Built in 1883 by John S. Munroe, the log cabin was one of three original buildings that made up the community of loggers that started what would later become the Village of Wausaukee. Monroe shipped timber, cedar posts, pilings and railroad ties from this tiny community. The Log cabin served as a boarding house, hotel, post office and the only eatery north of Green Bay for many years .

In 1885 John Monroe was appointed postmaster and the log cabin became the first post office which gave the community some validation. As the lumber boom brought more men to the north woods, the cabin became an Inn and eating place to  lodge the many travelers to the area. The Monroe cabin was originally built on the site where Smith's Hwy 141 grocery is currently located.

• Monroe and his family were the first white settlers to locate in Wausaukee. John Monroe shipped the first carload of forest products that went out of that village over the Milwaukee & Northern railroad. He built a station there in 1883 and called it Wausaukee.

• John S. Monroe died on March 25, 1900 at the age of 77 years. Bird & Wells sawmill was shut down for the funeral so that all could attend. The funeral was held at their residence and was the largest attended funeral ever held. Jane Belton Monroe followed her husband in death May 14, 1901.

• The Monroe's had five children, Sarah, who died in infancy; John Wallace; Helen Elizabeth, often known as "Libby"; Eliza  Mae; and Harry. Libby and Eliza ran the Monroe establishment until about 1935, but declined selling it to interested parties for fear liquor would be served on the premises. Ray Gustaveson purchased the property in 1942 to make way for his hardware and implement business.

• Bird & Wells Saw Mill

  Saw Mill History

  View showing Laun Bros Lumber and the School

  • 1st Mill: The first sawmill in Wausaukee was built by a firm named Beach & Bishop. The company built a dam across the Wausaukee river in the village about where the bridge on US-141 is now located to form a mill pond in which to store their logs, and located their mill at the dam's south end, which is the present site of the Wausaukee Recreation building. Beach & Bishop logged most of their timber and after the 1892 fire that burned their mill, they sold their plant and yard to Bird & Wells.

  • 2nd Mill: In 1887 J.W. Wells and H.P. Bird visited Wausaukee and leased a small saw mill that would start a new era for this area. Full scale production started in 1888 when the mill was expanded, 2000 acres of pine lands were purchased and rail lines were completed to haul the lumber to market.

  • Read the first Independent Volume I article about the Bird & Wells Saw mills

  • 3rd Mill: An official of the Milwaukee and Northern railroad by the name of Dutton built the third sawmill in Wausaukee. It was located at the southern limits of the Village.  Dutton operated the mill for a time and then sold it to Laun Brothers of Kiel, Wisconsin. They continued operating it for several years under the name of Laun Brothers.  

• Logging camps were established throughout the area to supply the timber needed for the mills.

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• Logging Train

  Horse Teams

  Logging Sled

  Loggers

• Shortly after the mill at Dunbar began operating, the mill company there built a five mile stretch of standard gauge logging railroad that ran south east out of Dunbar toward Wausaukee, and the Milwaukee railroad built 10 miles of track from its main line at Wausaukee to connect with it. This 15 miles of railroad was known as the Dunbar & Wausaukee railroad. At Dunbar it connected with the Soo Line and Wausaukee it connected with the Milwaukee Road main line. The Dunbar company sold its five miles of logging railroad to the Milwaukee Road. This road operated for some time and then was abandoned, the tracks torn up and the rails sold. This occurred around the time of the first World War.

• Their was a good sized settlement called Hoffstown, a short distance south of Wausaukee, that in early days might be considered a part of the Village. It was owned and operated by a man named John Hoff, who came here from Forest Junction, Wisconsin in 1886 and purchased about 600 acres of virgin timber land. All that is left of Hoffstown now, is his large farm that was located across the tracks opposite his little settlement.

Growth at the Turn of the Century

C.M.& S.P. Railway

1900 Village Main St looking north west

1900 Village Main St looking north east

Christ Feed Mill

     Eight passenger trains arrived daily and freight trains swept through the village every 20 minutes. In the 1930's passenger trains traveled from Marquette MI to Chicago Il with wealthy customers being dropped off to go to the private Wausaukee Club in Athelstane WI.

     The town boasted numerous stores, barbershops, an undertaking parlor, distillery, three livery stables and a meat market, not to mention twelve saloons. Adams & Ruggles Distillery was built on May 19,1900 . The main building was 22x28 feet and was used as a fermenting and mashing room. The daily capacity was 14 gallons of corn and rye whiskey. Two vats totaling 130 gallons capacity took approximately 72 hours to make corn whiskey and 96 hours for rye. The building was destroyed by fire 2 years later.

Carts and buggies filled the streets and churned up the mud or dust, depending on the season, while pedestrians clung to the safety of the wooden sidewalks.

