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 82

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 82

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

OTHER VILLAGES.

Among the other villages in the county may be men- tioned

---

293

HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY.

BENSON, on the Hay River, in the northern part of the county, with a population of eighty.

CONNORSVILLE, in the northwest corner of the county- population twenty-five.

DAVIS, a few miles east of Knapp, having twenty-five people.

ELK MOUND, on the railroad in that town, with a popu- lation of seventy-five.

FALL CITY, on the creek a few miles above the Chippe- wa, with forty persons.

GRANGER, in the northwestern part of the county, with 100 inhabitants.

LUCAS, six miles west of Menomonie, having twenty- five residents.

LOCHIEL, with about twenty-five people, in the upper part of the county.

LOUISVILLE, in the lower part of the county, with twen- ty-five residents.

SAND CREEK is in the northeast corner of the county, and is quite an important place. It has a population of 130. Peter Peterson has a flour mill here, just made over from a feed mill.

TRUAX is down the river from Menomonie, on a little stream that enters the Red Cedar from the east.

VANCEBURG is the uppermost point on the Hay River, and has about twenty residents.

Most every one of these villages is a nucleus for future enterprise and energy, and as the county gets filled up with the people it has the capacity to support, thriving villages must spring up, particularly when there is water-power and hard wood lumber to be worked up.

EAU CLAIRE COUNTY.

GEOLOGY.

On the plains or comparatively level portions of the county the soil is of a sandy character, with more vegetable mold in its composition than appears by a hasty examination, and it is formed, for the most part, by decomposed or disintegrated Potsdam sandstone. The granitic or azoic formation occurs up the Chippewa River, but terminates as a surface indication near the confluence of the Eau Claire with the Chippewa. The soil on some of the hills, which skirt some of the rivers, has a clayey character, which, when it comes to be cultivated, will be found to have staying qualities that do not appertain to that of the level country. The particular drawback of the light and easily worked sandy soil, which usually produces a good yield in re- turn for the labor and dressing bestowed upon it, is its lack of power to resist the effects of a dry time. As the seasons in which there is a severe drought are not frequent, this does not seriously depreciate the value of this soil for agricultural purposes. The soil and cli- mate of Eau Claire is eminently adapted to the raising of small fruits and berries, and as the railroads bring the markets so near our doors, this industry must con- tinue to increase until the crop becomes a very large one. There are several indigenous fruit bearing shrubs which may one day be cultivated and produce a berry as superior to the present product as the pippin excels the crab apple. There is also found in great profusion the hazelnut, awaiting man's fostering care. There is produced on this soil one or more varieties of wild hemp, and the milkweed, the inspissated juice of which becomes india rubber, grows in rank profusion where- ever its seeds take root. Indeed, most of the soil in the county, whatever geological parentage it owns, or whatever metamorphoses it may have gone through, is well adapted for the easy cultivation of its indigenous productions, and most others from a like latitude.

EARLY VISITORS.

When it is remembered that the General Govern- ment had great trouble in fixing the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin, so late as 1836, on account of the imperfection of the maps, it seems hardly possi-

ble that this region could have been visited and some- what carefully described at so early a period as 1767, as it was by Jonathan Carver.

The route pursued by Joliet and Pere Marquette up the Fox and down the Wisconsin rivers, of course, did not include the Chippewa or any of its tributaries. So the earliest account of this region was that given by Carver of his trip up the Mississippi, beginning in June, 1766, and he furnishes the following description of his journey up the Chippewa :

