History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc., Part 138

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052

USA > Wisconsin > History of northern Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development, and resources; an extensive sketch of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories; biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers; views of county seats, etc. > Part 138

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prominent in his connection with the Masonic frater- nity. He was Grand Treasurer of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons eleven years ; has been treas- urer of both the Lodge and Chapter in La Crosse, and is the oldest member, in point of time in joining them. He is also one of the trustees of the Independent Or- der of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish secret society.

SAMUEL T. SMITH.

Samuel T. Smith, the first man to run a temperance and anti-gambling steamboat on the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers, was born in Delaware County, N. Y., May 9, 1801. His maternal grandfather was a Revolution- ary soldier. His father, Noah Smith, was a native of Long Island, and his mother of Lyme, Conn. His father lived in Delaware County until 1812, when, with six other families, he moved to Ohio. Reaching Wheel- ing, W. Va., they built a flat-boat and floated down to Cincinnati, reaching there in October.

The next year, he moved to a tract of land three miles from the city, and opened a farm ; Samuel, at the same time, becoming a clerk in a store, remaining in and near the city, merchandising and farming, until 1828. In April of that year, he visited the Galena lead mines, and, during the next month, went into Wis- consin-at that time part of the Northwest Territory. Stopping about half way between the present sites of Potosi and Platteville, he built a cabin, and engaged in mining for one year.

He afterward went to Galena and taught school two years, and there, in 1831, organized the first Sun- day school in that part of the country. Returning to Cincinnati in 1832, he farmed a short time, and subse- quently engaged in the mercantile trade in that city, and continued it until 1840. He then built his " Sun- day-keeping " steamboat, and ran it and others for nine years on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and tributa- ries of the latter.

In 1849, while his steamboat was at the St. Louis Landing, it was burnt, with twenty-two other steam- boats and seven blocks of city buildings. Immediately after this calamity, he opened a dry goods store in that city. In July, 1851, he removed to La Crosse, then a village of about fifty genuine settlers. Here he con- tinued the mercantile trade between two and three years, and, in 1853, opened the land agency, which he has continued ever since, at the same time engaging more or less in farming. Mr. Smith was early taught that riches take to themselves wings, and he was im- pressed with the truthfulness of the Scriptural state- ments, when, in the crash of 1837, he lost a round $100,000, and half that sum in a similar visitation in 1857, to say nothing of the sudden reduction of his steamboat to ashes, just as he had painted it and was about to sell it, and minor losses in La Crosse by fires. Pecuniarily Mr. Smith is in comfortable circumstances. His wealth, however, is not all of this world-he is " rich toward God." Few Christian lives have been more consistent or more noteworthy. When he landed in what is now the State of Wisconsin, in 1828, he knelt down alone, in the solitude of the forest, under a large oak tree, and took possession of the land in the name of his Master. Shortly after reaching La Crosse on the 22d of January, 1852, he gathered the few Baptist

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

people (fourteen in all), and a church was organized at his house. He brought with him to La Crosse three or four families, seven members of which were Baptists. He was chosen the first Deacon, and has held that office for nearly thirty years. The Congregationalists met at his house on the same day and at the same hour, and the ministers present assisted each other in organizing the two churches. On the 22d of January, 1877, the two Christian bodies again met, and observed their quarter-centennial, upon which occasion Deacon Smith read an intensely interesting history of the Baptist Church. He has had two wives, the first being Miss Martha Ellen Longley, of Cheviot, Ohio, to whom he was married in 1827. She died in 1834, leaving two children, one of whom is now living. To his second wife, Miss Sarah Hildreth, of Cincinnati, he was mar- ried in 1835. They have had eleven children, of whom five are living. Orrin L., the only child by his first wife, now living, is married and residing in La Crosse. The eldest daughter, widow of the late Jacob P. Whelp- ley, with her three children, is living with her father ; another daughter is the wife of W. L. Card, of La Crosse, and a third is the wife of Spencer Way, of Rockford, Ill.

