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 224

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 224

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UPHAM & RUSSELL, merchants, Shawano. Mr. Upham came here in 1858 with a small stock of assorted merchandise and began the mercantile business which to-day forms so important a part in the busi- ness interests here. After a series of minor changes in the manage- ment, Mr. H. C. Russell joined it in 1870, and the firm has since been known as above stated. Their trade in merchandise averages $200,000

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

per annum, patronized by the demands of the rapidly growing agricult- ural country surrounding, and the lumbermen of this vicinity, whose ex- tensive interests demand a respectable position among their patrons. Mr.' Upham is a native of Massachusetts, and came to this State in 1851. After pursuing a course of schooling and experience as clerk in the mer- cantile business in different parts of the State, he came here and has stood by this enterprise with the energy of the pioneer and has succeeded.

HIRAM WESCOTT, SR., farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 30, town of Richmond. Mr. Wescott was born and reared in St. Lawrence Co., N. York. In 1853, he came here from Allegany Co., N. Y .; for the first few years engaged in the lumbering and milling interests of this place. In 1855, he built the Wescott House, in Shawano (the first hotel there), and conducted it till 1871, when he moved on the farm, and has con- fined his energy to it principally since. In 1843, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Olmstead. in Bradford Co., Penn .; she was born and reared in Delaware Co., N. J. They have a family of four sons and two daugh- ters, all grown to man's and woman's estate. Mr. Wescott is one of the enterprising pioneer men of Shawano County.

CHARLES D. WESCOTT, farmer and stock-raiser, and lumber- man, Sec. 23, town of Richmond, was born in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. In 1843. he came to Menasha, aud after a stay of two years, he came here and engaged in the lumbering and milling business, to which he devoted the first eight years of his life here ; he then added the agricult- ural industry to his list, and developed that industry here. He was the first Postmaster here, which he held up to 1860, and was active in the organization of the county. On Jan. 6, 1848, he was married to Miss Jane Drasbauch, who was born in Livingston Co., N. Y. They have a family of three sons and two daughters, all grown to man's and woman's estate. Mr. Wescott is the oldest pioneer man of the county, enterpris- ing and active in the development of the many industries of the State and county.

DAYN E. WESCOTT, County Clerk of Shawano Co., Shawano, was born in Oshkosh, Dec. 11, 1850, and removed with his people here 1851 ; he received his education in the public schools of his county ; at the age of twenty-one, he was elected as Register of Deeds for his coun- ty, and was continued in the incumbency for two terms, at the same time taking an interest in the abstract of title, insurance, and general land agency business, which he still conducts. In 1878, he was elected County Clerk, and has been continued in the office for each term since. In 1874, he was married to Miss Harriet E. Coon, in Friendship, N. Y. She was born and reared there. They have a family of two little boys, Edward Arthur and Bernard Dayn. Mr. Wescott is one of the active public men of Shawano County.

SETTLEMENTS.

Hartland, Bonduel and Tigerton are quite thriving lit- tle settlements, of about 150 population. At Whitcomb, just above Tigerton, are the extensive coal kilns of the Chi- cago Rolling Mills, while at the settlement'itself is the saw- mill of Newbold & Livingston, lately built, which has a capacity of 12,000,000 feet per season. A grist mill is also run in connection with it. An establishment of business importance to the village is the veneer factory of Grundy & Brigham. Above Whitcomb is the station Wittenberg, which has a small saw-mill, a Lutheran Church, Orphan Asylum and Seminary. These three stations are on the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western line, which cuts through the south- western part of the county on its way to Wausau.

Hartland and Bonduel are on the stage route between Green Bay and Shawano, in the town of Hartland. At the former place, besides the general stores, is a saw-mill, oper- ated by A. J. Fullerton, and a saw and grist mill by C. Schmall. There is a saw-mill near Bonduel, which place

does a fair general trade. Several other mills are scattered at different points throughout the city, among which may be mentioned the saw-mill, six miles southeast of Shawano, owned by A. K. Porter ; the grist mill in the town of Grant, operated by C. H. Buettner, and the grist mill at Pulcifer, in the town of Green Valley, run by the Oconto Company. The town of Green Valley was organized in 1873, W. G. Donaldson being the first Chairman. Pulcifer post-office was established about the same time.

