HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 17


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Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm
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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 17

In deference of the wishes pf several friends, I will refer
again to the forged certificates of the Bridge Creek
election returns.

At the first election for State officers under the present
constitution held on the second of May 1848, the Democratic
Party carried the State maintained it ascendancy, with a
working majority in both branches of the Legislature, until
the year, 1855.

In the incipient organization of any government, the
promotion of persons to positions of trust and official
power whether by the executive or the choice of the people,
is usually attended by the appointment of a large percent of
corrupt, faithless, and designing men to carry on the
government.

The Democratic Party seems to have been especially
unfortunate in this State, and many unscrupulous demagogues
found favor with both the executive and the people. In a
strong political party long in power, it seems to be natural
for such men to obtain places of trust and honor.

I state it as a matter of history and not as a partisan,
when I say, and the record shows, that the party in power at
this period in the State was fearfully corrupt, and its
leaders and parasites seemed determined no matter at what
cost, to hold on to the offices, whether the people willed
it or not.

The selection, management, and disposal of the school,
university, and other State lands, afforded the pretext for
the employment of a great number of agents, who, being
scattered all over the State, even to the remotest corners,
could always be relied upon to do any dirty work for the
party when occasion required it.

The democracy of this State had been compelled to go back on
its early record and follow Judge Douglass in his squatter
sovereignty doctrines; which alienated a great many of the
most intelligent free-soil Democrats, and added to the
glaring corruptions in every department of the government,
both national and State, so demoralized the party that its
leaders became very apprehensive of the results of the
election in November, 1855, and determined to resort to
fraud, if necessary to carry it.

There are some people who consider and election a mere
farce, the turn of a card and 'repeating' ballot box
stuffing and forging elections returns, just as legitimate a
way to get into or hold office, as to be fairly chosen by
the free suffrage of the people; and the Democratic
directory at Madison, on this occasion, seems to have
incorporated the worst features of these dangerous views
into its policy, and resorted to any and all these methods,
varying in different locations, according to circumstances,
to carry this election. Having reliable and willing
instruments in this place to do their bidding, it was deemed
a safe point to operate in, if necessity required.

A member of the State Board of School Lands came here from
Madison a few days before the election, to inspect the work
done during the summer by its agents, and the subjoined
memorandum was drawn up as the outline of proceedings. 'If
Barstow received a clear majority, nothing was to be done
but congratulate, etc. If Bashford received an over whelming
majority, nothing was to be done but to prepare to abdicate.
But if a few hundred votes were necessary to overcome
Brashford's majority, they were to be manufactured, and if
new and unheard of elections precincts were required, they
too were to be manufactured as the safest way of multiplying
votes.' Such was the program of proceeding and special means
of communication were called in that there might be ample
time to carry out the dark plot.

Now, everyone at all familiar with the subject, knows that
if there had been any such voting precincts in the county as
'Bridge Creek' and 'Spring Grove," that it was the duty of
the inspector of elections at those points to make their
returns to the county board of canvassers at Chippewa Falls,
but that the board knew of course that no such precincts
existed, and therefore no such returns would be entertained
for a moment; the bogus returns, therefore, from the bogus
precincts, were sent directly to the State canvassers at
Madison, and incredible as the statement may appear, the
board actually received and counted these votes so
informally and illegally returned and declared Barstow and
the whole ticket elected by a meager majority based on these
forged returns, and drank their champagne and cracked their
jokes over it as though they had done something smart.
Already in the chair, Barstow retained his place and made a
grand parade with a costly supper, to which all the magnates
of the party were invited, and thought perhaps the fraud
would be concealed, but on a writ of quo warranto sworn out
by the opposite party, an investigation was had before the
Justices of the Supreme Court, wherein it was shown, first,
that the returns were informal illegal; second, that no such
voting precincts existed in Chippewa County as Bridge Creek
and Spring Grove; and lastly, although two precincts
purported to be fifty miles apart, and the certificates bore
the same date, the two half-sheets of toolscap on which they
were written fitted together so nicely as to prove
conclusively that they had once been one and the same sheet.

No other alternative existed than for the Court to reverse
the decision of the State Board of Canvassers, and declare
Bashford the legal governor of this State, and the honest
people began to hope that now we would have an honest,
capable administration of the State government; but, alas
for human hopes, bribery and the most venal corruption
characterized the next two years, and it seemed as though
the whole body politic was tainted with fraud and given over
to work iniquity.

