USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 61
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P. V. L.
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LII. CITY OF MENASHA. By Publius V. Lawson.
The Famous Menasha Dam.
The site of the future manufacturing city of Menasha was in 1846 a dense hardwood forest. Mr. Samuel Neff, who then lived in one of the mission block houses, on the opposite shore of Little Lake Butte des Morts, and very close to the Hill of the Dead, crossed the lake to this forest for the purpose of exhibiting to his brother, who was visiting him from the east, a real forest, and to hunt black bear, which then ranged through the woods. There were some blazed trees by which Mr. Samuel Neff could trace his way, without danger of being lost. His brother in- sisted they were going in the wrong direction. Mr. Samuel Neff, to satisfy him, let him take the lead to find the place where they had beached their boat. After traveling for half an hour he brought up at the very place they had started from, and was obliged to admit he was lost. Mr. Samuel Neff then took the lead, and they very soon arrived at the place where their boat was moored.
It was in April, 1848, that Cornelius Northrup entered this forest, made a clearing and built himself a slab house. The slabs were hauled over Doty Island and into the unbroken wil- derness from the old mission mill at Neenah, two miles away. The house was formed by placing the slabs upright or vertiele and the ragged edges battened with another up and down course of slabs, placed flat sides together. This slab dwelling stood in the center of what is now Milwaukee street, where now inter- sected by Sixth street, at the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section fifteen, in the area of the plat of Reed's first addition to the city of Menasha, at lot 16 of block 2 of that addition. This frontier cabin, the first to be
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raised and occupied within the limits of the city of Menasha, has long since rotted away. Deacon Cornelius Northrup, the builder and occupant of this first home in the wilderness, had been a pioneer resident of Neenah in 1846, where he was engaged in millwright, mill building and carpenter work. He had lived there with his wife and family of children, one of them Coridon P. Northrup. IIe moved to the site of unnamed Menasha with his whole family.
While the site of the future village of Menasha was a wilder- ness and the Fox river ran wild over the rapids. John L. Kim- berly bought all the lands on which the mills and stores are now located north of the river for $100, on which the town was platted six years later, and sold it to Major Charles Doty for $838. Not being possessed of so much money, he gave a mort- gage for $550 in part payment. This transaction occurred in 1847, one year before any house was built in the town.
The original title to part of the territory now covered by the limits of the city of Menasha was purchased by Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay, a cousin of Gov. James D. Doty and the founder of Milwaukee, a man who gave much and saved very lit- tle from the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; also Hon. Charles R. Brush, a land speculator and enterprising man of that period, and James and Charles Doty, sons of the Governor, as well as the Governor himself. who took title to lands formerly owned by Charles R. Brush. This land had been surveyed in 1834 by Gen. Albert G. Ellis for the United States goverment. after the purchase of the region from the Indians, and laid off into sections according to the system of land surveys adopted. This survey included the Doty island and all the land north of the lower Fox river. The land south of Fox river at Menasha, on which the cities of Oshkosh and Neenah are mostly built, was not surveyed until 1839. Very soon after this survey of 1834 a United States land office was opened at Green Bay for sale of these lands, and they were first offered for sale August 31. 1835. The sections on which Menasha stands was entered by the parties named above not as settlers or occupants, but for speculation.
*Cornelius Northrup was born in Greene county, New York, in 1800; son of Enos Northrup, of English and Dutch descent. He married Mary E. Porter, of Welch and English descent, born in Onondaga county, New York, whose parents were James and Polly ( Bullard) Porter. Caroline Northrup, daughter of Cornelius, taught the first school in Neenah in 1847. a private school, and the following summer she was teacher of the only public school in the hamlet. Mr. Northrup had the contract to erect the first Congregational church in Menasha in 1859. He resided in Menasha until his death.
