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 50

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 50

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Previous to 1847, not a man came except in the lumber interest; but that year a sturdy German- George Meyer-seeing the cost of boating up flour and feed and other farm products, resolved to raise them right here. Allen and Bass assisted him to get up his implements, and in other ways. He opened a farm with prairie, wood and water, six miles northwest from the town, and demonstrated the value of the land for agricultural purposes. The farm was afterwards sold to William Henneman.

Some time in 1848, Capt. Stover Rives, of Maine, who had been living in Janesville, and his brother Moses, bought of Mr. Allen an interest in the mill, and came on with his family. He remained two years, when Mr. Allen purchased his interest. Moses still remained. The firm was then H. S. Allen & Co.

During this period, and, indeed, up to this time and years afterwards, Mr. Allen made vigorous efforts to secure some means of transportation up the river. Going down was comparatively easy, but returning was a serious affair, as the haggard and footsore raftsmen,

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

on their return from below, plainly testified. And up to the present time the trouble has not been met in a satisfactory way. From the Mississippi the raftsmen come up to Eau Claire, arriving often just after train time, there to wait for the cars. The promised road, now under contract, will be a great benefit to Chippe- wa Falls, as well as to Eau Claire.

The Blue Mill, now operated by the Badger State Company, located down the river about six miles, was built in 1843, by Arthur McCann and J. C. Thomas, whose names appear in the history of other counties down the river. The three brothers-Stephen, Ar- thur and Daniel McCann-were from Marietta, Ohio. Arthur married Rosalie De Marie.

They had employed a man by the name of Sawyer, and one evening he went to McCann's house to settle. During the evening, while playing cards and drinking freely, they got into a scuffle. Sawyer went out into Philo Stone's cabin, procured his rifle, and called Mc- Cann to the door and shot him dead on the spot. Sawyer fled, and has never been found.

Thomas E. Randall brought his family to the Blue Mill in the Summer of 1846, and, having been reared a Methodist, as was also his wife, he made ar- rangements to preach at the company's boarding-house at the Falls every second Sunday. This service began in September, 1846, and was the first in this region.

The mill on Yellow River, erected by Colton & Moser, was completed in 1850, and not long after this, Alexander and Henry O'Neil associated with Mr. Lock- hart, from Prairie du Chien, erected the mill on O'- Neil's Creek, afterwards owned by Stanley Brothers.

Allen & Co., at the Falls, had been constantly en- larging the mill and the capacity, in the Winter or Spring of 1855, was 100,000 feet a day.

On the 6th of July, 1855, a thunder storm could be plainly seen up the river, and it continued with great fury for thirty hours. Only the edge of the storm reached the Falls. A little hail fell here, but the storm persistently hung over the valley alone. Its effects were soon visible in an awfully destructive rise in the river. The rush of logs and driftwood was ap- palling; nothing could withstand the force of that loaded current. More than 70,000 logs, representing 25,000,000 feet of lumber, with the piers and booms, were cleared away and scattered over the bottoms and sloughs of the lower Chippewa. The mill-race was badly damaged. No more lumber was cut that year, and the loss can be imagined when it is remembered that lumber then was worth $20 a thousand.

This was a serious blow, from which H. S. Allen & Co. never fully recovered, notwithstanding the her- culean efforts that were made to recuperate from the shock.

From the time Mr. Bass removed, in 1847, until January, 1854, there had been no legal administration of justice in the whole valley. When JJackson County was formed, the river settlements were attached to that for judicial purposes. The expense of bringing offenders to justice was very great, and the delay and uncertainty very annoying, and the necessity of form- ing a new county became so apparent that, in 1853, the Legislature created a new county, embracing all the settlements in the valley above the Red Cedar. The

organization was effected the following Spring, and a town and county board organized.

The Eighth Judicial District was created the same year, with the new county as a part of it.

S. N. Fuller was elected the first Judge, and the first court was held at the Falls, in January, 1854. H. L. Humphrey was County Attorney.

The Judge had an infirmity; about 11 o'clock each day, he would begin to hitch in his seat, to hack and cough, and in about five minutes he would remark, " Oh ! hem ! the court will take a recess of five min- utes." A bee line would be taken for the nearest bar, and the lawyer who paid for the drinks considered that his case was safe in that court.

During the month of June, 1855, several heavy frosts killed the grass and vegetation all through the northern part of the State.

