USA > Wisconsin > Trempealeau County > History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin > Part 2
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The county is entirely an agricultural one, all of the villages depending upon the people of their immediate rural district for their support.
The earliest explorers of the upper Mis- sissippi River found Trempealeau under the domain of the powerful Dakota In- dians, who from their headquarters in the Mille Lacs region of northern Minnesota, used the great river as their route of war and the chase. But pressed hard by the Chippewa, who had secured firearms from the whites, the Dakota abandoned their ancient northern villages, and the early fur traders found them ranging the Mis-
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INTRODUCTION
sissippi from St. Paul southward to Prairie du Chien, and on the prairies to the west- ward. The Winnebago, who, like the Da- kota, or Sioux proper, were members of the Siouan family, had held ancient sway of the valleys of the Rock and Fox Rivers, and the territory around Lake Winnebago and Green Bay, were met at Green Bay by the first explorers, and in early fur trading days were ranging as far west- ward as the Mississippi. Tradition tells of many a murderous foray against the Dakota and the Winnebago in the vicinity, not only by their hereditary enemies, the Chippewas to the northward, but also by the combined Sauk and Foxes to the south- ward.
Some time in the middle years of the first half of the nineteenth century, De- corah of the Winnebago had a village at what is now Decorah's Prairie, and Wa- basha of the. Dakotas had a village near Trempealean Mountain, while Red Bird of the Winnebago had a village near the month of the Black River, from which he and his followers, as well as Winneshiek and his followers, ranged Trempealeau County. The Winnebago were allies of the Dakota, and the two mingled in friendly intercourse and even in marriage. Dakota dominion in Trempealeau County ended in 1837, when the chiefs and head men signed a treaty relinquishing all their lands east of the Mississippi and the islands therein, and withdrew west of the river. The Win- nebago, however, in spite of many efforts at removal, persisted in staying in Trem- pealeau County, and some of their de- scendants are to be found straying here to this day.
The shadowy Spanish sovereignty had no influence on Trempealeau County, where its vague substance nominally con- tinued until the approach of the French, or on the neighboring lands across the Mississippi River, where it continued until after the securing of the "Louisiana Pur- chase" by the United States.
The French Period in Trempealeau County extended from the discovery of Wisconsin in 1634 until the fall of New France. The adventurous Father Louis Hennepin, in company with Accault and Auguel, passed the mountain with his sav- age captors in 1680, on that memorable trip which was to give to civilization its first knowledge of St. Anthony Falls,
about which now centers the greatest mill- ing industry in the world. A few months later the rocks of Trempealeau heights beheld the historic rescue of that mission- ary by the gallant young Sieur du Luth.
Nicholas Perrot was the first to actu- ally visit Trempealeau County. In the winter of 1685-86 he built a Post and established his winter quarters about two miles above the present village of Trem- pealeau. Just when he abandoned this post is not known. At least he was in this region for several years thereafter. Linc- tot reoccupied this same post in the fall of 1731. The site of the post is now defi- nitely fixed, as its ruins have been un- earthed and mapped. Linctot was suc- ceeded late in 1735 by St. Pierre, who re- moved the post higher up the river early the following spring. Other Frenchmen during the French period noted Trempea- leau Mountain, and some stopped here.
The English period officially dawned with the signing of the treaties of 1762 and 1763, but the last French garrison had left Wisconsin in 1760. During this period, Jonathan Carver, a Connecticut Yankee, viewed this region in 1766 and published the first description of Trempealeau Moun- tain. This description, which is fairly ac- curate, has been preserved in Carver's works to this day. British domain in real- ity continued from the arrival of the Eng- lish detachment at Green Bay in 1761 until the beginning of the American military oc- cupancy at Prairie du Chien and Green Bay in 1816. But in the meantime, Amer- ican sovereignty had been inaugurated by the Treaty of 1783; had been exercised by the passing of the Ordinance of 1787; had been confirmed by the Treaty of 1796; and had been interrupted by the British mili- tary occupancy during the war of 1812 and the hostility of the Indians immediately following that war.
