Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-02-16

history Oh NehOOSa anu VIGIL " IIe
did SO and it was read at Nekoosa
High School. It contains much of in
terest to our readers and therefore
We take pleasure in repubEshing the
same SO as to preserve it for the value
able information it contains.
Mr.. Wood did not write it for publ
cation, but for the pupils, who were
looking for data that would help them
to know more about their own city.
Grand Rapids, Wood County,
Wisconsin, March Is, 1916
Mr.. ]. E. Brazeau,
Nekoosa, Wood County, Wis.
Dear Edward:
l have promised some of my Nekoo-
sd friends for sometime past, that /
would write a brief historical sketch
of Nekoosa as know it.
! AS you we'll know, I am a native of
Wood County, having been born in
Grand Rapids, September G, 1854. My
father Joseph Wood, first came to
Grand Rapids in 1916 and represented
| Portage and Marathon County in the
Assembly when Wood County was set
off from Portage County in 1856 My
father introduced the bill to have the
new county named Greenwood Dur
ing his absence the legislature struck
out the word Green and named it
Wood County. My reason for writing
you at this time is that | have been
told that the Nekoosa High School
students are preparing a history Of
Nekoosa. If this be true, possibly,
some of the following dates and facts
as ! know them may be of interest
and save the students deal of extra
work.
When | was very young [ often went
with my parents to visit the Robert
Wakeley family at Pointe Bosse.
Sometimes | would go alone, going on
a raft of lumber for the sport and
excitement of shooting the rapids"
and the dams. Having spent my
whole life in this county with the ex-
ception of a few years in Milwaukee
and ST. Paul, have always taken an
interest in the ancient history of the
whole county
The following incidents and dates !
have obtained from the Government
and County records and by many per
sonal interviews:
Mr.. and Mrs. Amable Grignon of
Green Bay, Wisconsin, came up the
Fox river to Portage City and then up
the Wisconsin River by boa. and To-
Gated at Grignon bend just below the
bayou, now in Adams County, on the
left bank of the river. This was in
the year 1929. Several years later
high water in the river wasred the
Grignon home away and the family
located farther up the river, on the
right bank near the mouth of the
Mclean slough. Their sons, Enoch
born in 1880, and died in Necedah in
1914, and John, born 1887 and died in
Grand Rapids in 1910 I have been
unable to learn just when Daniel
Whitney of Green Bay built the first
saw mill that was built on the Wiscon-
sin River. 1t was about 1851 In a
history of Brown County, Wisconsin, l
find the following: Daniel Whitney
was born in Gillian, N. H. in 1895
and settled in Green Bay, Wisconsin
IN 1919. From 1926 to 1880 Whitney
was up and down the Fox and Wiscon-
sin rivers, where he built saw mills at
various points"
Ira Purdy, the millwright of this
city. who will be 81 years of age May
o, 1916, came to Grand Rapids on April
lst, 1916, informs me that when he
hrst came here he stopped at the
"Wakeiey Tavern at Pointe Bosse.
Mr.. Wakeley informed him that the
Whitney mill had been abandoned for
many years and that the mill looked
to him (Purdy' as if it was at least
fifteen years old and it is his impress
sion that the mill was built about 1880
or 81. This mill (Whitney's) was on
Government Lot One ~, Section (1O).
foWn Iwenty-one cd, Range five (5)
at the foot of the nine acre island on
the left bank of the river, just about
where the upper ferry landed on the
east side. Whitney built dam dag
onally across the river from the north
END OF the nine acre island, to the
right or west side This nine acre
Island IS now mostly covered by back
water from the twenty-foot dam of the
Nekoosa Paper Company. | have a
map drawn by VIM. L. Dewitt, civil
engineer, employed by the state of
Wisconsin in 1851 to make a survey
OF the upper Wisconsin river which
has marked "Whitney's old mill' at the
Ioct OF the nine acre island and there
are two wing dams 400 to 800 feet
above the head of the nine acre island
marked ''old DAM
The contract for the first survey of
Lands IN this territory was let by the
United States Government to Joshua
hathaway in February, 1889 and the
maps and field notes of the survey
were returned fo +ba o,-o,,,,,,,,,,,4 T - i