Of the many interesting anecdotes of Deacon Smith's nine years of steamboat life, we mention the following : As he was starting on his first trip from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, two fast young Southerners come on board, and before the boat was fairly under way began to in- quire for the card table and the bar. Capt. Smith po- litely informed them that there was nothing of the kind on board; that neither drinking nor gambling was allowed on his boat; that he had a good library, and he hoped they would make free use of it, and that when they reached Pittsburgh, if they were not satis- fied with their accommodations, he would refund the money. They used his books very liberally, one of them reading through Knowles' Life of Ann H. Jud- son, and both becoming thoroughly absorbed in literary recreations. When near Pittsburgh, they went on the hurricane deck and reminded the captain that they were near the end of the voyage, and he asked them if they wanted their fare refunded. They told him frankly that when they came on board and found no bar, they made up their minds to jump off at the first wood-pile landing ; that on the whole, however, they had been greatly pleased, actually delighted with the trip, and that if they had occasion to make the same trip again, if necessary, they would wait three days for the sake of getting his boat.

PETER CAMERON.

Peter Cameron, born in Deerfield, Oneida Co., N. Y., about 1810; a son of Donaldl Cameron. When young, about seventeen years old, he clerked for Colin Mc Vean, in Caledonia, Livingston Co., N. Y .; at twenty-two he came West; he peddled all the way from Utica, N. Y., to the Mississippi. In Michigan, he met Mrs. Emma Clayton, a woman with a career and a history, even then, at that time, having a third living husband. She joined Peter, and together they came to La Crosse. To this day, it is claimed by many residents, that they were never married. The writer has assurance, from the very best authority, that they were married by H.

J. B. Miller, the event being brought about by pruden- tial reasons ; in other words, to avoid threatened crim- inal prosecution. In 1843, Maj. Coons and Mr. Scott made a claim adjoining that of Myrick and Miller. Leaving it for a time, it was jumped by Peter, who succeeded in holding it. The claim extended from Mount Vernon, Division street, to Fifth and Sixth streets, and became very valuable. It is now occupied very largely by mills and manufacturing establishments. He also owned land across the river in Minnesota, di- rectly opposite ; as both fronted the river at a common crossing, the spot became known as Cameron's Cross- ings. After his arrival in La Crosse, he gave his time and attention to real estate. He died in 1855, at his residence below La Crosse, the old house still remain- ing.

JAMES M. GARRETT.

An emigrant to La Crosse in 1846, coming on the steamer "Falcon," Capt. Morehouse commanding. The nearest settlement was at Winneshiek, so called after an Indian chief, now known as De Soto. The site of the city was most unpromising, consisting of barren land for half a mile from the river. The only residents here then were Miller & Myrick, E. A. Hatch, their employés, Dr. Bunnell, Dutch Charley, Husk Carrel, John Somerville, the two Nagles, and Henry Atchison. a refugee from the patriot war in Canada. The Indians were numerous, but the Winnebagoes were the only tribe in this vicinity, though an occasional Sioux came to trade or to fish and hunt. No trouble arose between the settlers and the Indians. There were four ladies, Mesdames Myrick, Miller and Cameron, and a daughter of Dr. Bunnell. The "Falcon" made three trips during the season, from St. Louis to St. Paul. Capt. Orrin L. Smith, now of Chicago, was then running the "Nominee" from Galena to St. Paul. He was a rigid observer of the Sabbath, tying up his boat at 12 P. M. of Saturday till the same time Sunday, regardless of his stopping place. Crops were raised with difficulty and consisted mostly of potatoes and Syrian corn. Garrett and Carrel were hired by J. M. Levy, at a dollar a day and board, for two weeks, to shoot blackbirds and preserve the corn of a five-acre field. Charles Solberg, who was at work for Levy at $8 per month, was put to the work of gathering it. The first cemetery was on the spot now occupied by Powers' pump shop, corner of Third and Badger streets. It was in use ten years or more. In warm weather, mails came by steamer, and in the Winter were usually taken to and from Prairie du Chien by some half-breed.

MRS. BERKENMEYER.

Mrs. Berkenmeyer came to La Crosse in July, 1847, with five French families who took farms in this vicin- ity. There were eleven children among them. None of the original settlers of these families are now in La Crosse. At the time of her coming there were but three log houses here, viz : Myrick & Miller's, near La Crosse River, Asa White's, an Indian trader with a squaw wife, on Front street, and Dr. Bunnell's, about where the International Hotel now stands. For a dozen squares back from the river the land was a waste of sand ridges and hollows. Mr. Ollivier, husband of Mrs. Berkenmeyer, died within three weeks after their arrival.

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HISTORY OF LA CROSSE COUNTY.

There was no preacher here or religious services of any kind. The first Catholic priest was Father Tappert. Wheat was raised and sent to Galena to mill. It was almost impossible to raise corn, owing to the depreda- tions of coons, blackbirds, etc. The Nagle Brothers lost a field of forty acres in this way, about 1850, not getting back from it the amount of seed planted. The meal obtained was so coarse that they had to sift it through a mosquito bar. The first mill was built in Mormon Cooley by a Mr. Ehler.

COL. THOMAS B. STODDARD.

To none of the early settlers is La Crosse so much indebted for making the advantages of this location known to the world as the subject of this sketch, with whom it was the great aim and object of his being. He was a son of Richard Stoddard, of Le Roy, Genesee Co., N. Y., of which he was one of the original pro- prietors. He was the first Sheriff of Genesee County, when it embraced all of New York west of the Gene- see River, viz., Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua. He won great personal popularity, and was a leading politician of the Federal party of that section. Thomas B. Stod- dard was born in 1800, December 11, at Canandaigua. His mother was a very superior woman, and had re- ceived a classical education. His only sister, Cath- arine, married John B. Skinner, of Wyoming, Genesee Co., in 1830, and died in 1833. In his youth, he passed some time in the lodge of the celebrated chief, Red Jacket, where he learned to speak the Seneca tongue most fluently. He was always held by them in great esteem, and was employed by them to settle their claims with the Government. He was very precocious, and at the age of seventeen wrote the play, "Fortune Favors the Brave." This drama had a run of fifty nights at one of the leading theaters in New York City ; at nineteen, he was a graduate of Columbia College, and at twenty, of Yale. He studied law in the office of the noted Aaron Burr. He was on intimate terms with such distinguished men as Chancellor Kent and Son, Judge Spencer, Silas Wright, De Witt Clinton, and had the esteem and confidence of Presidents Jack- son, Van Buren and Polk.

He practiced law for a short time in Buffalo, and lived for a brief time at Cattarangus Creek. In cast- ing about for a location in the West, he was impressed with the favorable location of La Crosse as a point des- tined to become of great commercial value, and this fact he was never weary of trying to impress on all with whom he came in contact. He early gave it the name of the "Gateway City," and predicted the building of every railway that has since been extended to this place. He came here in 1851, and was instrumental in having the county organized and set off from Crawford. In com- pany with A. D. La Due, he bought a half interest in White's original claim of sixty-three acres, of J. M. Levy. . They sought to have the survey made by Myr- ick & Miller of their original plat extending through their land, thus making continuous and uniform straight streets. This was not done, and as the survey was made parallel with the river, while subsequent ones were made to run with the points of the compass, an angle has been formed at the intersection of all streets, outside of the Myrick & Miller plat, extend-

ing from La Crosse River to Mt. Vernon street on the south, and Fifth street on the east. He located a claim on what was known as the Stevens' Addition, and left Peter Burns upon it to hold it while absent on a trip to Sheboygan for his family, consisting only of his mother and an adopted sister, Miss Susan de France. In this interval, his claim was jumped by F. M. Rublee and C. A. Stevens, who drove Burns away. A litiga- tion of three years ensued before the Colonel secured his claim.

He formed a partnership with H. E. Hubbard, in the practice of the law, and on the organization of the city was made its first Mayor, being elected thereto by one vote, cast for him by his opponent, J. M. Levy. He had no political aspirations, his attention being given to the material interests of the place. He was a candidate for the Assembly in 1862, and was defeated by Hanchett, who died shortly after his election.

Previous to coming to La Crosse, he was interested in a mining scheme in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, where the company of which he was a member had a claim of eight square miles. At one time, they had 100 men employed. The failure of a prominent capi- talist brought matters to a standstill.

Col. Stoddard was tall, spare and straight, fully six feet in height, with brown hair and eyes, and very nervous and quick in his movements. He was very athletic, a good shot, and a person of quick, high tem- per. He was a strenuous advocate of the code, known as the duello, and had three affairs of honor, if not more. One of these was occasioned by some parties who spirited his carriage away while he was attending a theater, with two ladies in charge. As was expected and designed, the Colonel promptly challenged the offending party, who, having choice of weapons, chose knives and a dark room, probably expecting a back- down. Stoddard accepted without hesitation, and dis- abled his rival. In all these affairs it is not known that he received a greater injury than the disabling of a little finger.

