USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 10
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More arrived the following year, among them Anthony Schilling, who had been a fireman on the Mississippi steamboats, plying the whole length of the father of the waters and tributaries; others who came during this year and remained were Joseph Schuster, a bachelor who taught school for many years in that community; John Stumm, another teacher, Peter Heil, John Lemmer, all from Pittsburg; and Charles Marquardt, Fred Haman, and William Garbrecht coming direct from Germany, and soon afterwards came Jacob Duerrstein, who settled in the town of Wien, so named because the first settler in that township, Math. Halkowitz had come from the city of Vienna (Wien). He had been a "ladies' tailor" in Vienna, and to ex- change the needle for the ax and plow was not an easy matter for him.
That was the modest beginning of farming in Marathon county, from which sprang up the wealthy farming communities of today, which compare well with much older settlements in eastern and middle states.
These farmer pioneers had their trials, their hardships, their sufferings, their privations, for many years the coarsest of fare and garments; but the worst days of anxiety and fear, amounting almost to desperation, and not only of days but often of weeks, were experienced when sickness laid its paralyzing hand on a member and the family had to see the suffering of one of them without ability to alleviate the pain, there being no physician within ten or tens of miles without even a road to reach him, and in any event with- out the means to secure his attendance. And when death came as an angel of mercy to the stricken one and the wasted body was laid to rest, what
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must have been the feelings of father or mother or children, raised in Chris- tian communities when the body was interred without the last consolation of religion? How often under such circumstances may not the afflicted ones have cried out in the bitterness of their heart: "Oh, why did I come to this country?" It was a life hard enough for the strong and healthy ones. The rough cabin completed, the man had to go forth for provisions from fifteen to twenty-five miles, carrying it back on his back through trails over swamps hardly passable, leave his wife and children alone at home in the wilderness until he returned after an absence of two or three days, often more.
Returning with the necessities he had to go forth again to seek work to earn the means to sustain bare life which the gound did not give him until he had cleared and cultivated at least ten or fifteen acres, which took several years at best, often longer. They sought for and obtained work in the saw mills, in logging camps, going to the prairie in harvest time a hundred or more miles away, taking their pay in provisions, in anything offered; those that went harvesting brought back cattle taken in payment for work in those days when money was a rarity. For at least eight years their life was a continual struggle with nature against hardships of all sorts, which only the strongest constitutions and characters could conquer. When a settler had provision to last him for, say, four to six weeks, he could begin clearing; first to cut the underbrush; then chopped down the trees, a hun- dred or more to an acre, then cut the trees in lengths to fit them for the burning pile, then haul the logs together and roll them in piles, then burn the piles, keep rolling until everything was burned, and it was not an easy or quick job to burn big green basswood or hemlock logs or pines. It sounds like blasphemy today to speak of burning basswood, pine, and hem- lock logs, but what else could be done if crops were to be raised? There was no sale for hardwood timber, it could not be floated, and it cost more to haul the very best pine logs ten miles to the mill than they were worth; in most instances it was impossible by reason of distance to haul even pine to the mill. The settlers' club desired to have the village ground cleared, and it was on Rib river. They were glad to give the standing pine, and it was splendid pine, too, to Mr. Joseph Dessert for the cutting and hauling it away. But Mr. Dessert was not unmindful of their wants. When the first church was built in Marathon City, he gave them all the lumber free of any charge, of course, at the mill yard. It sounds somtimes ridiculous to hear conservationalists, so-called, to lament the loss of timber in early days and speak reproachingly of the waste of wealth of timber. But if the country
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had to wait for them to open the land for cultivation, it is safe to say that Marathon county would be today in its original wild state. And where was the damage? The cleared land produced crops every year, but there was only one crop in timber, and that had to be taken off to raise the crops with- out which the settlers could not exist. After the land was cleared, then came the planting among stumps, roots, and stones or rocks, which had to be piled together, too, and fence making also. Cattle were roaming free; in fact, all domestic animals were running at large picking their food in the woods. After cattle food, such as hay and straw, had given out in the spring, the cattle browsed on the young shoots of the fresh cut trees, not good for milking cows, but it kept them alive. Men and women wore home spun col- ored by boiling it in bark of hemlock or butternut shell.
