HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 16 Chippewa County


*****

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

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

*****

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 16 Chippewa County

We took leave of H.S. Allen and Company in the fall of 1855,
at the land sale. Every interest and movement of settlement,
business, and social relation of the entire county were more
or less dependent upon, or identified with this company, and
affect by the heavy losses it sustained. In the summer of
1856, the surrounding country received large accessions of
farmers; the village of Chippewa Falls was laid off; a dam
was thrown across the Chippewa River at a point nearer the
mill; a large three story hotel was erected on the site of
the Tremont House (lately burned); the Presbyterian Church
was commenced as a mission church under the indefatigable
labors of Reverend W.W. McNair. Early in the spring of this
year, Thaddeus and Albert Pound were employed by H.S. Allen
and Company, as clerks in the same establishment, who in the
succeeding fall, in company with Frederic Bussy, started the
first store not connected with the mill, at the Falls. As
indicating the opportunities presented by a new, and
especially a lumbering country, and as evidence that merit
and ability will be discovered and appreciated, no matter
how obscure their possession, I will give an account of this
last named person. Frederick Bussy was born in Prussia,
emigrated to the United States just as this country became
involved in war with Mexico, and immediately enlisted in one
of our New York regiments, in which he served as a private
until the close of war and was severely wounded in one of
the terrible charges made by our troops at Molino Del Ray.
After his discharge from the hospital at New Orleans, to
which he had been removed until his recovery, he found his
way up to St. Louis, where in the fall of 1848, Mr. Willis
employed him, with sever other also returned soldiers from
Mexico, and sent them up to Chippewa Falls to do such work
as they were able. As the writer was running a logging camp
at Bob's Creek, and needed men, Bussy was sent up to him.
He could speak scarcely a word of English, and never had had
an axe in his hands, was utterly ignorant of the work I had
for any man to do, and after trying his hand at several
kinds without success, he said he could cook, and wanted to
try his hand at that. The cook I had required an assistant,
so Fred took the place, and soon made me understand that if
the wood was cut for him he could manage the business alone.
This enabled me to put the former cook at some other
business. Little did I think that this obscure and almost
helpless soldier (Bussy) possessed business qualifications
that would soon elevate him to positions of trust, and the
management and control of extensive operations. But having
mastered out language, he was found to be a good accountant,
which secured him a position with the aforesaid company, and
in 1856, commenced business with J.A. Taylor, as before
stated. He was married the same year to Miss Galloway, a
very estimable lady, and was elected county treasurer in
1858. The firm of Bussy and Taylor erected, or rather
completed the Gravel Island steam mill, which was managed
with considerable ability until its destruction by fire in
1862. Mr. Bussy died in 1866, at Winona Minnesota.

Of the other emigrants to Chippewa County this year, the
most prominent were Rodman Palmer, Elijah Pound (father of
Thaddeus and Albert), James Woodruff, and Mr. Waterman, Mr.
Fuller, Mr. Vanloon, I.P. Sheldon, A. Walker, Stephan Brown,
Bonneville and Loveland, all well-known citizens who came
with their families.

As this year marks a new era in the social condition of this
valley, it may be interesting before taking leave of the old
regime, to speak more at length of its peculiar aspects.
Without schools, churches, and literary culture, the
elements of social intercourse are very much restricted in a
neighborhood, especially where several races and
nationalities are represented; balls being the only
available resource from which all distinctions of race,
color, language, family or worldly position was utterly
banished. Every winter several of these were given at
different localities, some of which were grand affairs, and
having frequently attended with my family these gatherings,
I will try to describe a grand ball of that period. It
required about all the women in the valley to afford an
opportunity, by keeping them constantly on the floor, for
every young man to get a partner for a single cotillion set,
and accordingly, having sent out invitations to every
settlement and family, the party giving the ball would send
two men and team with conveyance to every lady whose
presence was considered doubtful, and to these it was no use
to make excuses, she was considered doubtful, and to these
it was no use to make excuse, she must go, and nothing short
of illness would induce them to leave the house without her.
One of the long dining halls at the mill company was cleared
of tables and most of its benches, and a motley group
assembled, many of whom are the dark haired daughters of the
forest, more, a shade lighter, are from Her Majesty's domain
of Canada, a few from the Red River of the North, (now
Manitoba), and the rest from all parts of this country, and
wile the company are assembling greetings are heard in half
a dozen different languages, while an invitation to drink
awaits every new comer of the men, and by the time tie music
strikes up several are too far gone to take part in the
enjoyments. A survey of the room discloses about three gents
to one lady, so there is no danger of anyone of the ladies
drooping as a 'wall flower.' It also discloses some half-
dozen hard-visaged men, mostly from the South, with
revolvers and bowie knife carried conspicuously about their
person, and who are ready to rope in and fleece some
unsuspecting newcomer, or to pick a quarrel with someone
against whom an old grudge exists. For several years, Dan
McCann, "Old Dan," as he is called, was the only hope of any
terpsichorean assembly in this valley, as it was to the
touch of his fiddle bow that every light, fantastic tow must
yield active or passive obedience. He knew nothing of music
as a science, but could play a number of marches, cotillions
and one waltz, very well by rote, and woe to the hapless
ball or party that failed to secure his indispensable
services. A marked feature of all such gatherings was the
perfect equality manifested between all parties, their
perfect freedom from envy and petty heart-burning on account
of dress, family or other distinctions; in fact they were
perfect free-and-easies, and being about the only social
recreation, were regarded with much favor by all parties,
and exerted a very healthful influence, the only drawback
being the presence of the blacklegs, who sometimes made
things lively by promiscuous shooting amongst the dancers
and into a crowd whenever a dispute arose at the gaming
table and the opposite party took refuge among them. Such is
the picture of the highest social enjoyment in the good old
time.

