USA > Wisconsin > Eau Claire County > History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present; including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county > Part 61
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"I have given the foregoing almost verbatim, partly because so few have taken pains to send me their war experience on paper, and because it is a concise narration of one of the most remark- able campaigns in the history of the world."
(Signed) T. E. Randall.
On his return from the war he was employed on the steamer Phil Sheridan, running on the Chippewa river, and that winter was in the logging camp of Pond (William H.) & MeVicar, scal- ing, keeping books, etc. June 20, 1866, he married Miss Mary S. Davenport, at Middlebury, Vt. That fall and winter he elerked in the store of Wilson & Foster on the corner where now stands the Howard Culver Company's shoe store. During the spring of 1867 Mr. Allen and Captain M. W. Harris became partners under the name of Allen & Harris and founded the first furniture store of Ean Claire in a building on the present opera house site, which building was burned in 1870. The firm then occupied the build- ing in the middle of the next block north, now owned by Mrs. M. W. Harris. The firm was dissolved in 1877 and Mr. Allen thereafter established the pioneer music store of the city, first on Barstow street and soon after pnt np the buildings on Grand ave- nue east, now occupied by the Allen-Johnson Company.
Mr. Allen continned in the business until 1906, when he turned
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it over to his son. James E. Allen, and Hans Johnson. Five chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Allen, three of whom are living: Mrs. Edna, wife of James Long, of Mexico City, Mexico; Fred H. Allen, druggist at Tacoma, Wash., and James E. Allen, Ean Claire, Wis. In 1878 Mr. Allen was instrumental with others in organizing the first militia company in Eau Claire after the war. The Eau Claire city guards was organized with D. C. Whipple as captain, M. E. O'Connell first and E. W. Allen second lieutenants.
On the 18th day of February, 1908, while sitting in the opera house waiting for the lecture of W. J. Bryan, he suddenly and without warning passed away at the age of 64 years.
Emily G. Allen. Emily Gertrude Pond, who became the wife of James Allen in 1842, was born at Calais, Maine, July 21, 1825, and was the eldest of the four children of Charles Pond, who was drowned in the St. Croix river at Calais, Maine, in 1831, and Cynthia Scott Pond : Cynthia Scott was a daughter of the eldest brother of General Winfield Scott, whose grandfather, James Scott, a Scotchman of Clan Buceleuch, escaping after the disas- trous battel of ('ulloden, where he fought for the pretender of the English throne, fled to Virginia, where he settled.
Sir Walter Scott's ancestors were of the same Clan Buccleuch and family. The Duke of Buccleuch, now living in Scotland, still represents the clan and the blood of this Scott family.
Mrs. Allen used to tell her children of sitting on the knee of General Winfield Scott when she was a little girl and that the general was a relative of her mother's.
A history of the life of General Scott shows that in 1839 he was sent by the President of the United States to settle some trouble between the State of Maine and the English in New Bruns- wiek over some disputed land lying along the border, and it was probably at that time he visited his relatives at Calais, Maine.
Cynthia Scott Pond went to Sheboygan, Wis., with her daugh- ter, Mrs. Allen, when the family moved in 1850 and died there in August, 1851, at the age of fifty-five years.
After the drowning of her husband in Maine she made a brave struggle to care for her four small children and to educate them as best she could. Emily was the oldest and at the time of the death of her father was only six years old. She was of bright and retentive mind, a natural grammarian and speller, and obtained a fair common school education for those days. After her marriage she lived in Baring till 1850 and gave her life to the duties of her home and motherhood. Her life in Maine, in Sheboygan, Two Rivers and the early years of Eau Claire was that common to the
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early pioneers of new countries, rigorous, primitive, filled with hard work, little relaxation and few luxuries, but through it all her sweet nature, her loving kindness to her children, loyalty to her wifely duties and faith in her Maker sustained her and gave her courage and strength to perform her daily tasks. The old Allen homestead where her children grew up, married and moved to homes of their own was always open to friends, children, grand- children and her kindred generally. It was the Mecca for those who had gone away. She was a faithful and consistent member and worker of the Baptist Church, one of the first members after its organization in the early days of Eau Claire. After her hus- band was compelled to live South, owing to his injuries, she and her son Charles lived in the old home as she could not stand the summer heat of Florida. She was never very strong and at the age of seventy-seven she died in Eau Claire, September 2, 1902, beloved and mourned by all who knew her.
