Reality was often a bit different.
My home town, Chippewa Falls, actually got its start as a collection of taverns and shacks on the other side of the river. The inhabitants were a mixture of French Canadians and Native Americans. It was by available accounts, a bit of a dive.
And considering its importance in the founding of our community, a very poorly documented one.
The first sawmill at the Falls was built in 1836. But Native Americans had been meeting here long before that, and a fur trading post was established by a Michael Cadotte in 1797. As this was described as being "south of the Falls" it could be considered the birth of Frenchtown.
Certainly by the 1840's there was some sort of community on the south side of the river just downstream from the falls. A mixture of Native and French Canadian people lived there. During the transition from the fur trading economy to lumber they no doubt were involved in both. Early accounts mention liquor and mayhem rather often.
The picture above is a painting of Chippewa Falls in 1850. The respectable side of town is on the right bank. The south side - French Town - is that straggling line of structures along the shoreline of the left bank. * see below!
One of the earliest accounts - from 1851 - is that of an intoxicated lumberjack wounding a co-worker with a shotgun. "About the same time" a band of Sioux warriors who were "skulking around the back of Frenchtown" murdered an Indian named "Old Jack" who lived with the Demarie family.
Another "unfortunate homicide" occurred in 1857 when a Mexican War vet named William Wiley got jealous when another local spoke to his wife in an overly familiar fashion. He fatally bashed the guy on the head with a block of wood. The local authorities declined to prosecute and Wiley decamped for "parts unknown".
French Town settled down a little bit in the post Civil War era. A successful lumber mill was established by a partnership of Coleman and Mitchell. It had a capacity of 80,000 feet per day and was doubtless the main employer in town.
The other establishments of note in the place were two taverns. The Rousseau House, run by Charles Rousseau, seems to have been the earlier of the two. A competing saloon across the street was run by a certain Valentine Blum. It was said to have a bowling alley, restaurant and lager beer fountain. Oddly the building seems to have been owned by E. Robert Hantzsch, a very interesting character we've met before...
The above image is said to be of French Town outside the Rousseau House. Clearly the focus of the photographer was the stage and the nice team of horses. But you can see a Harness Shop on the left and with a bit of magnification the sign on the right hand building seems to say among other things, Apples. As I note a street light in this photo I think there is a high chance of this being a mistaken identification. French Town would not have had connections for gas illumination. But I suppose there is a chance that an enterprising saloon keeper might have an individual oil powered lamp out front. His patrons would appreciate that at Last Call. * see more below!
Life in French Town always was a bit rough. For entertainment they had horse races - one featuring a local favorite called "French Kitty". And more disturbingly I found an 1877 advertisement for cockfighting. Price of admission was 25 cents with the matches to be run according to "..the Southern or Old English Lion rules."
By the 1870's French Town was definitely overshadowed by the growth of Chippewa Falls proper on the far side of the river. An 1874 Birdseye view shows the community barely on the margin of the map....as indeed I suspect the citizens of the place were somewhat on the fringes of polite society...
Note the Schmidmeyer brewery on the Chippewa side near the bridge. The French Town mill is on the left of the view. Probably the two substantial buildings across the street from each other were the rival saloons.
This was actually not an ideal place to build a community. A newspaper article from June 1880 highlights the biggest problem, flooding:
"All the bridges across the Chippewa were gone. French Town, a half a mile below the city and which has stood for the last thirty years, looked for a while as if it would be a thing of the past. The water ran above the town eight feet, and a few small houses were completely covered"
An 1884 illustration from Harper's Weekly seems to be depicting another such incident. French Town looks much the worse for wear.
The cumulative effects took a toll, and another Birdseye view from 1907 shows only a few scattered buildings on the site.
The hand of time lies variously on the works of man. I've walked across fields in England where Roman walls 1800 years old still peek out of the turf. But at French Town time has put the hammer down hard. The site has been extensively altered by both floods and flood control measures and the original higher ground has been converted to a city facility that processes yard waste and sand. When the river is low you can see a few wooden pilings sticking up - part of the elaborate log cachement system seen in the 1874 view - but otherwise there is nothing left of French Town.
And yet like Brigadoon, French Town springs back to vigorous life for one day each year! But that's a story for next time.
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Updates, February 2025. Having done a bit more research I've modified a few of my opinions. First of all, French Town, versus Frenchtown seems to be the more commonly used version during its heyday. I've changed it unless specifically quoting somebody who uses the other version.
The supposed 1850 painting of Chippewa Falls seems too good to be true. This is the case. The State Historical Society acquired it circa 1950 and somebody goofed up. It may not reflect any specific date, just early days. I see for instance a ferry boat at a location where service started circa 1858. And too many houses for 1850 when the whole town was about a dozen buildings right next to the Falls. Oddly, the buildings of French Town seem to be depicted accurately based on the few other early images from the 1870's. Let's call the painting circa 1860 and be happy.
I am on the other hand coming around to the idea that the picture with a team of horses in front of the Rosseau House may be real. By the 1860's they were advertising that they had a stable associated with it, and I've encountered other instances where public lighting came surprisingly early. Hey, if you had the degree of mayhem associated with Demon Rum that went on in French Town of olden times you'd want a light out front!
1 comment:
It was not uncommon for french canadians to have passed this way .
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