Early days in the Chippewa Valley

This is an autobiographical narrative about a young lawyer’s search for the best community in which to build a legal practice in the Upper Midwest in the late 1850s. Charles Smith Bundy’s experiences reveal how networks of friends, family, and associates from earlier places of residence assisted young men anxious to “get ahead” in mid-nineteenth-century America. Bundy first came to Wisconsin from Oxford, Chenango County, New York, in 1856. His initial contacts in Wisconsin were relatives and two businessmen from his home community, a social foundation from which he was soon able to develop political contacts. His account provides vivid descriptions of Reed’s Landing, Pepin, Eau Claire, Menomonie, and Chippewa Falls. – American Memory Website, Library of Congress