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THE REPUBLICAN July 5, 1898 WAUPACA ONE OF WISCONSIN’S GEM
CITIES From the Milwaukee Telegraph People who have not visited Waupaca
during the past five years would hardly know the place were they suddenly left
to its streets. Few, if any, cities in
the state have witnessed a more marked advance since 1890. Last year alone there were added between 300
and 400 buildings of various descriptions, ranging in value from a few hundreds
to $10,000, and numerous residences and business places have been materially
improved, few wooden buildings of any character having escaped a coat or two of
paint. The painter (the house painter)
when abroad in a city like Waupaca makes a wonderful transformation. He has been abroad in that thrifty and
handsome city to a marked degree. Like
many Wisconsin cities Waupaca does not fairly display its points of attractions
to the hundreds of thousands of passengers who pass and repass it on the cars;
but no man who has ever walked upon its streets, met its public spirited
citizens, looked upon its long rows of substantial business houses, mainly of
brick, noted its great number of fine residences, enjoyed its beautiful shade
trees, observed its various manufacturing industries, looked upon its superior
electric light system, etc., has gone away other than an admirer of
Waupaca. It has always been a modest
city – too modest for its own good. It
has permitted a bushel to hide its light.
Its people have not reached out as they might well have done, as they
ought to have done, as people in other cities do. Had they done so, had they made a special effort to bring people
to their borders, to add manufacturing industries, mercantile establishments,
to extend their streets, improve their drives and advance their interests
generally they would not have made efforts in vain, for people in search of a
locality in which to make investments would not have to make a second visit to
Waupaca to be convinced that it is a promising point, that it has a bright
future, that it has many possibilities – that it is a good place to invest. With
such a location, the equal of any in the west in the matter of health, supplied
with the purest of water, in the immediate vicinity of nearly a score of
charming lakes, whose pebbly beaches and beautiful banks charm all visitors,
the chief city of a large and populous county, there is no good reason why
Waupaca should not today have 10,000 inhabitants instead of 3,500. No city of its size has a better class of
citizens, more industrious, more law abiding, more intelligent, more
desirable. It has long had a reputation
for possessing a public school system of the very highest grade, and this fact
has done much to give Waupaca its good name, both at home and abroad. The people have always insisted upon
thoroughly well qualified teachers, and there is not one of the dozen now
employed but would be an ornament in Milwaukee schools. Graduates from the Waupaca schools have one
prominence in the professions, commercial life, manufacturing, editorial,
public office, judiciary, army, legislative, literature, art and the
sciences. The education that bright
boys and girls can acquire in a system of schools such as Waupaca’s is worth
more to them than such an education as could have been acquired in any one of
fifty western colleges that might be named, as those colleges were a quarter of
a century ago. This gives something of
an idea of the advance in education that we have witnessed in our state during
the past twenty five years. The public schools, however, have advanced more
rapidly than the higher institutions of learning, and that is a good sign,
something to be proud of, nothing to mourn over. Waupaca
is something of a manufacturing point.
It has two grist mills, one by Roberts & Oborn and the other by
Andrew Wells. The senior member of the
first named firm is Major R. N. Roberts, who was first a captain and then a
major in the 38th Wisconsin.
He is also at the head of a prominent bank and has a part in other
enterprises. There are three planning
mills, an extensive cigar factory, a wagon factory, a kindling wood industry,
one f the largest creameries in the state, a tannery and other smaller
industries. It has three weekly papers;
nearly all of the religious denominations have houses of worship, some of them
very fine ones; none of them poor ones.
Waupaca is the county seat. Its
court house would do credit to a much larger and older county. It is the leading city of the county and the
chief shipping point. I
spoke of the improvement in this city the past few years. One reason for this improvement is found in
the fact that during that time the county has had a greater acreage devoted to
potatoes than any other county in the United States. The farmers of the county have come close to getting potato
culture to the perfection line, and they have accomplished this during the past
six or seven yeas. Ten years ago there
were thousands of acres of land in Waupaca county that could have been bought
for a song. The introduction of potato culture has rendered all of these acres
valuable. A few years ago a man who knew his business – who knew how to raise
potatoes – could go to Waupaca county, get trusted for a farm and pay for it
with the proceeds of his first year’s crop of potatoes, besides making a good
living. There are hundreds of wealthy
farmers in that county who owe the beginning of their good fortune to their
beginning of potato raising. In 1892, and again in 1893, the crop reached the
enormous figure of over 2,000,000 of bushels.
