Dave Engel

River City Memoirs $13.95

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III

1984 ------•------

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 85-050926

. ISBN: 0-910122-79-2 ©1985 Dave Engel

Printed on Published by the Consolidated Enamel South Wood County _ Coated Printing Papers Productolith Dull, Basis 70 Historical Corp. Cover: Centura Antiqua Embossed 540 3rd Street South Sponsored in part by Wisconsin Rapids, Consolidated Papers Foundation, Inc. Wisconsin 54494 Wisconsin Rapids ·RCM III .. •

Cover: 1899 fire at Rablin & Robb foundry, 1st Street North

Standard Atlas of Wood County 6 Grand Rapids 8 Centralia Dam 12 The Wakely House 16 Point Basse 18 Granma 20 Swallow Rock 22 Nekoosa 24 Grand Rapids Street Railroad 30 Restoring the Mansion 32 Plumed Knights 34 T.E.Nash 36 Shanagolden 38 The Lost Marsh 40 Hog Island 42 Babcock 44 Pittsville 46 Vesper 48 Rudolph 50 Saratoga 52 Arpin 54 Skunk Hill 58 McCutcheon 64

Contents River City CCXXV 66 The Bridge 68 The Pinch of Unrighteousness 70 Grand Avenue 72 Wood County Telephone 74 Immanuel Lutheran 76 John Edwards High 78 Architecture 80 five & dime 86 Lincoln's Head 88 Brave Boys 90 Nixon 92 D-Day 94 Milk Strike 96 King of Fools 98 Ottumwa 100 Grim 102 Betty Boop 104 Summer Visitors 106 A Winter Day 108 Photos by Claflin 110 Index 114 Bibliography 119

River City Memoirs Volume III

Contents transcendental history:· a continuing series in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune 6 .5 4,

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R.3.B., l WOOD COUNTY G' j t j WISCONSIN 1928

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t.4,E. R:6B Grand Rapids

Like a woman, or any awesome boat as far as Kilbourn with some natural force, our Wisconsin in a sol­ boys, and camped on the banks. I stice season radiates beauty and went up the river above Biron and comfort. Yet in the period of equinox, fished and camped." the river can knock a guy around Above Biron, said Brazeau, there pretty good. were shallow rapids called Crooked That whimsy has provoked govern­ Drive, which were bad enough but mental attention. In order to prove not as bad as those below. At Biron the Wisconsin a navigable stream, was a sawmill and a dam with slides the Federal Power Commission held to let the rafts through and rocky rap­ a hearing in 1930. Power companies ids below it. "Shortly below Biron with dams on the river brought wit­ you came to what is known as the nesses, long familiar with -the wiles eddy. Between there and Big Island, of the Wisconsin, to maintain she rafts laid up after going through the could not now nor ever be civilized. Biron dam to repair the pieces. There Included was testimony by Theodore was always some grub or something W. Brazeau (1873-1965), the noted that got loose, or something broke, attorney. "I was born in Wisconsin and then they would gig back. They Rapids, which was then Grand Rap­ had what they called gigging cars. ids," said Brazeau, "a place I think The old lumber jacks kind ofliked the then of about 800 inhabitants, with little boys and let us ride in the gigs three or four saw mills; and the prin­ into Biron. Gigs generally had three cipal industry was lumbering." seats, and the men sat in those seats Brazeau said he learned at an early and went up to take the next piece age to swim in the river and spent all down." his boyhood along her banks, riding Below Biron awaited the "worst on rafts over the rapids when the piece of rapids that I knew anything . - j a.cks would let him stay on, walking about," said Brazeau, referring of on the log jams, watching men drive course to the great, granite, "grand logs over the rapids, watching them rapids." raft and going on the rafts when they "The stream was tortuous and the laid up, to get pieces of prune or dried rocks were rugged; impossible to nav­ apple pie, swimming off the rafts, rid­ igate, or even go over with a raft ing logs, and entering 4th of July log­ without artificial help so they built rolling contests. "I fished all along little wing dams. There was a couple the river when I was old enough to of brush dams that threw the water carry a fishline in my pocket, and into a narrow channel, and there was turned over the stones to get th under another place where they had a sort bugs, and fished for bass, suckers in of crib dam." season. I went down the river in a

Photographs: The Camera's Story of Raftsman's Life on the Wisconsin (1886), by H.H. Bennett. 8 I

Brazeau said the rafts were taken there was also a dam. "You went through the channels at "German through there on a slide with fingers," Rock" at high water. "In low water it he said. "One time when the slide got was impossible and they took them out of repair some way, they blew a over then with the wing dams and the hole in the dam, and turned the chan- . chutes. These chutes were arranged nel to go through there." with logs laid side by side, extending At Nekoosa was Whitney Rapids. down a couple of hundred feet. On the Below Nekoosa, what was known as end of those logs were fingers. Those the Bayous. There, "they struck sand fingers were like the fingers of a hand bars all through and in ordinary or and they were loose, so that they could low water you could not get a row boat float up and down with the water." through there without getting out and After lumber rafters got below the pulling it off or taking your oar out main rapids, said Brazeau, they and pushing off the sand bars." generally pulled in at the bridge here "When we got down to Kilbourn and laid up. Sometimes, while tied up, then we had a Dells to run," said Bra­ the water would "get away" from them zeau, "which is a narrow tortuous and they would have to wait weeks course, and many great fleets broke up "for water to get below them." on it, many men drowned and a great "Then we would swim off of those many men drowned at Wisconsin rafts, eat off the cook shanty, and Rapids, in log driving and rafting." have a good time," he said. To conclude his statement to the Just below the bridge was N eeves power commission, Brazeau said, Island and a series of bad rapids. "The "There has been no carrying of goods rocks were not as high, but when you up and down the Wisconsin River. The didn't have a good stage of water you only kind of traffic I ever saw, and couldn't make it over there at all be­ that was one way, was lumber, logs ca use the rocks were almost and rafts. That was difficult, hazard­ continuous. ous, expensive, great loss of the pro­ Brazeau said there was a bad stretch duct, both oflogs and lumber. As soon at Hurleytown, on the south side, and as they could find another way of car­ a dam of some kind. At Port Edwards, rying it, they quit."

The smallest component of lumber. of a Wisconsin River lumber Six or seven cribs, each raft was a "crib" of planks containing about 4,000 pinned together with "grub board feet of lumber, would stakes"-stout pegs fash­ then be fastened in tandem ioned from small trees. to form a "rapids piece." Planks were laid across the Two or three such pieces crib, which was then filled together comprised a raft. with 16 alternating courses

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The Centralia Dam

"Making the first trip over the new dam at half million feet of W.H. Cochran's lumber Centralia," reminisced Gustave Giese years waited above it in rafts. A few days earlier, later, "the crew was not feeling any too sus­ three trial rapids pieces had been successfully ceptible to dry jokes." sent over. The dam had been built the previous season "The water is high and strong," wrote the (1887) after the lumber rafts had gone down. Enterprise, "and while the experiment shows It was much higher than the dangerous Clin­ that the slide has been properly constructed, ton dam at Port Edwards and, said Giese, it requires the cool judgment and knowledge "there was no talk whatever among the men of a thorough riverman to steer a heavy raft for no one had any idea of what we were up in safety over the raging waters of the old against." ·Wisconsin, where they rush through a nar­ With Giese in 1888, the Wisconsin's last row passage at the rate of forty miles an rafting season, on the trial trip over the Cen­ hour." tralia dam were Jack Claire, Joe Whitney, "Another fleet oflumber rafted last fall, the Frank Brown, Ed Wheelan, Hans Halver­ property of Mr. J. Farrish," continued the sonn, Bill Madline, dirty Jack Mullen, George Enterprise, "will also have to be run over the Bennett of Baraboo and Charles Stainbrook. South Centralia Dam. We hope that it will The first four were old river captains, said meet with as good success as that of Mr. Giese, along to satisfy their curiosity. The Cochran." second four were new men who had never The rival Wood County Reporter of Grand been down the river before. Two of them quit Rapids, across the river from the Enterprise, for good after one trip. The other two quit offered a more jaded view. "We learned from after the second trip, both near-drowning rivermen in Centralia and Grand Rapids who cases. have run the Wisconsin river for years that Dams were provided with a "slide," over this slide is the most dangerous as it now which went the raft or "rapids piece." When stands of any on the river ... that they run a the first section crested the recessed slide, it piece of John Farrish' s lumber the past week kept going down until it hit bottom. All or and they stove the front crib and next to the partially submerged in the icy water, the men last one all to pieces ... the lumber just bur­ hung on for dear life to a "sucker line." For ies itself under water at the foot of the slide, many neophytes, one trip sufficed. More­ and men actually stand in danger of their dedicated river rats "gigged back" upstream lives." to ride another rapids piece down. The Reporter accused the Enterprise editor The year 1888 was not a good one for raft­ of a special interest in the Centralia dam and ing. An ice jam in April not only took out the continued its attack on May 24. "Every piece Grand Rapids-Centralia bridge, but also of lumber run over the Pulp mill slide at Hur­ busted up John Farrish's lumber rafts wait­ leyville, belonging to Mr. John Farrish, has ing at the Biron saw mill. Twenty-four rapids been more or less broken up. The rivermen pieces broke loose and scattered for 20 miles have become disgusted and insist that they downstream. are entitled to extra pay for rafting the same. Other obstacles were man-made. An April "While running the slide Monday four men 28, 1888, Centralia Enterprise and Tribune were thrown into the water. The rivermen described the Centralia Pulp & Water Power stand in fear of danger running every piece of Co. dam, built the previous year. Two and a lumber."

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Two days later, the Enterprise said Cochran's rafts had been run over the South Centralia dam without much dam­ age. "An immense volume of water pass-: ing over the slide through a compara­ tively narrow channel, caused, however, the forward cribs to dive below the dam and the front oars to break." A portion of Farrish's lumber, having been assembled in rafts the previous summer, was also run over, "and it appears that all the hind cribs were badly broken." "Mr. Farrish has yet a number ofrafts above the dam and another fleet in wait­ ing at Biron's mill," said the Enterprise. Cook Mike Lane and cookie Ashley Bennett. "It is also stated that J. Edwards and Co.'s little dam is, on account of a part of the large dam below being taken out, a bad place to get over. It would seem as though lumbermen and mill men had more than their share of trouble this spring.'' That "trouble" was responded to dra­ matically and controversially. "On Thursday evening last," said the Enterprise, "a hole about fifteen feet wide was blown out with dynamite in Messrs. J. Edwards & Co.'s little dam, to open a passage for Mr. John Farrish's lumber, in obedience to the latter's orders and in dis­ regard of Mr. Edwards' protest." "The use of dynamite to force solutions and remove obstructions," opined the Enterprise, "will be considered by many Muscular vigor in repose. Antoine Arpin, rear. as an unwholesome precedent, when more conciliatory means are within reach." With more dams obstructing the pas­ sage of wood, it was probably fortunate that the raw material had been largely exhausted. "Even if we had the timber we would not put it on the river," said Giese to the 1930 Federal Power Commission hearings. "They have the railroads, and they will never use the river again for rafting. "The pine that we have now, that will be used by the paper mills. By the time we get any more timber, by that time we will have airplanes that can carry several thousand feet, so the river will never be used again for that." Dick dancing for the boys. Dick Stevenson dancing, Zack Dugas, left, clapping, Jack Warnock, sitting fac­ ing camera. Big Archie Young near center pole. 14

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In the 1890s, a ferry crossed at Wakely's. The Wakely House

There is a place in the backyard of River City where the imagination may be emancipated from 1984 to other times, when wandering hunters arrived by pony or canoe to trade, drink, play and even die, when New York entrepreneurs sailed in by barge, wagon or steamboat to turn shingles into gold, when pinery boys rode down by rapids piece through the last white water to eat, rest and raft up again. All manner of travel­ ers were to stop here: homesteaders, journeymen and mission­ aries. Already on the National Register of Historic Places, this is the premiere historical site of central Wisconsin, the venera­ ble and stately Wakely house. Located on the east bank of the Wisconsin south of Nekoosa, the relatively small Greek Revival structure hosts a crowded history on both sides of its walls. Considered by historians to have been built in 1837, it is the oldest building in Wood County and has been called the oldest frame house in Wisconsin.

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In recent years, the Wakely house was inha­ Grignon's, "another French and Indian Half bited by Col. and Mrs. Charles Otto from whom Breed stopping place," suffered a transportation Nekoosa Papers Inc. acquired the property in breakdown in a severe snowstorm and her party 1972, allowing the former owners to continue to did not know whether to return or go forward. reside there. Now that both Ottos are deceased, After two days, Mrs. Anson decided to go on and the house is vacant and, consequently, endan­ that night arrived at Robert Wakely's at the geo­ \ gered by weather, disuse and rot. graphic location and settlement called Point With the indulgence of Don Krohn, manager of Basse, just below the last rapids on the river. public relations at Nekoosa Papers, I stayed at Mrs. Wakely was the first white woman Maria the Wakely house one night under a full spring had seen since leaving Portage. Overjoyed to moon. While outside, bats squealed and beat find a woman of her race and one who could talk their wings as they streamed from the decayed English, Maria stayed at Wakely's for a week gable, inside the rooms were silent. In the low­ until her husband came for her. ceilinged second floor, I watched and listened for Sherman also documents business done with ghosts. All that moved though was my shadow; Robert Wakely and Wakely's son, Chauncy, who the only footsteps that night were my own and was paid $80 in 1863 for "steering" lumber rafts too soon I fell asleep. through the Grand Rapids. In its other days and nights, the Wakely house On June 2, Sherman went to "Point Boss" was loud enough with French, English, Indian where he took a crib of lumber across the river. and immigrant voices. They had slept in these The "boys" "lost" half a day of work and Sher­ \ rooms, adjacent rooms and all over this property. man stayed at Wakely' s that night. The next day, One frequent visitor was Simon Sherman, a he ran three rapids pieces and credited "the lumberman from Stevens Point, who refers sev­ boys" with a half day of work. On June 4, he ran eral times to the Wakely place in his journals. three more pieces and paid Chauncy Wakely $12, In 1844, said Sherman, Maria Anson, young buying also $5 worth of supplies from Robert bride of a lumberman, traveling north from Wakely.

In another story of frontier hospitality, Sher­ with a friend, Mrs. Mary Wakely, although a man tells of the experience of Mrs. David Whit­ daughter, Harriet, was as sick as Mr. Whitney ney, her husband an early lumberman on the and not expected to live. river who "started down the river I think on the Mrs. Sampson "got a Frenchman and an first fleet of lumber and before he reached the Indian with a small birch-bark canoe and started shot tower (at Helena) he was taken sick with the that night on their perilous trip down the river." bloody dysentary." Whitney there was taken to They rode all night and all the next day until 9 the house of his partner, A.B. Sampson, where he o'clock at night when they arrived at Helena. The continued to get worse. next morning, Whitney died. Sampson became alarmed and wanted to send While she attended to her husband, Mrs. Whit­ for Whitney's wife up at "the mill" near Wakely' s ney heard that her daughter, Harriet, had also but Whitney figured "it was not the best as the died. Mrs. Whitney returned up the river-a trip distance was so far through an unsettled country that took several days because they had the cur­ and no roads and the only way a person could get rent of the river to contend with. Upon her arrival there was by boat down the river. Having the at Wakely's, little Harriet, believed dead and bur­ Dells which are 5 miles through to pass and the ied, rushed out to meet her mother, a surprise and annoyance of flies and mosquitoes which would great joy to Mrs. Whitney. be a great undertaking for a woman and he Mrs. Whitney's brave travels occurred in 1838. thought he would soon be better." The wilderness was dark and deep but, up at Whitney continued to decline. The next day Point Basse, there was a light in the woods. It Sampson sent a messenger to Mrs. Whitney with came from the same house that still stands alone the news. To hasten to her husband's side, she in our history, the Wakely place. found it necessary to leave her three children

17 Point Basse

Almost immediately after land here was Water,' and a general good time was had." opened to white settlement, Robert and Mary According to Malcolm Rosholt, the Rev. Cut­ Wakely sold their farm in New York state, bought ting Marsh ran into Wakely in Portage in 1849. a raft of lumber, sold the lumber in Cincinnati He said Wakely's face was red and bloated and and came to Wisconsin territory, poling up the that he used profane language, apparently Wisconsin River in a keelboat borrowed from because he had taken one too many for the road Daniel Whitney to Whitney's rapids, across from when he appeared at worship services that even­ the present Nekoosa. They arrived on June 2, ing. "Oh! What a life," wrote Marsh, "to live to 1837. Before winter, Wakely built a tavern at the have no reference to that what is to come." place called Point Basse, south of Whitney's mill The 1850 federal census lists 42-year-old Robert on an Indian river crossing at the northern reach Wakely as a lumberman owning a sawmill, logs of navigable water on the Wisconsin. The same and property valued at $3,000. His family con­ year, daughter Martha was born; she was Wake­ sisted of his wife, Mary, 38, and children ly's third child and the first born at Point Basse. Chauncy, Martha, Mary, Otis, Wm. L., Newbald Wakely temporarily left his tavern and trading and Alice, ranging in age from 19 to 1. Also in the post and followed the river north to Wausau and household were two women and 10 men, proba­ Merrill with George Kline of Grand Rapids. In bly household help and pinery boys. 1839, he went to St. Louis with lumber from In the 1851 supplement to the 1839 land survey, Whitney's mill where he met George Stevens, a Erskine Stansbury observed a road from "Pt. du fellow New Yorker. Wakely told Stevens about Bois" to Portage and a creek 10 links wide "with the pines and water power "up north" and that a sluggish current." He also named separately, I excited Stevens, so he came up to the land that although perhaps redundantly, Wakely's house would bear his name-Stevens Point. and barn, Wakely's tavern and a warehouse. In 1840, Wakely signed a petition asking for Stansbury said there was but a single house at the establishment of a mail route into the pinery. "Pt. Bausse," which he called "A noted place for Another white child was born nearby in 1841, refitting rafts after passing the rapids, before Henry Sampson, son of A.B. Sampson. A some­ their final departure for the Mississippi." An what drunken celebration was held at Wakely's, accompanying map shows Wakely's "tavern" lasting five days. just north of the mid-section line and a "ware­ The territorial census of 1842 mentions Robert house" south of that line in the position the house Wakely by name and indicates that in his house­ now occupies." hold were seven males and three females. In 1854, wrote Judge Cate of Stevens Point, During the Mexican war of that time, the Wakely, red-eyed again, rode his horse into the Whitney mill experienced a boom although sev­ Portage County courtroom and doffed his hat to eral workers had enlisted. Others came to take judge David Irvin, singing, "Hush my baby, lie their place, including Ira Purdy, a millwright still and slumber." from New York state, who put up at Wakely's Despite such displays, Judge Cate said Wakely tavern and at once found work building wing was "a man of high social qualities, whose good dams. nature never forsook him even when drunk." In 1844, according to Portage County records, Leonard Christian, born in the Wakely house Francis La Mere mortgaged several oxen to to Wakely's daughter, Alice, provided in 1965 I, Wakely pending payment of a promissory note of information about the place. } $63.87 and a "book account" of $5.48. He said that Indians driving ponies down the From its establishment in January 1845 until sand hill blocked the creek and turned it toward its closure in January 1850, Robert Wakely the river, an assertion substantiated by map served as the only postmaster of the post office at comparisons. Indians played and sometimes Point Basse. fought to the death on the hill where Alice had Capt.Joseph Cotey of Grand Rapids described seen them buried. Some of the conflict may have a trip along the river made in 1846. "The next been due to whiskey sold by Wakely. station was Robert Wakely's place at Point Wakely also dealt in another explosive, gun­ Basse," he said. "He also kept the 'Devil's Eye powder, made in a pit south of the house.

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Christian said houses didn't cost much to build Mrs. Wakely's hospitality and kindness were in the old days. Lumber from broken rafts was proverbial and many parties from the neighbor­ simply fished out of the river. He described build­ hood were often wont to congregate at the old ings on the side and top of the hill, both belong­ hostelry." ing to Wakely. Wakely died in the house on Feb. 18, 1893, A large addition had been attached to the old apparently after some years in the care of his house but was "torn down many years ago by my daughter, Alice Christian. His obituary said second cousins." Wakely had arrived in 1837 and for a time Mrs. Mary Wakely died at home on Dec. 24, worked in the Whitney mill. "Later he entered 1887, the same year, according to Newbold upon a homestead tract, which he owned until Wakely, that the large tavern on the old farm his death." burned. Her obituary states that she was the first Point Basse was dead too. According to George white woman to settle in this part of the country. N. Wood, the failure of the Nekoosa Lumber Co. The writer said that Mr. Wakely had built a about 1860 to develop the water power sealed the hotel and several stores "with the expectation village's fate. The leading store building was that Nekoosha (Point Basse) would eventually torn down, made into a raft and run down the become a town of importance. Later, the village river to Lone Rock where it was made into fi hotel. of Grand Rapids became the most important Now on the vacated but verdant riverbank trading point on the upper Wisconsin and the stands a house alone, a record without words village of N ekoosha now only stands as an old suggesting events such as those recorded above. landmark of former days." It is rooms and walls in which we listen for the Mr. Wakely, continued the account, stayed on footfalls of ghosts wearing shoes older than our his farm the entire time, "with wife sharing the own. fatigues and hardships of a pioneer's existence.

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__ J Granma

"Dear Children, Doc and Mary," began the buildings disappeared one by one. Standing ·1etter from Mary's father to the Garrett "Doc" virtually alone, the inn was kept ready. The Cowan family, addressed from "Port Ed­ much smaller house they lived in remained wards, Wood County, Wis." on Dec. 28, 1887. busy. Granma has passed away. She died the The hearse met us at the church. It was to night of Dec. 24th at 5 minutes past 5 o'clock. meet us on the nearby hill but we got in three She could talk up until within about 2 hours of quarters of an hour ahead of time. We had to her death. She spoke of you all often. Would wait at the church for the music. I wanted the like to see you but as she couldn't, she hoped hearse to come down to the house. He couldn't we would all meet in a better world. on account of it being mounted on wheels. At her arrival op. the riverbank land, The snow was too deep. Granma was the first white woman to settle Her hospitality and kindness were prover­ in Wood County. Now, on this snowy Christ­ bial. Many parties from the neighborhood mas 75 years after her 1812 birth, Granma often congregated at the old inn where the was dead. young and old would have a joyous time, I bought her a nice lot in the cemetery in always made to feel at home. Grand Rapids & a casket that cost $26.50. The It nearly wore me out being up so much shroud cost $6.00 that Ella and Alice bought. night and day. Granma couldn't bear to have The flowers to lay on her breast Alice bought. me out of her sight a minute. Mr. Wm Brown took charge of the funeral. Granma's husband himself was four years Years ago, Granma's husband had a vision older than she. They had been married 57 for his part of the Pinery. He dreamed that he years. would build a grand and commodious inn She had to be helped up every hour and that people from all places and all stations in sometimes oftener. She got so she shouldn't life would visit: wayfarers, wise men and lay but a few minutes at a time without being merchants alike. turned over & she couldn't help herself the The pall bearers were Mr. Rablin, Mr. last few weeks at all. Robert & Mohny Farish, Mr. Joe Wittny, Joe Mary O'Dell, born in New York state, mar­ Freeman and Wm Brown. The lot cost 15 Dol. ried in Genessee County, 1830, lived five Dan, Ella, Otis & Susan, Newey & Adaline years there, moved to Ohio for two, then by were all here when she died. Charley & Alice boat down the Ohio. were in the woods for Mr. Corkran about 18 or We have 15 to 20 inches of snow, enough to 20 miles away. They were not here when she make good logging. River closed in 2 nights died. the last of November. For a while, the dreams of Granma's hus­ Then up the Mississippi and Wisconsin to band came true. He built a large inn besides Portage, where she and her husband built a other buildings. And the travelers came. keel boat and poled further up the river to the We buried her Deem. 27. The funeral ser­ point below the chain ofrapids, arriving June vices were held in the Congregational Church 2, 1837. I at 2 o'clock p.m. There was a nice crowd for all The folks are all well as usual, with the it was a cold day. About 2 hundred of the exception of Charly Christian's children. townspeople had gone to Vesper with the They all have had the scarlet fever. The most school children on a party. of them are bad yet. But the wonderful town he envisioned on The inn? After seasons of vacancy, it the bank of the dark river in the great pinery burned the year Granma died, 1887. Her hus­ didn't quite come to life. A small village clus­ band would have to walk the grounds of his tered around the inn for a time before the few dream city alone.

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Swallow Rock

A chronology shows that "Nekoosa" means more than papermakers. "Swallow Rock" is at once the oldest and the newest river site of south Wood County. 1661: Father Menard, a French Jesuit descends the Wisconsin River by canoe to Swallow rock, a sandstone cliff on the east bank. He attempts to portage from the Swallow Rock Indian village to the Black River but apparently never makes it past the bogs west of the river. He is not seen again. 1767: Jonathan Carver, an English adventurer, is the second white man to mention Swallow Rock in his reports. Carver describes a mile of ruined breastworks flanking the east bank. He identifies them as the1work of Vauban, a French military leader. 1 1827: Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory (and Swallow Rock) paddles upriver to Swallow Rock, then a Chippewa settlement. He counts five swift rapids in the river and many natural mill races. When he returns to Green Bay, he so informs Daniel Whitney, an ambitious capitalist. 1827: Whitney obtains a permit from the Winnebagos to make shingles on the Wisconsin and employs 22 Stockbridge with his nephew David Whitney as superin­ tendent. At the mouth of the Yellow River, they make 200,000 shingles which are confiscated by Major Twiggs, commanding officer at Ft. Winnebago. 1829: Mr. and Mrs. Amable Grignon locate their trad­ ing post at Grignon Bend, miles below Swallow Rock. When floods wash their home away, they move upstream. 1831: Whitney builds, near Swallow Rock, the first sawmill on the Wisconsin River. It is run by David Whit­ ney and A.B. Sampson. Whitney also builds the first house in the area, a combination trading post, inn and personal residence. 1836: A treaty with the Menominee opens a strip of land three miles wide on each side of the river to exploita­ tion. Two mills are built at the Grand Rapids and one at Grignon's Rapids, two miles north of Swallow Rock. 1837: Robert and Mary Wakely arrive from New York. They build an inn on the east bank of the river down-

22 stream from Whitney's mill. The place is crowded every 1 · spring V\11.th travelers from the East. 1840: Joshua Hathaway has township lines surveyed so that the Menominee cession can be sold in parcels by the U.S. government. A town is projected on the east bank, near Swallow Rock. Letters of this year refer to Outagamie and Chippewa encamped along the marshy western bank, trapping beaver and picking berries. 1842: Henry Sampson, thefirstwhitechildin the area is born. A big party is held at Wakely's. 1853: Whitney sells Moses Strong of Mineral Point half interest in Whitney's mill. 1857: Albert G. Ellis writes in the Hand-Book of Stev­ ens Point and the Upper Wisconsin that several small steamboats have ascended to Swallow Rock and "Point Bas," "at the head of slack water below a great chain of rapids at what is called the head of navigation." He says Point Bas has but a small population but "will lay undoubted claims to one of the best Town Sites on the River." 1858: Strong sells his property to the Nekoosa Lumber Co. for $40,000. They build a dam across the river but high water takes it out before a mill can be erected. A second dam is built. 1861: The Nekoosa Lumber Co. goes bankrupt due to losses stated above, economic uncertainties of the Civil War period, the high price of standing timber, lack of cheap labor and the tendency of newcomers to supply their own lumber. Point Basse becomes a ghost town, Whitney's mill is demolished and Wakely's tavern does little business. 1870: The Wood family begins a cranberry marsh on the west side among numerous beaver lodges. "Nearly all the land in the extensive wood yard of the Paper company and west of the Lutheran church was where we picked our cranberries," wrote Wood later. 1872: The Green Bay and Lake Pepin railroad enters Grand Rapids. 1873: The Wisconsin Valley railroad reaches Grand Rapids. The leading store at Point Basse is torn down, made into a raft and floated down to Lone Rock. 1887: George Wood and his brother Frank buy the Strong property for $4,500. 1888: Thomas E. Nash of Centralia land buys the Wood lands in the Swallow Rock and Point Basse vicin­ ity for $8,000. Known by the Indian name for running water, "Nekoosa" will now achieve a more concrete destiny.

23 Nekoosa

"We shall decline to join you in the devel­ Tower drew up his plans for inspection by opment of the waterpower," wrote Frederic G.F. Steele, general manager of the Com-. Joy in 1889 from Detroit. Tom Nash had bined Locks mill at the time of its comple­ failed. tion. The cost would be $400,000. Nash wrote "We shall not attempt to build any more to Vilas on Jan. 14, 1893, that Steele, Garri­ pulp mills at present anywhere," said J.A. son, Patten and McN a lighten "dissected" Kimberly, president of Kimberly Clark Co., Tower's plan and decided that a dam, pulp Neenah, in 1891, "trusting that you may mill, boiler house and two-machine paper strike some good fellow to go in and make a mill could be built for $300,000, plus $50,000 fortune with you." for the Nash-owned property. Tom Nash had failed again. Toward the new company Vilas and Alex­ But he was soon to succeed-by finding ander committed $50,000 each, Patten and "some good fellows" to invest in his Nekoosa McN aughten together $125,000 and Frank paper mill project. The benefactors were Garrison of the Centralia paper mill split L.M. Alexander, Port Edwards, A.W. Patten · $50,000 with Steele. Nash's assets were and Patten's son-in-law, John McN aughten, valued at $75,000. Patten was offered the of Appleton, and Nash's old friend, William presidency but declined as did McNaughten, F. Vilas, in 1892 a U.S. senator. in favor of Nash. Garrison became vice pres­ On Dec. 15, 1892, Nash was able to write to ident and Alexander secretary-treasurer. Vilas (in letters now at the State Historical Patten and McN aughten joined the board of Society of Wisconsin, Madison): "The directors. Nekoosa enterprise goes along smoothly and On Jan. 19, 1893, Vilas told Nash that he everything seems to be settled except to have was willing to abide by the judgment of the the title examined and get an estimate of the others more experienced in paper industry cost ... At the request of Mr. Patten, Moses but that, "I should discount you a little now, Hooper of Oshkosh is to investigate the because I think you ought to be naturally ownership, and has promised to give his zealous for this enterprise." Vilas authorized opinion by the 22nd and Mr. Tower will give Nash to go ahead and represent him but an approximate estimate on the cost of the there was a problem. "You do not give me the dam, pulp mill, boiler house and a two name of the company, and I cannot very well machine paper mill not later than the 28th." write a proxy without it." L.M. Alexander, president of the John Ed­ Had the Madison dignitary picked up wards Manufacturing Co., Port Edwards, either River City newspaper, he would have wrote to Vilas on Dec. 16, 1892. "We had a been informed by the largest headlines that meeting with Mr. Tower, paper mill architect day. and hydraulic engineer, of whom you no "NEKOOSA," proclaimed the Jan. 19, doubt have heard Mr. Nash speak of as hav­ 1893, Wood County Reporter, "The Most ing once made a survey of his water power Valuable Water Power on The Wisconsin some time ago. The meeting was held in River to be Improved by a Wealthy Appleton with Mr. Patten and Mr. Mc­ Corporation." Naughten present." "NEKOOSA!" celebrated the Centralia "There is no doubt," concluded Alexander, Enterprise and Tribune, "The Future Rival "that our powers will all be utilized shortly of the Twin Cities in Commercial Impor­ for such purposes and paper mill men say tance. HALF A MILLION To be Expended that 'Nekoosa' is bound to be a valuable in the Development of a Mammoth Manu­ power for its size and possiblity of extensive facturing Center only Eight Miles South of development." this City."

