We left Captain Wales in 1838-9, building a mill on the Eau Galle River; he was in partnership n the undertaking with Thomas Savage, and a mill-wright called Captain Dix, most likely the same that had been employed in the erection of the two mills before named, on the Red Cedar River by Street and Lockwood. Soon after this mill commenced operation in 1839, there came on to that stream two young men named William Carson and Henry Easton, the former of Canada, the latter a Yankee, and as the mill company had no prescriptive or exclusive right to the pine, commenced getting out square timber and shingles, a business which their enterprise and economy made quite lucrative, but was very annoying to the company, not only because it took away the most convenient and valuable timber, but obstructed the navigation of the little river for their cribs of lumber. These operations continued for several years, and in the meant time, several others found their way on to that stream and the Red Cedar River; amongst them a man named Lamb, who stuck his stakes and built the first house in Dunnville, which very soon became a noted "stopping place" for all the lumbermen and hunters that came to the country. It was then considered one of the best locations of the kind in the valley, and its owner soon found it necessary to procure 'a help mate," which he found in the person of Margaret Demarie, adopted daughter of Louis Demarie, at the Falls (Frenchtown). Lamb was an old soldier, very dissipated, with no business habits or industry, and having been able to keep the place up to the wants of the public, in 1841 sold out to his more energetic brother-in-law, Arthur McCann, who had just married Rosalie Demarie, sister of Mrs. Allen. Three of these brothers, Stephan, Arthur, and Dan McCann, had come on to the river a years previous; they were originally from Marietta, Ohio, had followed the river round and like many other river men of that day, belonged to the more reckless strata of society. The Eau Galle Company finding all efforts to induce the energetic young operators Carson and Eaton, to leave the stream, unavailable, concluded to sell them an interest in the mill, which soon resulted in the withdrawal of Savage and Dix from the concern, leaving Carson, Eaton and Wales as the firm, the later being considered a financial partner, who necessarily spent a lot of his time in St. Louis, and other points on the Mississippi, selling lumber, leaving his family at the mill. When young Tom Sheridan was requested by his father to take a wife, he replied, "that he had no objection if he only know whose wife to take." There is wit and humor in such a remark, where plenty of other material to make a wife are at hand, ready and waiting for a person to propose. But it becomes a serious matter, and 'no joke into it,' when on looking 'the landscape o'er,' and a young man in want finds if he takes a wife at all it must be somebody else's wife. A bashful young man, whose heart comes right up into his throat the moment he finds himself in the presences of, and attempts to speak to a young lady who has taken his fancy, is frequently astonished at the ease and fluency with which he can address himself to a married on, and encouraged by the freedom and familiarity experienced in revealing his inmost thoughts to, and eliciting the sympathy of a married female acquaintance many a virtuous young man has found himself contravening the tenth commandment in coveting his neighbor's wife. Which of these causes influenced or took possession of one of these junior partners, (Eaton) there is no record extent by which to determine, but one thing is certain: during the long protracted absence of the senior down the river, the junior's visits to the residence of his partner's mistress became alarmingly frequent. Free love as taught and exemplified by Mrs. Woodhull, of our times, may or many not have been a favorite theory with this exemplary lady at this time, but she encouraged the visits, and did her best to render them agreeable is freely admitted. Perhaps she derived some secret satisfaction from so doing, in the fact that her lord, like John Quinn, 'carried his wife in his pocket,' and when absent from her, squandered large sums for his gratification, but expected his wife to be a paragon of virtue. Such was the course of events until the fall of 1844, when matters culminated in open rupture between this historic couple, and finally separation; and as his extravagances had involved the firm in financial embarrassment, the other members compelled him to abdicate, when he left the valley forever, the oldest settler, and, as some say, the most wronged of any that ever came into it. Some two miles below Gilbert's Creek on the west side of the Red Cedar River, a small spring creek makes into the river, on which in 1839 H.S. Allen built a sawmill, making three mills owned and run by him at the same time, which gave to the one on Gilbert Creek, the name of the 'Middle Mill,' by which it was known for many years. It was rebuilt in 1841. The same year Allen sold the lower or Spring Creek mill to Stephen S. McCann; and it was to this mill that Simon and George Randall first came and took employment with McCann. It was burned in 1843, the loss falling on the original owner, Allen. In the fall of the year 1841, the mill on Wilson's Creek was sold to one Green, and by him soon transferred to Mr. Pearson, by whom the first dam across the Red Cedar River was erected, with a view to the establishment of a big mill, but for want of means was unable to go on, finally sold out to an old man named Black, who in 1844 transferred a half interest to Knapp and Wilson, to of the present wealthy owners, and in the fall of the same year, Black went down on a raft to Keokuk, Iowa, sickened and died, leaving the property to the other members of the firm, who, the following year associated themselves with Mr. Stout, under the firm name Knapp, Stout and Company. While Mr. Black was in possession of this point in 1844, a most unprovoked murder was committed by a man whose name my informant cannot recall, the victim had retired for the night to garret of an old log house, where he was stealthily shot. A warrant was issued by Mr. Branham, the offender arrested, taken to Prairie du Chien and tried before Judge Dunn and acquitted. This is supposed to be the first murder of a white man in the valley, but was soon followed by another, under the following circumstances: Arthur McCann and J.C. Thomas, in partnership had in 1843 commenced and nearly completed the Blue Mill, now so called, the former residing at Dunnville; they had employed on the work for some time, a man by the name of Sawyer, who when his time was up, went down to McCann's for a settlement, after which McCann proposed cards, at the same time treating freely. The game went on until evening, when some dispute arose the latter threw a scale weight at the former, where upon he repaired to the cabin of Philo Stone, nearby, carefully loaded his rifle, went back to the door of McCann's house and called him; on his appearance at the door Sawyer took deliberate aim, and McCann fell dead on his own doorstep, the victim of a drunken brawl. Sawyer made his way up the river to Eau Claire, and thence to the Falls of the Chippewa, where his pursuers lost track of him, since when he has never been heard of, although a large reward was offered for his apprehension by McCann's friends. His wife returned to her parents, and Philo Stone took possession of the tavern. This man and his brother Rosewell Stone, came to the river in 1838, from Vermont, and engaged in hunting on the neutral territory between the Sioux and Chippewas, which being seldom visited by either party of Indians, was the most excellent hunting grounds for the whites who came early. Philo was a turbulent fellow, never avoided a quarrel, was brave, wiry, small in stature but quick as lightening, never was whipped, was frequently arrested and placed under bonds to keep the peace, and like many others had a full-blooded squaw, whom he trained to be a good housekeeper; the fact is, this class of women are all tractable, easy to acquire all the arts and many of the graces of civilized life, and if the males were as readily molded into the ways of industry and progress as the females, they would be easily civilized.

to table of contents

Copyright Notice: All files on this site are copyrighted by their creator and/or contributor. They may be linked to but may not be reproduced on another site without specific permission from Tina Vickery [tsvickery@adelphia.net] and/or their contributor. Although public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in which they are presented, the notes and comments, etc., are. It is however, quite permissable to print or save the files to a personal computer for personal use ONLY. My very special thanks to Holly Timm for the creation of the graphics used on this page.

last edited [an error occurred while processing this directive]