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A civil town in Taylor County,
Wisconsin at
latitude 452047N and longitude
0904431W
created Mar. 13, 1923
The unincorporated
community of Jump River is located in
the township.
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
The town
has a total area of 36.0 square miles,
all of it land.
In
1847, surveyors
working for the U.S. government walked the six mile square that would
become the town of Jump River. They marked off the outline of
thetownship on foot using compass and chain. A crew came back in 1855
to survey all the section lines. When done, the deputy surveyor filed
this general description:
This
township contains several swamps and some of considerable extent. They
are all unfit for cultivation. The meadow and alder bottom are all
liable to be overflowed to a depth of 1 foot or more. and are good for
hay.
The surface is generally level apart is upland where the soil is 2nd
rate. This township is heavily timbered and is cheifly composed
ofHemlock and Y. Birch on low level land, but on upland it is Sugar,
Linden, W. Pine, Balsam and Elm. The undergrowth is generally thick and
is composed of Hemlock, Hazel, and Balsam. Elm and Balsam line the
margin of the meadow and alder bottoms and also most of the streams.
Barney
and Gertrude Broeder were the first settlers in the town, arriving in
1892. Others soon followed. The Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway
reached the town in 1904. In 1923, the Town of Jump River was
established with its current boundaries.
In 1933 the cut-over
east edge of the town of Jump River was designated part of the
Chequamegon National Forest. In 2007 an area in the southeast corner
was designated the Bear
Creek Hemlocks State Natural Area. Among a variety of flora,
it contains two stands of old-growth hemlock.
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History Of
The Village of
Jump River
(formerly
Broederville.)
Bernhard (Barney) Broeder was born
in Cologne, Germany on
March 27, 1846. In 1851, he immigrated to the U.S. with his parents to
the Greenbay, Wisconsin area. Broederville
took its name from Barney Broeder, the
first
settler on the
Jump River. Barney
Broeder, the grand old pioneer settler of northwest Taylor county, went
north from Thorp in the fall of 1890, before the time of roads, and
searched out a homestead on the banks of the Jump River.
Mr Broeder selected a site more than a mile north of the present
village of Jump River. It had been used as a corn field by the Indians.
The following March, he went up again, built a log house, moved his
family, and lived there in the forest twenty-five miles from the
nearest settler until 1893 when his wifes brother, John Frett, took
land near them. John Hayes, Edward Powell, M. Long and Tim Warner soon
followed. Hugh Warner was the first white child born in the settlement.
Elmer
Houts arrived in 1896, and the following year married Miss Gertrude
Broeder (daughter of Barney Broeder) - the first marriage in the new
settlement.
In 1897,
George
Allemang, Chris Bacon, William Buyette, Bert
Foster, Albert Laeger, Alex, Raymond and Mr. Carlyle settled in the
area. Broederville post office was established, with Mr Broeder as the
first postmaster. Mail was delivered by a post rider, who traveled 13
miles, over forest trails to Ingram twice a week. The first post rider
was, Albert Laeger. In
1898, Charles Storms, E. Oldstead, George Loefler and Chris Olson were
the new settlers.
 The Allamang school was built
in 1898, with Miss Clara Mundt
of Westboro, the first teacher. The first religious services were
conducted by Rev. John Williams, a Congregational missionary, in the
Allamang school, and a society was organized.
In 1902, the Mount
Nebo
Cemetary
was platted by Barney Broeder, George
Allamang and George Leffler
In 1903, the
railroad
from Stanley was built through to
Jump River, and carried daily freight and mail. The Post
Office
was then transferred to the village. When the post office was moved to
the present site of
the
village, the name was changed to Jump River, after the river which
flows past the village. The Indians called it the jumping
river, probably because when the
water is high the river jumps over the many rapids on it.
C.J. Boeckler moved his store to the village, and built a hotel in 1903. The
following year he built a sawmill on
Levitt Creek.
A turnpike was built to connect with the Ingram road
In
1905, as the settlement still belonged to the town of Westboro, a
number of voters walked twenty miles through the woods to the village
of Westboro to vote. Oscar and Charles Smith and L.J.
Pannetti
were among the new arrivals and a little later, Robert Black who soon
established claim to the "Poet of Jump River" title by writing some
very creditable poems.
In 1919, the county board created the Town of McKinley, and in 1923
made the east half into the town of
Jump River.
At the first election, Dan J. Boeckler was elected
chairman, an office which he held for many terms.
[source
:
Reminiscences and
Anecdotes of early Taylor
County,
author: Arthur J. Latton,
published: 1947]
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