" Having concluded my business at La Prairie le Chien, I proceeded once more up the Mississippi, as far as the place where the Chipéway River enters it, a little below Lake Pepin. Here, having engaged an Indian pilot, I directed him to steer towards the Ottawa lakes, which lie near the head of this river. This he did, and I arrived at them the beginning of July (1767). The Chipéway River, at its junc- ture with the Mississippi, is about eighty yards wide, but it is much wider as you advance into it. Near thirty miles up it separates into two branches, and I took my course through that which lies to the eastward. The country ad- joining to the river, for about sixty miles, is very level, and on its banks lie fine meadows, where larger droves of Buffa- loes and Elks were feeding than I had observed in any other part of my travels. The track between the two branches of this river is termed the Road of War between the Chipeway and Naudawessie Indians. The country to the Falls, mark- ed in the plan at the extent of the traders' travels, is almost without any timber, and above that very uneven and rugged, and closely wooded with pines, beech, maple and birch. Here a most remarkable and astonishing sight presented it- self to my view. In a wood, on the east of the river, which was about three-quarters of a mile in length, and in depth farther than my eye could reach, I observed that every tree, many of which were more than six feet in circumference, was lying flat on the ground, torn up by the roots. This appeared to have been done by some extraordinary hurri- cane that came from the west some years ago, but how many I could not learn, as I found no inhabitants near it of whom I could gain information. The country on the west side of the river, from being less woody, had escaped, in a great measure this havoc, as only a few trees were blown down. Near the head of this river is a town of the Chipeways, from whence it takes its name. It is situated on each side of the river (which at this place is of no considerable breadth),

294

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

and lies adjacent to the banks of a small lake. This town contains about forty houses, and can send out upwards of 100 warriors, many of whom were fine stout young men. The houses of it are built after the Indian manner, and have neat plantations behind them; but, the inhabitants, in gen - eral, seemed to be the nastiest people I had ever been among. In July (1767), I left this town, and having crossed a num- ber of small lakes and carrying places that intervened, came to a head branch of the River St. Croix. This branch I descended to a fork, and then ascended another to its source. On both these rivers I discovered several mines of virgin copper, which was as pure as that found in any other coun- try.

It may not be improper to mention here that Mr. Carver's heirs subsequently laid claim to a large tract of land in this region by virtue of an alleged patent from George III. It was, however, not allowed by Congress, though the cause became one of the most noted in the annals of land adjudications in the country.

The next authentic account given of this region was not until 1820, when Lewis Cass was Governor of the Northwestern Territory, with head-quarters in Detroit. The Hon. James Duane Doty, in a communication to Gov. Cass, under date of September 27, 1820, fur- nishes his Excellency with all the information he is able to obtain in relation to what is now Northern Wisconsin, and, although the particular region described lays mostly north of the counties represented in this work, an abstract of this part of the history of Northern Wisconsin will be appropriate in this connection, and will have an increasing interest as time goes on.

At that time there were but three principal places of residence of the Indians in this region, at what was then called Leech Lake, Sandy Lake and Lake Supe- rior. The Leech Lake Indians must have been fre- quently on the war-path, for there were only about 200 men, while there were 350 women, and 1,100 boys and girls. Their game was deer, bear, beaver, otter, musk- rat, martin, fishers, raccoon, and a few red and grey foxes. They only secured buffalo on the borders of the Sioux country. The otter and muskrat were found on the small rivers, the beaver on the larger streams. The other game were found throughout the region. Whitefish are spoken of as being abundant in the lakes but wanting in the rivers. In both the lakes and rivers were found an abundance of various kinds of fish, as pike, carp, black bass, eatfish and others. Another fish, not unlike, but unequal to, the whitefish, was also spoken of as being very common, and called by the Indians tee-na-bee, and by the French " telibee." They were taken in nets sixty to 100 fathoms long, and were, with wild rice, the principal food of the traders. Indeed, without these the traders could not have sub- sisted in the country. The water fowl throughout the region were identical ; they were the bustard wild goose, which civilization has driven farther north, sev- eral kinds of dueks, swan. pelican, loon and the gull. Another, called a cormorant, was also not uncommon. It lived on fish, was about the size of a crow and black had a leg like a loon, a bill four inches long, hooked and pointed at the end. It was said to roost by sus- pending itself by the bill. The birds were represented as being about like those in the Eastern States. Moose,

