Along the Wisconsin River
Author: Unknown
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Along the Wisconsin RiverAlong the Wisconsin River.

By A. DECKER

Grand Rapids, Wisconsin.

Descriptive of the Wisconsin River Valley, Its Resources, Industries and Opportunities.

1907

Evening Wisconsin Co., Catalogue Printers, Milwaukee, Wis.

Introductory

To the student of history, the Wisconsin River must appear to be the center of the most important events of primitive Wisconsin.

The object and purpose of this book is to promote the natural resources of the Wisconsin River Valley. Commercially, it is a new day in the North. The pine woods have acquired an unlooked for importance.

The following pages will give in brief the new life in the new country, the swift passing of events, the possibility of advancement and pleasure. But over and above all the attractions of the newness and swiftness of northern things is the attraction of the Wisconsin River. Its profit as a water power and its pleasure as a fishing ground. Its oldness as the lumberman’s highway and its newness as the health-seeker’s summer resort. Its opportunities to the dairyman, and its opening to the home-maker. The free rural mail box and the telephone pole are crowding the forest. The wolf and the wilderness are still retreating.

If this little publication receives the support and encouragement that is promised, it will be published quarterly for the coming year.

UPPER WISCONSIN RIVER.

From the forest wilderness in the north to the broad fertile fields on the south, the Wisconsin River forms a connecting link between the fur trader and the farmer.

From the Dells to the network of lakes out of which the silver strand of the river is woven, is perhaps two hundred miles. It has been the battle ground of strong men with nature. The marks of the axe and the sound of the saw are still with us. The war of the wilderness is still on.

More than half a century ago the scout line of the woodsman was thrown out into the Wisconsin Valley. Gradually but surely the timber line receded before the resolute strokes of the invaders and the logging camps gave way to the homes of the settlers. The axe gave way to the plow and the saw to the seeder and harvester, and where all the activities of man had been devoted to destruction, all the energy of those who followed was expended in production.

The farmer has followed in close wake of the logger all the way, and as fast as the camps have been pulled up the settler has come in.

To subdue the wilderness, has taken the rude surgery of the rougher fiber.

It is many years since the river has carried any of the lumber made in the Wisconsin Valley to market, and it has floated almost its last log.

As the part which was played by the Wisconsin River in the early development of the Valley was of prime importance, so in the more permanent growth of these latter days she is a vital factor.

The undeveloped water-power of the river is an inexhaustible mine of wealth which can be drawn upon for all time.

This alone has brought to the industries of the Valley the recent addition of paper making, and while the daily output of the mills is now hundreds of tons, the outlook is, that in the future, this will be largely increased.

The furniture factories are also drawing upon the resources of the hardwood belts with which the fine country is interspersed and are fast becoming a considerable element of the manufacturies of the Valley.

The mineral deposits, in one form or another, especially graphite and granite, are being developed.

The agricultural resources of the Wisconsin Valley are considerable and substantial.

Its resources are diversified and well nigh inexhaustible, and its people have the force, push, and enterprise which is as essential to success as are the gifts of nature, without which it cannot be won.

At the south the Valley is flat, and in places almost uninteresting. Going north the land becomes hilly, and even rough and rugged. Mosinee Hill rises a massive mound sharp, clear, and round, shorn of the former glory, of its timber, and in its loneliness, a fitting burial place for the old Chief Mosinee, who gave his name to the village near by.

A little to the northwest of this stands Rib Mountain, the highest point of land in the state. Farther north the land is broken into ranges of low hills, where almost every depression becomes a lake fringed with timber, filled with fish and clear as crystal. These lakes play a most important part in the development of the country. They are nature’s reservoirs, holding in reserve the water supply which the river needs. Their efficiency in this regard will soon be largely increased by a system of dams.

TOMAHAWK WOODENWARE COMPANY.

This plant is another one of Tomahawk’s substantial and prosperous industries.

It was organized in January, 1905, with the following officers: President, W. T.

Bradley; Secretary, O. M. Smith, with A. E. Sutliff Vice President. The plant has a capacity of about 2,000 pails per day and employs from 30 to 40 men. The material used is basswood, pine, birch and other local woods, mostly in the form of bolts from 4 to 8 feet long. The product has a steady sale and is in good demand by candy makers, who ship most of their output in wooden pails such as are manufactured by this company.

Much of this material is brought to the factory during the winter months by farmers living near the city and is of that class considered as worthless until very recently. This material now adds another item to the original timber wealth of the northland, and as a source of revenue is taken into consideration by prospective settlers and land buyers, it making possible the clearing of land at a profit instead of loss. The soil is splendidly adapted for stock raising and dairying, while hay, oats, and all the staple vegetables are grown in abundance.

Thousands of cords of bolts are purchased each year from lands which have been stripped of the sawmill timber, thus paying out money which makes directly for the actual development of the farms so rapidly becoming a factor in the growing wealth of this section of the state.

THE LINCOLN COUNTY BANK.

The Lincoln County Bank of Merrill is recognized as one of the safest and strongest financial institutions in the Wisconsin River Valley. It is located right in the heart of the city and in the center of the commercial district.

This bank pursues a liberal policy toward its patrons, but it is always careful and conservative, and to that policy, with its large resources and the unimpeachable integrity of its officers and directors, is due the high degree of public confidence which it enjoys.

This bank was established in 1897. The officers are A. H. Strange, President, and C. J. Kinzel, Cashier. The Directors are J. A. Wright, A. B. Nelson, E. H.

Statts, John Van Hecke, R. C. Schulz, A. H. Strange and C. J. Kinzel.

Mr. Kinzel is of a solid personal and business worth, and these qualities, added to an always attractive personality and manner, constitute him one of the widely-known and well-esteemed citizens of Merrill.

THE REVERSIBLE TIRE PROTECTOR CO., STEVENS POINT.

The members of this Company are D. E. Frost, T. J. Anders and C. E. Van Hecke, the three men shown in the automobile. They have just started a factory for the manufacture of

THE REVERSIBLE TIRE PROTECTOR.

This improvement, which will add much to the durability of automobiles, was invented in l906 by C. E. Van Hecke. The Company already has a good start made toward the building up of an important industry.

There is a wide field and an almost incalculable demand for an article that so effectually overcomes the one prominent difficulty with automobiling, viz.: the destruction of pneumatic tires. The Reversible Protector entirely eliminates all danger of puncture, bruises or cuts.

Several of these Protectors are now in use in various parts of the country where the company purposely scattered them to test under the varying conditions that different localities present. One car that they equipped with them is now on a trip to New York and has already made nearly 2,000 miles without puncture or injury. Others are being tested with like results in the City of Chicago and various other localities.

The Protector is ornamental and surprisingly strong. A novel feature is the method of fastening whereby it is held so securely that it cannot shift position, yet is free to “creep” and “spring,” thus relieving the sudden strain caused by contact with track obstructions.

The Company has several orders on hand, a considerable crew at work, and that their product is awakening the interest of the automobile fraternity is evidenced by the fact that already one of the largest automobile tire manufacturing concerns in America has asked to negotiate with them with a view of taking their entire output.

CITY FEDERATION OF LADIES’ CLUBS, GRAND RAPIDS.

The Grand Rapids ladies, not content with clubs devoted to self-culture and sociability, organized in March, 1906, a City Federation of Clubs. Its altruistic purpose is evident from the committees through which it works.

These are City Improvement, Library, Art, School and Consumers’ League.

Each committee is responsible for one program during the year and provides the best available speaker conversant with its work. Further, the City Improvement Committee creates sentiment for or against such features as tend to beautify or mar the picturesqueness and healthfulness of the city. Wire waste paper baskets, which stimulate tidiness, are placed at the street corners.

Unsightly and objectionable billboards and advertising are denounced. The river banks are being improved and their natural beauties guarded.

Through the efforts of the organization a Park Commission was appointed and a park system projected. The completion of a small city park, for which the ladies will furnish seats and shrub, is an assured fact. The acquisition and development of a rural park and riverside drives is only a question of time.

The Library Committee collaborates with the Librarian, assisting her to bring about desired results. The mural decorations and the children’s room have received special attention this year.

The School Committee visits all school buildings, noting sanitation, lighting, interior decoration an playgrounds. Unfavorable conditions are reported and corrected.

The Art Committee provides each year one or more exhibition of pictures, with accompanying lectures and musical program. With the proceeds pictures are purchased for the schools. It also strives to create an art atmosphere by bringing art not only into the homes and public buildings but into the street, and urges a style of architecture suited to locality and in harmony with neighboring structures.

The Consumers’ League seeks to arouse interest in the suppression of child labor and the sweat shops, and pleads for the wearing of the white label garments, which assures the making under healthful conditions.

An Entertainment Committee fills the Treasury and arranges for high-class lectures and musical entertainments.

With high ideals and faithful, competent workers, the organization should continue to be a public benefactor.

A MAN WHO DOES THINGS.

R. C. Thielman is one of the most loyal and patriotic citizens of Tomahawk. In these qualities he is second to none. On no occasion is this spirit allowed to slumber, for at the least opportunity it makes itself manifest. Mr. Thielman came to Tomahawk in 1897 and has been in the meat business for twenty years. In 1890 he engaged in the lumbering business, and is the owner of a large tract of standing timber. He is logging for the Bradley Company, and will cut eight million feet for this company the coming year. He is now running three logging camps, employing over two hundred men, and is badly in need of and anxious to employ another hundred. The timber is principally hemlock and hardwood, and is brought in principally by the railroad. There is still within fifteen or twenty miles of Tomahawk a solid township of timber. It is estimated that for twenty years the logging and lumbering industry will be prominent in and around Tomahawk. The cut-over land is selling at from five to ten dollars an acre, and no better soil for dairy purposes can be found in the state. Mr. Thielman owns several hundred acres inside the city limits and has platted two additions to the city. He has been mayor of Tomahawk for five terms, and the city has prospered under his leadership.

