By Julie Huebel, Pierce County Historical Association
ELMWOOD, WI – There aren’t many local surnames starting with the letter “U,” but I think the one I chose is an important one to cover even if there aren’t any by this name remaining in the area. U is for Utter…Nathan H. Utter established the first post office in Elmwood on January 19, 1885, serving as the first postmaster. It was traditionally up to the first postmaster to select a name for their post office and that’s the case with Elmwood. The area would come to be referred to as “Old Elmwood” once the settlement was moved about a half mile to the south side of the Eau Galle River once the train came to the area.
Nathan Harrison Utter was born in Hebron, Illinois in 1844, to Charles and Martha. Nathan served in the Civil War with Company H of the 95th Illinois Infantry for three years. He mustered in at Rockford, Illinois on September 4, 1862, and mustered out August 17, 1865, from Camp Butler, in Springfield, Illinois. Promoted from Private to Corporal, he had been wounded at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863. Following a failed assault on May 19 on Confederate fortifications in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union forces launched a second major assault on May 22. Confederate Lieutenant J.M. Pearson of the 13th Alabama described the Union attack that day, saying, “…they seemed to be springing from the bowels of the earth, a long line of indigo, a magnificent line in each direction…It was a grand and appalling sight.”
After his time in the Civil War, he was found on the 1865 Minnesota state census living in Gillford, Wabasha County, Minnesota with his parents and sister Eunice. Seemingly living next door to his future wife’s family. Three years later, he married Isabel Stephenson in 1868 in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin. Isabell’s parents were John and S.A. Stephenson.
By 1877, Nathan and Isabell owned 80 acres in section 1 of Rock Elm Township, which is just south of the Village of Elmwood on County Road P. The 1880 census shows he was living in Rock Elm Township with his wife Isabell (29), son Charles (8), daughter Ethel (5).
About 1883/4 Nathan purchased a store in what would become Elmwood and then later referred to as Old Elmwood when the village was moved south to where the train came through town. He purchased it from his brother-in-law, James Stephenson, it was “near the water mill” at the base of Norwegian Hill on the banks of Cady Creek. Then, establishing the Elmwood post office in 1885. Nathan Utter later sold his store to Orin Groot.
Nathan served as postmaster until Orin Groot took over in July of 1898. By 1906, he was serving Elmwood as a notary public and whatever this means: “does a general collection business.” April of 1906 Gordon Noble moved into Nathan’s house in old Elmwood and Nathan moved into the building formerly used by Dr. Cain and he used it as an office, he is now “police justice.”
In 1890, Nathan’s father, Charles, died. His mother, Martha, died the following year and they are both buried in Poplar Hill Cemetery in Rock Elm, but only Charles has a headstone.
On the 1900 census, Nathan was living in Spring Lake Township, which is where both Elmwood and Old Elmwood are located. Aged 55, he was a widower living with this widowed 25-year-old daughter, Ethel Kilgore and her two children, John (5) and Bessie (2) and another daughter Irene Utter (11). His occupation is listed as night watchman, he owned a house there. He was still in Spring Lake Township on the 1905 state census, he was living with his daughter Irene (16), and daughter Ethel (30) who was now remarried and living there with her family.
In his retirement years, he moved around between his children. By the 1910 census he was 65 years old, retired and living in St. Paul with his son, Charles. In 1920, he was living with his daughter Ethel in Pine City, Minnesota. In 1930, he was living with his daughter Irene and her family in St. Paul. He passed away in 1932 at age 87 or 88 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