reindeer, red and white ermine, wolverine, lynx, skunk, porcupine, woodchuck and red striped squirrels are found in different parts of the country. The wolf only in the southern part. Turtles of various sizes were found. The only snakes were the common striped variety. The government of the Indians was through chieftains, not unlike all other tribes. The Sandy Lake Indians were the second in size, and included, among three or four hundred, thirty-five half-breeds. These Indians had a kind of ground nut, resembling the potato. It was found in wet, clay ground, about one and a half feet deep. It was called the waup-es- seepin, was mealy and palatable when boiled. An- other root, sometimes three feet long, called waup-tap- pin-ee. It was preserved by drying. These roots and the wild rice, with occasional game, was the principal food of the Indians. In March every year the men go to the borders of the Sioux country to hunt for beaver, which they call "mic." Their families then repair to the sugar camp, where they make large quantities of maple sugar. This they could hardly have made pre- vious to contact with the whites, on account of the want of kettles. The only boiling they could do was by placing hot stones in a wooden trough. In the Fall the wild rice is gathered by paddling among it on the shallow lakes, where it grows, and beating it off into the canoe. To tread it out in shallow pits, to remove the rough hull, required much labor, which was not considered beneath the men to perform. The other, or Lake Superior, tribe of Indians have no abiding place. They wander around the lakes and rivers. Their game is moose, bear, marten, mink, musk- rat, lynx, hedgehog, otter and a few beaver. No buffalo, deer, wolf, raccoon, fox or wolverine. In 1820, there were forty-five men, sixty women and 240 child- ren, and there were thirty half-breeds and three free- men with their families. The report has an account of the rivers and other geographical features of the coun- try, which it is unnecessary to summarize here. At the time of the early settlement of Wisconsin, the na- tive Indians were the Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Me- nomonees, and Sacs and Foxes ; and from New York, the Oneidas, Stockbridges, Munsees and Brothertowns. The Algonquin was the language of the Indians from Massachusetts to beyond the Mississippi, and from the St. Lawrence to the Cumberland in Kentucky.

In 1875, T. E. Randall, of Eau Claire, one of the earliest settlers, published a series of articles on the history of the Chippewa Valley, in the Free Press, which were finally issued in book form. Many vali- able facts for this history have been obtained from that work. And to show Mr. Randall's style, as well as for the information contained in it, a single chapter of that work is here transcribed, which relates to the Indians of the Chippewa Valley :

The settler on any of our western prairies, and the ax- men who enter upon the primeval forests, where no signs of man's destructive force or redeeming power is seen or felt. is frequently the subject of strange reflections as he follows his plow, turning up the virgin soil that through all the ages has remained undisturbed, or hews down the stately pine that for a thousand years has flourished and grown, unno- ticed and uncared for by the hand of man ; he wonders how it occurs that he, of all the people that have lived or still

295

HISTORY OF EAU CLAIRE COUNTY.

live on the face of the earth, swarming as it does with so many millions, should be the first to appropriate to his com- fort and convenience the blessings so long held in reserve in nature's vast store-house. He also wonders why his race should require all the resources of the earth, the produc- tions of forests, mines, rivers, lakes and oceans, of the soil, plowed, planted, cultured and garnered ; the flocks and herds feeding and gamboling on a thousand hills, for his subsistence, while other races have remained from genera- tion to generation in all the untamed wildness of the deer and elk on which they subsist. What of the race that but yesterday was here ? Have these rivers, fields and forest, now so peaceful, always been so calm and still? or have they, like the old world, been the scene of savage and san- guinary conflicts? We speculate almost 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 human sound that ever waked the stillness of these hills, or a race long extinct may have plowed and sowed, builded and loved and worshiped and cultivated all the graces and amenities of civilized life, but the record of whose deeds and virtues have been obliterated by the convulsions of time's relent- less changes. Of the race whose steps are fast receding, and giving place to ours, we know comparatively little, as their own traditions, and their history for the past 200 years, written by foreigners, is very imperfect ; but what is known as to the Indians who occupied this valley, will now claim our attention. The Chippewas were considered by the early French missionaries as the bravest, most war-like, and, at the same time, the noblest and most manly of all the tribes on the American continent. They were derived from the Algonquin race, or type, and were first met with by the French on the Chippewa River near Montreal, Canada, in 1642, and were immediately taken into political alliance with them, matrimonial alliance soon followed, and their re- lations soon became very intimate. The Jesuit mission- aries speak of the language of the Chippewas, as the most refined and complete of any Indian tongue. Their terri- tory seems to have been confined, at that time, to what is now the New Dominion and the lower peninsula of Michi- gan. Of the Sioux, or Dacotas, still less is known. At the time of which we are now speaking, 1642, they seem to have been in possession of all the territory south of Lake Supe- rior, west of lakes Huron and Michigan, south as far as Milwaukee, and west to or even beyond Missouri River, for about this time they took a Jesuit priest prisoner at the Sault St. Marie and killed him as an intruder upon their territory. And, in 1660, the Jesuits having established a mission at La Pointe, on Magdalene Island, Lake Superior, were driven off by the Sioux. Soon after this, about 1670, the Chippewas commenced their inroads upon the territory of the Sioux, on the north and east, and fought their way south and west to the lines hereinafter described. In the meantime, the Winnebagos, a migratory tribe from Mexico, to escape the Spaniards, came among the Sioux, who gave them lands near Green Bay, probably to shield themselves from the Chippewas. But the Sacs and Foxes came up from the south and took forcible possession of their terri- tory, and compelled them to "go west," and they in turn were crowded out by the Menomonees. In consequence of these predatory wars and immigrations, the claims of the several Indian nations to their respective territories became very complicated, and the cause of almost incessant war amongst them. To prevent this as much as possible, the United States Government, in 1825, authorized a general treaty to be held at Prairie du Chien between all the tribes within a district of 500 miles each way. This joint treaty was signed on the part of the government by Gens. William