A large amount of pine land was put in the market in the Fall of 1855. A public sale took place in Hud- son. H. S. Allen & Co. took pains to explore the lands and select such as the company desired. Meas- ures were taken to have the required funds on hand; a confidential clerk, a Mr. Murphy, who was highly esteemed, was sent down the river to collect of the debtors of the company, and to be on hand at Hud- son on the day of sale. Other bidders allowed Mr. Allen to select what he wanted at the minimum price. Mr. Allen anxiously watched the boats coming up but no Murphy appeared ; he had collected $6,000 and ab- sconded, and no clue to him has ever been found. This loss in addition to that by the terrible freshet was a serions reverse.

The town and county board above alluded to, were one and the same.

The first officers elected were E. A. Galloway, Chairman ; William Henneman and Henry O'Neil, Supervisors. H. S. Allen was Treasurer and B. F. Manahan, Clerk. The other officers were appointed by the board. Moses Ryan was Sheriff.

The white and unmarried ladies here were three fine specimens of womanly grace, each remarkably beauti- ful ; the rivalry for their hands and hearts was brisk among the young gallants of Eau Claire and the Falls. Proximity won. in each case, and the place is noted even now for the beauty of its women as compared with some other lumbering towns.

The heavy losses sustained by H. S. Allen & Co. were keenly felt by the whole settlement, as the entire county at this time, 1855-6, was almost entirely de- pendent upon the mill.

During the Summer of 1856 a change came over the spirit of the town. The surrounding country was rapidly filling up with farmers, some of whom brought means of their own. Among the distinguished arrivals that year may be recorded Elijah Pound, with his sons Thaddeus C. and Albert E., Dr. Alexander McBean, the first physician, H. L. Humphrey and P. McNally. Rev. W. W. MeNair, the energetic Presbyterian. Joseph Waterman, I. P. Sheldon, A. Walker. Frederick Bussy, Rodman Palmer, Stephen Brown, W. J. Skinner, Mr. Fuller. S. VanLoon, Mr. Loveland, James Woodruff. Waterman, Woodruff and Skinner, with their families, came from Winnebago. They had some horses and eighteen yoke of oxen, and they had to camp two days

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HISTORY OF CHIPPEWA COUNTY.

on the other side of the river before they could cross. Mr. Allen loaned his boats but the cattle had to swim.

Frank Bounville was here several years before, in 1850, and claims to have built the first frame building. J. A. Taylor arrived in 1854.

Up to this period the colony was without schools or churches, or even newspapers, except at long intervals. Social intercourse was reduced to a minimum for want of the elements of social life. There were Yankees, Frenchmen, Indians and squaws, a most unpromising social melange. Most of the white men took to them- selves dusky maidens, who realized how much better they would fare than with their own swarthy compan- ions, readily consented to the arrangement. As the white women appeared on the scene, many of these first loves were discarded, but to their credit it is stated that they were in every case provided for with the children, when they existed.

As to these half-breeds, many of them prove to be worthy members of society, industrious and capable in the ordinary walks of life, but many of them seem to inherit a spirit of unrest which often impels them on to the frontier in an effort to keep ahead of the ad- vancing line of civilization.

It may safely be set down as established, that a cross of this kind is not an improvement upon the white race. The second and third generations, how- ever, where the Ani-chin-a-be blood is attenuated in a geometrical ratio, rapidly improve in both physical and mental qualities.

Dan. McCann was a fiddler-that is, while he knew not a single musical note, he could play several cotil- lions and marches and a waltz " by ear." And about so many times each Winter a ball was held, the din- ing room of the boarding house being transformed into a ball room. On such occasions all the women in the country were brought. The gathering was purely democratic. The squaws and white women were at such a premium that they had to dance every time, while the men were considered fortunate if they could join in "address partners " once in the whole evening. The bar was very convenient on such occasions, and there was turbulence always, and often fighting and rioting.

In the Fall of 1856, although the village was rapidly filling up, Mr. Allen, the head of the lumbering firm upon which the prosperity of the place depended, was filled with apprehensions as to the future of his com- pany. The notes of the company were falling due, and the low price of lumber had reduced the receipts so that there was not sufficient funds to meet them, and he foresaw disaster and loss of everything which the inevitable judgments would soon cover. The firm consisted at this time of H. S. Allen, E. A. Galloway, John Judge, Eugene Shine and Moses Rives. Steve, Rives had been bought out by Mr. Allen and Jacob Wills by John Judge. Moses Rives owned a quarter sec- tion where the city is built. He was not a paragon of sobriety or virtue, his beautiful wife had been obliged to get rid of him, and Mr. Allen resolved to do the same. He accordingly paid him $10,000 for his inter- est in the business and in the city lots.

