Coolidge

Coolidge was one of the first settlements in the Town of Fifield along the Wisconsin Central Rail Road. It consisted of two stores, a boarding house, post office and a saw and planing mill. The latter built by W. H. Coolidge in 1884.

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“Coolidge was set up as a flag station for the Wisconsin Central Railroad in November, 1886. When Boyington and Atwell of Stevens Point built their sawmill at the sight known as Fifield, Coolidge had a population of 500. The mill operated until 1891 and had a pine cut of over 80,000,000 board feet.

Jack Felch was the woods boss and A. C. Weist and John Mason worked at the mill during the summer and in the woods in the winter months. These three men came to Fifield in 1891.

All that is left of Coolidge today is a pile of stone in the clearing that was once the company's vault. Near this same stone pile stands a huge spreading lilac bush that blossom every spring, as if in memorial to the past. William Ehmke was born at Coolidge and later became section boss on the Wisconsin Central as was his father before him.”

Excerpt from: Fifield: A History by Douglas Severt as told to him by William A. Spearbreaker, a longtime resident and veteran of WWII.

(To read the entire article click here: http://www.usr.sonet.net/usr/harbison/fifieldhistory.PDF )

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