Our County Our Story PORTAGE COUNTY WISCONSIN BY Malcolm Rosholt Charles M. White Memorial Public LibrarJ PORTAGE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STEVENS POINT, \VISCONSIN 1959 Copyright, 1959, by the PORTAGE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT WORZALLA PUBLISHING COMPANY STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN FOREWORD With the approach of the first frost in Portage County the leaves begin to fall from the white birch and the poplar trees. Shortly the basswood turns yellow and the elm tree takes on a reddish hue. The real glory of autumn begins in October when the maples, as if blushing in modesty, turn to gold and crimson, and the entire forest around is aflame with color set off against deeper shades of evergreens and newly-planted Christmas trees. To me this is the most beautiful season of the year. But it is not of her beauty only that I write, but of her colorful past, for Portage County is already rich in history and legend. And I share, in part, at least, the conviction of Margaret Fuller who wrote more than a century ago that "not one seed from the past" should be lost. Some may wonder why I include the names listed in the first tax rolls. It is part of my purpose to anchor these names in our history because, if for no other reas­ on, they were here first and there can never be another first. The spellings of names and places follow the spellings in the documents as far as legibility permits. Some no doubt are incorrect in the original entry, but the major­ ity were probably correct and since have changed, which makes the original entry a matter of historic significance. The text is documented throughout with the exc~p­ tion of the township and village records or references to these records. A start was made toward page docu­ mentation but became impractical when it was discov­ ered that many of these books have no page numbers. But easy reference may be made to these records in the office of the town or village clerk. In any work of local nature, reference is often made to present locations as they are related to the past. To avoid the constant use of the expression "on the present site of" I have used the word "modern" in its wider sense to mean any contemporary place or thing in being. I also refer to sites along the rivers as either on the left or right bank rather than to the directions from the riv­ er. To determine which is left and which is right, picture a fly fisherman in the middle of a stream. He always drops his line down stream which means that he faces down stream. Thus his left hand points to the left bank, his right hand to the right bank, no matter which way the river bends. The town of Linwood, for example, lies entirely on the right bank of the Wisconsin River. References are made to the "Sherman account" and the "Helgeson account." The former consists of many note-book size diaries kept by S. A. Sherman, only a few of which have been edited, now in the archives of the States Historical Society. The "Helgeson account" is a book written in Norwegian by Thor Helgeson called "Fra Indianernes Lande" (From the Land of the Indians) which I have translated and made excerpts from. The footnotes on the County Board of Supervisors and the County Commissioners Sessions also require a word of explanation. Several changes in the form of county government were made in the first three decades as between "commissioners" and "supervisors." As a re­ sult, the minutes of the proceedings of the County Com­ missioners Sessions and the Board of Supervisors both appear in Volume I and both run together. In fact, when the changes were made, the clerk was apt to for­ get himself in the first meeting and use the old designa­ tion under the new dispensation. But the page numbers run consistently. I wish to express my appreciation for pictures appear­ ing in the two sections of the book to the following: Mr. & Mrs. John Ksioszk, Mr. Howard Newby, Mrs. Emil Zimmer (deceased), Mrs. Alice Guyant, Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Grant, Mr. & Mrs. Dominic Bembenek, Mr. Leo Mallek, Mrs. George Ishenvood, Mr. & Mrs. Cecil Coel, Mr. & Mrs. George W. Allen, Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Rogers, Mr. & Mrs. Nils Hanson, the Rev. Joseph J. Schulist, Mr. & Mrs. Fred Zimmerman, Mr. Morris Carey, Mr. Julian Maxfield, Mr. & Mrs. Blaine Carlton, Mr. & Mrs. Ross Joy, Mr. Robert Swenson (lola), Mr. Walter Cy­ chosz, Lawrence Feltz, Esq., Mr. Harry Welty, Hardware Mutuals, Whiting-Plover Paper Company, the State Bank of Rosholt, and the Stevens Point Public Library. A special word of thanks is due Mrs. Win Rothman of Stevens Point for valuable corrections and suggestions in the preparation of the manuscript; to Miss Beulah Lar­ son of the Stevens Point Public Library for help in index­ ing; to Nelis R. Kampenga, librarian at the Wisconsin State College, for help in bibliography and materials; and to Alex Wallace for delightful afternoons of poetry and stories along the banks of the Little Eau Pleine. Finally, I wish to thank the members of the Portage Coun­ ty Board of Supervisors, whose foresight and understand­ ing made all this possible. Malcolm Rosholt Rosholt, Wis. CONTENTS EVOLUTION OF PORTAGE COUNTY .............. 