In 1872, work , was commenced by the Northwestern Improvement Company, on a dam across the Oconto River, on Government Lot, No. 3, in Section 6, for the purpose of moving and sluicing logs and timber. The dam was built by A. Winguist, who had previously homesteaded the land. It was his intention to build a saw-mill, and one year later, in company with Charles A. Noyes and O. A. Risum, the mill was built. It was a wooden-wheel mill, and its capaci- ty for making lumber very limited. Mr. Winguist also built a bridge across the river near the dam.

O. A. Risum, formerly of Rock County, built a store on the above described lot, in the Spring of 1873, and has also kept the post-office there since. Starting in with a very small capital, the outlook for doing business was rather dark, as the roads (if such they could be called), were al- most impassable, and the few families that had come to set- tle were poor; but by hard work and perseverance, Mr. Risum is now doing a prosperous business, increasing it with every year. As yet there is no other store, but one is contemplated before long.

Messrs. Schwarz & Bergner, of Fort Howard, bought out the water-power, and erected, in the Winter of 1880, a grist-mill, run by two of Leffel's newest improved water- wheels ; they also put in a cockle separator, middlings puri- fier, two run of stones, and a pair of middlings stones. They started the mill in the Spring of 1881, and are doing good work. This mill is a great benefit to the farmers of this and surrounding country, who had often to go from fifteen to twenty-five miles to grind their grain. They contemplate improving the old saw-mill with a new turbine wheel, circu- Jar saw and planer.

A hotel is being built by Charles Poul, who is also build- ing a blacksmith and wagon shop.

In 1880, a surveying party, sent out by the Grand Trunk Railroad Company, ran a line across the Oconto River, about one and one-half miles north of Pulcifer post-office.

A mail is run twice a week from Oconto to Pulcifer, and return, and once a week from Shawano and return. A new mail route is contemplated from Black Creek to Pulcifer and. return.

HISTORY OF ST. CROIX COUNTY.

945

ST. CROIX COUNTY.

PIIYICAL FEATURES.

St. Croix County seems to have been the headquarters for the lodgment of drift, as there are immense beds of sand and gravel, representing turbulence in their deposition, with occasional beds of clay, which denote a placid period.

In some places, the rivers have cut their way through sharply defined banks; but, as they get down lower, the banks become wider apart. There are several quite well- defined trap-ledges crossing the St. Croix River above the county, with a direction E. N. E. and W. S. W.

A prominent rock is the Potsdam sandstone, which was deposited in the ancient Silurian Sea, and has since been raised without commotion, as the layers are found in a horizontal position, even over the upturned edges of rocks of a crystalline character. This sandstone is represented as being nowhere more than 900 feet thick, while the Superior sandstone is thought to be at least 4,000 feet in thickness.

There is in the county some croppings of the St. Peters sandstone, and the Lower Magnesian limestone, with a little Trenton and Galena limestone, but none of the Niagara limestone found in the eastern part of the State.

The details of the geology of the county have not been elaborated, and the promises for scientific or mineral reward are not flattering ; but, as to the practical question regarding the capability of the soil to support inhabitants, a part of it, as already indicated, is exceptionally good ; and where the vegetable mold is apparently deficient, it has the basis for satisfactory productiveness, and will treat the cultivator with the same liberality that he bestows upon it.

The county has an area of about 460,000 acres. Ten miles below Iludson, the river gradually expands until opposite the city, it is perhaps a mile wide; it then gradu- ally contracts, and, when a few miles above Stillwater, assumes the regular width of the river. This expansion, which has a channel mostly on the west side, is called Lake St. Croix. The bluffs, above the western bank of the river, are somewhat broken and irregular. The eastern bank more regular in its slope toward the river.

The western tier of towns is more hilly than the others, the central tiers are undulating prairie, and better adapted to agriculture than any other part of the county.

The eastern tier, from north to south across the county, is the hardwood section, which meets the great pine region near the center of Dunn County.

The varieties of wood are hickory, butternut, red, black and white oaks, with rock maple, and in the northeast corner of the county there is pinc.

Among the rivers, the most important, after the St. Croix, are the Willow and the Apple; the former, going into the St. Croix in the northwestern part of the county, and the latter at Hudson. Hay River, which forms the west branch of the Red Cedar in Dunn County, rises near the head-waters of the Apple River, and runs in an opposite direction.

Most of the rivers which abound in the county arise rather abruptly from springs, which furnish remarkably pure water, and, as the waters accumulate in the rivers, fine, although limited, water-powers are furnished, which seldom fail even in a dry time.

