F.J. Thrun: Lighting up the Northwoods

Continued from previous week

Three years later, F.J. Thrun is found running the electric light and waterworks systems in Minocqua.

At that time, boilers were essential for creating high-pressure steam to run municipal light systems.

One year later, in 1897, Thrun went before the Eagle River board, proposing to furnish electric lighting and run the waterworks for the municipality, which went to a public vote.

“The question the voters had to decide was to authorize the town board to enter into a contract and not to give the same to any individual, but to the one making the most reliable and cheapest proposition to run the water works and put in an electric light plant,” the Eagle River Review stated.

A 108-22 vote authorized the board to enter into the contract, and in Nov. 23, 1897, Eagle River had its lighting.

The Thruns moved to Eagle River and enjoyed a comfortable life in society.

In 1909, Mary died, leaving three grown children and her husband behind.

F.J. remarried in 1912 and had another son.

Ever the visionary, in 1920, Thrun started a machine shop in Eagle River.

“Eagle River has long been in need of a thoroughly equipped machine shop that could handle anything in the repair line, or, as is often the necessary case, build or make new parts for saw mills, tractors, autos, or any of the numberless breakdowns that occur where anything of the kind is in use. It will soon have a plant of this kind in operation to be known as the Eagle Machine Works and Garage, under the supervision of F.J. Thrun,” an Eagle River Review story said.

But, either by a strange twist of fate or a much devious strike, the business would suffer a heavy blow.

On a Friday night in May 1921, fire engulfed the large frame building on Main Street, which housed Thrun’s machine shop and the blacksmith shop of Charles Pride.

“Mr. Pride lost his complete blacksmith shop equipment, the expensive accumulation of several years in business, and Mr. Thrun lost all of the machine shop tools, including three iron working lathes, all of which were installed a few months ago at a large expense. The building and contents were partially covered by insurance, but the loss to both men is a severe one. The origin of the fire is a mystery, particularly as the forge fire had not been in use since early that afternoon,” the Eagle River Review stated.

He then owned and operated a gas and service station in Eagle River.

But in 1923, a California case where a man faked his death in a fire to defraud his insurance company brought Thrun back into the headlines all over Wisconsin late that year.

After that, Thrun led a quiet life until he died in August 1931.