Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-04-06
WOOD COUNTY'S RAPID GROWTH.
An EARLY Resident Would Fail to Recognize
the Map.

hHS
Oberlin, Ohio, March %, 1899
Editor Reporter: Through the kind
ness of Surveyor Corcoran / have just
received a map of Wood county COM
piled by E. [. Philleo, which puts me
in possession of facts and figures
which / have long desired to obtain.
To those who have been on the ground
for all the thirty years since I left
there the change would not appear so
startling as it does to one who can
jump over the intervening space and
be suddenly dropned down in your
thriving community. Where was only
the unbroken forest thirty years ago
now appears thriving cities and
villages. Where there was only under
brushed paths to the lumber camps
now may be found good, well worked
highways with railroads running
through the country in various direc-
tiOnS. Townships in which there was
not single permanent settler are now
dotted with farms and homes. In
townships "a and % of ranges 2, 3,
and 5, there was not solitary settler.
Township % was uninhabited except
few scattering settlers in % of 5 and
I6 In township % there were few
settlers at Dexterville, Hemlock and
PittSville outside of the villages of
Grand Rapids and Centralia. There
was also a small settlement on -Four
Mile creek. In town q, range do
not now remember of a single resident
across the entire county west of
Moccasin creek. In township q Of
was something of a settlement about
Point Bas.
| have called your attention to
these facts and figures that [ might
more clearly indicate the wonderful
change as it appears to ME. l do not
know the date of this map but when
it was compiled there appears to have
been not less than $40 improved farms
and homes in township %, besides d
thriving city and the village of Au-
burndale.
In township "A | find 224 homes
marked, in township %, 529. In town.
ship % outside of the cities and vii
lagos there appears to be Sc farm
houses, the small number | presume is
accounted for by many of the land
owners living in the cities. In town.
ship u which | had set down as an
almost impenetrable swamp totally
worthless for farming purposes l find
over 70 farmers west Of the river out
side of Nekoosa. The town of Saratoga
III, g. seems to be still pretty we'll
settled. Where there was not a single
school house and no need of one, there
are now over sixty to say nothing of
the educational institutions in your
cities and villages.
The hardy pioneer has found the
best uses of the land Of Wood county
which we did not think of much if
any NdlbC CASSpo III IUo UllllOC1' AL
though | have no property interest in
your county | feel kind of pride in
reviewing it's wonderful growth and
Development, and | have so often
camped solitary and alone. Truly the
wilderness has been made to bud and
blossom like the rose, and it is the
hope of the writer that those old
forests may rejoice in happy and
prosperous people. If your readers
take half the satisfaction Interviewing
With me the progress and develop
ment of Wood county that l have in
studying my precious map and COM
piling this letter | shall feel fully paid
for my labor. J. TT. LANG.
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