The Rush, Kinnickinnic and Eau Galle rise in the southern part of the county, and find their way respectively into Lake Pepin, Lake St. Croix and the Chippewa. There are several small lakes, among them Bell, Twin, Bass, Perch and Cedar.

THE INDIANS.

The greatest trouble with the Indians was caused by their importunate begging and thieving propensities. Visi- tations were made from the Dakotas or Sioux on the West, and from the Ojibways or Chippewas on the East. Each tribe had its peculiarities, and there was a remarkable sameness in the form, size and general appearance of each one of the same tribe. The one could be readily dis- tinguished from the other; the Sioux were lighter colored than the Chippewas; the Sioux had dug-outs, the Chippewas birch bark eanoes like those still made by the Oldtown Indians near Bangor, in Maine. The moccasin of the Sioux was sewed in front from the toe up, the Chippewas had a band of foxing around the upper part of the moeea- sin. As to the belt, that indispensable adjunct to every Indian wardrobe, and which he has to buckle up as he gets hungry, and let out as he gormandizes, the Sioux had a plain, unornamented affair, while the Chippewa had porcu pine quills, beads and whatever trinkets he could obtain to embellish his girdle. The Sioux wore skins, the Chippewas fabries. A band on leaving a point, would stick a bush in the ground or plant it in the stream, and an expert would tell at once whether it was left by the Chippewas or Sioux. The Chippewa's wigwam was covered with bark, the Sioux with skins. To show the character of the warfare indulged in by these two hostile tribes, an account of an affair wit- nessed by a man who was several hours held as a prisoner to prevent his giving information of the movement, will be related : On the west bank of the Mississippi below St. Paul, some time in 1842 or 1843, was located an Indian village, with perhaps 200 braves. On the opposite side of the river was a trader who had a Sioux squaw for a wife. Several hundred Chippewas came down and ranged them- selves on either side of a ravine leading to the river, in ambush. They then sent about twenty warriors to the river, who, finding the trader's squaw in the garden, shot her. After securing her scalp, the murderers indulged in a war dance on the bank of the river ; the Sioux rallied to a man ; the river was soon black with their canoes coming over. The Chippewas, waiting until their foes were on the point of landing, fled up the ravine followed by the Sioux to receive the effective fire of the Chippewas. Those who survived this onslaught fled and bravely attempted with the re-enforcements constantly arriving, to flank their enemies, by going up another ravine ; this contingency had been pro-

946

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

vided for by the crafty Chippewas, who had a reserve sta- tioned there, and the deathly experience of the first attack was again their lot. Of course, their only safety was in flight across the river, but the remorseless Chippewas swarmed on the bluff, and, few indeed, succeeded in cross- ing the river to tell the tale.

The place where this occurred is still called Bloody Run. Long before the garrison at Fort Spaulding arrived, the Chippewas, loaded with scalps and other trophies of their prowess, had returned to their own ground to relate their daring deeds.

The Sioux once had a Chippewa chief-Hole-in-the- Day-corraled in a tamarack swamp, of about one acre; this they guarded day and night for three days, to find to their disgust that he had escaped. They alleged that he had turned into a snake and thus crawled out.

The Sioux subsequently played a like game on the Chippewas near the eastern edge of the "bloody ground " with equal success, leaving the account very evenly balanced.

EARLY HISTORY.

St. Croix Falls was visited by Father Hennepin while he was held a prisoner by the Sioux Indians in 1680; and he gave it a name from his extensive calendar of Saints. The peninsula formed by the St. Croix on the east and the Mississippi on the west was very sharply defined neutral ground between the Sious on the west and the Chippewas on the east, and the early history of the settlement of what was once Northwestern Wisconsin, but is now Eastern Min- nesota, was comparatively free from Indian depredations. Neither tribe deemed it prudent to occupy this territory, excepting in the most temporary way, and therefore it was a safe place for settlement, and was early occupied by farm- ers, scattered widely over the whole domain.

On account of the safety of the location, Laurient Barth with his family, Jacques Porlier and Charles Reaume established a trading station here on the St. Croix in 1793, returning down the river loaded with furs, in the spring.

In 1839, a company was formed at St. Louis to go into the lumbering business on the St. Croix. A party was sent up, and by the spring of the following year were well under way at the Falls, in charge of Mr. Holcombe. The firm was called the St. Louis Lumber Co. The mill was built, and, in a reconstructed form, still stands.

