Title: Dudley J. Spaulding Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1849-1876, 1894-1899

Creator:

• Spaulding, Dudley J., 1834-

Call Number: La Crosse Mss T

Quantity: 1.2 cubic feet (3 archives boxes including 4 volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the Special Collections & Area Research Center, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

UW-La Crosse Murphy Library / La Crosse Area Research Ctr. (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Spaulding, a lumberman from Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and an official of Jackson County, Wisconsin. The collection consists mainly of incoming letters, 1856-1875, containing information on Spaulding's lumber business in Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin. Other papers pertain to his operation in Wisconsin of a sawmill, flour mills, a sash, door, and blind factory, a blacksmith shop, and retail stores. Some letters indicate his interests in railroads, farms, and the importation of tobacco. A few papers relate to his work as clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Jackson County, clerk of the circuit court, and contractor for the boarding, lodging, and transportation of Civil War troops in the area. A few papers of his father, Jacob Spaulding, founder of Black River Falls, are included in the collection.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-lx000t

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Jacob Spaulding, stone-mason and wheelwright by trade, and father of Dudley J. Spaulding, immigrated from Massachusetts to Johnstown, New York in 1830, where four years later Dudley was born. When the boy was two, the family moved to Illinois, and two years later, moved again to Wisconsin. Discarding his former trade, Jacob Spaulding soon gained control of and developed the water power at the falls of the Black River. About his lumber mill a small village grew, known as “Spalding's Settlement,” and later named Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin. In 1860, Jacob deeded the mill property and water power to Dudley, although he continued to help in managing the business until his death in 1876.

The Dudley J. Spaulding papers are include general correspondence, bills, receipts, plats, legal papers, etc., 1849-1899. Primarily the papers are concerned with many aspects of Spaulding's lumbering activities in Wisconsin, and during the Civil War era include frequent letters from his uncle, Isaac C. Spaulding, St. Louis lumber dealer. Throughout the war and until 1876, Spaulding had numerous dealings for varying lengths of time with the following companies:

Clinton Lumber Company, Clinton, Iowa; J. M. Patterson, St. Louis, Missouri; Barrows, Taylor and Company, Galena, Illinois; Culbertson and Welles, Fulton, Illinois; Douglas and Lobsing, South St. Louis, Missouri; W. and J. Fleming, McGregor, Iowa; Joyce and Smith, Lyons, Iowa; Hemenway, Wood, and company, Lansing, Iowa; R. Musser and Company, Muscatine, Iowa. In addition to these companies, he dealt with the Dubuque Lumber Company for twenty years from 1856 to 1876, and became financially connected with Vandergrift, Felt and Spaulding (later known as Welles, Felt and Spaulding) of Keokuk, Iowa, and the Spaulding, Van Hoosear, and Company of Unity, Wisconsin. Correspondence over this twenty year period contains information on current lumber prices, logging conditions, and methods of financing lumbering, especially through eastern banks like Rindshopf Brothers New York.

A break in the collection occurs between 1876 and 1894, but from the latter date until 1899, the Spaulding manuscripts give leads on his cypress and pine logging operations in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In conjunction with his lumbering in these states, he purchased “a great many thousand acres of land” and Texas. In 1898, Spaulding moved his family south where he became supervisor of the Monroe Lumber Company of Monroe, Louisiana.

In addition to material on lumbering, records can be found in the collection on Jackson County land tax matters in court cases, 1858-1860, since during this time Spaulding was clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Black River Falls, and also clerk of the circuit court. In the last years of the Civil War he was contractor for boarding, lodging and transporting enlisted troops at Black River Falls.

Scattered correspondence deals with his other economic activities which include flour milling, farming, and tobacco importing. There is also evidence Spaulding was interested in 1861 in the Tomah and Lake St. Croix railroad, and ten years later, in the Chicago, Dubuque and Minnesota road.

Although Spaulding was a Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, there are no documents of a political or religious nature in his papers. The collection does include personal correspondence from his father and his sister-in-law, and a few letters exchanged between him and his wife, the former Margaret J. Campbell of Platteville, Wisconsin.

These papers are the only surviving portion of a much more extensive collection of Spaulding family business records, which was inadvertently destroyed during the dismantling of the old Spaulding home in Black River Falls in 1950.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Misses Jane and Mary Spaulding, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, April 5, 1951.

La Crosse Mss T	Correspondence and other papers, 1849-1899
Box   1 Folder   1	1849-1858
Box   1 Folder   2	1859 January-September
Box   1 Folder   3	1859 October-1861
Box   1 Folder   4	1862
Box   1 Folder   5	1863
Box   2 Folder   1	1864
Box   2 Folder   2	1865-1866
Box   2 Folder   3	1867
Box   2 Folder   4	1868
Box   2 Folder   5	1869-1870
Box   2 Folder   6	1871 January-June
Box   2 Folder   7	1871 July-December
Box   2 Folder   8	1872
Box   2 Folder   9	1873 January-July
Box   2 Folder   10	1873 August-December
Box   3 Folder   1	1874 January-June
Box   3 Folder   2	1874 July-December
Box   3 Folder   3	1875 January-September
Box   3 Folder   4	1875 October-1887
Box   3 Folder   5	1890-1899 and undated
Box   3 Folder   6	, Undated and miscellaneous items
Box   3 Folder   7	Plats, maps, and blueprints
Box   3 Volume   1	Weekly timebook for contractors, workingmen, and others, 1855-1856
Box   3 Volume   2	Daybook kept for store, 1861
Box   3 Volume   3	Copybook of songs and poetry, 1850
Box   3 Volume   4	Copybook of poetry belonging to Dudley J. Spaulding, 1851 June 3