But if the work of men was hard, the life of the pioneer women was harder still. They were the true helpmates of the men, helping in the clear- ing, piling the underbrush, sawing logs, handspiking them together and burning them, helping in the planting and harvesting, taking the little child out in the field wrapped in comforters and attending to the wants of the little ones during pauses in the field work.
The pioneer women as well as the men were heroes in their way. Many men and women might be mentioned by name as deserving of the lasting grati- tude of later generations. They all made a mark for themselves; they opened a road for thousands to come after them who all profited by the sacrifices of them. Pioneer women were not given much to fear, least of all to hys- terics. During the war it happened that the wife of a farmer and her mother, they being the only adult persons in the house, the farmer being with the army in the field, heard the squealing of the pig in the night, and they knew that in all probability a bear was attacking them in the pen. They could not afford to lose their best and only pig. The wife and her mother jumped out of bed, took no time to dress, did not look for a gun, with the handling of which they were probably not accustomed, but coming out of the house reached for handspikes always ready to roll logs, and made for the pig pen where their worst fears were realized. A black bear trying to make away with the pig. Without hesitation they belabored the bear with their handspikes to such good purpose that the surprised bruin dropped the pig and fled. The pig was torn and nearly dead, and not to lose it, they killed the pig, heated the kettle without waiting for the morning's dawn, dressed it and salted the meat to save as much as possible. How many men could have done better, how many would have done as much ?
Matharon county is now one of the best counties in the state, containing
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thousands of fine farms, well stocked, with all modern improvements, all farms occupied by its owner, each an independent and free citizen; there is not one renter to two hundred of farm owners in this county. Marathon county farmers are well to do, some are more wealthy than others, but for the staying qualities, for the endurance, for the grit and the frugality of these pioneers they might not enjoy the prosperity which is theirs today. The farmer pioneers all mentioned here by name were men of industry, men of character, of honor, of integrity and rectitude, who brought up families who still occupy the lands of their parents, and more besides, and are hon- ored citizens of the state. It is due to those pioneers that some at least, the first ones be mentioned by name as persons whose examples are worthy of emulation and imitation. They were Christian men and women, with whom Christianity was not a mere profession or theory, but who practiced their faith in their every day life. As soon as their means permitted, they built houses of worship to bring up their children in Christian surroundings rather than in comfort; they had no schools for them for some years, being too scattered over a large territory, which made the building of schoolhouses im- practicable; but they taught them respect for their elders, to give everybody his own. They needed neither criminal nor civil courts for their govern- ment, because they governed themselves with due regard for the rights of others. It is from this race of pioneers from which sprung the stock of sturdy, strong, patriotic and intelligent farming community which inhabits Marathon county. It was necessary to mention them first when speaking of Marathon county in this chapter, because Marathon county at that time, 1856, constituted only one organized town, the town of Marathon. What has been said of these men applies with equal force to the pioneers in other towns, the towns of Settin and Wausau, and the Irish settlement. They began settlement a little later, say one or two years; but they had to go through the same hardships and the same privations, only they were a little nearer to people, where they could get assistance in case of need, because the mill settlements in Wausau and Mosinee had grown, to which they were a little nearer in point of location.
The organization of the settlers' club in Pittsburg became, of course, known in that city, and real estate speculators were not slow to let a chance for making money out of real estate pass away from them. They purchased for a song land warrants issued to all honorable discharged soldiers of the Mexican war, and with these land warrants, which were taken for money at the United States land offices, purchased lands in Marathon county and sold it to prospective settlers.
BRIDGE OVER RIB RIVER, RIB FALLS, WIS.
SCENE ON RIB RIVER, MARATHON CITY, WIS.
SCENE ON RIB RIVER, MARATHON CITY, WIS.
