Brick Yards of Chippewa Falls - Part Two

 Spring of 1872 found the Winans brick yard under new management.

A contemporary account gives a bit more information.  Henry Laycock was described as being "..the leading brick layer of this section", and mentions that he had built the new Tremont hotel and other structures in town.  J.E. Barrett was described as a young man, new to town.  

Laycock was the more interesting of the two men.  He was born in Scarborough England in 1842,  He came to America in 1861, joining the Union Army shortly after Bull Run.  

He had a busy Civil War service,  at the end of which his regiment was involved in hunting down "Mosby's Raiders" in Northern Virginia.  On the night of April 14, 1865 they were summoned to Washington DC with the news that Abraham Lincoln had been shot.  Immediately on arrival they were dispatched as part of the search for the assassin.  

They almost caught up with John Wilkes Booth at the home of Dr. Mudd, who had treated his injuries.  Booth was captured hiding in a barn a few days later.  Mudd, whose guilt is debatable but likey, was arrested and sentenced to a long term.  The phrase "your name is mud" comes from this incident...

Laycock came to Chippewa Falls in 1870, moving to Eau Claire in 1877.   He had a long career as a builder, also continuing to make bricks.  

His Chippewa Falls venture does not seem to have prospered.  It faced a new challenge when the railroad came to town in 1874, namely the reality that bricks are a very expensive item to ship by wagon.  

As we shall see in Part Three, the location of the Chippewa Falls brick making enterprises was always about the same, and never got a rail spur.  

His competitors, while making equivalent products, did not have this hindrance.....

Brick Yards of Chippewa Falls, Part One

To understand the history of brick making in Chippewa Falls you have to remember the reality of a community built around a giant sawmill.  The buildings were made of wood.  They were heated with wood stoves and lit with kerosene lanterns.  There was probably scrap wood everywhere.  You can see where this is headed..

In February 1869 a fire broke out that destroyed most of the commercial district of the town.  Following this there were ordnances passed that required any structure built in the down town area to be fire proof.  That is to say, not out of wood.  Although this does not seem to have been universally adhered to it was obviously a major boost to making things out of brick.  And an entrepreneur stepped up shortly.

This is the earliest known photo of Chippewa Falls.  Undated it dates from either late 1870, sometime in '71 or early '72.  It shows substantial brick buildings as new construction.  So where did the bricks come from?

The first brick making enterprise that I know of - and bear in mind that all the local papers also went up with the fire of '69 - was started by a Captain George Winans.  Why, the embers were only just cooled off when this appeared in the Chippewa Union and Times:

It sounds like an up and coming operation by early summer of that year.  Note the location given, "about two and a half miles west of town".  This will factor in later when I try to locate this pioneer enterprise.  A "lost cow" notice in September of 1869 quotes a Martin Roch, who says his residence was "..one and a half miles from the Falls, near brick yard".  

Business seems to have been good in 1869, despite the loss of 40,000 bricks which were destroyed in the drying process by heavy rains in August of that year.

George Winans was an interesting character.  Like almost everyone else in the early days of Chippewa Falls he was in the lumber business.  Specifically he guided rafts of cut timber down rivers.  Hence the title "Captain".  He continued in this line of work far past the end of the prime timber years, actually sending rafts down the Mississippi quite late in the 19th century.  

One of the big projects for the brick yard was the building of the Tremont House in 1871.  It was a very swank place, and was actually "under the management" of George Winans!  But as it happens, brick buildings can also burn, and that's exactly what happened on a cold January night in 1874.

By that point Winans had sold the brick yard.  In fact he sold it to two men, one of whom had done the brick work for the Tremont.  We'll meet Laycock and Barrett in our next installment.

Sycamore Gap, Wisconsin

 To make any sense of what follows you need to know about this tree:

It is, or rather was, an elegant sycamore tree.  It stood in a low spot between two hills right on Hadrian's Wall.  It's just up the hill from Vindolanda where I excavate each spring.  It had become more than a bit iconic.  It turned up on logos, guidebooks, the Kevin Costner version of Robin Hood had the protagonists chatting right under its branches.  

