LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES of the men to the woods. From 100 to 125 men were sometimes in the crews. The few men, who re- mained at home, .had little to do except odd jobs. A few might be employed to make repairs and renovations in the mills. One man, who worked for 25 or 30 years in the woods, was asked what the men did to prepare for the camps. "What do you mean, the company or the individuals?" he asked. His face lighted up at the recollection, and he said, "Well, I had two things to carry. I had a suitcase in which I had a change or two of underwear, socks, mit- tens, :shirts, and a mackinaw. Then I had a gunny sack containing over- alls, shoe packs, boot packs made of rawhide, waxed ends, awls, needles, thread, salve, liniment, pa- per and envelopes, ink and pens." The women and children who had been left at home had been pro- vided for according to the provi- dent or improvident habits of the family, or head of the family. The man interviewed said he used to arrange for sufficient wood for the winter, this consisting of shingle blocks he purchased, as well as chunks of meat, flour, and the like. The women had little money, but what they needed to purchase they got at the stores, accounts being settled when the men came home from the woods. No Transportation There were no streetcars or'rail- roads in the early days. One could drive at will across the prairie which is now North La Crosse. Mr. Dalton relates that when he came to Onalaska oxen were much more common than horses, and, more than that, walking was more common than riding. A woman would think nothing of a walk to La Crosse from Onalaska, nor, for that matter, to places much farther away. He said it was not an un- common experience for a woman walking to be hailed by a man on a load of wood, and for her to climb on the rig and ride into La Crosse. Nichols had the first store in what is now known as the Smith building. Hamlin Garland's grand- father, it is related, started a little store in a building where the Crys- tal theater is now located. The -18- family lived back of the store, and the grandmother of Mr. Garland made quilts and other articles to sell in the store. Bailey bought the store. Saloons were numerous. żBarney Collins relates that he remembers when there were seven, while Mr. Dalton caps his story ,by declaring that at one time there were thir- teen. (All were well patronized by the men returning from their hard winter's work in the woods. Fights were frequent, and it ;was rarely that a person could stand on a cor- ner and not see one in progress somewhere on the street. Work on Rivers, Mills In summer there was work on the rivers and in the mills. The companies always boarded the men, 100 or more, in shanties along the river. As many as 500 men were employed along the river from Lytles to La Crosse. Boys worked on the logs, and the girls in the shingle mills. Bob Moore, one of the lumber men, used to call Sam Collins and Joe North, because of their small stature, his "trundlebed trash." 0. C. Olson said when the mills were in operation more business was done in Onalaska in one week than is done in six months now. Among the items which the Rec- ord article quoted was a school sec- ond to none of its grade in the country. The first school building was a one-room structure which stood on the land now owned by Nels Larson. This burned and a frame building with two rooms re- placed it, this timeon the on the site of the high school demolished by fire a few years ago. When Mr. Dalton came in 1858 there was no church edifice. Re- ligious services were held in the halls and the one-room school house. Mr. Card, a Baptist minib- ter from La Crosse, held a revival when emersions were made in the river where thick ice had formed. A Methodist society was formed ian 1856, and after a short time a church was built by popular sub- scription. Lumber men furnished the logs, and Nichols and company sawed them.