Wausau City

Wausau City

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.

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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

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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

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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.

The city of Wausau is practicall_v in the center of Marathon county, as the county is in the center of the state. It covers an area of GlA square miles, being three miles from north to south, two miles from east to west, with an additional half section of land on the southeast side of the parallelogram. The Wisconsin river traverses it from north to south, dividing it into two nearly equal parts. From the southeast corner of Mclndoe park, the width of the city is exactly one mile east and one mile west. The city is finely located in the valley of the river; there are few, if any, cities which have so nice or picturesque a location. The river banks are high, keeping the stream within its shores, even at high floods. It spreads out for nearly a mile on each side of the river over a plateau, then the gradually rising hills encircle it like a garland on the east and west.

Many elegant residences and buildings are scattered over the hillsides; the eye rests with pleasure on these elevations with their beautiful soft verdure in the summer, with swelling fields of golden grain, mixed with green fields of com in the distance, with the placid sheet of water of Lake Wausau in the center, while the dark green of the needle trees which crown the crest of the hillsides when the ground is covered with snow make it a beautiful landscape in the winter.

To the southwest, only two miles from the city limits. Rib ^Mountain, covered with dark green foliage during the whole year, rises gradually from the shores of the Rib and Wisconsin rivers to a height of 1,841 feet above the level of the sea, the highest elevation in the state.

Standing on the top of the eastern hills at the end of Franklin or ;Mc- Intosh street, or on the town line road, or on the end of Gallon or Elm street on the west, the landscape presents an admirable view, and in the early fall when the leaves begin to turn, the beauty of the scenery must be seen and felt, because the pen fails to do justice to its magnificence.

The dam at the Rothschield paper mill creates a very large reservoir, called Lake Wausau, which when cleaned out of the unsightly flood trash, which will be done in a short time, gives a fine chance for water sports, boating, yachting, and fishing, allowing steam or gasoline boats to run up to and land on the shores of the river at Wausau.

The city is built up in compact form from the center. The original plat as 'laid out by the founder, W. D. Mclndoe, is still the center in every direction, with the court house as the heart, with fine substantial business blocks fronting it on every side : the banks. Hotel Bellis, McCrossen Block, the Federal Building with the post and United States land offices, the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company, and offices of the gas company. Other substantial and fairly fireproof buildings stretch in every direction, from the court house north to the spacious and elegant quarters of the Young Men's Christian Association building and the Methodist church and the majestic St James church, and south to the city hall, interspersed with the Nicolls, Livingston, Gensman, Kickbusch, Ruder, the Paff, Baumann, and Mueller buildings, and west to the Widmer College and the Mclndoe park and public library, covering almost the entire original plat from Main to Fifth and from Forest to Franklin street, which territory is rightly included in the fire limits of Wausau. In good substantial buildings which have a claim to architectural beauty this city compares favorably with any of its size, and many much larger ones.

Three bridges span the river, the so-called Leahy and Beebe bridge, in the north, the Falls bridge in the center, and Stroller's bridge on the south, so called presumably because of the picturesque walk to and from the same, which invites promenading in the cool river breeze after a hot summer day.

The growth of Wausau has been slow, very slow, indeed, comparing it with the mushroom-like growth of some railroad towns, but unlike many others, it has been permanent.

It owes its growth not to railroads, nor to the speculative spirit of foreign capitalists, but to its natural advantages and its pioneers, foremost of all to Walter D. Mclndoe, who better than anyone else foresaw its great future, but whose life was cut short by fate, before his high, but reasonable, expectations could be realized.

This city and county is only 200 miles from Milwaukee and less than 300 miles from Chicago, soon the center of the population of the United States ; the next generation will see the whole county occupied by prosperous farmers and hear the lium of industry throughout the River valley with electricity as the motive power, and who can fail to foresee a still greater future for Wausau? The city is easily accessible from all parts of the county, with its 40,000 people who live outside of its borders now, on thousands of profitable famis and in industrial villages, and who all have more or less business to transact at the county seat.

It has large, comfortable hotels and a hospitable people, who take pride in entertaining visitors and visiting societies, and Wausau has become the convention city of this state next to Milwaukee.

From the time that the first railroad struck ^Vausau in 1874, the city has entertained guests by the hundreds, and as early as 1887, the state turn "fest" was held here, where over 1,000 visitors were cared for for three days. The next year brought here the grand lodge of the I. O. O. F., and since that time not a year has passed but what some association or society held the annual session of its grand body or annual picnic in this place. Mercantile travelers make it a point to so regulate their trips as to spend the Sunday at Wausau in preference to any other place except home, because of hotel accommodations and sociability.

The business men of Wausau, its manufacturers and merchants, live here, which makes them equally interested in the welfare of the city with the workingmen. By far the largest majority of our laboring men own their homes; many of their residences are models of family dwellings, combining comfort with sanitation, having water ser^-ice, electric or gas light and bath room. A reasonably low street car service brings them to the mill or factor}', giving quick and restful transportation from and to their homes where the distance is too far to be traveled comfortably afoot.

With good schools, play grounds, with parks and a good water supply and lighting system, with street cars to places of amusements, Wausau has all the advantages of a modern city without the drawbacks of a congested population in overcrowded tenement houses and districts. A modern hospital, excellently conducted by the Sisters of the Divine Savior, with a staff of eminent physicians and surgeons and carefully trained and educated nurses, provides home treatment at low rates for the unfortunate sick. The men who conduct large business enterprises in Wausau have learned the lesson that there is virtue in co-operation, in working together for each other. The large capital invested in mills and undertakings is nearly all furnished by people who live here, not by any one man or by a few men, but by the association of many, which brings not only the means together for conducting the enterprise, but also the business capacity, the mental energv, and the combined wisdom flowing from the experience of them all, which leads to success, divides the gain among many, and distributes the losses to lighten the burden. Business men in Wausau have ceased to quarrel, have ceased to look upon a rival as an enemy, and have adopted as their motto : "In union there is strength." Only on that hypothesis can be explained the erection of the Brokaw, the Rothschield, and the Mosinee paper mills, the growth of other industrial concerns which started with a small capital a few years ago, the alteration of the immense water power of the fall at Wausau, much of which passed down stream unused, into an immense volume of an electric current which furnishes power and light to factories and the household.

