The “History of Pembine” article appeared in 1940. It was published in the “The Sapling”, the first yearbook ever put out by a Senior Class at Pembine High School.  It was written by Bernice Sauld and much of the information came from her father, Ernest G. Sauld, who was an early prominent resident of Pembine.

The History of Pembine

“This is the forest primeval.”

            Longfellow’s famous statement might well have been written about this area of 100 years ago.   Fresh sparkling lakes and gently rolling hills. Heavily wooded with virgin timber; wild game roaming at will; beautiful and now rare wild flowers thickly carpeting the floor of the forest – such a scene might well have met the eyes of the first white people who settled here. Interspersed with the timber, were rock crags and bluffs known for their beauty.  It was many years before notice was taken of those peculiar granite formations and there were no suspicions of their intrinsic value.

            The first knowledge of Pembine as a community was an Indian trading post, situated on the banks of the river known to Indians as Peme Bon Won, or "Squaw With Curly Hair". It was easy to translate this name into Pembine, which it soon became.

            The first railroad that came in 1886, the Milwaukee Northern, gave further impetus to this small but lively outpost. The Soo Line - - built in 1887- - formed a junction with the Milwaukee Road and is the main reason why the community still flourishes despite the fact that its main industry, lumbering, has long since exhausted itself.

            With the coming of the Soo Line, logging operations began in earnest.  One of the largest of these concerns of Wm. Holmes and Son of Menominee, who operated out of Walton.  This company employed several hundred men and worked out of its own railroad, now a part of the Wisconsin-Michigan Line. Fifteen other companies operated in the vicinity, among them Sawyer-Goodman, N. Ludington and Hamilton-Merryman, three of the largest outfits. There were in all several thousand men employed within a small radius of Pembine, which leaves no doubt as to the nature of the early village.

            If you have ever read a description of a typical frontier town, then you can visualize Pembine in its early days. Money flowed like water from the robust, happy-go-lucky lumberjacks, and there were many places in which to spend it. Old-time saloons greatly outnumbered all other buildings. Accounts of fights often ending in a knifing or a shooting were not uncommon, and more than one man met his demise and his body was found in an alley or a hotel room, shrouded in mystery. There were many notorious characters of this time, and one of the most well-known of them was William “Buffalo Bill” Johnson, a native Swedish sailor. It is said he resembled a traveling commissary, with a large slab of salt pork and a loaf of bread habitually bulging out of his shirt and a knife and fork safely cached in his boot. The town’s most outstanding soap-box orator was Patty Daley, who also entertained his audience on the flute. One of the more well-known of the lumberjacks was called “Alcohol Pete,” and if we can believe legend, he was a connoisseur of alcohol and wormwood.

            Hotels also made up a good share of the town’s business places, at one time there being four in operation: The Commercial, The Exchange, The Algonquin, and Quinlan’s. In 1889 a fire started in one of the buildings from an exploded gas lamp and spread through several other places of business.  In 1900 another disastrous fire occurred.

            Among the other early businesses was a store owned by Sam Banty in which Charley Lawrence clerked. It was an established fact the Mr. Banty bought venison and blueberries from the Indians with which to stock his store. There were also two butcher shops, one operated by Mae and Justice Josephson, which was located on the present site of the Algonquin Hotel, and the other owned by Joseph Willis. About 1905 the settlement boasted another enterprise – The American Forestry Company, which is still run by its founder, Simon Maloney.

            It was evident Pembine was soon to lose its great logging industry when in 1915 the Wisconsin-Michigan railroad was removed. With the decline of the lumbering industry came the decline of the hotel trade. In 1910 the Commercial burned and was followed in 1915 by the Exchange, which fell victim to the demon fire.

            Without the impetus furnished by the lumbering concerns, Pembine became more or less a struggling community buoyed up by its railroads, its few trades, and small scale farming which was carried on in surrounding districts. Potatoes were at first the staple crop raised on the cut-over land, and many farmers raised a certified crop, but the light soil was not conducive to the raising of them and dairying became the most profitable pursuit.

            Within the last five years an effort has been made to establish a tourist trade in Pembine, the many beautiful lakes and the climate making this possible. The most successful venture of this type is the Lake Lundgren development, which has been steadily enlarging for years. The vicinity is also well-suited to the autumn hunter trade, giving them ample opportunity to test their skill on our abundant game reserves.

            But to most eyes, Pembine was a ghost town, reminiscent of those virile days of the past and now merely subsisting. It would not vanish completely as long as it was an important cog in the arteries of transportation, but there would be nothing to restore it to its former fame, or rather, notoriety. However, there were rumblings.