In each of his official positions he has given earnest and intelligent service, and upon his official record there is not a blot. He is of that class of citizens who build up cities and then make them known on the map, and his fellow citizens realize his value as a permanent, prominent, progressive citizen. If the reader wants a few days of recreation that recreates he can find some of the best fishing in the state in close connection with Mr. Thielman’s camp, and a few meals at one of his several logging camps will make one wish he was a lumber jack.

JACOBS HOUSE.

This hotel is one of the most complete and best appointed hotels in the Wisconsin Valley. It is located near the commercial center of the city, yet away from the noise and bustle of the business section. The hotel is three story and has over forty rooms for the accommodation of their guests. It is heated throughout by steam and lighted by electricity. The rooms are large, well ventilated and kept scrupulously clean and in every way the hotel is modern and up-to-date. The clerical force is courteous, obliging and capable, and the service in every department is first-class. The office and reading rooms, dining room and sample rooms are on the ground floor, and are very complete as to capacity and service. This hotel has been very popular, both with the local trade and the traveling public ever since its establishment. From the first it attracted a heavy patronage, and often every room is filled without meeting the full demand for accommodation. Each year has witnessed an increase of the popularity.

Mr. Jacobs built this hotel and has been its proprietor for over thirty years.

As “mine host” he has been indefatigable in looking after the comfort of his guests, is ever planning some new improvement and has shown great ability as a hotel man. Mr. Jacobs is a pioneer among the pioneers. He came to Stevens Point when the little lumbering hamlet was surrounded by the pine forest and when there was no promise of the prosperity that was to come. Mr. Jacobs has lived to see other resources greater than “king pine,” and to see a development which he and the other pioneers did not deem possible in these early days.

THE NATIONAL BANK, MERRILL.

Whatever helps the earner to save and wisely invest those savings, improving his or her condition, correspondingly helps to make good citizens and increases the financial, industrial and commercial wealth of the community.

The National Bank was organized in 1892 with S. Heineman as President and Geo.

A. Foster as Cashier, and has continued under the same official management for the past fifteen years. This Bank was completely destroyed by fire on May 29th, l906-the accompanying cut shows their new bank building nearing completion. It is 54x62 feet, two stories, and constructed of Bedford stone, and is without doubt one of the finest bank buildings in the state. The interior finish is of mahogany and Verde antique marble. The vaults were built by the Herring-Hall Marvin Co., and are models of strength and massiveness. One of the steel lined vaults is devoted exclusively to the safe-keeping of papers and valuables for its patrons. It has a room exclusively for the use of its customers who wish a place to meet and transact business, and also a ladies’ rest room. The second floor will be finished for office purposes and the building will be ready for occupancy by November 1st.

The National Bank of Merrill is a United States Depository, and in addition to its commercial business has a growing savings department. The institution has a capital of $100,000.00, also a very strong Board of Directors, and has always occupied a prominent position in the financial affairs of the city and surrounding country.

TOMAHAWK IRON WORKS.

This substantial industry was established in 1890 by the late W. H. Bradley and in June, l906, was purchased by William Drever and J. H. Knaggs, since which time it has been greatly enlarged and much modern machinery installed.

This Company manufactures new machinery of different kinds, but specialize in various lines, such as locomotive, car and mill repairs, steam fitting, structural steel, foundry and boiler shop work. A number of sawmill refuse burners and many towering smoke stacks, in this northern section, were erected by this Company, who employ about 30 mechanics the year round.

William Drever, President and Treasurer of the Company, came to Tomahawk eighteen years ago and has been in the machine shop business for more than 30
years. He is a master mechanic from choice, necessity and force of habit. His services have won an excellent reputation for the Company in the saw and paper mill industry in this section and his list of acquaintances covers a wide territory.

J. H.. Knaggs, Vice President, came to Tomahawk eight years ago. He is a practical boiler maker of 30 years experience and on account of his ability has established an enviable reputation among the many competitors of the Company. He is thoroughly familiar with every department of the boiler business and has probably superintended the erection of more smoke stacks, refuse burners and steel structural work, than any other man plying his trade in this northern section.

This Company have worked up an excellent trade which extends to the northern border of the state as well as for 60 or 70 miles west along the Soo Line and some distance south among their competitors. They not only make a specialty of repairing and overhauling locomotives but buy and sell the same.

Tomahawk is indeed fortunate in having an institution of so permanent and substantial standing. This plant is not located here for a day or a year for these men believe in Tomahawk and its future; they are here to stay and to add to their already increasing business as necessity demands.

A MODEL STORE.

E. A. Arenberg is proprietor of one of the best and most up-to-date and complete jewelry stores in the Wisconsin Valley. He came from Portage in 1889 and has been in the jewelry business for eighteen years. He carries a large stock of watches, cut glass, hand painted china, solid silver ware and diamonds.

Mr. Arenberg is proud of Wisconsin, his native state; proud of her beauty, resources and educational advantages, and is especially proud of Stevens Point.

He believes this to be the best section of one of the best states in the Union, and is glad to be numbered among its citizens.

He is highly respected by all the citizens of his home town and is honored for his sturdy honesty and unimpeachable integrity.

OUR PUBLIC ROADS.

Road sentiment is not very strong in the Wisconsin Valley. It is not wise for us to fix our eyes on the railroad and consider it the sum of all transportation.

Only second to it are the wagon roads, and practical farming communities ought to appreciate the tremendous yearly loss to the whole community in bad roads.

The community with good, solid roads the year round will outstrip its rivals in settlement and increased values.

The Romans for military purposes built through sparcely (sic) settled districts, roads which endure to-day, and the ever accompanying result was the rapid settlement of these districts. The railroad is not the whole thing. Get together, my countrymen, and mend your ways. Be Romans; make your roads everlastingly good.

HOTEL BADGER.

A hotel which we wish to call speciall (sic) attention on account of its exceptionally fine location and its completeness in every detail, is the Badger.

This hotel has become known to the traveling public as the best hotel for the money in the state. It is the most centrally located house in the city, and has every convenience known to the most modern hotels.

Everything is up-to-date. It is one of the best and most favorably known hotels in the north, both as commercial and political headquarters. The location is the most prominent in the city, the “Grand” corner being the acknowledged hub of the business center of the city. All public places and lines of business are easily accessible, as the electric street car line, reaching to all parts of the city, stops at the door every five minutes.

This hotel was designed and built with a view of being second to none in the state for the convenience and comfort of the traveling public. It is a three-story, flat-iron shape, fireproof structure. It is really the most modern and up-to-date structure on the Wisconsin River. The company have their own electric and steam-heating plant. The drinking water, served throughout the building, is taken from the Crystal Springs located on their own grounds. The beautiful and spacious lobby, with its growing palms, is conceded by all to be the finest hotel lobby in the state.

One of the most attractive and inviting places, with its agreeable and accommodating service, to the average traveling man, is the dining hall which, in accordance with the rest of the house, is kept scrupulously clean and well ventilated. It must be seen to be appreciated.

At the extreme front of the building, on the second floor, is located the public parlor. There is also on the same floor a splendid clubroom, decorated and furnished, for the “boys” on the road, “where they can smoke, talk, and have a good time.”

There are forty guest rooms, all of them well ventilated, outside rooms, fourteen with private bath. All the modern improvements and conveniences, including steam heat, electric light, and telephone, are to be found in every room. The beds are the best obtainable, and excelled by none.

The Badger has the name of being the choicest on the Wisconsin River for spending a vacation. The management and the clerks, who are most agreeable men to meet in either a social or business way, will extend to you a hearty welcome and will try to make your stay both profitable and pleasant. With their experience as hotel men, they have placed the Badger in the front rank with the very best hotels in the state.

THE LATE WM. H. BRADLEY OF TOMAHAWK.

Mr. Bradley’s life was a busy one. He founded Tomahawk and put into the city, not only his wealth but the best years of his business manhood, and the city will ever stand as a living monument to its founder and benefactor.

THE LATE J. D. WITTER OF GRAND RAPIDS.

The life of J. D. Witter reads like a romance. From the start it was one of success, and helpfulness. He was ever mindful of Grand Rapids, and the residents in return will ever revere his memory. His charities were large. A monument to his liberality is the new school building now being erected for the manual training and domestic science department. The name of Grand Rapids and Mr.

Witter are inseparable.

PORTAGE.

The bustling, enterprising, beautiful city of Portage is not an accident. It has been created by an ambitious, energetic, liberal and progressive class of citizens. Education, intelligence and culture are plainly apparent in the many churches and splendid school system, as well as in their many fine business blocks. The city stands to-day, a credit to its citizens, and an honor to the Wisconsin River Valley.

In 1673, more than a hundred years before the Declaration of Independence, Joliet and Father Marquette came up the Fox River, carried their canoes across the portage to the Wisconsin and on down to the Mississippi. Thus was opened the most important highway in the West at that time. On that narrow neck of land, now completely covered by the homes and streets of a modern city, were enacted many thrilling events. From 1671 to 1761, about ninety years, the state was ruled by France. Then England overcame the French and ruled until 1795, when the United States government came into possession. In 1793, Laurent Barth settled at Portage, erected a cabin and engaged in the carrying business. Five years later, Lecuyer settled there also, and engaged in the transfer of furs and merchandise.

