History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 13

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

USA > Wisconsin > Trempealeau County > History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin > Part 13

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

arrived at Beaver Creek. His brother-in-law, Andrew C. Purvis came with him, and the two men took up land and selected suitable building place within a few days of their arrival.

In 1856 Charley White and Mike Cullity settled in the valley, and in 1857-58 Robert Cance and Alexander Cance arrived and located land adjoin- ing their brother's farm. During the next few years Dan Kennedy, Thomas Wall, John Mahony, Darby Whalen, John Lynch and James Corcoran joined the Beaver Creek settlers.

The first settlers in what is now known as North Beaver Creek were Iver Orianson (Torblaa) and Iver Knutson (Syse), who came in 1857.

In 1858 K. K. Hallanger, Amund Olsen, R. Richelson, Thomas and Nels Herreid, Ole Skaar, Simon Nelson, T. R. Thompson, N. B. Henderson, Lars Hanson, Ole Ellingson, Orians Torblaa, Ole Dale, Erick Tronsen and Nels Oakland came. Anve Olsen, Arne Arneson, Torkel Gunderson and Torkel Halderson came in 1859, and Knudt Hagestad in 1860.

The first settlers in the French Creek district were Peter A. Hogden, John A. Hogden and Andrew A. Hogen, who came in 1859. Ole Gilbertson came in 1860, and the same year Gilbert Nelson and Hans Johnson moved into the South Beaver Creek region.

When a postoffice was established in the new settlement and John Cance received the appointment of postmaster, he turned to his native land for an appropriate name for the office. He was a great admirer of Scott's works, and in Marmion introduction to canto second appears the following couplet :

"The scenes are desert now and bare, Where flourished once a forest fair,"

and again, further along in the same canto, mention is made of "pathless Ettrick." According to a foot note in Marmion, Ettrick Forest was a mountainous region anciently reserved for the pleasure of the royal chase. The game preserve was known far and wide throughout Scotland as Ettrick Forest or Ettrick. And so John Cance chose this ancient Scotch name for the new postoffice, and when the town was organized at the first town meeting held in Cance's residence April 17, 1863, the name Ettrick was again chosen.

Settlers poured into the valley rapidly during the next ten years, and though markets were distant, the slow, but sure, ox team hauled the farm produce that brought a harvest of gold to the hardy pioneers.

L. L. Grinde of Galesville many years afterward recalled many inci- dents of pioneer life in upper Beaver Creek, where he settled in the fall of 1860. Speaking of that period, he said, "Many of the early settlers lived in dug-outs-just holes hurrowed in the side of a hill or bank, and they remained in these cave dwellings until they were able to build log houses. Often two families would work together on a log structure and when it was completed would occupy it jointly until circumstances were such that another log cabin could be built. Markets at that time were La Crosse, Sparta and Trempealeau, and it took several days to make the round trip. What was called speculator land could be bought in the valley then for five

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

dollars an acre, and there was still considerable government land which could be taken by pre-emption."

Cornelius Lynch of Ettrick told of his first visit to Beaver Creek in 1859. "A number of settlers were living here then," said Lynch, "in their log houses, but a comparatively small amount of land was being cultivated. There was an abundance of game here at that time, such as deer, wolves and bear and the prairie chickens, pigeons, native pheasants and quail."

Nora Cullity, who was born in Galesville September 22, 1855, and reputed to be the first child born in Beaver Creek Valley related experiences of the early settlers. Our nearest neighbors, she said, were John Cance and Dan Kennedy, and neighbors were appreciated in the sparsely settled country, for it was sometimes necessary for a family to borrow flour suffi- cient to last until they could get to the distant market. It was customary to change work in the pioneer day, and people turned out to help at a house or barn raising or in threshing time the men generally helped each other and the women were as eager to lend a hand at the quilting bee.

"I have often heard mother tell of watching the wolves on the hills through the chinks in the log house as she sat knitting by the fireside, and their howl often broke the white silence of a wintry night with a startling suddenness."

What changes have taken place in this valley in the last sixty years. The dugout was soon obliterated and the log house that took its place, though it stood for years, has long since faded into oblivion and made way for the frame house, which in turn has been succeeded by the modern pressed brick residence. There are some of the old-time frame houses left in the valley, but no log cabin remains to mark the pioneer epoch-no log school house lingers by the way. No savage war cry has echoed from these hills since the days of Decorah, but of a summer evening one can hear the farmer boy calling the cattle home, and the wildest sound in all the broad valley is the bay of the watch dog.

