WI BIO - Eau Claire Co - RUSSELL, Thomas H. History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, vol I, p 331 Thomas H. RUSSELL, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was born 12 January 1841 in Bangor [County], Maine. He came to Wisconsin in 1864. Prior to coming West, he had been first mate of an ocean merchant ship, having been a seaman since he was thirteen years old. When he came to Wisconsin, he commenced working in the woods as a common laborer. In 1866 he became foreman of the logging camps for Smith & Buffington, and continued with them in that capacity until the Valley Lumber Company was organized, and since then he has occupied the same position with that company. [The Valley Lumber Company, on the Chippewa River in Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, was organized by Charles SMITH and George BUFFINGTON in 1873.] In 1874 in Eau Claire [Eau Claire County, Wisconsin] he [Thomas H. RUSSELL] was married to [Miss?] Elizabeth HORTON, a native of Dodge County, Wisconsin. Mr. RUSSELL served in the United States Navy as a sailmaker's mate from 16 August 1861 to September 1862. Thomas H. RUSSELL is the oldest foreman now running a logging camp on the Chippewa [River] waters. With a crew of fifty-six men he cut 5,600,000 feet of logs during a period of 100 days in 1876, that being the largest cut on record for the same length of time and for so small a gang of men. Submitted by Cathy Kubly