History: Thorp Area Communities
Contact: paul@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Rassmusen

----Source: Paul Forster, Area Historian

Please contact us if you have anything to add to list

BOBBS MILLS

FOUR CORNERS

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS

HAPPY HALLOW

NORTH WORDEN

ROGER CREEK

1905 Plat Map of the Roger Creek Community, Thorp Twp., Clark Co., Wisconsin

Roger Creek included the original Roger Creek School House and the cheese factory owned at various times by the Blazel and Gjermundson families. There was never an actual village associated with Roger Creek, the population consisting of dairy farmers. The area is loosely located in Sections 29 and 32 of the Thorp Township. The current "boundary" might be considered to be along Willow Road and County Road X (old Highway 29) and bounded on the west by Copenhaver Avenue, and Roger Creek and Fernwal Avenues to the east. Roger Creek itself runs through the center of this area.  Potaczek's would have been at the corner of what is now Fernwal and the road leading to Junction. About two miles to the east there was another tavern, the name escapes me at the moment. It may have been on the road which led north to the area we called "Mud Lake".
 

Roger Creek rural school served the community until around 1950. As shown on the map above, it was situated about a half mile east of the East Side Cemetery.  The Township of Thorp 1905 Plat Map (above) identifies the following property owners in Sections 29, 30, 31 & 32 which formed the bulk of Roger Creek School District in those days:

Section 29: Charles Flora, Joe Flora, M. Jorgenson, Peter Rasmussen, Joseph Dukelow, A. Haidal, Hans Anderson, George Garland, Andrew P. Sorenson, S. Solta, and S. F. Solta.

Section 30:J. E. Greene, A. Ramenscheider, Sam Mills, Lars Larson, A. Embertson, and Johnson E. Story.

Section 31: Erickson, Ole Christianson, Charles P. Anderson, Michael McCaffery, Sam Samuelson, Amdahl, S. F. Anderson, E. C. Anderson, and Emerson.

Section 32: Mrs. M. Johnson, James Jorden, O. Starks. E. Martin, Wm. Warner, Mrs. H. F. Jerard, J. Corkins, L. Meier, S. Loper, H. Peterson, and H. Sargent.

The Roger Creek cheese factory that was on old 29, near the railroad crossing, was originally built by Lee Henerson. 

Walter Fero has been historically thought to be the first owner of the Roger Creek Cheese Factory, but we can find no supporting date, or information on Walter and his family.

William Blazel moved into the Cheese Factory most likely sometime in 1926.  William and his children appear on the Roger Creek School census report dated July 25, 1927. Children listed as Gordon, Robert, Dorothy Wallace, Edith and William. They remain on the school census through 1946.

T. J. Gjermundson probably bought the Cheese Factory in 1946 as he and his son Don Jay appear on the Roger Creek School census in 1947 and remain through 1953. Donnie, Gladys Heien and Glenn Rasmussen were the last Roger Creek School graduates. In 1948, the Marshfield News Herald listed the Roger Creek teacher, Gladys Huus, and her graduating students, Arlene Anderson, William Jordan, Jr., Beverly Heian and David Smith.

The creek which ribs through Section 29 is also called Roger Creek.

In 1937, when sixty-seven year old Anna Samulson died, her obituary reported her burial in the "Roger Creek Cemetery".  Today, we know those burial grounds as the East Side Cemetery with that name now referring to its location, east of Stanley, Wisconsin, the closed major town.

*If anyone has a photo of the school or the cheese factory, we would be greatly in your debt!

Memories

An anecdote about the cheese factory: My aunt and uncle (Joe & Francis Harmon) once visited the factory on their way to our house. While in the factory, their son Jim leaned over and took a humungous bite out of a daisy wheel! My highly vexed aunt and uncle were soon the owners of said daisy wheel and we consumed it with great zest >:-} Jim was not in high favor for some time! Paul Forster

SOUTH WORDEN

TOWN LINE