The community of Whittlesey was started in the 1870s when the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company built its line up through the forests, heading for Ashland. The railroad placed a station seven miles north of Medford where the line touched the Little Black River. It named the station Whittlesey, probably for Asaph Whittlesey, an early state legislator from Ashland,[3] or possibly for geologist Charles Whittlesey who surveyed the area.[4]
Several sawmills operated in Whittlesey starting in the 1880s. One built a 240-foot dam across the river, producing a 12-foot head of water.[5] Another sawmill operated a mile and a half west of town, hauling its sawn product on carts over a pole line (a track of hardwood poles) to ship from the station at Whittlesey.[6] A brickyard also operated there.[5]
A Village of Whittlesey was platted in 1892, initiated by G.W. and Emma Norton.[7] A 1913 map shows a "depot", post office, and blacksmith shop facing the railroad, with the school on the southeast side of town.[8] But as the timber was exhausted, the nearby sawmills closed and declined. The highway bypassed most of the town to the east. The rail line closed in 1988.[9]
As of 2023 Whittlesey is a quiet cluster of homes scattered among the trees a short drive north of Medford, with the Pine Line bike trail passing through on the old railroad right-of-way.[10]
^Martin, Roy L. (January 1941). History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54). Baker Library, Harvard Business School: The Railroad and Locomotive Society, Inc. pp. 41–42.
^"Whittlesey". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
^ abRusch, Gordon (January 2012). "Taylor County Logging and Lumbering". In Kalmon, Lars (ed.). Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - Vol 1. Taylor County History Project. pp. 18–19.
^Rusch, Robert P. (January 2014). "The Twelve Railroads of Taylor County, Wisconsin". In Kalmon, Lars (ed.). Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - Vol 2. Taylor County History Project. pp. 19–20.
^Ruesch, H.O. (January 2012). Kalmon, Lars (ed.). Taylor County Historical Sketch. Taylor County History Project. p. 12.
^Whittlesey. Chicago: Geo. A. Ogle & Co. 1913. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
