or Grinsel, John (born 28 Aug. 1840; was alive in 1920), lumberman. (Surname is Grincell in GC-area sources, but he was known by the surname Grinsel in Eau Claire, Wisc.) Born at Coteau-du-Lac, Que. Parents: James Grinsel (or Grincell) , a pilot on the St. Lawrence, and his wife Christina McRae, daughter of a Scottish weaver who emigrated to GC in 1808. John left home at age 15 to work in the lumber woods. He went to the Chippewa valley, Wisc., in 1858, worked in the forest industries, and began logging for himself in 1863. He was a logger, timber locater, farm operator and speculator. He was never, apparently, a timberman of the first rank of importance by Chippewa valley standards. In April 1886, apparently with support from the Knights of Labour, of which he was a member, he was elected mayor of Eau Claire, Wisc. He was mayor for only one year. In June 1886, while mayor, he arrived at Glen Robertson, to visit his sister Mrs Dan McGillis at Bridge End. (Cornwall Freeholder 11 June 1886, cited in Down the Lane column Standard Freeholder 5 June 1948 ) After April 1887 he took no part in Eau Claire politics. In 1888 the Chicago Canadian-American, in an article on the “many ex-Glengarrians among the prominent citizens of Chippewa Falls, Wis.,” said that “John Grincell, ex-Mayor of Eau Claire, an old Bridge End boy, is putting 15,000,000 feet of logs on the Flambeau river.” (repr. CF 2 March 1888, quoted 20 years later in CF 28 Feb. 1908) He is said to have left for Washington State in 1900. However, he is absent from Eau Claire city directories from a few years before that time. In 1920, he had been living in Los Angeles for some 20 years. (Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 1920) He was married (1) in 1867 to Margaret Johnson, and (2) in 1884 to Janet McIntosh, whose father was born at St. Andrew’s, Ont. There were children by both marriages. He was Roman Catholic.
Information from Dale A. Peterson, Researcher, Chippewa Valley Museum, Eau Claire, Wisc., Feb. 1977 * biog. sketch in George Forrester, ed., Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley Wisconsin (1891-2) * William F. Bailey, ed., History of Eau Claire County Wisconsin (1914) 717