USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 44
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"When we bid you good bye and Godspeed on that beautiful April morning, and you went forth in response to your country's call, you were full of hope, courage and confidence that you would be able to withstand the dangers and hardships incident to army life, and your only watchword that pleasant morning was 'Remember the Maine,' and as we looked upon you that morning we could not help but feel that if every county in this broad land sent out a company so full of vigor, so full of courage and so full of patriotism as the one from Marathon county, this war would be one of short duration and although you did not see much of actual conflict, you are no less entitled to credit, for you stood ready to lay down your lives if need be, for your country and for the sake of humanity.
"While we but faintly realize the dangers and hardships which yon were undergoing, your friends here in Wausau were not wholly unmindful of you. We ministered to your wants as best we could, only regretting that owing to army regulations and the great distance between us we were unable to do more. In this connection allow me, in behalf of the committee. to thank the generous people of the city of Wausan for so promptly and generously responding to every call of the committee.
"War is a thing not to be coveted and not always to be averted, and when the clouds of war have passed away, we naturaily look to see what good, if any, has been accomplished
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by this terrible suffering and loss of life, and I wish to call your attention to some of the many things which it seems to me, have been accomplished.
"You have forced the people of this nation to recognize the wisdom of that old saying : 'In time of peace prepare for war.' You have succeeded in placing this nation where she properly belongs, and where she will hereafter be recognized, as one of the great and most powerful nations of the civilized world. You have helped to place the state of Wisconsin foremost among the states of this Union, and by your manly and courageous deportment you have placed Marathon county among the foremost counties in the state. You have answered the call made to you in humanity's name, and helped to strike off the shackles from twelve millions of people. You have helped to unite this country as it never has been united before. You have helped to eliminate all political, sectional and social lines, so far as love of country is concerned, so that today, there is no North, no South, no East, no West, but one grand united people, standing shoulder to shoulder ready to offer up lives and for- tunes if need be, to protect and maintain the dignity of our common country.
"And now, boys of Company G, as you are about to be mustered out of the service, and again enter upon a civilian's life, I wish to remind you that your future attainments depend very largely upon your own efforts, and if you start out on the battlefield of life with the same firm determination to succeed that has characterized each and every one of you for the past six months, I doubt not that all of you will fill a place in the social and business world that will reflect the credit, the same amount of credit upon you, which you have so justly earned in the past."
He closed under a storm of applause which was seldom if ever heard in that large hall, as it was certainly the largest gathering that was ever addressed in it by any person.
Mrs. Kickbusch then sang "Home Sweet Home" in her sweetest voice, accompanied by Mrs. Speer, and while this song is always well received, it is doubtful if its tenderness and pathos was ever more fully appreciated than on this occasion. There was some more music and then M. A. Hurley closed the list of speakers with an excellent oration fitting to the occasion, which touched the hearts of all, and he was given an enthusiastic applause, amounting to an ovation. The program closed with a tableau arranged by Mr. F. Ritter, representing Columbia blessing Uncle Sam, who had little Miss Cuba and Porto Rico in his arms; to the right and left of them were American soldiers and sailors, and as the light flashed upon them it made as pretty a scene as could be imagined.
There was an illuminated bicycle parade on Third street; the city was illuminated and ornamented, and three halls, Alexander Hall after the recep- tion, and Kroenig's Hall and Columbia Hall. were given over to dance, free to all comers.
It was the grandest jubilee ever held in Wausau, an affair never to be forgotten by its people.
Nothing in the city has ever approached the ovation given the soldiers on the march from the railroad depot to the courthouse square. Yet it was
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not all unalloyed joy. Some footsteps were tottering, faces were thin and pinched with suffering; almost all the boys returning were bearded, dark, sunbrowned and haggard from sickness, and their physical appearance, com- pared with their appearance when they left, showed that the southern climate had left its mark upon them. To some of them the march to the courthouse was a painful task, but each face with radiant smile and sparkle of eyes, tes- tified their appreciation of the cordial reception.
