USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 56
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When the flood in 1881 had swept away the grist mill, tannery, office building and ruined the saw mill, he was thoughtful of the men in his employ and gave orders that they should be given work as soon as the flood subsided, in clearing away the debris, all around it, even before he had time to plan for the future. He knew his losses, but at the same time his mind was also concerned about his men, knowing that a long delay or non-employ- ment would work a great loss for them, and so he set them at work just to have them employed.
As an instance of his carrying out his agreement to pay the debts of the
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firm of Dessert & Cate, we cite: A Canadian who had worked for them took a note for the amount due and departed for home. More than twenty years afterwards he came into Mr. Dessert's office with the note and asked for payment. Dessert told him he would pay it, and did so, with interest up to 1870 as that was the time when he paid all those debts and would have paid this note had it been presented. Of course the man was glad to get his money and interest besides, which he never expected
In 1898 he built a good substantial brick building for a library building and for eight years paid every item of expenses of the institution including the salary of the librarian, and in 1906 donated it to the village by deed, at the same time donating a thousand dollars for keeping it up. It is an imposing structure, with reading room, store room and librarian room and spacious hall on the second floor as an entertaining hall, rostrum and footlights, opera chairs and drop curtains and fine sceneries. There is a cloak room in connec- tion with the box office and the building itself is 72x36 feet.
Foreseeing the end of the lumbering, Henry M. Thompson removed to Milwaukee in 1902. and Joseph Dessert soon followed, remaining with his daughter to the end though visiting annually the scene of his former activi- ties. Within a short time of his death he was in the possession of his mental faculties, and noticing the gradual decline of his physical powers he met the end with the fortitude which characterized his whole life.
The love of the pioneer was with the land where he had spent his youth, manhood and ripe old age. and it was his desire to be buried in the cemetery at Mosinee. His body was borne to the grave by foriner employes, every one of whom had been in his employ for a quarter of a century.
The pioneers were a noble race, Joseph Dessert the peer of the best of them. His was a long life, full of labor and usefulness, and standing at his bier, it could truthfully be said of him that the world was better for his hav- ing lived in it. He died in Milwaukee on the 31st day of December, 1910.
CHARLES A. SINGLE.
Charles A. Single was born in Hartford, England. He came to Mil- waukee with his stepfather, Thomas Youles, in 1844; but did not stay there a long time. In 1845 he drifted up to Grand Rapids and next year he was with his brother Benjamin Single on Little Rib for whom he worked until 1850, when he moved to Wausau. Soon after coming here he commenced the building of the Forest House for a tavern, which he enlarged from time to time, until it was the largest hotel in the pinery widely known throughout
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the same. He was elected the first sheriff of Marathon county in the first election held after the county was organized. After the completion of his hotel he built the Forest Hall, the first large public hall in which the sessions of the circuit court were held from 1856 to 1868 when the first courthouse was finished.
He enlisted in the war between the states and was honorably discharged, after having contracted sickness which disabled him from further service. After his return home he was appointed deputy provost marshal, and in 1870 received the appointment to take the census of this county. He was a man of great intelligence who could wield a trenchant pen as well as a lum- berman's ax when occasion demanded, but had also a vein of humor which never ran dry. He had confidence in the future of the country, and he planned to benefit and open up the country. For upwards of twenty years he was a member of the county board and was always found in the foremost ranks in the great work which had to be done to get a railroad to Wausau. But he is best remembered for his kindness and goodness of heart to the unfortunate ones. He was brave and hospitable. The Forest House was a home for all, rich or poor, and many a poor, crippled injured man was nursed and cared for by him and his very estimable wife. One poor young chap who had his leg torn off by a cable in trying to land a raft in Sturgeon eddy, was cared for by C. A. Single for months until he got well, without fee or reward. At the blowing up of the Judson mill at the foot of Marshall hill in the winter of 1867-68, where a number of men were injured, Gerry Judson, the owner, and another man killed outright, he was there with the physicians, bandaging, caring for and taking the wounded to the Forest House for nursing. He had a natural aptitude for setting bones, and com- mon surgical work, and was never known to charge anything for such serv- ice. The pinery boys looked upon him as their friend, for they knew that their well being while in the hotel was looked after with almost parental care. When the Forest House burned down in 1878, not only Wausau but . the Wisconsin Valley pinery lost a landmark, and when C. A. Single died in 1880 he was more missed from the community than any other man.
