Thorp Township

Clark County
Townships

Thorp Township

written and contributed by Kay Scholtz <scholtz@tznet.com>

Note: There are presently 33 townships in Clark County.
Thirty-two townships are of standard size each covering six square miles.
The Township of Foster includes two 6 square mile areas.

The first meeting of Thorp Township was held in April of 1876, after it's creation by the county board January 21, 1876. Namesake of the Town of Thorp was Joseph Gilbert Thorp Sr., a resident of Eau Claire, WI, who settled there with his family in 1857. Mr. Thorp, born in New York in 1812, was the constant president of the Eau Claire Lumber Company, which at the time of Thorp's organization had large interests in and around the township and a large farm within it. The Eau Claire Lumber Co. was incorporated in 1866 and merged with the Mississippi Logging Co. in 1887. Joseph Thorp also was active in building of early railways, president of the YMCA of Eau Claire, and served as a U.S. senator for Wisconsin. The Thorp family could be subjects of a very interesting life story. Joseph Thorp's son, Joseph Jr., married Anne Allegra Longfellow, daughter of the famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Joseph's daughter, Sarah, married Ole Bull of Norway, a champion violinist of the world. Ole, 40 years her senior, built a beautiful home for Sarah and their daughter on an island in Norway. The Boardman family members were early settlers in Thorp Township, arriving in about 1870. Thorp's present boundaries were secured in 1893.