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Eau Claire

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A city and the county-seat of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the Chippewa river, at the mouth of the Eau Claire, about 87 m. E. of St Paul. Pop. (1890) 17,415; (1900) 17,517, of whom 4996 were foreign-born; (1906 estimate) 18,981. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Wisconsin Central railways, and is connected by an electric line with Chippewa Falls (12 m. distant). The city has a Carnegie library with 17,200 volumes in 1908, a Federal building, county court house, normal school and insane asylum. It has abundant waterpower, and is an important lumber manufacturing centre; among its other manufactures are flour, wooden-ware, agricultural machinery, saw-mill machinery, logging locomotives, wood pulp, paper, linen, mattresses, shoes and trunks. The total value of factory products in 1905 was $3,601,558. The city is the principal wholesale and jobbing market for the prosperous Chippewa Valley. Eau Claire was first settled about 1847, and was chartered as a city in 1872; its growth dates from the development of the north-western lumber trade in the decade 1870-1880. In 1881 a serious strike necessitated the calling out of state militia for its suppression and the protection of property.