The 1914 Plat book for Trempealeau County made a big boo-boo–they misspelled ‘Ettrick”! The name was given to the Town and to the village by John Cance after Ettrick forest in Scotland as described in Walter Scot’s ‘Marmion’. The Town of Ettrick was created on December 16, 1862 and the first Town meeting was held at the John Cance home. Hegg in the upper Beaver Creek valley was named after Civil War hero Hans C Hegg who was killed at the Battle of Chattanooga. ‘Iduna” was the name of a post office in upper French Creek which had John Hovre as the post master and keeper of a small store. The origin of the name is disputed. It may have been taken from ” I dono’ or from the name of a Norske goddess. Beach Corner was named for the Beach family who farmed in the vicinity.The village of Ettrick was founded in 1870 by Iver Pederson who moved from Frenchville and started a general store. A dam was put in forming Lake Chapultepec and producing power for two mills. In 1877 the village was platted on land owned by James Corcoran, PJ Huff, Iver Knudtson, Hans Christianson and Iver Pederson. Ettrick became the terminus of the short lived Ettrick and Northern Railroad. The train traveled between Blair and Ettrick until its demise shortly after WWI. Early settlers in the Town included John and Dennis Mahoney, John and Daniel Kennedy, Thomas and Andrew Beirne, Pat Cain, Henry Whelan, Cornelius Lynch, James Quinn, Peter A Hogden, Ole Onsrud, Iver Enghagen, Peter Ofsdahl, Nils Olson, Marcus Benrud and Ole Engelien. Settlers in the Hegg community came from the Hardinger area in Norway. Family names in the area included Hallanger, Herreid, Saed, Quammen, Ryngoye, Bue, Bjotveit, Legreid, Oakland, Skaar, Grue, Syse, Sexe abd Rondestveit. Hegg saw its first settlement in 1857 and two years later, a school was opened. French Creek was also heavily settled by Norwegian farmers. ?The first school in French Creek was started in 1861 ?and became known as the Wayside School. ?Directly down the road from the school was French creek Lutheran church. ?Rural school districts in the Town of Ettrick were Beach, Chapultepec, Harmon, Hegg, Lone Star, South Branch, Upper French Creek, Washington Coulee, Wayside and Whalen. .