            Unobtrusively, other eyes were looking upon the beauty of the town’s vast, rolling cut-over plains. Interspersed here and there with jutting granite rock formations. They were not looking upon them with the eyes of those early settlers who saw only their beauty, but with the trained practical eyes of scientists who saw also their worth. Geologists they were. And they soon confirmed their suspicions of hidden wealth after several test drillings into the rock.

            Thus the vast Kremlin country has passed into another phase of its metamorphosis. It has been stripped of its tall and stately timber, has stood lonely and idle for many years, has felt the tramp of thousands of sheep during its brief period as a sheep ranch, and now at last was coming into its own.

            The Staso Milling Company of Vermont was putting up a plant for the crushing and refining of rock for the manufacture of composition roofing. The Austin Construction Co. began the actual building of the structure in March of 1939.

            The town prospered and money again flowed as it had in those other days. The first flush of success is now gone, replaced by the steady, conservative growth that is the only firm basis for success.

            The hand of mere man has now written of the past and present of Pembine. Only the slow and heavy hand of Time can write its future. And of its prospects only Time will tell.

The following history of Pembine is reprinted with permission of the Amberg Historical Society
Amberg, WI 54102

Please visit the Museum and see more artifacts about the Pembine area. The Book this is taken from is called the Amberg Centennial book and may be purchased at the museum. It contains information about the entire Township of Amberg from it's beginnings.

We thank the Amberg Historical Society for allowing us to use this material.

CHAPTER 18
Pembine

Pembine was almost a perpetual pawn in the division of Amberg, sometimes being pulled towards Niagara and occasionally towards Amberg, finally ending up as an independent town of its own. Pembine was already a good sized village in the early 1900's, and continuing to grow at a fairly fast pace. By 1903 inhabitants were planning to build a new schoolhouse, and a telephone line was coming in from Iron Mountain. Plans were being made to take the old school and make it into a Catholic Church. Loren Sauld, who was proprietor of the Forest Hotel at Pembine, decided to engage also in the mercantile business there. He owned the store building north of and adjoining the hotel, and was installing shelves and counters, plus showcases for display purposes. Frank Richards ran the store the previous year. In 1903 a Mr. Kuchenbacker from Dunbar built the new Pembine school. It consisted of 4 rooms and was a two story building, 27 X 50 feet. An addition on the east side, 10 X 22 feet was built for an entrance hall and cloak rooms on both the first and second floors. The school also had a full basement, with a hot air furnace and fuel room. By 1904 there were 3 Hotels in operation -the Central, the Forest and Commercial. Loren Sauld ran the Forest and Z. Gravel the Commercial. J. D. Blake owned the Central and redecorated the interior to lease to John Stoveken, Jr. of Niagara, who had given up his hotel there to the Kimberly Clark Company. It was in February, 1904 that he took over the Central Hotel and changed the name to Hotel Algonquin. Hotels evidently changed hands at a fast pace, because the following year, 1905, Mrs. 0. N. Durand who was operating the Algonquin, retired, and Z. Gravel leased the business, running both the Algonquin and the Commercial. The Forest had been closed down, the last operator having been William Johnson. In 1906 J. D. Blake leased both hotels from Mr. Gravel, but the Saloon business in the Commercial was continued under Mr. Gravel. In 1906 also there was an American House in Pembine, owned by Thomas Dion. On July 4 of 1906 there was a gala celebration with a morning baseball game for a purse of $20, with races in the afternoon for prizes worth $100 being offered. In the afternoon there was an Aeronaut balloon ascension and jump, followed by a big bowery dance and fireworks in the evening. During the same summer there was a serious fire in the town when the Pembine Ice House burned, threatening the entire town. It resulted in several hundred dollars worth of damage, with strong winds contributing to the danger. Afire brigade was formed to prevent the fire from spreading, with women as well as men manning the pails and pumps. The Forest Hotel was in direct line with the danger and was on fire several times and windows in the building were broken from the heat. If the Forest house had burned the entire town may have been lost. George S. Robinson at this time moved his stock merchandise to Pembine to start a store, having purchased the J. B. Adams store and warehouse. In 1908 there was a meeting to organize a Presbyterian Church, with 26 families signing petitions for church organization, and formation of a Presbyterian Church Society. The Board of Churches held a meeting in Weyawega and voted to give the fledging group $800, and the hope was that a church would be built within the next few months. Several desirable sites were offered free of charge and it was expected that much of the stone and building materials would be donated. Joseph Cota of Pembine and John Stoveken, Jr. of Niagara were on the Amberg Board of Audit. They helped audit the books of the clerk and treasurer and found them in order. A Board of School Directors met in the Amberg Town Clerks office for their semi-annual meeting -present were W. H. Ryan, Niagara; Joseph Cota; George Willis; Ellis Lundgren; Adolph Mottard, Pembine; and Ed Franklin, Beecher Lake. By this time Pembine had 8 saloons, and one of the saloon keepers was accused of selling liquor to a posted man in violation of the statutes. He admitted the guilt but stated it was unintentional and promised to be more careful in the future. The case was dismissed. Until the time when Niagara pulled away from Amberg, Pembine never knew which town it might belong to. There were petitions to give her to both areas - but in the final vote Pembine won her independence from both Niagara and Amberg, becoming a busy capable town of its own in the process.

