----Source: 1918 History of Clark Co., WI, by Franklyn, Curtiss-Wedge

Margaret McMahon Shanks

MARGARET MCMAHON SHANKS, in narrating her early experiences, says: "We left Ontario, Canada, in 1866, traveling by rail to West Salem, Wis. When I reached Bangor in 1866 1 was married to Mr. Shanks, and in the fall of that year we came by team through Sparta with William Shanks. We stayed the first night at Tom Emery's tavern, south of Black River Falls.

There were many men staying there who were bound for the woods. The second night we stayed at Paddy's Rest, and the third night at Staffordsville, reaching Henry Huntzicker's the afternoon of the fourth day. We traveled in lumber wagons, loaded when we started with supplies, but at each place we stopped we were obliged to leave some. It was on this trip that I saw my first deer. The roads were bad on account of heavy hauling and we had to get out many times and cut our way through the brush to avoid the bad places in the roadway.  I worked for Mr. Huntzicker that winter and stayed there the following summer. Henry Huntzicker kept a hotel for the lumbermen. On New Year's night, 1867, John Huntzicker was born, and I cared for him during that summer.

In November, 1867, 1 went to camp on the Popple River, walking the distance. There I cooked for the men during the winter, leaving on March 17, 1868. That was my first experience in a logging camp. That summer I stayed at Huntzicker's, and in the fall we built a log hut sixteen feet square, with a scooped roof. My occupation was making buckskin mittens, shirts and buckskin trousers, which I sold to the boys going into camp. The buckskin I secured from the Indians. Mr. Shanks during this time was driving logs down the' Black River. We commenced clearing our farm in 1868.

Later we built a good log house and lived there and farined until we moved into town. We hardly ever saw any women but Indians."