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History: Halsey Twp., Marathon Co., Wis. (1913)
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----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913, pg. 563 - 564.
----Township of Halsey, Marathon Co., Wisconsin 1913 History
THE TOWN OF HALSEY.
The town of Halsey covers township 30, range 4 east, and was set off from the town of Hamburg November 15, 1883. At the ensuing spring election William Rietz was duly elected the first chairman of the town. As indicated by its name, the town was largely settled through the efforts of Fred. Rietbrock of the law firm of Johnson, Rietbrock & Halsey. Carl Fiebke operates a saw mill on the line of the logging railroad running from Athens nearly straight north to the county line and then into Lincoln county. There is a large crop of logs taken out by this road every year.
This town was one of the hardest for the settlers to reach, because the distance to Wausau from its nearest point was twenty-four miles and twelve miles to the line of the Wisconsin Central, west, but there was no road to it for years. The absence of roads made the township hard of approach and delayed settlement. Some of the first settlers, who had come at the end of the fifties, John Millert and Ziebell, left and abandoned their farms in that town after having made quite an improvement.
The town is now fairly well settled, and roads lead in every direction, more particularly to Athens, which is the trading point for the whole of this town, and one cheese factory has been established for some years, giving a good market to the farmers for their milk.
There are now four school districts in the town, each with a good schoolhouse. There are ruD churches is this town yet, but the resident farmers hold membership in the near churches in Athens and neighboring towns.
This town was set off from the town of Mosinee November 14, 1884, and organized in the spring of 1885, electing its town officers with Edw. Hayes as chairman—a deserved compliment to the oldest settler in the territory constituting the new town. Grover Cleveland had been elected president in the same fall, and the town honored him by taking his name. It embraces township 27, range 4 east.
This town fomied part of the "Irish Settlement," as the name of the first settlers sufficiently indicate, namely : Hayes, Hughes, Bradley and others, whose descendents are living in the town on large, good cultivated farms. Other old settlers are the brothers Kurtzweile. The German emigration set in after the building of the Wisconsin Central Railroad and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad from Wausau to Marshfield, among the first of that nationality being the Kaiser family and Louis Spindler.
The Chicago & Northwestern enters this town one-half a mile southwest from Fenwood and leaves the town at Stratford on the west. On the south side of the town is situated a railroad, running east from Stratford to section 10 in township 27, range 5 east, in town of Emmett. It was originally built as a logging railroad by the Connor Company to supply their mill at Stratford with logs, but it was obliged to incorporate under the law as a general railroad in order to exercise the right of eminent domain. One saw mill, doing custom sawing, exists in this town and is owned by Albert Naehring. There are two cheese factories, having a large output. Of schoolhouses there are four, one in each district.
A Gennan Evangelical Reformed congregation has a fine frame church building and pastorage, where Reverend Schroedel is the resident minister. It is a strong united congregation existing for about 23 years.