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 80
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Blessed, unselfish mother. No one but God and the angels know of the heart throbs and anguish she endured in the long night watches.
These boys have reached young manhood now. I trust they will give to others a noble quality of mind and soul because of the care for them. The eldest of them wrote to me : "Dear grand- ma's great work was over before she left Wisconsin for Los Angeles four years ago. I was thinking, with all the progress this country has made during her life of seventy-eight years, grandma's work, woman's work, is not relieved or changed sinee the day she left New Brunswick. Our indebtedness to her is very great and can never be repaid. I realize more and more what a
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care our young lives were to her at her age. She has won her place in that mysterious beyond of rest and peace."
Whenever her purse was nearly empty, then an inborn faith compelled her and the need was met. She made homes for two sisters and a niece several years. One by one she sent young people to business college. They are today prosperous and en- joying the results of that education and her sacrifice. Oh the little babies she has mothered! Hers was not a selfish mother heart for her own children only. She had the universal mother love.
"Grandma Pond" did the duty of a brave soldier. She builded well. She gave her life to her children, her friends, her country and her God with absolute unselfishness, and no one knows to what limit but the Master Himself, who watched over her. She never spoke of herself or asked for a favor for herself.
In her last days I often said to her. "Mother, I am sure of one thing-He who said 'Suffer little children to come unto me' is waiting for you. and He has many little children Ile will put in your arms till their own mother comes,' and she gazed into the wonderful eyes of the face of Christ upon the wall when she could not speak or recognize me. I know, and she understood. Devotion and unselfishness is uplifting and pays the bigger profits. In the end the life goes straight to their throne.
Mother passed away March 23, 1913, a beautiful Easter Sab- bath morning.
Life's tasks were great. They are over and the crown is dear mother's.
Levi Wesley Pond was born in Baring, Me., March 1, 1827. He was one of a family of four children; besides himself there were Emily, Gertrude, William H. and Charles Nash Pond. Their father. Charles Pond, and his brother came from England in the same ship with Governor Winthrop, of Boston, who wrote home to England : "Tell the old man Pond that his two sons are doing well." The other brother is lost to history and little has been chronicled of the life of the father of these four children. He was drowned while still a young man while crossing the St. Croix river at Baring, Me., in 1831. while ice was running dur- ing a spring freshet, leaving his widow in straightened circum- stanees to care for and educate the daughter and three sons as best she could. Little enough time was given for schooling in well-to-do families, so these children did not fare very well in that regard, for stress of circumstances compelled them to begin in early life to earn their own living by working out. helping
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their mother in her struggle to care for and educate her father- less children. Their sister Emily was given the opportunity to get more schooling than the boys. They grew to manhood in Baring, Calais and places near by, working in the woods, mills and off the coast in fishing schooners. Levi loved the sea and at the age of 16 went to Boston and sailed in the Cumberland, a war frigate mounting nineteen guns. This ship was sailing on her trial trip for a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted two years. The Cumberland made a most brilliant record in the sea annals of the American navy before she was sunk by the Rebel ram Merrimac at Hampton Roads in the civil war.
The night before sailing John B. Gough, the celebrated Pro- hibitionist, who had been holding temperance meetings in Bos- ton, went on board and addressed the crew. All the officers and men, except two young English sailors, signed the pledge. These two stubbornly refused, and as every sailor was allowed his rations and potion of grog, they stepped out from the rank regn- larly, and amid the laughter and jeers of the crew, took their daily grog. The entire crew, except these young English sailors. yielded readily to discipline. Those young fellows caused so much trouble when in liquor that they were often severely pun- ished by their officers, but to no avail. The officers conceived the idea of exchanging these two young men at one of the ports for two total abstainers of another vessel. This was accomplished at the next port and the Cumberland set sail, the first govern- ment vessel afloat, manned by a Prohibition crew, officers and men. So remarkable were the reports to Washington from this vesse!, manned by total abstainers, that the idea took root and finally resulted in laws being passed by Congress abolishing grog on all government vessels with the exception of the officers' "wine mess." This law is still on the statue books. However, the recent edict of the secretary of the navy, Daniels, abolishes July 1, 1914, even the "wine mess" of the officers.