Social amenities are not neglected, intellectual life is fostered, recreation is furnished for the mind as well as for the body. For more than a score of years, the Ladies' Literary Society has provided a winter lecture course entertaining as well as instructive. The university extension lecture courses on American history, on popular astronomy, and on literature have been heard, and the excellent travelogues of Colonel Sanford ; two of the foremost women of America, Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, have appeared on the rostrum, and lectures by Will Carlton, Theo. Tilton, Colonel Watterson, Rev. Nugent, and William J. Bryan (the last one under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association) were provided for our people. The best of music has been brought here to entrance our music loving population. The first opera house, a jewel of its kind, unfortunately destroyed by fire, was opened by the Emma Abbott Company with two evening performances and a matinee, and in the same house was heard Camilla Urso, the unparalleled mistress of the violin of her time and the great masters of the bow. Remeniy and Jacob Renter. Lulu Jane Abercrombie, the renowned American prima donna, sang here often in the high school quartet and her first operatic role as Arline in the "Bohemian Girl," which opened the way to her to the operatic stage, upon which she has a triumphant career, and F'. W. Kickbusch winning laurels as the national American baritone. The German singing societies, notably the "Liederkranz," has brought here twice the "Sangerfest" of the northern district of Wisconsin with its choir of hundreds of male voices and Gust. Mueller of Wausau acting as conductor of the combined choirs. Christoph Bach, the master conductor and composer of the West, has been heard here with his symphony orchestra.

It was always the pride of Wausau to have good schools; its temples of learning are supplied with proper apparatus and improved furniture ; its staff of teachers is competent, and Supt. Silas B. Tobey and his predecessor. Carl Mathie, a Wausau man born and bred, have worked in season and out of season to raise the standard of education, and in this labor were supported by the board of education, which in its personnel is with no other change in the last ten years except such as death has brought, and which has aided superintendent, teachers, pupils and parents to the best of their ability.

The different men's clubs and societies, the Merchant Association, the Ladies' Literary Club, Tuesday Musical Club and Singing Societies, notably the "Liederkranz," not to forget two orchestras and brass bands, all combine to make Wausau a city of commercial importance where the industrious man can make a living, and where it can be made attractive and pleasant, removing as much as possible the dullness caused by a life of labor without intellectual refreshment and recreation.

A great number of edifices with lofty spires pointing to the sky, some grand in appearance, are evidence that the people here believe in the doctrines of Christianity and endeavor to practice its teachings.

But it was not always thus. The present appearance of Wausau is the growth of over sixty years, counting only from the organization of Marathon county as a political entity in 1850, remembering, however, that the pinery here was invaded in 1839 and saw mills existed and had their beginning in 1840. The slowness of the growth of Wausau in the first twenty years from 1840 to i860 is apparent from the vote cast for president in the last year mentioned, which was only 247 in the whole town of Wausau, which included the village, the Little Rib mill settlement, and the farmers in the present town of Wausau.

From the time of the organization as a village in 1861 up to 1867, there was some growth, of course, but the old original buildings were then still standing, only a few new ones, mainly little houses or shanties, were added.

The whole population was still depending on work for the four mills, the cutting, hauling, and driving of logs to the mills, running the lumber to market, and the few workers in the original trades, the blacksmiths, wagon and sleigh makers and shoemakers, without which business could not* exist.

On Clarke's Island was situated J. C. Clarke's saw mill and boarding house, a ver\' primitive building, occupied also by Clarke's family; on the north side of the road coming up the hill from the slough bridge, was the blacksmith shop and residence of Charles Klein, one of the original Pittsburg settlers ; he sold his shop to Otto Schochow in the fall of that year, and moved back to Marathon City: next to him was the house and shoemaker shop of Charles \\'iskow, next a grocery and saloon kept by a Braun ; fur- ther north lived the widow of Gottlieb Gritzmacher with her family, and still further north was the farmers' boarding house and stable, kept by Christlieb Berwald, an excellent stopping place, where farmers could eat their lunch and get a cup of coffee for live cents, paying ten cents for stable money. A very light cheap bridge connected Clarke's Island with Mclndoe Island. At the end of the dam was the flour mill of Thayer & Corey and on the little island above the dam was the residence of N. Thayer; this house was broken up and washed away by the flood of 1881 with all the top ground, leaving the bare rock exposed, on which stands now the cooper shop of the McEachron Mill Company. At the road (it was not a street) from Main street to the slough bridge, which was down a very steep hill, there was on the north side of the road the blacksmith shop of Frank Mathie, next the wagon shop of August Lemke, then the blacksmith shop of John Schneider. On the south side of the road was a barn and stable owned by W. D. Mclndoe and the wagon shop of Louis Storch. On the east side of Shingle street were two houses, both owned by John Schneider, one occupied by him, and one by a Norwegian by the name of Andrew Iverson, and on the west side of the street were the three houses occupied by Louis Storch, \\'illiam Berwald, and Fred Berwald.

On Plumer's Island were the two mills owned by B. G. Plumer, one supplied by water power from the mill pond by a conductor, which mill was operated by Brown & Fellows until 1869: the other mill was operated by B. G. Plumer until his death in 1886. Each mill had its boarding house for the mill hands, and the Plumer boarding house was in charge of Mrs. Aug. Gotchy, a kind, good soul, whose culinary skill was high above par, who set a table for the men unexcelled even at the Forest House. The property line between the Plumer and Mclndoe was marked by a tight board fence; close to the fence and in close proximity to the Plumer boarding house was the boarding house for the INIcIndoe mill hands, in charge of Augustus Gotchy, with a gate between them.

