WAUPACA REPUBLICAN POST

August 21, 1913

 

CHANGES OF SIXTY-FOUR YEARS.

Member of First Party to Camp at Waupaca Falls in June 1949,

Attended Homecoming.

           

            The Changes that have taken place in Waupaca in sixty-four years were viewed with much interest by Martin Burnham of Watseka, Ill., one of the party of five white men to first see Waupaca Falls.

            Mr. Burnham at the age of eighty-five, came over three hundred miles to visit Waupaca during Homecoming Week.  This was the eighth visit he had made to Waupaca where he had come on a number of previous occasions to visit his brother, the late Marcus Burnham.

            In June, 1849, Mr. Burnham in company with E. C. Sessions, William and Joseph Hibbard and a Mr. Pratt, followed the course of the river from Weyauwega and remained here three days to stake out three eighty acre claims on which E. C. Sessions, Joseph and William Hibbard settled and made their homes for many years.

            The survivor of this party of explorers had started from his home in Vermont with forty dollars of borrowed capital and a determination that he would reach California and possess some of the riches that were reputed to be running away in the sands that were being washed down the rivers and brooks of that famous gold producing territory.

            While the exploring trip to the Indian Lands of Wisconsin was a side trip, Mr. Burnham says he noted at that time the splendid opportunities for water power but he could not then imagine that he would ever see such a city on this site as he witnessed during the Waupaca Homecoming.

            After assisting in the first survey of Waupaca, Mr. Burnham returned to Chicago, which was a city with 20,000 people and one railroad, extending out only 20 miles.  At that time lake water was delivered about the city for drinking purposes in barrels hauled by teams.  Now it takes hundreds of millions of gallons daily to supply water for Chicago.

            The subject of this sketch rode over Chicago’s first twenty miles of railroad, pressed on to Missouri and secured a chance to go along with a train bound overland for California on condi-tion that he would cook the provisions, help watch the mules and after reaching the gold fields would give one half of all he could make in eighteen months.  After working two months in this way, Mr. Burnham bought his time, agreeing to pay $450 as soon as he had earned that amount after sending home the $40 he had borrowed to enable him to start on his 5,000 miles across the continent.  Kansas City then consisted of one log shanty and a ferry.

            His account of the trials of that trip when the trial for forty miles at a stretch could be followed by the bones of the horses, oxen and mules that had died of exhaustion only emphasizes the development of this country with its improved means of transportation and general methods of life that have taken place in sixty-four years.  Then Portland, Oregon had a population of 300; now it has a quarter of a million.

            Mr. Burnham commented on the beauty of Waupaca and its surroundings.  He spoke especially of the great amount of fine cement walks which excel those of many larger cities.

            This was the eighth visit Mr. Burnham had made to Waupaca, one in 1899 when the survivors to the party who made the first survey held a reunion to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their first visit to Waupaca.  He was also a member of the Club of Forty-niners, who met annually at Chicago for many years till two years ago when only five survivors were able to attend and they adjourned never to meet again.