Meridean, Wis.
The quaint village of Meridean, Wisconsin once boasted a bustle of activity during the lumbering days; yet, change throughout time is inevitable. Those of us who engage and preserve history are keenly aware of this. Reflecting on change in landscapes leaves us searching and learning as we trace the quiet countryside’s and broad wanders of the Chippewa River bottoms. Local communities experience such changes all the time. If local industries go out of business, a small town can be devastated. In the mid 1880’s Meridean was a thriving place with a post office, school, sawmill, and a ferry; it depended vastly on the travel of the Chippewa River. This township has seen many changes over a century and half and now is a storied community of history and layers of ghost lore. When travel changed from boats on the river to travel by rails, the town died out. What is today a boat landing was at one time a ferry crossing where people traversed the Chippewa River to the island better known as Happy Island.
Meridean Road through Meridean, Wis.
The Eau Claire Lumber Company bought the Old Meridean saw mill in 1869 and they constructed the ferry to cross the Chippewa River. The original Meridean was located on Happy Island and was founded as a sawmill town. There were also numerous farms located on the island as well. The ferry ran across the river on a steel cable and was a vast floating wooden platform. This cable was tied to large steel beams that were pounded in the landscape on both sides of the river; a separate cable was then used to passage the ferry across the Chippewa. The ferry charged five cents a person, ten cents a head of cattle, and twenty-five cents for a team of horses as it transported from the north side to the south side of the Chippewa and back. The lumber company on Happy Island closed from Old Meridean in 1892 when the logging industry started its decline. The Meridean Mill was in operation from 1863-1892. It produced lumber, lath and shingles and was the economic center of Old Meridean; which died with the mill and relocated where it’s presently today. The village of Meridean moved to the town of Peru by 1900 since the Chippewa’s unpredictable floods had forced the people and businesses out of Old Meridean. By the year 1925, the village established itself with Meridean State Bank, a creamery and two garages.
Historians have discovered a number of stories behind how Meridean got its name. All of them make mention to a girl named “Mary Dean.” The story that captivates us most is about Mrs. Dean and her daughter Mary traveling on the Chippewa River by steamboat. Mary, the fascinating young soul, won the hearts of many of the passengers during the journey. She abruptly became sick and was taken ashore where she died and was buried under a tree; which locals say was washed away by the floods. The area was then named “Meridean” to commemorate her. Locals today share tales of haunting adventures of Mary Dean near the boat landing. Regardless of how Meridean received its’ name, it is obvious that the River holds stories of adventure, history, change, and preservation. – written by Erika Johnson
New Meridean School – 1926
I believe this is the old Brack’s Store and Jackson Bros. Garage
I think this is the old Meridean Bank
Meridean Lutheran Church
Where the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad crossed through town.
I believe this use to be Dahl’s Store.
The Jevne Farm
Chippewa River Boat Landing
Possibly once the home of Dr. Bedley
Rock Creek and Meridean Cemetery
Into the Chippewa Bottoms
WISCONSIN: Historic City Series
Travis Dewitz is a remarkable photographer in the Chippewa Valley. He is well known for photographing local sceneries, landmarks, venues, buildings and people in various and ingenious ways. Though you may not know him personally, his work provides a unique foundation of our local community and his photographs are unmistakable. Dewitz’s pictures are an impressive feat and preserve a moment; long after our travels are over, and our memories faded, photos are what remind us of the adventures we had and the connections to the people we met. Learn More About Him Here | Buy His Book Here
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Patricia Enger via Facebook
I love this series!
Micheal Dooley
I lived in the meridian bank in my childhood. That is not the bank. The bank is on the north side of the street right where the railroad crosses. Northeast side of tracks. Coolest house ever. As kids we’d play in the safe.
Dave
That house with the safe is the old office for the lumber yard.
Tim Hollingsworth via Facebook
That was great! Thank you for the historic trip.
Amanda Steffen via Facebook
Love this area. Never new about rail road crossing there. Nice part of a bike trail now.
Elisse Jo Goldstein-Clark
Really enjoyed this! Very well-researched, and great photography, as you did in West Virginia. Shared it! 🙂
Carrie ness
I grew up in Rock falls/Caryville. And my dad would always take us through here and tell us stories about meridean. So cool. Definitely a trip down memory lane!!
Darlene Talford Cliff
Carrie, I just saw your comment on here. We are related and I’ve never had the opportunity to meet you that I know of.
The Talford Family is planning a reunion this summer and I would love to talk with you about that. Would you please respond to my email? Thank you.
Doug Olson
I grew up behind the school in Rock Falls and Mrs Ness had a bus route that brought kids from Caryville and east to the Rock Falls school. Was that your grandmother?
Rick Sobottka
Thanks for the story and pictures. I grew up in Meridean in the 60s & 70s, just across from the Lutheran Church. Mom & Dad have lived their since 1960.
Devon Bell via Facebook
I love your photos! Wish I could have included one in my Caryville book I wrote in 2011 🙂
The Chippewa Bottoms Journey
Really have enjoyed these wonderful pictures of these historic towns!