The fence extended down to the river and was used as a backing to the rafting shanties of the two mills, which were of the simplest kind, where rivermen slept while rafting the lumber. Of course, people having homes at Wausau slept at home.

On Plumer's Island sloping down from the boarding house to the river, was a vegetable garden in fine cultivation with two shanties, one occupied by John Miller, the other by Fred Schultz, both for years employees in Plumer's mill. A little to the north where now the St. Paul railroad track strikes Plumer's Island, was a log house with a little space of ground surrounding it and fenced with slabs, the home of the widow Philbrick, mother of W. B. Philbrick. This house was unceremoniously torn down in 1874 when the big high rock which blocked the track was blasted out of the way to make room for the railroad track.

Main street was then the principal street and remained so for several years more ; it was called the Jenny road, being at that time the only road leading out from W'ausau to the north and the supply road for Jenny and the camps above. On the south end was the Mclndoe mill, still in operation by the Heineman Lumber Company now, and a road from there down to the flat where there were two houses, one occupied by J. Meuret and his family, and the other by the parents of August Kickbusch and their daughter Caroline, dec. Radant. North from the mill was the large store building of \V. D. Mclndoe. The road was four rods wide and as high on the west as on the east, the biggest part of it used as a piling ground for oar stems, spring poles, and grubs.

Crossing Washington street (or road rather), there was the Lake Superior House (John Le Messurier), the biggest hotel at that time in town, then came the residences of W. D. Mclndoe, and Hugh Mclndoe. On the next corner was the B. Whitacre house, and further up on the same side lived John Peters, ^\'illiam Gowan, August Hett, and then a house owned by Judge Ringle and one by C. A. Single. Beginning on the other side south, there was the Riverside Hotel, the Jolly saloon across the street on the corner (ofifice building now), next was the saloon building then owned by William Ziemer and his half brother Ziebell. who were also loggers, next was the R. E. Parcher store, next the little hardware store and warehouse of Kickbusch Brothers, the upper story being occupied by F. W. Kickbusch and family; next was the store building of Aug. Kickbusch. All these buildings from Riverside Hotel up were in existence for some years and are still standing, and with the mills in close proximity the principal shops and stores on this, the only road north to the camps, it is easy to see that the business was concentrated on Main street between Washington and Jackson streets.

The corner of Main and Washington streets opposite the Kickbusch store was unoccupied, but north towards Jefferson street were two little houses still standing owned by the Stackhouse estate, one occupied by the heirs and one by Charles Clarke, and a house on the corner, occupied by H. L. Wheeler; across Jefiferson street w^as the home of M. Stafford, next the house of Dr. George E. Clark, then a vacant space, and on the further corner of Scott street was the house of Fred Tyler on the lots now occupied by the

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Anderes Hotel and other buildings. Further north lived the widow of Thomas Single, then two other small houses, one of the occupied by Alexander Stewart and wife beyond McClellan street; then a house owned by Dan. Sullivan, next the house of Fred Neu and across from him the house of Dr. Wylie; still further north a house or shanty occupied by William Homrig. That was as far north as Franklin street, and there were no more buildings on either side; the road then slanted down to Stiensfield creek, crossed it and ran to Merrill, Grandfather, and incidentally as far as Eagle river.

At .Stienfield creek vacated Indian tepees were quite numerous. There were also two Indian graves, marked by poles indicating that W'ausau was a sort of regular camping ground for the Chippewa tribe.

On the south side of Forest srteet, beginning at the west end were the houses of James Single, E. B. Stoddard, and Thomas Youles, the city hall ground was vacant, then the house of Mrs. Lyman Thayer on corner of Fourth street; across Fourth street was the house of Cyrus Strobridge (owned by Schuetz estate now), who was in business at that time in ]\Ierrill; next was the house occupied by Mrs. Gross, a midwife, then were three shanties, one of them occupied by Dahlmann and one by Charles Cramer ; the road then turned diagonally through the last block and connected with Grand avenue more than one block further south than at present. On corner of Grand avenue was the house of Mich. Lemere, and on the next lot east, lived Peter Crochier, a river man and pilot.

Tliere were two small buildings on the alley running south of Forest street from Second *up to Fourth street; on the end of Fourth street lived Carl Hoeflinger, and across from him was the house of D. \Y. Fellows, still standing. Fourth street was not open further than to the alley just mentioned.

On the end of Fifth street was the little building put up in the same spring by C. H. Mueller and next to him in the alley another little one owned and occupied by Julius Ouade.

On the north side of Forest street beginning on the west was a blacksmith shop of Hinton, then crossing Second street, there was the home now occupied by Charles Wagner. This house is one of the oldest with the exception of the Stackhouse buildings, probably the oldest now standing in Wausau, and was quite pretensions at the time it was built, about 1852. It was erected by Kraft & Wilson for Taylor, the brother of Mrs. W. D. Mclndoe, but it seems he did not occupy it, at least, I>ut a very short time if he did. Going east passing the Forest House there was vacant ground.

until one came to the home of Conrad Bemhard on corner of Fourth, next the little house of Heppner, then the Seim boarding house, then the houses of Mrs. Haase and Levy Gennett, on corner of Fifth; on the other corner were the houses of F. H. JMorman, next that of Tuttle and a house occupied by J. W. Chubbuck; further east were some small buildings, one of them occupied by old man Ziebell who had abandoned his farm in township 30, range 4 east, after making quite an improvement thereon. On the south side of Jackson street was the house of Mrs. Thomas Hinton, the Mich. Duffy grocery store, the W'inkley House and Forest Hall, then across the street was the little tinner's shop of John Egeler, then the residence and hall of Judge Ringle (now occupied by O. C. Callies), further east the house of A. Lee; and some shanties further east towards the edge of the marsh. In Fifth street, nearly opposite the Northern Hotel, was the cabinet shop of Joseph Hildensperger.

