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Wausau

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city and the county-seat of Marathon county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on both banks of the Wisconsin river, about 185 m. N.W. of Milwaukee. Pop. (1890) 9253; (1900) 12,354, of whom 3747 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 16,560. There is a large German element in the population, and two German semi-weekly newspapers are published here. Wausau is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul and the Chicago & North-Western railways. The city is built for the most part on a level plateau above the river and extends to the top of high bluffs on either side. It has a fine city hall, a Carnegie library, the Marathon County Court House, a hospital, built by the Sisters of the Divine Saviour, and a Federal Building. In Wausau are a U.S. land office, the Marathon County Training School for Teachers, the Marathon County School of Agriculture and Domestic Science, and a County Asylum for the Chronic Insane. Valuable water-power furnished by the Big Bull Falls of the Wisconsin (in the city) is utilized for manufacturing, and in 1910 water-power sites were being developed on the Wisconsin river immediately above and below the city. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $4,644,457. Wausau had its origin in a logging-camp, established about 1838. In 1840 a saw-mill was built here, and in 1858 the village was incorporated under its present name. After 1880, when Wausau was chartered as a city, its growth was rapid.