Waumandee Town

Waumandee Town

Before the formation of the towns of Montana in 1867 and Lincoln in 1871, the town of Waumandee embraced the Townships 21 and 22 of Range 11 with the eastern tier of sections in T. 21, R. 12 except Sec 13, and also Sec. 25 and 36 of T, 22, R. 12. The two entire townships constituted the' original town, the sections on the west were annexed in the course of settlement in order to afford settlers communications on legal roads, which could not but lead into Little Waumandee Valley or else in the direction to the main Waumandee Valley road. The northwest part of T. 22, R. 11, lay across the bluffs in Hutphjnson Valley and Sec.

0 and 6 were annexed to Alma, for similar reasons, as the sections on the east side of Belvidere had been annexed to Waumandee in former times. In the organization of the above named towns the northern township has been entirely taken away, but at the discontinuance of the town ofEagle Mills the parts in township 20 were added and retained at the reorganization of the town of Milton in 1870 by the legislature. The cause of this is stated in the chapter on Organization. Bluffs and valleys are described in Topography, but it is to be remarked that it is principally the lower course of the two Waumandee Creeks, which lies within the limits of the present town. The land in the immediate neighborhood of the creeks is frequently smampy though at present less, so than formerly. Most of the soil in the valleys is excellent and as the valleys constitute the greater part of the town, it may by rights be said that in regard to agriculture this town ranks first of all towns of the county. A few farms within the limits of this town are on Bluffs principally in the southern and southeastern part of Township 21. They are of the usual quality of bluflf lands. Wood is comparatively scarce within the town, but certainly not as much as in some towns farther north.

Settlements within the town in its former extension began in 1853 with Henry Mueller and M. Profitlich, but in 1854 the first settlers began work in the Big Waumandee Valley. Theodore Meuli seems to have been the first to build on the place now occu- 'pied by the family of J. C. Ganz. A few months later J. P. Runkel settled on his place and Ulrich Knecht in the same neighborhood also J. H. Manz. Robert Henry settled on Scotch Prairie, Carl Suhr and Fred. Schoepp in T. 20. It is possible that John Bringolf came the same year. The following year Conrad Ulrich and his brother George and their brother-in-law John Schmidt, settled in the town, also John Kirchner and family, and Herman and Julius Altmann, Peter Tierney, Mathias Waters, M. Milan, and JohnMaurer and perhaps Christian Schoepp, sen., and family, also Robert Krause. I think Jacob Angst, sen., and family came also in that year. In 1856 John Benston, Adam Klingel, Christ. Mosimann, sen., John Eichtmann, Chas. Hohmann, Henry Waelty, John Ochsner, Jacob Wirth and John Oertly. The latter settled in T. 22. In 1857 Robert Keith settled with a numerous family on Section 25, T. 21, R. 12, Jacob Hauert about half a mile south- west of him, John Neukomm in Schoepp's Valley, J- C. Ganz on Theodore Meuli's place, Mordecai Johnson on the bluff and Fred. Morgan in Eagle Valley, Peter Ruf in Little Waumandee, Zacharias Thaldorfin Oak Valjey. Michael Sendelbach, Aug. Karnath and John Farner also came. In 185^ John Baer may have come to Waumandee, but I remember of his having in 1859 a small clearing just north of the line of Buffalo City on the slough, where he lived. Wm. Thompson came the same year, John Turton the next, also Conrad Ochsner and Wm. Heyden. To enumerate later arrivals would make this sketch tedious.

The first birth was John Tierney a son of Peter Tierney. He was born Jan. 25, 1856. John Waters makes the same claim. The first marriage was that of Herman Altmann to Caroline Kirchner in 1855. The deata of Joseph Kneoht occurred in the same year, so the Atlas says.

At that time there was no mill in operation in this valley or neighborhood and the earliest settlers were obliged to go to Rollingstone to get their grain reduced to flour. That they also had to get groceries and other necessary things in Fountain City or Alma was a matter of course. In 1862 Caspar Schmitz and his wife, now Mrs, Bach, came to the Big Waumandee and began to keep store and saloon near the Catholic Church, and things began to assume an air of civilization. The organization of the town was begun by a resolution of the county board March 13th, 1856 and perfected at the election a few weeks afterwards. It filled up rapidly and about 1870-80 could boast of two stores, two taverns, several blacksmith shops in different parts etc. These were the flush times when crops were large and prices good. But though crops are not so abundant as in those times, farming is still remunerative in the town, only it is more diversified.

