The first village of Arpin was started around 1890 when the John Arpin Lumber Company built a sawmill a mile east of the present village, on Little Hemlock Creek. John Baptiste Arpin and his twin brother Antoine came from Quebec and had been logging in this part of Wisconsin since the 1860s. By 1890 they were working with John's sons.[8] To give an idea of their scale of operations, John Arpin's house built in 1889 still stands in Wisconsin Rapids, the beautiful Queen Anne-styled house on First Street facing the river. Back in that first Arpin, a store, a post office, some homes, a Presbyterian church, and a creamery grew up near the sawmill. The first postmaster was John's son, J. Z.