Eau Claire County, Wisconsin - Chapter 28: The Children's Home, 1914

Chapter 28: The Children's Home

In 1872 it was agreed by the Christian women of Eau Claire that the various bauds of workers engaged in charitable labors throughout the city should unite and form an aid society for uplifting and aiding the need}^ This was done and most efficient work was accomplished for sixteen years. The reorganization of city officers and the apportionment of poor commissioners in time made it advisable to change plans, and an "industrial school" was opened, which met with success and gained approval until January, 1889, when it was decided to close the school and establish a "children's home" for the care of children needing protection, employment and assistance until permanent homes could be secured for them. A brick building on Dodge street was rented and the home was suppoi-ted by voluntary contributions. On March 1, 1890, the home was incorporated and the house and lot were deeded to the association by the generous owner, the late Sigvald Qvale. The incorporators were Mrs. Daniel Shaw, Mrs. D. W. Day and Mrs. J. E. Cass. The first officers were : President, Mrs. Daniel Shaw ; vice-presidents, Mr-s. D. R. Moon and Mrs. Jane Rust ; secretary, Mrs. J. E. Cass ; treasurer, Mi-s. C. M. Buffington. The president felt the need of a larger building, and in June, 1891, she donated for that purpose a tract of five acres of land in the rear of her own residence and beautifully situated, but it has not yet seemed best to build thereon.

The management, conducted by a board of directors composed of twenty-four of tlie representative women of Eau Claire, is based on business principles and has proved its right to an honorable place by the practical work of its teaching and care of the children. The community has been most liberal with work, gifts and interests. In the twenty-five years of its existence this association has furnished three hundred and seventy-two destitute children with a happy, healthful, well equipped home and an opportunity to develop in such manner as to be fitted for the places open to them in due season. Twenty-seven of these have been adopted into permanent homes; a number have been kept, educated in the public schools, tactfully guided and enabled to find places where they could earn their own living and gain a worthy position in the world, but the greater number have been returned to parents when improved conditions in the home have admitted of this, or in many cases have been taken by other relatives who were able to care for them. The directors of the board, and the warm hearted supporters of the work have abundant reward in the saying of the King: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

Eau Claire Public Library Miss A. E. Kidder

The first public library and reading room was established in ' -, June, 1875. The president of the association was H. C. Howland^ » 'wv^-tA^^ vice-president, Rev. J. P. Dudley; secretary, F. W. "Woodward. VJ^^h 'vv*^- A large room in the rear of the postoffice, which was then in f {yL^jn - Putnam block on Grand avenue, was secured and eighteen hundred dollars was raised by subscription. The room was furnished, one hundred volumes were donated and Miss Jessie Hoyt was chosen librarian. An entertainment Avas given by the ilcndclssohn quartette to aid the fund and citizens were lilnial with money and gifts of books. This place was rented until April, 1894, when Mr. 0. H. Ingram gave the use free of charge of a spacious room in the Ingram block, corner of Grand avenue and Farwell streets, and Mrs. Sears was elected librarian, with Miss Hoyt as assistant. Miss Sutermeister succeeded in 1895 and in 1896 Miss E. D. Biscoe. The librarians in charge since that time have been Miss Durtin, Miss Hawkins, Miss Mary A. Smith, Mrs. B. S. Cronk and the present incumbent, Miss Laura M. Olsen. In 1904 Andrew Carnegie gave the city forty thousand dollars to erect a library building. A site on the corner of east Grand avenue and Farwell street was chosen and purchased for seven thousand dollars, a large part of which was donated by leading citizens. The building is of Bedford stone, blue for steps and lower wall courses, and buff for the remainder; an auditorium in the basement has a seating capacity of four hundred. Five thousand dollars was appropriated by the city for library maintenance yearly, and since 1911 the sum has been raised to six thousand dollars. The librarian has four assistants and the service is excellent in all respects. A large room is beautifully furnished and equipped for the use of children, and is in nearly constant use by them on Saturdays and out-of-school liours. The library is open daily from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. and the reading rooms also on Sundays from 2 :30 to 6 p. m. The number of volumes is 22,610; the circulation for the past year 80,198. The library has deposit stations in the Fourth and Tenth wards of tlie city. The officers of the library board are: President, W. K. Coffin; vicepresident, M. S. Frawley ; secretary, William W. Bartlett, assisted by eight directors.

Eau Claire was the first city in Wisconsin next to Milwaukee to place trained librarians in charge of its free circulating library, and for years Avas one of the two iu Wisconsin best administered. The shelves contained many rare and curious books, pamphlets and papers contributed by friends. The average increase yearly is 900 volumes, many having been added to the department of useful arts. The reference room has steadily grown in demand, and is used by from one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons daily. The reading room is well patronized, fifty-nine monthly periodicals are taken, thirty-eight weeklies and fourteen dailies. A few shelves of Tabard Inn books are a supplement to the fiction department.

