logging contractor; born Oct. 7, 1836 in Ste-Martine, County Chateauguay, Québec, but migrated to Kankakee, Ill., in 1853 to live with his godfather. Meeting a man who had just returned from the pineries of the  Chippewa Valley, he headed north in 1855 to seek his fortune. After working on a Chippewa River keelboat and as a stagecoach driver, he married and started a farm at Eagle Point which also served as stopping place for rivermen and lumberjacks. He preferred the forest to the fields, however, and during the second half of the 19th century spent most of his life operating logging camps from Chippewa Falls to Lake Superior for major lumber companies. Vinette was consequently a well-known figure in the northwoods until his death in Chippewa Falls in 1923. View his memoirs and more information about logging elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org.

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[Source: Eau Claire Telegram, May 5, 1923; correspondence May 2006 with Kathy Vinette Natarelli.]