24 Nekoosa Mill, 1898

"Tom Nash as great as Diana of the Ephe­ The latest owners had multiplied the value sians in the Estimation of our Citizens for of the land while in their domain. Moses his untiring and ultimately successful efforts Strong of Mineral Point had held it for 30 in securing the Great Accession to the Paper years, selling to F.J. Wood in 1887 for $4,500 Making Industry of the Wisconsin River who turned it over to Nash the following Valley." year for $8,000. For the same property, Nash According to the Reporter, nine miles claimed $50,000 worth of Nekoosa Paper Co. south of the twin cities of Grand Rapids and stock. Centralia was one of the best water powers With the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul on the Wisconsin, yet "unimproved" because and Port Edwards, Centralia & Northern of the great capital needed. Now a corpora­ railroads nearby, the Reporter believed tion of wealthy men had been organized. prospects were good. "They will have an The "water power" embraced land on both outlet to any part of the world.'' banks of the river for a distance of 2½ miles, The improvement of the property, said the adjoining at the north the John Edwards newspaper, meant the inception of quite a Manufacturing Co.'s property and to the promising village. The surrounding terri­ south the last rapids on the river, known as tory was already well settled and promised Wakely's. The descent of the 600-to 800-foot­ to become a great potato-growing center. wide river was 23 feet with 6,000 to 8,000 With an eye to the future, the Reporter said, potential horsepower between banks 30 to 70 "May Nekoosa prove to be a southern suburb feet high. that we can all be proud of."

25 When the Centralia Enterprise and Trib­ coming year, and it will require a very con­ une published their account of the Nekoosa stant attention and energy," returned Vilas, · Paper Co. project, they were no less ebullient "but I am sure you will justify all than the rival Wood County Reporter. "Once expectations." the wheels are set in motion," wrote the On Feb. 14, Nash used his new Nekoosa Enterprise, "the return for labor and capital Paper Co. stationary to write that prelimi­ expended will be beyond per adventure." nary estimates and drawings for the dam The Enterprise examined the members of and buildings had been examined, changed the "syndicate of capitalists" who had and agreed upon. His own salary had been brought their resources to Nekoosa. Messrs. set at $1,800. "We will have the most com­ A.W. Patten and John McNaughten of pact and complete paper making plant in the Appleton were pulp and paper manufactur­ state-modern in every detail-for less ers in the Fox River Valley. Their company money than plants of 25 percent less capac­ owned two paper mills at Appleton and two ity," boasted Nash. at Kaukauna plus numerous pulp mills along Alexander confirmed the hope to Vilas. the valley. Frank Garrison and G.F. Steele "Friend Nash is 'hustling hard' in his new were both "extensively interested" in the duties and I think it will not be long until he Centralia Pulp and Water Power Co. "and as will have each item of work well in hand." stockholders therein are the pioneers in Nash reported to Vilas on May 9, 1893. paper making on the Wisconsin river." ,"We commenced excavating for the paper L.M. Alexander deserved a large degree of mill yesterday and will be ready to lay stone credit. "Although he has been a resident here as soon as they can be got in on cars. Have only about four years, he attests the faith contracted for stone, brick, lime, cement, that is in him concerning our future welfare timber for the dam, water-wheels, pulp by investing his money here at home un­ grinders, and one paper machine and shall sparingly, as well as exerting his influence probably close for the other and water filters toward others to do likewise." in a day or two." Nash explained that he had Thos. E. Nash engineered the project, purchased for $19,400 a slightly-used 106- keeping the "advantages" of the Wisconsin inch machine then on display at the Chicago River water power constantly before the Columbian Exposition and made by the large manufacturing interests of the eastern Beloit Iron Works. The other- machine, 114 part of the state. "He knows that the waters inches, was expected to be provided by Rice, of the Wisconsin river are soft, are free from Barton & Fales of Worcester, Mass., as their lime, and combine the best elements for the bid of $14,000 was considered low. successful manufacture of paper." That price rose quickly. "I went to "Let the citizens of these cities therefore do Appleton Monday and we closed contract for everything in their power to hold up the the wide machine," wrote Nash. "Mr. Patten hands of these men in their laudable efforts had the specifications changed so it will cost to increase our wealth and enhance our us $24,350. It is going to be perfect." prosperity," urged the Enterprise. On May 29, Nash observed the work at On Jan. 24, Nash sent to Vilas the latter's Nekoosa "going forward at a good rate. The subscription for 500 shares of Nekoosa stock track will be in by Wednesday evening and I at $100 each. He said, "I am going to build a hope by a week from today to begin laying splendid mill-cheap. Messrs. Patten and stone for the chimney and boiler house Garrison will be of great help in selecting foundations." plans letting contacts for machinery, water Indeed, the work went well. The first wheels and boilers and I am confident when annual report to the stockholders included the plant is completed, the stockholders will all transactions from the organization of the be well pleased with their investment and companyinJanuaryof1893toJan.10, 1894. my care." The company, said the report, was organ­ "You have a great work on hand for the ized with a capital of $350,000, $300,000 in

26 #2 Paper Machine, 1900 cash by assessment and $50,000 for the at 50 cents per cord royalty. A contract was water power and 915 acres of land to which let to Lindahl, Moberg and Hanson for quar­ 40 acres were added. rying, hauling and loading at $3.50 per cord The first work done was to survey and for 3,136B cords. August Mante's company clear a town site. Next, negotiations pro­ of Kaukauna laid 1,211,500 brick made at vided for a connection with the Chicago, Watertown. Timber and lumber for build­ Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad with guaran­ ings and flumes amounted to 77,204 feet. In teed "Centralia rates" including $3 per car addition, 109,973 pounds of stuctural steel on building stone from the Worden quarries were used and 60,073 pounds of rack strips. in the township of Rudolph. As soon as the Besides the two paper machines, water ground would permit, excavation began for wheels from Ohio, grinders from Vermont, the boiler house, smoke stack, beater room, and boilers from Oshkosh were purchased. A machine room and finishing room. Moved telephone line was installed from Centralia. were 14,886.9 cubic yards of sand and 1,771 The cost of items large and small amounted yards of "sand rock." More was dug for to $253,617.98. wheel pits and tail race. With so much invested by a capable con­ Permission was granted by the John glomerate of "good fellows," the making of Edwards Manufacturing Co. and Mrs. W.L. fortunes could begin at the rapids called Wood to get rock from their Worden quarries Nekoosa.

27

------~--- ~--·--··-- In 1893, when Thomas E. Nash trans­ main thoroughfare is 90 feet wide upon ferred his property to the Nekoosa Paper Co. which all the business blocks face." for $50,000 in capital stock, not an acre of L.M. Alexander, president of the John ground had been improved nor had a struc­ Edwards Manufacturing Co. of Port Ed­ ture been built on the west side of the river wards, wrote on April 21, 1893, to Vilas. between Moccasin Creek and the Manz farm "Stores, dwellings, boarding houses and a at the lower ferry across from Wakely' s. The hotel are rapidly going up by private enter­ only reason a town was necessary was the prise. Mr. Patten spoke of building a $5,000 paper mill project. church this summer and donating it to some _Nash involved himself directly with the society and we are proposing to build a nice planning of the town as he wrote to William school site. A very nice town site is laid out F. Vilas, an investor. "We will want a post and streets are being opened up. A large part office early in spring and a daily mail from of the work on the plans for mills and Port Edwards. Two stores are about assured machinery have been decided upon and part and one of them if built as now proposed will of the machinery bought. We hope to have a be very nicely arranged for a post office. The very good showing when you come up." fellow is a Democrat too." On May 8, Nash wrote to the surveyor of In company with George N. Wood, who the plat to explain a small faux pas. "I had developed much of the Nekoosa area, a Cen­ forgotten about the names for the streets, but tralia Enterprise reporter visited on March will enclose diagram showing the names we 21, 1893. "Of course the town site at present have decided upon." The resulting noms de is in its primitive state all covered with trees, thoroughfare honor the investors in the brush &c." The Enterprise found a crew of Nekoosa Paper Co.: Vilas, Patten, Alexander eight men living in a shanty while they and Garrison. worked on a boarding house and hotel. Fred The Wood County Reporter inventoried Davis had material on the ground for a store. Nekoosa on May 11. "This suburb to the twin Wood himself had a 360-acre farm on which cities is rapidly building up and each visit we one building had nearly been completed. make marks many improvements." Men­ This, wrote the Enterprise, would be occu­ tioned first was clearing right of way for the pied the following Friday by Mr. Joseph C.M. & St. Paul railroad. Balderstone, Wood's nephew. That made The telephone line was in and the com­ him the first settler of Nekoosa. pany's office established. Several buildings "To reach the town site where the building were on the way to completion: Alfred Meni­ is now being done we had to drive off the er's saloon and boarding house, Mike Max­ main road about 100 rods right through the stract' s saloon and boarding house, James brush over a road in its natural state well Keenan's grocery store and Chas. W. Chris­ calculated to settle one's dinner," comments tian's restaurant. the newspaper. On June 17, the Enterprise reported that a Three weeks later, the Enterprise observed stage line run by Messrs. Boggs and For­ major changes. The boarding house pre­ bush had been inaugurated between Centra­ viously promised had been completed and lia and Nekoosa. occupied. The "company" had an 18- by 30- The Enterprise commented on July 15. foot office almost ready for occupancy. Ed "Nekoosa is flourishing like a Green Bay Davis was building a store, George Conely a tree. On the day of our visit, one hundred hotel for Mr. Burns, Mose Marceau a saloon, forty-six men were employed by the Nekoosa Frank Brown a dwelling house and Mr. Paper Co. in building their dam and getting Brower a boarding house. "Surveyors have the construction of their mammoth pulp and been on these grounds for the past two weeks paper mill under headway." The foundation and they have. the new village of Nekoosa for the new Congregational church had platted. Streets are laid out and some of them been nearly completed and former county are already cleared of brush, trees, &c. The clerk, Mr. William Hooper, now Nekoosa

28 Nekoosa

postmaster, had enjoyed a good run of Vilas about what the "History of Wood business, "which he hopes to materially County" called his "pet and pride, to which increase as soon as he moves into his new he contributed practically the sum of a store." human life to establish" forecasts the almost On Aug. 31, the Reporter noted three new instant community. "I have been wanting to stores and 10 new residences. The church write you of Nekoosa for a week but don't was nearly complete. Hooper's new store know where to begin ... there's a hotel, two proved to be "a very suitable place for Wil­ boarding houses, three saloons, two stores liam if he ever had courage enough to wed and four or five residences well under way some handsome young lady." and three stores and at least ten residences Another writer from the Enterprise visited to be built as soon as the RR is completed "Nekoosa" for the first time on Sept. 6. "A which will be about June 1st. There's a meat year ago where now the bustling little vil­ market under way. We have an office, a lage is located, we enjoyed a pleasant after­ blacksmith shop and a tool house and are noon's picnic amidst the solitudes of the going to put up a lime and cement house this forest. Now about twenty or twenty-five week. buildings-business houses and residences­ Each day is changing it so much that if I form the nucleus of what will shortly be a told you of half the work that is under way or thriving little town." arranged for, you would look upon it as a Nash's letter of the previous May 9 to fairy tale."

r 29

------L-~-- --- Grand Rapids Street Railroad

It is said that even non-users of the Grand between Nekoosa and Port Ed wards. Special Rapids Street Roadroad appreciated its ser­ cars made trips to the pavilion from both vices when Father Feldman of Sacred Heart ends of the line. The pavilion became a popu­ Catholic Church in Nekoosa droned on too lar spot for dancing, picnics and church long with his sermon. socials. On dance nights, the street-car line The blast of an air horn at 8:40 a.m. fol­ provided "doubleheader" service to handle lowed by several clangs of the trolley bell the crowds. · told the congregation and Father Feldman Extra service was also required for athletic that the southbound car was in. The sermon contests such as the big Nekoosa-Rapids had to be completed so that worshippers games, home talent plays and Sunday from Port Edwards could catch the 9 a.m. afternoon baseball games in summer at the trip back. Rapids South Side Park adjacent to the line. When Nekoosa was founded in 1893, the Stable ridership was provided by workmen road to Rapids proved none too smooth. en route to mills at Nekoosa, Port Edwards Until 1909, travelers had to take a horse or and Rapids. walk. In 1910, travelers got aboard the mod­ Business prospered. In the first year, the ern age by way of that most electric of moti­ cars carried 128,065 paying passengers and vational phenomena, the street car. Ener­ 2,453freeriders gaining a revenue of$10,477. gized by a power line above and riding on a The figures grew until the peak year of 1919, rail below, this new means of transportation when 581,979 paying passengers were car­ brought together two decades of passengers. ried and 3,650 rode free. Passenger income On March 27, 1909, a group of business­ that year totaled $49,891. men in Grand Rapids organized the Grand With the construction of the Grand Avenue Rapids Street Railroad Co. to build a trolley Bridge in 1922, the rails were extended line to Nekoosa. Officers were Neal Brown, across to the East Side at Vine (Grand) and president; L.M. Nash, vice president; G.M. 2nd streets. The addition of any east siders Hill, secretary; F.J. Wood, treasurer; B.F. with pedestrian bridgephobia couldn't save Wilson, M.C. Ewing and G.D. Jones, direc­ what was now named the Wisconsin Rapids tors. Laying of rail was completed Jan. 11, Street Railroad. After the end of World War 1910. Service started the same day. The I, automobiles came into general use and basic route began at Market Street in most street-car businesses declined. In 1920 Nekoosa and followed along the Wisconsin here, 437,582 paid to ride 104,657 car miles. - River to Port Edwards and up to Grand Rap­ In 1925, 270,780 paid to ride 93,956 miles. ids. There, the tracks took 3rd Avenue to With fewer and fewer riders, the miles got Grand Avenue and turned toward the last expensive. The company could not longer stop at the west end of the Grand Avenue cover costs and, in fact, began to lose money Bridge. in 1930. Cars left Nekoosa and Grand Rapids each The next year, 1931, the directors voted to hour. The first car to reach the "passing abandon the line. track" north of Port Edwards sidetracked to On June 9, 1931, the Wisconsin Rapids allow the opposite-bound car to pass. Only Tribune said it was sorry to see the aban­ two cars were used with two motorless trail­ donment. "Street cars seemed to differen­ ers available for rush hours. tiate between the country village and the In the year of construction, in order to pro­ enterprising small city, and Wisconsin Rap­ vide a destination for potential customers, ids will lose something of its metropolitan the company constructed and operated the air when the clank and clatter is gone. We Moccasin Creek Pavilion, overlooking the wish the venture could have continued Wisconsin River just north of the creek self-supporting."

30 It was a trend, said the Tribune. Street­ an inter-mill line. car lines with their expensive equipment Many of the rails remained undisturbed could no longer compete with buses. In until World War II, when they were torn out fact, on July 19, 1931, during the same hear­ and turned in as scrap metal to aid the war ing at which L.M. Nash applied for aban­ effort. donment of the street-car line, John Schenk A car barn on 2nd Avenue South between applied for a permit to begin a bus line. Boles and Woodbine streets was razed in That, in turn was opposed by the local Y el­ 1959. It had been turned over to the city low Cab company, represented by attorney under an arrangement that had the city Herbert A. Bunde. agree to take out tracks and other On Aug. 4, a franchise had been granted installations. to Schenk and denied the Yellow Cab com­ When the Moccasin Creek Pavilion was pany to operate a bus line on the same dismantled round 1929, salvaged beams route. The bus line no longer exists. were sold to Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The street cars and equipment were Now without street-car alarm to summon almost immediately sold. them, the congregation of the new church The right of way between Port Edwards could be subjected to that unique anguish, a and "Nekoosa Junction" was acquired by sermon with no predestined end. Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. to be used as

31 L

Shortly after he had retired one of the most majestic in for the night, Tom Nash heard northern Wisconsin. a sound that brought him The house, designed by sharply awake. It was a Ferry and Clas of Milwaukee, strange crackling noise from was to have over 20 usable somewhere outside his room. rooms, including two floors for Nash had spent Monday general living and a third with evening, Dec. 2, 1901, with his a ballroom. Only the choicest son, Guy, in the offices of their woods and fittings had been Northern Paper Co. Reaching used and every modern con­ home at 10:45 p.m., the two sat venience was provided. Con­ up a few minutes watching the struction had been on the fire­ new passenger train cross the proof plan, using brick and Northwestern bridge just steel for the exterior walls. All downstream from their west the interior woodwork had river bank home. been finished and the painters Noting that the train was were closing up their work. In late, Nash went to bed. In a a few days, the move would be few minutes, troubled by what made. he heard, Nash got up and But what was wrong? went to his wife's bedroom in Looking across the yard, the house they had shared for Nash could see the electric 20 years. Finding nothing out lights burning, as they should of order there, he went to the be. Every precaution, he felt, rear of the "old house" to look had been taken to ensure that through the window at the nothing damaging should empty mansion into which he occur. Waste and debris had hoped to move his family by been removed immediately Christmas. from every room as a precau­ For the 49-year-old son of tion against fire. Irish immigrants of modest Nash turned toward his bed­ means, this was a considerable room when the ominous crack­ estate, made possible by the ing sounded again. This time sale of water-power rights at he decided a tho.rough investi­ the "Grand. Rapids" to Nels gation was necessary. Slipping Johnson and J.D. Witter the on his clothes, he stepped out previous March. The $35,000 into the stinging cold be­ would almost pay for the home, tween the old house and the

32 new house. the engineer shut down the ner, Nash put it all back Now he could see something pumps. together. He had promoted the desperate was indeed amiss. Attempting to deal with such use of hardwoods and now his The northeast corner of his exigencies, the two companies friends in that industry re­ dream was aflame. He called worked until 8 a.m., keeping a placed the wood from their for help. stream playing on the smoking original orders. · The East Side fire depart­ ruins until the last vestige of By 1902, Nash's own health ment responded immediately. fire extinguished. Only the had begun to decline, due to However, by the time it found a great walls stood-roofless in the progressive-disease from place on the steep bank of the the December dawn. which he suffered. His later river to park the steamer, the Nash said insurance would years were spent as an invalid, water in it had got so low that it cover $9,000 of the total loss of enjoying at least the prized had to be taken back to the $18,000. view of the Wisconsin River engine house to be refilled. In How the fire originated, he islands outside his rebuilt the meantime, the West Side could not ascertain. Nash creation. company was slow to assem­ didn't believe the source was After Nash's 1917 death, his ble. When it did get its wagon the furnace, which was placed wife, Ella, continued to live in out, there was no team to haul in fireproof surroundings. Per­ the house until her death in Au­ it. The wagon had to be hauled h a p s a workman threw a gust 1926. The following half way to the fire by hand match into a corner or emptied month, the place was sold by before a team could be secured. coals from a pipe somewhere to the Nash heirs to the president It took 45 minutes to get water smolder and ignite later. Or · of the company Nels Johnson on the flames, a measure that some oily rags thrown in a pile and Jere Witter had formed, subdued them momentarily. in the basement incited spon­ Consolidated Water Power and Soon after 1 p.m., the flames taneous combustion. Though Paper Co. burst forth again from every he was greatly disappointed by When Stanton Mead re­ aperture. The roof and sup­ the frustration of Christmas turned from his honeymoon, ports were so burned that every­ plans, Nash immediately set he would find a suitable wed­ thing but the walls fell in a about having the work ding present awaiting him; his heap of ruins. restored. father, George W. Mead I, had The final outbreak of the fire Alfred C. Clas of the archi­ bought him the Nash house. was caused by the failure of the tectural firm arrived in Grand With the exception of an West Side waterworks, leaving Rapids on Wednesday. Yes, he added sun porch and terrace, the firemen temporarily with­ said, it could be rebuilt. The Stanton, who lives there now out water of any kind. It seems walls had stood the fire in re­ with his second wife, Vi, has the chimney had plugged with markably good shape, proba­ preserved the mansion intact, soot at the pumping station bly due to the steel lath used. a symbol of what paper had and the stack heated red hot so In the original grand man- afforded a certain river city.

33

------

Plumed Knights

For several days after the big rallies of front of their headquarters on "Main Street" Sept. 17, 1884, black eyes were the campaign of Grand Rapids and proceeded to the Green buttons of many political enthusiasts. Bay depot to meet their guests from Stevens The largest political rallies ever held in Point and Plover. The train was late. Mean­ Wood County had attracted crowds estimated while, approximately 500 Democrats formed at 7,000 to the downtown areas of Grand Rap­ a line in front of Dalke's saloon and marched ids and Centralia. On Wednesday night, sup­ with three bands across the bridge into Cen­ porters of Republican presidential candidates tralia and back to the courthouse at Grand James G. Blaine clashed with the followers of Rapids. "They paraded and howled to their Democrat Grover Cleveland. Also participat­ hearts content undisturbed," wrote the ing in the partisanship were the three local Reporter. newspapers. The Republican Wood County At the courthouse, the Democrats were Reporter promoted Blaine. The Centralia addressed by John W. Cary of Milwaukee. Enterprise and the Grand Rapids Tribune Also called to speak were James Meehan and stood by Cleveland and a Democratic ticket John Edwards. that included J.A. Gaynor for district attor­ At 8:15, the Blaine group arrived from ney, John Edwards for state senator, and Stevens Point and Plover and joined their Thomas E. Nash for state assembly. fellow Republicans, "every man sober, clean, Although there was sometimes a di~sion well dressed and none boisterous," said the among local offices, Wood County was con­ Reporter. With the Point marching band in sidered generally Democratic. The year 1884 the fore, they made an impressive spectacle, found the Republicans well organized and lights flaring from the tops of their uniform hopeful. Grand Rapids boasted a large hats, carrying torches and signs. The 216 contingent of "Plumed Knights," the party "Plumed Knights" were led by Capt. Joseph marching club honoring Blaine. A complete Cotey, R.N. Ragley and H. W. Lord. When the county ticket and a number of rallies had procession reached the post office, it stopped been arranged for. The biggest was scheduled and gave three cheers for Blaine and his vice for Sept; 17 at which time congressman Wil­ presidential candidate, John A. Logan and liam T. Price was to make the principal continued down Main Street and across the address. bridge into Centralia. From the choice of the date itself arose the At this point, the Democratic crowd in the fracus. The rally was to occur during the local west yard of the courthouse began cheering fair. Republicans claimed W.T. Jones, treas­ and firing off their cannon. According to the urer of the agricultural society and a promi­ Reporter, many Democrats decided the nent Democrat, had told J.D. Witter, presi­ Plumed Knights put on such a fine parade dent of the local Blaine club, that the Repub­ that they wandered off to follow the Republi­ licans could name their date first. They chose cans, leaving their speaker in the "soldier's day." lurch. So, however, did the Democrats. Neither After the Knights returned to the Witter would give in. House in Grand Rapids and paraded in a cir­ During the day of the 17th, said the Repor­ cle, J .D. Witter introduced Price from the bal­ ter, a large number of Democrats from Wau­ cony of the "Central House." The Reporter sau joined those in the twin cities; conse­ said Price scored some hard verbal blows that quently, the saloons overflowed. made the rank elements of the Democratic In the evening, the Republicans met in Party squirm under his fire.

34 The rival Enterprise said Price "made some loud and boisterous remarks calling the Democrats Ku-Kluxes and other pet names, as is his wont whenever he indulges in a polit­ ical bloody shirt speech." It was true, said the Enterprise, that the Plumed Knights were well uniformed. And why not? "The party to which they belong have been robbing the public for twenty-four years and what we want now is to turn the rascals out and then, may be, the workingmen in our procession can also wear Prussian helmets, sashes, little mantles and 'unicorns' and look pretty." As Price neared the end of his remarks, the Democratic meeting ended and the whole gang came down to disrupt the Republican meeting, said the Reporter. As the two groups met, the Democrats were accorded a "fair Tom Nash share of the street" while they were greeted with music and applause from the Republicans. Instead of going about their business as decent orderly citizens, the Democrats man­ aged to get on all sides of the "Blainites" and circled round and round, hooting, yelling, the Reporter is way off in its statements." swearing "and making veritable asses of The Enterprise maintained the Blaine club themselves." The villainy of the Democrats had come for the purpose of having a row and was ended only as the Republicans were that before they got to the depot, they were so ordered into line and crowded the "hoodlums weak they missed the return train and laid and drunken rowdys" off the street. around the depot all night and had to be By contrast, the Grand Rapids Tribune shipped home the next morning in a box car. claimed the Plumed Knights halted their A Republican participant, A.L. Fontaine, forces near the Democrats and attempted to of the Reporter, reminisced on Oct. 9, 1928, disrupt the gathering by playing the two saying that numerous fist fights occurred tunes at once and cheering lustily for their between the partisans and that the affair plumed leaders. They refused to let the Demo­ assumed a warlike aspect until the leaders of crats pass and forced them into the gutter both sides quelled the near riot allowing Price instead while their band played the "Rogue's to resume his speech in which he "dealt the March." The Knights, fully armed, called the hoodlums more powerful blows." Cleveland club "stinking democrats" and Until late that night, small bands of parti­ dared them to go through. sans roamed the business sections of Grand Many Democrats in the line, said the Rapids and Centralia,· undertaking many a Reporter, were too drunk to walk alone and "fistic argument." The Republicans, said were bolstered up by their companions. Fontaine, considered at the time they had the "Save a few isolated cases, where poor best of it but when election day came, Cleve­ whiskey had gained control," said the Enter­ land carried the county and with him the prise, "our men behaved well, and as usual, entire Democratic ticket.

35 T.E. Nash

Tom Nash knew what to do with the wards and to Remington where, with junk timber left after his predecessors his brother, Lawrence M., he bought a had taken the pine out of the pinery~ parcel of land and hired local Winneba­ The application of his idea resulted in at goes to pick cranberries, which were least one railroad, two towns, a paper shipped to Chicago .. mill, a pulp-buying concern, a bank and In 1882 or 1883, Nash was appointed a grand mansion along the Wisconsin traveling freight agent for the Chicago, River. In addition, Nash was involved Milwaukee and St. Paul, but resigned in one of the largest cranberry marshes when elected in 1884 to the state of the 19th century, four grist mills and Assembly. His service in the Legisla­ a street-car line.· He also helped create ture brought Nash into contact with several landmarks in the capital city. William Vilas, his seatmate and one of Nash rose to this accomplishment the state's most influential citizens. from a peasant heritage. His father, Vilas immediately engaged Nash to Lawrence, was a salmon fisherman assist him in one of his pet projects, the from the Irish village of Shanagolden development of the University of Wis­ near the river Shannon who immi­ consin. When Vilas was named post­ grated to Boston in 1850 to escape the master general by President Cleveland potato famine. in early 1885, the task of shepherding Thomas, the third child, was born the university appropriation bill April 4, 1852, at Zanesville, Ohio. The through the Assembly was left to Nash. following year, the family moved to After a substantial reduction, the bill's Wisconsin, landing eventually in Gran­ passage resulted in Science Hall, the ville township, Milwaukee County, as "old red gym" and a heating plant. Lawrence's employers moved their rail­ Vilas soon summoned Nash to roads even farther into the north. Until Washington as chief clerk of the post the age of 14, Tom attended Milwaukee office department, appointing him next schools. He spent a year working on a to the position of general superintend­ farm before, like his father, going to ent of the railway mail service in which work on the railroad, laboring at con­ he continued until 1888 when Nash struction while studying telegraphy, resigned to return to Wisconsin. That then a "high tech" field. year, he bought from George and Frank From 1866 to 1869, Nash operated a Wood the land at Whitney Rapids that telegraph in Iowa and Minnesota for would lead to the biggest project of his the Green Bay and Western Railroad. life. In 1869, he went to Fond du Lac. During But first, Nash joined his brother, the early 1870s, Nash worked at Sauk­ John L., in purchasing and operating ville, Amherst and Shiocton. In 1875, he the Neeves flour mill in Grand Rapids came to Centralia as station agent for (on the site of the present East Side the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul swimming pool). In 1890, he organized, road. as president and general manager, the Nash was transferred to Port Ed- Port Edwards, Centralia and Northern

36 Railway with tracks from Port Edwards to Marshfield. Under his leadership, the Wood County National Bank was founded in 1891. The cranberry marsh T .E. had bought with brother L.M. in 1875 had become one of the most successful in the area until drainage of bog areas caused drought and fires in 1892 and 1893, and he disposed of it. The last crop of berries brought in just enough cash to capital­ ize on the land purchase of 1888. In 1892, with local partners L.M. Alexander, F.J. Wood and Frank Garri­ son, and out-of-town investors Vilas, A.W. Patten and John McNaughton, Nash brought together the Nekoosa Paper Co. The following year, he built a T.E.Nash paper mill using as a central element the paper machine from the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. apportionment of rights according to In 1900, Nash acquired large timber amount of property and its value. How­ holdings in Ashland and Sawyer coun­ ever, the Nash brothers became dissat­ ties, including a mill at Shanagolden, isfied and, after a court battle with held in the name of the Nash Lumber other investors, placed their assets with Co., which was a partnership of T.E., the Nekoosa project. his sons Guy and James, and William The last 15 or so years of Nash's life, Vilas. The 1907 Port Edwards Fibre Co. despite his tremendous material suc­ absorbed those holdings as in 1908 cess, were characterized by his battle Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. combined with the progressive disease from which the Port Edwards Fibre Co., the John he died on Dec. 13, 1917. The funeral Edwards' paper mill, the Centralia Pulp was held in the mansion on the west and Water Power Co. and Nash's bank of the Wisconsin that seemed to Nekoosa Paper Co. in 1908. Nash served symbolize his success. "He was a man as president until 1910 when he re­ of tremendous vision and enterprise, signed due to a debilitating illness that and his contributions to the industrial has been diagnosed as "paralysis agi­ advancement of the State were both tans" or Parkinson's disease. many and great," wrote the Encyclope­ Had original plans worked out, Nash dia of Biography (1931). "The value of also would have been a prime mover in his accomplishments was not limited to the Consolidated Paper Co. Even before the period of his own life. They have 1890, a group of industrialists wanted a become instead a part of the very fabric dam at the Grand Rapids. Among them of Wisconsin's existence, forming the were T.E. ·and L.M. Nash. A memo of foundation on which the Common-· agreement was drawn up regarding wealth of today has been built."

