Bio: Powers, Levi P. (1881)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Powers, Whitney, Dickinson

----Source: History of Northern Wis. (Wood County, Wis.) 1881, page 1206

LEVI P. POWERS, Grand Rapids, was born in Marshfield, Vt., May 9, 1828. His father removed soon after to Cabot, where he lived with his father until he was twenty-one years of age. He attended the common school of his town, and then the Caledonia Grammar School of Peacham, Vt., and afterward the Peoples' Academy at Morrisville, Vt. Mr. Powers came to Grand Rapids, Wis., in 1853, and engaged in logging for about a year. Had read law as he had opportunity, and had practiced some before in Justices' courts, and was admitted to the Bar in Portage County, in 1855. Has practiced here ever since. Mr. Powers was married to Miss Elizabeth Dickinson, of Janesville, Wis., in 1870. He has held various town offices; has been County Clerk nine years. County Judge eight years, member of the Assembly for the term 1862-3, and United States Marshal in 1860. When Mr. Powers came here, all of Wood County belonged to Portage County, and constituted the township of Grand Rapids. It contained about 1,000 inhabitants, over one half of whom were young men who shaved shingles from Government timber, which was considered free to all at that time. The Government surveyed a strip of land three miles wide on each side of the Wis. River, beginning about three miles below here and extending as far up as Wausau, which came into market in 1840, and was mostly sold to those who wished to build mills and engage in lumbering. The rest of the land did not come into market until 1851, and not much was sold until 1856, and afterward. When Mr. Powers came here, there were three saw-mills near here — two with one upright saw each, and one (Rablins') with two upright saws. Mr. D. Whitney, of Green Bay, built the first saw-mill on the Wis. River, in 1836, about nine miles below here, who got a permit before the Indian titles had been extinguished. He brought all his supplies from Green Bay, boating up the Fox to Portage, and up the Wis. There was no church in Grand Rapids. Mr. Powers started a Sunday-school, and was its superintendent one Summer.