Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-09-19
VISITED THE COUNTY FAIR
Editor the Pilot:

first time. The last time, Friday, a
week ago. What changel
If anyone had been rash enough to
predict that in the short period of
forty-five years Marathon county
would have a population nearly as
great as the state of Nevada now has
and that it would be one of the leading
agricultural counties in Wisconsin, he
would have been set down as vision
ary, and if he should have prophesied
that Wausau would spread out, on the
west, as far as the fair grounds, and
on the north as far as Jim Moore
creek, and to the south as far as
Schofeld, he would have been set
down as fit subject for the insane
/ asylum. Yet it has all come to pass.
What will the population of Wau-
sau be forty-five years hence? Per-
haps a conservative estimate would be
$4,000. Pretty strong" some might
say, but not as reckless a prediction
as if one should have predicted forty
five years ago that Wausau would ever
be a city of 10000 people.
What is the secret of Wausau's
phenomenal growth? Forty-five- years
ago, the population of the city was
| about one thousand souls. Today it is
hugging the twenty thousand mark
and rapidly growing. But the secret
in my opinion, Wausau's progress is
due to the, what | may call, democratic
sau has grown outside it's originally
prescribed boundary, and the one
thousand souls have grown to nearly
twenty thousand, the same hospitable
spirit pervades the people today that
pervaded the old stock.
A little incident may be told as the
other parties to it have passed to the
great beyond. In the spring of 1872,
l was taken very i'll. A boy of little
past fifteen, among strangers, sick and
without money. One day in the sum-
mer, l met my physician, DR.. Thayer, |
on the street. He told me to meet him |
at DR.. Frost's drug store in the even
ing and he would prescribe some med |
icine for me. Boy-like, I went, though |
| had no hope of getting the medicine |
as l had no money. The medicine |
was put up-two or three kinds
cost, $500. I told DR.. Frost that |
would leave the medicine there for the |
night and come and get it and pay for |
it in the morning. A then prominent |
Wausau citizen-he moved away a |
few years later, and I have forgotten |
his name, but not his generosity
was sitting in the store. He told Dr. |
Frost to charge the amount to his ac-
count, and, turning to me, he said:
"Boy, you can pay me when you can"
At that time 1 was a total stranger
to this man. I don't know as he had
ever seen me, and, at any rate, was
only Norwegian boy who could |
speak but very little English.
But let us revert to the Marathon
county fair of 1871. The fair that fall |
was far from the splendid exhibition |
of the farm and field that l witnessed
last week. But the interest in the fair
was great. The road from Kickbusch's
corner to the fair grounds was lined
with carriages and lumber wagons and
pedestrians afoot 1t was a two-day
fair, if 1 remember right. The at
fractions consisted of running races.
the horses owned, if my memory does
not fail me, by August Kickbusch and
M. H. Stafford; and a half mile foot
race by two men.
What the exposition building con-
tanned, l do not now recall. 1t was
safe to say, the exhibit was very mea-
gre. Not the splendid exhibit that I
had the pleasure to view this time.
The exhibit by the town of Weston
alone this year was worth going miles
to see. And that idea of town exhibits
struck me as very good one. 1 pre-
dict this will be a popular feature
of future Marathon county fairs
Competition among the towns. The
prizes or premiums on this kind of eX-
hibits should be liberal. But as the
Pilot has heretofore set before its
readers, the Marathon county fair of
1916, repetition would only be tiresome.
Suffice to say, the fair was great.
However, I will say something of a
herd of Jerseys, we'll known in Mara
thon county.
For the past few years, very beau
tiful herd of Jersey cattle from Lin
coin county has been on exhibition at
the Marathon county fair. 'The Cop
per Dells Farm Jerseys, L. Rupprecht,
! owner" reads the banner stretched
over the stalls. For the benefit of the
progressive farmers of Marathon
county, let me give a short history of
how this herd had its beginning or in
ception You know, Mr.. Editor, that
many farmers believe that only rich
men can afford pure bred stock
| Some sixteen or twenty years ago,
the Rupprecht family moved to Lin
coin county, settled on an eighty" of
cut-over land and began the task of
making a farm. When enough clear
ing was made to afford some live stock
| Mrs. Rupprecht in one year, succeeded
in raising forty turkeys. These she
sold for $500 apiece and with the
money bought pure bred Jersey bull.
When I first saw the farm, a dozen
or so years ago, Mr.. Rupprecht had
| . soo bard of oroda Tarcavc Tafar