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Farm
Life : A Century of Change for Winner of a 2005 Wis. Hist. Soc. Book Award! New Mexico State University ![]()
In 1900, 42 percent of the American population worked in agriculture. In 2000, there were so few farmers that the US Census Bureau considered removing them as a separate occupational group. The survivors have retained their connection to farming, and even particular farms and rural neighborhoods, sometimes through many generations. What compels one family to stay while a score of others departs? $15 ISBN#0-9636191-4-4 |
Farm
Crossing : the Amazing ![]()
These words start an adventure, funny and sad, strange and familiar. Addie and Zachary find themselves in a world that's close-by but far, far away. Whom will they meet? How will they find each other? and how will they ever get home again? $15 ISBN#0-9636191-5-2 |
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Paths
of the People: -Richard St. Germaine, former tribal chair, Lac Courtes Oreilles ![]()
Anishinabe, Saulteur, Ojibwe, Chippewa -- all names of a people who have lived in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin for the past three centuries. Ojibwe oral tradition speaks of life as a circular path, with parents passing on knowledge to children and grandchildren. Over the past 300 years, contact with Europeans and settlement by Americans have forced them to adapt in order to survive. The challenges each generation has faced--whether at treaty grounds, boarding schools, or boat landings--have influenced what knowledge has been passed down, what paths taken. $15 ISBN 0-9636191-0-1 |
Settlement & Survival : Yankee, Canadian and European immigrants built Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Menomonie, and other towns along a network of rivers that transported people and pine. For half a century, workers labored in the woods in the winter and the mills in the summer. Residents built homes, schools, churches and courthouses; enjoyed the festive atmospheres of biergartens and sangfests; and endured the recurring hardships of fire and flood. The forest's decline forced town "boosters" into a desperate search for new industries and jobs. Some communities did not survive. Most found their futures along the new networks -- rails, highways, and power lines. Where one generation cut logging trails and rafted lumber, the next paved roads, operated hydro-electric dams, and manufactured tires, pressure cookers, and other products, shipping them all over the world.
Settlement and Survival is based on a major exhibit created by the Chippewa Valley Museum. Curator of Public Programs Tim Pfaff served as principal writer for the five-person team that developed the award-winning Settlement & Survival project. $15 ISBN 0-9636191-1-X
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Ralph
Owen's Eau Claire: Owen, Wisconsin. The Owen Park bandshell. Lake Owen. Wisconsinites and Eau Clairians speak the Owen name quite a bit, especially in the summer, when theres a concert at the bandshell, or their kids are at the Lake Owen sports camp. John S. and his son Ralph W. ran the John S. Owen Lumber Company for almost 90 years between them. Through that company, Ralphs father left his name all over the Chippewa Valley. And Ralph was a driving force behind some of Eau Claires leading institutions, including Luther Hospital, the Red Cross, and the public library. But he was also a kid. He and his friends collected (iron) bottles, hung out at the theater (in the days before the movies), tried to hypnotise each other, raced along the (wooden) sidewalks with pockets full of candy, and scouted the local parks on the hunt for strange plants and dangerous wildlife. As the son of a leading citizen, he was welcome to play in some of the citys finest homes. He remembers it all in astonishing detail.
Ralph Owens Eau Claire: The Character of a City 1884-1909 is the city of Owens youth. It is a portrait of a particular era and way of life. But its also a place youd like to visit. Thanks to his remarkable reminiscence, you can. $10 ISBN#0-9636191-6-0
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The City Grows Up : A community — Eau Claire or any other — is its people and its institutions. During the period this volume covers, perhaps no one in Eau Claire had a more intimate knowledge of its leading institutions, or a keener eye in observing its people, than Ralph W. Owen did. Owen was a driving force behind Luther Hospital, the Red Cross, and the public library. (His father, John S. Owen, left his name all over the Chippewa Valley: Owen, Wisconsin, the Owen Park bandshell, Lake Owen.) To be a community we must have good citizens. To be good citizens, we must be engaged. In this way, Owen’s bright and casual reminiscence, often pretty darned funny, disguises a call to action. In this sequel to the popular Ralph Owen’s Eau Claire: The Character of a City, 1884-1909, Owen again animates the town he called home and gives us the tenor of these “new” times.
Dedicated to preserving and interpreting regional history, the Chippewa Valley Museum is proud to present The City Grows Up: Ralph Owen’s Eau Claire, 1920-1960, taken from a larger manuscript maintained in the museum’s Glenn Curtis Smoot Library and Archives. $10 ISBN 0-9636191-9-5
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