SUSAN E. DE FRANCE.

This lady was the adopted sister of Col. Thomas B. Stoddard, who might well be styled the benefactor of La Crosse. Her parents, Christopher and Elizabeth (Fevre), were both natives of France. They emi- grated to Buffalo, N. Y., where the subject of this sketch was born. Her father died in November, 1846, at the early age of thirty-eight, in Irving, N. Y., while in Government employ as Superintendent of Cattarau- gus Harbor. She became a member of the family of Col. Stoddard in the Spring of 1847. The Colonel came to Wisconsin prior to 1850 ; his family, compris- ing only his mother and Miss De France, followed in 1851, going to Sheboygan from Buffalo by steamer, thence by team to Tychida, on the Fox River, thence to Portage, on the Wisconsin ; here they took passage on the steamer " Onaota," having a very tedious trip. as, on account of low water and the many obstructions in the river, the boat was obliged to lay by at night. The journey from Sheboygan to La Crosse occupied eleven days. The first view of their future home was anything but inspiring; a long reach of glistening, barren sand skirted the river front, behind which was

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

a rank growth of coarse grass, and innumerable sand burrs ; closer inspection, however, was rewarded with the sight of prairie flowers in great variety and pro- fusion. The land now embraced between the river and Front, Second and Third streets was marked by sand hills and corresponding hollows. There were but five or six houses all told within the present city limits.

The first residence occupied by Col Stoddard was the cabin of Asa White, an old Indian trader, with a most uncouth sample of a Winnebago squaw for a wife. He and Asa Snow, another trader, followed the Indians a year or two previous to their going to their reserva- tion on Crow River. The condition of the cabin he left was one calculated to appal the stoutest nerves. The walls were black and grimy with smoke, dirt and grease, so that it was necessary to scrape them down with a hoe to get at the original surface ; it possessed but one room and a loft. One corner was partitioned off for Mrs. Stoddard, the loft was given to Miss De France, and the remaining room was in turn a kitchen, sitting-room, parlor, office, bedroom, etc. The stair- way was a steep ladder, and Miss De France was often made an unwilling prisoner in the loft by the pro- tracted call or visit of persons who had business with the Colonel. A "lean-to" was soon added, which relieved the pressure upon the common sitting-room ; here they remained for two years and a half, when a new residence was built on the corner of Third and Ferry streets in 1854. It was built by A. D. La Due, and was one of the first erected out on the prairie.

HON. GEORGE GALE.

This gentleman was a native of Burlington, Vt., the youngest son of Peter and Hannah Tottingham Gale, and was born Nov. 30, 1816. He had the advan- tages of a good common-school education, and, while not a graduate of any college, acquired an excellent knowledge of the higher branches of mathematics and the sciences. Commencing the study of law in March, 1839, he was admitted to the bar in 1841, during the last two years discharging the duties of Postmaster of Waterbury Center, to which office he had been ap- pointed in 1840. Removing shortly after to the Terri- tory of Wisconsin, he settled at Elkhorn, Walworth County, where he began the practice of his profession, though still pursuing his studies with great diligence. During his residence he was elected to various town offices, being at one time Chairman of the Town Board, and also of the County Board of Supervisors.

In the Fall of 1847, he was elected a member of the Convention to form a State Constitution, and served on the Judiciary Committee. The same Fall, he was also elected District Attorney of Walworth County, and, in the Fall of 1840, a State Senator for two years. The first year in the Senate, he was Chairman of the Com- mittee on Privileges and Elections, and the second year, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

On the 4th of July, 1851, he received from the Governor of the State the appointment of Brigadier General in the militia. In the Fall of that year he removed to the Upper Mississippi and settled at La Crosse. That Fall, he was elected County Judge for the term of four years for the counties of La Crosse

and Chippewa, the two being combined for judicial pur- poses. Having jurisdiction in common law as well as probate, the office was an important one. This position he resigned January 1, 1854, and in April, 1856, was elected Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, com- posed of the connties of Buffalo, Clark, Jackson, Mon- roe, La Crosse, Vernon and Crawford, for the judicial term of six years, commencing January 1, 1857. The duties of this office he discharged with ability, and served the constitutional term.

