Marathon County, Wisconsin - Chapter 9, 1913

Chapter 9

First Farming Settlements - /;;. the Present Tozms of Berlin, Main, and Hamburg - The Pittsburg Settlers' Club - Marathon City and Town - Town of Stettin - Little Bndl and the Irish Settlement - Knozdton - Keelerville - The Village of Forestvillc.

It has been shown that it was the majestic white pine forest on and along the Wisconsin river and its tributaries with its natural waterfalls easily harnessed by man, which attracted the first settlers to the Wisconsin valley and Marathon county, that farming was not gi\-en a thought by these men who came solely for the pine; that, indeed, for years they believed the soil to be wholly unproductive, the climate to severe, and the winters too long for the raising of agricultural crops ; how their hopes of making a fortune by cutting the splendid pine which could be had, say, for nothing, and taking the lumber to market, were blasted by the expense of bringing the food stuffs up here and the still higher expense of running the lumber to market; how some of the pinery men had given up in despair and left. But many were still here; they had invested their little capital and could not leave without sacrificing not only that, but also the fruit of years of the hardest sort of labor, however little it may have been, performed under hardships which only the strongest constitution could survive.

But they sa\».the dawn of a new and better era after the county government was established and a united effort had been made to bring them in closer contact with civilization and market. They had also discovered by this time that the lands which they had believed unfit for cultivation would yield excellent crops when worked in husbandlike manner after the timber had been removed and the sun been given a chance to send its fructifying rays in the ground and awaken its dormant powers. Attempts at fanning had already been made as mentioned in the foregoing chapter, but while the results exceeded all expectations, especially as they were made by mechanics more as a side line to their more congenial work in their regular profession or trade, they had no lasting beneficial effect other than to convince people of the fertile character of the soil and a belief in the future progress of Alarathon county because of the fitness of the soil for agricultural purposes.

The population in 1855 was still confined to the saw mill settlements where people at least lived in close proximity to each other which in some degree satisfied the yearning of the human heart for association with kindred beings and compensated them in part for the want of all reasonable comforts which they had to endure. It was not only the hard steady unaccustomed and monotonous work of making a farm in the unbroken forest, but the necessity of staying away for weeks and months from all other human society, shut out from all association with mankind which prevented the pinery- people from going into the woods and clear the land for cultivation. This work of subjugating the wilderness and bring into a state of civilization was begun by the Gemian farmers who arrived after 1855.

At that time Marathon county presented still the appearance of an unbroken forest. Only a sled road passable in the winter for teams existed between Merrill and Stevens Point, touching at the small settlement at Wausau, a little clearing at Mosinee and Knowlton with the small mill settlements at Eau Clair, Trappe and Pine rivers with another trail to Little Rib river from Wausau. The whole population in 1850 was 508, and the state census of 1855 gives the population as only 447, which evidently is not quite correct, although there was, if no decrease, only a very slight increase over the census of 1850. And all these people lived at and near the mills in the county, and outside of them there were not more than twenty small clearings on the immense area of 44 townships. The small clearings mentioned were unoccupied during most of the times. All the rest was wild, unoccupied in its natural state. What pine had been cut was all cut close to the rivers and hardly noticeable. Everywhere was forest, heavily timbered, dark, forbidding looking. Xo ray of the sun could pierce the heavy foliage of the hardwood and pine woods. The shadow was on the ground all during summer, and the snow which fell during winter lay there until the sun rose high in the month of April.

That was the condition of Marathon county in 1856 when the southern part of the state was being rapidly settled. Xo state in the Union had enjoyed so large a growth in so short a time as Wisconsin in the first ten years of its admission as a state. There was a boom for \\'isconsin lands in the years from 1853 to 1858. partly caused by speculators in lands, but more so by actual settlers who soon discovered that the government had millions of acres from which anv amount from fortv acres to a whole section and more could be selected and bought for $1.25 per acre, and land speculators after holding on for several years at a high price were glad to sell at reasonable figures.

The reaction in Germany following the stormy years of 1848 and 1849 induced emigration from that country. Many of these emigrants were highly educated people who found employment as teachers, journalists, and many being mechanics, found good paying employment in the several branches of industry; only a few of them took to farming. But they were good writers, and by their letters written to their friends at the old home, describing the free democratic life in this republic, the ease with which land could be acquired and an industrious man could become independent, gave an impetus to emigration of the most desirable character. Many came to Wisconsin, and the establishment of the United States land office at Stevens Point brought some of those seekers for land up in this part of the state.

It is a curious fact, however, that the first fami settlements in Marathon county were begun almost simultaneously from different quarters wholly independent and unconnected with each other, one having its origin in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by a number of laboring men, and the other by farmer emigrants coming directly from Gennany.

The first farmer emigrants coming to this county seems to ha\'e been one William Thiele, who came with his grown son and wife in 1856 and settled in Township 30, Range 6, now the town of Berlin. In the same year came the four brothers, Barteld, John, David, Gottlieb, and Frank, and a relative of theirs by the name of Roemer; they all took land in the present town of Main near what is now known as Taegeville. . In the same year came John Kufahl and his brother Carl, Gottfriend Stubbe, Gottlieb Beilke, C. Schlueter, and Mollendorf. They all settled not very far from each other in the present towns of Berlin and Main from nine to twelve miles from Wausau. David Barteld was quite intelligent and a shrewd man in his way with a sense for business. Before coming to Marathon he had lived in the neighborhood of Madison, worked with the surveyors and familiarized himself with following section lines and locating section corners, and he was not slow to commercialize his capacity in locating his countrymen. The land had been surveyed only a short time before, and the blazes were fresh and could be followed easily by any woodsmen.

