Brantwood, Wisconsin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Brantwood, Wisconsin
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 Brantwood, Wisconsin
Location in Wisconsin
Brantwood, Wisconsin
Location in the United States
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| Country |  United States |
| State |  Wisconsin |
| County | Price |
| Elevation | 520 m (1,690 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code |
54513
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| Area code(s) | 715 & 534 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1562158 |
Brantwood is a small, unincorporated community in southern Price County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the larger area known as the town of Knox. Brantwood is located along United States Highway 8 and has a railroad line, the Wisconsin Central Railroad, running through it. It sits between the towns of Prentice to the west and Tomahawk to the east. This rural community began in the late 1890s as a place focused on cutting down trees for wood, which is called logging.
History of Brantwood
The first person to buy land in the Brantwood area was Francis Palms. He later sold this land to two brothers, William and Samuel Knox. The Knox brothers were loggers from the Stevens Point, Wisconsin area. They started a small community called Knox Mills a few miles south of Brantwood. They built a mill there to process wood. To help move the cut timber and wood products, a special short railroad line, called a spur, was built from Brantwood to Knox Mills.
A man named J. B. Engstrom owned a sawmill and a planing mill in Knox Mills. A planing mill smooths and shapes wood. He also ran a boarding house where many of the workers, who were mostly immigrants and single men, lived. The mill did very well in the 1920s. However, the Great Depression, a time when the economy was very bad, caused the mill to close until the late 1930s. Knox Mills slowly started to disappear because it didn't have its own post office or a main railroad line. The area became part of the Brantwood community, and the short railroad spur was no longer used.
As the land was cleared of its timber, the Knox brothers began selling it. They sold it to immigrants who wanted to start farms. Because of this, the community slowly changed. It went from being a busy logging area to a quiet farming and dairy community.
Advertisements for the land were aimed at immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Finland who were living in other states. K. A. Ostergen and E. H. Hobe, who worked for the railroad company, helped the railroad and the Knox brothers sell the land.
We can see how the population changed by looking at the US Census records. In 1900, there were 411 people living in the Town of Knox, which included both Brantwood and Knox Mills. By 1910, the population had grown to 1,010 people. In 1920, the census counted 1,251 people in the Town of Knox.
The Finnish people in Brantwood started a cooperative store and a cheese factory. These businesses did very well until the 1960s. However, Brantwood slowly began to decline. There wasn't much industry to attract new people or to keep young adults in the area after they finished school. By the 2000 US Census, only 399 people were living in the Town of Knox.
