TOWN OF ONALASKA. Second Infantry-Co. B-Agnatus Anders, Robert Barnes, George Easterbrook, Richard Fahey, Charles Farrand, Elijah Heath, Charles C. Jenks, Ludwick Lockman, F. I. Phelps, Benton Rand, Robert Swartz, P. G. Tompkins. Eighth Infantry-Co. I-Charles Brown, Paul Erickson, Christian Johnson, Paul Oleson. Ninth Infantry-Co. B-James Fahey, Ill. Fourteenth Infantry-Co. D-Henry Anderson, Willard Atkinson, William Blankley, David Davis, John Evans, James Hansen, Charles W. Jenk, David Kimball, John Olesen, Charles Welsh. Fifteenth Infantry-Co. E-Yance Hansen, John JohnCo. H-Hans Gilbertson. Co. I-Anton Bondsen, Hely Olfsen. Nineteenth Infantry-Co. B-La Plunthe Cornwell' Twentieth Infantry-Co. A-E. W. Hasstlroth. First Battery-Gabriel Armstrong, Charles Erickson, TOWN OF WASHINGTON. Eighth Infantry-Co, unknown-Ole Oleson. son. Second Cavalry-Co. unknown-Michael Slauhosky. THE OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION was called into being by the survivors of those who began the building up of La Crosse in 1851, and fully organized at an adjourned meeting held on Friday evening, June 17, 1881, with the election of John M. Levy as permanent chairman; C. K. Lord was elected Vice President; Charles Volner, Secretary, and Theodore Rodolf, Treasurer. The Executive Committee was then chosen, as follows: Charles Seymour, John Ulrich, I. L. Usher, Howard Cramer and J. W. Losey. The constitution provides who may become members of the association upon the payment of $1 initiation fee, and monthly dues, which are appropriated toward defraying the expenses of the organization. Meetings are convened annually, and upon call. The following are the members of the Old Settlers' Association, with the date of their settlement in La Crosse : 1851-Harvey E. Hubbard, H. N. Solberg, Howard Cramer, George Farnam, N. Hintzen, Harvey J. Peck. 1852-George Scharpf, Pernue Clark, George Howard, Andrew Pfiffner. 1853-Theodore Rodolf, C. F. Scharpf. 1854-Milo J. Pitkin, Stephen Martindale, Edwin Howard. 1855-Henry I. Bliss, Lemuel Drake, Isaac L. Usher, Fred Mueller, James Vincent, H. C. Heath, Charles Volner, W. A. Roosevelt. 1856-J. W. Losey, Harrison Griswold, A. M. Watson, Albert Hirshheimer, David D. Polleys, E. G. Robbins, A. Steinlein, John Ulrich. 1857-J. A. Spier, J. W. Birney, S. S. Burton, Angus Cameron, W. S. Burroughs, Charles Seymour, O. H. Smith. 1858-L. Wachenheimer, Albert Pfiffner, M. M. Manville, Henry Esperson. 1860-John S. Medary. CITY POOR FARM. In the early part of 1857, the city of La Crosse purchased 120 acres of land for $6,000, between two and three miles southeast of the city, and erected thereon the buildings necessary to a poor farm, which cost between $2,000 and $3,000. Within a few years past, great improvements have been made, both in the management of the farm and in the building of additions to the poor house, showing the growth of humanity and the disposition to liberality. The farm is under the careful management of Frank Metz, a worthy German, who, with his practical wife, are here as lessees of the property, and contractors to feed and keep the poor who may be sent to them to receive their care and attention at $2.50 per week. There is no county poor house, the poor of the county being provided for here, the city receiving 50 cents per day each for their support. A few years ago, County Poor Commissioner A. Steinlein caused a number of shade trees to be set out about the premises. At present, there are but eight persons in the establishment, which is an ordinary farmhouse, but arranged with a view to the comfort of this kind of guests. The establishment is in excellent order. The cost of sustaining it is about $800 per year. LA CROSSE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The people of La Crosse County, having long contemplated the formation of an agricultural society, met at the court house October 16, 1858, for the purpose of organizing such a body. This was accomplished by the adoption of a constitution and the election of the following officers: T. L. Smith, President; D. J. Jenkins, E. B. Richardson, John Hemstock, V. M. Adams, J. C. McGiven, D. A. Kennedy, Isaac Martin, John Clark, M. A. Gedney, Conrad Reedburg, Milton Barlow and Mr. Owen, Vice Presidents; B. E. Brower, Secretary and Treasurer. The society held their first annual fair at the city of La Crosse on Thursday, October 28, 1858, at which time the amount received from all sources for memberships, etc., was $108; amount paid out for various purposes, $28.25; leaving a balance of $79.75 for the next year's distribution. The day was extremely unfavorable, and as this was their first regular meeting, but little could be expected. The number of entries were as follows: Horses and mules, 23; cattle, 8; swine, 1; miscellaneous, 67; total, 99. Of these entries, 69 received premiums of different grades. The society purchased a tract of land in the town of West Salem about 1859, and have held fairs there annually with increasing success and prosperity. The present officers are William Van Waters, President; one Vice President from each town in the county; William Van Zandt, Secretary, and W. I. Dudley, Treasurer. The County Clerk furnishes a tabular statement of the acreage of La Crosse County, devoted to wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, apples, hops, tobacco, grass and timber. The report also includes the number of milch cows, and their aggregate value. The report shows also that there are 4,980 acres of rye to harvest this year against 3,202 acres last year; 1,229 acres of potatoes against 891 of 1880. The number of acres of hops are the same, 138. Five acres of tobacco are reported, and 18,503 acres of grass, as compared with 15,435 of last year. The above figures indicate that a larger acreage has been sown to all kinds of grain, except wheat, which has given place to corn, oats and barley. The farming community have dropped off on tobacco raising, a branch of industry that was never largely prosecuted in this county. The number of bearing apple trees has not increased materially since 1881, being 14,536 against 14,160, as shown by the report of 1880. Very little timber has been cut in the county, the number of acres being 50,097, which is not less than that reported last year. Taken on the whole, the report is above the average, and indicates a healthful diversity of grains. The fact that 10,000 acres less of wheat have been sowed, shows that a proper attention is being given to other crops mentioned, and that stock-raising is becoming a more profitable pursuit. LITERATURE. Mrs. Helen A. Manville, nee Nellie A. Mann, has for some time been prominent in literary circles, her career as a contributor to the press dating from 1864.-a writer of both prose and poetry; her poems are voluminous, numbering nearly two thousand. Of these, probably five hundred have never appeared in print. In 1868, the May number of the Phrenological Journal published her portrait, with an analytical sketch of her mental characteristics, and selections from her poems, from which article we quote the following: "Her intuitive apprehensions are quick, accurate and lasting. Her whole cast of thought partakes chiefly of the intuitive and emotional. She has keen sensibility, feels deeply and acts promptly. She lives more in the realm of the emotional and imaginative than in that of the material." These characterizations are well borne out by her writings. In 1875, a volume of about one hundred and seventy selections from her poems was published by S. R. Wells & Co., of New York, bearing the title " Heart Echoes." In general terms it may be said that they are the poetic expression of moods of musing and meditation. The titles are indicative of the introspective cast of thought of the authoress, as "In the Dust," "In Faith," "Voices in my Heart," "World Weary," "As by Death," "Life's Discipline," etc. Their tone is subdued, quiet and feminine. No attempts are made to rouse the passions or depress the sensibilities; though, in keeping with the music that lingers longest in memory, they are pitched in a minor key. Fallacious exaltation of the joys of life, or despair of the woes of death are happily avoided. They are essentially poems of the home and hearth, portraying experiences common to all, in that all have sinned and suffered. Each century produces its master minds who give it impress. They stand out in their brightness as suns in the firmament, with a galaxy of stars revolving about them, reflecting their glory. Of such were Byron and Wordsworth. of the departed bards, the poet of passion and the delineator of nature. The lurid bale-fires of one and the calm radiance of the other may still be discerned. The bardic sisterhood, as if by common consent, revolve about Mrs. Hemans and the Cary Sisters, whose faultless rythm and exquisite sensibilities appeal irresistibly to the feminine heart. The "Sweet Song-Bird of England," is, if possible, surpassed by her American sisters, whose wood notes wild have enthralled the hearts of their country-women. They were the priestesses of its inner shrine; they, more than all others, could unlock its recesses, and, as by an enchanter's word, woke from thence its sweetest, saddest strains. That Mrs. Manville has been deeply impressed by their wondrous power may be evidenced from the following: Slowly now the clouds of amber O'er the blue hills roll away, The above are in the happiest descriptive vein of Alice, while the more practical, sententious sentiment of Phoebe Cary, which often embodied a proverb in a verse, is paralleled by such a verse as this: "As the day comes the dreary night after, As happiness walks close to care, To the same effect is a like sentiment elsewhere, as, "The bright thread of hope often crosses the somber-hued one of despair." Quotations might be largely extended did space permit. We have only room to illustrate the striking traits and will next touch upon that of personification, of which the following, taken almost at random, is a fair sample: Most of the poems are descriptive, and the writer never wearies of voicing her adoration of nature, whether clad in the light, airy robes of the joyous spring, the leafy luxuriance of the sunny summer, the russet robes of the sober autumn, or the snowy mantle of the winter. Space will only permit the culling of phrases from most felicitous descriptions that might easily be largely