Histories: Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:
"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":
Chapter 10:
Beaver Creek Valley
-As transcribed from pages 167 - 169
John
Hess settled in Beaver Creek Valley in the fall of 1852. "There
were very few families in this part of the country at that time," said
Mr. Hess. "James Reed was living at Trempealeau or Reed's
Landing, as it was called then, and he was the first white man I saw
after coming here. The second season we were here I had a good
crop of winter wheat, which had to be threshed with a flail. It
was difficult to get it clean without a fanning-mill, and so I
went down to Prairie du Chien to buy one and had it shipped to
Trempealeau by boat. It was the only fanning-mill for miles
around and I used to loan it to farmers up at Fountain City and across
Black River in La Crosse County.
"Flour was hard to get, and one day when I was debating in my mind
where I could get the next sack of flour, for we were out, James Reed
came along and told me there was a mill over in Lewis Valley in La
Crosse County, and described the trail leading to the valley so that I
would have no trouble in following it. The next morning I got up
at three o'clock and started over the trail for the mill, my wife
accompanying me as far as Heuston's near Galesville. I found my
way to Luther Lewis's mill, bought a fifty-pound sack of flour, and
walked home with it on my shoulder, having traveled between 25 and 30
miles.
"Pork was a luxury in those days and I remember walking up to North
Bend to buy some of it from Thomas Douglass, who operated a sawmill on
Black River. When I got there I found Mr. Douglass at work
repairing a breakdown in the mill, and when I told him my errand he
said he could let me have the pork, and as he was very much in need of
help in repairing the mill he suggested that I pay for it in work.
"I worked for him five days for a hundred pounds of pork, and when I
was ready to start home I built a raft of kant timbers, and loading my
cargo onto it, started down river. I landed at the mouth of
Beaver Creek and hid my pork in the woods and set out afoot for home to
get an ox to 'pack' the meat with, but, as luck would have it, I came
across my oxen feeding in the edge of a wood less than half a mile from
where I landed. I drove one of the oxen down to the river and
tied the pack of meat on the back with my suspenders and then drove him
home.
"I'll tell you how we got our blacksmithing done the first few years
after we came to Beaver Creek. We drove with an ox team to
Trempealeau and then borrowed a skiff and rowed across the river to
Richmond, Minnesota, where there was a blacksmith shop. Sometimes
it would take two days to make the trip, for if the smith had work
ahead we would have to wait.
"Along in 1856-57 I bought a threshing machine. I went to Racine
and bought a horse-power machine of the J. I. Case Company and paid
$725 for it, and they shipped it to Chicago and thence to Dubuque, and
from there it was shipped by boat to Trempealeau. It was the
first threshing machine in this county, and I used to go many miles
over might rough roads to do threshing. I went over to Arcadia
and threshed for Noah Comstock, James Gaveney and Collins Bishop."
Mrs. Hess also has told in her quaint and pleasing way stories of
pioneer experiences. She says: "The first few years we
lived here our nearest neighbor was Charles H. Perkins, who lived over
in the Tamarack, and as there was no road to their place from our home
we used to go back and forth visiting, over a trail that lead
across the bluffs. Mother was a great hand to knit and
always took her knitting along when she went visiting, and that is how
we happened to get our first chickens. You see we hadn't any
chickens and had almost forgotten what an egg looked like, but Perkins'
folks had a flock of chickens, though they didn't care to sell
any. Well, Mother was at their place one day and was just
finishing a pair of stockings she was knitting when Mrs. Perkins asked
her if she would sell a pair or two of them. Mother said no, she
would not sell them, but would trade for some hens and offered to knit
two pairs for four hens. The trade was agreed to and when mother
completed her knitting contract she took the stockings over to Mrs.
Perkins and brought the four hens home across the hills in her
apron. To complete the flock father went to Trempealeau and
succeeded in buying a rooster from Mr. Reed.
"Hogs were difficult to get, and the first one we were able to procure
after we settled in our new home Mr. Hess got of James Reed in exchange
for work. He cut nine cords of wood over on the island opposite
Trempealeau for a sow, and was well pleased with the bargain.
"There were no churches anywhere near our place at that time, and it
was a great treat when a preacher happened to come along and stay over
Sunday with us. The neighbors would gather at our log
house to hold religious services and after the meeting was over they
would stay and visit.
"La Crosse was only a little country village then, with one hotel, a
half dozen small stores, a blacksmith shop and a burned-down mill with
the brick chimney left standing."
This was pioneering with all of its varied phases. There were
hardships but joys as well, and it is hardship that give zest to
pleasure. There was a backwoods adventurous spirit in the rough
life of that age and the pioneer will tell you that he took real
comfort in his cabin home. And so we look back and see the log
cabin dreaming in the solitude where the wild roses bloom in profusion,
and the ox team and the breaking-plow creep slowly across the clearing,
while the sunlight streaming through the valley turns the old
grub-piles into heaps of gold.
(By E. D. Pierce.)