THE HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY

Chapter XXVI, 25 November 1909 -- Thorp Courier, Clark County, Wisconsin

FROM 1890 TO 1900 - POPULATION BY U. S. CENSUS

COUNTY OFFICERS

 CLARK COUNTY IN THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR.

"And there was tumult in the air the fifes’ shrill note,

the drum’s loud beat and through the wide land everywhere.

The answering tread of hurrying feet."

Thos. Buchanan Read.

By the Federal Census of 1890 Clark county had a population of 17,708. A substantial increase over the enumeration taken ten years before.

At the November election in 1890, R. J. MacBride was elected State Senator from the 25^th Senatorial District composed of the counties of Clark and Eau Claire and the following officers were elected in the county:

Assemblyman, Phillip Rossman; sheriff, R. M. Campbell; register of deeds, William Zassenhaus; county treasurer, H. N. Withee; district attorney, L. M. Sturdevant; county Clerk, H. M. Root; clerk of the circuit court, C. S. Stockwell; county surveyor, Chris. Tiedemann; county superintendent of schools, Geo. E. Crothers, and coroner, W. B. Lyman.

At this same election James O’Neill was a candidate for Attorney General on the Republican ticket, as he again was in 1892, two years later, but each time the Republican state ticket was defeated, owing in a great measure to the felling again the Bennet law.

Previous to this, Geo. L. Lloyd had been a candidate for Lieut. Governor of the state on the Labor ticket, but was defeated. Mr. Lloyd enjoys the distinction of being the first citizen of Clark county nominated for a state office.

At the election in November 1892, Baldwin W. Fullmer of Loyal was elected to the Assembly, and the following county officers were chosen:

Sheriff, J. W. Page; register of deeds, William Zassenhaus; county clerk, H. M. Root; county treasurer, Charles M. Bradford; district attorney, Geo. B. Parkhill; county surveyor, J. H. Reddan; county superintendent of schools, Geo. E. Crothers; and coroner, Daniel R. Freeman.

One of the import events in the decade, under consideration was the breaking out of the Spanish American War, and it is proper in that connection, to give a brief statement of the part Clark county citizens had to do with the contest.

President McKinley had held his high and exalted office for about a year when the rumble and the mutterings in regard to the treatment by Spain of Cuba, one of its dependencies, awoke the heart and conscience of the people of the United States. The country insisted in language that could not be misunderstood, that the great nation of the United States of America, within a stone’s throw of Cuba, must not sit idly by the see the patriots of Cuba, with their necks under the heel of the oppressor.

Sill the President temporized with the situation. He dreaded war, although he himself was a veteran of the war of the rebellion. He was in some measure a timid man, and disliked to assume the responsibility that would be placed upon him in the event of a war with Spain.

The President however was gifted with a conscience that when the time for action arrived, the timidity, born of his warm heart, and kindly nature gave way to the stern discipline, and absolute authority, as commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States. For weeks and months he had delayed but when one morning the news came that the United States battleship, the "Maine" had been blown up and destroyed in the harbor of Havanna, and the war congress of the United States, had declared war against Spain (with the familiar slogan or war cry of "Remember the Maine") the President of the United States forgot in the interest of his people the arm and sympathetic heart that beat under his pocket and he became at once the stern commander in chief of the land and naval forces of the United States of America.

To attain to a successful warfare against Spain, the President called upon the several States to furnish volunteers to uphold the dignity of the United States, and incidentally to set Cuba free.

Clark county responded to the call with the flower of its youth and brave men.

The county sent out a full company who were enrolled as Company "A" of the 3^rd Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.

Company ‘A’ was attached to and formed a part of the 3^rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. They were mustered in for two years service unless sooner discharged, and they left Camp Harvey for the south within a day or two after their muster in, about the middle of the month of May, 1898.

The third regiment was practically a northern, or northwestern Wisconsin regiment. Its commanding officer was Col. Martin M. Moore of La Crosse, (now deceased) and its Lieut. Col. Was B. F. Parker. Capt. Henry Klopf of Neillsville was Adjutant of the regiment, but he resigned while in camp at Chickamauga, and did not see any service with the regiment while they were in the West Indies.

The company was not wholly a Neillsville company, although largely so. Numerous members of the company came from other parts of Clark county. However it was distinctly a Clark county company of soldiers, and in their limited service they did credit to the nation, to the state and to the county from whence they came.

The proclamation of the President of the United States, asking for volunteers, was published and promulgated on the 23^rd day of April, 1898, within two weeks Company "A" was at their rendezvous at Camp Harvey, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and on the 11^th day of May, 1898, they were mustered into the service of the United States by Capt. W. L. Buck of the 13^th U. S. Regular Infantry.

The following list of officers and men, it taken from the muster in roll, now on file in the office of the Adjutant General of the United States at the War Department, Washington, D. C.

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

Captain -- John W. Hommel

1^st Lieut. -- William J. Brewster

2^nd Lieut. -- Ole A. Jackson

NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS

First Sgt. --- Frank Burnett

Q. M. Sgt. --- Charles E. Lee

Seg’t. --- Walter R. Calway

Seg’t --- daniel W. Gates

Seg’t --- Julius Neverman

Corp. --- Elmer Glass

Corp. --- Allen Wildish

Corp. --- Emil Ketel

Corp. --- Lee I. Redmond

Corp. ----Albert j. Beardsly.

Corp. ---- Henry Frantz

Musician --- William Campbell

Hospital Steward --- Geo. W. Ascott

Musician --- Harry F. Darling

Artificer --- Chas. A. Youmans

Wagoner --- Henry Ross

PRIVATES

The 3^rd Regiment remained at Chickamauga for several weeks, afterward was encamped at Charleston, S. C., where in common with other, regiments that were completed there, underwent the severe practice march, directed by General Ernst, and which at the time was severely criticized.

After a few weeks at Charleston the 3^rd Regiment sailed fro Porto Rico, and were among the first of the regiments to effect a landing at Ponce, on the Spanish island.

The 3^rd Regiment was brigaded with the 2^nd Wisconsin, and the 16^th Pennsylvania, and about a month after landing at Ponce the brigade started on a march through the island from Ponce, the objective point being San Juan on the northern coast of the island.

The brigade marched from Ponce and arrived at or near Albinto pass, where the Spanish troops were encamped and partially fortified, and where an engagement was had in which two members of the Sparta company of the 3^rd Regiment were killed by a shell from the Spanish artillery.

The regiment then proceeded on its march as far as Cayey where the protocol was signed and peace finally declared. Company A returned to their home station at Neillsville late in the year 1898, having seen a little less than a year service.

The casualties of the company were as follows:

Sergeant Daniel Gates Jr. died of typhoid fever at Chickamauga; Ellis Noyes and Frank E. Stanley died in Porto Rico from disease contracted in their line of duty, and Bernard J. Pulsifer died at Neillsville, Wis., shortly after the return of the company, from disease contracted in the service.

Both Lieut. Brewster and Lieut. Ole Jackson, died some years after the return of the company, but neither death is attributable to disease contracted in the service.

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