Early Place Names of Pierce County

Published July 31, 2011

I’ve been meaning to post a big long essay on the history of place names of Pierce County for a few weeks now.  I can’t seem to put together a nice coherent story, so for now I’m going simply post a few interesting facts.  

Piece County is of interest to the Ducklow family history as it is where George Ducklow, the sixth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow, put down roots.  George’s descendants are yet thick in Pierce County.  While I am no longer a resident of the county, its history fascinates me.  Its story, and the broader history of Wisconsin helped to shape the how George arrived in Rock Elm Center and as a consequence why nearly all other Ducklow’s now living western Wisconsin were born in Pierce or St. Croix Counties.

The remainder of this post is a bit disjointed.  I ask for your pardon until I get a chance to write a nice story to tie it all together.

===

Rock Elm Center, often simply called Rock Elm, was literally the center of the woods that were chock-full of elm trees.  Rock elm is a particularly dense form of elm and an apt description of how hard the wood was to chop, cut and mill. Rock Elm Center was established in 1865 with the arrival of a mill and a handful of lumbermen. George Ducklow arrived in Rock Elm Center at at age 22 in about 1873, some eight years after it was initially established. 

Elmwood lies in the valley of the Eau Galle river some five miles north and east of Rock Elm Center.  Of course it too is named for the abundance of elm trees that dominate the surrounding woods; Elmwood is among the newest of communities in Pierce County, being established in 1905. It too got its start as the location of a sawmill.

Olivet: In about 1875 George Ducklow moved from Rock Elm Center and recreated himself as a mercantile man in the now nearly vanished settlement of Olivet.  While there is some uncertainty, most sources indicate that Olivet name is from the Bible – specifically Mount Olivet. The French word “olivette” means the place were olives grow, and of course there are references in the Bible of gardens of olives.  It sees most likely that early French explorers and trappers who traversed the area named it based on these facts.

El Paso: Olivet was connected to a neighboring settlement of El Paso by stagecoach in the mid 1800s.  The name El Paso is mysterious to many people as it would seem to indicate some sort of connection to a heritage of Latin America, Mexico or some other Spanish speaking people.  This is totally incongruent with the known early history of the area. The mystery becomes unlocked by learning more about the stagecoach line, or more precisely, the shape of the road that the stage followed.  When viewed from an elevation, the road formed an “L” as it passed along the river and between the hills defining the bounds of the valley. Up to this point the area apparently had not been named. So when the stage driver made a stop he called out, “L-pass.”  The name eventually morphed into El Paso.  El Paso is one of the earliest settlements in Pierce County, with roots as early as 1858.

Spring Lake township that holds Spring Valley, was named after a now vanished spring fed lake.  The lake was apparently adjacent to the Eau Galle River just a bit upstream of the the Spring Lake Lutheran Church.  It was described as being quite beautiful.  Accounts of the lake simple state the spring and lake disappeared prior to 1900. It seems likely that it became a victim of the logging operations that pushed great rafts of logs down the Eau Galle in the spring to the mills. Spring Lake Township was organized in 1868, some 24 years prior the establishment of village of Spring Valley, the community that now dominates the township.

Martell: A Frenchman founded a small settlement on the Rush River and named it Sunrise. Not many years passed and the founding Frenchman died. In honor of the founder, the  people living in the settlement was renamed Martell.  Sunrise / Martell too have a long history going back to the late 1840s.

Perry: Not many people today will recognize the village name of Perry. Perry came into existence in 1857 as the county seat.  It was renamed Ellsworth in 1863, in honor of the heroics of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, a friend of Abraham Lincoln and the first conspicuous casualty of  the Civil War.  Col. Ellsworth had no direct association with Pierce County.  So renaming Perry in his honor showed the strong feelings of support for the Lincoln and the desire of the area to remain a united union. The city of Perry/Ellsworth created as an outcome from a nasty political battle around the location of the Pierce County courthouse.  Its location is the approximate geographic center of the County, a compromise location that the majority of residents could agree upon.  East Ellsworth came into existence because railroad officials refused lay tracks up a steep grade to get to Ellsworth proper.  Naturally businesses sprung up around the depot and thus East Ellsworth came to be.

Beldenville – laid out by David and O.H. Belden in 1856.  They both left the area not long after the area was plated, but the name forever after is known as Beldenville.

New Centerville gained in name from the fact that it lies about half way along the common border between St. Croix and Pierce county. New Centerville was also known simply as Centerville.  The source of the “New” has not been uncovered.  It seems to have been established as a logging town in the late 1870s.

Gilman is another village that no longer exists.  It was founded in 1869.  The township of Gilman remains and is named after the area’s first settler.  Prior to being named Gilman, the area was called Deerfield. 

Hudson, while not in Pierce County, has a strong linkage to Piece County’s history.  It had two prior names.  It was named Willow River and Buena Vista (prior to 1851).  Some of the early founders were involved in the Spanish-American War and had pick-up some Spanish terms, including the phrase for beautiful view - Buena Vista.  The name Hudson was finally settled upon as it was reminiscent of the Hudson River Valley in update New York, the former home of many of the early settlers.

Pierce County is named after Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States.  Pierce County and Polk County were formed by dividing a then super-size St. Croix County.  This naming of the new counties happened in 1853, five years after Wisconsin became a state and while Franklin Pierce was just beginning is term as President (1853-1857).  Pierce County originally had only one township that covered all of Pierce County – the Township of Elizabeth.  The name is from a child named Elizabeth who is reported to have been the first white child born in the area, in the year 1845.  Elizabeth also was the original moniker for the city of Prescott. Philander Prescott was an Army officer stationed at Fort Snelling and attempted to corner property ownership rights for his personal benefit from the Indians.  He felt that the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers was an ideal location for a large future city.  That city did come to be, but not at Prescott, but rather up stream on the Mississippi now known as St. Paul.