Community
Histories
Settlement
and Early History of Minong
Written by Josiah Bond,
Jr.
Transcribed from the Washburn
County
Register (Shell Lake) 11 Mar 1905
Donated
by Timm
Severud
I have been asked to give
a few details of early settlement of the place and in a way start an
old
settler's meeting, which may be continued from year to year and made
hereafter
an annual source of pleasure to all our people young and old and young
settlers as well as old settlers. It is a little difficult to do this,
as so many of the early scenes that would be particularly interesting
have
faded away in clouded remembrance while many things that would not be
of
any interest whatever stand out in bold relief; as is only natural from
the varying moods of life, and the ever changing aspect of things in a
new and unsettled country. I am prone to remember the three trips I
made
here before I took my claim and some of the conditions we had to face
then
may be of some interest to you.
The first time was in the
summer of 1888. I had been pretty familiar with the general surface
features
of Douglas County for a few years before that having been over the
county
in different directions and mostly on foot by wagon, so that I had an
opportunity
of seeing at my leisure the various natural advantages and had found
many
beautiful spots, when it was proposed by my old friend Mr. Robert B.
McLean
to come down here and look around and see how I liked this. He had been
an engineer on what was generally known as the 'Air Line' a railroad
that
was being built in 1880 and had camped at Beaver Dam, on Shell Creek
near
the old county road crossing, several weeks and had thought well of the
country. So acting on his advice I determined to come down here on July
day. The 'Omaha' road was then known as the Northern Wisconsin Line,
which
was built as nearly on the survey of the old 'Air Line' as possible
(you
can see the 'Air Line' clearing for right of way adjoining the present
track) was then newly built and when on schedule time the trains used
to
leave Superior, which was their northern terminus then, at 6 o'clock in
the morning and get into St. Paul a 11 o'clock that night and back the
next day on the same time. But the morning I came out the train had not
arrived from St. Paul in time to start out and when they did come in,
all
hands had to get something to eat and feed the engine so that it was
nearly
9 o'clock when we got started. It took about three and a half hours to
run the fifty miles, because the road was in terrible shape especially
at the northern end. In fact it was so bad just before this a short
flat
car had run its fore wheels over a culvert and the culvert was up on
the
grade having been put in solidly, while the fill on each side had
settle
so that when the fore wheels of the car dropped over the culvert and
the
car just fitted and would not move either way and the train, which
stopped
pretty suddenly, had to wait right there until the crew ballasted up
the
track a foot or so on the rear side of the culvert. Of course the worst
places had been fixed, but the company had been in such a hurry to get
their road done in time to earn the land grant, that in some places no
road had been built at all, just the ties strung along the ground and
rails
strung on them, so that as a matter of fact it was the worst piece of
railroad
I ever traveled over. But we got down here at last. The old
tote
road crossed the track, where the station now is now and the place was
known as 'Frog Creek Tote Road' and was so entered in the books. So at
the Frog Creek Tote Road I got off and after eating a lunch, I went
through
about two miles of land on either side of the track, went up to the
little
lake at the head of Shell Creek and was very much pleased with the
location.
The next fall I came down to Gordon and drove out the Totogatic River
where
Gilmore Lake enters into it and stayed over night with Mr. Partlow
Miles
who was thinking of making a settlement there, but had not fully made
up
his mind to it when I was there and I think did not file on his present
claim until several years afterward, though his house now stands where
the old one stood and in fact and an enlargement of the old one. This
occasion
I remember because I had a hunting companion shot me through the hat
and
spoiled the day for me. There in the winter following I came down to
look
over the land here to see if any one had taken it and found on my
present
claim a small hut, which I found out afterward was built by some
hunters
that fall, but I came near to giving up the land, as I thought someone
else intended to take it, but just as I was leaving the place I saw an
old Indian, who I learned afterwards was Otiah, who told me that the
fellows
who built the hut had gone away and were not coming back. Mr. Bryan
Kimball
came down with me on that trip and he also concluded to take a claim,
which
he held for many years living there steadily for five and a half, and
which
adjoins the village on the south where Mr. Randall now lives. We went
over
to the land office to file on this land and we both files under the
Homestead
Act.