He married Mary Ann MeGowan, November 10, 1850, at Mus- quash. N. B., and soon after migrated to Sheboygan, Wis., and later to Wabasha, Minn., then to Chippewa Falls, Wis., and from there to Eau Claire in 1859. - Cru Pare E18 1.
Ile had an inventive mind and after reaching the region after- wards so noted for its mill and logging operations, he turned his thoughts to labor-saving devices for forwarding that great industry. Ile invented a number of valuable appliances for saw mills, but the crowning effort of his life was the invention of the sheer boom, which revolutionized the methods of handling
J. M. Row
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logs in running waters and added millions of dollars to the profits of the lumbermen of the United States. Ilis inventions, like those of countless other inventors, profited him little. The big companies with whom he was associated took the fruits of his mind and left him the husks.
April 26, 1869, while operating a saw mill across the river from Fifth avenue, the boiler exploded, wrecking the mill, kill- ing three men and blowing Mr. Pond into the river. IIe was not seriously injured, however.
The history of the Chippewa Valley by T. E. Randall in 1875, on page -, gives an account of how the Weyerhacuser com- panies were then endeavoring to beat Mr. Pond out of his pat- ent by trying to get Congress to annul it, as they had been beaten in every court. What they failed to do by direction they did by indirection, however, in the end.
Later in his life, in 1870, he left his home, went to New Bruns- wiek, secured a patent in that country, and for the first time began to receive the just results from his invention. IFe returned to his family in Eau Claire in 1907, where he died February 29, 1908.
In the year 1850 the old family Bible records the date of the marriage of my father and mother, Levi Wesley Pond and Mary Ann MeGowan, ages 21 and 16 years.
Father was born in Calais, Me., March 1, 1829, and mother in Musquash, N. B., April 19, 1835. Father's ancestors, two brothers from England, came over in the vessel with Governor Winthrop, of Boston, who wrote home, "Tell the old man Pond that his two sons are doing well."
My mother's ancestors were Scotch, English and Irish, and landed in Halifax, N. S., and migrated to New Brunswick. She lived most of her young life with her grandmother and had her schooling in a Catholic convent.
Father was educated in the liberal school of experience. IFis parents died early. As a little boy he worked around with hard, cold, exacting people, and walked many miles to a school for brief periods, poorly fed and clothed. But he was naturally a marvelous speller. He rarely missed any word even in later years. When a mere boy he went to sea in fishing schooners, and at 16 went to Boston and sailed in the Cumberland, a war frigate of the United States government, mounting nineteen guns, on its trial trip for a two years' cruise to the Mediterranean. This ship made a most brilliant record before it was sunk by the iron- clad Merrimac at Hampton Roads in the civil war.
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The night before sailing John B. Gough, the celebrated Pro- hibitionist, who had been holding temperance meetings in Bos- ton, went on board and addressed the crew. All the officers and men, except two young English sailors, signed the pledge. They stubbornly refused, and as every sailor was allowed his rations and potion of grog daily, they stepped out from the ranks regu- larly and, with laughter and ridicule of the crew, took their daily grog. The entire crew, except these young English sailors, yielded readily to discipline. Those young fellows would cause trouble daily and get disorderly and drunk. They were severely punished ; strung up sailor fashion, but to no avail. The officers conceived the idea of exchanging these two men at one of the ports for two prohibitionists of another vessel. This was ac- complished at the next port and the Cumberland set sail, the first government vessel afloat manned by a prohibition crew of offi- cers and men. So uplifting were the reports to Washington from this prohibition-manned vessel that the idea took root, and finally resulted in laws being passed by Congress abolishing grog on all government vessels with the exception of the officers' "wine mess." This law is still on the statue books. The recent edict of the secretary of the navy, Daniels, abolishes July 1, 1914, even the "wine mess" of the officers.
After two years' coasting in the Mediterranean Sea, sick and tired, a company of homesick men one morning heard the com- mand, "All sails up for America." A deafening shout went up; it meant "home and native land." Father was 19 years of age, and in the brief interval before his 21st birthday he laid siege for the hand of my mother.
