USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 62
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
He had teams and men at work, placed on the dam and banks 270 yards of earth, set a watch on the banks and kept the guard lock ready for instant use, thus preventing any damage to the work that year. The accounts show that all the signers except one paid.
There had always been a natural ledge of rock across the north channel at the entrance to Lake Winnebago, over which the earliest settler forded the river. It was an obstruction to navigation and during a drought or dry season only boats draw- ing two and one-half feet of water could cross it. The Canal Company about 1867 made a coffer or temporary dam across the river 992 feet long, closing off the water completely from the whole north channel, and Alonzo Granger, who had charge of the work, blasted out this ledge, making a channel 200 feet wide and about 300 long, two feet deep. At the same time the boulders and gravel bars were removed from the channel. The channel below the lock into Little Lake Butte des Morts was first dredged out by the United States in 1874, making a deep channel 940 feet long. Since these dates further and extensive dredge excavation has occurred at different times. Steel teeth were devised for the dipper, by which the rock layers at the mouth of the river were lifted out and the channel deepened and made wider.
The great floods of record began in September, 1850. By ref- erence to the Oshkosh "True Democrat" of September 6, 1850 : "In all our experience we have never seen such long, uninter- rupted, continued and excessively wet weather. The whole coun- try is an ocean." The floods extended into the next spring, and May 29, 1951, reported in the same journal : "Flood ! flood ! Ex- cessive rain, constantly raining. The river is many feet higher than we have ever seen it. The whole country is afloat." Mr. Richard J. Harney remembers this as the first great flood. He sailed a boat drawing three feet of water up to the platform of the Oshkosh House, which occupied the site of Stroud's oil store in Oshkosh (of 1880), several blocks up Ferry street, where the water stood from two to four feet deep. The people at Oshkosh supposed the floods due to the dams at Menasha and Neenah and held publie meetings to abate them." Mr. S. S. Roby, the late veteran relic collecter of Menasha, remembers that the villagers kept watch with shotguns for the coming of a boat load of up- river people to attack the dam. At the same time a cannon ob- tained from old Fort Howard, now known as Old Ben of York- town, was mounted on the bank of the river, loaded with gravel,
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CITY OF MENASHA.
and the old settler says it would have been discharged if any in- jury had been attempted to the dam.
In October of 1881 the water began to rise and reached its highest stage in November, after which it fell. This was the great flood. The water stood twenty-three and a half inches higher on the gage at Oshkosh than at any previous time, accord- ing to Capt. E. M. Neff, and at Menasha eighteen inches above every recorded high water mark, according to government re- ports. From the report of Col. D. C. Houston, made January 9, 1882. in response to an inquiry from Robert T. Lincoln, secretary of war, because of a resolution made by both branches of Con- gress making inquiry to what extent the dam at Menasha "caused the extremely high stage of water in Lake Winnebago," Colonel Houston said: "The cause of the high water was the un- usual rainfall which prevailed in this section during the past fall, and which caused floods in the Wolf and Upper Fox rivers and the Wisconsin river, which overflowed its banks and discharged a large quantity of water into the Fox river. Since the floods have subsided in these streams water has fallen in Lake Winne- bago and the Lower Fox river, showing that the high water was the result of the unusual discharge of water from the tributary streams. A comparison of the records since 1857 shows that the water at the foot of Lake Winnebago was about eighteen inches higher in November, 1881, than at any previous date," and con- cluded, "the high water was not caused" by the Menasha dam.
The United States purchased the improvement July 6, 1872, but the owners of the water power had retained control over the dam up to 1882, when the engineer corps of the United States War Department first assumed control under an act of Congress to provide waste-weirs. Prior to that time each year since the erection of the dam posts had been driven across the top of the dam and flush boards consisting of two 8-inch boards one on top of the other had been placed all across the dam, backed by shav- ings and compost to keep them tight. These flush boards were always placed on the dam soon after the spring rise of water, when it had lowered to six inches on the dam.
