. Interview with Michael F. Beaudoin

Made in Park Falls – November 29, 1950, by W.H. Glover with the assistance of Arlan Hellgeson. 

The subject is Mr. M.F. Beaudoin of Park Falls who has had extensive experience in the immigration work in this part of Wisconsin.

 BEAUDOIN: About the year of 1916, ’15 or ’18, the Edward Hines Farm Land Company, a subsidiary of the Edward Hines Lumber Company, decided to colonize some of the lands from which they had cut the timber. We started this work, at that time, there were very few roads, one passenger train, and we established our headquarters at Winter, Wisconsin. (Midway between Rice Lake and Park Falls.) We were quite successful in bringing in settlers, farmers who were on rented lands in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, in fact before long, say four or five years we had settlers from mostly every state in the union. We encouraged these people and helped them develop their land, and in many ways watched their progress. The land-clearing problem was a large one and we employed an agricultural advisor who understood the clearing of land. We spent considerable money in experimenting and land-clearing machinery, and brought in carloads of dynamite and other large machinery: stump pullers, tractors and so forth. These lands were sold to those people on very easy terms, generally ten years time, with a small down payment. No one was unduly crowded. If they failed to make payments, we investigated individual cases, each individual case and helped them, if they could not make their payments. We built a creamery in Winter and operated this creamery ourselves, until such time when the settlers could take it over, which they did a few years at cost. The butter we made in Winter was shipped to New York and Chicago.

 The soil in this particular district  where we colonized these lands lies between the Flambeau and Chippewa Rivers. This soil is similar to the soil in and around Barron, Wisconsin, which is some of our best soil, called Cannon Silk Loam. The problem of clearing land was a complex one, of course. The stumps where green, and stubborn to get out of the land. The roots spread out laterally over the ground and if a stump was pulled in its entirety it would take up much soil. So we concluded that the best method was to split the stump with dynamite which enabled the settler to get it out of the ground easier and burn it afterwards. Rainfall was ample and that was one reason why the roots spread out. The stumps were not of the tapper variety which had to go deep into the ground in order to get moisture to sustain the life of the tree.

 We carried on an extensive advertising the campaign from Chicago during the winter months, and the sooner the snow left the ground, people cam, the prospects of settlers came, to look at the land. We had no automobiles at the time. And if we did have, we could not use them because there were no roads. We used the lumber wagon and a team of horses and showed land by this method. As quickly as we could, we began to improve the roads, build side roads, and establish the settler. This work continued up until 1935, and during the time between 1915 and 1935, we brought into the district about 500 settlers. Some of them did not remain on the land, but the majority of them did. The district now is nicely developed. And those settlers who remained are doing nicely. Modern schools were built, the recreational facility were exploited, for the district excels in good fishing, lakes, rivers, and is exceptionally good deer hunting country. It did not take long for this kind of development to prosper because resources were here for those who wished to enjoy them. Any questions that you would like to ask, that ah.

 Naturally, a program of this magnitude called for considerable capital, and the price of this raw cut over land averaged about $27 an acre and some of the land sold for $10 and $12, while others sold for as much as $40 and acre when the land was located on a good road. As the matter stands today, this today, this $40 land is now lying on Wisconsin State Highway 70. Edward Hines Lumber Company operated a mill at Park Falls, Wisconsin and Rice Lake Wisconsin. And to these points, the timber was cut into the vicinity of Winter and hauled by railroad. There were not big trucks hauling logs in those days, and the logs were hauled from the woods to the railroad by teams, over sleigh road. When the timber was finally all cut, a different situation came up as regards to the settlers who were brought into the land. During the timber operations, these settlers worked in the lumber camps and stayed in the camps or at their near by homes. This brought them inconsiderable revenue during the winter months when they were new to the country and just recently moved onto their land. After the timber was cut, the mills shut down, some of the later settlers were left in pretty bad circumstances. Those that had been on the land only a year or two, were unable to meet the payments. The matter was taken up with the company, and it was decided to give those settlers that were remaining a break. And we did this and those that wished to remain were give every consideration as to payment. Many of these settlers obtained loans through the Federal Land Bank and this settler was also given consideration. The Edward Hines Company finally decided to cut the balance due them to a great extent. Some of the settlers who showed promise and were good workers, but who had recently moved onto the land, were given much consideration in this matter of purchase price and payments. There were many cases where the settler was given his 40 or 80 acres of land, upon payment of only $200 or $300. Those settlers who were indebted to the Federal Land Bank were also given consideration and the balances were sometimes cut as much as 75 percent enabling the settler to pay off the Bank in full and get an outright deed to his property. Our method of obtaining or getting into contact with prospective settlers was through advertising, of course. We used the farm journals, some of the daily papers in the farm communities and we got out an elaborate folder on the order of the railroad timetable folder. This folder was quite large and very complete. It showed pictures, explained the soil, climate, in fact was a very comprehensive description of the country. It was written so that anyone could understand it and we had requests from many schools and colleges for this folder, which they told us was to be used in class work of some kind. The soil was there, pictures of settlers’ homes, their names, in fact I believe that the folder contained about 50 pages and was mailed out to every inquiry. Every letter that we received at the Chicago Office and the reason why we had a Chicago office was because of the printing and letter writing and mailing that was necessary. We did a large volume of this and the little town of Winter was not equipped to handle or give us the service that we wanted. Every letter that we received from the outside, we answered individually. Generally inquirers asked specific questions and no form letter could answer those questions. And there were many. We got out these letters on an electric typewriting machine. We had several such machines and the stenographers were able to get out a large number of letters a day. Each letter was individually dictated, of course, and we had several stenographers transcribing. I personally have dictated 200 to 250 letters a day. When the settler came to Winter he was give attention by a man who understood the country. He would give them time to look at the land, no high pressure methods were used, and we did turn away several whom we thought were not suitable or would not make a success. Later on, of course, the agricultural advisor, and dynamite men, and road building equipment men were able to help the settlers in many ways. We held land hearing schools on the ground when the first radio came out, we purchased a large Rebee set, mounted it on panels with batteries and so forth. Went around to various nearby communities and held meetings. Some of the settlers had never heard a radio before. Most of the settlers were Scandinavians, the majority of them were Scandinavians, and we had two Scandinavian men in the Chicago who answered their letters in their own language by long hand. We always wrote a letter on the typewriter in the English language to everyone, but we could tell by the letters we received from these inquiries that probably a few words from our Scandinavian agent would give them a better idea of what we were trying to tell. 

