USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 50
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The board organized January 28, 1857, with the election of L. Doolittle from the town of Wausau as chairman.
The name "town of Marathon," which was dropped in this division, was given to a new town created November 10, 1857, to have township 28, ranges 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, but the town was not organized, and was later recreated on the 5th day of April, 1859, with the same territory, and in the same meeting the name of the town of Eau Claire was changed to town of Weston. The territory of this town ( Wausau) was frequently changed, and it includes now only thirty sections in township 29, range 8, the northeast sections having been attached to the town of Texas, but it has kept its name.
Although there is nothing absolutely reliable on hand, it is very probable that farming was begun in this town as early as in any one, and it is certain that the "Mechanics Ridge Settlement" was the first farm settlement in this county ; that is to say, that there was a concerted movement to go on land with the intention to farm it, and that a settlement was started among the mechanics at work at Wausau for that purpose, although the settlement was stretched over several miles. This settlement was referred to, and it is also stated that the mechanics did not farm very long, but sold out, only James W. Nutter remaining on his land.
This town is one of the most populous in the whole county at this time. The sections bordering on the city of Wausau are cut up in small holdings owned mostly by workmen, who either live on the land or in the city and cultivate the land garden-like, to help their incomes by raising vegetables or pasture a cow.
There is one saw mill in the town owned and operated by Paul Seymour ; it was erected over thirty years ago and has been in continuous operation every year. It does a large amount of custom sawing for farmers, enabling them to get their lumber for buildings and repairs close at hand and gives them also a market for their surplus timber. Near the mill is a grocery store
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kept by William Fradrich and a blacksmith shop conducted by Herman Hahn. There is one creamery and cheese factory in the town, and at the store there is a public hall. The town has five good school buildings; one near Nutter- ville is a new solid brick building with a state graded school having two departments. The principal of this school is Miss Marie Ehmke; assistant, Miss Emma Van Kannel ; the enrollment is sixty-two.
CHURCHES.
There is only one church in this town, a German Evangelical-Lutheran Church. It is named the "Holy Trinity Church." The congregation was organized by Reverend Hudtloff forty years ago and services were con- ducted for some years in a schoolhouse, Reverend Hudtloff being the visiting minister. The present church edifice was built thirty-two years ago. The first resident pastor was Rev. Martin Buerger, who is the resident pastor of this congregation for over thirty years. Another congregation has its edifice just across the town line, but members from this town belong to that other congregation.
THE TOWN OF WESTON
was originally organized as the town of Eau Claire as one of the first towns in the county on the 12th day of November, 1856. Its first settlement goes back in the forties, only a few years after the coming of Stevens to Wausau or rather "Big Bull." It was to consist of township 28, range 8, except sec- tions I to 7 inclusive, and townships 29 and 30 in range 9, and Milo Kelly was the first chairman.
Milo Kelly's mill was located above the present Manser mill and came into possession of Milo Kelly's sons, William P. and N. T., and they after- wards acquired the Goodhue mill, and rebuilt the same, which is the present mill of John Manser. After the Goodhue mill had been rebuilt, the upper Kelly mill, as it was named for some time, was abandoned and manufactur- ing done at the lower mill. After the death of the brothers Kelly, this mill was sold to B. E. Jones, and he in turn sold it to John Manser, the present owner, who is still operating it and has a large tract of timber to keep it running for many years to come.
The name of this town was later changed to "Weston," why, is not apparent. It would seem that the first name was more fitting, it being the name of the river which drains a large territory-nearly the whole of the territory of that town-and is one of the largest tributaries of the Wiscon-
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sin. The flood of 1912 swept away the dam at Manser's mill and the boom, and did otherwise damage, which has been repaired, and the mill is ready for operation with the opening of the sawing season of 1913.