Company G acknowledged the good will of the people of Wausau and of. the committee of which Mayor Manson was chairman by adopting the fol- lowing resolutions :
"Whereas, Many members of our company at the commencement of the recent war with Spain, had families or parents dependent upon them for support ; and
"Whereas, the loyal citizens of Wausau promptly gave their pledge that the families of such comrades should be well cared for during their absence; and
"Whereas, this pledge has been most generously fulfilled, whereby our comrades have been freed from the fear of suffering of loved ones at home; and
"Whereas, it is our wish to express our appreciation of the patriotic kind- ness of our citizens. Now, therefore, be it
"Resolved, that the thanks of Company G, Third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, be and the same are, hereby heartily tendered to each and every person contributing to relieve the wants and cheer the spirits of our families in our absence; further, be jt
"Resolved, that our heartfelt thanks be, and hereby are especially tendered to Messrs. John N. Manson, Louis Marchetti, C. S. Curtis, John Ringle and Charles J. Winton (the committee chosen by the citizens of Wausau for that purpose), for the considerate and impartial manner in which the funds con- tributed for said cause were expended, and for their labor in the same. It is further
"Resolved, that these resolutions be engrossed in the records of our com- pany, and published in each paper in said city of Wausau, and that a pre- pared copy thereof be countersigned by the commissioned officers of our company and presented to each member of said committee."
HERMAN ABRAHAM, Captain.
FRED R. BECKER, Ist Lieutenant. R. O. KUMEROW, 2d Lieutenant. 9;
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After the adoption of these resolutions, the company, through a commit- tee consisting of Lieut. Rob Kumerow, Sergt. Charles Goerling and Corpo- rals Emil Braatz and Robert Braatz, and Senator A. L. Kreutzer acting as spokesman, surprised Louis Marchetti with a presentation of a fine gold- headed cane with the following inscription thereon :
"Presented to Louis Marchetti by Co. G. 3d Wisconsin Vol."
The company, when enlisted, was composed of the following officers and men :
Officers :
H. J. Abraham, captain ; Fred R. Becker, first lieutenant ; R. O. Kumerow, second lieutenant.
Sergeants :
Walter Mueller, first sergeant; H. J. Lemma, quartermaster sergeant ; E. J. Lucas, O. C. Abraham, Charles Goerling, O. A. Biller.
Corporals and Privates :
Paul Able; E. C. Allen; B. E. Bibby; E. H. Boernke, corporal; Emil Braatz, corporal; Robert Braatz, corporal; W .. H. Bolger; Archie Clark; George Drake; H. M. Dumbrowski; Joseph Goerling; Ernest Grahn, cor- poral; Frank Gauger; W. J. Haskins: Joseph Kuechler; Albert Niebauer ; E. C. Opdahl; A. F. Prechlin: Carl Roloff: Mich. Schoenemann; V. J. Splaine; I. L. Swett; Charles M. Sampson: Albert Sternke; P. Saindon, Jr .; W. A. Swope; P. L. Schultz; A. Soukup; W. S. Twomey; H. Zeitlow.
Recruits :
G. S. Armstrong; Henry Bucus; John R. Baker ; Frank Drake; William Johnson; Paul Lietz; William F. Melang: Ray Mccullough; Albert Peter- son; G. Raduechel; R. W. Reiser; John Stapp; Otto Treptow; W. W. Wilson, Jr.
The company had to be brought up, however, to the full strength of a company of one hundred men, which were recruited and the company was
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completed before it left the camp in Milwaukee for the camp by Chickamauga, and the following is a list of all members of the company who were mustered out after their return from Porto Rico, all from Wausau and Marathon county : Abraham, Herman J., captain; Becker, Fred R., first lieutenant ; Kumerow, Robert O., second lieutenant; Abel, Paul, private; Abraham, Otto C., sergeant ; Albee, Alex, private : Allen, Evard C., private ; Armstrong, Gerrit S., private; Baker, John P., private; Albee, Frank E., private; Baker, John W., private ; Belirend, Charles, private ; Benoit, Isidore, private; Benoit, Arthur, private; Bernhardt, Peter, private; Bernhardt, William, private; Beucus, Henry, private ; Bibby, Bert E., corporal; Biller, Olaf A., sergeant ; Block, Henry P., private; Boernke, Ernst, corporal; Bolger, William H., artificer ; Braatz, Emil