37 ------·----~

Shanagolden

The town Tom Nash built, the town in There was also a two-room schoolhouse.. which young Herbie Bunde enjoyed the To the south of "downtown" a dirt road numberless days of childhood, the town, - led to the dam on the east fork where the with the magic name "Shanagolden" i~ lumber mill went full blast from 7 a.m. today no more than a country crossroad~ until 6 p.m. with an hour off for noon six a few miles southwest of Glidden. days a week. On the east side of the river Now a reserve circuit judge, Herbert A. a railroad ran from Glidden to Shana­ Bunde recently completed his Shanagol­ golden with branch lines extending west den memoirs. Reflective of community into the forest and the logging camps life and boyhood enthusiasms there, they there. depict a typical north woods sawmill Each logging camp was a temporary town in its heyday, as seen by a young settlement in its own right with bunk boy. , houses, horse barns, a camp office and a Shanagolden consisted of one street cook shanty where the cook was king along the east bank of the Chippewa and allowed no one but the privileged River and another street a block back, foremen, teamsters and train crew to connected by three or four side streets. talk. Along these streets were some 15 to 20 The horsepower available to the lum­ frame houses. The residents were almost ber camps and Shanagolden mill was entirely employees of the Nash Lumber impressive. Before the advent of steam Co. and their families, such as Al Mac­ engines in the woods, horses hauled logs · Donald, the locomotive engineer; Jay to landings next to the railroad and from Kimball, the conductor; Robert Elliot, the rail cars to the mill. expert logger; and Charles Bunde, Camp Six was several miles north of builder of railroads. Shanagolden and not located on any Charles Bunde was Herbert's father. railroad. Logs cut there had to be taken Mother was Alvina, who never really to the yard by logging sled in very cold called Shanagolden home. Home was weather when the road could be iced. To always Grand Rapids, where the family ice the track, ruts were made by a heavy had previously lived and to which they sleigh and filled with water by the road intended to return. icer, a large wooden water tank with The prize residence of Shanagolden sprinkling holes over the ruts. For half a was Nash Lumber Co. manager Guy mile down a grade on the iced road into Nash's dark-brown-stained European­ the log yard several times a day the pull­ style manor in the woods at the north­ ing team had to. go on the run as the east edge of the settlement. Bunde visited teamster with the reins tightly in hand there a time or two for cookies. Jean on the high-piled logs shouted at the top Nash was born there. of his lungs a warning of his thundering "Downtown" consisted of a general approach. store and post office to which was at­ Bunde enjoyed his early life in Shana­ tached the lumber company office, a golden even as the happy days were com­ boarding house, a bunkhouse, and, ing to a close. The town had no reason to across the street, the community build­ exist other than the mill. When a summer ing that later became the town hall. day in 1908 dawned with the flaming

38 mill fire blocking out the morning sun, warehouse and roundhouse had been hapless men stood with water bucket built. Lumber camps in the woods sent and shovel and watched their workplace their logs by track directly to Glidden burn down to ashes and a brick boiler where the railroad junctioned with the room. The end had come to the town and. Wisconsin Central. By the Central they they knew it. went to other places for processing in For the mill hands there was no more mills. Most probably were destined for work. There was no more work for the the newly merged Nekoosa and Port lumberjacks either and the exodus be­ Edwards paper mills. gan. For those in town with families who As all this happened it became appar­ felt the need to stay at least for a while, ent that the residents of Shanagolden work had to be found elsewhere. were living in the wrong place. Rather Charles Bunde eventually went to than try to find housing in the burgeon­ Foster-Latimer logging company sta­ ing burg of Glidden, many decided to tioned in Mellen, 30 miles north on the move there but take their houses along ..., Wisconsin Central. Each Sunday after­ with them. The first houses were moved noon he walked to Glidden and caught by railroad, including the Bunde resi­ the northbound passenger train to dence. Other were hauled, over the win­ Mellen. Each Saturday evening he ter, by sleighs, leaving a town behind boarded the southbound at Mellen and mainly of vacant lots. rode to Glidden. Then he walked home to The Bundes and their neighbors could Shanagolden glad to have a job. still sit in the same living rooms but the The next big change came when the view out the window had certainly Mellen Lumber Co. acquired timber changed. No longer- could they look at rights to the forests west of Shanagolden. their beloved pioneer home of a decade or Many former Nash Lumber Co. em­ so. They were now citizens of "Glidden," ployees signed on. However, the base for not that mellifluous place of youth and the new operation was not Shanagolden memory, the town called but Glidden; a headquarters, office, "Shanagolden."

39 The Lost Marsh

At the Juneau County border lies a square Roman A. Bissell of Wayne County, Mich., by mile of abandoned county land that once con­ way of Gardner and Gaynor, local attorneys. tained the cranberry marsh of an absentee Vilas said he was considering buying those landlord of some prominence, Col. William F. portions of Section 29 that he did not already Vilas of Madison. Vilas, at one time U.S. sena­ own. "You know I do not turn back after enter­ tor and also a member of President Cleve­ ing on an undertaking, and I mean to be a good land's cabinet, left at his death, Aug. 27, 1908, neighbor to you in the cranberry business." $1,828,934.71 in an estate that eventually went On July 7, Vilas said he was waiting to learn to the University of Wisconsin. about machine ditching he had apparently Letters now at the State Historical Society, contracted. In July, he sent "Henry" to Bab­ Madison, from Vilas to Thomas E. Nash of cock and expected "Mr. Dickerman" to join Centralia, his cribbage opponent and business Henry to arrange for receiving lumber to be partner, demonstrate some of the concerns hauledto the marsh for construction of a house manifested in the development of one agribus­ and other buildings. "The work on the marsh iness here. is getting on rapidly," Vilas wrote on Aug. 2, On Sept. 22, 1890, Vilas wrote that he had 1891. "The whole of the west side had been been going over a package of tax certificates ditched from the county line nearly two miles and deeds that Nash had sent him but needed north and the reservoir dam will soon be con­ a more complete set, lest the holder obstruct structed. Also drainage ditches forty to eighty the completion of title. "On examination of rods east of the west line." your plat book, it would appear that the Joy "It is very desirable indeed," Vilas added, tract of 24 forties in Secs. 32 and 33 may be well "that we should get to work on the road from utilized independently of the Bissell tract lying Babcock as soon as possible." Vilas continued north." Vilas contacted the Wood County clerk to discuss attempting to get the town board to and obtained in September of 1890 deeds to the put in a road, also declaring, "I want to go up land that had gone to the county in 1886 for during the time of cranberry picking, which I non-payment of taxes. Vilas wrote, that think will be peculiarly interesting." month, "It will surely be desirable to get the On Aug. 25, he wrote, "I intend to go to the original title before expending much money on marsh next Monday for a day or two and shall the lands, and yet I shall wish to crowd their hope to see you, either at Babcock or at your development as fast as may be feasible ... marsh where I suppose you will be engaged in y OU see, I want this so that I can have no picking what is left of the crop this year." hesitation in spending whatever shall be The town of Port Edwards agreed to build requisite to make a cranberry marsh to rival the road but the town of what was then yours." Remington refused even though Vilas offered Vilas felt he had to clear Bissell's potential to bear at least a third of the cost. "The road claim as previous owner. "We understood the will be ofreal value to the Village of Babcock," lands were abandoned for taxes and that we he argued, "because it will open the country could buy them for taxes, with a nominal price lying east ofmy land, and parties living there for the original title which was worth little or have already begun to move to get the advan­ nothing. If, however, Mr. Bissell is not willing tage of it." to sell on that theory, he must be willing to Winter allowed Vilas plenty of time to worry. redeem." In December, Vilas said he hoped to "I am a little troubled," he wrote on Feb. 15, have a survey made while the marshes were 1892, "to know just what is the best way to frozen but that Bissell still had not freed his carry on my operation up there on the marsh. I land. "By the way," asked Vilas, "where and don't quite like to build a house and have a how do you pay taxes on your marsh?" foreman and let him go on and buy the provi­ It was Feb. 10, 1891, before Vilas actually sions to maintain a family and hired men at received for $350 full title to his marsh from his pleasure. Of course, last year's operations

40 Col. William Vilas holding T.E. Nash's grandson, Tom, at Shanagolden were necessarily expensive. We had no road, and bridge. and we had a poor means of getting to and "I particularly approve the choice of a loca­ from the work, and the work was very much tion near the Cranberry Creek; for I have heavier, and I think will always be, than was always thought it desirable to be near enough presupposed." to the bridge and gates there to be able to get to On March 14, 1892, Vilas told Nash that the them if the occasion should suddenly require." recent blizzard had provided good conditions Vilas said he would telegraph Dickerman for lumber to be hauled to the marsh from Bab­ to stop building until Nash had the opportun­ cock. "The house should be west of the creek ity to contact him. "This house is going to cost nearer to Babcock than we originally talked me more than I expected it would," said Vilas. about." "I was astonished at the lumber bill ... but I Vilas supposed on March 28 that the lumber do not want it in the wrong place, and would was on the ground ready to construct a second rather wait two weeks." house. "I think I will have Mr. Dickerman go Vilas said he was too busy himself with pub­ up to the marsh at a pretty early day in April lic duties to attend to the marsh himself. In ... and open up the camp at the present fact, many of his letters were written from the house, and receive Mr. Dustin and party to put U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. The last let­ up the new building." ter in the collection relating to the Babcock One of Vilas' last worries in the construction marsh was written from Madison on Aug. 25, of the marsh was the location of the houses. "I 1902. "You will be busy this week, but perhaps very much desire that the house now there next week you can find out how the berry crop shall be moved over to the island where the is." new house is to be built, or to the neighborhood The hue and quantity of the 1902 berries on of it, if it can be moved on the frozen marsh." the Vilas marsh cannot be stated. After Vilas' He asked Nash in April to go down to the 1908 death, the trustees of his estate sold the marsh and help Dickerman locate the house. property. Whereas many of the 19th century Still he worried that Nash had put the house in marshes have grown conspicuously prosper­ the wrong place. "I feel very anxious about ous, this one was lost to a crop of another sort: this, fearing that we are going to get the loca­ swamp grass, popple, sphagnum moss and tion of the house too far a way from the dam jack pine.

41 Hog Island

Luella wanted to go along with Howard As Luella Copeland fried and the team he was taking out to do up some bacon on the kit­ some dragging work. "They had the horses hitched up to one end of the whif­ chen stove, she heard an fletree and I followed him. He stopped awful crash. At first she the horses until I caught up. He really didn't think too much blistered me, I'll tell you." Another early incident involved live­ about it. So many squirrels/ stock. The pet mink seized one of the fam­ around the place. Or it ily chickens by the head and wouldn't let go. "My oldest sister got the chicken by could be cats. When she the feet," said Mrs. Copeland~ "I grabbed saw a window screen had the mink. She pulled one way and I pulled the other. My brother came running. been pushed in, Mrs. Cope­ When he saw us, he stood laughing. Of land began to worry. All course, it killed the chicken." night long the dogs barked. After some years in Bear Bluff near City Point, the Teeterses moved closer to Dawn revealed the reason Babcock. Luella, then 12, saw a big town for the ruckus. A bear had with five taverns, two grocery stores, a livery stable, a rescue home for unwed visited the isolated home­ mothers and a concentration of large stead south of Babcock. railroad-oriented buildings. Older brother Howard worked in a train coal The incident might have shed. Her father laid ties. Luella served occurred 100 years ago. It up the meals at Mr. Stout's hotel (later happened last spring. the Berry Patch tavern). Most of the clientele were such as switchmen, Mrs. Copeland has lived in various brakemen and gandydancers. homes in the Babcock country most of It was best to take the train when pos­ her life. Born May 26, 1891, she is 92 or 93 sible. The roads through marsh country years old, she's not sure which. "I used to were often submarine. When Luella's live in a little cabin. You could hear the family moved closer to a schoolhouse, coyotes at night. When we lived on Hog the boys had to walk on both sides of the Island, my brother used to go out and corduroy road to hold the road logs down find whippoorwill nests all over the so the horse could get through the knee­ ground. There used to be lots and lots of high water. Behind came mama driving sandhill cranes. And prairie chickens. the cows and hogs. "We came across one Come daylight if you lived near a marsh marsh and the horses couldn't follow the of any kind you could hear them go road," said Mrs. Copeland. "The wagon 'boom boom boo!' " was loaded with chickens and bedding The nonagenerian's first memory is of stuff. That one horse would give a lunge a spanking at the hand of her older and get out, then it would go down again brother, Howard Teeters. Thre,e-year-old and it would give another lunge."

42 The wild marsh country provided picked arbutus and sold them to get cloth recreation, food and cash for Luella and to make our dresses, my sister and I. her family. If she can't hardly look at They carried them to Mather from all venison today, it's because deer was the around and sold them for 5 cents a only meat her family ever ate aside from bunch." a stray rabbit or two. Ditches along the The delicate and aromatic arbutus road to Mather spawned a few fish. Ber­ have nearly all been harvested now. ries, though, were Mrs. Copeland's spe­ They belong to the past. A picker appre­ ciality. With her husband, Raymond, she hended stealing one will pay a fine. came down every year even when they lived at Sheldon on the Jump River, As Luella Copeland sits Rusk County. Blueberries? There used to be an awful quietly in a chair by the crop around Babcock. You waded into south window of the old the marsh carrying two quart pails and carried them out full. At Babcock, farmhouse and evaluates Necedah or Finley you did pretty well: 6 the bears, deer and berries cents a quart. of her Babcock past, an Huckleberries? One year Ray was cut­ ting hay and ran onto a patch of huc­ awful screaming roar kleberries; half a pail from one clump. comes from somewhere the You ate a pie and your lips and every­ thing turned blue-black, just like other side of the wall. She drinking ink. You never saw such does not wince. It is only huckleberries. Raspberries and blackberries also the future or the portent of thrived in abundance but cranberries it. For a few years now a brought in the best cash. From the 8th of first-world power has been September to the 10th of October Luella - :, put a pan in front of her and crawled sending war planes on along on her knees, rakin'g the berries off training flights over her with her fingers. The ground was mostly dry but once in a while she'd get a wet house and the lowland sur­ marsh. The men for the most part raked rounding it. They drop fake in water wearing hip boots. Many of the . pickers and rakers were Indians who bombs and real bombs . were considered very skilled. In a day, They strafe the metallic you could pick a bushel, maybe a bushel sheds of farmers. They and a half depending on how the cran­ berries were. A bushel brought a 75-cent swoop above .the treetops card that could be turned in for cash. like monstrous swallows. Also good money was trailing arbutus, a big-leaved vine with pink and white Civilization, so far away flowers. There were oceans of them, said for so long, suddenly is Mrs. Copeland. "When we used to live on Hog Island, us girls wanted a dress for about as close and loud as Easter so Ma and my youngest brother can be.

43 Babcock

Emerson Hough, writing in 1899, his pocket some turtle doves which he seemed to feel some qualms about the had innocently been shooting that morn­ Yellow River citizenry. "These folks ing. Among these was a bird to which he around here have just got it in for the rest called our attention, saying it was 'too of the universe," Hough wrote in Forest & big for a dove' and he did not know what Stream Magazine. "They don't mean to it was." be unpleasant. It's just a way they have." "Why, that's a pigeon!" cried another Babcock, said the noted novelist and hunter. "It's a young wild pigeon." sportsman, inhabited a district lumbered Varney had shot the pigeon early in off for its pine 40 or 50 years before his the morning while it perched in a tree, visit. "Some of the hard wood has also the largest of a flock gathered next to a been cut," he observed, "and their re­ buckwheat field. The bird was about two­ mains rather a barren and desolate look­ thirds grown and the plumage was yet ing country, covered with fallen trees, pale and devoid of the luster of an adult burned stubs of pine, poplar thickets and bird. The tail feathers had been pulled wide expanses of grassy marsh running out in the pocket of Varney's hunting in between the ridges, which have been coat, but they were secured for identifica­ stripped of their timber." tion purposes, as was the skin of the bird. Hough said Babcock had been a div­ Along with the great circus-train wreck sion headquartes at the time the rail­ of 1910, the death of this little bird road went through in 1873. "There was ensures Babcock's place in our history an auction sale of lots, one brief day of books. glory, and then Babcock settled back The town, unlike so many of our river with a dull, heavy sag into a position cities, did not arise among sawmills and from which it has never since attempted shingle mills. The "History of Wood to emerge. A so-called farming commun­ County" (1923) offers a picturesque pro­ ity has tried to settle up that country, but trayal of Babcock's beginnings. the class of the population is like the soil At an earlier time, a settlement called itself, sullen and uncompromising. Remington was started on the west side Every man hates himself as well." of the Yellow River, opposite what would Hough's acerbic account is contained become Babcock. Meanwhile, J.W. Bab­ in a pamphlet by the State Historical cock, a Necedah sawmill owner closely Society of Wisconsin entitled, "Passen­ associated with certain officials of the ger Pigeons." With his companions, he Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, had come to hunt the prairie chickens having ascertained the railroad had de­ then so numerous. More significantly, cided to build a branch through Reming­ while the Hough party hunted, their ton, attempted to buy privately the guide, Varney, shot the last passenger Remington site. Unable to do so, he sent pigeon observed wild in Wisconsin. his agent across the river to buy land, "Still another bit of news, and rather without mentioning, of course, the pro­ an important one, came out during our posed rail line. little trip," wrote Hough. "While we were Having secured all the land needed, cleaning our birds at lunch time on the the Babcock Land Co. and the railway first day, our guide Varney pulled out of company made Babcock a division point,

44 Babcock

built a roundhouse and started trains however, only as long as the village there after 1873. A number of railroad remained a railroad division point. When men made Babcock their home and, for a the general offices followed the timber while, it flourished. The railroad com­ line to Wausau and the shops moved to pany built the large Oakland Hotel and Tomahawk, the railroad men left too. arranged their time schedules so that all According to the 1923 history book, "a trains stopped at Babcock to give crews period of depression and stagnation set and passengers a meal. Other hotels, in from which the place has not yet fully including one moved across the river recovered." The Oakland Hotel itself was from Remington, were established. There destined to become a rescue home for were also places, and not the least popu­ "mothers and children." lar, said the "History of Wood County," All in all, thought Emerson Hough, it where thirsty travelers could quench had become a solemn, weird, doleful sort their thirst with beverages not to be of country. "You wouldn't see a smile legally obtained at the time of the prohi­ there in a hundred years, and every one bition publication of the "History." acts as though he wanted to make you A dozen or so homes were erected by unhappy because he is unhappy the land company for the families of rail­ himself." road men. There were at least one of such For my part however, I have always classic accoutrements of village life as been partial to such "unhappy" places as the general store, dance hall, livery sta­ Wamsutter, Wyo., Trombley, Mich., Col­ ble, clothing store, post office and res­ chester, Ill., and Babcock. Maybe, like taurant. The general offices of the rail­ any River City historian, I have a soft road were west of the depot with railroad spot in my transcendental heart for a shops across the track. A water main place that has known better days and carried water from the railroad tank just shows it, a Main Street with a hangover west of the depot to the Oakland Hotel. of a past, a town that plays the blues like The prosperity of Babcock lasted, a great Hank Williams symphony.

45 Pittsville

The editor of the Wood County Repor­ later, Luke, 50, his wife and sons, Tho­ ter wasn't ready to award Pittsville the mas, John and Luke, set out after Oliver county seat, though, as he said, the city on the two-month journey by "prairie was making rapid strides toward be­ schooner." coming "a metropolis of no mean Luke found his eldest boy living in a proportions." small hand-hewn log cabin with Free­ When the Grand Rapids journalist love and Susie, their baby. The two fami­ visited in March 1887, Pittsville had not lies went to work on a new dwelling. yet settled into being what some later Before winter, they moved into a large, saw as a center of bucolic somnolence. It barnlike double house with two fire­ was a boom town, thriving on the manu­ places. Their "clearing" soon became facture of hardwood lumber products. known as Pitts Mill, a recognizable stop­ The S.C. Harmon & Son factory had ping place for pinery men going up and not yet started up for the season but down the Yellow River. Only a half­ would soon. "Their yard is well filled dozen whites actually lived at Pitts Mill, with stock which will keep them busy all however, such as Wallace Potter, Wil­ summer until late in the fall." Doud & liam Baker and Elijah Vroom. Son's stave mill was doing a good busi­ Despite any scholarly paucity, how­ ness and Mr. Lynch's new mill ran day ever, in the fall of 1859, 15-year-old Tho­ and night. mas Pitts set up a school in one corner of At the Pittsville newspaper office, the the big house for children and whatever Rapids writer spoke with the Independ­ woodsman might want to while away ent editor, Mr. Germer. He also discussed in this way winter moments. Civilization the hardships of camp life and early his­ accrued further the following spring tory of western Wood County with an old when a Yankee Trader named Goodsell pioneer, James Quick Severns, who had spread out a pack's worth in a rude hut come to the county in 1850 as the first and opened Pitts Mill's first mercantile settler in Wood township. Severns had establishment. built the first sawmill in Pittsville, for The population of the clearing and the C.D. Newbury, to be later known as school was decimated by the outbreak of "Pitts Mill." the War Between the States. Thomas, 17, Severns told the Reporter that he had John, 23, and Oliver, 30,joined the Union cut the first brush on the site of what was forces, leaving the Lukes Sr. and Jr. with later to be Pittsville on April 17, 1856. the four females. Severns sold his mill, That was the year Mr. and Mrs. Oliver six years idle, at this time to the Pittses Pitts arrived at the Yellow River, bearing and joined up with Company G of the the patronym that was to designate the 37th Wisconsin Infantry. He was site for the next century and more. wounded but returned to his family. Pitts, born 1831, had told his father, Oliver and Thomas also came back, but Luke, that he and his bride, the former not John. Fighting with the famous Iron Freelove Chase, were heading west from Brigade, John had fallen at their Pennsylvania home for central Chancellorsville. Wisconsin, where good timberland was After the war, mills sprang up along available for next to nothing. Two years the Yellow River "like prairie flowers in

46 --.--""'

1882 Pittsville's River Street (1st Avenue): Cotey Building, smokestack of A.J. Webster Hub & Spoke, smokestack of Doud stave mill, Pitts Hotel, Pitts home

spring," according to Cecil L. Munson in the Pitts Mill area. "The real life of the the Jan. 26, 1935, Daily Tribune. L.A. community began about forty years Houston built a saw mill for Mr. Hurl­ ago," said the 1923 book, "at which time burt and A.J. Webster assembled a water some mills were erected for the manufac­ mill for a hub and spoke factory. About ture of hardwood lumber. The hardwood this time, the scepter of the conifer king, manufactured being cut into barrel, George Hiles of Dexterville, had been wagon and beer keg stock." raised also. By the time of George Hiles' death in For a while, however, Pitts Mill re­ 1896, Pittsville had used up that resource. mained a Pitts town. Thomas bought The hardwood depleted, related indus­ Goodsell's store, the only one until A.B. tries closed down; their owners moved Cotey's in 1878. Thomas and Luke ran away one by one and, in most cases, took the only hotel. Oliver operated the shin­ their money with them. In the place of gle mill and the family farm. the lumber barons and lumberjacks came The site of what had become "Pitts­ the farmers, buying up cutover 40s at ville" was surveyed March 31, 1883, by what they hoped were cut-rate prices in H.W. Remington for George Hiles. In the hopes of hacking from the stumpland 1886, a village of Pittsville was incorpo­ another kind of crop. Many of them were rated. A year later, Pittsville changed to successful enough for their children and a "city" of between 1,100 and 1,500 peo- grandchildren to sell the farms 90 years ple, compared to a 1980 census of 810. later, take the money and move back to According to the "History of Wood the town that had in some way made it County," there never was much pine in all possible, Pittsville.

47 Vesper

For twenty years, old Vesper boomed and swamps." on the west bank of the Hemlock Creek. "A crew of 30 men are still pushing Then, fulfilling the common doom of the ahead this line northward and in the genre, the sawdust metropolis was wiped course of a month or such a matter work out by fire. will begin on the line between Vesper It had also begun in flames, when the and either Centralia or Port Edwards," steam-powered Gerard mill in the .town he wrote. Vesper is booming and Messrs. of Seneca burned, to be rebuilt later that Cameron and Jerry are the men to make year (187 4) at a site "removed from that it boom." of the one destroyed, a position contigu­ Sherry & Co. built a new saw mill in ous to their timber lands having been 1887, described by the Reporter of Aug. selected.'' The second location was likely 24, 1887. "The main structure, which is a the place later named Vesper. labyrinth of massive timbers, is nearly After two years of sawing, Gerard enclosed ... An able corps of artisans (also spelled Girard) and his partner, are busily engaged in placing in position Drake, sold to the Wharton brothers the tremendous frames, pulleys, shafts (also spelled Whorton and Horton) of and gearing, which are required to con­ Appleton, whose foreman was James W. nect and control the numerous machines Cameron. Cameron, with Henry Sherry to be used in and around the premises. and George Gerry (also spelled Jerry), There are two large wings on the south­ bought out the Whartons. easterly side of the mill, one being The first newspaper references found intended for the manufacture oflath and naming this place Vesper came in 1883, shingle, and the other for an engine shortly after it acquired a post office. room." "Times are dull here at present," wrote The company also built a new dam the April 19, 1883, Reporter. "Both mills across Hemlock Creek, widened the have shut down waiting for logs and the street and extended the railroad track road to dry up." The Sherry & Co. mill down the west bank to the new mill. sawed pine and made shingles. The other "And now the residents on Brooklyn side mill belonged to the MacKinnon com­ can now boast of having a line of street pany and used red or white oak in the cars running daily in front of their manufacture of wagon-wheel spokes. respective dwellings." On June 14, 1883, a newspaper writer The Wood County Railroad, in addi­ visiting Vesper was impressed by the tion to running short lines to the lumber furnishings provided by "Messrs. camps, extended north as far as Sherry Cameron and Jerry." "They feed, bed Station. and furnish their help the most complete Anotherlumberingfirm,J.W. Cirkel& of any mill company that we have visited Sons, who had recently burned out, in years." "exhibited such pluck and business The reporter rode the new Wood energy in replacing their stave mill, are County Railroad "from jumping off making things lively at Cirkelville, place, to jumping off place, a distance of which perhaps may "properly be termed about three miles. It is a pleasure to ride the 3rd ward in the city of Vesper." on this road built through thick woods This was old Vesper in the 1800s, at its

48 ------~~---~------~--~------

peak, prosperous and proud, its raison and into the lumber yard where about 9 d'etre plentiful and ripe for harvest. million feet of lumber were piled. "The On August 28, 1894, raison d'e~re and sawdust burned like powder and a strong reason for continuing ended. "The thriv­ wind swept waves of flame over the ing little towp. is all but wiped out,'\~ote doomed of the town. Half an hour after the Centralia Enterprise and Trib"l~e. the fire started, the mills, lumber piles "Ashes and ruins mark the site of_~ and houses were an angry roaring mass former industry. The sawn:\ill, planing of flames." mill, lumber in the yards artd about 25 There was barely enough time to save dwelling houses, in fact all of the little Mrs. Cameron's piano. town west of Hemlock Creek, was totally The Grand Rapids fire department wiped out by the fire." brought its fire engine and hose carts out The conflagration, said the Enterprise, via the recently constructed Port Ed­ originated in forest fires that had been wards, Centralia & Northern railroad, running through the region for weeks. but could only survey the ruins. Specu­ "But no immediate danger was appre­ lated the Enterprise, "The fire will prob­ hended. Tuesday afternoon about half ably mean the wind-up of affairs at past three o'clock the wind shifted to the Vesper as the mill will not be rebuilt, all south, and before anyone was aware of of the timber of the company having the danger, the fiery element was beyond been cut." man's control." As in many such instances, the flames The fire was first observed in the large had been only one step ahead of destiny boarding house in the southwestern part anyway as the last scraps of riches for of the town. From there, it leaped with the most part already exploited, fueled ferocious rapidity to adjoining dwellings the dramatic end to.old Vesper.

49 I ~~~~~ ------·------·---~------

Rudolph

Better termed Reed's Mill, "old Rudolph" Reed is at present on the Mississippi means the hamlet a mile west and one-half endeavoring to dispose of the products of mile north of the present village where his winter's labor. He has the sympathies once reposed a sawmill, boarding house, of all in this section." company store, schoolhouse and a few The Reporter reporter visited Reed's Mill residences. on a rainy October Monday in 1860. He Reed's Mill exists almost out of our found John Albee, the Elliott and Freeman grasp. No one remembers it. It has not "boys" and a large crew rebuilding the been documented. A few records remain in mill. "A substantial dam and foundation courthouses, archives and newspapers. have been made and the frame nearly It was probably 1856 when Isaac Reed of completed. It will be the largest mill in the Berlin, Wis., bought the timberland and pinery by fifteen feet." put up his mill. That was the year Wood After supper, amid mist and darkness, became a county and Rudolph became a the writer groped his way to the school township. Reed took out a mortgage on house "in the woods about half a mile from adjoining parts of sections five and six in any road" to hear a political speech, along the township of Rudolph. Tax records with what he considered a surprising turn­ relating to the mill in 1857 show its value out of 20. at more than $4,000. That year, Isaac sold The mill was soon completed and "ready his property to his son, Henry, then living for action." The saw was a rotary capable in Maine. of cutting 1,600 feet of lumber per day. In 1859, the mill and improvements were "Big sawing" was soon done. On April 6, placed by tax records in section five rather 1861, the Reporter printed these statistics. than six as it had been. The land was "Reed's Mill, situated in Rudolph, this valued at $3 per acre. week in 11 hours and 55 minutes, from 5½ 1860 brought at least two disasters. In o'clock A.M., to 6½ o'clock, P.M., (deduct­ February, according to the Wood County ing one hou:r and 5 minutes for dinner), cut Reporter, a Mr. Chase had met with a from 82 logs, without respect to size, 23,825 serious accident at Reed's Mill. Dr. Witter ft. of inch boards. The size of the saw is 52 treated the victim, who was improving as inches, a circular. rapidly as could be expected. "Chase is one "A common edger was used, and but one of nature's noblemen," said the Reporter, extra man was employed. Such enterprise "and his 'best holt' is to get around as soon and skill speaks well for Messrs. Albee and as possible." -- -. When that sawing is beat, the boys say On June 30, the Reporter said that Reed's they will try again." Mill had burned the previous Monday just Industry brought more casualties. In as the "hands" left for breakfast. Before May 1862, Mr. Mullen, "engaged in run­ aid could be rendered, the mill burned to ning 1umber for Henry Reed, was drowned the ground. "The fire originated by the at the Nekoosa dam last Tuesday P.M. friction of the jointer in the wooden Three others were over board but escaped. groove," the Reporter speculated. Al­ Mr. Mullen was an industrious and worthy though no lumber had been destroyed, the man. He leaves a wife and two children." machinery was considered severely "in­ In 1863, a French-Canadian became en­ jured" and probably "ruined." The loss tangled in a saw at the mill. His head, was estimated at $4,000. "We believe there arms and legs were severed. is no insurance," said the Reporter. "Mr. In 1866, Henry Reed entered a partner-

50 Clark & Scott Mill, 1890 ship with E.C. Clark and J.P. Scott of sawn. Previously it had been floated down Dubuque, Iowa, in which each received a Mosquito Creek or hauled to the Wisconsin third of the property, subject to previous River. However the railroad missed Reed's debts, including a mortgage to Isaac Reed. Mill by a mile. A spur was installed but the In 1867, Henry Reed, for reasons other village's doom was sealed. The farm town than the Rudolph mill, went bankrupt. His of the 20th century, "new Rudolph" was interest in the property became the prop­ bound to be on the tracks. erty of Clark and Scott. The Clark and Clark, still of Dubuque, and Scott, of Scott mill was listed in section 6 and Wood County, sold out on Aug. 31, 1896. valued at $4,728 in 1868. The mill property went to Julien Moscicki, Among those working for the new except for the Fred Hecox house, which owners was Frederick Rudolph Hecox, would be moved and except for a "crop" after whom the township is named. He had already growing, which would be harv­ a contract to tote merchandise from Cen­ ested by Scott. Moscicki reserved 13 rows tralia to their store at the mill. He would of potatoes already sold to him. leave before daylight and get back about 8 Moscicki also got 150 feet of track on or 9 at night. which lumber used to be run from the The coming of the Wisconsin Valley sawmill, 2,000 feet of cull lumber, 2,000 feet Railroad in 187 4 both helped and hindered of pine covering boards, some thousands Reed's Mill. For a time, it offered an easier of feet of" $8 1um her" and 89 acres. He also method of obtaining supplies and an owned the ghost of half a town, Old alternative route to market the lumber Rudolph.

