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 201

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 201

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custom flouring mill, with two run of stone, the prop- erty of William Stellers. The next stream is the Ar- kansaw Creek, which has its source in the northwest corner of the town of Waterville, on Section 6. Its general direction is due southeast and empties into the Eau Galle on Section 24, Town 25, Range 14. On this stream are several mills, a custom saw mill owned by Abel Parker ; a custom flouring mill with three run of stone, operated by H. M. Miles, and a saw mill owned by E. C. Bill & Co. The lumber sawed in this mill is for their own use only in the manufacture of furniture. This firm also has a cabinet shop on this creek. The next stream is the Porcupine Creek, which has its source in Pierce County, and flowing in a general sontheasterly direction, empties into Plum Creek on Section 17, Town 24, Range 4. The next stream west is Plum Creek, which also has a general southeasterly direction, and empties into the Chippewa River on Section 26, Town 24, Range 14. This stream has a number of improvements, but none of them in Pepin County. The next stream is Little Plum Creek, which has its source on Section 30, Town 24, Range 14, flows also in a southeasterly direction and empties into Plum Creek about half a mile from its month. Roaring Creek has its source on Section 1, Town 23, Range 15, and runs in a southeasterly direction and empties into Lake Pepin, near its southern end, on Section 31, Town 23, Range 14. On this creek is a custom flouring mill with two run of stone, the prop- erty of Philipp Pfaff. Lost Creek has its source on Section 2, Town 23, Range 15. This stream runs due south, and loses itself about a mile north of Lake Pe- pin. Bogus Creek has its source on Section 4, Town 233, Range 15, flows dne south and empties into the lake on Section 21, Town 23, Range 15. On this stream was a flouring mill, with two run of stone, the property of O. P. Carruth. This was burned down in July, 1881. Near the central part of the county from the middle of Section 36, in the town of Waterville, and extending through Sections 1, 2 and 11, in the town of Frankfort, is Dead Lake. This lake is about three miles in length by one-half a mile in width, and is supplied by springs. Its outlet is the Chippewa River.

The Chippewa River and Eau Galle River are nav- igable for rafts, and the former is also navigable for boats of small tonnage. All of the above streams af- ford abundant water-power, a resource as yet, but lit-

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HISTORY OF PEPIN COUNTY.

tle developed as will be perceived. Most of the creeks referred to are formed by springs, and in their liquid depths is found that gamiest of fish, the speckled trout. The two larger rivers, together with the lake, furnish all sorts of fish found in Western waters.

The eastern portion of the county is mostly prairie, with oak openings, hay marshes and tamarack swamps. The central portion (the Chippewa and Eau Galle bot- toms) is a great natural hay meadow. The western portion is more rolling, and covered heavily with hard- wood timber, such as oak, ash, elm, maple, basswood, butternut and birch. Lumbering, as before stated, is carried on in a few places by small mills, but only to supply local needs. The timber is mostly used for rails and fuel. The soil in the woods is a heavy loam, with clay sub-soil. The eastern portion is mostly a rich loam. The county is productive of all the ce- reals, grasses and vegetables common to the latitude. Wheat being the principal crop, of which there were 13,014 acres sown in 1881. Oats, corn, barley, rye and amber-cane are also staple products. The cli- mate is too severe for the peach or pear, but an oc- casional apple-orchard is seen on the protected hill- side ; but as yet the demand far exceeds the home supply. The small fruits, both domestic and wild, grow in abundance.

Pepin County also possesses all the requisites for a fine stock-growing and grazing district, and in later years farmers are turning their attention more to this industry, and the results justify the investment. The county has good roads, and is justly proud of her sub- stantial bridges. The principal exports are furniture, hard-wood lumber, flour barrel staves and wheat. Pepin County has no debt. The Mississippi and Chip- pewa rivers afford such an easy and cheap outlet for all produce, that she has never felt the especial need of a railroad, although one is now in process of con- struction across the county in the Chippewa Valley, the Chippewa Valley & Superior Railroad, and another along the shore of Lake Pepin, the Chicago & St. Paul Short Line.

