Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1904-04-26
THE PIONEER OF
THE WISCONSIN RIVER

The history of almost all the
western and northwestern towns are
the same. The pioneer leading his
oxen or padding his canoe came TO a
spot which attracted his attention
and inclined him to settle. Laying
down his rifle he took his ak, chopped
down trees, built himself log cabin,
covered it with spars and shakes,
struck spark from his flint, kindled
fire and then contentedly sat down
to smoke. Others followed in his
wake, came along. settled there too
and the yoeing city was started.
Grand Rapids was no exception to
the rule. Seventy years ago vovager
from Old France, fond of vie wing
nature in her widest loneliness,
padded his birch canoe up the
Wisconsin River until he reached the
rapids. Then standing on the rocks
banks overlooking the roaring waters
stumbling over granite boulders his
eyes swept the country round, sleeping
in its primitive beauty. There before
him was the mighty Wisconsin River
rolling away to the south, frlnged
with the giant pine.
The trails or highways were already
established; not by man, for there is
a class of Typographical engineers,
Older and mole unerring than the
timber cruiser or surveyor,-but by
wild animals, elk, deer, wolf and bear.
Not the compass but instinct seeks
the lowest passes, the shallowest fords
and the best practicable routes.
There were migrationS back and
forth along the Wisconsin River
before the destroying hand of civilized
man began to hew down the splendid
forests, before the roaring torrents
were checked by the new dam and
harnessed to great water wheels and
before the unsightly steel bridges
that marred its scenery,
came the pioneer and lumberman,
and finally the railroad of civilized
man.
The settlement along the Wisconsin
River reads like fairy tale and was
carried on under a great variety of
circumstances. Sometimes there
was only two or three families to
constitute neighborhood. The
permanent settler was the home
steader who had but one idea in view
and that home in the north woods.
1t was throug this agency that every
county in the valley obtained it's
earliest and firmest grasp upon the
soil. This process went on for a
quarter of century. It paused only
when there were no longer oppor-
tunities within reach Of comparat-
lively poor men, In the nature of
things there was limit beyond which
struggling settlers could not go. They
could not invest hundreds eff
thousands of dollars in making roads
and fitting the land to produce it's
first sack of grain or potatoes. They
upon their labor. But what they
could do was done bravely, energet-
ically and cheerfully. They pushed
their way into localities remote flom
railroad. city and town. Their
gigantic undertakings were almost
uniformly successful, There is
failure TO make living and win a
SUBSTANTIAL rOmpetencyon he part of
un'n who homeSteaded government
nj in this valley, and thus becam,
masters Of their destiny. They settled
in some of the most forbidding places
but they prospered. Good business
men would have told them that they
could not hope TO succeed without
capital. market or transportation
facilities. But they did succeeds
What could have been more natural
than that this marvellous record of
success should attract capital into the
same channel? The larger and better
opportunities lay far beyond the reach
of class who had only their labor
and humble savings to invest.
In the meantime another class OF
settlers came who had graduated from
the school of experience. They saw
the immence wealth in the timber
and water power as well as ih the soil
They joined hands with the home
steader and pioneer and the city of
Grand Rapids is the fruits of their
united efforts.
The Misses Sophie Timm and Sadie