[dramatic old-fashioned instrumental]
- Newsreel: This is our town, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA.
It's a community where industry flourishes with the help
of skilled workers, direct transportation,
cooperative utilities, and remarkably pure abundant water.
Stevens Point is the industrial, commercial,
and educational center of Portage County.
- Jim Nitka: There was a lot of industry, real industry,
in this area.
Where our house was, we had right behind us,
we had Joerns Furniture Company.
And to our south, we had Vetter's Manufacturing.
And right next door on the north, we had Bake-Right Baking.
So we could actually take fresh donuts
right off of the line.
About a block and a half away was Consolidated Papers.
You could walk through there,
and it was kind of fun as a kid to go watch
while the paper was being made.
So there was all, lots and lots, you know,
hundreds, if not thousands of jobs for factories.
- Narrator: By the mid 20th century,
growing industries and a new identity as a college town
reflected the huge changes made in Stevens Point
as the lumber boom came to an end.
- Tim Siebert: The lumber boom
began to fade in the 1880s, 1890s.
By 1910, it's pretty much done.
There was 600 billion board feet of timber
across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
The loggers actually thought that if they started
in Michigan, by the time they got through Minnesota,
years and years later,
the woods would have grown back again.
But these guys were so efficient that it took them
only about 40 years to cut all the way through it.
- Narrator: The driving force behind taking the city
from being a rough lumber town
to an economically diverse community
started with one event.
[train whistle blowing]
- Gene Kemmeter: The Wisconsin Central Railroad
came to Stevens Point.
- Tim Siebert: So you had a perfect situation
for Stevens Point.
You have the lumber here.
Why not ship it on the rails?
And as long as you have the lumber here,
why not develop furniture factories?
So we have several major furniture factories
beginning to develop in Stevens Point.
- Narrator: The developing industry
of furniture and wood manufacturing
included the Automatic Cradle Company.
It would grow to become
the largest manufacturer in the city,
eventually taking the name Lullabye Furniture.
- Newsreel: The well-being of young people
is reflected in the Lullabye Furniture Cooperation,
which made Stevens Point the cradle
of the juvenile furniture industry.
The oldest--
- Narrator: Lullabye got its start
when founder John Bukolt invented a unique cradle.
- Tim Siebert: Which was a self-rocking cradle
based on a huge spring.
And you'd crank the spring up,
and then the cradle would rock side to side
with a click in it, which was very comforting to the baby,
and becomes a nationally known business.
- Gene Kemmeter: It became kind of a Cadillac of baby furniture.
They were sponsors of the I Love Lucy program
around the time that Lucy was having her baby.
They had a complete line of I Love Lucy furniture.
- Narrator: The railroad allowed wood manufacturers
access to a national market.
And the city's location in the state
made it an ideal central hub for railroad lines.
- Gene Kemmeter: A big boost came when Soo Line
decided to put a area headquarters here.
It provided many jobs to local people.
So, this was a booming railroad town also.
- Narrator: The Wisconsin River
that once powered sawmills and floated lumber rafts
would now power new industries.
- Newsreel: The Whiting-Plover Paper Company,
manufacturers of high grade, all rag and rag content,
business papers, and specialties.
This is paper before it's formed into sheets.
The paper is re-wet, starched, and dried in warm air,
giving it the ripple finish
characteristic of fine rag bond paper.
[cheerful instrumental]
- Narrator: The hardworking Wisconsin River
provided the hydroelectric power and water
needed to support the new paper industry.
Three dams were built to control the river--
two from Consolidated Paper
and one from Whiting-Plover Paper Mill.
- Gene Kemmeter: They needed reservoirs
so that they had a constant flow of the river.
As a result, they hid a lot of historical landmarks.
And one of those was Stevens Point,
which was basically washed away
because the river was higher.
- Narrator: Downtown Stevens Point
was growing and thriving, too,
with the arrival of new businesses.
- Newsreel: Stevens Point makes a sizable contribution
to the world of books in products
of the Worzalla Publishing Company.
Finished books are shipped to points all over the country.
Sturdy, attractive books from Worzalla's
are good representatives of Steven Point workmanship.
- Tim Siebert: Worzalla actually starts out
as a printer of a Polish-language newspaper,
which they purchased
called Rolnik , meaning "Farmer."
And then, about 1908, they start a second newspaper
called Gwiazda Polarna , "Northern Star."
- Narrator: This paper would go on to become
America's oldest, independent Polish-language newspaper.
Worzalla later expanded into book printing and binding,
adding to their national reputation.
In addition to book publishing,
another Stevens Point business expanded nationally
by providing specialty insurance at a lower cost.
To fight high insurance rates, hardware store owner
P.J. Jacobs teamed up with other Wisconsin store owners
to form the Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance Company
in 1904.
Elected as the company director in 1912,
P.J. moved the headquarters to Stevens Point.
The Hardware Mutual Insurance building
was constructed downtown in 1922.
Under P.J.'s direction, the company grew quickly.
And in 1929, an addition was built,
tripling the size of the building.
- Tim Siebert: Carl, his son,
finally does take over the business
from his father.
He is the guy that really begins to expand it
and becomes very well-known in the community.
- Narrator: Hardware Mutual would expand
its insurance services through the years.
And remain as one of the city's major employers,
eventually changing its name to Sentry Insurance.
As diverse businesses grew in Stevens Point,
local leaders launched a campaign to make the city
a center for education.
- Newsreel: Sixty years ago,
a group of Stevens Pointers raised $50,000
to make sure the new state college would be built here.
- Narrator: As more immigrants continued to settle
in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Board of Regents
established what were referred to as "normal schools"
to train teachers for the growing population.
In 1893, there were five of these schools,
and the Board was deciding where to locate the next one.
- Tim Siebert: There were 20 other cities competing for it.
The main one was Wausau.
And the Board of Regents picked Point.
It didn't make Wausau very happy [laughs] as you can imagine.
When the Board of Regents announced that Stevens Point
was going to get the university,
a guy by the name of G.E. McDill,
who was in Madison at the time representing Stevens Point,
announced to the city, "Boys, the world is ours."
- Narrator: Bells, whistles, and cheers rang out
in Stevens Point
at the news of being awarded the Normal School.
The school would evolve from being a teacher's college
to becoming part of the University of Wisconsin System,
and a key driver of the Stevens Point community.
- Newsreel: Stevens Point,
where people enjoy living and can work together.
Whether simply to have fun or to build a better community
and a better future.
That's our town, a wonderful town,
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA.