HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 33 - Pepin County


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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 33 - Pepin County

The readers has most likely observed that this curiously
shaped piece or parcel of the territory of this State,
embracing the delta of the Chippewa River and a strip of
land along its southeastern bank for thirty miles and along
the northern shore of Lake Pepin, about the same distance
has received little attention.

From 1856 to 1857, it was included in Dunn County, from
which it was taken, and organized, by act of the
legislature, approved February 25, 1858. Being destitute of
pine timber, which was the object of the early settlers in
this valley, no attention was paid to these lands for many
years after the mills were erected in the lumber region on
the several branches of the river, and at the Nalls.

The first house erected in the county, was built by John
McKane in 1850 on the lakeshore a mile a half above the
present village of North Pepin. He was a Mississippi raft
pilot, not very circumspect in his morals, a great spend
thrift and gambler, but having picked up a woman somewhere
along the river to share his fortunes, an industrious and
frugal housekeeper and manager, the two opened quite a farm
and secured a considerable competence.

W.B. Newcomb another river pilot, was the next settler, who
in company with John O'Connor and Benjamin Allen Esq., laid
off the town or village of North Pepin in 1854. It was
supposed by many at that time that a flourishing city would
grew up at some point mouth of so large a river as the
Chippewa and proprietors of this village plot counted much
upon it as the embryo city. Great efforts were also put
forth to secure the trade and open around to settlement and
civilization. In connection with H.S. Allen and Company, a
wagon road was opened to the Falls of the Chippewa and a
stage line and mail route, were soon established. Hotels and
business houses were soon opened; a State Bank went into
operation under the free banking law and the place only
lacked a well settled and flourishing country, back of it to
make it prosperous.

In 1857 U.B. Shaver started a newspaper there called the
Pepin County Independent, and the year following, North
Pepin became the county seat for Pepin County. Up to this
time, little had been done in the way of filling up the
country around with farmers, although much of the country
was most excellent land for agricultural purposes. Shaver
continued the Independent for two years but removed to
Wabasha soon after and the County was without an organ for
some time.

In 1863 Myran Shaw published the Mirror, which was succeeded
by the Lean Wolf and that by the Durand Times.

Two brothers by the name of Hix, William and Samuel B., had
settled near the trial head leading up the Chippewa before
the village of North Pepin was laid out, which comprised
most of the country tributary to its business, but the
energy and public spirit displayed by the proprietors in
laying out and working the roads in different directions,
soon had the effect to settle the country, and their
prospect seemed hopeful. The landing for steamboats however
was difficult in low water; the lake being shallow for a
considerable distance from the bank, which was a serious
drawback.

But other and still more potent causes were operating to
defeat the hopes of this Lake Shore village. The country on
the south side of the Chippewa was filling up with
industrious and enterprising men, and it was soon
ascertained that a shorter route could be opened the Falls,
Eau Claire and the Mississippi on that side. Steamboats,
too, of lighter draft were used to navigate the Chippewa,
which in a great measure relieved the Falls and Pepin stage
of any business.

A series of low water seasons had induced Perry Curtis and
his associates to believe that the bottom lands of the
Chippewa and did not overflow, and in 1855 they laid out a
town or village plat near the mouth of Bear Creek, three or
four miles above the present village of Durand now stands,
and laid out a part of the plat.

"Give me also springs of water' was the request of a Hebrew
bride as she received her marriage portion, which embraced a
south land domain; but Mr. Prindle says his town site was
made up of just such marriage portions as Acsah coveted. It
was upper and nether springs everywhere, but it had another
advantage; no Chippewa Flood would ever overflow it. Great
obstacles were to be overcome in order to make his
undertaking successful. A ferry across the Chippewa must be
established; a steam saw mill to supply the wants of the
surrounding country was essential, while roads extending in
all directions were an indispensable necessity, which the
young village proprietor must open to secure the country
trade.

All of this and much more, was undertaken and accomplished
by the enterprising proprietor and his associates W.F.
Prindle, George Ellsworth, and W.E. Hays, during the
terrible years of failure and disappointment which followed
the bursting of the California Gold bubble of 1857. As the
agricultural resources of the country became developed,
Durand was found to be the nearest market to a large wheat
growing country and quite a flourishing business was done in
shipping the cereal to eastern markets. A boat yard was
started by one of its enterprising citizens, and several
boats and barges were adapted to the Chippewa trade were
built there. It was not a place holding out great
inducements for the investment of capital, but by industry
and economy the people of Durand have achieved reasonable
success and surrounded themselves with a fair amount of the
comforts and elegancies of life. In 1860 Durand laid claim
to the county seat by virtue of a majority of voters in the
county and obtained leave to test the question at the polls,
which however was lost that year, but the next year the
result was favorable to Durand, which was declared the legal
county seat by judicial decision rendered at La Crosse in
1865, at the termination of a law suit in which the case
became involved.

