OUR EARLY HISTORY

Date: March 2 1907

Ellis B. Usher, Veteran Journalist, adds a few things.

Pine Logs 1 3-4 to thousand

Interesting letter of Isaac L. Usher about the dense forest wilderness in ’56, and of life close to nature in a little log cabin.

It is with the greatest pleasure that the Gleaner publishes this week the following from the pen of one of Wisconsin’s most eminent, versatile and veteran journalists, Ellis B. Usher, formerly of La Crosse, now of Milwaukee. The letter is not only intensely interesting, and valuable as an historical record of Clark county, but also doubly so for its influence, coming as it does at the dawn of an awakening for a more simple American life....a truer life, closer to nature, such as our sturdy, whole-souled forefathers lived.

In explanation of Mr. Usher’s "town 26" which correctly spearking (speaking) should be township 27, Harry Mead states that at that time the country up this way above Neillsville was always spoken of as "twenty-six," just as we, ourselves, now speak of the people of the "Twenty-six road," meaning that locality. He also explains that all mail then came to Neillsville, and that "Weston’s Rapids" is about two miles above Neillsville. The Hemlock dam is about four miles above Greenwood.

Mr. Usher’s letter, which is dated, Wells Building, Milwauking (Milwaukee), Wis., March 13, 1907, is as follows:

"Editor Gleaner, Greenwood, Wis: A friend of mine has sent me a copy of your paper of March 7^th, with the article, "Scene of Big Battle," marked. The Mr. Z.W. Chase mentioned, like many another pioneer who trusts to memory without verification, knows, as Josh Billings would have put it, a lot of ‘things that aint so’.

"My father, Isaac L. Usher, went to Clark county in December, 1855, as the agent of the late C.C. Washburn, and with my mother and myself (I was then a very small boy), remained there until the spring of 1856, when we followed ‘the drive’ to Onalaska, La Crosse county, and settled there. During the winter of 1855-6 my father had two camps, one (as I was told by Henry Meyers of Neillsville, three years ago) near the Hemlock dam, the other a few miles away. Meyers was on the ground in 1855, and could locate both sites. The camp furthest away from the river was run by James and Samuel KcKinley, later of West Salem, and across the road from that, our only neighbor, we spent the winter in the log cabin.

"I have a letter, written from that cabin by my father to one of his sisters in Maine. It is dated ‘Town 26 Range 2 West, Jan’y 8^th, 1856,’ and says we were living in a ‘a little log cabin 16 ft. long by 14 wide, built shed fashion, of rough logs, with the cracks stopped up with mud. The door is made like a stable door, with a wooden latch and the string always bangs outside. The floor has only three sleepers under it, so that when we walk across it, every thing shakes. When the table is set we have to circulate very carefully. Our furniture consists of one pine table, three feet long by two wide; one old cooking stove, one stump, left sticking up through the floor and cut off for a seat. (It was later used for a meat block.) One nail keg with a board on it, and one chair, my own handiwork. It is a masterpiece in its own way. The first corner of our cabin contains a barrel of water; the second is occupied for a wood shed; the third by a bed’ and the fourth for a pantry. We commenced housekeeping with a teakettle, spider, sex tin plates; three knives and forks, and one cup. We had no wash dish, so I cut one out of a stick of wood. We have since added two tin basins, a tea pot, some cups and saucers, and one or two tin dipper’s. We live on the fat of the land, which means, what we can get. We have no butter, but plenty of molasses. We have venison, pork, pheasants, and other nice things, dried peaches, apples, etc.

" ‘This country is quite a business place in the winter. The loggers are driving about in all directions. The roads are all winter roads, cut through the timber, just wide enough to let a sled pass. It is almost impossible to get in here with a team in the summer. It is a dense forest for miles and miles, without a settler. The growth is as various as in Maine; oak, maple, hickory, birch, butternut, and towering above them all, but towering only to be cut down in its greenness and glory, is the grand old pine. Tell Dr. B------ that we will put in here, this winter, six millions, that will survey about two and a half logs to the thousand feet. I surveyed about one hundred thousand the other day that averaged about one and three fourths logs to the thousand.’

"These extracts will give a glimpse of early Clark county. My mother, who had never before roughed it, always said that was the pleasantest winter of her life. She loved the forest. Our household goods had been left a La Crosse, except wearing apparel and a few bed cloths.

