History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 111

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Union
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 111

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Provision should be made by law, for the col- lection and publication of reliable statistics re- lating to our farming, manufacturing, mining, lumbering, commercial and educational inter- ests. Several of the States of the Union have established a "bureau of statistics," and no more valuable reports emanate from any of their State departments than those that exhibit a condensed view of the material results accom- plished each year. Most of the European States foster these agencies with as much solicitude as any department of their government. Indeed, they have become a social as well as a material necessity, for social science extends its inquiries to the physical laws of man as a social being; to the resources of the country; its productions; the growth of society, and to all those facts or conditions which may increase or diminish the

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.

strength, growth or happiness of a people. Statistics are the foundation and corner-stone of social science, which is the highest and noblest of all the sciences.

A writer has said that, "If God had designed Wisconsin to be chietly a manufacturing State, instead of agricultural, which she claims to be, and is, it is difficult to see more than one par- ticular in which He could have endowed her more richly for that purpose." She has all the material for the construction of articles of use and luxury, the means of motive power to pro- pel the machinery, to turn and fashion, weave,

forge, and grind the natural elements that abound in such rich profusion. She has also the men whose enterprise and skill have accom- plished most surprising results, in not only building up a name for themselves, but in plac- ing the State in a proud position of independ- ence.

It is impossible to predict what will be the fu- ture growth and development of Wisconsin. From its commercial and manufacturing advan- tages, we may reasonably anticipate that she will in a few years lead in the front rank of the States of the Union in all that constitutes real greatnes :. ller educational system is one of the best. With her richly endowed State Uni- versity, her colleges and high schools, and the peoples colleges, the common schools, she has laid a broad and deep foundation for a great and noble commonwealth. It was early seen what were the capabilities of this their newly explored domain. The northwestern explorer, Jonathan Carver, in 1766, one hundred and eleven years ago, after traversing Wisconsin and viewing its lakes of crystal purity, its rivers of matchless utility, its forests of exhaustless wealth, its prairies of wonderful fertility, its mines of buried treasure, recorded this remark- able prediction of which we see the fulfillment: "To what power or authority this new world will become dependentafterit has arisen from its pres- ent uncultivated state, time alone can discover. But as the seat of empire from time immemo-

rial has been gradually progressive toward the west, there is no doubt but that at some future period mighty kingdoms will emerge from these wildernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples with gilded spires reaching to the skies supplant the Indian huts, whose only decora- tions are the barbarous trophies of their van- quished enemies."

"Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already passed,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last."

LUMBER MANUFACTURE.

Foremost among the industries of Wisconsin is that of manufacturing lumber. Very much of the importance to which the State has attained is due to the development of its forest wealth, In America, agriculture always has been, and al- ways will be, the primary and most important interest; but no Nation can subsist upon agriculture alone. While the broad prairies of Illinois and Iowa are rich with a fertile and productive soil, the hills and valleys of northern Wisconsin are clothed with a wealth of timber that has given birth to a great manufacturing interest, which employs millions of capital and thousands of men, and has peo- pled the northern wilds with energetic, prosper- ous communities, built up enterprising cities, and crossed the State with a network of rail- ways which furnish outlets for its productions and inlets for the new populations which are are ever seeking for homes and employment nearer to the setting sun.

If a line be drawn upon the State map, from Green Bay westward through Stevens Point, to where it would naturally strike the Mississippi river, it will be below the southern boundary of the pine timber regions, with the single excep- tion of the district drained by the Yellow river, a tributary of the Wisconsin, drawing its tim- ber chiefly from Wood and Junean counties. The territory north of this imaginary line covers an area a little greater than one-half of the State. The pine timbered land is found in

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.

belts or ridges, interspersed with prairie open- ings, patches of hardwood and bemlock, and drained by numerous water-courses. No less than seven large rivers traverse this northern section, and, with their numerous tributaries, penetrate every county, affording facilities for floating the logs to the mills, and, in many in- stances, the power to cut them into lumber. This does not include the St. Croix, which forms the greater portion of the boundary line between Wisconsin and Minnesota, and, by means of its tributaries, draws the most and best of its pine from the former State. These streams divide the territory, as far as lumber- ing is concerned, into six separate and distinct districts: The Green bay shore, which includes the Wisconsin side of the Menomonee, the Peshtigo and Oconto rivers, with a number of creeks which flow into the bay between the mouths of the Oconto and Fox rivers; the Wolf river district; the Wisconsin river, including the Yellow, as before mentioned; the Black river; the Chippewa and Red Cedar; and the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix.