The dashing Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, on his way up the river in 1805, camped near Trempealeau Mountain and spoke glow- ingly of the scenery. In 1817 came Major Stephen H. Long with his little band in a six-oared skiff. He climbed some of the hills in this region and advanced some in- teresting theories as to the original con- tour of Trempealeau Mountain and Prairie.
With the establishment of Ft. Snelling at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers in 1819, Trempealeau
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County was placed within the pale of civ- ilization, and soldiers, traders and visitors were frequently passing. About the same time, a sawmill was built at the Falls of the Black River. Gen. Lewis Cass, James D. Doty and Henry R. Schoolcraft passed Trempealeau Mountain in 1820 and de- scribed its peculiar formation and position. A mill was built in 1822 on the Menomonee branch of the Chippewa. In 1823, Long, accompanied this time by the scholarly William H. Keating, again passed Trem- pealeau Mountain, and the same year the sleeping echoes were awakened with the puffing of the "Virginia," the first steam- boat to navigate the upper Mississippi. Among the distinguished people aboard was J. Constantine Beltrami, the famous Italian explorer. He wrote of Trempea- leau Mountain with his characteristic en- thusiasm.
Trempealeau Bay continued to be the rendezvous of the traders.
The first trapper and trader known to have actually built a cabin in Trempea- leaus County, after the early French ex- plorers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was Joseph Rocque, an early trader and guide. Winnebago tradition locates a cabin of his on Beaver Creek, in Trempcaleau County near Galesville, where a branch of the stream is still known as French Creek.
In 1835 Featherstonhaugh visited the Trempealeau country and describes the view from the summit of Trempealeau Mountain. Catlin, as well as the Dragoons of the Albert Miller Lee Military Expedi- tion, came the same year. The following year Daniel Gavin, representing the Pro- testant Missionary Society of Basle, Swit- zerland, established a mission among the Sioux at Trempealeau Bay, and with the assistance of Louis Stram, a fellow coun- tryman, endeavored to teach the Indians agriculture; but Wabasha, their chief, did not take kindly either to the mission or the farming; and after the treaty of 1837, by which all the Sioux claim east of the Mississippi was ceded to the United States, Gavin abandoned the mission and pro- ceeded north to more favorable fields at Red Wing. Although the enterprise was temporary, it was the first made in the county in the nature of a permanent set- tlement, and was the first farming therein under the direction of a white man.
The next attempt at settlement came about under the auspices of the fur trade. Francois la Bathe, a shrewd half-breed, and a near relative of Wabasha, induced John Doville and Antoine Reed to proceed to the present village of Trempealeau and cut cordwood on the island opposite for steamboats, and in so doing hold the Trem- pealeau River front as a landing and thus prevent any trade drifting away from Wa- basha's village, at the present city of Winona, the American Fur Company being the real factor back of this move.
Then came the period of actual settle- ment, when James A. Reed brought his family from Prairie du Chien and located on the site of modern Trempealeau. Under his direction, Doville, his son-in-law, tilled the soil broken by Stram at the bay, and became the first Trempealeau County farmer, as he sowed grain and raised po- tatoes, while Stram had devoted himself to gardening only.
During the next ten years a number of families moved into the new settlement which was known as Reed's Town, or Reed's Landing. These families were mostly of French origin, though some were mixed bloods, and they thrived largely by the fur trade, though nearly all raised good gardens, and those who were fortu- nate enough to have stock used the prairie as a common grazing ground.
It was not, however, until after 1850 that any large number of settlers came into Trempealeau County, and the real in- flux did not start until 1855, but from that date until 1870 may be considered the real pioneer period in the county's history. Settlers poured into the new country, pene- trating its remotest valleys and taking up the choicest lands of the various sections, and the class of people that came to cast their lot in the undeveloped country were largely farmers of experience; and but few came unprepared to grapple with the wild forces of nature and subdue the hunt- ing ground of the Indian.
