The River Falls times. [volume], November 01, 1925, Better Community Edition, Section Two, Image 1

About The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933

Image provided by: Wisconsin Historical Society

                
Better Community
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Better Community Edition
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Kinnickinnic Valley History Furnishes Jy,foresting Story of Time When
Beautifully situated in the broad Uplands
of Western Wisconsin, a short thirty miles
southeast of St. Paul, Minnesota, is a rich and
sheltered countryside comprising a goodly por
tion of St. Croix and Pierce counties, with the
winding Kinnickinnic River flowing through
its heart.
Set close to its center on the St. Croix-
Pierce couty line, where State Trunk Highways
35, 65 and 116 converge and cross, is the pro
gressive city of River Falls, the natural hub of
this section.
From this hub radiates a splendid system
of highways, leading southeast twelve miles to
Ellsworth, the county seat of Pierce county;
southwest twelve miles to the Mississippi riv
er, at Prescott; west eight miles to the shores
of Lake St. Croix, at Glenmont; northwest
twelve miles to Hudson, the county seat of St-
Croix county; northeast twelve miles to Ro
berts, and due east twenty-one miles to Spring
Valley.
Long Water Boundry
This country is based on Lake Pepin and
the Mississippi River to the south, with Lake
St. Croix forming its western boundary.
Pierce county has the longest navigable water
boundry of any county in Wisconsin.
Within the Pierce-St. Croix counties area,
according to the 1925 federal census figures,
are 6,300 farms, valued at $69,315,443. There
are 5,059 owners resident on their home farms.
The financial backbone of this region is the
dairy cow. This year there were 79,945 pro
ductive dairy cows on Pierce and St. Croix
county farms, with an output of more than
$5,000,000 in dairy products. In addition to
the producing cows, there were 42,804 head of
young dairy cattle, under two years of age, on
these farms. Other livestock included 66,068
swine. 32,800 sheep, 21,812 head of beef cattle
and 25,126 horses. The humble hen on St.
Croix and Pierce county farms, produced more
than $1,000,000 of poultry and eggs during the
year. More than eight thousand automobiles
are owned by residents of this territory.
Hills and Streams
It is a region of peace and plenty, a land
dotted with prosperous farms, where plowed
fields crumple against wooded hills and pleas
ent streams meander through blue grass pas
tures. Everywhere the hills and elms and
maples stand as friendly warders over this con
centrated bit of old New England, transplanted
to the Middle West.
Here in this stronghold of the old and set
tled, when fall evenings wall the valleys with
purple, listening memory hears the far-off
whistle of a steamboat, and out of the haze
filled coulees troop the ghosts of the canvas
covered wagons of the pioneers. And what a
brave showing this countryside makes, when
its mingled forces of history, romance, song
The River Falls Times
“ * i t T
Pioneers Came to St. Croix Region
Mississippi River Played Prominent Part in Settlement of
Country With Settlers Coming North
By Steamboat
BY HARRISON HATTON
and story are marshalled for review! For the
men and women of that bygone day of three
quarters of a century ago possessed the spirit
of adventurers and the courage of warriors.
To present the historic background of
this countryside, the thorough-paced historian
probably would insist upon some recital of the
days of French Dominion more than two hun
dred years ago, or of the period from 1763 to
1783, when Wisconsin was English Colonial
Territory, and was governed from Mackinac
and Quebec.
But we mainly are concerned with the
stories of the grandmothers and grandsires,
and great grandparents of the present genera
tions occupying this favord land, and it is not
essential to go back more than a century to get
a perspective that will set forth the story of
the St. Croix Valley in high relief.
A Strategic Location
In 1805, Thomas Jefferson, then president
of the United States and vastly interested in
the future of this northwest country, was in
strumental in having the United States gov
ernment purchase from the Sioux Indians a
tract of land for military purposes at the
mouth of the St. Croix River. By this grant
the Sioux Indians transferred to the United
States nine square miles, with the mouth of
the St. Croix as the center of the tract. This,
however, never was occupied as a military post,
as later it was decided to make Fort Snelling,
at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississip
pi rivers, Northwest headquarters.
In 1827, a group of U. S. Army officers—
Major Plymton, Colonel Thompson, Captain
Scott, Captain Brady and Dr. Emerson—sta
tioned at Fort Snelling, formed a syndicate to
control lands at and near the junction of the
Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, at a point
where the city of Prescott now stands. It was
believed then that this would become the site
