Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

August 13, 1997, page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Good Old Days

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News,

 

August 1882

 

The Rossman-Bruley building is progressing steadily.  Sections of the iron front are on the ground.  The part formerly owned by Emery Bruley has been bought by Jim Gates. 

 

Hein & Graf have rented the lower story of the Ferguson Building on Main Street, previously used as a candy store, millinery store and post office.

 

The new engine for Colburn’s Mill is on the ground, but not yet in place.  It is built after the most improved pattern, and engineer Waterbury is delighted with it. The fly wheel is all iron, and its one solid casting of 5,500 lbs.

 

Fine evenings – the fairground presents a very pretty and animated scene, especially at the grand stand, near which many carriages containing spectators assemble.  The attraction is the training of trotting horses, several of which are being worked down to a business basis for the drivers.  Occasionally, a mile dash is indulged in by them, which creates a pleasant ripple of excitement.  If you go for a drive in the evening, by all means go out to the track.

 

Bathrooms, talked of about two years ago and almost resolved upon by Dixon and Laramie, are now nearly completed, at the establishment of Mrs. Caroline O’Neill.  She has fitted up a couple of very snug and convenient rooms, having a hot and cold water supply with all the conveniences.  So, Neillsville, while hardly appreciating it, is assuming all the airs and making use of all the civilizing appliances of a metropolis.  The baths will be well patronized.

 

Sol Hanes of Levis has bought a cane mill.  He will manufacture syrup for all who bring their cane to the mill at very reasonable rates.  He has a good field of cane on his land.

 

The whole wheel of cheese placed upon our table a few days ago by John Ure, of Lynn Cheese Factory, has been cut, and is of best quality.  The Lynn Factory cheese is A-1xxx and Ure has our thanks.

 

Last week, C. Blakeslee sold the well-known Ross farm in the town of Eaton to a Zander and his mother, of Sheboygan County, for $5,000.

 

It is in order for some person to suppress A. S. Leason & Son, the enterprising pump manufacturers of the first ward.  They have a steam whistle whose deepest chest tones raise the roof off the treble clef.

 

Barbed-wire fences are coming into use in this county, using hardwood timber for fence posts.  Ironically, a few years ago fine hardwood timber was burned by the farmers to get it out of the way.

 

Hiles of Pittsfield, recently bought several thousand acres of land, mostly on the east fork of the Black River, and on Yellow River in Wood County for an amount of $100,000.  Hiles and Ward also bought pine, hardwood and other property at Pittsfield and community, for which they paid $25,000.  This coming winter, Hiles will put in 25,000,000 feet of logs on the east fork of the Black River.

 

August 1932

 

A joint picnic will be held, a get-together, at the Richard Selves grove, four miles east of Neillsville on Highway 10.  Members of the Pleasant Ridge Church and Methodist-Presbyterian Churches of Neillsville will meet on Saturday to enjoy a basket dinner.  Children will play a baseball game, Neillsville against Pleasant Ridge Sunday School teams.  At 2 p.m. the married men will have a baseball game. 

 

The Neillsville street crew under the direction of the Street Commissioner, Wm. Farning, last week cut down what was formerly called the “Tom Lowe hill,” on east Fifth Street near the city limits, east of the courthouse.  The street is being regraded and improved.

 

Billy Sunday, the world famous evangelist, will deliver a talk in front of the Clark County fair grandstand, 2 p.m. on Sunday, during fair week.  Church choirs from all parts of Central Wisconsin will unite in song during the service.

 

Area crops have once again been hit by a drought for the third year in succession.  Though much less severe than last year, the crop production, below normal, is better than last year.

 

Experienced fishermen have been complaining that fish are not biting this summer.  Last Sunday, William North proved otherwise and even broke his fly-rod.  North set out to show Archie Van Gorden that fish are plentiful for the real fisherman by attaching two flies to his line.  Within a few minutes, a terrific jolt hit North’s line, announcing a bite.  North landed two fine fish and a half pound black bass, but not without breaking his fly-rod.

 

A large gravel pit has been opened north of the W. L. Murphy farm at Dells Dam and gravel will be hauled to the paving project on Highway 12.  It is expected the equivalent of 25 rail carloads will be taken out daily by a fleet of trucks.

 

Zank Orchestra playing at Levis Town Hall Sunday night, tickets 25¢.

 

Roehrborn Grocery specials: Sardines – 5¢; Brooms – 33¢ each; U. H. G. Coffee 21¢ a lb; Apples 55¢ bushel; Greenwood, Marshfield or Neillsville butter – 20¢ lb.