Clark and Lewis Cass, and by Wabasha, Red Wing, Little Crow and twenty-three other braves, on the part of the Sioux, and by Hole-in-the-Day and forty other chiefs and braves, for the Chippewas. To fix the boundaries between the various nations definitely was the first and principal ob- ject of this treaty. The eastern boundary of the Sioux commenced opposite the mouth of the Iowa River, on the Mississippi, runs back two or three miles to the bluffs, fol - lowing the bluffs to and crossing the Bad Axe to Black River, from which point the line described is the boundary be- tween the Sioux and Winnebagoes, and extends in a direc- tion nearly north to a point on the Chippewa River half a day's march from Chippewa Falls. From this point on the Chippewa, which was fixed at the mouth of Mud Creek, near Rumsey's Landing, the line becomes the boundary be- tween the Chippewas and Sioux, and runs to the Red Cedar River, just below the falls; from thence to the St. Croix, at a place called the Standing Cedar, about a day's paddle in a canoe, above the lake on that river, thence passing be- tween the two lakes called Green Lakes, from thence to the Standing Cedar, and thence to the mouth of the Rum River, on the Mississippi. The boundary line between the Chip- pewas and Winnebagoes was also defined, as commencing at this same point on the Chippewa River, half a day's march below the falls, and thence to the source of the Clear Water, thence south to Black River, thence to a point where the woods project into the meadows, and thence to the Plover portage of the Wisconsin. The boundaries thus described were pretty carefully observed by the respective parties to the treaty, except when war parties were fitted out by the Sioux or Chippewas, for the Winnebagoes remained perfectly neu- tral. The intervening territory between the first mentioned boundary often became the theatre of many a hard fought battle, and hunting there was considered very unsafe by all those tribes. On the 29th of July, 1837, at Fort Snelling, Gov Dodge, on the part of the United States, and Hole-in- the-Day, with forty-seven other chiefs and braves, on the part of the Chippewas, signed a treaty, ceding to the United States the northwestern part of Wisconsin. In September of the same year, at Washington, the Secretary of War, Joel R. Poinset, made a treaty with Big Thunder and twenty other chiefs and braves belonging to the Sioux, when the latter ceded to the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi and all their islands in the river. October 4, 1842, at La Pointe, in Lake Superior, Po-ga-ne-ge-shik and forty others of the Chippewas, ceded all their lands in Wis- consin to the General Government. It is proper to state that several bands of the Chippewas became very much dissatisfied, and with their reservation above Sand Lake, in Minnesota, and begged so hard to come back, that the gov- ernment, in 1854, gave them back several townships and half townships on the Court Oureilles and some other branches of the Chippewa, and located an agency there for the distribution of part of the annuities promised them by the terms of the treaty, as consideration for the land.

ORGANIZATION.

The county of Eau Claire was formally established, with full powers, by an act of the Legislature, approved October 6, 1856. The bill declared the village of Eau Claire to be the county seat. The first election was held in November, 1856. On the second day of Janu- ary, following, the Board of Supervisors met and or- ganized, with C. M. Seeley, chairman, and Charles F. Babcock, clerk. The other members were M. A. Page, C. M. Robbins and Henry Huntington. The Clerk's office was located in Gleason & Seeley's store. Charles

296

HISTORY OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.

