From: A History of Manitowoc County, by Ralph G. Plumb, Brandt Printing and Binding Co., 1904 Of the settlements of the county that at Manitowoc Rapids was the earliest in point of time. Here eastern prospectors in 1835 looked over the grounds and the result was the purchase of many hundreds of acres in that year by Jacob W. Conroe and later by his brother John G. Conroe, both of Middlebury, Vermont. The former reached his new holdings by way of Green Bay in the spring of 1836, taking with him about thirty men to build a mill. The lumber for this structure was purchased at twenty dollars a thousand, plus five dollars for freight from Chicago and landed at the mouth of the river. It happened that at Green Bay during the fall Conroe met Captain J. V. Edwards, who had just arrived from New Jersey and was desirous of going to Chicago. When he heard that there was a schooner about to sail for Manitowoc supplies for Conroe's mills he shipped on board, thinking to get nearer to his destination and upon reaching Manitowoc in November was induced by Mr. Conroe to remain for a time, at least, in his employ. It was Mr. Edwards who built the scows which enabled lumber to be taken from the Rapids out into the bay and to be loaded into vessels for transportation, thus being the first ship builder in the county. Jacob Conroe's brothers, Horace, John and Levi soon joined him in his enterprises as did also Mrs. Conroe, who was the first white woman in the county. The mill was well started by the spring of 1837 and continued to run through the panic period, although it was the only one to do so. Horace Conroe endeavored to cultivate five or six acres about a mile north of the mill during the summer, but gave up in disgust and returned to Vermont a year later. Chief among the lieutenants of the Conroes was Pat Thebieau, a Frenchman, who had been at the Rapids from the very first and continued to reside there until his death in the eighties. Walter McIntosh, Francis Flinn, William McCrady and Joshua Burns came up from Sheboygan in 1837 and joined the little colony. Another mill was soon started, it being the enterprise of one J. L. Thayer. On May 1, 1837 a party consisting of Thayer, Pliny Pierce, H. McAllister, Samuel Martin, Joshua Sequoin, William Holbrook, Joseph Sequoin and wife, Frank Pugh, C. Severin. Amos Robier, Deacon Lyman, John B. Oas, B. Doyle, Jessie Burnell and a Mr. Wheat started from Waddington, N. Y. with Manitowoc County as their destination. Reaching Detroit they chartered a boat to carry them and their belongings to Green Bay, from whence they tramped three days along the Indian trail, finally arriving at the Rapids. Pushing up the river they soon after constructed a mill and a log boarding house, calling the settlement Thayersville, the property being owned by the firm of Thayer, Rouse and Thompson. The little settlement numbered about twenty souls. The effects of the panic were very destructive upon the enterprise, however. Thayer became bankrupt and all the settlers gradually disappeared except McAllister and Pierce, who were given lands for their compensation. The former immediately went to farming and became the first actual agriculturist of the county, a fair crop of oats being raised in the fall of 1838. The first wheat ground into flour came from his farm, it being transported to Green Bay for that purpose. Joseph La Counte, who came to the Rapids in 1837 and worked with Thayer, also did some farming, planting potatoes, which, however, proved to be no larger than nuts. Another early settler was E. Lenaville, who resided near Branch. The winter of 1837-1838 was one of great hardship; the flour in the settlement became moldy and the pioneers were obliged to live largely on salt fish with an occasional haunch of venison. In the fall of 1837 Mr. La Counte's family joined him, coming up from Milwaukee on the schooner Jessie Smith and in the next summer Pliny Pierce went back east and brought his wife and children. Alonzo and Jerome, both of whom have since resided in the county. He traded the Thayer lands for a mill site above the Rapids and soon built the Pierce mill. In succeeding years he constructed another mill at Cooperstown, which was later sold to W. H. Bruce of Green Bay, finally becoming the Aldrich mill. Oliver C. Hubbard from Manitowoc to Rapids in 1839, where he built a house and soon after engaged in the business of making sash, doors and blinds, using a part of the Conroe mill. In 1847 he built a mill of his own near the Rapids, which he continued to operate until his death in 1855. The mill at Thayersville was reopened, John G. Conroe having a large interest, and by him it was run for four or five years, after which it was owned and operated by H. H. Champlin, still later passing into the hands of Wyman Murphy and being known as Murphy mill. In these early years the Rapids was easily the center of industry and life in the county and consequently it was there that the county government had its seat. The Conroes sold out and left the village in 1845. Levi died of cousumption at Racine in 1850, while his brother John continued in business in the same city until 1855, when he too died, at the age of forty-five. Said the Racine Advocate: "To the world at large Mr. Conroe was a rough, stern man, but those who knew him best recognized the kind heart beneath that outward garb and the poor and distressed never appealed to him in vain. From this time, although some new blood was received by immigration, the Rapids continued to decline and by 1850 had been distanced by Manitowoc, which three years later became the county seat. Jacob Conroe, the founder of the settlement, returned to Vermont in later years, where he spent the reclining days of his life.