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CLAM RIVER AND BURNETT COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

In 1872, Daniel F. Smith built a mill at Clam River Falls, Wis., which was burned in 1887 at a loss of $3,000; cut, 2,000,000 feet. He also built a mill at Butternut Lake; cut, about 2,000,000 feet. Mr. Smith is a plain, frank man. He has filled many positions with ability and faithfulness. He came to the Valley in the early fifties.

In the winter of 1848, an Indian trader came to my logging camp near Clam Falls, with a packer and two kegs of whisky. Twenty Indians soon arrived, gaudily painted and feathered. They demanded the whisky, but were refused, as I would not allow drinking at my camp. They were about to seize the kegs, when I ordered two of my men to carry the whisky out of camp; and as soon as they had done so, I burst both kegs with an axe, letting the whisky mingle with the snow. The Indians licked up the snow, and then surrounded me, hooting and dancing in a circle, calling me "Ogema, Ogema," meaning brave. I gave them something to eat, and they left for their wigwams ten miles away.

Burnett county was named in honor of a genial, kindhearted and talented lawyer, Thomas P. Burnett of Prairie du Chien. He was a Kentuckian by birth, and was a prominent man in the northwestern counties of Wisconsin during the 30's, 40's, and 50's. Grantsburg, the county seat of Burnett county, was founded in 1865, by Hon. Canute Anderson, who built a mill in the Wood river valley. Several other mills were also erected. The total cut of these mills is estimated at 25,000,000 feet.

Mr. Anderson was the first postmaster in Burnett county. In 1878 he represented his district in the Wisconsin legislature, and it was mostly through his efforts that the Grantsburg branch of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad was built. His home was a resort and intelligence office for the settlers, strangers in a new land; he assisted many a poor and needy family. He was accidentally and instantly killed in 1886.

Robideau, a mixed-blood Indian, murdered Jack Drake at Wood Lake, Burnett county. Having been arrested and placed in confinement at St. Croix Falls, he jumped with one bound about fifty feet from a second story window, passed

over the watchman's head and made for the woods, making good his escape. Within a few days afterward he murdered Alex Livingstone; but he was never arrested. Drake and Livingstone were whisky venders.

At Wood Lake, Burnett county, Wisconsin, lived in 1874 an aged and blind Indian woman who calculated her pilgrimage on earth by moons. All traces of her traditional beauty as an Indian maiden had long since departed. Shriveled, decrepit, bent, she was the impersonation of all that is unlovely and repulsive in old age. Taciturn and sullen, her mind lethargic and dull, she seemed but little more than half alive, and could not be easily aroused to the comprehension of passing events, or to the recognition of those around her. She must have been very old. When aroused to consciousness, which was but seldom, she would talk of things long past. A light would come into her sightless eyes, as she recounted the traditions or described the manners and customs of her people, speaking with evident pride of their ancient power and prowess when her people planted their tepees on the shores of the "shining big sea water" (lake Superior) and drove their enemies, the Dakotas, before them. Her people wore blankets made from the skins of the moose, elk, and buffalo, with caps from skins of otter and beaver. There was then an abundance of "kego" (fish) and "washkish" (deer). There were no palefaces then in all the land to drive them from their tepees and take their hunting grounds. Of course they had seen occasional whites, hunters, trappers, and missionaries; but the formidable movements of the now dominant race had not fairly commenced. Counting the years of her life on her fingers, so many moons representing a year, she must have numbered a score beyond a century; and she had consequently witnessed, before her eyes were dimmed, the complete spoliation of her people's ancestral domain.

TAYLOR'S FALLS AND VICINITY.

The Inter-State Park, which covers the wonderful rock formations on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix river, and which has been tastefully improved, with the limited means in hand, by the superintendent, George H. Hazzard, was éstablished in 1895. Wisconsin and Minnesota share equally in

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this grand upheaval of trap rocks, which form the Dalles. They are unquestionably the most interesting volcanic eruptions east of the Rocky mountains. The testimony of thousands verifies this statement. Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish novelist, an intelligent traveller, visited the Dalles in 1849 and pronounced them, in the hearing of the writer, "One of God's beauteous spots of earth."

Adjacent to the Dalles are the ancient battlefields of the Sioux and Ojibway Indians. The rocks and hills of the St. Croix Valley, from the source of the river to its mouth, have often been stained with Indian blood. Your worthy president, in one of his addresses before this Society, pronounced the tract between the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers a Golgotha, a place of skulls. But now, with the exception of a few Indians about the head of the river, all have departed; some have gone to homes in the west, but most of them to an unknown land.

In 1857 a mill was built in Taylor's Falls by Kingman & Gurley. It was removed in 1880; its cut was about 22,000,000 feet. The Clark Brothers built a mill in the 60's, but it was soon afterward removed; cut, about 5,000,000 feet.

