Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-10-12
THE PiNERY PIONEERS.
When There Were No Railroads in North
Observation-Disclosures of Country.

the way into the great pinery of the
central and northern part Of the state
could only be reached through a labo-
riOuS journey by team, and the way
out for the lumberman was by rafting
his product down the river. The
pioneer lumbermen forced their way
up the rivers into the heart of the
pinery, cut timber, erected mills to
make it into lumber and fioated it to
market.
For many years after EuZebe La
Vigne and few other ventureSOme
spirits pushed their way to the grand
rapids of the Wisconsin river, the
nearest sources of supply were in the
small towns that were growing up on
the edges of the pinery, Lacrosse,
Portage, Berlin, Oshkosh and Green
Bay. Civilization was gradually fore
ing its way into the wilderness, but in
this section Of the country its progress
was slow, it being so badly impeded
by the dense forests. Between this
line of frontier towns and the pinery
proper lay the semi-barren eXpanse,
parts of which are found in Adams.
Juneau, WauShara and Waupaca
counties, a territory SO uninviting that
it attracted settlers but slowly, and
that the railroads avoided when they
came as Offering inadequate returns
for capital. Thus the first lines of
railroad kept on the outer edge of the
great pinery, striking through the
country that was more easily devel
oped. The Milwaukee & La Crosse
railroad followed a line as nearly
direct as practicable between MilWau
| kee and La Crosse, but it was not
h11i1
the pioneer WOOdSmen of the Wis
consin river valley had started settle
| mentS and built mills at Grand Rapids,
Stevens Point and WauSau. When
it was finally built New Lisbon was
| forty-fOur miles from Grand Rapids,
and about 100 miles from WauSau
Distant as this railroad was from
the mills and logging camps, the lum-
bermen hailed its coming with joy as
it lessened the distance between them
and civilization, abridged tie diff
Guilty of getting supplies and the labor
of returning from down the river"
after taking fleet of lumber to mar
ket.
In time a railroad was built to Ber-
lin, the nearest approach to the
pinerieS on the southeast for years,
but this was still over sixty miles dis
tant from Stevens Point. the nearest
Wisconsin river settlement. Then the
approach of the railroads ceased and
for many years they came no nearer.
1t was not until after the war of the
rebellion that railroad men began to
discuss the feasibility of piercing the
pine wilderness, and then the new
Wisconsin Central company was the
pioneer. Lured by the promise of a
valuable land grant a company was
formed by Boston CGs sItaliStS and a
railroad was projected that was the
surprise of the railroad world. The
company started to build from Men
asha and it was not long before line
was completed to Stevens Point, the
first place at which the Wisconsin
river was touched by railroad above
Kilbourn City. This road gave Stev-
ems Point an outlet, or rather an inlet,
from civilization, since the river had
been it's outlet for many years and was
still utilized for years as the main
route for the shipment of lumber to
market. The matter of obtaining
supplies was much simplited, and
Grand Rapids and Wausau were
brought within a few miles of rail-
road communications, twenty-One
miles for the former and about forty
miles for the latter.
About the time the Central was
| built to Stevens Point several lumber
men at Grand Rapids organized rail
road company to build the Wisconsin
| valley railroad from junction with
the st. Paul road at Tomah to Grand
Rapids, with the ultimate extension
of the line up the river to WauSau.
Judge L. P. Powers of Grand Rapids,
a lawyer who was also interested in
numbering operations, was chosen
president of the construction company.
H. W. Remington of Remington, now
Babcock, was the vice president. C. O.
Baker of Grand Rapids secretary, and
Thomas B. Scott and John Rablin of
Grand Rapids and John Edwards of
Port Edwards were directors. The
road was graded from TOmah to Cen
tralia, opposite Grand Rapids. forty
seven miles. by the fall of 1872, but by
this time the projectors had exhausted
their means and were compelled to
give away their grade, practically, for
aid to complete the enterprise.
\ contract was made after a great
! Il
of Detroit through which Mr.. Joy
furnished the capital to iron the road
and equip it with rolling stock
Those were the days of high prices
and the iron rails. for steel rails had
not then come in. cost the company
over $50 a ton. The road was finally
completed and it was day Of rejoicing
when the cars came into Centralia in
1874 ah0ut the time that, the Urpa f
panic swept over the land. This was
thirty years after the first settlers
and lumbermen had penetrated thus
far into the wilderness. and Grand
Rapids and Centralia were thriving
towns The line was ultimately ex-
tended to Wausau. Marathon county,
giving in aid of the project all its tax
deed lands. amounting to over 100. 900
acres. and later to Jenny. now Merrill.
Then the road passed into the hands
of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad
company and has since been extended
TO Star Lake, nearly to the Michigan
line. Spurs run to all the mills of the
section and the line has become yalu-
able feeder of the main system.
In the fall of 1872 the Wisconsin
Central was pushing its line west from
Stevens Point through the unbrOken
/ wilderness with Ashland as its Objec-
tive point. As fast as the line was
graded the iron was laid, but there
were no towns and the stations were
named by intersections from Stevens
Point. For a long time MarShfield,
where William H. Upham afterwaTd
located. was known aS ''3322 : and be-
sides the rude station the only build
ing was low log Shanty kept by Louis