HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTERS 45


*****

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

CHAPTERS 45

MR. AND MRS. LORENZO BULLARD Few persons in private life are
better known than this veteran couple; the former from
Wayne, the latter from Genesse County, New York, where they
were married in 1833. Came to Menomonie in 1847, with
captain and Mrs. Wilson, where for fifteen years they shared
all the hardships of that early period. Mrs. Bullard was one
of the patriotic women who called the first war meeting in
the valley, and walked over the battlefield at Gettysburg in
quest of her boy Eugene, who was wounded in that fearful
conflict, while the battle was still raging in the distance.

An operator in the lumber business, in which Mr. Bullard
engaged in 1848-9, he does not seem to have been very
successful, but as host and hostess in a hotel, the first in
Menomonie and for twelve years at Reed's Landing in
Minnesota, they won a reputation second to none and acquired
a handsome competence in old age; have purchased an elegant
residence in the city of Eau Claire, there their son Eugene
located after the war, and where peace and plenty bid to
crown the days of their long and useful lives.

GILBERT E. PORTER

A soldier in a regiment of hussars recounted the many
battles he had taken part in and produced a testimonial of
his valor on many a hard-fought field, and added, "For this,
Colonel _______ was promoted to brigade commander, and for
this, General ________ was made commander of division." But
how happens it, I remarked, that you performed so much for
your country, served so long and so faithfully, and are
nothing but a private soldier still, while so many others
are advanced to high positions by your valor? "Well," he
answered, "all those had fathers or uncles in Parliament, or
other powerful friends at headquarters to give them a boost,
and so they got ahead of me." And such is the secret of
advancement and good fortune to a great many, perhaps most,
men who attain high position in the world.

Not so, however, the subject of this notice, for he had
nothing but his own unaided efforts and indomitable energy
by which to climb the hill of distinction. He was born in
the town of Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York, July 6,
1829, but his boyhood and youth was spent in a heavily-
timbered, unhealthy district of Michigan, whither his father
removed in 1836, and being too poor, as he says to return,
Gilbert, being the eldest of the children, soon became
inured to the toil and hardship of clearing up a farm in the
woods. At the age of eighteen he obtained a clerkship in a
store, and by assiduous attention to business was permitted
to attend on term at Albion Seminary, where he made good
progress.

In 1856, Mr. Porter came to Eau Claire in the service of
Chapman & Thorp, having entire charge of their business the
first year after their purchase here - a very laborious and
trying position for one so young.

In 1858, Mr. Porter furnished a small amount of means to
assist Mr. Charles G. Patterson in starting the Eau Claire
Free Press, a Republican newspaper, in Eau Claire, an
enterprise of very doubtful success, and Mr. Patterson soon
became discouraged and induced Mr. Porter to take the
unpromising thing off his hands, which as the politics of
the county and valley were largely Democratic, induced him
to feel that he had a pretty large elephant to manage,
especially as he knew nothing of typesetting or the business
of printing, but he had pluck, energy, perseverance,
literary taste, and a nice discrimination; and not
withstanding all those difficulties, soon made the Free
Press a power in the land - one of the best country papers
in the State.

Its success and zeal gave Mr. Porter the appointment of
Register in the United States Land Office at Eau Claire,
which position he held for almost nine years. Being
threatened at one time with dismissal if he would not
'Johnsonize,' he replied that he would not hold the office a
moment on such terms, and if his minions wanted it they
could take it. The columns of the Free Press while edited by
Mr. Porter, exhibited but few lengthy, labored articles from
his pen, but a paragraphist he was pointed, terse, and
sometimes witty. Mr. Porter gave convincing proof of his
business capacity before he engaged in the manufacture of
lumber, as the following anecdote, related by himself, will
show. "For several years the Free Press was the official
organ for Eau Claire, Dunn, Pepin and Chippewa Counties, the
legal advertising for which, and especially the enormous
tax-list of the latter, created a great deal of envy on the
part of neighboring journals, and repeated efforts were made
to start a paper at Chippewa Falls, but I always found means
to discourage such attempts or to buy out the concern before
the public patronage was bestowed upon it." The destruction
of the mill owned by Porter, Brown & Meredith utterly
discouraged the last named partner; not so Mr. Porter; he
knew the mill site a good one, and the means to rebuild in
his name alone was soon proffered, and as president of a
great lumbering corporation or as Mayor or the city of Eau
Claire has displayed marked executive ability.

H.C. PUTMAN

Few men have been more fortunate in their business relations
than this gentleman. He was born in Madison, Madison County,
New York, on March 6, 1832, was a graduate of an engineering
school at Cornwall Conn., and adopted the profession of
Civil Engineer. Came to Wisconsin in 1855, and worked in
that capacity one year on the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien
Railroad; thence to Eau Claire in 1857, with a capital of
only two thousand dollars, which, by judicious investment,
and the salary and perquisites of several local offices to
which he was soon elected, he was soon able to established
himself permanently in the real estate business.

