John Edmunds was born September 10, 1821, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, the son of Obadiah Jr. and Lydia Moors Edmunds.  In 1825 Obadiah moved his family to Columbiana County, Ohio; they remained there until 1836 and then moved still further west to Henderson County, Illinois.

Ortentia Almeda Hadley was born in Allegany County*, New York, on August 18, 1824, the daughter of Jesse and Lucinda Lawrence Hadley.  The Hadley family had arrived in the Fountain Green area of Hancock County [located directly south of, and adjacent to Henderson County], in 1834.

On July 13, 1839, John and Ortentia were married in Hancock County, by Abram. Lincoln, a first cousin of the future President.

Early in the spring of 1850, John, Ortentia and family left Burlington, Iowa, by steamboat and traveled to the mouth of Perry's Creek, near Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin, where James and Lydia Edmunds Perry (John's brother-in-law and sister), were living.  James was the operator of a sawmill.

[While John's obituary states that the family moved to Wisconsin in 1848, Virginia believes that the move was made in 1850; this is supported by the fact that their daughter, Emeline, is reported to have been born in Illinois in December of 1848; the next child, Mary, was born in Wisconsin in 1851.  Also, the family was not enumerated in the 1850 Federal Census in either Illinois or Wisconsin, suggesting that they were en route and not found by any census taker.]

In the course of the trip, they came to one of several mouths of the Black River, Gibbs Chute, where they re-shipped for Perry's Creek, 2½ miles downriver from Black River Falls.  From the mouth of this river to the boat and raft landing at the mouth of Perry's Creek, they rode on a keel boat known as the "Bitterhead", which was propelled by men using poles and oars.  For a short time they resided with the Perry family; then a nearby log home was vacated and they moved there and remained in that house for a year or more.  Later they moved to the Marvin Edmunds Mill (built by Marvin Edmunds, John's brother, and another person in 1847), located on Robison Creek.  This mill is now usually referred to as the "Old Polley Dam" or Pauley Dam.

One winter they lived in a grove of large pines north of Stony Mound and southeast of Shamrock where John engaged in manufacturing shaved shingles**.  The family soon moved back to the Perry place and John bought lands above and adjoining the Perry Mill property, where he built first a lath mill, then a sawmill and a sash and door factory.  The factory was washed away in a flood in 1876, although it is not currently known if John stilled owned it at the time of the flood.

Around 1852 or '53, John built for his family a frame house of considerable size and capacity, located about a mile from Perry's Creek.  Then regarded as a large and pretentious house, it was painted white and was, for a time, the only painted house between Prairie du Chien and Black River Falls, which gave it even greater distinction.  (This house stood until in June 1901, when there was a fire.  Owned by John Goddard at the time, it was still known as the 'old Edmunds place'.)

John Edmunds and family lived on the farm until sometime between 1866 and 1868, when they moved to the area of Squaw Creek, southwest of the city.  (The day location is west of Black River Falls on Highway 54.)  Here John bought a mill and property from J. F. Smith, who subsequently went into the lumber business.  John built a new mill in 1866 and became the first owner of the Charter Oak Mill, a grist mill, and he owned it until his death.  [Virginia advises that written history of the site on which John built the mill goes back to a patent issued to Andrew Shepard and John Valentine on May 10, 1850, about four years before Jackson County was organized.]

John sold rye, wheat, graham and buckwheat flour, as well as ground grain for the farmers.  The mill was water-powered and the first dam was constructed of logs.  Up the creek from Charter Oak Mill was a carding mill; one of the main roads going west went past there at one time.  Still further up the creek, in the Squaw Creek Community, Charlie Narokon had his flour and feed mill.  These mills were a great help to the early settlers, as this was where most of them got their flour.  Some would bring in a few sacks of wheat and trade it for flour.  And from the millponds, blocks of ice were cut in the winter.

In the January 5, 1867, Badger Star Banner, a weekly newspaper, the following advertisement appeared: "John Edmunds is doing the best work at his grist mill on Squaw Creek.  I will do the fair thing by all who patronize me.  I make good flour as you ever saw."

In the July 1867 issue of the same newspaper, the following was written: "We frequently hear good words for Edmunds' Grist Mill on Squaw Creek.  Mr. Edmunds employs the best miller to be found in this section, does good work and deals with his patrons in an honest manner.  The mill contains two runs of stone, one for flour and the other for feed and coarse grains."

September 1867: "From those who have seen the structure, we learn that Mr. Edmunds's new mill on Squaw Creek promises to rank among the most firmly built mills in the county."

John Edmunds died in December, 1878.

In 1961 the Charter Oak Mill was turned into a nightclub.  It passed through several hands until the final owners went bankrupt.  The next owners of the property were not allowed to use the same name, evidently in accordance with bankruptcy laws, so the name was changed.

In the fall of 1959, Wisconsin Magazine published a picture and an article about the Mill.  It stated the following: "When John Edmunds built this grist mill in 1866, New England was still the home of poets, the Middle West, still a frontier in transition.  Yet it was pioneers like Edmunds, who determining the place names, left a legacy of verbal music that endures.  Charter Oak Mill on a creek called Squaw is near Black River Falls.  In the very name one hears the millstone turn, the grist being ground, the cold dark waters flowing."

Calvin R. Johnson, the first Justice of the Peace and first school teacher in Black River Falls, included the following in a series of articles he penned in the 1860's: "The origin of the name "Squaw Creek" is involved in mystery, but the general impression of the early settlers concerning it and derived from the Indians[,] was that long ago a squaw had drowned near the mouth of the creek while fishing and that the Indians named it Squaw Creek which name it has since borne."

As of today, 1991, the Charter Oak Mill is still standing and the main section of it is now the site of the Rustic Mill Restaurant.

*Allegany County, New York, was formed from Genesee County in 1806.  Ortentia was born in Centreville, Allegany County, New York in 1824.

**We strongly believe that Norman and Marinda Hadley Beckwith (Ortentia's brother-in-law and sister) moved their family to this general area during the Civil War years.  Our Beckwith history reports that they were in Wisconsin, where Norman worked in "a pinery, where pine lumber was regularly harvested".

Between 1854 and 1865, there are records of six land purchases made by John Edmunds in Jackson County, Wisconsin.  Each purchase was for 40 acres.