Editing Marshfield, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
[[File:Central Wisconsin State Fair.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[World's Largest Round Barn]] was built in 1916 and is part of the grounds for the annual [[Central Wisconsin State Fair]]]]

In 1851 and 1853, when the area was still forested, [[Surveying|surveyors]] working for the U.S. government marked all the [[Section (United States land surveying)|section corners]] in the {{convert|6|by|6|mi}} square which now includes Marshfield, [[Hewitt, Wood County, Wisconsin|Hewitt]], and [[Cameron, Wood County, Wisconsin|Cameron]], working on foot with [[compass]] and [[Gunter's chain|chain]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Land Survey Information|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/SurveyInfo.html|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|access-date=18 March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Field Notes for T25N R3E|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=PLSS&town=T025N&range=R003E|work=Original Field Notes and Plat Maps, 1833-1866|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|access-date=March 18, 2011}}</ref> When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
<blockquote>''This [[Survey township|Township]] is nearly all Dry land, there being no Swamp of consequence in it. There being too much clay & rocks in it. Particularly that part which contains [[Fir]] & [[Tsuga canadensis|Hemlock]]. The surface is rough & uneven(?) and rather to flat for anything but meadow. There is some good [[Eastern White Pine|Pine]] it but too much scattering to make it an object. The Township is well watered with small streams but none of them are of sufficient size for [[Watermill|Milling]] purposes. The streams are lined with [[Alder]] & many of them producing good [[hay]]. There are no improvements in this Township.''<ref>{{cite web|last=Wright|first=O. J.|title=Interior Field Notes (October 1853)|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=article&byte=2106976&twp=T025NR003E|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|access-date=March 18, 2011}}</ref></blockquote>

Marshfield was settled much later than many surrounding towns. DuBay started his trading post {{convert|40|mi}} east on the [[Wisconsin River]] around 1818.<ref>{{cite web|last=Perret|first=Maurice|title=Origins of Portage County|url=http://www.pchswi.org/archives/townships/origins.html|publisher=Portage County Historical Society|access-date=March 19, 2011}}</ref> A sawmill was built at [[Nekoosa, Wisconsin|Nekoosa]] in 1832.<ref>{{cite web|last=Taylor|first=T. A.|title=100 Years of Pictorial & Descriptive History of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin|url=http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/taylor/sketch_part1.html|access-date=March 19, 2011}}</ref> A sawmill was built at [[Neillsville, Wisconsin|Neillsville]] around 1847.<ref>{{cite book|last=Curtiss-Wedge|first=Franklin|title=History of Clark County Wisconsin|year=1918|publisher=H.C. Cooper Jr & Co.|location=Chicago & Winona|pages=37|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wch&CISOPTR=21093&REC=3}}</ref> The first building at Marshfield came in 1872.<ref name="Kleiman">{{cite book|editor-last=Kleiman|editor-first=Jeff|title=The Marshfield Story 1872-1997|year=1997–2000|publisher=Marshfield History Project|location=Amherst, Wisconsin}}</ref>

In 1872 the [[Wisconsin Central Railway (1897–1954)|Wisconsin Central Railway]] was building the leg of its line from [[Stevens Point, Wisconsin|Stevens Point]] through the forest to what would become [[Colby, Wisconsin|Colby]], heading north for [[Lake Superior]]. The railway needed a supply depot between those two towns, and Marshfield was about midway. At the railroad's request, Louis Rivers, his wife and child, and his brother Frank came to the area and started cutting an opening in the forest. They built a two-room log hotel at what is now the corner of Depot and Chestnut streets, with bunks in the west room and tables, benches, bar and store in the east room. That crude building between the stumps was the first permanent structure in Marshfield.<ref name="Kleiman"/>

Marshfield's name is explained two ways. It might have been named for John J. Marsh, one of the original owners of land in the area.<ref name=source>Kleiman, et al, p. 158.</ref><ref>Jones' 1923 "History of Wood County" says the name was John Marshfield, but the more recent "Marshfield Story" says Marsh in several places, which seems more trustworthy.</ref> Marshfield might also have been named after [[Marshfield, Massachusetts]], since the Wisconsin Central Railway was financed with money from Massachusetts and other stops along the WC's line were named after towns in Massachusetts, including [[Amherst, Wisconsin|Amherst]], [[Medford, Wisconsin|Medford]] and [[Chelsea, Wisconsin|Chelsea]].<ref name=source/>

The first industry was a [[barrel|stave]] and [[spoke]] factory located near the railroad.<ref name=Jones>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=George O.|title=History of Wood County Wisconsin|year=1923|publisher=H. C. Cooper Jr. & Co.|location=Minneapolis – Winona|pages=180|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wch&CISOPTR=39243&REC=2|author2=Norman S. McVean|display-authors=etal}}</ref> In 1878 [[William H. Upham]], a "[[Yankee]]" migrant of [[English American|English descent]] from [[Massachusetts]] and later governor of Wisconsin,<ref>[http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_wisconsin/col2-content/main-content-list/title_upham_william.html "Wisconsin Governor William H. Upham"]. NGA.org.</ref> built a [[sawmill]] near the railway, with a [[millpond]]. By 1885 he had added a [[general store]], a [[planing mill]], a furniture factory and a flour and feed mill. Other businesses started, too: an alcohol factory, hotels, saloons, stores, newspapers, [[blacksmith]], and a [[Hat|milliner]]. There were also churches and schools. The city was [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] in 1883.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/files/docs/placenames.pdf|title=Wood County Place Names|publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press|author=Rudolph, Robert S.| year=1970|pages=50}}</ref> By 1885 the population exceeded 2,000, ranging from the Uphams in their fine [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]] homes to laborers living in shacks along the railroad.<ref name="Kleiman"/>

