USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
169
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
The best paying crops are winter wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, peas, potatoes, vegetables, and hay. Of the latter, bluegrass, white and red clover are important. Bluegrass and clover spring up naturally and grow to perfec- tion. Oats yields from 40 to 60 bushels per acre. Corn is now grown suc -- cessfully. Wisconsin is as good an agricultural state as any of the middle west, and no county has better crops on an average than Marathon county. The following figures, taken from the yearbook of the United States depart- ment of agriculture for 1911, are convincing as to the excellent character of Wisconsin soils, and when in later years an effort was made by the Agri- cultural Society of Marathon county to make an exhibit at the State Fair at Madison, this county has been awarded first prize for its agricultural pro- ducts in competition with all other counties in the state.
Average Yield Per Acre.
Pota-
Barley,
Corn, Bu.
Bu.
Bu.
Rye, Bu.
Bu.
Ton.
Illinois
27.8
34.5
31.2
15.5
17.6
85
1.35
Indiana
25.4
34.7
29.0
14.2
15.2
79
1.36
Iowa
25.6
32.3
29.5
14.6
18.0
82
1.55
Michigan
25.0
32.7
31.6
14.5
15.I
88
1.34
Minnesota
25.7
29.4
31.7
13.0
19.I
88
1.66
Missouri
21.9
28.6
23.4
13.4
14.8
81
1.28
Ohio
27.3
35.6
33.2
14.9
17.1
84
1.38
WISCONSIN
28.6
33.2
33.3
16.6
17.0
92
1.56
Oats,
Wheat,
toes,
Hay,
State
Bu.
Marathon is preeminently the clover county of the state, and for this reason one of the foremost dairy regions in the state. With one-sixth of the cheese factories and one-half of the creameries, Wisconsin is the greatest dairy state in the Union, with an annual production valued approximately at eighty million dollars. Marathon county contributes a goodly portion to this immense total. There are more than thirty thousand milk cows in the county, from which 29 creameries and 64 cheese factories are supplied, which produce one and one-fourth million pounds of butter and two and one-half millions of cheese. There are fine herds of Guernsey and Holstein cows, but also short horns and Angus cattle are raised for beef. Bee culture is carried on and two thousand colonies of bees are busy gathering the nectar from the white clover and basswood and other blossoms. Excellent well water is found at depths from forty to sixty feet in the rock bottom, and there is an abun- dance of live springs and spring brooks.
170
HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
ROADS AND COMMUNICATION.
The public roads are, with few exceptions, laid on section and one-fourth section lines, and all parts of the county are easily accessible. In the year 1912 the sum of $20,000 was expended for macadamizing roads, in addition to the usual expense for road repair. Macadamı roads can be and are made cheap because the material is close at hand. There are now 1900 miles of road in the county, and 176 miles of railroads traverse it from northi to south and east to west; 300 miles of telephone lines and 35 railroad sta- tions with 31 rural routes serve 4,000 families, and the daily mail brings to the farmer the daily paper only a few hours later than the city resident. Nothing has done more to make farm life attractive than the telephone and rural delivery, to which will soon be added the parcel post.
Between one-half and one-third of the people live in cities and villages and are engaged in industrial pursuits, the rest in agriculture. This gives the farmer a good home market for all his products. More than half of the farms are clear of any incumbrance, and many farmers have bank deposits, while the indebtedness carried by others is less than one-third of the value of the property and with present prices for farm products will be wiped out in a few years.
When the county gave 200,000 acres of land to the Wisconsin Valley Railroad Company it was a good stroke of policy; it brought revenues where formerly were none. At that time the best of timber lands could be bought for from $3.00 to $6.00 per acre according to location, depending on the nearness of the city of Wausau, which was really the only market at that time.
The average value of improved farm land ranges from $30.00 to $100.00 per acre. Wild hardwood lands are selling from $15.00 to $25.00, and cut over lands with little timber on it, for from $8.00 to $15.00 per acre. Prices for wood and timber, liable to vary a little were as follows in 1911 :
Cordwood, from $3.50 to $5.00 per cord.
