Isaac Stephenson - Lumberman

Lumberman

He worked in lumbering activities in the eastern U.S. for several years, principally in Maine, and in 1845 moved to Wisconsin, where for a time he managed absentee timber properties, but soon entered the lumber business for himself. In 1858 he settled permanently in Marinette, where his lumbering operations expanded steadily, especially during the Civil War. Although Stephenson suffered heavy losses in the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, he recouped, and soon was one of the wealthiest lumbermen in the Great Lakes area, with real-estate holdings in Marinette, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, and throughout the Great Lakes, as well as vast acreages of pine lands in northern Wisconsin and Michigan.