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Oconto County Wisconsin ABRAMSFormerly named "West Pensaukee". The community's first settler was a blacksmith named Richard Yeaton. The village was renamed "Abrams" by the railroad in 1881, after Winford ABRAMS, who had sold them land for the right-of-way. Information provided by Gary Truckey.Actually, Abrams was named after Winford’s father, William J Abrams. (see: http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/mayors_past/mayor_abrams_wj.html ). Both of these men served as mayor of Green Bay and each was involved in some aspect of railroading, but William J Abrams was the person honored.contributed by: Bob Reim The original village was set along a
five mile
strip of the finest pines in the county. The first name used
was"Pumpkin
Pine", the "West Pensaukee. Letters to friends and relatives by the
first
settlers to the area brought increasing numbers by boat up the
Pensaukee
River from Lake Michigan, where trees measuring four to five feet in
diameter
were a common sight. Richard B. Yeaton arrived in 1857 to make the
tools
necessary for the influx of new farmers as well as those needed by the
local Native Americans. Levi Sargent owned the property next to the
blacksmith
and for many years had the only other home in the area. Mail was
brought
by snowshoe, horseback and, later, stagecoach between Stiles and Green
Bay. The first post office was in the home of W. Hale. The road used
was
an ancient Indian trail, also commonly used by the Native Americans of
the area. With the coming of the railroad in 1881, a school and
Methodist
Church as well as boarding houses and private homes began to appear
along
the tracks. John Chatell built the first hotel and by 1887 there were
about
30 homes, two hotels, three stores, a drug store, a train depot and
three
sawmills. Most of the earliest settlers were from New England and had
the
surnames of Barker, Dutton, Powell, Minick, Birmingham, Bent, Task,
Knowles,
Parkinson, Sargent, Rowell, Busch, Lowell, Tuttle, DeLano, Rifenberg,
Brooks,
Wilson, Bellingham, Betts, Rice, Orr, Whitcomb, Ames, Bovee, McKinnley,
Waldron, Whitney, Lince, Bell, Ruchie, Winans, Peters, Leonard,
Fitzpatrick,
Bauder, Farley, and Dunton. Initially, these settlers wanted to name
the
town after their Massachusetts homes of "Lowell" or "Portsmouth". A
large
number of local men enlisted in the Civil War Northern Army either
directly
from Abrams or from their original homes in Massachusetts. Dr. Violet
was
the first doctor, followed by Dr Faulds, who practiced over 50 years
and
attended more than 3,000 births. By 1911 there was a bank and a
telephone
service. Fires twice slowed the progress of Abrams, first the Peshtigo
Fire of 1871 and later a local fire in July of 1923. The mystery of the
murder of a tavern keeper named Baumgartner in the early logging days
still
haunts town history and defies solving.
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