HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 40


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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 40

In looking over what has been stated in this work in regard
to the seasons, I think of some things that have been
omitted which may interest the reader and preserve the
record of some of the most remarkable atmospheric changes,
extremes in temperature and variations in the climate of
this part of the State at a time when there were no
newspapers nor newspaper reporters to take note of them. Mr.
Allen and Mr. Brunett concur in the statement that the
winter of 1837-8 and the spring of 1838, were very
remarkable for extremes of cold and heat, of drought and
flood.

Those of my readers whose memory reaches back to the fall of
the first name year, will remember it was one in which
occurred the most remarkable meteoric illumination on
record. An old fashion January thaw, accompanied by rain and
thunder and lightening dissolved the ice in the Mississippi,
and enabled a steamboat to come up in the middle of the
winter," as a French flour dealer in Galena said when his
monopoly in the article was broken by its arrival; succeeded
by four weeks of the coldest weather ever known at the
season of the year throughout the Northwest - marked the
beginning of 1838. Spring came on early, the month of March
being cloudless and warm as June, but the most fearful
storms of wind, hail, rain, thunder, and lightening
prevailed in April, May and June - the temperature varying
in twenty-four hours from zero to seventy on some occasions
- and causeing the highest water in the Chippewa River ever
known - such a freshet as if it were to occur now would away
millions of dollars worth of property, including every
bridge on the river; and submerged every farm and mill on
the Chippewa Bottoms below Eau Claire to the depth of
several feet. The Mississippi was also very high, flooding
'Wabasha's Prairie,' where Winona now stands, with water ten
feet deep.

The winter 1845, was in some respects a most uncommon one,
preceded by a most lovely 'Indian Summer,' lasting until
near the close of November, it set in with a furious snow
storm succeeded by a cold snap of such intensity as to close
the Chippewa River in a single night, almost its entire
length. This cold term extended to the Gulf of Mexico, with
terrible severity, closing the Mississippi at St. Louis and
Memphis, causing immense damage to steamboats lying at the
levee in the former city, when the ice broke up four weeks
later.

After this first snow scarcely any fell during the winter
here; what is still more remarkable, was the long thaw that
followed, so warm that by the tenth of January 1846, and
there was scarcely a speck of ice in the Chippewa. There was
no rain, but the snow dissolved under the influence of the
summer like sun breaking into the calculations of the
loggers with ruinous effect. Just such a winter now would be
better than a dozen Saginaw conventions to raise the price
of lumber.

Directly the reverse of this, but quite as disastrous to
logger and business generally were the winters of 1842-3,
and 1856-7, setting in early in November, they will ever be
remembered, as 'the deep snow winters,' snowing one day and
blowing the next, almost the entire season. In the woods,
heavy, compact snow lay on the ground everywhere, six feet
deep, and in many places ten, while the prairies were piled
with drifts that obstructed all the ways of travel, and
hemmed in many an isolated new settler, and effectually
cutting off communications with the rest of the world for
the time being, as though he were the only man upon the
earth. Some of our more recent winters have been pretty
severe on railroads in the Northwest, but one like either of
those would well nigh bankrupt all the feeble ones.

But the winter that came the earliest was that of 1873-4.
Snow sufficient to make good sleighing fell on the twenty-
fifth of October and continuing until spring; it was,
however, a very mild winter.

The religious and educational interests of this valley have,
perhaps, received less attention in these pages than they
deserve, and I think of some items which should not be lost.

The reader has already been informed that a large share of
the settlers of Chippewa Falls were Canadian French,
succeeded by another large percentage of Irish and German of
the Roman Catholic faith, good citizens and some zealous
Christians in their way, but not to be counted on when the
claims of other sects are presented in the furtherance of
any religious enterprise, which, with the hardships
attending new and hazardous undertakings, the constantly
recurring losses to which the mill company was subjected,
and the struggles of every one to provide for his own, made
the prospect for establishing a Protestant church there in
1856, look very discouraging. But in the summer of that
year, Reverend W.W. McNair came up the river, charged with
the responsibility of founding Presbyterian churches and
erecting church edifices at that place and in Eau Claire.

Of the Protestant population then at the Falls, not more
than six or eight persons of both sexes considered
themselves as even nominal Presbyterians, but amongst them
were three sisters of E.A. Galloway, whose zeal and
sympathies were immediately enlisted in the good cause.

The company of H.S. Allen & Company, of course, subscribed
liberally, gave the building lot, lumber, and materials, but
under the constant pressure of business cares and
liabilities, could bestow little attention o religious or
other enterprises. The three sisters had little to bestow,
but there hearts were willing and their hands active. Money
was very plenty, and all around were men whose earnings were
daily squandered at the card table and saloon. Their only
hope was to induce some of these men to appropriate a share
of their means to a better object, even if the motive was
inspired by no higher consecration.

The company was erecting a large new hotel; some of its
largest rooms would answer for pleasant, social, evening
parties; a dance in Chippewa Falls had never been known to
fail in bringing 'down the dust' from the stingiest pocket.
Sham post offices, fish pools, and grab bags may be by some
considered more innocent or less culpable method of raising
money for a good cause, but these sisters secured good
music, prepared generous plain lunches, charged a moderate
fee, and induced almost every young man in the place,
married or single, Catholic, Protestant, or Nothingarian, to
contribute something towards the Presbyterian Church and the
donors were all better pleased than they could have been at
their usual haunts.

Shall any one say that the efforts and offerings of these
ladies were less acceptable because 'dancing' was a part of
the social recreation at these gatherings?