In 1887, a fire started and got out of control. On June 27, after a dry three weeks, a fire broke out among the drying piles in the Upham mill's lumberyard, ignited by a spark from a train. The fire spread, consuming the sawmill and flour mill, and headed south into homes and the business district. Men tried to stop the inferno, even dynamiting stores to create a fire break, but the updraft lifted embers and dropped them onto more buildings. When it was over, 250 buildings were destroyed, but there were no deaths. The next day, Upham announced he would rebuild his businesses. Neighbors in [[Stevens Point, Wisconsin|Stevens Point]], [[Spencer, Wisconsin|Spencer]] and [[Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin|Wisconsin Rapids]] sent trainloads of supplies. The city ruled that buildings on Central should henceforth be built from brick,<ref name="Kleiman"/> even though Marshfield had been largely built on wealth generated by lumber.

The late 1800s saw a burst of railroad building. In 1872 the Wisconsin Central built the first line through town. In 1887 Upham Manufacturing started a line south from town to haul logs from [[Cameron, Wood County, Wisconsin|Cameron]] and [[Richfield, Wood County, Wisconsin|Richfield]]. In 1890 a line to Neillsville was built. In 1891 a line was built from Centralia (now Wisconsin Rapids), another was built to [[Greenwood, Wisconsin|Greenwood]], and a third from [[Wausau, Wisconsin|Wausau]] to Marshfield came from the north. In 1901 a second line was built from Wisconsin Rapids to Marshfield. In 1903 38 passenger trains stopped daily in Marshfield.<ref>Kleiman, pp. 106–110.</ref> So many tracks intersected in the community that Marshfield was nicknamed "Hub City".

[[Image:Roddis House Marshfield Wisconsin.jpg|thumb|The Hamilton and Catherine Roddis House was built in 1914.]]

The hub was also agricultural. Dairying began to organize as [[Cheesemaker|cheese factories]] started up, such as the one at [[Nasonville, Wisconsin|Nasonville]] in 1885. Roddis and then Blum Brothers made wooden cheese boxes in Marshfield. By 1921 the Blum plant was making 3,500 boxes a day.<ref name="Kleiman, p 25">Kleiman, p. 25.</ref> In 1907 the first cold storage plant was built in town, to store local cheese before shipping it by rail to larger markets.<ref>Kleiman, p. 12.</ref> Ice cream factories followed,<ref>Kleiman, p. 18.</ref> and processing of eggs, chickens, and liquid milk. In 1923 a spokesman for the [[Soo Line Railroad]] said that Marshfield shipped more dairy products than any other city in the United States.<ref name="Kleiman, p 25"/>

St. Joseph's Hospital began with six beds in 1890. Operated by the [[Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother]], it offered early health insurance.  Lumbermen could pay a flat rate, and in exchange St. Joseph's would care for them in case of injury. In 1916, six local doctors formed a [[Group medical practice in the United States|group practice]] clinic in the second story of the Thiel building downtown, calling themselves [[Marshfield Clinic]].<ref>Kleiman, pp. 13-14.</ref>

[[German American|German immigrants]] made up two-thirds of Marshfield's population in the 1890s. One of the two early newspapers, ''Die Demokrat'', was published in German.<ref>Kleiman, p. 8.</ref>  Many had family back in Germany as World War I approached, and had mixed sympathies.<ref>Kleiman, pp. 14-15.</ref>  In one of Marshfield's old Victorian houses, a once-hidden [[Wallpaper|paper]]-hanger's signature boasts, "...1917, when the Germans licked the World."<ref>Kleiman, p. 500.</ref> Feelings were again mixed during World War II.<ref>Kleiman, pp. 60-61.</ref>  In the summer of 1945, 243 German [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] were brought in to fill a labor shortage at the canning factory north of the current Wildwood Park.<ref>Kleiman, p. 69.</ref>

Woodworking and building continued long after the pines were cut. During World War II, Roddis Lumber and Veneer, which produced [[plywood]] and other composites, was "the [[Allies of World War II|Allies']] largest pre-fabricator of wood for [[Liberty ship]]s".{{citation needed|date=November 2014}} Felker Brothers also produced components for the Liberty ships. The Frey brothers started building Rollohomes in 1947 and were followed by other manufacturers of [[mobile home|mobile]] and [[modular home|modular]] homes.<ref>Kleiman, pp. 70-71.</ref> With the consolidation of [[Dairy farming|dairy farms]] and the [[late-2000s recession]], some of these industries have contracted, and the medical complex has expanded.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}} [[Roehl Transport]] has also become a large enterprise.<ref>{{cite web|title=City of Marshfield Economic Profile|url=http://ci.marshfield.wi.us/planning/handler.aspx?file_id=1018|publisher=City of Marshfield|access-date=February 18, 2012|year=c. 2005}}{{Dead link|date=March 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.roehl.jobs/ | title=Roehl Transport Truck Driving Jobs & CDL Training}}</ref>  Around 2011 three new plants opened on the east side of town to process sand for [[hydraulic fracturing]] of oil and gas wells.<ref>{{cite news|last=Welter|first=Liz|title=Frac sand mining begins in Marshfield amid mixed outlook|url=http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20120114/CWS03/301140087/Frac-sand-mining-begins-Marshfield-amid-mixed-outlook|access-date=February 17, 2012|newspaper=Wausau Daily Herald|date=January 14, 2012}}</ref>