History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 12

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318

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Travelers and traders journeying up and down the Mississippi often stopped at Reed's hospitable log tavern, and on their departure carried to the outer world rather glowing accounts of the new country, but the town- site speculator had not visited as yet the locality, and little thought was given by the frontiersmen to the future possibilities of the place, and they looked with aversion on the increasing settlers as a hindrance to their wild, free life of hunting and trapping.

In the fall of 1851 there arrived at Reed's Town a man who grasped at once the possibilities of the location for a town site. This was Benjamin F. Heuston, and it did not take him long to interest Ira Hammond and James Reed in a project to found a village. In partnership with Mr. Hammond, he began the erection of a warehouse on the river front, which was completed the following summer.

Others who came in the fall of 1851 were A. A. Angell, Charles Cameron, N. B. Grover, Horace E. Owen and Elizur Smith.

On April 5, 1852, William Hood, as surveyor, made a plat of Reed's Landing, with B. F. Heuston, Ira Hammond and James Reed as proprietors. The new village was formally named Montoville, but almost before the ink on the plat became dry another survey was completed under the direc- tion of Timothy Burns, F. M. Rublee and Benjamin B. Healy, and the name Trempealeau, the terminal of the sentence which the French voyageurs gave to Trempealeau Mountain, was adopted for the doubly named village.

Montoville-Trempealeau thrived for a few weeks, and though over- burdened with new names, it was still known as Reed's Town or Settlement by the inhabitants, and as Reed's Landing by the rivermen.

On May 9, 1852, according to the records of the Post Office Department at Washington, a post office was established at Trempealeau, with B. F. Heuston as postmaster. On January 15, 1853, the name of the office was changed to Montville, but on July 17, 1856, the name of the office was again changed to Trempealeau.

For a period of fifteen years Trempealeau remained the only settlement in the territory comprising Trempealeau County. The first ten years of this period was devoted almost entirely to the fur trade. Then came the land seeker, tradesman, speculator and adventurer, and with the rapid influx

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

of settlers from 1854 to 1856, new portions of the county were opened for settlement, and Trempealeau history thereby became limited to one section of the county.

When B. F. Heuston came here he secured a residence by purchasing the house of John Doville, a small story and a half building, standing on Front street, below what is now the Burlington station. Thus possessed of a permanent location, he prepared to erect a warehouse designed as a steamboat shipping point for the agricultural produce which the promoters believed would result from the rapid influx of settlers and the consequent development of the rich valleys and prairies adjacent to the proposed village. Before winter set in he had completed the stone foundations. In the mean- time he procured lumber at Black River Falls, floated it down the stream to the mouth of Beaver Creek, carted it over to the building site, and in the spring completed a warehouse, 24 by 50 feet, two stories high, located on Front street, two or three rods east of what was afterward the site of the Utter House. In the fall James A. Reed, as justice of the peace, married his daughter, Madeline, to his stepson, Paul Grignon.

Early in February, 1852, N. B. Grover, who had previously traded here, came up from La Crosse and opened a shoe shop opposite the later site of the Utter Hotel. In this store he sold notions and a few dry goods, thus establishing the first store in the county. In May of this year George Batchelder and his wife made their appearance and put up a house below the Hammond & Heuston warehouse. Later they opened a hotel, but not before the wife of Charles Cameron had arrived and established a boarding house in the residence which Mr. Heuston had purchased from John Doville. Thomas Marshall came in that spring and put up a house above the Big Spring. Israel Noyes came about the same time. He boarded with the Camerons until October, when he was joined by his wife, and went to live in the second story of the Hammond & Heuston warehouse, where shortly afterward a child was born to them. Marvin and James Pierce came and built a small house on the north side of Front street, above what afterward became the site of Melchoir's brewery. Ira E. Moore and Alvin Carter built a residence near the present location of Hoberton's blacksmith shop. About the same time Alexander McMillan came up from La Crosse and put up a blacksmith shop, the first in the village. These, with Alexander McGilvray, C. S. Seymour, B. B. Healy, Robert Farrington, William Cram, Charles Holmes, Mary,Huff, Catherine Davidson, A. M. Brandenburg, Rev. Mr. Watts, and possibly a few others, constituted the list of arrivals in 1852.

