and Willard Jones, say of his death in a biography of their father: "Early in the fall of 1849 he made a hasty trip to Michigan, returning all worn out and sick with cold, refused to remain at home and doctor, saying he had no time, until about the 1st of November, when his malady assumed a typhoid form, and November 8, 1849, he died, aged 44 years, just in the vigor of manhood and prime of life, even before he had fairly begun to realize his life's ambition."
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