River City Memoirs :Fl 14
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River City Memoirs :fl 14 .. •• Dave Engel --- --~-~~------------------------------------:------------.- Contents Turtle City Memoirs 11 Chapter One: Sequence 1850: Enumeration 14 1857: Handbook to the Pinery 15 1869: Incorporation 16 1869: Ordination 18 1871: Pigeon Pot Pie 19 1871: Suckers 20 1880: A Hand to Execute 21 1881: The Pursuit of Etiquette 22 Happy New Year, 1883 23 1900: False Gods 24 1904: Shootout on Grand 25 1909: The Sports Fan 26 1909: Midnight Tragedy 28 1912: Murder 29 1920: Rush Water 30 1929: 43 Below 31 1931: The Standard Oil Fire 32 1929: Putting out the Lights 34 1932: Poor Relief 35 1934: The East Side 36 1942: Wartime Honeymoon 38 1930-1980: Decades 40 1965: Down at Buzz's 42 ; Illustrations Cover: Grand Rapids Flood of 1888 (Taylor) Centralia Hardware (Decker) .49 Authors Conception (SWCHC) 7 Riverview Hospital (J. Haasl) 52 Bird's Eye Map (SWCHC) 8 Ahdawagam (CPI) - 57 Grand Rapids Bridge (SWCHC) 10 Twin Cities Brewery (Taylor) 73 Rablin House (SWCHC) 17 Babcock Wreck (Pomainville) 76 1913 Lincoln Football (SWCHC) 27 Pecan Line (F. Coldwell) 79 1931 Fire (D. Hanneman) 33 Mother & Child (Walczyk) 85 East Side (Tim Burt) 36 Zieher (Oliver) 95 East Side (Burt) 37 Strangler Lewis (Art Buchanan) 96 Don & Sally (Engel) 39 Rudy Exner (Exner) 101 2nd St., Grand Rapids (SWCHC) 44 Grand Rapids View (McMillan) 120 i - Contents Chapter Two: Places Chapter Three: People A Walk with Vi 44 Walczyk's Adams 84 Sporting Grounds 46 Biron 86 A Store for Centralia 48 Mead's Gamble 88 The Brick Block 50 Fancy Free 90 Grand Style 51 Negative Bliss 92 To Bear the Burden 52 T.B. Scott, Millionaire 94 Beauty Spot 54 Field & Stream 95 Pig Molds & Wet Feet 55 The Strangler 96 Ahdawagam 56 Lela Winn's Chronicle 98 The Corner Grocery 58 A Kind of Harmony 99 Schism at St. Jacobi 59 Waiting for Dillinger 100 The Naming of Rudolph 60 Woodville 102 Native American Harvest 61 A Mad Democrat 103 Charlie Swanson, Pioneer 62 Shanagolden & Back 104 Fire at Runkels Mill 63 Talk American 105 Butter Factories 64 The Old Country 106 English Spoken Here 66 Partnership 107 Schleswig to Sigel 68 After the Mill 108 Letters from a Dream House 70 Raconteur 109 1 Grand Rapids "Special" 72 Down on the Farm 110 Mapping the Mud 74 Daly's Music 111 Elephas Maximus 76 Nothing out of Kilter 112 The Pecan Line 78 A Nickel a Head 113 Ballad of the Rudolph Cut 80 Dr. Lee 114 Cranmoor Vigil 81 More from "Mr. History" 115 Prof. Mosque & Dr. Aleppo 82 Index 116 Tribune Index 120 -~-~-------------- ----- Published by the South Wood County Historical Corp. With a sponsoring grant from Consolidated Papers Foundation, Inc. Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Text printed on Consolidated Enamel Printing Papers Frostbrite Coated Matte, Basis 70 River City MEMOIRS by Dave Engel A Series 1980-1982 In the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune l ~~---- -------------·------- - Research Resources: Walter Braun, Wood County Register of Deeds Debra Brehmer, Scope Ramon Hernandez, McMillan Memorial Library William F. Huffman Jr., The Daily Tribune James Kubisiak, Wisconsin Rapids Daniel P. Meyer, Consolidated Papers, Inc. Leland Pomainville, SWCHC Ellen Sabetta, SWCHC Barbara Wolden, Grand Rapids/Centralia Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-50738 ISBN: 0-910122-68-7 © 1983 by Dave Engel South Wood County Historical Corp. 540 3rd St. S. Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494 - r•/ ..,J," ... .,.~.,.~·"', tli1"'""~'::,,ie~' , •;!"-, ----- I ' I' ' '' ----------, I , I I = I: 1: I: 1: 11 1: I .,I I· I; I' I:I 11 I I' I! 1 ·------"'"'--"---- 1 Dave Engel & Diedrich Knickerbocker I I "What important beings are we historians! We are the I sovereign censors who decide upon the renown or infamy of I our fellow mortals-we are the benefactors of kings-we are I the guardians of truth-we are the scourgers of guilt-we are I the instructors of the world-we are-in short, what we are I not!" I I Diedrich Knickerbocker II ··I: .1,. I I I I Ii 1! I: 1! I I I I I r~I .. J {, I• 1·1 Jt: BIRDS EYE VIEW OF THE CITY or 11 f"trRL N f\tionu.l Hank, 1 11 -...,,,! ,·,=,· 1 ., 1' ... n_ \ f' " n i ,~ ,..,,,~ ',...;."'"'" l Onurt Hol,M6 and Jn.JL 1'.2 Bank ofUrand R.a.µidt-i "-' ii ... ,u,, .. ,."" I!'""',,..,.,,,_. 2 f!1JWe High Hrhool J•· 7 1 Puulk S\'110, ,1 1:) C1lllgrt'~aUonaJ Chur1,.'h, R.