Fifty Years In The Northwest

Augustus Gaylord. – Mr. Gaylord was a merchant in St. Croix Falls prior to the Rebellion. In 1861 Gov. Harvey appointed him adjutant general of the State. In this office he acquitted himself well. He was an efficient public officer and in private life a high minded, honorable gentleman.

James D. Reymert. – Mr. Reymert was born in Norway in 1821, and came to America and settled in Racine in 1845. He was a practical printer, and editor of the first Norwegian paper west of the lakes, if not the first in America, and was a man of recognized literary ability. He was a member of the second Wisconsin constitutional convention, 1847, from Racine. In 1849 he was a member of the Wisconsin assembly. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1859, and served two years as agent of the St. Croix Falls Company. He was the organizer of a company in New York City, known as "The Great European-American Land Company," in which Count Taub, of Norway, took an active part. This noted company claimed to have purchased the Cushing property, a claim true only so far as the preliminary steps of a purchase were concerned. For a time there was considerable activity. The town of St. Croix Falls was resurveyed, new streets were opened, and magnificent improvements planned, but failing to consummate the purchase, the company failed, leaving a beggarly account of unpaid debts.

William J. Vincent. – Mr. Vincent is of Irish descent. He was born June 10, 1830, and came West when a youth. In 1846, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in Company H, Mounted Rifles, and served through the Mexican War. In 1848 he came to St. Croix Falls, where he followed lumbering and clerking. He was married to Myra Worth in 1855. In 1861 he enlisted in Company F, First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, of which company he was appointed second lieutenant. He resigned in 1862. He has held the office of county commissioner eleven years, that of county clerk seven years, that of state timber agent four years. In 1879 he served as representative in the Wisconsin assembly. In 1880 he commenced selling goods with his son-in-law, under the firm name of Vincent & Stevenson. He erected the first brick store building in St. Croix Falls in 1884.

Thompson Brothers. – Thomas Thompson was born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11, 1833, and was married to Eliza Clendenning in 1861. James Thompson was born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11, 1840, and was married to Mary A. Gray in 1871. The brothers came to the Falls in 1856 and engaged in lumbering about ten years, and then in merchandising, jointly, but in 1868 formed separate firms. Thomas built the first brick dwelling house in St. Croix in 1882. Mrs. Thomas Thompson died in 1886. James erected a large flour mill in 1879.

William Amery was born in London, England, in 1831. He learned the carpenter's trade in London and came to America in 1851, locating at first in Stillwater, but the ensuing year removing to St. Croix Falls. He pre-empted the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 31, township 34, range 18, and adjoining lands in 1853, and this has been his continuous home since. He has served as county treasurer four years and held many town offices. He was married to Sarah Hackett in 1855. The town of Amery is named in honor of this respected man. Mr. Amery died Sept. 4, 1887, leaving a widow, two sons and three daughters.

Lewis Barlow. – Among the first immigrants to St. Croix Falls was Lewis Barlow, an eccentric, sensitive man. He was a millwright, and, being of an unhappy disposition, led a troubled life. He was the first man married at the Falls. In 1847 he moved to the Minnesota side, where he owned considerable land. He lived here until 1852 when his family left him. He sold his interests and followed and reunited them at Rock Island, Illinois. Here he suffered much and became blind. He traveled with a panorama and so earned a scanty livelihood. In later life he revisited his old home at the Falls, but broken and dejected in spirit. He died at Rock Island in 1872.

Levi W. Stratton. – Mr. Stratton was one of the passengers of the Palmyra in 1838. He worked for the St. Croix Company two years. After leaving the Falls, he changed his residence several times, and finally settled at Excelsior, Hennepin county, Minnesota, where he died in 1884. Mr. Stratton wrote for the Minneapolis papers many interesting reminiscences of pioneer life on the St. Croix.

