We had a very dear friend - Rev. J. 0. Buswell - who was deeply interested in the spiritual welfare of the men in the camps as they were far away from any religious services, and from fall until spring many of them never came home. 

He moved to Mellen with his wife and four small boys because he thought there was a great need at that time, and he carried on a small church for several years. His salary was very small, and they often did not know where to get the next meal, or clothing for the children, but he believed in prayer and when they were hard up they prayed for what they needed, and always got it. One time one of the boys had no shoes, and they prayed for a pair of shoes for him, and the next morning they found a good pair of shoes, just the right size, on the steps of their house. 
 
 

Mr. Buswell used to come to aconto every winter and spend winter visiting Our camps, conducting preaching services and singing in the camp in the evening. He was very popular with the men, and they were always very polite to him, even those who were Catholic or who had no religious preferences. At one time he was making a trip through our camps and was spending the night at a camp run by James Herald, which was landing logs in the North Branch. During the evening a man came in and brought a telegram stating that the Buswell home at Mellen had been burned, and Mrs. Buswell and I the boys had been turned out without saving anything. Later on he found that the building had been set afire by some men from one of the saloons in Mellen, who were trying to drive him out of town. There happened to be a pony at the camp and Mr. Buswell started off on horseback about ten o'clock at night, through the woods, and thanks to the sagacity of the pony he arrived safely at our Peshtigo Brook Farm about 4:00 A. M. He said that he had heard the wolves howling as he rode along, and he did not know where he was, and it was quite a trying ride as he had nothing to think about except his family who were burned out. He got a little sleep at the farm, and then Mr. McDonald hitched up his team and drove him to Gillett, where he got the morning train going West and got home some time that night. The people were very kind to the family and took care of them, and he later got into another house. 
 

At another time he stepped out of his house one night and a bullet whizzed by him, and was imbedded in the wall of the house, but  fortunately  it  missed  him. He  later  found  out  who  the  man   was who had fired the shot, that he was
 
 
 
 

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Among the early settlers in the County were some strong characters. One of them was Pat Kelly, who had a farm on the lake which was named for him. One day he came into Holt & Balcom's office and said to Mr. Balcom, "Colonel, do you own such and such a forty?" (giving the description.) Mr. Balcom said, "Yes, why do you ask?" "Well," Pat replied, "no reason, except that I noticed a party cutting the timber in very close proximity to this forty and thought you would like to look into it." Mr.Balcom sent a cruiser to look it over as soon as possible, and when he got there he found that all of the timber on the forty had been cut and the logs landed in Peshtigo Brook and had been sold to one of the mill companies. Assuming that the party who was logging there had cut the timber, Holt & Balcom sued him for the value of the trespass and in the course of the trial it appeared that Pat Kelly himself had cut the timber, and consequently Holt & Balcom lost the suit. Mr. Balcom asked Pat why he told him that this man was cutting his timber, and Pat replied that he did not say that he cut the timber but only that he was cutting in very close proximity, and that was true as the man was cutting an adjoining forty. 

Jim Armstrong, who was chairman of the Town of How, was another character. At one time Holt & Balcom got an injunction to restrain the Town from collecting the tax levied against their land because it was out of line and illegal. The matter drifted along several months and finally Armstrong came to Oconto and said that he was authorized by the Town board to settle the case, and he presented a Resolution of the Board to that effect. After considerable negotiation an agreement was reached, and the money was paid to Armstrong and the tax receipts given to the Company. Some years later I was visiting one day with Jim, and he told me that when he got home he called a meeting of the Town Board and told them that he had settled with Holt & Balcom for something over $700.00, and he laid the money on the table. Some of the Board objected, saying the amount was not enough, but Jim said, "You authorized me to make a settlement and I have done so and here is the money if you want it, and if not I will keep it." And he said "I shoved the money right down in my pocket and it is thar yet." 

One fall Jim came to the office and made a contract with Holt & Balcom, through our Mr. Goodrich, to log some timber on the South Branch in the Town of How. During the winter he came and got several loads of supplies, and Mr. Goodrich supposed that he was logging the timber but when a man was sent to scale the logs he reported that no timber had been cut. Armstrong said the reason WdS that the snow was too deep. Holt & Bdlcom sued him for the value of the supplies he had received, and when the case was tried the jury, sympathizing with Armstrong, brought in a verdict acquitting him, but Judge Hastings promptly set the verdict aside and gave the Company a judgement for the amount claimed, with interest. After the court adjourned Armstrong came to  Mr.  Goodrich  and  said, "Tim, that was  rather  a  good  thing.  The 

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