In 1814 British troops crossed there and following down the river captured the fort at Prairie du Chien.

John Jacob Astor engaged in the fur trade, requested the government to establish a fort at Portage. In 1828 a detachment of soldiers came from Ft. Howard and established Fort Winnebago. The fort was built at the head of the Fox River across from where Portage now stands, and was the scene of many important councils with the Indians. The fort was evacuated in 1845, but remained in charge of a few soldiers until 1853, when it was sold at auction.

About 1771 the Sac Indians occupied the Wisconsin River from Portage to its head waters, having a large village at Sauk City. To this tribe belonged the famous chief, Blackhawk. The most important point in the early occupation of this section was the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. The Fox River rises in the northeast corner of Columbia county and flows north into Green Bay. At Portage it comes within two miles of the Wisconsin river, and across this narrow strip of land (or portage) boats and merchandise were conveyed by team from one river to the other. From this “portage” is derived the name of the beautiful, prosperous city of Portage.

There is probably no spot in the West with which is associated so much romantic interest or is so important a link in the great chain of events that mark the settlement of the West, and especially of Wisconsin.

COYE FURNITURE CO., STEVENS POINT.

Promoted by the citizens of the town as a means of employment for the excess labor, the Coye Furniture Company has grown, since its inception in 1899, to be a factor in the furniture manufacturing world, and has been the means of extensively advertising Stevens Point from one end of the country to the other.

Under the able management of W. H. Coye, whose name the Company bears, the concern rapidly forged to the front, the demand for its output being such that extensive additions became necessary after a year or two of operation. Within the last year an Automatic Sprinkler System, giving absolute fire protection, and a vacuum system of heating, have been installed, together with a new series of dry kilns increasing the lumber drying capacity 50 per cent., so that they now have a most modern plant, equipped with up-to-date machinery; occupying a floor space of about 90,000 feet; employing almost continuously 175 men, and, consuming about four million feet of lumber per year.

A medium grade of bed room furniture in all the popular woods and finishes, is manufactured, and the output is in great demand in every portion of the country, large shipments being also made to Mexico.

The Company is officered and directed by some of the city’s most progressive business men, D. E. Frost being its President; F. A. Southwick, Vice President; W. S. Young, Secretary, and W. H. Coye, Treasurer and General Manager. To Mr.

Coye, as manager, belongs the greatest credit for the advancement the concern has made, the entire management and operating of the plant having been directly in his hands since the beginning of the erection of the buildings. Mr. Coye has the reputation of being one of the best furniture men in the country and this is borne out by the condition of the Company which bears his name.

The outlook for the future of this Company is very bright and Stevens Point may well be proud of its furniture manufacturing concern.

TOMAHAWK BOX COMPANY.

The Tomahawk Box Company commenced business in July, 1906, with W. G. Foss President and General Manager, and G. A. Foss Secretary and Treasurer. This Company employs forty-five men the year round, and cut up six million feet of lumber, consisting of hardwood, pine and hemlock per year. Their machinery is strictly up-to-date and first class in every respect. There is nothing done by hand that can possibly be done by machinery; especially is this true of the nailing of the boxes, as they use one of the largest size nailing machines with twenty-four hammers, driving more than one hundred nails a minute. They use a printing machine twenty-six inches wide, printing two colors on one hundred pieces a minute.

Mr. W. G. Foss has been an active lumberman for more than thirty years, and for fifteen years a citizen of Tomahawk. The product of this manufacturing plant is shipped east as far as New Jersey, and as far south as Missouri. It is one of the best and most useful manufacturing plants of Tomahawk, and is doing much to give employment to many citizens. Its proprietors are progressive, energetic men who believe in Tomahawk and its future.

TOMAHAWK.

In the northern part of Lincoln County, at the confluence of four rivers, the Wisconsin, the Tomahawk, the Somo and the Spirit, may be found the thrifty little city of Tomahawk. Few towns of equal size have better railroad facilities. Its main artery is the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, then follows the Marinette, Tomahawk & Western, which connects with the Soo line, the Chicago & Northwestern and the Wisconsin Central. By reason of its magnificent and almost unlimited water power, several large manufacturing institutions have been erected, including two excellent paper mills.

Among other advantages enjoyed are electric lights, water works and sewer system, owned by the municipality, wide streets, good schools and churches, two banks, two good newspapers, several good hotels-one of which, the Mitchell, cost $50,000; fine driveways, excellent roads and a splendid surrounding country. On the north and west the Wisconsin River winds gracefully around the city. On the south and east the immediate country is somewhat broken. Prospect Hill, covered with pines and extending cape-like into Tomahawk Lake, is an extremely picturesque point in the surroundings. The lake and river is dotted with wooded islands, lending a charm to the landscape. The social life of the town is excellent, and of the best and most wholesome American type The commercial and manufacturing interests of the city have been built up chiefly on the lumber trade. But of late years the saw mills have been supplemented to some extent by the wood working establishments that employ a large force of men, and is one of the factors in the development of this section of the country. As the lands in all directions are being converted into farms, the new settler finds a ready income from the small timber remaining on the land that he can convert easily and quickly into ready cash. This is true to a great extent of all the unoccupied timber lands of the Valley. Much of this new land which formerly contained an excellent forest of basswood, hemlock and birch, can be bought at from five to ten dollars per acre, and there is no better soil in the state. And to these things we might add the fact, that within the near limits of the city is a very large horsepower of undeveloped water power, that within a radius of a few miles are some eight rivers and twenty lakes that will all do much in the years to come to add wealth to the city. There are also untouched hardwood forests of millions of feet almost within sight of the city.

Tomahawk, with its excellent transportation facilities and its adjacent wealth of inexhaustible material, appeals to the homeseeker. Probably the most alluring promises comes from the unsubdued acres of rich dairy country that abound in every direction. The character of the men whom these lands have already attracted give assurance to the stranger that this will be the center of not only a manufacturing interest, but will develop into an excellent dairy and stock country in the near future.

THE C. O. D. STORE.

The business developments of Stevens Point have witnessed no greater business triumph than will be found in this store. The business was established by Philip Rothman, now deceased, leaving the entire business to his sons. There is not a firm any where that caters to a better class of trade, whose business administration is cleaner cut, whose treatment of patrons is fairer, or whose standing in the trade is better. They carry the largest stock and occupy the largest store building in the city. Their stock consists of dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, carpets, ladies’ cloaks and jackets, shoes, etc. It is a model store in every respect, and the two sons are model young men; they are prominent in the social life of the city and are numbered among the most useful and worthy citizens.

A. H. STANGE.

The general growth and commerce of this city is well illustrated in the scope and magnitude of the great lumber trade, which is one of those leading and staple departments of mercantile and manufacturing developments which gauge the prosperity of cities in the Wisconsin Valley.

Among the largest manufacturing plants doing business at this point, is the A.

H. Stange Company, dating from 1886. The great lumber industry has long been one of the foremost commercial pursuits of Lincoln County, an enormous amount of capital is employed in its prosecution.

How much of Merrill’s rapid and substantial growth and development is due to natural resources and advantages, and what percentage is due to the remarkable enterprise and business tact of A. H. Stange is, of course, impossible to determine. Certain it is, however, that Merrill has received much in both directions and combined results are in the highest degree gratifying to all whose interests or attachments are centered here. Mr. Stange is of a quiet and rather retiring disposition, yet his whole bearing invites friendship and confidence and co-operation as naturally as the spring invites the flowers. He is robust in mental and moral qualities, and is a man whose voice, smile and hand grasp all testify to the solidity and worth of his manhood.

LUMBERMAN, MERCHANT AND FARMER.

John Oelhafen, a prominent and influential citizen of Tomahawk, Lincoln County, is a native of Bavaria, Germany, born January 22, 1836, a son of Andrew Oelhafen.

John Oelhafen, the subject proper of this sketch came to America with his parents when eight years of age, and his childhood days were spent on the farm, his primary education being received in the village schools. He remained on the farm, assisting his father until he reached his majority. Although at the age of seventeen he commenced working in the pineries, giving his earnings to his father to help in the support of the family. In September, 1861, he was united in marriage with Anna S. Miller, who came to America alone at the age of seventeen. To this union were born six children, viz.: Anna E., Andrew, J. W., Mary E., Wm. and Anna L. After their marriage, Mr. Oelhafen and his wife removed to a farm in Washington County, where they remained for about two years. Mr.

Oelhafen then sold his interest in the farm and removed to Milwaukee, where he opened a general store, remaining there some ten years. In 1872 he removed to Wausau, at which place he opened a general store, and also engaged in the lumbering business, both in Wausau and Milbank, S. Dakota, where he held large interests in farm lands and city property. In July, 1887, he erected the first building in Tomahawk, Lincoln County, before the days of railroads in that section of the country. At Tomahawk he again opened a department store and also continued in the lumber business, which he still carries on, being assisted by his three sons. Andrew, having charge of the lumber business; J. W. in charge of the mercantile business, and Wm. having charge of the cedar yards.

Mr. Oelhafen has invested heavily but profitably in pine and farm lands all through the northern part of the state. He owns a very handsome residence in Tomahawk, and has always been an enterprising and influential citizen. Of the many lumber companies that have done their full part in cutting away the great forests of the North, John Oelhafen has done his. Mr. Oelhafen has been in the lumber business for the past thirty years, and is now employing over two hundred men, with standing timber in the forest sufficient to run for more than ten years longer. His timber consists of hardwood, pine and hemlock. Oelhafen mill is now cutting fifteen million per year. Logs are brought in by rail and water.

