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THE VILLAGE OF CRESCENT This village is on the South Branch of the Waupaca twelve miles from Weyauwega. It already contains about thirty houses, among which are a good hotel, and a large Flouring Mill recently erected by Parfrey & Gumaer. It is bound to be a flourishing place, and the business point for a considerable population The village of Crescent was formerly known as Parfreyville. It has all the elements necessary to make a place of importance and it is even now outstripping some of its pompous and city-pretending neighbors. From "The Weyauwegan" Newspaper February 22,
1856 Parfreyville This village is beautifully situated on the South branch of the Waupaca River, in the county of Waupaca and is fast rising into a town of no mean importance; having al the elements essential to the building up of a large place-Water power-a flouring mill which turns out flour equal in quality to any mill in the county. The Mill has recently been bought by GUMAER & CLARK, who take possession the 15th of May next. Of stores, the village contains three, all doing good business-receiving goods almost daily; and a fourth will soon be in operation. Business is active and all kinds of produce is bought and sold at fair rates. Grain of all lands taken there meets with a ready sale, as ROBT. PARFREY Esq. the former owner of the Mill, is paying cash for all kinds of grains, either on delivery or contract. He puts no one off on store pay as some of his north neighbors do. Parfreyville is in the midst of a rich and extended agricultural country, of which it is the Emporium for trade. It is in a healthy location and is on the stage route between Weyauwega and Stevens Point. The village lots are held at mere nominal prices, which places them within the reach of all. Building for the last season was active, and the in-coming summer will witness its counterpart; 30 buildings are now under contract, to be put up immediately on the opening of spring weather. The lots are large, conveniently laid out, and the streets are wide and regular. In the centre of the town is a Public Square of four acres. This village with its beautiful site, healthy location and business advantages, offers superior inducements to those hunting permanent homes in Northern or Central Wisconsin. From the Waupaca Post January 19, 1878 Parfreyville As our "Town" is to be reported in the columns of THE POST it may be well enough to give people some facts in regard to its position, size, etc. Parfreyville is located on the South Branch of the Waupaca River, in section seven, town of Dayton. Its extent is not very definite. A few acres of ground would suffice to set the residence and business places of our village upon, but you know no place with a spark of ambition would consent to such a bourn. All towns have more or less vacant ground which they insist on "counting in" when telling how large they are. That is the case with us, and then there is Crystal River which is really a part of our village. It contains the two grist mills of Messrs. Gunner and Oertell and the carding mill owned and run by Mr. Thompson. Also a store run by the experienced tradesman Peter Nordeen. About midway between Parfreyville and Crystal River is our school house, where the children from both places gather to the number of sixty to walk the narrow path that leads to knowledge and understanding. Sometimes since L. F. Jones announced to the public that he was bound to close out his stock of goods if it had to be done by selling at cost. People thought it was the old story over again, but have concluded that if he does not sell at cost he must know where to buy very cheap.
____________________________________ PARFREYVILLE AND THE EARLY MILLS J. Holman, an early settler of the town, has this to say of the pioneer milling enterprises, and of the shifts to which the good housewives were put to get flour for their households: "For the first season or two provisions were not very plentiful. The settlers could supply themselves with venison and other game without going far from their clearings, but for flour, groceries, etc., they were obliged to go to Strong's Landing, as Berlin was then called, and some of them went even to Sheboygan and Milwaukee for supplies. "In the Fall of 1850 Mrs. Dayton was obliged to eke out her small supply of flour with an occasional dish of soup, which she made by chopping some corn in a bowl. About the same time, bread became very scarce at Van Horn's. Mr. Van Horn, after putting up his log house, had gone with his team to Racine County, to work on a threshing machine, after which he was to return with a load of supplies. But before his return Mrs. Van Horn had got nearly to the bottom of the flour sack; so she went to Mr. Hitchcock, on the Emmons place, to try to buy some buckwheat, of which he had about half an acre standing in the shock. He told her he was going to move away soon, and she could have the buckwheat if she could use it. The next day she took her carpet for a threshing floor, and some bags, and went down and carried the shocks together, and pounded them out with a stick, getting six bags of grain and chaff. With the first favorable breeze she winnowed out a half bushel of grain, and taking it on foot to Mr. Dayton's ground it in their coffee mill, and sifted it in their sieve, leaving the bran for toll. "But Dayton's coffee mill soon gave way to the 'Pepper Mill,' as Parfrey's grist mill, built in 1851, was called. Parfrey's grist mill was sixteen by twenty feet, boarded up and down. The shafts were made of tamarack and oak, unhewn. The wobble of the machinery, occasioned by crooked shafts, was counteracted by tightening pulleys, weighted down with stones. The belts were made of bags, sewed together, and cotton factory cloth. "It is well remembered that the first grinding in Parfrey's mill was one Saturday afternoon. The next day Parfrey attended meeting at the house of Thomas Spencer. After the sermon, and before the benediction was fairly finished, Parfrey jumped to his feet, and, taking a handful of flour from the tail pocket of his coat, shouted at the top of his voice, "Here 's a sample of my flour!' "The water power at Parfreyville was staked out and claimed by Thomas Spencer in the spring of 1850, and was by him given to Parfrey on condition that he should build a mill and grind a bushel of corn before the mill then being built at Waupaca (in 1851) should grind a kernel. Parfrey accomplished the task. "Custom increased rapidly, and in 1855 Parfrey took a partner into the business, and built a large mill on the spot where the old one stood. But Parfrey's partner and the hard times of 1857 were too much for him; so he sold his interest in the mill at Parfreyville, and built a small mill at the foot of Junction Lake. But, his financial embarrassment continuing, he disposed of his mill at Junction Lake, and left the country. "In 1863 the mill at Parfreyville was thoroughly repaired by J. D. Kast, after which it did a large paying business until Christmas, 1874, when it was burned to the ground. In the spring of 1876 the high water, which was the highest ever known in this stream, destroyed the dam, leaving the water to flow in its old channel, and thus uncovering ground that had been under water since the summer of 1851. "Several blacksmith shops were established at Parfreyville, in the early '50s, as the mills drew thither quite a number of horses, and wagons needed repairs which were beyond the skill of the average farmer. The first blacksmith in town was William Caley, who in 1851-52 had a small shop on the north bank of the river about thirty rods from the bridge. R. Holman opened another in 1854, and for years it stood in Parfreyville As to matters of life and death-the first funeral in town was that of a child of Joseph Robbins, section 24, in August, 1850. The first adult to die was the wife of Robert Palfrey, in March, 1851.The first white child born in the town was Calvin Morgan, son of Thomas and Fanny Morgan, and grandson of Lyman Dayton, in February, 1851. The first school at Pafreyville was taught in the summer of 1854 by Miss Jane Lathrop, in a log shanty where the public schoolhouse was afterward built. A better building was completed in 1856. _________________________________ Questions, suggestions or additions please email. Return to Cities Page Return to homepage
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