Then there was a stormy night.  And in the morning this is what was revealed.

Under cover of darkness, the sound of their chainsaw drowned out by the winds, villains had cut down the Sycamore Gap tree.  It landed btw on Hadrian's Wall and did some minor damage.

People were angry.  Speculation ran hot and, I'm sad to say, for a while the wrong guy was suspected.  But honestly the pool of suspects could not have been large.  This was done by a professional tree cutter.  To pull this off in just a few minutes time?  Not something drunken yobs would be capable of.  Heck, they'd likely have cut off a few of their own limbs in the dark.

Eventually a couple of real prize specimens were arrested.  The trial was going on when we were over in May.  I won't give them any recognition, they don't deserve it.  Even their defense was crummy.  

My car was there?  Oh, sometimes people borrow it.  Your phone gps put you there and there was a photo on it of a gigantic slice of wood?  Oh, sometimes I loan people my phone too.  Say, didn't you used to own a plus sized commercial logging chain saw?  Where is it?  I don't remember.

Eventually each tried to blame the other.  Helpful hint, when you both try to put the other under the bus you just, well, both end up there.  The verdict was Guilty.  I'd have said Guilty and Stupid.

I'm mentioning this sordid episode only because my son and I cut down a dead tree in our side yard recently.  In case somebody gets all het up about the Chippewa Falls Crab Apple I'm prepared to say that my phone gps did show I was there.  'Cause its where I live.  That's not my (adorable little) chain saw.  And I don't know where either it or that section of wood are.  

I rest my case.

Memorium

My father in law passed away over the weekend.  He was 102, so as my Brit friends would put it "He had a good long innings".  

The family reunion I mentioned last time was from that side of the tree.  The schedule was complex, some of us had already gone home when we got the news.  But others remained.  I'm sure stories, tears and a few toasts were on order.

When you live that long your grandchildren get to know you.  And not as "grandpa", that silly mix of performance art and vague authority.  They know you as a person.

Various legacy stuff came to them when the old gent moved.  First from Indiana to Pennsylvania, then to Michigan, then to an apartment, and finally for the last few months of his life, to a nursing home.

This is Major Hoople.  It's a vintage lawn tractor that one of my sons trailered all the way back from the east coast.  When he got word of the Passing, my son took it out to the back yard and fired it up for a lap around the acreage.  It still runs, still has various warranty voiding modifications done back in the day.  It still has the dates of oil changes written inside the hood!

Major Hoople, incidentally, was a character from a comic strip called Our Boarding House.  It started in 1921 and kept going until 1984.  Not bad, but a short run indeed by the standards of my father in law.

Godspeed, George.

Reunion

Every year or so we have a reunion of the American and Canadian branches of the family.  Long story, involves a bit of draft dodging back in the 60's.  Anyway, in times past I was pretty involved in amusing small people.  Lots of games, silly treasure hunts, frog races.  That sort of thing.

Well, they are not so little these days.  They show up with their attendant devices and their chargers.  My own internet access slows to a trickle.  Seriously, I've not seen things load so slowly since the late 80's when I had a dial up modem!

But its all good fun.  The grandparent gen gets to sit back and take things easy.  The parent types just have to keep the teens from being too "teeny".  The youngest generation just gets to play.  They amuse each other pretty well.

The interactions from top generation to bottom are less now.  Less important too.  I think the most precious connections are of the "half generation" variety.

Anyway, stuff happened.  Most of it not of general interest.  There were for some reason a batch of quail.  

And potato chips.  This is part of a long running "taste test" between US and Canadian products.  Who knew that Pringles made what looks to me to be "Assassin" chips.   Actually pretty tasty.

There were additional chips in bags, all of which popped due to airline pressure changes.

And breakfast cereal.  There was supposed to be a detailed survey of these comparing the variants, but everyone stayed up too late and was groggy when they stumbled down at what might be a very late breakfast hour in their time zone, but closer to lunch here in the Midwest.

Well guess that's Mass Confusion Family Time for this year.  Back to a quieter life with 21st century internet availability.

