Rooms & Exhibits

THE RHINELANDER HISTORICAL SOCIETY Museum at 9 South Pelham (formerly 109 South Pelham).

The property now known as 9 South Pelham was part of a huge portion of land purchased in 1878 by Thomas W. Anderson for his brother-in-law, Edward Dexter Brown, and nephews, Anderson and Webster. The land was eventually divided so that each man and his wife received a 1/4 portion. In 1882, an agreement was made with the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway Company in which the odd-numbered lots of the original plat of the Village of Rhinelander were to go to the Railway Company. Lot 7, Block 27, the present museum site, was included in this transaction.

The land transferred hands several times before being purchased in 1894 by Mrs. Edith Hollis Van Slate, a widow, who, at the end of August of that year, began the construction of a boarding house. Mrs. Van Slate, formerly of Wausau, hired the local firms of J. A. Sanders to do the carpentry and Bock Bros. to handle the masonry. By November, Mrs. Van Slate advertised her boarding house in local newspapers, preferring day boarders. Although we do not know who rented rooms at that time, we do know that they were enjoying their stay. One news-paper reported: "We are informed by a young gentleman, who is in a position to know, that Mrs. Van Slate's boarders were serenaded one evening last week by a party of some 20 of the popular young ladies of the city."

In the fall of 1897, George Clayton, owner of a sawmill, moved his family to Rhinelander from Wausau. They were to occupy Mrs. Van Slate's residence, but it is not known if Mrs. Van Slate was also still living there. Two years later, the house was sold to Mrs. Catherine Didier, a recent widow, who moved in with her three children as soon as it was vacated by the Claytons. The Didiers' stay was short, for in July of 1900, Mrs. Didier sold the property and moved to Canada to be near a daughter who was going to school there. This sale provided the house with its first long-time owners, William and Ella Beers Jamieson.

Although both in their forties, the Jamiesons had only been married a year when they moved into the house. Their choice of residence kept them close to family -- Ella's brother lived at the site of the present Masonic Temple, and William's sister lived at 4 South Oneida. They were also within walking distance of Ella's millinery shop on Davenport St., and the church in which they had been married, St. Augustine's Episcopal. In 1910, Mrs. Jamieson had apparently given up her millinery business to take care of the boarding house, as the census taken that year showed additional residents: Frank J. Pallanch and George Hollan, both travelling salesmen; Frank Stransky, a barkeeper, and his wife, Ann; Ira O'Neill, a cashier for the railroad; and Arthur Lamotte, a music teacher.

Around 1914, the Jamiesons moved to Minnesota, William's former home. They left their Rhinelander house in the hands of Mrs. W. R. (Nettie) Hamilton, who was living there at that time with her two children. After Ella Jamieson's death in December of 1915, William put the boarding house up for sale. With the help of a neighbor, George Mahoney, Mrs. Hamilton was eventually able to purchase the property, also giving up her millinery business to run the boarding house.

In 1920, the property again changed hands, purchased by Willis B. Raymond and wife, Alice, who may have been the ones to make changes in the construction of the building around 1925. The Raymonds owned the property until 1927, when they sold it to George and Nora Niles, who lived there for twenty years, still maintaining it as a multiple-family dwelling.

-- Joy M. Vancos