For those who live elsewhere, Wisconsin has a long established "tavern culture". Not quite as integral as pub culture in England, but still very important. So it's natural for a local historian to want to explore its origins. And also, its much harder than you'd think.
Regards Chippewa Falls the two complicating factors are where exactly you draw the community lines, and the reality that every hotel, store, boarding house and for all I know, church, would offer you a taste of something on request. So what constitutes a tavern?
My criteria are that an establishment must be called a "tavern" or "house", it must be in the current city limits, and it must be 1860 or earlier. The Civil War and its aftermath completely transformed the community. A big chunk of the population departed to join the Union Army, and when they returned its hard to call it the Pioneer era.
I've already covered some early taverns and their owners:
Moses Hebert, or "Old Moses". He shows up in the 1870 census as Moses Aber. But he is mentioned as being in the liquor business in the 1850's.
Peter Rosseau, who seems to have been the sort of unofficial Mayor of Frenchtown. He was probably operating the Rosseau House in the 1840s. And although the history of Frenchtown is fragmentary there would have been other establishments operating early.
Oh, and then there's the whole crazy Mother Fossler story.
Let's add a few more from the 1860 Census. It gives a few names. Not much more than names, but still something.
Ferdinand Tish. Saloon. Age 32, born Germany. Value of property $200.
Peter Lamare. Saloon. Age 27, born Germany. Value of property $500.
Peter Lazo. Saloon Keeper. Age 60 and born in Canada, so evidently not the same guy listed above.
And then there's Tim Hurley, who was pouring drinks in 1849.
Hurley was one of a crew of guys who came up from Galena Illinois in 1848, shortly after Wisconsin became a state. The lead mines were playing out a bit, and a wealthy merchant named Bloomer decided to round up a crew of river men and perhaps under employed miners, come upriver and try a new venture. Going past Chippewa Falls they started to build a mill upstream at a location called Eagle Rapids. How the nearby community of Bloomer got its name is a little...complicated.
Mr. Bloomer decided this was not for him, so after a short time he sold his interests to some locals and went home. Hurley and some other guys lingered on, getting involved in the unpleasant lynching I've mentioned earlier.
Hurley's establishment was variously described as a tavern and a place where gambling went on. It was not spoken of favorably. That's just about all I can tell you regards Mr. Hurley. He was said to have married, almost certainly a local Ojibway woman, and was still here for the 1850 census albeit being listed as a laborer.
Beyond that point he is lost to history, what with a common name and an era where very little of what was going on was written down at all. I wonder if he, like others in that footloose time he decided to try his luck out in California when the Gold Rush got well and truly started....
Trying to pin down a location for Hurley's tavern is no easy task. But I think I can put you close. In a time before significant road travel everything faced onto the river. The banks are altered somewhat since then, but that narrows it down. It is also fair to assume that he would not be set up in the "company town" area right near the Falls. So in this photo I'm standing approximately where the first tavern on this side of the river would have been.
On the left is the building where our robotics team got its start. It is now an upscale "Market Place" where you can purchase interesting food and such. The small building on the other side of the parking lot is The Ritz, a sort of benign descendent of the first drinking and gambling joint. I have it on good authority that you can get a glass of refreshment and some quasi-legal "pull tabs" there. And back behind, on the part of the block across the alley, you can see a single large tree. This is not the sinister white pine on which the Native man was hung in 1849, but is in roughly the same location. Also quite near the 1850's first cemetery of Chippewa Falls. Happier vibes as seen on a sunny, early fall day.
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