Elma M. Blanding. – Mr. Blanding was born in Harford, Susquehanna county, New York, Feb. 14, 1800. He was married to Eliza Tuttle in 1826. He settled on a farm near St. Croix Falls in 1856, where he died, Sept. 16, 1871. Father Blanding, as he was affectionately called in the later years of his life, was a man of exemplary habits, of strong religious convictions, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He left a widow, five sons and three daughters. Mrs. Eliza Blanding died Jan. 18, 1887. Wm. M. Blanding, the oldest son, owns a fine farm near the Falls, formerly known as "Jerusalem." He is a surveyor, lumberman and farmer, and a prominent citizen. He was married to Eliza Tuttle. A family of thirteen children has grown up around him. In 1887 he was appointed receiver in the St. Croix land office. John, the second son, is also a farmer in St. Croix Falls. He was married to Sarah, daughter of Edward and Mary C. Worth. Eugene E. is engaged in the drug business at Taylors Falls, and is also surveyor and express agent. He married Joanna Ring, of Taylors Falls, in 1871. Fred, the fourth son, was married in 1885 to Emma Sly. He was appointed United States land receiver at St. Croix Falls in 1887. He died in California, Jan. 30, 1888. Frank, the youngest son, was married to Annie McCourt, and lives on the homestead. Josephine, the oldest daughter, is the wife of Wm. Longfellow, and resides in Machias, Maine. Flavilla, the widow of Charles B. Whiting, lives at St. Paul, Minnesota. Her husband died in 1868. Mrs. Whiting was executrix of the will of Dr. E. D. Whiting, and successfully controlled a property valued at about $80,000. Mary, wife of Wm. McCourt, died in 1880.

Frederick K. Bartlett was a native of New England. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, as attorney and land agent for Caleb Cushing. He was candidate for judge of the district court in 1850, but was defeated. He subsequently settled in Stillwater, and later in Hudson, where he died in 1857, leaving a wife and one son, who became a civil engineer and died in St. Paul in 1885, and one daughter, Helen, who achieved some reputation as a writer for periodicals.

Michael Field was born June 8, 1806. He came from a New England family, his father and mother having resided in Connecticut. In early life he removed to New York and resided awhile at Rochester. He engaged principally in transportation business. The earliest work he ever did was on the Erie canal. He was married in 1833 to Miss Reynolds, who died in 1874. His children are Capt. Silas Wright Field (mortally wounded at Shiloh), Norton, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin, Mrs. Fanny Nason, wife of Hon. Joel F. Nason, Phebe and Mary, unmarried and resident in Brooklyn. Mr. Field was married to his second wife, Mrs. Harriet Lee Bracken, in 1882. He was appointed register of the land office at St. Croix Falls by President Lincoln in 1861, and served twenty-six years. Though over eighty years of age he retains his faculties and general health, and his mind is a store house of the early history of the country.

ALDEN

The town of Alden embraces township 32, range 17, and twenty-four sections of range 18. It has both prairie and timber land, and is abundantly supplied with water. Apple river traverses it from northeast to southwest. There are many tributary small streams, and a large number of small lakes, of which Cedar lake is the largest. This lies only partially in Alden. The surface is gently undulating.

The town of Alden was organized in 1857. The first board of supervisors were Stephen Williams, William Folsom and H. Sawyer. The first post office was established at Wagon Landing in 1862, V. M. Babcock, postmaster. The first settlers were Wm. Folsom, V. M. Babcock, V. B. Kittel, I. L. Bridgman, Charles Vassau, Jr., and Humphrey Sawyer, in 1856. Mr. Bridgman raised the first crops in 1857. The first marriage was C. Vassau to Alma Kittel, in 1858, by Rev. A. Burton Peabody. The first white child born in Alden was P. B. Peabody, July 28, 1856. The first death was that of a child, Nicholas W. Gordon, June 10, 1857. Alden has two post towns, Little Falls and Alden.

