BRIGHT

 

Bright is a station on the Fairchild & Northeastern road five miles south of Owen, named after a wealth capitalist of Black River Falls who has a large stock farm there.

 

CHRISTIE

 

Christie has 150 inhabitants. It is located on the old tote road between Neillsville and Greenwood and for years was an important post office in the county Frank Wheeler conducts a prosperous general store there now.

 

COLUMBIA

 

Columbia has a population of about thirty and is a station on the Omaha line between Neillsville and Merrillan. It has a good looking school building, and several nice homes. A. Schlender is the store keeper. Several years ago Columbia was boomed by a land company but the exploitation was overdone and that part of the county until recently has suffered from the after effects of too much publicity.

 

DEWHURST & BROOKS

 

Dewhurst and Brooks are the names of little settlements in the town of Sherwood, in the extreme southeast corner of the county. The store at Brooks burned down recently but will be rebuilt at once.

 

EIDSVOLD

 

Eidsvold is the name of a little community of 75 or 100 people in the extreme northwest corner of the county, on the Soo line, two miles west of Thorp. Boardman Brothers operate the general store at that place.

 

GLOBE

 

Globe is an inland town ten miles north of Neillsville in the center of a prosperous farming community. It has a creamery, a large German Lutheran church and school, and a store conducted by Linus Prock.

 

HEMLOCK

 

The little settlement of Hemlock has a history of greater proportions than its present importance, as in the early days of the county it was one of the chief trading centers and was the site of a dam, and a grist and saw null. The dam was built in 1879 at a cost of $21,000 and went out only a year or two ago as the result of unusual spring rains.

 

LONGWOOD

 

Longwood, on the old maps, occupies a position equal almost in importance to the county seat, while the now prosperous villages of Owen. Thorp and Withee are not to be found. It was a post office and important trading station in the early days, but since the advent of the rural mail carrier is serene in the history of the olden time and its assurance that the development of the surrounding country must ever be its support even if other places outstrip it in importance. At Longwood now there is a store operated by Erickson & Thorson and a cheese factory of which Henry Mathias is the proprietor. The hamlet has a population of about 50 persons.

 

TIOGA

 

Tioga is a little settlement on the Fairchild & Northeastern road 20 miles northwest of Neillsville, R. D. Ingham conducts the general store and acts as postmaster and station agent.

 

WILLARD

 

A few years ago Ignatz Ceznic started to organize a colony of Slavs and kindred nationalities in the wilderness in the town of Hendren. Today that country is dotted with scores of prosperous farms and the village of Willard is the market place for them, a station on the Fairchild and Northeastern railroad, with two stores conducted by Justic & Kochianchich and John Zoller, and a creamery and other enterprises. It is a thriving little place of. about 50 people. Mr. Ceznic had the backing of the Foster Lumber Co. of Fairchild in his work.

 

~Return to Index~

********