Ames, a Baptist; the first school was taught by S. M. De'Golier; the
first store was opened by A. M. Wilcox, 1874. D. A. Humbird was the
first postmaster. The North Wisconsin railway passes through the
southeast part and the Minneapolis, Soo & Atlantic passes from the
west side to the northeast corner of the town, and has a station,
Gregory, in the west part.
REUBEN F. LITTLE was born June 13, 1839, in Topsham, Devonshire
county, England. At ten years of age he began to care for himself,
working for sixpence per week, carrying pottery in a moulding house.
Before leaving England his wages had increased to three shillings per
week. In the spring of 1853 he had saved three pounds sterling, and
his grandfather gave him two pounds sterling. This five pounds paid
his passage to Quebec and Montreal, where he got four dollars per
month. Soon after he apprenticed himself for five years to learn the
baker's and confectioner's trade at London, Upper Canada. Subsequently
he took a homestead from the British government at Trading Lake, Upper
Canada.
[Illustration: REUBEN F. LITTLE.]
In the spring of 1861, at Detroit, Michigan, he enlisted in the United
States infantry, regular army, and was promoted successively to first
sergeant, to sergeant major, to second lieutenant, to first
lieutenant. He resigned in September, 1865. During the war he served
continuously in Gen. George H. Thomas' division, and took part in all
the engagements under him, from Miles Springs, Kentucky, to Nashville,
Tennessee. On the twenty-second of September, 1863, Mr. Little had the
honor of being the last man to leave the Rossville Gap in front of
Chattanooga after the disastrous fight of Chickamauga. He was wounded
in the battle of Hoover's Gap and Smyrna, and at the siege of Corinth.
Mr. Little was married in 1865, and divorced in 1869, and re-married
in St. Paul in 1878. He lost his Canada homestead, and took another
homestead in Lincoln, Polk county, Wisconsin, in 1866. Afterward he
went to St. Paul and became one of the firm of Little & Berrisford in
the wholesale confectionery business. In 1879 he returned to Clayton,
formerly part of Lincoln, and reclaimed a swamp of over six hundred
acres, making it a productive meadow and tillage farm. Mr. Little has
served several years as Clayton's town supervisor.
CLEAR LAKE.
Clear Lake embraces township 32, range 15. It derives its name from a
beautiful clear lake on the western boundary near Clear Lake village.
The west part of the town is timbered principally with hardwood, and
is good farming land. The eastern part is more diversified, and there
are some large groves of pine. Willow river runs through the town. The
North Wisconsin railroad traverses the town diagonally from northeast
to southwest: The town was organized June 20, 1877; S. D. Mann, J. C.
Gates, and W. R. Ingalls, supervisors. The first settlers were John
Hale, L. P. Nash, S. D. Starkweather, and Perry Clark. Lawrence
O'Connor was first postmaster; Mr. Starkweather carried the mail on
foot. Israel Graves, in 1875, built the first saw mill in Clear Lake
village and the first house. There is now at the village a stave mill
owned by Symme & Co. Jewett Bros. own a saw mill on Willow river,
three miles from the village, which has a capacity of 8,000,000 feet.
The lumber is delivered to the railway at the village by a wooden
tramway. The lots for the village were purchased from the government
by A. Boody and A. Coventry, in 1856. The plat was made by Symme,
Glover & Co. The survey was made by G. W. Cooley. Thomas T. McGee was
the first settler (1875), and Stephen H. Whitcomb the second. The
first school house was built in 1875, and the first school was taught
by Clara Davis in the same year. The village has now a good graded
school with three departments, Charles Irle, principal. Its two church
buildings, Congregational and Methodist, were destroyed by the cyclone
of 1884, but are being rebuilt. The Swedish Lutherans have a church a
mile from the village. Chas. Decker was the first postmaster; A. Symme
& Co. were the first merchants; P. Gates, M.D., the first practicing
physician; F. M. Nye the first lawyer. The first marriage was that of
John C. Gates and Ella Scovill. The first birth was Chas. W. Whitcomb,
and the first death that of a child of Hans Johnson.
PINEVILLE.
The town of Pineville, a railroad station and village in section 9, is
a lumbering centre. The Pineville Lumbering Company have here a saw
mill with a capacity of 7,000,000 feet. The logs are brought on wooden
railways three to ten miles. P. B. Lacy & Co., of Hudson, are the
proprietors.
FRANK M. NYE was born in Shirley, Piscataquis county, Maine, in 1852.
His parents removed to Wisconsin in 1854. He was educated at the
common schools and at River Falls Academy. He came to Clear Lake in
1879, and was elected district attorney for Polk county in 1880, and
representative in the Wisconsin assembly in 1885. He removed to
Minneapolis in 1887.
EUREKA.
Eureka embraces township 35, range 18 and a fractional part of range