History of Barron County Wisconsin, Part 11

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1922
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1767

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But with the coming of fall, nearly every male adult inhabitant of the county started for the woods, leaving the women and children alone.

The scenes about the lumber camps in Barron County are ones never to be forgotten by those who saw them. Some of the camps were of a pretentious nature, with bunk shacks, cook shacks, stables, stores and blacksmith shops, and became the sites of permanent settlements. Others were temporary, and consisted of a shack for sleeping and eating, and a stable for the draught animals.

The more pretentious camps were in charge of caretakers during the summer season. The temporary ones were abandoned as soon as the timber in the vicinity was cut off.

But whether pretentious or temporary the camps presented about the same kind of life for the workmen.

A typical lumber camp in any of the Wisconsin pineries presented to the spectator a combination of animated sights and sounds. The rapid tap of the chopper's axe, the sudden crush as here and there a majestic pine thun- dered to earth, the swish of the needles as the branches were trimmed from the trunks, the commands of the foreman, the voices of the drivers, the rattle of chains as the logs were snaked into piles, the jingle of bells as the sled with its load of gathered logs slowly moved off to the river or lake bank, or returned on a run for a new burden of logs, the hearty shouts of the red shirted lumberjacks as they hastened about their work in the keen and exhil- arating air-all this was the foreground for which, in strange contrast, the background was the solemn grandeur of the forest.

Work in a logging camp was no sinecure. No union labor was there and no eight hour law. The hours commenced at daylight and only ended with

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HISTORY OF BARRON COUNTY

darkness. Teamsters generally continued their duty long after daylight had gone, in the care and attention which it was necessary to give to their teams.

Next to the foreman the influential man in the camp was the cook. He had a helper who was termed a "taffel" or "cookee." When meals were ready the cook did not announce that "dinner is served," but he announced the same fact in two stentorian words, "grub pile." The food was not elaborate, but it was substantial and usually plentiful.

With the opening of the spring and the disappearance of the snow from the logging roads the winter activities came to an end.

Energies of the lumbermen were then turned to the log drive. Presently rivers were freed from their imprisoning coat of ice and the spring floods were at hand to carry the logs to the mills.

Unfortunate indeed was the lumberman, particularly when his operations took him far up stream, if the melting snow and the spring rains produced only a slight raise of water. Then his logs were tied up, and he must wait for a more favorable year to carry them to market.

But when the river was high, the red-shirts, handspike in hand, gaily set about the hazardous work of "breaking" the rollways, and delivering to the swollen stream the accumulated harvest of the winter's work.

The drive was the most picturesque, as it was certainly the most danger- ous period of the season's operations. Down the ice-cold torrent, thousands upon thousands of logs went surging and hurtling, sometimes halting at an obstruction, as if in hesitation, and piling up in rude masses, then rushing onward again with greater momentum than before.

It was the business of the drivers to keep this unstable mass constantly moving over obstructions, across rapids and waterfalls, and around bends in the stream. Occasionally, unless it could be quickly broken, an obstruction piled up the charging mass behind it to huge proportions. For many rods up the river the pine was piled and wedged, completely obliterating for that distance all sight of water. Upon such a confused and treacherous mass the hardy drivers ventured with their iron-shod spikes, seeking with practiced eye to discover and, if possible, dislodge the logs that formed the key to the triangle. Many a daring fellow lost his life in the wild rush of struggling pine that followed the successful breaking of the jam.

Every hour of the day was filled with thrills and danger and the most strenuous work. When night fell, the "Waunegan" boat that carried the tents, blankets and supplies, was headed for the shore, camp was made, fires were built, and after a hearty meal, tired out with the day's hard work, the men slept the sleep of the healthy, to be routed out at daybreak for a repetition of the labors of the day before.

There was a flavor or resemblance in these men, with their boats and camps and songs, that called up at once, their prototypes, the old French- Canadian voyageurs, but the days of them are now past and gone.

After the coming of the railroads, and the dwindling of the streams, many of the logs were taken to the railroad sidings and loaded on cars, in- stead of being piled on the river banks and floated down the stream. Some, too, were taken to the sawmills which began to spring up here and there in the county.

Even some of the younger men of the county remember the quaint "sum- mer logging" with the log tramways and the crude tramcars, especially that of the late eighties.

