What is Now White Creek was Once the Most Promising Village in the County<\/h3>\n
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By Harry Davis<\/p>\n
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Halfway between the growing communities of Friendship and Kilbourn (now Wisconsin Dells) Cascade was an ideal stagecoach terminal.\u00a0 The stage would change horses in Cascade and offer a chance for riders to get out of the coach and stretch a little on their way from Quincy or Friendship to the train station in Kilbourn.<\/p>\n White Creek (referring to the creek itself which is now named Campbell Creek) \u00a0offered good fishing as well as a mill-ready rapids and it flowed into the big Wisconsin River a short distance away.<\/p>\n At the height of its development, Cascade boasted two hotels, dance halls, a church, a school, the mill, general stores, a blacksmith shop, nice houses, picket fences and board sidewalks.\u00a0 Cascade\/White Creek\u2019s fortunes changed in the automobile era when State Highway 13 was built a mile east, bypassing the village.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Like most villages in the county, Cascade\/White Creek\u2019s story starts with a mill.\u00a0 In Cascade\u2019s case the story\u2019s prologue also concerns a mill.\u00a0 In 1850 Newel Carpenter built a sawmill on White Creek in block 35 of White Creek Township[1]<\/a> below where the village was soon to be built in block 36.\u00a0 The logs that the new mill turned into lumber very soon were used to build houses in the new village.<\/p>\n Having come to Cascade in 1851 or 52, Seth Thompson hired Newel Carpenter to build a gristmill on the creek in 1853. Thompson then moved his wife Sara and family from Janesville to Cascade.<\/p>\n The move from Janesville got off to a bad start.\u00a0 The Thompsons first arrived at their new home in the evening of the day.\u00a0 Sara Thompson refused to stay in the In 1854 Seth Thompson opened his gristmill for business.\u00a0 He then turned in the first Platt for the village of Cascade. The elegant name was short-lived however.\u00a0 In 1855, the Post Office department informed the applicants that there already was a Cascade, Wisconsin and the name was changed to White Creek.\u00a0 Apparently, the Cascade name continued to be used locally for some time as both names are given in Platt Books years later.<\/p>\n As soon as the gristmill was in operation, the village began to grow.\u00a0 Sara Thompson persuaded her siblings to move to Cascade, and her brother George Barker opened a store.\u00a0 David Bacon opened a blacksmith shop about 1855.\u00a0 George Bacon built a general store building on the southwest corner of Main and Jefferson Streets (now 14th<\/sup> Lane and Evergreen Drive) that also served as a hotel.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Solon Pierce, the lawyer who later became a prominent Friendship resident and state legislator, started a practice in White Creek.\u00a0 In 1861 Dr. William Fisher, a physician, came to White Creek and set up practice he kept for two years.\u00a0 Other doctors followed him;\u00a0 moving in, practicing there and moving on .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the town grew, new businesses were built and ownerships changed.<\/p>\n The gristmill changed hands a number of times in the early years.\u00a0 Seth Thompson moved to Friendship in 1859 to become the County Treasurer.\u00a0 He returned to Cascade, but not the mill when his term ended.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the mill passed to a Mr. Pratt and then, in 1866 to W.D. Niles.\u00a0 Niles had a heavy stonewall basement put under the mill and made other improvements.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 By 1876 the mill was owned by J.B. McIntyre who installed rollers for grinding fine flour. [5]<\/a>\u00a0 In 1882, Fritz Witt bought the mills at White Creek and at Easton.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 He and his sons operated the White Creek and Easton mills for many years.<\/p>\n 1882, Thomas Dunn opened a general merchandise store and dance hall.\u00a0 He also sold farm machinery and for twelve years was the postmaster.\u00a0 The business was later taken over by Mr. Dunn\u2019s son Ira. A part of the Dunn store remains on the site and is now (2018) Johnny\u2019s Bar.\u00a0 The dance hall was moved to Easton and is part of the Easton Town Hall.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The village of White Creek (no longer even thought of as Cascade) began its decline sometime in the late 1930s.\u00a0 The stagecoach was long gone of course.\u00a0 Trains still went to Wisconsin Dells, but they also went through Adams, Grand Marsh and Dellwood.