Bio: Shaw, Daniel (1813 - 1881)
Contact: Sandra Wright
Email: fool4him2@msn.com

Surnames: Shaw, Gilman, Bulllen, Hutchins, Sullivan, West, Piper

----Source: Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley, Wiconsin (1891 - 1892) Page 387, 388 and 391

----Shaw, Daniel (30 Mar 1813 – 22 Oct 1881)

Daniel Shaw (deceased) prominent among the honored pioneers of the Chippewa Valley, was born March 30, 1813, in Industry, ME., and died in Eau Claire, October 22, 1881. He exemplified the sterling character of the New England forefathers in many ways, and reflected credit on his early training. His father, Daniel Shaw, Sr., was a native of New England, of English descent and a good Christian parentage. He was a farmer in early life, and later, a dealer on meats at Bangor, ME. He was possessed in good, executive ability, a man of affairs and a member of the Congregation church, and was beloved for his many admirable traits of character. He died in Industry, ME., at the age of sixty-eight years. He was twice married, his first wife being Mehitable Gilman, who died in Industry, aged forty years. She was the mother of ten children, of whom eight reached maturity, namely: Albert, Daniel, Sarah, Emily, Benjamin, Milton, Adeline and Mehitabel.

Daniel Shaw, Jr. was reared on a farm and received a limited education in the common school. He was endowed by nature with a sound head, and he made the best possible use of his opportunities. Among his talents was that of a ready grasp of mathematics, and his proficiency in this line especially adapted him for the large enterprises which he carried to success. He early gained a practical knowledge of lumbering, and operated a saw-mill in Industry before he was twenty years old. In 1851 he went to Honeyoye (now Alma), Allegany County, N.Y., where he owned a mill, and in 1856 came to Eau Claire, where he passed the remainder of his life. This was then a wild region, and the establishment of his large business was attended with many difficulties, but these only spurred him to renewed exertions, which, coupled with sound judgment and practical knowledge, carried him to success. Immediately on his arrival here, in company with his brother-in-law, C.A. Bullen, he proceeded to get out logs for sawing, and in the following spring built a mill on the site now occupied by the Daniel Shaw Lumber company. This mill was operated until it was burned in 1867. A new and larger mill was built on the site and was kept in operation by Daniel Shaw & Co. until the firm was incorporated as the Daniel Shaw Lumber company in 1874, with Daniel Shaw, president. In the lumber business, Mr. Shaw was in his right element. He shared the fare of his men, led them through the trackless forest, forded streams, built rude huts and encouraged them by his matchless energy. He had the quality in him to make others do his bidding and trust him.

September 26, 1841, at Industry, Me., was joined for better or worse, Daniel Shaw and Miss Ann Foster Hutchins, and it is the grateful remembrance of the latter that no cross word ever escaped the firm lips of the former, during the forty years they were permitted to spend together. Mrs. Shaw was born at Industry, January 31, 1815, and is the daughter of James and Anna (Sullivan) Hutchins, natives of the same state. The father was a sea captain in early life, and later a merchant, and lived to the age of eighty years. His wife died of consumption at the age of fifty-six years. Of their seven children only three survive, all residents of Eau Claire, namely, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. M.P. West and Mrs. A.S. Piper. The children of Mr. Shaw were Charles, Eugene and George B. The first died at the age of seventeen years, and the others are respectively vice-president and general manager, and secretary of the Daniel Shaw Lumber Co.

Daniel Shaw was a broad-minded man, a stranger to bigotry. His widow is quietly devoted to benevolent enterprises, and many have abundant cause to feel grateful that this worthy couple lived so long in this community. In his charity work Mr. Shaw followed the Bible injunction of not letting his right hand know what his left hand did. Many is the poor man he has helped to pay his rent; many the widow he supplied with wood and flour. In the rough pine countries he has been known to carry a sack of flour on his back for miles, across swollen streams and pathless forest, to relieve some one in distress. Such acts are remembered and live in the minds of men, when monuments crumble and decay. Such acts cause men to believe in their fellow-men. He was identified with the Congregational church, although not a member of the organization, and helped to build every church in the city up to his death.

There were few men in his day in the northwest that were his peers in the development of the resources of the country, and none more devoted to the interests of his fellow-men.