Bio: Scholfield, William B. (1855 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Scholfield, Haseltine, Harger, Manson, Hoefer, Langley, Bardeen, Turner, Quaw, Thayer,

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

---Scholfield, William B. (15 November 1855 - 19??)

WILLIAM B. SCHOLFIELD, secretary and treasurer of the Wausau Box and Lumber Company of Wausau and interested in many other enterprises of business importance in this section, has practically spent his entire life in this part of Wisconsin. He was born at Stevens Point, Wis., November 15, 1855, and is a son of William and Mary (Haseltine) Scholfield.  

Dr. William Scholfield was born at Sandusky, O., and prior to coming to Wisconsin, in the early fifties, practiced medicine at Joliet, Ill., where he married Mary Haseltine, who was reared in the state of New York. They came to Schofield in 1851 and Dr. Scholfield went into the lumbering business, but shortly afterward removed his residence to Stevens Point, where the family continued to reside until his death, in December, 1863, at the age of fifty-four years. He was one of the first lumber operators in the county shipping by river to St. Louis and other lower river points. For a number of years he owned a store at Stevens Point and was a man of good business energy and foresight. His widow survived him until 1893, dying at the age of sixty-one years. They had five children: Kate S., who is the wife of Charles W. Harger, who is vice president of the Marathon County Bank at Wausau; Elizabeth R. who is the widow of George W. Manson, resides at Seattle, Wash.; Mary Virginia, who is the wife of C. C. Hoefer of Kansas City; Margaret Ann, who is a resident of Wausau: and William B., who is the second born of the family.  

Mr. Scholfield attended the public schools until twenty years of age, after which he was employed for the year as bookkeeper for the C. P. Haseltine Company at Schofield and then embarked in a general mercantile business at Wausau. Several years later he moved his business to Merrill, Wis., and continued there for three years and also, in partnership with George Langley, started in the lumber and planing mill business. In 1888, after selling his interests at Merrill, he returned to Wausau and was one of the organizers of the Wausau Box and Lumber Company, the original members of the firm being: Charles V. Bardeen, president; C. E. Turner, vice president; W. B. Scholfield, secretary and treasurer, and Samuel Quaw, director. Three years later Mr. Scholfield and Mr. Turner purchased the interests of the other members and have operated the same until the present, Mr. Scholfield being secretary and treasurer since its first organization in 1892. This plant affords employment to about 133 operatives, consumes 15,000.000 feet of lumber annually, and the product is shipped to all parts of the United States and Mexico.  

On September 1, 1880, Mr. Scholfield was married to Miss Zoa Manson, the oldest daughter of Rufus P. Manson. a pioneer lumberman of Wausau, and they have three children: William R., who conducts a lumber yard at Eldora, Ia., married Miss Delia Thayer, daughter of E. B. Thayer of Wausau, and they have one son, William Eugene; and Mark and Harvey, twins. Mark is in the advertising business and Harvey is in the business with his father. A Republican in politics, for fifteen years he has been a member of the school board and also served on the county board and has served as a member of the city council. For twelve years he was secretary of the Masonic lodge and has served as master and also eminent commander. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of Universalist Church and is on the board of trustees.