James Allen was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, February 14, 1821. His father was an Irishman, an officer in the English army stationed at Ilalifax. Ilis mother was an English lady. His parents died when he was a small boy and at twelve years of age he began to make his own way in the world, and in 1833 he drifted to Maine, where at Calais and Baring he grew up to man- hood, working in the mills, the woods and at farming and fish- ing. His schooling was limited. Ile was possessed of great vitality and strength and hardly had a sick day in his life and was always industrious and a hard worker.
In 1842, in Calais, Maine, he was married to Emily Gertrude l'ond and settled at Baring, Maine, where they lived until 1850. There were born to them in that place Edward Wellington, Janu- ary 15, 1843; Emily Maria. 1845, and James Frederick, February 15, 1847. During these years he accumulated considerable prop- erty and was running a hotel. One Sunday morning in 1849 his little son, Edward, built a fire in the manger of the barn to "warm the chickens," as he said, resulting in the loss of the barn and most of its contents as well as the hotel. Ile had made all arrangements to go to California as gold had been discovered there shortly before, but this disaster prevented.
In 1850 the Allen and Pond clans living in and near Baring emigrated to Wisconsin and settled in Sheboygan. Here Cora Ella Allen was born November 13, 1856. About 1858 the family moved to Two Rivers, Manitowoc county, and there, June 3, 1858, Charles Levi Allen was born. During these nine years from 1850 to 1859 James Allen was engaged most of the time in lumbering,
JAMES ALLEN
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as were his brothers-in-law Levi W. and William S. Pond. In the fall of 1859, with his family and five ehildren, moved to Eau Claire and lived in a rented house for several years at the corner of Seventh avenue and Menomonie street, just across the avenue from where he built his home during the early years of the war, which home remained in the family until after the death of his wife and himself.
In the fall of 1859 James Allen and Levi W. Pond made a two years' contract with the owners of the West Eau Claire saw mills to control the logs in the Chippewa river so that they would float into the sorting works just above the river end of the log race to Half Moon lake, where those belonging to Eau Claire would be sorted from the down river logs and saved for the home mills. Others had tried by different kinds of booms to control the logs, but had failed. A successful boom had to be opened easily and quickly, to allow the passage of rafts and steamboats and as quickly closed again to control the logs, and such a boom was not known that would work equally well in low water with few logs as in the swift current of high river filled with rapidly running logs. Out of these two years of struggle with a swift river bearing millions of dollars' worth of the finest white pine logs ever known came this wonderful sheer boom which was afterwards patented by Mr. Pond and which revolutionized the logging indus- try of America. (The success of these two men with the boom is described at length in the "History of the Chippewa Valley," by_ Thomas E. Randall, and published in 1875, pages 90 to 94.) At the expiration of this contract Mr. Allen contracted with Ingram & Kennedy to raft all the lumber of their mills and later for the mills of the Empire Lumber Company, and from 1861 to 1890 he had charge of that important phase of the lumbering operations of those great coneerns. In 1890 he was badly injured in a rail- road wreck in Florida, from which he never fully recovered, and had to give up heavy labor and was unable to withstand the severe northern winters, so he made his home in De Land, Fla., and became a partner in the furniture business with his son, James Fred Allen, who had gone South in August, 1875. On the morning of June 24, 1904, he was found dead in his bed in De Land, having passed away in the night without preliminary siek- ness. His body was brought to Eau Claire and laid beside that of his wife in Lakeview cemetery.
James Fred Allen enlisted for service in the Civil War Feb- ruary 29, 1864, in Company K, 36th regiment, Wisconsin Volum- teer infantry, before lie was seventeen years old. He was eap-
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tured at the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, and lay in An- dersonville prison, suffering with his comrades as few prisoners have ever suffered in eivilized warfare until April 28, 1865. Gen- eral Lee had surrendered his army April 9, and General Johnston April 26, and the Civil War was over. A prisoner who had escaped from that horrible prison had reported to Edward W. Allen, an offieer in Sherman's army, that he had seen his brother Fred carried out to be buried, and all at home believed that he had sneeumbed to the privations and sufferings of that hell on earth- Andersonville prison. Ilis funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Hamilton, of Eau Claire, shortly after the news had been received of his death. It was with great rejoicing in the Allen home that a letter from Fred was received one May morning that he was alive and on his way home. Myron Briggs was the bearer of that momentous letter, bringing it from the postoffice on the east side to the Allen home on Menomonie street and giving it to Mrs. Allen, lying siek on her couch. Ilis homecoming was a veri- table return from the grave. Fred never fully recovered from that eleven months of prison life. After the war he kept books for Noah Shaw in his foundry near Ingram & Kennedy's mills, for many years, until he went South in search of health in 1875. lle is now (1914) living in De Land and engaged with his son Gus in the furniture business. While living in Eau Claire he married Miss Kitty Norton, niece of John P. Pinkum, October 8, 1872. Cora E., his sister, was married to J. F. Ellis in the fall of 1875 at Eau Claire. The eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Allen -Maria E .- died in 1861.
