Eleva

History

Before white settlement, Lakota and Ho-Chunk Indians controlled the area that would become Eleva, but Ojibwe territory lay only ten miles north, across the Chippewa River. The first settlers in what would become the town of Albion arrived in 1856. Most settled east of the future Eleva, around what would be called Hamlin, on the stage road from Whitehall to Eau Claire. In these early days some Indians still migrated through in the spring and fall, camping just west of where Eleva would grow. William Moon, one of the first settlers, harvested potatoes that first fall of 1856 - the first harvest in Albion. In following years more settlers arrived, and began growing wheat and corn. The first building in what would become Eleva was constructed in 1863, when Joseph and Elizabeth Cooper built a cabin of tamarack logs near Big Creek. They left when Joseph volunteered in the Union Army, but returned to their cabin after the war. David J. O'dell settled nearby in 1867. # Some say the town was named after a French village by Goddard, who was from France. # Some say it was named for Goddard's daughter Eva, who died young. In 1889 Nathaniel Foster's Fairchild and Mississippi Railroad reached Eleva, following the Buffalo (then Beef) River. Foster added a lumber yard in Eleva and the railroad built a depot in 1890. A few years later Foster's railroad was acquired by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway. In 1890 Henry Ruseling replaced his old stone grist mill with the modern-for-the-time Eleva Roller Mills, powered by water or coal, producing 50 barrels of wheat per day. That year, the town built its own school in town, serving grades one through eight. The town was booming, with two elevators, a cheese factory, a flour and feed mill, a hardware store, a drug…

Geography

Eleva is located at (44.575298, −91.471019). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  408
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  260
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  247
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  244
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  190
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  186
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  183
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  160

Largest nearby schools

• Eleva-Strum Elementary
  Elementary · Strum · 338 students · 13:1 ratio
• Eleva-Strum High
  High · Strum · 187 students · 11:1 ratio
• Eleva-Strum Middle
  Middle · Strum · 142 students · 12.9:1 ratio