He and his bride set out for Sheboygan, Wis., where he built a saw mill, and was ever afterward interested in' some depart- ment of milling of lumber. About 1852 he sold out everything, intending to go to California, but the first child, Charles, died, and they gave up the journey. Emma E. and Cora S. were born in Sheboygan also. They moved to Wabasha, Minn., where Ed- ward E. was born; then to Chippewa Falls, where George W. was born; next to Eau Claire, where Levi Eugene, Gilbert A. and Katherine were born. The last child lived but a few days.
Father had an inventive mind. His brain grasped withont study practical inventions. He saw what was needed to sim- plify logging on the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers. He in- vented several machines for use in saw mills and gave them to a Milwaukee firm to manufacture. Soon he told me this wealthy firm had nearly duplicated them and they were put
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upon the market, but not as his patent, and he was frozen out. He invented the shear boom. Because he had it in use upon the Chippewa river some lumbermen tried to get this away from him. He gave the Eau Claire Lumber Company one-half interest to establish his rights in the courts and put it upon the market of the country. They carried it to every court and even to the Supreme Court of the United States. He won in every case. The Eau Claire Lumber Company began to build the shear booms for various lumber interests. How well I recall the scrip that was issued from the company's store in Eau Claire as our share of the tolls for this invention. Father long had urged the com- pany to agree to send a representative to the Puget Sound terri- tory. Alex. Kemp, au employee of this company, was finally sent to see what could be done. He was gone some time at great ex- pense, returned and reported "nothing to be done," and father set out for his old stamping ground in Maine and put in shear booms at Frederiekton, on the Arvostock, and later upon the St. John's river. What the company did he never could learn. He secured a new patent and operated it for the St. Johns Lnm- ber Company for the remainder of his life.
I was traveling in California in 1897; went to Portland, Ore., and met by chance Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Rooney, brother and sister-in-law of Mr. Rnst. I asked how they happened to be in the West. Mr. Rooney said, "We came here to collect the tolls for the shear booms in the rivers at Puget Sound. We have just collected the last tolls. They have been paying for years through the life of the patent." At last! The same old story, and not one cent of the thousands of dollars collected at 10 eents per thousand feet sawed humber of all that passed through the booms did my father, the inventor, receive. Mr. Kemp's "noth- ing doing at Puget Sound" came rolling back from childhood's memory.
While steaming to Seattle from Tacoma on board the glass- covered deck roof of a vessel, an agent for Lipton's tea was show- ing us the sights and pointing to a famous mill on the Sound, I said, "Did you ever hear of any 'booms' in this country ?" He replied, using the copyrighted name 'shear booms," "Why, bless your soul, these rivers are full of them." Ten cents per thousand feet of lumber passing through those booms during those years must have totaled something large for the already fat purse of the Eau Claire Lumber Company. I told my father of this when I saw him. He never asked a question or spoke a word, but I shall never forget the unntterable look of patient long suffering
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in his face. The years of disappointment, broken contracts, promises unfilled, a grasping corporation! The old, old story ! And until our government has passed laws to buy and give the inventor a sum for his invention commensurate with the pub- lie's needs, for all inventions and copyrights, the story will be the same. The inventor starves while the product of years of labor swells some one's fat purse.
Frederick W. Weyerhaeuser recently died in Pasadena, one of the richest men in the world. "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, What profit hath a man of all his labors?" In my childhood he was one of the poor mill owners below Eau Claire, in the first history of my father's shear booms. He used these booms, of course, during the entire life of the pat- ent, and when the patent was renewed and when it expired after- ward. Incomparable benefits were his. Millions upon millions of feet of lumber passed through these booms at 10 cents per thon- sand feet, for royalties were climbing up into five and six figures. Father, the inventor, one-half owner, and the Eau Claire Lum- ber Company, represented by J. G. Thorpe and "Tommy" Gil- bert (T. E.), called Frederick W. Weyerhaeuser to Chicago for a meeting to agree upon a price for his royalties due them. Father and Gilbert agreed to 7 cents per thousand feet sawed lumber. But no agreement was reached, and it was decided to call another meeting at Milwaukee. But that meeting has never been called to this day. But Mr. Weyerhaeuser ceased logging on the Eau Claire river, where all the logging of the Eau Claire Lumber Company was carried on, and finally they were bought out by Mr. Weyerhaeuser, and all the many thousands and thousands of dollars due my father upon royalties for shear booms tolls, not one dollar came to him from Frederick W. Weyerhaeuser. ]
Father trusted men. When he invented the shear boom the poor mill owners along the Eau Claire and Chippewa river opened their belt buckles a new notch each year. The paltry hundreds they made each year swelled to thousands and then to millions. The shear boom made it safe for them to cut the timber and send it down the Chippewa. The logs then were seldom lost. They could not escape to go by the millions of feet down to the Mis- sissippi river unclaimed.