On the north side of Jackson street beginning on the west, was the saloon of Joseph Noiseaux, on the next block the house and barber shop of Ch. Poor, next the Winkley House bam, next the house and store of Jacob Paff on comer of Third and Jackson : on the next block was the Althen store, the butcher shop of John Merklein, next the Henry Dern saloon, next the B. William saloon on comer of Fourth ; on the next block east was the house of Aug. Lemke. and next the house of Mrs. Adam and her son John Adam, which was the last one on this side.

On south side of Washington street was the barn of August Kickbusch, on comer of Second the one-story store of William Barteld, next the Frank Wartman building, next one of John Dern. next Charles W'oessner's clothing store and tailor shop, and on the corner the office building of George W. Casterline, fronting Third street. Across on the corner was a onestory store occupied by August Engel as a watch repair and gunsmith shop, and on the other corner was the house of Gerry Judson, part of it now attached to the \\'ashington Hotel. Further east were some shanties, but Christian Osswald commenced the erection of his bakery shop the following year.

On the north side of Washington street was the barn of the Lake Superior house, on the corner of Second was the house of John Cramer, next the residence and shop of Ernst Felling, next the little toy store and house of Jacob Kolter and parents, and on the two lots up to Third street stood the house of Frank Mathie. Across from him was the house of Dr. Smith, now on Fourth street, and the rest of the block on this street was vacant, and so was the next block, until near Fifth street, where there was the

And Representative Citizens 265

On Jefferson street, coming from Main street, was the house of J. Burns (now Fingerhut), the house of Bradford on corner of Third street, Corey's house on Third and Jefferson and the Slosson house on corner of Fourth and Jefferson, with some shanties further east, occupied by the brothers George and Jacob Stelz, who had removed to Wausau from a fami in the town of Stettin a few years before.

On the north side of Jefiferson street beginning west, was the house of George G. Green and another small building near the corner of Third; the court house block was unfenced, and Herman Miller's house occupied the place where the gas company building and opera house now stand.

On Scott street were no buildings at all until Third street was reached, where George Lawrence had a building on the site of the Bellis House, and where the McCrossen store now stands, was a building owned by Slosson; well towards Fourth street was the home of Ely R. Chase and the postofifice. This postofifice building was later removed to Main street and served as an office for W. D. Mclndoe and the Stewart Lumber Compaay and was later moved to Second street near Forest street.

Where the Federal building now stands, was the house of W. Wilson, occupied by him until the site was chosen for the present postoffice. On McClellan street lived J. Dobbly, Louis Lenneville, and next to him was the St. John's Episcopal church, and opposite the church the residence of R. P. Manson, one of the most prominent buildings at the time. On Second street from the south, was the house of Ernst Schultz, next one belonging to Luedke, both shoemakers, and further north passing Scott street, lived Mich. Rouseau; also Shaughnessy which place is now o\Mied by P. O. Means; further north was the house of William Dodge.

On Third street was the Forest House, the Paff store already mentioned, the hardware store, and the tin shop of Richard Baumann, the Casterline and Bradford buildings already referred to, and opposite the court house was a one and one-half story building, "the Bank of the Interior," owned by J. A. Farnham. On the east side of Third street was the Forest House barn, in the next block north the grocery and lumbermen's supply store of E. M. Mott and Herman Miller, the J. Gensman's residence and shoe shop, which is now on Second street; on the comer was the August Engle watchmaker's shop already referred to, and on the corner of McClellan street was the home of Babcock. No buildings at all were on Fifth street.

There were otlier small houses and shanties scattered through this territory here and there; the streets were not graded, and only in the business portion of the village had the stumps been removed; very few and narrow sidewalks existed. The end of Washington street at the Kickbusch store and Main street were much higher than at present, the slough bridge was much lower than now, and consequently so steep a descent down as to make it impossible for one team to haul up a heavy load. On Washington street was a well near the sidewalk at Kolter's toy store, which was well patronized by the neighborhood. This is mentioned only to show the rural character of the streets at that time.

W. C. Silverthorn, district attorney, occupied the second story of the Strobridge building on Fourth and Forest streets. On Grand avenue was the house of Mich. Le Mere, one block further south the house of Lamereaux (Edee estate), and still further south the house of M. Walrad; then came the property of Plumer and \\'alton. unplatted, and culti\ated by B. G. Plumer as a farm.

The Ruder brewery was the only building on the west side of Grand avenue and a saloon with a small dance hall was standing in Columbia Park with the residence of Edw. Kretlow, father of Ed. C. Kretlow, who had come from Milwaukee to take charge of the newly organized \\'ausau concert band and teach and conduct its practices. That park was and remained for thirty years and upwards, the recreation ground of the working population of Wausau.

The marsh stretched out from a little south of Mcintosh street to somewhere up to Franklin street and extended west to Seventh, and in the spring even to Sixth street. The roads leading out from Wausau were the Jenny road, the road to Little Rib. Stettin, and Marathon, the road on the west side through the town of Main to Berlin, the Whiskey road, so-called, Ijranching off from the Jenny road at the three-mile boom, a corderoy road across the marsh at the head of Jackson street and slanting up east hill to the settlement in Wausau and Easton; the town line road to Eau Clair and Hogarthy, the south line road to Mosinee, and a road branching off at Scholfield to the Kelly mills. No other streets except on the original plat had been platted, and only half of them were worked; for instance. Fourth street east of the court house had only a wagon track winding around the stumps.

And Representative Citizens 267

On the west side of the river were two or three shanties close to the river bank, and further down was a house on the Kennedy farm (now Chelhs), then occupied by the widow of Judge Kennedy who had married Peter Giff ord, a saw filer, and the place became known as the Gifford place ; the forty acres owned by the Aug. Kickbusch estate, was in a good state of cultivation, owned at the time by John Kopplin and sold to Aug. Kickbusch in this year, and Anton Schuetz had commenced clearing on his farm on the hill joining the Kickbusch place.

