F.W. Rhinelander - bed from his train car Anderson Brown came here in 1872 and looked over the area and saw potential here but didn't know how they could actually make this a profitable adventure. Others recognized the tremendous amount of saw logs, but how do you get it to market. Up until then the thought was you would cut the logs here and float them down the Wisconsin River to the city that had a big sawmill, Stevens Point, Wausau, or one of the cities that could handle the quantity of wood. The problem was the Wisconsin River was very winding and rocky so it was very difficult to move the logs. To get the logs to say Wausau was not a matter of days, but rather weeks or a month. The logs would get snarled up and then they would have to unjam them. So in 1872 Anderson Brown came up and saw the potential so he tried to get his family to invest in some land. It took a couple of years to convince them, but in 1874 they bought the first 1500 acres but still again didn't know what to do with it.
In 1878 they heard that the Milwaukee Lakeshore and Western Railroad was going to put a line in from Milwaukee to Ontonagon Michigan to transport ore from the mines. That would bring the rail line within 15 miles of this area so they approached the Railroad and asked what it would take to get them to put a spur in the 15 mile from the main line to where the village would be here. They made a business case to show how many loads of lumber could be hauled out, and all the supplies that would be brought in. In addition they also offered the Railroad half of their property, half of the 1500 acres that they initially bought, they were willing to give to the Railroad. You might ask what would the Railroad do with all that land as they only build tracks on designated lines? The answer is they sell the land and use the profits to pay for the construction costs. So the Browns built a business case, they offered half of their land and to really cement the deal, they offered to name the new village that they were creating after the president of the railroad who was FW Rhinelander. This is the actual bed that Mr. Rhinelander used when he traveled around the country in his rail car. There is only one we were fortunate enough to have it here.
Shepard Rhinelander Room Highlights
Listed below are a few of the items in this room that you may be interested in learning more about.
F.W. Rhinelander
Mr. Rhinelander, name sake of first the Village and now the City of Rhinelander, was the President of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad Co. Had the Brown Family not negotiated with the railroad to build a spur from its main line near what is now Monico, who knows if a city would be here today? In 1881, the town of Pelican Rapids in Oneida County, Wisconsin was renamed to Rhinelander, Wisconsin after Rhinelander, in an attempt to induce the railroad to extend a spur to the location to further their lumbering business. The Railroad reached the town in 1882.
Bedframe
F.W. Rhinelander’s bed frame that was used in his train car
In 1947, Rhinelander native Merrit Scheidegger received the bed for doing carpenter work for Mrs. (Chet?) Moore in Pelican Lake, WI. When Mr. Rhinelander finished the railroad to the new village of Rhinelander, named after him, he gave the bed from his train car to Mrs. Moore as payment for the meals she prepared for him when he traveled up north. The bed, made of cherry and mahogany, has been in the Scheidegger family ever since. Jill (Scheidegger) Corrigan and her brother Mark were the last of the family to use it during the 1970s.
F.W. Rhinelander (1828-1904) was the president of the Milwaukee, Lakeshore and Western railroad, and lived in New York City.
Gene Shepard Memorabilia
Here we have some memorabilia from Gene Shepard. He is credited with the Hodag that's our school mascot, it's our city symbol, and it's a major tourist attraction. Again, if it wasn't for people donating things to the Museum, we wouldn't be able to see things like the silverware in the case from Gene Shepard’s boat called the Hodag. Also in the case are examples of the Plate Book that Gene Shepard created in the late 1800’s. It was so well regarded that if it were used in a court case, it went unchallenged. Mr. Shepard surveyed over 1,000 acres and named well over 100 lakes. One example is Lake Mildred. Mildred was his first wife.
Mr. Shepherd, in one of the times when he had a lot of money, and he had a very up-and-down kind of life. He made a lot and spent a lot and one of those times when he had some money he decided to have the Rhinelander Boat Company build a boat for him. It was huge, 61 feet long with 11 foot beam. It even had a detachable pilot's house on the top that could come off to be transported on the road. The pilot’s house was big enough for 10 people and below deck there were two cabins, a kitchen and bathroom. The plan was he was going to take some school teachers and sail down the Mississippi River to help promote this area. Gene Shephard was big a big promoter of this area. Unfortunately the boat didn't get done in time, as it took a year to build, so the schoolteachers couldn’t commit to the take a trip, so the boat was put in Boom Lake, where the sawmills were, but it was just too big and too underpowered to maneuver in the river or lake. So it just basically rotted away. He spent $11,000 to have it built and put another $9,000 in furnishings and equipping. $20,000 back then is probably north of half a million in today's dollars, so this was a big expenditure for little return. There are only a couple of things that have survived from that boat. The most well known is the bell that now used in the High School football game each year between Rhinelander and Antigo. It is called the Bell Game and the bell from his boat is what's on the traveling trophy that goes to the winning team. Rhinelander has been fortunate enough to have won it the past couple of years. We also have a set of silverware from that boat and each piece of silverware has the word Hodag engraved on them.
Silverware
This piece of silverware was from the Hodag, a 61-foot boat built for Eugene Shepard by the Rhinelander Boat Co. in 1903. But the first time the boat was docked on the east shore of Boom Lake, it drew in water and rolled in on itself.
The bell from this boat is still used as the trophy for the annual Bell Game between Rhinelander and Antigo. Jack Corey, a reporter for the Rhinelander Daily News, was friends with a reporter in Antigo and discussed amongst themselves possibilities for a traveling trophy between the two cities. So Corey approached Mrs. Shepard and asked her if they could use that bell to be used as this traveling trophy. Nowadays, the bell has a frame on it and whoever wins gets to paint the frame, such that if Rhinelander wins, the frame is painted green and if Antigo wins the bell is painted red (the bell isn’t touched), and every year the defending champ brings the bell to the Bell Game.
Friendship Quilt
Friendship Quilt from early Rhinelander (donated from the Taylor Family) This quilt was started in the early 1900’s by pioneer families but wasn’t completed until the Rhinelander Centennial in 1982. We are honored to be able to show it here.