This John Barteld stayed on his farm for some years, even erected a distillery (it was when distilling was yet free), but the product was too raw even for uncultivated taste, and he gave it up. After some years he came to Wausau, opened a little grocery and boarding house on Clark's Island immediately north of the bridge until his removal to the far West in the early seventies. William Thiele did some locating too, but Barteld having the good will of the land office, got the bulk of the trade. Of all the Bartelds there is ony one descendent now living on a farm in the neighborhood of the original settlement. Another family came from Germany in 1856. It was Carl Fehlhaber with his family, consisting of wife and four grown sons and two daughters. He went to Stevens Point, bought 320 acres located by Thiele, but the season being too late, he stayed with his family in a rented house on the Green Lake prairie during winter, coming up early in the spring of 1857 to make settlements. They came with their ox team from there to Wausau ; it was early as soon as the snow was gone ; the creeks and water courses were full, no bridges, only a trail for a road, and it took them two weeks to make the trip from Stevens Point to Wausau. They had to bridge the creeks, turn out of the road, cut new ones, but succeeded in reaching Wausau without great mishap. It was somewhat but not much better in reaching their land in Township 30, Range 6 E. There were ten strong willing hands and arms, for whom the woods had no terrors. They had their household and one cow with them. They went to work at once, made a brush tent for themselves, while the women slept in the canvass covered wagon, until the first rough shed was finished with a roof of birch bark. Next spring they brought the first sheep in their settlement. It seems that the cattle seemed to know instinctively that their safety depended upon their not straying far in the woods, they kept near the little clearing, and their bells could always be heard.

In the same years (1857) came August W. Schmidt, for many years a member of the county board and for twelve years register of deeds of Marathon county and later one of the directors of the German American Bank of ^^'ausau ; also Gottlieb Plish with a family of wife and two sons and five daughters, and Klinger, Anklamm, Hartel, and Aschbrenner, all with families, all direct from Germany, all settling in the town of Berlin.

In the same year (1857) there settled in the present town of Hamburg Carl Zastrow, August Borchardt, Stephen Juedes, and Carl Juedes, and later John Miller, and Fred Ziebell, the two last families in the present town of Halsey nearly thirty miles from Wausau, with no road from this place to any of the settlements. This locating was done by John Barteld, and it is said that in locating settlers he would spend several days showing them lands in order to enhance his compensation which was $5.00 per day. it being in his interest to spend more than one day in showing the lands.

luck of all new settlers. Their families were large, especially the Ziebells, and one of the big boys was constantly on the road, rather trail through the woods, carrying flour and groceries home, two days going and three days coming with a pack of fifty pounds on his back. Ziebell stayed three or four years on the farm, made quite a clearing, but the strain was too heavy, and he abandoned his land with all improvements made under the hardest sort of toil and wants, and his land was sold for taxes and lost. The family was game, however. The oldest son began life anew on eighty acres of land about seven miles from Wausau in the town of Main and became quite comfortable; the others came to Wausau where they acquired a competency. The youngest of the sons, fourteen years old when they went out there. August Ziebell, only lately sold out his grocery store in the McCrossen building.

John Millert, too, left his improved farm of fifteen acres which was sold for taxes, remained long as county land and was conveyed by the county with- the 200,000 acres county lands to the Wisconsin valley as an inducement for the building of the road.

Another enterprising German, 'Charles Mante, erected a little farmer store near the present Lutheran church in the town of Main, west of the place known as the Armstrong farm, in 1856, where Herman Miller, afterwards member of the assembly, began his life career as clerk. He ^id a small business for some years, but when there was a lull in newcomers and the older comers had spent their money and needed credit, which he was unable to give, he sold out and left.

That was the beginning of the low or north German settlement in Marathon county. Most all men came directly to this county from Germany for the purpose of farming, and all of them, except a few like Bartelds, remained and succeeded in their undertaking. They became independent, fairly well to do, securing for themselves that competency in their old age which prompted them to leave home and friends to seek new and better homes in America.

A little earlier in point of time of the arrival of the north Gennan settlers here, a colonization scheme was planned in the city of Pittsburg. It had its origin in a Catholic church society consisting in the main of workingmen and mechanics. They had labored for years in the rolling mills in that city and other trades ; they saw that there was no likelihood for them while in employ to make provision for their old age, much less to give their children a start in life. They had heard of the good lands in Wisconsin and made up their minds to become farmers in the West. Knowing that they were going to an unsettled country, they desired to be as much as possible together, to help each other in cases of need. In order to accomplish this end, they organized a settlers' club, each member agreeing to pay into the common treasury the sum of $iio.oo with which to buy government land in one large complex, each member to receive in return therefore eighty acres of land and one village lot in the village to be laid out on said land, and three acres of land on the outside bordering on the village and called out lots. The land ^^-as to be drawn by lot by each member from the \\hole body of the land. This club organized in 1856, the same year that the first German fanner settlers came to Marathon county. They elected one Christmann, one Kalkenbeck, and John Kapp as a committee to proceed to Wisconsin to locate the land in compact form for the society. The committee arrived at Stevens Point and took up about three thousand acres for the use of the society in township 28, range 6 east and selected that portion on the west shore of Big Rib river, which was supposed to be navigable (which it was for logs and canoes only) and had the village of Alarathon ciiy laid out and platted.