William A. Allen, after finishing his edueation at the State University in 1884, went to Florida and with his brother Fred opened the first drug store in that city. He is still (1914) living there in the same business and is the postmaster of the city of De Land.
James E. Allen, of the firm of The Allen-Johnson Company, dealers in general musical merchandise, is the son of Edward W. and Mary F. (Davenport) AAllen. Ilis father and also his grand- father, James Allen (sketches of whom appear elsewhere in this work ), were both prominently identified with the business and industrial interests of Eau Claire.
James E. Allen was born in Eau Claire, March 6, 1881. He grew to manhood in the eity, receiving his education in the public schools, and began his business eareer as clerk and bookkeeper in his father's musie store, and in 1906, having mastered all the de- tails of the business, he, associated with Mr. H. E. Johnson, pur-
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chased his father's interest, and since that time the business which was established by his father in 1877 has been conducted under the firm name of The Allen-Johnson Company and is the leading establishment of its kind in Eau Claire. They deal in all kinds of musical instruments, including pianos, organs, phonographs, stringed instruments, etc.
Mr. Allen was married August 17, 1907, to Miss Maude Eliza- beth Cernagham, daughter of James A. and Elizabeth (Moore) Cernagham. of the town of Union, Eau Claire county. Mrs. Allen died April 14, 1913, leaving besides her husband two children named Mary Elizabeth and Grace Allen.
In religious belief Mr. Allen is a Congregationalist and fra- ternally he is a member of the Elks Lodge.
Anton M. Anderson, Register of Deeds for Eau Claire county, is the son of Brede and Marie (Erickson) Anderson. The father was a merchant in Norway, where he spent his life and there died.
Anton M. was born at Kongsvinger, Norway, May 25, 1863, and is the eldest of a family of seven children, as follows: Emil resides in Eau Claire, Hannah is the wife of Jens Munthe Dahl and lives in Christiania, Norway, Bernhard lives in Minneapolis, Minn., and Jacob at Eau Claire, Wis. Those deceased are Harry and Carl. Mr. Anderson received his education in the high schools at Kongsvinger, Norway. After leaving school he clerked in his father's store for one and one-half years, and in 1880 came to America. He located at Porter's Mills, in Eau Claire county, and spent one season at saw mill work, and for the following five years was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He then became asso- viated with the Northwestern Lumber Company, and for twelve years was manager and bookkeeper for that concern in its various departments. In 1900 he was elected to the office of Register of Deeds, and has been re-elected to the office every two years since. Fraternally he is a Mason, a member of the Chapter and Com- mandery ; he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the 1. S. W. A. and the Sons of Norway.
On November 9, 1885, Mr. Anderson was married to Miss Shanette Berg, daughter of Christian Berg, of Eau Claire, Wis., and they have six children, as follows: Bertha M., wife of William Dungan ; Harry M., Dana M., Walter M., Robert M., and Anton M. Anderson, Jr.
Ralph E. Arnold, the popular druggist and postmaster of Fair- child, Eau Claire county, Wis., was born at Corning, N. Y., December 1, 1844, the son of William J. and Harriet N. (Kress) Arnold. His paternal grandfather, Asa Arnold, was born in
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Smithfield, R. I., February 3, 1770, and his wife, Patience, grand- mother of our subject, was born in the same town September 14, 1788. They were the parents of ten children, one of whom, Wil- liam J., father of our subject, was born August 14, 1810, at Smith- field, R. I. He was educated in his native town and at Providence, finishing with an academic course. He married October 26, 1841, Harriet N., daughter of John K. and Catherine (Light) Kress, of Pennsylvania, and by her had three sons, all of whom were born at Corning, N. Y., viz : John K., Ralph E., and William F. The father came west and in 1857 settled at Wabasha, Minn., where he superintended the lumber and logging business of II. S. Allen & Co., of Chippewa Falls, Wis., of which company he was a member and its treasurer. IIe served as a member of the first legislature of that state and assisted in framing the charter of the State of Minnesota. In 1861 he was appointed postmaster of Wabasha, Minn., and served in that capacity eight years. In 1886 he moved to Wilson, Wis., where he died March 2, 1889.
