We have been hoping the sign would find its way home somehow or another, and we are absolutely ecstatic to report that the sign has been recovered! If you did not read the press release yet, here it is again:
Mayor Mike Wiza announced today that the missing sign from Union Cemetery on Water Street was recovered by the Stevens Point Police Department.
An anonymous tip lead to a search warrant that was executed on July 29 and resulted in the recovery of the missing sign. The warrant was served at a property west of Stevens Point on County Highway C. The sign was found displayed in a pole shed on the property along with other stolen signs.
“I am elated that our officers were able to recover the sign,” said Mayor Mike Wiza. “I’m also grateful that someone came forward to help us recover this piece of Stevens Point history. We have a few minor repairs to make and we’ll get the sign back home very soon.”
The historic sign went missing in mid-May of 2020 and a significant community effort was taken to try and find it. An anonymous citizen had pledged $500 as part of a reward and will be making good on his pledge. Andy Vollert, a local fabricator, had offered to help make a replacement for the missing sign and will be consulted on the needed repair work.
“Happy is an understatement of how everyone is feeling right now,” Wiza continued. “Our Parks Director and employees, Police Chief and officers, and we at City Hall will be smiling for a while. Having the sign back is almost like a homecoming for a friend. When people drive by, I hope they see it the same way, too, and smile.”
Before the library could officially open to the public, the extensive collection of over 5,000 books and reading materials had to be moved from their old crowded home on the shelves in the rooms above Taylor’s to their new more permanent home on the brand-new freshly varnished shelves just down the road. No records have been found that describe exactly how these books were moved, but one can imagine stacks carried piled to volunteers chins and carts piled high precariously pushed across the rough cobblestone street from one building to the next to finally put in order and shelved by Miss Catlin and Mrs. Dunegan themselves.
Mike Dominowki photo, UWSP / PCHS Archives
The afternoon of June 1st the doors of Stevens Point’s new Carnegie Library opened to the public for the first time. The words “Open To All,” etched in stone above the entrance greeted the city’s new patrons encouraging all to enter and enjoy. The Union Band was set up in the lobby and an art exhibit of local children’s drawings hung on display in the new children’s reading room. Decorations were hung sparingly not to overshadow the real stars of the event, the building itself and the books on their new shelves.
Architect’s sketch published in the Stevens Point Daily Journal, circa 1902 Post card of the Carnegie Library, Historic Stevens Point Collection
At completion the new library was just as architect drawings showed. The handsome Neo-Classical Revival style building constructed from gray stone and brick was built with a “high basement” to match the height atheistic of the neighboring two-story buildings. The ample stone stairs led to the “broad and inviting” entrance flanked with enormous ionic Roman pillars. Heavy wood doors opened to a wide vestibule with the “librarian’s desk being at the north end of this space.” To the left was a spacious reading room filled with tables and chairs, which housed reference books and the directors’ room. Located in the right wing was the children’s room as well as space for the librarian’s office. The heavily varnished interior woodwork, made from red birch, gave off a warm inviting glow.
The interior of the Stevens Point Carnegie Library circa 1914. Children’s Reading room in the west wing, the circulation desk at the center, and the Reading Room to the east. Photos courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
A rotunda and dome graced the center of the ceiling and roof line of the building with a skylight made from green art glass specially shipped in by train. It must have been a lovely sight to see the light shine through leaving patterns on the polished wood floors. The original plan called for a narrow gallery around the rotunda, “which is approached by a stairway from the vestibule. The walls of this gallery will be arranged with the idea of using the space for hanging pictures,” making it an engaging focal point when looking to the ceiling.
One of the only known photos of the interior glass of the rotunda. Stevens Point Journal Photo circa 1960
The lower level contained “a lecture hall, a club room for women and a newspaper reading room for men,” as well as a kitchen, storeroom, boiler and fuel rooms, and a librarian’s work room. At some point a carom or French billiards table was moved into the men’s area where boys and men alike gathered to play. Various meetings were held by the ladies in their specified area as well. The Women’s League was very involved in the fundraising for the library and held a permanent contract for their space. Separating the main lower wings of the building was a large open corridor with all three areas able to connect by opening the sliding doors create one large room. The large room was intended to be used for events and lectures for community members.