In making that selection they very probably were influenced by what they undoubtedly heard in Stevens Point that there were mills in W'ausau and at Mosinee not far from the proposed new village of Marathon City, and also that one hundred and sixty acres bordering on the proposed new village had already been entered and a farm made thereon by Joseph Dessert. These settlers knew they were going on timber lands and expected hard work ahead in clearing because they had seen the improved lands around Pittsburg which were originally timber lands, and a lumber industry carried on there on the Allegheny river, but they did not know that there was no road to their land nor from one place to the other.

In the spring of 1857 a number of colonists left Pittsburg for their new homes arriving by way of Berlin in Stevens Point, and there took the steamboat which ran for the first season from there to Mosinee. So far everything looked promising. But when they arrived at Mosinee, they were told that they could not reach their destination by any road nor by steamboat, that the only way to get there was by going through the woods or, what was recommended, by canoes. It was ]Mr. Joseph Dessert who was consulted, and being familiar with the descriptions of the land, gave them reliable infonnation. That was the first surprise, but there were more and stronger ones for them in store. With the aid of a half-breed Indian and Indians, they embarked in canoes and were landed at the present site of Marathon City.

Some were single, some had families. They remained together for a while, putting up two temporary log huts in the proposed village, until to each was pointed out his particular land by a surveyor, then began the work of putting up huts on their own lands, meanwhile helping out each other. During the same season came George Vetter, George Lang, Joseph Seliger, and Vogedes, all club members, and a few others not members. Vogedes died the same year, and his death made a deep and lasting impression on the remaining ones. A few others not belonging to the club arrived, among them Alathias Halkowitz, who went as far as township 28, range 4, now the town of Wien, and Bernhard Hilber, who settled near Marathon City. Others came, and after finding themselves in an immense forest, without signs of civilization, such as roads, schools, churches, and the absence of all conveniences which seem an absolute necessity for cultured people, such as had the means to leave, left, returning in disgust. But those who had not the means, and most of them were in that condition, had no choice; they stayed and took up the fight for existence as best as they could.

More arrived the following year, among them Anthony Schilling, who had been a fireman on the Mississippi steamboats, plying the whole length of the father of the waters and tributaries ; others who came during this year and remained were Joseph Schuster, a bachelor who taught school for many years in that community; John Stumm, another teacher, Peter Heil, John Lemmer, all from Pittsburg; and Charles Marquardt, Fred Haman, and William Garbrecht coming direct from Germany, and soon afterwards came Jacob Duerrstein, who settled in the town of Wien, so named because the first settler in that township. Math. Halkowitz had come from the city of Vienna (Wien). He had been a "ladies' tailor" in Vienna, and to exchange the needle for the ax and plow was not an easy matter for him.

That was the modest beginning of farming in Marathon county, from which sprang up the wealthy fanning communities of today, which compare well with much older settlements in eastern and middle states.

These farmer pioneers had their trials, their hardships, their sufferings, their privations, for many years the coarsest of fare and garments ; but the worst days of anxiety and fear, amounting almost to desperation, and not only of daj^s but often of weeks, were experienced when sickness laid its paralyzing hand on a member and the family had to see the suffering of one of them without ability to alleviate the pain, there being no physician within ten or tens of miles without even a road to reach him, and in any event without the means to secure his attendance. And when death came as an angel of mercy to the stricken one and the wasted body was laid to rest, what must have been the feehngs of father or mother or children, raised in Christian communities when the body was interred without the last consolation of religion? How often under such circumstances may not the afflicted ones have cried out in the bitterness of their heart : "Oh, why did I come to this country?" It was a life hard enough for the strong and healthy ones. The rough cabin completed, the man had to go forth for provisions from fifteen to twenty-five miles, carrying it back on his back through trails over swamps hardly passable, leave his wife and children alone at home in the wilderness until he returned after an absence of two or three days, often more.

Returning with the necessities he had to go forth again to seek work to earn the means to sustain bare life which the gound did not give him until he had cleared and cultivated at least ten or fifteen acres, which took several years at best, often longer. They sought for and obtained work in the saw mills, in logging camps, going to the prairie in harvest time a hundred or more miles away, taking their pay in provisions, in anything offered; those that went harvesting brought back cattle taken in payment for work in those days when money was a rarity. For at least eight years their life was a continual struggle with nature against hardships of all sorts, which only the strongest constitutions and characters could conquer. W'hen a settler had provision to last him for, say, four to six weeks, he could begin clearing; first to cut the underbrush; then chopped down the trees, a hundred or more to an acre, then cut the trees in lengths to fit them for the burning pile, then haul the logs together and roll them in piles, then bum the piles, keep rolling until everything was burned, and it was not an easy or quick job to burn big green basswood or hemlock logs or pines. It sounds like blasphemy today to speak of burning basswood, pine, and hemlock logs, but what else could be done if crops were to be raised? There was no sale for hardwood timber, it could not be floated, and it cost more to haul the very best pine logs ten miles to the mill than they were worth; in most instances it was impossible by reason of distance to haul even pine to the mill. The settlers' club desired to have the village ground cleared, and it was on Rib river. They were glad to give the standing pine, and it was splendid pine, too, to "Mr. Joseph Dessert for the cutting and hauling it away. But Mr. Dessert was not unmindful of their wants. When the first church was built in Marathon City, he gave them all the lumber free of any charge, of course, at the mill yard. It sounds somtimes ridiculous to hear conservationalists, so-called, to lament the loss of timber in early days and speak reproachingly of the waste of wealth of timber. But if the country had to wait for them to open the land for cultivation, it is safe to say that Marathon county would be today in its original wild state. And where was the damage? The cleared land produced crops every year, but there was only one crop in timber, and that had to be taken off to raise the crops without which the settlers could not exist. After the land was cleared, then came the planting among stumps, roots, and stones or rocks, which had to be piled together, too, and fence making also. Cattle were roaming free; in fact, all domestic animals were running at large picking their food in the woods. After cattle food, such as hay and straw, had given out in the spring, the cattle browsed on the young shoots of the fresh cut trees, not good for milking cows, but it kept them alive. Men and women wore home spun colored by boiling it in bark of hemlock or butternut shell.

But if the work of men was hard, the life of the pioneer women was harder still. They were the true helpmates of the men, helping in the clearing, piling the underbrush, sawing logs, handspiking them together and burning them, helping in the planting and harvesting, taking the little child out in the field wrapped in comforters and attending to the wants of the little ones during pauses in the field work.

The pioneer women as well as the men were heroes in their way. Many men and women might be mentioned by name as deserving of the lasting gratitude of later generations. They all made a mark for themselves ; they opened a road for thousands to come after them who all profited by the sacrifices of them. Pioneer women were not given much to fear, least of all to hysterics. During the war it happened that the wife of a farmer and her mother, they being the only adult persons in the house, the farmer being with the army in the field, heard the squealing of the pig in the night, and they knew that in all probability a bear was attacking them in the pen. They could not afford to lose their best and only pig. The wife and her mother jumped out of bed, took no time to dress, did not look for a gun, with the handling of which they were probably not accustomed, but coming out of the house reached for handspikes always ready to roll logs, and made for the pig pen where their worst fears were realized. A black bear trying to make away with the pig. Without hesitation they belabored the bear with their handspikes to such good purpose that the surprised bruin dropped the pig and fled. The pig was torn and nearly dead, and not to lose it, they killed the pig, heated the kettle without waiting for the morning's dawn, dressed it and salted the meat to save as much as possible. How many men could have done better, how many would have done as much?

thousands of fine farms, well stocked, with all modern improvements, all farms occupied by its owner, each an independent and free citizen ; there is not one renter to two hundred of farm owners in this county. Marathon county farmers are well to do, some are' more wealthy than others, but for the staying qualities, for the endurance, for the grit and the frugality of these pioneers they might not enjoy the prosperity which is theirs today. The fanner pioneers all mentioned here by name were men of industry, men of character, of honor, of integrity and rectitude, who brought up families who still occupy the lands of their parents, and more besides, and are honored citizens of the state. It is due to those pioneers that some at least, the first ones be mentioned by name as persons whose examples are worthy of emulation and imitation. They were Christian men and women, w ith whom Christianity was not a mere profession or theory, but who practiced their faith in their every day life. As soon as their means permitted, they built houses of worship to bring up their children in Christian surroundings rather than in comfort; they had no schools for them for some years, being too scattered over a large territory, which made the building of schoolhouses impracticable; but they taught them respect for their elders, to give everybody his own. They needed neither criminal nor civil courts for their government, because they governed themselves w ith due regard for the rights of others. It is from this race of pioneers from which sprung the stock of sturdy, strong, patriotic and intelligent fanning community which inhabits Marathon county. It was necessary to mention them first when speaking of Marathon county in this chapter, because Marathon county at that time, 1856, constituted only one organized town, the town of Marathon. \Miat has been said of these men applies with equal force to the pioneers in other towns, the towns of Settin and Wausau. and the Irish settlement. They began settlement a little later, say one or two years ; but they had to go through the same hardships and the same privations, only they were a little nearer to people, where they could get assistance in case of need, because the mill settlements in \Vausau and Mosinee had grown, to which they were a little nearer in point of location.

The organization of the settlers' club in Pittsburg became, of course, known in that city, and real estate speculators were not slow to let a chance for making money out of real estate pass away from them. They purchased for a song land warrants issued to all honorable discharged soldiers of the Mexican war, and with these land warrants, which were taken for money at the United States land ofifices. purchased lands in Marathon county and sold it to prospective settlers.

By shrewd advertising, in which these lands, and especially the new settlement of the settlers' club was painted in rose colors, they succeeded in selling a large part; some people buying as an investment; some, though not many, came up and made settlement in the present towns of Cassell, Marathon and Wien, many of them going back after seeing the wilderness, only a few remained.

The settlers' club had laid out the village of Marathon City, and soon recorded the plat, as each of their members was entitled to one city lot, and three acres of the out lots, but the land was wild and unimproved, except for the few huts which the first pioneers had erected as a temporary shelter until their houses were built on their lands. They had laid out a square for a church, and one square as a public square, with a cemetery on the outlots. The speculators got hold of this plat, changed it for their purposes by showing thereon a fine church building and a town hall, and in the river they had a picture of a steamboat, a fine two-wheeler, in the act of going to the steamboat dock. This was done to make people believe that there was already a city, with a market and fair-sized population as a persuasive argument in selling the wild land.

