ALLEN, Avery T.

History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, p 162

Avery T. ALLEN, log book keeper for Beef Slough Company, Alma [Buffalo 
County, Wisconsin], was born 08 April 1851 in Nantucket. [A check of the 
1880 Census for Alma shows A. T. ALLEN born in Massachusetts. He has been 
quite a wanderer. He was a seaman and has sailed into nearly all foreign 
ports. [Was he born in Nantucket, Nantucket County, Massachusetts, or 
Nantucket, Worcester County, Maryland? Neither county is landlocked. The 
1880 Census for Alma, Buffalo County, Wisconsin (p 327 A) states he was born 
in Massachusetts, to parents who were also born there. His age is given as 
twenty-nine, consistent with the year of birth given in the biography.] For 
the past few years he has been employed as clerk in different places. In 
1878 he engaged with Beef Slough Company, which position he still [1881] 
occupies.

[The 1880 Census for Alma, Buffalo County, Wisconsin, shows A. T. ALLEN 
residing in a household with fifty-eight other individuals, all but one of 
whom "works on the Beef Slough." The exception is the first person 
enumerated, H. B. SEDGWICK, a clerk. Mr. ALLEN's occupation is also given as 
"works on the Beef Slough" and does not specify that he keeps log books for 
the company. The Beef Slough Company to which the author refers was the 
"Beef Slough Boom & Improvement Company," chartered in 1867 by the state to 
sort and raft logs on the Chippewa River. The slower current of the Beef 
Slough, a side channel of the Chippewa River, was used by this company to 
sort and boom logs in preparation for sending them down the Mississippi. The 
name "Beef Slough" is derived from "Riviere des Boeufs," the name given to 
this area by French-Canadians who observed large herds of buffalo grazing 
there. The Beef Slough Company was actually controlled by Frederick 
WEYERHAEUSER, who was the president of lumber companies in other Wisconsin 
counties, such as the Hayward Lumber Company in Sawyer County, and of lumber 
companies in other states, such as Minnesota and Illinois.]

[Assuming his given birthdate is correct, Avery T. ALLEN would have been 
about twenty-seven years of age when he began keeping the log books of the 
Beef Slough Company. What kind of log books did he keep? One possibility is 
that he recorded the quantities of logs cut and boomed by the company. 
Another is that he kept the account books of purchases by lumbermen at the 
company store. Estimates of the number of men employed in the area in 
logging operations runs in the hundreds. These lumbermen were paid with 
credit slips exchangeable for goods at the company store, and it is possible 
he kept logs of purchases made on these accounts.]

[Did Avery T. ALLEN continue clerical work or remain with the same employers? 
The biography states he was a "clerk in different places" before coming to 
Alma. If he continued employment as a clerk or log book keeper for the same 
individuals, he may appear in census returns for 1895 or after in Minnesota. 
Construction of dams at and near the slough to aid navigation in the main 
river channel resulted in lower water levels at the Beef Slough. Log sorting 
and booming companies moved their operations to the Minnesota side of the 
Mississippi in the mid to late 1890's, and extensive logging at the Beef 
Slough ended. (The company names changed, but the stockholders remained much 
the same.) A Minnesota residence is given as a possibility based on Mr. 
ALLEN's former tendency to roam, his multiple employments as a clerk, and the 
movement of his employers. Submitter is not researching ALLEN, and did not 
seek him in later census returns. The information included in brackets is 
added only to support (or disclaim) the information given in the biography 
before submitting it to this website.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly