Fifty Years In The Northwest
manners, was receiver at the St. Croix land office from 1861 to 1864.
He was a native of South Carolina, and a graduate of Middlebury
College, Vermont. He had studied for the ministry, and, if we mistake
not, had devoted some years of his life to pastoral work, but devoted
later years to secular pursuits. At the close of the war he returned
to South Carolina as a reconstructionist, but in two or three years
came North, and located at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he edited the
La Crosse _Star_. He died at La Crosse Aug. 17, 1877.
AUGUSTUS GAYLORD.--Mr. Gaylord was a merchant in St. Croix Falls prior
to the Rebellion. In 1861 Gov. Harvey appointed him adjutant general
of the State. In this office he acquitted himself well. He was an
efficient public officer and in private life a high minded, honorable
gentleman.
JAMES D. REYMERT.--Mr. Reymert was born in Norway in 1821, and came to
America and settled in Racine in 1845. He was a practical printer, and
editor of the first Norwegian paper west of the lakes, if not the
first in America, and was a man of recognized literary ability. He was
a member of the second Wisconsin constitutional convention, 1847, from
Racine. In 1849 he was a member of the Wisconsin assembly. He came to
St. Croix Falls in 1859, and served two years as agent of the St.
Croix Falls Company. He was the organizer of a company in New York
City, known as "The Great European-American Land Company," in which
Count Taub, of Norway, took an active part. This noted company
claimed to have purchased the Cushing property, a claim true only so
far as the preliminary steps of a purchase were concerned. For a time
there was considerable activity. The town of St. Croix Falls was
resurveyed, new streets were opened, and magnificent improvements
planned, but failing to consummate the purchase, the company failed,
leaving a beggarly account of unpaid debts.
WILLIAM J. VINCENT.--Mr. Vincent is of Irish descent. He was born June
10, 1830, and came West when a youth. In 1846, at the age of sixteen,
he enlisted in Company H, Mounted Rifles, and served through the
Mexican War. In 1848 he came to St. Croix Falls, where he followed
lumbering and clerking. He was married to Myra Worth in 1855. In 1861
he enlisted in Company F, First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, of which
company he was appointed second lieutenant. He resigned in 1862. He
has held the office of county commissioner eleven years, that of
county clerk seven years, that of state timber agent four years. In
1879 he served as representative in the Wisconsin assembly. In 1880 he
commenced selling goods with his son-in-law, under the firm name of
Vincent & Stevenson. He erected the first brick store building in St.
Croix Falls in 1884.
THOMPSON BROTHERS.--Thomas Thompson was born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11,
1833, and was married to Eliza Clendenning in 1861. James Thompson was
born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11, 1840, and was married to Mary A. Gray
in 1871. The brothers came to the Falls in 1856 and engaged in
lumbering about ten years, and then in merchandising, jointly, but in
1868 formed separate firms. Thomas built the first brick dwelling
house in St. Croix in 1882. Mrs. Thomas Thompson died in 1886. James
erected a large flour mill in 1879.
WILLIAM AMERY was born in London, England, in 1831. He learned the
carpenter's trade in London and came to America in 1851, locating at
first in Stillwater, but the ensuing year removing to St. Croix Falls.
He pre-empted the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of
section 31, township 34, range 18, and adjoining lands in 1853, and
this has been his continuous home since. He has served as county
treasurer four years and held many town offices. He was married to
Sarah Hackett in 1855. The town of Amery is named in honor of this
respected man. Mr. Amery died Sept. 4, 1887, leaving a widow, two sons
and three daughters.
LEWIS BARLOW.--Among the first immigrants to St. Croix Falls was Lewis
Barlow, an eccentric, sensitive man. He was a millwright, and, being
of an unhappy disposition, led a troubled life. He was the first man
married at the Falls. In 1847 he moved to the Minnesota side, where he
owned considerable land. He lived here until 1852 when his family left
him. He sold his interests and followed and reunited them at Rock
Island, Illinois. Here he suffered much and became blind. He traveled
with a panorama and so earned a scanty livelihood. In later life he
revisited his old home at the Falls, but broken and dejected in
spirit. He died at Rock Island in 1872.
LEVI W. STRATTON.--Mr. Stratton was one of the passengers of the
Palmyra in 1838. He worked for the St. Croix Company two years. After
leaving the Falls, he changed his residence several times, and finally
settled at Excelsior, Hennepin county, Minnesota, where he died in
1884. Mr. Stratton wrote for the Minneapolis papers many interesting
reminiscences of pioneer life on the St. Croix.
ELMA M. BLANDING.--Mr. Blanding was born in Harford, Susquehanna
county, New York, Feb. 14, 1800. He was married to Eliza Tuttle in
1826. He settled on a farm near St. Croix Falls in 1856, where he
died, Sept. 16, 1871. Father Blanding, as he was affectionately called
in the later years of his life, was a man of exemplary habits, of
strong religious convictions, and a consistent member of the
Presbyterian church. He left a widow, five sons and three daughters.
Mrs. Eliza Blanding died Jan. 18, 1887. Wm. M. Blanding, the oldest
son, owns a fine farm near the Falls, formerly known as "Jerusalem."
He is a surveyor, lumberman and farmer, and a prominent citizen. He
was married to Eliza Tuttle. A family of thirteen children has grown
up around him. In 1887 he was appointed receiver in the St. Croix land
office. John, the second son, is also a farmer in St. Croix Falls. He
was married to Sarah, daughter of Edward and Mary C. Worth. Eugene E.
is engaged in the drug business at Taylors Falls, and is also surveyor
and express agent. He married Joanna Ring, of Taylors Falls, in 1871.