Of all the methods to relieve the company, that of making a corporation was decided upon. The

stock was fixed at $100,000. The name was The Chip- pewa Falls Lumber Company. H. S. Allen was presi- dent and John Judge secretary. A Mr. Jordan and Mr. Shine were engaged in selling the lumber for the firm. The old company went into liquidation and the liabilities were assumed by the new one.

After running through the Summer of 1857, the panic in the Fall which involved the whole country, and was precipitated by the failure of the Ohio Loan & Trust Company in New York, was too much for Mr. Allen, who proved to be handicapped in a detestible way, for the men in the firm who had been selling the lumber, met at a distant point and declared a dividend among themselves ; but the poor confiding stockholders -where were they ? And Mr. Allen, of course, was the greatest sufferer, for while he had been manufac- turing lumber and sending it down the river, the men at the other end who had sold it made no returns, showing a balance sheet with the expenses equalling the receipts. Mr. Allen estimated the robbery at $50,- 000.

After a long struggle to retrieve the wasted property, a mortgage, which had been made with a hope of finally redeeming it, was foreclosed, and at the sale which followed was bid in for the creditors at $95,000. It may not be improper to mention that Shine went to Ireland, and soon after died. Judge went to South Carolina, and Jordan roamed around "fighting the tiger."

Huson & Mahler ran the mill for a year or so. It then fell into the hands of Adin Randall, who managed it a single year. Pound, Halbert and C. B. Coleman leased it for two years. After running it one year, in 1864, Thaddeus C. Pound, Albert E. Pound and Thomas L. Halbert bought the property of the assignees for $115,000, and it was owned by that firm until 1868, when the Union Lumbering Company was incorporated, with Thaddeus C. Pound, president, and A. E. Pound, secretary and treasurer. The company, in 1875, had a capital stock of $1,500,000. There were 80,000 acres of good pine, estimated to be capable of yielding 700,000,000 feet of lumber; $300,000 had been ex- pended in building booms, piers and dams. The mill could then cut in twenty-four hours 350,000 feet, and was considered the largest lumber mill in the world, under one roof.

This mill, having been the very commencement of the city, and which even now depends upon its con- tinued operation for its growth and prosperity, is pre- sented in this history in the body of the work, with the various vicissitudes it has encountered up to the present time, because the city and the mills are inseparable, the progress and prosperity of the one being the meas- ure of the other.

To continue the story of the Union Lumber Com- pany. Such was the strength and resources of the company, that not until two years after the panic of 1873, was the concern obliged to make an assignment, which it did, for the benefit of its creditors. The lia- bilities were $680,000, and the assets $1,300,000.

Barnard and Halbert were the assignees, and the mill was leased to A. E. Pound and T. L. Halbert, who operated it two years, during a depressed busi- ness season, and failed. By the terms of the assign-

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ment, two-thirds of the creditors could force a sale of the property whenever a default of the interest should occur, which happened, as above intimated, in 1878. It was bought in by William A. Wallace, for $150,000, and the debts assumed, amounting to $300,000. Wal- lace leased the mill to Peck & Barnard.

At a meeting at the Tremont House, in Chicago, on the 19th of December, 1879, Wallace and his associates were offered $1,000,000 for the property.

The Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company was then organized. This company was represented by William A. Wallace, F. Coleman, D. M. Peck and Stanton Barnard. The interest of these parties was subsequently sold to the present proprietors for $1,- 275,000.

We have thus seen a mill, started by inexperienced energy, with a single saw, run by a flutter-wheel, ex- panding to huge proportions, with turbine wheels and improved machinery capable of turning out about a half million of lumber a day, and giving employment to a thousand or more hands.

To return to the period from whence this digression started. In the year 1856, an era of wild speculation, some of the enthusiastic proprietors of a rival village on the river, having confidence in a wild railroad scheme, which had received a land grant and were issuing stock by the million, and receiving what they considered reliable and certainly confidential informa- tion that the road would cross the Chippewa at the mouth of O'Neil's Creek, a few miles above the Falls, resolved to profit by their knowledge, and put $20,000 into lands at that point, calling it Chippewa City, and a city was laid out, with metropolitan-sounding names for avenues, squares and parks. The new city, on paper, rivaled Washington in the magnificence of its grandeur and distances. The railroad bubble burst, and Chippewa City was only built in the brain of its too confiding projectors.

