Fall Creek, Wisconsin

Fall Creek was surveyed in 1857. Our village gets its name from the stream which runs one-half mile north of here. The place where Herman Statenow is now located was the first boarding house erected ; it was owned by Mr. Murphy, but afterwards conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Randall. The first store was situated on Randall's corner, aud the next one was built where Mr. Patzwald's building now stands. PVed Reading owned the first blacksmith shop, which stood right across the street from where Mrs. Reading now lives. Mr. Reading frequently walked to Eau Claire, where he purchased heavy rods of iron to be used in blacksmithing. It was not uncommon for him to be forced to carry these rods home on his back. Michael Reading was the first dentist in our locality. He did not fill teeth with gold or silver, but was busily engaged in pulling them, as people did not know anything about filling teeth at that time. Neither chloro- form nor ether were ever used, probably never heard of. This was not because Mr. Keading Avas like our modern "painless dentists." He was fully able to hurt the patient just as much as tliey fiiii. l)ut among the trials and hardships which Avere daily met and coiKinci'cd a little thing like an aching tooth Avas hardly noticed. They just had them pulled; now Ave have them extracted. It sounds bigger, but I doubt if it makes the patient live longer. The first church services Avere conducted by Daniel MuenchoAV in a log cabin. It Avas not such as we hear today in a grand church, but although he was not a learned preacher he explained difficult parts of that Avhicli he read out of the Bible. A German Lutheran church Avas erected in 1873, Avith Rev. Julius Fredrich as minister. He served for twenty-seven years, Avlien Rev. Carl Baumbaeh Avas called, and is still the pastor in St. Jacob's church, Avhich was built in 1884.

Passage source: History of Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Past and Present; Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County, published 1914.

Fall Creek is a prosperous village of over five hundred people, situated on a creek of the same name, which is tribiitary to the Ean Claire river. The good water power runs a sawmill and a flour mill. The earliest settlers were the Horel brothers, George Randall, Joseph Lindenthaler, Daniel Muenchow, J. M. Shong, Fred Reading and Daniel Zempel. A German Lutheran church was erected in 1873 and Rev. Julius Fredrich, the first minister, served for twentj'-seven years, when he was followed by Rev. Carl Baumbach, the present pastor. The schools are good and since the incorporation of the village in 1907 the streets have been improved, many new houses have been erected, cement sidewalks laid and progress has been made steadily in many directions.

Passage source: History of Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Past and Present; Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County, published 1914.

"History is a regular record of events arranged in chronological order. A very large part of school time during the first eight years is used in studying United States history, but little attention is paid to the story of our state's achievements, and we possess almost uo knowledge of our pioneer father's trouble while laying the foundation for what is noAV the prosperous and wholesome little village of Fall Creek. George Washington, it is true, was a great patriot and has attained an enviable place in our history as a sturdy pioneer, but so was Christopher Zimmerman. We revel in tales of frontier hardihood and our blood is thrilled by the recital of the doeds of Boone, Clark and Whitman, while they were winning- hoims from wildest nature and transforming the wooded slojx's into peaceful valleys. Did you ever stop to think that just such was the duty of Arthur Buck, Henry Horel and Jefferson Scott? So it will be my pleasure to call you back to some slight recognition of the fact that all things were not alwaj's as we know them, but that our security and comfort has come to us out of the hardships and struggles of many that were once well known but are now likely forgotten. The first settlers came here in 1850; Christopher Zimmerman cleared the first land in our vicinity. The early comers were Jim and Richard Horel, George Randall, Daniel Muenehow, J. M. Shong, Joseph Lindenthaler, Fred Reading and Daniel Zempel. They did not come in carriages before which pranced sleek and well fed horses, but in canvas covered wagons drawn by a team of oxen. These settlers did not build houses upon their arrival, but dug holes in the side of hills and covered them with twigs, or lived under their wagons. Next they cleared land in order to make the start for a small farm. This was very slow work and took a long time. After the land was cleared it had to be plowed or broken. The grain was not sowed or cut by machinery, but instead it was sown by hand and cut with a cradle. Nearly all supplies were gotten from Sparta. The lumber with which the dwellings were erected was gotten from Mr. Rheinke's woods aud sawed by Mr. Bens aud Mr. Jones, who owned the first sawmill which was located one aud a half miles northeast of here on the stream. At first there were but two roads which ran neaiour vicinity. One of these was the Pinery road, which followed the Eau Claire river, and the other was the stage road, which ran from Sparta through Black River Falls to Eau Claire. This was about half a mile south of our village. The early comers hardly ever took the stage coach, because it cost too much money. They would walk from Fall Creek to Eau Claire, a distance of twelve miles; there they wo\ild sell their produce at a very low price and come back the same day.

Passage source: History of Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Past and Present; Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County, published 1914.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Fall Creek Village - it names this place 3 more 3 times.