Today's journey into local history features a company that at first glance makes no sense. For that matter it makes no sense at second or third glance either. Our starting point is a newspaper ad. It is from the 1870's but I am pretty sure I have run across examples from the '60's as well.
Mineral water was big business in the 19th century. People drank it for its supposed health giving qualities. Some towns such as Saratoga Springs in New York, and even Waukesha here in Wisconsin made their reputation - and no small amount of money - based on this trade.
But Fall City Wisconsin is a tiny hamlet through which runs a body of water called Muddy Creek. The idea that somebody would make persistent efforts to tout water from this community is peculiar.
It may have reflected a measure of desperation. Fall City was an early community, and in fact was just up the creek from Rumsey's Landing, one of the first settlements in the county. But it never grew. Here's a plat map from the mid 1870's.
You can see that the biggest land owner was N.B. Rumsey. He also owned the mill. Various snippets of news in the local paper give us at least an outline of the mineral water business.
Rumsey ran it out of the mill, seen here as it still stands across the creek and next to the ruins of the dam.
Various mentions in the local paper give glimpses into the business side of Falls City Mineral Water.
- In November of 1877 visitors stopping at the mill asked where the springs were. They were told they were just down stream but that the water was for sale at the mill.
- Various mentions of product delivery indicate that it was available by the barrel or in one gallon jugs.
- In December of 1877 a probably contrived article mentions that the son of a Mr. Donley who had been "sick for a long time" was rapidly recovering after drinking the waters. It states that "The Falls City Springs will yet be famous".
- In March of 1878 it is noted that: "There has been a baseball club formed here calling themselves the Mineral Springs Club, Capt. E.D. Wolf. They played the Prairie Clippers last Saturday and to use their expression got "scooped". Brace up boys, take a little more mineral water and try them again."
The relationship between Rumsey and the business in the ad above is explained. G. Tabor Thompson was a druggist, in an era where drug stores sold darn near everything. He was the distributor in Eau Claire and every week Rumsey would drive a wagon load over. A January 1878 delivery was for ten jugs and one keg. The only other outlet I see mentioned was Fletcher and Sons which I believe was a grocery business in Menomonie.
In the end a small scale business in an out of the way hamlet had a tough path ahead of it. By 1880 the mentions in the paper fade away and Norman B. Rumsey himself passed one year later.
Falls City is still there but there is not much to see. The mill remains but like much of the rest of the town has emphatic no trespassing signs around it. An old school house, a few small residences. If you walk along the course of the creek below the mill you find few traces of the past. But here's some old barrel hoops.....could they be from the mineral water barrels?
And although I don't see any definite source of the springs there is an area below the mill where water bubbles up from deeper down. In the interests of diligent research I did try it out. It just tasted like plain old water.
I reckon that if you can convince someone they'll get better, they may well do it.
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