The Falls of the Chippewa are at the commence- ment of a vast lumber region extending to Lake Supe- rior. 160 miles north.

The first ripple of contention, or antagonism, between the Falls and Eau Claire was caused by the question of the location of the Land Office. Mr. Washburn had intro- duced a bill forming a new Land District, with Chippewa Falls as the place for its office ; on its final passage, a mo- tion was made substituting Eau Claire for the Falls. This started a rivalry which ended in the matter being left to President Buchanan, who decided on Eau Claire. It may be proper to state that an attempt to remove the Land Office here, since that time, was unsuccessful.

The depression in the lumber interest, already alluded to, diverted attention to farming, and, in 1868, about 17,000 bushels of wheat were shipped that year, and from that time the quantity of wheat shipped has constantly increased.

The first district school organized in the county was in the Fall of 1855, Miss Irene Drake being the first teacher. It was in the town of La Fayette. The first district school-house in the village was erected in 1857, and was the general meeting-house for some time. The Catholic Church was commenced the same year, and the Presbyterian Church was completed.

Among the earliest white women here were Mrs.

Taylor, Mrs. Mannahan and Mrs. Hendrick. The Winter of 1857 was a very hard Winter. The snow lay many feet deep, and most of the cattle brought here the year before perished for want of fodder.

Mr. Waterman and his family located on a farm a few miles from town, coming in some years afterwards and building a hotel, stables, etc.

CITY OF CHIPPEWA FALLS.

The city form of government was adopted in 1869. James A. Taylor was the first Mayor. Thomas Morris, Treasurer. John F. Hall, City Clerk. William R. Hoyt was City Attorney. The early records are lost. Post-office -I. B. Taft, Postmaster. The present officers are: L. C. Stanley, Mayor; L. Gaudette, City Clerk; Peter Ber- genin, Treasurer; John J. Jenkins, Attorney; Michael Hogan, Assessor; S. S. Riddle, M. D., Physician ; Joseph Walker, Street Commissioner; Policemen -J. P. Dipple, William Anglum, Simon Cardinal and John O'Donnell; Board of Health-L. M. Newman, President; B. Gardiner, Vice-President; H. C. McRae, Samuel Hill. Board of Education, George C. Ginty, President; Commissioner, A. McBean, George S. Rogers, John Weinberger, James A. Taylor. The City Clerk officiates as secretary.

CHURCHES.

The Catholic Church. Saint Mary's .- The first relig- ious society organized at the Falls was the Catholic. As early as 1855 Bishop Cretin, of St. Paul, and Father Galtier, a missionary of large experience, held meetings here, encour- aged by H. S. Allen, whose wife had been reared in that faith. A lot was presented that year by Mr. Allen on a spot adjoining the court-house square, as indicated on the first village plat. The building, the first church in the whole valley, was raised in 1856, but was unfortunately blown down, and so its occupation as a church was delayed until 1857, when services were first held therein. In 1859 the first resident pastor was located here in the person of Father Mignault, who was succeeded by Father Smeddinck, and afterwards, in 1868, Father Abbellon was pastor. In the year 1869 Rev. Dr. C. F. X. Goldsmith took charge as missionary rector of Notre Dame parish. The next year he began the erection of the present stone edifice-in 1870. It is a commodious structure, the nave being 128x50, the transept 80x24 feet, with a seating capacity of 2,000. It cost about $40,000. Services are held in English, French, and German. The Rev. Father Goldsmith being an accom- plished master of these languages, and a very genial public spirited gentleman. This is really the mother church of the valley, and while there are five hundred families who directly attend upon its ministrations, there are in the parish seven counties and eight priests. Eighteen churches and chapels have sprung from this one. The old church has recently been demolished-having been previously used as a school- house. H. S. Allen, Dr. McBean, Matthew Cummings, F. Le Boeuf, R. Lego, C. Allen, C. Bergeron, H. Herbert and others assisted in its construction in 1856. Two hundred years ago Jesuit missionaries from Mackinaw or Green Bay celebrated mass on the bluffs of Catholic Hill, before there was any settlement at the Falls. Saint Peters church parish has had quarters at Saint Peters and stations at Vermillion and Brushville. Rev. Albert Mendel is the missionary rector. There are large numbers of French Canadians in the county, and the predominating Christian belief is the Catholic-their membership at the Falls outnumbers all the others.