The large valley, whose length is approximately thirty-five miles, has some of the most progressive farmers in the state. One may find plenty of farms with registered stock, and with modern dwelling houses that would grace the residence section of any city, and then the splendid barns and other farm buildings are in accord with the dwellings. And one will be surprised with the equipment, which is the best that money can obtain, and consists of electric lights, water works, sanitary feeding stalls, the silo and all of the very best and latest farm machinery.

What early settler ever dreamed of all these modern improvements ? They had not even the shadow of a dream that approached the reality.

Looking over the names in this locality one is struck with varied human activities, remote and present, which they suggest: The trappers' paradise, Beaver Creek, so named on account of abundance of beaver in its waters in former times; French Creek and Frenchville, names that point back to the days of RocQue, the trapper and trader, who built a cabin near the present Galesville in 1820; Iduna, a name taken from one of the characters in Norse mythology; Ettrick, the ancient Scotch name, and Hegg, which brings to mind the fame of our state in the Civil War; Galesville, which

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

suggests the sturdy character of that man whose brain felt into the future; the sentinel peak, Decorah, named from an Indian chief with a corrupted French name.

Over a century ago the Winnebago and Dakotas divided hunting ground in the Beaver Creek territory. A century has fled since Decorah stood on his famous peak and watched his braves battle with the Chippewa, and sixty-one years have passed since John Cance came into the valley and built his log cabin, thatching the roof with wild grass so that it resembled the low thatched cottages of far away Scotland.

In the years to come no period of American history will be filled with more romance and hardy adventure than the heroic pioneer age, nor fraught with greater interest, for on this rough hewn foundation our national character has been developed.

Frenchville had its first store in 1867, when Iver Pederson and Ole Scow came from Coon Valley, La Crosse County, and opened a general mercantile establishment. In 1870 Mr. Pederson sold out to Mrs. Ole Scow and moved to Ettrick.

Ettrick had its first store in 1870, when Iver Pederson came here from Frenchville. Seven years later he laid out the village plot of Ettrick, and thenceforth this Beaver Creek settlement took its place among the progres- sive Trempealeau County villages. Mr. Pederson's enterprise and business capacity were soon revealed in the growth of the new village. As new methods were advanced he adopted them, and before many years had elapsed his business eye saw the need of a flour mill in Ettrick. With characteristic energy, he turned his attention to this new industry, and in 1884 completed a flouring mill having a capacity of seventy-five barrels per day. He was also instrumental in establishing the woolen mills and creamery at Ettrick and was one of the promoters of the Ettrick Bank, of which institution he was president.

Ettrick and the upper Beaver Creek country, though somewhat distant from a railway, has made its disadvantage its opportunity, and instead of hauling large quantities of grain to market, the dairy feature of farming was developed to a high degree, and produce from this source proved to be not only more profitable, but much more conveniently handled than bulky grain, potatoes and hay.

Galesville was founded by Judge George Gale, jurist, educator and author. Unable to enthuse the people of La Crosse with the idea of securing for that place an institution of higher learning, he determined to establish somewhere in the vicinity a university city. After looking about for a while, he selected a beautiful spot in the Beaver Creek most admirably suited to his purpose. Here, amid a picturesque stretch of hill and dale. lay two tables or plateaus, separated by a wide depression or flat, and watered by the meandering course of the creek, whose gorge-like bed seemed especially designed for the building of a dam and the creation of an artificial lake. The land was unsettled and cheap, and Judge Gale had no difficulty in securing 2,000 acres in the vicinity of his chosen site.

His duties at La Crosse prevented his moving at once to his new possessions, so in 1854 he sent Augustus H. Armstrong to start operations

· 84

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

in inaugurating the future village. Mr. Armstrong erected a residence on what is now known as the lower or courthouse table, and as soon as the weather of the late spring permitted, superintended the construction of a mill and dam, the stone and the timber being obtained from the gorge itself.

