Bio: Thayer, Eugene Butler (1853 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Thayer, Davis, Butler, Stafford, Ringle, Reed, Cleveland, Gooding,

---Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Thayer, Eugene Butler (30 April 1853 - 19??)

EUGENE BUTLER THAYER, owner and publisher of the Wausau Pilot at Wausau, Wis., has been engaged here in journalistic work continuously since 1882 and was previously engaged as a printer in the various offices of Wausau, from 1863. Mr. Thayer was born April 30, 1853, at Princeton, Green Lake county, Wisconsin, and is a son of Lyman Wellington and Catherine (Davis) Thayer.

Lyman Wellington Thayer was born April 21, 1830, at Middlesex in Ontario County, N. Y., and was a son of Capt. Lyman E. and Fanny (Butler) Thayer. In 1836 Captain Thayer removed with his family to Michigan, and in 1850 to Green Lake county, Wis., where his wife died in 1862, his death following at Wausau, two years later. Lyman Wellington Thayer accompanied his parents when they came to the West, and afterward entered the law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which he was graduated and in 1850 was admitted to the bar. He went directly to Green Lake county, Wisconsin, and was there united in marriage the same year with Catherine Davis, who was born in Wales, in 1834, came to the United States with her parents in 1841 and resided at Kingston, Wisconsin. Five children were born to Lyman W. Thayer and wife, Eugene Butler being the second in order of birth. In 1854 Mr. Thayer came to Wausau after practicing law for three years at Princeton and Waupaca. For a time, in those early days he taught a private school and conducted the first book store in Wausau. He engaged in the practice of his profession here and was subsequently elected to the office of register of deeds for Marathon County, which office he held at the time of his death, March 7, 1860.

Eugene Butler Thayer attended the public schools of Wausau until ten years of age, when he entered the Central Wisconsin printing office owned by M. Stafford. Three years afterward he accepted a position on the Wisconsin River Pilot, owned by V. Ringle. In 1872 he was in Menasha as foreman of the Menasha Press, owned by Thomas B. Reed. Returning to Wausau in 1873 he accepted a position as foreman of the Central Wisconsin, and in 1876 bought the Central Wisconsin job office, and in 1882 started the Wausau Review. In 1884 he purchased the Wisconsin River Pilot and consolidated the papers and conducted the Pilot Review, later making the name the Wausau Pilot, which he has owned and published ever since. During the campaigns of 1884 and 1896, he conducted a daily Democratic paper. Mr. Thayer was receiver of the U. S. Land Office under the administration of President Cleveland, from 1893 to 1897.

Mr. Thayer married Miss Delia Frances Gooding, a daughter of William A. Gooding, of Lockport, Illinois and to them; four children were born. In religious views Mr. Thayer is a Universalist. For many years he has been prominently identified with the leading fraternal organizations. He is a member of Forest Lodge No. 130, F. & A. M., Wausau; Wausau Chapter No. 51, R. A. M., Wausau; St. Omer Commandery No. 19, K. T. and is now right eminent grand commander K. T., of Wisconsin. He belongs also to Wausau Lodge No. 215, L O. O. F., Wausau, and to Marathon Encampment, No. 79, Wausau, and to Wausau Lodge No. 248, B. P. O. E.