The United States engineers, Col. C. A. Fuller, assistant United States engineer in charge of the improvement on Fox river. Capt. N. M. Edwards and Mr. Charles Cole, both of Appleton, took pos- session of the dam in the spring of 1882 and cut down the top eighteen inches below the average height of the old dam, replac- ing it with a set of movable flush boards eighteen inches high.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
There was a solid embankment on the north end of the dam from the Coral mill (flour mill), which stood in midstream. to the A. Syme flour mill, on the north bank of the river. This solid part of the dam closed off about 100 feet of the river from spilling over and was made so in 1857 by Mr. Henry Hewitt, Sr., from clay excavated from the canal. Colonel Fuller caused this solid embankment to be cut down and added to the spill of the dam, making the total length of the spill or area over which the water of the river could flow 270 feet, while it had only 1821/2 feet spill before, all on the south end. This dry embank- ment had been used as the north extention roadway of the vil- lage bridge over the river, and the city was now compelled to build a bridge over the gap. An injunction was served on the engineers by Mr. Alexander Syme, owner of both the Coral mill and City mill on the dam, as the changes in the dam would abso- lutely ruin his water power by which he ran these mills. The United States engineers proceeded under acts of Congress and the state to condemn his property for public use and took testi- mony of the value, which was regarded as the full worth of the property, which was sworn in the testimony to be worth $70,000. The amount of the damages was arranged by agreement and paid to Mr. Syme. The government then removed these mills entirely and nothing remains to mark the spot of a fine 400-bar- rel roller flour mill and elevator but the bridge-tender shanty of Johnny Jones. The next year, under an act of Congress and an order of the War Department, a new dam was constructed the whole width of the river 350 feet long. containing four 16-foot sluiceways with rolling gates, cut down to bedrock. The dam was laid just below the old dam. which still remains in place, and was founded on the rock and raised to the height of the original dam, six and one-half feet above the bed of the river, with a spill the entire width of the river, excepting the place of the waste-weir. The abutments on either end and the sluice partitions and abutments are heavy stone walls with wing walls set far into shore ends. It is a substantial, handsome structure. About 1900 the secretary of war consented to the request of the mill owner to place. flush boards on the dam twelve inches high, but in 1907, yielding to the pressure of com- plaints of riparian occupants. they were ordered to remain permanently removed, although Captain Jenks explained that the government records showed that the flush boards did not
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CITY OF MENASHA.
cause the high water, as they were only used in low and falling water.
Notwithstanding the constant litigation and complaints be- cause of the maintenance of this dam, there has grown up about it and solely because of it a flourishing city. great manufactur- ing industries and property values of many million dollars. There has been more printed about this dam and more testimony taken because of it than of anything else in the county. In one of the numerous cases arising out of this dam Capt. E. M. Neff, who had run the Fox river then for thirty-three years, was a witness. His reply is worthy to stand with the famous remark of Robert Stevenson as to what would become of the "coo" if she got on the railroad track. A United States engineer had reported the Menasha dam as not necessary to navigation. Mr. Charles Felker asked the . question of Captain Neff: "If the Menasha dam was taken out. would there be any navigation in that channel?" Captain Neff: "Not in low water." Question : "How far would you run?" Answer: "You would run aground."
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LIII.
TIIE PIONEER IN THE HAMLET-THE MILLS OF THE PAST-THE FLUSH DAYS ALONG THE RIVER.
The arrangement of the manufacturing industries along the water power, in a long row of mostly handsome brick structures alive with busy life, presents today an imposing and picturesque picture. It was not always so grand and modern. Formerly these structures were all frame buildings and much smaller. vet in their way as pioneers the mills of the past have had their in- fluence on the flush days of energy and hope with which the new scenes and activity inspired the newcomers from the east. who were seeking to make their fortune in the west. Many of these shops of the olden days were the nucleus of great plants of today, while others are out and the shop with its machinery gone into the serap heap.
On the coming of the Reeds in June of 1848 the rough town was begun to be carved out of the wilderness. Before the close of the year there were located in hastily made log huts and crowded into them. some single and others with their families, an increasing number of strong. young people, full of health and vigor. Among these were Curtis Reed, speculator; Dr. T. J. Noyes, physician ; Cornelius Northrup, carpenter; Coridon P. Northrup, wheelwright; Philo Hine, cabinet maker; George Stiekles, Thomas and William Brotherhood, Henry C. Tate. hotel man; I. M. Noricong. carpenter; William Geer, tailor; J. H. Trude, Norman Clinton and sons, Urial P. Clinton and Luman Clinton, all millwrights; Rev. O. P. Clinton, missionary ; Henry Alden, merchant ; John B. Lagest and family. carpenter; Jere- miah Hunt and family, merchant, and in October Hon. Elbridge Smith, from Maine, an attorney. The following year a host of others came and settled into their different avocations. There was work and a place for all. Mr. Elbridge Smith built the first frame house in the hamlet. It still stands on Water street he- tween Clay and Mill streets. This was the first law office and the first school house. The building was so far completed by Christmas of 1848 that a dance was held in it.