Another and probably the largest manufacturing company doing busi- ness in Marathon county, is located in this town. It is the Marathon Paper Mills Company, which manufactures high grade "Mitscherlich fibres and specialties." It is one of the largest paper mills in the state. It was organ- ized February 13, 1909, with a capital stock of $1,600,000. It has three paper-making machines, with a capacity of seventy-five tons per day, also a sulphite mill and a bleaching plant of equal capacity, and a ground wood mill of twenty-five tons capacity.
The mills were started in November, 1910. The motive power for this immense plant is obtained by damming the Wisconsin river and converting the energy of the falling waters into electricity. The building of this dam was a big engineering work which presented some difficulties, which have been overcome, and this mill has now the whole energy of the flow of the Wisconsin river with the big reservoir created by this dam. The reservoir thus obtained forms a big sheet of water called Lake Wausau. The officers of this corporation are: President, C. C. Yawkey; vice president, Walter Alexander ; secretary and general manager, D. C. Everett ; treasurer, B. F. Wilson, who, with C. J. Winton, Neal Brown, and W. H. Bissell make up the board of directors. The mill employs 325 men, many of them living in Wausau, but a village has grown up near the mill of goodly dimensions.
THE ROTHSCHILD PARK
situated about half a mile above this paper mill on the bank of the river is the popular amusement place for Wausau people. There is the splendid pavilion of the Wausau Street Railroad of stone and steel construction. The hall has splendid acoustics and is an ideal location for Chautauqua assemblies. It will easily accommodate 2,000 people, and is visited summer and winter alike. On the lake so-called are row and gasoline boats for boating, a swimming pool, and other attractions, which make this park the popular resort that it has become. The street cars run to the park and on particular occasions give a reduced rate which otherwise is ten cents.
The Wausau Country Club has its club house and golf ground a short distance above the Rothschild Park.
Farming was not carried on in this town to a large extent until lately. The lands in the Eau Claire valley are a sandy loam against which there
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was a prejudice, the soil being deemed too light for the production of grains; but experience has shown that no better land for potato culture can be had, the soil being of the same quality as the celebrated potato fields of Waupaca county, and large crops of this root are now raised and exported. Also corn planting has turned out a success, the corn being cut and put in siloes for cattle feed, and stock raising is profitable. A creamery near Kelly's is doing a large business.
SCHOOLS.
There are five school districts in this town with as many schoolhouses. The village of Rothschild and a part of the town of Flieth form a joint school district, with the schoolhouse in the village. The children from the town of Flieth cross the Wisconsin river on the dam which forms a bridge, being of concrete and a perfectly safe crossing. The school there is a state graded school having four departments. The schoolhouse is a solid brick building, costing $10,000. The principal is Miss Goldie Linder; assistant, Miss Catherine McCallin. Only two departments were used, but a third department is being instituted, and three teachers will be engaged in the coming year. The enrollment is one hundred.
CHURCHES.
There is a Presbyterian church at Kelly's which is a mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Wausau; it was built in 1895, and from thirty-five to forty families scattered over quite a large territory are members.
THE TOWN OF MOSINEE (IN 1912).
This town was established in November, 1856, to consist of townships 26 and 27 in ranges 2 to 9 inclusive, extending from east to west throughout the county. Its present area is parts of township 27 in ranges 7 and 6, having in all very little over forty-one sections. At the time of its organization there was probably not a settler outside the mill settlement at the village of Mosinee and in the immediate neighborhood. All that territory is now settled upon, and especially on the western part are some of the finest farms in the county.
At the same time there were also established the towns of Wausau and Eau Claire; the reason for it undoubtedly was to get the people living on and along the Stevens Point road to help in getting the road in some state of improvement, to make it passable, if nothing more. In former years there were several saw mills located in this town, but the pine timber has disap-
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peared, and no more is left now than farmers will keep for their own use, but they have an abundance yet for that purpose.