Ralph E. attended the public schools at Corning, N. Y., and came to Minnesota with his parents and there finished his educa- tion, taking an academic and business course, and also studied pharmacy. In 1864 he located at Wilson, Wis., and in 1876 became connected with the West Wisconsin Manufacturing Company as treasurer of the concern. In 1888 he moved to Fairchild, Wis., and purchased the drug business of the late B. O. Palmer, in which he has since been sucessfully engaged. In 1897 he married Mary S., daughter of John Levy, of Oshkosh, and has one son-Ralph Levy. In religious belief Mr. Arnold is an Episcopalian, while his wife is a Roman Catholic. He is a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. A Republican in politics, Mr. Arnold has been many times honored by the citizens of his community. IIe has held the office of town clerk and supervisor of the town of Fairchild. He has also served as president, treasurer and elerk of the Vil- lage of Fairchild, and has continuously held the office of post- master since 1898.
Rev. August F. Augustin, pastor of St. John's Evangelical German Lutheran church, of Eau Claire, was born in Penzlin, Mecklenburg, Germany, December 19, 1863, a son of August and Dorothea (Jordan) Augustin. His elementary and classical edu- cation was obtained in the elementary and high schools of his native place, and his theological studies were pursued at Breck- lum, Province of Schleswig. In 1884 he came to the United
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States and finished his theological course at Dubuque, Ia., and the same year was ordained to the ministry. Ilis first charge was at Russell, Kan., where he remained until 1890, when he was assigned to his present pastorate at Eau Claire.
Rev. Augustin married September 19, 1887, Bertha, daughter of John Reuter, of Germany, and they are the parents of four children, viz: Sigmund, Curt, Waldemar and Margaret. Rev. Augustin is president of the Wisconsin district of the German synod of Iowa. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Iowa synod, and is also a trustee of the Wartbury Theological Seminary, of Dubuque, Ia.
August J. Ausman,* who was born in Eau Claire, July 26, 1874, is by trade a miller. Ilis father, August Ausman, was born near Berlin, Germany, in 1830, and came to America in 1870. He served in the German army and followed farming in Germany. He came to Wisconsin and first settled at Augusta, but later moved to Eau Claire and for fifteen years was em- ployed by Ingram & Kennedy in a saw mill. Ile was next em- ployed by George W. Mason in the Lakeside Elevator for eighteen years, after which he was engaged in farming near Wheaton, in Chippewa county, until 1911, when he returned to Eau Claire, and died December 25, 1913. He married Caroline Quelle, who died in 1910, and was buried in the Catholic cem- etery. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Mary married Joseph Price, a farmer of Wheaton; John is also a farmer; August J., the subject of this sketch; Agnes married a farmer of Wheaton; Frank is a member of the Eau Claire police force; Laura married Angust Bleske, a farmer, and Joe, who died in 1907.
August J. was educated in the public and German parochial schools, and first worked for Alexander Watson in an elevator for a few years. He was next employed by George W. Mason for six years in the flouring mill, of which his father was super- intendent, and here learned the trade of miller. He was asso- ciated with J. E. Galligan for four years, during which time he had charge of the elevator and bought grain, and then became interested in another mill company, selling his interest at the end of one year. He was associated with Joseph Chapman, of Minneapolis, for six months, and then for seven years was with the W. J. Davis Elevator Company. In 1904 he associated him- self with the Milwaukee Elevator Company, for which he is now foreman. He married Miss Anna Bouk, daughter of John Bouk,
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of Eau Claire, and they have an interesting family of five chil- dren, named, respectively, Abigail, Elvira, August, Francis and Anthony Ausman.
Mr. Ausman is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic church.
Thomas W. Avery, one of the early settlers of Eau Claire county, is a native of Allegany county, New York, where he was born May 19, 1840. When 17 years of age, in 1857, he came to Ean Claire with an elder brother, and shortly after his arrival here commenced farming operations with his brother-in-law, Peter Truax, who had preceded him to this county some two years. After about 25 years of successful general farming Mr. Avery moved into the city of Eau Claire and engaged in the selling of farm implements, a business he conducted for seven years, when he sold out and opened a music store, in which he handled all kinds of musical instruments. For fifteen years he continued in this profitable business, then disposing of his stock, he retired. Mr. Avery is one of Eau Claire's progressive and public spirited men, and any public enterprise wbich is for the betterment of . the community generally receives his hearty support.