The mill is kept busy day and night in winter and day times during the summer.

Mr. Oelhafen is not only a merchant and lumberman of many years experience, but is also the owner of the largest farm in Lincoln County, consisting of 800
acres, all fenced and 260 acres under the plow, and thoroughly stumped and stocked with blooded cattle. He is also a prominent stockholder and director of the Bradley Bank in the city of Tomahawk, and is one of the early pioneers who helped to break the wilderness in the Wisconsin Valley. He is doing his part to make Tomahawk the hustling, progressive little city that she is.

RHINELANDER.

A city does not grow within itself and out of its own resources. There must be a cause for a city, a country back of it. Trade must flow naturally to build a city as water flows into a lake. Where all these conditions are favorable the building of a city is certain as the growth of a plant. Commerce like force follows the line of least resistance, and it is commerce that builds every city.

Trade and manufacturing are the industries that bring together a large population.

Rhinelander has the natural resources for development. It may be that the material is not being used. It may be that Rhinelander does not realize its own resources. Whether conscious or unconscious, however, is a question we shall leave for the citizens themselves to answer.

Every city dreams. Every city longs for greater prosperity. Every city hopes for commercial power and municipal advancement. The fault of nearly all ambitious cities is, that they look for the growth to come from without instead of within.

Rhinelander has the element and resources that will bring growth and prosperity.

It needs a little pushing, and it is receiving it from some of its best citizens. The city already has a fine start. It has location. It is favored by nature with scenic charms. It has an excellent water power. It has handsome streets. It has pavements, good walks, sewers, water works, electric lights, and in fact all the other elements of greatness, including an excellent fire department. progressive stores, an opera house, good newspapers. and the nucleus of attractive pleasure resorts.

In addition to this, it has more manufacturing industries than many cities twice its size, and in the line of industries it stands unique among the municipalities of the state.

The Rhinelander paper mill turns out sixty tons of print paper per day. The lumber mills saw seventy-five million feet of lumber per year. There is a large veneer plant, and a refrigerator plant that makes fifteen thousand ice boxes a year. The city has over six thousand five hundred population, and is growing rapidly.

The county has a wide scope of country that has missed the whistle of the locomotive and the noise and bustle that the railroad implies, but along the two lines of railroad they have already joined the swift march to which the entire North is keeping step.

A glowing new life has come upon Oneida County. The past summer has been one of great prosperity, and the people go into another autumn with a good feeling and high promises of solid prosperity. All the army of industry has worked at good wages. It is the proper destiny of every quarter section in the county to be occupied by the farmer or the dairyman. It is plain that the great forests are shrinking. The wilderness is losing ground every day. The home makers are passing that way, and the forest is giving way to the field. The lumber jack has seen his best and wildest days, the old Indian trail has become the highway of civilization, which will soon subdue the wilderness; then it will be the ideal home of the dairyman. There are, two distinct classes of settlers in a new country. In Kansas and the Dakotas they settle up the country. In Oneida County they settle down in a country. The difference between a period of settling up and settling down is the difference between adventure and development. And this spirit has had much to do with the prosperity and development of this new county. From the earliest settlement of this northern country, the Wisconsin River has been a potent factor in its affairs, making possible both the up-stream and the down-stream transportation. Few other counties have such fascinating surrounding. Here is forest wealth and farm richness. Here is an unlimited supply of water power. Here is game and fish in abundance.

A PROMINENT LUMBERMAN.

E. J. Pfiffner has traveled most of the old Indian trails along the Wisconsin River. He came to Stevens Point in 1875 and started in the lumber business in 1889, doing a wholesale and jobbing business. He has served time in the logging camps in the pine woods, on the river drive and in the lumber office. He owns and operates a large planing mill, does logging and manufacturing as well as wholesaling and retailing of all kinds of native lumber to the extent of fifteen or twenty million annually.

Mr. Pfiffner has been a member of the city council for six years and president of the council for four years. He is president of the Citizens National Bank, and has served two years on the school board.

Mr. Pfiffner is a man of excellent business judgment, large common sense, and strict integrity. He takes great interest in educational work and in the upholding of Stevens Point. He is a type of the hustling, progressive business men to be found in the Wisconsin Valley. He is always looking upon the bright side of life and ever earnestly advocating what he believes to be right, and making an earnest effort to find out what is right.

Mr. and Mrs. Pfiffner occupy a pleasant, model home on Strongs Avenue. Their home life is ideal in happiness. They are identified with the best social life in Stevens Point, and are of the sort of people whose presence is welcomed in any city.

MERRILL AS A CITY.

Merrill is strictly a self-made city. Not a dollars’ worth of foreign capital has been a factor in its existence or its growth. Its buildings are owned by its own people. Its banks are capitalized by home money. Its large factories have been built and are operated with home dollars and home talent. The merchants have grown up with their town and today present an unbroken front of growth and prosperity that has no equal in the Wisconsin Valley.

Every factory in the city has grown from diminutive size and primitive business until they will compare favorably in size with the greatest and best manufacturing plants in the state. That they are prosperous is best evidenced by the appearance of thrift that surrounds them.

Fortunes have been made and liberally expended in the upbuilding of the city.

The founders builded more wisely perhaps than they knew. There are those living yet who can point out landmarks that hold sacred memories, log houses and fur traders’ cabins. Primitive buildings have been cleared away, but sentiment still lingers about the spot, and is a connecting link between the past and the present. This is a day of business expansion and rapid development, and those who are slow to grasp opportunities are soon left in the background. Merrill has watched for opportune occasions, has kept her name modestly, yet forcefully, before the, world, and is growing, and at a gratifying and enormous rate.

The city of Merrill has not grown one-sided nor has any one interest been allowed to develop at the expense of another. Public funds have been wisely expended, streets kept in splendid repair, sanitary regulations carefully enforced, every feature of comfort and cleanliness urged and insisted upon by the health authorities. As a result Merrill is one of the healthiest cities in Wisconsin. The enthusiasm and struggle for supremacy which naturally follows and belongs to the development of a resourceful country, was kept under control, and the greed for gain was not allowed to overshadow the higher principles.

Educational interests were encouraged and insisted upon, schools were supported, modern houses built as the times demanded, the curriculum of public schools kept in harmony with advanced ideals. This sentiment has had its influence on the lives of all classes and is evident in business and private life. Churches of almost every denomination are indicative of a strong religious and moral element. Every class of charities has been provided for with system and certainty. These features naturally lead to the establishment of a library where every fancy can be pleased, and questions searched out to their very depths. The report of the library of Merrill is a compliment to the citizenship and speaks well for the culture of the town. Public improvements of every description are forwarded with a determination that is pleasing and inspiring and every man who is worthy of the name feels a generous pride in the upbuilding of the city.

In Merrill the results of manufacture, and its enlightenments, are to be seen in its stores, warehouses, banks, residences, public buildings, streets, squares, parks, railways, schools, and its manufactories alone would support a city of twice Merrill’s size.

GERMAN AMERICAN STATE BANK OF MERRILL.

Prominent in the advertisement of every bank in newspaper or booklet appears the names of the officers and directors, and the German American State Bank is no exception to the rule. There are excellent reasons for this fact or it would not be so. It is not chance happening but the result of deliberate intent and for this reason these gentlemen, the officers and directors of the bank, represent its policy, its management and the reasons for its standing, in the community and its patronage.

In the case of the German American State Bank, they represent the reasons for its phenomenal growth in public favor since it was established.

This bank has a capital stock of $30,000, surplus of $2,865, and deposits of $176,000. Its officers are Julius Thielman, President; F. W. Kubasta, Vice President; R. C. Ballstadt, Cashier.

WISCONSIN STATE BANK.

Among the banking institutions of the Wisconsin River Valley and of the state, the Wisconsin State Bank of Stevens Point occupies a prominent position because of its solidity and the wisdom with which it is managed.

This bank was established June 16. 1902. Its officers are: J. P. Malick, President; W. F. Collins, Cashier. Directors, J. P. Malick, John Longbotham, H.

O. Halverson, C. E. Van Hecke, W. W. Gregory. Capital, $30,000. Surplus and profits, $4,500.

THE JACKSON MILLING CO.

Stevens Point rejoices in the possession of an excellent milling firm. It was established in 1875, and has put in full time, and, in fact, has been running over time ever since. This plant uses about 125 horsepower of the old Wisconsin River’s unlimited supply, and has a capacity of 200 barrels of wheat flour, 50
barrels of rye flour, and 25 tons of feed per day. The supply of wheat comes from Dakota and Minnesota, and the product is sold almost entirely in Wisconsin.

Their leading brand is Gold Crown. Their other brands are Gilt Edge and Rosebud, also white rye flour.

H.H. Pagel has been manager of this plant for ten years, and has been with the Company for over fifteen years. He is young in years, but old in experience. He has put the best years of his young manhood into this plant, and has developed an industry that is profitable to the stockholders and is a success from every standpoint.

THE CRANBERRY INDUSTRY AT GRAND RAPIDS.

Not the least among the resources of the Wisconsin Valley is that of the cranberry industry. Its history reads something like fiction. Nowhere on the American continent, except in the choicest irrigated districts, has wild and worthless land been taken from the state of nature and developed, and made so valuable, as the cranberry marshes of the Wisconsin Valley. Twelve years ago this land was purchased for the back taxes at 50 cents per acre. Today, the best marshes are worth $500.00 per acre. Ten years ago there were no roads, no telephone, no free rural delivery, no homes in this seemingly worthless marshy country. Today, it has all the modern improvements, splendid roads, and every cranberry grower has the telephone and the free rural delivery at his door. The Wisconsin Valley produces about twenty-five thousand barrels of cranberries a year, the state, forty thousand. The entire crop of this country, 500,000
barrels. An acre of good cranberries will produce 160 barrels, or a barrel of cranberries for every square rod. If the reader will visit the marshes at this season of the year, they will form the impression that the cranberries are growing, at least three deep; this, however, is not the case, as a floor sixteen and one-half feet square covered with a single layer of cranberries of the standard size, which is about five-eighths of an inch, will make more than a barrel. This crop will average, one year with another, about $6.00 per barrel.