Chaptrk Xxx

When the territory of Wiseousin became a state, in 1848, the whole Chippewa Valley was without roads, mails or any regular eommunieation with the outside world. It was not long, however, before the legislature made an appropriation to lay out and open a road from Prairie du Chien, via Viroqua, Black River Falls and Eau Claire to Hudson. During the fall and winter of ] 849-50 Judge Knowlton, who had the contract for performing the Avork, had so far succeeded in making the road passable that Congress early in the fifties established a mail route over it, with a postoffiee at Eau Claire. George W. Randall was the first postmaster and his ofiSee was called the Clear Water postoffiee. His successor was J. J. Gage, who kept the office in a store on a thoroughfare later known as Eau Claire street, just east of where the city clerk's office stood in 1892. He was succeeded by Henry Huntington when the office was removed to the location later occupied by Hart's Hotel. The ground was then occupied by the store of Shaw & Huntington. The latter held the office from ]S57 to 1859, when he was followed by Peter Wychoff, who removed the office to the corner of Barstow and Gibson streets. His term of office was for two years, from 1859 to 1861, when owing to a change of administration John T. Tinker was appointed his successor. Under his administration the postoffiee was located on Barstow street, near where Tabor Thompson's drug store was later situated. In 1863 Mr. Tinker assisted in organizing a company for the Sixteenth Wisconsin regiment, for which he received a commission as first lieutenant. He went south in the fall of that year and appointed as his substitute in the postmastership Robert Cobban.

The question arose as to whether a man could hold two government commissions at the same time. In the end Stephen IMarston became the postmaster of Eau Claire in the place of Mr. Tinker, and held that office from ]863 to 1871. During the absence of the latter from the village and before Mr. Marston's appointment the postoffiee was destroyed by fire. It was afterward removed to the latter 's store on the comer of Barstow and Main streets, and ultimately to the Music Hall block on the formei- street. It was finally taken to the corner of River and Kelsey streets January 6, 1875, where, in 1877, a substantial brick block was built. Mr. Marston's successors were: E. S. Chase, four years to 1875; James M. Brackett, 1875 to ]886; Charles R. Gleason, 1886 to 1888; H. P. Graham, 1888 to 1890, when W. W. Winterbotham was appointed his successor. Mr. Winterbotham held the office for one term of four years and was succeeded by E. Horan, who removed the office to the Drummond building, after which he served one term of four years, being succeeded by G. W. Smith, who removed the postoffice to the corner of River and Gibson streets. Mr. Smith held office until March 31, 1907. On February 12, 1907, Earle S. Welch was appointed postmaster, but did not assume the duties of the office until April 1, 1907. On the 27th of April, 1911, Mr. Welch was reappointed, without opposition, for four years and at the date of this writing is still holding the position. On the 29th of June, 1909, under the administration of Postmaster Earle S. Welch the postoffice at Eau Claire was removed from its rented quarters at the corner of River and Gibson streets to its i^resent palatial home, which occupies one entire block of ground bounded on the north by Gray street, on the east by Barstow street, on the south by Jones street and on the west by River street, a total of 857^; feet frontage. Under the direction of Postmaster Welch, who in the year of 1909 had been by the treasury department appointed custodian of the public property in Eau Claire, the grounds surrounding the United States court house and postoffice building have been beautifully decoratecl with shrubs and trees, so that it may be said a handsomer federal site is not to be found in the nation. The cost, in round figures, of this building, including the grounds, fixtures, etc., amounted to $180,000. Each year, usually in the month of June, the department of justice for the Western District of Wisconsin, holds its annual court session at Eau Claire in this building, and it is declared by federal officials competent to judge that a more attractive, complete or up-to-date sti-ueture of its kind is not in existence.

The Eau Claire postoffice was made a money order office July 1, 1865, and the first order was issued to Alexander Kempt. The money order business for 1890 amounted to $20,682.63. It was made a free delivery office in 1884, and in 1892 had eight carriers and sixty-three street letter boxes. The letters mailed in 1890 numbered 802,580, with 114,232 postal cards and 356,522 pieces of second, third and fourth class matter ; registered letters mailed, 2,436. The letters received for delivery during the same period

Fournier 'S Auditoku'M

The growtli of the postal business in its various channels has been marked in Eau Claire through the fact that the money order business has increased from about $20,000 in 1890 to an annual figure representing in all its detail $1,199,221.60, which is the result shown in this connection from figures compiled by Postmaster Welch at the close of business, December 31, 1912. The postal sales at this office in 1907 were a trifle over $40,000, while at the close of business in 1912 the sales for that year reached over $66,000. The total number of registered pieces in 1892 Avas 2,436, while in 1912 this increased to 7,502. In 1892 there were eight city carriers and this number was increased from time to time until 1912, when fifteen city carriers were required. In 1900 a rural free delivery service was established at Eau Claire, and from time to time this was extended and now six routes emanate from this postofSce. In September, 1911, the postal savings system became operative at Eau Claire and has proven a success. In January, 1913, the parcel post system was established throughout the United States and this necessitated the employment of one extra city carrier in the Eau Claire office, who works exclusively in delivery of this class of mail matter. The business at this postoffice increased to such an extent that it became necessary to employ a superintendent of mails, and this position was created in Eau Claire on July 1, 1913. There are at this writing employed in this postoffice, all told, forty-five men, three of whom are employed in the custodian force, forty-two of this number being employed exclusively in postal work. The administrative work in connection with the United States court house and postoffice at this city is conducted at this writing by Earle S. Welch, postmaster-custodian; Peter J. Smith, assistant postmaster; Arthur A. Jost, superintendent of mails, and G. A. Weizenegger, superintendent of postal savings system.