Knapp, Stout & Co. was a lumber company based in Menomonie, Wisconsin in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The company was established in 1846, when John Holly Knapp and William Wilson purchased half of interest in a lumber mill [1] on the Red Cedar River from David Black; it was originally known as Black & Knapp. Later Andrew Tainter acquired a quarter-interest, and the company has become Knapp-Tainter Lumber Company. Henry Stout bought a quarter interest in the company in 1853, and its name became Knapp, Stout & Company. The company's location allowed it to control the lumber industry in the region, and by 1870 it controlled the logging industry in the Red Cedar River valley. [2] In 1878, the company incorporated, and its official name became the Knapp, Stout & Co., Company. [3] The company employed over 2,000 workers in the Menomonie area and produced 85 million board feet of lumber on average yearly from 1871 to 1896; its output made it the largest lumber company in the world. [2] [4] In the 1880s, the company expanded to sites along the Mississippi River, opening offices in Dubuque, Iowa, Read's Landing, Minnesota, and St. Louis. By the 1900s, the company had largely depleted its lumber supply; it closed many of its camps and dissolved early in the 20th century. [2] [3] [5] The company sent out its last shipment of lumber on August 12, 1901. [6]
In addition to logging, Knapp, Stout & Co. built many community institutions in Menomonie and northern Wisconsin. The company funded the first schools in both Barron County and Dunn County counties and established Evergreen Cemetery, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). [7] In addition, company partner Andrew Tainter built the NRHP-listed Louis Smith Tainter House and the Mabel Tainter Memorial Building in Menomonie. [2] [8] Henry Stout's son James Huff Stout founded the University of Wisconsin–Stout with his inheritance from the company. [2]
John Holly Knapp (1825–1888) was born in New York state in 1825 to General John Holly Knapp (born May 20, 1791), the founder of new Fort Madison, Iowa and Harriet Knapp (nee Seely), and grew up in Fort Madison. [1] [9] At first he remained in Fort Madison, although travelled frequently to Menomonie. At Fort Madison he had a son Henry with his first wife, Caroline Field, and two children, Effie and William with his second wife, Valaria Adams. But as the business grew, he moved to Menomonie, where four more children were born, John Holly III, Edgar, Herbert and Rolla. During 1878–1886 Knapp was president of the firm. [1] The village of Knapp, Dunn County, Wisconsin was named for him. [10]
Henry Lane Stout (October 23, 1814 – July 17, 1900) was born in New Jersey. After pursuing some other interests, he became a lumber salesman at Knapp-Tainter and in 1853 acquired a quarter-interest in it. [11]
For five years Stout was mayor of Dubuque. He also served on the board of directors for the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad (1867-1869), the Dakota & Dubuque Railroad (1881), and the Iowa Pacific Railroad (1876), and served as an officer and on the board of directors of the Dunleith & Dubuque Bridge Company and the Dunleith & Dubuque Ferry Company (1868-1893). [11]
Dunn County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,857. Its county seat is Menomonie.
Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 11,051 at the 2010 census. Located along the Mississippi River in the state's southeast corner, it lies between small bluffs along one of the widest portions of the river.
Menomonie is a city in and the county seat of Dunn County in the western part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The city's population was 16,264 as of the 2010 census.
Birchwood is a village in Washburn County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 442 at the 2010 census. The village is located within the Town of Birchwood.
The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin. Belmont was initially chosen as the capital of the territory. In 1837, the territorial legislature met in Burlington, just north of the Skunk River on the Mississippi, which became part of the Iowa Territory in 1838. In that year, 1838, the territorial capital of Wisconsin was moved to Madison.
Tainter Lake is a small reservoir in north central Dunn County, Wisconsin, on the Red Cedar River at its confluence with the Hay River. The lake was created by a hydroelectric dam (about 3 miles downstream on the Red Cedar at Cedar Falls. The lake, a popular resort and fishing spot, has a surface area of approximately 2 square miles.
The Tainter gate is a type of radial arm floodgate used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. It is named for Wisconsin structural engineer Jeremiah Burnham Tainter.
