The settlement at the Falls will now claim our attention, and as indicating the social condition, and the difficulties under which the early settlers labored, I will quote from the letter just received from Reverend Dr. Alfred Brunson of Prairie du Chien, he says: "In 1842, I was appointed Indian Agent at La Pointe , Lake Superior, and in going there went up the Chippewa River in a keel boat to the mouth of the Red Cedar River. In was the month of November, and so cold that the ice cut a hole in the bow of our boat, and we were compelled to land. The next morning the river was closed in with ice, and the snow was a foot deep. Mr. Jean Brunett was in charge of the boat, which was laden with provisions, clothing, etc, for the company's mill at the Falls, to which place Mr. Brunett sent messengers for a team to draw up the freight. But the cattle being out on the Rush Bottoms (today Lowe's Creek Bottoms), a week passed before the team arrived, and we were two days reaching the Falls. My position as Indian Agent made Mr. Warren, (the subagent and blacksmith before named) one of my employees, and I went to his house and stay several weeks waiting for the ice to bridge the rivers, lakes and swamps so that we could make a winter's passage through to La Pointe, which detained me until nearly Christmas. Finding an excellent library at Mr. Warren's I improved my time in reading; and Mrs. Warren, though seven-eights Indian and spoke only the Chippewa language, was an excellent cook and neat housekeeper. Their house was of hewn logs, two stories high, furnished with good beds, and I fared like a prince. The Indians for 40 or 50 miles around hearing that their "Father," the Agent, was there came in to see me, and both they and the lumbermen who had a troublesome teeth came in to have them extracted, the tools for which I carried with me, as every traveler among them should. In the meantime Mr. Warren fitted out the trains, on for the dogs and the other a one horse rig. These vehicles are very peculiar, being a thin rock-elm board 10 feet long, and from 12 to 15 inches wide, bent up at the forward end like a runner, and strips of order fastened to the edge having holes through them to facilitate binding on their loads. We reached La Point in ten days, five men going ahead on snowshoes, but I rode on the train. The following summer Mr. Brunson made another trip, and writes as follows: "On May 24, 1842, I left Prairie du Chien with a company of miners, bound for the newly purchased copper mines of Lake Superior. We had three wagons, nine yoke of oxen, three horses and fourteen men. After the first ten miles we had to look out our own road, bridge some of the deep narrow streams and ford others. I had learned from Cadotte, brother of Mrs. Warren, from the previous winter, what the face of the country between the Black River and the Chippewa Falls. At the former place we found the Mormons in possession getting out timber for their Nauvoo Temple; to them, and our company, I preached the first Gospel sermon ever delivered in that valley. We ferried over the Black River on their keelboat, except the cattle who swam. The Trempeleau River was crossed high up the valley, and thence over the ridges into the valley of the Eau Claire River, which we crossed on a raft, the water being too deep to ford, as we judged ten miles above its mouth." "We sighted elk while ascending the ridge between the Eau Claire and Chippewa, from whence we descried Mr. Warren's barn, for which we steered our course, as struck the Chippewa within twenty rods of the Falls, and ferried over on the company's keelboat fastened together and cover with planks." "Obtaining a guide from Mr. Warren, and an addition of three or four men to our force, we took the divide between the Chippewa and Red Cedar, crossed the outlet of a lake we called Cedar Lake, fifty yards wide and three feet deep, with a fleet of canoes sailing around us, wondering at our wagons and hungering for provisions." "The fourth of July found us at Lake Chetac, with a dozen Indians in our camp, and feeling a glow of patriotism, the men with me must have an oration, and I being the only talker by trade was selected as the orator of the day, and delivered, I suppose, the first speech of the kind ever pronounced in that valley. William Warren, my interpreter, explained my discourse to the Indians present, who said they understood the history of or revolution. Very little game was seen along the route, and that little between the Black and Chippewa rivers, that being a kind of neutrally forbidden ground between the hostile bands." Mr. Brunett and Mr. Warren were undoubtedly competent men to manage the business of an Indian trading post, but the projectors and capitalists, who furnished the means to build the new mill, and construct booming works at the Falls, very soon discovered that in order to a successful prosecution of the business, some person more experienced, and possessing greater executive ability, must be placed at the helm. Five years had now passed, and no return for the capital invested have been realized, or seemed likely to accrue, and the company was anxious to find some responsible party to take the property off their hands. The death of Mr. Warren during the winter following the visit of Mr. Brunson, hastened the necessity for prompt action, and accordingly, early in the summer of 1844, the mill, with all their teams, tools, boats and fixtures, was sold to Jacob W. Bass and Benjamin W. Brunson, son and son-in-law of the Reverend Dr. aforesaid. The principle factor in this young firm, was Mr. Bass, who had been a peddler, kept a hotel, ran the ferry at North McGregor, a successful merchant, was just married, and the young couple were ambitious and determined to hew themselves out a fortune, as any couple with whom I ever became acquainted. Mrs. Bass came directly to the Falls with him - the only white woman there - and though a mere girl in age and appearance, possessed unlimited confidence in herself, and a great deal of family pride, that sustained her under privations and exile. The new firm came into possession of a property, run down by mismanagement and constant disaster, without piers or booms, or any arrangement to secure a stock of logs, the mill and race out of repair, it required great experience and more capital than they could command, although a year and six months of untiring exertion had overcome some of the obstacles to success, when in 1846 another operator in this losing drama, must be introduced. In order to do so, we must go back to the Red Cedar once more. In the management of the mills referred to in the previous chapter, H.S. Allen had associated with him in the business, in 1842, G.S. Branham, and the firm had accumulated considerable capital, and