A scant snowfall made the usual winter logging difficult. The mills needed the logs. Consequently, here and there tracks were laid of slender logs, mostly hemlocks and tameracks, pegged together. Over these crude tracks were operated the curious tramcar, with wide flanged wheels, the flanges of which fastened over the logs.

On a down grade, the horses were fastened behind the load instead of in front of it. Woe betide the luckless driver if his crude break did not work,

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for then the load plunged down the track, overturning and spilling the load, and sometimes dragging the horses along with it.

The county was in the early logging days under the domination of an abso- lute autocracy. The lumber company, its superintendents and its foremen reigned supreme. They ruled with the great power of the influence behind them, and they ruled with fists as well. When an order was given it had to be obeyed.

A man in disfavor with the boss, superintendent or company official was bad off indeed. He could obtain no work in the entire region, he could get no provisions at the company stores, and even the hospitable bunkhouse bunk and meal, usually given free to any journeying logger, was refused him. A peremptory discharge left a man in the woods without money or food, with no means of obtaining transportation, and facing a long foodless tramp through the winter woods before he was out of the company's territory.

The company, for the most part, had charge of county affairs also. Its fav- orites were placed in office, and their every action dictated. Should a show of legality be desired, countless hundreds of lumber jacks could be claimed as residents and herded to the polls. Once in a while some man, independent of the company, was brave enough to offer defiance, as in the case of the bring- ing of the county records to Barron in 1874, but it took a courageous man in- deed to defy such absolute power, and as a rule, any man who would not lis- ten to company dictation, whether he was in the employ of the company or not, was speedily crushed and forced to leave.

Even after the close of the logging days the same spirit remained in the county to some extent, and well into the present century there were men who still attmpted to use the old lumber boss methods in obtaining their wishes in personal and public affairs.

On Aug. 12, 1903, the Knapp, Stout & Co. disposed of all its interests in Barron county to the Wisconsin Power Co. S. D. Stout, however, still owns a considerable tract about Cedar Lake, including the Lone Pine and Cedar Lake farms, two of the best equipped and best stocked farms in the county, and a beautiful island summer place.

In the late seventies sawmills assumed increasing importance. By 1881 there were quite a number in the county. Statistics for that year show an output as follows: Barron. George Parr & Son, 1,000,000 feet (cut, 500,000). Cartwright. D. J. Cartwright & Co., 900,000 (cut, 200,000). Chetek. P. Ben- son, 4,000,000; Forest Lumber Co., 5,000,000. Granite Lake. L. O. Larsen, 2,000,000. Knapp, Stout & Co. (not reported). Cumberland. L. O. Larsen, 1,500,000. Beaver Lake Lumber Co., 12,000,000 (cut, 155,000). Oliver & Co., 8,000,000. Soule & Rood, 5,000,000 (cut, 4,000,000). J. D. Graw & Co., 5,- 000,000. J. Bennett, 1,000,000. Northern Lumber Co., 5,000,000 (cut, 3,- 500,000). Turtle Lake. S. F. Richardson & Co., 3,000,000 (cut, 500,000). Perley. Andrews & Perley, 7,000,000. Barronett. Barronett Lumber Co., 11,000,000 (cut, 22,500).

At Barron, J. J. Smith and N. Carpenter erected a mill on the Yellow river in 1878. They sold to the Speed Brothers, who disposed of it to Parr, Post & Co. (consisting of George Parr, John Post and S. J. Parr). The mill was entirely rebuilt, the dam reconstructed, new water wheels and new machinery furnished, and other improvements made under the supervision of James Post, millwright. The plant consisted of a double rotary, with a capacity of 30,000 feet a day, a shingle mill of 35,000 production, a planer, lath and picket ma- chines, a resaw for the manufacture of siding, and a turning lathe for both wood and iron. Thomas W. Parr purchased John Post's interest in the prop- erty in 1882 and the firm became George Parr & Son. In May, 1889, the firm became merged in the Parr Manufacturing Co. The mill property was burned Sept. 17, 1890. The company then bought the entire machinery and fittings of the steam sawmill at Turtle Lake, formerly belonging to Joel Richardson, and set it up near the site of the old mill at Barron. The new plant had a

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HISTORY OF BARRON COUNTY

capacity of 40,000 feet a day. In the spring of 1891 the company purchased the shingle mill of J. W. Stone at Turtle Lake, and erected it near their other mill. A few years later the company disposed of the property. It passed through various hands, and was finally burned down. The waterpower is now used by the city of Barron.