51 Saratoga

Mabel Johnson thought nothing' of her Minnie and Peter. Peter took his father's 79-year-old Grandpa sitting motionless in first name as his last and, in Scandina­ the kitchen chair that warm June day, but vian fashion, became Mads Peter Johnson. she knew she must be quiet. The children On the other side of her family, Mabel's always had to be quiet as John Peter Mad­ maternal great-grandfather traveled to sen rested. He was known to be grumpy. Quebec in 1852 by sailboat. The trip lasted This time, though, was different. When six stormy months for Peter Jensen and Mabel's mother, Alice, saw Madsen, she his six children. His wife had died in the touched him and called to Mabel's brother, motherland. From Quebec, the Jensens "Johnny, go and get Aunt Minnie. Grand­ came by land to Kilbourn on the dells of pa is dead." the Wisconsin River. One of his children Aunt Minnie Petersen brought more was Mabel's grandmother, Martha. aunts to prepare the body for burial while The event that brought Martha and her Mabel's father, Mads Peter Johnson, went husband together was to cause his painful up town to Grand Rapids to buy a coffin death years later. and some ice. They returned after dark, Tom Knuteson had come from Norway placed Grandpa's body in a coffin and put to Koshkonong, Wis., where he heard of the ice in a tub near the casket for Mabel to the good times further north in the pinery. puzzle over. How did ice freeze in He moved up to Milladore to work in a summer? logging camp. There, he met Jens, Mar­ After the funeral in the house (Mads tha's brother. Peter wore a band of black crepe on his After a day of chopping timber, Tom, as hat), the coffin was hauled on Uncle was his wont, led the jacks in dancing and Andrew Hansen's lumber wagon to the fiddling. The pounding feet ,caused pegs Pioneer Cemetery. Mable rode behind with holding a rifle to the wall to give way. The cousin George in a two-seated buggy. gun fell and discharged. A bullet struck As she stood by the open grave, Mabel Tom, shattering his thigh. watched the· men lower the coffin with Friend Jens realized Tom needed nurs­ ropes and heard sand thud against the ing care and fetched an Indian doctor and wood three times as the minister spoke: Jens' own sister, Martha, to whom the "Earth to earth; ashes to ashes; dust to patient was later married. dust." Despite herbs and love, the wound did In a written narrative describing classic not heal. To kill the pain, Tom drank. His incidents of central Wisconsin immigra­ health declined. Two years before the end, tion and homesteading, Mabel Johnson, he took to bed. Only then did he agree to an now 89, describes, among many vivid amputation. incidents, the 1902 death of her paternal Six men held him dead drunk to the kit­ grandfather. chen table while physicians sawed his leg He who died quietly in the chair had off at the hip. But blood poisoning had bravely left his home and family in Den­ already set in. In 1885, "Old Tom Knute­ mark in the early 1860s to find a place in son," once a pinery boy, died, leaving Mar­ the new world.. His first choice, the town of tha and seven children, most of whom had Seneca, did not suit him. After a few years, by then married. he chose the town of Saratoga. When he Tom and Martha had come to homestead had established a home, he sent for his in Saratoga on the Five Mile Creek. On_e of wife, Metta, and his two youngest children, their children was Alice, Mabel's mother.

52 r '

Front: Kathryn, Mabel, John. Center: Alice, Mads Peter. Back: Emma, Clara. "I have a pout because Menzel took my new hat and put it on a pole," said Mabel.

The farms of John Peter Madsen and one side and Kate on the other, the immi­ Tom Knuteson were two miles apart, but grant told of his earlier life. that made them neighbors then. Madsen's A goose herder in Denmark, he had son, Mads Peter Johnson, beat a path earned 2 cents a day. In the Grand Rapids through the woods to Alice, married her area, he had worked as a chore boy and and took her home to the farm. Six child­ dish wiper at Rablin's boarding house and ren were born. The youngest was Mabel. had worked at Natwick's saw mill. Mabel's mother often spoke of her Johnson often told the same "old coun­ • younger days when she played with Indian try" stories over and over. The children children. One day an older Indian saw all listened anyway, charmed by plot and the youngsters playing together and asked cadence: The Six Men Who Traveled Alice's father if they were all his Around the World; The Copper Pot; The "papooses." He jokingly said, "yes," and Blacksmith's Cat. It was an adventure of the Indian went away shaking his head. the imagination secured by the crackle Mabel's father, "Pete," was ajack-of-all­ and warmth of the fire. trades who ran a blacksmith shop. Mabel His daughter, Mabel, has a similar stove liked to stop on her way from school and but she doesn't need it to tell a story. Do watch the sparks fly as he pounded a horse­ you know what she did after her Grandpa, shoe on the anvil. John Peter Madsen, was buried back in On long winter evenings after the chores '02? Mabel climbed up on top of the calf were done and the lamps lit, the Johnson house and jumped up and down. She yelled family gathered around the stove. Mother at the top of her voice. She didn't have to be knit stockings and mittens while father quiet any more! took baby Mabel on his lap. With John on

53 -

Arpin

Raw material: pine. and mill site on the Hemlock Creek in the Market: Midwest. early spring." Labor: immigrants. At the same time John Arpin, along with Transportation: PEC&N.. other major figures of the Grand Rapids Capital: J.B. Arpin Lumber Co. area, invested in the Port Edwards, Cen­ These forces combined in 1891 to pro­ tralia and Northern railroad. Tracks were duce an industrial phenomenon both laid in 1891 to the sawmill. According to unique and typical-Arpin, Wis. the Centralia Enterprise and Tribune of For a busy decade, what is now a bread Aug. 22, 1891, the Arpin mill on the and cheese burg of modest proportions ful­ PEC&N "is now running smoothly, and is filled the classic cycle of pinery exploita­ cutting about ninety thousand feet of high tion. Lumbermen bought up large tracts of grade pine lumber per day." timber, built a mill and a railroad to serve Arpin wrote that the company was very it, logged off the land and immediately busy "in the pioneer work of building began selling the cutover to prospective roads, dams, bridges and camps and dwell­ permanent residents, most of them ing houses and saw mill at Arpin. The farmers of European origin. Sherry Cameron Co. extended their log­ This was in central Wisconsin the ging railway to our saw mill site and later second major wave oflogging. Fifty years on this was taken over by the George Hiles previous, mills on the Wisconsin, Yellow Land & Lumber Co. and sold to the S.M. & and Black rivers had depended on the St. P. Ry. Co. and then the John Edwards waterway for a lifeline. Now the railroad Manfg. Co. With the aid of Walter Scott one provided. In its development, Arpin was of its members joined with others in the kin less to Grand Rapids or Nekoosa than building of the Port Edwards and North­ to lumber towns further north such as ern Ry. from Port Edwards to Marshfield Shanagolden, Auburndale and Mellen. passing within one half mile of our saw E.P. Arpin, a Grand Rapids business­ mill." man and public figure of the late 19th cen­ Although "good connections to the out­ tury and early 20th century, provides in side world" were soon established, "at the his memoirs primary information on the start it was almost impossible to reach town that became the chief perpetuation of Arpin with a load of material and when we his family's name. In 1882, Arpin wrote, went there we were glad to use a railway his father's lumber company began buy­ velocipede to pump our way there and ing up timber lands with Henry Sherry in back to Grand Rapids." the township later to be called Arpin. In No sawmill town history would be com­ 1890, "we had option on the Sherry and plete without a major fire and "Arpin" Arpin lands at $200,000 for the two thirds wasted no time in ·getting it under way. interest held by the Sherry Cameron Co. "We put up a large saw mill and had run it We in turn offered the property with our only a short time when it was burned interest to the J. Edwards Mfg. Co., but it down," wrote E.P. was not accepted." Insurance money combined with cash John Arpin and his sons, E.P. and D.J., on hand allowed "another but smaller therefore concluded to purchase the land mill" to be built"inte"nding to run it night themselves, organizing the John Arpin and day which we did and it served us very Lumber Co. in June 1891. Each held a well." third interest. "We started to build a dam The timber was close at hand, nearly all

54 Arpin saw mill, 1891. of it to the north, which was a downhill published in 1973 evokes some images: pull, according to Arpin. "We operated the men balancing on logs in the mill pond mill and logging and sawing at an eco­ prodding with pike poles as a tram pulled nomical basis and although we had hard the logs upward into the mill and the giant times passing through the panic of 1893 saws. Outside again, the lumber was we managed to win out and made $450,000 loaded onto skids and pulled by oxen to a at this plant." planing mill. Once planed, the lumber was The equipment for the Arpin mill had piled in long rows of square piles. originally been transferred from another A village had sprung up on a street near mill at Germantown. When in 1891 the the mill. Close by was the home of Joe best pines diminished and the Arpin mill Arpin.Just west was a sleeping shanty for found "breaking even" difficult, it was dis­ the men and a large boarding house. Other mantled and most of the machinery moved frame houses were built. A post office was 120 miles north, to a site near Bruce in established. Soon a dance hall, town hall, Rusk County. What was left was sold to store, creamery and church stood like a Bert Gaffney in 1904. row of suitors waiting for their mail-order The mill was gone and is now little brides. It was time for the next stage of remembered. An Arpin "Centennial" book civilization to arrive.

55

---~--~- --- "When I was a boy," said Emil Mueller, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Vandenbergen and "we wondered 'where were we going to family came in 1912 from Sheboygan shop?' " In the years following the clos­ and, on a cold November day,· found ing of the Arpin mill, a choice was avail­ shelter in what seemed to be a boarding able. First, there was "old Arpin," the house. They lived in the cold, many­ sawmill town that, in 1908, consisted of windowed "mansion" until they could 17 company hquses, a Presbyterian purchase 80 acres of land overpopulated church, the Modern Woodman hall, by stumps and a woodchuck for every Whittingham's store and post office, stump. Damrow's creamery, Schumacker's sa­ Charlie Grimm came from Monroe in loon, Winebrenner's boarding house and 1900 and worked with his new wife, August Mueller's saloon. At another Fannie Altman, for the Arpins while the place was "Martin's Town," a prospec­ Grimms cleared their land and built tive "Arpin" a mile or so south of old their first home. "My dad, with his Arpin and just east of the railroad tracks. brother and their dad, drove eight cows Here, Martin Pfyle's hamlet had a store, to Wood County with a team of oxen and saloon and cheese factory. Third was the a covered wagon," said Louis Grimm, depot site. The original railroad had who now lives in that first house. "He missed old Arpin by three-quarters of a walked three miles to the mill, wheeled mile, a whim of fate that was to spell its lumber 10 hours a day for 10 cents an doom. hour and walked home. My mother The Schweitzer Heimat initiated the worked in the Arpin boarding house. The exodus in 1909. The first structure of the country was wild, nothing but brush, new town at the depot was this Swiss stumps and big rocks, and not a furrow tavern, built by Jacob Grimm. "They plowed. In the valleys, you could see pine could have named it 'Grimmville,' "said stumps. Arpin took the cream." Louis Grimm, "when Grandpa's saloon Emil Passer came from Fort Atkinson was the only building in town." in 1897, after seeing an advertisement in Soon added were Wittman's black­ a German-language newspaper listing smith shop, Roehrig's livery stable, "wooded acreage in Wood County for Roehrig's hardware store, Jim Howlett's sale by George Reynolds." He rode with saloon, the Soo Line depot, the North­ his brother, August, in a "Milwaukee St. western depot and the section foreman's Paul" box car with his cattle and horses. house. Seeing the writing on the plat, The rest of the two families arrived three Martin Pfyle abandoned Martin's Town days later in another boxcar, this one and move his own store to Arpin. filled wtih family possessions of a more Whittingham's store and the Wine­ civilized sort, such as furniture. brenner hotel soon complemented the The group lived at the old logging earlier entries. "They just moved out of camp until homes could be built. In the the old town," Gay Vandenbergen said. meantime, Passer men, women and "They tore down the old company houses children helped clear the land. Daughter and rebuilt them." Martha also worked as a cook for the Moving into the settlement were new Arpins. In 1903, she married Herman people, come for the most part to farm the Mueller, whose moveable sawmill supp­ rich soil between the stumps left by the lied lumber for many of the buildings of John Arpin Lumber Co. In the interim new Arpin. between arrival and homestead, the Herman Mueller came from Brillion in immigrants lived where they could, often 1895, with his brother, August. For a in abandoned buildings. time, the Muellers shipped hardwood

56 Street Scene in 1900's, present location. fuel to lime kilns in distant parts of the cut timber on their own lands, becoming state. farmers in the end. The Matt Cutler family came in 1901 More immigrants, originally from Hol­ from Fond du Lac, in a boxcar loaded land, came in the 1890s and 1900s, with cows, horses, machinery and furni­ brought by a smooth-talking land agent ture. The first time he actually saw in Chicago who convinced them life "Arpin" was in the summer of 1902, said would be a breeze where land was cheap. I Percy Cutler in the comprehensive They hauled logs to Arpin and Sherry "Arpin Centennial" book (1973). "I came mills to get lumber for their homes, some to meet the train ... Arpin was all trees working in the Arpin mill while clearing and brush right up to the railroad tracks, their land. where now stands the village." A group of Jewish would-be farmers William Proesel came in 1897 from came in 1904 from Milwaukee and settled Illinois, with five friends who had pur­ on a large tract of land. chased 480 acres. They spent the winter Further west, at Bethel, Seventh Day in an unused logging camp north of Adventists began their separate but Arpin. In spring, they put up a frame interrelated community. building and lived there until each had These and many more had come to set­ his own building. Money was obtained tle Arpin: Bymers, Elmer, McChesney, by cutting wood off their land. Schultz, Kohls, Sommerfeldt, Johnsrud, Steven and Martha Stoflet came in Thiemke, Esser, Wernberg, Zieher, 1899 from Sun Prairie and lived with Becker, Hohn, Edwards, Sawin, Schill, their seven children in a logging camp Graham, Lochner, Wittman, Gruetzman, while clearing 60 acres that first winter. Yoss, Schiller, Snow, Kegler, Lewis, The logs were hauled to the Connor Broecker, Morris and Hamel. In 1890, sawmill at Auburndale. In spring, they there had been none. Now there was a sowed grain among the stumps. whole klatsch of adventuresome and Immigrants came from Sweden in futuristic Arpin enthusiasts. 1896. They worked at the Arpin mill and

57

---·---~------

-----•Skunk Hilt-----•

My paralyzed limbs as Skunk Hill. I had slept nevertheless grew like less than an hour. roots across the land as I Now I could get up and tried to rise and turn but walk in the moonlight, no matter how hard the past the cemetery and the struggle within I could eternal red light of the not affect my arms and radio tower, past the legs; helplessness suc­ warming house to the cumbed to ~oom, a great northwest escarpment. scream flew across the From its crest, where all night and I was awake. had been dark 100 years It was not my voice. A ago, could be seen clus­ large bird, or the shadow ters of lights. These were of it, passed over the villages illumined by the place as I lay dreaming ambition of Mr. Arpin, at 3 a.m. on Aug. 22, 1983, Mr. Sherry, Mr. Came­ under a spruce tree at ron, Mr. Connor and Powers Bluff, also known friends.

1924

58 Mr. Levi Parsons Powers,- a prominent on the skids at convenient places on said businessman and judge of Grand Rapids, lands all the white oak on said lands fit for apparently lent his name to Powers Bluff, merchantable logs." I although he never owned it nor lived on it. Besides the hardwood timber on top, In the past, the bluff was commonly called some suspected another commodity under­ Skunk Hill. Its earliest known name was neath. When Nash sold to William Grant of Tah-qua-kik. Milwaukee in 1887, he reserved to himself a I Rising 300 feet above the surrounding royalty of 40 cents per ton on all "merchan­ land, this Arpin-area landmark, the eroded table" iron ore. Grant was to begin sinking I peak of an ancient quartzite mountain, is test pits within a year. ~ ~ the highest point in Wood County. In rela­ "There is considerable excitement about !. tively recent geologic time, about 500 mil­ iron prospects [at] Skunk Hill," corrobo­ lion years ago, the mountain remnant be­ rated E.P. Arpin-in his journal of June 9, gan to sink beneath a sea to be buried by 1887. On June 10, he and his brother, D.J., sediment. When it emerged, the shale and traveled "up to Skunk Hill and examined sandstone was stripped away by erosion prospect holes there." Not much appears to and the naked rock stood much as it does have come of these exploratory digs. now. Although they didn't yet own the bluff, Our "history" of Skunk Hill begins the Arpins had interests there. E.P. wrote, around 1880, when Vesper, a few miles to on Dec. 7, 1889: "Made sale to J.W.C. the south, enjoyed its industrious begin­ [Cameron] logs on Skunk Hill." "t ,,,,, nings and a series of absentee land­ On Dec. 11, Arpin referred to a new log­ I ;:1 investors passed between them a large ging camp started on Skunk Hill by his ' tract of timberland including the hill: family's John Arpin Lumber Co. The fol­ Sampson to Lloyd to Scott to Nash. lowing day he wrote, "Closed deal with Mr. In 1885, T.E. Nash, of the PEC&N rail­ Cameron on the timber Skunk Hill. Located road, signed a contract with the Henry camp on SWSE 28 and walked to Vesper. Sherry company (Sherry, Geo. W. Gerry Recd $2,000 on log deal." and James Cameron) in which Nash The owners of John Arpin Lumber Co. agreed to manufacture oak and bass wood bought Skunk Hill in the 1890s and owned into stave bolts "the exact length and qual­ it until they closed out their Wood County ity to be the same as that generally required holdings in 1904, retaining the right to by J. W. Circkles and Sons at their [Vesper] remove their planing mill at "old" Arpin. factory ... also to cut into logs and deliver

59 The Arpin firm sold the acreage to the Ofte­ lie and Stondall Land Co. of Madison. From Oftelie and Stondall, Skunk Hill went to C.E. King. From C.E. King, it became the property of personnel who used another semantic con­ figuration: 40 acres to Squaquishgoqua, Shohn, John Louie, Mixequa, Keo Komoquah and Shau Wa Gnouck. These were Potawa­ tomi who had paid $125 each. By 1928, all Indian names had been re­ moved from that forty on top of Powers Bluff. Just south, however, four 20-acre plots still bore the titles of White Pigeon, Shon Kokach, Eagle Pigeon and J. Luly. For these years, the Potawatomi had used government paper to own their land, al­ though they believed it was theirs already. On Sept. 16, 1906, the Grand Rapids Tribune reported that"Arpin Indians" claimed Skunk Hill on the grounds that it had been set aside as a reservation and "startled" Arpin "settlers" by erecting shanties on tracts they liked. The claim was not honored. A representa­ tive of the Department ofinterior was quoted as stating the government tract books showed no such entry. Another reference to the "Arpin Indians" in 1917 said "survivors of the Potawatomi tribe ofindians residing at Powers Bluff' had reasons to expect 80 years of back payments from the United States totaling $427,000. The "survivors" nevertheless lost Skunk Hill be­ cause they did not pay the required property taxes. The land came into the hands of H.F. Roehrig, upon whose death his wife sold 50 acres to the township of Arpin in 1933. In 1936, the township of Arpin deeded Skunk Hill to Wood County under the name of Pow­ ers Bluff. A 1948 purchase added 50 acres on 1 the north side. In 1962, the estate of Lloyd Felker donated 60 acres on the east. The cum­ ulation is now a Wood County park. So the old mountain became public prop­ erty. Or, as the Daily Tribune of July 3, 1936, remarked regarding this island of owls, trilli­ ums, perambulations and dreams in the sea of civilization that presently encircles it, "And so, again, Skunk Hill returns to all men, which is only another way of saying that it belongs to itself."

60 b--- . ------A farm boy digging in sand finds the first skull. The bone shell is brown and brittle but the teeth are sound enough to please the half­ Indian hired man. The man extracts the teeth and carries them a long time. Three skulls found in a mound south of Pow­ ers Bluff County Park, near Arpin, illustrate people traversed that terrain well before memory and without other documentation. Their heads are relics of the "mound-builders," who came and went before history. It is said the Potawatomi, who came after the --1,llOund-builders, lived at the hill, known var­ ibusly as Pwa Keek, Bald Mountain, Tah-qua­ kik, Powers Bluff and Skunk Hill, in 1866. If they did, they were fugitives. Most of their brothers and sisters had been forcibly removed to Kansas. Preferring Wisconsin, some of the "Prairie Band" migrated back in the 1890s. After wandering the swamps of the Big Eau Plaine and suffering a cholera epidemic that wiped out much of the population, a group settled at Skunk Hill in 1905. Here they enjoyed for a decade a thriving community that acted as a rendezvous for the Kansas prairie branch and the northern branch. With tribal payments received from the U.S. government for land near Mayetta, Kans., the Skunk Hill band bought homesteads near Mary Day, Julia Waubiness, the quartzite outcroppings. For a decade, the Sarah Pigeon Young sometimes numerous band lived in bark huts, tents, logs and cabins on the recently logged "bald mountain." However, by World War I, many moved away, some to Kansas. In 1923, the only permanent residents were John N ouwe, Mrs. Rose Decorah and the Eagle Pigeon family. Albert Thunder lived at the south base, where a second settlement had arisen. Sev­ eral frame houses were erected on Indian-owned land on the south side of the east-west road that transverses the hill. At one time, houses were owned by John Quotose, Eagle Pigeon, John N ouwe, Frank Young and Frank Aniwash. About the time of World War II, younger members had departed to find work. Aged rela­ tives could not maintain the property or pay the i D taxes. One by one, the sites were abandoned­ the last in 1944. Mary Day (1898-1984) was born in Kansas and came to Skunk Hill with her grandfather, White Pigeon, in 1905. Whereas in Kansas, the family had lived in a house, here they lived in what seemed to Mary a flimsy shelter in a wild woods full of deer, porcupines and mosquitoes. Bears came around too but were frightened away by fire. Home of Frank Young

61 Upon arrival, Mary's family camped in tents drummers, the latter going from one drum to by the Arpin depot. Toward autumn, they built another until all drums have been in use. Eagle bark wigwams. She remembered early residents Pigeon, who wears an eagle feather in his hat, is Joe Cook, Joe Turtle, Joe Bill Potts, Indian Joe, one of the leaders. The old men, White Pigeon, Tom and John Young, the Kitchkummes and John Mustache, John Nouvee, Jim Young, and the Shegonees. Receiving "lease money" once a a few others, are the speakers. After each inter­ month, some bought 20-acre parcels. val one of these gives a brief address. The Link After a while, said Mary, it seemed so many boys, Bill and James, are masters of ceremony people died, of tuberculosis, pneumonia and old at the dance. The women at certain times join in age, and the land went back for unpaid property the chant but do not dance." taxes. AVes per newspaper, the State Center, of Oct. White Pigeon, or Wah-me-me, was the best 10, 1912, depicted the scene. On the summit of known and closest approximation of a chief to the hill, an arena about 65 feet in diameter had the Skunk Hill band yet he was a Winnebago been "scalped," the sods piled around the out­ who had walked back to Wisconsin from side as seats. At the entrance stood three Amer­ Nebraska where he had been taken by federal ican flags and one white flag. Four or five Indi­ troops. He married a Potawatomi named Mary ans beat drums while "a weird song in Indian Kitchkumme and lived with the Potawatomi so fashion" was sung or chanted. "When the long he was canceled from the Winnebago roll. drummers would start a piece some of the older Emma Doering Brody, Richfield, born 1901, Indians would get up and dance by merely keep­ related her first meeting with White Pigeon. She ing time." The younger generation played said her dad was driving the bobsled and she drums or sat outside the arena. was playing in the back when they met an old A number of rituals involved tobacco. As the man walking and offered him a ride. "I was participant entered the arena, he went to cer­ afraid of him," she said. "He just laughed. Later tain stations and offered pieces of tobacco as he put his hand on my head and said I'd make a sacrifice. After noon dinners, elders brought out good squaw." pipes three feet long and artistically carved. Louis Grimm, Arpin, born 1902, said his They were lighted and passed around for each father was similarly alarmed when he looked up male to take two or three puffs. The "white from a task to find a group of Indians waiting man" writing thought it odd that each Indian for him. They had come for lumber to make a had a can or spittoon beside him to spit in. "Sev­ rough box for a grave. eral times we noticed one squaw pick up her can After that, Grimm's new neighbors often and holding it about three inches from her face stopped by to purchase chickens, eggs or wood­ expectorated into it by squirting the spitum chucks. Indian Bill would ask young Louis, between her teeth." "You got woodchuck today? A little ripe? Oh The observer noted that White Pigeon seemed well, take skin off, it'll be all right." to be spokesman and acting chief. "White "Eagle Pigeon owned 40 acres at one time," Pigeon is a good Indian. He neither smokes, said Grimm. "He had a pretty good house, a chews nor drinks and greatly abhors these barn and a chicken coop. My dad bought it. evils. He is much opposed to white people giving Little by little, they all disappeared. Aniwash liquors to members of his tribe or otherwise and Young stayed the longest." molesting their peace." During their tenure on our highest bluff, the For that matter, White Pigeon probably Potawatomi pictoral spectacles and auditory wished the State Center would have stayed spectaculars provided exotic memories for other­ away. "The Indians do not like to have white wise insular agrarians for as miles during cer­ people around when they dance. Much less tain calm summer nights the sound of the would they allow anybody to take a picture of drums went out from Skunk Hill. With the the dance." The Drum Dance was a private rit­ sacred Drum Dance born in the 1880s, the Indi­ ual at a sacred place where a spiritual people ans enlivened their pantheistic vision. worshiped a god unknown to most Vesperuni­ The "History of Wood County" describes the ans and Arpinites. The journalist had intruded. four-day ritual in 1923. "It is conducted in the Here was another culture desperately trying to dance circle. There are five drums and eight save itself-from him.

62

McCutcheon

place, a hook or two to hang pots and The upper Wisconsin kettles on and an iron kettle to bake pinery: clearings in the bread in when he did not bake in the ashes. dark woods, nights made From that "hotel" the family went to hideous by the howling Point Basse where the Wakely's inn hosted the travelers. "I do not think there of wolves, the barking of was any other white woman living there. Indian dogs and the hoot­ I know I was the first white child who could claim its nativity," said Mrs. ing of Indians and owls. Yarker. Nights mad.e frightful by Although it was so wild, people arrived at the village of Grand Rapids a few the not-very-distant glim­ miles upstream expecting to find rail­ mering of fires and dark roads and boats. The McCutcheons asked Mr. Bloomer of Grand Rapids forms with painted faces wnere his railroad was on which the cars were said to run every day. The next and crowns of feathers, morning he took them out on a lane cut surrounding their heads. through the pines. After a mile they came to an opening. There he pointed to In those days it was the railroad: wooden rails servicing a nothing uncom1mon to wooden car for the purpose of carrying logs to a mill. As for boats, they were keel see from the door of the boats that came up the river only when house bears of wolves. the water was high. Making lumber was carried on rather Many were shot from the informally. Anyone who could afford a bedroom window. yoke or two of oxen hired a couple hands, went into the woods the best place they So describes the narrative dated Sept. · could find, built a house of pine logs in 18, 1875, of Mrs. S.J. Yarker, daughter of one day and commenced logging. The Rapids pioneer Hugh McCutcheon. logs were hauled to a stream which car­ On the way north from Madison ried them to a mill where they were con­ through Portage and into the pinery verted into lumber and run down the around 1840, Mrs. Yarker's parents, Wisconsin. stopped at a hotel, though "not much When Mrs. Yarker was seven years after the modern style." It consisted of a old, her parents took a place 12 miles double log house, one part a sleeping from Grand Rapids, about three miles room and the other a dining, cooking and from Plover and six from Stevens Point. sitting room generally. The cooking was "Father cleared off a place and com­ French because the host was a French­ menced farming on a small scale, the man (probably by the name of Grignon). first farming that was ever done in the His apparatus consisted of an open fire- pinery," she wrote.

64 ------

McCutcheon raised good corn, pota­ had pointed a gun at him. Then the In­ toes and oats. "It was afterward found dians began to gather around the house. there could be good wheat raised and a The executioners of the dead dog had grist mill was put up "between our place gone off to eat it. Those remaining called and Plover, on a: stream called the Big the former visitors "bad Indians and Plover." The farm was placed in the Chippewa" and said that they them-­ midst of an Indian sugar maple camp selves were Menomonies. "which made the Indians very angry Mrs. Yarker's mother wasn't sure. and they threatened to kill -us." Mrs. When an old Indian asked her to light his Yarker's father soon made friends with pipe through the window, she stood on the Indians. Yet, she wrote, "they would one side of the curtain and reached his steal from us whenever they could." One long stemmed pipe without letting him day about noon,' the pioneer farmers see her. \ noticed a patch of turnips wilting and The events happened long before Mrs. pulled up a few. Someone had taken the Yarker wrote them down. "I have since roots and set the tops back on the ground. met old men who said they had held me Potatoes were scooped up from under the when a babe," she wrote. "They are al­ VInes. most all gone now. Weston and King­ "Hand soap was to them very valuable ston, of Yellow River, are all that I can in dressing buckskin, and many a piece I locate. Bloomer, the first mill owner, and laid on a railing on the side of the house first in almost everything, was almost to see if I could tell how they stole it. I king in those days, for we had no laws found they would stand with their back of State or county; he was found dead against the house, put their hand behind in Galena more than thirty years ago; them, raise up their blanket, and take it; his loaded wagon having passed over a proceeding I used to like to watch at the him in the night. Clinton, another mill expense of considerable of my mother's owner, was killed by a saloon keeper a soap." few years since, he having attacked his Another incident occurred that Mrs. door with a tail, his men being there Yarker said she would never forget. drunk." Three young Indians came to the house "David Sheldon, who claimed to have wh~n the men were gone, went to the discovered Grand Rapids, died between cupboard and took something to eat. Portage and Madison; it was thought by Then they called out one of the young many he was poisoned. Brawley, dogs and shot him. another early mill owner, died or was "Mother always thought her life killed in the last war. Esq. or Col. Alban, depended on her courage, or the appear­ a very old resident of Plover, was also ance of it; therefore she went out, took killed in the war. her other dog up, carried him in, telling "My father, Hugh McCutchin, died the Indian when the men came home, here about three years since." which she expected soon, they would pay Mrs. Y arker, too, author of the narra­ for it. They told her to go in or they would tive, has herselflong since joined the old shoot her too, a command she instantly pioneers of the pinery who saw what we obeyed." do not see and heard what we do not Soon Mrs. Yarker's brother came run­ hear-wolves howling by night and by ning almost frightened to death saying day the falling of ancient pines. there were Indians in the cornfield who

65 River City ccxx-v

The latest from the office of city historian here could be reduced to one, with the consequent is that 1984 brings a remarkable anniversary to increase in efficiency. To entice the Centralia our town: 225 years ofincorporation. This means citizen was prospective use of the Grand Rapids Wisconsin Rapids has more history than any public library. other city on the upper Wisconsin River. At the same time, twin city businessmen How was the exact figure arrived at? Grand lobbied for consolidation, the Wisconsin Rapids, on the east bank, incorporated in 1869, Valley Advancement Association promoted a 115 years ago. Centralia, on the west bank, "general awakening" of settlement, investment incorporated in 1874, 110 years ago. The rest is and manufacturing all along the Wisconsin simple-minded addition: 115 plus 110 equals 225 River. sometimes glorious, often dreary but always his­ Other than such abstractions as prejudice, toric years. jealousy and hatred, no strong arguments Let's consider for the moment how the "twin against consolidation were outlined. Apparently, cities" became not two rivals divided by a great the greatest fear was that one side's Peter would stream but one symbiotic municipality bound by be taxed to pay for the other side's Paul. This a bridge of concrete and commonality. would not happen, said the Enterprise and the By 1873, approximately 35 years after the first Reporter. Both sides would be represented in a settlement, suggestions were made in the direc­ common council and taxes would be levied in the tion of merger but it was not until March 13, 1900, interests of the whole. "Centralia's much prized that the matter was referred to plebiscite. Pushed waterworks system had very bitter opponents," mainly by the new Business Man's Association, said the Reporter. "The retaining wall, public itself formed to further the mutual interests of the buildings, macadamized streets, in Grand Rap­ twin cities, the consolidation was supported as ids had bitter opponents; but substantially all well by both the west side Centralia Enterprise these now recognize their error. Effect consolida­ and the east side Wood County Reporter, who tion and in a year's time you will wonder how you printed the same lengthy argument prepared by ever came to be opposed to it." a bilateral committee. "As one city, with united An 11th-hour meeting was held in the Daly business and commercial interests and with a Block Business Men's rooms for a capacity 200 population of 4,500 to 5,000, their standing in the Centralia voters, who were as a group known to business and commercial world would be im­ be more hostile to the proposition than their east­ proved." Already, the argument read, the twin bank cousins. Chief among the speakers was cities, of equal size, had the appearance of one B.R. Goggins, who said the tax issue was absurd community and in a business and social sense and that the interests of the two sides of the river were. were in harmony, not opposition. Also influen­ Compared to such metropoli as Wausau (popu­ tial was Lester A. Rose of the Wisconsin Valley lation 15,000), Stevens Point (9,500) and Merrill Advancement Association. (9,000), said the report, "We have the greatest Rose said that men who "toil for a living, need waterpower on the Wisconsin River, and our not be told that the greater the population the natural resources and general surroundings are more diversified the industrial institutions at such that we ought to be the leading city in the any given point, the better the pay, the more valley; yet our standing in the business world is harmony between employer and employee." He far inferior to that of a number of other cities said the time would com:e when such as an opera whose natural advantages are much less." house might be desired. "Now, what would you Examples of previous cooperation were "our do if you started to build an opera house and excellent local telephone exchange" and "our requested a subscription from your citizens as we fine and efficient system of electric lights." did in Wausau? You would bump up against the Hoped for was free delivery of mail, possible only proposition. 'Where is it going to be built-in with a larger census or increased business. Also Grand Rapids or Centralia?' wouldn't you? And, to be expected was a reduction in the cost of pub­ then if it was decided to build it in Centralia, you lic improvements such as sidewalks and sewers. Grand Rapids people when asked for a subscrip­ A strong argument was that the two high schools tion, would say 'nit' and vice versa."