However, conditions were entirely new. Little sawed lumber was available. Some of the pioneers lived in their wagons for a while; some built log cabins; some con- structed dugouts; some few went to far- off sawmills and obtained boards. The county was but little wooded, and mate- rial even for log cabins was scarce. Ex- cept on the prairies, it was not thought
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INTRODUCTION
possible to sink wells, and water for household and farming purposes had to be secured from the creeks. Horses were not suited to the inclement winters, the inferior protection of straw sheds, and the coarse fodder of marsh grass, and so oxen were the principal beasts of burden. Tools were few and hard to obtain. Market places were far distant. The people from the eastern states missed their convenient stores, the nearby schoolhouses, their vil- lage churches, and their cultural opportu- nities. The immigrants from the British Isles and from central Europe missed the day-by-day routine which their ancestors had for centuries followed, and were thrown as never before on their own re- sources. The Scandinavian, though in a more fertile land than one of which he had ever dreamed, missed the waterfalls and mountains of his native land, and was confronted with the necessity of entirely changing the methods of farming to which he was accustomed. These Europeans also missed their churches, their schools, and the neighborhood gatherings of childhood friends.
In settling along the principal streams of the county, the pioneer followed a law that has been adhered to since the race began; in fact, the stream may be consid- ered the trail leading into the interior of the country.
For the first few years the valleys were sparsely settled. Then came more pio- neers, and communities were formed and named as a usual thing after the first set- tler, though sometimes they took their names from some home country or from a class of people natives of a common coun- try. Thus there are Reed's town, Gales- ville, Scotch Prairie, Bishop's Settlement Caledonia, Williamsburg, as instances of the naming of a community. The same holds true of the valleys which were most generally named in honor of the first set- tler, as Lewis Valley, Newcomb Valley, Holcomb Cooley and Latsch Valley.
Many of these first settlements became the present villages, and some of the vil- lages will become cities in the future. Reed's Town became the present Trem- pealeau; Judge Gale's village grew into modern Galesville; Bishop's Settlement de- veloped into Arcadia; Old Whitehall moved a mile became Whitehall; Fields' Colony became Osseo. But Skillins' Cor-
ners, later called Williamsburg, Coral City and New City became reverse examples of the settlements growing into villages, and today their past glory is only a memory, recorded on a page of local history, for conditions were unfavorable for the growth of a town in those localities.
During the pioneer days, the first draw- back was the hard winter of the deep snow in 1856-57; the next was the financial crisis of 1857. Then, just when prosperity was dawning, came the Civil War. How- ever, from an economic standpoint, the in- creased value of agricultural products rec- ompensed for the loss of labor caused by the absence of so many men, and the county received no severe setbacks. In fact, the population increased, for there was a large influx of settlers from the old country, men who were not liable to mili- tary service. The Scandinavians, who had begun to form colonies here in 1855, came in increasing numbers; the Germans, who had started to colonize here in 1857, also flocked in; and during the opening years of the war the Polish and Bohemian set- tlers began to arrive. The Minnesota Sioux massacre of 1862 caused much un- rest among the settlers of Trempealeau County as to the attitude of the neighbor- ing Winnebago camps, and was the occa- sion of many a fright, the incidents of which are now told with relish, but in reality was of great benefit to Trempea- leau County, as many pioneers who had intended to settle on the western Minne- sota prairies were deterred from continu- ing the journey, and thus cast their for- tunes here.
During the pioneer period Trempealeau village was a steamboat center, the great grain shipping point of this and neighbor- ing counties. The Black River and the Mississippi River were filled with great rafts of logs from the Wisconsin forests, and even the shallow Trempealeau was used as a logging highway.
The railroad period begins with the building of the Northwestern into Trem- pealeau in 1870 and the building of the Green Bay through the valley of the Trempealeau River in 1873. The exten- sion of the Northwestern to Galesville in 1883, and the building of the Burlington through Trempealeau in 1886, the building of the Omaha through the northern part of the county in 1887-89, and the build-
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ing of the Ettrick & Northern from Ett- rick to Blair in 1917 opened up new ave- nues of trade, but marked no particular epoch.
