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History: Marathon Twp., Marathon Co., Wis. (1913)

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----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913, pg. 539 -  540.

----Township of Marathon, Marathon Co., Wisconsin 1913 History

THE TOWN OF MARATHON.

This town originally comprised the whole territory of Marathon county, but when the county was organized and the county seat was named "Wausau," and there being only one town in the whole county, this name as the name of a town was lost for some years, but was revived April 5, 1859, when a new town was created out of portions of the town of Wausau, and the new town was given the name of "Marathon." This new town embraced in its territory township 28, from ranze 2 to range 6, inclusive. The history of the village and the town of Marathon are nearly identical. The Pittsburg settlers' club, into which each member paid $100, for which sum he could get, or was entitled to get, eighty acres of land near to the newly laid out village of Marathon City, and one village lot and three acres on the outskirts of the village, made each settler at the same time the owner of real estate in the village and interested in its future. But there was no business in the village, nothing but dense forest, and settlers had to move on the land and go to farming. The platted village served only as a point for a meeting place, and more so after the church was built and regular service held.

The growth of the town of Marathon was very slow for many years, slower than the towns of Berlin and Stettin, and Maine. The cause of the faster growth of the latter towns was this : the emigration from Germany was much stronger from its northern part—from Prussia, particularly from Pommerania—and the settlers in these latter towns being almost, without exception, from that portion of Germany, attracted these newcomers. The emigration from the southern and extreme western part of Germany, from where the people hailed that settled in Marathon City, was not nearly so great, and the influx of newcomers from Pittsburg almost ceased after the war between the states broke out. The town of Marathon enjoyed its most rapid growth after 1876, when through the judicious advertising given the Marathon county lands by J. AI. Smith and somewhat later by Fred Rietbrock, new settlers came in, going to the town of Marathon, and even more so to the present town of Cassel. Most of these newcomers were of Polish nationality, but a good portion were Gennans.

These German emigrants coming from Pittsburg and their descendants, or a majority of them, are still living on the old farms made by their parents, and so are the second group which came after 1870. In the town of Marathon the descendants of the German emigrants are still in the ascendancy. The town is pretty well settled ; not much wild land is held by nonresidents. There are splendid farms, good houses, good bams and good roads, good schoolhouses and everything to make farm life agreeable. Rural routes bring the daily mail and newspapers, villages are near by and telephone stations bring the farmer in immediate connection with other cities or towns.

There is one small saw mill in this town given to custom sawing. There are four cheese factories which do a fine business, distributing probably over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the farmers in this town. It is a fact worthy to be mentioned that from the very beginning there was a better stock of cattle kept in this territory, which included Cassel, than in most other German towns. The German fanner from the south took more to cattle than to grain raising, in which latter the North Gernian farmer in the eastern and northern towns of Stettin, Berlin and Maine excelled. With the establishment of creameries and cheese factories there has been a change everywhere in favor of a better grade of cattle, and good breeds are now to be found in every town.

In the town are three joint school districts, each of course with a well equipped schoolhouse, everything needful in the instruction of the young being readily furnished.

There are no churches in this town; the population, mainly adherents of the Catholic church, are members of the congregation in Marathon City, while those of the Polish nationality worship at the Polish Catholic church in the neighboring town of Cassel.