At the same time, Mr. McNair was maturing arrangements for
erecting a church in Eau Claire, which, through the
liberality of the proprietors of the village and the earnest
efforts of the ladies, the pastor, and the people, was
completed the next year, as heretofore stated. Festivals
were frequently held by the former to raise the necessary
funds, an account of one of which I find in the Eau Claire
Time of November 1857, -- a spicy little sheet of Democratic
proclivities, the first newspaper issued in this valley, the
first number of which was on August 21, 1857 - from which I
make the following extracts:

"At about ten o'clock the signal was given for supper, and
about one hundred and fifty individuals sat down to the
daintily spread board."

A pretty large crowd, we should think, even now, for a
religious festival.

"After the cloth was removed, speeches were made by N.B.
Boyden, Esq., A. Meggett, Esq., and the Reverend W.W.
McNair."

A few extracts from the many good things in Mr. Meggett's
speech seem appropriate here. He said: "We are met here my
friends, to contribute of our substance that the first
temple of religion reared in this valley may be
appropriately adorned and it may be, as we have participated
in these scenes and witnessed the arrangements made by fair
hands and willing hearts for our enjoyment, that present
admiration rather than reflection had crowded from our minds
all thoughts of the transcendent importance of the work
before us.  Man is eminently a religious being, and though
often departing from the immutable principle of right, his
loftiest aspirations, his tenderest emotions, his finest
feelings and sublimest conceptions, have their foundation in
and are most intimately connected with, his religious nature
- the avenue through which you must approach him in order to
wield the power of the revealed truth, if you would save him
from the grossness of sin and secure to him the joys of a
pure and holy life. Without religious culture his whole life
is a moral waste, a desert unrelieved by a single oasis of
virtue and high-toned though and aspiration. Nothing could
argue so well the character of our people as the early
erection of a temple of worship under circumstances so
disheartening, but not the work is nearly completed, and to
you sir, its pastor, who have watched over it from its first
inspection, we as a community, owe a debt of gratitude we
can never pay."

"Appropriate toasts followed, by the speaker, Mrs. Thorp,
N.C. Chapman and Mr. Porter, responded to by Reverend Mr.
McNair."

Like all other people, the early settlers of Eau Claire who
had contributed of their means to erect this first church,
had their preferences in regard to who should occupy the
pulpit. Reverend Kidder, from the city of New York, had
removed to the village while the church was in the process
of building, and during the absence of Mr. McNair, preached
in the new church before its dedication. A Congregationalist
of the more advanced and liberal school, a classical speaker
and earnest worker, he soon became a favorite with all the
people of more advanced thought and liberal Christian view.
And, naturally enough, as their means contributed largely
toward the building, they claimed the right to ask that Mr.
Kidder be installed pastor.

Considerable bitterness grew out of this question, but it
was finally arranged that Mr. Kidder should have a church on
the West Side - a Congregationalist Church, which
notwithstanding the prostration of business and the decline
of the price of lumber, went forward under the
superintendence of the pastor, who had already organized a
church, and by persistent encouragement, economy, and energy
it completion was accomplished.

As usual in the settlement of new counties, quite a number
of Universalists and others of the more radical religious
element had found homes in Eau Claire, but for a long time
no effort was made to ascertain their numbers and strength.
Some time before Christmas of 1858, Mrs. Edwin Wilkins
issued a card inviting all Universalists and other liberally
inclined religious people in Eau Claire and vicinity,
without and distinction of age, sex, condition, or
acquaintanceship, to meet at her home on the evening of that
day to confer with each other in regard to their mutual
religious welfare and future advancement, and to enjoy her
hospitality. It met a hearty response from a large number of
intelligent, earnest, liberal, Christian men and women, who,
after mutual congratulations, organized a Universalist
social, to meet once a week, for mutual improvement, and
with a view to establish a Universalist Church. In July of
the next year, 1859, Reverend Dolphus Skinner, of Utica,
N.Y., came to Eau Claire on a visit to his son, Dr. F.R.
Skinner, held divine services on Sunday morning at Reed's
Hall, and in the afternoon on the West Side. There were
powerful discourses, and confirmed many wavering minds in
the doctrine of God's impartial grace. The socials were well
sustained, and quite a fund accumulated in its treasury, and
in February 1860, Reverend Joseph Barrett was engaged to
minister the spiritual wants. Services were held at first in
Reed's Hall, but building lots were soon bought and
exchanged with the East Side School District, whose house
had become too small, and a house of worship secured.

The society was now considered very prosperous, united, and
flourishing, but the war created dissensions, many of the
ablest and most influential members removed to other
localities, and now the house and lot are the only remaining
evidences that such Christian as Universalists live in the
city. Unfaithful pastors, however, are greatly responsible
for this state of things.

Perhaps no Christian people ever struggled harder to
establish themselves in a new locality than the Methodists
of this city. Few at first in numbers, and still more feeble
in point of wealth, their progress was at first very slow:
their school, the 'Wesleyan Institute,' received no
endowment, though it flourished for a year or two; but the
ministrations of that church are so well adapted to the
religious wants of the masses, and its preachers have been
so zealous and active, that seemingly insurmountable
obstacles have been overcome, and two church edifices, on
each side, have been built, and large congregations worship
therein.

The Baptists, Catholics, and German Lutherans have each a
church and sustain religious services in this city, and the
Lutherans from Norway and Sweden, under Reverend Ammon
Johnson, have two fine churches, one on each side, and the
Episcopalians have commenced the erection of a fine edifice.

Eau Claire boasts of four flourishing graded district
schools, and three denominational in a feeble condition, the
greater advantage of the graded schools withdrawing their
support.

In Chippewa Falls the authorities have divided the school
fund between the Catholic and Protestant population, and
each have a flourishing graded school at which their
children respectively attend, but both are under the
direction of the Public School Board and County
Superintendent as district common schools.