In 1886, W. B. Judd erected a large steam saw and stave mill, principally for the manufacture of hardwood lumber, staves and heading, its capacity being 40,000 feet a day. This was northeast of the present canning factory. It was dismantled in the early nineties.

The J. W. Mckesson stave and heading mill was erected on the present site of the canning factory the same year. It had a daily capacity of 25,000 staves and 10,000 headings.

E. N. Stebbins put up a stave and heading mill in 1891, located on the present site of the cattle sheds. His brother-in-law, W. L. Morris, and his son, E. N. Stebbins, Jr., later became partners, and the business was continued by them after the founder's death. The mill was burned in the fall of 1896, was rebuilt, damaged in the cyclone of 1898, rebuilt, burned in 1902, and in 1905 blew up, killing one of the workmen. It was then rebuilt and the busi- ness continued for some ten years more.

There are still two wood working establishments in Barron, August Wes- lin, of the Barron Wood Works, making sash doors and windows, office and store furniture, and other articles; and the Wenzel Brothers, manufacturing office and store furniture.

At Rice Lake in 1870, Knapp, Stout & Co. erected a waterpower saw- mill and grist mill. The grist mill was rebuilt into a planing mill. In 1890, the sawmill and planing mill were leased to the Rice Lake Lumber Co., re- modeled and fitted with new machinery.

The Rice Lake Lumber Co. was organized in 1883, with a capital of $500,- 000, later increased. The officers were: President, O. H. Ingram; vice-presi- dent, William Carson; secretary, C. A. Chamberlin; treasurer, W. K. Coffin, all of Eau Claire. The company erected extensive saw mills and planing works, with large lumber yards. In 1890, as noted, it leased part of the Knapp, Stout & Co. property. On Aug. 19, 1919, the property was sold to the Park Falls Lumber Co., who have extensive works at that point, and operate one of the most important industries in the county. Most of its lumber comes from northeast of the county.

Other woodworking establishments have been erected at Rice Lake from time to time, some of considerable importance.

At the present time, in addition to the extensive operations of the Park Falls Lumber Co., the Rice Lake Manufacturing Co., the Ashland Manufac- turing Co. and C. Mercier & Sons, do general woodworking, the Hammond Lumber Co. has a mill, and the McKinnan Manufacturing Co. makes spokes, handles and hubs. There is also a large excelsior plant.

At Cumberland, Messrs. C. W. Griggs and A. G. Foster, of St. Paul, estab- lished a general store in 1879, and in connection therewith, engaged in pur- chasing cordwood, piling and railroad ties. In 1880, T. P. Stone and J. C. Maxwell purchased 100,000,000 feet of pine timber in the vicinity of Cum- berland, and in the fall put up a steam sawmill in the village. In 1881 the Messrs. Griggs, Foster, Stone and Maxwell consolidated, and organized the Cumberland Lumber Co. which a few months later was transferred to the Beaver Lake Lumber Co. of which H. E. Southwell was president, Jeff T. Heath, secretary, and L. B. Boyce, treasurer. The capacity of the mill was about 25,000,000 a year. After several changes in ownership the plant was sold to Messrs. C. W. Griggs, A. G. Foster and J. F. Miller, who incorporated the Beaver Dam Lumber Co. with a capital of $200,000 on Jan. 1, 1888, and in 1891 erected a band saw and shingle mill to cut 60,000 feet of lumber and 175,- 000 shingles daily.

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Many other smaller mills were built at Cumberland, until at one time in the middle eighties, there were more mills at Cumberland than in all the rest of the county put together.

At North Cumberland, Mansfield & Lang built a steam sawmill with plan- ers, shingle and lath machinery. This was purchased by N. L. Hunter, who built it after its destruction by fire, giving it a capacity of 60,000 feet of lum- ber and 120,000 shingles daily.

The Cumberland Fruit Package Co. is the principal representative of the woodworking industry in the northwestern part of the county at the present time. It manufactures a general line of fruit packages, consisting of berry crates of all kinds, repacking baskets, grape and peach baskets and apple boxes. About a million feet of birch is used each year. Originally, this was obtained near Cumberland, but is now shipped in from outside. The busi- ness was started in 1910 by H. G. Monstad, Julius Ewald and Lewis Larson, of whom Mr. Larson is still actively identified with the concern. A com- plete history of the concern accompanies his biographical sketch which ap- pears in this volume.

