Marshfield is a city in Wood and Marathon counties of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 18,929 at the 2020 census; of this, 18,119 were in Wood County and 810 were in Marathon County. It is a principal city of the Marshfield–Wisconsin Rapids micropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Wood County and had a population of 74,207 in 2020.
It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 10, Highway 13 and Highway 97. Marshfield is home to the Marshfield Clinic, a large healthcare system that serves much of Central, Northern, and Western Wisconsin.
History
thumb|left|upright|The [[World's Largest Round Barn was built in 1916 and is part of the grounds for the annual Central Wisconsin State Fair]]
In 1851 and 1853, when the area was still forested, surveyors working for the U.S. government marked all the section corners in the square which now includes Marshfield, Hewitt, and Cameron, working on foot with compass and chain. When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
<blockquote>This Township is nearly all Dry land, there being no Swamp of consequence in it. There being too much clay & rocks in it. Particularly that part which contains Fir & Hemlock. The surface is rough & uneven(?) and rather to flat for anything but meadow. There is some good Pine it but too much scattering to make it an object. The Township is well watered with small streams but none of them are of sufficient size for Milling purposes. The streams are lined with Alder & many of them producing good hay. There are no improvements in this Township.</blockquote>
Marshfield was settled much later than many surrounding towns. DuBay started his trading post east on the Wisconsin River around 1818. A sawmill was built at Nekoosa in 1832. A sawmill was built at Neillsville around 1847. The first building at Marshfield came in 1872.
In 1872 the Wisconsin Central Railway was building the leg of its line from Stevens Point through the forest to what would become Colby, heading north for Lake Superior. The railway needed a supply depot between those two towns, and Marshfield was about midway. At the railroad's request, Louis Rivers, his wife and child, and his brother Frank came to the area and started cutting an opening in the forest. They built a two-room log hotel at what is now the corner of Depot and Chestnut streets, with bunks in the west room and tables, benches, bar and store in the east room. That crude building between the stumps was the first permanent structure in Marshfield. Marshfield might also have been named after Marshfield, Massachusetts, since the Wisconsin Central Railway was financed with money from Massachusetts and other stops along the WC's line were named after towns in Massachusetts, including Amherst, Medford and Chelsea. In 1878 William H. Upham, a "Yankee" migrant of English descent from Massachusetts and later governor of Wisconsin, built a sawmill near the railway, with a millpond. By 1885 he had added a general store, a planing mill, a furniture factory and a flour and feed mill. Other businesses started, too: an alcohol factory, hotels, saloons, stores, newspapers, blacksmith, and a milliner. There were also churches and schools. The city was incorporated in 1883. By 1885 the population exceeded 2,000, ranging from the Uphams in their fine Italianate homes to laborers living in shacks along the railroad. So many tracks intersected in the community that Marshfield was nicknamed "Hub City".
thumb|The Hamilton and Catherine Roddis House was built in 1914.
The hub was also agricultural. Dairying began to organize as cheese factories started up, such as the one at Nasonville in 1885. Roddis and then Blum Brothers made wooden cheese boxes in Marshfield. By 1921 the Blum plant was making 3,500 boxes a day. In 1907 the first cold storage plant was built in town, to store local cheese before shipping it by rail to larger markets. Ice cream factories followed, and processing of eggs, chickens, and liquid milk. In 1923 a spokesman for the Soo Line Railroad said that Marshfield shipped more dairy products than any other city in the United States.
German immigrants made up two-thirds of Marshfield's population in the 1890s. One of the two early newspapers, Die Demokrat, was published in German. Many had family back in Germany as World War I approached, and had mixed sympathies. In one of Marshfield's old Victorian houses, a once-hidden paper-hanger's signature boasts, "...1917, when the Germans licked the World." Feelings were again mixed during World War II. In the summer of 1945, 243 German POWs were brought in to fill a labor shortage at the canning factory north of the current Wildwood Park.
Woodworking and building continued long after the pines were cut. During World War II, Roddis Lumber and Veneer, which produced plywood and other composites, was "the Allies' largest pre-fabricator of wood for Liberty ships". Felker Brothers also produced components for the Liberty ships. The Frey brothers started building Rollohomes in 1947 and were followed by other manufacturers of mobile and modular homes. With the consolidation of dairy farms and the late-2000s recession, some of these industries have contracted, and the medical complex has expanded. Roehl Transport has also become a large enterprise. Around 2011 three new plants opened on the east side of town to process sand for hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells.
Geography
Marshfield is located at (44.6688524, -90.1717987).,
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
Climate
The Köppen climate classification subtype for the climate of Marshfield is "Dfb". (Warm Summer Continental Climate).