Catalog Number: 1943.100.02

This painting, signed by Charles Waldo Jenkins (1821-96) and dated 1848, is of Fredericka Augusta Levey (1820-90).

“Gussie” and her husband, John, came to La Crosse in 1846 when the white settlement of Prairie La Crosse consisted of a smattering of crude log homes along the riverbank. They opened a store attached to their house, which also served as La Crosse’s first hotel.

Augusta and John welcomed and assisted new settlers, ran the post office and opened their home for church services for several denominations. During the frequent times when John was away trading, Augusta ran the store and hotel.

The couple embodied the spirit of community building in the earliest years of La Crosse. Her memories of life in Prairie La Crosse were preserved through an interview, conducted in her native German, by a grandniece when Augusta was in her 80s. The first published histories of La Crosse included information from the memoir, often without recognition for the author.

Gussie’s memoir remains a valuable historical document of life in early La Crosse.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on February 21, 2015.

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