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The first meeting of Thorp Township was held in April of 1876, after
it's creation by the county board January 21, 1876. Namesake of the Town of Thorp was Joseph Gilbert Thorp
Sr., a resident of Eau Claire, WI, who settled there with his family in 1857. Mr. Thorp, born in New York
in 1812, was the constant president of the Eau Claire Lumber Company, which at the time of Thorp's organization
had large interests in and around the township and a large farm within it. The Eau Claire Lumber Co. was incorporated
in 1866 and merged with the Mississippi Logging Co. in 1887. Joseph Thorp also was active in building of
early railways, president of the YMCA of Eau Claire, and served as a U.S. senator for Wisconsin. The Thorp
family could be subjects of a very interesting life story. Joseph Thorp's son, Joseph Jr., married Anne Allegra
Longfellow, daughter of the famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Joseph's daughter, Sarah, married Ole
Bull of Norway, a champion violinist of the world. Ole, 40 years her senior, built a beautiful home for Sarah
and their daughter on an island in Norway. The Boardman family members were early settlers in Thorp Township,
arriving in about 1870. Thorp's present boundaries were secured in 1893.
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