Fred, the fourth son, was married in 1885 to Emma Sly. He was
appointed United States land receiver at St. Croix Falls in 1887. He
died in California, Jan. 30, 1888. Frank, the youngest son, was
married to Annie McCourt, and lives on the homestead. Josephine, the
oldest daughter, is the wife of Wm. Longfellow, and resides in
Machias, Maine. Flavilla, the widow of Charles B. Whiting, lives at
St. Paul, Minnesota. Her husband died in 1868. Mrs. Whiting was
executrix of the will of Dr. E. D. Whiting, and successfully
controlled a property valued at about $80,000. Mary, wife of Wm.
McCourt, died in 1880.
FREDERICK K. BARTLETT was a native of New England. He came to St.
Croix Falls in 1849, as attorney and land agent for Caleb Cushing. He
was candidate for judge of the district court in 1850, but was
defeated. He subsequently settled in Stillwater, and later in Hudson,
where he died in 1857, leaving a wife and one son, who became a civil
engineer and died in St. Paul in 1885, and one daughter, Helen, who
achieved some reputation as a writer for periodicals.
MICHAEL FIELD was born June 8, 1806. He came from a New England
family, his father and mother having resided in Connecticut. In early
life he removed to New York and resided awhile at Rochester. He
engaged principally in transportation business. The earliest work he
ever did was on the Erie canal. He was married in 1833 to Miss
Reynolds, who died in 1874. His children are Capt. Silas Wright Field
(mortally wounded at Shiloh), Norton, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin,
Mrs. Fanny Nason, wife of Hon. Joel F. Nason, Phebe and Mary,
unmarried and resident in Brooklyn. Mr. Field was married to his
second wife, Mrs. Harriet Lee Bracken, in 1882. He was appointed
register of the land office at St. Croix Falls by President Lincoln in
1861, and served twenty-six years. Though over eighty years of age he
retains his faculties and general health, and his mind is a store
house of the early history of the country.
ALDEN.
The town of Alden embraces township 32, range 17, and twenty-four
sections of range 18. It has both prairie and timber land, and is
abundantly supplied with water. Apple river traverses it from
northeast to southwest. There are many tributary small streams, and a
large number of small lakes, of which Cedar lake is the largest. This
lies only partially in Alden. The surface is gently undulating.
The town of Alden was organized in 1857. The first board of
supervisors were Stephen Williams, William Folsom and H. Sawyer. The
first post office was established at Wagon Landing in 1862, V. M.
Babcock, postmaster. The first settlers were Wm. Folsom, V. M.
Babcock, V. B. Kittel, I. L. Bridgman, Charles Vassau, Jr., and
Humphrey Sawyer, in 1856. Mr. Bridgman raised the first crops in 1857.
The first marriage was C. Vassau to Alma Kittel, in 1858, by Rev. A.
Burton Peabody. The first white child born in Alden was P. B. Peabody,
July 28, 1856. The first death was that of a child, Nicholas W.
Gordon, June 10, 1857. Alden has two post towns, Little Falls and
Alden.
REV. A. BURTON PEABODY was born May 22, 1823, in Andover, Windsor
county, Vermont. He was the youngest of four minor children, and was
left fatherless at eight years of age, and motherless at fifteen. He
obtained a good English education in the common schools, and at
Chester and Black River academies. The winter terms he spent in
teaching. In 1844 he came to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he spent two
years, partly on a farm and partly in a law office, as a student and
clerk. In 1847 he went to Iowa county, and taught school through the
winter at Mineral Point. The next year he went to Clarence, Green
county, Wisconsin, where he spent four years in teaching. In 1852 he
entered the Nashotah Theological Seminary, where he completed the
course, and was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church,
June 3, 1855, by the Rev. Bishop Kemper, and took temporary charge of
Grace church, Sheboygan. He was married to Charity Esther Kittel,
Sept. 22, 1855, at Clarence, by the Rev. Wm. Ruger. In November of the
same year he removed to Mississippi, spending the winter at Jackson.
In February he went to Middleton, Mississippi, to take charge of a
mission work, including several appointments. He came, the June
following, to Polk county, Wisconsin, and spent the summer at Wagon
Landing, on Apple river, where his wife's friends had made a
settlement, but in the winter returned to his mission work in the
South, and there remained until 1857. Owing to the troubled political
condition of the South, he did not deem it advisable to remove his
family thither, and so returned to Wagon Landing and obtained mission
work, visiting at intervals Foster's Mills, now New Richmond,
Huntington, Cedar Valley, and St. Croix Falls. The intervening country
was, much of it, an unbroken wilderness, and he was obliged to make
his journeys not infrequently on foot, to cross the swollen streams
and dare all the perils of the winter storm. In 1859 Mr. Peabody
accepted a call to the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Plymouth,
Sheboygan county, but in 1862 returned to the valley of the St. Croix,
and settled on a farm, undertaking meanwhile ministerial work at
Prescott and other points, in a line extending as far north as St.
Croix Falls. Three years later Prescott and River Falls were made
independent, another man taking charge. In 1879 Mr. Peabody undertook
additional work on the North Wisconsin railroad, including a large
number of places, to be visited monthly. In 1882 his railroad work was
limited to Clayton, Cumberland and Hayward. He still has charge, as
rector, of Star Prairie and Wagon Landing. Few men have led more