H. Howard was Register of Deeds ; William P. Bart- lett, District Attorney, and George A. Buffington, Coroner.

In March, 1857, Adin Randall was anthorized by the Board to operate a ferry across the Chippewa, the tolls being fixed by the Board. This must have been an opposition line. The town of Half Moon Lake, now embracing the west side of the city, was created at that session. On the 24th of February, 1857, the towns of Bridge Creek and Brunswick were organized. In May, 1857, the Board was augmented by the ap- pearance of Ira Mead, from Half Moon Lake, and G. L. Frizsel, of Brunswick.

November 17, 1857, the County Board of Snper- visors was re-organized. Ira Mead, chairman, and Charles Whipple, clerk, pro tem. For assessment pur- poses, the land for the whole county was equalized at $3.123 per acre. The sum raised that year for school purposes was : Eau Claire Township, $100 ; Half Moon Lake, $150 ; Brunswick and Bridge Creek, $50 each. This item shows the relative size of the towns at that early period in their history.

An extra session of the legislature, of Wisconsin, in 1856, had set from Chippewa County the counties of Dunn and Eau Claire, thoughi still attached to that county, however, for judicial purposes for one year, so that there were no judicial offices for the county until the next year, when Ira Mead was elected Judge. The first Sheriff of the county was Moses A. Page ; Under Sheriff, A. S. Bostwick.

In 1858, the counties of Clark, Chippewa and Dunn were in one assembly district, having been so appor- tioned before Eau Claire was created a county. In 1858, Lucius Cannon represented the district ; 1859, Richard Dewhurst, of Neillsville ; 1860, William P. Bartlett, Eau Claire ; 1861, Rodman Palmer, Chippewa Falls; 1862, H. W. Barnes, Eau Claire ; 1863, William H. Smith, Eau Galle ; 1864. Thad. C. Pound, Chippewa Falls ; 1865, Francis R. Church, Menomomie ; 1866, Thad. C. Pound ; in 1873, J. G. Thorp was a Senator, and William P. Bartlett, of Eau Claire, an Assembly- man ; in 1874, H. P. Graham, of Eau Claire, was in the Senate, and Thomas Carmichael, of the same place, an Assemblyman ; 1875, Mr. Graham of course held over ; Jonathan G. Callahan was in the lower house ; in 1876, Hobart M. Stocking carried off the Assembly honors ; in 1877, Thomas Carmichael was sent to the State capital ; Julius G. Ingram represented this dis- trict in 1878, and was returned the next year ; in 1880, Michael Griffin was Senator from Eau Claire, Ira B. Bradford, of Augusta, was elected to the Assembly. The Senatorial District being large, the choice of a Senator has not fallen upon Eau Claire every year.

There is comparatively little of public interest in the doings of the county government. Every thing was to be done in the matter of ereeting public build- ings, and getting the county machinery in motion. At one time there was North Eau Claire, since absorbed into the city. The town of Lincoln was organized as Fall Creek, and Pleasant Valley started its individu- ality as Machias. Oak Grove appears as a township, but in connection with West Eau Claire it was trans- formed into Union.

The Judicial Circuit, in which Eau Claire is asso-

ciated is composed of Buffalo, Dunn, Pepin, Pierce, St. Croix and Eau Claire. Egbert G. Bundy, is the judge at present. The judge on the bench at the crea- tion of Eau Claire County was Judge Fuller.

The first school-house was on the Sparta road in the Olin and Bebee neighborhood, in the Fall of 1857.

The Court-House. - This building was erected in 1873. Judge Bartlett had general supervision of its erection. The structure is of stone and well adapted to its purpose. It includes ? jail in the basement, and a room for female prisoners in the second story. The question as to the location of the court-house excited a lively discussion, conflicting interests, which are usu- ally overestimated, entered largely into the contest. On Monday, Nov. 20, 1871. the first public meeting was held to decide the questions of the location of the county buildings, and that of organizing the village Eau Claire, which resulted in a satisfactory of location of the one and the organization of the other.

It was only in 1850 that men began to take up farms, and from that time there has been a steady in- crease of farm products.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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