F., corporal; Horton, Clark, private; Huckbody, William R., corporal; Johnson, Arthur, private; Johnson, Hans, private ; Johnson, Peter, private; Johnson, William D., private; Keister, Zora E., private: Braatz, Robert, corporal; Brechlin, Adam F., musician ; Bugs, Carl. private ; Butt, William, private; Callies, Gust., private; Christenson, Andrew, private; Drake, Frank N., private; Drake, George H., private; Dumbrosky, Henry M., private ; Fenhaus, Albert, wagoner ; Geese, Albert, private ; Gerndt, Herman W., private; Goeres, Bernhardt, private; Goerling, Charles N., ser- geant ; Grahn, Ernest, corporal; Hagen, Ray, private; Helke, John R., cor- poral; Hickey, William, private; Hildensperger, Arthur, private; Hinschich, Charles, private ; Hohmann, Otto, private; Holbrook, Robert N., private; Mootz, Otto, private; Mueller, Walter J., first sergeant; Muenchow, Gustav, private ; Neubauer, Albert, corporal; Newell, Ralph, private; Niebuhr, Edward C., private; Opdahl, Einer C., private; Kiefer, John, private; Kuechler, Joseph F., corporal; Kuratkowski, John, corporal; Laatsch, Wil- liam, corporal; LaMere, Mike E., private: Lamont, Charles, private : Lemma, Hugh J., quartermaster-sergeant ; Lietz, Paul, private; Lintel- mann, Christian H., private; Lissack, Ernest, private; Lucas, Elmer I., sergeant ; Malone, John, private: McCullock, Ray, private; Melang, Wil- liam F., private; Meyer, Fred, private; Miller, Herman O., sergeant ; Miller, William H., private; Moellendorf, Emil F., private; Swope, Walter A., private; Treptow, Otto J., private: Twomey, William S., musician ; Vauble, Lawrence, private; Vaughan, Bently, private; Peterson, Albert, private; Raduechel, Gustav, private; Reiser, Rollo W., private; Roe, Clem, private; Roloff, Carl H., private; Saindon, Antone, private; Sain- don, Philip, Jr., private; Sampson, Charles M., corporal; Schwitzke, George, private: Schoeneman, Mike, private; Schulrud, Haakon, private:
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Schultz, Paul, corporal; Soukup, Andrew, private; Splaine, Vincent J., sig- nal; Stapp, John, private; Sternke, Albert, private; Stevens, Charles R., private; Swett, Irvin L., private; Wilson, WV. Wirt, Jr., private; Young, Ira, private; Zastrow, Albert, corporal; Ziebell, Ernest, private; Ziemer, Oscar, private; Zietlow, Herman, private.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Incidents: Fires-The Flood of 1912-German Bi-Centennial Celebration, 1883-Stormy Session of County Board-Sheriff's Adventures-An Atrocious Murder.
DISASTROUS FIRES.
This city has been more than ordinarily fortunate in suffering small losses from conflagrations. Fires are perhaps of not lesser frequent occurrences than in other cities of equal size, but in most cases here the spreading of fire was prevented and the loss confined to the house or place where it originated.
Several mills and factories burned down, for instance, the Dunbar saw mill, the R. P. Manson saw mill, the F. W. Kickbusch sash and door factory, the Werheim & Haseltine sash and door factory; but this is not surprising, considering the inflammable nature of the materials in and around such mills. The factory of the Wausau Box & Lumber Co. burned down on June 18, 1907, and the sandpaper and quartz mill on June 19, 1907. But in all cases the spreading of the fire was prevented, even in the burning down of the large Forest House, a frame built hotel with 100 feet front, 60 feet deep and three stories high, and other frame buildings within ten feet from the burn- ing one and only a hand engine to combat the fire.
The most destructive fires-destructive because human life was destroyed -was first, the burning of the Gudsole building on corner of Second and Washington streets, where a school was taught in 1859-60. The front room was the school room, the back room a carpenter shop, and Gudsole and family lived upstairs. A fire broke out in the shop, in all probability through the lighting of a match by a boy and one of the Gudsole boys and one brother of Bert Gowan, sleeping upstairs in bed, were choked to death by the smoke, no one else being in the house at the time to save them, and when they were dragged out of the building, not yet touched by the flames, they were beyond recovery, asphyxiated by the smoke, and both, from six to nine years of age, died within an hour after rescue.