Geologically there is considerable of interest con- nected with Pepin County, although it never has been a field of very extensive explorations by the State Geological Corps, but what has been discovered is main- ly through private persons or parties. Generally, here is found the top of the Potsdam sandstone, and the bottom of the Magnesian limestone. The bed-rocks have been seen cropping out in places in the Chippewa River. The rocks are a gray sandstone, called the Pots- dam sandstone, varying from 100 to 150 feet in thick- ness, which appears to be filled up with a great many kinds of trilobites and various kinds of insects (the nearer the top of the sandstone the more trilobites), then comes for a few feet in thickness, a rather impure limestone on the hill -tops (the county being rather broken, with ranges of high hills on the east side of the Chippewa River). The soil, between the hills, varies from a few feet to about one hundred feet in thickness above the sandstone, and appears to be made up of drift earth and stones of many kinds. It appears in many places like a sand bar in a river. Stones of nearly every formation, from small pebbles to large syenite and granite bowlders of two thousand pounds

or more in weight, are scattered throughout the valleys. The soils are of various kinds, from a coarse sand to the finest black muck. The sandstones are a very fair rock for building purposes. Some of the limestone makes a first-class lime for plastering purposes. All of these rocks where they crop out show marks of water and ice. On the tops of the hills are found large quanti- ties of porous flint rocks which are full of fossil shells, also bowlders of quartz, syenite, granite, etc., scattered over the surface.

On the west side of the Chippewa River the rocks are very much the same, but the limestone becomes thicker as you "go west," and the sandstones are very rarely brought to view. Twenty or thirty miles west of the Chippewa River, the limestone reaches the thick- ness of 400 feet and over, and in many places the rocks are almost entirely made up of shells, different from what are found on the east side of the river. These shells vary in size from the size of a man's thumb nail to two inches across.

The soil through this part of the country is mostly made from the fragments and decay of lime rocks, but even here at an elevation of from 500 to 700 feet above the Chippewa, the high lands are strewn with these large bowlders. The limestone on the west side of the Chippewa is in many places well adapted for building purposes, and a good quality of lime is made from the same. The lands west of the Chippewa River, known as the Magnesian limestone, is thickly set with a heavy growth of hardwood timber and well watered with springs, and when cleared, brings the best crops of all kinds. About one-half of the towns of Waterville, Stockholm, Frankfort and Pepin extend into the lime- stone region, and the other half runs to the river, and Lake Pepin occupying the sandy and broken soils of all kinds. The county has not been the seat of any un- healthy excitement over the discovery of minerals. In a great many places throughout the county are found numbers of Indian mounds, and those of immense pro- portions, but they have not pricked the ambition of curiosity seekers, or if they have, the fruits of their search have not been preserved to any great extent. In many of them have been found skeletons, some of immense proportions, together with a number of im- plements of war and different kinds of pottery. From the various and indescribable positions in which these skeletons have been found, this has probably been the scene of many bloody battles between different prehis- toric tribes. These mounds make a wide field for curi- osity seekers to work in, and in the near future dis- coveries of great importance will probably be made concerning them.

FORT BEAUHARNAIS.

At the invitation of the Sioux Indians, a trading- post was established in their territory. The point se- lected was the middle of the north side of Lake l'epin, probably within the present town limits of Stockholm, Pepin Co. The expedition was under the command of Sieur de Laperiere, operating under the auspices of the French Government. He arrived September 17, 1727, at noon, and immediately began operations. The "fort " was finished the fourth day, and consisted of three buildings, respectively thirty, thirty-five and

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN

thirty-eight feet long by sixteen feet wide. These were secured in an inclosure 100 fect square, which was surrounded by pickets twelve feet high, with two good bastions. The expedition was accompanied by Father Guignas, who established here the mission of Michael the Archangel. This post was continued about two years, when it was abandoned because of the menacing attitude of the Foxes, through whose terri- tory the traders must pass in order to reach this region. Some writers have regarded this as a garrisoned fort, but there is no evidence that it was ever more than simply an inelosed trading-post.

EARLY HISTORY.