All through life he was a consistent Republican, and as such a frequent contributor to the "Central Wisconsin," never wavering in his attachment to that party. He was only fifty-eight years of age at the time of his death. and his wife, who had been his faithful helpmate and true companion. shar- ing with him his early privations with the bravery of the pioneer wife. sur-
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vived him and died at Wausau on June 24, 1897. C. A. Single no more than most others of the pioneers accumulated wealth, and at best left only a fair competency for his wife after his death.
HON. BRADBURY GREENLEAF PLUMER.
Hon. Bradbury Greenleaf Plumer was another of the pioneers who came with the intention to remain and grow up with the country. He came from his native state New Hampshire in 1854, engaged in lumbering after his arrival, and after a few years acquired the Barnes mill and later the Lyman saw mill, which was situated on Plumer's Island between the Plumer and Clarke mill, a little south of both, receiving the water by means of a conductor from the mill pond.
He was of sturdy New Hampshire stock, self-reliant, far-seeing, a man of big brain, self-willed, true as steel, yet tender hearted and sympathetic. He served with distinction in the Legislature in 1866, but later he was averse to office holding. As a mill owner he gave encouragement to men of small means to embark in the lumber business, and his saw mill did most of the custom sawing for smaller operators, partly because the mill was best adapted for that purpose, and partly because of the accommodations held out to them. Until the railroad came to Wausau and lumber had to be rafted and floated down the river, it was unprofitable to raft what was then termed "cull lumber," and as a rule, cull lumber was left to the mill owner, who took it instead of charging for the sawing of the same. It is safe to say that the cull lumber in those days was superior to the common stock today, and most of the buildings in Wausau were sheeted with cull lumber, the rotten part being sawed out by the carpenter's hand saw, and the rest was fine lumber. Farmers would come to Plumer's mill and buy a pile of culls in bulk, and take it home for houses and barns. With the German population he was immensely popular. He seemed to understand their native traits better than most Americans, and at their festivals he was always an honored guest.
He looked forward to better booming facilities, and with that end in view created the Baetz Island boom, which was the most valuable part of the Wausau boom in after years. He also had confidence in the agricultural productiveness of Marathon county, and encouraged farming by helping them in many ways, and as one instance of his interest it may be said that he together with August Kickbusch gave the eighty acres of land as a gift to the Agricultural Society for the purpose of holding annual fairs thereon.
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This fair ground is the best and finest in the state, and steps should be taken to secure the same for all times to come. That was the intention of the donors, and now that they are dead and the society is incorporated, this important step should not be overlooked. Nobody can foretell what may happen in the far future, and it would be well if steps were taken to make another use of the fair grounds except for such purposes an impossibility, guarding against any contingency which may in the future arise. B. G. Plumer interested himself in stock raising, and to further encourage farm- ers, imported a registered full blood "Durham," an animal which had taken first prize at state fairs, at great expense to give farmers an opportunity to improve their stock, of which many availed themselves.
In all public enterprises he was always in the front ranks. He was the most popular chief of the voluntary fire department, although or rather be- cause he insisted on discipline and promptness. He was the principal stock- holder in the Wausau gas works, which were erected in the year 1884, which shows that he was looking forward to the greater Wausau of today. His sudden death on July 22, 1886, cast a gloom over city and county, espe- cially over the older German farmers who regarded him as their best friend. He died unmarried and a biography of others of his family appears in the sketch of his brother, D. L. Plumer.
FREDERICK W. KICKBUSCH.
Frederick W. Kichbusch was another of the pioneers and distinguished citizens of Marathon county. Arriving in Wausau in 1860, he worked for one year with a relative on a farm in the town of Stettin, then entered into a partnership with his brother, August Kickbusch, which continued until 1869, when he withdrew and started in the lumber and manufacturing busi- ness alone.