But the most fortunate position, perhaps, that he ever
secured was that of principal assistant in the United States
Land Office while Mr. Porter and Mr. Bartlett, successively
held the office of Register. It was here that he laid the
foundation of an immense fortune. As agent for Eastern
capitalists, many of whom remitted him large sums for
investment; he has the reputation of never having made a bad
location, seeming to know by instinct just where lands were
likely to rise in value, and frequently to secure and
interest without investing his own means. His name is
introduced here not because he represents a class, but
because he and his operations are an exception to all other
operators in the same line in this part of the State.

STEPHEN MARSTON

In the person of this individual, the old Pine State
furnished another prominent operator in the settlement of
this valley.  He was born in Kennebec County, Maine, in
1821; came to Eau Claire in 1856, making the journey in a
one-horse buggy, with his wife and little daughter, and
averaging sixty miles a day. The year following he visited
Cincinnati and returned to Eau Claire with seventy-five tons
of merchandise - the heaviest invoice of manufactured goods
ever ordered for this locality at that time. As a merchant
he was honorable and obliging, and so well adapted to the
wants of this community was his assortment of goods, that he
was proverbial for keeping everything that other dealers
failed to supply, which in a new country was a very great
convenience.

Succeeding in 1860 to the ownership of the Randall saw and
planing mill, door and sash factory - the latter for several
years being the only one in operation in the valley - he
availed himself of the facilities these offered and invested
largely in building on both sides of the river, his hall
over the post office being for some years the only one in
the place, and his own sumptuous residence denotes taste,
refinement, and culture. Mrs. Marston claims the honor of
bringing the first piano to Eau Claire.

He held the office of Postmaster from 1863 to 1871, and
although his business precluded him from personal
attendance, he saw that his assistants were courteous and
obliging. During the war he was active in procuring
enlistments, and did much towards filling up the various
companies recruited here. In 1872 he was the candidate on
the Greeley ticket for Representative to Congress in the
Seventh District, leading his ticket in eight out of eleven
counties in the district, including his own.

GEORGE A. BUFFINGTON

Cattaraugus County, New York, furnished another active
business citizen for Eau Claire in the person whose name
heads this notice. He came in 1856, ran a livery, kept a
hotel, and in 1859 bought Mr. Ball's interest in the mill
owned by the firm Smith and Ball, West Side, formerly one of
the Randall mills, and for fifteen years was the resident
managing partner in the firm of Smith & Buffington; is now
at the head of corporation known as the Valley Lumber
Company, and Mayor of the City of Eau Claire.

ISAAC W. SHELDON

Came from McHenry County, Illinois, in 1855, and settle on a
farm in the town of La Fayette, Chippewa County.

With a somewhat limited common school education, he
possesses business qualifications that have raised him to a
fair competence and distinction among men.

For the past twelve years he has resided at Chippewa Falls,
has twice been elected mayor of the city, and shares the
esteem of his fellow citizens. He is now successfully
engaged in merchandising.

JOHN F. STONE

Was one of the first settlers of Augusta, in Eau Claire
County. He erected a saw and gristmill at that point on
Bridge Creek in 1856. As one of the proprietors of the
village, he pursued a very liberal policy and afforded
assistance to a great number of farmers of feeble means, as
one after another located in the fertile valleys around him,
and upon these, and all others who have made homes in the
village and surrounding country, to a certain extent stamped
the impress of his own unsullied character, so that Augusta
has ever been noted for its morals, religious, and social
advancement.

Mr. Stone's religious convictions accord with those of the
Baptist Church, of which he is a member.

O.H. INGRAM

Is a born lumberman, and what he don't know about the
business in not worth knowing. He came to Eau Claire in
1856, in company with Mr. Dole and Mr. Kennedy, the former
of whom soon retired and the firm has since done business
under the title of Ingram & Kennedy. They were previously
operating in Canada, whence the migrated to this river, and
the hard times which followed the crisis of 1857 taxed their
resources to the utmost, and before fully recovering from
the difficulties of that trying period, their mill was
consumed by fire.

Mr. Ingram is the financial and general manager, and has
always maintained an unblemished reputation as an able
financer and straightforward businessman. Socially, he likes
a good joke, and is not always very particular at whose
expense, but his feelings are always kindly and his
employees are always treated with consideration and respect;
which secures their confidence and esteem, as the following
pith incident will attest. Some two years ago a little girl
about seven years old came one forenoon to the residence of
the writer, crying bitterly, and saying she had lost her way
to Mr. Ingram's Eddy mill, having left Shawtown on foot
early in the morning. Having quieted and refreshed the
little thing with lunch, I proceeded to place her on the
right road, and amongst other things told her I had seen Mr.
Ingram an hour before on his way to the Eddy mill. Her face
instantly brightened up, and full of animation she
exclaimed: "Oh I wish I could have seen him, for Mr. Ingram
is a good man; my papa works for him and he is a good man."

Mr. Ingram owns mills and stores, and bank stock, and enjoys
all the distinction that wealth and position can bestow, but
dearer by far be the tribute paid to his goodness by this
little Scandinavian girl; and the brightest jewel in his
diadem that he is a good man - for she but echoed the voice
of the hundreds of men in his employment.

