HON. JOHN W. BELL, born in New York City in 1805, in his eighth year went to Canada with his parents, learned to be a watchmaker, a ship builder and a cooper, and came to La Pointe in 1835, where he has since resided. He carried on the coopering business first, for the American Fur Company, and then for himself established a trading post, became interested in mining stocks, and filled various county offices, having served as county judge and register of deeds a great many years. In later life he was postmaster at La Pointe. He was married in 1837 to Miss Margaret Brahant, in the Catholic chapel, by Bishop Baraga. He died in 1888. ASHLAND Is situated on a plateau of about thirty feet elevation, on the south shore and near the head of Chequamegon bay. The first house, a cabin, was built in 1854. Other cabins were added the same year. In the cabin erected by Mr. Asaph Whittlesey, in the winter of 1854-55, was preached the first sermon in Ashland by Rev. L. H. Wheeler, of the Odanah mission. A post office was established in March, 1855, Mr. Whittlesey, postmaster. The first American child born was the second daughter of Asaph Whittlesey. The name of Ashland was conferred upon the town by Martin Beaser, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, it being the name of Mr. Clay's homestead. The village and post office was first known as Whittlesey, but on the organization of the county in 1860, the name of Ashland was applied to both. The new town was not destined to immediate and continuous prosperity, and at one time, in 1863, had decreased so much in population that its post office was discontinued for a period of nine years. After that date it entered upon an era of prosperity. Julia Wheeler taught the first school in 1859. The Methodists organized the first Protestant society in 1872. The Catholics commenced a church building in 1873. In 1872 the first newspaper in Ashland, the _Press_, was established by Sam S. and Hank O. Fifield, under whose charge it remained until 1874, when S. S. Fifield bought his brother's interest in the paper and has since published it continuously, and in 1888 established a daily.