It costs about $2.50 to pick and pack a barrel of cranberries.

At no place on the face of the earth, so far as known, was the wild cranberry grown in as great abundance as regular crop, and as good flavor as in northern Wisconsin before the coming of the white man. It was settlement and civilization that caused the forest fires, and this in turn, ruined the natural cranberry marshes of the North. About ninety years ago the first cranberries were planted and cultivated in the New England states. Before this an abundant supply was secured from the wild marshes. The gathering of the wild cranberries through Michigan and Wisconsin was done almost entirely by the Indians, and the noble red man plays no small part in the gathering of the cultivated crop of the present day. More and more each year as a nation we are learning the usefulness of the cranberry, so that today, it requires a barrel of this fruit to every one hundred and ninety people, and the demand each year is much greater than the supply. Our crop for this year is hardly up to the average, but seems to promise a good return to the growers, and enough to season the national bird for another Thanksgiving.

JUDGE CHARLES M. WEBB, SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, GRAND RAPIDS.

Judge Webb possesses in an eminent degree all those qualities which fit him for a judicial position. He has a wide acquaintance with law, reads human nature fluently and has the happy faculty of distinguishing truth from hypocrisy and fraud. For more than twenty-four years Judge Webb has never postponed his court on account of sickness. No man in the Valley is held in higher respect and esteem, and he stands in the front rank among those who deal out justice to their fellow men.

A. L. FONTAINE, PUBLISHER GRAND RAPIDS REPORTER.

Mr. Fontaine left ball playing and entered journalism when a young man, and has followed that profession for many years. In this he has been signally successful, as he has acquired a reputation for exact fairness, especially in his political writings. He has the knack of condensation and presents much in a single paragraph, thus making the product of his pen and the columns of his paper interesting and instructing. He is first, last and all the time a republican, and as a reward is serving his second term as Postmaster.

TOMAHAWK PULP AND PAPER COMPANY.

This manufacturing plant began making paper in 1889. Their first mill had a capacity of ten tons per day; their second mill was built in 1905 on the opposite bank of the Wisconsin River from the first plant. This mill has a capacity of twenty-five tons per day. The two mills use 2,000 horsepower and employ one hundred twenty-five men the year round.

A. M. Pride, proprietor and general manager of these two mills, came from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in the manufacture of pulp. He is not only a successful business man and manufacturer, but he is a successful citizen in everything that good citizenship implies.

THE MERRILL RAILWAY & LIGHTING CO.

was the first company on the river to operate a street railway. They were also the first to furnish electricity for power motors. For more than fifteen years, they have furnished motive power for machine shops, butcher shops, and printing offices. They now furnish for an excelsior factory, a shingle and lath mill, wagon shop, feed mill, and for various purposes. They were the first company in the United States to use a storage battery in connection with a trolley road.

They were the first company in this part of the country to make an extensive use of a new high efficiency lamp, and have in use on their system more tantalum lamps than perhaps any other company in America, of anywhere near their size.

These lamps give the best of satisfaction to customers, and are making electricity much more popular for lighting purposes.

This company is now introducing electric cooking devices, on very liberal terms, and is probably ahead of most companies in the introduction of such devices.

This company introduced the custom of giving a return fare to all patrons of its cars before 7 a. m. so as to give the laboring public the cheapest possible transportation.

They are now about to establish a system of rates that will be fair and equitable to all consumers. The management firmly believes that such rates will be generally lower than like rates in most any other community. The illustration shows the public spirit of the company in making free electrical displays on public occasions.

GOOD THINGS TO EAT.

That tells the whole story. It is all summed up in four words. It could be told in more space, but it can’t be told any better or more clearly in a column. The picture left upon the mind is complete, when the word grocery is associated with the remark. F. H. Murray has banked his reputation on good things to eat. He handles a line of fancy and staple groceries that have captured the trade.

Perhaps prices have had something to do with it; they often do. The fact remains that the proprietor and his assistants are always busy - that counts some. Mr.

Murray was with McCulloch for thirteen years previous to his present venture.

That is where he got his grocery experience. It extends back to 1885. Mr. Murray has come to be a permanent fixture in Stevens Point, and he seems to regard it as one of the best cities in the state not only from a social standpoint, but from a business and progressive standpoint as well.

STEVENS POINT.

It is not our intention to dwell upon the past history of Stevens Point, but rather to call the attention of busy business men of affairs, who live and act in the swift moving current of the present, to the existing conditions and future possibilities of this busy, growing and prosperous city of the Wisconsin river; young in its history but mature in every phase of development that makes modern cities. The founders and pioneer builders of Stevens Point realized the fact that a beautiful, clean and well governed city is the most business-like one, being the best fitted for the real and practical purposes of a city, and left a heritage in the way of broad streets and beautiful well kept homes and lawns that has not been neglected, for their descendants have continued the good work, and on the principle of “birds of a feather flock together” they have attracted people with equal sense of beauty and love of home. This spirit grows with the city and will continue to grow until the contemplated river front improvement is consummated, which will make Stevens Point (now famous for beauty and cleanliness) one of the model cities of the Wisconsin Valley. It is almost universally characteristic of cities of Wisconsin to be so absorbed in the pursuit of wealth as to entirely lose sight of sanitary conditions and home comforts. The beautifying of the cities of Wisconsin has recently become an interesting and popular subject along the Wisconsin river. All cities have choice residence districts where the homes, lawns and streets are attractive and well kept, but in Stevens Point this condition extends over the entire city, evidencing the fact that prosperity, contentment and love for home prevails among all classes and that a friendly co-operative spirit exists between capital and labor.

Stevens Point has cheap power, productive soil and progressive people.

With an enterprising and progressive population as Stevens Point has, it is but natural that the public schools should be her pride. The buildings are modern and well equipped, especially is this so of the high school and State Normal.

The city enjoys a splendid retail trade, and this accounts for the finely furnished and well stocked stores. Competition is keen and prices are kept at a minimum. Within a few miles of the city are many prosperous farmers and stock-raisers who have grown wealthy or acquired a competency, yet there are thousands of acres that are practically untouched. As these are cleared up and cultivated, the retail trade will increase in a corresponding degree. Stevens Point has the greatest number of miles of improved streets by macadam and brick pavement of any city in the Wisconsin Valley. Its common council is composed of practical, progressive, intelligent business men. In every walk of life there are proofs of frank and noble hospitality and open-hearted geniality.

A SUCCESSFUL SUPERINTENDENT.

Mr. Wenzel is a man whose face reveals his character. He would be judged by any reader of men to be direct in method, and in business matters at least not unduly burdened with any troublesome sentiment. He says something every time he speaks, and accomplishes results every time he acts. There are few stronger personalities in Merrill, and few men who have achieved more signal success.

Mr. Wenzel was born in Germany and came to this country as a locksmith and machinist in 1880. He became connected with Mr. A. H. Stange in 1883 and has been with him continuous for twenty-four years, serving as foreman for several years, and as general superintendent for sixteen years. Mr. Wenzel is an exceedingly pleasant gentleman to meet, socially or from a business standpoint, and has succeeded in gaining and holding a prominent place in the manufacturing industry of his adopted city.

MANY YEARS IN BUSINESS.

August Goerke came to Stevens Point in 1874, and has been continuously engaged in the merchant tailoring business for thirty-three years. He caters to the best trade of the city, and employs about fifteen hands in his business, giving his customers the best and latest along his line.

He is one of the reliable workers in the city and for the city. Personally, as a citizen, Mr. Goerke is much esteemed. He is a loved Stevens Point man, always alert in serving along any line of activity, promising benefit to the city.

THE JOHN WEEK LUMBER COMPANY.

Among the mills and manufacturing companies that have brought permanent prosperity to Stevens Point none are more entitled to special mention than the John Week Lumber Company. This firm was established in 1851 and located in Stevens Point in 1881 and incorporated in 1884 with N. A. Week, President; John A. Week, Vice-President, and A. R. Week, Secretary and Treasurer. This company saws about twelve million feet of lumber a year, consisting of pine, hemlock and hardwood. They are owners of large tracts of timber lands, and employ 150 men in the cutting and transportation of their logs, while 120 men are employed in their saw and planing mills and yards in the city. They do both a wholesale and retail business. Both of their mills are operated by steam power.

The greater portion of the logs are still floated down the Wisconsin river, while a portion are brought in by rail.

The members of the corporation are among the substantial and solid citizens of Stevens Point, enterprising and public-spirited. They are a striking example of the energy and push which has made this city what it is to-day.

The John Week Lumber Company is one of the leading commercial and manufacturing institutions of the city and has been a material factor in Stevens Point’s prosperity and growth.

As a corporation, and as citizens, the members have been loyal to Stevens Point.

They have done much to develop the industries and resources of this section, and the people are glad that success has come to them.

THE PARLOR CITY.

Wausau, rich, modern, populous, is the center of the valley’s prosperity. Here, the varied interests of forest and field, factory and farm, find center. It must ever stand, not only as the capital of Marathon county, but as the capital of the North. Wausau is the parlor city of the Wisconsin River.