There were two interesting social events this year. One was the opening of the Trempealeau House, at which was served a banquet which was long remembered by the old settlers, Mrs. Batchelder, the landlady, having secured many dainties from points further down the river. The Fourth of July celebration was another important event. It was held in the upper story of the Hammond & Heuston building. Mr. Heuston read the Declaration, and talks were made by several citizens.

"In 1852," says Mary Brandenburg, "when the Brandenburgs landed in Trempealeau, then called Montoville, they found among other settlers James Reed in a log house on the river bank at about the Barney McGraw .

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

place. Other settlers were George Batchelder, the first merchant, first school teacher, first store keeper and first hotel keeper; Isaac Noyes, the first postmaster, and Alexander McGilvray, who afterward ran the first ferry boat, and N. B. Grover, an Indian trader, and his brother, Archelaus, both single men, and B. B. Healy. These were most of the early settlers."

In 1853, 1854 and 1855 the arrivals were not numerous. La Crosse was a thriving village and attracted those who desired to grow up with a future metropolis, while the Black River country, with its timber, its springs, and its open meadows, attracted those who were seeking farm lands and rural homesteads. Among the arrivals of these years were J. D. Olds, who had selected a claim in 1851; A. P. Webb, Patrick Drugan, Thomas Drugan, Aaron Houghton, Joseph Gale, Patrick Lowry, Gilbert Gibbs, Oscar Beardsley, Lewis Huttenhow, William Olds, Frank Feeney, Hiram Brown, and others. Some settled in the village, others scattered back on the prairie.

The real influx of population began in 1856. In this year the pioneer mill of the county was erected. That spring, the Messrs. Bredenthal and King, with the determination of establishing a mill in the Black River country, shipped some machinery to the mouth of that river, and made inquiries at La Crosse as to a suitable location. Meeting J. M. Barrett, they persuaded him to join them in their venture, and the three called on S. D. Hastings, who was the La Crosse representative of the townsite proprietors of Trempealeau. Mr. Hastings, in the name of his employers, offered a free site for the new mill south of the village. At that time the river was unusually high, and the location seemed a most suitable one. But while it was in the progress of construction, the water subsided, and the owners of the mill began to realize that their venture was not likely to prove profitable. When they began to operate, these apprehensions were fully verified. Access to the mill was difficult, and the expense of hauling was great. After a while the venture was abandoned, the mill was sold and moved elsewhere, and of the proprietors, only Mr. Barrett remained in Trempealeau.

But the mill was the cause of a rapid growth for the village. Property advanced in value and importance. Many eastern people were at that time seeking in the West opportunities for investment which they believed would bring them large returns. The village was filled with new settlers, houses, cabins and shanties were put up, and the incomers began to buy land in all directions.

This demand created the utmost excitement, and the price of lots appreciated so rapidly that no one was able to predict a possible value in advance. In the spring, the most desirable lots could have been purchased for from $40 to $50. In May, when the building of the mill was arranged for, double this price was demanded, and when the mill was completed, as high as $1,000 was refused for the same pieces of property that could not have found a purchaser a year previous. As an instance, it may be stated that while this scale of prices was maintained, $2,100 was offered for lots on the river bank opposite what was afterward the Melchior Brewery, and it was declined. They could not now be sold at anything like that figure.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Among the prominent arrivals for 1856, were O. S. Bates, S. D. Hastings and family, Noah Payne and family, W. T. Booker, J. H. Crossen, J. P. Israel and family, S. F. Harris and family, Thomas Van Zant, William Held, A. W. Hickox, C. W. Thomas, John Smith, Dennis Smith, D. W. Gil- fillan, D. B. Phelps, C. C. Crane, and many others. The improvements consisted in part of the mill and a large house adjoining for the accommo- dation of hands employed therein ; the Congregational Church put up under a contract with C. C. Crane, and numerous private buildings for residence and commercial purposes. Gilfillan built a hotel. Hastings erected a resi- dence opposite the public square. Robert Jones, a brick residence on Third street, the first brick house in the village, and the Rev. Mr. Hayes put up a frame house on the hill. In addition to Gilfillan's tavern, C. S. Seymour was proprietor of the Trempealeau House, built in 1852, by A. A. Angell, and Frederick Harth occupied the old log house of James Reed, as the Washington Hotel. Jasper Kingsley maintained the only saloon in the village, and the commercial and river interests were divided between J. P. Israel, W. T. Booker, Mills & Van Zant and N. B. Grover.

