----Source: The Clark Republican and Press Date: 5-27-1881

THORPE

A correspondent of the Chippewa Times, has the following to say of one of the promising villages of this county:

"One of the real smart and promising towns on the line that I have not seen mentioned in the Times is the village of Thorpe, about half way between Chippewa Falls and Abbottsford, in one corner of Clark county. When we reached here last fall there was but one log cabin. Now it has two fine stores, a large hotel, a fine school-house, a shingle-mill, and numerous other buildings going up every day. The country about here is very fine, and is rapidly being taken up by settlers. Our town people are just now rejoicing over Judge MacBride’s success in setting aside some six thousand dollars in bonds voted to the Wisconsin & Minnesota railroad last fall by this town. The grounds upon which the supreme court declared the bonds illegal is that the petition asking that the bonds be issued was largely circulated and signed on Sunday. It was quite a victory for Judge MacBride, of Neillsville, to win over town such prominent attorneys as Mr. Pinney, of Madison, and Mr. Abbott, of Milwaukee.

Mr. Boardman, our genial post-master, and well-known at Chippewa Falls, where he does most of his trading, is doing much towards building the town up. He has just put up a handsome store building, and is fitting the upper part off for a public hall. Mr. Boardman is one of the first settlers of the town, and is platting his handsome farm on one hundred and sixty acres into town lots and offering them to settlers at very reasonable prices.

Another one of our energetic business men is Mr. Garrison. He came here lst fall, erected a fine building, and put in as fine a stock of goods as can be found in any store along the line. Mr. Garrison’s trade is much better than he anticipated it would be, and he intends to enlarge his building during the coming season.

Mr. N.N. Burrington is busy enlarging his hotel. It is something that has long been needed. There is considerable travel through here and he has often felt the necessity of a larger building. Mr. B. is an old hand at the business and is giving good satisfaction as a landlord.

Our shingle-mill has only recently started up. The proprietors came from Green Bay. They have had large experience in the business, have capital and will no doubt build up quite a business here. They have already shipped a number of car-loads from this point.

At some future day we will give the Times readers a more extensive account of Thorpe and its progress, and in the mean time, if any of your readers want a new location we hope they will come and look our country over."