Those that bought the land and held it for many years, paying the taxes thereon, were able in after years to get their money back with perhaps very little, if any, interest; many neglected to pay the taxes, and lost it thereby. When, after fifteen or twenty years, the settlement had largely grown and improved, the tax titles were attacked in court, in most cases by speculators, who had procured the original title for a few dollars, and were usually successful in having the tax title set aside.

It was this sort of legal business which kept the courts busy for a long time, until the abuse of the rights of the speculator claiming under the original title led the legislature to the enactment of the statutes of limitation, which, under a strict construction given by the courts, made an end of this sort of litigation, protecting at the same time the rights of minors.

It has been stated that all lands in Marthon county at the time of the appearance of the first settlers were government lands, not even surveyed, and the question may have arisen in the minds of many a reader, why did the settlers, especially the fanners, not enter the land under the homestead act? The answer is, that the homestead act did not exist at that time, and not until 1862; and three was no other way of getting land from the government except by purchase. Even after the act was passed, and when there was still much government land in this country, very little advantage was taken of this act, most settlers preferring to buy their land and hold it, inde- pendent of the government. The territory in ranges 2 and 3, townships 26, 27, 28 and 29, remained wholly wild until the building of the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1872, which had a large grant from the government for the building of the road, and then most of the settlers in that territory entered under the homestead act, and it was not until most of the government lands were sold, or entered, that the railroad was enabled to sell, except their splendid pine timber lands, which was sold to lumbennen.

Farm Settlement In Town Stettin

The saw mill erected at Little Rib by Benjamin Single in 1845 '^^^ o^t as much lumber in early days as any of the mills at Wausau, and gave employment to as many men. Later on it was rented to Perley Dodge and Gerry Judson, who operated it as partners in the latter fifties. This Dodge (not to be confounded with William Dodge, of Wausau) made probably one of the first farms in Marathon county, not personally but with hired help. He had eighty acres cleared, seeded mainly to grass, in the fifties, the farm being only about five miles northwest from the mill. The partner of P. Dodge got in some trouble or difficulty with Benjamin Single, and it is said that even a shot was fired at Benjamin Single, but whatever it was, the trouble was never aired in court or in public; but it had the effect of breaking up the partnership between Dodge and Judson, and Dodge departed, selling the farm to an employee of the mill, John Marquadt by name, to whom Benjamin Single advanced the purchase money. This was about i860. Another working man at Rib mill, a native of Norway, had commenced to clear some land in the early fifties in section 30, now owned by Fred Roeder; he cut down nearly fifteen acres, but never cultivated it or lived on it, and sold it after he had removed from Marathon county in the latter part of the fifties. It was called the Norwegian farm. It grew up into brush and small trees, lay wild for about twelve years, when Caspar Traxel bought it, settled on it in 1868 and improved it.

The first real farmer settler who came to the present town of Stettin was John Artus, who had been working in the Wausau mills for some years, then bought eighty acres and moved upon the land in 1856, and made a farm. In the same year came the four brothers, Ferdinand, Carl, Christian and William Buttke, and their cousin, Carl Buttke II, followed by Gottlieb Wendorf in the next year, the brothers Kippke, Fred Kopplin, August Weinke, Carl Haasch, F. Sager, Carl Kickbusch, Daniel Radke. G. Kaatz, Carl Haasch, Carl Erdmann, Frederich Beilke, and J. Hildensperger. The year 1858,

Othmar Sauter and John Sauter, Michael Erdmann, and John Loy, Sr., to the same town. Nearly all of these men, or at least their sons, worked at times at the mill at Little Rib, which was not more than seven miles from the farthest farm mentioned.

The present town of Rib Falls, being township 29, range 5, was settled contemporaneously with Stettin, the brothers Wilde, August Heise, August Schroeder, coming there in 1856, followed by Carl Hanke and four or five other families in 1857. In speaking of the early settlers of the town of Stettin, John Wilberle and Vogedes must also be mentioned.

In 1861, Re\'. A. F. H. Gebhard came to that settlement and organized the "Lutheran Trinity Congregation," which he served as pastor for over a quarter of a century. He was not only the pastor but the friend and advisor of his congregation, and much of the rise of the new settlement was due to his good counsel. He was not only the spiritual counsel of his flock, but their faithful advisor and helper in things temporal. The great influence for good which he exerted over the whole township, besides several missions in other towns, is attested by the fact that his congregation remained united in one to this day, over fifty years, the largest of any in a farming community in Marathon county. Not all settlers belonged to his church ; there were some Catholic families, and a few adhering to the doctrines of the Methodist church, but the best of feeling always prevailed among all the settlers ; they were always ready for mutual assistance, and there was none of the little misunderstandings among them which sometimes creep in, even among neighbors. Rev. Gebhard was later called upon and took charge of another congregation in Illinois ; but he had spent the best years of his manhood here and his heart yearned for his old home and friends. He returned after a few years of absense to his farm and cultivated it, in the full enjoyment of all his mental and physical factulties, in spite of his years, and respected and beloved by young and old for the many noble qualities of his mind and heart.