Rev. A. Burton Peabody was born May 22, 1823, in Andover, Windsor county, Vermont. He was the youngest of four minor children, and was left fatherless at eight years of age, and motherless at fifteen. He obtained a good English education in the common schools, and at Chester and Black River academies. The winter terms he spent in teaching. In 1844 he came to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he spent two years, partly on a farm and partly in a law office, as a student and clerk. In 1847 he went to Iowa county, and taught school through the winter at Mineral Point. The next year he went to Clarence, Green county, Wisconsin, where he spent four years in teaching. In 1852 he entered the Nashotah Theological Seminary, where he completed the course, and was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church, June 3, 1855, by the Rev. Bishop Kemper, and took temporary charge of Grace church, Sheboygan. He was married to Charity Esther Kittel, Sept. 22, 1855, at Clarence, by the Rev. Wm. Ruger. In November of the same year he removed to Mississippi, spending the winter at Jackson. In February he went to Middleton, Mississippi, to take charge of a mission work, including several appointments. He came, the June following, to Polk county, Wisconsin, and spent the summer at Wagon Landing, on Apple river, where his wife's friends had made a settlement, but in the winter returned to his mission work in the South, and there remained until 1857. Owing to the troubled political condition of the South, he did not deem it advisable to remove his family thither, and so returned to Wagon Landing and obtained mission work, visiting at intervals Foster's Mills, now New Richmond, Huntington, Cedar Valley, and St. Croix Falls. The intervening country was, much of it, an unbroken wilderness, and he was obliged to make his journeys not infrequently on foot, to cross the swollen streams and dare all the perils of the winter storm. In 1859 Mr. Peabody accepted a call to the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Plymouth, Sheboygan county, but in 1862 returned to the valley of the St. Croix, and settled on a farm, undertaking meanwhile ministerial work at Prescott and other points, in a line extending as far north as St. Croix Falls. Three years later Prescott and River Falls were made independent, another man taking charge. In 1879 Mr. Peabody undertook additional work on the North Wisconsin railroad, including a large number of places, to be visited monthly. In 1882 his railroad work was limited to Clayton, Cumberland and Hayward. He still has charge, as rector, of Star Prairie and Wagon Landing. Few men have led more laborious lives or been more useful in their calling. He has witnessed the erection of eight churches on the field in which he labored, though concerned directly in the building of only four. Mr. Peabody's family consists of seven sons and seven daughters. One of the latter died in infancy.

V. M. Babcock settled at Wagon Landing, town of Alden, in 1856. He was born in Rensselaer county, New York; married his first wife in New York and his second wife at Somerset, St. Croix county, Wisconsin. They have four children. He has held town offices ever since the organization of the town. He has been sheriff, and was county superintendent of schools for seven years.

APPLE RIVER

The town of Apple River includes township 34, range 16, and derives its name from its principal river. The town is well watered by Apple river and its tributaries, and it also has numerous lakes, the most considerable of which is White Ash lake. The surface of the town is gently undulating, and was originally covered with pine, interspersed with hardwood groves. There is good wheat soil, and natural meadows are found in some parts. The town was organized Jan. 22, 1876, having been set off from Balsam Lake. There are two post offices, Apple River on the west, and Shiloh on the east town line.

BALSAM LAKE

The town of Balsam Lake embraces township 34, range 17, and takes its name from a lake within its bounds. It has an undulating surface, covered with heavy oak, pine, and maple timber principally. Balsam creek, the outlet of Balsam lake, flows through it in a southerly direction, affording fine water powers. About one-sixth of the surface is covered with lakes. The largest of these, Balsam lake, in the Indian language An-in-on-duc-a-gon, or evergreen place, gives name to the town. Deer, Long, Wild Goose, and Mud lakes are fine bodies of water with bold, timbered shores, and abundance of fish. The town is near the geographical centre of the county. The first white man, prior to the organization of the town, to locate within its present bounds was a disreputable trader named Miller, who in 1848 built a shanty on Balsam lake, from which he dispensed whisky to the Indians. This man was not long afterward driven out of the country. (See history of St. Croix Falls.) The town was organized in 1869. The first board of supervisors consisted of Geo. P. Anderson, Wright Haskins, and Joseph Loveless. The clerk was H. J. Fall; the treasurer, F. R. Loveless. The first school was taught by Jane Husband. Aaron M. Chase built a shingle mill at the outlet of Balsam lake in 1850, and he seems to have been the first actual settler or the first man to make improvements. As he had neither oxen nor horses, the timbers for the mill were hauled by man power with the aid of yokes and ropes. Other persons came to the mill and lived there awhile, but the first permanent settlers came in in 1856. They were J. Shepherd, Joseph Loveless, Joseph Ravett, and John M. Rogers. Mr. Rogers raised the first crops in the town; Joseph Ravett was the first postmaster. The first marriage was that of J. K. Adams to Miss L. A. Millerman, by W. H. Skinner. The first white child born was a daughter to R. S. Haskins. The first death, that of a child, occurred in 1870. A first class flouring mill has been erected at the outlet of Balsam lake. It is owned by Herman Corning; a saw mill is also in operation at this point. A Methodist church, 30 × 40 feet ground plan, was erected at Balsam Lake by the Methodist society in 1886.

