History of Reedsburg and the Upper Baraboo Valley, by Merton Edwin Krug, Publ. February 1929 by the author. Printed by Democrat Printing Company, Madison, Wis., Page 37-38

The summer of 1851 was one of the most crucial periods in the history of the community. Had David C. REED been in good financial form the destruction of his dam would have been bad enough indeed, but the fact that he was, previous to that, heavily encumbered by debt, made it much worse. It will be remembered that, for the most part, the village was dependent, in some way or other, upon the mill. REED had not been able to raise money to pay his men, and consequently they had been obliged to accept lumber in pay. This had, for a time, done very well, for, while new settlers were constantly coming up the river, they could sell to them and in that way realize money. But when the dam was destroyed and the influx of settlers diminished, there certainly was a financial crisis to be met.

S. A. DWINNEL, who settled here July 2, 1851, wrote of how the villagers delivered the place of its misfortunes, as follows:

"The first direct effort to save the town from ruin was the organization of the Reedsburg Mill Company in August 1851. The company consisted of E. G. WHEELER, John H. RORK, Z. T. CARVER, Daniel CARVER, S. A. DWINNELL, D. C. REED, Ever BENEDICT, W. W. CARPENTER. The first five were constituted a board of trustees, of which S. A. DWINNELL was chosen president and E. G. WHEELER secretary. The design of the company was to purchase the property of REED and clear it of encumbrance; to put a flouring mill in operation and give deeds of lots to such persons as were entitled to them by previous purchase from REED, and sell lots to those who wished to erect buildings. In order to effect this object the stockholders gave a mortgage to the amount of the stock subscribed by them. In the November following, Messrs. WHEELER and REED were sent as agents to New York to make an effort to raise money upon these farm mortgages. In that negotiation they were unsuccessful.

"But Reed found there an old acquaintance (and some say a relative) by the name of A. H. IRVING, who loaned him sufficient funds to cancel the mortgage held by VAN BERGEN upon the quarter-section south of Main Street, and to purchase of A. A. MOTT of New York the quarter north of Main Street. (It was MOTT who had assisted REED in the early days when the latter cherished dreams of building a city, and that quarter had fallen into his hands in 1848 because of the non-fulfillment of the condition of a bond between him and REED.) Irving took a deed to the property and gave REED power of attorney to give deeds to such persons as had purchased lots of him or might wish to do so. This delivered the place of embarrassments which threatened ruin, and relived the anxieties of those who had purchased lots of REED and built upon them.

(In November, 1851, Abram WEST came to Reedsburg and bought a farm, but soon sold it and agreed with REED to repair the dam and run the mill.)

"In the spring of 1852 Mr. WEST, John RORK, and Z. T. CARVER were authorized to operate the flouring mill. In order to raise the necessary funds to effect this object the farmers in the vicinity, as well as some of the inhabitants in the village, advanced money and agreed to take pay in grinding. By this means the mill was running in season to grind the grain of the harvest that year. It was a great convenience to the people in this region, who had previously been obliged to go to Baraboo or Delton for all their milling." (Thence on Reedsburg's prosperity was in the ascendancy.)

Submitted by Carol