Off The Editor’s Desk – 10-16-2019
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The wreck of the Chicago Northwestern “400” passenger train near Wilson on July 30, 1959.
Local History!
Local history has to be a favorite subject for most of us, and a topic that keeps expanding as time goes on. And I would like to remind everyone about the upcoming annual fall meeting of the Glenwood Area Historical Society set for Sunday afternoon, October 27 at 1 p.m. to be held at the Community Center on West Oak Street in Glenwood City.
The featured speaker is Arlyn Colby who has written several railroad books about local rail lines. Some time ago he wrote a piece about the Chicago and Northwestern 400 passenger derailment on the Knapp Hill back in July of 1959. Back then I had just graduated from high school and my dad, Ross DeWitt, sent me to the accident site with his Polaroid camera to take pictures for our newspaper.
Mr. Colby used some of those pictures in his account of the derailment and he has asked my permission to show them at the Historical Meeting on October 27th. If you are interested in local history, I hope you can make the meeting.
This entire area owes it existence to the railroad and the forest that covered the ground that lumbermen were looking to exploit.
I have in my possession a 900 plus page book titled “History of the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin.” It is part of the inventory of the Glenwood City Tribune and contains information about the entire area and many biographies of the people that settled this area. It was published in 1892 and I would like to mention information about a couple of townships mentioned in that book. Both are on the Wisconsin Central Rail line that opened up this area to settlement,
“Colfax Township is a regular Township containing thirty-six square miles and is bounded on the east by Chippewa County. It is watered by the Menomonie (Red Cedar) river and Eighteen Mile Creek. The hamlet of Colfax, on the Red Cedar River was settled in 1867. It was surveyed and platted in June, 1874, and again in September, 1884, shortly after the Wisconsin Central Railroad company had built a station there. A waterpower flour and grist mill was erected some years ago, and is now owned and operated by John D. Simons. There is a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop and a few stores with a post office. The population is about 100. It is mainly an agricultural township, and, according to the census returns for 1890, its population was 672.
“Tiffany Township contains thirty-six square miles and bounds St. Croix County on the west. It is well watered by the South Fork of Hay River, and its tributaries. The hamlet of Barker is on Tiffany Creek, with a station on the Wisconsin Central Railway. The place was settled in 1860, and surveyed and platted in August, 1864. There are about 100 inhabitants and several industries, including the saw and grist mill of A. A. Hays & Bro., the sawmill of John Marlett, and the saw and flour mill of F. L. and J. C. Roberts. It was surveyed and plated in September, 1884, soon after traffic was opened on the railway, with the name of Barker, but its post-office designation is Boyceville. Downing is located on Tiffany Creek, with a station on the same line of the railway. It has a population of about 250. The Downing Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in 1885, owns and operates an extensive sawmill and possesses about 16,000 acres of timberland. The present officers are: President, J. H. Coolidge; vice-president, M. H. Coolidge; secretary and treasurer, D. C. Coolidge. There is a post office, a union church building, a large graded schoolhouse, and a saw and gristmill owned and operated by G. Rudsell. The Township had a population in 1890 of 1,118.””
Logging Train (Old Betsy) from Glenwood to Graytown, Wisconsin, 1890
And, from issues of the Glenwood Tribune that relate to the railroad as follows:
July 19, 1895; “There are 40,000 acres of unimproved lands in this region that can be purchased from $2.50 to $8.00 an acre according to the nearness to railroads, and the balance is not for sale at any price. Lands owned by the Glenwood Manufacturing Company can be had for small cash payments, and any of these lands will pay for itself in a short time.”
On April 24, 1897 was published the following: “No point in the Northwest is receiving as much attention from immigrants as the Glenwood Country. Since the Glenwood Manufacturing Company placed 17,000 acres of land with the Lohrbauer Land and Colonization Company of St. Paul there have been numerous inquires for all manner of lands. Already many valuable tracks have been disposed of and the company feels confident of disposing of this vast tract within two years.
“The farmers already here are prosperous and contended, and enjoying the blessings of a most excellent country and a climate that can not be surpassed. The farmers on these fertile lands are so completely satisfied that they never endeavor to sell. They realize that nowhere else on God’s footstool is there anywhere near as good an opportunity offered to win a competency for their old age. Too much can not be said of the wealth of the soil, the splendid health and generous citizenship of the Glenwood region and no one can picture the vast possibilities for the future of this section.”
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton