THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

April 11, 1991

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant.

 

            Erastus C. Sessions, better known as E. C. Sessions, was one of the first five Vermonters to arrive at the Falls (Waupaca) in the summer of 1849.  He erected a 12x13 foot log cabin, with a bark roof and a bark floor, near the granite ledge where the old Danes Home is located.

            There was not a board used in the construction, as the first sawmills were not in operation yet.

            Since E.C. Sessions was a bachelor and had a home, he began thinking of marriage.  It seems as if he already had someone in mind:  a special lady who was living with friends in the southeastern part of the state, who had come from the green hills of Vermont the year before.

            E.C. Sessions was married somewhere in the southeastern part of the state, and immediately started back to the Falls.  They had an unusual wedding trip, that you could hardly call a honeymoon.

            The wedding trip back began by taking the stagecoach to Fond du Lac, thence by steamer to Oshkosh, and on to find their way up the Wolf River.  At Oshkosh they chartered a schooner, as it was called, capable of carrying three to four tons of freight.  The schooner’s crew consisted of two men.  They left Oshkosh in mid-afternoon with a air wind, expecting to reach Butte des Morts, or even Winneconne, before dark.  But they were in the middle of Lake Butte des Morts when the wind subsided and it became very calm.  They were at a standstill.  The water was too deep to use the poles, but a tie-up was finally made to a raft of logs.

            There they were, newlyweds, out in the open boat with only a single cover for a bed, and in the company of two total strangers, with the unsympathetic moon looking straight downon them. Dawn finally came with a breeze that took them out of lake Butte des Morts and into the channel leading to Winneconne.  By much hard work the party reached Winneconne as the sun was sinking behind the horizon. Here they found shelter at the home of the Mumbrues.

            Capt. David Scott and a Mister Gard joined the crew the next day, helping whenever necessary.  The progress was slow going through Lake Winneconne and around the Indian pay grounds in Lake Poygan. Averse winds hindered their progress, but by repeated tackings back and forth across the lake they reached the entrance of the Wolf River.  It was now evident to the newlyweds that they could make better time if they left the main craft and used the rowboat that was being towed behind. Scott, Gard and the newlywed pair pressed on with Gard as the steersman, and the other two being the motive power, with the bride seated in a rocking chair in the middle of the boat.  Their destination was Little River where a sawmill was being erected.  It is not clear just where they disembarked and left the Wolf River – was it at the place that became known as Gills Landing, or was it at a point downriver where they could proceed straight west to Little River?  At any rate, night was coming on, but they continued on foot through the timber and darkness.  To make things worse, at one point water was some rods in width and several inches in depth.  This was overcome by carrying the bride safely across.

            The next morning a walk of five miles brought the weary party to the Chandler Settlement, where they found women, children and the comforts of home.  The party pressed on to the Falls where they started a new life in the log shanty with the bark roof and the bark floor.

            I never found out what E.C. Sessions’ wife’s maiden name was, but her first name was Abigail (Abby).

            E.C. Sessions was a businessman, so he set out and laid claim to three of the original 40s in the plat of the Village of Waupaca, and one in the Third Ward.

            About 1850, Rev. Silas Miller came to the Falls in search for a good location for a sawmill.  E. C. Sessions had just what he was looking for, and made a deal whereby he traded his farm and livestock at Alto, Fond du Lac County, for Mr. Sessions’ entire holdings. Mr. Sessions then moved to the property that he bought northwest of the Falls; this was then called Sessions’ Prairie, and is now Sheridan.

            It was not known to me until recently when the Sessions family left the Waupaca area.  On March 4, 1991, I received a letter from Mrs. John (Shirley) McArthur, of McArthur, CA, asking me to do some research.  In the letter she included a copy of the “Reminiscences of Edward P. Sessions,” who was a son of E.C. and Abigail Sessions. It has been said that he was the first white boy born in Waupaca.  This goes on to tell when they left the area, and an interesting story of their lives in the West.  The McArthur families left the Waupaca area and founded the city of McArthur, CA, in 1902.