Christian Burkhardt (1834-1931) of Burkhardt and Hudson, Wisconsin, migrated from Germany to New York and worked as a millwright in New York, Illinois, and Iowa before moving to northwestern Wisconsin. In 1868, Burkhardt erected a small flour mill and timber dam on the Willow River in St. Croix County, Wisconsin The mill and an adjoining cooper shop were completely destroyed by fire in 1887. Burkhardt built a new mill and in 1891, installed electrical generators to supply power to the mill.
In 1894, after having been the manager of the Willow River Milling Company at North Hudson for several years, Christian Burkhardt and James Andrews purchased the company. Three years later, Burkhardt became the sole owner of Willow River Milling and about the same time, began to supply electric power to the city of Hudson for street lighting and residential use. Hudson was the first small community in northwestern Wisconsin to have electric lights.
Burkhardt continued to build new dams, mills, and power plants and in 1907, consolidated all operations into the Burkhardt Milling and Electric Power Company. Because of the growing size and diversity of the business, the Willow River Power Company was organized in 1922 to separate the electric power generation from milling operations. By 1944, when Northern States Power Company purchased all real and personal property owned by the Willow River Power Company, the company had 139 miles of rural electric lines.
Several histories of the origins and development of the Willow River Power Company, one with special emphasis on the technical and engineering problems of dams, mills, and power plants, can be found in Box 1, folders 1 through 4, of the collection.