On the 1st of May, 1840, W. II. Crosby came up the river from below on the Indian Queen, bound for the Falls, but was grounded on a bar where Stillwater now is, and on account of a want of knowledge of the channel, was three days in getting up to the Falls.

In 1841, Capt. Frasure was sent up in charge, instead of llolcombe. James Perrington came in 1843, and re- lieved Frasure. He remained two years, when, in 1845, lIolcombe returned and took his former position, which he retained several years.

Holcombe came up at first in 1839, but was driven off by the Indians. Ile, however, returned the same year and resumed operations.

The very first settler in Hudson was Peter Bouchea, in the spring of 1841; he had a French father and a Chip- pewa mother, and was a man of character, who often boasted of being the first white resident.

Soon after came a half-breed of French extraction, whose real surname is lost, but his nickname was Joe La Grue, so called from his erane-like form. That is still re-

tained as the family name. These men had been connected with the Northwestern American Fur Company, at La Pointe, and found their way down here from there.

The next cabin of which we have any knowledge, lo- cated within the limits of the present county, was that of Louis Massa, a French Canadian by birth, who had mar- ried a sister of Bouchea, named Fransis. Massa had, in obedience to his nomadic taste, wandered west to the Apos- the Islands, where he met his future wife. They came down with a couple of canoes lashed together when in the water, with a few household effects, having to make several portages. The old man and his wife are still living.

Mr. Crosby, above referred to, came down the river, and located opposite Hudson, at Lakeville, and assisted Bouchea, La Grue and Uncle Massa (as he was called) in erecting their log houses.

George Clark, another early comer, also lent a hand to help build the huts. Ile was accidentally drowned in the Kinniekinnie the same fall, and furnished the first case for the Coroner of the county, who was David Hone. Mr. Crosby, who is still alive and in active business, lived at Cottage Grove and on Bole's Creek. Henry S. Crosby was born on the 18th of June, 1846, on Bole's Creek. The family came to Hudson to remain, in March, 1868.

After William Holcombe, who is really the earliest pio- neer, may be mentioned Phineas Lawrence, Joseph Has- kell, Ph. Prescott, James S. Norris, Joseph R. Brown, Andrew MeKey, M. Moore and Mrs. Hannah Crosby, who came in the spring of 1844. David Hone, Sam Buckalo, Orange Walker, William Dibble, Hiram Bucker and others were a little later.

The founder of Hudson was Joseph Perrington, who built a dam and saw-mill at the mouth of the Willow River. Stillwater, which was at first a part of the county, was settled by John McKorich, Calvin Leach, Elias McKean, Jacob Fisher, Elam Greeley and Jesse Taylor. A saw-mill was erected in 1842.

Joseph Haskell was the first farmer. He broke the soil in 1840. J. S. Norris soon after, but this was on the other side of the river, which was quite well settled when the present county began to fill up.

The Territory of Minnesota was organized in 1849, and included Minnesota and Iowa. Several towns in the St. Croix Valley, then in the county, will be alluded to.

Afton was settled in 1840, by Andrew MeKey and Mr. Mellattees. John and Martin Moore founded Arkola. Mo- line was started by S. Buckalo, D. Hone, O. Walker, Will- iam Dibble and Hİ. Berkley, in 1841.

Christopher Columbus discovered and founded Vassa ! William Kean. William Mahoney and Alman D. Heaton built a saw-mill at Oceola, in 1842.

Taylor's Falls was so called from Jesse Taylor, who, with Mr. Baker, built a mill, in 1840.

St. Croix Falls, was the scene of the early operations of the St. Louis Lumber Co., under the superintendenee of William Holcombe.

Returning to the limits of the present county : In 1846, Mr. Page and his family arrived from Nauvoo, Ill., and as- sisted Mr. Perrington in building his mill the following year. If Henry F. Crosby was the first white boy born here, Abigail Page was the first girl. This was in 1846.

The Noble brothers came about this time, followed soon after by their father, who was a retired clergyman. Ile occasionally had religious service.

047

HISTORY OF ST. CROIX COUNTY.

The year following, in 1847, there was quite an influx of new-comers, among them Amah Andrews, Philip Ald- rich, Joseph Mears, Moses Perrin, James Stone and James Sanders.

James Hughes opened a law office.