1 THOSE WHO CAME FIRST.................................. 11 ROADS INTO THE PINERY .. .......... ........ .... ........ 37 STOPPING PLACES ALONG THE ROAD .......... 51 FROM DOG SLED TO AIRPLANE ...................... 66 ETHNIC GROUPS OF PORTAGE COUNTY .... 83 THE ADVANCE OF EDUCATION .................... 149 GROWTH OF THE SOIL ...................................... 173 THE COUNTY BOARD .......................................... 203 ALBAN, THE TOWNSHIP OF .............................. 219 ALMOND, THE TOWNSHIP OF ........................ 226 ALMOND, THE VILLAGE OF .............................. 233 AMHERST, THE TOWNSHIP OF ........................ 239 AMHERST, THE VILLAGE OF ............................ 248 AMHERST JUNCTION, THE VILLAGE OF .... 255 BELMONT, THE TOWNSHIP OF ...................... 261 BUENA VISTA, THE TOWNSHIP OF .................. 268 CARSON, THE TOWNSHIP OF .......................... 277 DEWEY, THE TOWNSHIP OF .............................. 283 EAU PLEINE, THE TOWNSHIP OF .................... 288 GRANT, THE TOWNSHIP OF ............................ 298 HULL, THE TOWNSHIP OF ................................ 306 JUNCTION CITY, THE VILLAGE OF .............. 312 LANARK, THE TOWNSHIP OF ........................ 319 LINWOOD, THE TOWNSHIP OF ...................... 326 NELSONVILLE, THE VILLAGE OF .................... 335 NEW HOPE, THE TOWNSHIP OF ...................... 341 PARK RIDGE, THE VILLAGE OF ...................... 349 PINE GROVE, THE TOWNSHIP OF .................... 352 Pi..OVER, THE TOWNSHIP OF .......................... 360 PLOVER, THE UNINCORPORATED VILLAGE OF ...................................................... 370 ROSHOLT, THE VILLAGE OF ............................ 378 SHARON, THE TOWNSHIP OF ............................ 385 STOCKTON, THE TOWNSHIP OF .................... 393 WHITING, THE VILLAGE OF ............................ 401 MIDDLETOWN, THE TOWNSHIP OF .............. 403 STEVENS POINT, THE VILLAGE OF ................ 411 STEVENS POINT, THE CITY OF ........................ 431 OF FIRES AND FIREMEN ... ... ... ... .. .. ... ............ ... 467 PIONEER JUSTICE .................................................. 474 THE LUST FOR LIFE ............................................ 488 WHEN LUMBER WAS KING ................................ 495 PORTAGE COUNTY IN FIVE WARS .................. 512 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BETWEEN PAGES 212-213 Portage County, Wisconsin Territory 1843 Portage County Board of Supervisors Ethnic Groups of Portage County Hop Picking in Town of Belmont (ca. 1895) Threshing Time in Buena Vista Early 1890s Dairy Farm in Town of Stockton 1954 Self-Propelled Combine in Town of New Hope 1957 Nelsonville Co-op Creamery (ca. 1905) Runkle School, Town of Eau Pleine, 1899 Torun School, Town of Dewey, 1955 BETWEEN PAGES 404-405 Portage County Court House 1870-1957 New County-City Building, 1959 Hardware Mutuals, Home Office, Stevens Point Stevens Point Public Square (ca. 1915) "\Vhiting-Plover Paper Company on Wisconsin River Advertisement in Wisconsin Lumberman) April 20, 1864 Green Bay & Western Wood Burner on West Bluff Grade Brooks & Ross Logging Camp, Town of Alban (ca. 1905) "Shantytown" Saw Mill in Town of Sharon (ca. 1900) Bird's Eye View of Stevens Point in 1874 Byron Rogers Meat Market at Plover (ca. 1900) Political Campaign Tour Crossing Plover River (ca. 1908) Main Street in Bancroft Main Street in Almond (ca. 1908) Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Polonia 1902-1934 Altar of North New Hope Lutheran Church Dining Hall, Hotel Voyer, 1909 Railroad Depot at Junction City Amherst School Students Broom Brigade (ca. 1895) Top Buggy and Drivers Early 1900s Pioneer Settlement of Rosholt Village (ca. 1899) Drainage Ditch in Town of Grant Sugar Bush in Town of Linwood April 23, 1899 Our County Our Story THE EVOLUTION OF PORTAGE COUNTY It seems hard to believe that a spot in Wisconsin less than two-hour's drive east of Portage County was one of the first to be explored and settled in North America. This is Green Bay where Jean Nicolet landed in 1634, some 14 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and 27 years after the first colony of Europeans was established at Jamestown. Twenty years after Nico­ let arrived, the first fur traders came to survey the area around Green Bay with a view to establishing trading posts and making friends with the Indians. In the century that followed, the French,