Basement Billiards at the Stevens Point Carnegie Library circa 1914, Wisconsin Historical Society
Gifts from community members were given to the new building as well such as a large potted palm plant and a life-size bust of Shakespeare donated by the graduating class of 1904. But one of the greatest and most beautiful gifts to the library was the donation of a pair of heavy decorative brass and iron doors, a matching iron transom for above the doors as well as a pair of tall ornate brass lamp posts in 1918. Purchased with money left by Andrew Weeks, the doors gave the library quite the grand entrance. Weeks, who had sat on the library board and building committee during the years when the library was being planned. He had also helped raise money for the library fund early on by selling logging land in the Northwoods and then donating it to the cause while the city was preparing to ask Carnegie for the initial donation.
Stevens Point’s Carnegie Library Circa 1914, Wisconsin Historical Society
Coming from a successful lumber and logging family, Weeks died with a significant fortune and left for his time and left money specifically for the Stevens Point Carnegie Library. After his death, his sister ensured that the community received the designated $5000 donation in her brother’s name and helped choose the doors, transom, and lamps. The Weeks family obviously thought it was important that the Stevens Point Public Carnegie Library have a grand entrance.
With Riverfront Rendezvous under way another year, here is a little back ground on the man behind the name of the green space on the river so loved by our community, Mr Edward Julius Pfiffner.
Photos courtesy of the Patrick Meehan Pfiffner Collection
Coming to the area in his youth Edward J. Pfiffner was a self made man who found a trade that suited him well and managed to leave a legacy that still bears his name today.
Pfiffner, of Swiss-German decent, was born in Galena, Illinois in 1859 in a house, according to family lore, just down from the pre-war home of Ulysses Grant. When he was just a young baby his family traveled by steamboat up the Mississippi River to the small trading post of Waupeton, located on the Mississippi River’s edge in the township of Jefferson, Iowa.
Photo of sketch of Waupeton, Iowa circa 1950s, courtesy of Tina Anglin, owner of Mile 600, LLC in Waupeton, Iowa
There, on the edge of the Mississippi River, tucked in a small valley, his family had purchased the trading post, where EJ’s father, Joseph Johann Pfiffner, was to become the new postmaster. Working with relatives, the family set up a general store, sawmill, and farmed the land. One of six children, EJ and his siblings helped with the family business and walked three miles up the ridge to the the Rawles farm to attend school in a log cabin. Remarkably, the school building stood until a few short years ago when it was taken down by the family to be stored. The tiny handful of buildings in Waupeton were a common supply stop for loggers riding the rafts down the Mississippi as well as a rest stop for steamships carrying passengers or goods down the river. When the railroad came through, the area also became a popular depot spot for nearby farmers to bring their goods to load onto the trains to send to the markets in Dubuque and further south. The little town still stands today, but is nothing like it was in EJ’s time.
Waupeton, Iowa today is a mostly privately owned camp ground area with a small marina and about a dozen or so seasonal homes tucked along the hillside. Historic Stevens Point Collection
Waupeton Depot circa 1940s, the post office is the building on the right near the thumb indent. We are not sure if this was an original building. None of these buildings remain today. Courtesy of Tina Anglin
Patrick Meehan was a successful lumberman from Portage County who rode the rails as well as the rafts to sell his logs down river and often stopped in Waupeton for supplies. He and his brother, James, owned a sawmill in the present day Linwood area, near the town of Meehan by Plover. While in Waupeton one year, Patrick invited EJ to come to work at he and his brother’s enterprise in Wisconsin. He accepted. At the age of 16, Pfiffner said good bye to the small river valley community, the only life he’d ever known, packed up and made the long journey to the Gateway to the Pineries. Traveling by rail up the Mississippi River from Waupeton to La Crosse, to Grand Rapids (today Wisconsin Rapids), and then wagon to the sawmill, Pfiffner arrived in the town of Meehan at Love’s Creek in 1875. There he worked as a timekeeper, bookkeeper, and lumberjack, sometimes riding the rafts as a river pilot. For the next few years he traveled back and forth between Iowa and Wisconsin, working in both states, spending his hard earned money to attend Baylee’s Business College in Dubuque. By 1877, the family had sold the general store and land in Waupeton, moved to the city, and opened a new general store in Dubuque. EJ helped out often between his time in Portage County and Dubuque.
