Person:Oscar Van Dusen (2)

First tried farming between Marcellon and Pardeeville. When he moved his family into Pardeeville, he built a business dealing in lumber, grain and feed. Later he was persuaded to join a group in a proposed lumbering operation north of Stevens Point. A mill was built at Dorchester in 1877, and in 1880 another was built in what was to become Prentice. The Jump River in that area served to float the logs and create an adequate mill pond. The group organized the Jump River Company and decided to name the little community Prentice in honor of the oldest member of the partnership. The company owned the mill, the logging equipment, the village store, the stables, many of the homes for their workers and the narrow-gauge railroad out to the scattered logging camps. At one time the extensive operations of the Jump River Company extended from Rhinelander west to the Eau Claire area, south of Dorchester and north to Fifield. Oscar Derrick Van Dusen was president of the Jump River Company in its prime.

1. ↑ Benjamin Shurtleff, Descendants of William Shurtleff of Plymouth and Marshfield, Massachusetts (Revere, Mass.: Unknown, 1912)
   62.
2. ↑ Martha Eunice Ensign Nelson, Record of the descendants of James Ensign and his wife Sarah Nelson, 1634-1939-1960 (United States: Martha Eunic
   269.