There are six public schools in the town, one of which, a solid comfort- able brick building, in the joint district in towns of Mosinee and Bergen at Moon, is a graded school with two departments. The principal is Miss Marie O'Connor, with Miss Jessie De Lisle having charge of the primary depart- ment and with an average attendance of about sixty pupils. This town was very sparsely settled until lately. It was after 1893 that a number of Bohe- mians, some from Chicago, some from Cedar Rapids, came into and settled upon the lands, and that nationality constitutes about one-half of the town. if not the majority. They are an intelligent and industrious people and have made farming a success. While there is no saw mill in that town, there is one just across the town line in the town of Bergen, at a place called Moon, and farmers can go to the village of Mosinee or to Moon to get their sawing done at whichever place is nearest to their farm.
The farmers from this town have no church as yet, the settlement being still small, and the settlers belonging to different Christian denominations attend the churches in the village of Mosinee. That farming is carried on profitably is shown by the fact that this small settlement supplies two cheese factories in that town with all the milk needed to run the same throughout the season.
THE TOWN OF TEXAS. (1912.)
The town of Texas was established November 12, 1856, at the time when the county was first divided into the towns of Wausau, Mosinee, Eau Claire (this name was later changed to "Weston"), Marathon, and Jenny and Texas. This last named town was given the territory in townships 30 and 31 and 32, of'range 8, and east 1/2 of township 31, range 7, and all that part of township 30, range 7, east of the Wisconsin river.
It will be remembered that saw mills were built on Pine river in the decade from 1840 to 1850; that the mill in Merrill was built by A. Warren in 1849, and there must have been some means of communication between the logging and saw mill points, and while there was no road or highway until towards the end of the fifties, there was no doubt a trail connecting these settlements with each other besides the river. Along this trail which became afterwards with some slight changes the Wausau and Merrill Road, there began a farm settlement a little earlier in point of time than settlement of "Mechanics Ridge."
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The first farm settler, although he was a logger in the main, was Martin Hobart, who settled on land and cleared the Hobart farm. Martin Hobart, who made the original entry from the United States Government, soon sold part of it to Philip Marshall, whose land was located at the crest of the hill bearing his name, and others followed in succession along the same trail somewhat later on. With the exception of the Hobart farm, which was a well cultivated farm of nearly eighty acres clearing in 1870, and the Mar- shall farm, somewhat smaller in extent of clearing, there was no farm deserv- ing such name on this road until after 1870. There were what might be called at best some improvements, clearings from five to fifteen acres, hardly more until that time. The Hobart farm passed through several hands and is now the property of Dan Healy and Towle, and the Marshall farm is owned now by M. Groff, although a rumor is current that it has been sold lately.
The Trappe river saw mill was built in the early fifties as a water-power mill and later changed to a steam mill, and there was a small settlement of native Americans around the mill, who owned the land and made the improvements when not otherwise engaged in logging or lumbering.
Another pioneer of Marathon county, Levy Hinton, brother of Thomas Hinton, also settled in the town of Texas, and his son, Walter Hinton, is the only descendant of the pioneer race, who still owns and occupies the old farm, one of the best in the town.
These farms were all on the Merrill or Jenny road, as it was then called, scattered from Wausau to Trappe river. When the road was cut out, it followed the section line north and south running in a straight line over Mar- shall hill at its steepest point, which folly can only be explained on the theory that the supervisors, in laying out, believed the roads must be on the "line." This hill is one of the steepest in the whole county and remained the terror of teamsters for nearly a score of years. All the supplies for Merrill, Pine River, and in all the camps as far north as Grandmother Falls, and even further, had to go up that long, steep hill, and no heavily loaded team was ever able to get on the top unaided. It passes understanding why the Wau- sau lumbermen did not get another better route, which could have been easily done by united work. There was no improvement on this part of the high- way until the year 1876, when B. G. Plumer, A. Stewart, of Wausau, and J. T. Callon, from Texas, were members of the county board and obtained from the county the sum of $500 to be spent in betterment of that part of the road, and were appointed as commissioners to supervise the work. These commissioners instead of spending the money on the old road, laid out a new road around the hill, winding around the edge of the same, as it is to this
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day, and very little money has been spent on the part of the road since because the road there is hard and stony, and will not easily wash out.
