History of Bartelme
Researched and written by Ron Schumacher
The Town of Bartelme was created by an ordinance presented to the Shawano County Board of Supervisors which was passed on June 13, 1912. It was then approved to detach 36 sections of land from the Town of Almon to create the Town of Bartelme. The first annual meeting of the new Township was held April 1, 1913 at the home of Frank Matz. Paul Fuhrman was elected chairman and was to receive $2.50 per day. The following town officials were elected:
Paul Fuhrman - Chairman
Herman Malitz - Supervisor
Adolph Zenisek - Supervisor
Emil J. Bartelme - Clerk
Fred Bartelme - Treasurer
Herman Fuhrman - Assessor
Fred C. Jahn - Constable
Fred Wolf - Constable
August Kroll - Justice of the Peace
William Kolpack - Justice of the Peace
The Town of Bartelme was one of the later Townships to be logged in Shawano County. Early logging in Shawano County was of the plentiful White Pine, because pine logs could be floated down the vast river system available, in the county, to be processed at sawmills in New London and Oshkosh. The Town of Bartelme did not have the river system to move logs to be processed. Hardwood logs do not float, so they first became a commodity when railroads were available to move them to market.
The population of the new Township was very sparse, in 1912, with the bulk of the population living near to what would become the Village of Bowler. The 1911 Shawano County Atlas shows there was a total of 2 ¼ miles of roads in what would become the township at that time. The Town of Bartelme was almost 100 % timber and ninety percent of the Township was owned by various lumber companies.
The logging of the timber required lumbermen, skidders loaders, cooks and personnel to build camps and to supply them. Of course, some of the workers brought their families with them while they worked in the lumber camps.
Some hardy souls bought land, cleared trees, built a house, and raised a few crops and animals for food and to supplement their income. It was also quite common for many of the settlers to work in the lumber camps as a laborer or with their own team of horses for skidding. The increase in logging also increased the population; which increased the number of children and the need for schools.
Brooks and Ross Lumber Co.
Janet (nee marten) Johnson’s, Mom, Eva (nee Williams) Marten, described their house at the Headquarters of the Brooks and Ross lumber Co. “My dad built a house with a slanted roof. Employees of Brooks and Ross were allowed to build any place on the property.” It was probably east of Moh He Con Nuck Rd at Fairview Rd or in that general vicinity .
Janet says “Mom was 3 yrs old when they came to Bowler and lived by the Embarrass River where Rob and Emma Bielke later lived and farmed for years. That location is now the Stockbridge Highway Bldg.”
Grant & Joan Williams - daughters Eva (standing) and Ruth in Joan’s arms - 1917
Front Row Left to Right: Ronald (Son) Davids, Wayne Martin, Rodney (Chum) Davids, James (Jim) Davids.
Back Row Left to Right: Lillian Raasch, Thel Putnam, Arletta (Arlee) Gardner, Noretta Doxtator.
Stockbridge Day School
On December 13, 1935, the Brooks and Ross Lumber Company sold approximately 6,700 acres of logged off timber land, in the Town of Bartelme, to the United States Government. This land was placed in Trust for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. The former Headquarters for the Brooks and Ross lumber camp became the Stockbridge-Munsee Headquarters.
About ten families moved to the reservation in 1936.
The Stockbridge Day School, a large and modern structure that also served as a Community Building, was built on the Community Grounds and Park, and dedicated on May 16, 1941.
The Stockbridge Day School served grades 1 - 6. The students, as well as most of the contents of the building, were transferred to the Bowler Public Schools, upon the closing in May of 1948. The building was torn down about 1961.
