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Vesper Historical Index
-First settler was Sam BOYNTON, who latter married and lived in Vesper until his death.
-First land entries in Vesper area are landowners named
1. George W. STANTON
2. James SCALLON
3. Jeremiah WITTER
4. James LAGISON
5. James R. HARSTHORN
6. Daniel SHELDON
7. Hiram LORD
8. Charles MEUNIER
9. Joseph GOODRICH
-Early 1870's Real business life began when Era GIRAD and Mr DRAKE established a saw
mill on the bank of the Hemlock Creek.
-The town grew on both sides of the Hemlock Creek which runs the northeast to southwest
through the village and joins the Yellow River in the Town of Remington.
-1874 Joseph WHITE and his family arrived about the time the saw mill was established.
He was foreman at the mill
-Other arrivals about the same time were:
Era GIRAD and his wife
Henry ROZELLA, who lived on a farm in the area for a few years and then left
Charles WARREN, who worked the mill
Bruce KELLY, who worked the mill
Mike ADAMS, who worked the mill
Len MURPHY, who worked the mill
-GIRAD and DRAKE sold the mill after 1 or 2 years to the WHORTON Brothers, John and
William WHORTON of Appleton. They started to manufacture pine lumber. James W
CAMERON came with them from Appleton and was their foreman for several years.
-James CAMERON, Henry SHERRY and George GERRY bought out the WHORTON Brothers and
operated the mill until 1894.
-The first Store in Vesper was opened by GIRAD and DRAKE. They sold it to the WHORTON
Brothers who in turn sold it to the SHERRY-CAMERON Lumber Company. It operated until
the fire in 1894.
*This was taken from a book put together by some people from Vesper and is found in the
Vesper Library.
Vesper
The first Sunday school was set up by Reverend Freeze, A Methodist missionary. Services
were held in the school house. Church alternated every Sunday with Rudolph. They
continued this for 8 or 9 years with other ministers.
John HASSLER an early settler who was born on March 22, 1868 in Manitowoc County, WI.
He was well know as a cook. In 1894, he bought a farm consisting of 54 acres in Section
7 of the Sigel Township, Now part of Vesper. He grew hay and corn crops, raised Guernsey
cattle that were bred with a pure-bred sire and also raised pure-bred Rhode Island Red
Poultry.
Following the fire of 1894, the Sherry-Cameron Lumber Company sold their holdings to
Edward A BENSON and Charles E ANDERTON of Milwaukee real estate firm. They bought
11,000 acres at $2.50 an acre. The purchase included 100 acres that the village of
Vesper was on. Clifford R GOLDSWORTHY later traded them some property in his native
Racine County, for the 100 acre village site.
GOLDSWORTHY helped BENSON and ANDERTON sell their land. As many as two to three farms
sold each day for about 1 and 1/2 years. They sold the balance of their land to
GOLDSWORTHY, who employed Charles HULL to clear the land of stumps for the settlers.
In 1896, GOLDSWORTHY moved to Vesper. He was a leading figure in its redevelopment.
He engaged in several occupations over the years ranging from farming to starting a
lumber business to operating a store, hotel and a real estate business. In the early
1900's he built a saw mill near the Hemlock Creek in the southwest part of Vesper. A
short time later, he took on Colin McNICOL as a partner. It burned down about 6 or 7
months later. McNICOL then built a saw mill but died before it was built. It was later
sold to Dave C WOODRUFF and moved away.
GOLDSWORTHY was a member of the town of Hansen board and also served as its chairman. He
was elected to the state Assembly in 1905 and served for 2 years. He deeded the 300' by
300' plot of land to the town of Hansen which is known as Cameron Park. GOLDSWORTHY died
in 1946 in Vesper.
*This write up was taken from the Vesper History at The Vesper Library.
This information was provided by
Marlys Steckler
and we would like to thank her.
[Click Here] to view
her homepage.
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Sunday, 21-Nov-2004 00:33:23 MST
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