ALDEN.
The town of Alden embraces township 32, range 17, and twenty-four sections of range 18. It has both prairie and timber land, and is abundantly supplied with water. Apple river traverses it from northeast to southwest. There are many tributary small streams, and a large number of small lakes, of which Cedar lake is the largest. This lies only partially in Alden. The surface is gently undulating.
The town of Alden was organized in 1857. The first board of supervisors were Stephen Williams, William Folsom and H. Sawyer. The first post office was established at Wagon Landing in 1862, V. M. Babcock, postmaster. The first settlers were Wm. Folsom, V. M. Babcock, V. B. Kittel, I. L. Bridgman, Charles Vassau, Jr., and Humphrey Sawyer, in 1856. Mr. Bridgman raised the first crops in 1857. The first marriage was C. Vassau to Alma Kittel, in 1858, by Rev. A. Burton Peabody. The first white child born in Alden was P. B. Peabody, July 28, 1856. The first death was that of a child, Nicholas W. Gordon, June 10, 1857. Alden has two post towns, Little Falls and Alden.
Rev. A. Burton Peabody was born May 22, 1823, in Andover, Windsor county, Vermont. He was the youngest of four minor children, and was left fatherless at eight years of age, and motherless at fifteen. He obtained a good English education in the common schools, and at Chester and Black River academies. The winter terms he spent in teaching. In 1844 he came to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he spent two years, partly on a farm and partly in a law office, as a student and clerk. In 1847 he went to Iowa county, and taught school through the winter at Mineral Point. The next year he went to Clarence, Green county, Wisconsin, where he spent four years in teaching. In 1852 he entered the Nashotah Theological Seminary, where he completed the course, and was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church, June 3, 1855, by the Rev. Bishop Kemper, and took temporary charge of Grace church, Sheboygan. He was married to Charity Esther Kittel, Sept. 22, 1855, at Clarence, by the Rev. Wm. Ruger. In November of the same year he removed to Mississippi, spending the winter at Jackson. In February he went to Middleton, Mississippi, to take charge of a mission work, including several appointments. He came, the June following, to Polk county, Wisconsin, and spent the summer at Wagon Landing, on Apple river, where his wife's friends had made a settlement, but in the winter returned to his mission work in the South, and there remained until 1857. Owing to the troubled political condition of the South, he did not deem it advisable to remove his family thither, and so returned to Wagon Landing and obtained mission work, visiting at intervals Foster's Mills, now New Richmond, Huntington, Cedar Valley, and St. Croix Falls. The intervening country was, much of it, an unbroken wilderness, and he was obliged to make his journeys not infrequently on foot, to cross the swollen streams and dare all the perils of the winter storm. In 1859 Mr. Peabody accepted a call to the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Plymouth, Sheboygan county, but in 1862 returned to the valley of the St. Croix, and settled on a farm, undertaking meanwhile ministerial work at Prescott and other points, in a line extending as far north as St. Croix Falls. Three years later Prescott and River Falls were made independent, another man taking charge. In 1879 Mr. Peabody undertook additional work on the North Wisconsin railroad, including a large number of places, to be visited monthly. In 1882 his railroad work was limited to Clayton, Cumberland and Hayward. He still has charge, as rector, of Star Prairie and Wagon Landing. Few men have led more laborious lives or been more useful in their calling. He has witnessed the erection of eight churches on the field in which he labored, though concerned directly in the building of only four. Mr. Peabody's family consists of seven sons and seven daughters. One of the latter died in infancy.
V. M. Babcock settled at Wagon Landing, town of Alden, in 1856. He was born in Rensselaer county, New York; married his first wife in New York and his second wife at Somerset, St. Croix county, Wisconsin. They have four children. He has held town offices ever since the organization of the town. He has been sheriff, and was county superintendent of schools for seven years.
APPLE RIVER.
The town of Apple River includes township 34, range 16, and derives its name from its principal river. The town is well watered by Apple river and its tributaries, and it also has numerous lakes, the most considerable of which is White Ash lake. The surface of the town is gently undulating, and was originally covered with pine, interspersed with hardwood groves. There is good wheat soil, and natural meadows are found in some parts. The town was organized Jan. 22, 1876, having been set off from Balsam Lake. There are two post offices, Apple River on the west, and Shiloh on the east town line.
BALSAM LAKE.
The town of Balsam Lake embraces township 34, range 17, and takes its name from a lake within its bounds. It has an undulating surface, covered with heavy oak, pine, and maple timber principally. Balsam creek, the outlet of Balsam lake, flows through it in a southerly direction, affording fine water powers. About one-sixth of the surface is covered with lakes. The largest of these, Balsam lake, in the Indian language An-in-on-duc-a-gon, or evergreen place, gives name to the town. Deer, Long, Wild Goose, and Mud lakes are fine bodies of water with bold, timbered shores, and abundance of fish. The town is near the geographical centre of the county. The first white man, prior to the organization of the town, to locate within its present bounds was a disreputable trader named Miller, who in 1848 built a shanty on Balsam lake, from which he dispensed whisky to the Indians. This man was not long afterward driven out of the country. (See history of St. Croix Falls.) The town was organized in 1869. The first board of supervisors consisted of Geo. P. Anderson, Wright Haskins, and Joseph Loveless. The clerk was H. J. Fall; the treasurer, F. R. Loveless. The first school was taught by Jane Husband. Aaron M. Chase built a shingle mill at the outlet of Balsam lake in 1850, and he seems to have been the first actual settler or the first man to make improvements. As he had neither oxen nor horses, the timbers for the mill were hauled by man power with the aid of yokes and ropes. Other persons came to the mill and lived there awhile, but the first permanent settlers came in in 1856. They were J. Shepherd, Joseph Loveless, Joseph Ravett, and John M. Rogers. Mr. Rogers raised the first crops in the town; Joseph Ravett was the first postmaster. The first marriage was that of J. K. Adams to Miss L. A. Millerman, by W. H. Skinner. The first white child born was a daughter to R. S. Haskins. The first death, that of a child, occurred in 1870. A first class flouring mill has been erected at the outlet of Balsam lake. It is owned by Herman Corning; a saw mill is also in operation at this point. A Methodist church, 30 × 40 feet ground plan, was erected at Balsam Lake by the Methodist society in 1886.