EARLY SETTLERS
Pages 1021-1081
"HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY"
Compiled by Dr. L. H. Bunnell
Published Chicago by H. H. Hill, Publishers, 1884
Republished Currently by Higginson Books
Drury & Kirns (page 1027), lumbermen. The business of this firm consists in towing lumber, and from the date of its establishment in 1878, until the commencement of the towing season in 1883, they were engaged in towing from the Eau Claire mills in Wisconsin to points as far down the river as St. Louis. Operations were conducted by floating the materials for these rafts (dimensions, timbers, boards, lath and shingles) down the Chippewa to this point, where they were coupled into rafts containing from two million to three million feet of stuff, exclusive of the top load, shingles and lath, and from this point towed down the Mississippi. Since the beginning of the present season, floating down the Chippewa has been discontinued, and their operations are coupling rafts at this place and towing down the river. They have at present two boats in their trade, the J. G. Chapman and the Lizzie Gardner, and with a good stage of water the round trip is made from here to St. Louis and return in about twelve days. Last year the company kept three boats on the river, but the other, the Peter Kirns, was sold to the United States and is now used in the government improvement works on the loser Mississippi, at Plums Point, Louisiana. The rafter J. G. Chapman was built expressly for the company, at Metropolis, Ohio, in 1880, and cost twenty thousand dollars. Her dimensions are, length over all one hundred and forty-five, beam twenty-eight feet, hold four feet. She has a full cabin, has two steel boilers, and her engines are of fourteen-inch bore, with six-foot stroke. The Lizzie Gardner was purchased in 1880 at Cincinnati, Ohio, to replace their iron steamer, J. G. Chapman, which was sunk at the mouth of the Illinois river in the month of June, 1880. The Gardner cost seven thousand dollars. She is one hundred and thirty-five feet over all, twenty-two feet beam, double boilers, and her engines are fourteen-inch bore, with five-foot stroke. The company finds constant employment for their boats, and including boats; crews and raftsmen employ a force of about sixty men during the season. Their operations aggregate a total tonnage of sixty million feet of lumber during the season, exclusive of what is designated top load, lath, pickets and shingles. The members of the firm are M. E. Drury and Peter Kirns.
The J.G. Chapman
"Before the day of railroads great importance attached to the coming and going of these river steamers, which formed the only connection with the outside world. The familiar whistle of a steamboat would frequently cause a stampede even from the church service or prayer meeting, particularly if it was the first boat of the season."
Page 118
Tenney & Evans (page 1041), meat market and dealers in hides, pelts, live stock, etc. This business was established on Second street, same block as now occupied, in 1890, by Tenney and Florer. Six months afterward it was Jacob Tenney, and so continued until 1872, when it became Tenney Brothers, Jos. Tenney taking an interest, and was removed to the present loccation on the east side of Pembroke street, two doors north of Second. The firm continued as Tenney Brothers until 1875, when Joseph sold out to J. H. Evans, the firm becoming Tenney & Evans, and so continuing. The sales of this market are from four to six beeves a week, and from four to seven carcasses of calves and sheep, each, for the same period. They handle from three hundred to six hundred hides, and from two hundred to three hundred pelts each season. They have a tract of three hundred and twenty acres of sand prairie, on which they keep from seventy to eighty head of cattle. Their slaughterhouses are in South Wabasha beyond the residence limits of the city. The members of the firm are Jacob Tenney and J. H. Evans.
Joseph Meyer (page 1056), manufacturer and dealer in boots and shoes, Main street, south side, midway between Alleghaney and Pembroke streets. This business was established by Mr. Meyer in 1859, on Pembroke street, south of Main. In 1871 he purchased the lot he now occupies, fronting thirty feet on Main, and erected a two-story brick building 30x46. The east half of the lower story is his shoeshop, with workshop in the rear. The west half is the city council room and recorder's office. The upper story Mr. Meyer occupies as his dwelling. Joseph Meyer is a native of Westphalia, Prussia, learned his trade there, and followed it until 1856, when he came to America, and the same season settled in Hastings, Minnesota, where he remained until 1859, and then located in this city. He married Miss Henrietta Clouse. They have four children, two attending city school: Amelia, born October 18, 1864; William, born July 17, 1870; Bertie, born January 26, 1873; Lucy, born June 30, 1881.
