This was told to my mother by my grandmother.  When grandfather brought grandmother to the old homestead, grandmother found a log house and barn.  The furniture was made of logs.  The chairs were blocks of logs.  The table was a log sawed into with legs built in.  Grandfather used oxen to do the farm work.  They used a cradle for cutting grain.  The grain bundles were tied by hand, then thrashed with a flail, we still have one, also a cradle.  A flail was a long stick with a board fastened on the end with leather.

In those days there were no churches in the community.  Church was held in a school house once a month.  People walked as much as five miles to the services.  They got there just as quick as if they would take their oxen.  People lived mostly from natural resources.

In the summer they picked blueberries enough to sell and buy clothing.  They also dried, and canned in jugs for winter.  They sold them for 6 cents a quart and bought calico for three cents a yard.  The women made all the men's shirts and all clothing.

They also spun wool and knit mittens and stockings for the whole family.  Grandmother told mother she bought 2 lbs. of sugar at Christmas and still had some left at Easter.

Men and their wives cut wood by hand to sell and burn.  Most men left their families alone in the winter and worked in lumber camps.  When horses came, my grandparents made butter and took it to Eau Claire with horses and peddled it.  They would leave home at 2 o'clock in the morning and wouldn't get back until late that night.

By Amanda Tumm, Grade 5

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The New Home

Grandmother and grandfather, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Tumm, lived in a log house for many years.  Grandfather had built this house himself.  He also built houses for friends and neighbors.  Grandmother used to whitewash the house whenever she cleaned house.  This house had four rooms downstairs and one large one upstairs.  One day grandmother was going to whitewash again.  Grandmother said to grandfather to come here.  Grandfather went to see what she wanted and she shoed him where the logs were falling to pieces, so grandfather said we need a new house.  So they went to work and cut down some trees and hauled them to the mill, and had them sawed into lumber.  He built a large house with 12 rooms in it.  When the house was finished they gave a dance for all their neighbors and friends for miles around, who came with horses and buggies.  Large tables were set upstairs on which the ladies fixed supper.  The downstairs rooms were used for dancing, everyone enjoyed grandmother and grandfather's new house.  It was the first frame house in the community.  That was in 1902.  It is just a common old house, now badly in need of repairs but I like it very much, it is my home.

By Frederic Tumm, Grade 7

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The Pine View was started in 1912.  The first school board was John Bosher, August Albrecht and Mike Tumm.  The first teacher was Myrtle Black.  She got $35 for one month of teaching.  The cost of running the school that year was $1,797.83.  In 1913 Myrtle Black was still teacher getting $40. a month.  They got a school bell that year and the cost of the bell was $9.55.  It is still there.  The cost of running the school for that year was $1,082.20.  In 1914 Huldak Hachn got $40 for teaching.  The cost of running the school for that year was $696.40.  In 1917 Victoria Konzazny got $50. for a month.  She was still teaching in 1919 but she didn't stay all year.  She received $49.50 for one month.  Alva Samuelson finished the year for $65 a month.  In the beginning there were 34 children.

By Doris & Richard Steinke

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Wm. Albrecht bought 40 acres of land from Sam Randall.  He cleared about 20 acres and built a 2 room house.  Albert Albrecht bought these 40 acres from Wm. Albrecht and later bought 40 acres more from the O & N Lumber Company.  This is all wood lot.

Later he built a new 6 room house on the 1st 40 acres.  There is about 30 acres cleared land now.  It has two creeks running through the farm.  The soil is sandy and low.  Oak, jack pine and poplar trees grow on most of it.

By Victor Albrecht

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In the start my grandfather bought the farm.  When he bought it there was only a log house, a shed covered with straw for a barn and an old chicken coop.  My father helped my grandfather with the work, like clearing land and chores.  My father went to school till he was in the seventh grade.  When his father fell off a load of hay then my father had to quit school and do most of the work around home.  Later my grandfather and grandmother died and my father took the place over.  Then my father built a new barn, then he built a house and other buildings.  The barn burned and they built it up again and it is still there.  Some years later he bought 40 acres of woodland.

By James Polinske

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My great grandfather came to America some seventy years ago from Germany.  His name was Gustave Polinske.  He was a carpenter by trade.  After living here a few years he married Ernestine, however they lived in Fall Creek for eighteen years.  In 1904 he bought the farm we are now living on.  At that time there was a log house here and a shed covered with straw for a barn.  There was 160 acres on this farm and about 60 acres were cleared.  My father and grandfather cut down trees and had them sawed into lumber.  The second year they were here they built a barn 32 by 56.  About ten years later a forty foot addition was built on.  Then in 1927 the barn burned the 19th of May.  Then they had to cut logs another time and built a second barn, but by that time my father had a saw mill of his own and steam engine to run it with.  Then my father bought 120 acres making our farm now 280 acres of which 170 now under cultivation.  My father is now a carpenter and he built many of the buildings in this county.

By Melvin Polinske, Grade 5 

In the years ago when they first came to this place, there was only a little strip of land that was cleared off, the rest was all in woods, so there was no place to live in.  They bought an old shed and built it into a one room house where they lived.  The first years they had a cellar across the creek in the hillside where they kept their food.  They had no wagons.  They had to cut the wood and saw it to burn.  And then they got one horse and a cow.  They made themselves a stoneboat so they had a little to go with.  Then they built a small barn for the horse and cow.  The shed was made out of trees and covered with straw so it was something to keep them in.  And so it went on for years.  They had the one cow and raised the calf and they finally got a herd of cows.  So then they logged and got the wood sawed and built a barn.  They had tough luck.  There was so much frost along the creek so the water stood in there so long there was to be a poison weed growing in it.  There the feed was getting short.  So the cows began to get sick one after the other.  They all died but one that was a heifer and she came fresh and then the kids did not want to drink the milk, so they traded her off for another one and they had luck again.  She had a heifer calf each year so they got up to a herd again.  Then they got a little more on their feet and they built more on to the house and they made out better and got along fine and had more money so finally my folks took the place over.  They built a woodshed that did not last long, it got rotten so then they tore it down and built up a cement silo, a garage and kept on clearing off land so now we have lots of cattle and a tractor and machinery.

By Vera Knuth 

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This farm was first owned by August Henning.  In 1884 it was all woodland at that time.  So he cleared some of the land and put up a few buildings.  He lived here about twenty years then his son Emil Henning took over the place.  In 1904 he cleared a few acres of land every year and plowed up the land and put up almost all the buildings that are on the place today.  He farmed here for about twenty-eight years, then he retired.  In 1926 his son Ed took over and has farmed the land, plowed up new ground and is still farming.

By Ervin Henning