B.F. Heuston was one of the first settlers in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. His family migrated from Pennsylvania to Warren County, Ohio, in 1829. After teaching school for two years (1842-1843) in Rodney, Mississippi, he came northward as far as the present city of La Crosse, Wisconsin. For seven years he worked in the pineries on the Black River, rising during that time to take on small governmental tasks. In 1846, he became justice of the peace.
In 1851, in partnership with one Ira Hammond, he bought land that is now part of the town of Trempealeau, with the object of setting up a village on the site. These two men, with James Reed, laid out the town-site, naming it Monteville. From 1853 on he held various county posts, acting as county supervisor, justice of the peace, and later as probate judge, the first in the county.
In 1860, he started a business in Chicago, which was interrupted by the Civil War. In August 1862, he enlisted in the 22nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, in which he served, first as private and later as corporal, until the regiment was mustered out in 1865. From that date to 1871, he worked as farmer and public official. In 1871, he became a clerk on the mail cars, retiring from the job in 1883. From that date to 1894, he lived in Winona, Minnesota, studying and writing. Some of his work concerned the history of Trempealeau County.
His papers are chiefly valuable for the collection of letters written by and to him during the Civil War period. They are especially valuable for their comments on the army hospitals and for the comments on the Northern Negro in the Civil War. Besides the war letters, there is a set of four war journals, covering the period of Heuston's service in the 22nd Wisconsin Volunteers. The other material includes a number of articles on subjects varying from prohibition and temperance to an analysis of racial characteristics, a course of lessons on the pronunciation of English, notes and miscellanies on the history of Trempealeau County, other correspondence, some of it dealing with county problems and difficulties, and a collection of twenty diaries, account-books, and memoranda containing information of the most varied kind.