Beginning with the oldest of these, the Green bay shore, a brief description of each will be at- tempted. The first saw-mill built in the State, of which there is now any knowledge, was put in operation in 1809, in Brown county, two or three miles east from Depere, on a little stream which was known as East river. It was built by Jacob Franks, but probably was a very small affair. Of its machinery or capacity for sawing, no history has been recorded, and it is not within the memory of any inhabitant of to- day. In 1829, John P. Arndt, of Green Bay, built a water-power mill on the Pensankee river at a point where the town of Big Suamico now stands. In 1834, a mill was built on the Wisconsin side of the Menomonee, and two years later, one at Peshtigo. Lumber was first shipped to market from this district in 1834, which must be termed the beginning of lumber- ing operations on the bay shore. The lands drained by the streams which flow into Green

bay are located in Shawano and Oconto counties, the latter being the largest in the State. In 1847, Willard Lamb, of Green Bay, made the first sawed pine shingles in that district; they were sold to the Galena Railroad Company for use on de- pot buildings, and were the first of the kind sold in Chicago. Subsequently Green Bay be- came one of the greatest points for the manu - facture of such shingles in the world. The shores of the bay are low, and gradually change from marsh to swamp, then to level, dry land, and finally become broken and mountainous to the northward, The pine is in dense groves that crowd closely upon the swamps skirting the bay, and reach far back among the hills of the interior. The Peshtigo flows into the bay about ten miles south of the Menomonee, and takes its rise far back in Oconto county, near to the latter's southern tributaries. It is counted a good logging stream, its annual pro- duet being from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 feet. The timber is of a rather coarse quality, run- ning but a small percentage to what the lumbermen term "appers." About ten per cent. is what is known as Norway pine. Of the whole amount of timber tributary to the Pesh- tigo, probably about one-third has been cut off to this date. The remainder will not average of as good quality, and only a limited portion of the land is of any value for agricultural pur- poses after being cleared of the pine. There are only two mills on this stream, both being owned by one company. The Oconto is one of the most important streams in the district. The first saw-mill was built on its banks about the year 1840, though the first lumbering operations of any account were begun in 1845 by David Jones. The business was conducted quite moderately until 1856, in which year several mills were built, and from that date Oconto has been known as quite an extensive lumber manufacturing point. The timber tributary to this stream has been of the best quality found in the State Lumber cut from it has been

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.

known to yield the extraordinarily high average of fifty and sixty per cent. uppers. The timber now being cut will not average more than half that. The proportion of Norway is about five per cent. It is estimated that from three fourths to four fifths of the timber tributary to the Oconto has been cut away, but it will re- quire a much longer time to convert the balance into lumber than was necessary to cut its equivalent in amount owing to it remote location. The annual production of pine lumber at Oconto is from 50,000,000 to 65,000,000 feet. The whole production of the district, exclusive of the timber which is put into the Menomonee from Wisconsin, is about 140,- 000,000 feet annually.

