USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 38
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
electric current for lighting the city of Wausau, the villages of Scholfield, the village of Rothschield, and furnishes electrical power to the majority of fac- tories in the city.
Later the company purchased the D. L. Plumer saw mill property ( for- merly B. G. Plumer's mill) with all water power rights, and later still the water power rights of the Alexander Stewart Lumber Company, and the real estate of the same west of Main street, not including the saw mill proper, so that it now owns the whole water power of the Wisconsin river at Wausau except the McEachron power.
The developed power is 2,700 hp. hydraulic power, and 1,000 hp. in steam. About one-half of the normal flow of the river at Wausau is developed. The company also owns the water power above the Trappe Rapids, considered to be of the same size as the power at Wausau when developed. The following factories use electric power furnished by the Street Railroad Company, to wit : Wausau Sandpaper Company, Wausau Novelty Company, Underwood Veneer Company, Wausau Iron Works, Northern Milling Company, H. E. McEachron Company, Marathon County Granite Company, Mathie Brewing Company, Ruder Brewing Company, Heinemann Lumber Company, United States Forest Laboratory, Marathon Paper Mill Company. The company has $400,000 capital stock fully paid up, and $350,000 in bonds. The offices are located at 209 Third street, and the officers are: Neal Brown, president ; C. C. Yawkey, vice-president ; V. A. Alderson, secretary ; M. C. Ewing, treas- urer and manager.
WAUSAU TELEPHONE COMPANY.
The Wisconsin Telephone Company had been granted a franchise to set up and operate a telephone system in the city of Wausau, and about the year 1887 had its system in fairly good operation. For some time it was patron- ized only for business purposes, with not many residence 'phones, because the price, $4.00 per month for business and $3.00 for private 'phones, was rather a high price for the average person and business man to pay.
So long as the workings of the telephone and costs of maintenance were not fully understood it was paid without murmur ; but after some years some of the business and professional men had given the matter some thought, and they came to the conclusion that a service could be had for much less money and still be profitable. After an agitation and consulting among themselves, mainly by the directors of the present Wausau Telephone Company, they concluded to embark in the business, induce many others to go with them in a sort of cooperative society, until there were enough of them, agreeing to
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become a patron when installed, so that a new corporation was organized and incorporated in 1895; they obtained a charter from the city of Wausau and went to work to install the system, in which they had to overcome the enmity of the Wisconsin Telephone Company, which opposed the new company with every means in their power, but to no purpose. The new company, or corpora- tion, had the backing of the city council and the people generally, and suc- ceeded in having their system installed in a comparatively short time. It fixed the rates for business telephones at $1.50 per month for business and 75 cents for residence telephones, and soon had the satisfaction of having the Wisconsin Telephone Company withdraw from the city business proper, keep- ing up only its long-distance 'phones. After four years of existence, the Wausau company raised its rates to $3.00 for business and $1.50 to residence service. At about the same time it improved the service by installing the automatic service by means of which a person calls up the very person he wished to communicate with, provided he or she has a 'phone, without calling upon the central office for connection. In this telephone system there is a wire to every telephone, not four combined, as in the case in all large systems.
The corporation started out with a capital of $10,000, which has been increased to $80,000. It has a fireproof building for offices and exchange connections with the villages of Scholfield and Rothschield, at Wausau city rates, and connects with the long distance lines of the following companies : The Wisconsin Telephone Company, The Marathon County Telephone Com- pany, The Farmers Eastern Company, and the Eldron Telephone Company. Its underground conduit system extends from the river to Fifth street, and on Fifth, Division and Grand avenue from near Fulton street on the north to Plumer street on the south.
This underground system extends over 5,886 feet and contains 29,494 duct. feet of conduit, also 22 manholes. In this underground system there are 11,538 feet (of 400 parties wire each) of cable. In addition there is 75,110 feet of aereal cable. In this cable there is a total of 3,276 miles of copper wire. The company has 72 miles of pole lines and 436 miles of line wire connecting its telephones with its cable system. There are 2,400 pairs or 4,800 single wires entering its central office, each wire insulated from all others and arranged and numbered and soldered to its own particular ter- minal. Its property is valued at $186,826.69.
The officers of this corporation, with only one exception, have not been changed since its organization, and are: President, N. Heinemann: E. B. Thayer, vice-president ; W. W. Albers, treasurer; James Montgomery, sec- retary ; G. D. Jones, counsel.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Commercial Il'ausau-Mercantile Enterprises.