On this last trip it was
very cold and the food we brought with us froze up solid, but we
managed
to make out a lunch, which we needed bad enough as we had to walk from
Lakeside, and went up to the Frog Creek Dam while we were here. There
had
been built early that winter by Jim Lane, a logger on a large scale, a
log cabin at the station, which was now called by the name of O'Brien's
warehouse and he brought Alexis LaPraie, an old half breed Indian who
had
served in the Union Army during the war, from Chengwatona to look after
his supplies. But when we came here that time he was not there and we
did
not see him; but when we came down in the spring he was here and he
stayed
about here until he died two years ago. The old log cabin in which he
lived
during the first few years was torn down after a while, but the
warehouse,
which gave the place the name it then bore is still here, but by the
looks
of it will not remain much longer, and probably within a short time
will
be replaced by a station building that will help the looks at that end
of the village.
When we came down in the
spring there was a side track here and we got our lumber for house
building
switched off and unloaded, but immediately afterwards the side track
was
taken out, and when we brought our furniture and stock down we came to
Lakeside in the evening and had to wait there all night, until the
morning
freight came by, which brought us up here and waited while we unloaded
the car for which we had to get that night, special orders. That time
we
brought our lumber was early in the spring and there were no horses in
the country, but I borrowed a yoke of cattle and a sled and on a small
flurry of snow, which feel one night and went off the next noon, I
brought
over the heavy stuff, but all the siding, shingles and a great many
things
we carried on our backs or on a wheel borrow, which at time made pretty
slow work of it. The building of our house and the work of getting
settled
and getting a little hay meadow cleaned up on which we cut about 20
tons
of hay, occupied us all that summer, but I remember having a fine
watermelon
that year and some other good vegetables. After we got settled we
traveled
all over the country trying to get acquainted with it. We had three
horses,
two cows, a colt and several calves and such was the sense of
loneliness
that fell upon the animals, that when we hitched up the team and
started
off anywhere the other horse, the colt, the cows, calves and dog and
many
times the cat would come along as if afraid to stay at the home and it
was very amusing to see the cavalcade, which on one of the old tote
roads
would stretch out a quarter of a mile and when ever we would start off
through the woods, which we had to do often to see the country, they
would
close right up and keep as near together as possible. But this feeling
wore off gradually and by the next summer it was as hard to keep them
together,
as it was that year to drive them away. One thing I noticed in those
early
days was almost the entire absence of songbirds and the usual house and
farm birds. There were crows, jays, herons, eagles, and such birds of
prey,
but of the partially domesticate birds, there were not a one; all that
are here now have come here in the wake of settlers. After taking out
the
sidetrack as I have said it became somewhat difficult for passengers to
get off here. Some times while we had no trouble ourselves to get here,
strangers would be put off at Lakeside, where there was a long passing
track and which was a 'Flag Station' or at Gordon or at the water
tower.
It all depended on what the conductor had for breakfast. I am afraid
they
sometimes forgot their duties as common carriers and put the public to
as much inconvenience as possible. So far as I was concerned I have
always
found the trainmen of this road obliging and unless they had their
tempers
upset by something else courteous also. The first fall we lived here,
the
fall of 1886, Mr. James Wolfe came here on a hunting expedition and
like
the country so well decided to move here, which he did the next year in
September. Mr. Dave Goodwin had been here that same fall and fixed up a
house in which he lived that winter. Mr. Wolfe while up there suffered
severely from a toothache, improvised a blacksmith's shop, made a pair
of forceps and pulled his tooth with it, which was a fair sample of the
way things had to be done when a man had the grit and ingenuity to do
them.
That winter was the winter of the great snow; 96 inches of snow feel.
It
lay in February four feet deep on the level, the first of April, 1887,
the snow was 30 inches deep in the openings and even deeper in the
woods
and did not all go until nearly the first of June. One of the tote
teams
traveled a road by my house all winter and in April got stuck on the
top
of a stump 17 inches high over which they had their track all the time
without knowing it.
A post office was established
here in the early winter of 1886 by its present name and all the logger
got their mail here and kept the main tote roads open fairly well.
There
were: Mr. Lane logging up on Little Frog Creek, just south of where
Dick
Elder now lives; Fred Pennington at the head of Little Frog; Lloyd
&
Carlson between the two on the north bank of Sink Creek; Sauntry
Pennington
and Tozer on Pokegama Lake and at and near Lakeside.
Mr. Squires came in and
ran a shingle mill at Lakeside, employing four or five men and of the
settlers
there was a Mr. Goodvin and Mr. Wolfe part of the time and Mr. Miles
who
from the fact that he had family ties at Gordon, never came here in the
early days and it was not until we got a town organized that he seemed
to be one of us.
The great quantities of
snow that winter kept every body more or less locked up as it was
impossible
to travel anywhere but on the roads used every day or on snowshoes. The
weather had been beautiful that fall and there was no more snow than in
an ordinary year up to Christmas, the first snow coming on November
20th,
but the day after Christmas it snowed dreadfully and after that to the
early part of February it would snow two or three days and then get
cold,
going down most of the time to 30 to 40 degrees below zero and then as
soon as it warmed up to zero weather and would commence to snow again.
