A Short History of Friendship
In the year 1854 H.M. Whitney came up the Wisconsin River valley looking for a homestead. He was told that there was a good spot in the center of Adams County, just south of a big mound and a creek. He found the spot, liked it, and went on to Stevens Point to file a claim on 80 acres.
Many men were moving west at that time. In 1855 J. Whaley and A. Betts settled in the same area. In 1856 Luther Stowell, J. Davidson, L. Hecock, J. Olin and a Mr. Wize came from Friendship, New York, with their families. Other settlers were J. Harrison, ·B. Terbox, w. Burbank, G. Sackett and A. Mersden. In 1857 new arrivals included Wm. wright, G. Waterman and Judge Spencer. Many of these men brought their families with them.
In 1857 Luther Stowell bought the 80 acres of land from H.M. Whitney and it was on this land that the original Village of Friendship was settled.
First Stowell and Burbank erected a grist mill on the creek at the foot of the mound. They dammed up the creek to form a mill pond and used water power to turn their stones and machinery. Several years later the mill was sold to Jerome Harrison and Mr. Strickland.
Luther Stowell and his son Frank promoted a village on the 80 acre plot. A hotel or boarding house was erected at the top of the rise south of the grist mill. This later was added on to and it became the east end of the Atcherson House, the famous hotel for many years until it burned in 1924. The first real home in the Village was built by L. Hecock in late 1857. This home was later owned by Elder Staples and John Lewis. It was located on Belfast Street, at about the center of the first block south of the Atcherson House and on the east side.
Preston and Fordham had been two small settlements east of Friendship. John Hill had operated a general store and hotel at Preston. J. Chalmers was a merchant at Fordham. Both moved their buildings to Friendship in 1857 or early 1858.
Stowell began to agitate for moving the county seat from Quincy on the western edge of the county at the Wisconsin River where it had remained after Juneau county was detached from Adams County, to the new Village of Friendship. In the spring of 1858 a vote was held on the matter by special authorization of the legislature. Friendship won by 155 votes.
A frame building was erected in the third block south of Main Street on the east side of Belfast Street. The records were moved and the county offices opened for business there January 1, 1859.
In 1858 J.C. Shanghai Chandler established the Adams County Independent at Friendship as the first newspaper in Adams County. One story has it that he had to rush the first issue out in order to print the county delinquent tax list.
Chandler's compositors were A.J. Turner and F.O. Wisner. "Shanghai" has been described as erratic, brilliant, and gifted, but was an alcoholic and could not be depended upon for steady work. He left the county in 1869.
Named by various sources as prominent in the new Village were Elder Spoor, Samuel Heerford, W.R. Newton, A.E. Needham, Mr. Quaw, O.B. Lapham, Thos. B. Marsden, Nathaniel White, and Mr. Waterman and son George had come from the township of Springville in 1858 to be the new deputy Register of Deeds.
Many buildings and homes were moved to Friendship from Preston and Fordham while the two villages then rapidly went downhill.
In 1857 Solon W. Pierce, who had come to Cascade (White Creek) in 1854 moved to Friendship and began the practice of law.
In 1861 Pierce and T.B. Marsden and Mr. McGivveny began the Adams County Press, second newspaper in the county. In a short time Pierce became proprietor and editor and except for one year in the army in 1864-1865 remained in charge until he died in the l890's, at which time a son took over. Pierce served seven terms in the legislature, was District Attorney of Adams County for 40 years, and held just about all county public offices at one time or another.
In the Civil War, 17 Village men were killed.
The Adams County Reporter was another county paper and it ran until 1906 or 1907.
March 30, 1907, the Village of Friendship became a fact when the electors voted 45 to 20 to incorporate.
It was in 1911 that the Chicago and Northwestern railroad built their new line and it cut across Adams County. Land speculators forced the railroad to build their yards for a division point a mile south of the Village proper. The name on the depot said "Friendship", then "South Friendship" and in 1912 with a rapidly expanding group of railroad men a separate community known as Adams was formed.
A stone building had been erected in front of the courthouse to house the county clerk and other officers, and the courthouse proper was used only by the judge and the courtroom. The need for a new courthouse had been discussed for many years but it was 1913 before the old courthouse was moved away and work began on a new courthouse. The present brick building was completed in 1914.