Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-07-07
IN PIONEER DAYS
The Building of Beautiful City Out
of a Wilderness,

menu IN the Wisconsin river valley be
gan. In the latter part OF the '30s the
wild beast and Indian held sway in this
part of Wisconsin, with undisputet
freedom. The river was bordered with
dense forests of pine and in tie latter
30s small groups of white meu could
be seen toiling and winding their way
to the centre of the forest region. These
adventures, if the PILOT can call them
such, were for the most part men who
had grown tired of city life, and,
answering the call of nature, had pene
trated into the depths of the wild
With increasing rapidity logging camps
were established and many companies
were founded.
1t is always interesting to study the
beginning of things. The childhood OF
an industry is far more romantic than
the systematic working of the well regu.
lated company. Childhood means sim
plicity and so it was sixty-fvs or sew.
enty years ago in the hewing of the
forests. Then there was no elaborate
organization of detailed thought and
care that breathed of large offices, COM
plicated ledgers, daily accounts from
camp bosses, the careful buying of tools
and provisions and thousand other
things of like ma ure. The owner of
the forests in early days worked along
with the men, personally supervising
all the details of camp life and at night
bunked in with the lumberjacks.
1t is psychological fact that when
one grows old the events of his early
life come clearly before his view. A
man now wrinkled and grey, living at
some little distance from Wausau, re-
Gently related to us number of stories
relative to early camp life in this
country, which may interest our readers
if put into print, as we intend to do at
some future time. The hardships of those
days, according to this mans story,
were great, but nearly all were willing
to endure the privations, because of the
profit.
Following the lumber prospector
came the farmer, travelling the trail,
and settling in the woods, with a
gloomy future before him. But he
prospered, as is attested by the rich
farms of Marathon county today.
For long time after the first whites
arrived, Indians were seen here in large
numbers. In the fall they could be
seen going in groups to their deer hunt
ing grounds and again in the spring
they would strike out for the maple
groves to the north, where they boiled
the sap of that tree into sugar. At such
times they would hold pow-wos and
dances and it was from one of their
that Wausau got its name.
When asked where they were bound
for they would reply, "Wittie Wausau,"
far sway. As Big Bull Falls
was remote from civilization, the na.Ae
Wausau was given this city. The
French voyageurs of the American and
the Hudson Bay fur companies are
given credit for naming Big Bull falls.
As the noise of the falls at Mosinee re-
sembled the roaring of a bull they
named that rapids Toro, or bull. Com
ing north to where Wausau now stands
they encountered the rapids here, to
which they gave the name of Gros Toro,
or big bull. Above Merrill they found
a still longer rapids which they dubbed
Gram Pere Toro or grandfather bull.
Of the early pioneers the name of
Geo. Stevens, who built the first mill in
Wausau, will undoubtedly always re-
main at the top of the list, but there
are others whose lives left their imprint
on the future of this city.
Without plan or forethought the little
city of Wausau or Big Bull Falls, as it
was first called, came into existence.
Streets were leid out as necessity de-
manded and stores were built. The
woodsman's ak ruled, the pine tree
was mercilessly slaughtered and the
ringing of the steel was the music of
the air. The manufactured lumber was
made into huge RATS and foated to
southern markets, and the resinyous
odor of the pine was a talisman for
those who sought home and share
in the wealth of this region. So the
little settlement grew until eventually
it was granted charter and became a
daly organized village and the first
election was held. Later it became a
city and everyone living here at the
present time knows of our size, our
wealth, our beauty and Importance
among the leading cities of this great
commonwealth of Wisconsin.
Thus the pioneers, horny handed.
strong-hearted sons of toll, wrested
from the wilderness sites for their
homes, for your home and for mine
little reckoning that they were building
better than they knew, and laying the
foundation for homes more beautiful
than any of which they even dreamed
for factories, mills, offices, stores,
schools and churches, which now
occupy the places where once stood
their wildwood homes. Very few are
left to tell the tale of the subjugation OF
The Indian-haunted forest. With them
alas, went the pines, those stalcly
forest monarchs, chanting their sic
dirges ere they fell-a last sad requiem
for those other Ewes lived, but like their
own not spent in vain.