The magnificent forests, after contributing to the early support of the settlers, have been replaced with orchards, gardens and farms, which increase instead of diminish in productive power as the years roll by. Perhaps no better indication of the remarkable resources of this country can be noted than in its vast water-power.

Wausau, being the oldest of the prominent cities of the valley, enjoys a prestige as a commercial and financial center, which keeps pace with the growth of the country which she serves, and which, in turn, serves her.

Nearly all the prominent cities of the Wisconsin Valley have some specialty that has contributed to a greater degree than any other factor to their growth and prestige. The wonderful richness of soil, backed by a great natural wealth of forest and stream was sufficient to form the ground work of Wausau as a city.

These great, natural advantages attracted good men, and made men good. Their citizens were of the restless, energetic type which worked wonders wherever they located. They cut down the vast forest only to find a greater mine of wealth under the tangled roots of its stumps. Wausau also has a great number of manufacturing industries, and the dinner-pail brigade, in proportion to the population, is the largest of any city in the valley except Merrill. The lumber business is still a big factor in the growth and prosperity of Wausau, and her mills annually send out immense quantities of lumber to all parts of the Union.

All over Marathon county are great numbers of rich valleys in which grains of all kind, fruit and garden truck grow in quantities, which are a constant source of wonder to agriculturists living in less favored sections. Only a small part of the fertile American crop of young men is turned toward the North annually where there is so much room to grow, and where opportunity is limitless. So loud is the hum of industry, and so dazzling the glamour of the great cities that the distant call of the North is heard only by the far-seeing few.

But it is as impossible to ignore Wausau as to ignore the great Wisconsin River.

The city is an ever present factor. Its location gives it command of the commerce of the valley. It has had a steady growth from the start. People went to Wausau not because she was advertised, for she was not; not because she was boomed, for she was not; not because of her hospitality, for she was anything but hospitable in her early days, but they went because they could make money there. Her position gave her advantages over any other city of the Valley -
advantages that will always keep her supreme. And so great were the opportunities, so vast the development, and so important the commerce which continued to flow, that all who came prospered. The city grew for the same reason that a great bank grows - because of its utility. And she grew in much the same way that a bank grows, with no hubbub, no shouting, no booming of any kind, grew because of a normal, inevitable demand that she should grow.

Wausau must be studied and understood to be appreciated. She never will shout to attract attention. She is a stranger to what is known as the hot air method of exploitation. The people are not worrying about how much population the city has, they are not worrying about whether some other city has more population, they are too busy. As Neil Brown expressed it recently, “What difference does it make to us what city in the Valley is the largest, Wausau has an interest in all of them.” This lack of brag is more than compensated for by the intense affection that the city’s sons and daughters feel for their home city. This pride and fondness is contagious. It is the same pride a craftsman feels in his handiwork, the inventor in his creation, and the wife in her home.

BRADLEY BANK, TOMAHAWK.

Tomahawk is particularly fortunate in the matter of its banking facilities; and to these institutions must be given a large measure of credit for the influence they exert in extending the city’s commercial and municipal prestige. They add a substantial dignity to the business community, independent of their value as commercial agents. This substantiality is one which is unconsciously infused into every form of local business life.

To the Tomahawk people John W. Froehlich seems as much an essential part of their city as the trees and streets, as nearly his whole life has been spent there, and since attaining his years of manhood he has been conspicuously and constantly identified with the Bradley Company’s interest. He was manager of the Mitchell Hotel for eleven years, and for six years has been cashier of the Bradley Bank. This bank has been a success from the start. It has done much to assist in the development of the resources of Tomahawk and Lincoln county. It has a paid capital of $50,000 and a surplus of $6,400. The officers of this bank are Edward Bradley, President; R. B. Tweedy, Vice-President, and John Froehlich, Cashier. These men are all well and favorably known in financial circles, and their names stand for business principles and honest and correct dealing. The bank is strong because the men back of it are strong. It has prospered because its management has been careful and prudent. Its success is well merited and richly deserved.

COMMERCIAL HOUSE, JUNCTION CITY

When the train is nearing Junction City, and we hear the sharp, shrill cry of the brakeman announce the name of this railroad station, it does not mean very much except to the hungry traveler who is waiting and watching for an opportunity to secure a square meal. This is strictly a junction point and is filled with hospitality and great content. The city itself relies for its attraction on the two lines of railroad and its hotel. It can show little of commercial interest. The city is quiet with a feeling of perpetual afternoon.

There is a suppressed hum in the air which seems to be a sound made by silence.

It is quite a point for fishermen to gather, and if the sportsman is willing to invade the thick tangled forest and endure the hardship imposed by a contact with nature in her uncivilized garb, he will find no better sport than in the vicinity of this little hamlet.

The Commercial has been known to the traveling public for many years. F. E.

Culver took charge of this hotel about two years ago, since which time it has been greatly improved, and the service brought up to a standard that meets the requirement of the traveling public. The dining-room is large and well lighted.

The hotel has twenty guest rooms, and the service will compare favorably with hotels and railroad eating stations in any part of the country. Mr. Culver is an agreeable and accommodating proprietor, and is ever and always ready to make his guests feel entirely at home. He is the right man in the right place.

THE SMOKE SHOP, STEVENS POINT.

If there is one habit which has grown more largely than others of recent years it is the tobacco habit, and with it has grown the tobacco business until to-day it ranks as one of our foremost and greatest commercial pursuits.

If the reader will step into the Smoke Shop of Margraf & Johnson and look over their stock of tobacco and pipes, which is the best and most extensive in Portage county, they can obtain a somewhat accurate idea of its value as a trade factor. This company was formed more than a year ago and these men are among Stevens Point’s most active, energetic and progressive young men.

GRANDFATHER FALLS COMPANY.

The Grandfather Falls Company was a corporation originally organized to develop power by constructing a large concrete dam across the Wisconsin River about fourteen miles above Merrill, Wis., with a view of renting power so developed to the Merrill Paper Manufacturing Co.

Later the Merrill Paper Manufacturing Co. offered its mill for sale and same was purchased by the Grandfather Falls Co. and is now being operated twenty-four hours per day with an output of thirty tons of paper. Power is also to be transmitted from the large Power Station on the Wisconsin River to the mill to run its grinders, machines, etc., by electricity, and eventually the 5,000-horse power at the dam will be harnessed and used in connection with the paper and pulp mills here in the city of Merrill.

The accompanying cuts show the dam in process of construction and the paper mill now located in the city.

The mill is a most modern and up-to-date mill, being constructed wholly of concrete and fitted with the most improved machinery. Under the management of Mr. W. A. Brazeau it has been brought up to its highest efficiency and will be one of the most economic working mills in the state when electrically equipped with the power from the dam on the Wisconsin River.

The construction of the dam has been under the supervision of John O’Day who has shown marked ability in this line and took special care that the foundation was sure and certain.

MR. W. A. BRAZEAU.

Mr. W. A. Brazeau of Merrill, Wisconsin, is a native of Wisconsin where he has resided since boyhood. He is an expert bookkeeper and accountant and occupied a position of trust for five years in one of the banks at Grand Rapids. Later he entered the employ of the John Edwards Manufacturing Company (paper makers) and remained with them for about ten years in the position of chief bookkeeper and assistant manager. About a year ago he entered his present employment, that of Superintendent and General Manager of the Grandfather Falls Paper Company of Merrill, which position he now holds, having the full confidence and esteem of his employers.

RINGNESS, THE SHOE MAN.

The shoe industry in large or small cities takes a very prominent place in the world of trade, and the greatest activity in this quite essential industry is noticeable at all times. The shoe store of Mr. Ringness was opened for business in 1902, and it has been marked with success from the day of its opening. Mr.

Ringness came to Stevens Point when quite young and has been continuously in the shoe business since 1882; he is a practical, prudent, progressive merchant and stands well and favorably among the business men of the city. He is receiving his full share of trade along this line, and constantly adding to his already complete stock.

STEVENS POINT LIGHTING COMPANY.

No one can deny the cleanliness and convenience of gas when used for fuel or the superiority of electricity as a power, while combining all the characteristics of gas in the matter of economy, cleanliness and convenience.

Stevens Point, like many other enterprising cities and towns of the state, has one plant which adds more luster to the commercial life of the place than all the others combined.

This company owns and operates an electrical and gas plant and they are giving entire satisfaction to their customers. Their electric power plant is located on the Plover River, five miles from the city and has 550 horse power. This company furnishes gas for cooking and lighting purposes, giving their customers the convenience of all modern advantages along this line. This company guarantees to furnish electric power for manufacturing purposes at Stevens Point at as low of rate as it can be furnished at any other point in Wisconsin. Both plants are under one management and up-to-date in every respect.

Stevens Point is fortunate in having one of the best lighting and electric power plants in the state. The time has come in the development of Stevens Point when nothing but electricity will keep step with her rapid development.

A MODEL BRIDGE.

The first bridge across the Wisconsin River was completed in September, 1857, when the railroad reached Kilbourn, and cost $100,000.00. It was a Howe Truss, wooden bridge, 450 feet long. This bridge caught fire from a passing engine and was burned in May, 1866. It was, however, immediately rebuilt. This was replaced in 1877 by an iron bridge. Work was begun on the present bridge in August, 1892.

The center pier is 42x19 feet, made of granite and concrete, and is 60 feet from top of pier to bottom of river.

