Summer 2023
SHSI is excited to announce that we are finally building a new Machine Shed with the help of donations from our supporters.
The shed is located on our site at the Spirit Town Hall.
It will house our antiques from farming, blacksmithing, trapping, carpentry and other occupations of the past.
The Machine Shed is almost complete at this time. The project began in June with the preparation of the site.
A concrete slab was poured and construction of the building started shortly after.
We look forward to giving you a tour of so many items we have had in storage for the past 5 years.
We are still looking for donations to finish the inside of the building.
We appreciate any amount of help so we can get our artifacts in place again.
Summer 2019
Our Yesterday House has been moved to the Spirit Town Hall site.
Now we will start raising funds to build a new machine shed to store our
logging, farming, blacksmithing, trapping and older household artifacts.
Marvin Meier was a charter member of G.S.H.I.
Marvin Carl Meier passed away on March 20, 2020 in Wausau Wisconsin at the age of 83. He was born August 18, 1936 in a log cabin in Spirit Wisconsin the 3rd of 6 children to Carl and Olga Meier. He is preceded in death by his parents, sister Rosalie Meier, and brother Albert Meier.
After grade school in the one room school house in Spirit, he graduated from Rib Lake High School in 1954 and joined the U.S. Army where he was deployed as a linguist specialist in Germany listening to Russian transmissions. Upon his return he enrolled in college and found a calling in forestry, graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1965 with a Masters of Forestry.
During college he was an active member of Gamma Delta where he met Joleen Nyla Franklin, a grade school teacher from Milwaukee who was teaching in Wausau. The pair married in 1964 and following Marv’s graduation they moved to Panguitch, Utah where Marvin began his career with the US Forest Service, a career that took him and family to Ogden, UT, Washington DC, Anchorage AK and Atlanta GA where in 1994 he retired from the position of Acting Regional Forester for the Southern States Region.
Joleen and Marvin returned to Wausau, Wisconsin – a town they remembered fondly and that was close to their forest land in Price County. Retirement gave Marvin the time and opportunity to work with his own forests – Sweet Spirit Woodlands. He was also an active member of WWOA (Wisconsin Woodland Owners), and Saint Andrew Lutheran Church in Wausau. He enjoyed working in his forests, wood carving, classical music, and writing poems.
He is survived by his loving wife Joleen and his three daughters Kristina Meier, Marcy Horton and Julie Newton, grandchildren Kayla Meier, Jacob Meier and Lucas Horton, sister Gladys Ann Howard and brothers Michael Meier and Timothy Meier and their respective families.
Gene Meier was a charter member of G.S.H.I.