To the visitor of to-day, witnessing the vast re- sources and accumulation of capital now wielded in this section, it may seem almost incredible that some of the wielders of this capital commenced business only a few short years ago with nothing but their own in- domitable energy and perseverance. This has been accomplished, not by speculation and the adroit, lucky turning of fortune's wheel, but by actual creation of much wealth, added to the store of human comforts, using only the advantages supplied by Nature's abund- ant and common store-house. The settler on any of our western prairies, and the axmen who enter upon the primeval forests, where no mark or sign of man's destructive force or redeeming power is seen or felt, is frequently the subject of strange reflections, as he fol- lows his plow, turning up the virgin soil, that through all the ages has remained undisturbed, or hews down the stately tree, that for a thousand years has flourished and grown, unnoticed and uncared for by the hand of man, he wonders how it occurs that he, of all the peo- ple that lived and still live on the face of the earth, swarming, as it does, with so many millions, should be the first to appropriate to his comfort and convenience the blessings so long held in reserve in Nature's vast storehouse. He wonders, too, why his race should re- quire all the resources of the earth, the productions of forests, mines, rivers, lakes, oceans ; of the soil plowed, planted, cultured and garnered ; the floeks and herds, feeding and gamboling on a thousand hills, for his sub- sistenec, while other races have remained, from gene- ration to generation, in all the untamed wilderness of the wild deer and elk, on which they subsist. What of the race that but yesterday was here ! Have these rivers, fields and forests, now so peaceful, always been so calm and still, or have they, like the old world, been the scene of some sanguinary and savage conflict? We speculate in vain on the long-ago dwellers upon the banks of these pleasant streams. Their war-dance and savage yells may have been the only sound that ever waked the stillness of these hills, or a race long extinct may have plowed and sowed, and builded, and loved and worshiped, and cultivated all the graces and amenities of civilized life, but the records of whose deeds and virtues have been obliterated by the convul- sions of Time's relentless changes. Such must have been the musings of those persevering and energetic pioneers, who, severing the ties of home and kindred and early association, plunged into the wilds of Pepin County and carved from the rugged forces of nature the comfortable homes they now enjoy.

The first settlement was made by John MeCain, from Indiana Co., Penn., in December, 1841. He spent most of his time, until 1845, as a raft pilot on the Mississippi River, and in exploring this portion of the State. MeCain was not very circumspect in his morals, but having become acquainted with a woman somewhere along the river, who was willing to share his fortunes, an industrious and frugal housekeeper and manager, the two cleared quite a farm and secured a considerable competence. He made his elaim in 1845, and in the Fall of 1846 built a house out of hewed logs, this being the first in the county. This claim was made about two miles north of where the village of Pepin now is. At the same time, in the Fall of 1846, W. B. Newcomb came from Fort Madi- son, Iowa, and settled near McCain, in the present village of Pepin, and assisted him in building his log- house. At that time this was a part of Crawford Coun- ty, Prairie du Chien being the county seat, and the nearest post-office, about two hundred miles away. Both of the above named persons are still residing where they first located. At that time the nearest neighbor was fifty miles distant, at Point Prescott, and Fountain City, fifty miles southeast, had two log eab- ins. In the Fall of 1847 Robert, William, Samuel and J. Hix came from Illinois, and settled four miles east of McCain, on Roaring Creek, near the trail leading up the Chippewa River, and the energy and publie spirit displayed by these men in laying out and work- ing roads in different directions, soon had the effect to settle the country, and their prospeet seemed hopeful. In 1848 James White, from Beloit, settled west, and S. Newcomb, from Fort Madison, Iowa, settled two miles north of the McCain farm. Truman Curtis came in 1849, and settled in the northern part of the coun- ty, in the present town of Waubeek. Among the next settlers were John Holverson, Jesse Hardy. Perry Hardy, W. F. Holbrook, Vivus W. Dorwin, Isaac In- galls, Melville Mills, Miles Durand Prindle, C. N. Av- erill, L. G. Wood, S. L. Plummer, J. S. McCourtie, and one McGuinn.

W. F. Holbrook came in 1852, and built the first saw-mill in the county, on Arkansaw Creek. Isaac Ingalls and Melville Miles built the first grist-mill in 1853, on Roaring River. J. S. MeCourtie opened the first store in the county, in 1853, in the present town of Frankfort. Mr. MeGuinn entered the first land in Bear Creek Valley in 1854, and, in 1855, brought his family and began to open his farm. John Ilolver- son came in 1855, and went to work at the carpenter's trade, building the first house in the village of Bear Creek. C. N. Averill settled on Bear Creek, about five miles from where it enters the Chippewa, in the Spring of that year. He is still a resident. Jesse

Hardy settled about eight miles from the mouth of Bear Creek, in July of that year, and in 1856, built a hotel, a store, and a house at the mouth of Bear Creek, in what afterward became the village of Bear Creek. Perry Hardy located 160 acres of land on Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 in the present town of Du- rand, and in 1856 his family came. Vivus W. Dor- win located Section 23, Town 25, Range 13, in 1856. HI. Clay Williams, coming in 1856, was the first law- yer in the county. Miles Durand Prindle came in

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HISTORY OF PEPIN COUNTY.