Basswood excelsior bolts, $3.50 to $4.50 per cord of 96 cubic feet.
Hemlock logs, from $8.00 to $10.00 per 1,000 feet.
Rock elm logs, $10.00 to $12.00.
Oak, red or white, $25.00 to $35.00.
Birch and ash, $14.00 to $16.00.
Maple, $8.00 to $10.00,
and there is no likelihood for a drop in prices, rather an increase in the future.
Sleighing can be relied upon for from five to nine weeks every winter, which enables farmers to haul logs to mills and take lumber home on a sleigh
171
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
road, drawing a heavy load, saving thereby time and exertion of himself and team.
AMOUNT OF TIMBER LANDS.
The whole area of Marathon county in acres is. 994,560
Lands in farms 532,876
Lands not in farms. 461,684
Deducting one-fourth for cities, villages, railroad,
right of way and land not covered with timber .. 115,42I
Leaves lands covered by timber not in farms ....... 346,263 acres
To which add lands in farms covered with timber. . 236,444 acres
Leaves land covered with timber in acres . 582,707
These figures are taken from the agricultural census of the United States for 1910 and are pretty reliable. The land covered with timber is rather under than overestimated. The standing timber is still one of the great resources of the county, and the annual cut is nearly balanced by the new growth.
SCHOOLS.
The old log school houses have given way to frame buildings of modern type, with due regard to ventilation, comfort of pupils and sanitation. But one or two of the counties in the state pay a higher salary to the county super- intendent, and towns and villages vie with each other to make their schools attractive and secure good teachers, and 9,000 pupils are in regular attendance.
Instruction is carried up to and including the eighth grade, and older or advanced pupils get a course of instruction equal to the ninth. Two-thirds of the schools have a term of eight months and all others nine. Within a short time all schools will be open nine months. The wages paid to rural teachers are a little better than the average in the state and range up to $60.00 per month. In 1811 the county districts received from the state school fund $2.69 for every child between four and twenty years of age. An equal amount is levied by the county at large, and the remainder must be provided by local district taxation. The schools are well distributed, the district so arranged that only in exceptional cases a child lives more than one and a half miles from the school house.
The flourishing condition of the rural schools is in a large measure due to 10
172
HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
the zeal and vigor of the county superintendent, Mr. W. Pivernetz, who per- sonally visits every school at least once in each year, and whose devotion to duty and ceaseless endeavor to raise the standard of education in Mara- thon county so as to equip the growing generation with the means to grapple successfully with the problems which will be theirs to solve in time, reflects credit upon himself as well as the communities which look upon him as their adviser and friend.
Besides the high school at Wausau there are five accredited high schools in the county, a county training school for teachers (the first in the state), a county school for agriculture and domestic science, the last two institutions being situated in the city of Wausau, to the maintenance of which the state contributes two-thirds and the county one-third of the expense.
Some of the parish schools rival the public schools in excellence and are evidently proof of the fact that church organizations are not only willing to maintain their own schools, but take pride in keeping them up to the standard of the public schools.
THE MARATHON COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
A true and correct illustration of this superb structure is shown on a page in this chapter. It is a spacious building with ample office accommoda- tions for each county officer. It has yet some unoccupied rooms, but they will be found useful when the population of the county has increased to 100,000 or more. It is simple in style, chaste, almost severe, but on account of its fine proportions makes a pleasing impression. No attempt was made at art display, which so often results in a woeful compromise between the conflicting demands of real art and economy, when the means at hand are unequal to the demands of art, and a compromise between art and economy is made, usually disastrous in both directions. It may be said to be a fireproof building, each office being supplied with a large, absolutely fireproof vault, yet so constructed as to receive light and air from without, so that no artificial light is needed during day time. It is well ventilated and heated, and fur- nished with tasty practical furniture.
H. C. Koch, the Milwaukee architect, made the plans, and the contract for its erection was awarded to John Miller, contractor and builder of Wausau, as the lowest bidder, on the 13th day of November, 1890, for the sum of $51,800.00, which, however, did not include the heating apparatus.
