Good Old Days

By Dee Zimmerman

“Oldies”

 Clark County News

May 1881

A slab fell on the double rotary saws at Ezra Peet’s mill at Lynn, last week and broke them into “smithereens” in the twinkling of an eye.  Pieces of the saws went through the roof, and in every direction.  All the workmen, save one, saw the approaching danger, and ran out of the mill; the one remaining had the presence of mind to drop on the floor and fortunately no one was injured.

L. A. Doolittle is greatly improving his residence on the North Side by adding a new coat of paint, and surrounding the dwelling with a new fence which will also receive a coat of paint.  A new piazza is another improvement and the work on the grounds surrounding is still going on. 

D. Hammel & Co., of Appleton, have rented C. Blakeslee’s barn on the corner of Main and Third Streets, which they will use as a sale stable hereafter.  They have ordered a car load of top and open buggies and platform spring wagons of the best make, and also have a fine lot of horses.

Notice!--Will pay one hundred dollars reward and no questions asked, to the person who will return the Town Book of Records and papers taken from the Town Clerk in the Town of Loyal, on the night of the 14^th of April, 1881, or for any information that will lead to their recovery.  M. P. Hartford, Town Clerk of Loyal.

The largest muskellunge taken from the liquid waters of Rock Creek, east of Greenwood, today, weighed the round figure of 21 1/4 pounds. 

E. A. Eaton, of Longwood, who put in a branch store at Withee last winter, has decided to discontinue the same and will remove the stock to his store in Longwood.

From Unity – I think it’s about time for you to hear from our enterprising little town – we are all in fashion; house cleaning, painting, building, etc.  J. A. Petit is building a section to his store.  S. A. Cook has painted the inside of his store, and it would be astonishing for you to see the goods piled up on the counters, but they don’t lay there long, for Cook is doing a flourishing business.

N. C. Ransom has sold his saloon building to Frank Hogel and we are sorry to say we have such an institution in our midst.  J. H. Cook is still mixing drugs, and although some papers have said the Captain was going to leave us, we think it’s a rumor. 

August Schoengarth is building a new residence on Grand Avenue, south of Thomas Lowe’s.

The best brand of flour is at C. H. Gates’ new flour and feed store.

W. H. Burgess and Geo. Miller are laying a new floor in the O’Neill House dining room.

Charley Gates’ neck and head has been somewhat out of repair since last Friday.  He was thrown from a buggy by a fractious horse and struck on the wrong end.

Providence has certainly favored Neillsville.  We have had mumps, cebro-spinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, theatres, insurance agents and most every imaginable thing, but that awful something, called a “by-cycle” has not been visited upon us as yet. 

Twelve hundred dollars has been subscribed for the building of an Episcopal Church on the corner of Church and Fourth Streets, south of Fireman’s Hall; the work will commence as soon as the subscription reaches fifteen thousand dollars.

We are requested to state, that there will be a social dance at Maple Works, on Friday evening of next week.  Tickets including supper, $1.00; Good music and supper

Clifford’s saw mill, at Spencer, was destroyed by fire last Friday night.

Hon. N. H. Withee’s saw mill on French Island, opposite Onalaska, six miles above La Crosse, having a capacity of 60,000 feet in twelve hours, was entirely destroyed by fire at an early hour on the 15^th.  The property was valued at $30,000 and was insured for $9,000.

The new bell for the Presbyterian Church, here, arrived at Humbird on Monday of this week, after a journey of four weeks from Troy, N.Y.  John Ross, of this place had the honor of bringing it to this village yesterday, and C. B. Bradshaw will see to it that it is lifted to its place in the tower within the next forty-eight hours.

Marriages: Willie Woodward of Neillsville and Minnie Fricke of Greenwood; James Bryden and Addie Armstrong, both of Greenwood.

May 1901

A large flat boat, 24 ft. long by 6 ft. wide, built by Magnus Johnson for Company A, was launched on Black River Sunday and is to be used in conveying the company men, their guns and ammunition to their practice range across the river.

People who are located on the rural free delivery routes, or near them, who propose to set up posts with boxes should do it before the actual service begin, as the carrier will be ready when he is ready, and everything should be done to make his work effective and quick.