The new bridge is of the newest pattern oŁ steel bridges, known as the double track, plate steel truss bridge, and will bear the weight of five one-hundred and forty ton engines at one time. It has two spans of 165 feet each, with 160
feet approach at each end, altogether 590 feet of bridge. It is 30 feet wide with double tracks, and is 35 feet from car wheels to bottom of bridge and 55
feet farther to surface of the water. No train was delayed a moment in the building of this new bridge and removing the old one. This new structure, like the three structures before it, has a wagonway beneath the car tracks.

T.H. HANNA, MAYOR OF STEVENS POINT.

Ask one hundred men of Stevens Point, who among all the people of the city has done and is doing most to promote, by personal effort, her business, industrial, and social advancement, and ninety of the hundred would say T. H. Hanna. The oft misused word “Stalwart” is accurately used when applied to Mr. Hanna. In physique and mental furnishings, and all moral qualities he suggests nothing else so much as genuineness and rugged strength. He is a lover of nature - a sportsman in the truest sense of the term, and a lawyer of much ability. Mr.

Hanna is in the prime of rugged manhood, and his knowledge is confined in no narrow scope, and he rarely talks in private or public without giving his listeners something worth knowing. He came to Stevens Point eight years ago, and was elected mayor of the city in 1904 and reelected in 1906. The city of Stevens Point has prospered under his administration. The city’s bonds are being payed off, and the streets are being improved in all parts of the city. Mr. Hanna is one of Stevens Point’s most devoted citizens, giving freely of his time and energy to advance the common weal.

TOMAHAWK LUMBER COMPANY.

The Tomahawk Lumber Company was established in 1904. It saws twenty-five million feet of pine, hemlock and hardwood each year, which is brought to the mill by rail and water. They employ 145 men, and run day and night the year round. They operate a planing mill in connection with the saw mill, and nearly their entire product is sold and shipped as dressed lumber. This company sells their product only by wholesale. Their market covers a wide range, mostly in the Mississippi Valley, yet many carloads of their product finds market in San Francisco, also New York. Their saw mill is modern in every respect. This mill was built in 1904
and has been in constant service since that time. The officers of the company are R. B. Tweedy, President; Spencer Illsley, Vice-President, with C. C. Uber, Secretary, Treasurer and Manager. This manufacturing plant is one of Tomahawk’s most substantial institutions. It is an organization that employs a large amount of labor at good wages, and the members of the company are among the most progressive and substantial business men of Lincoln County.

A camera cannot make a photographer. There is something more to photography than merely taking a picture and concealing a person’s facial blemishes. J. L.

Townsend is an artist to his fingers’ tips. There is something in the lights and shadows in the harmonious blending and soft contrasts that make you linger over his pictures. Mr. Townsend is not only the leading photographer of Merrill, but he is one of the best in the Wisconsin Valley.

KAUDY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, GRAND RAPIDS.

This company started in business at Colby in 1878 and for many years turned out some of the most artistic furniture made in the West, using many of the foreign woods such as Honduras, Brazilian, Cuban and South African mahoganies, curly birch and Southern quartered oak.

The business grew to such an extent and railroad facilities were so inadequate that it became necessary to remove to some railroad center.

After canvassing the state thoroughly, Mr. Kaudy became convinced that Grand Rapids was the most favorable factory city in the state.

He thereupon proceeded to organize a stock company which provided sufficient capital to more than double his previous output. This stock company was organized in June, 1906, and have been doing a thriving business since that time.

The factory is now employing from twenty-five to thirty skilled men, turning out from three to four complete sets of fixtures per week, and shipping them to all parts of the Middle and Western States.

Ladysmith, Wis., Jan. 29th, 1904.

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to introduce Mr. G. J. Kaudy, who has just placed “Bank Fixtures”

in our office, and they are fine ones.

Mr. Kaudy is a fine type of a “Western Gentleman” done up wrong side out, as the interior far exceeds the exterior, his integrity being his religion. He does not always do as he agrees, for in our case he did better.

The above is as we have found him gentleman, and we deem him worthy of your confidence, respect and patronage.

Very respectfully,

STATE BANK OF LADYSMITH,

By R. O. Sinclair.

A SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT.

D. C. Jones is one of the business men of Tomahawk whose qualifications have fitted him for the business world. Quick to learn, patient in his efforts to master business problems, success came easily to him, and while yet a boy he had won a standing because of merit and faithfulness. Mr. Jones came to Tomahawk in 1889, and went into partnership with E. W. Whitson in a general store. In 1899
he bought out his partner, and is now carrying a first-class stock of groceries, gents’ furnishing goods and also handles flour, feed, hay and farm machinery. He has four warehouses, and he is first, last and all the time a hustler. He is public-spirited and takes a deep interest in everything that tends to advance the best interests of his city. He has been alderman for two years, and vice-president of the village for two years. He is popular and efficient, and a fair type of the self-made Northern man. He has been a man of action, and in his constant contact with men he has by his manner and character created such a favorable impression that few men in Tomahawk are more highly respected than he.

WISCONSIN’S BEST LAUNDRY COMPANY.

Stevens Point has the distinction of possessing one of the largest, most thoroughly equipped and best steam laundries in the valley. In fact it is one of the largest laundries in the state outside of Milwaukee. It gives employment to upwards of thirty hands the whole year, turning out upwards of six hundred dollars worth of work each week. The main building is about 75x180 feet, with an annex about 40x120 feet, besides a large engine room, coal sheds, barn, carriage house, etc. Modern machinery and modern methods are in use, and every effort made to secure the very best results both in quality of work and promptness in turning it out.

Agencies are maintained in over fifty villages and cities in northern and central Wisconsin and northern Michigan, and the fact that work is sent here in preference to other laundries, very near the point of shipment, is ample proof of the good quality of the work done.

Mr. D. J. Leahy, the manager of the laundry, is a man in whom all its patrons have full confidence, a fact amply attested by the phenomenal growth of the business during the past year.

This laundry is open every day in the week, and visitors are always sure of being welcome, every courtesy being shown them both by the manager and his employees. Wisconsin’s Best Laundry is an institution of which Stevens Point may well feel proud.

TAYLOR BROS. DRUG STORE, STEVENS POINT.

No business, trade or profession requires a higher grade of intelligence and skill than that of the modern druggist. The range of articles carried in this store is wide and includes, besides drugs, many articles of common everyday use.

W. W. Taylor, the proprietor and general manager, came to Stevens Point in 1891
from Sparta. He has been in the drug business continuously for more than twenty years. This store and stock is complete in every detail. Mr. Taylor is not only a model druggist, but his citizenship is of the patriotic kind that is of worth to any city, and is especially appreciated by the citizens of Stevens Point.

PALACE BAKERY.

The business of E. A. Julier proves that persistent effort, earnest endeavor and honorable dealing will bring success. These elements have been prominent factors in the upbuilding of the lucrative trade Mr. Julier enjoys. Mr. Julier is a baker by birth, by choice and by force of habit. He came from Milwaukee and has been proprietor of the Palace Bakery for the last four years. Candy and ice cream form no small part of his increased and increasing business. This bakery turns out more than four hundred loaves of bread per day besides many other products along this line. Mr. Julier is industrious and painstaking, a man who makes a business of doing his level best at any business or duty to which he sets his hand. He is meeting success and deserves it.

CLIFFORD LUMBER COMPANY.

Of the large saw mill plants of the valley, the one operated by the Clifford Lumber Company gives some idea of where the forests of Wisconsin are going to.

The consumption of such a plant is enormous, and it has contributed much to the wealth and commercial importance of Stevens Point. This company commenced business thirty years ago. W.J. Clifford came to Stevens Point over forty years ago, and has been active in business circles from the start. He is president of the company, and his son, John W. Clifford, secretary and treasurer. They have large tracts of timber along the Wisconsin Central Railroad and along the Wisconsin River and its tributaries. They cut ten million feet of lumber a year, and employ one hundred and fifty men in the woods, and eighty men at their mills and yard in the city. They own and operate a large planing mill, and most of their product is sold as dressed lumber, finding a market in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. They pay good wages to their men and are among the solid substantial firms that have done much to develop the Wisconsin Valley, and especially to make the little city of Stevens Point what it is. The logs are brought in over the Wisconsin Central by rail, and a goodly number still being floated down the Wisconsin River. The seasoning lumber piled up about the plant is an imposing sight to the stranger, and we cannot but wonder how many years this can continue. The members of this firm are among the most loyal business men of the city. Their homes and home life are a model in many respects.

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS COLLEGE.

At the head of the educational institutions of the Wisconsin Valley is one of which the city of Grand Rapids is justly proud. It is the business college conducted by E. L. Hayward. This school is doing a grand work in preparing the young people to enter the arena of commercial life.

No one longer doubts the value of a business education. The person without it is constantly handicapped in after life. All other things equal, he is at a disadvantage in competition with the man or woman who has had a business training. There is not an educational institution in the valley that is doing better work than the Grand Rapids Business College. Everything that a young man or a young lady needs in practical business life is taught here, including penmanship, spelling, grammar, mathematics, commercial law, business forms, letter writing, bookkeeping, short-hand and typewriting. Under the direction of its progressive principal, Mr. Hayward, the school has pushed its way to the front rank. The graduates of this school are in constant demand, and good positions are easily and quickly found for them after completing their course.

The desirability of any of the little cities of the valley as a permanent residence depends to a great degree upon the facilities for education. The productiveness of the soil, the healthfulness of the climate, the other material and natural blessings, - these are of moment, but none of them are so important as are the facilities for educating the young men and women, and helping them to help themselves. In this respect Grand Rapids stands high. The college itself is as comfortable, attractive and convenient as money and brains can make it, and is supplied with every modern facility. Mr. Hayward as well as the city of Grand Rapids have just reason to be proud of this school.

