HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 5


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Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm
Severud Ondamitag@aol.com

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and
Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the
Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People,
Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State;
Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial,
Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief
Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the
Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875.  Free
Press Print.  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

CHAPTER 5

The settlement at the Falls will now claim our attention,
and as indicating the social condition, and the difficulties
under which the early settlers labored, I will quote from
the letter just received from Reverend Dr. Alfred Brunson of
Prairie du Chien, he says: "In 1842, I was appointed Indian
Agent at La Pointe , Lake Superior, and in going there went
up the Chippewa River in a keel boat to the mouth of the Red
Cedar River. In was the month of November, and so cold that
the ice cut a hole in the bow of our boat, and we were
compelled to land. The next morning the river was closed in
with ice, and the snow was a foot deep. Mr. Jean Brunett was
in charge of the boat, which was laden with provisions,
clothing, etc, for the company's mill at the Falls, to which
place Mr. Brunett sent messengers for a team to draw up the
freight. But the cattle being out on the Rush Bottoms (today
Lowe's Creek Bottoms), a week passed before the team
arrived, and we were two days reaching the Falls. My
position as Indian Agent made Mr. Warren, (the subagent and
blacksmith before named) one of my employees, and I went to
his house and stay several weeks waiting for the ice to
bridge the rivers, lakes and swamps so that we could make a
winter's passage through to La Pointe, which detained me
until nearly Christmas.

Finding an excellent library at Mr. Warren's I improved my
time in reading; and Mrs. Warren, though seven-eights Indian
and spoke only the Chippewa language, was an excellent cook
and neat housekeeper. Their house was of hewn logs, two
stories high, furnished with good beds, and I fared like a
prince. The Indians for 40 or 50 miles around hearing that
their "Father," the Agent, was there came in to see me, and
both they and the lumbermen who had a troublesome teeth came
in to have them extracted, the tools for which I carried
with me, as every traveler among them should. In the
meantime Mr. Warren fitted out the trains, on for the dogs
and the other a one horse rig. These vehicles are very
peculiar, being a thin rock-elm board 10 feet long, and from
12 to 15 inches wide, bent up at the forward end like a
runner, and strips of order fastened to the edge having
holes through them to facilitate binding on their loads. We
reached La Point in ten days, five men going ahead on
snowshoes, but I rode on the train.

The following summer Mr. Brunson made another trip, and
writes as follows: "On May 24, 1842, I left Prairie du Chien
with a company of miners, bound for the newly purchased
copper mines of Lake Superior. We had three wagons, nine
yoke of oxen, three horses and fourteen men. After the first
ten miles we had to look out our own road, bridge some of
the deep narrow streams and ford others. I had learned from
Cadotte, brother of Mrs. Warren, from the previous winter,
what the face of the country between the Black River and the
Chippewa Falls. At the former place we found the Mormons in
possession getting out timber for their Nauvoo Temple; to
them, and our company, I preached the first Gospel sermon
ever delivered in that valley. We ferried over the Black
River on their keelboat, except the cattle who swam. The
Trempeleau River was crossed high up the valley, and thence
over the ridges into the valley of the Eau Claire River,
which we crossed on a raft, the water being too deep to
ford, as we judged ten miles above its mouth."

"We sighted elk while ascending the ridge between the Eau
Claire and Chippewa, from whence we descried Mr. Warren's
barn, for which we steered our course, as struck the
Chippewa within twenty rods of the Falls, and ferried over
on the company's keelboat fastened together and cover with
planks."

"Obtaining a guide from Mr. Warren, and an addition of three
or four men to our force, we took the divide between the
Chippewa and Red Cedar, crossed the outlet of a lake we
called Cedar Lake, fifty yards wide and three feet deep,
with a fleet of canoes sailing around us, wondering at our
wagons and hungering for provisions."

