History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              648. HISTOEY OP WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
by lumber wagon, arriving December 28, 1835. Here Mr., Eeed boarded with Solomon Junean and acted,as clerk in his store. In July, 1836, on.the organisation of theWisconsin territory, Gov. Henry Dodge made him a deputy sheriff of the territory about Milwaukee. Pie was: chairman of the committee sent to escort Governor Dodge to Milwaukee from Iowa and made the address of welcome, and ,subs,equently he was made a lieutenant of state militia and a member, of tlie governor's staff. Having taken the census of Milwaukee county in 1837, he soon after took up lands, in the county, where by 1848 he had cleared 200 acres into a valuable farm in Summit, Waukeslia county, and served as a member, of the county board. In 1846 he was elected to the ter¬ ritorial council, w^here he served two years. Mr. Eeed w^as part proprietor and sole proprietor of a large tract of land on tlie site ^ of the future village of Menasha and platted over 300 acres into^ town/lots.      '
In the same year that .Mr. Eeecl moved to the site of Menasha he.caused to be. erected another.log;building on the site now oc¬ cupied hy the library onMill street, which he occupied as a store, and commenced work on-the dam. , The plan of construction was what is known as a spar dam. Timbers felled on the banks of the river were laid transverse to each other on the bed of.the stream and pinned together with oak nails, forming a succession of pock-i ets or cribs to hold the stone and boulders gathered along'the shore. On the top. spars or piles were laid closely side by side and covered with brush, on top of w^hicli was piled gravel and stone,., Extra large piers at the ends, built into the bank and se¬ cured to the timbers of the dam, formed abutments. This dam, though, substantial, did leak and waste much water. From tliC: bank on the .north end of the. clam a canal was dug along the shore, which ended at the present site of the Menasha W^ooleu • Mill, about half way down the present canal. A large amount of work was accomplished the, first year, although the work was not completed for several years. '        ;
Among those who came with the first pioneers under Curtis Eeed was Dr. Thomas Jefferson Noyes,, the very first physician; in the town. He was from Vermont and studied medicine in New Hampshire, where with some fellow students, having been found out in procuring subjects for study, was obliged to flee out of the state and came to Milwaukee in 1836, where he married the sister of Mr. Curtis Eeed, Miss Julia Ann Eeed. In August, 1848, he followed the argonauts to help liew^ a town out of the wilder-