66 ' f'.l I' ! 1884 Centralia city hall, moved in 1900 150 feet back from Cranberry Street

! After the vote, the Reporter exulted. "This is Lela Winn, (born 1891) remembers that even the best day in the history of the twin cities. though her family was moving that day from Never before did light shine so largely and oppor­ their Commercial hotel, her father put up a tunity shower so lavishly upon the sleeping and greased pole on the corner for the crowd's placid places. By an overwhelming vote on Tues­ amusement and she watched from the present day, March 13, 1900, the twin cities of Grand Daily Tribune location as parades crossed the old Rapids and Centralia, in Wood county, Wiscon­ bridge. B.R. Goggins, mayor-to-be, in top hat and sin, were consolidated." tails, cut a stately figure leading the celebrants, "By that vote," continued the Reporter, "the she said. · threefold needs of the hour for our city and our Tuesday, March 13, 1900, recorded the Enter­ homes were handsomely emphasized-Freedom prise, had witnessed the passing away of the city to stand alone-sanity to see a brother's needs of Centralia, and, they might have added, the and worth-fraternism to lift him up. The golden "Centralia" Enterprise. "The name is no more. It I age for this new city is in the future, not in the has been wiped off the map by the will of its I I past, and today the citizens tread upon its very citizens. It remains the same city as heretofore in I threshold." population, strength and industry only. We have A Only 11 votes out of 331 in Grand Rapids been joined to Grand Rapids, and that city takes ' opposed consolidation. In Centralia, the margin a jump in population of nearly 3,000 souls in less I was narrow, 244 in favor and 183 against. than a day." Jubilation reigned. Whistles were tied down "Put your shoulders to the big municipal wheel blowing, every bell in the cities rang out, fire­ that so advantageously doubled its size in a works exploded while bonfires illuminated an day," said the Reporter, across the way. "Let the animated scene. Tin-horn hands played con­ history of the progress of Grand Rapids from stantly. The streets were crowded as revelers now on be the keynote to the mental growth and paraded over the bridge and back. enlightenment of the people."

\ 67 \ 1866 Wooden Bridge The Bridge

Joining the east and west sides, in what now is The 1866 charter allowed Wood County to take Wisconsin Rapids, has not been easy. For the over the bridge, provided the county permitted free first 30 or so years of settlement here, there was passage and paid a fair price for the structure. In no bridge at the "grand rapids" of the Wisconsin 1873, the county purchased the bridge for $10,000, River. The settlers on the east bank, Grand Rap­ but soon allowed the span to fall into disrepair. ids, and those on the west, Centralia, were for the When the bridge was built, Grand Rapids­ most part content to stay at home. Should a des­ Centralia pretty much ruled a one-town county. perate Jack spy what he figured to be a pretty Jill But now a new force had grown up in the far across the way, he could commandeer a flatboat corner: Marshfield. The northwest forces did not or canoe for the short, but turbulent, trip. care to spend money for upkeep on a distant The first attempt to span the tide for the bridge and, in 1876, Neeves and his cohorts sued general interest came in 1857, when Eusebe La a reluctant Wood County to compel it to repair Vigne, under a charter from the state, com­ the bridge. The state Supreme Court ruled that menced a regular ferry service. The force of the the county must indeed assume that reponsibil­ river drove his 30- by 16-foot flat-bottomed boat, ity. When the bridge was taken out by floods in attached to an overhead cable, across the water­ 1877, it was rebuilt by the county at a cost of way. Able to carry three teams, La Vigne's con­ $8,000. The controversy over the bridge con­ veyance, said the April 20, 1859, Wood County tinued to mount as Marshfield insisted that · Reporter, "guarantees safety and rapidity in all Grand Rapids-Centralia pay for its maintenance, stages of water." either from their own funds or by charging a toll. The first actual bridge, according to an 1887 Rapids strenuously objected. article by attorney George Gardner in the Wood Gardner, who represented the Rapids faction County Reporter, was built in 1866 at a cost of in court, wrote in the March 3, 1887, Reporter: $20,000. Owner George Neeves and his bridge "She (the county) could not be authorized to shirk company charged a toll: 25 cents for a team­ this responsibility upon the two cities, because to drawn vehicle, 10 cents per horse and 3 cents per do so would be to consummate a gross injustice pedestrian. upon them; would involve a breach of duty, a The opening of the bridge suspended the ferry violation of plighted faith upon the part of the business, although many thrifty travelers used County, which the Legislature cannot authorize their own boats rather than pay the toll. ifit would, and would not, if it could."

68 The Bridge

"Look the situation squarely in the face," The outcome once again went against the twin Gardner continued, "Centralia and Grand Rap­ cities. The anti-bridge forces won a sweeping vic­ ids lie upon directly opposite shores of the river, tory. If Grand Rapids wanted a bridge to Centra­ and are connected by the bridge in question. lia and back, it would have to pay for it. They are in reality but a single town; and so Meanwhile, EusebeLa Vigna got out his ferry. regarded by their own citizens, and those of the He also had competition from W.H. Cochran surrounding towns. One railroad depot, (that of until, by a joint action of Grand Rapids and the G.B. road,) has its passenger and freight Centralia, a new wooden bridge with an arch depot upon the Grand Rapids side; the other (the suspension was erected in 1899 at a cost, said St. Paul road,) has its depot on the Centralia side. Tom Taylor, of $17,400. There are stores and hotels and grist mills and Regarded as an engineering marvel in its first pulp mills upon either side." days, the two spans of 248 feet each made it The controversy climaxed dramatically on something of a freak as a highway bridge. Only April 11, 1888, when an ice jam took out the rebuilt 15 feet wide, there also was little room for runa­ bridge. A contemplated $25,000 replacement was ways to avoid colliding. When the wood decayed, voted down by northern members of the county it was replaced by steel, making it valuable board. Rapids bridge backers, including Neeves enough for Frank Garber to remove when the and Gardner, sued the county again, this time to 1922 Grand Avenue Bridge was built. compel it to replace the bridge. The Supreme Since 1889, then, there has been free access to Court ruled against the applicants on the grounds whatever destiny might await on the other side that no authority had been given by the electors of of the river. the county and no tax had been authorized. "All these people-the well to do and poor A history of Rapid's bridges, written by Theo­ alike," wrote the July 28, 1887, Reporter, "have dore Brazeau, stated that the refusal to build the settled among us, cast their fortunes with us, bridge precipated a "civil war" of sorts between relying, as they had a right to do, that they would the rival cities. Marshfield, having burned to the not be shut off from their markets; their churches, ground in 1887, resisted more than ever having to their post-offices, and county seat, either by the divert its own rebuilding capital. Democrats and erection of a toll gate upon the bridge over which Republicians formed new loyalties with the they must pass to reach them," or, said the news­ Bridge and Anti-Bridge tickets. paper, "by allowing the bridge to rot down."

69 ------,,-,----c------c------cc--~

.. The Pinch of Unrighteousness

Real or fancied injustice has been in duty bound to enter a complaint visited on our citizens in many forms. against this flagrant violation of the Often it came dramatically at the hands law. What influence prompted him to of the law. The reaction of the victim has this very kind act, I know not, yet I pre­ been various: violent, sullen or, in many sume he must have been remunerated. cases, sarcastic. "My overt violation of the ordinance Dr. Charles C. Edson, a physician, felt aroused the sleeping minions of the law. the sting of a social wrong done to him­ A warrant for my arrest was decided self back in January of 1883. The scene upon, for-as the officials remarked­ was on or about the structure previous to 'An example must be made of some one, our present Grand Avenue Bridge. The and we will make it out of Edson.' situation? Let us allow Dr. Edsen to tell "But before my friends could see me the tale as he wrote it in an extended dragged through the streets and con­ letter to the Centralia Enterprise of Jan. veyed to a felon's cell, and while the vig­ 25, 1883. "Arriving in this city less than ilant officers were scouring the two cities five months ago, I soon learned what for witnesses to convict me, I had skipped everybody knows to be a fact, that the across the ice, gave myself up and paid ordinance concerning fast driving over the minimum fine of $5.00 feeling truly the Wood Co. bridge was a dead letter on grateful that I had been permitted to the statute book and had been from time hasten to the bedside of my patient, immemorial. where I was sorely needed-and at the "And, as it appeared to be the custom cost so trifling. · for the majority of our citizens to trot "And I shall deem it my duty, in the their teams on said bridge, I, of course, future as in the past, to use all possible had a right to suppose that in this coun­ speed to go to the relief of my patients. try of equal rights, I too, could with But, believing consistency to be a jewel, impunity exercise the same privileges and, as all just and impartial laws deal others enjoyed, and that I could urge my equally with all violators, without regard horse a little faster than a walk, when to persons, I would respectfully ask the the life of my patient required it. honorable commissioners of Wood "But upon the memorable 17th day of County, why I am prosecuted while January 1883, a brave knight from hundreds of others equally flagrant and - Rudolph, Geo. Baker by name, in com­ daily violators of the same ordinance go pany with one Reuben C. Lyon, Sen. of unpunished." Centralia, caught me in the very act of After comparing the county commis­ committing the heinous crime of trotting sioners to Rip Van Winkle, Edson offered my horse on the bridge two whole rods, a list of persons who had violated the as I was leaving it at the east end, which same ordinance since Jan. 18, the day distance their fancy drew out to the proceedings were begun against himself: extreme length of 66 feet. Mrs. Albert Fontaine, wife of the news­ "Then, this said valiant knight from paper editor, Miss Lilly Kirby, Armond Rudolph being a law-abiding citizen, felt Benedict and lady, Thos. Bratton, Mr.

70 Billins, Frank Pomainville with his two doubt others are as guilty or more so children, Mr. Rouleau's gray team with than you are. But the principle is all two persons and three other parties to right, and the rule should be strictly him unknown. enforced. Oflate, a great many owners of Edson said he had seen 14 persons in driving horses, seem to consider the three days drive their horses at a gait bridge as a kind of miniature racetrack, faster than a walk across the bridge and and if they are not checked, the time is he had witnesses to prove it. He said that near at hand when we shall have no if he had seen so many transgressors bridge at all. It is more injurious to the ("and I have not devoted a minute to structure to trot twenty feet, than to haul watching the bridge") in such a short 5,000 feet of lumber, at one load, the time, "how many must have violated the whole length of it." same ordinance that I did not see?" As order is preserved, an individual In the same issue qf the Enterprise, the feels the pinch of unrighteousness and editor adds an historical perspective. "It reacts in the best way he knows how, is pretty tough, doctor, and we have no with the wry wit of the righteous.

January 25, 1883

-Dr. Edson accompanied by his wife and two other ladies in a double seated sleigh lost his way on his return from Pittsville last week, and strayed off to Wafer's camp, at 12 o'clock at night. Emile Rossier placed them back on the road home. The party was singing religious melodies at the time, the Doctor neglecting to watch the team.

71 Grand Avenue

In how many seasons has the photographer the times has created." focused on the Grand A venue Bridge? In the It was first planned that the old bridge would spring tumult of ice, the summer burst of fire­ be moved north or south "to establish communi­ works, the autumn blaze, the winter fog rising at cations between the mainland and the islands." dawn full of cold mystery. There is an antique When the cost of such a project was established, grandeur in the abstract arched design and the the bridge was sold instead as scrap to Frank concrete construction that seems to suggest Garber for $1,010. another time and place while giving a physical The builders had to overcome more than one symbol to our own. Despite itsdassic symmetry, obstacle. Special influence in the state Senate the Grand Avenue Bridge is not, by an antiquar­ was needed to obtain an amendment to a state ian's standard, very old. In fact, it is younger statute that stipulated financial support would than many of the citizens who tread it. A few extend only to bridges of 500 feet or more. The even remember the day of its dediction: Oct. 18, Grand Avenue span was approximately 490 feet. 1922. By that date, a name for the new bridge had Fortunately for local boosters, Wisconsin been chosen from 122 suggested possibilities. 'Rapids' own state senator, Isaac P. Witter, was Among the rejects were Ah-dah-wa-gam, The able in 1919 to have the requirement lowered to Monolith, Everybody's Bridge and River Park 475 feet. Side View Bridge. Also eliminated was Grand Another potential problem was that the Mac­ Vine Street Bridge. (Vine Street, the approach Kinnon block at the west approach did not allow from the east, has been renamed as part of Grand room for a concrete arch bridge. This was sur­ Avenue.) mounted by the removal of those buildings by the The first event on the program of Oct. 18 was owner, Consolidated Water Power & Paper Co. the crowning of Miss Mary Herron as "Queen of When the Grand A venue Bridge was dedi­ the Bridge" by Mayor O.R. Roenius. Subsequent­ cated, a parade, of course, marched-from the ly, A.R. Hirst, state highway engineer, described East Side Market Square across the bridge to the the new bridge as "undoubtedly the best-both in "old depot" and back, this time to the fair­ architecture and construction-in the state." grounds at the present Witter Field. Judged to be Solidly anchored in the Precambrian granite the fairest of the parade floats was that of the bedrock, the six-pier bridge was built of rein­ Charles Hagerstrom American Legion post. It forced concrete acting as retaining walls for carried a large globe representing the earth. A 6,000 yards of earth fill placed over the seven dove of peace perched at the top. An aerial circus arches. A cantilever walk 10 feet wide with an preceded an exhibition by Battery E of the Wis­ ornamental concrete railing was considered a consin National Guard. In the evening, a large - rather elegant fixture. display of fireworks showered the new c.reation. Work on the bridge had begun in August 1921 Of particular interest to local chauvinists was by general contractor C.R. Meyer of Oshkosh. an afternoon football game pitting A.A. Rit­ The cost was $150,000. Meyer said at the dedica­ chay's Lincoln High team against Marshfield. tion that "Wisconsin Rapids can well be proud of An estimated 10,000 spectators watched such its beautiful new bridge now connecting the two heroes as Donn Hougen, running, Phil Nobles, sections of the city. The old two span steel and running and blocking, and Bert Nason, drop­ timber constructed bridge had for many years kicking, on the way to a 27-0 victory. served the purpose for which it was intended in a But most unique in this picturesque pageant most satisfactory manner, taking care of team was an actual wedding performed at the fair­ traffic (and) pedestrians and withstanding many grounds, uniting Cora Danielson and Louis A. a seige of high water and ice floes, such as often Fritz, whose names had been kept somewhat came down: the Wisconsin during the Fall and secret until the event. Judge Getts, officiating, Spring seasons. The old bridge however, was said the marriage bonds were symbolic of joining not designed for the present day mode of travel, the two sides of the city in a harmonious union huge trucks and autos, which the general trend of heretofore not existent.

72 .. ------~----~

Construction of the Grand A venue Bridge, the old two-span bridge still standing.

To join us further, other bridges have been extended across the tawny waters: the Jackson Street Bridge in 1955 and the Riverview Bridge in 1980. Although func­ tional, neither provides the imagination with the archetypal charm and photogenic features of that "old" River City landmark, the Grand Avenue Bridge.

73 Wood County' Telephone

Only 20 years after Alexander G. Bell's 1876 to confer with Mr. McCleod of the Milwaukee invention, John Gaynor got so mad at the company, which they did, calling the New phone company that he convinced his towns­ York offices long distance.No satisfaction was men to start one of their own. obtained. When told the local group might Centralia and Grand Rapids had received build their own exchange, McCleod said his their first telephones in 1878, leased to the firm had driven away such competition at First National Bank, the Jackson Milling Co., Escanaba, Mich., by giving free services until the Wisconsin Valley Railroad Co. depot and the Michigan competitor quit. The threat per­ the Green Bay and Western depot. There was turbed John A. Gaynor, a public-minded no switchboard. Calling on the one line was Irishman, lawyer and cranberry grower, who accomplished by a series of rings such as rural was quoted in the Centralia Enterprise and patrons later used. Tribune of April 27, 1895. "This corporation is The first long-distance toll line consisted of a here solely for the purpose of making money single No. 9 wire, connected in 1887 from the out of us. If the service is poor or the rate exces­ switchboard of the Wisconsin Telephone Co. at sive the individual who is dependent on them Stevens Point to a single phone in the Rapids' for service has no remedy. He may protest and Slocum drug store. That year, the first Wiscon­ demand, and in a passion throw out his 'phone, sin Telephone Co. switchboard here was in­ but the corporation managers laugh at his fee­ stalled in the Slocum facility, to service 80 bleness, and know that when he is tired of phones. kicking he will come under the yoke and carry In 1894, the exchange was moved to a frame his burden again like a sulky mule." building south of the Ragan furniture store Gaynor believed that through "combina­ and, in 1897, to rooms over the John E. Daly tion" or cooperation, the patrons could furnish drug store. Meanwhile, certain influential citi­ their own telephones at cost and would need no zens of River City chafed under the oppressive high-priced, salaried officers whose chief ser­ monopoly of Wisconsin Telephone. vices were "devising schemes to pluck the E.P. Arpin, in his memoirs, summarized the greatest amount of feathers from the public developments that were to result in an inde­ goose with the least amount of kicking and pendent telephone system. "In 1895, the two squawking." cities of Grand Rapids and Centralia were not The Enterprise agreed in a May 1895 edition. very friendly. They lay opposite each other "Let it be further remembered that kicks from along the banks of the Wisconsin River at the individual patrons don't do any good. If the foot of the 'Grand Rapids' and each had a kick isn't unanimous and propelled with all small water power developed but none of much possible force and precision it will pass unfelt value being used to run two pulp mills and two and unnoticed through the elephantine hide of flour mills. The business men decided that to a greedy corporation." be successful the two cities ought to be united A Dec. 9, 1895, meeting resulted in the and this would likely encourage the joint build­ determination of "the undersigned residents of ing of a large dam." To that end, a business Wood County, desiring to secure telephone man's association was formed, including service and feeling assured that by mutual co­ Arpin, "a young lumberman of Grand Rap­ operation (we will) secure better service and ids," as secretary. lower rates than we can hope to secure from the The first matter of importance that came up Wisconsin Telephone Co., or any other private was the telephone situation. According to corporation." Arpin, the Bell Co. station was giving poor On Jan. 16, 1896, directors E.P. Arpin, F. service and the rates of $4 per month for busi­ MacKinnon, J.A. Gaynor, E. Oberbeck, L.M. nesses and $3 for residences was too high. Nash, T.A. Taylor, and H.H. Voss were Frank Garrison and Arpin were appointed "instructed to proceed at once-to place a

74 - -;.:c.·=--="-===-======------~-~~-~~~-----~------~

1887 Wood County Telephone Co. office: Wm. Martin, Charley Dougherty, Marie Douville

telephone line or exchange-in the two cities stock, we generally got their promises that and have same in operation by June 1, 1896." they would take their local service entirely J.A. Gaynor was soon elected president and from the home company. Within a few days Wm. Martin employed as general manager at after we were ready for business, the Bell tele­ $75 month. On Jan. 9, Gaynor was instructed phones were carried back to the Bell office by to hire an operator at a salary not to exceed $25 its former patrons, and we were practically in per month. In June, 1896, the Wood County full possession of the field." Telephone Co. was organized with 85 members From the new exchange in the Wood block, and a capital stock. Only people holding stock 95 phones were initially served at $2 per month could be members and stock was sold only to for businesses and $1.50 for residences. The those renting service, one share only allowed Enterprise encouraged its subscribers to "order per telephone. out your old phones and put in one of the new The telephone fight was deadly, according to company, thus helping to put down the old the "History of Wood County." "The Bell monopoly and lift up our own company." Company offered to give subscribers three Indeed, the ire of Arpin, Gaynor & company years' free service contracts in order to put the had resulted in the "death blow to the Wiscon­ new company out of business, but Judge Gay­ sin Telephone Co. in the twin cities," said the nor, without hope of personal reward, person­ Enterprise, "and the springing into active life ally fought out with each telephone patron the of the Wood County Telephone Co." According question of the ultimate effect of entering into to Arpin, it was the first time that a Bell com­ such contracts, and the result was that the old pany had to abandon a local exchange. "Many company was eliminated from the local ex­ other communities followed this plan," wrote change business in the city of Grand Rapids." Gaynor, "and the general result was that in "We braced ourselves for this kind of attack," this state at large the local exchange telephone wrote Gaynor in 1905, "by getting two thirds of business became so cheap and popular that the their patrons pledged to take stock in the new telephone came into very general use." company, and from those who did not take

75 Immanuel Lutheran

Running a parochial school 100 years ago hiring a permanent teacher. A "permanent presented problems prevalent today: maintain­ teacher" seemed too great an expense so a "lady ing buildings and paying teachers. teacher" was hired instead, at $15 per week. Not long after the 1881 founding of the A permanent teacher was still desired so in Immanuel Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, February 1890, it was decided that $300 should parishioners decided a school would enhance be raised to pay a candidate from one of the the keeping of the faith here. Minutes of a Lutheran teachers' colleges. Efforts failed to March 23, 1883, meeting, translated this week reach that sum and $250 was offered. from the German by Walter Born, state that a For the fall 1890 terms, such a teacher arrived, school would be held in the church. A "schu­ Mr. F. Schaefer, a graduate of the teaching geld" or "school money" fee of 50 cents per child seminary at Addison, Ill. He served Immanuel would be exacted. Sessions were held by Pastor three years. F. Leyhe in the church balcony with written The young congregation found it difficult to lessons required four days per week. shake financial problems with the school. In In August of 1883, a resolution asked for a 1892, a special committee was set up to visit church building, provided sufficient funds could homes and solicit funds for the teacher's salary. be raised. A list of the constituency available for It became crucial as the pedagogue considered subscription was drawn up and the building answering a call to another post. approved on Sept. 12, 1886. Built to the rear of Part of the problem was solved by handing the church, the school size was prescribed as 20 over the profits from the school picnic to by 30 feet with two hallways and two floors. Schaefer. It kept him in town until the end of the Eight windows of 9 by 16 feet with 12 panels in school year when he departed. each window would illuminate the rooms. The From 1893 to 1905, the school was taught by color of the building was to be white. Later it "supply teachers" and by Pastor Bittner. At one was determined that the windows were to "move time, 122 pupils attended. up and down." The building itself was to be set No janitor was employed for the school. "southeast" with a table east and west and an Instead, Bittner suggested that each student entry on the west. The sides would be "12 feet" bring 10 cents and that the congregation pro­ and covered with two coats of paint. Agreement vide $10 to be placed in a fund to pay one or two was reached to build a wardrobe with two doors girls who would keep the school in an orderly and a podium with two drawers "which can be condition as well as pay a boy $2.50 to keep the locked up." Also available, as stipulated, would school warm in winter. be a table and a chair. In 1900, the school was improved by adding a By 1886, according to an historical booklet ceiling and obtaining 40 benches, a teacher's published by Immanuel Lutheran Church in desk and blackboards. The pastor also asked honor of its 75th anniversary, children who the right to have the children sweep the floors. weren't members of the congregation were For years, there was no regular teacher. In attending the school. The additional expense 1905, another graduate of Addison, Hugo Old­ required a tuition charge of 80 cents per month. sen came, taught for two years and resigned. In 1886, J. Bittner became pastor and, as a Two years later, Herman Tewes arrived for a result, schoolteacher. Under his supervision it three-year term after which he quit due to "ill was found that the large windows produced too health." During Tewes' term, the school was much light so "cloth" had to be purchased to transferred to the basement of the newly com­ diminish the glare. At that time, the congrega­ pleted larger church. The frame schoolhouse tion also considered purchasing a new stove. was sold and moved from the premises. Apparently, the first children's Christmas In 1922, school activities moved to structures Eve program was presented in 1887. Another acquired (on Oak Street) which had been annual event was the whitewashing of the inte­ enlarged in 1926 to four classrooms. Thence, rior of the school. education in the Lutheran manner would Enrollment had reached such numbers by achieve a structure and a stability hitherto 1880, at 65, that the Lutherans considered lacking. ' 76 Early Teachers

F. Schaeffer E.H. Voskamp H.Tewes H. Richert H. Oldsen

77 John Edwards High

In spite of the depression, in spite of his Rawson's social studies classes were held in, landlady yelling at him for money he didn't a small cloak room. have and the banks being closed and in spite Also trying were the teacher's "command­ of the confused state at his place of employ­ ments" of 1933. ment, Kenneth 0. Rawson was a happy 1. A full day's work for a full day's pay. man; thousands were unemployed and he Don't short change. had work. 2. Do more than what is expected of you. "Not a soul with a degree in geology could 3. Keep regular hours. get a job at the bottom of the depression," 4. Don't let whims interfere with your life. Rawson, born 1904, said last week from his 5. Have enthusiasm for your work and home in Clintonville, "Since I'd taught your pupils. before, I got busy and took a summer course 6. Sympathize with pupils. at the University of Wisconsin Madison so I 7. Have cheerful optimism. could teach legally." 8. Be sincere, straight forward. Use reaso­ One day, Rawson got a call from teacher nable dress. placement that someone wanted to talk to 9. Cultivate good, moderate personal him in a hurry. It was the Port Edwards habits. School Board, represented by Principal Roy 10. Be prompt, loyal, and willing. Loyal to Normington, Franz Rosebush and E.G. the administration. Ross. They were looking for a teacher and The building in progress wasclesigned by had some questions to ask. The first three Childs and Smith, the out-of-town firm who were easy. had designed the 1931 Lincoln High School "Can you teach social studies?" in Wisconsin Rapids. Its construction had "Yes." i been the subject of some discussion because "Can you teach general science?" Port Edwards at that time offered schooling "Yes." only through grade 10. In 1931, eight 11th "Can you teach chemistry?" and 12th-grade students were sent to Wis­ "Yes." consin Rapids and 14 to Nekoosa. The fourth was more troublesome. "Can According to a 1931 survey by the state you teach shop?" Department of Public Instruction, the small "No." For the moment, the job was in jeo- number of potential students was a negative pardy. Then came the last question. consideration in adding a full-scale high "Can you direct a band?" school. "If all the pupils in Port Edwards in "Yes!" grades 9 to 12 had attended a central school Rawson had played in the Purdue Univer­ this year, their number would barely reach sity concert band and in the UW band and 50, even including the 'drop outs.' " orchestra in addition to having directed a Nevertheless, the report continued, more school band at Hebron, Ill. He was hired as students might be expected in the future teacher and band leader at the as yet un­ because of the "local paper company" and completed John Edwards High school for its "housing project of 1928," offering steady the 1931-32 school year. He would teach an employment, free lots, trees, shrubbery and eight-hour day: social studies, general financing. The survey also stated that it was science, chemistry and band. Preparation evident that the community was willing to periods? "There wasn't any such thing." assume financial responsibility for the pro­ Conditions were makeshift while the new ject. It recommended a new elementary school was being built. Typing was taught school and a complete four-year high school. on the stage of the adjacent auditorium. A pamphlet circulated by supporters of the

78 ------~------~

Kenneth 0. Rawson new school contained economic rationale fol­ its first graduating class, that of 1934. Its 13 lowed by an appeal to Edwardian pride. "If members w'ere Ruth Boger, Marian Frazer, Port Edwards is ever to be anything but a Revae Frost, Katherine Gavre, Ethel Gibson, suburb of our neighboring communities, if it Ila Howard, Merle Kriegl, Douglass Mc­ is ever to become a self-contained and self­ Glynn, How·ard Murgatroyd, Margaret sustaining community, if it is to grow as we Mollen, Rosemary Sage, Doris Tiougen and hope and towards which every indication Dorothy Vechinski. points, then it must provide adequate ele­ That was 50 years ago. This class, along mentary and high school education." A Daily with all the graduating classes from 1934 to Tribune editorial supported the project. 1939, met for a reunion. Some had fulfilled "More and more the people of Wisconsin Rap­ the promises of 1931. Some had fulfilled the ids are coming to recognize the advantages of 1934 class motto. "He conquers who con­ the new Lincoln high school and field house. quers himself." Some look back as Principal Port Edwards will also feel these advantages Rawson did in a 1975 memoir. when their new building is completed." "The people were wonderful. They wanted Plans for the structure had already been a good school system and were willing to pay drawn when a bond issue for $75,000 was for it. I admired many teachers as willing to approved on Dec. 10, 1931. A.F. Billmeyer give all that was asked, even in those teacher and Son of Wisconsin Rapids began con­ commandments of 1931. I still look back struction in the spring of 1932. School opened upon the days at Port Edwards," said the on Oct. 1 altho_ugh dedication ceremonies for once-new teacher who had come with the the $125,000 school were not held until Jan. almost-built village school, "as being very 20. rewarding. The days were so full, one never In 1936, Rawson was named principal of caught up, nor came to classes fully prepared, John Edwards High School, two years after but I was a very happy man to have the job."

