Thank you for joining us for a journey through history!
I have a keen natural curiosity which often sends me down a path with many forks, some would say a rabbit hole. I love to travel the road less followed and visit the small towns along the way. I often research them from their beginnings to present day on my phone before I even leave town. Sometimes I stop in a local tavern or cafe and look for an old timer to sit with and chat for a bit. You’d be surprised what you can learn over a cup of coffee or a bourbon neat.
The late 19th and early 20th century are my favorite time periods. I enjoy learning about the day to day person, the working class, and company towns. I want to know why a town exists, what kept it going, and what was its downfall if any. I am interested in their industries, their downtowns, their early merchants, and people. I want to know who owned the buildings, who built them, who tore them down if they are gone, and why. Through my natural curiosity I began to do work for others and started a small freelance historical research business.
Recently I became very interested in not only my own family history, but my hometown history. Using my professional research skills I started searching and working on my own family story. Something I had never considered before. Not genealogy, but following family stories through sources, not to verify them so much as to enhance them. Through that research I have uncovered many Stevens Point stories that would not normally be known. I am incredibly lucky to have deep pioneering family roots and a mostly complete genealogy record which has given me a bit of an advantage in my hometown research. From my curiosity came the Facebook page, an Instagram account, and now the blog. You may have seen my articles in the Portage County Gazette as well. I forever collect information and rarely share it in print format for many to enjoy. I am pleased to have a place to put down not only my words, but my process of research as I find bits of colorful threads to weave into a full picture of not just early Stevens Point history, but of it’s many interesting residents lost to time.
Please join me as I explore multiple primary sources, newspapers, and local stories to follow families, individuals, and businesses of Stevens Point through time.
Chelsey S Pfiffner, proprietor, Primary Source Investigations
Historic Stevens Point 