Donald, Wisconsin
History
Donald was founded in 1903, where the Fountain-Campbell Lumber Company built a sawmill on the Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Northeastern Railway (a.k.a. the Omaha). The community was named for Donald Campbell, the son of the president of Fountain-Campbell. Before that, the spot was called Fountain Spur, for the other principal of that company.
Donald had a boarding house for sawmill workers. A post office was established in 1904. Around 1905 the J.S. Owen Company built a line for the Wisconsin Central Railway crossing the Omaha line at Donald and heading northwest for Superior - now part of the Canadian National Railway. At some point, the Omaha RR set up a box car as Donald's depot. Donald grew to boast a school and a church.
But after the timber near Donald was depleted around 1916, Fountain-Campbell shut down their sawmill there and moved it north of Ladysmith to Crane, where timber remained. With that, Donald began to dwindle. The Omaha Railroad stopped running in the late 1930s and track was pulled up. The post office closed in 1942. As of 2023, only a few homes and the Canadian National remained.
Notes
- ^ "Donald, Wisconsin". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ Chicago and North Western Railway Company (1908). A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways. p. 173.
- ^ Rosholt, Malcolm (1982). Lumbermen on the Chippewa. Rosholt, Wisc.: Rosholt House. p. 250.
- ^ Colby, Arlyn (2018). The Cornell Line - The History of the Omaha Railway's Branch Line through Cornell. pp. 77–78.
- ^ "Taylor County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
- ^ Rusch, Robert P. (September 22, 2013). "The Twelve Railroads of Taylor County, Wisconsin". In Kalmon, Lars (ed.). Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - volume 2. Taylor County History Project. p. 15.
- ^ "St. Joseph's Catholic Parish". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
- ^ Brown, R.C. (Doc) (1982). Logging Railroads of Rusk County, Wisconsin. p. 42.
- ^ Rusch, Robert P. (September 22, 2013). "The Twelve Railroads of Taylor County, Wisconsin". In Kalmon, Lars (ed.). Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - volume 2. Taylor County History Project. p. 14.
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
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