A DESCRIPTION OF

CLARK COUNTY, WISCONSIN

Clark County is bounded on the east by the counties of Wood and Marithon (sic, Marathon); on the north by Chippewa; on the west by Chippewa, Eau Claire and Jackson, and on the south by Jackson.  It includes townships twenty-three to thirty-one, and range one east, and from one to four west inclusive, less one township in the south-west corner, making in all forty-four sectional townships. The soil will ore than average with any county on either side of it.  The whole county is more or less covered with dense forests of heavy timber (including all the valuable woods that grow in this climate) except where it has been cut down for lumbering purposed, and to clear the land for farms.  The Black River runs through the whole length of the county, taking within its borders a large part of what is known as the Black River Pinery.  There are five other streams, which empty into the main river, with in the county, all large enough for lumbering purposes, to wit: Wedge’s Creek on the west, East Fork Cunningham Creek, Cawley’s Creek, Rock River and Popple River on the east.

Since its organization, Clark county has been sub-divided into nine incorporations, or towns, to wit: Lewis (sic), Grant, Lynn, Pine Valley, Mentor, Western (sic), Loyal, Eaton and Beaver.

Probably no county in the state has raised a larger amount of money for roads, and more judiciously laid out the same, than has Clark county.  It has made, in one continuous line up the main river, over fifty miles of turnpike, at an expense of nearly one thousand dollars, per mile; besides seventeen and a half miles from Humbird to Neillsville, at almost an equal expense per mile; taking out all the trees, big and little, root and branch, the whole width a legal road.  The bridges have cost many thousands of dollars, independent of the cost of the remainder of said roads.  These roads constitute the main thoroughfares into and through the county.  But there are other roads, and good ones, too, that lead from the main line back into the several towns, for the accommodation of quite an extensive farming district.

One thing is particularly noticeable in the county, that is the substantial character of the farm buildings and a general attempt at neatness.  Although a wilderness, as it were, you will find and enterprising look about the premises of even the poorest farmer.  For thirty miles above Cunningham Creek, on the main road, there can be found more and better farm buildings, in one continuous thirty miles, than can be found in the same distance west of the Wisconsin River to the state line, excluding villages that may come within that distance.  The advantages derived from the extensive lumbering interest, by the farmers, is the secret of their wonderful success, as nothing that the farmer has raised, but has brought the highest price, with ready sale, and, invariably, good pay.

Central Wisconsin railroad, running, as it does, through about twenty-five miles of the northeast part of the county, has opened a manufacturing business, that, in no distant day, will rival the older portions of the state. There are already some extensive saw mills in operation, doing a large business.

The real settlement of the county commenced in 1853-4, although there were a few scattering settlers, on or near the main river, many years before that.  During 1854-5-6, many new families came in, and dropped on to claims, here and there, through the county, where the best locations for easy made farms could be got, sometimes taking the remains of some deserted logging camp for their house, as in almost every instance they were poor, and entirely dependent for their support upon wages received from lumbermen engaged on the river.

In 1856-7, many of the settlers were reduced to almost a point of starvation, or emigration.  Long will those years be remembered by them.  They had just got their heads above water, so they could look ahead with hopes of once more living upon their own farms, without being compelled to earn their daily food by other employments, as in times past, when those hard times came on, and almost discouraged the entire population of the county.  Wages dropped down to mere nothing, and when money was received, there was no certainty of its being worth fifty per cent of its face, when they got to where they desired to invest it for the necessaries of life, or in payment on their lands.  It often became worthless in a day.  A friend of mine received his winter’s wages, and went to La Crosse for the purpose of paying for his land, but was compelled to borrow money to get home, as his whole winter’s work had vanished into nothingness.  But those days passed away; as their clouds disappeared, better times followed, and from that time to the present, Clark county has been making steady progress.

The facilities for getting to and from the outside world are excellent, as it has one of the best turn-pike roads found in the West, running three-fourths of the entire length of the county, near the river; the Central Wisconsin Railway in the northeast portion; the West Wisconsin Railway passing the southwest portion, and the Green Bay and Mississippi Railway running east and west, on or near the entire south line of the county, giving it all the advantages desired for the transportation of commodities.

The peculiar location of business, in the various portions of the county, has naturally started up four business centers, Humbird, a young, but thriving village, on the West Wisconsin; Neillsville, the first business center, and the county seat; Greenwood, a young, but thriving village, brought into existence from a necessary demand for a business place near the center of farming and lumbering interests of the county; and Loyal.  Loyal is a little business center, in the midst of one of the more thickly populated farming portions of the county, and was named after the organized town, to which it belongs.  The enterprising men of this place, are: R. F. Wells & Brother, who own and run a hotel and store: J. C. Guinn, dealer in general merchandise; and H. C. Hartford, owner of a steam saw mill.  Its location is east of Greenwood, it being two sectional townships; the eastern boundry of which runs to the east line of the county.  Besides Neillsville, Humbird and Greenwood, which are described elsewhere, there are two points on the Central railway, in the north-eastern part of the county, which, though but little stations to-day, will some day, be places of note, viz: Brighton and Salem.  They are name-sakes of cities which, of course, carry with them, a notoriety, first, for being the largest market in the world, and the other for its old Puritanical witchcraft.

In an educational point of view, this county is fully up to the times.  In every nook and corner, where there are children, there are school houses for them.  This subject will be more fully noticed in the various sketches of the business centers of the county, which will appear in this number of the SKETCH BOOK.

Clark county presents but little of its true merits to the stranger passing through it.  But when we take into consideration the immense natural wealth that is in this large pinery, together with the exhaustless amount of the best kind of hard wood timber, the susceptibility of the soil to farming purposes, after the timber is exhausted; its advantages of good roads, already substantially made, and its railroads on three sides of it, it must be admitted that Clark county stands a fair chance of ranking with the best counties in Wisconsin, at no distant day.---SAM

Source: The American Sketch Book by Bella French.