HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY



make way for the Howe school, and a few years later burned down. One of the
early teachers was Mrs. Knapp, who afterwards went to Colorado to teach the
Indians, where she was stabbed to death by an Indian pupil. In very early
days
the Worthington Hall, which occupied the site of the Daly flat buildings,
and which
burned down, was used for all public amusements, and was the scene of many
a
merry gathering, as well as some tragedies. One of the latter was the death
of
Michael Miscoll, who on trying to gain entrance to a dance, was pushed back-
ward by some unknown person and fell down two flights of stairs, the fall
resulting
in lockjaw, from which he died. In November, 1872, Mr. Wagner, with two other
boys walked eight miles to the Half Way House, now Meehan Station to see
the
first locomotive and train (the first he ever saw) that came here over the
Green
Bay & Winona (Green Bay & Lake Pepin) Railway; the tracks at that
time being
laid only as far as that point. A week later the tracks reached Grand Rapids
and
a great crowd of people gathered at the station to see- the train pull in.
   When Mrs. Adelia Corriveau (wife of George A. Corriveau) came to Wood
County from Canada in 1854 at the age of 11, the school in Grand Rapids,
which
she attended, was taught by Susan Compton, who afterward married Ralph C.
Worthington, then one of the leading merchants here. In those days merchandise
was scarce, and the rivermen who piloted the lumber rafts to southern markets
al-
ways brought back with them the latest feminine wearing apparel, their return
being eagerly looked for by the ladies, who on the following Sunday were
seen
on their way to church decked out in their newly acquired finery. At that
time
the nearest bank was at Stevens Point. In the summer of 1855 the first circus
that ever showed in Grand Rapids a one-ring affair-arrived from Portage and
was a wonder to the people who attended. About that time, or perhaps a little
later, there was a ferry across the river opposite the site of the present
Commercial
House. The boat was propelled by pike poles and was managed by one mail.
On one occasion when Mrs. Corriveau was a passenger the water was very high
and the boat almost unmanageable, the passengers being in great danger. After
this occurrence an iron cable was stretched across the river from the Lefebre
build-
ing to the building which stood on the site of the present Herschlek bakery
and
pulleys were attached to the ferry to prevent further possibility of accident.
In
1854 there was no butcher shop in Grand Rapids and the meat supply was furnished
by John Schnibley, who used to kill a beef every week and peddle the meat
from
door to door.
   Mrs. Catherine Townsend, who came to Grand Rapids in the fall of 1857
with
her brother Compton, relates that there was then no church edifice in the
little
town and that all religious services were held in the dance halls, either
in the old
Magnolia Hall, the Witter's Hall in Grand Rapids, or the Garrison Hall in
Cen-
tralia. When word was received of the coming of a minister a committee was
appointed to solicit donations, this committee being usually composed of
the
Misses Lou Buck, Grace Land and Elizabeth. As money was often scarce, they
accepted anything they could get in the shape of merchandise, which was put
up
at auction and sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds given to the minister.
On some of these occasions a supper and dance were held after the meeting,
the
minister gracefully retiring before the dance, which usually lasted till
early morn-
ing, the fiddlers being Seth Spafford, M. L. Bensley, R. C. Worthington and
Louis



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