HISTORIES:  "Roads & Life in Early Days" of Barron, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Linda Mott <bikelady@worldnet.att.net>  24 June 2000	
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                          Roads and Life in Early Days

By our standards we would not call the rutted trails over which the wagons 
of the early days moved so slowly, roads at all. Knapp Stout and Company 
had to bring in supplies and equipment for its workers and they made their 
tote roads only good enough so their supply wagons could be moved. The 
branch roads were little more than trails. Maybe in the worst, low places, 
a small log would be thrown down to prevent the load from sinking deeper 
into the mire. Occasionally a large stump might be removed but more likely 
the trail went around the larger stumps to avoid time and effort of 
removing them.

The tote roads, of course, lead only to a few of the settled communities 
and to the chief logging camps. In early days supplies had to be brought 
from Menomonie, Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire by wagons drawn by horses, 
mules and oxen. A trip from Menomonie to Rice Lake Mills, required three 
days.

In the earliest days men gathered at Menomonie in the late fall where was 
located the headquarters of Knapp Stout and Company. They came from near 
and far; some from Europe, some from Canada, some from the older states and 
some from Wisconsin. When they hired out to the lumber company and were in 
one of its scores of camps they were completely at the mercy of that 
company because the food and other supplies for miles and miles were 
entirely owned by the company. In the dead of the winter a man might face 
starvation if he defied his employers as it was a difficult feat of 
endurance to walk 30 or 40 miles without food to reach a settlement where 
food and shelter might be obtained. The company superintendents and foremen 
gave orders and exacted obedience. To run a logging camp in those days 
probably required a system such as this.

There was no squabbling over the length of the work day. Mother nature 
settled that; from dawn till dusk. Teamsters put in a longer day; their 
animals required attention before dawn and after darkness. The food in the 
lumber camps probably was not of great variety but it was substantial and 
plentiful. A lumber camp was no place for a weakling. Only sturdy men of 
great stamina could endure the physical toil in these early lumber camps.

In time men began to acquire land within the county. They would build a 
cabin in the forest and clear some land around it. They would then bring 
in their families. In the summers the men would clear more and more land 
around their cabins and raise whatever produce they could to provide for 
their families. In the winter the men left their families and went to work 
in the logging camps. This gave them additional income to meet living 
expenses. In time there were many small farms in the county.

Some families in the beginning did not own any animals and had only a few 
tools; maybe an axe, a shovel and a hoe. Many men had to carry in supplies 
for many miles from the nearest tote roads or from company stores located 
in lumber camps. In time maybe a cow and a couple of mules or oxen were 
acquired and life began to be somewhat better. The lumber company had 
hundreds of animals and sometimes sold some of them to those who had the 
means to buy them. Today with tens of thousands of dairy cattle within this 
county it is almost impossible for us to realize that in those early days 
cattle could hardly be found anywhere in the county.

From the Souvenir Historical Album of the Barron Centennial-1960
(used by permission)