News: Spencer – Present and Future (Jan 1881)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Thayer, Ferguson

----Source: Spencer Advance (Spencer, Marathon Co., Wis.) 20 Jan 1881

There is more business transacted here than would be imagined by a superficial observer. There are seven stores in which general merchandise is sold, one hardware store and tin shop, one grocery and provision store, two furniture shops, two boot and shoe shops, one restaurant, one barber shop, three good hotels, three sawmills, three shingle mills, a planning mill, and a pump factory and watch maker store.

The manufacture of lumber and shingles is the principal industry, and furnishes employment for from 80 to 100 men, exclusive of the men employed in the lumber camps. Any man who is not afraid of work can make a living here, and secure a home of his own, sooner and easier than in older towns, as lumber is plenty and lots are cheap, compared with towns that have more exalted ideas of their importance.

Among the contemplated improvements, we may mention the fact that P. A. Thayer, in company with two or three others, is about to commence the construction of a flour mill and sawmill, which will be running as soon as they are completed. Ferguson Brothers have decided to build a (tasery?) the coming spring. A chair factory is also under contemplation, though we are not authorized to speak definitely on that subject. Good judges predict that there will be more building done here, ensuring reason than in any previous year in the history of the place.