The first shear boom father made after several years of thought. When it came it was the entire picture in a flash. Ile made it of timbers bolted together about four feet wide, several hundred feet long, fastened above at one end to piling in the river. The other end was free. Shears or lee boards were fastened to
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the outer side. A windlass and rope or chain controlled these shears or lee boards in order to have the force of the current throw the boom to the shore and turn the logs into the com- pany's sorting booms at the mill where these logs belonged.
Previous to the invention of the shear boom these logs would follow the current of the river and would give the sorting booms a wide berth. Men would go out with chains and ropes in boats, or wade up to the armpits in water to save these logs. The river would be covered solid during a freshet with these logs sail- ing down to be lost forever in the Mississippi.
My father did more than any man or set of men with the in- vention of his shear boom to make the millions of dollars for the Inmbermen of Ean Claire. \ He was generous, happy, trusting. Ile died unhappy because he could not give his family the com- forts which belonged to them. Men had deceived him. IIe would not fight. He did not want to live in Eau Claire and spent most of the last years in Maine and New Brunswick. But the sweetest song to him was "Home, Sweet Home." In the beautiful "land beyond" the years of sorrow are forgotten.
Los Angeles, Cal. (Signed) CORA SCOTT POND-POPE.
Horace N. Polley was born at Messena, St. Lawrence county, New York, March 10, 1842, and is deseended from New England ancestry. His parents were Ira and Delila (Russell) Polley, who came from Vermont to New York state and followed the oceupa- tion of farming. Mrs. Polley died in 1844, leaving Horace, two years old, and one sister, Delila. Four years later, in 1848, the father came west to Wisconsin, locating at West Point, Columbia county. He was again married, this time to Miss Katherine Hutchins, and to them five children were born, two of whom are now living, viz. : Hiram E., resides at Madison, Wis., and Etta, the wife of Albert Melntosh, of Lodi.
Horace N. Polley spent his boyhood days on the farm in Co- Inmbia county and attended the public schools. When nineteen years of age, in 1861, he enlisted as a musician in Company II, 11th regiment. Wisconsin Volunteer infantry, and was afterwards promoted to principal musician and served as such until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged in September, 1865. He was first attached to the 13th army corps and afterwards transferred to the 15th army corps, his time of service being confined to operations in the West and Southwest. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the battle of Champion Hill. After the close of the war he returned to the farm in Columbia
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eounty and later moved to Eau Claire county. He afterwards went to Trempealean county, where he spent two or three years, then returned to Eau Claire county, where he resided until his death, September 18, 1914.
In 1863 Mr. Polley married Miss Letitia Bush, daughter of Parley and Letitia Bush, of Sank county, Wisconsin. To this union nine children were born, viz .: Kittie, wife of Frank Searle, resides at Milaca, Minn .; Ira lives at home ; Foster B. resides in the Milk River valley, Montana; Mande is deceased; Ellen M .; Madel and Amy are at home; Ray H. lives near Rice Lake, Wis., and Delila, who is a professional nurse, resides in Detroit, Mich. A Republican in politices, Mr. Polley was a staunch adherent of that politieal faith, and a firm believer in the principles of protection and other cardinal doctrines of the Republican party. His services in behalf of the party and his fitness for official posi- tion were recognized in bis nomination for and his election to the General Assembly in 1897, and his re-election in 1899. In addition to his two terms in the legislature Mr. Polley served as assessor for Bridge Creek township twenty-three years, a remark- able reeord and one which is seldom equaled and rarely sur- passed. In social matters Mr. Polley oeeupied a conspicuous place and was an active member of the George E. Perkins Post, No. 98, Grand Army of the Republic.
Thomas Pope, deceased, who was for many years a pros- perous and influential lumberman and farmer of Eau Claire county, was a native son of Wisconsin and born in Waukesha county. He came to Ean Claire in 1868 and engaged in lumber- ing, which he followed for several years, and was later for twelve years engaged in farming near Augusta. He was a eare- ful, conservative and methodieal man in his affairs, and in all his business dealings was known for his uprightness and fairness. He was a man of fine personal qualities, social and companion- able, a lover of good comradeship and loyal to his friends.
He married Miss Ellen Roach, daughter of Joseph and Mary (O'Neal) Roach, natives of Ireland and prosperous farmers of Union township. To them three children were born : George W., Anna and Nellie. George W. married Mary Torseth and has four children : Louis, Charlotte, Helen and Leonard. Ile is now in the employ of the United States government as rural mail carrier. Nellie married Leonard Bryant and resides at Minneapolis.
The death of Mr. Thomas Pope, which occurred August 1, 1889, was considered a great loss by the citizens of Eau Claire, and he was mourned by his family and a large cirele of friends.
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George W. Prescott, one of the pioneer lumbermen of Eau Claire county, was born in Balknap county, New Hampshire, Sep- tember 14, 1837, and came west to Wisconsin with his parents and settled in Columbia county in 1855. One year later, in 1856, Mr. Prescott came to Ean Claire and worked for a time on the river, and then at carpentering for one year. After that he spent some two years as engineer on a river steamer, after which he engaged in the lumber business in its various branches. In 1868 Mr. Prescott, associated with Mr. A. Burditt, started a small rotary saw mill on an island above the Dells, with a daily ca- pacity of nearly 40,000 feet of lumber. In 1873 and 1874 this mill was torn down and replaced with a gang and rotary mill having a daily capacity of 100,000 feet. The business was or- ganized as a corporation in 1879, under the name of the Dells Lumber Company, with a capital of $100,000, and the following gentlemen as officers: II. P. Graham, president ; George W. Pres- cott, vice-president, and A. Burditt, secretary. Thus for 46 years Mr. Prescott has been engaged in lumbering, and for 34 years of that time has been associated with the Dells Lumber Company, in which he is still active, and the prominence which he has attained as a successful business man and worthy citizen of one of the chief eities of the state has come to him as the legitimate reward of a well directed effort, sterling integrity and sagacious enterprise.
On December 3, 1863, Mr. Prescott was married at Fond du Lac, Wis., to Miss Clara Clark. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Prescott: Addie L., died in infancy : Mattie A., died September 10, 1899, and Clara Ida, who lives at home and keeps house for her father. Mrs. Prescott, a woman of rare do- mestie virtues and motherly love, died March 18, 1913. Mr. Prescott is a member of the Masonic lodge and one of Eau Claire's substantial business men. His father, George W. Pres- cott, was married three times, first to Comfort Morrison, by whom there was no issue : his second wife was Peggy Taylor, and to this union three children were born: Joseph, Theophlus and Comfort. He married for his third wife Abigal Small and three children were born : George W., the subject of this sketch ; Moses W., and Judith M. Mr. Preseott, Sr., died in Columbia county, Wiseonsin, in 1884, and his wife, mother of our subject, passed away in 1880, honored and respected by all who knew her.
N. A. Preston,* who for many years was one of the leading photographers of Eau Claire, was descended from an old and honored New England family and was born at Calais, Maine. Ife
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came to Eau Claire in 1868, and for thirty-six years occupied a prominent place in business and social circles. He was high minded and public spirited, and while not connected with any religious denomination he attended the Congregational church and contributed liberally to its support. He married Miss Addie Buttsfield, who was formerly from Rochester, N. Y., and they had two children-Mary and Ida-both of whom are deceased. In the death of Mr. Preston, which occurred September 11, 1904, Eau Claire lost one of her most loyal citizens.
The father of Mrs. Preston was Thatins Buttsfield, who for many years was a resident of Menomonie, Dunn county, this state. Ile married Rebecca Webb, of New York city, by whom he had ten children : Addie, Frances, Sherwood, George, William, Thatius, Jr., Justin, Marcus, Flora and Martha, six of whom are deceased. One sister, Mrs. William Conwell, of Washington township, and two brothers, Thatius and George survive. Mrs. Preston, before her marriage, followed the vocation of school teacher and for a number of years taught in the city of Eau Claire and also in Dunn county. She has made her home in Eau Claire for about fifty years.
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