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Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI July 7, 1999, Page 14 Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon. Index of "Oldies" Articles |
The Good Old Days
Compiled by Dee Zimmerman
Clark County News
July 1874
Messrs. Boardman and Palmer have sold their mill, west of Neillsville, to C.
Blakeslee of Sparta. Blakeslee has also bought their pine covered lands.
J. F. Cannon, of Washburn, has taken the position formerly held by Geo. L.
Gipple in Geo. L. Lloyd’s hardware store. Ferguson has fitted up an ice cream
room in the front of part of the post office building. The public is pleased
with the delicacies of the season being served there. Ferguson proposes to set a
table, on the Fourth of July, in the bower connected to his building. (The
bower, as we would call it today, was an arbor. D. Z.)
Jacob Rossman, Wm. Neverman, T. J. LaFlesh and Thos. Chadwick have all arrive at
the “lion age” of forty years, this month. On Monday, they met at the Rossman
House, with a half dozen other people, upon the invitation of Rossman, to
celebrate the four birthdays. An excellent wine dinner was provided, and the
host entertained his guests with true German hospitality. At the Rossman House
bar, during the entire afternoon, the choicest wines, cigars and the national
beverage were available to all who called to extend their congratulations to the
40-year-old proprietor. Few in town failed to stop by the Rossman House.
O. P. Wells, of Neillsville, and R. F. Wells, of Loyal, have purchased the Loyal
stage line of Mr. Williams. They have also received the contract carrying the
mail between Neillsville and Loyal. The stages will have the same time schedule
as before.
The foundation of the new Neillsville school house has been completed. Next
week, the laying of the brick will begin.
The annual school meeting of District No. 4 will be held in the school house on
Monday evening at half past seven. There is to be elected a Director and
Treasurer of the District. These offices have assumed considerable importance
through the present large building operations of the District.
The frame of Mr. Hewett’s new house has been raised. It appears to be double the
height of the house that burned, and much of an improvement in size.
W. H. Kountz has purchased O’Neill’s grocery and provisions store, opposite the
O’Neill House. We expect the corner grocery to grow larger and prosper under the
new management.
Robert Schofield has written and sent a letter from the wilds of Montana. He
says that some son-of-a-gun has been lying about that country. He does not like
it.
Persons visiting the old cemetery, if they have any respect for the dead, should
remember to close the gate as they leave. It has too often been wantonly left
open lately and, the cattle entering have destroyed several very fine grave
stones.
In many places, throughout the county, it is “nip and tuck” between the farmer
and the grasshoppers to see which will get the hay crop first.
The people of Humbird are still considerably excited over a saloon row that
occurred there on July 4th, in which one man’s nose was bitten off. The
proprietors of the saloon have been arrested under the Bogel law, but have so
far escaped punishment. The leading citizens of the village are still after the
guilty parties.
What is believed to be the oldest Bible in America is owned by a resident of
Clark County. The Bible’s owner, John Reidell, of German descent, is a farmer in
the Town of Grant, and a leading member of the Lutheran church. In Reidell’s
library, rests a huge Bible, 22” by 14” in size, and eight inches in thickness.
Its covers are fully half an inch thick, and composed of wood, covered with
leather, fastened together by ponderous brass clamps. This wonderful book was
printed with wood type, pica size, and on parchment of yellowish hue, and some
three times the thickness of legal cap paper. It is in the German language, and
was printed about the year 1457, or within the first quarter of the century
after the discovery of the printing art. Its age antedates the discovery of
America, and this strange relic of the past was read and re-read in the
ancestral homes of the Reidell family, long years before Zunigle, Melanchthon
and Luther unfurled the banner of reformation. It was in existence more than a
century before the Pilgrims landed upon the coast of New England.
Since this venerable book was printed, the Bible has been revised, and the King
James translation has been given to the world. Strange and almost bewildering
have been the changes that have taken place since this grand old book had a
place amid the cherished keepsakes of the Reidell family. The family has handed
it down from generation to generation, until it has become a book of priceless
value, and could not be bought with the wealth of the Indies.
The Hon. G. W. King, of Humbird, has provided the material facts contained in
this statement, which has examined the book, and pronounces it the most
wonderful curiosity in the line of books he has ever beheld.
The July issue of the Wisconsin Lumberman publication gives the following
description of the three growing villages in Clark County on the Wisconsin
Central Railroad.
Unity – contains eight of (or) ten dwellings; a store; Dr. Well’s office; the
Unity House by C. Duval; Spaulding & Co’s mill, which is located on the Eau
Plain River. The railway company is engaged in clearing off 40 acres, on which
to lay out a town plat. The soilid (soil is) good, the timber is of good
quality, and farm land is desirable. There are many settlers in the surrounding
woods. There is an abundance of white pine.
Five miles beyond, north of Unity, is Colby. It has 35 buildings, mostly in an
unfinished state. There are four stores. On one the sign reads, “Booth & Barry,
Milwaukee Store,” very conspicuously. Also a good size hotel is being built; it
is nearly completed and ready for guests. Ira S. Graves, of Fond du Lac, has a
saw mill, one mile south of the village. There is a small shingle factory which
is doing well in its business. Pine, basswood, elm, birch and maple are the
prevailing kinds of timber, but not as thriving as the timber south of the area.
The pine region is fair and the soil should provide fair farming land.