Ilis father, Benjamin Avery, was also a resident of Eau Claire county, having come here from the state of New York in 1858. Mr. Avery has four sisters living: Mrs. Peter Truax, Mrs. J. B. Champion and Mrs. Sara A. McLean, and Mary Avery, who makes her home with Mrs. Peter Truax. On July 17, 1873, Mr. Avery married Susan E. Grigsby, a most estimable lady of Ean Claire.
Charles H. Ayers,* who is descended from prominent New England ancestors, among whom were physicians, mechanics and prosperous manufacturers, is a native of. Albany, N. Y., where he was born September 11, 1855, the son of William and Eliza- betli (Stone) Ayers. The father was a mechanic by profession, while Grandfather Ayers was a practicing physician of promi- nence in New York state, and for many years members of the Ayers family were engaged in the manufacture of umbrellas in Albany.
In 1857 William Ayers came West to Wisconsin and settled in Milwaukee, where for about ten years he was engaged in con- tracting and building, and during this time he built the Racine College. Hle later moved to Oshkosh, Wis., and lived to the age of 74 years, the mother having passed away at the age of 26.
During the balmy days of the lumber industry in Wisconsin
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and while a young man Mr. Ayers spent five years in logging and lumbering, mostly in the neighborhood of Merrill. Ile subse- quently spent two years in the village of Fairchild, and then for a period of eighteen years was employed by IIenry Brown, one of the early settlers of Thompson Valley. He afterward pur- chased a farm of eighty acres in Otter Creek township, which he improved and where he now resides, engaged in general farming. He is a wideawake, public-spirited citizen, is active in the affairs of the Democratic party and is an attendant and supporter of the Methodist church.
On October 20, 1902. Mr. Ayers married Miss Lydia Hewlett, daughter of Lafayette Hewlett. who originally lived in Penn- sylvania but later moved to Trempealean county, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Ayers have a family of two children, viz: Brown and Margaret Rosalind Ayers. John Ayers, who resides in Scott's Valley, is a brother of Charles II.
Harvey Axford, deceased, who attained to a position of local prominence as a professional bookkeeper and accountant, was a native of Oxford, Mich. Ile came to Eau Claire in 1869 and there spent the balance of his life. He was an honorable men- ber of the Masonic fraternity and attained to the degree of Knight Templar. He was careful, conscientious and thoroughly up-to-date in his methods, with a wide scope of practical as well as theoretical knowledge. He was a man of pleasing per- sonality, and wherever known was esteemed for his thorough, manly qualities of mind and heart.
On January 27, 1869, at Portage City, Wis., he married Miss Nettie A. Stockbridge. Mrs. Axford was for fourteen years matron of the Eau Claire Children's Home, resigning the posi- tion in 1912. She is possessed of rare mental attainments and prominent in social circles, and is a member of the Old Settlers' Association of Eau Claire. Her father, Henry L. Stockbridge, was born in Syracuse, N. Y., and was by occupation a contractor and builder. Ile married Delia Morgan, of Binghamton, N. Y., and to them two children were born, viz: Nettie J. and John H. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stockbridge are now deceased. His death occurred in November, 1873; his widow surviving until February 11, 1900. John H. Stockbridge died October 22, 1904. leaving a widow and two children, viz: Ida B. and Clarence L., who are still residents of Ean Claire.
George F. Banister,* retired, was born in Genesee county, N. Y., July 27, 1836. His parents, Joseph and Polly (Stearns) Banister, were natives of Massachusetts and New York, re-
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speetively, of Scotch-Irish and English descent. Mr. Banister was reared in Jefferson county, New York, until he was ten years of age, then spent two years in Pennsylvania. IIe eame to Wisconsin in 1849 with his parents, who settled on Indian land in what is now Portage City, but then called Moundville. In 1866 they came to Eau Claire county and settled in the town of Washington anl there engaged in farming. They had a fam- ily of thirteen children, nine of whom grew to maturity. Those now living are: George F .; Lucy, wife of George M. Dempsey; Mary J. married Ira Burton; Daniston C. and Lyman S. Of those deceased John died in Kentucky while serving as a soldier in the United Sates army ; Daniel S. was killed in the civil war; Frederick C., and La Salle.
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