Commercial Wausau includes the wholesale grocery stores, one wholesale liquor store, department stores and more than a hundred retail dealers, carry- ing stock from as high as sixty thousand dollars to three thousand dollars. The largest stocks of merchandise are carried in stores located on Third, Scott and Washington streets, but there are large stores carrying family groceries and goods in all parts of the city. On the west side of the river, Clinton, Stewart avenue and Third avenue are the principal business streets, with large stores and a fine assortment of merchandise. Silks and velvets, furs, dry goods, ladies' tailor-made cloaks and all sorts of novelties for ladies' wear are carried in stock by the larger business houses, and with accommodat- ing clerks willingly showing goods, makes shopping in Wausau stores a pleasure and invites visitors from neighboring counties to make trips to the city to replenish wardrobes and household goods.
The central location of the city, with its two railroads and aided by the street cars, makes this place a trading point for over fifty thousand people. The most fastidious taste can be satisfied and purchases in a well supplied store with the goods before the buyer from which he can select, bring more con- tentment than any ordering by sample or catalogue can bring.
The building trade furnishes everything needful for building of every kind, from the small frame dwelling to the largest fireproof or concrete build- ing for warehouse or office use.
That with two wholesale grocery houses not only all staple groceries can be had, but also the best of delicacies, is apparent. California and southern fruits are coming regularly and are distributed by a wholesale fruit house, by which the fruit is always fresh and waste is prevented. Jewelry stores carry a stock of luxurious tableware of sterling silver and genuine articles of adornment of artistic workmanship set with precious stones.
The value of merchandise of all kinds carried in stocks of goods, as esti- mated from the assessment rolls, which rather under than over estimate the value, easily foots up to half a million dollars and more.
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
The merchants of Wausau are as progressive as the city in which they live; they are in fact a part of its motive power. They own, as a rule, the buildings wherein their stocks are kept.
In the following pages under this head is given the list of men and firms engaged in commercial pursuits in 1912-13, and the particular branch they are engaged in, but this list includes only such whose stock is assessed at $2,000 and more. Some of the retail stocks carried in Wausau by merchants are easily worth $60,000 at a conservative estimate. From a perusal of these pages the reader can form a fairly accurate estimate of the large amount of business done in this city at the present time.
THE A. KICKBUSCH GROCERY COMPANY
is the older of the two wholesale houses. It was incorporated in March, 1899, but had been conducted as a partnership for ten years prior thereto, under the firm name of August Kickbusch & Son. Its store is located at the foot of Washington street and has a sidetrack on Shingle street, along its ware- houses and store, enabling it to load and unload directly to and from the cars into the warehouses. Its trade extends to all parts north, west and east of Marathon county, partially into Michigan and southern Wisconsin.
The founder, August Kickbusch, has been frequently mentioned as one of the pioneers of Marathon county. He died at Wausau in the spring of 1901. The business is conducted by his son, Robert Kickbusch, who was already the manager under the copartnership, the head of the firm having put his son in charge thereof, reserving to himself only the right to be con- sulted in matters of heavy business importance, and the success of the business fully justified his confidence. The incorporated capital is $50,000; the officers are: Robert Kickbusch, president; Mrs. Lena Kickbusch, vice-president ; August Kickbusch, treasurer, and Nina Kickbusch, secretary.
THE WILSON MERCANTILE COMPANY,
wholesale grocers, was organized in January, 1909, and in the short time of its existence not only acquired an enviable reputation, but a large trade, rapidly growing.
It is located at the east end of Jefferson street, with their sidetrack on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, in its own building, 80 x 110, four stories, equipped with electric elevator, automatic sprinkler and cold storage. It has on its pay-roll an average of twenty employees, and its busi-
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
ness extends from the peninsula north of the state line to as far south as Tomah, and about the same distance east to west from Wausau. It is capital- ized for $75,000, all paid up. Every one of its officers is a well and favorably known Wausau man namely: B. F. Wilson, president; F. W. Genrich, vice- president ; Oscar Weik, secretary; J. W. Laut, treasurer and manager. The company does not manufacture any of its goods, but are jobbers only.
CHARLES A. BARWIG
keeps a wholesale wine and liquor store on corner of Second and Washing- ton streets. It is the only wholesale house in the central and northern part of the state, and consequently has a large territory to supply the retail trade.
Charles A. Barwig embarked in the business in Wausau in 1902, coming from Mayville, Wisconsin, where his father was one of the first pioneers in Dodge county. Charles A. Barwig was one of the founders of the Citizen's State Bank, and is interested also in other business pursuits.
DEPARTMENT STORES-NATHAN HEINEMANN.