There are two post offices in this town, Waumandee and Anchorage. Waumandee postofiBce was established in 1857. J. H. Manz was the first postmaster and held the ofl&ce until 1865, when he turned it over to John Kirchner, who in turn was followed in 1871 by his son Charles Kirchner, the present postmaster. Anchorage postoffice was established Feb. 12, 1868. Hon. Robert

Concerning schools, churches, mills, roads and other things see the chapters on Education, Religion, Manufactures, Agriculture, Transportation etc.

The history of each town is, as I am well aware rather short, and may to some people be unsatisfactory. But, after having treated elaborately of the county as a unit, I could afford to be short in regard to separate towns. Errors and ommissions may also be detected, but for some of them corrections may be found in the " List of Early Settlers," in the lists of " Soldiers," and some seeming contradictions may without much trouble be rectified by slight allowances one way or the other. It is impossible to mentien every one, and some have perhaps been omitted, because I was afraid of falling into errors in regard to them. The reader will find that on the whole I have endeavored to be as impartial as possible. This is one of the reasons why the histories of the separate towns were made so short.

From some of the towns very little information was furnished to me, but if I had made the history of one town so much longer than that of others, there would have been some of the citizens of the seemingly neglected towns who would have ascribed the difference to partiality. Little as I am influenced by clamors of that sort, I wanted to remove the cause for it. In the compilation of these histories I have now and then been obliged to consult the Atlas of Buffalo County on historical points but have done so reluctantly. I have characterized the kind of information in the Atlas as well as the History of Northern Wisconsin before, as collected by strangers and often of persons who overlooked the fact that their own knowledge was only traditional. Experience has taught me a Jesson, during the compilation of this book, a lesson of caution, which increased my natural disposition to criticism, not for the purposes of rebuke and punishment but for the single and superior interest of truth.

Remarks On Map

The map of Bufifalo County annexed to this book is intended to show the general features, especially the creeks and rivers. The boundaries of the towns are incidentally introduced as well as the names. The numbers of the sections have been omitted so as not to crowd or darken it. Those who have been living here for some time must be supposed to have some understanding of the arrangement of sections in a township, and also of the relations of townships and ranges to each other. For these the explanations in the chapter on Topography is certainly sufficient. The numbers of ranges will be found on the top, along the northern boundary line, those of townships on the right hand, partly close to the eastern boundary. The lines indicating railroads were only intended to give the approximate situation, since in a map on so small a scale much more could not be expected. The boundary lines are indicated by lines consisting of dashes and dots between them. Latitude and longitude are indicated according to the statements in "Topography."

The County Board of Supervisors of this county has, on application of a majority of residents, restored the much discussed Mile Strip, that is the northern tier of Sections in the Township 23 of ranges 13 and 14 to the town of Nelson, so that now the boundary line, indicated by dots and dashes, should be one mile north of where it is indicated on the map. This change could not be foreseen at the time when the map was made or when it was printed. I had not even a suspicion of it, or I might have taken courage to effect it on paper at once.

I may be permitted to give a hint to those who may wish the lines of town boundaries a little more conspicuous. One way of making them so is to follow them with red ink, filling the spaces between dots and dashes; another way is to follow them with dry colors in pencils red, blue etc., those, who understand the application of them, will use water colors.

Errata

ERRATA. It seems imposaible to get any book printed without some errors of the typographical kind, especially if the author is not preaent to supervise the proof-reading personally. But in nothing is the occurrence of such errors more annoying than in the misspelling of the names of persons. So, for instance, I find the name of -bred. Laue m almost every place where' it occurs, perverted into i^"+v.' ^^"^'"^S.. with the exception of only a few sheets, written all the manuscript with my own hand, and having revised every chapter twice and often three times, and being conscious of writing unusually plain, I am disposed to charge all errors of the kind named to the printers, and request the readers to do the same, and he may be assured to do no wrong. In the following list of errors I have collected only such as might pervert the meaning or intention of what I wished to say, and what I have written. Considering the circumstances and the number of pages in the book I think yet that the number of " Errata " is not too large, but wish it were smaller.

Instead Of

Addition to City of Buffalo, page 626: i?he postoflfice in Builalo City was established March 1858, with Chas. Schaettle, sen., as the first postmaster. The mail wa = carried by Caspar Huber, once a week, on foot, or in a skiff to and from Fountain City until regular service upon the route was instituted, which was probably in 1860. The subsequent postmasters were: C. F. Klein, Julius Brandecker, Aug. Gebharfit, John A. Stein and Nic. Weinandy the present postmaster.