Excavation was begun April 1, 1891, and the building completed and turned over to the county authorities May 10, 1892. A particular circum-
[
1
MARATHON COUNTY COURT HOUSE
TELEPHONE BUILDING AND POST OFFICE, WAUSAU, WIS.
173
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
stance worth mentioning is that there were only a few slight changes from the original plans, which were made with a corresponding slight increase in the contract price. The net cost of the building when completed and taken over by the county was a little less than $65,000.00, not including fees of committee and cost of plans. It stands as a monument to the skill and busi- ness capacity of its contractor who was able to erect that massive towering structure-at so comparatively low a price, and yet was not a loser on the con- tract. The building of the court house convinced people that good substan- tial buildings could be erected at Wausau at as low a cost as anywhere in the state; that all building material is close at hand and as skilled workmen here as anywhere.
The First National Bank erected their splendid building in the same year, and from that time dates a building era in Wausau which far surpasses any- thing done in that line in former years.
The building committee having the charge and supervision of the court house during the process of its erection were John Ringle, John Kiefer, and Frank Fellows, and it must be said that that committee solved the problem put in their charge with credit to themselves and with high degree of intel- ligence and honor to the county. After several terms of court had been held it was found that the acoustics in the court room were defective, the room being too plain without enough breakers of sound, and too high. This was remedied by putting in a false ceiling about three feet lower than the original, and covering the plaster finish with coarse linen cloth to prevent an echo, since which change the acoustics are all that may be desired. After a use of nearly twenty years the hardwood floor on the lobby of the first floor and landing of the second floor was taken up and replaced by a tile floor, and a new heating plant installed. The court house is a credit to Marathon county, not the least of which is that every cent it costs was well earned and honestly accounted for.
THE MARATHON COUNTY JAIL
is located east of the depot ground of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad depot ground, about a half mile from the court house.
At the time this location was much criticised as being too far from the court house, but it is now seen that that criticism was unfounded. The building stands on two blocks of ground, fully isolated, has a well kept lawn, and with its fine cottage style has more the appearance of the residence of a well to do citizen than the place of detention of criminals and other persons. It has a number of steel lined cells to harbor dangerous prisoners, the cells
-
174
HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
being 61/2 by 8 feet, leading out to a corridor where detained persons may exercise. There are separate rooms for witnesses, for juvenile offenders, also one cell for persons under examination for insanity, and a bathroom and closet.
It is built to keep prisoners safely, no escape is possible when the sheriff or jailer uses ordinary care. At the same time it is comfortable, clean, and sanitary. It is so constructed as to keep persons of different sex completely apart, also juveniles.
The sheriff has his residence in the jail, and it is large enough to accom- modate a good sized family.
There is a barn and stable built of brick on the same lot to be used in con- nection with the sheriff's work.
The contract for the building was let in December, 1899, and it was com- pleted in 1900.
The entire cost of the jail was $35,000.00.
The mason and stone work was done by John Miller, and the steel jail work proper by the Pardy Jail Co., St. Louis, Mo.
The building committee in charge of the erection were: F. W. Genrich, A. I. Cook, A. F. Marquardt, Christ Franzen, and H. Ramthun.
THE MARATHON COUNTY ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE.
This meritorious institution was built upon the earnest request of L. Marchetti, who was at that time the county judge, under whose jurisdiction comes the adjudication of insanity and orders for their care in proper asylums. Humanitarian as well as economic considerations prompted him to urge the county board to this undertaking. After the county board had directed a committee to investigate asylums of this kind and the costs of maintenance and receiving a favorable report, the county board on the 22d day of March, 1893, ordered the building of the asylum and the issue of $80,000.00 bonds for the erection and completion of the same.