Another terrible fire, because of its awful consequences, occurred on the
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26th day of November, 1886. A man in the prime of life, Carl Honigle by name, lived in a small one and a half story house on Williams Flat, with his wife and five children, the oldest ten years, the youngest a baby. He was a sober and industrious man, attending to the warehouse and delivering goods for J. C. Gebhard, keeper of a general store on Third street. There were two doors into the house, one opened in the kitchen and the other in a sitting room. This last mentioned door had an outside door, a storm door so called, which was fastened from the outside, so that all ingress and egress during the winter months was through the kitchen door. A fire broke out in the night time in the kitchen part, how, was never satisfactorily discovered. During the night, Honigle was woke up by the smoke which had nearly choked him. Discovering the danger, he threw his wife out of the window to save her, then going for the baby, brought her to the window, where he sank down with it, overcome by smoke, and he and all the children perished. The fire company turned out promptly after alarm was given, the chief. J. C. Gebhard, tried to enter the house through the broken window and reached down to get out of the thick smoke coming out, and as he did so, he felt the body of the baby which he pulled out, but it only made a few more gasps before death ended its suffering. It was 3 o'clock A. M. when the fire com- pany arrived, and soon thereafter Honigle's body was taken out, still gasping, and he breathed his last at II o'clock. His body was not burned, but the water thrown in the house through the flames, got heated and falling down scalded the body. In one night the wife and mother was deprived of husband and her five children and left penniless, besides, after this night of terror.
The fire in Plumer's and Stewart's yards on May 24, 1886, has been mentioned in a former chapter and how it occurred. It was the most destruct- ive conflagration that ever happened in Wausau. It jumped from the Plumer lumber yard into the Stewart Lumber Company yard, consuming every pile in both yards cleaning both yards clean of lumber and rubbish. The depot building of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Lake Shore Railroad (now Chicago & Northwestern), standing just south by west of the Tremont House in B. Williams Flat, could only be saved by the utmost exertion of the railroad crew and the fire kept out of the flat.
Another disastrous fire occurred January 16, 1892. The Opera House, now the Leader store, and Alexander Hall, had been opened in 1883-84, it had nearly as large a seating capacity as the present opera house, but was much more elegantly finished inside, and with excellent stage setting; there was really no more elegant theater building in the city of Milwaukee. There . was enough of inflammable material inside to prevent saving the building
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proper, but because of the failure of the engineer or engineers in charge of the pumping station to pump water from the river after the well was exhausted, the fire spread to the whole of the Opera House block and clear to the L. S. Colin building, where Wright's jewelry store now is, and con- sumed everything inflammable, leaving only the bare brick walls standing. The Cohn building itself was saved only by the utmost exertion of the owner, L. S. Cohn.
Columbia Hall was partially consumed by fire on March 29, 1908. It was the largest hall in Wausau for assembly purposes or social gatherings, but at the time of the fire was used as a store room by the Ruder Brewing Company and one family lived in the front rooms on the second floor. The whole of the inside was burned, only the bare brick walls remaining. It was rebuilt and is used as a bottling establishment of the George Ruder Brewing Company.
THE FLOOD OF 1912.
The floods of 1866, 1880, and 1881 have been referred to, but the highest stage which the Wisconsin river at Wausau ever reached, was on July 24, 1912, and because of its destructiveness and the quickness with which it came down, deserves more than passing notice, the river rising one and a half feet higher than in the historic flood of 1881.
All during the 23d of July a steady rain fell at Wausau, at times during the afternoon, to speak figuratively, it fell in sheets. At about 6 o'clock P. M. the sky suddenly darkened and looked very threatening on the south- east, but it partly cleared off, the clouds taking a sweep to the north. But in an hour afterwards the sky was dark again, lights had to be lit, and rain began to fall incessantly until about 3 o'clock in the morning. Four and one-half inches of rain fell in Wausau in twenty-four hours. No flood, how- ever, was anticipated during the night, even if the heavy rain extended far northwards, as it would take hours for the flood to reach Wausau, and the river being low, a considerable rise might occur without doing any damage.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, the river at Wausau was at low normal stage, very little water running over the main dam. Unknown, however, to the people here, the heaviest rain on record fell during all of the 23d of July and the night following, north and east lof Wausau in Marathon county, and over portions of Lincoln, Langlade, and Oneida county, not extending west of the Wisconsin river excepting in Marathon county, where the territory in range 7, towns 29 and 30, were also affected by the heavy rain. Above Wausau the rain came down in torrents; in Merrill there fell 15 inches of rain
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in 28 hours, of which 111/2 fell in 24 hours. Telegraph, telephone, and rail- road service between Wausau and Merrill was out of commission on the night of the 23d, and no one in the city learned of the coming of the highest flood until the waters reached Brokaw. It is a noteworthy fact that these cloud- bursts were confined almost entirely to territory east of the Wisconsin, affect- ing mainly Prairie, Pine, Trappe, and the Eau Claire rivers, and all the creeks and water courses on this side, and not quite as far north as Toma- hawk, and Devil and Silver creeks on the west side, but not raising the Rib river to any great extent. At Tomahawk there was not much more than just a noticeable rise.