Pointed and Pungent

This started with a crossword clue.  Wife and I do the NYT puzzles.  Maybe it keeps the ageing mind active, not sure.  But in this case the clue made me pull up a word from deep memory.  Poignard.   It's a sort of dagger, one of many sharp stabby things used indiscriminately in Medieval times.  But other than sounding vaguely French, where does the word come from?

Keep in mind that words relating to basic human activities; eating, drinking, stabbing, tend to be invented early and reused often.  

Poignard comes from 14th Century French, Poignant, a word meaning sharp or pointed.  We still use this word for emotional moments.  Think Hallmark specials where Christmas gets saved and the lady protagonist finds True Love.  It descends from the Latin Pungere, meaning to literally poke or prick, or figuratively to "vex, grieve or trouble".  Pungere is closely related to Pugnus, meaning fist.  Hence Pugnacious and Pugilist.

The French word Pointe dates to about 1200, and combines two versions of Pungere.  Essentially it means both the point of a sword or other stabby object, and the smallest dot that you could make - either on paper or an opponent's skin - with something sharp.  Now of course we refer to a data point, or to the point - often hard to identify - of a discussion.

Pungent survives today as a sharp odor.  Kind of what you'd have a few days after you stabbed somebody with a Poignard.  

Who knew that swordplay, bookkeeping and bad smells were all so closely related?

Frog Mummy

 

I was up north the other day, doing a bit of prep on the new deer hunting property.  There are two nice box stands, each about 15 feet up in the air.

Unfortunately they seem to have been built by and for a guy who we figure was 7 feet tall and preferred to stand for hours on end waiting for a deer to maybe saunter past.

As this can sometimes take a while, it's preferable to have an option to sit down.  But normal chairs, while they might give you a shot at passing flights of ducks, do not get you anywhere close to being able to sight out those ridiculously high up windows.

So I built this out of various stuff.  Free swiveling bar stool, steel milk crate, etc.  Works pretty well but we'll have to add or subtract a bit more underneath plywood to accommodate hunters of various heights.  

As I was taking this picture from the door way I looked to one side and saw something rather alarming.....

Yikes, it's a mummified tree frog!  Although it has a rather zombie like appearance I guess its just part of Nature.

Build and Rebuild. Robot Summer, 2025

The thing about school based teams is that you are always in rebuild mode.  Realistically kids are in high school for four years.  The things they need to learn to excel in say robotics, or for that matter football, etc, take years to learn.  Then they graduate.

Our FIRST robotics team has always had its foundations at the middle school level.  It evolved, or perhaps mutated, from a fun after school class where kids built small combat robots.  We've had some good years, some off years, but overall the trend line is heading up.  If we can keep the talent coming.

I have a higher than normal tolerance for middle schoolers.

This summer we are taking a batch of kids who have shown interest in robotics and are just having them build their own robot to compete in an off season event.  Obviously this is insane.  A crew of 20 with seven weeks to get it done was hard pressed last season.  Rookies who only get seven 5 hour sessions?  Aw heck, we'll get it done.

We are starting with an existing drive base.  Oh, the sides had to be replaced.  And while some of the wiring was "on board" already it all had to be checked and secured.

This frame dates back to "Howard", our successful 2023 machine.  It's pretty sturdy, also pretty heavy but since the design is fairly simple we should make weight.

The grabber device for picking up the PVC pipe game pieces.

Works pretty well.

We think we set a one day record for most parts made on our CNC.  Last year's Design Lead had a bunch of things he wanted to try on this design.  The newbies are not ready for full on design work, but learning how to secure metal for cutting, keep the cutting bits cooled, keep fingers away from spinny, sharp things.  It's all fundamental stuff.

As always, software waits for the machine to be operational.

The kids are doing well.  What we are really looking for is awareness of safety, the ability to tell the difference between shoddy and spiffy work, and of course being able to work well on a team.

So far, very good.  We'll see how things come together for that mid August mini-competition.

Hank and the Coyotes

Hank is a dog with large ears and a small brain.  So while he loves being up at the cabin he gets a bit confused.  Happily confused for the most part.  So many things to sniff at, so many things to roll in!