ANSON-HIXON SASH & DOOR FACTORY, MERRILL.

The Anson-Hixon Sash & Door Company’s plant is located in the lower end of the city, and is one of the largest of its kind in the state, and is a model of neatness and economical, practical, systematic operation.

A part of the raw material is purchased from the sawmills in the Wisconsin Valley. But a large proportion consists of California white pine especially adapted to the higher grade of doors. We have visited no factory in the state where as high a grade of pine doors are turned out as in this shop. Besides making sash, doors, and blinds, this company manufactures mouldings, ballusters, spindles, brackets, interior finish, storm doors and all kinds of products manufactured in a first-class institution of its kind.

This company employs two hundred men the year round, and their product is largely manufactured to order, supplying many cities in Wisconsin and adjoining states, also supplying branch houses which they own at Indianapolis and Evansville, Indiana. They use thirty thousand feet of lumber per day, and turn out three hundred thousand doors per year, three hundred fifty thousand pairs of windows and thirty thousand pairs of blinds.

The immense manufacturing plant is one of the best managed institutions in the valley. Mr. E. C. Leaming is general manager and has had over twenty years experience in this industry. He is positive in action, direct in method, conservative in temperament and discriminating in judgment. He understands the lumber business in all its details, and is authority on all matters relating thereto.

Mr. L. Sprink, Superintendent, who has charge of the mechanical operations and actual workings of the factory, like his immediate superior, is a man in the prime of life, and has thorough practical understanding of all matters pertaining to a great woodworking establishment. For many years he had charge of the St. Paul Railroad Company’s woodworking shop in Milwaukee.

GRAND RAPIDS HOLLOW CONCRETE WALL CO.

This is one of the newer manufacturing concerns of Grand Rapids and already gives promise of occupying an important place in the city’s growth. The company was incorporated in 1906, and so far has confined its operations to the manufacture of concrete building blocks and their use in the construction of buildings. During the present season the company has enjoyed a substantial trade that has been limited only by the capacity of the plant, and its product is to be seen on every hand. They use the two-piece system of construction, which insures a dry and perfectly insulated wall of remarkable strength and stiffness.

The blocks are made by the medium wet process and are formed under a thirty-ton pressure. This method is proving entirely satisfactory and is fast supplanting all other methods of concrete block manufacture The wide range of use to which this material may be put is evidenced by the following buildings which this company has constructed; foundations, copings, retaining walls, basements, dairy houses, poultry houses, basement partitions, dry-kiln, power-house, residence, business blocks, and church buildings. The company contemplates an increase of capital to enable them to handle the rapidly growing business. The officers are Theron Lyon, President; Thos. H. Thornton, Treasurer, and A. L. Putnam, Secretary and Manager.

ALEX KREMBS, JR., DRUG CO., STEVENS POINT.

There are but few stores in the Wisconsin Valley that for location, neatness and completeness inside and out, equal the corner drug store of Alex Krembs. While the exterior is showy, the interior is one that impresses a stranger with elegance. A handsome soda fountain in front is the first striking picture that greets the eye. Opposite the fountain are imported and domestic cigars.

The store is in charge of Alex Krembs who is very popular both inside and outside the store. He is a graduate of the State University and has been in the drug business since 1901.

CITIZENS’ NATIONAL BANK, STEVENS POINT.

Few banks in the country are housed in finer quarters, the elegant building it occupies being not only an enduring monument to the business sagacity of its backers, but it is a rich and magnificent acquisition to the architectural splendor of the city.

This bank was organized July 14, 1893, capital $l00,000.00, surplus and profits $25,000.00. The officers of the bank are E. J. Pfiffner, President; Louis Brill, Vice-President; R. B. Johnson, Cashier, and E. A. Krembs, Assistant Cashier.

THE SHEEP AND BEE INDUSTRY.

We sometimes hear men say if they could find a business that was all profit and no expense it would be just what they were looking for. The sheep and bee industry comes very close to filling this requirement. They are both good workers, in fact in this climate they work overtime, and a strike is unknown.

The Bee Commissioner of Wisconsin, when asked the most ideal place for engaging in the bee industry, replied that between Grand Rapids and Marshfield could be found the best location in the state. In this locality a bee-keeper placed one of his hives on a pair of scales, and discovered while the basswood trees were in bloom this one colony was gathering from ten to twelve pounds of honey per day. A colony costing three dollars will produce about 150 pounds of honey a year which makes a very good profit.

The soil of Wood County is especially adapted to the sheep industry, and a band of ewes that will produce their owner an eight-pound fleece of wool and a three-dollar lamb are certainly a good investment and are proving a practicable and profitable industry.

A PROMINENT NORTH WOODS CHARACTER.

One of the best known and most dignified old Indians on the Wisconsin River was Indian Pete, who died about two years ago, aged ninety-four. He has traveled every Indian trail along the Wisconsin River, and for the past fifty years has been a familiar character in the towns and lumber camps all through the upper valley. He seemed to command the universal respect of the Whites, and for many years was a privileged character on the trains and at the Mitchell hotel at Tomahawk.

Pete was always proud of being a Chippewa, and seemed confident that his tribe were the only real good Indians in the pine woods.

THE WISCONSIN VALLEY IMPROVEMENT COMPANY.

From Kilbourn to Eagle River the Wisconsin River is a succession of valuable water powers. The principal powers are located at Kilbourn, Nekoosa, Grand Rapids, Whiting, Stevens Point, Mosinee, Wausau, Brokaw, Trap Rapids, Merrill, Grandfather, Rhinelander and Eagle River.

The lumbermen built dams in the Wisconsin River and tributaries, including lakes at their head waters, for two purposes-one to furnish floods for driving logs and transporting lumber, and the other, to a very limited extent, for furnishing power to run saw mills.

For hydraulic purposes a stream has little value beyond the power furnished by it in ordinary low water periods. In its natural state the Wisconsin River carried a fairly good stage of water at all seasons of the year, but the removal of the forests of the valley caused higher water in the river in times of floods and lower water in times of drought than in a state of nature. The 1,200 and more lakes at its head waters with their precipitous banks were designed by nature for reservoir purposes. At many of their outlets the lumbermen built dams for the purposes stated.

Mr. T. E. Nash of Grand Rapids, many years ago conceived the idea of acquiring, improving and preserving these dams and reservoirs for hydraulic purposes as the lumbermen ceased to use them, and many such were accordingly acquired, improved and operated by the hydraulic interests at Grand Rapids and Stevens Point. In aid of this project legislation was sought more than fourteen years ago and thence effort in that direction never ceased and finally culminated in the passage of the famous Bill No.240 S., now Ch. 335 of the Laws of Wisconsin for 1907. In brief this law authorizes the Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company, a corporation organized for the purpose, to own all these dams and reservoirs and flooding rights and to add thereto as the authorities of the state named in said Act may hereafter authorize. This legislation does not authorize the corporation to own or operate any water power whatever. Its whole power and duties are confined to producing as even a flow of the water in the Wisconsin River as practicable by retaining the flood waters in said reservoirs during times of freshets and gradually letting them off during periods of low water. These improvements will do much to prevent destructive floods in the Valley and improve navigation and such are among its declared purposes. This legislation is regarded of the highest importance and is bound to add much to the general prosperity of the Valley and state at large and is sure to become a pattern for legislation in aid of the improvement of other streams in this and other states.

An important feature of this legislation is that it will add to the beauty of the northern lakes, the river and its tributaries. The lakes are connected in chains by thoroughfares, which in times of low water, the summer resort season, are not navigable. Now during the summer resort season the water is to be held above its natural level, thus aiding navigation and making them more attractive and valuable. During other seasons of the year the summer resort interests have no use for the water.

The Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company is now fully organized and the work of development is in full progress. Its revenues are limited to six per cent on the actual investment and are derived from the water powers in operation and benefited in proportion to the benefits. Geo. A. Whiting of Menasha is its President and G. D. Jones of Wausau its Secretary. It has a Board of seven Directors, at present made up of leading men of the Valley.

FISHING.

Many excellent, practical people whose everyday life brings them in close touch with the stern realities of the world, have small patience with the fisherman, hunter and such like free and easy characters. Possibly those of us who fish, whether we are rowing against the swift current of the Wisconsin River or sitting tranquilly in some shaded nook on its bank, might be better employed.

Certainly, we might make more money, but there is a profit in fishing outside of dollars and cents. In the many small lakes that form the head waters of the Wisconsin River, there are bass and pike and pickerel, but above and beyond all, there is the muskellonge. Of course, the bass has many attractions for the fisherman, for he is cunning, he is tricky, he fights by indirection. When you catch him, it is because you have caught him unawares. He knows the spoon hook as well as the man who made it, and there is no fly made that he does not know from the real article, but he is ambitious, and always hopes that he can show you how wise he is without danger to himself. And so bass fishing becomes a battle in which strategy is the basis, and the one most skilled in cunning comes out best.

But with the muskellonge, it is a battle royal from the start, and no trickery.

The heavy artillery comes into play at the outset, and it is always a question of ability to fight in the open. And the lakes of the Wisconsin Valley have been the scene of many an interesting battle on this line. When hooked, the muskellonge never fails to come to the surface to see what manner of foe he is to battle with. The bass is crafty and cunning, but the muskellonge is the fighter of the waters. The bass comes to your hook for food, and only for food.

The musky comes for a fight and only for a fight. And having come, he does his best to make it an interesting one. Incidentally, the muskellonge is also one of the most prolific sources of inspiration for breaking the ninth commandment.