On the road leading north in the settlement, there was the H. Daniel's shingle mill, the house of Mrs. Poor, and a farmer by the name of Hoffmann, father of William Hoffmann, who with his sons engaged some in logging. Up towards the north, on the west side of the road, the land where now are located the fields of John Egeler, the fields enclosing the George Jung slaughter house, the S. M. Quaw and Herman Hartel farm, and other well cultivated smaller tracts, was termed the "Brand," meaning burned district. The timber had been cut, then a high wind threw down the remaining trees, the iire ran through and gave it a desolate appearance ; the whole tract was supposed to be sterile and worthless.

To summarize: There were in Wausau in 1867 - The original four saw mills, seven general merchandise stores, one hardware store, one toy store, four blacksmith shops, three wagonmaker shops, four shoemaker shops, three hotels, and one boarding house, and seven saloons.

The lumbermen in business at Wausau were : First the nfill owners W. D. Mclndoe, B. G. Plumer, John C. Clark, and Brown & Fellows, J. and A. Stewart, R. P. Manson, Kickbusch Brothers, R. E. Parcher, Lawrence & Peters, Mich. Stafford, Jacob Paff, and Herman Miller.

Of the men who operated portable mills D. B. Wylie and Gerry Judson only lived in Wausau. J. D. Gray lived at Scholfield, and so did William Gallon, and the brothers William P. and N. T. Kelly operated two mills on Eau Clair river and resided there.

The Trappe mill was operated by IM. D. Courcey, the Pine river mill by Ed. Armstrong, and the mill in Jenny by Combs and Andrews. William Mcintosh had a mill on Sandy creek. The mill on Little Rib owned by B. Single sawed a large amount of lumber annually for years yet to come.

The Scholfield mill probably cut the largest amount of lumber about that time, doing a large amount of custom sawing under the management of D. B. Willard. Nearly all the trade from these mills came from Wausau.

J. E. Leahy had come to Wausau in 1866 and commenced logging operations in 1867 and lived at the Forest House until his marriage in 1872 to Miss M. D. McCrossen.

The question may arise in the minds of some readers : Where did the hundreds of river men stop or sleep until the lumber was rafted and was on its way down stream? Many of these young men came after the ice had gone out and rafting had commenced; they slept in the rafting shanties at each mill in bunks until the fleet started down, when they made room for others. Wausau was the place where they congregated, and from here they went to the mills at other points, to Scholfield, to Kelly, to Little Rib, Big Rib and Trapp, Pine, and Jenny, and to the points in the Wisconsin where the lumber sawed at the portable mills was piled or stacked.

The capacity of the mills after the introduction of circular saws had immensely increased, still it was small when compared to the output of a modern mill.

In 1867 the largest output on record in one day's run of twelve hours less the time consumed for dinner, was a little over 30,000 feet, and was made in Plumer's mill, but it was only made by selecting the best of logs from the crop of good, fine logs at hand, and much of it was sawed into i^ and 2 inch stuff.

The small capacity of early mills accounts for the holding out of the pine supply as long as it did; and only the best of logs were taken; such as showed some ring rot, and punk knot were left in the woods on the ground to rot. And it cannot be said that it was willfully wasted. Such were left in the woods 5imply because to cut, haul, drive, and saw them would have entailed actual loss to the lumbermen. Xo such loss occurred later with better prices for lumber and cheaper and better transportation facilities, but in early years this loss was unavoidable. With the great number of young men, especially in the spring, street brawls were not uncommon, but had no serious consequences; such crimes as shooting and stabbing did not occur. Indeed the carrying of a pistol was very uncommon. Women and girls were safe from molestation as much and more so than now, the dude or masher was an unknown being.

Mail arrived daily, but the roads left much to be desired. " It often happened that passengers had to walk a distance where the horses could only get through with the empty stage, or over a hill, or lift it out of the mire.

The village marshal kept, or attempted to keep order. Indians were still numerous, but inoffensive. Xo gambling or sporting house existed, and the community was a peaceable one. Mills stopped running during the day on Sundays, but not rafting, when the freshet was on. The churches having regular services on Sunday were the Methodist church, the St. John's Episcopal, and the St. Paul's Lutheran church.

Business conditions in the year 1867 were exceptionally good. Lumber brought good prices and cash pay. Mills prepared for a greater output, and the mill owners for an enlargement of the boom to hold the greater quantity of logs, which was expected to be manufactured next season. B. G. Plumer, with the keen foresight which was characteristic of him, had obtained the Baetz Island, and the land adjoining the river for the boomage of his logs, and in the coming winter he put in the piers and the Baetz Island boom, which while put in for his own use, nevertheless were of immense advantage to the other mill owners, in that it at least doubled the capacity of the boom, besides making a safe boom, able to withstand high freshets easily. Another event occurring in that year, needs mentioning.

Mr. August Kickbusch, the senior member of the fimi of Kickbusch Brothers, was another one of the business men who saw the advantage which this county offered to the industrious poor man, who was willing to undertake the cultivation of the land, in other words, go farming. In the spring of that year, he made a trip to his old home in Pommerania, a province in the kingdom of Prussia. He had left his home just about ten years before, a comparatively poor man, and when he returned, a wealthy man, his coming created a mild sensation. In speaking of this country, he had to tell only the truth without exaggeration, to induce many people to emigrate and cast their lot with the new country. He was able to assure them that they could find employment at paying wages, and could with their earnings purchase good land and become independent men, and being willing to work, a great many took his advice and came to Marathon county.

He did not spend much time in Germany, having to hurry home to give his attention to the firm's business, and returned about the end of June. A number of families came with him, among them, John Marquart and wife, August Laabs and wife, Carl Goetsch, John Grochow, John Bartz, Henry Hintz, Ludwig Marth, Otto Schochow, Ferdinand Kickbusch and family, Ferdinand Laabs. August Buss and wife, and August Borchardt and sister, and some young unmarried men and women.

