THE WAUPACA POST

March 8, 1883

 

The Waupaca Lakes

 

            A chain of beautiful lakes lying a short distance west of Waupaca have attracted a good deal of attention since they were brought into notice five years ago this summer.  There had been a few people who knew of their quiet beauties, and sometimes went out for a day’s sport fishing, but the lakes were hardly known to one in ten of the people living near them, and nobody twenty miles away knew they were there at all.  Since the first boat-house was built five years ago, the lakes have been a popular resort for picnic and camping purposes.  Numerous comfortable cottages and a fair hotel have been built, and more cottages will go up this season.

            The first of the chain is called “Hick’s Lake”, because an old codger named Hicks lives at one end of it, and owns land fronting on the lake.  This is the prettiest of all the chain.  It is about one mile long and half a mile wide.  The shores are diversified and prettily wooded.  In the lake are two islands, one containing about 4-1/2 acres and the other ½ acre.  These little islands are about half way down the lake, and are very pretty indeed, as viewed from either end of the lake.  The larger one has not been much improved yet.  Some of the underbrush has been cut out, and Myron Reed put a temporary lodging place upon it two years ago.  The other island is occupied by a club house, owned by a number of young men in town.  The proprietorship of these islands was a question that raised as soon as the lakes became famous.  They have been surveyed since then, and were to be sold at public sale, but now they won’t be.

            There is a Danish Society in town of which one K. Oleson, a scheming little Dane, and not absolutely scrupulous, is one of the leading spirits.  This society became enamored of the islands, and set about gobbling one or both of them up, improvements and all.  Oleson went to Wausau and engaged an attorney to watch the land office and look out for his interests.  Combined with the Danes is what is called in Waupaca, “the court house crowd”, composed of present county officers and those who have been in years past, and still linger around the scenes of their former glory. There is a good deal of influence in this crowd, one way and another, if it works in the proper channel.  In this case, however, a man’s influence amounted to little.  For, while the crowd was advancing its skirmish lines, so to speak, Mr. Reed became possessed of some script, known as “fractional script”, issued by the government to persons entitled to enter lands, which, by mistakes in the survey or for other reasons, do not contain the full number of acres.  With this script the holder can enter up the lacking amount of land somewhere else.  Mr. Reed got some of this script from a Washington attorney who was speculating in it, and going to Wausau entered the islands and has a certificate of entry. He got this last October, and very few people in Waupaca knew anything about it.  He will receive his patent about next July or August for the land contained in both the islands.  The smaller island will be deeded to the club, and Reed will have control of his 4-1/2 acres, and can have such people for neighbors as he desires. – Oshkosh Times.

 

(see page 2)

 

THE WAUPACA POST

March 15, 1883

 

Somewhat Mixed.

 

            The article published in the POST last week taken from the Oshkosh Times relative to the title of the islands in Hick’s Lake, was badly mixed, so the POST has been informed.  It is true Myron Reed has become owner of them, but he did not have to resort to sharp practice to get them away from the Dane Home Society, as that society has never made an effort to get the title.  There is no little schemer by the name of Oleson who has the honor of being a member of that society, and the Home has never authorized any Oleson or anyone to purchase the islands for the society.  The Times must have been misinformed.