Wisconsin Resources
Railroads in North Wisconsin

From the Wood County Reporter, October 12, 1899

When There Were No Railroads in North Wisconsin -- Development of Country

Surnames: Alban, Baker, Compton, Edwards, Joy, La Vigne, Powers, Rablin, Remington, Rivers, Scott, Upham

Euzebe LaVigne, who died at Grand Rapids recently, was one of the pioneers of that section when there were no railroads in that section of the state, and when the way into the great pinery of the central and northern part of the state could only be reached through a laborious journey by team, and the way out for the lumberman was by rafting his product down the river. The pioneer lumbermen forced their way up the rivers into the heart of the pinery, cut timber, erected mills to make it into lumber and floated it to market.

For many years after Euzebe La Vigne and a few other venturesome spirits pushed their way to the grand rapids of the Wisconsin River, the nearest sources of supply were in the small towns that were growing up on the edges of the pinery, LaCrosse, Portage, Berlin, Oshkosh and Green Bay. Civilization was gradually forcing its way into the wilderness, but in this section of the country its progress was slow, it being so badly impeded by the dense forests. Between this line of frontier towns and the pinery proper lay the semi-barren expanse, parts of which are found in Adams, Juneau, Waushara and Waupaca counties, a territory so uninviting that it attractd settlers but slowly, and that the railroads avoided when they came as offering inadequate returns for capital. Thus the first lines of railroad kept on the outer edge of the great pinery, striking through the country that was more easily developed. The Milwaukee & La Crosse railroad followed a line as nearly direct as practicable between Milwaukee and La Crosse, but it was not built until fifteen years or more after the pioneer woodsmen of the Wisconsin River valley had started settlements and built mills at Grand Rapids, Stevens Point and Wausau. When it was finally built New Lisbon was the nearest point to these towns, forty-four miles from Grand Rapids, sixty-five miles from Stevens Point and about 100 miles from Wausau.

Distant as this railroad was from the mills and logging camps, the lumbermen hailed its coming with joy as it lessened the distance between them and civilization, abridged the difficulty of getting supplies and the labor of returning them "down the river" after taking a fleet of lumber to market.

In time a railroad was built to Berlin, the nearest approach to the pineries on the southeast for years, but this was still over sixty miles distant from Stevens Point, the nearest Wisconsin River settlement. Then the approach of the railroads ceased and for many years they came no nearer. It was not until after the war of the rebellion that railroad men began to discuss the feasibility of piercing the pine wilderness, and then the new Wisconsin Central company was the pioneer. Lured by the promise of a valuable land grant a company was formed by Boston capitalists and a railroad was projected that was the surprise of the railroad world. The company started to build from Menasha and it was not long before a line was completed to Stevens Point, the first place at which the Wisconsin River was touched by a railroad above Kilbourn City. This road gave Stevens Point an outlet, or rather an inlet, from civilization, since the river had been its outlet for many years and was still utilized for years as the main route for the shipment of lumber to market. The matter of obtaining supplies was much simplified, and Grand Rapids and Wausau were brought within a few miles of railroad communications, twenty-one miles for the former and about forty miles for the latter.

About the time the Central was built to Stevens Point several lumbermen at Grand Rapids organized a railroad company to build the Wisconsin Valley railroad from a junction with the St. Paul road at Tomah to Grand Rapids, with the ultimate extension of the line up the river to Wausau. Judge L. P. Powers of Grand Rapids, a lawyer who was also interested in lumbering operations, was chosen president of the construction company. H. W. Remington of Remington, now Babcock, was the vice-president, C. O. Baker of Grand Rapids secretary, and Thomas B. Scott and John Rablin of Grand Rapids and John Edwards of Port Edwards were directors. The road was graded from Tomah to Centralia, opposite Grand Rapids, forty-seven miles, by the fall of 1872, but by this time the projectors had exhausted their means and were compelled to give away their grade, practically for aid to complete the enterprise.

A contract was made after a great deal of diplomacy with James F. Joy of Detroit through which Mr. Joy furnished the capital to iron the road and equip it with rolling stock. Those were the days of high prices and the iron rails, for steel rails had not then come in, cost the company $80 a ton. The road was finally completed and it was a day of rejoicing when the cars came into Centralia in 1873, about the time that the great panic swept over the land. This was thirty years after the first settlers and lumbermen had penetrated this far into the wilderness, and Grand Rapids and Centralia were thriving towns. The line was ultimately extended to Wausau, Marathon County, giving in aid of the project all its tax deed lands, amounting to over 100,000 acres, and later to Jenny, now Merrill. Then the road passed into the hands of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company and has since been extended to Star Lake, nearly to the Michigan line. Spurs run to all the mills of the section and the line has become a valuable feeder of the main system.

In the fall of 1872 the Wisconsin Central was pushing its line west from Stevens Point through the unbroken wilderness with Ashland as its objective point. As fast as the line was graded the iron was laid, but there were no towns and the stations were named by mile-sections from Stevens Point. For a long time, Marshfield, where William H. Upham afterward located, was known as "32," and besides the rude station the only building was a low log shanty kept by Louis Rivers, a Frenchman, who sold liquor to the Indians. Eight or ten miles to the southwest of "32" was a little settlement of people who had pushed their way into the forest and were making farms for themselves. These people had already organized the town of Lincoln in Wood county and had three school districts with comfortable school houses. They were fifty miles away from the county seat and almost as far from any other neighbors though they had reasonably fair roads to Neillsville in the opposite direction.

Such was the beginning of the development of that section of the Wisconsin pinery, such the beginning of Marshfield, only twenty-six years ago, a town which has become a thriving manufacturing city, a junction point of three railroads, and a city which has given to the state of Wisconsin one of its latter day governors. The country round about it is now filled with fertile farms and is paying the railroad companies richly for the trust it inspired in the days when they began to stretch their iron arms to grasp it. What is true of this immediate section is more or less true of the whole northern part of the state which has been developed by the railroads since that time.

Though the Wisconsin River valley was without railroads long after the war, yet it had reached a surprising degree of development. Its men were hardy and resolute, trained to lives of toil and privation, the life of the lumber camp in winter and that of the mills and the river in the spring and summer. In the spring of 1862 Eusebe La Vigne, whose death has inspired the commencement of this article, which has drifted from him to the development of the Wisconsin River country, aided in the enlistment of a company of lumbermen which was assigned to the Eighteenth Wisconsin infantry, commanded by Colonel James S. Alban, a Stevens Point lumberman and which was made up largely of lumbermen. John H. Compton, also a lumberman, was chosen captain of the Grand Rapids company. Col. Alban and Capt. Compton both lost their lives on the battlefield of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, only a few days after their regiment had left the state, and the regiment was badly cut to pieces, but not before it had shown what fighting blood there was in the veins of Wisconsin river lumbermen.

There is probably not a man now living in Wood county who dates back as far as did Euzebe LaVigne, to 1843. He was the last of that hardy band of pioneers who first recognized the possibilities of the Wisconsin pineries and placed themselves where they could read a portion of the benefits. The life of Euzebe La Vigne was a busy one until advancing age compelled him to retire. He was one of the early merchants and lumbermen, and was three times elected sheriff of the county. He saw great changes in his lifetime, only a few of which have been imperfectly sketched here.

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