At the time of its erection it was a model of its kind, and so far as the building itself for the caring of the patients is concerned, it has needed no repairs or improvements to this date. It is conducted upon modern lines relating to the care and treatment of the inmates. There are no other restraints placed upon the patients than would be placed upon a similar large number of rational persons of different sex occupying the same building. They are managed by appealing to those qualities of mind and heart which still respond to a pathetic or kind touch; by constant endeavor to arouse the
175
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
slumbering faculties of the mind; by directing them to some useful occupa- tion calculated to bring into action their mental as well as physical capacities ; by teaching them to recognize in the superintendent and the matron their best friends and protectors. All holidays receive due attention, and no effort is spared to make them enjoyable. Thanksgiving is remembered by a turkey dinner; each patient receives a present at Christmas either from a friend or relative, or from the institution; the Fourth of July is duly celebrated each year, and everything within reason is done to make the lot of the patient con- fortable.
The asylum is now in the eighteenth year of its existence and reflects honor upon Marathon county as well as upon the management. It ranks among the best institutions of its kind in the state. No better location could be found for it. It stands on the high bank of the Wisconsin river which affords excellent drainage; its surroundings are picturesque; it has imme- diately surrounding it 100 acres of land which is under cultivation, and more land in close proximity belonging to the asylum: the soil is a sandy loam easily worked and well adapted for cultivation of all crops with good hus- bandry. From a sanitary point of view nothing better could be desired. It is within three miles of the court house, easily accessible by visitors, physi- cians, and officers.
It was built in 18933-1894 on plans approved by the state board of con- trol, and the original cost, including the building and the entire outfit of personal property within it, was $80,000.00, for which bonds bearing four per cent interest were issued payable in annual installments, the last payment to be after twenty years. No tax was ever levied to provide funds for the institution, the same being self-sustaining from the start. The land was purchased by the county at very reasonable figures, and the whole amount invested in land and personal property up to date with all improvements which have been made such as barns and other buildings, amounts to $116,000.00.
The building committee which had the letting of the contract and super- vise the execution thereof, were F. T. Zentner, William F. Hewitt, F. W. Kickbusch, P. F. Curran, and E. Heath, to which was added as an honor- able member the county judge Louis Marchetti.
The asylum and the management proved a success from the humani- tarian point of view as well as from an economical one. Marathon county was and is large, and had then and now many chronic insane. These patients where transferred to this place where they can be often visited by relatives who may thus convince themselves that they have the best possible treatment.
176
HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
So much for the humanitarian point of view. It is an economic affair, because it has brought a large surplus into the county treasury every year instead of being an item of expense. At the present time there are 173 inmates in the institution of both sexes.
MARATHON COUNTY HOME AND HOSPITAL.
The eminently successful operation of the asylum induced the county board to locate the Home of the Poor on the same ground and put both insti- tutions under the control of the asylum trustees. There are three of them, one to be elected every year for three years. A detention hospital is con- nected with the home, where alleged insane persons may be observed pend- ing an investigation and examination. It serves also the purpose of treating very poor patients under certain conditions, and is also a maternity hospital. It was completed three years ago by Anderes & Son of Wausau, contractors and builders, to the full satisfaction of the county board. It will house sixty persons comfortably, one person to each room, and more in cases of necessity. It is modern in every respect, sanitary, and comfortable. At present there are thirty-one men and ten women inmates. One central heating plant in a separate building heats both asylum and home.
At and near the asylum and home there are 320 acres which are worked as a farm, on which all necessary foodstuffs except groceries, spices, and fish food for the use of both institutions is raised, mostly by the inmates under proper supervision and assistance. Three hundred and twenty acres more are located about seven miles away which is timber land and was purchased and is used as a woodlot. A herd of 48 milk cows, 20 head of young cattle, 16 draft horses, 100 pigs, and 250 chickens are kept on the farm besides 40 steers on an average, raised for slaughter, and all sorts of vegetables are cultivated for home consumption. There is a laundry building, a cold stor- age, an ice house, and all necessary stables, barns, and other buildings, in short, every building needed on a first-class farm. A stand for discoursing sweet music has been erected where on proper occasions the inmates enjoy a concert in the open air.
The asylum trustees for the last decade were Anton Mehl, president. Charles Craemer and Henry Vollhard, in place of Anton Melil, who declined a re-election in 1912, Aug. F. Marquardt was elected, and Charles Craemer took the place as president.