-•\' H M \\ ~bf-itflr 1 4 Sn.w MtU, N11t•v11r1 & Hon 14 Mt•Chudi~t Church, Rt>\' ..ft•r.t1.t> l''nlt 1r) C:titb("llic Church, S S rBt~r 1'v. Pa.111, Rt•v Wm Pt~K~·lv1•r f, Saw Mill, ,John Rahim. GRANO RAf>tOS. 6, Foundry & Ma,;hirrn Sh"P· Joh11 RR.bhn WOUD CO, WIS Ill City L1v"ry Bt.nbh,, R W l yon 7 Roche: How,e, Wm. B.odu• l7 l'lt,mng Mill & &,,sh r'actory. Johu R,blm fl. Timn.,rv, D. P M,,mJi 18 7'-i. 1H p,,st Otttc,,, G F W1tt"r, M \l l' M Q, &bbn HnllM•' HJ 1ful'iic .tnJl, R C. Worthn1~\ 1 qi_ Pn,v lQ, Or-,t•n Ba_v & Mmni•Rot.n H H 1),,,wi1 ·~HI Rt •'-H,m /'\rt- Eng"nw R, ,u~,, .... .. Chapter One SEQUENCE 1850: Enumeration It has been stated that the United States is the 30-39, with 52. There was no baby boom, how first country that started counting itself as soon ever, with only 46 children under the age of 10 as it was founded. The town of Grand Rapids, recorded and 37 who were between the ages of 10 which encompassed the area now including Wis and 19. consin Rapids, followed that example. Ten riverbank residents fit the 40-49 age cate Grand Rapids was first enumerated in 1850. gory. Six were 50-59 and only four were counted The community was barely a decade old, having as being over 60. Oldest by far was an 85-year-old begun as a sawmill operation in the late 1830's. Canadian named P. Tebo. The census records "free inhabitants" in the There was not likely to be a baby boom soon, town of Grand Rapids, Portage County (Wood either. Some 266males had to vie for the favors of County was not established until 1856). Mar 76 females. As for "color," none was indicated. shals of the U.S. Judicial districts supervised the Apparently, the immigrants were uniformly 1850 operations. Enumerators and counters were "white." deputy marshals. Statistics for Portage County Approximately 200 men were listed as laborers were "enumerated by me, Tho's McDill, ass't predominantly sawmill workers, lumberjacks marshal." and rafters. Their bosses, the "lumbermen," The 1850 census was the first to include immi numbered 18. gration and nativity (place of birth) statistics. Other occupations, typical of the times, were This information, along with other data, pre represented by five blacksmiths, five carpenters, sents Grand Rapids as a typical lumbering town two merchants, two tavernkeepers, two mill of the mid-19th Century. rights and one shoemaker. Only two farmers Categories of information recorded included: were counted. Dwelling houses "numbered in the order of vis A call might have gone out for a schoolmaster, itation"; age, color (white, black or mulatto) and particularly for remedial writing and reading of sex of each resident; profession, occupation or English. A total of seven children had attended trade "of each male person over 15 years of age." school in the past year. Of the adults, 63 were Value ofreal estate; place of birth; those "mar termed illiterate. ried within the year;" those who "attended school Not one citizen of the youthful town admitted within the year;" persons over 20 years of age to having been married in the past year, just as who cannot read and write; and "whether deaf none admitted to being deaf, dumb or idiotic. and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or As in most of the upper Midwest, the majority convict." of new settlers came from the eastern states or Real estate, "of value" was listed for 15 owners. Canada. A significant number came from the Most "valuable" were holdings in the names of British Isles and Illinois. A scant 38 had been J.H. Compton, $2,000; M. Labruche, $1,000; H. born in Wisconsin. Germany had yet to become Clinton, $2,000; William Roe, $1,000; A. Anthony, predominantly reflected in the area's population $1,000; Robert Wakely, $3,000; and Francis and the Scandinavian immigration to central Biron, $2,000. Wisconsin hadn't begun. The town was predominantly young. An Peopling the wilderness was like starting a approximate tabulation shows that, of a total of colony on the moon. The crew, for the most part, 342 residents, 149 were between the ages of 20 was male, white and young. And, everyone had and 29. The next most populous age group was landed from somewhere else. 14 I 1857: Handbook to the Pinery "Merry Christmas," inscribed Joseph Wood in from them furnishing materials for improving the small book with the large title: "Hand-Book and rendering habitable the immense prairie of Stevens Point and the Upper Wisconsin: Its worlds of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri." Character, Early Settlement, Villages, Popula By the writing of the "Hand-Book," in 1857, tion & General Advantages for Settlers." there was located along "the worst rapids, all r Wood was motivated at least in part by self things considered, on the whole River to pass interest. One of the advertisements included in lumber over," "a fine town growing up, and the back pages was his own: "Joseph Wood, Gen- numerous mills, dams, wing dams, booms, &c.