 

Van Gorden & Son Mill Specials – Sweet Sue flour, 49 lb sack 88¢; 500 steel fence posts, while they last, 25¢ each.

 

Brouer’s Men’s Store Specials – 48¢ Sale on all of these items!  Men’s dress shirts, men’s full cut overalls, boy’s & men’s tennis shoes; straw hats & more.

 

Ernest Vollrath’s Cheese Factory in the town of Warner burned one day last week.  The building, a considerable stock of cheese and supplies were all destroyed.  The fire is believed to have started from the smokestack.

 

August 1952

 

Zion Lutheran Missouri Synod Congregation, Granton, will hold a Mission Festival at their church, Sunday, August 18.  Guest speaker will be Rev. Nicholas Hasz, Irma.  Rev. Arthur Oswald reports the congregation contributed a record total of $1, 424.95 on their Mission Day in 1951.  The Ladies Aid of Zion Church is sponsoring a pie and ice cream social at the parish house, following Sunday evening special service.

 

A new floor has been put in the lower level of the Neillsville Library, the children’s room.  The new floor of concrete will be easier to navigate, and will not put a test of footwork on the library patrons.  In a way, the children will miss the old floor, for it was fun for those who like to exercise unusual skill.  The floor was made of maple, and the maple had swollen and become full of waves.  The occasional adults who lost their way into the children’s room weren’t sure, but that they were in one of those places where one has to hang onto the furniture to keep on their feet.

 

Forest Larsen and Roger Grottke, both 16, are at home after a quick motorcycle trip to Yellowstone Park.  They left Neillsville early Sunday morning, driving 700 miles that day.  After touring Yellowstone Park, Jackson and Cheyenne, Wyo., they left Cheyenne early Thursday, drove 30 hours straight through to Neillsville, stopping only for gas and one meal.

 

The boys’ blistered faces showed the effects of 105 degree daytime temperature.  One motorcycle carried the two all the way, except when it dumped them once. 

 

With the completion of the new Exposition building at Clark County Fairground, the 4-H boys can move out of the old cow barn loft.  In other years, the boys slept in the loft over the four-winged cow barn.

 

Their cots will be moved from the loft to the boys’ new dormitory.  Exhibits will occupy the north, east and west wings.  The south wing has been made into a dormitory for the boys who stay on the grounds during the fair.

 

The last section of the new bridge at Dells Dam has been placed this week.  The 18-ton final section was put in place on the west end by two large cranes.  The bridge is the final touch upon the new roadway on Highway 95.  The official road opening is set for October 1.

 

This year’s Homemakers’ scholarship has been awarded to Janice West of Neillsville.

 

Louis and Arthur Nemitz, local musicians, took second place for dance music at the Minnesota State Fair.  They also played for a group of square dancers from Eau Claire, who went through the dances on horses.

 

Main Street of Humbird is humming with improvements.  A new scaffold has been set up beside the bank building and a crew of men are working repairing the brick wall.  The sidewalks on the opposite side of the street have been torn out and a crew is busy pouring cement for the new sidewalks.  Farther up the street, between the Odd Fellows building and the cranberry factory, the foundation is being laid for Mrs. Alla Theiler’s new home.

 

The Rabenstein building, located at 635 Hewett Street, was once leased by the Equity Garment Company with sales and display rooms on the second floor.  In 1925, they advertised rainproof garments for men and women, dresses, blouses, skirts and petticoats.

 

A Steam Engine used for threshing grain in the Washburn and Grant townships in early 1900’s.

Left to right: Edgar Kuechenmeister, John McCarl, Albert Walter, Joe Lazotte, Alvin Eisentraut, (in front), Arthur Drescher and Alfred Spiegel.  The photo was taken on Jack Creek, town of Grant.  The engine, a Rumely was purchased for $1,700.  Spiegel was wearing a low Derby hat, in fugue at the time, about 1908.

 

The Neillsville depot, near 8th and Oak Streets, was a busy place in its day.  Horse drawn mini buses parked near the depot when the passenger trains came into town, ready to transport passengers to the hotels, etc. (Photo circa 1895, courtesy of Clark Co. Jail Museum).

 

 

 


© Every submission is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

 

Show your appreciation of this freely provided information by not copying it to any other site without our permission.

 

Become a Clark County History Buff

 

Report Broken Links

A site created and maintained by the Clark County History Buffs
and supported by your generous donations.

 

Webmasters: Leon Konieczny, Tanya Paschke,

Janet & Stan Schwarze, James W. Sternitzky,

Crystal Wendt & Al Wessel

 

CLARK CO. WI HISTORY HOME PAGE