The Wolf river and its tributaries constitute the next district, proceeding westward. The first saw logs cut on this stream for commercial purposes were floated to the government mill at Neenah in 1835. In 1842, Samuel Farnsworth erected the first saw mill on the upper Wolf near the location of the present village of Shaw- ano, and in the following spring he sent the first raft of lumber down the Wolf to Oshkosh. This river also rises in Oconto county but flows in a southerly direction, and enters Winne- bago lake at Oshkosh. Its pineries have been very extensive, but the drain upon them within the past decade has told with greater effect than upon any other district in the State. The qual- ity of the timber is very fine, and the land is con- sidered good for agricultural purposes, and is being occupied upon the lines of the different railways which cross it. The upper waters of the Wolf are rapid, and have a comparatively steady flow, which renders it a very good stream for driving logs. Upon the upper river, the land is quite rolling, and about the head-waters is almost mountainons. The pine timber that remains in this district is high up on the main river and branches, and will last but a few years longer. A few years ago the annual product amounted to upward of 250,000,000 feet; in 1876 it was 138,000,000. The principal manufactur-

ing points are Oshkosh and Fond du Lac; the former has twenty-one mills, and the latter ten.

Next comes the Wisconsin, the longest and most crooked river in the State. It rises in the extreme northern sections, and its general course is southerly until at Portage City, it makes a grand sweep to the westward and unites with the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. It has numerous tributaries, and, together with these, drains a larger area of country than any other river in the State. Its waters flow swiftly and over numerous rapids and embryo falls, which renders log-driving and raft-running very diffi- cult and even hazardous. The timber is gener- ally near the banks of the main stream and its tributaries, gradually diminishing in extent as it recedes from them and giving place to the sev- eral varieties of hard woods. The extent to which operations have been carried on necessi- tates going further up the stream for available timber, although there is yet what may be termed an abundant supply. The first cutting of lumber on this stream, of which there is any record, was by government soldiers, in 1828, at the building of Fort Winnebago. In 1831, a mill was built at Whitney's rapids, below Point Bass, in what was then Indian territory. By 1840, mills were in operation as high up as Big Bull Falls, and Wausau had a population of 350 souls. Up to 1876, the product of the upper Wisconsin was all sent in rafts to markets on the Mississippi. The river above Point Bass is a series of rapids and eddies; the current flows at the rate of from ten totwenty miles an hour, and it can well be imagined that the task of pilot- ing a raft from Wausau to the dells was no slight one. The cost of that kind of transportation in the carly times was actually equal to the present market price of the lumber. With a good stage of water, the length of time required to run a raft to St. Louis was twenty-four days; though quite frequently, owing to inability to get out of the Wisconsin on one rise of water, several weeks were consumed. The amount of lumber

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.

manufactured annually on this river is from 140,000,000 to 200,000,000 feet.

Black river is much shorter and smaller than the Wisconsin. but has long been known as a very important lumbering stream. Itis next to the oldest lumber district in the State. The first saw mill west of Green Bay was built at Black River Falls in 1819 by Col. John Shaw. The Winnebago tribe of Indians, however, in whose territory he was, objected to the innova- tion of such a fine art, and unceremoniously offered up the mill upon the altar of their out- raged solitude. The owner abruptly quitted that portion of the country. In !839 another attempt to establish a mill on Black river was more successfully made. One was erected at the same point by two brothers by the name of Wood, the millwright being Jacob Spaulding, who eventually became its possessor. llis son, Dudley J. Spaulding, is now a very exten- sive operator upon Black river. La Crosse is the chief manufacturing point, there being ten saw mills located there. The annual production of the stream ranges from 150,000,000 to 225,- 000,000 feet of logs, less than 100,000,000 feet being manufactured into lumber on its banks. The balance is sold in the log to mills on the Mississippi. It is a very capricious river to float logs in, which necessitates the carrying over from year to year of a very large amount, vari- ously estimated at from 150,000,000 to 200,000,- 000 feet, about equal to an entire season's pro- duct. This makes the business more hazardous than on many other streams, as the loss from de- preciation is very great after the first year. The quality of the timber is fine, and good prices are realized for it when sold within a year after be- ing cut.

