A Wilbur County Timeline

posted on 02.27.06 by Lucy Charlebois-LaPlante

  • 1845 After little Germaine Van Bibber becomes ill, the pioneer families leave the Meek wagon train, and settle in the Tamarack Valley near current day Germaine.
  • 1846 Young Henry Applegate begins construction of the first log cabin to house his printing press, near the current site of The Germaine Truth.
  • 1859 Town charter is drafted and Thomas Bradford is elected the first Mayor of Germaine.
  • 1861 Luke Charlebois discovers an artesian spring near Charlebois Corners, and begins farming the adjacent area.
  • 1864 Claiming he wants to help farmers and their emerging farms in Wilbur County, Thomas Bradford turns the position of Mayor over to Peter Hedrick. He goes on to found the Bank of Germaine, the towns first bank.
  • 1866 Three strangers, said to be veterans of the Confederate army, rob the Bank of Germaine and terrorize the town of Germaine for two days before moving on. Mayor Peter Hedrick appoints Liam McCoy to the position of Sheriff, making him the first law enforcement officer in Wilbur County.
  • 1868 Isaac Jacob Van Bibber, and his son, Peter, claim 320 acres of prime timberland north of Germaine.
  • 1871 Van Bibber sawmill is constructed on Tamarack Creek.
  • 1882 Daughters of Germaine is formed, based on the Masonic model of fraternal organizations.
  • 1894 Large new Van Bibber sawmill is constructed on Tamarack Creek, adjacent to the original mill.
  • 1912 John Charlebois, a Socialist, is elected Mayor of Germaine, causing consternation among the towns business elite.
  • 1913 IWW organizers try to unionize the Van Bibber sawmill, leading to a two month long strike. Ansel Johanssen, a leader of the workers, is found hanged in the woods near Germaine’s Grotto. The vigilantes are never caught.
  • 1917 Germaine’s first anti-war protest takes place on Main Street, causing an immediate reaction from Spanish-American War veterans. The veterans and business allies demand the recall of Mayor Charlebois, and the jailing of the “seditionists.”
  • 1919 Spanish flu epidemic strikes Germaine, killing a half-dozen. The Red Scare begins, and Mayor Charlebois is driven from office. Efforts to “drive the reds out of town” fail when Sheriff Patrick Cameron McCoy refuses to co-operate. After speaking with a group of the towns women, McCoy proclaims that most of the offenders are “good, but misguided men, members of old pioneer families.”