Following the Civil War, the logging, lumbering, and railroad operations were looking to expand to new land after depleting their supply in the East. Scouts were sent into Wisconsin in the late 1850s to find quality pine to fill the supply needed for the high demand for building and furniture. The Northwoods country of Wisconsin was swelling with virgin pine, hemlock, and hardwood that hadn’t been touched in centuries, making it the perfect location for the booming logging operations to settle.

The first camps to locate in the area were Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company, both from Chippewa County. With no established roads to haul their freshly cut timber down, they resorted to floating their logs nearly 75 miles down the Jump and Chippewa rivers to their mill, skidding logs down the rivers on sleds in the winter when the waters froze.

In 1872, the Ashland Division of the Wisconsin Central Railroad was established, later becoming known as Station 89 being that it was 89 miles from Stevens Point. The building of the tracks began at the southern part of the state and ended at the north end of the village with a turntable to give passenger trains the ability to be turned. Shortly after the addition of the railroad, the first settlers reached Ogema no later than 1875, Dennis McGuire and his family being the first settlers to arrive at Station 89. McGuire first built a shack near the tracks to serve meals to the railroad workers and later was encouraged by the Wisconsin Central to provide lodging as well as food for the workers as the track was to be extended to Station 101 (Worcester). To provide such needs, McGuire built the first framed dwelling in the village, that dwelling being the Ogema House Hotel, which stood on the corner of what is now Holmes and Main Street where the current hotel now sits.

A GROWING VILLAGE

With the extension of the tracks came more settlers and even homesteaders, track foreman, Ernest Martin, being the first. Another to take advantage of the track extension was B.M. Holmes, who brought a crew of Irishmen with him to construct a lumber yard and a steam sawmill. Reverend K.A. Ostergren was also one of the 1874 arrivals. He built a frame house structure so he, as a Baptist minister, could hold services.

This slowly growing village was first given the name of Dedham in 1875, evidently after Dedham, Massachusetts, the home state of railroad official Charles Colby. The same was most likely done for other nearby towns as their names also have Massachusetts counterparts (Worcester, Westboro, Chelsea, Medford, Dorchester, and Marshfield). Nearly a year later, in early 1876, a new name for the village was adopted; Ogema, meaning “chief” in the Chippewa Indian language. This was said to have come from two Chippewa chiefs seen frequently around the village.

By 1877, more buildings were being erected, those to include a schoolhouse and a few stores. There was yet to be a post office, so mail distribution was conducted by bags of mail being thrown off the train for Dennis McGuire to collect. Settlers would stop by his hotel to pick up their mail. To send out mail, settlers would leave their letters in a cigar box that McGuire would put aboard the train. It wasn’t until a few years later, in 1879, that the Ogema Post Office was established with M.M. Burnes as the first postmaster.

FUN FACT: Smokey Road claimed its name from the fact that smoke from the mill hung over the houses along that road.

With the population growing and the village becoming more established, people thought traveling to Spirit in order to vote was too far, so on April 11, 1883 Ogema’s first Town Board was formed. This first board was made up of five individuals, Nels Auley (Chairman), Andrew Peterson (Supervisor), J. Robinson (Supervisor), Evold Hammar (Supervisor), and Charles Auley (Treasurer).

SETTLING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

More and more immigrants arrived in the village in the late 1880s. But instead of just settling in the village itself, they began clearing areas of land surrounding the village. Roads soon began to be formed to accommodate the settlers outside of the village. With no way of transportation into and from the village, groceries and other necessities had to be carried. At this time, sacks of flour weighed around 100 pounds. When conditions were improved, oxen were raised and broke in to do the hauling and cultivating. One man, Edlund, had a team of oxen and built a wagon for them to pull for his trips to town. Each trip to town would take him an entire day to complete, but it was still better than walking the entire distance.

FUN FACT: In either 1895 or 1896, the first Phonograph was heard in Ogema. The Postmaster would charge 5 cents for the hearing of each record.