Booming Hotels

• At one time there were five hotels and numerous boarding houses in the Wausaukee community. The original Monroe log cabin, the Hotel Wausaukee, Exchange Hotel,  Shepard Hotel and the Atlas Hotel are depicted above. The Atlas Hotel is depicted as the far right structure. The log cabin was torn down to build a farm implement business and then later became  Smith's Hwy 141  Grocery, the Hotel Wausaukee houses Graphic Impressions Photography Studio, the Exchange Hotel, built by John Underwood, Burned in 1911 and was demolished, and the Shepard Hotel has been modified as an apartment house and is located west adjacent to the railroad tracks & Chippewa Bar Property. The Exchange Hotel was located in the lot between the Newingham Supper Club and Carriveau Insurance.

  

  Boarders

  Front of Hotel Wausaukee

  Ted Painting in 1960's

  Shepard Hotel on right and 1915 School on left

  The 1889 Hotel Wausaukee, built by a man named Clawson of Oconto, was a hotel & boarding house with sleeping rooms, saloon, apartment for the owners and served dinner for its guests continuously from 1889 until 1984.  The daily operations of the Hotel were run by owners and various managers over its history. An addition was added to the north side soon after it was built completing the floor space of over 4300 square feet. One of the Hotel Register books is currently in the Amberg Museum and shows various people renting rooms for daily or weekly use. 

  Multiple owners are registered on the abstract over the century. Several of them came upon owning the structure thru card game winnings. The longest recorded owners were Ted and Hattie Krzewina who owned it for 40 years and maintained it as the Wausaukee Hotel up until one year before selling it to the current owners in 1985. On the porch painting is Ted Krzewina.

  The Shepard Hotel has been converted to an apartment house and the Old School on the left will be demolished for other land use.

  

  Menominee River Brewing Company

  Menominee River Brewing Company Beer Bottle

  Spangler Black Smith Shop  Interior

  Spangler Black Smith Shop Exterior

  One of the earliest owners of the Hotel Wausaukee was the Menominee River Brewing Company who had to purchase the building in order to sell liquor in the area. The Hotel had a beer bar and was supplied with the ornate stain glass windows put in by the brewery. Two of the original stain glass windows remain today. Kegs and bottles of beer were brought into the area for consumption from the Menominee River Factory.

   It was sold to the  current  owners in 1985 and re-opened as a Bed & Breakfast for five years.  It has been renovated using color schemes, furniture, & wallpaper to maintain the flavor of the past.  It  functions as a residence for the owners and is the current location of Graphic Impressions Photography.

  The Spangler Black Smith Shop was located in the empty lot east of the current American Legion building on Harrison St. The business was sold to an unknown individual for a period of time and sold again to Harry Hardin who renamed it the Wausaukee Welding Shop.  The building was destroyed in the tornado of May 21, 1958 and he Welding shop was  rebuilt and then opened in the cinder block building that currently is used by Bank North for storage, two lots west of the former welding shop. Harry Hardin sold it to another individual in 1969 but the new owner only made sporadic payments towards the purchase and the business was eventually shut down.

  

  Wausaukee Feed Mill

  Knights Of Pythias

  The Wausaukee Feed Mill was built by H.P. Christ in the early 1900's and was equipped for grinding flour and storage of grain, which later was shipped by railcar. Harvey Bartels of Green Bay remodeled the building with grinding and mixing equipment and opened up a feed mill operation in the 1940's. Norm Smith bought out the business in the late 1950's and operated it for 17 years before selling it to Mitchell Wengiel and son. The last operator of the mill was Wiengren of Stephenson MI who closed the operation in 1974. The building was demolished in 1978. 

  The Knights of Pythias building was located on the property immediately North of the Monroe Log Cabin. The Knights were a benevolent organization with the original chapter formed in 1864. It is unknown as to when the Wausaukee Chapter was formed or when it disbanded. This organization is still active in the US, Canada and the State of Wisconsin. See their website for additional details about the organization. The building was converted to the Gamble Store when vacant for several years and then was torn down in the early 1960's to construct the new Bank North building.

Early Immigrants to the Area 

 Louis Slaets, his wife Joanna and their children in front of their first house on 1 Maple Street in Wausaukee. They arrived in our town in 1892

Louis Slaets family studio portrait taken to share with family members.

     The Victor Debot Family in Wausaukee, they lived in the south part of Wausaukee on 3 Maple Street.

     The only jobs available in Wausaukee were as lumberjacks and sawmill workers. Living in this modest log cabin the Emil Everix family dreamed of opening a bakery in Wausaukee.  Read More History

Views of the Streetscape

• Dirt roads were the main thoroughfare with horses and wagons hauling logs, equipment and people. Logs were piled next to the tracks for pick up by train. Wausaukee's population in its logging heyday was measured at 1,700 inhabitants.

  The Bust of 1910 Continued on History Page 2