of a future metropolis. Philander Prescott,
govermenc Indian interpreter at Fort Snelling,
was selected by this syndicate to make a claim
of 1200 acres at Prescott. This claim was suc
cessfully protected for a period of fourteen
years, until 1841, when Congress passed an act
forbidding officers in the U. S. service from en-
RIVER FALLS, PIERCE COUNTY, WISCONSIN, NOVEMBER 1925.
gaging in land speculations while in govern
ment employ. Philander Prescott, however,
remained on the land, establishing a trading
post, and, as soon as the government had sur
veyed the lands and opened them up for set
tlement in 1849, he took up a government claim
of 160 acres, to which he added 100 acres a
few years later. Here he platted a village
which he named Prescott.
From 1819 to 1836, when the Territory of
Wisconsin was organized, the St. Croix Valley
was under the jurisdiction of Crawford coun
ty, Michigan. In 1836, the Territory of Wis
consin covered a vast region west of the Great
Lakes, including the present state of Wiscon
sin, Minnesota, part of Michigan, much oi lowa
and all of North and South Dakota.
Was A Big County
St. Croix County, Wiscor >in Territory,
created in January 1840 by act of the territor
ial legislature at Madison, included part oi Pep
in, Dunn and Chippewa coun- ies and all ot
Pierce, Polk, Barron and Burnett counties, as
well as Washington and Ramsey counties in
Minnesota. Stillwater was the first county
seat. From 1840 to 1848 both St. Paul and
Stillwater were in St. Croix county, Wisconsin
Territory.
In 1848, tKe new state of Wisconsin was
organized, with the borders that exist today,
and was admitted to the Union. Stillwater
then became part of Minnesota Territory ana
for a few months St. Croix county had no coun
ty seat. In August 1848, Hudson was chosen
as the couty seat.
In 1853, St. Croix county was dmded into
the three present counties of Polk ; _.• v,roix
and Pierce. The southern part was named m
honor of President Franklin Pierce, the north
ern part for former President James K. I oik,
and the central portion retained the name ot a
Frenchman, who was shipwrecked at the
mouth of the river and for whom the St. v o <
Valley and river were named. From 1803 to
1861, the Pierce county seat was .ocated at
Prescott. By vote of the people of the
county in 1861 the county seat was moved to
Ellsworth, where it is today.
SECTION TWO
rrom lc>3s to io3j, i|\e westward move
men in the United States was bringing thous
ands of settlers across the Alleghames into the
Mississippi Valley. It was the era of Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson, Thom
as Hart Benton and other great figures in
American political annals. All had their eyes
on the developing West. Henry Clay of Ken
tucky and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee ac
tively urged young men to heed the call of the
new country.
Interested General Jackson
In 1837, Franklin Steele of Pennsylvania,,
who had acted as private secretary for Gen
eral Andrew Jackson at Washington while
“Old Hickory” was President, took the advice
of the General at the close of his administra
tion to embark in Western enterprise on the
upper Mississippi. Franklin Steele came to
Fort Snelling in 1837, while the Indian treaty
was being made, and then in a big war canoe,
manned by eight oarsmen, set out to investi
gate the St. Croix River country. He went to
St. Croix Falls, entered a claim on the Wiscon -
sin side, including the water power. Later he
sold his St. Croix Falls interests and became
one of the biggest figures in the early develop
ment of Minnesota.
But despite these early forays into this
new El Dorado, the St. Croix Valley country,
actual settlement was very sparse for a dozen
years or more. In 1840, an investigator re
ported that there were less than fifty white
men in the St. Croix Valley. The only postof
fice north of Prairie du Chien was at Fort
Snelling. Mails were received monthly. In
1843 a postoffice was established at Point
Douglas and one at St. Croix Falls. Supplies
came by steam boat up the Mississippi twice
a year, in the spring and fall. Stillwater was
not settled until 1841. Marine was a lumber
camp.
When First Settler Came
This was about the status of affairs in
this section until the first settler, Judge Joel
Foster, came to River Falls in 1848, the year
that Wisconsin was admitted to the Union.
From the time of the. arrival of Joel Fos
ter at the Falls of the Kinnickinnic in 1848
until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860,
the settlers continued to pour into this section,
and the day of beginnings of all things that
have made the community, was at hand. The
large majority of the first settlers were from
the New England states and they have left
their impress clear upon the social customs and
traditions of the countryside.
The era of settlement, interrupted by the
Civil War, was resumed in 1865 and during
the next ten years hundreds of families settled
permanently in this district. The larger num
ber came by steamboat up the Mississippi Riv
er to Prescott from St. Louis, Dubuque, Prairie
du Chien or La Crosse.
Volume Thirty-one