Dr. William M. Young, a brother of Mrs. Gale, arrived a short time later, followed by Michael Cullity, who erected a shanty on the lower table on the south side of what is now Allen street, between Ridge and Main streets. An interesting example of conditions in those days is seen in the fact that Dr. Young and Mr. Cullity started out at sunrise to obtain the material for this shanty, and before night had it ready for occupancy by the Cullity family. Ryland Parker opened a small store east of the south- east corner of the public square on the present site of the Bank of Galesville. He started a hotel on the corner of Main and Allen streets, lot 2, block 3, original plat. Captain Finch started a home northeast of the northeast corner of the public square, but later sold out to Captain Alexander A. Arnold. Work on the mill progressed slowly. The dam proved inadequate and the harnessed waters soon broke their bonds. Judge Gale therefore secured the services of William O. Clark as builder and Ebenezer Batchelder as millwright, and under their auspices the dam was repaired and sawing started. The grist mill, obtaining power from the same dam, was not put into operation until later.

While the lower table, now the business district, was thus the scene of pioneer activity in 1854, the upper table, now the residence district, was receiving its first settlers. Isaac Clark established his home near the west end of what is now the north side of Clark street, and John French located on the west side of what is now French street. A Mr. Crawford came in about the same time, accompanied by his sister, and lived here a while in their pioneer wagon. The sister was a strong-minded woman, a follower of Lucy Stone, and wore a bloomer suit instead of the conven- tional feminine attire, thus provoking much satirical and sometimes cruel comment on the part of the other settlers. A. R. Wyman erected a house on the upper table, but later moved onto a farm, leaving his original home to be used for many years as a boarding house for university students. The village was platted on both tables April 22, 1854.

The population of both tables probably did not number thirty people on New Year's Day, 1855. A few settlers arrived during that year. Early in 1856 J. W. Armstrong, then registrar of deeds, occupied a house on Ridge street; Ryland Parker was a merchant on the corner of Allen street and the square; Daniel McKeith had a primitive home; William P. Clark was engaged with Judge George Gale and Ebenezer Batchelder in building a grist mill and operating a sawmill; Franklin Gilbert resided down on the flats upon what afterward became Mill street; A. R. Wyman resided on Ridge street ; Isaac Clark on Clark street, and J. C. French on French street. The hotel, of which Ellsworth was landlord, corner of Allen and Main streets, was finished, and in the full flush of success. The improvements completed included among others the courthouse and a schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was on the site of the present high school. The courthouse was still standing as a west part of the building north of the west corner of the public square.

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Later in the year the village saw a considerable growth. J. W. Canter- bury opened the first blacksmith shop. C. E. Perkins, afterward a promi- nent county officer, erected a residence on Free street; W. H. Wyman on Elizabeth street; George W. Swift on Clark street; R. B. Cooper on Ridge street, and G. H. Burnham on Allen street. C. C. Averill, Nathaniel Stearns, who had been to Galesville in 1855, and George W. Stearns located here, and the latter two moved into the Armstrong house on Allen street. The Rev. D. D. Van Slyke, organizer of the Methodist church in the village, also built a house. Captain Bartlet completed a house in which the postoffice was this year opened, with Dr. William M. Young as postmaster. Several of the pioneer shanties were replaced with frame houses.

With this beginning, the village experienced a quick growth, enjoying a heyday of prosperity until the close of the Civil War. The panic of 1857 apparently did not retard the progress. In 1859 an attempt was made to transfer some of the business from the lower to the upper table. J. M. Dodge built a store on Ridge street and soon sold to R. A. Odell, who con- ducted it for several years. This was the only store ever started on the upper table.

Work on Gale College, on the upper table, was started in 1858, the preparatory department opened in the courthouse in the summer of 1859 and the collegiate department opened in the fall of 1861. The first county fair was held in the fall of 1859. The Galesville Transcript was established in 1860.

During this period of prosperity many houses were erected, several church societies perfected their organizations, and the Rev. John Frothing- ham, first Presbyterian minister to be settled in the county, took charge of his work.

. On June 2, 1866, the dam went out, and destruction and desolation marked the rush of waters. The hotel on the flat, put up in 1857; the saw and grist mills and other improvements were swept away in an hour, entailing a loss of not less than $10,000. The next spring Webster Davis purchased the water power privileges and the debris left by the flood, and began the construction of a new dam and mill on the present site several rods above the old location.