Town Of Wausau

The Mechanics Ridge settlement, the first in the county, has already been alluded to. It was a settlement made by mechanics, who carried on farming more as a sideline, and in course of time all sold out except James W. Nutter, after whom Nutterville is named, who closed his eyes on that fann in 1898. The first German farmers in town of Wausau appeared about 1859, and were

Carl Kunz, Frederick Schniutzler, followed by Fred Dumdei, and George and Martin Reinhard. Others came soon after them, but the growth of the settlement on the east side of Wausau was much slower than on the west. There was a prejudice against the eastern lands. First, all lands were supposed to be unfit for agricultural purposes; that prejudice died out slowly, as the farms on the west improved; but it still existed to the unsettled land on the eastern portion, and settlers coming to Marathon county naturally would go where, there were already settlements, which was Main, Berlin, Stettin and Marathon City. The German settlers went into these towns where their countrymen were, with whom they could speak; while new Irish settlers went to the Irish settlement. The larger number of farmers did not go to the towns of Wausau and Easton. which was included in town Wausau, until after the close of the war, and then, after 1866, when there was a great immigration from Germany, many of whom went in the eastern settlement, including the present town of Texas.

It soon developed that there was no difference in the soil, and that one part of Marathon county was as good for farming as any other. This fact was more particularly established by the first colony fairs held in the county, which began in a very moderate way in 1867.

The old farm known as the Marshall farm, one of the first ones in this county, as well as the Hobart farm, joining the Marshall farm, have been mentioned. The Marshall farm became the property of \\'illiam Swafe, who had first settled in the town of Berlin, but afterwards purchased and greatly improved the ^Marshall farm and made it one of the best in the county. The Hobart farm became the property of Ludwiz Zamzow after several conveyances.

Little Bull Falls And The Irish Settlement

The appropriation of the splendid and easily harnessed water power at Little Bulls Falls has already been referred to. It was made by Henry Merrill in 1840 and 1841, and the dam and mill was built in 1842, and probably in operation at that time. It was built by John L. Moore, not to be confounded with James L. Moore, whose mill was at Big Bull Falls. The mill property changed hands several times, until it came finally in the sole control and possession of Joseph Dessert in 1857 (who had been interested in it with some partners before), and remained in his possession; was later operated by the Joseph Dessert Lumlier Company, until 1902, when the pine supplywas exhausted, the mill dismantled, and the water power turns now the machinery of the ^^'ausau Sulphite & Fibre Company in Mosinee.

The records of the United States land office show that lot 3 and "Little Bull Island'" (so named on the official go\-ernment plot) were entered by- Henry Merrill at the Washington ( D. C. ) land office, October 5, 1840, and lot 4, by Henry iVIerrill on January 29, 1841. These lots and island included the water power at Mosinee, and not only were these lots entered later than the lots of the Big Bull water power, but while Merrill made the first entry, it is certain that it was not he, but J. L. ;\Ioor who built the dam and mill at Mosinee, and it is not likely that ^loor would have done so unless he had either a lease or conveyance from Henry ^lerrill, of whom he afterwards purchased these lots and island.

In early days lumbermen who had their logs manufactured at Little Bull Falls had some advantage over lumbermen further abo\-e, because their lumber was rafted below that fall, and was ready to go out as soon as the river was free from ice, while lumber from above was detained often for days and weeks in case the river was too high for running through the falls there. Thus while fleets were held above Mosinee because of water being too high, the fleets below^ could go, and with the high stage were well on their way to and sometimes had reached the Mississippi before the fleets from above passed over the falls.

Then Mosinee was a little nearer the base of supplies, which was a great deal in point of economy. Nevertheless, the first owners of the mill had their trials and difficulties, too, their shares of failures, and when it passed finally in the sole control of Joseph Dessert, in 1857, it took him ten years of the hardest toil, strictest economy and keenest business sagacity, in spite of his approved integrity which gave him credit, to bring the business up to a point of prosperity. This mill did much sawing for other lumbennen, in consequence of which quite a settlement grew in and around the mill and a village. Joseph Dessert was fortunate in the choice of his assistants, and made it a point to attach his men to him and his plant.

One of the pioneers who came there and stayed with Joseph Dessert all during the remainder of his life, was a native American, Samuel Hinkley, who came in 185 1. He was first employed in the mill, and soon worked himself up to the place of a foreman and trusted manager of all the outside business, until advanced age made his voluntary retirement congenial. In early youth he had been a sailor, and spent five years of his youth on the x\tlantic ocean. He was deservedly popular with all the people, not excepting the ladies and children, always having a helping hand for them at church fairs, picnics, patriotic celebrations and sports. He saw to it that a liberty pole was not wanting in the village, and took good care that the flag was always floating at every proper occasion.

Another native born pioneer was H. A. Bean, familiarly called Judge Bean, who came in the early fifties, and was employed as bookkeeper by Mr. Dessert, in which position he remained until the end of his life, in 1880. He was well educated, which fact was early recognized by the people of Mosinee, who elected him town clerk when the town was first organized, in which office he was kept until his death, and frequently he served as justice of the peace. He was very good-natured but a little quaint in his ways, combining as justice of the peace the stern majesty of the law with dry humor of the eastern Yankee.

Another pioneer of Mosinee is Robert Freeman, a native of the north of Ireland, who emigrated in 1850, and located at Mos'inee in 1851, bringing with him his wife and little child. He must be regarded as the first farmer in the Irish settlement, although he did not stay long on the land to make a farm, his choice of the land having proved rather unforunate. He then settled in the village, devoted himself to master the art of cruising, in which he became quite an expert ; then turned his attention again to farming on an excellent 160-acre tract, through which flows a clear spring brook, which is known as Freeman's creek. Later on he engaged in lumbering, manufacturing and general mercantile business, and met with his success in all his undertakings. He disposed of all his other business and in later years returned to his first love, farming and raising fine stock. . He is still hale and hearty, in spite of his age, and loves to speak and listen to the tales of olden times, with its hardships and occasional frolics.