The store of Nathan Heinemann is now the oldest established mercantile house of that kind. This great establishment is the growth of years of close attention to business, coupled with a keen judgment of the wants and desires of the population in fashionable goods of all kinds, furs, silks, carpets, house- hold linen and all goods needed and desirable in the cottage as well as in the mansion. It carries an immense stock, intended and selected to supply family and camp, workman's cloth and furnishings and ladies' tailor made creations and everything for man and woman. The brothers, N. and B. Heine- mann, opened a small clothing store at Wausau in 1873, and in a few years were among the leading merchants in Wausau, dealing in general merchan- dise, sewing machines, musical instruments and provisions. After twenty-one years of a successful business career, B. Heinemann desired to withdraw from mercantile life in order to engage in industrial pursuits and real estate. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 1905, and then N. Heinemann started anew and has since carried on the business alone in the same line, occu- pying the immense large McCrossen store on corner of Third and Scott streets.
THE LEADER
is another of the popular department stores, conducted over twenty years by John L. Komers on Scott street. Besides a large stock of dry goods, points
CLOTHING.
THE N. AND B. HEINEMANN STORE ON THIRD STREET, WAUSAU, IN 1875
THIRD STREET, WAUSAU, IN 1867
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
and laces, it carries a large stock of fancy groceries, and porcelain, and all sorts of children's goods, school supplies and playthings for boys and girls.
CHARLES C. WEGNER
calls himself a dealer in general merchandise, but his stock of goods is as large as any in the city and his trade is not confined alone to this city or county, but he has an immense supply trade for the lumber camps. The busi- ness was founded by F. W. Kickbusch, who a short time before his appoint- ment of consul to Stettin in 1893 sold his thriving business to the present owner, his son-in-law. The store is situated on corner of Main and Scott streets.
THE WINKELMAN DEPARTMENT STORE
is the successor to Livingston Brothers, who sold out to Samuel Winkelman in 1911. The building was erected expressly by Livingston Brothers for their mammoth department store in 1902-03, and is the finest finished store building in Wausau. Livingstone Brothers retired to rest from business cares and the whole stock having been purchased by S. Winkelman, he conducts it along the same lines with similar success. The store is situated on northwest corner of Third and Washington streets.
DRY GOODS STORES
making a specialty of dry goods, not carrying other goods to any extent, but having a very large selected stock of goods to choose from, are kept by
NEULING & BEYER.
This concern, situated on the southwest corner of Third and Mcclellan streets, is a long-established business house. Mr. Neuling being brought up to the business, has been engaged in it from early youth, and is thoroughly familiar with all the products of the loom. A residence in this city of over thirty years gave him an intimate knowledge of the taste and demands of the people in that line of merchandise.
F. L. HUDSON,
on Third street, in the Mercer Building, carries the same kind of goods, he being engaged for over twelve years in the same business, his stock running largely to the higher-priced dress goods, such as silks and velvets.
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
BENTZ BROTHERS
are located on the northeast corner of Third and Jackson streets, where in addition to a stock of dry goods they have added ladies' and children's cloth- ing and hosiery.
FIRMS IN GENERAL MERCHANDISE.
Conrad Bopf & Son, 701 Washington street.
L. J. Bopf, 517 Scott street.
Cash Trading Company, 304 First avenue South.
Max Cohen, 216-218 Third street.
Daniel Curtis & Son, 312 Scott street.
August Dietl, 531 Jefferson street.
Nich Graebel, 101 Third avenue North.
Frank Hannemann, 320 Third avenue South.
E. A. Hochtritt, 202-204 Second avenue North.
M. J. Klimek, 1202 Sixth street.
Bertha Knorr, 110 Clarke street.
Bernard F. Koshmann, 1421 Third street.
Krause & Schaefer, 741 Third avenue South.
A. J. Krueger, 710 Third.
Lenz & Boernke, 203 Washington street.
Bertha Marquardt, 532 Third avenue South.
Otto Muenchow, 103 Grand avenue. G. A. Osswald, 310 First avenue South.
Henry Osswald, 401 Washington street.
Henry Pagenkops, 1701 Sixth.
Otto Bagenkopf, 606 Washington.
Mathilda Peschmann, 1910 Sixth.
George Rick, 608 Third.
Sam Rutzky, 2110 Sixth. William Schoeneberg, IIII Sixth.
Anton Schuetz & Sons, 316 Jackson. Leo Schuetz, 102-104 Grand avenue. Jacob Graebel, 113 Callon.
Wausau Farmers' Produce Company, corner Third and Forest streets.
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
CLOTHING STORES.
