Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-06-04

small farmer. who llved near Elmlra
At a very early age he was put to work
on the farm and in the blacksmith shop
and given the rudiments of a common
school education. Here he learned by
experience that farmer and farmers
families have much to do and to suffer
ere they could have a fair share of the
comforts of life, and thus he fitted him
self for the sympathy and work or his
after career.
DESTROYS of entering the great world,
at The age of II he was given his free
dom. and started on foot across the
country a distance of eighteen miles,
from Corning. Steuben county, n ",
there TO enter the office of the Corning
Journal as an apprentice to the print
self as soon as his apprenticeship was
finished, by starting Il small printing Of
fee Then he issued an advertising
sheet called the Sun, which eventually
became the Corning Democrat. He mar
ried Anna a. Wheeler in 1854, and this
proved his first unsuccessful venture.
They separated in after years.
He then went to Athens. Pa. and in
1856 started the Athens Gazette. His
two years experience with this venture
were the hardest of his life, he often
said, the income Of the paper barely
keeping him alive. In 1857 he located
in Horizon, Wis, and founded the Hor-
icon Argus. He filled it with such evil
dence of force. character, individuality
and progress that it gained rapidly in
circulation and influence and insured for
him the appointment of deputy United
States marshal for Wisconsin.
One year later he became city editor
of the Milwaukee Daily News, Restless
and impatient to gain a place in the
world the young man left the News aft
er one year and went TO Washington,
d. c., in 1850, to engage in newspaper
and political work, He believed with
Stephen A. Douglas and others that the
citizens of a territory not yet admitted
into the union had the natural and po-
litical right to shape the thoughts and
political lines of the future state if they
could. For this declaration and devo-
ton to Mr.. Douglas and consequent OPP
position to President James Buchanan
he lost his official position as deputy
marshal.
His Life at La Crosse.
In 1860 he went to La Crosse and
virulent as any he had written before,
but there are people in La Crosse to-
day who assert that Pomeroy didn't
write them.
Pomeroy's Copperhead utterances were
very distasteful to the people of La
Crosse, and they became so wrOthy on
one occasion that they organized a mob
and threatened to throw his office into
the Mississippi. Brick heard of it and
at once converted his Office into an ar
! senal. The mob heard of it and dis
creetly kept away, knowing that Brick
would defend his property with his life
if necessary.
Pomeroy first occupied a building on
North Second street owned by A. Pfiff-
ner, and Albert Pfffner still has the
stock case used there; it now occupies
position in the rear of the Eagle drug
store. Shortly after the war, when
porous, he built the present Mcmillan
Opera house block at the corner of
Fourth and Main streets. Pomeroy's
originality and boldness was exhibited
best in his treatment of the corner
stone Of the building, which can still be
seen. In the center of the stone is the
representation of a hand holding naked
dagger. while underneath are the words
in Latin, memo me impune lacessit''
Ono one wounds me with impunity.')
Above these is another Latin Inscription
reading, Principal non homnes'' Prin-
ciples, not men. }. 1t was this building
that Pomeroys partner tried to burn
down, presumably to get the insurance
money. The fire was extinguished.
Foote's handiwork discovered and he
was sent to Waupun. Some of Pom
eroy's enemies have professed to believe
that he was in the plot, but this is not
generally believed.
PomerOy had none of the so-called bad
habits of men, excepting that he was
never blessed with an overabundance of
morals. He didn't drink, chew or swear.
and didn't like to see others do it. He
sometimes carried his aversion to to-
baccO to extremes.