June, 1856, and at once laid out and platted the town of Durand, in company with Charles Billings, which they completed on the third day of July. Most of the above named persons are still residents of the county. From this time the county increased in population so rapidly that it will be impossible to mention individu- al names without lengthening this sketch to tedious- ness. Since this time the Indian has disappeared. The land he had inherited from a long line of savage an- cestors, passed from his possession. Savage and civil life could not exist together. The dominion theory of the survival of the fittest prevailed. On every hand were evidences of civilization. On bluff and in valley could be heard the sturdy blows of the pioneer as he felled the huge trees for his rude cabin, cleared the fields for the golden harvest, and thus laid with an hon- est hand the foundation of the future prosperity. It will readily be seen that Pepin County has made very rapid strides in the development of her resources.

In 1846, the first farm was opened and crops planted, and in 1881 there is a cultivated area of about 35,000 acres, and the following principal crops were planted : Wheat, 13,014 acres ; corn, 6,051 ; oats, 4,272; culti- vated grasses, 3,950 ; rye, 1,317 ; barley, 507 ; potatoes, 299. The total valuation of real estate and personal property is $1,107,279.50, and the county pays a State tax amounting to $2,300.85. The total population of the county, according to the census returns of 1880, is 6,188.

In 1849, the United States survey of land was made, and the land east of the Chippewa River was brought into market at La Crosse, and that west of the Chippewa at Hudson. John McCain entered 160 acres in what is now the town of Pepin, on Sections 22, 23 and 27, and consequently became the first freeholder in the county. He also broke the first land and planted the first crop.

The first white child born in the county was Lydia Hix, now a resident of Dunn County. This occurred in 1850. The first marriage occurred in 1849, when David Young and a Miss White were united in the bonds of matrimony, at the house of John McCain.

The first religious services were held at the house of W. B. Newcomb, in 1850, by a Rev. Mr. Hancock, a missionary from Red Wing, Minn. The first school taught in the county was by Louisa Ingalls, in 1853, in a house built by Elias Brock, at Pepin.

The first stage line was operated in the county by H. S. Allen & Co., between Chippewa Falls and the village of Pepin. Now there are five stage lines-all but one centering at Durand: From Durand to Pepin ; to Eau Claire ; to Alma and to Menomonee ; and from Stockholm northeast through the county.

A series of low-water seasons had induced a few persons to believe that the bottom lands of the Chip- pewa did not overflow, and, in 1855, a town or village plat was laid out at the mouth of Bear Creek, a few miles above the present village of Durand. A hotel, a store or two, and several dwellings were erected, but the long-continued high water of the two succeeding years dispelled their hopes-the town site being under water for several months each year-and the project of build- ing up a town was forever abandoned. But the dis- tance from Eau Claire to the Mississippi River was too

long, and the demand for a town at some intermediate point on the south side of the Chippewa was to appar- ent to be long neglected, and the next year, in 1856, Durand took its start. By looking at a map and the statistics, it will be seen that the county is well sup- plied with schools and school-houses. The primitive log-cabin has given place to the brick, stone or frame building, while the curriculum of study, the ability of the teacher and the requirements of the School Board, have all advanced with equal pace. The attendance is good, schools being kept open from six to nine months in the year.

OFFICIAL.

Pepin County was formed from Dunn County, by a special act of the Legislature, approved February 25, 1858. This act also located the county seat on Section 25, in Township 23, of Range 15 west, the village of Pepin. By the same act, the Governor was requested to appoint the necessary county officers, who were to serve until the first day of the following January. He appointed Henry D. Barron, County Judge ; N.W. Grippin, Clerk of the Court ; Benjamin Allen, District Attorney ; Ebenezer Lathrop, Treasurer ; Edward Liv- ingston, Sheriff ; U. B. Shaver, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors ; Lucius Cannon, Register of Deeds ; J. C. Wolcott, Surveyor; W. F. Holbrook, Coroner. The first election for county officers occurred November 2, 1858, and resulted in the selection of Lyman Gale, Sheriff ; George B. Rickard, Treasurer ; M. B. Astell, District Attorney ; U. B. Shaver, County Clerk ; B. T. Hastings, Clerk of the Court ; A. W. Miller, Surveyor. In 1860, Durand laid claim to the county seat, by vir- tue of a majority of the voters in the county and ob- tained leave to test the question at the polls, which, however, was lost that year, but the next year the re- sult was favorable to Durand, by a vote of 329 to 337, and it was removed from Pepin during that year. Du- rand was declared the legal county seat, by judicial decision, rendered at La Crosse, in 1867, at the termi- nation of a law snit in which the case became involved. An elegant court-house has since been erected, at a cost of $7,000, and is a monument to the county as well as to the village of Durand in which it is situated. The first court was held in Pepin in the Spring of 1858, S. S. N. Fuller presiding. Among the first attor- neys were, H. C. Williams, M. D. Bartlett, Frank Clark, H. D. Barron, A. D. Gray, H. E. Houghton, and John Fraser. The three last named are still residing and practicing in the county, A. D. Gray at Pepin, and H. E. Houghton and John Fraser at Durand. Among the first criminal cases, of any importance, that was tried by the court, was the celebrated " Mag Wheeler" case, which occurred in 1866. Ira B. Wheeler, living at a place known as " Five Mile Bluff," was murdered on the 24th of March, under circumstances that impli- cated his wife, Margaret E. Wheeler, and James E. Carter, in the atrocions deed. They were im- mediately arrested, but as the body had been con- cealed under the ice in the Chippewa River, and no positive proof of his death, or the manner of it being adduced, they were discharged. On the 12th of May following, the body having been discovered with marks of violence about the head, they were re-

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

arrested and committed for trial at the ensuing term of court. For greater safety, they were taken to Eau Claire County to jail. Owing to some informality no Grand Jury was empaneled in Pepin County at the next term of court, and the parties lay in jail until the following March. when they were arraigned, but on the affi lavit of the District Attorney the case was removed to Dunn County, thence to La Crosse, on the affidavit of the defence. Their final trial and conviction was before Judge Flint, at the May term in 1898, when their mutual accusations clearly showed that both were present at the killing and participated in the murder, and that both assisted in putting the body under the ice, and in concealing the evidence of their guilt. The verdict of the jury was, murder in the first degree, and the sentence was, imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Alleging, however, that the removal of the ease from Pepin County to Dunn County, on the appli- cation of the prosecution was unconstitutional and illegal, Margaret Wheeler was remanded for a new trial on appeal to the Supreme Court, but failing to order her to be committed for safe keeping, her defense obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Court Com- missioner, under which Mrs. Wheeler was discharged, but immediately re-arrested by the officers of Pepin County, from whom she managed to escape, assisted, as it is supposed, by an old lover who took her to parts unknown.

In the settlement of all new countries, frequent changes become necessary in the organization of Sena- torical and Assembly distriets, and questions often arise in conversation, as to the number or description of the district in which a certain locality was included at a given period. Such changes have occurred in this sec- tion, in which Pepin County is situated, in every dec- ade and semi-decade, since the organization of the territory, and a concise statement of the districts in which this county has been included, and the time of their formation and the names of the various senators and assembly-men whom the people of the county have delighted to honor with seats in the Legislature, may be of interest to our readers. The county as before stated, was formed from Dunn County, in 1858. and it remained as a part of Dunn County in all assembly and senatorial elections, until the fourteenth session of the State Legislature, which occurred in 1861, this being the year following the national census, which of course necessitated a new organization of the districts, and Pepin County then became included within the Thirty- second Senatorial district, and Buffalo, Trempealeau and l'epin counties, constituted an assembly district. This county after its organization, was first represented in the Senate by Daniel Mears, of St. Croix, in 1858-59, and next Charles B. Cox, of River Falls, in 1860-61, and their assembly-men for those years were: 1858- Lucius Cannon, of Pepin ; 1859-Richard Dewhurst, of Neillsville; 1860-W. P. Bartlett, of Eau Claire ; 1861-Rodman Palmer, of Chippewa Falls.

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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