BEAVER

The town of Beaver includes township 34, range 15. It was set off from Apple River and organized Nov. 15, 1885. The name was suggested as being appropriate from the work of the beaver in past ages. Beaver dams are numerous on all the creeks. These ancient works will mostly disappear with the progress of agriculture. The town is drained by streams flowing into Apple river. Horseshoe lake, in the northeast corner, is three miles in length.

BLACK BROOK

The town of Black Brook includes township 32, range 16. Apple river, with its tributaries, supplies it with abundant water privileges. Black Brook, the principal tributary, gives the town its name, and drains the southern portion. There are many small lakes. The surface is undulating and most of the soil good. The post office of Black Brook is in section 32. The North Wisconsin railroad passes through sections 25, 35 and 36. This town was originally a part of Alden, but was organized and set off as a new town Aug. 5, 1867. J. C. Nelson and G. H. Goodrich were the first supervisors. The first settlers (1863) were John Gorsuch, John Reed and Jacob Polwer; the first postmaster was – Gates; the first school teacher, Tina Starkweather; the first marriage that of S. D. Starkweather and Mary Danforth; the first death that of Mrs. Ben Gilman.

CLAM FALLS

Clam Falls comprises township 37, range 16, and derives its name from the falls on Clam river. The surface is rolling and timbered with hardwood and pine. It is well watered by South Clam creek and its tributaries. Somers' lake, in section 27, is the only lake. An upheaval of trap rock on Clam creek has caused the waterfall from which the town has taken its name. It is a fine water power. A dam for collecting tolls on saw logs has been placed just above the Falls. Good specimens of copper ore are found in the trap. The town was set off from Luck and organized Nov. 15, 1876. The first town meeting was held April, 1877. The first supervisors were Daniel F. Smith, John Almquist and John Bjornson. D. F. Smith was the first settler, built the first saw mill, and raised the first crops.

Daniel F. Smith, a peculiar and eccentric man, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, in 1813; emigrated to Michigan in 1834, where he married Eliza Green the following year, and moved to Racine county, Wisconsin. In 1842 he engaged in lumbering on the Wisconsin river, his home being at Stevens Point. He was of the firms of Smith & Bloomer and Smith & Fellows. Mr. Bloomer was accidentally killed, on which account the business of these firms was closed, Mr. Smith removing to Galena to facilitate the settlement of their affairs. In 1852 he removed to St. Louis; in 1853 to Memphis, Tennessee, where he engaged in the wholesale grocery business, losing heavily, in fact all the accumulations of his life. In the spring of 1855 he leased the St. Croix Falls saw mill, and operated it for two years, when trouble arose and litigation ensued, in which Smith obtained a judgment against Cushing for $1,000. In 1860 he removed to Clinton, Iowa, and thence in the same year to California. He traveled much, visiting mines. He spent some time in mining, and also manufactured shingles. In 1862 he returned to St. Croix Falls and engaged in lumbering for three years. In 1868 he built a saw mill at Butternut Lake, Wisconsin. He did much to open that country to settlement. He was the founder of a town which he called "Luck." In 1872 he was the first settler at Clam Falls, where he built a saw mill with but one man to assist, and around that mill has sprung up a flourishing settlement. Dan Smith, with undaunted perseverance, has battled his way through life, and has come out victorious over difficulties and opposition that would have discouraged and turned back other men. Mr. Smith is a plain, direct, outspoken man; a man of energy and ability. He has ably and satisfactorily filled many places of trust. For many years he has been a commissioner of Polk county.

CLAYTON

Clayton includes township 33, range 15. The town was set off from Black Brook. The surface of a great part of the town is level and was originally marshy, but these marshes have been gradually drained, and fine farms and hay meadows have taken their place. The town was organized Nov. 10, 1875. The first supervisors were Morris De'Golier, Worthy Prentice and H. D. West. The first homestead entries were made in 1865 by Peter Bouchea and John McKay, a Frenchman, both Indian traders, who established a post at Marsh lake, but in six months abandoned it and never returned. The next settlers were Vandyke, Morehouse and Tanner, near the west line of the town, about 1870. The first improvements were made by Elam Greely in 1862, who dug a canal into Marsh lake to get water to float logs out of Beaver brook, thereby draining great tracts of swamp land. The laying of the North Wisconsin railroad track gave a fresh impetus to business, and conduced greatly to the building of the village of Clayton in section 24. The first sermon in the town of Clayton was preached by Rev. W. W. Ames, a Baptist; the first school was taught by S. M. De'Golier; the first store was opened by A. M. Wilcox, 1874. D. A. Humbird was the first postmaster. The North Wisconsin railway passes through the southeast part and the Minneapolis, Soo & Atlantic passes from the west side to the northeast corner of the town, and has a station, Gregory, in the west part.

