Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-04-17
-Kimball of the Green Bay Advo-
cate does our city thusly.


GRAND RAPIDS.
| Ii was our purpose to make the &C
quaintance of some of the good people
who live there. Perhaps it was no
body's fault but our own, but we did
not succeed very we'll That is to say,
we did not meet many of them but
those we did meet were, as the quota
tons in sugar sometimes say extra
A, rhite."
Or the whole our first impression of
Grand Rapids was favorable one. 1t
has much to Recommend it to the at
tention Of capitalists. The "Old Wis
conse' at that point places at their
command an immense water power
which will doubtless, ere many years,
be utilized to it's fullest extent The
city is destined to be railroad center
of no mean Importance. The Green
Bay & Lake Pepin road connecting it
with Green Bay on the east and within
a year, with the Minnesota wheat fields
on the west a: the Tomah Road which
is at It's very doors and which will
probably extend into the iron regions
and the Portage City Road in prospect
| (and we understand that the prospect
is good one) are destined to build up
Grand Rapids and make of it place
of some considerable business impor-
lance. 1t has good churches, good
schools, good people and energetic bus
mess men who are fully awake to the
needs OF their growing city.
The recent FIRE was a severe loss to
the city but with commendable energy,
the burnt district is being rapidly re-
built. Several frames are already up,
and others are soon to follow These,
however, are wooden buildings and
within the fire limits and consequently
are only temporary, being erected on
a building permit issued with the I'M
derstanding that stone or brick struct-
ures are to supplants these within a
year and a half.
At present there is single block
built of stone and none of brick. The
difficulty seems to have been in
getting the material. Mr.. John Rab-
lin, however, is about to start brick
yard and adjacent stone quarries will
be worked more extensively than for
merly SO that difficulties in that direc-
ton will be partially obviated.
We have before mentioned the kao-
lin deposits Of this neighhorhood,
Mr.. Boughey, an Iowa gentleman. is
now at the Rapids prospecting in be-
half Of English capitalists, who, if his
report is favorable, intend to establish
there some sort of mandatory, to
work up this material. Some of it has
already been made into fire brick, and
used IN the foundry, proving to be of
quality superior to those brought
from abroad. Worked into all the
different uses of which it is susceptible,
and there is reason to suppose that it
will be, this kaolin will build up an
important enterprise for the place.
The season, we understand, opens
up briskly in real estate transactions,
etc, and the close of the building sea-
son will see deal of work accomplish
cd. Among the buildings in prospect
is handsome new school house, to be
built of stone-the material being al
ready on the ground and ready for
building to commence.
Grand Rapids has some peculiarities.
From the third story of the Rablin
House you overlook the principal bust
ness Of the town. You are struck at
once with the arrangement Of its streets
which are almost wholly without regu-
larity. The streets of some cities radi-
ate from common center. Others
exist in regular squares. We couldn't
discover exactly what was the plan
here and concluded that they had been
laid out without any regard for geo
metric principles, except perhaps the
main business street which presents a
we'll defined parabola curve.
Another popularity (to us) was the
bridge. It is 'toll bridge, so they
tol' us-and as we had never seen
bridge of that kind before we had a
great curiosity to examine it and see
how it differed from other bridges. In
its general contour it is very similar to
the common bridge-the principal diff
erence being that at one you pay a toll
and at the other you don't pay at al! l.;
and as they make no deductions to
newspaper men on the former we pre-
fer the latter. Perhaps however, it is
all owing to our being born with a
common bridge Gin our mouth. -
! There's nothing like being used to
thing, you know. We actually saw
Ingraham of the Reporter go across
that bridge with smile on his counte-
nance.
One of the best features Of toll
bridges is that they are liable to devel-
ope into something better. Of the
bridge in question this is eminently so
Indeed the County Board Of Wood
County has already determined to pay
$40, 500 for it and give it to Grand
Rapids and CentraIia This is nice
little present for those two places and
all things considered the County has
made good bargain. The new regime
goes into effect ''sixty days after
date"
OF course we called at the two print
ing offices-the Tribune and Reporter
and enioved q talk with the editors