The first settlers in this town, as in most others, were native born Ameri- cans, and the first German settlers to come into these quarters were David Hollinger and his two sons, and Philip Gensman, who came in the last part of the fifties. At this time came also Henry Paff, Adolph La Piere, and Mark Latour. These settlements were scattered from five miles above Wau- sau, from Marshall farm, which was the first one from Wausau going north, as far as Pine River, but in the second half of the decade from 1860 to 1870, and later, came a strong influx of German emigrants in that town. Among them were Charles Weinkauf, Charles Weiland, August Buss, Fred Pagel. Carl Bliese, Martin Bohm, and others. The native American born population, with a few exceptions-as, for instance, Walter Hinton-have emigrated, but the German born population has remained and is the back- bone of the town.
The renowned granite quarries of Marathon county were first opened in that town by Grothe & Peters, already referred to. The works of the Marathon County Granite Company have been removed to Wausau.
At Heights, a short distance above the railroad station, the brothers Anderson and a Mr. Johnson opened a shop as co-partners to carry on the business after Grothe & Peters had closed up their business, and from this small beginning in 1885, their business has grown to big dimensions. They employ now upwards of seventy-five men, and their products have become one of the most important articles of export from Marathon county and will remain so for all time to come. They own their quarry, which furnishes as fine a granite as can be found anywhere, which for taking a fine polish is unsurpassed, and their monuments are in demand in every state of the Union. The firm is now incorporated with the following persons as officers: Presi- dent, Charles E. Johnson; vice president, Gustav E. Anderson; secretary, Orlaf Anderson; treasurer and general manager, William N. Anderson .*
One large creamery has been in operation in this town for fifteen years, which is worked on the co-operative plan, and does a profitable business for both owners and patrons.
The town has seven modern schoolhouses in as many districts.
The German St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran congregation was organ- ized as early as 1870 and services held regularly in a schoolhouse until 1882,
* This corporation has made arrangements to remove their works to Wausau to get the advantage of railroad transportation on both railroads at Wausau without extra transfer.
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when the present church was built. In the first few years the resident min- ister from the St. Paul's congregation at Wausau conducted the services, but since the completion of the church the Rev. Martin Buerger, resident min- ister in the neighboring town of Wausau, holds religious service for the congregation.
Another German Evangelical Lutheran congregation is organized in the northern part of the town, holding meetings and service in a schoolhouse, with a minister from the city of Merrill in charge thereof, and the building of a church is already contemplated and will be carried out in the near future.
A Methodist congregation was organized about fifteen years ago, which erected a church building a few years afterwards. This congregation has a resident minister in the person of Rev. Paul E. Teige.
THE TOWN OF MARATHON.
This town originally comprised the whole territory of Marathon county, but when the county was organized and the county seat was named "Wau- sau," and there being only one town in the whole county, this name as the name of a town was lost for some years, but was revived April 5, 1859, when a new town was created out of portions of the town of Wausau, and the new town was given the name of "Marathon." This new town embraced in its territory township 28, from ranze 2 to range 6, inclusive.
The history of the village and the town of Marathon are nearly identical. The Pittsburg settlers' club, into which each member paid $100, for which sum he could get, or was entitled to get, eighty acres of land near to the newly laid out village of Marathon City, and one village lot and three acres on the outskirts of the village, made each settler at the same time the owner of real estate in the village and interested in its future. But there was no business in the village, nothing but dense forest, and settlers had to move on the land and go to farming. The platted village served only as a point for a meeting place, and more so after the church was built and regular serv- ice held.