J. A. Parker came in this year. He was the first lawyer in the village. Dr. Alson Atwood also came in and built a house, and is claimed by some as the first physician to settle in Trempealeau, though it is contended by others that this honor legitimately belongs to Dr. E. R. Utter. Lafayette H. Bunnell, who settled here in the forties, was not a physician until later in life. Money was plenty, it is said, and times unprecedentedly prosperous. Almost every steamer bore hither, as passengers, people who were out prospecting, ready to avail themselves of any opportunity that presented itself for purchase. The Fourth of July was celebrated with unusual pomp, the Baptist Society was organized, and a terrible cyclone passed over the village in August, doing great damage.

A pioneer, John H. Crosen, arriving in Trempealeau on November 13, 1856, has this to say of the village in those days: "There were three stores on Front street, and a few frame residences, with here and there a log house. Further back on Second and Third streets were other residences, perhaps thirty all told, very much scattered. People were coming and going con- stantly. Each boat brought a new crowd of prospective settlers, and took away some that had looked the country over and gotten their fill, so to speak, and had made up their minds to look elsewhere for locations. And so it went, coming and going, here today and gone tomorrow, although, of course, some remained and became permanent settlers in the village.

"But the steamboat was not the only means of bringing people to Trempealeau. Many came overland in covered wagons. During 1856-57 a number of caravans of settlers passed through here and were ferried across the river to Minnesota, where they took the road leading up the Pickwick Valley onto the Minnesota prairie. I have seen the old ferry owned by Wilson Johnson busy a week steady ferrying teams across the river. This ferry was a horse tread power, and it carried many a prairie schooner over the river.

"These long strings of covered wagons made a picturesque sight winding along the road with their white tops showing against the green

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

landscape, always reaching towards the west-the land of the setting sun- and many of the occupants of these prairie schooners became the sturdy pioneers of Minnesota.

"During the wheat times, Trempealeau was surely a lively place. 1 have seen wagons loaded with wheat reaching from the loading dock down Front street and part way up the hill, waiting for their turn to be unloaded -a procession half a mile long, composed mostly of ox-teams, with a few teams of horses. At night you would see fires out on Trempealeau Prairie where the wheat haulers were camped for the night. Every idle man in Trempealeau could find employment there loading wheat on the steam- boats, and I have seen two and three boats loading at a time, and steamboat men scouring the town for more help. The flush wheat times lasted until a few years after the Civil War."

With the opening of the river in 1857, the hopes of the villagers ran high. Every steamboat was bringing new arrivals, new buildings were being erected, the prairie was being settled, the county was growing. But in the midst of this busy activity came the financial crash, nation-wide in its scope. Provisions became scarce and rapidly rose in price. Flour jumped to $12 a barrel, pork to $10 a hundred pounds, and other commodi- ties in proportion. Wild game became an important article of food, and kept many of the settlers from starvation. Elk and deer, which even at this late date were to be found herded in the brush of the bluffs, supplied the absence of meat.

However, great faith was still maintained in the future of Trempealeau, and many strangers attempted to take advantage of the situation to secure land at a low price. But the people of Trempealeau, with dogged perse- verance, stuck to the high prices that had been maintained during the "boom" years. The result was that many desirable citizens who would have located here and helped to build a metropolis, secured cheaper land in La Crosse, Winona, Red Wing, St. Paul and other places, and the advantage of their money and enthusiasm was lost to the little village in the shadow of the mountain. This short-sighted policy, together with the money stringency, retarded the growth of Trempealeau, and though with returning prosperity, the village was an important shipping point until the coming of the railroad, those who had demanded such high prices for their land never saw their hopes realized, and values of village property gradually declined.