When John R. Jewett, the English blacksmith, found himself
safe and sound on board the good ship Boston, at Nootka
Sound, Vancouver's Island, where for three and a half years
he had been held a prisoner by Maquinuy, an Indian Chief,
who, with his savage follower, had, by treachery in an
unguarded moment, slain the captain and crew of a
Newburyport, northwest coast trading ship, saving only
Jewett and one other man, which they plundered and
destroyed, preserving all the iron about her forge, tools
and her blacksmith, whom they compelled to do their work and
to marry a chief's daughter, by who he had two children - he
bad bade goodbye to Maquinuy and all his chiefs, but not one
word of regret at parting with his children.

When a mere lad I read Jewett's narrative, and could never
refrain from denouncing him for the heartless, inhuman
conduct, so destitute of paternal regard that he makes no
reference to either his children or their mother.

In a preceding number I have stated that many of the earlier
settlers took to themselves wives of the native population. 
The influx of white women during this and the previous year,
1855-6, induced almost everyone to discard these women, with
a view to new, and socially more advantageous, attachments;
but in no instance were the children forsaken, or their
welfare neglected; ample provision, according to their
means, being provided for their sustenance and education,
and in most instances the mother also was cared for,
indicating a higher appreciation of paternal responsibility
than the English blacksmith entertained in 1800. The moral
aspect of such connections, formed and dissolved as they
were at the pleasure of one party, will present itself to
every one according to their respective ideas of marriage,
but no one will withhold their approval and highest
commendation of the very few men whose family ties were
strong enough to induce them to forego all social
considerations and cleave unswervingly to the mother of
their children.

Taking its rise in the timbered regions far to the north,
where the chilling winds of Lake Superior prevent the
melting of snow on the upper branches until the ice is
dissolved in the river at this point, the Chippewa has
seldom broken up with an ice freshet capable of inflicting
much damage to piers, booms, and other improvements placed
in its bed, but the spring of 1858 was an exception to
former precedents I this respect, the ice breaking up for
many miles above before it winter force and volume and
abated, and coming down in jams of such crushing power that
everything in its path was swept away; the new dam, several
piers, a large share of the booms, and vast amount of logs
were mingled with the ice in one common ruin.

To a successful business man whose integrity has for long
years never been suspected, or his ability to meet his
obligations questioned, when on surveying his affairs he,
for the first time, sees bankruptcy staring him in the face,
is about as wretched a piece of humanity as the worlds
affords. Innumerable expedients are conjured up to obtain
relief, some, perhaps, not very honorable; in constant dread
of some sudden disruption in his plans, his ideas become
confused as to what will be right and honorable; at one
moment he resolves to pay every claim as long as there is a
dollar to pay with, and at the next, his wife and children
engrossing his thoughts, he can not see them suffer; come
what will, his first and last duty is to provide for them.
But how shall it be done? Is there any war by which he can
save his honor, and something that shall shield his children
from want?

Such were the gloomy foreboding of Mr. Allen when in the
winter of 1856-7, he saw the tide of adversity bearing down
upon the house of which he was the head, and threatening to
bury every hope. Hitherto the company had met it obligations
with reasonable promptness, but now note after note must go
to protest, and soon judgments would nail every foot of
land, and not a dollar could be saved for the little ones.
The company was now composed of H.S. Allen, Jacob Wills,
Moses Rines, and E.A. Galloway. Rines held in is own rights
the title to a quarter section of land on which the city is
now built, and considered if any game was to be played, he
had a pretty good hand. He was a drunken, worthless fellow,
who never ought to have been in that position; he had kept
sober long enough to marry a beautiful and accomplished
woman, and might have been happy but for his abandoned
habits, but in self-defense she was soon compelled to leave
him and Mr. Allen also determined to rid the firm of such a
burden.

That "there is a tide in the affairs of men" is so old that
it need not be repeated here, but is very applicable, and no
doubt H.S. Allen thought that for him it was fast on the ebb
when bought Moses Rines' interest in the firm for ten
thousand dollars, and borrowed fifteen hundred to make the
first payment, but whether he could discern through the
darkening vista of coming events, the gleam of brighter
skies beyond, is know only to himself, but to this single
stroke of luck, tact, or good management, is due his present
easy, perhaps I may say opulent circumstances.

Of the many expedients to afford relief from the present
pressure, one was resolved upon. A common stock company was
organized, and one thousand shares of one hundred dollars
each represented the property. Various parties from aboard
were induced to take stock, which relieved the old firm in
some measure, and in the summer or fall of 1857 the new
company commenced operations under the name of Chippewa
Falls Lumber Company, H.S. Allen, President; one Jordon,
Vice-President; a lumber merchant of Dubuque, Treasurer;
John Judge, Secretary.

The old company went into liquidation, its liabilities being
assumed by the new - a vast accumulation of interest bearing
debt. John Judge was a thorough business man, but was
appalled by this immense burden; with a sound currency and
hopeful times, he would have raised the company credit and
gone one, but after one summer's fair trial, the officers
met by agreement at some place in the interior of Illinois,
divided the earnings amongst them, and the poor stockholders
were nowhere.