Town
of Hiles History
The Town of Hiles
is the headwaters for two of Wisconsin's premier
rivers, the Wolf and the Pine. The Popple and
Peshtigo also begin nearby in this high country
of 1700 feet above sea level. Our small town here
in northern Wisconsin is rich in history. It all
started in 1860 when a woodsman named Dan Gagen
built a trading post and inn on the banks of the
Pine Lake alongside the old Military Road. The
road ran as far north as Lake Superior serving as
a mail route and was used to carry supplies
through the woods for trappers and traders. J.B.
Thompson of Wausau bought the trading post in
1863 and sold it to H.B. Fessenden of Argonne in
1895 who was the only actual settler.
Hiles Sawmill Workers
In 1902
Franklin P. Hiles of Milwaukee purchased
not only the trading post but also the
site that would soon become the town of
Hiles. Organized in 1903, Hiles had a
sawmill, general store, hotel, and a
railroad branch from the main line of the
Chicago Northwestern.
After a few
years Mr. Hiles sold all his holdings to
Foster Mueller Lumber Company of
Milwaukee and they sold it all to Mr.
C.W. Fish of Elcho, Wisconsin in 1919.
Mr. Fish immediately started to improve
the town by building more homes to rent
to the employees of the mill. Streets and
sidewalks were laid out and even trees
were planted along the road. By 1924
Hiles had transformed from a crossroad in
the woods to a small town. There were now
twenty-six homes, an ice cream parlor, a
Union Church and a new school. The new
school, completed in 1920, was not just a
one-room building like that found in most
rural communities at that time, but a
modern structure consisting of six large
rooms with central heat and cement
sidewalks. Now streetlights lined the
streets powered by a generator from the
sawmill, and the Village Park proudly
displayed a water fountain the likes of
which was only found in the 'big cities'.
Original Hiles Schoolhouse -
About 1912
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