"The fourth of July found us at Lake Chetac, with a dozen
Indians in our camp, and feeling a glow of patriotism, the
men with me must have an oration, and I being the only
talker by trade was selected as the orator of the day, and
delivered, I suppose, the first speech of the kind ever
pronounced in that valley. William Warren, my interpreter,
explained my discourse to the Indians present, who said they
understood the history of or revolution. Very little game
was seen along the route, and that little between the Black
and Chippewa rivers, that being a kind of neutrally
forbidden ground between the hostile bands."

Mr. Brunett and Mr. Warren were undoubtedly competent men to
manage the business of an Indian trading post, but the
projectors and capitalists, who furnished the means to build
the new mill, and construct booming works at the Falls, very
soon discovered that in order to a successful prosecution of
the business, some person more experienced, and possessing
greater executive ability, must be placed at the helm. Five
years had now passed, and no return for the capital invested
have been realized, or seemed likely to accrue, and the
company was anxious to find some responsible party to take
the property off their hands. The death of Mr. Warren during
the winter following the visit of Mr. Brunson, hastened the
necessity for prompt action, and accordingly, early in the
summer of 1844, the mill, with all their teams, tools, boats
and fixtures, was sold to Jacob W. Bass and Benjamin W.
Brunson, son and son-in-law of the Reverend Dr. aforesaid.
The principle factor in this young firm, was Mr. Bass, who
had been a peddler, kept a hotel, ran the ferry at North
McGregor, a successful merchant, was just married, and the
young couple were ambitious and determined to hew themselves
out a fortune, as any couple with whom I ever became
acquainted. Mrs. Bass came directly to the Falls with him -
the only white woman there - and though a mere girl in age
and appearance, possessed unlimited confidence in herself,
and a great deal of family pride, that sustained her under
privations and exile.

The new firm came into possession of a property, run down by
mismanagement and constant disaster, without piers or booms,
or any arrangement to secure a stock of logs, the mill and
race out of repair, it required great experience and more
capital than they could command, although a year and six
months of untiring exertion had overcome some of the
obstacles to success, when in 1846 another operator in this
losing drama, must be introduced. In order to do so, we must
go back to the Red Cedar once more.

In the management of the mills referred to in the previous
chapter, H.S. Allen had associated with him in the business,
in 1842, G.S. Branham, and the firm had accumulated
considerable capital, and during the winter of 1845-6, began
to look about with a view to invest it in some larger
establishment. Why they did not retain the property on
Wilson's Creek, and the site on which the Menomonie mills
and village now stand, businessmen will sometimes make, by
which the golden opportunity is lost forever, or, as in this
instance, surrendered to another. After a thorough
examination of all the numerous eligible locations in the
valley, this company, having associated themselves with my
brothers Simon and George Randall, under the firm name of
Allen, Branham and Randall, fixed upon the Lower Dalles of
the Chippewa, as the best and in fact only place, on the
whole river, where logs could be taken out of the current
and held secure and safely, and cheaply handled during high
and low water. The works at the Falls were even then the
great obstacles to the improvement of this grand natural
position. But they determined to go on, notwithstanding the
opposition they expect to encounter from the source.

To avoid all immediate difficulties, their plan of operation
was to erect a dam at the foot of the Dalles half the
distance across the river, thence a side, or wing dam, on
the smooth rock bottom, up along, near the river channel, to
the head or upper reef of rock on the Dalles, and by a low,
brush and stone (or gravel) dam, across to the east or south
bank, which would raise a sufficient head of water, but
would not interrupt the navigation for raft or boats.
Booming capacity was to be obtained at first in the eddy,
where Ingram and Kennedy's logs are stored for their eddy
mill, and inside the wing dam, and eventually, as the
business became more developed, and their means more
abundant, a boat and raft channel was to be excavated across
the point where the mill formerly owned by Nelson, Hunter
and Company, now stands - the channel so much talked of
since, when the entire river for two miles in the bend thus
relieved by the cut off could be used as a safe reservoir
for logs. This plan of improvements was fully matured by the
aforesaid company, was repeatedly submitted to other
businessmen, myself among them, and would be pronounce
today, by a competent engineer, a feasible - perhaps the
best method of improving those far famed Dalles that could
be adopted. Every arrangement was forthwith made to carry
this undertaking forward. Allen and Branham sold their mill
on Gilbert Creek to Samuel Gilbert, Senator and father of
General Isham Gilbert, and came immediately over and
commenced operations. A contract was made with the writer,
who was then operating the Blue Mill, for all the dam plank
and other lumber required and means advanced to enable him
to furnish it. Shanties, in which to board the men, and
warehouses for goods were immediately erected.