During Judge Gale's residence at La Crosse, he urged very strongly on the citizens of that place the importance of establishing there a college or institution of learning of a higher order, but the country being new, the project did not find favor with the people, and nothing was done to carry out this design. He shortly after determined to found a town and college on his own responsibility. In 1853, he purchased about 2,000 acres of land, including the present site of Galesville with the water-power on Beaver Creek, and in January, 1854, he procured from the State Legislature the or- ganization of the new county of Trempealean, with the location of the county seat at Galesville, and at the same time obtained a charter for a university, to be lo- cated at that place. A Board of Trustees was organ- ized in 1855, and the edifice commenced in 1858. In June, 1854, the village plat of Galesville was laid out, and subsequently mills were erected. The building for the university was carried through a monetary crisis by his great energy and financial ability. After the graduation of the first class in July, 1865, he re- signed the presidency of the Board of Trustees and of the Faculty, which posts he had held for seven years.

In 1857, he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Vermont University, and, in 1863, the in- stitution which owed to him its existence, and to whom it was indebted for much of its success and prosperity, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

He was the pioneer of the press in Walworth Coun- ty, where he started the Western Star, at Elk Horn. August 7, 1845, with which he was connected nearly a year. He made varied and successful ventures in author- ship, in which he added much to the reputation he had acquired in other fields of labor. Of these, the first, the " Wisconsin Farm Book," was prepared and pub- lished by him in 1846, was subsequently revised and republished in 1848, 1850 and 1856. It had a large circulation, and nearly 6,000 copies were sold.

Taking great interest in the aboriginal history of the Northwest, and in the State Historical Society (of which he was an honorary member and subsequently a vice- president), he prepared an elaborate paper on the " His- tory of the Chippewa Nation of Indians," which was read before the society.

In 1866, he published at Galesville a " Genealogical History of the Gale Family in England and the United States, with an account of the Tottingham Family of New England, and of the Bogardus, Waldron and Young Families of New York," a volume of 254 pages, a work requiring a large amount of patient and persevering investigation.

His last work, to the preparation of which he de- voted many years, and to which the greatest general interest attaches, was published in 1867. It is entitled

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HISTORY OF LA CROSSE COUNTY.

" The Upper Mississippi : or Historical Sketches of the introduction of Civilization in the Northwest," a work covering the period from 1600 to 1866. It is a work of much research, and is a most valuable contribution to the history of the West.

His health partially failed him in the Summer of 1862, and the three following Winters he passed in the South and the East-most of the time in the service of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. During Feb- urary and March, 1863, he had charge of the United States Sanitary Commission Depot on Morris Island, S. C., during the siege of Charleston.

REV. BENJAMIN_W. REYNOLDS.

Rev. Benjamin W. Reynolds was a native of South Carolina, having been born in that State in 1812. He graduated from Middlebury College, at the age of twenty, in 1832. From this same college were gradu- ated Judge Cameron, of La Crosse, and Rev. Sunder- land, at one time Chaplain of the United States Senate. At the age of twenty-two, he graduated in theology from Lane Seminary, having Senator Foot for a pre- ceptor. He went to Iowa to begin his ministerial labors as a missionary, and was called upon to open the first Legislature of the Territory with prayer. From there he went in succession to Missouri, and thence to Illinois. He came to Wisconsin in 1849, and located at Sheboygan. He left that point in 1851, coming to La Crosse in August of that year. At that time there were but eleven houses all told, on the site of the future city, which was most unpromising to the view, a large, deep hollow, twenty or more feet in depth, marking the spot now occupied by the store of Mons. Anderson and George Howard, and large sand hills on the sites of the court-house and the Esperson House. The latter of these was surmounted by the residences of Lieut. Gov. Burns. He located his claim on the marsh at the mouth of Black River, near the present elevator. What must have then seemed a most un- promising location proved a most fortunate one. It was required by the C. & M. R. R. Co., who had it con- demned for their use; and for a strip of 250 by 600 feet, Mr. Reynolds was awarded the handsome sum of $7,300. It was developed in the evidence elicited at this time that it fronted the best landing on the Mis- sissippi River in its whole length. River men and pilots were quite positive and unanimous on this point, claiming a depth of from fifty to sixty feet of water near to the water's edge. Messrs. Plankington and Rogers were appointed arbitrators in the case.

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Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1052

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1052