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

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----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913, pg. 545 -  546.

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

THE TOWN OF STETTIN (IN 1912).

The town of Stettin was created February, 1860, by the county board of Marathon county, to consist of township 29, ranges 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 east ; the first election was to be held in the spring of the same year, which resulted in the election of Charles Buttke as chairman. The early settlement has been referred to in Chapter IX, the four brothers Buttke and their cousins being among the first ones, all strong, active, industrious and intelligent men. They soon had nice farms, but the lure of the west with its great prairies attracted them, and most of them went to the Dakotas after having made big farms here. One, the younger, Carl Buttke, died on his farm in Stettin when his children were very young, but his widow kept the property and family together. The town consists now of township 29. range 6, and sections 2"] to 34 in township 29. range 7 east.

The farm settlement in Stettin flourished together with that in Berlin, and while a great number of the original settlers have gone to the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and as far as Oregon, the majority still reside on the original homesteads, the land being now held by their sons and grandsons. It is one of the richest towns in Marathon county, with splendid farms and fine buildings.

There are four cheese factories, all well supplied with milk. One little portable mill purchased in 1882 by Carl Buttke, William Buttke, Othmar Sauter and John Loy, which did a large amount of custom sawing for farmers for twenty years, has been sold and moved into the southern part of the town, where it is still in operation by August Seehafer. Another mill, owned by Fritz Erdmann, makes shingles and laths. Another mill is operated by Fitzke & Plautz on Little Rib.

The town is divided into seven school districts, each having a modern schoolhouse. There are two churches, each an Evangelical Lutheran church. The first congregation was organized by Rev. A. F. H. Gebhard over fifty years ago; the present frame church edifice was built in 1885. This congregation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on the 2d day of June, 1912. It was a profound and solemn celebration. The anniversary services were held in the forenoon in the church, which had been renovated and decorated with flowers, and Reverend Ehnke and President Ahl of Oshkosh, and Reverend Gebhard, the founder and for twenty-eight years pastor of the congregation, spoke of the primitive conditions under which it was organized; and of the hardships with which the founder had to contend. Of the founders who had signed the roll of membership only two, the Reverend Gebhard and A. Kippke,were present; some had moved away, but the majority rested in the cemetery around the church, and in words which sank deep in the heart of his hearers.

Reverend Gebhard remembered the dead. In the afternoon there was a festival in the grove at the church, where greetings from neighboring congregations were read, addresses made and the women of the congregation did the honors to the many guests that took part in the celebration. Revs. P. Spiegel of Wausau and P. Ficken of Edgar each made an address fitting the occasion and the memory of this anniversary will not pale in the hearts of those who had the good fortune to be present. The present pastor is Rev Paul Martin Pilz.

Another nice little brick church is situated near the northwest corner of the town built about seven years ago. where Rev. Ernest Wendtland, the resident minister at the town of Rib Falls, holds service.