February was pleasant as could be with all the snow, but in March again
it snowed such snows as have never been known since. The afternoon
train
after New Years which was due about three o'clock, only came in twice
by
daylight until the middle of March, the rest of the time arriving from
supper to breakfast time and after the great blizzard of March 2nd, I
believe
we were two days without seeing a train. All the loggers here dropped
money,
but when the snow went away it made a great logging stage on all the
rivers
and Mr. Lane put a drive of six million feet of logs out of Frog Creek
without shutting down a dam and drove his rear under the railroad
bridge
the first Sunday in May. Just as the last snow, Mr. Goodvin's family
arrived
by sled after a hard trip and settled where he has since lived. In the
spring Mr. Wolfe went back and came in early fall with his family and
settled
down on his present place. Shortly after Johnny Goodvin brought up his
wife he went to work building himself a house on the forty where
Achitonio
now lives. That summer was warm and noted for the beautify crop of
berries,
not since equaled and there were at many times as many as a hundred
Indians
here picking blueberries. Of these, old man Otiah, who died three years
afterwards and Chicaug, lived here permanently, while the rest of them
came from the reservation. The Indians were a yearly visitation and the
better the crop the more numerous they came. Owing to the poor crop
lately,
they have fallen off greatly and the time will soon come when we shall
see no more of them.
That fall of 1887 Lan Severns
came up and looked over the country, picked out a claim, and brought up
his family the next spring.
The next spring I was up
in Superior one day when I met Judge Clough and he urged me to go down
in the spring and vote for Judge. This was just before the spring
election
and we knew nobody we could write to get the information we wanted, so
after talking it over, Mr. Kimball and I started off to find out
polling
place on the night before the election. We had somehow the idea that we
should vote at Spooner, so went down on the night train and found about
half the town out and engaged in a spirited fight for town officers in
what was called the town of Bashaw, which included both Shell Lake and
Spooner in fact the whole south half of the county. The north half
formed
the town of Veazie and we belonged to that. All this we found out
afterwards,
because that night everybody we asked either did not know or thought we
were guying them and would not give us any aid at all. And it was by
the
merest chance that I across a railroad man I had know who introduced me
to George Tozer, who gave me the information we wanted, at least as to
where we should vote. So we caught the special in the early morning and
got to Mills then known as Superior Junction. From there we walked to
the
town house about a mile away, and near the dam on the Namekagon River.
He we voted. There was a big hot fight that spring between Judge R. D.
Marshall and Judge William P. Swift for the circuit bench, and a rather
tame town election, the only fight being over the erection of a bridge
to be put over the Namekagon, which was quite spirited for the moment.
One of our greatest difficulties
in the early days was the lack of fresh meat. Everybody had tried to
keep
a little bit on hand but it was a hard thing to do, as we had no
conveniences
and while we got along well enough in the winter when we could freeze a
side of a cow or pig, in the hot summers with no ice it could not be
done.
But at the time the railroad right of way was not fenced and a stray ox
or more would get killed by the cars. The first year there was a whole
drove run down by a freight near Shell Creek and if I remember rightly
six of them were killed. And then the deer would run on the track and
get
killed, or hunted, (it was against the law to hunt them in the summer.)
They were attracted by the dry sand and the little breeze in the
clearing,
so that we could get one of them often to prevent us from going meat
hungry
and a good many of the deer we injured must have run right off up the
tote
road for I never heard of Wolfe or Goodvin going without a decent
supply
of venison in those early days. The spring of the great snow we caught
a very large buck hung over a down pine a rod or two from the road and
almost dead. By hard work we put him in our sled box, brought him down
to the barn and kept him until the snow had partial gone and he was
able
to travel, when we turned him out. He used to come and feed on the
refuse
around the barn for two summers but after that he came no more, and was
probably killed. Several of us tried to bring up fawns of which were
found
in the spring, but it was a good deal of care and they would generally
get so tame as to be a nuisance, and get killed by some stranger on
account
of their tameness. I had one once that got in the habit of going to all
the neighbors for a piece of bread or a potato and would run right in
the
house if the door was open and if not would stand on the step and cry
until
somebody let it in and to get it out of the house it was necessary to
take
a stick to it. This was great deer country in those days and it was a
great
feat to raise a crop of cabbages of which they are inordinately fond on
account of eating in the patch every night after discovering it. They
like
sweet corn too, and would come in my corn by the dozens and you could
hear
them snort and playing around any clear night. It would have
been
very easy to slaughter them if one had been so minded.