The city council has under consideration the matter of buying a rock crusher and street roller, and public sentiment so for (far) as we have been able to learn it is heartily in favor of making the purchase.  The complete equipment will cost not over $1,200, on long time, and the money now spent on cheap need puddle repair work will be paid for permanent macadam.  Now is the time to act, while times are prosperous and the city debt rapidly decreasing.

Dentist J. Howard Brooks has rented the rooms vacated last week by Dr. Boisol, known as the Dr. Brewster dental parlors.  They have been renovated and decorated this week, and present a very tasty appearance.

Tay Community -- Wm. Seelow and Miss Eda Dux were united in marriage last Wednesday, May 1^st.  The ceremony taking place at the Lutheran Church, after which the company returned to the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. Dux, and enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon and evening, and broke up about four o’clock the next morning.  One of the musicians enjoyed himself so much that he went home forgetting musical instrument and hat.  (Tay was a railroad siding west of Neillsville.)

Three families of emigrants camped on the school grounds last Sunday.  They were on their way to Minnesota. 

Several of our young men attended the dance at Wm. Beyer’s last Saturday night and reported a good time.

Our farmers have been considerably annoyed by the train setting fires.

The habit of chewing tobacco is bad enough, at the neatest, but when a man makes so much of a hog of himself that he spits the resulting malaria all over the sidewalks of a city for other people to tramp through he becomes a public nuisance, and should be sat upon with an ordinance that weighs a ton.

Loyalites who made the trip to Washington returned Saturday.  L. Allen and Arthur Allen stopped in Washington in Columbia Valley and were so well pleased with the country that they purchased farms, to be moving there as soon as they succeed in selling out here.  Joe Bertz was not so well pleased with the locality and returned with the conviction more firmly fixed that Clark County is the best place after all.

A second rural route has been laid out north and west of Greenwood.

Two itinerant horse jockeys were arrested last week, in Greenwood, and fined $5 each and costs, before Justice Peterson, for cruelty to animals.  They had a balky horse which they beat unmercifully.  Mrs. Allie Delaney, who witnessed the affair, very properly made the complaint, and they were promptly taken in custody with the above result they will probably use less expensive means to cure balky horses hereafter.

Walk Bros have a new delivery wagon that is as neat as wax, and its driver, Aug. Walk, is proud as a lord.  But had a little fall Saturday, when some boys scared his team at the railroad crossing of Hewett Street and they got away from him, breaking the wagon pole, but doing no other damage.  This was quickly replaced and the rig is whizzing about town again.

The Clark County Butter Co. has a new cream vat and is adding a new churn to their outfit, so greatly has their business increased.

M. C. Ring will put in his time for a while bossing the construction of a new barn 144 feet in length, on the farm east of town.

L. D. Ruddock does horse-shoeing and jobbing; located at Grand Ave. near Crocker’s Barn in Neillsville.

A crew of men are at work moving the old Tourigny store building south about six feet to join and be connected with the North store, both now property of Tourigny.  Connecting door will be cut through the walls.

A pearl measuring an inch in diameter was found in a clam bed in the Yellow River two miles south of Dexterville on Tuesday by Mrs. John Peterson.  Its value is estimated at $300.

Talk about soil!  The ground is so good up in John Howard’s yard that the dandelions grow eight on one stalk.  Even the dandelions are getting their heads together in these days of trusts.

A petition is being singed asking for a sewer on the north side, from Gus Hoseley’s new house south to 10^th Street, then west to Pleasant Street or Grand Avenue and to the creek.

Field Day Contests on June 8, 1 p.m., - Our high school track and the Black River Falls Track team will meet on Neillsville ground in a contest for a series of field day sports.  The eleven events are as follows: half-mile run, quarter mile run, hundred yard dash, standing high jump, running high jump, running broad jump, s4anding broad jump, hop, step and jump, pole vault, hammer throw and shot put.  Turn out to see it.

The forests surrounding Neillsville are angelically beautiful at this time of year, and the “beautify city on the hills” is like a gem set in nature’s superb filigree of foliage.

Several carloads of lumber are shipped from Tioga every week.  Robert Sythc (Syth?) has a crew hauling lumber from Connor’s Mill to the depot.  He is finishing the job he took last winter.

Several rail cars of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway were damaged in a 1911 train derailment one mile west of Neillsville.

The Neillsville railroad depot was located between 7^th and 8^th Streets, area of Oak and Clay Streets