History of Clark County, Wisconsin (1918)

JULIA A. MEAD, who was born in Fulton County, New York, in 1842, says: "In 1851, I came to Jefferson County, Wis., with my mother, two brothers and two sisters. I was married in Jefferson County in 1861 and remained there until 1865, when, with my husband and two children, we started for Clark County. We went as far as Sparta by rail, and there took a wagon and started overland for Clark County through a wild country, and over rough roads. We reached Neillsville in two days. From Neillsville to Greenwood the timber was very dense, and where Greenwood now stands there was a forest of pine and hardwood. The first night we stopped at the house of C. S. Honeywell, the only house there. This building is still standing, though sided over and improved. The next day we started housekeeping half a mile north of town in an old house known as the old Dwyer house. In the spring of 1866 we moved on to our homestead six miles north of town and started living in our little log shanty, built without a nail in it. The snow was then three feet deep on the ground. The only clearing was where our house stood, the rest of the farm being densely covered with timber. We started feeding travelers, furnishing them with tents to sleep in, and I continued in this occupation for seven years, my husband in the meanwhile being engaged at logging and at clearing the farm. We built a new house in 1871 and remained on the farm till 1893. Our supplies were purchased at Black River Falls and were carried mostly on my husband's back. During the first seven months I was on the farm I saw just one white woman. We had a cow and calf, and I used to have to chain the dog to the door to watch the children while I hunted the cow and calf in the woods. There were many Indians but they caused us no trouble. For three years our nearest neighbors were in Greenwood. In the early days my husband and I carried the mail on horseback from two miles south of where Greenwood now stands to George Huntzicker's hotel, one mile south of where Longwood now is. C. S. Honeywell started the first store in Greenwood, which was burned down. The first hotel was built and run for several years by W. H. Begley. We used to hitch up our oxen and drive to George and Henry Huntzicker's and dance till broad daylight, to music furnished by one fiddle, played by Tom Syth. My best dress during all those times was taken from the back of sheep by my own hands, while I lived in Jefferson County. The Eatons' and Honeywells' wives and daughters-four women and four girls-were all who attended these dances during the winter of 1866. When we passed through Neillsville there were only five houses. There were few buildings in Greenwood, except the Honeywell cabin, prior to 1871. After that a few settlers came in and people commenced to stump the land and get it in shape to work."

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