History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.

              822
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
belts or ridges, interspersed with prairie open¬ ings, patches of hardwood and hemlock, and drained by numerous water-courses. No less than seven large rivers traverse this northern section, and, with their numerous tributaries, penetrate every county, affording facilities for floating the logs to the mills, and, in many in¬ stances,' the power to cut them into lumber. This does not include the St. Croix, which forms the greater portion of the boundary line between Wisconsin and Minnesota, and, by means of its tributaries, draws the most and best of its pine from the former State. These streams divide the territory, as far as lumber¬ ing is concerned, into six separate and distinct districts: The Green bay shore, which includes the Wisconsin side of the Menomonee, the Peshtigo and Oconto rivers, with a nurnber of creeks which flow into the bay between the mouths of the Oconto and Fox rivers; the Wolf river district; the Wisconsin river, including the Yellow, as before mentioned; the Black river; the Chippewa and Red Cedar; and the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix.
Beginning with the oldest of these, the Green bay shore, a brief description of each will be at¬ tempted. The first saw-mill built in the State, of which there is now any knowledge, was put in operation in 1809, in Brown county, two or three miles east from Depere, on a little stream which was known as East river. It was built by Jacob Franks, but probably was a very small affair. Of its machinery or capacity for sawing, no history has been recorded, and it is not within the memory of any inhabitant of to¬ day. In 1829, John P. Arndt, of Green Bay, built a water-power mill on the Pensaukee river at a point where the town of Big Suamico now stands. In 1834, a mill was built on the Wisconsin side of the Menomonee, and two years later, one at Peshtigo. Lumber was first shipped to mai'ket from this district in 1834, which must be termed the beginning of lumber¬ ing operations on the bay shore. The lands drained by the streams which flow into Green
bay are located in Shawano and Oconto counties, the latter being the largest in the State. In 1847, Willard Lamb, of Green Bay, made jthe first sawed pine shingles in that district; they were sold to the Galena Railroad Company for use on de¬ pot buildings, and were the first of the "kind sold in Chicago. Subsequently Green Bay be¬ came one of the greatest points for the manu¬ facture of such shingles in the world. The shores of the bay are low, and gradually change from marsh to swamp, then to level, dry land, and finally become broken and mountainous to the northward. The pine is in dense groves that crowd closely upon the swamps skirting the bay, and reach far back among the hills of the interior. The Peshtigo flows into the bay about ten miles south of the Menomonee, and takes its rise far back in Oconto county, near to the latter's southern tributaries. It is counted a good logging stream, its annual pro¬ duct being from 40,000,000 to 6*0,000,000 feet. The timber is of a rather coarse quality, run¬ ning but a small • percentage to what the lumbermen term "uppers." About ten per cent, is what is known as Norway pine. Of the whole amount of timber tributary to the Pesh¬ tigo, probably about one-third has been cut off to this date. The remainder will not average of as good quality, and only a limited portion of the land is of any value for agricultural pur¬ poses after being cleared of the pine. There are only two mills on this stream, both being owned by one company. The Ooonto is one of the most important streams in the district. The first saw-mill was built on its banks about the year 1840, though the firstlumbering operations of any account were begun in 1845 by David Jones. The business was conducted quite moderately until 1856, in which year several mills were built, and from that date Oconto has been known as quite an extensive lumber manufacturing point. 1 he timber tributary to this stream has been of the best quality found in the State     Lumber  cut from  it  has   been