The following clippings from local newspapers have been re-keyboarded by Mark McCorkle.  They are unclassified and are of general historical interest.

News article taken from microfilm of the Peshtigo Times - 1909

December 2, 1909
    RESISTED ARREST AND WAS KILLED
    Accidental Discharge of Officer’s Revolver
    Causes Instant Death
    of Geo. Wilson at Pembine

   Geo. Wilson, employed in a lumber camp near Pembine, while resisting arrest at the hands of Deputy Sheriff Chas. Stovekin late Saturday night, was accidentally shot by a bullet from the officer’s revolver and instantly killed.  The bullet went through Wilson’s heart and he was dead when they picked him up.  The officer was attacked by the associated of the dead man who were bent on securing vengeance and he was roughly handled in spite of his protests that it was an accident.  Two of Wilson’s companions, Thos. Henderson and Pete O’Leary, were locked up and held until after the inquest.
   The trouble started when a number of men from Whitlock’s camp came into Pembine Saturday night, and were making the rounds of the saloons.  They grew noisy and boisterous and finally their tactics became so rough that police interference became necessary.  Deputy Stovekin entered the Mullen saloon where the gang was holding forth and place Wilson under arrest, as he seemed to be particularly offensive.  The officer started away with his prisoner and the gang followed, striking and kicking at the officer and endeavoring, if possible, to prevent Wilson’s arrest.  Stovekin drew his revolver to intimidate the crowd and Wilson seized the weapon.  During the struggle which followed the weapon was discharged.
   After an inquest held Monday afternoon, Deputy Stovekin was exonerated.   Testimony introduced at the inquest substantiated the officer’s story in nearly every particular and he was cleared of all responsibility.  Wilson was a stranger and had arrived in Pembine from Minneapolis only about a week before.  No relatives of the dead man could be located and the remains were interred Tuesday at Pembine.



News Articles Taken from micro film of the Peshtigo Times 1912

February 15, 1912   Chas. Stovekin(sic) of Pembine, who was charged with robbery, was discharged after a hearing before Justice Melcheir(sic) at Wausaukee, on the recommendation of the district attorney W. B. Quinlan appeared for the defendant.

April 11, 1912
   Peter Colbis of Niagara, was sentenced to 60 days at the stockade for using abusive language. He was tried in Justice Stovekin’s court at Pembine.



Peshtigo Times - 1914

December 24, 1914

JOHN STOVEKIN HAS CANCER
Former Chairman of County Board Beyond Medical Relief, It is Said
   John Stovekin(sic) of Pembine, merchant and postmaster there, former chairman of the county board a well known and popular man in the county is said to be afflicted with cancer of the stomach.
   He recently returned home from Rochester, Minn., where he underwent a surgical operation, which according to reports was unsuccessful and his death is hourly expected. His parents from Colorado, a sister from Milwaukee and other relatives have been summoned to the bedside of the stricken man.



Peshtigo Times - 1915

January 25, 1915

JOHN STOVEKIN SUCCUMBS
Former Chairman of County Board Passes Away at Pembine
   John Stovekin(sic) passed away at his home at Pembine Monday night following an illness of several months with cancer of the stomach, the immediate cause of death being pneumonia. Some time ago he underwent an operation at Mayo Brothers’ hospital at Rochester, Minn., but the surgeons found his condition such that there was little hope of recovery. A few days ago it was reported that Mr. Stovekin was improving and the news of his death came rather unexpectedly at this time.
   Deceased was born at Kaukauna forty-nine years ago. He had been a resident of Marinette county for about twenty years, residing at Niagara for many years and afterward moving to Pembine where he conducted a general store and was postmaster. He served as chairman of his town for a long time and for four years up to this spring was chairman of the county board
   A widow, three sons and two daughters survive.
   The funeral will be held at Pembine Friday morning at nine o’clock.

Marinette County Centennial 1879 - 1979 Marinette County History Including Pembine

 Marinette County Genealogy and Local History