Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-04-27

Miller & Fegley and [. L. Mosher and
later came the firm of Lang & Co.,
Spafford & Knapp and Joseph HOMER.
Benjamin Buck was sheriff and J. K.
Scarf was constable most of the time
Eusebe LaVigne was quite a promi-
nent character in the business of the
village as was also Lemuel Kroner.
The county officers which / remember
as most prominent were L. P. Powers,
county judge and clerk of the board:
Emanuel Dutruit, treasurer: Lemuel
Kroner, register of deeds and ]. II.
Lang who served part of the time as
clerk of the court. George W. Cate
was for the most of the time judge of
the seventh judicial circuit. Hon.
Joseph Wood after whom the county
was named was member of the
assembly, large land owner and a
leading business man.
The principal physicians were G. F.
Witter, DR.. Whitney and DR.. P.
Hurley. Mechanics, Charles Edmin-
ster, Thomas Stevenson and Ira
Purdy, with B. Salmon and H. G..
Warren as manufacturers and dealers
in furniture.
There were two hotels, the Wiscon-
sin House and the Grand Rapids House
kept at intervals by John Compton,
Miller & Fegley, Robert Grace, George
Neeves and man who followed him
in the Wisconsin House whose name
has escaped me.
Among the prominent Frenchmen
who were more or less leaders in bust
ness circles were John and Antoine
Arpin, E. LaVigne, P Vertifuy,
Joseph Homier, E. Dutruit, E. B.
Rossier, F. Biron and T. G. St. Amour.
Our best and most conspicuous Irish
citizens whose names | remember
were M. J. McRaith, James McGrath,
James and Martin Heron, the Quinns,
John McElra, Jimmy Corcoran and
his two boys, Mike and Billy. The
leading Grand Rapids pilots were
Fred Case, Archie Spoor, Paul Pearsall
and Robert Lyon.
Aside from those already mentioned
the old families whose names occur to
me were E. D. Hall, Abijah Pierce,
David Baker, William and Charles
Kline. William Roe, the Hasbroucks,
John McElrea, David Morrill, and Seth
Reeves. Of course I do not hope to
mention all who then were a part of
our little community, but only those
whose names occur to me at this time
Most of these old settlers are now gone
and if l do make some mistakes there
are but few who can dispute me or
correct me. There was at that time
no bridge across the river and the
crossing was by ferry which for a
number of years was run by E. La
Vigne and operated from in front of
the Wisconsin House. Wood county
was at this time mostly wilderness,
and as | connected with my work the
business of surveyor, became familiar
with almost every section corner and
quarter post in the county while [
lived there. l spent much time in
the wilderness which then covered
most of the territory north and west
of the Rapids. In town "a, range G.,
the forest had been broken by a lum-
bering plant, known as Reeds mill,
and few settlers had started homes
in that township, among whom [ recall
the names of II. H. HecOX, Blake,
HutchingS, Hardness, Parkhurst,
Turner, Foster, Horton, Johnny Wells,
Blake, John Phil and the Rohan boys.
But few ventured on the experiment
of cultivating the soil for a livelihood,
it being generally supposed that when
the pine timber was exhausted all the
good was taken out of Wood
county. We had little thought that
a railroad would ever reach that God
forsaken land or that any timber ex-
cept pine would ever be made avail
able. No thought was given to the
cultivation of cranberries and what
fruit was gathered was found in it's
native state and it was quite bust
ness each fall to search the vast
stretches of swamp and marsh in the
southwest part of the county for cram
berry marshes. One fall a company
was made up, consisting of John
Compton, Fred Case, L. P. Powers
and perhaps one or two others, with
me as surveyor to keep the lines and
locate the best marshes. When we
were several miles west of NekooSa, a
severe rainStOrm came upon us and
we sheltered ourselves as best we
could under large lone pine, built a
fire and passed the night as comfort
ably as possible. The next day was
Sunday and, as we were about out of
provisions, we were debating whether
to abandon the enterprise or push on
into the marsh again, when we dis
covered, short distance away, a flock
of sand hill cranes. We had no guns
and the only way we could catch them
was to run them down. They were SO
wet they could not fly and so we took
turns chasing them, and when one
fellow was winded the next would
strike in. Powers came in last and
caught nice young crane, wrung his
neck and bore him in triumph on his