They made their home first in Wausau, but most of them took up land after one or two years and became prosperous farmers. But they were only the first ones of the large emigration of low Germans which followed them year after year until about 1880, and which built up the towns of Main, Berlin, Stettin, Wausau, Easton, and Hamburg.

The first settlement in W'ausau, which was the first settlement in Marathon county when it was part of Portage county, has already been referred to, and how the growth of the village made it necessary to organize a village government, which was effected in the spring of the year 1861.

All these names were familiar as the names of old residents at the time, except F. A, Hoffmann, whose career was rather meteoric and not lasting. The proceedings of the county board mentioned in a former chapter show him as the power in that body for a space of time at least. Thomas Single was one of the four brothers Single, w-ho were among the first comers into this county.

In the last years of the war and after its close, the lumber business was profitable, mill owners made improvements to increase the capacity of their mills, and there was a general good and secure feeling as to the future. Lumber was in demand and advances on lumber in piles could be procured before it was rafted. Nevertheless some unforeseen events occurred from time to time which retarded any sudden advance in prosperity.

And Represextatre Citizens 271

In April, 1866, there was a high freshet which swept away the bridge (at the falls), went over the guardlock, and people living on Shingle street removed with their goods in time to escape destruction. The east end of the guardlock was swept away, the wall of water coming down washed out the street, tore away the pier under the slough bridge and also the conductor between the Clarke and Plumer's mill, a part of Clarke's mill, and some lumber and logs. The carrying away of part of the dam of the mill pond between the Clarke and Plumer mill delayed all mills in their work until the damage was repaired and gave rise to some hard feeling between the owners, it being claimed that repairing the damage was unduly delayed.

During the summer and until the bridge at the falls was rebuilt, a communication with the western settlements was established by running a ferry boat from the eddy above the dam to Mclndoe's Island, which was connected with a light bridge with Clarke's Island. To raise some cash, needed for the building of the bridge at the falls, the county board ordered an issue of county orders, sufficient to realize at a sale of them the sum of $1,000.00. the orders not to be sold for less than seventy-five cents on the dollar at their face value.

No calamity of any kind befell Wausau in 1867 and 1868; but in 1869 a fire consumed the built-up portion of the north side of Washington street between Second and Third streets. It broke out in the night time in the house of John Cramer on corner of Second street, and with only water pails to fight, it spread to the next, the residence and harness shop of Ernst Felling, then to the residence and toy store of Jacob Kolter, then to Kolter's music hall, the finest hall then in Wausau, completed in the fall of 1868. and threatened to fire the house of Frank Mathie. which was saved by tearing down the addition nearest the burning music hall and keeping wet blankets on the roof of the main building. The buildings on the south side of the street, the residence of F. Wartman, the house of John Dern, and the house and store of Charles Woessner were saved by the same methods, nearly the whole population being in line from the river up to handle water in pails to the fire.

All these buildings were substantially new buildings, especially music hall, which was quite a pretentious one for the time, and as the insurance companies in which they were insured turned out wholly or partly insolvent,

The fire was an object lesson to the people, which the village board was not slow to comprehend. The night of the fire was still, hardly any air stirring, else had there been only a moderate wind, increased by the heat of the flames, all the portion of the village within the sweep of the wind would have been swept clear by the fire. A hand engine was promptly purchased, which arrived on the 226. day of July, 1869, which was named "W". D. Mc- Indoe" by the village board. No holiday was proclaimed on the day of its arrival, but there was an impromptu celebration nevertheless.

Wausau Fire Company No. i was already organized, and this company with that hand engine, for nearl}- twenty years worked voluntarily, that is, without any pay, attending meetings, fire practices and working at fires, protecting the property of the citizens from heavy losses, and on more than one occasion saved the village from destruction. It proved its efficiency in the same year when on October 8th, the Clarke mill caught fire in the night time, and in spite of the immense inflammable material in and all around it, through the efiforts of the fire company, aided, of course, by the citizens, the conflagration was confined to the mill proper, no other building or lumber piles being consumed. B. G. Plumer, whose property was in greatest danger, gave to the Wausau company a silver speaking tube as a memorial of good service. Another instance was the burning down of the large Forest Hotel, a three-story building, standing close to Forest Hall and the W'inkley House, on the 2d day of August, 187S. In spite of heat and falling sparks, the fire was limited to the Forest House, and the adjoining buildings escaped destruction, although not more than twenty feet distant from the burning one. The streets from Main up to Fourth between Forest and ^^'ashington streets had then been built up very compact with only two or three exceptions, all light frame buildings, and more than one had caught fire and burned down, and in each instance the fire was confined to the burning building, a record of which any regularly paid company might justly be proud.

The engine house with an alarm bell stood first on the southeast corner of the Court House square; in 1880 it was removed on the corner one block further east. When fire broke out somebody ran to the engine house, rang the bell, the firemen dropping everything in hand, ran to the engine house, pulled out the engine and two hose carts, each with five hundred feet of hose and hurried to the fire. In most cases the fire could be reached with hose from the shore of the slough or from platforms erected on convenient places on those shores ; later cisterns were built at the intersection of streets to ftirnish water. No time was lost waiting for horses, the fire company always responding promptly. This engine house is now the property of Mr. Charles Burke on Scott street and used by him as a barn and stable.

The following named gentlemen were foremen at different times of this fire company, but it is barely possible that one or two names may have been overlooked, the names being cited from memory, the records of the company having been lost. The first foreman was George Werheim ; others were : B. G. Plumer, \V. C. Silverthorn, Jacob Paff, F. W. Kickbusch, Valentine Ringle, C. H. Mueller, Henry Miller, and Louis Marchetti.

