"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917": Chapter 10: "The County in 1871"

-As transcribed from pages 159 - 162 (Bill Blume is mentioned in the second paragraph)


Trempealeau Village, in the fall of 1870, was a thriving, busy place, its streets and market-places full of teams, and its business places full to overflowing with country people, farmers who came to market produce and purchase farm and home supplies. They came from Decorah Prairie and beyond Black River; from the head of Beaver Creek Valley nearly to Black River Falls; from the head of the Trempealeau Valley nearly to Merrilan; from Pigeon Creek northeast into Jackson County; from the Elk Creek valleys and over the ridge in Beef River Valley; they came from Chimney Rock Valley, and the Traverse Valley away out in the Mondovi country. Many came to the Trempealeau market 30, 40 50 and 60 miles. Before this I had not seen so busy a mart, emporium, entrepot, or place of traffic as was the beautiful village of Trempealeau nestling at the foot of Trempealeau Bluffs, and fronting on the Mississippi River, with its teeming activity of soil products and human freight carried by the then wonderful Mississippi River steamers, with skow bottom, and of ponderous width.

The most frequently mentioned as wealthy people in the county, as I recall, were Ben Healy, John Rhodes, W. A. Johnston, Isaac Clark, Wilson Davis, George H. Markham, and R. C. Field. The most popular politicians in the county, that is, the most likely to be elected when candidates for office, were N. D. Comstock, A. A. Arnold and A. W. Newman. The most noted horsemen were Moses King and Lee Hutchins. The wittiest lawyer was Frank Utter. Among the jolliest men were Ralph Martin, Pussy Williams, Marvin Babbit, Sr., Thomas Sutcliff, Jimmy Field and Henry Teeple. The most popular man with the women was Gay T. Storm. The most frequently mentioned clergymen were James Squier and D. O. Van Slyke. The most powerful men were Jack McCarthy, Aaron Kribs and John Bugbee. The only brewer was Jacob Melchoir; the leading miller was Wilson Davis, and the best known butcher was BILL BLUME. The noted Indians were old Chief Black Hawk and "Big Indian," Thede Booher. The most skillful blacksmith was J. B. Ingalls, while the greatest threshers were Jim Merwin and Ike Wright. The leading saloonkeeper was Pete Eichman, and the most dead-sure rifle shot was Bob Nibs. The great mule-driver was Philo Beard, the best known stage-driver was Jerry Webber. It is my impression the most noted singers were the Grignon sisters. Others, no doubt, deserve mention, but memory fails me.

Some of the pioneer women of Trempealeau County had been delicately reared, most of them had known the comforts of life, all had left associations which were dear to them. The sundering of these ties was not easy, nor was it a condition to be sought. It is but natural that they were strongly attached to their old homes, friends and comforts. Ties of kindred and friendship were to be broken; comfortable homes left behind; friends of a lifetime to be parted with, when with their husbands they set their faces westward for a new life and new homes, they knew not where. All beyond the city of Buffalo was then the West, Detroit was in the West, and Chicago and Milwaukee were in the far West. In many instances they knew it must be among strangers, and that privations, and even extreme dangers, were to be met and mastered - at least endured. These pioneer women shared in all the toils of weary journeys, in sunshine and in storm, ever westward. They did not grumble of the coarse fare and humble, oftentimes rude, accommodations of wagon and roadside; the canal-boat and the open stage, the log tavern, and at times the open-air bivouac. These women were always the brave members of the family or the party. Often late in autumn, or in the early spring, not infrequently in the cold storms, the discouraging sleet and mist and the complaining chilly winds, they went bravely on to the very outposts of civilization, over long, lonely and far-reaching prairies, the gloomy forests, dismal roads, often mere trails beset with stumps, quagmire, and where no sight of civilization or human habitation was to be seen, except the wigwam and hut of the then dangerous savage. They traveled largely through a country without settlers or any evidence of civilization, at times even making roads upon which to travel.

Can we picture the trials that came to their brave hearts, in hours of bitterness and loneliness, thus removed from the homes and kindred they had left behind - remembrances which must have risen up before them often and often, and how extremely bitter must have been those recollections, and yet, through their tears which must have silently flowed, they stood brave sentinels to their little ones who clung to them for comforting words and care. A word picture fails to give the full facts. Such feelings were natural and nurtured in their hears; yet they bore these and other burdens as bravely as did the renowned "mothers of ancient Sparta." Who will, I ask, who can pay these pioneer women of the West, and of Trempealeau County, the full measure of praise they so richly deserve?

The many sports and pleasures for the pioneer man, such as hunting the deer, the wolf, the wild fowls and other game; the sport of fishing, and the pleasure of roaming at will, all suitable to the rougher nature and coarser tastes of men were denied to these women, who with their children were shut up in log cabins or rude huts, often without floors, doors or windows, - often filled with smoke and into which the chill of winter whistled, and the stars at night looked down upon those faithful women and mothers and their sleeping children; often with no furniture except the rudest kind, and without kitchen utensils save kettle and frying-pan, and almost totally destitute of crockery, - seldom even with tinware, they made their dearest condition of life, the home, possible and a positive fact. For weeks, for months and even for years in a continued struggle without modern-day conveniences and helps, they struggled and they won; and these pioneer women helped make Trempealeau County what it is today.

(By Stephen Richmond.)


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1880 United States Federal Census

Name: William Blume
Age: 50
Birth Year: abt 1830
Birthplace: Saxony
Home in 1880: Trempealeau, Trempealeau, Wisconsin
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Self (Head)
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Ricka Blume
Father's Birthplace: Saxony
Mother's Birthplace: Saxony
Neighbors: View others on page
Occupation: Butcher

Household Members:

William Blume 50
Ricka Blume 39
Minnie Blume 19
Joseph Blume 17
Edith Blume 16
Henry Blume 14
Louisa Blume 11
Benzie Blume 8
Dena Blume 9