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Merrillan History
Here's
a history from "Merrillan Centennial" by Jean Anderson,
1970:
The West Wisconsin Railroad was built through this portion
of Jackson County in the fall of 1869. Leander Merrill sent
his brother Benjamin to Hudson, where the railroad offices
were then located, in an effort to convince the railroad to
change their road bed enough to include the present site of
Merrillan. According to stories handed down by the Merrill
family, the railroad officials agreed to change their route
to include Merrill's future town for the consideration of
$75,000, which Leander promptly paid to the company. Trains
on the West Wisconsin Railroad did not make stops at Merrillan
at this time and passengers both got off the trains at Wright's
Mill (about 5 miles south) or at Humbird and then walked to
Merrillan.
When the Green Bay & Lake Pepin Railroad planned to build
their road through Jackson County, L.G. Merrill donated many
acres of land to the company so they would change their plans
from connecting with the West Wisconsin at Wright's to connecting
with that railroad in Merrillan. The Green Bay & Lake
Pepin Road reached Merrillan on December 22, 1872, and the
first train arrived here the following week with a Mr. Garvin
as engineer. The telegraph line on the railroad was completed
in January 1873. A crude shack was converted into a Union
Depot and both the West Wisconsin and Green Bay railroad began
passenger service here. The first depot agent was J.A. Maynard.
Merrillan's growth was very rapid after receiving passenger
service.
In the spring of 1873, George Hiles of Dexterville took the
contract to do the grading on the Green Bay & Lake Pepin
Railroad from Merrillan to the Mississippi River and work
began in mid May. During the summer of 1873 the Green Bay
Railroad erected the Blair House, sometimes referred to as
the Railroad House. This large 40 room hotel was located northwest
of the junction of the two railroads on the site where a tavern,
The Depot Saloon, sits today. A. Putman, a former Black River
Falls resident was the proprietor of the hotel and he was
assisted by a Mr. Libby.
A lawsuit involving the title to a disputed 40 acres of land
(known as the Railroad 40) almost in the center of Merrillan,
involving the Green Bay Railroad, was tried in the fall of
1880. The litigation over this property had been a serious
drawback in the growth of the town. L.G. Merrill had donated
this portion of land to the Green Bay Railroad Company in
order to persuade them to locate their route to cross the
West Wisconsin at this point..(This was finally added to the
Village Plat and is known as the D.M. Kelley Addition.)
On October 9, 1884, the Union freight depot burned. This was
located at the junction of the Omaha and Green Bay and Minnesota
roads. It was only a 'shack' and the citizens of Merrillan
were not sorry to see it burn, as they hoped the two railroad
companies would build a depot that would be a credit to the
village. H.Weldon McGee, president of the Green Bay &
Western Railroad in 1970 states, 'The original freight depot
was built by the GB&M RR in 1884 and was rebuilt by the
Omaha at joint expense by both carriers in 1885 after the
original had burned. The original passenger depot, a 14 x
28 frame building with a 10 x 22 foot lean-to, was built by
the G.B. & M.R.R. Co. in 1880 and converted into a car
inspector's house in 1916. In 1886 a new depot was built by
the Omaha at joint expense and has been so owned ever since.
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