Dunn County Wisconsin History

Not so much of a history tale as it is a brief timeline. This post is in two short parts because it seemed it should be this way. It started out because of a posting on the efforts being done to 'clean up' Galloway Creek in Menomonie. I wondered how it got its name and there seemed no reference to it. I also thought of the many times these cleanup projects have been done/started and what happened in between. So, I thought I'd venture into the research and here is how it came together. I hope it will provoke some thought, maybe some discussion but most of all an awareness and appreciation for the third largest waterway in Menomonie. Galloway Creek, Menomonie Part 1: Anyone who has lived or spent any quality time in our fair section of Wisconsin is quite aware that the people of Dunn County enjoy keeping secrets! There is indeed solid foundation for our quiet whispers and recorded history to be tucked away. Many of those unspoken words and hidden secrets lie in the beauty tha...

First of a series being written about our almost forgotten dance with the red clay! Brickyards of Menomonie Part 1: Billions upon Billions of bricks followed in the footsteps of the great lumber industry in America. The building industry readily latched onto the relatively cheap and fire-resistant material and as its popularity grew, so did the look, texture, color and sizes of the product. Brick is ancient, relatively easy to make and requires few ingredients. Dunn County not only had the pineries for lumber, the sandstone for large, impressive buildings, but also contains a wealth of the materials needed to make bricks. The rich vein of clay spreads from here to the St. Croix River and surprisingly contains the layers of sand necessary for mixing with the clay to make great bricks! The water resources here are plentiful and before cheap coal came along, the dross from the lumber mills provided fuel to fire the massive kilns that occupied the west side of the Red Cedar River. ...

I had hoped to have this up by the Fourth of July, but as things go, they are. Here is a side trip from the brickyard research. The cannon that disappeared from downtown long ago. Herstory, if you will indulge me. Many of you will remember an old cannon with many layers of gray paint in Downtown Menomonie. The cannon resided on a wheeled gun carriage and later a solid concrete mount. The cannon sat alongside the flagpole, between the Mabel Tainter Memorial building and the Post Office. The cold gray beast is gone without ceremony, but it has a colorful and historical ‘record,’ so I had a desire to find the truth, separate the legends from fact and finally tell the interesting tale of the bronze model 1841 6PDR #426. Menomonie was getting its feet under itself when the Civil War broke out. Eliza Wilson had made her plea to the men of the town that they should stand up for their country and join the fight to keep it united. In 1861 she marched off with the men she had recruited fulf...

  On the southwest edge of Downsville, Wisconsin lies an old cemetery abandoned long ago. Pawnell Cemetery dates to the early settlement of Downsville in the mid 1800's and for the better part of my youth was broken, untended and mostly forgotten. The cemetery is quite sizable with plenty of space for burials in a pleasant area overlooking what was to be the main part of town if it had ever chanced to grow. For some unknown reason Pawnell was forsaken and two other cemeteries took its place. The Township of Dunn has taken over the care and mowing of the cemetery and has revived its dignity if not its purpose. As you come up the old roadway to the cemetery and reach the top you will find a small number of headstones clustered together near the driveway. A large pine shelters quite a number of the markers and the rest fade away to the large unused portion, an empty field once awaiting loved ones. There is nothing remarkable at Pawnell, just another collection of lost souls and loved ...

Thomas Parker rests on the top of the highest point in Evergreen Cemetery, Menomonie, Wisconsin. One solitary Civil War marker: Lieut Thos Parker Co D 20 USC Inf. is all it says. A non-descript standard issue War Department headstone with nothing more than the basics of a mans life. Lieutenant Thomas Parker does not rest here alone, three of his children lie near his side. His fourth child rests elsewhere as does his wife Susan. The three children that rest here have only the fathers headstone to speak for them in a family plot that contains no other markers. Lieutenant Parker has a marker that begins to tells his extraordinary tale but falls far short of his amazing brilliance and outstanding service. There are numerous holes in his life's story but what I can fill in is quite a tale. Thomas was born in Maine 1832 and his next 30 years of growing up are yet a mystery to be solved. In 1862, he was living in Red Cedar Township, Dunn County, Wisconsin and on August 14th, 1862 he sign...

LaCrosse, Wisconsin and the trial, an aside to Mag and Jim. While the city of LaCrosse awaited the trial of James Carter and Margaret Wheeler with all of its titillating details and rabid excitement, the busy city continued on it’s usual course. LaCrosse was founded in 1841 when a New York native by the name of Nathan Myrick came from New York to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin to work in the fur trade. With a great many fur traders already well-established there, Myrick decided to establish a trading post upriver at the then still unsettled site of Prairie La Crosse. In 1841, he built a temporary trading post on Barron Island (now called Pettibone Park), just west of present day La Crosse. The following year, Myrick relocated the post to the mainland prairie and partnered with H. J. B. Miller to run the business. This new location proved an ideal location for a new settlement at the confluence of the Black, LaCrosse and Mississippi rivers below the great bluffs rising behind it. By 1855 L...

While Jim Carter spent his days in Waupun prison Mag Wheeler was held in sheriffs custody at Eau Claire, comparatively free from the closed in walls she left behind. Mag arrived back in Eau Claire on April 3rd 1869 after she served nearly 22 months of her life sentence. Mag was basically on parole promising not to escape and was given a temporary home in the unoccupied sheriffs residence. She retained her old lawyer Meggett to clear up her estate and began to prepare for her new trial at Pepin. She sold off her interests and paid Meggett for his past work while awaiting what was to come. Somehow through all these years, the love founded so long ago across so much tragedy survived and without warning one day in June, Mag had a visitor. Richard Doyle, the handsome young apprentice on the steamboat reappeared. Richard and Mag rekindled their love as he visited her over the next few weeks. Richard was anxious to attain Mag's freedom and in late August, Mag retained a new lawyer who pre...