\ 79 i \ Architecture--- a-survey by Wendell Nelson

251 Oak St.: Greek Revival The John P. Getzin CPA office is an example of the Federal­ Greek Revival hybrid style, pop­ ular here in the 1850s and 1860s. Earmarks of the Federal style 410 4th St. S.: Greek Revival are the presentation of the "side" Except for the log cabin, Greek .of the house to the street and the Revival houses were the first built symmetrical arrangement of by the white man. This excellent example illustrates several identi­ doors and windows. Greek Revi­ fying details: the broken pediment val details are the "frieze" or or triangle at the gables;the simple broad board under the eaves, the single-ridgepole structure; the wide simple single gable-and­ board or frieze under the eaves; the ridgepole structure and the front doorway with its sidelights broken "pediment" or triangle at (vertical windows) and transom the ends. Modern changes are (horizontal window); front stoop wide siding, probable removal of with full pediment and square pilasters (false columns) from columns; and pilasters (false the corners, addition of new win­ columns) at the house corners. Also dows and shutters, a remodeled showing the considerable age of the front porch and additions to the house are the small panes in the rear. upper sash of most windows but absent are the usual milled, straight cornices over the windows. Modern changes besides the front stoop are new shutters, a small addition with a screened-in porch on the second story, a one-story sun room with 1 many windows and a large addi­ ( tion in the rear. The yellow exterior 1 paint is also a new feature. Greek E Revival houses were inevitably white to imitate the marble of the l ancient temples they were con­ structed to imitate. (

80 - --- ~-~ ---- ~~------~-~·------

1250 1st St. N.: stead of the usual Ital­ Italianate ianate arched windows The "Rablin House" it has plain rectangles, is one of the few Ital­ perhaps installed when ianate houses in Wis­ the house was resided. consin Rapids. Repre­ A detail from an earlier sentative of the style period (Greek Revival present are the basic sidelights astride the cube structure with hip front door) and one roof and wide eaves from many years later with ornate, decorative (wide artificial siding brackets under the covering the narrow eaves. It also has brac­ clapboard) are among kets in the angles of the the deviations from the front-porch posts but in- Italianate.

81 620 Oak St.: Victorian Eclectic This typical Victorian Eclectic house has the usual complex roof design and a two-story bay with two near mansard roofs. More interesting are the fanciful "bargeboards" in nearly every gable. These are intricate jig­ sawn wood trim, a holdover from 510 Oak St.: the Gothic Revival 10 or 20 years Victorian Eclectic earlier, and rare in Wood County. This fine example has many earmarks Also anachronistic is the of the Victorian Eclectic style. First is the complex roof with four or more gables imitation-brick siding. The sim­ intersecting in an off-center cross pattern. ple front porch has apparently A gable-in-hip roof extends to the west, been remodeled from what was various smaller gabled additions to the probably a veranda supported by south and a two-story bay to the east. The turned points decorated with final roof detail is the two large chimneys with crowns and a cross pattern laid into turned spindles and various jig­ the brickwork. The Victorian Eclectic pre­ saw trim. Unexpected dormers occupation with busyness is demonstrated on the back wing may have been in fish scale shingles on the walls and added in the 1920s or 1930s when brackets under the gable ends. Complex, delicate and varied trim contribute to the various colonial revival styles complexity that is the most conspicuous returned to fashion. identifying feature of the Victorian Eclec­ tic style, prominent in Central Wisconsin from 1885 to 1895. Also indicative is the asymmetry of windows and doors. Al­ though three identical windows on the second story are evenly spaced, a larger window and single door on the first floor are not centered or placed in a symmetri­ cal relation to the windows above. The windows on the north side of the west wing are just as unevenly spaced. Finally, the veranda reaching across the west half of the house and half the south side is a fine Victorian Eclectic specimen. It has turned posts, a railing supported by turned spindles, jigsawn fretwork and icicle-like suspensions. The result is a wedding-cake appearance typical of the style.

82

1- 840 1st St. N: Victorian Eclectic Built for J.B. Arpin in 1891, this is an excellent example of a Victorian Eclectic house with a tower. It displays the stand­ ard complex roof with several gables as well as the bewildering array of ornate. trim. The patterned brickwork of the large chimneys imitates clusters of separate chimneys in English manor houses. Also, there are shingles of various designs, brackets under the overhangs, screens of latticework, small, square panels forming borders under eaves and elsewhere and classical dentils under window cornices. 8201st St. N.: The tower resembles that on a European .N eo-Classical Revival castle, often imitated by American busi­ Next door is the house built for Daniel nessmen as they became wealthy enough Arpin, son of V.B., 10 years later, the to travel themselves to the continent and best example in Wisconsin Rapids of the affect titles like "Esq." and "Hon." Neo-Classical Revival. Like Greek Revi­ Another locally distinctive detail is the val, the N eo-Classical is modeled on porte-cochere on the north side. This is a ancient temples, in this case, Roman. shelter under which carriages were parked Larger and more imposing, it became to allow passengers to egress without popular here around 1900 when the for­ molestation by the elements. This porte­ tunes of many lumber barons, mer­ cochere is as ornate as the house itself. chants and bankers were at their peak. The very large house has monumental Ionic columns and a hip roof sur­ mounted by round-headed dormers in contrast to the gables of Greek Revival. Also typical of Neo-Classical but not Greek Revival are the porte-cochere, the northern bay, heavy cornices over the windows and a balcony over the double front doors. Elements in common with Greek Revival are sidelights and tran­ som around the front doors, the frieze (wide board) under the eaves and dentils (small wooden blocks resembling teeth) under the same eaves. The large chim­ neys are a common turn-of-the-century feature that has nothing to do with the classical styles. An attempt to unify them with the house was made by add­ ing crowns that resemble the capitals on columns.'I

83 110 8th St. N.: Eccentric This house and two others nearby are distinctive in central Wisconsin although their antecedents are unclear. The most conspicuous identifying feature is the flat rooftop, which gives the roof three planes. Other details make up a complex struc­ tli.re. Shingled cornice returns are a faint reminder of the classical revival style. These returns are unique because of the absence of a pediment peak and because there are two pairs, one above echoing the first. The theme has been worked into an overall design that suggests a low, crouch­ ing animal. The low silhouette also sug­ gests the Prairie Style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Modillions or flat brackets under the eaves were found on many houses around 1900. Also common at that time 1011 Oak St.: Bungaloid were long porches such as that on the This is a good example of the Bungaloid north and west, which has classical ele­ style, first popular in California around ments woven with late Victorian and pos­ 1900 and here from 1905 to 1925 and, like sibly Prairie and Bungaloid themes that the one-story Bungalow, inspired by the contribute to this unusual house. ranch house of folklore. Typically, there is · a wide expanse of roof. The "side" of the house faces the street and the integrated front porch runs the length of the house. Above the front porch is a large dormer containing the coolest room in the house. The single-plane roof on the dormer is also consistent with the Bungaloid style. A standard feature is the shingled walls on the dormer and on the upper walls of the house. Exposed rafters are also typical, giving the house an unfinished, rustic look in harmony with the western bunk­ house image. The lower portion of the porch walls are solid, not open. Finally, many of the windows throughout are in sets or bands of three. This is a faint hint of the Prairie Style popular at the same time. Many elements of the Bungaloid impart a r:ugged image in reaction to decades of ornate, busy and delicate houses.

84 551 3rd St.: and brackets in some gable Gothic Revival peaks and under some gable A combination of two or three ends. Also distinctive are the styles makes the 1870s St. quoins (short boards of alter­ Amour house unique in central nate lengths at the corners). Wisconsin. Most obvious is the The siding itself is unusual. Gothic Revival, manifested in Instead of the common over­ the Gothic or lancet (pointed at lapping clapboards, narrow the top) window, surmounted boards have been laid side-to­ by a molding in the same shape. side to form a flush service. More pervasive, however, is the Two final features are not uni­ Italianate style shown in the fied with the styles of the main basic structure of the house: the part of the house. First is the rather low-pitched gabled roofs, Greek Revival addition at the the single-ridgepole main up­ rear, either the original house right with a pavilion or front or one moved to the site later. projection; Roman (round­ Second is the stoop over the headed) and circular windows front steps, which replaces a on the second and third stories; larger porch or veranda.

85 five & dime

If I could go back to that favorite five and certain "old men of the water," who rigged dime, I would wear my coonskin cap down her with tarpaulin sails that saved the Hope the Davy Crocket aisle. I would buy a thou­ until tugs towed her to Italy. The Navy shop sand green rubber soldiers and a cap gun. I discharged its cargo of flour in Czechoslo­ would search for a replicated '57 Chevy vakia and Shugart as well, who had not seen amongst the aroma of chocolate and the din a shot fired but who had quite a tour of the of parakeets. Mediterranean. He went back to Wool­ If I could return to Woolworth's, I would worth's at Des Moines. have my picture taken in a curtained booth Shugart was appointed manager of the and sit in front of a 5-cent cherry Coke. And Fort Madison, Iowa, store in 1920, butcher­ later, soqi.e time later indeed, I would buy for ished a dream of starting his own variety you, sweetheart, a bouquet of plastic flowers, store. Instead, he left'Woolworth's in 1923 as a blue bottle of Evening in Paris and a ring a partner in a Sterling, Neb., grocery. Most that is guaranteed not to turn green for at trade there was delivereq to customer's least a week. houses. Shugart got lonesome and returned If Louis Shugart could go back to that to Woolworth's. same dime store, he'd probably keep a sharp After a stint in Centervi!Je, Iowa, Shugart eye on me. For 30 years, Shugart managed got the call to take over, in 1927, the Wiscon­ the now-closed Woolworth's variety store sin Rapids store, in operation three years. here. Where was Wisconsin Rapids? Shugart A farm lad from Tecumseh, Neb., Shugart, looked on the map and still didn't know. The like old F.W. Woolworth himself, felt im­ name on the map hadn't been corrected since pelled to leave the rural life behind. Milking the town had changed its name in 1920 from a barnless cow in the rain, her sopping tail Grand Rapids. slapping him in the face, was enough to send When Shugart arrived, there was an east the 1915 high school grad to Beatrice, Neb., side variety store. Others arose over the and business college. When he got a job for years but, he said, Wool worth' s could hardly $8 a week at the Woolworth store unpacking notice when they went in or out of business. hogsheads of crockery and the like, Shugart The depression of the 1930s did not left academia too. Soon he was transferred to threaten his business either, although one Sioux City, Iowa, at a salary of $25 per week. local bank closed its doors permanently. In

He advanc1ed to Des Moines before the Army 1938, Woolworth's, housed in the Mead­ sent him l;iis draft notice. Witter Block in the 200 block of West Grand It was 1918, near the end of the world war. Avenue, remodeled and expanded into the Rather than be drafted, Shugart joined the adjacent A&P quarters. Navy for that peculiar life interlude ser­ In 1927, no item in the Woolworth stores vicemen enjoy. After training as a quarter­ could be priced at over 10 cents. On one side master in Washington state, Shugart of the interior were the nickel items. On the boarded the cargo ship Western Hope and other side, everything was a dime. The point, headed through the Panama Canal to New Shugart said, had to be stretched a bit at York City. Upon his arrival, Gotham was times. Hose, for example, was 10 cents-per high on the false armistice; Shugart joined a leg. jubilant crowd at Times Square. The 10-cent limit was raised to a quarter in Sailing toward Europe, the Western Hope 1932. Eventually, the ceiling was lifted proved less than buoyant. A stripped gear entirely. sent the ship drifting toward the African Despite provocative proposals from Daily coast. Fortunately, among her crew were Tribune Publisher William F. Huffman Sr.,

86 Woolworth's, before 1932 the Woolworth chain would not allow Shu­ ate weakness and lung congestion. He could gart to advertise. Instead, the store relied on not stay awake without pills. At Rochester, window dressing and counter displays, sup­ Minn., after several visits, he found out what plemented by spring and autumn sales. was wrong. Shugart had contracted, from Managers were encouraged to allow liberal sick parakeets he had often taken home to browsing. nurse, psittacosis, a bird disease harmful to This sometimes surreptitious perusal humans. His working hours had to be short­ could lead to the bane of the mercantile ened and a manager-trainee brought in. community: shoplifting. Shugart had his Although his symptoms diminished, Shu­ own way of dealing with young thieves. "I'd gart retired in 1957 at the age of 62. call up their parents and ask them to bring He had made a good livirig all his adult life the child in each week for four weeks. Instead selling small things for a small price: soap, of mentioning what they'd done wrong, I'd lotion, corn plasters, combs, brushes, pen­ ask about his report card and how he was cils, pens, envelopes, candy, peanuts-for a doing in school. I'd make a friend out of nickel; hammers, saws, tinware-for a dime; him." brassieres, roaster pans, cheeseburgers-for In 1951, the Woolworth store added a quarter. For 69 cents, he had sold green another room, the former Emmons store. soldiers. For 99, a model car. One summer, Shugart put in a lunch counter. He also for a few cents a pound, he had sold 2,000 began a pet department, selling gold­ pounds of that special kind of block choco­ fish, hamsters ·and parakeets. It was his late any boy can remember gazing at downfall. through the glass. In 1953, Shugart fell victim to a plague his Even at a nickel, said Shugart, it all adds local physician could not identify, a desper- up.

87 "'

To some, it was embarrassing, even humiliat­ consequences of a simple-minded act of puckish ing. To others, it represented emotional tor­ derangement. ment. To Lafe Enkro, it was hilarious. It happened after the annual Spanish-French As Enkro walked with his busmate, Dave students' dinner in the Lincoln cafeteria. The Engel, past the statue of Honest Abe in the front building had pretty much emptied except for lobby of the old Lincoln High School, he noticed Dave, his classmate John Farrish, Dutch something out of the ordinary; the statue's head foreign-exchange student Hendrika Van der was missing. Harst and another female student when Far­ He elbowed Dave and laughed. A lot of people rish suggested they engage in what had be­ laughed that spring morning of 1962. Dave, come a school tradition, the theft of Lincoln's however, kept his reaction somewhere inside, head. like he would a pack of Camels in English class, "Come on," he said. "Let's do something we'll and he waited. remember this place by." What he anticipated happened later that With his companions as lookouts, Farrish morning. He was called to the principal's office. somehow removed the big plaster head and The principal, Marvin Maier, who had been concealed it to whatever extent was possible hired that year, was a 6-foot-3 inch Iowan who under his red letter jacket. The other three didn't think the decapitation of the school sym­ headed for the south parking lot and Dave bol was at all humorous. In effete contrast to his walked alone toward Lincoln Street. He was predecessor, the redoubtable Aaron Ritchay, somewhat bemused and somewhat concerned. Maier had earlier chastised the entire student Now what would happen? body for "tittering" during an assembly, a rem­ What happened was that he had to bring his onstrance that provoked the scholars, like tree mother to school with him and sit through a frogs in April, to titter all the more. With a suit­ homely homily on the consequences of his able unburdening of arms and legs, Maier un­ actions. In the interests of specificity, Maier limbered also a question for Dave. It was the had drawn up a list of Dave's deadly sins. In the question of the day and he had asked it of all first place, Dave had disgraced his school, the who had attended the Spanish-French students' students, the teachers, the alumni, the custodial banquet the night before. "Who took Lincoln's personnel. Mostly, he had disgraced the admin­ head?" istration. Why, said Maier, he had been getting Dave came up with a rather enigmatic re­ calls all morning asking what had happened. joinder. He said that even in the event that he What was he supposed to tell them, not being might know who took Lincoln's head, he one to lie, that it was out for cleaning? couldn't possibly reveal the answer. Having Maier also pointed out the intrinsic value of been taught not to lie, that was the best he could the head itself. It was irreplaceable, invaluable, do. He hadn't been taught to act stupid; it just fragile. He said-that Miss Le Perrierre, the petite happened. lady who taught both Spanish and French, had When he was called again to the Spanish­ been unable to rest in peace since the incident. French inquisition, Dave received the expected She was deeply troubled that one of her students bad news. "Now we know why you wouldn't might be the culprit. For that matter, Coach reveal the perpetrators. You're one of them." Bernie Knauer's mental and physical health A few minutes later, Dave made one of those had been placed in jeopardy. The head had been phone calls where you just have to pretend it's stashed in the back seat of Coach's car. What if 10 years later. "Mom, can you come and pick me he'd encountered it in a weak moment and suf­ up? I've been kicked out of school." fered a nervous breakdown or heart attack? The walk along Witter Field to 8th Street and Less important, a shadow had been cast over then down 8th Street toward Two Mile Avenue Dave's own future. Something like this was gave him plenty of time to ruminate over the going to be hard to live down.

88 r Had he learned a lesson? Maier wanted to know. r "I guess I learned not to do something like this again," Dave said, wondering if he could later Lincoln's Head stomach his contrition. What he had really learned was that some people have no sense of humor. So went the loss and recovery of Lincoln's head in one of its many instances. This week, the Great • Railsplitter, exhumed from a storeroom in the back reaches of the new school at 180116th St. S., arose to haunt Dave again. The plea went out on Arnie Strope's Kaffee Klatsch. "Does anyone know where the statue of Lincoln came from?" Kurt Bushman, a student at LHS, was asking. He soon found the answer wasn't going to come easily. Among his 25 fruitless calls was one to the Wisconsin Rapids city historian, the same Dave Engel who had early suffered calumny and dis­ grace. Now he was to suffer it again. Although he pored over many a volume of antique lore, Dave never did find out where the statue of Old Abe originated. With the assistance of Bushman and many hours ofresearch, he was able to make a few points. Complete descriptions of both old, old Lincoln (1903) and old Lincoln (now known as East Junior High) (1931) fail to mention the statue, as do the 1902-1910 minutes of the board of education. At the combined dedication of the 1903 building and commencement ceremonies, Laurie Drumb presented "statuary" purchased for the high school by the class of 1907. As described, her objects of art were entitled, "Belt Bucklers, Hebe, Diana and William McKinley." Bushman and friends searched through every school annual ("Ahdawagam") from 1912 to 1983 without finding a clue, although a drawing of the statue appeared in 1922 and references in 1943, when it was moved to the area of the main entrance. Bushman and present Lincoln Principal Timothy Laatsch inverted the heavy piece enough to inspect the bottom: no inscription. But there are eyewitness accounts from the first Lincoln that imply the statue came with the build­ ing. Lela Winn, class of 1910, remembers it in the main lobby. Carrie Panter, a graduate previously of Howe School, heard the statue discussed and saw it in the building around 1903. Viola Palmer, class ofl 909, saw the statue on the first floor when she started 8th grade at Lincoln in 1904. Leonard Hatten remembers seeing Lincoln in place in 1903. Now Abe is about to be returned to public view, his shoes shined, freshly gilded, enclosed in a glass box, his head chained to something deep inside. Any contemporary vandals attempting to etch a black mark on history will have to pull harder than those naughty boys of '62.

89 Brave Boys

. John Stults wrote to his sister Angeline on the rail road to guard for a while and I am Holmes that since he couldn't think of a good glad of it for have got tierd wading in the mud enough name for her baby boy, she should for a whiled." name it, "and I will git to see it som day On Jan. 31, 1863, John wrote again to his after it is big anuf to swear alfd to chew sister from Collierville. He said the rebels tobaco." were about 10 miles away, although the union John wrote to his brother, Henry, at Bara­ sentry had been shot through the ankle the boo, on Aug. 15, 1862, to warn him against night before. From near Memphis, he said, "I following John's own example. "Better not was in the grave yard wher tha buryed the inlist if yo can git along with out for it is not soldars and thar was ten achars of them mutch fun about it you haft to be every ones boys ... well I shal bea glad when this is over dog and barke when tha tell yo to." · but thar ant mutch use of talking eny thing These letters dramatize the Civil Wat expe­ about it." riences of two Wisconsin volunteers, John Another source, John's cousin, "G. Doty," Stults, a corporal in the 12th Infantry and his provided a personal view of suffering. "Have brother, Henry, a private in the 6th Infantry. been in sevral close places and have felt the John wrote to his mpther, Jane Stults, on wind of Rebel bullets and saw the horers of Aug. 14, 1862. ''The wethar is so awfal hot the battle field where the cannon balls fell hear it is very dry hear now I cant think of thick and fast and where my comrads fell on any thing to right. Now I am so sleepy I cant all sides of me wounded and bleeding." hardley see. I have bin on guard for two At Black River, the government troops days." routed the rebels and pursued them to Jack­ A September letter from John to Angeline son, Miss. "I never knew what hardships was said there were a hundred men in his regi­ until we came en to that march. The wether ment on horse back and that he was one of was extremely hot. The Rebels spoiled all the them. "We have to scout the plantasions all water that they could along the rode and it over. I was out yesterday on a scout and we was very scarce at best." Confederate troops brat 8 horses in and we brat in six sadels." also hauled dead mules into drinking places, In December, John wrote that rebel prison­ "so it would stink so bad we could not drink it. ers had been exchanged for government pri­ I have seen hogs drove out of puddels of water soners but that the rebels didn't want to go. and then men drink it when it was as thick as "Tha said that tha had fought longe a nuf molasses with mud. Such dear aunt," he against the old stars and strips. I think tha wrote," "is the life of a soldier." will give up to us before next May. I hope so "You wanted to know if I had seen John," far I want to git out of this and in to some­ continued the cousin. "Well I have not, I could thii:ig els." not find him al tho I have no dout we have bin To his mother from Collierville, "Tenasee," close to each other sevral times." on Jan. 20, 1863, John said it was raining like From Grand Gulf, Miss., John wrote that the devil, the frogs were singing and the mud he wouldn't be getting a furlough for six was deep when at 3 a.m., the rebel cavalry months or more, "so I dont think that I will sent word that they were coming to pay a try to come home lintill this is over with if I visit. "We had to git up," he said, but the rebs dont go under. It is so very hot hear that I cant didn't show. "I wish this war was over," said hardley move around_eny in the day time." John. "But I dont think that it will end for On Sept. 5, 1863, John said he had been in three years to com yet." the service two years to the day "and one year The following day, to his sister: "We are left from today I think I will be at home if I live."

90

Nixon

Although it wasn't an election year, we got what I hope will be my legacy to you." The a new president 10 years ago-when Gerald entire speech to the press and people lasted Ford was sworn in on Friday, Aug. 9, 1974, 17 minutes. It ended with a prayer: "May as the 38th president of the United States. God's grace be with you in all the days Only 37 should have been necessary at the ahead." The days began quickly and soon time, but the 37th president of the United there were 10 years. States had just made history. He had Nixon, while candidate for various public resigned. · offices and especially while president, had Until then, Ford had been vice president. achieved an unusually personal relationship His former boss, Richard Nixon, had with other Americans. Many had complete announced that, although the action was faith in him as a person and as a politician. abhorrent to every instinct in his body, he Others found him murky, loathesome, des­ had quit. Nixon felt, he said, that he no picable. My own experience began in the longer had enough political base in Con­ confidence of a young boy that his father gress to stay in office and fight impeach­ and President Eisenhower were always ment in the Watergate scandal. right. And they both, I thought, believed in Last week, Frank Strobl left a pile of 10- Richard Nixon. I had no idea that Ike didn't year-old Chicago and Milwaukee newspap­ like his vice president any better than some ers on my desk. He wondered what I thought of Nixon's enemies liked him. about them. They made me a little sick and As I remember it, Nixon landed at the "Tri­ more than a little sad. City Airport,'' in what seemed to be a jet, My first concern was for myself. I was which would have been a rare occurrence at shocked to realize how quickly 10 years, the largely unused field. Even the landing of however traumatic, had passed. If such a a crop duster was likely to bring kids like me decade went so fast, what about the remain­ running down Two Mile Avenue. Now I saw der ofmy life? My second interest was in the a jet plane land and a great man get off. I historic tragedy invoked by the heavy, black, saw "Nixon." With my dad, I watched from two-inch banner headlines. They had grown somewhere back in the crowded Lincoln more subtle and more sinister than I remem­ Fieldhouse as the great man spoke. Al­ bered. Was it yesterday or in some ancient, though people cheered enthusiastically, my dyspeptic dream? NIXON RESIGNS (Says awe already diminished. What was so amaz­ Support has Crumbled); FORD SWORN IN ing about this guy? He was mean looking (38th President Asks Nation's Prayers); and mean sounding. FORD TAKES OFFICE ('Nightmare is Yet, in 1960, I assumed, as did nearly every­ over,' he says). one I knew, that Nixon was "the one" and Nixon said he would prefer "to have car­ that he would win the election for president. ried to the finish despite the personal agony, Who "Kennedy" was I certainly had little and my family unanimously urged me to do notion. I knew he was somehow young, so" but that America needed a full-time pres­ unduly rich and unashamedly Catholic, all ident and a full-time Congress. He said he thoroughly negative traits, I was sure. left without bitterness toward his foes. With This "Kennedy" beat our Nixon and Nixon this action, Nixon became the first president went back to California to be beat again. A in the history of the United States to leave weaker and less determined man would have office by resignation. Even while out of been done for. Even Nixon said we wouldn't office, he vowed to continue to work for the have him to kick around any more. "great causes" to which he had devoted his He was wrong. Nixon, like he himself said political life. Peace, more than anything, "is later, was no quitter. For many dark and

92 Patrolman Roger Burmeister, Chief R.J. Exner, Lt. Donald Knuth, Sgt. Edgar Heiser, Sgt. Robert Exner with presidential candidate Richard Nixon. dogged years, he paid as "former vice presi­ win unless you hate them, and then you des­ dent" his dues at political functions all over troy yourself." the country. In 1968, Nixon had risen above I was petty. The Watergate hearings made defeat and above himself. He had earned the me feel good. I had been angry. Now the right to be president of the United States. villain had destroyed himself. It was excit­ By this time and for many reasons, I hated ing. It was vindication. Then he resigned him. I hated his ways, his inhumanity, his and all the fun went out of it. cheapness. I hated what he stood for: a crass, As Nixon descended from the presidency mean materialism, a self-interest, a smug to humanity, he said, through a veil of tears: ugliness. He was a hypocrite, a crook who "Greatness comes not when things go al­ denounced criminals. Grown larger than ways good for you, but the greatness comes life. Nixon was the straw man stuffed with when you are really tested, when you take all the evils. He was worth kicking around some knocks, some disappointments, when some more as if he could be hurt as it seemed sadness comes, because only if you have he couldn't be. He was also the president, the been in the deepest valley can you ever know most powerful individual in the world. how magnificent it is to be on the highest A newspaper of Aug. 10, 1974, noted that mountain." one of the phrases from Nixon's East Room The remarks were slightly self-serving. I remarks to his staff might be resurrected by couldn't even care. Sadness had come to me, historians as an unintentional illumination too. The mantle of defeat cast a human of the downfall of the Nixon administration. shadow across Nixon. He had become too "Never be petty. Always remember others much a part of us. Who was there to be mad may hate you, but those who hate you don't at any more?

93

t D-Day

June 15, 1944, was a lovely day on the beach, . further out had begun firing at targets ashore. said Ernie Pyle, war correspondent. Men were Other ships unloaded closer to the beach. sleeping on the white Normandy sand-some Amphibious "ducks" shuttling back and forth of them forever. Men were floating in the with men and material were hit by shelling. water, but they didn't kno-w they were in the "We could see dead soldiers and hear men hol­ water because they were dead. The wreckage of lering for help, officers and sergeants yelling, the previous nine days seemed vast and star­ 'Don't stop, keep going, this isn't a rescue tling. "You could see trucks tipped half over operation!' " and swamped. You could see partly sunken "We were right in line with a German 88 four barges, and the angled-up corners of jeeps, and miles inland," Swarick said. "The second shell small landing craft half submerged. And at was a little close, so we moved. The next shell low tide you could still see those vicious, six­ fell where we'd been." pronged iron snares. that helped snag and Assigned to the 303rd Port Co. of the U.S. wreck them." Army's 519th Port Battalion, Swarick's func­ Shortly after dawn on June 6, "D-one day," tion was to load ammunition from the ship Pyle had reached the Normandy shore with onto ducks that went between ship and shore. the second wave of Allied troops. He carried It took four days, he said, to empty his ship. In with him the vision of "more ships than any the meantime, he and the crew ate K-rations human had ever seen before at one glance." and "borrowed" the rest of their food-oblong "There were battleships and all other kinds tins of sardines and coarse dark bread--.:from of warships clear down to patrol boats. There the galley of the English boat. "Every time we were great fleets of Liberty ships. There were didn't have to work, we'd lay down and cat­ fleets of luxury liners turned into troop trans­ nap," he said. ports, and fleets of big landing craft and tank Carl Polansky, also of the 519th Port Battal­ carriers and tankers. And in and out through it ion, 303 Port Co., left Southhampton on "a all were nondescript ships, converted yachts, little two-hatch channel freighter." river boats, tugs and barges." "Nobody told us," he said, "but we presumed George Swarick rode one of those ships, a we were going to France for the invasion." "Limey coaster," a small non-ocean-going Crossing the channel, he said, he and his freighter carrying ammunition. mates enjoyed a bright, sunny morning, as "We took off after supper the night of the they sprawled on the hatch covers. "We didn't 5th," Swarick said. "We crossed the channel at realize the magnitude until five miles off the night. We couldn't see much, just the sil­ French coast." There, a battleship let go a houettes of other ships. Actually we had never salvo of 16-inchers. "All of a sudden she fired been told we were going to France and did not and rolled." Polansky' s smaller craft lay at the know there was going to be an invasion." battleship's starboard end. "The realization Swarick said he was awake all night. There hit us when the swell hit us that something were no sleeping quarters so the men stayed on heavy was coming off." deck watching the shadows of ships pass by in A winch operator unloading ammunition, the darkness while airplanes passed overhead. Polansky enjoyed a good view of the vast flo­ "There were moments of tension," he said. tilla, each ship flying an anti-aircraft balloon. "You didn't know what to think about. Every­ He watched freighters, LSTs and LCTs un­ one who had cigarettes was smoking." loading jeeps and trucks. "There was a lot of After the 3 a.m. arrival of what was called by noise, firing, anti-aircraft, a little strafing. A the missions planners Utah Beach, dawn drew story had it that the German 88 was directed the grey curtain from a sight Swarick would by a French girl from a church steeple," he not forget: his modest English ship moving said. "I don't recall it ever hit anyth!ing, but it past myriad nations of ships, tall and small, got our attention." all emerging from darkness. Battleships By the time Polansky got ashore at D plus 26

94 George Swarick (front, 5th from right) at the Arc de Triomphe hours, the casualties had mostly been removed and slammed from side to side in the hold from the long white beach. He saw instead an below. "We realized what was happening," he expanse of materials of all types stacked in an said, "when we saw the tremendous amount of orderly manner. "There was very little confu­ ships. Combat had started, paratroopers had sion. We had the sense that everything was gone in. There was air combat and shelling. under control." We couldn't see the ground combat." While unloading incoming ships, the com­ Of the aftermath, Ernie Pyle wrote: "Stand­ pany bivouacked for a while near the beach. ing out there on the water beyond all this "One time we really got pa~ted," Polansky wreckage was the greatest armada man has said. "A German plane we called 'Bed Check ever seen. You simply could not believe the Charlie' would come by at night and drop gigantic collection of ships that lay out there chandelier flares. One night they followed the waiting to unload. It lay thick and clear to the flares up with an attack. They kind of tore our far horizon of the sea and beyond, and it camp apart that night." spread out to the sides and was miles wide. Its Earl Taylor, also of the Port Battalion, said utter enormity would move the hardest man." he left England on a Liberty ship,· which he Among the armada were at least three of our described as a converted transport ship, on the own citizens, sent from River City to Utah third wave of the assault. In the rough channel Beach, Normandy, to help return to its former seas, many men became so seasick they could owners dominion over an imperiled land. not walk. A half-track broke loose, said Taylor,

95 Milk Strike

Law and order had been suspended. An tipped over, arrests were made and tear gas angry gang of insurgents blocked the main was used to clear the highways. roads into the city, interfering not only When Sheriff Martin Bey ordered remo­ with obvious enemies, but stopping vehi­ val of a blockade on what is now Highway cles of any description and subjecting ordi­ 34, 200 pickets rushed a milk truck owned nary citizens to angry shouts, searches by the Rocheleau dairy and overpowered and, sometimes, beatings. What they did deputies in order to break into the back and not approve of was confiscated and des­ dump the contents. Pickets also converged troyed. Many residents feared to enter or on the Konkol truck and up-ended it before leave town. Who dared anarchy? Why they could be dispersed by tear gas. intimidate neighbor and friend? What was Some pickets had consumed moonshine the commodity that inflamed the citizenry? liquor and had begun to stop not only milk The guerrillas were, as so often in our trucks, but everybody who came down the history, farmers. The substance so contro­ road, seizing milk brought from farms in versial was milk. The motive was self­ glass jugs for relatives in town. According interest. This was the culmination of the to the Daily Tribune of Nov. 3, "Clear the milk strike of 1933. highways" was the command given Dep­ First called in spring, the strike was sus­ uty Henry Becker, Milladore, by Sheriff pended until autumn, when it emerged with Martin Bey, who is nursing a lame back at new vigor as farmers across the country the Sheriffs office today and 'clear the protested low prices by withholding milk highways' he did." and other products, demanding the "fun­ The rout of the pickets started on High­ damental right" to receive at least the cost way 13 North, where deputies, armed with of production. It was meant to be peaceful. tear-gas bombs, led 15 collegues into a band However, on Oct. 23, 1933, the Daily of 150 pickets. Although he heard bullets Tribune reported that milk cans, owned by fired over his head and was gassed, Becker an unwilling V ~sper agrarian, were wasn't intimidated. He stood 6-foot-5 and, dumped by 20 pickets of the "milk pool." at one time, weighed more than 300 pounds. The next day, four county cheese and When he was attacked by several strikers, milk plants closed voluntarily. Oct. 25 saw Becker subdued and arrested them, leaving the first violence, as 3,500 pounds of milk the rest with the threat of similar action if were dumped in Sigel. On Oct. 27, a county they didn't clean up their stuff and get off pulp-truck driver was seriously injured by a the highway in approximately eight min­ striker's beating. In Dane County, a picket utes. "In less than five minutes, they were was killed. gone," he said. Wisconsin Rapids was considered a At other roadblocks leading into Wiscon­ "storm center" as the strike tightened its sin Rapids, pickets dispersed and their hold on the city. By the end of October, makeshift shelters were destroyed. The deputies had to patrol the highways, where strike was over. pickets placed spiked planks. Trucks were

96 The son of German and Czech immigrants, Becker grew up on a farm north of Milladore. His father, John, was a well-known sausage maker and butcher there. In 1921, Becker became Milladore town con­ stable and Wood County deputy sheriff. Big and tough, he was called on not just to run tramps and gyp­ sies out of town and to moderate family quarrels, but to quell moon­ shine-inspired dance-hall gang fights all over the northern sections of the county. His successful effort in the milk strike brought Becker to the atten­ tion of public and private individu­ als throughout the county. He was urged by Daily Tribune Publisher William Huffman to run for sheriff, which he did, on the Republican ticket. In 1934, Becker won the primary, but lost the general elec­ tion to the Progressive candidate. In 1936, he was successful and served the two terms the law per­ mitted. After two years with the state traffic patrol, Becker returned

I i to the sheriff's office for two more terms, 1942-1946. While living in quarters at the jail, which was north of the present EDWARD FISCHER HENRY J. BECKER Even sheriffs go to extremes some times. A soap .box was courthouse, Becker's wife, a deputy, necessary for this conversation at the Wisconsin. Sheriffs . associatiQn conventfon,.between Edward (Ace): -Fischer, served as radio dispatcher. His newly elected sheriff of -Dane county, .who ·at: 5 1feet 4. children played with the prisoners. incites was the shortest delegate, and Sheriff Becker, . Wood county, the tallest. Becker stands 6 feet 5 inches His mother cooked such good food . tall. that "We couldn't get some to leave. In fall they'd do anything to get in."

