The village of Monico is situated on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway in the town of Monico, Oneida County. It is 14 miles southeast of Rhinelander, the banking point. Until 1897 Monico was in Forest County, with prospects of being made the county seat, but the legislature in that year took Town-ships 35 to 39 north of Range 11 east from Forest and attached them to Oneida County. The village at present has a population of about 200 and is under town government, having been incorporated. The town of Monico itself has a population of but 300. In October, 1882, when the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway was building into Rhinelander, there was nothing at Monico, the junction point, but a few railway shanties. In the following year the Wisconsin Sulphite Fibre Company bought practically the whole town site and built a factory (on the ground now occupied by the box company) to remove the bark and decay from pulpwood, which was then shipped to the pulp mills at Appleton, Wis. The plat of the village was recorded the same year, April 24, 1883. In the fall of 1884 the company pulled down that factory and put up a new one, establishing a large plant having four or five rotary boilers. Their intention was to develop a paper-mill, but the project was then in its initial stages. In 1887 they platted what is known as the Wisconsin Sulphite Company's Addition to Monico. The prospects looked bright for the growth of the village, but within a year or so the pulp mill burned down, and either for that cause or some other, the company, instead of rebuilding, gave up their plans with respect to Monico, sold out their interests here and left the village. The site was bought by Ed Squier of Rhinelander, who sold it in lots to different parties. The company's store was purchased by a Mr. Roberts of Pelican Lake. This store was a large building, the upper part of which was occupied by the office and sleeping-rooms. The company had operated a boarding-house for their men and there was also a hotel in the village, owned and managed by Caswell & Powers, who sold out in the fall of 1887 to John Meyer.

The first store in the village, except the company's, was that of John Graef, who first ran a saloon and afterwards was postmaster for a short time. It subsequently passed through several hands, Graef selling to L. A. Taylor and Taylor to Nels Nelson, and while Mr. Nelson was conducting it, it was burned. John Meyer who had come to Monico in the spring of 1885, conducted his hotel until 1910, when it burned and he lost $7,000, having little insurance. He then moved to the farm on the edge of the village, where he now lives. Another hotel was built by B. F. Jilson about 1890, but that also burned some years later. The present hotel, kept by M. A. Wesolowski, is in part one of the oldest buildings now in town, but has been enlarged and improved since the original portion was built. Logging was carried on in the vicinity of Monico in 1885 by Green & Sons and by Clarke, Lennan & Stapleton, and there were several portable sawmills here. The firm last mentioned, the members of whom were Rhinelander men, had jobbers cut their timber for them, they buying it from the Sulphite-Fibre Company. When the company's mill was in operation, George Hastig, anticipating a prosperous future for the village, established a newspaper here, which he called the Forest County Spy; but when the mill stopped operations he gave up the paper and opened a meat market. Joseph Kurtz built a flour and feed warehouse in 1904 and a store in 1905 and is still conducting them both and doing a good business. An item in the Eagle River Review, issue of June 9, 1898, referred to Monico Junction as "chiefly composed of hotels and railway offices," and added that a number of farmers had recently settled in the vicinity. Alfred K. Jillson, who came to Monico in 1899, was appointed postmaster in 1908, and is still serving in that capacity. The office is located in his drug store, which he established in 1914.

The Monico Excelsior Company was started in 1908 as a stock company by Emil Meyer, Peter E. Kabel, Al Rollman and others. After being operated under the same style for two years, it was changed to the Monico Box & Lumber Co. and as such remained until 1915. It was then bought by Mr. Meyer and the original title resumed. At first the concern made excelsior and boxes, but now excelsior, veneer and cheese boxes, using mostly maple, birch, cedar, spruce, balsam and white birch lumber cut in this part of the country. Mr. Meyer employs about 20 men.

The Monico school in 1885 was a one-story frame building about 18 by 24 feet in size. Then a year later a two-story, two-room building was erected, which was later enlarged by the addition of two rooms, making four in all. This building was burned in December, 1921, a few days before Christmas. School was then held in the Catholic Church until the present building was completed just in the spring of 1923 at a cost of $24,000. It is a fine brick building containing four rooms and a gymnasium. The school is a grade school with three teachers.

The water supply of Monico is obtained from individual wells. The village has the advantage of electric light supplied through transmission wire by the Rhinelander Light & Power Co. There was formerly a camp of Modern Woodmen of America in Monico, organized about 1895, which held meetings for many years but no longer does so. Another lodge formerly active was that of the Equitable Fraternal Union, who had a nice hall. The latter being destroyed by fire, however, the meetings ceased. Fire seems to have been the chief enemy of the village from the beginning, as it has suffered more from that cause than from any other, and more than most places of its size in this region. One fire which occurred October 8, 1920, destroyed two stores, the post office, restaurant and seven or eight residences. On the night of May 5-6, 1923, the railway depot was burned down. A much better one is said to have been planned by the company to replace it. Other disasters or tragedies have also caused excitement at various times. One of the saddest of these occurred Dec. 5, 1912, when Wallace and Ethel Taylor, the former aged 20 and the latter 16 years, children of Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Taylor, were drowned while crossing a lake near Monico to join a skating party. Miss Taylor was a student in the Oneida County Training School and was then home on a vacation. The father, Mr. L. A. Taylor, formerly one of the active citizens of the village, is now conducting a store at Kempster, Wis.

St. James' Catholic Church was organized as a mission soon after the founding of the village and by 1898 the congregation numbered about 65 souls. It was served then as it is today by the pastor from Eagle River, but as yet the Catholics had no church building. The edifice now in use, a neat-looking, medium-sized frame building with a front central tower, was erected in 1911. Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church of Monico was organized Jan. 1, 1922, with ten voting members namely, F. C. Kahn, J. Barnowsky, Carl Barnowsky, Rudie Pederson, John Meyer, Arthur Kuehn, Alex Beaudin, Henry Perganide, Mike Erickson and August Briese. The organization was effected by Rev. F. M. Henning, who is now serving in this his first charge. He is also pastor of the Lutheran church at Enterprise, in which place he resides. The church edifice in Monico was completed in 1923, its dedication taking place June 17. There are from 120 to 125 souls in the congregation with 18 voting members. The Sunday school enrollment is 35 and a Ladies' Aid Society has been formed. Catechetical instruction is given twice a week.

Author Unknown