History: Badger Mills (1881)
Contact: Janet Schwarze
Email: Posted4u@Charter.net

---Source: 1881 History of Northern Wisconsin, pg. 226.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BADGER MILLS (1881)

BADGER MILLS.

This place, on the Chippewa, about six miles down the river from the Falls, was formerly called the Blue Mills. The first mill built here was by Arthur McCann and J. C. Thomas, in 1843.

McCann had married Rosalie De Marie, and kept a public house at Dunnville, down the river. He was shot by a fellow by the name of Sawyer, who had been employed by McCann and Thomas in building the mill. Steve S. McCann took his brother's interest in the mill. Mr. T. E. Randal subsequently owned the mill, or an interest in it, and his logs were all swept away in the freshet of 1847. The mill is now owned by the Badger State Lumber Co. The mill has one gang, one rotary, and a shingle-mill. The capacity is about 10,000,000 feet a year. There is a general merchandise store in the place, carried on by the company; a school house is also also used for stated Methodist preaching. There are about thirty families, and seventy-five men are employed by the company, making a total population of 175. There is a station on the railroad between Eau Claire and the Falls, near the village.