Of Galesville, in the fall of 1870, Stephen Richmond has said:

"It was a beautiful, thriving and famed little city, nestling in the shade of the mighty cliff, which then as now, forms the east bank of Beaver Creek, under the shadow of which towered the granite walls of the Davis Flouring Mill, the whir and busy trundle of which bespoke an active industry. Galesville University stood near the western boundary or out- skirts of the village after the fashion of southern colleges and was then a flourishing school under the presidency of Professor Gilliland and a corps of strong, active teachers. The public square in the center of the business part of the village on the lower table was also a reminder of southern cities and villages, on the north side of which stood the courthouse, the remainder of the square being built about by business places, all active with bustle and an air of successful local commerce, presenting a scene and fixing in my memory a very pleasant remembrance of that day, then bespeaking

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

the intelligence, business ability and financial foresight of a community of people able to cope successfully with all municipal problems. It was a sight not to be in all the years since effaced from my memory.

"On the day of which I try to sketch my mental picture, the public square, the streets, and along the bank of the creek were many teams from the country, and many of the active, hardy, intelligent farmers, their wives and children, who were tributary to Galesville, as their market place, were present. Good order was manifest everywhere, and the democracy of which so many have spoken and written was surely there. Away to the north spread in a sheen of golden ripple lay the Davis mill pond looking in all respects like a lake formed by the handiwork of Providence, whil. to the southwest could be seen the mighty bluffs and rugged hills in Minne- sota ranged along the western side of the Mississippi River. Every line of local municipal activity now present in, and the boast of modern days, appeared to be actively and intelligently represented. The ragged edge of the frontier town and the far-western outpost were absent, and there was an air of permanency, tradition and stability usually lacking in new towns."

Trempealeau Prairie lies in the southern part of Trempealeau County, about fifteen miles long and from three to five miles wide. Over this prairie all the early settlers of the county hauled their grain to market. There were three main routes from the Trempealeau Valley after the ridge was crossed. The Beaver Creek Valley and the Tamarack Valley route joins at Centerville, then called Martin's Corners. The Pine Creek route reached the prairie at Wright's Corners. After the hills, sloughs and log ways were passed, the early settlers were assured of a safe, steady passage to Trempealeau, situated on the south edge of the prairie on the Mississippi River, then the great highway of commerce.

Settlers began to locate on the prairie surrounding Trempealeau at an early date. Their story has been told in connection with the history of the village. Not long afterward a populous settlement sprang up a+ what is known as West Prairie. The first permanent settler on West Prairie was Hollister Wright, who located in 1853 at what was afterward known as Wright's Corners. He bought out an earlier claimant who had selected a location and planted potatoes. It is said that Wright was walking over the prairie, met a man digging potatoes, and bought him out after a five- minute conversation. In 1854 came W. A. Cram, D. A. Segar, O. Whitcomb and William Lee. These four, with Wright, all had their crops harvested when D. O. Van Slyke arrived in November of that year.

About 1855 settlers came in large numbers, mostly in wagon trains drawn by oxen. They crossed Black River at McGilvray's Ferry on a flat boat propelled by poles and held in place by a rope stretched from one bank to the other. The oxen were often the cause of a great deal of trouble, for, after being turned loose on the prairie at night to feed, it often took all the forenoon to round them up ready to move on.

On the east bank of the Trempealeau settled Isaac Nash, who, with his large family, were well adapted to a new country, because they were versed in the use of the natural resources of the land. From the woods they secured logs for a house and fuel for their stove, while the river

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

abounded in fish and the land in small game. With the family came Jacob Holbrook, also a man of resource. With an ax and auger he could fashion a bob-sled or an ax-yoke. He operated the first mill and made sorgum syrup.

Among the first settlers were Avery Wellington (he was called "Duke," and the street on which he lived bears that name), William Burns, Seba Atwood and Amos Whiting, educator and leader in public affairs. One of the interesting characters of the time was Dow Ladd, a down-east Yankee, who served as justice of the peace. He was full of whims, and a bitter feud existed between him and the boys of the neighborhood, who often raided his melon patch and annoyed him in other ways.