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THE PIONEER IN THE HAMLET.
The first divine service was conducted in the fall in the log tavern by Rev. O. P. Clinton, the bar and sitting room being thrown open for the service. During the meeting several came into the barroom for drinks, but while they waited Mr. Clinton prolonged their anxiety by a lesson in patience, extending his discourse for their benefit.
In the fall of 1848 Mr. Henry C. Tate began the Tate Hotel or tavern, afterward under Mr. Eldredge, so long known as the Menasha House, completed in the spring of 1849, and stood on the corner of Water and Clay streets. Some time after this Mr. Tate moved. on to an island at the foot of the rapids, ever since known as Tate's island. He enlisted for the war and died of a gunshot wound received in the battle of Gettysburg. His daughters were prominent members of society in Menasha in after years. One was married to Mr. R. P. House and one was the wife of Dr. Lex Potter; Nellie was a school teacher and died in 1890. Rev. O. P. Clinton, who had arrived in Neenah with his family in 1846 and occupied one of the old mission block houses on the point under the council tree. had been living in 1846 in the log cabin home of Governor Doty on the island, when in 1848 he obtained a ten-acre tract of land in a beautiful location on the east end of the island and commenced his log cabin dwell- ing, into which he moved with his family in the fall of 1848. This was in a few years replaced by the gothic colonial frame dwelling he occupied so many years in the center of a wide orchard and nursery, where the splendid old preacher lived his active and useful career and where he died June 17, 1900, be- loved and lamented by a very wide circle of friends. The brothers, O. P. Clinton, Edmund Clinton, Norman Clinton and Allen Clinton, all settled at Prairieville and founded the town since known as Waukesha about 1844. In 1846 Rev. O. P. Clin- top, wife and one daughter, Katharine, afterward married to Capt. A. B. Bradish, and adopted daughter, Hattie. afterward married to Warren Meeker, together with Norman Clinton and his sons, Urial P., Luman and Bowman. all located in Neenah. As soon as the improvements were commenced in the north channel of Winnebago Rapids, Mr. Norman Clinton, with his sons, came there and very soon secured the lots on the north end of the dam, where Mr. C. Northrup and Harrison Reed had started to erect a sawmill. They had the assistance of the new- comers and Mr. Cornelius Northrup in its completion. It was a frame building, one story high, about thirty feet wide and
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
much longer. The saw was of the pattern then in use-an up- and-down jig saw. The flume or intake at the forebay. cut through the dam, was planked on its floor and sides, and the water let out on to the wheel curb through a tube about two feet square. The wheel was made by the millwright and consisted of a dozen paddles firmly attached to an oak upright shaft. This wheel was actuated by the impact of the water against the pad- dles as it was forced through the tube from the forebay or river above. All about the wheel there was a heavy planked chamber ' to keep the water to its work against the paddles until -it was released into the wheel pit below and into the tail race. Most of the machinery of the sawmill of that day was made by the millwright on the spot from logs cut near at hand. The first logs for this sawmill were cut on the site of the town growing up about it. This sawmill was started before November 9, 1849, and the head sawyer was Mr. Daniel Wallace Pierce, who was married to Francis Adeline Finch, of Jay, New York. It was in a gang mill at Perue, nine miles from Jay, that Mr. Pierce learned the trade of head sawyer. His wife, afterward Mrs. Lang. still resides in Menasha, at the age of 83, with a memory of olden days unimpaired, having been over the ground two years before a house was built in the present city limits. Many of their descendants reside in the present city. Mr. Norman Clinton, with his son, Urial P. Clinton, moved to Clintonville about 1856 and erected saw and grist mill and dam on the Pigeon river and founded the thriving city to which they gave the name of their family. This property afterward came into possession of Mr. P. V. Lawson, Sr., in 1879, who greatly en- larged and improved it. Mr. S. S. Roby and William Graves. a relative, as pioneer boys were employed in the Clinton sawmill, and Mr. N. C. Bronson was in the flour mill attached the fol- lowing year.
Other sawmills began and completed about the same time were the Porter & Slocum, on the site now occupied by the sash factory; Potter & Duchman's mill, built on the island end of the dam about the same time, and also that of Armstrong Bros. and the Keyes sawmill, on the site afterward of the Webster & Lawson sawmill. By the end of the year 1849 the new arrivals included C'apt. Joseph Keyes and his son, Abel Keyes; Mr. A. D. Page, who took the Clinton mill to run by the thousand in 1850. and afterward moved on to a fine farm north of the city. which remains in his family; S. Lom Hart. the gunsmith, with
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THE PIONEER IN THE HAMLET.
his brother, A. II: Hart, and their parents; William Hughes, Ed- ward O'Connell, Henry Axtel. Mr. L. D. Donaldson, a mill- wright, moved from Neenah with his family, including their son, Mr. Charles V. Donaldson, a soldier of the Civil War, who died this year (1908) ; Lyman Fargo and Joseph W. Thombs, J. A. Sanford, carpenters, William Prentice Rounds and Edward Decker.