\u00a0 More and more, people traveled by automobile and the highway was a mile to the east. When the last White Creek postmaster, Edna Pease, resigned due to poor health in 1945, the position was not reassigned.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the Lorenzo Smith family built a small tavern in White Creek in 1938 on what had become County Road H, a block south of what had been Cascade\u2019s Main Street. The Smiths added a dance hall to their building in 1941. \u00a0 By then patrons included a growing number of daily and seasonal visitors arriving \u00a0by\u00a0car.\u00a0 The business continued to be a popular gathering spot through the 1950\u2019s and 60\u2019s and remains in business today.\u00a0 Milwaukee Sentinel <\/em>columnist \u201cJamie\u201d wrote about the establishment in 1969 saying, \u201cIt is the only tavern I\u2019ve been in where ice cream cones are as popular as beer.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n The most resilient establishment in White Creek is the Congregational Church.\u00a0 On January 9, 1870 a small group met at the Schoonover Schoolhouse and established the Congregational Church of White Creek and Easton.\u00a0 Reverend J.H. McChesney acted as the first pastor and the congregation met in the school building and private homes until a church could be built.\u00a0 The congregation grew and a new church building was dedicated January 28, 1891.[8]<\/a> \u00a0Over the years the church building has been added on to and kept in good repair.\u00a0 It still serves the congregation today.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Abandon house from the days when White Creek was Cascade<\/p><\/div>\n Today White Creek is a bedroom community for residents who are employed elsewhere. Mobile homes, \u00a0two taverns and some newer houses sit within a block of County Highway H along with decaying remnants of some of the original buildings of the promising village of Cascade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n White Creek Mill pond 2005<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n ___________________<\/p>\n This article previously appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of the Adams County Historical Society newsletter, The Quatrefoil.<\/em><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> The Township of White Creek was vacated in 1878 and the village became part of Easton Township.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> \u201cHistorical Sketches of White Creek Village\u201d Friendship Reporter, <\/em>1957<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> \u201cA Brief History\u201d, The Adams County Press, <\/em>1914 quoted by Mary Lee Klaus in a letter to Maureen Haught.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> \u201cWhite Creek Items\u201d, The Adams County Press, <\/em>June 22, 1866, p. 1<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> From Past To Present, The History of Adams County, <\/em>Adams County Historical Society and New Past Press, Michael Goc editor, p.29.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Compendium of Local Biography of Columbia, Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin<\/em>, 1901, p 539<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> \u201cTown Is Ghost Of Former Self\u201d, \u201cJaunts with Jamie\u201d, Milwaukee Sentinel<\/em>, August 5, 1969.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> \u201cHistory of the White Creek Cong. Church\u201d June 16, 1991<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They Called the New Village \u201cCascade\u201d What is Now White Creek was Once the Most Promising Village in the County By Harry Davis The new community … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/adamshistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/WCreek-Street.jpg\")
<\/a>The new community of Cascade had a lot going for it.\u00a0 It was built beside a stream that \u00a0was an ideal mill site.\u00a0 The site was also well situated for travel in the horse and buggy era.<\/p>\nA Promising Beginning<\/h4>\n
<\/a>house that night because she was afraid of Native Americans.\u00a0 She insisted on being taken to a neighbor\u2019s house three miles away for the night.\u00a0 Although Mrs. Thompson never got over her fears, Mr. Thompson came to be on very friendly terms with the Native Americans.\u00a0 Often in winter, some of them would come into the Thompson house at night to stay warm by the fire and slip away early in the morning before the family awoke.[2]<\/a><\/p>\nA Period of Growth and Change<\/h3>\n
<\/a>A.H. Greenwood took over the store and hotel that George Bacon had built.\u00a0 Across \u201cMain Street\u201d, in about<\/p>\nWhite Creek Refuses to Die<\/h4>\n
Epilogue<\/h4>\n
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