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By shrewd advertising, in which these lands, and especially the new settlement of the settlers' club was painted in rose colors, they succeeded in selling a large part; some people buying as an investment; some, though not many, came up and made settlement in the present towns of Cassell, Marathon and Wien, many of them going back after seeing the wilderness, only a few remained.
The settlers' club had laid out the village of Marathon City, and soon recorded the plat, as each of their members was entitled to one city lot, and three acres of the out lots, but the land was wild and unimproved, except for the few huts which the first pioneers had erected as a temporary shelter until their houses were built on their lands. They had laid out a square for a church, and one square as a public square, with a cemetery on the outlots. The speculators got hold of this plat, changed it for their purposes by show- ing thereon a fine church building and a town hall, and in the river they had a picture of a steamboat, a fine two-wheeler, in the act of going to the steam- boat dock. This was done to make people believe that there was already a city, with a market and fair-sized population as a persuasive argument in selling the wild land.
Those that bought the land and held it for many years, paying the taxes thereon, were able in after years to get their money back with perhaps very little, if any, interest; many neglected to pay the taxes, and lost it thereby. When, after fifteen or twenty years, the settlement had largely grown and improved, the tax titles were attacked in court, in most cases by specu- lators, who had procured the original title for a few dollars, and were usually successful in having the tax title set aside.
It was this sort of legal business which kept the courts busy for a long time, until the abuse of the rights of the speculator claiming under the orig- inal title led the legislature to the enactment of the statutes of limitation, which, under a strict construction given by the courts, made an end of this sort of litigation, protecting at the same time the rights of minors.
It has been stated that all lands in Marthon county at the time of the appearance of the first settlers were government lands, not even surveyed, and the question may have arisen in the minds of many a reader, why did the settlers, especially the farmers, not enter the land under the homestead act? The answer is, that the homestead act did not exist at that time, and not until 1862; and three was no other way of getting land from the govern- ment except by purchase. Even after the act was passed, and when there was still much government land in this country, very little advantage was taken of this act, most settlers preferring to buy their land and hold it, inde-
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pendent of the government. The territory in ranges 2 and 3, townships 26, 27, 28 and 29, remained wholly wild until the building of the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1872, which had a large grant from the government for the building of the road, and then most of the settlers in that territory entered under the homestead act, and it was not until most of the government lands were sold, or entered, that the railroad was enabled to sell, except their splendid pine timber lands, which was sold to lumbermen.
FARM SETTLEMENT IN TOWN STETTIN.
The saw mill erected at Little Rib by Benjamin Single in 1845 cut out as much lumber in early days as any of the mills at Wausau, and gave em- ployment to as many men. Later on it was rented to Perley Dodge and Gerry Judson, who operated it as partners in the latter fifties. This Dodge (not to be confounded with William Dodge, of Wausau) made probably one of the first farms in Marathon county, not personally but with hired help. He had eighty acres cleared, seeded mainly to grass, in the fifties, the farm being only about five miles northwest from the mill. The partner of P. Dodge got in some trouble or difficulty with Benjamin Single, and it is said that even a shot was fired at Benjamin Single, but whatever it was, the trouble was never aired in court or in public; but it had the effect of breaking up the partnership between Dodge and Judson, and Dodge departed, selling the farm to an employee of the mill, John Marquadt by name, to whom Benjamin Single advanced the purchase money. This was about 1860. Another working man at Rib mill, a native of Norway, had commenced to clear some land in the early fifties in section 30, now owned by Fred Roeder ; he cut down nearly fifteen acres, but never cultivated it or lived on it, and sold it after he had removed from Marathon county in the latter part of the fifties. It was called the Norwegian farm. It grew up into brush and small trees, lay wild for about twelve years, when Caspar Traxel bought it, settled on it in 1868 and improved it.
