Early Stevens Point family played founding role for Rhinelander By WENDELL NELSON Special to The Gazette The Browns and Andersons are probably the best-known families of Rhinelander. They are less well-known in Stevens Point, though they were a substantial presence here for many years. And it was here that they prepared themselves and their plans for larger achievements to come. When we last saw Edward Dexter Brown's two eldest sons, Anderson W. and Webster E., they had taken over his farm in the town of Stockton, when he became too busy with his lumbering operations to work it. After that, at about the time he built his house on Main Street in Stevens Point and moved into it in 1867-68, they decided to further their educations. According to Theodore V. Olsen's "The Rhinelander Country, Volume Two, Birth of a City," the brothers enrolled for three terms at Lawrence College (now Lawrence University), presumably from the winter of 1869 until the spring of 1870, but they didn't stop there. "In the spring of 1870 the Brown brothers switched to Spencerian Business College in Milwaukee, where they remained for a single term. That same fall, both journeyed to Madison and matriculated at the University of Wisconsin," writes Olsen. They spent their vacations back at their father's lumber business, he adds. So, by 1871, "at an age when many youths were still casting vaguely about for a life direction, the two oldest Brown boys were seasoned farmers, lumbermen and businessmen. Both also possessed what, for their day, was an enviable degree of formal education," Olsen says. In the spring of 1871, Andy, then 21, left school permanently to take over his father's business. Olsen says E.D. Brown had become ill, "possibly from the strain of overwork," though he was only 47. The Brown brothers' formal educations were over, and their business careers were beginning. For a while, the brothers appeared to do just that - run their father's business for him, but he must have recovered his health, because soon they were embarking on ventures of their own. For at about that time, 1873, "the Wisconsin Central completed its rail extension from Portage to Stevens Point," so "the glory days of log-rafting on the lower Wisconsin (River) were finished. Lumbermen in the Stevens Point district enjoyed a new flush of prosperity, building facilities to refine their own rough-cut lumber and ship it to Middle Western markets by rail," according to Olsen. Two years later, in 1875, "Andy and Web established the Brown Brothers Lumber Company," Olsen says, but he does not give his source for that information. "The History of Northern Wisconsin," a subscription history published in 1881, says in both Anderson and Webster Browns' entries that they embarked on their own business in 1876. More proof is Vol. 25 of Deeds, page 235, Jan. 14, 1875, whereby the brothers bought 18 lots (numbered 626 through 643) out of 22 in Block 81 in Strong's Addition to the city, for $1,000. That land is now bounded by Wisconsin and Shaurette streets on the north and south and by Hemlock and Tamarack streets on the east and west. An 1878 plat map of the city shows a planing mill on Block 57 of Strong's Addition, and this may well be the Brown Brothers' mill. Or the map may be in error. Vol. 36 of Deeds, page 632, Sept. 10, 1883, records the sale to John Week of Block 81 and lots 263 to 266 in Block 56 for $5,250. So the mill apparently stood somewhere on these lots. (The brothers had bought the Block 81 lots from Owen Clark (1840-1915), a New Yorker of Irish descent and a prosperous lumberman whose sawmill was at the foot of Arlington Place (formerly Mill Street). He was also mayor of the city in 1874, 1888 and 1894. The building at the southwest corner of Arlington and Water Street was the boarding house for his mill workers. His own house was at the northeast corner of the same intersection until it was destroyed several years ago.) Olsen continues, "Andy would be the controlling member of this partnership until it was incorporated in 1890 (in Rhinelander); thereafter he would become president. The brothers' first venture was to erect a planing mill on the south side of Stevens Point. Here they finished the rough-cut lumber from their father's sawmill and shipped it out on the Wisconsin Central line. In 1877 the Brown brothers set up the first logging operation of their own in the Stevens Point area. E.D. helped implement his sons' undertaking by providing some of his own employees to fill out their crews." Whenever they started, they were obviously successful. The March 4, 1876, Stevens Point Journal includes them in a list of the city residents who paid the most property taxes that year. "Brown Bro's." paid $137 in taxes, the list says, putting them in the lower third of the list, but they were still prosperous enough to be on it. The "History of Northern Wisconsin" describes the Brown Brothers' (second) Planing Mill: It "was constructed in 1880, and has a capacity for surfacing of 50,000, matching 18,000, and siding 12,000 per day. Employs fourteen men, and (has) a capital of $7,000 in the mill and $12,000 in the general lumber business, having lumber, shingles, moldings, pickets, cedar posts, etc., for sale, delivered on the cars." In other words, the brothers not only planed rough boards into smooth lumber, but also ran a general lumberyard, selling other items they bought and shipped in from other mills. And in other words, they had built a new mill to replace the one they had bought or built in 1875 or '76. The two original Brown brothers were joined in 1882 by a third brother, Edward 0. He "recently resigned a Lieutenantcy (sic) in the United States army, is expected home about the 1st of July, and will engage in business with his brothers A.W. and W.E., the style of the firm remaining Brown Bros., the same as at present," the Journal of June 17, 1882 says. (Webster Brown's entry - paid for by him, no doubt - in "The Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Wisconsin Counties," a subscription history published in 1895, says E.O. joined the firm in 1880, but that is apparently incorrect.) Edward's obituary in the Oct. 16, 1935, Stevens Point Daily Journal, says "He received his early education in Stevens Point, and after his graduation from