lumberman, merchant, politician, b. Otsego County, N.Y. For several years he engaged in a merchandising partnership in Oxford, N.Y., and, in 1856, moved the business to Wisconsin, settling in Eau Claire. There he soon entered the lumber business, and in 1866 was the principal founder of the Eau Claire Lumber Co. Thorp was president of this company for many years, and was responsible for building it into one of the largest lumbering firms in the Chippewa Valley, with offices in St. Louis, Mo., and mills, flour mills, elevators and machine shops in Eau Claire. A Republican, Thorp was the principal spokesman of the Chippewa Valley lumbermen as state senator (1866-1867, 1872-1873), and was first president of the National Lumbermen's Association (1874-1875). Through his lumbering activities Thorp eventually acquired a fortune of over $1,000,000, and for several years maintained a lavish house in Madison as well as his home in Eau Claire. In 1887 he sold the Eau Claire Lumber Co. to the Mississippi River Logging Co., a firm controlled by Frederick Weyerhaeuser (q.v.) and his associates, and after 1889 lived in retirement with his daughter, the widow of violinist Ole Bull (q.v.) in Cambridge, Mass. R. F. Fries, Empire in Pine (Madison, 1951); W. F. Bailey, ed., Hist. of Eau Claire Co. (Chicago, 1914); Wis. Legis. Manual (1873); Columbian Biog. Dict. . . . Wis. (Chicago, 1895).Learn More
Dictionary of Wisconsin History
Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.
[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
