Willow River Power Company records, 1866-1953.
- US ARC River Falls Mss H
- collection
- 1866-1953
Business records for the flour and gristmills and the electric power plants operated on the Willow River by Christian Burkhardt (1834-1931) and his family of Burkhardt and Hudson, Wisconsin. Burkhardt, a native of Germany, built his first dam and flour mill on the Willow River in 1868. By 1894 a new mill had been erected and electric generators had been installed, and by 1900 electrical power was being supplied to the city of Hudson for street lighting and residential use. In 1907 all company operations were consolidated into the Burkhardt Milling and Electric Power Company, but because of its continued growth and diversification, the power business was separated from the milling business by the creation in 1922 of the Willow River Power Company. In 1944 all of the Burkhardt properties were purchased by Northern States Power Company.
The bulk of the collection is composed of financial and legal records. Minutes of meetings of the Burkhardt Milling and Electric Company, 1907-1947, together with cash and sales books, journals, ledgers, trial balances, and grain and shipping accounts of varied dates relate primarily to the operations of the flour and grain mills, mainly in the period after 1885. Sales records, 1901-1918, minutes of stockholders' and directors' meetings of the Willow River Power Company, 1922-1940, a few reports to state and federal agencies, and assorted legal papers relate to the production and sale of electricity. The collection also contains plat maps and correspondence concerning lands owned by the Burkhardt companies, 1900-1946, correspondence and financial records of investments held by the Burkhardts in St. Paul, Minn., 1904-1943, and a very few folders of personal family papers, 1873-1953.