Among those who settled here in 1857 were W. P. Heuston, R. W. Russell, N. W. Allen, Harvey Bowles, F. A. Utter and others, including Wilson Johnston, who established the first ferry from Trempealeau Village to the Minnesota shore.

A good crop of wheat was raised in 1858, and much of it was purchased at Trempealeau for shipment to various points down the river. Fully 1,000 bushels of wheat were shipped this year, and prosperity was revived. The absence of railroads in the interior, and the fact that Trempealeau was the most accessible point for the farmers of this region to merchant their produce, brought the pioneer agriculturists here in such numbers that the

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

streets lining the river were often packed for hours with teamsters waiting for a chance to unload.

A later settler (Stephen Richmond) arriving September 8, 1870, a year before the opening of the railroad, has said of the village:

"Its one main street extending along the river from Melchior's hotel and brewery and Octave Batchelor's hotel, running east with the then numerous warehouses and business places crowding close together, and its neat homes nestling in sunshine on the hillsides and down to the foot of the Trempealeau Bluffs which appeared as mountains of moderate elevation -the town itself facing the Mississippi River, its streets filled with farmers and lined with farm teams of one hundred or more, a majority of the teams being oxen with wagons loaded with grain for the market, or with goods and supplies for the farmers' homes; and the most disconcerting and puz- zling condition to me was the language spoken by many of the people- languages with which I was not then familiar, many persons speaking the German, the Polish, the Bohemian and Scandinavian, this talk being coupled with the oddity of the dress of many and the general inter-social manner of the people and their truly democratic manners and customs, no notice appeared to be taken of difference in nationality. Even the half- breed and the Indian were kindly recognized. I counted 98 teams along Main street loaded with grain, waiting for a turn to unload at the ware- houses, then under the management of Solomon Becker, Christ Reimin- schneider, and Paul Kribs."

The village trade increased in volume until the completion of the railroad in August, 1871. Farmers came here with their wheat not only from this county, but also from adjoining counties, and during the last few years before 1871 it is said that the shipments sometimes averaged 5,000 bushels a day from the opening of the harvest season until the closing of the river in the early winter. A vast amount of money was thus put into circulation.

The village, however, did not grow materially. A few stores were put up, a few business houses opened, and a few residences constructed, but the men who would have contributed so materially to its prosperity had been frightened away by the high values at which the village proprie- tors held their property. When the railroad from the east was completed to La Crosse, Trempealeau's importance as a shipping point was increased, and La Crosse grew rapidly. It was therefore felt that with the building of the La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott Railroad, Trempealeau would retain its standing as a steamboat point, and grow to great importance as a railroad point. But when the railroad was put in operation it tapped many points that had hitherto been tributary to Trempealeau, and the hopes of the promoters were blasted forever.

In recent years, however, a group of active young business men of another generation are making the village a busy and important little center and the recent creation of Trempealeau Mountain as a State park has revived its former importance.

The Black River Valley in Trempealeau County embraces the eastern part of Caledonia Township, and Decorah Prairie in Gale Township. Tradi-

,79

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

tion ascribes Indian village sites to Decorah and Red Bird, Winnebago chiefs, in this immediate region. The first white settlers were sturdy Scotchmen.

Caledonia early received settlers in that portion lying along the Missis- sippi adjacent to Trempealeau. James D. Olds was the first to take a claim in that portion lying properly in the Black River Valley. He came to Trempealeau on May 6, 1851, and walking out on Caledonia Prairie, selected a claim in Section 7, in what is now Caledonia Township. He cut logs, rolled them up for the body of a cabin, and marked out a claim, cutting the name and date on the log.

The first man actually to settle in the locality was William Cram, who started building a cabin south of the Olds claim, in May, 1852.

In 1853 came Joshua Rhodes, accompanied by William Hanson, who lived with him for a while. During the same year came Rufus Comstock, who settled on the claim of James D. Olds. The same year William Olds came in and purchased William Cram's place. Alexander McGilvray, who had reached Trempealeau in 1852, moved his family to the banks of the Black River.

Bostwick Beardsley led the vanguard in 1854 by settling on Section 28. There were numerous other arrivals about the same time. He found in the neighborhood, John, Richard and William Nicholls, Charles Holmes, B. B. Healy and Alexander McGilvray.