During the whole of its existence, excepting only the first two years, Mr. August Lemke was hose captain, and no man ever rendered more efficient and patriotic sen'ice than he. \^'hen he died in February, 1901, the survivors of the extinct company, feeling that such a mark of respect was due to his memory, assembled, and under the lead of Louis Marchetti, the last foreman of the company, escorted his remains to the grave.*

"We stand at the bier of a dear friend, whom we have known long and well. W^ith him is gone from our midst another of those generous, daring and whole souled pioneers, who have opened up a wilderness for thousands of people to follow them, who profiting by their toil, have found homes and comfort, and happiness, and many of them even wealth. Few men are living yet, who, like the deceased, have seen Wausau grow from a mere trading post to its present proud position among the sisterhood of cities of our proud state. Nearly his w-hole life was spent here, from early youth to his ripe old age. His life was an open book that everybody could read.

"At his bier the injunction to speak only good of the dead becomes useless for there is nothing else to say. No man could ever say that August Lemke did him wrong, not even in thought, much less in deed. In hi? prime of life, his body was that of a giant, yet his soul was that of a child, hannless, guileless, innocent. He never harbored malice, never knew what it was. Like all human beings, he had his joys and his sorrows, but he was never boastful in his success, never bitter in his grief.

"He was an intensely loyal and patriotic citizen. He loved his family and brought up his children to be honest, useful citizens, not drones in society. Next to his family he loved this city, and gave his best thoughts and many months and even years of his life to the service of this community without

* After the inauguration of the water works, the hand engine was sold to the village of Athens, where it is still doing as good work as ever.

"For twenty years or more he was an active fireman in the voluntary fire department and second in command during the whole time, his modesty preventing him from taking first place, which he would have filled with credit to himself and benefit to the community.

"Often have we seen him surrounded by smoke and flame drenched through and through in the cold of a winter night, and never flinch. He never sent a man to a place of danger where he would not go himself. He served his city and county well in other places, but he was one of those silent, modest men, who would rather shun than seek publicity. It all the more becomes the duty of those who knew him well to speak of his many merits at his grave and point out to the younger generation that they might well emulate the example of our honored friend. August Lemke was a thorough disciple of Christ. His life was regulated by the rule 'As you would that others should do unto you, do you even so unto them.'

"Like most other pioneers he did not accumulate great wealth ; he does not leave riches to his children, but something of more value than that; he leaves behind him a name honored and beloved for good acts and deeds done in life, for his civic virtues, for his spotless character, for his unflinching integrity, and a name which will be remembered in the history of Wausau along with those other good and noble men who have gone before him, and with those who will soon follow him. as the founders of our city.

"Let us now reverently and tenderly return his earthly remains to mother earth, and may he rest and sleep sweetly in her bosom, like a child in its mother's arm. until the day of resurrection."

Of the many saw mills erected between 1840 and 1850 the B. Single mill on Little Rib was the first to quit operations. It burned down in 1871 and was not rebuilt.

In the winter of 1871 there was established the first public library. A number of gentlemen contributing to the purchase of books, adopting a constitution by which the society was named "Pine Knot Literary Club." The books were kept for some years in the office of the "Wisconsin River Pilot," and later given in charge of the "Ladies' Literary Club" and became the nucleus around which grew up the Wausau Public Library. The founders of this club were W. C. Silverthorn, John Ringle, Valentine Ringle. D. L. Plumer, Orson Phelps. John Patzer, and a few more.

In 1 87 1 a lumber pile on J. C. Clarke's yard, standing close to the river, caught fire, communicating it to another pile, but by the prompt arrival of

And Representative Citizens 275

Jacob Kolter had now erected and completed a building on the corner of Washington and Third street called music hall, a large two-story building co\ering the entire lot 120x60 feet. On the first floor were two stores, fronting Washington street, the corner store occupied as a drug store, the next one was occupied as the banking house of Silverthorn & Plumer. On the north side of the building was a saloon, and above the saloon was a dining room, the saloon and dining room being separated from the stores and the hall on the second floor above the stores, by the stairway, landing, and ticket office.

That hall was the scene of many festivities and celebrations. Theatricals, lectures, concerts, political meetings, and society dances were held in that hall for a score of years, reflecting the social, intellectual, and political life of Wausau. The hall was hardly completed with stage and some scenery, when an amateur theatrical club gave some performances, with Mrs. Dr. Wylie as leading lady. Miss Mary Jane Coulthurst as ingenue and other ladies, and W. H. Barnum, Charles W. Nutter and George Lenneville as the main .support of the venture. The leading lady had all the qualifications of a great actress, but the club was shortlived ; after a few good performances it broke up.

A little later the German Dramatic Club began its career and for many years entertained the German-speaking population with its performances in melodrama, tragedy, and farce, and it may be truthfully said that their acting was often superior to the performances of some of the wandering troups that come with great pretensions and big advertisements. In the Gemian club, Mrs. H. J. Lohmar was the leading lady; she had the mimic, the verve, the correct pronunciation and appearance of a great actress. Her "Jane Eyre" was a piece of great acting, both as the poor, oppressed orphan and the great lady.

Mrs. P. A. Riebe acted the parts of the ingenue, supported by the Misses Caroline and Louise Ringle, and others. Dr. P. A. Riebe was equally at home in comedy as in tragedy, while J. W. Miller played the villain to perfection. When Riebe sang his song, in the "Songs of the Musician," and J. W. Miller acted the part of the respectable innkeeper, who, caught as a poacher, treacherously kills the game warden and is tortured by his conscience into his grave, when at last he confesses, a hush fell over the assemblage and many eyes were moist.

H. J. Lohmar, as the loving young man, would have been perfection had he better memorized his lines and relied less on his extemporizing. Many others assisted, but they cannot all be named. In later years B. Riebe took the place of P. A. Riebe, but the void left by the removal of Mrs. Lohmar was never filled.

There was a Choral Society, too, in the seventies, and they gave the oratorio "Esther" in costume, with Miss Alice Bradford in the title role, which she sang in fine voice and good effect.

Will Carleton recited his poems in that hall, and lectures on popular astronomy followed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony both lectured in Music Hall, and a few words on the apppearance and lecture of these, probably the most noted American women on the lecture platform, may not be inappropriate.

