| An E&LS train passes Veterans Park and crosses the Little Peshtigo River via a 1902 masonry/concrete arch bridge as it heads north with 18 cars via former MILW rails at Coleman, WI, on 23 Apr. '21. The locals have affixed a plaque claiming this to be the "Joseph Brault Memorial Bridge 1824-1887." Joseph Urgel Brault is considered, by some, to be the founder of the Village of Coleman, WI, in 1870, but doesn't appear to have had anything to do with this bridge specifically or the railroad in general. Some references claim that the village was originally named Braultville and later changed to Coleman. Others claim that it has always been Coleman, named for a man who owned a lot of the land. Another reference asserts that Coleman and the neighboring village of Pound were named for US Representative Thaddeus Coleman Pound. He served on a committee which considered railroad land grants. One reference claims August Beaudry "to be the real founder of [Coleman]." He built a boarding house/store/saloon near the railroad right-of-way ca. 1881 as the M&N approached what is now Coleman. The original Brault settlement was about 2 miles east of Coleman, where Hwy. B crosses the Little Peshtigo River. Referred to as Braultville (some references claim officially, others unofficially), it has also been referred to as East Coleman. A small community sprouted up near this bridge site in 1880, around the Waldron Dickinson Co. (later Marshall Holmes Co., later E. E. Bolles Co.) sawmill (which stood behind me on the opposite side of Bus. 141). The community was referred to as Little River, but is now part of Coleman. The railroad construction camp was located near this site. The Marshall Spur connected the sawmill to the M&N main line. The sawmill closed in 1911 after the local timber supply was exhausted. |