The first real farmer settler who came to the present town of Stettin was John Artus, who had been working in the Wausau mills for some years, then bought eighty acres and moved upon the land in 1856, and made a farm. In the same year came the four brothers, Ferdinand, Carl, Christian and William Buttke, and their cousin, Carl Buttke II, followed by Gottlieb Wen- dorf in the next year, the brothers Kippke, Fred Kopplin. August Weinke, Carl Haasch, F. Sager, Carl Kickbusch, Daniel Radke, G. Kaatz, Carl Haasch, Carl Erdmann, Frederich Beilke, and J. Hildensperger. The year 1858,
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Othmar Sauter and John Sauter, Michael Erdmann, and John Loy, Sr., to the same town. Nearly all of these men, or at least their sons, worked at times at the mill at Little Rib, which was not more than seven miles from the farthest farm mentioned.
The present town of Rib Falls, being township 29, range 5, was settled contemporaneously with Stettin, the brothers Wilde, August Heise, August Schroeder, coming there in 1856, followed by Carl Hanke and four or five other families in 1857. In speaking of the early settlers of the town of Stettin, John Wilberle and Vogedes must also be mentioned.
In 1861, Rev. A. F. H. Gebhard came to that settlement and organized the "Lutheran Trinity Congregation," which he served as pastor for over a quarter of a century. He was not only the pastor but the friend and advisor of his congregation, and much of the rise of the new settlement was due to his good counsel. He was not only the spiritual counsel of his flock, but their faithful advisor and helper in things temporal. The great influence for good which he exerted over the whole township, besides several missions in other towns, is attested by the fact that his congregation remained united in one to this day, over fifty years, the largest of any in a farming community in Marathon county. Not all settlers belonged to his church; there were some Catholic families, and a few adhering to the doctrines of the Methodist church, but the best of feeling always prevailed among all the settlers; they were always ready for mutual assistance, and there was none of the little misunderstandings among them which sometimes creep in, even among neighbors. Rev. Gebhard was later called upon and took charge of another congregation in Illinois; but he had spent the best years of his manhood here and his heart yearned for his old home and friends. He returned after a few years of absense to his farm and cultivated it, in the full enjoyment of all his mental and physical factulties, in spite of his years, and respected and beloved by young and old for the many noble qualities of his mind and heart.
The settlement in the town of Stettin soon became for years the most popular and flourishing one in the county.
TOWN OF WAUSAU.
The Mechanics Ridge settlement, the first in the county, has already been alluded to. It was a settlement made by mechanics, who carried on farming more as a sideline, and in course of time all sold out except James W. Nutter, after whom Nutterville is named, who closed his eyes on that farm in 1898. The first German farmers in town of Wausau appeared about 1859, and were
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Carl Kunz, Frederick Schmutzler, followed by Fred Dumdei, and George and Martin Reinhard. Others came soon after them, but the growth of the settlement on the east side of Wausau was much slower than on the west. There was a prejudice against the eastern lands. First, all lands were sup- posed to be unfit for agricultural purposes; that prejudice died out slowly, as the farmns on the west improved; but it still existed to the unsettled land on the eastern portion, and settlers coming to Marathon county naturally would go where. there were already settlements, which was Main, Berlin, Stettin and Marathon City. The German settlers went into these towns where their countrymen were, with whom they could speak; while new Irish settlers went to the Irish settlement. The larger number of farmers did not go to the towns of Wausau and Easton, which was included in town Wausau, until after the close of the war, and then, after 1866, when there was a great im- migration from Germany, many of whom went in the eastern settlement, including the present town of Texas.
It soon developed that there was no difference in the soil, and that one part of Marathon county was as good for farming as any other. This fact was more particularly established by the first colony fairs held in the county, which began in a very moderate way in 1867.
The old farm known as the Marshall farm, one of the first ones in this county, as well as the Hobart farm, joining the Marshall farm, have been mentioned. The Marshall farm became the property of William Swafe, who had first settled in the town of Berlin, but afterwards purchased and greatly improved the Marshall farm and made it one of the best in the county. The Hobart farm became the property of Ludwiz Zamzow after several conveyances.
LITTLE BULL FALLS AND THE IRISH SETTLEMENT.
