Stettin --
Before The White Man
Before the lumberman and farmer set foot on
the soil of the Township of Stettin, that area, along
with the rest of northern Wisconsin, was one great
forest.
The policy of the fur companies who were seek-
ing and obtaining rich rewards in fur with trading
posts throughout the Northwest Area, was to "con-
vey the impression that the country was uninhabit-
able, sterile, forbidding and the habitation of re-
morseless Indians and savage beasts, where no white
man could exist or subsist."
The area which is now the Town of Stettin, along
with other townships around here, was roamed by
great bands of Indians in the days before the white
man came to settle and even after he settled. An
early resident relates that the first year he was here,
he counted in one band about 800 Indians going
up to make sugar in the maple groves above Wau-
sau.
Many years before the white man came, Wis-
consin is believed to have been inhabited by a pre-
historic race called the Mound Builders. Little is
known of the lives and habits of the savage nations
inhabiting what is now Wisconsin before civilized
man moved onto the scene in this part of the world.
Wisconsin Territory
Wisconsin Territory was formed on April 20,
1836, only nine short years before the first saw mill
was turning out lumber in the Town of Stettin.
The State of Wisconsin was created May 29, 1848,
four years after that saw mill went into operation
on the Little Rib River.
Adventurers coming up the Wisconsin River in
the early days, upon striking a sandy streak which
lies to some extent across the state, at once concluded
that such was the character of all of Northern Wis-
consin.
However, this region had been so carefully ex-
plored by 1836, that, with its value thoroughly es-

tablished, a treaty was signed with the'Menominee
Indians, extinguishing the Indian title to a strip of
land six miles wide up along the Wisconsin River as
far as Big Bull Falls, where Wausau is now located.
Water Sites Taken
It was not long afterward that the valuable points
for water mills were being taken by the early lum-
bermen and the Town of Stettin timber was soon
to echo with the sound of the woodsman's axe.
Most of Wisconsin, in the very ancient past, was
covered by huge glaciers, some of which were sev-
eral thousand feet in thickness. The Town of Stet-
tin, like most of Wisconsin, benefited greatly from
the slow-moving, grinding action of these masses
of melting ice. Rivers and creeks were created and
rich deposits of powdered rock were deposited in the
Stettin area. They also made huge deposits of sand,
gravel and rotten granite, which have been a great
boon in construction of modern roads and buildings.
Wisconsin was the property of the Indians in the
days before the white man. However, there appear-
ed to be no permanent Indian village in the Stettin
area, although they frequently passed through this
area.
The French explorer Nicolet, found the Indians
when he first visited Wisconsin in 1634. The In-
dians made friendly visits to the Stettin area after
the arrival of the white man and by 1848, the
Indian had given up his last claim to the region.
Magnificent Forest
Before Stettin was settled, it was covered with
magnificent forest, broken only by wild meadows
along the bottom lands of the creeks and streams.
Along the banks of the rivers stood the majestic
pines which the lumbermen soon were to seek out.
Back a mile or more from the banks of the streams,
hardwoods, including maple, birch, ash, oak, bass-
wood and butternut, interspersed with pine, hem-
lock, balsam and spruce, predominated.
There is no historical record of white men visiting
the region now included within the present boun-
daries of Marathon County during the time of
French control, 1634 to 1763. It seems likely, never-
theless, that French explorers and fur traders did
penetrate the area around the Town of Stettin via
the Wisconsin River, for in those days, the canoe
was the established method of travel.
The first white men known to have been within
Marathon County were fur traders who were em-
ployed by the American Fur Co. In 1835, Robert
Wakely opened a tavern and trading post at Point
Bausee down the Wisconsin River. It was four
years later that lumberman George Stevens came
from Pennsylvania to Wausau.

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