River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-07-16
Old Pierre Bordeau and the Jewelry
Peddler.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial writes from Lancaster, o.:
Sugar Grove, quiet, lazy, old.fash-
Toned little village, situated about eight
miles south of Lancaster, on the banks of
the legendary Hockhocking, has sens
alton.
For the past fifty years the good deni-
zens of this prosaic and diminutive bor-
ough have had the most unqualified faith
in the visitations of a representative of
the sweet by and by, and many Of them
have been frightened out of their seven
senses by actual encounters with this su
pernatural gentleman, and have supplied
us with accurate and detailed descriptions
Of the apparition.
The facts of the case are these: Years
ago-over half a century-when the
pleasant little village of Sugar Grove com.
prised but log cabin or two, one dark,
stormy night, when the wind was bowling
through the hoarse wilderness, and the
sky was full of ominous clouds, iewelry
peddler stopped at the cabin Of settler
by the name of Pierre Bordeau, little,
Weazen-faced old man Of Gallo extraction,
whose miserable domicile stood on what is
now the farm of r. L. Sharpe, Esq, just
where the family burial ground is situat-
ed. This nomadic purveyor solicited
nights lodging for himself and horse,
and, as was customary in those good old
Gays, was unhesitatingly and heartily ac-
commodated. In the morning the ped
dler of cheap jewels turned up missing,
which, however, caused no very great
alarm, as it was supposed that he had left
in the night TO avoid the little compensa-
ton old Pierre might properly expect
for his hospitality.
The peddler's disappearance had al
ready been forgotten, when, late in the
afternoon, a neighboring farm hand
found his horse, with its throat cut,
lodged against flood-gate across a cur
viture in the IIockhocking, when the
startling intelligence was scattered
abroad, and dilgent search was instantly
instituted for the missing traveller, but TO
no avail. Not the slightest trace but a
pool Of blood, back Of the Frenchman's
cabin, near the base of a hill, where
bubbles forth spring of cold
water, could be found. Years few round,
and the story Of the missing peddler and
the dark pool of blood became a tradition,
but the weird spot about the Frenchman's
cabin was ever after thought to be
haunted, and the hunters who stopped in
their wanderings to slake their thirst at
old Bordeau' IS spring, gave it the name Of
"ugly water" on account of the peculiar
odor that arose from it and its bitter
taste, which name il bears to this day.
Many a night, whep the sky was hidden
by the clouds, and the wind soughed and
moaned lugubriously around the hill, has
the passing countryman seen the ghost
Of the missing peddler, which would fit
along in front Of the horses until the
spring was reached, when it would
vanish, apparently into the bowels of the
hill.
That the old jewelry peddler had been
murdered and robbed, no one had the
least doubt, and that his troubled spirit
had taken this mode to scare the muir.
dsrer into confession and repentance,
they also firmly believed. Strange to
say, no--there is nothing strange about it
either for old B0rdeau was kind.heart.
cd, inoffensive farmer, and he was never
suspected as having committed the hor.
rible crime, or being accessory thereto,
until the day of his death, when he con-
fessed the deed. but would not divulge
the spot whore the body had been con.
cealed. However, almost his last words
we're: "Under the house, and on search.
in there the peddler's clothes and pack
OF ewels were found, decayed and zorro.
ded by time, but no evidences Of the
body or bones. Thorough investigation
was made, the whole hut demolished and
torn away, and the foundations upheayed
but no signs Of the object for which they
worked were ever brought to light.
The confession and demise Of the wick.
ed little Frcnchman, however, did not
soothe the rutlled spirit Of the victim Of
his treachery, and off and on the tall,
white, weird and frightful figure would
make its appearance before the startled
vision Of some passing farmer, and the
spot was finally given up as hopelessly