cited. We give a few in the order of the seasons named, as, "The careless fingers of the April wind have rent the grasses coverlet in twain; "These violets have filled my heart with trust." Of the summer are such phrases as, "The roses weave a perfumed hedge; "Sweet is the air with violets' breath; "The tiniest wild flower as the rose enfolds itself in splendor;" "The sun o'er mount and lea his jeweled robe is flinging.' Her wealth of illustration may be inferred from the fact the six quotations above given are from one poem solely. Autumn and night are favorite topics with the authoress, whose introspective cast of mind is in keeping with their stillness, solemnity, calmness and beauty. From many phrases we can give but few, as, "The pines all shiver with unrest; "The winds lull down to a sad refrain, and my heart stands still to hear;" "Afar upon the mountains walks the Spirit of the Dew;" "The mountains fold about their breasts the mantle of the fall;" "Golden crowns bedeck the brows of all the maple trees; "The winds all chant a solemn dirge." Of the winter are such illusions as, "The snowy shoon; "The dark-eyed Night has donned her robes with gleaming gems; "The sovereign winter is recklessly throwing bright jewels of frost from his mantle of snow; ""The winter wind singing its dirge of dire despair." We would like to enlarge upon the two poems, "The old, old story" and "Drowned," each portraying the fate of a Magdalen, who, after the manner of the victim in Hood's Bridge of Sighs, sought oblivion in the waters for sorrow, shame and sin, but it would open up a field too wide, and also foreign to the character of this work. Despite all efforts, our sketch is unduly long, yet not complete, as not illustrating the noblest phase of womanhood, on whose limitless, unfathomable sea her affections are launched, to be swayed at will by favoring or adverse tides, resistless as the decrees of Fate. From a number of poems in which the mother love is abounding, we close with tributes to the living and the dead. From the poem entitled "Marion," who shares with her father the tribute of dedication, as "The one child of our love," we quote the following verse, beginning with apprehension and ending with invocation : Mother-love not always may She shall be a child once more." From several poems, evidently inspired by memories of the "loved and lost," we extract two verses from "Baby is Dead": "Blue as the violets down in the meadow, Friend, were her eyes. Now, O My God, what a wonderful shadow Over them lies. In the poem headed, "The Shoes that Nellie wore," space will only permit a brief extract: "When Death with a ruthless hand, For pillage sought our bower, Gathered the beauteous flower. Just as they slipped her feet; For, sandeled with the purest pearl, By Jesus' side, our little girl Marion Manville, a daughter of Helen A. Manville, is a poet by inheritance. She is emphatically her mother's child, having like traits, mentally and physically. She commenced writing for the press at an even earlier age, and probably with better assurances of success in the field of authorship, than attended the first ventures of her mother. As yet, she has not given herself thoughtfully and seriously to literary work. Her contributions are rather the effervescence of youthful feeling than the work of earnest effort. They are almost wholly of a fugitive character, called out largely by a fleeting fancy or some incident of temporary interest. She has not been passed unscathed by the rage for dialect poems which has received so great an impetus by the efforts of Bret Harte, Will Carleton and others. One of these, giving Sambo's opinion of salvation, is a gem in its way, and naively takes off the very common and popular taste to dispense with the orthodox abode of the wicked. In the words of Sambo "De times hab got to such a pass De debble am to pay, An' hell, instead of bein' a place To make poor sinners scratch, Am got so mild, a nigger dar Yet another, entitled "Poor Little Joe," expresses the happiness yielded a cripple boy by the gift of a simple bouquet. brother bootblack replies: To the question as to there being flowers in heaven, the little "Flowers in heaven! 'M, I 'spose so, Dunno much about it tho'; Aint as fly as wot I might be On them topics, little Joe." It is a fine tribute to the beautiful, tender ministration of an individual flower mission, every way creditable to the head and heart of its authoress, whose own life has never lacked any of the refinements given by the association of flowers, music and art, in all of which she is an amateur. Although, as before stated, her articles are fugitive, yet, when her feelings are enlisted, she reveals traces of that introspective cast of mind that gives so much of character to the poems of her mother. Space will not admit of quotation, but it could easily be shown by reference to such themes as "The Weaver," who is represented as a Fate, after the manner of a mythologic tale, plying the shuttle of Time weaving the threads of life which are gathered up by the ever-present on-looker Death. In the brief poem "Life," a similar thought is prettily presented in the closing lines "The drama of living-the space of a breath, |