The Chippewa distriet probably contains the largest and finest body of white pine timber now standing, tributary to any one stream. on the continent. It has been claimed, though with more extravagance than truth, that the Chippewa pineries hold one-half the timber sup- ply of the State. The river itself is a large one,

and has many tributaries, which penetrate the rich pine distriet in all directions. The charac- ter of the tributary country is not unlike that through which the Wisconsin flows. In 1828 the first mill was built in the Chippewa valley, on Wilson's creek, near its confluence with the Red Cedar. Its site is now occupied by the village of Menomonee. In 1837 another was built on what is the present site of the Union Lumbering Company's mill at Chippewa Falls. It was not until near 1865 that the Chippewa became very prominent as a lumber-making stream. Since that date it has been counted as one of the foremost in the northwest. Upon the river proper there are twenty-two saw mills, none having a capacity of less than 3,500,000 feet per season, and a number being capable of sawing from 20,000,000 to 25,000,000. The an- nnal production of sawed lumber is from 250,- 000,000 to 300,000,000 feet; the production of logs from 400,000,000 to 500,000,000 feet. In 1867 the mill owners upon the Mississippi, be- tween Winona and Keokuk, organized a corpo- ration known as the Beef Slough Manufactur- ing, Log-Driving and Transportation Company. Its object was to facilitate the handling of logs cut upon the Chippewa and its tributaries, de- signed for the Mississippi mills. At the conflu- ence of the two rivers various improvements were made, constituting the Beef Slough boon, which is capable of assorting 200,000,000 feet of logs per season. The Chippewa is the most dif- ficult stream in the northwest upon which to operate. In the spring season it is turbulent and ungovernable, and in summer, almost des- titute of water. About its head are numerous lakes which easily overflow under the influence of rain, and as their surplus water flows into the Chippewa, its rises are sudden and sometimes damaging in their extent. The river in many places flows between high bluffs, and under the influence of a freshet, becomes a wild and un- manageable torrent. Logs have never been floated in rafts, as upon other streams, but are turned in loose, and are carried down with each

HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY

825

successive rise, in a jumbled and confused mass, which entails mueh labor and loss in the work of assorting and delivering to the respective owners. Previons to the organization of the Eagle Rapids Flooding Dam and Boom Compa- ny, in 1872, the work of seenring the stock after putting it into the river was more difficult than to cut and haul it. At the cities of Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, where most of the mills are located, the current, under the influence of high water, is very rapid, and for years the problem was, how to stop and retain the logs, as they would go by in great masses and with almost resistless velocity. In 1847 is recorded one of the most sudden and disastrous floods in the his- tory of log-running streams. In the month of June the Chippewa rose twelve feet in a single night and in the disastrous torrent that was creat- ed, piers, booms or "pockets" for holding logs at the mills, together with a fine new mill, were swept away, and the country below where Ean Claire now stands was covered with drift-wood, saw logs, and other debris. Such occurrences led to the invention of the since famous sheer boom, which is a device placed in the river op- posite the mill boom into which it is desired to turn the logs. The sheer boom is thrown diag- onally across the river, automatically, the ac- tion of the current upon a number of ingenious- ly arranged "fins" holding it in position. By this means the logs are sheered into the recep- tacle until it is filled, when the sheer boom, by closing up the "fins" with a windlass, falls back and allows the logs to go on for the next mill to stop and capture its pocket full in like manner, By this method each mill could obtain a stock, but a great difficulty was experienced from the fact that the supply was composed of logs cut and owned by everybody operating on the river, and the process of balancing accounts ac- cording to the "marks," at the close of the season, has been one prolific of trouble and legal entanglements. The building of improvements at Eagle Rapids by the com- pany above mentioned remedied the difficulty

to some extent, but the process of logging will always be a difficult and hazardous enter- prise until adequate means for holding and as- sorting the entire log prodnet are provided. Upon the Yellow and Eau Claire rivers, two important branches of the Chippewa, such ditli- culties are avoided by suitable improvements. The entire lumber product of the Chippewa, with the exception of that consumed locally, is floated in rafts to markets upon the Mississippi, between its month and St. Louis. The quality of the timber is good and commands the best market price in the sections where it seeks market.