From 1870 on, Trempealeau County his- tory becomes tinged more and more with modern methods and improvements. The railroad terminated Trempealeau's activi- ties as the main market town of the county and at the same time the steam- boat industry on the Mississippi received a most formidable rival. With the build- ing of the Green Bay, Whitehall, Arcadia and Blair became important points, Dodge became a trading center, and soon Inde- pendence was started. The county ad- vanced rapidly now, as the railroad made the markets of the world more accessible, and with the progress came the inevitable changes that have been the wonder of our western civilization. People quickly adapt- ed themselves to the new conditions and fell in with the trend of things. The farmer discarded his breaking-plow and rode across his fields with the modern sulky, while his oxen were fattened and sold to market to make way for well-bred horses. The mattock was flung into a corner of the tool shed to rust out its existence, while the stump-pulling ma- chine tooks its place and made grubbing a mechanical piece of labor rather than slow, plodding work. The cradle and flail were hung on the wall, and in their place came the reaper, binder and steam thresher. The old tallow candle that burned through the pioneer days was laid aside, and the kerosene and, still later, gasoline and even the electric light cast a glamor on the household and lighted the room so that grandmother could knit even better than she could before the old fire- place.
The population increased rapidly, nearly 7,000 by 1877. At the beginning of this period there were but two graded schools, one at Galesville and one at Whitehall, and but one district, that of Arcadia, where there were two school houses. With the creation of the new villages, graded schools became more general, and in a short time high school studies were intro- duced. New churches were established; old congregations built new edifices.
But with all this prosperity, the ele- ments of disaster were present. The farmers were devoting their attention al-
most exclusively to wheat raising. A few experiments were made with other crops, but wheat was the staple. The taking of rich crops off the same pieces of land year after year was depleting the soil. The cinch bugs were appearing in increasing numbers. Smooth-talking agents per- suaded farmers to purchase machinery on time payments. Better machinery soon made its appearance, and the unfortunate purchasers of the earlier machinery found themselves with inferior equipment and with heavy bills to pay. The price of wheat was going down. Many lost their property through inability to meet their notes. In 1878 came the wheat failure. About this time also came the rush to the prairies of western Minnesota and to the Dakotas. Many people deserted the
county.
But with the dawn of the eighties there came improved methods and increasing prosperity, though for ten years there was little increase in population. The farm- ers turned their attention to diversified crops, to stock, to swine and to sheep. In 1883 creameries were started at Ar- cadia and Galesville, and in 1885 a co- operative creamery was started at Ettrick. Banks sprang up here and there. A small bank had been established in 1878 at Whitehall and moved to Arcadia, and be- fore 1890 flourishing banks were in opera- tion at Galesville, Whitehall, Independ- ence and Arcadia. Telephone connection was established with the outside world from Galesville in 1895, and soon Arcadia likewise secured outside connections, and in 1900-02 lines were built and exchanges opened in the Trempealeau and Beef River valleys.
During the past ten years scientific agri- culture has occupied the minds of Trem- pealeau County farmers, stimulated largely by the agricultural department of the federal government and by the efforts of the agricultural department of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin, more particularly by the University Extension Division. As there are few new fields to subdue, the farmer must develop his old fields to a higher stage of efficiency. This he is doing, as the increasing acreage of alfalfa and the better quality of corn and small grain show. Blooded herds and con- stantly developing graded herds are nu- merous. The automobile has come into
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INTRODUCTION
wide use, and since 1907 an extensive system of road improvement has been con- ducted with state aid. The farmers from Illinois and Iowa have brought experience in tobacco raising, so that the tobacco industry is now an important one in the county. The schools have introduced the teaching of domestic science, agriculture and the manual arts. Beautiful farm homes with all modern improvements are to be seen on all sides. Silos dot the landscape like ancient castles, Trempea- leau County seed corn is widely known, the creameries not only add to the repu- tation of the county's products but give the farmer a goodly cash check each month. The present generation is reap- ing the fruits that have been made pos- sible by more than sixty years of toil by preceding generations.
The year of 1917 has brought its war cloud. A company has been raised within the county, many have volunteered, the conscripts of the National Army have been called into service. The farmers have responded to the President's plea, and, though the early frost has almost destroyed the corn crop and the cucumber crop, there has been a greatly increased acreage and greatly increased yield of all other crops.
