Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom
1850. Through untiring industry and honorable dealing he has secured a
1254 words | Chapter 54
sufficiency for life, a handsome farm and good buildings. A large
family has grown up around him, and have settled in the county.
GILMAN JEWELL came from New Hampshire; was married in New Hampshire
and came to the West in 1847. He settled on a farm near St. Croix
Falls. He died in 1869. Mrs. Jewell died January, 1888. One son,
Philip, resides on the homestead. Ezra, another son, resides at the
Falls. The other members of the family have moved elsewhere.
ELISHA CREECH was born in West Virginia, 1831. He came to St. Croix
Falls in 1849, and was married to Mary M. Seeds in 1863. They have
four children. Mr. Creech has been engaged much of his life in
lumbering. Through industry and temperate habits he has made a good
farm and a pleasant home.
JAMES W. MCGLOTHLIN was born in Kentucky; came to St. Croix Falls in
1846, and engaged successfully in sawing lumber at the St. Croix mill
in 1846 and 1847, but in 1848 rented the mill, being sustained by
Waples & Co., of Dubuque, Iowa, but by reason of bad management, he
failed and left the valley in 1849. He afterward went to California,
where he met a tragic fate, having been murdered by his teamster.
ANDREW L. TUTTLE.--Mr. Tuttle came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, and was
engaged many years as a lumberman and as keeper of a boardinghouse. He
settled on his farm at Big Rock in 1856, where he made himself a
comfortable home. He went to Montana in 1865, and died there in 1873.
Mrs. Tuttle still resides at the homestead, an amiable woman, who has
acted well her part in life. One of her daughters is married to Wm. M.
Blanding. One son, Eli, died in 1883, another son, Henry, died in
Montana. Perly, John and Warren are settled near the homestead.
JOHN WEYMOUTH was born at Clinton, Maine, in 1815, and came to St.
Croix Falls in 1846, where he followed lumbering and made himself a
beautiful home on the high hill overlooking the two villages of St.
Croix Falls and Taylor's Falls. By frugality and industry Mr. Weymouth
has accumulated a competence. He was married in St. Croix Falls in
1850, to Mary McHugh. One son, John, is married to Miss Ramsey, of
Osceola, and a daughter, Mary J., is married to Samuel Harvey, of St.
Croix Falls.
B. W. REYNOLDS, a tall, thin, stoop-shouldered man of eccentric
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
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