O. E. Priest and his son came to Mosinee from New York, settling there in 1853, on land about four miles north of Mosinee. O. E. Priest enlisted in July 1861, served throughout the war, and was honorably discharged June 7, 1865, when he returned to the old place. He was in many of the hard-fought battles on the eastern peninsula, serving in the Potomac Army.

In very early days a village had been platted on the east side of the river, and a little tavern built there, which is still standing. Of course it was expected that a village should grow up there, but that hope, with many others, vanished. That tavern was one of the four prominent places on which one of the four notices for the first election in Marathon county was posted up. It was run by George Kollock, and sold by him in 1852 to Mr. William Blair. The village did not materialize; the travel for many years was very limited, and Mr. Blair had a hard time to make ends meet, although he and his worthy wife did their best to entertain travelers and make them comfortable. Other misfortunes came upon them. Mr. Blair was a patriotic citizen, and at Lincoln's first call he went to the front; was wounded at the

Battle of Shiloah and taken prisoner. After three months he was exchanged, still sick, taken to a hospital and there died, and was buried in the National cemetery at Chattanooga. Mrs. Blair was left alone, with three children and a small tavern on a roadside. She, like her husband, had come from Scotland, and had the tenacity and perseverance which distinguishes that race.

Like Spartan mother, she took care of her children, while at the same time she managed her tavern, which retained its fine reputation. Teamsters going to or coming from Stevens Point with supplies made it a point to either get at least one meal there or stay overnight. Under her management the business grew, Mrs. Blair having added some farm land to her possessions.

Mrs. Blair was one of the noble educated pioneer women of Marathon county. Of fine personal appearance, and endowed with rare intelligence and an inborn capacity for hotel management, looking after the comfort of her guests, often under the perplexing circumstances incident to pioneer life. She was sympathetic and charitable, always ready to assist where assistance was needful. The Indians were always more numerous around Mosinee than Wausau. and sometimes they would commit little thefts, and more often beg. Mrs. Blair had a way of dealing with them which made them respectful, and at the sarrie time they held her high in esteem. She would treat them kindly, but kept them in proper reserve. Her tavern was not infrequently the visit of Wausau people when they wanted to enjoy a first class oldfashioned dance.

David Roberts came to Mosinee in 1850, and for the first nine years worked as a pinery man in the camps and mills ; then he engaged in lumbering for himself until 1882; then in general merchandise, in which he was quite successful. Like all pioneers, he was a man of good parts, serving his town and village in official capacities, also as postmaster, and did his full share to make his name one to be held in grateful memory.

F. L. Demars came as early as 1856, as a common laborer, from Canada; later tried farming, and since 1871 has kept a store in Mosinee. He has had his share of hard times, too, but enjoys the best of health in his ripe old age, with a comfortable competency well earned.

Another employee of Joseph Dessert who rose to an honorable position in the business world in the pinery, was J. R. Bruneau. He was a native of Canada, arriving at Mosinee in May, 1857, entered the employ of Joseph Dessert as bookkeeper and salesman in the store, remaining in that capacity until 1866, when the opened a general store for himself, and later engaged in lumbering; but the confidential relation between himself and his former employer never changed. J. R. Bruneau was afterwards elected county treasurer of Marathon county, and several times reelected, and made an envious record in that office.

William Cuer, one of the earliest settlers in Mosinee, was for over thirty years the star pilot of Little Bull Falls. He ran more fleets over those falls than all other pilots combined, and with less damage; never a single man drowned on a piece run over Little Bull which was piloted by William Cuer.

William Gilbert, also a pioneer and highly respected citizen, was a successful pilot, running Little Bull. He had just put a fleet successfully through, when on the last rapids piece he was swept off the raft and drowned, on April 19, 1872.

People of different nations, when they go to a foreign country, will try to be with their countrymen. That is the reason why the north German settlers, who first settled in the' present towns of Berlin and Main, attracted other north Germans ; why in and around Marathon City southern Germans settled, the Pittsburg club being all from the southern part of Germany.

The splendid lands west of Mosinee, all vacant and wild, were first invaded by the Irish, and others followed, and thus it became in time the "Irish Settlement."

The pioneer farmer in that community was Thomas O'Connor. Before coming there he worked in a rolling mill in Wauwatosa, now part of Milwaukee. He had a family and, like the Pittsburg settlers, made up his mind that he could be more independent, and make better provisions for his family by making a farm than by continuing to work in the mill, with its uncertainties of laying ofi and the consequent failure of earnings, etc. He bought 160 acres in township 2y. range 6; fine hardwood land, and the fact that it was all wild and unimproved for miles around did not deter him.

