Town Of Somerset history

From Territory to Township: When the Wisconsin Territory was established in 1840, St Croix County extended from Lake Superior to the Mississippi where St Paul and Minneapolis now are and Dakotah (now Stillwater) was the county seat.

In 1848 Wisconsin became a state with the St Croix River its western border.

In 1850 brothers Joseph and Louis Parent from French-speaking Canada came up the St Croix looking for a good place to homestead.

St Croix County went from above Danbury to below Prescott and the county seat was moved to Buena Vista (now Hudson). The current, smaller county boundaries were set in 1853.

Industry began to grow progressively bigger, In 1855, Job Leonard bought Somerset Iron Works and changes its name to Mount Hope Iron Works, which made tacks, shovel plates, and nails.

General Sam Harriman named Somerset: Samuel and Hud Harriman, brothers born in Maine of English parents, came to the Apple River in 1856 to found a mill, store and logging empire.

Julia (Francois) Roi, who taught classes in the Audette home near the Apple River falls starting about 1858.

In 1860, Richard Tripp built and designed The Octagon House.

In order to be more centrally located the congregation built the Church of St Anne across the river from the Village in 1874-75.

In 1875, Slades Ferry Bridge opened, it became the first bridge to cross the Taunton River.

Since Slades Ferry Bridge had opened, In 1876, The Ferry Service between Fall River and Somerset was decommissioned.

A new Township bridge was built close to the falls in 1882.

Education still stayed as a big priority in Somerset, In 1885, Somerset High School was opened.

The Town Hall was built in 1886 by Harriman’s nephew, Edward E. Mason.

The first parish school opened in the fall of 1890.

The Emmanuel Lutheran congregation formed in May of 1894 and built a church that fall on the southwest side of the Township.

The Christ Lutheran congregation was formed by primarily German settlers in 1896.

Their first church was built about two miles southwest of the Village in 1899.

In 1900, The Somerset Pallas Range Stove was created by The Somerset Stove Foundry and became one of the best stoves in the country.

In 1907 a three-story brick building was built to house both the school and the sisters.

After taking the Cloutier family to Austria in 1908, Till built a large clinic in Turtle Lake that people flocked to.

A bigger building, the Apple River Falls school was built in 1909 along the road to the falls.

In 1910, The first town library, The Hood Library opens thanks to a donation by the Hood family and in remembrance of the founder of The Somerset Stove Foundry, William P. Hood.

The five-span steel arch Soo Line Railroad “High Bridge” over the St Croix River, completed in 1911, was for many years the largest of its kind in the world.

Fire destroyed this building in 1917 and the following year they built a new church on the south side of the Village.

Somerset Potters Works opens, one of nine potters to operate in town between 1705 and 1918, giving the Pottersville area of town its name.

In 1925, the first unit went online at The Montaup Electric Company.

In 1927, The Somerset Town Office opened.

In 1932, The town’s weekly newspaper, The Spectator begins.

In 1936, The Somerset Credit Union opened, operating out of Panneton Drug Store.

In 1937, The New Somerset High School opened on County Street.

Information obtained from “Images of America: Somerset” by James Bradbury, “History of Somerset Massachusetts 1677-1940” by William A. Hart and Herald News archives.

Shirley May France, a Fall River native, made her first few attempts to swim across the English Channel in 1949.

In 1966, The Braga Bridge was opened for traffic.

In 1970, Slade’s Ferry Bridge is demolished.

In 1973, The Music Festival begins, celebrating the commitment of the town to music and art.

In 1989, The Pottersville Elementary and Village School were eliminated from the school system.

Arthur “Chick” Marchand, a longtime selectmen and business owner, is named Somerset’s first town administrator, a position he held until his death in 1997.

In 2009, The Brayton Point Power Station constructs two 500 foot cooling towers for the plant to use as their new source.

In 2010, Somerset approved the creation of the regionalized school district with Berkley.

In 2011, Somerset approved the 24.5 million share of the new high school.

In 2014, Somerset Berkley Regional High School is opened.

In 2017, The Brayton Point Power Station was shut down permanently.