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building engineer."25 One of his first major commissions was the Blandin Paper Mill and Dam
<br /> (as it was later known)in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Constructed in 1901 at a cost of$200,000,
<br /> the new mill was built as a result of a concerted effort by Grand Rapids citizens to attract a major
<br /> industry.26
<br /> The next year, Jacobson prepared plans
<br /> for the Consolidated Water Power and
<br /> Paper Company Mill and Dam on the
<br /> Wisconsin River at Wisconsin Rapids.
<br /> Along with future partner Leonard
<br /> DeGuere, he designed a 2,000-foot t .
<br /> timber crib dam,the largest in the state
<br /> at the time.27
<br /> Jacobson and DeGuere formalized
<br /> their partnership in 1905, which was -
<br /> responsible for at least three other
<br /> important dams: the Watab Pulp and �"',
<br /> Paper Company Mill and Dam (1907) Postcard view of dam andpowerplant, ca. 1920
<br /> in Sartell, Minnesota; the Thornapple (Lyle Collins Collection)
<br /> Dam on the Flambeau River(1908) in
<br /> Wisconsin; and the Otter Rapids Hydroelectric Dam on the Wisconsin River, also in Wisconsin.
<br /> The partnership apparently dissolved in 1911, when Jacobson moved to Minneapolis. A
<br /> Minneapolis phone book lists the firm "Jacobson and Ackerman" in 1914, but Jacobson was on
<br /> his own again by the time he received the commission from Elk River.28
<br /> The construction foreman for the Elk River project was Charles Shearier from Wisconsin Rapids,
<br /> perhaps an acquaintance of Jacobson's from his Wisconsin work. Shearier oversaw a crew of
<br /> twenty-four to thirty men during the peak of construction. J. E. Sumpter of the Sterling Electric
<br /> Company, Minneapolis, supervised the line crew.29
<br /> Workers had little time to rest after celebrating the plant's opening. On the first day of operation,
<br /> only a few private businesses were connected to the system. Within a week, however, additional
<br /> commercial buildings plus the courthouse and fifty houses were hooked up. The Village
<br /> Council hurriedly passed regulations to establish wiring standards. Soon, the Elk River Garage
<br /> installed the town's first electric sign, and an electric motor powered the projector in the newly
<br /> redecorated Royal Theatre.30
<br /> 25 Dave Engel,(Wisconsin Rapids,Wisc.:River City Memoirs, 1986),69.
<br /> 26 Donald L.Boese,Papermakers: The Blandin Paper Company and Grand Rapids,Minnesota(Grand Rapids,
<br /> Minn.:Charles K.Blandin Foundation, 1984),48-49.
<br /> 2'Engel,Age of Paper, 73,74,80.
<br /> 28 Timothy F.Heggland,"Thornapple Dam Historic District,"National Register of Historic Places Nomination,
<br /> March 5, 1990,8-23, prepared for the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office,Madison.
<br /> 29"Waterman Builds First Power-Light Plant Here in'15,"Sherburne County Star News,July 23, 1931.
<br /> 30 Seelhammer and Mosher, Growth of Sherburne County,300.
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