The second Fourth of July,
1888 was spent in a picnic at Frog Creek, at D. R. Goodvin's house and
while the gathering was small it was enthusiastic.
That fall several Indian
families came in and we endeavored to get a school for them. Got a
school
district set off, but the board would not establish a school for Indian
children and we got none that year.
That fall Mr. Louis Desroisers
came up and finding a claim to suit him filed and brought up his family
the following year. Mr. Hopkins moved in the same summer and put in a
small
mill on Shell Creek near Matt Dimmick's house and sawed out several
thousand
feet of pine, which was all used in the neighborhood. The next year
1889,
with the coming of the Derosier family we had quite a neighborhood and
on the 4th we had a dance in my barn, which was just finished. There
were
present all hands amounting if I remember seventeen of the settlers and
three or four strangers. One of these strangers drove through the
McKenzie
settlement on his way down and told Mr. Meredith who was living there
then,
that, 'this was the greatest country he ever saw; the settlers would
take
an ox team and drive 60 miles to a dance, being on the road overnight
each
way.' And this he said had happened at Minong when he was driving
through.
This was manifestly an exaggeration, but it cannot be denied that there
is nothing to prevent it; our people did like to dance, which in my
mind
has always been a good sign too. The same fall we had school for the
first
time with Miss Nellie Soule of South Range as teacher, and we have had
a school here ever since. Among our teachers was Miss Nellie Niles who
has since accepted a better and more permanent position, and who I will
trust be with us many years.
The next spring, 1890, and
summer a number of families moved here - Mrs. Holten and Jonathan Dean
who kept a stopping place a number of years, both of whom have now gone
to that new country from which there is no return; the Severn boys who
came up again that year; Charles Kallener who worked on the section.
The
section house was then at the 20th mile this side of the tank in
Douglas
County, and who moved here with the section house the next year. That
summer
the first public money was spent on roadwork, and a road was made
between
here and Lakeside where we had to go for all our freight. It never was
an extra good road. The next year a new school was built at Frog Creek
where it still stands.
In the year 1891 there was
a large number of new settlers among those who took land being Jonathan
Detwiler, George Thompson, Ernie Crocker, Joseph Davis, Hans Skinvik,
Olaf
Hemingway, Fred Richard and Frank Hunter. Thompson, Crocker and Hunter
are now gone. The rest are here yet. Charlie Gardener and Hunter put in
cedar that winter and the next summer came Peter Nichols and Albert
Small
who are now here and Charles Bradford and Pat McDonough who have gone
away.
This year we also got our sidetrack put in and the section house was
moved
here or rather the Company gave their foreman permission to build his
house
here; Mr. Gus Nordholm will probably be a fixture. Among those filed on
land here in 1902 were: Walter Crocker, Hugh Detwiler and
Delano
Heath, who brought fleas here and 'who has been detested ever since;'
Edward
Goodvin, Frank Detwiler, Richard Elder, Sam Peaks, and Edward Bunnell.
In this year came Frank Parent, Thomas Clement, Alexander Egan and
numerous
others who did not take land, also K. Lewis, S.P. Fay, H.H. Meredith,
Arthur
Francis and Ben Parent. There had settled in the far eastern part of
town
even before this John Joseph, B.W. Johnson and Treod Mumson, who did
not
come here until 1896, doing there business in Hayward.
In 1893 we commenced agitating
for a township government of our own and for the purpose of helping it
on, several team loads of men with gay banners went down to Spooner to
vote a special election and make ourselves known, which led to our
getting
the new town in operation in the spring of 1894, at which point I will
leave it for someone else to take up our history hereafter.
Pioneering is in many respects
in the most delightful work in the world while in many respects it is
full
of privations and suffering endurance, and if any of the newer settlers
feel prone to complain of the conditions they should bear in mind that
those of us who came first had to wait four years for the first road
work,
five and six years for our schools and eight years for the right to
govern
ourselves. Such things come slowly, but they came just as surely as the
time will be when the gray haired old settlers will sit down in comfort
and relate to their grandchildren the hard experiences of those early
days,
which will then I suppose seem impossible, together with brighter and
some
what comical ones. All these together would fill a book or two or
three,
and I have only drawn an outline of the which will always remain with
me
as a cherished remembrance, and with good new men coming in to join
those
already here, (and they make the best neighbors I know anywhere) there
is nothing to prevent our growing into a prosperous and respected
community.