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The real inducement to the settlement and building up of a town was the development of the hydraulic power for the opera- tion of milling and manufacturing industries. Before these en- terprises could be erected it was necessary to improve the river by damming back the water and excavation of a canal to carry the increased head of water to the mill site. The water forming Lake Winnebago is gathered by upwards of 5,000 miles of rivers and creeks on the eastern drainage slope of Wisconsin. This great lake discharges through two channels, one at Menasha and one at Neenah. The channel at Menasha is about two miles long, connecting Lake Winnebago with Little Lake Butte des Morts below. In its descent there is a change in level of eight feet, forming a rapids, which since the earliest times have been called Winnebago rapids or Puant rapids. As early as 1813 Col. Robert Dickson was writing letters from "Puant rapids." Lake Winne- bago had often been referred to by engineers and enterprising voyagers as a great reservoir or storage basin to regulate the flow of floods, prevent freshets and store water for water powers. It is still so regarded, and its storage capacity is esteemed by finan- ciers interested in the water powers of the lower Fox river as of great value. Because of the comparatively low cost of improving the water powers at Menasha and Neenah, then jointly called Winnebago Rapids, they were early considered as fair financial investments. By an act of the territorial legislature approved February 8, 1847, Harvey Jones, Loyal II. Jones, Harrison Reed. Charles Doty and Curtis Reed were empowered and granted a charter to "erect a dam across Fox river at such point as they may deem suitable" on their lands on both channels and *use the water of said river for hydraulic purposes."
The association of these men for combining the power inter- ests of the two channels was, unfortunately, not a pleasant rela- tion, and consequently a separation was arranged and the inter- ested associates took separate interests on each channel.
By an act of the legislature of the territory of Wisconsin, ap- proved March 10, 1848, Curtis Reed and associates were author- ized to construct a dam across the north channel or outlet of Lake Winnebago at some point in section 22 and use the waters of said river for hydraulie purposes. At the time of the passage of this act Charles Doty owned the lands on both banks of the river on which the dam would be constructed. He resided then in Fond du Lac. Very soon after the passage of this act in June. 1848. Curtis Reed arrived in the forest on the shore of the Fox
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river on the site of the future Menasha and erected a log dwell -. . ing and store near the head of and on the site of the future canal. When completed it was occupied by Mr. Clark Knight as a tavern and boarding house.
Hon. Curtis Reed was born near Lowell, Massachusetts, March 26, 1815. His father, Seth Reed, a native of the state, was born in Middlesex county in 1781, and married in 1804 Miss Rhoda Finney, of Vermont. Born to them were eight children-George, Julia Ann. Orson, Augusta, Harrison, Curtis, Martha and Her- bert. Seth Reed was a farmer in his native state. In 1823 he moved to Vermont, where he became a cattle dealer and hotel keeper. He moved to Milwaukee in 1836, where he opened a hardware store and very soon took to farming in Summit, Waukesha county, where he died July 15, 1848. His wife sur- vived him until 1874, when she died and was buried at Menasha at 94 years of age. This family became somewhat distinguished in the history of Wisconsin. The son, Judge George Reed, was a lawyer of distinction at Milwaukee and Manitowoc, and pro- moter of the Wisconsin Central railway and its first president, a member of the first constitutional convention, a state senator sev- eral terms, judge of Manitowoc county, promoter of the Menasha & Manitowoc railway and builder of the plank road from Menasha to Kaukauna. He perished in the Newhall House fire in 1882. Hon. Orson Reed was a farmer and served several terms in the state senate. Governor Harrison Reed was the founder of Neenah and one of the founders of Menasha, founder of the "Milwaukee Sentinel" and five years governor of Florida. Augusta Reed became the wife of Judge A. D. Smith, a prominent lawyer of Milwaukee and judge of the Supreme Court of Wiscon- sin. Martha Reed became the wife of Hon. Alexander Mitchell, the great financier of Milwaukee, owner of the St. Paul railway, founder of the great Marine Bank and the Northwestern Life Insurance Company, and their son was United States Senator John Mitchell. Julia Ann Reed became the wife of Dr. Thomas Jefferson Noyes, of Milwaukee, who followed Curtis Reed to Menasha and took part in its earliest enterprises, and who will be mentioned at another place.