The home and hospital was built under the supervision of the committee of public property, to wit : John Manson, chairman; W. W. Thayer, Charles Zarnke, A. J. Cherney, and Herman Vetter.
MARATHON COUNTY INSANE ASYLUM
PUBLIC LIBRARY, WAUSAU, WIS.
ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, WAUSAU, WIS.
Y. M. C. A. BUILDING, WAUSAU, WIS.
177
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
The superintendent of the asylum and home and hospital is M. H. Duncan with his very estimable wife as matron. Mr. Duncan has been now super- intendent since 1909, and the institutions have been conducted in a very satis- factory and creditable manner.
Dr. W. A. Ladwig is now the resident physician and visits both institu- tions daily and oftener, if necessary.
THE MARATHON COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS
was the first institution of this kind in the state. The object is expressed in its name, but it is more particularly the aim of the school to graduate teachers at home without the expense of going away to a state normal school, and thus attract pupils which could not afford to prepare themselves for the pro- fession of teaching except by graduating them at home, and thus furnish a good supply of teachers for the great number of county district schools under proper training. By act of legislature, chapter 268, law of 1889, two coun- ties in the state were empowered to found a county training school, and Marathon county was the first in the field to reap the benefits of that act.
An appropriation of $2,500.00 was immediately made by the county for the school, and the city of Wausau gave the use of the Humboldt school building to the school. On September 11, 1899, this school opened with twenty-two pupils, but the number increased so that in the fourth term there were forty-four, who took the advantages offered to prepare them- selves for teaching.
The state paid one-half of the sum appropriated by the county, $1,250.00. In 1902 the county board made an appropriation for teaching agriculture and domestic economy, and had a separate building put up, immediately east of the fair grounds, at a cost of $20,000.00 for building and equipment, for the use of the training as well as the agricultural school. It stands on six acres of grounds, of which eight lots were donated by Mr. C. S. Curtis of Wausau. The teachers' training school has come up fully to the expec- tations of the founders. Through this school the county schools are fur- nished with a corps of competent teachers, particularly trained for such schools; as a consequence the standard of teaching is higher, better discipline is maintained, the school boards have become more interested than before and give the teacher every assistance, such as providing sanitary, good ven- tilated rooms, books, and instruments.
Every school is more or less what the principal teacher makes it, and it was fortunate for the Marathon County Training School to secure right at
178
HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
the beginning two such excellent instructors as Prof. O. E. Wells, formerly state superintendent, and Miss Rosalia Bohrer as his assistant. They prepared the course of study, adhered to it, extended the curriculum from time to time, and have been able to turn out a corps of competent teachers, and the fruit of their labor is plainly seen in the higher education of the growing generation in the county. The fact that both Mr. Wells and Miss Bohrer have been able to work harmoniously side by side without interruption since the organization of the school in 1899, that they have conquered the prejudice with which the undertaking was first looked upon and have the full confi- dence not only of the board of trustees and pupils, but of the school boards generally throughout the county, is the best proof of their high standing as instructors and managers of this institution. A moral atmosphere pervades the training school; pupils are made to understand that they have duties to perform in return for the education which they receive. In the fall of 1908 it became necessary to engage another assistant, Miss Ellen McDonald, principal of the Oconto high school, who was since elected county superin- tendent of schools of Oconto county, and Miss Edith Hamaker has taken her place as assistant.
The School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy gives instruction in all sorts of work required to be done on the farmi and such knowledge as every farmer needs. It teaches the boys to learn the composition of the soil upon which crops are to be raised; the due care of stock, of buildings, and machinery, and everything which the farmer needs to know in these days of scientific farming.
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
Girls are taught sewing and other hand work, cooking, house work, and the practical manner of housekeeping generally, which is so often neglected in our families of late. To give the women of the future that instruction which will enable her to conduct her household neat and at the same time on economic lines is, to the majority of them of more importance than ac- complishments on the piano or similar studies in arts, which usually give the pupil no more than a very superficial knowledge of the art which is usually dropped when the stern realities of life make their demands upon the house- wife.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.