Follow the River.......

Historical Recollections by Lula Mae Stewart

Contributed by the Greenwood Public Library, Transcribed by Janet Schwarze

How Thorp Grew out of the Woods

I will now go to my story of how Thorp grew out of the woods before the white man came to the thick forests where Thorp now stands. There was nothing but thick forests inhabited only by bands of Chippewa Indians and wild animals.

This was the scene back around 1871 when the axman's stroke broke the silence. I believe that James Boardman was one of the first settlers to come to the Thorp area. it was said that he made the first-clearing in the area where Thorp now stands.

The nearest neighbor was at Longwood and the nearest Post Office was at Greenwood. In order to make a living for themselves and their families they made shave shingles, which they loaded on a jumper and hauled to Black River Falls, where they exchanged them for groceries and other things they needed to survive. The trip took about eleven days with a team of oxen. In or around 1875 the first farm house was built in the present town of Thorp.

These early settlers worked in logging camps in winter and in summer clearing land on which to raise crops. They packed their supplies in on their backs from Greenwood or Chippewa Falls. Around 1875 more settlers began to arrive in the area. About 1874 a Post Office was established some where in the area, I do not know the exact location. This Post Office also carried a small supply of staple goods, before this the settlers had to travel to Greenwood twenty miles away or to Abbotsford twenty seven miles.

About 1876, Thorp became a township, they appropriated two thousand dollars for a school and one thousand dollars for a road. The small community was growing but the settlers were going through many hardships. Then in May of the same year the dreaded disease Diphtheria struck the small community, leaving many empty chairs and broken hearts. I heard old timers tell about one man who lost his whole family to the dreaded disease. They were all laying dead in the house at the same time. What a terrible tragedy. This happened quite often in these days an epidemic could wipe out a whole community. Small Pox was another dread-disease.

In 1880 I. O. Garrison came to Thorp and built a saloon and general store. In Novemberl88O the first train ran to Thorp. Imagine the excitement, as the people gathered and waited for the train to arrive. In 1881 a depot was built, so at the age of six months Thorp had two general stores, one saloon, two hotels and a blacksmith shop, a school, a depot, and five houses.

In 1882 a hardware store was built, some where around 1886 a church was built. A minister journeyed through on a month to month basis. If my dates are correct the first newspaper was published in Thorp in 1883.

By 1887 Thorp had grown to quite a size. More people came in and a bank was built, a drug store, a cigar factory, a barber shop, a coal kiln, a livery stable where people traveling through could board their horses for a small fee.

Sterling was another mill town, that is where sterling curve got its name. It was also called suicide curve, because of the many accidents that happened there. But some of these mill towns didn't grow. When the timber was gone, the mill moved out leaving behind cut over land and a few old buildings. The old mill pond is still there, located between Highway 29 and County Trunk X.

What I remember best about Thorp are the Fourth of July celebrations they had there when I was a child. People came from miles around to celebrate the Fourth in Thorp. There was a carnival there every year. There were stands where we could win beautiful prizes by throwing balls at some pins. There was a Ferris wheel and a Merry-Go-Round and other rides. There were food stands and pop to drink. How good the food smelled, we really had an appetite after walking up and down the streets taking in all the sights.

The celebration lasted for three days, but by the end of the second we had all of our money spent so we didn't go back it was all so exciting it gave us something to think about for the rest of the summer. I remember the first time they had plane taking people up for rides, my uncle wanted me to go up, but I was too frightened so I stayed on the ground an spent the rest of the week wondering what it would have been like to ride in a plane.

Once in a while we would go the the theater in Thorp.  At first they had the silent movies, the actors moved very fast and then printing came across the screen telling us what they said. Of course we thought this was wonderful, as we had never seen anything else. Then when I was about twelve the talking movies came out. These were certainly big improvement over the old ones. People went to the theater often in these days as television had not been invented at this time.

We shopped in Thorp as often as we could, they had more stores and a larger selection of merchandise than some c the smaller stores. Although Owen and Withee had number of stores at this time too. Thorp seemed like a bi city to us when we were children. Even Marshfield seemed far away. Later when I grew up I was employed in Thorp for several years. My first place of employment in Thorp was a Snyder's Fashion Service. I applied for work there as I love, to sew and sew is what we did. I have a story of Snyder Fashion Service which will appear later in this book, but first I will write about how Thorp was at the time I worker there.

When I was employed at Thorp the Mile A Way ballroom was located one mile north of Thorp. Dances were held there every Saturday night and some times during the week They always had a good orchestra and the young people from the area had many good times dancing there. We used to say we will swing and sway at Mile A Way. Sometime there were fights but they were soon stopped and incident like this were few and far between.

This dance hall later burned down. At this time there was i dress shop on the north end of town. There was Snyder Fashion Service. The Farmer Store that stood where the Farmers Mart is now carried a complete line of groceries and meats. They also had dress goods, some clothing for both men and women, hardware and some appliances and a complete line of footwear.

The Ben Franklin Store was located in the building that nom houses Wolf's Drug Store. It was owned and operated by Lloyd Murphy and his wife. There was Wolf's Shoe Store and Fischers had a plumbing shop. The Drug Store was north ol where it is now, Andersons had a clothing and furniture store across the street from where Wolfs now have their Drug Store, Claymore Boggimill had a men's clothing store Ben Weirnarz had a meat market and grocery store, the Dairy bar was located where it is now. I remember eating many delicious lunches there as all the ladies who drove t town to work ate their lunch there.

Pabichs grocery was located just north of where the new grocery stands today. The Ford garage stood where Pabichs Market stands today. Hedier's cafe once a busy place and operated by Tom and Fred Hedier is now occupied by Dr. Melcher and Sprague. I remember eating many delicious lunches there also. There were two feed mills and two lumber yards, also a stock yard where Weirnarz bought cattle. The Blue Moon and the Thorp Finance employed many people at this time so business was good.

There were also several insurance agencies. D. D. Stookey operated a real estate business. There was a Gamble store and several filling stations. Several of these businesses have moved to the south end of town near the new highway. Later there was a Laundromat in Thorp. This was a real boon to the farm women as we could take our clothes to town and be home to help with the field work. In these days the farms weren't modern so the whole family was involved in the operation.

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