ENTERTAINMENT

For entertainment, since there weren’t movies yet, a group of men traveled around performing magic lantern shows at the town hall or churches. They would use transparent glass slides to show pictures and photographs to illustrate songs as they sang them. Popular songs then included “Hello Central, Give me Heaven”, “In a Village by the Sea”, “In the Valley Where the Bluebird Sings”, “When the Harvest Moon is Shining on the River”, Far Away Among the Hills of Old New Hampshire”, and “Where the Morning Glories Twine Around the Same Old Door.” Another popular pastime was box or basket socials as well as barn dances, quilting parties, sewing clubs, and picnics. Ogema even had its own Brass Band and later also formed a Male Chorus.

HOMEMADE MEDICINE

Doctoring was done at home because there wasn’t a doctor living in the township of Ogema and the ways of travel were far too slow. Families had homemade remedies that were handed down from the generation before them. Women gave birth at home with the help of their husbands or a neighbor woman. Medical aids that were commonly used included Epsom salts, Spirits of Camphor, Castor oil, Castoria for the children, a good liniment, and a salve. The first doctor to come to Ogema was Dr. Charles Pearson, who came in 1905 and held his practice in town until 1917.

NEW BUSINESSES

In the early 1900s, Ferd Peterson opened a barbershop and pool hall that later was turned into an ice cream parlor. The Ogema Creamery was built by a group of businesspeople living in Ogema. Dairy farming was becoming more and more popular. For the first couple of years, the creamery was only open for 6 months and closed for the winter. By the third year, it was open year-round only to go broke in the spring. It was then privately owned and operated for several years.

The first Ford car arrived in Ogema in 1908. Mr. Henry Erlei drove it from Chicago to Ogema to then have to teach the man he was delivering it to how to drive. Gasoline could be bought from the Drug Store by the quart bottle for 50 cents. From that point on, more cars were bought and the selling of gasoline moved from the grocery stores to the new filling station. At one point there were three gas stations in Ogema, John Sandberg’s Standard Station that was out by Hwy. 13 and Hwy. 86, Pete’s Standard Station on Main Street, and John Wojcik’s Cities Service Station and Tavern south of Ogema on Hwy. 13.

FUN FACT: Ogema had a successful baseball team that placed 3rd in the Eastern Taylor County League in 1932.

DISASTER STRUCK

On multiple occasions natural disasters have threatened the Town of Ogema.

August 1884, two full nights of rain flooded the area, turning low lands into lakes and washing away bridges. Many families had to leave their homes in the middle of the night to find safer places to shelter. Some houses built near creeks and lakes had almost 2 feet of water in them.

Fall of 1890, the area went without rain for a long stretch of time causing the land to be hot and dry. A forest fire started west of Ogema and burned acre upon acre of land before it could be put out. Families close to the flames had to flee to safety.

1894, another fire threatened the area causing women and children to move to the river as the safest place to be, while the men fought the flames.

1910, a forest fire started in Catawba and was coming toward the town. The men successfully fought off the flames, saving the property of Ogema. Many people dug deep holes in the ground in hopes of saving their clothes and other valuables in case the fire could not be contained. A special train was ready to take people away in case the fire spread to Ogema.

1923, Ogema again suffered from a severe fire. This time the flames destroyed a Harness shop, Garage, Nelson’s Store, the post office, and the McGuire Hotel. New buildings were erected as soon as they could be.

July 21, 1927, a fire disaster caused by and electrical storm threatened the town. Three families lost everything and were left homeless and the lives of two children were tragically lost.

1941, a large portion of Ogema flooded due to a 9-inch rainfall during a matter of a few hours. The pond on the south end of town rose so high and came with such a force that the dam was completely destroyed. Water rose up to the train tracks. Roads and low areas were completely covered by water.

July 1952, a tornado swept through the area north of Ogema and took down a barn and machine shed on the Landes farm and a barn on the Nelson farm.

August 1975, another tornado swept through the area again, this time taking the garage attached to Harry Pearson’s home and the barn on the Wetterling farm.

BAPTIST CHURCH

In 1880, a group of 54 people left their homes in Sweden to come to the United States. They landed in New York and proceeded to Chicago. Their plan was to continue from Chicago to Minnesota, but they were met by a land agent who directed them to land that he vouched would provide a promising future. This land was at the end of the Wisconsin Central Railroad at Section 89, which was soon to become Ogema, Wisconsin. At the station, they were met by K.A. Ostergren, who was the land agent and an ordained Baptist minister. Ostergren had been holding Swedish language church services in his home.