Curtis Reed, educated in the district school, began at sixteen a clerkship in a Vermont store and then entered a store in Troy. New York. until he emigrated to Milwaukee in the winter of 1835. making the entire trip by stage coach to Detroit, where they took a stage sleigh to Chicago and from there to Milwaukee
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by lumber wagon, arriving December 28, 1835. Here Mr. Reed boarded with Solomon Juneau and acted as clerk in his store. In July, 1836, on the organization of the Wisconsin territory, Gov. Henry Dodge made him. a deputy sheriff of the territory about Milwaukee. He was chairman of the committee sent to escort Governor Dodge to Milwaukee from Iowa and made the address of welcome, and subsequently he was made a lieutenant of state militia and a member of the governor's staff. Having taken the census of Milwaukee county in 1837, he soon after took up lands . in the county, where by 1848 he had cleared 200 acres into a valuable farm in Summit, Waukesha county, and served as a member of the county board. In 1846 he was elected to the ter- ritorial council, where he served two years. Mr. Reed was part proprietor and sole proprietor of a large tract of land on the site of the future village of Menasha and platted over 300 acres into town lots.
In the same year that Mr. Reed moved to the site of Menasha he caused to be erected another log building on the site now oc- cupied by the library on Mill street, which he occupied as a store. and commenced work on the dam. The plan of construction was what is known as a spar dam. Timbers felled on the banks of the river were laid transverse to each other on the bed of the stream and pinned together with oak nails, forming a succession of pock- ets or cribs to hold the stone and boulders gathered along the shore. On the top spars or piles were laid closely side by side and covered with brush. on top of which was piled gravel and stone. Extra large piers at the ends, built into the bank and se- cured to the timbers of the dam, formed abutments. This dam. though substantial, did leak and waste much water. From the bank on the north end of the dam a canal was dug along the shore, which ended at the present site of the Menasha Woolen Mill, about half way down the present canal. A large amount of work was accomplished the first year. although the work was not completed for several years.
Among those who came with the first pioneers under Curtis Reed was Dr. Thomas Jefferson Noyes, the very first physician in the town. Ile was from Vermont and studied medicine in New Hampshire, where with some fellow students. having been found out in procuring subjects for study, was obliged to flee out of the state and came to Milwaukee in 1836, where he married the sister of Mr. Curtis Reed, Miss Julia Ann Reed. In August. 1848. he followed the argonauts to help hew a town out of the wilder-
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ness on the site of future Menasha, and then named Waupakun. Later in the same year he wrote a letter to his daughter, Frances Noyes, who he always called Frank and who was the late Mrs. Francis Crosby, of Milwaukee, the first white girl born in that place. She was nursed by Mrs. Solomon Juneau when a child and in after life became a leader in philanthropie work, founding the Girls' Industrial School, the Woman's Exchange and, after repeated failures, secured the cooking school and domestic train- ing for all the schools in the city. She died in 1906. The letter she always preserved reads as follows :
"Waupakun, November 20, 1848.
"My Dear Frank : It is now 3 o'clock in the morning, our usual time of getting up. .
. We are driving ahead smoothly, raising a new house most every day. When I came here we had but one family- now we have eighteen; seven moved in yesterday."
Soon after writing this letter Dr. Noyes became infected with the gold fever and started overland with the rush for California. Just at the foothills of the Rocky mountains he wrote his last let- ter and disappeared, never to be heard of afterward. His wife died in Milwaukee, October 25. 1881, aged 75 years.
When the state was admitted into the Union the Congress of the United States gave to the state about 500,000 acres of land to be sold to raise means with which to improve the Fox and Wis- consin rivers for navigation of the river boats then in general use to connect the Great Lakes by boat lines for commerce with the Mississippi.
The improvement was by law placed in charge of a board of public works. The first members. appointed in 1848 by the legis- lature, were James B. Estes, Curtis Reed, Albert S. Story. JJohn A. Bingham and II. L. Dousman. They determined on a four-foot navigation and the size of locks as 125 by 30 feet. which was larger than those of the Welland or Erie canals. Their report for 1849 says, "The work at Winnebago Rapids (which would in- clude both Neenah and Menasha) was not begun this year." But their report for 1850 says the dam was completed and the canal two-thirds excavated.
The "True Democrat," of Oshkosh, of October 26. 1849, says: "The board of public works met here last week. All present, together with Governor Dewey. The work at the Rapids (Win-
*The total of land granted for the improvement of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway was 639,000 acres.