James Meehan circa 1878 -PMP Collection
EJ on the left with his best friend Joseph Roe, circa late 1870s likely taken in Dubuque, Iowa. EJ is in his late teens in this tin type photo, probably around the same age he came to Portage County. – Patrick Meehan Pfiffner Collection
Patrick Meehan circa 1880s in Mexico -PMP Collection
When the Meehan Brothers moved their enterprises elsewhere and then moved themselves to Milwaukee, EJ went to work for Bosworth and Riley and settled in Stevens Point permanently. He married James Meehan’s daughter, Mary Mollie, in 1884 and had three children together: Joseph Roe, named after EJ’s best friend; James Meehan, named after EJ’s father-in-law; and Mary Ramona, named after a popular character in a book of the time. The children all went by their middle names, as did their mother. Pfiffner was know as Ed and Edward by the community.
After Pfiffner left B&R, he partnered up to form a new firm, the Fox, Pfiffner, and Keiler Lumber Company, later becoming the Pfiffner and Rounds Lumber Company. The new firm bought out nearby competition, The North Side Lumber company, and purchased the adjacent land, once owned by the Weeks Brothers Lumber Mill, to create what would eventually be would be known as the of the EJ Pfiffner Lumber Company. Pfiffner’s firm reached far into the North Woods as well where he also owned multiple logging camps and sawmills throughout the area. He quintessentially defined what, today, we would call a lumber baron. A small town lumber baron, but a lumber baron nonetheless.
Circa early 1900s. Courtesy of the Portage County Historical Society
Solidifying this title, in 1898, sparing few luxuries, Pfiffner had the enormous Queen Anne style house on Strongs Avenue and Court Street built for his family. There are stories of his children and grandchildren playing basketball in the third floor ballroom. Pfiffner was a political man, publicly declaring his support for Grover Cleveland’s run in the 1896 election. For many years he served as alderman as well as sat as president of the council and was a member of the school board. Pfiffner was also a founding member of Citizen’s Bank serving as president for nearly 20 years. The Pfiffner family remained involved in Stevens Point politics and business for decades as well as becoming a major player in the establishment and success of the Hotel Whiting. His son Joseph Roe became city district attorney and James Meehan continued on with the family lumber business, and later the hotel business. Ramona graduated from the the State Normal School, married, and moved to the Milwaukee area. Mary Mollie died in 1920 from complications from pneumonia likely due to the Spanish Flu epidemic.
After EJ died in 1948, James Meehan sold the family home to a funeral company and moved into the hotel. The lumber company closed in 1956. Today the Pfiffner Family home is privately owned, and houses bi-level apartments on the second floor and ballroom area and business suites on the main level. Few original pieces of the original interior remain. In 1968, the lumber company land was donated to the city by EJ’s son, James Meehan Pfiffner, and his daughter, Mary Ramona Pfiffner Gallagher, to be named in honor of their father and to become the beautiful park we know and love today.
Patrick Meehan Pfiffner Collection
EJ and his wife Mary Mollie Meehan Pfiffner are buried in St Stephen’s Cemetery.
Edward Julius Pfiffner 1859-1948, PMP Collection
Mary Mollie Meehan Pfiffner circa 1875, 1858-1920 PMP Collection
If you’re at Riverfront Rendezvous and by the brick building this weekend, make sure to stop and read the plaque erected by the Pfiffner Family.
Historic Stevens Point Collection
Note: This post is an abridged overview of the history of EJ Pfiffner, his lumber company, and his family. Pfiffner was an amazing self made man with an extensive history. This is just the beginning on our work on he and his family. Pfiffner and his family appear in the local newspapers almost daily during their peak years. At least one out of every generation since EJ has enjoyed success and has a story to tell. We hope to touch on many over the course of time.
*This work would not be possible without the incredible knowledge and collections of Patrick Meehan Pfiffner, great grandson of EJ, who has endlessly researched the Pfiffner family for decades and for whom we are forever grateful.
Historic Stevens Point 