Early Days In Onalaska
       By CARRIE SAUNDERS


T was in 1855 that Onalaska had
    its first newspaper, "The La
Crosse County Record." It was an
eight column weekly paper owned
by Alex Moran and a Mr. Ball.
  In a short time Mr. Ball with-
drew from the partnership, and Mr.
Moran continued its publication for
several years, selling it to W. J.
Showers, who was its editor) until
his death in 1904. Since that time
it has been owned by Mrs. Showers,
the work being carried on by one or
all three of her sons, James, Rod-
erick and Evart.
  Copy three of volume one of that
paper carries the following article:
      Has Many Advantages
  "There is a general impression
in some of the villages which are
round about us that Onalaska is a
one-horse village in which dwell all
the roughs, who seek to gain a de-
cent living, in the northwest. Even
some of the citizens of our yillage
think they have to go to La Crosse
for every five-cent's worth of any-
thing to be purchased. Onalaska
has many things that other villages
of La Crosse county do not possess.
You can go into any of the small
villages and find men out of em-
ployment; here all are at work who
are willing to work. Onalaskl has
two as good country storeF as can
be found in the northwest.\ These
are general stores, and we have one
devoted entirely to  the  grocery
trade. We have livery stables, ho-
tels and railroads, two mills that
furnish labor to hundreds of men,
and as good a grain and stock mar-
ket as La Crosse. We have a school
second to none of its grade in the.
country. We have churches and a,
newspaper. We have a population
of 1,100, and can show more new
buildings than any other village in
the county. We have houses lit
with gas, and last but not least we
have lots of 'sand'."
   For  any   information  earlier
than this newspaper excerpt of 1855
one must depend largely upon the


recollections of the older inhabit-
ants. There   are  two drawbacks
here, one that very few of the old
settlers remain  today, and  that
recollections often do not agree or
check up accurately with accounts
of other events.
        Built First House
  Freeborn Welch, who    died  in
Onalaska a few years ago, claimed
his father built the first house there
in 1852, and that he himself made
the first wagon track. A. N. Moore
relates that James Rand came to
Onalaska from    Dane   county in
1852, and he said there were many
houses at that time. John Dalton,
now the oldest settler, came in 1858
at the age of 14. At that time, Mr.
Dalton said, Onalaska was a busy
little town.
  In a recent article in The Trib-
une on the lumber industry in this
vicinity, it was stated that the first
mill in La Crosse was built in 1852,
and that Royce, Boice and Melville
built a mill in Onalaska in 1856.
  C. M. Nichols started building a
mill in 1856, and in    1859 pur-
chased the Royce, Boice and Mel-
ville mill, which, with extensive re-
pairs and alterations, continued to
operate until 1865. [C. H. Nichols
and company    was   organized in
1873 to operate the mills.)
  Of course, the story of the lum-
ber industry is the story of Ona-
laska in the early days. The early
settlers came largely from Canada
and the state of Maine where they
had been accustomed to lumbering
activities. Norwegians, who now
form a large part of the population,
began to come soon after 1858, led,
too, by the chance to work in the
mills and lumber camps. One of
the workmen's boarding shanties,
which stood near the river opposite
the monastery, was called Fort Nor-
way.
         A Lumber Town
   Onalaska was distinctly a lum-
ber town. Winter meant an exodus


-17-.