LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES


found there apparently happy and
contented.
  A number of Welsh who immi-
grated to the territory bought land
that had already been homesteaded.
David Jones, called "Jones Prairie"
to distinguish him from other fami-
lies of the same name among the
Welsh, settled about two and one-
half miles east of the village, while
William Price bought land of Darms
and John Williams secured land
from  Buol. Evan Jones and his
four sons and John Wheldon and
his family of seven children chose
their home sites .west of Dutch
Creek, while a large company, Ey-
non Evans, Jones, Morris, Jenkins,
and Johns, settled in Fish Creek
valley.
        Settlers From East
   Still another class of settlers
'were those from the east. Among
them were C. W. Mackenzie, Ralph
Thompson, Jonathan Darling, A. L.
Page, Elijah Hooker, Peter Saxon,
-and C. F. West. These, for the most
part, were descendants of early set-
tlers of the country and had inher-
ited the hardy pioneer spirit of
their  predecessors.  They   chose
their locations .mainly west and
'south of the present village.
   These early settlers, all ,of them
-true .pioneers, were not afraid of
work, and by their thrift and indus-
try "made the wilderness to blos-
som as the rose."
  C. W. Mackenzie, a young teacher
-from the eastern part of the rstate,
located his homestead, ;and brought
to it his wife and baby daughter.
His wife, too, had been a teacher,
and she bore the long journey
across country by ox team with that
iane courage for which the pioneer
women of the country were remark-
able. There was 'no house on their
homestead, and until it was built
they lived with a bachelor who had
a house a short distance west of
the Mackenzie homestead.
   Taxes were collected and taken to
Madison, Mr. Mackenzie being dele-
gated by the homesteaders to make
the trip. This he did on horseback,
following the Indian trail which ran
by his home.
   A large number of the original
homesteads are still in possession
of direct descendants of the first
owners. John Hatz, Dutch Creek,
                               -14-


well-known throughout the county,
lives on the old homestead of his
family, while John Ruedy lives on
the old Ruedy farm, and George
and Andrew Wolf still own the Wolf
homestead. The C. W. Mackenzie
farm is owned by a granddaughter,
Mrs. G. C. Rogers, daughter of the
first practicing physician of the vil-
lage. The Evan Jones farm is held
by Newton and Jesse Jones, grand-
sons, while W. M. Page owns the
A. L. Page farm, and      John G.
Hatz, son of Jacob Hatz, owns a fine
farm on "the prairie."   The Buol
boys own broad acres in the Town
of Hamilton, while Robert Whel-
don   owns the original Wheldon
homestead.

    Needed Commercial Center
    Early in the history of the town-
ship  poor   roads  and   lack  of
bridges between La Crosse and Ban-
gor made the need of a commercial
center imperative. In 1854 the orig-
inal plat of the village of Bangor
was laid out on land owned by John
Wheldon, one of a group of Welsh
settlers. He gave to the town and
village the name of "Bangor," his
ancestors having come from Bangor
in Wales.
  His name and that of David J.
Jenkins are closely identified with
early history of the village. They
held various public offices, and de-
voted their time to its welfare.
  A grist mill was a necessity, and
these two men, each of whom had
an ox team, began hauling timber
from government land near Leon
for the erection of such a struc-
ture. To the sons of Evan Jones
was given the task of getting rock
and building the idam, a somewhat
hazardous undertaking.    One   of
these sons, William E. Jones, now
nearing his '96th birthday, lives at
West Salem.
  The building of the dam     and
hauling of the timber took consid-
erable time, and the structure, al-
though started in 1853, was not
•started in operation  until 1855.
Nothing now remains of the old
mill, two successive floods in Dutch
Creek having washed away all trace
of it. The first flood was in 1899,
and people came for miles to see
the destruction it wrought. The
dam   was never rebuilt, and the