Mr. Thomas owns and operates a clothes pin factory three-fourths of a mile west
of Colby, running on birch timber.
The town of Medford is located 16 miles north of Colby, and 67 miles northwest
of Stevens Point. Semple & McDonald (Dan McDonald) have a large saw mill along
the Black River, nearly ready for business. There are two hotels, a large depot,
a store, and a dozen or so large dwellings. Many settlers have taken plots
surrounding the new community. The soil is not as suitable for farming as the
middle part of the county. A considerable amount of hemlock is found there, and
we foresee a thriving business in the hemlock bark trade.
The Greenwood Town Board has ordered a re-survey of its road leading through and
out of the town. The road has been laid back on the original course. It was
found that there was no authority for ever changing it. This course takes the
road within a few feet of James Delaine’s residence.
A lot has been purchased west of the old Journal office building, opposite Mrs.
Stafford’s boarding house. The Presbyterians are the new owners and have bought
the lot for the purpose of erecting a church building upon it. The location is
an excellent one, and we hope to see it improved soon by a new edifice. (The
church was built on the south side of East Fifth Street, west of what is now Dr.
Foster’s office building. The church structure was destroyed by a fire, circa
1930. D. Z.)
E. J. Poole is manufacturing wooden pumps in his shop in back of Lloyd’s
Blacksmith Shop. He will repair any pumps made by him, free of charge.
Robert French, proprietor of the Mormon Ripple House, offers excellent
accommodations to the public. The boarding house is fitted up in excellent style
throughout.
July 1954
The split rail fences were commonly seen on the early farmsteads in Clark
County. Clearing trees from their land to make farming possible, logs were
readily available to be split and linked together for fencing in livestock.
Of the last such fencing remaining in Clark County, is that on Counsell and
Ratsch farms along Pleasant Ridge. Such fencing has disappeared because it is no
longer economical. The timber and labor for making the split rails is very
expensive, and no loner feasible to make rail fencing.
The last practical rail-splitting in the county was done on the Clarion Counsell
farm about 18 years ago. At that time, Counsell had a helper on the farm, and
there came a slack time. So, he set the man to work rail splitting. Quite a
batch of rails was made, and they were used for fence, but the rails decayed
readily.
The experience with the new rail fencing led Counsell to admire the pioneers and
the old timber. Just how did the old-timers do it? The rails on the Counsell and
Ratsch farms are upwards of 75 years old; part of them may crowd a century. Most
of the timber was oak. Many of the rails appear to still have many years of
usefulness as fencing. How does it happen that they have lasted so long?
Counsell has asked himself whether there might have been some skill in the old
method. Did they cut the logs at some particular time of the year?
The weakest spot in the old rail fence is the bottom tier of rails. In pioneer
days they were held up by wooden blocks under the fence corners. Those blocks
rotted faster than any other part of the fence and had to (be) replaced
occasionally. Without the wooden block supports, the bottom row of rails
deteriorated quicker.
Rev. Ben Stucki wanted a split rail fence around the lot of his new home. He
purchased the fencing rails that had been on the old Jahr farm, north of the
Reed school house. The rails are close to a century old. Stucki felt tat the
split rail fencing tied in with the pioneer spirit which surrounds the Winnebago
Indian School, of which Stucki is superintendent. The Stuckis are among the
earliest of the families of the Clark County area. His father, Jacob Stucki,
came to the Winnebago mission in its first years of existence, and spent his
life serving there.
The hazard of the rail fence rotting has been countered by Stucki by putting
stone under the fence corners, and resting the entire fence on roofing paper.
On the farm, the rail fence was not a hazard because of weeds or a serious loss
of land. When used for pasture, the rail fence was kept clean in the corners by
grazing animals. Otherwise the tendency was for the fence corners to grow up in
brush or small trees. Thus, splendid cover was created for birds and small
animals. With the coming of straight wire fence, such cover has disappeared.
The rail fence on the Counsell and Ratsch farms is about the oldest man-made
thing now in existence in Clark County. Some of the fence dates back to Clarion
Counsell’s grandfather, Henry Counsell, who came from England and homesteaded
the Suckow farm, across the way from the present Counsell place. The present
Counsell farm was the home of Joe Counsell, Clarion’s father, who lived much of
his life in a log house across the road from the Reed school. It was there
Clarion Counsell was born. Most of the rail fence on the Counsell place is quite
a bit older than Clarion; some of it might even antedate his father.
(Along Pleasant Ridge, on Highway 10, east of Neillsville, near the Cardinal
Avenue intersection, and across from the old Reed school, a portion of the split
rail fence remains. Steve and Carol Short, the present land owners, have left a
portion of the rail fencing undisturbed, feeling a bit of the land’s history
should remain. During Counsell’s ownership, the entire farm was surrounded by
the rail fencing with most of it having deteriorated. The travelers passing by,
do appreciate viewing that remnant of the past, at least I do. D. Z.)
A 1905 scene, taken from the O’Neill Creek Bridge depicting Neillsville’s courthouse hill in the background. At the extreme right is the Wisconsin House, a boarding house which partially hides the Clark County Courthouse. Next to the Wisconsin House, was Veterinarian Schweinler’s barn & business; which was on (the) north side of East Sixth Street. To the left of the courthouse, is the 1897 Clark County Jail and Sheriff’s residence. The far left side of the photo shows the Neillsville Brewery and the brewery barns. (Photo courtesy of J. Harrington) |
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