The Baptist Church was first organized on July 12, 1880. There were 30 members present at the first meeting. The first baptist church was built in 1882 on the hill at the north end of the main street in town. People from Westboro, Spirit, and Worcester would travel to hear the gospels even though there were no roads, no horses and buggies. An addition was added to the church building in the 1930s and later in 1963, a whole new building was built to hold services. This new building is where the Ogema Baptist Church now stands.

FIRST EVANGELICAL CHURCH

In the early years, when Ogema was a blossoming logging community and roads were just trails, another group of Swedish settlers felt the need for a church. Their needs were met at first by Reverend C.O. Olander who was a roving pastor traveling all over northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan. His services, when he was in the area, were held in a schoolhouse south of the Mill Pond. Eventually, the people attending these services wished for a church of their own. By 1881 they were organized under the name of the Swedish Bethany Lutheran Church. This church was first erected on what is now the parking lot across the street from the First Lutheran Church of Ogema. A church tower and a 600-pound bell were added to the building in 1891. In 1901, another structure was erected where the present-day First Lutheran Church stands and the old building across the road was razed. The first pastor in the new church was Reverend F.O. Linder and he was the first to live in the church’s parsonage that is still being used today.

OGEMA GRADE SCHOOL

The school system in Ogema has changed almost as much as the town has over the years. The first school building was erected by the Larson Pallet Company. It was a one-room cabin with Miss Nina Ripley as the teacher. The first district schoolhouse was one department and was built in 1877. Nearly ten years later in 1888, a two-story school was built on the hill a little east of where the present school building stands. This new school held five departments. In 1910, the two-story school was taken down and replaced by a new one-story, two-department school building in the exact same spot. One-room schoolhouses were popping up all over the countryside to accommodate the farm children that lived too far from the school in town. There was a time that Ogema had nine schools which were: Larkin, Morner, Pinewood, Jump River, Centerville, Sunnyside, Woodland, Wildwood, and Ogema.

In 1956, it was decided to close the last of the one-room schoolhouses and consolidate them into one school building in town. Until the construction of the new brick, one-level school building was complete, classes were held in the Town Hall for a year. This new school is the same as what now stands on the corner of School House Rd. and Holmes St. The new brick school held five classrooms, a gym, kitchen and eating area, principal’s offices, a storeroom, and two bathrooms.

Enrollment grew so much that by 1974, an addition of an annex for the kindergarten class was erected. Not even a year later, enrollment was still growing and more rooms were needed. During the summer of 1975, two classrooms, two bathrooms, and a furnace room were added to the back of the school.

OGEMA LIBRARY

Ogema’s first library was first called “The Book Shelf”. The library was one of the projects that the Lion’s Club sponsored since they first organized. Unlike other businesses and buildings forming in the earlier years of Ogema, the library officially opened on September 29, 1973. “The Book Shelf” was chosen because all of the books featured in the library were accumulated from various book clubs of Mrs. Francis Scofield over a forty-year period. Mrs. Scofield gifted her collection of nearly 2000 books to her dear friend Betty Carl Anderson in the fall of 1972. Betty didn’t have the room to store such a collection of books that she suggested the idea of a library to the Lion’s president at the time, Frank Ulrich.

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Donaldson supplied the building for the library. It was a shingled building on the main street that had at one time been a filling station. A lot of work went into making the shelves for the books, typing up the cards that were to be put in the books, and creating a system for how the books were to be organized on the shelves. The guest book from the first day had 450 signatures. By 1976, the number of books in the library went from 2,000 to more than 7,000.

The present-day library building used to be home of S & L Manufacturing Corporation, which was started in 1969 with Leo Liebl and Neal Smith of Medford and Fred Strombom of Ogema as the three stockholders.

OGEMA VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY

The company was first organized on May 13, 1954, with Rudy Gallistel being the first elected Fire Chief. He held that post until 1970 when Eugene Berg took over as Fire Chief. The first fire truck was a 1926 Seagrave and the second truck was a 1952 GMC with a 900-gallon tank. A new fire station was built in early 1976, which is the same building that stands as the fire station today.

THE END OF THE RAILROAD

We have the railroad to thank for the start of such a great town. Engine No. 558 was the last Soo Line Passenger Train to go through Ogema on March 6, 1960. Even though what brought the town of Ogema into existence is no longer running, we still continue to have such a great town and community to live in.