\\'ith a yoke of cattle and a wagon, he moved his family, consisting of wife and five children, the oldest ten. and the youngest less than one year, up north, coming to Mosinee in i860, then cut out a road for nine miles to his land, and then commenced to start his farm. He was a stalwart man of six feet, not afraid of the hardest kind of work, but he too needed all the grit, the dogged perseverance and economy to carry him through the first years of farm life. He was held in the highest esteem by all his neighbors and acquaintances, often representing his town as chairman in the county

He was a man of sterling character, well educated, who could speak interestingly on many topics, especially farming, and his conversation was frequently interspersed with native Irish wit. After he had opened the road, others came, among them Felix ]\IcGuire. who had been working in Mosinee for many years; but it was the example of Thomas O'Connor who encouraged him to take up farming, and he too made a success. Others were Edward Fitzgerald and his brother, James Murrey, Timothy Kennedy and \\'illiam Hayes and his sons, Patrick Burns, Garret Hughes, William Keefe and John Keefe. They all settled soon after Thomas O'Connor, but it must not be believed that they were all close together. The Irish settlement was stretched out over much territory, much like the German settlements. The "Irish Settlement," so-called, includes the area now covered by the present towns of Emmett, Mosinee, and Cleveland. All that was said of the pioneers of the towns of Berlin and Main and Marathon applies with equal force to the settlers in the Irish settlements, only they began a few years later. They occupy as fine a section of Marathon county as can be found anywhere, not only in the county, but in the state : and their farms are models of good husbandry.

In 1853, a German family, consisting of Thomas Stark, father, and wife and his three sons, Anthony, ^^'endell and Alois, settled on land in the present village of Knowlton. They were the first comers, and being carpenters, they engaged in making shingles and hewed square timbers for a couple of seasons, which they rafted and floated down to points below.

A few years afterwards they built a steam mill, which was burned in 1870, and rebuilt and operated by them until the year 1899, when the timber was exhausted in the neighborhood. Each of the brothers also made a fine farm. Leonhard Guenther came from Beaver Dam, in the pinery, as early as 1849, working in mills and camps in the neighborhood, and having taken care of his earnings, he was able to purchase the tavern at Knowlton owned by J. X. Brands, immediately after his marriage in 1854 to a daughter of Thomas Stark. The tavern was called the Knowlton House, and after the completion of the Wausau and South Line road, did a splendid business, there being no more popular stopping place between Wausau and Stevens Point. Leonhard Guenther was the prince of a landlord, with an excellent wife to super\-ise the culinary department. At the completion of the Wis- consin Valley Railroad to Wausau in 1874, this tavern, like all others on the road, lost much of the business, which was to be expected. Leonhard was at that time a member of the county board of Marathon county, and seeing that a railroad would be of immense benefit to the whole county, although it would, in the first instance, hurt his hotel business, nevertheless subordinated his own personal advantage to the advantage of the whole population, and gave his aid and influence to secure the building of the railroad. He then invested in some real estate in Wausau, intending to open a hotel at this place, but died before his plans materialized in Knowlton in May, 1876. The tavern still exists, with a spacious hall besides, which is the center for popular gatherings on festival occasions. His four sons, Charles, Anthony, Thomas and Leonhard, still live in Knowlton and are engaged in land and real estate, in commercial business and farming.

Bull Junior is a small stream which empties in the Wisconsin a little distance above the east end of the dam at Little Bull Falls. A short distance above its mouth it runs close to the high bank of the ^^'isconsi^, then takes a sharp turn to the south and east before it empties finally in the main river. A shrewd native American by the name of Keeler cut a canal from where the stream flows nearest to the river, diverted its course, and in that way obtained a high fall, which he used to run a little saw mill as early as 1855. Mr. William Gouldsbury bought the property in 1862, rebuilt the mill, operated it until 1870, when he sold it to Sebastion Kronenwetter, who in turn operated until 1903, when sawing on this creek ended. This little settlement was called Keelerville. from its owner. Not long after the mill was first established a saloon was established too near the mill, which became the scene of a tragedy. An Indian was killed in a drunken fight, which for a time threatened the peace of the community.

The Eau Plain Mill Settlement

A little saw mill was built in section 13, township 26, range 5 E. by Andrew Weeks as early as 1849. who sold to his brother, John Weeks, in 185 1. John Weeks enlarged the mill after circular saws were used, also run a shingle mill; both mills operated by steam as well as water until it burned in 1881, when it was not rebuilt, owing to the absence of railroad communication. For many years, like all other mills in the Wisconsin pinery.

all provisions had to be brought from Stevens Point and up the Eau Plain river nine miles above its mouth, by canoes, there being no other mode of communication.

John Weeks, nevertheless, made a success by his industry and economy; he w^as often elected as a member of the county board of Marathon county, and when the mill burned, he purchased the Owen Clark water power in Stevens Point, where he sawed the remaining part of his large pine holdings on the Eau Plain, which mill is still operated by his sons. Many years after the mill was located, John Weeks succeeded in getting a fine turnpike road to his mill from Dancy, the nearest railroad station on fhe Wisconsin Valley Railroad. He was one of the first Scandinavians arriving in the United States, as early as 1839. He died at Stevens Point on June 14, 1891.

Forest Ville

Few people in Marathon county ever knew of that village; it was an example of the fever of real-estate speculation of the early days of Wisconsin. It covered the north ^ of the southwest Ya and south ^ of the southwest yi and southwest 54 of the southeast Ya of section 2^), township 26 north of range 8 east, and a fraction of lots 5, 6 and 7 of section 28 in the same town and range. It was platted by one W. G. Blair, John Phillips, John Dubay, and William Walton in June, 1857. Never a lot appears to have been sold, and the whole village was wiped out by tax sales. It is near the present village of Knowlton, and the owners no doubt had visions of high prices for city lots when they plotted it. The plot was acknowledged in Chicago, Illinois, from which fact the inference is drawn that Chicago parties had an interest in the land, but the name of J. B. Dubey disclosed an inhabitant of the neighborhood, it being the same J. B. Dubay heretofore mentioned as Indian trader, and owner of a little mill on the Eau Claire river.