USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 26
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"Let us now reverently and tenderly return his earthly remains to mother earth, and may he rest and sleep sweetly in her bosom, like a child in its mother's arm, until the day of resurrection."
Of the many saw mills erected between 1840 and 1850 the B. Single mill on Little Rib was the first to quit operations. It burned down in 1871 and was not rebuilt.
In the winter of 1871 there was established the first public library. A number of gentlemen contributing to the purchase of books, adopting a con- stitution by which the society was named "Pine Knot Literary Club." The books were kept for some years in the office of the "Wisconsin River Pilot," and later given in charge of the "Ladies' Literary Club" and became the nucleus around which grew up the Wausau Public Library. The founders of this club were W. C. Silverthorn, John Ringle. Valentine Ringle, D. L. Plumer, Orson Phelps, John Patzer, and a few more.
In 1871 a lumber pile on J. C. Clarke's yard, standing close to the river, caught fire, communicating it to another pile, but by the prompt arrival of
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the fire company aided by the mill crew, the fire was put out without doing much damage.
Jacob Kolter had now erected and completed a building on the corner of Washington and Third street called music hall, a large two-story building covering the entire lot 120x60 feet. On the first floor were two stores, fronting Washington street, the corner store occupied as a drug store, the next one was occupied as the banking house of Silverthorn & Plumer. On the north side of the building was a saloon, and above the saloon was a dining room, the saloon and dining room being separated from the stores and the hall on the second floor above the stores, by the stairway, landing, and ticket office.
That hall was the scene of many festivities and celebrations. Theatricals, lectures, concerts, political meetings, and society dances were held in that hall for a score of years, reflecting the social, intellectual, and political life of Wausau. The hall was hardly completed with stage and some scenery, when an amateur theatrical club gave some performances, with Mrs. Dr. Wylie as leading lady, Miss Mary Jane Coulthurst as ingenue and other ladies, and W. H. Barnum, Charles W. Nutter and George Lenneville as the main support of the venture. The leading lady had all the qualifications of a great actress, but the club was shortlived ; after a few good performances it broke up.
A little later the German Dramatic Club began its career and for many years entertained the German-speaking population with its performances in melodrama, tragedy, and farce, and it may be truthfully said that their acting was often superior to the performances of some of the wandering troups that come with great pretensions and big advertisements. In the German club, Mrs. H. J. Lohmar was the leading lady; she had the mimic, the verve, the correct pronunciation and appearance of a great actress. Her "Jane Eyre" was a piece of great acting, both as the poor, oppressed orphan and the great lady.
Mrs. P. A. Riebe acted the parts of the ingenue, supported by the Misses Caroline and Louise Ringle, and others. Dr. P. A. Riebe was equally at home in comedy as in tragedy, while J. W. Miller played the villain to perfection. When Riebe sang his song, in the "Songs of the Musician," and J. W. Miller acted the part of the respectable innkeeper, who, caught as a poacher, treach- erously kills the game warden and is tortured by his conscience into his grave, when at last he confesses, a hush fell over the assemblage and many eyes were moist.
H. J. Lohmar, as the loving young man, would have been perfection had he better memorized his lines and relied less on his extemporizing. Many
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others assisted, but they cannot all be named. In later years B. Riebe took the place of P. A. Riebe, but the void left by the removal of Mrs. Lohmar was never filled.
There was a Choral Society, too, in the seventies, and they gave the oratorio "Esther" in costume, with Miss Alice Bradford in the title role, which she sang in fine voice and good effect.
Will Carleton recited his poems in that hall, and lectures on popular as- tronomy followed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony both lectured in Music Hall, and a few words on the apppearance and lecture of these, probably the most noted American women on the lecture platform, may not be inappropriate.
