Notizen zu dieser Person
Alex Gourdoux BIRTH 1845 DEATH 1925 (aged 79-80) BURIAL Flambeau Cemetery Island Lake, Rusk County, Wisconsin, USA MEMORIAL ID 115844098 THE PIONEERS ARE GONE But Last Of A Large Family Recalls The Fame Of The Flambeau - by Del H. Richards When gathering factual matter for the history of Rusk county for the Wisconsin Centennial committee last year, I wrote Chris Gourdoux of Flambeau Farms, located near the confluence of the Chippewa and Flambeau rivers, to obtain information concerning the early settlement by his father at that place. Mr. Gourdoux kindly responded at once with the following letter: May 1, 1948 Dear Mr. Richards: Your letter of April 30th at hand and I am glad you addressed it to me, as I don't think there is another person who thinks more of Flambeau than I do. The word Flambeau is French, meaning beautiful flame or flaming torch. It was named when two priests, Marquette and Joliet, came down the river (Chippewa), looked at our beautifull mountain and named it Flambeau. Myfather was born at Meymac, France, April 25, 1845. He arrived at Chippewa Falls the year of '72, in search of adventure and tall timber. He heard of the wonderful pine timber at Flambeau. There was no road, so father and his brother, Eugene, followed the river bank, carrying what supplies and tools needed on their backs. Their first home was a large hollow stump. They bought land for $1.00 an acre and began logging. Father had no intention of making this his permanent home. He hired large crews of men in the winters to get the logs to the riverbank. In the summers he kept part of the men busy making a farm, so they could produce hay for the horses in the logging camps in winter. They raised beef cattle to furnish meat for the camps and consume the surplus feed the farm produced. Flambeau was the town seat of a township that extended north of the present site of Ladymith and farther south than Keystone. It was larger than Rusk county now is. When the townships were re-organized, an old Russian by the name of Clips (now dead) had the bright idea of naming this township Washington. I was only a little boy then and for some unknown reason the motion was accepted, but (unreadable) have retained the name of the mountain it was named after, and that is Flambeau. When father first arrived he did not know that there were only two ways a settler can leave Flambeau, broke or dead, and he chose the latter. He died March 30, 1925. My mother, Josephine Dallas (Delesse), was born (in) Glen Lock (Glen Loch), Chippewa Falls, April 2, 1856, of French immigrants. She became Mrs. Gourdoux the spring of 1878. She raised a family of ten, of whom I am the youngest, and died at Flambeau, April 7, 1932. Flambeau is a name that should live on, but it belongs to the Flambeau Hills where the name first originated. Chris Gourdoux
William B.