the High School here, attended the University of Wisconsin for two years. "He then was appointed to the United States Military academy at West Point, N.Y., from which he was graduated in 1881 as third honor man in a class of 53. As it was the custom for the 10 ranking honor men to enter the engineers' branch of the service, Mr. Brown became a lieutenant in the engineering corps." In 1877, while they were still in Stevens Point, both Anderson and Webster married and began families. In June, Anderson married Anna Hanchett, the daughter of Luther Hanchett, an early Plover lawyer and Congressman. In December, Webster married Juliet D. Meyer, of Lancaster, Grant County, a daughter of a native German who "in early life was private secretary for Eastwick, Winans & Co., who built the first railroad from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the government," according to the "Commemorative Biographical Record." Richard Meyer had emigrated to Philadelphia and, later, to Lancaster, Wis., where he set up a "mercantile and banking business." Olsen says Juliet majored in German at the University of Wisconsin, and later taught it "for two years in the high schools at Lancaster and Madison." Olsen says E.D. rented the newlywed Anderson Browns a "modest little house" in Stevens Point, but exactly where that house was, is a mystery. Webster, however, built his own house. The Oct. 13, 1877, Journal indulged in a little wry humor for the occasion: "Web. Brown is building himself a house down on the corner of Water and Brawley streets - and already people are whispering something about a girl being transferred from Grant county to this city. But people will talk, you know, whether a young man builds a house or not." Olsen discusses the Webster Browns' homes here: "The couple made their first home in Stevens Point. Webster later planned and built their big two-story house especially for his bride. Four years later they took up residence at a farm 10 miles southeast of Stevens Point. Their first house later housed the city's Conservatory of Music. Web Brown took up an active role in the community, as a member of the Portage County Board of Supervisors, the school board, and the common council." By coincidence - we saw two articles ago in this series that Nelson Week bought T.W. Anderson's (the Brown brothers' uncle's) house at the southeast corner of Clark and Church streets - Webster Brown sold this house to Week. The Gazette of Dec. 5, 1883, reported the sale; "N.A. Week purchased the neat and tasty W.E. Brown residence property, on Water street, last week, and has already moved into it with his family. This is one of the most attractive homes in the city, and may Nelson and his estimable family remain to enjoy it for many, many years." Vol. 39 of Deeds, pages 167-68, Nov. 20, 1883, recorded the sale of Lots 33, 34 and 35 of Block 35 of Strongs, Ellis and Others Addition for a total of $2,000 by Webster and Anderson and their wives to Nelson Week. These lots are on the east side of Water north of Brawley on the northeast corner of the streets. Seven years later, Week enlarged and remodeled the house, according to the Journal of June 7, 1890: "Nelson Week is about to make important improvements to his home at the corner of Water and Brawley streets. He will raise the roof, adding one story to the same, thus furnishing himself and family ample rooms and conveniences. Piazzas will also be added and many minor improvements made." ("Piazzas" are plazas or public squares in Italy, but somehow the word came to mean porches or verandas in 19th-century United States. However the change in meaning came about, the word obviously sounds grander and more aristocratic and cosmopolitan than "porches.") There seems a contradiction of Olsen here. If Webster Brown built a "big two-story house," Week would not have added another story to it. It surely was not a three-story house when Week's carpenters were finished. So far, no photograph of the house has surfaced to solve the mystery. This house has other puzzles for us. Where exactly it sat, for example, is unclear. Logically, it should have faced Water because its three lots stretched along Water. But its original number seems to have been 104 Brawley. (The 1889 city directory puts it at the northwest corner of the two streets, which would have given it a Water Street address, but that directory apparently is incorrect.) The 1893 and 1896 city directories, when Week owned the house, put it at 104 Brawley. In 1903-04, after Gustave Hein bought it, it was still 104 Brawley. More confusion arises after the 1965 renumbering. With an original number of 104, its new number should have been 1008 Brawley, but that seems to have later changed to 1016 Brawley. Some of the explanation is offered in an article in the Aug. 21, 1917, Daily Journal: "G.W. Hein is making extensive improvements to his home at 104 Brawley street. The place is to be made modern in every respect. A new furnace is being installed, and the whole house moved toward the east. It is not known yet whether or not two houses will be made out of the former structure, but such may be the case." Gustave Hein (1851-1949) was a German immigrant and a long-time Stevens Point insurance salesman, his obituary in the Dec. 29, 1949, Daily Journal says. Webster Brown sold his house because he was moving to the new town of Rhinelander, where he and his brothers had bought large tracts of virgin-pine land, and built a sawmill to begin cutting the trees into lumber with. For that reason, the brothers sold their planing mill in Stevens Point - again, to a Week: "John Week is now the owner of the 'New South Side Planing Mill,' heretofore owned and managed by Brown Bros. The mill is being run to its fullest capacity, and its owner will do all kinds of custom work, as well as attend to the planing, &c., of his own large stock." So said The Portage County Gazette (old series) of Sept. 19, 1883. In any event, these were some of the elder Brown brothers' activities and holdings in Stevens Point. Though they left town in the early 1880s, and though they went on to much larger ventures and successes, they got their start and learned their trade here. So in many ways, Stevens Point is Rhinelander's midwife. Copyright 1999 by Wendell Nelson