 In Park Falls, at the saw mills, the Hines people had a very expensive machine shop. They made different machinery for use in the woods and repaired all kinds of machinery that was used in the woods at that time.  They could tear down and put together a locomotive. In this machine shop was developed the stump puller. This stump puller was electrically operated, geared up to pull mostly any kind of stump. Some of our pine stumps were 3 and 4 feet in diameter and this machine could pull them out of the ground, but the problem was, after they were out of the ground what to do with them. 

 The Edwards Hines people, being in the lumber business, were able to obtain lumber at cost and we built houses for the new settlers. We called these houses simplex houses and the design of several of them was given to us by the Wisconsin Agriculture Department. At that time Mr. Regie Packer was an ag agent for the State of Wisconsin and it was his job to investigate activities such as ours. A settler could go to him with complaints if he felt he was being mistreated. We worked in close cooperation with Mr. Packer and as a result others suggested that we build various types and sizes of house for the settlers, which we did. These houses were complete in themselves with Whalen pump and in the latter period of our colonization work we were able to put in a newcomer from some other state on a piece of land with a house and probably 5 or 6 acres of cleared land. These locations were generally along roads and about that time the Model T came into use and we were able to get around and see these people quite often. 

 We also purchased cattle and one thing we did insist and that was the settlers had feed enough to take care of his cattle before we would finance him to any great extent in the purchase of his cattle. We purchased purebred bulls. Some of the settlement were partial to Holsteins while others were partial to Guernseys. There were a few Ayrshires. In every case we purchased purebred bulls, registered, and spread the point that the settlers would develop them. 

 A few years after we started colonizing these lands, the Hines people purchased the entire holding of the Rice Lake Lumber Company. Part of these holdings was a farm at Loretta, Wisconsin, consisting of 180 acres. The company, that is the Hines Company, built modern buildings on this piece of land and it was turned into a demonstration farm. Our agricultural agent too charge of this farm and took settlers or prospective settlers to this farm and showed them the crops that were suitable to be grown in the area. Naturally, dairying being the principle industry, much stress was put forth in the care and feeding of dairy cattle.  Root crops and small grains were grown on the demonstration farm and the seed crop from the crops was given to the settlers. The agricultural agent or adviser was a graduate of the Wisconsin Agriculture Scholl and his entire time was spent in advising and helping the settlers in all their problems. The methods of colonization were studied by us and considerable time was spent in the South, particularly Mississippi and Louisiana, studying the methods of the Long Bell Lumber Company who had been very successful in the South in developing those lands. We learned much from this study of the methods and applied some of them in Wisconsin. WE took an interest in the settlers and their families and a large number of the growing children were placed by us in different spots, for instance, in Park Falls in the offices of the city school, some of them we took to Chicago, helped them get jobs and many prominent people in all walks of life were sons and daughters of the settlers we brought in that winter to Wisconsin. 

 The Hines were instrumental in building modern schools as we developed the country. At Winter and at Loretta today stands two modern schools that came as a result of the development of the Hines people of those districts. While it may be far fetched to think that Hines developed the land from a selfish, the cost of developing far exceeded the amounts received through the sale of lands. As I stated before, the average price of land was $27 an acre and the investment in the houses and development and subsequent cut in prices of the lands when lumbering operations were through left no profit and no great amount of money was made by Hines in their colonization development. It was a fact that the timber was fast being cut and Mr. Hines reasoned that the country needed some sort of development and he inaugurated this colonization plan.