In the decade from 1850 to 1860 some enterprising men drove cattle from here up to the Michigan peninsula in hopes of getting a cash market for them, but they were in most cases doomed to disappointment. F. W. Kickbusch made two trips with cattle up here, but in neither case was the venture profitable. These cattle were fattened by grazing all summer and fall, but the trip could not be made until the swamps were frozen to enable them to pass over. It was late in the fall when the drive could begin, and the beasts suffered for lack of food and rest and could not arrive in good condition. The trip on the men was as hard too. Night after night they had to camp out in the cold. there being only a few stations where beds,
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shelter and food could be had. Those were trips which only pioneers could undergo, men used to all sorts of hardships. After a few experiences of this kind cattle driving was discontinued.
After lumbering until 1871, running one or two fleets to St. Louis in each year, he, with George Werheim as co-partner, erected the first sash, door and blind factory and a planing mill on the ground where now stands the Northern Milling Company plant. This mill was operated until 1882 when it burned in the winter, unfortunately without any insurance, the loss falling alone on F. W. Kickbusch because he had bought out his partner the previous year. Undaunted by the heavy blow, he immediately started the erection of a flour and feed mill which though it changed ownership, has been in continuous operation since, now the property of the Northern Mill- ing Company. He also built and carried on a general merchandise store which he sold to his son-in-law, Charles E. Wegner, about the year 1893, who has conducted it since with the same success.
F. W. Kickbusch was elected county treasurer in 1872 and twice re- elected, and in 1877 was elected member of the assembly, after a spirited contest, he being then the candidate of the Greenback party, his election being due rather to his own personal than to his party strength.
For many years he served as a member of the county board and as alder- man. His firmness and decision forced a much better contract from the Holly Manufacturing Company, which was awarded the contract for the building of the waterworks than would have been otherwise obtained. The council was equally divided on the question of building, and although bids were advertised for and received, the letting of the contract was yet hanging fire. There were several propositions before the council, not greatly differ- ing in price, and the bid of the Holly Manufacturing Company seemed to be the best for the city. But it, like all other plans, provided for a simple frame building for the engine house or pumping station. Mr. Kickbusch opposed the letting of the contract unless the company would agree to erect a solid brick building, according to plans and specifications drawn up by Mr. Koeh- ler, a Wausau architect. On the question of building the council was nearly equally divided and the vote of Mr. Kickbusch was needed to let any con- tract. Of course the erection of such a building as contemplated by this plan would cost several thousand dollars more than the building proposed by the contract of the bidding parties, all of which were wooden ones. The agent of the Holly Manufacturing Company was present and said he could not consent to the change, pleading "want of authority," whereupon Mr. Kickbusch declared that he could not and would not vote to let a contract
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which would put machinery upon which so much depended in what he con- temptuously designated as a woodshed, and remonstrated with the council not to let any contract. A recess was then taken, and after a hurried con- sultation and reconvening, the representative of the Holly Manufacturing Company with a heavy heart and in violation of instruction (as he said) consented to and made the change, agreeing for the company to build the pumping station as planned by Mr. Koehler, a solid substantial brick build- ing at the original price bid for. Had the frame house been built, it is very probable that it would have been burned down, to the great damage of the entire system, and to the courageous stand taken by F. W. Kickbusch no doubt such a calamity was averted.
In 1893 he was appointed by President Cleveland as consul to Stettin. one of the largest ports in Germany. Shortly before his term expired he resigned his post and returned to Wausau where he took up his milling again, greatly enlarging and improving it and conducting the business until the beginning of 1905, when he turned the plant over to his son, Frederick W. Kickbusch, Jr., and to his daughter, Pauline, who operated it for several years under the name of Kickbusch Milling Company, and later sold out to the Northern Milling Company.
On Easter of the same year, accompanied by his wife, he departed for Germany to drink the healing waters of Kissingen and Karlsbad. in hopes of curing some internal afflictions from which he was a sufferer. He returned in the fall somewhat benefited but not radically cured.