Reuben F. Little was born June 13, 1839, in Topsham, Devonshire county, England. At ten years of age he began to care for himself, working for sixpence per week, carrying pottery in a moulding house. Before leaving England his wages had increased to three shillings per week. In the spring of 1853 he had saved three pounds sterling, and his grandfather gave him two pounds sterling. This five pounds paid his passage to Quebec and Montreal, where he got four dollars per month. Soon after he apprenticed himself for five years to learn the baker's and confectioner's trade at London, Upper Canada. Subsequently he took a homestead from the British government at Trading Lake, Upper Canada.

In the spring of 1861, at Detroit, Michigan, he enlisted in the United States infantry, regular army, and was promoted successively to first sergeant, to sergeant major, to second lieutenant, to first lieutenant. He resigned in September, 1865. During the war he served continuously in Gen. George H. Thomas' division, and took part in all the engagements under him, from Miles Springs, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee. On the twenty-second of September, 1863, Mr. Little had the honor of being the last man to leave the Rossville Gap in front of Chattanooga after the disastrous fight of Chickamauga. He was wounded in the battle of Hoover's Gap and Smyrna, and at the siege of Corinth.

Mr. Little was married in 1865, and divorced in 1869, and re-married in St. Paul in 1878. He lost his Canada homestead, and took another homestead in Lincoln, Polk county, Wisconsin, in 1866. Afterward he went to St. Paul and became one of the firm of Little & Berrisford in the wholesale confectionery business. In 1879 he returned to Clayton, formerly part of Lincoln, and reclaimed a swamp of over six hundred acres, making it a productive meadow and tillage farm. Mr. Little has served several years as Clayton's town supervisor.

CLEAR LAKE

Clear Lake embraces township 32, range 15. It derives its name from a beautiful clear lake on the western boundary near Clear Lake village. The west part of the town is timbered principally with hardwood, and is good farming land. The eastern part is more diversified, and there are some large groves of pine. Willow river runs through the town. The North Wisconsin railroad traverses the town diagonally from northeast to southwest: The town was organized June 20, 1877; S. D. Mann, J. C. Gates, and W. R. Ingalls, supervisors. The first settlers were John Hale, L. P. Nash, S. D. Starkweather, and Perry Clark. Lawrence O'Connor was first postmaster; Mr. Starkweather carried the mail on foot. Israel Graves, in 1875, built the first saw mill in Clear Lake village and the first house. There is now at the village a stave mill owned by Symme & Co. Jewett Bros. own a saw mill on Willow river, three miles from the village, which has a capacity of 8,000,000 feet. The lumber is delivered to the railway at the village by a wooden tramway. The lots for the village were purchased from the government by A. Boody and A. Coventry, in 1856. The plat was made by Symme, Glover & Co. The survey was made by G. W. Cooley. Thomas T. McGee was the first settler (1875), and Stephen H. Whitcomb the second. The first school house was built in 1875, and the first school was taught by Clara Davis in the same year. The village has now a good graded school with three departments, Charles Irle, principal. Its two church buildings, Congregational and Methodist, were destroyed by the cyclone of 1884, but are being rebuilt. The Swedish Lutherans have a church a mile from the village. Chas. Decker was the first postmaster; A. Symme & Co. were the first merchants; P. Gates, M.D., the first practicing physician; F. M. Nye the first lawyer. The first marriage was that of John C. Gates and Ella Scovill. The first birth was Chas. W. Whitcomb, and the first death that of a child of Hans Johnson.

PINEVILLE

The town of Pineville, a railroad station and village in section 9, is a lumbering centre. The Pineville Lumbering Company have here a saw mill with a capacity of 7,000,000 feet. The logs are brought on wooden railways three to ten miles. P. B. Lacy & Co., of Hudson, are the proprietors.

Frank M. Nye was born in Shirley, Piscataquis county, Maine, in 1852. His parents removed to Wisconsin in 1854. He was educated at the common schools and at River Falls Academy. He came to Clear Lake in 1879, and was elected district attorney for Polk county in 1880, and representative in the Wisconsin assembly in 1885. He removed to Minneapolis in 1887.