An elegant courthouse has since been erected, and the
bitterness occasioned by the removal is fast disappearing.

A commodious graded schoolhouse and elegant M.E. Church
building are among the evidences of religious and
intellectual culture.

Several other Christian denominations have organized in the
village, among which is a live and growing society of
Congregationalists, under the pastoral care of the Reverend
Mr. Kidder, heretofore mentioned in this work whose labors
in this Valley for the past twenty years have been
identified with the highest religious and educations
interests. Having been mainly instrumental in establishing
churches in Eau Claire, Augusta, Van Ville, in Chippewa
County, Mondovi in Buffalo, he is now settled in Durand, as
zealous in the Master's cause as at any period of his long
ministry.

The manufacturing industries of the county are mostly
located on Bear and Plum Creeks, on the former of which are
a flouring mill, carding woolen mill owned by Captain V.W.
Dorwin. These are near Durand, an on the former are
flourishing mills for hardwood, flouring mills and various
woodenware manufactories.

Its citizens being largely engaged in agriculture, Pepin
County had had few criminal cases on its calendar.

Most villainous outrage was perpetrated by a party of Sioux
on the wife of one Bobert a German who guild a cabin just
below the present village of Durand several years before the
country became settled. Having bound her husband, then of
the monsters violated her person before his eyes. Being a
foreigner he knew not where to seek redress.

One other a most appalling case of murder occurred in the
year 1866. Ira B. Wheeler living at a place on the north
bank of the Chippewa River, known as Five Mile Bluff, was
murdered on the 24th of March, under circumstances that
implicated his wife Margaret E. Wheeler and James E. Carter
in the atrocious deed. They were immediately arrested but as
the body had been concealed under the ice in the river and
no positive proof of his death, or manner of it being
adduced, they were discharged; the parties continued to
reside as before, at the house of the missing man.

On the 12th of May following, the body having been
discovered with marks of violence about the head, they were
rearrested and committed for trial at the ensuing term. For
greater safety they were taken to Eau Claire County, where
she employed the legal talent of the Honorable Alex Meggett
to defend her. Owning to some informality no grand jury was
empanelled in Pepin County at the next term, and the parties
lay in jail until the following March, when they were
arraigned, but on the affidavit of the District Attorney,
the case was removed to Dunn County, thence to La Crosse of
the affidavit of the defense. Their final trail and
conviction was before Judge Flint at the May term in 1867.
Under the management of the able counsel, it was hoped that
a confession of guilt on the part of Carter would clear Mrs.
Wheeler, but on the trial their mutual accusations clearly
showed both were present at the killing and participated in
the murder, and that both assisted in putting the body under
the ice and in concealing the evidence of their guilt.

The efforts of the able counsel were then directed to
extenuating circumstances in favor of Mrs. Wheeler, with a
view to lessen the time of her imprisonment. The verdict of
the jury, however, was murder in the first degree, and the
sentence, "imprisonment in the penitentiary for life."
Alleging that the removal of the case from Pepin to Dunn
County on the application of the prosecution was
unconstitutional and illegal. She was remanded for a new
trial on appeal to the Supreme Court, but failing to order
her committed for safekeeping, Mr. Meggett obtained a writ
of habeas corpus from court commissioner Honorable H. Clay
Williams, under which Mrs. Wheeler was discharged, but
immediately rearrested by the officers of Pepin County, from
whom she escaped; assisted as is supposed, by an old lover
who took her to parts unknown. The story of Strang and Mrs.
Whipple over again.

In September 1864 one Sloan, a resident of what is now the
town of Seymour in Eau Claire County, was murdered in the
village of Eau Claire by John Stoeplar one of its citizens.
He was immediately arrested and held for trial, was ably
defended by Horace W. Barnes and N.B. Boyden, Esq., but the
evidence against him was conclusive and the prosecution
conducted by Mr. Meggett and W.P. Bartlett obtained a
verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and
the sentence was for five years imprisonment in the
penitentiary; but before the expiration of the term he was
commended by many influential citizens to executive clemency
and two year of the term remitted.

One other horrid murder was committed at the close of the
year 1868 in the town of Pleasant Valley, Eau Claire County,
John Hamilton drove the tines of a pitchfork into the brains
of a son of William Laughman which caused his death. It was
a most uncalled for and brutal assault upon a young
defenseless lad and received the universal execration of the
community. The perpetrator though defended by able counsel,
Meggett and Barnes, is now suffering the penalty of the
fearful crime.