The name of Cady Stanton was not unknown even in the pinery, and attracted a full house, more probably from curiosity to see her, than from any sympathy with her work. It was on a Saturday evening and the hall fairly well filled. As she walked up to the stage, an elderly, grandmotherly looking woman, simple and very becomingly dressed, all eyes were fixed on her. Without much of an exordium, she started on her subject, "Women's Rights," in a clear, conversational tone that could plainly be heard every- where, her pronunciation being slow and very distinct, and in a very short time the audience gave her their closest attention. Speaking of the advance made by the movement, she spoke a little reprovingly of the young reporters, "Hardly dry behind their ears," who in former years referred to her and her co-workers as the cackling geese; she did not fail to weave into her lec- ture some humorous episodes, even when the joke was on her ; as, for instance, when she told of how she and other ladies of her inclination had made up a purse to enable a bright boy to make his way through college, to become a minister, and after having graduated with honors, having received his degree and having been ordained, was invited by the ladies to preach his first sermon in their church; how the church was filled by a pious assemblage to listen to the words of the new minister; how after the introductory hymn was sung, the young minister mounted the pulpit, opened the good book and read from the epistle of St. Paul: "Let the women be silent in the congregation," and made that the text for his sermon in the spirit of St. Paul. "And," said Mrs. Stanton, with a sly twinkle in her eyes, "we women made up our mind right then and there, never to pay for the education of another boy to the ministry in that denomination." Speaking of her experience before legislative committees and political conventions, she told how she appeared in behalf of her co-workers before the committee on resolutions of the national Republican convention in 1864, which gave Abraham Lincoln his second nomination, and
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asked for the incorporation of a woman's suffrage plank; how the committee graciously permitted her to address them, and after having spoken but a short time, was impatiently interrupted by the chairman, Horace Greeley, with the tart remark, "Madam, the ballot goes with the bayonet," and her instant reply : "Very well, Mr. Greeley, I have furnished two substitutes to fight for me, my two sons ; how many have you?" which was rather a little unkind on Gree- ley, he having no son. At the end of her lecture she announced that on Sun- day afternoon she would speak at a church (Universalist) and in the evening again in this hall on another subject. Sunday night Music Hall was crowded to its full capacity, even all available standing room was taken up.
Mrs. Stanton took up for her subject, "Domestic relations; husband and wife; parent and child," and treated it in a masterful way. And she could speak with authority on these subjects, for liers was a most happy household, and she was in position to give advise: and the whole large audience was in complete sympathy with her discourse, she having so enraptured it, that not one was seen to leave the hall during the whole lecture of full two hours' duration.
The following winter Susan B. Anthony delivered her great lecture, "Woman wants bread, not the ballot," to a large appreciative audience; the idea carried out, of course was, the ballot is a means to earn the bread, having particular reference to the army of women working in industrial pursuits and factories. Like Cady Stanton, she appeared plain and simply dressed, though in good taste ; and she, too, was eargerly listened to by the assemblage. When she feelingly mentioned the oppression that women were frequently subjected to in factories, and the starvation wages received by them, her face lit up and gave her a commanding appearance. She laid bare existing wrongs ; and no doubt it is through the labor of these two women that many abuses have been corrected in later years, thought it was done without resorting to woman suffrage. Susan B. Anthony was a really eloquent woman, and some of her utterances will not suffer in comparison to be placed side by side with the best of American oratory.
There were also the travelogues of Colonel Sanford, unrivaled as a word painter. Leaving the port of New York, he took his audience over the old continent, showing and explaining the great historical sights there to be seen, and never failed to close with a peroration of the grandeur. political and geo- graphical, of our own country, the east, and of his own home, the beautiful Mississippi valley.
There were other lectures, concerts, Abby Carrington and others of her and of a higher class, and there were the political meetings with good speakers.
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It was in Music Hall that H. S. Alban made his first political speech here in reply to a speech made by Gen. E. S. Bragg, and his appearance on the ros- trum was a most pleasing surprise to his friends, because he showed himself not only as an able speaker, but as one who was a student of political affairs. And there was the joint debate between Thomas W. Nichols and Robert Schilling on the greenback question.
Many of the entertainments given in Music Hall came up in excellence to any given in the opera house at later dates. That hall was, of course, the scene of all society dances, concerts by the singing societies, the Harmony and later the Liederkranz, and lastly the meeting place of the social German so- ciety, "Frohsinn," the best interpretation of which would be "good cheer."
The decline of Music Hall began with the opening of the Opera House, which was much larger and better equipped. During the last years of its existence it was not improved; on the contrary, even repairs were neglected, and when J. M. Smith and C. J. Winton became the owners and existing leases expired, it was torn down, because the realty on that corner would warrant the erection of a new and better building. On its place now stands the Livingston block, the finest commercial emporium in the city.
Nevertheless the satisfaction felt by the tearing down of this building in the expectation of something worthier of the time and place was not wholly without some regret. It was in this building that the firm of Silverthorn and Plumer, although having done a brokerage business before, started out as a full fledged banking house; after this firm had put up a building of their own on the land owned by the Millard estate, J. M. Smith occupied their former quarters as a real-estate office, from which Marathon county was populated as never before.
Around Music Hall clustered many of the most pleasing, humorous and enjoyable memories of the past; it seemed as if with the demolishment of Music Hall went down the good old Wausau of olden times, to make room for the new. When built in 1870, and completed in 1871, it was the best and largest public building, and in a quarter of a century it was no longer good enough for the times. So passes the glory of the world, and how many of the buildings which are today the pride of Wausau may still be so in fifty years ?
Why take so much space in writing about old Music Hall? Because there was the focus of the social and intellectual and political life from the begin- ning of the city, in distinction from the village, and these references serve to give an illustration as to what that life really was.
