Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-08-08
A DESCRIPTION OF WAUSAU
IN IT'S PIONEER DAYS.
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lContinued from first pagel
On the northeast corner of Wash
ington and Third stood the Burton
Willard home, where your humble
servant was kept up to the stern line
of rectitude by the vigorous and not
1nfrequent application of a barrel
stave,
When blows behind hurt honor more,
Than twenty rounds infiict before"
The same house, unchanged for
over half century, now stands OF
Fourth ST., and believe is the oldest
house III the city. A portion of the
w. ID. McIndoe residence, if it still
| remains, may have been built at an
earlier period, but the changes made
in il had practically made it new
| house, so on the whole l believe
mothers house holds the record for
| age. On the corner of Fourth and
Washington, Chauncey Poor had
| barber shop where, between his calls
of next" he retailed the local gossip
with as plant tongue IS any
of his brethren of a LATER day. 4
| little more than half way to the east
or the next block stood the home of
Mrs. Henry Paff, where we used to 90
| for penny's worth of yeast and Incl
dentally throw stones at the balls of
| handkase in the second story window.
The Lutheran church stood on the
| corner.
Going west on Washington from
Third we passed Frank Mathie's resi-
dence. Jake Kolter's bakery and con-
fectionery was the Mecca of all chill
dren who could pry their parents loose
from the coin of the realm, be the
value of it ever so small Then came
Ernst FEELINGS, after which was John
Cramer's residence. 1t was here the
| fire started that destroyed this block
in 1868. On the opposite side of the
street were Carl Woessner's tailor
shop, John Dern's saloon, Frank.
| Wartman's meat market and VIM.
Barteld's store.
Kickbusch Bros. Aug. and Fred
had general store on the corner of
Main and Washington, and it was
| the headquarters of many of the
| sturdy German farmers who were in
duced to come to this country by the
Kickbusches, Ringles, PATS and
others. On this corner an incident
| occurred a number of years later
which not only amused the crowd
then but may possibly bring smile
now to the faces of those who remem-
Der the incident. Tie first hook and
ladder truck was purchased when
| Aug. KickbuSch was mayor, and
! when it came an exhibition was given
by the newly organized company, of
which r. E. Parcher was foreman.
There were two hand chemical fire
eXtfnguishers with the outfit and a
bonfire was built to test them. Char
ley Quandt and John Gebhart were
detailed to handle the chemicals.
| They circled around the fire, on OPP
pOsite sides, when, by accident,
Quandt raised the nozzle of his chem
ical and the stream hit Gebhart full
| in the face. Gebhart returned the
fire, or charged water, rather, and
| leaving the bonfire to burn itself out
they engaged in an amusing duel,
which was enjoyed by the crowd I'M
| til the extinguishers were empty and
| the combatants showed signs of con-
tinuing the fight under the mar
quis of gooseberry rules, when time
was called and the battle declared
draw. Half block south of the
Kickbusch store, on Main street, was
Parcher's general merchandise and
drug store. In passing, it would not
be amiSS to remark that even then as
in later days, 'Rob" Parcher's gen.
ius and progress had it's influence in
shaping the destiny of the embryo
city. 1t was in the drug department
that | first saw Fred Norman putting
up vile decoctions and nauseating
pills, practice he continued for
years afterwards under his own name.
One door south, DR.. Wylie had his
office and residence and Mrs. Wylie a
millinery store. Nearly opposite
Parcher's was the McIndoe & Shutter
lumber Office, which served the same
purpose years afterWard for the Stew
art Lumber Co. North of it was
vacant lot where later John Egler
built tin shop, Jed Mono moved
the old court house down there and con-
yerted it into saloon, and Fritz
Gunderlach erected a jewelry store
on the corner. BY the way, Fritz
Gunderlach owned the first bicycle, or
| velocipede as it was then called, ever
brought to Wausau. 1t was clumsy
| affair with wooden wheels, iron tires,
| and wooden frame. The crankS were
| connected directly to the axle of the
| front wheel, and while it would ap-
| pear to be very crude machine at
the present time it was wonderful
attraction in those days, especially to
US youngsters who were permitted to
learn to ride it and accumulate a va
riety of bumps that would have puZ-
| zled the wiseSt phrenologist in the
| world.
Down across the bridge, on Plumer's
| island, was the Philbrick's home, and
l ha
| mill of B. G. pete Plumer, one Of
the most liberal and public spirited
men of that day, while further down
was the old Lyman mill, then oper-
ated by Brown & Fellows. Near the
Plumer mill was one of those living
| springs whose cold waters were SO
delightfully."- refreshing on a hot sum-
mer day. This spring was almost the
cause of a tragedy in which had an
| acting part. In 1864 mother had
charge of the Clarke boarding house,
and it frequently happened that some
of the men would go across to this
spring in the evening and bring home
pail of cold water. One evening
| when mother was up town | took a
small tin pail and started for the
| spring unbeknown to anyone but my
| Younger brother Paul, who insisted
on following me. We reached the
spring, got the water and had gotten
back to the flume that conveyed the
water to the Lyman mill without
miShap. There was a timber about
Sxl0 across the flume to walk on and
which l passed over safely. Paul
started to run across it and fell head
long into the water. | stood there
waiting to see him come up, and when