F. W. Kickbusch was a member of the voluntary fire company from the very beginning in 1869 and several years its foreman. He was also for three years president of the State Firemen's Association. He was a man of attractive appearance and much intellectuality, a lifelong Democrat, except- ing only his short adherence to the Greenback party from 1877 to 1879, and exerted a great influence in the councils of that party, which was always ex- erted for public good.
He died on the 12th day of December, 1907, and was buried with the honors of an Odd Fellow, to which order he was greatly attached, belonging to both the subordinate, the Grand Lodge, and Grand Encampment.
He came with his parents to Milwaukee in 1857 from Pomerania, Ger- many, where he was born, and to Wausau in 1860, which has been his home until his death. On October 28, 1864. he was married to Miss Mathilde Braatz, whose father was one of the pioneers in the town of Berlin in this
.
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county, and four children, Emma married Wegner, Mathilde married Paff, Fred. W. Kickbusch, Jr., and Pauline married Schwanberg, were born to them to bless their union. His widow and children survive him.
HON. ALEXANDER H. REID.
The 16th Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin consists of the counties of Mara- thon, Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas, with a population of 100,000 in round num- bers and vast property rights. The Circuit Court in the state of Wisconsin is the only court of unlimited jurisdiction in all cases affecting personal and property rights, and is therefore as important if not more so than the Supreme Court, which is chiefly an appellate court. It is apparent. there- fore, that the office of circuit judge is of the greatest responsibility as well as of the highest honor. The far greater part of all litigation ends after a full and fair trial in the Circuit Court, and only a limited number of cases are taken to the Supreme Court on appeal.
Much of litigation is determined by the circuit judge by hearing the case or preliminary motions at chambers, which means at his office in the court house in the place where he resides, which in the case of Judge A. H. Reid is the city of Wausau, which practice brings many litigants and their attorneys from outside of this county to the city of Wausau. The highly important labor of Judge A. H. Reid has been mentioned in Chapter 23. entitled "Bench and Bar," and the following is a short biographical sketch supplementing what has been said under that head :
Hon. Alexander H. Reid, circuit judge of the 16th Judicial District of Wisconsin, was born March 31, 1864, in Dodge county, Wis., and is a son of J. D. and Janet (Gourlie) Reid. The parents of Judge Reid were born near Glasgow, Scotland, were reared and married there and came to the United States in 1848. For a short time they resided in New York and then went to Nashville, Tenn., where the father, a stone cutter by trade, had charge of the stone work in the construction of the Capitol there. Thence he removed to Joliet, Ill., where he owned and operated stone quar- ries. In the fifties he went to the newly opened gold mining regions in California, and at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war he was con- tracting on railroad building in Iowa. He purchased a farm some time afterwards in Dodge county, Wis., which he operated during the rest of his active life and died there in 1907, at the age of eighty-six years; his wife passed away in 1905 aged eighty-three. They had ten children born to
HON. ALEXANDER H. REID
HON. W. C. SILVERTHORN
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them-William, Mary, Walter, John, James, Ellen, Robert, Jessie, George, and Alexander H.
Alexander H. Reid was reared on the home farm in Dodge county and had good educational advantages. In 1888 he was graduated from the academic department of the University of Wisconsin, and in 1890 from the law department, in the same year being admitted to practice. Prior to this he had spent some time in the educational field as a teacher, alternating teaching and studying with farm work. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Merrill, in Lincoln county, and became a member of the law firm of Curtis, Curtis & Reid, for eighteen years practicing as a member of the Lincoln county bar. In the summer of 1908 he was appointed to the bench, and in the spring of 1909 was elected to his present office. Judge Reid has long been a member of the county, state and American bar association. In politics he is a Republican. He has served on the library board and also on the board of education, and while living in Lincoln county was presi- dent of both bodies for a number of years. When called to the bench he left a substantial practice for higher honors and in the same year moved to Wausau.