"My father superintended two camps, and scaled the logs, that winter. Mail was then addressed to Clark C. H.(courthouse) Clark Co. Wis. ‘Weston’s Rapids,’ headquarters of the late Samuel Weston, ("Old Sock,") who logged for the Coburns of Maine, was an important point, above Neillsville, at that time.

"Mr. Chase’s "Thomas’ Whitee should be Levi Withee, now of La Crosse. ‘Tom was a nickname he got early, as the minstrel man would say, because ‘that wasn’t his name.’ ‘Adoniron Withee, Later G. C. Hixon’s partner, two of whose sons own farms in Clark county, was Niran Haskell Withee. He was a brother of Levi. He served in the Assembly from Clark county in 1879-80. By carelessness his name has come to be printed in the Blue Book as ‘Nathan.’

"Williams T. Price was not a ‘day laborer.’ In 1855 he was practicing law in Black River Fals (Falls), and I have heard my father describe him as wearing a silk hat in which he carried his papers. ‘James Molbin’ may, perhaps, be James Malbon, afterward of La Crosse."

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On the 24th of February, 1856, Isaac L. Usher wrote as follows from his camp in the Black River Pinery to a relative in the East: Black River is very rapid till within about twenty or twenty-five miles of its mouth. Its name is derived from the dark color of the water, which looks as if it were mixed with molasses. The country is very little settled for thirty miles below where we are, and very cleared. It is almost unbroken wilderness for distance below, and there is not a habitation above the logging camps. There will be about 50,000,000 feet of pine logs put in this winter, worth at the mouth about $12.00 per 1,000 and delivered below on the Mississippi at $14.00 to $16.00.28.  "LUMBERING ON THE BLACK RIVER AT ONALASKA, WISCONSIN 1852 - 1902" BY DOROTHY SAGEN JOHNSON

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Isaac Lane Usher 1825–1889 ​
Wife: Susanna Coffin Woodman 1824–1880

 (Marriage: 13 Jun 1851)

Tucker Ellis Baker Usher 1852–1931
Herman Usher 1853–Deceased
Jane Maria Usher 1858–1923
Leila Usher 1859–1955
Susannah Usher 1863–1935
Ellen Bacon Usher 1866–1932

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1880 United States Census,  La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, Sheet Letter C, Sheet Number 543
 

Head of Household Isaac L Usher
Male, Age 56 (1824), Married
Race White
Occupation Editor Of News Paper (his son Ellis B. also became an editor of the paper)
Birth Year (Estimated)
Birthplace Maine, United States
Father's Birthplace Maine, United States
Mother's Birthplace Maine, United States
Household
Isaac L Usher Self M 56 Maine, United States
Ellis B Usher Son M 27 Maine, United States
Jenny Usher Daughter F 22 (1858) Wisconsin, United States
Lila Usher Daughter F 20 Wisconsin, United States
Susan Usher Daughter F 17 Wisconsin, United States
Nellie Usher Daughter F 13 Wisconsin, United States

Birth Record

Susanna Coffin Woodman, Female
Birth Date 20 May 1824
Birthplace Buxton, York, Maine
Father's Name Joseph Esq. Woodman
Mother's Name Susanna

Susanna Coffin Usher (born Woodman), 1824 - 1880
Susanna Coffin Usher was born on month day 1824, at birth place, Maine, to Joseph Woodman and Susannah Coffin.
Susanna had 4 brothers: Cyrus Woodman and 3 other siblings.
Susanna married Isaac Lane Usher in 1851, at age 27 at Connecticut.
They had 6 children: Tucker Ellis Baker Usher 1852–1931, Herman Usher 1853–Deceased, Jane Maria Usher 1858–1923, Leila Usher 1859–1955, Susannah Usher 1863–1935 and Ellen Bacon Usher 1866–1932
Susanna lived in Wisconsin at the time of the 1870 Censu
Susanna passed away on month day 1880, at age 55.
She was buried in 1880, in Buxton, ME.

Death Records

Isaac Lane Usher--L3XB-1KL​
Watch
BIRTH - 12 MAY 1825
Hollis Center, York, Maine, USA
DEATH - 7 November 1889
Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Name Susanna C Usher
Event Type Death
Event Date 07 Jan 1880
Event Place LaCrosse, , Wisconsin, United States
Gender Female
Spouse's Name Isaac L Usher

Maine Vital Records

Burial Record for Susanna Coffin Woodman Usher