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nebago Rapids, the name then known for Menasha) was let to Curtis Reed. The conditions of the contract are that Mr. Reed hinds himself in good and sufficient sureties to build the work without charge to the state, and to pay the state in addition $5,000 for making it. In consideration of this the board permits the work to be made on the north channel." This contract was made October 23, 1849, at Oshkosh, where the board met. Five members constitute this board, to be elected by the legislature, and Mr. Curtis Reed was not now a member of the board, having resigned so he could bid on this contract, his place being filled by Mr. Erastus W. Drury. By this agreement Mr. Curtis Reed bound himself to excavate the canal, construct the dam and locks and do all things at his own cost, like specifications furnished him, for the improvement of "the north channel of Fox river at Winnebago Rapids as located by the chief engineer under direc- tion of the board of public works." The work to be commenced within ten days and completed by October 1, 1850. Any increase in size was to be paid for by an agreed scale. He agreed to per- form the work and furnish all material without cost to the state "in consideration of the location of the line of canal upon said north channel, and also agrees to pay to the state the sum of $5,000, or when required by the state for superintendence and repair of said work when completed." An excise clause was in- serted in this agreement, which may be regarded as the first law ever enacted for the regulation of spirituous liquors in the town : "And that the work shall be performed without the use of ardent spirits ; that none shall be given or sold to the workmen or other persons, nor brought on or near the line of canal by himself or any workman or agent in his employ," on penalty of having the contract taken away. The next day Mr. Curtis Reed furnished a bond to the state of Wisconsin in the sum of $25,000 for the per- formance of the agreement, signed by Harrison Reed, James Doty and Charles Doty, approved by the signatures of the whole board of public works. The canal contemplated by the specifica- tions of the engineer was to be 44 feet on bottom and 4 feet deep, with "a towing path bank 10 feet," indicating it was con- templated to operate the canal with horse power. He was to raise and complete the dam already commenced, excavate as much as necessary of river bottom above the dam to insure 4 feet of water. 200 feet wide. The lock was to have 9-foot lift. The line of canal to commence just above the dam was surveyed and staked out in August, 1849. It was to be excavated to Little
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Butte des Morts lake and was 4.500 feet long. while the whole channel from Lake Winnebago to the Little Lake Butte des Morts was 11,800 feet long. or two miles.
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The story is told by the old resident that there was a strong effort made by the owners of the lands and water power on both channels of Winnebago Rapids for the location by the state of the line of canal improvement for navigation through their re- spective channels. the friends of each channel being arranged on their side and all the political influence each could command was enlisted for each side. The contest for the location was warm and active. The influence of Governor Doty and all the Reeds was for the north channel. A boat was chartered for the en- gineers. interested parties and the members of the board of pub- lic works to run down each channel for a personal inspection. The captain of the boat. made friendly to the north channel. as he ran his boat down the south or Neenah channel caused his boat to constantly strike boulders and snags and imperiled the safety of his passengers: but when he ran down the north or Menasha channel he ran smoothly and safely. never finding a boulder or obstruction of any kind. This decided the issue of the best channel and the line was ordered to run through the north channel. In 1653 the state transferred the improvement to the Fox & Wisconsin Improvement Company. and the reports of ex- penditure of the state in the work to that date show that no part of the half-million dollars used on the work had been for work on either channel of Fox river at Winnebago Rapids. The work was so far advanced that the editor of the "True Democrat." of Oshkosh. of date November 9. 1549. said: "Last week we were down to those growing towns at the foot of the lake. after an absence of little more than two months. and things new and strange met our gaze on all sides. New houses and new stores going up at Neenah. and since the letting of the contract a new rush is setting in to Menasha. Two sawmills are already in opera- tion there and two more about commencing. and other manufac- turing establishments are to be commenced immediately. These two towns will son eclipse all around them." The sawmills then in operation were the Norman Clinton mill. on the north end of the dam. and the William buckman mill. on the south end of the dam. The sawmills being completed were Armstrong's and Porter & Slocum's.