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From 1861 to 1871 the village had enjoyed an unexampled, thereofore unknown growth. Several additions had been platted and the village stretched out south, east and north; more than two hundred buildings had been added in a few years, and the time had come to organize a city government.
CHAPTER XVIII.
City of Wausau, Continued-The Times from 1872 to 1879.
A CITY CHARTER.
was obtained in 1872 and sections 36, 25, 26, and 35, in township 29, range 7 east, were set off as a city.
The territory is four square miles in extent, exactly one mile in each direction from the northwest corner of Main and Washington streets, yet the settled portion covered only a part. The marsh still existed, one corderoy road at Jackson street crossed it, but during the summer Henriette street was opened and a road cut out, from the end of which a corderoy road was built to connect with McIntosh street, which was also made passable.
No new buildings had been added on the west side to those already men- tioned, but good residence buildings were put up on Fourth and Fifth streets as far north as Franklin, and south on Grand avenue as far as the breweries.
At the presidential election in 1872, the total number of votes cast in the city was 425.
The charter election was held on the first Tuesday in April and resulted in the election of August Kickbusch as mayor.
With its organization as a city, the great work of improvements began, which has been continued ever since, more prominent in some years than in others, but never at a standstill.
Street grading was undertaken; a new bridge across the slough was built much higher above the water than the old one, and the street to the bridge from Main street west was filled in from three to five feet in some places to reduce its steepness. About three thousand dollars was spent in that year on street improvements alone, which was a large sum at that time, but it was a paying investment.
The inauguration of Mr. Kickbusch was quite a solemn affair, and evi- denced the fact that the officers as well as the people were conscious that a change had taken place in their political status, which deserved special ob- servance.
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The outgoing village board was in session, presided over by Carl Hoeflin- ger, its president, when the mayor and new city council appeared in the meet- ing room of the engine house, which served as a village and city hall for many years. Mr. Hoeflinger then made a short address, referring to the changed condition, congratulated the people upon the advancement and the mayor and aldermen upon their election, and then the old village board vacated their chairs, and the city council took their places.
The council was called to order, the mayor delivered his inaugural, brimful of good common sense, and the new government was installed and proceeded to business. The administration of August Kickbusch was a great credit to the city, which took a decided step towards municipal progress, and gracefully and successfully passed through the metamorphose from village to city.
Two 'years afterwards he was again elected as mayor, and in 1889 was appointed by President Harrison as receiver of the United States land office at Wausau. The duties of this office were not congenial to him and he vol- untarily retired in 1891, for the following reasons, which reflected credit upon his character :
On the 20th day of December, 1890, there were made subject to home- stead entry about 200,000 acres of land, situated in Lincoln, Vilas and Oneida counties, which had theretofore been withdrawn for entry and settlement, and much of it was valuable pine land. These facts, and that the lands became subject to homestead entry on that day, had been very widely advertised and described as worth thousands of dollars each 80-acre tract, and conse- quently thousands of people came to Wausau from all parts of the United States to take up these lands under the homestead act. On the afternoon of the 18th day of December some ten to twelve men were seen running to the window in the courthouse, where according to advertisement publicly made by the register and receiver of the United States land office, the applications for homestead entry would be received on December 20, 1890, from 9 o'clock A. M .; and in less than an hour hundreds of applicants were standing in a line from that window to the street east, and across the sidewalk, with many hundreds of others on the courthouse square, coming too late. It took three and part of the fourth day to dispose of these applicants one after another, who were waiting out there in the cold all during these days, standing up or squatting on the snow and freezing, while hundreds of others hastened to the lands to take possession of them by settlement, as the legal phrase is, immediately after midnight of December 19, 1890, and thousands of others left the city, disgusted by being fooled to come hundreds and some over one thousand miles for a homestead, at great expense and with no certainty of being able to get one.
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The men who went to the land after midnight of December 19, 1890, claimed a preference right over the men who filed their application and paid for their entry at the land office, and contested the rights of the filers (the men who filed for their land at the land office) to the lands. Mr. Kickbusch was not a lawyer and not familiar with land office practice, but he had a strongly developed sense of what was right and what was wrong. There was a difference of opinion even among lawyers as to who should have the preference right, the men who filed or the men who settled after midnight.
These conflicting claims had to be settled first of the local land office by suits, called contests. When hundreds of contests were brought by the set- tlers who had no papers from the land office, against the filers, who had the papers, and August Kickbusch was given to understand by the register of the land office, who had been in office for sixteen years and who was familiar with the United States land laws, that all things being equal, the settler had the best right to the land and the filer would lose it, Mr. Kickbusch said: "No, that is not right. I have taken from these filers their money and they have stood there in line for days and frozen, and now I should decide against them ? That I will not do, even if it is the law; rather than do that I will resign," and he did resign before the first contest was brought on for a hearing. He followed the dictates of his conscience, preferring to resign the high office than do that which he deemed a wrong.