John Gillies and family, Alex Stevens and family, and John and George Brewin arrived in June, 1855, and settled on South Prairie. No lumber could be obtained at Trempealeau, and John Gillies and Alex McGilvray went to Douglass Mill, near Melrose, and rafted timber down to McGilvray's Ferry, whence it was carted to the prairie.

Many others came this year and the years immediately following, and the prairie was soon thickly settled.

The early settlers were for the most part New Englanders, and, coming from a hilly and rocky country, were attracted by the easy turning of the soil and its quick production.

Often on Sunday evenings the people gathered at some home for kindly greeting and mutual comfort. By common impulse their thoughts turned to far-off New England, with its religious atmosphere, and as their memories lingered on the familiar scenes and places of the past, there floated out on the evening air the hymns and songs of other days-to the boys and girls evenings never to be forgotten.

The first schoolhouse on what is known as West Prairie was built east of the present brick structure as the result of the work of Amos Whiting. The building was later replaced on the present site by a large building which more recently gave place to the brick structure. A Union Sunday school has been held there almost continuously since 1858.

In 1863 a cemetery was laid out on the corner of the farm of I. D. Carhart, under the direction of Amos Whiting, whose daughter was the first to be buried there. The land was given by Mr. Carhart. The cemetery in charge of an association, has been several times enlarged and is now permanently fenced. An artistic pagoda has been erected and a permanent fund provided for its maintenance.

From Trempealeau Prairie the settlers gradually penetrated the Little and Big Tamarack, and slowly working up that valley, settled in Holcomb Cooley, Thompson Valley, Norway Cooley, and in numerous other branching cooleys and valleys.

Dodge was settled in the middle fifties from Trempealeau, Trempealeau Prairie and the Tamarack Valley. The portion first settled was that lying tributary to Tamarack Valley and that lying in the Trempealeau River flats and small cooleys adjacent to West Prairie. In 1855 Martin Whistler crossed Whistler Pass and settled in the Pine Creek Valley, and within a year Ichabod Wood had settled in section 14. Other early English and American settlers in the vicinity of Whistler Pass were John L. Sanderson,

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Almon A. Johnson, Joseph Utter and Charles Keith. The first Polish settler in Dodge was Michael Chisin, of Winona, who, in the spring of 1862, settled on the abandoned claim of John Banner.

It was probably about 1862 when the Polish people began to settle in Pine Creek. They were induced to locate here by John Schmangle, a man who spoke English, German and Polish. The first six families were those of Paul Libera, Paul Leishman, Paul Rudnick, Joseph Zabrinsky, Anton Zabrinsky and Felix Kamarowski. These Polish families were living in the valley when Mathias Brom, a native of Bohemia, settled there in 1863.

In 1863 there were no improved roads into Pine Creek. The market points were Trempealeau Village and Fountain City all the year around, and Winona when the river was frozen. With no improved road over the ridge communication with Arcadia was most difficult.

A mill was built on Pine Creek in the sixties. It was washed out by a flood in 1872 and was not rebuilt.

The first German settler in the Trempealeau Valley in Dodge township was George F. Staflin, who settled in section 11, east of the present village, on March 10, 1857. About the same time came Casper Walwand, the first settler in the immediate vicinity of the present village.

Above Dodge one of the first settlers was John Latsch, afterward a prominent wholesale grocer of Winona. He came here in 1856 and settled near a creek at the mouth of the valley that now bears his name. In 1865 Frank Pellowski settled in the same valley, and in the next five years there arrived so many settlers from Hungary that the valley came to be called Hungary Valley. The name of Latsch Valley is being gradually resumed, especially for that part of the valley near its mouth."

Arcadia, the first settlement in the Trempealeau Valley above Trem- pealeau Prairie, had its beginning in 1855. Soon after the Indians relin- quished their rights to this region, in 1837, James Reed, the first perma- nent settler of Trempealeau County, made several journeys up the Trem- pealeau River in search of furs. The Bunnells, Willard B. and Lafayette H., came to Trempealeau in 1842. Willard B. Bunnell hunted and trapped on some of the tributaries of the Trempealeau in the autumn of the same year, naming Elk and Pigeon creeks because of his successful hunts there- upon. In the autumn of 1843 the two brothers Bunnell, in company with Thomas A. Holmes and William Smothers, ascended the Trempealeau as far as the present village of Independence, where the party camped and spent several days hunting elk in the surrounding country.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 13

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