Andrew Shafer, a pioneer of Dunn County who passed away some 20 years ago, was born in Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood and married Joan Ingalls. It was in the year 1851 or 1852 that they came west and settled in what is now Pepin County, but which was then a part of Dunn County. There they homesteaded land and started to build a home. To obtain supplies Mr. Shafer had to go to Read's Landing across on the west bank of the Mississippi, pack them on his back, and then, recrossing the river by boat or ferry, carry them home along trails that passed through the wilderness.

When about 1857 Capt. B. B. Downs started a sawmill at Downsville, which led to the settlement of that village, Mr. Shafer deciding that mill employment was better than struggling for a living where he was, gave up his place in Pepin County and came to Downsville to work for Capt. Downs. He and his wife remained in the town of Dunn until 1893 in which year they came to the town of Weston, where Mr. Shafer and his son Alvin took over a 180-acre farm in Section 31 and 32 then owned by Simon Shafer, a brother of Andrew. On this farm he made extensive improvements, erecting a complete set of buildings, and it was here that he and his wife spent the rest of their lives, Mr. Shafer dying Feb. 19, 1905 and Mrs. Shafer some years later, in 1916. They were the parents of two children: Alice, who became the wife of Orman Laughlin, and Alvin, of the town of Weston.6616