The county having reached so great a prosperity, it now seems that this scien- tific age of agriculture should join forces with the electrical machinery now in the process of completion, and together make farming an ideal vocation-a vocation where the naturalist and scientist com- bine forces to wrest from Mother Earth a harvest such as would satisfy the most sanguine dreamer. Then we shall see the lightning from the clouds harnessed, and plowing the fields, sowing the grain, and . reaping it in harvest time, and in so doing it will simply be the application of natu- ral laws in which the human mind is the directing force.
To the telling of this story of the county in more extended detail, the following pages are devoted. First is given the his- tory of the early days of the area that is now Wisconsin, and then is traced the his- tory of the county from its formation during the geologic ages, through the early settlement of the various localities. Then the county government is given, and the rest of the book is devoted to chap- ters on various topics of local interest, source material in the form of miscella- neous contributions, and biographies of the lives of those who have helped to make the county.
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TREMPEALEAU CO.
CHAPTER I EARLY . WISCONSIN 1
I. Physical and Political Geography
1. Topography-In the beautiful new capital of the State of Wisconsin a noted artist has portrayed the commonwealth as a strong and beautiful woman, embraced and encircled by the guardian figures of the Mississippi River, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan. Thus in symbolic form the painter has vividly portrayed the truth that Wisconsin's position at the head-waters of the two great valleys of North America - the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi - has been of supreme importance in the history of the State. To these advantages of position is due its early discovery, its thorough exploration and its value as a link in the penetration of the Old Northwest. The area of the present State is 56,066 square miles, somewhat larger than the whole of England. In extreme length from north to south it is 320 miles, with a maximum width almost as great. Its distance from the Atlantic coast is about a thousand miles - one-third of the entire distance across the continent. The eastern and northern portions of the State drain into the two upper Great Lakes by short streams with rapid courses. The larger portion of the area belongs to the Mississippi system, into which it drains by a series of large rivers; the largest and most important of these is the one from which the State takes its name. The Wisconsin River, rising on the northeastern boundary of the State, cuts across it to the southwest, making a great trough which at the elbow in south-central Wisconsin approaches within three-quarters of a mile of the eastward-flowing Fox River. The Fox, in its upper courses a sluggish stream, winding slowly through lakes and wide spreads of wild rice, after passing through Lake Winnebago, the largest lake wholly within the State, rushes with great force down a series of rapids into the upper end of Green Bay, the V-shaped western extremity of Lake Michigan. Thus a natural waterway crosses the State, uniting by means of a short portage the Atlantic waters with those of the Gulf of Mexico, and dividing the State into a northern and southern portion, which have had widely differing courses of development.
The southeastern half of the State, with plentiful harbors on Lake Michigan and Green Bay, opens unobstructedly towards the south and east. It was therefore the first portion to be permanently settled, and has partaken of the civilization and progress of the Middle West. The northern and western part of the State faces toward the farther West, and its development was delayed by the tardy growth of population at the head of Lake Superior and along the headwaters of the Mississippi. Waterways connecting these two drainage systems pass through this part of Wisconsin, the earliest known of which was that via the Bois Brule of Lake Superior
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HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY
and the St. Croix of the Mississippi. Other streams connect with the headwaters of the Chippewa, the Black, and the Wisconsin. All these routes were explored during the early years of Wisconsin's history, but their rapid flow and difficult portages have made them impractical as commercial routes.
The heavy forestation of the northern portion of the State has been until recent times the main fact in its history ; while as carriers of timber, and as sources of water power the rapid rivers of northwestern Wisconsin have played their part in the production of its wealth and prosperity.
2. Sovereignty-Politically, Wisconsin has been included in more different units of government than any of its neighbors. It was first a part of the Spanish empire in North America, which claimed all the continent whose southern borders had been discovered and occupied by Spanish subjects. The Spanish sovereignty in Wisconsin was never more than a shadow, and so far as we know no one of that race ever placed foot upon Wisconsin soil until long after it was possessed by a rival power.
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