Fifty Years In The Northwest

CHAPTER VII. PIERCE COUNTY. This county, named in honor of President Pierce, was separated from St. Croix county in 1853, and organized by the same act that created Polk county, and gave to St. Croix its present limits. It contains about six hundred square miles of territory, lying east of the Mississippi river and Lake St. Croix. It is somewhat triangular in shape, the river and lake forming the hypotenuse, and St. Croix, Dunn and Pepin bounding it by right lines on the north and east, Pepin also forming a small part of its southern boundary. The scenery is picturesque and varied. Along the river and lake is a series of limestone bluffs, broken at intervals by ravines and valleys, and leaving the impression upon the mind of the traveler on the Mississippi of a rough, broken and inhospitable country, than which nothing could be further from the truth. Beyond these rugged escarpments of limestone and out of sight of the traveler, the country stretches away toward the interior as an undulating prairie, with meadows and rich pasturelands, with occasional forests, the whole watered and drained by an intricate network of streams tributary to the lake and river, and the three larger streams, the Kinnikinic, which empties into the St. Croix and Big rivers, Trimbelle and Rush, that empty into the Mississippi. Some branches of the Chippewa also take their rise in this county. These streams uniformly have their source in springs and their waters are consequently pure, cold and invigorating, flowing over beds of white sand or pebbles, and in their downward course forming many ripples, rapids, cascades and some beautiful waterfalls. Their total descent to the bed of the Mississippi is about four hundred feet. Pierce county has no inland lakes within its limits, nor any indications of their previous existence. The soil is formed chiefly from decomposed rocks or ledges worn down by the abrading forces of water and wind, of frost and heat. The rivers in their downward course have excavated broad valleys, having originally precipitous bluffs on either side, and even bluffs once islands in the midst of the streams. These, by later agencies, have been smoothed to gentle slopes and rounded into graceful mounds, towering sometimes as much as eighty feet above the valley or plains. In some places mere outlines of sandstone or limestone rock are left, turret-like, on the summit of a mound, as monuments on which the geologist may read the record of ages gone. As the character of the soil of a country depends upon the composition of the rocks underlying it, and those removed from the surface, reduced to soil and widely distributed, we give what may be considered as the section of any one of the mounds near Prescott in the order of the superposition of strata: At the base--Lower magnesian limestone 250 feet. Above the plain--Upper sandstone 50 feet. On the summit--Trenton, or shell limestone 30 feet. Over a great part of the county the Trenton and limestone are worn almost entirely away, and their former existence is attested only by a few mounds, bluffs and outlines. Drift is not often met with. The soil may be considered as formed out of drift, now removed from its original position, and out of the sandstone and limestone. It is, therefore, soil of the richest quality. By the same act that created the county of Pierce, passed March 14, 1853, Prescott was declared the county seat. The town board of Prescott was constituted the county board. The commissioners were Osborn Strahl, chairman; Silas Wright and Sylvester Moore. At the first county election, Nov. 15, 1853, one hundred and ten votes were cast. The following were the officers elected: County judge, W. J. Copp; sheriff, N. S. Dunbar; treasurer, J. R. Freeman; clerk of court, S. R. Gunn; clerk of board, Henry Teachout; coroner, J. Olive; district attorney, P. V. Wise; surveyor, J. True; register of deeds, J. M. Whipple. Mr. Whipple was authorized to transcribe the records of St. Croix county up to date of the organization of Pierce. The first assessment in the county, in 1853, amounted to $24,452. At the meeting of the supervisors, Jan. 18, 1854, the district attorney was allowed forty dollars per annum as salary. Courts were held wherever suitable buildings could be obtained. During this year Judge Wyram Knowlton, of Prairie du Chien, held the first district court at Prescott. The first records of the court were kept on sheets of foolscap paper, and fastened together with wafers. The first case before the court was that of "The State of Wisconsin, Pierce County, Wm. Woodruff _vs._ Chas. D. Stevens, August Lochmen, and Chas. Peschke, in Court of said County. In Equity." On reading and filing the bill in complaint, in this case, on motion of S. J. R. McMillan and H. M. Lewis, solicitors for counsel, J. S. Foster, it was ordered that a writ of injunction be issued in the case, pursuant to the prayer of said bill, upon said complainant. Some one, in his behalf, filed with