97 King of Fools ,,,,

Who among us can name the king of fools? damaged "or any other that you may care to r~',r None but the king hirilself, who lived by a own." He said he made his money at cards, . dozen odd appellations: J evons Zalinsky, for but "that which I earn is yours until we settle· I ~ us. Lester Price, back in Kentucky. Clifton it forever." I·. J Buchanan, in Texas. Prestone Greenfield, The verbose miscreant added further . ~ explanation. "True I have a police history, I I Wilber Holloway, elsewhere. Charles Van­ derbilt, Arley Browning, Hal Nixon. He was but never from using a gun or lifting my I i Duke Darrell, in Kansas. By any name, it hand against anyone. They were all of a was the same mad monarch. petty nature, but I have been trying to live it r; This fool, this black-haired, slightly built, down. The only reason I couldn't face this dark-eyed and puckish jailbird with a flair accident count was because of my mistakes for expensive cars and a penchant for get­ of the past." ting money the easy way had the misfortune According to a report from the FBI, those in 1938 ofrunningintotroublewith a "coun­ mistakes were rather ample. Zalinsky, try sheriff," name of Henry Becker, way up a.k.a. just about anything, had a police north in a piney place called Wood County. record in 10 states and Canada, starting in Zalinsky, who described himself as a 1922 at Frankfort, N.Y., when he was 15. In salesman and theatrical agent, met his ensuing years, he was arrested and con­ downfall driving west out of Port Edwards victed for breaking and entering, burglary, on May 8, 1938, when his Cadillac rammed fraud, defacing currency, grand larceny and the rear bumper of another car as he attem p­ vagabondage. Yet he felt compelled to apol­ ted to pass. Although the traveling sales­ ogize to the community he had lately man was uninjured, three local residents offended. "Unique and beyond•comparison occupying the second vehicle were killed. is the barrage of letters being received from Charged with manslaughter, Zalinsky was that soft-hearted culprit, one Mr. Jevons held in the antiquated county jail in lieu of a Zalinsky, who came, who killed and who $2,000 bond. Only a week later, apparently sawed his way out of the local bastille," edi­ by means of blades secreted in his shoe soles, torialized the Daily Tribune. "And now he Zalinsky sawed through the bars of his writes, almost as a modern Robin Hood. If second floor cell and descended by the sheet we were all to believe him, we would be right and blanket method, evading police and in there crying tears as big as pool balls in leaving town by a "rented" automobile. his sad behalf." Our fair river city remained ever in his The Tribune had every right to wax sar­ thoughts, however, as the king indulged in castic. Just after the accident, Zalinsky had more folly, writing almost immediately to thrown out a .38 revolver, which he claimed the "honorable sheriff' and people of Wood had been found in the car when he bought it. County. "I take pen in hand to thank you for Not to mention the half dozen crimes he being human, kind, too considerate, too will­ committed between his escape and recap­ ing to trust, and to ask you to forgive me for ture. Zalinsky had been apprehended at any wrong I have did you.Your jail is like a Mansfield, Ohio, by detectives who recog­ home, your food good, and I found all your nized the car he was driving as one seen near people the best and kindest I've ever known." the Mansfield high school while Zalinsky To District Attorney Hugh Goggins, Jev­ was breaking into the building. Upon his ons Z. sent a money order for $10. He said he arrest, J evons Z. assured police he was Har­ wanted to pay for repairs caused by his ley Marmaduke of New York. He was unable escape, including some stronger bars if to explain the kit of burglary tools in his necessary. room or the $300 in nickels and dimes he had To the driver of the victims' car, Zalinsky stolen in nearby Piqua. He admitted a theft offered an automobile of the make he'd at Marion, Ohio, and an attempt at cracking

98 JEVONS ZALINSKY Behind the bars for the third time, The original 'charge was first degree man- aHer having twic,i escaped, once by saw- slaughter in connection with an auto- ing the bars of his cell, Zalinsky appears mobil~ crash. Possibly Jevons expects a 0 not the least d0wnhearted as he a\vaits ;~:1!!n;~~ !!~~~~~!~I;;~ ;\!h:e~::i~~ hearing in Wood county jail at Wisconsin of his leavetaking and enclosing $10 to off. Rapids after his arrest in Mansfield, 0. set the sawing of his bars. the safe of the Mansfield library. On his way The result was a dark moment of to Ohio, in fact the very night of his escape, waitress's shouts, customer anxiety and Zalinsky had stolen several hundred dollars confusion. A flashlight from somewhere from the Waukesha, Wis., high school. shone on Becker. "I held the gun on "I mean to marry and settle down," he had Zalinsky," said Becker, who feared the mob written. "Please forgive me! I am weak mor­ had arrived. "If they wanted him, they'd ally, physically and I suppose mentally." have him dead. That was all that saved After Zalinsky's Ohio detention, Sheriff us." Becker, undersheriff Cliff Bluett and deputy The lights back on, no one could explain Mrs. Becker drove to Mansfield to pick up the what had happened. "It's still a mystery," suspect. "We were warned in Mansfield that said Becker. "We knew he was no ordinary there might be trouble." said Becker last criminal." week. "I still shiver when I think about what On June 8, 1938, according to state prison happened on the way back." records at Waupun, Zalinsky; born Jewish in It was suspected that Zalinsky had con­ New York City, was sentenced to five to six nections with organized crime, in particular, years for first-degree manslaughter and Baby Face Nelson. While driving, Becker three additional years for the Waukesha and his companions had the uncomfortable crimes. He was released early, on Nov. 2, feeling they were under surveillance. 1942, with a political pardon. At a restaurant on the outskirts of Chi­ Once again, he had been sprung, this Jev­ cago, where the party stopped for lunch, the ons Zalinsky, Harley Marmaduke, or Robin suspicion was confirmed. Zalinsky was Hood, the celebrated yardbird who had writ­ handcuffed to Bluett, who sat on the end seat ten to his captors from afar. "But truly, sir, I of a booth. Across the table, Becker held the am sorry," he said, "and I pray that you will only gun. Before Becker could finish his forgive the King of Fools (FOR SUCH I'VE soup, the lights went out. BEEN)."

99 Ottumwa "Hey," she yelled, the second time by on her air and water are clean, there are no major crimes, motorbike, "You know you're standing right in schools are well-rated, health care is efficient and front of the mental hospital." stress is at a minimum. The city is large enough to I wanted to tell her that of course I knew. Wasn't support modern financial, communications and ,J this Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and why shouldn't there cultural enterprises, yet small enough that you be an insane asylum behind me? I had come a long can't walk down the street without finding a I I way. friendly face and a warm 'Hello.' " I It began on the dark side of a Wisconsin Christ­ Ottumwa: Named one of the best towns in Amer­ mas when I badly needed something to look for­ ica by author Hugh Bayless in 1983 and an All­ ward to. Come spring, I decided, I would hit the America City in 1977. "One thing you don't have road in the romantic style, hitchhiking. But for to worry about," says an elevator operator at the where? 100-year-old Ballingall Hotel, "is toornaydoes." Map study inspired a perverse destination, a Never had one, he says. Never will. Twisters, place I had never visited because I had not wanted maybe. to. No one I knew ha.d either visited there or Ottumwa: Whose Wapello County history paral­ wanted to. No one but me was likely to ever be lels in time Wood County. On the midnight of May there by their own free will. Knowing nothing 1, 1843, 2,000 land-hungry settlers rushed across about it, I could only imagine this sanctuary hid­ the Iowa border to grab the newly opened territory den away in our country's midlands. In this dream including the site of three Indian villages on the there were no video games, discount stores, pesti­ Des Moines River that became the county seat, cides, marijuana cigarettes, Sports Vans, hor­ Ottumwa. mones, breakdances, golf courses, boom-boxes, Ottumwa: Once called "Louisville," a term re­ joggers, self-service gas stations, punk rock bands jected by the U.S. post office for the original in the or senior centers. In my mind it was the incarna­ language of Chief Wapello, meaning variously tion of sunlit streets, sparrows, cabbages, pink place of the departed, swift water, a community of flamingoes, milky kitchens, white churches, cats, hermits or city of self-will and perseverance. jam, farmers, corn, grain elevators, root-beer Ottumwa: Whose greatest moment came in 1890 stands, tractors and apple cobblers. There, above when President Harrison visited the Coal Palace all, was the purity of the young ladies. They did exposition and said, "If I should attempt to inter­ not smoke, curse, drink, snort coke or have sex pret the lesson-of this structure, I should say it was before marriage. They believed in God, tried to do an illustration of how much that is artistic and what He wanted them to and washed the dishes. graceful is to be found in the common things of The girls were too innocent, too trusting and too life." pure to have anything to do with someone like me. Ottumwa: Home of Edna Ferber for her first 12 These were fantasies about the town that I had years but not the home of Radar O'Reilly. He never chosen to go to: Ottumwa, Iowa. lived there, not really, any Ottumwan will insist. Ottumwa: Miles from the crossroads the hitch­ Ottumwa: Where a historical society member hiker has been left at the second night, limping complains they have "malled the hell out of down­ through the dark rain with a heavy pack, prepared town" in favor of "tin sheds with false fronts," to walk until dawn asking himself what others where she says, there is nothing to do unless you had wondered all along. "Why Ottumwa?" like bowling, movies or putting your elbows on the Ottumwa: A pursuit of the trivial, an existential bar. act of controlled folly, an epic non-event in the Ottumwa: Whose largest employer in 1973 hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxies, a purposeful closed its meat-packing plant and laid off 3,500 dramatization of stupidity. In mid-introspection workers. Where 500 more have been laid offin 1984 (can't get a ride) and the happy despair of black by John Deere and Hormel. Whose World War II Iowa spring, a trucker who is not allowed to carry population of 40,000 has declined to 27,000. riders stops anyway and two days after he left Ottumwa: Where there are no picture post cards River City, the hitchhiker strolls into Main Street, and almost no souvenirs. There are almost no Ottumwa. tourists, admit chamber of commerce representa­ Ottumwa: "Who are we?" According to promo­ tives, because there is no real tourist attraction tional material. "People in Ottumwa have a high other than maybe Octoberfest, "more exciting quality oflife. Recreational opportunities abound, than Niagara Falls."

100 Ottumwa Foxes

Ottumwa: Whose First Pentecostal Assembly of God Church proclaims on its sign, "What is bitter to endure is often sweet to remember." The 13-year-old boy moving to Denver advises, "Just passing through? I'd keep on going if I were you." Main Street: Where they show sex movies across from the bar where bored women take off most of their clothes. The Fox Lounge: Where the pretty girl drinking her third, fourth or fifth glass of whiskey abruptly stiffens. A thin stream of white liquid slips from her mouth and down her chin like a milky worm. At first she doesn't acknowledge the emission. Then she wipes a hand across her mouth and remarks, in the quizzical innocence of the American dream, "Rolaids." Sunday morning: As families finish breakfast and dress for church, the town bum rattles the mall's newspaper machine for change, a travler shoulders his pack and, somewhere in Mt. Pleasant, an inmate with his private map of another state looks longingly at the open road.

101

...--·· ------~~=~~~-~~ :==--======--c======~=-~...... ~="-=" --~-~= Grim

Early in his career, that is at the age of 7 or so, shortly afterward near his Grandmother Nat­ Grim Natwick said he drew pictures on the con­ wick's farm near Pittsville. At first, it didn't seem crete in front of his father's store on the West like it was going to be able to make it up the hill at Side. When he tired of that, he looked under the all, but then it disappeared somewhere toward wooden sidewalk for nickels. 1984. One part of the furniture business Grim en­ It was at the Pittsville farm that Grim had joyed was picking up furniture at the depot. He another close call with water. To try his first and his younger brother, Buff, liked to drive the pipeful of tobacco, he climbed down an empty horse and wagon. They also liked to pitch chairs well and couldn't get out. "It was a potent expe­ and other items through the air for fun. rience," he said. Grim, born 1890, grew up in the area of the Grim's Uncle Joe told a good story about Pitts­ intersection of 1st and 3rd avenues among the ville's Jim Hiles, son of George Hiles and man­ Nashes, Johnsons and his Grandp~ Lyon. With ager of the "king's" railroad. It seems when they only horses on the street, the triangle formed ran the first one-car train from Cranmoor to made a good playground. From a roadbed base­ Pittsville, Mayor Jim Hiles wa,s dressed in a ball game, it was only a dash and a hop to the tuxedo and put on the train. Either he was in the swimming hole in front of Nash's (now 730 1st habit of drinking occasionally or he never refused Ave. S.) There, Grim· got the scare of his life a drink, said Uncle Joe. At Pittsville, the whole when, as usual, he dived to the bottom for the populace turned out for the big occasion. When challenge and sprang back toward the surface. the band stopped playing, Hiles made his speech. Rising took too long and he would have yelled "I annoint this town Pittsville, I am drunk and had he been immersed in another medium. Just dressed up." Then he fell off the platform. before it was too late, he hit air. Grim at home found a good friend in Clarence All the riverside kids built boats. Grim later Jackson, whose father ran the normal school. read Mark Twain and couldn't see anything "Old Man Jackson" was considered the smartest unusual about life on the Mississippi. He and his man in town. He had to be. He taught teachers. gang knew every Wisconsin River island from It was another friend, though, who gave Grim Rapids to Port and beyond. at a young age his pseudonym. Originally he had Even in the city, turn-of-century families been named Myron in honor of Uncle Myron Hill stayed close to nature. In autumn, two or three who had been killed in a fight on a Mississippi hired girls or aunts canned bushels of tomatoes. steamboat. Hank Wasser, a blacksmith's kid, Potatoes and cabbages were grown and stored used to name everyone in the neighborhood. A for winter. In a big icebox were quarters of beef. A series of noises he made while Myron was run­ deer often hung in the summer kitchen. In spring, ning bases one day came out "Mim-mee, bim­ a forest of maples down the street was tapped. mee, grim-mee. Grim." "We poured the sap in a huge dishpan," said A minor curse of growing up to Grim was Grim, "and watched it simmer down." school. Although he enjoyed sports, he only went Seemingly from the past came the Indians on to classes because his father forced him. their way to the cranberry harvest. "About 200 of Although he was to become an accomplished them dressed Indian style might pass by," Grim writer, Grim said he had been .the worst student said, "while we stood saying, 'Brajue, brajue,' a in school. word we took to mean 'hello.' Once in a while, one of When he raised his hand in history class, the the men would give us a snarling look but we were­ surprised teacher listened to a recitation from a n't scared because we knew we could run like deer." historical romance Grim had been reading the The technology of the future intruded at the night before. "Myron,'' she said, "I think you're same time. When T.E. Nash put in electricity, so drawing more from your imagination than on did his next-door neighbors, tapping the same your history book.'' wires. "Finally, telephones came in,'' said Grim. Whatever he drew from his imagination, Grim "When you rang a bell, Central would answer. considered his home a fortunate beginning. You told her who you wanted to talk to and she "Everybody was in total sympathy with what I might have answered that Aunt Tilly wasn't in wanted to do,'' he said. "Most of my teachers right then; she just ran over to the grocery store. forgave my poor work. My youth couldn't have Central knew where everybody was all the time." been better." Jack Arpin drove the first automobile into Grim somehow graduated from high school in town, a quaint little piece of machinery that 1910. His River City boyhood over, he took the steered with a rod, said Grim. He saw another car next train out. 102 .,

Hollywood, nickels to spend on ice cream Consolidated News:- cones every week end. Mary Ann I think it's time I get a little pub­ Jackson on my right knee and licity in your high class magazine Bobby Hutchings on my left earn so I'm sending you a shot of my­ enough to keep their parents out self with the stars from the "Our of the best poorhouse in Califor­ Gang" Comedy's troup. nia for the next 200 years, and I think a good title for this photo Bobby is only three years old. would be: "When Good Fellows Jean Darling and Harry Spear, Get Together". The members of the two little stars standing be­ the "gang" are so young they hind yours truly can't count high must be good and I'm too old to be enough to count the dollar bills bad. Hal Roach hands them when the The salary list of this little Saturday whistle blows. Petey, group of "Our Gang" comedians the dog with the bad lamp barks knocks the comers off of $2500 a his way into 200 bucks every week. week. Joe Cobb, the boy on the left The little girl in white is a cou­ who looks like a cream puff takes sin of mine. We both draw, but not 500 of Uncle .Sam's pen wipers as much as our associates in the home with him every Saturday tintype. noon. Farina, the chocolate eclair' Very truly, at the right has exactly 8,000 GRIM NATWICK

103 ---~-····------~-~------,,,,,------.;;_~__ --,,_=-----7'"-~------~--- Betty Boop

It was a fairy tale all right. Young and little booklet" called "Ahdawagam." sexy Betty Boop from a dog's life in River As soon as he graduated from high City to stardom in Hollywood, almost school in 1910, Grim headed for Chicago overnight. Well, she didn't exactly get and the Art Institute. "My mother had

. : there by herself. She came out of the head gone to school with Isaac Witter who - 1 of Grim Natwick, considered by his peers owned the bank across the street from to be perhaps the finest animator of the the store. She persuaded him to loan me female form and character. $1,000 to go to art school." Betty Boop has been called the most To supplement that grubstake, Grim famous girl "cartoon" character of all, got odd jobs like dusting statues, fetch­ even more famous than Grim' s other ing props for plays and cleaning up at a creations: Snow White, Princess Glory in cafeteria. It wasn't long before he got his "Gulliver's Travels," Nelly Bly in next break. A commercial artist allowed "Rooty-Toot-Toot" and the Mad Holy him to fill in letters for him. Old Witch in "The Cobbler and the "I was able to make money with no Thief." training at all," he said. "Pretty soon he From his boyhood back in Centralia, discovered I could draw a comic strip Grim remembers copying pictures out of which he couldn't do." For his labors books his mother had in her library. Grim was paid $3 a week. Somewhere she had got a folding black­ Then Grand Rapids' Judge Gaynor's board upon which he could draw to his grandson, Sammy, "pretended" to write heart's content. Every kid in the neigh­ a song about some beautiful girl and borhood wanted him to draw pictures. A Grim drew a cover for the sheet music. A teacher regularly erased the blackboard song publisher liked his work and hired so he could draw in their season turkeys Grim to draw covers for $10 each enough or angels. to rent a room at $3 a day. Yet when he transferred from the old Soon Grim established a reputation as Centralia school to Emerson, Grim ran a cover artist which meant that he ended into some better artists: Paul and Baily up in New York, drawing song covers Preston and Walter W almouth. "I began while his roommate Gregory LaCava copying their drawings," said Grim. drew a comic strip for the World Tele­ "That's when I began thinking beyond gram. Grim was drafted into World War I the Katzenjammer Kids." while LaCava talked himself into be­ The Preston kids moved and Wal­ coming head of the new William Ran­ mouth dropped out before Grim got to the dolph Hearst animated cartoon studio, 1903 Lincoln High School so he was the second in America. again the best artist though self­ After the war, LaCava persuaded Grim proclaimed worst student in school. One to try animation. At first Grim hated it. of his early projects was making chalk He didn't know how to make Happy drawings before football games "show­ Hooligan's horse gallop across the page ing exactly what we were going to do to while Happy injected cocaine into the the opposing teams. He also designed "a horse's rump. Finally it dawned on him. Grim mea­ ~~o sured the distance across a sheet of paper and punched holes all the way, tracing (~~ the drawing LaCava had given him. He 104 continued moving the drawing and trac­ Grim also did "a little work" on Fanta­ ing it until 120 drawings completed the sia and Pinocchio before running his car first gallop. "Perspiration almost filled up a wet embankment and tearing his to my shoetops," he said. drawing arm. "While I was in a plaster What Grim really wanted to do was cast I visited New York and the Fleischer illustrate. Some artists were paid $2,500 studio. They were building a new studio for a single Saturday Evening Post in Florida and wanted me to come down." cover. To learn, he rented a room and There Grim directed 1,000 feet of the fea­ hired cut-rate models whom he sketched. ture cartoon, Gulliver's Travels. The next day he got out an anatomy book World War II pretty much wiped out and tried to put all the muscles and bones animation, said Grim. Artists were in the proper places. drafted and so was available film. Grim In 1925, Grim decided to continue his found work making instructional draw­ studies in Vienna where he could work ings in aircraft plants before joining with European masters and live where Walter Lantz in California to work on an American dollar was worth ten educational films and Woody Wood­ bucks. "My career began at that mo­ pecker cartoons. ment," he said. "I did nothing but study, The decline continued. "Theaters be­ study, study. I learned to draw." gan to lose to television," said Grim. Three years later, Grim returned to "MGM, Warner Brothers, Iwerks, even New York with "just enough money to Walt stopped making the little shorts take a ferry across the Hudson river." that always opened theaters." By luck, Grim ran into an old friend, The last studio to give up was Screen Bill Nolan, on Times Square. Nolan was Gems. There, Grim animated the first opening a studio just two blocks away Mr. Magoo and at least one Academy and asked Grim to work with him on Award picture. Krazy Kat. Radio had just about put the After cartoons, he "virtually finished" song-cover artists out of business so his career doing commercial work in Grim accepted. New York, including a highly popular "Nolan with Max and Dave Fleischer series of beer commercials using the began to write little stories to go with voices of Bob and Ray. In 1968, Grim songs," said Grim. "A song was placed retired at the age of 78 to pursue oil in front ofme and Dave Fleischer told me painting. to create a little character to go with it. It Of a subject who had was a boo-boop-a-doop song by Helen personally experienced Kane and I created the Betty Boop almost the entire his­ character." tory of animation, a Although offered ajob by Walt Disney, 1975 "Film Comment" Grim decided to work for Ub I werks on magazine wrote, "Grim the character Flip the Frog. In 1934, he Natwick is yet another did go to Disney and began drawing of the many individual Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies. artists who have toiled This led to the more ambitious Snow anonymously under cor­ White, the first full length animation. porate banners and are "Before I finished I had five assist­ only now receiving ants," he said. "My entire work was the long-overdue public rec­ Snow White character for about 600 ognition of their spe­ days. We did 22,000 drawings." cial contributions."

105 ~~ ------

Summer Visitors

Tramps, also known as hoboes or bums, The organ grinder wandered up the rode in o_n the freight trains all year but streets entertaining kids with a monkey on were more numerous during the summer a leash wearing a tiny red cap. While the when the weather was more hospitable. grinder turned the crank to make music on Wearing baggy pants, battered shoes with his portable organ, the monkey held out a soles flapping and often overcoats year tin cup into which the kids would put nick­ round, they went singly from house to els and dimes. the organ grinder always house asking for a sandwich and a cup of wore a wrinkled hat. His black mustache coffee "for a hungry man." Sometimes curled up at the ends and his big white they asked for ground coffee, beans, pota­ teeth showed when he smiled. toes or carrots which would be taken to one The chimney man carried ropes and of the bums' camps where the combined brushes over his shoulder while wearing a haul would be cooked up for a dozen or so black witch-style hat, all covered with men. soot. He showed up in summer when coal They were polite, never caused trouble and wood fires were at a minimum and and were seldom turned down by the was al ways welcome to the job of climbing

I woman of the house. However, clothes up on, the roof to clean a chimney. were not allowed to remain on the line The scissors grinder made his rounds I overnight. ringing a bell to announce his arrival. He 7 , I In Wisconsin Rapids were three bum's was an older man carrying a wooden con­ camps: north of the city on the west side of traption on his back like a folding saw­ the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul tracks; horse, which would be set up with a foot west of the "St. Paul" tracks near Hale St.; pedal to turn the grindstone. Women came and north of the Green Bay & Western out of the house to have their knives and tracks north of 12th Street. scissors sharpened. The big depression of 1929 produced Besides these individuals, institutions another group of bums. These were young regularly brought their events. The educa­ men and better dressed, traveling from tional and entertaining Chautauquas in­ place to place looking for a job. cluded plays put on by traveling actors in Gypsies also came to town two or three tents, minstrel shows in theaters and in times during the summer, riding in wag­ tents, religious-revival tent meetings and ons pulled by large horses. Men and other forms of entertainment. women both wore colorful costumes. They A circus coming was an event antici­ seemed to have a bad reputation as thieves pated for many weeks. Young people were and kidnappers. Younger children who up early in the morning to wait at the rail­ had heard the tales ran and hid when the road tracks for the circus train. They gypsies appeared. watched the unloading, the setting up of During the summer, Indian women fre­ the tents and hoped to get a job installing I quently made calls at homes selling bas­ seats, feeding animals or taking part in kets so attractive and well made that they the parade wearing the large paper-mache were hard to resist. Many households had clown heads all in order to get a free ticket ~ a stock larger than they could possibly use. to the afternoon show. I by Everett Lambert (1909-1984) ~ ! 106

/ ---~- -~ -- --

Almost everyone in town walked down to Grand Avenue to watch the noon free parade of band and animal wagons pulled by several teams of matched show horses. Medicine shows were another form of entertainment that drew large crowds. Around the 4th of July, the shows set up for a two-week stand at empty lots on 8th Street South, selling tonics, tapeworm medicine and Indian snake oil. A platform about six feet high was set up in front of a tent where the bottles were filled. Entertainment of some sort would precede the entrance of the spellbinding "pitch man." An Indian in full warbonnet dress, standing with his arms folded, was part of the snake-oil show. The salesmen were terrific and made the audience feel miserable all ovefas / they described symptoms that could be cured only by the tonics. The potency of the snake oil was demonstrated by hold­ ing up a piece of thick shoe leather and noting the short time it took for the oil to penetrate. Best of all was the tapeworm. The showman would with much fast talking hold jars containing five- and six-foot­ Everett Lambert long worms taken from people who had actually used the formula. At the climax of the show, out came the bottles for sale and many onlookers held up dollar bills to buy from the stage or purchased from Not only did gypsies, assistants walking through the crowd with trays of bottles. tramps and medicine More homely visitors came in the form shows come to town; so of nearby farmers who peddled produce door to door. They were usually friendly did the traveling photo­ and chatted with the women who had grapher and his patient come out to their wagons to examine vegetables. Some of them used an effec­ white mule. tive, but negative, sales pitch as they hawked their wares? "Ya don't wanna buy any potatoes, do ya?!"