At Barronett, formerly called Foster, the plant of the Barronett Lumber Co. was established in 1881. The company was formed that year at St. Paul, with a capital of $150,000. The officers were: President, Artemus Lamb; vice- president and general manager, W. R. Bourne; secretary and treasurer, David Joyce. The sawmill had two band saws, and there were also lath and shingle mills. The annual product in the busy years was about 10,000,000 feet.

At Turtle Lake, Stephen F. Richardson built a mill in 1879, which passed through several hands and in 1890 was purchased by the Parr Manufactur- ing Co. and removed to Barron. In 1890, J. W. Stone erected a saw and shingle mill at Turtle Lake, which was also sold to the Parr Manufacturing Co. and removed to Barron in 1891.

Near Chetek, Knapp, Stout & Co. erected a steam sawmill and planing mill in 1876, which they operated until 1888, when the lumber was exhausted. Willis Glaze erected a steam sawmill at Chetek in 1888, which a year or so later was removed to a location near the railroad. P. Benson and the Forest Lumber Co. had mills there in the eighties. Geo. Slawson now has a sawmill and a planing mill at Chetek.

At Sprague, south of Cumberland, Sprague Brothers erected a sawmill in 1880.

At Perley, north of Turtle Lake, Andrews & Perley erected a mill in 1880. At Poskin the Poskin Lake Lumber Co. erected a steam sawmill in 1887. D. J. Cartright & Son built a mill in 1882.

At Granite Lake, P. Bensen built a mill about 1880.

Other mills were also built here and there, mostly in the eighties.

At Haugen, the Haugen Box & Crating Co. has been operating some three years.

There are still a few small sawmills in the county, mostly of the portable variety, and also a few small planing mills. With this exception, the mills of the county, except at Rice Lake, are about all gone. At Cumberland, the Cum- berland Fruit Package Co. is an important industry, and several other wood- working establishments are flourishing at different places, but woodworking no longer dominates the industrial situation.

Wood is cut each year in Barron county for fuel. Once in a while a load of logs is marketed. A little hardwood is still harvested. But the lumbering days are gone, and the county is now turning its attention to agriculture, and producing wealth, where during the logging and lumbering days, the county's life blood was continually drained out.

The reign of the lumber company is over, the power of the logging bosses is gone, the independent and prosperous farmers have taken their place. Year by year the blackened stumps are being cleared, and further and further the lumber camp days are receding into the memories of the past.

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CHAPTER XII.

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION.

The first routes of travel in Barron county were its lakes and rivers, over which glided the canoes of the Aborigines. Situated as it is in the region south of Lake Superior, and giving access from that body of water to the St. Croix and Mississippi region, the county was early traversed with Indian trails, used by the Indians and traders alike.

With the coming of civilization, government, territorial and state high- ways were ordered laid out in this region, but they consisted mainly of tenta- tive routes, rather than of improvements. Then came the "tote" roads of the lumber companies, leading to the various lumber camps.

The principal state road in this county in the sixties, entered the county in section 33, township 32, range 13 (Prairie Farm), and followed a northerly direction to "Station 19", in section 18, township 35, range 12 (Stanfold), through the present towns of Prairie Farm, Arland and Clinton, and possibly corners of Barron and Cumberland, thence into Stanfold.

The first official road action taken within the county was on April 5, 1864, when the town of Dallas, then embracing the whole county, laid a highway tax of six mills on the dollar. Jan. 28, 1865, the town voted Knapp, Stout & Co. $364 for work done on highways.

April 2, 1867, John C. Johnson was elected path master of the town. April 7, 1868, the town was divided into three road districts. W. N. Chapman was appointed path master for the first district, embracing the townships in ranges 10 and 11; John Garrett for the second district, embracing the townships in range 12; and Levi Miller for the third district, embracing the townships in ranges 13 and 14.

