Bloomingdale, the early years

Nestled in the beautiful green hills of the west branch of the Kickapoo River is the village of Bloomingdale. This pleasant little community, still home to many people, grew from a frontier trading post to a prosperous village of about one hundred souls. Bloomingdale’s history is one marked by many happy memories, by hardworking, intelligent, friendly people, and by stories of thriving businesses which served not only residents of this community, but also the whole area.

Today, we look back at the history of this community, located in the town of Clinton, in Vernon County, less than four miles from Westby. We look at history not only to remember the past with a nostalgic tear in our eyes, but also to learn of our roots — to know how we happened to be here, in this wonderful part of God’s earth.

When white man first came to Wisconsin, Indians roamed the part of Wisconsin we now live in. Over the centuries men of many tribes walked this land, including the Sauk, the Fox, the Chippewa and the Kickapoo.

By the 1840s, the ever-rolling tide of migration of the white man had entered even western Wisconsin. In 1848, the first white man to settle on Coon Prairie — Even Gullord, arrived in our area.

Gullord could not believe the vast expanse of land which lay before him on the beautiful prairie. Within a couple of years, many settlers arrived in this area to begin farming, making homes and settling the land. The vast majority of these settlers were Norwegians, but there were people from other lands coming to this rich, beautiful area as well.

It is not known who the first white man was to view the dale where the village of Bloomingdale would one day stand. But, by 1851, the first house was constructed where Bloomingdale now thrives, and by 1857, school was held in the little village.

Records tell us that the village of Bloomingdale was laid out in October 1857 by three men: Charles Hunt, Evan Olson and J.E. Palmer. A year later, a post office was opened, and Dr. Amos Carpenter was named as the first postmaster. Within a decade, virgin land had been broken and a village existed where only trees and wild animals had recently lived.

Why the name Bloomingdale? Many versions have been given how and why these early settlers selected this name. No definite answer can be given, but we can make a good guess.

When the first settlers arrived in this valley, they found a vast number of wild flowers growing here. They wrote of wild plum trees literally covering the hills. Because so many of early settlers were Norwegians, it is easy to imagine that the Norwegian word for flower “Blome” might be joined with the word for valley, “Dalen.” So this flowery valley may have been called Blomedalen. Norwegians often pronounced the “Blooming Dahl,” but today Bloomingdale is the common pronunciation.

There isn’t much written about the growth of this tiny village in the earliest years, but by the 1880s, Bloomingdale was thriving. A business and professional directory in 1883 included eight merchants in the community, with two other businesses just outside the village limits.

Morterud Store

The directory includes three general merchants: Christian A. Morterud, who was also a grain dealer, C.W. Dyson, and E.E. Rustad, who was also serving as postmaster. At this time, there were also two blacksmiths: H. Gihle and Peter Hanson; a tanner; Henry A. Hanson, a shoemaker; G.O. Myburg; a grist mill owned by Marion Osborn; and a physician and surgeon, Dr. C.M. Poff. Andrew Bakken, a furniture maker, and Chris Olson who made wagons, lived on the edge of town.

The trials and the history of the businesses in this era can be found in the history of one of the stores. Christian Morterud, a 32 year old Norwegian immigrant, came to Bloomingdale in 1865. The general store then was owned by H. Price, who hired Christian as a clerk.

Within a few years, Christian became a partner in the venture, and then he bought his partner out. Shortly after taking over the store it was recorded that the trade aggregated between $12,000 and $15,000 a year. In 1880, he erected a new store, a 24 by 65 foot building, at the cost of $1500.

The general store was the main trading place. One early settler reported that Morterud “handled everything — shoes, clothes, groceries, hardware, salt, patent medicines, cloth of all kinds and other staple goods and served as the weigh-in spot for farmers to sell their harvests.”

Farmers did not market milk or cream in those early days, but instead churned butter by hand and brought it to Morterud to trade for needed supplies. Storekeepers would put the butter into kegs and then send it to the market in La Crosse. Other products from the farms; wheat, barley, logs and livestock, became the medium of trade at the Bloomingdale store.

Bloomingdale

Another business was the furniture maker, located about three-fourths of a mile up the valley from Bloomingdale. Andrew Bakken owned a power dam extending almost across the valley, and next to it, a 24 by 36 foot factory. The factory was built in 1881 and completed for operation in 1883.

Mr. Bakken used native lumber for his furniture and cabinet making. He had a “dry-kiln” where a constant fire was kept burning to cure and dry his selected lumber.

Mr. Bakken’s products included, out of economic necessity, coffins. Working through the night on many occasions, Bakken made coffins to correct size, hand-carved, finished, and beautifully upholstered. Bakken also made handles for axes and cant-hooks and in his spare time created wood carvings which won him awards at many fairs, including a blue ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair.

Another dam in the valley powered the flour and grist mill. Lars and Andreas Morterud built the original mill and dam in the 1850s, using millstones imported from Norway.

The flour mill was one of the busiest businesses in the valley. Early histories record that the mill ran night and day. Many owners ran the dam and mill until it was destroyed by a flood in the early 1900s and never rebuilt.

Another Bloomingdale business in the 1880s was the wagon maker, Chris Olson. His business was located on the east side of the valley on a road about one-half mile up the valley from the village. Here he made wagons and sleighs of all sizes, often custom built according to specifications.

As a tanner, Bloomingdale’s Henry A. Hanson excelled in his craft. People came from as far away as Coon Valley, Cashton, La Farge and Newton to have hides tanned, and among the shoemakers, his product was in high demand.

Hanson used the “cold water process”, using the spring water in the village. Even in cold weather, it was a common sight to see Mr. Hanson in high leather boots wading all day long in the soaking pond where the hides were submerged. This was a slow, wet, cold and difficult process, but Hanson’s product was superb.

The village of Bloomingdale also had a business owned by its patrons. The Bloomingdale Creamery, a cooperative venture, opened about 1905. It enjoyed the patronage of the area until it was merged with the Westby Cooperative Creamery in the mid 1940s.

These early businesses of Bloomingdale were served, in the first days, by oxen and horses. A number of “freighters” were available for hire—men with large wagons and a heavy team of horses.

George Buros was the first freighter before the coming of the railroads to Westby. He was followed in later years by S.W. Mossholder, who hauled for the Minor brothers and Adam Mossholder and William Pierce who hauled mostly for the Rustad and Morterud stores and the creamery.

The freighters hauled most produce to La Crosse, the chief market for sales. There were, however, no real roads at the time, just trails. The route to La Crosse was by way of Coon Valley — a three day trip.

After the railroad came to Westby in 1879, freighters began hauling the much shorter distance to that city. The main highway from the village from Westby, at the time, began a short distance south of the standpipe on State Street, then easterly, zig zagging over the prairie and into the valley and into Bloomingdale, a distance of about four miles.

During the rainy seasons, these freighters literally slid their loads through the mud. The Westby streets, for example, became a “sea of mud,” and it was not uncommon to see heavily loaded wagons axle deep in mud.

In the summer of 1857, the first school was held in a house built in Bloomingdale. For many years thereafter, the school term was August to July, in a log building on a hill east of the village.

In the early years of the community, the Norwegian language was used exclusively. But, as English speaking people came, they persuaded the Norwegians to hire an English speaking teacher. It is recorded that this first English teacher, John Wright, was a farmer who had completed the fourth reader. Students learned through readers, completing each of four along the way. Eventually the school terms were changed to slack months of the year, with three two month terms in fall, winter and spring.

Eventually the log building became too small, so another was built on the same site, but not of logs. When the present school was built, the people in the district converted the old building into a church for all religious denominations.