The name of Cady Stanton was not unknown even in the pinery, and attracted a full house, more probably from curiosity to see her, than from any sympathy with her work. It was on a Saturday evening and the hall fairly well filled. As she walked up to the stage, an elderly, grandmotherly looking woman, simple and very becomingly dressed, all eyes were fixed on her. \\'ithout much of an exordium, she started on her subject, "Women's Rights," in a clear, conversational tone that could plainly be heard everywhere, her pronunciation being slow and very distinct, and in a very short time the audience gave her their closest attention. Speaking of the advance made by the movement, she spoke a little reprovingly of the young reporters, "Hardly dry behind their ears," who in former years referred to her and her co-workers as the cackling geese; she did not fail to weave into her lecture some humorous episodes, even when the joke was on her; as, for instance, when she told of how she and other ladies of her inclination had made up a purse to enable a bright boy to make his way through college, to become a minister, and after having graduated with honors, having received his degree and having been ordained, was invited by the ladies to preach his first sermon in their church ; how the church was filled by a pious assemblage to listen to the words of the new minister; how after the introductory hymn was sung, the young minister mounted the pulpit, opened the good book and read from the epistle of St. Paul : "Let the women be silent in the congregation," and made that the text for his sermon in the spirit of St. Paul. "And," said Mrs. Stanton, with a sly twinkle in her es^es, "we women made up our mind right then and there, never to pay for the education of another boy to the ministry in that denomination." Speaking of her experience before legislative committees and political conventions, she told how she appeared in behalf of her co-workers before the committee on resolutions of the national Republican convention in 1864, which gave Abraham Lincoln his second nomination, and asked for the incorporation of a woman's suffrage plank ; how the committee graciously pennitted her to address them, and after ha\-ing spoken but a short time, was impatiently interrupted by the chairman, Horace Greeley, with the tart remark, "Madam, the ballot goes with the bayonet." and her instant reply : "Very well, Mr. Greeley, I have furnished two substitutes to fight for me, my two sons; how many have you?" which was rather a little unkind on Greeley, he having no son. At the end of her lecture she announced that on .Sunday afternoon she would speak at a church (Universalist) and in the evening again in this hall on another subject. Sunday night Music Hall was crowded to its full capacity, even all available standing room was taken up.

Mrs. Stanton took up for her subject, "Domestic relations; husband and wife; parent and child," and treated it in a masterful way. And she could speak with authority on these subjects, for hers was a most happy household, and she was in position to give advise: and the whole large audience was in complete sympathy with her discourse, she having so enraptured it, that not one was seen to leave the hall during the whole lecture of full two hours' duration.

The following winter Susan B. Anthony delivered her great lecture, "Woman wants bread, not the ballot," to a large appreciative audience; the idea carried out, of course was, the ballot is a means to earn the bread, having particular reference to the army of women working in industrial pursuits and factories. Like Cady Stanton, she appeared plain and simply dressed, though in good taste ; and she, too, was eargerly listened to by the assemblage. When she feelingly mentioned the oppression that women were frequently subjected to in factories, and the starvation wages received by them, her face lit up and gave her a commanding appearance. She laid bare existing wrongs ; and no doubt it is through the labor of these two women that many abuses have been corrected in later years, though it was done without resorting to woman suffrage. Susan B. Anthony was a really eloquent woman, and some of her utterances will not suffer in comparison to be placed side by side with the best of American oratory.

There were also the travelogues of Colonel Sanford, unrivaled as a word painter. Leaving the port of New York, he took his audience over the old continent, showing and explaining the great historical sights there to be seen, and never failed to close with a peroration of the grandeur, political and geographical, of our own country, the east, and of his own home, the beautiful Mississippi valley.

There were other lectures, concerts, Aljby Carrington and others of her and of a higher class, and there were the political meetings with good speakers.

It was in Music Hall that H. S. Alban made his first poHtical speech here in reply to a speech made by Gen. E. S. Bragg, and his appearance on the rostrum was a most pleasing surprise to his friends, because he showed himself not only as an able speaker, but as one who was a student of political atYairs. And there was the joint debate between Thomas W. Nichols and Robert Schilling on the greenback question.

Many of the entertainments given in Alusic Hall came up in excellence to any given in the opera house at later dates. That hall was, of course, the scene of all society dances, concerts by the singing societies, the Hamiony and later the Liederkranz, and lastly the meeting place of the social German society, "Frohsinn," the best interpretation of which would be "good cheer."

The decline of Music Hall began with the opening of the Opera House, which was much larger and better equipped. During the last years of its existence it was not improved; on the contrary, even repairs were neglected, and when J. M. Smith and C. J. Winton became the owners and existing leases expired, it was torn down, because the realty on that corner would warrant the erection of a new and better building. On its place now stands the Livingston block, the finest commercial emporium in the city.

Nevertheless the satisfaction felt by the tearing down of this building in the expectation of something worthier of the time and place was not wholly without some regret. It was in this building that the firm of Silverthorn and Plumer, although having done a brokerage business before, started out as a full fledged banking house : after this firm had put up a building of their own on the land owned by the Millard estate, J. M. Smith occupied their former quarters as a real-estate office, from which Marathon county was populated as never before.

Around Music Hall clustered many of the most pleasing, humorous and enjoyable memories of the past; it seemed as if with the demolishment of Music Hall went down the good old W^ausau of olden times, to make room for the new. When built in 1870, and completed in 1871, it was the best and largest public building, and in a quarter of a century it was no longer good enough for the times. So passes the glory of the world, and how many of the buildings which are today the pride of Wausau may still be so in fifty years ?

\\'hy take so much space in writing about old Music Hall ? Because there was the focus of the social and intellectual and political life from the beginning of the city, in distinction from the village, and these references serve to give an illustration as to what that life really was.

And Representative Citizens 279

From 1861 to 1871 the village had enjoyed an unexampled, thereofore unknown growth. Several additions had been platted and the village stretched out south, east and north ; more than two hundred buildings had been added in a few years, and the time had come to organize a city government.