The growth of the town of Marathon was very slow for many years, slower than the towns of Berlin and Stettin, and Maine. The cause of the faster growth of the latter towns was this: the emigration from Germany was much stronger from its northern part-from Prussia, particularly from Pommerania-and the settlers in these latter towns being almost, without ex-
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ception, from that portion of Germany, attracted these newcomers. The emigration from the southern and extreme western part of Germany, from where the people hailed that settled in Marathon City, was not nearly so great, and the influx of newcomers from Pittsburg almost ceased after the war between the states broke out. The town of Marathon enjoyed its most rapid growth after 1876, when through the judicious advertising given the Mara- thon county lands by J. M. Smith and somewhat later by Fred Rietbrock, new settlers came in, going to the town of Marathon, and even more so to the present town of Cassel. Most of these newcomers were of Polish nation- ality, but a good portion were Germans.
These German emigrants coming from Pittsburg and their descendants, or a majority of them, are still living on the old farms made by their parents, and so are the second group which came after 1870. In the town of Mara- thon the descendants of the German emigrants are still in the ascendancy. The town is pretty well settled; not much wild land is held by nonresidents. There are splendid farms, good houses, good barns and good roads, good schoolhouses and everything to make farm life agreeable. Rural routes bring the daily mail and newspapers, villages are near by and telephone stations bring the farmer in immediate connection with other cities or towns.
There is one small saw mill in this town given to custom sawing. There are four cheese factories which do a fine business, distributing probably over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the farmers in this town.
It is a fact worthy to be mentioned that from the very beginning there was a better stock of cattle kept in this territory, which included Cassel, than in most other German towns. The German farmer from the south took more to cattle than to grain raising, in which latter the North German farmer in the eastern and northern towns of Stettin, Berlin and Maine excelled. With the establishment of creameries and cheese factories there has been a change everywhere in favor of a better grade of cattle, and good breeds are now to be found in every town.
In the town are three joint school districts, each of course with a well equipped schoolhouse, everything needful in the instruction of the young being readily furnished.
There are no churches in this town; the population, mainly adherents of the Catholic church, are members of the congregation in Marathon City, while those of the Polish nationality worship at the Polish Catholic church in the neighboring town of Cassel.
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THE TOWN OF KNOWLTON.
The settlement in this town was one of the earliest in Marathon county, but, like the settlement in Wausau and Mosinee, it was a pinery settlement. There is a tavern which stands to this day, not used as a tavern now, still in the possession of the family of Leonhard Guenther, who purchased it from the former owner in the early fifties-the historic Leonhard Guenther tavern, or Knowlton House, the most popular roadhouse, which had a very large number of patrons until the building of the railroad to Wausau in 1874 ended the road travel. The settlement was confined to immediate surroundings of the tavern, and the saw mill of the Starks, father and sons, which was located a short distance below the tavern. The town was created by the county board in the year 1859 to consist of township 26, in ranges 8 and 9, and all of range 7 of the same township, lying east of the Wisconsin river. This set- tlement has been noticed in Chapter IX and it did not materially grow after the railroad was built.
There is a tradition that a mill once stood on the Wisconsin river at the mouth or just below the mouth of the Eau Plaine river, which empties a little more than a mile above Knowlton, at a place called Warren's place, and it is barely possible that Andrew Warren thought of building, or had a little mill there (it must have been a steam mill if one was there at all), but no reliable data can at this time be ascertained. Certain it is, that since 1850 no mill has been there.
In the last six years, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad has run a spur track for about four miles east to a saw and planing mill owned by F. W. Huebner, and still further east for about eight miles, more to assist in the settlement of the lands in that territory.
In the village of Knowlton there is a saw mill owned by Charles Guen- ther, doing custom sawing, a grist mill owned by the same gentleman ; a gen- eral merchandise store conducted by C. Guenther & Sons, and a general mer- chandise store conducted by L. Breitenstein.
There is a creamery in the village which has a very large patronage and its products are shipped to the east. A public hall owned by Adam Feit is the central meeting place for social entertainings and public meetings.
There is a Catholic church in the village, built by Leonhard Guenther in the year 1875, and it is visited by the resident priest at Mosinee.
A Methodist congregation was organized in 1900 by Rev. Burton Rich- ardson and services held in the schoolhouse. On January, 1905, the eleven mem- bers of the society purchased half an acre of ground from the Wendell Stark
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