HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 12

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

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

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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 12

Chapter 10 closed with the commencement of Judge Fuller's
first court in this the Eighth Judicial District, at
Chippewa Falls in January 1854. The County Board appointed
Samuel Allison, a competent young man from Louisville,
Kentucky, Clerk, and Blois Hurd, a millwright then residing
at the Falls, Sheriff. Much time was consumed in organizing
and adopting rules for the court and bar. Grand and petit
juries had been drawn which included nearly all the eligible
citizens in the county. Very few civil cases were on the
calendar, and those unimportant. But the criminal list
presented several indictments for grave offences, two for
assault with intent to kill, others for selling liquor
without license and for the selling the same to Indians.

H.S. Allen and Company, root house was taken possession of
by the sheriff for a jail.

To the aforesaid indictments, all the accused plead "not
guilty," and demanded time to procure counsel, which being
out of the question at this term, the court advised the
offenders to withdraw their plea of "not guilty," and plead
"guilty," which most of them did, when suitable fines were
imposed so some, and fatherly admonition given to all, and
the prisoners were discharged.

Some other ludicrous things transpired at this first term
over which it is better to draw "oblivious veil," than to
burden history with mistakes about which "the less said the
sooner mended."

Before the close of the term the clerk complained of
illness, which proved to be a malignant form of typhoid
fever, which in less than a week finished his moral career.
He was a young man of genial disposition, agreeable
deportment and highly esteemed by all who made his
acquaintance.

In several respects the summer of 1855, was very remarkable.
The spring opened very early, and the trees put on their
summer green several weeks before their usual time, but
during the month of June, three heavy frost occurred killing
the grass on the prairie perfectly dead, so that it dried
sere and crisp, the leaves on the bushes and young trees
were also killed, and the whole country took on the
appearance of autumn or early winter, and the fires raged on
the prairies and meadows as though the season had actually
come for such conflagrations. These frost extended over the
entire northern portion of the State. It would be reasonable
to suppose that these blighted frosts, and the forbidding
aspects of the country occasioned thereby would have a
depressing effect on emigration, but other powerful causes
were operating to overcome these natural, but seldom
occurring objections, and from early spring till winter,
immigrants continued to pour into this valley by the
hundreds and thousands, and speculation in real estate
began, for the first time since its settlement, to get
possession of the people.

Perhaps no people in the world have suffered so much in the
desire to grow suddenly rich, as the early settlers of
Wisconsin. Of the causes which led to the sudden mania to
get rich by entering government lands in 1855-6. I will
advert to a few. The sub-treasury doctrines of "old bullion"
and the insane prejudice banks engendered by the terrible
revolution of 1837, and the hardships imposed upon
enterprise and industry, by the almost total absence of
circulating medium, had reacted in the public mind and given
place to some sort of 'free banking system,' in every State.
The drain of capital and labor, which for several years had
constantly depleted the means and working energies of the
people to fit out adventurous spirits and enterprises for
California, had now fairly begun to return the loan with
interest, and to furnish what was supposed to be a reliable
specie basis for the aforesaid banks.

The Crimean War, which for thirty months cut off Western
Europe from its hitherto never-failing supply of grain from
the steeps of Russia, suddenly advanced the price of wheat,
and set all the grain dealers, and some of the bankers to
speculating in American flour, and cereals, and thus in the
space of a few months, forcing up the price of wheat to
quadruple its former value. This, of course, advanced the
value of the land it grew upon, and every farmer in the west
wanted more land, and instead of paying his debts, rushed
into speculation in wild lands.

There was one other cause, which powerfully stimulated the
mad spirit of speculation. Corrupt, gambling politicians had
a year or two previous under the plea of patriotism, and a
pretence of rewarding the soldiers, who had fought in the
nations battles, got a bill through Congress granting land
warrants of various denominations to all officers and
soldiers who had entered the army, during any of the
preceding wars of the republic - mostly of those who went to
Mexico. The land warrants passed immediately, and usually
for a merely nominal consideration into the hands of a
broker and land sharks, and went swell the absorption of the
public lands by a class whose object was not to settle upon
and improve them, but to hold them until the improvement of
adjoining lands, the opening of highways and other public
enterprises should quadruple their value.

Vast quantities of these warrants were sent to agents in
this valley to be located on the choicest spots; some with
instruction to secure pine lands, other wanted 'timber and
prairie well watered,' and large tracts of the best land in
the valley were thus absorbed, which greatly retarded actual
settlement, and increased the hardships of that other class,
whose object was to acquire a home and competence by honest
toil.

Another class of agents were also here during the summer in
question (1855), locating State and school lands, university
lands, and others still selecting 'Fox River Improvement
lands.'

Such agents, while faithfully discharging their duties to
the State usually have an eye out for some fat sinecure or
private speculation of their own.  The party in power at the
State Capital at this time contrived to find places for a
very large number of these delegates in different parts of
the country and among them W.H. Gleason and R.F. Wilson, who
with compass, tripod and chain as the insignia of their
especial position, carefully examined every local on the
Chippewa, with a view to lay off a village or found a city
as future developments might determine. The rapid influx of
settlers and successful operation of the lumber business,
certainly warranted the undertaking, and these gentlemen not
only evinced discrimination and sound judgment, in
selecting, the site, which included the lower point at the
confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire, but were very
fortunate in negotiating with the owners, J.J. Gauge and
James Reed, for a half interest in the town plot which by
agreement was immediately surveyed by the first named
parties, and which was recorded at Chippewa Falls, the
county seat, as the Village of Eau Claire - the first in the
valley, with the names of W.H. Gleason, R.F. Wilson, J.J.
Gage, and James Reed as proprietors.

Early in the summer of this year the mill owned and operated
by Stone, Swim, George Randall and Hope, on the site of the
Eau Claire Lumber Company's water mill, was sold to Carson,
Eaton and Downs of Eau Galle, who immediately repaired and
remodeled the mill, substituting reaction, spiral or center
vent water wheels, for the old fashioned flutter wheels, the
new inventions and improvements in saw mill machinery, and a
large amount was also invested in the purchase of the pine
lands on the tributaries of the Eau Claire.

The season being late, very little was one to improve the
new village, until the following spring, two or three
adventurous spirits were sanguine enough to invest in lots
and commence business. Adin Randall came from Madison here,
and commenced the Eau Claire House, E.E. Shaw and Henry
Huntington, opened a store on a small scale, and Mr. Chapin
M. Seely commenced the erection of his dwelling house which,
early in the following spring was finished - the first
plastered house in Eau Claire. At the extra session of this
year, 1856, the Legislature divided up Chippewa County,
creating the counties of Eau Claire and Dunn, with county
seats at Eau Claire and Dunnville respectively; attached
however, to Chippewa County, for judicial purposes for one
year.

One event occurred in the Falls, or rather at the Blue Mill,
early in the spring of 1855, worthy of mention. A man named
Frank Donaldson, a fire eater, from Missouri, went from
French Town on Sunday morning in company with Batisette
Demarie to the Blue Mill, where after drinking all day the
two quarreled, and the former shot the latter dead. Deceased
was a young brother of Mrs. Allen. The murder was arrested,
but there being no secure prison escaped, and had not been
heard from since.