107 A Winter Day

was walking, neighbors saw each other The boy jumps out of nearly every day of the year. When the ice was thick, people crossed the bed into a cold room, river on the ice, taking a short cut from the pulls on long under­ west end of the Green Bay railroad bridge to the east end of the Consolidated dam. Often, wear and enough over the pressure of the ice in the large pond caused cracking, with a noise like thunder, it to be decent and sometimes right under the walker's feet. Despite any transportation difficulties, it rushes down to the red­ was unthinkable to miss a day of school because of bitter cold or deep snow. There hot kitchen stove to were no hot lunches served in the schools finish dressing. and everyone who lived a distance away took their lunches in a Karo syrup pail. The Because everyone walked, either to work sandwiches defrosted by noon. or to school, heavy clothing was a necessity. In grade school, the boys sat on one side of Boys wore short pants and black-ribbed knit the room and the girls on the other, a separa- stockings that extended above the knee. The tion that extended onto the playground and curse of the winter underwear beneath was into extracurricular activities. that the bottom of the legs stretched out and A favorite pastime of the boys was to get the ends had to be folded over just above the up early Saturday morning and walk out of shoe tops. In mild weather, buttonhookshoes the city to "hop bobs." Bobs were the heavy with rubhers were worn. Cold days called for two-horse sleighs of the farmers coming into leather knee boots with rawhide laces or·for town. Later, loaded with sacks of feed and bootpacks, which had solid rubber bottoms groceries, they would start back to the farms. with leather uppers and were pulled over Then the boys would hop bobs again and several pairs of socks. The disadvantage of ride out of town late in the day, to walk back the bootpacks was that the solid rubber sometimes with fingers and feet almost offered no ventilation and the wearers soon frozen. learned not to stand still long enough for the Hopping bobs was a rather dangerous moisture built up inside to freeze. Nearly activity. To fall under the three-inch-wide everyone owned a winter scarf wrapped runners would have resulted in serious around the neck and pulled up to cover the injury. A few farmers did object to the prac- nose in cold weather. And mittens, often tice and the kids soon knew the mean ones with a set of gloves inside. Headwear for the who would swear and use a whip on those boys was a knitted stocking cap. Zippers had trying to hop a ride. A trick soon learned was yet to come into use and there usually was a never to jump off a high place or a moving button somewhere on the heavy coat ready sled because the shock of landing with cold to fall off or already gone. feet was rather painful. When the cold weather started, those who It was regarded as a special favor when a owned automobiles set them up on blocks, teamster would allow the boys to help hitch removed tires and batteries and drained the or unhitch a team. Sometimes when a load of radiators. Roads were never plowed. Traffic firewood was being delivered, it was also consistedofhorse-drawncuttersortheheav- allowed to help unload. A generous farmer ier farm and freight sleighs. Since everyone might even pay a dime for this favor. by Everett Lambert

108 Winters seemed long and cold with plenty of snow. All the kids owned sleds So the boy lies in the and got a lot of use from them. Snow slowly warming bed. slides were made by shoveling to make a slanting pile about 20 feet long and eight Beyond the walls that feet high.Water was splashed on the sur­ face to make an icy runway. separate him from a Ice skating lasted all winter. A creek cold February night, he on Bonow Avenue, a pond near the old Stange and Ellis box factory and the can hear the slow ex­ river itself were popular skating places. Skis were often fashioned from old haust beats, about one wooden barrel staves with a piece of per second, as the leather nailed at the center to fit over the shoes. It was a crude and ineffective engineer starts a heavy introduction to the sport. Another winter sport was "shinney," a freight headed out of distant relative of hockey. town, fighting to get The woods were searched for a branch with a heavy curved end. This served as traction on icy rails. a stick. The puck was a tin can or an old Then, suddenly, about softball frozen stiff. Played in the street, the game's object was to get the puck 10 very rapid beats as across a designated line. The only rule was not to get to the left of the puck. Then it ''blows'' when the it was legal to be whacked across the legs drivers slip and spin with an opponent's stick. After a day in the cold, the boy came . .. a pause ... then into a house warmed by a coal stove in the front room and a cook stove, fueled again the slow beats by wood, in the kitchen. Ifit were Satur­ gradually increasing day night, he would face the social necessity of a bath, with water heated on in tempo as the train top of the stove. The lucky ones got to use it first. gains speed. The beat At bedtime, smaller children were gradually dies out. The taken upstairs by the light of a kerosene lamp and tucked into bed. The boy stayed whistle blowing at as still as possible to avoid contact with the cold sheets. The only heat came some crossing far in through a small register in the floor. the distance is the last Then the illumination was removed and the night spent in nearly total darkness . sound heard.

. 109 never never to hear the mallet crack! never to finish the game

I Photographs by Eugene Claflin

starting starting the last generation

Anton F. Billmeyer, Mary Ann Jeffrey Billmeyer, Anna Billmeyer Wipfli, Louis Wipfli, Teresa Daly Keenan, Daniel Keenan, Margaret Keenan Gagen, Rosa Billmeyer Fischer, Joseph Fischer, unidentified children (near Pittsville).

110 doll

do we stare? doll don't care do we sigh? doll don't cry do we dare? doll don't care I , do we die? doll don't cry do we dare? do we die? doll don't care doll don't cry

111 HOME TOWN

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Index

A&P,86 BROWN, Frank, 12, 28, 122 D-DAY,94 ALBAN, Col., 65 BROWN, Jim, 122 DAILY TRIBUNE, 67, 79, 96 ALBEE, John, 50 BROWN, Neal, 30 DALKES' Saloon, 34 ALEXANDER, L.M., 24, 26, 28, 37 BUNDE, Alvina, 38 DALY, John E. Drugs, 74 ALJOE, Jim, 122 BUNDE, Charles, 38 DALY Raft ALTMAN, Fanny see GRIMM, 56 BUNDE, Herbert, 31, 38 DALY Miles, 122 ANIWASH, Frank, 61 BURNS, Mr., 28 DALY BLOCK, 66 ANSON, Mrs. Maria, 17 BURMEISTER, Roger, 93 DAMROW CREAMERY, 56 ARBUTUS FLOWERS, 43 BUSHMAN, Kurt, 89 DANIELSON, Cora, 72 ARCHITECTURE, 80-85 BUSINESS MEN'S ASSN., 66 DASHNEAU, Nels, 122 ARPIN, Antoine, 14 BYMERS Family, 57 DAVIS, Ed, 28 ARPIN CENTENNIAL, 55, 57 DA VIS, Fred, 28 ARPIN, 54, 61 DAVIS Store ARPIN, D.J., 54, 55, 58 CAMERON, James W. 48, 58, 59 DAY, John, 122 ARPIN Daniel-Home, 83 CARVER, Jonathon, 22 DAY, Martha, 61, 63 ARPIN, E.P., 54, 59, 74, 75 CARY, John W., 34 DAY, Mary, 61, 62 ARPIN, J.B. Lumber Co., 54-56, 59 CASS, Lewis, 22 DECORAH, Mrs. Rose, 61 ARPIN, J.B. Home, 83 CATE, Judge, 18 DEMOCRATS, 34 ARPIN INDIANS, 60 CENTRALIA, 23, 25, 27, 34, 36, 66, 67, 68, DICKERMAN, 40, 41 ARPIN MILL FIRE, 54 69,74 DOTY, G.,90 ARPIN PRESBY. CHURCH, 56 CENTRALIA Dam, 12 DOUD & SONS MILL, 46 ARPIN SAWMILL, 55, 56 CENTRALIA Enterprise and Tribune, . DOUGHERTY, Charley, 75 ARPIN Village, 54-58 12,14,24,26,28,29,34,35,54,66,67, DOUVILLE, Marie, 75 ARPIN WOODMAN HALL, 56 70 DRAKE, 9IRARD & Mill, 48 AUBUNDALE, 54, 57 CENTRALIA PULP & WATER CO., 12, DRUMB, Laurie, 89 26,37 DUGAS, Zack, 14 BABCOCK Hotel, 44 CHICAGO COLUMBIAN EXPOSI­ DUSTIN, Mr. 41 BABCOCK, J.W., 44 TION, 26, 37 BABCOCK Village, 40, 41, 42-45 CHICAGO MILW., & ST. PAUL R.R., EAGLE PIGEON, 60 BAKER, George, 70 25,27,36,44 EAGLE PIGEON Family, 61, 62 BAKER, Mary, 91 CHIPPEWA Indians, 22, 23, 65 EAST SIDE MARKET SQ., 72 BAKER, William, 46 CHRISTIAN, Alice (Wakely), 19 EDSON, Dr. Charles C., 70, 71 BALD MOUNTAIN, 61 CHRISTIAN, Charley, 20, 28 EDWARDS DAM, 14 BALDERSTONE, Joseph, 28 CHRISTIAN, Leonard, 18, 19 EDWARDS FAMILY, 57 BEAR BLUFF, 42 CIRKEL, J.W. & Sons Mill, 48, 59 EDWARDS, John, 34 BECKER Family, 57 CIRCUS, 106 EDWARDS, John, Paper Mill, 37 BECKER, Henry, 96, 97, 98, 99 CIRCUS TRAIN WRECK, 44 EDWARDS, J. & Co., 14, 54 BECKER, John, 97 CITY POINT, 42 EDWARDS, John, Mfg. Co., 24, 25, 2, BELOIT IRON WORKS, 26 CIVIL WAR, 90 28,54 BENEDICT, Armond, 70 CLAIR, Jack, 12 ELECTIONS, 34 BENNETT, Ashley, 14 CLARK, E.C., 51 ELLIOT, Robert, 38, 50 BENNETT, George, 12 CLARK & SCOTT MILL, 51 ELLIS, Albert G., 23 BENNETT, H.H., 8 CLAFLIN, Eugene, 110, 119 EMERSON SCHOOL, 104 BERRY PATCH TAVERN, 42 · CLAS, Alfred C., 33 EMMONS,87 BERRY PICKING, 43 CLEVELAND GROVER, 34, 36, 40 ENGEL, Dave, 88, 89, 100, 101 BETHEL,57 CLINTON, Mr., 65 ENKRO, Lafe, 88 BEY, Martin, 96 CLINTON Dam, Port Ed, 12 ESSER FAMILY, 57 BILLINS, 71 COCHRAN FERRY, 69 EWING, M.C., 30 BILLMEYER, A.F., 79 COCHRAN, W.H., 12 EXNER, R. J., 93 BILLMEYER, Anna, 110 COMMERCIAL HOTEL, 67 EXNER, Robert, 93 BILLMEYER, Anton, 110 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 20, 28 BILLMEYER, Mary Ann, 110 CONNELY HOTEL, 28 FARISH, Johny, 20 BILLMEYER, Rosa, 110 . CONNELY, George, 28 FARRISH, John, 12, 14, 20, 88 BIRON Village, 8 CONNOR,58 FARRISH, Robert, 20 BIRON Sawmill, 8, 12, 14 CONSOLIDATED WATER POWER & FELDMAN, Fr., 30 BITTNER, Rev. J., 76 PAPER CO., 33, 37, 72 FELKER, Lloyd, 60 BLACK RIVER, 22, 54, 90 COOK, Joe, 62 FERRY AND CLAS, 14, 32 BLOOMER, Mr., 64, 65 CORNISH, James, 91 · FERRY FARM, 16 BLOW, Jim, 122 CORRIGAN, 122 FERRY SERVICE, 68 BLUETT, Cliff, 99 COPELAND, Luella (TEETERS), 42, 43 FINLEY,43 BOGER, Ruth, 79 COPELAND, Raymond, 43 FIRE, Nash Home, 32 BOGGS & Forbush Stageline, 28 COTEY, Capt. Joseph, 18, 34 FIRST NAT'L BANK, 74 BORN, Walter, 76 COWAN, Alice, 20 FISCHER, Edward, 97 BRATTON, Thomas, 70 COWAN, Ella, 20 FISCHER, Joseph, 110 BRAWLEY, Mill, 65 COWAN, Garrett "Doc", 20 FISCHER, Rosa (BILLMEYER), 110 BRAZEAU, Theodore, 6, 8, 10, 69 COWAN, Gramma, 20 FONTAINE, A.L., 35 BRIDGE, Wis. Rapids, 68, 72 COWAN, Mary, 20 BRODY, Emma (DOERING), 62 CRANBERRY CREEK, 41 BROECKER Family, 57 CRANBERRY MARSH, 40 BROWER Boarding House, 28 CUTLER, Matt, 57 BROWN, William, 20 CUTLER, Percy, 57

115 -

FONTAINE, Mrs. A.L., 70 HOOPER, Moses, 24 LINK, Bill, 62 FORBUSH, Boggs & Stageline, 28 HOOPER, William, 28, 29 LINK, James, 62 . FORT WINNEBAGO, 22 HOOPER STORE, 29 LOCHNER Family, 57 FOX RIVER VALLEY, 26 HOUGEN, Donn, 72 LOGAN, John A., 34 FRAZER, Marian, 79 HOUGH, Emerson, 44, 45 LOGGING,8 FREEMAN, Joe, 20, 50 HOUSTON, L.A., 46 LONE ROCK, 19, 23 FRITZ, Cora (DANIELSON), 72 HOWARD. Ila. 79 LORD, H.W., 34 FRITZ, Louis A., 72 HOWLETT, Jim, Saloon, 56 LOUIE, John, 60 FROST, Revae, 79 HUFFMAN, William, F., 86, 97 LULY,J.,60 HURLEYTOWN, 10 LUMBER INDUSTRY, 8, 38 GAFFNEY, Bert, 54 HURLEYVILLE, 12 LUTHERAN CHURCH 23 GAGEN, Margaret Keenan, 110 LYNCH, Jim, 122 ' GARBER, Frank, 69, 72 IMMANUEL LUTH. CHURCH, 76 LYON, Reuben C., 70 GARDNER, George, 68, 69 IMMANUEL LUTH. SCHOOL, 76 GARDNER, W.G., 122 INDIAN BILL, 62 GARDNER & GAYNOR Attys, 40 INDIANS,65 MACDONALD, Al, 38 GARRISON, Frank, 24, 26, 28, 37, 74 IRON ORE TESTS, Arpin, 59 MAC KINNON, F., 72, 75 GARSEAU, Pete, 122 IRVIN, Judge David, 18 MAC KINNON MILL, 48 GA VRE, Katherine, 79 MADLINE, Bill, 12 GAYNOR, J.A., 34, 'f5 JACKSON, Clarence, 102 MAIER, Marvin, 88, 89 GAYNOR, John, 74 JACKSON Milling Co., 74 MADSEN, John Peter, 52, 53 GERARD MILL, 48 JACKSON ST. Bridge, 73 MADSEN, Minnie (PETERSEN), 52 GERMAN ROCK, 10 JENSEN, Jens, 52 MADSEN, Metta, 52 GERMANTOWN, 55 JENSEN, Martha, 52 MADSEN, Peter, 52 GERMER, ---Editor, 46 JENSEN, Peter, 52 MANTE, August, 27 GERRY, George W., 59 JOHN EDWARDS HIGH SCHOOL, 78, MANZ Farm, 28 GETTS, Judge--, 72 79 MARCOUX, Mose, 28 GETZIN, John, office, 80 JOHNSON, Alice (KNUTESON), 52, 53 MARCOUX SALOON, 28 GIBSON, Ethel, 79 JOHNSON, Clara, 53 MARSH, Rev. Cutting, 18 GIESE, Gustave, 12, 14 JOHNSON, Emma, 53 MARSHFIELD, 68 GLIDDEN,38 JOHNSON, John, 52, 53 MARTIN TOWN, 56 GNOUCK, Shau Wa, 60 JOHNSON, Kathryn, 53 MARTIN, William, 75 GOGGINS, B.R., 66 JOHNSON, Mabel, 52, 53 MAXTRACT, Mike, 28 GOGGINS, Hugh, 98 JOHNSON, Mads Peter, 52, 53 MAXTRACT SALOON, 28 GOODSELL STORE, 46 JOHNSON, Nels, 32, 33 McCHESNEY, Elmer, 57 GRAHAM Family, 57 JOHNSRUD Family, 57 McCLEOD, 74 GRAND Ave. Bridge, 30, 69, 72, 73, 79 JONES, G.D., 30 McCUTCHEON, Hugh, 64, 65 GRAND RAPIDS, city, 8, 18, 19, 20, 22, JONES, W.T., 34 McGLYNN, Douglas, 79 23,25,30,32,33,34,52,53,59,64,66, • JOY, Frederic, 24 McNAUGHTON, John, 24, 26, 37 67,68,69, 74 MEAD, I. George, 33 GRAND RAPIDS STREET RR, 30, 31 KEENAN, Daniel, 110 MEAD, Stanton, 33 I MEAD, Vi,33 GRAND RAPIDS TRIBUNE, 34, 35, 60 KEENAN,James, 28 \ GRANT, William, 59 KEENAN, Margaret, 110 MEAD WITTER BLOCK, 86 i~ MEEHAN, James, 34 GREEN BAY & LAKE PEPIN RR, 23 KEENAN, Teresa(DALY), 110 KEGLER Family, 57 MELLEN, 39, 54 Ii GREEN BAY & WESTERN RR, 36, 69, 1: 74,105,108 KILBOURN, 8, 10, 52 MENARD, Fr. 22 GREEN BAY Depot, 34 KILBOURN, 9, 13 MENIER, Alfred, 28 GRIGNONS', 17, 64 KILBOURN DELLS, 10 MENIER SALOON, 28 GRIGNON, Amable, 22 KIMBALL, Jay, 38 MENOMINEE INDIANS, 22, 23, 65 GRIGNON BEND, 22 KIMBERLY CLARK CO., 24 MENZEL, Oswald; 53 I GRIGNON'S RAPIDS, 22 KIMBERLY, J.A., 24 MEYER, C.R., 72 KING, C.E., 60 MILK STRIKE, 96 GRIMM, Charles, 56 MILLADORE, 52 GRIMM, Fanny, 56 KINGSTON, MR.--65 GRIMM, Jacob, 56 KIRBY, Miss Lily, 70 MIXEQUA,60 GRIMM, Louis, 56, 62 KITCHKUMME, Mary, 62 MOCCASIN CREEK, 28 GRUETZMAN Family, 57 KLINE, George, 18 MOCCASIN CREEK PAVILLION, 31 KNAUER, Bernie, 88 MOLLEN, Margaret, 79 HAGERSTROM, Charles, 72 KNUTESON, Alice, 52 MORRIS Family, 57 HALVERSONN, Hans, 12 KNUTESON, Martha (JENSEN), 52 MOSCICKI, Julien, 51 HAMEL Family, 57 KNUTESON, Tom, 52, 53 MOSQUITO CREEK, 51 HANSEN, Andrew, 52 KNUTH, Don, 93 MUELLER, Emil, 56 HARDING, Kerry, 16 KOHL Family, 57 MUELLER, Herman, 56 HARMON, S.C. & Sons Mfg. 46 KOKACH, Shon, 60 MUELLER, Martha (PASSER), 56 HATHAWAY, Joshua, 22, 23 KOMOQUAH, Keo, 60 MUELLER SALOON, 56 HATTEN, Leonard, 89 KONKOL DAIRY, 96 MULLEN, Jack, 12, 50 HECOX, Fred, 51 KRIEGL, Merle, 79 MUNSON, Cecil, 46 HEISER, 93 KROHN, Don, 17 MURGATROYD, Howard, 79 HELENA, Wis., 17 MUSTACHE, John, 62 HERRON, Miss Mary, 72 LAATSCH, Timothy, 89 HILES, George, 46, 102 LAMBERT, Everett, 106,107,108 NASH, Ella, 33 HILES, George, Land Co., 54 LA MERE, Francis, 18 NASH, Guy, 32, 37, 38 HILES, Jim, 102 LANE, Mike, 14 NASH, James, 37 HILL, G.M., 30 LA VIGNE, Eusebe, 68, 69 NASH,~ean, 38 HIRST, A.R., 72 LE PERRIERRE, Ella, 88 NASH, John L., 36 HOG ISLAND, 42 LEWIS Family, 57 NASH, L.M., 30, 31, 37, 75 HOHN Family, 57 LEYHE, Pastor F., 76 NASH, Lawrence, 36 HOLMES, Angeline, 90 LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL, 78, 79, 88 NASH, T.E., 36, 38, 41, E3, 102

116 NASH, Thomas, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, PORT EDWARDS HIGH SCHOOL, 78 SKUNK HILL, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 33,34,35,40,59 POTAWATOMI INDIANS, 60-62 SLOCUM DRUG STORE, 74 NASH CRANBERRY MARSH, 36 POTTER, Wallace, 46 SNOW Family, 57 NASH LUMBER CO., 37, 38 POTTS, Joe Bill, 62 SOMMERFELDT Family, 57 NASON, Bert, 72 POWERS, Jim, 122 SOO LINE DEPOT ARPIN, 56 NATWICK, Buff, 102 POWERS, Levi Parsons, 59 SOUTH Centralia Dam, 14 NATWICK, Grim, 102-105 POWERS BLUFF, 58, 59, 61 SOUTHARD, Belle, 91 NATWICK, Myron, 102 POWERS BLUFF PARK, 60, 61 SQUAQUISHGOQUA, 60 NECEDAH, 43, 44 PRESTON, Paul & Betty, 104 STAINBROOK, Charles, 12 NEEVES, George, 68 PRICE, William T., 34, 35 STANSBURY, Erskine, 18 NEEVES FLOUR MILL, 36 PROESEL, William, 56 STARR, John, 122 NEEVES ISLAND, 10 PURDY, Ira, 18, 20, 22, 95 STARR, William, 122 NEKOOSA, City, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 26, STATE Historical Society of Wis., 24, 40, 27,28,29,30,31,78 QUOTOSE, John, 61 44 NEKOOSA BAYOUS, 10 STEELE, G.F., 24-26 RABLIN, Mr.-- 20 STEVENS, George, 18 NEKOOSA CONGR. CHURCH, 28, 29 RABLIN HOUSE, 80 NEKOOSA-EDWARDS PAPER CO., STEVENSON, Dick, 14 RAFTING, 9-13 STEVENS POINT, 17, 18, 23, 64, 66 31,37 RAGAN Furniture, 74 NEKOOSA LUMBER CO., 19, 23 STOFLET, Steven, 57 RAGLEY, R.N., 34 STOFLET, Martha, 57 NEKOOSA MILL, 24, 25 RAPIDS South Side Park, 30 NEKOOSA PAPER CO., 17, 24-28, 37 STOUT HOTEL, Babcock, 42 RAWSON, Kenneth 0., 78, 79 STREET CAR LINE, 30, 31 NEKOOSA TROLLEY, 30 REED, Henry, 50, 51 NELSON, Wendell, 80 STROBL, Frank, 92 REED, Isaac, 50, 51 STRONG, Moses, 23, 25 NEWBURY, C.D., 46 REEDS' Mill, 50 NIXON, Richard M., 92 STROf'E, Amie, 89 REMINGTON, 36, 44 STULTZ, Henry, 90, 91 NOBLES, Phil, 72 REMINGTON, H.W., 47 NORMINGTON, Roy, 78 STULTZ, Jane, 90, 91 REPUBLICANS, 34 STULTZ, John, 90, 91 NORTHERN PAPER CO., 32 REYNOLDS, George, 56 NOUVEE, John, 61 SWALLOW ROCK, 22, 23 RICE, Barton & Fales, 26 SWARICK, George, 94, 95 OAKLAND Hotel, 45 RICHFIELD, 62 OBERBECK, E., 75 RICHERT, H., 77 TAH-QUA-KIK, 59, 61 OESTREICH, Charles, 122 RIPLEY, Levi, 122 TAYLOR, Earl, 95 O'DELL, Mary WAKELY, 20 RITCHAY, Aaron A., 72, 88 TAYLOR, T.A., 69, 75 OFTELIE & STONDALL, 60 ROCHELEAU DAIRY, 96 TEETERS, Howard, 42 OHIO, 20 ROEHRIG, H.F., 60 TEWES, Herman, 76, 77 OLDSEN, Hugo, 76, 77 ROEHRIG LIVERY, 56 THIEMKE Family, Arpin, 57 OTTO, Col. Charles & Mrs., 17 ROEHRIG HDWE STORE, 56 THUNDER, Albert, 61 OTTUMWA, Iowa, 100, 101 ROENIUS, O.R., 72 TLOUGEN, Doris, 79 OUTAGAMIE INDIANS, 23 ROSE, Lester A., 66 TOWER, Mr., 24 ROSEBUSH, Franz, 78 TURTLE, Joe, 62 PALMER, Vi, 89 ROSHOLT, Malcolm, 18 TWIGGS, Major, 22 PANTER, Carrie, 89 ROSS, E.G., 78 PASSER, Emil, 56 ROSSIER, Emile, 71 UNIVERSITY of Wis., 36 40, 78 PASSER, Martha MUELLER, 56 ROULEAU, Mr.--71 PATTEN, A.W., 24, 26, 28, 37 RUDOLPH Township, 27 VANDENBERGEN, Gay, 56 PECAN Railroad, 54, 59 RUDOLPH VILLAGE, 50 VANDENBERGEN, Peter, 56 PETERSEN, Minnie (MADSEN), 52 VAUBAN,---22 PFYLE, Martin, 56 SACRED HEART CHURCH, 30, 31 VARNEY,44 PIGEONS, (Passenger), 44 SAGE, Rosemary, 79 VECHINSKI, Dorothy, 79 PINERY, The, 20, 64-65 SAMPSON, 59 VESPER,20 PIONEER CEMETERY, 52 SAMPSON, A.B., 17, 22 VESPER FIRE, 48 PITTS HOTEL, 47 SAMPSON, Henry, 18, 23 VESPER P.O., 48, 59 PITTS MILL, 46 SARATOGA TOWNSHIP, 52 VESPER State Center Newspaper, 62 PITTSVILLE, 46 SA WIN Family, 57 VILAS, Willaim F., 24, 26, 28, 29, 36, 37, PITTSVILLE INDEPENDENT NEWS, SCHAEFER, F., 76, 77 40,41 46 SCHENK, John, 31 VOSS, H.H., 75 PITTS, Freelove (CHASE), 46 SCHILL, Family, 57 VOSKAMP, 77 PITTS, John, 46 SCHILLER Family, 57 VROOM, Elijah, 46 SCHULZ Family, 57 PITTS, Luke, 46 WFHR Kaffee Klatsch, 89 PITTS, Luke II, 46 SCHUMACHERS' SALOON, 56 SCHWEITZER, Heimet, 56 WORLD WAR II-D-Day, 94 PITTS, Oliver, 46 WAKELY, Alice, 18, 19 PITTS, Susie, 46 SCOTT, 59 SCOTT, J.P., 51 WAKELY, Chauncey, 17, 18 PITTS, Thomas, 46 WAKELY, Harriet, 17 PITTSVILLE, 71 SCOTT, Walter, 54 SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS, 57 WAKELY, Mary (O'DELL), 17-22 PLOVER, Wis., 65 WAKELY, Martha, 18 PLUMED KNIGHTS, 34, 35 SEVERNS, James Quick, 46 SHANAGOLDEN MILL, 37-39 WAKELY, Newbold, 18 POINT BASSE P.O., 17, 18, 19, 23, 64 WAKELY, Otis, 18 POLANSKY, Carl, 94, 95 SHEGONEE Family, 62 SHELDON, David, 65 WAKELY, Robert, 17, 18, 21, 22 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES, 34 WAKELY, William L., 18 POMAINVILLE, Frank, 70 SHERMAN, Simon, 17 PORT EDWARDS, 12, 20, 24, 28, 30, 31, SHERRY & CO. MILL, 48 36,40, 78, 79 SHERRY CAMERON CO., 54 PORT EDWARDS CENTRALIA & SHERRY, Henry 48, 54, 58, 59 NORTHERN RR, 36, 54 SHOHN,60 PORT EDWARDS DAM, 10 SHORT, Joe, 122 PORT EDWARDS FIBRE CO., 37 SHUGART, Lewis, 86 117 WAKELY INN, 16-18, 19, 20-22, 23,28, 64 WIS. CENTRAL, 39 50,51,56,59,68 WARNOCK, Jack, 14 WIS. RAPIDS, HISTORY, 66 WOQD COUNTY BRIDGE, 70 WASSER, Hank, 102 WIS. RAPIDS ST. RR, 30 WOOD-COUNTY JAIL ESCAPE, 98 WAUBINESS, Julia, 61 WIS. RAPIDS TRIBUNE, 97 WOOD COUNTY NAT'L BANK, 36, 37 WEBSTER, A.J., 46,122 WIS. RIVER, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, WOOD COUNTY RR, 48 WEBSTER HUB & SPOKE MILL, 47 '25,26,30,36,51,52,66,67, 74 WOOD COUNTY REPORTER, 12, 24, WELCH, Ed, 122 WIS. RIVER CAPTAINS, 12 25,26,28,34,35,50,66,67,68,69 WERNBERG Family, 57 WIS. RIVER ICE JAM, 12 WOOD COUNTY TELEPHONE, 74, 75 WESTON, Mr.--65 WIS. RIVER IMPROVEMENT CO. 23 WOOD CRANBERRY MARSH, 23 WHEELAN, Ed, 12 WIS. VALLEY ADVANCEMENT ASS., WOOLWORTH STORE, 86, 87 WHITE PIGEON, 60, 62 66 WORDEN QUARRY, 27 WHITNEY, Daniel, 18, 22 WIS. VALLEY RR, 23, 51, 74 WHITNEY, David, 22 WIS. UNIVERSITY, 36 YARKER, Mrs. S.J., 64, 65 WHITNEY, Joe, 12, 20 WITTER, Dr.---50 YELLOW CAB CO., 31 WHITNEY, Mrs. David, 17, 22 WITTER, Isaac P., 72, 104 YELLOW RIVER, 22, 44, 46, 54, 65 WHITNEY, Martha, 18 WITTER, J.D., 32, 34 YOSS Family, 57 WHITNEY MILL, 18, 23 WITTER, Jere, 33 YOUNG, Archie, 14 WHITNEY RAPIDS, 10, 18, 36 WITTER House, 34 YOUNG, Frank, 61 WHITTINGHAM STORE, 56 WITTER Field, 88 YOUNG, Jim, 62 WILSON, B.F., 30 WITTMAN Blacksmith, 56 YOUNG, John, 62 WINEBRENNER BOARDING HOUSE, WITTMAN Family, 57 YOUNG, Reuben, 63 56 WOOD, F.J., 25, 30, 37 YOUNG, Sarah (PIGEON), 61 WINNEBAGO INDIANS, 22, 62 WOOD, Frank, 23, 36 YOUNG, Tom, 62 WINN, Lela 67, 89 WOOD, George, 19, 23, 28, 36 WINTER, (1920), 108 WOOD, Mrs. W.L., 27 ZALINSKY, J evons, 98 WIPFLI, Anna (BILLMEYER), 110 WOOD Family, 23 ZIERER Family, 57 WIPFLI, Louis, 110 WOOD COUNTY, 16, 20, 22, 29, 34, 44,

118 r- .. ,,

In Bean Time

So little time and so many beans expanding in the night to frighten children and amuse women. Yet the best and biggest stay crisp a short while. One happy season, the freeze, and all is mush. Eugene Claflin, c. 1910

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune 1/7 Grand Avenue 6/30 Grim 1/14 The Bridge 7/7 Betty Boop 1/21 Pittsville 7/14 The Wakely House 1/28 Woolworth's 7/21 Point.Basse 2/4 A Winter Day 8/11 Summer Visitors 2/11 Lincoln's Head 8/18 McCutcheon 2/18 Babcock 8/25 Photos by Claflin 2/25 Wood County Telephone 9/1 Unrighteousness 3/3 Grand Rapids 9/8 Shanagolden 3/10 The Centralia Dam 9/15 Nixon 3/17 Brave Boys 9/22 T.E. Nash 3/24 Milk Strike 9/29 Immanuel Lutheran 3/31 King of Fools 10/6 Restoring the Mansion 4/7 River City CCXXV 10/13 Plumed Knights 4/14 Vesper 10/20 Saratoga 4/21 Arpin 10/27 The Lost Marsh 4/28 Arpin 11/3 Hog Island 5/5 Architecture 11/10 Nekoosa 5/12 Skunk Hill 11/17 Nekoosa 5/19 Skunk Hill 11/24 Swallow Rock 5/26 Ottumwa 12/1 Nekoosa 6/Z D-Day 12/8 Grand Rapids Street Railroad 6/9 John Edwards High 12/22 Granma 6/23 Architecture 12/29 Rudolph 1984

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