His name has often been mentioned as one of the pioneer businessmen in former chapters; many years his general store was the largest commercial house in Wausau, and he also dealt in lumber. He was a keen judge of human nature, but warm-hearted and accommodating. Always ready to help his countrymen, not only with his counsel, but with giving credit when others refused, he was deservedly popular with all classes of people. For years he was one of the most powerful political factors in Marathon county, first as a Democrat, then as a member of the Greenback party ; later still, as a Repub- lican until his death, in May, 1904, which caused widespread mourning. He was the founder of the Aug. Kickbusch Wholesale Grocery Company, and one of the directors of the First National Bank of Wausau from its organi- zation until his death, and also a director in the Ruder Brewery Company.
In 1873 Jacob Paff was elected mayor, under whose administration another important problem concerning the future development of the city came up for solution. The annual agricultural products of Marathon county were then far from supplying the home demand, and as the farming industry at that time practically ended on the north line of township 30 the deficiency had to be hauled up from the nearest railroad station, which was still Stevens
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Point, while the export of lumber depended on the caprices of the Wisconsin river.
The first railroad was secured in this year, though not finished until 1874, and the mayor of Wausau, Jacob Paff, was an important personage in induc- ing the Wisconsin Valley Railroad to enter Wausau.
In this year was also made the contract for the first large schoolhouse, the first brick building in Wausau, heated by hot air, the Humbolt Schoolhouse, slightly enlarged since that time. The contract price was $18,000, and L. S. Hayne, a stranger, was the contractor, but when it was completed it came to $24,000. To pay for this building, Wausau bonded itself for the first time, issuing $10,000 in bonds and paying 10 per cent interest thereon.
The high rate of interest paid on these bonds issued by a city who had 110 other indebtedness at all at that time, shows another instance of the prevailing scarcity of money at that time.
Buildings nevertheless increased; over one hundred houses were erected that year.
Jacob Paff was one of the earliest German settlers in Wausau; he came about 1851, and for seven years worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, having a shop on Jackson street, later built a store on Jackson and Third streets, where he carried on a general merchandise business and also engaged in lumbering. He demonstrated his belief in the permanency of Wausau by erected its first solid brick building, where his first store building stood, and following it up with the building of more brick stores on Third street, which made it the principal business street in the city. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank and its vice-president from the time of its organiza- tion until his death, on the 6th day of May, 1895, often acting as president.
Much of the prosperity of this bank was due to the confidence which the people of all classes of society had in his business capacity and personal integ- rity, for he at all times enjoyed the respect and esteem of the business world and the people generally.
He was county clerk of Marathon county, and for more than a decade one of the principal merchants and lumbermen of Wausau.
In 1874 August Kickbusch was again called upon to preside over the des- tinies of Wausau. The Wisconsin Valley Railroad was expected to reach Wausau, and he having taken a prominent part in the conferences which cul- minated in the contract for the building of that road, it was thought proper that he should be the official head to welcome the iron horse. The day of the arrival of the first train was duly celebrated, as has already been related.
In this year were finished the fine residences of N. T. Kelly, Mrs. M. B. 17
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Scholfield, William Callon and many others. The Marathon County Bank erected its first solid brick building, (since torn down and replaced with its present structure) and James McCrossen built his big store on corner of Scott and Third streets.
Lincoln county, with one hundred townships, was set off from Marathon county in the legislative session of 1874.
The total vote in the fall election for the highest office voted for in that year, member of congress, in the city of Wausau, was 592.
The election of 1875 brought Mr. Carl Hoeflinger to the head of city officers. Wausau's growth had been comparatively rapid during the two previous years; streets had been laid out and graded, the new school house completed and was used, but it was soon discovered that instead of answering the needs of many years yet to come, it was just comfortably answering pres- ent needs and no more.
The railroad had brought many people, among whom were those that always follow railroad building and extensions; people whose acquisitions is of doubtful value to any place, and sometimes even a positive damage. The booms had been extended, lumber output largely increased, and Wausau be- came the center of the lumber industry on the Wisconsin river, which it has maintained to this day.
Merrill was then, and remained without a railroad until 1881. It had no large boom to hold logs ; the Scott & Andrews mill the only mill there, boomed most of their logs in Prairie river. Only a few boarding houses were in Merrill, and the many hundreds of men who worked in the large number of camps in Lincoln county and all camps above Wausau, all came down here to be paid off, many remained here to go on the log drives after the river opened and returned again after the driving, or with the drive to Wausau. Wausau was their headquarters, as they called it, filling every hotel and board- ing house to overflowing during the spring and early summer months, and had their earnings to spend. There were places willing to lighten them of their burden, even watching out for them, having runners to show them the sights, runners to show them to places where Dame Fortune might smile upon them, and incidentally relieve them of their hard-earned winter wages.
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