La Crosse Plow Company Building

In the spring of 1S4G, the tide of emigration may be saiil to have turned in the direction of Noi'thcrn .Wisconsin, the chief point of attraeiion still being the lumber region of Black River, with La Crosse a desirable field for agricultural uses. JUit those who canie with a view to engage in the fornier as compared with the number who sought to engage in farming, was numerically greater. Large fortunes beckoned them to pursue the hazardous occupation of logging and lumbering in preference to the slow and laborious accumulation growin'^ out of a tilling of the soil. Cut while lumbering was remunerative, the labors to accomplish success were of the most arduous character, involving health and even life itself. Yet no one seemed disinclined to follow the devious and critical ways it led in search for -wealth, and the acquisition of means sufficient to render the toiler measurably independent was but a poor return for the dangers encountered.

Passage source: History of La Crosse County, Wisconsin : Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources : an Extensive and Minute Sketch of Its Cities, Towns and Villages-their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories, Churches, Schools and Societies : Its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers : the Whole Preceeded by a History of Wisconsin, Statistics of the State, and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution and the Constitution of the United States, published 1881.

The coming of those mentioned very naturally created some activity in trading and agricultural circles. The village grew in proportion, and boasted of five houses, Myiick's, Levy's, Cameron's, White's and Fetlieriein's. The farmers were James Connelly, Phillip Young, the Nagle Brothers anil a Frenchwoman who subsequently married Charles Nagle. Everything was new, of course, aiil with all it was a struggle for existence, but with each addition to the number of the inhabitants, the struggle ceased in a measure, and the charms of life appreciated - not such as are now deemed indispensable to existence, but that fraternity of feeling which makes the whole world kin, which smoothes over roagli places, which finds expansion in sympathies and rejoices at the success of a fellow-mau. Such were the charms that were experienced during the more youthful days of La Crosse, intensified by the trials each settler was obliged to encounter ami cementing a bond of brotherhood which the lapse of years has failed to dissipate.

Passage source: History of La Crosse County, Wisconsin : Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources : an Extensive and Minute Sketch of Its Cities, Towns and Villages-their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories, Churches, Schools and Societies : Its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers : the Whole Preceeded by a History of Wisconsin, Statistics of the State, and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution and the Constitution of the United States, published 1881.

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Read the whole chapter on La Crosse City - 39,168 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.