In 1891 Judge Reid was married to Miss Addie Lindley, a daughter of J. S. Lindley, of Dane county, and they have one daughter, Jeanette, who was a student in Downer College, Milwaukee. Judge Reid is a member of the Universalist church. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America, and socially is identified with the Wausau City and Wausau Country clubs.
HON. WILLIS C. SILVERTHORN.
Hon. Willis C. Silverthorn has been frequently referred to in these pages as one who has acted an important part in his life in Marathon county and in this state. He came to Wausau in 1864 a young man and opened a law- yer's office. His ability was soon recognized, and he was elected district attorney in the same year and twice reelected. From this time on he was a strong and growing figure in the councils of the Democratic party of the state. He was member of the Assembly in 1868 and 1874, and was nomi- nated and elected in the fall of 1874 for senator of the Twenty-first Sena- torial District, and was the first Democrat to overcome the big Republican majority, this district being composed of the counties of Waupaca, Shawano and Marathon. His successful opposition to the issuing of $250,000 bonds bearing 10 per cent interest to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company
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has been related and his manful stand almost solitary and alone on this issue in his home city, and how his vindication came in the course of time, and his connection with the law firm of Silverthorn & Hurley.
Several times he was called upon to lead the forlorn hopes of his party in congressional district and state, as when he was nominated for mem- ber of Congress in 1880 for the Eighth Congressional District, which was overwhelmingly Republican, and which at that time included nearly one- third of the whole state in territory. In 1884 he was nominated for attor- ney general and made a canvass of the whole state. In the memorable cam- paign of 1896 he led the Bryan forces as the Democratic candidate for gov- ernor, speaking in nearly every hamlet, and while defeated, had the satis- faction of running nearly 5,000 votes ahead of the presidential candidate. His high character and standing at the bar in the sixteenth judicial circuit of the state induced Gov. Ed. Scofield to appoint him circuit judge in place of Hon. C. V. Bardeen who had been appointed justice of the supreme court. In the ensuing election he was elected for the full term as circuit judge and reelected in 1904.
Meanwhile his private business had assumed large proportions and he resigned in 1908 to devote his time to the affairs of the Northern Chief Iron Company, in which corporation he had a large interest, and in which he is secretary, occasionally seeking recreation in travel.
With D. L. Plumer and his brother, George Silverthorn, he organized the banking firm of Silverthorn & Plumer in 1869, which later merged into the First National Bank of Wausau.
Hon. W. C. Silverthorn was born in 1834, in Toronto, Canada, and came with his father. George Silverthorn, to Jefferson county, Wisconsin, where the father engaged in farming, and died at Oakland in 1872, having become a man of means and acquired a farm of 640 acres. W. C. Silverthorn's early youth was spent on his father's farm, and after passing through the common school, he attended Albion Academy and the state university at Madison. Following his college training, he studied law in the law office of Braley & Smith at Madison, and was admitted to the bar in 1863. first prac- ticing his profession at St. Louis, Missouri, but coming to Wausau early in 1864, which has been his home ever since. He was married in Madison to Miss Maggie Virginia Meyers, who was born at Bowling Green. Kentucky, and who died January 29. 1878. leaving three children : Willis V., now of Sawyer county; Margaret Grace, now Mrs. H. H. Hadley, and Nellie C .. who resides at home.
On June 23, 1879, he married Miss Ida M. Single, his present wife.
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and they have three children: James C., Ida Hermione, and George P. Mrs. Ida M. Silverthorn is a daughter of James Single, one of the honored pioneers of Marathon county, the youngest of the three brothers, Benj. T., Charles A., and James Single, frequently mentioned in former chapters. The family are among the founders of the St. John's Episcopal church of Wausau, and Mrs. Silverthorn is a member of the Ladies' Literary Club and other societies.
Miss Nellie C. Silverthorn has been the first librarian of the Wausau Library, interesting herself with her father in the work since its inception, he having been the founder of the "Pine Knot Library," which became the nucleus of the present public library. At the time of her resignation she received the thanks of the Library Board for faithful and proficient services rendered.
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