Wisconsin became a territory in 1836, and was made a state on May 29, 1848. Marathon County was formed from a larger county called Portage, in 1850 It originally encompassed all of what is now Marathon County, Lincoln County, Oneida County, and parts of others. Its white population was at that time 308, who mostly resided in Wausau, known then as Big Bull Falls. Wausau became the county seat in 1850. Because the exact center of the Western, American half of the northern hemisphere, the spot where the 45th parallel and the 90th meridian meet lies in Marathon County, we say that Marathon County is the heartland of America. John Gesicki of Poniatowski (north of Edgar) is responsible for the finding of the geological 45 x 90 latitude and longitude mark. After the county erected a marker, the area was made a county park.
Pages 742 & 743
HENRY JUERS, who is one of Wausau's justly popular officials and is serving in his fifth term as City treasurer, has been a resident of Wausau, Wisconsin, since 1882. He was born December 15, 1850 in Germany, and is a son of Matthew and D. Juers, both of whom died in his boyhood. Henry Juers grew to manhood in his native land and there learned the carpenter trade and after reaching the United States in I879, settled first at Clinton, Iowa. In 1882, he reached Wausau and finding here satisfactory business conditions decided to make this city his permanent home and during the succeeding years, as a good citizen, has done his part in bringing about its present prosperity. For twenty-one years he was foreman in the Curtis & Yale Company's mill, in the meanwhile making, judicious investments for himself, and is now vice president of tile Wausau Ice and Fuel Company. Intelligent and public spirited, Mr. Juers has always been active as a citizen and his own city ward, the Seventh, has many admirers and supporters. He served one term as supervisor of the ward and for four years was aldennan of the Seventh Ward. However, while carefully guarding the interests of his own part of the city he secured the confidence of those who lived in other sections and this resulted in his election to the office of city treasurer. He served three terms of two years each, elected on the Republican ticket, but his fourth and fifth elections came to him on the non-partisan ticket, which may be construed as a proof of real efficiency.
Mr. Juers married Miss Henrietta Behnke, in 1878, in Germany, and they have five children: Charles L., Emil R., Richard F., Martha D. and Otto, Martha D. being the wife of L. Morrette. Mr. Juers is a man of social instincts and takes an interest in outdoor sports and belongs to the order of Druids, of which he is a trustee; and also to the Wausau Shooting Society, and has been a member for thirty years of the Deutsche Arbeiter Untersinetzong Verein.