Tracy
Beautiful photos! The gray house with the pumpkins is the Brack house and the Brack store was next door to it. I think there is no trace of the store left. But happy to see the house is so well loved!
James Alf
Those are excellent photos. The one titled “from Caryville’s main street” is actually across the river. It is the Spring Brook Lutheran Church and the Spring Brook School. It is not politically or geographically Caryville, being in a different Township.
Doug Olson
Jim, thank you for clarifying that the church and buildings north of the river are in the town of Spring Brook and not Caryville. No one would know better than you! I grew up with your brother Art and we spent many hours in the summer swimming from the ferry in the middle of the river waiting for a car to come by!
Doug Olson
Rock Falls
SHANE ROBERTSON
I don’t know how I found your site, but it sure brings back a better time. To see the church I was baptized in, my father and his siblings went to the one-room school house from first grade until they started high school. Does anyone know if those two huge trees are still in front of the Robertson dairy? Your pictures are excellent, after living in Houston twenty years, it’s hard to believe I grew up in such a beautiful,honest, and safe place.
Dana Hanson
I believe that my parents own the farm that you commented on. Herb & Mary Robertson let them put a mobile home on the site several years ago and rented to them. They recently got the opportunity to purchase the farmhouse, yard and outbuildings. Yes, the massive trees are still there! The house & buildings need a lot of work, but would be beautiful if restored.
Dean Tabor
I grew up in the brick bank building on the northwest side of the tracks. Someone said in an earlier post that the bank was on the north east side of the tracks. This building was the administrative offices for the lumberyard and probably did have it safe in it. However, the brick building has a large safe with a huge metal door that had been taken off but placed inside that had the bank name on it. I too have great memories of growing up in Meriden. Thanks for all the time and effort put in to this website. Dean Tabor
Savannah
I also grew up in the bank, we bought it from Richard Wibel, it had two vaults but Richard sold the doors to someone in Chippewa. They were made into a flower bed but have since deteriorated and seem to be gone now.
My (estranged) parents own both the bank and the Dr’s office next door (the dolls house).
I’m ashamed to tell that the dolls are mine and were placed there to torment me by my mental/estranged father.
Our town is spooky enough without him being a crazy person ?.
Paul K
We just took a drive yesterday through a bunch of little towns and Meridean was on the list. It was a really cool town but I just gotta ask, what’s up with the house with the dolls?
Lois Dohms
The reason I asked about some history of Meridean us that I’ve been in some of those houses and now I inherited one there. So I enjoyed looking at the town. Thanks
Dacia
Holy Cow! Thank you for these pictures! I lived in the 2 story “Victorian style” grayish house with white trim (showing with pumpkins on the steps and American flag on porch) until I was 12 years old. In the earlier years, I actually remember the train going by my back yard. I used to tape pennies to make them flat. We moved there in about 1979.
My dad used to swing us across the river on what was left of the ferry cable the fist summer we were there. The storm of July 15,1980 took down what was left. (Yes, that bad of storm to remember the date). I think the store in Rock Falls actually made T-shirts for it! Gosh what a childhood to have there! I did plenty of swimming in that river! Also would walk down the railroad tracks and go swimming in the creeks on either side, and actually swing from the vines! Sounds like I grew up in the 50’s 🙂 I never understood why that red house was always red and apparently still is. People never seemed to live there so we liked playing in their barn and other buildings and on the paddle tennis court.
These pictures are making me want to go back and now walk the trail. I live only 2 hours away and not sure why I haven’t been back for over 30 years. BTW – I never saw any ghosts of Mary Dean or “hellhounds” and I would play way past dark!! 🙂
jeff larson
About in 1977, 5 friends and I drove toward and through the town of Meridean entering from the southwest past Lake Tyrone. Up on the hill, south of the lake, was a four way intersections we referred to as “The Four Corners”. Turning north at that intersection to go down the hill past the lake, I looked out the back window of the vehicle and noticed lights. That area would be the southeast corner of the intersection. The lights were small lightbulbs in the configuration of what reminded me of possibly a building resembling the Tyrone Lake Canal Freight Office Building. I pointed it out to my friends and inquired as to where we were. After being told I commented that there wasn’t any building like that on that corner…for quite some years anyway. We were partying and it was blown off and we proceeded home to Elk Lake, WI. It bothered me so the next weekend I went to that area and there was an old mailbox and a concrete slab (of the dimensions of what I saw that night) surrounded by tall weeds. I have been in that area since boy scouts to this day regularly. I am now closing in on 67 yo. What I saw gnawed at my curiosity so I spent every weekend at least stopping by the area in question to observe. Every successive weekend the mailbox disappeared, the foundation and slab was disappearing rapidly and trees had grown up “WHERE THE SLAB WAS”. By the end of the summer that corner aged a hundred years. There was no sign of concrete or anything that would even remotely suggest the existence of this building that I saw that night. During the summer of this “transition”, there was no evidence of heavy equipment or tracks or any signs at all that someone was there removing the remains I described. It just aged and vanished. I will never forget it as long as I live. I have many more stories just as strange and unexplainable (if not more) than this one. Believe it or not….I was swear to the truth of this story on a stack of bibles.