Mr. Walter Alexander reached Merrill from the north by auto during the evening of the 23d and was unable to proceed further. He made every effort to communicate with Wausau to give warning, without avail. All wagon road bridges were either gone or unsafe in northern Marathon and southern Lincoln counties, and there were no means of communication open whatsoever. Every ravine was a raging torrent, every creek a river and every level meadow a lake, for forty miles east and north of Wausau.
People went to bed in Wausau in total ignorance of what happened in the north and what was to happen here within a few hours. Even the men who had charge of the various plants operated by water, and who usually anticipate every change in the river, went to bed without a suspicion of more than the ordinary rise, which would be due about during the following day, but not during the same night. No one expected such an immense volume of water to come from such a short distance, nor had any one an idea of the immense volume of water that fell in so short a time.
The first news of the flood reached Wausau from Brokaw about mid- night. The flood reached that dam a little after ten o'clock at night and came on so sudden that the men in charge of the gates were only able to raise some of them. By midnight the river had risen sixteen feet at the Trappe Rapids at the head of the Brokaw dam. A section of the dam gave way while the men were at work at the hoists and the gates had to be aban- doned.
As the river had broken a part of the dam, the volume of the flood increased by the water in the large pond came booming down, and within less than an hour millions of feet of logs, timber, boom sticks, and flood trash came rushing down, running into bridges, piers, and booms of the upper Wausau pond, tearing out the piles from the boom piers, and the river at Wausau began to raise at the rate of several feet an hour. A little after midnight, C. S. Curtis was telephoned by his night watchman asking. for
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instruction, informing him that the river was threatening to overflow the stone wall on the bank and flood the basement, and he, while not believing the danger great, nevertheless tried to get to the plant. Between one and two he got to the high bridge, and by that time the power station of the electric work was overflowed and the lights were out, while at the high bridge logs coming down struck one of the posts holding up the bridge, which made it settle over a foot, and it was too dangerous to attempt to cross. Mr. Curtis tried to get across on the slough bridge, but there the water was already rushing down Shingle and across Washington streets, and he did not dare cross in the darkness. Mr. W. L. Edmonds received the news of the breaking of the Brokaw dam, and at once communicated with the manager of the street railway, who immediately set to work on the east end of the guard lock to raise a dam from the guard lock over the railroad track to pre- vent the water from overflowing the track and undermining the lock. When he arrived there with the crew the water had already begun to run over the track, and they had hardly put a few timbers in place when the water rose so quick that he and his men were driven from their work. The water rushed faster and faster over the track, washing it out, and undermining it by washing away the filling. At the guard lock the water was at its highest at two o'clock A. M., because of the log jam which had run against the guard lock. It reached its greatest height in the main river at about eight o'clock in the forenoon. It had risen 1472 feet at two o'clock A. M. at the guard lock. It cut out the railroad track on the east bank, part of the guard lock, and undermined the abutment of the high bridge which came tumbling down in the forenoon, carrying with it the first span of the bridge. Cars were washed down, the railroad bridges to the Barker and Stewart mill, and the bridge to the Clark Island were saved in the nick of time by running on a train of cars filled with logs, weighing down the structure, which saved the bridges and probably the guard lock, too, because with the going out of these bridges, the rush of the water would have been so much swifter and stronger that the guard lock would have gone and let the whole flood down at once, sweeping everything below the lock before it, Kickbusch's store, govern- ment building, the mill dams, Heinemann mill, and very probably the power house of the street railway company, causing the main current to rush through the slough instead of the main river.
On the main river, the pile bridge was the first to go, then the railroad bridge from Barker and Stewart's mill to the west shore was pushed off its moorings, and so was the railroad bridge from the east shore to Barker and Stewart's mill. Logs coming down the falls struck the stone pier of the
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