Mc Cann Brothers - Daniel McCann

Daniel McCann

(January 26, 1816 - October 2, 1890). Daniel McCann's wife was Margaret LaPointe. Her father, Louis Sulpice Desautels LaPointe, was a French Canadian employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. He was in the thick of its conflict with the North West Company, before the two companies were forced to merge in 1820. His duties took him to the Red River Colony, where he married Emilie Bottineau in 1819. She was Métis, for her French Canadian father was also a Hudson's Bay employee, and her mother was a "Chippewa woman from the Hair Hills", which refers to a district 50 miles southwest of present day Winnipeg. Her daughter Margaret's Indian name was Mahjequa.

After he married Emily, Sulpice LaPointe moved his family from the Red River Colony to St. Anthony, Minnesota, traveling by canoe. Because the falls here prevent navigation further up the Mississippi, nearby Saint Paul, became a trading center, where goods carried by ox carts along the Red River Trails were transferred to and from steamboats. In 1830, Sulpice, taking advantage of this convenient transportation, moved down the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien, where Daniel married Margaret on December 21, 1838.

The next year, Daniel and Margaret joined his brothers in Menomonie. Soon he moved his family to Eau Claire, where they lived until Hiram Allen sold him an 88 acre parcel on April 30, 1854, for $110. This was the first transaction entered at the Register of Deeds Office, in Chippewa Falls. Its record shows that the parcel is located in Cornell, Wisconsin, near the Old Abe State Trail, 2.5 miles northeast of the dam in Jim Falls, Wisconsin. Here, Daniel built a log home, and in January 1856, was issued a tavern license, permitting him to cater to travelers on the nearby Chippewa river. By this time, he was residing in Eagle Point, where his brother Stephen owned land and would soon join him.

During the first meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, they appointed James Ermatinger, Henry O'Neil, and Daniel McCann to lay out a road to Vermillion Falls. In this context, it is interesting to note that these falls were eventually renamed "Jim Falls" in honor of Ermatinger. O'Neil was a pioneer trader and lumberman. In 1851, he built a sawmill at the mouth of a stream that flows through Eagle Point township, which became known as O'Neil Creek.

Although Daniel McCann could not read music, he could play countless marches and cotillions on his fiddle. His services were in demand at numerous balls and parties.

In 1861, a group of Indians on a trading expedition stopped at Daniel's tavern near Jim Falls. One of them, Ahgamahwegezhig or “Chief Sky", brought a pet eaglet he had captured a few months earlier. He sold the bird to McCann in exchange for a bushel of corn. That year, many of Daniel's neighbors and relatives left to fight in the American Civil War. Because of a childhood leg injury, he was not able to join them, but took the eagle to Eau Claire, where he offered the bird as a mascot to a newly recruited company, which was called the "Eau Claire Badgers". The soldiers laughed at the offer, but:

(when Daniel) cuddled the fiddle under his chin, closed his eyes for a moment and began to play Bonaparte's Retreat from Moscow, the soldiers were amazed to see the eagle dance back and forth to the music.

They bought the eagle for $2.50, named it "Old Abe", and departed for Madison, Wisconsin, where they were mustered into service as Company C of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment and given the new name "Eagle Company". The regiment became the famous "Wisconsin Eagle Regiment". With Old Abe as its mascot, it played an important role in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

in 1890, Daniel McCann died from stomach cancer at the age of 74. Funeral services were held by the Methodist church, and he is buried in O'Neill Creek Cemetery in Eagleton.