This year marked the opening of McGilvray ferry. The ferry was started by Alexander McGilvray. In the summer of 1854, J. D. Olds pur- chased property at the ford, and built a store and blacksmith shop, and opened a farm.

From this settlement, the pioneers spread onto Decorah Prairie further up the river, where a flourishing Scotch settlement was founded.

Beaver Creek Valley. According to Winnebago tradition, Joseph Roque, a famous Indian guide and trapper, erected a cabin on Beaver Creek near the present village of Galesville, possibly soon after the War of 1812. His son, Augustin, likewise a guide and trapper, is said to have built a cabin and spent a winter hunting in the same locality about 1820.

But to Americans Beaver Creek Valley was not opened for settlement until after the purchase of the Indian rights to all this territory, in 1837, and even then it was several years before an actual settlement took place.

James A. Reed, the first permanent settler in Trempealeau County, hunted and trapped along Beaver Creek as far back as 1840, and in 1843, in company with Willard Bunnell and Antoine Grignon, explored the head- waters of the valley.

While the fur trade played an important role in the opening of Trempea- leau County for settlement, but few of the trappers remained to till the soil after the fur had been gathered, but pushed on westward to the unsubdued wilderness.

The agriculturist who came to find a permanent home in the fertile valleys of Trempealeau County was the natural successor of the fur trader, for here there was no pinery to bring the lumberman, as in other portions of the State.

The autumn of 1851 saw the first Beaver Creek settler arrive in the

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

person of Abram Trepena, who came up from Racine County to look for a nomestead. Mr. Trepena came from Oswego, New York, to Racine in 1848, and had resided in the southern part of the State since that time.

There was a vast amount of unoccupied land in this section in that early day, and the homeseeker could take his choice of locations. After looking over the country thoroughly Mr. Trepena finally selected a quarter- section of land in the Beaver Creek Valley about a mile and a half southwest of the present village of Galesville. He then returned to Racine and in the fall of 1852 in company with his family and John Hess came north. They drove two yoke of oxen and carried all of their household goods in two immi- grant wagons. On the night of October 11 they arrived at their destination and went into camp, but before they had hardly settled for the night a snow storm of unusual severity came up and continued with unabated fury until morning, and when the new settlers awoke they found the ground covered to a depth of ten inches with freshly-fallen snow. This was indeed a wintry greeting for the pioneers, but with dauntless courage they went to work and arranged their camp for the winter; protecting it with wagon boxes, and making as comfortable a home as a tent could afford.

In the spring the men began the construction of a log house which was completed and occupied by the first of May. They also cleared and broke eight acres of land, and the crop raised during the season indicated the fertility of the Beaver Creek soil.

In 1853 Judge George Gale of La Crosse purchased about two thousand acres of land, including the present location of Galesville, with the water power on Beaver Creek; and, in January, 1854, he procured from the state legislature, the organization of the new county of Trempealeau, with the location of the county seat at Galesville, and at the same time obtained a charter for a university, to be located at that place. In June of the same year the village plot of Galvesville was laid out, and subsequently the flour mills were erected. A. H. Armstrong was the first man to put up a building in the new village and Ryland Parker opened the first grocery store, keeping it in conjunction with a hotel.

One of the first to settle in the township of Gale after Galesville was conceived was B. F. Heuston, who had settled in Trempealeau in 1851. During the winter of 1853 he moved into a house which he had built about half a mile south of what afterward became the site of the county court- house at Gale. In the fall of 1853, or early in 1854, Peter and George Uhle settled in Crystal Valley, three miles from Galesville. John Dettinger also settled near-by in that year.

Galesville grew rapidly, and in a short time new settlers were turning their eyes to the upper Beaver Creek region. The land seekers were looking for a farming section, and it is not strange that the rolling lands of this fertile valley attracted their attention.

As early as May, 1855, John Cance settled in what is now the town of Ettrick. Cance came from Glasgow, Scotland, to America in 1854, and remained in Jersey City, N. J., a short time, when he decided to move west to Freeport, Ill. He remained in Freeport all winter, and in the spring of 1855 he started for Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, and on May 25

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History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 12

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318