The site of the village was platted by Charles Doty and re- corded May 28, 1849. This year also the Decker House was built, so long standing on the north side of the triangle of Main and Chute streets, torn down in 1899 by Adam A. Tuchscherer to give place to the large brick block then erected by him, still standing. The Decker house was built by Mr. Edward Decker and Henry Axtel, commenced in 1849 and completed in 1850. The first birth occurred February 22, 1849, when Lydia M. Hunt was born, daughter of Jeremiah Hunt, and in July a daughter was born to the family of Murray McCallum, and the previous May the first death occurred in the same family of a Fannie McCallum. The cemetery then used was in the Fourth ward, then known as Little Prairie, where the prehistorie aboriginal mounds mentioned in a previous chapter were used for inter- ment, now on Second and Manitowoc streets. In the year 1849 a second store was opened by Mr. John McCune with a stock of general merchandise. In the fall of 1849 the postoffice was established and James R. Lush appointed postmaster. "The office was carried in Jimmy's hat, and it was not a large hat."
The application for the location of a postoffice required the adoption of a name. Just how it was accomplished has not been recorded. The first letter written out of the building hamlet was dated from Waupekun. We find on Captain Cram's map of 1839 this name with II. S. Wright at the location down the Fox river since known as Wrightstown. It is possible this double use of the name was discouraged by the Postoffice De- partment. It is evident no permanent name had been adopted on October 23, 1849, the date of the establishment of the line of navigation on the Fox river through the north channel. as the contract with Mr. Reed names it. "The improvement of the north channel of Fox river at Winnebago Rapids." The earliest use of the name Menasha is found in a petition for lay- ing out a highway in the town of Neenah, since known as Nay- mut street, in Menasha, across the island, which is dated "Menasha, September 1, 1849." and is written in the hand-
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
writing of Governor Doty, who also signed it. This highway ran from the ford across Fox river at Neenah, above the Doty log house, over the island to the dam at Menasha. The next month the records show an order of the supervisors in the hand- writing of Governor Doty, dated October 10, 1849, for the build- ing of a "foot bridge" across the river at the same points "in the highway where the same between the village of Neenah and Menasha cross said stream."
On June 19, 1850, nine months after this, the 50 per cent note made by Beckworth, Sanford & Billings was dated at "Me- nasha," and the letter of Governor Doty mentioned below, dated April 18, 1851, to Col. J. M.' McCarty, was dated at "Menasha, Wisconsan." Mr. William N. Webster says that the wife of Governor Doty gave it the name of "Menasha," signify- ing an "island." Mr. Curtis Reed told the writer it meant the name of the Indian village on the island. Its true etymology in the Indian language cannot be restored. It is doubtless an English spelling of a Winnebago pronunciation, and its true orthography is from the Siouan words "Mini" "haha." or laughing water, referring to the twin falls which ran around their island home. An echo of the same meaning was very early in use by reference to the rapids or waterfall of both channels as Puants Rapids, or the falls of the Winnebago, a name which had clung to the location from the earliest times and only revived in the new form by changing to Menasha from Minnihaha, meaning the same thing. The name Menasha was adopted in the winter of 1849-50 and then first used as a post- office name only. The hamlet had not yet assumed village rela- tions. This winter was also instituted the first public school. It was taught by Mrs. Henry Alden, the first public school teacher.
Mr. II. A. Burts came in February of 1850 and began at once the building of a one run of stone flour mill attached to the Clinton sawmill, a very necessary improvement in the hamlet. About the same time the Fargo & Thombs foundry and machine shop was projected on Tayco street, afterward made into a sash factory and occupied by P. V. Lawson, Sr. This same year there were four sawmills in operation. Mr. S. S. Roby opened a grocery store on Main street at the end of Mill street, on a site still occupied by the building then erected of hewn timbers, three stories high. Mr. E. D. Smith and Dr. J. B. Doane opened a general store on Water street near Tayco, and afterward re-
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THE PIONEER IN THE HAMLET.
