Downtown Chippewa Falls. Spring of 2025. Right down on River street is the "Market on River". It's a fun place. Restaurants, a coffee shop, space you can rent for events. There are swank apartments on the top floor with a magnificent view.
It's been a retail establishment for less than a year. But I knew the place in its previous incarnation too.....
From 2016 to 2020 the robotics team operated out of this building. The ground floor was a production shop that refurbished and later manufactured CNC machines. The top floor was the residence of the owners, with the aforementioned great view. The second floor was, for about 4 months each year, Robot Land.
I think our drivers became extra proficient because they had to learn to drive around those wooden pillars!
Those marks on the floor are significant. Prior to its use as a cnc company the building had sat empty for a while. Before that it was a warehouse for a shoe manufacturer. But I think much of the layout actually dates back to when it was a wholesale grocery business. Marks on the floor designated specific storage areas.
This is the location, although the date of the picture is unclear. The Mercantile company built on the spot in 1903, but their place burned down and had to be rebuilt on the same footprint in 1916. If you pay attention to such things you can maybe see where older and newer areas of foundation exist.
Obviously a bit of prime real estate like this would have earlier history. Lets take a look....
In 1883 the entire block was basically hotels. The train station was across River Street. Here's what the corner looked like then:
Part of the site is vacant, but part is taken up by the River Hotel. Note the skinny yellow structure coming off the back. It was probably an elevated walkway so that upper floor patrons could trek over to the outhouse without needing to do the stairs!
The railroad station was not there in this 1874 "Birdseye View". Trains did not come to town until 1875, and not to this side of the river for a few years after that. But the hotel seems to be there already.
Across River street, on the future site of the train station, there is a single building. And a large tree. Does the latter factor into the dark side of our little history?
The year was 1849. Our best source for early history of the area was a Thomas McBean who did not turn up until 1856, so this was a story he'd heard, not witnessed. As he recounted in 1904...
"As I stood near the alley on Island Street between River and Spring, looking at the new building of the Chippewa Valley Mercantile Company, the thought came to me that I was standing on the spot where, 55 years ago this summer, the Indian was hung by a frenzied mob of toughs from some of those early days."
The story he then relates is a sad one indeed. In that early time there were Ojibway camping near modern day Spring Street. A Frenchman named Caznobia had come up from Galena Illinois with a party of rowdies. He proceeded to get drunk and try to enter the wigwam of a native and his wife. He was ejected, but tried again using "..rude and insulting language to the Indian and his squaw.." In 1904 you probably could not come out and say it, but likely he had dishonorable intentions towards the woman.
Well, the Ojibwa man stabbed Caznobia who was taken in dire condition to the home of a man named Hurley, who had just opened the first saloon in town. Probably that's where the "fire water" that played such a role in this tragedy originated.
An incensed mob gathered and, undeterred by the remonstrations of H.S. Allen the leading citizen of town, the Indian man was strung up and lynched on a nearby pine tree.
Repercussions were immediate. The white population of Chippewa Falls at this point was very small, perhaps 100 not counting transients. As many as 1500 Ojibwa gathered in the days that followed, threatening to burn the settlement if justice was not done.
With difficulty they were persuaded to settle for the ring leaders being sent to justice. A Tim Inglar and three others were sent down river to Prairie du Chien, at that time the nearest point where a court was functioning in Wisconsin Territory. Alas for the cause of justice the six Ojibwa men who accompanied this party got nervous as they drew near the lands of their traditional enemies the Lakota, and turned back. With no witnesses against them the four men who led the lynch mob were set free.
That in any case was the tale told to young Thomas McBean in the 1850s, as it was remembered by him the better part of a lifetime later. It has the ring of truth to it even if a few details like just how many Ojibway had gathered and with what intent may have been embellished. A slightly different version of the story appears in several sources from the 1870's, but its likely that McBean provided the information for those as well. The man who started all the trouble, Caznobia, recovered from his injuries.
McBean said that the unfortunate Indian was buried near the pine tree, and that the tree "...stood there for many years after I came here."
But for how many years? And, can we see it? I think the tree shown in the 1874 view is not the right one. Here's the exact spot that McBean stood at while remembering this dark event in local history. The back of the Mercantile building is on the right.
Now it is a fair question, just how long did the tree stand there? McBean lived in Chippewa Falls from 1856 until he went off to war in 1861. He returned circa 1865 and was here into the 80's at least. Birdseye views are reasonably accurate but not down to the level of individual trees, which artists probably sketched in where they thought it would enhance the overall work. But we do have a single early photo that might show us something. Its from 1870 or 71, so twenty years plus from the events he described. But trees, especially big trees, can last a long time.....
I've put an arrow over what appears to be a tall pine tree. It is standing next to Spring street just down the alley from where Thomas McBean was standing when he was pondering that dark day.
Chippewa Falls saw another lynch mob in the 1870's, not long after this picture was taken. But that's a story for another day.
