Fly Creek
The man who named “Fly Creek” has probably been dead for several years and we regret that we have neither his name nor his history. That he was either a hunter or a disciple of Isaac Walton, the “Father of gentle craft of fishing” we can readily imagine and to a certain extent logically demonstrate. For who, traveling along our creek or bending over a limpid pool, amid tall grasses and dank willows, intent on luring the sportive trout, would not “cuss” silently nor loudly if he dared, the “pesky flies” now generally known as mosquitoes when vast swarms descended on him and with their blood-sucking instincts caused him to lose the biggest speckled beauty that ever played with a fisherman’s bait.
By the same method or reasoning we can also reach a similar conclusion as to the hunter stalking silently through thickets of alders and poplars, who, suddenly attacked by these imps of the air, forgets his caution, steps on a withered branch with a loud crackling noise and thus warns the largest buck in the forest to flee from the hunter who would certainly have got him had it not been for these “devil varmits” that infested our country in the early days.
But whatever uncertainty there may be as to the origin of this name there is none as to who were the first settlers on Fly Creek, for a large number of people still remember with affectionate pride Ole Knudtson, the irrepressible Norwegian and his equally independent son-in-law, Ben Wing, a “Yankee”, who in 1860 spread their tabernacles on the banks of this famous brook and thus established the nucleus for the future village of “Old Whitehall.”
This village deserves a separate write-up, so we will not at this time linger over its classical memories but hasten to inform our readers concerning the first settlers in the valley which has borrowed the name of this stream.
Fortunately we have still with us, a few, very few, who shared in the hardships as well as the bright anticipations of those early days and can from vivid recollections give us a faithful picture of the first settlers.
In the spring of 1864 three prairie schooners, drawn by oxen, left Dane county, Wisconsin, freighted with a few simple household goods and the following named families: Aslak Knudtson, wife Hannah and children; Ole Anderson Aga, wife Breta and two children; Hans Ole Nielson, wife Gunhild and three children. These were the first and all those named have gone to their final reward.
Having personally known them all we can testify that for thrift,. industry and integrity of record that they are entitled to be counted among the best of our pioneers.
Their journey was full of incidents worthy of record but for want of space, we reserve that record for their splendid personal history. The next settler was Orson Lamberson, a man of splendid brawn and muscle, who with his family came from Sauk county, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1864. He stayed until 1869 when he traded his claim to Joseph Wright for a span of horses and wagon, and again struck trail for the farther west.
Many of his worthy descendants however, are still with us and numbered among our most substantial citizens.
Joseph Wright with Georgie Annie, his wife, several children and his brother Aaron and James, with their families, came overland from Ontario, Canada in 1868. On the road one of Joseph’s children took sick. The mother, in hopes of saving her little boy, stopped at Fox Lake, Wisconsin, while the caravan moved on, but soon afterwards he died leaving the bereaved mother to pursue the journey. The mother is still with us and several of the children, and the old homestead is now owned and occupied by her son James Wright.
Space would permit us to go into greater details but we fear if we indulged in too lengthy reminiscences the waste-basket would receive this paper instead of the public for whom it is intended.
Maggie taught the first school in Fly Creek, in a squatter’s cabin, and I think the names of the 12 boys and girls who attended, are still fresh in her memory.
Upper Fly Creek was for several years in a rather decadent financial condition but lately the inhabitants have shown a greater ambition to move forward so that we may expect in a few years this fine valley will be up with its surrounding country in prosperity. For the principal data of this paper, the writer is indebted to Mrs. Julia Knudtson, a daughter of Aslak Knudtson and Mrs. Magie Paul.
(H.A. Anderson, Nov. 13,1924, from Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)
By the same method or reasoning we can also reach a similar conclusion as to the hunter stalking silently through thickets of alders and poplars, who, suddenly attacked by these imps of the air, forgets his caution, steps on a withered branch with a loud crackling noise and thus warns the largest buck in the forest to flee from the hunter who would certainly have got him had it not been for these “devil varmits” that infested our country in the early days.
But whatever uncertainty there may be as to the origin of this name there is none as to who were the first settlers on Fly Creek, for a large number of people still remember with affectionate pride Ole Knudtson, the irrepressible Norwegian and his equally independent son-in-law, Ben Wing, a “Yankee”, who in 1860 spread their tabernacles on the banks of this famous brook and thus established the nucleus for the future village of “Old Whitehall.”
This village deserves a separate write-up, so we will not at this time linger over its classical memories but hasten to inform our readers concerning the first settlers in the valley which has borrowed the name of this stream.
Fortunately we have still with us, a few, very few, who shared in the hardships as well as the bright anticipations of those early days and can from vivid recollections give us a faithful picture of the first settlers.
In the spring of 1864 three prairie schooners, drawn by oxen, left Dane county, Wisconsin, freighted with a few simple household goods and the following named families: Aslak Knudtson, wife Hannah and children; Ole Anderson Aga, wife Breta and two children; Hans Ole Nielson, wife Gunhild and three children. These were the first and all those named have gone to their final reward.
Having personally known them all we can testify that for thrift,. industry and integrity of record that they are entitled to be counted among the best of our pioneers.
Their journey was full of incidents worthy of record but for want of space, we reserve that record for their splendid personal history. The next settler was Orson Lamberson, a man of splendid brawn and muscle, who with his family came from Sauk county, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1864. He stayed until 1869 when he traded his claim to Joseph Wright for a span of horses and wagon, and again struck trail for the farther west.
Many of his worthy descendants however, are still with us and numbered among our most substantial citizens.
Joseph Wright with Georgie Annie, his wife, several children and his brother Aaron and James, with their families, came overland from Ontario, Canada in 1868. On the road one of Joseph’s children took sick. The mother, in hopes of saving her little boy, stopped at Fox Lake, Wisconsin, while the caravan moved on, but soon afterwards he died leaving the bereaved mother to pursue the journey. The mother is still with us and several of the children, and the old homestead is now owned and occupied by her son James Wright.
Space would permit us to go into greater details but we fear if we indulged in too lengthy reminiscences the waste-basket would receive this paper instead of the public for whom it is intended.
Maggie taught the first school in Fly Creek, in a squatter’s cabin, and I think the names of the 12 boys and girls who attended, are still fresh in her memory.
Upper Fly Creek was for several years in a rather decadent financial condition but lately the inhabitants have shown a greater ambition to move forward so that we may expect in a few years this fine valley will be up with its surrounding country in prosperity. For the principal data of this paper, the writer is indebted to Mrs. Julia Knudtson, a daughter of Aslak Knudtson and Mrs. Magie Paul.
(H.A. Anderson, Nov. 13,1924, from Pictorial Atlas of Trempealeau County, compiled by Title Atlas Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1984)