The first road petitions presented to the town board were on April 21, 1869, and were signed by Rassman Kellogg, August Roemhild, John Conrad Rassbach, John Casper Rassbach, Gottlieb Spielman, Abram Kellogg and Van- derman Kellogg. One asked for a road commencing on the county line at the southeast corner of section 35, township 32, range 13 (Prairie Farm), running north to the northeast corner of the section, thence west to intersect with the designed Pine Creek-Prairie Farm road. Another asked for a Pine Creek- Prairie Farm road. This road was to extend westward through sections 28, 29 and 30, township 32, range 12 (west Dallas), thence southwest through sec- tions 25, 26, and 27, township 32, range 13 (Prairie Farm), and thence west along the line between sections 28 and 33, to the state road, in the Hay River valley. These petitions indicated that at that time there was already an old road leading in that vicinity from the Pine creek to the Hay river, and one leading from the Washburn Farms in Dunn county, past Francis Finley's place in Dallas township, to the county seat near Barron. Still another road was asked by the same petitioners along the county line, connecting the Menomonie-Hay river state road with the Washburn Farms-Barron road.

April 28, 1869, the town was asked to lay out a road leaving the state road in section 9, township 32, range 13 (Prairie Farm), and extending in a northeast direction to a point in section 30, township 32, range 12 (west Maple Grove), west of the present village of Hillsdale. It was to pass just south of the famous S. K. Young cabin in section 10, Prairie Farm. The signers were Samuel K. Young, Frank, Levi, William, Andrew and Alex Miller, Isaac Sprague and three others whose names cannot now be read.

May 24, 1869, the board voted a public road along a route already traveled, extending from near the present Hillsdale to Prairie Farm village, and thence south along the state road route to the county line at John Myers. From Prairie Farm northeast the road led past the Young place to a point about a mile and a half west from Hillsdale. It was thence extended toward Barron,

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entering that place from the southwest, past the present brick yard, and along the south side of Quaderer creek to the Quaderer camp, a well traveled route. Aug. 6, 1873, the county board took over one state highway and two town roads. The state highway was the one already mentioned, extending from the county line northward to Prairie Farm, and thence northward up the Hay River valley and thence northeast to section 18, Stanfold township. One of the town roads (the Washburn Farm-Finley-Barron route) entered the county in section 32, township 32, range 12 (west Dallas), and led by way of the Francis Finley place on that section northward past the present site of Hills- dale, and entered Barron from the east past the present F. J. Krahenbuhl farm. The other road entered the county in section 31, township 32, range 10 (Dovre), and led by way of Chetek to Rice Lake, passing east of the cran- berry marsh at Cameron.

These, with the road from Prairie Farm to Barron and three routes from Barron, two of which led to Rice Lake, and one of which skirted the Cameron cranberry marsh toward Chetek, constituted the principal routes of travel for some years. Another much traveled route from the south entered the county near Cartwright, skirted to the eastward of the Chetek system of lakes, and passed near old Sumner to Rice Lake. From Rice Lake, a route was early established to the French settlement to the northward. Routes also led here and there and everywhere in the wilderness, and the outposts of civilization were pushed further and further.

As the years passed, the road system grew. Gradually the tote roads and the private cart paths gave way to established highways. But progress was slow, and even at the dawn of the present century, some of the roads that are now important routes between the larger settlements were but little more than trails along the old tote roads through the woods and slashings, and many of the farms were far away from traveled highways, connected by such trails as the farmers themselves made across their fields and lots, through the woods and stumps.

With the increase of population and wealth, as the dairy farm more and more took the place of the lumber camp the need for better highways became imperative, and increasing attention was given to roads and bridges.

The first ten years of this century witnessed considerable town road im- provement. Each town was divided into road districts, usually about six, and the roads of each district were in charge of the path master. Many of the property owners worked out their road taxes by laboring on the highways under the supervision of these path masters.

In these ten years many of the main roads were worked into condition which during favorable weather may be described as fair for those days when the principal traffic was by horse and vehicles. But during the wet seasons the roads were miry and almost impassable, and in the winter time were often blocked for the whole season.

Gradually, however, the automobile was coming into use, and the need for highway building and maintenance along scientific lines was imperative.

In 1911, the State having rapidly increased in wealth and population, a State Aid Highway Law was passed. This provided for an annual appropria- tion of $350,000 of the state funds for the benefit of the highways of the com- monwealth.

Under this act, the county boards were to lay out a comprehensive and in- telligent method of highway improvement by establishing a system of highway routes covering the principal lines of highway traffic in their respective counties.

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History of Barron County Wisconsin, Part 11

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1767

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1922
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1767