M. Aaron (ladies' furnishings), 303 Third street. Baer Hyman, 219 Third street.
Continental Clothing Company, 316 Third street.
Harry Heinemann, 501-507 Third. Hub Mercantile Company, 307-309 Third. Palace Clothing Company, First avenue South.
Seim Brothers, 410 Third.
Wausau Clothing Company, 315 Third.
WVeinkauf Brothers Company, 202 Third.
William Weinkauf, 308 Scott.
JEWELERS.
Dunbar & Co., 313 Third. C. H. Ingraham, 601 Third.
Fred Manecke, 312 Washington.
Otto Mueller, 220 Third.
George Wilke, 314 Scott. H. S. Wright, 512 Third.
DRUG STORES.
W. W. Albers, 301 Third. Oscar Bremer, 312 First avenue South.
Pardee Drug Company, 510 Third.
George Pradel, 112 Clarke.
Fred Schmidt, 511 Forest. Bert Schwanberg, 412 Third.
Wausau Drug Company, 309 Jackson.
Fred Wiechmann, 310 Scott and 1703 Sixth.
FURNITURE DEALERS.
The furniture trade is carried on by four firms, each being the owner of the building in which the business is carried on, and each has a very large stock to select from, to wit:
Charles Helke, 311-313 Fourth.
Kiefer Furniture Company, 618-620 Third.
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
E. J. Radant, 202 to 204 Scott. Ritter & Deutsch, 113-115 Third.
HARDWARE.
The pioneer hardware man in Wausau is Richard Baumann, who came to Wausau in 1864 and opened a tinsmith shop and hardware store; he has been in the same business in the same place during the whole of this time, industrious and diligent, but his work has not been in vain. His stock is the largest by far, but he, like others who have behind them a long life of labor and business cares, has incorporated his business under the name of R. Baumann Hardware Company, unloading part of the business care upon his son-in-law, Henry J. Seim. The incorporated capital of this concern is $25,000. Its officers are Richard Baumann, president and treasurer; Mrs. Anna Dobrinz, vice-president; Henry J. Seim, secretary and manager. It is located at 210-212 Third street.
Other firms are :
Hohmann & Kuntz, 116 Scott.
Frank Kurth, 207 Washington.
Mader Hardware Company.
Nickel Hardware & Supply Company, Clarke's Island.
Herman C. Oelke, 121 Third avenue North.
Roemer & Thalheim Company, 101 Clarke. William Sell Hardware Company, 320-322 Third. Herman Schmidt, 1406 Sixth.
Louis Wiechmann, III Washington.
William Sell, 514 Third.
BOOTS AND SHOES.
Besdek & Friedel, 314 Jackson.
Charles Holzmann, 1706 Sixth. Kuhlman & Braasch, 318 Third avenue South.
C. B. Mayer, 311 Third.
Mueller & Quandt, 215 Third. B. Silberstein, 208 Jefferson.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND PIANOS.
B. F. Laabs, 314 Scott.
Smith Piano Company (J. Paff), 204 Third.
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
GLASS, PAINT AND WALL PAPER.
O. C. Callies, 313-315 Jackson.
C. G. Pier, 110 Scott.
CONFECTIONERS.
J. Delsipee, 704 Third. John Stark, 604 Third.
John Young, 518 Third.
BOOKS AND STATIONERY.
R. W. Collie, 508 Third.
J. L. Rohde, 521 Third.
WHOLESALE FRUIT DEALERS.
Glass Fruit Company, I Scott street. L. Hyman, 6 Washington street.
ICE AND FUEL COMPANIES.
Healy-Brown Company, 207 McClellan.
Wausau Ice & Fuel Co., 6 Scott street.
KIEFER PRODUCE COMPANY
has a creamery in the city of Wausau, on the corner of Sixth and Hamilton streets, where it makes the butter, ice cream and other cream products; and has a large cold storage warehouse on the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, from where it ships the farm products of Marathon county to eastern markets, which are coming more and more in demand. Its capital stock is $60,000. The officers of the corporation are: John Kiefer, president; R. N. Larner, vice-president, and John Kiefer, Jr., secretary and treasurer.
PLACES OF AMUSEMENTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS.
The Opera House takes first rank in that respect. It was finished at the close of 1899 at an expense of $25,000. The stage is very large, giving room for grand stage setting and effect, being 70 feet wide by 40 feet deep. It has a scenery to answer any of the demands which can be made upon a mod-
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
ern playhouse. It seats 1,200 comfortably on the parquet and balcony. It has room for a fairly large orchestra, where C. S. Cohn swings the baton or plays first violin as occasion may demand. It is owned by H. Peters, with C. S. Cohn as manager.
THE BIJOU
is the largest of the smaller show houses, given over to motion pictures and vaudeville.
Two other show houses, the Electric and Majestic, cater to the same sort of amusement.
PUBLIC HALLS.
Three large, finely finished halls are for public meetings and dances, namely: The Elks, the hall of the Knights of Pythias, and Kroening's Hall.
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CHAPTER XXV.
Wausau and Marathon County Press-Daily Record-Herald-Central Wis- consin-Wisconsin River Pilot-IT'ochtenblatt-Pioneer-The Sun- Philosopher Press-List of Papers Published in Marathon County.
WAUSAU DAILY RECORD-HERALD
is the only daily newspaper in Wausau, and in furnishing news, including foreign news and telegraph service, it is as good as any published outside the metropolis of the state. It was started on its journalistic course in 1895, by Edw. T. Wheelock. Wheelock was an old newspaper man who came to Wausau in the year 1895 with the intention of issuing a daily newspaper. He first purchased the Torch of Liberty, edited and owned by M. H. Barnum, a Republican weekly newspaper, and almost immediately converted the weekly into a daily, changing the name to the name of Wausau Daily-Record, under which name it was published until its consolidation with the Daily Herald, issued by R. E. Powers, an independent paper with Democratic leanings, December 1, 1907.
The Herald started out as a weekly Democratic paper about the year 1888, and was converted into a daily in 1906. The Herald strived hard to con- tinue, but the field for two dailies was rather narrow, both in subscriptions and advertisements, which must furnish means to keep up publication, and in the year 1907 the Herald sold its plant to the Daily Record, and since that consolidation the name was changed to Wausau Daily Record-Herald.
The present daily was from its beginning, and always has been, a strictly Republican newspaper, and while recognizing the changed condition in all things industrial and commercial in the last fifty years, and politically as well, and therefore the need of legislation with due regard to those changed conditions, it is emphatic that such changes should be made with due consider- ation and for some practical purpose and that proper remedies be applied to the evils springing from the changes wrought by inventions, the growth of the population and society at large. It is therefore not in sympathy with many of the so-called progressive measures, which it holds to be really reac-
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HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY
tionary in fact, although advocated by men who style themselves progressive. It reserves the right to examine for itself the measures proposed and judge from the effect they will have upon society at large, whether they are progres- sive in fact, or only the makeshift of politicians who simply play for fleeting popular favor.
In tone, the Record-Herald is, like all other Wausau papers, decorous and respectable and without that sordid sensationalism which so often dis- graces American journalism.
It is incorporated under the laws of the state with a capital of $30,000. Its officers are : J. L. Sturtevant, president ; M. B. Rosenberry, vice-presi- rent ; B. F. Wilson, secretary-treasurer ..
The editorial staff of the Record-Herald consists of J. L. Sturtevant, manager and editor in chief ; W. B. Pedigo, political editor ; E. D. Underwood, city editor ; Geneva Graves, society reporter ; J. B. Kelly, reporter.
CENTRAL WISCONSIN.
The first newspaper in Wausau and, of course, in the county, was the Central Wisconsin, which was started to fill the demand of the pioneers for some means to attract the attention of other people to their settlement. At a meeting duly held, W. D. McIndoe, the most prominent one of them, was requested to induce a newspaper man to locate at Wausau and issue a weekly. This gentleman soon thereafter met J. W. Chubbuck, who was then on the staff of the Milwaukee Sentinel, getting him interested in the venture, and got his conditions, which were an advance of $300 and a good, liberal sub- scription list. Mr. McIndoe reported, and the conditions were quickly complied with. The money was raised and a list of between three and four hundred subscribers was guaranteed, and Mr. J. W. Chubbuck, with one John Foster, came to Wausau and on the 22d of April. 1857, issued the first newspaper printed in Marathon county. It was to be an independent paper and remained so for some years. In 1860 Carl Hoeflinger and Francis A. Hoffmann got con- trol of it, and made it a Democratic sheet. In 1861 J. W. Chubbuck and Clarence Jenkins started and run the Marathon County Record as a Repub- lican paper for about three years, and the Central suspended publication in 1861 to 1862, and was merged in the Marathon County Record, but the com- bination was published again under the name of the Central. It was then published by Mr. Stafford, sold by him a little later to J. C. Clarke, repur- chased again by Stafford, who published it until 1868, when he sold it to R. H. and C. W. Johnson, since which time it remained a consistent Repub-
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