Satisfactory arrangements having been made between the partners in the late firm of Allen, Branham and Randall, for their separation, the two juniors' S. and G. Randall, took a half interest in the claim of McCann and Thomas, at the mouth of the Eau Claire River, and preparations were made to erect the dam and mill on the site of the Eau Claire Lumber Company's watermill, and in October 1846, the dam was completed, and the work progressing finely, under the firm name of McCann, Randall and Thomas. Mr. Allen and Mr. Bass had also commenced expensive improvements at the Falls. During the summer the writer had brought his family, which, until now, had remained in Iowa, to the Blue Mill, which he had bought from J.C. Thomas. Mrs. Randall had been raised in the bosom of the Methodist Church, and regarded the loss of privileges as a very serious drawback to here enjoyment on coming here. Since our marriage, some two or three years previous, I, too, had identified with that church and its services. It was now proposed to do what we could for the interests of religion in this remote corner. Appointments to hold divine services on alternate Sabbath's at the company's boarding house, in Chippewa Falls, and at the house of S.S. McCann, in Eau Claire, were accordingly made in September, of the year before mentioned, 1846, and continued until the setting in of winter, when a severe illness prostrated the writer, and the meetings discontinued 00 the first public religious services ever held in this valley. Another little event of a social nature also occurred about this time, which must not be passed over. George W. Randall, of the aforesaid firm, having become satisfied that it is 'not good for a man to dwell alone,' concluded to 'take himself a wife.' Miss Mary La Pointe, formerly of Prairie du Chien, and brought up in the family of Mr. Brisbois, came to Eau Claire during the summer and made up her mind to relieve him of his disconsolate condition. Mr. and Mrs. McCann made a big wedding. Mr. Bass, at the Falls, had received a commission as Justice of the Peace, from our Territorial Governor, and was invited down to solemnize the nuptials; the throne of Grace was addressed, and the blessing of Heaven invoked on their union by the writer, and this was the first wedding that took place in Eau Claire. Some time in the following winter another event not without interest, came to pass, Simon Randall, the other junior partner in the same firm, having suffered several years of isolation, had like many other young men among the early comers taken one of the maidens of the forest with hum he lived quite happily. She was a good cook, and kept his house in good order. Simon really seemed attached to her, but though of a hardy race she was not exempt from the conditions of her sex, and ere she became a mother, the 'destroyer had done its work.' Funeral services were held over her remains, and the bereaved invited to the consolation of the Gospel, by the writer, from First Corinthians, XV, 21, 22, and this was the first funeral service ever performed here. The winter of 1846-7, was in some respects very remarkable; scarcely any snow fell, and so intensely cold was the weather that the water in the Chippewa at the Falls, froze to the bottom, forcing it to overflow, in the same manner we frequently see small rivulets rise to the surface and cause a fresh layer of ice every night, and this was continued until every rock, island and tree on the Falls, were submerged with ice, lying solid in many places twenty feet in thickness from the bottom. I have never known this to occur since. This scarcity of snow extended the whole length of the river to its source, and would have proved ruinous to 'long hauling' contracts, had there been any at the time, but Mr. Colton and Mr. Moses, on the Yellow River, for the Falls Company, and Hoosier Logging Company on the Eau Claire, had bank hauling, and managed even without snow to get large stocks of logs for their respective companies. But if the winter was remarkable for the want of snow, the spring was still more remarkable for absence of rain, there being scarcely enough to lay the dust through the entire months of April and May, and not a log floated in either the Yellow or Eau Claire rivers during the whole time. But on the evening of the 5th of June, after a foggy morning and a hot windy day, rain commenced falling, accompanied with most fearful thunder and lightning, unlike anything I have ever before heard, or witnessed, and continued to pour down in torrents until eight o'clock the next morning, at which time the Chippewa twelve feet, and was covered with logs, driftwood and the debris of piers and booms from the Falls, where a total wreck of all the costly structures placed in the river during the previous winter, to stop and hold logs, and been made; nothing was left but the mill, and its race and guard locks were completely demolished or filled with gravel. More than ten thousand logs-the entire stock out of the Yellow River was carried away, and the total avails of a winter's operations perished in this flood. The supply of logs for the Blue Mill shared the same fate, and in my endeavors to save a part of my boom, I was taken out into the wild and surging current, on it as it floated away. I have been on many log drives and often placed in positions of extreme peril, but never has death stared me more directly in the face than while afloat on the frail boom - bent, crushed, and broken, between masses of logs and driftwood. I could do nothing with it, and on, and on; it went with the rapidity of a railway train, passing repeatedly under the branches of reclining trees. I lay flat on my face and clung to those strained timbers, well knowing that once in that boiling flood no skill in the art of swimming from a watery grave, but as the fates would have it, my rickety craft shot like an arrow out of the current and went ashore at the eddy where Sherman's mill was since built, so being only a short distance from my brother's on the Eau Claire, I walked over and witnessed a more terrible devastation still. It was now nearly noon, but every log pier, and boom on this stream had, hours before been swept away by the still fast swelling flood, and in one our more the new double saw just ready to commence operations, was borne almost away by the resistless current. It was a sickening sight and I hurried back to relieve the fears of my family for my safety. A party of Geologists under the Superintendence of the Honorable David Dale Owen, had just reached my place at the Blue Mill as I returned; had camped just below, the night before and could go no further until the water had subsided. The party had fitted out at Prairie du Chien, under the directions of the Secretary of the Interior, by authority of an act of Congress providing for a Geological and Mineralogical survey of the northern part of Wisconsin Territory, and had chosen this route to reach Lake Superior in bark canoes. I regret that I cannot remember the names of all the party, but one name, besides Owen's I shall not soon forget, Dr. Gwyn, the physician, on account of his kindness to us under affliction. Six week before a sweet babe had been born to us, the alarm and exposure of its mother on this day together with the drenching rain, had brought on an attack of the croup. On being acquainted with the case the Doctor immediately prescribed for it, and was unremitting in his attendance upon it during his stay, and when he left we supposed the danger had passed, but on the evening of the second after, a relapse came one the little sufferer's struggles for breath were soon over and we were for a second time childless. Not often does it fall to the lot of enterprising men to sustain so heavy a calamity as fell upon those two, young lumbering establishments at Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. The saving, of years, of toil, and struggle, had been invested in these undertakings and now scarcely a vestige of all remained, and worse than all, heavy liabilities had been incurred for which there was no possible adequate provision to meet. Misfortunes almost always lead to dissolution in partnerships. It was so in this case. In fact nothing else could be done, as in the case with the company here in Eau Claire, capital to start again, could only be reached by taking into the concern some one with means, and as the crisis and panic of 1847, had made everyone wary it was no easy matter to accomplish. Mr. Bass withdrew from the firm Allen and Bass at the Falls leaving Mr. Allen to bear the brunt. The logs that had been carried away were sold to the Hoosier Logging Company, before named, who contracted to gather them all up from the sloughs and river bottoms, and there being no money in the west at that time, the payments were made due in articles of farm produce, and amongst others one hundred barrels of mess pork were delivered at Lake Pepin, at seven dollars per barrel, transported all the way from Rock Island. Flour was another item at $2.75 per barrels delivered at the same place. Farmers of the Chippewa Valley, how you would you like to grow wheat and pork now at those figures! Mr. and Mrs. Bass removed to St. Paul then just starting into being, got hold of some land near the city, speculated in lots, lumber and other property, and he is now one of the solid men of St. Paul. Allen had credit and used it to start again. J.C. Thomas came back to the Blue Mill, McCann took to farming on Eagle Prairie above the Falls. Philo Stone and H. Cady took their places with S. & G. Randall, who rebuilt the mill on the Eau Claire the following winter, 1847-8. J.J. Gage, James Reed, and Captain Dix bought the lower mill site and erected a dam and mill on the site of the Eau Claire Lumber Company's Flouring mill.

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]