Jeremiah Burnham Tainter was an inventor and engineer known for having designed the Tainter gate in 1886. He began his work in hydrology in 1862, with the modification of pre-existing mill pond dams in Menomonie. Tainter was employed by Knapp, Stout & Co., the largest lumber manufacturer in the United States in the last quarter of the 19th century. His brother Andrew Tainter was a principal in Knapp, Stout.
State Trunk Highway 25 is a state highway in Wisconsin, United States. The route serves local traffic in the western part of the state, connecting Durand, Menomonie and Barron. It is two-lane surface road with the exception of urban multilanes within Menomonie.
U.S. Highway 12 in the U.S. state of Wisconsin runs east–west across the western to southeast portions of the state. It enters from Minnesota running concurrently with Interstate 94 (I-94) at Hudson, parallels the Interstate to Wisconsin Dells, and provides local access to cities such as Menomonie, Eau Claire, Black River Falls, Tomah and Mauston. It then provides an alternative route for traffic between northwestern Wisconsin and Madison and is the anchor route for the Beltline Highway around Madison. Finally, it serves southeastern Wisconsin, connecting Madison with Fort Atkinson, Whitewater, Elkhorn and Lake Geneva. The West Beltline Highway and the segment between Elkhorn and Genoa City are freeways, and the segment between Sauk City and Middleton is an expressway. The remainder of the road is a two-lane surface road or an urban multi-lane arterial. Between Hudson and west of Warrens, the road closely parallels the former main line of the Omaha Road, now operated by Union Pacific Railroad.
The McCann brothers were three Irishmen who migrated from Ohio to Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century. They played an important role in the early phases of Wisconsin's lumber industry, and in the political and social organization of Chippewa County.
Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery in Menomonie, Wisconsin and the largest in Dunn County. It was founded as a private cemetery by Knapp Stout and Company, Menomonie's huge lumber company. There are over 1100 graves in the "single grave" section of the cemetery, however many lack headstones because the earliest families could not afford to purchase them on a mill worker's salary. The cemetery is located on Lake Menomin.
The Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts, originally named the Mabel Tainter Memorial Building and also known as the Mabel Tainter Theater, is a historic landmark in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and is registered on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
James Huff Stout was an American Republican politician and businessman from Wisconsin.
Richard Shoemaker is a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate.
The Louis Smith Tainter House is a historic building in Menomonie, Wisconsin, United States. The building was built in 1889 by architect Harvey Ellis; it was funded by Andrew Tainter, a partner in Knapp, Stout & Co., as a home and wedding gift for his son Louis Smith Tainter. The building was built out of locally quarried sandstone in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Paul Wilson, the son of lumberman William Wilson, owned the house after Tainter; in 1940, Dunn County repossessed the property for back taxes. The Stout Institute bought the property from the county and converted it to a women's dormitory named Eichelberger Hall for the University of Wisconsin–Stout in 1945. The house was later converted to offices for the university and now houses the Stout University Foundation and the Stout Alumni Association. On July 18, 1974, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Dunn County, Wisconsin. It is intended to provide a comprehensive listing of entries in the National Register of Historic Places that are located in Dunn County, Wisconsin. The locations of National Register properties for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below may be seen in a map.
Robert J. Macauley was a Scottish American immigrant, lawyer, legislator, and judge. He was active for most of his adult life as a district attorney and county judge in Dunn County, Wisconsin. In some historical documents his name is spelled McCauley.
Wilson Place Museum is a house museum in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
The Dunleith and Dubuque Bridge, also known as the White Water Creek Bridge and the Bergfeld Recreation Area Bridge, is a historic structure located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States. This span was part of a seven-span approach to one of the first bridges constructed over the Mississippi River. It was part of a railroad bridge that connected Dubuque with Dunleith, Illinois, now known as East Dubuque. The bridge was fabricated by the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie himself traveled to Dubuque to advocate for his company to build the bridge. It was erected by Reynolds, Saulpaugh and Company of Rock Island, Illinois. The approach, of which this iron truss was a part, was completed in 1872. It was used by the Illinois Central and other railroads.