moved to the corner of Main and Mill streets, now occupied by the "Hotel Menasha." Charles Roeser opened a grocery store on Tayco street near the canal. John Potter, Jr., the second attorney, came here from Pennsylvania. In the year 1850 the now extensive Menasha Woodenware Company had its very small beginning, and Mr. Ira C. Eldridge established a furniture factory and Capt. Joseph Keyes erected their sawmill on the site last occupied for a sawmill by Lawson & Strange. This same year Carlton and Cleveland B. Batchelder located here and commenced the construction of a kiln for burning pottery and inaugurated the extensive pottery, which, until transporta- tion made competition too strong for them, was a great success. They made brown stoneware of local clays with Ohio clay for a . slip. George Cameron, afterward of Oshkosh, and L. M. Taylor began a mercantile business.
As the record of the residents in the village of Menasha is mingled with those of the village of Winnebago Rapids (later Neenah), the only record of actual pioneers is the tax list of road district No. 1, which covered the territory of Menasha, ex- cluding Neenah. As each male resident is bound to pay 75 cents poll tax, the list will be complete of citizens. This list shows for 1850 the following names :
Armstrong & Stickel, Thomas Armstrong, Reuben Armstrong, C. R. Alton, E. A. Alden, Henry Alden, E. A. Bates, N. Beck- with, S. Brotherhood, Carlton Batchelder, Cleveland Batchelder. Batchelder, N. Bronson, C. W. Billings, J. L. Bishop,
George Blin, U. P. Clinton, Chappe, O. P. Clinton, L. B. Curtis, George Colburn, Charles Doty, Doane & Smith, A. F. David, J. B. Doan, M. A. Donaldson, L. H. Donaldson, Henry Dietzen, H. H. Ermsting, Ira Eldredge, H. B. Ellinger, Isaac Fargo, L. Fargo, A. Foley, L. G. Floyd, Nois Fratt, George Gillet, William Graves, James Gambell, S. Galentine, A. H. Hart, C. D. Haven, E. Horton, William Hughes, A. Hoeffel, A. Hawley, P. Hansen, P. Iline, E. Hunter, Catharine Drietzen, C. D. Haverns, I. Hough, Walkin A. Hakes, John Harbeck. John Hale, Iviso Hale, A. Groves, N. P. Graves, Leuke Gates, O. Jones, William Jeffries, Daniel Jones, Joseph Keyes, C. Kimball, John Kruger, C. S. Kimball, James Kimball, Abel Keyes, J. K. Lush, J. P. Lockwood, Franick Lamon, Peter Lang, Clark Lang, C. Northrup, I. M. Narricong, C. P. Northrup, S. McKuh, W. G. McSpadam, H. Morgan, John A. Mckeon, A. Mckeon, D. Mc- Ginnis, J. Montgomery, D. O'Hara, Thomas Price, Charles
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
Price, Charles Puffer, Courtney Puffer, Isaac Puffer, John Por- ter, A. D. Page, J. S. Redfield, Charles Rocson, S. Robinson, E. Ramona, L. D. Rice, Slocum & Porter, Stocking & Blin, William Slocum, A. K. Spring, Joseph Sanford, William Smith, E. Smith, William Slocum, J. T. Sanborn, Hugh Sells, A. Spaulding, G. Sly, Temple & IIale, Thombs & Co., J. W. Thombs, H. C. Tait, S. H. Trude, E. Temple, S. Tassee, James Underwood, Bishop & Scott, Norman Wolcott, Amos Warner, Nathaniel Wolcott. G. W. White, L. Williams, Thomas N. West, S. Walch, C. C. York. Chapman & Whitney, E. F. O'Connell, Reuben Scott, Joseph Nugent, Thomas Reynolds, Julius Reynolds, Andrew Stevens, Francis Stocking, George W. Stickle, C. C. Stickle, Mr. White, Nathaniel Priest, Hanson IIard, J. G. Potter & Co., B. F. Brown, E. D. Smith, W. Duchman and John Potter, Jr.
The only means of travel then was by boat or team. This place became then a boating point for the Lake Winnebago and upriver traffic, and boat yards were established for the con- struction of boats and barges. A dredge was constructed here under direction of the state of Wisconsin by the board of public works during this season and placed in commission on the Fox river.
This dredge was taken upriver to Portage and used in the construction of the canal across to the Wisconsin river. The dredge propelled herself upriver, taking several weeks, dredg- ing a channel for herself. She was engaged on the Portage canal for four years and then returned down river. The dredge went to pieces after some twenty years on the east shore at Clifton, where the wreck lay for many years.
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