Vaudreuil's ideal town design fails

     Dreamers are nothing new to the area, as in 1908 a wealthy peapacker bought a 3,000-acre tract east of Black River Falls with visions of transforming it into a tidy town fringed with small farms and orchards.
     With high hopes and a $300,000 bankroll, he started building factories, a canning plant, roads, stores, sewer and water system and clusters of homes.

Lasted three years

     In less than three years he was gone, leaving behind unfinished structures on the sandy patch of land along with disillusioned investors and much of his bankroll.
     Edward Vaudreuil had based his community plan on the presence of fertile soil and favorable climatic conditions. It foundered on realities of the soil and growing seasons in Brockway Township.
      After his community in Brockway failed, Vaudreuil's fortunes continued on a downward spiral. he opened canning plants in Owen and Eau Claire prior to World War I, but both closed in bankruptcy. He died sometime in the 1920's in California in what was politely referred to as "straitened circumstances"

Model of success

     But in 1908 Vaudreuil was a walking model of financial and technological success. Twelve years earlier he had started a canning plant in Two Rivers, Wis., which had gained national stature for the quality of its "French" peas and other vegetables. Vaudreuil perfected much of the machinery in his plant, and he was a sticker for cleanliness.
     They key to Vaudreuil's plan lay in enticing people to buy the small farm pots and turn them into vegetable gardens and orchards. To convince people the soil was suitable, he hired Prof. O. M. Reiche, president of a nitrogen fertilizer company in Milwaukee, so set up an experimental farm on the Vaudreuil land.

Announces finding

     Prof. Reiche obligated by testing soils in the area and pronouncing them adequate for growing healthy crops of peas, beans, cucumbers, corn, berries and tomatoes. He urged widespread use of green manuring (plowing under of legume crops) and application of commercial fertilizer.
     Local farmers were far from convinced by Prof. Reiche's "expert" evaluation of the soil, but Vaudreuil bought every word of it.
     One of Vaudreuils's first acts as a city builder was to open a factory which produced concrete building blocks. The blocks were turned out by a machine invented by John Somers of Urbana, Illinois-and Somers was summoned by Vaudreuil to run the factory. About 3,000 blocks a day were produced, according to contemporary newspaper accounts.
     By late fall of 1909, more than 50 men were employed on a full-time basis in various Vaudreuil construction projects, and the monthly payroll ran to a pricely sum. During the 1909-1910 building boom at Vaudreuil, a door and sash factory was built; about eight private homes were finished-three are still standing on the north side of Hwy. 54; the large canning plant was begun, a hotel and store building were finished in the "downtown" area; sewer lines were dug' a wagon factor was opened; and Vaudreuil began contemplating damming nearby Levis Creek to form a resort lake fur summering city folks from Chicago and Milwaukee.
     Meanwhile, merchants in Black River Falls were having second thoughts about the upstart town. The first burst of enthusiasm and encouragement by Black River Falls residents gave way to wailing and hand-wringing when it dawned on them that the town of Vaudreuil might eclipse the trading-center status of their own city.
     Even more disappointing to Vaudreuil was the lack of interest in the small farm plots which fanned out from the new town's center. Vaudreuil's price for a five-acre farmette was a reasonable $850, including a concrete block cottage and 25 apple trees. The ten-acre farm parcels included a larger house and 50 apple trees, and carried price tags of $1,500 -- with terms available.
     Vaudreuil had counted on making most first land sales to local people, but he failed to consider the social stigma associated with living on the east side of the river. It was the local equivalent of living on the "wrong side of the tracks," and it was a deterrent stronger even that the common knowledge that the Vaudreuil soil was thin and weak.
     But Vaudreuil kept on building. The wagon factory began turning out wagons, and well-made materials flowed from the sash and door factory and block plant. A couple of retail stores were occupied - one by the Black Diamond Saloon. The all-important canning plant was started, but never finished. Free factory sites were advertised.

Last desperate attempt

     In one last desperate attempt to breathe life into his creation, Vaudreuil enticed a well-known opera star, Pauline L'Allemand, to buy a lot in the town. That was 1911, and by then Vaudreuil had scrapped his farm-and-vegetable sales pitch in favor of one which pained Vaudreuil as a summer retreat for wealthy residents of the big cities. He thought Mrs. L'Allemand would bring the touch of class so badly needed. She didn't, and the town of Vaudreuil withered.
     After Vaudreuil and his imported managers left, the factories, empty houses and store buildings lay open to vandals and weather. Nearly all were eventually demolished by local scavengers who carted away interior fixtures, lumber and concrete blocks.

- Jim Zeno

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.