Sounds confuse him.  When hummingbirds come to the feeder he can hear their noisy approach but not immediately spot them.  Non specific barking ensues.

The other day my wife was playing crow noises on her ipad, in an attempt to chase away a pesky family of same.  Hank cocked his head in a bemused fashion.....more bird noises without evidence of birds.

So I decided to play him some coyote sounds.  Here's his reaction....

Hank got his name from a series of books featuring Hank the Cow Dog.  Apt, as that Hank also was a dim bulb, ever goofing up in his tireless efforts to guard the ranch from non existent threats.

In one of the books Hank went Outlaw and ran off to join a pack of coyotes.  One of the coyote gals was pretty taken with that Hank.  For this Hank, I don't see that working out for him.

Janky, Janka and Jenga

After a quarter century of building robots and related things you might imagine I'd be getting good at it.  Not really.  I lack both the patience and the base skill set.  Plus, I see building things as more of an art form.  I prefer funky and creative over cold, efficient engineering.   As a result, many of the things my hands have touched have been described as "Janky".

If the term is unfamiliar to you, well, it means roughly "slapped together, temperamental, probably made of dubious parts".  I plead guilty as charged.

I see it as a term of mild affection.

It is also a very new word, originating sometime in the 1990's, and probably as a variation on "junky".

"Junky" as in, made of junk, dates to the 1870's, while the base word, Junk is older.  Mid 14th century in fact, and supposedly derived from "junc".  This nautical term meant rope or cable, stuff that when it got old was cut up and used for caulking hulls.   A worthy form of recycling in my opinion.

Recently my eye was caught by a word that is trying very hard to be related to Janky.  Specifically, "Janka".

The Janka Scale is a way to accurately measure the hardness of wood.  Quite handy if you want to build non-janky things.  It is equivalent to the Rockwell scale for metal, and measured in much the same way.

It would be great if Janka, Janky, Junk and various other words like junk (as a ship) or junket were all related somehow.  

But, alas.  Junket derives oddly from iuncus, a Late Latin word for basket.  Junk, in the sense of a Chinese ship, comes from a Malay word jong, meaning a large ship.  Nothing to do with caulking of hulls.

And Janka was the name of the Austrian born engineer who invented the Janka test.  His surname, and that of my old pal Kim Johnke, probably derive from a variation on the name "Johan".

Oh, and when you are thinking on hard wooden objects, what about Jenga?  Sorry, Swahili this time, kugenga, meaning to build.

Word origins can be convincing mimics.

Mentioned in part because another Project approaches......

  

Fashion Dogs

Ah, Fashion Dogs.  AKA Purse Puppies.  They seem to have gone out of style these days.  In the modern era they do seem a bit gauche.  But from an etymological perspective they are pretty interesting.

The list of things I call my dog Hank is long.  I favor alliterative versions, such as "Whining Whelp".  Whelp is a marvelous word from way back, it comes from Old Saxon and goes back who knows how long.  When looking this one up I read that the more common term "puppy" supplanted it starting in the late 15th Century.  It's origins are about as clear as the family tree of Ol' Hank, but it is felt to have come from the French word poupee, meaning doll or toy.  Whether the Mademoiselles had actual little dogs they held as accessories is unclear, but in any event they treated them like small toys.  

The same word also gives us puppet, and for similar reasons.  In fact early on the two words were used interchangeably.

Having grandkids rather into bugs I wondered if pupa, an immature form of moth or butterfly, was related.  Hmm, well sort of.  It's a modern-ish creation, invented by Linneaus who in the late 1700's basically invented scientific classification of animals.  He leaned into the Latin pretty hard, and there the word  pupa, means girl, doll or puppet.  So obviously this was also the source of the later French word.

The concept of a young person also turns up in pupil, as in a student.  Oddly, pupil as in a part of your eye supposedly originated in the observation that you could see a small reflection of a person on the eye surface of the beholder!  I'd call that a bit of a reach but evidently there is a similar concept in Greek and in early English.  Reese Witherspoon sort of spoiled the effect by wearing big sunglasses most of the time.

The dog in these movies was named Bruiser.  He passed away a few years back at the venerable age of 18.  His obit is HERE.