EAU CLAIRE  , a

city and the county-seat of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the Chippewa river, at the mouth of the Eau Claire, about 87 m . E. of St Paul . Pop . (189o) 17,415; (1900) 17,517, of whom 4996 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 18,31o . It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Wisconsin Central railways, and is connected by an electric line with Chippewa Falls (12 M. distant) . The city has a Carnegie library with 17,200 volumes in 1908, a Federal building, county court house, normal school and insane asylum . It has abundant water-power, and is an important lumber manufacturing centre; among its other manufactures are flour, wooden-ware, agricultural machinery, saw-mill machinery, logging locomotives, wood pulp, paper, linen, mattresses, shoes and trunks . The total value of factory products in 1905 was $3,601,558 . The city is the principal wholesale and jobbing market for the prosperous Chippewa Valley . Eau Claire was first settled about 1847, and was chartered as a city in 1872; its growth dates from the development of the north-western lumber trade in the decade 187o-1880 . In 1881 a serious strike necessitated the calling out of state militia for its suppression and the protection of property .