Glidden State Bank

The Glidden State Bank is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the local level, in the history of commerce, for its 73-year association with Glidden's financial institutions, beginning with the Glidden State Bank and continuing through its successor firms, Citizens State Bank of Glidden, the German-American State Bank of Glidden, the American State Bank of Glidden, and Northern State Bank. The period of significance extends from 1905, when the building was completed, through 1956, the fifty-year cut-off date. The Glidden State Bank retains good integrity.

HISTORY OF GLIDDEN AND JACOBS TOWNSHIP

In 1877, the Wisconsin Central Railroad was extended northward through the pine and hardwood forests of Ashland County to Lake Superior. The same year, the railroad had that part of Glidden that lies northeast of the Chippewa River Platted as the "Village of Chippewa Crossing." A railroad depot was erected on the south side of First Street just west of Grant Street to serve as a shipping point for lumber. Two boarding houses were built immediately: the Emigrant House and the Glidden House (both razed). A. J. King opened the first retail business in Chippewa Crossing. It was a general store (not extant) to serve the logging camps in the vicinity and was located on the north side of First Street across from the depot, one block west of the site of the Glidden State Bank. A tiny lumbering support community sprang up, and by the end of 1877, the first public school in Chippewa Crossing had been built. In 1878, the post office was established under the name of "Glidden," in honor of Charles R. Glidden, an official with the Wisconsin Central Railroad. In 1882, Glidden became a part of Jacobs Township. Early European-American residents of the area were predominantly of British descent, but German immigrants soon outnumbered them.

By 1884, Glidden had a population of about 150. The business district, arrayed along First and Grant streets, was made up of three saloons, two hotels/boarding houses, two general stores, and a blacksmith. Two carpenters and a surveyor also lived in the community. The first local newspaper, The Glidden Pioneer, began publication in 1884 (it would move to Iron River in 1895). Over the next two years, another saloon, two more hotels, another general store, and two more blacksmith shops were added to the commercial district. New businesses in 1886 included a meat market, a druggist, a feed store, two shoemakers, and the first local entertainment venue, a roller rink. The Ashland Iron and Steel Company began operating charcoal burners near Glidden in 1888, an enterprise that would continue until 1902.

Glidden counted some 400 residents in 1890. Three churches had been organized, and a two-story town hall erected. The Glidden Lumber Company opened a sawmill and lumberyard at the east end of First Street in 1890. George Rogers and Charles Emmons established their sawmill the same year. Five hotels, four saloons, two meat markets, two general stores, a drugstore, a blacksmith shop, a hardware store, a barbershop, a restaurant, a shoemaker's shop, and a tailor shop were among the other commercial enterprises in Glidden in 1891. By 1893, a physician and a jeweler had moved to town and William G. Fordyce had opened the Glidden Exchange Bank. A weekly, German-language newspaper, Der Berichterstattter (The Reporter), was established the same year. By 1895, a clothing store, a milliner, a dressmaker, a mason, a painter, and a taxidermist had become established in Glidden. The population of the community had reached about 600, and the number of saloons had expanded to 16.

By 1900, the pine forests in Ashland County had largely been cleared. Lumber companies began felling hardwoods and moving into wood products manufacturing. One of the largest of these operations was the Glidden Veneer Company, established c. 1900. This company employed 150 hands by 1904, and had its own railroad line into the thousands of acres of timberland that it owned. It would continue in business until at least 1911. In 1900, a privately-owned waterworks and electric plant were built in Glidden. The Glidden Exchange Bank closed in c. 1900, and John Fleishbein opened the Glidden State Bank in c. 1902. The Glidden Telephone Company was organized in 1903. In December of that year, Glidden gained a second private financial institution: the Wisconsin State Bank. A second newspaper, The Glidden Enterprise, went into publication in 1904. Other businesses in the community included 11 saloons, four hotels, four general stores, three barbers, three carpenters, two lumber companies, two meat markets, two tailors, two liveries, an opera house that could accommodate 500, a jeweler and watchmaker, a blacksmith, a drugstore, a physician, a confectioner, a cigar maker, a hardware store, a milliner, a shoemaker, and a drayman. In 1905, the year in which the Glidden State Bank was built, the population of Glidden stood at 820. Two wood product manufacturing plants were organized in 1905: a broom handle factory and a barrel stave factory. By 1907, a creamery had opened in Glidden, reflecting the development of dairying in the area. In 1907, the Der Berichsterstatter became the Ashland County Herald, published in English. It would move to Ashland in 1911. Among the new establishments in Glidden in 1907: were five more saloons, two more general stores, a dentist, a furniture store, a lawyer, a harnessmaker, another livery, and a lath and shingle mill. In 1909, the Wisconsin Central Railroad was purchased by Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie (Soo Line) Company. By this time, the Wisconsin State Bank had closed."

Glidden had added another jeweler, a restaurant, a machine shop, and an automobile dealership by 1911. Builder and saloonkeeper Conrad Mohr opened Glidden's first moving picture theater in 1912. Industries in the community that year included two lumber mills, the creamery, the shingle, the lath, and tie mill, and the broom handle factory. The Glidden Broom Handle Factory prospered during World War I, employing more than 100 women in 1918. By 1922, the plant was producing 75,000 handles every day. The company erected 14 houses on the east side of the village but went bankrupt in 1923. At the time, Glidden counted 928 residents. A hardwood flooring factory opened in the early 1920s; that plant would be destroyed in 1931.

By 1931, the wood products manufacturing concerns in Glidden had all gone out of business. The creamery closed, too, as the cut-over timberland had proven poor for farming, and many farmers had lost their farms to tax delinquency. In addition, many lumber companies had abandoned their property once the timber was removed, leaving hundreds of acres in Ashland County tax delinquent by the late 1920s. A few forward-thinking wood products firms began planting trees. Among them was the Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company, which planted 300 acres of white pine and yellow birch near Glidden in 1928. At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began buying up tax-delinquent acreage. By 1930, the Forest Service owned 100,000 acres in Ashland County. In 1932, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of the Chequamegon National Forest. This 859,000-acre preserve includes parts of Ashland, Bayfield, Price, Sawyer, and Taylor counties. It is divided into five districts: Park Falls, Washburn, Glidden, Mellen, and Hayward. The Glidden district is the largest, encompassing 214,000 acres. In 1933, the federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program was organized. Four CCC camps were erected in the Glidden district of the Chequamegon National Forest, bringing in some 600 men to plant trees, build bridges and roads, and carry out other conservation and beautification projects under the direction of the Forest Service. The last local CCC closed in 1942. Since that time, personnel of the Forest Service, working out of its office in Glidden (located in the Glidden State Bank from 1978 until 2003), have guided wildlife and fish management, outdoor recreation, watershed protection, and reforestation efforts benefiting the thousands of visitors who come to the Chequamegon National Forest every year. In 1975, for example, over 700,000 trees were planted, 88,000 cords of pulpwood were cut, and 518,000 visitors came. From 1986 through 1995, the Chequamegon provided nearly 23.5 million board feet of timber and pulpwood for commercial use each year. Today, tourism, recreation, and selective logging in the Chequamegon National Forest are integral to Glidden's economy."