Adams County Wisconsin Genealogy

Source: Adams County Press, July 24, 1868

Transcribed by Joan Benner

The village of Barnum is situated on the east bank of the Wisconsin River, in the town of Rome, the most northwestern town in the county.

Barnum is one of those villages that have sprung up in the northern part of this county within the past three years. The sight of the village is a most beautiful one, and is surrounded by a tract of excellent farming lands.

J. W. Hammond has recently built a very fine hotel for the accomodation of the public.

Andrew B. Brunson, whose card will be found elsewhere in the Press, furnishes the people of that section with dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, and all the merchandise usually found in a Country Store.

W. H. Harrison is soon to have a grist mill in running order.

But the most important structure in the place, is the splendid sawmill of the Barnum Lumber Company. This mill is one of the finest in the State, and is an object of pride to the section where it is situated. We take the following description of the mill from a letter to the St.Louis Democrat, in 1865. The writer had been on a visit to Northern Wisconsin, and returned on the stage via Grand Rapids and Friendship.

"On reaching the town of Barnum, about twenty miles below the rapids, and one of the most beautiful town sites I ever saw, I could but associate the name with that of our fellow-townsman, Theron Barnum, and wonder if there might not be a sort of subtle connection between the two. While the driver stopped to drink his horses and receive little shopping commissions from the ladies, I took a stroll into the precincts of a big mill in process of construction, and learned it to be the works of the St. Louis and Wisconsin River Lumber Company. Being curious to know something of matters connected with St. Louis, I found the Superintendent of the company's works, Mr. Moran, who proved to be very much of a gentleman, and who gave me all the desired information. The main mill is 80 x 120 feet, and when completed will cut about 30,000,000 feet of lumber per annum, besides large quantities of shingles and lath. The peculiar location of the boom--protected as it is by islands--renders it a perfectly safe harbor for logs, and obviates all the difficulties so much complained of above the rapids. In fact, there is nothing to obstruct the free passage of lumber from this point to St. Louis, at all times of the year, when the river is free from ice. The advantages of this location--and it is astonishing that they were not discovered years ago--will be fully brought out by the company that has taken this work in hand."

The site has since been fully improved, as the writer predicted it would be; but owing to the lack of water during the last spring, the company was unable to stock the mill with logs for the present season. Under favorable circumstances Barnum will become one of the liveliest and most important villages in the county.