during the winter of 1845-6, began to look about with a view to invest it in some larger establishment. Why they did not retain the property on Wilson's Creek, and the site on which the Menomonie mills and village now stand, businessmen will sometimes make, by which the golden opportunity is lost forever, or, as in this instance, surrendered to another. After a thorough examination of all the numerous eligible locations in the valley, this company, having associated themselves with my brothers Simon and George Randall, under the firm name of Allen, Branham and Randall, fixed upon the Lower Dalles of the Chippewa, as the best and in fact only place, on the whole river, where logs could be taken out of the current and held secure and safely, and cheaply handled during high and low water. The works at the Falls were even then the great obstacles to the improvement of this grand natural position. But they determined to go on, notwithstanding the opposition they expect to encounter from the source. To avoid all immediate difficulties, their plan of operation was to erect a dam at the foot of the Dalles half the distance across the river, thence a side, or wing dam, on the smooth rock bottom, up along, near the river channel, to the head or upper reef of rock on the Dalles, and by a low, brush and stone (or gravel) dam, across to the east or south bank, which would raise a sufficient head of water, but would not interrupt the navigation for raft or boats. Booming capacity was to be obtained at first in the eddy, where Ingram and Kennedy's logs are stored for their eddy mill, and inside the wing dam, and eventually, as the business became more developed, and their means more abundant, a boat and raft channel was to be excavated across the point where the mill formerly owned by Nelson, Hunter and Company, now stands - the channel so much talked of since, when the entire river for two miles in the bend thus relieved by the cut off could be used as a safe reservoir for logs. This plan of improvements was fully matured by the aforesaid company, was repeatedly submitted to other businessmen, myself among them, and would be pronounce today, by a competent engineer, a feasible - perhaps the best method of improving those far famed Dalles that could be adopted. Every arrangement was forthwith made to carry this undertaking forward. Allen and Branham sold their mill on Gilbert Creek to Samuel Gilbert, Senator and father of General Isham Gilbert, and came immediately over and commenced operations. A contract was made with the writer, who was then operating the Blue Mill, for all the dam plank and other lumber required and means advanced to enable him to furnish it. Shanties, in which to board the men, and warehouses for goods were immediately erected. The peninsula formed by Half Moon Lake, being convenient and studded with pine timber, of suitable size for the purpose, was taken possession of, and the timber got out for the large mill. So much had been accomplished when spring came on, and the parties comprising the firm having separate interests to attend to, relinquished operations for a brief period, as was to be resumed when those private interests were closed up. Allen and Branham had a considerable amount of lumber on Gilbert's Creek, to take down the river and convert into money. During the previous summer (1845), Steven S. McCann and Jeremiah C. Thomas - the latter since the death of Arthur McCann, having sole possession of the Blue Mill, had formed a partnership and built a claim shanty near the site of the Eau Claire Lumber Company's water mill on the Eau Claire River, the former, McCann, had also erected a cabin near the confluence of this stream with the Chippewa River, for a warehouse and another on the site of the American House in the Second Ward of this city, into which he moved his family. These were the first improvements made in Eau Claire. This firm had no means to build a mill, but succeeded in putting a couple of logging camps up the Eau Claire for the winter, but running short for supplies had recourse to Simon and George Randall, who were prevailed upon to invest a considerable sum to help them through the winter, and found it necessary to look after it pretty sharp in order to secure it for use in the new firm of Allen, Branham & Randall, the principles of whom as before stated was down the Mississippi closing up business. The historian can only speak of results; the causes, which produce them, are frequently beyond his ken. The fate of empires depends as much on the success of diplomacy, as on the force of arms, and the benefits of many a hard won battle have been lost to the victor by a short sighed policy in arranging the terms of surrender, and private operation are no exception to the rule. I suppose it is all right for men to protect their own interests against the competitive enterprise of others even if they make 'the worst appear the better side." In the mind of H.L. Dousman, there was just this question presented when he heard that H.S. Allen had concluded to locate at the Lower Dalles: "Every dollar I have put into that property at the Falls is a dead loss or that man must be induced to abandon that enterprise; aye, more! I must have the experience, the energy, and financial ability of that man enlisted for me, not against me." What agencies were employed, what arguments used, or what inducements offered to affect this purpose has not come to light. Perhaps Mr. Allen, naturally cautious, came to the conclusion that the undertaking was too great for the means at their command. Be that as it may, the first news that came up the river was that the whole project was abandoned that Allen and Branham had dissolved, that the former had bought in with Mr. Bass at the Falls, and that the strong team of Allen and Bass would be able to overcome all the immense natural obstacles and disadvantages of that situation. Dr. Williamson in his treatise on human violation, says there is no such thing as there might have been, but it certainly looks to me as though the situation and condition of a great many things on this river might have been very different had Allen, Branham and Randall gone on with their contemplated enterprise. One thing certainly might not have been the ten year struggle to obtain a charter under which those works could have been successfully constructed would have been obviated, and in all probability most of the lumber manufactured on the river would have been made here, where a safe and ample reservoir for logs might long since have been perfected, and millions saved to all lumbermen on the river that for want of these works have year after year proved a total loss, and brought many to the verge of bankruptcy.

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