History: Hixon Twp. - Withee - Village Train Depots (c1882 - 2018)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Beilfus, Davidson, Hodnett, McMiller, Martin, Murphy, Schewenke, Sunnenburg

----Source: Marshfield News-Herald (Marshfield, WI) Allan Hodnett/Owen-Withee Facebook 9/2018


To Disappear From Scene

WITHEE - Workmen are dismantling the Withee Soo Line Railroad depot, which for more than a half century has been a distinctive part of the community scene and history.

Reared on the heavy flow of passenger and freight traffic that flowed through the village for many years, the community saw its last passenger train about a year ago, and now is seeing the last of its depot. Far off down the years there were as many as eight passenger trains serving the village daily.

Like many other smaller communities, Withee is a victim of an age in which motor trucks have skimmed the cream off local freight traffic and the uses, autos and planes have lured away the passengers.

A. R. Martin, Withee blacksmith, recalls that the depot now being dismantled was erected in 1906, the year he arrived here. The first depot, Martin says was built about 1882.

History records that the first train entered the village Nov. 23, 1880, over a new line of the Wisconsin Central Railroad (now the Soo Line) from Abbotsford to Chippewa Falls. This link in the road’s system was discontinued after construction of the Owen-Withee cutoff from Spencer about 1911.

Agents who have served the Withee depot, as remembered by Mr. Martin, included John Davidson, the first agent; Carl Beilfus, Carl Sunnenburg, George Murphy, Arthur Schewenke, and finally, F. E. McMiller.

First Withee Depot - Wisconsin Central Depot (c1882 - 1906)

Second Withee Depot - Soo Line Depot (1906 - 2018)