The peninsula formed by Half Moon Lake, being convenient and
studded with pine timber, of suitable size for the purpose,
was taken possession of, and the timber got out for the
large mill. So much had been accomplished when spring came
on, and the parties comprising the firm having separate
interests to attend to, relinquished operations for a brief
period, as was to be resumed when those private interests
were closed up.

Allen and Branham had a considerable amount of lumber on
Gilbert's Creek, to take down the river and convert into
money. During the previous summer (1845), Steven S. McCann
and Jeremiah C. Thomas - the latter since the death of
Arthur McCann, having sole possession of the Blue Mill, had
formed a partnership and built a claim shanty near the site
of the Eau Claire Lumber Company's water mill on the Eau
Claire River, the former, McCann, had also erected a cabin
near the confluence of this stream with the Chippewa River,
for a warehouse and another on the site of the American
House in the Second Ward of this city, into which he moved
his family. These were the first improvements made in Eau
Claire. This firm had no means to build a mill, but
succeeded in putting a couple of logging camps up the Eau
Claire for the winter, but running short for supplies had
recourse to Simon and George Randall, who were prevailed
upon to invest a considerable sum to help them through the
winter, and found it necessary to look after it pretty sharp
in order to secure it for use in the new firm of Allen,
Branham & Randall, the principles of whom as before stated
was down the Mississippi closing up business.

The historian can only speak of results; the causes, which
produce them, are frequently beyond his ken. The fate of
empires depends as much on the success of diplomacy, as on
the force of arms, and the benefits of many a hard won
battle have been lost to the victor by a short sighed policy
in arranging the terms of surrender, and private operation
are no exception to the rule. I suppose it is all right for
men to protect their own interests against the competitive
enterprise of others even if they make 'the worst appear the
better side." In the mind of H.L. Dousman, there was just
this question presented when he heard that H.S. Allen had
concluded to locate at the Lower Dalles: "Every dollar I
have put into that property at the Falls is a dead loss or
that man must be induced to abandon that enterprise; aye,
more! I must have the experience, the energy, and financial
ability of that man enlisted for me, not against me." What
agencies were employed, what arguments used, or what
inducements offered to affect this purpose has not come to
light. Perhaps Mr. Allen, naturally cautious, came to the
conclusion that the undertaking was too great for the means
at their command. Be that as it may, the first news that
came up the river was that the whole project was abandoned
that Allen and Branham had dissolved, that the former had
bought in with Mr. Bass at the Falls, and that the strong
team of Allen and Bass would be able to overcome all the
immense natural obstacles and disadvantages of that
situation.

Dr. Williamson in his treatise on human violation, says
there is no such thing as there might have been, but it
certainly looks to me as though the situation and condition
of a great many things on this river might have been very
different had Allen, Branham and Randall gone on with their
contemplated enterprise. One thing certainly might not have
been the ten year struggle to obtain a charter under which
those works could have been successfully constructed would
have been obviated, and in all probability most of the
lumber manufactured on the river would have been made here,
where a safe and ample reservoir for logs might long since
have been perfected, and millions saved to all lumbermen on
the river that for want of these works have year after year
proved a total loss, and brought many to the verge of
bankruptcy.