From Wisconsin County Histories, Waupaca County Edited by John Ware 1917
Transcribed and submitted to the Waupaca County Website
by Paula Vaughan January 2002

The Village of Marion, with its nine hundred or more inhabitants, lies on the north branch of the Pigeon River and on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway
 just south of the northern county line. For its size the village is becoming quite an industrial center. Furniture, excelsior and cheese boxes are among 
its local lines; a sawmill is in operation; it has a rather large garage and .machine shop, and, being the center of a rich dairy country, has tributary to it 
half a dozen cheese factories and creameries.

.Marion has two good banks, prime necessities in the conduct of its extensive trade; a large lumber and fuel-supply yard, and two grain and produce 
warehouses, and keeps in close touch with the surrounding territory through a widely extended telephone service. It has a substantial local paper, a 
well-conducted school, a handsome village hall and several churches and lodges as further evidences of intelligence, sociability and morality.

FOUNDED AS PERRY S MILLS
The Village of Marion was built around the water power, as was the common experience with the other settlements which developed into anything 
worth while. The first sawmill was built in 1856 by J. W. Perry and his son, Stephen L. Perry, afterward of the Advertiser. A grist mill was afterward
started on its site. This was transformed into a regular flour mill, which continued to operate under different managements until 1916, when it was burned.

The settlement was long known as Perry's Mills, and George W. Quimby opened the first store there in 1865. The place was of very slow growth until 
the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad reached it in the early '70s, and soon afterward it abandoned its modest title of Perry's Mills for the 
more pretentious name of Marion. The change is said to have been made at the suggestion of Frank Door, who was elected county surveyor in 1874, and, 
in that capacity, platted an addition to the original site laid out on the Perry homestead.

One account of the founding of the village is thus given in the Marion Advertiser, published some time in 1898: "The S. E. 1/4 of N. E. /4 and the S. W. 1/ of the 
N. E. 14 was government land until 1868, when S. L. Perry took it as a homestead. A sawmill was built by J. W. Perrv and sons where now stands Marion's 
grist mill. A block or two was measured out into lots and a village started, called at the time Perry's Mills. Later on Frank Door, then county surveyor, 
was employed, and he platted into lots about thirty acres more. It was agreed by all interested parties to change the name of the growing village and leave 
the naming to Door, now of Antigo, and he christened the child Marion, which has grown to quite a well-proportioned adult. S. L. Perry still continues to
own fifteen acres of the old homestead, and Ben Painter, of Milwaukee, the remaining part that is now platted.

"Perry purchased this land for the trivial sum of ten dollars, which today is worth $300,000. He was Marion's first postmaster and there is strong evidence that 
he will again occupy that honored position in 1897, twenty-four years later. He is also proprietor of the Advertiser. Who would have thought thirty years ago, 
when the county was a vast wilderness, inhabited only by the natives of America, that in so short a time a young city would be here, surrounded by thousands
of acres of tilled lands, and a railroad passing through its center and with factories and mills?"

INCREASE IN POPULATION
In 1890 the population of Marion was 470, in 1900, 602, and in 1910, 798. Its average increase, therefore, has been about two hundred every decade, and 
its population has probably advanced at a greater rate since the last Federal census was taken.

THE VILLAGE NEWSPAPER
The Marion Advertiser is the connecting link between Perry's Mills and the village of the present. It was founded in April, 1884, by S. L. Perry, son of the Dr. J. W. 
Perry, who built the mills. Father and son conducted the business together for many years. The younger man bought the doctor's interest; was a resident 
of Kansas for some years, but returned to Marion and, as stated, founded the Advertiser. Mr. Perry died November 5, 1912, since which his widow, Mrs. M. J. Perry,
has conducted the business, being most of that period associated with Elmer Byers as partner, active editor and manager.

THE SCHOOL
The people of Perry's Mills and Marion have enjoyed school privileges since 1859, when a log house was built, 12 by 14 feet, and R. Quimby started a 
small class of hopefuls. The school population is now 214, and the Union high and grammar school is now conducted by the following principals: High school, 
F. F. Fenner; grades, Miss Rena Horn.

TELEPHONE SERVICE
The telephone company, which has done so much for Marion, is now in its fifteenth year. It was organized in 1902 as the Marion Telephone Company, and a 
few years after was reorganized as the Marion & Northern Telephone Company, with W. R. Binkleman as president. Mr. Binkleman was succeeded by 
Conrad Hangartner, a well-known merchant of the village. When the company was organized the exchange had ten subscribers at Marion. Since that time 
the company has acquired the Clintonville exchange, and built others at Tigerton and Gresham, Shawano County. The system now owned by the Marion & Northern
Telephone Company renders service to 727 telephones operated through the four exchanges named.

THE MARION BANKS
The Bank of Marion, owned by Henry Shoenke, was established in January, 1894, with Frank Leake as cashier. On December 29, 1902, was incorporated 
the First State Bank of Marion, which took over the business of the Bank of Marion and elected the following officers: Henry Shoenke, president; N. M. 
Engler, vice president; Frank Leake, cashier.

The capital stock was $25,000. In June, 1907, N. M. Engler was elected president; P. C. Rogers, vice president, and J. H. Driessen, cashier. Mr. Driessen 
was formerly connected with the Bank of Kaukauna, Wisconsin. At the time of the change of management noted, the deposits of the First State Bank of 
Marion were down to $93,000. During the winter of 1908-09 a handsome bank building was erected at a cost of $10,000, and in April, 1912, the capital was 
increased to' $30,000. The capital has remained at that figure; surplus and undivided profits amount to $20,000, and deposits now average $340,000. 
The present officers are as follows: R. Schroeckenstein, president; N. M. Engler, vice president; J. H. Driessen, cashier.

The Farmers and Merchants Bank was incorporated in April, 1911, and John IH. Spengler and H. T. Buck have successively served as presidents. Its cashiers 
have been W. E. Brown, H. A. Diestler, A. C. Ewald, J. M. Roehl and T. J. Haufe. The financial status of the bank is indicated by the following items: 
Capital, $10,000; surplus and undivided profits, $1,200; average deposits, $67,000.

ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER
The Marion Light and Power Company was incorporated in October, 1915, with J. H. Driessen as president; Oswald F. Reiche, vice president, and Paul F. 
Reiche, secretary and treasurer. The management is unchanged. The capital of the company is $5,000. It is operated under a twenty-year franchise from
the village, with which it has a contract for lighting the streets. Nearly all the homes and business places in Marion are now using its electric current. 
Crude oil engines are used for power purposes.

THE OLD WATER POWER
Marion still retains its old water power on the north branch of the Pigeon River. It is owned by B. Goldthwaite, who conducted a flour mill, which was 
destroyed by fire in May, 1916. On account of the ill health of the proprietor the mill will not be rebuilt, and it is somewhat problematic what will become 
of the water-power privileges.

CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
The Lutherans are strong at Marion, their churches being in charge of Revs. E. R. Kraft and G. Kunz, the latter being pastor of what is known as Salem's 
Church of the Evangelical Association. It was organized and its church edifice built in 1882. Its present membership is about fifty. The Methodists, Catholics 
and Christian Scientists have small organizations.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America have lodges, as well as the Rebekahs, the Odd Fellows' auxiliary. For a 
number of years there was a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, but it has at last dwindled down to one member-a Union veteran for whom the village 
has a touching affection, especially on Decoration Day, when his bent figure creeping to the graves of his old comrades is well on the pathetic side of life.