HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 36 - Railroads


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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 36 - Railroads

To the people who may inhabit this valley a half a century
hence, this chapter might have some interest, but for the
reader of today, especially the residence of Wisconsin who
so recently during several succeeding session of the
Legislature, had their ears filled with discussions of the
'Dells Bill' until it became disgustingly wearisome, its
rehearsal at this time can yield by little satisfaction.

Thoroughly convinced by the advantages of the situation, the
hopeless condition of the entire lumber manufacturing
business on the river without some safe storage boom for
logs, and the great expense and difficulty of establishing
such a reservoir at any other point, the people, not only of
Eau Claire, but of Menomonie and the whole valley of the
Chippewa below that point, together with many interested
parties in other parts of the State, had come to consider
the passage of this bill and the improvements contemplated
under it, as the only hope of the lumber interests on the
river. And the earnestness and determination with which the
measure was so persistently supported by its friends, was a
natural sequence of a position so advantageous, and the
necessity for such a work.

Had the bill become a law, we could now determine something
near what its results would be to the community it was
expected to benefit, and to that by who it was so
strenuously and successfully opposed, as men of capital and
business energy that were never know to fail in any
undertaking were ready to invest in the enterprise.

As it is, however, the historians can refer the reader to
little more than the successive steps of the struggle, and
its final defeat at the hands of the Executive.

But it is safe to say that no merely local questions ever
arrayed the people of a state for and against it, or
involved issues of grater moment, than the Chippewa Dells
bill.

In the fall of 1869, Thaddeus C. Pound received the
Republican nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor,
and the Republican of Eau Claire Country, though not without
many apprehensions in regard to the effect his election
might have upon their long cherished enterprise, vote solid
for the man who of all others they most dreaded in the
anticipated struggle to obtain the coveted charter; their
patriotism outran all private and pecuniary considerations,
incurring many bitter in ironical comments from their
friends of the opposite political party.

By way of atonement and conciliation, however, C.R. Gleason,
a Democrat, and a great favorite of his party throughout the
State, was elected to the Assembly against V.W. Dorwin,
Republican, with the hope of carrying the Democratic members
in favor of the Dells bill.

Thaddeus C. Pound, of Chippewa Falls, was born in Warren
County Pennsylvania, received a good academic and thorough
business education, came to the Falls in the spring of 1856
with his family, and engaged himself as a clerk in the
counting house of H.S. Allen & Company, whose subsequent
failure paved the way for the advancement of the young
accountant, after many vicissitudes, to his present high
position and standing in the business community.

A leading trait in his character is the ease and perfect
self-possession with which he approaches moneyed men and
establish himself in their confidence; even under depressing
financial difficulties that would crush some men, he is
always composed, and wins success where other would fail.

In the arena of politics, also, these qualities made him a
formidable antagonist, whether in the canvass for the
people's suffrages, or in the legislative hall as champion
of any measure he wished to carry, or the opponent of any he
desired to defeat.

Elected four times to the Assembly, and to the position of
Speaker Pro Tem, in 1869, his legislative experience, his
many friends, his elevated position, and his sleepless
energy, quickened by intense personal interest, made him a
powerful adversary in the struggle, which was renewed in
1870, to carry the Dells bill.

The bill was carefully drawn, so as to avoid all seeming
possibility of injury or damage resulting to any party from
obstruction to the navigation of the river, but the
opposition to it was nevertheless stronger and more
determined than ever; and each party to the contest went
into the legislature backed by a strong lobby, able
advocates, an army of witnesses, and volumes of testimony
for and against the bill. The rooms were thronged with eager
partisans whenever it was considered by the committees of
each house to whom it was referred, and the engrossing topic
of conversation in every circle, was the bill to incorporate
the Chippewa River Booming and Manufacturing Company at the
Dells, in the county of Eau Claire.

The result of all this immense labor and strife is too well
known to be repeated here. 'Defeated in the Senate' came
flashing over the wires, to the chagrin and disappointment
of one party and the hilarious demonstrations of joy to the
other.

But the end was not yet. The same necessity for the
improvement still existed, and the hope of final success
still animated the friends of the bill. One more effort was
determined upon, and fiercer and more resolute still were
the demonstrations in its favor, and still more obstinate
was the resistance, in 1871.

But a favorable impression had been made on the people of
the State at large. Those who had never taken pains to
inquire into the merits of the case, began to think that
anything so zealously and persistently striven for must, in
justice, have claims upon the favor of the people. Rumor,
however, soon furnished other grounds for this change in
public sentiment, and for the fact that a majority in both
Houses favored the bill. 'Bribery and corruption, the
demoralization of the representatives of the people,' said
Madame Rumor, 'has done all this,' and Governor Lucius
Fairchild believed it and vetoed the bill, and the Dales
with its great, natural basin, fitted expressly, it would
seem, for the much needed work, remains today just as nature
formed it, without any of man's handiwork to utilize its
advantages, while a costly and precarious substitute has
been erected at Eagle River, as the next best thing to do.
It has this advantage over the Dalles, however, it serves
the entire mill interest on the Chippewa, and obstructs
navigation to a very inconsiderable extent, and if found to
be permanent, and the works prove capable of accommodating
the great interests they were intended to sub serve, it may
yet prove, all things considered, the best for all the
varied and conflicting interests that could be done. A trial
and test of the value of those works, and many other private
improvements on this great stream, had not yet occurred. But
let such a freshet as that of 1847, and account of which is
given in the early chapters of this work, happen again, and
I very much fear for the safety of any dams, booms, piers,
or bridges on the Chippewa. We may hpe and trust that it
will never come.