the clerk of said court, a bond for damages and costs in the sum of $1,700, with surety to be approved by the clerk or judge of said court. The first document recorded in the county is an agreement between Philander Prescott and Philip Aldrich, wherein Aldrich agrees to occupy lands adjoining Prescott's, at the mouth of St. Croix lake on the west, and David Hone on the east. The second document is a deed, conveying a tract of three hundred and twenty acres of land from Francis Chevalier to Joseph R. Brown, the land lying near the mouth of Lake St. Croix, and marked by stakes planted in the ground, and adjoining Francis Gamelle's claim, dated July 20, 1840. In 1857 County Treasurer Ayers became a defaulter to the county in the sum of $2,287.76, and to the Prescott Bank, $4,000. In 1861, by act of the legislature, the question of changing the county seat from Prescott to Ellsworth was submitted to the people. The vote as declared was six hundred for removal and three hundred and seventy-three against it. Technical objections having been raised as to the legality of the vote, the subject was submitted to the people a second time in 1862. The vote for removal was confirmed. In 1863 the district system was adopted and three districts were established by legislative enactment, but in 1870 the county returned to the original system by which the board of supervisors was made to consist of a chairman from each one of the town boards. A poor farm was established near Ellsworth in 1869, at a cost of $3,600. The county board also appropriated $31,000 for county buildings at Ellsworth. The finances of the county have been admirably managed. In 1885 there was no indebtedness, and a surplus in the treasury of $5,000. The educational interests are well cared for. There are over one hundred school districts in the county, with well conducted schools, and generally with good substantial buildings. The school lands of St. Croix, then including Pierce county, were appraised in 1852 by Dr. Otis Hoyt, ---- Denniston and James Bailey, and the lands at once offered for sale. Settlers' rights were respected. The county issued $5,000 in bonds to aid in establishing the normal school at River Falls. RAILROADS. River Falls has direct communication with Hudson by a branch of the Chicago & St. Paul railroad. In 1885 the Burlington & Northern railroad route was surveyed and established, entering the county on the shore of Lake Pepin, and running nearly parallel with lake and river to Prescott, where it crosses Lake St. Croix near its mouth, on a bridge, the total length of which is 520.5 feet, with one draw span 367.5 feet in length, and one piled span of 153 feet. This bridge was completed, and the first train entered Prescott, May 31, 1886. The grade of this road does not exceed fifteen feet to the mile. MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS. The Grand Army of the Republic have posts at the following places: No. 72, A. W. Howard Post Rock Elm. No. 117, I. M. Nichols Post River Falls. No. 118, Ellsworth Post Ellsworth. No. 189, R. P. Converse Post Prescott. No. 204, U. S. Grant Post Maiden Rock. No. 209, Plum City Post Plum City. The following are the village plats of Pierce county, with date of survey and location: Prescott, town of Prescott 1853 Kinnikinic, town of River Falls 1854 Monte Diamond (Diamond Bluff), town of Diamond Bluff 1854 Saratoga, town of Isabelle 1855 River Falls (Greenwood and Fremont), town of River Falls 1856 Maiden Rock, town of Maiden Rock 1856 Warren, town of Maiden Rock 1856 Trimbelle, town of Trimbelle 1856 Franklin, town of Trimbelle 1856 Martell (Rising Sun), town of Martell 1856 Beldenville, town of Trimbelle 1857 Trenton, town of Trenton 1857 Plum City, town of Union 1858 El Paso, town of El Paso 1858 Esdaile, town of Hartland 1870 Rock Elm, town of Rock Elm Centre 1876 Hogan, town of Trenton 1886 Bay City, town of Isabelle 1887 ORGANIZATION OF TOWNS. The following is the chronological order in which the towns of Pierce county were organized: Prescott[B]. 1853 Greenwood (now River Falls) 1854 Martell 1854 Isabelle 1855 Trimbelle 1855 Diamond Bluff 1855 Clifton 1855 Oak Grove 1856 Perry (Ellsworth) 1856 Spring Valley (Maiden Rock) 1857 Trenton 1857 El Paso 1858 Hartland 1859 Union 1861 Salem 1862 Rock Elm 1862 Deerfield (Gilman) 1868 Spring Lake 1868 CLIFTON, Situated in the northwestern part of the county, contains a little over thirty full sections of land, those on the St. Croix having a somewhat irregular boundary. The surface is somewhat broken where traversed by the Kinnikinic and its tributaries. It includes twenty-four sections on the west side of township 27, range 19, and fractional township 27, range 20. It was established in 1855. Its first board of officers were: Supervisors--Geo. W. McMurphy, chairman; Osborne Strahl and G. W. Teachout. C. B. Cox was the first postmaster, in 1852, at a place called Clifton Mills, from which the town afterward derived its name. This post town is situated on the