A store was built for general merchandise, and Moses Perrin built a hotel. Several frame buildings were put up for dwellings and other purposes. In the fall, a tract of thirty acres was laid out near the Willow River as the site of the future city. The proprietors were Philip Aldrich, Ama Andrews, Joseph Mears and James Sanders, who gave the city the then popular name of Buena Vista.

In 1850, the new city having meantime only slowly grown, twenty acres more, adjoining but down the lake, were added by Messrs. Moses S. Gibson, John O. Henning, F. P. Catlin, Bouchea, Stone and Crowns, who boldly discarded the Mex- ican cognomen and gave it the Saxon name of Willow River, which soon superseded tbe other.

Otis Hoyt, M. D., settled here in 1850. The distancees he had to go to see some of his patients would seem inered- ible if stated, and the time he had to wait for some of his fees has not expired yet.

E. P. Pratt was the first school teacher, and the school was opened in 1852.

In 1854, the Baptists succeeded in building the first church. Rev. Catlin was the pioneer preacher.

Meantime other places in the county were being settled, and, in 1855, there were more than two thousand people in the county.

ORGANIZATION.

St. Croix County, when first set off from Crawford County by the Territorial Legislature in the winter of 1840, embraced a part of Pepin, Dunn and Chippewa Counties, and Bayfield, Douglas, Burnett, Barron, Polk and Pierce Counties, as well as a part of Minnesota, and formed the whole western boundary of the Territory, from what was then called Porcupine River, on Lake Pepin, on a line run- ning west, and on the north to Montreal River, and from the Montreal River west into Minnesota.

On the first Monday in August, 1840, an election was authorized. A vote was to determine the location of the county seat. Two places struggled for the distinction- " Prescott's Claim," at the lower end of Lake St. Croix, and " Brown's Warehouse," at the upper end of the lake, the present site of Stillwater. The polls were opened at two points-the Falls of Chaumakan, on the St. Croix, and at La Pointe.

Some idea of the extent of the population at that time, or the interest manifested in the election, may be realized by remembering that the whole number of votes polled was 58, 45 being for Brown's Warehouse, and 13 for Prescott's Claim. The returns were made to the Clerk of the County Commissioners of Crawford County, at Prairie du Chien. Hazen Mears, Samuel Buckalo and Calvin A. Tuttle were chosen Commissioners.

The tract of land described in J. R. Brown's claim was sold to him by the Commissioners for $800 casb, reserving one-half acre for county purposes. Arrangements were also made with Mr. Brown to furnish suitable buildings for the use of the county for four years.

At this election the county officers chosen were Joseph R. Brown, Treasurer, Register of Deeds and Surveyor; Orange Walker, Joseph Haskell and Philander Prescott, Assessors ; Phincas Lawrence, Collector ; and J. S. Norris,

Coroner. C. J. Learned, of Crawford County, certified to the election.

In April, 1844, an act was approved making the county a Probate District, and appointing Philip Aldrich Judge. In 1845, the county was reduced in size by creating the county of La Pointe, leaving it with 11,000 square miles and the Mississippi as the western boundary. The popula- tion was then estimated at 1.500 -- one person in seven and one-third square miles.

When in 1846 Congress passed an act permitting the Territory of Wisconsin to become a State on condition that the people would adopt a constitution and accept certain boundary lines, there was considerable opposition in the St. Croix Valley to the suggestion that the St. Croix and not the Mississippi should be the western boundary for the upper part of the State. And in the Constitutional Con- vention of 1847, a vigorous effort was made to have this line changed. The delegate from St. Croix was William Holcombe, and he was Chairman of the committee to con- sider this question. In his report, it was urged that the line should be in the middle of the Mississippi. This line was not accepted by Congress, but in 1848, Wisconsin, with her present territory and boundary lines, was admitted as a State into the Union. This division took from St. Croix the county seat, by placing everything west of the river in Min- nesota, and really destroyed the county organization.

Previous to this (in 1846), the Territorial Legislature had added two more election precinets-St. Paul and Still- water-the latter being designated as the county seat. In 1847, the county was endued with judicial functions and all the rights of other counties. Mr. W. H. Crosby states that he voted in the Territory and State of Wisconsin, and in the Territory and State of Minnesota, at the same place and in the same box, all within a few years. He lived in Stillwater.

The requirement for a new county seat was met by the Legislature in an act approved June 8, 1848, which located it on Sections 4 and 5, at the mouth of Willow River. In August of the same year, this act was amended by desig- nating Section 20 as the present site of Hudson.

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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