Stiles Junction, Wisconsin | |
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![]() A Chicago and North Western freight train passes Stiles junction. September, 1964. | |
Coordinates: 44°52′59.9″N88°02′48.1″W / 44.883306°N 88.046694°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
County | Oconto |
Founded | 1882 |
Named after | The Stiles family of local settlers, natives of Stilesville, Indiana. |
Elevation | 200 m (656 ft) |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
Area code | 920 |
GNIS feature ID | 1577839 [1] |
Website | https://townofstiles.org/ |
Stiles Junction is an unincorporated community located in the town of Stiles, Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. [1]
Originally known as Leighton this area of Stiles was settled by John Leigh , a native of Ireland [2] [3] along the Little River in the late 1860s. [4] The family operated a small sawmill (and later a grist mill) [5] here into the 1880s. In 1887 this sawmill in Leighton was destroyed in a fire. [6] Native Americans were a common sight in Stiles and Leighton as one of their burial grounds was located in Leighton. [7]
The John Leigh settlement in Leighton, Wisconsin was located approximately 1.4 mile east of the Stiles Junction station on County Highway 22 near the Little River. [8] A post office was established in 1882, and it remained in operation for 4 years before being discontinued in 1886. [9] [10]
The first white female born in Oconto County, Effie A. Leigh, was born in the community of Leighton on July 25, 1851. [5] The Stiles Junction school, originally called the Leigh Town School, was located in Leighton. [11]
In August 1886, a forest fire that had been raging in the county burnt down a local farmer's barn. The entire settlement of Leighton was in great danger of being destroyed. Luckily, everyone had escaped. In total, 2 barns, five tons of hay, and 2 hogs were destroyed/killed in the fire. [12] The easternmost portion of the community (along the Little River) most likely became a ghost town in the early 1910s.[ citation needed ]
The Stiles Junction name came to be [13] with a diamond crossing between an east–west line of the C&NW's predecessor Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway line (1883) [14] (that was built to Clintonville from Oconto) and the north–south Milwaukee Road.
After the second railroad came into this area of Stiles, the community surrounding the railroad station [note 1] soon began using "Stiles Junction" as the more commonly used name. Leighton was formally renamed Stiles Junction ca. 1882. [16] [4] [17]
By 1887 there were several hotels, saloons and other shops established in proximity to Stiles Junction. [18]
Stiles Junction is located at a diamond crossing between an east–west line of the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) crossing of the north–south Milwaukee Road. Nearby is the crossroads of U.S. Highway 141 and Wisconsin State Highway 22. [19]
A piece in the October 19, 1991 Green Bay Press-Gazette list the Stiles Junction population as 40. [20]
The pre-existing Milwaukee Road's line (December 30, 1882) [21] [22] connected Milwaukee and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. [23] The shared station that was built in 1881 [24] and has recently collapsed and been removed. [25]
The C&NW in 1899 built a 2.4 mile branch line [26] to a sawmill and planing mill in Stiles [27] [28] and later removed it in 1932. [29] The C&NW rail line eastward from the junction to Oconto, Wisconsin is now abandoned. [30] [31]
By the late 1960s, with few riders remaining and the US Postal rail contracts ended, the Milwaukee Road (and most other big RRs) discontinued many of their long-distance trains. After these passenger services ended, the Stiles Junction station continued to be used as a train order office for both of the railroads.
The middle portion of the line from Oconto Falls to here was the only intact section of the C&NW line remaining by the 1990s. The Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad bought the 4.7 mile [36] branch line from the C&NW on April 20, 1995. This 5-mile line westward to Oconto Falls, serves a distribution warehouse and a co-op grain storage facility there.
Explanatory notes
Citations
Robert McIvers has a fine big hotel at Stiles Junction, and near the depot is a hotel and saloon kept by James Hurley. Next door is the saloon of Pat Hurley, and next to that, the saloon and meat shop of Joseph McClusky. Further on is the shop on Henry VanVagel, the village shoemaker.
The old depot is gone.
Bibliography