In the later 1800s, logging and log-driving made the Flambeau and Chippewa rivers a busy place.

White settlement began around 1847 and by 1864 the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company had established a farm near the junction of the rivers to supply its logging operations.

In addition to river traffic, the stagecoach line from Chippewa Falls into the logging frontier also stopped at Shaw's farm.

[3] A mile and a half to the east, a village of Chippewa Indians had taken root on the south bank of the river.

Franciscan missionaries visited the village and around 1881 they built a simple mission church facing the river, with local carpenter Thomas Orthman and other residents working under the direction of Father Chrysostom Verwyst and Father Casimir.