Originally called Verona Junction, this settlement was established at the intersection of the Chippewa River and Menomonie railway and the Soo Line railway. Like many Wisconsin communities, it developed as a railroad crossroads serving the surrounding agricultural community. The village was renamed Apollonia in 1893 in honor of lumberman Frederick Weyerhaeuser's daughter. By the mid-1890s, Apollonia was a thriving community of approximately 300 people, with its own opera house, newspaper, and a Congregational Church built in 1895.