The Presbyterian Church .- This was the first Protestant church organized in Chippewa Falls. In the Summer of

HISTORY OF CHIPPEWA COUNTY.

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1855 the Rev. William McNair, who was organizing a church in Eau Claire, made arrangements to visit this place on alternate Sundays. He at first preached in a log cabin near Mr. Van Name's residence, which was used on week days as a school-house. Rev. B. Phillips, from Mineral Point, soon came and at once commenced the erection of the present church building, which was completed and dedi- cated in 1858. Some of the means to erect the church was obtained from the East, but Mr. H. S. Allen and other citi- zens contributed liberally, and seemed unweary in their labors to rear this place of worship at that early day. After a ministration of ten years Mr. Phillips gave place to Rev. George W. Wainwright, who with slight intermissions preached three years. Rev. A. J. Stead, from New York State, was the next pastor, his connection was dissolved in September, 1874, yielding to Rev. D. W. Evans who broke bread for the church until August 1, 1876, when Rev. Samuel Brown, the present pastor, was installed. The active membership is now twenty-eight.

Methodist Episcopal Church .- As early as 1859 Chippewa Falls formed part of a circuit established on the frontier, but the denomination was unfortunate in their first itinerant in this locality; a want of tact or ability to accommodate himself to the rude surroundings resulted in not an encour- aging success. The first regular appointments were in the Dorland district, two miles east of the town. Rev. Thomas Harwood was the first minister here who succeeded in gath- ering together the elements of future societies. Rev. E. S. Havens was next stationed here, and he made an effort to establish regular service at the Falls proper. Next came that impetuous English pioneer, Rev. John Hoit, who labored faithfully his appointed time, but left with a feeling that the Falls was a hard field to cultivate. The Rev. Richard Cohan was the next laborer in this vineyard. His earnest, faithful, studious and skillful zeal left its impress on the community. Rev. A. J. Davis was here in 1865 and 1866. The little society under him procured a lot and he built, almost entirely with his own hands, a dwelling for a parsonage. The Rev. Darius Bresee, who afterwards did business in Eau Claire as a real estate agent, was the next minister. In the Fall of 1868 Rev. E. E. Clough was placed in charge. He was a vigorous worker and erected the present place of worship, leaving it clear of debt, and also secured an addition to the parsonage. There was a marked increase in membership and Chippewa Falls was created a regular Methodist station with regular weekly preaching. Rev. W. S. Wright, afterwards presiding elder, came to this charge in 1871, adding to the membership, and procuring the church bell. He was succeeded by Rev. H. W. Bush- nell in 1873. While he was the pastor additional ground was procured to enlarge the lot, and the membership reached about 100. Rev. Bert E. Wheeler was the next man in charge and he remained until the Fall of 1877, when Rev. J. N. Phillips was appointed to the station. In June, 1880, having been elected Grand Chief Templar of the Tem- ple of Honor, Rev. Mr. Trenor supplied the pulpit until the Fall conference, when Rev. W. Woodruff came to fill the place.

The Episcopal Church .- Zion Church was formally incor- porated April 27, 1866, with the Rev. C. H. Hendley min- ister in charge. Previous to this, however, service had been held under the patronage of L. H. Brooks and his estimable wife, who with others continued their efforts until success rewarded their labors. Mr. Hendley did not re- main long, and after a brief vacation in May, 1870, Rev. R. F. G. Page, of Eau Claire, took charge and after an irregular service of about two years the parish was again without a minister, receiving lay service from H. H. Todd, a zealous churchman who conducted the Sunday-school with

CHIPPEWA FALLS.

MOSS ENG CO A

marked success. On the Ist of June, 1878, Rev. M. L. Kern took charge, inspiring new life and energy into its affairs, and on the 10th of September, the same year, the corner stone of the church was laid. It is of wood, sixty-two by thirty-seven feet, chancel twenty by twenty, with a tower on the front left corner. Bishop Armitage was present. It was completed and opened for service on Easter, in 1875. It still stands and is a commendable structure. Among

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other ornaments it has six memorial windows. Rev. S. J. Yundt is the present rector.

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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