West of the Chippewa district the streams and timber are tributary to the St. Croix, and in all statistical calculations the entire product of that river is credited to Minnesota, the same as that of the Menomonee is given to Michigan, when in fact about one-half of each belongs to Wisconsin. The important branches of the St. Croix belong- ing in this State are Apple Clam, Yellow, Nameko- gan, Totagatic and Eau Claire. The sections of country through which they flow contain large bodies of very fine pine timber. The St. Croix has long been noted for the excellence of its dimension timber. Of this stock a portion is ent into Inmber at Stillwater, and marketed by rail, and the balance is sold in the log to thie mills on the Mississippi.

Such is a brief and somewhat crude deserip- tion of the main lumbering districts of the State. Aside from these, quite extensive oper- ations are conducted upon various railway lines which penetrate the forests which are remote from log-running streams. In almost every county in the State, mills of greater or less ca- pacity may be found entting up pine or hard woods into lumber, shingles or cooperage stock. Most important, in a lumbering point of view, of all the railroads, is the Wisconsin Central. It extends from Milwaukee to Ashland, on Lake Superior, a distance of 351 miles, with a line to Green Bay, 113 miles, and one from Stevens Point to Portage, seventy-one miles, making a

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.

total length of road of 449 miles. It has only been completed to Ashland, within the present season. From Milwaukee to Stevens Point it passes around to the east and north of Lake Winnenago, through an excellent hard wood section. There are many stave mills in opera- tion upon and tributary to its line, together with wooden ware establishments and varions manufactories requiring either hard or soft timber as raw material. From Stevens Point northward, this road passes through and has tributary to it one of the finest bodies of timber in the State. It crosses the upper waters of Black river and the Flambeau, one of the main tributaries of the Chippewa. From 30,000,000 to 50,000,000 feet of lumber is annually manufactured on its line, above Stevens Point. The Wisconsin Valley railroad extends from Tomah to Wausau, and was built to afford an outlet, by rail, for the lumber produced at the latter point.

The extent of the timber supply in this State has been a matter of much speculation, and is a subject upon which but little can be definitely said. Pine trees cannot be counted or measured until reduced to saw logs or lumber. It is cer- tain that for twenty years the forests of Wiscon- sin have vielded large amounts of valuable timber and no fears are entertained by holders of pine lands that the present generation of owners will witness an exhaustion of their supply. In some sections it is estimated that the destruc. tion to the standing timber by fires, which periodically sweep over large sections, is great- er than by the axes of the loggers. The neces- sity for a State system of forestry for the pro- tection of the forests from fires, has been urged by many, and with excellent reason; for no natur- al resource of the State is of more valne and importance than its wealth of timber. Accord-

ing to an estimate recently made by a good authority, and which received the sanction of many interested parties, there was standing in the State in 1876, an amount of pine timber, ap- proximating 35,000,000,000 feet.

The annual production of lumber in the dis- tricts herein described, and from logs floated out of the State to mills on the Mississippi, is about 1,200,000,000 feet.

If to the above is added the production of mills outside of the main districts and lines of railway herein described, the amount of pine lumber annually produced from Wisconsin for- ests would reach 1,500,000,000 feet. Of the hard wood production no authentic information is obtainable. To cut the logs and place them upon the banks of the streams, ready for float- ing to the mills, requires the labor of about 18,000 men. Allowing that, upon an average, each man has a family of two persons besides himself, dependent upon his labor for support, it would be apparent that the first step in the work of manufacturing lumber gives employ- ment and support to 54,000 persons. To con- vert 1,000,000 feet of logs into lumber, requires the consumption of 1,200 bushels of oats, nine barrels of pork and beef, ten tons of hay, forty barrels of flour, and the use of two pairs of horses. Thus the fitting out of the logging companies each fall makes a market for 1,800,- 000 bushels of oats, 13,500 barrels of pork and beef, 15,000 tons of hay, and 60,000 barrels of flour. Before the lumber is sent to market, fully $6,000,000 is expended for the labor em- ployed in producing it. This industry, aside from furnishing the farmer of the west with the cheapest and best of materials for constructing his buildings, also furnishes a very important market for the products of his farm.

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History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 111

Author: Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Springfield, Union Number of Pages: 814

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Union
Number of Pages: 814