Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-04-20
Greenwood, Wis, Feb. 3, 1921
Geo. n. Wood,

Wisconsin Rapids.
NY Dear George:-Your favor of
January 21st forwarded from Haw-
kins just received.
| left the old home town, on my
last visit there, regretting that we
had not compared notes on the long
trail that we have both travelled over
the old territory in days long past
and gone. Old land marks, old faces,
have passed and gone with the pass
ing days and have place, and i've
only in the memory of the few Of Us
who have withstood the stress and
wear of time. We were fortunate,
George, if it be fortune, to inherit
the guarantee from pioneer stock, Of
health and long life.
But, two or more people travelling
the same trail never see the same
land marks from the same angle of
view and for that reason I have wish
ed for a few quiet hours with you in
which to go back over the old trail
and brighten memory on many scenes
that are becoming dim with the ac-
cumulated dust of time
This, only as a preliminary and now
to answer your questions.
First-David Baker, my father, mar
ried Elizabeth Klein, daughter of
George Kline Sr., and Elizabeth
(Rapp) Kline, who were Alsatians,
natives of the old city of "Strausburg
on the Rhine"
Soon after the marriage, in 1885,
my father and mother with all the
members of the Kline family, Who
had come to the United States in 1913
and settled at Neuda Valley in The
state of New York, left their home
there and with OK teams transported
their household goods to Olean Point
on the Allegheny River, constructed a
timber raft there and on that foated
down the Allegheny River to the Ohio
River, and thence down to the Mississ-
ippi River.
Word had come to them in the cid
home in New York of the Prairie land
of Illinois, that needed no clearing,
was ready for the farmers plow, Dut
with a handicap of no timber for
buildings. So they arranged to have
their raft of Pennsylvania pine t0Wcd
up to New Boston on the Mississippi
River in Illinois and there tied up their
raft and bought land. They tried
farming there for two years but the
dread scourge Fever and Ague" that
came with the turning over of prairie
land took hold Of them. One of my
uncles, George Kline Jr., hearing of
the wisconsin Pinery" did not re-
main long at New Boston, but took the
trail for "the pinery" and secured
work at "the lower rapids" with Dan
iel Whitney, of Green Bay, the pion-
eer mill man of the Wisconsin Valley.
In 1889 my parents with my moth
erer's relation left New Boston and
with OK team made the long and tedi-
GUS journey over rough roads by the
way of Galena, Madison and Portage
to the Grand Rapids of the WiscoA-
sin River. Here they bought land.
George Kline Sr., buying on the east
side of the river and my father on the
west side.
Second-In the early days there was
little necessity for ferry or bridge
across the river. Few cared to cross.
They were happy and content or the
side on which their home or work was
located.
Each man had his "fatboat," Dig
out" or Indian Bark" and used ii
for his own transportation and loaned
it to the ''new cousin" who had net
yet acquired one of his own.
The first ferry established as a
commercial proposition was started by
Eusebe Lavigne under a charter on
permit sometime during 1857 or 1858
A heavy cable was stretched across
the river from an anchorage on the
east side near the locality now occU-
pied by the Herschleb Bakery and OF
the west side at a point just above the
location of the present MacKinno1
block. A fiat bottomed boat construct
ed of timber and plank about 16~fee
wide and 80 feet long with a depth O
about 1 feet was connected to the over
hanging cable by block tackle ant
heavy rope, heavy railing abou
four feet high extended along the 81
foot sides of this ferry boat. The end
were so constructed that teams ans
loaded wagons could pass on and OF
the deck of the boat. By manipulat
ing the tackle block so that the end 0
the boat in the direction IN which
was desired to cross was fixed at a
angle of thirty to forty-fve degree
with the current Of the water Of th
river. The boat was then pushed OF
into the current and "Old Wisconse
did the rest. Lavigne ran this prim
tive ferry until George Neeves, unde