S. Hirschy & Son, C. C. (page 1058), general merchants, Hirschy's Block corner Main and Pembroke streets. The business of the firm is managed by C. C. Hirschy, the "Son" of the firm. C. C. Hirschy was born in this city March 20, 1859; was educated here and in St. Paul, finishing his course in the business college in that city in 1880. He then entered the engineer department of the St. Paul & Manitoba railway, and was there until the fall of 1882, when he returned to this city and assumed charge of the business he is now so successfully managing. This business, established April 1, 1882, occupies the corner storeroom of the block, which was erected by S. Hirschy in 1874. The block fronts fifty feet on Main street and one hundred and ten feet on Pembroke. It is a substantial two-story and basement brick and stone structure, the side walls of the first seventy feet along Pembroke street rising forty-six feet above the water-table. The second story of this portion of the block is finished and furnished as a public hall. This hall is 50x70 feet, and has a seating capacity of five hundred, the ceilings being twenty-one feet between joists. The storeroom occupied by Hirschy & Son fronts twenty-five feet on Main street, seventy feet on Pembroke, with entrances on both. They carry a full stock of general merchandise, employ five clerks, and keep one wagon for the delivery of goods.
Hirschy Hall
C. F. Young & Brothers (page 1072), clothiers, Lake City. The success of this firm is an example of the results of energy and perseverance. In 1865 C. F. Young opened a general store here, and afterward began to deal exclusively in clothing. In 1873 he built a large store on the site of the firm's present building - corner of Center and Main streets. In September, 1877, his brother, Henry H., bought a share in business, and in the spring of 1884, Charles Koch became a partner. In the great fire of April, 1882, the building and stock were completely consumed, inflicting a loss of $45,000, of which $20,000 was made good by insurance. In the summer of 1883 their present handsome structure was erected, at a cost of about $8,000. It is 48x85 feet in dimension, two stories high, with basement under all, walls of solid masonry and fire-proof roof. It is the finest store in the city, and in it is displayed the largest and most varied stock of goods in their line to be found here. A wing, 22x20, is used exclusively as a tailor-shop. A large stock of ready-made goods is carried, with a profusion of both gents' and ladies' furnishings, Butterick's patterns, etc. Including tailors, from sixteen to eighteen people are employed by Messrs. Young to assist them in their business.
John Bradley Miller; George B. Franklin; Joseph Dieterich; Thomas Mateer; Charles G. Dawley; Scott A. Foster; John Schwirtz; Elizabeth Eichenberger; W. L. Lincoln, M.D.; John Gardiner; James Henry; S. H. Gaylord; Hon. Frank L. Meachum; Matthias Baustert; James Riley Mack; Theodore Maire; George C. Everett; James Arnold; Addin Johnson Cliff; Joseph J. Cliff; Samuel Radebaugh; Namon C. Radebaugh; Lewis Y. Lenhart; Henry K. Terrell; William J. Jacobs; David Corbin Estes; James Cain; Walter McNallan; John H. Robinson; G. W. Tenney; Charles F. Tryon; H. N. Smith; H. J. Whitmore; E. J. Dugan; Herman Lawson; Alpheus Winslow Heath; Henry Clay Heath; Leonard Pryor; Orrin E. Boughton; Benjamin Boughton; John Darcey; Joel B. Sheldon; Charles M. Boutelle; Charles Herbert Boutelle; Ansel T. Fox; Andrew Bailey; Geo. W. Akers; Hon. George R. Hall; Thomas McDonough; Henry C. Woodruff; Edward Nash; George Wilson; William Duffus; Henry Martin; Augustus Charley; James Howat; John Schad; John Howat; Fred Anding; L. Townsend; John H. Lewis; Samuel Hirschy; Samuel Robinson; Henry C. Brant; Charles Early; Enos B. Raymond; O. P. Carruth; Henry S. Smith; Nelson B. Smith; Henry Roff; William A. Helt; Daniel Metzgar; Charles Forrest; Thomas Heath Megroth; John O'Brien; Alexander Selover; Peter Selover; Henry Selover; Rev. Silas Hazlett; Alonzo T. Guernsey; C. F Young; Anson Pierce; W. H. Campbell; Hon. John F. Pope; Henry Albert Stevens; Marcus Carson; Marcus A. Humphrey; Charles M. Colby; John Disney; John C. Schmidt; Loyal D. Colby and Colin Sinclair.