In March of this year, 1856, Congress passed the act
donating in trust to the State of Wisconsin, all the
alternate sections of land embraced with in certain
parallels along the lines of certain railroads therein
described; one of which, commencing at Portage City, was to
extend to Tomah, and thence to St. Croix County, and of
course must cross this valley at some point, and almost
everybody supposed that the road would be built immediately,
and speculators were everywhere on the alert to know where
that point was to be. Little did they dream that fifteen
years must elapse, and the grant be twice renewed, before we
should hear the notes of a locomotive whistle among us.  But
we learned to get along very well without it.

Some of the wildest and most visionary schemes ever thought
of, grew out of this land grant, some of them disastrously
affecting parties in this valley.

Byron Kilbourne, of Milwaukee, organized a company to take
the grant and construct the road and placed himself at the
head. Several million dollars were issued in stock, and a
bombastic advertisement or manifesto, setting forth among
other things, that the road would be built with trifling
assessment on the stocks, that so rich and vast were the
franchises of the road, that whoever was luck enough to
secure this stock, would obtain its dividends without any
assessments, and proceeded immediately on the assembling of
the legislature, to put the stock where it would do the most
good - that is, to bribe the members of the legislature, and
the Governor, to confer the land grant of that company. The
downfall of such an organization could easily be predicted,
and the sequel of its history was one of infamous swindling,
and contemptible petty cheats and frauds upon the
unsuspecting laborers employed to do the work, and farmers
and merchants who could be gulled.  Various line or routes
were examined for this road, some crossing the Chippewa
River far down, and others above the Falls. Reports of these
surveys would at any time be considered very uncertain data
on which to base a heavy investment at a given point, but
these or something still less reliable, gave rise to one of
the wildest and most visionary speculations ever conjured up
in the brain of the most reckless adventurer.  In an extract
from the Eau Claire number of the American Sketch Book, in a
previous chapter it was stated that the Bank of Eau Claire
went into operation this year, 1856, under the free banking
law, W.H. Gleason, President and C.H. Gleason, Cashier. Its
principle manager was C.M. Seley, a man of considerable
experience in financial affairs, cautious and conservative
in his operations, and at first inspired public confidence
in the bank as a safe institution for deposit or exchange.
The summer of 1856 was marked for reckless speculation, but
most operators learned by the following spring, 1857, to go
slow; not so, however, with the two young proprietors of
half the village of Eau Claire; flushed with their success
in the enterprise and rapid sales of lots during the
previous eighteen months, they felt strong for new
operations. It has always been supposed that some motive not
discovered on the surface inspired this transaction, but
R.F. Wilson utterly denies any other incentive that
legitimate speculation, but that any men who had ever
possessed business tact and foresight enough to accumulate
such a sum, should seize upon a random report made by some
subordinate engineer, that 'the Tomah, & St. Croix Railroad
would cross the Chippewa River at O'Neil Creek,' and put
twenty thousand dollars into that land at that point as a
lucrative investment, seems almost incredible. But such is a
positive fact, and a village plat was laid out and recorded
as Chippewa City a few lots sold, and a saloon or two
started, one-tenth the sum then paid would buy ever lot and
acre of their investment.

There were probably some other parties involved in this
unfortunate and short-sighted affairs, and coming just at
the time of that terrible crisis in the west, when all
values were tumbling, and all business operations paralyzed
or utterly prostrated, this hopeless speculation proved very
disastrous to all concerned. The bank soon became sickly,
and eventually was compelled to go into liquidation, mainly
on account, as Mr. Seley said, of the withdrawal of deposits
so absurdly invested at the foregoing point.

The prevailing opinion at the time of this whole transaction
was, that it was undertaken to spite Chippewa Falls, and
with the hope of building up a rival town. If such was a
motive by which it was inspired, little sympathy should be
felt for the losers.

One other matter of public importance came up this year,
1857, calculated to engender ill feeling between these two
struggling villages. A new land district was formed by act
of Congress, the bill for which was introduced by Mr.
Washburn in the House, with Chippewa Falls as its
headquarters, but just before it was put on its final
passage, a motion was made to amend it by inserting Eau
Claire instead. The claims of each were asserted with great
pertinacity by it respective friends, but it was finally
agreed that its location should be designated by the
President of the United States, who fixed upon Eau Claire.
The Commissioner of General Land Office took immediate steps
to carry the law into effect, and the President appointed
Dr. W.T. Galloway as Register, and N.B. Boyden as Receiver,
of public lands at this place. The former established his
office in the new village of North Eau Claire, just laid out
by himself and Augustus Huyssen.

The principle persons who settled in Eau Claire this year
were Reverend A. Kidder, of the Congregational Church and
family, Joseph G. Thorp and family, the young and genial
Peter Wyckoff, Jackson brothers, John, Wilson, Ingram, and
Kennedy, George A. Buffington, Dr. F.R. Skinner, W.P.
Bartlett, A. Meggett, and many other whose names will
hereafter appear