By the report of C. D. Westbrook. Jr. made November 15. 1854. be have: "At Menasha. where the second and northern
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channel issues from the lake, the dam is erected and the canal excavated. The lock pit was excavated and the foundation in progress the first of November. The contract time for comple- tion extends to July. Here, as at Neenah, the contract for the execution of the work without cost to the state was taken in consideration of the use of the water power. Subsequently it was determined to enlarge the canal to 100 feet and to a depth of 5 feet, and the locks to 160x40 feet. This change of contract will cost $16,734, more than the original plan, of which $10.916 is yet to be expended." Mr. Henry Hewitt, Sr., afterward the founder of the Bank of Menasha, had the contract to enlarge and complete the work at Menasha on the new plans, which he had accomplished by June, 1856, when navigation from Green Bay to Lake Winnebago was opened .. The Fox & Wisconsin Improve- ment Company on July 24, 1855, . made . an . agreement with Charles Doty, Harrison Reed and Curtis Reed by which they gave to the parties named all the water power on the north chan- nel, and were given a right of way for the navigable canal over the strip of land on which it was located, and a fee simple to the land on which the lock was located, and for sixty feet each side. and a grant of the dam, with the proviso that it must be forever maintained. The company also covenanted to "proceed to finish and complete the said lock and canal, the said canal to 100 feet wide at the bottom." Two days after this agreement the par- ties thereto made their deed defining the rights of each to the ownership of the water power in "the village of Menasha," by which it was agreed that Charles Doty had the undivided one- half and Curtis Reed and Harrison Reed each the undivided one- quarter. About 1857 the dam was further improved by Mr. Henry Hewitt, Sr., by contract with the Fox River Canal Com- pany by the building of a row of cribs across the whole front of the dam about ten feet wide, filled with stone and covered with a planking to serve as an apron to shed the water.
A half interest in the entire water power at Menasha was pur- chased by P. V. Lawson, Sr .. in 1876, of Maj. Charles Doty, then of Alton, Illinois, and in 1879 the other half of Mr. Curtis Reed. including the lands and water power lots still owned by them. The property was then paying in rents a very small sum. After some little litigation was cleared away and Mr. Lawson's death in 1881. Mr. P. V. Lawson, Jr., took charge and by clearing off many old leases and making new leases, the property was made a good investment and very much increased in value. The Lawson
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estate constructed in 1886 the Lawson canal, 4,500 feet long, on the south bank for water power purposes. Mr. George Danielson, of Neenah, had the contract for this work. After the water was let into this canal private dredges were employed to make a water depth of eight feet, excavating most of it through the lime- stone rock with steel-pointed dippers.
The banks of the canal near the lock gave way in May, 1858, but it delayed navigation only a few days, when it was closed. Frequent breaks occurred at other points about the flumes, doing great damage to mill property. At one time the Fred Lamb mill, which stood about on the site of the present band sawmill of the Woodenware Company, was undermined by a break in the canal bank around the flume and carried on the floods out into the river. The mill was still unfinished. At another time the Arm- strong Bros. sawmill was wrecked by breaks in the canal banks at their flume. These breaks in the banks were caused by frost in the spring and high water rushing around them, or muskrats boring through the banks. The banks are all wide and firm now. No break has occurred since 1880, when the banks broke out near the lock at the foot of the canal, where a sluiceway or waste- weir had been built to draw off the flood water. Mr. P. V. Law- son, Sr., was given a contract February 8, 1860, by the Fox & Wisconsin River Improvement Company to construct at the head of the canal, at which is now Mill street, a guard loek for use in case of floods or breaks in the canal banks to close off the water from entering the canal. Mud sills were sunk into the bed of the canal and tight piers filled with stone located at each bank for abutments, and one long, tight pier in the center of the canal. In case of a break a boom was swung across, resting against the piers and plank set vertically, packed with shavings. The cen- ter pier is still in the canal, but the mud sills have been dredged out to deepen the channel. During the high water in the spring of 1864 the manufacturers on the water power met at the office of Mr. E. D. Smith, April 8. Henry Hewitt, Sr., was made chair- man. A. N. Lincoln. then clerk for Mr. Smith, was made secre- tary. The meeting was to confer on measures to prevent damage to the banks of the canal, then endangered by high water. A committee was named, consisting of Mr. P. V. Lawson, chairman, Mr. R. M. Scott and Edward Ward, empowered to improve the banks and keep a watch on them and to man the guard lock. On April 9 all the manufacturers signed a paper to share the ex- pense, and Mr. P. V. Lawson, Sr., was given charge of the work.
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