Maple Works, Wisconsin

Maple Works, also called Mapleworks was a hamlet in the town of Grant, Clark County, Wisconsin, United States. At one time it was a busy rural center with two stores, a saloon, a post office and several residences. According to the tables contained in the 1895 The New 11 x 14 Atlas of the World (New York:Rand McNally Corporation, 1895), Maple Works had a population of 62. It is no longer extant.

History

Maple Works was located a half mile east of the village of Granton at the corner of Fremont and Romandka Roads.^[1] In 1857, Nelson Marsh from Pennsylvania settled in the area, coming with an ox team by way of Sparta and cutting a temporary road through the forest. He established a farm and tavern which served as a stagecoach stopping place on the old stage route from Neillsville to Stevens Point which was established in 1858. Marsh was the first postmaster of Maple Works,^[2] serving in that capacity until the post office was abolished in the 1890s. The name was initially intended to be Maplewood, but because of unclear handwriting the application for a post office was interpreted as Mapleworks and so remained.^[3] When Granton was established in 1890, many buildings were moved from Mapleworks to the new village.^[4]

Notes

1. Communities of Clark County, Wisconsin
2. German Evangelical Lutheran Zion Church
3. Winn, Mrs. F.E. "The Story of Granton and How Maple Works Got its Name", in: Clark County Centennial Corporation. The Book of the Years: the Story of the Men Who Made Clark County, as Told in Pictures and Type for the Clark County Centennial, 1853-1953, Celebration and Pageant, Neillsville, Wisconsin, Permanent Memorial of an Historical Occasion, July 1–4, 1953 Neillsville, Wisconsin, 1953.
4. Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn (1918). James O'Neill, ed. History of Clark County, Wisconsin, Volume 2. H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co. p. 639.