Ansel Smith erected a mill at Franconia in 1852, which passed through many hands. The original owner died in Duluth. This mill was burned in 1889 at a loss of $3,000. Its cut was about 20,000,000 feet.

In 1847 the St. Croix Falls precinct covered both sides of the St. Croix river. Jerry Ross, living on the other side of the river from Taylor's Falls, was elected justice of the peace. One day a gentleman called on Jerry and found him delivering a charge to a jury of twelve men in a basswood grove. Twelve jurors, good steadfast men, were marked lifelike on twelve basswood trees. Jerry Ross said to his visitor, "If you are the defendant in this case, you are too late; the case is decided, and the jury discharged."

In 1851, a Mr. Philbrook, from Hudson, came to St. Croix Falls to get married. Not finding anyone authorized to perform the ceremony, he cast loose a raft of lumber from the Wisconsin shore, and Hon. Ansel Smith of St. Croix precinct, Washington county, united them in marriage. Another party,

of Taylor's Falls, desiring matrimony, crossed the St. Croix on the ice and climbed to the highest pinnacle of trap rock, and were there pronounced man and wife by a Wisconsin justice.

ARCOLA, WASHINGTON COUNTY.

In 1846-47, Martin Mower, David B. Loomis, Joseph Brewster, and W. H. C. Folsom, built the Arcola mill on a land claim owned by W. H. C. Folsom. It began operations in May, 1847. Martin Mower afterward became the sole owner and erected another mill in 1852. This property is owned, in 1899, by the heirs of John E. Mower. The probable cut of the two mills has been 15,000,000 feet. W. H. C. Folsom is the only surviving member of the firm.

Martin and John E. Mower came to the Valley in 1840, where they were prominent business men, Martin Mower being one of the founders of the St. Croix Boom Company. He built a large block in Stillwater. John E. Mower represented the counties of Washington, Chisago, and Pine, in the fifth and sixth territorial councils, and again in the seventeenth state legislature. The Minnesota territorial legislature affixed his name to a county.

David B. Loomis was a well known man, being a member of the territorial council for four years, from 1851 to 1855, and president of the council one session. He entered the army in 1861 as a lieutenant in Company F, Second Minnesota; was promoted as a captain; and served three and a half years. In 1873 he represented Washington county in the legislature.

THE NEVERS DAM.

The Nevers dam was built in 1891, ten miles above St. Croix Falls, at a cost of $180,000. The length of the dam is 1,000 feet; it has a flowage of ten miles, and a possible head of seventeen feet. The purpose of this dam is to hold the annual cut of logs, and to supply the water, held in the extensive reservoir, for driving the logs to the St. Croix boom. The intention was to aid navigation and not to impede it. Litigation is the result of the building of the dam. Before the dam was built, navigation was impeded by the millions of logs fill

ing the river annually above the boom; but the holding of the water above the dam leaves the river, during much of the year, without its usual natural flow. The incorporators of the dam are Sauntry, Weyerhaeuser, McClure, Tozer, the Maloy brothers, and others.

LOG BOOMS AND RAFTS.

The St. Croix Boom Company was organized in 1857, with a capital stock of $25,000. The incorporators were Orange Walker and George B. Judd of Marine; John McKusick, Socrates Nelson, and Levi B. Churchill, of Stillwater; Daniel Mears and William Kent, of Osceola; and W. H. C. Folsom, of Taylor's Falls. The boom was built near Osceola. In 1866 the company was reorganized by Martin Mower, W. H. C. Folsom, Isaac Staples, C. Carli, and Samuel Burkleo, with a capital stock of $50,000. The boom was removed to Stillwater.

Much litigation ensued from the blockading of the river and impeding navigation, which caused damages in one season to the estimated amount of $146,525. Controversies arose as to the jurisdiction of the St. Croix river; it is the state boundary, and hence both states claimed concurrent power.

The officers of the Boom Company receive a fair salary, and are competent to attend to the multitude of log marks. It may not be amiss to explain briefly the system of log marks. It is a language in itself. There are over two thousand marks recorded, in distinct and different characters. Every owner must have his mark recorded or lose his logs. A law has been passed protecting the ownership of recorded marks.

In 1843, a rise of water in the St. Croix river broke the log boom at St. Croix Falls, and about 400,000 feet of logs floated down to St. Croix lake. Thence they were rafted down the river by John B. Page, and were sold to Thomas West of St. Louis, Mo. This was the first raft of logs run from the St. Croix river to the lower markets. Rafts of sawn lumber were run earlier, from the Marine mill in 1839, and from the St. Croix Falls mill in 1842. A part of the first lumber sawn at Stillwater, in 1844, was also rafted south. During recent years, on an average, over three hundred and twenty rafts of logs and lumber are annually floated out of lake St. Croix to southern markets.

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