In 1894, 1,5000 car loads of potatoes were shipped from Waupaca
alone. That means seventy-five freight
trains each composed of twenty cars.
Imagine the string of freight that would make. Waupaca potatoes go to all portions of the United States, and
none grade higher. The promise of the
crop this year is unusually good, far better than at any time during the past
five years, at this time of the year.
The acreage is greater than before. The yield, unless some unexpected
misfortune occurs, will reach close up to 3,00,000 of bushels. Potato raising has been the most profitable
industry with the farmers of the county. Located
in the city of Waupaca is the most extensive potato starch factory in the
west. Indeed, it is thought there is
but one larger in the United States. It is a stock company and was organized in
1889. The chief object in starting this
enterprise was for the purpose of utilizing that portion of the potato crop
which was not marketable. It has proved
a very great benefit to the farmers, and they appreciate that fact, and have
been steadily becoming warmer friends of the city ever since it started. The factory consumes about 2,000 bushels
every day during the season, which is from September 1 to November 15. The output of the season is something over
300 tons of starch, which finds a ready market and is shipped largely to the
east and among cotton manufacturers.
While the factory has not made the stockholders millionaires, it has
been a splendid thing for the city and a still better thing, as already stated,
for the potato growers. In connection
wit this factory the company has a large warehouse for storing potatoes. It can
care for 60,000 bushels. Those stored are of the very best quality raised and
are nearly always kept for spring shipments.
Counting the potatoes used in the factory and those sold by the company
they handle a quarter of a million of bushels per year, employing, during the
grinding season, about twenty-five men.
New York is the most extensive purchaser of their warehoused potatoes,
Chicago being an easy second. The
Waupaca starch and potato company has for officer: President, J. H. Woodnorth; secretary, J. W. Evans; treasurer, R.
N. Roberts. The
South had its cotton kings, Illinois and Iowa its corn kings, Colorado its
silver kings, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota its lumber, iron and copper
kings; this Wisconsin city, growing like a weed, as thrifty and promising as
you can imagine, has its potato kings.
Indeed, every town in the county has its quota of these kings, and they
are getting rich. They are buying
stocks in banks, they are purchasing more land, improving their homes, giving
their children the benefit of a college education, taking time to visit and
acquaint themselves with the beauties and resources of their own county; some
of hem are going to Europe and many of the men are turning their farms over to
their boys, building fine residences in Waupaca and settling down to enjoy
themselves the balance of life’s journey.
Hail, kings of the potato plantation. Certainly
Waupaca has received a benefit from the quarter of a million of dollars
expended in building up and carrying on the Veterans’ Home and certainly she
should have received a benefit. She
earned it when she made a liberal contribution for the starting of the
enterprise. It has been a benefit in
many ways. It has helped the hotels and
the liveries; it has helped the merchants, bankers, doctors and lawyers. It has been of decided help to the farmers. As an advertiser of the beautiful city it
has been decidedly beneficial. Waupaca
has been mentioned a half a dozen times since the Home went there where,
previous to that, it was mentioned once.
It has developed one of the many beauty spots in the neighborhood of the
lake that have become so famous. It has been the means of erecting in the
county, within easy reach of the county’s capitol, a most charming little
village that has 300 inhabitants, a cluster of large, well built, comfortable
structures, a church, water works, electric light plant, and so on. But for the establishing of the Home it is
safe to say that that drive from Waupaca through the Home grounds to the Lake
View Hotel, a summer resort that is destined to be second to none in the
western country, would not have been built and that drive is a delightful one,
as smooth and hard, almost, as Milwaukee’s asphalt. Yes, it is fair to claim that the building up of the Waupaca Home
has added many structures – business places, factories and residences to
Waupaca. It has led many a householder
to give employment to the painter, it has increased the value of land it has
helped many interests. It was lucky,
lucky indeed, for Waupaca that the few people who made the fight to secure the
location of the Home made that fight with the energy that they did, for a less
energetic battle would have resulted in defeat for the city. The Wisconsin Central railroad reached Waupaca in 1872 and is the only railroad the city has. Previous to its arrival the city depended upon wagoning and the lines of steamboats on the Wolf River, that came within a dozen miles of the city. There are indications, and strong ones, that this venerable city, which has of late renewed its youth and is having a better growth than ever before in its history, is to have addition – of railway facilities. In fact a survey is being made from a point on the line of the Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul railway. The construction of a dozen miles of more of track will give Waupaca a competing railway line. She could ship to Green Bay and Kewaunee, then by lake. The wonder is that such a branch was not built long ago, but “better late than never”. |