History: 1913 History of Brokaw, Marathon Co., Wisconsin

Poster: Janet Schwarze

Surnames: Edmonds, Scott, Yawkey, Runkel

----Source: 1913 HISTORY OF MARATHON COUNTY WISCONSIN AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS BY LOUIS MARCHETTI, WAUSAU, WIS., CHAPTER IV, pgs. 523-526

----THE VILLAGE OF BROKAW

THE VILLAGE OF BROKAW  

Brokaw was a part of the town of Texas before its incorporation in 1906. Its first representative in the county board of Marathon county was F. J. Edmonds. The village owes its existence to the building of the Wausau Paper Mill Company's plant at that place.  

In the years 1880-1881 the Wausau Boom Company erected the dam across the Wisconsin river at that spot for the purpose of making slack water to facilitate the dividing of logs for the Wausau mills and points below the current being too swift to allow that work to be properly done, the creating of slack water became a necessity.  

That was the sole object of putting in the dam in the first place, and it was authoritatively stated that the cost of the dam was $100,000. The great water power created thereby was supposed to be put to some use in the near future, but nevertheless it took nearly twenty years before it was utilized.  

In the year 1899 a corporation was formed by some foreign business men, represented by the brothers Edmonds, and with some business men from Wausau, the Wausau Paper Mill Company was organized, and the mill erected, which has been in continuous operation ever since, running at its full capacity day and night, and employing on an average two hundred and seventy-five men.

Many of the workmen in the mill line at Wausau and are taken to and from the mill by a special train on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, called the "Scud," but the majority live in the village in houses built by the company. The company has built a clubhouse for the workmen, and also a church of the Methodist denomination, with a resident minister since 1903. The present minister is Rev. Roland Scott.

The incorporated capital of the company is $750,000, with the following persons as officers: President, Walter Alexander vice president, C. C. Yawkey; secretary and manager, W. L. Edmonds, and E. A. Edmonds, treasurer.  

The distance to the village from Wausau is five miles, and it is connected with the Wausau telephone system at city of Wausau rates.  

The postmaster of Brokaw is G. A. Runkel.  

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