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.
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.
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.
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.
-PMP Collection
– Patrick Meehan Pfiffner Collection
-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.
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.
EJ and his wife Mary Mollie Meehan Pfiffner are buried in St Stephen’s Cemetery.
PMP Collection
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.
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 
Thank you so much for sharing this.
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