Whitehall: A Tale of Two Cities
Back when Lincoln Township’s first pioneers harvested their first crop of wheat in the fall of 1858, getting the gold kernels ground into flour was no mean achievement. Deacon Alva Wood, who settled the present-day Richard Duebbert farm on Highway 53 just south of Whitehall, persuaded his young son David to haul a high-wheeled wagonload overland to Sparta for grinding, or go without bread for the winter.
Fortunately, as the community grew, millers moved in to supply the farmers with their much-needed services. Had it not been for the financial problems of a fledgling railroad in Green Bay, Wisconsin, our city might still be a grainfield, and “Old Whitehall,” on mile northeast of the city, would be a quiet little hamlet called, simply, “Whitehall.”
On September 13, 1861, the Galesville “Transcript” took note of that bustling little community: “The site of the new town is on the bank of Pigeon Creek, one half mile from its confluence with the Trempealeau. Its situation cannot be surpassed. It contains within its limits excellent waterpower. Arrangements are to be made for the erection of a grist mill early next season.”
No historian can agree on how the town got its name. Some say an original proprietor, B.F. Wing, hailed from Whitehall, N.Y., others that it was named after a town hall painted white. Still others attribute it to an itinerant Presbyterian clergyman, of British descent, who named it after the area in which is located the British governmental buildings in London.
The new town was not without its problems. In 1862, town founder Ole Knudtson caught storekeeper Georges in the act of selling liquor to 200 Indians, then bought them out on condition that he leave the region.
Up the Pigeon Creek still further, another hamlet popped up in 1868. A hotel and a mill were erected there and Coral City became a favorite gathering spot where a farmer could talk politics with friends and enemies while the miller ground his wheat into flour.
Both communities flourished and plans were made to remove obstacles from and dredge the Trempealeau River. Optimists expressed confidence that thirty to fifty tons of wheat could be picked up at the mouth of Pigeon Creek (the present millpond) and floated south to Trempealeau, and shipped out on Mississippi River barges.
The plan came to naught and perhaps fortunately so, for those early optimists hadn’t taken into account the potential impact of a contraption new to the wilds of Wisconsin—The Iron Horse.
Some shrewd gentlemen in Green Bay, along with wealthy Eastern investors like John Insley Blair, after whom our neighbor to the southeast is named, apparently had recognized the potential of a railroad through West central Wisconsin.
For, by 1872, the Green Bay and Minnesota Railraod, incorporated in 1866 as the Green Bay and Lake Pepin, had laid tracks as far as Merrillan and changed is destination from Wabasha to Winona.
But how to get to Winona?
Routing it along the Black River to Trempealeau or to La Crosse was out of the question because the Black River at its Falls was next to inaccessible.
Thus they decided to follow the path of least resistance along the Trempealeau Valley to Blair. At Blair, however, two options arose. They could follow the Trempealeau River all the way, adding many miles of tracks, or route directly from Blair to Acadia, crossing the Preston Ridge, between the heads of Welch Coulee and Newcomb Valley, a shorter, but more costly course.
Lacking ready capital to undertake the latter course, railroad officials asked Preston Township and Arcadia to bond them for $75,000 and thus protect the agricultural and mercantile interests of both communities.
Recognizing the advantage, Preston contributed $25,000 and Arcadia $50,000. They failed, however, to obtain a binding obligation from the G.B. & M.
Still strapped for cash, that railroad took the easy way out and built along the river bottoms in 1873, thus precipitating two new competitors of Preston and Arcadia, namely Whitehall and Independence, plus quashing for good the grandiose schemes of Coral City and Whitehall-On-Pigeon Creek.
According to Arcadia historian Stephen Richmond, Arcadia’s lack of prudence in not obtaining the binding clause lost her the opportunity of becoming an important city from its beginnings, a city “With a population of many thousands.”
Arcadia lost its metropolitan dreams, but the county gained a city in the summer of 1874, a city which would further trouble Arcadia in years to come.
(From Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)
Fortunately, as the community grew, millers moved in to supply the farmers with their much-needed services. Had it not been for the financial problems of a fledgling railroad in Green Bay, Wisconsin, our city might still be a grainfield, and “Old Whitehall,” on mile northeast of the city, would be a quiet little hamlet called, simply, “Whitehall.”
On September 13, 1861, the Galesville “Transcript” took note of that bustling little community: “The site of the new town is on the bank of Pigeon Creek, one half mile from its confluence with the Trempealeau. Its situation cannot be surpassed. It contains within its limits excellent waterpower. Arrangements are to be made for the erection of a grist mill early next season.”
No historian can agree on how the town got its name. Some say an original proprietor, B.F. Wing, hailed from Whitehall, N.Y., others that it was named after a town hall painted white. Still others attribute it to an itinerant Presbyterian clergyman, of British descent, who named it after the area in which is located the British governmental buildings in London.
The new town was not without its problems. In 1862, town founder Ole Knudtson caught storekeeper Georges in the act of selling liquor to 200 Indians, then bought them out on condition that he leave the region.
Up the Pigeon Creek still further, another hamlet popped up in 1868. A hotel and a mill were erected there and Coral City became a favorite gathering spot where a farmer could talk politics with friends and enemies while the miller ground his wheat into flour.
Both communities flourished and plans were made to remove obstacles from and dredge the Trempealeau River. Optimists expressed confidence that thirty to fifty tons of wheat could be picked up at the mouth of Pigeon Creek (the present millpond) and floated south to Trempealeau, and shipped out on Mississippi River barges.
The plan came to naught and perhaps fortunately so, for those early optimists hadn’t taken into account the potential impact of a contraption new to the wilds of Wisconsin—The Iron Horse.
Some shrewd gentlemen in Green Bay, along with wealthy Eastern investors like John Insley Blair, after whom our neighbor to the southeast is named, apparently had recognized the potential of a railroad through West central Wisconsin.
For, by 1872, the Green Bay and Minnesota Railraod, incorporated in 1866 as the Green Bay and Lake Pepin, had laid tracks as far as Merrillan and changed is destination from Wabasha to Winona.
But how to get to Winona?
Routing it along the Black River to Trempealeau or to La Crosse was out of the question because the Black River at its Falls was next to inaccessible.
Thus they decided to follow the path of least resistance along the Trempealeau Valley to Blair. At Blair, however, two options arose. They could follow the Trempealeau River all the way, adding many miles of tracks, or route directly from Blair to Acadia, crossing the Preston Ridge, between the heads of Welch Coulee and Newcomb Valley, a shorter, but more costly course.
Lacking ready capital to undertake the latter course, railroad officials asked Preston Township and Arcadia to bond them for $75,000 and thus protect the agricultural and mercantile interests of both communities.
Recognizing the advantage, Preston contributed $25,000 and Arcadia $50,000. They failed, however, to obtain a binding obligation from the G.B. & M.
Still strapped for cash, that railroad took the easy way out and built along the river bottoms in 1873, thus precipitating two new competitors of Preston and Arcadia, namely Whitehall and Independence, plus quashing for good the grandiose schemes of Coral City and Whitehall-On-Pigeon Creek.
According to Arcadia historian Stephen Richmond, Arcadia’s lack of prudence in not obtaining the binding clause lost her the opportunity of becoming an important city from its beginnings, a city “With a population of many thousands.”
Arcadia lost its metropolitan dreams, but the county gained a city in the summer of 1874, a city which would further trouble Arcadia in years to come.
(From Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)