The appropriation of the splendid and easily harnessed water power at Little Bulls Falls has already been referred to. It was made by Henry Mer- rill in 1840 and 1841, and the dam and mill was built in 1842, and probably in operation at that time. It was built by John L. Moore, not to be con- founded with James L. Moore, whose mill was at Big Bull Falls. The mill property changed hands several times, until it came finally in the sole control and possession of Joseph Dessert in 1857 (who had been interested in it with some partners before), and remained in his possession; was later operated by the Joseph Dessert Lumber Company, until 1902, when the pine supply was exhausted, the mill dismantled, and the water power turns now the machinery of the Wausau Sulphite & Fibre Company in Mosinee.
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The records of the United States land office show that lot 3 and "Little Bull Island" (so named on the official government plot) were entered by Henry Merrill at the Washington (D. C.) land office, October 5, 1840, and lot 4, by Henry Merrill on January 29, 1841. These lots and island included the water power at Mosinee, and not only were these lots entered later than the lots of the Big Bull water power, but while Merrill made the first entry, it is certain that it was not he, but J. L. Moor who built the dam and mill at Mosinee, and it is not likely that Moor would have done so unless he had either a lease or conveyance from Henry Merrill, of whom he afterwards purchased these lots and island.
In early days lumbermen who had their logs manufactured at Little Bull Falls had some advantage over lumbermen further above, because their lum- ber was rafted below that fall, and was ready to go out as soon as the river was free from ice, while lumber from above was detained often for days and weeks in case the river was too high for running through the falls there. Thus while fleets were held above Mosinee because of water being too high, the fleets below could go, and with the high stage were well on their way to and sometimes had reached the Mississippi before the fleets from above passed over the falls.
Then Mosinee was a little nearer the base of supplies, which was a great deal in point of economy. Nevertheless, the first owners of the mill had their trials and difficulties, too, their shares of failures, and when it passed finally in the sole control of Joseph Dessert, in 1857, it took him ten years of the hardest toil, strictest economy and keenest business sagacity, in spite of his approved integrity which gave him credit, to bring the business up to a point of prosperity. This mill did much sawing for other lumbermen, in conse- quence of which quite a settlement grew in and around the mill and a village. Joseph Dessert was fortunate in the choice of his assistants, and made it a point to attach his men to him and his plant.
One of the pioneers who came there and stayed with Joseph Dessert all during the remainder of his life, was a native American, Samuel Hinkley, who came in 1851. He was first employed in the mill, and soon worked him- self up to the place of a foreman and trusted manager of all the outside busi- ness, until advanced age made his voluntary retirement congenial. In early youth he had been a sailor, and spent five years of his youth on the Atlantic ocean. He was deservedly popular with all the people, not excepting the ladies and children, always having a helping hand for them at church fairs, picnics, patriotic celebrations and sports. He saw to it that a liberty pole was not wanting in the village, and took good care that the flag was always floating at every proper occasion.
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Another native born pioneer was H. A. Bean, familiarly called Judge Bean, who came in the early fifties, and was employed as bookkeeper by Mr. Dessert, in which position he remained until the end of his life, in 1880. He was well educated, which fact was early recognized by the people of Mosinee, who elected him town clerk when the town was first organized, in which office he was kept until his death, and frequently he served as justice of the peace. He was very good-natured but a little quaint in his ways, combining as justice of the peace the stern majesty of the law with dry humor of the eastern Yankee.
Another pioneer of Mosinee is Robert Freeman, a native of the north of Ireland, who emigrated in 1850, and located at Mosinee in 1851, bringing with him his wife and little child. He must be regarded as the first farmer in the Irish settlement, although he did not stay long on the land to make a farm, his choice of the land having proved rather unforunate. He then settled in the village, devoted himself to master the art of cruising, in which he became quite an expert; then turned his attention again to farming on an excellent 160-acre tract, through which flows a clear spring brook, which is known as Freeman's creek. Later on he engaged in lumbering, manufactur- ing and general mercantile business, and met with his success in all his under- takings. He disposed of all his other business and in later years returned to his first love, farming and raising fine stock. He is still hale and hearty, in spite of his age, and loves to speak and listen to the tales of olden times, with its hardships and occasional frolics.
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