R.F. WILSON

Having so often referred to this gentleman in the body of
this work, little can be added here, especially as he has
failed to give me the necessary data.

As one of the proprietors of the village of Eau Claire as
first platted, he succeeded beyond his expectations. His
temperament is hopeful - almost too sanguine - and his faith
in Eau Claire and its future is boundless.

It is not given to all men to be successful in their
undertaking, and Mr. Wilson has seen his purposes frequently
fail, but he still works on, and is confident still that
there is a good time coming.

WILLIAM CARSON

Ever since the year 1839 the little crooked river, which
takes its rise in the big woods that divide the Chippewa and
St. Croix Valley known as the Eau Galle, has been the
theater of action for the emigrant from Upper Canada of the
above name who at that early period settled upon its banks,
and is undoubtedly today the only person in the Chippewa
Valley occupying the same premises as a home that he then
occupied.

Accommodating himself socially and domestically to the
peculiar circumstances with which he has at various periods
been surrounded, he has witnessed change after change in the
development of this country, and transfer after transfer of
the premises of other operators in the same business, even
his own partners selling out and seeking more favorable
localities as they imagined, but he has kept right on the
same tenor of his way, cautious and conservative, carefully
husbanding all his resources and prudently investing his
accumulations, he has succeeded beyond all who came to this
valley with him in building up a fortune and a name. As a
common laborer he was faithful and diligent, and is now
literally realizing the promise that "he who is faithful
over few things shall be made ruler over many things."

Surrounded by a numerous and amiable family and all that
wealth, taste and refinement can confer, the retired spot
that has so long been his home must be dearer to him than
any of the great marts of trade or the most attractive
centers of fashion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lawyers, it is said, are necessary evil, but on the
principle that opposing evils correct each other, society is
compelled to tolerate a good many of them - there being so
many other evils in the world that many of these not only
exist but attain distinction and honor among men; and quite
a number are found in this valley, some of whom came so long
ago as to make their lives historic, and like all other men
in a new country had a pretty hard struggle to get started,
and are a proper subject for these sketches as prominent
actors in our stirring events.

The profession was poorly represented at first in this
section, but bad beginnings sometimes make good endings they
say.

The first was a wild Irishman, Patrick M. McNally, who came
to Chippewa Falls in the summer of 1854 - was advised to
locate there by Judge Fuller, and for want of something
better was immediately retained by H.S. Allen & Company as
their regular counsel, which enabled him to make the two
ends meet.

How baleful is the evil example of a man placed in high
position! It is an undeniable fact that a large majority of
the practicing attorneys in Judge Fuller's circuit
contracted the bad habit of drinking to fearful excess
during his term - even carrying a demijohn of "Old Bourbon"
with them as they followed the Court from one shire town to
another. I could name more than one in the prime of life has
gone down to a drunkard's grave, the incipient case of whose
fall could be traced to the bad example and pernicious
influences of that erring judicial functionary. P.M.
McNally, Gorge Mulks, and H. Clay Williams died as a fool
dieth, and these are far from a comprising the list, to say
nothing of those who barely escaped.

The Greggs, father and Son, came next, the former a man well
versed in law, and on one occasion he aspired to the
judicial ermine, but the people thought otherwise; his
habits and character were too well formed to be led astray
by the prevailing vice referred to above, but the son
succumbed and has removed elsewhere.

HONORABLE W.P. BARTLETT

Is a native of Maine, was born September 13, 1829, and
graduated at Waterville College in that State in 1853,
taught school, and studied law until the fall of 1855, when
he came to Wisconsin, arriving in the State October 1st, was
admitted to practice in Jefferson County in 1856, and came
to Eau Claire the next spring, 1857 - the first lawyer
settled in Eau Claire County.

Perhaps it was because the youthful attorney refused to
resort to the same measures to get on the right side of
Judge Fuller that some others did, that he failed to secure
favorable recognition; indeed, it was apparent to everyone
who attended his court when Mr. Bartlett was managing a case
that the rulings were invariably against him, which made it
up-hill work for the young barrister. But he worked on in
spite of these and many other discouraging circumstances
with zeal, energy, and industry that showed conclusively
that neither Judge Fuller nor any other Judge could have
kept him down.

If as a pleader he has not always satisfied the expectations
of his friends, he seldom fails to impress a jury favorably,
and in examining a witness he has no superior for skill and
tact on this circuit - perhaps, I may say, in the State.

Mr. Bartlett has held several positions of trust and honor;
twice elected to the Assembly in 1860 and 1872; was six
years district attorney for Eau Claire County, and one term
as County Judge and now holds the Register of the United
States Land Office at Eau Claire.

Mr. Bartlett has always taken a deep interest in the case of
education, especially the common schools of Eau Claire;
having been elected a member of the School Board within
three weeks after he became a residence of the district; and
it is to his energy and efficiency in some degree that the
Second and Third Ward school, now and for twelve years past
conducted by Mr. Howland, owes its high standard of
excellence and usefulness.